Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries Volume Ii Part 14

Life at the Baths at the end of the Seventeenth Century.

"Much had been told us of the splendid entrance of the French Amba.s.sador at Baden during the Swiss Diet.[47] We hoped to find a princely court, but the present Amba.s.sador 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 a.s.sure 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 _dejeuner a 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 fas.h.i.+ons, 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 a.s.sembled 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 Amba.s.sador is not at Baden or does not keep open table, there is not very much amus.e.m.e.nt. Every Swiss of any importance, is accustomed to have good repasts at the Amba.s.sador'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 princ.i.p.ally by the fathers of these maidens; and thus it comes to pa.s.s 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 amba.s.sador 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 Amba.s.sador, 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 Amba.s.sador'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 _phillistros_; 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 amus.e.m.e.nt. The pleasure-seeking youths wandered to Spa and Pyrmont; hardly any now but the citizens of Switzerland a.s.sembled 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 cla.s.s, who then put up at the Stadthof. The wealthy artisans whom one met with there, were still greeted by the t.i.tle 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 neglige 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 s.e.xes 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 s.e.xes 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 tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, 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 s.e.xes 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 pa.s.sed 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 s.e.xes, 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 fas.h.i.+on, enjoyed themselves right well, may easily be understood. People of rank, some already smartly attired, others in choice morning dresses, a.s.sembled usually before dinner in the Hinterhofe, round a small stone table called the _Tafeli_, 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 inst.i.tutions. Still however one may observe, not in Baden itself, but at other baths in Switzerland, the ancient arrangement that persons of the same s.e.x 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 cla.s.ses 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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.sages 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 G.o.dhead. 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 Bohme, 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.sisted. 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 mult.i.tude. 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 Pa.s.sover, 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 ma.s.s 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 n.o.ble blood, great wealth, and superior talent, the full glow of southern feeling, every kindly emotion and every dark pa.s.sion were to be found in that race.

After the Thirty years' war, the Jews obtained scarcely more protection from the fury of the mult.i.tude, and their spiritual trials became greater. If the Protestants, who were then weak and embarra.s.sed, 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 Nuremburg 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, pa.s.sed 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 n.o.bles. 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. Bat in the streets the Jew still bore the degrading mark of the unhonoured stranger; in the Empire, a yellow c.o.c.kade 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, cl.u.s.tered 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 s.p.a.ce; the great money lenders, as well as the poorest frippery dealers and porters, all closely united in firm fellows.h.i.+p and common interests, indispensable to the impoverished country, yet in continual warfare against the customs, coa.r.s.eness, 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 n.o.bles was, for the most part, rooted out; a new Imperial n.o.bility 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 Konigsstadt, 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, admonis.h.i.+ng the mother at the same time to bring up the said child in the love and fear of G.o.d, 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 pater-noster 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 greet G.o.dliness, 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 pa.s.s 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 a.s.sailed 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-b.a.l.l.s, 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 a.s.sembled, 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 a.s.sociated 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 distinguis.h.i.+ng 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 G.o.d, 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 Liebman bore witness, that the boy sometimes pa.s.sed 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, k.a.w.ka, 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 a.s.siduous 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 fas.h.i.+on, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d, 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 surpa.s.sed 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 fas.h.i.+onable 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 s.h.i.+ne among Christians in any fas.h.i.+onable 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 dest.i.tute 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 a.s.sociated 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: 'G.o.d, G.o.d, G.o.d 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 a.s.surance 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 k.a.w.ka.

This one was called to the door of the college, and the boy was entrusted 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 k.a.w.ka there, because he had some weighty business to transact with him who was his debtor. After a long Hebrew conversation with Lazarus, George k.a.w.ka 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 k.a.w.ka 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 k.a.w.ka 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.