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Kauffbeuren.] GERMANY,
301
pire, and the like was done in 1370 and 1377 by the Emperor Wenceßaus :
Laftly, it
alFerts that the Emperor Frederick III. in the year j 448 again took
it into iiii defence and protedion, and into tliat of the Empire, under
which as well as other Imperial cities it had always continued immediately
independent : And that he likewife confirmed all its ancient rights and privileges.
Laftly, in 1525, this town for the fum of 30,000 gold builders
purchafed to itfelf all rights, prerogatives, profits and perquilites,
particularly all tolls and taxes belonging to the abbey, both within and
without the town ; which compadl received the fandion not only of the
Emperor Charles V. but alfo of all his fucceflbrs, and likewife that of the
iee of Rome. By virtue thereof the abbey is to build on its ground no more
than what is abfolutely neceflary, and for its own fervice ; and not to fortify
the abbey, or raife any ftrudlures conducive thereto, nor within a mile of
the town of Kempten, to hold or caufe to be held any market, either public
or private. In the year 1633 the town was taken fword in hand by the
Impcrialißs with the llaughter of at leaft two thirds of the burghers. In the
Diet of the Empire it fits the twentieth among the Iinperial towns on the
bench oi Swabiu; but in that of the circle, it poffelles the fixteenth feat.
Its affeffment in the matricula ot the Diet and Circle was in the year löS"
reduced from one hundred and fifty-fix florins to fifty-'vvo. To the Imperial
chamber at Wetzlar it pays forty rixdoUars, fifty-tour kruitzers. It has no
villages, but is pollefTed of lands, monies, tithes and other incomes.
KAUFFBEUREN,
The free Imperial town of Kauffbeuren and its diftrid lies in the Ali;r(7u
on the Iferlach, and in the valley which derives its name from it betvvixt
the bilhopric of Augsburg, and the abbies of Kempten and Trfee. Before
the fourteenth century, and even fo late as the year 1336, it was ftiled only
Buren, or Eurun. The burghers here are partly Lutherans and partly
Roman~c2x\io\\Q.s, but its magiftracy confifts of eight Lutherans and four
/^owö«-catholics. In the town-court and great council are alfo Iwo Roma?icatholic
members, but the refb are all Lutherans. Here is a Jefuits refidence
and a Francifcan nunnery. In or near the town was anciently a caftle
of the fame name, from which, and that not improbably, Frederick of Buren,
father to Frederick of Staiiffen, firft Duke of Sivabia, received his furname.
On the extindion of the Dukes of Swabia of the Hohen-Stauffen
line, the town fell to the Empire. The Emperors Charles IV. and Wencejlaus
promifed to maintain it perpetually in its immediate dependency thereon.
In the general Diet it fits the twenty-fecond among the Imperial
towns of the bench of S.wabia, but in the Diet of the circle its place is the
feventeenth among the Imperial towns. Its afTellment in the matricula of
i
the