Bartholomew Sastrow Part 4

I have already recounted the pitiful end of Rolof Moller; the whole of his line was overtaken with similar punishment. His eldest son, George, who had been my schoolfellow at Rostock, was only a stripling when he caught a nameless disease through frequenting a certain cla.s.s of women.

He wanted to play the young country squire, did little work and spent much. His stepfather took him away from his studies, and sent him to England to learn the language of the country, and then to Antwerp, to get an insight into business. The young fellow, however, continued his spendthrift ways, and it became necessary to recall him. Rolof Moller's second son, for a mere trifle, stabbed in the open street his cousin with whom he had been drinking claret at an apothecary's. The name of Moller is fated to be extinguished in a short time.

What shall I say about Burgomaster Lorbeer, the instigator of the three riots, and especially of the third against Smiterlow? Everybody is aware of the contempt into which he fell even during his lifetime, and of the horrible malady that carried him slowly to the grave. After his death his wife and daughters still believed themselves to be the masters, as in the days when visiting an estate of the city they were greeted with the formula of reception, "Be welcome, dear ladies, on thy lands," and when the pa.s.sers-by hailed them with a "G.o.d preserve you, young and dear burgomasters." This deference had inflated their presumption to such an extent that they lost all respect for both the council and the law courts. They ended up by exhausting the Divine patience.

The master-miller Nicholas Hildebrand was not the least influential among the Forty-Eight. A busybody, self-interested, he meddled with everything that could bring water to his milldam. Having had certain private reasons for retiring to Wolgast, he intrigued so barefacedly as to compel the duke to imprison him; and inasmuch as n.o.body dreamt of interceding for him, he spent the whole winter in a cell. At his discharge his legs were frost-bitten and he was eaten up with vermin.

Another active and restless firebrand, the erewhile tailor Marschmann, who came to Wolgast to escape his creditors, kept Hildebrand company the whole of the winter. Knigge took to making false coin; but for Doctor Gentzkow, whose step-daughter he had married, the capital sentence pa.s.sed on him would not have been commuted into banishment.

Christian Herwig died in abject misery. They had given him the nickname of Count Christian, because in his prosperous days he strutted about in his best dress, one hand on his hip, and taking up the whole width of the street by himself. His wife became an inmate of the St. John's Asylum. One of his daughters, a downright slattern, had to beg her bread and was found dead one morning; the rest vegetated in the most sordid conditions. Nicholas Loewe, a quarrelsome creature who tried to look like a captain in his white dress set off with red velvet, in the end considered himself lucky at the St. John's Asylum to don the grey small clothes provided for him by charity. Long before his death he became stone blind. His daughter Anna was the talk of the town. I could easily extend this list, for, as far as I recollect, not one of those sedition-mongers escaped the punishment inflicted by the Almighty on rebels unto the third and fourth generations.

Stralsund, there is no doubt, is likely to feel for a long while the pernicious effects of Rolof Moller; but just as history praises Cambyses, that arch-tyrant, _monstrum hominis el vera cloaca diaboli_ for having ordered the death of the prevaricating judge and for having had his skin nailed on the judgment seat; so on one point, and on one only, are the sedition-mongers ent.i.tled to commendation. They replaced the banquets of the burgomaster and the councillors by presents of goldsmith's work or by a piece of silver. Nowadays the city receives from the burgomaster a piece of silver-gilt; a councillor merely gives a piece of silverwork. The guilds have also done away with the banquets of reception and election. Instead of foolishly wasting their money in gormandizing, the new dean or the new companion offers a present of silver which does duty at the fetes and gatherings, so that nowadays the wooden and pewter goblets have made room for silver tankards. On Twelfth Night the council and the corporations make a display of their treasure, to show to the public that it is not only intact, but increased.

After the tragedy of the Pa.s.sion comes the glory of Easter Day.

Nicholas Smiterlow had suffered civil death; and among certain individuals on the magistrates' bench the pa.s.sword had gone round to prevent his resurrection. When, however, the disastrous issue of the war but too plainly confirmed the prophecies of the old burgomaster, the ironical nickname of "pacific" became the chief claim to his glory.

Councillors and burghers in plenary meeting a.s.sembled, dispatched two of the former to him with the request for him to repair to the Town Hall. Burgomaster Lorbeer tried to stop the mission by rubbing his arm and saying that the letter of avowal signed by Smiterlow was a most indispensable doc.u.ment on that occasion, inasmuch as it was a question of annulling it. His attempt to redress the balance of his own game by a delay of twenty-four hours was a failure. His objection was simply put aside, and the secretary went at once to Blumenow's for the said letter, together with the pact imposed by the Forty-Eight. When Smiterlow entered the council-room all the burghers cried, "Here is our beloved father, Nicholas the Pacific." He was conducted to his former seat, above Lorbeer's; they begged him to give them the help of his experience, and they promised that henceforth he should be exempt from all missions and emba.s.sies. Standing on the treasury chest, so as to afford a sight to everybody, the secretary tore the famous agreement into two, and detached Smiterlow's seal from it. But the burghers were not at all satisfied, and shouted to him to stick his penknife into and to lacerate the letter of avowal in a similar fashion. And thus ended the domination of the Forty-Eight.

Faithful--perhaps too faithful--to his habit, the ex-Augustine monk Berckmann limns Smiterlow in the falsest colours. He fancies he is using irony when he exclaims, "Burgomaster Nicholas Smiterlow was a fine specimen of a man, conscious of his own worth, handsome, eloquent, prudent and wise, and enjoying much consideration from princes and n.o.bles." It so happens that all this is simply so much bare truth, and added to all these merits, Smiterlow had the fear of G.o.d and a wide knowledge of the Scriptures. The _Annales_ of Master Gerhard Droege quote him as the oldest patron and protector of the Evangelical ministries; hence, everything that Berckmann writes in connexion with or about him is inexact. Here is an instance. Berckmann states that Smiterlow was confined to his bed twelve weeks, while in reality he was taken ill one Sunday and died the next Tuesday, in 1539. His son George, my junior by a twelvemonth, was burgomaster for twenty-two years. He had inherited all his father's virtues; he went through similar ordeals, and was vouchsafed the same comforts from on high, and I see no reason to modify my letter to Duke Ernest Ludwig. That prince, egged on by the caballers of his court, exclaimed at the news of Smiterlow's demise, "I had two enemies at Stralsund. Smiterlow is dead, and the devil will soon take Sastrow." I wrote to His Highness as follows:

"Gracious prince and lord,--The defunct burgomaster was neither bad naturally nor of base condition. His loyalty towards your Highness and Stralsund never failed, as could be proved by his numerous services. If he could have changed a farthing into a florin to the advantage of the city he would unquestionably have done so. Neither he nor his ever cheated the treasury. Hard-working, just and incorruptible, his speech expressing the feelings of his heart he, was a slave to duty, and severe or lenient as circ.u.mstances and persons dictated. Not at all obstinate, he was particularly amenable to reason, for the public weal was his sole guide. He administered the law with the strictest impartiality. A foe to dissipation and excess, he led a useful and retired life; though frugal and saving, he never remained behind where honour demanded the spending of money. The greatest harmony prevailed between him, his wife, and his servants. Though he had not pursued the ordinary course of studies, he was endowed with supreme wisdom. He had a most wonderful memory, and an equally wonderful gift of elocution. As a loyal subject, I can but address to G.o.d one prayer. The King of the Persians, Darius, prayed for as many zopyres as a pomegranate contains pips; may your Highness be enabled to count as many Smiterlows in the city and in the fields, not to mention the court; and while including the latter I wish to cast no reflection on any one. What then are we to think of those who dare to slander the defunct and to blacken his character in your Highness' eyes, besides causing grief to his wife, his children and his friends?"

Everybody on the other hand would freely admit that Rolof Moller was overbearing, presumptuous, crafty, greedy, ungrateful, relentless, and turbulent. Smiterlow and Moller were so utterly different in character as to be unable to breathe the same air. At the council, in church, nay in the city itself, the presence of one was sufficient to drive away the other. Great, therefore, was the surprise when George Smiterlow married Moller's niece. How would people, for whom the s.p.a.ce of a large city seemed insufficient, agree under the same roof, at the same board, in the same bed? What strange _communicatio idiomatum_ was going to result from that marriage? Hence, I should openly disadvise the election of such a Smiterlow for the council, and least of all should I make him a burgomaster, for they have many more of their mother's than of the father's characteristics; _in hac lucta duarum diversarum naturarum_ the Mollers appear to have had the advantage.

Nevertheless, this new generation is still sufficiently young to be susceptible of improvement. From the bottom of my heart I wish it may be so, for the sake both of its reputation and its welfare.

I have written the foregoing pages somewhat oppressed by the thought of the ill-will I am drawing on my devoted head in praising Smiterlow at the expense of Rolof Moller. The descendants of the latter will never forgive me. But I derive consolation and strength from the appreciation of educated men. They know that the historian's duty is to go straight for his aim, and to proclaim the truth, whether for good or evil, whether it pleases or displeases, and let come what may. I recommend to my children submission to the authorities, no matter whether Pilatus or Caiaphas governs. For the good of their soul and the welfare of their body they ought never to make pacts with sedition-mongers.

CHAPTER IV

Dr. Martin Luther writes to my Father--My Studies at Rostock and at Greifswald--Something about my hard Life at Spires--I am admitted as a Public Notary--Dr. Hose

My parents recalled me in 1538, having discovered that at Greifswald I more often accompanied my grandfather in his strolls than sat over my books. I attended school during the stay of a twelvemonth at the paternal home.

One instance will show into what kind of hands the chief power had fallen. In 1539, Duke Philip, travelling to Rugen with his wife, made his first entry into Stralsund, and Burgomaster Christopher Lorbeer, who fancied himself to be the incarnation of eloquence, made the following speech to him: "Philip, by the grace of G.o.d, Duke of Stettin, Pomerania, of the Ca.s.subes and the Wends, Prince of Rugen, and Count of Gutzkow, the council is indeed very pleased to see you. Be welcome." In subsequent days I have often been chaffed about this speech; usher Michael Kussow, among others, never opened the door to me without crying out, the moment he caught sight of me, "And indeed Philip, by the grace of G.o.d ..."

My brother Johannes had been admitted _magister_--the first of thirteen--at Wittemberg, and on leaving he brought with him a letter from Dr. Luther to my father, who, in consequence of the Bruser-Leveling lawsuit, had stayed away for many years from the Communion table. The letter was couched as follows: "To the honourable guildmaster, Nicholas Sastrow, my good friend: Grace and peace be with you. Your dear son, _magister_ Johannes, after having expressed to me his sorrow at your having kept away for many years from the Holy Communion table--which absence is calculated to create a bad example--has requested me to rescue you from that dangerous path. Not one hour of our lives in reality belongs to ourselves. His filial solicitude, therefore, induced me to send you these present lines. Let me exhort you as a Christian, as a brother, according to the precept of Christ, to change your resolution, and well to remember the much greater sufferings of the Son of G.o.d, who forgave His executioners.

Bear in mind that at your last hour you will be bound to forgive, as a brigand who is tied to the gallows forgives. Wait for the decision of the court before whom your suit is pending, but do not forget that nothing prevents you from partic.i.p.ating in the Holy Supper. If it were otherwise I myself and our princes would have to remain away from the Holy Board until our differences with the papists be settled. Leave the matter in the hands of the law, and say to yourself for the comfort of your conscience: 'It is the judge's place to decide where lies the right; meanwhile, I forgive those who have wronged me and I will partake of the Holy Communion.' You consider yourself as having been wronged. You have had recourse to the courts; it is they who shall decide. Nothing can be more simple. Take in a friendly spirit this exhortation which was prompted to me at the instance of your son. May G.o.d watch over you, Amen. Wednesday after _Miser. Dni_. 1540. Martinus Luther."

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARTIN LUTHER. _From a Drawing by_ Lucas Cranach.]

I trust my descendants will transmit religiously from generation to generation the autograph of the saintly man to whom the whole world owes grat.i.tude and affection. Together with this letter, and as a proof of the wise outlay of the paternal allowance, my brother brought home with him a number of his _poemata_ printed in a volume. My parents'

means not admitting of his being maintained in a foreign land, he spent nearly four years at home, studying all the while. Besides the _Progymnasmata quaedam_, issued from the Lubeck press in 1538, he published in 1542 at Rostock an _Elegia de officio principis_ dedicated to Duke Magnus of Mecklenberg; and in the same year at Lubeck, a _Querela de Ecclesia_ and the _Epicidion Martyris Christi Doctoris Ruberti Barns_, which caused a good deal of trouble both to him and his printer.[25]

At the advice of my brother, my parents sent me to study at Rostock with Arnoldus Burenius and Henricus Lingensis. My brother, who became intimately acquainted with the latter, wrote to him that I had already gone through the ceremony of initiation; but the students found out that since then I had gone back to school at Stralsund, and each day my entrance at the _lectorium_ caused a fearful tumult.[26] The _depositor_ having pulled me by my cloak, I hurled a large inkstand which I happened to have in my hand at him. The ink soaked his long grey mantle with black fastenings, a fashionable garment of the time.

Verily, I got my reward, when, for the sake of peace, I submitted a second time to the ordeal. It literally rained blows. The _depositor_ pressed my upper lip with his wooden razor and the wound was a long while healing, for no sooner did it close up than my food, and, above all, salted things inflamed it once more.

The two _magistri_ directed in common the purses (scholarships or otherwise) of the Arnsburg, which was the most numerous, as it consisted of thirty students. We took our meals at Jacob Broecker's, and we paid sixteen florins per annum for our breakfast and two other meals, _plus_, in the summer afternoons, some curdled milk or other refreshments.

At the end of two years my parents complained of the expense involved in my stay at Rostock; they were, moreover, displeased at my leaning towards theology. In fact, I felt neither old enough nor sufficiently advanced in learning to choose between the different faculties, but being unwilling to relinquish my studies I exposed my difficult position to my tutors, who at once decided to forego their fees, and also induced our host Broecker to feed me for eight florins per annum.

Truly, I had to lay the table, attend at meals, to clear it, and in addition to this to look after young Broecker, who was about my size and who was afterwards confined at Ribbenitz, to dress and undress him, to clean his shoes and to arrange his books. On the other hand, there were certain services to be rendered to _magister_ H. Lingenfis. I had to brush his shoeleather, make his bed, keep his room heated, accompany him to church and to other places, and to carry his lantern in winter.

It seemed very hard to me at first not to be served any longer, and not to sit down to meals with my college chums, but there was no help for it.

Besides, we had fallen into good hands. Arnoldus Burenius read us twice Cicero's _Offices_, which he interpreted in a thoroughly artistic manner, and afterwards the orations _pro Milone_, _pro rege Deiotaro_, _pro Marco Marcello_, _pro Roscio Amerino_, _pro domo sua_, and the _de Aruspic.u.m responsis_, the _Epistolae familiares_, the long and beautiful chapter _ad Quintum fratrem_, the _Rhetorica ad Herennium_, etc. His colleague expounded Terence, the _Dialectica Molleri_, even the _Sphaera Joannis de Sacrobusto_, the _Theoriae planetarum_, the _Computum ecclesiastic.u.m Spangenbergii_, the _libellus de Anima Philippi_, and finally he presided over useful _exercitia styli et disputationum_.

My bedroom fellows were Franz von Stetten and Johannes Vegesack, the nephew of the Bishop of Dorpat, who kept him on a grand footing, and allowed him the staff of servants of a grand seigneur rather than that of a youngster. Vegesack practised all kind of sword-play, but I have heard that after the death of the bishop, he became a schoolmaster in Livonia. My private tutor, Danquart, coached him in the _praecepta grammaticae_, gave him themes to treat in German, and corrected his exercises.

The money we received from our parents had to be handed to our tutor Lingenfis; he gave it back to us as we needed it. We were bound to make notes of even our most trifling expenses. My tutors showed much interest in me, either out of consideration for my brother or because of my own unwearied application. I, on the other hand; served them zealously and faithfully, and was always at their bidding. The cross looks of my fellow-students, however, suggested the advisability of a change of residence; my brother counselled Greifswald.

In 1540 Duke Philip came to Greifswald for the ceremony of receiving homage. The exiles came with him; some held the tail, others the harness of his horse. My father was specially invited by the prince to hold the stirrup. The duke took up his quarters at Hannemann's, his wife with the Stoentins. Frau Stoentin, her daughter, her grandson, and all the relatives, when doing obeisance to the princess, claimed the upholding of the decree of expulsion against my father. The d.u.c.h.ess specially recommended two of her princ.i.p.al officers to transmit the request to her august spouse; but the latter's reply effectually prevented her from returning to the charge, and the gates of Greifswald were reopened to my father.

I left Rostock in 1541. My stay at home was, nevertheless, very short.

I soon transferred myself and my books to Greifswald, where I rented a room with Joachim Loewenhagen, the pastor that was to be of St.

Nicholas' at Stralsund. Master Anthony Walter who shortly afterwards became rector of the Paedagogium of Stettin, instructed me in the _Dialectica Caesarii_. Master Kismann explained and interpreted Ovid's _Fasti_.

On Christmas Day, 1541, a vessel hailing from Colberg, and laden with barrels for Falsterbo, anch.o.r.ed at Stralsund. The coopers were in a great state of excitement, declared an embargo, and would not even allow the cargo to be sold at Stralsund.[27] In vain did the council guarantee proceedings against the purchaser of that merchandise; they went on agitating, refused to buy the barrels themselves, and replied with blows to those who spoke common sense. One burgher died from the consequences of their ill-treatment. They finally destroyed the barrels. Five people were arrested. Johannes Vogt, their dean, fled to Garpenhagen, but he was brought back to Stralsund and placed under lock and key. There was but a narrow escape from the executioner's sword.

The coopers were summoned to the Town Hall, where the prisoners made their appearance with the iron collar round their necks and their hands and feet fettered. The corporation was fined four marks per head. Its privileges were withdrawn; it had, moreover, to rebuild at its own expense part of the city walls.

I have already mentioned that my brother _Magister Joannes_, had various _poemata_ published at Lubeck and Rostock. From the latter city he returned by stage coach to Stralsund in company of Heinrich Sonnenberg and a woman. By their side rode Johannes Lagebusch and a good-looking young man, Hermann Lepper, who had been to the mint at Gadebusch to exchange 100 old florins for new coin. That money was in the carriage. A gang of thieves, or rather highwaymen, got wind of the affair. In consequence of the mild laws of repression, these gentry swarmed throughout Mecklenburg, and the names of the n.o.blest families figured among them, which fact gave substance to the poet who wrote:

n.o.bilis et nebulo parvo discrimine distant, Sic nebulo magnus n.o.bilis esse potest.

Of course these lines do not apply to many honourable personages belonging to the n.o.bility. But to return to my story.

When the travellers had got beyond the village of Willers.h.a.gen they left the coach, and, provided with their firearms proceeded on foot, for the country was by no means safe. Instead of prudently escorting the vehicle the two hors.e.m.e.n went on in front. The brigands came up with them and entered into conversation. Suddenly one of them s.n.a.t.c.hed the loaded pistol Lagebusch was carrying at his saddle-bow--the fashion of carrying two had not come in--fired it at Lepper, who was galloping back to the carriage, killing him there and then, while Lagebusch set spurs to his horse in time to warn Sonnenberg, who hid himself in the brushwood. My brother, armed with a pole, and standing with his back against the carriage to prevent an attack from behind, offered a stout and not unsuccessful resistance. He managed to wound in the thigh an a.s.sailant who, carried away by his horse, bit the dust further up the road. But another miscreant, charging furiously, sliced away a piece of my brother's skull as big as a crown (the fragment of bone that adhered to the skin was the size of a ducat), and at the same time dealt him a deep gash at the throat. As a matter of course, my brother lost consciousness; nay, was left for dead while the bandits sacked the carriage, caught the horse of their wounded comrade, but seeing that he could not be transported, abandoned him and decamped with their spoil.

They, however, did not take the carriage team. In a little while Sonnenberg emerged from his hiding-place, and, with the aid of the driver, hauled my brother into the carriage. The woman bandaged his head and kept it on her knees. Lepper's body was placed between the legs of the wounded young man, and in that condition they reached Ribbenitz, where the surgeon closed the gash in the neck by means of pins.

The Rostock council promptly sent its officials to the spot. The brigand was conveyed to the city, but almost immediately after his being lodged in prison, he died without naming his accomplices. There was, moreover, no great difficulty in finding them out, but their friends succeeded in hushing up the whole affair; the authorities acted very mildly. The dead robber was nevertheless judged and beheaded. His head remained for many years exposed on a pike.

Lagebusch brought the news to Stralsund, and the Council immediately offered my father a closed carriage with four horses. We started that same night, provided with mattresses, and reached Ribbenitz next morning after daybreak. My brother was very weak. While the horses were stabled and after the court had drawn up a detailed report, we gave Lepper an honourable and Christian burial. We began our homeward journey at dusk, going slowly all through the night, and got to Stralsund at midday. Master Joachim Gelhaar attended to my brother, but in spite of his acknowledged skill, he did not succeed in curing the wound of the neck; the improvement of one day was counteracted the next. In the end they discovered that the surgeon of Ribbenitz had closed the wound askew; the edges did not join, and one had been flattened by means of a large copper pin, the head of which had disappeared. Master Joachim repaired the mischief, not without causing great pain to his patient, who, however, promptly regained his health.

After reading the _Epicedion Ruberti Barns_, the King of England sent amba.s.sadors to threaten Lubeck, the book having been issued from Johannes Balhorn's presses. Although the author had no connexion with the city, the council nevertheless apologized for him on the ground of his youth. He had simply aimed at giving a _specimen doctrinae_, but to pacify the king, Balhorn was banished, and had to leave the city at sunrise. He was allowed to return a few months later.

The costly Bruser lawsuit had deprived my parents of the means of sending us to study in foreign countries, so they bought two horses and dispatched me and my brother to Spires to watch the progress of the affair, and to do as best we could for ourselves. We started from Stralsund on June 14, 1542. Our parents accompanied us as far as Greifswald, where we stopped one day to bid good-bye to our grandmother and the rest of the family. I was in high spirits. Johannes was dull and depressed. "Dear son," said our mother, "why this sadness? Look at Bartholomai, how gay he is." "My brother," replied Johannes, "has no care weighing on his mind; he has no thought for the future."

We made for Stettin, then for Berlin and Wittemberg; in fact, "we rode straight on," as people say. At Wittemberg, Johannes ran against Dr.

Martin Luther, standing before the bookshop near the cemetery. Dr.

Luther shook hands with me. Philip Melanchthon and other learned personages gave us letters of introduction to the procurators and advocates of Spires.

Half-way between Erfurt and Gotha there is a big inn where we halted for half a day to rest our horses and to mend our clothes. We settled our bill before going to bed. Next morning on reaching Gotha my brother found he had lost his purse; he had left it under his pillow. It was a great misfortune, for we were not overburdened with means, and the look of the inn left but little hope of getting our own back again.

Immediately after my horse had had its feed, I retraced my steps, galloping all the way. When I reached the hotel I tied up my horse and in the twinkling of an eye ran up to the room with the servant at my heels. We both flung ourselves on the purse. I had the luck of laying hands on it first, but I fancied he was ent.i.tled to a tip. If either the girl or the young man had come near the bed after our going we should have never seen our money again.

In spite of the gathering darkness, I was in the saddle again, for it would have been unwise to spend the night alone under such a roof. Half a mile (German) farther there was a nice village, and as night had set in altogether I made up my mind to stop there. The inn was full of peasants. It happened to be Sunday, and these worthy folk, who had noticed my riding by like possessed two hours before, said to each other: "Well, we were mistaken after all. It's His Highness'

messenger." Thereupon the host told the servant to look to my horse; nothing would induce him to let me do it myself. He, moreover, insisted on my sitting down to the table immediately; they brought me boiled and roast meats and excellent wine. The peasants in their turn show me all kinds of attentions, and when I mention the settlement of my bill before going to bed, the host declares that he could not hear of such a thing, and moreover swears by all his household G.o.ds that he'll not let me go in the morning without a good basin of soup, and that if I were to stay for a week he would not accept a farthing, because he could never do enough for his gracious prince. They put me into a very white and very soft bed, where I slept long and soundly.

While I was enjoying every comfort, my poor brother was bemoaning his imprudence of having sent me to look for the purse. I did not know the country, the hotel had a queer appearance. I had not returned, although it had been settled that the town gates should be opened to let me pa.s.s. My brother's anxiety may therefore be readily imagined. He dispatched an express messenger with a description of myself, and that of the horse; the messenger pa.s.sed the inn at the very moment I was starting. He recognized me and informed me of my brother's anxiety.