Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries Volume Ii Part 5

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 mult.i.tude of scholars.h.i.+ps 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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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 embarra.s.sed. 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 a.s.sist 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 h.e.l.l 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 cla.s.ses were depicted, soldiers, citizens, widows and orphans, paying to the money-changers their hard earnings; the jaws of h.e.l.l appeared open, and the changers were a.s.siduously 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 pa.s.sages 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 rect.i.tude 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 princ.i.p.al 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 ma.s.sive 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 t.i.tle 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 pa.s.sages:--

"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 a.s.sist 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 compet.i.tors. 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 pa.s.s as follows: the doctors abandon their invalids and think far more of usury than of Hippocrates and Galen; the lawyers forget their legal doc.u.ments, 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 nowadays 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 princ.i.p.alis_ of the ruin of the German States. I have, alas! a.s.suredly great fears, that if once there is a delivery to the devil or hangman, the _Kippers_ and _Wippers_, changers and usurers, Jews and Jew a.s.sociates, 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 princ.i.p.als 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 pa.s.ses 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 cla.s.ses, 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 t.i.tles 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 circ.u.mstance 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 n.o.ble 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 princ.i.p.ally in the freshness of his nature, his surpa.s.sing 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 surpa.s.sed; 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 pa.s.s 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 circ.u.mstantially.

"'I had expected a different kind of emba.s.sy 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d'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 Kustrim. 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 G.o.d and the devil; if my loving cousin will hold to G.o.d, 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 a.s.sured.

"'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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d. 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, Rugen, 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 grat.i.tude 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 crus.h.i.+ng 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 rus.h.i.+ng 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 sea-ports 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 n.o.bility 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 a.s.sume 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 const.i.tution founded on reason, in opposition to the reckless selfishness of the rulers. But even this const.i.tutional 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 t.i.tle of 'The German Brutus: that is, a letter thrown before the public.'