Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries Volume I Part 13

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 a.s.sumed 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 princ.i.p.ally 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 Durrkragen, 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 G.o.d. 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 a.s.saults, 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 t.i.tles 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 t.i.tle, 'A terrible but quite true history, which took place between Hans Geisslbrecht, citizen at Spalt, and his wife Apollonia, in the bishopric of Eystatter. 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 G.o.d 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 Sat.u.r.day 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 G.o.d 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 Sat.u.r.day 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 Sat.u.r.day 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 G.o.dless 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 G.o.d 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--_c.u.m 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d's grace a better time and opportunity should occur. He commanded that they should watch a.s.siduously 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 compa.s.sion.

"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 th.o.r.n.y and dangerous business.

"Meanwhile, it came to pa.s.s that a young Lutheran, a queer preaching fellow, Johannas Bauerlein, 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 G.o.d! 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 G.o.d.' 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 G.o.d 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 c.u.m 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 viatic.u.m 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.' 'G.o.d 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! G.o.d grant we may soon lay hold of Schwamm, and send him down to Lucifer in h.e.l.l, 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, G.o.dly bond shall now bind thee down in the abyss of h.e.l.l, 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 mult.i.tude, 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 a.s.sistants, 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 G.o.d a _modus conjurationis_ so lofty and so exceeding well grounded on the holy, G.o.dly Scripture, and with such a.s.siduity 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 n.o.ble exorcism, which lasted some time, the evil spirit did not make any especial bl.u.s.tering, 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, G.o.d 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 G.o.d, to Thee be praise, honour, and glory, for ever and ever! Oh G.o.d, 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 h.e.l.l,--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 superst.i.tion. 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 G.o.d 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 Eichstadt, Wurtsburg 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 superst.i.tious 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 ma.s.s 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 a.s.sailed their opponents. One name belongs to the sixteenth century which should ever be named with grat.i.tude; 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 n.o.ble 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 b.a.l.l.s 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 l.u.s.ting 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 superst.i.tion 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 G.o.d 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 h.e.l.l; and the opponent of the Holy One pressed himself as a spectre into the whole life of man. Other countries were infected with these superst.i.tions; 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 ma.s.s 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 G.o.d 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 gla.s.s 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 n.o.bleman; 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 pa.s.sage 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 n.o.ble 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: Konig's 'Gratz 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 G.o.d, and desire that Duke Hans, our merciless master, may answer for it before the righteous tribunal of G.o.d. 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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.]