A Sincere Warning.

[those] who [intended to] tear from His Majesty’s head his two established and possessed crowns Likely referring to the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary held by Ferdinand II., along with the incorporated and other Austrian hereditary lands—indeed, seeking with the utmost diligence and effort to hinder him from the Roman Crown The crown of the Holy Roman Emperor., and wishing to completely suppress the aforementioned House [of Habsburg], together with the Catholic religion—have moved [into the Empire]. And because wars cannot be conducted without damage, not only the guilty parties and the instigators, but also other neighbors with their lands and people, have had to suffer in many ways.

As a result, the Rhine regions, along with the bordering lands and their inhabitants—especially the city and region around Worms—have fallen into their current wretched state due to the soldiers original: Kriegsvolck of one side or the other. These areas are partly ruined; many subjects have been driven away; the land lies partly uncultivated; the revenues, customs, and tolls of the Estates have been diminished; the manual labor and trade original: cōmercia of the cities and citizens have been weakened; their livelihoods taken away; and they have been forced into excessive, costly construction and fortifications that are burdensome to the citizens.

How, on the other hand, the assessments, contributions original: contributiones; compulsory payments levied by military commanders on occupied or neutral territory, petitions, and taxes have been doubled, tripled, and quadrupled—