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8 GERMANY.
The States of Wurtemberg,
[Wurtemberg.
fince the nobiHty feparated themfelves, arecompofed
of the prelates, or abbots, and the towns. On the call of a Diet
(which at prefent is only on very important occafions) all the prelates and
a biirgher-mafter from each town meet at Stuttgardt, out of whom are chofen
four prelates and fix burgher-mafters, as reprefentatives of the whole
country. Thefe are divided into the lefl'er and larger committee of Eledlion.
The former confifts of two prelates and fix burgher-maflers, the provincial
confuls, which are ufually two or three, and the provincial receivers. The
latter alfo confifts of two prelates and fix burgher-mafters, with two
provincial commifläries, three provincial recorders, and a like number of
chancery-counfellors,
attended by three provincial beadles.
as alfo of two provincial clerks of the excife, who are
This feledt body meets twice or thrice
every year, each lefiion lafting four, fix, or eight weeks, according to the
weight and multiplicity of bufinefs. The country choofe their afi"eflbrs at
pleafure either from among the prelates or burgher-mafters of the towns.
§. 6. The eftablilhed religion of this country is Lutheranifm, and though
Duke Charles Alexander has embraced the Roman, yet in the years 1729,
1732 and 1733, he gave afliirances to the States in formal inftruments,
that no change or innovation fiiould be made in the Lutheran religion in
any part of the whole dutchy, and that in all the churches and fchools
throughout the dutchy, and the countries thereunto belonging, no other religion
than that of Lutheranifm fhould be taught ; that no new Catholic
churches, chapels, altars or images, fliould be eredfed or let up, nor any
fuch as were decayed or forfaken again ufed ; that no procefiions, pilgrimages,
nor catholic burying-places fliouId be tolerated ; that the hofi: (hould
never be carried openly, the Simultaneum Catholicum be no where introduced,
nor any part of the catholic worfliip be performed except only that in the
duke's chapel, the catholic inhabitants of the town oi Ludwigskirg fliould
have the privilege of performing their fervice in private ; that all and every
employment fhall be filled with Lutherans alone ; that the privy-council
fhall confift only of Lutherans ; and that in the fame manner as in the
Ele(ftorate of Saxony, they alone fliall have the management of the church
concerns, revenue, and affairs relating to the police, whether refpeding the
ducal lands only or the whole body of Proteftants in general, both within
and without the Roman Empire, in the Imperial or circular Diet, or any
other afiiembly. Further, in the year 1734, the faid duke, in confirmation
of the premiffes, did at the Imperial Diet deliver to the Proteftant body Reverfales
under his fign manual, which were in due form accepted by them.
Duke Charles Eugene alfo in the year 1750^ ifllied a declaration againfl; catholic
procefiions either at Ludwigsburg or in any part of the dutchy, enjoining
that religious matters fliould remain unalterable purfuant to the
treaty of IVejlphalia, the Reverjalia of the Princes, and the national compa