So, what happens with municipal privileges, towns that had municipal privileges, these are eroded and then virtually eliminated by powerful potentates.

地方特权怎么样了,拥有地方特权的城镇又发生了什么,绝对统治者削弱并最终废除了地方特权

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

One thing absolute monarchs don't want is they don't want impediments to their personal rule.

绝对统治者厌恶的一点,就是妨碍他们个人专制的绊脚石

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

So, they make their personal or dynastic rule absolute based on loyalty to them as individuals and not to the state as some sort of abstraction.

所以,君主将个人或者王朝的绝对统治,建立在［民众］对其统治家族的忠诚,而非国家这样的抽象概念上

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

But in absolute states, there's no doubt who rules and who helps rule.

但是,在绝对主义的国家里,谁是统治者谁是帮手,这是不容置疑的

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

So, I already mentioned about how nobles become junior partners in absolutism.

我前面提到过,贵族是如何臣服在统治者的绝对权威之下

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

That is to lose their prerogatives, their rights to an absolute state.

那就是失去他们的特权,在一个绝对统治里所拥有的权力

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

There really can't be a challenge to them from the state itself.

绝对统治者不会允许在国内,有任何对于他们权威的挑战

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

So, absolute rulers didn't really have to pay attention to these assemblies.

所以说,绝对统治者实际上不用理会议会

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

Now, big-time, powerful absolute monarchs don't want that.

但是绝对统治者不希望地方政府有特权

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

He creates committees of advisors that, in many ways, are not that different than the kinds of ministries that would evolve in western absolute rulers-- absolute states, and in non-absolute states as well.

彼得大帝建立了顾问委员会,在很多方面,这都和西方绝对统治者的内阁相差无几,无论是绝对主义国家还是非绝对主义国家

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

The Netherlands also resisted absolutism, and the Dutch Republic remained the Dutch Republic; although, for reasons that we'll see later, the Dutch Republic ceases to be a great power in the 18th century.

荷兰抵制绝对统治的政体,保留了共合制,然而,后面我们将说到,荷兰共和国在十八世纪没落了

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

Because he is an absolute ruler.

由于他是绝对统治者

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

Now, what did it mean to be an absolute ruler?

那么绝对统治者到底意味着什么呢

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

This is a point we'll come back to, particularly when we're talking about the two most important states, two of the great powers of the period that did not have absolute rule.

这一点我们后面会详细讲,特别是当我们谈到最重要的两个,没有建立绝对统治的强国的时候

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

So, for absolute rulers, the link to religion you can read about, but there's always the sense that he or she is doing God's will by exploiting ordinary peasants, ordinary people and conquering other territories.

所以对于绝对统治者,你会在书本上读到他们与宗教之间的联系,但是存在这样一种观点,即绝对统治者是代天授命,所以他们有理由剥削民众并且扩张领土

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

Part of being an absolute ruler is being able to levy taxes against those people who have the joy or the extreme misfortune of living in those domains, and more about that later.

绝对统治者的一个权利,就是能向那些领土内的富商巨贾,或是一贫如洗的穷人征收赋税,这个稍后再详说

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

So, what happens with all this is that absolute rule impinges directly on the lives of ordinary people more than kingly, or queenly, or princely, or archbishoply power had intruded on the lives of ordinary people before that.

随之而来的结果就是,绝对王权统治,比起之前的王室以及教会的统治,对普通民众的直接影响要严重地多

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选