AUG 



an aninia! penfion. The burglicrs of tl.is cky ai-e computed 

 at 6000. The inhabitants are partly Lutherans, and partW 

 Cathohcs. Ihe Jews are excluded from the town; but 

 they occupy a village at the diftance of about a league, and 

 pay a tax for the liberty of trading in the day. The afpcft 

 of the inhabitants is very different ; that of tlie Proteftants 

 reiembhng the Suabians ; and the catholics bcino- like the 

 Bavarians. The government is arillocratical ; it" is vefted 

 vith 45 perfons, of whom 31 are patricians, 4 fuch as have 

 married the daughters of patricians, 5 merchants, and five 

 of the commonalty ; the council is formed of an equal num- 

 ber of Lutherans and Roman Catholics. The pohce is 

 good ; and though the town has no territory', it has no 

 debts. In former times, Augfturg was the great mart for 

 Indian commodities in the inter!()r parts of that extcnfive 

 country : its trade was very confiderable ; and we meet with 

 many examples of fuch large fortunes accumulated by mer- 

 cantile indullry, as raifed the proprietors of them to high 

 rank and confideration in the empire. It was celebrated for 

 its curious artifls, whofe manufaclurcs, particularly in tin and 

 filver, were mucli admired. Augfburg, however, is no longer 

 what it v,-_as in this refpeA. It has no longer a Fugger and 

 a Welfcr in it, to lend the emperor millions. Here are no 

 merchants who have capitals of more than 20,000 1. ; others, 

 with fmall capitals, do the bufinefs of brokers and commiffion- 

 ers ; and next to thefe are the engravers, Itatuarics, and 

 painters. Their produflions, like the toys of Nuremberg, 

 have a general circulation. Auglburg fiipplies all Germa- 

 ny with little piftures for prayer-books : and in various 

 ways, its trade is Hill confiderable, though far from being fo 

 great as it formerly was. The bifhop takes his name from 

 this town, though he refides at Dillengen. His income is 

 about 20,oool. per annum. He is a prince of the empire; and 

 he fits and votes in the college of princes, betwixt the bifhops 

 of Conflance and Hildefheim; the territory belonging to the 

 bifhoprick lies between the rivers Lech, Ilcr, and Danube. 



In the diet of the empire, Augfburg was originally 

 called Vindelicia, and was the capital of the Vindclici ; 

 afterwards it had the name of Augufta Vindelicorum, and 

 Rhastorum, when it came undv.r the dominion of the Ro« 

 mans, and a colony was fettled in it by Drufns. Tacitus 

 (Germ. c. xli.) calls it the moft fplcndid city of Rhxtia. 

 From the Romans it was transferred to the Alemanni, the 

 Goths, and the Franks ; under the lall of whom it declined 

 much ; but it recovered again under Charles the Fat. The 

 emperor Henry III. took it under his prote£iion, but it fuf. 

 fered much by its conteits with the biPnops, and its condi- 

 tion became very precarious. From Frederic L it obtained 

 feveral privileges ; and in 1275, king Rudolph I. conlirmed 

 and enlarged its imperial rights. 



Augiburg has acquired celebrity, not merely on account of 

 its antiquity and pre-eminence for a long feries of ages, and 

 for the extent of its commerce in the 14th and i 5th centuries, 

 .but from its having b.een the fccne of feveral confiderable tranf- 

 aftions. In thisplace, acouncil heldin952, conlirmed the order 

 for the celibacy of priefts. In 1518, a diet was held at this 

 place, for concerting and promoting a general criifade againil 

 Turks. At a diet, attended by the emperor Charles V. in the 

 1530, the creed of the Proteftants called the Auguftan or 

 Augfburg confefilou, was prefented and publicly read. In 

 1547, the emperor held a diet in this place for finally com- 

 pofing the controverfies with regard to religion, wh'ch had 

 long difturbed the empire ; and having, at the head of his 

 Spanifli troops, taken pofTciTiort of the cathedral and one of 

 the principal churches, he re-eftabliflied with great pomp 

 the rites of the Romilh worlhip. Before this diet, he laid 

 the fyftcm of doctrine, known afterwards by the name of 

 the Interim ; and in 1548, he made his firft attack upon 

 Vol. in. 



AUG 



r" f ' r °".!.'=?°""t f 'J^e part .t took in its oppof.tion fo 

 tins fyllem, iffuing a decree, after he had taken forcible pof, 

 feihon of the town, by which he aboliilied its form of eo- 

 Ttrnment, diffolved all its corporations and fralemiiits of its 

 burgeons, and nominated a fmall number of p-rfon,, i„ whom 

 he veiled the future right of adminidration, a:.d each of 

 whom was conftrained to take an oath for obfcrving the In- 

 tenm. In 1550, a diet was fummoned by the emperor at 

 this place for further enforcing the oLfervation of the Inte- 

 rim. The dxt held here in 155;, f^tUed the religious 

 peace of Germany, by an act called the Recess 

 In this city an alliance called the league or treatv of AuL'f- 

 burgh, was concluded in j68rt, between the emperor, the 

 king of bpain, the republic of Holland, the elector Pala- 

 tine, Lavaria, and the duke of Savoy ; the profefTcd oSjeft 

 of \Thich was to reflrain the ambition of the French mo- 

 narch ; but the real motive, fays M. Anquetil in his " iMo- 

 tifs des Gucrres et dts Traites de Paix de !a France &c 



179S," which led William prince of Orange to effcd thii 



Lnghfh throne in his Head. The hoftilitics confcqucnt on 

 this league commenced in 1688, which was followed by a 

 continental war, terminated by the peace of Ryfwick in 

 1699, Although the Proteftants were ver>- powerfiU at 

 Augfburg, they were driven from thence by the Bavarians, 

 and reflored again by Gnftavus Adolphus in 1632; fince 

 which time they have continued, and (harcd the government 

 with the Catholics. In 1 703, the eledor of Bavaria be- 

 fieged the city and took it, and dcmolidicd its fortifica- 

 tions ; but the battle of Hockilcdt rcllorcd its bbertv, 

 which it enjoys under its own magillratc5 ; the bidiop hav- 

 ing no temporal dominion in the city. Tiie chapter is com- 

 pofed of perfons who can produce proofs of their nobihtv. 

 The canons have a right of electing their bilhop, whois'a 

 fovereign, like feveral of the other German biiliops. Augf- 

 burg is fitnated in N. lat. 48^ 24'. E. long. lo*^ 58'. 

 Augsburg Confejfton. See Augustan-. 

 AUGST, a village of SwifTerland, near the Rhine, for- 

 merly a celebrated city called Au^ujla Raunicorum, whither 

 Munatius Plancus conducted a Roman colony under the 

 empire of Auguftus, A. U. C. 740, B. C. 14. It is featcd 

 on the river Ergetz, two leagues from Bafle. It was ruined 

 by Attila. Of its ancient magnificence many monument* 

 have been difcovered ; fuch as the ruins of an amphitheatre, 

 of towers, of fubterranean vaults, and aUb medals, aud 

 fragment*! of ftatues and infcriplions. 



AUGUR, in Antiquity, a miniftcr of religion aTr.o;.T 

 the Romans, appointed to take auguries or prefages coi- 

 cerning futurity from birds, bealb, and the appearances of 

 the heavens. 



Tlie word is by fome derived from avu, bird, and garrU 

 Ills, chattering ; whence the original office of the augurs is 

 fuppofed to liave been to obler\c, and take indications 

 from, the noife, calling, finging, chirping, and chatterinar 

 of birds. Agreeably to which, augur is commonly dilli ^ 

 guiflicd from aufpcx, as the latter was fuppofed 'employed 

 ill obferving the flight of birds. — Pezron derives it from liie 

 Celtic a-j, liv^r, and ^iir, insn ; fo that, according to him, 

 an augur was properly a pcrfon who infpcfted the entrails, 

 and divined by means of the hver. On which principle, 

 augur would have been the fame with Aruspices. 



The augurs conilitutcd a college or community, which 

 at firll coiififled of three perfons, one being appointed by 

 Romulus for each tribe ; then of four, when Servius Tul- 

 lius incrcafed the tribes to that number ; then of niue, four 

 of them patricians, and five plebeians, added in the year of 

 U u Rome 



