THE CASE OF THE PERSECUTED and OPPRESSED PROTESTANTS In some Parts of Germany and Hungary: Laid open in a MEMORIAL, Which was lately presented at VIENNA TO HIS Imperial Majesty, By His Majesty the King of SWEDEN'S Ambassador Extraordinary, the Count of Oxenstierna.  
In the SAVOY, Printed by Tho. Newcomb, 1674/5:   

May it please Your Sacred Imperial and Royal Majesty;  
WHereas His Sacred Royal Majesty, my most gracious Lord and Master, doth cherish a good and due opinion of Your Sacred Imperial Majesty's Equity and Indulgence upon all occasions; so doth He, with the greatest confidence, rely on, and most earnestly request the same, as to the straits and necessities of the most afflicted Protestants, living within your Kingdoms and Provinces: For Honour, Conscience, and not only Christianity, but even Humanity itself urge it. His Royal Majesty had indeed much rather have spared the mention of a thing so often repeated, nor would he have stirred any more in this business, had the Promises so often made formerly, and now lately renewed by the Count of Sternbergh, That those of the Auspurge Confession should be so treated, that neither they, nor any other Protestants in their name, should have any occasion of complaint, obtained hitherto the due and hoped effect; and if nothing had been done against them, contrary to the Grace and Indulgence so certainly promised them by Your Imperial Majesty: But how far otherwise it fares with them hitherto, and how notoriously miserable their condition, although it may perhaps be concealed by the cunning of some Zelotes, who intercept the Groans of the oppressed Protestants from coming to the most benign Ear of Your Sacred imperial Majesty; yet His Sacred Royal Majesty hath, to His no small grief, understood, by no less sad than certain relations. And he hopes, that Your Imperial Majesty will not think strange, if he cannot behold, without regret, and without interposing in their behalf, that His own Religion should, in those of the same Profession, suffer so dismal a Persecution; and under this colour, that so many, not only innocent, but well-deserving persons, ruined in all their Fortunes, should be exposed to the most exquisite Contumelies and mockeries; and that the Protestant Ministers, especially in the Cities of Hungary, Leopoldople, Capuarina, Camara, and others, being most violently seized on, should be pillaged, and insolently abused, and, stead with stripes, starved with hunger and nakedness, be thrust down into most loathsome and horrible Prisons, among Snakes and Toads; and moreover so bound and manacled, that they want all defence to help themselves against the Venomous Creatures; and that even where they are most favourably dealt with, and suffered to live above ground, that there being compelled to Employments, not so laborious, but the most filthy and noisome that can be invented, loaded perpetually with Chains more cruelly, than those that are guilty of the most heinous Parricides or Treasons, without all commiseration, without any satiety in mocking abusing them, they should lead a life, than which, Hell itself may seem more tolerable. To this may be added, that to deprive their Souls and Consciences of all Means of Instruction, all Schools and Helps of good Education and Piety, by which their Youth ought in their tender age to be bought up, and form for use and serviceableness, and to a faithful subjection towards Your Imperial Majesty, are, without any regard to the maintenance of Public Faith, absolutely refused them. That I may not pass by, how even they are not allowed Baptism by the Hands of Protestant Ministers; that the us● o● their Churches, either by their own Blood gained from the Turk, or at the Protestants own Charges built by the Imperial Consent and Permission, is refused them. It is in earnest very sad▪ that the things of this World should so far be preferred before those of Heaven: that, while Players and Mountebanks have Places assigned, nay, and Privileges granted them, and so much tenderness is used to that sort of People, which never is without nuisance and inconvenience to others; those that have embraced Christ, and are neither troublesome, nor incommodious to the Public, but do seriously pray for the health and safety of Your Imperial Majesty, are in the mean time debarred to join in Prayer, under a mean ●hed, where it reins through; nay, under the open Sky, or in the privacy of their own Houses, and that under pain of the most intolerable punishments. It is far from His Sacred Royal Majesty, hereby to impute any fault to your Imperial Majesty, a Prince so renowned for Clemency, Equity, and Honour; especially when He calls to memory, how great Evidences You have given of a Mind, deservedly abhorring and condemning this manner of proceeding, so barbarous, so contrary to the gentle Rule of Christ, and the Apostolic Example of Charity, no● only by Your benign Answers and Promises declared to His Sacred Royal Majesty, by His Ministers, but also by Your Praiseworthy Edicts, published in favour of the Protestants, after the Example of Your Predecessors of most Glorious Memory, who disdained not to own the Protestants among their faithful Subjects, and to interpose their Authority for securing them. But while those miserable Persons confide in those Records, and Your Imperial Majesty emulates the Renown of Your Ancestors, with a worthy tenderness towards them, and all others; it so happens, that the Fruit of so great a Virtue, and of so great a Benefit, is blasted, both as to Your Imperial Majesty, and those for whom it was designed; and that Your Inviolable Imperial Word is eluded and infringed, by I know not what tricks and pretences; the miserable Protestants never lived in less security, then after the obtaining the Imperial Declarations and Laws for their security, as if they were made only for a time, not so much for the safeguard of the Afflicted, as for a show of Clemency, but not to avail against the Cruelty of Persecution. The Authors of this Calamity might have discharged their Duty much better, would they have endeavoured to maintain Your Imperial Honour and Dignity, by an Execution conformable to Your so Benign Imperial Intention, rather than to undermine and overthrow it for Profane, far from Pious purposes. By which it comes to that pass at last, that it is not lawful for Men to be Godly, Honest, and Loyal, and so many Christian and most Sincere Souls being driven out of the Dominion of Your Imperial Majesty, are, which is a thing most miserable, bound under the yoke of the Turkish Slavery.  
His Royal Majesty would not deprecate the utmost severity against the Protestant Subjects of Your Imperial Majesty, if their dissenting not from the Foundation of Christian Salvation, but from some Additions to the Apostolical Doctrines, did involve them in any Crimes or Wickedness; if this their Nonconformity in Religion did corrupt their Loyalty, or the Civil Happiness; if the Protestants did by Seditious Counsels rise up against Your Imperial Majesty; if by Riots or Irregular Tumults they attempted upon Your Supreme Authority; if they avoided any Duty of most Loyal Subjects; or if they obeyed Your Commands with less readiness than the Papists: But seeing the contrary is manifest to all men, notwithstanding the false Gloss of Conspiracy, or being Complices therein, wherewith their Persecutions are for the most part coloured; whereas the Protestants live quietly and peaceably, and approve themselves, as becomes them, towards their Prince, and do so much abhor the Crime of Treason or Disloyalty; that there is nothing which they do more earnestly deprecate, than the necessity of parting with their Allegiance; nor any are more ready, than they, to sacrifice their Estates, their Bodies, and their Lives, for Your Imperial Majesty, against the Infidels; only desiring to keep their Souls untainted. Let those, who are the Authors of these severe Counsels against them, consider well, what account they can make to His Imperial Majesty, if those fatal Accidents, which may ensue hereupon, but, which God forbidden, should at some time or other, turn your severity upon themselves.  
His Sacred Royal Majesty hath in the mean time commanded me, to represent to Your Imperial Majesty, how clear and remarkable the words are of the Instrument of Peace, in favour of the Protestants inhabiting the Kingdoms and Provinces of Your Imperial Majesty, and of the most Serene House of Austria, whereby the free Exercise of Religion is inviolably, explicitly, and by name granted to some of them, and particularly to those of Silesia: The condition of others in this matter is respited to another time, to be dispatched by the Amicable interposition of His Royal Majesty, and the humble Intercession (which has, notwithstanding, hitherto been so vainly attempted) of the States of the Auspurge Confession. Verily it can scarce be believed, without injuring those, who laboured in that so pious and sincere Agreement, that they did add this Clause in vain, (though such it hath hitherto proved) or that they intended to delude these miserable Persons with deceitful hopes: Forasmuch therefore, as no less in respect to the Public Honour and Dignity, than to the Nature of all Agreements, the Words of that Clause ought to operate something; the least that they can operate must be, that the Protestants may be left however in the same state that they were, when the Peace was concluded. And His Royal Majesty hopes, that Your Imperial Majesty will no more insist upon the Distinction used by the Count of Sternberg in Sweden, between the Dutchies of Silesia, belonging to Your Royal Chamber and Table, and others, and upon the excluding of Hungary from these Kingdoms of Your Imperial Majesty, which are comprehended in the Sense of the Pacification: Seeing neither that Distinction, nor this Exclusion, hath any foundation at all in the Instrument of Peace, but doth rather directly oppose it. Which things being so, His Royal Majesty doth, with all the power that He properly hath of entreating and prevailing with Your Imperial Majesty, for those oppressed Protestants, groaning under so great rigour and cruelty of Inquisitions, beseech and conjure Your Imperial Majesty, by the Rights of the Friendship, and sincere Correspondence perpetually to be observed with Your Imperial Majesty, by the Public Tranquillity, by Your own Clemency, by Your Honour, and even by Yourself, that in conformity to the Privileges granted by your most August Ancestors, and by Yourself to the Protestants, and to the Public Laws and Agreements, You would command, that they may have liberty of Conscience; and that restoring in Your Kingdoms and Hereditary Provinces the Exercise of their Religion, together with their Churches, Seminaries and Schools, which heretofore belonged to them, You would deign once for all, to revive the Spirits of the Protestants, drooping under the want of their Divine Worship, from that desperate life, in which at present they languish; and that You will think fit to retain them as Yours, who are Yours, both by their Birth, and by the Duty of their inviolated Loyalty. And hereby it will come to pass, that henceforward Your Imperial Majesty will be free from all further interruptions, of those, who interceded for them, and that as many miserable Persons, as do now with sighs and groans lament unto God their sad condition; so many hereafter shall with Praises Celebrate the Goodness and Equity of their most Indulgent Lord and Emperor, and with most ardent Prayers recommend to Heaven Your Health, Life, and Prosperity.  
But in particular, forasmuch as several undoubted Rights and Privileges, which belong by the Instrument of Peace, to the Protestants of the Order of Knights, and their Subjects, in the Dutchies of Silesia, Tropaw, and Jegerndorffe, have been divers ways infringed, and, as far as possible, utterly torn in pieces, partly by New Articles added two or three years ago to the Provincial Ordinance of Tropaw, and partly by sundry bold Attempts of the Missionaries of the Bishop of Olmutz; His Sacred Royal Majesty doth exceedingly, and most instantly urge Your Sacred Imperial Majesty, that you would deign to leave inviolate, and maintain not only the aforesaid Orders of Knights, and their Subjects, in the said Places, but also whatsoever other Protestants, living within the other Dutchies of Silesia, in full and quiet Liberty of Conscience, and Education, (as doth most rightly belong by the Public Agreement) and in the Right appertaining to them hitherto, as well of serving in the Public Dignities and Offices of the Province, as of purchasing and possessing immovable Goods or Lands therein. And to that purpose, that You would not only hasten to Cancel the Articles of the said Ordinance, by which this is forbidden; but also either to remove and recall the said Missionaries, or so to bridle their rigid and licentious proceed, that they may for the future desist from the most unjust violence, they have hitherto exercised, in Reforming Religion in the Cities of Leobschutz, Teschin, and other Territories adjoining, (against which, the three years' Intercession and Solicitation of His Royal Majesty hath produced no other effect, than that above four hundred Inhabitants of Leobschutz are forced to wander, begging through the Neighbouring Countries) and that You would cause them to restore to the foresaid Order of Knights, without any impediment, the Feudatary Lands hitherto usurped from them: Whereby this also will of consequence follow, by the Clemency and Equity of Your Sacred Imperial Majesty, that those Missionaries shall no longer have power, under pretence of I know not what Contingences of the Stole, and such like; to despoil the wretched Protestants of their Estates; especially seeing by this way of proceeding, they do nothing but make in the Dominions of Your Imperial Majesty, a sad solitude for want of good Subjects; they chase away the Inhabitants from their Cities, the Husbandmen from the Land, and compel the otherwise most honest and most Loyal Subjects of Your Imperial Majesty, either to be ill ones, or to have no being.  
In the same manner, about the beginning of this Year, at the instances of His Sacred Royal Majesty, and previous to a perpetual Sanction, it was established by Your Sacred Imperial Word, and by Public Records, that the Protestants living in Hungary, and particularly the Citizens of Edenburg, who are, if any, signal and devoted in their subjection to Your Imperial Majesty, should have free Exercise of their Religion; yet afterwards it happened, that their meeting for Divine Worship was removed from Edenburg to Eysenstadt, whether there is no going safely, or without most grievous inconvenience, by reason of the distance of the Places, and the Passage infested by the Enemy, although there was no probable reason for it, and why the Public Faith should be in this degree interrupted; unless perhaps, that the Liberty and Rights of the Protestants being loosened and weakened by the dangers and troubles of that change, might, in conclusion, be utterly overthrown with the greater facility. His Sacred Royal Majesty therefore, as judging, that nothing doth more belong to Him, and nothing aught to be prosecuted by Him, with more earnest affection, than the safety of those, whom the Communion of the same Religion endeareth to Him, doth Amicably, Brotherly, and most Vehemently request of Your Sacred Imperial Majesty, that You would at length so far consider His so often repeated Interposition, nay, Your own Honour, that the Liberties so graciously confirmed by Yourself to those of Edenburg, may have the convenient and desired Effect, and that the Exercise of their Religion, which, contrary to the Tenor of Your Grant, hath been cast out, or (as it hath pleased the Secretary's Office in Hungary to express it) banished into a place, so improper, together with the Churches, that have been taken away; and the Schools and Colleges, which are so exceeding necessary, may be restored both to their City, and to the other Cities and Towns, and that they may enjoy them for the future freely, and undisturbed, without any hindrance or violence. His Royal Majesty desires Your Imperial Majesty to be fully persuaded, that You cannot give Him a more evident▪ or more acceptable Pledge of Your Benign, Friendly, and Brotherly Mind, than by suffering Yourself to be prevailed with in this Matter, by being pleased, to second His most earnest Zeal and Charity towards His afflicted Companions in Religion, and by giving present ease to their calamitous Condition.  
These things will extremely increase the Fame of Your Imperial Majesty's Clemency, and will not only put a most strict Obligation upon His Royal Majesty, but moreover upon so many Electors, Princes, and States of the Sacred Roman Empire, who will reckon themselves to be cherished in the Persons of the Protestants, and will apply their favourable usage unto themselves; and will be so much the more ready, upon that account, to join their Arms, as oft as it shall be needful, with those of Your Imperial Majesty, against the Common Enemy, as His Royal Majesty offers Himself most addicted, by all Endeavours and Offices, to Your Imperial Majesty.  
And so promising myself an Equitable, Benign, and Speedy Declaration, concerning those things, from Your Imperial Majesty, I recommend myself most submissively to Your accustomed Grace and Favour.  
FINIS.