_How little Mary Paasch was sorely plagued of the devil, and the
whole parish fell off from me._
Before I proceed any further, I will first mark that the
illustrious king Gustavus Adolphus, as we presently heard, had cut
down the 300 Croats at Swine, and was thence gone by sea to
Stettin. May God be for ever gracious to him! Amen.
But my sorrows increased from day to day, seeing that the devil
now played pranks such as he never had played before. I had begun
to think that the ears of God had hearkened to our ardent prayers,
but it pleased Him to try us yet more hardly than ever. For, a few
days after the arrival of the most illustrious king Gustavus
Adolphus, it was bruited about that my child her little
god-daughter was possessed of the evil one, and tumbled about most
piteously on her bed, insomuch that no one was able to hold her.
My child straightway went to see her little god-daughter, but
presently came weeping home. Old Paasch would not suffer her even
to come near her, but railed at her very angrily, and said that
she should never come within his doors again, as his child had got
the mischief from the white roll which she had given her that
morning. It was true that my child had given her a roll, seeing
that the maid had been, the day before, to Wolgast, and had
brought back a napkin full of them.
Such news vexed me sore, and after putting on my cassock I went to
old Paasch his house, to exorcise the foul fiend, and to remove
such disgrace from my child. I found the old man standing on the
floor by the cockloft steps, weeping; and after I had spoken "The
peace of God," I asked him first of all, whether he really
believed that his little Mary had been bewitched by means of the
roll which my child had given her? He said "Yes!" And when I
answered, That in that case I also must have been bewitched,
_item_, Pagel his little girl, seeing that we both had eaten
of the rolls, he was silent, and asked me with a sigh, whether I
would not go into the room, and see for myself how matters stood.
I then entered with "The peace of God," and found six people
standing round little Mary her bed; her eyes were shut, and she
was as stiff as a board; wherefore Kit Wels (who was a young and
sturdy fellow) seized the little child by one leg, and held her
out like a hedge-stake, so that I might see how the devil plagued
her. I now said a prayer, and Satan, perceiving that a servant of
Christ was come, began to tear the child so fearfully that it was
pitiful to behold; for she flung about her hands and feet, so that
four strong men were scarce able to hold her; _item_, she was
afflicted with extraordinary risings and fallings of her belly, as
if a living creature were therein, so that at last the old witch
Lizzie Kolken sat herself upon her belly, whereupon the child
seemed to be somewhat better, and I told her to repeat the
Apostles' Creed, so as to see whether it really were the devil who
possessed her. [Footnote: It was imagined in those fearful times
that when the sick person could repeat the three articles of
belief, and especially some passages from the Bible bearing
particular reference to the work of redemption, he was not
possessed, since "no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by
the Holy Ghost" (I Cor, xii. 3).] She straightway grew worse than
before, and began to gnash her teeth, to roll her eyes, and to
strike so hard with her hands and feet that she flung her father,
who held one of her legs, right into the middle of the room, and
then struck her foot so hard against the bedstead that the blood
flowed, and Lizzie Kolken was thrown about on her belly, as though
she had been in a swing. And as I ceased not, but exorcised Satan
that he should leave her, she began to howl and to bark like a
dog, _item_, to laugh, and spoke at last, with a gruff bass
voice like an old man's, "I will not depart." But he should soon
have been forced to depart out of her, had not both father and
mother besought me, by God's holy Sacrament, to leave their poor
child in peace, seeing that nothing did her any good, but rather
made her worse. I was therefore forced to desist, and only
admonished the parents to seek for help like the Canaanitish
woman, in true repentance and incessant prayer, and with her to
sigh in constant faith, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, thou son of
David, my daughter is grievously vexed of a devil" (Matt. xv.);
that the heart of our Lord would then melt, so that He would have
mercy on their child, and command Satan to depart from her.
_Item_, I promised to pray for the little child on the
following Sunday with the whole congregation, and told them to
bring her, if it were any ways possible, to the church, seeing
that the ardent prayer of the whole congregation has power to rise
beyond the clouds. This they promised to do, and I then went home
sorely troubled, where I soon learned that she was somewhat
better; thus it still is sure that Satan hates nothing so much,
after the Lord Jesus, as the servants of the Gospel. But wait, and
I shall even yet "bruise thy head with my heel" (Gen. iii.);
naught shall avail thee.
Howbeit, before the blessed Sunday came I perceived that many of
my people went out of my way, both in the village and elsewhere in
the parish, where I went to visit sundry sick folks. When I went
to Uekeritze to see young Tittelwitz, there even befell me as
follows. Claus Pieper the peasant stood in his yard chopping wood,
and on seeing me he flung the axe out of his hand so hastily that
it stuck in the ground, and he ran towards the pig-stye, making
the sign of the cross. I motioned him to stop, and asked why he
thus ran from me his confessor? Whether, peradventure, he also
believed that my daughter had bewitched her little godchild?
_Ille_. Yes, he believed it, because the whole parish did.
_Ego_. Why, then, had she been so kind to her formerly, and
kept her like a sister, through the worst of the famine?
_Ille_. This was not the only mischief she had done.
_Ego_. What, then, had she done besides? _Ille_. That
was all one to me. _Ego_. He should tell me, or I would
complain to the magistrate. _Ille_. That I might do, if I
pleased. Whereupon he went his way insolently. Any one may guess
that I was not slow to inquire everywhere, what people thought my
daughter had done; but no one would tell me anything, and I might
have grieved to death at such evil reports. Moreover, not one
child came during this whole week to school to my daughter; and
when I sent out the maid to ask the reason, she brought back word
that the children were ill, or that the parents wanted them for
their work. I thought and thought, but all to no purpose, until
the blessed Sunday came round, when I meant to have held a great
Sacrament, seeing that many people had made known their intention
to come to the Lord's Table. It seemed strange to me that I saw no
one standing, as was their wont, about the church door; I thought,
however, that they might have gone into the houses. But when I
went into the church with my daughter, there were not more than
six people assembled, among whom was old Lizzie Kolken; and the
accursed witch no sooner saw my daughter follow me, than she made
the sign of the cross and ran out of the door under the steeple;
whereupon the five others, among them mine own churchwarden Claus
Bulken (I had not appointed any one in the room of old Seden),
followed her. I was so horror-struck that my blood curdled, and I
began to tremble, so that I fell with my shoulder against the
confessional. My child, to whom I had as yet told nothing, in
order to spare her, then asked me, "Father, what is the matter
with all the people? are they, too, bewitched?" Whereupon I came
to myself again, and went into the churchyard to look after them.
But all were gone save my churchwarden Claus Bulken, who stood
under the lime-tree whistling to himself. I stepped up to him, and
asked what had come to the people? whereupon he answered, he could
not tell; and when I asked him again, why, then, he himself had
left the church, he said, What was he to do there alone, seeing
that no collection could be made? I then implored him to tell me
the truth, and what horrid suspicion had arisen against me in the
parish? But he answered, I should very soon find it out for
myself; and he jumped over the wall and went into old Lizzie her
house, which stands close by the churchyard.
My child had made ready some veal broth for dinner, for which I
mostly use to leave everything else; but I could not swallow one
spoonful, but sat resting my head on my hand, and doubted whether
I should tell her or no. Meanwhile the old maid came in, ready for
a journey, and with a bundle in her hand, and begged me with tears
to give her leave to go. My poor child turned pale as a corpse,
and asked in amaze what had come to her? but she merely answered,
"Nothing!" and wiped her eyes with her apron. When I recovered my
speech, which had well-nigh left me at seeing that this faithful
old creature was also about to forsake me, I began to question her
why she wished to go; she who had dwelt with me so long, and who
would not forsake us even in the great famine, but had faithfully
borne up against it, and indeed had humbled me by her faith, and
had exhorted me to stand out gallantly to the last, for which I
should be grateful to her as long as I lived. Hereupon she merely
wept and sobbed yet more, and at length brought out that she still
had an old mother of eighty, living in Liepe, and that she wished
to go and nurse her till her end. Hereupon my daughter jumped up,
and answered with tears, "Alas, old Ilse, why wilt thou leave us,
for thy mother is with thy brother! Do but tell me why thou wilt
forsake me, and what harm have I done thee, that I may make it
good to thee again." But she hid her face in her apron, and
sobbed, and could not get out a single word; whereupon my child
drew away the apron from her face, and would have stroked her
cheeks, to make her speak. But when Ilse saw this she struck my
poor child's hand, and cried "Ugh!" spat out before her, and
straightway went out at the door. Such a thing she had never done
even when my child was a little girl, and we were both so shocked
that we could neither of us say a word.
Before long my poor child gave a loud cry, and cast herself upon
the bench, weeping and wailing, "What has happened, what has
happened?" I therefore thought I ought to tell her what I had
heard, namely, that she was looked upon as a witch. Whereat she
began to smile instead of weeping any more, and ran out of the
door to overtake the maid, who had already left the house, as we
had seen. She returned after an hour crying out that all the
people in the village had run away from her, when she would have
asked them whither the maid was gone. _Item_, the little
children, for whom she had kept school, had screamed, and had
hidden themselves from her: also no one would answer her a single
word, but all spat out before her, as the maid had done. On her
way home she had seen a boat on the water, and had run as fast as
she could to the shore, and called with might and main after old
Ilse, who was in the boat. But she had taken no notice of her, not
even once to look round after her, but had motioned her to be
gone. And now she went on to weep and to sob the whole day and the
whole night, so that I was more miserable than even in the time of
the great famine. But the worst was yet to come, as will be shown
in the following chapter.