Mirror of History

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In the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity. Charles the Fourth, by the favoring clemency of God, Emperor of the Romans, ever Augustus, and King of Bohemia. For the perpetual memory of the matter. Every kingdom divided against itself shall be laid waste: for its princes have been made the companions of thieves. Wherefore God has mingled in their midst a spirit of giddiness, that they may grope at midday as if in the dark; and they have moved their candlestick out of its place, so that they may be blind and leaders of the blind. And those who walk in darkness stumble; and, being blind in mind, they perpetrate crimes which tend toward the desolation of unity. Therefore, let penitence say and confess from the heart how a kingdom divided against itself shall be laid waste. For where unity is not, there division does not cease to be; and where division is, there desolation is found. For just as the unity of minds and actions is the preservation of kingdoms, so their division is their destruction and ruin.

Wherefore we, who by the Imperial office which we exercise—as much as an arbiter between the Prince Electors, in whom, as if upon seven columns, the Holy Empire subsists and is founded—are bound to provide that unity and concord persevere among them; lest through their dissension (which God forbid) the Holy Roman Empire, of which we are the governors by the authority of the Lord, should suffer grave dangers. Desiring, therefore, to meet future dissensions and dangers, by the counsel and assent of all the Prince Electors, both Ecclesiastical and Secular, for the honor of God and the preservation of the Holy Empire, we have deemed that the laws and constitutions written below should be issued.

Namely, first: that as often and whenever in the future it shall happen that the election of a King of the Romans, to be promoted to Caesar, falls vacant through the death of the King or Emperor, or otherwise; then, according to ancient and approved custom, the Archbishop of Mainz for the time being shall be bound, within thirty days from the day of notice of such death, to cite and require all and singular the Prince Electors pertaining to such election by his letters patent, that they ought to convene within three months from the day of such citation in the city of Frankfurt on the Main, in person or through their lawful envoys, with full power, to elect a King of the Romans to be promoted to Caesar.

But if the aforesaid Archbishop of Mainz should be negligent or remiss in such citation or requisition, the same Prince Electors, nonetheless, by the debt of fealty by which they are bound to the Empire, even if not cited, ought to convene in the aforesaid city within the aforementioned three months for the celebration of the aforesaid election.

Furthermore, we ordain and will that every Prince Elector who shall be called to such an election ought to bring no more than two hundred horsemen in his retinue to the aforesaid city; among whom it shall be permitted to have no more than fifty armed men.

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