Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries Volume I Part 9

This respect for women and chaste family life was considered by the Romans the highest quality of the Germans. Even Christianity, which spread from the Roman to the German countries, could not place women and marriage on a higher footing; on the contrary, its ascetic tendencies served to lower them. The full enjoyment of the pleasures of the world were no longer allowed to man; pa.s.sionate devotion to a beloved husband was easily mistaken for a wrong to heaven and the holy Redeemer. On the other hand men fixed their eyes on the heavenly Virgin, whose especial favour they might win by despising the women of earth. At the time of the Saxon Emperors this tendency of the mind reached its highest point. In those days education was confined to the cloister; there the daughters of the n.o.bility were educated; there men weary of sin retired; and there also, enthusiasm sought for the highest enjoyment of love, which seemed unattainable in marriage without danger to the salvation of the soul. Secret sensuality mixed even with the wors.h.i.+p of the highest objects of faith.

But the heart of man could not long rest satisfied with ideal love in heaven. When, under the first Hohenstaufen, education, manners, and good taste were only to be found among the feudal n.o.bility, they hastened to transfer to the women of this world the devotion and veneration which had been exclusively confined to the Virgin Mary. The courtly wors.h.i.+p of woman began, new conventional forms were introduced for the intercourse between man and woman, accompanied in Germany with a strong intermixture of Italian manners. The man had to give proof of his love by heroic deeds and adventures, and his lady-love was surrounded by an atmosphere of poetry, and veiled in ideal perfections, as we may perceive in the numerous minne-songs of that time. But neither the dignity of woman, nor the fundamental morality of marriage, was increased by this chivalrous devotion, and it became a cloak for reckless profligacy. Sometimes even a married woman had a knight devoted to her service; he was invested kneeling before his liege lady, and she, laying her hands between his, confirmed his allegiance by a kiss. From that time he wore her colours; he was bound to be faithful to her, and she to him, and in some cases they lived together as man and wife; and there were even instances in which the Church gave its sanction to these improper unions.

This knightly service often led men into the greatest follies. For instance, Pierre Vidal of Toulouse went about on all-fours in a wolfs skin, in honour of his lady, till he was beaten and bitten almost to death by the shepherds and sheep dogs; and Ulrich von Lichtenstein, who rode through the whole country in woman's clothes, challenging all the knights, and had his finger and upper lip cut off in honour of his lady, drank the water in which she had washed, and when he returned from his expeditions, was nursed by his wife. These are not the worst examples of the horrible eccentricities to which this knightly devotion led. The result was such as might be expected,--the glitter of romance soon disappeared, and coa.r.s.e profligacy remained in its nakedness.

The Church did little to improve this state of things. There were individual popular preachers who courageously advocated marriage and chast.i.ty, but it was at this very time that the celibacy of the secular clergy was established, and that the ma.s.s of the people were reduced to bondage by the feudal lords. The purity of marriage and the happiness of families were not promoted either by the position of the village priest living in his parish without a legal wife, nor by that of the proprietor who had to give his sanction to marriages, received tribute on account of them, and even laid shameful claims on the person of the bride.

On the other hand there arose in the cities a fresh and vigorous life, and from the fourteenth century, the citizens became the best representatives of German cultivation and manners, as once the ecclesiastics had been, and afterwards the n.o.bles. Owing to the close proximity of the dwellings in the city, and the smallness of their houses, the intercourse between man and woman became more strictly defined, and on the whole a practical sound conception of life took the place of chivalrous fancies; citizen habits followed courtly manners; ladies were won by cautious wooing instead of by daring heroic deeds; maidenly modesty attracted more than haughty a.s.sumption; instead of the wild knightly life of the n.o.bles, which frequently separated man and wife, and violently severed the marriage tie, the woman now obtained a quiet sway in the well-regulated house, and the bold courtesy of the knight was replaced by a considerate, though strictly regulated and sometimes rather formal, expression of heartfelt esteem.

The conception of propriety and purity was different, however, from what it is now. At the time of the Council of Constance, the refined Poggio relates with great satisfaction how at Baden near Zurich, the most fas.h.i.+onable bath of the fifteenth century, he had seen German men and women bathing together, and how delightfully nave their familiarity was. And even a century later Hutten praises this German custom in contradistinction to the Italian morals, which would have made this practice impossible. So tolerant still were the German Humanitarians.

Marriage, however, was considered by our ancestors less as a union of two lovers, than as an inst.i.tution replete with duties and rights, not only of married people towards one another, but also towards their relatives--as a bond uniting two corporate bodies. The relations of the wife became also the friends of the man, and they had claims on him as he had on them. Therefore in the olden time, the choice of husband and wife was always an affair of importance to the relatives on both sides, so that a German wooing, from the oldest times up to the last century, had the appearance of a business transaction, which was carried out with great regard to suitability. This perhaps takes away from German courts.h.i.+p, somewhat of the charm which we expect to find where the heart of man beats strongly; but this circ.u.mspect method of weighing things is a characteristic sign of an earnest and great conception of life. If a man desired to ask a woman in marriage he had to go through several solemn family negotiations. First the wooing, for which he had to employ a mediator; not always the lather or any other head of his family, but often some man of consideration in the town or country.

This amba.s.sador was generally accompanied by the wooer himself with a troop of his companions: if it took place in the country, they rode in solemn procession. If the family of the maiden was favourably disposed, they considered this as the preliminary step, and fixed a time for the negotiations between the families to take place. Formerly the man had to buy his wife from her family; but when this old custom fell into disuse, there still remained the arrangements concerning the dowry which the bride had to bring to her husband, and the jointure which he had to settle upon her. There were added to this, though not compulsory yet as a standing custom, presents of the man to the parents, brothers, and sisters of the bride, or from the bride to the family and best-men of the bridegroom. After this consultation, followed the betrothal, which had to take place in the presence of the rightful guardians: amidst the circle of witnesses, both parties had solemnly to declare that they would take each other in marriage; after which a ring was placed on the finger of the bride by the bridegroom; they embraced and kissed, thus showing the pa.s.sing of the maiden into the family and guardians.h.i.+p of the man. After this betrothal, a certain s.p.a.ce of time having elapsed, the termination of which was in many places legally fixed, the solemn fetching home of the bride to the house of the bridegroom took place. Again there was a solemn procession to the house of the maiden, and even if the bridegroom was present he was obliged to have a spokesman, who once more wooed her before the a.s.sembled family, and gave her over to the bridegroom; then she was taken in procession to the house of the latter, where the bridal feast was held. It was a bad custom in the middle ages, that this repast was got up with an extravagance which far surpa.s.sed the means of the bridal couple; and there were numerous police regulations endeavouring to limit the luxury in music, dishes, and the number of tables[52] and feast days.

Such was the marriage ceremonial of the Germans. The old custom of the bridal wreath, which was worn by both bride and bridegroom, was introduced into Germany from Rome. The consecration of marriage by the Church was only required from the time of the Carlovingians, and was seldom neglected by the n.o.bility, but did not become general among the people till a later period. The Church had indeed raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament; but a feeling remained among the people that Christianity looked coldly and sternly on it. Even in the fifteenth century the consecration of marriage by the Church was not entirely established, nor does it take place to this day in many places before the fetching home of the bride.

In this respect also, Luther and the Reformation had a great influence.

From the sixteenth century the consecration of marriage by the Church became in the Protestant countries the essential part of the ceremony; from that time the old customs of betrothals and of fetching home the bride were secondary considerations. It was not till after Luther and the Council of Trent, that marriage became intimately connected with the Christian faith in the German mind; for then the different confessions endeavoured by educating and elevating the people, to make them comprehend the moral and domestic significance of marriage.

And how was it with the heart of lovers? The following example will show how true love germinated amidst all the various family interests.

Felix Platter, the son of Thomas Platter, burgher, printer, schoolmaster, and householder at Basle, was born in 1536. His father by unwearied activity had risen from the greatest poverty, and had up to an advanced age to struggle with anxieties for his maintenance, and with pecuniary embarra.s.sments, in consequence of the constant extension of his business. This hard battle with life had exercised its usual influence on his mind; he had a restless spirit of enterprise, which sometimes hindered him from steadily pursuing a plan; he had no real self-confidence, was easily perplexed, irritable, and morose. His son Felix, the only child by his first marriage, had on the contrary inherited the joyous disposition of his single-minded mother; he was a jolly warm-hearted lad, rather vain, pa.s.sionately fond of music and dancing, at the same time clever, open and ingenuous. He was still almost a boy when his father sent him from Basle to the celebrated medical college of the university of Montpellier. Felix having acquired there, not only everything that medical science then offered, but all kinds of French refinements, returned to the simple burgher life of his native town: at the age of one-and-twenty he took his degree as doctor, and married happily a maiden about whom he had been teased when a child. He gained a great reputation, became Professor of the university, and a man of opulence and consideration, and died at an advanced age. He was of the greatest service to the city of Basle, by his self-sacrificing activity at the time of the plague, and also to the medical faculty of his university by his learning; and he was often consulted as a physician of renown by persons of princely rank both in Germany and France. He laid out a botanic garden at Basle, and possessed a cabinet of physical science worthy of being shown for money. Like his father, he wrote an account of part of his life: the following fragment is taken from a printed edition of the ma.n.u.script, ent.i.tled 'Thomas and Felix Platter, two Autobiographies, by Dr. D. A.

Fechter, Basle, 1840.'

The narrative begins with that day on which the young Felix returns with all the self-confidence of a scholar to his native town.

"I was welcomed home by all my neighbours, and there was great rejoicing; the servant-maid of the midwife, Dorly Becherer, as I learnt afterwards, gained the _botenbrot_[53] from my intended, by running to her father's house and screaming out the news, which she did so loud as quite to frighten her. Supper was prepared, and some of my companions who had heard of my arrival, and had forthwith come to visit me, stayed for it. After supper we escorted them to the Crown inn, and going down the Freienstra.s.se, my intended saw me pa.s.sing by in my Spanish cap, and she fled. The innkeeper, who had himself been wooing her, bantered me, so that I perceived the affair was pretty well known: after that I returned home.

"The following morning, Hummel came to me to take me about the town. We first pa.s.sed the Minster close, there Herr Ludwig von Rischach spied me out, and was wondering who I was, because I wore a velvet barret cap and arms: I made myself known to him; then I saluted Dr. Sulzer, pastor of the Minster; afterwards, Dr. Hans Huber, who welcomed me kindly and offered me his services; I made him a present of Clemens Marot, which had been beautifully bound at Paris.

"After that we went down Martin's Alley, and when we arrived at the bottom of it, opposite the school, my intended, who was standing by the bench saw me, though I did not see her; she ran into the school and home again; and after that she no longer went to the shops of the butchers, because they began to tease her. After dinner my father took me to his property at Gundeldingen; he talked to me on the road, and exhorted me not to speak too fast, as the French are apt to do, and gave me an account of his household. I began immediately to prepare my cypress lute, and to string the large harp which my father had formerly played; and I put my books and ma.n.u.scripts in order; thus I spent the whole week.

"Meanwhile my father arranged matters that I might talk with my intended, and she with me; he therefore invited Master Franz and his daughter to come out to Gundeldingen the following Sunday afternoon; it was the sixteenth of May, a merry spring day. I went out there after dinner with Thiebold Schonauer; we had sent on our lutes, and when we entered the yard at Gundeldingen we saw two maidens standing there; one was the cousin of the landlady, and engaged to Daniel the son of Master Franz, the other was his daughter Magdalen, my intended, whom I greeted cordially, as she did me, not without changing colour. Thus we got into converse; her brother Daniel joined us; we walked about the property, talking of divers things; my intended was modest, bashful, and quiet.

At three o'clock we returned to the house, and went up stairs; I and Thiebold played the lute, and I danced the gaillarde, as was my custom.

Meanwhile, Master Franz, her father, arrived and welcomed me; we sat down to table and had an evening drink as at supper, till it was late, and time for us to return to town. On the road homewards, her father and mine went in advance, and I and Daniel followed with the ladies in friendly talk, when Dorothy, who was somewhat bold of speech, burst forth, saying, 'When two are fond of each other they should make no delay, for one knows not how quick a misfortune may come between them.'

Near the ramparts we separated, Master Franz and his party went home through the Stein gate, and my father and his through the Eschemer gate. We all went to bed full of curious thoughts about myself.

"My father-in-law and my father took counsel together, to make our engagement sure. I began to love her very much, and urged it on. I also was not disagreeable to her, which I had partly found out from herself, when the wife of the butcher, Burlacher, my mother's cousin, had invited us to her meadow before the Spalen gate to eat cherries, where we had been able to speak openly. It was determined that Dr. Hans Huber should make the proposal for me. When my father asked it of him, he readily a.s.sented, appointed Master Franz in the forenoon to meet him at the Minster, made the proposal, and gained his consent for a family marriage counsel. In the evening, when Dr. Hans came to me, he announced it to me with exultation, as was his wont, and congratulated me; but informed me that my father-in-law wished the affair to be kept quiet till my doctorate was over, when matters might proceed. I was well satisfied therewith, as my future father-in-law was at last inclined to consent. Formerly, he had always held back because he feared that my father was greatly in debt, and because he had boarders; for, as he said, he did not wish his daughter to be thrown into debts and disquietudes. But when he heard from my father that his debts were small in comparison with his property in land and houses, and that he himself intended to do away with the boarders, he was satisfied; and so much the more as Herr Caspar Krug, afterwards burgomaster, who had seen me, advised him, and because his son Ludwig told him he ought to thank G.o.d, as he had good hopes that I should become a renowned doctor, for I had shown my skill in curing his wife (who was weak after giving birth to two children) by giving her marchpane, which I had ordered when it was not yet the custom to do so. So my father-in-law was at last well pleased, and did not object to my going to his house to speak with his daughter. Yet I did this mostly in his absence, and secretly. I entered by the back door in the alley, and talked to her there in the lower part of the house, with due propriety and honour. Her father did not object, but appeared not to notice it; he also deferred matters as long as he could, for he did not like to give away his daughter, who, as he boasted, kept house so well for him.

"About this time, Thomas Guerin was engaged to Jungfrau Elizabeth of the Falcon. He frequently came to me with Pempelfort, and begged of me to arrange a musical serenade, to do homage to his love at the Falcon.

I promised him this, but under the condition that a serenade should also be given at any place that I chose. So we equipped ourselves, and went, late after supper, in front of the house of my intended. We had two lutes, I and Thiebold Schonaur played together, afterwards I took the harp, and Pempelfort the viola. The goldsmith Hogenbach whistled an accompaniment, and it was altogether quite fine music; no one took any notice of us, for my future father-in-law was at home. Then we went to the Falcon, and there, after we had paid our court, we were admitted, and had a splendid night-cup, with all kinds of sweetmeats; when we were returning home, the watchmen stopped us at the Green King, but they let us go after we had given them satisfactory answers. I often took a walk to the house of my intended, but as far as possible, secretly, and talked much whimsical nonsense, as lovers do, which she answered discreetly. I dressed myself also, according to custom, for then we wore only coloured clothes, and not black, except for mourning.

Certain persons now began to watch me, and once when I left the house after supper, two men followed me, and would willingly have beaten me, but I escaped, so that nothing happened to me.

"Soon after I had become a doctor my father urged that the marriage should be concluded between me and the Jungfrau Magdalen; and therefore, towards the end of September, he spoke to her father, and as I had honourably and praiseworthily fulfilled everything, and the matter had not remained secret, he could not object to settling it--thereupon he gave a satisfactory answer, but kept always delaying the affair, for, as aforesaid, he was unwilling to part with his daughter. Meanwhile I was allowed to go to the house openly; but it surprised me that it did not displease him, as it was not yet a settled marriage, and, indeed, might never have taken place; our intercourse, however, was carried on with all due propriety and honour, and we held converse on divers discreet subjects, and had much joking and bantering, and often I helped her to make electuaries, and thus we pa.s.sed the time. We had once particularly good fun; when on the eve of St. Simon and St. Jude they rang the bells for the fair, I wished to get a fairing from her. As her father was absent, I went secretly to the back door of her house which was constantly open, and seeing no one, as all were in the chamber below, I slipped up the stairs to the garret, and looked out of the skylight in order to hear when the bells rang in the fair at twelve. I waited for three hours, both cold and weary; as soon as the bells began to sound, I slipped down and opened the door of the room crying out, 'Give me a fairing,' thinking thereby to surprise her. There was no one there, and the maid said, as she had been told to do, that she was gone out; but she had hidden herself under the staircase, and was waiting; soon after she hastened into the room with the usual exclamation, and gained from me the fairing. This I gave her handsomely, and she gave me one also. I wished to present her with the little chain that I had brought with me from Paris, but she begged me to keep it, as it might give occasion for gossip, and she might have it at some other time; but she took the little beautifully bound Testament which I had also offered her; thus we had our pastime for a long period, as is usual with young people.

"After the fair at Basle, my father-in-law, as he could no longer delay, began to prepare for the betrothal, and it was fixed for the week after St. Martin's day. We came about four o'clock to his house; there were a.s.sembled on his side Herr Caspar Krug, afterwards burgomaster, Martin Fickler, and Master Gregorius Scholin, and Batt Hug, his friends, and his son Franz Jeckelmann; there were on our side Dr. Hans Huber, Matthias Bornhart, and Henricus Petri. They negotiated about the dowry, and my future father-in-law announced that his daughter would bring with her more than three hundred pounds' worth of property; of this there would be one hundred florins of ready money, and the rest in clothes and linen. When they asked my father what he would give, he replied he could not say; he had no child but me, and all would be mine. But when they told him that he must name something, as there might be changes (as did, indeed, afterwards happen),[54] he answered that he had not reflected upon this, so he would name four hundred gulden; but that as he could not give it me we should board with him instead, for he had no money to give me, on the contrary he was much in debt. Thereupon arose some disputing; my father-in-law exclaimed that he would not expose his daughter to the discomfort of the boarders, and would rather have us in his house, and censured my father for being in debt, so that my father was much grieved, and if the honourable company present had not interfered, the matter would have remained unsettled. This was the first contretemps that happened to me, and was a great grief both to me and to my intended, who had heard all in the kitchen, and was in great trouble. However, the affair was smoothed, as my father said he would gladly give up the boarders, though it could not be done immediately. From that time my father was somewhat out of sorts, which embittered the whole pleasure of my nuptials. We were betrothed, and I presented my bride with the gold chain I had brought from Paris; and my father-in-law gave the banquet, with good entertainment and speeches, but there was no music, which I should have liked best.

"Great preparations were made for the marriage, which was to take place on the following Monday, for my father considering that he had an only son, wished, for the satisfaction of my father-in-law, to invite the whole of his friends and other well-wishers; so invitations were sent out on the Sat.u.r.day to the relations and neighbours, and our good friends the master and councillor of the Guild of the Bear, to some of the high school, n.o.bles, councillors, scholars, and also artisans with their wives and children.

"On the following Sunday, the 21st of October, our banns were published as is customary; the tables, and everything appertaining to the wedding were arranged in both my fathers' houses; many helped, and Master Batt Oesy, the landlord of the Angel, was cook. In the evening I went to my father-in-law's house, watched them making the nosegays, and remained with them till after supper. When I returned home I found Herr Schreiber Rust, an old acquaintance of my father's, who had come out of friends.h.i.+p from Burtolf to the wedding, and had brought with him a beautiful Emmenthaler cheese. He was sitting at table with my father, who was greatly disquieted, as to how he could feed and treat so large a number of people as had been invited; he persuaded himself that it would be impossible, and that he would disgrace himself, and he was quite cross. Especially, when I came home, he began to scold me very roughly for sitting always with my bride, and letting him have all the trouble, instead of helping him; and he was so angry with me that Herr Rust had enough to do to pacify and comfort him. This third cross and embittering of the happiness of my wedding was very disquieting to me, as I was not accustomed to be thus scolded, and had hitherto usually been praised and well treated; I saw clearly how it would henceforth be when there were two of us living at my father's cost, so that everything would be rendered unpleasant to me. I went to bed full of sorrow, and thought like a fool that I would like to withdraw from my present position, if the door were only open to me.

"On the morning of the 22nd of October, St. Cecilia's day, I was still dispirited, as I had slept little. I put on my bridegroom's s.h.i.+rt which had been sent to me, with a gold embroidered collar and many golden spangles on the short breast piece, as was the custom then, and over that a red brocaded satin waistcoat and flesh-coloured breeches. Thus I came down and found my father no longer so unjust, for when he had begun to complain again, although there was a superfluity of everything, he got a good chiding from Dorothea Schenkin, who was also helping, and was a rough-spoken woman. When the marriage guests were a.s.sembled, we went in procession to my father-in-law's house, and with us Dr. Oswald Berus, who, in spite of his great age, was dressed in an open satin waistcoat and a camlet coat, the same as mine, and a velvet barret cap, like that which was placed on my head, when in front of my bride's house, and this said cap was bordered with pearls and flowers.

"We went about nine o'clock to the Minster, and then the bride arrived in a flesh-coloured cloak, led by Herr Heinrich Petri. After the sermon they married us; I gave her a twisted ring worth eight dollars; then we proceeded to the Jagdhof, where they gave us to drink. I led my bride in, and they regaled her splendidly in the upper room.

"There were fifteen tables spread, which were well filled by more than one hundred and fifty persons, not counting those who waited upon them, and a number of them remained to supper. The entertainment proceeded after this fas.h.i.+on: there were four courses in the following order, a hash of mutton, soup, meat, fowls, boiled pike, a roast, pigeons, capons, geese, rice porridge, salted liver, cheese, and fruit. There were divers kinds of wines, amongst others Rangenwein, which was much to the taste of the guests. The music consisted of Christelin the trumpeter, with his viola; the singers were the scholars, who sang among other things the song of the spoon; after the dinner, which did not last as long as is now customary, Herr Jacob Meyer, the Councillor of the Bear, broke up the party. Dr. Myconius led the bride to the house of Dr. Oswald Berus, where there was dancing in the hall; there were many persons, and some of them people of consequence. Master Laurens played the lute, Christelin accompanied him on his viola, which was then less used than now. I wished to do the courteous by my bride, as I had been accustomed to do in France in dancing, but she being bashful gently admonished me, so I desisted. I danced however, at Myconius' suggestion, a gaillard alone.

"After that we returned to my father's house to supper. When it began to get late the guests took leave, and that there might not be too much noise and joking, I hid myself in my father's room, where my bride also had been secretly concealed, whose father wept so at parting with her, that I thought they would be quite ill from crying. I led her into my father's little room, and some of the women of her acquaintance came to comfort her, to whom I gave some claret to drink, which I had kept in a small cask behind the stove, and had made very good. When they departed, my mother who was always cheerful, came and said that the young students were seeking me, therefore we had better conceal ourselves and go to bed; so she led us secretly by the back stairs up to my room, where we sat for some time, and as it was very cold we were half frozen, so we commended ourselves to G.o.d and went to bed; and none of the students knew what had become of us. After a time we heard my mother come up stairs above our room; there she sat and sang with as sweet a voice as a young maiden, though she had reached a great age; whereat my bride laughed heartily.

"On the Tuesday morning her bridesmaid Kathleen brought her the rest of her clothes; we admitted her, and as she was a pleasant maiden, we had much fun with her. After that the marriage guests collected again at dinner, which took place at eleven o'clock, for then we had not turned time topsy-turvy, as is the bad custom now. There were as many tables laid as on the first day, and the entertainment was as ample; and there was in addition the bridal porridge, which is now replaced by mulled wine. After dinner they danced till night, and at supper there were still many guests, especially the maidens, who all took leave and went home in good time. There were many rich presents given at the marriage; but of these I got only a small goblet and two ducats, the rest my father took to defray the costs as far as they would, and later, as soon as I earned something, I had to pay him for my clothes. My father took also the hundred gulden that my wife had brought with her, and paid it off likewise. My father-in-law made me no present, because, as he afterwards told me, he had paid five gulden for me at the doctor's capping feast, and therewith I ought to be content. The household gear that my wife brought with her was not very good; an old pan in which they had made her porridge, and a large wooden bowl in which her mother's dinner had been brought to her during her confinements, and other bad utensils, which were placed behind a screen in our room.

After that, our household arrangements were to be fixed and regulated by my wife's advice, which required great consideration. My father still continued to have boarders and all kinds of disquiet in the house, so that we young married people were much hara.s.sed; we had rather have kept house by ourselves, but we could not manage it; we were obliged for nearly three years to board with my father, and I had to make s.h.i.+ft with my room, and to see the sick in the lower hall, which was cold in winter. There was frequent offence taken because I could not help towards the kitchen expenditure, for I had enough to do to provide ourselves with clothes, and frequently had to pay what I had just earned to the shops where I was still in debt for them; which was thrown in my teeth, if I did not do it. Thus there were at times quarrels, as often happens when old and young dwell together. Therefore my wife would have been glad if we could have dwelt by ourselves, and she would willingly have managed with very little; if my father would have given the promised dowry and the hundred gulden which she had brought to me, we could have subsisted upon that; but my father could not do this, as he had no ready money; and I did not wish to anger, but rather conciliate him, and so I spoke him fair, saying, we would have patience till I got into better practice. All this grieved me because I loved her much, and would gladly have maintained her as was meet for a doctor's wife; therefore for a long time I treated her with less familiarity and more ceremony; my father perceived this with displeasure, and thought it ought not to be. I had not much to do before the new year.

"There were many doctors at Basle when I came there, both graduates and quacks, in the year 1557. Therefore I had to be very skilful to support myself, and G.o.d has abundantly blessed me therein. From day to day I got more practice both among the inhabitants of the town, and also among the strangers, some of whom came to me and dwelt a long time here, using my remedies, whilst others went away immediately, having obtained my advice and prescription. Strangers also sent for me to their houses and castles, whither I hastened, not staying long, but returning home quickly, that I might attend to those at home as well as in distant parts."

CHAPTER X.

OF A PATRICIAN HOUSE.

(1526-1598.)

Though the narrative of Sastrow gives us a view of the hard struggle of a rising family, and that of Felix Platter shows to what s.h.i.+fts even a vigorous life may be reduced, yet one must not forget that the intellectual life of Germany was rich and varied in its aims and tendencies. Worldly-minded education, opulence, and the pleasures of social enjoyment were concentrated in the patrician families of the great Imperial cities, who, however, often manifested bad taste in their refinement; but at the same time arts and commerce called forth all their energies, and whatever sense of beauty then existed, was to be found especially in these circles. In the great cities of Switzerland, the Low Countries, and the seaports of the German Hanse Towns, there was a peculiar development of the patrician order; but it was the patrician families of the great commercial cities of South Germany, and amongst these more especially those of Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm, Frankfort on the Maine, and Cologne, that exercised the greatest influence on the luxury, industry, and learning of Germany.

Members of the old families had once governed the cities with aristocratic rule; they were still the most influential citizens, accustomed to conduct great affairs, and to represent the highest interests; they were generally merchants or large landed proprietors.

Most of the Church benefices were possessed by their families; they were the first who used to send their sons into Italy, the land of their mercantile friends, to study law, thus making preparation in Germany for the rising Humanitarian learning. Many of them were heads of mercantile firms, councillors and confidants of German princes; they were united together by family alliances, and not less by community of commercial interests and had extended themselves everywhere; they chiefly determined the German policy of the Imperial cities, and they would have exercised a decisive influence on the newly formed German life, had they been less conservative in their tendencies, and had they not by their self-interest become sometimes un-German.

They represented the moneyed power of Germany; the Emperor and princes obtained loans from them, and they were the medium of the greater; part of the money and exchange transactions, when these were not in the hands of the Jews. The great firms of Fugger and Welser and their partners formed a great trading company, which carried on traffic not only with Italy and the Levant, but also beyond Antwerp and the Atlantic Ocean. Through them, German trade monopolized that of the East and West Indies; they bought a whole year's harvest from the King of Portugal, they united themselves with Spanish houses in unlimited speculations, undertook journeys to Calcutta, and settled on their own account the prices of the sugar and spices of the East, which were then of greater importance in the German cookery than now.

This command over capital was regarded with great dislike by both princes and people. Through these trading companies much ready money pa.s.sed out of the country, and all objects of luxury rose in price; complaints were general, for the diminution in the worth of money, occasioned by the introduction of the American gold, was mistaken for the raising of prices by the merchants. Not only Hutten, who was deeply imbued with the prejudices of his own cla.s.s, but even the Imperial Diet was jealous of the power of these great moneyed companies; among the people also, the antipathy to them was general, and the Reformers shared the opinions of their cotemporaries as to the detriment of such domination over capital.

Yet even then, it may be observed that these great merchant princes had not all the same tendencies. The Welsers of Augsburg, for example, in 1512, took an active interest at Rome on behalf of Reuchlin, and that great scholar owed his deliverance from the hands of the Dominicans, more perhaps to their secret influence than to the refined rhetoric of his enthusiastic admirers in Germany. On the other hand, the Fuggers were considered by the people as reckless moneyed men and Romanists; as enemies of Luther and friends of Eck, who was suspected of being in their pay; for they had charge of the money affairs of the Elector Albrecht of Mayence, and of the Romish curie, and one of the Fugger's clerks accompanied the indulgence chest of Tetzel, and controlled the incoming receipts, on which the banking-house of the Archbishop of Mayence had made advances. The Emperor, Charles V., received the most solid support from these powerful firms, as their interests were generally concurrent with his; with the people, however, "_Fuggerei_"

became the common term for usury. We learn the family tendency for outward splendour and intercourse with the great, from the description which Hans von Schweinichen gives of their opulence in the year 1575.

When the dissolute Duke Hemrich von Liegnitz with his majordomo was at Augsburg, the splendour of this house appeared to the Silesian n.o.blemen as quite fabulous. Schweinichen, who was more accurate in specifying the sums of money and prices than was necessary considering the endless debts of his master, gives the following narrative.[55]

"Herr Max Fugger once invited his Princely Highness to dinner. Such a banquet have I never beheld, the Roman Emperor himself could not have been entertained better: there was superabundant splendour; the repast was spread in a hall where more gold than colour was to be seen; the floor was of marble, and as smooth as if one was walking on ice; there was a sideboard placed along the whole length of the hall, which was set out with drinking-vessels and notably beautiful Venetian gla.s.ses; there must have been, as one says, the value of more than a ton of gold. I waited on his Princely Highness when the drinking began. Now Herr Fugger gave to his Princely Highness for a drinking-cup, an artistically formed s.h.i.+p of the most beautiful Venetian gla.s.s; when I took it from the sideboard and was going across the hall, having on my new shoes, I slipped up, and fell upon my back in the middle of the hall; the wine poured about my neck, the new red brocade dress which I had on was quite spoilt, and the beautiful s.h.i.+p was broken into a thousand pieces. Though this created great laughter amongst all, yet I was told that Herr Fugger said privately he would rather have lost a hundred gulden than that s.h.i.+p; it happened, however, without any fault on my part, for I had neither eaten nor drunk; but when later I became intoxicated I stood firmer, and did not fall a single time even in the dance. Meanwhile the lords and all others were very merry. Herr Fugger took his Princely Highness a walk through the house, a prodigious great house, so great that the Roman Emperor at the Imperial Diet found room in it for himself and his whole court. Herr Fugger showed his Princely Highness, in a turret, a treasure of chains, jewels, and precious stones, and of curious coins and pieces of gold the size of a head, and he himself said that they were worth more than a million of gold.

Afterwards he opened a chest that was full of nothing but ducats and crowns up to the brim; these he estimated at two hundred thousand gulden, which had been remitted to him in exchange by the King of Spain. Then he led his Princely Highness up to the turret, which was paved half way down from the top with good thalers; he said there were about seventeen thousand. He showed his Princely Highness great honour, but also his own power and possessions: it is said that Herr Fugger had enough to buy an empire. He gave me, on account of my fall, a beautiful new groschen which weighed about nine grains. His Princely Highness expected also a good present, but got nothing but a good drinking bout.

At that time Fugger bestowed the hand of his daughter on a count, and gave two hundred thousand thalers, besides jewels, as her dowry.

"As his Princely Highness had very little ready money he sent me to Herr Fugger to borrow four thousand thalers; but he decidedly declined doing this, excusing himself quite politely; however the following day he sent his steward to me to be introduced to my lord, through whom he presented to his Princely Highness two hundred crowns, a beautiful goblet worth eighty dollars, and besides that a splendid horse with black velvet housings."

Together with this taste for display we find in other patrician families at the beginning of this century far higher aims in life. The firms of Pentinger at Augsburg, and Perkheimer at Nuremberg were the focus of the n.o.blest interests of the nation; the heads of these houses were men of princely opulence, landed proprietors and merchant princes, statesmen and warriors, and at the same time men of learning and research. It was for families like these that Albert Durer painted his best pictures; to them the travelling Humanitarians resorted; every elegant verse, every manly sentiment or word of genius, were there first heartily appreciated. As councillors and patrons in worldly concerns, as liberal proprietors of valuable libraries and of first-rate cabinets of antiquities, as hospitable masters of rich households, they knew how to do honour to all who brought to their houses intellect, knowledge, and refinement.[56]

In these families, the women also frequently received an education which went further than the knowledge of cooking, spinning, and the prayer-book; the daughters of these households gained what was seldom to be found in the castles of the princes or in the mansions of the landed n.o.bility,--a heartfelt interest in the sciences and arts with which the friends of the family were occupied. There is a peculiar charm for us in the contemplation of the first female characters who were enn.o.bled by the dawn of a new civilization. Constance Peutinger, who twined the laurel wreaths for Hutten; Caritas Perkheimer, the suffering abbess of Clarenklosters at Nuremberg, and later Philippine Welser, the wife of the Emperor's son, all belonged to the cla.s.s of German patricians; they were sensitive natures often oppressed and wounded in this rough and th.o.r.n.y period.

It was especially when a woman took part in the literary struggle that she was destined to suffer, this however rarely happened; the best known instances are those of Caritas Pirkheimer and Argula von Grumbach, born at Stauffen; both experienced how bitter it is for women to take part in the disputes of men. The Roman Catholic Caritas wrote a letter full of reverence to Emser, and had to go through the trial of seeing her letter printed by the Lutheran party with contemptuous marginal notes. The Lutheran Argula, the friend of Spalatin, sent an admonitory letter to the rector of the university at Ingoldstadt, when it had compelled Arsatius Seehofer by imprisonment and a threat of the stake, to recant seventeen heresies, which he had propounded to the students from the writings of Melancthon. Argula bravely took the master's part, whom she called a child of eighteen years old, and offered to go to Ingoldstadt herself to defend the good cause against the university. She was in consequence of this, maliciously a.s.sailed in verse, against which she valiantly defended herself in counter-rhymes.

The last years of Caritas and her mild brother were embittered by the rude attacks of the Protestant rabble and their teachers. Argula was banished from the Bavarian court, and her husband was dismissed in disgrace from his court appointment.