Treaty of Westphalia

CXXIII.

That nevertheless the concluded Peace shall remain in force, and all
Partys in this Transaction shall be oblig’d to defend and protect all and
every Article of this Peace against any one, without distinction of
Religion; and if it happens any point shall be violated, the Offended
shall before all things exhort the Offender not to come to any Hostility,
submitting the Cause to a friendly Composition, or the ordinary
Proceedings of Justice.

CXXIV.

Nevertheless, if for the space of three years the Difference cannot be
terminated by any of those means, all and every one of those concern’d in
this Transaction shall be oblig’d to join the injur’d Party, and assist
him with Counsel and Force to repel the Injury, being first advertis’d by
the injur’d that gentle Means and Justice prevail’d nothing; but without
prejudice, nevertheless, to every one’s Jurisdiction, and the
Administration of Justice conformable to the Laws of each Prince and
State: and it shall not be permitted to any State of the Empire to pursue
his Right by Force and Arms; but if any difference has happen’d or
happens for the future, every one shall try the means of ordinary
Justice, and the Contravener shall be regarded as an Infringer of the
Peace. That which has been determin’d by Sentence of the Judge, shall be
put in execution, without distinction of Condition, as the Laws of the
Empire enjoin touching the Execution of Arrests and Sentences.

CCXXV.

And that the publick Peace may be so much the better preserv’d intire,
the Circles shall be renew’d; and as soon as any Beginnings of Troubles
are perceiv’d, that which has been concluded in the Constitutions , of the
Empire, touching the Execution and Preservation of the Public Peace,
shall be observ’d.

CXXVI.

And as often as any would march Troops thro’ the other Territorys, this
Passage shall be done at the charge of him whom the Troops belong to, and
that without burdening or doing any harm or damage to those whole
Countrys they march thro’. In a word, all that the Imperial Constitutions
determine and ordain touching the Preservation of the publick Peace,
shall be strictly observ’d.

CXXVII.

In this present Treaty of Peace are comprehended such, who before the
Exchange of the Ratification or in six months after, shall be nominated
by general Consent, by the one or the other Party; mean time by a common
Agreement, the Republick of Venice is therein compriz’d as Mediatrix of
this Treaty. It shall also be of no prejudice to the Dukes of Savoy and
Modena, or to what they shall act, or are now acting in Italy by Arms for
the most Christian King.

CXXVIII .

In Testimony of all and each of these things, and for their greater
Validity, the Ambassadors of their Imperial and most Christian Majestys,
and the Deputys, in the name of all the Electors, Princes, and States of
the Empire, sent particularly for this end (by virtue of what has been
concluded the 13th of October, in the Year hereafter mention’d, and has
been deliver’d to the Ambassador of France the very day of signing under
the Seal of the Chancellor of Mentz) viz. For the Elector of Mayence,
Monsieur Nicolas George de Reigersberg, Knight and Chancellor; for the
Elector of Bavaria, Monsieur John Adolph Krebs, Privy Counsellor; for the
Elector of Brandenburg, Monsieur John Count of Sain and Witgenstein, Lord
of Homburg and Vallendar, Privy Counsellor.

In the Name of the House of Austria, M. George Verie, Count of
Wolkenstein, Counsellor of the Emperor’s Court; M. Corneille Gobelius,
Counsellor of the Bishop of Bamberg; M. Sebastian William Meel, Privy
Counsellor to the Bishop of Wirtzburg; M. John Earnest, Counsellor of the
Duke of Bavaria’s Court; M. Wolff Conrad of Thumbshirn, and Augustus
Carpzovius, both Counsellors of the Court of Saxe-Altenburg and Coburg;
M. John Fromhold, Privy Counsellor of the House of Brandenburg-Culmbac,
and Onolzbac; M. Henry Laugenbeck, J.C. to the House of
Brunswick-Lunenburg; James Limpodius, J.C. Counsellor of State to the
Branch of Calemburg, and Vice-Chancellor of Lunenburg.
In the Name of the Counts of the Bench of Wetteraw, M. Matthews
Wesembecius, J. D. and Counsellor.

In the Name of the one and the other Bench, M. Marc Ottoh of Strasburg,
M. John James Wolff of Ratisbon, M. David Gloxinius of Lubeck, and M.
Lewis Christopher Kres of Kressenstein, all Syndick Senators, Counsellors
and Advocates of the Republick of Noremberg; who with their proper Hands
and Seals have sign’d and seal’d this present Treaty of Peace, and which
said Deputys of the several Orders have engag’d to procure the
Ratifications of their Superiors in the prefix’d time, and in the manner
it has been covenanted, leaving the liberty to the other Plenipotentiarys
of States to sign it, if they think it convenient, and send for the
Ratifications of their Superiors: And that on condition that by the
Subscription of the abovesaid Ambassadors and Deputys, all and every one
of the other States who shall abstain from signing and ratifying the
present Treaty, shall be no less oblig’d to maintain and observe what is
contain d in this present Treaty of Pacification, than if they had
subscrib’d and ratify’d it; and no Protestation or Contradiction of the
Council of Direction in the Roman Empire shall be valid, or receiv’d in
respect to the Subscription and said Deputys have made.

Done, pass’d and concluded at Munster in Westphalia, the 24th Day of
October, 1648.

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Constitutions, Treaty of Westphalia.