A BURGHER FAMILY.
(1488-1542.)
Our narrative descends from the highest sphere of German life to the
lower circles, in the individual families of which the characteristic
life of the time may be traced. A series of examples shall lead us from
the hardships of the peasant to the life of the privileged classes.
From all times the peasantry have been the great source, from which
fresh family vigour has ascended into the guilds of the cities and the
closets of the learned. Therefore the basis of the prosperity of a
people lies in the simple occupations of the peasant, in that human
labour in which mind and body, work and rest, joy and sorrow, are
regulated by Nature herself; whenever such labour is repressed,
limited, and fettered, the whole nation becomes diseased. The
destruction of the free peasant has more than once undermined the
political existence of states, as for example in Poland; and indeed it
caused the deadly weakness of the great Roman empire and the decay of
the ancient world. The more abundantly and freely fresh vigour ascends
from the lower strata into the higher circles, the more powerful and
energetic will be the political life of the nation. And again, the less
declining families are prevented, by artificial supports, from falling
into the great mass of the people, the more rapid and vigorous will be
the ascent of those who are struggling upwards.
It was by favouring in a remarkable degree the rise of families out of
this great source of national vigour, that the Reformation revived the
youth of the nation. The abolition of enforced celibacy was one of the
greatest steps towards social progress; it secures still the ascendency
of the Protestant over the Roman Catholic districts. Up to the time of
Luther, the greatest portion of the German popular strength which arose
from the cottage of the labourer, was destined to wither beneath the
consecrating oil. It is true the marriage of priests had never entirely
ceased during the middle ages. There was even a cardinal who was
regularly married; his wife established herself with him, in spite of
the Pope and College of Cardinals, and was able, when weeping by the
side of the corpse, to relate to the sympathizing Romans the astounding
fact that her husband had been always true to her. And in Germany, the
housekeepers of the priests, the _Papemeiers_ of Reineke Fuchs, formed
a numerous and not unpretending class. But the country priests were
obliged to buy tolerance for such unions from the bishop and _curie_.
But however the higher ecclesiastical authorities may have favoured
such a system, it was considered as immoral by conscientious pastors,
and some even had scruples as to the propriety of their celebrating the
mass. But the people looked with hatred and scorn on these profligate
unions, and one of the greatest evils was, that the children remained
as long as they lived under the curse of their birth; hardly any branch
of trade was open to them; even the guilds of artisans would not
receive them. They became either working men or vagrants. Yet such
lasting unions of the Roman Catholic priests were generally, in the
time of Luther, a benefit to their parishes, for we see in hundreds of
pamphlets how recklessly the roving sensuality of the priests destroyed
the family life of their parishes. With the Protestants, on the
contrary, the ecclesiastical order became the medium by which the
countryman rose to a higher sphere of activity. By his village life and
little farm, the pastor became closely united with the peasantry, and
was at the same time the preserver of the highest education of those
centuries. So important has been the influence of the Protestant clergy
on the intellectual development of Germany, that the ancestors, even to
the third and fourth generation, of most of the great poets, artists,
and learned men, and the intellectual members of the German
bureaucracy, lived in a Protestant parsonage.
What follows will portray the life of a family which at the end of the
fifteenth century migrated from the village to the city, and in the
third generation became the ruling family in a great commercial town.
It may be seen from this narrative, that though family life was not
then deficient in hearty and naive cheerfulness, yet the conception of
life and duty was rough, and the amount of benevolence small, though
family feeling was strong.
United with violence and robbery, we find the commencement of a very
modern system of police; the first prosecutions on account of offences
of the press.
We are to a certain extent aware that three hundred years ago, the life
of individuals was of less value than now; but we shall yet learn with
astonishment from the old narrative, how frequently deeds of violence
and blood disturbed the peace of households. We find that in a quiet
burgher family the grandfather was the victim of premeditated murder;
the father killed another in self-defence, and the son was attacked on
the public road by highwaymen, one of whom he killed, but was mortally
wounded by the other. Lastly, it will interest many to observe how the
great theologian who then divided Christendom into two camps, exercised
an influence as family counsellor even on the shores of the Baltic, and
how by his word he brought the souls of strangers to obedience and
reverence.
The following communications are again taken from the comprehensive
autobiography of Bartholomaeus Sastrow, Burgomaster of Stralsund. His
own life was unusually varied and rich in experiences. He was sent,
when a young man, with his elder brother to the Imperial Court of
Justice at Spire, to manage his father's lawsuit and to seek a
livelihood for himself. He was first in the service of lawyers, then of
one of the commanders of the Order of St. John, and afterwards found
his way to Italy, in order to wrest from the hands of the Romish
ecclesiastics the heritage of his elder brother, who had been crowned
with laurels and ennobled by the Emperor as an improvisatore in Latin
poetry, and who afterwards, on account of an unfortunate love affair,
had gone with a broken heart to Italy and died in the service of a
cardinal.
The younger brother returned home from Italy in the midst of the
confusion of the Smalkaldic war, entered into the service of the
Pomeranian dukes, who sent him as political agent to the Imperial camp,
and solicitor to the supreme court of judicature of the Diet of
Augsburg. He then settled himself in Greifswald, and gained, as an
expert notary, practice and wealth in Pomerania, removed to Stralsund,
became Burgomaster there, and died at an advanced age in great repute
as a skilful, cunning, hot-headed, and probably often hard and partial
man. Thus he begins his narrative:--
"About the year 1488, my father, the son of Hans Sastrow, was born at
Ranzin at the sign of the Kruge, which lies near the churchyard towards
Anklam, and belongs to the _Junker_ Osten zu Quilow. Now this Hans
Sastrow by far surpassed the _Junker_ Horne, who also dwelt at Ranzin,
in wealth, comeliness, strength, and understanding, so that even before
his marriage he could compete with them in the extent of their land.
Whereat the Hornes were sore vexed, and endeavoured to the utmost to
work him shame, injury, and damage, and even to endanger his health and
life. When he found that the enmity of the Hornes daily increased, he
resolved to take himself and his family out of danger; and about the
year 1487, he, settling his affairs in a friendly manner with his
Junker, the old Hans Osten zu Quilow obtained the right of citizen at
Greifswald, and there bought the corner house of Fleischhauerstrasse,
opposite to Herr Brand Hartmann, and gradually conveyed his property
from Ranzin to this new house. So that a year before my father's birth,
he gave up his vassalage to the Ostens, and entered the burgher class.
"See now what happened! Mark well this atrocious murderous deed! In the
year 1494 there was a christening feast at Gribow, which lies not far
from Ranzin, to the right in going from Greifswald, and there one of
the Hornes had a property. To this same christening feast my
grandfather, Hans Sastrow, being invited as nearest relation, led by
the hand his little son, my father, then about seven years old, along
the road passing the church.
"The Hornes of Ranzin did not wish to lose this opportunity of giving
him a parting valediction; and of putting in action what they had
planned in their hearts for many years. So they rode to Gribow as if
they wished to visit their cousin there; and in order to spy out the
best opportunity, went to the christening feast, and placed themselves
at the table where my grandfather sat, for they had fallen so low that
they did not despise peasant fare and society. When the Hornes, late in
the afternoon, were very drunk, they all got up and staggered to the
stables. They fancied themselves alone; but one of my grandfather's
relations standing in the corner of the stable, heard all that they
were proposing to do: they were to hasten to their horses so soon as
they should perceive that my grandfather was about to depart, to waylay
him and to beat him and his little son to death.
"The man came to my grandfather and told him what he had heard in the
stable, and counselled him to start and go home while it was yet day.
This my grandfather agreed to; he got up, took his little son, my
father, by the hand, and proceeded towards Ranzin. But when he came to
the coppice on the moor, which was overgrown with bushes and brambles,
and about half way between Ranzin and Gribow, the murderous villains
intercepted his path, trampled him down under their horses' hoofs, and
wounded him so badly that they thought he was dead. They were however
not satisfied therewith, but dragged him to a great stone, which even
now lies on the moor, chopped off his right hand, and so left him for
dead. But the boy, my father, had in the mean while crept along the
moor and hidden himself in some bushes on a grass hill, so that they
could not come near him with their horses, nor find him in the bushes,
as it began to be dark.
"The other peasants had ridden after the Hornes, to see what they had
done: they found the wounded man thus mangled, and fetched the boy from
the moor: one of these ran to Ranzin and brought quickly a cart and
horses, on which they placed the wounded man, who showed no signs of
life, except that on their arrival at Ranzin he gave a last gasp and
expired.
"The friends of the orphan boy, my father, sold the new house and
turned everything into money, so that they amassed altogether about two
thousand gulden. Few of the nobles at that period allowed their
subjects to possess so much. These friends did their best by the boy,
had him taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and sent him to
Antwerp, and afterwards to Amsterdam, that he might be fitted to become
a merchant. When, having attained a right age, he returned home and
took possession of his property, he bought at the corner of the high
street and Hundstrasse, directly opposite to the church of St.
Nicholas, two houses and two shops. One of the former he turned into a
dwelling-house, the other into a brewhouse, and one of the shops into a
gateway, whereon he expended much cost and labour. Now as people were
well pleased with his comely person, and he had good hopes of having a
sufficient maintenance, my mother's guardian and nearest relations
promised her to him in marriage.
"My mother was the daughter of Bartholomaeus Smiterlow, the brother of
the Herr Buergermeister Nicholaus Smiterlow; she was a truly pretty
woman, small and delicately formed, amiable and lively, free from
pride, neat and domestic, and to the end of her life devout and
God-fearing. In the year 1514 my parents were married, and in 1515 the
good God gave them a son, whom they called after my paternal
grandfather Johannes. In 1517 was born my sister Anne, the relict of
Peter Frubos, Burgomaster of Greifswald. In 1520 I came into the world,
and was named after my maternal grandfather, Bartholomaeus.
"One of my five younger sisters, Catherine, was an excellent, amiable,
lovely, faithful, and pious maiden. When my brother Johannes came home
from Wittenberg, where he was a student, she bade him tell her how one
could say in Latin 'That is truly a beautiful maiden;' he said
'_Profecto formosa puella._' She asked further how could one say
'rather so:' he replied, '_sic satis_.' Some time after, three
students, sons of gentlemen, came from Wittenberg to see the town; they
had been recommended by Christian Smiterlow to the hospitality of his
father, the burgomaster Herr Nicolaus Smiterlow, who was desirous to
entertain them well, and to have good society for them. As he had three
grown-up daughters, my sister Catherine was invited, besides other
guests. The students exchanged all kinds of jokes with the maidens, and
also said to one another in Latin what it would not have been seemly to
say before maidens in German, as young fellows are wont to do. At last
one said to the other '_Profecto formosa puella_;' whereupon my sister
answered '_sic satis_;' then were they much afraid, fancying that she
had also understood their former amatory talk. In the year 1544 she
made a most unfortunate marriage with Christoph Meier, a coarse man,
who wasted, idled away, and dissipated all that he had, even what he
had received with my sister.
"My mother accustomed her daughters from their youth up, to suitable
household work. Once when my sister Gertrude, who was about five years
old, was sitting spinning at her distaff--for spinning-wheels were not
then in use--my brother Johannes told her that his Imperial Majesty had
summoned a Diet, where the Emperor, Kings, Electors, princes, counts,
and great lords would be assembled: she inquired what they would do
there, and he answered, 'That they would determine and decree what was
to be done in the world.' Then the little maiden at the distaff gave a
deep sigh, and said dolefully: 'Oh good God! if they would only decree
that such little children should not spin.' This sister, together with
my mother and two other sisters, Magdalen and Catherine, died in peace
in the year '49, when the plague was raging: my mother went first, and
as my sisters were weeping bitterly, she said to them when dying: 'Why
do you weep? pray rather that God would in his mercy shorten my pain.'
Some days after, my youngest sister Gertrude died: although my eldest
unmarried sister Magdalen was herself nigh unto death, she rose from
her bed, and laid out not only Gertrude's shroud and winding-sheet, but
her own also, and desired that when Gertrude was buried, the grave
should be left open, being only lightly covered with earth, that she
might be laid next to her; she then returned to her bed, and lived till
the next day after Gertrude was buried: so she died, the tallest and
strongest of all my sisters, an excellent, clever, and industrious
housekeeper. This was written to me by my sister Catherine two days
before her own death, who added, that it was even so with herself, that
she was about to follow her mother and sisters, and that she did yearn
for it, and she did admonish me not to grieve thereat.
"Now my parents when they were first married were comfortably
established; their buildings were finished, they were prosperous, and
possessed plenty of feathers, wool, honey, butter, and corn; they had
their stately mill and brewery; when suddenly all this happiness
changed into sorrow and misfortune: for in the same year 1523, George
Hartmann, the son-in-law of Doctor Stoientin,[48] bought of my father a
quarter of butter, and they came to angry words thereupon. Hartmann,
who was going to carry a sword to Herr Peter Korchschwantz, went on his
way to complain to his mother-in-law: she, who was haughty and very
rich, had married a doctor, councillor to the prince, and looked down
upon smaller people; she put an axe into his hand with these words:
'See, I give you a trifle, go to the market and buy yourself a heart.'
He then met my father, who was without arms, and had not even his
bread-knife with him, as he was going to have a pot of honey weighed at
the weighing-place in the streets where the locksmiths lived. Hartmann,
armed with sword and axe, fell upon him; my father springing into the
house of one of the smiths, seized a spit; the boys tore it away from
him, and also prevented him from using the ladder which was standing
near the gallery; but he tore from the wall a hunting-spear, and
running out into the street with it, called out: 'Where is he who wants
to take my life?' thereupon Hartmann sprang out of the adjoining
smith's house, having added to his former weapons a hammer from the
anvil, which he threw at my father, and though he parried the blow with
the spear, yet the hammer glided along the spear and hit him on the
breast, so that he spit blood for some days. Immediately after,
Hartmann struck him with the axe on the shoulder; having now hit him
with both hammer and axe, and fancying he had the best of it, he
unsheathed his sword, and rushing at my father, ran on the spear, which
went into his body up to the handle, so that he fell. This is the true
account of this lamentable story; I know well that the adversaries
maintain that my father stabbed Hartmann when he was hiding himself
behind the stove in the smith's room, but it is a mere fable.
"My father hastened straight to the monastery of the Black Monks, with
whom he was acquainted, and they took him into the church, up under the
vaulted roof. Doctor Stoientin with many assistants and servants
searched every corner of the monastery, and came also into the church.
My father, thinking they saw him, was on the point of speaking out and
entreating that they would spare him, as he was innocent and had only
acted in self-defence; but the merciful God prevented him from
speaking, and shut the eyes of his adversaries so that they could not
see him.
"In the night the monks let him down over the wall, so that he
could walk along the dyke to the village of Neukirchen. There my
step-grandfather arranged that my father should go to Stralsund, in a
cart that he had ordered from Leitz, concealed among some sacks of
barley and fodder. Stoientin met the peasant in the night, and asked
him where he was going. 'To Stralsund,' he said. He kicked at the sacks
and inquired what load he was carrying. The other replied: 'Barley and
fodder.' He then asked whether the peasant had not seen some one riding
or running; the latter answered: 'He had seen one riding hastily
towards the village of Horst, who had appeared to him like Sastrow from
Greifswald; and he had been astonished at his riding so hastily in the
night.' So Doctor Stoientin left the peasant and rode to Horst; but my
father arrived at Stralsund and obtained a safe conduct from the
councillor there.
"But my father could not trust to this, as the deceased had himself
been under the safe conduct of my gracious sovereign Duke George; and
Dr. Stoientin, the councillor of his princely grace, made good avail of
it against my father; besides this, the adversaries were rich, proud,
and powerful. So he was obliged to wander about in Denmark, going also
to Luebeck, Hamburg, and elsewhere, till he conciliated the reigning
prince by a considerable sum, which he was obliged to pay in ready
money.
"And although later, after repeated endeavours, and at the cost of much
labour and exertion on the part of my step-grandfather, my father
became reconciled with the offended party, upon the payment of
blood-money to the amount of one thousand marks, he could not remain
unmolested at Greifswald, on account of these adversaries residing
there. But it may be seen how little this blood-money prospered with
the son and heirs of the deceased, for evil and misfortune to person,
land, and property pursued both wife and children.
"Thus my mother was left in her youth without a husband, to keep house
with four uneducated children. One can well imagine how many sad and
sorrowful thoughts weighed upon her.
"Whilst my mother was dwelling in Greifswald, I went to school there,
and learnt not only to read, but also to decline, parse, and conjugate
in the Donat. On Palm-Sunday I had to sing the '_Quantus_,' having sung
the foregoing years first the lesser and then the great '_Hic
est._'[49]
"This was a great honour to the boy, and no small pleasure to his
parents, for the most courageous scholars were always selected for it,
who were not alarmed at the great multitude of ecclesiastics as well as
laymen, and could sing the _Quantus_ with a loud and clear voice.
"In the year 1528, when my parents discovered that the Hartmann party
were not to be mollified, and would not let my father return to the
town and to his business, they desired, as is becoming an honest
couple, to bear the burden of housekeeping together, and thus my mother
must needs follow my father. Therefore my father became a citizen of
Stralsund, and bought a house there; my mother in the spring quitted
Greifswald, sold her house, and settled near the Sound. About the same
time my step-grandfather, who was then chamberlain at Greifswald, took
me to his house, that I might study there. I however studied very
little, for I preferred riding and driving with my grandfather to the
neighbouring villages, so that I made little progress in my studies.
"In the year 1529, my mother being pregnant, wished to have a scouring
and washing before her confinement, as is customary with women. Now my
parents had at this time a servant-maid who was possessed with an evil
spirit; it had hitherto not shown itself, but now, when she had to
scour the numerous kitchen utensils, and took down the kettle and
saucepan, she threw them on the ground in a dreadful way, and cried
out, with a loud voice, 'I will away!' When therefore they found the
reason of this, her mother, who dwelt in the Patinenmacher Strasse,
took her home, and she was taken several times in a Riga sledge to the
church of St. Nicholas. When the sermon was ended, the spirit was
exorcised; and it appeared from its confession, that her mother having
bought a fresh sour cheese, and placed it in the cupboard, the maiden
had gone there in her absence and eaten of the cheese. Now when the
mother saw that some one had been to the cheese, she had wished that
person possessed of the evil spirit, and ever since, he had dwelt in
the maiden. When he was then asked how he could have remained in the
maiden, as since then she had received the sacrament, he answered, 'A
rogue may lie under a bridge whilst a good man is passing over;' he had
meanwhile been under her tongue. He was not only exorcised and
expelled, but each and every one present in the church knelt down and
prayed diligently and devoutly. He however, loudly scoffed at the
exorcism, for when the preacher conjured him to go away, he said he
would depart, he must forsooth give up the field; but he demanded that
he might be allowed to take away with him sundry things, and if this
demand were refused, he would be free to remain. One of those present
having his hat on whilst praying, the evil spirit begged of the
preacher to allow him to take off this hat; he would then depart, and
carry it away with him. I feared that, had it been permitted him by
God, the hair and scalp would have gone with the hat. At last, when he
perceived that his time for vexing the maiden was passed, and that our
Lord God listened mercifully to the prayers of the believers present,
he demanded mockingly a square of glass from the window over the tower
clock, and when a pane was granted to him, it loosed itself visibly
with a great clang, and flew away. After that time nothing evil was
observed in the maiden. She got a husband in the village, and had
children.
"I went to school, and learnt as much as my wildness would
allow me: of intelligence there was sufficient in me, as may be
observed, but steadiness there was none. In the summer I bathed with my
companions on the sea-shore; this my uncle saw from his garden behind
his barn, and told it to my father, who came in the morning with a good
rod into the room, in front of my bed, whilst I was asleep; he worked
himself up into a rage, and spoke loud in order to awake me. When I
awoke, and saw him standing before me, and the rod lying on the
next bed, I knew well what was in the wind, and began to pray and
entreat--weeping bitterly. He asked what I had done? I swore I would
never again, all my life long, bathe in the sea. 'Yes, sir,' he said
(when he called me 'sir,' I knew well that matters stood badly between
us), 'if you have bathed, then I must use the mop.' Thereupon he seized
the rod, threw my clothes over my head, and gave me my deserts. My
parents brought up their children well. My father was somewhat hasty,
and when his temper got the upper hand, he knew no moderation. Once
when he was in a rage with me,--he was standing in the stable, and I in
the doorway,--he caught hold of the pitchfork and threw it at me. I
sprang aside, but it had been thrown with such violence, that the
prongs stuck deep into one of the oaken tubs of the bathroom, and it
required great strength to draw it out. Thus the merciful God hindered
the evil designs of the devil against me and my father. But my mother,
who was exceedingly gentle and tender, sprang forward in such cases,
saying, 'Strike harder, the good-for-nothing boy has well deserved it!'
But at the same time she would lay hold of the hand in which he held
the rod, so that he might not strike too hard.
"My father's house was still very unfinished, and an outhouse was built
against it, with its entrance close to the well. A miller dwelt therein
named Lewark-Lark,--who had many naughty children that cried day and
night. At daybreak these young larks began to chirp, and continued the
whole day, so that one could neither see nor hear until my father drove
out the old larks with their young ones, pulled down the outhouse, and
set to work in earnest to finish the whole house at great cost of
labour and money. My parents received from Greifswald a considerable
amount of cash; for my mother had been obliged to turn everything into
money, so that many called him the rich man of the Vehr Strasse. But in
a few years this appeared very doubtful, for my parents had great
anxiety and loss of money, and also hindrance to the hoped-for
happiness of their children as well as other detriment.
"For there were then in Stralsund two women who might not unjustly be
called swindlers; the one was named Lubbe Kesske, the other Engeln;
they both dwelt in the Altbuesser Strasse. They bought divers kinds of
cloth from my father, which they again sold to others, but it was not
known to whom. Sometimes they paid part of the money for the cloth; but
whenever they gave a hundred gulden, they straightway bought to the
amount of two hundred or more. When, however, his claim upon them
became very large, the women only being able to pay twenty gulden, he
inquired what had become of his property; he found that his goods to
the amount of seventeen hundred and twenty-five gulden had gone to the
wife of the tailor Hermann Bruser, who had a considerable traffic in
cloth, being able to sell it cheaper in retail than other cloth
merchants; and that his eight hundred gulden had found their way to the
mother of Jacob Leweling. When my father called to account the two
women and the wife of Bruser, the latter and her husband, Hermann
Bruser, offered to pay: Bruser assured my father under his hand and
seal that at fixed terms he would make the payment. See what happened!
The first term was due at the time of the uproar of Burgomaster Herr
Nicholaus Smiterlow, and Hermann Bruser, who was one of the principal
ringleaders, thought it was now all over with my father, as well as
with the burgomaster; so he disclaimed his bond, refused payment, and
began a lawsuit with my father which lasted more than four-and-thirty
years; my father came to terms with the heirs of Bruser, who had to pay
for one and all a thousand gulden. The debt itself had amounted to
seventeen hundred and twenty-five gulden, and my father's costs to
upwards of a thousand more. Thus my father was deprived of his money
for forty years; great inconvenience accrued to both parents and
children. I thereby lost my studies and my brother, Magister Johannes,
even his life, so that one may in truth say, that Hesiod's words, 'The
half is more than the whole,' may well be applied to a lawsuit,
particularly to one at the Imperial court, so that it would be more
profitable to be satisfied with the half in the beginning than to
obtain the whole by the sentence of the Imperial court.
"During the lawsuit my brother Johannes became Magister at Wittenberg,
where he was the first among thirteen, and my parents summoned him
home. Before his departure from Wittenberg, he begged of Dr. Martin
Luther to write to my father, as the latter, on account of his lawsuit
with Hermann Bruser, had abstained for some years from the Lord's
table.[50] The letter was thus worded:--
'To the honourable and discreet Nicholaus Sastrow, burgher of
Stralsund; my kind and good friend, _Gratia et Pax_.
'Your dear son Magister Johannes has made known to me with touching
lament, my dear friend, how you have abstained from the Sacrament for
so many years, giving a scandalous example to others, and he has begged
me to exhort you to give up such a dangerous practice, as we are not
sure of life for a moment. So his filial, faithful care for you his
father has moved me to write to you, and I give you my brotherly and
Christian exhortation (such as we owe to one another in Christ) to
desist from such a practice, and to consider that the Son of God
suffered far more and forgave his crucifiers. And finally, when your
hour comes, you will have to forgive as does a thief on the gallows. If
your cause before the court lingers on, let it proceed, and wait for
your right. Such things do not prevent us from going to the Sacrament,
else we and also our princes could not attend, as the cause betwixt us
and the Papists still lingers on. Commit your cause to justice, and
meanwhile make your conscience free, and say, "Whoever shall be judged
in the right, let him be considered so, in the mean time I will forgive
those who have done the wrong, and go to the Sacrament." Thus you will
go not unworthily, because you desire justice and are willing to suffer
wrong, however the judge's sentence may fall. Take kindly this
exhortation which your son has so earnestly begged from me. Herewith I
commend you to God. Amen. Wednesday, after Miser., A.D. 1540.
'Martinus Luther.'
"My children will find the original of this letter in its place with
other important documents, and will no less carefully than myself
preserve it as an autograph of that highly enlightened, holy, dear, and
of the whole world praiseworthy man, and will love, and value, and keep
it as a pleasant remembrance for their children and children's
children.
"This letter my brother brought home to my father, and in order that
his parents might see that their money had not been spent in vain, he
brought with him also some of his Latin poems which had been printed.
In the following years he applied himself with industry at home to his
private studies. For besides other poems at Rostock, he published at
Lubeck an elegy on the Christian martyr Dr. _Robert Barns_,[51] which
had a tragical result for both the printer and himself. For the poem
came to the knowledge of the king of England, who sent an envoy to the
city of Lubeck with bitter complaints and threatenings, as the poem had
been published by their printer Johann Balhorn. The dignitaries of
Lubeck made excuses for the author, although he did not dwell there nor
belong to their jurisdiction, as he was only a young fellow who wished
to give proof of his learning; but the publisher, Johann Balhorn, was
sent out of the city, and had to leave it by break of day. They thereby
appeased the king's anger, and after some months allowed Balhorn to
return to the city.
"But my brother, Magister Johann, when he was travelling home from
Lubeck to Rostock had as companions Herr Heinrich Sonneberg and a
female, and besides there rode near the carriage Hans Lagebusch and a
smart young fellow, Hermann Lepper, who had exchanged _boguslawische
schillinge_ and other money for some hundred gulden coined in
Gadebusch, and which lay in the carriage. This was discovered by
certain highwaymen, as thievish miscreants are called. Highway robbery
was very common in Mecklenburg, as it was never seriously punished, and
many nobles even of the highest birth were engaged in it; so that one
may truly say with the poet:--
/*
'Nobilis et Nebulo parvo discrimine distant:
Sic nebulo magnus nobilis esse potest.'
*/
Nevertheless the genuine nobility, among whom are many honourable men,
who are in all ways worthy of esteem, are not spoken of here. Now,
thank God, there is a careful superintendence exercised in the Duchy of
Mecklenburg; but then the highwaymen could say, if we give up three
hundred gulden we place ourselves out of all danger, and can always
keep the remaining two hundred. When the travellers came to the
Ribbenitzer heath, those who were sitting in the carriage alighted from
it, having their arms with them; and the two horsemen, who ought to
have remained by it in that insecure place, rode forward. Against these
the highwaymen collected themselves, one of whom joined Lagebusch, and
talked familiarly with him. When riding so near to him that he could
reach the stock of his pistol, which was cocked (it was not then the
custom to carry double barrels in the saddle), he seized it out of the
holster, and hastened therewith after Hermann Lepper, who was riding
back to the carriage, and shot him, so that he fell from his nag. Hans
Lagebusch took to flight, and rode to Ribbenitz; Herr Heinrich
Sonneberg ran into the wood, and concealed himself among the bushes; my
brother, who had a hunting-spear, placed himself against the hind
wheel, that they might not attack him from behind; in front he defended
himself, and kept off one after another, inflicting wounds on them, for
he thrust his spear into the side of one of them near his leg, so that
riding to the bushes he fell from his horse, which escaped, and he
remained lying there. Another then fiercely attacked my brother, and
cut a piece from his head the size of a thaler, and even a little bit
of his skull, at the same time wounded him in the neck with his sword,
so that he fell and was considered dead. The miscreant plundered the
carriage, took all that was therein, and also carried off the horse of
their wounded comrade; as they saw he was so much wounded that there
was little life remaining in him, and not being able to carry him away,
they left him lying there. They left the driver his horses, and rode
away with their booty. Herr Heinrich Sonneberg returned to the
carriage; they laid my brother in it, and the woman bound up his head
with her handkerchief, and held it in her lap. The dead body they laid
at his feet, and thus drove slowly to Ribbenitz. There his wounds were
dressed, and the surgeon put some plaster on his neck. A rumour of this
came to Rostock. The councillor sent his servants to the spot, who
found the wounded highwayman, and took him to Rostock; but, alas! he
died as soon as they reached the prison, so that they could not learn
who the others were. It did not, however, remain quite secret, but was
hushed up by their connections, and the high magistrates did not in
good earnest investigate the matter. The dead miscreant was however
brought before the court, and from thence taken to the Landwehr to have
his head cut off, which was placed on a pole, where it was to be seen
for many years. Lagebusch brought the tidings to Stralsund, and the
councillor sent along with my father a close carriage with four of the
city horses; we took our beds with us, and starting in the evening,
travelled all night through, so that we reached Ribbenitz early in the
morning. We found my brother very weak, but we remained there on
account of the horses; and had the deceased Hermann Lepper christianly
and honourably buried, after an inquest had been held. Towards evening
we left Ribbenitz, and drove at a foot's pace through the night, so
that we reached Stralsund towards noon on the following day. When
Master Joachim Geelhar, the celebrated surgeon, had properly dressed
the wounds, the patient was soon thoroughly cured."