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220 X.

THE GOLDEN BULL OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES IV. 1356

(Altmann u. Bernheim, p. 39.)

Eternal, omnipotent God, in whom the sole hope of the world is, Of Heaven the Maker Thou, of earth, too, the lofty Creator: Consider, we pray Thee, Thy people, and gently, from out Thy high dwelling, Look down lest they turn their steps to the place where Erinis is ruler; There where Allecto commands, Megara dictating the measures. But rather by virtue of him, this emperor Charles whom Thou lovest, O most beneficent God, may'st Thou graciously please to ordain it, That, through the pleasant glades of forests ever in flower, And through the realms of the bless'd, their pious leader may bring them Into the holy shades, where the heavenly waters will quicken The seeds that were sown in the life, and where the ripe crops are made glorious, Cleansed in supernal founts from all of the thorns they have gathered. Thus may the harvest be God's, and great may its worth be in future, Heaping a hundred fold the corn in the barns overflowing.

In the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity felicitously amen. Charles the Fourth, by favour of the divine mercy emperor of the Romans, always august, and king of, Bohemia; as a perpetual memorial of this matter. Every kingdom divided against itself shall be desolated. For its princes have become the companions of thieves. Wherefore God has mingled among them the spirit of dizziness, that they may grope in midday as if in darkness; and He has removed their candlestick from out of His place, that they may be blind and leaders of the blind. And those who walk in darkness stumble; and the blind commit crimes in their hearts which come to pass in time of discord. Tell us, pride, how would' st thou have reigned over Lucifer if thou had'st not had discord to aid thee? Tell us, hateful Satan, how would' st thou have cast Adam out of