Enlightened Absolutism DBQ

DOCUMENT  2 - REFER TO THE IMAGE ABOVE

Source: Carl Röchling, Frederick II Leading Troops in the Battle of Zorndorf, 1911 painting depicting a battle that took place in 1758

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DOCUMENT 1

In every government there are three sorts of power; the legislative; the executive, in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive, in regard to things that depend on the civil law. . . .

The political liberty of the subject is a tranquility of mind, arising from the opinion each person has of his safety. In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another.

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When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may be considered, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.

DOCUMENT 3

This princess seems to combine every kind of ambition in her person. Everything that may add luster to her reign will have some attraction for her. Science and the arts will be encouraged to flourish in the empire, projects useful for the domestic economy will be undertaken. She will endeavor to reform the administration of justice and to invigorate the laws; but her policies will be based on Machiavellianism; and I should not be surprised if in this field she rivals the king of Prussia. She will adopt the prejudices of her entourage regarding the superiority of her power and will endeavor to win respect not by the sincerity and probity of her actions but also by an ostentatious display of her strength. Haughty as she is, she will stubbornly pursue her undertakings and will rarely retrace a false step. Cunning and falsity appear to be vices in her character; woe to him who puts too much trust in her. Love affairs may become a stumbling block to her ambition and prove fatal for her peace of mind. This passionate princess, still held in check by the fear and consciousness of internal troubles, will know no restraint once she believes herself firmly established.

DOCUMENT 4

Motivated by grave causes related to my obligation to maintain my people in subordination,
tranquility and justice, as well as other urgent, just and necessary reasons that I reserve to my Royal self: I have decided to order removed from all my dominions in Spain and the Indies, and the Philippine Islands and adjacent dominions, all members of the Society of Jesus.*

* A Catholic religious order also known as the Jesuits

DOCUMENT 5

Since it is Our purpose to make the Jews more useful and serviceable to the State, principally through [giving] their children better instruction and enlightenment, and by employing them in the sciences, arts, and handicrafts:

8. We permit and command the tolerated Jews, in places where they have no German schools of their own, to send their children to the Christian upper elementary schools, so that they shall learn at least reading, writing, and arithmetic, and although they have no synagogue of their own in Our capital, We yet permit them to build for their children, at their own expense, a normally equipped school, with a teaching staff of their own religion, which shall be subject to the same control as all the German schools here, the composition of the moral books being left to them. . . .

15. The use, orally or in writing, of the Hebrew and so-called Yiddish* languages in any public judicial or extrajudicial procedures is forbidden henceforward; instead, the locally current language is to be used. A two years’ grace from the day of issue of this Patent is allowed; thereafter all documents written in Hebrew or Yiddish will be invalid and null and void. . . .

* A language with a mixture of German and Hebrew words commonly used by Jews in Central Europe

DOCUMENT 6

This enlightenment requires nothing but freedom--and the most innocent of all that may be
called “freedom”: freedom to make public use of one's reason in all matters. Now I hear the cry from all sides: “Do not argue!” The officer says: “Do not argue--drill!” The tax collector: “Do not argue--pay!” The pastor: “Do not argue--believe!” Only one ruler in the world says: “Argue as much as you please, but obey!” We find restrictions on freedom everywhere. But which restriction is harmful to enlightenment? Which restriction is innocent, and which advances enlightenment? I reply: the public use of one's reason must be free at all times, and this alone can bring enlightenment to mankind. . . .

As matters now stand it is still far from true that men are already capable of using their own
reason in religious matters confidently and correctly without external guidance. Still, we have some obvious indications that the field of working toward the goal [of religious truth] is now opened. What is more, the hindrances against general enlightenment or the emergence from self-imposed nonage are gradually diminishing. In this respect this is the age of the enlightenment and the century of Frederick.

DOCUMENT 7

At this point in time a throne wavers;

The frightened, trembling desperation

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Of a furious people - the idiotic despot

Knows the vanity of the alleged pact.

Answer, sovereign: who dictated this pact?

Who signed it? Who has subscribed?

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In which wood, in which cave, did one draw up the act?

By which hands was it written?

Does one have it engraved on the stone or the bark?

Who maintains it? Justice or force?

From right, fair, it is proscribed.

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I attest the times; I appeal to all ages;

Never publicly advantaged

The man did not sacrifice his rights;

If he dared of his heart to listen to only his voice,

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Changing language suddenly,

He would say to us, like the host of the wood:

“Nature made neither servant nor master;

I do not want to give nor receive laws!”

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And his hand would braid the priest’s entrails,

For the lack of a rope, to strangle kings.

* a maniac or fanatic for liberty