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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth
+and XVIIth Centuries, Vol. II., by Gustav Freytag
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries,
+Vol. II.
+
+Author: Gustav Freytag
+
+Translator: Georgiana Malcolm
+
+Release Date: September 22, 2010 [eBook #33795]
+[Most recently updated: December 31, 2022]
+
+Language: English
+
+Produced by: Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive.
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE,
+VOL. II ***
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+1. Page scan source:
+http://www.archive.org/details/picturesgermanl00freygoog
+
+
+
+
+                                PICTURES
+
+                                   OF
+
+                              GERMAN LIFE
+
+
+                 In the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries.
+
+
+                                   BY
+                             GUSTAV FREYTAG.
+
+                    =Translated from the Original by=
+                             MRS. MALCOLM.
+
+
+                 _COPYRIGHT EDITION.--IN TWO VOLUMES_.
+
+
+                                VOL. II.
+
+
+                                LONDON:
+                   CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY.
+                                 1862.
+
+
+      LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET.
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS.
+
+
+                 SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.
+
+Introduction--Retrospect of the results of the sixteenth
+century--Greater development of individuality--Defects of
+Protestantism--A more elevated tone in Catholicism--Contrast of the
+Roman and German systems--Political weakness of Protestantism--The
+Hapsburgers--Discontent in the people
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+The Thirty Years' War (1618 to 1638). The Army--Strength of
+the Army--Cost--Method of conducting the war--Political events
+of it--Organization of the army--The officers and the
+banners--Pay--Discipline--Punishments--Camp followers and their
+discipline--Description of a Soldier's Life before the War, by Adam
+Junghans
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+The Thirty Years' War. Life and Manners of the Soldiers (1618
+to 1648)--Intermixture of nations--The camp; gambling; luxury;
+scarcity--Superstition--Vices--Camp language--The
+cartel--Booty--Partisan service and spies--Marauders--Oppression
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+The Thirty Years' War. The Villagers and their Pastors (1618 to
+1648)--State of the villages--Position and manners of the
+peasantry--Effects of the war; money perplexities; quartering of
+troops; tortures--Fear; insolence; lawlessness--Love of home--The
+pastors and their endurance--Fate of the Pastor Bötzinger
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+The Thirty Years' War. Clippers of Money and Public Opinion (1618 to
+1648)--The commencement of newspapers--Struggle of the press at the
+beginning of the war--The _kipper_ time--Money coining--Depreciation of
+the coinage in 1621, and its effect upon the people--Discovery of the
+danger; excitement; storm in the press--Specimen from the flying-sheet
+_expurgatio der kipper_--Theological controversial writings--Enthusiasm
+for Gustavus Adolphus--Character of that king--Dialogue between
+the king and the envoy of Brandenburg--The fate of Gustavus
+Adolphus--Opposition of the press to Sweden--Patriotism of the German
+press--The Flying-Sheet, the German Brutus--The benefit of Sweden to
+Germany
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+The Thirty Years' War. The Cities (1618 to 1648)--Aspect of the cities
+in 1618--Effects of the war; luxury; contributions; sieges--Religious
+persecution--The Ladies of Löwenberg
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+The Thirty Years' War. The Peace (1650)--Festivities of the Ambassadors
+at Nuremberg--Festive Fair in a Thuringian Village--Condition of the
+country after the war--Its devastation--Attempted estimation of it--The
+consequences to the Austrian provinces
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+Rogues and Adventurers--Their increase during the war--Their
+history--The strollers of the middle ages--Gipsies and their
+language--Gibberish and beggars--Travelling scholars--Robbers and
+incendiaries--Foreign jugglers--Description of Strolling Players,
+by Garzoni--Comedians, and influence of adventurers on
+literature--Swindlers of distinction--Alchemists
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Engagement and Marriage at Court (1661)--Fashion and gallantry, a
+foreign means of preserving decorum--Courtly Wooing and Marriage at
+Vienna--The Royal families--The Elector Palatine Carl Ludwig--Letter of
+the Electress Palatine Charlotte to the Emperor--Judgment upon her and
+her husband
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+Of the Homes of German Citizens (1675)--Order and decorum in
+wooing--Narrative of Friedrich Lucä--Change in expression of feelings
+of the heart--Life at home--Prosperity of Hamburg--Letter of
+Burgomaster Schulte to his Son in Lisbon--Strong sense of duty in
+men--Berend Jacob Carpfanger--Sorrowful tidings from Cadiz
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+German Life at the Baths (1690)--Distinction of ranks--Forms of
+society--Bath life--Poggio--Baths in the Fifteenth Century, by
+Poggio--In the Sixteenth, by Pantaleon--In the Seventeenth, by de
+Merveilleux--In the Eighteenth, by Hess
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+Jesuits and Jews--Decay of the Church--Protestants and Catholics--The
+Jesuits also weaker--Position of the Jews since the middle ages--Their
+lucrative business--The Jews at Prague Story of Simon Abeles--Victory
+of humanity over religious intolerance
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+The Wasunger War (1747)--Weakness of the German Empire--Division
+of classes wider--Anthony Ulrich von Meiningen and Philippine
+Cesar--Quarrels at the Court of Meiningen--Cause of the war--Diary of
+the Gotha Lieutenant Rauch
+
+
+Conclusion. From Frederick the Great up to the present time--Object of
+these pictures--The mind of the people
+
+
+
+
+                        PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE.
+
+
+
+
+                   INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND VOLUME.
+
+
+The year 1600 dawned upon a people who had gone through a vast change in
+the last century. Everywhere we perceive marks of progress. Let us
+compare any learned book of the year 1499 with one of 1599. The former
+is written in bad Latin, poor in diction, ponderous in composition, and
+not easy of comprehension. Of independent spirit and individual
+conviction we find little trace. There are undoubtedly exceptions, but
+they are very rare. Even the Latin of the earlier Humanitarians reminds
+us of the subtle vapidness of monkish language, almost as much as of the
+artistic phrases of ancient rhetoricians. We are sometimes surprised to
+find in the theology, an undercurrent of deep-thinking speculations of
+elevated grandeur; but it is a kind of secret doctrine of souls
+depressed under the constraint of the cloister. It is certainly
+philosophy, but deprived of vitality.
+
+A century later we discover, even in mediocre authors, a certain
+independent individuality. The writers begin to reflect on human life
+and faith; they understand how to represent their own feelings and the
+emotions of the soul, and struggles for their own convictions. Yet still
+they remain too much bound by general prescription, and there is still
+much that is monotonous, according to our views, in their judgment and
+learning, and the cultivation of their minds. But in their prose we find
+a peculiar and often original style, and almost always a stronger and
+more active common sense. Three generations struggled for their faith,
+many individuals perished for their convictions, and thousands were
+plunged in misery. Martyrdom was no longer a monstrous and unheard-of
+thing, and men maintained their own judgment on the highest questions.
+There were few souls strong enough to do this a century earlier; then,
+among the people, individuals passed their lives without any community
+of ideas or activity of mind, seeking in the narrow circle of their
+associates no advantage save that of support against insufferable
+oppression; that alone was the purport of their struggles. But now
+enthusiasm had been called forth in the nation, the individual felt
+himself in close connection with millions, he was carried along the
+stream by the unanimous impulse of all who were like-minded; he acted
+and suffered for an idea; this was especially the case with the
+Protestants; and even Roman Catholics partook of this blessing: so much
+nobler had men become.
+
+But every higher development produces new defects; the child is free
+from many complaints which attack the youth. Protestantism, which had
+done so much for the people, did not for a long time achieve its
+greatest results. It required the unceasing inward workings of the minds
+of individuals; it gave an impulse everywhere to self-decision, and yet
+it could not raise itself above the worst principles of the old Church.
+It wished still to dominate over the faith of its disciples and to
+persecute as heresy every deviation from its convictions. Luther's giant
+nature had been able to keep zealous spirits united, but he himself had
+predicted that after his death they would not remain so. He knew his
+faithful adherents accurately; their weaknesses, and their eagerness to
+carry out their own views. Melancthon, who though firm in his theology
+and in the every-day troubles of life, was embarrassed and uncertain in
+matters of great import, could not command the fiery spirits of more
+determined characters. At that Imperial Diet which was held at Augsburg
+in 1547, the victorious Emperor had endeavoured, in his way, to compose
+the disputes of the Churches, and had pressed upon the vanquished
+Protestants a preliminary formula of faith, called the Interim. From the
+point of view of the Roman Catholics, it was considered as extreme
+toleration, which was only bearable because it gradually led back to the
+Old Church; from the point of view of zealous Protestants, it was held
+to be insupportable tyranny, which ought to be withstood. The
+ecclesiastical leaders of the opposition rose everywhere against this
+tyranny; hundreds of preachers were driven from their benefices and went
+about with their staffs as miserable pilgrims, and many fell victims to
+the furious reaction. It was the heroic time of the Protestant faith;
+simple preachers, fathers with wives and children, manfully suffered for
+their convictions, and were soon followed by thousands of laity.
+
+But this enthusiasm was fraught with danger. The Interim was the
+beginning of vehement theological disputes, even among Luther's
+followers. The struggle of individuals became also the struggle of the
+Universities. The successors of Frederick the Wise lost the University
+of Wittenberg as well as the Electoral dignity; Melancthon and the
+Wittenbergers were under the influence of Maurice and his brothers;
+while the most zealous Lutherans were assembled at the new University of
+Jena.
+
+This race of vehement men was followed by another generation of
+_Epigonen_. At the end of the century German Protestantism appeared in
+most of the provinces to be secure from outward dangers. Then the
+ecclesiastics became too self-sufficient and fond of power--the failings
+of a privileged order. Influential counsellors of weak princes, and
+rulers of public opinion, they themselves persecuted other believers
+with the weapons of the old Church. They sometimes called down the civil
+power upon heretics; and the populace stormed the houses of the
+Reformers in Leipzig; at Dresden a courtly ecclesiastic was executed on
+account of heresy, though perhaps there may also have been political
+reasons. Thus this new life threw deep shadows over the souls of the
+people.
+
+In Roman Catholic territories also, a vigorous and extraordinary life
+was roused. The Roman Catholic Church gave birth to a new discipline of
+the mind, a mode of human culture distinctly opposed to Protestantism.
+Even in the old Church a greater depth of inward life was attained. A
+new system of rapturous excitement and self-denial, with high duties and
+an exalted ideal, was offered to satisfy the needs of the souls of the
+faithful. In Spain and Italy this new religious zeal was aroused, full
+of resignation and self-sacrifice, full of great talent, eagerness for
+combat, and glowing enthusiasm, and rich in manly vigour. But it was not
+a faith for Germans. It demanded the annihilation of free individuality,
+a rending from all the ties of the world, fanatical devotion, and an
+unconditional subjection of the individual to a great community. Each
+one had to make an offering of his life for a great aim, without
+criticism or scruple. Whilst Protestantism formed a higher standard, and
+imposed on each individual, the duty of seeking independently by an
+effort of his own mind, the key to divine and human knowledge, the new
+Catholicism grasped his whole being with an iron hand. Protestantism
+was, notwithstanding all the loyalty of the Reformers, essentially
+democratic; the new Catholicism concentrated all the powers of men, of
+which it demanded the most unhesitating submission, in a spiritual
+tyranny, under the dominion of the head of the Church, and afterwards
+under that of the State.
+
+The great representatives of this new tendency in Church and State were
+the Jesuits. In the impassioned soul of a Spanish nobleman smouldered
+the gloomy fire of the new Catholic teaching; amidst ascetic penances,
+in the restricted intercourse of a small brotherhood, the system was
+formed. In the year 1540 the Pope confirmed the brotherhood, and shortly
+after, the first members of the order hastened across the Alps and the
+Rhine into Germany, and began already to rule in the council of Trent.
+Their unhesitating determination strengthened the weak, and frightened
+the wavering. With wonderful rapidity the order established itself in
+Germany, where the old faith still subsisted along with the new; it
+acquired favour with the higher classes, and a crowd of adherents
+amongst the people. Some princes gave up to it the spiritual dominion of
+their countries, above all the Hapsburgers; and besides them, the German
+princes of the Church, who could not uphold by their own intrinsic
+strength, the wavering faith of their subjects: and lastly the Dukes of
+Bavaria, who for more than a century had been in the habit of seeking
+advantage for their house in a close union with Rome. When the
+brotherhood first entered Germany the whole nation was on the point of
+becoming Protestant; even at the beginning of the Thirty years' war,
+after losses and successes on both sides, three fourths of Germany were
+Protestant; but in the year 1650, the whole of the new Imperial state,
+and the largest third of the rest of Germany, had again become Roman
+Catholic. So well did these foreign priests serve their Church.
+
+The way in which they worked was marvellous; cautiously, step by step,
+with endless schemes, and firm determination, never wavering, bending to
+the storm, and indefatigably returning again, never giving up what they
+had once begun, pursuing the smallest, as well as the greatest plans at
+any sacrifice, this society presented the only specimen of an
+unconditional submission of the will, and surrender of everything to one
+idea, which did not find expression in individuals, but only in the
+society. The order governed, but no single member of it was free, not
+even the General of the order.
+
+The society gained honour and favour; it understood well how to make
+itself beloved, or indispensable wherever it came; but it never found a
+home in Germany. Its fearful principle of mystery and secrecy was felt,
+not only by the Protestants, who endeavoured to break its power by
+their paper weapons, the flying-sheets, and made it answerable for
+every political misdeed, whether far or near, but also in the Roman
+Catholic countries. Even there it was only a guest, influential
+certainly, and much prized, but from time to time ecclesiastics and
+laity felt that it was a thing apart from them. All the other spiritual
+societies had become national,--the Jesuits never. It is not unnatural
+that this feeling was strongest among the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics,
+for their worldly prospects were often injured by the Jesuits.
+
+Thus from the middle of the sixteenth century two opposite methods of
+mental cultivation, two different sources of morals and working power
+have struggled against one another. Devotion and unconditional
+subjection, against feelings of duty and thoughtful self-assertion;
+rapid and unhesitating decision, against conscientious doubts; a spirit
+of energy, working laboriously with much deliberation and scheming after
+distant aims, against defective discipline; and an urging to unity,
+against a striving for separation.
+
+These opposing powers appeared everywhere, especially in politics and at
+the courts of princes. Protestantism in its unfinished shape, though it
+had elevated the people, was no help to the formation of the character
+of the German princes; it had raised higher their external power, but it
+had lessened their inward stability; their youthful training became in
+general too theological to be practical. However immoral many of them
+were, they all suffered from conscientious doubts; and there was no
+ready answer for these doubts, such as the Roman Catholic confessor had
+always in store for them. The Protestant princes stood isolated; there
+was no firm bond of union between the Churches of the different states,
+but much trivial quarrelling and bitter hatred, not only between
+Lutherans and Reformers, but even amongst the followers of the Augsburg
+confession; and this diminished the strength of the princes. Whilst the
+priests of the Roman Catholic Church did their best to unite their
+rulers, the Protestant ecclesiastics helped to increase the disunion of
+theirs. So it is not surprising, that the Protestants for a long time
+stood at a disadvantage in their political struggle with the old faith.
+The Germans had not yet found, and did not for centuries attain to, the
+new constitution of State, which transfers the mainspring of government
+from the accidental will of the ruler, to the conscience of the nation,
+and which places in a regulated path, citizens of talent and integrity
+as advisers to the crown; public opinion was still weak, the daily press
+not yet in existence, and the relation between the political rights of
+the princes and the people very undefined.
+
+Protestantism had everywhere produced political convulsions, from the
+peasant war even into the following century. The Reformation had
+unloosed all tongues, it had given the Germans a freer judgment upon
+their position as citizens, and had inspired individuals with the
+courage to fight for their own convictions. The peasant now loudly
+murmured against exorbitant burdens, the members of guilds against the
+selfish dominion of the corporations, and the noble members of the
+provincial estates against the extravagant demands of the sovereign for
+war expenses. The wild democratic disturbances of 1525 were with
+Luther's entire approbation easily put down, but democratic tendencies
+did not therefore cease, and together with them, anabaptist and
+socialist views spread from city to city. Their teaching, which scarcely
+forms a system, took a different colouring in different individuals,
+from the harmless theorist who imagined a community of good citizens
+without egotism, full of self-abnegation, as did the talented Eberlin,
+to the reckless fanatic who tried to establish a new Zion at Münster,
+with an illusive community of goods and wives. These excitements lost
+their power towards the end of the century, but still continued to
+ferment among the people, especially in those provinces, where the
+Protestant opposition of the estates excited the people against the old
+faith of the rulers of the country. Thus it was in Bohemia, Moravia, and
+Upper Austria. The more zealously the Hapsburgers endeavoured, by means
+of the Jesuits, to restore the old faith, the more it was kept in check,
+even in their own country, by the demands of the opposition in the
+estates, and the commotions among the people. And well did they perceive
+the threatening connection of this opposition to their house. Two ways
+only were therefore open to them, either they must themselves have
+become Protestants, which they found impossible, or they must have
+resolutely destroyed the dangerous teaching and pretensions which upset
+the souls of men everywhere, especially in their own country. The
+Hapsburger appeared who attempted this.
+
+Meanwhile the spirit of the old Church had been raised, by the great
+victories which it had gained in other countries. The Protestant princes
+combined against the threatened offensive movement of the Roman Catholic
+party, as before at Smalkald, and the Roman Catholic party answered by
+the formation of the League; but the object at heart, of the League was
+attack, while that of the Protestants was only defence.
+
+This was the political state of Germany before the Thirty years' war; a
+most unsatisfactory state. Discontent was general, a mournful tendency,
+a disposition to prophecy evil, were the significant signs of the times.
+Every deed of violence which was announced to the people in the
+flying-sheets, was accompanied by remarks on the bad times. And yet we
+know for certain that immorality had not become strikingly greater in
+the country. There was wealth in the cities, and even in the country
+increase of prosperity; there was regular government everywhere, better
+order and greater security of existence, luxury and an inordinate love
+of enjoyment had undoubtedly increased, together with riches; even among
+the lower strata of the people greed was awakened, life became more
+varied and dearer, and much indifference began to be shown concerning
+the quarrels of ecclesiastics. The best began to be gloomy, and even
+cheerful natures, like the honest Bartholomäus Ringwald, became prophets
+of misfortune, and wished for death.
+
+And there was good reason for this gloom. There was something diseased
+in the life of Germany, an incomprehensible burden weighed it down,
+which marred its development. Luther's teaching, it is true, produced
+the greatest spiritual and intellectual progress which Germany had ever
+made through one man, but the demands of life increased with every
+expansion of the soul. The new mental culture must be followed by a
+corresponding advance in earthly condition, a greater independence in
+faith, demanded imperiously a stronger power of political development
+But it was precisely this teaching, which appeared like the early dawn
+of a better life, that conveyed to the people the consciousness of their
+own political weakness, and by this weakness they became one-sided and
+narrow minded. Germany being divided into countless territories under
+weak princes, its people everywhere involved in and occupied with
+trifling disputes, were deficient in that which is indispensable to a
+genial growth; they needed a general elevation, a great united will, and
+a sphere of moral duties, which alone makes men pre-eminently cheerful
+and manly. The fatherland of the Germans extended probably from Lorraine
+to the Oder, but in no single portion of it did they live like the
+citizens of Elizabeth or Henry IV.
+
+Thus already inwardly diseased, Germany entered upon a war of thirty
+years. When the war ended, there was little remaining of the great
+nation. For yet a century to come, the successors of the survivors were
+deficient in that most manly of all feelings,--political enthusiasm.
+
+Luther had raised his people out of the epic life of the middle ages.
+The Thirty years' war had destroyed the popular strength, and forced the
+Germans into individual life, the mental constitution of which one may
+truly call lyrical. That which will here be depicted from the accounts
+of cotemporaries, is a sad joyless time.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+
+  THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.--THE ARMY.
+
+
+The opposition between the interests of the house of Hapsburg and of the
+German nation, and between the old and new faith, led to a bloody
+catastrophe. If any one should inquire how such a war could rage through
+a whole generation, and so fearfully exhaust a powerful people, he will
+receive this striking answer, that the war was so long and terrible,
+because none of the contending parties were able to carry it out on a
+great and decisive scale.
+
+The largest armies in the Thirty years' war did not exceed in strength
+one corps of a modern army. Tilly considered forty thousand men the
+greatest number of troops that a general could wish to have. It was only
+occasionally that an army reached that strength; almost all the great
+battles were fought by smaller bodies of men. Numerous were the
+detachments, and very great were the losses by skirmishes, illnesses,
+and desertion. As there was no regular system for maintaining the
+strength of the army, its effective amount fluctuated in a remarkable
+way. Once, indeed, Wallenstein united a larger force under his
+command--according to some accounts a hundred thousand men--but they
+did not form one army, nay, they were hardly in any military connection,
+for the undisciplined bands with which, in 1629, he subdued the German
+territories of the Emperor, were dispersed over half Germany. Such large
+masses of soldiers appeared to all parties as a terrible venture; they
+could not, in fact, be kept under control, and after that, no general
+commanded more than half that number.[1]
+
+An army in order of battle was considered as a movable fortress, the
+central point of which was the General himself, who ruled all the
+details; he had to survey the ground and every position, and every
+attack was directed by him. Adjutantcies and staff service were hardly
+established. It was part of the strategy to keep the army together in
+masses, to defend the ranks by earth-works, and not to allow horse or
+man to be out of observation and control. In marching also, the army was
+kept close together in narrow quarters, generally within the space of a
+camp; from this arose commissariat difficulties, the high-roads were
+bad, often almost impassable, the conveyance of provisions compulsory,
+and always ill-regulated: and worst of all, the army was attended by an
+intense baggage-train, which, with the wild-robber system, quickly
+wasted the most fertile countries.
+
+Great care was therefore taken that no such embarrassment should arise.
+Neither the Emperor nor the Princes of the Empire were in a condition to
+maintain forty thousand men out of their income even for three months.
+The regular revenue of the sovereign was much less than now, and the
+maintenance of an army far more costly. The greater part of the revenue
+was derived from tithes in kind, which in time of war was insecure and
+difficult to realize. The finances of the parties engaged in this war
+were even at the commencement of it in a most lamentable state.
+
+In the winter of 1619 and 1620, half the Bohemian army died of hunger
+and cold, from the want of pay and a commissariat; in September 1620,
+more than four and a half million of gulden of pay was owing to the
+troops, and there were endless mutinies, and the King Palatine Frederick
+could not aid his Protestant allies with subsidies. The Emperor was then
+not in much better condition, but he soon afterwards obtained Spanish
+subsidies. When the Elector of Saxony, whose finances were better
+regulated, first hired fifteen hundred men in December, 1619, he could
+not pay them regularly. What was granted by the estates in war taxes,
+and the so-called voluntary contributions of the opulent, did not go
+far; loans even in the first year of the war were very difficult to
+realize; they were attempted with the banking-houses of southern
+Germany, and also in Hamburg, but seldom with success. City communities
+were considered safer debtors than the great princes. There were
+dealings about the smallest sums even with private individuals. Saxony
+in 1621, hoped to get from fifty to sixty thousand guldens from the
+Fuggers, and endeavoured in vain to borrow thirty and seventy thousand
+gulden from capitalists. Maximilian of Bavaria, and the League, made a
+great loan for the war of one million two hundred thousand gulden at
+twelve per cent, from the merchants in Genoa, for this the Fuggers
+became responsible, and the salt trade of Augsburg was given to them for
+their security. Just one hundred years before, this said banking-house
+had taken an important share in the election of the Emperor Charles V.,
+and now it helped to secure the victory of the Roman Catholic party; for
+the Bohemian war was decided even more by the want of money than by the
+battle of the Weissen-Berge. Thus the war began with the governments
+being in a general state of insolvency; and therefore the maintenance of
+great armies became impossible.
+
+It is evident that there was a fatal disproportion between the military
+strength of the parties and the ultimate object of every war. None of
+them could entirely subdue their opponents. The armies were too small,
+and had too little durability, to be able to control by regular
+strategic operations, the numerous and warlike people of wide-spread
+districts. Whilst a victorious army was ruling near the Rhine or the
+Oder, a new enemy was collecting in the north on the shores of the
+Baltic. The German theatre of war, also, was not so constituted as to be
+easily productive of lasting results. Almost every city, and many
+country seats were fortified. The siege guns were still unwieldy and
+uncertain in their aim, and the defence of fortified places was
+proportionably stronger than the attack. Thus war became principally a
+combat of sieges; every captured town weakened the victorious army, from
+the necessity of leaving garrisons. When a province had been conquered,
+the conqueror was often not in a position to withstand the conquered in
+open battle. By new exertion the conqueror was driven from the field;
+then followed fresh sieges and captures, and again fatal disruption of
+strength.
+
+It was a war full of bloody battles and glorious victories, and also of
+excessive alternations of fortune. Numerous were the dark hero forms
+that loomed out of the chaos of blood and fire; the iron Ernst von
+Mansfeld, the fantastic Brunswicker, Bernhard of Weimar; and on the
+other side, Maximilian of Bavaria, and the generals of the League,
+Tilly, Pappenheim, and the able Mercy; the leaders of the Imperial army,
+the daring Wallenstein and Altringer; the great French heroes, Condé and
+Turenne, and amongst the Swedes, Horn, Bauer, Torstenson, Wrangel, and
+above all the mighty prince of war, Gustavus Adolphus. How much manly
+energy excited to the highest pitch, and yet how slow and poor were the
+political results obtained! how quickly was again lost, what appeared to
+have been obtained by the greatest amount of power! How often did the
+parties themselves change the objects after which they were striving,
+nay even the banner for which they desired victory!
+
+The political events of the war can only be briefly mentioned here; they
+may be divided into three periods. The first, from 1618 to 1630, is the
+time of the Imperial triumphs. The Protestant estates of Bohemia,
+contrary to law and their own word, refused the Bohemian crown to the
+Archduke Ferdinand, and chose for their ruler the Elector Palatine, a
+reformer. But by means of the League and the Lutheran Electors of
+Saxony, Ferdinand became Emperor. His opponent was beaten in the battle
+of the Weissen-Berge, and left the country as a fugitive. Here and
+there, the Protestant opposition continued to blaze up, but divided,
+without plan, and with weak resources. Baden-Durlach, the Mansfelder,
+the Brunswicker, and lastly the circle of lower Saxony with the Danish
+King, succumbed to the troops of the League and the Emperor. Ferdinand
+II., who though Emperor, was still a fugitive in the states belonging to
+his house, obtained through the assistance of an experienced mercenary
+commander, Wallenstein, a large body of troops, whom he maintained in
+the territory of the principality by contribution and pillage. Ever
+greater did the Emperor's army continue to swell; ever higher rose his
+claims in Germany and Italy: the old idea of Charles V. after the
+Smalkaldic war became a living principle in the nephew; he would subdue
+Germany, as his predecessor had done the peasants and the estates in
+the Austrian provinces; he would crush all independence, the privileges
+of cities, the rights of the estates, the pride and family power of
+princes--he hoped to subjugate all Germany to his faith and his house.
+But throughout the whole of Germany sounded a cry of grief and
+indignation, at the horrible marauding war which was conducted by the
+merciless general of the Hapsburger. All the allies of the Imperial
+house rose threateningly against him. The Princes of the League, and
+above all Maximilian of Bavaria, looked abroad for help; they subdued
+the high spirit of the Emperor, and he was obliged to dismiss his
+faithful General and to control the barbarous army. Nay, more, even the
+Holy Father began to fear the Emperor. The Pope himself united with
+France in order to bring Swedish help to the Protestants. The lion of
+the north disembarked on the German coast.
+
+Now began the second period of the war. The swelling billows of the
+Roman Catholic power had overflowed Germany even up to the Northern Sea.
+From 1630 to 1634 came the Protestant counter-current, which flowed in a
+resistless course from north to south over the third part of Germany.
+Even after the death of their king, the Swedish Generals kept their
+ascendency in the field; Wallenstein himself abandoned the Emperor, and
+was secretly murdered. The Roman Catholic party had begun to lose
+courage, when, by a last effort of collected strength, it won the bloody
+battle of Nördlingen.
+
+Then followed the third period of fourteen years, from 1634 to 1648, in
+which victory and reverses were nearly equal on both sides. The Swedes,
+driven back to the Northern Sea, girding up their whole strength, again
+burst forth into the middle of Germany. Again the tide of fortune ebbed
+to and fro, becoming gradually less powerful. The French, greedy of
+booty, spread themselves as far as the Rhine; the land was devastated,
+and famine and pestilence raged. The Swedes, though losing one General
+after another, kept the field and maintained their claims with unceasing
+pertinacity. In opposition to them stood the equally inflexible
+Maximilian, Prince of the League. Even in the last decade of the war,
+the Bavarians fought for three years the most renowned campaigns which
+this dynasty has to boast of. The fanatical Ferdinand was dead, his
+successor, able, moderate, and an experienced soldier, persevered from
+necessity; he also was firm and tenacious. No party could bring about a
+decisive result. For years negotiations for peace were carried on;
+whilst the generals fought, the cities and villages were depopulated and
+the fields were overgrown with rank weeds. Peace came at last; it was
+not brought about by great battles, nor by irresistible political
+combinations, but chiefly by the weariness of the combatants, and
+Germany celebrated it with festivities though she had lost three
+fourths of her population.
+
+All this gives to the Thirty years' war the appearance of foredoomed
+annihilation, ushered in as it was by the most fearful visitations of
+nature. Above the strife of parties a terrible fate spread its wings; it
+carried off the leaders and prostrated them in the dust, the greatest
+human strength became powerless under its hand; at last, satiated with
+devastation and death, it turned its face slowly from the country which
+had become a great charnel house.
+
+It is not the intention of this work to characterize the Generals and
+battles belonging to this period of struggle, but to speak of the
+condition and circumstances of the German people, both of the
+destructive and suffering portions of the population, of the army, alike
+with the citizen and peasant. Since the Burgundian war and the Italian
+battles of Maximilian and Charles V., the burgher infantry had thrown
+into the background the knightly cavalry of the middle ages.
+
+The strength of the German army consisted of Landsknechte, freemen,
+either citizens or peasants, and among them occasionally a few nobles.
+They were for the most part mercenaries, who bound themselves
+voluntarily by contract to some banner for a time. They carried on war
+like a trade, sternly, actively, and enduringly. But the full vigour of
+their power was of short duration: their decadence may be dated from
+their revolt against the old Fronsperg; from that hour when they broke
+the heart of their father, the gray-headed Landsknecht hero. Many
+things combined to corrupt this new infantry: they were mercenaries,
+serving only for a time, accustomed to change their banner, and not to
+fight for an idea, but only for booty or their own advantage. They were
+not called into existence in consequence of the application of gunpowder
+to the art of war; but they more especially appropriated this new
+invention to themselves. The introduction of fire-arms into the army,
+certainly first showed the weakness of their opponents, the old cavalry
+of knighthood, but at the same time soon caused the diminution of their
+own efficiency, for these weapons were too clumsy and slow to insure
+victory on the battle-field. The final result still depended on the
+rushing charge of the pikemen and the onslaught of their great masses on
+the enemy.
+
+To this was added other detrimental circumstances; there were as yet no
+standing armies: when there was threatening of a feud, troops were
+assembled by the territorial lords great and small, and by the cities,
+and at the conclusion of the war they were dismissed. These wars were
+generally short and local; even the Hungarian wars were only summer
+campaigns of a few months. The German rulers, always in want of money,
+endeavoured to help themselves by the depreciation of the coinage,
+striking a lighter coin expressly for the payment of the soldiers, and
+also by faithlessly paying them less than had been agreed upon. This
+unworthy treatment demoralized the men, no less than the shortness of
+the service. Thus the Landsknechte became deceived deceivers,
+adventurers, plunderers and robbers.
+
+The infantry at the beginning of the war used either fire-arms or pikes,
+the former to open the enemy's ranks, the latter to decide the battle by
+hand-to-hand fighting. At this period we find that the pikemen were the
+heavy infantry; they wore breastplates, brassarts, swords, and a pike
+eighteen feet long with an iron point, the handles of the best were of
+ash; the lance-corporals and subaltern officers had halberds and
+partisans. The two species of fire-arms which prevailed in the army were
+the musketoon (which with the Imperialists was a heavy weapon six feet
+long, with matchlocks and balls, of which there were ten in the pound)
+and the short hand-gun, a weapon of lighter and smaller calibre, which
+in the beginning of the war bore amongst the infantry the old name of
+arquebuss. The musketeer wore also at his side a hanger, a weapon with a
+small curved point, and over his shoulder a bandolier with eleven
+cylindrical cases in which the charges were placed, a match holder, and
+a musket rest, a staff with a metal point and two metal prongs, on the
+top of which the musketeer laid his weapon: his head was covered with a
+helmet or morion; this last piece of armour was soon discarded. The foot
+arquebussier did not carry a rest or a shoulder-belt; he loaded from his
+shot-pouch and powder-horn. There were pikemen and musketeers in the
+same company, and long even before the great war there were companies in
+which fire-arms alone were borne. Out of the light infantry were formed,
+in the middle of the war, what were called rifle companies, but among
+whom only a few had rifles. The grenadiers, who threw hand-grenades,
+were then formed in small numbers; for instance, in 1634, by the Swedes
+at the siege of Ratisbon.
+
+At the beginning of the war the pikemen, as heavy infantry, were
+considered of importance, and they were put down in the muster-rolls as
+receiving double pay; but in the course of it they were found to be too
+unwieldy for long marches, helpless in attack, in short, almost useless,
+since the last decision of the battle now devolved upon the cavalry;
+thus they gradually sank into contempt, and the clever judgment
+pronounced by the jovial Springinsfeld, accurately expresses the view
+that was taken of their utility. "A musketeer is indeed a poor, much
+harassed creature; but he lives in splendid happiness compared to a
+miserable pikeman: it is vexatious to think what hardships the poor
+simpletons endure; no one who had not experienced it themselves could
+believe it, and I think whoever kills a pikeman whom he could save,
+murders an innocent man, and can never be excused such a barbarous deed:
+for although these poor draught oxen--they were so called in
+derision--are formed to defend their brigades in the open field from the
+onslaught of the cavalry, yet they themselves do no one any injury, and
+he who throws himself upon their long spears deserves what he gets. In
+short, I have during my life seen many sharp encounters, but seldom
+found that a pikeman ever caused the death of any one." Nevertheless the
+pikemen kept their ground till towards the end of the seventeenth
+century. The musketeers who were, however, the great mass of the
+infantry, were rendered more agile by Gustavus Adolphus; he discarded
+from the Swedish army the musket rests, lightened their weapons and the
+calibre of the balls, of which there were thirteen to the pound, and
+introduced instead of the rattling bandoliers, paper cartridges and
+pockets; but the musketeers, without bayonets, slow in firing,
+unaccustomed to fight in close ranks, were little fitted to decide an
+engagement.
+
+The influence of the cavalry on the other hand increased. At the
+beginning of the war there were two contending principles concerning
+them, the method and arming of old knightly traditions were mixed up
+with the Landsknechte characteristics, many of whom were also horsemen.
+The heavy cavalry were still considered an aristocratic corps, the
+nobleman still placed himself with his charger, his knightly armour, his
+old knightly lance, and his troop of vassals, for whom he drew pay,
+under the standard of the cavalry regiments. But the war made an end
+gradually of this remnant of old customs. It was still, however, an
+object of ambition to join the army as a soldier of fortune, either with
+an esquire or alone, and whoever estimated himself highly or had made
+much booty, thronged to the cavalry standard. In the German army there
+were four kinds of regular cavalry, the Lancers, in full armour even to
+the knightly spurs, without shield, with the knightly lance or the spear
+of the Landsknechte, a sword, and two holster pistols; the Cuirassiers,
+with similar armour, pistols and sword; the Arquebussiers, called later
+Carbineers, half armed, with morion, and pistol proof back and breast
+pieces, with two pistols and an arquebuss on a small bandolier; finally
+the Dragoons, mounted pikemen, or musketeers, who fought either on foot
+or on horseback. Besides these there were irregular cavalry Croats,
+Stradiots, and Hussars, who almost a century before, in 1546, had made a
+great sensation in Germany when Duke Maurice of Saxony borrowed them
+from King Ferdinand of Bohemia. Their appearance was not displeasing;
+they wore Turkish armour, a sabre, and a targe, but they were wild
+robbers, and in the worst repute. Gustavus Adolphus brought to Germany
+only Cuirassiers and Dragoons. His Cuirassiers were more lightly armed
+than the Imperial, but far superior to them in energy of attack. During
+the whole war the endeavour of the cavalry was to lighten their heavy
+armour; the more the army separated into military companies the more
+pressing was the necessity for greater activity.
+
+In the sixteenth century the heavy guns were very varied in calibre and
+length of barrel, and had divers curious names. The sharp metz, the
+carronade, culverin and nightingale, the singer, the falcon and the
+falconet, the field serpent and serpentine, with balls from one hundred
+pounds down to one pound, besides the organ,[2] mortars large and small,
+rifle-barrelled guns and rifles. But in the beginning of the Thirty
+years' war the forms were already simplified; they cast forty-eight, and
+twenty-four pounders, twelve and six pounders, with forty-two,
+twenty-four, twelve and six pound balls;[3] the first were fortress and
+siege guns, the last were field guns; besides these, disproportionately
+long culverins and falconets, also chamber pieces for throwing shells,
+or bomb mortars which were soon called howitzers, smaller mortars for
+throwing fire-balls, stinkpots, &c.; and in the beginning of the war
+bombarders, which fired pieces of iron, lead, small shot, and stones.
+Lastly from forged pieces they fired half-ounce bullets, double,
+single, and half-hooks, or grappling irons. But the length of the
+barrels of the guns was too long for balls; the powder was bad, and the
+aim consequently uncertain. Gustavus Adolphus introduced shorter and
+lighter guns; his leather cannon, made of copper cylinders with thick
+hemp and leather coverings[4] held together by iron hoops, soon ceased
+to be used, probably because they were not sufficiently durable, but his
+short four-pounders, two of which were given to every regiment, and
+which worked best with grape shot, lasted over the war. These field
+pieces fired not only from position but were moved with tolerable
+rapidity during action, but the bombardes and petards were unwieldy; the
+last were twisted round with ropes more like a sort of cannon than our
+bombs and grenades, but were of uncertain effect because the locks were
+badly prepared and they did not measure the time for the explosion. The
+old disposition of the Germans to give life to the inanimate had already
+in earlier times bestowed especial names on favourite guns, and the
+custom remained, even after pieces of the same calibre were cast in
+greater numbers; then particular guns, for example, were called after
+the planets, months, and signs of the zodiac, like a high sounding
+alphabet,[5] and in this case indicated by single letters. There was
+always a new name given according to the calibre, which in spite of all
+the simplification was still very varied. The progress of artillery and
+its influence on the conduct of war was impeded in the last half of the
+war by the want of experienced master gunners, the greater portion of
+them were infantry commanders; the loss of an artillery officer of
+capacity was difficult to replace.
+
+The relative numbers of particular branches of the service were changed
+during the war. In the beginning the proportion of the cavalry to the
+infantry was as one to five, but soon they became one to three, and in
+the latter period they were sometimes the strongest. This striking fact
+is a proof both of the deterioration of the troops and of the art of
+war. In the exhausted country, the army could only be maintained by a
+strong force of cavalry, who could forage further and change their
+ground with more rapidity. As all who hoped for independence or booty
+pressed into the cavalry it was in better condition proportionately than
+the infantry, who at last were reduced to support themselves by reaping
+the scanty remains left by the horsemen. Undoubtedly the cavalry also
+became worse, the want of good horses was at last more sensibly felt
+than that of men, and the heavy cavalry could not be kept up, whilst in
+the last year the service of the scouts and foraging parties for the
+commissariat was brought to great perfection. Nevertheless the cavalry
+were the most effective, for it was their task to decide the battle by
+their charge. The last army with skilled infantry and Dutch discipline
+was that of Bavaria under Mercy, from 1643 to 1645.
+
+The tactics of armies had slowly altered in the course of the century.
+The old Landsknecht army advanced to battle in three great squares,--the
+advanced guard, the main body, and the rear guard--disregarding roads
+and corn-fields; before it went pioneers, who filled in ditches and cut
+down hedges to clear the way for the bulky mass. For battle, the deep
+square masses of infantry placed themselves side by side, each square
+mass consisted of many companies, sometimes of many regiments; the
+cavalry formed in a similar deep position at the wings. There was no
+regular reserve, only sometimes one of the three masses was kept back
+for the final decision; a select body of men, the forlorn hope, was
+formed for dangerous service, such as forcing the passage of a river,
+covering an important point, or turning the enemy's flank. Since
+fire-arms had prevailed over pikes, these great battalions were
+surrounded by files of sharpshooters, and at last special bodies of
+sharpshooters were formed and attached to them. In the war in the
+Netherlands, the unwieldiness of these heavy squares led to breaking the
+order of battle into smaller tactical bodies. But it was only slowly,
+that formation in line and a system of reserve were organized. Much of
+the old method continued in the Imperial army in the beginning of the
+war. Still the companies of infantry were united in deep squares--in
+battalions. To take firm positions and assume defensive warfare had
+become too much the custom in inglorious campaigns against the wild
+storming Turks. The weight and tenacity of deep masses might certainly
+be effective, but if the enemy succeeded in bringing his guns to bear
+upon them, they suffered fearfully, and were very unwieldy in all their
+movements. Gustavus Adolphus adopted the tactical innovations of the
+Netherlanders in an enlightened way; when in battle he placed the
+infantry six, and the cavalry only three deep; he distributed the great
+masses into small divisions, which firmly connected together, formed
+the unity of the Swedish brigade; he strengthened the cavalry, placing
+between them companies of sharpshooters, and introduced light artillery
+regiments besides those that were in reserve and position, and
+accustomed his soldiers to rapid offensive movements and daring
+advances. His infantry fired quicker than the Imperial, and at the
+battle of Breitenfeld the old Walloon regiments of Tilly were routed by
+their close platoon firing; he also laid down for his cavalry, those
+very rules by which a century later Frederick the Great made his, the
+first in the world; viz., not to stop in order to fire, but at the
+quickest pace to rush upon the enemy.
+
+During the battle the soldiers recognized one another by their war-cries
+and distinguishing marks, the officers by their scarfs. For example, at
+Breitenfeld Tilly's army wore white bands on their hats and helmets, and
+white lace round the arm, and the Swedes had green branches. The
+Imperial colour in the field was red, therefore Gustavus Adolphus
+prohibited his Swedes from wearing that colour,[6] the scarfs of the
+Swedish officers at the battle of Lützen were green, those of Electoral
+Saxony during the war were black and yellow, and later, after the
+acquisition of the Polish crown, red and white.
+
+The soldiers were formed in troops or companies, and these were combined
+in regiments which had administrative unity. The German infantry
+regiments consisted of three thousand men, in ten companies of three
+hundred men; they seldom reached their normal strength, and lost their
+men in the war with frightful rapidity, so that there were frequently
+regiments of from a thousand to three hundred, and companies of seventy
+to thirty men. Cavalry regiments were required to be from five hundred
+to a thousand men strong; the numbers of the troops were different, and
+their effective war strength was still more variable.
+
+The titles and duties of officers had already much similarity to the
+modern German organization. He who had raised a regiment for his
+Sovereign, was called the colonel of the regiment, even if he had the
+rank of General; under him were the Lieutenant-colonel and Major. More
+important for the object of these pages were the officers of companies;
+the Captain of infantry or cavalry, with his Lieutenant, an Ensign, and
+sergeant, or troop sergeant-major, non-commissioned officers and
+lance-corporals, and finally the provost-marshal.
+
+When an officer at the mustering of his company in a circle, was
+installed as chief captain and father, he begged his dear soldiers, in a
+friendly manner, to be true and obedient to him, recounted to them
+their duties, promised to stand by them in every emergency, and as an
+honest man, devote himself to them in life or death, and leave them
+whatever he had. Unfortunately the captain's first duty was to be
+faithful in money concerns, both towards the colonel and his own
+soldiers, to procure clever good soldiers for the reviewing officer, not
+to charge for more mercenaries than was right, and to give the soldiers
+their full pay; but this seldom happened. The temptation to a system of
+fraudulent gain was great, and conscientiousness in the uncertain life
+of war was a virtue which quickly disappeared; even the most honourable
+fell upon dangerous rocks when the pay had been long in arrear, or not
+fully given. Besides this, it was necessary for him to be an energetic
+experienced man, just and kind in disposition, but strict in maintaining
+rights. During the week, he was, according to the old proverb, to look
+severe, and not to smile upon the soldiers before Sunday; when there was
+preaching in the camp, the soldiers sat on the ground, but stood up,
+taking their hats off, before the captain, but he who wore a morion kept
+it on. On the march, the captain rode, but before the enemy he went on
+foot, carrying either the pike or the musket of his company.[7]
+
+The banner of the infantry, which was held sacred by the company, had a
+standard about the size of ours, but the silken flag, like an enormous
+sail, reached almost to the end of the standard; it was of heavy
+material, according to the taste of that time, with allegorical pictures
+painted on it, and short Latin sentences beautifully illuminated. The
+"_cornete_" of the cavalry, sometimes vandyked, were smaller, and fixed
+to the standard like our banners. The regiments were sometimes called
+after the colours of the banners; for example, in Electoral Saxony,
+where the ground of the banners was always of two colours, they were
+called the black and yellow, blue and white, red and yellow, regiments;
+each of the ten banners of the regiment also had its especial emblem and
+motto, and different combinations of the regimental colours, grained,
+striped and in squares, yet the chief standard showed the regimental
+colours only on the border. The "_cornete_" of the cavalry had a ground
+of only one colour: the corps of cavalry were denoted according to the
+colours of their banners, and not by their uniforms, which they hardly
+ever wore; for example:--"two corps of orange-coloured cornet
+cuirassiers," "five corps of steel-green cornet arquebussiers." The
+Swedes also distinguished their brigades, which were in Germany
+frequently called regiments, by the colour of their banners; thus,
+besides the yellow (Body Guard) there were the green, blue, white, and
+red. The colours of regiments were often chosen from the armorial
+bearings of the colonel, especially if he had raised the regiment.
+Gradually, however, it became the custom in all the armies to call the
+regiments after the names of the officers.
+
+The flag was attached to the standard and erected in the midst of the
+circle of enlisted soldiers; then the Colonel delivered the banner to
+the Ensign, and thus gave it into his charge:--"As your bride or your
+own daughter, from the right hand to the left; and if both your arms
+should be shot or cut off, you should take it with your mouth; and if
+you cannot preserve it thus, wrap yourself therein, commit yourself to
+God so to be slain, and die as an honourable man." As long as the
+colours were flying, and a piece of the standard left, the soldiers were
+to follow the Ensign to the death, till all should lie in a heap on the
+battle-field, that no evil-doer or blameworthy person should be
+sheltered by the flag; if any one should transgress against the banner
+oath, the Ensign was to furl the banner, and forbid the transgressor to
+march under it or mount guard, and he was obliged to go among the bad
+women and children with the baggage till the affair was arranged: the
+Ensign was not to leave the colours a single night without permission;
+when he slept he was to have them by him, and never to separate himself
+from them; if they should be torn from the standard by treachery or some
+roguish attendant, the Ensign should be delivered over to the common
+soldiers to be judged for life or death, according to their will. It was
+necessary for him to be tall, powerful, manly, and valiant, and a
+cheerful companion, friendly to every one, a mediator and peace-maker;
+he was not to inflict punishment on any one, that he might incur no
+hatred. In the open field under the unfurled colours appointments were
+declared and the articles of war read. A trooper was not, without
+permission, to be out of sight of the colours when the army was marching
+or encamped; whoever fled from the colours in battle was to die for it,
+and whoever killed him was to be unpunished: if an Ensign should abandon
+a fort or redoubt before he had held out against three assaults without
+relief, he transgressed the rules of war; a regiment lost its colours if
+from cowardice it yielded a fortress before the time. It was not long
+since pike-law was given up, the severe tribunal of the Landsknechte,
+where, before the circle of common soldiers, the provost-marshal accused
+the evil-doer, and forty chosen men, officers and soldiers, pronounced
+judgment: at the beginning of the trial the Ensigns furled their
+colours, and reversed them with the iron point in the ground, and
+demanded a sentence, because the colours could not fly over an
+evil-doer. If the transgressor was condemned to the spear, or to be shot
+by the arquebussiers, then the Ensign thanked them for their judgment on
+the offender, unfurled the colours, and caused them to fly towards the
+east, comforted the poor sinner, and promised to meet him halfway, and
+thereby to deliver him by taking him under the protection of the
+colours. When the line of pikes was formed they went to the end of it
+with their backs towards the sun; but the transgressor had to bless the
+soldiers and pray for a speedy death, then the provost gave him three
+strokes with his staff on the right shoulder and pushed him into the
+lane. Whoever had disgraced himself, if the colours were waved three
+times over him, was freed from his disgrace. The Ensign received every
+three years, money for a new flag or dress (from eighty to a hundred
+gulden), and for that he was to make a present to the company of two
+casks of beer or wine.
+
+The office of Cornet of cavalry was less responsible. It was his duty to
+rush vigorously upon the enemy, and after the attack to raise his
+standard on high, that his people might collect round him. In the
+Hungarian war the Cornet passed sometimes into the rank of Lieutenant,
+and in some regiments (the Wallenstein army for instance) this custom
+was kept up.
+
+The most important man of the company next to the Captain was the
+Sergeant; he was the drill-master and spokesman for the soldiers, and
+had to mark out with flags the position to be taken up by the troops of
+the Imperial batons, or Swedish brigades, to arrange the men, placing in
+the front and rear ranks and at the sides, the best armed and most
+efficient men, to mingle the halberds and short weapons, to lead and
+keep with the arquebussiers; he was the instructor of the company, and
+knew the proper and warlike use of his weapons.
+
+As the "mob" who came together from for and near under a banner were
+difficult to keep in order, the greater part of them not to be depended
+on, and unskilled in the exercise of their weapons, the number of
+non-commissioned officers was necessarily very great, frequently indeed
+they formed more than a third of the troop. Any one who had military
+capacity or could be depended upon, was marked out by the subordinate
+commander for higher pay and posts of confidence. Amongst the numerous
+functions and manifold designations of the subalterns, some are
+particularly characteristic. In the beginning of the war every company
+had, according to the old _Landsknecht_ custom, their "leader," who, in
+the first instance at least, was chosen by the soldiers. He was the
+tribune of the company, their spokesman, who had to lay their grievances
+and wishes before the Captain, and to represent the interests of the
+soldiery. It may easily be understood that such an arrangement did not
+strengthen the discipline of the army; it was done away with in time of
+war. Even the thankless office of quartermaster was of greater
+importance than now; the complaints of the soldiers, who quarrelled
+about the bad quarters he had provided for them, he met with defiance,
+and inspired them with fear of his usurious practices. When a company
+came to a deserted village, the serjeants threw their knives into the
+hat of the quartermaster; he then went from house to house, sticking the
+blades as they came to his hand in the door-posts, and every band (of
+six or eight men) followed their leader's knife. When poor members of
+the nobility, candidates for commission, of whom the number was often
+great, presented themselves, their names were inscribed on the list of
+lance-corporals. Old vagabonds full of pretension were designated in
+the military kitchen Latin by the title of "_Ambesaten_," and
+afterwards "_Landspassaten_;" they were orderlies and messengers
+receiving higher pay, representatives and assistants of the Corporals.
+There was a general endeavour to add a deputy to every office, as the
+Lieutenant to the Captain, an under Ensign to the Ensign, to the
+Serjeant an under Serjeant, and frequently with the infantry a vidette
+for the sentinels at outposts; in the same way serjeants were deputies
+to the officers, and the "_Landspassaten_" to the Corporal, and the
+provost to the provost-general, &c., &c.
+
+The army consisted, with few exceptions, of enlisted soldiers. The
+Sovereign empowered an experienced leader by patent to raise for him an
+army, a regiment, or a company; recruiting places were sought for and a
+muster place established where the recruits were collected. The recruits
+were paid their travelling expenses or bounty; at the beginning of the
+war this was insignificant, and sometimes deducted from their pay, but
+later the bounty increased, and was given to the soldiers. At the
+beginning of the war negotiations were carried on with every mercenary,
+about the pay, at the muster-place. The soldier in quarters received
+nothing but his pay, which in 1600, for the common foot soldier,
+amounted to from fifteen to sixteen gulden a month.[8] With this they
+had to procure for themselves weapons, clothing, and food. Garrisons
+were provided with stores by the quartermaster, the cost being
+reimbursed to him. During the great war, however, the arrangements about
+pay were often deviated from, the distribution of it to the soldiers was
+very irregular.
+
+In the Imperial army the pay, exclusive of food, was nine gulden to the
+pikeman and six to the musketeer. In the Swedish army it was still
+lower, but was in the beginning more regularly paid, and there was more
+care about the provisions. The whole sustenance of the army was charged
+upon the province by a hard system of requisition, even on friendly
+territory. The maintenance of the upper officers was very high, and yet
+formed only a small share of their income. During the time of service
+the troops were entered on the muster-roll by a court of comptrol, the
+reviewing officer, or commissary of the Prince; in order to prevent the
+officers and commanders drawing too much pay, when they were assembled
+round the flag, the names of the deserters were written apart, and
+beside each name a gallows was painted. At the time of muster if any one
+was unserviceable or had served a long time, he was taken off the
+muster-roll, and declared free, given his discharge, and provided with a
+pass or certificate. Whoever wished for leave, obtained a pass from the
+Ensign. The soldier had to clothe himself, uniforms were only found
+exceptionally; the halberdiers of the life-guards, and the heavily armed
+cavalry, so far as armour was concerned, were generally furnished by the
+Sovereign; but before the war it was only occasionally done, and then
+pay was deducted for it, or the Colonel took back the armour after the
+campaign.
+
+The military discipline of the Germans was, in the beginning of the war,
+in the worst repute. The German soldiers were considered by other
+nations as idle, turbulent, refractory bullies;[9] they had been not a
+little spoilt by service in half-barbarous countries, as Hungary and
+Poland then were, and against the barbarian Turks. When individuals had
+to chaffer about their pay, discontent began; when the Captain would not
+satisfy the claims of the enlisted mercenary, the malcontent threw his
+musket angrily at the feet of the former, and went off with the money
+for his travelling expenses, there was no means of detaining him. Though
+the Ensign was bound by oath, the Captain only too frequently found
+advantage in favouring plunder and the nightly desertion of the banner,
+for he had his share of the soldier's booty; the worst thieves were the
+best bees.
+
+The paymasters were always deeply hated, because they generally gave the
+regiments short pay and bad coin; they and other commissaries of the
+sovereign were exposed to much insult when they came to the camp. The
+worst things are related of the Commanders-in-chief, above all, that
+they received more pay than they distributed to the soldiers; still
+worse were the Generals. Frequently open mutiny broke out, and then the
+mutineers placed a Colonel or Captain in the middle of them, and chose
+him for their leader. The same thing took place in Hungary. Indeed it
+happened, during the armistice preceding the Westphalian peace, that in
+a Bavarian dragoon regiment, a corporal of the garrison of Hilperstein
+nominated himself Colonel of the regiment, and by the help of his
+comrades drove away the officers; the regiment was surrounded by loyal
+soldiers, the new Colonel with eighteen of the ringleaders were
+executed, the muskets were taken from the regiment, it was resworn and
+formed anew as a cavalry regiment. The arrears of pay were the usual
+cause of mutiny. In the year 1620, the regiment of Count Mansfeld
+mutinied. He began to pay, but meanwhile leaving his tent, struck down
+two of the soldiers with his own hands, severely wounding them; he then
+mounted his horse, sprang into the midst of the mutineers, and shot many
+of them. He alone with three captains subdued the insolence of six
+hundred men, after having slain eleven, and severely wounded
+six-and-twenty. If it was difficult to secure obedience to military
+commands whilst the banner was waving, still greater was the burst of
+resentment when it was furled and the regiment was disbanded. Then the
+provost, the prostitutes, and the soldiers' sons hid themselves; the
+Captain, Lieutenant, and other commanders were obliged to submit to
+abusive language and challenges, and to hear themselves thus accosted:
+"Ha, you fellow, you have been my commander, now you are not a jot
+better than I; a pound of your hair is of no more importance to me than
+a pound of cotton; out with you, let's have a scuffle!" Whenever
+punishment was administered, the commanders were in danger from the
+revenge of the culprit or his friends. The disbanded soldiers quarrelled
+amongst each other, as they did with their officers, and sometimes there
+were as many as a hundred parties in one place engaged in duelling. The
+most wanton death-blows were dealt, and murders perpetrated, such as
+have never been heard of since the beginning of Christianity. When the
+banner was unfurled, it was customary for the combatants to join hands
+and vow to fight out their quarrel when their term of service was ended,
+and till then to live together in brotherly love. When this disbanding
+took place, the most disorderly of the soldiers combined together and
+began an "armour cleaning" of those comrades to whom, during service,
+the officers had shown favour; that is to say, they robbed them of all,
+deprived them of their clothes, beat and almost killed them. All these
+crimes were tolerated, and the powerless commander-in-chief looked
+passively on these proceedings as a mere custom of war.
+
+During the Hungarian campaigns the soldiers adopted the habit of only
+remaining by their banners during the summer months; they found their
+reckoning in serving a short time, and mutinying if more was desired of
+them; for during the autumn and winter they went with two, three, or
+more boys as "_Gartbrüder_"[10] through the country, a fearful plague to
+the farmers in eastern Germany. In the frontier countries, Silesia,
+Austria, Bohemia, and Styria, it was even commanded by the sovereigns to
+pay a farthing to every soldier who was roving about as "_Gartbrüder_."
+Thus by their refractory conduct they daily obtained a gulden or more;
+their boys pilfered where they could, and were notorious poachers.
+Wallhausen, whilst making other energetic complaints, reckons that the
+support of a standing army would cost less to the princes and states,
+and secure greater success against the enemy, than this old bad system.
+
+More than once during the long war, these wild armies were brought under
+the constraint of strict discipline by the powerful will of individuals,
+and each time great military successes were obtained; but this was not
+of any duration. The discipline of the Wallenstein army was excellent in
+a military point of view; but what the commander permitted with regard
+to citizens and peasants was horrible. Even Gustavus Adolphus could not
+preserve for more than a year, the strict discipline which on his
+landing in Pomerania was so triumphantly lauded by the Protestant
+ecclesiastics. It is true that the military law and articles of war
+contained a number of legal rules for all soldiers, concerning the
+forbearance to be observed even in an enemy's land towards the people
+and their property. The women, invalids, and aged were under all
+circumstances to be spared, and mills and ploughs were not to be
+injured. But it is not by the laws themselves, but by the administration
+of them, that we can judge of the peculiar characteristics of a period.
+
+The punishments were in themselves severe. With the Swedes,--for the
+embezzlement of money intended for the hospitals or invalid soldiers,
+the wooden horse with its iron fittings was awarded, or running the
+gauntlet (for this hardy fellows were hired to take upon them the
+punishment), or loss of the hand, shooting, or hanging. For whole
+divisions,--the loss of their banners, cleaning the camp and lying
+outside it, and decimation. In the beginning of the war many of the old
+Landsknecht customs were maintained, for instance, their criminal court
+of justice, in which the law was decided by the people through select
+jurymen. And before the war, together with this, court-martials had been
+introduced. During the war a military tribunal was organized according
+to the modern German method, under the presidency of the
+advocate-general, and the provost-marshal superintended the execution.
+But even in punishments there was a difference between the army and the
+citizens and peasants. The soldier was put in irons, but not in the
+stocks or in prison; no soldier was ever hanged on a common gallows, or
+in a common place of execution, but on a tree or on a special gallows,
+which was erected in the city for the soldiers in the market-place; the
+old form by which the delinquent was given over to the hangman was thus
+expressed: "He shall take him to a green tree and tie him up by the
+neck, so that the wind may blow under and over him, and the sun shine on
+him for three days; then shall he be cut down and buried according to
+the custom of war." But the perjured deserter was hanged to a withered
+tree. Whoever was sentenced to death by the sword, was taken by the
+executioner to a public place, where he was cut in two, the body being
+the largest and the head the smallest portion. The provost and his
+assistant also were in nowise dishonoured by their office; even the
+avoided executioner's assistant, the "_Klauditchen_" of the army, who
+was generally taken from among the convicts, and who was allowed to
+choose between punishment and this dishonourable office, could, if he
+fulfilled his office faithfully, become respectable when the banner was
+unfurled; he could then receive his certificate like any other gallant
+soldier, and no one could speak evil of him.
+
+There was one circumstance which distinguished the armies of the Thirty
+years' war from those of modern days, and which made their entrance into
+a province like an eruption of a heterogeneous race of strangers: each
+soldier, in spite of his short term of service in the field, was
+accompanied by his household. Not only the higher officers, but also the
+troopers and foot-soldiers, took their wives, and still more frequently
+their mistresses with them in a campaign. Women from all countries,
+adorned to the utmost of their power, followed the army, and sought
+entrance into the camp, because they had a husband, friend, or cousin
+there. At the mustering or disbanding of a regiment, even respectable
+maidens were, through the most cruel artifices, carried off by
+disorderly bands, and when the money was all spent, left sometimes
+without clothes, or at some carousal sold from one to another. The women
+who accompanied the soldiers cooked and washed for them, nursed the
+sick, provided them with drink, bore their blows, and on the march
+carried the children and any of the plunder or household implements
+which could not be conveyed by the baggage waggons. It is known that the
+King of Sweden on his first arrival in Germany would not suffer any such
+women in the camp; but after his return from Franconia, this strict
+discipline seems to have ceased. Whoever peruses the old church records
+of the village parishes will find sometimes the names of maidens, who,
+having been carried off, returned at the end of a year to their village
+home, and submitted themselves to the severest Church penances in order
+to die amongst the ruined population of their birthplace. The women of
+the camp were also under martial law. For great offences they were
+flogged, and driven out of the camp; the soldiers too were hard masters,
+and little of what had been promised them in the beginning was kept.
+
+The children accompanied the women. In the Swedish army military schools
+were established by Gustavus Adolphus, in which the children were
+instructed even in the camp. In these migratory schools strict military
+discipline prevailed, and a story, which cannot be warranted, is told of
+a cannon-ball having passed through a school in the Swedish camp, and
+having killed many of the children, but the survivors continued their
+sum in arithmetic.
+
+Some soldiers maintained one or more lads, a crafty, stubborn set of
+good-for-nothings, who waited upon their masters, cleaned their horses,
+sometimes bore their armour, and fed their shaggy dogs; nimble spies who
+prowled about far and near on the traces of opulent people, and on the
+look-out for concealed money.
+
+The plundering by the baggage-train was almost worse in a friendly
+country. When the soldiers with the women and children came to a
+farmhouse, they pounced like hawks upon the poultry in the yard, then
+broke open the doors, seized upon the trunks and chests, and with
+abusive language, threatened, importuned and destroyed, what they could
+not consume or take away. On decamping they compelled the owner to horse
+his waggons and take them to their next quarters. Then they filled the
+waggons with the clothes, beds, and household goods of the farmers,
+binding round their bodies what could not otherwise be carried away.
+
+"Frequently," says the indignant narrator Wallhausen, "the women did not
+choose to be drawn by oxen, and it was necessary to procure horses,
+sometimes from a distance of six miles, to the great cost of the country
+people, and when they came with the waggons to the nearest quarters,
+they would not allow the poor people to return home; but dragged them
+with them to another territory, and at last stole the horses and made
+off."
+
+In the beginning of the war, a German infantry regiment had to march for
+some days through the country of their own sovereign; there were as
+many women and children with the baggage-train, as soldiers, and they
+stole in eight days from the subjects of their sovereign almost
+sufficient horses for each soldier to ride. The colonel, a just and
+determined man, frequently dragged the soldiers himself from the horses,
+and at last enforced their restoration by extreme severity. But it was
+impossible to prevent the women from riding; there was not one who had
+not a stolen horse, and if they did not ride them they harnessed them
+three or four together to the peasants' carts.
+
+Only a few of the otherwise copious writers of that time make mention of
+this despised portion of the army; yet there are sufficient accounts,
+from which we may conclude that great influence was produced by the
+baggage-train on the fate of the army and the country. Especially by the
+enormous extent of it. At the end of the sixteenth century Adam Junghans
+reckons, that in a besieged fortress where the camp-followers were
+reduced to the smallest possible number, to three hundred infantry
+soldiers, there were fifty women and forty children, besides sutlers,
+horseboys, &c., &c., somewhat more than a third of the soldiers. But in
+the field the proportion was quite different even in the beginning of
+the war. Wallhausen reckons as indispensable to a German regiment of
+infantry, four thousand women, children, and other followers. A regiment
+of three thousand men had at least three hundred waggons, and every
+waggon was full to repletion of women, children, and plundered goods;
+when a company broke up from its quarters, it was considered an act of
+self-denial if it did not carry away with it thirty or more waggons. At
+the beginning of the war a regiment of north German soldiers, three
+thousand strong, started from the muster-place where it had remained
+some time, followed by two thousand women and children.
+
+From that time the baggage-train continued increasing to the end of the
+war. It was only for a brief space of time that great commanders, like
+Tilly, Wallenstein, and Gustavus Adolphus were able to diminish this
+great plague of the army. In 1648, at the end of the great war, the
+Bavarian General, Gronsfeld, reports that in the Imperial and Bavarian
+armies there were forty thousand soldiers who drew war rations, and a
+hundred and forty thousand who did not; on what were these to subsist if
+they did not obtain their food by plunder, especially as in the whole
+country where the army encamped, there was not a single place where a
+soldier could buy a bit of bread. In the year 1648 the camp-followers
+were more than three times the number of the fighting-men. These numbers
+tell more significantly than any deductions, what a dreadful amass of
+misery surrounded these armies.
+
+Before we proceed to describe the influence which armies thus composed
+exercised upon the life of the German people, we must once more remind
+the reader, that this monstrous evil was not created by the Thirty
+years' war, but for the most part already in existence. Some
+observations will therefore be here introduced from the above-quoted
+and now rare little book, written by Adam Junghans von der Olnitz, at
+that period when the worth and capacity of the old Landsknecht army
+passed away into the wild dissolute life of mercenaries. It appears here
+as the prologue to the monstrous tragedy which began twenty years later.
+
+"Each and every officer, captain of horse, or other captain, knows well
+that no doctors, magisters, or any other God-fearing people, follow in
+his train, but only a heap of ill-disposed lads, out of all kinds of
+nations; strange folks, who leave wives and children, abandon their
+duties, and follow the army; all that will not follow the pursuits of
+their fathers and mothers, must follow the calf-skin which is spread
+over the drum, till they come to a battle or assault, where thousands
+lie on the field of battle, shot or cut to pieces; for a Landsknecht's
+life hangs by a hair, and his soul flutters on his cap or his sleeve.
+Besides, three kinds of herbs always grow with war; these are, sharp
+rule, fifty forbidden articles, and severe judgment with speedy
+sentence, which fits many a neck with a hempen collar.
+
+"It is not enough that a soldier should be strong, straight, manly,
+tyrannical, bloody-minded, in his actions like a grim lion, and behave
+like a bully, as if he himself would catch and eat the devil alone, so
+that none of his comrades should partake of him; but these
+trigger-pullers wantonly bring themselves to destruction by their
+stupidity, and other good fellows with them. Another is a snorer, and a
+kicker, and stamps like a wild horse on the straw, and when he goes
+into battle, and the balls whistle about his head, he is a martyr and
+poor sinner, who would for very fear soil his hosen, and allow his
+weapon to fall from his hand. But when they sit at the tap, or in the
+cantinières' stalls, or in public-houses, then they have seen much and
+can do nothing but fight, then a fly on the wall irritates them, there
+is no peace with them, then they are ready to fight the enemy with great
+curses. Such 'bear-prickers' are generally found out; one seldom finds
+one who is not maimed in the hands or arms, or has a scar on the cheek,
+and they have never really all their lives long, faced the enemy. The
+captain may well keep clear of such fellows, for they are generally
+seditious mutineers. A wise soldier avoids quarrels and public-house
+brawls whenever he can, that he may have his skin whole and uninjured
+to bring in front of the enemy. To be wounded by the enemy is an
+honour, but he who injures himself wantonly must expect scorn and
+derision, and is of no use to any army. Such a fellow must remain all
+his life a paltry beggar; he roves about the country, begs bread and
+sells it again, feeds like a wolf, and when the rats and mice are
+drowned in the countrywoman's milk, he maintains himself on the cheese
+made from it, and must submit to the rough words of the peasants, and
+herd with other poor beggars to the end of his life. Besides these,
+there are many who wish to be soldiers, mothers' sons, beardless boys,
+like young calves, who know nothing of suffering, who have sat beside
+the stove and roasted apples, and lain in warm beds. When they are
+brought to a foreign country, and meet with all kind of strange
+arrangements, food, drink, and other things, they are like soft eggs
+that flow through the fingers, or like paper when it lies in the water.
+It is thus not only with foot Landsknechte, but also with young nobles.
+When they are led to the field in devastated countries, where all is
+consumed and laid waste, and they can no longer carry their well-filled
+bread wallets and drinking-flasks on their necks, they first pine away,
+hunger and thirst, then eat and drink unusual things, from which result
+all kinds of maladies. These delicate vagabonds ought to remain at home,
+attend to the tillage, or sit in the shop by the pepper-bags, and shift
+for themselves, as their fathers and mothers have done, fill their
+stomachs at eventide, and go to bed; thus they would not be slain in
+war. It is truly said that soldiers must be hardy and enduring people,
+like unto steel and iron, and like the wild beasts that can eat all
+kinds of food. According to the jocose saying, the Landsknechte must be
+able to digest the points of their wheel-nails; nothing must come amiss
+to them, even if necessity required that they should eat dogs' or cats'
+flesh, and the flesh of horses from the meadow must be like good venison
+to them, with herbs unseasoned by salt or butter. Hunger teaches to eat,
+if one has not seen bread for three weeks. Drink one may have gratis,
+for if one can get no water from the brook, one can drink with the geese
+out of the pond or the puddle. One must sleep under a tree, or in the
+field; there is plenty of earth to lie on, and of sky for a canopy; such
+must often be the Landsknecht's sleeping-room, and from such a bed no
+feathers will stick to his hair. Hence arises the old quarrel between
+the fowls and geese and the Landsknechte, because the former can always
+sleep in feathers, whilst the latter must often lie in straw. There is
+another animal that clashes with the Landsknechte, that is the cat; as
+the soldiers know well how to pilfer, they are enemies to the cats, and
+friendly to the dogs. According to the old doggerel, a Landsknecht
+should always have with him a beautiful woman, a dog, and a young boy, a
+long spear, and a short sword; he is free to seek any master who will
+give him service. A Landsknecht must make three campaigns before he can
+become an honourable man. After the first campaign, he must return home
+wearing torn clothes; after the second, he should return with a scar on
+one cheek, and be able to tell much of alarms, battles, skirmishes and
+storming parties, and to show by his scars that he has got the marks of
+a Landsknecht; after the third, he should return well appointed, on a
+fine charger, bringing with him a purse full of gold, so that he may be
+able to distribute whole dollars as he would booty-pence.
+
+"It is truly said, that a soldier must have to eat and drink, whether it
+is paid for by the sacristan or the priest; for a Landsknecht has
+neither house nor farm, cows nor calves, and no one to bring him food;
+therefore he must procure it himself wherever it is to be found, and buy
+without money whether the peasants look sweet or sour. Sometimes they
+must suffer hunger and evil days, at others they have abundance, and
+indeed such superfluity, that they might clean their shoes with wine or
+beer. Then their dogs eat roast; the women and children get good
+appointments, they become stewards and cellarers of other people's
+property. When the householder is driven away with his wife and
+children, the fowls, geese, fat cows, oxen, pigs, and sheep have a bad
+time of it. The money is portioned out in their caps, velvet and silk
+stuffs and cloth are measured out by long spears; a cow is slaughtered
+for the sake of the hide; chests and trunks are broken open, and when
+all has been plundered and nothing more remains, the house is set on
+fire. That is the true Landsknecht's fire, when fifty villages and
+country towns are in flames. Then they go to other quarters and do the
+like again; this makes soldiers jolly, and is a desirable life for those
+who do not pay for it. This entices to the field many a mother's child,
+who does not return home, and forgets his friends. For the proverb says:
+'The Landsknechte have crooked fingers and maimed hands for work, but
+for pilfering and plundering all the maimed hands become sound.' That
+has been so before our days, and will remain so truly after us. The
+longer the Landsknechte learn this handiwork the better they do it, and
+become circumspect, like the three maidens who had four cradles made,
+the fourth as a provision in case one of them had two children. Wherever
+the soldiers come, they bring with them the keys of all the rooms, their
+axes and hatchets, and if there are not enough stalls in a place for
+their horses, it does not signify, they stall them in the churches,
+monasteries, chapels, and best rooms. If there is no dry wood for fire,
+it matters not, they burn chairs, benches, ploughs, and everything that
+is in the house; if they want green wood, no one need go far, they cut
+down the fruit trees in the nearest orchard; for they say, whilst we
+live here we keep house, to-morrow we go off again into the country,
+therefore, Mr. Host, be comforted; you have a few guests you would
+gladly be free from, therefore give freely and write it on the slate.
+When the house is burnt the account is burnt also. This is the
+Landsknechts' custom; to make a reckoning and ride off, and pay when we
+return.
+
+"The French, Italians, and Walloons are as adverse to the Germans as to
+dogs, but the Spaniards are friendly to them; they however have an
+unheard-of weakness for women, and are disposed to profligate and
+godless conduct. Altogether, the Germans are but little thought of by
+these nations, who call them nothing but drunkards, proud featherpates,
+mighty braggadocios, blasphemers of God, '_Hans Muffmaff_' with the
+beggar's wallet, who would willingly play the great man. And if one
+comes to look at it, it is not far from the truth. For there is a new
+custom amongst the North Germans when they go to war, or collect
+together under a master, they spend all their goods and possessions on
+ostentatious splendour, as if they were going to a bride, or riding to a
+banquet. Thus the Germans who were formerly called the Blackriders, come
+riding along with silver daggers, seven pound in weight, in velvet
+clothes, and shining boots, with short holster pistols inlaid with
+ivory, and large wide padded sleeves; they are ashamed of carrying
+cuirass or armour, or indeed a spear, or any other murderous weapons, as
+in the olden time. Hence it arises, that they never hold together. Then
+when Hans Spaniard comes with his tilting spear and proof armour, these
+chaw-bacons, with their short holster pistols, must run away or yield
+their money and blood.
+
+"Further, it is a misfortune to the Germans, that they take to
+imitating, like monkeys and fools. As soon as they come amongst other
+soldiers, they must have Spanish or other outlandish clothes. If they
+could babble foreign languages a little, they would associate themselves
+with Spaniards and Italians. The Germans would like to mingle with
+foreign nations, and take pleasure in outlandish dress and manners, 'but
+one should not place the vermin in the fur, it comes there without.' It
+is clear that foreign people have become our neighbours, and it is to be
+feared that they will in a few years come nearer. The frontier lords,
+who still rest in tranquillity, fight against the wind, speak quite
+wisely thereupon, comfort themselves, and have in talk, all their cities
+and villages full of soldiers to defend the country and withstand all
+enemies. But I fear that they prefer sitting by the stove in winter, and
+in the shade in summer, playing draughts, or striking the guitar, or
+dancing with _Jungfrau_ Greta, to providing their houses with good
+weapons or armour.
+
+"On this account, and because all foreign nations cry out all over
+Germany, '_Cruci, cruci, mordio, mordio!_' and grind their teeth like
+ravenous wolves, and desire and hope to bathe in German blood, one must
+earnestly pray God not to withdraw his hand, but to take under his
+protection this little vessel, tossed on the wild sea, cover it with his
+wings, and preserve it from all storms; for we see how the Roman Empire
+has declined from day to day, and still continues to do so. These
+sufferings come from nothing but the proceedings of the ecclesiastics,
+whereof the whole world complains. If one finds one right-minded
+preacher there are ten to the contrary; every tradesman praises his own
+wares, everyone will feed his own flock, and lead them the right way to
+heaven, yet no one knows, save the devil and our Lord, where the false
+shepherds go to themselves. Every one abuses, slanders, and condemns the
+other; when they stand in the pulpit, the devil is their preceptor, who
+helps them to manage so that one kingdom is at variance with another,
+one country rebellious against the other; neighbour can no longer agree
+with neighbour; nay one finds even at one table four or five different
+faiths, one will worship on this mountain and another on yonder. May the
+eternal Almighty God strengthen the hearts of the dear North Germans,
+give them an upright spirit, and raise them up again, that they may one
+day rise from the ashes, and renew their ancient repute, and their good
+name. God help the righteous."
+
+Thus writes an honourable officer before the year 1600.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+
+  THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.--LIFE AND MANNERS OF THE SOLDIERS.
+
+
+Almost all the people of Europe sent their least promising sons to the
+long war. Not only did foreign mercenaries follow the recruiting drum
+like crows to the battle-field, but the whole of Christian Europe was
+drawn into the struggle; foreigners trampled on the German soil in
+companies and regiments: English and Scotch, Danes, Fins and Swedes,
+besides the Netherlanders (whom the people considered as countrymen),
+fought on the side of the Protestants. Even the Laplanders came with
+their reindeer to the German coast; in the winter months of 1630 they
+brought upon their sledges over the ice, furs for the Swedish army. But
+still more chequered did the Imperial army look. The Roumaun Walloons,
+Irish adventurers, Spaniards, Italians, and almost every Sclavonic race
+broke into the country; worst of all the light cavalry,--Cossacks,
+Polish auxiliaries (who were for the most part slaughtered by the
+country people in 1620), Stradiots (among them undoubtedly some
+Mahomedans), and, most hated of all, the Croats. The position of the
+Emperor in the beginning of the war was striking in this respect, that
+he had almost nothing but Sclavonic and Roumaun soldiers, and only
+Roumaun money to oppose the Germans. By them the national rising was
+crushed, and it is probable that half the troops of the League consisted
+of foreigners.
+
+Each army was a sample of the different nationalities; in each there was
+an intermixture of many languages; and the hatred of nations seldom
+ceased even when fighting under the same colours. It was especially
+necessary in the camp to arrange the regiments according to the good
+understanding between them. Germans and Italians were always kept apart.
+
+The Field-marshal or Quartermaster-general chose the site of the camp;
+if possible by running water, and in a position which was favourable for
+defence. First of all was measured out the place for the General and his
+staff; large ornamented tents were raised on the ground thus set apart,
+which was divided from the rest of the camp by barriers and by planting
+spears, frequently even by fortifications. An open place was left close
+to it for the main-guard; if the army remained long encamped, a gallows
+was erected there as a warning. The position of each regiment and
+company was marked out with branches; the troops were marched in, the
+ranks were opened, the colours of each regiment were planted in the
+ground in rows side by side; behind in parallel lines lay the encampment
+of the company, always fifty men in a row; near the colours was the
+Ensign, in the middle the Lieutenant, at the rear the Captain, and
+behind all the tents of the superior officers and officials; the surgeon
+next to the Ensign, and the chaplain near the Captain. The officers
+lived in tents, often in conical forms fastened with cords to the
+ground. The soldiers built themselves little huts of planks and straw.
+The pikemen planted their pikes in the ground near the huts; the pikes,
+short spears, halberds, partisans, and standards showed from afar the
+rank and weapons of the inhabitant of the tent. Two or four soldiers
+were generally housed in a hut, with their wives, children, and dogs.
+Thus they lay encamped, company by company, regiment by regiment, in
+great squares or circles, the whole camp surrounded by a large space
+which served as an alarm post. Before the Thirty years' war it was
+customary to set up a barricade round the camp; then the train or
+baggage waggons were pushed together in double or more rows, and bound
+by chains or fastenings to the great square or circle, leaving free the
+necessary openings. Then also the cavalry had their camp next the inner
+side of the waggons; the necessary partitions were erected for the
+horses near the huts and tents of the horsemen. This custom had become
+obsolete, and it was only occasionally that the waggons surrounded the
+camp, but it was protected by trenches, mounds, and field-pieces. At the
+openings sentinels were posted, outside the camp, troops of horse and a
+chain of outposts of musketeers or arquebussiers were stationed. Each
+Ensign planted the colours before his tent; near it was the drummer of
+the company, and a musketeer kept watch with a burning match in his hand
+and his musket supported horizontally on its rest.
+
+In such a camp it was that the wild soldiery dwelt in unbridled licence,
+insupportable to the neighbourhood even in a friendly country. The
+provinces, cities, and villages were obliged to supply wood, straw,
+fodder, and provisions, the waggons rolled along every road, and droves
+of fat cattle were collected. The neighbouring villages quickly
+disappeared; as all the wood-work and thatching was torn away by the
+soldiers and employed in building their huts, only the shattered clay
+walls remained. The soldiers and their boys roved about the
+neighbourhood, plundering and stealing, and the cantineers drove about
+with their carts. In the camp the soldiers congregated in front of
+their huts; meanwhile the women cooked, washed, mended the clothes and
+squabbled together; there was constant tumult and uproar and bloody
+crimes, fighting with bare weapons, and combats between the different
+services or nations. Every morning the crier and the trumpet called to
+prayer, even among the Imperialists; early on the Sunday the regimental
+chaplain performed service in the camp, then the soldiers and their
+households seated themselves devoutly on the ground, and it was
+forbidden for any one during service to loiter and drink in the
+canteens. It is known how much Gustavus Adolphus inculcated pious habits
+and prayers; after his arrival in Pomerania he caused prayers to be read
+twice a day in his camp, but even in his army, it was necessary in the
+articles of war to admonish the chaplains against drunkenness.
+
+In the open space in front of the main-guard was the gambling ground,
+covered with cloaks and set with tables, round which all the gamesters
+crowded. There the card-playing of the old Landsknechte gave place to
+the quicker games of the dice. The use of dice was frequently forbidden
+in the camp, and stopped by the captain of the guard and the provost;
+then the gamblers assembled privately behind the fence, and played away
+their ammunition, bread, horses, weapons, and clothes, so that it was
+found necessary to place them under the supervision of the main-guard.
+Three square dice were rolled on each cloak or table, called in camp
+language "_Schelmbeine_;" each set had its croupier; to him belonged the
+cloak, table, and dice; he had the office of judge in cases of dispute,
+and his share of the winnings, but also frequently of blows. There was
+much cheating and cogging; many dice had two fives or sixes, many, two
+aces or deuces, others were filled with quicksilver and lead, split
+hair, sponge, chaff, and charcoal; there were dice made of stags-horn,
+heavy below and light above, "_Niederländer_,"[11] which must be slid
+along, and "_Oberländer_,"[12] which must be thrown "from Bavarian
+Heights" for them to fall right; often the noiseless work was
+interrupted by curses, quarrels, and flashing rapiers. Lurking
+tradespeople, frequently Jews, slipped in, ready to value and buy up the
+rings, chains, and booty staked.
+
+Behind the tents of the upper officers and the regimental provost,
+separated from them by a wide street, stood the shops of the cantineers
+in parallel cross rows. Cantineers, butchers, and common victuallers
+formed an important community. The price of their goods was decided by
+the provost, who received a perquisite in money or in kind; for example,
+he received a tongue for every beast that was killed. On every cask
+which was to be tapped, he wrote the retail price with chalk. By these
+compacts, and the favour of the powerful, which was to be bought by
+time-serving, the purveyors of the army maintained a proportionably
+secure position, and insured themselves the payment, though irregular,
+of their long tallies, which were scored equally for the officers and
+soldiers. In good times traders came from afar to the camp with
+expensive stuffs, jewels, gold and silver workmanship, and delicacies.
+In the beginning of the war especially, the officers set a bad example
+to the army by their extreme luxury; every captain would have a French
+cook, and consumed the dearest wine in great quantities.
+
+The military signals of the camp were, for the infantry the beat of the
+drum, for the cavalry the trumpet: the drum was very large, the drummer
+often a half-grown boy, sometimes the fool of the company. In the
+beginning of the war, the German army had in many cases a uniform beat.
+Every command from the General to the camp, had to be proclaimed by a
+herald riding through it with a trumpeter. On such occasions the herald
+wore over his dress a "tabard" of coloured silk, embroidered before and
+behind with the arms of the sovereign. This proclamation, which
+announced to the camp in the evening the work of the following day, was
+very destructive to secret and rapid operations; it was also very
+injurious to discipline, for it announced to the loiterers and robbers
+of the camp, the night when they might steal out for booty.
+
+When times were prosperous, a battle won, a rich city plundered, or an
+opulent district laid under contribution, everything was plentiful, food
+and drink cheap; and it once happened, in the last year of the war, that
+in the Bavarian camp a cow was bought for a pipe of tobacco. The Croats
+of the Imperial army in Pomerania, in the winter of 1630 and 1631, had
+their girdles overlaid with gold, and whole plates of gold and silver on
+the breast. Paul Stockmann, a pastor at Lützen, relates, that in the
+Imperial army, before the battle of Lützen, one horseman had his horse
+decorated with a quantity of golden stars, and another with three
+hundred silver moons; and the soldiers' women wore the most beautiful
+church dresses and mass vestments, and that some Stradiots rode in
+plundered priests' dresses, to the great mirth of their comrades. In
+these times also carousers drank to one another in costly wine from the
+chalices, and caused long chains to be made of the plundered gold, from
+which, according to the old knightly custom, they severed links to pay
+for a carousal. But the longer the war lasted the more rare were these
+golden times. The devastation of the country revenged itself fearfully
+on the army itself; the pale spectre of hunger, the forerunner of
+pestilence, glided through the lines of the camp, and raised its bony
+hand against every straw hut. Then supplies from the surrounding
+districts ceased, the price of provisions was raised so as to be almost
+unattainable; a loaf of bread, for example, in the Swedish army in 1640,
+at Gotha, cost a ducat. Hollow-eyed pale faces, sick and dying men, were
+to be seen in every row of huts; the vicinity of the camp was
+pestilential from the decaying bodies of dead animals. All around was a
+wilderness of uncultivated fields, blackened with the ruins of villages,
+and the camp itself a dismal city of death.
+
+A broad stream of superstition had flowed through the souls of the
+people from ancient times up to the present day, and the soldier's life
+of the Thirty years' war revived an abundance of peculiar superstitions,
+of which a portion continues even now; it is worth while to dwell a
+little upon these characteristic phenomena.
+
+The belief that it is possible to make the body proof by magic against
+the weapons of the enemy, and on the other hand to make your own arms
+fatal to them, is older than the historical life of the German people.
+In the earliest times, however, something gloomy was attached to this
+art; it might easily become pregnant with fatality, even to its
+votaries. The invulnerability was not unconditional, and succumbed to
+the stronger counter-magic of the offensive weapon: Achilles had a heel
+which was not invulnerable; no weapon could wound the Norse god Baldur,
+but the waving of a branch of misletoe by a blind man killed him;
+Siegfried had a weak spot between the shoulders, the same which the
+soldiers of the Thirty years' war considered also as vulnerable. Among
+the numerous Norse traditions are many accounts of charmed weapons: the
+sword, the noblest weapon of heroes, was considered as a living being,
+also as a slaying serpent or a destroying fire; when it was shattered,
+it was spoken of by the Norse poets as dying. It was unnecessary to
+charm swords forged by dwarfs, as there was a destroying magic concealed
+in them; thus the sword of Hagens, the father of Hilda, was death to any
+man when it was drawn from the sheath, magic Runic character being
+scratched on the hilt and blade of it.
+
+The introduction of fire-arms gave a new aspect and a wider scope to
+this superstition; the flash and report of the weapon, and the distant
+striking of the ball, imposed the more on the fancy, the less the
+imperfect weapon was certain of hitting: the course of the deadly shot
+was considered malicious and incalculable. Undoubtedly the literature of
+the Reformation seldom touched upon this kind of magic; it first made
+itself heard in the middle of the century, when it served to portray the
+condition of the people. But in armies, the belief in magic was general
+and widely spread, travelling scholars and gipsies were the most zealous
+vendors of its secrets, one generation of Landsknechte imparted it to
+the next: in Italy and in the armies of Charles V., Italian and German
+superstitions were mixed, and in the time of Fronsperg and Schärtlin
+almost every detail of the art of rendering invulnerable is to be found.
+Luther, in 1527, inveighs against the superstition of the soldiery: "One
+commits himself to St. George, another to St. Christopher, some to one
+saint, some to another; some can charm iron and gun-flints, others can
+bless the horse and his rider, and some carry the gospel of St.
+John,[13] or somewhat else with them, in which they confide." He himself
+had known a Landsknecht, who, though made invulnerable by the devil, was
+killed, and announced beforehand the day and place of his death.
+Bernhard von Milo, Seneschal at Wittenberg, sent to Luther for his
+opinion on a written charm for wounds; it was a long roll of paper
+written in wonderful characters.
+
+When the Augsburg gunner, Samuel Zimmermann the elder, wrote the
+experiences of his life up to 1591, in a folio volume, under the title
+of '_Charms against all Stabs, Strokes, and Shots, full of great
+secrets_,' he mentions only the defensive incantations, which he did not
+consider as the works of Belial; but it is apparent from his manuscript
+that many devilish arts were known to him, which he intended to conceal.
+Another well-known Zimmermann, who was hardened, received a fearful blow
+from a dagger; there was no wound to be seen, but he died shortly after
+from the internal effect of the blow. In 1558 there was an invulnerable
+soldier in the regiment of Count Lichtenstein, who, after every
+skirmish, shook the enemy's balls off his dress and his bare body; he
+often showed them, and the holes burnt through his clothes; he was at
+last slain by some foreign peasants.
+
+When the Italians and Spaniards entered the Netherlands in 1568, they
+carried along with them, with little success, whole packets and books
+full of magic formulas of conjurations and charms. The French found
+talismans and magic cards fastened round the necks of the prisoners and
+the dead, of the Brandenburg troops who had been led by Burgrave Fabian
+von Dohna, in 1587, as auxiliaries to the Huguenots. When the Jesuit
+George Scheerer preached at the Court Chapel at Vienna in 1594, before
+the Archduke Matthias and his Generals, he found it necessary to exhort
+them earnestly against the use of superstitious charms for cuts, stabs,
+shots, and burns.
+
+It is therefore unjust in later writers to state, that the art of
+rendering invulnerable was introduced at Passau by a travelling scholar
+in the seventeenth century, as Grimmelshausen informs us, or as others
+will have it, that it was brought into the German army by Kaspar
+Reithardt von Hersbruck, the executioner; for when Archduke Leopold, the
+Bishop of Passau, raised the reckless and ill-disciplined bands which
+spread terror through Alsace and Bohemia by their barbarities, his
+soldiers only adopted the old traditions which were rooted in German
+heathenism, and had lingered on through the whole of the middle ages;
+nay, even the name, "_Passau art_," which has been customary since then,
+may rest on a misunderstanding of the people, for in the sixteenth
+century all who bore charms about them to render them invulnerable were
+called by the learned soldier, "_Pessulanten_," or "_Charakteristiker_,"
+and whoever understood the art of dissolving a charm was a "_Solvent_."
+It is possible that the first of these popular designations was changed
+into "_Passauer_."
+
+Even in the first year of the Thirty years' war, the art of rendering
+invulnerable was eagerly discussed. A good account of it can be found in
+'The true narrative of the siege and capture by storm of the city of
+Pilsen in Bohemia, 1619.' The passage according to our dialect is as
+follows:
+
+"An adventurer under Mansfeld, called Hans Fabel, once took a tumbler of
+beer up to the city trenches and drank it to the besieged. They saluted
+him with powder and shot; but he drank up his tumbler of beer, thanked
+them, entered the trenches and took five balls from his bosom. This
+'_Pilmiskind_,'[14] although he was so invulnerable, was taken very
+sick, and died before the capture of the town. This magical art, 'Passau
+art,' has become quite common; one would sooner have shot at a rock than
+at such a charmed fellow. I believe that the devil hides in their skin.
+One good fellow indeed often charms another, even when the person so
+charmed does not know it, and still less desires it. A small boy from
+fourteen to fifteen years of age was shot in the arm when he was beating
+the drum, but the ball rebounded from the arm to the left breast, and
+did not penetrate; this was seen by many. But those who use this magic
+come to a bad end; I have known many such lose their lives in a terrible
+way, for one delusion struggles against another. Their devilish sorcery
+is expressly against the first and other commandments of God. Assiduous
+prayer and faith in God gives other means of support. If any one in
+presence of the enemy perishes not, it is God's will. If he is struck,
+the angels take him to heaven, but those who are charmed are taken by
+Black Kaspar."[15]
+
+Numerous were the means employed by men to make themselves and others
+invulnerable. Even this superstition was governed tyrannically by
+fashion. Of very ancient date are the charmed shirts, and the Victory
+and St. George's shirts; they were prepared in different ways for the
+Landsknechte. On Christmas night, according to ancient tradition,
+certain virgins used to spin linen thread in the name of the devil,
+weave and stitch it; on the breast two heads were embroidered, the one
+on the right side with a beard, and the left like that of king
+Beelzebub, with a crown, dark reminiscences of the holy heads of Donar
+and Wuotan. According to later custom the charmed shirt must be spun by
+maidens under the age of seven; it was to be sewed with particular cross
+stitches, laid secretly on the altar till three masses had been read
+over it. On the day of battle such a charmed shirt was worn under the
+dress, and if the wearer received a wound, it was owing to other thread
+having been mixed with that which was charmed.
+
+Superstition gladly availed itself of the miraculous power of the
+Christian Church, even when in opposition to law. The gospel of St. John
+was written elaborately on thin paper and placed secretly under the
+altar cover in a Roman Catholic church, and left there till the priest
+had thrice read the mass over it; then it was placed in a quill or the
+shell of a hazel nut, and the opening was cemented with Spanish lac or
+wax, or this capsule was framed in gold or silver and hung round the
+neck. Others received the host at the Lord's supper, accompanying it
+with a silent invocation to the devil; taking the wafer out of their
+mouths again, they separated the skin from the flesh in some part of the
+body, placed the wafer there, and let the wound heal over it. The most
+reckless gave themselves up entirely to the devil; such people could not
+only make other men invulnerable, but even eatables, such as butter,
+cheese, and fruit, so that the sharpest knife could not penetrate
+them.[16]
+
+There was a change of form and name in the written parchments also which
+contained charms.
+
+"_Pope Leo's blessing_" originated in the early Landsknecht times; it
+contained good Christian words and promises. Besides this there was the
+"_Blessing of the Knight of Flanders_," so called because a knight who
+had once worn it could not be beheaded; it was written in strange
+characters and types interspersed with signs of the cross. Then there
+was "_The benediction_," or charm in time of need, which in a moment of
+danger arrested the sword or gun of the enemy.[17]
+
+Similar were the "_Passau charms_" of the seventeenth century, written
+on post paper, virgin parchment, or the host, with a peculiar pen in
+bat's blood; the superstition was in strange characters, wizard feet,
+circles, crosses, and the letters of foreign languages; according to
+Grimmelshausen[18] the rhyme runs thus: Devil help me, body and soul
+give I thee. When fastened under the left arm they expelled the shot and
+closed the guns of the enemy. Sometimes even the charms were eaten. But
+opinions concerning their efficacy were fluctuating. Some thought them
+safeguards only for four-and-twenty hours; but according to others their
+magic did not begin to work till after the first four-and-twenty hours,
+and whoever was shot before that time belonged to the devil. Other
+charms were also used for protection, everything odious and dismal was
+collected together, and what had been fearful in the ancient mythology
+continued to retain its old power. A piece of the cord or chain by which
+a man had been hung, or the beard of a goat, the eyes of a wolf, the
+head of a bat and the like, worn round the body in a purse of black
+cat's skin, rendered a person invulnerable. Hair balls (a mass of hair
+from the stomach of the chamois), and the caul in which children are
+born, gave invulnerability; he who had never eaten kidneys was secure
+from shot or pestilence, and it was believed at Augsburg, that a famous
+knight and experienced General, Sebastian Schärtlin, had thus protected
+himself before the enemy.
+
+Old magic herbs, as endive, verbena, St. John's wort, chickweed,
+vervain, mallow, and garlick were used as charms, and the most powerful
+of all, the deadly nightshade. It was necessary to dig them up with the
+best new sharpened steel, and never to touch them with the bare hand,
+least of all with the left, and they were carried like an _Agnus Dei_.
+They were circular, and only found on the battle-fields of great
+battles, and were, as Zimmermann says, sacred for the sake of the dead.
+Besides these there was a fire-coloured flower which Cabalists called
+"Efdamanila;" it not only protected the wearer from shot, stabs, and
+fire, but when it was hung over the wall in a besieged town near the
+enemy's cannon, they were spell-bound for a whole month.
+
+Amulet medals also were early in use: in 1555, at the battle of
+Marienburg, between the Princes of Orange and Nevers, a little child was
+struck on the neck by a shot, a silver medal was doubled up, and the
+child remained unhurt; this great effect was then ascribed to an amulet
+parchment which the child wore round his neck near the medal. But about
+the same time the "Sideristen," who were experienced in astronomical
+science, poured out heavenly influence in invulnerable medals of silver
+and fine gold, which were worn round the neck. Thurneisser spread also
+these kinds of amulets in Northern Germany. An accidental circumstance
+brought the Mansfeld St. George's thaler into repute in the Thirty
+years' war, especially those of 1611 and 1613, bearing the inscription,
+"With God is counsel and action."
+
+Not only the common soldiers, but many great commanders also had the
+repute of being invulnerable: not Pappenheim, indeed, who was wounded in
+almost every action, but Holk, who was supposed at last to have been
+carried away to hell by the devil in person; Tilly, for whom, after the
+battle of Breitenfeld, the affrighted surgeon found he had only bruises
+to dress; Wallenstein and his kinsman Terzka; even the sword of
+Gustavus Adolphus was considered to be enchanted. Ahaz Willenger also,
+leader after the death of Fardinger, of the revolted Austrian peasants,
+was rendered so hard that a cannon-ball at seven paces rebounded from
+his skin without penetrating it; he was at last killed by an officer of
+Pappenheim. All the Princes of the house of Savoy were considered
+invulnerable, even, after the Thirty years' war. Field-Marshal
+Schauenburg tried it with Prince Thomas when he besieged him in an
+Italian fortress; the bullets of the best marksmen missed their aim. No
+one knew whether the members of that noble house had especial grace,
+because they were of the race of the royal prophet David, or whether the
+art of rendering themselves invulnerable was hereditary.
+
+There were hardly any who did not believe in the mystic art. The
+renowned French General Messire Jacques de Puysegur, in the French civil
+war in 1622, was obliged to compass the death of an opponent, _qui avait
+un caractère_, by blows of a strong pole on his neck, because he had no
+weapon that could kill him; he recounts this circumstance to his King.
+At the blockade of Magdeburg in 1629, the complaint against these
+practices became so general, that the parties engaged in this war
+entered into negotiations concerning it. Gustavus Adolphus, in his first
+article of war, earnestly forbade idolatry, witchcraft, or the charming
+of weapons as sins against God.
+
+But the dark powers which the soldier invoked to his aid were
+treacherous. They did not protect against everything; it was, to say
+the least, very unsatisfactory that they did not preserve from the hand
+of the executioner: Zimmermann relates many cases in which the
+far-reaching hopes of an invulnerable person and his adherents were
+disappointed at the place of execution. Certain portions of the body,
+the neck, and the back between the shoulders, the armpits, and the under
+part of the knee, were considered not hard or invulnerable. The body
+also was only charmed against the common metals of lead or iron. The
+simplest weapons of peasants, a wooden club, bullets of more precious
+metals, and sometimes inherited silver could kill the invulnerable. Thus
+an Austrian governor of Greifswald, on whom the Swedes had fired more
+than twenty balls, could only be shot by the inherited silver button
+that a soldier carried in his pocket. Thus too a witch in Schleswig was
+changed into a were-wolf, and shot by inherited silver.[19] The magic
+also could be broken by other mixtures, by cast balls, and by magically
+consecrated weapons. Rye bread which had been leavened and baked on
+Easter night, was rubbed crosswise over the edge of the steel, and signs
+were indelibly impressed on blades and barrels: it was known how to
+cast balls which killed without injuring the skin, others which must
+draw blood, and some which broke every invulnerability; these were
+prepared by mixtures of pulverized grains of corn, antimony, and
+thunder-stones, and cooled in poison. But these arts were considered
+supernatural and dangerous. Besides these they tried "natural" devices
+which might be resorted to with advantage, even by an honourable
+soldier. They imagined they could prepare gunpowder with a mixture of
+pounded dogs' bones, which would make no report. Powder was also
+prepared by which the person shot was only stunned for hours; other
+powder that did not explode, even when glowing steel was inserted. By a
+mixture of borax and quicksilver they produced a mining powder by which
+the enemy's pieces were blown up, in case there was not time to spike
+them. They sought after the secret of giving a man double strength
+without magic.
+
+There was a peculiar and also very old kind of magic, which spell-bound
+the enemy by mystic sentences, which were recited in moments of danger.
+The adept could fix whole troops of horsemen and infantry: in the same
+way, by other sentences, they could dissolve the spell. There was still
+another kind of sorcery; horsemen were made to appear on the field of
+battle, that is to say, when support was required in imminent danger,
+deceptive appearance was produced, as if soldiers were approaching in
+the distance. Both these conjurations are relics of the heathen occult
+sciences, the echoes of which may still be discovered in manifold tales
+and traditions, even up to the present day.
+
+The gloomy provost was the man in the regiment who was held in the most
+awe; he was naturally considered as pre-eminently an adept. In 1618, it
+was supposed that the executioner of Pilsen could, with the help of an
+assistant, fire daily three fatal balls against the camp of Mansfeld;
+after the capture of the city, he was hanged on a special gallows. The
+provost of the Hatzfeld army of 1636 was still more versed in sorcery:
+he was killed by the Swedes with an axe, because he was magically
+hardened. It was very much in the interest of these authorities to keep
+up amongst the revengeful soldiery the belief in their invulnerability.
+
+We may add to these delusions, the endeavours of individuals to read
+from the course of the stars the events and issue of the war, and their
+own fate. Prognostics accumulated, the terrors of the approaching year
+were unweariedly prophesied from constellations, shooting-stars, comets,
+and other atmospheric phenomena; the casting of horoscopes was general.
+Some individuals also possessed second sight, they foresaw to whom the
+approaching future would be fatal. When in 1636 the Imperial Saxon army
+was lying before Magdeburg, there was an invalid mathematician in the
+camp who foretold to his friends that the 26th of June would be fatal to
+him. He was lying in a closed tent when a lieutenant rode up, and
+unloosening the tent cords, forced himself in and begged the sick man to
+draw his nativity. After refusing a long time, the invalid prophesied to
+him that he would be hanged that very hour. The lieutenant, very
+indignant that any one should dare to say such a thing to a cavalier,
+drew his sword and killed the sick man. There immediately arose a great
+tumult, the murderer then threw himself upon his horse and tried to
+escape; it happened however, accidentally, that the Elector of Saxony
+was riding through the camp with General Hatzfeld and a great retinue.
+The Elector exclaimed, that there would be bad discipline in the
+Imperial camp if the life of a sick man in bed could not be secured from
+murderers. The lieutenant was hanged.
+
+Whoever was considered the possessor of such secrets was feared by his
+comrades, but not esteemed. "For if they were not cowardly, dastardly
+ninnies, they would not use such charms." Certain officers in the
+sixteenth century caused every prisoner to be hanged upon whom were
+found jagged or iron-coated balls, "which were consecrated for the sake
+of a soul." In the Thirty years' war, a coward begged of his comrade a
+Passau parchment, who wrote on a strip of paper three times: "Defend
+yourself, scoundrel," folded it up and made the dastard sew it in his
+clothes. From that day every one imagined that he was invulnerable, and
+he went about on all occasions amongst the enemies' weapons, as hard as
+horn, like a _Siegfried_, and always came out unwounded.
+
+But the soldier had not only to win the favour of the Fates, but still
+more the approbation of his comrades. Whoever carefully examines this
+period, without ceasing to view with horror the numerous and refined
+atrocities which were practised, will at the same time perceive that
+this scene of barbarity was occasionally brightened by milder virtues,
+and sometimes healthy integrity comes to light. A peculiar code of
+soldier's honour was soon formed, which preserved a kind of morality,
+though a lax one. We have but few records of the good humour which arose
+from consciousness of having the mastery over citizen and peasant. But
+the proverbial modes of speech often bear sufficiently the impress of
+the same disposition which is idealized in Schiller's "Reiterlied." "The
+sharp sabre is my field, and booty making is my plough." "The earth is
+my bed, heaven my canopy, my cloak is my house, and wine my eternal
+life."[20] "As soon as a soldier is born, three peasants are selected
+for him; the first provides for him, the second finds him a beautiful
+wife, and the third goes to hell for him."[21]
+
+We have reason to suppose that sensuality was in general unbridled and
+shameless; the old German vice, drunkenness, prevailed as much amongst
+the officers as soldiers. The smoking and chewing tobacco, or as it was
+then called, "tobacco drinking"--"eating and snuffing," spread rapidly
+through all the armies, and the guard-room was a disagreeable abode for
+those who did not smoke. This custom, which at the beginning of the war
+was introduced into the army by the Dutch and English auxiliaries, was
+at the end of it so common, that a pipe was to be found in every
+peasant's house, and nine out of ten of the day labourers and
+apprentices smoked during their work.
+
+The German language also was jargonized in the army; it soon became the
+fashion among the soldiers to intermix Italian and French words, and the
+language was enriched even by Hungarian, Croat, and Czech: they have
+left us besides their "_karbatsche_" and similar words, and also
+sonorous curses. Not only was their discourse garnished with these
+strong expressions, but gipsy cant became the common property of the
+army. It did not indeed begin in the great war, for long before, the
+Landsknechte, as "Gartbrüder" and members of the beggars' guild, had
+learned their arts and language. But now the camp language was not only
+a convenient help to secret intercourse with the bad rabble who followed
+the army, with guild robbers, Jewish dealers and gipsies, but it also
+gave a certain degree of consideration round the camp fire to be able to
+bandy mysterious words. Some expressions from the camp language passed
+among the people, others were carried by runaway students into the
+drinking-rooms of the universities.[22]
+
+The daily quarrels gave rise amongst the common soldiers also to the
+cartel, or duels regulated by many points of honour. Duels were strictly
+forbidden; Gustavus Adolphus punished them with death even among the
+higher officers; but no law could suppress them. The duellists fought
+alone, or with two or three seconds, or an umpire was selected: before
+the combat the seconds vowed to one another and gave their hands upon
+it, not to help the combatants, either before, in, or after the
+encounter, nor to revenge them; the duellists shook hands and exchanged
+forgiveness beforehand, in case of the death of either. They fought on
+horseback or on foot, with carbines, pistols, or swords; in the fight, a
+throw in wrestling or unhorsing was sufficient; stabbing was considered
+un-German, above all a thrust in the back was of doubtful propriety.[23]
+
+As it was so usual to change parties, a corporation feeling was formed
+amongst the soldiers which also embraced the enemy. The armies had a
+tolerably accurate knowledge of each other, and not only the character
+of the upper officers, but of old soldiers was known; any day an old
+comrade might be seen in the enemy's ranks, or installed as a tent
+companion to a former adversary. Indeed, quarter was often proffered:
+but any one who fought against the customs of war, or was suspected of
+using devilish acts, was to be killed even if he sued for pardon.
+Cartels were concluded between the courteous conquerors and the
+vanquished, the conquerors promised to protect, and the prisoners not to
+escape; the weapons, scarfs, and plumes were taken away from the
+vanquished; all that he concealed in his clothes belonged to the
+conqueror, but he who got Dutch quarter, kept what was enclosed in his
+girdle; a courteous prisoner himself presented what he had in his
+pockets. If a desperate man did not stand by his conditions of quarter,
+he was killed, if he did not rapidly escape. During the transport they
+were coupled by the arm, and the string taken from their hose, so that
+they were obliged to hold their small-clothes with the hand that was
+free. The prisoners could be ransomed, and this ransom was fixed by
+tariff in each army. Towards the conclusion of the war, when soldiers
+became scarce, the common prisoners were summarily placed in the
+regiments without giving them a choice. Such soldiers were naturally not
+to be depended on; they gladly took the first opportunity to desert to
+their former colours, where they had left their women, children, booty,
+and arrears of pay. Distinguished prisoners were sometimes bought from
+the common soldiers by the colonels of their regiments; they were
+treated with great consideration in the enemy's quarters, and almost
+every one found there either an acquaintance or a relative.
+
+Booty was the uncertain gain for which the soldier staked his life, and
+the hope of it kept him steadfast in the most desperate situations. The
+pay was moderate, the payment insecure; plunder promised them wine,
+play, a smart mistress, a gold-laced dress with a plume of feathers, one
+or two horses, and the prospect of greater importance in the company and
+of advancement. Vanity, love of pleasure, and ambition, developed this
+longing to a dangerous extent in the army.
+
+The success of a battle was more than once defeated, by the soldiers too
+soon abandoning themselves to plundering. It often happened that
+individuals made great booty, but it was almost always dissipated in
+wild revelry; according to the soldier's adage: "What is won with the
+drum will be lost with the fifes." The fame of such lucky hits spread
+through all armies. Sometimes these great gains brought evil results on
+the fortunate finders.[24] A common soldier of Tilly's army had won
+great booty at the capture of Magdeburg, it was said to be thirty
+thousand ducats, and was immediately lost in gambling. Tilly caused him
+to be hanged after thus accosting him: "With this money you might have
+lived all your life like a gentleman, but as you have not understood how
+to make use of it, I cannot see of what use you can be to my Emperor."
+At the end of the war a man in Königsmark's troop had obtained a similar
+sum in the suburbs of Prague, and played it away at one sitting.
+Königsmark wished in like manner to despatch him, but the soldier saved
+himself by this undaunted answer: "It would be unfair for your
+Excellence to hang me on account of this loss, as I have hopes of
+acquiring still greater booty in the city itself." This answer was
+considered a good omen. In the Bavarian army a soldier in the Holtz
+infantry was famed for a similar lucky hit. He had been for a long time
+musketeer, but shortly before the peace had sunk to be a pikeman, and
+was ill-clad; his shirt hung behind and before out of his hose. This
+fellow had obtained at the taking of Herbsthausen a barrel filled with
+French doubloons, so large that he could hardly carry it off. He
+thereupon absconded secretly from the regiment, dressed himself up like
+a prince, bought a coach and six beautiful horses, kept many coachmen,
+lackeys, pages, and _valets de chambre_ in fine liveries, and called
+himself with dull humour Colonel Lumpus.[25] Then he travelled to
+Munich, and lived in an inn there splendidly. General Holtz accidentally
+put up at the same inn, heard much from the landlord of the opulence
+and qualities of Colonel Lumpus, and could not remember ever having
+heard this name among the cavaliers of the Roman empire, or among the
+soldiers of fortune. He therefore commissioned the landlord to invite
+the stranger to supper. Colonel Lumpus accepted the invitation, and
+caused to be served up at dessert, in a dish, five hundred new French
+pistoles and a chain worth a hundred ducats, and said at the same time
+to the General: "May your Excellence be content with this entertainment
+and think thereby favourably of me." The General made some resistance,
+but the liberal colonel pressed it upon him with these words: "The time
+will soon come when your Excellence will acknowledge that I am wise in
+making this gift. The donation is not ill applied, for I hope then to
+receive from your Excellence a favour which will not cost a penny." On
+this, Holtz, according to the custom of that time, accepted the chain
+and money with courteous promises to repay it under such circumstances.
+The General departed, and the fictitious colonel lived on there; when
+he passed by the guard, and the soldiers presented arms to do him
+honour, he threw to them a dozen thalers. Six weeks after, his money
+came to an end. Then he sold his coaches and horses, afterwards his
+clothes and linen, and spent all in drinking. His servants ran away from
+him, and at last nothing remained to him but a bad dress and a few
+pence. Then the landlord, who had made much by him, presented him with
+fifty thalers for travelling, but the colonel tarried till he had spent
+it all; again the host gave him ten thalers for travelling expenses, but
+the persevering reveller answered that if it was money to be spent, he
+would rather spend it with him than another. When that also was
+dissipated, the landlord offered him another five thalers, but forbade
+his servants to let the spendthrift have anything. At last he quitted
+the inn and went to the next one, where he spent his five thalers in
+beer. After that he wandered away to his regiment at Heilbronn. There he
+was immediately confined in irons, and threatened with the gallows,
+because he had been away so many weeks. He insisted on being taken
+before his General, presented himself to him, and reminded him of the
+evening at the inn. To the sharp rebuke of the General he answered that
+he had all his life wished for nothing so much as to know what were the
+feelings of a great lord, and for that he had used his booty.
+
+In the Hungarian war it was made a law, that the booty should be equally
+distributed, but that soon ceased. Still those who were fortunate enough
+to make great gains, found it advisable to give a share to the officers
+of their company. This common interest in the booty, as well as the
+necessity of maintaining themselves by requisition, in remote countries,
+developed in great perfection partisan service. There were not only
+whole divisions of troops, which performed in the armies the service of
+marauding corps, as for example those of Holk and Isolani in the
+Imperial, but there were also individual leaders of companies, who
+selected the most expert people for this lucrative employment. A
+marauding party, departing on a secret expedition, must consist of an
+uneven number to bring good luck. These parties stole far into the
+country to plunder a rich man, to fall upon a small city, or intercept
+transports of goods or money, and to bring away with them cattle and
+provisions. There was often an agreement made with the enemy's garrisons
+in the neighbourhood, as to what was to be spared in the districts
+common to them. Every kind of cunning was practised in such expeditions;
+they knew now to imitate the report of heavy artillery, by firing a
+hand-gun, doubly loaded, through an empty barrel; they used shoes with
+reversed soles, and caused the horses to be shod in the same manner, the
+feet of stolen cattle were covered with shoes, and a sponge was put in
+the pigs' food to which a packthread was fastened. The soldiers
+disguised themselves as peasants or women, and paid spies amongst the
+citizens and country people of the neighbourhood. Their messengers ran
+hither and thither with despatches, and were called in camp language
+"_feldtauben_" (field doves); they carried these despatches in their
+ears rolled up as small balls, fastened them in the hair of shaggy dogs,
+enclosed them in a clod of earth, or sewed them with green silk between
+the leaves of a branch of oak, that they might be able to throw them
+away, without suspicion, in time of danger.[26] These despatches were
+written in gipsy language or gibberish, in foreign characters, and if
+there were runaway students in the companies, they were written perhaps
+in French with Greek letters; they employed, for these purpose, a
+simple kind of short-hand writing, displacing the letters of the words,
+or agreeing that only the middle letter of the words should have
+signification.[27] The transition from such partisan service to becoming
+dishonourable marauders and freebooters was easy. In the beginning of
+the war, the newly raised regiment of Count Merode was so reduced by
+long marches and bad nourishment, that it could hardly set its guard; it
+dissolved almost entirely, on the march, into stragglers, who lay under
+the hedges and in the byways, or sneaking about the army with defective
+weapons, and without order. After that time, the stragglers, whom the
+soldier wits had before called "_sausänger_" and "_immenschneider_"
+(drones), were now denoted as "Merode-ing brothers." After a lost battle
+their numbers increased enormously. Horsemen who were slightly wounded,
+and had lost their horses, associated themselves with them, and it was
+impossible, from the then state of military discipline, to get rid of
+them.
+
+The most undisciplined, abandoned the route of the army, and lived as
+highwaymen, footpads, and poachers. Vain were the endeavours of the
+sovereigns, at the end of the war, to annihilate the great robber bands;
+they lasted, to a certain extent, up to the beginning of the present
+century.
+
+Such was the character of the war which raged in Germany for thirty
+years. An age of blood, murder, and fire, of utter destruction to all
+property which was movable, and ruin to that which was not; and an age
+of spiritual and material decay in the nation. The Generals imposed
+exorbitant contributions, and kept part in their own pockets. The
+colonels and captains levied charges on the cities and towns in which
+their troops were quartered, and merciless were the demands on all
+sides. The princes sent their plate and stud horses as presents to the
+Generals, and the cities sent sums of money and casks of wine to the
+captains, and the villages, riding horses and gold lace to the cornets
+and sergeant-majors, as long as such bribery was possible. When an army
+was encamped in a district, any landed proprietors of importance,
+monasteries, and villages, endeavoured to obtain the protection of a
+"_salva guardia_." They had to pay dear for this guard, yet had to bear
+with much unseemly conduct from them. If a place lay between two armies,
+both parties had to be asked for _salva guardia_, and both guards lived
+by agreement in peaceful intercourse at the expense of their host. But
+it was seldom that either individuals or communities were so fortunate
+as to be able to preserve even this unsatisfactory protection; for it
+was necessary for the army to live. When a troop of soldiers entered a
+village or country town, the soldiers rushed like devils into the
+houses; wherever the dung-heaps[28] were the largest, there the greatest
+wealth was to be expected. The object of the tortures to which the
+inhabitants were subjected, was generally to extort from them their
+hidden property; they were distinguished by especial names, as the
+"Swedish fleece," and the "wheel." The plunderers took the flints from
+the pistols and forced the peasants' thumbs in their place; they rubbed
+the soles of their feet with salt, and caused goats to lick them; they
+tied their hands behind their backs; they passed a bodkin threaded with
+horse-hair through their tongues, and moved it gently up and down; they
+bound a knotted cord round the forehead and twisted it together behind
+with a stick; they bound two fingers together, and rubbed a ramrod up
+and down till the skin and flesh were burnt to the bone; they forced the
+victims into the oven, lit the straw behind them, and so they were
+obliged to creep through the flames. Ragamuffins were everywhere to be
+found who bargained with the soldiers, to betray their own neighbours.
+And these were not the most horrible torments. What was done to the
+women and maidens, to the old women and children, must be passed over in
+silence.
+
+Thus did the army misbehave amongst the people, dishonouring every bed,
+robbing every house, devastating every field, till they were themselves
+involved in the general ruin. And the destruction of these thirty years
+increased progressively. It was the years from 1635 to 1641 which
+annihilated the last powers of the nation; from that period to the
+peace, a death-like lassitude pervaded the country; it communicated
+itself to the armies, and one can easily understand that the bitter
+misery of the soldiers called for some consideration for the citizens
+and peasants. The remaining population were once more reduced to
+despair, as they had to pay the cost, maintenance, and peace subsidies
+for the standing army. And the army dispersed itself amongst the
+population.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+
+  THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.--THE VILLAGES AND THEIR PASTORS.
+
+
+  Oft have the soldier's sword
+  And jeering Croat horde,
+  With usage rude and fierce,
+  Threaten'd my heart to pierce.
+  Yet I drew unhurt my breath,
+  No mishap could bring me death.
+
+  In water, 'gainst my will,
+  Plunged deep, I far'd but ill;
+  Closed in a wat'ry grave,
+  God deign'd my life to save;
+  Wond'rous 'tis I was not drown'd;
+  Brought to land all safe and sound.
+
+  Into my mouth once or more,
+  As 'twere a tub, they did pour
+  A mess of liquid dung;
+  Four churls, cords round me strung;
+  Yet I drew unhurt my breath,
+  No mishap could bring me death.
+
+  One of an exile band,
+  There in Thuringia's land
+  At Notleben, I dwelt,
+  Till I God's blessing felt,
+  And to Heubach's parsonage pass'd
+  Where kind Heaven sent peace at last.
+
+  God's servant, here have I
+  The church kept orderly,
+  Have preach'd the word therein,
+  The bad expell'd, of sin
+  Absolv'd the penitent heart,
+  And labour'd truth to impart.
+
+    _From 'Four Christian Hymns of Martin Bötzinger_.' (1663.)
+
+Whoever could portray the desolation of the German people, would be able
+to explain to us the striking peculiarities of the modern German
+character; the remarkable mixture of fresh youth and hoary wisdom,
+aspiring enthusiasm, and vacillating caution; but above all, why we,
+among all the nations of Europe, still strive in vain after much which
+our neighbours, not more noble by nature, not more strongly organized,
+not more highly gifted, have long secured to themselves.
+
+The following documents will only furnish an unimportant contribution to
+such an explanation. Individual examples will render the ruin of the
+village and city communities comprehensible, and what counteracting
+power there was, together with the destroying power which supported the
+remaining vitality, and prevented the final annihilation of the nation.
+
+From these we shall see thoroughly the condition of one particular
+province, which suffered severely from the miseries of war, but not more
+than most other parts of Germany, not indeed so much as the Margravate
+of Brandenburg and many territories of Lower Saxony and Suabia. It is
+the Thuringian and Franconian side of the "Waldgebirge," which formed,
+in the middle of Germany, the boundary between the north and south; more
+especially the present Dukedoms of Gotha and Meiningen. The following
+details are taken from the church documents and parish records, and
+many, from the voluminous church and school stories which were published
+by clerical collectors in the former century.
+
+Germany was supposed to be a rich country in the year 1618. Even the
+peasants had acquired during the long peace a certain degree of
+opulence. The number of villages in Franconia and Thuringia was somewhat
+greater than now; they were not entirely without defences, and were
+often surrounded by broad ditches and palisades, or clay and stone
+walls; it was forbidden to form entrances in them, but at the end of the
+main streets were gates which were closed at night The churchyard was
+usually defended by particularly strong walls, and more than once it was
+used as the citadel and last refuge of the inhabitants. There were night
+and day patroles through the villages and fields. The houses were indeed
+ill formed and only of wood and clay, often crowded together in narrow
+village streets, but they were not deficient in comfort and household
+furniture. The villages were surrounded by orchards, and many fountains
+poured their clear waters into stone basins. Small poultry fluttered
+about the dung-heaps in the enclosed courtyards, immense troops of geese
+fed in the stubble fields, teams of horses stood in the stables, far
+more numerous than now, probably of a larger and stronger stamp; they
+were rustic descendants of the old knightly chargers, the pride and joy
+of their owners; and besides these were the "Kleppers," the small and
+ancient race of the country. The large parish herds of sheep and cattle
+grazed on the stony heights and on the rich grass marshes. The wool
+fetched a high price, and in many places much value was attached to a
+fine breed; the German cloths were famed, and these were the best
+articles of export. This national wool, the result of a thousand years
+of cultivation, was entirely lost to Germany during the war. The
+district round the village (where the old Franconian divisions of long
+strips were not maintained) was divided into three fields, which were
+much subdivided, and each division carefully stoned off. The fields were
+highly cultivated, and fine grained white wheat was sown in the winter
+fields. Woad was still zealously cultivated with great advantage in the
+north of the Rennstiegs. Although even before the war the foreign indigo
+competed with the indigenous dye, the yearly gain from the woad in
+Thuringia could be computed at three tons of gold; this was principally
+in the territory of Erfurt and the Dukedom of Gotha; besides this, anise
+and saffron produced much money; the cultivation of the teazel also was
+formerly indigenous, and the wild turnips, and (by the Rhine) the rape
+seed were sowed in the fellows. Flax was carefully prepared by steeping
+it in water, and the coloured flowers of the poppies, and the waving
+panicle of the millet, raised themselves in the corn-fields. But on the
+declivities of warmer situations in Thuringia and Franconia there were
+everywhere vineyards, and this old cultivation, which has now almost
+disappeared in those countries, must in favourable years have produced a
+very drinkable wine, as now on the lower range of the Waldgebirge; for
+the wine of particular years is noted in the chronicles as most
+excellent. Hops also were assiduously cultivated and made good beer.
+Everywhere they grew fodder, and spurry and horse-beans. The meadows,
+highly prized, and generally fenced in, were more carefully handled than
+two hundred years later; the mole-heaps were scattered, and the
+introduction and maintenance of drains and watercourses was general.
+Erfurt was already the centre of the great seed traffic, of garden
+cultivation, also of flowers and fine orchards. On the whole, when we
+compare one time with the other, the agriculture of 1618 was not
+inferior to that of 1818. It must be confessed in other respects also,
+our century has but restored what was lost in 1618.
+
+The burdens which the peasants had to bear both in service and taxes,
+were not small, and greatest of all on the properties of the nobles; but
+there were many free villages in that country, and the government of the
+rulers was less strict than in Southern Franconia or in Hesse. Many
+ecclesiastical properties had been broken up; many domains, and not a
+few of the nobles' estates, were farmed by tenants; leases were a
+favourite method of raising the rent of the ground. All this was for the
+advantage of the peasant. The damage done by game indeed occasioned
+great suffering, and there still continued much of the old bond-service
+on the property of the impoverished nobles. But the greater part of the
+country people were pronounced by lawyers, newly educated in the Roman
+law, to be possessors of their property; it was the greatest blessing
+bestowed by Roman law on the Germans in the sixteenth century. It is an
+error to suppose that the bureaucratic rule is a production of modern
+days; it already prevailed in those times, and the villages had often to
+pay the small travelling expenses of the ducal messenger who brought
+them their letters. It was already decided by superintending officials
+how many fire buckets every one was to procure, and how many doves were
+to be kept; they saw to the clearing of the fruit trees from
+caterpillars, the cleansing of the ditches, and the annual planting of
+young trees. The parish accounts had for nearly a hundred years been
+kept in an orderly manner, and inspected by the government of the
+country, as also the district certificates and registers of birth. There
+was also a good deal of commercial intercourse. A large commercial road
+passed through Thuringia, in a line almost parallel with the mountains,
+from the Elbe to the Rhine and Maine; and from the descent of the
+mountains near to the Werra, lay the military road which united the
+north of Germany with the south. The traffic on these unconstructed
+roads demanded numerous relays of horses, and brought to the villages
+gain, and news from the distant world, and many opportunities of
+spending money.
+
+After the Reformation there were schools, at least in all the villages
+where there was a church; the teachers were often divines, and sometimes
+there were schoolmistresses for the girls. Small sums were paid for the
+schooling, and a portion of the inhabitants of the village were
+initiated into the secrets of reading and writing. The difference
+between the countryman and the citizen was then still greater than now.
+The "stupid peasant" was the favourite object of ridicule in the rooms
+of the artisans, who attributed to him, as characteristic qualities,
+roughness, simplicity, disingenuous cunning, drunkenness, and love of
+fighting. But however retired his life then was, and poor in varied
+impressions, we should do him great injustice if we considered him
+essentially weaker or less worthy than he is now; on the contrary, his
+independence was not less, and was frequently better established. His
+ignorance of foreign states was undoubtedly greater, for there were as
+yet no regular gazettes or local papers for him, and he himself
+generally did not wander farther than to the nearest town, where he sold
+his products, or occasionally over the mountain when he had to drive
+cows; or if a Thuringian, to go to the woad market at Erfurt, if a
+Franconian, perhaps to Bamberg with his hops. Also in dress, language,
+and songs, he was not fashionable like the citizens; he preferred using
+old strong words, which they considered coarse; he swore and cursed
+after the ancient style, and his ceremonial of greeting was different
+from theirs, though not less precise. But his life was not on that
+account deficient in spirit, morals, or even in poetry. The German
+popular songs were still vigorous, and the countryman was the most
+zealous preserver of them; the peasant's feasts, his domestic life, his
+lawsuits, his purchases and sales, were rich in old picturesque customs
+and proverbs. The genuine German pleasure also in beautiful specimens of
+handicraft, in clean and artistic heir-looms, was then shared alike by
+the countryman and citizen. His household gear was superior to what it
+is now. Ornamental spinning-wheels, which still pass for a new
+invention, neatly carved tables, carved chairs and cupboards, have in
+some instances been preserved to our times, with the earthenware apostle
+jugs, and similar drinking-vessels, which may be bought by art
+collectors. Great were the treasures of the countrywomen in beds, linen,
+clothes, chains, medals, and other ornaments, and not less worthy of
+note were the numerous sausages and hams in the chimneys. A great deal
+of ready money lay concealed in the corners of chests, or carefully
+buried in pots or other vessels, for the collection of bright coins was
+an old pleasure to the peasantry; there had been peace as long as they
+could remember, and woad and hops brought a high price. The peasant had
+abundance, and was without many wants; he bought lace in the city for
+his clothes, and silver ornaments for his wife and daughters, spices for
+his sour wine, and whatever metal utensils and implements were necessary
+for his farm and kitchen. All the woollen and linen clothes were wove
+and made up by the women of the house, or the neighbour in the village.
+
+Thus did the peasant live in middle Germany, even after the year 1618.
+He heard in the ale-houses on Sunday of the war alarms in Bohemia,
+about which he cared little; he bought indeed a flying-sheet of a
+crafty dealer, or a satirical song on the outcast King of Bohemia; he
+gave some of his bread and cheese to a fugitive from Prague or Budweis,
+who came begging to his door, and shook his head as he listened to his
+tale of horror. An official messenger brought into the village an order
+from the sovereign, from which he found it was expected of him to
+deliver into the city, money and provision for the newly raised
+soldiers; he was indignant, and hastened to bury his treasures still
+deeper. It soon, however, became clear that bad times were approaching
+him also, for the money which he received in the town was very red, and
+all goods were dear; thus he was involved in the wretched confusion
+which after 1620 was brought upon the country by the coinage of bad
+gold. He went no longer to the city, but kept his corn and meat at home:
+he had constant disputes however with the townsmen and his neighbours,
+because he wished to rid himself of the new gold in his own payments,
+whilst he would receive only the good old money: his heart was full of
+ominous forebodings. Thus it went on till the year 1623. He then saw
+evil coming in another quarter; theft and burglary increased, foreign
+vagabonds were often seen on the high-roads, trumpeters rushed into the
+towns with bad news, hired soldiers, insolent and bragging, drew up
+before his farm demanding entertainment, stole sausages, and carried off
+his poultry in their knapsacks. _Defensioners_, the newly raised country
+militia, galloped into the village, quartered themselves upon him,
+demanded provisions, and molested him more than the rogues whom they
+were to drive away from the cattle-sheds.
+
+At last began--in Thuringia not till after 1623--the passage, of foreign
+troops through his country, and the great sufferings of the war fell
+upon him; foreign soldiers of strange appearance, reckless from blood
+and battle, marched into his village, occupied his house and bed, ill
+treated him and his, demanded provisions and other contributions besides
+gifts, and broke, destroyed, or plundered whatever came before their
+eyes. Thus it went on after 1626, worse and worse every year, troop
+followed upon troop, more than one army settled itself round him in
+winter quarters, the requisitions and vexations appeared endless. The
+yeoman saw with dismay that the foreign soldier had the power of
+tracing--which he ascribed to sorcery--the treasures which he had
+concealed deep in the earth; but if he had been too sly for them, his
+fate was still worse, for he himself was seized, and by torments which
+it would be painful to describe, compelled to make known the place where
+his treasure was concealed. On the fate of his wife and daughter we must
+remain silent; the most horrible was so common, that an exception, was
+extraordinary. Other sufferings also followed; his daughters,
+maid-servant, and his little children were not only maltreated, but were
+in imminent danger of being carried off by persuasion or force, for
+every army was followed by the coarse, worthless baggage-train of women
+and children. But the yeoman's homestead was devastated in still other
+ways; his farming-man had perhaps borne for some years the blows of the
+foreign soldiers, at last he himself was exposed to them; the team was
+dragged from the plough, the cattle were fetched from the meadow, and
+the tillage of the fields thus often rendered impossible. Yet pitiful
+and helpless as was his position in the beginning of the war, up to the
+death of Gustavus Adolphus, its horrors were comparatively bearable; for
+there was as yet a certain system even in plundering and destruction,
+some degree of discipline kept together the regular armies, and an
+occasional year passed without any great passage of troops. It is
+possible for us to discover at this time how many exactions were made on
+particular parishes, for there were already country authorities who sat
+in their offices, and after the passage of troops through a parish,
+demanded the usual liquidation of their loans, the amount of which was
+indeed seldom returned to them. Whoever will glance over the
+liquidations in the parish archives, will find the names of ill-famed
+commanders, whom he may know from history or Schiller's Wallenstein, in
+very near connection with the history of a Thuringian village.
+
+The effect produced by such a life of insecurity and torment on the
+souls of the country people, was very sad. Fear, trembling, and dread
+pervaded and enervated all hearts: their minds had always been full of
+superstition, now everything was sought for, with impulsive credulity,
+which could be significant of the attacks of supernatural powers. The
+most horrible countenances were seen in the heavens, the signs of
+fearful wickedness were discovered in numerous abortions, ghosts
+appeared, mysterious sounds were heard on earth and in the heavens. In
+Ummerstadt for example, in the dukedom of Hildburghausen, white crosses
+illuminated the heavens when the enemy entered; when they forced their
+way into the court of chancery, a spirit clothed in white met them and
+motioned them back, and no one could advance; after their departure, a
+violent breathing and sighing was heard for eight days in the choir of
+the church which had been burnt. At Gumpershausen a maid-servant made a
+great sensation through the whole country; she rejoiced in the visits of
+a little angel, who appeared, sometimes in a blue, sometimes in a red
+shirt sitting on the bed or by the table, cried out "Woe," warned
+against cursing and blasphemy, and predicted horrible bloodshed if men
+would not give up their vices, their pride, and their stiff blue
+ruffs,--then a new fashion. When we look at the zealous protocols which
+were drawn up by the ecclesiastics concerning the half-witted maiden, we
+find that the only circumstance which was matter of surprise to them,
+was that the angel did not visit themselves instead of a simple maiden.
+
+Not only terror, but a spirit of defiance and wild despair possessed all
+souls. A moral recklessness prevailed fearfully among the country
+people. Wives abandoned their husbands, children their parents; the
+customs, vices, and maladies of the passing armies left lasting traces,
+even when the pillagers had quitted the desolated and half-ruined
+villages. The brandy drinking, which had been introduced among the
+people since the Peasant war, became a general vice; respect for the
+property of others disappeared. In the beginning of the war the
+neighbouring villages were disposed to help one another; if the soldiers
+had driven away the cattle from one village, and disposed of them again
+at their next night-quarters, the buyers often returned their new
+purchase to the former proprietors at the purchase price. This was done
+in Franconia, by both Catholic and Protestant communities, out of pure
+kindness. Gradually, however, the country people began to rob and
+plunder like the soldiers; armed bands combined together, passed the
+frontiers into other villages, and carried off whatever they needed.
+They waylaid the stragglers of the regiments in dense woods or mountain
+passes, and often after a severe struggle took a bloody revenge on the
+vanquished; indeed, they far surpassed the skill of the soldiers in the
+contrivance of barbarities; and there were wooded hills, in whose shades
+the most horrible crimes were now committed by those who had formerly
+frequented them as peaceful wood-cutters and stone-breakers, singing
+their simple songs. There arose gradually a terrible hatred betwixt the
+soldiery and peasantry, which lasted till the end of the war, and caused
+more than anything else the ruin of the villages of Germany. There were
+feuds also between the provinces and individual towns; that which is
+related here was only a harmless one of that gloomy time.
+
+A violent enmity subsisted for many years after the war between the
+citizens of Eisfeld and the monastery of Banz, on account of the two
+fine-toned bells of their parish church, the "_Banzer_" and the
+"_Messe_." A Swedish officer had carried off both bells from Banz and
+sold them to the town. Twice, when the Catholic army was stationed at
+Eisfeld, the monks had come with waggons and ropes to fetch back their
+bells, but the first time they fell into a quarrel with a certain Croat
+who was quartered there, because they wished to take away with them the
+steeple clock. The Croat rushed upon the pious men with his sword, and
+he and his comrades ran up the tower and vehemently pulled the bell, so
+that the monks of Banz could not fetch it down, and were only able to
+take away the clock with them. The second time they did not succeed
+better; at last, after the peace, another bell was offered to them as
+compensation. But when they discovered this sentence upon it: "Preserve
+us, Lord, by thy word," they returned to their house shaking their
+heads. At last the pious Duke Ernest arranged the affair; he took for
+himself as a thank-offering the small bell, and hung it on the
+Friedenstein in Gotha.
+
+The villages did all in their power to defend themselves from the
+rapacity of the soldiers. As long as they had money, they endeavoured to
+buy off the officers who were sent forward to seek for quarters, and
+many rogues took advantage of their fears, and appearing under the
+disguise of quartermasters, levied heavy contributions on the deluded
+villagers. Watchmen were placed on the church towers and elevations of
+the plain, who gave signals if troops were visible in the distance. Then
+the countryman brought whatever he could save, and the women and
+children their movable chattels, hasting to some distant place of
+concealment. These hiding-places were selected with great sagacity; by a
+little additional labour they were made still more inaccessible, and for
+weeks, indeed months, the fugitives passed their anxious existence
+there. On the dark moor, midst ditches, rushes and elders, in the deep
+shade of woody glens, in old clay-pits, and amid the ruins of decaying
+walls, did they seek their last refuge. The countryman in many places
+still shows with emotion such spots. There is a large vault with an iron
+door in an old tower at Aspach, whither the Aspachers fled whenever
+small bands of soldiers approached the village; for a more distant
+refuge they had a field of many acres, overgrown with thick hornbeam,
+and there they planted thorns which from the fertility of the soil grew
+into large trees and became like a thick wall. Within this barricade,
+which could only be attained by creeping on the belly, the villagers
+often concealed themselves. After the war the thorns were rooted up, and
+the land changed into hop, and afterwards cabbage grounds. But a portion
+of this land is still called the "Schutzdorn," "thorn-defence." When the
+soldiers had withdrawn, the fugitives returned and repaired with their
+scanty means what had been laid waste. Often, indeed, they found only a
+smoking pile.
+
+All however who fled did not return. The more wealthy sought a refuge
+for themselves and their property in the cities, where martial
+discipline was a little more rigorous, and the danger less. Many also
+fled into another country, and if they were threatened by enemies there,
+again into another; and most of them assuredly had not less misery to
+suffer there. Those who remained in the country did not all return to
+their own fields. The wild life in hiding-places and woods, the rough
+pleasure in deeds of violence and pillage, turned the boldest of them
+into robbers; provided with rusty weapons, which they had perhaps taken
+from some dead marauder, they carried on a lawless life under the
+mountain pines, as companions of wolves and crows, as poachers and
+highwaymen.
+
+Thus did the population of the plains decrease with frightful rapidity.
+Even in the time of the King of Sweden many villages were entirely
+abandoned, the beasts of the woods roamed about among the blackened
+rafters, and perhaps the tattered figure of some old beldame or cripple
+might be seen. From that time ruin increased to such an extent, that
+nothing like it can be found in modern history. To the destructive
+demons of the sword were added others, not less fearful and still more
+voracious. The land was little cultivated and the harvest was bad. An
+unheard-of rise in prices ensued, famine followed, and in the years 1635
+and 1636 a pestilence attacked the enfeebled population, more terrible
+than had raged for more than a century in Germany. It spread its pall
+slowly over the whole of Germany, over the soldier as well as over the
+peasant, armies were dissipated under its parching breath, many places
+lost half their inhabitants, and in some villages in Franconia and
+Thuringia there remained only a few individuals. The little strength
+which had remained in one corner of the land was now broken. The war
+raged on still twelve long years after this time of horror, but it had
+become weaker, the armies were smaller, the operations without plan or
+stability, from the want of provisions and animals, but where the fury
+of war still blazed, it devoured mercilessly what remained of life. The
+people reached the lowest depths of misfortune; a dull apathetic
+brooding became general. Of the country people of this last period there
+is little to be told; they vegetated, reckless and hopeless, but few
+accounts of them are to be found in village records, parish books, and
+small chronicles. They had forgotten in the villages the art of writing,
+nay even their crying grievances. Where an army had carried devastation
+and famine raged, men and dogs ate of the same corpse, and children were
+caught and slaughtered. A time had now come when those who had held out
+during twenty years of suffering, laid violent hands on themselves; we
+read this in the accounts of ambassadors, who for years worked in vain
+for peace.
+
+It may be asked how, after such sufferings and utter ruin, the survivors
+could still form a German nation, who at the conclusion of peace could
+again cultivate the country, pay taxes, and after vegetating in poverty
+for a century, again engender energy, enthusiasm, and a new life in art
+and science. It is certainly probable that the country people would have
+entirely scattered themselves in roving bands, and that the cities would
+never have been in a condition to produce a new national life, if three
+powerful causes had not contributed to preserve the German countryman
+from being altogether lost,--his love of his paternal acres; the
+endeavours of the magistracy; and above all, the zeal of those who had
+the care of his soul, the village pastors. The love of the peasant for
+his own field, which works inimically against the most benevolent
+agrarian laws, is even now a strong feeling, but in the seventeenth
+century was still more powerful. For the peasant knew very little of the
+world beyond his own village, and it was difficult for him to pass the
+boundaries which separated him from other vocations, or from
+establishing himself on the property of other lords. He ever returned
+with tenacity from his hiding-place to his devastated farm, and
+endeavoured to collect together the trampled corn, or to sow the few
+seeds he had been able to preserve. When his last beast had been stolen,
+he harnessed himself to the plough. He took care not to give his house a
+habitable appearance; he accustomed himself to dwell amidst dirt and
+ruins, and concealed the flickering fire of his hearth from the gaze of
+marauders, who might perhaps be seeking in the night for some warm
+resting-place. He hid his scanty meal in a place which would disgust
+even a reckless enemy, in ditches and coffins, and under skulls. Thus he
+lived under the powerful pressure of habit, however little hope there
+might be that his labour would prove advantageous to him. If a landed
+proprietor stood valiantly by his village, even in times of comparative
+tranquillity, he accompanied his beasts to the fields, armed to the
+teeth, ready to fight against any robbers who might pounce down on him.
+
+It was no less the interest of the landed proprietor and his officials,
+than of the peasant himself, to preserve the villages. The smaller the
+number of tax-payers became, the higher was the tax on the few who
+remained. The rulers, from the cities in which they resided occupied
+themselves during the whole war through their officials, bailiffs, and
+receivers, with the fate of the villages, nay even of individuals. The
+keeping of the parish records was only interrupted during the most
+troubled time, and was always recommenced. Certificates, reports,
+memorials, and rescripts passed hither and thither amidst all the
+misery.[29] Petitions for remission of rents and liquidation of costs
+were incessantly demanded, and many a poor schoolmaster obediently gave
+his service as parish writer whilst the snow floated into his schoolroom
+through the shattered windows, the parish chests lay broken in the
+streets, and the parishioners, whose accounts he was writing, went armed
+into the woods with dark illegal projects, which were never reported to
+the government. Useless as this system of writing in many cases was, it
+formed numerous links which bound individuals more closely to their
+states; and in the pauses of the war, and at the conclusion of it, was
+of the greatest importance, for it had preserved the mechanism of the
+administration.
+
+It was however to the country clergy and their holy office that the
+maintenance of the German people is chiefly owing. Their influence was
+undoubtedly not less in the Catholic than in the Protestant provinces,
+though there remain few accounts of it; for the Catholic village pastors
+were then as averse to writing as the evangelical were fond of it. But
+the Protestant pastors had a far greater share in the mental cultivation
+of their time. The Reformers had made the German learned education
+essentially theological, and the village clergy were, in the estimation
+of the noble proprietors and peasantry, the representatives of this
+intelligence. They were generally well skilled in the ancient languages,
+and expert in writing Latin and elegiac verses. They were powerful
+disputants, and much experienced in dogmatic controversy, stubborn and
+positive, and full of zealous indignation against the followers of
+Schwenkfeld, Theophrast, Rosenkreuz, and Weigelia, and their teaching
+was more full of hatred to heretics than love towards their
+fellow-creatures. Their influence on the consciences of the laity had
+made them arrogant and imperious, and the most gifted among them were
+more occupied with politics than was good for their characters. If an
+order may be considered responsible for the imperfection of the mental
+cultivation of the period, which it has not formed, but only represents,
+the Lutheran ecclesiastics were deeply and fatally guilty of the
+devastation of mind, the unpractical weakness, and the dry wearisome
+formalism which frequently appeared in German life. The ecclesiastics,
+as an order, were neither accommodating nor especially estimable, and
+even their morality was narrow-minded and harsh. But all these errors
+they atoned for in times of poverty, calamity, and persecution, more
+especially the poor village pastors. They were exposed to the greatest
+dangers, hated in general by the Imperial soldiers, and obliged by their
+office to bring themselves under the observation of the enemy; and the
+rough usage which they, their wives, and daughters had to suffer,
+fatally injured their consideration in their own parish. They were
+maintained by the contributions of their parishioners, and were not
+accustomed, and ill fitted to obtain their daily food by bodily labour;
+they were the greatest sufferers from any decrease in the wealth,
+morality, or population of their villages. One must bear witness that a
+very great number of them endured all these dangers as true servants of
+Christ. Most of them adhered to their parishes almost to the very last
+man. Their churches were plundered and burnt, chalice and crucifix
+stolen, the altar desecrated with disgusting ordures, and the bells torn
+from the towers and carried away. Then they held divine service in a
+barn, or an open field, or in the cover of a green wood. When the
+parishioners had almost perished, so that the voice of the singer was
+heard no more, and the penitential hymns were no longer intoned by the
+chanter, they still called the remains of their congregation together at
+the hour of prayer. They were vigorous and zealous both in giving
+comfort and in exercising discipline; for the greater the misery of
+their parishioners, the more reason they had to be dissatisfied with
+them. Frequently they were the first to suffer from the demoralization
+of the villagers: theft and insolent wantonness were willingly practised
+against those whose indignant looks and solemn admonitions had
+heretofore overawed them. Hence their fate is particularly
+characteristic of that iron time, and we happily possess numerous
+records concerning them, frequently in church documents, in which they
+bemoaned their sufferings, when no one would listen to them. From such
+records of Thuringian and Franconian village pastors, only a few
+examples will here be given.
+
+Magister Michael Ludwig was pastor at Sonnenfeld, about 1633; there he
+preached to his parishioners in the wood under the canopy of heaven;
+they were called together by the sound of the trumpet, instead of the
+bell, and it was necessary to place an armed watch whilst he preached;
+thus he continued for eight years, till his parishioners entirely
+disappeared. A Swedish officer then appointed him preacher to his
+regiment; he was afterwards made president of the army consistory at
+Torstenson, and superintendent at Wismar. Georg Faber preached at
+Gellershausen, read prayers daily to three or four hearers, always at
+the risk of his life: he rose every morning at three o'clock and learned
+his sermon entirely by heart; besides that, he wrote learned treatises
+upon the books of the Bible.
+
+In the neighbouring towns of the interior, the clergy had as much to
+undergo. For example, the rector at Eisfeld, about 1635, was Johann
+Otto, a young man who had just married; he had in the worst times kept
+the whole school during eight years, with only one teacher, and provided
+the choir also gratis. The smallness of his income may be seen from the
+notes which the excellent man has written in his Euclid: "2 days
+thrashing in autumn, 1 day working in the wood in 1646. 2 days thrashing
+in January, 1647. 5 days thrashing in February, 1647. 4 marriage letters
+written. Item, 1/2 day binding oats, and one day reaping," and so on. He
+persevered, and administered his office honourably for forty-two years.
+His successor, the great Latin scholar, Johann Schmidt, teacher of the
+celebrated Cellarius, had become a soldier, and when on guard at the
+Royal Castle was reading a Greek poet; this was perceived by his officer
+with astonishment, and was mentioned by him to Ernest the Good, who made
+him a teacher.
+
+The superintendent at the same place, Andreas Pochmann, was, when an
+orphan, carried off with two little brothers by the Croats. He escaped
+with his brothers in the night. Later, when a Latin scholar, he was
+again taken prisoner by the soldiers, was made an officer's servant, and
+then a musketeer. But he continued to study in the garrison, and found
+among his comrades students from Paris and London, with whom he kept up
+his Latin. Once, when a soldier, he was lying sick by the watch fire,
+under his sleeve was the powder pouch, with a pound and a half of
+powder, the flames reached the sleeve and burnt half of it; the powder
+pouch was unconsumed. When he awoke he found himself alone, the camp was
+abandoned, and he had not a penny of money. Then he found two thalers in
+the ashes. With this he struck across to Gotha; on the way, he turned
+off to Langensalza, to a lonely small house near the walls: an old woman
+received the wearied man, and laid him on a bed. It was the plague
+nurse, and the bed was a plague bed, for the malady was then raging in
+the city; he remained unhurt. His life, like that of most of his
+cotemporaries, was full of wonderful escapes, sudden changes, and
+unexpected succour, of deadly perils, penury, and frequent changes of
+place. These times must be accurately observed, in order to understand
+how, just at a period when millions were brought to ruin and
+destruction, there was fostered in the survivors a deep belief in that
+Divine Providence, which, in a wonderful way, encompassed the lives of
+men.
+
+From almost every village church one can obtain reminiscences of the
+sufferings, self-devotion, and perseverance of their pastors. It must be
+said, that only the strongest minds came out unscathed in such times.
+The endless insecurity, the want of support, the lawless proceedings of
+the soldiers and of their own parishioners, made many of them petty in
+their ideas, cringing and beggarly. We will give one example among many.
+Johanne Elfflein, pastor at Simau after 1632, was so poor that he was
+obliged to work as a day labourer, to cut wood in the forest, to dig and
+to sow; twice he received either alms from the poor-box at Coburg, or
+what was placed there at the baptism of children. At last the consistory
+at Coburg sold one of the chalices of the church to procure bread for
+him. He considered it an especial piece of good fortune, when he had
+once to perform the funeral of a distinguished noble, for then he got a
+good old rix-dollar, and a quarter of corn. When shortly afterwards he
+confidentially complained to a neighbour of his want of food, and the
+latter replied with desperate resolution, he knew well what he should do
+in such a case, then, firm in faith, Magister Elfflein said, "My God
+will provide means that I shall not die of hunger; He will cause a rich
+nobleman to die, that I may obtain money, and a quarter of corn." He
+considered it was ordained by Providence, when soon after, this
+melancholy event actually occurred. His situation was so pitiable, that
+even the rapacious soldiers, when they sent their lads in the
+neighbourhood after booty, emphatically ordered them to leave the pastor
+at Simau unmolested, as the poor simpleton had nothing for himself. At
+last he got another parish.
+
+At the source of the Itz, where the mountains decline in high terraces
+towards the Main, lies the old village of Stelzen, a holy place even in
+heathen times. Close to the church, from the corner of a spacious
+cavern, overshadowed by primeval beech and lime trees, springs up a
+miraculous well; near the well, before the Reformation, stood a chapel
+to the Holy Virgin, and many a time did hundreds of counts and noblemen,
+with numberless other people, flock together there as pilgrims. The
+village was entirely burnt down at Michaelmas, 1632, only the church,
+the school, and shepherd's hut remained standing. The pastor, Nicholas
+Schubert, wrote to the authorities in the winter as follows: "I have
+saved nothing but my eight poor, little, naked, hungry children. I
+continue to dwell _ex mandato_ in the very old, and on account of the
+want of a chimney, a floor and so forth, dangerous school-house, where I
+can neither attend to my studies, nor do anything for my support. For I
+have neither food nor clothes, _longe enim plura deficiunt_. Given at my
+castle of misery, Stelzen, 1633. Your willing servant, and obedient poor
+burnt-out pastor, Nicholas Schubert." Shortly he was removed. His
+successor likewise was pillaged, and stabbed in the left hip with a
+rapier; he too was removed; a second successor also was unable to
+maintain himself there. After that, the parsonage house was uninhabited
+for fifteen years, but the neighbouring pastor, Götz of Sachsendorf,
+came every third Sunday, and performed service in the ruined village.
+For two years there came no pence to the church coffers. At last, in
+1647, the church was entirely burned to the bare walls.
+
+Gregory Ewald was pastor at Königsberg; in 1632, Tilly burnt down the
+city, and Ewald was taken prisoner in a vineyard by two Croats, and
+robbed; when they could not withdraw a gold ring from his finger they
+prepared to cut off the finger, but at last had so much consideration
+that they took only the skin with the ring, and demanded a thousand
+dollars ransom. Ewald released himself by this stratagem; he took the
+simple soldier, who was left with him to fetch the ransom, first to the
+door of a cellar in order to give him a drink of wine, and under the
+pretext of fetching the key he escaped. In his great necessity he took
+an appointment as Swedish army chaplain, and after the battle of
+Nördlingen, lived as an exile for a year in a foreign country, from
+thence he returned to his ruined parish, where for some years he and his
+family endured want and misery.
+
+Among the most instructive of the biographical accounts of Protestant
+pastors, is that of the Franconian pastor, Martin Bötzinger. We see with
+horror, both the village life in the time of the war, and the
+demoralization of the inhabitants, distinctly portrayed in his
+narrative. Bötzinger was not a man of great character, and the
+lamentable lot he had to bear did not strengthen it; indeed, we can
+hardly deny him the predicate of a right miserable devil. Nevertheless
+he possessed two qualities which render him estimable to us, an
+indestructible energy with which there was not the slightest frivolity
+united; and that determined German contentment which takes the brightest
+view of the most desolate situations. He was a poet. His German verses
+are thoroughly pitiful, as may be seen by the specimen heading this
+chapter, but they served him as elegant begging letters by which, in
+the worst times, he endeavoured to procure sympathy. He celebrated all
+the officials and receivers of the parish of Heldburg in an epic poem,
+as also the melancholy condition of Coburg, where he tarried for a
+certain time as a fugitive.
+
+Of the career which he noted down, the beginning and the last portion
+were already torn out when Krauss, in 1730, incorporated it in his
+history of the Hildburghaus church, school, and province. The following
+is faithfully transcribed from this fragment; only the series of events
+which are intermingled in his autobiography are here arranged according
+to years. Bötzinger was a collegian at Coburg and a student at Jena,
+during the _Kipper_ time;[30] and in 1626, he became pastor at
+Poppenhausen. In the spring of 1627, the young pastor entertained the
+idea of marrying the only daughter of Michael Böhme, burgher and
+counsellor at Heldburg, whose name was Ursula.
+
+"In the year 1627, on the Tuesday after the Jubilate, all necessary
+preparations being made, on this very day, a body of eight thousand men,
+people from Saxe Lauenburg, together with the Prince himself, encamped
+before Heldburg; pitched their camp on the cropped ground, and in eight
+days ruined the city and land belonging to the corporation, so that
+neither calf nor lamb, beer nor wine, could any more be procured.
+Provisions were brought from all the neighbouring districts, and yet
+even the royal officers and officials could hardly be maintained. They
+were, on account of the cold, quartered some days in the city and
+villages. It was then, for the first time, I was plundered in the
+parsonage house at Poppenhausen, for not only had I not secured
+anything, but rather had I made preparation as if I had to lodge an
+honourable guest or officer; I lost my linen, bedding, shirts, and so
+forth, for I did not yet know that the soldiers were robbers, and took
+everything away with them. The prince of the country, Duke Casimir, was
+himself obliged to journey to Heldburg; he ordered for the Lauenburger a
+princely banquet; he presented him with fine horses and eight thousand
+thalers if he would only take himself away. After this misfortune, the
+blessing of God made itself miraculously visible everywhere. Owing to
+the thousands of huts, quarters and fires, which made the fields look
+like a wilderness, it was thought that the winter seed was lost in the
+ground. Nevertheless, there grew from these burnt huts and ditches so
+thick a crop, that in the same year, there was a superfluity of winter
+food. A miracle! Thus my wedding could take place on the Tuesday after
+the _Exaudi_, and was celebrated at the Town Hall.
+
+"For five years there was rest in the land till 1632, except that
+several Imperial corps, consisting of two, three, or more regiments,
+passed to and fro, who often took up their quarters in the township of
+Heldburg, and exhausted it. I wanted for nothing at Poppenhausen. I
+could wish that I was now as well off as I was before the war. As,
+however, the fury of war at last arrived, the neighbouring bishops began
+to reform vigorously; sent Jesuits and monks with diplomas into the
+country, and examined the ecclesiastical benefices and monasteries. The
+princes had their militia here and there, who now and then pilfered in
+the neighbouring Papal states, and stirred up the hornets there. Every
+intelligent person could discover that things would become worse. The
+noblemen also fled with their pastors, bailiffs, and all belonging to
+them, to our little towns and villages, hoping for greater security
+there than in their own places.
+
+"In 1631, at Michaelmas, King Gustavus came from Sweden suddenly through
+the wood, just as if he had wings. He took Königshofen and many other
+places, and went on very flourishingly. Our nobles enlisted people for
+the king, who were as bad as the enemy in pilfering and robbing. They
+more especially took from the neighbouring Catholics their cows, horses,
+pigs, and sheep; then was there a great sale; a ducat for one cow, and a
+thaler for a pig. The Papists often came hither and saw how and who
+bought their cattle, and frequently redeemed them themselves. They were
+however so often taken, that they wearied of redeeming them, and it went
+ill with the poor neighbouring Papists. We all at Poppenhausen preserved
+for those in the neighbourhood, their bits of property in churches and
+houses, as far as we could. But when in the year 1632, the tables were
+turned, and the three Generals, the Friedlander, Tilly, and the Bavarian
+prince, took possession of Coburg and the country, the neighbouring
+Papists helped to rob and burn, and we found no faith or safety with
+them.
+
+"When on the eve of Michaelmas, all the guns were heard from Coburg, as
+a signal that the enemy was approaching, and every one took care of
+himself, I went with all those whom I had lodged for some weeks, to
+Heldburg, where I had previously sent my wife and child. The town was on
+its guard, but did not imagine what evil would betide it; the
+burgomaster and some of the councillors ran away, my father-in-law of
+blessed memory, having the charge of the powder, lead, and linstocks,
+which he served out to the guard as need required, was obliged to remain
+in the town. I had a great desire to leave the town with my wife and
+children, but he would not let me go, and still less his daughter, and
+bade us remain at home; he had a tolerable purse of thalers with which
+he intended to make off in case of disaster. But before midday on the
+feast of St. Michael, fourteen horsemen presented themselves; they were
+supposed to be Duke Bernhard's people, but it was very far from the
+case. These they were obliged to admit without thanks for it. They were
+soon followed by some infantry, who from the beginning searched about
+everywhere, and knocked down and shot whoever resisted them. In the
+middle of the market, one of these fourteen struck my father-in-law with
+a pistol on the head, so that he fell down like an ox. The horseman
+dismounted, and searched his hosen, and our citizens who were at the
+Town Hall saw that the thief drew out from thence a large mass of money.
+When the stupefaction from the blow had passed away, my father-in-law
+stood up: he was made to go to the Star Inn, where they found somewhat
+to eat, but nothing to drink; then he said he would go home and bring
+some drink. Now as they thought he might escape them, they took the
+platters and food with them, and accompanied him to his house. It was
+not long before one of them demanded money; and when he excused himself,
+the scoundrel stabbed him with his own bread-knife in the presence of
+his wife and mine, so that he sank to the ground. 'God help us!'
+screamed out my wife and child. I, who was hid in the bath-house, in the
+straw over the stable, sprang down and ventured amongst them. The wonder
+was that they did not catch me in the parson's cap. I took my
+father-in-law, who was reeling about like a drunken man, into the
+bath-room, that he might be bandaged. I was obliged to look on whilst
+they took off from your mother[31] her shoes and clothes, and laid hold
+of you, my son Michael, in their arms; hereupon they quitted the house
+and the street. I went from the little court of the bath-house to my
+father-in-law's room; I carried over there pillows and mattresses,
+whereon we laid him. I had to venture still further. I went into the
+cellar, wherein his brother, Herr George Böhm, pastor at Lindenau, had
+placed in three large butts, two tons of good wine. I wished to fetch a
+refreshing drink for my father-in-law, but the vent peg was so carefully
+and firmly driven into the butt that although I pulled out the spigot
+nothing would flow. I was obliged to stay a long time, at great risk,
+before I could get a spoonful. I had hardly gone over there, before a
+scoundrel went into the bath-house, threw the invalid off the bed, and
+searched everywhere. I had crept under the sweating bench, where indeed
+I got a good sweating, for the day before had been the bath day.
+
+"As there was now a great butchery and shooting down in the town, so
+that no one was secure, divers citizens came at intervals to have
+themselves bandaged. Then my father-in-law consented that I should seek
+for a hiding-place and leave the town, but would not let my wife and
+children accompany me. So I went to the castle garden, and ascended the
+height behind the castle, that I might look out towards Holzhausen and
+Gellershausen, to see if it was safe. Then the citizens and their wives
+came to me for comfort and to journey with me. Thus I crossed over the
+Hundshanger lake into the wood, and wished to go up to Strauchhahn. When
+we came to the common, eight horsemen, who were Croats, rode up the
+heights. As soon as they saw us they hastily galloped up to us. Two
+citizens, Kührlein and Brehme, escaped; I had most to endure. They took
+off my shoes, stockings, and hosen, and left me only my cap. With my
+hosen I had to give up my purse full of money, which I had hid there
+three hours before, and thus had preserved from the first pilferers. The
+danger was so urgent that I did not think of my purse till I saw it for
+the last time. They demanded first a thousand thalers, then five
+hundred, and lastly a hundred, for my life. I had to go with them to
+their quarters, and to run with them a whole hour barefoot. At last they
+perceived that I was a _pap_ or _pfaff_, which I also confessed; then
+they began to thrust at me with their sabres without discretion, and I
+held my hands and arms towards them, and through God's protection only
+got a few wounds on the wrist.
+
+"Meanwhile they discovered a peasant who had hidden himself in some
+bushes. It was the rich Kaspar of Gellershausen, so they all rode off to
+him, and only one remained with me, who was by birth a Swede, and had
+been made prisoner. This one said to me, 'Priest, priest, run, run,
+otherwise you must die.' He was a good Swede: I placed confidence in
+his counsel, and begged of him to feign to ride after me, as if he
+would fetch me back. Thus it happened that I escaped the Croats. But the
+rich Kaspar met a miserable death at that place; for as he would not
+come forth from thence, they hewed off his legs, as I saw, at the
+knees. Therefore he was obliged to lie in that place, where after their
+withdrawal he was found. But I ran through a great oak wood for almost
+an hour, and could see no thick bushes wherein to conceal myself, and
+fell at last into a pool of water out of which an oak root had grown,
+and I was so tired of running that I could go no further, and my heart
+beat so that I knew not whether it was the horses' hoofs that I heard,
+or my heart.
+
+"Thus I sat till it was night; then I rose up and continued in search of
+a thick cover, till I came out and could see Seidenstadt. I slipped into
+the village, and as I heard dogs bark, I hoped to find people at home,
+but there was no one; I therefore went into a shed, and was desirous of
+passing the night on the hay. But God granted that the neighbours, who
+had hid themselves in Strauchhahn, had come together behind this shed,
+and took counsel where they should reassemble, and where they should go
+to. This I could distinctly hear. I therefore descended and went to the
+house. The peasant had just come in, had struck a light, and was
+standing in the cellar taking the cream off the milk, which he intended
+to drink. I was standing above the opening, spoke to him and greeted
+him; he looked up and saw the under part of my body, namely, my shirt
+and naked legs, and it was dark above. He was much frightened; but when
+I told him that I was the pastor at Poppenhausen, who had been carried
+off by the soldiers, he brought the milk up, and I begged him to procure
+me some clothes of his neighbours, as I wished to accompany them
+wherever they were going. He went out, and meanwhile I regaled myself on
+his pot of milk, and entirely emptied it. In my whole life no milk had
+ever tasted so good. He came back with others, and one of them brought
+me a pair of old leather hosen, which smelt badly of cart-grease,
+another a pair of old latchet shoes, and another two woollen stockings,
+one green and one white. This livery was not suitable either for a
+traveller or for a pastor; yet I took it with thanks, but could not wear
+the shoes, for they were frozen too stiff. The soles of the stockings
+were torn, thus I went to Hildburghausen more barefooted than shod. When
+we looked around us we saw that many places in Itzgrund were in flames.
+At that time, Ummerstadt, Rodach, Eisfeld, and Heldburg were burnt to
+the ground.
+
+"I was, on my arrival, such a spectacle as to create terror and fear at
+Hildburghausen; no one--though many thousand strangers had come
+there--felt secure, although the city had a strong guard. My only
+anxiety was to get a respectable dress, stockings, shoes, &c., before we
+departed from thence. I went, therefore, barefoot to the burgomaster,
+Paul Walz, and to the curate, and begged them to give me something to
+clothe me respectably. Herr Walz gave me an old hat which was almost an
+ell in height, which disfigured me more than anything else; nevertheless
+I put it on. Herr Schnetters Eidam, now curate at Römhild, gave me a
+pair of hosen, which came over my knees, these were still good, Herr
+Dressel a pair of black stockings, and the sexton a pair of shoes. Thus
+I was rigged out, so that I could appear without being ashamed before so
+many thousand strangers, who had sought security in the town; and could
+show myself amongst the citizens. But the hat disfigured me very much,
+therefore I sought an opportunity to obtain another. Now it came to pass
+that the whole ministry, the authorities of the high school and
+councillors, had agreed, without the knowledge of the citizens
+generally, that they would have the gates opened at nine o'clock at
+night, and go away with their wives and children: having learned this, I
+went to the lodging of the town-clerk, where the gentlemen were all
+assembled; but no one knew or noticed me. I placed myself alone by a
+table in the dark; there I discovered that a good respectable hat was
+hanging on a nail. I thought that if this should remain hanging on the
+breaking up of the assembly, it would suit me. What matter; all would be
+ruined after the flight. What I wished and thought came to pass: then
+there began a wailing and leave-taking on their departure, and I laid my
+head on the table as if I were asleep. Now when almost every one was
+gone, I hung the long stork on the wall, made the exchange, and went
+with the other gentlemen into the street.
+
+"The arrangements for flight now became known to the people. Countless
+numbers therefore sat with their packages in the streets; horses were
+put also to many waggons and carts, all prepared to go out of the gate
+with those who were departing. When we came into the open country we saw
+that the good people were all dispersed about the streets. There were
+thousands of lighted torches to be seen, some had lanterns, some burning
+wisps of straw, others links. In short some thousands came mournfully
+out. I and my flock came about midnight to Themar, the townspeople there
+rose up and joined us, so that some hundreds more were added to us. The
+march proceeded to Schwarzig and Steinbach, and when towards morning we
+arrived at a village, the people were so terrified that they abandoned
+their houses and farms and accompanied us. When we had been about an
+hour at an inn, the news came that the Croats had fallen upon Themar
+this very morning, had cut up the escort and plundered the carrier's
+goods; had split the burgomaster's head, robbed the church, and carried
+the organ pipes off to the market; and it was high time for us to have
+evacuated it. Hildburghausen had afterwards to ransom itself by a large
+sum of money and its chalices, otherwise the town would like all the
+others have been reduced to ashes. During this wandering I got also a
+present of a pair of gloves, a knife, and a sheath.
+
+"This lasted five or six days, then came the news announcing that the
+enemy had departed from Coburg. Now I could not remain any longer. I
+went speedily to Römhild, where lived my honoured godfather Cremer, the
+town-clerk. I had to report to the worthy magistrate what had happened
+to me. This little town alone remained unplundered. The worthy
+magistrate had ordered the enemy to be fired upon, and by his foresight
+God preserved this little town. Meanwhile Römhild became full of
+refugees, who were partly known and partly unknown. But I did not then
+care for any society; so I set off for Heldburg, and passing many
+hundred men, arrived there first, just when the slain were being brought
+on carts to the burial-ground. When I perceived this I went to the
+burial-ground, and found seventeen persons lying in one grave, among
+them were three councillors, one my father-in-law, the precentor, some
+citizens, a tutor, the country beadle, and town constable. They were all
+horribly disfigured. After this I went to my mother-in-law's house; I
+found her so ill and so disfigured from being broken on the wheel, and
+pinched with pistol screws, that she could hardly speak to me; she made
+up her mind that she should die. So she desired me to seek my wife and
+children whom the enemy had carried away with them. The children were
+you, Michael, a year and a half, and your eldest sister, five years old.
+I would gladly have eaten something at Heldburg, but there was nothing
+either to eat or drink. I speeded therefore hungry and terrified to
+Poppenhausen, not only to refresh myself there, but to procure a
+messenger who would seek and recover my wife and children. But I learnt
+there that the Poppenhausen children had also been carried away, and
+that there were marching columns on many roads, so that the life of a
+messenger would be in deadly peril. Meanwhile my parishioners dressed a
+cow for me, which had escaped the soldiers; this I looked for with a
+hungry stomach. So we had meat enough to eat, but without salt and
+bread. After my repast I learned by post that my wife was come, and thus
+it had come to pass. She had been taken with her two children, by some
+musketeers, to Altenhausen, where, from fear of dishonour, she and her
+children had sprung over the bridge into the water. From thence she was
+drawn out by the soldiers, and brought into the village, where she was
+made to help in the kitchen to prepare the supper. Meanwhile there came
+another troop of soldiers who were higher in rank and more in number,
+and drove the others from their quarters. My wife took this opportunity
+to escape. She wended her way out, and left the two children with the
+soldiers. A poor beggar-woman led her through secret byways out of the
+village, and brought her to an old cave in a wood, where she passed that
+night and remained the next day till evening. On that day the people
+came forth from all quarters, and thus my wife set out and came safe and
+unharmed to me, so that we were all joyful and thankful to God.
+
+"How murder and fire meanwhile had gone on at Heldburg, I will also
+relate. The town of Heldburg had militia and trained bands, and it was
+ordered that if the enemy came there, the city should be defended. For
+it was always hoped that Duke Bernhard's people were not far distant,
+and that the country would be relieved. When therefore the town was
+fired, my honoured father-in-law, with many citizens and other folks,
+hastened out of the town, and arrived in the night with my wife and two
+children to Poppenhausen, and my wife prepared him a good invalid bed.
+For my parsonage house had been filled with all kinds of furniture left
+by noblemen and magistrates in their flight; and although pilferers had
+been there, there was enough still left. The following day a whole troop
+of horsemen came to the parsonage, examined my belongings, but let them
+alone because there was one there who was wounded: they ordered supper
+and went out to plunder, and returned towards evening, bringing all
+kinds of booty; then it was necessary to boil and roast, and the
+neighbouring women helped thereto with good will. When the horsemen were
+about to depart, they advised my father-in-law not to be too confident,
+as this tumult would last yet eight days, and as the road led past
+there, he and his daughter might suffer violence, and as the
+neighbouring villages were Popish, he had better remove to a Protestant
+one. This my father-in-law did, and went at night in the fog for
+security to Gleichmuthrusen; but the ungodly neighbours screamed out
+that the horsemen wished to burn and slay the Lutherans, but they did it
+for their advantage, as the Papists had gone with the troopers into our
+villages and houses and stolen as much as others. Then my father-in-law
+did not like to remain there any longer, he went with his belongings to
+Einöder wood and remained there day and night. He occasionally went
+forth to examine the road between Heldburg and Einöder. When therefore
+one day he saw no one especial on the road, either travelling or riding,
+and heard the little bell which was wont to be sounded when children
+were baptized, he thought, such being the case, he might creep nearer
+the town, and see whether there was any hindrance along the road. As
+soon as he came to the town his steps were watched. Then a whole body of
+camp followers came and took him, my mother-in-law, and my wife to the
+house of Herr Göckel. Ah! there was banqueting and revelling! Being now
+urged to give money and making various excuses, they singed and smeared
+his eyes, beard, and mouth with tallow candles, and endeavoured
+shamelessly to maltreat my wife in the room before every one, but she
+screamed so that her mother sprang violently into the room and drew her
+out through the door, which indeed was fastened, but the under panel had
+been ingeniously covered with list, and was fractured. Then the cook had
+compassion upon her, and brought her out of the house; and when my wife
+gave him some ducats, which she had for a whole week concealed in the
+cuff of her sleeve, he brought to her my father-in-law, who however was
+horribly disfigured. Thus they left the town more dead than alive, and
+being too weak to go further, went into the hospital. Not only the poor
+sick folk were there, but many respectable citizens and women in hopes
+of finding it a safe asylum. But it was far from being the case.
+Although my father-in-law was lying on a bed nearly dying, and every one
+saw that he was bleeding and had been evil treated, yet he was dragged
+hither and thither, some wicked people having betrayed that he was a
+rich man. They broke him on the wheel; they brought my wife and children
+prisoners into the town, where they had to make shirts for the soldiers.
+As she was sitting in the churchyard, one of them brought her a piece of
+linen to cut out, he said to one of his comrades: 'Go and make sure that
+the peasant, meaning my father-in-law, is dead.' He went, and returned
+again soon, having in his arms my father-in-law's hosen and waistcoat,
+and said to my wife, 'Your father is done for.' What barbarity! When the
+pilferers had sufficiently pillaged the church of clothes and linen,
+they left the town, and would carry my wife with them whether she would
+or no.
+
+"Not long after they received their reward at Leipzig and Lützen, as may
+be read in other places. After this every one returned home, and people
+found each other again; but the sheep and cattle were all gone. I did
+not preserve more than three calves out of eight, without counting my
+forty-eight sheep which, with the whole herd, had been lost.
+
+"Duke Johann Casimir died in the year 1633, and was buried, on the same
+day on which the funeral sermon was preached for Gustavus King of
+Sweden, in that country. At that time great robbing and plundering went
+on, amongst others by Duke Bernhard's soldiers, nine regiments of which
+were stationed at Itzgrund, to enable the princely corpse to be buried
+in safety.
+
+"In 1634 things became much worse, and one could well perceive that in a
+short time everything would be topsy-turvy. I therefore removed what I
+could to the parsonage at Steltzen, my beds, two cows, clothes, &c. But
+this being in the autumn, after Lamboy had quartered himself with every
+one and everywhere, my winter quarters cost me more than five hundred
+gulden in thirty-five weeks, which I had to settle with Captain Krebs. I
+had eleven persons in my house, not counting camp-followers and
+maid-servants. It is not to be described what I and my wife had to
+suffer and endure for a length of time. At last I could no longer feel
+secure on account of them; I ran away sick and came to Mitwitz and
+Mupperg, where I had as little rest as at Heldburg. My stepmother
+especially tormented me (she had been struck by lightning), she would
+not let me remain in my exile with my old father. I was obliged to go
+to Neistadt to the rector, M. Val. Hoffmann, now superintendent. But I
+was not only very poor; but became daily more ailing, therefore I only
+thought how I could return to Poppenhausen or Heldburg and die there,
+for I was weary of my life.
+
+"It is miraculous how I passed along the roads and through the villages
+in the darkness of night, for it was still unsafe everywhere; at last I
+reached Poppenhausen. There my poor parishioners and schoolmaster were
+as joyful at sight of me, as if our Lord God had himself appeared among
+them. But we were all in such great weakness and want, that we looked
+more dead than alive. Many died of hunger; and we were frequently, each
+day, obliged to take to our heels and conceal ourselves. And although we
+hid our lentils, corn, and poor food in the ditches and old coffins,
+nay, under the skulls of the dead, yet all was taken away from us.
+
+"Then were the survivors obliged to leave house and home, or die of
+hunger. At Poppenhausen most of the inhabitants were in their graves;
+there remained only eight or nine souls, who fled from it in the year
+1636. The same circumstances occurred at Lindenau, the cure of which was
+committed to me vicariously in 1636, by the Royal Consistory. I could
+obtain no income; apples, pears, cabbage, turnips, &c., were my only
+pay. Thus I was pastor at Lindenau from 1636 to 1641. I had the
+parsonage arranged, but could not, on account of the insecurity and
+turmoil, dwell constantly there, and performed the duties from Heldburg.
+I have still the testimony of the Lindenauers, wherein they acknowledge
+that I did not in five years get ten gulden in money; but they have
+since honestly paid me the arrears in wood and apples.
+
+"In the year 1640, between Easter and Whitsuntide, the Imperial and
+Swedish armies fought a battle at Saalfeld; and Franconia and Thuringia
+were devastated far and wide. At four o'clock in the morning of the
+Sunday before Whitsunday, strong bodies of Imperialists fell upon
+Heldburg, when most of the citizens were still resting in their beds. My
+whole street, in every direction, was full of the turmoil of horses and
+riders; just as if some one had taken pains to show them my house. I and
+my wife were taken prisoners five times in one hour; when I was released
+from one, I was taken by another. Then I took them into my room and
+cellar, that they might themselves seek what they required. At last they
+went off, leaving me alone in the house; yet my terror and anguish were
+so great that I never thought of my ready money, which I might have
+saved ten times over, if I had had sufficient confidence to take it with
+me. But all the houses and streets were full of horsemen; and if I had
+taken my Mammon with me, it might so have happened that I should have
+been caught. But in my dismay I thought not of money. Many men and women
+were convoyed out of the town by an escort of Hasisch horsemen, who had
+been quartered there. I then returned to my wife and children; we betook
+ourselves to the nearest wood towards Hellingen; there old and young,
+ecclesiastics and laymen, remained day and night. Our chief sustenance
+was black juniper berries. Now certain of the citizens ventured into the
+town, and brought back with them food and other things that they
+required. I thought, ah! if thou also couldst go to thy house and get
+hold of thy small cash in pence, and therewith support thyself and thy
+children! I ventured it, slipped in, and went through the Spittel Gate
+to the Mühl Gate, which was closed in with palisades. Within, there were
+some who caught me by surprise, as a cat does a mouse; they bound me
+with new cords so that I could neither help myself with hands or feet,
+and must either give money, or betray rich people to them. The thieves
+obliged me to toss the fodder for their horses at the Herrnhof, to lead
+them to drink, and other odd work. Then imagining myself more at
+liberty, I ran from thence, being unaware that a whole troop of soldiers
+were standing at the gate of the courtyard, so I ran into their arms.
+They beat me well with their swords and bandoliers, kept me still more
+strictly with cords, led me from house to house, that I might tell them
+to whom this or the other house belonged. Thus I was also led to my own
+house, there I saw the copper water-can lying on the floor, in which had
+been placed my ready money, three hundred thalers, and I thought, hadst
+thou known that the birds and the foxes were in the way, thou wouldst
+have remained outside. Now because I would not betray any one, they put
+upon my head my own cap, which was lying on the ground in my house, and
+gave me a blow on the head with a cutlass, so that the blood ran down to
+my ears, but no hole was made in the cap, for it was of felt. Still
+more; the same man wantonly drew the cutlass across my stomach, in order
+to try whether I was invulnerable; he pressed tolerably hard, yet God
+willed not that he should draw more blood from me. Twice in one hour,
+namely, in Schneiderinn, at the farm of the tailor's wife Wittich, on
+the dung-heap, and in the forest ranger's stable, they gave me the
+Swedish drink mixed with dung water, whereby my teeth became all loose.
+I defended myself as well as a prisoner could, when they forced a great
+stick into my mouth. At last they led me along with cords, and said they
+would hang me up: they brought me out to the Mühl Gate on the bridge;
+then one of them took the cord wherewith my feet were bound together,
+and another the cord on my left arm, and pitched me into the water,
+holding the cord so that they might draw me up and down. Now whilst I
+was groping around me in search of a support, I caught hold of a
+hay-rake, which however gave way with me, and I could find no help
+thereon; but by God's providence an opening was made for me, so that I
+slipped under the bridge. Whenever I tried to hold on, they battered me
+with these said hay-rakes, so that they snapped in two like a school
+cane. When they were not only weary of their labour, but thought they
+had done for me, as I should drown in the water, they let go both cords,
+when I dived under the bridge like a frog, and no one could touch me.
+Then I searched the pocket of my hosen and found a little knife, such as
+could be closed, which they had not chosen to take, though they had
+often searched me; I therefore cut the cord which bound my two feet, and
+sprang down to the floor of the mill, where lay the wheels. The water
+covered half my body; then the rogues threw sticks, brickbats, and
+cudgels at me, in order to put an end to me completely. I was anxious to
+work my way to the miller's back door, but could not, either because my
+clothes being saturated with water held me back, or more likely, because
+God would not permit me to die there. For as a drunken man reels to and
+fro, thus did I, and came up on the other side at the back of the
+brewery. When they perceived that I was about to get into the narrow
+lane, they all ran into the town, collected more companions, and watched
+at the tan-house to see whether I would come thither. But as I perceived
+this, and was now left to myself, I remained lying in the water, and
+placed my head under a thick willow bush, and rested in the water four
+or five hours, till it was night and the town quiet; then I crept out
+half dead, and could hardly breathe, on account of the blows I had had.
+I went down to the tan-house and found that there was as yet no safety,
+as there was one there cutting grass, and another picking hides out of
+the tan-pits, and I almost stumbled upon them, so I was obliged to hide
+there till late in the night; I went then over the conduit, always
+following the course of the stream, and climbed over a willow stem by
+which I reached the other side, towards Poppenhausen.
+
+"When I came to the Poppenhausen or Einöder road, it was strewed here
+and there with linen, which the soldiers had thrown away or lost, but I
+could not stoop to pick anything up. I came at last to Poppenhausen, and
+found no one at home but Claus Hön, whose wife was lying-in; he was
+obliged to cut the clothes from off my body, for I was swollen, and he
+put aside the wet clothes to be dried. He also lent me a shirt, and then
+examined my head, which was of all colours from the blows I had
+received; afterwards my back and arms became quite black and blue. The
+following day my parishioner bade me go away, for he feared they might
+lie in wait for me, and that he should get into trouble on my account.
+So with his assistance I put on my wet clothes, and went quite slowly to
+Lindenau, always through the densest thicket, and kept on the other side
+in the Lindenau garden, from which I could see the village. At last I
+discovered some people going into a house; I went thither, but they
+would not admit me, for they were too much afraid, but finally, when
+they saw through the window that it was I, their pastor, who had come,
+they admitted me, and I remained with them some days; for there was
+quartered there one who was a Lindenauer, which helped a little. But I
+met with a new misfortune. When those who were quartered here went to
+the castle of Einöd with the Lindenauers, to fetch away what could yet
+be found of their goods, the magistrate, the smith, and I were keeping
+guard the while on the tower; as we were all three performing this duty,
+certain horsemen came into the village, they saw us on the tower, went
+straight up to it, and found us there together. As they ascended the
+stairs we discovered from their blustering and talking that they were
+troopers, so, in bad plight as I was, I endeavoured, alas! to climb. I
+clambered up into the belfry and curled myself like a cat behind the
+clock; but one of the thieves climbed up at the same time and found me.
+My parishioners said I was their schoolmaster, and entreated for me, as
+I had already been badly beaten by the soldiers. It was however of no
+avail. They insisted on this schoolmaster descending. The magistrate
+went first, after him a trooper, the smith followed, then another
+trooper, and lastly I followed, lingering. Now when they all came out
+through the door of the church, I remained within, bolted the little
+door, and ran out of the other, and crept into a turnip pit. God help
+me! How woeful it was for me to be obliged to stoop and lie on all-fours
+for a whole hour! Thus I was saved, but my dear fellow-watchers were
+taken to a mill and obliged to fill the flour sacks.
+
+"On the Friday before Whitsuntide I came with many citizens to Coburg. A
+thief had carried off my shoes, and left me a pair of old bad ones
+instead; I had nothing else to wear for almost a week, and both soles
+had fallen out, and when it became necessary to take to one's heels, the
+shoes turned round hindforemost, so that often I could not help laughing
+outright. Thus I came to Coburg. The news of my torments had reached
+Coburg some days before, together with the report that I had been
+killed; when therefore I came myself, the citizens and my old
+acquaintance were much astonished. Dr. Kesler, general superintendent,
+_item_, consul Körner, invited me several times during the Whitsuntide
+festival, and for a whole month the Coburgers showed great kindness to
+me, my wife, and children, which I lauded in print on St. John's day.
+
+"Ah, how great was the grief and misery to be seen and heard in all the
+surrounding small towns at that time! the inhabitants of Eisfeldt,
+Heldburg, and Neustadt, together with the villagers, had to make shift
+miserably in the town. Asking and begging was no shame. Yet I did not
+wish to burden too much my good host, Herr Hoffman the apothecary. I
+went out into the wide world with the pastor of Walburg, Eisentraut, for
+three weeks, _victum quærendi gratia_, to Culmbach, Bayreuth,
+Hirschheid, Altorf, and Nuremberg, and again back to Coburg. I then
+found that my wife had returned to Poppenhausen, accompanied again by
+the Hasische trooper, but there was nothing to eat or reap there. What
+God had provided me with on my journey, I was obliged to carry to the
+town hall and give to the soldiers, and the children were well-nigh
+dying of hunger. They had not been able to buy bran enough for bread. My
+superintendent, Herr Grams, died from the effects of the Swedish drink,
+at the castle four or five weeks after this turbulent time.
+
+"Now as exactions and extortions still continued, I could get no
+stipend, and yet had to assist in the superintendence of the parish of
+Heldburg, as well as my own, I went _cum testimonio et consilio_ of Dr.
+Kesler, and also with letters of recommendation to Duke Albert, to
+Eisenach, and represented my poverty in divers ways to the Consistory. I
+got a presentment and other recommendations to their Princely
+Highnesses, the two brothers, that I might obtain advancement in their
+dominions. So I went from Eisenach to Gotha, just as our honoured prince
+and lord, Duke Ernest, fixed his residence at the Kaufhaus: for I was
+present when they paid him homage at Gotha. The royal Consistory soon
+offered to me the parish of Notleben; but as the Notlebers were at
+strife with their old pastor, and there was to be a month's delay to
+carry on their contest, Dr. Glass persuaded me in the interim to go with
+my recommendation to Weimar, and to collect somewhat for my poor family.
+My wanderings, however, lasted till the year 1641. I returned on Tuesday
+the 18th of January to Gotha, and found the cure of that parish still
+vacant for me, which I undertook with the greatest humility and
+thankfulness, and preached my first sermon on the parable of the
+vineyard, from the 20th of Matthew. But I not only lived in great
+insecurity at Notleben, as one had daily to think of flight, but had
+also many disputes with the peasantry, who in church and school affairs
+had always a hankering after Erfurt, and to whom all royal ordinances
+with respect to the catechism were odious. I, the pastor, had to bear
+this from the council and peasants, and as all the stipend was paid in
+kind, and I was neither a tutor, nor had any other means whereby I could
+get on well, I humbly sought for a change of cure. When, therefore, our
+honoured lord, after the division of property, obtained the parish of
+Erock and the village of Heubach, he offered to me to become pastor
+there, which I had expected more than a year before. Thus in 1647, I in
+all humility accepted this removal, and preached my trial sermon on
+Judica Sunday, in the presence of the parishioners and commissaries. I
+received the call on the following day, and thus under God's providence
+brought hither my wife and child. This was my fourth piece of church
+preferment, where for my own part I desire, God willing, to live and
+die; but my wife wishes herself away, in a better place in the plains,
+on account of the difficulty of getting servants. I leave it in the
+hands of God and my superiors."
+
+Thus far extends what is preserved of Bötzinger's biography. He finally
+found rest at Heubach, and administered his office there for
+six-and-twenty years. He died in 1673, at the age of seventy-four, after
+having led for forty-seven years a life which cannot be designated as
+peaceful. Heubach was a new parish which had been formed at Gotha by
+Duke Ernest the Good, and Bötzinger was the first pastor. He was obliged
+to dwell in the royal shooting lodge, which had been built by Duke
+Casimir in the forest, for grouse shooting. In the neighbouring
+forester's house lived an insolent forester; the country was in a wild
+state, little inhabited, and the people, corrupted by the war, led a
+lawless forest life. It appears that the new pastor was not particularly
+welcome to these denizens of the woods, the forester especially was his
+vehement opponent, and the pastor secretly complained, in Latin
+distiches which he inscribed in the church records, to his successor, of
+the bitter sufferings which this servant of the woods occasioned him. He
+in a brotherly way warned his successor against the wickedness of the
+man and his bad wife. But in spite of this contention, it may be
+concluded that this long-tormented sufferer was not altogether unhappy,
+and a harmless self-contemplation is to be perceived in his Latin
+verses. When at last he died, laudatory poems by some of his noted
+clerical brothers were written, as was then the custom; some of them are
+extant both in Latin and German. Even Herr Andreas Bachmann, the court
+preacher at Gotha, a distinguished man, yielded a tribute of respect to
+his "Dear old, now deceased clerical brother;" it begins with the
+following verses, which will conclude this chapter:--
+
+      Martin Bötzinger, God's servant, faithful and true,
+        Upright as Job--was long time pastor I ween;
+      A much tormented man with crosses not a few,
+        As will, in the record of his life, be seen.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+
+  THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.--THE CLIPPERS OF MONEY, AND PUBLIC OPINION.
+
+
+Monotonously did the death wail sound in the chronicles and records of
+fellow-sufferers. Where thousands were saved, millions were ruined and
+destroyed. The war was destructive of house, wealth, and life, alike in
+town and country. Manifold was the work of the destroying forces, but a
+higher force was unceasingly at work to ward off final ruin.
+
+It is a marvellous circumstance, that in the same year in which the war
+in Germany expired, the interest of the people in public affairs was so
+far developed as to originate the first newspapers. In matters of faith,
+moral feeling and the judgments of individuals had for a century worked,
+but in politics it was only rarely and feebly that serious diversity of
+opinion was ventured to be expressed by private individuals. It was just
+when the recruiting drums of the princes were beating at every
+muster-place that public opinion began its first political struggle in
+the press. On an important social question, the intellectual leaders of
+the people rose up against the immorality of their own Sovereigns. We
+shall endeavour here briefly to exhibit the course of public opinion,
+and show what was stirred up and carried away by it during the war. It
+may more especially be discovered in the literature of the
+flying-sheets, which contended for and against the Bohemian King,
+condemned the _Kipper_ and _Wipper_, and did homage to the great
+Gustavus Adolphus, but at last became itself, like the nation, meagre
+and powerless.
+
+It was after the beginning of the sixteenth century that the people
+began to receive news through the press, in a double form. One of these
+forms was a single sheet printed on one side, almost always ornamented
+with a woodcut, and after the sixteenth century, with a copper-plate
+engraving, under which the explanatory text was generally rendered in
+verse. In these flying leaves were communicated the appearances in the
+heavens, and comets; very soon also battles by land and sea,
+portraitures of the celebrities of the day, and the like. Much of the
+good humour, and coarse jests of the Reformation time are to be found in
+them. The art of the wood carver was in constant activity, and we find
+many characteristic peculiarities of the talents of the great painters
+impressed upon it. The other form was that of pamphlets, especially in
+quarto, frequently also ornamented with woodcuts. They gave information
+of every novelty; coronations, battles, and newly discovered countries;
+by them every striking event flitted through the country. After the
+Reformation, they increased enormously in number. All printing-houses
+gave birth to them under the titles of newspapers, advices, reports, and
+couriers. Besides these, there were the small controversial writings of
+the Reformers, sermons, discourses, and songs. Very soon also the
+Princes began to make use of the invention of printing, to inform the
+public of their quarrels, and to gain partisans. Private individuals
+whose rights were injured contended with their opponents, whether city
+magistrates or foreign rulers, in pamphlets. During the whole of the
+sixteenth century the aim of the small, not theological, literature, was
+first to impart news, and afterwards to serve the interests of
+individuals or princes, or to make known the views of those in power.
+The opinions of individuals upon political affairs were principally
+conveyed in a form which was then considered particularly ingenious, as
+pasquinades or dialogues. These small news sheets were innumerable, and
+their spread was rapid; after the Reformation it became a separate
+branch of industry. The booksellers, or as they were then called,
+stationers, who offered these newspapers for sale in their shops and
+stalls, and introduced them to the markets of foreign cities, made a
+dangerous competition with the printers, bookbinders, and illuminators.
+Important newspapers were everywhere pirated. Along the great trade and
+post roads, more particularly of the Rhine and southern Germany, certain
+trading and printing establishments made special gains from the
+communication of the daily news; for example, Wendelin Borsch, at the
+Tiler's Hut in Nuremberg, about 1571, Michael Enzinger at Cologne, at
+the end of the century, and others. These sheets at first were published
+very irregularly, but they already contained a correspondence from
+different cities, in which not only political, but mercantile
+intelligence was given.[32] At last, in 1612, appeared here and there
+separate newspaper sheets in numbers, and in a certain degree of
+continuity. Meanwhile it had been long the custom of the merchants to
+make such communications to their mercantile friends with some
+regularity, so that there already existed news-writers who were in the
+habit of forwarding written newspapers. This method of spreading
+intelligence had come to Germany from Italy. In Venice, from the year
+1536, there were _Notizie Scritte_, written news in successive series,
+which continued there till the French Revolution. There also, appeared
+the first regular newspaper shortly before 1600, which it is stated took
+the name of _Gazzetta_ from a little coin which was the cost of the
+single numbers.
+
+Soon after, the German newspapers began to appear regularly. In 1615 the
+first weekly newspaper was published at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, by
+Egenolf Emmel, bookseller and printer. In opposition to which, in 1616,
+the Imperial deputy postmaster Johann van der Brighden, published a
+competing paper called 'Political Notices.' From these two undertakings
+resulted the oldest German newspapers, the 'Frankfort Journal,' and the
+'Oberpostamts Zeitung.'
+
+But these and other weekly papers were for a long time, only news sheets
+in which opinions on the facts communicated were carefully withheld. The
+great stream of public opinion still continued for two centuries to run
+in the old direction; the flying leaves and occasional brochures.
+
+At the beginning of the war even the distant readers were compelled to
+be violent partisans. Everywhere appeared controversial writings,
+opinions, councils, and deliberations. The nation was rent into large
+parties by this intellectual strife, and it is instructive to see how
+the writings of the disputants stand in exact relation to the success
+which their party had achieved. Till the battle of the Weissen Berge
+nine tenths of all the narratives and controversial writings are
+Protestant; they reached full a thousand in number. Hatred to the
+Jesuits blazed fiercely; bitter was the rancour against the Emperor, and
+incessant were the cautions against the League. After Prague, Strasburg
+was the centre of their warlike activity. Whilst at Prague the
+libel-writer von Rörig, as _Huss-redivius_, made his voice heard
+vehemently in many 'Political Discourses' against his adversary Sturm:
+the _magisters_ of Strasburg, after the fashion of Boccalini, made
+accusations against the same opponent, before Apollo and the high court
+of Parnassus; but their Apollo had to deliver human and explicit
+oracles. The answers in defence are cautious and uncertain, as during
+the whole war the Catholic party were generally not a match for the
+Protestants in the serious warfare of the pen. But the speedy flight of
+the new King of Bohemia suddenly changed the physiognomy of the literary
+market. The secret writings obtained as booty from the Bohemian party
+were published by their opponents; and about these bulky quartos there
+raged for years a battle of petty flying-sheets. Revengeful, and
+joyfully triumphant, the Imperialists sounded their pæan. It is true
+that in their brochures there was still some moderation, for they were
+obliged to spare the Lutheran Saxons; but so much the more irritably did
+they attack the enemy, in countless pictorial sheets and satirical
+verses. Endless and merciless were the satires on the fugitive winter
+King, he, the proud and witless one, with his wife and children, were
+depicted in every kind of pitiful situation, seeking their bread,
+departing in bad waggons, and digging a grave for themselves.
+
+This strife was interrupted by another, which will ever be of high
+interest. It was the storm of the German press against the "_Kipper_ and
+_Wipper_."
+
+Of all the terrors at the beginning of the war, nothing gave such vague
+apprehension to the people, as the sudden depreciation of the coinage.
+To the fancy of the suffering generation, the evil became so much the
+greater, as in the gloomy frame of mind of that period it appeared to
+occur suddenly, and everywhere roused the most frightful passions,
+discord in families, and hatred and strife between debtors and
+creditors, leaving behind, hunger, poverty, beggary, and immorality. It
+made honourable citizens gamblers, drunkards, and profligates, it drove
+preachers and schoolmasters from their offices, brought opulent families
+to beggary, plunged every government into miserable confusion, and
+threatened the dwellers in cities, in a thickly populated country, with
+famine.
+
+It was the third year of the war; its flames had already carried
+destruction over Bohemia and the Palatinate, and the ruins were still
+glowing, on which the Imperial troops erected the cross of the old
+faith. A sultry atmosphere loured over the country; throughout the
+empire, in every class, men armed themselves, and anxiety for the future
+pervaded all. But intercourse with the provinces in which the war was at
+first located, was then comparatively small. The countries exposed to
+its fury were, with the exception of the Palatinate, provinces belonging
+to the Emperor; and on the Elbe and lower Rhine, in Thuringia,
+Franconia, and the territories of lower Saxony, it was still a question
+whether the danger was approaching home. In August, 1621, the peasant
+had the prospect of a moderate harvest; in trade and commerce there was
+some degree of stagnation, but there was much of that excited eagerness
+which is the natural offspring of a great defensive movement, and manly
+youths were more allured than intimidated by the wild conduct of the
+soldiery. It had indeed been long remarked, that there was something
+unusual about the money which circulated in the country. The good heavy
+Imperial coin became more and more scarce, in its place much new money
+was current, badly coined, and of a red colour. The increasing rise in
+the price of foreign goods appeared still more strange. Everything
+became dearer. Whoever wished to make a present to a godchild, or to pay
+foreign tradesmen, had to give an increasing _agio_ for his old pure
+Joachim's thaler. But in the local trade, betwixt town and country, the
+extensive new coinage was taken without hesitation, indeed it was
+exchanged or bartered with an increased activity. The mass of the people
+did not observe that the different kinds of coin with which it was the
+custom to pay, became in their hands, worthless lead; but the sharper
+ones, who had an inkling of the state of things, became, for the most
+part, accomplices in the dishonest usury of the Princes. It may be
+distinctly perceived how the people came to a knowledge of their
+situation, and we still feel dismayed at the sudden terror, anguish, and
+despair of the masses, and are struck by the anxieties and manly
+indignation of the thoughtful; and in reading the old narratives, we
+still feel somewhat of the indignation with which the guilty were
+regarded. When we consider the many wonderful errors of public opinion
+at that time, and the well-meaning zeal of individuals who gave good
+counsel, we may be permitted in this period of calamity and humiliation,
+to feel a proud satisfaction at the sagacity with which even then, some
+men of the people discovered the ground of the evil, and, in one of the
+most difficult national questions, found the right answer, and by it a
+remedy, at least for the worst misfortunes. Before we attempt to give a
+picture of the "_Kipper_ and _Wipper_" years, we must make some remarks
+on the coining of that period.
+
+In the olden time, all technical dexterity was environed with dignity,
+secrecy, and an apparatus of forms. Nothing is more characteristic of
+the peculiarity of the German nature, than its virtuosoship; even the
+most monotonous handicraft was ennobled by an abundance of lively
+additions. As soon as the spirit of the artisan was excited by the
+genial pleasure of creating, his imagination was occupied with images
+and symbols, and he turned his skill dexterously to high, nay even to
+holy things. What we have described as applicable to all the handicrafts
+of the middle ages, was so especially to the art of coining. A feeling
+of his self-importance was strong in the coiner; the work itself, the
+handling of the precious metals fresh from the fire, was considered
+ennobling. The obscure chemical processes, which were surrounded,
+through alchemy, with a wilderness of fantastic forms, had a far more
+imposing effect upon the workers, than can be understood by the rational
+fabricators of our century. To this was added the responsibility of the
+service. When the coiner took the assay weight out of its beautiful
+capsule, and placed the little acorn cup on the artistically worked
+assay balance, in order to weigh the remnant in it, he did this with a
+certain consciousness of superiority over his fellow-citizens.[33] When
+he purified the silver assay from lead in the cupel, and the liquid
+silver first overflowed, shining with delicate prismatic colours, and
+then, the variegated stream being rent, the bright gleam of the silver
+passed like lightning through the molten mass, this silver gleam filled
+him with reverential astonishment, and he felt himself in the midst of
+the mysterious creations of the spirits of nature, which, whilst he
+feared, he was yet able to control by the art of his handicraft, as far
+as his knowledge reached. After that period, in the order of things, the
+coiners formed themselves into a close corporation, with masters,
+associates, and apprentices, and held jealously to their privileges.
+Whoever was desirous of stamping the Holy Roman Imperial coin was first
+obliged to give proof of his free and honourable lineage, to do lowly
+service for four years, during this period to wear, according to custom,
+a fool's cap, and to allow himself to be punished and beaten when
+inexpert or in the wrong; then at last he was admitted to the business
+of coining, and entered as an associate in the brotherhood of Imperial
+coiners.
+
+But these strict regulations, which were again confirmed to the
+brotherhood by the Emperor Maximilian II., in 1571, had even then ceased
+to have the effect of making the corporation honourable and upright.
+Equally inefficient were the attempts at control, by the decisions of
+the Imperial Diet and the Sovereigns. At the inspection of every piece
+of coin the master of the mint had with him a warden, who proved the
+texture and weight of the coin. The ten Circles of the Empire held
+yearly approbation days, in order, mutually, to compare their coin and
+to reject the bad; every Circle was to be represented by a
+warden-general; for every Circle an appointed number of mints were
+established, in which the lesser rulers were to have their money
+specially coined: but all these regulations were only imperfectly
+carried out.
+
+There were undoubtedly some Sovereigns and mint-masters then in the
+country who were faithful, but they were few in number; and generally a
+mint-master, who was considered capable by a German Circle, and worked
+in a legal mint, was concerned in many strange practices. It was
+difficult to exercise control over these imperfect coining proceedings;
+the temptations were great, and morality in general much lower than now.
+From the Sovereign down to the understrapper and Jewish purveyor, every
+one concerned in coining deceived the other. The Sovereign allowed the
+master of the mint for a series of years to work and become rich; he
+perhaps permitted in silence the coin of the country to be debased, in
+order at the right moment to proceed against the guilty, from whom then
+he squeezed out by pressure, like a sponge, all that they had sucked up
+for many years drop by drop. It did not avail them that they had long
+quitted the service, for after many years greedy justice would reach
+them: but the mint-master, who was not in the convenient position of the
+lion, to be able to secure his booty by a single stroke of the paw, was
+in the habit of industriously overreaching his masters, the purveyors,
+nay even his cashiers, the associates, and the apprentices, not to
+mention the public. The other assistants did no better; every man's hand
+was against the other, and the curse, which according to the proverb
+lies on the gold of the German dwarf, appears in the seventeenth century
+to have depraved all who transmuted the shining metal into money. The
+common method of transacting the business was as follows.
+
+The master of the mint purchased the metal, defrayed the costs of the
+stamping, and paid a tax to the Sovereign for every Cologne mark which
+he struck, which it appears amounted generally to about four good
+groschen: but he had to pay dear for fine silver, and the wages and
+other accessories were continually rising in price. If he paid the tax,
+from one to two thousand marks, weekly to the lord of the mint, he
+concealed from him the fifty marks which he had struck over and above,
+and retained the tax upon them for himself; furthermore, he was a sharp
+coiner, that is to say, he deducted from the money about half a grain in
+the amount of silver required by the law; he always struck a hundred
+marks in weight, two ounces too light, which was remarked by no one, and
+when he knew that the money was to be sent directly into foreign
+countries, especially to Poland, he was bolder in deducting from the
+weight. His dealings with the purveyors who procured the metal for him,
+were not more upright. There was carried on then, throughout the whole
+of Germany, a secret traffic, which was severely prohibited by the law,
+and traced with much sagacity by the gate-keepers of the cities, a
+traffic in false money. What was acquired by the soldier as booty, or
+stolen by the thief from the church, was smelted by the receivers of
+stolen goods into flat cakes or conical masses, which in the language of
+the trade were called "ingots" and "kings;" whatever was clipped from
+the money in diminishing the proper quantity of silver, or had otherwise
+to be carefully consigned under a false name, was poured out of the
+smelting crucible over moist birchen-twigs, and thus granulated: but
+besides this, by being incessantly bought up, the good coin was
+exchanged for bad, the small money-changers, most of them wandering
+Jews, journeyed from village to village far across the frontiers of the
+German Empire, and collected, as the ragmen do now, their wares from the
+soldiers, countrymen, and beggars. All the medals of distinguished
+persons, all coats-of-arms and inscriptions, horse and man, wolves,
+sheep and bears, thalers and hellers, the saints of Cologne and Treves,
+and the medallions of the heretic Luther, were bought up for the mint,
+collected and exchanged. The concealed wares were then packed into a
+vessel with ginger, pepper, and tartar, and paid toll duty as white
+lead, wrapped up in bales of cloth and frankincense. There were
+travelling waggons with false bottoms, which were specially prepared for
+such transports. A still better safeguard was an ecclesiastic as a
+travelling companion; but the best of all was a trumpeter, who gave the
+trader the appearance of being a prince's courier. If it happened that a
+distinguished lord was travelling towards the same country, it was
+expedient to bribe him, for he and his suite, their waggons and horses,
+were never examined at the city gates. Sometimes the agent disguised
+himself as a distinguished lord or soldier, and caused the burden to be
+conveyed by the trooper's horses or his servants. Sometimes the
+mint-master was obliged to travel to the frontier to meet the agent,
+under the pretext of paying a visit to some friend. Then the costly
+goods were carried far from the dwellings of men, across lonely heaths,
+or through the clearings of a wood, from one hand to another, on a
+merchant's parole.
+
+Meanwhile the petty Jewish dealer carried at night, along byways over
+the frontier, his wallet full of old groschen, in the twofold fear of
+robbers and of the guardians of the law. The wallet, the broad-brimmed
+hat, and the yellow cloth border to the coat, the mark of a Jew of the
+Empire, was frequently seen at the mint. There existed between the
+dealer and the mint-master a confidential business connection, certainly
+not without a mental reservation; for it occasionally happened to the
+Jew that false thalers were found in one of the hundred marks which he
+delivered in thalers, or that the wallet together with the coin had
+become moist during the journey, which added some half-ounces to their
+weight, or that fine white sand became mingled with the granulated
+silver, and was weighed with it. For this the mint-master indemnified
+himself, by hanging the scales so that one side of the beam was shorter
+than the other, by causing the scales to spring up and descend slowly,
+notwithstanding the perpendicular position of the balance, in order to
+make the wares some half-ounces lighter, or by falsifying the weights
+altogether. What the masters did not do, the apprentices of the mint
+ventured upon. However cautious the purveyor might be during the
+smelting assay, they understood how to mix copper dust with the silver
+already weighed, in order to make the assay worse than it really was.
+Such was the state of the traffic even at those mints where there was
+still some respect for the law.
+
+Besides the licensed coiners, there were others in most of the ten
+Circles, of easier conscience and bolder practice; not exactly false
+coiners in our sense of the term, although this was carried on with
+great recklessness; but nobles and corporations who had the right of
+coining, and prized it highly as a source of income; for, contrary to
+the Imperial decrees, which imposed upon them the duty of having their
+money coined in one of the approved mints of the Circle, they coined
+actively in their own territory. Sometimes they let their right of
+coining for a year's rent, nay, they even disposed of their mints to
+other princes as a speculation. These irregular coining places were
+called hedge mints, and in them a systematic corruption of money took
+place. No inquiry was made as to the right of the coiners; whoever knew
+how to manage fire and metal, engaged in this kind of work. There was
+little regard for the prescribed fineness of texture, and weight of the
+money; it was coined with false stamps, and the head of the ruler, with
+the date of a better period, were stamped on light coin; nay, in regular
+false coining, the stamps of foreign mints were often counterfeited. The
+brightness of the new coin was removed by tartar or lead water; and all
+this took place under the protection of the Sovereign. The disposal of
+the money thus coined required all the cunning and circumspection of the
+agents, and a line of industry was in this way formed, which we may
+presume occupied many intermediate hands. Thundering decrees had been
+fulminated for seventy years at the Imperial Diets and Assemblages of
+the circles, against the hedge mints, but without success. Indeed, after
+the introduction of good Imperial money, they became more numerous and
+active, for the work paid better.
+
+Such was the state of things even before the year 1618. The sovereigns,
+small and great, required more and more money. Then some of the Princes
+of the Empire--the Brunswickers, alas! were among the first--began to
+outdo the proceedings of the most notorious of the hedge mints; they
+caused the coin of the country, both heavy and light, to be struck of a
+bad mixture of silver and copper, instead of silver, and soon it was
+only copper silvered. At last, as for example at Leipzig, a small
+angular coin was issued by the city, no longer of copper, which was of
+higher value, but of pure tin. This discovery of making money at little
+cost spread like a pestilence. From both of the Circles of Saxony it
+spread to those of the Rhine and Southern Germany. Hundreds of new mints
+were established. Wherever a ruined tower appeared firm enough for a
+forge and bellows, wherever there was abundance of wood for burning, and
+a road to bring good money to the mint and carry away bad, there a band
+of coiners nestled. Electors and nobles, ecclesiastical communities and
+cities outvied each other in making copper money; even the people were
+infected with it. For a century the art of making gold, and treasure
+digging had occupied the fancies of the people; now the happy time
+appeared to have arrived, when every fish-kettle could be turned into
+silver in the coiners' scales. A mania for money-making began. Pure
+silver and old silver gilt became continually and strikingly dearer in
+mercantile traffic, so that at last it was necessary to pay four, five
+or more new gulden for one old silver gulden, and the price of goods and
+the necessaries of life slowly rose; but that signified little to the
+multitude, so long as the new money, the production of which seemed to
+increase without end, was willingly taken. The nation, already excited,
+became at last madly intoxicated. Every one thought they had the
+opportunity of becoming rich without labour; all applied themselves to
+trafficking in money. The merchant had money dealings with the artisan,
+the artisan with the peasant. A general craving, chaffering, and
+overreaching prevailed. The modern swindling in funds and on 'Change,
+gives only a weak notion of the proceedings of that time. Whoever had
+debts hastened to pay them; whoever could get money from an
+accommodating coiner, in exchange for an old brewing vessel,[34] could
+buy therewith house and fields; whoever had to pay wages, salaries, or
+fees, found it convenient to do so in plated copper. There was little
+work done in the cities, and only for very high pay. Whoever had any old
+thalers, gold gulden, or other good Imperial money lying in their chests
+as a store in case of need, as was then the case with almost every one,
+drew out his treasure and was delighted to exchange it for new money, as
+the old thalers, in a most remarkable way, appeared to be worth four,
+nay even six and ten times as much as formerly. That was a jolly time.
+If wine and beer were dearer than usual, they were not so in the same
+proportion as the old silver money. Part of the gains were jovially
+spent in the public-house. Every one was disposed to give, in those
+times. The Saxon cities readily agreed, at the Diet at Torgau, to a
+great addition to the land tax, as money was to be obtained everywhere
+in superfluity. People also were very ready to contract debts, for money
+was offered everywhere, and business could be done with it on favourable
+conditions; great obligations therefore were undertaken on all sides.
+Thus a powerful stream carried away the people to destruction.
+
+But a counter stream arose, first gentle, then continually stronger.
+Those were first to complain who had to live on a fixed income, the
+parish priests most loudly, the schoolmasters and poor misanthropes most
+bitterly. Those who had formerly lived respectably on two hundred
+gulden, good Imperial coin, now only received two hundred light gulden,
+and if, as often undoubtedly happened, the salary of some were raised
+about a quarter in amount, they could not even with this addition defray
+half, nay even the fourth part, of the necessary expenses. Upon this
+unprecedented occasion the ecclesiastics referred to the Bible, and
+found there an indisputable objection to all hedge minting, and began to
+preach from their pulpits against light money. The schoolmasters starved
+in the villages as long as they could, then ran away and increased the
+train of vagabonds, beggars, and soldiers; the servants next became
+discontented. The wages, which averaged ten gulden a year, hardly
+sufficed to pay for their shoes. In every house there were quarrels
+between them and their masters and mistresses. Men and maid-servants ran
+away, the men enlisted and the maids endeavoured to set up for
+themselves. Meanwhile the youths dispersed from the schools and
+universities, few parents among the citizens being sufficiently well off
+to be able to support their sons entirely during the period of
+education. There were however a multitude of scholarships founded by
+benevolent people for poor students. The value of these now suddenly
+vanished, the credit of the poor scholars in foreign towns was soon
+exhausted, many found it impossible to maintain themselves; they sank
+under poverty and the temptations of that bloody period. We may still
+read in the autobiographies of many respectable theologians, what
+distress they then suffered. One supported life in Vienna, by cutting
+daily his master's tallies for a four-penny loaf; another was able to
+earn eighteen batz[35] in the week, by giving lessons, the whole of
+which he was obliged to spend on dry bread.
+
+There was increasing discontent. First among the capitalists who lived
+on the interest of the money which they had lent, which was then in
+middle Germany five, or occasionally six, per cent. For a time they were
+much envied as wealthy people, but now their receipts were often hardly
+sufficient to maintain life. They had lent thousands of good Imperial
+thalers, and now a creditor would pay them on the nail a thousand
+thalers in new money. They demanded back their good old money; they
+squabbled and laid their complaints before the courts; but the money
+which they had received back bore the image of the Sovereign and the old
+mark of value; it was legally stamped money, and the debtor could in
+justice allege that he had received similar money, both as interest and
+capital and for labour. Thus there arose numberless lawsuits; and the
+lawyers were in great perplexity. At last the cities and even the
+Sovereigns were embarrassed. They had willingly issued the new money,
+and many of them had coined it recklessly. But now for all their taxes
+and imposts they obtained only bad money, a hundred pounds of plated
+copper instead of a hundred pounds of silver, at the same time
+everything had become dear, even to them, and a portion of their
+expenses had to be paid in good silver. Then the governments attempted
+to assist themselves by new frauds. First they endeavoured to retain the
+good money by compulsion; now they suddenly lowered the value of their
+own money, and again threatened punishment and compulsion to all who
+gave less value for it. But the false money still continued to sink
+under the regulated value. Then some governments refused to take for the
+payment of taxes and imposts, the money of their own country which they
+themselves had coined. They declined taking back what they had stamped
+in the last year. Now for the first time the people discovered the whole
+danger of their position. A general storm broke loose against the new
+money; it sank even in daily traffic to a tenth of its nominal value.
+The new hedge mints were cried down as nests of the devil; the
+mint-masters and their agents, the money-changers, and whoever else
+dealt in money concerns, were the general objects of detestation. Then
+it was that they obtained in Germany the popular names of _Kipper_ and
+_Wipper_. These are Lower Saxon words: _kippen_ comes equally from the
+fraudulent weighing, as from the clipping of the money; and _wippen_
+from throwing the heavy money out of the scales.[36] Satirical songs
+were sung about them; it was supposed that their names were heard in the
+call of the quail, and the mob cried out after them "_kippe di wipp_,"
+as they did "_hep_" after the Jews. In many places the people combined
+together and stormed their dwellings. For many a year after the terrors
+of the long war, it was considered a disgrace to have acquired money in
+the _Kipper-time_. Everywhere disorders and tumults arose; the bakers
+would no longer bake, and their shops were destroyed; the butchers would
+no longer slaughter, on account of the prescribed tax; the miners,
+soldiers, and students raged about in a state of wild uproar; the city
+communities, deep in debt, became bankrupt, as for example the wealthy
+Leipzig. The old joints of the burgher societies cracked and threatened
+to burst asunder. The small literature urged on and excited the temper
+of the public mind, and was itself still further excited by the
+increasing discontent. The street songs began it, and the pictorial
+flying-sheets followed. The _Kippers_ were unweariedly portrayed with
+the flames of hell round their heads, their feet standing on an insecure
+ball, surrounded by numerous gloomy emblems, amongst which the cord and
+the lurking raven were not absent; or in their mints collecting and
+carrying off money, and in contrast to them the poor, begging; the
+different classes were depicted, soldiers, citizens, widows and orphans,
+paying to the money-changers their hard earnings; the jaws of hell
+appeared open, and the changers were assiduously shoved down by devils;
+all this was adorned, according to the taste of the times, with
+allegorical figures and Latin devices, made comprehensible to every one
+by indignant couplets in German.
+
+As among the people, so also among the educated, a fierce storm began to
+rage. The parish priests were loud in their invectives and
+denunciations, not only from the pulpit but also in flying-sheets. A
+brochure literature began, which swelled up like a sea. One of the first
+that was written against the new money was by W. Andreas Lampe, pastor
+at Halle. In a powerful treatise, 'On the last brood and fruit of the
+devil, Leipzig, 1621,' he proved, by numerous citations from the Old and
+New Testament, that all trades and professions in the world, even that
+of an executioner, were by divine ordinance; but the _Kipper_ was of the
+devil, whereupon he characterizes in some cutting passages the mischief
+which they had caused. He had to suffer severe trials, and though he
+loyally spared the authorities, yet he was threatened with proceedings,
+so that he found it necessary to obtain from the sheriffs' court at
+Halle a justification. He was soon followed by many of his clerical
+brethren. The controversial writings of these ecclesiastics appear to us
+clumsy productions; but it is well to examine them with attention, for
+the Protestant priesthood are always representatives of the cultivation
+and the rectitude of the people.
+
+The preachers exorcised the evil one, and the theological faculty soon
+followed with the heavy artillery of their Latin arguments, and how
+bitter was the priestly anger, was shown for example by the consistory
+of Wittemberg, when they refused the Lord's Supper and honourable burial
+to the Kippers. Lastly we have the lawyers with their questions,
+informations, detailed opinions on coining and recapitulations. The
+answers which they gave in thick brochures were almost always very
+diffuse, and their arguments frequently subtile; still they were
+necessary, for the disputes concerning _meum_ and _tuum_ between
+creditor and debtor appeared interminable, and numberless lawsuits
+threatened to prolong insupportably the sufferings of the people. The
+principal subjects of investigation were, whether those who had lent
+good money were to be repaid capital and interest in light money; and
+again, whether those who had lent light money had a claim for the
+repayment of the full capital in good money. It must be remarked here
+that, in many cases which the law and the acuteness of lawyers did not
+reach, the dispute was ended by that true feeling of equity which was
+inherent in the people. For when the governments were generally bad, and
+legal justice was very costly and difficult to be obtained, much had to
+be accomplished by the practical sense of individuals. A little flying
+leaf, in which is related how the sound common sense of the village
+magistrate administered justice, was certainly not less useful than a
+massive half-Latin, half-German "_Informatio_."
+
+In the flood of paper, which gives us information concerning the
+excitement of that period, there are certain sheets which more
+especially arrest our attention--the utterances of educated and
+experienced men, who know how to tell shortly and effectively in a
+popular form, from whence it all arose. Some of these flying-sheets,
+written at different periods of the Thirty years' war, have been
+preserved to us, in which we may even now behold with admiration, both
+energy of character, power of language, and genuine statesmanlike
+discernment. In vain do we inquire for the name of the author. We will
+only mention here one of these writings. Its title is, 'Expurgatio, or
+Vindication of the poor _Kipper_ and _Wipper_, given by Kniphardum
+Wipperium, 1622. Fragfurt.'
+
+The author has chosen the valiant Lampe as the object of his attack, as
+the cautious zeal of the Saxon ecclesiastic whose distinguished
+colleagues were accused of being Wippers--for example, the notorious
+court preacher Hoe, the subservient tool of the Elector--had excited the
+indignation of a powerful mind. A manly judgment, and a very just
+democratic tone appears in the strong expressions of this writing. We
+may judge of its peculiar tenour from the following passages:--
+
+"I have never yet seen a single penny, and much less an inferior coin,
+on which was to be found the names, arms, or stamp of _Kipper_ and
+_Wipper_, still less any inscription from the new quail call,
+_kippediwipp_. But one may truly see thereupon a well-known stamp or
+image, and the _Kipper_ or _Wipper_ will not appear even in the smallest
+letter of the alphabet.
+
+"But if Herr Magister does not rightly understand the matter, let him
+ask who has bought the old saucepans at the highest price, in order to
+assist the coining; having done so, Herr Magister will truly learn who
+has coined the copper and tin money. For truly so many old pans in which
+so much good gruel or millet pap has been made, and so many coppers in
+which so much good beer has been brewed, are melted down and coined, and
+this not by the vulgar _Kipper_, but by the _Arch kipper_. For the
+others have no regale to coin, and if they, like the blood and deer
+hounds, have scented and hunted out such things, they have done so by
+the command of others, and thus are not to be so severely condemned as
+those (let them call themselves what they may) who have the regalie, and
+misuse it to the perceptible damage of the German States.
+
+"No one now-a-days will bell the cat, or, like John the Baptist, tell
+the truth to Herod. Every one heaps abuse upon the poor rogues, the
+_Kippers_ and _Wippers_, who nevertheless do not carry on this business
+by their own authority, for all that they do takes place with the
+knowledge, consent, and approbation of the government. And alas, they
+have now-a-days many competitors. For as soon as any one gets a penny or
+a groschen that is a little better than another, he forthwith makes with
+it usurious profit. Therefore, as experience teaches, it comes to pass
+as follows: the doctors abandon their invalids and think far more of
+usury than of Hippocrates and Galen; the lawyers forget their legal
+documents, lay aside their practice, and taking usury in hand, let who
+will peruse Bartholus and Balbus. The same is also done by other men of
+learning, who study arithmetic more than rhetoric and philosophy; the
+merchants, shop-keepers, and other traders acquire now-a-days their
+greatest gains by their hardwares which are marked by the mint stamp.
+
+"From this we may perceive that the 'unhanged, thievish,
+oath-forgetting, dishonourable,' _Kippers_ and _Wippers_, though not
+indeed to be quite exculpated, are not so much to be condemned as if
+they were the _causa principalis_ of the ruin of the German States. I
+have, alas! assuredly great fears, that if once there is a delivery to
+the devil or hangman, the _Kippers_ and _Wippers_, changers and usurers,
+Jews and Jew associates, helpers and helpers' helpers, one thief with
+another, will all be hurled off to the devil, or be hung up at the same
+time together, like yonder host with his companions. Yet with a
+difference. For their principals and patrons will justly have the
+prerogative and pre-eminence, and indeed some of them have been already
+sent there beforehand. The others will shortly follow to the
+above-mentioned place, and it will then avail nothing on this journey
+downward, whether one treats them with _carmina_ or _crimina_, whether
+one passes judgment on them as criminals, or gives them laudatory
+poems--_facilis descensus Averni_--they will easily find the way, for
+they need no good fortune for that; the devil will couple them all with
+one cord, be the rogues ever so big. _Fiat_."
+
+It is not improbable that a similar view of their social prospects in
+another world was impressed upon the rulers from many quarters. At all
+events, even they discovered that they could only be saved by the most
+speedy help; nothing would avail them but the reduction and hasty
+withdrawal of the new coinage, and a return to the good old Imperial
+coin. Thus the first fears of the princes and cities caused them to
+depreciate their new money, and to make use of these verdicts in order
+to express their abhorrence--not of very old date--of the bad coin, and
+they forthwith had the coin stamped honourably of due weight and alloy,
+as prescribed by the Imperial law. In order to put a stop to the
+excessive increase of prices, they hastened to put forth a tariff of
+goods and wages, which decided the highest price to be permitted. It is
+clear that this latter remedy could not be of more lasting use than the
+famous edict of Diocletian, thirteen hundred years before. The
+compulsion which, for example, it exercised over the city weekly
+markets, day labourers, and guilds, was only a temporary help for
+restoring the overflowing stream to its old bed.
+
+This state of intoxication, terror, and fury was followed by a dreary
+reaction. Men gazed on one another as after a great pestilence. Those
+who had rested secure in their opulence had sunk into ruin. Many
+worthless adventurers now strutted, as persons of distinction, in velvet
+and silk. The whole nation had become poorer. There had not been any
+great war for a long time, and many millions in silver and gold, the
+savings of the inferior classes, had been inherited in city and village
+from father to son; the greater part of these savings had vanished in
+the bad times; it had been squandered on carousals, frittered away on
+trifles, and at last expended for daily food. But this was not the
+greatest evil; it was a still greater, that at this time the citizen,
+and countryman had been forcibly torn from the path of their honest
+daily labour. Frivolity, an unsettled existence, and a reckless egotism,
+had taken possession of them. The destroying powers of war had sent
+forth their evil spirits to loosen the firm links of burgher society,
+and to accustom a peaceful, upright, and laborious people to the
+sufferings and mal-practices of an army which shortly overran all
+Germany.
+
+The period from 1621 to 1623 was henceforth called the "_Kipper and
+Wipper_" time. The confusion, the excitement, the trafficking, and the
+flying-sheet literature lasted till the year 1625. The lessons which the
+princes had learnt from the consequences of their flagitious actions did
+not avail them against later temptations. Even at the end of the
+seventeenth century it seems to have been impossible for them entirely
+to avoid hedge mints, and the continual recurrence of a depreciation of
+money.
+
+Whilst Tilly was conquering Lower Saxony, and Wallenstein made great
+havoc in Northern Germany, small literature flowed in an under-current.
+After every engagement, and every capture of a city, there appeared
+copper engravings, with a text which described the position of the
+troops and the appearance of the city; irregular newspapers, and songs
+of lament conveyed the information of the advance of the Imperialists,
+and the destruction of the Mansfelders. In the midst of all this the
+people were dismayed by terrible decrees of the Emperor, who now from
+his secure position threw over the evangelicals, or compelled them by
+force to return to his Church, in spite of the fruitless intercessions
+of the Elector of Saxony. The Elector at last authorized the publication
+of a defence of the Augsburg confession, against the attacks of the
+Catholic theologians; this comprehensive work, called, 'The necessary
+Defence of the Apple of the Eye,' written in 1628, called forth
+immediately a theological war; both opponents and allies hastened in
+crowds to the field. 'Spectacles for the Evangelical Apple of the Eye;'
+'A sharp round Eye on the Romish Pope;' 'Who has struck the Calf in the
+Eye? The Catholic Oculist or Coucher;' 'Venetian Spectacles on Lutheran
+Nose,' &c. These are specimens of the defiant titles of the most
+readable of the controversial writings. But this literary strife was
+drowned in the burst of loud outcries against Wallenstein, which pierced
+from Pomerania through all the German States, on account of the battle
+near Stralsund, and his shameful conduct towards the Pomeranian Duke and
+his country, and finally the horrible ill treatment of the men and women
+of Pasewalk. Again these lamentations changed into a shout of joy from
+all the Protestants. Again hope and confidence revived; this time it was
+a man, whom the nation, with the genuine German longing to love and
+honour, welcomed with shouts of jubilee. What had been wanting to the
+Germans for a century, came to them from the North, an idol and a hero.
+But he was a foreigner.
+
+Much of that halo of light still surrounds the figure of Gustavus
+Adolphus, which distinguished him in the eyes of his cotemporaries so
+immeasurably above all other generals and princes. It is not his
+victories, nor his knightly death, nor the circumstance that he appeared
+as the last help to a despairing people, which makes him the one
+prominent figure in the long struggle. It was the magic of his great
+nature, as he rode over the field of battle, firm, self-contained, and
+as confident as unerring; from head to foot he was dignity, decision,
+and nervous energy. If one examines more nearly, one is astonished at
+the strong contrasts which combined in this character to form an
+admirable unity. No General was more systematic, fertile in plans, or
+greater in the science of war. Discipline in the army, order in the
+commissariat, a firm basis, and secure lines of retreat in every
+strategical operation, these were the requisites he brought with him to
+the conduct of the German War. But even he, the powerful prince of war,
+was driven by an irresistible necessity from his good system, but with
+the whole power of his being he incessantly stemmed the tide of the wild
+marauding war that raged around him. And yet this same systematic man
+bore within him a rash spirit of daring against the greatest hazards;
+his bearing in the battle was wonderfully elevated, like that of a noble
+battle steed. His eyes lighted up, his figure became more lofty, and a
+smile played on his countenance. Again, how wonderful appears to men,
+the union in him of frank honesty and wary policy, of upright piety and
+worldly wisdom, of high-minded self-sacrifice and reckless ambition, of
+heartfelt humanity and stern severity! And all this was enlivened by an
+inward confidence and freedom of mind, which enabled him to look in a
+humorous point of view on the distracted condition of the decaying
+Princes of the country. The irresistible power which he exercised over
+all who came under his influence, consisted principally in the
+freshness of his nature, his surpassing good humour, and where it was
+necessary, an ironical bonhomie. The way in which he managed the proud
+and wavering Princes, and the hesitating cities of the Protestant party,
+was not to be surpassed; he was never weary of exciting them to war, and
+alliance; he ever reverted to the same theme, whether to the Envoy of
+the Brandenburger, or when flattering the Nurembergers, or chiding the
+Frankforters.
+
+He was closely allied, both by race and faith, to the Northern Germans;
+but he was a foreigner. This was thoroughly and constantly felt by the
+Princes. It was not alone distrust of his superior power which, till the
+bitterest necessity compelled them to union, kept aloof from him the
+irresolute, but it was the discovery in him of a new master; they
+revolted at the idea of this mighty non-German power, which so suddenly
+and threateningly arose in the empire. There was still to be found in a
+few of them somewhat of Luther's national idea of the empire. They had
+no hesitation in negotiating with France, Denmark, the Netherlands, nay
+with the unreliable Bethlem Gabor; all these were outside the Empire.
+Within its boundaries there was the fanatical Emperor and his
+insupportable General; they were new people to them, who might pass away
+as rapidly as they had become great; but the sovereignty of the German
+Empire was old, and they were the pillars of it. This conception was no
+longer in accordance with the highest policy, for the German Emperor had
+become the most mortal enemy of the German Empire. But such a feeling is
+not deserving of contempt; and the nation as well as most of the
+Princes, felt to the heart's core that their quarrel with the Emperor
+was in fact a domestic one, in which foreigners should have no concern.
+But the people, blinded by their delight in the dazzling heroism of the
+Protestant King, lost sight of these considerations. For two years
+public opinion paid homage to him, as it has never done since, except to
+the Great Frederic of Prussia. Every word, every little anecdote was
+carried from city to city, and loud acclamations greeted every success
+of his arms. It was not only the zealous Protestants who thus felt; even
+in the Catholic armies and in the states of the League, the scorn was
+quickly silenced which had been called forth by the landing of the "Snow
+King," and the number of his admirers continually increased. Many
+characteristic traits of him are preserved to us; almost every
+conversation that he had with Germans, gives an opportunity of
+discovering something of his nature. We will give here a short
+conversation, after his landing in Pomerania, recorded by a clever
+negotiator.
+
+The Elector of Brandenburg had sent his plenipotentiary, Von
+Wilmersdorff, to persuade the King to conclude an armistice with the
+Emperor; he further wished to negotiate a peace between them, although
+Wallenstein had already deprived him of his dominions, and the Emperor
+had shown him every kind of disregard. The conversation of the King with
+the Envoy gives a good picture of his method of negotiating. He is here
+concise, firm, and straightforward, in spite of some mental reservation;
+and so perfectly self-possessed that he can allow his lively temperament
+to break forth without danger. The Envoy relates as follows:--
+
+"After his Kingly Majesty had listened graciously to me, though when I
+came to the proposition of an armistice he rather smiled, he, no one
+being present, answered me circumstantially.
+
+"'I had expected a different kind of embassy from my loving cousin; that
+is to say, that he would rather have come to meet me and united himself
+with me for his own welfare; and not that my loving cousin should be so
+weak as to lose this opportunity so providentially sent by God. My
+loving cousin will not comprehend the clear and evident intentions of
+his enemies; he does not discern the difference between pretexts and
+truth, nor consider that when this pretence shall cease, that is to say,
+when they have no longer anything more to fear from me, another will
+soon be found to establish himself in my loving cousin's country.
+
+"'I had not expected that my loving cousin would have been so much
+terrified at the war as to remain inactive notwithstanding all the
+consequences to himself. Or does not my cousin yet know, that the
+intention of the Emperor and his allies is not to desist till the
+evangelical religion is entirely rooted out of the empire? my loving
+cousin must be prepared either to deny his religion or abandon his
+country. Does he think that anything else can be obtained by prayers,
+entreaties, or the like means? For God's sake let him reflect a little,
+and for once take _mascula consilia_. You see how this excellent prince
+the Duke of Pomerania was in the most innocent way,--having really
+committed no offence but only peaceably drunk his beer,--brought into
+the most lamentable condition, and how wonderfully he was saved under
+God's providence, _fato quodam necessario_--for he was constrained to do
+so--by making terms with me. What he did from necessity my loving cousin
+may do willingly.
+
+"'I cannot withdraw, _jacta est alea, transivimus Rubiconem_. I do not
+seek my own advantage in this business; I gain nought but the security
+of my kingdom; beyond this I have nothing but expenses, trouble, labour,
+and danger to body and soul. They have occasioned me enough; in the
+first place they have twice sent help to my enemies the Poles, and
+endeavoured to drive me away; then they have endeavoured to possess
+themselves of the harbours of the Baltic, whereby I could well perceive
+what their intentions towards me were. My loving cousin the Elector is
+in a similar case, and it is now time that he should open his eyes and
+give up somewhat of his easy life, that he may no longer be a
+Stadtholder of the Emperor, nay even an Imperial servant in his own
+country: "Qui se fait brebis le loup le mange."
+
+"'This is now precisely the best opportunity, when your country is free
+from Imperial soldiers, to garrison and defend your fortresses. If you
+will not do this, deliver over one to me, if it be only Küstrin, I will
+defend it, and you may then remain in the inactivity which your Prince
+so dearly loves.
+
+"'What other will you do? For I declare to you distinctly, I will not
+hear of neutrality, my loving cousin must be either friend or foe. When
+I come to your frontier you must show yourselves either cold or warm.
+This is a struggle between God and the devil; if my loving cousin will
+hold to God, let him unite with me; but if he would rather hold to the
+devil, he must henceforth fight against me, _tertium non dabitur_, of
+that he may be assured.
+
+"'Take this commission upon you to inform my loving cousin secretly of
+it, for I have none with me whom I can spare to send to him. If my
+loving cousin will treat with me, I will see if I can go to him myself;
+but with his present arrangements I will have nothing to do.
+
+"'My loving cousin trusts neither in God nor to his good friends. It has
+gone ill with him therefore in Prussia and this country. I am the
+devoted servant of my loving cousin, and love him from my heart: my
+sword shall be at his service, and it shall preserve him in his
+sovereignty and to his people, but he must do his part also.
+
+"'My loving cousin has great interest in this dukedom of Pomerania; this
+will I also defend for his advantage, but on the same condition as in
+the book of Ruth the next inheritor is commanded to take Ruth for his
+wife, so must my loving cousin take to him this Ruth; that is, unite
+himself with me in this righteous business if he wishes to inherit the
+country. If not, I here declare that he shall never obtain it.
+
+"'I am not disinclined to peace, and have conformed myself to it
+contentedly. I know well that the chances of war are doubtful; I have
+experienced that, in the many years in which I have carried on war with
+various fortune. But as I have now, by God's grace, come so far, no one
+can counsel me to withdraw, not even the Emperor himself if he were to
+make use of his reason.
+
+"'I might perhaps allow of an armistice for a month. It may appear
+fitting to me that my loving cousin should mediate. But he must place
+himself in a position, arms in hand, otherwise all his mediation will
+avail nothing. Some of the Hanse towns are ready to unite with me. I
+only wait for some one in the Empire to put himself prominently at the
+head. What might not the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg together
+with these cities, accomplish? Would to God that there were a Maurice!'
+
+"Thereupon I replied that I had no commands from his Electoral Highness
+to confer with his Majesty, touching an armed alliance. But in my poor
+opinion, I doubted much whether his Electoral Highness would be able to
+come to an understanding without detriment to his honour and truth,
+_salvo honore et fide sua_.
+
+"Then his Majesty interposed promptly: 'Yes, they will honour you when
+they have deprived you of your land and people. The Imperialists will
+keep faith with you as they have kept the capitulation.'
+
+"I: 'It is necessary to look to the future, and consider how all will
+fall to ruin if the undertaking does not prosper.'
+
+"The King: 'That will happen if you remain inactive, and would have done
+so already if I had not come. My loving cousin ought to do as I have
+done, and commend the result to God. I have not lain on a bed for
+fourteen days. I might have spared myself this trouble and sat at home
+with my wife if I had had no greater considerations.'
+
+"I: 'As your Kingly Majesty is content that his Electoral Highness
+should become mediator, you must at least allow his Electoral Highness
+to remain neutral.'
+
+"The King: 'Yes, till I come to his country. Such an idea is mere chaff,
+which the wind raises and blows away. _What kind of a thing is that
+Neutrality? I do not understand it!_'
+
+"I: 'Yet your Kingly Majesty understood it well in Prussia, where you
+yourself suggested it to his Electoral Highness and to the city of
+Dantzic.'
+
+"The King: 'Not to the Elector, but certainly to the city of Dantzic,
+for it was to my advantage.'
+
+"After this he returned again to the subject of the Duke of Pomerania,
+saying that the good prince had been well content with him. He would
+have restored him Stralsund, Rügen, Usedom, Wollin, and all the rest.
+The Duke had desired that his Majesty should be his father. 'But I,'
+said his Majesty, 'answered, I would rather be his son, as he has no
+children.'
+
+"Thereupon I answered: 'Yes, Kingly Majesty, that might very well be, if
+his Electoral Highness could only maintain the law of primogeniture in
+Pomerania.'
+
+"The King: 'Yes, that may be very easily maintained by my loving cousin;
+but he must defend it, and not, like Esau, sell it for a mess of
+pottage.'"
+
+Thus far goes the narrative.
+
+When the great King, the lord of half Germany, sank into the dust in
+battle, the wail of lamentation broke forth in all the Protestant
+territories. Funeral services were performed in the towns and country,
+endless elegies poured forth; even the enemy concealed their joy under a
+manly sympathy, which at that time was seldom accorded to opponents.
+
+His death was considered as a national misfortune; the deliverer and the
+saviour of the people was lost: we also, whether Catholic or Protestant,
+should not only regard with heartfelt sympathy that pure hero life,
+which in the prime of its strength was so suddenly extinguished, but we
+should also contemplate with the deepest gratitude the influence of the
+King upon the German war; for he had, in a time of desperation, defended
+that which Luther had attained for the whole nation,--freedom of soul,
+and capacity for the development of national strength against the most
+fearful enemy of the German national existence, against a crushing
+despotism in Church and State. But we must also observe concerning him,
+that the fate which he met strikes us as more peculiarly tragical
+because he drew it upon himself. History makes us acquainted with some
+characters which, after mighty deeds, are suddenly struck down at the
+height of their fame by a rapid change of fate in the midst of powerful
+but unaccomplished conception. Such heroes have a popular mixture of
+qualities of soul, which make them the privileged favourites both of
+posterity and art. Such was the case with the almost fabulous hero, the
+great Alexander; and thus it was, in a more limited sphere, with smaller
+means, with the Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus: but however accidental
+the fever or the bullet which carried them off may appear to us, their
+destruction arose from their own greatness. The conqueror of Asia had
+become an Asiatic despot before he died; the deliverer of Germany was
+shot by an Imperial mercenary when he was rushing through the dust of
+the battle-field, not like a General of the seventeenth century, but
+like a "Viking" of the olden time, who fought their battles in wild
+excitement under the protection of the battle-maidens of Odin. Often
+already had the incautious heroism of the King led him into rash daring
+and useless danger, and long had his faithful adherents feared that he
+would at some time meet his end thus. It was a wise policy which led him
+to establish himself on the German coast, in order to secure to his
+Sweden the dominion of the Baltic, also to draw the seaports to his
+interests, and to desire firm points of support on the Oder, Elbe, and
+Weser. But what duty did he owe to the German Empire, whose own Emperor
+wished to suppress the national life and popular development by Roman
+money, and calling thither hordes of soldiers from half Europe? When
+Gustavus Adolphus conceived the idea of making himself lord paramount
+over the German Princes, when he proceeded to form an hereditary power
+for himself in Germany, he was no longer the great cotemporary of
+Richelieu, but again the descendant of an old Norman chieftain. It is
+possible that the power of the man, during a longer life and after many
+victories, might have brought under his sway, with or without an
+Imperial throne, the greater part of Germany; but that Sweden, the
+foundation of his power, was not in a position to exercise a lasting
+supremacy over Germany, a small distant country over a larger, must have
+been obvious even then to the weakest politician. The King might still
+for some years longer have sacrificed the peasant sons of Sweden on the
+German battle-fields, and corrupted the Swedish nobility by German
+plunder; but he could not build up an enduring dynasty for both people,
+whatever his genius might have accomplished for a time. Men of ordinary
+powers would soon have restored things to their natural condition. We
+are therefore of opinion, that he died just when his lofty desires were
+beginning to contend against a fundamental law of the new state life,
+and we may assume that even a longer life of success would not have made
+much alteration in our position. When he died, his natural heir in
+Germany was already twelve years of age: this heir was Frederic William,
+the great Elector of Brandenburg. Gustavus Adolphus was the last but one
+of the northern princes to whom the old Scandinavian expedition to the
+south proved fatal. Charles XII., dying before Friedrichshall, was the
+last.
+
+As the funeral lament died away in Germany, there began a reaction in
+public opinion against the foreigners. The Catholic faction had, during
+the whole war, the doubtful advantage that their quarrels and private
+dissensions were not brought to light by the press, but their Protestant
+opponents were broken into parties. It was more especially after Saxony,
+in 1635, had endeavoured, at Prague, to make an inglorious
+reconciliation with the Emperor by a separate peace, that there arose
+both in the north and south an Imperial and a Swedish party, and much
+weak dissension besides. The French endeavoured, but without success, to
+gain by means of the press, adherents on the Rhine. Bernhard von Weimar
+found warm admirers, who foresaw in him the successor of Gustavus
+Adolphus. He possessed great talents as a General, and some of the
+winning qualities of the great King; but he was only in one respect his
+successor, that he carried on in the most dangerous way the too great
+political daring of his instructor. He wished to make use of, and at the
+same time deceive, a foreign power which was greater and stronger than
+himself: it was an unequal struggle, and he, as the weaker party, was
+soon put aside by France, and these foreigners possessed themselves of
+his political legacy, his fortress and his army.
+
+While love and hate were thus divided in this gloomy period, there arose
+among the better portion of the nation a characteristic patriotism,
+which the German people, in the midst of their great need and
+sufferings, opposed to the egotistic interests of the rulers who helped
+to destroy each other. There no longer existed any party to which a wise
+man could from his heart wish success. Differences of faith had
+diminished, and the soldiers complained, without scruple, of confession.
+Then began for the first time a new political system, called a
+constitution founded on reason, in opposition to the reckless
+selfishness of the rulers. But even this constitutional principle, the
+basis of which was the advantage of the whole, as it was then
+understood, was still without greatness of conception or any deep moral
+purport; and there was no repugnance to the employment of the worst
+means in carrying it out. Still it was an advance. Even the peaceful
+citizen, after eighteen years of troubles, was obliged to take an
+interest in this political system. The character of the ruling powers
+and their interests became everywhere a subject of deliberation. Every
+one was terrified out of his provincial narrowness of mind, and had
+urgent reasons for interesting themselves in the fate of foreign
+countries. Thousands of fugitives, the most powerful members of the
+community, had scattered themselves over distant provinces, the same
+misfortunes had befallen them also. Thus, amidst the horrors of war, was
+developed in Germany a feeling of distrust of their rulers, a longing
+for a better national condition. It was a great but dearly bought
+advance of public opinion; it may be discerned more particularly in the
+political literature after the peace of Prague. A specimen of this
+tendency is here introduced from a small flying-sheet, which appeared in
+1636 under the title of 'The German Brutus: that is, a letter thrown
+before the public.'
+
+"You Swedes complain that Germany is ungrateful, that it drives you away
+with violence, that the good deeds, done with God's power by Joshua, are
+forgotten, the alliance no longer thought of, in short, that you are
+less valued, like an old worn-out horse, or decrepit hound, both of
+which, when no longer useful, get such thanks as the world gives. Thus
+you are treated with great injustice before God and the world.
+
+"Be of good comfort: there are many remaining who wish you well from
+their heart, who pray for you, and show their devotion to you in every
+possible way. A country where such people are to be found cannot be
+accused of ingratitude; and that there are yet many thousand such
+people, even your enemies know right well. But that selfishness, secret
+envy, hidden counsels, and clandestine negotiations are stirred up
+against you, must not be ascribed to the whole of this praiseworthy
+German nation, but only to the causes which have led to such results;
+for you have on your part shown a double amount of selfishness.
+
+"In the first place, in raising at your pleasure the toll on the Baltic;
+for I have been told by honest trustworthy seafaring folk, that you have
+exacted from people, not only from fifteen to thirty, but up to forty,
+nay, even to fifty out of a hundred, and have troubled all hearts by
+this rapacity; and as no improvement has taken place, but commerce has
+been thereby miserably straitened, and many honest people have been
+lamentably brought to beggary, the minds of men being thereby much
+embittered, your best friends began at first to condemn you secretly,
+and at last through their falling fortunes were made your worst enemies.
+Would you throw the blame on the toll gatherers? They are your servants.
+It is a well-known rule of law: what I do by my servant is as though
+done by myself. You appear to me exactly like him who carried off a pair
+of shoes secretly and offered them afterwards to the holy Benno.
+
+"The states and cities of the Empire, so long as they were in your
+hands, contributed fully and sufficiently to your maintenance; many, nay
+too many, to say the least of it, as a proof of their fidelity, have
+lost soul and body, wealth and life, nay all their privileges, and, in a
+great measure, religion itself. Ratisbon testifies to this. Augsburg
+laments over it. All grieve together over it. You have allowed the old
+regiments to dissolve, have completed no companies, nor paid either new
+or old, notwithstanding you have demanded, and in fact received large
+sums of money from many Diets; I say nothing of what you have extorted
+from your enemies in their own countries. How has this money been spent?
+In superfluous pomp and luxury which is hateful to every one. We have
+observed this silently, and made a virtue of necessity. The children of
+Israel, when they had intercourse with the daughters of their enemies,
+and afterwards boasted of their victory, and tormented their brethren of
+Judah with the hardest yoke of bondage, were both times severely
+punished by God. And shall it fare better with you who have exercised
+more than Turkish cruelty in many evangelical places? The corn from the
+monastery of Magdeburg, the Dukedom of Brunswick and other places, has
+been thrashed out and carried off in heaps from the country, sold at a
+very high price, and the money spent for your own use, nothing given to
+the poor soldiers; the country people, harassed to death, are dying of
+hunger; and many fortresses, from avarice, either not supplied with
+provisions, or not amply provided with powder and shot, and, in short,
+general mismanagement. Now we see ourselves everywhere abandoned by
+fortune, so that at last we discover there is no money in hand, and no
+people to be got, as those who were available have run away, and the
+remainder will no longer be restrained by martial law. Dear friends,
+think you of the saying of Boccalini: 'When the prince leads the life of
+Lucifer, what wonder that the subjects become devils!'
+
+"Our politicians know well that the Electors hold kingly rank in the
+Empire. But who has exalted himself above them with kingly magnificence,
+a great retinue and boundless expense, is it not your chief
+(Oxenstiern)? Do you think that this has not been complained of at every
+court? His Kingly Majesty of Christian memory never did the like. From
+these and countless other reasons the Princes, states, and cities have
+become first secretly, and then publicly offended with you; to this may
+be added a conduct towards the established inhabitants which they cannot
+well bear, when foreigners place themselves higher than their native
+princes.
+
+"You say that electoral Saxony should have made peace by force of arms.
+Let us leave that uncertain. It is known to every one that certain
+persons have helped to shove the cart into the mud, and afterwards left
+it there. If electoral Saxony has been wrong, you with your procedures
+are not less guilty. In short, every one, be he who he may, has sought
+his own advantage; therefore Magdeburg lies in ashes, Wismar is in
+ruins, Augsburg is bound with the fetters of servitude, Nuremberg is in
+peril of death, Ulm is in quotidian fever, Strasburg has passed to the
+French, Frankfort has the jaundice, and the whole Empire is consumed.
+The enemy have beaten with rods, but you have chastised with scorpions.
+The Wallensteiners inflicted wounds, and you physicians have applied
+drawing plasters as a remedy instead of oil, have corrupted the blood
+and fastened yourselves on like a crab; such a crab must either be cut
+out by force, or satisfied daily by inordinate sums of money. The last
+is out of our power, the first we do not wish to do to you, but cannot
+help it. If God thus harasses you it is your own fault. Meanwhile, do
+you think that God has a flaxen beard, and will allow himself to be led
+by the nose? Oh, no, He sees well that you shelter yourselves under the
+name of freedom, that you make use of the cloak of the gospel, and at
+the same time live as Turks.
+
+"You cry out much about the Spanish monarchy. I have no fears of it.
+Give me one of the best chemists who is sufficiently scientific to know
+how to mingle earth and ores, so that they will hold together firm and
+infrangible, and then let us see whether we have to fear the Spanish
+monarchy. But I am afraid that France will be to us Germans, the broken
+reed of Egypt, which will pierce the hand of whoever leans on it. All
+empires have their fixed time appointed by God, and a boundary across
+which they cannot pass. First they arise, then grow like boys; some
+improve as youths, remain for a time at a standstill in their manhood,
+then decline, become old, languish and at last die; nay, are so utterly
+annihilated, that one scarcely knows that they have existed. This course
+of things cannot be prevented by any human wisdom. The wise man sees
+this, and prepares himself beforehand; the fool does not believe it, and
+is ruined, like the surviving Generals of Alexander the Great, who so
+long divided his conquests, till the Romans became their masters. And
+truly the Empire has great need to rid herself at last of foreign
+physicians.
+
+"I have been severe, but a steel axe is necessary to sever such a hard
+knot, one cannot cut with a fur coat.
+
+"It is asked what will be the issue? It rests with God. Have you had too
+little bloodshed? Let God be the judge, and fly ye from his wrath.
+Although the Church still suffers, it is not yet dead. You cannot
+complain that you have gained nothing for the money you have spent and
+the dangers you have undergone. You have brought copper out of your
+country, but carried silver and gold back to it. Sweden, before this
+war, was of wood thatched with straw, now it is of stone, and splendidly
+adorned, and that you have obtained from the abducted vessels of Egypt.
+This no one would grudge you if you would only thank God yourselves for
+it. The Germans have indeed been excited to rise against their Emperor,
+but they will take no one who is not of their race and language. If the
+house of Austria has done evil, God will truly search it out. As
+concerns the French, I know well that God will, through them, punish
+Germany; for we have daily imitated in manners, ceremonies, demeanour,
+and entertainments, in language and clothing, together with music, this
+nation of apish behaviour and dress, and frivolous manners. How can we
+expect better than to fall into their hands? But the Frenchman will not
+therefore become our Emperor. To him belongs the Lily, the Eagle to the
+Germans, the East to the Turks, and the West to the Spaniards. None
+among them can reach higher.
+
+"I must hope that it will not be taken amiss of me, that I have so
+roundly described these transactions. But frankness suits a German well.
+Would to God that any one had in good time thus placed the matter before
+you. Now we can indeed complain, but help, none either will or can give.
+God alone will and can help us; to Him we must pray that He may at last
+have compassion on us, and turn the hearts of the high potentates to
+love and long-wished-for peace."
+
+Here ends the flying-sheet. The author, without putting sympathy with
+the Imperialists in the foreground, evidently belongs less to the
+Swedish party than we do now. Undoubtedly the Swedish soldiers and
+officers had become merciless devils, like the Imperialists, and, like
+them, they ruined the country and people. But it was not their
+exorbitant demands which hindered the peace, but the injustice of the
+Emperor, who still continued to raise the execrable pretension to subdue
+the life and freedom of the nation to his interest. Had it been possible
+for the Hapsburgers to assure freedom of faith, and the independence of
+the Imperial tribunals, almost all the German princes would have
+succumbed to him to drive away the foreigners. But the struggle stood
+thus: either the nation must be crushed, and all the ideas suppressed,
+which had grown up in the German soil for one hundred and forty years,
+or the pretensions of the Imperial House must be certainly and
+fundamentally overcome: The last was impossible to the Germans without
+the help of Sweden. Thus on a retrospect of those years, every one will
+be well disposed to Sweden, who does not consider it a mere accident
+that well-known men of later times, like Lessing, Goethe, Schiller,
+Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Humboldt did not blossom out of the country in
+which hundreds of thousands were driven from Church and school, by the
+Jesuits of Ferdinand II. But at that period the patriot undoubtedly felt
+the weakness of the Empire more than all the fearful misery of the
+people. And great ground there was for anxiety about the future. From
+this point of view this brochure is to us the first expression of that
+feeling which still, in the present day, unites hundreds of thousands of
+Germans. That love of Fatherland took root in the oppressed souls of our
+ancestors during the Thirty years' war, which has not yet attained to
+political life by a unity of constitutions. Such a feeling indeed only
+existed then in the minds of the noblest. But we must honour those who,
+in a century poor in hope, left in their teaching and writings, as an
+inheritance to their descendants, the idea of a German Empire.
+
+After Banner's devastating expedition all was quiet in Germany. Almost
+all the news and State records which the war had left, flowed from the
+press. In the last years thousands of printed sheets were filled with
+the negotiations for peace. Finally the peace was announced to the poor
+people in large placards.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+
+  THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.--THE CITIES.
+
+
+When the war broke out, the cities were the armed guardians of German
+trade, which was carried on with wealth and bustle, in narrow streets
+between high houses. Almost every city, with the exception of the
+smallest market towns, was shut out from the open country by walls,
+gates, and moats. The approaches were narrow and easy to defend; there
+were often double walls, and in many cases the old towers still
+overtopped the battlements and gates. Many of the more important of
+these middle-age fortifications had been strengthened in the course of
+the century, the bastions of stone and brick-work, as well as strong
+single towers, were mounted with heavy artillery; and frequently the old
+castle of some landed proprietor, or the house of some former magistrate
+or count appointed by the Emperor, were fortified. They were not
+fortresses in our sense, but they could, if the walls were thick and the
+citizens stanch, resist even a great army, at least for a long time.
+Thus Nördlingen maintained itself in 1634 for eighteen days, against the
+united Imperial armies of King Ferdinand, Gallas, and
+Piccolomini--forming together more than 60,000 men: the citizens
+repulsed seven assaults, with only five hundred men, Swedish
+auxiliaries. For a defence like this, earth sconces were thrown out as
+outworks, and rapidly united by trenches and palisades. Many places,
+however, far more than at present, were real fortresses. Their chief
+strength consisted in their outworks, which were planned by Flemish
+science. It had long been known that the balls of carronades were more
+destructive to stone and breast-works than to earth-works.
+
+In the larger cities the cleanliness of the streets was much attended
+to; they were paved, even in the carriage ways; the pavement was raised
+in the centre for carrying away the water; the chief market-place, as
+for example in Leipzig, was already paved with stone. Great efforts had
+long been made to procure for the cities a certain and abundant supply
+of drinking-water; under the streets ran wooden conduits; stone cisterns
+and fountains often decorated with statues, stood in the market-places
+and principal streets. The streets were not as yet lighted; whoever went
+out by night required torches or lanterns; later, however, torches were
+forbidden; but at the corner houses were fixed metal fire-pans, in
+which, in case of uproar or fire at night, pitch rings and resinous wood
+were burnt. It was the custom on the breaking out of a fire to allow the
+water to run from the cisterns or the fountains to the streets which
+were endangered. For this purpose flood-gates were hung, and it was the
+duty of particular trades--in Leipzig, the innkeepers--to dam up the
+water with these flood-gates at the burning-places; at the same time
+from dung that was heaped up, they formed a traverse. The street police
+and patroles had been improved in the course of the last sixty years.
+The Elector Augustus of Saxony had organized this department of
+administration with no little skill. His numerous ordinances were used
+as models by the whole Empire, according to which the princes and cities
+regulated their new social life.
+
+The chief market was on Sunday the favourite resort of the men. There,
+after the sermon, stood the citizens and journeymen in their festival
+attire, chattering, interchanging news, and conferring together on
+business. In all commercial cities the merchants had a special room
+where they met, which was even then called the Bourse. On the tower of
+the Council House, over the clock, there was always a gallery, from
+which the warder kept a look-out over the city, and where the city piper
+blew the trombone and cornet.
+
+The city communities kept beer and wine cellars for the citizens, in
+which the price of the retailed drink was carefully fixed; there were
+special drinking-rooms for persons of distinction to hold agreeable
+intercourse. In the old Imperial cities, the patricians had generally,
+like the guilds, their especial club-houses or rooms, and the luxury of
+such a society was then greater in proportion than now. There were also
+numerous hotels, which, in Leipzig, were already famed for their
+grandeur, and splendidly arranged. Even the apothecaries were under
+regulations; they had special rules and prices; they sold many spices
+and delicacies, and whatever else was agreeable to the palate. Bath
+rooms were considered greater necessaries than now. Even in the country
+there was seldom a little farm-house without its bath-house, and there
+was a bath-room in every large house in the city. The poor citizens went
+to the barbers, who acted as surgeons, and kept bagnios. But besides
+these the cities maintained large public baths, in which, gratis, or for
+a very small payment, warm and cold bathing could be had with every
+convenience. This primitive German custom was almost abandoned during
+the war, and is not yet restored to its old extent.
+
+In more important cities the houses of the inner town, in 1618, were for
+the most part built of stone, three and more stories high, and roofed
+with tiles; the rooms in the houses were often noted for their
+cleanliness, decoration, and elegance; the walls were generally adorned
+with worked and embroidered carpets, even of velvet, and with beautiful
+costly inlaid wainscoting and other decorations; and this not only in
+the large old commercial cities, but also in some that were in more
+youthful vigour. The household gear was elegant and carefully collected.
+There was as yet no such thing as porcelain in use. Rich plate was only
+found at the courts of great princes, and in a few wealthy merchant
+families. In choice pieces of the noble metals, the artistic work of the
+goldsmith was of more value than its weight. Among the opulent citizens,
+the place of silver and porcelain was supplied by pewter; it was
+displayed in great abundance, shining with a bright polish; it was the
+pride of the housewife, and together with it were placed fine glasses
+and pottery from foreign countries, often painted and ornamented with
+either pious or waggish inscriptions. On the other hand the dress and
+adornments of the men were far more brilliant and costly than now. The
+feeling of the middle ages was still prevalent, a tendency of the mind
+for outward display and stately representations directly opposed to
+ours, and nothing tended so much to preserve this inclination, as the
+endeavours of the authorities to meet it, by regulating even the outward
+appearance of individuals, and giving to each class of citizens their
+own peculiar position. The endless sumptuary laws about dress gave it a
+disproportionate importance; it fostered more than anything else vanity
+and an inordinate desire in each to raise himself above his position. It
+appears to us a ludicrous struggle, which the worthiest magistrates
+maintained for four centuries up to the French Revolution, against all
+the caprices and excesses of the fashion, and always without success.
+
+Surrounded by these forms and regulations, lived a rich, vigorous,
+laborious, and wealthy people; the citizens held jealously to the
+privileges and dignity of their cities, they liked to exhibit their
+riches, capacity, and enterprise among their fellow-citizens. Handicraft
+and trade were still very prosperous. It is true, that in wholesale
+commerce with foreign countries Germany had already lost much. The
+splendour of the Hanse towns had faded. The great commercial houses of
+Augsburg and Nuremberg even then existed, only as heirs of the great
+riches of their fathers. Italians, French, and above all, English and
+Flemish, had become dangerous rivals, the Swedish, Danish, and Dutch
+flags floated on the Baltic more triumphantly than those of Lubeck and
+other Baltic ports, and the commerce with the two Indies ran in new
+currents and into foreign marts. But the German herring fishery was
+still of great importance, and the vast Sclave lands of the East were
+still an open market to the commerce of the country. But throughout the
+whole width of the Empire industry flourished, and a less profitable but
+sounder export of the products of the country had produced a general and
+moderate degree of wealth. The manufactures of wool and leather, and
+linen, harness, and armour with the ornamental industry of Nuremberg
+were eagerly desired by foreign countries. The chief cause of
+disturbance was the insecurity of the ratio of value. Almost every town
+had then its special branch of industry, solidly developed under the
+restrictions and control of guilds. Pottery, cloths, leather work,
+mining, and metal work, gave to individual places a peculiar character,
+and even to smaller ones a reputation which reached through the country
+and excited in the citizens a well-justified pride. But in all, scarcely
+excepting the greatest, agriculture was deemed of more importance than
+now, not only in the suburbs and farms of the city domains, but also
+within the towns; many citizens lived upon the produce of their fields.
+In the smaller towns most persons possessed portions of the town lands,
+but the richer had other property besides. Therefore there were many
+more beasts of burden and of draught than now, and the housewife
+rejoiced having her own corn-fields, from which she made her own bread,
+and if she was skilful, prepared fine pastry according to the custom of
+the country. The cities had a great share also in the cultivation of the
+vine, which reached from the north down to Lower Saxony; the right of
+brewing beer was considered a valuable privilege by some houses; almost
+every place brewed beer of its own kind, numberless are the local names
+of these primitive beverages; much value was attached to its having a
+strong, sweet, and wine flavour, and oily substance; highly esteemed
+beer was sent to great distances.
+
+The people derived more pleasure from their sensations than they do now,
+were louder and more unconstrained in their mirth. The luxury of
+banquets, especially of family feasts, was legally regulated according
+to the rank of the citizens, and he was not allowed to diminish it. The
+banquets were arranged in courses as now in England, and in every course
+a number of similar dishes. Already, oysters were sent out as far as
+they could bear the journey, and sometimes, after the introduction of
+French cookery, were formed into delicate sauces; caviare was well
+known, and at the harvest feasts Leipzig larks were a favourite dish. In
+the popular kitchens, besides the Indian spices, they had the favourite
+root of the middle ages, saffron, to colour with; beautifully ornamented
+show dishes were highly prized, sometimes even eatable dishes were gilt,
+and at tables of pretension the most distinguished confection was
+marchpane.
+
+The citizens eagerly sought every opportunity for social enjoyment. The
+carnival mummeries were general in Northern Germany, when masks swarmed
+through the streets; the favourite costumes were those of Turks, Moors,
+and Indians. When during the war the Council of Leipzig prohibited
+masks, they made their appearance armed with spears and pistols, and
+there were tumults with the city watchers. Sledge parties were not less
+popular, and sometimes they also were in costume. Public dances were
+less frequent than now, even at the marriage and artisan feasts they
+were looked upon with mistrust, as it was difficult to restrain the
+recklessness of wild boys. They wished to dance without mantles; they
+lifted up, swung, and twirled about their partners, which was strictly
+forbidden, and the thronging of the gaping domestics into the saloon was
+displeasing to the authorities. At twilight all dancing amusements were
+to cease.
+
+The larger cities had lists where the sons of the patricians held their
+knightly exercise and ran at the ring, also shooting galleries, and
+trenches for crossbow and rifle practice. The shooting festivities were
+a great source of enjoyment throughout the country, and on these
+occasions booths, tents, and cook-shops were erected. The people also
+took a lively interest in the festivals of particular guilds, and almost
+every town had its own public feast; for example, Erfurt had yearly
+prize races for the poorer classes; the men ran for stockings and the
+women for fur cloaks. Tennis was a favourite game of the young citizens,
+which unfortunately in the troubles of the century almost disappeared.
+There were special tennis courts, and a tennis-court master, of the
+town. If any gentlemen of distinction came into the town, a place in the
+market was strewed with sand, and a playground marked off with pegs and
+cords. There these distinguished persons played, and the citizens
+watched with pleasure from the windows, to see how a young Prince of
+Hesse threw the ball, and how one of Anhalt did his best. At the great
+yearly markets, for more than a century, Fortune's urn was a favourite
+game. Sometimes it was undertaken by the town itself, but generally it
+was granted to some speculator. How much the people were interested in
+this, we learn from the fact that the town chronicles frequently
+reported the particulars concerning it. Thus, in 1624, at Michaelmas, at
+Leipzig a Fortune's urn of seventeen thousand gulden was prepared; each
+ticket cost eighteen pfennige; there were seventeen blanks to one prize;
+the highest prize was three hundred and fifty gulden, and there were
+three hundred thousand blanks. The students at last became angry at the
+number of blanks; they attacked and broke down the lottery booth. The
+pleasure of the people in spectacles was greater than now, at least more
+easily satisfied; processions and city solemnities were frequent; plays
+undoubtedly were still a rare enjoyment, in these the children of the
+citizens had always the pleasure of representing the characters
+themselves, as bands of travelling players were still new and rare. The
+clerical body was already unfavourably disposed to what were called
+profane pieces, therefore ecclesiastical subjects and allegories with
+moral tendencies were always interspersed with burlesque scenes, and
+great was the number of the actors. At the yearly markets the play
+booths were more abundant than now. At the Easter fair at Leipzig in
+1630, was to be seen, amongst other things, a father with six children
+who performed beautifully on the lute and violin, a woman who could sew,
+write, and convey her food to her mouth with her feet, a child of a year
+old quite covered with hair and with a beard; and of strange animals,
+there were two marmoset monkeys, a porpoise, and a spoonbill, and, as
+now, these monsters were recommended to the people by large pictures.
+Besides these there were rope-dancers, fire-eaters, jugglers, acrobats,
+and numerous ballad singers and vendors.
+
+But what gave the greatest feeling of independence to the citizen in
+1618 was his martial aptitude--almost every one had some practice in the
+use of weapons. Every large city had an arsenal; even the heavy
+artillery on the fortifications were served by the citizens, who, as a
+body, were under ordinary circumstances superior to the young companies
+of besieging soldiers. Magdeburg would have made a stronger resistance,
+if feeling of duty and discipline had not already become weaker among
+the citizens than in former sieges, in one of which the maiden of the
+City Arms so valiantly defended her garland.
+
+Besides the city train bands, there was in most of the Circles of the
+Empire a regular militia for the defence of the country. About every
+tenth man in the city or country was drawn, regularly armed, paid during
+service, and appointed for the internal defence of the frontiers of the
+country. The beginning of the Landwehr dates from the sixteenth century.
+This regulation was recommended by military theorists as most efficient,
+and from time to time it was renewed. It was introduced by the States in
+Saxony in 1612, and renewed in 1618; there were to be altogether in the
+Electorate nine thousand men. The privates were to receive a daily pay
+of four groschen, and the serjeants ten and a half, and the cost was
+distributed among the houses. But this militia was found very useless in
+the war. The discipline was much too lax; the industrious citizen
+endeavoured to withdraw himself when danger did not threaten his own
+city; the consequence was, that many unsettled people were scouring the
+country in arms. If they were required by the community to defend the
+ploughs in the field against roving marauders, they demanded a special
+gratification, or they evaded it, and very soon they became more a
+plague than a benefit to their own country.
+
+What ruin the war brought upon the towns may be learned from every town
+chronicle. First, the disorders of the _Kipper_ time inflicted deep
+wounds on their morality and prosperity. Then came the sufferings that
+even distant war brought upon the citizens, the scarcity and dearness of
+provisions. Everything became so insecure that nothing was thought of
+but the enjoyment of the day. Rough and wild was the love of pleasure;
+and foreign modes, which had been learned from the travelled courtiers
+and soldiers became prevalent. From 1626 dandyism began in Germany after
+the French fashion; the _Messieurs à la mode_ strutted about, molesting
+every one on the paved footpaths of the streets. They had short pointed
+beards, long hair in frizzled locks, or cut short on one side, and on
+the other hanging on the shoulder in a queue or lock, a large flapped
+hat, spurs on their heels, a sword on the left side, dresses slashed and
+jagged, a coxcombical bearing, and added to all this, a corrupt language
+full of French words. The women were not behindhand; they began to carry
+foreign masks before their faces, and feather fans in their hands; they
+wore whalebones in their dresses, and repudiated sables, gold and silver
+stuffs, and, above all--what appeared very remarkable--silver, and at
+last, indeed, white lace. This conduct raised the indignation of the
+authorities and pastors, as being fantastic and immoral. To us it
+appears as the characteristic evil of a time when the old independence
+of the German citizen was crushed.
+
+When an army approached a town, the traffic with the country almost
+entirely ceased, the gates were carefully watched, and the citizens
+maintained themselves on the provisions that had been collected. Then
+began the levying of contributions, the passage and quartering of
+friendly armies, with all its terrors. Still worse was the passage of
+the enemy. They uselessly endeavoured to purchase safety--it was a
+favour if the enemy did not set fire to the town woods or cut them down
+for sale, or carry off the town library on his baggage waggon;
+everything that was inviting to plunder, such as the organ or church
+pictures, had to be ransomed, even to the church bells, which, according
+to the custom of war, belonged to the artillery. The cities were not in
+a position to satisfy the demands of the Generals, so the most
+considerable of the citizens were dragged off as hostages till the sum
+exacted was paid.
+
+If a town was considered strong enough to resist the enemy's army, it
+was always filled with fugitives at the approach of the enemy, the
+number of whom was so great that the citizens could not think of
+providing for them. There came to Dresden, for example, in 1637, after
+the capture of Torgau in the course of three days, from the 7th to the
+9th of May, twelve thousand waggons with fugitive country people. The
+enemy surrounded the over-filled place; round the walls the battle
+raged, and within, not less voracious, hunger, misery and sickness. All
+the fugitives who were capable of bearing arms were employed in severe
+siege service; the nobility also of the neighbourhood sometimes
+assisted. If the siege lingered long, the high prices were followed by
+shameless usury, the millers ground only for the rich, and the bakers
+made exorbitant demands. The pictures of famine, such as was then
+experienced in many towns, are too horrible to dwell upon. When at
+Nördlingen a fortified tower was taken by the besiegers, the citizens
+themselves burnt it down, hungry women fell upon the half-roasted bodies
+of the enemy and carried pieces home for their children.
+
+But if a town was taken by storm it experienced the fate of Magdeburg;
+the mowing down of masses, the dishonouring of women, horrible torments
+and mutilations; and, added to all this, pestilence. To what an extent
+pestilence then raged in the cities is scarcely credible; it frequently
+carried off more than half the inhabitants. In 1626 and the following
+years, it depopulated wide districts; from 1631 to 1634 it returned
+again, and still worse in 1636.
+
+At all events it gave to each town for years plenty of space, and
+proportionate peace; and the places--not very numerous--which were only
+once destroyed in the course of the war, were able to recover
+themselves. But the most fearful cases of all, were those where the same
+calamities were two, three, and four times repeated. Leipzig was
+besieged five times, and Magdeburg six, and most of the smaller towns
+were more frequently filled with foreign soldiers; thus both large and
+small towns were equally ruined.
+
+But this was not all; over wide territories raged a plague of quite
+another kind,--religious persecution,--which was practised by the
+Imperial party wherever it established itself. The army was followed
+everywhere by crowds of proselytizers, Jesuits, and mendicant monks on
+foot. These performed their office by the help of the soldiers. Wherever
+the Roman Catholics had a footing, the leaders of the Protestant party,
+and above all the shepherds of souls, were swept away, more especially
+in the provinces which were the Emperor's own domains. Much had been
+done there before the war, but still in the beginning of the war in
+upper Austria, Moravia, Bohemia, and Silesia, the active intelligence of
+the country and the greater part of the community were evangelical.
+Their general character was improved. Whoever, after imprisonment and
+torture, would not give up his faith was obliged to abandon the country,
+and many, many thousands did so. The citizens and country people were
+driven in troops by the soldiers to confession. It was considered a
+favour when the fugitives were allowed a short insufficient delay for
+the sale of their movable goods.
+
+The fate of a small town in one of these provinces, the only one which
+was restored at a later period to the spiritual life of Germany, is here
+given, not on account of the monotony of misery, but because other
+characteristic points of the old burgher life are displayed.
+
+Where the Riesengebirge descend into the Silesian plain, in a fruitful
+valley on the shores of the Bober, lies the old town of Löwenberg, one
+of the first places in Silesia which was brought under the regulations
+of the German law; it had already in the middle ages become a powerful
+community, and numbered in 1617, in the city and suburbs, 738 houses and
+at least 6500 inhabitants.[37] It rose stately, with its strong walls,
+moats, and gate-towers, amidst woods and meadows; it had in its centre,
+like almost all the German cities in Silesia, a large market-place,
+called the 'Ring,' which included the council-house and fourteen
+privileged inns and licensed houses of traffic; the houses within the
+town were of stone, high gables projected over the streets, and they
+were from four to five stories high. Originally the under story had been
+built with trellised porches; these covered passages, however, had been
+removed sixty years before; on the under floor the houses had a large
+hall, and a strong vault, behind these a spacious room, in which was the
+baking oven, and over this a wooden gallery which occupied the back
+portion of the room, a staircase led up to it; the fore-part of the room
+was the sleeping-room of the family, and the gallery was the
+eating-room. On the floor above was a good apartment wainscoted with
+wood work, all the rest were chambers and lofts for wares, superabundant
+furniture, corn and wool. For Löwenberg was a celebrated
+cloth-manufacturing town; in the year 1617, three hundred cloth
+factories fabricated 13,702 pieces of cloth, and traders carried their
+strong work far into Bohemia and the Empire, but especially into Poland.
+The city seal, a lion in the town gate, was of pure gold.
+
+In 1629, the town had already suffered much from the war. The citizens,
+demoralized and tortured, had lost the greater portion of their old
+spirit. Lichtenstein's dragoon regiment--Imperialists--were quartered in
+the neighbouring city, and supported the proselytizing Jesuits by sword
+and pistol. The burgesses of the town of Löwenberg, dreading their
+arrival, were obliged to dismiss their old pastors; they separated from
+them with tears, the populace followed them weeping to their dwellings,
+bearing with them their last parting gifts as an expiation. The Jesuits
+succeeded them; the night before they came, a horned owl took up its
+abode in the church tower, to the terror of the citizens, and alarmed
+the town all night long by its hootings. The Jesuits preached after
+their fashion daily, promising freedom from all contributions, and from
+the infliction of billeting, and special favour and privileges from the
+Emperor; but to the refractory temporal destruction. They went so far,
+that the intimidated burgesses were driven to the determination of
+accepting confirmation; most of the men of the community took the Lord's
+Supper according to the Roman Catholic custom, unblessed by the cup. The
+more steadfast of the citizens, however, were compelled to go away in
+misery. Hardly had the Jesuits left the town, when the people fell back
+again, the citizens rushed to the neighbouring villages, where there
+were still evangelical pastors, and were there married and baptized;
+their churches standing empty under a Roman Catholic priest. There were
+new threatenings, and new deeds of violence. The upright burgomaster
+Schubert was carried off to severe imprisonment, but the Council now
+declared boldly that they would die for the Augsburg Confession; the
+burgesses pressed round the governor of the province in wild tumult. The
+executioners of the Emperor, "_the beatifiers_" rode through the gates;
+great part of the citizens flew with their wives and children out of the
+town; all the villages were full of exiles, who were brought back with
+violence by the soldiers and apostate citizens, and put into prison till
+they could produce certificates of confession; those who fled further,
+were driven into Saxony. A new Council was now established--as was the
+custom in those times--of unworthy and disreputable men. The houses
+abandoned by the citizens were plundered; many waggons heavily laden
+with furniture were bought of Roman Catholic neighbours, by the
+soldiers, and carried off. The new Council lived in a shameless manner.
+The King's judge--an apostate Löwenberger advocate--and the Senators,
+ill treated the secret Protestants, and endeavoured to enrich themselves
+from the town property. Two hundred and fifty citizens lived in exile
+with their families; one side of the market-place was entirely
+uninhabited, long grass grew there, and cattle pastured upon it. In the
+winter, hunger and cold drove the women and children at last back to the
+ruined houses. The leading spirit of the new Council was one Julius, who
+had been a Franciscan, a desperate fellow, not at all like a monk, who
+wore under his capoche golden bracelets. Then a Roman Catholic priest,
+Exelmann, son of an evangelical preacher, was established there. But
+however crushed and dispersed the citizens were, the offices of the
+priest and the new town council were not undisputed. All the authorities
+of the town were not yet under constraint. How the opposition resisted,
+will be learned from the narration of a cotemporary, which was printed
+by the industrious Sutorius in his history of Löwenberg, 1782.
+
+"On the ninth of April, 1631, early in the morning, the following
+gentlemen met at the council-house: first, the priest, secondly, the
+King's judge, who was Elias Seiler, an advocate; thirdly, George Mümer,
+a woollen wiseacre and cloth factor; fourthly, Schwob Franze, also a
+cloth factor; fifthly, Dr. Melchior Hübner, who had been a miller's man,
+and a broken down baker; sixthly, Master Daniel Seiler, a joiner;
+seventhly, Peter Beyer, the town-clerk; all these took possession of the
+councillors' chairs. The worshipful burgomaster was ill of the gout.
+Then the priest who had the upper hand in the council made a proposal in
+the following words: 'My beloved children in the Church, hearing that
+you intend sending an embassage to the court of his Kingly[38] Majesty
+at Vienna, I and the worthy King's judge have, on mature consideration,
+come to the conclusion, that before you break up it would be well for
+you to compel all the women to adopt our religion. You would thereby
+obtain for yourselves great favour at court. Also I will not fail to
+give you letters of recommendation, to my highly esteemed honourable
+cousin Herr Pater Lemmermann, now confessor to his Kingly Majesty, who
+certainly has much influence in all secret deliberations, representing
+to him how indefatigable and zealous you have been, and have brought the
+women into the right way, so that all you who are now here together may
+receive a special gratulation. Therefore proceed zealously; if they are
+not willing, you have towers and prisons enough to compel them.'
+
+"On this proposition votes were taken all round, and first the King's
+judge spoke: 'Yea, gentlemen, as I am willing to undertake such a
+journey for the advantage of the town, it seems good to me that this
+project should be carried out with zeal and earnestness. If they are not
+willing, let the most distinguished of them be put in confinement. I
+wager that the others will soon give in. They will come and beg that
+they may be let out. Many will be glad that their wives run away and
+they be quit of them. If we have been able to bring the men into the
+right path, why should we not be able to deal with these little brutes?'
+
+"Herr Mümer, 'the woollen wiseacre,' said: 'I have been a widower six
+weeks; I can well tell what cross a man must bear when his conscience is
+moved on account of his wife day and night. It would truly be good if
+man and wife had one faith and one paternoster; as concerns the Ten
+Commandments, it is not so pressing. It would also be good that the
+women should do like us, as they enjoy our income, and become
+councillors' wives. Only I fear it will be difficult to manage. I would
+almost rather consult with the honourable captain-general of the
+province hereupon, how he would deal with his own wife. One should be
+able to act with better effect when one has a decided command thereunto.
+I could never have succeeded with my wife!'
+
+"Now Schwob Franze said: 'Gentlemen, my wife, as you know, died a few
+days ago, so that I am now free and a widower; I have also somewhat to
+say on this matter, as I have been plagued by my bad wife concerning the
+Papacy. Nevertheless I know not how to handle this business rightly.
+There are many beautiful women and widows among the Lutheran heretics.
+Would it be well, and could one make up one's mind to confine, or drive
+them all away at once? Gentlemen, you may do it if it seems good to
+you. I am of the same opinion as my honourable colleague, Mümer. If I
+marry to-day or to-morrow, my wife must have the like faith with me, or
+hold her tongue upon the same.'
+
+"Hereupon Dr. Melchior began: 'Gentlemen, God's sacrament, im-m-imprison
+them all together till they assent; le-le-let none out, though they
+should all rot alike in prison. I yesterday thrashed my domestic plague
+concerning this. The de-e-vil ta-a-ta-ake me, she must do it or I will
+drive her entirely away.'
+
+"Master Daniel Seiler said: 'My high and most gracious gentlemen, you
+can proceed in such a good work with force alone. The captain-general of
+the province can give us no commands herein; let him see to himself how
+he can bring his heretical wife into the right way, who is no small
+vexation to him, and a mirror to our wives. Therefore I beg of you
+proceed with speed against the women.'
+
+"The honourable town-clerk Peter Beyer's vote, was as follows:
+'Gentlemen, I know not what to say in this matter. I have a notable
+shrew, who snaps about her like the devil. I cannot trust myself to be
+able to restrain her. If you can do it, try. But I advise, that we
+should begin to speak kindly with the women. Let benches be placed in
+the council-room, desire them to sit them down, and see whether it be
+possible to convert them by good words, or afterwards by threats.
+Perhaps they will take it into consideration.'
+
+"Hereupon the priest and the King's judge came to a conclusion. They
+said: 'The time is short, much delay cannot be given; it is a saying
+here, eat or die.'
+
+"So the King's judge spoke to the town-clerk saying: 'Are the women
+without?' He answered: 'No, there are as yet none there.' Then the judge
+said: 'Go, and you will find them either at my house or with Frau
+Geneussin.' The town-clerk found no one at the house of the King's
+judge, but at that of Frau Geneussin there were about fifteen. To these
+he said: 'His reverence the priest, together with his honour the King's
+judge, and the honourable council, send greeting to the ladies, and beg
+that they will come to the council-house, where the gentlemen are
+assembled.'
+
+"Then the wife of the King's judge answered: 'Yea, yea, greet them in
+return, and we will come soon.' So the women went two and two, the
+judge's and burgomaster's wives foremost, and ascended the stairs of the
+council-house, but the other women who had collected at the bread tables
+or elsewhere, or in houses, came after them in great numbers, by troops.
+Now when the servant had announced to the council that the women were
+there, the King's judge said: 'Let them in.' The servant replied: 'Sir,
+there will not be room here for them all; I believe that there are five
+hundred of them together. The council-house is full of them, part of
+them are already sitting on the musicians' stools.'
+
+"Then the priest began: 'Indeed, we must pause awhile, this is not well.
+I only intended at first that the most distinguished wives, such as
+those of the council, the justices, and jurymen should be called. Ay,
+ay, what have you done?' The servant answered: 'Your reverence must be
+informed, that yesterday the King's judge commanded that all the women
+who had not been converted, or would not be so, should be summoned, and
+to begin with his wife; this I have done, and because it was rather
+late, I told most of those whom I met that they should notify this to
+the others, that they were to come on the morrow without fail on pain of
+punishment. I believe I have done no wrong.'
+
+"The priest spoke again: 'Ay, ay, gentlemen, gentlemen, this is not
+well. I know not how we shall manage to be rid of a portion of these
+women.'
+
+"Thereupon the King's judge said to the priest: 'Let your reverence be
+content; we will arrange the business, and in the beginning we will only
+call in the women of distinction. When they see that they must really
+give in or be imprisoned, the others will soon withdraw themselves and
+run away.'
+
+"It was therefore determined, and made known to the servant, that the
+above-mentioned ladies only should enter.
+
+"Now when the servant announced this, the wife of the King's judge
+began: 'We will by no means allow ourselves to be separated; where I
+remain, there shall my train remain also. Say that we only beg they will
+allow us to enter.' The servant reported this again to the council. Then
+the King's judge waxed wrath and said with great vehemence: 'Go out
+again and tell these simple women that they must not show themselves
+disobedient and refractory, or they will learn how they will be
+treated.' Then the servant went out again and delivered the command
+seriously, but the good-wives held to their former opinion, and said
+that they wished to know why they had been summoned, that none would
+separate from the others; as it fared with one so should it fare with
+all. On this there was great confusion and murmuring among the women,
+which was heard by the gentlemen in the council-room.
+
+"When the servant returned with this answer, they were sore afraid, and
+would rather have seen the women I know not where. They therefore
+determined unanimously to send out his honour the town-clerk, that he
+might persuade them with earnest yet friendly words, that the most
+distinguished of the women should enter, and the others return home, and
+none should suffer. But it was all in vain. The women remained firm not
+to separate from one another. And the judge's wife began, and said to
+the town-clerk: 'Nay, nay, dear friend, do you think we are so simple,
+and do not perceive the trick by which you would compel and force us
+poor women, against our conscience, to change our faith? My husband and
+the priest have not been consorting together all these days for nothing;
+they have been joined together almost day and night; assuredly they have
+either boiled or cooked a devil, which they may eat up themselves; I
+shall not enter there. Where I remain, there will my train and following
+remain also.' She turned herself round to the others and said: 'Women,
+is this your will?' Then once more there were loud exclamations from the
+women: 'Yea, yea, let it be so; we will all hold together as one man.'
+
+"Hereupon his honour the town-clerk was much affrighted; he went hastily
+back to the council, and reported woefully the state of affairs, adding,
+that the council was in no small danger, for he had observed that almost
+every woman had a large bunch of keys hanging at her side.[39] Upon this
+their courage utterly and entirely evaporated; they hung their heads and
+were at their wits' end; one wished himself here, another out there. Dr.
+Melchior took heart and said to the priest: '_Potz-Sacrament!_ Most
+reverend sir, if I had now but two hundred musketeers, I would soon mow
+down the whole pa-pa-pack, even those who would fell down on their
+knees.'
+
+"At last his honour the town-clerk bethought himself of a device.
+'Gentlemen, I know a way by which we can descend and escape from the
+women. If the gentlemen will close both doors of the council-house, we
+will silently make off with ourselves by the under council-room, through
+the doors of the tower; thus they will not be aware what has become of
+us. But I do not know where the keys of the tower are to be found.' This
+good counsel pleased them all well, and the keys were sought for
+carefully, but meanwhile the town-clerk was called in, and commanded to
+signify to the women, that they should have a little patience. And the
+town-clerk was to see how one could slip round to the front, and the
+other to the back door, that they might suddenly run out and close the
+doors behind them.
+
+"This plan succeeded with the good-wives, of whom two hundred and
+sixty-three were thus imprisoned. The town-clerk speedily opened the
+tower gates, which had not been done for several years, and running back
+exclaimed: 'Away, gentlemen, away, the coast is clear; but silence, for
+God's sake silence, that the women may not become aware of it, otherwise
+there will be the devil to pay.'
+
+"Thereupon they ran away as fast as they could, part of them without
+hats or gloves; some ran home, others to a neighbour's, each, where in
+his hurry he thought he should be secure. All could confess to a state
+of frightful terror. The priest ran at full trot up the church lane,
+looking more behind than before him, to see whether the women were
+following and would shake their keys at him during mass; he closed the
+parsonage-house behind him, as the town-clerk had done the
+council-house. He was so exhausted that he could neither eat nor drink;
+both his ladies had enough to do to cool him.
+
+"Now when the imprisoned women, most of whom sat by the window, heard
+the rumour which was noised about the town, that the honourable
+gentlemen had so cunningly gotten off, the wife of the King's judge ran
+to the council-door, unlatched it, and called out with great amazement:
+'The devil has carried away the rogues; see, there lies a hat, a
+pocket-handkerchief and a glove, and all the doors are open. Come, let
+us sit in council ourselves and send for our husbands; they shall come
+on pain of punishment, and hear our behests.' Thereupon there was great
+screaming and laughter amongst the wives, so that they might be heard
+over the whole 'Ring.'
+
+"At last the women divided into small parties by tens and twelves, they
+pitied their husbands, children, and babies, who would have nothing to
+eat. So they agreed, by means of certain women who were outside the
+door, and desirous of joining the prisoners, to beg the King's judge to
+free them, and to notify to them wherefore they had that day been
+summoned to the council-house.
+
+"In the meanwhile, however, the King's judge discovered, that he had
+returned from the council-house a wiser man than when he had entered it
+in the morning, and it struck him that all husbands might not be so evil
+disposed towards their wives as he was. He saw also a tolerable
+concourse of children and mob collecting round the council-house, who
+were disposed to carry food and drink to the women; nay, some good
+friends had already prepared a whole quarter cask of beer for the
+refreshment of the dear women. Besides this also, a number of men had
+collected together, desiring to know what their wives had done, that
+they should be thus locked up. Then the King's judge took heart again,
+and invited the gentlemen _cito citissime_ to his house for a necessary
+conference. The four gentlemen of the council and the town-clerk were
+found, but with great difficulty; but the priest had thoroughly
+concealed himself, and sent to excuse himself on account of his
+exhaustion and his need of rest. But it was determined to send another
+embassage to him, to call to his mind that he must appear without fail,
+as he had occasioned this transaction.
+
+"Meanwhile the usher of the council came running to the council-house,
+at whose bidding no one knows, and called through the closed door to his
+wife, who was in conclave, and said to her: 'Tell the other women that
+the gentlemen have reassembled at the house of the King's judge; they
+will soon send out and open the council-house, that every one may return
+home.' Thereupon the judge's wife answered: 'Yea, we will willingly have
+patience, as we are quite comfortable here; but tell them they ought to
+inform us why we were summoned and confined without trial.'
+
+"The priest at last allowed himself to be prevailed on, and came to the
+judge's house. They all began by complaining bitterly of their
+exhaustion on account of the great anguish and danger they had
+undergone, therefore a refreshing drink of wine was speedily passed
+round amongst them; but what plans they afterwards made I have not been
+able to gather distinctly, because all passed standing, and there was no
+protocol concerning it. But certain it is, that as is usual with such
+ragamuffins, the biters were bitten, and one threw dirt into the face of
+the other. At last, however, they became unanimous to send an embassage
+to the imprisoned ladies, to release them from the _cito_, and to
+bespeak them in all friendship, that they might be induced to quit the
+council-house. The persons empowered for this embassage were Herr Mümer,
+Master Daniel, and Herr Notarius.
+
+"When these arrived the doors were immediately opened, and the envoys
+entered into the midst of the circle of women.
+
+"Then began the town-clerk thus: 'Honourable, very honourable,
+excellent, and most especially gracious and dear ladies! his reverence
+the priest, together with his honour the King's judge and very wise
+council, send greeting to the ladies assembled; they greatly wonder that
+the women have so ill conceived and misunderstood their intentions; and
+as they have so earnestly desired to know wherefore this has happened,
+the aforesaid gentlemen have sent us to explain this in all truth.
+First, as now the holy week is approaching, in which there will be held
+by the Church special preachings on the Holy Sacrament, it has been
+thought advisable to admonish the women christianly and faithfully, to
+present themselves zealously thereat. Secondly, it is requested that at
+the approaching Easter festival the women will likewise present
+themselves collectively and show their benevolence, as his reverence the
+priest's dues will be so poor in amount, owing to the small number of
+citizens present.'
+
+"After this harangue of the town-clerk, Master Daniel the joiner,
+wishing to improve the matter, said: 'My very gracious ladies! Let it be
+understood by the women that this is a friendly conference, and that no
+constraint will be used; for it is not customary with my masters and the
+very wise council to hang a man before they have caught him.'
+
+"At this inconsiderate and incautious speech, which did not in the least
+serve the council, Herr Mümer and Herr Notarius pushed him away; but
+among the assembled wives there was great laughter and uproar. 'Yea!
+yea! we understand well enough now; they compare us to people who are to
+be hanged. What fellows you are, one with the other! Oh you faithless
+rogues! you usurious corn-dealers! you woollen thieves! Thereupon the
+judge's wife called out: 'Silence! silence, you women!' and said to
+Master Daniel: 'Hear, dear brother-in-law, you do not understand the
+matter, and are also too few to compel us against our conscience. Oh,
+how God will punish you, and my husband also, who so openly acts against
+his conscience! Your dear deceased father, a dignified Lutheran
+ecclesiastic, taught you both very differently. Now you say you are good
+Roman Catholics. Your new faith is necessary for your roguish tricks;
+when you are drunk you speak shamelessly enough of the mother of God
+herself, and when you go to your bad women you speak of yourselves as
+the brothers of the Virgin Mary. Oh, if your gains were taken away from
+you, which you make from your offices and the common property of the
+town, and consume again in eating and drinking; if you were obliged to
+resume your joiners' trade again, and work vigorously to keep yourselves
+warm, how soon you would give up your Popery. May God punish you! Never
+shall you deprive us of our faith, you yourselves will yet be hanged on
+that account.'
+
+"The burgomaster's wife said: 'If you had nothing else to say to us, the
+priest might have done that from the pulpit, and it would not have been
+necessary to confine us on that account. It is not thus I could be
+compelled to go to church. Under our former pastors and preachers it was
+a great pleasure to me to go to church, for I received there comfort
+from the word of God; now I am only scandalized and troubled when I go
+there. So that it cries out to God in heaven. As concerns the Easter
+offerings, every one is free; he who has to give may do so.' Hereupon
+the other women screamed out loudly: 'Yea, we will give to the priest,
+the devil, as his due.' The honourable envoys were terrified at such
+discourse, and begged to be allowed to withdraw, and said not a word
+further, but departed.
+
+"Now when the honourable envoys returned to the King's judge, the priest
+and the other gentlemen had already gone away; they made their report,
+and also went home. The women were now released from their arrest. But
+this affair worked seriously in the head of the King's judge; he took it
+to heart that he had been so ignominiously led astray by his ideas, and
+feared that the upshot would bring him to eternal ridicule. He paced up
+and down the room, murmuring to himself; at last he said: 'Give me
+somewhat to eat.' When the table was spread, and dinner served up by his
+maid-servant and children,--a dish of crab, a piece of white bread and
+cheese and butter,--the worthy gentleman waxed wrath, took first the
+good bread, then the tin butter-mould with the butter, and threw them
+out of the window into the market-place; he threw the crab also all
+about the room, and seized upon the sausage which was also on the table,
+which the children would gladly have had, being hungry, as they had
+eaten nothing the whole day. Nay, he was so furious that he ran out of
+the room, dashing down the dishes and saucepans, and all that came to
+his hand, so that a great concourse of neighbours was brought together.
+After that, he ran up to his room and went on calling out and conducting
+himself as if it was full of people. The following morning he rose
+betimes and stole away, having delivered over his office to Dr.
+Melchior.
+
+"That day the other gentlemen rested till towards evening; then the
+priest sent for the beadle, and commanded him to summon in his name and
+that of Dr. Melchior, as the vice King's judge, the wife of the
+burgomaster and the frau Geneussin to come to him at the parsonage early
+in the morning after mass. This the beadle did. The burgomaster's wife
+answered: 'Yea, yea, I will come, but I will first tell my lord.' But
+when the beadle came to Frau Geneussin, and announced the same to her,
+her son-in-law was with her, Herr Krekler, who was afterwards
+burgomaster, who thus answered for her: 'Are the priest and Dr. Melchior
+your masters? Are they the masters of my honoured mother-in-law? Reply
+that she will not come without the commands of the burgomaster.' This
+the beadle told to the burgomaster, who reflected thereupon, and at last
+said: 'For my part they may go, I am content, so the blame cannot be
+laid upon me.'
+
+"On Friday morning, at the appointed hour, the wife of the burgomaster
+went to the priest and likewise the judge's wife, who however was not
+summoned, together with Frau Geneussin. Then the priest began to speak
+with them in the most friendly way; he begged them very politely to
+conform and accept the only holy religion which could make them blessed,
+as their lords had done. They would see what comfort they would find in
+it, and how well it would fare with them. To this the women forthwith
+replied: 'No, we were otherwise instructed by our parents, and former
+preachers; according to that we find ourselves right comfortable. We
+cannot reconcile ourselves to your religion.' Thereupon the priest said:
+'You women may come to church or to me as oft as you please, when you
+have anxieties or scruples, and I will assuredly instruct you
+assiduously.' The women answered: 'Your reverence need not give yourself
+any trouble on our account, as we will not do so.' 'Ay,' said the
+priest, 'then set the other women a good example, and at least go to
+church and mass, and do not be a cause of offence to others who have
+already declared that they would go if the women went.' The women
+replied: 'We will not do it ourselves, but we will not prevent others
+from doing so; these are matters of conscience whereof none can judge
+but God.' Now when the priest saw that all was in vain, he entreated
+them thus: 'Ay, ay, yet at least tell the other women that you have
+begged for, and also obtained, fourteen days for consideration.' Then
+answered the women almost with indignation: 'No, dear sir, we were not
+taught to lie by our parents, and we will not learn it from you; we beg
+you will excuse us.' So they departed therefrom.
+
+"But whilst the three women were with the priest, a great multitude of
+women collected together with marvellous rapidity, many more than on the
+first occasion. Herr Schwob Franze perceiving this, came running panting
+with haste to the burgomaster and said: 'Sir, I pray you for God's sake
+have a care, and prevent the priest from meddling with the women; they
+have assembled together again in a great multitude, the whole of the
+bread-market and all the houses in Kirchgasse are full of them; God help
+us, they will slay us, together with the priest. I made the best of my
+way out from them.'
+
+"The good burgomaster was so ill in bed that he could neither move hand
+nor foot. He sent hastily to the priest and told him in plain German
+what a hazardous business he had begun, the like of which had never been
+heard of in any town. If he were to meet with any annoyance from the
+women the fault would be his own.
+
+"Thereupon the priest said: 'Ah no! Herr Burgomaster, let not your
+worship be thus angered. I see that I have been led astray by that
+inconsiderate man Dr. Melchior, who represented the matter quite
+otherwise. I beg that your worship will signify to the women, that they
+may return to their homes; assuredly what has happened shall not happen
+again, of that I hereby assure your worship.' When the women heard this,
+and that nothing further had happened to the ladies, as has been related
+above, the women were well content, went home and laid aside their
+bundles and bunches of keys, nevertheless, not out of reach, that they
+might have them at hand day or night in case of need."
+
+Here ends the old narrative. The priest was obliged the following year
+to leave Löwenberg ignominiously, as he would not desist from his
+scandalous proceedings. Amongst other things he had a public chop and
+beer-house erected for the old Silesian beer. The spiteful Dr. Melchior
+became afterwards in desperation a soldier, and was hanged at Prague.
+And the valiant women,--we hope they took refuge with their husbands at
+Breslau or in Poland.
+
+After 1632, the town decayed more and more every year, now under Swedish
+or Imperial, now under Evangelical, or Roman Catholic ministers; in
+1639, the town contained only forty citizens, and had a debt of a ton
+and a half of gold; in 1641, the citizens themselves unroofed their
+houses in order not to pay taxes, and dwelt in thatched huts. When the
+peace came, the town was almost entirely in ruins. Eight years later, in
+1656, there were again one hundred and twenty-one citizens in Löwenberg;
+and about eight hundred and fifty inhabitants, eighty-seven per cent, of
+the population had perished.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+
+  THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.--THE PEACE.
+
+
+The peace was signed; the ambassadors had solemnized the ratification by
+shaking hands, and trumpeters rode about the streets announcing the
+happy event.
+
+At Nuremberg the Imperialists and the Swedes held a peace banquet in the
+great saloon of the council-house; the lofty vaulted hall was
+splendidly lighted; betwixt the chandeliers hung down thirty kinds of
+flowers and real fruits, bound together with gold tinsel; four choirs
+were stationed for festive music, and the six classes of invited guests
+were assembled in six different rooms. On the table stood two prodigious
+show dishes, a triumphal arch, and a hexagonal mound covered with
+mythological and allegorical figures with Latin and German devices. The
+banquet was served up in four courses, in each course were a hundred and
+fifty dishes, then came the fruits in silver dishes, and on real dwarf
+trees by which the whole table was covered; amidst all this, fine
+frankincense was burnt, which produced a very agreeable odour.
+Afterwards the upper leaves of the table were taken away by pieces, then
+the table was covered again with napkins, and plates strewed over wish
+flowers made of sugar, and now came the confectionery: among these there
+were gigantic marchpanes on two silver shells, each of which weighed ten
+pounds. And when the health of his Imperial Majesty of Vienna and his
+Kindly Majesty of Sweden was drank, together with the prosperity of the
+peace which had been concluded, fifteen large and small pieces were
+discharged from the citadel. When this peace banquet had lasted far on
+into the night, the Field-marshals and Generals present, wished on
+parting to play once more at being soldiers. They caused arms to be
+brought into the hall, chose the two ambassadors as captains; his
+Illustrious and Serene Highness Herr Carl Gustav, Count Palatine on the
+Rhine, afterwards King of Sweden, and his Excellency General
+Piccolomini; but for a corporal they chose Field-Marshal Wrangel; and
+all the Generals, colonels, and lieutenant-colonels were made
+musketeers. Thus these gentlemen marched round the table, fired a salvo,
+went in good order to the citadel, and there fired off the pieces many
+times. On their return they were playfully discharged by Colonel Kraft
+and dismissed the service, as now there was to be peace for ever. Two
+oxen were slaughtered for the poor, and there was a great distribution
+of bread, also for six hours red and white wine flowed from a lion's
+jaw. For thirty years had tears and blood flowed from a greater lion's
+jaw.
+
+Like the honourable ambassadors, the people prepared a festive
+celebration in every town, nay in every half-destroyed village. How
+great was the effect of the intelligence of peace on the German nation
+may be learned from some affecting details. To the old country people
+the peace appeared as a return of their youth; they looked back to the
+rich harvests of their childhood, thickly populated villages, the merry
+Sundays under the hewed-down village lindens, and the happy hours which
+they had passed with their ruined and deceased relations and companions.
+They saw themselves happier, more manly, and better than they had been
+during thirty years of misery and degradation. But the youth of the
+country--a hard war-engendered demoralized race--discovered in it the
+approach of a wonderful time which appeared to them like a legend from a
+distant country. The time when on every acre of field, the thick yellow
+ears of corn would wave in the wind; when in every stall the cows would
+low, and in every sty a fat pig would be lying; when they themselves
+should drive with two horses in the fields, merrily cracking their
+whips, and when there would be no enemy's soldiers to snatch rough
+caresses from their sisters or sweethearts; when they would no longer
+have to lie in wait in the bushes, with pitchforks and rusty muskets,
+for the stragglers, nor to sit as fugitives in the dismal gloom of the
+wood by the graves of the slain; when the village roofs would be without
+holes, and the farm-yards without ruined barns; when the howl of the
+wolf would not be heard every night at the yard gate; when their village
+churches would again have glass windows, and beautiful bells; when in
+the soiled choir of the church, there should arise a new altar with a
+silk cover, a silver crucifix and a gilt chalice; and when one day the
+young lads would again lead their brides to the altar, bearing the
+virgin wreaths in their hair. A passionate, almost painful joy
+palpitated through all hearts; even the wildest brood of the war, the
+soldiery, were seized with it. The stern rulers themselves, the Princes
+and their ambassadors, felt that this great boon of peace would be the
+salvation of Germany. The festival was celebrated with the greatest
+fervour and solemnity of which the people were capable. From the same
+circle of village recollections from which examples have already been
+taken, the following description of a festival is placed, in
+juxtaposition to that of the Princes and Field-marshals.
+
+Döllstedt, a fine village in the dukedom of Gotha, had suffered
+severely. In 1636 the Hatzfeld corps had fallen upon the place, had
+committed great damage, plundered the church, burnt and broken off the
+woodwork, as had been prophesied by the pastor Herr Deckner shortly
+before. "This dear man," thus writes his successor, the pastor, Herr
+Trümper, "had rebuked his flock with righteous zeal on account of their
+sins; but they had laughed at his rebukes and warnings, had treated him
+with anger and ingratitude, and as he lamented in 1634, with weeping
+eyes, had cut down his hops from the poles, and carried off the corn
+from his fields. Thus he could only proclaim to them God's righteous
+judgment on such hardened hearts. Not only publicly from the pulpit, but
+also a few hours before his blessed departure, he had thus lamented:
+'Ah! thou poor Döllstedt! it will go ill with thee after my decease!'
+Thereupon he turned, with the assistance of the attendants, towards the
+church, and raised his weary head, struggling ineffectually with death,
+as if he wished once more, from the corner of his room, to see the
+church, in the service of which his life had been passed, and said: 'Ah!
+thou dear, dear church! How will it fare with thee after my death? They
+will sweep thee up with a besom.'"
+
+His prophecy was fulfilled. The village in 1636 had to liquidate war
+damages to the amount 5500 of gulden, and between 1627 and 1637 it
+amounted altogether to 29,595 gulden, so that the inhabitants by degrees
+disappeared and the place remained quite desolate; in 1636 there were
+only two married couples in the village. In the year 1641, after Banner
+and, again in the winter, the French had been quartered in it, half an
+acre of corn was sown, and there were four couples dwelling there. By
+the zealous care of Duke Ernest the Good, of Gotha, the deserted
+villages in his country were comparatively quickly occupied by men. In
+1650, therefore, the jubilee and peace festival could be solemnized in
+Döllstedt. The description of it is given, as it is recorded in the
+church books, by the then Pastor Trümper.
+
+"On the 19th of August, at four o'clock in the morning, we, together
+with our coadjutors and some of the householders of Gotha, mounted our
+tower, and celebrated with music our morning prayer. Towards six
+o'clock, as happened the preceding day at one o'clock; they began to
+ring the bells for a quarter of an hour, and again, for the same length
+of time, at half after seven. Meanwhile, the whole population, man and
+woman, young and old, except those who assisted at the ringing,
+assembled before the gate: 1st, the women-folk stood on one side; before
+them was a figure of Peace, which the noble maidens had dressed up
+beautifully, in a lovely green silk dress and other decorations; on her
+head was placed a beautiful green wreath intermingled with gold
+spangles, and in her hand a green branch. 2nd. On the other side towards
+the village stood the men, and in front of them Justice in a beautiful
+white garment, with a green wreath round her head, and bearing in her
+hands a naked sword and gold scales. 3rd. Towards the fields on the same
+side, stood the young men with guns, and some with naked swords, and
+before them Mars, dressed as a soldier, and bearing in his hands a
+crossbow. 4th. In the middle near me, stood the scholars, householders,
+and the coadjutors. Then did the recollection come across me, of how
+often we had been obliged to quit our homes and flee from our gates, our
+eyes overflowing with tears, and when the storm was passed, had returned
+home again with joy, notwithstanding that we found all devastated,
+ruined, and turned topsy-turvy. Now we thought it fitting thus to honour
+our dear God, going out in front of our gates, and as He had preserved
+us from the like devastation and necessity for flight and escape, by the
+gracious boon of the noble and long-desired peace, we desired now to go
+to his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise, and
+would for that raise our voices with one accord and sing: 'To God alone
+most high be honour, &c.' 5th. Whilst these strophes were being chanted,
+Peace and Justice approached one another nearer and nearer. At the
+words: 'All feuds are now at an end,' those who held naked swords
+sheathed them, and those who had guns fired some salvos and turned
+themselves round. Peace beckoned to some who had been hereto appointed;
+these took from Mars, who appeared to defend himself his crossbow, and
+broke it in twain; Peace and Justice met together and kissed each other.
+6th. Thereupon the chanting, which had been begun, was continued, and we
+prepared to go. Before the scholars, went Andreas Ehrhardt, adorned to
+the utmost, with a staff in his hand wound round with green garlands.
+Then followed the scholars with green wreaths on their heads and green
+branches in their hands, and they wore short white garments; then came
+the assistants and musicians; after these, I, the Pastor, together with
+the Herr Pastor of Vargula, who had come to me. After us came the
+maidens, the little ones in front, and the taller ones behind, all
+adorned to the utmost, and green wreaths on their heads. After these
+went Peace, and behind her the boys, who carried a basket of rolls and a
+dish of apples, which were afterwards distributed among the children;
+item, all kinds of fruits of the field.
+
+"These were followed by the noble maidens, together with their
+relations, whom they had bidden; after them nobles from Seebach, Saxony,
+and others who had accompanied them. After these came Justice, and
+behind her, magistrates and assessors, all bearing white staves in their
+hands, twined with green garlands. Then followed the Ensign Christian
+Heum, in his best attire, with a staff in his hand, on which he leant,
+but it was encircled with a green garland. Afterwards came the men in
+pairs with green bouquets in their hands; the men were followed by Mars
+bound, then the young lads with their guns reversed. There followed the
+Sergeant-major Herr Dietrich Grün in his finery, with a staff in his
+hand like the Ensign; and after him the women-folk, all also in pairs in
+their order, and all passed singing through the village to the church.
+When the aforesaid song was finished we sang, 'Now Praise the Lord, my
+soul.'
+
+"In the church there was preaching and singing conformable to the royal
+ordinance. After the service was completed, we went in the former order
+from the church to the Platz in front of the inn; there the men on one
+side, and the women on the other, in half-circles, closed in, forming a
+fine wide circle, and during their progress they sang, 'Now rejoice
+together, dear Christians.' When the circle was formed I gave thanks to
+all collectively, that they had not only, according to the proclamation
+of the high and mighty princely government, obediently observed this
+solemnity, but also had gone out at my desire, all together, noble and
+humble alike, to the gates, and had followed me in such beautiful order
+to church, &c., and I admonished them to attend again zealously the
+afternoon service. And truly, as I said that it would be well for every
+one to come from their houses to church in the afternoon, they did all
+reassemble as before in front of the inn; Peace and Justice also were
+there again in their dress, but Mars had disappeared. When I was
+informed of this, I went during the last peal of the bells with the
+scholars, the coadjutors, and the householders out by the back gate
+through the church lane to the church, when every one again, as before,
+followed me into the church. There we then sang, 'Now let us sing unto
+the Lord,' &c. From the church we returned in the same order, again
+singing, 'Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,' &c., to the above-mentioned
+place, where I again gave thanks both to strangers and townspeople, with
+heartfelt wishes for peace. And here the six groschen, rolls, and ripe
+apples were distributed among the children."
+
+It is known that the great peace came very slowly, like the recovery
+from a mortal illness. The years from 1648 to 1650, from the conclusion
+of the peace to the celebration of the festival, were among the most
+grievous of that iron time; exorbitant war taxes were imposed, the
+armies of the different countries lay encamped in the provinces till
+they could be paid off, the oppression which they exercised on the
+unhappy inhabitants was so fearful, that a despairing cry arose from the
+people, which mingled itself with the wrangling of the negotiating
+parties. To this was added a plague of another kind; the whole country
+swarmed with a rabble that had no masters; bands of discharged soldiers
+with the camp followers, troops of beggars, and great hordes of robbers,
+roved about from one territory to another; they quartered themselves by
+force on those villages which were still inhabited, and established
+themselves in the deserted huts. The villagers also, provided with bad
+weapons and disused to labour, thought it sometimes more satisfactory to
+rob, than to till the fields, and made secret roving expeditions into
+the neighbouring territories, the Evangelical into the Catholic
+countries, and _vice versâ_. The foreign children of a lawless race, the
+gipsies, had increased in number and audacity; fantastically dressed,
+with heavily laden carts, stolen horses, and naked children, they
+encamped in great numbers round the stone trough of the village green:
+whenever the ruler was powerful and the officials active, the wild
+rovers were encountered with energy. The villagers of the dukedom of
+Gotha were still obliged, in 1649, to keep watch from the church towers,
+to guard the bridges and fords, and to give an alarm whenever they
+perceived any of these marching bands. A well-regulated system of police
+was the first sign of that new feeling of responsibility which the
+governments had acquired: every one who wished to settle down was
+encouraged to do so. Whoever was established, had to render an account
+of how much land he had cultivated, of the condition of his house and
+farm, and whether he had any cattle. New registers of the farms and
+inhabitants were prepared, new taxes on money and on natural products
+were imposed; and by the severe pressure of these, the villagers were
+compelled to labour. The villages were gradually reinhabited; many
+families who had fled to the towns during the war repaired their
+devastated farms; others returned from the mountains or foreign
+countries; disbanded soldiers and camp followers sometimes bought fields
+and empty houses with the remainder of their booty, or returned to their
+native villages. There was much marrying and baptizing.
+
+But the exhaustion of the people was still lamentably great. The arable
+land, much of which had lain fallow, was sown without the necessary
+manure; not a little remained overrun with wild underwood and weeds, and
+long continued as osier land. The ruined districts were sometimes bought
+by the neighbouring villages, and in some places two or three small
+communities united themselves together.
+
+For many years after the war, the appearance of the villages was most
+comfortless; one may perceive that this was the case in Thuringia, from
+the transactions with the Government. The householders of Siebleben and
+some other communities round Gotha, had held, from the middle ages, the
+right of having timber free from the wooded hills. In 1650, the
+government demanded from them, for the exercise of this right, a small
+tax upon oats: some of the communities excused themselves, as they were
+too poor to be able to think of rebuilding their damaged houses. Ten
+years after, the community of Siebleben had forty boys who paid small
+school fees, and the yearly offering in the church amounted to more than
+fourteen gulden. A portion of this offering was spent in alms to
+strangers, and it is perceptible, from the carefully kept accounts, what
+a stream of beggars of all kinds passed through the country; disbanded
+soldiers, cripples, the sick and aged; amongst them were lepers with
+certificates from their infirmaries, also exiles from Bohemia and
+Hungary, who had left their homes on account of their religion, banished
+noblemen from England, Ireland, and Poland, persons collecting money
+for the ransom of their relatives from Turkish imprisonment, travellers
+who had been plundered by highwaymen, and others, such as a blind
+pastor from Denmark with five children; the strangers came prepared
+with testimonials. The governments, however, were unwearied in their
+efforts against harbouring such vagrants.
+
+Much has been written concerning the devastation of the war; but the
+great work is still wanting, that would concentrate the statistical
+notices which have been preserved in all the different territories:
+however enormous the labour may be, it must be undertaken, for it is
+only from this irrefragable computation, that the full greatness of the
+calamity can be understood. The details hitherto known scarcely amount
+to a probable valuation of the loss which Germany suffered in men,
+beasts of burden, and productive power. The following inferences only
+attempt to express the views of an individual, which a few examples will
+support.
+
+The condition of the provinces of Thuringia and Franconia is not ill
+adapted for a comparison of the past with the present; neither of them
+were more afflicted by the visitation of war than other countries; the
+state of cultivation of both provinces, up to the present time, answers
+pretty accurately to the general average of German industry and
+agriculture: neither of them are on the whole rich: both were hilly
+countries, without large rivers, or any considerable coal strata, with
+low lands, of which only certain tracts were distinguished by especial
+fertility, and were up to modern times devoted to agriculture, garden
+culture, and small mining industry. Thus this portion of Germany had
+known no powerful stream of human enterprise or capital, nor, on the
+other hand, was it the theatre of the destructive wars of Louis XIV.'s
+time, and the rulers, especially the grandson of Frederic the Wise, were
+even in the worst times tolerably sparing of the national strength.
+
+There have been preserved to us from these districts, amongst other
+things, accurate statistical notices of twenty communities, which once
+were in the Hennebergen domain; but now, with the exception of one that
+is Bavarian, belong to Saxe Meiningen. It is nowhere mentioned, and from
+their condition need not be concluded, that the devastation in them had
+been greater than in other portions of the province. The government in
+1649 ordered an accurate report to be given of the number of inhabited
+houses, barns, and head of cattle that existed when the worst sufferings
+of the war began in 1634. According to the reports delivered by the
+magistrates of the places, there had perished in the twenty communities
+more than eighty-two per cent, of families, eighty-five per cent, of
+horses, more than eighty-three of goats, and eighty-two of cows, and
+more than sixty-three per cent. of houses. The remaining houses were
+described as in many places damaged and in ruins, the still surviving
+horses as lame and blind, and the fields and meadows as devastated and
+much overgrown with underwood; but the sheep were everywhere altogether
+destroyed.[40]
+
+It is a bloody and terrible tale which these numbers tell us. More than
+four fifths of the population, far more than four fifths of their
+property were destroyed. And in what a condition was the remainder!
+
+Precisely similar was the fate of the smaller provincial towns, as far
+as one can see from the preserved data. We will give only one example
+from the same province. The old church records of Ummerstadt, an
+agricultural town near Coburg, famed, from olden times, throughout the
+country for its good pottery, report as follows:--"Although in the year
+1632 the whole country, as also the said little town, was very populous,
+so that it alone contained more than one hundred and fifty citizens, and
+up to eight hundred souls, yet from the ever-continuing war troubles,
+and the constant quartering of troops, the people became in such wise
+enervated, that from great and incessant fear, a pestilence sent upon us
+by the all-powerful and righteous God, carried off as many as five
+hundred men in the years 1635 and 1636; on account of this lamentable
+and miserable condition of the time, no children were born into the
+world in the course of two years. Those whose lives were still prolonged
+by God Almighty, have from hunger, the dearness of the times, and the
+scarcity of precious bread, eaten and lived upon bran, oil-cakes, and
+linseed husks, and many also have died of it; many also have been
+dispersed over all countries, most of whom have never again seen their
+dear fatherland. In the year 1640, during the Saalfeldt encampment,
+Ummerstadt became a city of the dead or of shadows; for during eighteen
+weeks no man dared to appear therein, and all that remained was
+destroyed. Therefore the population became quite thin, and there were
+not more than a hundred souls forthcoming." In 1850 the place had eight
+hundred and ninety-three inhabitants.
+
+Still more striking is another observation, which may be made from the
+tables of the Meiningen villages. It is only in our century that the
+number of men and cattle of all kinds has again reached the height which
+it had already attained in 1634. Nay, the number of houses was still in
+1849 less than in 1634, although, there the inmates of the smallest
+village houses, even the poorest, still anxiously endeavour to preserve
+their own dwellings. It is true that there is a trifling increase of the
+number of inhabitants in 1849 over that in 1634; but even this increase
+is dubious when we consider that the number of inhabitants in 1634 had
+probably already experienced a diminution from sixteen years of war.
+Thus we are assuredly justified in concluding that two centuries were
+necessary, at least for this tract of Germany, to restore the population
+and productive power of the country to its former standard. These
+assumptions are supported by other observations. The agriculture of the
+country, before the Thirty years' war, nay even the relative proportion
+of the value of corn to that of silver, at a time when the export of
+corn was only exceptional, lead to the same conclusions.
+
+It is true that during the last two centuries, agriculture, owing to the
+mighty effects of foreign traffic, has developed itself in an entirely
+new direction. The countryman also now cultivates field vegetables,
+clover, and other herbage for fodder, which were unknown before the
+Thirty years' war, and agricultural produce is more lucrative for an
+equal amount of population. Perhaps our ancestors lived in a poorer
+style, and farmed less. We can compare the stock of cattle. The number
+of cattle kept now in the villages is precisely the same as before the
+war; they have still the short, thick, curly-woolled Spanish herds,
+which used to be reared in the pens of the peasants; the old wool fell
+in long locks; but judging from the value of the cloth and stuffs woven
+from it, and the price of sheep at that time, it must have been good.
+
+On the other hand, the stock of horses has diminished by three fourths
+in comparison with 1634. This striking circumstance can only be thus
+explained: that the traditions of the troopers of the middle ages
+exercised an influence even upon agriculture; that the rearing of horses
+was more profitable than now, on account of the bad roads which made a
+distant transport of corn impossible, whilst the lowing of cattle in the
+narrow farm-yards of the towns was so general that the sale of milk and
+butter paid little; and finally, that a larger portion of the country
+people were better able to maintain teams. The breaking up of the ground
+was then, as may be seen from the old farm books in Thuringia,
+somewhat--but not considerably--less than now. In the present day the
+number of goats and of cattle belonging to small farmers has increased,
+as also the number of oxen, which probably in Middle and Southern
+Germany are now finer and higher bred than formerly. This is a decided
+progress of the present day. But on the whole, reckoning the amount of
+fodder required, the number of beasts which are maintained with
+advantage is very inconsiderably larger at present than in 1634.
+
+Thus Germany, in comparison with its happier neighbours in England and
+the Low Countries, was thrown back about two hundred years.
+
+Still greater were the changes which the war made in the intellectual
+life of the nation. Above all among the country people. Many old customs
+passed away, life became aimless and full of suffering. In the place of
+the old household gear the rudest forms of modern furniture were
+introduced; the artistic chalices, and old fonts, and almost all the
+adornments of the churches, had disappeared, and were succeeded by a
+tasteless poverty in the village churches, which still continues. For
+more than a century after the war the peasant vegetated, penned in,
+almost as much as his herds, whilst his pastor watched him as a
+shepherd, and he was shorn by the landed proprietors and rulers of his
+country. There was a long period of gloomy suffering. The price of corn
+in the depopulated country was, for fifty years after the war, even
+lower than before. But the burdens upon landed property rose so high,
+that for a long time, land together with house and farm, bore little
+value, and sometimes were offered in vain as acquittance for service and
+imposts. Severer than ever was the pressure of vassalage, worst of all
+in the former Sclave countries, in which the peasantry were kept down by
+a numerous nobility. With respect to their marriages, they were placed
+under an unnatural and compulsory guardianship; strict care was taken
+that the son of the countryman should not evade by flight the servitude
+which was to weigh down his future. He could not travel without a
+written permission; even ship and raft masters were forbidden under
+severe penalties to take such fugitives into their service.
+
+Much to be lamented is the injury to civilization which took place in
+the devastated cities, especially the return to luxury, love of
+pleasure, and coarse sensuality, the want of common sense and
+independence, the cringing towards superiors and heartlessness towards
+inferiors. They are the ancient sufferings of a decaying race. That the
+self-government of cities was more and more infringed upon by the
+princes, was frequently fortunate, for the administrators were too often
+deficient in judgment and feeling of duty.
+
+The new constitution of governments which had arisen during the war,
+laid its iron hands on town and country. The old territories of the
+German empire were changed into despotic bureaucratic states. The ruler
+governed through his officials, and kept a standing army against his
+enemies; to maintain his "state," that is, his courtiers, officials and
+soldiers, was the task of the people. But to make this possible, it was
+necessary to promote carefully the increase of the population, and the
+greater tax-paying capacity of the subject. Some princes, especially the
+Brandenburgers, did this in a liberal spirit, and thus in this dark
+period, by increasing the power of their new state, laid the foundation
+of the greatness of their houses. Others indeed lavished the popular
+strength, in coarse imitation of French demoralization.
+
+It was a mortal crisis through which Germany had passed, and dearly was
+the peace bought. But that which was most important had been preserved,
+the continuity of German development, the continuance of the great
+inward process, by which the German nation raised itself from the
+bondage of the middle ages to a higher civilization.
+
+The long struggle, politically considered, was a defensive war of the
+Protestant party against the intolerance of the old faith and the
+attacks of the Imperial power. This defensive struggle had begun by an
+ill-timed offensive movement in Bohemia. The head of the House of
+Hapsburg had law and right on his side, so long as he only put down this
+movement. His opponents put themselves in the position of
+revolutionists, which could only be vindicated by success. But from the
+day when the Emperor made use of his victory to suppress by means of
+Jesuits and soldiers the sovereignty of the German princes, and the old
+rights of the cities, he became in his turn the political offender whose
+bold venture was repulsed by the last efforts of the nation. But here we
+must take a higher point of view, from which the proceedings of
+Ferdinand II. appear still more insupportable. Just a hundred years
+before his reign, all the good spirits of the German nation fought on
+the side of the Emperor, when he, in opposition to existing rights and
+old usages, had founded a German Church and German state. Since that,
+the family of Charles V. had for a century, a short time excepted, done
+much by laborious scheming, or listless indifference, to destroy the
+last source of this new life, independence of spirit, thought and faith:
+it was for a century, a short time excepted, the opponent of the
+national German life; it had its Spanish and Italian alliances, and had
+arrayed the Romish Jesuits against the indigenous civilization of the
+nation, aided, alas! by some of the German princes. It was by such means
+that it had endeavoured to become great in Germany, and in the same
+spirit, an overzealous Emperor called forth the bloody decision. On his
+head, not on the German people or Princes, lies the guilt of this
+endless war. The Protestant chiefs, with the exception of the lesser
+rulers, only sought to submit and make peace with their Emperor. It was
+only for a few years they were led into open war, by the arrogance of
+Wallenstein, the scorn of Vienna, and the warlike pressure of Gustavus
+Adolphus; the alliance of the great electoral houses of Saxony and
+Brandenburg with Sweden did not last four years; at the first
+opportunity they receded, and during the last period of the war,
+neutrality was their strongest policy.
+
+The princes obtained by the peace the object of their defensive
+opposition; the extravagant designs of the Imperial Court were crushed.
+Germany was free. Yes, free! Devastated and powerless, with its western
+frontier for a century the fighting-ground and spoil of France, it had
+still to bear the outpouring of an accumulated measure of humiliation
+and shame. But whoever would now clench their hands at this, let them
+beware of raising them against the Westphalian peace. The consequences
+that followed, the laying in ashes of the Palatinate, the seizure of
+Strasburg, the loss of Alsace and Lorraine, were not owing to this
+peace. The cause of all this, was long before the Thirty years' war; it
+had been foreseen by patriotic men long beforehand. Since the Smalkaldic
+war the sovereignty of the German Princes, and the independence of
+portions of the empire, were the only guarantee for a national
+progressive civilization. One may deeply lament, but can easily
+understand this. Now at last this independence had been legally
+established by streams of blood. Whoever considers the year 1813,--the
+first kindling of the people since 1648,--as full of glory; whoever has
+at any time ennobled himself by a sense of duty and enlarged moral
+sentiments, acquired from the severe teaching of Kant and his followers;
+whoever has at any time derived pleasure from the highest that man is
+capable of understanding, and from the nature and souls of his own and
+foreign people; whoever has at any time felt with transport the beauty
+of the new German poetry, the Nathan, Faust, and Guillaume Tell; whoever
+has taken a heartfelt participation in the free life of our science and
+arts, in the great discoveries of our natural philosophers, and in the
+powerful development of German industry and agriculture, must remember,
+that with the peace of Münster and Osnaburg began the period in which
+the political foundation of the development of a higher life was in a
+great measure secured.
+
+The war had nevertheless consequences which we must still deeply
+deplore; it has long severed the third of Germany from intellectual
+communion of spirit with their kindred races. The German hereditary
+possessions of the Imperial family have ever since been united in a
+special state. Powerfully and incessantly has the foreign principle
+worked which there prevails. For a long time the depressed nation
+scarcely felt the loss. In Germany the opposition between Romanism and
+Protestantism had been weakened, and in the following century it was in
+a great measure overcome. Even those territories which were compelled by
+their rulers to maintain their old faith, had participated in the slow
+and laborious progress which had been made since the peace. It is not to
+be denied that the Protestant countries long remained the leaders, but
+in spite of much opposition, those of the old faith followed the new
+stream, and the results of increasing civilization flowed in brotherly
+union from one soul to another; joy and suffering were in general
+mutual, and as the political requirements and wishes of the Protestant
+and Roman Catholics were the same, the feeling of intellectual unity
+became gradually more active. It was otherwise in the distant countries
+which Ferdinand II. and his successors had bequeathed as conquered
+property. The losses which the German races had experienced were great,
+but the injury to the Austrian nationalities was incomparably greater.
+To them had happened what must now appear, to any one who examines
+accurately, most terrible. Almost the whole national civilization, which
+in spite of all hindrances had been developed for more than a century,
+was expelled with an iron rod. The mass of the people remained; their
+leaders--opulent landed proprietors of the old indigenous race, manly
+patriots, men of distinguished character and learning, and intelligent
+pastors, were driven into exile. The exiles have never been counted, who
+perished of hunger, and the horrors of war; those also who settled in
+foreign countries can scarcely be reckoned. Undoubtedly their collective
+number amounted to hundreds of thousands. It is thanks to the Bohemian
+exiles, that Electoral Saxony recovered its loss in men and capital
+quicker than other countries. Yet it is not the numbers, however great,
+which give a true representation of the loss. For those who fell into
+calamity on account of their faith and political convictions were the
+noblest spirits, the leaders of the people, the representatives of the
+highest civilization of the time. But it was not the loss of them alone
+that made the Emperor's dominions so weak and dormant; the millions also
+that remained behind were crushed. Driven by every low motive, by rough
+violence or the prospect of earthly advantage, from one faith to
+another, they had lost all self-respect and the last ideal which even
+the most commonplace man preserves, the feeling that he has a place in
+his heart that cannot be bought. Everywhere throughout Germany in the
+worst times after the war, there were thousands who were fortified by
+the feeling that they also, like their fathers and neighbours, had
+resisted armed conversion to the death. In the converted Austrian
+territories of the Emperor, this feeling was rare. For almost a century
+and a half the Bohemian and German races vegetated in a dreary dream
+life. The Bohemian countryman hung the various saints of the restored
+church by the side of his pictures of Huss and Zisko, but he kept a holy
+lamp burning before the old heretic; the citizen of Vienna and Olmutz
+accustomed himself to speak of the Empire and Germany as of a foreign
+land; he accommodated himself to Hungarians, Italians, and Croats, but
+at the same time he remained a stranger in the new state in which he was
+now domiciled. Little did he care for the categorical imperative,
+imposed by the new worldly wisdom; later he learned that Schiller was a
+German poet. Only then did a new spring begin for the Germans, in which
+freedom of mind and beauty of soul were sought for as the highest aim of
+earthly life; when the new study of antiquity inspired them with
+enthusiasm, when the genius of Goethe irradiated the court of Weimar,
+then sounded from dormant Austria, the deepest and most mysterious of
+arts, a fullness of melody. There also the spirit of the people had
+found touching expression in Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+
+  ROGUES AND ADVENTURERS.
+
+
+The war had fearfully loosened the joints of burgher society. The old
+orderly and disciplined character of Germans appeared almost lost.
+Countless was the number of unfortunates who having lost house and farm,
+maintenance and family, wandered homeless through inhospitable foreign
+countries; and not less numerous were the troops of reprobates who had
+habituated themselves to live by fraud, extortion, and robbery.
+Excitement had become a necessity to the whole living race, for thirty
+years the vagrant rabble of all Europe had chosen Germany as their
+head-quarters.
+
+Thus it happened that after the peace the doings of the fortune hunters,
+adventurers, and rogues increased to an extraordinary extent. A contrast
+of weakness and roughness is, in the following century, a special
+characteristic of the needy, careworn family life, into which the spirit
+of the German people had contracted itself. Some particulars of this
+wild life will be here related, which will denote the gradual changes it
+underwent. For like the German devils, the children of the devil have
+also their history, and their race is more ancient than the Christian
+faith.
+
+People are hardly aware of the intimate connection between German life
+and Roman antiquity. Not only did the traditions of the Roman empire,
+Christianity, Roman law, and the Latin language become parts of the
+German civilization, but still more extensively were the numerous little
+peculiarities of the Roman world preserved in the middle ages. German
+agriculture acquired from the Romans the greater part of its implements,
+also wheat, barley, and much of the remaining produce. The most ancient
+of our finer kinds of fruit are of Roman origin, equally so our wine,
+many garden flowers, and almost all our vegetables; also the oldest
+woollen fabrics, cotton and silk stuffs, and all the oldest machines, as
+for example, watermills, and the first mining and foundry works;
+likewise innumerable other things, even to the oldest forms of our
+dress, house utensils, chairs, tables, cupboards, and even the panels of
+our folding doors. And if it were possible to measure how much in our
+life is gathered from antiquity, or from primitive German invention, we
+should still, after the lapse of fifteen centuries, find so much that is
+Roman in our fields, gardens, and houses, on our bodies, nay, even in
+our souls, that one may well have a right to inquire whether our
+primeval ancestors were more under the protection of Father Jove or of
+the wild Woden.
+
+Thus amongst numberless others, the despised race of Gladiators,
+Histrions, and Thymelei--or jesters, were preserved throughout the storm
+of migration, and spread from Rome among the barbarian races. They
+introduced amongst the bloody hordes of Vandals the dissolute Roman
+pantomime; they stood before the huts of the Frank chiefs, and piped and
+played foreign melodies, which had perhaps once come with the orgies of
+the Asiatic gods to Rome; they intermingled with the Gothic
+congregation, which poured out of the newly built church into the
+churchyard, and there opened their chests in order to show a monkey in a
+red jacket as a foreign prodigy, or produced the grotesque figures of
+old Latin puppets, the _maccus_, _bucco_, _papus_, and whatever else the
+ancient fathers called our jack-puddings, for the amusement of the young
+parishioners, who opened wide their large blue eyes at these foreign
+wonders. Meanwhile other members of the band of jugglers offered on
+payment, to execute gymnastic games before the warriors of the
+community, which they performed with sharp weapons and all the artifices
+and cunning of the Roman circus; then these foolhardy men formed a ring
+and carried on with passionate eagerness, for the sake of pay, the
+dangerous hazards of the combat, which the spectators admired the more,
+the bloodier it became, whilst they held the unfortunates, who thus
+struggled for money, in no greater consideration than a couple of wolves
+or hungry dogs. But for the distinguished spectators there were other
+more enticing artists. Women also roved with the men amongst the German
+tribes, dexterous and bold, dancers, singers, and actresses, in
+brilliant cavalcades. When they shook the Greek tambourine or the
+Asiatic castanets, in the licentious mazes of the bacchanalian dance,
+they were generally irresistible to the German barons, but were
+extremely offensive to serious people. In the year 554 a Frank king
+interposed with his authority against the nuisance of these foreign
+_rovers_, and the worthy Hinkmar, paternally warned his priests also
+against these women, whose foreign sounding designation was expressed by
+the true-hearted monk with a very well-known but bitter word.
+
+To these foreign jugglers were speedily added numerous German recruits.
+The German races had had wandering singers from the primitive times,
+bearers of news, spreaders of epic songs and poems. These also moved
+from farm to farm, highly welcome in the large houses of persons of
+distinction, honoured guests, trusted messengers, who often received
+from their hosts a more affectionate reward than golden bracelets or new
+dresses. They had once upon a time sung to the harp by the fireside, of
+the adventurous expedition of the thunder god to the world of giants,
+and of the tragic fall of the Nibelungen, then of Attila's battle, and
+the wonders of southern lands. But to the new Christian faith, this
+treasure of old native songs was obnoxious. The high-minded Charlemagne
+made a collection of the heroic songs of the German race, but his Popish
+son Louis hated and despised them. These songs undoubtedly were so
+thoroughly heathen, that the Church had reason to remonstrate against
+them in synodical resolutions and episcopal decrees. Together with them,
+the race of singers who carried and spread them, fell into disfavour
+with the church. The songs did not however cease, but the singers sank
+to a lower scale, and finally a portion of them at least fell into the
+class of vagrants, and the people were accustomed to hear the fairest
+heritage of their past from the lips of despised players.
+
+Another heritage also from German heathendom fell to these strollers.
+Even before the time of Tacitus there were simple dramatic processions
+in Germany; on the great feast days of the German gods, there already
+appeared the humorous ideas of the pious German regarding his world of
+deities, associating with them comic processions of mummers, the figures
+of goblins and giants, gray winter and green spring, the bear of Donar,
+and probably the magic white horse of Woden, which in the oldest form of
+dramatic play opposed each other either in mimic combat, or for their
+rights. The wandering jugglers, with great facility, added these German
+masks to the grotesque Roman figures which they had brought into the
+country; and in the churchyard of the new Christian congregation, the
+bear of the bacchanalian Asen bellowed beside the followers of the Roman
+god of wine, and the satyr with his goats' feet and horns.
+
+Thus this race of wanderers soon Germanized themselves, and during the
+whole of the middle ages roved about amongst the people--in the eye of
+the law homeless and lawless. The Church continued to rouse suspicion
+against these strollers by repeated decrees; the clergy would on no
+account see or listen to such rabble, nay, they were denied the right of
+taking a part in the Christian sacraments. The old law books allowed
+hired pugilists to kill each other without penance, like stray dogs; or
+what was almost worse, they granted to the injured vagrant only the
+mockery of a sham penance. If a stroller was struck by a sword or knife,
+he could only return the thrust or blow upon the shadow of his injurers
+on the wall.
+
+This ignominious treatment contrasted strongly with the favour which
+these strollers generally enjoyed. Singly, or in bands, they went
+through the country, and streamed together by hundreds at the great
+court and Church fêtes. Then, it was the general custom to distribute
+among them food, drink, clothes, and money. It was thought advisable to
+treat them well, as they were well known to be tale-bearers, and would
+publish in satirical songs throughout the whole country the scandalous
+conduct of the niggardly man, with a vindictiveness which was sharpened
+by the feeling that such revenge was the best means of making themselves
+feared. It was rarely that a prince like Henry II., or a pious bishop,
+ventured to send away these bands from their fêtes without a reward.
+Almost everywhere, till quite into the fifteenth century, they were to
+be found wherever a large assemblage of men sought for amusement. They
+sang ballads, satirical songs and love songs, and related heroic tales
+and legends from foreign lands, on the stove-bench of the peasant, in
+tins ante-room of the burgher, or the hall of the castle. From the
+latter its lord is absent perhaps on a crusade, and his wife and
+servants listen anxiously to the fables and lies of the wandering
+player. To-day he is the narrator of foreign tales of marvel, and
+to-morrow the clandestine messenger betwixt two lovers; then he again
+enters for a time the service of knightly minne-singers, whose
+minne-songs he accompanies with his music, and undertakes to spread them
+through the country, as a journal does now; or he dresses himself up
+more strikingly than usual, takes his bauble in his hand, places a
+fool's cap on his head, and goes as travelling fool to some nobleman, or
+follower of some distinguished ecclesiastic.
+
+Wherever his fellows collected together in numbers, at courtly
+residences and tournaments, or in churchyards at great saints' feasts,
+he quickly pitched his tent and booth by the side of those of traders
+and pedlers, and began his arts; rope-dancing, jongleur exercises,
+sham-fights, dramatic representations in masks, shows of curiosities,
+songs, masked artistic dances, and playing for dances and festive
+processions. In the churchyard itself, or within the boundaries of some
+castle, were heard the sounds of noisy pleasure; and the sun-burnt women
+of the band slipped secretly through side doors into the castle or the
+priests' house.
+
+Only some of the practices of these vagrants deserve special mention.
+The influence which these musicians exercised on the progress of epic
+and lyrical popular poetry, has been already mentioned; it is even now
+discerned in heroic poetry, for the players often endeavoured to
+introduce fellows of their own class into the old poetry, and took care
+that they should play no contemptible rôle. Thus in the Nibelungen, the
+brilliant form of the hero Volker the fiddler, is the representation of
+a musician; similar figures, grotesque in appearance, but rougher and
+coarser, hectored in the later poems and popular legends, as for example
+the monk Ilsan in the Rosengarten.
+
+But it was not only in the German epos, that the strollers smuggled in,
+beautiful copies of their own life; despised as they were, they
+contrived, with all the insolence of their craft, to introduce
+themselves into the nave and choir of the church, though almost excluded
+from its holy rites. For even in the first strict ecclesiastical
+beginnings of the German dramas, they crept into the holy plays of the
+Easter festivals. Already in the beginning of the middle ages the
+history of the crucifixion and resurrection had assumed a dramatic
+colouring; alternate songs between Christ and his disciples, Pilate and
+the Jews, were sung by the clergy in the church choir; a great crucifix
+was reverently deposited in an artificial grave in the crypt, and
+afterwards there was a solemn announcement, on Easter morning, of the
+resurrection, songs of praise by the whole congregation, and the
+consecration of psalms. They began early to bring forward more
+prominently, individual rôles in dramatic songs, to put speeches as well
+as songs into their mouths, and to distinguish the chief rôles by
+suitable dress and particular attributes. On other Church festivals the
+same was done with the legends of the saints, and already in the twelfth
+century whole pieces were dramatically performed in the German churches,
+first of all in Latin, by the clergy in the choir. But in the thirteenth
+century the German language made its way into the dialogue; then the
+pieces became longer, the number of rôles increased, the laity began to
+join in it, the dialogues became familiar, sometimes facetious, and
+contrasted wonderfully with the occasional Latin songs and responses,
+which were maintained in the midst of them, and which also gradually
+became German. The personages in the Biblical plays still appear under
+the same comic figures, with the coarse jokes and street wit which the
+roving people had introduced into the churchyards. Generally the fool
+entered as servant of a quack. From the oldest times these strollers had
+carried about with them through the country, secret remedies, especially
+such as were suspicious to the Church, primitive Roman superstitions,
+ancient German forms of exorcism, and others also which were more
+noxious and dangerous. At the great Church festivals and markets, there
+were always doctors' booths, in which miraculous remedies and cures were
+offered for sale to the believing multitudes. These booths also of the
+wandering doctors are older than the Augustine age; they are to be seen
+depicted on the Greek vases, and came to Germany through Italy, with the
+grotesque masks of the doctors themselves and their attendant buffoons,
+and were the most profitable trade of the strollers. These doctors and
+their servants were introduced as interludes to the spiritual plays,
+with long spun out episodes of the holy traffic, in which ribaldry and
+drubbing are not wanting.
+
+But the strollers introduced another popular person into the holy plays,
+the devil, probably his first appearance in the church. Long had this
+spirit of hell spit out fire under the tents of the churchyard, and
+wagged his tail, and probably he had often been beaten and cheated, to
+the delight of the spectators, by clever players, before he assisted in
+the thirteenth century as a much-suffering fellow-actor, in the holy
+Easter dramas, to the edification of the pious parishioners.
+
+Such was the active industry carried on by these strollers through the
+middle ages. Serving every class and every tendency of the times, coarse
+in manners and morals, as privileged jesters both cherished and ill
+treated, they were probably united amongst themselves in firm
+fellowship, with secret tokens of recognition; they were distinguished
+by their outward attire, and chiefly by fantastic finery, and by the
+absence of long hair and beard, the honourable adornment of privileged
+people, which they were forbidden to wear.
+
+In the fifteenth century the severity of the laws against them were
+relaxed, for the whole life of all classes had become more frivolous,
+daring, and reckless; an inordinate longing after enjoyment, an
+excessive pleasure in burlesque jesting, in music and dancing, in
+singing and mimic representations, was general in the wealthy towns.
+Thus many of the race of strollers contrived to make their peace with
+the burgher society. They became domestic fools in the courts of
+princes, the merry-andrews of the towns, associates of the town pipers,
+and players to the bands of Landsknechte.
+
+But besides the players and their followers, there appeared along the
+roads of the armies, and in the hiding-places of the woods, other
+children of misfortune less harmless and far more awful to the people,
+first of all the gipsies.
+
+The gipsies, from their language and the scanty historical records that
+there are of them, appear to be a race of northern border Indians, who
+lost their home, and their connection with their Indian relatives, at a
+time when the transformation of the ancient Sanscrit into the modern and
+popular languages had already begun. In their wanderings towards the
+west, which had gone on for centuries, they must have lived in continual
+intercourse with Arabians, Persians, and Greeks, for the language of
+these people has had a marked influence on their own. They were
+possibly, about the year 430 but more probably about 940, in Persia.
+They appeared about the twelfth century as Ishmaelites and braziers,[41]
+in Upper Germany. They were settled in the fourteenth century in
+Cypress, and in the year 1370, as bondsmen is Wallachia. The name of
+Zingaro or Zitano, is a corruption from their language; they still call
+themselves Scindians, dwellers on the banks of the Indus; their own
+statement also, that they came from Little Egypt, may be correct, as
+Little Egypt appears then to have denoted, not the valley of the Nile,
+but the frontier lands of Asia.
+
+In the year 1417, they came in great hordes, with laughable pretensions
+and grotesque processions, from Hungary, into Germany, and shortly
+afterwards into Switzerland, France, and Italy. A band of three hundred
+grown-up persons, without counting the children, proceeded as far as the
+Baltic, under the command of a duke and count, on horseback and on foot;
+the women and children sitting with the baggage on the carts. They were
+dressed like comedians, and had sporting dogs with them as a sign of
+noble birth; but when they really hunted, they did so without dogs, and
+without noise. They showed recommendations and safe-conducts from
+princes and nobles, and also from the Emperor Sigismund. They asserted
+that their bishops had commanded them to wander for seven years through
+the world. But they were great swindlers, and passed their nights in the
+open air, for better opportunities of stealing. In 1418, they appeared
+in many parts of Germany, and the same year went under the command of
+Duke Michael, from Little Egypt into Switzerland. A rendezvous of many
+hordes seems to have taken place before Zurich. They numbered according
+to the lowest computation a thousand heads. They had two dukes and two
+knights, and pretended to have been driven from Egypt by the Turks: they
+carried much money in their pockets, and maintained that they had
+received it from their own people at home: they ate and drank well, and
+also paid well, but they have never shown themselves again like this.
+From thence they appear to have turned to France and Italy; in 1422, a
+band of them came under a duke from Egypt to Bologna and Forli. They
+stated that the King of Hungary had compelled about 4000 of them to be
+baptized, and had slain the remainder; the baptized had been condemned
+to the penance of seven years' wandering. They wished to go to Rome to
+visit the Pope. In 1427, the same band, probably, appeared before Paris
+with two dukes. They asserted that they had letters and a blessing from
+the Pope. The Pope had held council concerning them, and had decided
+that they were to wander through the world seven years, without lying on
+a bed; then he would send them to a fine country. For five years they
+had journeyed about, and their king and queen had died during their
+wanderings, &c. These were followed by other bands.
+
+In 1424, a new horde appeared before Ratisbon, with letters of safe
+conduct from the Emperor Sigismund, one of which was dated Zips, 1423,
+and was published by the chroniclers. In 1438, another horde passed
+through Bohemia, Austria, and Bavaria; this time they were under a petty
+king, Zindelo; they also asserted that they came from Egypt, and
+declared that they were commanded by God to wander for seven years,
+because their forefathers had refused hospitality to the mother of God
+and the child Jesus, on their flight into Egypt.
+
+In hordes like these they spread themselves, during the fifteenth and
+sixteenth centuries, over the whole of Europe. In spite of their
+frivolous finery and cunning lies, there were very few places in which
+they succeeded in deceiving men. They proved, indeed, everywhere to be
+wicked heathens, magicians, fortune-tellers, and most shameless thieves.
+They split themselves into small bands during their distant travels;
+their leaders, whom they had honoured with all the feudal titles, in
+order to give themselves consideration, disappeared. They themselves
+were thoroughly decimated by their wandering lives, and the persecutions
+of the local inhabitants.
+
+Their language gives the best explanation of their past. The original
+homogeneousness of the gipsy language is distinctly visible amidst the
+various changes which it has gone through in many countries. It appears
+to be the mode of speech of a single and special Indian race. The gipsy
+is apparently not the descendant of a mixed Indian people, or of a
+single low caste of Indians, but of a distinct race of people. The men
+call themselves everywhere, _rom_; and in contradiction to the western
+nations, also _calo_, black: their wives, _romni_, and their language
+_romany-tschib_. The names which their race have had in different
+countries are numerous and various.
+
+Their language is in its origin and internal structure a genuine
+daughter of the distinguished Sanscrit, but it has become for many
+centuries like a beggar and thief; it has lost much of its beauty, its
+elegance, and its resemblance to its mother and sisters; instead of
+which it has appropriated something to itself from every country in
+which these people have tarried in their wanderings, and its dress
+appears covered with the tatters of all nations, so that it is only here
+and there that the genuine gold threads are still visible. The race have
+lost a great portion of their own words, more especially those, that
+express ideas which they could not preserve in their paltry miserable
+life in foreign countries. They have lost the Indian expression for
+parrot, elephant, and lion, also for the tiger and buffalo snake, but
+sugar--_gûlo_, silk--_pahr_, and grapes--_drakh_, they call by their
+Indian, and wine--_mohl_, by its Persian name. Nay, they have also lost
+the Indian words for many current terms: they no longer call the sparrow
+by its Indian name: no fish, and hardly any plants; but undoubtedly they
+retain those of many large and small animals, amongst others _dschu_,
+the louse. But in all countries, new representations, images, and ideas
+offered themselves, and too lazy and careless to form words of their
+own, they took those of every foreign language and adapted them to the
+necessities of their own tongue. The result was, that even the gipsies
+who were in bands, being without firm union, were split in pieces among
+the various people, so that what they still possessed did not remain
+common to all, and there arose in every country a peculiar gipsy idiom,
+in which old recollections were mixed up with the language of the
+country, in an original way. Finally the _rom_ appropriated to himself
+almost everywhere, besides the common language of the country that of
+the rogues, the thieves' dialect, to which he imparted, in friendly
+exchange, words from his own language. In Germany he understood
+gibberish, or _Jenisch_; in Bohemia, _Hantyrka_; in French, _Argôt_; in
+England, Slang; and in Spain, _Germania_.
+
+It is instructive to observe how their hereditary language became
+corrupted; for the decadence of one language, through the overpowering
+influence of another, proceeds according to fixed laws. First, foreign
+words penetrate in a mass, because foreign cultivation has an imposing
+effect; next the formation of sentences is taken from the foreign
+language, because the mind of the people accustoms itself to think after
+the method of the foreigners; and thirdly, they forget their own
+inflections; then the language becomes a heap of ruins, a weather-beaten
+organism, like a corroded mass of rock which crumbles away into sand or
+gravel. The gipsy language has gone through the first and second stages
+of decadence, and the third also in Spain.
+
+The life of this race in Germany was far from comfortable. As their
+hands were against the property of every one, so did the popular hatred
+work against their lives. Charles V. commanded them to be banished, and
+the new police ordinances of the Princes allowed them no indulgence. Yet
+they were able to gain money from the country people by soothsaying and
+secret arts, by doctoring man and beast, or as horse-dealers and
+pedlers. Often, united with bands of robbers, they carried on a new
+service during the long war, as camp followers. Wallenstein made use of
+them as spies, as did the Swedes also later. The women made themselves
+agreeable to the officers and common soldiers. The cunning men of the
+band sold amulets and shod horses.
+
+After the war they went about through the country audaciously, the
+terror of the countryman. In 1663 a band of more than two hundred of
+them invaded Thuringia, where they distributed themselves, and were
+considered as very malevolent, because it was reported of them that they
+reconnoitred the country probably for an enemy. They had in fact become
+a great plague throughout the country, and the law thundered against
+them with characteristic recklessness. Orders were issued everywhere for
+their banishment; they were considered as spies of the Turks, and as
+magicians, and were made outlaws; even after the year 1700, in a small
+Rhenish principality, a gipsy woman and her child were brought in
+amongst other wild game which had been slain. A band again broke into
+Thuringia in the eighteenth century, and a law in 1722 declared all the
+men outlawed. In Prussia, in 1710, an edict was promulgated, commanding
+the alarm to be sounded, and the community to be summoned together
+against them, whenever they should make their appearance. On the
+frontiers, gallows were erected with this inscription: "The punishment
+for thieves and gipsy rabble, both men and women." As late as the year
+1725 all the gipsies in the Prussian states, over eighteen years of age,
+were to be hanged whether they had a passport or not. Even in 1748
+Frederick the Great renewed this strong edict. The conduct of the
+civilized nineteenth century forms a pleasing contrast to this. In 1830
+at Friedrichslohra in Thuringia, a philanthropic endeavour was made, and
+warmly promoted by the government, to reform a band of about one hundred
+men, by the maintenance of the adults and education of the children. The
+attempt was continued for seven years, and completely failed.
+
+The name of Stroller disappeared, and the occupation of these
+possessionless rovers became to a certain degree free from the old
+defect; but the great society of swindlers maintained a certain
+organization. Their language also remained. The gibberish, of which many
+specimens remain to us from the latter end of the middle ages, shows
+already, before the demoralization of the people by the Hussite war, a
+full development of old German rogues' idioms. It consists for the
+greater part of Hebrew words as used by persons who were not themselves
+Jews; together with these are mingled some of the honoured treasures of
+the German language, beautiful old words, and again significant
+inventions of figurative expressions, for the sake of concealing the
+true sense of the speech by a deceptive figure: thus, windgap for
+mantle, broadfoot for goose. Few of their words lead us to expect an
+elevated disposition; the rough humour of desperadoes breaks out from
+many of them. The practice, like the language of these rogues, developed
+itself in greater refinement. The usual form in which the resident
+inhabitants were plundered was begging. The works of holiness of the old
+Church--an irrational alms-giving--had spread throughout Christendom an
+unwieldy mass of mendicancy. In the first century of German Christendom
+it is the subject of complaint of pious ecclesiastics. In churchyards
+and in public places lay the beggars, exposing horrible wounds, which
+were often artistically inflicted; they sometimes went naked through the
+country with a club, afterwards clothed, and with many weapons, and
+begged at every homestead for their children, or for the honour of their
+saints, or as slaves escaped from the Turkish galleys, for a vow, or for
+only a pound of wax, a silver cross, or a mass vestment. They begged
+also towards the erection of a church, producing letters and seals; they
+had much at heart to obtain special napkins for the priest, linen for
+the altar cloth, and broken plate for the chalice; they rolled about as
+epileptics, holding soap lather in their mouths. In like manner did the
+women wander about, some pretending to give birth to monsters (as for
+example a toad) which lived in solitude as miraculous creatures, and
+daily required a pound of meat. When a great festival was held they
+flocked together in troops. They formed a dangerous company, and even
+iron severity could scarcely keep them under restraint. Basle appears to
+have been one of their secret meeting-places; they had there their own
+special place of justice, and the famed "_Liber Vagatorum_" also, seems
+to have originated in that neighbourhood. This book, written by an
+unknown hand about 1500, contains, in rogues' language, a careful
+enumeration of the rogue classes and their tricks, and at the end a
+vocabulary of jargon. It was often printed; and Pamphilus Gengenbach of
+Basle rendered it into rhyme. It pleased Luther so well that he also
+reprinted the clever little book, after one of the oldest impressions.
+
+To the order of beggars belong also the travelling scholars, who, as
+treasure diggers and exorcists, made successful attacks on the savings
+of the peasants and on the provisions in their chimneys. "They desired
+to become priests," then they came from Rome with shaven crowns and
+collected for a surplice; or they were necromancers, then they wore a
+yellow train to their coats and came from the Frau Venusberg; when they
+entered a house they exclaimed, "Here comes a travelling scholar, a
+master of seven liberal sciences, an exorciser of the devil, and from
+hail storms, fire, and monsters;" and thereupon they made "experiments."
+Together with them came disbanded Landsknechte, often associated with
+the dark race of outlaws, who worked with armed hand against the life
+and property of the resident inhabitants.
+
+Throughout the whole of the middle ages it was impossible to eradicate
+the robbers. After the time of Luther they became incendiaries, more
+particularly from 1540 to 1542. A foreign rabble appeared suddenly in
+middle Germany, especially in the domains of the Protestant chiefs, the
+Elector of Saxony and Landgrave of Hesse. They burned Cassel, Nordheim,
+Göttingen, Goslor, Brunswick, and Magdeburg. Eimbech was burned to the
+ground with three hundred and fifty men, and a portion of Nordhausen;
+villages and barns were everywhere set on fire; bold incendiary letters
+stirred up the people, and at last also the princes. The report became
+general that the Roman Catholic party had hired more than three hundred
+incendiaries, and the Pope, Paul III., had counselled Duke Henry the
+younger, of Brunswick, to send the rabble to Saxony and Hesse.
+Undoubtedly much wickedness was laid to the credit of the unscrupulous
+Duke; but it was then the interest of Pope Paul III. to treat the
+Protestants with forbearance, for earnest endeavours were being made on
+both sides for a great reconciliation, and preparation was made for it
+at Rome, by sending the Cardinal Contarini to the great religious
+conference at Ratisbon. The terror, however, and anger of the Germans
+was great and enduring. Everywhere the incendiaries were tracked,
+everywhere their traces were found, crowds of rabble were imprisoned,
+tried for their lives, and executed. Luther publicly denounced Duke
+Henry as guilty of these reckless outrages; the Elector and Landgrave
+accused him of incendiarism at the Diet before the Emperor; and in vain
+did he, in his most vehement manner, defend himself and his adherents.
+It is true that his guilt was pronounced by the Emperor as unproved; but
+then he was desirous, above all, of internal peace and help against the
+Turks. In the public opinion, however, the stain on the prince's
+reputation remained. It is impossible to discover how far the strollers
+of that time were the guilty parties. The depositions of those arrested
+are inaccurately given, and it cannot be decided how much of it was
+dictated by torture. One thing is quite clear, they did not form into
+any fixed bands, and their secret intercourse was carried on through the
+medium of signs, which were scratched or cut on striking places, such as
+inns, walls, doors, &c. These signs were partly primitive German
+personal tokens, which, as house-marks, may still be found on the gables
+of old buildings, but partly also in rogues' marks. Above all, there was
+the characteristic sign of the Strollers, the arrow, once the signal
+announcing enmity; the direction of his arrow shows the way which the
+marker has taken; small perpendicular strokes on it, often with ciphers
+above, give probably the number of persons. These signs are to be found
+sometimes still on the trees and walls of the high-roads, and it
+betokens now, as it did then, to the members of the band, that the
+initiated has passed that way with his followers.
+
+In addition to the indigenous rovers came also foreign ones; as in the
+middle ages, a stream of Italian adventurers again flowed through
+Germany. Together with the German player rose the cry of the Italian
+orvietan (Venice treacle) vendor, and side by side with the Bohemian
+bear were the camels of Pisa. The marvellous Venetian remedies and the
+harlequin jacket, mask, and felt cap of the Italian fool wandered over
+the Alps, and were added as new fooleries to our old stock.
+
+The Italian, Garzoni, has given a lively picture of the proceedings of
+these strollers in his book, 'Piazza Universale,' a description of all
+the arts and handicrafts of his time. His work was translated in 1641,
+into German by Matthäus Merian, under the title of 'General Theatre of
+all Arts, Professions, and Handicrafts.' The description of the Italian
+portrays also in its chief features the condition of Western Germany
+after the war. The following extract is given according to Merian's
+German translation:--
+
+"The wandering comedians in their demeanour are uncivil asses and
+ruffians, who consider that they have performed beautifully when they
+have moved the mob to laughter by their coarse sayings. Their
+_inventiones_ are such, that if the toads acted thus we might forgive
+them, and they all tally together without rhyme or reason; they do not
+care whether they are sufficiently polished and skilful so long as they
+can only obtain money. Though they could easily curtail or cloak
+whatever is coarse, they imagine that they give no satisfaction in their
+business if it is not set forth in the coarsest manner; on this account
+comedy and the whole comic art has fallen into the greatest contempt
+with respectable people, and even the high comedians are banished from
+certain places, are treated with contumely in public laws and statutes,
+insulted and derided by the whole community. When these good people come
+into a town they must not remain together, but must divide themselves
+among divers inns; the Lady comes from Rome, the Magnificus from
+Venice,[42] Ruffiana from Padua, the Zany from Bergamo, the Gratianus
+from Bologna, and they must lurk about for certain days, till they have
+begged and obtained permission if they wish to maintain themselves and
+carry on their profession; they can with difficulty obtain lodgings
+where they are known, every one being disgusted with their filth, as
+they leave for a length of time a bad smell behind them.
+
+"But when they come into a town and are permitted to perform their
+tricks, they cause it to be made known by handbills, the beating of
+drums, and other war sounds, that this or that great comedian has
+arrived; then the woman goes after the drum dressed in man's clothes,
+girt about with a sword, and thus the people are invited in every place:
+'Whoever would see a beautiful comedian, let him come to this or that
+place.' Thither come running all the curious people, and are admitted
+for three or four kreutzers into a yard, where they find a platform
+erected, and regular scenes. First there begins splendid music, just as
+if a troop of asses were all braying together; then comes a Prologus,
+making his appearance like a vagabond; afterwards come beautiful and
+ill-adorned persons, who make such a cackling that every one begins to
+find the time long, and if perchance any one laughs, it is more at the
+simplicity of the spectators than because he finds somewhat laughable.
+Then comes Magnificus, who is not worth three hellers; Zany, who truly
+does his best, but waddles like a goose walking through deep mud; a
+shameless Ruffiana, and also a lover, whom it would be disgusting to
+listen to long; a Spaniard who knows not how to say more than _mi vida_,
+or _mi corazon_; a pedant who jumbles all sorts of languages together;
+and Buratinus, who knows no other gesture than that of twirling his hat
+or his hood from one hand to the other. The best of them has so little
+capacity as to be unfit either to boil or roast, so that the bystanders
+all become weary, and laugh at themselves for having so long given heed
+to such insane tricks. And assuredly they must be idle folk or
+superlative fools to allow themselves to be caught there a second time;
+the incapacity of the players in the first comedy they perform, is so
+well known and cried down, that others of respectability are mistrusted
+on their account.
+
+"There are now-a-days many genuine dramatic performances in vogue at
+almost all the market-places and fairs, namely the plays of Ceretani, of
+orvietan vendors, and other similar fellows. They are called Ceretani in
+Italy because it is presumed they have their origin and first
+commencement in a small spot called Cereto, near Spoleto in Umbria, and
+afterwards gradually attained such credit and consideration, that when
+they were to be heard there was as great a concourse of people assembled
+as were ever collected by the cleverest doctor of the liberal arts, nay
+even by the best preacher who ever entered a pulpit. For the common
+people run together in crowds, gaping with open mouth, listen to them
+the whole day, forget all their cares, and God knows how difficult it
+is,--even the peasants find it so,--to keep one's purse in such a
+throng.
+
+"When one sees these cheats take a whole lump of arsenic, sublimate, or
+other poison, indiscriminately, that they may make proof by it of the
+excellence of their orvietan, it should be known that, in the
+summer-time before they came to the place, they have filled themselves
+with lettuce dressed with so much vinegar and oil that they might swim
+therein, and in winter they stuff themselves upon fat ox-brawn well
+boiled. And this they do that they may by means of the fat of the brawn
+and oiliness of the salad, with the coldness of their nature, obstruct
+the internal passage of the body, and thus weaken the sharpness or heat
+of the poison. They have besides this also a secure way of managing,
+namely, before they enter the place they go to the nearest apothecary,
+who generally in the towns is in or near the market; there they ask for
+a box of arsenic, from which they select some small bits, and wrap them
+in paper, begging the apothecary to deliver the same to them when they
+send for it. Now when they have sufficiently extolled their wares, so
+that nothing more remains but to make proof of them, they send out one
+of the bystanders, in order that there may appear to be no fear of
+deceit, to the apothecary, that he may obtain some arsenic for the money
+which they give him. This said person runs forthwith, that there may be
+no hindrance in such useful work, and as he goes, considers that though
+he has been deceived a thousand times, he cannot be so this time, he
+will see well to that. Meantime he comes to the apothecary, demands the
+arsenic for his money, receives it, and runs with joy to the orvietan
+vendor's table to see the marvel; this one holds meanwhile in his hand
+little boxes, amongst them one wherein he puts the aforesaid arsenic, he
+speaks and addresses the people for a time before he takes it, for in a
+case of so much danger there must be no haste; meantime he changes the
+aforesaid little box for another, wherein are small pieces of paste made
+of sugar, meat, and saffron that they may appear like the former. These
+he then eats with singular gestures as if he were much afraid, and the
+peasants stand by open mouthed to see whether he will not soon burst
+asunder; but he binds himself up firmly that this may not happen,
+although he knows that there is no occasion for it; he afterwards takes
+a piece as large as a chestnut of his orvietan or stuff, and all the
+swelling disappears as if there had been no poison in question. 'This,
+dear gentlemen, will be a precious orvietan to you.' Whereupon the
+peasants undraw their purse strings, and thank God that they have such a
+dear good man, and can obtain in their village such costly wares for so
+little money.
+
+"But who would venture to describe all the cunning practices whereby
+these strollers contrive to make and collect money? For my own part I
+fear I should never get to the end of it. Yet I cannot refrain from
+describing some of their tricks.
+
+"One rushes through the street, having with him a young girl dressed in
+boy's clothes, who bounds about, jumping through a hoop like a monkey.
+Then he begins to tell, in good Florentine, some remarkable jests or
+pranks, and meanwhile the little maiden sets to work in every kind of
+way, throws herself on all-fours, reaches the ring from out of the hoop,
+then bends herself backwards, and picks up a coin from under the right
+or left foot, with such graceful agility that the lads have pleasure in
+looking at her. But finally he also can do nothing farther than to bring
+out his wares, and offer the same for sale as well as he can.
+
+"But those who boast themselves of being of the race of St. Paul, make
+their appearance with much consequence, namely, with a great flying
+banner, on one side of which stands St. Paul with his sword, but on the
+other a heap of serpents, which are so painted that one fears to be
+bitten by them. Then one of the party begins to relate their genealogy,
+how St. Paul, in the island of Malta, was bitten by a viper without
+injury, and how the same virtue was accorded to his descendants; then
+they make divers trials, but always keep the upper hand, having a bond
+and seal thereupon. Finally they lay hold of the boxes which are
+standing on the table or bench, take out of one a salamander, two ells
+long and an arm in thickness, from another a great snake, from another a
+viper, and relate concerning each how they had caught it when the
+peasant was reaping his corn, who would have been in great danger
+therefrom, if they had not come to his relief. Thereupon the peasants
+become so frightened that they dare not return home till they have had a
+draught of the costly snake-powder, and bought still more to take home
+to their wives and children, that they may be preserved from the bite of
+snakes and other poisonous reptiles; and the game does not end herewith,
+for they have still more boxes at hand, which they open, and take out of
+one a rough viper, out of another a dead basilisk, out of another a
+young crocodile brought from Egypt, an Indian lizard, a tarantula from
+the Campagna, or somewhat of the like, whereby they frighten the
+peasants, that they may buy the favour of the Holy Paul, which is
+imparted to them by small written papers, for a consideration.
+
+"Meanwhile, because the people are still assembled together, another
+comes, spreads his mantle on the ground, places upon it a little dog
+which can sing _ut_, _re_, _mi_, _fa_, _so_, _la_, _si_; it makes also
+frolicksome somersaults, somewhat less than a monkey, barks at the
+command of its master, who is very ill clad, howls when the Turkish
+Emperor's name is mentioned, and makes a leap into the air when this or
+that sweetheart is named; and finally, for it is done to obtain hellers,
+his master hangs a little hat to his paw, and sends him round on his
+hind feet to the bystanders, for travelling expenses, as he has a great
+journey in prospect.
+
+"The Parmesan also does not neglect the like opportunity with his goat,
+which he brings to the _Platz_; he makes there a palisade, within which
+it walks up and down, one foot behind the other, and sits up on a little
+platform of hardly a hand's breadth, and licks the salt under its feet.
+He makes it also go round upon its hind legs, with a long spear over its
+shoulder, making fools of all beholders, who present it with pence for
+food.
+
+"Sometimes a bold rope-dancer is to be seen, who walks on the rope, till
+at last he breaks his leg, or falls headlong; or a daring Turkish
+juggler who lies on the ground, and allows himself to be struck on the
+chest by a great hammer, as if he were an anvil; or by a jerk, tears up
+a big pile which has been driven by force into the ground, whereby he
+obtains a good sum for his journey to Mecca.
+
+"Sometimes a baptized Jew makes his appearance, who bawls and cries out,
+till at length he collects a few people, when he begins to preach about
+his conversion; whereby one comes to this conclusion, that he has become
+a crafty vagrant instead of a pious Christian.
+
+"In short there is no market-place, either in village or town, where
+some of these fellows are not to be found, who either perform divers
+facetious juggling tricks, or sell various drugs.
+
+"These are the tricks of charlatans, strollers, and jugglers, and other
+idle people, whereby they get on in the world."
+
+Here ends the narrative of Garzoni. Numberless light-footed people also
+of the same class thronged into the German market towns. But besides the
+old traders and jugglers, a new class of strollers had come into
+Germany, harmless people of far higher interest for these days, the
+wandering comedians. The first players that made a profession of their
+performances came to Germany from England or the Netherlands, towards
+the end of the sixteenth century. They were still accompanied with rope
+dancers, jumpers, fencers, and horsebreakers; they still continued to
+furnish the courts of princes and the market-places of great cities with
+clowns and the favourite figure of jack-puddings, and soon after, the
+French "Jean Posset," on bad boarded platforms still continued to excite
+the uproarious laughter of the easily amused multitude. Shortly after,
+the popular masques of the Italian theatre became familiar in the south
+of Germany and on the Rhine. At the same time that the regular
+circulation of newspapers commenced, the people received the rough
+beginnings of art; the representation of human character and the secret
+emotions of restless souls by the play of countenance, gestures, and the
+deceptive illusion of action.
+
+It is remarkable also, that almost precisely at the same period, the
+first entertaining novels were written for the people. And these
+spontaneously invented pictures of real life had reference to the
+strolling people; for the adventures of vagrants, disbanded soldiers,
+and in short all those who had travelled in foreign countries, and had
+seen there an abundance of marvels, and undergone the most terrible
+dangers with almost invulnerable bodies, were the heroes of these
+imperfect creations of art. Shortly after the war, Christoph von
+Grimmelshausen wrote 'Simplicissimus,' 'Springinsfeld,' 'Landstörzerin
+Courage,' and the 'Wonderful Vogelnest,' the heroes of which are
+gathered from strollers; these were followed by a flood of novels
+describing the lives of rogues and of adventurers.
+
+The war had rendered the existence of the settled population joyless,
+their manners coarse, and their morals lax. And the craving for
+excitement was general. Thus at first these modes of representation
+allured, by bestowing what was wanting to this ungenial life. They
+endeavoured with much detail to represent either an ideal life of
+distinguished and refined persons, under entirely foreign conditions,
+such as antique shepherds, and foreign princes without nationalities;
+this was done by the highly educated; or they tried at least to ennoble
+common life, by introducing into it abstractions not less coarse and
+soulless, virtues and vices, mythological and allegorical figures; or
+they caught endless materials from the lowest circles of life, to whom
+they felt themselves superior, but in whose strange mode of life there
+was something alluring: they depicted strollers or represented clowns
+and fools; and this last development of art was the soundest. Thus these
+rough families of jugglers, buffoons, and rogues were of the utmost
+significance to the beginning of the drama, theatrical art, and novels.
+
+But besides the numerous companies, who wandered about either modestly
+on foot or in carts, vagrants of higher pretensions rode through the
+country, some of them still more objectionable. To be able to
+prognosticate the future, to gain dominion over the spirits of the
+elements, to make gold, and to renew the vigour of youth in old age, had
+for many centuries been the longing desire of the covetous and
+inquisitive. Those who promised these things to the Germans were
+generally Italians or other foreigners; or natives of the country, who
+had, according to the old saying, been thrice to Rome. When the new zeal
+for the restoration of the Church brought good and bad alike before the
+tribunal of the inquisition in Italy, the emigration of those whose
+lives were insecure must have been very numerous. It is probably from
+the life of one of these charlatans that the adventures of Faust have
+been gathered and formed into the old popular tale. After Luther's
+death, it is evident that they penetrated into the courts of the German
+princes. It was an adventurer of this kind, "Jerome Scotus," who, in
+1593, at Coburg, estranged the unhappy Duchess Anna of Saxe Coburg from
+her husband, and brought her into his own power by villainous means.
+Vain were the endeavours of the Duke to obtain the extradition of Scotus
+from Hamburg, where he lived long in princely luxury. Five-and-thirty
+years before, the father of the Duke Johann Friedrich, the Middle-sized,
+was long deluded by an impudent impostor, who gave herself out to be
+Anne of Cleves (the wife who had been selected for Henry VIII. of
+England), and promised him a great treasure of gold and jewels if he
+chose to protect her. Another piece of credulity bore bitter fruits to
+the same prince, for the influence which Wilhelm of Grumbach, the
+haggard old wolf from the herd of the wild Albrecht of Brandenburg,
+gained over the Duke, rested on his foolish prophecies concerning the
+Electoral dignity and prodigious treasures. A poor weak-minded boy who
+was maintained by Grumbach, had intercourse with angels who dwelt in the
+air-hole of a cellar, and declared themselves ready to produce gold, and
+bring to light a mine for the Duke. It may be perceived from judicial
+records, that the little angels of the peasant child had a similarity,
+unfavourable to their credibility, to our little old dwarfs.
+
+There was at Berlin, about the time of Scotus, one Leonhard Turneysser,
+a charlatan, more citizen-like in his occupation, who worked as gold
+maker and prepared horoscopes; he escaped by flight the dismal fate,
+which almost always overtook his fellows of the same vocation who did
+not change their locality soon enough. The Emperor Rudolph also became a
+great adept, and amalgamated in the gold crucible both his political
+honour and his own Imperial throne. The princes of the seventeenth
+century at least show the intense interest of dilettanti. During the war
+the art of making gold became very desirable. At that period, therefore,
+the adepts thronged to the armies; the more needy the times, the more
+numerous and brilliant became the stories of alchemy. It was proposed by
+an enthusiastic worshipper of Gustavus Adolphus, to make gold out of
+lead; and in the presence of the Emperor Ferdinand III. many pounds of
+gold were to be made, by one grain of red powder, from quicksilver; a
+gigantic coin also was to be struck from the same metal. After the
+peace, the adepts resided at all the courts; there were few dwellings
+where the hearth and the retorts were not heated for secret operations.
+But every one had to beware how he trifled with the reigning powers, as
+the paws of the princely lions might be raised against him for his
+destruction. Those who could not make gold were confined in prison, and
+those who were under suspicion, yet could fabricate something, were
+equally put in close confinement. The Italian Count Cajetan was hanged
+in a gilded dress, on a gallows at Küstrin the beams of which were
+adorned with cut gold; the German Rector von Klettenberg was beheaded at
+Königstein, where fourteen years before, Böttiger was kept in strict
+cloistral confinement, because he had produced innocent porcelain
+instead of gold. There is no doubt that it was the case with the adepts
+and astrologers, as it ever has been with the leaders of a prevailing
+superstition, that they were themselves convinced of the truth of their
+art; but they had strong doubts of their own knowledge, and they
+deceived others as to their success, either because they were seeking
+the means to attain to greater results, or because they wished to
+appear, to the world, to understand what they considered of importance.
+These however were not the worst of the lot.
+
+The most mischievous of all were, perhaps, the skilful impostors, who
+appeared in Germany, France, and England, with foreign titles of
+distinction, shining with the glimmer of secret art, sometimes the
+propagators of the most disgraceful vices, shadowy figures, who by their
+worldly wisdom and the limited intercourse of nations were enabled to
+bring themselves into notoriety. Their experience, their deceptions,
+their secret successes, for a long period overpoweringly excited the
+fancies of Germans. Even Goethe considered it worth his while to repair
+to the spot and set on foot serious investigations as to the origin of
+Cagliostro.
+
+The changes in the moral diseases of that society, of which we are the
+representatives, can be gradually traced. After the war astrology and
+horoscopes fell into disuse. The princes sought for red powder, or the
+unknown tincture, whilst the people dug for money pots. Dilettante
+occupation with physical science introduced again to the people the
+ancient divining rod, by which springs, murders, thefts, and always
+concealed gold, were to be discovered. The superior classes again
+realized in their own minds the ancient belief in mysterious men, who by
+unknown proceedings, in unfathomable depths, had obtained the power of
+giving supernatural duration of life, and had confidential intercourse
+with the spirit world. Besides the honourable order of Freemasons, with
+their Humanitarian tendencies, there arose more secret unions, wherein
+the weak-minded of the time were enticed to a refined sensuality and
+sickly mysticism, and an extensive apparatus of absurd secret teaching.
+
+Since the end of the last century a vigorous dash of the waves of German
+popular strength has washed away these diseased fantasies. The old race
+of strollers too have diminished in number and influence. It is only
+rarely that Bajazzo, with his pointed felt cap, bewitches the village
+youth; the meagre neck of the camel no longer stretches itself to the
+flowering trees of our village gardens, the black dog seldom rolls his
+fiery eyes at buried chests of silver. Even the impostors have learned
+to satisfy higher demands.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE AT COURT. (1661.)
+
+
+It has ever been part of the German character to maintain propriety of
+conduct in intercourse with others, to keep up a good appearance, to do
+homage to superiors, and to require a respectful demeanour and address
+from inferiors. The forms of intercourse were accurately defined, and
+the number of significant turns of speech was not small, which
+introduced every social arrangement, and like a boundary stone,
+preserved the pathway of life. But the groundwork of all this old
+precision was a sound self-respect, which gave to individuals a feeling
+of certainty as to what was to be conceded or received, and therefore
+civility was generally real. If there was any discord in his soul, the
+German did not usually conceal it; and then he became so thoroughly
+coarse, that he gained evil repute with all the western nations. It is
+true, princes were accosted with much devotedness, words of submission
+were used as now; but the prince and the citizen, the nobleman and the
+artisan, met together as men, and a strong word or a warm feeling often
+broke through the most courtly forms. This, however, changed after the
+war. The old feeling of decorum was lost, the egotism of the unbridled
+was harsh and wounding; the proper, but often narrow-minded pride of
+citizen and nobleman was broken, and the simple patriarchal relation
+between prince and subject was lost during thirty years of calamity and
+distrust. Men had become more prudent, but weaker, and for the most part
+worse.
+
+But the beginning of a new state of society was visible. With all this
+ruin Providence had mercifully sent a remedy. By many a roundabout way,
+through French and Italian fashions, and after long wanderings in every
+foreign nationality, the German mind was to be renewed. It was a
+wonderful trial of durability, but it was necessary. Like Prince Tamino
+in the magic play, the poor German soul passed through French water and
+Italian fire; and from that period a weak flute-like tone sounds only
+occasionally in our ears, telling us that the German character has not
+yet sunk entirely under foreign phantasies.
+
+It has been customary to consider the intellectual sway of Italy and
+France, from Opiz to Lessing, as a great calamity. It is true, it has
+given neither beauty nor strength to the German; but we are no longer in
+the position of the great man who for a century struggled against French
+taste. It was with him a duty to hate whatever caused a hindrance to the
+wakening popular vigour. But we should at the same time remember that
+this same foreign element protected the German from the extreme of
+barbarism. Our imitation was very clumsy, and there was little worth in
+the original; but it was to the countless bonds of international
+intercourse that the Germans then clung, that they might not be utterly
+lost. The moral restraints upon the wilfulness of individuals had been
+broken, and the meagre externals gathered from abroad, of fashion,
+respect, gallantry, and a taste for foreign refinements were the first
+remedy. It was a new kind of discipline. Whoever wore a large wig, and
+later, even powder in the hair, was obliged to hold his head elegantly
+still, wild movements and violent running were impossible; if men were
+not prevented by their own delicacy of feeling from boldly approaching
+too near to women, a hoop and corset were a rampart for them; if the
+courtesy of the heart was less, the duty of being gallant in
+conversation was a benefit. In a circle where a coarse soldiers' song
+had been preferred, a polished song from Damon to Daphne was a great
+improvement, and even the fade cavalier, who cut his finger-nails in
+society with a gilded knife, and threw himself down with a French
+flourish, was by far more estimable in society than an unbridled
+drunkard, who in his intoxication did the most unseemly things, and
+could not open his mouth without an oath.
+
+Those who assumed to be the élite in Germany soon fashioned their life
+after the foreign model. Even during the war many foreign customs had
+become naturalized; not only in court ceremonials and in the intercourse
+with ambassadors, but also in the dress and manners of the citizens.
+However great was the influence of France, that of Italy was not much
+less. The service of the _cicisbeato_, and the "State" ceremonials, had
+penetrated from Italy into France; the Roman court long remained the
+highest model, in all questions of etiquette, to the diplomats of
+Europe. Both countries took their share in holding sway over Germany. In
+the south, Italy ruled till the eighteenth century, indeed in Vienna it
+continued still longer to influence the aspect of the higher society;
+but in the north, especially in the Protestant courts, the French model
+prevailed, and this copy, like the other, was a clumsy one. But whilst
+at the great courts, for example Vienna, the cavalier assumed at least
+something of the impulsive versatility of the Italian; in the smaller
+towns social intercourse was slow and prolix, carried on in endless
+phrases, which appeared the more grotesque in proportion as the men were
+coarse who endeavoured to set themselves off by the use of them.
+
+Thus was the sunny path, along which men approached the chosen of their
+hearts, charmingly strewn with the flowers of foreign manners. Whatever
+of indigenous was retained, was adorned with laborious gallantry, and
+became still more tedious. Before we attempt to give a specimen of
+honourable German love, it will be fitting to disclose to the
+sympathizing reader something of the style of courtly wooing and
+marriage. Therefore the following gives the course of wooing of a
+cavalier, about the year 1650:--
+
+"When a person of condition at Vienna wishes to marry some one, he begs
+of her parents to allow him to wait upon her, but he must already have
+made her acquaintance, and know that she is well inclined towards him.
+When this has been granted by her parents, the affair is already half
+agreed upon, and he gives his servant a new livery, and dresses himself
+in his best. Every day he must write to her early, and inquire what she
+is doing, what she has dreamt of, when she will drive out, and where she
+intends to dine. Besides this, he sends her a nosegay, for which
+sometimes a ducat must be paid. Then she returns him an answer, and he
+makes his appearance at her door at the right time, helps her into the
+carriage, and rides next it with head uncovered, on the side where his
+lady sits. When they arrive, he dismounts, opens the carriage door, and
+again hands her out. In Austria they generally offer themselves as
+guests to the houses of others. When he has learnt where his lady is to
+dine, he offers himself also as guest, and does this half an hour
+beforehand. When at table, he presents a finger-glass to his love alone,
+even though there may be more distinguished ladies there; he offers, it
+is true, the water to others, but none accept; his lady alone does not
+refuse. Then he places her chair, waits upon and converses with her;
+when she desires to have something to drink, he hands it to her on a
+plate, which he holds under the glass whilst she is drinking; he places
+fresh plates before her and takes the old away, and he always pledges
+her health to his left hand neighbour. After dinner he again hands her
+the finger-glass, for which reason he sits next her; he then removes her
+chair, fetches her gloves, fan, and veil which she had left, and
+presents them with a profound reverence. After the repast is over, the
+hostess takes his lady with her to her room. There also he begs for
+admittance, which is not refused him, and waits upon her in like manner.
+From thence they go to vespers, and then in summer to the Prater, or in
+winter in sledges with torches. This state of things continues for at
+least three months.
+
+"Now when these three months are over, the betrothal is celebrated, and
+the marriage invitations are written. Then the bridegroom makes three
+presents. First a silver casket, wherein are some pairs of silk
+stockings, some pieces of silk stuffs, some pairs of gloves,
+handkerchiefs, twelve fans, ribands, and laces. The second present
+consists of silver ornaments; the third of jewels, bracelets, earrings,
+and pendants of precious stones, or pearls for the neck. He also
+presents a dress to his mistress's maid. Some send every day a new
+present. Then he gives his servant again a new livery, engages more
+servants for himself, and at least one page and two lackeys for his
+future wife. Court ladies of high distinction, who drive with six
+horses, do not bestow presents on their bridegroom, unless it be from
+overflowing liberality; but others present a night-dress to their
+beloved, their portrait in a small casket, and on the marriage day
+linen; six shirts, six collars, six pocket-handkerchiefs, six pairs of
+ruffles, and to every servant a shirt. The bride pays the expenses of
+the eating and drinking at the marriage, and the bridegroom the cost of
+the music.
+
+"On the wedding-day the bridegroom drives, towards evening, in his own
+carriage, or that of an intimate friend, dressed entirely in silver
+brocade, just as the bride is dressed; he wears a wreath of diamonds
+which are put together from the jewels of friends, and afterwards
+returned. Behind him drive all the male wedding guests. He waits in the
+church till the bride comes. Her bridal train is three ells long, borne
+either by a boy of noble birth, or a young lady. The bridegroom goes to
+meet her, helps her out of the carriage and leads her in, and thus they
+are united together in matrimony. The wedding ring is generally of gold
+and silver mixed, and plaited in the form of a laurel wreath; it has a
+precious stone in it, in order to signify that their truth and love
+shall be endless. Then they betake themselves to the marriage house,
+where the feast is to be celebrated. After the meal the men take
+forthwith their swords and mantles, and room is made for the dance, and
+then come the two bridesmen. Each has a burning torch in his hand; they
+make a bow to the bridegroom and the bride, and ask them to dance. Then
+they both dance alone. The nearest relations are next asked, and so on
+all the rest in succession. These dances of honour are performed to the
+sound of trumpets and kettledrums. The cavaliers then lay aside their
+swords and mantles, and all dance together. After the dance the
+relations accompany the bride and bridegroom to their bedroom, there the
+mother commends the bride to her husband with impressive words. Then all
+go out."
+
+Thus did the wealthy noble woo and wed at Vienna, which after the war
+rapidly filled with landed proprietors who thoroughly enjoyed life. New
+families were in possession of the confiscated properties, the Imperial
+generals and faithful councillors had abundantly taken care of
+themselves. A residence in the desolated country was wearisome, and many
+great proprietors had no old family interest in their property. Besides
+the Imperial nobles, sons of German princes and many of the old nobility
+of the Empire thronged to the Imperial city, to seek diversion,
+acquaintances, and fortune at court or in the army.
+
+But in proportion as the devotion of the noble servant to his mistress
+was great, the hope of a happy conjugal union was insecure. And the
+prospect was not more favourable in the families of the great princes of
+the Empire.
+
+The rulers of Germany attained to a comfortable condition, after the
+peace, sooner than others. Whatever could be done by the people, seemed
+to be for their advantage. To the old taste for drinking, hunting, and
+not always very seemly intercourse with women, was now added the
+pleasure of having a body-guard who were drawn up in uniform before
+their castles, and rode by their carriages along the roads. After the
+war every great prince maintained a standing army; the old feudal lords
+of the country had become Generals. It was in this century that the
+great princely families of Germany, the Wettiners, the Hohenzollerns,
+the Brunswickers, and the Wittelsbachers, gained their influential
+position in European politics. Three of them obtained royal thrones,
+those of Poland, Prussia, and England, and the head of the
+Wittelsbachers for many years wore the diadem of the Roman Empire. Each
+of these houses represents a great European dynasty. But however
+different their fortunes may have been, they have also met with a
+retributive fate. At the time of the Reformation, the Imperial throne
+with supreme dominion over Germany was offered to the house of Wettiner;
+the family, divided into two lines, did not listen to the high call. At
+the battle of Linien, in 1547, it lost the leadership. A hundred years
+later, the possibility of founding a powerful house was offered to the
+Wittelsbacher, by the union of the Palatinate with the old Bavarian
+province and Bohemia, which even the Hapsburgers have never attained to.
+But one son of the house killed the other at the Weissen Berge. Only the
+Hapsburgers and the Hohenzollerns have understood how to keep together.
+
+The general misfortune of the German Princes was, that they found little
+in their oppressed subjects to excite awe or regard. For the soul of man
+is most easily fortified against encroaching passions when his worldly
+position makes a strong resistance possible for those who surround him.
+A firm feeling of duty is only formed under the pressure of strong law.
+Whoever overrides it will find it easier to do great things, but
+incomparably more difficult to do permanently what is right.
+
+At an earlier period the life at courts was rough, often wild, now it
+had become frivolous and dissolute. The combination of refined luxury
+with coarse manners, and of strict etiquette with arbitrary will, makes
+many of the characters of that time especially hateful.
+
+The sons of Princes were now better educated. Latin was still the
+language of diplomacy, to that was added Italian and French; and besides
+all knightly arts--in so far as they still existed--military drills, and
+above all, _politesse_, the new art which rendered men and women more
+agreeable and obliging in society. Some knowledge of state affairs was
+not rare, for there were still quarrels with neighbours to be brought
+before the supreme court of judicature and the Imperial Aulic Council,
+and solicitations to his Imperial Majesty, and complaints to the Diet,
+without end or measure. But the person who exercised most quiet power in
+the country was the lawyer, who was generally at the head of the
+administration; and occasionally a power-loving court preacher.
+
+The ladies also of the princely houses had the advantage of some degree
+of instruction; many of them understood Latin, or at least were
+acquainted with Virgil (from a bad translation into German
+Alexandrines), and Boccaccio in the original. Quarrels about rank,
+ceremonials, dress, the love affairs of their husbands, and perhaps
+their own, formed the daily interest of their lives, together with
+trivial intrigues and gossiping: the stronger minded conversed with the
+clergy on cases of conscience, and sought for consolation in their hymn
+book, and occasionally also in their cookery book. But German literature
+was little adapted to ennoble the feelings of women, and such as those
+times did produce, seldom reached them in their elevated position; a
+tasteless court poem, an Italian strophe, and sometimes a thick
+historical or theological quarto sent by a submissive author in hopes of
+receiving a present of money. The marriage of a princess was concluded
+upon reasons of state, and it frequently happened that she was burdened
+from the very first day with a dissolute husband. Undoubtedly not a few
+of them were consigned to their royal vaults with most choice and solemn
+pomp, on whom the sunshine of a deep heartfelt affection had never shone
+during life: the care of their own household, and even that sweetest of
+all cares, the education of their children, was taken from them by the
+new court arrangements. Undoubtedly in many marriages, a good heart made
+up for the deficiency of the education of that time; but scandalous
+occurrences were frequent in the highest families at that period.
+
+The domestic relations of these distinguished families belong also to
+history, and much is very generally known of them. A picture of one of
+these will here be made use of, in order to show that our generation
+have no occasion to lose heart in contemplating it.
+
+When the Imperial party, after the year 1620, persecuted the daughter of
+the King of England, Elizabeth, wife of the Palatine, with satirical
+pictures, they painted the proud princess, as going along the high road
+with three children hanging on by her apron, or, as on the bare ground
+eating pap from an earthenware platter. The second of these children
+obtained, through the Westphalian peace, the eighth Electorate of the
+German Empire. After many vicissitudes of fortune, after drinking the
+bitter cup of banishment, and seeking in vain to recover his territory,
+the new Elector, Karl Ludwig, looked down from the royal castle at
+Heidelberg on the beautiful country, of which only a portion returned
+into the possession of his line. His was not a nature which bore in
+itself the guarantee of peace and happiness: it is true that in his
+family he was considered jovial and good-humoured, but he was also
+irritable, hasty, and passionate, covetous and full of pretension,
+easily influenced, and without energy, inclined to venture rashly on
+deeds of violence, and yet not firm enough to effect anything great. It
+appears that he had derived from the blood of the Stuarts, besides a
+high feeling of his own rank, much of the obstinacy of his ill-fated
+uncle Charles. In the year 1650, he had married Charlotte, Princess of
+Hesse, the daughter of that strong-minded woman, who, as Regent of her
+country, had shown more energy than most men, and whose powerful
+matronly countenance we still contemplate with pleasure, in the portrait
+by Engelhard Schäffler. The mother described her own daughter to the
+Elector as difficult to rule; the Electress was indeed passionate and
+without moderation, and must often have disturbed domestic peace by her
+frowardness and jealousy. A young lady of her court, Marie Susanne Loysa
+von Degenfeld, daughter of one of the partisans of the Thirty years'
+war, a person according to all accounts of great loveliness and much
+gentleness, mixed with firmness, excited a passion in the Elector which
+made him regardless of all considerations. After many angry quarrels he
+divorced his wife and at once married his love, on whom the title of
+"Raugräfin" was bestowed by the Imperial Court. The castoff Electress
+turned in vain to the Emperor Leopold, to effect a reconciliation with
+her husband. This petition is here given according to Lünig, from the
+rolls of the German Empire, 1714.[43]
+
+"We, by the grace of God, Charlotte, Electress, Countess Palatine of the
+Rhine, born Landgravine of Hesse, offer to the most august Prince and
+Sovereign of Sovereigns, Leopold, by the grace of God, father of the
+fatherland, our most dutiful, obedient, and submissive greeting and
+service.
+
+"Although the manifold and weighty business of the Empire with which
+your Imperial Majesty is troubled at this time, might well frighten us
+from disquieting you with our private affairs, yet we presume with
+profound humility to set before your Imperial Majesty our most pressing
+distress, and the mighty injuries inflicted upon us at this time without
+any fault on our part, because it is well known to us that your Imperial
+Majesty is at all times assiduous in helping most graciously the injured
+to their rights.
+
+"It is not, I hope, unknown to your Imperial Majesty that we have, for
+nearly eleven years, been united in matrimony with his Most Serene
+Highness Prince Karl Ludwig, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Elector of the
+Holy Empire. At that time his Princely Highness, in frequent discourse,
+both before and after marriage, promised us by the highest oaths, an
+ever-enduring faith and conjugal love; and we on our part did the like.
+Being then animated by such reciprocal love, we have served his Highness
+in all conjugal obedience to the best of our power, so far as our
+womanly weakness permitted. We have also, by the grace of God, reared
+two young princes and a daughter in all love, so that his Princely
+Highness ought in justice to have abstained from divorcing himself from
+us.
+
+"We submissively beg your Imperial Majesty to understand that, after
+three very severe confinements, we clearly traced by many tokens, no
+slight alienation in the feelings of our lord and husband, which would
+justly have given rise to suspicion in our minds, if our confiding
+spirit had not attributed what was good and laudable to his Princely
+Highness. For when we once, according to princely custom, presented his
+Princely Highness with a beautiful Neapolitan dapple-gray colt with all
+its appurtenances, he said to us: 'My treasure, we henceforth desire no
+such presents, which diminish our treasury;' and the very same day he
+presented the horse to one of the lowest of his nobles. This insult did
+so grieve us that, with weeping eyes, we lamented it to our gentlewoman,
+Maria Susanna von Degenfeld, of whose secret doings we had not at that
+time the slightest idea. She thereupon made answer, 'That if at any time
+she should meet with the like behaviour from her future consort, she
+would refuse all cohabitation with him.' By these words she intended
+nothing else than to incense us against our lord and master. Not long
+after, a ring was purloined from us by the said von Degenfeld out of our
+drawers. This must without doubt have been a concerted plan, for our
+lord and husband had required this ring of us, and when we could not
+find it, his Princely Highness was greatly irritated against us, and
+thus broke out: 'You make me think strange things of you as concerns
+this ring; I had thought you would have taken better care of it.'
+Whereupon we answered, 'Ah! my treasure, foster no evil suspicions
+against me; it has been purloined by some faithless person.' But his
+Princely Highness continued: 'Who may this faithless person be? Perhaps
+some young cavalier, on whose finger you may yourself have placed it.'
+This caused us so much pain, that we were led to speak somewhat severely
+to his Princely Highness, and said, 'No honest Prince would thus
+calumniate me.' Whereupon he replied, 'Who gave you the right to upbraid
+me as a dishonest Prince? If I hear aught further of this kind from you,
+you shall be rewarded with a box on the ear!' Thereupon we did not
+answer a word, but wept bitterly. But this von Degenfeld comforted us
+deceitfully, and spoke thus: 'Make yourself happy, Electoral Highness,
+and be not so much afflicted, it will soon be found again.' By these
+words she then tranquillized us. But not long afterwards a very
+noteworthy Latin epistle was put into our hand by a trusty servant,
+which he had found accidentally in the chamber of our lord and husband,
+the contents of which I cannot forbear enclosing. It is to this effect--
+
+"'To the Most Serene Highness the Elector Palatine Karl Ludwig, Duke of
+Bavaria, _dilecto meo_.
+
+"'I can no longer oppose your Electoral Highness, nor any longer deceive
+you as to my inclinations. _Vicisti jamque tua sum_, I unhappy one,
+
+                "'Maria Susanna, Baronissa a Degenfeld.'
+
+"When, by God's Providence, we got this letter, we forthwith perused the
+same with great consternation; but as we are not much versed in the
+Latin tongue, we despatched the aforesaid trusty servant to the Most
+Noble Lord, Johann Jacob Graf von Eberstein, our dear lord and cousin,
+who was accidentally stopping at Heidelberg, bidding him come to us, and
+beseeching him as a friend and cousin to lend us his aid in the
+interpretation of the said note. This he honestly rendered us. It cannot
+be told what great sorrow took possession of our hearts, when it became
+evident in how unjustifiable and unprincely a way we had been dealt
+with. So distracted, therefore, were we in mind, that we ventured so far
+as to break open the coffer of the afore-mentioned Degenfeld, who was
+not then present, and after earnest search found three abominable
+letters of his Electoral Highness, likewise written in Latin, in which
+he equally assures the Degenfeld of his love.
+
+"Then we could sufficiently see that our lord and husband was minded to
+renounce all truth and love towards us. This we wished at a fitting
+opportunity to forestal, and give his Princely Highness to understand it
+in a covert way.
+
+"It then came to pass accidentally, that a week after, his Serene
+Highness Friedrich, Lord Margrave of Baden, our dearly loved
+brother-in-law and brother, together with his loving lady and wife, our
+especially beloved cousin and sister, came from Durlach to Heidelberg to
+visit us. Now once when we were sitting at table, his Princely Highness
+the Lord Margrave, thus spoke to us: 'Wherefore, my lady sister,
+wherefore so sorrowful?' To which we answered thus: 'My dear lord and
+brother, perhaps there is truly reason for our sorrow.' Whereupon our
+lord and husband turning quite red said, 'There is nothing new in my
+lady and wife being angry without any cause.' We could not then, for our
+honour's sake, leave such a speech unanswered, but replied, 'It is those
+that prefer waiting women to wives who make me angry,' &c. Thereupon our
+lord and husband was quite taken aback, turned pale with anger, and gave
+us, in the presence of the said princely personages, such a severe box
+on the ear, that on account of the vexatious nose-bleeding, brought on
+by this, we were obliged to leave the table. But his Princely Highness
+the Lord Margrave was mightily indignant thereat, and said to our lord
+and master: '_Signore Electore, troppo è questo!_' Whereto our lord and
+husband answered: '_Mio fratello, Signore Marchese, ma cosi ha voluto._'
+But his Princely Highness the Lord Margrave spoke strongly to our lord
+and husband, and said that if he could have supposed his inconsiderate
+speech would have occasioned such discord, he would a thousand times
+rather have been silent; and if our lord and husband did not become
+reconciled to us before sunset, his Princely Highness was firmly
+determined to leave Heidelberg at an early hour on the morrow, without
+bidding him farewell. This worked so with my lord and husband that he
+promised his Princely Highness to pay us a visit, in company with him
+and his wife. This took place after the lapse of two hours, when our
+husband thus addressed us in our chamber: 'Is my treasure still angry
+with me?' We answered: 'I assure you, my treasure, that what happened at
+table gave me sufficient reason to be angry; but on account of the
+presence of my beloved lord and brother, and my lady and sister, to whom
+our discord is displeasing, I will forgive it with all my heart.'
+Thereupon our lord and master gave us his hand, and said, with a loving
+kiss, 'This shall wipe out my past delinquency,' after which they
+departed from our chamber. That night, however, we did not appear at
+supper, but sent our bedchamber woman and lord steward to make our
+excuses, as by reason of the necessary preparation of certain writings
+we could not appear. But as our husband feared we might disclose to our
+lord and brother what had before passed betwixt us, he came at ten
+o'clock in the evening, accompanied by two pages, to my chamber, and did
+there knock at the door. Now when we came to the door and found his
+Princely Highness, we were not a little amazed at this unhoped-for
+visit, and said: 'Why does my treasure visit us so late?' Thereupon his
+Princely Highness answered kindly, and sent back both the pages. But as
+at that moment those unseemly letters recurred to our memory, and as the
+consideration that we were of such high princely parentage, made it
+impossible to bear silently with such impropriety, we said: 'My lord and
+husband, I am quite resolved to abide alone till your Princely Highness
+resolves to deliver up a certain person into my hands, with full powers
+to punish the same for her past wickedness.' Our lord and husband
+answered: 'I should be glad at last to know who this person is; but I
+imagine the offence is not so great as your Princely Highness interprets
+it.' But we answered further: 'The offence is so great that the person
+can only atone for it with their blood.' 'Nay, my treasure,' said our
+husband, 'that verdict is too severe.' But we were minded to reveal
+fully to his Princely Highness the cause of our long affliction; we
+therefore took out of our pocket the letter which our servant had
+brought, and began to read it in an audible voice. Hereupon our lord and
+husband laughed and said: 'All a mere jest; my treasure knows right well
+that the Fräulein von Degenfeld has from her youth been assiduous in
+studying the Latin tongue, therefore I wished to try whether she was
+sufficiently versed in it, to answer in the aforesaid language a note
+prepared by me for the purpose. This she executed in the like jesting
+way; and we are determined to support her on account of her innocence.'
+We did not choose to wrangle with his Princely Highness, but said: 'We
+have long known how to distinguish between jest and earnest. If it
+please my treasure to furnish me with full proof that it was a jest I
+will gladly be content.' Hereupon our lord and husband answered: 'Why is
+so much proof required? Your Princely Highness is a woman, and has
+better means of examining the innocence of Degenfeld than I, in whom it
+would not be quite seemly. But I see well that innocent lady has lost
+all grace and favour with you. As, however, it is already very late, I
+wish my treasure to inform me whether it please her to be reconciled
+with me here?' We answered to this: 'I feel myself bound by virtue of my
+once given troth not to gainsay you in this.' But our lord and husband,
+with a hearty embrace, protested by all that was noble and holy, that,
+with the exception of this note, he had not trespassed against us, and
+promised yet once more, never henceforth to misbehave towards us, if we,
+on the other hand, would again render due obedience to his Princely
+Highness. All this we promised, hoping henceforth to live in peaceful
+wedlock, which perhaps might have come to pass if the devil had not sown
+his tares.
+
+"For, three days after, when his Serene Highness the Lord Margrave of
+Baden had departed, a patent came to Heidelberg from your Imperial
+Majesty's illustrious Lord Father, Ferdinand of ever-blessed memory,
+whereby our lord and husband was summoned to the Imperial Diet at
+Ratisbon, whereto we with our lord and husband betook ourselves at the
+appointed time.
+
+"We deem it unnecessary to relate what great contumely we there suffered
+from our lord and husband, as your Imperial Majesty beheld it for the
+most part with your own eyes. This caused us to tarry yet a long time at
+Ratisbon after the departure of his Princely Highness. But when, after
+the lapse of a few weeks, we returned again to Heidelberg, we signified
+in a friendly way through one of the nobles to our lord and husband,
+that we were minded to greet his Princely Highness. But our lord and
+husband said with great displeasure to the said nobleman: 'Tell the bold
+Landgravine,' thus it pleased his Princely Highness to call us, 'I will
+have nothing to do with any one so pernicious to the country.'
+
+"Now when this was notified to us we did not venture to accost his
+Princely Highness, but straightway went through the adjoining saloon to
+our chamber. But scarcely had we entered therein, when forty of the
+Swiss guard had already established themselves in our antechamber, who
+were commanded to keep guard over us, and not let us go out till they
+received farther orders from his Princely Highness.
+
+"Then did we learn with great anguish of heart that we, a freeborn
+princess, had been made a prisoner. We knew not what to do, for we could
+not write to our lord brother the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, because we
+had no confidential person left to us whom we could despatch. We had
+thus no opportunity of effecting anything, for whenever our servants
+came to or went from us, they were always searched by the guard. On this
+account we resolved to write ourselves to our lord and husband, and to
+entreat his Princely Highness to release us from this most intolerable
+durance. We drew up therefore the following petition to his Princely
+Highness, and sent the same by a noble youth to his Princely Highness
+while at table.
+
+
+"'Most Serene Highness, and dear Lord.
+
+"'How great annoyance I have suffered during the time which it has
+pleased your Princely Highness to place a prodigious garrison before my
+chamber, is not to be described. It moves me to remind your Princely
+Highness, that if you so behave to me, a poor princess, you will have to
+answer for it before God and the whole world. It would be well moreover
+to bethink you, whether it is praiseworthy to keep guard over one single
+weak woman, with forty well-armed halberdiers, which might be
+sufficiently accomplished by two or three. I cannot imagine what offence
+I have committed to deserve such harsh procedure. I therefore entreat
+your Princely Highness, for God's sake to set me at liberty. For during
+this time I have not been able to sleep three hours by reason of the
+noisy blustering and clatter of these indiscreet Swiss.
+
+                "'Your Princely Highness's faithful unto death,
+
+                            "'Charlotta Palatine of the Rhine.'
+
+
+"After our husband had read this writing, he commanded that all the
+Swiss saving four should be withdrawn, which was done forthwith, to our
+great content. But his Princely Highness sent us a letter, to the
+following tenour.
+
+
+"'To Charlotta, born Landgravine of Hesse.
+
+"'It surprises me much that you should venture to ask why I have put you
+under surveillance. You cannot deny that on my return from Ratisbon to
+Heidelberg, I urgently commanded you to follow me without fail the next
+day. But you did not do so till some weeks later, and during this period
+you spent so much money, that our subjects, who were sufficiently
+ruined without this, will for a long time have much, to endure. You also
+know well how you disgraced me at Ratisbon by your hunting parties, and
+how--because I in my just indignation, on account of your past frivolity
+of conduct and wanton indecorum of dress in the presence of the
+assembled Diet, have put you only under slight restraint--you have for
+the past half-year refused to live with me as a wife. This culpable
+conduct has entirely released me from all bonds of wedlock; and I am
+fully resolved to separate myself completely from you by a public act.
+This, my purpose, has moved me to assure myself of your person, that you
+may not as a fugitive, by exasperating your brother and other friends,
+bring evil on my country. Finally, if you will keep quiet and retired,
+and will consent to the divorce, I promise you on my Electoral faith,
+that I will not only entirely free you from restraint, but will assign
+you an income which will enable you to maintain yourself right royally.
+Thus saying, and expecting a decisive declaration from you,
+
+                            "'I remain your loving cousin,
+
+                                              "'The Elector.'
+
+
+"When this writing was put into our hands, we were in such great
+affliction we did not know how to decide. At last we sent a noble
+bedchamber woman to our lord and husband, commanding her to signify to
+his Princely Highness that we were disposed to consent willingly to all
+his desires, except as concerning the divorce. For this, being an affair
+of conscience, must be well considered. I begged him therefore for a
+little time for deliberation. Undoubtedly if his Princely Highness
+should please to accomplish a divorce by his own power, we were much too
+weak to hinder him. But we thought we had never given his Princely
+Highness any sufficient reason for repudiating us.
+
+"The bedchamber woman delivered this in the best way she could. But our
+lord and husband thus answered: 'Fair lady, tell your mistress we are
+now minded to give her henceforth more freedom, and to withdraw the four
+Swiss entirely from her apartment. It shall also be permitted to her to
+walk below in the garden if agreeable to her; and she may rest assured
+that I will find means to content her, but she must not think of writing
+to her lord brother concerning our purposes. She must also agree to the
+divorce, for I am minded to marry another.'
+
+"The noble maiden had scarcely given us this answer, when the four Swiss
+were with all speed withdrawn from our apartment, and we went the same
+evening to breathe the fresh air in the garden. The day following our
+lord and husband journeyed to the castle at Ladenburg. In the evening,
+about five o'clock, the noble Count von Eberstein, our loving lord and
+cousin, came to us. He told us that the von Degenfeld had been
+sojourning already three months at the Castle of Ladenburg, and that our
+lord and husband had betaken himself thither every week during our
+absence; nay he had caused a special road to be made that he might the
+sooner reach it. Then we first discovered what had been the aim of our
+lord and husband, and we lamented our misfortune with many tears.
+
+"A week after, our lord and husband sent us a note, the contents of
+which ran literally thus:--
+
+"'Most Serene Highness,
+
+"'I wish to inform your Highness in a few words, that in consequence of
+our afore-mentioned divorce, I have again engaged myself in marriage
+with the noble Lady, Marie Susanna von Degenfeld. I therefore hope that
+your Highness will be therewith content, as it cannot now be altered.
+For I have already sent for our dear and trusty Samuel Heyland, preacher
+of the Lutheran community of our city of Heidelberg, to unite us in
+Christian wedlock. But as I know well that your Highness has begotten me
+three royal children, it becomes me to furnish your Highness with a
+princely allowance for the rest of your life. Therefore we grant unto
+your Highness the power to make use at your good pleasure of the half of
+the castle of Heidelberg, and you may receive from our lord treasurer
+sufficient money for your maintenance; only you must reconcile yourself
+to my present wife, and inflict no injury upon her, that I may not have
+occasion to withdraw my favour from your Highness.
+
+"'I remain your Highness's graciously until death,
+
+                            "'Your Highness's Elector.
+
+"'Ladenburg, April 15, 1652.'
+
+
+"My answer was as follows:--
+
+
+"'Most august Prince and high-born Lord,
+
+"'From your Princely Highness's letter I have learnt with the greatest
+consternation that your Princely Highness is minded now to cast me off
+entirely, and never more to recognize me as your wife. I will commend my
+cause, woeful as it is, to God, the righteous judge. I will henceforth
+consider myself as a widow; whose husband still lives, led astray by a
+wanton worthless person, and drawn away from his lawful wife.
+
+"'For the ample maintenance which your Princely Highness has ordered for
+me, I render you hearty thanks. I will also be careful so to behave
+myself to your Princely Highness's concubine that she shall have no
+cause to complain. Further, a nobleman from Stuttgart is here, who
+reports that in ten days his Serene Highness Prince Eberhard von
+Würtemberg, our dearly beloved lord cousin and brother, together with
+the lady his wife, are coming to visit us at Heidelberg. So your
+Princely Highness will undoubtedly come here, and arrange that they
+shall have right princely accommodation.
+
+"'Datum Heidelberg, the 16th of April, 1657.
+
+     "'Your Princely Highness's until death, but now deeply afflicted
+         lawful Electress of the Rhine.'
+
+
+"After three days our lord and husband returned, bringing with him the
+von Degenfeld, under the escort of a hundred newly enlisted dragoons.
+Then indeed were we cut to the heart when we saw our former
+waiting-woman usurping our place and presented to every one as
+Electress, yet could not venture to say the least word against her. We
+kept a separate table, and had our own servants, and a body-guard of
+twenty cuirassiers appointed for our own selves.
+
+"At last we bethought us we would once more endeavour to mollify our
+lord and husband. We sent for the two Princes our sons, and the Princess
+our daughter, dressed ourselves and the children in our best, and waited
+near the hall-door till our lord and husband rose from dinner and came
+out. Then we, together with our beloved children, prostrated ourselves
+before his Princely Highness, hoping thereby to mollify him. For if his
+Princely Highness would not recognize us as his lawful wife, our dearly
+beloved children after his death might be considered as bastards.
+
+"Our children wept aloud, as did also the whole surrounding court, for
+it would have melted a heart of stone. Our lord and husband let us thus
+kneel, and stood in deep thought, not knowing at the moment what to say.
+His Princely Highness's eyes were filled with tears. Meanwhile the
+mistress von Degenfeld came from within, saw us thus kneeling, and spoke
+audaciously to our lord and husband. '_Signore Elettore, servate la
+parola di promessa._' At these words our lord and husband clasped his
+hands over his head, and went away sighing. We however could no longer
+look over such iniquity, but ran into our chamber and seized a loaded
+pistol, determined to send a ball through the heart of this wanton,
+godless disturber of conjugal rights, this von Degenfeld. But when we
+came to her, and were on the point of discharging the pistol, it was
+taken away from us by the noble Count and Lord Wolf Julius von
+Hohenlohe, and discharged out of a window. But when our lord and husband
+heard this shot, he ran hastily out of his apartment, and asked who had
+fired. We said: 'Ah, dear treasure, I did it, with the intention of
+revenging your Princely Highness's honour on this monster.' But our lord
+and husband replied: 'Charlotta, Charlotta, cease these doings, if you
+would not be sent away forthwith from hence.' But we went off without
+making reply.
+
+"Four days after a postilion came with a report that his Serene Highness
+of Würtemberg would arrive within two hours. Thereupon our lord and
+husband sent to notify to us that his Princely Highness, with Mistress
+von Degenfeld, would go to meet the said Lord Duke. But we were to
+receive his Princely Highness at the castle. And thus it was. Three days
+were spent in all kinds of pastimes, in honour of the said Lord Duke,
+but we lived neglected, and were not once asked to dinner,
+notwithstanding the urgent entreaties of our much-loved lord and brother
+Duke Eberhard and his wife.
+
+"At last we caused a repast to be prepared in our apartment, and invited
+thereto both these princely personages, as also our lord and husband,
+and our eldest son Prince Karolus. All these came except our lord and
+husband, who indeed at the intercession of the Duke would have been
+willing to come. But his Princely Highness was prevented by Mistress von
+Degenfeld, who, as we afterwards learnt, urged his Princely Highness
+with hard words, saying, she would no longer allow his Princely Highness
+to live with her, if he went to us.
+
+"Our lord and husband said also to our Prince Karolus: 'Go thither and
+help your mother to entertain the guests, and tell her from me, that at
+this present I am prevented from visiting her by ill health, but by
+God's providence might be enabled to do so another time.'
+
+"We discoursed during the repast with both the Princely personages on
+the best way of dealing with our affairs, but their Princely Highnesses
+advised us not to undertake anything against the life of this von
+Degenfeld, since we might thereby make our evil fate worse. Our lord
+brother, Duke Eberhard, took our hand, and promised that his Princely
+Highness would exert himself to the utmost to unite us again, but his
+Princely Highness would especially, immediately on his return home,
+write urgently to his vassal, Gustavus von Degenfeld, brother of the
+said Archmistress, to require the return of his sister home. If he did
+not do this, he would take his feoff from him, and bestow it on another.
+Meanwhile I was to supplicate your Imperial Majesty, most humbly, to
+move in this matter, and unite us again by your most gracious mediation.
+
+"We cannot refrain also from adding that our lord and husband has not in
+any other way injured us by word or deed these three years, and we hope
+his Princely Highness will favourably receive such Imperial
+intercession, and again be gracious to us, a much oppressed and
+afflicted Princess, and not prostrate us entirely under this heavy
+cross.
+
+"Therefore we most humbly submit ourselves, praying fervently to God
+Almighty that He may grant your Imperial Majesty continual health, long
+life, a happy reign, victory over your enemies, and all prosperity.
+
+"Datum Heidelberg, July 26, 1661. Your Imperial Majesty's most humble
+and obedient servant, Charlotta Countess Palatine of the Rhine, born
+Landgravine of Hesse."
+
+
+Here the letter closes. We can scarcely feel any warm sympathy with
+either of the contending parties. The husband appears thoroughly
+unworthy: we find vulgar threats, violence, and ill-usage, a perfidious
+attempt to deceive his wife, abject baseness in the evening visit, and
+intimidation by the clash of arms, and worse than all, was the manner of
+his divorce and re-marriage. The Church constitution of the Protestants
+remained an unfinished edifice, the rulers were but too much inclined to
+give themselves dispensations and licences as superior bishops. And of
+the Electress also! What can we say? How gladly would we sympathize with
+the deeply wounded wife and mother; but she appears at best not very
+lovable; she also was violent, insolent, strong in pouting, complaining,
+and weak at the moment when everything depended on her defence of her
+just rights. To say nothing of the remarkable scene at the Diet, her
+disobedience in remaining behind, gave the Elector, at all events
+according to the ideas of that time, a right to think of divorce. Not
+all that is most repugnant in this miserable history should be laid to
+the charge of the individuals; much of what offends us was then usual.
+The respect for women was small, the familiar intercourse of the camp
+was a jealously guarded right of royal ladies, the evening visit of the
+husband, an honour which was not concealed from the court. But however
+much may be laid to the account of the manners of the times, there still
+remains so much individual imperfection as to leave a painful impression
+on the reader.
+
+The Electress outlived both her husband and her rival. Soon after this
+letter, by the mediation of the Brandenburg court a contract of
+separation was concluded by the married couple, which assured to the
+Electress a yearly income of eight thousand thalers, with the right of
+spending it where she pleased. She resided afterwards at Cassel, and
+lived to see her rival give birth to fourteen children. Later she took
+the most benevolent interest in these children; and her own daughter,
+the celebrated Charlotte Elizabeth Duchess of Orleans, mother of the
+Regent of France, was bound by ties of the most intimate friendship with
+one of the young Raugravines. We may thank this female friendship for
+the beautiful letters of the Princess Charlotte Elizabeth, which are not
+only important for the history of that period, but also valuable, as
+showing how a prudent, intellectual and honourable German lady remained
+uncorrupted in the impure atmosphere of a Parisian court. The mother of
+the profligate Regent of France was all her life long a true German.
+She speaks with warm affection of her father, and with filial respect of
+her mother.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+
+  OF THE HOMES OF GERMAN CITIZENS. (1675-1681-1683.)
+
+
+While foreign guests, courtesy and ceremonial were doing their best to
+restrain the aftergrowth of a lawless time in the upper classes, the
+German citizen was aided by the innate character of his nation, its need
+of order and discipline, its industry and feeling of duty. The marriage
+tie and family life, his home and his employment were restored to him as
+of old. The wooing still proceeded after the old German fashion, the
+matrimonial agent still played his part, and the betrothal presents of
+the bride and bridegroom were still recorded with their accurate worth
+in money. Nay, the wooing had become still more formal, even the mode of
+expression was prescribed. The lover had to think over his address to
+the maiden carefully; where his own inventive powers were deficient, he
+was assisted by the indispensable compliment book, the treasured morsel
+of the library. The same style was adopted by the modest young lady;
+even where the marriage had been settled for her, it was considered
+desirable that she should not at once consent; nay, the strictest
+decorum required that she should at first refuse, or at least ask time
+for consideration. Then the lover made his addresses a little more
+ardent, in rather a higher strain, and then the interdict was withdrawn,
+and she was permitted to say, Yes. But they were not pedants, they felt
+that long speeches in these cases were pedantic, and that both parties
+who were contemplating matrimony, should express themselves in few
+words; the lover had to introduce his proposal somewhat thus:
+"Mademoiselle! Forgive me kindly, I pray you, for taking a liberty of
+which I myself am ashamed; yet my confidence in your kindness emboldens
+me so much, that I cannot refrain from acquainting you with the
+resolution I have taken, of changing my present condition," &c. Then the
+well-conducted young lady had to answer after this fashion: "Monsieur! I
+can hardly believe that what it has pleased you to propose to me is
+spoken in earnest, for I well know how little charm I possess to please
+so agreeable a person," &c. It had all been previously arranged by the
+matrimonial agent, they both knew what would be the result, but decorum
+required of the citizen, as courtesy did of the noble, that he should
+openly express his wishes by a proceeding which should make his
+resolution irrevocable. Of the agitation of the man, or the
+heart-beating of the maiden, we find nothing recorded; we hope that both
+were happy, when they had gone through the trying scene, he without
+faltering, she without an outburst of tears.
+
+In the year 1644, Friedrich Lucä, son of a professor at the Gymnasium,
+was born in the capital of the Silesian principality of Brieg. He
+studied as a Calvinist, first in Heidelberg, then in the Netherlands and
+Frankfort on the Oder, returned after many travels and adventures to his
+native city, became the court preacher at Brieg, and, after the death of
+the last Piasten Duke at Liegnitz, and the occupation of the country by
+the Austrians, was appointed pastor and court preacher at Cassel. He
+died after an active life, rich in honours, in 1708. As a copious
+historical writer, he was appreciated, but also severely criticised by
+his contemporaries. He corresponded with Leibnitz, and some interesting
+letters to him from that great man are still preserved to us. He wrote
+also an autobiography, which has been piously preserved in his family
+for five generations, and was published by one of his descendants. ('The
+Chronicle of Friedrich Lucä. A picture of the time, and its manners,'
+published by Dr. Friedrich Lucä. Frankfort a. M. Brönner, 1854.) We will
+here give Friedrich Lucä's account of his wooing. This event, so replete
+with excitement, took place the year he was preacher at Liegnitz.
+
+"Meanwhile, when my mind was least intent on thoughts of matrimony, and
+the other proposals made to me had been unheeded, a foreign lady,
+Elizabeth Mercer, whom I had never seen or heard of all my life long,
+made known to me her intention of receiving the holy sacrament from me
+privately, as she could not wait till it was again publicly given, it
+having been so only a short time before. The said lady had come hither
+with the noble General Schlepusch and his most dear wife, from Bremen,
+and resided at their noble country mansion Klein-Polewitz, a mile and a
+half from Liegnitz.
+
+"On Sunday, the maiden presented herself at divine service, and after
+the performance of the same, came from the church to my house, and the
+holy communion being devoutly concluded, I took occasion to discourse
+with her concerning the condition of the Church at Bremen, as also to
+thank her for two capons which she had sent me for my kitchen, and then
+I dismissed her with the Lord's blessing. In this my first interview
+however with the maiden, I had not only perceived in her a refined and
+seemly demeanour towards me, and discovered a beautiful conformity of
+mind with mine, but I found in the effervescence of my feelings, and
+emotions of my heart, an evident token that the spirit of love had been
+somehow remarkably busy with me, for during my whole life I had never
+experienced such an ardent affection for any maiden.
+
+"This my heartfelt but chaste love, I concealed firmly within my breast,
+and let no living soul know aught concerning it. The thought of this
+maiden accompanied me every evening to my rest, and rose up with me in
+the morning. Sometimes I spoke of her to my housekeeper, who was a
+well-bred and discreet woman, and she, without adverting to the motive
+of my discourse, extolled the maiden highly to me, and the like did also
+my sexton. I tormented myself now with secret love thoughts for a length
+of time, but at last spoke out my mind, thinking to myself: 'Why should
+thy soul afflict itself fruitlessly concerning a stranger maiden, who
+will again leave the country, and who will never fall to thy lot?'
+
+"Half a year after, the good maiden Mercer had entirely passed from my
+remembrance, but the already forgotten maiden sent me an amiable
+greeting through the page of the Lord Baron Schlepusch, and signified to
+me that she was minded to communicate again. This message renewed the
+old wounds of my heart, and therefore I made inquiries of the page at
+some length concerning the maiden, with respect to one thing and
+another; but could learn little or nothing from him. I then sent an
+invitation to dinner on the Sunday through my sexton, to the Mistress
+Mercer, but this she did not accept, excusing herself by saying that
+she was accustomed to fast the whole of the day on which she
+communicated. Thus on Sunday, the maiden, all unconscious of my loving
+thoughts, came after church to my house. I gave her then, as before, the
+communion, and discoursed with her to the same effect on all kinds of
+subjects, to give her thereby some diversion. I would gladly in such
+discourse have learnt some particulars as to whether she were noble, and
+would like to remain in Silesia, but I could not ask such things this
+time. After a while the maiden rose to leave my house; and as she
+imagined I had a spouse, commended herself to her. I explained to her
+forthwith that I was a bachelor, having no wife. During this discourse,
+my sexton as well as my housekeeper were present, and to them, as to
+myself, the demeanour of the maiden had always given the greatest
+contentment, yet they did not fathom my intent.
+
+"Now did my trouble begin again. After maturely reflecting upon the
+matter, I could think of no means whereby I might learn the lineage and
+circumstances of the maiden, whom I always looked upon as a noble
+person, for I did not deem it expedient to open myself to any one.
+Meanwhile, I met one day, Herr Tobias Pirner, the pastor at Nickelstadt,
+a pious, honourable, and upright man, although of the Lutheran
+confession. Now as I knew that the wife of General Schlepusch, whose
+husband had lately died and been buried with great pomp in the church at
+Liegnitz, went every Sunday, together with the maiden, to attend divine
+service in the Lutheran church at Nickelstadt, I begged of this Herr
+Pirner, in a way that made it in no wise remarkable on my part, to
+inquire concerning the lineage and other circumstances of the Mistress
+Mercer. He undertook this, and promised me the following week a report
+thereupon. Herr Pirner faithfully fulfilled his engagement, and at the
+end of the week reported to me in _optima forma_, what he had learnt
+from the _Frau Generalin_. Mistress Mercer was the daughter of Mr.
+Balthaser Mercer, formerly parliamentary assessor at Edinburgh, in
+Scotland, who had many times been sent to England by King Charles I. on
+weighty commissions, and once on a mission to Hamburg, where he was
+decorated with a golden medal of honour. Her mother, also called
+Elizabeth, was of noble lineage, born a Kennewy of Scotland. When in
+1644 perilous troubles broke forth in England, her honoured father and
+also her brother, the court preacher Robert Mercer, as they had been
+favourites of the decapitated King, fled the kingdom with the whole
+family, from fear of Cromwell and his party; he went with all belonging
+to him to Bremen, where he lived on his own means, which were pretty
+considerable, till his happy end in 1650, leaving his widow, a pious,
+godly matron, with three sons and three daughters. The sons had gone
+forth into the world, one to India, another to the Canary Islands; of
+the daughters the eldest was married in London to a nephew of Cromwell,
+of the noble family of Cleipold, and the youngest to a merchant named
+Uckermann at Wanfried in Hess, the second was my love. In the year 1660
+her lady mother also died in Bremen, and was laid beside her honoured
+father in the church of St. Stephen, after which Mistress Elizabeth had
+lived for a while with the widow of Herr Doctor Schnellen. Meanwhile she
+became acquainted with the _Frau_ Schlepusch, who lived at her property
+Schönbeck, near Bremen, and when soon after, the General Schlepusch and
+his wife departed for Silesia, they took her with them as a playfellow
+for their young daughter, to Klein-Polewitz, where she was always held
+in good esteem.
+
+"This report and intelligence increased the ardour of my love for her,
+especially as I now knew that she was indeed of distinguished family,
+but not of noble extraction, and also because Herr Pirner had highly
+commended the maiden on account of her godly behaviour, piety, prudence,
+and many domestic qualities; and the _Frau Generalin_ had no hesitation
+in trusting her with the whole conduct of the household, during her many
+journeys to and fro. Now my whole heart being filled to overflowing with
+a stream of chaste love, I poured it out for the first time to this
+honourable man, and revealed to his discretion what else I would not
+have disclosed to any man in the whole world, namely, that if it were
+possible, and provided it were the will of God, I desired to make
+Mistress Mercer my wife, and I begged of him to lend me his faithful aid
+in this important affair, and help to promote my good purpose.
+
+"The good man was willing to esteem it the greatest honour to perform
+this service for me; he devoted his heart to the work, and gave
+expression to my intentions, first to the _Frau Generalin_. Meanwhile I
+exchanged letters with him, and soon entertained good hopes. _In summa_,
+the affair advanced in a short time in the most satisfactory manner, so
+that nothing remained but for me to visit her in person. One Monday
+morning, having first sought aid of the Lord, I proceeded on horseback
+to Nickelstadt, called for the Herr Pirner there, and went with him to
+Klein-Polewitz, which lay about a quarter of a mile from thence. The
+son-in-law of the _Frau Generalin_, Herr Heinrich von Poser, the royal
+receiver-general of taxes in the principality of Jauer and Schweidnitz,
+received us in the baronial mansion, conducted us with great politeness
+to the dining-room, where he entertained us with various discourse, like
+a highly-talented and well-educated cavalier. Soon afterwards the _Frau
+Generalin_ sent for me to her room, and welcomed me with much civility,
+receiving my compliments in return most favourably. My proposals
+contented her right well, and she gave me good hope that my desires
+would meet with a happy issue. In the mean time the table was spread,
+and the _Frau Generalin_ with her maiden daughter, and Herr von Poser
+with his spouse, made their appearance, followed by good Mistress
+Mercer, who received me most courteously. During dinner every variety of
+lively discourse was carried on, and my love was the true centre to
+which all were attracted. When dinner was ended, the whole company
+absented themselves, and left me and my love alone in the dining-room.
+On this occasion I opened my heart to her, and begged for her sympathy,
+hoping she might in some degree reciprocate my chaste love, and allow
+herself to be persuaded, under God's providence, to be united with me in
+wedlock. Now as generally in love affairs a maiden's No is as good as
+Yes, so I considered my love's first uttered No as Yes, and was not
+thereby alarmed, but pursued my intent. Meanwhile, however, the _Frau
+Generalin_ and the Herr von Poser passed to and fro, and teased us poor
+lovers with polite jests. At last our love could no longer hide itself
+under compliments, but burst forth like the moon from behind dark
+clouds, and we exclaimed, 'Yes, I am thine, and thou art mine!' And now
+we called together the _Frau Generalin_, the Herr Poser, and he who was
+my rightful wooer, who then, as assistants and witnesses, confirmed our
+verbal Yes, by joining together our hands. As a pledge of my affection,
+I hereupon presented my love with a small Bible handsomely embossed with
+silver, and a ring with ten diamonds, which had been made for me at
+Breslau for fifty-three imperial thalers. But my treasure entered into a
+contest of love with me, presenting me with a ring with one diamond,
+which, on account of its size, was estimated at ninety imperial thalers.
+Now when the affair had in such wise come to an arrangement, we sat down
+again to table in the evening, and supped together with gladness of
+heart, till at nightfall I and Herr Pirner were conducted to two
+comfortable bedchambers. The following morning I expressed to _Frau
+Generalin_ my thankfulness for all the honour she had shown me, took
+leave of my love and all present, and returned with Herr Pirner to
+Nickelstadt, and from thence back to Liegnitz. From there I corresponded
+weekly with my love, visited her every Sunday after the performance of
+divine service, at Polewitz; treated her each time with a special
+present, and finally fixed with her upon St. Elizabeth's day, namely the
+19th of November, 1675, for the conclusion of our nuptials.
+
+"After this fashion did our courtship continue almost five weeks; then
+as the appointed nuptial day was approaching, and everything necessary
+had been procured, and the wedding guests invited, and more especially
+as my former colleague at Brieg, Herr Dares, whom I had requested to
+unite us, had arrived at Klein-Polewitz, the _Frau Generalin_ sent two
+coaches, the one with six, the other with four horses, to Liegnitz to
+fetch me and my guests; but as these coaches could not bring all, the
+Captain General, Herr von Schweinichen lent me one, item the Abbess of
+Nonnenklosters, item the city councillor, nay one with four horses,
+together with certain calèches, whereupon, by God's will, I with my
+guests repaired to Polewitz. After the marriage sermon, in which Herr
+Dares introduced the names Friedrich and Elizabeth very ingeniously and
+emblematically, the wedding took place by the light of burning torches,
+about six o'clock in the evening in the large dining-room, whereunto I
+was conducted by the Royal Councillors Herr Kurchen and Herr Caspar
+Braun, and my love by Herr von Poser and Herr von Eicke, brother to the
+_Frau Generalin_. Before the wedding, Fräulein von Schlepusch had
+presented me with the wreath, and I had given her in return a beautiful
+gold ring. As soon as the marriage was completed we sat down to supper,
+which had been provided by my love at our cost, and were all very blithe
+and merry. In such fashion did we entertain our guests for the space of
+three days with the greatest gaiety and contentment; and it all ended in
+confidential union and harmony. On the fourth day, accompanied by Herr
+Rath Knichen and his wife, I brought home my love to Liegnitz in the
+coach of the _Frau Generalin_, drawn by six horses."
+
+Here we conclude the narrative of the happy husband; he had won by his
+wooing a most excellent housewife. In the midst of flowery expressions
+the reader will perhaps discern here the deep emotions of an honourable
+heart.
+
+But the mode of expressing the feelings of the heart was altered. When a
+century before, Felix Platter related the beginning of his love for his
+maiden, he expresses his feeling in these simple words: "I began to love
+her much;" Lucä, on the other hand, already expresses himself thus:
+"That the stream of chaste love filled his heart to overflowing." The
+bride of the Glauburger still decorously addressed her bridegroom in her
+letters as "Dearly beloved Junker;" but now in a tender epistle from a
+wife to her husband, she accosts him as "Most beautiful angel." In other
+European nations also, we find the same false refinement; with them also
+the finest feelings were overloaded with ornament. Through the foreign
+and classical poets this style had been brought into Germany, partly a
+bad kind of renaissance, which had originated in an unskilful imitation
+of the ancients. But nevertheless it satisfied a real need of the heart;
+men wished to raise themselves and those they loved, out of the common
+realities of life into a purer atmosphere: as angels, they placed them
+in the golden halo of the Christian heaven; as goddesses, in the ancient
+Olympus; as Chloe, in the sweet perfumed air of the Idylls. In the same
+childish effort to make themselves honourable, dignified, and great,
+they wore peruques, introduced ridiculous titles, believed in the
+philosopher's stone, and entered into secret societies; and whoever
+would write a history of the German mind might well call this a period
+of ardent aspirations. These aspirations were not altogether estimable,
+by turns they became vague, childish, fanatical, stupid, sentimental,
+and at last dissolute; but beneath might always be discovered the
+feeling that there was something wanting in German life. Was it a higher
+morality? Was it gaiety? Perhaps it was the grace of God? The beautiful
+or the frivolous? Or perhaps that was wanting to the people, which the
+princes had long possessed, political life. With the broken window-panes
+of the Thirty years' war, and the choice phrases of the young officers
+who banqueted in the tent of General Hatzfeld, this period of aspiration
+began; it reached its highest point in the fine minds which gathered
+round Goethe, and in the brothers who embraced in the east, and it ended
+perhaps with the war of freedom, or amidst the alarms of 1848.
+
+The home life of the respectable citizen of the seventeenth century was
+as strictly regulated as was his wooing, prudent and circumspect, even
+in the most minute particulars. His energies were occupied in strenuous
+labour from morning to evening, which afforded him a secret
+satisfaction. Thoughtful and meditative, the artisan sat over his work,
+and sought to derive pleasure from the labour of his hands. The workman
+was still full of anxiety, but the beautiful product of his hands was
+precious to him. Most of the great inventions of modern times were
+thought out in the workshops of German citizens, though they may indeed
+sometimes have been first brought into practical use in foreign
+countries. Scarcely was the war ended when the workshops were again in
+full activity, the hammer sounded, the weavers' shuttle flew, the joiner
+sought to collect beautiful veined woods, in order to inlay wardrobes
+and writing-tables with ornamental arabesques. Even the poor little
+scribe began again to enjoy the use of his pen; he encircled his
+characters with beautiful flourishes, and looked with heartfelt pride
+on his far-famed Saxon _ductus_. The scholar also was occupied
+incessantly with thick quartos; but the full bloom of German literature
+had not yet arrived. Everywhere, indeed, interest was aroused in
+collecting materials and details, and the industry and knowledge of
+individuals appears prodigious. But they knew not how to work out these
+details, it was pre-eminently a period of collection. Historical
+documents, the legal usages of nations, the old works of theologians,
+the lives of the saints, and stores of words of all languages were
+compiled in massive works, the inquiring mind lost itself in the
+insignificant, without comprehending how to give life to individual
+learning. It wrote upon antique ink-horns and shoes it reckoned
+accurately the length and breadth of Noah's ark, and examined
+conscientiously the length of the spear of the old Landsknecht Goliah.
+Thus we find that industry did not obtain the full benefit of its
+labour; yet it assisted much in training the genius of our great
+astronomer Leibnitz; it also helped to give an ideal purpose to man, a
+spirit for which he might live.
+
+The war had inflicted much injury on the artisan, and it was first in
+domestic life that he began to recover from the effects of it. The
+weaker minds withdrew entirely into their homes, for there was little
+satisfaction in public life, and their means of defence were diminished.
+There was now peace, and the old gates of the battered city walls grated
+on their hinges, but trivial quarrels distracted the council-table, and
+envious tittle-tattle and malignant calumny embittered every hour of the
+year to those stronger minds that exerted themselves for the public
+good. A morbid terror of publicity prevailed. When in the beginning of
+the eighteenth century the first weekly advertisers sprang up, and the
+Council of Frankfort-on-Main conceded to the undertakers of it, a weekly
+list of baptisms, marriages, and deaths, there was a general burst of
+displeasure; it was considered insupportable that such private concerns
+should be made public. So completely had the German become a private
+character.
+
+There were few cities then in Germany on whose social life we can dwell
+with satisfaction. Hamburg is perhaps the best specimen that can be
+given. Even there war and its consequences had caused great devastation,
+but the fresh air that blew from the wide ocean through the streets of
+the honest citizens of a free town, soon invigorated their energies.
+Their self-government, and position as a small state in union with
+foreign powers, preserved their community from extreme
+narrow-mindedness, and it appears that in the period of laxity and
+weakness that followed the Thirty years' war, they became by their
+energetic conduct the principal gainers. Land traffic with the interior
+of Germany, as also nautical commerce across the North Sea and Atlantic
+Ocean, recovered their elasticity soon after the termination of the war.
+Hamburg envoys and agents negotiated with the States-general, and at the
+court of Cromwell. The Hamburgers possessed not only a merchant fleet,
+but also a small navy. Their two frigates were, more than once, a terror
+to the pirates of the Mediterranean and of the German Ocean. They
+convoyed, now Greenland and Archangel navigators, now great fleets of
+from forty to fifty merchantmen, to Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz, Malta, and
+Leghorn, in short, wherever there were Hamburg settlements.
+
+This commerce, inferior as it may be to that of the present day, was
+perhaps, in proportion to that of other German seaports of the
+seventeenth century, more important than now. The young Hamburgers went
+then to the seaports of the German and Atlantic Ocean, and of the
+Mediterranean, as they now do to America, and founded there commercial
+houses on their own account. Thus was formed in Hamburg a
+cosmopolitanism which is still characteristic of that great city. But it
+was undoubtedly more difficult for that generation to conform themselves
+to foreign customs, than for the present. It was not devotion to the
+German empire, but an attachment to the customs of their daily life and
+family ties, which made the Hamburgers then, as now, rarely consider a
+foreign country as their fixed home. When they had passed a course of
+years abroad, in profitable activity, they hastened home, in order to
+form a household with a German wife. The warm patriotism and the prudent
+pliancy to foreign customs, which are peculiar to the citizens of small
+republics, were produced by this kind of life, and also the love of
+enterprise, and the enlarged views, which were seldom to be found then
+in the courts of Princes in the interior. Thus the family of a Hamburg
+patrician of that period shows a number of interesting peculiarities
+which are well worth dwelling upon.
+
+Such a family was that of the Burgomaster Johann Schulte, whose race
+still survives on the female side. Johann Schulte (who lived 1621-1697),
+was of ancient family, he had studied at Rostock, Strasburg, and Basle,
+had travelled, and married whilst secretary to the city council, and had
+then acted as envoy from Hamburg to Cromwell. He became burgomaster in
+1668, was a worthy gentleman of great moderation of character,
+experienced in all worldly affairs as well as in the government of his
+good city, a happy husband and father. Some letters are preserved from
+him to his son, who in 1680 entered into partnership in a Lisbon house.
+These letters contain many instructive details. But most interesting, is
+the pleasing insight we get into the family life at that period; the
+terms the father was on with his children, the heartiness of the feeling
+on both sides; in the father the quiet dignity, and wisdom of the much
+experienced man, with a strong feeling of his distinguished position,
+and in all the members of the family a firm bond of union, which, in
+spite of all the inevitable disputes within the circle, formed an
+impenetrable barrier to all without.
+
+A journey to Lisbon, and a separation of many years from the paternal
+house, was then a great affair. When the son, after his departure amid
+the tears and pious blessings and good wishes of parents and sisters,
+was detained by contrary winds at Cuxhaven, his father lost no time in
+sending him "a small prayer book; item, a book called 'The Merry Club,'
+and Gottfried Schulze's Chronicle, also a box of cream of tartar, and a
+blue stone pitcher with tamarinds, and preserved lemon-peel for
+sea-sickness." The son during his voyage, called to mind that he owed
+his brother three marks and six shillings, and anxiously entreated his
+mother to withdraw that sum for him from the eight thalers he had left
+in her keeping. The father liberally responded, that the eight thalers
+should be kept for him undiminished, that his mother would make no
+difficulty about three marks. After the son was established at Lisbon,
+regular supplies were sent of Zerbster and Hamburg beer, butter, and
+smoked meats, as also prescriptions for illnesses, and whatever else the
+care of the mother could procure for the absent son; he on the other
+hand sent oranges back, and casks of wine. The father accurately
+reported the changes which had occurred in the family, and among the
+citizens of the good city of Hamburg, and zealously laboured to send his
+son, commissions from his Hamburg friends. Soon the son confessed to his
+parents from that foreign land, that he loved a maiden at Hamburg;
+naturally one of the acquaintances of the family, and the father
+sympathized in this love affair, but always treated it as a matter of
+serious negotiation, which was to be cautiously and tenderly dealt with.
+It is clearly the object of the father to put off the wooing and
+proposal till his son had been some years abroad, and with diplomatic
+tact he meets his son's wishes just far enough to retain his confidence.
+
+What however is perhaps most characteristic of that period, is the
+advice given by the father to the son as to the necessity of adapting
+himself to the usages of foreign countries. The son is a pious zealous
+Protestant, whose conscience was much disquieted at having to live among
+strict Roman Catholics, and to join the practices so repugnant to him of
+Roman Catholic countries. What the father writes to him on this subject,
+is here given from the first letters, with the slight alterations
+necessary to make them intelligible.
+
+
+"Dear Son,
+
+"It is a week to-day since the last meeting of the Council, under my
+government, for this year, and I sent in the afternoon to the post-house
+to inquire whether the Spanish letters had arrived, and received for
+answer, No. The following day, at noon on Saturday, Herr Brindts sent
+his servant with your letter of the 11/22 of this month. As far as
+concerns your letter, we are in the first place all rejoiced that,
+thanks to God, you are in good health, which is a great mercy; and then
+that you are well pleased with your partners, and on this account
+likewise you should thank the Lord, that you have met in a foreign
+country with such honourable and well-disposed men. God grant that you
+may henceforth pass your time with all contentment, in peace and
+harmony, and also in a sound and prosperous condition till it pleases
+God to restore you to your country. Nevertheless, in reading your letter
+I have remarked that your place of residence, Lisbon, and its
+inhabitants, both clerical and lay, are not altogether suited to you,
+and you do not find yourself quite right in your present position, owing
+to which I discover in you some traces of impatience. It cannot be
+otherwise than that the change from Hamburg to Lisbon, the difference
+between the inhabitants of one and the other, their customs and
+behaviour, and many other things, should strike you with amazement, nay,
+even with consternation and anger; but you must remember that there and
+in other places, you have had many predecessors in like case, with whom
+it has fared the same, and to whom the great change in everything,
+especially in religious matters, has appeared very surprising.
+
+"According to the Latin adage, _post nubila Phœbus_, that is, bad
+weather is followed by brighter and more agreeable sunshine, which may
+the most benign God in his mercy fulfil to you, and grant that, as you
+met with and endured great dangers and bodily weakness by sea, the time
+which you may spend in Portugal may sweeten and brighten the former sour
+and bitter days, and that you may by degrees forget those bad days, and
+be comforted and rejoice in the good ones, which may the Almighty in his
+mercy constantly grant and bestow upon you. Amen.
+
+"Brother-in-law Gerdt Buermeister (who loves you as his child) told me
+to-day, that many things would indeed appear surprising to you on your
+first arrival at Lisbon, especially the seeing on all sides the forms of
+white, black, and gray monks and other persons; but it would be only
+three or four months, before you would become accustomed to this and
+other things. Now it is certainly true that one gets habituated in time
+to everything. I was for four years constantly at Strasburg, and got so
+accustomed to it that it became alike to me whether I lived at Strasburg
+or Hamburg, and was never disturbed about anything.
+
+"Believe me and others, you will find equally that a short time and a
+little patience will alter and improve all. I trust in God, therefore,
+that I shall in the course of eight or ten weeks receive from you more
+satisfactory letters, especially as you gradually make progress in the
+language. Brother-in-law Gerdt Buermeister says that he was twelve years
+old when he arrived at Lisbon, and he could not sufficiently describe
+his dissatisfaction; and whenever he descried the monks he thought they
+were devils; he would also have poured water on them from above, but
+would have got into difficulties thereby: he says, that when he was
+obliged to go out he felt terrified, but he soon overcame his fears. As
+regards religion, you must be judicious, and as much as possible avoid
+all hypocrisy, and never enter into discourse with your partner, nor
+with any one, on religious topics, but continue yourself at fitting
+times to read thereon, and also pray to God with devotion morning and
+evening, and put your firm trust in Him, that as He has so wonderfully
+called you to that place, He will also be, and ever remain your gracious
+Father and protector under all apparent crosses.
+
+"You state that you have already once sinned from necessity, when the
+consecrated host was carried past--or as it is otherwise called the
+venerabile--and ask whether you have well done to pray for yourself, and
+whether the good God will hear and forgive you this sin. I cannot
+forbear relating to you on this occasion what befel me at Maintz: when,
+in 1641, I journeyed from Hamburg to Strasburg, and was obliged to
+remain quiet at Frankfort for a fortnight during the fair, I went to
+Maintz, which is four miles from thence. It so happened I was there a
+Sunday, on which a special feast was kept by the Roman Catholics; so I
+ascertained in which church the Elector was to attend mass, betook
+myself there, and found in the church many devout people on their knees.
+Some had their _rosarium_ or rosaries in their hands, and said the Ave
+Maria and Lord's prayer, others smote their breasts with their hands
+like the penitent publican, and repented of their sins. I thus in some
+sort inspected the people, and thought their devotion commendable, and
+wished also that such good devotion in outward demeanour in the church
+could be found among us Lutherans. Meanwhile the Elector came, and
+entered into the choir. I, as an inquisitive young man, pressed in
+together with him, and as I was well dressed, having round me a scarlet
+mantle, the halberdiers allowed me to pass, supposing me to be a young
+nobleman. In the mean time the Herr von Andlaw chanted the mass in
+_pontificalibus_, that is he had a bishop's hat or cap on his head, and
+a bishop's staff in his hand. I had good thoughts as I looked on all
+these ceremonies, and all was as yet well. But when the Herr von Andlaw
+raised the consecrated cup, then all knelt down who were standing by me,
+I did the same, and said a Paternoster. To this I was led by my
+curiosity, but you were led unavoidably, and I trust in God that He will
+forgive me and you this fault. Besides this once, I have been in the
+Roman Catholic church frequently in France, and especially at Orleans on
+a Sunday afternoon, and have heard good music, but have never found my
+limbs tremble as you write that you have experienced. One should not be
+like a timid hare, but maintain always a constant steadfast heart. You
+mention that in Lisbon there are many priests, and also many churches
+and monasteries. Well! let it be so, that is nothing to you; however
+many priests there may be there they will not bite you, only take heed
+to yourself. No one can compel you to go to mass or into the church, and
+if at Easter you can obtain a ticket from an ecclesiastic, as if you had
+confessed and communicated, you have no farther need to care about the
+priests. But if you see the priests at a distance coming towards you
+with the consecrated host, use all caution and turn into a byway, or go
+into a house.
+
+"You write to me also, that many are already envious of you, and that
+Frick and Amsing are amongst the number. My son! who is without envious
+rivals? The more a person prospers, the more there are who envy them.
+Therefore the Dutch say: _idt is beter, beniedt als beklaegt, als idt
+man onsen lieven Heer behaegt._ What think you of the many who envy me,
+but whereof I know only a few, most of them I know not. On that account
+one has to pray in the Litany: 'That it may please the Lord to forgive
+our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and turn their hearts.' I
+should have been glad to see that when Frick and Amsing invited you
+twice you had gone to them. You write that they would have
+cross-questioned you. But you are not such a child that they could have
+cross-questioned you, particularly as you could undoubtedly tell them
+what you chose, and what they ought to know. You write also that Frick
+did not take off his hat to you; now you are younger than Frick, and
+thus it behoved you to greet him first. You tell me also that Amsing
+gave good words with his mouth, while gall was in his heart; to that I
+answer, that one must set a thief to catch a thief; give always good
+words to all, be they ecclesiastics or laymen, and keep to yourself your
+own thoughts, that is the way of the world.
+
+"It is particularly satisfactory to us to find from your letter that you
+hope soon to make progress in the Portuguese language, which will cause
+you great contentment, and although on account of your deficiency in
+that language, you cannot yet give any special help and assistance in
+buying and selling, yet you can keep the books, and be assiduous in
+setting down and registering everything.
+
+"Admonish your young Heinrich to fear God, and to that end to pray and
+read, and make him read to you in your room on the forenoon of Sunday
+from the _Molleri postilla_.
+
+"Your mother has spoken to Gunther Andreas, and told him he must take
+heed, and when a vessel is noted up at the exchange to be laden for
+Lisbon, send a ton of beer by it. You have in your mother's hands not
+eight marks, ten shillings, but eight good rix-dollars, which I have
+before written to you. And if the eight rix-dollars are already gone, a
+ton of beer will not signify. You have always as much or more in hand.
+We will also, God willing, send you a present of fresh smoked Elbe
+salmon, for I have already had two salmon in the smoke three days, one
+of which we have destined for you. The salmon fishery promises fair,
+though as yet a pound costs one mark.
+
+"Last Monday we held our Peter's, and yesterday our Matthias's
+collation, when I had a convenient opportunity to recommend you and your
+brother-partner to Herr Brümmelman. The same reported to me that he had
+received letters from you, and the good honest man opened his mind to me
+thoroughly, and told me that he would answer you by this post, also that
+I need not doubt God would bless you and your brother-partner, and you
+would have no cause to complain. God grant you health, patience, and a
+constant cheerful spirit, also pleasure in and love for your business
+and work of superintendence. A common proverb says: _ora et labora_, and
+let God be your councillor. This do, and throw all your cares on the
+Lord, and it will be well with you. Wherewith I conclude for this time,
+as I brought to a close yesterday my seventh year of administration, and
+by God's grace and favour have concluded it; and together with the
+friendly greetings of all your dear belongings, I faithfully commend you
+to the secure protection of the great God, and remains always
+
+                             "Your kindly affectionate father,
+
+                                         "Johann Schulte, Lt.
+
+"Hamburg, Feb. 25, 1681.
+
+"P.S. I have mentioned, in my letter of the 14th of January, if I am not
+mistaken, that the pleasant fellow Heinrich Mein served up to us and the
+ship's company a rarity, a dish of fish which had been cooked in Lisbon.
+Now you might intend sending me a gift of the like in future, but do not
+do it, it would cost you trouble and money, and I care not much about
+it. Vale.
+
+"P.S. Your lady mother sends you most kindly greeting from herself, and
+is glad to find, _par curiosité_, that you here and there mention in
+your letters what kind of weather you have, and what vegetables and
+fruit you get in succession; you may also touch lightly upon what meat
+and fish or vegetables you eat. And you should look to it that you eat
+wholesome food, and above all not too much. Here indeed the Elbe is
+open, and there is tolerably mild weather; we have good Elbe and sea
+fish, only we have deep muddy roads, and a foggy thick atmosphere,
+whilst with you doubtless all is now green and gay and everything in
+blossom.
+
+"P.S. As the price of letters to Spain and Portugal runs somewhat higher
+than to other places, I write, contrary to my usual habit and manner,
+somewhat small and _compresser_. Write small and light letters, but
+tolerably long ones, and _menagire_ also herein. Vale."
+
+
+Thus far the cautious Burgomaster Johann Schulte. He had the pleasure of
+seeing his son return safe from the land of monks, and united after
+many family negotiations to the maiden of his choice.
+
+Labour undoubtedly makes men firm and enduring, and it more especially
+serves the egotistic interests of men of sound capacity; but to any one
+whose vocation it is to be employed for the benefit of others, the
+service will be consecrated by a feeling of duty. Every employment which
+is capable of maintaining life gives man also a position. The journeyman
+is the official of his master, the housewife has the office of the keys,
+and every work develops even in the smallest circle a domain of moral
+duties. The German has never been deficient in a feeling of the duties
+of home and of his trade. There always have been citizens who were not
+only ready to die for their city, but who have sometimes passed a life
+of self-sacrifice for it. The Reformation elevated the feeling of duty
+to a higher domain of earthly action and the self-denial and
+self-sacrifice of the pious shepherd of souls should always be highly
+esteemed; but on closer observation, we perceive that the foundation of
+this more elevated feeling of duty was more especially of a religious
+nature. It was the command of God which men sought to obey; where the
+Scripture did not command with powerful voice, the feeling for the
+universal good was not so strongly developed, and the perception of the
+duties of their own position was uncertain.
+
+It is instructive to notice that it was the armies brought together by
+the war which first raised the citizen's idea of the duties of his
+calling. The soldier's feeling of honour not only developed itself in a
+noble esprit de corps, but became the source gradually of official
+honour in the citizen. First of all it gave him honour in the eyes of
+others when he fulfilled his duty, but also it afforded himself internal
+satisfaction and a just pride. Thus after the fidelity of the middle
+ages and the piety of the Reformation there arose a new domain of moral
+requirements. There was more of feeling than of the result of thought in
+it, but it was still an advance; though at first indeed only among the
+best.
+
+Two years after the paternal admonitions of Herr Burgomaster Schulte to
+his son, at a little distance south of Lisbon, the life of a Hamburger
+was put an end to by a fearful catastrophe. The account of it is given
+in an old narrative.
+
+Berend Jacob Carpfanger was one of the captains at Hamburg. He was born
+in that city in 1623; he got his schooling, as was the custom, in the
+merchant service; he early became a member of the admiralty, and at last
+as captain of convoys, commander of one of the vessels of war which had
+to defend the merchantmen against pirates. These marine officers of the
+city, besides having to exercise the highest official control in their
+fleet, had to perform diplomatic negotiations in the harbours, and
+sometimes were sent for the same purpose to foreign courts. It was
+necessary for them to have some practice in business, and to know how to
+associate with great lords, so as to maintain the honour and fame of
+their city. Carpfanger was considered in his city an elegant, smart man,
+who knew better than most how to conduct himself. He had an earnest
+countenance, almost melancholy, a high forehead, large eyes, and a chin
+and mouth of great power. His health appeared rather less strong than
+was desirable in a seaman. He had given proof that he understood how to
+conduct a sea-fight, and had often been in bloody actions. For the
+Barbary pirates still continued their depredations both on sea and land.
+Not only in galleys, but in large frigates did these birds of prey bear
+down upon the swarm of commercial vessels. It was just at that period
+that the 'Hund' was the terror of European seas. Far over the channel,
+from Gibraltar onwards, on the great ocean, nay, on the coasts of the
+Northern Sea, his swift vessels made their appearance; dreadful were the
+harbour tales of their temerity, violence, and bloodthirstiness. In the
+year 1662, a squadron of eight Hamburg merchantmen had become the booty
+of these "barbarians."
+
+In 1674, the burgomaster of the admiralty girded the silver sword on
+Captain Carpfanger, and handed to him the admiral's staff. Then the
+seaman swore before the senate, that he would manfully defend the fleet
+intrusted to him, and sacrifice everything, body and soul, rather than
+abandon his ship.
+
+During the ten years that passed after that, up to his death, he made an
+annual voyage, starting with his fleet in the Spring and returning home
+in August. He had many severe struggles with storm and waves, and often
+complained how unfavourable the elements were to him.
+
+Thus he went to Cadiz and Malaga, to the Northern frozen ocean, and to
+Lisbon. From an expedition to Greenland, his fleet of fifty vessels
+brought home a booty of five hundred and fifty whales. Once when
+returning home he was attacked at the north of the Elbe by five French
+privateers; in the course of a twelve hours' fight he sent two to the
+bottom by his shot, and they sank before his eyes with every man and
+mouse on board, the remainder escaped to the open sea. He was also
+engaged with the Brandenburg privateers. It happened that the admiral's
+red flag of Hamburg floated on the gaff of the Besan threateningly
+against the red eagle of Brandenburg; for in 1679 the great Elector was
+not favourably disposed towards the Hamburgers, and his little vessels
+of war had already captured many of theirs. The opponents met, but
+Carpfanger had strict instructions to keep on the defensive, therefore
+it came to a good issue. The large ship inspired the Brandenburgers with
+respect; they sent the long-boat with two officers to salute him, and
+"in order to inspect the arrangements of the ship." The Hamburger
+regaled them with wine in his cabin, and then they politely took leave.
+Their vessel fired a salute, which Carpfanger answered with equal
+courtesy, and then both sailed away.
+
+Again the captain on one of his voyages met with a fleet of Spanish
+galleons in fight with Turkish pirates. The combat was taking an
+unfavourable turn for the Spaniards; some heavy galleons had been cut
+out and overpowered by the pirates. Carpfanger attacked the pirates, and
+by a broadside freed the Spanish vessels. He was on this account invited
+to the court of Charles II., and presented by the king with a golden
+chain of honour.
+
+When in August he exchanged the winds and waves for the narrow streets
+of the old city, even there little rest was allowed him. First there
+were disputes with the senate about expenses, a writing of reports, the
+vindication of particular arrangements which did not appear clear to the
+gentlemen of the council-table, or injured some private interest, and
+all the vexations of the counting office which are so hateful to the
+seaman. For there is no lack of petty trading spirit in old Hamburg. In
+the winter of 1680, his dear wife died in the prime of life.
+
+Again and again he convoyed merchantmen to Cadiz and Malaga: in 1683 he
+commanded the frigate 'The Arms of Hamburg.' The passage had been
+lengthened by a storm, and a leaking vessel in the fleet, but it had
+already been made known at the Hamburg Exchange that the captain was
+about to return from Spain _viâ_ the Isle of Wight. Then there came
+instead of him, sorrowful tidings. These will be here given; it is an
+example of the old method by which news was rapidly spread.
+
+
+                "Sorrowful tidings from Cadiz in Spain.
+
+                                        "From Cadiz 12/22 October.
+
+"Good and dear friend,
+
+"I could have wished that this my letter might have awakened joy rather
+than occasioned sorrow. But when we mortal men are in the highest tide
+of happiness, and think of nought but gladness, misfortune hovers over
+our heads.
+
+"Such, alas! contrary to all expectation, has been the case with me and
+all who together with me came in the convoyship 'The Arms of Hamburg.'
+
+"On October 10/20, I and our chief officers, as also the noble captain's
+son and his cousin, had the honour of taking supper with our noble
+captain. When it was about eight o'clock and we were on the point of
+rising from table, our cabin-watch brought the sad tidings that there
+was fire in the hold of our ship. Thereupon our noble captain and we all
+sprang up terrified from the table and hastened to the spot, where we
+found all the cordage in the hold already in full blaze. By the order of
+the captain, buckets and water-casks were speedily brought; much water
+was poured on it, and some holes opened because this place was not
+easily reached; all this in hopes of extinguishing the fire. Our people,
+especially the soldiers, who were valiantly urged on by their commander,
+worked assiduously, but all in vain, for no diminution could be
+perceived in the fire, but only increase. Divers guns were fired as
+signals of distress, in order to procure help, but fruitlessly, as the
+other vessels afterwards pretended they did not know what such firing
+signified.
+
+"Thus the captain was obliged to send our lieutenant in the small cutter
+to the surrounding vessels, to acquaint them with our unhappy condition,
+to entreat the aid of their cutters and boats, and procure some
+pump-hose. They came, it is true, but stopped at a distance; for the
+fire was very near the place where the powder, which used to lie in the
+fore-part of the ship, was kept, and it was impossible, on account of
+the great heat, to bring it away; so every one feared that the ship, and
+we all, one with another, should be blown up, if the flames were to
+reach it. On this account many of the seamen gave up the work, and
+retreated into the boats and the large cutter behind the ship, or made
+away in foreign boats, however much we implored of these not to carry
+off our people.
+
+"To those in our boat and great cutter, the captain called out from the
+cabin window, that they should remember the oath they had sworn to him
+and the magistracy, and not abandon him, but return on board, as at
+present there was no danger, and by God's help the fire might be
+extinguished.
+
+"These certainly obeyed the command, and began to work again earnestly,
+but it all was of no avail for the fire increased more and more. After
+working assiduously but fruitlessly for two hours, the lieutenant and
+shipmaster, as also the other officers, went to the captain, and
+informed him that, alas! there was no more help, that it was impossible
+to save the good ship, and it was now high time to save themselves, if
+they did not intend to be burned in the ship or blown up with it. For
+between the fire and the powder there was now only a plank of a
+finger-breadth remaining. But the captain, who still thought to preserve
+the ship, and prized his honour more than life and everything in the
+world, answered that he would not leave the ship, but would live and die
+therein. His son fell on his knees before him, and besought him for
+God's sake to think better of it, and seek to preserve his life. To whom
+he replied: 'Away with you, I know better what is intrusted to me.'
+
+"Thereupon he commanded the quartermaster to place this his son,
+together with his cousin, in another vessel, which was then done. He
+would not allow the least bit of his own property to be removed, that
+the men might not be disheartened thereby.
+
+"Meanwhile it was suggested by some that it would be best to cut a hole
+in the ship and let her go to the bottom; to this however the captain
+would not consent, but said he had still hopes of saving her. Others
+advised to cut the cable and strand the ship. This was at last agreed
+to, and the order given to cut the cable. But just as this was about to
+be done, when the mizen and foremast were on the point of falling, and
+the people were still sitting on the fore-yard, the powder in the
+fore-part of the ship caught fire. The force of it however being broken
+by the pouring in of a large body of water it only blew up with a whizz.
+The fire burnt through the deck almost to the foremast, and as a stiff
+east wind blew above, and the vessel lay to the wind, it ran up the mast
+into the shrouds and sails, and in a moment over the whole ship.
+
+"When the people who were still in the vessel saw this, they sought to
+fly with pitiful shrieks. Some ran to the cabin, hoping to find safety
+there; others to the gun-room. At the door of this last, the
+lieutenant, by order of the captain, had placed himself, together with a
+soldier with a loaded gun, to prevent any one from running through the
+room into the large cutter, which lay fastened just behind it. The
+lieutenant was pressed through the door, and thus obliged to betake
+himself to the cutter, followed forthwith by a throng of people: many
+sprang into the boat. As this however, was already pushed off, because
+the fire from behind burnt quite over, and as it appeared likely that
+the fire would reach the powder at the back of the ship, and all who
+were around and near it would be blown up, the poor men who were still
+in the ship, and did not wish to be burnt, determined to abandon
+themselves to the waves, and sprang into the water. It would have melted
+a heart of stone to have heard the cries and shrieks of these miserable
+men, driven about in shoals in the water, so that nothing but heads
+could be seen. Now whilst the fire was driven by the wind from the
+fore-part to the stem with great power, its violence increasing with its
+duration, I stood in the cabin with divers persons round the captain;
+they moaned and wept before him, and at the same time exhorted him,
+saying there was no time now to remain any longer.
+
+"I went from them to the window, to see whether there was yet a boat at
+hand, and found that the large cutter was still fastened to the ship. I
+took my resolution, and commending my life to God, sprang through the
+cabin window into the boat; which succeeded so well that I was saved
+therein without suffering any damage. As I turned my back to the
+captain, he, with the persons remaining by him, among whom were the
+commander and some soldiers and seamen, went out of the door. I thought
+they were seeking to save themselves, as indeed they were willing to do;
+for I perceived that they went to the great blaze with the intention of
+forcing the captain into a boat. But finding none, as the flames were
+already over their heads they left the captain and sprang overboard.
+
+"As soon as I was in the large cutter, the lieutenant became visible; I
+asked him whether the captain was out of the ship, he answered that a
+Dutch captain had saved him. Now when we thought we were assured
+thereof, we loosened the cutter in all haste, for there were many people
+swimming about in the water, seeking to save themselves therein; and the
+cutter was almost dragged down by them, as many clung to its side. It
+was also to be feared that we should be blown up when the flames reached
+the powder.
+
+"When we had gone about a cable's length from the ship, many pieces of
+it fell asunder by reason of the heat of the fire; and the grenades
+sprang one after another. The fire, at last, towards one o'clock,
+reached the powder in the powder room, and with one hollow clap the
+stern of the vessel blew up; whereupon the remaining portion, with all
+that was still therein, went to the bottom, after the good ship had been
+burning about five hours.
+
+"Meanwhile we came with our cutter to another ship lying in the bay, and
+put out the people who had been saved, with the exception of the
+necessary rowers; with whom the lieutenant, during the remaining portion
+of the night, sought sorrowfully after the noble captain among all the
+vessels in the bay. But in vain, as he was nowhere to be found.
+
+"On the following day, about ten in the forenoon, notice was given by
+the English cutter of Captain Thompson's ship, that the body of our
+captain, alas! had been driven on to their boat's cable, and had been
+rescued by them.
+
+"Thereupon, the now deceased good man was forthwith brought from the
+vessel of the said Captain Thompson, and as was fitting, was clothed in
+clean linen, for which Captain Thompson was paid with gratitude.
+
+"Of all the men who lost their lives by this great misfortune (of seamen
+two-and-forty, of soldiers two-and-twenty), the deceased noble captain
+was the first that was found. Preparations were forthwith made for his
+funeral, and when everything needful was provided, on Saturday the 13th
+of this month, he was consigned to the grave according to Christian
+usages, here behind the Puntales, in the place where it is the custom to
+bury those of foreign nations. Our _Domine_ first preached a fine
+funeral discourse; the body was convoyed by some twenty cutters, wherein
+were many distinguished captains and merchants; in each the flags were
+half mast high, as a sign of mourning; in like manner all the English,
+Dutch, and Hamburg ships lying here, testified their condolence by
+hoisting their flags and Jacks half-mast high, amid the firing of guns,
+whereof above three hundred were heard.
+
+"Who caused this fearful fire and misfortune, or by what negligence it
+originated, is unknown. The boatswain's son, who had been in the hold,
+and had to watch the lamp which usually burnt there, stated that he had
+gone from the hold upon deck, in order to speak to another youth, and on
+his return to the hold, found it in flames. God preserve other ships
+from a like misfortune, and comfort the widows and orphans of those who
+have been lost."
+
+Here we conclude the news from Cadiz. According to another account the
+captain walked alone about his ship up to the last; others declare that
+they saw him at an open port-hole, raising his clasped hands to heaven;
+and according to others, he last of all committed himself to the waves,
+either to be preserved or to sink as God willed it; and it is no wonder
+that the weakly old gentleman, after the mental and bodily exertions of
+the last hours, should have gone to the bottom. A great marvel had been
+observed by the sailors: three doves had for several hours hovered over
+the burning ship, to the time of its blowing up.[44] King Charles II. of
+Spain caused a monument to be erected on the grave of the Hamburg
+seaman; which, according to consular records, was only destroyed in the
+Spanish war, the beginning of this century.
+
+We rejoice that the deceased kept his oath. The honour of his calling
+demanded his death, and he died. For it is better that once in a while,
+a brave, honest, and able man, though he were still able to save
+himself, should go down with his good ship, than that mariners should in
+the hour of danger want a model of enduring energy. He died as became a
+sailor, silent and collected; he laconically dismissed his own son; his
+whole soul was in his employment. May the German citizen never come to
+such a pass as to consider the deed of this man, strange and unheard of.
+In the inland provinces also, many hundreds of peaceable citizens since
+his time have died in the performance of their duty to the utmost of
+their power, and beyond it; pastors in the midst of contagion, doctors
+in the lazar house, and helpful citizens in dangers from fire. And we
+hope that the reader will discern that this is the path of duty, and the
+general rule with us.
+
+And still our hearts heave with the thought that in the same year in
+which Strasburg was so ignominiously lost, a fellow-countryman felt even
+as we should feel, namely, that there is not much cause for
+astonishment, and no occasion for crying and moaning, when any one dies
+in the performance of duty. And his memory should be honoured both by
+those who traverse the sea, and those who never hear its roar. The
+German had much degenerated after 1648, but he yet deserved a better
+life; for he still understood how to die for an idea.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+
+  GERMAN LIFE AT THE BATHS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Civilization was undoubtedly, in spite of war and devastation, making
+continual progress, for it was not as in ancient times carried on by one
+people alone, but by large families of nations; and the blessing of this
+higher development in Germany first elevated the life of individuals.
+The century of the Reformation had increased the individual independence
+of men, and developed what was spontaneous and characteristic in various
+directions. After the war, the gap between the classes became greater;
+not only was there a difference in their dress, but in their social
+manners, their language and mode of life; each class endeavoured to
+close its ranks against that which was just beneath it. But this,
+however objectionable, was the first result of political progress. At
+one time the great classes of princes, nobles, citizens and peasants,
+lived in established relations to one another. The religious movement
+had created a social ferment, which was a bond of union between the
+cities and country aristocracy: now during the war all classes had been
+shaken together; a large portion of the nobility had been driven into
+the cities, and the impoverished landed proprietor sought a place in the
+service of the new state, or in the city community. Undoubtedly there
+lay within this the beginning of a higher life, but the old pretensions
+did not on that account immediately disappear; the less was the inward
+ground for social separation, the more carefully were outward
+distinctions preserved.
+
+Servility towards persons of distinction became general; it extended
+from outward marks of courtesy, such as addressing them by their titles,
+to the actual sentiment. It was considered an honour by the citizen's
+daughter to receive compliments from a cavalier, and he expressed his
+bold addresses more smoothly, than her neighbour the poor pedantic
+_Magister_, or the awkward merchant's son.
+
+The social intercourse also of the citizens amongst each other, was
+deteriorated by foreign manners. In the past century, the style of
+expression when at their ease, was not particularly delicate; but at
+that time it was considered thoroughly harmless, and had therefore not
+endangered the morality of the women. Now many honourable old words were
+proscribed, and in their place _double entendres_ were prevalent; to be
+bold and skilful in words, not to speak out what was unseemly, but to
+signify it cleverly, became the fashion; and the women and maidens soon
+learnt to give a smart answer. The choice pleasantries, the attacks and
+repartees that we find in the small compendiums of civilities, which
+were for the use of the unassuming citizen, are so pitiable that they
+will not be given here.
+
+But there was no want of hearty cheerfulness: the young people long
+continued to play the familiar games which are now confined to children;
+they journeyed to Jerusalem, and played at blindman's-buff, which, under
+the appearance of accident, gave fine opportunities of venturing on
+liberties; games of forfeits with witty fines appear not to have been
+usual yet, but sarcastic verses and riddles were in vogue; if at table
+there was liver served with the roast or fish, rhymes were made upon it
+by turns, no trifling affair, for it was necessary to produce something
+neat, and a dunderhead or a simpleton exposed himself dreadfully.
+Conversation was considered a serious matter, for which one should be
+well prepared; anecdotes and remarkable occurrences were with that view
+read beforehand, and he was highly esteemed who could introduce
+pertinently some pretty German verse.
+
+After the war, dancing was frequent in family circles in the evening;
+and waltzing was the favourite dance with the citizens: before the lady
+was led to the dance she was greeted with a small speech, and if she
+were married or a bride, the bridegroom was so likewise: then the dancer
+had to lead her, so that her finger lay lightly on his. In the dance he
+was not to spring about, nor to oblige her to make unnecessary springs,
+which might toss her dress up to her girdle, nor was he to tear her
+dress with his spurs. After the dance there was another short speech and
+answer. Finally he was to take her home, and in doing so it was
+necessary to be on his guard that there was no rival lurking for him
+with a cudgel, as was often the case. When arrived at the dwelling, he
+had first to make his excuses to the parents for having, by escorting
+her, allowed his homage to be perceived, and then to the lady, whom he
+commended to the gracious protection of the Most High, and tenderly
+signified that he would wish to kiss her pillow.
+
+It is not easy to form any true idea of the old society from the general
+literature, for the numerous writers of comedies and novels give us
+mostly caricatures; they find their account in bringing everything down
+to a low level. It is for this reason, therefore, that the unbiassed
+records of cotemporaries are so instructive.
+
+In the olden time there were as now, baths to which all those resorted
+who wished for social amusement; and the bath life shows at least the
+forms of easy intercourse away from home; therefore a number of small
+pictures will be given here from the baths of Zurich, the most famous of
+all the German baths at the conclusion of the middle ages. The doings of
+the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries will be better explained by
+comparing with them, the former period of the fifteenth and sixteenth
+centuries.
+
+Switzerland was by the peace of Westphalia entirely detached from the
+Empire; but the political separation had not led the German burgher life
+into foreign channels. The unity of mind remained, more than once have
+the literary men, the poets and artists of Switzerland, had an important
+share in the development of the German mind. Even now is this inward
+unity undiminished, and Germans and Swiss alike have reason to
+congratulate themselves on it. After the great war, the Swiss had
+honestly participated in the pleasures and sorrows of the German; they
+also had suffered by the war, and were in political troubles; a
+narrow-minded patrician government oppressed the country; there also,
+energy, public spirit and conscience, had been weakened.
+
+The following narrative paints the state of things at Baden, and equally
+portrays the Bath life of Germans in the interior of the Empire.
+
+
+                      Bath Life in the year 1417.
+
+The Florentine, Francis Poggio (1380-1459), one of the great Italians
+who spread the Humanitarian literature throughout their native country,
+then held the office of Papal secretary; in this capacity he was
+actively employed at the Council of Constance, and visited Baden from
+thence. He describes his impressions of travel in an elegant Latin
+letter to his friend, the learned Nicolo Nicoli; he himself was then an
+ecclesiastic. In order to understand thoroughly how much the reformation
+of the Church, which took place a century later, was brought about by
+the excited moral feeling of the people, we should pay attention to the
+cool, haughty freedom of tone of the following letter. Poggio was a
+great scholar and a prudent statesman; he was one of the most refined
+among the highly cultivated Italians; nay, more, he had a fierce, manly
+spirit, and was always exhorting his literary friends to seriousness.
+But with his classical literature he had also adopted the spirit of a
+distinguished Roman of the time of Tiberius, and it makes a disagreeable
+impression to find how mildly and good-humouredly the secretary of the
+Pope, the priest, the scholar, the offshoot of the civilization of his
+time, viewed the profligacy of both ecclesiastics and laity. His letter,
+which follows here, is abbreviated in some places:--
+
+"Baden itself affords the mind little or no diversion; but has in all
+other respects such extraordinary charm, that I could often dream that
+Venus had come from Cypress, for whatever the world contains of beauty
+has assembled here, and so much do they uphold the customs of this
+goddess, so fully do you find again her manners and dissoluteness, that
+little as they may have read the speech of Heliogabalus, they appear to
+be perfectly instructed by Nature herself.
+
+"About a quarter of an hour's drive from the town, on the other side of
+the river, there is a beautiful village, established for the use of the
+baths; in the middle of the village is a large _platz_, surrounded by
+splendid inns, which contain a multitude of people. Each house has its
+own bath, which can only be made use of by those who reside there. The
+number of public and private baths amounts altogether to full thirty.
+Two special places, open on all sides, are appointed for the lowest
+classes of the people; and the common crowd, men, women, boys, and
+unmarried maidens, and the dregs of all that collect together here, make
+use of them. In these baths there is a partition wall, dividing the two
+sexes, but this is only put up for the sake of peace; and it is amusing
+to see how, at the same time, decrepit old beldames and young maidens
+descend into it naked, before all eyes, and expose their charms to the
+gaze of the men. More than once I have laughed at this splendid
+spectacle; it has brought to my mind the games of Flora at Rome, and I
+have much admired their simplicity who do not in the least see or think
+anything wrong in it.
+
+"The special baths at the inns are beautifully adorned, and common to
+both sexes. It is true they are divided by a wainscot, but divers open
+windows have been introduced therein, through which they can drink with,
+speak to, see, and touch each other, as frequently happens. Besides
+this, there are galleries above, where the men meet and chatter
+together, for every one is free to enter the bath of another, and to
+tarry there, in order to look about, and joke and enliven his spirits,
+by seeing beautiful women nude when they go in and come out. No guard
+watches the avenues here; no door, and, above all, no thought of
+impropriety hinders them. In many baths both sexes have access to the
+bath by the same entrance, and it not unfrequently comes to pass, that a
+man meets a naked woman, and the reverse. Nevertheless, the men bind a
+cloth round their loins, and the women have a linen dress on, but this
+is open either in the middle or on the side, so that neither neck, nor
+breast, nor shoulders are covered. The women eat frequently in the bath
+itself, of dishes contributed by all, which are placed on a table
+floating upon the water, whereto the men naturally resort. In the house
+where I bathed, I also was invited to such a feast; I gave my
+contribution, but went away, although they did urge me much to stay. And
+truly not from shyness, which we here consider as stupid and boorish,
+but because I did not understand the language, for it appeared to me
+absurd that an Italian, ignorant of German, should pass a whole day
+amongst lovely, fair ladies, in a bath, dumb and speechless, merely
+eating and drinking. Two of my friends however, who were present, ate,
+drank and toyed, spoke to the ladies through an interpreter, fanned
+them, and in short enjoyed themselves much. My friends were clothed in a
+linen dress, such as the men wear here when they are invited to a
+ladies' bath. I saw all from the gallery, their manners and customs,
+their good eating, and their free and easy intercourse. It is wonderful
+to see in what innocence they live, and with what frank confidence they
+regard the men; the liberties which foreigners presume to take with
+their ladies does not strike their attention; they interpret everything
+well. In Plato's Republic, according to whose rules everything was to be
+in common, they would have behaved themselves excellently, as they
+already, without knowing his teaching, are so inclined to belong to his
+sect.
+
+"Many visit daily three or four of these baths, and pass there the
+greatest part of the day, in singing, drinking, nay in waltzing, and
+they play the lute if they are not seated deep in the water. But there
+can be nothing more charming than to see budding maidens, or those in
+full bloom, with pretty kindly faces, in figure and deportment like
+goddesses, strike the lute, then they throw their flowing dress a little
+back in the water, and each appears like a Venus. It is the custom of
+the women to beg for alms jestingly from the men who view them from
+above; one throws to them, especially to the pretty ones, small coins,
+which they catch with their hands or with the outspread linen dress,
+whilst one pushes away the other, and in this game all their charms were
+frequently unveiled. In like manner one threw them down twined wreaths
+of divers flowers, with which they adorned their heads while they sat in
+the bath.
+
+"I bathed only twice a day, but attracted by the rich opportunity of
+such a spectacle and such fun, I spent the remaining time in visits to
+other baths, and threw coin and wreaths like the others.
+
+"Then the playing of flutes, the tinkling on the guitar and singing
+resounded everywhere; there was no time either for reading or thinking;
+to have been here the only wise one would have been the greatest folly,
+especially for one who will be no self-tormentor, and to whom nothing
+human is strange. I was deprived of the highest enjoyment, the main
+point, the interchange of speech. So there remained nothing for me but
+to feast my eyes on the fair ones, to follow them, to conduct them to
+the games, and to escort them back again. There was also such
+opportunity for near intercourse, and so great freedom therein, that one
+needed not to trouble oneself about regulating it.
+
+"Besides this varied enjoyment, there was yet another of not less charm.
+Behind the courtyards, near the river, lies a large meadow shaded by
+many trees. Here every one comes after dinner and diverts himself with
+singing dancing, and sundry games. The most part played at ball, but not
+after our fashion, but the men and women throw to one another, each to
+the one he likes best, a ball, wherein are many bells. All run to catch
+it; whoever gets it, wins, and throws it again to his love: all stretch
+out their hands again to catch it, and whoever succeeds make pretence as
+if they would throw it now to one person now to another. Many other
+sports I pass over for brevity's sake. I have recounted this to you, in
+order to show how completely they are the disciples of Epicurus.
+
+"But the most striking thing is the countless multitude of nobles and
+plebeians, who collect here from the most distant parts, not so much for
+health as for pleasure. All lovers and spendthrifts, all pleasure
+seekers, stream together here, for the satisfaction of their desires.
+Many women feign bodily ailments, whilst it is really their heart that
+is affected; therefore one sees numberless pretty women, without
+husbands and relations, with two maid-servants and a man, or with some
+old beldame of the family who is more easily deceived than bribed. All
+the women come attired to their utmost with smart dresses, gold, silver,
+and precious stones, not as if for the baths, but as though it were for
+the grandest wedding. There are here also virgins of Vesta, or rather of
+Flora; besides, abbots, monks, lay-brothers, and ecclesiastics, and
+these live more dissolutely than the others, some of them also live with
+the women, adorn their hair with wreaths, and forget all religion. All
+have the same object, to fly from melancholy and seek cheerfulness, and
+to think of nothing but a merry life of enjoyment; they do not wish to
+take the property of others, but to impart their own freely. And it is
+remarkable that among the great number, almost thousands of men of
+different manners and such a drunken set, no discord arises, no tumults,
+no partisanship, no conspiracies, and no swearing. The men allow their
+wives to be toyed with, and see them pairing off with entire strangers,
+but it does not discompose or surprise them; they think it is all in an
+honest and housewifely way.
+
+"How different are these manners from ours! We put the worst
+construction upon everything: we find a pleasure in slander and calumny;
+the slightest suspicion is sufficient for us, and equivalent to a clear
+transgression. I often envy the composure of the people here, and curse
+our perversity, always restlessly seeking, and restlessly desiring. We
+compass heaven, earth, and ocean, to procure money, are contented with
+no gain, satisfied with no profit. We are continually in fear of future
+disaster, and are cast down by unceasing mischances and anxieties, and
+in order to preserve ourselves from being unhappy, we never cease to be
+so. But here they live for the day, contented with a little; every day
+is a festival, they desire no great riches, which would be of no use to
+them, but they enjoy what they have, and fear not the future. If they
+meet with misfortune they bear it with good courage. But enough, it is
+not my purpose to praise them and blame ourselves. I wish this letter to
+be lively in order that you, my distant friend, may find in it some
+portion of the amusement I have enjoyed at the baths."
+
+Here we have the elegant representation of the Italian statesman. The
+fifteenth century was truly a time of luxury and refined enjoyment, but
+what the foreigner relates is not so bad as the way in which he relates
+it.
+
+The Reformation came. It exercised an influence even on the frivolous
+people who visited the baths. Life became more earnest and thoughtful,
+and the superintendence exercised by the authorities and pastors more
+strict. The number of married persons became greater, for it was one of
+the favourite tenets of the Protestant opposition, to promote marriage
+and domestic discipline. Much fewer became the number of those prelates
+and their ladies, monks and roving women, who were not joined in lawful
+matrimony. Thus after the time of Luther and Zwinglius, towards the end
+of the sixteenth century, we have a very different description of the
+baths of Baden, written by an honest German, the doctor of medicine
+Pantaleon, a Basle man, rector of the high school and of the
+philosophical faculty. Here follow some characteristic fragments.
+
+"Bath life, 1580.--The free bath, called also burgher bath, is under the
+open heaven. It is so long and broad, that above a hundred men can bathe
+therein at a time. It is bordered round about with stone pavement, and
+many seats are disposed therein. One corner, a fourth part of the bath,
+is closed in by a wooden lattice, arranged for the accommodation of the
+women. But as the women in general come there, some are wont to go to
+the larger bath. In this every one, stranger or native, may bathe
+gratis, and divert himself for as long or short a time as he likes. On
+Saturday, especially, the people from the city and country come in
+crowds, and husbands and wives desire to have their pastime, and to
+beautify themselves. But herein one is much surprised, that they in such
+wise misuse cupping; for every one will be cupped, and they think for
+the most part that they have not bathed if they have not had as many
+lancets stock in them as the bristles of a hedgehog. And yet it would be
+far more useful to them to obtain a little additional blood.
+
+"Poor people come oft to the baths of St. Verena, especially in May,
+some hundreds together. But they must first look about for an inn, that
+they may have some sort of home and not be about in the streets, and
+there are three or four inns near the baths. The poor are daily
+maintained by the alms of pious people. They place their bowls in a
+circle on the wall round the bath, and remain sitting in the bath, and
+no one may point out his bowl. Then money, bread, wine, soup, meat, or
+other things are put in the bowls, and no one knows to whom they belong.
+Great hoards are sometimes collected; the warder who has his little
+house near the bath, distributes the gifts in due order, and exhorts the
+poor to pray and be thankful. After that, each takes what is in his
+bowl, and goes out. But as also there are oft mixed up among the honest,
+many bad rogues and idlers who will not work, but take the bread out of
+the mouths of others who are in need, it would be useful, were each poor
+person who is desirous to obtain alms, to bring a certificate from his
+magistrate that he is in need of it, and that the alms will be well
+applied. Many bad rogues would then be ashamed. If the poor do aught
+that is contrary to order and discipline, they are punished by the
+warder, and placed in the lock-up that stands below, near the house
+called the Lock and Key. When their month's stay at the bath is ended,
+they receive a dismissal from the warder; nay he desires them, according
+to the nature of their illness, to go away, to make room for others.
+They must attend to him also, under pain of severe punishment.
+
+"The 'Stadthof' is a large cheerful inn, adorned with many beautiful
+rooms, saloons, and chambers. There are two large kitchens, one of which
+belongs to the landlord, who provides the guests with all kinds of
+meals, or with single dishes, according to every one's need. In the
+other, there is a special cook, for all those who buy their own food,
+and wish to have it cooked to their own fancy, for this is allowed to
+every one. In this house there are eight good baths, of which five are
+in common, the remaining three are let out to certain persons by the
+week for a fixed sum of money, with the chambers belonging thereto. The
+first is the gentlemen's bath, in which men, both noble and others,
+ecclesiastics and laymen, young and old, Catholic or Evangelical, come
+together without any disputes or quarrels, friendly and peaceably.
+
+"This bath is almost the same height as the court, and whosoever sits
+therein, can look out through the doors into the court, and behold every
+one. Whoever wishes to use these baths, pays on entrance two
+_doppelvierer_,[45] or one _angster_,[46] and three _kreuzers_. Moreover
+the members of the bath community give breakfast at six o'clock every
+morning by turns, one much, another little, according as they wish to
+distinguish themselves. Although much eating and drinking is not good
+with the baths, yet it oft happens that many who sit three or four hours
+in the bath, need a little soup, and cannot go on without somewhat to
+drink. Yet it were well for some rule to be established, that each
+person should not have more than a quart of wine; this would give the
+baths a better repute, and they could not then openly write and put in
+print, that here is a tippling bath wherein drunken matins are sung. For
+the members of the bath community can unite to settle these matters
+according to their pleasure. They pray before and after breakfast, and
+return thanks to the host in a pleasant song, hoping that he may live
+long in all honour, till he gives another breakfast. After that they
+nominate him whose turn it is to be the next host, place a garland on
+him, and threaten him in a song that they will come to him the morrow
+with fifes and drums. But on Sundays and great festivals they
+discontinue their breakfasts and songs.
+
+"At this bath a mayor is chosen by the majority of the bath community,
+likewise a governor, treasurer, chaplain, apparator, bailiff, and
+executioner, who after breakfast sit in judgment, in order to put an end
+to or punish any offences against order and discipline, which may have
+been committed in this or the other baths of the house. Each member of
+the bath community must also put his left hand on the mayor's staff, and
+swear to obey him. The fines which fall in, they give to the poor, or
+for wine, or they spend it amongst one another. Thus passes the morning
+in pastime. When any one has finished bathing, he takes a friendly
+leave, and gives an honourable farewell present.
+
+"The second bath is the women's bath, in which divers honourable women
+and maidens meet together. In this the women also choose, every day, in
+turn a hostess, have a cheerful breakfast, thank the hostess, and with a
+wreath and pleasant song select another, as in the gentlemen's baths.
+They have also a special treasurer who keeps their money and presents in
+the treasury, which they spend in a friendly way together. But if
+anything unseemly or worthy of punishment takes place, they bring it
+before the mayor and court of the gentlemen, that some decision may be
+pronounced thereupon, according to old custom.
+
+"In the third bath--the kettle--come all kinds of people, women and men,
+as many as fifty people together; they are modest and friendly with one
+another, and eat what they can, and what pleases them. These also are
+subject to the court of the gentlemen's bath. Any one also, out of the
+gentlemen's or ladies' bath, may go into the kettle. On the other hand,
+those in the kettle bath, may not go into the others, unless they pay
+their share of the breakfasts. This bath has a very salutary effect, and
+the lame and paralytic are often brought here, who soon become vigorous
+and straight, and are able of themselves to go away, as in the year
+1577, happened to a maiden from Waldshut, who did not over-eat herself,
+and bathed according to due order.
+
+"The Margraves' bath was let out to special persons. The serene and
+right honourable Jörg Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg, who there
+bathed in person in 1575, was painted sitting therein on a horse. When I
+think of this bath, I cannot help laughing at a wonderful pleasantry
+that took place therein, and which is worth relating. In the aforesaid
+year a burgomaster and honourable councillor of the praiseworthy and
+far-famed city of Zurich, had sent a handsome bath present to the right
+honourable the Prince of Brandenburg, of wine and oats, and commanded
+Herr Heinrich Lochmann, the Banneret of Zurich, to present and deliver
+this. Now when he appeared with the present at Baden, it happened that
+the Prince was somewhat heated and weakened by the bath, so that for
+some days he could not appear at table, but kept quiet in his bedroom or
+in the bath. Meanwhile he commanded Duke Johann of Liegnitz and his
+councillors, to receive the foreign guests and provide them well. Now
+what they had made good cheer, and the Banneret was desirous to see the
+Prince, it was signified to him that the Prince received no one at
+present, but kept in his bedroom or the bath. Then the Banneret swore
+and vowed by his honour that he would be received by the Prince, and
+would on the morrow before he departed, if it could not be done
+otherwise, enter the bath with boots and spurs, and offer the Prince his
+hand, that he might tell his superiors he had seen the Prince. Now as I
+had sat at the table with him, and had been invited in the morning to
+bathe alone with the Prince. I respectfully signified to him what
+conversation had been carried on at supper, and what the Banneret
+threatened him with. I at the same time told the Prince of the great age
+of the Banneret, and his upright, valiant spirit, and begged of his
+Princely Grace, in case it should so happen, not to take it
+ungraciously. We sat thus together two hours, and spoke with one another
+of divers matters, when lo! there comes my good Lochmann, who like an
+old simple associate, wished the Prince good day, waded in his boots and
+spurs through the water, and offered the Prince his hand. I remarked
+that the Prince changed colour. Thereupon the Banneret stepped back and
+begged the Prince to forgive him, as he had done it with good intent,
+that he might tell his superiors of the benignity and friendliness of
+the Prince. Then did the Prince, like a wise and eloquent gentleman,
+thank first the Banneret's superiors, and then also himself for the
+gift, and commended himself also to the favour of the men of Zurich.
+Thus he forgave him this boldness, which had proceeded from a good
+true-hearted spirit, and drank to his good friendship in a large goblet
+of wine. I received the goblet from the Prince and handed it to the
+Banneret, who pledged the Prince and drank to me from the goblet. He
+thereupon parted from the Prince quite humbly and joyfully."
+
+Such is the narrative of the prudent Pantaleon. He is not like Poggio, a
+stranger who frankly, and in a spirit of curiosity, describes foreign
+manners, who perhaps had every wish to draw a friendly picture of the
+life at the baths, and who belonged to a nation which, as Poggio himself
+says, is surprised at nothing. But in the same degree as his character
+and conceptions differ from those of the Italian, so does the aspect of
+the baths appear altered in the century of the Reformation. A greater
+earnestness, prayer, and an organized self-police are not to be
+mistaken. The last, especially at that time, a general German idea,
+deserves attention. The state authorities also had taken the bath life
+under their supervision. Gifts were presented to the bath travellers in
+the sixteenth century, as they still continued to make presents on their
+departure to those who remained behind. As these gifts fostered vanity
+and luxury to an extravagant excess, the governments took serious steps
+to put a stop to them.
+
+In the century of the Thirty years' war and of Louis XIV. much of the
+self-control and political feeling of the men, and piety of the women
+which had been perceptible at the baths, as a consequence of the
+Reformation, was lost. Switzerland suffered like Germany. The government
+was narrow-minded and tyrannical, and among the subjects there was a
+deficiency of self-respect, an aping of foreigners and of French
+manners. Again did enjoyment at the baths become dissolute. But even
+this is different from the frivolous, wanton behaviour of the fifteenth
+century. The citizens thought it an honour to court the adventurous
+cavalier from foreign parts, and to be his parasite; the coquetry of the
+women also was more forward and common, and their almost unblushing
+connection with the foreign bath visitors showed an empty heart, and too
+often a great absence of modesty. There is a characteristic account of
+these famous baths at this period also, by a frivolous Frenchman, De
+Merveilleux, preserved by a branch of the German family Wunderlish.
+'Amusements des Bains de Bade,' &c., London, 1739.
+
+
+            Life at the Baths at the end of the Seventeenth Century.
+
+"Much had been told us of the splendid entrance of the French Ambassador
+at Baden during the Swiss Diet.[47] We hoped to find a princely court,
+but the present Ambassador in no respect resembles his predecessor. He
+has no pages; the Count de Luc had six, as they tell me, as many
+secretaries, and a like number of gentlemen of the bedchamber. The
+present man has a secretary, who they assure me has been a servant, and
+no gentleman of the bedchamber. His predecessor kept open table of fifty
+covers, with three courses, and thus dined and supped every morning and
+evening, in order to show honour to the Swiss. The present one has his
+table laid with a kind of _déjeuner à la fourchette_, soup, roast,
+entremets, and dessert, but no variety; every day the same, and nothing
+good or hot. Instead of one silver dish they would give one, six of
+pewter. The foreigners and the Swiss do not seem content with this.
+
+"But what does this signify to us? We live with our Bernerins; and have
+good living. They would gladly get rid of some of Bacchus's favourites
+from their town; amongst them the son of a delegate, we will endeavour
+to get him away if we can.
+
+"We go little into the city; all people of distinction go to the
+promenade, where there is pleasant intercourse. As many towns have Swiss
+fashions, which are not similar to the French, such as the dress of the
+women of Basle, Lucerne, Zurich, and other distant cantons, it gives one
+the impression of a right gay masquerade, when all the visitors at the
+baths are assembled for a dance. The Swiss men and women are much given
+to gallantry. The ladies of Zurich have little opportunity of amusing
+themselves, except at the bath season at Baden, and they understand how
+to use this opportunity to the utmost. But if the French Ambassador is
+not at Baden or does not keep open table, there is not very much
+amusement. Every Swiss of any importance, is accustomed to have good
+repasts at the Ambassador's yearly at Baden, so that they are much
+dissatisfied with the comparison of the present with the past. The
+mothers tell their daughters of the pleasures they had in former times
+at the baths, and the young maidens are thereby incited to endeavour to
+procure some likewise. They labour to this end to the best of their
+powers, and the foreign cavaliers who know how to take advantage of the
+simplicity of these young city maidens, find themselves well off. For
+they are the daughters of magisterial persons, who have plenty of means
+to spend in Baden, and their marriages with the sons of their country
+are as good as settled, with such at least as speculate on places in the
+state, which are conferred principally by the fathers of these maidens;
+and thus it comes to pass that these little flirtations at the baths,
+cause no disturbance in the arrangement which has been made concerning
+their marriage.
+
+"We had the honour of an invitation from the minister, he invited us to
+a dinner with many ladies. Among others were two Mademoiselles S----,
+from Schaffhausen, daughters of good families. One of them has wounded
+more than one cavalier. There was much good entertainment that day; nay,
+there was even some table plate won in a lottery. The ambassador found
+Mademoiselle S---- charming, and held her on his knee almost the whole
+evening of the ball, though he was suffering with his foot. The dance
+had one effect on the demoiselles which astonished us much. When they
+had danced very vigorously, and were very warm, lice made their
+appearance on the locks of their beautiful hair. That was rather
+unpleasant; but the maidens had such beautiful skins that it became
+quite a pleasure to take off the vermin as soon as they became visible.
+The waters of Baden have the effect of producing these with young
+people; therefore the Germans apply powder after powder but without
+combing themselves properly.
+
+"These demoiselles were not the only beauties of this ball; there were
+many pretty women there with their husbands and adorers. The Zurich
+ladies also would gladly have been there, but they were not allowed to
+visit the house of the French Ambassador, as their canton was averse to
+the renewal of the alliance with the King; nay, it was a transgression
+for a Zuricher even to enter the French hotel, therefore their wives and
+daughters only took a walk in the Ambassador's garden, who did not fail
+to betake himself there in an arm-chair on account of his bad foot.
+Every one on entering made him a reverence, and that procured him the
+pleasure of giving a kiss to each of these pretty city ladies, both
+mothers and daughters."
+
+Here we conclude the narrative. These insipid and absurd proceedings
+ceased gradually towards the end of the last century. Even before the
+fever of the French revolution had seized the nations of Europe, the
+forms of social intercourse had changed, and still more so the feelings
+of men. The burgher life was still insipid, stiff, and _philliströs_;
+but the need of new ideas and deeper excitement had become general. Even
+the adventurers and cavaliers could no longer impose upon the credulity
+of their cotemporaries, by their old frivolity; it was necessary for
+them to be to some extent performers of prodigies, in order to get hold
+of the purses of others.
+
+The Germans meanwhile, had found other places of amusement. The
+pleasure-seeking youths wandered to Spa and Pyrmont; hardly any now but
+the citizens of Switzerland assembled at the baths of Zurich. In
+conclusion, the society at Baden, as it was at the end of the last
+century, is thus shortly described.
+
+
+             Life at the Baths at the end of the Eighteenth Century.
+
+"The magistracy stand in high esteem with the citizens, and endeavour to
+maintain this by the most formal behaviour. Owing to this adherence to
+forms, a journey to Baden was at that period a great state transaction.
+Farewell visits were first made to relations and acquaintances. The
+distinguished people of Zurich ordered, as early as possible, the
+quarters where they were to be accommodated in Hinterhof, that they
+might not be mixed up with the common burgher class, who then put up at
+the Stadthof. The wealthy artisans whom one met with there, were still
+greeted by the title of 'master,' and generally in the second person;
+and the patrician families kept exclusively together. Immediately after
+an arrival visits of ceremony were paid, each one made deep obeisance to
+the other, and observed strictly the customary etiquette. There was more
+solemnity than frivolity, and the freer proceedings of the young people
+were considered as deviations from the rule. They always showed
+themselves also at the baths, dressed to the best of their power,
+according to their condition in life, and even the négligé was carefully
+chosen, and showed the quality of the person. The gentlemen appeared in
+the morning in dressing-gowns of woollen damask, out of the wide sleeves
+of which, ruffles of fine cambric fell over the hands, and the
+_Badehren_ (bath mantles) of both sexes were trimmed with lace, and
+after the bath, in order to be dried, were spread out ostentatiously as
+a show, on the bars before the windows of the rooms. In Zurich they
+restricted the advance of expenditure by moral laws, prudent considering
+the period, but frequently carried to exaggeration. The material was
+accurately prescribed in which both sexes were allowed to be dressed.
+The women especially were kept under strict observation, and they were
+forbidden to wear blond, fringes, thread or silk lace, except on their
+caps; all openwork embroidery, all dresses of gauze, and all trimmings,
+except of the same material as the dress. The ordinance on dress says
+further: 'Married women may be allowed to curl their hair, but over the
+curls there must be nothing fastened but a simple silk ribbon;
+consequently the wearing of so-called tocquets, and of all feathers and
+other ornaments for the hair, were altogether forbidden; farther, the
+wearing of all enamel work and of portraits painted in miniature or
+other representations.' The men were forbidden not only all upper
+garments of silk or velvet, but even a lining of the like material;
+farther, all gold or silver stuffs and lacing, and all gallooned or
+embroidered horse covers and housings, except at the quarter musterings;
+and to both sexes most especially all real or mock jewels on a penalty
+of fifty pounds. The tribunal, appointed by the government, which drew
+up these laws, and was charged to administer them, was called
+_Reformation_. Meanwhile the power of the _Reformation_ did not extend
+beyond the frontier of the canton, although in one special article they
+endeavoured to stretch the mandate to those Zurichers who lived in other
+parts of the confederation, and especially in Baden. Here alone nothing
+was prescribed, and they indemnified themselves for restraint elsewhere,
+by adorning themselves with just those things which were forbidden at
+home. Many proud ladies and gentlemen, procured themselves objects of
+luxury for a visit to the baths of a few weeks, which were quite useless
+to them for the remainder of the year, and displayed themselves therein,
+in defiance of any reformers who chanced to be present. Gallooned
+dresses, which had once been worn in foreign parts, were here brought to
+light again out of the chests wherein they had been preserved, unused
+for years. The few jewels inherited from great-grandmothers were taken
+out of their cases to ornament the ears, neck, and stomacher; and in
+delicately holding a cup of coffee, the little finger was stretched to
+the utmost, that the ring, brilliant with diamonds, rubies, or emeralds,
+might glitter before the eye. In great pomp, like the dressed-up altar
+figures, they passed along the dirty courts and alleys to admire and be
+admired; but in order that their attire might not be injured, they
+seldom went further in this beautiful country than to the meadows or to
+the play. It was a period of stiff buffoonery! That the young people of
+both sexes, often left alone together till late in the night, danced
+more perhaps than now-a-days; that the gentlemen sometimes sacrificed
+largely to Bacchus; and that all, after their fashion, enjoyed
+themselves right well, may easily be understood. People of rank, some
+already smartly attired, others in choice morning dresses, assembled
+usually before dinner in the Hinterhofe, round a small stone table
+called the _Täfeli_, where they usually returned again after the repast.
+Here they gossiped good-humouredly on everything far and wide; no news
+was left untouched, and many witty and delicate allegorical jests were
+ventured upon and listened to. The return from Baden took place
+generally in a very slow formal manner. After manifold long, wordy and
+drawling compliments, and farewell formularies, packed at last in the
+lumbering coach, they go; step by step, slowly, still making salutations
+right and left from the coach door, up to the Halde."
+
+Now Baden has become a respectable, modest, summer residence, little
+different from fifty other similar institutions. Still however one may
+observe, not in Baden itself, but at other baths in Switzerland, the
+ancient arrangement that persons of the same sex may bathe together in a
+bath, amusing themselves without constraint; and not long ago at the
+Leuker baths there were galleries round the baths, from which many
+strangers might watch the bathers. But everywhere the proceedings of
+men, even in these works of idleness, take another form; and the
+garlanded maidens of Poggio, the costly suppers of the time of
+Pantaleon, and the frivolous patrician daughters, who, in defiance of
+father and bridegroom, went about from bath to bath with foreign
+cavaliers, have vanished, and forgotten is the tedious ceremonial by
+which particular classes were closed to one another.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+
+  JESUITS AND JEWS. (about 1693.)
+
+
+The Churches in Germany, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, suffered
+from the weakness of the nation. Both had to pass through struggles and
+sufferings, which threatened destruction to every exclusive Church
+system; they became too narrow to embrace the whole spiritual and
+intellectual life of men. Since the war, men had gradually felt the need
+of toleration. With the Protestants, Luther's principle again revived,
+that only inward conviction could bring men into the Church. It was
+later, that the old Church yielded a grumbling toleration. Science had
+discovered, amongst other things, that in spite of some passages of Holy
+Scripture, the sun does not turn round our earth, but our earth round
+the sun. Unwillingly did the Church receive this, after the discovery
+had occasioned her many a heart's pang.
+
+The Protestant Church had fewer difficulties to overcome, but the
+aristocratic structure of the Roman Catholic Church, again so firmly
+united, and supported by great political interests, would naturally find
+it far more difficult to yield to necessity.
+
+Whoever should wish to write a history of the religious conscience of
+Germans, would have to examine how it was, that after the war there
+arose in both confessions, precisely at the same time, a reaction of the
+heart against the ruling parties, which in spite of the difference of
+dogmas, shows a great similarity in the representations of this
+tendency. The need of elevation of soul, in a period which was poor in
+feeling, made the Protestant Spener, and the Catholic Spee and Scheffler
+into pietists, and mystics. It is true, the restraining power of the
+Protestant Church could no longer check the development of
+individuality. Through it the scientific man could easily satisfy
+himself, when he came, from the study of history, from observation of
+the heavens, from the secret of numbers, and through the weighing and
+measuring of the powers of the elements, to a new representation of the
+world of creation, and thereby to new views of the being of the Godhead.
+Thus the genius of the great Leibnitz was the growth of the Protestant
+Church. Any one also whose fancy took a wild flight, or to whom deep
+thought and meditation disclosed some peculiar aspect of the Deity,
+might easily release himself from Church-communion with his
+fellow-citizens, and unite himself perhaps with congenial spirits in
+some special community. Thus did Böhme, and the eccentric Kuhlmann,
+Zinzendorf, and Herrnhuter. This was incomparably more difficult in the
+Roman Catholic Church. Whoever attempted to go his own way, had to
+experience the anger of a strict mistress, and rarely did a powerful
+mind break loose from the restraint.
+
+But the ruling majority of ecclesiastics had even in the old Church lost
+much of their energy. The warlike champion of the restored Church, the
+order of Jesuits, had itself suffered in its greatness; it had become
+powerful and rich, the connection between the provinces and Rome had
+been loosened, the independence of individual houses was greater, and
+the curse had fallen on it which pursues the prosperous. It became
+pre-eminently the representative of modern courtly splendour in church
+and school. Even in earlier times the order had not disdained brilliant
+displays, nor to enter into the feelings of the great world, but then it
+had been like the prophet Daniel, who only wore the Persian dress in
+order to serve his God among the heathen; now Daniel had become a
+satrap. Through the Westphalian peace, the great mission work of the
+order was limited. Still however, did it continue skilfully to draw
+within its circle the souls of individuals, whoever was rich or
+distinguished was firmly ensnared. Its main object was not the salvation
+of souls, but the fame which would accrue to the order. The greatest
+amount of work was done in the Emperor's territory. Wherever heresy
+still flickered, the lay authorities assisted. But one race, more
+stubborn and stiff-necked than the sons of the Hussites, or the Moravian
+brothers, incessantly excited the spirit of conversion in the order, it
+was the Jews.
+
+Already in the time of the Romans, the Jews may have dwelt within the
+colonies on the Rhine, near the temple of Jupiter of golden Maintz, and
+the baths of the proud Agrippina; they afterwards established themselves
+within the German cities. In respect to German law they were as
+foreigners; they were placed under the protection of the Emperor, who
+transferred his power over them to the Archbishop of Maintz, the
+Chancellor of the Empire. As the Emperor's dear servitors, besides the
+other taxes, they had to pay him and the princes a penny offering, which
+was raised on Christmas-day. This tax, one of the sources of the
+Emperor's revenue, should have been security for his protection, but it
+became an opportunity for the worst oppression; and they were drawn upon
+for contributions on every occasion that money was wanted. Their taxes
+reached to an exorbitant height. On sudden money emergencies, or as an
+act of favour, the Emperor sold, or gave away his right of taxation to
+the Princes and cities; and the year's rent of three, four, or even one
+hundred Jews, was a secure and important income. Thus it was a source of
+gain to the Princes and Sovereigns to possess many Jews, from whom they
+raised money to the utmost.
+
+On the other hand it was an exclusive right of the Jews to lend out
+money on interest for notes of hand or mortgages, which was strictly
+forbidden to the Christians of the middle ages by the Pope and Emperor.
+Thus naturally the whole of the money dealing came into the hands of the
+Jews. And by the high interest which they received--especially on short
+loans--they must rapidly have acquired great wealth. But this boundless
+right was not secure against sudden attacks, both Pope and Emperor
+sometimes took the liberty of giving the creditor a dispensation from
+the payment of the interest, nay even of the capital.
+
+Thus they became the financiers of the olden time in both great and
+little traffic, the richest persons in the country, in spite of
+monstrous imposts.
+
+But this opulence stimulated still more the hate and covetousness of the
+multitude. In the early part of the middle ages they appear to have been
+seldom persecuted by Christian fanaticism. But after the Crusades, the
+declining Church and the populace of the towns vied with each other in
+seeking their lives and treasure. A tradition which continues up to the
+present day was brought forward against them. They were supposed to
+poison wells, to introduce the plague, to murder Christian children, use
+their blood at their Passover, and feed on their hearts; and to whip the
+consecrated host with rods, &c. Persecutions, plundering of houses, and
+extensive murders were almost periodical. Christianity was forced upon
+them by the sword, torments, and imprisonment, but usually in vain. No
+warlike people ever withstood brutal violence, with more heroic courage
+than this defenceless race. The most magnanimous examples of enduring
+heroism are mentioned by Christian writers themselves. Thus it went on
+during the whole of the middle ages, and still in the sixteenth century
+we find the Sovereigns endeavouring to fill their empty coffers from the
+money bags of the Jews, and the populace still storming their houses, as
+in the wild Jewish outbreak at Frankfort-on-Main in 1614. Some great
+scholars, physicians, and natural philosophers among them, acquired a
+repute which spread through all the countries of Europe, inspiring even
+Christians with involuntary respect, but these were rare exceptions.
+
+Amidst all these adverse circumstances, the indestructible vital
+energies of this people still continued, as we find them among the Jews
+of the present day: privileged by the Emperor, helpless before the law
+of the country, indispensable, yet deeply hated, desired, but cursed, in
+daily danger of fire, robbery, and murder, yet the quiet, masters of the
+property and welfare of hundreds, in an unnatural adventurous position,
+and yet always steadily occupied, amidst the densest mass of Christians,
+yet separated from them by iron boundaries, they lived a twofold life;
+in presence of Christians they were cold, stubborn, patient, timid,
+cringing, and servile, bowed down under the oppression of a thousand
+years: yet all the pride of noble blood, great wealth, and superior
+talent, the full glow of southern feeling, every kindly emotion and
+every dark passion were to be found in that race.
+
+After the Thirty years' war, the Jews obtained scarcely more protection
+from the fury of the multitude, and their spiritual trials became
+greater. If the Protestants, who were then weak and embarrassed, vexed
+them more by repulsive arrogance than by their arts of proselytism, the
+old Church was the more zealous. They were more prosperous in trade and
+usury since the Westphalian peace, indeed a splendid prospect had opened
+for them. The diminution of international wholesale business, the ruin
+of old commercial houses at Nuremberg and Augsburg, the continued
+depreciation of the coinage, the unceasing need of money, with the
+territorial lords, small and great, was favourable to the multifarious
+activity of the Jewish business, which found skilful instruments
+throughout all Germany, and connections from Constantinople to Cadiz.
+The importance to German trade of the close cohesion of the Jews amongst
+themselves, at a period when bad roads, heavy tolls, and ignorant
+legislation, placed the greatest limits upon commerce, is not yet
+sufficiently appreciated. With unwearied energy, like ants, they
+everywhere bored their secret way through the worm-eaten wood of the
+German Empire: long before the letter post and system of goods carriers
+had spread a great network over the whole circuit of the country, they
+had quietly combined for these objects; poor chafferers and travelling
+beggars, passed as trusty agents between Amsterdam and Frankfort, Prague
+and Warsaw, with money and jewels under their rags, nay concealed within
+their bodies. In the most dangerous times, in spite of prohibitions, the
+defenceless Jew stole secretly through armies, from one German territory
+into another; and he carried Kremnitzer ducats of full weight to
+Frankfort, while he circulated light ones among the people. Here he
+bought laces and new church vestments for his opponents, the
+ecclesiastics; there he smuggled through an enemy's territory, to some
+prince, arms and implements of war; then he guided and accompanied a
+large transport of leather from the interior of Russia to the fair of
+Leipzig, he alone being capable by flattery, money, and brandy, of
+overmatching the covetousness of the Sclave nobles. Meanwhile, the most
+opulent sat in the well-grated rooms of their Jewish town, concealing
+securely, under lock and key, the bills of exchange, and mortgages of
+the highest lords, they were great bankers, even according to our
+present standard.
+
+The Jews of that period were probably richer in proportion to the
+Christians than now, and at all events, from the peculiarities of their
+traffic, more indispensable. They had friendly protectors alike at the
+Imperial court, in the harem of the Sultan, and in the secret chamber of
+the Pope; they had an aristocracy of blood, which was still highly
+respected by their fellow-believers, and at bridal feasts they wore with
+pride, the jewels which some ancestor, long perhaps before the days of
+Marco Polo, had brought from India, while exposing his life to manifold
+dangers; or another had got by bartering, from the great Moorish king at
+Granada. But in the streets the Jew still bore the degrading mark of the
+unhonoured stranger; in the Empire, a yellow cockade on his coat, and in
+Bohemia the stiff blue cravat; as in the middle ages he had worn the
+yellow hat, and in Italy the red mantle. It is true he was the creditor
+and employer of numerous Christians, but in most of the greater cities
+he still lived closely confined to certain streets or portions of the
+city. Few German Jewish communities were larger or more opulent than
+that in Prague, and it was one of the oldest in Germany. Seldom does a
+traveller neglect to visit the narrow streets of the Jewish quarter,
+where the small houses, clustered together like the cells of a beehive,
+enclosed at once the greatest riches and the greatest misery of the
+country, and where the angel of death so long caused tears of gall to
+trickle into the mouth of the believer, till every inch of earth in the
+dismal churchyard became the ashes of men. At the end of the seventeenth
+century, near six thousand industrious men dwelt there in a narrow
+space; the great money lenders, as well as the poorest frippery dealers
+and porters, all closely united in firm fellowship and common interests,
+indispensable to the impoverished country, yet in continual warfare
+against the customs, coarseness, and religious zeal of the newly
+converted kingdom.
+
+For the second generation were then living, of the new Bohemia, which
+the Hapsburgers by scaffolds, expulsion, and fearful dragooning, had won
+back after the battle of Weissen Berge. The old race of nobles was, for
+the most part, rooted out; a new Imperial nobility drove in gilded
+carriages through the black Hussite city; the old biblical learning had
+wandered into foreign lands, or died away in the misery of the long war;
+in the place of the chalice priests and the Bohemian preachers, were the
+holy fathers and begging monks; where once Huss defended the teaching of
+Wickliff, and Zisk rebuked the lukewarmness of the citizens of the old
+town, the gilded statue of the queen of heaven now rose triumphant.
+Little remained to the people of their past, except the dark stones of
+Königsstadt, a rough populace, and a harsh piety.
+
+There remains to us a little pamphlet of this time, for which we are
+indebted to two of the Prague celebrities of the order of Jesuits, the
+Fathers Eder and Christel, the first of whom, wrote it in Latin, and the
+second translated it into German; both writers are otherwise known, the
+second as a zealous but insipid German poet. From this writing the
+following narrative is taken.
+
+"Thus in a few years a hundred and seventy persons of the Jewish
+persuasion, were purified in the saving waters of baptism, by one single
+priest of our society, in the Academical church of Our Saviour, of the
+college of the Society of Jesus.
+
+"I will by the way, here shortly mention, the wonderful bias of a Jewish
+child for the Christian faith. A Jewess in the Zinkower domain was in
+the habit of carrying her little daughter in her arms; one day she
+accidentally met a Catholic priest, to whom she proposed to show her
+child, and taking the veil off its little face, boasted what a
+finely-shaped child she had brought into the world. The priest took
+advantage of this preposterous and unexpected confidence, to bless the
+unveiled child with the sign of the holy cross, admonishing the mother
+at the same time to bring up the said child in the love and fear of God,
+but leaving all else in the hands of Divine Providence. And behold this
+little Jewess had hardly began to walk, when she forthwith considered
+herself a Christian, knelt with them when they knelt, sang with the
+singers, went out with them into the meadows and woods, made hay,
+plucked strawberries, and picked up wood with them; besides this, she
+learnt of them the paternoster and the angel's salutation, as also to
+say the belief; in short she made herself acquainted with Christian
+doctrine, and desired earnestly to be baptized. The high-born and Right
+Honorable Countess of Zinkow, in order to fulfil this maiden's desire,
+to her great delight took her in her carriage to Prague, that she might
+there, out of sight of her parents, more securely obtain the privilege
+of baptism. But after the parents had discovered that their daughter,
+who had for so long a time carefully kept her designs secret, had become
+a Christian, they bitterly lamented it, and were very indignant with the
+priest who had blessed her in her mother's arms with the sign of the
+cross, for they ascribed to him all their daughter's inclination for
+Christianity.
+
+"But by what intrigues the perfidious Jews endeavoured to frustrate
+every conversion, I have myself not long since had experience, when for
+the first time, a disciple in the faith of the Jewish race, Samuel
+Metzel, was placed under me for instruction. The father, who had four
+children yet minors, was a true Israelite, out of the Egypt of the
+Jewish town, and had endeavoured, much and zealously, to bring them all,
+together with himself, out of bondage. But, behold! Rosina Metzelin, his
+wife, who then had a great horror of the Christian faith, would not obey
+him; and when she found that the four children were immediately
+withdrawn from her, this robbery of her children, was, like the loss of
+her young to a lioness, hard to bear. She summoned her husband before
+the Episcopal consistory, where she sued for at least two of the four
+purloined children, which she had given birth to, with great labour,
+pain, and weariness, both before, at, and after the time. But the most
+wise tribunal of the Archbishop, decided that all the children belonged
+to the husband, who was shortly to be baptized. Then did the wife lament
+piteously, indeed more exceedingly than can be told or believed; and as
+she was afeard that her fifth offspring, which was yet unborn, would be
+stolen from her after its birth, she endeavoured earnestly to conceal
+from the Christians the time of her delivery. Therefore she determined
+first of all to change her place of abode, as her present one was known
+to her husband and children. But there is no striving against the Lord!
+The father discovered it by means of his innocent little daughter, who
+for some months had been constantly kept in a Christian lodging, and was
+unwarily admitted by her mother into her concealed dwelling. On
+receiving this information, I sought out the Imperial Judge of the
+_Altstadt_ of Prague, who, without delay, despatched his clerk to the
+house, to demand the new-born child from the woman, and (in case she
+refused) from the Elder of the Jewish people, as belonging to the now
+baptized father. But as these crafty Jews would not consent to deliver
+up the child, a Christian midwife was ordered for the Jewish woman, that
+the same might, by some womanly, pious contrivance, carry off the child
+from the mother. This midwife was accompanied by certain prudent
+matrons. The conductress was to be Ludmilla, well known for her great
+godliness, wife of Wenzeslaus Wymbrsky, who had gone through the baptism
+of water and blood. Her husband Wenzeslaus was, with this his wife and
+five children, baptized in our church by his Eminence the Cardinal and
+Archbishop of Prague in 1464. It was above all displeasing to the
+furious Jews, to see thirteen men of other families, following the
+example of Wenzeslaus, abjuring Judaism the same year. At last it became
+insupportable to them that Wenzeslaus, by whose shop many Jews had daily
+to pass to their frippery market, should publicly set up in it the image
+of the crucified Saviour, and every Friday keep a burning lamp before
+it. Therefore he was greatly hated by the Jewish rabble, and often
+assailed with derision and scoffing. Now, once when he went, according
+to his daily custom, to the Teynkirche, an hour before day, three armed
+Jews fell on him, by whom he was mortally wounded with two poisoned
+pistol-balls, so that on the fifth day thereafter, he devoutly departed
+this life, without having been persuaded to name the murderers. The
+ringleader was caught later, and condemned to the wheel, but acting as
+his own executioner hanged himself with a rope. Now the widow of the
+deceased man, Ludmilla, could not slip in, with the little troop of
+pious women, unperceived, because the Hebrews with their sharp lynx-eyes
+watched narrowly. At that moment, many of them combined together and
+pushed their way into the room of the Jewish woman about to be
+confined. But Ludmilla did not take alarm at their presence, nor at the
+possible danger of death. She handed over the consecrated water she had
+brought with her, to the midwife, calling upon her in strong language,
+to deliver the woman and baptize the child. And so it took place, and
+the nurse took the child and baptized it. But the woman who had been
+confined sprang frantically from her bed, and with vehement cries, tore
+the child violently from the hands of the midwife. Forthwith, the city
+judge made his appearance with armed men, in order to separate the now
+little Christian son from the mother. But as she, like a frantic one,
+held the child so firmly clasped in her arms, that it was feared it
+would be stifled in extricating it from her, the judicious judge of the
+city contented himself with strictly forbidding the old Jews there
+assembled, to make the child a Jew. Thereupon it was commanded, by his
+Excellence, the Lord Count of the Empire, Von Sternberg, Chief Burgrave
+of the Kingdom of Bohemia, that this fifth child should be delivered
+over to the father. Not long after, the mother also, who had so
+stubbornly adhered to Judaism, gave in, and was baptized.
+
+"The father of the Jewish boy Simon Abeles, was Lazarus, and his
+grandsire Moses Abeles who for many years had been Chief Rabbi of the
+Jews. Whilst already of tender years, there had been discovered in this
+boy a special leaning of the spirit towards Christianity. Whenever he
+could, he separated himself from the Jewish youths, and associated with
+the Christian boys, played with them, and gave them sweets which he had
+collected from his father's table, in order to gain their good will. The
+Jewish cravat, stiffened with blue starch, which the Jews wear round the
+neck, thereby distinguishing themselves here in Bohemia from the
+Christians, was quite repugnant to Simon. As the light of his reason
+became brighter, he took every opportunity of learning the Christian
+mysteries. It happened that he was many times sent by his father, who
+was a glove dealer, on business to the house of Christopher Hoffman, a
+Christian glover. There he tarried in contemplation of the sacred, not
+the profane, pictures that hung on the walls, although the last were
+more precious and remarkable as specimens of artistic painting, and he
+inquired with curiosity of the Christian inmates, what was signified in
+these pictures. When in reply they told him, that one was a
+representation of Christ, another of the mother of Christ, the
+miracle-working mother of God, by Buntzel, and another, the holy
+Antonius of Padua, he exclaimed, from his heart, sighing: 'Oh, that I
+could be a Christian!' Moreover, a Jew called Rebbe Liebmann bore
+witness, that the boy sometimes passed whole nights among Christians,
+and did not appear at his father's house.
+
+"Now many maintained that this leaning to Christianity arose from a
+supernatural source, and was produced by the baptismal sign, which had
+been impressed upon him by a Christian, whilst he was in the cradle.
+When later this report had been carefully investigated, it was certified
+that a preceptor, Stephen Hiller, was once sent to Lazarus Abeles to
+obtain payment of a debt, that he there found a child lying alone in the
+cradle, and had, from deep impulse of heart, baptized him with the
+elemental water which was at hand. On being examined by the consistory
+of the Right Reverend the Archbishop, this preceptor, who is now
+invested with a chaplaincy, said that he did not know whether the child
+was the little son of Lazarus; nay, his supposition had been far
+stronger, that it was the son of a Jewish tailor. From such evidence
+this weighty point remained doubtful.
+
+"After some years, the steadfast leaning of Simon's spirit to
+Christianity, having so much increased that it began to be clearly
+perceived at home, the astute boy, foreseeing well that his parents and
+relations would spare no pains to put impediments in his way, was minded
+to prevent this, by flying from his father's house and Jewish friends,
+before the path was closed against him. Now while, on the 25th of July,
+1693, Lazarus the father, kept the solemn day of rest in the Jewish
+school, his son betook himself to a Christian house near the Jewish
+town, which was inhabited by the newly baptized Jew, Kawka, and that
+same evening summoned to him Johannes Santa, a Jew who many years before
+had been converted with his whole family, of whom he had already heard a
+good repute, as a zealous man and assiduous guide. For this man had, at
+the risk of his life, brought away Jews who had a desire for the
+Christian faith, and their newly baptized children from the Jewish town,
+had placed them under instruction in our college of St. Clement, had
+provided them with food, clothes, and lodging, and had for hours
+together read spiritual books, especially the Life of Christ, with deep
+devotion to such as could not read, and whose greatest pleasure it was
+to see them cleansed in holy baptism. To him Simon honestly opened his
+heart, and entreated that Johannes would take him to the college of the
+Society of Jesus.
+
+"There was no necessity for entreating, the man borrowed clothes of a
+Christian youth, covered Simon's head, which was shorn after the Jewish
+fashion, with a peruke, and conducted him across the Altstadter Platz to
+the college. In the middle of the said Platz, stands the large
+richly-gilded image of the holy mother of God, carved out of one stone.
+Johannes explained to his Christian scholar, that this richly-gilded
+image represented the Queen of heaven, the faithful mediator of
+believers with God. This Simon listened to with great eagerness, took
+off his hat without delay, bowed his whole body low, and commended
+himself with pious sighs, to the blessed mother of God, as her foster
+child. Hereupon he turned to his guide and thus addressed him: 'If my
+father saw this, he would straightway kill me.' Thus they reached our
+college between seven and eight o'clock in the evening. I was called to
+the door, and Simon imparted to me his desires with marvellous
+eloquence, and at the same time begged with such fervent zeal to be
+instructed in the Christian faith, that I was much amazed. I presented
+him the same evening to the Reverend Father Rector of the college. It
+almost seemed as if this twelve-year-old boy behaved himself, as afore
+time Jesus among the doctors, seeing that he answered various questions
+with an eloquence, acuteness, and judgment which far surpassed his age.
+When it was objected to him, that his arrival excited a suspicion that
+he had committed some evil deed in the Jewish town, and sought a refuge
+in the ecclesiastical house, Simon answered with cheerful countenance:
+'If there is a suspicion of any misdeed, let the truth be searched out
+by proclamation, as is usual in the Jew town. If I were conscious of any
+evil deed, I should have more hope of remaining unpunished among the
+Jews than among the Christians, for I am a grandson of Moses Abeles,
+their chief Rabbi.' Then when it was suggested that he had come among
+the Christians in order to wear a peruke, a little sword, and
+fashionable dress, the boy made a face and said: 'I must confess that
+for a long time, I have not worn the Jewish collar. Nevertheless, I do
+not desire to shine among Christians in any fashionable clothes, and
+will be content with my old rags.' After he had given this earnest
+answer, he began to strip his hands of his gloves, to ungird his little
+sword, to tear the peruke from his head, and to unhook the clean, little
+upper coat, determined were it necessary to follow the destitute Jesus,
+unclothed.
+
+"By such unexpected answers and heroic resolution, he drew tears from
+the eyes of all present. But when he was commanded to put his clothes on
+again, he soon dressed himself, and declared in strong words, which he
+oft repeated, that he withdrew from the Jews on account of their wicked
+course of life, and associated himself with Christians to secure his
+salvation, because he knew well it was impossible to be blessed without
+faith. But when he was asked who had taught him, that faith was
+necessary to gain eternal life, he answered seven or eight times: 'God,
+God, God alone,' therewith he oft sighed and smote his breast with both
+hands. Then he went first to one priest, then to another, kissed their
+hands, fell on his knees to them, exclaiming: 'Fathers, abandon me not;
+do not reject me, do not send me again among the Jews; instruct me
+quickly, quickly and' (as if he had a foreboding, and saw the impending
+evil floating before his eyes), 'baptize me quickly.' Now when Simon
+received the assurance that he would be reckoned among the scholars in
+the Christian faith, he clapped his hands, and jumped for joy. His whole
+discourse was as mature and discreet, as ready and free from hesitation,
+as if he had long beforehand reflected upon it in his mind, and learnt
+it by heart from his tablets, so that one of the four priests present
+turned with astonishment to another, and said in Latin: 'This boy has a
+miraculous understanding, which if not supernatural, is yet truly beyond
+his age.'
+
+"Meanwhile, the darkness of night had come on. But as there was not
+convenient sleeping room at present for this new little Nicodemus, he
+was with much inward striving of my spirit, left again in that Christian
+house from whence he had been brought hither, in order to spend the
+night in peace with the newly baptized Jew, George Kawka. This one was
+called to the door of the college, and the boy was intrusted to him,
+with an express order to bring him again to the college at the earliest
+hour on the following morning, that they might provide him with a secure
+dwelling.
+
+"In the interim, Lazarus became aware of the absence of his son. Not
+finding him either with his friends nor among other Jews, and being a
+person of sound judgment, it occurred to him that his son must have gone
+over to the Christians. Early on Sunday Lazarus betook himself to the
+Christian house of the glove-maker Hoffmann, whom he did not find at
+home. He concealed the loss of his son and his sorrow, and begged the
+glove-maker's wife Anna, instantly to call George Kawka there, because
+he had some weighty business to transact with him who was his debtor.
+After a long Hebrew conversation with Lazarus, George Kawka came in all
+haste to the college, but to my great sorrow, unaccompanied by the
+Christian disciple. He appeared painfully disquieted, but did not tell
+me a word of his conference with the father, but only said that Simon
+was not sufficiently secure in his dwelling, and that it was necessary
+to take good heed, or he would be entrapped by the crafty devices of the
+Jews. After a sharp reproof for not bringing the boy with him when in
+such danger, according to my strict orders, I commanded him to go to the
+house forthwith and bring the boy hither. This he promised but did not
+perform. Now when George Kawka returned home, he pretended that he
+wished to go to church, and Simon prayed of him, as though he foreboded
+some impending treachery, with many words and tears, not to leave him
+behind, as the Jews would without fail lie in wait for him that day, and
+seize him in the house; but that he would take him with him to church
+and so bring him to the college. Now when he with great sorrow of spirit
+perceived that George Kawka only answered with subterfuges, he withdrew
+himself again, after the departure of the same, into his hiding-place
+under the roof.
+
+"Hardly had George crossed the threshold, when Katherina Kanderowa, a
+lodger, came from the country into her lodging-room, which was close to
+Simon's hiding-place, and saw the boy in his little Jewish coat, which
+he had again been obliged to put on. As therefore the said Katherina
+understood from the Jews who were standing round the house-door that
+they were seeking for the son of a Jew, who had fled from his father,
+and as she did not know that Simon was a disciple of the Christian
+faith, she drew him out of his corner, and dragged him down to the front
+part of the house. When the father saw his son, he presented to this
+woman thirty silver groschen, that she might thrust the boy, who was not
+strong enough to free himself from her hands, over the threshold. The
+boy called upon the Christians to support him against such violence, but
+in vain, for two robust Jews seized upon him each by an arm, and bore
+him along as if he floated through the air, to the Jew town and his
+father's house. But the father went craftily step by step slowly behind,
+in order to chat with the Christians, and make them believe that his son
+had only fled to the Christians, in order to escape lawful and deserved
+punishment. He easily persuaded the populace of this.
+
+"But George Kawka betook himself after the end of this tragedy to me,
+and related the lamentable kidnapping of Simon with many light worthless
+excuses. But I spoke sharply to him, put clearly before his eyes, how
+evident it was that he had played with the Jews under the rose, and
+sternly charged him if he would not be made answerable before the
+tribunal, for the treacherous betrayal of Simon, to use all means
+without delay, and on the requisition of a Christian judge to recover
+him from the hand, of the Jews, and deliver him up to the college. And
+truly it appeared as if he obeyed the command faithfully and
+assiduously. Ha searched the whole Jew town many days, and examined
+almost all the houses, as was testified of him by the person who
+accompanied and was associated with him. He thereby turned almost all
+the suspicion of treachery from him; and as Simon was nowhere to be
+found, he confirmed the report that he had secretly been removed to
+Poland. At a later period, George Kawka himself was driven, by a bad
+conscience to take refuge in Poland, and has remained invisible to this
+day.
+
+"But Simon was dragged with violence to his father's house, and after
+that day, was never seen outside the threshold. After their arrival at
+home, the father could no longer control his anger, and beat his son
+with a stick so savagely, that the Jews present began already to fear
+that he would kill him. They therefore locked up Simon in a room in
+which lived Sarah Bresin, afterwards a witness. But the father
+endeavoured to break open the door of the room by repeatedly running at
+it with violence, and at last angrily left the house. When his anger was
+a little allayed, the Jews gave up to him the severely-beaten boy,
+advising to tame him by fasting. So Simon was locked up in another room.
+There he passed seven painful months, in hunger and imprisonment, daily
+loaded with curses and oft threatened with death. But when the father
+saw that his son's spirit was inflexible, and that on the Saturday
+before Shrove Sunday, Simon again, before all the family, declared
+undauntedly, that he would be baptized; he determined to go to
+extremities. And that affection might not restrain his hand, he chose
+for assistant a Jew, Levi Kurtzhandl, a man of savage spirit and in the
+vigour of youth, who had already before advised him to poison the boy.
+Levi Kurtzhandl invited the boy into the room of his stepmother, and
+held converse with him out of the Talmud, in order to convert him. But
+when Simon persevered in his intentions, he was knocked down by Levi,
+and dragged by him and the father into the next room; there both fell
+upon him furiously, broke his neck, and drove his head violently against
+the corner of a wooden chest, whereby the glorious soldier of Christ
+received a last blow on the left side of the temple.
+
+"Whilst this barbarity was going on, Lia, the stepmother of Simon,
+together with the journeyman Rebbe Liebmann, were occupied in the next
+room making gloves. On hearing the moaning of the boy, and the noise of
+the murderers, she hastened into the room. There she saw the dead body
+on the floor, and both the murderers on their knees by him. Thereupon
+the woman was so frightened, that she fainted, and had to be restored to
+her senses by Kurtzhandl pouring vinegar over her.
+
+"After the deed, Hennele, Lazarus's cook, came back, who had been sent
+out of the house with the little children. These, when supper-time was
+approaching, inquired where Simon was. They were obliged to take an oath
+to keep the affair secret; whereupon, their father himself told them
+that he, with Levi Kurtzhandl, had deprived the boy of life as an
+apostate from the law of Moses, after the example of the patriarch
+Phineas.
+
+"After that, Lazarus took counsel with Levi how to keep the crime
+secret, not only from the Christians, but also from the Jews,
+especially from the family of Burianer, who were very hostile to all
+that belonged to the Abeles. Levi offered while it was yet night, to
+carry the body of Simon to his own house, and bury it himself in the
+cellar. But Lazarus feared lest some of the Burian adherents should
+discover it. They therefore decided on having the corpse buried in the
+public burial-ground of the Jews. And truly, the neck of the body was
+discoloured with blood, but otherwise there was no open wound to be
+seen, with the exception of a blow on the left temple of about the size
+of a ducat; so Lazarus called his household together, instructed and
+made them swear, that they would say unanimously that Simon had become
+insane, and in that state had fallen against the corner of the chest,
+whereby he had been mortally wounded on the left temple.
+
+"On the following morning early, this glorious soldier of Christ was
+buried in great secrecy by two Jews, Jerochem and Hirsches Kesserlas,
+the coroners.
+
+"After the burial of Simon, from his grave arose the first great
+summoner, the worm of conscience, which began to gnaw the heart of the
+godless Lazarus. Memory unceasingly persecuted his conscience, and the
+fear of worldly punishment ever hovered before his eyes. This fear was
+much increased by the journeyman glove-maker, Rebbe Liebmann. The same
+had after the deed, straight left Abele's house and made off, and had
+only again returned to his work after the burial. When Lazarus began to
+relate the particulars, Rebbe interrupted him, protesting that he did
+not desire to hear a word about the evil deed, as he had already heard
+the whole of yesterday's tragedy, related by the Jewish children in the
+public streets. This burst upon the astonished Lazarus like a thunder
+clap; without delay he collected and packed up all his light goods, sold
+his house in the Jew town, and resigned his hired shop in an
+aristocratic house, in order to settle himself in Poland. He was already
+prepared, on the following day, to take flight; but it was
+providentially ordained that the noble landlord of the house, who had
+leased the shop to him, was just then hindered by palsy in his hand from
+signing the release himself.
+
+"Meanwhile, on the 23rd of February, one Johel, a Jew, not evil-disposed
+towards the Christians, went into the Jew town through the Sommer-thor,
+where he met some children playing, who were relating to one another,
+how Simon Abeles had three days before been fresh and healthy, and had
+early yesterday been buried without any funeral pomp. Johel betook
+himself without delay to the burial-ground, and found a freshly-raised
+grave; reflected upon all the other circumstances and reports, and came
+to the sensible conclusion that Lazarus was the murderer of his son.
+This he confided forthwith to a writer of the royal government in great
+secresy. After I had received intelligence thereof, and had earnestly
+admonished the Jewish informer to give a faithful report; he wrote down
+the following day all the lamentable particulars, in order to deliver
+them to the most noble government. They commanded the body of Simon to
+be disinterred, and to be closely examined by a doctor appointed for the
+purpose; and finally to take into custody those who were suspected of
+the deed, as also their accomplices. All this was set on foot cautiously
+and without delay. The body was disinterred under an armed guard; the
+Jews who had collected, and the Jewish doctor who was called in,
+declared that a bad blow on the head, and lastly a fit of insanity, had
+killed the boy. But the medical gentlemen gave their opinion, that many
+indications, the broken neck and a small round wound on the temple,
+showed that the boy had died from a violent blow.
+
+"Thereupon Lazarus Abeles was brought to see the body of his son. He
+turned pale and trembled, and was so confused that he remained silent,
+and for a good while could not say anything intelligible, nor answer
+anything distinctly. At last as the Herr Commissary continued urging him
+to say whether he knew the body of the boy, he answered with bent head
+and weak voice that it was the body of his son Simon; and when it was
+further put to him what was the cause of the wound on the left temple,
+he gave a confused and contradictory answer. He was therefore again
+taken to prison, but the body of the boy was put into a Christian
+coffin, and placed meanwhile in the cellar of the council-house. The
+_Herren_ commissaries were unwearied in cross-questioning Christians and
+Jews. But in spite of all indications, Lazarus, and the women who were
+in special custody, Lia, his wife, and Hennele, his cook, were almost
+unanimous in their evidence: Simon had not taken flight from his
+father's house to become a Christian, but for a long time had been
+affected with a disease of the head, and therefore kept in the house; at
+last he had felt an extreme repugnance for food, had become subject to
+violent fits of insanity, and thus had met with his death. All means of
+extracting the truth were unavailing; Lazarus Abeles and the two only
+witnesses then known of, remained obstinate.
+
+"One afternoon, the honourable Franz Maximilian Baron von Klarstein, the
+official commissary, was reflecting on this matter as he went home, and
+ascended the steps of his house; when it suddenly seemed to him that he
+received a violent blow on the side, he turned round crossly, when
+behold there appeared to him on the landing which divided the steps from
+one another, a boy standing, who bowed his head, and smiled sweetly with
+cheerful countenance, clothed in a Jewish winding-sheet, wounded on the
+left temple, and in size and age like Simon, as this gentleman had seen
+him with his own eyes, on inspection of the body, when a lively image of
+him had been impressed on his memory. The gentleman was amazed, and
+whilst he was sitting at table with his wife and some guests, pondered
+in his mind what this might signify. Then he heard the tapping of a
+person's finger several times on the door of the dining-room. The
+servant was sent out, and informed him that an unknown maiden desired
+instantly to be admitted. Having entered, and being kindly accosted, the
+little maiden of fourteen answered that her name was Sarah Bresin, that
+she now dwelt among the Christians to be instructed in the Christian
+faith, and had shortly before lived as servant to the tenant in the
+house of Lazarus Abeles; there she had seen with her own eyes how
+cruelly Lazarus had attacked his son Simon, because he had fled to the
+Christians, in order to be baptized. Upon this and other evidence Sarah
+was confronted with Lazarus; before whom she declared freely, with much
+feeling and in forcible language, all that she knew. But Lazarus roundly
+denied it all; and with frantic curses called down all the devils upon
+her head. But when he returned to his prison, confusion and despair
+seized his soul; he perceived that his denials would no longer help him
+before the court, and determined by a last expedient to escape judicial
+proceedings. Although both his legs and one hand were impeded by his
+fetters, yet he contrived to wind the girdle, called a _Tephilim_,
+wherewith the Jews bind their heads and arms during prayer, instead of a
+cord, round the iron window grating, and strangled himself thereby. Thus
+on the following morning, he was found strangled. For the Jews
+erroneously consider it allowable to throttle themselves, and oft-times
+do the like. Judgment was passed on his dead body.
+
+"After his death his wife Lia and the servant-maid Hennele being
+confronted with Sarah Bresin, made a public confession; the fugitive
+journeyman glover, Rebbe Liebmann, was also produced and confessed. His
+Princely Grace the Archbishop decided that Simon should be buried in the
+Teynkirche, in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, by the baptismal
+font, within a vault of polished marble, in a fine oak coffin covered
+with red velvet, and guarded by a lock and three keys. Further, that the
+coffin was to be borne to the burial place by innocent and noble youths
+dressed in purple. The most noble Frau Silvia, born Gräfin Kinskey, wife
+of his Excellency the Lord Count of the Empire, Schlick, had a double
+costly dress prepared for this day, an under dress of white satin and an
+upper one of red, interwoven with gold, trimmed with gold buttons and
+adorned with gold lace-work; she provided also stockings of the like
+material to cover the feet, and an exceedingly beautiful garland of gold
+and silver lilies and roses to crown the head of the innocent martyr.
+
+"Hardly had his most precious body been attired and laid in the costly
+coffin, when the high nobility of both sexes arrived, and pressed with
+godly impetuosity into the chapel, where all were amazed, and praised
+the God of all marvels when they saw that the holy pledge (the body of
+Simon) was unchanged five weeks after his death, that no exhalation of
+odour could be discovered or perceived, and that from his death wounds
+there dropped continually fresh rose-coloured blood. Wherefore persons
+even of the highest consideration caught up this precious liquor with
+their pocket-handkerchiefs. But others who were not provided with clean
+handkerchiefs, or who could not get near enough for the great throng,
+made their way to the old grave and tore away the bloody clippings which
+lay therein. Afterwards the revered body was exposed to view on this and
+the following day in the great hall of the council-house. But even there
+it was exceeding difficult to approach it. At last on the 31st of March
+the funeral was performed. An armed force in three ranks surrounded the
+council-house for two whole hours; throughout the whole city resounded
+the pealing bells of seventy churches. Meanwhile the synagogue and the
+whole body of Jews were ready to swoon away with anguish, because they
+feared the vengeance of the Christian populace would fell upon them. It
+was indeed almost a miracle that no deed of violence was committed, for
+in the past year, the Christians had more than once for the most
+trifling reasons, fallen upon and plundered the frippery market and Jew
+town, and had also, as is well known, attacked the Jews themselves,
+severely injuring and even murdering some.
+
+"When towards ten o'clock, the painters had finished a double
+representation of the martyr Simon, the church ceremonies began. After
+the coffin had been closed, the commissaries prepared to seal up the
+keyhole, but as the paper which was to be sealed over the lock might be
+injured, they desired to have a suitable silk ribbon, and when this
+became known to the most noble persons present, they tore what they had
+of such material from their heads, stomachers and arms. His Excellency
+the Reichsgraf von Martinez also unbound the ribbon that was hanging
+from his sword-hilt. But a ribbon of red satin was chosen for this
+purpose, which the most noble and right honourable the Countess Kolowrat
+had worn; this was cut in two and placed over the lock and sealed. After
+this the martyr's coffin was covered with a costly red velvet pall
+prepared for the occasion; in the middle of the funeral bier was a fine
+picture of Our Lady, and on both sides angels with palm branches.
+Sixteen good youths of noble descent bore the funeral bier on their
+innocent shoulders; they wore red mantles with gold lace glittering on
+them, and wreaths of silvered roses wound with red silk. Then the
+pealing of bells sounded through all the three towns; the clouds
+suddenly cleared from off the heavens; the multitude covered every roof,
+and occupied every window; they had flocked together, not only from the
+three neighbouring vine-clad mountains but from distant places and
+cities.
+
+"The city authorities led the host of the funeral train; after them
+followed the lately baptized young Jews, adorned with red badges, before
+whom two church banners of like material were borne. Next a countless
+multitude of schoolboys from all the schools of the three towns, ranged
+under eight purple flags; thirdly all the young students from the under
+Latin schools. Fourthly above four hundred heads of the Latin
+brotherhood from the schools, before whom was carried cross and banner
+under a canopy with lighted wax tapers. They were followed by a fifth of
+the higher student brotherhood of Our Lady; among them many doctors, and
+assessors, and divers nobles of the Empire; before them also were borne
+the cross and banner with the canopy, and in their hands they carried
+burning wax tapers, and flaming white torches. Sixthly came the first
+set of choristers, then the clergy in their vestments, then the second
+set of choristers; after them the deacons, parish priests, and the very
+reverend the prebendaries with the officiating priests, and beside them
+went the city soldiers in long rows. Seventhly came the sixteen finely
+attired youths bearing the glorious corpse of the martyr Simon. On both
+sides of the coffin went twelve boys with burning red torches, dressed
+in exquisitely beautiful purple linen. Eighthly following the coffin
+came the most noble the President and Governor of Königreichs, all
+holding red torches in their hands; they were followed by the most
+distinguished nobility of both sexes in great numbers, and lastly a
+countless multitude of God-fearing people.
+
+"The accomplice of the murderer, Levi Hüsel Kurtzhandl, was the son of
+wealthy parents at Prague; he was tall, and twenty years of age, with a
+daring countenance, was passionate, had a bold eloquence and ready wit,
+and was perfectly acquainted with the Talmud, which he had studied
+eleven years. He had concealed himself with his Jewish bride nine miles
+from Prague. After diligent inquiries, armed men were despatched there
+who put him in irons, and brought him in a carriage to Prague on the
+22nd of March. Although the commissaries, having formerly had similar
+cases, doubted whether the least atom of truth could be extracted from
+this flint, yet they confronted him with the witnesses. But
+notwithstanding the affidavits of three witnesses, he acknowledged
+nothing. He was threatened with the executioner and the rack, but that
+had no more effect upon him than threatening a crab with drowning. For
+he trusted he should be able to endure the rack, and so escape. Nay, he
+was hardy enough to say, that this trial was carried on contrary to all
+law and justice. Thus he was, according to law, condemned to the wheel
+on the evidence of three witnesses, though without his own confession.
+
+"He however hindered the execution of the sentence for seven months,
+having by means of a Jewish relation brought the affair before his
+Imperial Majesty Leopold. The proceedings were now delayed by Jewish
+tricks, and so tardily carried on, that it might plainly be seen, that
+the culprit was only seeking a delay of some years in order to obtain a
+mitigation of punishment or to obviate it by a voluntary death. At last
+the tribunal obtained an order that the accused should deliver in his
+defence within fourteen days; his frivolous pleas were rejected, and the
+sentence of the tribunal confirmed by his Imperial Majesty. He however
+adhered to his declaration: 'I am innocent of the blood of the murdered
+boy.' This he oft repeated before Father Johannes Brandstedter of the
+Society of Jesus, an unwearied apostolical labourer, who met a blessed
+death four days after Kurtzhandl, from the virulent poison he had
+imbibed in the work of love by a sick bed. When he inquired of the
+condemned whether he could meet death with resignation, and exhorted him
+to the reception of the saving faith, Levi answered with a cheerful
+aspect and without embarrassment: 'I care as little for death as for
+this straw'--he held one in his hand, which he thereupon threw
+away--'but as concerns the faith, we will now argue out of the holy
+Scriptures which of us two holds the true faith. But the father must not
+think he has a common simple man before him, for I studied the Talmud
+for eleven years.'
+
+"Thus began a controversy concerning the faith; the priest attacked the
+Talmud with powerful theological evidence, and Levi apprehended
+everything by the strong capacity of his understanding. At last he threw
+his Jewish bible away from him, impatiently saying: 'Let it be as it
+may, I abide by the faith in which I was born.' As on the following day
+the obdurate youth began to harp upon the same string, the priest set
+about the matter again in another way; he no longer spoke to him, but
+turned to his fellow-prisoners, and read to them divers evidence from
+the holy Scriptures, whereby he proved that the Messiah had already
+come.
+
+"This, Levi listened to quietly and thoughtfully, and although he gave
+no indications of being inclined to the holy faith, yet it might be seen
+by his countenance that he was not as averse to the presence of the
+priest as yesterday. On the third day Levi, hardened as he might be in
+other respects, yet desired that the father should return in the
+afternoon, as his presence was a special comfort to him in his miserable
+position. When the priest promised him this as an encouragement, the
+stony heart appeared softened. In the afternoon, the father in his holy
+simplicity placed such reliance on the Jew, that he removed all the
+others, and remaining alone with him, kindly and urgently begged of him
+to give both himself and him consolation, by relating at his pleasure,
+as the greatest secret, truly and faithfully, what he knew of the death
+of Simon. At this unexpected address Levi was quite amazed; he continued
+long silent; but at last struck with the rare confidence shown by a
+Christian priest in a Jew, he conceived a high esteem for his
+uprightness, and persuaded by the father's promise of secresy, confessed
+before him and one of his fellow-prisoners, with great signs of sorrow,
+with bent shoulders and head hanging down on the left side, that he had,
+at the instigation of the father Lazarus Abeles, laid violent hands on
+Simon, and caused his death from zeal for the law of Moses.
+
+"Upon receiving this confession the priest was exceeding joyful, and
+strove with all his powers, by arguments and urgent entreaties, to
+persuade him to turn himself magnanimously to God. But to this Levi
+would not return any satisfactory answer; and when, as evening twilight
+was creeping on, the priest prepared to go home, Levi raised his eyes to
+heaven, and said with a deep sigh: 'Father, where shall I be at this
+time to-morrow?' Whereto the priest replied: 'My son, in heaven, if you
+embrace the Christian faith; but if you die in Judaism, in hell as a
+hardened Jew.' Thereupon he in the most friendly way wished him a good
+night and a blessed end, and went away.
+
+"On the following day the priest found the condemned man dressed in
+white linen for the impending tragedy, as if he had prepared himself to
+be baptized. After a friendly greeting the father asked him in which
+faith he had at last resolved to die? Hereunto Levi returned this
+answer: 'I will die in the same faith in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
+died. And as in the olden time Abraham offered up his son, so will I
+to-day sacrifice myself for my sins.' When the priest made a further
+rejoinder, he said with a pleasant countenance and in a calm manner: 'I
+humbly beg of you, father, not to trouble me any more about baptism, for
+I will now pray from the Psalms and prepare myself for a happy death.'
+Thereupon he began to repeat the Psalms, but without the girdle called a
+_Tephilim_, although the Jews usually consider prayer without binding
+the forehead and hands a sin. But he prayed with such contrition of
+heart and such vehement beating of the breast, and penitential tears,
+that his fellow-prisoners and all present were greatly astonished at his
+remorse.
+
+"After a prayer that had lasted more than two hours he gave himself up
+quickly into the hands of the executioner, and thus accosted him with a
+cheerful countenance: 'Do to me what God and my judges have commanded
+you.' He then turned to his fellow-prisoners, took a friendly leave of
+them, and humbly begged of them to forgive his past failings.
+
+"After ten o'clock they took him, amidst the gaze of countless
+multitudes, from the prison, and bound him in a hide, whereat he showed
+no sign of impatience or displeasure. Only he sometimes raised his bound
+hands in prayer to heaven. Thus was he dragged by a horse to the field
+of action. When he perceived that the accompanying priest in the middle
+of the Platz was in danger of being severely injured by a horse, he
+begged with sympathizing voice that he might go in front to avoid the
+danger."
+
+Thus far the Jesuit's narrative. On the scaffold Levi made a manly
+confession of his deed before all the people, with a request that the
+witnesses who had only spoken the truth should no longer be kept in
+prison. The details of the execution were particularly horrible; the
+experienced executioner could not--so the writer states--break the
+strong body of the criminal on the wheel. At last Levi called to the
+priest by his side and asked him in a clear voice what he would promise
+if he should consent to be baptized? When the father promised him,
+besides forgiveness of all his sins, also a speedy death, Levi answered:
+'I will be baptized.' The Church triumphant hastened to impart private
+baptism, much disposed to attribute this unheard-of bodily strength and
+calm of the malefactor to a special miracle of Divine Providence. Levi
+repeated the prescribed formula with a strong voice, and received calmly
+the now effective stroke of death.
+
+This is the sorrowful history of Simon Abeles. Whoever judges the Jesuit
+narrative impartially will discover in it something which the narrator
+wishes to conceal; and whoever contemplates with horror the fanatical
+murder, will nevertheless not spend much sympathy on the fanatical
+priests. They tear the scarcely born child out of the arms of its
+mother; they consider it a pious contrivance to steal the suckling
+secretly from her, by means of spies and tale-bearers; by promises and
+threatenings, and excitement of the imagination, they win hosts of
+proselytes in baptism to their God, who is very unlike the God of the
+gospel; with the skill of experienced managers, they make use of a
+miserable murder, for the sake of bringing on the scene a real tragedy,
+and of the dead body of a Jewish boy, in order by pomp and glitter and
+enormous processions, and if possible by miracles, to recommend their
+faith to both Christians and Jews. Their fanaticism, in alliance with
+the burgher magistracy and the compliant law, stands in comparison with
+that of a despised, persecuted, and impulsive race; cunning, violence,
+malice and a corrupt morality, are to be discovered on both sides.
+
+During yet two generations, the zeal of the Jesuits against the Jews
+continued to work, the struggle of two foreign communities on German
+ground. The one consisted of the sons of the old dwellers in the
+wilderness, whose leader, the Lord Jehovah, brought them forth with
+their flocks and herds, going before them in the fiery pillar, and
+pouring his wrath on all who fell away from him. And opposed to these
+were the followers of a Spanish nobleman, who had undertaken the
+monstrous task of forming the souls of men like the wheels of a machine,
+making all the highest intellectual powers serve the one single object,
+of a priesthood to the one appointed officer of the great head of the
+church militant, Jesus.
+
+What were Loyola and his school to the ancient Abeles and to Levi
+Kurtzhandl? How ancient was Loyola? Their fathers had slaughtered the
+sacrificial victim three thousand years before the first Jesuit had
+tortured a Jewish heart; their descendants, they were sure, would offer
+sacrifice three thousand years later in the kingdom of Messiah, after
+the last Jesuit had been collected to his mother Lilith. The fearful S.
+J. which shone in gold on the stones of the college, how long would it
+last? In the time of their grandfathers it had its origin, in the time
+of their grandchildren it would be erased. What was this new device to
+the seed of Abraham? An extravagance, a short plague of Egypt. Proudly
+did the Roman Catholic church look back on seventeen hundred years of
+victory and conquest, but more proudly did the despised Jew look upon
+his past, which stretches back to the dawn of the world, for his faith
+was seventeen hundred years old when Christ was baptized. Both the
+judgment of the pious fathers of the Church and the pious Jews was
+narrowed, and their comprehension of the Highest disturbed by old
+traditions.
+
+When Jehovah spoke to Moses on the mountain, his law became the
+groundwork of a higher moral law, to the hordes in the desert; when
+Jesus proclaimed to the apostles the gracious message of love, his
+teaching was a holy treasure for the human race. Since then, the Jews
+have continued unweariedly to solemnize their Passover; still do they
+shun the meat of the swine, and swing the young cocks on atonement day;
+but the foundation of their faith has long vanished, also their pastoral
+state on the borders of the Syrian wilderness. For many centuries also,
+the pious fathers of the Roman Catholic church have offered their holy
+sacrifice daily; but they also, have already ceased to be the most
+pre-eminent of those who live under the law of the new covenant. The
+Bohemian peasant, who benevolently raised up the sick Jew on the high
+road, without tormenting the soul of the stranger with efforts to
+convert him, was more Christian than they; that man of science, who
+risked his life under the anger of the Church, that he might understand
+how the lightning was made by God, and the earth caused to revolve, was
+more a proclaimer of the Eternal, than they; and that citizen who died
+for his duty, in order to teach that the general weal is of more value
+than that of individuals, was nearer the most perfect pattern, than
+they. Among them also, undoubtedly, were many good high-minded men; the
+Jesuit, Friedrich Spee, met his death in a pesthouse, like that sailor
+in the flames. But those who thus lived, are precious to us because they
+showed themselves to be good men; whether they were considered good
+priests we know not. When this same Spee protested so vehemently against
+the burning of witches, which his Church so zealously carried on, he
+published his writings, without his name, in a Protestant place.
+
+Since Moses, and since the first feast of Pentecost, the Lord had never
+left himself without witnesses; he had given the nations of the earth a
+new culture, had led them to a higher civilisation. He had given them a
+new code of morals, he had unlocked the other half of the earth, he had
+willed that the new spirit in men should be contained in the narrow
+space of one book, which might pass from hand to hand, from one soul to
+another, from one century to every succeeding one. Restlessly and
+unceasingly did the Divine Spirit agitate and stir the hearts of men;
+ever more mighty and more holy did these manifestations of the Eternal,
+appear to men of powerful intellect; it was a different manifestation to
+that of the old writings, it was also another word of God, another
+aspect of the Eternal, which was discovered. Thus men now sought the God
+of the human race, of the earth, of the universe, not only in the old
+faith but also in science. Together with the Jesuits and Jews there was
+Leibnitz.
+
+This new culture has elevated the Jews; their fanaticism has vanished
+since the Christian zeal which persecuted them has ceased, and the
+descendants of that wandering Asiatic race have become our countrymen
+and fellow combatants. But the ecclesiastical community of the Society
+of Jesus, already once expelled, then revived again, remains to this day
+what it was at the beginning of its emigration into Germany--alien to
+the German life.
+
+
+
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+
+  THE WASUNGER WAR. (1747.)
+
+
+The great century of enlightenment began with blood and the thunder of
+cannon. The Spanish war of succession raged on the western frontier,
+within the distracted realm. Bavaria and Cologne fought under the ban of
+the Empire, in alliance with Louis XIV. against the house of Hapsburg.
+
+The constitution of the Empire had become weak. In the east the
+Hohenzollerns already held a powerful position by the side of the
+Hapsburgers; from the beginning of the century they had become kings
+independent of the Empire, and the Electoral house of Saxony, had
+shortly before obtained the insecure possession of the Polish Electoral
+throne.
+
+Condemned witches were still burnt on the funeral pile; the
+ecclesiastics of three persuasions still carried on a wearisome strife;
+the intolerance of the Church, the pressure of poverty, want of great
+political interests, and the pitifulness of the small sovereigns and
+their courts, still weighed upon the masses.
+
+Ever wider became the separation of classes. Etiquette only permitted
+the princes to have intercourse with the citizens in particular cases,
+and under prescribed forms. It therefore occurred sometimes that a good
+paternal ruler disguised himself as a private man, withdrew into a
+chamber apart, put on his old dressing-gown, and took a pipe in his
+mouth, in order to be enabled to have direct intercourse with his
+citizens, and thus learn their wishes from themselves. During such hours
+his princely dignity was, to a certain degree, suspended, but instantly
+he quitted the room he was again within courtly interdict.
+
+Yet it was just at this period that numerous mesalliances took place.
+Among many of the higher nobility, wild nature broke through the
+restraint of court usage, and more than once a city maiden had the
+doubtful advantage of becoming the persecuted wife of a Prince of old
+family. Seldom did the wife obtain from the Emperor the rights of equal
+birth; the marriages were generally morganatic, and the children refused
+the succession.
+
+Among the German princes, the course of whose life was changed by a
+union of this kind, was Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Saxe Meiningen; born in
+1687, the youngest of three brothers, he became, according to the custom
+of his house, joint ruler of the country, that is to say, the elder
+brother exercised the rights of sovereignty, but the younger ones
+received a portion of the revenues of the country. In his youth, this
+prince had travelled; in the war of succession he had served through
+some campaigns as an Imperial officer; and at the peace of Rastatt, he
+quitted the army with the rank of Major-general. A fiery youth,
+courteous and accomplished, affable as becomes young princes, not
+without an interest in intellectual pursuits, he had, following the
+prevailing fashion, zealously collected objects of art and natural
+curiosities; with a lively disposition and chivalrous demeanour, he was
+the favourite of the country which he only nominally ruled. Whatever
+entered into his head, he carried on wilfully and recklessly, with an
+iron perseverance which might have led him to great things. Then it
+became his lot to fall in love with Philippine Cesar, the daughter of a
+Hessian captain, lady of the bedchamber to his sister, the Abbess of
+Gandersheim; he took her to Holland and married her.
+
+For many years he did not avow his marriage. His life became unsettled;
+he kept his wife concealed in Amsterdam, and strictly commanded his
+servants to keep secret his place of residence; he received letters from
+home in roundabout ways, and was always moving to and fro in the land of
+his fathers. But when his wife became more precious to him, and sons
+were born, the stubbornness of his nature was brought forth, he revealed
+his marriage, and required of his family the recognition of it, and the
+right of succession for his children.
+
+The displeasure of his proud house now broke out. The recognition was
+denied. Such a marriage was considered by the Court altogether
+monstrous, but it was always doubtful whether the decisions of feudal
+law were competent to declare this marriage invalid. Therefore the Dukes
+of Saxony met together in 1717, and decided that all unequal unions in
+their house were to be considered as only morganatic, and the children
+were never to be allowed the rights of succession.[48]
+
+Anthony Ulrich remained firm. He solicited the Imperial court, and
+strove unweariedly against the council of the country, who took
+advantage of this quarrel to diminish the revenues of the Duke. But his
+nature was not easily bent. When in 1722, the last feudal tenant of
+Altenstein, one Hund von Wenckheim lay dying, and the commissaries of
+the government were standing by the death-bed to take possession of the
+vacant fief, Anthony Ulrich rode suddenly into the court of the castle,
+and in spite of the protest of the councillors, who were also his
+servants, entered the chamber of the dying man, sang with him the
+evening song and the penitential hymn, and passed the night, armed with
+pistols and other weapons, in the castle. As soon as the vassal had
+closed his eyes, he entered the room, and according to the old usage
+took possession of the vacant fief, and seating himself in a red velvet
+arm-chair, said: "I hereby take possession of my third share, without
+prejudice to the two-thirds of my brothers." He then called in his
+attendants as witnesses, and according to the prescribed usage, struck
+his hand forcibly on the table, so that a jug upset, symbolical of the
+movable property, and caused a chip to be cut out of the door of the
+chamber of death, and of the dining-room. After this he swore into his
+service all who had not fled; he then rode out, cut splinters from the
+oak wood, and bits of turf from the meadows, as further tokens of having
+taken possession, and went back to Meiningen. But when he returned to
+the castle, he found the gates closed and guarded by grenadiers, and all
+his threats and protestations were of no avail.
+
+He afterwards wished to take his wife and children to one of his own
+possessions, and lead a peaceable life at home. But such was not his
+happy lot. His brothers obtained a decision from the Imperial high court
+of judicature, according to which he was not to take his wife and
+children into the country of his fathers, and if he should venture to do
+so, he was never to usurp for them the title of princes. He now however
+went himself to Vienna and so worked there, with the help of large sums
+of money, and through the medium of his military acquaintances--the
+Spanish minister, the Marquis of Perlas was his supporter--that the
+Emperor Charles VI. raised his wife Philippine to the dignity of
+Princess of the holy Roman Empire, and her sons and daughters to be
+dukes and duchesses of Saxony, with all the privileges and rights,
+_i.e._ those of the succession.
+
+Against this, the whole house of Saxony, and those of Hohenzollern and
+Hesse, who were interested by the settlement of succession, rose in
+opposition. At first, however, Anthony Ulrich was victor. His eldest
+brother died, and the second was a weak man. So he became in 1729, the
+real ruler of the country. Then he brought his wife and eldest son under
+the ducal roof at Meiningen. For eleven years the stubborn prince
+rejoiced in having established his own will. But the struggle with his
+house had embittered him; and added to restlessness and violence, a
+litigious spirit had come over him. Peevish and endless were the
+disputes about the government, and the discord with his brothers and his
+favourites; the little country was divided into two parties; ministers
+and officials threw themselves on the one or the other side, and
+sometimes the machine of government stood still. The Duke lived
+generally with his wife and children out of the country, at Vienna. The
+legal proceedings with the agnates about the equality of birth, which
+still continued, and vexatious quarrels with neighbours, gave him but a
+gloomy satisfaction. He had gained no trifling knowledge of the forms of
+public law, and conducted all his suits himself. They seem to have taken
+up the greater part of his time.
+
+But the victory was to be followed by a sad reverse. The new Emperor of
+the house of Wittelsbacher, Charles VII., was with very evident
+reference to Anthony Ulrich's affair, bound on oath not to legitimatize
+any notorious mesalliances, and to declare the right of inheritance of
+such children null and void. Therefore the rank given to the Duchess of
+Meiningen and her children was repealed. Anthony Ulrich had recourse to
+the Diet. But in vain. This also declared that his application must be
+refused, and the Emperor Francis I. of Lorraine confirmed this decision.
+
+It was a cruel stroke of destiny. The wife of the Duke had the good
+fortune not to outlive the last Imperial decision; she died a few weeks
+previous to it; whilst her husband was fruitlessly setting heaven and
+earth in motion at Frankfort to ward off this fate. But the two parties
+quarrelled even over her coffin. The brother, and co-ruler with the
+Duke, refused to allow the corpse to be buried in the royal hereditary
+vault, nay even denied her the usual tolling of the bells for royal
+personages. Anthony Ulrich rushed furiously from Frankfort and commanded
+the tolling and the burial in the royal vault. Orders and counter orders
+crossed each other during several weeks; now the tolling began and now
+it was stopped. As Anthony Ulrich, who had again hastened to Frankfort,
+had commanded that the coffin should not be deposited anywhere but in
+the royal burial place, it was kept in a room in the castle covered over
+with sand; there it remained a year and a half, till in 1746, Anthony
+Ulrich's last brother died. Then the Duke in order to give satisfaction
+to his wife even in death, caused his brother's corpse after lying in
+state, to be placed in the same room next his wife's coffin and like
+hers to be covered over with sand. There the two coffins remained for a
+year, when they were both quietly deposited at the same time in the
+royal burial place.
+
+Now Anthony Ulrich, once the youngest of his family, remained sole ruler
+and the eldest of his race, but Meiningen was a source of annoyance to
+him. He could not take his dear children home as Dukes, therefore he
+went to them at Frankfort. His agnates could scarcely conceal the
+impatience with which they awaited for his death in order to take
+possession of the inheritance of the last of the Meiningens. He had
+passed the greater part of his life in struggle with them; now he would
+be revenged. Out of spite to them he married at the age of sixty-three a
+Princess of Hesse-Philippsthal. He had ten children by his first wife
+and eight by his second. He announced every fresh birth to the agnates
+on a sheet of the largest royal folio.
+
+He died at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1763. Even in his last testament the
+stubborn determination breaks forth, of bringing the two sons of his
+first marriage into the country as co-heirs. All the children of the
+first marriage died unmarried.
+
+His was an unprofitable life, but it well deserves the sympathy of a
+later generation. A strong passion disturbed his days up to his last
+hours. Mixed with a great love, a stream of gall penetrated into his
+heart, flowing unceasingly; his time, his money and all his talents were
+spent in the most sorrowful of all struggles--in family disputes. His
+brilliant youth gave great promise, yet how profitless to others, nay to
+himself, was his whole manhood. In his old age he dwelt in a foreign
+city, divided between his past and his new domestic life, to which he
+could never get thoroughly accustomed. His spirit, once so lively and
+active, and his unbending will, were so engrossed with his personal
+affairs, that when he became the real ruler of his country he no longer
+took an interest in doing his duty.
+
+It was not unnatural that Anthony Ulrich should, from his own
+experience, entertain a repugnance to the pretensions of the lower
+nobility at court, and it was quite in accordance with his character, to
+display his hatred when opportunities offered. This he did shortly after
+the death of his first wife, to the bereaved court at Meiningen.
+
+In the royal palace at Meiningen the _Frau Landjägermeisterin_, (wife of
+the Grand Master of the chase), Christiane Auguste von Gleichen held the
+highest rank. Among the other ladies who had a right to be there, was a
+Fran von Pfaffenrath, born Countess Solms, but yet only the wife of a
+councillor, who had only just been ennobled, and to whom she had been
+married in a not very regular way, for her husband had been tutor in her
+parents' house: she had eloped with him, and had after many troubles
+accomplished a reconciliation with her mother, and obtained a diploma of
+nobility for her husband. Now Duke Anthony Ulrich, who was residing at
+Frankfort, protected her, because, as the court whispered, her sister
+had the advantage of being in the good graces of the old gentleman.
+Naturally, she ought only to have ranked according to the patent of her
+husband, but alas! she raised pretensions because she was of high
+nobility. When therefore in October 1746, the doors of the dining-room
+were to be opened, and the page was standing ready to repeat grace, the
+Master-of-the-Horse entered and said to the _Frau Landjägermeisterin_:
+"His most Serene Highness has commanded that the Frau von Pfaffenrath
+shall take rank before all other ladies." Frau von Gleichen answered
+that she would never consent to that, but the Frau von Pfaffenrath had
+placed herself favourably and took the precedence of the _Frau
+Landjägermeisterin_ before she could prevent it. Yet this determined
+lady was far from submitting tamely. She hastened round the table to the
+Duke's cabinet minister, and declared to him, as became a lady of
+character after such an insult: "If _Frau von_ Pfaffenrath again goes
+before me to table, I will pull her back even to the sacrifice of her
+hooped gown, and will say a few words which will be very disagreeable to
+her." The cabinet minister was in a great embarrassment, for he knew the
+resolute character of _Frau von_ Gleichen. At last he advised her to
+rise from the table before grace, then she would at all events go out
+first and so get the precedence. Thus the _Landjägermeisterin_
+maintained her place, but she was much offended, and so was the whole
+court, which split into two parties. This quarrel of the ladies made a
+commotion in the whole of the holy Roman Empire, occasioned a campaign
+between Gotha and Meiningen, and was only ended by Frederick the Great,
+in a manner which reminds one of the fable of the lion which took the
+royal share for himself.
+
+_Frau von_ Gleichen appealed to the absent Duke for reparation. She only
+received a strong and ungracious answer. Irritated at this, she made
+inquiries into the former life of her enemy, and propagated an anonymous
+writing, in which the love affairs of the Countess were described with
+more energy than delicacy. The _Frau von_ Pfaffenrath complained of this
+lampoon to the sovereign at Frankfort, and afterwards began a course of
+proceedings against the _Frau Landjägermeisterin_ which even then was
+considered harsh and cruel. She was called upon to crave pardon of the
+_Frau von_ Pfaffenrath, on her knees entreating her most penitently for
+forgiveness; and when she refused with these words: "I would die first,"
+she was taken in arrest to the council-house and there guarded by two
+musketeers; her husband also was put in an unhealthy prison. Unshaken by
+such great sufferings the _Frau Landjägermeisterin_, in a beautiful
+letter full of self-reliance and noble sentiments, petitioned the Duke
+for her husband's freedom, her own dismission from the service of the
+court, and permission to institute a legal defence against the
+Pfaffenrath. All this was denied her. She was on the contrary carried by
+two musketeers into the room of the Pfaffenrath in order to beg pardon,
+and when she again refused, she was taken into the market-place of
+Meiningen surrounded by a circle of soldiers, and the sheriff read aloud
+a decree, in which it was proclaimed to the people, that the lampoon was
+to be burnt before the eyes of the _Landjägermeisterin_ by the hangman,
+and every one was forbidden, on pain of six weeks' imprisonment and a
+fine of a hundred thalers, ever to speak again on the subject. The
+letter was burnt by the hangman and _Frau von_ Gleichen again taken back
+to prison.
+
+But now the friends of the Gleichen brought a complaint before the
+Imperial chamber. But the repeated mandates of the Chamber to Duke
+Anthony Ulrich and his government, to give freedom to the Gleichens and
+to proceed according to law, were not obeyed. After that Duke Friedrich
+III. of Gotha, received a commission from the same tribunal to defend
+_Frau von_ Gleichen and her husband from farther violence, and to
+deliver them from imprisonment in Meiningen, yet keep them in honourable
+custody. Duke Friedrich demanded the delivery of the prisoners from
+Meiningen, but his commissioners were not admitted into the city, nor
+his letter accepted; but it was signified to him, that if Gotha should
+attempt to free them by force, there was plenty of powder and shot at
+Meiningen. Betwixt Meiningen and Gotha there were endless quarrels and
+great bitterness.
+
+Thereupon Duke Friedrich of Gotha prepared himself for armed
+intervention. He was a warlike Prince, who maintained a subsidiary force
+of six thousand infantry and fifteen hundred horse in the Dutch and
+Imperial service. He had, besides a large number of guns, a strong corps
+of officers and several Generals. On the other hand the military
+strength of Meiningen was small; it consisted almost entirely of the old
+fortifications and unskilled militia. These were assembled, and
+Meiningen was fortified as well as was possible in such haste. But it
+was not destined that Meiningen itself should become the scene of
+action, for the fury of war raged only about the town of Wasungen. It
+was indeed a remarkable coincidence that this place should become the
+theatre of war, for scandal says that it was considered the shield or
+place of refuge of Meiningen; and in the country there is a lying story
+about its councillors and a large gourd. The councillors mistook the
+gourd for the egg of a foreign horse which was to be hatched for the
+good of the town by the united powers of the councillors.
+
+The struggle which then took place in the centre of Germany, between the
+Thuringian states of Gotha and Meiningen, is known by the name of the
+Wasunger war. In a military point of view it is of no importance, but is
+characteristic of the period. All the misery in the German Empire, the
+decaying state of the burgher life, the coarse immorality of the
+politics of that time, the meannesses, pedantry, and helplessness of the
+Imperial army, are shown to such an extent, that they might be a source
+of amusement, if they did not give rise to a more serious and better
+feeling, bringing to light the helplessness of the German Empire.
+
+The narrative is here given by Lieutenant Rauch of Gotha, who took part
+in the war. He speaks in his diary as follows:--
+
+"Early on the 15th of February, precisely at one o'clock, our whole
+division broke up from Tambach, and marched with burning torches through
+the wood beyond the so-called Rosengarten, in order that we might enter
+at break of day the Hessian village Flohe; we knew not whither we were
+going. We continued our march through the city of Smalkalden up to
+Middle Smalkalden.
+
+"When the cavalry came to the Meiningen village Niederschmalkalden, a
+Lieutenant, with about four-and-twenty militia men, stood right across
+the road, and would not let us pass. Here all three corps were obliged
+to halt. Major von Benkendorf, together with the Lieutenant-Colonel,
+rode up to the Lieutenant who was commanding there; and the Major asked
+him what he meant by not letting us pass, and whether this was not a
+public road? The Lieutenant answered: 'Yes! it was a high road, but he
+had orders not to let us pass. Major Benkendorf might say what he liked,
+the Lieutenant would not listen to him.' The Major then took a letter
+out of his pocket which he wished to show him; but neither would he take
+that. Whereupon the Major said to the Lieutenant: if he would not let
+him pass with his people he would force his way.
+
+"The Lieutenant answered shortly, that we might do so, as he had not
+sufficient force to prevent him. The Major rode immediately to the
+guards, drew his sword, and approached the Lieutenant to see whether he
+would consent to treat; but he would not stir from the spot. The Major
+asked him once more, whether he would yield up the ground? But he
+remained firm. Thereupon the Major gave his orders to the guard: March!
+March! and broke through.
+
+"While they were passing, it happened that one of the horses pushed
+against the Meiningen Lieutenant and threw him down. But he soon
+recovered himself, seized his weapon, and shot the serjeant-major of the
+guards, Starke, and then took to flight. A horseman however, whose name
+was Stähm, pursued him forthwith, and would have cut his head in two,
+but the Lieutenant held his weapon obliquely over his head, so that the
+horseman Stähm cut in half the powder sack on the barrel. But my good
+old Lieutenant thought he would run further, and sprang over a ditch,
+where the horseman might not be able to follow him, and thought he was
+now safe. But the grenadier Hellbich fired and shot my old Lieutenant
+Zimmermann behind the right ear as he ran, so that he fell suddenly to
+the ground, and not a muscle quivered. The militia still standing there
+looked on at the game; but the grenadiers fired some grenades among
+them, and they then took to their heels and ran away.
+
+"Meanwhile all the streets of the village had been barricaded with carts
+and wagons; but the Mayor and the peasants seeing their old Lieutenant
+lying dead, whom they had at all times considered as their bulwark, and
+observing that some grenades had fallen into their gardens, were in
+great terror, and began to ring the alarm bells that all the peasants
+might speedily assemble.
+
+"In a moment all the wagons and carts were moved out of the way so that
+we might march. The militia had fled to the village of Schwallungen,
+through which also we had to pass, and where again there was an officer
+in command of thirty militia, to whom they reported what had taken place
+in the village of Niederschmalkalden. So the officer, who was a
+shoemaker by profession, when he heard this report from the fugitives,
+took such of his men as would go with him and tore off to Wasungen
+before he had even caught sight of us.
+
+"When we came to the afore-mentioned village, we formed ourselves in
+column, fixed our bayonets, and thought what will now take place? We
+marched on, and when we came to the gate the officer and all the troops
+had fled, and there to not a single man to make resistance. We marched
+straight through with fixed bayonets; then we saw the portion that had
+remained of the runaway shoemaker-Ensign's troop in their uniform, with
+their cartridge boxes, peeping out of the windows.
+
+"My good shoemaker-Ensign was off, and had posted himself and the men
+who thus went out with him at the gate of Wasungen, where again a
+Lieutenant, who was a good barber--as I knew by experience, having
+myself been shaved by him--had posted himself, and was awaiting us. The
+gate of Wasungen was firmly closed with strong double doors, but a
+sentinel stood without; so Major von Benkendorf called to him that the
+gate must be opened. But the sentinel excused himself, saying he could
+not. The said Major asked him, 'Who is there besides?' He answered: 'The
+Lieutenant.' The Major said he must call his Lieutenant; whereupon he
+ran hastily and fetched him out. Then came up my good barber-Lieutenant;
+the man was already well nigh dead of fright, and his face was whiter
+than his shirt. The Major accosted him sharply, asking how it was that
+the gates were fastened, and whether a public high road did not pass
+through there? He answered, Yes! So Major von Benkendorf said he must
+that instant open the gates, or we would do it ourselves. When he heard
+this, being half dead with fright, he begged for pardon, saying it was
+not he that could open the gates, but the councillors who had closed
+them. The answer was, that he must forthwith produce the councillors.
+Good gracious! was there ever any one more glad than the good barber,
+who ran as if his head was burning; but meanwhile there was nothing seen
+or heard of the shoemaker-Ensign.
+
+"At last the councillors came.
+
+"When I saw these men creeping out of the little gate, I thought, 'What
+the devil! are these councillors? they are a fine lot!' The councillors
+looked a little respectable, but the burgomaster was up to the knees
+in cow-dung, and must have been fetched from clearing away the dung in
+the stable. Hereupon, Major von Benkendorf asked whether they were the
+councillors? They answered: 'Yes, and what did we desire?' The Major
+asked whether this was not the highroad to Nuremberg? They said, 'Yes.'
+'Why then were the gates closed and barricaded, and we not allowed to
+pass through?' Then the president of the council answered: 'They were
+commanded by their government not to let any troops pass through,
+therefore they must keep the gates closed; they must do what their
+master commanded them.' But Major von Benkendorf repeated his former
+words, and said to them: 'They must open to us, and that quickly, for
+that we must march further; and if they did not open, we would do it
+ourselves.' The president of the council answered this, and said: 'We
+might do as we liked, but he could not open the gates to us.' But the
+dung-bespattered burgomaster then began: 'Nay! if you wish to march
+further, you can do so by the back road.' I thought to myself, 'If thou
+couldst but kill that cursed dirty fellow!' The Major then forthwith
+called to me, and desired that all the carpenters of the whole division
+should be summoned; which was done in a moment. Hereupon he asked once
+more whether they would amicably open the gate? if not, he would have
+them immediately hewn open. They might now see that we ourselves would
+open the gates if they did not prefer preserving them whole.
+
+"The Major thought they would resolve to open them, but they said they
+would not, and we might do what we liked. Hereupon the Major called out:
+'Proceed carpenters! hew the gates down!' Thereupon the carpenters set
+to work. When the knocking and cracking began, it was well worth seeing
+how the councillors, among whom was the Burgomaster, and the
+frightened barber-Lieutenant, began to ran, as if carried off by the
+devil. In a moment both gates were hewn down, and the whole detachment
+marched with trumpets, drums, and fifes, into the city.
+
+"As we marched in through the gates, the good barber-Lieutenant, and the
+shoemaker-Ensign, with their men, presented arms, and saluted both the
+officers of our detachment.
+
+"Here we stopped, just as we were; everyone was hungry and thirsty. We
+officers made the citizens fetch us something to drink, and stood
+looking at and questioning one another. The snow was lying on the
+ground, and our men began to be impatient. I went to the inn where the
+Lieutenant-Colonel was in consultation with his officers; they were
+deliberating, and I could not speak with them. The citizens were already
+beginning to kindle their lights, and it did not appear how the affair
+was to end.
+
+"At last the Lieutenant-Colonel came and sent forthwith to the
+councillors, who were already assembled in their council-room,
+deliberating what report they should make to Meiningen concerning the
+hewing down of their gates. But the president of the council had got
+scent of it, so he kept apart, and left the others to themselves, for
+all men could see that we could not go any further, as it was night. Now
+as the president was away, no one would go to the Lieutenant-Colonel,
+and each kept calling upon the other to go. At last one consented, and
+said: 'Some one must go, let what will happen.' When therefore he came
+to the Lieutenant-Colonel, it was represented to him that the town must
+provide us with accommodation for the night, whether they liked or not.
+The Lieutenant-Colonel also added, that we should march very early on
+the morrow; that the citizens were not bound to give the smallest thing
+to the soldiers, who had to live on their pay; therefore he need not
+deliberate any more about it. The councillor begged to be excused, but
+said he could do nothing himself, he must lay the matter before his
+colleagues, and see what they were disposed to do.
+
+"Hereupon I marched forth again with the good councillor to the
+Schlundhouse, where the other councillors were sitting. When I entered
+the room with the plenipotentiary, he delivered the Lieutenant-Colonel's
+message to them, in his own words: 'That the Commander desired to have
+night-quarters for his men, and that on the morrow at sunrise, they
+would again march; that he could not help the citizens; they must do so
+whether they chose or not; if they would not do it, they must tell
+Lieutenant Rauch; in which case, he would quarter the soldiers in houses
+according to the custom with troops; they would get what they wanted,
+for soldiers must live on their pay. No citizen was bound to give them
+anything but a warm room and a place of rest.'
+
+"Now every one shall hear what passed amongst these councillors. The
+first who began, said: 'I do not assent to this. Who asked them to wait
+so long here? they might long ere now have marched away, if they had
+chosen.' Another said: 'You are right, cousin Kurtz; I would rather tear
+myself in pieces than consent.' The third then said: 'So, ho! first they
+hew down our gates, and then, forsooth, they cannot go further, and
+expect us to give them quarters: most decidedly not!' The fourth now
+spoke: 'The honourable Commander seems to be an honest man, but let him
+say what he will, there is no doubt that we must provide food for them,
+for truly they bring nothing with them.' The fifth then began: 'That is
+right, cousin Hopf: do you not remember how it fared with us when the
+Imperial cavalry came? they behaved in like manner; and afterwards we
+could not get rid of them, but were obliged to keep them with a good
+grace.' The sixth said: 'This will never do; we cannot provide them with
+quarters till we have received orders from our government, otherwise we
+shall be punished.' The seventh spoke thus: 'Did I not tell you,
+gentlemen, what would happen, by keeping these people so long outside?
+Truly the President, Herr Läufer, has made off, and slips his head out
+of the noose, leaving us to bear the brunt. Take heed; they say they
+will be off to-morrow, but they have been marching yesterday and to-day,
+and to-morrow they will make a day of rest, as they will need repose.
+Rest assured that I am right; what think you, gentlemen? suppose we were
+to send a messenger on horseback to Meiningen?'
+
+"I had listened to all the discussions of the councillors, and now I
+began, and said: 'Gentlemen, you come to no conclusion; I will inform my
+Commander of it, let it fare with you as it may.' But he who had gone
+with me to the Lieutenant-Colonel, begged me to wait but a little, and
+they would just send to the treasurer and city clerk to confer with
+them. Here the strife began again, none would go thither. At last one of
+them allowed himself to be persuaded, but soon returned again, saying
+they had both ridden off when we hewed down the gates. Then I said,
+'Now, gentlemen, do what you like; I will not wait a moment longer.'
+
+"Thereupon the eighth and last began to speak, he who had accompanied me
+to the Lieutenant: 'Gentlemen, what shall we do; here they are, and you
+have heard what the Commander says: if we will allot them no quarters,
+he will let his soldiers go into whatsoever houses they please; if they
+fill your houses it is no fault of mine. I go home to close mine. As
+many as come to my share I will take; the others I will show to your
+houses. You have heard of to-day's misfortunes. At Smalkalden, friend
+Böhler's brother-in-law, Lieutenant Zimmermann, is dead; our gates have
+been hewn down; below are the soldiers thundering out curses. Gentlemen,
+let us billet them. The soldiers in the market-place say they only wish
+they had shot the peasants who were with the Lieutenant. What a calamity
+that would have been! They say also that more shall be shot; that one
+shall not be the last. Thus you see that the same misfortune might come
+upon us also. Ah! gentlemen, if we had but such a prince as he of Gotha
+is! but ours troubles himself not about us; he lives comfortably at
+Frankfort, and let what will come to us, he cares not. And who knows
+wherefore this has begun? These soldiers assuredly have not come for a
+pastime. One can learn nothing from them. And how soon one night will
+pass, or even two! They are our border neighbours too; why should we not
+give them a night's lodging?'
+
+"They all agreed to this and sought for their old rate of tax; whereupon
+I had to tell them the whole strength of our division.
+
+"After that, I received an order to enjoin upon the soldiers, when they
+received their billets, that they were not to undress themselves, but
+were each of them to place his weapon by his bedside, and soon as a call
+was heard, every soldier was instantly to join his commanding officer
+fully armed, and if any one was found in a state of drunkenness, he was
+to be punished by running the gauntlet of the whole division; therefore
+an order was to be given directly to the assistant executioner, to cut
+this very evening six hundred rods.
+
+"None of the officers undressed themselves; for the most part they
+remained in company together, in order to be alert on the morrow. When
+morning approached, the citizens as well as the officers were listening
+for the beating of the drum. They also had probably passed an unquiet
+night; wherefore? because they were badly provided with beds, and had
+given them up perhaps to the soldiers for a douceur. This one might
+conclude, as in all the houses lights were to be seen throughout the
+night. In the morning, instead of the call from the staff of the
+grenadier guards, the reveille was beaten. Now, every soldier knows
+well, that beating the reveille signifies remaining quiet, or a day of
+rest; so we put our heads together to guess what this might mean. The
+citizens, also, when they saw that the soldiers did not break up, and
+prepare to march, laid their heads together likewise, and there was a
+great amount of whispering among them. My host, himself a councillor,
+came and asked me what was the meaning of our not marching further? I
+could give him no information.
+
+"Now the misery began; there was only food for him who had brought
+bread. The citizens quarrelled with the soldiers, and asked why they had
+not marched away yesterday or early to-day, and whither we had intended
+to go? They told them the truth. It was such an uproar as is impossible
+to describe. The poor citizens who possessed no goods or houses, fled,
+and their dwellings were broken open by the soldiers, and one excess was
+committed after another.
+
+"Meanwhile, all the councillors and burgomasters were called to
+Meiningen, where they were charged by their government, on pain of
+punishment, to signify to the citizens that they were not to provide
+anything for the Saxe-Gotha soldiers. The bakers were not to bake, nor
+the butchers to slaughter the beasts; the innkeepers were not to prepare
+any food, nor the brewers to brew. This the councillors actually
+proclaimed to the citizens. And truly I was not able to get even
+three-pennyworth of cheese. The citizens who were prudent people, begged
+of us not to take it amiss of them; as we must accept good words instead
+of what they would have given us. If I wanted bread I had to send to
+Smalkalden for it, and give more pay to the messenger than for the
+bread.
+
+"Thus we remained there, expecting the Meiningens, who never came.
+Meanwhile we found provisions; we got most of them from Smalkalden; the
+beer was bought in the Hessian village of Tambach, and the Jews brought
+us meat. At last the Wasungers became disloyal, turned round on their
+magistrates and said: 'We have all the troubles, and the other states
+the enjoyment; this does not suit us; we have promised to obey our
+government, but then they should protect us. If they cannot rid us of
+these people, we will bake, brew, and cook.' And from that hour they
+began to do all. For many years the citizens had not brewed nor sold so
+much beer as after this; every week three and four brews; bakers began
+to bake, who had long shut up shop; the butchers did the like. Then the
+wise councillors went off again to Meiningen and reported everything;
+whereupon the citizens were again cited to the town house, on a penalty
+of twenty gulden. But they were refractory and would not go, but sent
+thither their barefooted children, and heeded no more commands. When
+these wise councillors found this, they themselves began to brew.
+
+"On the 22nd of May, on Whit Monday, 1747, an order must probably have
+come from Major S---- of which we officers learnt nothing. Hereupon
+there was a running and scampering to the Privy Councillor Flörcke at
+the 'Bear,' which was quite astounding; now they ran in and now out. I
+thought: 'What the devil is the matter?' yet I thought, if something is
+passing, I shall hear of it. The citizens also began to inquire:
+'Wherefore is all this running to the commander at the "Bear?"' But I
+could give no answer.
+
+"Whilst all this running hither and thither was going on, I went with
+Ensign Köhler to inspect the sentinels, and when we arrived at the upper
+gate, Majors von S---- and von B---- and Captain von W---- met us. Major
+von S---- came straight up to me and asked me secretly, whether I had
+heard any news? I answered, No; whereupon he inquired of me, whether I
+knew that the Meiningens meant to attack us that night? I replied: 'Well
+and good; if they come they must knock pretty loud, we will be ready for
+them.' He then said, would I wish to send my wife away? 'No,' said I,
+'she only came on holy Whitsun eve, and will not go away till the day
+following Whit Sunday.' 'Indeed,' he continued; 'but if the Meiningens
+come?' 'I shall gird a sword round her,' was my answer, 'and she may
+defend herself.'
+
+"Then Major S---- continued, saying, 'I was to make my dispositions
+here, and see that all the gates and posts were defended.' This is truly
+being deceived with one's eyes open; to make dispositions before the
+eyes of men and not to keep them!
+
+"When I came down I called out to the soldiers: 'Attention! cease that
+chattering.' Then I began to arrange the right wing, but had hardly
+placed four or five files, when Captain W---- came running, and asked
+me, whether I had not heard that I was to come with him directly. Here
+came out the first result of their council of war. I did not delay long,
+but ran directly to the Major, and asked what commands he had to give
+me; whereunto he answered, that I was to take thirty dragoons and march
+them to the 'Bear,' and there report myself to the Privy Councillor
+Flörcke, in order to bring him in safety to Schwallungen. I forthwith
+replied: 'I beg your pardon, Major, but that is not befitting me, and I
+shall not do it; there are other officers there who may be ordered to do
+this, but not I.' Now, in short, I heard that the Privy Councillor
+wished to have me. Who would have dreamt of such a trick? As if I would
+have escorted the Privy Councillor from Wasungen! I would sooner have
+taken him into the Werra. But no remonstrances would serve; they said I
+must and should go. This was the first trick! Hereupon I replied to the
+Major: 'So I must consider it an honour, that the Privy Councillor
+places such confidence in me, when there are so many officers in the
+division;' hereupon I received an order, to tell the officer at the
+lower gate that he should give information as soon as I had passed
+through with the Privy Councillor; this was the second trick. Who could
+have imagined such a trick? I will not write what I think of it. When I
+found it out I wished that all the horses of the carriages had died,
+that I might not be taken away from Wasungen by such cunning.
+
+"Now I went forth, taking with me a corporal named Görnlein, and
+nine-and-twenty dragoons, and marched to the 'Bear,' where I found a
+carriage at the door, but saw the servant sitting within in the doorway.
+I called to him to inform his master I was there; whereupon the Privy
+Councillor called out to me from the carriage, 'I am already here.'
+Whereupon, I detached the corporal with fourteen men to go behind the
+carriage, while I went in advance with the others.
+
+"Now when I came to the lower gate, I called to the serjeant, and bade
+him tell the major that I and the privy councillor had passed out.
+Meanwhile the soldiers were in great confusion at the rendezvous; but
+when the corporal announced that I had passed out with the Privy
+Councillor, the major immediately gave orders that all the soldiers
+should pile their arms, and go to their quarters to fetch their baggage;
+when they had dispersed, he sent to the guard to desire them to go
+forthwith and assemble at his quarters, which was done. Thus all the
+outposts were forgotten. At last the noise and bawling was so great, it
+reached the ears of the outposts, who went off without orders. Now when
+the soldiers from the guards came to the market-place, they saw some of
+the soldiers coming back from their quarters with their baggage, so they
+piled their arms and went off for theirs.
+
+"But this was not enough. Either the time appeared to him too long
+before the soldiers were again assembled, or the fear of death had
+already come upon him, or he was incited to it by his comrades; but in
+short, he determined at once to leave, and going down to the soldiers he
+called out, 'Allons! March!' although the men had not nearly all
+assembled. Then Captain Brandis, who had not consented to this at their
+council of war, asked what this meant? whereto the Major von S----
+answered, they were to march into the district of Britungen. The good
+man who was standing in front of the Meiningen gate, then ran quickly to
+his house, collected his things together, and threw them into his
+portmanteau. He had well nigh been left behind.
+
+"Now when Captain Brandis, and the musketeer who had packed up his
+things, returned to the place of rendezvous, all were gone, and there
+were only a few weapons remaining there. So he sent on his servant, and
+waited for the remainder of the men. Now every one should know, in the
+first place, that Major von S----, had not waited till all the soldiers
+were collected together, still less had he thought of the artillery; he
+had thought of nothing but calling out 'March! march!' and the sick
+officers (Captain Rupert among them), and sick soldiers were forgotten;
+besides this, he never set the troops in order, but marched them out as
+a shepherd drives his cattle through the gate; and such a shameful sight
+was never seen, nor can it be described.
+
+"Captain Brandis now came marching through the town with the soldiers he
+had collected; whereupon the citizens began to call out after him:
+'There they run like vagabonds; they entered in the daylight and run
+away at night, like thieves and rogues; the good Major von S---- is up
+and away.' Captain Brandis swallowed all this patiently, and continued
+marching slowly with his troops. When he had come to a height in front
+of the town, some Wasungers, who were lying in ambush, fired at him; and
+when he had marched a short distance further, he found our artillery
+lying in a defile, without a single man to guard it, and it lay now with
+the wheels, now with the wagons uppermost, and hardly a piece was
+standing; for as there was a deficiency of chains, the gunners had
+fastened the guns with tow to the powder wagons, and these were breaking
+every moment. Captain Brandis with his men, remained with the artillery.
+
+"Now I had to make my arrangements carefully. When I arrived at
+Schwallungen, I stopped my soldiers and the carriage, and went up to the
+Privy Councillor to inquire where I should convey him; whereto he, half
+dead with fear, answered, 'To the upper Inn.' Where the devil that was I
+did not know, till I found a dragoon, who having been there formerly,
+conducted us to the place; for I knew nothing about the village, nor
+where the inn lay; it was dark as pitch, and rained as if the water was
+poured from heaven in buckets. When I arrived at the inn he had
+designated, I caused the gates to be opened, and the carriage to drive
+into the court; the Privy Councillor alighted with his clerk who
+accompanied him, and retired into an upper room, for he knew the place
+better than I. I put a sentry on each side of the carriage, because the
+chancery papers lay therein. I desired the rest of the soldiers to place
+their arms in the house that they might be safe from the rain, and
+placed a sentry to guard both the arms and the Privy Councillor. I did
+not care any more about the said Privy Councillor, for I had, according
+to the orders of Major von S----, brought him to a place of security;
+where he would probably be about as safe as a cake among rats, for it
+was a Meiningen village; and according to all accounts there were no
+worse rogues in the whole country, than the inhabitants of Schwallungen.
+
+"Having therefore executed my orders, I sent my sergeant to Lieutenant
+Griesheim, who was stationed with forty or fifty dragoons in the said
+village, to inform him that I had brought the Privy Councillor hither,
+and that he should come and release me from my charge. A short time
+after, the Lieutenant made his appearance, and was much amazed that I,
+being adjutant, should have come hither with a detachment, and could not
+help remarking on it.
+
+"I said, it appeared to me more serious. However, this was now nothing
+to the purpose. I begged of him to set to work, and send for his
+soldiers, that I might march back to Wasungen with my detachment;
+whereupon he took the trouble of going himself for them. When he had
+collected about fifteen men, I told him he must take charge of the
+posts, as I wished at once to resume my march; the which he did, and so
+released me. Now it was right to pay my respects to the Privy
+Councillor, and ask him whether he had any commands for Wasungen?
+whereupon the man addressed me as if I were a thrasher, and asked me
+whether I had no orders to remain here? but I was prepared and answered
+him with the most perfect indifference, 'No, the devil has given me no
+orders to remain here; and it was no part of my duty to bring you here.'
+That he said I might settle with Major von S----. Whereunto I replied,
+'I will most certainly do so.' After that he inquired of me more kindly
+what I wished to do at Wasungen, as the whole division were on the
+march, and would speedily be here. Then I said, 'Is that the way the
+cards are shuffled? that is good, truly.' Now whilst I was still
+standing in the room with the Privy Councillor, I heard the tramping of
+horses; I rushed down stairs and asked who it was. I received for
+answer, 'We are all here.' Then I was so horrified that I almost lost my
+senses; there were the two majors, who forthwith dismounted, hastened up
+stairs into the councillor's room, and I after them.
+
+"Now they were beginning to relate to each other how fortunately they
+had escaped from the besieged Wasungen, but I would not let Major von
+S---- say a word, but asked him: 'Herr Major, what manner of conduct is
+this, to send me so cunningly away from Wasungen, without telling me
+that you were going to march out, and I have left there my wife and
+child, and all my property? Is this the custom of war? I know not
+whether you have received money for acting thus, or what I am to think
+of it. Are these your secret projects which are brought to light to-day?
+In the devil's name, I am not so young, nor have only become a soldier
+to-day; perhaps I know as well or better than you, what is the way to do
+things.' I was in such a rage, I would have staked my life against him.
+
+"Now my dear reader, you must observe, that up to this moment I had
+neither seen nor heard a single man of the whole division, and did not
+know how matters stood. Major von S---- tried to comfort me, saying I
+need not be unhappy about my things; he would be surety for them; but I
+answered him quickly: 'Herr Major, how can you answer for my things? Why
+did you not tell me the truth instead of sending me out of Wasungen by
+such deceit? that is not allowable.' Then the Privy Councillor would
+have his say, and truly to this effect, that the Major was right in
+sending me away; that was his opinion. But I replied: 'By ---- I require
+no clerks to give me orders; if I were a commander, I would tell those
+who were under me, what was going to take place, and what they were to
+do; but to act in such a way as this, is not honourable.'
+
+"Thereupon I left the room, and when I came to the guard in the court,
+one Pleissner, a citizen of Gotha, a tinman, who had been at that time
+on a visit at Wasungen, entered the court, and said to me of his own
+accord; 'God help us, Herr Lieutenant, what a sight that was at
+Wasungen! it filled me with sorrow and vexation when our people marched
+out in that way, for I am a citizen of Gotha. When our soldiers marched
+out through the lower gate, the militia of the country entered in
+through the upper gate, and visited every house; and sent off to
+Meiningen, Christian, Ensign of Captain Brandis's company, who had been
+forgotten on guard, and was going to his quarters to fetch his baggage.
+The devil is in the militia; they visited every house, and said they
+would carry off all to Meiningen.'
+
+"I will ask anyone to think what kind of temper I was in then; Captain
+Ruprecht and many soldiers had been left ill at Wasungen; my wife and
+child and my small chattels were also there; and now I heard that the
+musketeer Huthmann had already been carried off to Meiningen, so
+everything wore a black aspect. I asked the citizen where our soldiers
+were? 'Ah,' said he, 'they lie without, all in troops under the trees,
+and Captain Brandis is still at Wasungen; the field-pieces lie all on
+the road upside down; they cannot get on, as they have no chains to
+couple them together, but they have made use of the tow for that
+purpose, which breaks every minute. I remained near them some time, but
+the Wasungers began to fire at us from behind; it was the devil to pay,
+and as it also rained heavily, I thought I would get under cover. Our
+people are lying so dispersed about the roads, that it would take two
+hours to collect them, and I saw no officer but Captain Brandis: the
+soldiers were swearing enough to bring down heaven upon them; I was
+frightened out of my wits and hastened away.'
+
+"After hearing this I stood there, not knowing what to do; there was not
+a man of the whole detachment to be heard or seen, and it rained
+terribly. At last the old grenadier corporal came into the village with
+about ten grenadiers, wading through the mud; I knew his voice from
+afar, and his soldiers were swearing astoundingly; so I called out to
+them, 'What is the use of swearing? it cannot be helped now.' 'Aye,
+zounds,' said the corporal, 'I have gone through two campaigns, but
+never had such a business as this. Is this to be allowed? There is our
+captain lying ill at Wasungen, and our major, who ought to take charge
+of us, is gone with Major S---- to the devil; we are poor forsaken
+soldiers, but, the devil take me, I will march to Gotha with the few men
+I have here.' I asked him where the other grenadiers were; but he did
+not know whether they were in advance or behind. 'We have not an
+officer,' he said, 'and no one took charge of us,' so each one went
+where he chose. He did not know that the two majors were at the inn; but
+if the old corporal was foul-mouthed, his grenadiers were still worse.
+
+"I had enough to do to mollify the grenadiers, and thus things went on;
+every quarter or half-hour a small troop came in, and if the first had
+made a clamour, the others were still worse; finally, the artillery
+came, though it is usual, under whatever circumstances one may march, to
+place the artillery either in front or in the middle, and guard them as
+one would guard one's soul. It might plainly be seen that this commander
+had never seen a corps or army marching with artillery, which must,
+according to the usages of war, always be protected.
+
+"The soldiery became more and more disorderly, and I had to admonish
+them to be on their good behaviour before the peasants, who were looking
+at and listening to us from their windows, and making their jests upon
+us.
+
+"At last, thank God, the rain ceased; a dragoon had led us to a meadow
+which lay hard by the road, along which I stationed the right wing, and
+taking command, told the force off into divisions and half-divisions.
+Whilst I was doing this I heard some horses in the distance coming at a
+great pace, so I thought, here comes the enemy; I forthwith called out
+to the right wing to send out some men and challenge the new-comers; at
+the same time I ran up to one of the grenadiers, and taking his musket
+from his hand, as during the process of dividing the men I had given up
+mine, I placed myself with some grenadiers in the middle of the road,
+and called out, 'Who goes there?' I was answered by a well-known voice,
+which I immediately recognized as that of Major von Benkendorf, as he
+did mine likewise. When I challenged him, he called to me, 'Do you not
+know me?' 'Yes, thank God!' I knew him by his voice, but could not do so
+before he spoke, on account of the darkness. Thus did God send to the
+children of Israel in the wilderness; here was the word fulfilled: God
+forsakes none who trust in him always.
+
+"The first words of the major were: 'Children, what are you doing here?'
+I answered, Herr Major, God only knows, not I; we have been brought away
+in such a fashion, that we hardly know how we have come here.' He asked
+further: 'Did you all march?' 'Yes, there is no longer any one there
+except the sick, and those they have taken prisoners.' '_Oh, mon Dieu!_'
+exclaimed he, 'we must return thither, even were we to sit down before
+the gates; where are your majors?' 'At the Schwallungen inn.' Then he
+called out, 'Allons, children! march away;' and galloped in all haste to
+the inn, where he may have found them at a good bottle of wine, but what
+kind of greeting he gave them, or compliments, I have not heard."
+
+Thus far we have the valiant Rauch. In the farther part of his diary he
+relates how the Gotha troops regained courage, returned to Wasungen and
+there drove out the Meiningens, who were equally eager to run away, as
+they had done, and again established themselves there.
+
+Immediately after the first capture of Wasungen, the government at
+Meiningen, in great consternation, had sent Frau von Gleichen with her
+husband there in a carriage, attended by Gotha troops. But it was no
+great pleasure to them to see that the cause of the quarrel was done
+away with; so the poor court dignitaries met with a cold reception; the
+health of both was broken by sorrow, vexation, and long imprisonment.
+In 1748, Herr von Gleichen died, and his wife soon after. Meanwhile,
+flying-sheets and memorials, mandates of the Imperial chamber, and
+ministerial missives concerning this affair, flew all over Germany; the
+Gotha troops kept possession of Wasungen. Anthony Ulrich obstinately
+refused to acknowledge the claims of Gotha to indemnification, and the
+voices of numerous princes were loud in condemning the sentence of the
+Imperial chamber, and the execution of it by Gotha, as a violation of
+the sovereign rights of a German ruler. Frederick the Great did so
+likewise.
+
+Just then, when the Duke of Saxe-Gotha was in a desperate position, a
+new prospect and a new subject of quarrel presented themselves to him.
+The Duke of Weimar had died, and had settled that his cousin of Gotha
+was to be guardian to his only son during his minority. The Duke of
+Gotha speedily entered upon the guardianship, and caused homage to be
+sworn to him: upon this, a violent altercation again sprang up between
+him, and the Duke of Coburg and Anthony Ulrich, who both contested the
+right of the Gotha prince to the guardianship. Then Frederick II. of
+Prussia offered his services to the Duke of Gotha, who was reduced to
+great extremities, on condition that he should obligingly offer him the
+small gift of two hundred picked men from the guards of Weimar. This was
+done; thus the Duke of Gotha purchased the administration of this
+country, and the settlement of the Wasunger strife, with two hundred men
+of the Weimar guards. Two hundred children of the soil of Weimar, to
+whom the quarrel mattered not in the least, were arbitrarily given away
+like a herd of sheep. Contrary to all justice, they were chaffered away
+by a foreign prince.
+
+The two hundred followed King Frederick in the seven Years' war.
+
+
+
+
+  CONCLUSION.
+
+
+This work ends with the name of the great king. The social condition of
+the country in his time, although very different from the present, is
+well known to us; and even minute particulars, have become, through its
+history and literature, the common property of the people. Frederick
+became the hero of the nation. The Germans have exalted him even more
+than Gustavus Adolphus. He ruled the minds of men far beyond the
+boundaries of his limited dominions. In the distant Alpine valleys,
+among men speaking another tongue, and holding another faith, he was
+reverenced as a saint both in pictures and writings. He was a powerful
+ruler, a genial commander, and what was more valued by the Germans, a
+great man in the highest of earthly positions. It was his personal
+appearance and manners which made foreigners and even enemies admire
+him. He inspired the people again with enthusiasm for German greatness,
+zeal for the highest earthly interests, and sympathy in a German state.
+In the course of three centuries, he was the third man round whom the
+national love and veneration had entwined itself; the second to whom it
+was granted to elevate and improve the character of the nation. For the
+Germans became better, richer, and happier, when they were carried
+beyond the narrow interests of their private life, and beyond their
+petty literary quarrels, by the appearance of a great character daringly
+aspiring to the highest objects, struggling, suffering, persevering, and
+firm. He was of their own blood, and in spite of his passion for what
+was French, he was a thorough child of Germany, reared in a hard time,
+and belonging to them. Under him, the grandsons of those citizens who
+had passed through the great war, began for the first time after a
+century to feel their own powers. We delight to see, how the poor poet
+sings the praises of him, who would so little appreciate the odes of the
+German Sappho, or the outpouring of elevated poetry; still more do we
+rejoice in seeing the whole people, even in Austria, contending on his
+behalf, his image penetrating into every family, and his name exciting
+everywhere party spirit, new interests, and political passions. This has
+been the greatest blessing of his whole life. He forced the private
+individual to take part in political life; he created a state for the
+German, which whether loved or hated, must become a continual object of
+care and watchfulness.
+
+But though enthusiasm for a hero perhaps gives a capacity for the
+development of powers, it does not give stability. The Germans had yet
+to go through severe trials after the death of the great king. He had
+bequeathed to them the first beginning of a German State, but the ruins
+of the Empire of the middle ages lay defenceless against the western
+enemy. The curse which since the time of Charles V. had rested on the
+German Empire had not yet changed into a blessing. Once more was Germany
+overrun by a great army, once more did a league of German princes unite
+with a foreign conqueror, even the state of the great Frederick was
+shattered, the last hope seemed to have vanished, the German people were
+crushed.
+
+But in the rooms of the German peasants, the picture of the old king, in
+his three-cornered hat and small pigtail, did not turn his earnest look
+in vain on the life he had revived; nor in vain had the mothers of the
+present generation run to the churches to pray for a blessing on his
+arms. Now it was that the full blessing of his energetic life truly
+manifested itself. The spirit of that great man lived again in the
+German people. Fifty years after the return of the king from the seven
+years' war, three hundred years after Luther strove earnestly to find
+his God, the German nation roused itself for the greatest struggle it
+had ever yet successfully carried on. The fathers now sent out their
+sons, and the wives their husbands to the war; the Germans encountered
+death with a song on their lips, to seek a body for the German soul, a
+state for the fatherland.
+
+In the year 1813, we find the conclusion of that great struggle which
+began in 1517. From the time of the contest of the Wittenburger
+Augustine against indulgences, to the march of the German volunteers
+against Napoleon, the German spirit carried on a great defensive war
+against a foreign influence, which issuing from Rome well nigh
+overwhelmed those who had once been the conquerors of the Roman Empire.
+
+From this life-and-death struggle of three hundred years, Germany passed
+from the bondage of the middle ages into freedom. But though the spirit
+of the people became free, the reality of a German state was lost to
+them. The nation was almost annihilated by this unnatural condition.
+After a death-like exhaustion it recovered itself slowly; the
+resuscitated spirit was helpless, its form weak and sickly; it was
+seeking unity of government. By a powerful development of strength, the
+foundation of it was laid in the beginning of this century.
+
+Henceforth German Protestantism became a living, sound, and manly
+acquisition, a great national principle, the expression of the German
+popular mind, the peculiar German characteristic in every domain of
+ideal and practical life.
+
+We all still feel how deficient and unfinished is the development of
+this, the highest principle of life in the German nation. But it is this
+feeling which gives us courage and leads us to struggle onwards.
+
+What are here given from the old records are narratives of individuals
+of past generations. They are some of them unimportant passages from the
+lives of insignificant persons. But, as the outward appearance of any
+stranger we meet, his mode of greeting, and his first words, give us an
+impression of his individuality, an imperfect, an unfinished impression,
+but still a whole; so, if we are not mistaken, does each record, in
+which the impulses of individuals and their peculiar working are
+portrayed, give us with rapid distinctness a vivid picture of the life
+of the people; a very imperfect and unfinished picture, but yet, also a
+whole, round which a large portion of our knowledge and intuitive
+perceptions rapidly concentrate, like the radii round the centre of a
+crystal.
+
+If every such picture gives us an impression, that in the soul of each
+man a miniature picture may be found of the characteristics of his
+nation; something will be learnt from a succession of these narratives,
+arranged according to their periods, however much there may be in them
+that is incidental and arbitrary. We shall discover the stirring and
+gradual development of a higher intellectual unity, which likewise meets
+us here in the shape of a distinct individuality; and therefore, these
+little sketches will perhaps help us to a more lively comprehension, of
+what we call the life of a nation.
+
+Everywhere man appears to us, by his customs and laws, by language and
+the whole genial tendencies of his nature, as a small portion of a
+greater whole. It is true also that this greater whole, appears to us as
+an intellectual unity, which like an individual, is earthly and
+perishable, a thing which accomplishes its earthly existence in a
+century, as a man does his in a certain number of years. Like an
+individual, a people developes its intellectual capacities in the course
+of time, but more powerfully and on a grander scale. And further, a
+people consists of millions of individuals the tide of human life flows
+in millions of souls, but the conscious and unconscious working together
+of these millions, produces an intellectual whole, in which the share of
+individuals often vanishes from our eyes, so that the soul of a whole
+people seems to us, a self-creative living unity. Who was the man who
+created languages? who devised the most ancient law of nations? who
+first thought of giving poetical expression to an elevated tone of mind?
+It was not individuals who invented these for practical purposes, but a
+universal intellectual life, which burst forth among thousands who lived
+together. All the great productions of national power, law, customs, and
+the constitution of states, are not the work of individual men, but
+organic creations of a higher life, which in every period shine forth in
+individuals, yet in all periods seem to unite the intellectual
+capacities of individuals, in one mighty whole. Each man bears and
+cultivates within his soul, part of the intellect of the nation; each
+one possesses its language, a certain amount of knowledge, and a sense
+of justice and propriety; but in each, this general nationality is
+coloured, concentrated, and limited by his individuality. Individuals do
+not represent the language or the moral feelings of the whole; they only
+are, as it were, the single notes, which joined together produce a
+harmonious chord as part of the collective nation. One may therefore
+fairly, and without mysticism, speak of a national soul.
+
+And if one examines more narrowly, one perceives with astonishment, that
+this law of development of a higher intellectual unity, differs
+remarkably from that which binds or makes an individual free. A man
+chooses freely for himself, between what will injure or be beneficial to
+him and his interests; judiciously does he shape his life, and prudently
+does he judge the conceptions which reach his soul from the great world.
+But less conscious, less full of purpose and judgment than the
+determination of man's will, is the working of the life of the nation.
+In history, man represents freedom and judgment, but national energy,
+works incessantly with the mysterious instinctive impulse of a primitive
+power, and its intellectual conceptions correspond sometimes in a
+remarkable way, with the process of formation of the silently productive
+powers of nature, which bring forth from the seed, the stalk, leaves,
+and flowers of the plant. From this point of view, the life of a nation
+passes in unceasing alternations from the whole body to the individual,
+and from the man to the whole body. The life of each man, even the most
+insignificant, gives a portion of its substance to the nation, and a
+portion of the collective powers of the nation lives in each man; he
+transmits soul and body from one generation to another; he adds to the
+language, and preserves the consciousness of right; all the results of
+his labours are beneficial to the nation as well as to himself. The
+course of life of millions runs smoothly and imperceptibly along with
+the stream. But important personalities develop themselves from the
+multitude in all directions, gaining a great influence on the whole
+body. Sometimes a powerful character arises, which in some wide field of
+action, long rules the spiritual life of the people, and stamps the
+impress of its individual mind on the age. Then the life of the whole
+nation, which also flows through our heads and hearts, becomes as
+familiar to us as is possible for the soul of any individual man; then
+the whole powers of the people seem for some years working for the one
+individual, and obeying him as a master. These are the great periods in
+the formation of a people. Such was Luther to the Germans.
+
+But no nation develops its life independent of others. As the life of
+one individual works on that of another, so does it happen with nations.
+Each nation communicates some of its intellectuality to another. Even
+the practical forms of national existence, its state and its Church, are
+either advanced, or checked and destroyed by foreign powers. Close is
+the union of the minds of the nations of Europe, though manifold the
+contradiction of their interests. How constantly does one nationality
+derive strength, or experience trouble and disturbance from another!
+Sometimes the energetic development of some particular national
+characteristic, exercises for centuries a preponderating influence on
+another. Thus once did the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans. The German
+nation has experienced this foreign influence, both for good and for
+evil. From the ancient world came the holy faith of the Crucified One,
+to the wild sons of our forefather Tuisco: at the same time this warlike
+race received countless traditions from the Roman Empire, transforming
+their whole life. Through the whole of the middle ages, the nation was
+earnestly endeavouring to make these new acquisitions their own. Again,
+at the end of this period, after a thousand years had passed, began a
+new influence of the ancient world. From it came the ideal of the
+Humanitarians, the forerunners of Luther, and the ideal of the German
+poets, the forerunners of the war of freedom. On the other hand, from
+the Romish world, came upon Germany, with the highest claims, the
+pressure of the despotism of Gregory VII., and Innocent III., the
+devotion of the restored Church, and the lust of conquest of France.
+Then did Germany become depopulated, and the national life was
+endangered; but the foreigners who had penetrated into it with such
+overpowering force, aided its recovery. All that Italians, French, and
+English had attained to in science and arts, was introduced into
+Germany, and to these foreign acquisitions did German culture cling,
+from the Thirty years' war up to the time of Lessing.
+
+It is the task of science to investigate the productive life of nations.
+To her the souls of nations are the highest fields of investigation that
+man is capable of knowing. Searching out every individuality, tracing
+every received impression, observing even the broken splinters, uniting
+all discernible knowledge, more guessing at truths and pointing out the
+way, than apprehending them, she seeks, as her highest aim, to prove the
+intellectual unity of the whole human race upon earth. Whilst pious
+faith with undoubting certainty places before man the idea of a personal
+God, the man of science reverently seeks to discover the Divine, in the
+great conceptions, which however they may surpass the understanding of
+the individual, yet are all attached to the life of the world. But
+however little he may consider their importance, in comparison with that
+which is incomprehensible in time and eternity, yet in his limited
+circle lies all the greatness that we are capable of understanding, all
+the beautiful which we ever enjoy, and all the good which has ennobled
+our life. But in those spheres which we do not yet know, and are
+anxiously investigating, there remains a boundless work. And this work
+is to seek the development of the Divine power in history.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+Footnote 1: Even the great Imperial army that assembled before the
+battle of Nördlingen, in 1634, was a combination of several armies; that
+of Wallenstein, an Italian army, Spanish auxiliaries, and troops of
+Maximilian of Bavaria, altogether perhaps sixty thousand men, they only
+remained together a short time.
+
+Footnote 2: This machine consisted of a number of short barrels, which,
+bound in parallel rows, formed a nearly cubic mass, the front of which
+showed from six to ten rows of as many mouths arranged in a square. This
+system of barrels rested on a carriage, and was fired in rows. Every
+single barrel was loaded with three or more balls, and could be fired
+separately or together. Fronsperg boasts that after one loading there
+could be a thousand shots from the hundred barrels of the gun.
+
+Footnote 3: Wallhausen, 'Archiley Art of War,' 1617. For the
+corresponding French system of this time, a good description is to be
+found in the 'Etude sur le passé et l'avenir de l'artillerie par le
+Prince Napoléon Louis Bonaparte.' T. I.
+
+Footnote 4: In the battle of Breitenfeld the metal guns of Sweden were
+overheated; there the leather cannon did their last great service
+against the Croats.
+
+Footnote 5: Thus generated the ingenious comparison of guns with birds
+of prey; the thirty-six pounders were called eagles, the twenty-four
+pounders falcons, twelve pounders vultures, six pounders hawks, three
+pounders sparrowhawks, and the sixty-pound mortars owls.
+
+Footnote 6: Yet he himself had a brigade which was called red.
+
+Footnote 7: The lieutenants carried partisans, the non-commissioned
+officers halberds.
+
+Footnote 8: About 1600 one gulden of the coin of the Empire was equal
+to forty silver groschen of our money; thus sixteen of these was equal
+to forty-two of our thalers.
+
+Footnote 9: Wallhausen 'On the Art of War.'
+
+Footnote 10: A name given to bands that went about pillaging the
+fields, orchards, and gardens.
+
+Footnote 11: Because they slide and skate.
+
+Footnote 12: A mocking allusion to the mountainous country of Bavaria.
+
+Footnote 13: It was especially John the Baptist, who, according to the
+third chapter of St. Luke, was the merciful protector of soldiers; but
+at the beginning of the Reformation the difference between the Baptist
+and Evangelist was little understood by Landsknechte, nor indeed by all
+ecclesiastics.
+
+Footnote 14: Bilwiz-kind, same as child of the devil. Bilwiz is an old
+name for magician or hobgoblin.
+
+Footnote 15: One is tempted to change this passage to an old heathenish
+form: "Whoever falls by honourable weapons on the field of battle, will
+be carried to Walhalla by the virgins of battle; those who contend with
+the sorcery of the gods of death, Helja takes to herself." We find the
+name of Black Kaspar for the devil even in the sixteenth century.
+
+Footnote 16: Königl. schwedischer Victorischlüssel a. a. O.
+
+Footnote 17: Zimmermann, Goth. Msc. a. a. O.
+
+Footnote 18: Grimmelshausen speaks of the art of rendering invulnerable
+as credible, but as a thing long known. He was more interested in the
+superstition which was prevalent in 1660--the art of becoming invisible
+and of witchcraft. At the end of the century magic rods were common, and
+familiar spirits powerful. Wunderbares Vogelnest. ii. Th. Satyrischer
+Pilgram ii. Th.
+
+Footnote 19: Müllenhof, Sagen. S. 231.--Femme, Pommesache Sagen. Nr.
+244.
+
+Footnote 20: Philander von Sittewald, "Gesicht von Soldatenleben."
+
+Footnote 21: Grimmelshausen, "Seltsamer Springinsfeld."
+
+Footnote 22: _Dionys Klein. Kriegsinstitution_, 1598, 8. _S_. 288.
+
+Footnote 23: Simplicissimus i. 3, 9, and Philander von Sittewald,
+'Soldatenleben.'
+
+Footnote 24: Grimmelshausen, 'Springinsfeld.'
+
+Footnote 25: Lump, German for ragamuffin.
+
+Footnote 26: Philander von Sittewald, 'Soldatenleben.'
+
+Footnote 27: Moscherosoh und Grimmelshausen, a. v. O.
+
+Footnote 28: At the beginning of the war it was customary for people to
+conceal their treasures in the dung-heaps.
+
+Footnote 29: The parish receiver, Johann Martin at Heldburg, writes,
+for example, on the 13th September, 1640, on behalf of the helpless
+pastor, and proposes his removal, because in this village there remained
+only a widow and another woman, and he himself could not obtain a
+groschen from the annual fees of his district, which formerly amounted
+to some hundred thalers.
+
+Footnote 30: This was the time in the Thirty years' war when the German
+princes and dukes coined base money. When one prince had obtained
+possession of the coinage of another he melted it, and made it into new
+money by alloying it with copper and other metals.
+
+Footnote 31: Bötzinger gives this account to his children.
+
+Footnote 32: In a sheet of this kind, entitled, 'A Noteworthy Hungarian
+and the Netherlands New Newspaper,' 1599, has already the form and
+contents of a modern newspaper. It contains a short correspondence with
+different cities, in the form of eleven letters; amongst them reports of
+four vessels which had come to Amsterdam with spices, and of a new toll
+which the court at Brussels had levied on merchants' goods, of ten
+stivers on each pound of silk.
+
+Footnote 33: The sources of the following description were taken from
+the flying-sheets and brochures, first of the year 1620-24, and also
+from the later writings of the sixteenth century upon coinage, a rich
+literature.
+
+Footnote 34: The new money was almost pure copper boiled and blanched;
+this lasted a week, and then it became glowing red. The bottles,
+kettles, pipes, gutters, and whatever else was of copper, were taken
+away to the mint, and made into money. An honest man could not venture
+to lodge any one, as he could not but fear that his guest might wrench
+away his copper in the night, and carry it off. Wherever there was an
+old copper font in a church, it was taken to the mint; its sanctity did
+not save it; those sold it who had been baptized in it. Müller,
+'Chronika von Sangerhausen.'
+
+Footnote 35: A batz was four kreuzer.
+
+Footnote 36: In the decrees of the Diet the words do not occur before
+the Thirty years' war; they appear to be new in 1621.
+
+Footnote 37: In 1770 the population was only 2126; but in 1845 it had
+increased again to 4500.
+
+Footnote 38: The Emperor was sovereign of Silesia, as King of Bohemia.
+
+Footnote 39: The bunch of keys in the middle ages was not only an
+important symbol of right, but also the popular weapon of women.
+
+Footnote 40: We have to thank Professor Brückner of Meiningen, for the
+communication of the following summary: it is printed in 'Memorials of
+Franconian and Thuringian History and Statistics,' 1852.
+
+In nineteen villages of the former domain of Henneberg there were in the
+years--
+                                    1634       1649         1849
+
+                  Families          1773        316         1916
+                  Houses            1717        627         1558
+  In 17 villages--Cattle            1402        244         1994
+     13    "      Horses             485         73          107
+     12    "      Sheep             4616         --         4596
+      4    "      Goats              158         26          286
+
+Footnote 41: Brazier here means tinker and scythe-sharpener. The oldest
+accounts of them are in a free paraphrase of the 1st Book of Moses, in
+rude verses, which were at all events written before 1122; printed in
+'Hoffmann's Fundgrubben,' 2. There they are represented as foreign Jew
+traders. These remarkable verses are as follows:--
+
+     "From Ishmael come the Ishmaelitish people;
+      They go peddling throughout the wide world;
+      We call them braziers.
+      Oh! what a life and habits are theirs!
+      On all they have for sale
+      There is a blot, and it is unsound.
+      If he, the brazier, buys anything,
+      Good or bad, one must give him somewhat over;
+      And if he sells his wares
+      He never replaces the damaged ones.
+      They have neither house nor home--
+      Every place is alike to them;
+      They rove through the country,
+      And cheat the people with their tricks:
+      Thus they deceive mankind.
+      They rob, but not openly."
+
+Footnote 42: Here, and further on, he gives the fixed characters of the
+old Italian comedy.
+
+Footnote 43: Some tedious passages are shortened, and it is necessary
+in one place to soften the angry expressions for the reader of this
+book.
+
+Footnote 44: They did not fail to make an engraving of the mysterious
+doves, which appeared shortly after with an interpretation.
+
+Footnote 45: A copper coin in the south of Germany.
+
+Footnote 46: A Swiss farthing.
+
+Footnote 47: The Diet was then held at Baden, because the foreign
+diplomatist could best be entertained there.
+
+Footnote 48: It was particularly offensive to them, as an elder sister
+of Anton Ulrich's wife had just married the master of the Ducal Chapel,
+Schurmann, at Meiningen.
+
+
+                                THE END.
+
+
+      LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET.
+
+
+
+
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