THE GERMAN IDEAS OF THE DEVIL IN THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
The phantasies of the human mind have also a history; they form and
develop themselves with the character of a people whilst they influence
it. In the century of the Reformation, these phantasies had more weight
than most earthly realities. It is the dark side of German development
which we there see, and to it is due the last place in the
characteristic features of the period of the Reformation.
In the most ancient of the Jewish records there is no mention of the
devil except in the book of Job; but at the time of Christ, Satan was
considered by the Jews as the great tempter of mankind, and as having
the power to enter into men and animals, out of which he could be
driven by the invocations of pious men. The people estimated the power
of their teachers by the authority that they exercised over the devil.
When the Christian faith spread over the western empire, the Greek and
Roman gods were looked upon as allies of the devil, and the
superstition of many who yet clung to the later worship of Rome, made
the devil the centre of their mythology.
But the conceptions which the Fathers of the Church had of the person
and power of the devil, were still more changed when the German tribes
overthrew the government of the Roman empire and adopted Christianity.
In doing so this family of people did not lose the fullness of their
own life, the highest manifestation of which was their old mythology.
It is true that the names of the old gods gradually died away; what was
obviously contrary to the new faith was at last set aside by the zeal
of the priests, by force, and by pious artifices; but innumerable
familiar shapes and figures, customs and ideas, were kept alive, nay,
they not only were kept alive, but they entwined themselves in a
peculiar manner with Christianity. As Christian churches were erected
on the very spots where the heathen worship had been held, and as the
figure of the crucified Saviour, or the name of an apostle was attached
to sacred places like Donar's oak; thus the Christian saints and their
traditions took the place of the old gods. The people transferred their
recollections of their ancient heathen deities to the saints and
apostles of the Church, and even to Christ himself, and as there was a
realm in their mythology which was ruled by the mysterious powers of
darkness, this was assigned to the devil. The name devil, derived from
the Greek (diabolos), was changed into Fol, from the northern god
Voland, his ravens and the raging nightly host were transferred to him
from Wuotan, his hammer from Donar; but his black colour, his wolves or
goat's form, his grandmother, the chains wherewith he was bound, and
many other traditions, he inherited from the evil powers of heathendom
which had ever been inimical to the benevolent ruling gods. These
powerful demons, amongst whom was the dark god of death, belonged
according to the heathen mythology to the primeval race of giants,
which as long as the world lasted were to wage a deadly struggle with
the powers of light. They formed a dark realm of shapeless primordial
powers, where the deepest science of magic was cultivated. To them
belonged the sea-serpent, which coiled round the earth in mighty
circles, lay at the bottom of the ocean, the giant wolves which lay
fettered in the interior of the earth or pursued the sun and moon, by
which, at the last day, they were to be destroyed; the ice demons which
from the north sent over the land snow-storms and devastating floods;
and worse than all, the fiendish Helia, goddess of the dead. Besides
the worship of the _Asengoetter_, there was in heathen Germany a gloomy
service for these demons, and we learn from early Christian witnesses
that even before the introduction of Christianity, the priestesses and
sorcerers of these dark deities were feared and hated. They were able
by their incantations to the goddess of death, to bring storms upon the
corn-fields and to destroy the cattle, and it was probably they who
were supposed to make the bodies and weapons of warriors invulnerable.
They carried on this worship by night, and sacrificed mysterious
animals to the goddess of death and to the race of giants. It was these
priestesses more especially--so at least we may conclude--who, as
_Hazusen_ or _Hegissen_, or _Hexen_ (witches), were handed down by
tradition to a late period in the middle ages.
The remembrance of these heathen beings became mixed with a wild chaos
of foreign superstitions, which had been brought from all the nations
of antiquity into heathen Rome, that great nursery of every
superstition, and from that ancient world had penetrated into
Christianity. The _Strigen_ and _Lamien_, evil spirits of ancient Rome,
which like vampires consumed the inward life of men, sorceresses who
flew through the air, and assembled nightly to celebrate disgraceful
orgies, were also handed down to the Germans, who mingled them with
similar conceptions, having perhaps a like origin. It is not always
possible to discover which of these notions were originally German or
which were derived from other nations.
The western Church in the beginning of the middle ages kept itself pure
from this chaos of gloomy conceptions; it condemned them as devilish,
but punished them on the whole with mildness and humanity, when they
did not lead to social crimes. But when the Church itself was frozen
into the rigidity of a hierarchical system, when strong hearts were
driven into heresy by the worldly claims of the papacy, and the people
became degraded under the nomination of begging monks, these
superstitions gradually produced in the Church a narrow-minded system.
Whatever was considered to be connected with the devil was put an end
to by bloody persecution. After the thirteenth century, about the
period when great masses of the people poured into the Sclave countries
from the interior of Germany, fanatical monks disseminated the odious
notion that the devil, as ruler of the witches, held intercourse with
them at nightly meetings, and that there was a formal ritual for the
worship of Satan, by accursed men and women, who had abjured the
Christian faith; and for this a countless number of suspected persons,
in France, in the first instance, were punished with torture and the
stake, by delegated inquisitors. In Germany itself, these persecutions
of the devil's associates first became prevalent after the funeral pile
of Huss. The more vehement the opposition of reason to these
persecutions, the more violent became the fury of the Church. After the
fatal bull of Innocent VIII., from the year 1484, the burning of
witches in masses began to a great extent in Germany, and continued,
with some interruptions, till late in the eighteenth century. Whoever
owned to being a witch was considered for ever doomed to hell, and the
Church hardly made an effort to convert them.
According to popular belief, the connection of man with the devil was
of three kinds. Either they renounced the worship of God for that of
the devil, swearing allegiance to him, and doing him homage, like the
witches and their associates; or they were possessed by him, a belief
derived by the Germans from Holy Scripture; or men might conclude a
compact with the devil binding both parties under mutual obligations.
In the latter case men signed away their souls in a deed written with
their own blood, and in return the devil was to grant to them the
fulfilment of all their wishes upon earth, success, money, and
invulnerability. Although the oldest example known is that of the Roman
Theophilus--a tradition of the sixth century--and although the written
compact originated at a time when the Roman forms of law had been
introduced among the western nations, yet it appears that the source of
this tradition concerning the devil was German. These transactions were
based upon a deep feeling of mutual moral obligation, and on a
foolhardy feeling, which liked to rest the decision of the whole of the
future upon the deed of a moment. There is much similarity between the
German who in gambling stakes his freedom on the throw of the dice, and
he who vows his soul to the devil. These alliances were not looked upon
by the old Church with mortal hatred; these wicked and foolhardy
beings, like Theophilus himself, might be saved by the intercession of
the saints, and the devil compelled to give up his rights. It is also
peculiar to German traditions, that the devil endeavours to fulfil
zealously and honestly his part of the compact, the deceiver is man.
Through these additions the popular mind invested the devil with new
terrors, yet it strove at the same time to think of him in a more
agreeable point of view. The race of giants of the ancient mythology
had had two aspects for the people; they took pleasure in seeing
something harmless, and indeed burlesque about them, besides the
terrors of their demoniacal nature. On one hand, the deformity of their
great bodies, their strength, and clumsy wit, and on the other, their
supposed knowledge of magic and technical dexterity, had already been
in heathen times an inexhaustible source of comic stories, by which the
people poetically explained to themselves, among other things, all
striking phenomena of nature. But besides the giants there was in the
heathen times a numerous host, of smaller spirits in nature, who
hovered around men. The hairy _Schrate_ dwelt in the woods, the _Nix_
sang on the banks of the brooks, a numerous race of dwarfs hammered in
the mountains, elves and _Idisien_, the German fairies, played on the
dew in the meadows, and the fighting maidens of Wuotan flew through the
air in the form of swans or on magic horses. In house and courtyard, in
barn, cow-house, and dairy, dwelt household spirits of various kinds,
sprites sat under the hearth, hobgoblins glided in the form of tom-cats
over the rafters, brown and gray mannikins, and sometimes white ladies
surrounded the family, as guardian spirits of their domestic comfort
and welfare. The repose of sleepers was disturbed by nightmares, the
rye-mume sat in the ears of corn, and the little wood fairy on the
felled timber, the will-o'-the-wisp in the marsh fluttered about
restlessly, and endeavoured to entice men out of the right track. These
lesser spirits maintained their place in Christendom, but became timid
and averse to men. It may be observed in the old traditions, with what
sorrow the new convert regarded the disturbance of his relations with
his old friends; in some, the little sprites lamented that they also
could not become blessed; in others, they are disturbed by the sound of
a clock, and depart secretly out of the country. Many of their dark and
malicious traits of character were also transferred to the devil,
especially those of the giants. He became an architect like them, he
was obliged to carry great masses of rock through the air, which he
lost on his journey, or cast down in anger; he had to raise prodigious
walls, and build bridges, castles, mills, and even churches. And in
these works, he was almost always the person cheated, as were the
giants in the olden traditions; being deprived of the reward for which
he had worked. He had to guard treasures beneath the earth, in the form
of a wolf or dog with fiery eyes, or to fly as a fiery dragon, and
throw treasures down the chimney on to the hearth. He was obliged to
appear in person at popular festivals, and act the part of the buffoon
and much belaboured opponent of the heavenly powers, in a half
ludicrous, half terrific dress. Among the Germans he had his disguises;
the horns, the goats' or horses' foot, the halting gait, the tail, and
the black colour. It is possible that the details of his costume may be
taken from recollections of the ancient satyrs, but similar strange
animal figures are to be found in the festive processions of German
heathendom, and in the rising cities of the middle ages, the dress of
the chimney sweeper was an inestimable help.
Such were the notions which prevailed about the devil in Germany for
about a thousand years. They were influenced by all the great
excitements and changes of the popular mind. In times of great
religious zeal, they bore a wild misanthropic aspect; but in days when
the people were engrossed with worldly pleasures, they assumed a more
comic and harmless form.
Then came Luther and the Reformation. Together with every one else in
Germany, the devil also was brought into the great struggle of the
century. The Roman Catholics looked upon him as the head of the whole
body of heretics; while the Protestants took the popular view of him as
a figure standing with a bellows behind the pope and cardinals,
inflating them with attacks on the reformed doctrines. He was mixed up
in all theological and political transactions; he sat on Tetzel's box
of indulgences, visited Luther at the Wartburg, made intrigues between
the Emperor and Pope, humbled the Protestants by the Smalkaldic war,
and the Roman Catholic party by the apostacy of the Elector Maurice;
and in all the concerns, small and great, of the people he appeared,
and was busy everywhere.
This enlargement in his powers of action would probably have taken
place at any period of zealous faith; but in the person and teaching of
the great character who gave to the whole of the sixteenth century its
impress and colour, there was something peculiar by which even the
reverse of all that was holy was remoulded.
First of all, Luther was the son of a German peasant. In the
recollections of his childhood, as revived by him amid the circle of
his companions at Wittenberg, the devil wore a very old-fashioned, nay,
heathenish, aspect; he brought devastating storms, while the angels
brought the good winds, as once upon a time the gigantic eagles did
from the furthest corners of the world by the stroke of their
wings;[66] he sat as a water-god under the bridges, drawing maidens
down into the water, whom he made his wives; he served in the cloister
as household spirit; blew the fire as a goblin; as a dwarf laid his
changelings in the cradles; as a nightmare deluded the sleepers into
ascending the roof of the house, and bustled about the rooms as a
hobgoblin. By this last species of activity he sometimes disturbed
Luther. It is true that the ink-spot at the Wartburg is not
sufficiently verified, but Luther could tell of a disagreeable noise
which the devil had made there nightly with a sack of hazel nuts. In
the monastery of Wittenberg also, where Luther was studying Rempter one
night, the devil made such a noise, for so long a time in the crypt of
the church underneath him, that he at last snatched up his book and
went to bed. Afterwards he was provoked with himself for not having
defied the Jackpudding.
Thus deeply was Luther imbued with the popular superstition. But to
this kind of devilry he did not attach much importance; the bad spirits
who employed themselves after this fashion, he very properly called
poor devils. His opinion was that devils were countless. "They are not
all," he says, "insignificant devils, but country devils and princes'
devils, who for a long period, above five thousand years, have been
busy, tempting men, and are thoroughly clever and cunning. We have
great devils who are _doctores theologiae_; then the Turks and papists
have bad insignificant devils who are not theological but juridical."
From them he thought came everything bad upon earth, as for instance
illnesses; he had a strong suspicion that the dizziness he had long
suffered from was not natural; also conflagrations:--"Wherever a fire
breaks out a little devil sits behind blowing the flame;" likewise
famine and war:--"If God did not send us the holy and dear angels as
guards and arquebusiers, who encamp round us like a bulwark, it would
soon be over with us." Expert as Luther was in describing his own
characteristics, he was equally so with the devil; he declared that he
was haughty, and could not bear to be treated contemptuously. Therefore
he advised that he should be driven away by scorn, and jeering
questions. He thought, also, that Satan was a melancholy spirit, and
could not endure gay music.[67]
But it was not in vain that Luther had spiritualized the Church
teaching; it was owing to him that the struggle for eternal salvation
began in the souls of individuals, and that the destiny of man was made
to depend on his own conscience and faith in God. Through this, Satan's
sphere of activity was changed, and the strife of men with the evil
spirit became more especially an inward one. It was not the outward
appearance and clatter of the devil that was peculiarly terrible, but
his whisperings to the souls of men. The preservatives against this
danger were, constant inward repentance, frequent prayer, and an
enduring and loving remembrance of God. Luther's temptations have
already been mentioned; he spoke openly and honestly to his
cotemporaries concerning them, and the race of men who listened with
faith to his discourse were infected by him; inward temptations were
commonly recognized by the Protestants, and on this point also he
became the comforter and confidant of many.
The difference between the old and new Church was first shown in the
conception of the free contract which man concluded with hell. In the
old Church it had been made comparatively easy to believers to escape
from the devil. By certain pious outward observances the Christian
could in the worst case, even when deeply engaged with Satan, free
himself from him in the last hour. Therefore, in the contracts made
between men and the devil before the Reformation, the latter was almost
always the person defrauded; this business-like and immoral method of
reaching the kingdom of heaven excited the deepest indignation of
Luther. He strongly proclaimed the doctrine of St. Augustine; that man
being corrupt through original sin is a prey to the devil, and can only
be put in the way of salvation by continual inward repentance, and that
therefore unrepentant sinners cannot be saved from hell. The result of
this was, that after the sixteenth century, those men who had concluded
a compact with hell were generally supposed to be carried off by the
devil. The sorrowful end of the traditional Dr. Faust is well known; he
was not Satan's only prey. It was generally believed, and published in
hundreds of tracts, that men of profligate character, reckless
drunkards, gamblers, swearers, or enemies against whom a bitter hatred
was entertained, were carried off into the nether regions. And the hand
of the devil was thought to be distinctly perceptible in the twisted
neck of the dying sinner. Luther himself had once to interfere in such
a case. A young student at Wittenberg, an ill-disposed youth, had
invoked the devil, and had offered himself up to him. Luther took the
affair in hand with great earnestness and dignity; he first crushed the
culprit by severe admonitions, then he knelt down with him in the
church, laid his hands on him, prayed with fervour, and caused the
youth finally to repeat after him a penitent confession; thus was the
business settled. Even historical personages did not escape the
melancholy fate of being possessed by the devil. The belief in this
continued beyond the Thirty years' war.
In the last century the compact which the Duke of Luxemburg, the
opponent of Prince William of Orange, had made with the devil, was
imparted to the public with all kinds of details and comments; and it
is characteristic of that fastidious period, that the Duke imposed upon
the devil, among other conditions, that he should only appear to him
under an agreeable, not in a terrible form.[68] Following the examples
given in the Bible, the new Church treated more kindly those that were
possessed. Luther and his followers assumed that these, through sins
which might be forgiven, and sometimes through small errors, had fallen
into the power of the devil, and that it was a duty and a merit in
believers to drive out the evil spirit by prayers and adjurations. It
was not all lunatics or epileptic persons who were considered to be
possessed of the devil, but as he was supposed to be at work
everywhere, they often had the satisfaction of finding him. The most
wonderful indications of his activity were watched with credulous zeal.
Weak-minded women principally were impressed with the belief that they
were tormented by the devil; and it was the natural result of this
imagination that in their sickly condition they expressed the most
violent repugnance against ecclesiastics, and the pious ceremonies with
which they were favoured. But how far preconceived opinions can confuse
the senses, not only of the sick, but also of the healthy, and falsify
the witness of their own eyes and ears, we discover with astonishment
in numerous accounts of eye-witnesses, who are fully worthy of credit,
but who perceive and believe in the most impossible things in those
possessed. To mention a very absurd instance supposed to have happened
in the time of Luther, at Frankfort on the Oder; a maiden who had
always been weak in mind was possessed by Satan in the following way:
"When the suspected maid seized any one by the coat or beard, or
otherwise, she always found money instead in her hand, which she
instantly put into her mouth, crunched, and at last swallowed. This
money one could only get out of her hand by force. In the same way she
everywhere found needles. Sometimes she handed over to the people who
stood around her this devil's money, which she had caught from the
walls, tables, benches, stones, and ground. It was good coin, groschen
and pfennige, but there were some bad red ones among it." This
extraordinary occurrence is related in a pamphlet by Dr. Andreas Ebert,
an ecclesiastic; and his account is confirmed by Theodore Duerrkragen,
the president of the city council. Luther, as with hundreds of other
critical questions, was asked his opinion about this: he was
distrustful, desired to know whether it was good money; and at last
advised that the maiden should be sedulously taken to church and
prayers made for her to God. There were some difficulties about this
cure, for the devil in the maiden insulted the clergyman during his
sermon, and gave him the lie. In vain also did a Roman Catholic priest
endeavour to conjure the devil from her, who treated him with scorn and
despised his holy exorcism. The power, however, of evangelical prayer
compelled Satan to depart; the maiden became vigorous and sound, after
her recovery knew nothing of the past, but continued to be, as servant
maid, a useful member of the community.[69]
Such were the ideas of German Catholics and Protestants. Nothing shows
more strikingly the power which Luther personally exercised, than the
influence he gained over his bitterest opponents. The Roman Catholic
dogmas, it is true, withstood his assaults, and between the new
bulwarks of faith which he had thrown up, and the closed fortress of
the old Church, there raged for a century a furious war. But his mode
of thought, his language, and above all the special character of his
spiritual life, influenced the German Catholic Church of his day as
well as the Protestant, in a way which was both peculiar and one-sided.
The rude formalism of her indulgence trade and pious brotherhoods, did
not entirely disappear; but he gave a new tendency to her inward
spirit. Earnest study, acute thought, dialectic skill, and what was of
more value, a greater moral depth, became the necessary requisites of
the Roman Catholic champions. They learnt to preach and compose their
controversial writings in Luther's language and method, even
appropriated the strong abusive expressions of the great heretic, and
sought to imitate felicitously the popular humour to which Luther owed
not a little of his success. The words of the evangelical songs, the
titles and contents of Lutheran works were always parodied. Perhaps the
internal resemblance is nowhere more striking than among the most
talented of the Ingoldstadt University. Andrea, Scherer, and their
friends might but for the difference of their dogmas, and above all
personal, hate, as well be Lutherans as Roman Catholics. Thus there
arose between the ecclesiastics of both confessions a sometimes
laughable, but frequently a disgusting contention to drive the devil
out of the possessed. If a possessed person became in question where
the two Churches were in collision, each endeavoured to show the power
of their faith by healing the patient; the evangelical by the prayers
of the clergy and parishioners, the Roman Catholics by exorcism; the
soul which was saved brought glory on the fortunate Church. Among the
numerous accounts which we find of suchlike exorcisms, the following,
which proceeds from the Roman Catholic camp in the neighbourhood of
Ingoldstadt, is remarkable from its detailed narration and interesting
psychological features. It was published shortly after the event, in a
pamphlet, with the title, 'A terrible but quite true history, which
took place between Hans Geisslbrecht, citizen at Spalt, and his wife
Apollonia, in the bishopric of Eystaetter. By M. Sixtus Agricolas.
Ingolstadt, 1587.' The narrative begins as follows:--
"Hans Geisslbrecht, citizen at Spalt, after the death of his first
wife, married Apollonia, widow of the late Hans Francke of
Lautershausen, in the Margravate of Brandenburg; here he continued
after his marriage, and lived with her more than a year; at last,
however, the miserable marriage devil entered in, so that there was
between them both, nothing from morning to night but scolding,
quarrelling, strife, crying, chiding, and nagging; besides which, what
was altogether most terrible, great blaspheming of God and wicked
swearing. The said Geisslbrecht came home quite drunk on Friday the
nineteenth October of the past year '82, and began according to his old
custom to quarrel and swear at his wife; and they carried this on, as
most of their neighbours heard, almost throughout the night. On
Saturday morning Apollonia came to Anna Stadlerin, her neighbour, and
said: 'Dear Stadlerin, have you not heard how rudely and shamefully my
husband has behaved during the whole night?' 'Yes,' answered the other,
'I and my Stadler have, alas! but too well heard what caterwauling and
blaspheming has been going on between you; the neighbourhood can have
no peace whilst you live in so unchristian a way.' To this the said
Apollonia answered with grim anger: 'Ah me! if our Lord God will not
deliver me from this violent man, I shall call upon the devil to come
to my help.' Now mark what followed! On the said Saturday evening, when
Geisslbrecht's cows came home from the meadow, and she was about to
milk them, as was her wont, there came two birds like swallows, of
which at that time of year none are to be seen in the country; and they
flew swiftly round about her head. Before she could look up from under
the cow there appeared near her a tall man (but, alas! it was the devil
in human form), who said to her: 'Ah, my dear Appel, how much do I
sympathize with you, that you are in such trouble; your life is so hard
and wretched, and you have such a bad husband, who behaves so ill to
you, and who intends to make away with everything, so that nothing may
remain to you after his death. Do one thing, promise that you will be
mine, and behold I in return, will promise to convey you in this very
hour to a beautiful enjoyable place, where you shall for ever and ever
do nothing but eat, drink, sing, jump, and dance; in short, where you
will spend such days of pleasure as you have never seen all your life
long, for the kingdom of heaven is not such as your priests say; I will
teach you better.'
"These great promises of the embodied Satan induced the wretched woman
thoughtlessly to give him her hand, and say that she would become his;
instantaneously the said Apollonia became possessed by him, and
forthwith he suggested to her that she should hasten with him to the
loft; in the hope that she would there hang herself. Now when the
aforesaid wife of Geisslbrecht sprang up from the cows and hastened to
the house, the before-mentioned neighbours perceived her condition, and
called out to her husband: 'Oh, Ulrich, come! the old shepherdess (her
husband used to be called the shepherd) has lost her senses.' After
that, they ran towards her, and before they could reach her she laid
herself in the pond before the cottage door, with the intention of
drowning herself therein. When she had been taken out, many other
neighbours came to her, and brought the poor possessed woman into the
house again; she desired directly to be carried up to the loft, and
cried out: 'Oh let me go! Do you not see how luxuriously I live, that I
do nothing but eat, drink, jump, and dance, and lead an enjoyable
life?' When Apollonia was brought into her room, it required first two
and afterwards four men to hold her. Meanwhile a messenger was sent at
midnight on Saturday to the venerable and learned Dean and pastor, Herr
Wolfgang Agricola, to beg that his reverence would hasten to the old
shepherdess, as she had that evening lost her wits. But the prudent
Dean thought the affair was by no means so urgent as they represented
it, and did not wish to go out so late on this holy night, but he
apprized them, that he had always feared that these continual godless
quarrels and disputes would at last come to this conclusion; he bade
them, in case the woman became so refractory that they could not hold
or restrain her, to fasten her meanwhile with two chains, which was
done.
"In the evening after he had performed matins, the Dean, like a man who
had been accustomed to deal with the like cases, provided himself with
a small reliquary, wherein was a piece of the holy cross, and of the
pillar on which the Lord Christ was scourged; further, an Agnus Dei of
the year of the Jubilee; and lastly a piece of white wax, which had
been consecrated by _summus pontifex_; all these he carried upon his
own person. When he went to the house of Geisslbrecht and was perceived
by Apollonia with her deceitful indweller, who so evil treated her, it
would be impossible for any one who had not been there, to believe how
she began to rage, rave, and gnash her teeth; for although she lay
bound by two chains, yet four men had enough to do to hold her. The
reverend Dean began, and said: 'Ah, Appel! may God in Heaven hear me;
this great calamity grieves me to the heart; Christ bless thee; what
has happened to thee?' Then the poor woman began with a strong manly
voice, such as was not her wont before: 'Hui, _Pfaff_, begone with you,
what do I want with you and your Christ? I have enough for my whole
life, do you not see how well I live? I need your heaven no more.'
Thereupon the Dean answered: 'I see, alas! how well you live; I would
not wish your pleasant life to a dog, let alone a man.' In order to
prove whether she was possessed or naturally crazy, the Dean took the
above-mentioned relics, and as she turned her back to him, placed them
with his hand upon her head without her knowledge: what a lamentation,
complaining, and whining she set up from that hour! how she raged in
her chains, foaming at the mouth like a champing horse, and snapped at
the Dean; concerning all this, those who held her, and the many people
in the room will give a better report than his reverence. Her constant
cry was, 'Oh, _Pfaff_, _Pfaff_![70] take away that thing from my head,
if not, behold I swear to you that I will tear you to pieces with my
teeth; I will trample on you, tear you limb from limb, and so kill you:
Oh! take that thing off, and lay upon me instead six large sacks full
of stones, they will not be so heavy.' 'Tell me,' said the Dean, 'what
it is? I will then directly take it off.' The evil one answered: 'I
know well what it is, but I would do anything--_cum venia_--rather than
tell you.' 'What?' said the Dean earnestly, 'you will not come out with
the words? quickly bring me a white cap, with it I will fasten this
small article upon your head.' 'Yes,' answered the evil one,' you may
well say a small article; if it were so small, it would not scorch so
much.' 'I conjure thee, by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob, to
tell me what it is.' But he gave no answer. Meanwhile, the poor
tormented woman thirsted much, and with all her imaginary costly good
living, would gladly have had something to drink; at a sign from the
Dean the women presented her first with some consecrated water; but
this was no drink for the evil one, he wished to have other water: the
Dean asked why he would not drink this, as it was only water. He
answered, '_Pfaff_, you lie, it is consecrated water.' Thereupon the
women gave her to drink from the great holy well, which was consecrated
every year on the golden Trinity Sunday; but little as the former was
to her taste, still less would she have to say to this; it was
necessary to withdraw it quickly, for she knew well what it was. Then
the Dean said that it was only water; but the evil one answered him
furiously: 'You always say that I lie, but I see that you can lie also;
it is your holy water.' When therefore they gave her the common water
she said, or rather he in her, although there was not the slightest
apparent difference in the vessel or the water, 'That is the right
kind.' Thereupon they mixed the three waters together, opened her mouth
with a spoon, and had much to do to pour it in and to make her swallow
it, thereupon she, or rather he through her, began thus: 'Oh, _Pfaff_!
how you deal with me.' The Dean answered: 'As you have tasted one you
may taste the other also; I know well what a bad guest you are, I and
you must have a better understanding before we separate.' 'What
_Pfaff_, do you wish to drive me away? I will sooner tear you to
atoms.' The Dean replied: 'You desperate villain! I think you hanker
after me, the smallest of little popish priests, therefore you shall,
before all the world, be permitted to enter into me as your pride
impels you; I will open my mouth wide enough, and make no sign of the
cross before it.' Then the evil one answered: 'Yes, enter, enter I
would, if I could only catch and bite your tongue and your fingers.'
'That I fully believe,' said the Dean, 'if it were in your power to
destroy me and every Christian man in his mother's womb, I hold it
certain you would spare no pains to do so; and listen to me, Satan, I
hold this head fast till you tell me what is in this little reliquary.'
'Then,' he answered, 'it is a holy thing.' 'What holy thing?' inquired
the Dean. 'That of Jerusalem,' said the evil one. The Dean replied:
'What of Jerusalem? make short of it, and be not so ceremonious.' To
which Satan exclaimed: 'Oh, leave me in peace; you know that I cannot
name it.' 'Then,' said the Dean, 'these are rotten, lame excuses; you
can very well name it if you will, therefore I conjure you, by the
death of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you publicly declare what it is.'
'Oh,' said he, 'it is indeed a piece of the holy cross, and a bit of
the pillar at which He was scourged.' The Dean replied: 'Do you then
believe that Christ died for us?' To which he said: 'Why should I not
believe it? I was not far off.' Upon that the Dean took down the
reliquary, and laid the above-mentioned Agnus Dei upon her head without
her perceiving it. She complained, wept, and cried out, even more than
before. On perceiving this strange agitation, the Dean wished again to
hear what it was that so discomposed her. Then the bad spirit called
out: 'Ho! ho! you shall make me tell you that again.' Then there was
much talk on both sides, till at last the evil spirit was constrained
by the hand of God to say, 'It is truly an Agnus Dei.' The Dean then
asked: 'Where was it consecrated?' To which the evil one said: 'If the
whole world stood by, they should not compel me to name the city.' The
Dean said: 'Indeed there is no place in all the world where you and
yours do meet with so much damage and opposition, therefore make not so
much ado, but say what is the name of the city?' As the Dean pressed
him so hard, and would not let him rest, he began: 'It is called R! R!
R!' To which the Dean said: 'Hui! Hui! young scholar, still better.'
Then the evil one, 'O! O! O!' To which the Dean said: 'Oh, what a
hopeful scholar! you desperate miscreant, you mortal enemy of the holy
true faith; add the M! M! M! thereto, and God will have imparted to you
a threefold truth.'
"Now when the Dean found that he had but too well ascertained the
condition of the unhappy woman, and that all the means which had
formerly been of use to others, were of no avail against an enemy so
powerful and well entrenched, he deferred the matter, till by God's
grace a better time and opportunity should occur. He commanded that
they should watch assiduously day and night, that she should not get
hold of anything wherewith she might cause bodily injury either to
herself or others; he also begged the neighbours and her appointed
watchmen to look after her, which they did day and night out of
brotherly and sisterly compassion.
"The following days the aforesaid Dean made preparation with all
diligence as far as possible for the great work, and had enough to do
to provide what was necessary for such a thorny and dangerous business.
"Meanwhile, it came to pass that a young Lutheran, a queer preaching
fellow, Johannas Baeuerlein, son of a furrier of this place, came here
fresh from his examination, and imagined he had already received full
power for this work; like the poet in his wretched tragedy, who in the
year 1545 in the parish sacristy at Wittenberg, drove the devil in and
out of a possessed person. This preacher had heard from his mother, who
dwelt in a house opposite to Geisslbrecht, of this lamentable affair,
had seen us many times go in and out, and had even stood among the
people in the room; but on account of his great beard wherein, like
Samson's strength, lay all his science, we did not recognize him. He
went there several times in our absence, and saw how pitifully and
miserably the poor woman was plagued and tormented by the evil spirit.
He spoke to it; but ah, dear God! at his weak lifeless words, the old
dog would not come out, but only carried on his monkey tricks with him.
At last he called the husband of the unhappy woman to him, and accosted
him thus: 'My dear Hans Geisslbrecht, that your wife should be
delivered from this miserable Satan, by whom she is so severely
tortured, will never take place by the aid of your popish priests; it
is beyond their power. But I,' said the sharp blade, 'will take with me
another servant of the altar, and we will drive him out by the pure
word of God.' This was revealed to us by the aforesaid Geisslbrecht. It
grieved all the ecclesiastics, and not unreasonably, coming from one
who had been born, baptized, brought up, and confirmed, and had
communicated here, and whose father, mother, and sisters had lived, and
most of them already died, good Catholics; he alone having apostatized.
So that we all came to a determination that during the act of exorcism,
which was fixed to take place with all secresy on the Thursday, he
should be in the church even were we to bind him like the poor woman,
and drag him in. Not that we wished any harm to him, but only that he
might see what an anxious, great, and dangerous work this was, and not
such a thing as when one enticeth the tom-cat from behind the stove.
However he smelt fire, was warned, and went off.
"On Wednesday, after vespers, the suffering of the sick person became
so great, that they hastened to fetch the Dean, for if she did not
obtain help, she would be torn to a thousand pieces by the evil one.
When the said Dean, and some of us arrived, we found such a wretched
state of things as will be present to us all our lives; for although
the more than miserable woman was extended on the ground, on a wretched
little bed, fastened by two chains so that she could not move hand or
foot, and had also two men holding her arms whilst her brother sat
astride on her legs, and some women on her body, thinking thus
effectually to hold her down, yet all was of no avail. The evil spirit
reared himself up, and raised all that were over him in such a manner,
that any one could have slipped under her back. But the most horrible
of all was, that the evil spirit raised himself up between the skin and
the flesh, in the form of a great adder or serpent, so that we could
see and lay hold of him. Swiftly as by nature they glide along the
earth, so did he glide backwards and forwards in the body; at one
moment into the head, afterwards into one arm, then into the other, or
suddenly into the feet; and when in the body, it became hot, as if
burning with pure fire; finally the evil one glided into the heart,
which swelled up like a twopenny loaf, and crept and coiled himself
round it, just as a viper does round a tree; he shook and squeezed her
heart together, so that it began to crack, and we one and all thought
that the fierce and infuriated spirit would have entirely suffocated
and destroyed her, for in her whole body not the smallest vein could
stir. The Dean cried out and called continually upon God in heaven.
Meanwhile they opened her mouth with a spoon, but for a long time she
showed no signs of life, till they poured something down her throat;
then her heart began to beat again. That was a great comfort to us, and
we all did our best to revive her, till she came a little to herself.
Then the Dean commanded that they should cut her hair clean off her
head, for it was all overrun with blood; he ordered also that the women
should wash her clean with lye, and said he would return again
forthwith.
"Thereupon the Dean returned home, and desired me, his brother Magister
Sixtus, Herr Georg Wittmeier, his confessor, Herr Bernhardt Eisen, who
was then deacon, Wilibald Plettelius the student, who had lately come
from the German college at Rome, and Leonhard Agricola, the student, to
come to him; and told us with great grief that it was certain that if
the poor woman could not be relieved this evening, the evil one would
destroy her even if she were of the worth of a thousand men. 'Therefore
come quickly with me,' said the Dean; 'have a good heart, be undaunted
and fear not, no harm shall happen to you; and if it should be
requisite that in the exorcism you should reply to me _et cum spiritu
tuo_, or Amen, pay the closest attention, especially you priests.' Then
he gave to one of the students to place under his dress, what was
necessary for this ceremony, and taking us first to the church,
admonished us all there to pray with faith, opened the Sacrarium, took
from the viaticum a holy host, laid it in a small napkin on his body,
put off the cope again, and went in form and appearance as before with
us to the house. Then he commanded him who bore his other vestments to
wait in the barn till further orders. He went into the room, knelt down
on the ground by the poor woman, laid his hand, as he was always wont
to do, on her head, and spoke to her; but the former old insults were
beginning again, when the Dean without any one perceiving it, put his
hand in his bosom and drew out the napkin with the ever-blessed host,
and placed it under his hand on her head. As soon as she perceived it,
she made in her bed three great bounds. Then said the Dean: 'Appel, do
I hurt you with my hand? How does it happen that at one time you can
bear it and at another time not?' 'Oh, yes,' said she, 'I can bear the
hand well, but take away what you have under your hand, otherwise you
will destroy me.' 'God forbid!' said the Dean; 'but tell me what is on
your head?' Then answered the evil one: 'Look you, wait a little!'
(here followed an examination as before), and at last the evil spirit
said what it was. Thereupon the Dean proceeded: 'But I wish to know yet
one thing, whether you are alone, or have any companions with you?' 'I
am alone,' said the evil one. 'What is your name?' 'I am called
_Spielfleck_,' said the evil one. 'Oh, that is nothing, you have never
in the beginning told me the truth; I must bring it out of you
perforce, you shall acquaint me with your right name, for I must and
shall know it.' Then the exorcism began again, till the evil one was
constrained to say, _Schwamm_.[71] Thereupon the watchers and nurses
exclaimed: 'Oh that is truly his right name, it is what she has always
called him.' Then the Dean answered: 'Well-a-day! God grant we may soon
lay hold of Schwamm, and send him down to Lucifer in hell, that he may
wipe his shoes with him.' The evil one: 'Oh no, no, spare me.' Upon
this my brother called on me, Herr Magister Sixtus, to draw near and
hold the napkin, containing the most holy and revered sacrament, on her
head, and commanded at the same time that all her chains should be
unloosed and done away with; whereupon many were much afeared. He
himself had his cope, stole, and books brought to him, and having thus
dressed and prepared himself, when the poor woman was loosened from all
her shackles, he took an old red stole in his hand and said: 'Behold,
_Schwamm_! I now come to thee in the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost. This threefold, indissoluble, godly bond shall now bind
thee down in the abyss of hell, so that you shall never more throughout
all eternity do any detriment or injury, either to persons, or cattle,
or any other creature.' He took both her hands, wound the stole three
times round her, and commanded the evil one, by the great power and
dignity of that which lay on the poor woman's head, to give up all
further struggle. Thereupon the Dean turned himself towards the people,
of whom there was such a multitude, that the room, windows, barn, and
streets were all quite full, and spoke to them:--
"At the conclusion of the holy prayer, the Dean gave directions to us
students whom alone he had employed as assistants, to place ourselves
round the miserable woman; gave to one the book, to another the candle,
to each one what he would need for this ceremonial, and then began in
the name of God a _modus conjurationis_ so lofty and so exceeding well
grounded on the holy, godly Scripture, and with such assiduity and
earnestness, (as he had in this a pure, strong, and undaunted Hon
heart) that our hearts began to tremble and the hairs of our heads to
stand erect. During this noble exorcism, which lasted some time, the
evil spirit did not make any especial blustering, only, perceiving a
boy showing his teeth in at the window, he desired to be allowed to
break them; but this his desire could not be granted. During the
ceremony the surrounding people, who could better observe, than one of
us who had more to do, saw distinctly that the eyes of the woman, which
were naturally dark, but in this misery had become gray and fiery like
cats' eyes, gradually recovered their natural colour; that her limbs
which were all distorted, returned to their right position, and that
her colour, form, and whole nature, which had been totally altered, was
restored delicate, fresh, and vigorous. Some who were standing by,
testified and confirmed by oath, that they had seen during the process
a black bird in the form of a thrush fly out of the mouth of the woman.
We do not publish this as a truth, because we none of us saw it, for we
do not wish to report anything but what we could in case of necessity
confirm with a good conscience, and by our priestly dignity and the
highest oath.
"This ceremony, God be praised, was throughout successfully performed,
and the aforesaid Apollonia clasped her hands together. Then the Dean
bent down towards her, took the stole out of her hands and asked her:
'Dear Apollonia, how are you now? do you now know me and the other
people?' Then the restored one tried to spring up for joy in her little
bed and throw her arms round the Dean's neck. This moistened many eyes.
But her limbs and whole body were so much torn that she had not
sufficient strength, so she clasped her hands over her head, looked up
to heaven and exclaimed three times: 'Oh Almighty and Eternal God, to
Thee be praise, honour, and glory, for ever and ever! Oh God, forgive
and pardon me for I have sinned against Thee so grievously! Oh Lord,
now will I gladly die!'"
Here concludes our extract from the pamphlet. The end of it is
edifying; the valiant Dean reaped the reward of his dangerous work by
winning the soul of Apollonia to his Church. She exhorted her husband,
and vowed a pilgrimage; and it appears that after that, the quarrelsome
couple lived together peaceably. What the religious zeal of the
narrator has added to the spiritual examination of the devil, is more
harmless than it is in many similar cases.
The tender care of both Churches for those possessed, and the pious
interest with which they regarded these victims of the devil, made
similar cases become a matter of speculation. Thus in Thuringia in
1560, a herdsman, Hans the father of Mellingen, made a great sensation.
He pretended that he had been compelled by a man of ill repute, to eat
some food which had brought him into the power of the devil; that he
had been severely handled and beaten by the devil, and showed his
stripes. He was on this account commended in pamphlets to the prayers
of Christendom. But once when he made his appearance at Nuremberg with
a bleeding ear, his hands tied behind his back with a three-coloured
cord, and there praying and begging, related his old story, that the
devil himself had thus fastened his hands, the Nurembergers, took the
matter up in earnest, and the audacity of the man sank before the
pressing cross-examination of the ecclesiastical and temporal
authorities; he acknowledged that he was a deceiver; he was placed in
the pillory, and then driven out of the town. The Nurembergers did not
fail to make known their discovery in a pamphlet.
But fierce indeed was the hatred with which was regarded, in the last
half of the century, that other connection with hell,--the old
witchcraft. Even Luther believed in witches; he mentions incidentally
that such a woman had injured his mother; and in another place was
angry with the lawyers who did not punish similar sorceresses when
they injured their fellow-creatures. But these expressions were not
intended to be very severe; he on the whole troubled himself little
with this phase of superstition. He, the copious writer, never
considered it necessary to discourse to his people concerning it; in
his sermons he only occasionally mentions witchcraft, and his whole
nature was repugnant to the application of violence. But if happily
for us, Luther's pure spirit preserved him from bitterness against
the devil's helpmates, his scholars and successors had little of his
high-mindedness. Young Protestantism was on this point little better
than the old belief. In Protestant countries the ministers of God were
by no means the only persecutors; the civil authorities were also
willing to follow the example of the ecclesiastical courts of the Roman
Catholics, and above all of the Jesuits. The victims were countless;
they amount without doubt to hundreds of thousands. It was first in the
domains of the ecclesiastical princes, that the contagion burst forth,
which devastated whole provinces as in Eichstaedt, Wuertsburg and
Cologne. In twenty villages in the vicinity of Treves, three hundred
and sixty-eight persons were executed in seven years, besides many who
were burnt in the city itself; in Brunswick the burnt stakes stood like
a little forest on the place of execution. In every province hundreds
and thousands might be counted. Every kind of baseness was practised by
the ecclesiastical and temporal judges; the most contemptible grounds
of suspicion sufficed to depopulate whole villages. No position and no
age was a security; children and the aged, learned men and even
councillors, were bound to the stake, but the greater part were
women;--we shudder when we look at the method of these condemnations.
It is not impossible, although it cannot be spoken of with certainty,
that a victim here and there did live in the mad delusion that they
were in union with the devil through magic arts; it is not impossible,
although this cannot be certified, that hurtful mediums, intoxicating
beverages and superstitious medicaments were in some cases used for the
detriment of others. But it is the strongest proof of the infamy of the
whole proceeding, that amidst the monstrous mass of old records
concerning witches, we find no ground of belief that in any case the
judgment was justified by the real misdeeds of the accused, though they
were made the excuse for it; for so great was the degree of fanaticism,
narrow-mindedness, or malice, that the mere accusation was almost
certain to be fatal. Torture was applied on the most frivolous charges;
the capability even of bearing pain was taken as evidence against those
who held out under torture; and every kind of accidental symptom,
disease of the body, outward appearance, or countless fortuitous
circumstances, were also considered as evidence. The possessions of the
condemned were confiscated; the greediness and covetousness of the
judges were united with brutality and stupidity. This fearful disorder
did not end with that century: through the whole of the sixteenth and
up to the middle of the eighteenth century these horrible judicial
murders continued. It was not till the time of the great Frederick that
they ceased.
The literary activity of the few enlightened men who ventured to speak
out in the interests of humanity against these trials for witchcraft,
was pregnant with danger. They themselves had to fear imprisonment and
the stake, and at least they incurred the hatred and the malice with
which believing fanatics assailed their opponents. One name belongs to
the sixteenth century which should ever be named with gratitude; that
of the Protestant physician _Johann Weier_, physician in ordinary to
Duke Wilhelm of Cleves, who in 1593 wrote his three volumes--'_De
praestigiis Daemonum_.' Even he believed in necromancers, who, by the
help of the devil, wrought mischief, in which case they were to fall
under the punishment of the laws; but the witches he considered as poor
miserable beldames, who, in the worst cases, only imagined themselves
to be doing the work of the devil, but were for the most part quite
innocent. His warm heart for the oppressed, and his noble indignation
against the brutality of the judges in the cases of witchcraft, made an
immense sensation. Within his limited sphere of action Weier appears to
us as a supplement to Luther. Against him also the raging orthodox crew
upraised themselves. The good effect produced by Weier's book was in a
great manner counteracted by a flood of opposition writings. But again
amidst the horrors of the Thirty years' war, Friedrich Spee, the best
of the German Jesuits, wrote secretly his '_Cautio Criminalis_,'
against the burning of heretics; he published this anonymously in a
Protestant printing-press.
The various popular transformations of the devil did not end with the
century in which Luther taught, and Weier endeavoured to banish the
stake from the place of execution. The Thirty years' war brought
forward another set of gloomy fantasies concerning him. Satan was
considered by the wild troopers as a demon who made fortresses, and
cast magic balls which could penetrate every kind of armour.
When the peace came, the war-devil withdrew into the woods, where he
taught his arts to the wild huntsmen; and when there remained nothing
in the land but an impoverished population devoid of faith and hope,
the devil was sought after in his ancient and quiet occupation--only
disturbed by the covetousness of men--as the guardian of hidden
treasures. Much money and property had been buried during the long war,
and was discovered by lucky accidents after the peace.
The poverty-stricken people lusting after gold, and unused to quiet
labour, were powerfully excited by these treasure-troves, and the hopes
of still greater. There had always been, from ancient times, treasure
seekers, and magicians who were to conjure away the evil one from the
treasure; and it is probable that this superstition had been imported
into Germany from Rome.
Gradually the popular conception of the form and working of the devil
became less vivid. In a more enlightened age it was thought wrong to
speak mockingly of him, and the greatest poet of Germany gracefully
idealized his image as it had been handed down from antiquity. Some of
the musical composers also introduced him into their operas.
Thus did the German people seek earnestly after their God at the
commencement of this great sixteenth century, and thus powerful was the
devil at the close of it. Lofty exaltation was followed by enfeebling
relaxation, and the striving after Christ, by the fear of hell; and the
opponent of the Holy One pressed himself as a spectre into the whole
life of man. Other countries were infected with these superstitions;
but in Germany, for many years, the burning of witches was almost the
only public action in which the deluded people showed a strong
spiritual interest. The want of unity, public spirit and great
political aims, was the destruction of the nation.
By the disputes of priests, the selfishness of princes, and the unhappy
political position of Germany, the course of Protestantism was checked
and the Roman Catholic reaction with fresh vigour raised its head.
Throughout the country, in politics, in the pulpit, and in the closets
of the ecclesiastics, there was more hatred than love. The minds of men
languished under a spiritless dogmatism, and the hearts of believers
were oppressed by gloomy forebodings. The wisest felt deep anxiety for
the unhappy condition of the German Fatherland, and the devout were
kept by the ecclesiastics and countless calendar-makers in continued
anxiety, and fear that the end of the world was at hand, and the
frequent interference of the devil appeared to many as an additional
sign of its approach. Meanwhile the mass of the people of all ranks
lived in a state of refined enjoyment in the then opulent country.
Luxury was great, and every kind of excess was general. Those who did
not fear the devil did not concern themselves much either about God or
his saints. It was under such aspects that the fearful century of wars
began.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: It was not till after the fifteenth century that glass
became common in windows in towns; and about the same time they began
to find out the comfort of separate rooms. And it is thought worthy of
mention, that in 1546, Luther's bedroom at the palace of Eisleben was
protected by windows that closed.]
[Footnote 2: Little Hans of Sweinichen was deprived of his post as
gooseherd because he had tried to keep the geese quiet by gagging them
with small pieces of wood.]
[Footnote 3: The Thirty years' war.]
[Footnote 4: Georg von Podiebrad, King of Bohemia, died 1471.]
[Footnote 5: A town of Silesia, near Riesenberge.]
[Footnote 6: The word house, standing alone, denotes a fortified
building in the cities of the mayoralty, in the territory of some
nobleman; in such cases it was of stone, the walls very thick, but
without foundations, and therefore easily undermined; the windows were
provided with iron gratings, and a passage ran under the roof within
the walls; sometimes there was a large empty hall between the upper
floor and the roof, in the walls of which loop-holes of different kinds
were made for arrows, or at a later period for fire-arms, and in the
fifteenth century, for light guns. These houses, especially when
situated in the country, were often surrounded by an outer wall, which
also enclosed the farm buildings. They were often inhabited by many
families of noble descent all crowded together, some were husbandmen,
others freebooters, all however had a strong feeling of aristocratic
privileges.]
[Footnote 7: A linen covering, such as would be spread over the wooden
hoops of a waggon.]
[Footnote 8: Koenig's 'Graetz in Bohemia.']
[Footnote 9: This journal, as also the whole account of Marcus
Kintsch von Zobten, is unfortunately in bad handwriting, and very much
defaced; but no one could read the fragment without emotion. There
cannot possibly be a more simple or striking description than the
following:--"As we are unjustly denied the Holy Sacrament, we hereby
testify before all, who hear, see, or read this writing, that we die in
the holy Christian faith, innocent of all that has been publicly laid
to our charge by our sovereign lord. And in making us suffer, he wrongs
us: this we testify before our God, and desire that Duke Hans, our
merciless master, may answer for it before the righteous tribunal of
God. For every one will observe, that had he any just ground of
complaint or accusation against us, he would not have condemned us so
cruelly in a dark corner; had he brought us in the light of day before
the people, his violence would have been apparent. As God Almighty, on
account of our sins, has brought this upon us, we will accept it, and
suffer patiently, and beg Him of his mercy to give us a happy end.
Amen. Written in great distress and affliction."
"Be it known, good people, that we died more from thirst than hunger."
"I, Hans Keppel, have written this, amidst all my distress and
suffering, and have my ink from the black of the burnt wick of the
light that is burning above. What God will further do with me, depends
on his grace and mercy. But if they give us no more food, we shall not
last long. May God help and support us. Amen. Hactenus Keppel."
On the day that Keppel wrote this, two of them died; and he and the
others later. This diary is given most accurately in 'Stenzel Script.
Rer.' Siles. iv.]
[Footnote 10: In 1526.]
[Footnote 11: The famous royal castle of Vissegrad on a bend of the
Danube four leagues north of Buda--Pesth.]
[Footnote 12: Ban Ladislaus von Gara was cousin to Queen Elizabeth.]
[Footnote 13: He was cousin to the queen and Ladislaus von Gara.]
[Footnote 14: The name is destroyed in the old manuscript.]
[Footnote 15: Maria Zell in Styria.]
[Footnote 16: The princess Elizabeth.]
[Footnote 17: Pfaff, a contemptuous name for a priest.]
[Footnote 18: A large stove used chiefly in Germany and Switzerland: it
was built of brown-glazed tiles cemented together; the door of it was
outside the room; it was heated by large logs of wood, and was
sometimes large enough to have beds made on it.]
[Footnote 19: For this see the 'Theologia Teuetsch,' the best work of
the time previous to the Reformation, by an unknown writer of Tanler's
school, which was in fact the main source from which Luther drew his
opinions; an admirable work even for us.]
[Footnote 20: Exhortation to the ecclesiastics collected at the Diet at
Augsburg.]
[Footnote 21: It is thus represented in the woodcut on the title-page
of a work entitled, 'Complaint of a Layman, called Hans Schwall, of the
vile abuse of Christian Life,' 521, 4.]
[Footnote 22: The similarity of his Latinized name with that of Oswald
Myconius, of Geisshaueser, teacher of Thomas Platter, is not owing to
any relationship.]
[Footnote 23: Luther writes in 1541:--"So I desire and beg of our dear
God to allow me to be sick, and to lay aside this mortal coil in your
stead; therefore I beg and admonish you in all earnestness to pray to
God together with us, that He may preserve you in life for the service
and improvement of his church, and to the confusion of the devil.
"_May the Lord never allow me to hear, as long as I live, that you are
dead, but ordain that you shall outlive me. This I earnestly pray for,
and being certified of it, will have it so, and my will shall come to
pass. Amen._"]
[Footnote 24: See 'Dr. Martin Luther's Passion,' written by Marcellus;
the author is probably the marshal of Strasbourg.]
[Footnote 25: It was the evening of the 4th March, 1522.]
[Footnote 26: A spirit supposed to haunt certain parts of Germany in
those days.]
[Footnote 27: Compare with this the beautiful passage from the 'Table
Talk:'--"If, when I first began to write, I had known what I do now, I
should never have been so bold as to attack and anger the Pope, and
almost all men. I thought they sinned only from ignorance and human
frailty; but God led me on like a horse with its eyes blinded. Good
works are seldom undertaken from wisdom or foresight; they are all
brought about unconsciously." To this Philip Melancthon answered, that
having carefully studied history, he had observed that no great or
remarkable deeds had been done by old people, but at the age when
Alexander the Great and St. Augustine did them; later, men became too
wise and circumspect. Dr. Martinus said: "Young companions, if you had
wisdom the devil could not deal with you; but because you have not, you
need ours also, who are now old. Ah, if the old were but strong, and
the young wise! Behold these factious spirits--vain young people,
Icaruses, Phaetons, who flutter in the air; chamois hunters, everywhere
and nowhere, who wish to knock down twelve ninepins when there are only
nine standing."]
[Footnote 28: Ecclesiam Romanam _pure_ colant. The double meaning
appears intentional, and seems a cunning device of Miltitz.]
[Footnote 29: That this happened designedly is betrayed in Luther's
letter to Melancthon, 13th July, 1521: "I conjure you to be beforehand
with the court, and not to follow its counsels. I have done this
hitherto; I should not have effected half that I have done had I made
myself dependent on its wishes."]
[Footnote 30: 'Table Talk.']
[Footnote 31: Geek is the German for coxcomb.]
[Footnote 32: German for tom-cat.]
[Footnote 33: Cat's head and claws.]
[Footnote 34: The buck.]
[Footnote 35: A little brat.]
[Footnote 36: With what satisfaction he thought of his death appears
from many passages in his writings--we give one--at the time of his
residence at Wartburg, from the dedication of 'The Gospel of Ten
Lepers,' the 17th September, 1521: "I, a poor brother, have again
lighted up a new fire, and have bitten a great hole in the Pope's
pocket, because I have attacked confession. Where can I now remain, and
where will they find brimstone, pitch, fire, and wood enough to
pulverize the poisonous heretic? They must assuredly break open the
church windows, for some holy fathers and ecclesiastical princes say
that they must have air to proclaim the gospels, that is, to revile
Luther, and to call out murder. What else can they preach to the poor
people? every one must preach what he can. Only death, death, death to
the heretic! they scream out--as ho would overturn all things, and
overthrow the whole ecclesiastical order, upon which rests the
foundation of Christendom. Now I hope, if I be accounted worthy, that
they may kill me, and so fill up the measure of their forefather's
sins; but it is not yet time, my hour is not yet come; I must first
anger the serpent brood still more, and justly deserve death from them,
that they may have cause to perform in me a great service to God."]
[Footnote 37: "I thank God, that I feel assured my doctrines are the
word of God and that I have been enabled to overcome grievous thoughts
and temptations, when my heart tempted by Satan has said, 'Art thou the
only one who holdest the word of God in truth and purity, and are
others altogether without it?' 'Then again, when the devil finds me
idle, and I am not thinking of the word of God, he troubles my
conscience by the thought that I have disturbed the governments, and
have occasioned much scandal and uproar; but when I lay hold of the
word of God I win the game.'" Passages like this are to be found in
many other places of the 'Table Talk.']
[Footnote 38: 'An Account of how God helped an Honourable Nun,' 1524,
p. 4.]
[Footnote 39: We find a mild judgment of the Saxon court in his 'Table
Talk,' 4: "I have again preached a sharp sermon at court against
drinking, but it does no good. Taubenheim and Minkwitz say that it
cannot be otherwise at court; for music and all knightly amusements
have passed away, and nothing is thought of now but drinking. And truly
our most gracious sovereign and Elector, John Frederic, is a gentleman
of much strength, who can well stand a good drink; what he can bear
would make another drunk. But when I return to him I will only beg of
him to command his subjects and courtiers, on pain of severe
punishment, to get very drunk; perhaps when it is commanded, they may
do the contrary."]
[Footnote 40: The passage following the one just quoted is remarkable:
"The nobles wish to govern, but have not the power, and understand
nothing about it; but the Pope not only understands how, but has the
power to govern: the weakest pope has more power to govern than ten
nobles of the court."]
[Footnote 41: Luther's 'Table Talk.']
[Footnote 42: For instance, in the year 1527, Luther could not lend
eight gulden to his old prior and friend Briesger. He writes to him
sorrowfully: "Three silver cups, marriage presents, have been mortgaged
for fifty gulden, the fourth has been sold, and the year has produced a
hundred gulden of debts. Lucas Cranach will no longer accept my
security, that I may not be quite ruined."
Luther often refused presents, even such as were offered to him by his
sovereign; but it appears that consideration for wife or children gave
him in later times somewhat more of a household feeling. What he left
at his death amounted to about eight or nine thousand gulden; it
consisted partly of a small landed property, a large garden and two
houses, which undoubtedly he must chiefly have owed to Frau Kate.]
[Footnote 43: It is in Timothy v. 11, and has no reference to this
question.]
[Footnote 44: Thus he speaks in many parts of the 'Table Talk.' His
last conversation at the supper-table of Mansfelder, in Eisleben, a few
hours before his death, was on the subject of meeting again with
father, mother, and friends in the next life.]
[Footnote 45: This discourse was spoken in Latin, and immediately
afterwards translated into German by Gasper Creutzinger.]
[Footnote 46: Christopher von Carlowitz, the confidant of the Elector
Maurice of Saxony, whose counsels he secretly guided, was at that time,
with good reason, the favourite of the Emperor, for it was he who
directed the politics of his master.]
[Footnote 47: Peilketafel, a long narrow board with a rim all round,
and two little gutters on the sides; on it they played with little
ironstones smoothed at the bottom.]
[Footnote 48: Valentin Stoientin, who had been the intimate of Ulrich
von Hutten in their youth, was then ducal councillor, and an
influential promoter of the Reformation.]
[Footnote 49: On Palm-Sunday it was the custom of the Catholics to draw
to the churchyard a large wooden ass on wheels, with a figure of Christ
as large as life upon it. After the consecration of palms the people
streamed thither. The choir of scholars sang the words of the
Evangelist, _Cum audisset populus, quia Jesus venit Hierosolymam,
acceperunt ramos palmarum_, &c. Then eight of the scholars stepped
forth, pointed to the ass, and sang aloud, _Hic est, qui venturus est_
(the lesser _Hic est_); to this the choir responded, _In salutem
populi_. Then eight other scholars pointed to the ass and sang, _Hic
est salus nostra et redemtio Israel_ (the great _Hic est_). Then eight
other scholars knelt before the ass, clasped their hands over their
heads, and sang, _Quantus est iste ad throni et dominationes occurrunt?
Noli timere, filia Sion, ecce Rex tuus._ This already was a very grand
performance for the scholars; but afterwards there came six other
scholars who knelt down, their faces to the earth, clasped their hands
of one accord over their heads, and sang the _Salve_; and when they had
finished it they went forward three steps, knelt down again, and sang
thrice, _Salve Rex, fabricator mundi_, &c. Then they drew the ass
forwards, and so on. Faithfully given from a description of the
solemnity, in the archives of St. Gallen, printed in Kessler's 'Life of
J. J. Bernet.']
[Footnote 50: The father Sastrow did not go to the communion from a
conscientious feeling, because he would not fulfil the condition of
forgiving his enemies.]
[Footnote 51: _Querela de ecclesia. Epicedion Martyrus Christi, D.
Roberti Barns, Angli. Authore Joanne Sastroviano._ Lubecae, 1542, 8;
directed against Henry VIII. of England, who in tolerable distichs was
compared to Busiris and similar ancient characters.]
[Footnote 52: The guests were counted by tables, twelve persons being
generally reckoned to each table.]
[Footnote 53: The reward to the first bearer of good news. It was the
universal custom in Germany, in the middle ages, to demand and give the
"botenbrot."]
[Footnote 54: Thomas Platter, the father, married again later, and had
six children by his second wife.]
[Footnote 55: 'Biography of Hans von Schweinichen,' v., Buesching, 1 S.
157. The host is the same Marcus Fugger who wrote the best work on the
training of horses in the sixteenth century. He himself had a large
stud, first in Hungary, and then at the foot of the Allganer Alps.]
[Footnote 56: Compare with this the beautiful characteristic of
Wilibald Pirkheimer in D Strauss Hutten, 1.]
[Footnote 57: Margaret Horng of Ernstkirchen was twice married, first
to Dr. Johann von Glauburg at Lichtenstein, then to Weicker Frosch,
both of Frankfort families.]
[Footnote 58: This refers to the presents of the bridegroom to the
female relation of the bride.]
[Footnote 59: The bridegroom was a widower.]
[Footnote 60: After the marriage feast the shoes are taken from the
feet of the bride and given to the best-man.]
[Footnote 61: Of the ceremonial of fetching home the bride, and the
festive entrance into the city of Frankfort. This fetching home took
place with a splendour which made an epoch in the patrician circles of
Frankfort. 1598.]
[Footnote 62: Goetz's method of acting is characteristic: he enters into
a quarrel with the rich Nurembergers, seeks for causes of quarrel, and
waylays their merchants. The supposition that the Nurembergers hold a
good comrade of his in durance is sufficient for him; of a like
character is the ground of offence, that they had stabbed in another
quarrel a servant whom he had wished to take into his service. There is
nothing further said of Fitz von Littwach, than that Goetz was obliged
to reconcile himself with the Nurembergers. The grounds upon which Goetz
broke bounds are in themselves remarkable, as will be perceived in the
following narrative.]
[Footnote 63: Hohenburg and Bissingen lay in the territory of
Oettingen. The Counts of Oettingen claimed to be lords paramount over
these properties.]
[Footnote 64: The princes stood by the members of their own order; and
this family, as we know, belonged to the higher nobility. Their
struggle for seigniorial rights over property occasioned many battles
in the sixteenth century; and the claims of Schaertlin appeared to them
particularly arrogant, as his nobility by birth was more than
doubtful.]
[Footnote 65: Bishop of Breslau, the crown commissary of Bohemia, under
the supremacy of which Silesia was then incorporated.]
[Footnote 66: Winds are nothing but good and bad spirits.--'Table
Talk.']
[Footnote 67: At one time Luther was inclined to think that he himself
had one or two especial devils as opponents, who lurked about him and
accompanied him to the dormitory in the cloister.--'Table Talk.']
[Footnote 68: 'The compact alliance of the world-famed Duke of
Luxemburg--General and Court-Marshal to the King of France--with Satan,
and the terrible catastrophe that followed.' Frankfort and Leipzig,
1716.]
[Footnote 69: The title of the manuscript is, 'Wonderful Tidings of a
Money Devil; a strange, incredible, yet true story. Published at
Frankfort on the Oder, where it took place, 1538, 4.']
[Footnote 70: Pfaff was the nickname of the Roman Catholic priests in
those days.]
[Footnote 71: This does not mean mushroom, still less bath sponge, as
the Dean understood it; it is the Bavarian word _Schwaim_, pronounced
_Schwam_, "The Floating Shadow."]
END OF VOL. I.
LONDON:
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AND CHARING CROSS.