Copy of the Resolution of the Elector of Saxony

...[repeatedly] inclined to perform good offices original: "Officia"; diplomatic services or mediation and to interpose original: "interponiren"; to intervene as a mediator on his behalf with the Lord Elector of Mainz and other Catholic Estates.

However, the following occurred after this: General Count von Tilly, despite having already turned back from the Landgraviate of Thuringia toward the King of Sweden—because His Royal Majesty had meanwhile seized several places and locations—and having encountered him in the March The Margraviate of Brandenburg near Werben, where both camps faced one another, thus significantly engaging the high imperial reputation of His Roman Imperial Majesty, nevertheless left the Royal Swedish army, and returned to the borders of His Electoral Serenity's lands.

This once again caused His Electoral Serenity no small amount of reflection and sorrowful thoughts. Indeed, had he not so heartily desired peace and quiet, he could have used his own standing army to inflict trouble and damage original: "Abbruch"; military setback or loss upon those initially marching troops—for which he had sufficient cause, as his land borders were immediately infested original: "infestiret"; overrun or harassed by enemy forces.

Yet he likewise restrained himself once more, and could never have imagined that anyone would undertake anything hostile against him—let alone such cruelties as unfortunately followed later. Instead, as a German Elector, he trusted in a German and upright manner This refers to a contemporary ideal of "German sincerity" (Teutsche Redlichkeit), a code of honor the Elector believed should govern relations between princes. Therefore, he even allowed the Count of Fürstenberg, with the troops led from Italy (who had caused such great burdens to the other circles original: "Kreissen"; the Imperial Circles, administrative districts of the Holy Roman Empire), to pass safely through His Electoral Serenity's lands and