GHDI logo

Samuel Pufendorf, The Constitution of the German Empire (1667)

page 5 of 5    print version    return to list previous document      next document


Finally, the weakness of the imperial association is also shown by the fact that there is neither a common imperial treasure nor an imperial army that one could use to repulse attacks from abroad or to acquire a province, with whose taxes one could finance common public expenditures. It would even be enough if Germany could use its mercenaries, who risk their necks nearly everywhere in Europe, for its own benefit. [ . . . ]



Source of original Latin text: Severinus de Monzambano Veronensis, De statu imperii Germanici ad Laelium fratrem, dominum Trezolani. Liber unus. Geneva, 1667.

Source of German translation: Samuel Pufendorf, Die Verfassung des deutschen Reiches [The Constitution of the German Empire]. Translation from Latin, annotations, and epilogue by Horst Denzer. Stuttgart: P. Reclam, 1976, p. 106 f., 118-22; also reprinted in Helmut Neuhaus, ed., Zeitalter des Absolutismus 1648-1789 [The Era of Absolutism, 1648-1789]. Deutsche Geschichte in Quellen und Darstellung, edited by Rainer A. Müller, volume 5. Stuttgart: P. Reclam, 1997, pp. 27-35.

Translation from German to English: Erwin Fink

first page < previous   |   next > last page