Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries Volume Ii Part 6

"You Swedes complain that Germany is ungrateful, that it drives you away with violence, that the good deeds, done with G.o.d'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 G.o.d 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 ingrat.i.tude; 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 G.o.d. 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, hara.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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 G.o.d thus hara.s.ses you it is your own fault. Meanwhile, do you think that G.o.d 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 G.o.d, and a boundary across which they cannot pa.s.s. 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 G.o.d. Have you had too little bloodshed? Let G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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, G.o.d will truly search it out. As concerns the French, I know well that G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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. G.o.d alone will and can help us; to Him we must pray that He may at last have compa.s.sion 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 a.s.sure freedom of faith, and the independence of the Imperial tribunals, almost all the German princes would have succ.u.mbed 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 const.i.tutions. Such a feeling indeed only existed then in the minds of the n.o.blest. 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 Nordlingen 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 a.s.saults, 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 b.a.l.l.s 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 princ.i.p.al 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 n.o.ble 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, s.h.i.+ning with a bright polish; it was the pride of the housewife, and together with it were placed fine gla.s.ses 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 cla.s.s 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 fas.h.i.+on, 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 amus.e.m.e.nts 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 cla.s.ses; 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 apt.i.tude--almost every one had some practice in the use of weapons. Every large city had an a.r.s.enal; even the heavy artillery on the fortifications were served by the citizens, who, as a body, were under ordinary circ.u.mstances 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 fas.h.i.+on; the _Messieurs a 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 c.o.xcombical 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 pa.s.sage and quartering of friendly armies, with all its terrors. Still worse was the pa.s.sage 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 n.o.bility also of the neighbourhood sometimes a.s.sisted. 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 Nordlingen 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 ma.s.ses, 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 s.p.a.ce, 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 sh.o.r.es of the Bober, lies the old town of Lowenberg, 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 pa.s.sages, however, had been removed sixty years before; on the under floor the houses had a large hall, and a strong vault, behind these a s.p.a.cious 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 forepart 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 Lowenberg 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 Lowenberg, 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 fas.h.i.+on 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 Lowenberger 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 gra.s.s 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 Lowenburg, 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 Mumer, a woollen wiseacre and cloth factor; fourthly, Schwob Franze, also a cloth factor; fifthly, Dr. Melchior Hubner, 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 wors.h.i.+pful 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 emba.s.sage 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 Mumer, '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, Mumer. 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, G.o.d's sacrament, im-m-imprison them all together till they a.s.sent; 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.'