Solemn Orations in Praise of the Divine Elector Princes of Saxony, Maurice and Christian I

Now that the darkness has been dispersed and the light of truth has been rekindled by the ineffable goodness of God, and barbarism has been driven away, with the splendor and elegance of letters, arts, and languages restored to the Schools and Academies, there is no one who would wish to be concerned about increasing the stipends of professors and teachers. Meanwhile, the times become more difficult every year, the prices of goods rise, and private wealth diminishes. The wares of merchants are sold at a high enough price; the works of craftsmen likewise are sold for more, due to the cost of living and the general difficulty of the times. The farmer and the market gardener teach fathers of families this daily. The scholarly Doctor alone remains perpetually in the old state. He cannot sell his own wares for more, and if he is unwilling to be content with the same Mineruali fee for instruction, he must necessarily abandon his province of teaching. Why is this so? He depends entirely on the liberality of princes and the Magistrate; as much as the latter bestows, so much does the former possess. Why are these things said by you, you will ask? For this reason, excellent auditor, so that with joined vows and voices we may pray to a benign and immortal God that He might divinely stir up more Maurices of Saxony and more Christophers of Württemberg, who might kindly distribute ecclesiastical and scholastic goods among teachers and students, to whom they rightfully belong, so that the muses may not be mute, and so that our fame may not be hunger, as the verse says. This is so that useful professors and teachers may not be pressed by unworthy poverty along with their wives and children, so that the holy work of the Lord may not proceed more sluggishly, and so that God, provoked to just anger, may not severely punish the ingratitude of men by taking back those remarkable goods given and conceded to these lands in the previous century. May someone finally arise from the ashes of Maurice; may he arise, I pray, who might vindicate the muses from poverty and hunger, who might mercifully look upon those who eruditely and fruitfully profess piety and the arts of humanity, and who might raise up, cherish, and sustain the schools that are gradually collapsing, following the Maurician example.