6. Concerning the comparison of prince electors with other, ordinary princes.
We decree that, in holding an imperial court, whenever in future one shall chance to be held, the aforesaid prince electors, ecclesiastical and secular, shall immutably hold their positions on the right and on the left—according to the prescribed order and manner. And no other prince, of whatever standing, dignity, pre-eminence or condition he may be, shall in any way be preferred to them or any- one of them, in any acts relating to that court; in going there, while sitting or while standing. And it is distinctly declared that especially the king of Bohemia shall, in the- holding of such courts, in each and every place and act aforesaid, immutably precede any other king, with what- soever special prerogative of dignity he may be adorned, no matter what the occasion or cause for which he may happen to come or to be present.
7. Concerning the successors of the princes.
Among those innumerable cares for the well-being of the holy empire over which we, by God's grace, do happily reign—cares which daily try our heart,—our thoughts are chiefly directed to this: that union, desirable and always healthful, may continually flourish among the prince electors of the holy empire, and that the hearts of those I men may be preserved in the concord of sincere charity, by whose timely care the disturbances of the world are the more easily and quickly allayed, the less error creeps in among them, and the more purely charity is observed, obscurity being removed and the rights of each one being clearly defined. It is, indeed, commonly known far and wide, and clearly manifest, as it were, throughout the whole world, that those illustrious men the king of Bohemia and the count palatine of the Rhine, the duke of Saxony and the margrave of Brandenburg, have—the one by reason of his kingdom, the others of their principalities—together with the ecclesiastical princes their co-electors, their right, vote and place in the election of the king of
