Forerunner of the Necessary Defense of Noble Evangelical Persons

of the Anhalt Chancery.

...purpose is that the Holy Roman Empire Holy Roman Empire original: "Röm. Reich" should be brought, in truth, into a completely different form: everything back under the wretched Papacy and the execution of the Council of Trent The 16th-century ecumenical council that defined the Counter-Reformation, indeed even the Spanish Inquisition. Thus, the Protestant original: "Evangelische" Electors, Princes, and Estates of the Empire are to be deprived of their religion and liberty; finally, the Empire itself and its Electors are to be deprived of the free Imperial election The right of the seven Electors to choose the Emperor, rather than having the office become a hereditary Catholic monarchy. All this is so clearly and indubitably to be understood from the aforementioned Imperial and other subsequently printed letters, that it is now high time to open one's eyes once and for all, to prevent the final downfall of the common Protestant cause—since the facts themselves show how shamefully people have been misled in several places, kept in the dark, and led into a difficult labyrinth.

Initially, it appears from the said letters that the alleged transfer transfer original: "translation"; refers to the legal moving of the electoral title and territory from one house to another of the Palatinate Electorate to the Duke of Bavaria has been negotiated for a long time and indeed very dangerously. His Imperial Majesty promised and pledged this to the Duke both orally and in writing, voluntarily and of his own accord, and indeed long ago, with a fixed and firm mind original: "ultrò ac sponte, & quidem jam olim, fixo obfirmatoque animo". According to all circumstances, this occurred at the time when His Majesty was personally in Munich; for afterwards, he had no further opportunity to negotiate orally with the Duke of Bavaria, as they have never met again in person since that time. This is also stated by an old, well-known, and noble Bavarian Councilor, who...