APPENDIX.
COPY OF THE LATIN “PACT OF 1291” IN THE ARCHIVES OF SCHWYZ.
In nomine domini Amen. Honestati consulitur, et vtilitati publice prouidetur, dum pacta, quietis et pacis statu debito solidantur. Novereint igitur vniversi, quod homines vallis Vranie, vniversitasque / vallis de Switz, ac conmunitas hominum intramontanorum vallis inferioris, maliciam temporis attendentes, ut se, et sua magis defendere valeant, et in statu debito melius consevare, fide / bona promiserunt, inuicem sibi assistere, auxilio, consilio, quolibet ac fauore personis et rebus, infra valles et extra, toto posse, toto nisv, contra omnes ac singulos, qui eis vel alicui de ipsis, aliquam / intulerint violenciam, molestiam, aut iniuriam, in personis et rebus malum quodlibet machinando, ac in omnem eventum quelibet vniuersitas, promisit alteri accurrere, cum neccesse fuerit ad succurrendum. / et in expensis propriis, prout opus fuerit, contra inpetus malignorum resistere, iniurias vindicare prestito super hiis corporaliter inuramento, absque dolo servandis, antequam confederationis forman iuramento vallatam, presentibus innovando, / Ita tamen quod quilibet homo iuxta sui nominis conditionem domino suo conuenienter subesse teneatur et seruire. Conmuni etiam consilio, et fauore vnamimi promisimus, statuimus, ac ordinauimus, vt in vallibus prenotatis, nullum / iudicem, qui ipsum officium aliquo precio, vel peccunia, aliqualiter conparauerit, vel qui noster incola vel provincialis non fuerit aliquatenus accipiamus, vel acceptemus.
Si uero dissensio suborta fuerit, inter aliquos conspiratos, prudencio— / res de conspiratis accedere debent, ad sopiendam discordiam inter partes, prout ipsis videbitur expedire. et que pars illam respuerit ordinationem, alii contrarii deberent fore conspirati. Super omnia autem, inter ipsos extitit / statutum, ut qui alium fraudulenter, et sine culpa tracidauerit, si deprehensus fuerit uitam ammittat, nisi suam de dicto maleficio valeat ostendere innocenciam, suis nefandis culpis exigentibus. et si / forsan discesserit nunquam remeare debet. Receptatores et defensores prefati malefactoris, a vallibus segregandi sunt, donec a coniuratis prouide reuocentur. Si quis uero quemquam de conspiratis, die sev / nocte silentio, fraudulenter per incendium uastauerit, is numquam haberi debet pro conprouinciali. Et si quis dictum malefactorem fovet et defendit, infra valles, satisfactionem prestare debet dampnificato. Ad / hec si quis de coniuratis alium rebus spoliauerit, vel dampnificauerit qualitercumque, si res nocentis infra valles possunt reperiri, servari debent, ad procurandum secundum iusticiam lesis satisfactionem. Insuper nullus capere / debet pignus alterius nisi sit manifeste debitor, vel fideiussor, et hoc tantum fieri debet de licencia iudicis speciali. Preter hec quilibet obedire debet suo iudici, et ipsum si neccesse fuerit iudicem ostendere infra / sub quo parere potius debeat iuri. Et si quis iudicio rebellis extiterit, ac de ipsius pertinasia quis de conspiratis dampnificatus fuerit, predictum contumacem ad prestandam satisfactionem, iurati conpellere tenentur / uniuersi. Si uero guerra vel discordia inter aliquos de conspiratis suborta fuerit, si pars vna litigantium, iusticie vel satisfactionis non curat recipere complementum, reliquam defendere tenentur coniurati. Supra / scriptis statutis, pro conmuni vtilitate, salubriter ordinatis, concedente domino, in perpetuum duratis. In cuius facti euidentiam presens instrumentum, ad petionem predictorum confectum, Sigiliorum prefatarum / trium vniuersitatum et vallium est munimine roboratum. Actum Anno domini. M.CC.LXXXX. primo. Incipiente mense Au-gu-sto.
TRANSLATION.
In the name of the Lord—Amen!
Virtue is promoted and utility provided for by the state so long as covenants are firmly established with a proper basis of quiet and peace, therefore, let all men know that the valley of Uri and the entire district of the valley of Schwyz and the community of the intramontane people of the lower valley, while regarding the evil character of the times, with the view of being able more efficiently to protect themselves and their interests, and better to preserve them in their proper condition, have promised in good faith mutually to stand by one another with their help, advice, and undivided support, in their persons and property, within and without the valleys, with their entire force and united effort against all men and singular who shall inflict upon them or upon any one of them any violence, molestation or injury in plotting any evil against their persons and property, and every district has promised to another in every event to make haste whenever it shall be necessary to render it help. They also (have promised) at their individual expense to resist, as it shall be necessary, the attacks of the evil-intending, to avenge wrongs, having taken their oath corporal touching the faithful preservation of these presents from change before the ratification by oath of the instrument of Confederation. So, however, that any and every person is to be held to be subject to and to serve his Lord exactly according to the terms of his obligation. We also have promised, decided, and more, ordained by common resolve and unanimous assent that we will not, to any extent, accept or acknowledge any judge who shall secure the office itself at some price, or by money, by any other device, or who shall not be one of our inhabitants or a provincial.
But if a disagreement shall arise among any of the Confederates, the more discreet of them ought to come forward to allay the variance among the parties just as it shall appear to them to be expedient, and the party which shall reject the settlement decided upon, it were proper for the other Confederates to be their adversaries.
Moreover, above all things, it has been ordained among them that he who shall wrongfully and without provocation murder another, if he shall be arrested, shall lose his life, as his heinous wrong-doing demands, unless he shall be able to show his innocence touching the alleged crime, and if perchance he shall leave the country, he must never return, the harborers and defenders of the aforesaid malefactor are to be cut off from the valleys until they be recalled with due foresight by the Confederates. But if any one shall in the daytime or in the silence of night maliciously injure any one of the Confederates by burning, he ought never to be regarded as a fellow-provincial. And if any one harbors and defends the alleged evil-doer within the valleys, he ought to render satisfaction to the person who has sustained the loss. In addition, if any one of the Confederates shall rob another of his property or otherwise inflict loss upon him, if the property of the offending party can be found within the valleys, it ought to be held for procuring satisfaction for the injured according to justice.
Moreover no one ought to take the pledge of a second unless this one be clearly a debtor or security, and this ought to be done only in accordance with a special license of a judge. Furthermore, any and every one ought to obey his judge, and to indicate the very judge, if it shall be necessary, under whom he by choice assumes the obligation to obey the law. And if any one shall show himself defiant of the decision of a judge, and in consequence of his perverseness any of the Confederates shall be damaged, all who are under oath are held to force the aforesaid obstinate one to render satisfaction. But in case war or violent division shall arise among any of the Confederates, if one party of the disputants is not disposed to receive the award of justice or satisfaction, the Confederates are held to defend the remaining party.
The statutes above written are wholesomely ordained in behalf of the public advantage with an unlimited duration, the Lord consenting thereto. As an evidence of this act the present instrument, made according to the petition of the aforesaid persons, is confirmed by the authority of the seals of the aforementioned districts and valleys. Done in the year of the Lord 1291, in the beginning of the month of August.
The above translation was kindly made by Professor W. E. Peters, of the University of Virginia, and in transmitting it he says: “I send you a literal rendering of the Pact, the original is exceedingly rough and incorrect according to classical standards. I think, however, the sense is given. I render vniversitas as district, and Commune might be embraced in brackets; I would render it Canton, but the Swiss Cantons were not then formed, and the term Commune hardly expresses the sense, as it is French. I have had in some cases to force translation where the Latin is absolutely corrupt and wrong. I have aimed to make the translation, as you desired, strictly according to the Latin, and not according to what was permissible with the Latin and its collocation.”
The Honorable John D. Washburn, United States Minister at Bern, in an article contributed to the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, Mass., April, 1890, on the “Foundation of the Swiss Republic,” referring to the Pact of 1291, says: “The foundation stone on which it is generally understood that the whole superstructure [of the Swiss Republic] rests is known as the Pact—Letter of Alliance, Bundesbrief—of 1291. This is not a myth, but, apart, perhaps, from absolute exactness of date and some extraneous circumstances alleged to attend it, a well-established record of history. This instrument well repays a careful study, not only as a wonderfully bold declaration of modified independence at a very early day, but as especially interesting to the American student for the remarkable parallels of thought in the minds of these ancient men, and in the minds of those who nearly five hundred years later made the preliminary declarations of American Independence.”