Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries Volume Ii Part 15

"But George k.a.w.ka betook himself after the end of this tragedy to me, and related the lamentable kidnapping of Simon with many light worthless excuses. But I spoke sharply to him, put clearly before his eyes, how evident it was that he had played with the Jews under the rose, and sternly charged him if he would not be made answerable before the tribunal, for the treacherous betrayal of Simon, to use all means without delay, and on the requisition of a Christian judge to recover him from the hand, of the Jews, and deliver him up to the college. And truly it appeared as if he obeyed the command faithfully and a.s.siduously. Ha searched the whole Jew town many days, and examined almost all the houses, as was testified of him by the person who accompanied and was a.s.sociated with him. He thereby turned almost all the suspicion of treachery from him; and as Simon was nowhere to be found, he confirmed the report that he had secretly been removed to Poland. At a later period, George k.a.w.ka himself was driven, by a bad conscience to take refuge in Poland, and has remained invisible to this day.

"But Simon was dragged with violence to his father's house, and after that day, was never seen outside the threshold. After their arrival at home, the father could no longer control his anger, and beat his son with a stick so savagely, that the Jews present began already to fear that he would kill him. They therefore locked up Simon in a room in which lived Sarah Bresin, afterwards a witness. But the father endeavoured to break open the door of the room by repeatedly running at it with violence, and at last angrily left the house. When his anger was a little allayed, the Jews gave up to him the severely-beaten boy, advising to tame him by fasting. So Simon was locked up in another room. There he pa.s.sed seven painful months, in hunger and imprisonment, daily loaded with curses and oft threatened with death. But when the father saw that his son's spirit was inflexible, and that on the Sat.u.r.day before Shrove Sunday, Simon again, before all the family, declared undauntedly, that he would be baptized; he determined to go to extremities. And that affection might not restrain his hand, he chose for a.s.sistant a Jew, Levi Kurtzhandl, a man of savage spirit and in the vigour of youth, who had already before advised him to poison the boy.

Levi Kurtzhandl invited the boy into the room of his step-mother, and held converse with him out of the Talmud, in order to convert him. But when Simon persevered in his intentions, he was knocked down by Levi, and dragged by him and the father into the next room; there both fell upon him furiously, broke his neck, and drove his head violently against the corner of a wooden chest, whereby the glorious soldier of Christ received a last blow on the left side of the temple.

"Whilst this barbarity was going on, Lia, the stepmother of Simon, together with the journeyman Rebbe Liebmann, were occupied in the next room making gloves. On hearing the moaning of the boy, and the noise of the murderers, she hastened into the room. There she saw the dead body on the floor, and both the murderers on their knees by him. Thereupon the woman was so frightened, that she fainted, and had to be restored to her senses by Kurtzhandl pouring vinegar over her.

"After the deed, Hennele, Lazarus's cook, came back, who had been sent out of the house with the little children. These, when supper-time was approaching, inquired where Simon was. They were obliged to take an oath to keep the affair secret; whereupon, their father himself told them that he, with Levi Kurtzhandl, had deprived the boy of life as an apostate from the law of Moses, after the example of the patriarch Phineas.

"After that, Lazarus took counsel with Levi how to keep the crime secret, not only from the Christians, but also from the Jews, especially from the family of Burianer, who were very hostile to all that belonged to the Abeles. Levi offered while it was yet night, to carry the body of Simon to his own house, and bury it himself in the cellar. But Lazarus feared lest some of the Burian adherents should discover it. They therefore decided on having the corpse buried in the public burial-ground of the Jews. And truly, the neck of the body was discoloured with blood, but otherwise there was no open wound to be seen, with the exception of a blow on the left temple of about the size of a ducat; so Lazarus called his household together, instructed and made them swear, that they would say unanimously that Simon had become insane, and in that state had fallen against the corner of the chest, whereby he had been mortally wounded on the left temple.

"On the following morning early, this glorious soldier of Christ was buried in great secrecy by two Jews, Jerochem and Hirsches Kesserlas, the coroners.

"After the burial of Simon, from his grave arose the first great summoner, the worm of conscience, which began to gnaw the heart of the G.o.dless Lazarus. Memory unceasingly persecuted his conscience, and the fear of worldly punishment ever hovered before his eyes. This fear was much increased by the journeyman glove-maker, Rebbe Liebmann. The same had after the deed, straight left Abele's house and made off, and had only again returned to his work after the burial. When Lazarus began to relate the particulars, Rebbe interrupted him, protesting that he did not desire to hear a word about the evil deed, as he had already heard the whole of yesterday's tragedy, related by the Jewish children in the public streets. This burst upon the astonished Lazarus like a thunder clap; without delay he collected and packed up all his light goods, sold his house in the Jew town, and resigned his hired shop in an aristocratic house, in order to settle himself in Poland. He was already prepared, on the following day, to take flight; but it was providentially ordained that the n.o.ble landlord of the house, who had leased the shop to him, was just then hindered by palsy in his hand from signing the release himself.

"Meanwhile, on the 23rd of February, one Johel, a Jew, not evil-disposed towards the Christians, went into the Jew town through the Sommer-thor, where he met some children playing, who were relating to one another, how Simon Abeles had three days before been fresh and healthy, and had early yesterday been buried without any funeral pomp.

Johel betook himself without delay to the burial-ground, and found a freshly-raised grave; reflected upon all the other circ.u.mstances and reports, and came to the sensible conclusion that Lazarus was the murderer of his son. This he confided forthwith to a writer of the royal government in great secresy. After I had received intelligence thereof, and had earnestly admonished the Jewish informer to give a faithful report; he wrote down the following day all the lamentable particulars, in order to deliver them to the most n.o.ble government.

They commanded the body of Simon to be disinterred, and to be closely examined by a doctor appointed for the purpose; and finally to take into custody those who were suspected of the deed, as also their accomplices. All this was set on foot cautiously and without delay. The body was disinterred under an armed guard; the Jews who had collected, and the Jewish doctor who was called in, declared that a bad blow on the head, and lastly a fit of insanity, had killed the boy. But the medical gentlemen gave their opinion, that many indications, the broken neck and a small round wound on the temple, showed that the boy had died from a violent blow.

"Thereupon Lazarus Abeles was brought to see the body of his son. He turned pale and trembled, and was so confused that he remained silent, and for a good while could not say anything intelligible, nor answer anything distinctly. At last as the Herr Commissary continued urging him to say whether he knew the body of the boy, he answered with bent head and weak voice that it was the body of his son Simon; and when it was further put to him what was the cause of the wound on the left temple, he gave a confused and contradictory answer. He was therefore again taken to prison, but the body of the boy was put into a Christian coffin, and placed meanwhile in the cellar of the council house. The _Herren_ commissaries were unwearied in cross-questioning Christians and Jews. But in spite of all indications, Lazarus, and the women who were in special custody, Lia, his wife, and Hennele, his cook, were almost unanimous in their evidence: Simon had not taken flight from his father's house to become a Christian, but for a long time had been affected with a disease of the head, and therefore kept in the house; at last he had felt an extreme repugnance for food, had become subject to violent fits of insanity, and thus had met with his death. All means of extracting the truth were unavailing; Lazarus Abeles and the two only witnesses then known of, remained obstinate.

"One afternoon, the honourable Franz Maximilian Baron von Klarstein, the official commissary, was reflecting on this matter as he went home, and ascended the steps of his house; when it suddenly seemed to him that he received a violent blow on the side, he turned round crossly, when behold there appeared to him on the landing which divided the steps from one another, a boy standing, who bowed his head, and smiled sweetly with cheerful countenance, clothed in a Jewish winding-sheet, wounded on the left temple, and in size and age like Simon, as this gentleman had seen him with his own eyes, on inspection of the body, when a lively image of him had been impressed on his memory. The gentleman was amazed, and whilst he was sitting at table with his wife and some guests, pondered in his mind what this might signify. Then he heard the tapping of a person's finger several times on the door of the dining-room. The servant was sent out, and informed him that an unknown maiden desired instantly to be admitted. Having entered, and being kindly accosted, the little maiden of fourteen answered that her name was Sarah Bresin, that she now dwelt among the Christians to be instructed in the Christian faith, and had shortly before lived as servant to the tenant in the house of Lazarus Abeles; there she had seen with her own eyes how cruelly Lazarus had attacked his son Simon, because he had fled to the Christians, in order to be baptized. Upon this and other evidence Sarah was confronted with Lazarus; before whom she declared freely, with much feeling and in forcible language, all that she knew. But Lazarus roundly denied it all; and with frantic curses called down all the devils upon her head. But when he returned to his prison, confusion and despair seized his soul; he perceived that his denials would no longer help him before the court, and determined by a last expedient to escape judicial proceedings. Although both his legs and one hand were impeded by his fetters, yet he contrived to wind the girdle, called a _Tephilim_, wherewith the Jews bind their heads and arms during prayer, instead of a cord, round the iron window grating, and strangled himself thereby. Thus on the following morning, he was found strangled. For the Jews erroneously consider it allowable to throttle themselves, and oft-times do the like. Judgment was pa.s.sed on his dead body.

"After his death his wife Lia and the servant-maid Hennele being confronted with Sarah Bresin, made a public confession; the fugitive journeyman glover, Rebbe Liebmann, was also produced and confessed. His Princely Grace the Archbishop decided that Simon should be buried in the Teynkirche, in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, by the baptismal font, within a vault of polished marble, in a fine oak coffin covered with red velvet, and guarded by a lock and three keys. Further, that the coffin was to be borne to the burial-place by innocent and n.o.ble youths dressed in purple. The most n.o.ble Frau Silvia, born Grafin Kinskey, wife of his Excellency the Lord Count of the Empire, Schlick, had a double costly dress prepared for this day, an under dress of white satin and an upper one of red, interwoven with gold, trimmed with gold b.u.t.tons and adorned with gold lace-work; she provided also stockings of the like material to cover the feet, and an exceedingly beautiful garland of gold and silver lilies and roses to crown the head of the innocent martyr.

"Hardly had his most precious body been attired and laid in the costly coffin, when the high n.o.bility of both s.e.xes arrived, and pressed with G.o.dly impetuosity into the chapel, where all were amazed, and praised the G.o.d of all marvels when they saw that the holy pledge (the body of Simon) was unchanged five weeks after his death, that no exhalation of odour could be discovered or perceived, and that from his death wounds there dropped continually fresh rose-coloured blood. Wherefore persons even of the highest consideration caught up this precious liquor with their pocket-handkerchiefs. But others who were not provided with clean handkerchiefs, or who could not get near enough for the great throng, made their way to the old grave and tore away the b.l.o.o.d.y clippings which lay therein. Afterwards the revered body was exposed to view on this and the following day in the great hall of the council house. But even there it was exceeding difficult to approach it. At last on the 31st of March the funeral was performed. An armed force in three ranks surrounded the council house for two whole hours; throughout the whole city resounded the pealing bells of seventy churches. Meanwhile the synagogue and the whole body of Jews were ready to swoon away with anguish, because they feared the vengeance of the Christian populace would fell upon them. It was indeed almost a miracle that no deed of violence was committed, for in the past year, the Christians had more than once for the most trifling reasons, fallen upon and plundered the frippery market and Jew town, and had also, as is well known, attacked the Jews themselves, severely injuring and even murdering some.

"When towards ten o'clock, the painters had finished a double representation of the martyr Simon, the church ceremonies began. After the coffin had been closed, the commissaries prepared to seal up the keyhole, but as the paper which was to be sealed over the lock might be injured, they desired to have a suitable silk ribbon, and when this became known to the most n.o.ble persons present, they tore what they had of such material from their heads, stomachers and arms. His Excellency the Reichsgraf von Martinez also unbound the ribbon that was hanging from his sword-hilt. But a ribbon of red satin was chosen for this purpose, which the most n.o.ble and right honourable the Countess Kolowrat had worn; this was cut in two and placed over the lock and sealed. After this the martyr's coffin was covered with a costly red velvet pall prepared for the occasion; in the middle of the funeral bier was a fine picture of Our Lady, and on both sides angels with palm branches. Sixteen good youths of n.o.ble descent bore the funeral bier on their innocent shoulders; they wore red mantles with gold lace glittering on them, and wreaths of silvered roses wound with red silk.

Then the pealing of bells sounded through all the three towns; the clouds suddenly cleared from off the heavens; the mult.i.tude covered every roof, and occupied every window; they had flocked together, not only from the three neighbouring vine-clad mountains but from distant places and cities.

"The city authorities led the host of the funeral train; after them followed the lately baptized young Jews, adorned with red badges, before whom two church banners of like material were borne. Next a countless mult.i.tude of schoolboys from all the schools of the three towns, ranged under eight purple flags; thirdly all the young students from the under Latin schools. Fourthly above four hundred heads of the Latin brotherhood from the schools, before whom was carried cross and banner under a canopy with lighted wax tapers. They were followed by a fifth of the higher student brotherhood of Our Lady; among them many doctors, and a.s.sessors, and divers n.o.bles of the Empire; before them also were borne the cross and banner with the canopy, and in their hands they carried burning wax tapers, and flaming white torches.

Sixthly came the first set of choristers, then the clergy in their vestments, then the second set of choristers; after them the deacons, parish priests, and the very reverend the prebendaries with the officiating priests, and beside them went the city soldiers in long rows. Seventhly came the sixteen finely attired youths bearing the glorious corpse of the martyr Simon. On both sides of the coffin went twelve boys with burning red torches, dressed in exquisitely beautiful purple linen. Eighthly following the coffin came the most n.o.ble the President and Governor of Konigreichs, all holding red torches in their hands; they were followed by the most distinguished n.o.bility of both s.e.xes in great numbers, and lastly a countless mult.i.tude of G.o.d-fearing people.

"The accomplice of the murderer, Levi Husel Kurtzhandl, was the son of wealthy parents at Prague; he was tall, and twenty years of age, with a daring countenance, was pa.s.sionate, had a bold eloquence and ready wit, and was perfectly acquainted with the Talmud, which he had studied eleven years. He had concealed himself with his Jewish bride nine miles from Prague. After diligent inquiries, armed men were despatched there who put him in irons, and brought him in a carriage to Prague on the 22nd of March. Although the commissaries, having formerly had similar cases, doubted whether the least atom of truth could be extracted from this flint, yet they confronted him with the witnesses. But notwithstanding the affidavits of three witnesses, he acknowledged nothing. He was threatened with the executioner and the rack, but that had no more effect upon him than threatening a crab with drowning. For he trusted he should be able to endure the rack, and so escape. Nay, he was hardy enough to say, that this trial was carried on contrary to all law and justice. Thus he was, according to law, condemned to the wheel on the evidence of three witnesses, though without his own confession.

"He however hindered the execution of the sentence for seven months, having by means of a Jewish relation brought the affair before his Imperial Majesty Leopold. The proceedings were now delayed by Jewish tricks, and so tardily carried on, that it might plainly be seen, that the culprit was only seeking a delay of some years in order to obtain a mitigation of punishment or to obviate it by a voluntary death. At last the tribunal obtained an order that the accused should deliver in his defence within fourteen days; his frivolous pleas were rejected, and the sentence of the tribunal confirmed by his Imperial Majesty. He however adhered to his declaration: 'I am innocent of the blood of the murdered boy.' This he oft repeated before Father Johannes Brandstedter of the Society of Jesus, an unwearied apostolical labourer, who met a blessed death four days after Kurtzhandl, from the virulent poison he had imbibed in the work of love by a sick bed. When he inquired of the condemned whether he could meet death with resignation, and exhorted him to the reception of the saving faith, Levi answered with a cheerful aspect and without embarra.s.sment: 'I care as little for death as for this straw'--he held one in his hand, which he thereupon threw away--'but as concerns the faith, we will now argue out of the holy Scriptures which of us two holds the true faith. But the father must not think he has a common simple man before him, for I studied the Talmud for eleven years.'

"Thus began a controversy concerning the faith; the priest attacked the Talmud with powerful theological evidence, and Levi apprehended everything by the strong capacity of his understanding. At last he threw his Jewish bible away from him, impatiently saying: 'Let it be as it may, I abide by the faith in which I was born.' As on the following day the obdurate youth began to harp upon the same string, the priest set about the matter again in another way; he no longer spoke to him, but turned to his fellow-prisoners, and read to them divers evidence from the holy Scriptures, whereby he proved that the Messiah had already come.

"This, Levi listened to quietly and thoughtfully, and although he gave no indications of being inclined to the holy faith, yet it might be seen by his countenance that he was not as averse to the presence of the priest as yesterday. On the third day Levi, hardened as he might be in other respects, yet desired that the father should return in the afternoon, as his presence was a special comfort to him in his miserable position. When the priest promised him this as an encouragement, the stony heart appeared softened. In the afternoon, the father in his holy simplicity placed such reliance on the Jew, that he removed all the others, and remaining alone with him, kindly and urgently begged of him to give both himself and him consolation, by relating at his pleasure, as the greatest secret, truly and faithfully, what he knew of the death of Simon. At this unexpected address Levi was quite amazed; he continued long silent; but at last struck with the rare confidence shown by a Christian priest in a Jew, he conceived a high esteem for his uprightness, and persuaded by the father's promise of secresy, confessed before him and one of his fellow-prisoners, with great signs of sorrow, with bent shoulders and head hanging down on the left side, that he had, at the instigation of the father Lazarus Abeles, laid violent hands on Simon, and caused his death from zeal for the law of Moses.

"Upon receiving this confession the priest was exceeding joyful, and strove with all his powers, by arguments and urgent entreaties, to persuade him to turn himself magnanimously to G.o.d. But to this Levi would not return any satisfactory answer; and when, as evening twilight was creeping on, the priest prepared to go home, Levi raised his eyes to heaven, and said with a deep sigh: 'Father, where shall I be at this time to-morrow?' Whereto the priest replied: 'My son, in heaven, if you embrace the Christian faith; but if you die in Judaism, in h.e.l.l as a hardened Jew.' Thereupon he in the most friendly way wished him a good night and a blessed end, and went away.

"On the following day the priest found the condemned man dressed in white linen for the impending tragedy, as if he had prepared himself to be baptized. After a friendly greeting the father asked him in which faith he had at last resolved to die? Hereunto Levi returned this answer: 'I will die in the same faith in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob died. And as in the olden time Abraham offered up his son, so will I to-day sacrifice myself for my sins.' When the priest made a further rejoinder, he said with a pleasant countenance and in a calm manner: 'I humbly beg of you, father, not to trouble me any more about baptism, for I will now pray from the Psalms and prepare myself for a happy death.' Thereupon he began to repeat the Psalms, but without the girdle called a _Tephilim_, although the Jews usually consider prayer without binding the forehead and hands a sin. But he prayed with such contrition of heart and such vehement beating of the breast, and penitential tears, that his fellow-prisoners and all present were greatly astonished at his remorse.

"After a prayer that had lasted more than two hours he gave himself up quickly into the hands of the executioner, and thus accosted him with a cheerful countenance: 'Do to me what G.o.d and my judges have commanded you.' He then turned to his fellow-prisoners, took a friendly leave of them, and humbly begged of them to forgive his past failings.

"After ten o'clock they took him, amidst the gaze of countless mult.i.tudes, from the prison, and bound him in a hide, whereat he showed no sign of impatience or displeasure. Only he sometimes raised his bound hands in prayer to heaven. Thus was he dragged by a horse to the field of action. When he perceived that the accompanying priest in the middle of the Platz was in danger of being severely injured by a horse, he begged with sympathizing voice that he might go in front to avoid the danger."

Thus far the Jesuit's narrative. On the scaffold Levi made a manly confession of his deed before all the people, with a request that the witnesses who had only spoken the truth should no longer be kept in prison. The details of the execution were particularly horrible; the experienced executioner could not--so the writer states--break the strong body of the criminal on the wheel. At last Levi called to the priest by his side and asked him in a clear voice what he would promise if he should consent to be baptized? When the father promised him, besides forgiveness of all his sins, also a speedy death, Levi answered: 'I will be baptized.' The Church triumphant hastened to impart private baptism, much disposed to attribute this unheard of bodily strength and calm of the malefactor to a special miracle of Divine Providence. Levi repeated the prescribed formula with a strong voice, and received calmly the now effective stroke of death.

This is the sorrowful history of Simon Abeles. Whoever judges the Jesuit narrative impartially will discover in it something which the narrator wishes to conceal; and whoever contemplates with horror the fanatical murder, will nevertheless not spend much sympathy on the fanatical priests. They tear the scarcely born child out of the arms of its mother; they consider it a pious contrivance to steal the suckling secretly from her, by means of spies and talebearers; by promises and threatenings, and excitement of the imagination, they win hosts of proselytes in baptism to their G.o.d, who is very unlike the G.o.d of the gospel; with the skill of experienced managers, they make use of a miserable murder, for the sake of bringing on the scene a real tragedy, and of the dead body of a Jewish boy, in order by pomp and glitter and enormous processions, and if possible by miracles, to recommend their faith to both Christians and Jews. Their fanaticism, in alliance with the burgher magistracy and the compliant law, stands in comparison with that of a despised, persecuted, and impulsive race; cunning, violence, malice and a corrupt morality, are to be discovered on both sides.

During yet two generations, the zeal of the Jesuits against the Jews continued to work, the struggle of two foreign communities on German ground. The one consisted of the sons of the old dwellers in the wilderness, whose leader, the Lord Jehovah, brought them forth with their flocks and herds, going before them in the fiery pillar, and pouring his wrath on all who fell away from him. And opposed to these were the followers of a Spanish n.o.bleman, who had undertaken the monstrous task of forming the souls of men like the wheels of a machine, making all the highest intellectual powers serve the one single object, of a priesthood to the one appointed officer of the great head of the church militant, Jesus.

What were Loyola and his school to the ancient Abeles and to Levi Kurtzhandl? How ancient was Loyola? Their fathers had slaughtered the sacrificial victim three thousand years before the first Jesuit had tortured a Jewish heart; their descendants, they were sure, would offer sacrifice three thousand years later in the kingdom of Messiah, after the last Jesuit had been collected to his mother Lilith. The fearful S.

J. which shone in gold on the stones of the college, how long would it last? In the time of their grandfathers it had its origin, in the time of their grandchildren it would be erased. What was this new device to the seed of Abraham? An extravagance, a short plague of Egypt. Proudly did the Roman Catholic church look back on seventeen hundred years of victory and conquest, but more proudly did the despised Jew look upon his past, which stretches back to the dawn of the world, for his faith was seventeen hundred years old when Christ was baptized. Both the judgment of the pious fathers of the Church and the pious Jews was narrowed, and their comprehension of the Highest disturbed by old traditions.

When Jehovah spoke to Moses on the mountain, his law became the groundwork of a higher moral law, to the hordes in the desert; when Jesus proclaimed to the apostles the gracious message of love, his teaching was a holy treasure for the human race. Since then, the Jews have continued unweariedly to solemnize their Pa.s.sover; still do they shun the meat of the swine, and swing the young c.o.c.ks on atonement day; but the foundation of their faith has long vanished, also their pastoral state on the borders of the Syrian wilderness. For many centuries also, the pious fathers of the Roman Catholic church have offered their holy sacrifice daily; but they also, have already ceased to be the most pre-eminent of those who live under the law of the new covenant. The Bohemian peasant, who benevolently raised up the sick Jew on the high road, without tormenting the soul of the stranger with efforts to convert him, was more Christian than they; that man of science, who risked his life under the anger of the Church, that he might understand how the lightning was made by G.o.d, and the earth caused to revolve, was more a proclaimer of the Eternal, than they; and that citizen who died for his duty, in order to teach that the general weal is of more value than that of individuals, was nearer the most perfect pattern, than they. Among them also, undoubtedly, were many good high-minded men; the Jesuit, Friedrich Spee, met his death in a pesthouse, like that sailor in the flames. But those who thus lived, are precious to us because they showed themselves to be good men; whether they were considered good priests we know not. When this same Spee protested so vehemently against the burning of witches, which his Church so zealously carried on, he published his writings, without his name, in a Protestant place.

Since Moses, and since the first feast of Pentecost, the Lord had never left himself without witnesses; he had given the nations of the earth a new culture, had led them to a higher civilisation. He had given them a new code of morals, he had unlocked the other half of the earth, he had willed that the new spirit in men should be contained in the narrow s.p.a.ce of one book, which might pa.s.s from hand to hand, from one soul to another, from one century to every succeeding one. Restlessly and unceasingly did the Divine Spirit agitate and stir the hearts of men; ever more mighty and more holy did these manifestations of the Eternal, appear to men of powerful intellect; it was a different manifestation to that of the old writings, it was also another word of G.o.d, another aspect of the Eternal, which was discovered. Thus men now sought the G.o.d of the human race, of the earth, of the universe, not only in the old faith but also in science. Together with the Jesuits and Jews there was Leibnitz.

This new culture has elevated the Jews; their fanaticism has vanished since the Christian zeal which persecuted them has ceased, and the descendants of that wandering Asiatic race have become our countrymen and fellow combatants. But the ecclesiastical community of the Society of Jesus, already once expelled, then revived again, remains to this day what it was at the beginning of its emigration into Germany--alien to the German life.

CHAPTER XII.

THE WASUNGER WAR.

(1747.)

The great century of enlightenment began with blood and the thunder of cannon. The Spanish war of succession raged on the western frontier, within the distracted realm. Bavaria and Cologne fought under the ban of the Empire, in alliance with Louis XIV. against the house of Hapsburg.

The const.i.tution of the Empire had become weak. In the east the Hohenzollens already held a powerful position by the side of the Hapsburgers; from the beginning of the century they had become kings independent of the Empire, and the Electoral house of Saxony, had shortly before obtained the insecure possession of the Polish Electoral throne.

Condemned witches were still burnt on the funeral pile; the ecclesiastics of three persuasions still carried on a wearisome strife; the intolerance of the Church, the pressure of poverty, want of great political interests, and the pitifulness of the small sovereigns and their courts, still weighed upon the ma.s.ses.

Ever wider became the separation of cla.s.ses. Etiquette only permitted the princes to have intercourse with the citizens in particular cases, and under prescribed forms. It therefore occurred sometimes that a good paternal ruler disguised himself as a private man, withdrew into a chamber apart, put on his old dressing-gown, and took a pipe in his mouth, in order to be enabled to have direct intercourse with his citizens, and thus learn their wishes from themselves. During such hours his princely dignity was, to a certain degree, suspended, but instantly he quitted the room he was again within courtly interdict.

Yet it was just at this period that numerous mesalliances took place.

Among many of the higher n.o.bility, wild nature broke through the restraint of court usage, and more than once a city maiden had the doubtful advantage of becoming the persecuted wife of a Prince of old family. Seldom did the wife obtain from the Emperor the rights of equal birth; the marriages were generally morganatic, and the children refused the succession.

Among the German princes, the course of whose life was changed by a union of this kind, was Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Saxe Meiningen; born in 1687, the youngest of three brothers, he became, according to the custom of his house, joint ruler of the country, that is to say, the elder brother exercised the rights of sovereignty, but the younger ones received a portion of the revenues of the country. In his youth, this prince had travelled; in the war of succession he had served through some campaigns as an Imperial officer; and at the peace of Rastatt, he quitted the army with the rank of Major-general. A fiery youth, courteous and accomplished, affable as becomes young princes, not without an interest in intellectual pursuits, he had, following the prevailing fas.h.i.+on, zealously collected objects of art and natural curiosities; with a lively disposition and chivalrous demeanour, he was the favourite of the country which he only nominally ruled. Whatever entered into his head, he carried on wilfully and recklessly, with an iron perseverance which might have led him to great things. Then it became his lot to fall in love with Philippine Cesar, the daughter of a Hessian captain, lady of the bed-chamber to his sister, the Abbess of Gandersheim; he took her to Holland and married her.

For many years he did not avow his marriage. His life became unsettled; he kept his wife concealed in Amsterdam, and strictly commanded his servants to keep secret his place of residence; he received letters from home in roundabout ways, and was always moving to and fro in the land of his fathers. But when his wife became more precious to him, and sons were born, the stubbornness of his nature was brought forth, he revealed his marriage, and required of his family the recognition of it, and the right of succession for his children.

The displeasure of his proud house now broke out. The recognition was denied. Such a marriage was considered by the Court altogether monstrous, but it was always doubtful whether the decisions of feudal law were competent to declare this marriage invalid. Therefore the Dukes of Saxony met together in 1717, and decided that all unequal unions in their house were to be considered as only morganatic, and the children were never to be allowed the rights of succession.[48]

Anthony Ulrich remained firm. He solicited the Imperial court, and strove unweariedly against the council of the country, who took advantage of this quarrel to diminish the revenues of the Duke. But his nature was not easily bent. When in 1722, the last feudal tenant of Altenstein, one Hund von Wenckheim lay dying, and the commissaries of the government were standing by the death-bed to take possession of the vacant fief, Anthony Ulrich rode suddenly into the court of the castle, and in spite of the protest of the councillors, who were also his servants, entered the chamber of the dying man, sang with him the evening song and the penitential hymn, and pa.s.sed the night, armed with pistols and other weapons, in the castle. As soon as the va.s.sal had closed his eyes, he entered the room, and according to the old usage took possession of the vacant fief, and seating himself in a red velvet arm-chair, said: "I hereby take possession of my third share, without prejudice to the two-thirds of my brothers." He then called in his attendants as witnesses, and according to the prescribed usage, struck his hand forcibly on the table, so that a jug upset, symbolical of the moveable property, and caused a chip to be cut out of the door of the chamber of death, and of the dining-room. After this he swore into his service all who had not fled; he then rode out, cut splinters from the oak wood, and bits of turf from the meadows, as further tokens of having taken possession, and went back to Meiningen. But when he returned to the castle, he found the gates closed and guarded by grenadiers, and all his threats and protestations were of no avail.

He afterwards wished to take his wife and children to one of his own possessions, and lead a peaceable life at home. But such was not his happy lot. His brothers obtained a decision from the Imperial high court of judicature, according to which he was not to take his wife and children into the country of his fathers, and if he should venture to do so, he was never to usurp for them the t.i.tle of princes. He now however went himself to Vienna and so worked there, with the help of large sums of money, and through the medium of his military acquaintances--the Spanish minister, the Marquis of Perlas was his supporter--that the Emperor Charles VI. raised his wife Philippine to the dignity of Princess of the holy Roman Empire, and her sons and daughters to be dukes and d.u.c.h.esses of Saxony, with all the privileges and rights, _i.e_. those of the succession.

Against this, the whole house of Saxony, and those of Hohenzollen and Hesse, who were interested by the settlement of succession, rose in opposition. At first, however, Anthony Ulrich was victor. His eldest brother died, and the second was a weak man. So he became in 1729, the real ruler of the country. Then he brought his wife and eldest son under the ducal roof at Meiningen. For eleven years the stubborn prince rejoiced in having established his own will. But the struggle with his house had embittered him; and added to restlessness and violence, a litigious spirit had come over him. Peevish and endless were the disputes about the government, and the discord with his brothers and his favourites; the little country was divided into two parties; ministers and officials threw themselves on the one or the other side, and sometimes the machine of government stood still. The Duke lived generally with his wife and children out of the country, at Vienna. The legal proceedings with the agnates about the equality of birth, which still continued, and vexatious quarrels with neighbours, gave him but a gloomy satisfaction. He had gained no trifling knowledge of the forms of public law, and conducted all his suits himself. They seem to have taken up the greater part of his time.

But the victory was to be followed by a sad reverse. The new Emperor of the house of Wittelsbacher, Charles VII., was with very evident reference to Anthony Ulrich's affair, bound on oath not to legitimatize any notorious mesalliances, and to declare the right of inheritance of such children null and void. Therefore the rank given to the d.u.c.h.ess of Meiningen and her children was repealed. Anthony Ulrich had recourse to the Diet. But in vain. This also declared that his application must be refused, and the Emperor Francis I. of Lorraine confirmed this decision.

It was a cruel stroke of destiny. The wife of the Duke had the good fortune not to outlive the last Imperial decision; she died a few weeks previous to it; whilst her husband was fruitlessly setting heaven and earth in motion at Frankfort to ward off this fate. But the two parties quarrelled even over her coffin. The brother, and co-ruler with the Duke, refused to allow the corpse to be buried in the royal hereditary vault, nay even denied her the usual tolling of the bells for royal personages. Anthony Ulrich rushed furiously from Frankfort and commanded the tolling and the burial in the royal vault. Orders and counter orders crossed each other during several weeks; now the tolling began and now it was stopped. As Anthony Ulrich, who had again hastened to Frankfort, had commanded that the coffin should not be deposited anywhere but in the royal burial place, it was kept in a room in the castle covered over with sand; there it remained a year and a half, till in 1746, Anthony Ulrich's last brother died. Then the Duke in order to give satisfaction to his wife even in death, caused his brother's corpse after lying in state, to be placed in the same room next his wife's coffin and like hers to be covered over with sand.