Note 275 — Chapter XIV · THE GERMANIC CONSTITUTION: THE SEVEN ELECTORS.
Reading edition
The names and offices of the seven are concisely given in these lines, which appear in the treatise of Marsilius of Padua, De Imperio Romano:—
'Moguntinensis, Trevirensis, Coloniensis, Quilibet Imperii sit Cancellarius horum; Et Palatinus dapifer, Dux portitor ensis, Marchio præpositus cameræ, pincerna Bohemus, Hi statuunt dominum cunctis per sæcula summum.'
It is worth while to place beside this the first stanza of Schiller's ballad, Der Graf von Hapsburg, in which the coronation feast of Rudolf is described:—
'Zu Aachen in seiner Kaiserpracht Im alterthümlichen Saale, Sass König Rudolphs heilige Macht Beim festlichen Krönungsmahle. Die Speisen trug der Pfalzgraf des Rheins, Es schenkte der Böhme des perlenden Weins, Und alle die Wähler, die Sieben, Wie der Sterne Chor um die Sonne sich stellt, Umstanden geschäftig den Herrscher der Welt, Die Würde des Amtes zu üben.'
It is a poetical licence, however (as Schiller himself admits), to bring the Bohemian there, for King Ottocar was far away at home, mortified at his own rejection, and already meditating war.