THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.--THE CLIPPERS OF MONEY, AND PUBLIC OPINION.
Monotonously did the death wail sound in the chronicles and records of
fellow-sufferers. Where thousands were saved, millions were ruined and
destroyed. The war was destructive of house, wealth, and life, alike in
town and country. Manifold was the work of the destroying forces, but a
higher force was unceasingly at work to ward off final ruin.
It is a marvellous circumstance, that in the same year in which the war
in Germany expired, the interest of the people in public affairs was so
far developed as to originate the first newspapers. In matters of faith,
moral feeling and the judgments of individuals had for a century worked,
but in politics it was only rarely and feebly that serious diversity of
opinion was ventured to be expressed by private individuals. It was just
when the recruiting drums of the princes were beating at every
muster-place that public opinion began its first political struggle in
the press. On an important social question, the intellectual leaders of
the people rose up against the immorality of their own Sovereigns. We
shall endeavour here briefly to exhibit the course of public opinion,
and show what was stirred up and carried away by it during the war. It
may more especially be discovered in the literature of the
flying-sheets, which contended for and against the Bohemian King,
condemned the _Kipper_ and _Wipper_, and did homage to the great
Gustavus Adolphus, but at last became itself, like the nation, meagre
and powerless.
It was after the beginning of the sixteenth century that the people
began to receive news through the press, in a double form. One of these
forms was a single sheet printed on one side, almost always ornamented
with a woodcut, and after the sixteenth century, with a copper-plate
engraving, under which the explanatory text was generally rendered in
verse. In these flying leaves were communicated the appearances in the
heavens, and comets; very soon also battles by land and sea,
portraitures of the celebrities of the day, and the like. Much of the
good humour, and coarse jests of the Reformation time are to be found in
them. The art of the wood carver was in constant activity, and we find
many characteristic peculiarities of the talents of the great painters
impressed upon it. The other form was that of pamphlets, especially in
quarto, frequently also ornamented with woodcuts. They gave information
of every novelty; coronations, battles, and newly discovered countries;
by them every striking event flitted through the country. After the
Reformation, they increased enormously in number. All printing-houses
gave birth to them under the titles of newspapers, advices, reports, and
couriers. Besides these, there were the small controversial writings of
the Reformers, sermons, discourses, and songs. Very soon also the
Princes began to make use of the invention of printing, to inform the
public of their quarrels, and to gain partisans. Private individuals
whose rights were injured contended with their opponents, whether city
magistrates or foreign rulers, in pamphlets. During the whole of the
sixteenth century the aim of the small, not theological, literature, was
first to impart news, and afterwards to serve the interests of
individuals or princes, or to make known the views of those in power.
The opinions of individuals upon political affairs were principally
conveyed in a form which was then considered particularly ingenious, as
pasquinades or dialogues. These small news sheets were innumerable, and
their spread was rapid; after the Reformation it became a separate
branch of industry. The booksellers, or as they were then called,
stationers, who offered these newspapers for sale in their shops and
stalls, and introduced them to the markets of foreign cities, made a
dangerous competition with the printers, bookbinders, and illuminators.
Important newspapers were everywhere pirated. Along the great trade and
post roads, more particularly of the Rhine and southern Germany, certain
trading and printing establishments made special gains from the
communication of the daily news; for example, Wendelin Borsch, at the
Tiler's Hut in Nuremberg, about 1571, Michael Enzinger at Cologne, at
the end of the century, and others. These sheets at first were published
very irregularly, but they already contained a correspondence from
different cities, in which not only political, but mercantile
intelligence was given.[32] At last, in 1612, appeared here and there
separate newspaper sheets in numbers, and in a certain degree of
continuity. Meanwhile it had been long the custom of the merchants to
make such communications to their mercantile friends with some
regularity, so that there already existed news-writers who were in the
habit of forwarding written newspapers. This method of spreading
intelligence had come to Germany from Italy. In Venice, from the year
1536, there were _Notizie Scritte_, written news in successive series,
which continued there till the French Revolution. There also, appeared
the first regular newspaper shortly before 1600, which it is stated took
the name of _Gazzetta_ from a little coin which was the cost of the
single numbers.
Soon after, the German newspapers began to appear regularly. In 1615 the
first weekly newspaper was published at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, by
Egenolf Emmel, bookseller and printer. In opposition to which, in 1616,
the Imperial deputy postmaster Johann van der Brighden, published a
competing paper called 'Political Notices.' From these two undertakings
resulted the oldest German newspapers, the 'Frankfort Journal,' and the
'Oberpostamts Zeitung.'
But these and other weekly papers were for a long time, only news sheets
in which opinions on the facts communicated were carefully withheld. The
great stream of public opinion still continued for two centuries to run
in the old direction; the flying leaves and occasional brochures.
At the beginning of the war even the distant readers were compelled to
be violent partisans. Everywhere appeared controversial writings,
opinions, councils, and deliberations. The nation was rent into large
parties by this intellectual strife, and it is instructive to see how
the writings of the disputants stand in exact relation to the success
which their party had achieved. Till the battle of the Weissen Berge
nine tenths of all the narratives and controversial writings are
Protestant; they reached full a thousand in number. Hatred to the
Jesuits blazed fiercely; bitter was the rancour against the Emperor, and
incessant were the cautions against the League. After Prague, Strasburg
was the centre of their warlike activity. Whilst at Prague the
libel-writer von Rörig, as _Huss-redivius_, made his voice heard
vehemently in many 'Political Discourses' against his adversary Sturm:
the _magisters_ of Strasburg, after the fashion of Boccalini, made
accusations against the same opponent, before Apollo and the high court
of Parnassus; but their Apollo had to deliver human and explicit
oracles. The answers in defence are cautious and uncertain, as during
the whole war the Catholic party were generally not a match for the
Protestants in the serious warfare of the pen. But the speedy flight of
the new King of Bohemia suddenly changed the physiognomy of the literary
market. The secret writings obtained as booty from the Bohemian party
were published by their opponents; and about these bulky quartos there
raged for years a battle of petty flying-sheets. Revengeful, and
joyfully triumphant, the Imperialists sounded their pæan. It is true
that in their brochures there was still some moderation, for they were
obliged to spare the Lutheran Saxons; but so much the more irritably did
they attack the enemy, in countless pictorial sheets and satirical
verses. Endless and merciless were the satires on the fugitive winter
King, he, the proud and witless one, with his wife and children, were
depicted in every kind of pitiful situation, seeking their bread,
departing in bad waggons, and digging a grave for themselves.
This strife was interrupted by another, which will ever be of high
interest. It was the storm of the German press against the "_Kipper_ and
_Wipper_."
Of all the terrors at the beginning of the war, nothing gave such vague
apprehension to the people, as the sudden depreciation of the coinage.
To the fancy of the suffering generation, the evil became so much the
greater, as in the gloomy frame of mind of that period it appeared to
occur suddenly, and everywhere roused the most frightful passions,
discord in families, and hatred and strife between debtors and
creditors, leaving behind, hunger, poverty, beggary, and immorality. It
made honourable citizens gamblers, drunkards, and profligates, it drove
preachers and schoolmasters from their offices, brought opulent families
to beggary, plunged every government into miserable confusion, and
threatened the dwellers in cities, in a thickly populated country, with
famine.
It was the third year of the war; its flames had already carried
destruction over Bohemia and the Palatinate, and the ruins were still
glowing, on which the Imperial troops erected the cross of the old
faith. A sultry atmosphere loured over the country; throughout the
empire, in every class, men armed themselves, and anxiety for the future
pervaded all. But intercourse with the provinces in which the war was at
first located, was then comparatively small. The countries exposed to
its fury were, with the exception of the Palatinate, provinces belonging
to the Emperor; and on the Elbe and lower Rhine, in Thuringia,
Franconia, and the territories of lower Saxony, it was still a question
whether the danger was approaching home. In August, 1621, the peasant
had the prospect of a moderate harvest; in trade and commerce there was
some degree of stagnation, but there was much of that excited eagerness
which is the natural offspring of a great defensive movement, and manly
youths were more allured than intimidated by the wild conduct of the
soldiery. It had indeed been long remarked, that there was something
unusual about the money which circulated in the country. The good heavy
Imperial coin became more and more scarce, in its place much new money
was current, badly coined, and of a red colour. The increasing rise in
the price of foreign goods appeared still more strange. Everything
became dearer. Whoever wished to make a present to a godchild, or to pay
foreign tradesmen, had to give an increasing _agio_ for his old pure
Joachim's thaler. But in the local trade, betwixt town and country, the
extensive new coinage was taken without hesitation, indeed it was
exchanged or bartered with an increased activity. The mass of the people
did not observe that the different kinds of coin with which it was the
custom to pay, became in their hands, worthless lead; but the sharper
ones, who had an inkling of the state of things, became, for the most
part, accomplices in the dishonest usury of the Princes. It may be
distinctly perceived how the people came to a knowledge of their
situation, and we still feel dismayed at the sudden terror, anguish, and
despair of the masses, and are struck by the anxieties and manly
indignation of the thoughtful; and in reading the old narratives, we
still feel somewhat of the indignation with which the guilty were
regarded. When we consider the many wonderful errors of public opinion
at that time, and the well-meaning zeal of individuals who gave good
counsel, we may be permitted in this period of calamity and humiliation,
to feel a proud satisfaction at the sagacity with which even then, some
men of the people discovered the ground of the evil, and, in one of the
most difficult national questions, found the right answer, and by it a
remedy, at least for the worst misfortunes. Before we attempt to give a
picture of the "_Kipper_ and _Wipper_" years, we must make some remarks
on the coining of that period.
In the olden time, all technical dexterity was environed with dignity,
secrecy, and an apparatus of forms. Nothing is more characteristic of
the peculiarity of the German nature, than its virtuosoship; even the
most monotonous handicraft was ennobled by an abundance of lively
additions. As soon as the spirit of the artisan was excited by the
genial pleasure of creating, his imagination was occupied with images
and symbols, and he turned his skill dexterously to high, nay even to
holy things. What we have described as applicable to all the handicrafts
of the middle ages, was so especially to the art of coining. A feeling
of his self-importance was strong in the coiner; the work itself, the
handling of the precious metals fresh from the fire, was considered
ennobling. The obscure chemical processes, which were surrounded,
through alchemy, with a wilderness of fantastic forms, had a far more
imposing effect upon the workers, than can be understood by the rational
fabricators of our century. To this was added the responsibility of the
service. When the coiner took the assay weight out of its beautiful
capsule, and placed the little acorn cup on the artistically worked
assay balance, in order to weigh the remnant in it, he did this with a
certain consciousness of superiority over his fellow-citizens.[33] When
he purified the silver assay from lead in the cupel, and the liquid
silver first overflowed, shining with delicate prismatic colours, and
then, the variegated stream being rent, the bright gleam of the silver
passed like lightning through the molten mass, this silver gleam filled
him with reverential astonishment, and he felt himself in the midst of
the mysterious creations of the spirits of nature, which, whilst he
feared, he was yet able to control by the art of his handicraft, as far
as his knowledge reached. After that period, in the order of things, the
coiners formed themselves into a close corporation, with masters,
associates, and apprentices, and held jealously to their privileges.
Whoever was desirous of stamping the Holy Roman Imperial coin was first
obliged to give proof of his free and honourable lineage, to do lowly
service for four years, during this period to wear, according to custom,
a fool's cap, and to allow himself to be punished and beaten when
inexpert or in the wrong; then at last he was admitted to the business
of coining, and entered as an associate in the brotherhood of Imperial
coiners.
But these strict regulations, which were again confirmed to the
brotherhood by the Emperor Maximilian II., in 1571, had even then ceased
to have the effect of making the corporation honourable and upright.
Equally inefficient were the attempts at control, by the decisions of
the Imperial Diet and the Sovereigns. At the inspection of every piece
of coin the master of the mint had with him a warden, who proved the
texture and weight of the coin. The ten Circles of the Empire held
yearly approbation days, in order, mutually, to compare their coin and
to reject the bad; every Circle was to be represented by a
warden-general; for every Circle an appointed number of mints were
established, in which the lesser rulers were to have their money
specially coined: but all these regulations were only imperfectly
carried out.
There were undoubtedly some Sovereigns and mint-masters then in the
country who were faithful, but they were few in number; and generally a
mint-master, who was considered capable by a German Circle, and worked
in a legal mint, was concerned in many strange practices. It was
difficult to exercise control over these imperfect coining proceedings;
the temptations were great, and morality in general much lower than now.
From the Sovereign down to the understrapper and Jewish purveyor, every
one concerned in coining deceived the other. The Sovereign allowed the
master of the mint for a series of years to work and become rich; he
perhaps permitted in silence the coin of the country to be debased, in
order at the right moment to proceed against the guilty, from whom then
he squeezed out by pressure, like a sponge, all that they had sucked up
for many years drop by drop. It did not avail them that they had long
quitted the service, for after many years greedy justice would reach
them: but the mint-master, who was not in the convenient position of the
lion, to be able to secure his booty by a single stroke of the paw, was
in the habit of industriously overreaching his masters, the purveyors,
nay even his cashiers, the associates, and the apprentices, not to
mention the public. The other assistants did no better; every man's hand
was against the other, and the curse, which according to the proverb
lies on the gold of the German dwarf, appears in the seventeenth century
to have depraved all who transmuted the shining metal into money. The
common method of transacting the business was as follows.
The master of the mint purchased the metal, defrayed the costs of the
stamping, and paid a tax to the Sovereign for every Cologne mark which
he struck, which it appears amounted generally to about four good
groschen: but he had to pay dear for fine silver, and the wages and
other accessories were continually rising in price. If he paid the tax,
from one to two thousand marks, weekly to the lord of the mint, he
concealed from him the fifty marks which he had struck over and above,
and retained the tax upon them for himself; furthermore, he was a sharp
coiner, that is to say, he deducted from the money about half a grain in
the amount of silver required by the law; he always struck a hundred
marks in weight, two ounces too light, which was remarked by no one, and
when he knew that the money was to be sent directly into foreign
countries, especially to Poland, he was bolder in deducting from the
weight. His dealings with the purveyors who procured the metal for him,
were not more upright. There was carried on then, throughout the whole
of Germany, a secret traffic, which was severely prohibited by the law,
and traced with much sagacity by the gate-keepers of the cities, a
traffic in false money. What was acquired by the soldier as booty, or
stolen by the thief from the church, was smelted by the receivers of
stolen goods into flat cakes or conical masses, which in the language of
the trade were called "ingots" and "kings;" whatever was clipped from
the money in diminishing the proper quantity of silver, or had otherwise
to be carefully consigned under a false name, was poured out of the
smelting crucible over moist birchen-twigs, and thus granulated: but
besides this, by being incessantly bought up, the good coin was
exchanged for bad, the small money-changers, most of them wandering
Jews, journeyed from village to village far across the frontiers of the
German Empire, and collected, as the ragmen do now, their wares from the
soldiers, countrymen, and beggars. All the medals of distinguished
persons, all coats-of-arms and inscriptions, horse and man, wolves,
sheep and bears, thalers and hellers, the saints of Cologne and Treves,
and the medallions of the heretic Luther, were bought up for the mint,
collected and exchanged. The concealed wares were then packed into a
vessel with ginger, pepper, and tartar, and paid toll duty as white
lead, wrapped up in bales of cloth and frankincense. There were
travelling waggons with false bottoms, which were specially prepared for
such transports. A still better safeguard was an ecclesiastic as a
travelling companion; but the best of all was a trumpeter, who gave the
trader the appearance of being a prince's courier. If it happened that a
distinguished lord was travelling towards the same country, it was
expedient to bribe him, for he and his suite, their waggons and horses,
were never examined at the city gates. Sometimes the agent disguised
himself as a distinguished lord or soldier, and caused the burden to be
conveyed by the trooper's horses or his servants. Sometimes the
mint-master was obliged to travel to the frontier to meet the agent,
under the pretext of paying a visit to some friend. Then the costly
goods were carried far from the dwellings of men, across lonely heaths,
or through the clearings of a wood, from one hand to another, on a
merchant's parole.
Meanwhile the petty Jewish dealer carried at night, along byways over
the frontier, his wallet full of old groschen, in the twofold fear of
robbers and of the guardians of the law. The wallet, the broad-brimmed
hat, and the yellow cloth border to the coat, the mark of a Jew of the
Empire, was frequently seen at the mint. There existed between the
dealer and the mint-master a confidential business connection, certainly
not without a mental reservation; for it occasionally happened to the
Jew that false thalers were found in one of the hundred marks which he
delivered in thalers, or that the wallet together with the coin had
become moist during the journey, which added some half-ounces to their
weight, or that fine white sand became mingled with the granulated
silver, and was weighed with it. For this the mint-master indemnified
himself, by hanging the scales so that one side of the beam was shorter
than the other, by causing the scales to spring up and descend slowly,
notwithstanding the perpendicular position of the balance, in order to
make the wares some half-ounces lighter, or by falsifying the weights
altogether. What the masters did not do, the apprentices of the mint
ventured upon. However cautious the purveyor might be during the
smelting assay, they understood how to mix copper dust with the silver
already weighed, in order to make the assay worse than it really was.
Such was the state of the traffic even at those mints where there was
still some respect for the law.
Besides the licensed coiners, there were others in most of the ten
Circles, of easier conscience and bolder practice; not exactly false
coiners in our sense of the term, although this was carried on with
great recklessness; but nobles and corporations who had the right of
coining, and prized it highly as a source of income; for, contrary to
the Imperial decrees, which imposed upon them the duty of having their
money coined in one of the approved mints of the Circle, they coined
actively in their own territory. Sometimes they let their right of
coining for a year's rent, nay, they even disposed of their mints to
other princes as a speculation. These irregular coining places were
called hedge mints, and in them a systematic corruption of money took
place. No inquiry was made as to the right of the coiners; whoever knew
how to manage fire and metal, engaged in this kind of work. There was
little regard for the prescribed fineness of texture, and weight of the
money; it was coined with false stamps, and the head of the ruler, with
the date of a better period, were stamped on light coin; nay, in regular
false coining, the stamps of foreign mints were often counterfeited. The
brightness of the new coin was removed by tartar or lead water; and all
this took place under the protection of the Sovereign. The disposal of
the money thus coined required all the cunning and circumspection of the
agents, and a line of industry was in this way formed, which we may
presume occupied many intermediate hands. Thundering decrees had been
fulminated for seventy years at the Imperial Diets and Assemblages of
the circles, against the hedge mints, but without success. Indeed, after
the introduction of good Imperial money, they became more numerous and
active, for the work paid better.
Such was the state of things even before the year 1618. The sovereigns,
small and great, required more and more money. Then some of the Princes
of the Empire--the Brunswickers, alas! were among the first--began to
outdo the proceedings of the most notorious of the hedge mints; they
caused the coin of the country, both heavy and light, to be struck of a
bad mixture of silver and copper, instead of silver, and soon it was
only copper silvered. At last, as for example at Leipzig, a small
angular coin was issued by the city, no longer of copper, which was of
higher value, but of pure tin. This discovery of making money at little
cost spread like a pestilence. From both of the Circles of Saxony it
spread to those of the Rhine and Southern Germany. Hundreds of new mints
were established. Wherever a ruined tower appeared firm enough for a
forge and bellows, wherever there was abundance of wood for burning, and
a road to bring good money to the mint and carry away bad, there a band
of coiners nestled. Electors and nobles, ecclesiastical communities and
cities outvied each other in making copper money; even the people were
infected with it. For a century the art of making gold, and treasure
digging had occupied the fancies of the people; now the happy time
appeared to have arrived, when every fish-kettle could be turned into
silver in the coiners' scales. A mania for money-making began. Pure
silver and old silver gilt became continually and strikingly dearer in
mercantile traffic, so that at last it was necessary to pay four, five
or more new gulden for one old silver gulden, and the price of goods and
the necessaries of life slowly rose; but that signified little to the
multitude, so long as the new money, the production of which seemed to
increase without end, was willingly taken. The nation, already excited,
became at last madly intoxicated. Every one thought they had the
opportunity of becoming rich without labour; all applied themselves to
trafficking in money. The merchant had money dealings with the artisan,
the artisan with the peasant. A general craving, chaffering, and
overreaching prevailed. The modern swindling in funds and on 'Change,
gives only a weak notion of the proceedings of that time. Whoever had
debts hastened to pay them; whoever could get money from an
accommodating coiner, in exchange for an old brewing vessel,[34] could
buy therewith house and fields; whoever had to pay wages, salaries, or
fees, found it convenient to do so in plated copper. There was little
work done in the cities, and only for very high pay. Whoever had any old
thalers, gold gulden, or other good Imperial money lying in their chests
as a store in case of need, as was then the case with almost every one,
drew out his treasure and was delighted to exchange it for new money, as
the old thalers, in a most remarkable way, appeared to be worth four,
nay even six and ten times as much as formerly. That was a jolly time.
If wine and beer were dearer than usual, they were not so in the same
proportion as the old silver money. Part of the gains were jovially
spent in the public-house. Every one was disposed to give, in those
times. The Saxon cities readily agreed, at the Diet at Torgau, to a
great addition to the land tax, as money was to be obtained everywhere
in superfluity. People also were very ready to contract debts, for money
was offered everywhere, and business could be done with it on favourable
conditions; great obligations therefore were undertaken on all sides.
Thus a powerful stream carried away the people to destruction.
But a counter stream arose, first gentle, then continually stronger.
Those were first to complain who had to live on a fixed income, the
parish priests most loudly, the schoolmasters and poor misanthropes most
bitterly. Those who had formerly lived respectably on two hundred
gulden, good Imperial coin, now only received two hundred light gulden,
and if, as often undoubtedly happened, the salary of some were raised
about a quarter in amount, they could not even with this addition defray
half, nay even the fourth part, of the necessary expenses. Upon this
unprecedented occasion the ecclesiastics referred to the Bible, and
found there an indisputable objection to all hedge minting, and began to
preach from their pulpits against light money. The schoolmasters starved
in the villages as long as they could, then ran away and increased the
train of vagabonds, beggars, and soldiers; the servants next became
discontented. The wages, which averaged ten gulden a year, hardly
sufficed to pay for their shoes. In every house there were quarrels
between them and their masters and mistresses. Men and maid-servants ran
away, the men enlisted and the maids endeavoured to set up for
themselves. Meanwhile the youths dispersed from the schools and
universities, few parents among the citizens being sufficiently well off
to be able to support their sons entirely during the period of
education. There were however a multitude of scholarships founded by
benevolent people for poor students. The value of these now suddenly
vanished, the credit of the poor scholars in foreign towns was soon
exhausted, many found it impossible to maintain themselves; they sank
under poverty and the temptations of that bloody period. We may still
read in the autobiographies of many respectable theologians, what
distress they then suffered. One supported life in Vienna, by cutting
daily his master's tallies for a four-penny loaf; another was able to
earn eighteen batz[35] in the week, by giving lessons, the whole of
which he was obliged to spend on dry bread.
There was increasing discontent. First among the capitalists who lived
on the interest of the money which they had lent, which was then in
middle Germany five, or occasionally six, per cent. For a time they were
much envied as wealthy people, but now their receipts were often hardly
sufficient to maintain life. They had lent thousands of good Imperial
thalers, and now a creditor would pay them on the nail a thousand
thalers in new money. They demanded back their good old money; they
squabbled and laid their complaints before the courts; but the money
which they had received back bore the image of the Sovereign and the old
mark of value; it was legally stamped money, and the debtor could in
justice allege that he had received similar money, both as interest and
capital and for labour. Thus there arose numberless lawsuits; and the
lawyers were in great perplexity. At last the cities and even the
Sovereigns were embarrassed. They had willingly issued the new money,
and many of them had coined it recklessly. But now for all their taxes
and imposts they obtained only bad money, a hundred pounds of plated
copper instead of a hundred pounds of silver, at the same time
everything had become dear, even to them, and a portion of their
expenses had to be paid in good silver. Then the governments attempted
to assist themselves by new frauds. First they endeavoured to retain the
good money by compulsion; now they suddenly lowered the value of their
own money, and again threatened punishment and compulsion to all who
gave less value for it. But the false money still continued to sink
under the regulated value. Then some governments refused to take for the
payment of taxes and imposts, the money of their own country which they
themselves had coined. They declined taking back what they had stamped
in the last year. Now for the first time the people discovered the whole
danger of their position. A general storm broke loose against the new
money; it sank even in daily traffic to a tenth of its nominal value.
The new hedge mints were cried down as nests of the devil; the
mint-masters and their agents, the money-changers, and whoever else
dealt in money concerns, were the general objects of detestation. Then
it was that they obtained in Germany the popular names of _Kipper_ and
_Wipper_. These are Lower Saxon words: _kippen_ comes equally from the
fraudulent weighing, as from the clipping of the money; and _wippen_
from throwing the heavy money out of the scales.[36] Satirical songs
were sung about them; it was supposed that their names were heard in the
call of the quail, and the mob cried out after them "_kippe di wipp_,"
as they did "_hep_" after the Jews. In many places the people combined
together and stormed their dwellings. For many a year after the terrors
of the long war, it was considered a disgrace to have acquired money in
the _Kipper-time_. Everywhere disorders and tumults arose; the bakers
would no longer bake, and their shops were destroyed; the butchers would
no longer slaughter, on account of the prescribed tax; the miners,
soldiers, and students raged about in a state of wild uproar; the city
communities, deep in debt, became bankrupt, as for example the wealthy
Leipzig. The old joints of the burgher societies cracked and threatened
to burst asunder. The small literature urged on and excited the temper
of the public mind, and was itself still further excited by the
increasing discontent. The street songs began it, and the pictorial
flying-sheets followed. The _Kippers_ were unweariedly portrayed with
the flames of hell round their heads, their feet standing on an insecure
ball, surrounded by numerous gloomy emblems, amongst which the cord and
the lurking raven were not absent; or in their mints collecting and
carrying off money, and in contrast to them the poor, begging; the
different classes were depicted, soldiers, citizens, widows and orphans,
paying to the money-changers their hard earnings; the jaws of hell
appeared open, and the changers were assiduously shoved down by devils;
all this was adorned, according to the taste of the times, with
allegorical figures and Latin devices, made comprehensible to every one
by indignant couplets in German.
As among the people, so also among the educated, a fierce storm began to
rage. The parish priests were loud in their invectives and
denunciations, not only from the pulpit but also in flying-sheets. A
brochure literature began, which swelled up like a sea. One of the first
that was written against the new money was by W. Andreas Lampe, pastor
at Halle. In a powerful treatise, 'On the last brood and fruit of the
devil, Leipzig, 1621,' he proved, by numerous citations from the Old and
New Testament, that all trades and professions in the world, even that
of an executioner, were by divine ordinance; but the _Kipper_ was of the
devil, whereupon he characterizes in some cutting passages the mischief
which they had caused. He had to suffer severe trials, and though he
loyally spared the authorities, yet he was threatened with proceedings,
so that he found it necessary to obtain from the sheriffs' court at
Halle a justification. He was soon followed by many of his clerical
brethren. The controversial writings of these ecclesiastics appear to us
clumsy productions; but it is well to examine them with attention, for
the Protestant priesthood are always representatives of the cultivation
and the rectitude of the people.
The preachers exorcised the evil one, and the theological faculty soon
followed with the heavy artillery of their Latin arguments, and how
bitter was the priestly anger, was shown for example by the consistory
of Wittemberg, when they refused the Lord's Supper and honourable burial
to the Kippers. Lastly we have the lawyers with their questions,
informations, detailed opinions on coining and recapitulations. The
answers which they gave in thick brochures were almost always very
diffuse, and their arguments frequently subtile; still they were
necessary, for the disputes concerning _meum_ and _tuum_ between
creditor and debtor appeared interminable, and numberless lawsuits
threatened to prolong insupportably the sufferings of the people. The
principal subjects of investigation were, whether those who had lent
good money were to be repaid capital and interest in light money; and
again, whether those who had lent light money had a claim for the
repayment of the full capital in good money. It must be remarked here
that, in many cases which the law and the acuteness of lawyers did not
reach, the dispute was ended by that true feeling of equity which was
inherent in the people. For when the governments were generally bad, and
legal justice was very costly and difficult to be obtained, much had to
be accomplished by the practical sense of individuals. A little flying
leaf, in which is related how the sound common sense of the village
magistrate administered justice, was certainly not less useful than a
massive half-Latin, half-German "_Informatio_."
In the flood of paper, which gives us information concerning the
excitement of that period, there are certain sheets which more
especially arrest our attention--the utterances of educated and
experienced men, who know how to tell shortly and effectively in a
popular form, from whence it all arose. Some of these flying-sheets,
written at different periods of the Thirty years' war, have been
preserved to us, in which we may even now behold with admiration, both
energy of character, power of language, and genuine statesmanlike
discernment. In vain do we inquire for the name of the author. We will
only mention here one of these writings. Its title is, 'Expurgatio, or
Vindication of the poor _Kipper_ and _Wipper_, given by Kniphardum
Wipperium, 1622. Fragfurt.'
The author has chosen the valiant Lampe as the object of his attack, as
the cautious zeal of the Saxon ecclesiastic whose distinguished
colleagues were accused of being Wippers--for example, the notorious
court preacher Hoe, the subservient tool of the Elector--had excited the
indignation of a powerful mind. A manly judgment, and a very just
democratic tone appears in the strong expressions of this writing. We
may judge of its peculiar tenour from the following passages:--
"I have never yet seen a single penny, and much less an inferior coin,
on which was to be found the names, arms, or stamp of _Kipper_ and
_Wipper_, still less any inscription from the new quail call,
_kippediwipp_. But one may truly see thereupon a well-known stamp or
image, and the _Kipper_ or _Wipper_ will not appear even in the smallest
letter of the alphabet.
"But if Herr Magister does not rightly understand the matter, let him
ask who has bought the old saucepans at the highest price, in order to
assist the coining; having done so, Herr Magister will truly learn who
has coined the copper and tin money. For truly so many old pans in which
so much good gruel or millet pap has been made, and so many coppers in
which so much good beer has been brewed, are melted down and coined, and
this not by the vulgar _Kipper_, but by the _Arch kipper_. For the
others have no regale to coin, and if they, like the blood and deer
hounds, have scented and hunted out such things, they have done so by
the command of others, and thus are not to be so severely condemned as
those (let them call themselves what they may) who have the regalie, and
misuse it to the perceptible damage of the German States.
"No one now-a-days will bell the cat, or, like John the Baptist, tell
the truth to Herod. Every one heaps abuse upon the poor rogues, the
_Kippers_ and _Wippers_, who nevertheless do not carry on this business
by their own authority, for all that they do takes place with the
knowledge, consent, and approbation of the government. And alas, they
have now-a-days many competitors. For as soon as any one gets a penny or
a groschen that is a little better than another, he forthwith makes with
it usurious profit. Therefore, as experience teaches, it comes to pass
as follows: the doctors abandon their invalids and think far more of
usury than of Hippocrates and Galen; the lawyers forget their legal
documents, lay aside their practice, and taking usury in hand, let who
will peruse Bartholus and Balbus. The same is also done by other men of
learning, who study arithmetic more than rhetoric and philosophy; the
merchants, shop-keepers, and other traders acquire now-a-days their
greatest gains by their hardwares which are marked by the mint stamp.
"From this we may perceive that the 'unhanged, thievish,
oath-forgetting, dishonourable,' _Kippers_ and _Wippers_, though not
indeed to be quite exculpated, are not so much to be condemned as if
they were the _causa principalis_ of the ruin of the German States. I
have, alas! assuredly great fears, that if once there is a delivery to
the devil or hangman, the _Kippers_ and _Wippers_, changers and usurers,
Jews and Jew associates, helpers and helpers' helpers, one thief with
another, will all be hurled off to the devil, or be hung up at the same
time together, like yonder host with his companions. Yet with a
difference. For their principals and patrons will justly have the
prerogative and pre-eminence, and indeed some of them have been already
sent there beforehand. The others will shortly follow to the
above-mentioned place, and it will then avail nothing on this journey
downward, whether one treats them with _carmina_ or _crimina_, whether
one passes judgment on them as criminals, or gives them laudatory
poems--_facilis descensus Averni_--they will easily find the way, for
they need no good fortune for that; the devil will couple them all with
one cord, be the rogues ever so big. _Fiat_."
It is not improbable that a similar view of their social prospects in
another world was impressed upon the rulers from many quarters. At all
events, even they discovered that they could only be saved by the most
speedy help; nothing would avail them but the reduction and hasty
withdrawal of the new coinage, and a return to the good old Imperial
coin. Thus the first fears of the princes and cities caused them to
depreciate their new money, and to make use of these verdicts in order
to express their abhorrence--not of very old date--of the bad coin, and
they forthwith had the coin stamped honourably of due weight and alloy,
as prescribed by the Imperial law. In order to put a stop to the
excessive increase of prices, they hastened to put forth a tariff of
goods and wages, which decided the highest price to be permitted. It is
clear that this latter remedy could not be of more lasting use than the
famous edict of Diocletian, thirteen hundred years before. The
compulsion which, for example, it exercised over the city weekly
markets, day labourers, and guilds, was only a temporary help for
restoring the overflowing stream to its old bed.
This state of intoxication, terror, and fury was followed by a dreary
reaction. Men gazed on one another as after a great pestilence. Those
who had rested secure in their opulence had sunk into ruin. Many
worthless adventurers now strutted, as persons of distinction, in velvet
and silk. The whole nation had become poorer. There had not been any
great war for a long time, and many millions in silver and gold, the
savings of the inferior classes, had been inherited in city and village
from father to son; the greater part of these savings had vanished in
the bad times; it had been squandered on carousals, frittered away on
trifles, and at last expended for daily food. But this was not the
greatest evil; it was a still greater, that at this time the citizen,
and countryman had been forcibly torn from the path of their honest
daily labour. Frivolity, an unsettled existence, and a reckless egotism,
had taken possession of them. The destroying powers of war had sent
forth their evil spirits to loosen the firm links of burgher society,
and to accustom a peaceful, upright, and laborious people to the
sufferings and mal-practices of an army which shortly overran all
Germany.
The period from 1621 to 1623 was henceforth called the "_Kipper and
Wipper_" time. The confusion, the excitement, the trafficking, and the
flying-sheet literature lasted till the year 1625. The lessons which the
princes had learnt from the consequences of their flagitious actions did
not avail them against later temptations. Even at the end of the
seventeenth century it seems to have been impossible for them entirely
to avoid hedge mints, and the continual recurrence of a depreciation of
money.
Whilst Tilly was conquering Lower Saxony, and Wallenstein made great
havoc in Northern Germany, small literature flowed in an under-current.
After every engagement, and every capture of a city, there appeared
copper engravings, with a text which described the position of the
troops and the appearance of the city; irregular newspapers, and songs
of lament conveyed the information of the advance of the Imperialists,
and the destruction of the Mansfelders. In the midst of all this the
people were dismayed by terrible decrees of the Emperor, who now from
his secure position threw over the evangelicals, or compelled them by
force to return to his Church, in spite of the fruitless intercessions
of the Elector of Saxony. The Elector at last authorized the publication
of a defence of the Augsburg confession, against the attacks of the
Catholic theologians; this comprehensive work, called, 'The necessary
Defence of the Apple of the Eye,' written in 1628, called forth
immediately a theological war; both opponents and allies hastened in
crowds to the field. 'Spectacles for the Evangelical Apple of the Eye;'
'A sharp round Eye on the Romish Pope;' 'Who has struck the Calf in the
Eye? The Catholic Oculist or Coucher;' 'Venetian Spectacles on Lutheran
Nose,' &c. These are specimens of the defiant titles of the most
readable of the controversial writings. But this literary strife was
drowned in the burst of loud outcries against Wallenstein, which pierced
from Pomerania through all the German States, on account of the battle
near Stralsund, and his shameful conduct towards the Pomeranian Duke and
his country, and finally the horrible ill treatment of the men and women
of Pasewalk. Again these lamentations changed into a shout of joy from
all the Protestants. Again hope and confidence revived; this time it was
a man, whom the nation, with the genuine German longing to love and
honour, welcomed with shouts of jubilee. What had been wanting to the
Germans for a century, came to them from the North, an idol and a hero.
But he was a foreigner.
Much of that halo of light still surrounds the figure of Gustavus
Adolphus, which distinguished him in the eyes of his cotemporaries so
immeasurably above all other generals and princes. It is not his
victories, nor his knightly death, nor the circumstance that he appeared
as the last help to a despairing people, which makes him the one
prominent figure in the long struggle. It was the magic of his great
nature, as he rode over the field of battle, firm, self-contained, and
as confident as unerring; from head to foot he was dignity, decision,
and nervous energy. If one examines more nearly, one is astonished at
the strong contrasts which combined in this character to form an
admirable unity. No General was more systematic, fertile in plans, or
greater in the science of war. Discipline in the army, order in the
commissariat, a firm basis, and secure lines of retreat in every
strategical operation, these were the requisites he brought with him to
the conduct of the German War. But even he, the powerful prince of war,
was driven by an irresistible necessity from his good system, but with
the whole power of his being he incessantly stemmed the tide of the wild
marauding war that raged around him. And yet this same systematic man
bore within him a rash spirit of daring against the greatest hazards;
his bearing in the battle was wonderfully elevated, like that of a noble
battle steed. His eyes lighted up, his figure became more lofty, and a
smile played on his countenance. Again, how wonderful appears to men,
the union in him of frank honesty and wary policy, of upright piety and
worldly wisdom, of high-minded self-sacrifice and reckless ambition, of
heartfelt humanity and stern severity! And all this was enlivened by an
inward confidence and freedom of mind, which enabled him to look in a
humorous point of view on the distracted condition of the decaying
Princes of the country. The irresistible power which he exercised over
all who came under his influence, consisted principally in the
freshness of his nature, his surpassing good humour, and where it was
necessary, an ironical bonhomie. The way in which he managed the proud
and wavering Princes, and the hesitating cities of the Protestant party,
was not to be surpassed; he was never weary of exciting them to war, and
alliance; he ever reverted to the same theme, whether to the Envoy of
the Brandenburger, or when flattering the Nurembergers, or chiding the
Frankforters.
He was closely allied, both by race and faith, to the Northern Germans;
but he was a foreigner. This was thoroughly and constantly felt by the
Princes. It was not alone distrust of his superior power which, till the
bitterest necessity compelled them to union, kept aloof from him the
irresolute, but it was the discovery in him of a new master; they
revolted at the idea of this mighty non-German power, which so suddenly
and threateningly arose in the empire. There was still to be found in a
few of them somewhat of Luther's national idea of the empire. They had
no hesitation in negotiating with France, Denmark, the Netherlands, nay
with the unreliable Bethlem Gabor; all these were outside the Empire.
Within its boundaries there was the fanatical Emperor and his
insupportable General; they were new people to them, who might pass away
as rapidly as they had become great; but the sovereignty of the German
Empire was old, and they were the pillars of it. This conception was no
longer in accordance with the highest policy, for the German Emperor had
become the most mortal enemy of the German Empire. But such a feeling is
not deserving of contempt; and the nation as well as most of the
Princes, felt to the heart's core that their quarrel with the Emperor
was in fact a domestic one, in which foreigners should have no concern.
But the people, blinded by their delight in the dazzling heroism of the
Protestant King, lost sight of these considerations. For two years
public opinion paid homage to him, as it has never done since, except to
the Great Frederic of Prussia. Every word, every little anecdote was
carried from city to city, and loud acclamations greeted every success
of his arms. It was not only the zealous Protestants who thus felt; even
in the Catholic armies and in the states of the League, the scorn was
quickly silenced which had been called forth by the landing of the "Snow
King," and the number of his admirers continually increased. Many
characteristic traits of him are preserved to us; almost every
conversation that he had with Germans, gives an opportunity of
discovering something of his nature. We will give here a short
conversation, after his landing in Pomerania, recorded by a clever
negotiator.
The Elector of Brandenburg had sent his plenipotentiary, Von
Wilmersdorff, to persuade the King to conclude an armistice with the
Emperor; he further wished to negotiate a peace between them, although
Wallenstein had already deprived him of his dominions, and the Emperor
had shown him every kind of disregard. The conversation of the King with
the Envoy gives a good picture of his method of negotiating. He is here
concise, firm, and straightforward, in spite of some mental reservation;
and so perfectly self-possessed that he can allow his lively temperament
to break forth without danger. The Envoy relates as follows:--
"After his Kingly Majesty had listened graciously to me, though when I
came to the proposition of an armistice he rather smiled, he, no one
being present, answered me circumstantially.
"'I had expected a different kind of embassy from my loving cousin; that
is to say, that he would rather have come to meet me and united himself
with me for his own welfare; and not that my loving cousin should be so
weak as to lose this opportunity so providentially sent by God. My
loving cousin will not comprehend the clear and evident intentions of
his enemies; he does not discern the difference between pretexts and
truth, nor consider that when this pretence shall cease, that is to say,
when they have no longer anything more to fear from me, another will
soon be found to establish himself in my loving cousin's country.
"'I had not expected that my loving cousin would have been so much
terrified at the war as to remain inactive notwithstanding all the
consequences to himself. Or does not my cousin yet know, that the
intention of the Emperor and his allies is not to desist till the
evangelical religion is entirely rooted out of the empire? my loving
cousin must be prepared either to deny his religion or abandon his
country. Does he think that anything else can be obtained by prayers,
entreaties, or the like means? For God's sake let him reflect a little,
and for once take _mascula consilia_. You see how this excellent prince
the Duke of Pomerania was in the most innocent way,--having really
committed no offence but only peaceably drunk his beer,--brought into
the most lamentable condition, and how wonderfully he was saved under
God's providence, _fato quodam necessario_--for he was constrained to do
so--by making terms with me. What he did from necessity my loving cousin
may do willingly.
"'I cannot withdraw, _jacta est alea, transivimus Rubiconem_. I do not
seek my own advantage in this business; I gain nought but the security
of my kingdom; beyond this I have nothing but expenses, trouble, labour,
and danger to body and soul. They have occasioned me enough; in the
first place they have twice sent help to my enemies the Poles, and
endeavoured to drive me away; then they have endeavoured to possess
themselves of the harbours of the Baltic, whereby I could well perceive
what their intentions towards me were. My loving cousin the Elector is
in a similar case, and it is now time that he should open his eyes and
give up somewhat of his easy life, that he may no longer be a
Stadtholder of the Emperor, nay even an Imperial servant in his own
country: "Qui se fait brebis le loup le mange."
"'This is now precisely the best opportunity, when your country is free
from Imperial soldiers, to garrison and defend your fortresses. If you
will not do this, deliver over one to me, if it be only Küstrin, I will
defend it, and you may then remain in the inactivity which your Prince
so dearly loves.
"'What other will you do? For I declare to you distinctly, I will not
hear of neutrality, my loving cousin must be either friend or foe. When
I come to your frontier you must show yourselves either cold or warm.
This is a struggle between God and the devil; if my loving cousin will
hold to God, let him unite with me; but if he would rather hold to the
devil, he must henceforth fight against me, _tertium non dabitur_, of
that he may be assured.
"'Take this commission upon you to inform my loving cousin secretly of
it, for I have none with me whom I can spare to send to him. If my
loving cousin will treat with me, I will see if I can go to him myself;
but with his present arrangements I will have nothing to do.
"'My loving cousin trusts neither in God nor to his good friends. It has
gone ill with him therefore in Prussia and this country. I am the
devoted servant of my loving cousin, and love him from my heart: my
sword shall be at his service, and it shall preserve him in his
sovereignty and to his people, but he must do his part also.
"'My loving cousin has great interest in this dukedom of Pomerania; this
will I also defend for his advantage, but on the same condition as in
the book of Ruth the next inheritor is commanded to take Ruth for his
wife, so must my loving cousin take to him this Ruth; that is, unite
himself with me in this righteous business if he wishes to inherit the
country. If not, I here declare that he shall never obtain it.
"'I am not disinclined to peace, and have conformed myself to it
contentedly. I know well that the chances of war are doubtful; I have
experienced that, in the many years in which I have carried on war with
various fortune. But as I have now, by God's grace, come so far, no one
can counsel me to withdraw, not even the Emperor himself if he were to
make use of his reason.
"'I might perhaps allow of an armistice for a month. It may appear
fitting to me that my loving cousin should mediate. But he must place
himself in a position, arms in hand, otherwise all his mediation will
avail nothing. Some of the Hanse towns are ready to unite with me. I
only wait for some one in the Empire to put himself prominently at the
head. What might not the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg together
with these cities, accomplish? Would to God that there were a Maurice!'
"Thereupon I replied that I had no commands from his Electoral Highness
to confer with his Majesty, touching an armed alliance. But in my poor
opinion, I doubted much whether his Electoral Highness would be able to
come to an understanding without detriment to his honour and truth,
_salvo honore et fide sua_.
"Then his Majesty interposed promptly: 'Yes, they will honour you when
they have deprived you of your land and people. The Imperialists will
keep faith with you as they have kept the capitulation.'
"I: 'It is necessary to look to the future, and consider how all will
fall to ruin if the undertaking does not prosper.'
"The King: 'That will happen if you remain inactive, and would have done
so already if I had not come. My loving cousin ought to do as I have
done, and commend the result to God. I have not lain on a bed for
fourteen days. I might have spared myself this trouble and sat at home
with my wife if I had had no greater considerations.'
"I: 'As your Kingly Majesty is content that his Electoral Highness
should become mediator, you must at least allow his Electoral Highness
to remain neutral.'
"The King: 'Yes, till I come to his country. Such an idea is mere chaff,
which the wind raises and blows away. _What kind of a thing is that
Neutrality? I do not understand it!_'
"I: 'Yet your Kingly Majesty understood it well in Prussia, where you
yourself suggested it to his Electoral Highness and to the city of
Dantzic.'
"The King: 'Not to the Elector, but certainly to the city of Dantzic,
for it was to my advantage.'
"After this he returned again to the subject of the Duke of Pomerania,
saying that the good prince had been well content with him. He would
have restored him Stralsund, Rügen, Usedom, Wollin, and all the rest.
The Duke had desired that his Majesty should be his father. 'But I,'
said his Majesty, 'answered, I would rather be his son, as he has no
children.'
"Thereupon I answered: 'Yes, Kingly Majesty, that might very well be, if
his Electoral Highness could only maintain the law of primogeniture in
Pomerania.'
"The King: 'Yes, that may be very easily maintained by my loving cousin;
but he must defend it, and not, like Esau, sell it for a mess of
pottage.'"
Thus far goes the narrative.
When the great King, the lord of half Germany, sank into the dust in
battle, the wail of lamentation broke forth in all the Protestant
territories. Funeral services were performed in the towns and country,
endless elegies poured forth; even the enemy concealed their joy under a
manly sympathy, which at that time was seldom accorded to opponents.
His death was considered as a national misfortune; the deliverer and the
saviour of the people was lost: we also, whether Catholic or Protestant,
should not only regard with heartfelt sympathy that pure hero life,
which in the prime of its strength was so suddenly extinguished, but we
should also contemplate with the deepest gratitude the influence of the
King upon the German war; for he had, in a time of desperation, defended
that which Luther had attained for the whole nation,--freedom of soul,
and capacity for the development of national strength against the most
fearful enemy of the German national existence, against a crushing
despotism in Church and State. But we must also observe concerning him,
that the fate which he met strikes us as more peculiarly tragical
because he drew it upon himself. History makes us acquainted with some
characters which, after mighty deeds, are suddenly struck down at the
height of their fame by a rapid change of fate in the midst of powerful
but unaccomplished conception. Such heroes have a popular mixture of
qualities of soul, which make them the privileged favourites both of
posterity and art. Such was the case with the almost fabulous hero, the
great Alexander; and thus it was, in a more limited sphere, with smaller
means, with the Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus: but however accidental
the fever or the bullet which carried them off may appear to us, their
destruction arose from their own greatness. The conqueror of Asia had
become an Asiatic despot before he died; the deliverer of Germany was
shot by an Imperial mercenary when he was rushing through the dust of
the battle-field, not like a General of the seventeenth century, but
like a "Viking" of the olden time, who fought their battles in wild
excitement under the protection of the battle-maidens of Odin. Often
already had the incautious heroism of the King led him into rash daring
and useless danger, and long had his faithful adherents feared that he
would at some time meet his end thus. It was a wise policy which led him
to establish himself on the German coast, in order to secure to his
Sweden the dominion of the Baltic, also to draw the seaports to his
interests, and to desire firm points of support on the Oder, Elbe, and
Weser. But what duty did he owe to the German Empire, whose own Emperor
wished to suppress the national life and popular development by Roman
money, and calling thither hordes of soldiers from half Europe? When
Gustavus Adolphus conceived the idea of making himself lord paramount
over the German Princes, when he proceeded to form an hereditary power
for himself in Germany, he was no longer the great cotemporary of
Richelieu, but again the descendant of an old Norman chieftain. It is
possible that the power of the man, during a longer life and after many
victories, might have brought under his sway, with or without an
Imperial throne, the greater part of Germany; but that Sweden, the
foundation of his power, was not in a position to exercise a lasting
supremacy over Germany, a small distant country over a larger, must have
been obvious even then to the weakest politician. The King might still
for some years longer have sacrificed the peasant sons of Sweden on the
German battle-fields, and corrupted the Swedish nobility by German
plunder; but he could not build up an enduring dynasty for both people,
whatever his genius might have accomplished for a time. Men of ordinary
powers would soon have restored things to their natural condition. We
are therefore of opinion, that he died just when his lofty desires were
beginning to contend against a fundamental law of the new state life,
and we may assume that even a longer life of success would not have made
much alteration in our position. When he died, his natural heir in
Germany was already twelve years of age: this heir was Frederic William,
the great Elector of Brandenburg. Gustavus Adolphus was the last but one
of the northern princes to whom the old Scandinavian expedition to the
south proved fatal. Charles XII., dying before Friedrichshall, was the
last.
As the funeral lament died away in Germany, there began a reaction in
public opinion against the foreigners. The Catholic faction had, during
the whole war, the doubtful advantage that their quarrels and private
dissensions were not brought to light by the press, but their Protestant
opponents were broken into parties. It was more especially after Saxony,
in 1635, had endeavoured, at Prague, to make an inglorious
reconciliation with the Emperor by a separate peace, that there arose
both in the north and south an Imperial and a Swedish party, and much
weak dissension besides. The French endeavoured, but without success, to
gain by means of the press, adherents on the Rhine. Bernhard von Weimar
found warm admirers, who foresaw in him the successor of Gustavus
Adolphus. He possessed great talents as a General, and some of the
winning qualities of the great King; but he was only in one respect his
successor, that he carried on in the most dangerous way the too great
political daring of his instructor. He wished to make use of, and at the
same time deceive, a foreign power which was greater and stronger than
himself: it was an unequal struggle, and he, as the weaker party, was
soon put aside by France, and these foreigners possessed themselves of
his political legacy, his fortress and his army.
While love and hate were thus divided in this gloomy period, there arose
among the better portion of the nation a characteristic patriotism,
which the German people, in the midst of their great need and
sufferings, opposed to the egotistic interests of the rulers who helped
to destroy each other. There no longer existed any party to which a wise
man could from his heart wish success. Differences of faith had
diminished, and the soldiers complained, without scruple, of confession.
Then began for the first time a new political system, called a
constitution founded on reason, in opposition to the reckless
selfishness of the rulers. But even this constitutional principle, the
basis of which was the advantage of the whole, as it was then
understood, was still without greatness of conception or any deep moral
purport; and there was no repugnance to the employment of the worst
means in carrying it out. Still it was an advance. Even the peaceful
citizen, after eighteen years of troubles, was obliged to take an
interest in this political system. The character of the ruling powers
and their interests became everywhere a subject of deliberation. Every
one was terrified out of his provincial narrowness of mind, and had
urgent reasons for interesting themselves in the fate of foreign
countries. Thousands of fugitives, the most powerful members of the
community, had scattered themselves over distant provinces, the same
misfortunes had befallen them also. Thus, amidst the horrors of war, was
developed in Germany a feeling of distrust of their rulers, a longing
for a better national condition. It was a great but dearly bought
advance of public opinion; it may be discerned more particularly in the
political literature after the peace of Prague. A specimen of this
tendency is here introduced from a small flying-sheet, which appeared in
1636 under the title of 'The German Brutus: that is, a letter thrown
before the public.'
"You Swedes complain that Germany is ungrateful, that it drives you away
with violence, that the good deeds, done with God's power by Joshua, are
forgotten, the alliance no longer thought of, in short, that you are
less valued, like an old worn-out horse, or decrepit hound, both of
which, when no longer useful, get such thanks as the world gives. Thus
you are treated with great injustice before God and the world.
"Be of good comfort: there are many remaining who wish you well from
their heart, who pray for you, and show their devotion to you in every
possible way. A country where such people are to be found cannot be
accused of ingratitude; and that there are yet many thousand such
people, even your enemies know right well. But that selfishness, secret
envy, hidden counsels, and clandestine negotiations are stirred up
against you, must not be ascribed to the whole of this praiseworthy
German nation, but only to the causes which have led to such results;
for you have on your part shown a double amount of selfishness.
"In the first place, in raising at your pleasure the toll on the Baltic;
for I have been told by honest trustworthy seafaring folk, that you have
exacted from people, not only from fifteen to thirty, but up to forty,
nay, even to fifty out of a hundred, and have troubled all hearts by
this rapacity; and as no improvement has taken place, but commerce has
been thereby miserably straitened, and many honest people have been
lamentably brought to beggary, the minds of men being thereby much
embittered, your best friends began at first to condemn you secretly,
and at last through their falling fortunes were made your worst enemies.
Would you throw the blame on the toll gatherers? They are your servants.
It is a well-known rule of law: what I do by my servant is as though
done by myself. You appear to me exactly like him who carried off a pair
of shoes secretly and offered them afterwards to the holy Benno.
"The states and cities of the Empire, so long as they were in your
hands, contributed fully and sufficiently to your maintenance; many, nay
too many, to say the least of it, as a proof of their fidelity, have
lost soul and body, wealth and life, nay all their privileges, and, in a
great measure, religion itself. Ratisbon testifies to this. Augsburg
laments over it. All grieve together over it. You have allowed the old
regiments to dissolve, have completed no companies, nor paid either new
or old, notwithstanding you have demanded, and in fact received large
sums of money from many Diets; I say nothing of what you have extorted
from your enemies in their own countries. How has this money been spent?
In superfluous pomp and luxury which is hateful to every one. We have
observed this silently, and made a virtue of necessity. The children of
Israel, when they had intercourse with the daughters of their enemies,
and afterwards boasted of their victory, and tormented their brethren of
Judah with the hardest yoke of bondage, were both times severely
punished by God. And shall it fare better with you who have exercised
more than Turkish cruelty in many evangelical places? The corn from the
monastery of Magdeburg, the Dukedom of Brunswick and other places, has
been thrashed out and carried off in heaps from the country, sold at a
very high price, and the money spent for your own use, nothing given to
the poor soldiers; the country people, harassed to death, are dying of
hunger; and many fortresses, from avarice, either not supplied with
provisions, or not amply provided with powder and shot, and, in short,
general mismanagement. Now we see ourselves everywhere abandoned by
fortune, so that at last we discover there is no money in hand, and no
people to be got, as those who were available have run away, and the
remainder will no longer be restrained by martial law. Dear friends,
think you of the saying of Boccalini: 'When the prince leads the life of
Lucifer, what wonder that the subjects become devils!'
"Our politicians know well that the Electors hold kingly rank in the
Empire. But who has exalted himself above them with kingly magnificence,
a great retinue and boundless expense, is it not your chief
(Oxenstiern)? Do you think that this has not been complained of at every
court? His Kingly Majesty of Christian memory never did the like. From
these and countless other reasons the Princes, states, and cities have
become first secretly, and then publicly offended with you; to this may
be added a conduct towards the established inhabitants which they cannot
well bear, when foreigners place themselves higher than their native
princes.
"You say that electoral Saxony should have made peace by force of arms.
Let us leave that uncertain. It is known to every one that certain
persons have helped to shove the cart into the mud, and afterwards left
it there. If electoral Saxony has been wrong, you with your procedures
are not less guilty. In short, every one, be he who he may, has sought
his own advantage; therefore Magdeburg lies in ashes, Wismar is in
ruins, Augsburg is bound with the fetters of servitude, Nuremberg is in
peril of death, Ulm is in quotidian fever, Strasburg has passed to the
French, Frankfort has the jaundice, and the whole Empire is consumed.
The enemy have beaten with rods, but you have chastised with scorpions.
The Wallensteiners inflicted wounds, and you physicians have applied
drawing plasters as a remedy instead of oil, have corrupted the blood
and fastened yourselves on like a crab; such a crab must either be cut
out by force, or satisfied daily by inordinate sums of money. The last
is out of our power, the first we do not wish to do to you, but cannot
help it. If God thus harasses you it is your own fault. Meanwhile, do
you think that God has a flaxen beard, and will allow himself to be led
by the nose? Oh, no, He sees well that you shelter yourselves under the
name of freedom, that you make use of the cloak of the gospel, and at
the same time live as Turks.
"You cry out much about the Spanish monarchy. I have no fears of it.
Give me one of the best chemists who is sufficiently scientific to know
how to mingle earth and ores, so that they will hold together firm and
infrangible, and then let us see whether we have to fear the Spanish
monarchy. But I am afraid that France will be to us Germans, the broken
reed of Egypt, which will pierce the hand of whoever leans on it. All
empires have their fixed time appointed by God, and a boundary across
which they cannot pass. First they arise, then grow like boys; some
improve as youths, remain for a time at a standstill in their manhood,
then decline, become old, languish and at last die; nay, are so utterly
annihilated, that one scarcely knows that they have existed. This course
of things cannot be prevented by any human wisdom. The wise man sees
this, and prepares himself beforehand; the fool does not believe it, and
is ruined, like the surviving Generals of Alexander the Great, who so
long divided his conquests, till the Romans became their masters. And
truly the Empire has great need to rid herself at last of foreign
physicians.
"I have been severe, but a steel axe is necessary to sever such a hard
knot, one cannot cut with a fur coat.
"It is asked what will be the issue? It rests with God. Have you had too
little bloodshed? Let God be the judge, and fly ye from his wrath.
Although the Church still suffers, it is not yet dead. You cannot
complain that you have gained nothing for the money you have spent and
the dangers you have undergone. You have brought copper out of your
country, but carried silver and gold back to it. Sweden, before this
war, was of wood thatched with straw, now it is of stone, and splendidly
adorned, and that you have obtained from the abducted vessels of Egypt.
This no one would grudge you if you would only thank God yourselves for
it. The Germans have indeed been excited to rise against their Emperor,
but they will take no one who is not of their race and language. If the
house of Austria has done evil, God will truly search it out. As
concerns the French, I know well that God will, through them, punish
Germany; for we have daily imitated in manners, ceremonies, demeanour,
and entertainments, in language and clothing, together with music, this
nation of apish behaviour and dress, and frivolous manners. How can we
expect better than to fall into their hands? But the Frenchman will not
therefore become our Emperor. To him belongs the Lily, the Eagle to the
Germans, the East to the Turks, and the West to the Spaniards. None
among them can reach higher.
"I must hope that it will not be taken amiss of me, that I have so
roundly described these transactions. But frankness suits a German well.
Would to God that any one had in good time thus placed the matter before
you. Now we can indeed complain, but help, none either will or can give.
God alone will and can help us; to Him we must pray that He may at last
have compassion on us, and turn the hearts of the high potentates to
love and long-wished-for peace."
Here ends the flying-sheet. The author, without putting sympathy with
the Imperialists in the foreground, evidently belongs less to the
Swedish party than we do now. Undoubtedly the Swedish soldiers and
officers had become merciless devils, like the Imperialists, and, like
them, they ruined the country and people. But it was not their
exorbitant demands which hindered the peace, but the injustice of the
Emperor, who still continued to raise the execrable pretension to subdue
the life and freedom of the nation to his interest. Had it been possible
for the Hapsburgers to assure freedom of faith, and the independence of
the Imperial tribunals, almost all the German princes would have
succumbed to him to drive away the foreigners. But the struggle stood
thus: either the nation must be crushed, and all the ideas suppressed,
which had grown up in the German soil for one hundred and forty years,
or the pretensions of the Imperial House must be certainly and
fundamentally overcome: The last was impossible to the Germans without
the help of Sweden. Thus on a retrospect of those years, every one will
be well disposed to Sweden, who does not consider it a mere accident
that well-known men of later times, like Lessing, Goethe, Schiller,
Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Humboldt did not blossom out of the country in
which hundreds of thousands were driven from Church and school, by the
Jesuits of Ferdinand II. But at that period the patriot undoubtedly felt
the weakness of the Empire more than all the fearful misery of the
people. And great ground there was for anxiety about the future. From
this point of view this brochure is to us the first expression of that
feeling which still, in the present day, unites hundreds of thousands of
Germans. That love of Fatherland took root in the oppressed souls of our
ancestors during the Thirty years' war, which has not yet attained to
political life by a unity of constitutions. Such a feeling indeed only
existed then in the minds of the noblest. But we must honour those who,
in a century poor in hope, left in their teaching and writings, as an
inheritance to their descendants, the idea of a German Empire.
After Banner's devastating expedition all was quiet in Germany. Almost
all the news and State records which the war had left, flowed from the
press. In the last years thousands of printed sheets were filled with
the negotiations for peace. Finally the peace was announced to the poor
people in large placards.