The Secret Chancellery of Anhalt

A Sincere Warning.

[-fold] squeezed out; the poor man, along with his wife and children, has been sucked dry to the marrow. The rents and yields—especially the trade original: commercia of the Imperial Cities Cities that were self-governing and subordinate only to the Emperor.—have been gradually blocked. Furthermore, whatever remained has suffered great damage through spreading diseases, inflation, and the deprivation of temporal sustenance.

And since people still refuse to open their eyes and desist from the harmful counsels original: consiliis, intentions original: intentionen, and intrigues original: Practicken which have (God the Lord be praised) been brought to light, it is indeed likely that the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation will rush toward a complete collapse. This Empire, which was chivalrously preserved original: conservirt, expanded, and passed down to us by our dear forefathers over so many hundreds of years, above and against all other nations original: Nationen, is now—in our very own times—running toward eternal, inextinguishable reproach, shame, and mockery because of our bitter and blinded spirits. This aforementioned laudable, noble, renowned, and courageous Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which until now was invincible and a source of fear and terror to others, may now become a prey to foreigners and to everyone. It might even (which God graciously avert) fall into the bestial servitude of the Arch-enemy and Hereditary Enemy original: Ertz- und Erbfeind; a common 17th-century term for the Ottoman Empire, who, along with all enemies...