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THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 


VOL.  X. 


Demy  8vo.     25s.  per  2  J'ols. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE 

at  the 

Close  of  the  Middle  Ages.     By  Johannes  Janssen. 

Vols.  I.  and  II.  translated  by  M.  A.  Mitchell    and 

A.  M.  Christie. 

Vols.  III.— X.  translated  by  A.  M.  Christie. 

LONDON  : 

KEGAN  PAUL,  TRENCH,  TRUBNER   &  CO. 

Ltd. 

J^GH 


HISTORY  OF  THE 
GERMAN  PEOPLE 
AT  THE  CLOSE  OF 
THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

By  Johannes  J anssen 

vol.  x. 

LEADING     UP    TO    THE    THIRTY 
YEARS'   WAR 


TRANSLATED  BY  A.  M.  CHRISTIE 


LONDON 
KEGAN    PAUL.    TRENCH.    TRUBNER  &   CO.    V 
DRYDEN    HOUSE,    GERRARD    STREET,    W. 
1906 


TRANSLATOB'S   NOTE. 

These  Volumes  (IX.  and  X.)  are  translated  from 
Vol.  V.  of  the  German  [Fifteenth  and  Sixteenth  Editions, 
improved  and  added  to  by  Ludwig  Pastor']. 


(The  rights  of  translation  and  of  rt production  are  reserved. 


CONTENTS 


OF 


THE     TENTH     VOLUME 


BOOK  II 

THE   INFLUENCE   OF    RELIGIOUS   CONTROVERSY   ON    THE 
PEOPLE   AND  ON  THE  EMPIRE   UP  TO   THE  YEAR  1618 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  '  Magdeburg  Centuries  '  and  the  use  made  of  them — 

Fabulous  Stories  circulated  against  the  Papacy   .       1 

Luther's  exhortation  to  show  up  the  Papacy  by  means  of 
history,  1-3. 

Flacius  Ulyricus — His  catalogue  of  witnesses  to  truth 
('  Catalogus  testium  veritatis,'  &c),  4-6. 

The  '  Magdeburg  Centuries  ' — Cutter  Flacianus — Collabo- 
rators and  propagators  of  the  '  Centuries  ' — Aim  of  this 
work — The  antiquity  of  Lutheran  doctrine  and  the  history 
of  the  '  Roman  Antichrist,'  6-12. 

The  '  Centuries  "  on  Gregory  VII.  and  Alexander  III. — The 
Emperor  Frederick  Barbarossa  '  trodden  under  foot '  by 
Alexander — Other  Pope-fables  of  the  '  Centuries ' — Protes- 
tant opinions  on  the  Popes  in  general,  12-19. 

How  the  preachers  taught  the  people  history  from  the 
pulpit — Sermons  about  the  Popes — The  aim  of  this  kind 
of  preaching — The  Antichrist  and  his  followers  pray  to  the 
devil,  and  will  be  carried  off  by  the  devil,  19-32. 

The  fable  of  the  Popess  Joan — The  Ulrich  fable,  and  how 
it  was  used  for  the  embellishment  of  sermons — The  cess- 
pool of  Satan,  32-37. 

The  La  Casa  fable — Praise  of  the  '  Bienenkorb,'  37-39. 

II.  Fischart's  '  Bienenkorb  ' 40 

Origin  of  the  work — Its  calumnies,  in  especial  against  the 
Holy  Communion  and  the  Holy  Mass — Further  description 
of  this  work — Its  wide  circulation,  40-43. 


vi  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

How  Fischart  incensed  the  Protestant  populace  against  the 

Catholics,  48-49. 
Fischart's  brother-in-arms,  George  Nigrinus — Portents  and 

prodigies,  and  expectation  of  the  end  of  the  world,  50-51. 

III.  Campaign  against  the  Improved  Calendar — 'Supernatural 

Apparitions'  during  the  'Calendar  Controversy'  .     52 

The  Calendar  reform  of  Gregory  XIII.  in  1582 — The  papal 
bull — The  Protestant  astronomers  Tycho  de  Brahe  and 
John  Kepler  consider  this  reform  necessary,  52-57. 

Whence  the  opposition  to  it  chiefly  came,  and  for  what 
reasons :  the  theologian  Lucas  Osiander  on  the  object  of 
the  new  Calendar — The  memorandum  of  the  astronomer 
Plieninger  and  a  lunar  wonder  in  Lorraine — Another 
lunar  wonder  in  favour  of  the  old  Calendar  in  the  Voigtland 
— Against  the  '  Jesuitical  sophists  '  who  do  not  believe  in 
such  wonders — '  Wonders  '  in  favour  of  the  new  Calendar, 
57-67. 

Pamphlet  of  the  astronomer  Mastlin  and  the  Day  of  Judg- 
ment, 67-71. 

The  whole  new  system  of  astronomy  a  wretched  piece  of 
work — Copernicus  '  a  fool ' — The  people  incensed  against 
the  new  Calendar — Results  of  incensing  the  people — A 
Christmas  scene  at  Frankfort -on-the-Main,  71-74. 

IV.  Polemical  Activity  of  Individual  Converts — Conversion 

of  a  Reigning  Prince — Controversial  Books  con- 
cerning the  Person  of  Luther — Contemporary  Judg- 
ments on  Polemics 75 

The  Calendar -wonders  a  mere  '  drop  in  the  ocean  of  marvels  ' 
which  had  occurred  since  the  proclamation  of  the  new 
evangel — Demon- wonders  and  the  converts — Divine  judg- 
ments, 76-77. 

The  '  Christlicher  Gegenbericht '  of  the  convert  Frederick 
Staphylus,  and  how  it  was  refuted  by  Protestant  theo- 
logians, 78-83. 

Utzinger  and  Fischart  on  '  faithless  apostates  ' — The  con- 
vert James  Rabe  against  John  Marbach  and  the  preachers, 
84-88. 

John  Nas  one  of  the  most  prolific  polemical  writers — 
Reminiscences  of  his  youth — His  first  incentive  to  con- 
troversy— Rauscher's  '  Hunched  Popish  Lies,'  and  other 
calumnies — '  The  Centuries  of  Nas  ' — His  remarks  on  the 
tone  of  his  polemics,  88-97. 

'  Anatomy  des  ganzen  Luthertums  vom  Teufel  gestiftet,'  98. 


CONTENTS   OF   THE   TENTH   VOLUME  vii 

CHAPTER  TAGE 

Fischart  against  Nas,  98-101. 

Nas  on  the  demoralising  effects  of  Protestantism  and  the 
fruits  of  the  doctrine  of  '  faith  only,'  102-104. 

His  quarrel  with  Matthias  Ritter  about  the  statement : 
•  Omnis  Lutherana  meretrix ' — Perverted  quotations,  105- 
111. 

'  The  evangelical  weathercock,'  and  how  James  Heerbrand 
proceeded  against  it,  111-113. 

Sebastian  Flasch  on  the  reasons  of  his  conversion  and  the 
lives  of  the  preachers — Luther  a  thoroughly  obscene 
person,  113-116. 

The  convert  John  Pistorius  and  his  relations  to  the  Mar- 
grave James  III.  of  Baden-Hochberg — The  Margrave's 
religious  doubts — Religious  discussion  at  Baden  in  1589 — 
James  Andrea  against  Pistorius— Religious  discussion  at 
Emmendingen — John  Pappus  and  his  appeal  to  St. 
Augustine — Utterances  of  the  latter  against  the  doctrine 
of  '  faith  alone,'  116-123. 

Margrave  James  on  the  reasons  of  his  conversion — His 
death  in  1590,  and  the  seizure  of  his  family  and  his  land 
by  the  Margrave  Ernest  Frederic — The  latter  acts  in 
conjunction  with  neighbouring  Protestant  princes — A  con- 
temporary on  the  proceedings,  123-130. 

John  Pistorius  takes  up  polemics,  especially  against  Luther's 
'  Seven  Qualities  '  and  the  '  Changeableness  of  the  Augs- 
burg Confession ' — Lucas  Osiander's  '  Sweet-smelling  Rose- 
wreath  '  and  the  '  Friendly  Dissection  '  of  the  same  by 
Michael  Anisius — George  Ecker's  '  Mahommedan  Nettle- 
wreath  ' — How  Osiander  answers  his  critics — William 
Holder's  '  Ausgewaidete  Maus,'  130-138. 

Pistorius  causes  immense  excitement  in  1595  by  the  first 
part  of  the  '  Anatomy  of  Luther  ' — Counter- writings  by 
Samuel  Huber,  Cyriacus  Spangenberg,  and  the  Wiirtem- 
berg  and  Hessian  theologians — Repetition  of  every  imagin- 
able Pope-fable — The  '  Small  Consolation -book  '  of  Pis- 
torius— Second  part  of  the  '  Anatomy  of  Luther,'  138-148. 

The  controversialist  Conrad  Vetter  and  his  imitation  of  the 
preachers'  language  in  his  little  treatise  against  Luther 
and  the  preachers — What  Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria 
adduces  in  favour  of  Conrad  Vetter,  149-158. 

Catholic  and  Protestant  utterances  concerning  the  savagery 
which  characterised  the  polemical  writings — A  preacher's 
appeal  to  the  example  of  Luther — George  Nigrinus 
against  '  the  sect  of  the  Epicureans  '  who  call  for  '  a  truce 
to  the  squabblings  of  scholars,'  158-163. 


viii  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Andreas  Lang's  publication,  '  Well-grounded  and  Right 
Instruction  on  Salvation,'  one  of  the  most  outrageously- 
slanderous  books  against  Catholics,  is  championed  by  the 
Protestant  Estates  in  defiance  of  an  Imperial  order  based 
on  an  appeal  to  the  Religious  Pacification,  164-170. 

V.  Controversies  concerning  the  Permanent  Validity  of 
the  Religious  Pacification — Should  Faith  be  Kept 
with  the  Heretics  ? — Punishment  of  Heretics         .   171 

Complaints  of  the  Catholic  Estates  concerning  Catholic  con- 
troversialists, 171. 
George    Eder's    '  Evangelical  Inquisition  ' — A    '  Dance    of 
Heretics ' — '  Ends   and   Aims  of   the   new   Christians  ' — 
The  '  Court  Christians  ' — Imperial  prohibition  of  the  work, 
171-176. 
Eder's  '  Golden  River  '—He  recognises  the  validity  of  the 
Religious    Pacification   in  civil  and    political   respects — 
False  interpretation  of  his  statements,  177-180. 
The  controversialist  Jodokus  Lorichius — Whether  he  calls  in 
question  the  validity  of  the  Religious  Pacification,  180-184. 
Andreas  Erstenberger's  '  Autonomy,'  and  the  high  signifi- 
cance of  the  work — Five  '  kinds  and  manners  of  religious 
freedom  ' — His  recognition  of  the  binding  nature  of  the 
Religious   Pacification — Charges    against   the    Protestant 
Estates  and  exhortations  to  the  Catholics,  184-193. 
A  counter-publication  attributes  this  work  to  the  Jesuits 
and  inveighs  against  their  '  barbarous  heresy  ' — Examples 
and  opponents  of  toleration  in  the  olden  time,  194-196. 
Paul  Windeck's  '  Prognosticon  '    against  Protestant   '  Pro- 
gnostica  ' — What  is  to  be  understood  from  his  work  with 
regard  to  the  Religious  Pacification — A  Catholic's  opinion 
on  this  book,  196-200. 
An  '  Awakener  of  the  Clergy,'  200. 

Inquiries   of  the  convert  Caspar  Schoppe   as  to  whether 
Catholic  writers  really  disputed  the  validity  of  the  Re- 
ligious Pacification,  201-202. 
Lucas  Osiander  denounces  the  Jesuits  George  Rosefius  and 
George  Scherer  as  messengers  of  the  devil — Rosefius  con- 
siders the  Religious  Pacification  binding,  and  believes  it 
to  have  been  concluded  with  papal  approval,  202-205. 
Scherer  on  the  Religious  Pacification,  205.    • 
The  Jesuit  Martin  Becanus  teaches  in  a  pamphlet  that  it  is 

obligatory  to  keep  faith  with  heretics,  205-207. 
Peter  Stevart's  '  Apology  of  the  Jesuit  Order  ' — The  Catholio 
past  and  the  fruits  of  religious  innovations — What  the 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  TENTH  VOLUME        IX 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Jesuits  have  in  view — The  Protestants  demand  religious 
freedom  for  themselves,  but  will  not  grant  it  to  the 
Catholics,  208-213. 

The  Jesuit  Mayerhofer  on  the  punishment  of  the  preachers — 
To  what  line  of  action  Canisius  urges  the  Duke  of  Bavaria 
— The  Cologne  Jesuits  on  forcible  procedure  against  the 
heretics,  213-216. 

Pamphlets  of  Doberreiner,  Fabricius,  and  Muchitsch,  like  an 
'  echo  of  the  exhortations  of  the  preachers  to  root  out 
the  Catholics ' — The  Calvinist  David  Pareus  summons  to 
a  bloody  crusade  against  the  papacy,  216-219. 

The  punishment  of  heretics  still  a  public  right  among  Pro- 
testants also — Claim  of  Luther  and  other  Protestant  theo- 
logians— Proceedings  in  the  Palatinate  in  1570 — Verdicts 
of  the  Court  of  Sheriffs  at  Leipzig  in  1574  and  1583— 
Utterances  of  the  jurist  Carpzov — What  the  criminal 
court  decreed  in  1582,  219-227. 

VL  Attempts  to  Dissolve  ale  Fellowship  between  Catholics 

and  Protestants 228 

Polemics  consumed  almost  all  intellectual  forces — Complaint 
of  Perellius  in  1576— A  '  Simple  Layman  '  in  1617  on  the 
productions  of  the  book  market — How  the  Germans  were 
incensed  against  each  other,  and  how  the  Catholic  Church 
had  become  '  an  abomination  and  a  horror  ' — Examples 
of  the  distortion  of  Catholic  doctrine — Writings  about  a 
letter  of  indulgence  of  Pope  Sixtus  V.— William  Holder's 
calculation  concerning  the  length  of  indulgences — What 
James  Heer brand  gives  out  as  '  Catholic  doctrine  ' — A 
'  Christian'song  for  children  ' — A  '  Lover  of  Divine  Truth  ' 
on  the  Catholics,  and  what  he  wished  for  them  in  1615, 
228-236. 

Catholics  on  the  '  preaching  villains  ' — The  heretics  as  '  cats 
and  wolves  ' — Utterances  of  /Egidius  Albertinus — Andreas 
Forner's  '  Evangelical  Pot-Cheese  '  of  the  year  1617.  and 
two  refutations  by  James  Bobhard — Pretended  Catholic 
'  relics,'  237-241.  " 

'  The  popish  idolatry '  depicted  in  Protestant  books  of 
devotion— The  Catholic  worship  held  up  to  the  people 
from  the  pulpit  as  a  laughing-stock,  242-246. 

The  Cathohcs  denounced  as  partisans  of  the  Jews,  246-247. 

How  all  classes  are  stirred  up  against  the  Cathohcs — Pre- 
tended Catholic  doctrine  on  matrimony  as  a  sinful  state 
in  which  salvation  is  unattainable — Cathohcs,  on  the  other 
hand,  allowed  all  manner  of  vices,  248-252. 


x  history  of  the  German  people 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Warnings  of  preachers  and  theologians  against  all  inter- 
course with  Catholics — Appointment  of  a  Hessian  general 
synod,  and  thunderings  of  a  Hessian  pastor,  252-255. 

VII.  Antagonism  between  the  Lutherans  and  the  Calvinists 

since  the  Proclamation  op  the  Formula  of  Concord  256 

The  warfare  between  the  Protestant  controversial  theolo- 
gians carried  on  with  weapons  like  those  used  against  the 
Catholic  Church — Utterances  of  Dommarein,  Arminius, 
and  Huitfeld — Every  article  of  the  faith  disputed  over, 
256-259. 

'  The  devilish  Calvinists  '  no  German  growth — '  Proofs  '  of 
theologians  that  the  God  of  the  Calvinists  is  the  devil 
himself — Rivander's  '  Wolfner  Schafspelz  der  Calvinisten  ' 
— Appalling  '  judgments  of  God,'  259-263. 

'  The  three-headed  Antichrist '  and  the  '  Calvinisch  Gasthaus 
zur  Narrenkappe,'  by  John  Praetorius — Writings  of 
Andreas  Engel  and  Albrecht  von  Helbach — How  the 
Calvinists  express  themselves  concerning  Luther  and  the 
Lutherans,  263-267. 

A  Calvinist  in  1601  against  the  '  Ubiquist  Antichrist,'  and 
the  manner  of  life  of  the  Lutheran  princes  and  preachers 
— George  Altenrath's  '  Ubiquist  Catechism  '  of  the  year 
1596,  and  preposterous  utterances  of  Lutheran  theologians 
on  the  omnipresence  of  the  Body  of  Christ,  267-269. 

James  Andrea  against  the  perversions  of  the  doctrine  of 
ubiquity — Nicodemus  Frischlin  against  the  murderous 
Calvinists — Samuel  Huber's  '  Von  der  calvinischen  Pradi- 
kanten  Schwindelgift ' — '  Devil's  doctrines  ' — Reciprocal 
charges  of  perverting  the  Holy  Scriptures — Calvinists 
on  the  Lutheran  Christ  and  the  Holy  Communion — Ex- 
hortations to  root  out  Calvinism,  269-274. 

Character  of  most  of  the  preachers — The  jurists  on  the 
preachers — Reciprocal  abuse  among  the  preachers — 
Slanders  against  the  Superintendents  Herman  Hamel- 
mann,  Polycarp  Leiser,  and  Nicholas  Selnekker — How 
Selnekker  on  his  part  carried  out  '  the  official  duty  of 
punishment ' — John  Prsetorius  concerning  his  colleagues — 
A  statement  of  Valentine  Weigel,  274-280. 

VIII.  The  Dissensions  between  Lutherans  and  Calvinists  Ag- 
gravated by  the  Introduction  of  Calvinism  into 
Hesse  and  into  the  Electorate  of  Brandenburg  .  281 
Nicholas  Selnekker  in  1591  on  the  spread  of  Calvinism — 
Introduction  of  Calvinism  into  Anhalt,  &c. — Forcible 
measures   of   conversion  used  by  the  Margrave   Ernest 


CONTENTS   OF   THE   TENTH   VOLUME  XI 

CHAPTER  PAGK 

Frederic  of  Baden-Durlach — Armed  resistance  in  Pforz- 
heim— Constant  changes  in  religion  in  the  county  of 
Isenburg,  281-285. 

Landgrave  William  IV.  of  Hesse  against  the  Ubiquists — An 
exciting  episode — Calvinism  '  a  devilish  concoction  ' — 
Fabronius  on  the  vilification  of  the  Calvinists — Calvinism 
introduced  into  Hesse  by  the  Landgrave  Maurice  since 
1604 — Maurice  on  the  episcopal  situation — His  violent 
procedure — Tumult  in  Marburg  in  1605 — Scenes  during 
divine  service — Quelling  the  uproar — Iconoclastic  riot  by 
order  of  the  Landgrave,  285-289. 

Expulsion  of  Lutheran  preachers — How  Calvinist  preachers 
were  treated  by  the  people — Rising  of  the  nobles  on  the 
Werra — Religious  devastation  in  the  lordship  of  Sinal- 
cald,  289-293. 

The  '  papism  '  of  the  Lutheran  people  in  the  Empire,  and 
how  Calvinists  talked  about  it — The  Hosts  and  the  Hessian 
communion  cakes,  293-295. 

Character  of  the  reciprocal  lampoons  in  Hesse— An  '  Eye- 
salve  for  Malodorous  Prophets  ' — Maurice  as  a  new  Josiah 
— To  what  course  David  Pareus  exhorts  the  Landgrave, 
297-299. 

Further  spread  of  Calvinism  in  the  north  of  the  Empire — 
Leonard  Hutter  against  John  of  Minister  on  the  '  French 
Confession,'  300-301. 

Ecclesiastical  conditions  in  the  Electorate  of  Brandenburg — 
The  Elector  John  George  against  Calvinism — What  he  and 
his  Chancellor  said  on  the  subject — The  Elector  Joachim 
Frederic  and  the  promises  that  his  son  John  Sigismund 
is  compelled  to  make — '  A  True-hearted  Warning  against 
associating  with  Calvinists,'  301-303. 

Introduction  of  Calvinism  through  John  Sigismund  in  1613 — 
He  abjures  his  former  promises  before  the  Provincial 
Estates — His  new  '  confession  of  faith  ' — Complaints  of 
Lutheran  theologians  that  Luther's  credit  had  sunk  so 
low — Against  the  Superintendent-General  Christopher 
Pelargus — The  Court-preacher  Simon  Gedicke  as  enemy 
of  the  '  Satanic  vermin '  of  the  Calvinists — The  Court- 
preacher  Solomon  Finck  and  the  writings  by  him  and 
against  him — The  '  devil's '  doctrines  of  the  Calvinists, 
305-313. 

Matthias  Hoe  against  the  Brandenburg  Calvinists,  and  the 
answer  of  the  '  Berliners ' — The  controversy  about  the  Host, 
and  the  l  popish  veneration  of  the  bread  '  still  prevalent 
among  the  people — How  it  was  attempted  to  introduce  the 
Calvinistic  doctrine  of  the  Last  Supper,  313-316. 


xii  history  of  the  German  people 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Leonard  Hutter  at  war  with  the  Brandenburg  Calvinists — 
The  Lutheran  and  the  Calvinistic  ;  Beichtpfennig  '  (penny 
fee  for  confession),  316-319. 

Tumult  in  Berlin  in  1615 — Agitations  in  other  towns — 
Petition  of  the  Brandenburg  preacher  against  a  Church 
edict  prescribed  by  the  Elector — What  dogmas  the 
Elector  abhors  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart — Appointment 
of  reformed  professors  at  Frankfort-on-the-Oder — The 
Elector  in  Konigsberg  and  a  sermon  preached  against 
him — What  Matthias  Hoe  and  Zacharias  Faber  want  to 
prove  respecting  Calvinism,  319-322. 

IX.    CONTROVERSIAL      WRITINGS      AGAINST      THE      JESUITS — '  The 

Origin    of    the    Order  ' — '  Private    Crimes    of    the 
Fathers  ' 323 

How  the  Protestants  in  general  thought  concerning  the 
Jesuits — Character  of  the  polemics  against  them — A 
pamphlet  of  two  Wurternberg  doctors — John  Fischart's 
'  Nachtrab  '  and  '  Jesuiterhiitlein  ' — '  True  origin  of  the 
Jesuits,'  323-329. 

False  charges  invented  against  the  Fathers  in  order  to  under- 
mine their  influence — A  statement  of  Duke  Albert  of 
Bavaria — Peter  Hansonius  on  the  false  charges — A 
'  Jesuiterische  neue  Zeitung '  of  1604 — Official  exculpa- 
tion of  the  Jesuits  from  Munich,  Graz,  &c,  329-333. 

Elias  Hasenmiiller's  so-called  '  History  of  the  Jesuit  Order  ' 
more  closely  characterised,  333-339. 

'  The  unchristian  fasting '  of  the  Jesuits,  and  other  of  their 
penitential  exercises — Summons  to  exterminate  the 
Fathers,  339-343. 

The  idol  Moloch  as  type  of  the  Jesuits — The  Jesuits  as  the 
worst  of  criminals — James  Gretser  and  his  opponents — A 
libellous  pamphlet  against  Bellarmin,  and  its  object,  343- 
34S. 

What  might  be  inferred  from  the  '  private  crimes '  of  the 
Jesuits,  348-349. 

X.  The  '  Public  Crimes  '  of  the  Jesuits — Tyrannicide         .  350 

The  Jesuits  denounced  as  the  cause  of  all  wars — Canisius 
on  the  participation  of  the  Fathers  in  affairs  of  State — 
Warnings  of  the  Provincial  Hoffaus — Severe  decrees  of  the 
year  1593  against  interference  in  mundane  affairs,  350-357. 

Jesuits  as  confessors  to  princes,  and  how  they  were  to  com- 
port themselves  as  such,  357-361. 


CONTENTS   OF   THE   TENTH   VOLUME  Xlll 

OHAPTEB  PAGE 

'  The  public  crimes  '  of  the  Fathers  in  France,  Spain,  India, 
&c— They  desired  to  subject  Germany  to  the  King  of 
Spain — They  were  lying  in  wait  for  the  King  of  Spain's 
life — They  wanted  to  poison  all  evangelicals  and  papists — 
The  strength  of  their  poison — The  terror  of  the  Jesuits, 
361-367. 

Tyrannicide  a  chief  accusation  against  the  Order — Luther, 
Melanchthon,  Zwingli,  Calvin,  &c,  on  tyrannicide — 
Utterances  of  Calvinist  jurists — What  Scotch  theologians 
teach  on  the  subject — Warnings  from  George  Buchanan 
and  Paul  Sarpi — A  quotation  from  Milton,  367-374. 

A  Catholic  treatise  on  tyrannicide — The  Spanish  Jesuit 
Juan  Mariana — His  work  '  On  the  King  and  the  Educa- 
tion of  a  King  '  of  the  year  1599 — Contents  and  aim  of 
the  work — Its  teaching  on  tyrannicide  is  repudiated  by  the 
General  of  the  Order — A  decree  of  the  Order  of  1610 — State- 
ments of  the  Jesuit  Matthias  Mayerhofer — James  Keller's 
'  Tyrannicidium  ' — The  Calvinists  attribute  to  the  Jesuits 
all  sorts  of  books  which  they  had  not  written,  374-392. 

Melchior  Goldast  in  1611  against '  the  Jesuitical  bloodhounds 
and  murderers  of  kings ' — The  Jesuits  compared  to 
assassins — How  the  Jesuits  '  consecrate  the  assassination 
of  kings,'  392-397. 

Other  publications  against  '  the  murderous  practices  '  of  the 
Fathers — A  great  wonder  at  Molsheim — Lecture  of 
Andrew  Lanner  showing  how  the  Jesuits  ought  to  be 
punished  as  the  greatest  criminals  and  the  most  devilish 
magicians,  397-400. 

Opinion  of  a  contemporary  on  the  Press  as  a  curse  of  the 
age,  400-402. 


BOOK  III 

GENERAL   POLITICAL    CONFUSION    IN   THE   DECADE    PRE- 
CEDING  THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR. 

I.  Politico -religious  Conditions  in  the  Imperial  Heredi- 
tary Lands,  and  their  Reaction  on  the  Empire, 
1608-1609 403 

Opposition  of  the  Austrian  Protestants  to  their  new  reigning 
prince,  Matthias — Their  leader  Tschernembl — Alliance  with 
the  Union — Hopes  placed  by  Christian  of  Anhalt  on  the 
downfall  of  the  House  of  Habsburg,  403-411. 

In  1609  all  the  hereditary  lands  imperilled,  411. 


XIV  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN  PEOPLE 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Demands  of  the  Bohemian  Calvinists — Helpless  condition  of 
the  Emperor — Open  rebellion  of  the  Protestants— Diet  of 
the  Union  at  Schwabisch-Hall — The  '  Majestatsbrief  ' — 
Comparison  between  Catholic  and  Protestant  Estates — 
Further  demands  of  the  Protestants,  412-422. 

How  Christian  of  Anhalt  intimidates  the  Emperor — Treaty 
transactions  of  Christian  with  the  Bohemian  and  Silesian 
Estates — Donauworth  and  the  Jiilich-Cleves  dispute,  422- 
425. 

II.  Dispute  concerning  the  Julich-Cleves  Succession — Plans 

op  the  Union  and  the  Great  League  for  the  Over- 
throw of  the  House  of  Habsburg,  1609-1610    .       .  426 

The  principal  claimants  for  Julich-Cleves  and  the  question  of 
right,  426-427. 

The  '  Possessioners '  in  1609 — The  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
solicits  help  from  France  and  England — Promises  of 
James  I. — What  Henry  IV.  demands,  427-430. 

The  Emperor's  designs  respecting  the  Jiilich  inheritance — 
Archduke  Leopold  in  Julich,  429-431. 

Intentions  of  Henry  IV.  of  France,  432. 

Distressing  conditions  in  the  Julich  lands — A  wedding  at 
Stuttgart — Christian  of  Anhalt  commissioned  by  the 
Union  to  arrange  an  alliance  with  Henry  IV. — What  chiefly 
inflamed  the  French  King's  warlike  zeal — Liberation  of 
the  Princess  of  Conde,  434-439. 

War  negotiations  at  Paris  and  the  promises  of  the  States- 
General  in  1610 — Protestant  propaganda  at  Venice  and 
hopes  for  the  downfall  of  the  Papacy — Venice  and  the 
Union — Plans  of  the  Allies  for  the  overthrow  of  the  House 
of  Habsburg — Diet  of  the  Union  at  Schwabisch-Hall — 
Jubilation  of  the  French  over  the  general  confusion  in  the 
Empire — A  fuller  account  of  the  plans  of  the  revolutionary 
party,  438-454. 

A  deputation  of  the  Union  to  James  I.  of  England — Promises 
of  the  latter,  455-456. 

Henry  IV.'s  confidence  of  victory  just  before  his  assassina- 
tion, 456-457. 

III.  Military  Deeds  and  Fresh  Plans  of  the  Allies,  1610  .  458 

Frederic    IV.    of    the    Palatinate    levies    contributions  on 

the    bishoprics — Acts   of   violence   in   the   bishoprics   of 

Bamberg  and  Wtirzburg,  458-459. 
Horrors  of  war  in  the  Julich  lands  and  in  Alsatia — Three 

Lutheran  princes  on  the  criminal  designs  of  the  Union, 

459-461. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  TENTH  VOLUME       XV 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Hollanders   and  Frenchmen  called  into  the  Empire — The 

fortress  of  Jiilich  taken,  462-463. 
Further  plans  of   the  Allies — Death  of   Frederic  IV. — The 

Union  in  need,  462-466. 

IV.  Catholic  League  of  Defence — Its  Position  with  regard 
to  the  Union — A  Catholic-Lutheran-League  Pro- 
jected, 1609-1610 467 

Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  endeavours  to  found  a  Catholic 
League  of  Defence — Will  not  the  House  of  Habsburg  join 
this  league  ? — Founding  and  expansion  of  the  League  in 
1609— Diet  of  the  League  at  Wiirzburg  in  1610 — Letter  of 
the  Duke  to  the  Pope  and  to  his  father,  467-474. 

Diet  at  Munich — Supineness  of  the  ecclesiastical  members 
of  the  League — Maximilian  threatens  to  resign  the  pre- 
sidency of  the  League,  474-477. 

Treaty  with  Spain — Diet  of  the  League  at  Munich  and 
serious  preparations — The  Union  offers  peace — Maximilian 
on  the  reasons  why  he  had  signed  an  agreement  with  the 
Union — Rome  and  Spain  enjoin  peace,  477-480. 

The  Electors  of  Mayence  and  Cologne  bestir  themselves  to 
organise  a  Catholic-Lutheran  League  of  Defence — A 
scheme  for  a  league — Which  Lutheran  princes  are  in 
favour  of  it — Failure  of  the  undertaking,  481-484. 

V.  Fresh  Disturbances  in  the  Imperial  Hereditary  Lands — 
Meeting  of  Electors  at  Nuremberg,  1611 — Rudolf 
II.'s  last  Plan— His  Death,  1612 485 

Intrigues  of  Christian  of  Anhalt — The  Emperor's  state  of 
mind,  485-487. 

Treaty  between  the  Emperor  and  his  brother  Matthias  in 
1610 — Breach  of  the  treaty — The  '  Passauers  '  as  incen- 
diaries in  Austria  and  Bohemia — A  Hussite  religious  dis- 
turbance at  Prague — False  accusations  against  the  Jesuits, 
487-493. 

Matthias  summoned  to  Bohemia  by  the  Protestants  and 
elected  king  in  1611 — Position  of  the  Emperor — A  des- 
patch of  the  Elector  of  Mayence,  493^196. 

The  persons  around  the  Emperor — The  Emperor  and  King 
Matthias  both  in  alliance  with  the  Union,  496-498. 

Diet  of  Electors  at  Nuremberg  to  settle  the  succession  in 
the  Empire  in  1611 — Incidents  illustrating  the  general 
religious  and  social  conditions — Princely  banquets  and 
luncheons — An  Election  Diet  summoned  at  Frankfort, 
498-502. 


xvi  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

CHAPTKH  PAGE 

What  the  Emperor  was  aiming  at — Hopes  of  the  inter- 
national revolutionary  party — The  Emperor's  death  a 
piece  of  good  fortune  for  the  Empire,  502-504. 

VI.  Election  of  the  Emperor  Matthias,  1612 — The  Director 

of  the  New  Emperor 505 

The  Calvinists  in  favour  of  King  Matthias— By  what  means 

the    latter   endeavours    to    win    over    the    ecclesiastical 

Electors,  505-507. 
The  Elector  of  Cologne  against  Matthias — The  Pope  and 

Spain  on  his  side — His  election  and  coronation,  507-510. 
Character    sketch   of   the  Emperor  and  of  his  all-powerful 

Minister  Klesl — Opinions  concerning  the  latter,  510-513. 

VII.  Union  and  League,  1612-1613 514 

The  Elector  of  Mayence  on  the  conditions  in  the  Empire — 
The  Union  in  alliance  with  England  since  1612 — Marriage 
of  the  Palatine  Elector  Frederic  V.  with  an  English 
king's  daughter— Life  at  Heidelberg— The  last  resources 
of  the  land  exhausted,  514-516. 

James  1.  hopes  for  the  Crown  of  Bohemia  for  his  son-in- 
law — What  means  he  employs  for  this  purpose,  517. 

Klesl  supports  the  claims  of  the  Allies — Efforts  of  the 
Viennese  Court  to  move  the  Catholics  to  yield  to  these 
demands,  517-519. 

John  Schweikart  of  Mayence  and  Duke  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria  on  the  reasons  why  it  was  impossible  for  the 
Catholic  Estates  to  give  in — What  Maximilian  demands, 
519-525. 

Diet  of  the  Catholic  League  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main  in 
1613,  and  the  two  '  Recesses  '  of  this  Diet,  525-529. 

Diet  of  the  Protestant  Union  at  Rotenburg  and  its  decisions 
— Alliance  of  the  Union  with  the  States-General,  529-532. 

VIII.  Diet  at  Ratisbon,  1613 533 

Brilliant  cortege  of  the  Estates  and  the  Emperor — Deplor- 
able condition  of  the  Imperial  finances,  533-535. 

The  Emperor  moves  for  the  dissolution  of  the  separate 
leagues  and  a  generous  Turkish  subsidy — The  corre- 
sponding princes  obstruct  the  proceedings — Their  demands 
mock  at  every  constitutional  principle,  535-538. 

Petition  of  grievances  of  the  Catholic  Estates,  538-540. 

The  Imperial  Council  divided  into  parties — Attitude  of  the 
Imperial  Vice-Chancellor  of  Ulm  towards  the  corresponding 
princes — His  admonitions  to  the  towns,  540-544. 


CONTENTS   OF   THE   TENTH    VOLUME  xv'li 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Invasion  of  the  Turks — Attempts  at  an  understanding 
with  the  Corresponding  Princes — Klesl's  policy — Transac- 
tions with  the  town  deputies,  and  the  resulting  '  Resolu- 
tion ' — Protest  of  the  Corresponding  Princes  against  the 
Imperial  Recess — The  Corresponding  Princes  give  in  their 
ultimatum,  544-547. 

About  Klesl — The  Corresponding  Princes  on  Klesl — 
Melancholy  end  of  the  Diet,  547-550. 

The  Emperor  describes  the  position  of  affairs  in  the  heredi- 
tary lands — The  Bohemians  resolved  on  abolishing  the 
House  of  Habsburg — Overtures  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony 
in  1614,  550-552. 

Helplessness  of  the  Emperor — Solicitations  of  an  Imperial 
ambassador  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main  and  in  Liibeck — 
Klesl,  in  1615,  on  the  Imperial  Treasury,  the  Imperial 
finances,  and  the  decay  of  all  government,  552-556. 

IX.  Disturbances  and  Risings  in  the  Years  1614-1616 — The 

States-General  '  Chief  Rulers  in  the  Empire  '  .       .  557 

Quarrels  of  the  Possessioners  in  the  Jiilich-Cleves  lands — 
Utterances  of  the  Elector  of  Cologne  on  the  Catholic- 
powers — The  Dutch,  called  into  the  Empire  in  1614, 
possess  themselves  of  the  fortress  of  Julich — The  Catholic 
Estates  in  fear  of  the  States-General,  557-560. 

Conversion  of  the  Count  Palatine  Wolfgang  William  of 
Neuburg,  and  his  Reform  decree — What  '  tidings  '  are 
disseminated  concerning  him  and  the  Jesuits,  561-562. 

Religious  conditions  in  Aix-la-Chapelle — An  evangelical  rising 
in  1611 — Imperial  commands — Execution  of  punishment 
against  the  town  in  1614 — Enactments  of  the  Catholic 
Council — Protestant  opinions  on  the  '  execution,'  562-569. 

Origin  of  the  dispute  between  Cologne  and  Muhlheim — 
Imperial  mandate  of  1612 — Muhlheim  destroyed  in  1614, 
569-570. 

Hollanders  and  Spaniards  in  the  Empire — A  political 
'  memorandum  '  of  1616,  570-571. 

Origin  of  a  rising  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main — The  dema- 
gogue Vincent  Fettmilch  and  his  plans — Plunder  and 
expulsion  of  the  Jews  in  1614 — The  rising  put  down, 
571-575. 

Rising  against  the  Jews  in  Worms  in  1615 — Capture  of  the 
town — A  cry  raised  against  the  princes  as  favourers  of 
the  Jews,  575. 

War-flames  in  the  Duchy  of  Brunswick  in  1615 — The  Han- 
seatic  towns,  Denmark  and  the  States-General — Influence 

vol.  x.  a 


XV111  HTSTOEY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

of  the  latter — King  Christian  IV.  of  Denmark  and  the 
Hanseatic  towns — Christian's  designs  for  acquisition  in 
the  Empire — The  Emperor  on  the  States-General  in 
1616 — Position  of  the  latter  in  the  Empire,  and  what  they 
aimed  at — What  one  of  the  allied  princes  feared  from 
them  and  their  followers  in  the  Empire — The  actual  plans 
of  the  Union,  575-584. 

X.  Measures  of  the  Union  and  '  Dangerous  Machinations 
of  the  Papists  ' — Dissolution  of  the  Catholic  League 
of  Defence,  1614-1616 585 

What  the  Allies  lay  to  the  charge  of  the  Catholic  Estates — 
The  Union  seeks  to  strengthen  itself — Calls  in  the  help  of 
the  Swedish  King  Gustavus  Adolphus — The  latter's 
answer  in  1615 — What  Maurice  of  Hesse  aims  at,  585-589. 

Maurice  of  Hesse  summons  his  Provincial  Estates  to  arms 
against  the  Catholics — The  Union  enters  into  alliance 
with  the  States-General — Admonition  of  a  Nuremberg 
councillor,  589-592. 

Calvinistic  summons  against  the  Catholics — Foreign  poten- 
tates are  to  restore  order  in  Germany,  592-595. 

Caspar  Schoppe  on  Calvinistic  plans  for  extirpating  the 
Roman  Empire — A  pamphlet  against  the  spiritual  princes 
of  the  Empire — Admonition  from  a  Catholic  to  the 
Lutherans — The  'Seven-headed Calvinistic  Spirit,'  595-599. 

The  melancholy  condition  of  the  Catholic  League  of  Defence 
— Maximilian  of  Bavaria  on  the  indifference  of  the 
members  of  the  League — How  some  of  them  excuse 
themselves — Maximilian  threatens  to  resign  the  leadership 
— His  proposals  for  strengthening  the  League,  599-603. 

Weakening  of  the  League  by  a  new  Constitution  favourable 
to  Austria  given  to  it  at  Ratisbon  in  1613 — Maximilian 
against  the  changes  in  its  Constitution  and  the  prepon- 
derating influence  of  the  Austrian  Minister — Why  he  will 
not  make  the  League  dependent  on  Austria,  603-605. 

A  defensive  alliance  between  Bavaria  and  a  few  ecclesiastical 
Estates  in  1614 — Resolutions  passed  at  a  Rhenish  Diet 
of  the  League — What  Archduke  Maximilian,  as  third 
Director,  demands  of  Bavaria — Maximilian  of  Bavaria  re- 
signs the  leadership  in  1616 — Futile  attempts  of  some  of 
the  members  of  the  League  to  persuade  him  to  cancel 
his  decision — A  smaller  league  arranged  in  1617 — The 
Elector  of  Cologne  on  the  violent  procedure  of  foreign 
troops,  and  the  contempt  into  which  the  Empire  had 
fallen,  606-610. 


CONTENTS   OF   THE   TENTH   VOLUME  XIX 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XI.  The  '  Composition  and  the  Succession  in  the  Empire  ' — 

Violent  Measures  op  the  Union,  1615-1618        .       .611 

The  Corresponding  Princes  demand  the  settlement  of  a  new 
treaty  with  the  Catholic  Estates  at  a  'Composition  Diet' — 
Why  the  Catholics  oppose  it — Despatch  of  the  ecclesiastical 
Electors  and  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  to  the  Emperor  in 
1615 — Klesl  favours  the  '  composition,'  611-614. 

The  question  of  succession  in  the  Empire  in  connection  with 
the  '  Composition ' — Secret  memorandum  of  Archduke 
Maximilian  of  the  year  1616  respecting  the  succession — 
The  memorandum  is  smuggled  into  the  hands  of  the 
opponents — Archduke  Maximilian  on  Klesl  as  traitor, 
615-619. 

The  '  terrific  schemes  '  of  the  Habsburgers  and  the  state  of 
things  in  the  Imperial  hereditary  lands,  619-620. 

Archduke  Ferdinand's  treaty  with  Spain  in  1617 — Ferdinand 
King  of  Bohemia,  621-622. 

What  the  League  and  its  foreign  allies  guarantee  to  the 
Duke  of  Lorraine  if  he  will  try  for  the  Imperial  crown — 
The  League  offers  the  Imperial  crown  to  the  Duke  of 
Bavaria — Its  aim  in  so  doing — The  Duke's  answer — 
Futile  endeavours  of  the  Elector  Frederic  V.  in  Munich, 
622-625. 

The  Allies  reject  the  Emperor's  proposal  in  1617  for  the 
dissolution  of  the  League — They  prolong  the  existence 
of  the  League  and  seek  to  gain  new  members — Their 
plans  of  war  and  their  alliance  with  Bohemia — Rebellion 
in  Bohemia  in  1618,  and  the  fomentors  of  the  rebellion — 
An  utterance  of  the  Margrave  of  Ansbach,  626-629. 

Index  of  Places 631 

Index  of  Persons 638 


Errata 

Page  149,  note   1,  for  Kurz  read  Knox 

„     151,  line  17,    „    Hafenmiiller,  read  Hasemnuller 
„     275,  note  1,    „    Nivander,  read  Eivander 
„     389,  mid.         „    Bauez,  read  Bartez 

577,  line    3,    „    Bavenberg,  read  Bavensberg 


HISTOEY 


OF 


THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


BOOK   II 

THE   INFLUENCE    OF   RELIGIOUS   CONTROVERSY   ON 
THE   PEOPLE   AND   THE   EMPIRE    UP   TO   1618 


CHAPTER   I 

THE  '  MAGDEBURG  CENTUEIES,'  AND  THE  USE  MADE  OF 
THEM — FABULOUS  STORIES  CIRCULATED  AGAINST  THE 
PAPACY 

As  long  as  Luther  was  alive,  the  Protestant  controversy, 
directed  entirely  by  him,  was  pre-eminently  of  a  dog- 
matic nature  ;  but  after  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century  it  became,  as  regards  the  Catholic  Church, 
chiefly  historical  in  character.  To  this  its  second  stage 
Luther  also  had  given  the  impulse.  When  the  English- 
man Robert  Barns  published  his  '  Lives  of  the  Popes,' * 

1   Vitae    Bomanorum    pontificum,    quos    papas    vocamus,    diligenter    et 
VOL.    X.  B 


2  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Luther  wrote,  as  preface  to  the  work,  a  letter  which 
was  repeatedly  translated  into  German  in  order  '  to 
draw  careful  attention  to  what  this  faithful  man  of 
God  had  at  heart,  and  to  the  aims  which  he  so  earnestly 
held  up  to  the  writers  of  Germany.'  The  Hessian 
Superintendent  George  Nigrinus  placed  this  letter  at 
the  beginning  of  his  History  of  the  Popes  to  serve  as  it 
were  as  a  key  to  it.  '  Lutherus  says  in  the  letter  which 
stands  at  the  head  of  Robert  Barns's  little  book  :  "  I 
have  been  constrained  by  sorrow  of  heart,  and  also  by 
legitimate  rage,  to  pour  out  all  this  in  order  that  I  might 
inspire  other  pious  and  Christian  souls  to  investigate, 
as  much  as  they  can  be  investigated,  the  popish  tyranny 
and  the  Pope's  Church.  For  without  doubt  all  those 
who  have  the  Spirit  of  Christ  know  well  that  they  can 
bring  no  higher  or  more  acceptable  praise-offering  to 
God  than  all  that  they  can  say  or  write  against  this 
bloodthirsty,  unclean,  blaspheming  whore  of  the  devil. 
I  for  my  part,  unversed  and  ill-informed  as  I  was  at 
first  with  regard  to  history,  attacked  the  papacy  a 
priori,  as  they  say — that  is,  out  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
And  now  it  is  a  wonderful  delight  to  me  to  find  that 
others  are  doing  the  same  thing  a  posteriori — that  is, 
from  history — and  it  gives  me  the  greatest  joy  and 
satisfaction  to  see,  as  I  do  most  clearly,  that  history 
and  Scripture  entirely  coincide  in  this  respect.  For 
what  I  learnt  and  taught  from  St.  Paul  and  Daniel — 
namely,  that  the  Pope  was  the  enemy  of  God  and  of  man- 
kind— this  is  now  pointed  out  by  the  finger  of  history, 
and  not  merely  in  a  general  way,  but  by  showing  up  to 
the  world  the  actual  man."      Nigrinus  also  quotes  what 

fideliter  collectae,    etc.     Cum    praefatione    Luiheri.    Wittenb.    1536.      See 
Hirschius,  Librorum  .  .'.  Millenarius,  iii.  52,  No.  536. 


PROTESTANT   HISTORICAL   CONTROVERSY  o 

Luther  said  in  his  pamphlet  entitled  '  Wider  das  Papst- 
tum  zu  Rom  vom  Teufel  gestifft :  '  '  If  God  will,  I 
shall  improve  on  this  in  another  pamphlet ;  but  if  I 
should  die  meanwhile,  God  grant  that  the  pens  of  some 
others  may  write  a  thousandfold  more  strongly.  For 
the  diabolical  papacy  is  the  greatest  disaster  on  earth, 
and  the  worst  all  the  devils  can  perform  with  all  their 
power.'  ] 

In  the  last  year  of  his  life  Luther  repeated  his 
exhortation  :  '  It  would  be  a  blessed  thing  to  do,  if 
there  were  any  who  could  do  it,  to  strike  out  the  Pope 
altogether  as  the  arch-enemy  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour, 
and  the  destroyer  of  His  Holy  Christian  Church.  Next 
to  the  Holy  Scriptures  the  histories  of  the  emperors 
are  well  adapted  to  this  end,  for  in  them  it  is  seen  how 
full  of  devils  the  Popes  have  been  and  still  are,  and 
also  what  gross,  ignorant  asses  they  have  always  shown 
themselves  as  regards  the  Scriptures,  to  the  eternal 
shame  of  the  accursed  see  of  Rome.'  2 

The  first  to  respond  to  this  exhortation  of  Luther 
was  Flacius  Illyricus,  of  whom  Luther  had  predicted 
that  after  his  own  death  '  prostrate  hope  would  lean  on 
this  man.'  3  In  Wittenberg  Flacius  wrote,  he  had 
come  to  recognise  that  the  Lutheran  Church  was 
'  God's  most  special  work.'  '  On  the  other  hand,'  he 
goes  on,  '  I  became  firmly  convinced  that  the  Pope  was 
in  very  truth  the  Antichrist,  and  I  cursed  and  anathe- 
matised himself  and  his  ill-doings  from  the  bottom  of 

1  Papistische  Inquisition,  p.  1.  The  History  of  the  Popes  by  Nigrinus, 
says  A.  Hauffen,  '  is  written  in  the  most  hostile  spirit,  and  its  author  has 
made  the  most  uncritical  use  of  all  the  slanderous  stories  and  fables  which 
were  circulated  concerning  the  papacy  by  the  Protestants  in  the  Middle 
Ages  '  (Sauer's  Ewphorion,  v.  (1898),  p.  725). 

2  Collected  Works,  xxxii.  359.  3  Preger,  i.  35. 

b  2 


4  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

my  heart.'  l  He  considered  it  his  life's  vocation  to 
fight  against,  if  possible  completely  to  extinguish,  the 
papacy.  He  republished  '  the  Holy  Doctor  Luther's 
picture  of  the  Antichrist '  with  Luther's  verses  and  with 
explanations.  This  was  a  representation  of  the  Pope 
riding  in  full  canonicals  on  a  sow,  and  with  his  right  hand 
blessing  a  heap  of  human  excrement  which  he  held  in 
his  left  hand,  and  which  the  sow  was  stretching  its 
snout  after.  This  picture,  said  Flacius,  '  was  inspired 
by  spiritual,  divine  wisdom.'  '  No  dung  stinks  so 
foully  in  our  nostrils  as  the  papacy,  which  is  the  very 
filthiest  devil's  dung,  reeking  up  to  God  and  the  holy 
angels.'  Luther  had  appended  the  following  lines  to 
his  picture  : 

Sau  du  musst  dich  lassen  reiten, 
Und  wohl  sporen  zu  beiden  Seiten. 
Du  wilt  han  tin  Concilium, 
Ja  dafiir  hab  dir  mein  Merdrum.'2 

Since  this  episode  the  Council  of  Trent  had  been 
held,  and  Flacius  now  declared  it  to  have  been  '  nothing 
but  popish  dung  according  to  the  above-quoted  prophecy 
of  the  most  venerable  lord  and  father  Luther  ;  '  it  was 
not  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  the  devil  who  had  conducted 
affairs  there  ; 3  all  papists  were  hounds  of  Satan  and 
children  of  the  devil. 

His  first  historical  work  was  '  Der  Katalog  der 
Wahrheitszeugen,'  which  appeared  first  in  Latin  in  the 
year  1556,4  went  through  many  fresh  editions,  and  was 

1  Preger,  i.  23  ;  cf.  Niemoller,  M.  Flacius,  p.  78. 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  vi.  273,  274,  418-420. 

3  A  short  account  of  the  Interim,  A  3a. 

4  Catalogus  testium  veritatis,  qui  ante  nostram  aetatem  Pontifici  Romano 
ejusque  erroribus  reclamarunt  (First  edition  1556,  printed  at  Basle  ;  the 
second  enlarged  edition  in  1562  at  Strasburg  ;  and  other  editions).  See 
Preger,  ii.  1167,  and  Niemoller,  M.  Flacius,  p.  81  ff. 


PROTESTANT   HISTORICAL   CONTROVERSY  5 

also  translated  into  German  and  Dutch.  The  Catholic 
theologian  Eisengrein  complained  in  a  counter-pamphlet 
that  '  this  work  was  in  everybody's  hands,  even  in  those 
of  the  common  people.'  x  The  object  of  Flacius  in  this 
historical  work  was  to  show  that,  in  spite  of  all  the 
obscuration  of  Christian  verity  by  the  '  Anti-Christian 
papacy,'  there  had  been  in  every  century  individual 
witnesses  who  had  stood  up  for  the  pure  truth,  which 
had  finally  been  brought  out  into  full  light  by  the  new 
evangel.  The  first  of  these  '  witnesses  to  the  truth  ' 
against  the  papacy  was  St.  Peter  himself.  Others  are 
the  four  Latin  Fathers  of  the  Church,  St.  Bernard, 
Thomas  Aquinas,  and  a  number  besides,  altogether 
about  four  hundred.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  persons 
of  St.  Francis,  St.  Dominic,  Peter  Lombard,  and  Gratian, 
the  devil  had  sent  four  of  his  own  apostles  into  the 
world.  But  if  St.  Peter  was  in  no  way  the  precursor 
of  the  Pope  and  the  founder  of  the  '  Chair  of  Pestilence,' 
it  was  probably  from  certain  actions  and  faults  of  this 
apostle  that  the  conduct  and  rule  of  the  Roman  bishops 
drew  their  pattern,  and  indeed  were  prefigured.  In  the 
first  place,  says  Flacius,  it  can  in  no  wise  be  denied 
that  Peter  was  of  humble  birth  and  position,  and 
quite  uneducated  ;  so  also  do  the  Popes,  as  a  rule,  work 
their  way  gradually  from  the  lowest  dregs  of  the  popu- 
lace up  through  the  ranks  to  their  heights  of  tyrannous 
rule,  and  they  have  generally  been  the  '  most  ignorant 
asses.'  2  '  Further,  it  cannot  be  disputed  that  Peter  was 
often  guilty  of  ambition  and  greed  of  dominion.  For, 
not  to  mention  his  frequent  quarrels  with  the  other 

1  Eisengrein,  Catalogue  testium  veritatis  (Dilingae,  1565),  in  the  dedica- 
tion. 

2  '  Indoctissimi  asini.' 


6  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN  PEOPLE 

Apostles  concerning  supremacy,  he  alone  had  the  au- 
dacity to  cast  it  in  the  teeth  of  Christ  that  he  had 
left  all  to  follow  Him.  Permeated  with  the  lust  of 
material  power,  Peter  impudently  scolded  the  Saviour 
for  His  willingness  to  suffer  for  mankind.  Christ,  there- 
fore, rebukes  him  for  his  stupidity  and  ambition,1  calls 
him  Satan,  and  will  have  nothing  more  to  say  to  him ; 
all  this  points  to  the  Roman  Bishop,  and  signifies  that 
he  will  become  a  scandal  for  the  Church  of  God,  and 
that  the  Lord  Jesus  Himself  was  bound  to  reject  and 
denounce  him  in  every  way.'  Thus  and  still  more 
strongly  did  Flacius  deliver  himself  concerning  the 
Prince  of  the  Apostles.2  Effusions  of  this  sort  were 
joyfully  welcomed  by  the  Protestant  preachers  and 
carefully  transposed  into  sermons.  '  I  must,  indeed, 
myself  acknowledge,'  says  the  Weimar  Superintendent- 
General  Antonius  Probus,  in  a  sermon  printed  in  1590, 
'  that,  although  I  had  already  before  read,  heard,  and 
even  seen  much  of  the  villanies  of  the  Popes,  and  so 
had  been  strengthened  in  my  conviction  that  the  Pope 
of  Rome  was  the  Antichrist,  yet  when  I  read  this  book 
I  found  that  popish  iniquity  was  ten  times  worse  than 
I  had  ever  imagined.  Now  I  hold  it  to  be  true  and 
certain  that,  as  the  canonists  also  write,  the  Popes  are 
neither  men  nor  gods,  but  real  incarnate  devils  who 
far  outdo  Satan  in  wickedness  and  rascality.  If  we 
were  to  collect  together  all  the  infamous  deeds  of  the 
Popes  recounted  in  histories,  God  help  us,  what  a 
monstrous  book  it  would  make  !  We  should  not  have 
enough  ox-,  cow-,  donkey-,  and  calf-skins  to  bind  it.' 3 
The  most  lasting  influence  which  Flacius  exercised 

1  For  such,  on  consideration  (he  says),  is  the  sense  of  the  Greek  (frpovelv. 

2  Catalogus,  pp.  1-3.  :!  Marx,  Protest,  p.  44. 


THE  'MAGDEBURG  CENTURIES  '  7 

was  by  means  of  the  '  Magdeburg  Centuries  '  which  he 
called  into  being.  This  work  was  a  comprehensive 
Church  History  divided  into  centuries,  and  it  became 
the  actual  storehouse  of  the  Protestant  controversy. 
The  first  volume  appeared  in  the  year  1559  ;  the  last, 
which  included  the  thirteenth  century,  in  1574.  For 
the  production  of  this  work  Flacius  had  organised  at 
Magdeburg  an  historical  society  of  which  he  was  him- 
self '  the  ship's  captain  or  chief  helmsman,'  for  he  sur- 
passed nearly  all  his  contemporaries  in  power  of  work. 
His  literary  legacy,  which  may  be  seen  at  Wolfenbiittel, 
affords  the  most  convincing  proof  that,  when  visiting 
libraries  as  a  literary  freebooter,  he  could  use  his 
'  knife  ' — that  knife  which  had  grown  notorious — with 
skill  and  knowledge.1     His  principal  collaborators  were 

1  So  speaks  from  close  acquaintance  the  chief  librarian  Ebert,  in  the 
Archives  of  the  Society  for  Old  German  Historical  Research,  vi.  2.     When 
Flacius  began  compiling  The  Centuries,  '  he  travelled  about  everywhere/ 
writes  Salig  (Historie  der  Augsburg  Confession,  iii.   279),   '  frequently  in 
disguise,  and  visited  the  libraries  in  the  convents  ;  and  whenever  he  found 
anything  good,  he  was  not  so  honourable  as  to  scruple  to  cut  out  or  tear 
out  whole  pages,  or  to  carry  the  MSS.  away  with  him  ;  and  thus  to  this 
day  [the  preface  tells  us  that  Salig   wrote  in  1735]  culter  Flacianus  and 
manus  Flaciana  are  still  proverbial.'     Respecting  the  legacy  of  MSS.  left 
by  Flacius,  and  which   are  in   the  Wolfenbiittel   Library,  Salig  says,  iii. 
287  :  '  I  see  that  the  Scholastici  Wittenbergenses  by  no  means  wronged 
Flacius  when  they  wrote  that  he  had  broken  open  Melanchthon's  room 
and  writing-table,'  '  for  there  are  numbers  of  Flacian's  MSS.  and  letters 
here  [at  Wolfenbiittel].      Now  among  the  MSS.  of  Wigand  and  Flacian 
there  are  found  many  autograph  letters  of  Melanchthon.     Whence  could 
these  two  men  have  got  them  ?     Melanchthon,  whose  deadly  enemies 
they  were,  would  certainly  not  have  given  them  to  them.      Therefore 
they  must  have  been  boldly  stolen.     Against  this  testimony  of  the  legacy 
itself,  Preger's  Justification  of  Flacius  (ii.  431  ff.)  falls  utterly  to  pieces.'     A 
Rostock  preacher  and  university  professor  writes  at  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth century  respecting  the  Rostock  Dominican  Library :  '  Bibliotheca 
ex  qua   nmltos  veteres  libros  manuscriptos  et  excusos  M.  Illyricus  per- 
missu    Senatus   acceperat    ad   usum    Historiae   ecclesiasticae  .  .  .  chiro- 
grapho  autem  suo  reddito  Senatui  et  deposito  rursus  in  Bibliothecain 


8  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  theologians,  John  Wigand  and  Matthias  Judex,  both 
of  them  '  inflamed  with  hatred  against  the  Eoman  Anti- 

istam  promiserat  librorum  istorum  restitutionem.     Chirographum  illud 
vidi  cam  adjuncto  indice  librorum  ablatorum,  sed  non  intdlexi  eos  unquam 
restitutos  fuisse,'    in  E.    I.    de  Westphalen,   Monumenta  inedita    rerum 
germanicarum,    I.    (Lipsiae,    1739),    1560.     A    Catholic    contemporary   of 
Flacius,  Caspar  Ulenberger.  writes  :    '  I  remember    hearing  a  Lutheran 
clergyman,  who  lived  for  a  time  at  Magdeburg,  say  that  Illyricus  was 
openly  accused  of  robbery  because  he  had  sold  parchment  MSS.  which 
had  been  lent  to  him,  and  which  were  no  longer  wanted,  and  had  put  the 
money  in  his  own  pocket.      It  is  at  any  rate  certain  that  he  sold  the 
"  Nicene  Council "  at  the  Frankfort  fair,  to  one  of  our  party  who  noticed  an 
erasure  in  the  MS.,  for  the  like  of  which,  as  he  was  wont  to  say,  a  public 
writer  or  a  notary  would  have  been  declared  dishonoured.     Originally 
the  words  "  assidente  Constantino  "  occurred  in  this  MS.  ;  but  in  the  word 
"  assidente  "  the  first  two  letters  had  been  erased  and  "  prae  "  substituted, 
as  though  Constantine  had  presided  over  the  Council.'     With  regard  to 
the  latter  charge  Preger  remarks,  ii.  433  :  '  Even  if  there  were  any  ground 
for  this  charge  it  can  be  easily  explained  away.     Flacius  only  corrected 
the  falsification  which  the  earlier  popish  copyist  had  allowed  himself  to 
make,  and  gave  the  right  reading  '  !     An  ingenious  defence  of  Flacius 
certainly.     '  The  Roman  copyist '  indulged  in  no  falsification,  for  Con- 
stantine did  not  preside  at  Nicaea ;  but  Osius  of  Corduba,  as  papal  legate, 
with  the  two  Roman  priests,  Vitus  and  Vincentius.     See  v.  Hefele,  Kon- 
ziliengeschichte,  i.  (2  Aufl.  Freiburg,  1873)  39  ff.,  302.     The  most  zealous 
literary  assistant  of  the  Centuriators  was  Marcus  Wagner  from  Friemar, 
near  Gotha,  who,  in  his  own  writings,  claims  the  title  of  '  Historicus  et 
antiquarum  rerum  inquisitor  in  Europa,'  but  who  is  guilty  of  the  meanest 
historical  falsifications  ;  see  Schulte,  Beitrcige,  pp.  94  ff.,  139-148.     One  of 
the  most  prominent  patrons  of  this  undertaking  of  Flacius  was  a  councillor 
of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand,  Caspar  von  Niedpruck  (Nidbruck),  a  secret 
Protestant,  who  was  most  closely  bound  up  with  King  Maximilian  of 
Bohemia  (the  future  Emperor)  and  his  Protestant  court  preacher,  Sebastian 
Pfauser  (Schulte,  pp.  62,  69  ff.,  104  ff.,  150).     Flacius  as  well  as  Nidbruck 
carried   on   literary   intercourse    with    George   Cassander   and   Cornelius 
Wouters,  who  '  worked  diligently  at  Cologne  in  furtherance  of  Flacius' 
ends.'     This  intercourse  supplies  a  simple  explanation  for  the  '  disappear- 
ance of  three  codices  from  Cologne.'     See  fuller  details  in  A.  Niirnberger, 
Die  Bonifatiuslitteratur  der  Magdeburger  Centuriatoren,  in  the  new  Archives 
of  the  Society  for   Old  German  Historical  Research,  ii.  (Hanover,   1885) 
29  ff.,  35.     See  also  the  complementary  remarks  of  Niemoller,  M.  Flacius, 
p.  85  ff.  ;  further,  B.  Bibl,  Nidbruck  and  Tanner,  Ein  Beitrag  zur  Entste- 
hungsgeschichte  der  Magdeburger  Centurien  und  zur   Charakteristik  Konig 
Maximilians  II.    (Wien,  1898)  ;  Schaumkell,  Beitrag  zur  Entstehungsge- 
schichte  der  Magdeburger  Centurien  (Ludwigslust,  1898,  Progr.). 


THE   'MAGDEBURG   CENTURIES'  9 

christ  and  his  members,  the  poisoners  of  Christianity,' 
for  whose  complete  extirpation  they  beseechingly 
solicited  the  secular  authorities.  '  Not  only,'  wrote 
Judex,  '  must  all  the  ministers  of  the  Divine  Word 
combine  with  spiritual  weapons  against  the  Antichrist, 
but  also  all  those  who  wield  political  power  must  take 
sword  in  hand  and  exterminate  the  papists  as  cruel 
murderers  and  soul-destroyers.'  l  According  to  Wigand 
it  was  part  of  the  doctrines  of  Roman  Anti- Christianity 
to  regard  the  Pope  as  a  demi-god,  consisting  of  God 
and  of  man,  to  pray  to  the  devil  and  to  idolatrous  images 
of  gold  and  silver,  brass  and  stone,  and  to  deify  the 
saints  in  a  heathenish  manner  ;  as  guardians  of  the 
decalogue,  the  secular  authorities  were  bound  to  root 
out  and  seriously  punish  all  this  idolatry  and  sodomitish 
abomination.2  The  members  of  Antichrist — that  is,  in 
the  language  of  the  preachers  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  whole  body  of  Catholics — were,  according  to 
2  Peter  ii.,  the  foulest  of  the  human  species,  a  truly 
sodomitish  class  of  men  :  '  the  mark  of  the  beast  was 
branded  on  their  foreheads.' 

It  was  out  of  views  and  assumptions  of  this  sort 
that  the  '  Centuries '  were  evolved.  The  work,  as 
Flacius  said,  was  '  to  reveal  the  beginnings,  the  develop- 
ment, and  the  ruthless  designs  of  the  Antichrist,'  and 
it  was  to  be  '  a  cornucopia  of  all  the  events,  affairs,  and 
quarrels  of  the  Church.'  It  was  to  prove  from  primitive 
evidence  that  '  at  the  beginning  of  the  Church  it  was 
not  popish,  Antichristian  doctrine,  but  evangelical 
teaching  and  religion  which  had  prevailed.'  '  Since 
the  creation  of  the  world  '  no  work  on  Church  history 

1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  viii.  90-96. 

2  Schlusselburg,  xiii.  258,  278,  303. 


10  HISTOEY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

had  ever  been  published  which  had  been  so  useful 
and  so  necessary  to  Christianity.1  The  exposure  of 
the  '  incarnate  Antichrist  at  Rome '  was  considered 
one  of  the  first  and  the  most  important  signs  that 
the  end  of  the  world  was  near.'2 

For  the  evidence  of  the  antiquity  of  Luther's  doc- 
trine it  was  an  awkward  concession  to  make  that  in  the 
second  century — that  is  to  say,  shortly  after  the  death 
of  the  last  Apostle — corruption  had  already  crept  in ; 
that  there  had  been  a  lamentable  obscuration  of  the 
most  important  articles  of  faith,  especially  of  the 
doctrines  of  free-will  and  justification,  and  that  the 
Catholic  doctrine  was  already  met  with  in  the  early 
Fathers.  Clement,  Justinus,  and  Irenaeus  teach  falsely 
concerning  justification  and  penitence ;  the  devil  has 
falsified  these  doctrines  in  order  by  his  cunning  to 
rob  men  of  all  comfort.  With  regard  to  the  Mass, 
Flacius  complains  that,  even  in  the  writings  of  St. 
Ignatius  of  Antioch.  a  pupil  of  the  Apostles  and  a 
martyr,  there  are  '  inconvenient  expressions,'  and  that 
Irenseus  also  uses  equally  inconvenient  language  on  the 
subject.3 

In  the  third  century  the  true  doctrine  of  good 
works  was  already  quite  on  the  decline ;  most  of  the 
writers  of  that  period  perverted  the  doctrine  of  peni- 
tence in  an  extraordinary  manner ;  even  celibacy  had 
already  come  into  vogue.4  This  explains  how  it  was 
that  the  '  Centuries '  was  repeatedly  cited  by  the 
Catholics  in  proof  of  the  antiquity  of  Catholic  doctrines 
and  precepts. 

Flacius  divided  the  history  of  the  Antichrist — that  is 

1  Centuria  i.,  praef.  Preger,  ii.  451.  2  Centuria  i.\  461. 

3  Centuria  ii.,  praef.  AA  2b,  AA  3b,  58  ff.  4  Centuria  Hi.  79,  247. 


POPE-FABLES   IN   THE   'MAGDEBURG   CENTURIES'       11 

to  say,  the  Roman  Pope — under  three  heads.  He  distin- 
guished between  the  hidden  or  invisible  Antichrist — 
subtly  insinuating  himself  everywhere — the  Antichrist 
ruling  openly,  and  the  Antichrist  shown  up  in  his  true 
character.1  The  '  hidden  Antichrist '  is  tracked  by 
Flacius  into  the  most  secret  mole-holes.  He  finds 
suspicious  traces,  even  in  Irena?us,  because  of  his 
saying  that  all  other  Churches  must  conform  to  the 
Roman  Church  on  account  of  the  latter's  priority  of 
rank ;  also  a  remark  of  St.  Ignatius  of  Antioch  concern- 
ing '  the  precedence  of  the  Roman  Church  '  had  a 
suspicious  ring.  In  the  third  century  the  '  mystery  of 
evil '  began  especially  '  to  become  alive  in  the  Roman 
bishops.'  2  Later  on  there  arose,  side  by  side  with  the 
Antichrist  and  outside  the  Church,  another  Antichrist 
named  Mohammed ; 3  in  Germany,  Boniface,  '  the 
Apostle  of  lies,'  worked  in  the  cause  of  the  first  Anti- 
christ. This  errand-boy  of  the  Pope  went  to  work  with 
cunning  and  with  violence,  insolently  and  shamelessly 
defying  the  warnings  of  all  the  exemplary  men  who 
urged  him  not  to  bring  the  yoke  of  the  Antichrist  on 
the  neck  of  the  Germans.  He  also  gathered  an  army 
together  and  burst  into  Thuringia  with  '  spear  and 
shield  and  iron,'  a  proceeding  which  could  not  but 
result  in  the  massacre  of  numbers  of  the  inhabitants. 
From  this  date  the  execrable  Romish  beast  lifted  itself 
higher  and  higher.  Gregory  VII.  is  put  forward  as 
the  most  monstrous  of  all  monsters  that  the  earth 
ever  brought  forth,4  as  a  disreputable  sorcerer  who  had 
concluded  a  direct  alliance  with  the  devil  incarnate, 

1  Niemoller,  M.  Flacius,  pp.  89-90.  2  Centuria  Hi.  170  ff. 

3  Niemoller,  M.  Flacius,  p.  9fi. 

4  'Monstrum  omnium,  quae  haec  terra  portavit,  monstrosissimum.' 


12  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  who  had  compassed  the  death  of  several  Popes 
before  he-  mounted  the  '  Chair  of  Pestilence.'  For  the 
dragon  does  not  become  a  veritable  dragon  until  he  has 
devoured  many  others.  The  whole  terrible  descrip- 
tion of  this  Pope,  to  whom  the  '  Century '  writers 
imputed  every  imaginable  crime,  was  a  typical  speci- 
men of  the  Protestant  polemics  of  that  period,  and 
even  of  later  times.  In  his  '  Catalogus  testium  veritatis  ' 
&c.  Flacius  was  careful  also  to  give  '  an  appalling 
picture  of  the  most  obscene  Hildebrand.'  This  Pope, 
he  said,  had  been  a  sorcerer  and  had  shaken  fire  out 
of  his  sleeves ;  he  had  thrown  a  consecrated  wafer 
into  the  fire  in  order  to  inquire  of  the  devil ;  he  had 
also  solemnly  prophesied  before  all  the  cardinals  that 
the  Emperor  would  die  before  the  festival  of  St.  Peter, 
and  had  then  despatched  assassins  to  put  an  end  to 
him.1 

'  The  marks  of  the  Antichrist '  were  also  strikingly 
apparent  in  Alexander  III.  '  He  worshipped  strange 
gods,'  said  the  Centurists,  '  strengthened  and  confirmed 
the  teaching  of  the  devil,  and  thought  highly  of  Baalism.' 
'  One  sign '  that  the  Pope  was  the  Antichrist  was  that 
'  by  his  decrees  he  supported  the  blasphemous  people 
of  Judah.  For  he  not  only  tolerated  them,  but  he 
allowed  them  to  restore  their  ruined  synagogues.' 
From  the  life  of  the  Emperor  Frederic  Barbarossa  in 
his  relation  to  the  Pope  he  produced  all  sorts  of  reports 
only  calculated  to  excite  indignation  and  horror.2     We 

1  Catalogus,  p.  219.     See  Niemoller,  M.  Flacius,  pp.  100-104. 

2  Anyone  reading  these  and  numbers  of  similar  fabulous  reports  in 
the  pages  of  the  Centuries  must  marvel  at  the  judgment  passed  on  this 
work  by  Professor  F.  X.  von  Wegele  in  his  account  of  German  Historio- 
graphy since  the  rise  of  Humanism  (Munich  and  Leipzig,  1885),  pp.  333-334. 
For  the  battle  against  the  papacy  considered  as  Antichristendom,  he  says, 


POPE-FABLES   IN    THE    'MAGDEBURG   CENTURIES'       L3 

are  told  that  Alexander  used  his  influence  craftily  to 
persuade  the  Emperor  to  take  the  field  against  the 
Turks  because  he  hoped  that  Frederic  would  be  killed. 
When  the  latter,  however,  contrary  to  the  Pope's 
expectations,  met  with  successes,  Alexander  secretly 
sent  a  painter  to  take  Frederic's  portrait  without  his 
knowing  it,  and  he  sent  the  picture  to  the  Sultan  with 
a  letter  telling  him  that  if  he  (the  Sultan)  wished  to 
protect  his  sovereignty  and  possess  it  in  peace  he  must 
keep  his  eye  specially  on  the  man  whose  picture  he  was 
sending  him  and  take  care  to  kill  him.  It  happened 
accordingly  one  day  when  Frederic  was  about  to  return 

the  Centurists  '  forged  and  used  the  weapons  of  historical  criticism,  which 
till  then  had  hardly  been  thought  of,  and  they  have  become  a  fruitful 
example  for  the  general  treatment  of  history  in  every  way.  Thus  it  came 
about  that  the  critical  principle,  which  is  inherent  in  Protestantism  as 
opposed  to  Catholicism,  grew  to  such  tremendous  force  in  its  application 
to  history.'  .  .  .  '  In  the  investigation  of  the  history  of  the  papacy  this 
critical  procedure  showed  itself  at  its  very  best.'  No  less  astonishing  is 
v.  Wegele's  judgment  of  Aventin.  We  will  only  notice  one  point.  A. 
Niirnberger,  who*  had  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  Bonifacian  literature 
than  anyone  else,  says  in  his  article  cited  above  at  p.  7,  note  1 :  '  The 
annals  of  the  Bavarian  historiographer,  Johann  Turmair,  generally  called 
Aventin,  were  very  largely  used  by  Flacius,  who  succeeded  in  getting  sight 
of  them  in  the  collection  of  MSS.  left  by  Aventin.  Aventin  was  acquainted 
with  the  correspondence,  as  well  as  with  the  biographies  of  St.  Boniface 
compiled  by  Willibald  and  Othlon.  The  way  in  which  he  used  the  first 
was  uncritical  and  arbitrary  in  the  highest  degree.  The  letters  ivhich  are 
printed  are  in  some  cases  complete  interpolations — from  ep.  12,  for  instance, 
nothing  but  the  dale  has  remained  intact — in  other  cases  they  have  been  freely 
rewritten,  in  others  they  consist  of  extracts  arbitrarily  altered  from  the 
original.''  Three  hundred  years  ago  the  Jesuit  Gretser  already  pointed  out 
to  Aventin  the  most  glaring  falsifications  (see  Gretseri  Opp.  vi.  242-243). 
Nevertheless,  v.  Wegele  writes  (p.  261  ff.)  :  'To  the  Father  of  Bavarian 
historical  writing '  it  is  fitting  that  '  one  of  the  first  places  be  accorded 
among  scientific  investigators  of  his  day.'  He  speaks  in  praise  of  Aventin's 
'  learned  and  critical  standpoint,'  of  his  '  lively  instinct  for  historic  truth,' 
his  '  hatred  of  the  encroachments  of  the  Hierarchy  '  which  '  opened  his 
eyes  and  sharpened  his  sight,'  of  his  '  righteous  wrath,'  of  his  winnowing 
conscience,'  and  so  forth. 


14  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

home  from  a  victorious  campaign,  and,  leaving  his 
army,  retreated  with  some  of  his  cavalry  into  a  large 
forest  in  Armenia  to  enjoy  a  refreshing  bath,  he  was 
suddenly  surrounded  by  Turks,  who  sprang  on  him 
from  an  ambush,  took  him  captive,  and  conducted 
him  to  the  Sultan.  '  Although  he  at  first  denied  that 
he  was  the  Emperor,  and  gave  himself  out  as  his  door- 
keeper, he  was  soon  identified  by  means  of  the  portrait 
sent  by  that  traitor,  the  Pope,  and  by  his  Holiness' s 
letter  which  was  now  read  out  to  Frederic'  But 
in  the  end  he  was  kindly  let  off  by  the  Turk.  '  Behold 
now,  the  Turk,  the  Turk,  we  say,  the  enemy  of  all 
honour  and  piety,  is  more  just  and  righteous  than 
the  Roman  Pope  himself.'  l 

The  Centurists  had  good  luck  with  this  legend, 
which,  by  the  way,  had  already  appeared  several  times 
in  earlier  German  books.2  It  was  frequently  repro- 
duced and  embellished  in  Protestant  controversial  writ- 
ings, and  also  in  sermons,  as  '  a  true  and  terrible  story 
of  popish  treachery  and  bloodthirstiness.'  There  was 
also  another  story  which  was  still  oftener  circulated 
by  the  Centurists  concerning  this  Pope  and  this  Em- 
peror. 

One  of  the  most  edifying  spectacles  in  the  history 
of  the  Middle  Ages  is  that  of  the  reconciliation  which 
was  effected  at  Venice  in  1177  between  Alexander  and 
Erederic  Barbarossa.  The  latter  had  ruptured  the 
unity  of  the  Church,  brought  the  odium  of  a  schism  on 
Christianity,  and  conjured  up  a  terrific  warfare  of 
eighteen  years'  duration.     At  Venice  he  made  public 

1  '  Ecce  Turcam,  Turcam  dicimus,  pietatis  honestatisque  hostein,  ipso 
Romano  Pontifice  aequiorem  et  justiorem  '  (Centuria  xii.  1416). 

2  It  occurs  in  full  in  the  pamphlet   cited  below  at  p.   17,  note  1,  in 
Luther's  Collected  Works,  xxxii.  388-394- 


POPE-FABLES  15 

confession  of  his  guilt.  '  The  whole  world  shall  know,' 
he  said, '  that  we  were  in  a  state  of  darkness  under  the 
influence  of  evil  men,  and  that  we  well-nigh  brought 
the  Church  of  God  to  ruin.'  He  threw  himself  in  tears 
at  the  feet  of  Alexander,  recognising  and  venerating 
in  the  aged  Pope  the  power  of  God  triumphant  over 
the  mighty  ones  of  earth.  Alexander,  weeping,  raised 
him  from  his  knees,  offered  him  his  lips  for  a  kiss  of 
peace,  gave  him  his  blessing,  and  then  with  loud  re- 
joicing the  choir  of  German  singers  struck  up  the 
hymn,  '  Lord  God,  Thy  name  we  praise.'  l 

Thus  the  story  was  related  in  the  genuine  records. 
The  Centurists,  however,  adopted  a  legendary  account 
which  suited  their  own  purposes.  They  represented 
the  Emperor  as  having  been  treated  in  the  most  un- 
worthy manner  by  the  Pope.  He  had  been  forced, 
they  said,  to  fall  on  the  ground  and  '  cringe  at  the 
feet  of  Alexander,  who  himself  was  seated  on  the  most 
splendid  throne  and  who  trod  with  his  feet  on  the 
Emperor's  neck,'  2  and  said :  '  Thou  shalt  tread  upon 
the  lion  and  the  adder,  the  young  lion  and  the  adder 
shalt  thou  trample  under  feet.'  The  good  Emperor 
was  much  distressed  at  having  this  affront  put  on  him 
before  all  the  people,  and  he  answered  :  '  Not  unto  thee, 
but  unto  Peter,  whose  successor  thou  art,  do  I  render 
obedience.'  The  Pope,  however,  trod  a  second  time 
on  his  neck  and  said :  '  To  me  also  as  well  as  to  Peter.' 
'  The  Emperor  thought  the  situation  was  becoming- 
dangerous,  and  so  remained  silent,  and  thus  peace 
was  re-established.' 3 

1  Reuter,  Oesch.  Alexanders  des  Dritten,  iii.  (Leipzig,  1864),  304  ff. 
'-'...  prostrati  Imperatoris  collum  pedibus  conculcans.  .  .  .  ' 
3  Centuria  xii.  1417. 


16  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

As  early  as  the  year  1545  a  pamphlet  had  appeared 
at  Wittenberg,  with  a  preface  by  Luther,  on  the  subject 
of  the  Papsttreue  ('  Pope's  faithfulness  ')   of  Alexander 
towards  the  Emperor  Frederic  Barbarossa.      The   pre- 
face ran  as  follows  :   '  If  these  desperate  villains  had 
not   been   Popes  and   coarse,    unlettered   asses  of  the 
devil,   but  upright,   pious,  and   learned   bishops,   they 
would  have  known  better  than  to  behave  like  this  ;  yea, 
they  would  have  been  terrified  to  have  trodden  on  the 
neck  of  an  Emperor  whose  majesty  was  ordained  by 
God  for  men  to  reverence  (2  Peter  ii.),  nor  would  they 
have  dared  so  scandalously  and  mockingly  to  use  the 
language  of  Scripture  against  him,  as  Alexander  III. 
does  here  with  Ps.  xci. :  "  Thou  shalt  tread  on  the  lion 
and  the  adder,  the  young  lion  and  the  adder  shalt  thou 
trample  under  feet,"  turning  the  words  with  his  hellish, 
devilish  mouth  into  ridicule  and  bitter  revenge  against 
the   Emperor.     For   in   this  case   it   would    be   juster 
to   say  that  the  hellish  dragon  and  lion,   adder  and 
basilisk,    Alexander    III.,    treads   and    tramples    on    a 
Christian  prince,  and  in  the  person  of  this  prince  treads 
under  foot  Christ  Himself  :  that  is  the  truth.'     '  And  for 
this   iniquitous   conduct   of   this   scandalous,    accursed 
Pope  Alexander,  emperors,  kings,  princes,  and  secular 
lords    must    nevermore   forgive   the   Popes — nay,    the 
beasts — but  remember  it  against  them  for  ever,  to  the 
everlasting  disgrace  of  the  Romish,  devilish  See ;  just 
as  Christ  nevermore  forgives  or  will  forgive  the  Pope 
and  Chair  of  Rome  for  such  iniquity,  so  His  Christian 
Church  must  not  forgive  it.     For  they  do  not  repent 
of  it,  they  are  not  penitent,  the  blasphemous,  desperate 
scoundrels,  but,  on  the  contrary,  they  laugh  over  the 
transaction   and   are   well   satisfied    as    though    quite 


POPE-FABLES  17 

the  right  thing  had  been  done,  and  they  would  only 
too  gladly  follow  this  example  with  regard  to  all  em- 
perors, kings,  and  princes,  if  they  could  but  manage  it ; 
and  for  this  one  deed  of  Alexander's  only,  all  those 
who  are  or  wish  to  be  pious  Christians  should  make 
a  point  of  spitting  whenever  they  hear  the  name  of 
Pope  mentioned,  or  even  when  they  read  or  think 
about  him.  For  what  the  Pope  dares  do  to  an  Emperor, 
to  such  an  excellent  personage  appointed  by  God,  he 
would  much  more  dare  towards  you  and  me — yea,  to  all 
Christendom,  and  to  Christ  also  and  God  Himself, 
as  his  father  the  devil  does,  from  whom,  indeed,  he  has 
learnt  this  villainy.'  After  praising  the  admirable 
Emperor  Frederic,  Luther  goes  on :  'To  think  that 
such  a  dear  man  should  have  been  trodden  under  foot 
by  such  a  foul  paunch,  putrid  belly,  nasty  pelt  and 
stench-bag,  who  has  no  episcopal  or  other  office  in 
the  Church  (for  the  papacy  is  of  the  devil,  as  everyone 
knows),  arid  who  is  not  even  worthy  to  unloose  his 
shoes.  Would  not  a  Pope,  if  he  was  a  Christian,  think 
to  himself :  "  Though  I  should  refuse  to  spare  his  crown 
and  majesty,  ordained  by  God,  I  will  at  any  rate  respect 
the  holy  baptism  and  the  precious  blood  of  Christ, 
wherewith  he  was  consecrated  a  Christian,  that  my 
blasphemous  feet  may  not  transgress  so  abominably  ' '  ? 
Yea,  verily,  how  should  these  blasphemers  and  despisers 
of  God,  these  great,  coarse  donkeys,  blockheads,  clap- 
pers, niggards,  blackguards,  rakes,  senseless  fools,  devil's 
vermin,  &c,  &c,  think  anything  else  but  what  is  well- 
pleasing  to  the  devil  ?  '  ] 

1  '  Papsttreu  Hadriani  I V.  und  Alexanders  III.  gegen  Kaiser  Friedrichen 
Barbarossa  geiibt.  Compiled  from  history,  useful  to  read,  with  a  preface 
by  Doctor  M.  Luther '  (Wittenberg,  1545),  in  Luther's  Collected  Works, 
xxxii.  359-361. 

VOL.    X.  C 


18  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

'  And  so,'  wrote  a  Protestant  polemical  writer,  '  it 
has  been  made  known  openly  to  the  world  by  many 
different  writers,  and  especially  by  the  great  and 
learned  Magdeburg  Church  History,  what  gruesome, 
inhuman  crimes  the  Roman  Antichrists  and  lieutenants 
of  the  devil  have  perpetrated  against  the  emperors, 
how  they  have  attempted  to  poison  them  and  have 
trodden  on  their  necks  with  their  stinking  feet,  as 
happened  to  the  Emperor  Frederic  Barbarossa  at 
Venice  ;  and  now  every  child  in  the  Empire  will  be  well 
instructed  to  abhor  and  curse  the  Roman  synagogue 
of  Satan,  and  to  mock  in  the  streets  at  their  carnal 
wickedness,  their  sodomitism,  and  by  whatever  name 
we  can  call  the  Roman  vileness  in  trampling  under 
foot  the  most  highly  laudable  Imperial  Majesty.'  l 
'  The  Roman  Antichrist  and  man  of  sin ' — so  preached 
the  court  preacher  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  Martin 
Mirus,  in  1586 — 'is  now  ridiculed  by  the  children  in  the 
streets,  while  formerly  emperors  and  kings  allowed 
themselves  to  be  trodden  under  foot  by  him,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  pious  G-erman  Emperor  Barbarossa.'  2 
The  polemical  writer  Eybenhold,  in  1596,  actually 
referred  to  Otto  von  Freising  as  his  authority  for  the 
statement  that  Alexander  III.  '  had  trodden  the 
Emperor  under  his  feet,  whereupon  the  bystanders 
had  sung :  "On  adders  and  basilisks  shalt  thou 
walk."  '  3 

Many  '  truth- loving   men  and  vigorous  disputants  ' 

J   Wolfe  im  Schafspeltz,  Bl.  21-22. 

-  The  third  sermon  preached  on  the  occasion  of  the  electoral  funeral 
^procession  at  Freiberg  (1586),  L  2b. 

:t  U.  Eybenhold,  Confirmatio  gegen  und  wider  die  Jesuiter  (1596),  p.  26  ; 
cf.  the  Mitteilungen  von  Marx,  Protest.  Kanzel,  p.  40  ff.,  from  a  sermon  of 
the  Weimar  Superintendent-General,  Antonius  Probus. 


POPE-FABLES  19 

were  not  even  satisfied  with  this  terrible  picture. 
'  Observe,'  wrote  the  theologian  Conrad  Schliissel- 
burg,  '  that  the  Roman  Antichrist,  who  is  in  truth  the 
devil  incarnate,  employs  emperors,  kings  and  princes  as 
ordinary  servants,  as  sedan-chair  carriers,  mule  drivers, 
errand  boys,  and  waiters.'  Luther,  the  angel  of  the  Lord, 
rightly  said  :  '  Whosoever  does  not  hate  the  Pope  from 
the  bottom  of  his  heart  cannot  be  saved.' l  The  theolo- 
gian James  Heerbrand  '  piled  up  the  agony '  by  declaring 
that  the  Popes  in  general  trod  with  their  insolent, 
devilish  feet  on  the  necks  of  the  German  emperors, 
uttering  all  the  while  abusive,  scandalous  phrases 
which  they  had  composed  for  the  occasion.- 

David  Maier,  pastor  at  Hanover,  said  in  the  dedi- 
cation of  a  pamphlet  to  Frederic  Ulrich,  Duke  of 
Brunswick-Liineburg  :  '  Time  after  time  it  has  happened 
that  the  Pope  has  not  only  set  the  crown  on  the  heads 
of  the  emperors  with  his  feet,  but  has  also  trodden 
underfoot  these  godlike  rulers  and  loaded  them  with 
the  utmost  Satanic  shame  !  The  temporal  authorities, 
whom  Holy  Scripture  designates  as  gods,  have  been 
trampled  on  by  this  wretched  son  of  Cerberus,  made 
to  wallow  in  dirt,  and  dishonoured  in  the  most  revolt- 
ing manner.  Such,  for  instance,  among  others,  was 
the  case  with  the  godlike  Frederic  Barbarossa,  that 
noble-minded,  semi- divine  Prince,3  who  was  treated 
in  this  manner  by  Alexander  III.  at  Venice  before  the 
eyes  of  the  whole  town  and  the  whole  world.  The  only 
wonder  is  that  not  one  of  the  imperial  guardsmen, 
not  one  true  and  loyal  German  man  who  witnessed 
the  proceeding,  had  the  heroic  daring  to  pierce  in  two 

1  Schliisselburg  &c.  viii.  50.  -'  Propffung,  p.  260. 

3  '  Principi  semideo.' 

c  2 


20  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


with  a  dagger  the  heart  of  that  whoremonger's  son. 
Pope  Alexander.'  1 

'  And  not  only  with  their  devilish  feet,'  says  another 
preacher,  '  have  these  hounds  of  Popes  trodden  down 
the  majesties  and  highest  ruling  authorities  of  the 
German  nation,  but  with  their  claws  also  they  have 
scratched  their  faces  till  they  bled,  whenever  they 
refused  to  obey  their  devilish  commands  and  to  fall 
at  their  feet  and  worship  them.'  2 

The  theologian  Samuel  Huber  also  had  been  informed 
that  it  was  '  well  known  how  the  wolves  at  Rome  had 
sprung  with  all  fours  on  many  pious  emperors.'  '  No 
emperor  and  no  king  has  ever  been  tranquil  and  safe 
from  the  Popes  ;  they  have  been  molested  by  them 
always  and  at  all  times  until  they  have  consented 
to  sing  Placet  to  their  Holinesses  ;  if  they  would  not 
do  this,  then  land  and  people  could  not  furnish  blood 
enough  to  satisfy  the  fury  of  these  devouring  wolves. 
Christian  rulers  have  been  nothing  more  to  them  than 
material  for  their  carnival  riotings.'  '  Even  the  Turks 
can  never  shed  so  much  blood  as  has  been  poured  out 
by  this  hellish  crew  of  bloodsucking  dragons.'  3 

The  Hessian  theologians  confirmed  Huber :  the 
sun  had  never  looked  down  on  '  more  villainous  scoun- 
drels than  the  Popes  and  their  gangs ;  they  were  whore- 
mongers, bloodshedders,  adulterers,  sodomites,  mur- 
derers, persecutors  of  true  Christians,  perjurers ;  ' 
the  Pope  had  permitted  sodomy  with  boys.  4 

1  Omnium  sanctorum  juhilaeus  evangelicus  (1617),  Epist.  dedicatoria  7b. 

■  Ein  hochnottiirfftige  Predig  wider  den  romischen  Antichrist  und  sein 
Rottgesellen  ('  A  highly  necessary  sermon  against  the  Roman  Antichrist  and 
his  rabble  of  associates '),  1589,  B  2,  C  2. 

3  Antwort  auf  die  sieben  Teufel,  ii.  (1596),  112. 

4  Notwendige  Besichtigung,  pp.  245,  266. 


ABUSE    OF   THE   PAPACY  21 

By  means  of  the  '  Centuries '  Huber  demonstrated 
that  Silvester  II.,  Gregory  VII.,  and  many  such  '  bolts 
of  hell,'  down  to  Clement  VII.,  '  had  not  only  been 
devil's  conspirators  and  depraved  scoundrels,  but 
actually  devils  incarnate.'  ! 

The  historian  Sebastian  Franck,  although  a  fierce 
antagonist  of  the  papacy,  nevertheless  gives  a  whole 
list  of  Popes  adorned  with  every  virtue  of  heart  and 
mind  ;  he  praises  one  for  genuine  piety,  another  for 
scholarship,  and  yet  others  for  benevolent  love  by 
the  couches  of  the  sick  and  the  dying.2  Of  this,  how- 
ever, the  later  '  zealots  for  God,'  who  pretended  that 
'  from  pure  love  of  Christ  they  were  compelled  to  make 
known  all  the  world  over  the  secret  of  Rome's  iniquity,' 
would  hear  nothing. 

Cyriakus  Spangenberg  had  already  uttered  his 
historical  verdict  in  1562.  '  The  Popes,'  he  said,  '  are 
murderers  ;  they  condemn  and  put  to  death  all  those 
who  blame  the  godless,  sodomitish  profligacy  of  the 
popish  priests,  monks  and  nuns.'  '  Their  work  is 
gorging  and  swilling  and  dishonouring  women  and 
young  girls.'  The  reigning  Pope,  Pius  IV.,  was  a 
'  devil's  head '  and  a  '  snotty  rat's  king,'  and  he  lay  in 
Castle  Sant'  Angelo  at  Rome  '  like  a  fattened  sow  in 
her  sty.'  '  All  the  Popes,  from  Boniface  III.  down  to 
the  present  ass,  who  have  idled  on  the  Roman  bolster — 
that  is  about  170 — have  been,  with  scarcely  more  than 

1  Antwort  auf  die  sieben  Teufel,  &c,  pp.  96,  102.  Others  heightened 
still  further  the  colours  of  the  Centuries.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  Hessian 
theologians  (Notwendige  Besichtigung,  p.  51)  made  Damasus  II.,  who, 
according  to  the  Centuries,  xi.  525,  had  been  poisoned,  into  a  poison  - 
mixer. 

2  See  Bischof,  pp.  121,  127. 


22  HISTOEY   OF   THE   GEEMAN   FEOPLE 

two  exceptions,  desperately  wicked  scoundrels,  idolaters, 
sorcerers,  liars,  and  murderers.'  l 

In  order  that  '  the  dear  reader  might  be  converted 
into  an  enemy  of  the  Roman  murderers,'  the  Hessian 
Superintendent    George   Nigrinus   wrote   a   History   of 
the  Popes  in  1582.     His  object  was,  after  the  manner 
of  the  '  Centurists,'   to  give  an  account  of  the  Anti- 
christian  papacy,  '  retailing  all  its  abominations,  show- 
ing its   origin,   development,   rule,   and   then   its   fall, 
describing    and    laying    bare    everything    from    stories 
in  history  in  such  a  manner  as  had  never  been  done 
before  in  any  German  book.'     '  For  we  are  in  duty 
bound,'   he  said,   '  to  show  up  the  Babylonish  whore 
and  uncover  her  shame  ;  she  has  deserved  it  and  courted 
it,  and  we  have  also  God's  command  to  do  so  (Apoca- 
lypse 18).'  -     This  book  gained   Nigrinus  the  praise  of 
being  '  a   remarkable   historian,'    who,   '  by   means   of 
incontestable  documents  and  records,   had   freely  and 
boldly  besmirched  the  unhallowed  papists  with  all  the 
mud  and  "  cart  grease"  that  belonged  to  them,'  and 
which  '  they  would  now  be  compelled  to  lick  through 
all  futurity  as  befitted  such  wicked,   artful  rogues.'  3 
Nigrinus  was  firmly  convinced  that  by  this  work  he 
had  proved  that  '  Rome  and  the  Roman  Church  was 
a  prostitute  and  a  den  of  thieves,  yea,  a  habitation 
of  the  devil  and  a  receptacle  for  all  impure  spirits.' 
'  This,'  he  added  honestly, '  the  papists  do  not  believe.'  4 

A  few  years  before,  Nigrinus' s  friend  and  brother- 

1  Wider  die  biisen  Sieben  ('  Against  the  wicked  seven  '),  C  2%  C  3b,  Hh, 
4b,  J  P. 

a  Papistische  Inquisition. 

3  '  A  sermon  against  the  abominable  papal  whore  and  its  wiles  and 
designs  since  the  beginning  of  Christian  times  '  (1584),  D  2. 

4  Papistische  Inquisition,  p.  727. 


ABUSE   OF   THE   PAPACY  23 

at-arms  John  Fischart  of  Mayence,  '  in  the  service 
of  his  Fatherland,  for  the  glory  of  the  Church,  and  for 
the  edification  of  all  men  and  women,'  had  published, 
under  the  title  '  Bienenkorb  des  heiligen  romischen 
Immenschwarms,'  a  work  in  which  the  history  of  the 
Popes  was  divided  into  four  groups.  '  The  first  consists 
of  heretics,  epicureans,  open  blasphemers,  frivolous 
mocking-birds,  to  whom  all  religions  were  food  for  fun  ; 
the  second  of  unclean  whores,  adulterers,  incestuous 
persons,  and  sodomitish  scoundrels  ;  the  third  of  eccle- 
siastical flayers  and  execrable  bloodhounds ;  the 
fourth  of  sorcerers,  votaries  of  the  black  art,  poisoners, 
and  others  of  the  kind  who  consort  with  the  devil 
and  practise  devil's  arts,  and  bear  on  their  escutcheons 
hoopoes,  owls,  huhus,  bats,  vultures,  woodpeckers, 
crows,  black  dogs  and  cats,  and  devil's  claws.' 

Here,  as  in  the  '  Magdeburg  Centuries,'  Gregory  VII. 
was  depicted  as  the  worst  possible  monster.  It  was 
said  of  him  that  '  he  had  helped  at  least  six  Popes  out 
of  the  world  one  after  another  with  "  Italian  sauces  "  and 
"  Venetian  soups  "  in  order  to  make  way  for  himself  ;  ' 
on  his  death-bed  he  had  himself  acknowledged  that  he 
had  raised  disturbance  throughout  the  whole  of  Chris- 
tendom, and  that  he  had  maintained  traitors,  murderers, 
robbers  of  churches,  incendiaries,  and  highwaymen ; 
he  had  engaged  certain  agents  who  undertook  to  put 
an  end  to  the  Emperor  Henry  by  treachery  or  by  poison, 
and  with  a  view  to  this  he  generally  carried  a  book  of 
magic  about  with  him.  He  had  thrown  the  Holy  Sacra- 
ment into  the  fire  '  in  order  to  find  out  from  the  devil 
by  enchantment  what  sort  of  luck  he  would  have  against 
the  Emperor  Henry.'  '  This  "  little  Tommy  "  had  in- 
troduced  celibacy,   had  forbidden  the   monks  "in  all 


24  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

eternity  to  eat  flesh,"  he  had  separated  the  Countess 
Matilda  from  her  husband  "  in  order  that  he  might  have 
the  dear  woman  all  to  himself,  and  indeed  all  histories 
testify  that  she  was  very  intimate  with  him."  '  ] 

'  Although  indeed,'  wrote  a  '  peaceable  minister  of 
the  Word  '  in  the  year  1584,  '  it  can  in  no  way  be  denied 
that  the  idolatrous,  devilish  papacy  has  now,  through 
the  zeal  of  pious  theologians  and  other  writers,  been 
so  thoroughly  and  properly  shown  up  and  depicted 
in  numbers  of  books  great  and  small,  in  leaflets, 
and  in  penny  sheets,  that  every  intelligent  person 
must  be  filled  with  horror  at  it,  and  though  children 
in  the  streets  have  learnt  to  curse  and  mock  the  Roman 
Antichrist  and  his  damned  crew  more  than  the  Turkish 


1  Bienenkorb.  part  6,  ch.  iii.    This  same  Fischart,  however,  who  under 

the  name  of  '  Jesuwalt  Pickhart '  flung  such  a  work  against  the  papacy 

among  the  people,  was  not  ashamed,  under  his  own  name,  to  associate 

himself  with  a  publisher's  undertaking  in  honour  of  the  Popes.      His 

relative,  the  Calvinist   book-dealer  Bernard  Jobin,  at  Strasburg,  published 

a  work  entitled  Eigenwissenliche  v.nd  wohlgedenkwiirdige  Contrafeyungen 

oder  Antlitzgestaltungen  der  riimischen  Papste  an  der  Zahl  achtundzwanzig 

von  dem  137 S  Jahr  bis  anf  den  heut  Stulfahigen  kilnstlich  angebildet.     This 

book  was  provided  with '  summary  eulogies  '  of  the  lives  of  the  Popes,  first 

written  in  Latin,  but  afterwards  translated  into  German  by  J.  Fischart, 

'  for  the  amusement  and  instruction  of  lovers  of  history  and  pictorial  art.' 

Bishop  Melchior,  of  Basle,  to  whom  the  book  was  dedicated,  was  requested 

'  nevermore  to  allow  his  great  kindness  and  beneficence  to  fade.'     The 

Popes  appear  here  in  quite  different  colours  from  those  in  which  they  are 

depicted  in  the  Bienenkorb.     Even  Alexander  VI.  is  praised  as  '  a  man  of 

great  mind,  witty,  and  eloquent  ; '  all  that  is  said  to  his  blame  is  that  he 

was   '  by  nature  artful.'     Accuratae  effigies  pontifwum   maximorum,  &c. 

(Strasburg,  1573).     If  we  compare  the  language  which  Fischart  undertook 

to  translate  with  the  language  of  the  Bienenkorb,  of  the  Jesuiterhiitlein, 

and  so  forth,  we  cannot  blame  the  Franciscan  Johannes  Nas  for  writing  of 

Fischart:  'He  is  no  honest  writer :  he  paints  in  many  colours.'     Against 

this  reproach  Fischart  cannot  be  defended  by  the  fact  on  which  Wacker- 

nagel  (p.  92)  lays  so  great  stress,  that  in  the  preface  to  the  Effigies  he 

defends  ancient  German  art  against  the  Italian  Vasari  in  the  warmest 

terms* 


ABUSE   OF  THE   PAPACY  25 

abominations  and  crimes,  nevertheless  these  books  alone 
do  not  suffice  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  nation, 
seeing  that  such  numbers  of  the  common  people  can 
neither  read  nor  write.  The  people  must  therefore 
be  suitably  instructed  from  the  pulpit  by  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  Divine  Word  and  the  brightly  illumining 
evangel,  and  they  must  also  be  taught  from  the  pulpit 
all  that  has  gone  on  and  is  still  going  on  at  Rome  among 
the  devilish  company  of  murderers,  whoremongers,  and 
sodomites  and  their  devoted  followers,  for  Christendom 
is  growing  lukewarm,  and  even  among  the  evangelicals 
there  is  no  small  number  of  miserable  compromisers 
and  courtiers  of  the  Antichrist  who  say  that  we  must 
let  the  papists  go  their  way,  and  that  we  can  very  well 
preach  the  Gospel  without  cursing  the  Chair  of  Pesti- 
lence and  wickedness,  and  enjoining  hatred  of  the 
papists.  But  those  who  speak  in  this  way  are  acting 
against  the  commandment  of  God,  who  has  said  that 
we  are  to  hate  those  who  hate  Him — that  is  to  say, 
therefore,  the  papists — and  the  people  must  be  taught  to 
this  effect  from  the  pulpit.'  l 

In  sermons  innumerable  the  people  were  indeed 
'  taught  to  this  effect.'  Doctor  George  Miller,  for 
instance,  preached  as  follows  at  Augsburg,  in  1584  : 
'  No  deeds  of  shame  can  be  mentioned,  no  vice  can  be 
imagined,  in  which  the  See  of  Rome  has  not  wallowed 
and  defiled  itself.'  The  Popes  were  '  sorcerers,  crafts- 
men of  the  devil,  assassins,  poisoners,  sodomites.'  '  Up 
with  you,  hail,  thunder,  and  lightning,'  he  exclaimed 
from  the  pulpit ;  '  yea,  up  with  you,  fire  of  hell,  and 
punish  this  Roman  profligacy.'  He  was  obliged,  he  said, 
to  preach  sermons  of  this  sort,  because  even  the  believers 

1  Die  grewliche  Papsthure,  &c.  (see  above,  p.  22,  note  3),  Bl.  C. 


26  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

in  the  holy  evangel  '  did  not  from  their  hearts  abhor  ' 
the  Pope  and  his  abominations.  And  yet  Luther  had 
expressed  the  wish  that  '  God  would  fill  you  all  with 
hatred  towards  the  Pope  '  because  he  had  held  it  to  be 
'  high  wisdom  and  piety  '  '  to  be  at  heart  the  enemy  of 
the  Pope.'  : 

When  Miller  became,  later  on,  Professor  of  Theology, 
pastor  and  superintendent  at  Jena,  he  delivered  there 
a  series  of  '  Sermons  on  the  Popes,'  and  he  published 
them  in  1599,  with  a  dedication  to  two  Saxon  dukes.2 
In  these  sermons  he  attempted,  among  other  things, 
to  show  that  the  whole  papacy  '  was  made  up  of  lies, 
murder,  shame,  and  robbery.'  Thus,  for  instance,  in 
the  fourth  discourse  he  treated  of  '  the  Pope  as  a  liar,' 
in  the  fifth  of  '  the  Pope  as  a  murderer,'  in  the  sixth  of 
'  the  scandalous  Pope,'  in  the  seventh  of  '  the  carrion 
Pope.'  He  said  in  his  preface  to  the  two  dukes  that 
'  whosoever  was  not  as  hostile  at  heart  to  the  Pope  as 
to  the  devil  could  not  be  saved,'  '  as  the  Spirit  of  God 
had  expressly  stated  through  the  mouth  of  Doctor 
Luther.'  3 

His  object  was  to  teach  the  people  from  the  history 
of  the  papacy  that  the  Roman  Antichrist  worked  his 
way  in  everything  by  '  sword  and  violence,  murder  and 
slaughter,  strangling  and  bloodshed.'  The  Popes, 
moreover,  were  '  devil's  teachers,  calumniators,  blas- 
phemers, and  preachers  of  abomination,'  and  they  were 

1  Zwo  christliche  in  Gottes  Wort  und  bewdhrten  Historien  wohlbegriin- 
dete  Predigten  vom  Ursprung  &c.  des  piipstlichen  Stuhles  zu  Bom  (Tubingen, 
1584),  pp.  40  ff.,  44,  48.  ('  Two  Christian  sermons,  well-grounded  on  God's 
Word  and  authentic  histories,  concerning  the  origin  &c.  of  the  Papal 
Chair  at  Rome.') 

2  Mylius,  Bapstpredigten,  &c.  I  quote  from  the  Frankfort  edition  of 
1615. 

3  Bapstpredigten,  Widmung,  ijb. 


ABUSE   OF   THE   PAPACY  27 

so  expert  in  all  crimes  and  devil's  arts  that  since  Sil- 
vester II.  twenty-two  of  them  in  succession,  without  ex- 
ception, had  been  '  sorcerers,  adepts  in  the  black  art,  and 
devil's  rascals.'  1  He  had  a  great  deal  more  information 
to  give  than  his  history-mongering  predecessors.  If,  for 
instance,  in  the  latter  we  read  that  Gregory  VII.  once 
shook  fire  out  of  his  sleeves,  so  now  from  the  lips  of  this 
pulpit  orator  the  burghers  and  students  of  Jena  learnt 
concerning  '  that  hellish  Father  '  (Gregory  VII.)  that 
'  he  had  but  to  smile  and  straightway  he  spat  out  fire, 
just  like  a  true  hellish  Cerberus,  and  if  he  did  but  shake 
the  sleeve  of  his  coat,  sparks  and  flames  of  fire  burst 
forth  in  such  abundance  that  it  seemed  as  if  he  must 
be  quite  full  of  hell  fire.'  2  Of  Alexander  III.  he  said 
that  he  had  not  only  intrigued  with  Turkey  against 
the  Emperor  Frederic  Barbarossa,  but  that  he  had 
also  attempted  '  on  German  soil  to  put  an  end  to  the 
Emperor  by  poison.'  The  Pope  had  also  dealt  so 
astutely  with  the  emperors  that  'he  trampled  them 
under  foot  and  stood  with  his  feet  on  their  necks.'  It 
was  by  papal  instigation  that  the  Emperor  Henry  VII. 
had  been  poisoned.3  And  in  order  that  there  should  be 
no  likelihood  of  his  hearers  thinking  that  such  inhuman 
atrocities  were  perpetrated  only  in  earlier  stages,  Miller 
informed  them,  out  of  the  '  Postille  '  of  Siegfried  Saccus, 
that  the  Popes  during  the  thirty  years  from  1550-1580 
had  compassed,  by  murder  and  bloodshed,  the  deaths 
of  no  less  than  900,000  people,  '  among  whom  30 
were  of  princely  ranks,  148  were  counts,  235  barons, 
144,515  members  of  the  nobility,  and  700,060  of  the 
common  people.'  What  the  Pope  wished  was  that  all 
evangelical    monarchies    and    principalities    should    be 

1  Pp.  77,  107,  112,  132.  a  Pp.  129,  203.  3  Pp.  113,  114,  307. 


28  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

destroyed  by  a  common  massacre.  '  Like  the  devil 
incarnate  that  he  was,  he  was  so  enamoured  with  these 
projects'  that  he  would  never  desist  from  them  until 
he  saw  '  the  whole  of  Christendom  swimming  in  its  own 
blood.'  l 

The  Jena  Superintendent  and  Professor  of  Theology 
considered  it  a  special  duty  attached  to  the  office  of 
evangelical    preacher    to    describe    these    monstrosities 
and    horrors    to    the    people    from    the    pulpit.     '  The 
preachers    are    bound    to    proclaim    abroad    by    every 
possible  means,  by  preaching,  writing,  singing,  saying, 
planning  and  scheming,  what  these   high   ecclesiastical 
personages  really  are,  to  declare  how  the  man  of  sin 
and  the  child  of  corruption  has  been  found  out,  how 
his  lying  and  murderousness,  his  sodomy  and  simony, 
have  been  brought  to  light,  and  how  the  whole  world 
has  been  warned  to  have  no  part  and  fellowship  with 
the  abominable  Antichrist.'     As  to  what  other  preachers 
had  done  or  intended  to  do  in  this  respect  he  would 
'  leave  that  to  each  individual's  conscience  and  respon- 
sibility ; '  but  for  himself,  '  I  intend,  as  I  have  done  with 
other  sermons  before  these,  to  do  all  in  my  power,  as 
far  as  time  permits,  with  the  present  "  Bapstpredigten  ' 
in  the  full  expectation  that  the  Pope  will  once  for  all 
have  had  enough  of  me.     If  I  come  back  again,  I  shall 
hope  to  do  even  better.'  2 

They  were  aiming  by  these  means  at  another  special 
object. 

'  After  seventy  or  eighty  years  of  fervent  evangelical 
preaching  against  and  denunciation  of  the  idolatrous 
papists'  "  devil's  tricks,"  the  monstrous  fallacy  of  the 
Apostolic  succession  of  the  "  Pope-hounds  "  and  devil's 

1  Pp.  116,  120.  2  P.  332. 


ABUSE   OF   THE   PAPACY  29 

rascals  was  still  deeply  ingrained  in  the  bones  of  the 
evangelical  people,  even  in  lands  where  there  were  no 
longer  any  papists,  and  where  they  were  not  tolerated  ; 
and  it  was  with  special  regard  to  this  fact  that  the 
theologians  and  preachers  thought  it  indispensably 
necessary,  with  speech  and  with  pen,  to  hold  up  sharply 
and  unsparingly  to  condemnation  and  scorn  (out  of 
godly  zeal  and  fervour)  the  history  of  the  Popes  and 
Antichrists.'  l  '  How  could  anyone  still  believe  in  the 
Apostolic  succession,'  asked  the  Elector  of  Saxony's 
court  preacher,  Matthias  Hoe,  in  1606,  when  '  one 
infamous  scoundrel  had  always  followed  another  at 
Rome,  and  adulterers,  sodomites,  murderers,  sorcerers 
had  become  Popes  ? '  and  this  not  only  in  the  Middle 
Ages  but  also  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Pope  Paul  III., 
for  instance,  had  wallowed  in  incest,  '  like  a  sow  in  the 
mire,'  and  had  put  an  end  to  his  mother  and  his  sister.2 
Johann  Miinster  recapitulated  and  completed  the 
'  frightful  and  veritably  true  accounts.'  The  Anti- 
christ at  Rome,  he  wrote,  '  makes  himself  equal  to  God 
and  allows  himself  to  be  venerated  and  worshipped.' 
'  He  is  not  ashamed,  insolent  devil  that  he  is,  to  tread 
on  the  Emperor  with  his  feet ; '  '  he  pastures  his  sheep 
with  sword,  fire,  halter  and  gallows.'  '  Pope  Coelestin 
placed  the  crown  on  the  Emperor  Henry  VII.'s  head 

1  That  the  object  of  all  this  abuse  of  the  papacy  was  to  prevent  the 
people's  returning  to  the  old  Church  is  openly  avowed  by  the  Weimar 
Superintendent  Antonius  Probus,  in  a  sermon  printed  in  1590.  '  Thirdly,' 
he  says, '  we  must  not  go  back  again  to  the  godless  papacy,  nor  allow  our- 
selves to  hanker  after  it,  as  we  find  so  many  people  everywhere  doing,  like 
the  Israelites  who  hungered  for  the  flesh-pots,  the  garlic,  and  the  onions 
of  Egypt ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  we  must  loathe,  shun,  and  treat  as  enemies 
the  Pope  and  all  his  accursed  dominion  '  (Marx,  Protest.  Kanzel,  p.  44). 

2  Christliches  Bedenken,  wie  sich  die  Protestanten  in  Ostreich  zu  verhalten 
(preface  C,  2-5b). 


•  ■> 


0  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


with  his  feet  and  knocked  it  off  again  with  his  feet. 
Pope  Clement  V.  compelled  Franciscus  Dandalus, 
King  of  Crete  and  Cyprus,  to  crouch  on  his  hands  and 
knees  in  the  papal  hall,  with  a  dog-collar  round  his 
throat,  and  to  lie  under  the  table  with  the  dogs.'  '  With 
fire,  water,  halter  and  sword  '  the  Popes  inflict  martyr- 
dom on  all  those  '  who  follow  and  conform  to  the  faith 
and  teaching  of  the  holy  Apostle  Peter.'  '  Not  one  of 
the  Popes  has  imitated  St.  Peter,  and  still  less  the  Lord 
Christ,  to  the  length  of  letting  himself  be  crucified.' 
'  Because  the  Pope  is  so  utterly  unlike  and  opposed 
to  Peter  he  will  be  cast  into  hell  as  the  veritable  apostate, 
execrable  tyrant  and  murderer  and  Babylonish  whore, 
with  the  devils  and  their  angels,  who  are  condemned 
to  everlasting  punishment  and  torment  which  will 
never  have  an  end  in  all  eternity.'  l 

At  the  Easter  festival  of  1589  a  preacher  declared 
from  the  pulpit  that,  '  as  had  been  truly  made  known 
by  innumerable  writings,  the  Popes,  as  the  Romish 
devil's  villains  were  called,  had  always  been  and  still 
were,  without  a  single  exception,  sodomites,  necro- 
mancers, and  magicians,  that  many  of  them  indeed 
had  been  able  to  spit  hell-fire  out  of  their  mouths  ; 
it  was  therefore  not  at  all  extraordinary  that,  when 
they  wanted  to  pray,  they  invoked  the  devil,  and  that 
Satan  then,  as  many  trustworthy  persons  have  declared 
from  the  actual  evidence  of  their  eyes,  often  appeared 
visibly  to  the  Popes,  in  a  terrific  form,  and  joined  with 
them  in  cursing  and  trampling  the  cross  of  Christ 
under  foot,  and  held  naked  dances  over  it,  which  they 
called   their   divine   service.'     '  They   are   all   children 

1  Maximilian  Philos  von  Trier,  Examen  und  Inquisition  der  Papisten 
und  Jesuiter  (1607),  pp.  13,  20,  61-62,  64,  69,  &c. 


ABUSE   OF   THE   PAPACY  31 

of  the  devil  whom  they  worship,  and  who  will  come 
and  carry  them  off.     Amen.'  l 

For  more  detailed  information  the  preacher  advised 
the  '  dear  Christian  people,'  at  the  '  high  festival  of 
Easter,'  to  read  a  little  '  Roman  Book  of  Ritual '  in 
which  '  the  popish  crew  were  very  amusingly  and  cleverly 
counterfeited.'  A  publication  of  this  sort  had  appeared 
at  Strasburg  in  1572,  but  without  any  mention  of  locality. 
In  it  were  set  forth  the  doctrines,  the  doings,  the  life  and 
the  character  of  the  popish  priests,  all  told  in  short 
rhymes  which  were  very  amusing  to  read.  Lucifer,  it 
was  said,  had  created  the  '  Antichristian  Roman  God  ; ' 
his  Benedicite  before  eating  and  drinking  began  with 
the  words  :  '  The  eyes  of  all  ravens  wait  on  thee,  0 
Pope,'  and  when  he  had  finished,  his  grace  was  '  Thanks 
be  to  thee,  0  Pope,  thou  devil  abominable.'  2 

'  But  all  who  pray  to  the  devil  and  come  from  him, 
like  the  Antichrist  and  his  gang,  must  also  be  carried 
away  by  the  devil  at  last.  And  who  has  ever  heard 
otherwise  than  that  the  Popes,  cardinals,  bishops, 
priests,  monks  and  nuns,  together  with  all  their  accursed 
throng,  are  always  carried  off  by  the  devil  into  the 
burning,  stinking  pit  of  hell  ?  This  is  the  true  evangelical 
faith.'  3  It  was  in  conformity  with  this  belief  that 
in  1580  there  was  a  representation  at  Tubingen,  in  the 
presence  of  princes  and  lords,  of  a  comedy  of  Nicodemus 
Frischlin,  in  which  the  devil  and  his  comrades  are  seen 
carrying  away  the  Pope,  a  cardinal,  and  a  bishop, 
and  gloating  over  the  good  spoil  they  have  taken.  Christ 
Himself  appeared  in  the  comedy  and  sang  the  Protestant 

1  Ein  hochnottiirfftige  Predig  wider  den  romischen  Antichrist  und  sein 
Rottgesellen  (1589),  D  2. 

2  Weller,  Annalen,  i.  330,  No.  196  ;  cf.  pp.  197  and  198. 

3  Wolfe  im  Schafspeltz,  21b,  22\ 


32  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

hymn  :  '  Keep  us  faithful  to  Thy  Word,'  and  hasten  on 
the  slaughter  of  the  Pope  and  the  Turks.1 

The  writers  and  preachers  who  in  pamphlets  and 
sermons  delighted  in  calling  down  thunder  and  lightning 
—hell-fire  if  possible — on  the  Antichristian,  idolatrous 
popish  Church,  were  supplied  with  specially  rich  material 
for  their  purpose  in  the  collection  of  historical  fables 
which  they  unceasingly  presented  to  the  people  as 
'  actual,  indisputable  facts.' 

The  first  of  these  was  the  fable  of  the  Popess  Johanna. 
This  fable  had  enjoyed  universal  credence  since  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,2  and  it  was  considered 
'  an  abnormal  crime '  in  the  Jesuit  George  Scherer  '  that 
he  had  the  effrontery  to  attack  and  cast  doubts  on  the 
credibility  of  this  story.'  '  From  this  alone,'  it  was 
said,  '  people  could  see  and  know  what  double-dyed 
knaves  and  villains  the  "  Jesuwiders  "  were,'  for  they 
'  obstinately  persisted  in  denying  that  the  English 
whore  Agnes  had  been  Popess  at  Rome  and  had  given 
birth  to  a  boy  during  a  public  procession,  and  this  event 
must  be  recounted  as  an  eternal  blot  on  the  hellish 
papacy  ;  and  in  books  and  sermons,  in  poems  and  paint- 
ings, it  must  be  strongly  depicted  to  and  impressed  upon 
the  people.'  3  In  1558  Hans  Sachs  had  written  for  the 
people  a  rhymed  '  History  of  Johanna  Anglika  the 
Popess.'  4  In  the  '  Magdeburg  Centuries '  this  fable 
comes  up  three  times,5  and  there  are  few  Protestant 
controversial  books  of  the  time  in  which  it  does  not  play 
a  part.     Even  on  high  festival  days  it  was  made  the 

1  Strauss,  p.  128. 

2  Dollinger,  Die  Papstfabeln  des  Mittelaliers  (Munich,  1863),  p.  2  ff. 

3  Ein   hochnottiirfftige   Predig  (see  above,    p.  31,  note  1),   C  3  ;    cf. 
Eybenhold,  Confirmatio  gegen  und  wider  die  Jesuiter,  p.  13. 

4  Hans  Sachs,  viii.  652-655.  5  Centuria  ix.  332,  337,  501. 


HISTORICAL   LEGENDS   AGAINST   THE   PAPACY        33 

subject  of  sermons.1  '  It  would  seem  indeed  as  though 
God  had,  as  it  were,  preserved  this  incident  as  an 
infallible  sign  that  the  papacy  is  the  kingdom  of  Anti- 
christ : '  it  was  thus  that  Jeremiah  Vietor  instructed 
his  parishioners  in  his  sermons  on  Revelation.  The  fact 
that  the  Jesuits  would  not  acknowledge  the  existence 
of  a  Popess  Johanna  was  plain  proof  to  the  court  preacher 
Polycarpus  Leiser  that  '  Lying  is  the  characteristic 
of  the  Jesuits  in  quanto  modo.'  Vergerius  was  reputed 
'  an  authentic  witness '  for  the  existence  of  the  Popess 
whom  the  pastor  of  Schongraben  in  Lower  Austria 
designated  as  the  '  Babylonish  whore.'  2  Miiller  also 
preached  exhaustively  on  this  subject  and  pointed 
the  moral  by  remarking  that  '  Immorality  and  scoun- 
drelism  of  this  sort,  which  had  had  full  swing  in  the 
capital  city,  Rome,  had  spread  to  all  places  which  had 
come  under  the  dominion  of  the  Pope.'  3 

Cyriakus  Spangenberg,  who  wrote  on  the  subject 
in  1562,  was  not  satisfied  with  one  Popess.  The  popes, 
he  wrote, '  have  often,  while  outwardly  disguised  as  men, 
been  nothing  more  than  rejected  harlots.'  4 

A  second  '  appalling  story  which  gave  an  abomi- 
nable stench  to  the  papacy,'  and  was  dished  up  in  innu- 
merable pamphlets,  was  the  fable  of  '  the  6,000  children's 
heads.'  It  was  taken  from  a  supposititious  letter  of 
St.  Ulrich  of  Augsburg  to  Pope  Nicholas  I.  This 
letter  was  first  printed  in  the  year  1520, J  and  then  lapsed 

1  See,  for  instance,  Erhard  Lauterbach's  Zehn  griindliche  Predigten 
(Leipzig,  1611),  p.  34. 

2  Marx,  Protest.  Kanzel,  pp.  38-39. 

3  Mylius,  Bapstpredigten,  pp.  138-139. 

4  Wider  die  bosen,  Sieben  ;  see  above,  p.  22. 

5  Weller,  Repertorium  typographicum,  No.  1404,  and  1955,  1956.  For 
the  origin  and  spread  of  the  Ulrich  fable,  see  Pistorius,  Episl.  tres  ad 
Pappum,  p.  116  sq.     Concerning  the  spurious  nature  of  the  letter,  see  Fr. 

VOL.    X.  D 


34  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

out  of  memory  until  it  was  revived  by  Flacius,  who 
referred  to  it  repeatedly  in  his  controversial  writings, 
published  it  twice  at  his  own  expense,  and  also  included 
it  in  his  '  Catalogus  testium  veritatis.'  l  The  6,000 
children's  heads  were  said  to  have  been  found  in  the 
fish-pond  of  a  nunnery  in  the  time  of  Gregory  I.  '  Such- 
like unutterable  and  most  monstrous  deeds  of  sin  and 
shame,  of  horrible,  abominable  profligacy,'  says  Flacius, 
and  gruesome  murder  of  countless  innocent  children, 
'  are  still  perpetrated  at  the  present  day  by  his 
Holiness  the  Pope  and  his  priests,  and  promoted  by 
their  devil's  doctrine  of  celibacy,  and  their  most  grue- 
some persecution  of  married  clergy.'  2 

John  Wigand  set  his  co-religionists  the  following 
sum  to  calculate  :  if  in  one  single  fish-pond  '  over  6,000 
children's  heads  were  found,  how  high  would  you  fix 
the  number  of  children  that  have  been  thus  cruelly 
put  an  end  to  in  all  the  different  convents  and  monas- 
teries, in  all  the  colleges  of  canons  and  mass -priests 
all  over  the  world,  during  all  the  centuries  ?  ' 3  '  It  is 
not  without  good  reason,'  Conrad  Schliisselburg  insinu- 
ated with  regard  to  Ulrich's  letter,  '  that  convents  and 
monasteries  are  for  the  most  part  built  close  to  large 
ponds  and  swamps.'  '  Who  is  there  that  does  not 
shudder  to  his  very  marrow-bone,  on  hearing  of  such 
monstrous  crimes  ?  The  Popes  know  that  this  had 
happened  and  that  the  same  sort  of  thing  was  going 

A.  Veith,  Bibliotheca  Augustana  (Augustae  Vindelicorurn,  1785  sqq.)  ; 
Alphabetum,  iv.  225-232,  where  all  the  literature  connected  with  the 
subject  is  also  added. 

1  Preger,  Flacius,  ii.  553.  Flacius  was  answered  as  he  deserved  by 
the  Dominican  Johann  Fabri ;  see  Paulus,  '  Joh.  Fabri  von  Heilbronn,'  in 
the  Kaiholilc,  1892,  i.  113. 

2  Etliche  hochwichtige  Ursachen,  &c.  (1570),  A3b,  A4a. 
1  Schliisselburg,  xiii.  285. 


HISTORICAL   LEGENDS   AGAINST   THE   PAPACY        35 

on  daily  around  them,  and  yet  they  have  been  shameless 
enough  to  treat  such  deeds  of  iniquity  with  an  amiable 
smile.  From  such  filth  as  this  neither  the  river  Tiber 
nor  the  Mediterranean  Sea  can  ever  wash  the  Pope's 
kingdom  clean  ;  he  will  be  reserved  for  the  Stygian 
marsh,  which  has  been  created  for  such  criminals  as 
himself.'  ] 

Like  the  fable  of  the  Popess  Johanna  this  Ulrich 
myth  was. also  made  use  of  in  the  pulpit  to  enliven 
sermons.  George  Miller  introduced  it  in  his  '  Papst- 
predigten '  as  an  explanation  of  '  the  secret  vaults  in 
the  convent  churches,  and  especially  of  the  fish-ponds 
round  the  nunneries,  which  were  evidently  connected 
with  this  horrible  and  monstrous  system  of  child  murder.' 
In  order  to  impose  on  the  world  the  illusion  of  virgin 
chastity,  it  had  been  necessary  '  to  devise  some  such 
means,'  even  at  the  cost  of  the  woeful  murder  of  many 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  innocent  children. 2  The 
Ulrich  fable  was  used  especially  in  order  to  instruct 
the  people  concerning  the  desirability  of  marriage 
among  the  clergy.  The  Superintendent  of  Plauen, 
Matthias  Hoe,  alludes  to  it  in  a  sermon  which  he  delivered 
at  the  marriage  of  one  of  his  preachers  :  but  with 
him  the  number  of  heads  has  grown  to  16,000.3 

'  I  have  heard  it  said,'  wrote  a  Catholic  controversia- 
list of  the  year  1591,  '  of  an  upright,  honest  Lutheran, 
who  had  no  pleasure  in  such  dirty  pulpit- quarrelling, 
that  in  one  year  he  had  heard  at  least  six  preachers 

1  Schliisselburg,  viii.  5-7. 

2  Mylius,  Bapstpredigten,  pp.  139-140. 

3  Eine  christliche  Predigt  von  des  heiligen  Ehestandes  Fiirtrefflichkeit, 
und  insbesondere  von  der  Priesterehe  (Leipzig,  1607),  p.  16  ('  A  Christian 
sermon  on  the  excellence  of  the  holy  state  of  matrimony,  and  especially 
on  the  marriage  of  priests'). 

D  2 


36  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

tell  the  story  of  the  6,000  children's  heads,  and  that 
they  had  given  such  disgusting  accounts  that  the  boys 
and  girls  in  church  had  laughed  and  jeered.'  l 

1   Von  newen  calvinischen  Giftspinnen  und  Unfldttern,  C  2  ;  Wolfsbach 
iiber  die  6,000  Kindskopfe.     In  reply  to  the  Flacian  Opitz,  who  related 
this  story  publicly  in  the  pulpit  at  Vienna,  George  Scherer  preached  a  ser- 
mon demolishing  it  altogether.     Scherers  Werke,  ii.  (Miinchener  Ausgabe), 
p.  171  ff.  ;  see  Menzel,  hi.  37  ;  Rass,  Konvertiten,  ii.  299-300.     The  convert 
Lorenz  Albrecht  wrote  a  refutation  of  the  fabulous  story  of  the  Popess 
Johanna  and  of  the  Ulrich  fable  :  Bericht  vom  Bapst  Johanne  dem  achten, 
welcher  soil  ein  Weib  gewesen  sein,  together  with  a  letter  from  St.  Ulrich, 
Bishop  of  Augsburg,  which  he  wrote  to  Pope  Nicholas,  and  in  which  he 
is  said  to  have  pleaded  for  the  abolition  of  the  vow  of  chastity.     '  Amusing 
and  useful  for  all  to  read.'     Laurentius  Albertus  Francus  (Dilhngen,  1572). 
The  fables  in  question,  Albrecht  remarks  in  his  dedication  to  Cardinal 
Otto  Truchsess,  had  already  all  been  thoroughly  refuted  by  learned  men  ; 
he  was  therefore  offering  nothing  new  ;    he  only  wanted  to  make  what 
others  had  written  for  scholars  accessible  to  the  German  people  ;  see 
Paulus,  Lorenz  Albrecht,   author  of  the  first  German  grammar,  in  the 
Hist.-polit.  Bl.  119  (1897),  p.  557  ff.     Here,  too,  will  be  found  fuller  details 
concerning  Albrecht's  life  and  general  activity.     Before  his  conversion, 
when  he  was  hostile  to  the  Catholic  Church,  Albrecht  had  already  bewailed 
in  striking  language  the  discord  and  divisions  in  Protestantism :  '  It  is  a 
matter  for  tears  and  lamentation,'  he  said,  '  that  in  so  short  a  time  after 
the  death  of  the  dear,  pious  man  of  sacred  memory,  Dr.  Martin  Luther,  so 
many  different  sects  should  again  have  sprung  up  among  the  evangelicals  ; 
he  would  have  stopped  the  mouths  of  them  all  had  he  lived  on  up  to  this 
time.'     Like  most  of  the  Lutheran  preachers  of  that  period,  Albert  saw  in 
this  increase  of  sects  '  a  sure  sign  that  Christ's  second  coming  was  not  far 
off.'     '  Who  is  there,'  he  exclaims,  '  who  in  the  midst  of  such  errors  would 
not  wish  and  pray  that  the  day  of  judgment  and  the  end  of  the  world 
might  soon  come  ?     The  masses  no  longer  know  what  to  believe.     The 
common  people  complain  that,  Avithin  memory  of  the  living,  religion  has 
been  altered  so  often  that  nobody  is  certain  of  his  faith.    They  say  also  that 
they  would  be  thankful  to  have  a  full  statement  of  belief,  and  of  the  way 
of  salvation,  if  only  there  were  anyone  who  was  quite  sincere  and  honest 
in  teaching  and  preaching.     Nowadays,  however,  there  is  no  single  clergy- 
man who  agrees  with  another  ;  but  they  all  quarrel  with  and  blame  each 
other,  and  each  one  insists  that  he  knows  better  than  anyone  else.'      It 
was  this  division  of  opinion  among  the  Protestants  which  awakened 
Albrecht's  interest  in  the  Catholic  Church  ;  his  conversion  to  Catholicism 
occurred  at  Wurzburg  at  the  end  of  1567  or  the  beginning  of  1568.    Albrecht 
had  probably  heard  there  the  sermons  of  Fr.  Canisius.     See  Paulus,  I.e. 
p.  553. 


HISTORICAL   LEGENDS   AGAINST   THE   PAPACY        37 

1  The  iniquities  of  the  Pope,  which  are  as  the  sand 
of  the  sea-shore  in  number,'  said  the  preacher  Johann 
Pratorius,  in  the  same  year,  1591,  '  are  known  to 
everybody,  and  our  little  children  in  the  streets  can 
describe  out  of  their  catechism  what  the  Pope  is,  what 
the  priests,  monks,  and  nuns  really  are,  what  down- 
right hypocrites  and  superstitious  old  profligate  women 
and  whores  they  are.' 

'  The  spiritual  Jericho,  formerly  a  palace  of  the 
devil,'  had  gone  to  ruin  and  was  now  '  nothing  more 
than  a  cesspool  of  Satan,  where  all  the  gnats  of  Beel- 
zebub and  the  gadflies  of  Belial  disport  themselves,  and 
seek  to  appease  their  gluttony  on  the  food  they  find 
there.'  l 

Beside  the  fable  of  the  Popess  and  Johanna,  and 
the  Ulrich  fable,  another  one  was  also  pressed  into  the 
service  to  combat  the  papacy  and  stir  up  the  people. 
The   author  of    '  Ein    hochnottiirfftige  Predig '   (1589) 
and  George  Miller  ('  Wider  die  bosen  Sieben,'  F  4b-G) 
proclaimed  from  the  pulpit  that  the  Antichrist  and  his 
crew,  not  satisfied  with  the  common  forms  of  sinful 
lust,  had  abandoned  themselves  to  sodomy,  bestiality, 
and  every  other  nameless   excess,   and,   worst  of  all, 
that  the  Archbishop  of  Benevento,  John  de  la  Casa, 
had  written  a  book  in  '  Praise  of  Sodomy  and  Pederasty,' 
which  book  was  printed  and  offered  for  sale  by  Trajano 
Navio  at  Venice.     Other  preachers  filled  in  the  details  : 
the  book  was  approved  by  the  Pope  ;  several  bishops 
had  written  such  books  and  praised  the  foulest  sins  as 
pleasant  pastimes. 

'  This  is  the  way  in  which  the  unhappy  people  are 
deceived  and  incensed,'  says  a  Catholic  writer  quoting 

1  Pratorius,  DreikLipfiger  Antichrist,  C  3a. 


38  HISTOEY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

these  imputations  from  '  an  inhuman,  execrable  lampoon 
on  popish  profligacy.'  '  First  of  all  there  is  a  book 
written  by  La  Casa  in  praise  of  sodomy.  Nobody 
has  seen  such  a  book,  for  no  such  book  was  ever  written. 
Next,  La  Casa — which  makes  things  much  worse — 
wrote  this  book  when  he  was  a  bishop,  or  indeed,  as 
others  do  not  scruple  to  declare,  he  was  made  a  bishop 
in  reward  for  this  abominable,  scandalous  book,  which 
the  Pope  also  commended.  Then  comes  another  who 
says  that  many  such  books  no  doubt  exist  in  Rome, 
for  that  numbers  of  bishops  had  openly  defended 
the  sin  of  sodomy  which  they  themselves  practised.' 
'  Now  I  ask  you  where  can  even  one  such  book  be  found, 
let  alone  numbers  of  them  ?  Who  among  you  has  it 
in  his  possession,  who  has  seen  it,  who  has  authorised 
its  publication  ?  If  you  cannot  give  an  answer  to 
these  questions,  how  will  you  answer  before  God  and 
the  dear  Fatherland  for  having  unintermittently  cir- 
culated such  falsehoods  ?  '  l 

Nobody  had  seen  the  book,  nobody  could  produce 
it,  for  there  was  no  such  book.  All  the  same,  they  went 
on  playing  out  the  La  Casa  fable  as  a  '  trump  card ' 
against  the  Catholic  Church.2 

1  Von  newen  calvinischen  Giftspinnen,  &c,  F  4  to  P. 

2  Times  without  number  this  fable  was  brought  forward  in  con- 
troversial writings.  In  1596  it  was  reproduced  by  Spangenberg  in  his 
Gegenbericht  auf  die  Anatomie  des  Pistorius,  p.  115  ff.,  and  by  Huber  in 
his  Antwort  auf  die  sieben  Teufel  des  Pistorius,  p.  104  ;  in  1597  by  the 
Hessian  theologians  in  Notwendige  Besichtigung,  pp.  226,  450,  and  by  others. 
In  the  year  1617  a  Calvinist  wrote  as  follows  :  '  Horrendum  dictu  et 
auditu,'  one  of  the  bishops  '  has  written  a  special  prose  book,  De  Sodomia  ' 
{Gegen-Erinnerung  gegen  Ungersdorf,  p.  24).  All  through  the  seventeenth 
century  '  fabulous  stories  were  told  about  La  Casa,'  until  at  last,  in  1707 
the  Protestant  Nicholas  Jerome  Gundling,  professor  of  jurisprudence  at 
Halle,  made  a  stand  against  the  practice  in  his  Observationes  Hallenses, 
i.  121  sqq.     '  Who,'  he  asked,  '  has  ever  denied  criminals  accused  of  crime 


HISTORICAL   LEGENDS    AGAINST   THE   PAPACY        39 

'  Only  go  on  unflinchingly  fighting  the  Roman 
Antichrists  and  lieutenants  of  Satan  and  their  whole 
rotten  rabble  ;  all  means  are  lawful  to  this  end  :  are 
they  not  all  rascals,  whoremongers,  sodomites,  blood- 
suckers, man-slayers,  and  even  worse  ?  ' 

'  If  any  want  to  be  thoroughly  informed,'  he  goes 
on,  '  as  to  what  is  the  true  nature  of  the  papacy,  its 
character,  its  teaching,  and  its  rites  and  ceremonies, 
let  them  read  Jesuwalt  Pickhart's  "  Bienenkorb,"  which 
is  already  in  everybody's  hands.  This  book,  he  said, 
was  an  essentially  true  and  Christian,  and  withal  a 
very  amusing,  book.'  l 

the  right  of  defending  themselves,  even  though  their  crime  were  of  the 
most  monstrous  nature  ?  If  accusations  only  are  to  be  permitted,  who  of 
us  would  be  counted  innocent  ? '  The  truth  is  that  Giovanni  della  Casa,  in 
his  earlier  youth,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  pagan,  immoral  Humanists, 
wrote  some  very  dirty  poems,  notably  the  Capitolo  del  Forno.  Casa's 
Rime  e  prose,  in  consequence  of  the  aforesaid  Capitolo  del  Forno  and  other 
indecent  publications,  were  put  on  the  Index  by  Paul  IV.  in  1559*  They 
were  struck  out  of  the  so-called  Trent  Index,  again  put  on  the  Index  by 
Sixtus  V.  in  1590,  and  again  struck  out  by  Clement  VIII.  in  1596.  See 
Reusch,  Index,  i.  204  ff.  For  Casa,  see  also  Reumont,  Gesch.  Roms,  iii. 
2,  549,  552-690.  Casa  was  attacked  on  account  of  his  poems  by  his 
personal  enemy,  the  apostate  Vergerius,  and  there  soon  came  into  being, 
as  Gundling  remarks,  '  in  the  heads  of  those  who  invent  mischievous 
reports  and  obtain  credence  for  them,'  an  actual  book  De  Laudibus  Sodo- 
miae  et  Paederastiae.'  These  wicked  inventions,  says  Gundling,  are  passed 
on  from  one  to  another,  although  the  Frenchman  Menage  in  his  Anti- 
Baillet  has  satisfactorily  demolished  the  calumny  hurled  at  Casa.  In 
Germany,  Sleidan,  the  historian  of  the  Smalcald  League,  appears  to  be 
the  first  who  spread  this  slander  against  Casa :  Comment,  libr.  xxi. 
ad  a.  1548  (Frankfort  edition  of  1786),  p.  154.  Maximilian  Philos  of 
Treves  appeals  to  Sleidan  in  his  Examen  und  Inquisition  der  Papisten  und 
Jesuiten,  p.  62.  The  same  Philos  has  the  tale  that  during  the  months  of 
June,  July,  and  August,  two  popes  are  said  to  have  allowed  the  cardinals 
the  practice  of  sodomy  'on  account  of  the  great  heat.'  George  Miller 
preached  on  the  subject  at  Jena  (Bapstpredigten,  p.  141). 
1   Wolfe  im  Schafspeltz,  p.  21h,  23. 


40  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


CHAPTER   II 

FISCHART's    '  BIENENKORB  ' 
('  BEEHIVE    OF   THE    HOLY   ROMAN   BEE    SWARM ') 

Under  the  name  of  '  Jesuwalt  Pickhart,'  the  poet  and 
jurist  John  Fischart  of  Mayence  published  in  1579  the 
'  Bienenkorb  des  heiligen  Romischen  Immenschwarms,' 
which  was  a  translation,  with  many  additions  of  greater 
and  less  magnitude,  of  the  '  Byencorf  der  heylighe 
roomsche  Kercke  '  by  Philip  van  Marnyx. 

Marnix,  who  exercised  great  influence  in  the  politico- 
ecclesiastical  revolution  in  the  Netherlands,  belonged 
to  the  party  of  '  the  extreme  Gueux'  who  rejected  all 
Church  tradition.  Just  as  the  Calvinist  Theodore 
Beza  declared  '  freedom  of  conscience  '  to  be  a  '  dia- 
bolical doctrine,'  so  Marnix  maintained  that  to  allow 
everyone  to  live  according  to  his  own  religious  convic- 
tions came  near  to  the  outrageous  folly  of  sparing 
the  life  of  a  poison-mixer.'  l 

Marnix  defended  the  terrible  Church  scandals  and 
iconoclasm  in  the  Netherlands  in  1566,  against  the 
attacks  of  a  Lutheran.  The  outburst  of  popular  fury 
at  that  time,  he  said,  was  '  the  judgment  of  God  on 
idolatry  ; '  it  was  a  work  of  Divine  Providence  in  which 
the  hand  of  man  had  been  used  as  an  instrument.2  In 
the  eyes  of  this  Calvinist  hero  of  revolution  '  the  whole 
papacy  was  the  most  execrable  idolatrous  abomination 

1  Alberdingk  Thijm,  Marnyx,  p.  57.  2  Ibid.  ii.  53-54. 


FISCHART'S   'B1ENENK0KB'  41 

in  the  sight  of  God,'  and  its  extirpation  '  one  of  the 
highest  duties  of  a  Christian  man.'  The  actual  object 
of  his  labours  as  an  author  was  not  merely  to  oppose 
the  papacy,  but  to  degrade  and  vilify  it — if  possible, 
to  drown  it  in  the  mire.1 

The  '  Bienenkorb '  heaped  calumny  on  calumny 
against  the  Catholics,  and  also  against  the  Lutheran 
doctrine  of  the  Eucharist  as  if  this  were  a  coarse  cere- 
mony of  eating  flesh  and  drinking  blood.  For  the 
Catholic  priests,  they  said,  '  the  bread  juggling '  was 
'  the  best  bird  in  the  cage  ;  '  '  they  drink  blood  on  raw 
flesh  ; '  they  are  somewhat  more  dainty  and  fastidious 
than  their  master,  Satan,  for  the  latter  said  to  Christ 
in  the  wilderness,  '  Command  that  these  stones  shall 
be  made  bread  ; '  but  '  they  will  not  be  content  with 
dry  bread.'  .  .  .  '  The  parsons  themselves  are  quite 
satisfied  with  partaking  in  one  kind  on  Good  Friday 
after  White  Thursday,  when  they  have  enjoyed  a 
good  soup  of  "  Bastart  and  Romaney ;  "  then  the 
following  day  they  say  a  dry  Mass  and  indulge  in 
secret  carousing  just  as  the  laity  do  at  Easter.'  2 

In  the  book  of  Bishop  Durandus  on  the  Ceremonies 
of  the  Mass  it  was  explained  why  '  the  priest,  when 
he  plays  his  role  at  Mass,  goes  through  strange  mum- 
meries :  '  '  why,  for  instance,  he  is  bound  round  the 
body  with  a  cord,  like  a  thief  being  led  to  the  gallows  ; 
why  he  dances  and  tramples  about  in  front  of  the 
altar ; '  '  why  he  stretches  out  his  hands  as  a  lazy  dog 
extends  his  paws,  and  then  draws  them  back  again 
as  if  he  were  trying  to  catch  flies.'     '  He  whispers  his 

1  It  is  thus  that  Edgar  Quinet,  a  man  hke-minded  with  Marnix, 
speaks  on  the  subject ;  see  Alberdingk  Thijm,  pp.  40-41. 

-  Fischart's  Bienenkorb,  second  part,  ch.  iv.  to  vi.  I  make  use  of  the 
edition  marked  8  No.  F.  in  Vilmar.  Zur  Litteratur  Fischarts. 


42  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

mysteries  into  the  ears  of  the  bread  and  wine  and 
listens  as  if  he  wanted  to  give  a  secret  watchword, 
while  his  associates  howl  at  him  with  open  mouths 
like  wolves  in  a  forest,  or  swine  being  scalded  and 
stuck.' 

Respecting  the  elevation  of  the  sacred  Host  and 
the  chalice  the  readers  are  informed  '  why  my  lord 
Domini  with  the  long  shirt  lifts  up  over  his  head, 
majestically  and  triumphantly,  a  small  wafer  and  a 
chalice  of  wine,  while  all  the  congregation  fall  so  humbly 
on  their  knees  and  beat  their  breasts  with  their  fists. 
Also  why  the  priest  then  puts  on  so  piteous  an  air, 
like  a  calf  that  is  being  killed,  and  then  begins  to  wail 
and  shed  crocodiles'  tears ;  and  at  last,  when  he  has 
rolled  it  round  enough,  like  a  dog  with  his  bone,  why 
he  uncovers  it  again,  and  then  with  one  snap  whips 
it  into  his  mouth  and  swallows  it  unchewed.  After 
which  he  has  the  chalice  filled  full  again,  and  with  rapid 
pigeon-gulps  empties  down  its  contents  into  his  capa- 
cious wine  tub  and  beer  barrel.  Readers  will  also 
learn  from  this  book  why  he  licks  the  chalice  so  lovingly, 
as  a  monkey  licks  its  young.'  x 

It  is  in  this  sort  of  tone  that  the  whole  work  is  written, 
a  work  of  which  Fischart  says  that  '  for  the  good  of 
the  Fatherland  and  the  Church,  and  for  the  general 
profit  and  edification,  he  translated  it  into  intelligible 
German,  with  here  and  there  additions  of  some  Mayence 
witticisms,  because  it  is  permissible  to  put  new  strings 
to  an  old  fiddle,  and  to  paint  and  renovate  a  shabby 
old  idol  with  fresh  and  bright  colours.'  2 

1  Second  part,  ch.  xix. :  '  In  praise  of  the  Roman  Honey '  (Lob  des 
romischen  Honigs). 

2  Vorstoss  Jesuwalti  Pickhart,  A  3. 


FISCHART'S   'BIENENKORB'  43 

The  author,  not  content  with  ridiculing  the  Lutheran 
Communion  service  as  coarse  Capernaitism,  also  poured 
out  mockery  on  the  baptismal  rites  of  exorcism  and 
the  sign  of  the  holy  cross  which  were  used  by  both 
the  Catholics  and  the  Lutherans.  By  the  uttering 
of  strong  incantations  and  by  making  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  '  the  devil,'  he  said,  '  was  compelled  to  go  out 
and  make  way  for  the  Holy  Ghost.'  '  By  this  means 
he  (Satan),  together  with  original  sin,  was  driven 
off  to  a  distance  of  seven  miles.'  '  After  this,'  we  are 
told  concerning  Catholic  usages,  '  the  child  is  smeared 
on  its  nose  and  ears  with  the  priest's  spittle,  which 
filth  has  extraordinarily  efficacious  power.'  God  must 
take  great  delight  in  these  beautiful  ceremonies  '  with 
which  devout  people  have  markedly  improved  and 
smartly  adorned  His  Son's  institution.'  '  Moreover, 
all  this  is  not  done  for  nothing,  nor  even  actually  for 
the  sake  of  the  merits  of  Christ,  but  it  is  paid  for  with 
hard  cash.'  l 

'  The  Catholics  venerate  saints  and  pictures  as  the 
heathen  do  idols.'  The  crucifix  has  '  especial  grace 
for  them  above  all  other  pictures  ; '  it  was  like  '  the 
bellringer's  cow  which  was  allowed  to  graze  even  in 
the  churchyard.'  '  The  holy  cross  was  hung  up, 
while  the  other  idols  stood  or  were  stuck  against  the 
wall ;  it  hung  much  higher  up,  moreover,  and  therefore 
it  had  an  extra  white  loaf,  and  was  worshipped  with 
double  reverence.'  '  Summa  summarum,  the  cross 
is  the  pet  and  the  cock  of  the  walk  in  all  the  ceremonies 
of  the  holy  Roman  Church.  Nothing  happens  but 
the  cross  plays  a  prominent  part.'  At  the  slightest 
mishap,  an  old    nun    '  must  instantly  make    the  sign 

1  Second  part,  ch.  vii. 


44  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

of  the  cross  and  say,  "  Jesu  Maria."  It  is  no  wonder 
that  the  Church  decks  it  out  and  caresses  it  as  a  monkey 
does  its  young — that  she  speaks  to  it  and  praises  it  as 
if  it  was  a  being  of  great  intelligence ;  for  when  she 
fondles  and  dances  it  up  and  down  she  says  and  sings  : 
"  Oh,  sweet  wood  !  Oh,  sweet  nails  !  .  .  ."  l  When  any 
good,  pious  Catholic  lies  at  the  point  of  death,  they 
do  not  disturb  his  head  with  much  talk  about  Christ,' 
but  they  admonish  him  '  to  partake  of  God  and  to  let 
himself  be  smeared.'  '  They  have  fashioned  for  them- 
selves a  god  who  lets  himself  be  devoured  by  them 
after  they  have  played  with  him  enough,  like  a  cat 
with  a  mouse.'  Purgatory  and  hell  are  now  said 
to  be  both  but  one  hole  and  one  fire,  whence  many 
have  surmised  a  work  in  purgatory  for  '  nuns  and  old 
convent  witches '  to  do.1' 

The  material  collected  together  in  the  '  Bienenkorb  ' 
is  very  wide  in  its  scope,  and  comprises  dogma,  polemics, 
Church  law,  Church  history,  anecdotes  and  incidents. 
Just  as  all  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  were  perverted, 
the  Church  precepts  misinterpreted,  and  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  ridiculed  and  slandered,  so  also  Church 
events  were  perverted,  and  the  sayings  of  Catholic 
theologians  and  controversialists  were  torn  from  their 
context  and  mangled  ;  in  short,  the  work  was  a  more 
odious  caricature  of  the  Catholic  Church  than  had  ever 
been  produced  before.  In  keeping  with  a  general 
scheme  the  different  subjects  are  arranged  in  such 
a  manner  that  points  of  doctrine  always  alternate  with 
passages  in  which  political,  religious,  and  social  passions 

1  Fourth  part,  ch.  iii. 

2  Second  part,  chs.  vii.  and  viii.  :   Von  der  romischen  Bienen  Verdienst- 
blumen,  und  Schussbrelt  zwischen  Roll  und  Fegfeuer. 


FISCHART'S   '  BIENEXKORB  '  45 

are  stirred  up,  so  that  all  that  is  sacred  may  be  dragged 
as  much  as  possible  in  the  mud.  Thus  for  instance  the 
author,  before  speaking  of  the  ordination  of  priests, 
inveighs  in  the  most  unworthy  manner  against  celibacy, 
and  declares  it  to  be  the  doctrine  of  the  Catholic  Church 
that  it  is  '  far  better  for  a  priest  to  enjoy  the  wife  of 
another  man  than  to  have  a  wife  of  his  own.'  He 
classes  all  convents  together  as  breeding-places  of 
debauchery  and  abortion.  He  is  not  ashamed  to  assert 
that  the  Roman  Church,  '  in  order  that  the  holy  men 
should  not  go  to  excess,' •  had  formulated  '  a  decree  ' 
'  that  they  might  have  free  use  of  other  people's  wives, 
and  that  all  wives  must  be  common  property.  The 
Church  is  well  pleased  that  her  dear  little  mannikins, 
priests  and  monks,  should  share  all  women  in  common. 
Yea,  verily,  she  ordains  that  it  should  be  so,  and  justifies 
it  with  plain  talk  from  Scripture,  together  with  admi- 
rable maxims  from  the  pagan  philosophers.'  '  And 
this  may  very  possibly  be  the  reason  why  the  Roman 
Church,  which  after  all  can  only  be  viewed  as  a  particular 
church,  seeing  that  Rome  is  only  a  single  town,  is  at  the 
same  time  called  a  Catholic,  that  is  a  universal,  general 
Church  ;  for  it  has  instituted  such  a  loving  community 
of  women  and  children,  and  it  does  its  best  to  multiply 
the  race  over  all  the  ends  of  the  earth.'  '  For  this  reason 
she  is  rightly  called  Ecclesia  oecumenica — that  is  to  say, 
the  Church  which  is  scattered  and  spread  over  the 
face  of  the  earth  like  swarms  of  locusts.' x  Not  till 
after  this  disquisition  does  he  proceed  to  discuss  and 
abuse  the  seven  degrees  of  holy  orders.  '  I  have  often 
wondered,'  says  Fischart  in  another  work,   '  why  the 

1  Second  part,  ch.  xvii.     For  the  manner  in  which  the  Bienenhorb  spoke 
of  the  Popes,  see  above,  p.  23. 


46  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

most  illustrious,  who  are  carried  on  litters  and  who 
tread  on  the  skins  of  lions  and  otters  so  as  not  to  hurt 
a  single  toe  against  a  stone,  do  not  have  their  toes 
as  well  as  their  fingers  blessed,  consecrated,  scraped, 
cut,  chrisomed,  elemented  and  sacramented,  that  no 
slipper  or  shoe  may  pinch  them.  A  future  Council 
will  not  fail  to  consider  this  point.'  1 

Fischart  has  given  a  faithful  German  version  of 
the  Dutch  original,  with  all  its  low  buffoonery  and 
vulgarity,  and  here  and  there  he  has  interpolated 
abuse  of  his  own  against  the  holy  Mass  and  the  Jesuits. 
He  calls  Father  Canisius  '  the  Canisian  hell-hound 
skinner.'  So  little  was  Fischart  familiar  with  the 
passages  which  he  quotes  from  the  older  theological 
literature  and  from  the  ecclesiastical  law,  that  he  did 
not  even  correct  the  misprints  in  the  edition  of  Marnix's 
work  which  he  used.2 

His  whole  position  is  summed  up  by  him  in  the 
words  :  '  the  Catholic  Church  is  more  full  of  rogues 
and  criminals  that  an  egg  is  of  slime.'  3 

Fischart' s  '  Bienenkorb '  had  a  very  extensive 
circulation.  '  This  book,'  wrote  the  Lutheran  preacher 
Johann  Prsetorius,  '  which  was  compiled  by  a  Huguenot 
or  a  Calvinist,  is  looked  upon  as  a  world-wonder  by  all 
Calvinists  ;  they  carry  it  about  with  them,  and  nobles 
and  commoners,  clergy  and  laity  study  it  with  the 
greatest  diligence  and  delight.'  4  In  1580  the  '  Bienen- 
korb '  went  through  a  second  edition  ;  in  the  following 

1  Geschichtklitterung,  p.  6. 

2  See  Vilmar,  Zur  Litteratur  Fischarts,  pp.  15-16. 

3  Sixth  part,  ch.  iv.  For  Fischart's  additions  to  Marnix,  see  Vilmar, 
pp.  18-23.  See  also  Suphans,  Vierteljahrschrift,  iii.  (1889)  97  ff.,  108  ff., 
and  116  ff. 

4  Pratorius,  Calvinisch  Gasthaus  (1598).  Bl.  8''. 


THE-  PEOPLE   STIRRED   UP   AGAINST   THE   CATHOLICS    47 

year  through  a  third  and  fourth,  in  1586  through  a  fifth, 
and  two  years  later  through  a  sixth  and  seventh ; 
besides  these  we  may  reckon  positively  five  other  edi- 
tions to  which  no  date  is  assigned.1  ;  With  the  "  Bienen- 
korb  "  of  Jesuwalt  Pickhart,'  said  a  Catholic  writer  in 
1591,  '  the  most  abominable  and  disgusting  book  of 
slander  against  the  doctrines,  rites,  and  usages  of  the 
Holy  Church  that  has  ever  been  thrust  on  the  poor 
deluded  populace  since  the  advent  of  the  new  evangel, 
especially  of  Calvinism — with  the  help  of  this  book, 
I  say,  every  tailor,  shoemaker,  scribbler,  and  whoever 
else  is  just  able  to  read  and  to  wrangle,  imagines  that 
he  can  dispose  of  all  Catholics  at  the  gallows  and  the 
pillory,  as  though  they  belonged  to  the  scum  and 
offscouring  of  mankind  and  were  worse  than  heathens 
and  Turks.  It  is  impossible  adequately  to  describe 
how  this  abominable  writer  scoffs  and  mocks  even 
at  the  most  sacred  things,  and  turns  them  into  a  laugh- 
ing-stock and  a  scandal  for  the  common  people,  for  the 
learned  and  for  the  unlearned,  and  drags  everything 
in  the  mire.'  Among  the  Lutherans,  also,  numbers 
had  expressed  abhorrence  of  the  book.  '  But  none 
the  less  this  infamous  collection  of  libels  is  placed  in 
the  hands  of  tender  youth,  offered  for  sale  at  the  annual 
fairs  in  towns  and  villages,  together  with  quantities 
of  obscene  pictures,  and  hawked  about  from  house  to 
house,  and  everybody  can  hear  how  our  boys  and  girls 
have  become  familiar  with  it  and  learnt  all  sorts  of 
indecency  and  blasphemy  out  of  it.'  - 

Fischart  did  not  rest  on  these  laurels.     The  assassina- 
tion of  the  French  King,  Henry  III.,  by  Jacques  Clement 

1  Vilmar,  i.  112. 

-  Von  neuen  calvinischen  Giftspinnen  und  Unfl'itern,  D  4. 


48  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

incited  him  in  1589  to  write  the  following  about  the 
papists  in  an  '  Ermahnnng  an  die  Bundpapstter  :  ' 
Wherever  the  authorities  refuse 

To  force  all  consciences  at  will, 
And  Christian  blood  to  shed  and  spill, 
They've  no  more  worth  for  any  man, 
The  Pope  must  place  them  under  ban. 
To  monks  and  parsons  it  is  then 
Permitted  to  remove  these  men  : 
Ah,  then  their  priestly  hands,  scot-free, 
Against  their  priestly  laws  may  be 

Immersed  in  Christian  blood. 
Then  musket,  knife,  and  poison-cup 
But  serve  to  destroy  what  God  sets  up  ; 
Confessors  then  their  penitents  attack 
In  the  confessional  with  murder  black. 
Then  e'en  some  cloister-brother  may 
In  holy  sacrament  a  poison  lay  ; 
And  in  the  Host  a  snare  to  trap 
An  Emperor's  life,  should  he  not  clap 
'  Amen  '  straightway  to  all  decreed 
At  Rome  to-day  by  the  serpent's  seed. 

Because  the  Dominican  Order  was  chiefly  associated 
with  the  office  of  Grand  Inquisitor,  he  wrote  of  it : 

Therefore,  each  other  viper-brood 

It  must  excel  in  thirst  for  blood, 

Just  as  the  rabble  Jesuit  race 

Are  set  on  treachery  most  base. 

But  say,  is  not  the  priestly  herd 

By  the  papists  well  revered, 

In  that  for  treacheries  they  use  them, 

For  poisonings  and  murders  gruesome  ? 

Thanks  to  their  honours  that  we're  told 

In  what  esteem  this  vermin  we  should  hold. 

Let  the  Romanists  only  go  on  showing  themselves 
up  as  Antichrists 

Who  majesties  divine  and  human  trample 
Under  foot  with  word  and  murderous  blade, 
So  all  the  sooner  will  your  measure  ample 
Be  filled  up  and  yourselves  repaid 
Twofold  what  unto  others  you  have  played. 


THE   PEOPLE    STIRRED   UP   AGAINST   THE   CATHOLICS    49 

Such  was  the  manner  in  which  the  Protestant  popu- 
lation of  Germany  was  stirred  up^against  the  Catholics. 

Fischart' s  friend,  George  Nigrinus,  the  Hessian 
Superintendent,  '  one  of  the  most  admirable  of  evan- 
gelicals in  the  campaign  against  the  Roman  Anti- 
christ,' fought  with  the  same  weapons  as  Fischart. 
In  his  labours  as  a  controversial  writer  he  received 
not  encouragement  only,  but  actual  support  from  the 
Landgrave  William  IV.  of  Hesse.1 

In  the  eyes  of  Nigrinus  the  Pope  was  '  the  king  of 
the  hellish  locusts,  the  veritable  Antichrist  whose 
advent  is  from  Satan,'  and  therefore  '  the  most  faithful 
servant  of  Satan.'  '  The  Catholics  had  reverenced  him 
as  though  he  were  God,  and  in  him  they  had  worshipped 
the  dragon.2  Because  the  Roman  Church  had  obeyed  the 
voice  of  the  dragon  when  he  said,  "  Fall  down  and  wor- 
ship me  "  (Matthew  iv.),  therefore  its  members  belonged 
no  more  to  the  sheep  of  Christ,  but  to  the  seed  of  the 
serpent.3  As  the  pagans  had  their  principal  deities, 
Jupiter,  Juno,  Neptune,  Pluto,  Vesta,  Apollo,  Mercury, 
Minerva,  Venus  .  .  .  Bacchus,  so  in  the  papacy  they 
had  set  up  the  fourteen  '  Helpers  in  Need,'  Gregory, 
Blasius,  Erasmus  .  .  .  Margaret,  Barbara,  and  Kathe- 
rine.'  4  There  were  many  other  '  frightful '  and  '  extra- 
ordinary '  things  which  Nigrinus  described  to  his  readers. 
For  instance,  with  regard  to  the  Sacrament  of  Confirma- 
tion, he   asserted  that   '  when   a   child  was   confirmed 

1  Wackernagel,  Fischart,    p.    108  ;    Vilrnar,  Zur    Litteraturgeschichte, 
pp.  45^47. 

2  G.  Nigrinus,  Papistische  Inquisition,  at  the  back  of  the  title-page, 
and  p.  1.     See  above,  p.  22. 

3  Lehr,  Glaubens  und  Leben  Jesu  und  der  Jesuiten,  &c.  (1581),  last  page  ; 
Papistische  Inquisition,  C  3b,  P  2b. 

4  Lehr,  Glaubens,  H.  3. 

VOL.    X.  E 


50  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

they  slapped  it  on  its  cheeks  ;  if  the  child  screamed 
the  people  laughed ;  the  louder  the  child  screamed 
the  more  efficacious,  it  was  considered,  had  been  the 
slapping  of  its  cheeks.'  x 

'  They  also  teach  that  the  monk's  habit  is  so  sacred 
that,  if  a  layman  dies  in  one  and  is  buried  in  it,  he  will 
obtain  forgiveness  for  his  sins,  or  at  least  of  one  third 
part.' 

'  The  monks  sell  good  works,  and  those  who  buy 
these  are  saved  by  them.'  '  If  a  priest,'  Nigrinus  also 
informs  his  readers,  '  commits  adultery,  gambles,  and 
drinks,  the  celebration  of  the  festivals  and  the  Mass, 
and  attention  to  his  hours  of  prayer  will  take  all  his 
sins  away.'  2  All  religious  orders,  the  Jesuits  more 
than  any,  '  are  thoroughly  false  prophets,  the  whole 
lot  of  them,  servants  and  members  of  the  Antichrist.'  3 

Not  content  with  all  the  terrible  tales  that  he  could 
rake  together  from  the  history  of  the  papacy,  Nigrinus, 
in  order  to  fill  the  people's  minds  with  still  intenser 
horror,  wove  into  his  narrative  accounts  of  '  all  sorts  of 
prodigies,  special  chastisements,  and  abnormal  occur- 
rences.' Just  as  Fischart  had  been  '  reliably  informed  ' 
that  a  Jewess  had  given  birth  to  two  little  pigs,4  so 
Nigrinus,  as  a  '  first- class  writer  of  history,' 5  was  able  to 
add  to  all  the  other  horrors  about  the  Pope,  the  stories 
of  a  child  who  had  been  born  at  Erfurt  with  monkey's 
claws,  a  horse's  nose,  and  a  tall  hat ;  of  an  angel  that 
had  appeared  in  the  sky  at  Hasmar  with  a  naked 
sword  in  his  hand  ;  of  a  fine  city  with  walls  and  towers, 
and  of  a  coach  with  four  horses  that  had  been  seen  in 
the   air.     He   himself   in   the   current   year    1582   had 

1  P.  225.  -  Pp.  238,  24  lb.  3  Papistische  Inquisition,  D  5b. 

4  We  cite  this  report  later  on.  5  See  above,  p.  22. 


THE  ANTICHRIST  AND  THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT   51 

observed  in  the  sky  at  Griessen  '  fiery  beams  and  long 
spears  and  muskets.'  The  disclosure  that  the  Pope 
was  the  Antichrist,  accompanied  by  such  an  unusual 
number  of  portents  and  prodigies,  was  certain  evidence 
that  the  end  of  the  world  was  at  hand.  '  We  have 
seen  more  "  fire-tokens,"  following  in  quick  succession, 
this  year  than  have  ever  been  seen  before.  What  else 
can  this  mean  and  portend  than  the  Day  of  Judgment, 
which  we  know  will  come  with  fire  ?  '  l 

1  Papistische  Inquisition,  pp.  682,  694,  705,  721,  728. 


e  2 


52  HISTORY   OF  THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 


CHAPTER   III 

CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  THE  IMPROVED  CALENDAR — SUPER- 
NATURAL APPEARANCES  DURING  THE  '  CALENDAR 
CONTROVERSY  ' 

The  assumption  that  the  Pope  was  the  veritable  Anti- 
christ, and  that  the  Day  of  Judgment  was  at  hand, 
played  a  principal  part  in  the  violent  controversies 
which  had  gone  on  since  1582  in  consequence  of  the 
introduction  of  the  improved  Gregorian  Calendar. 

For  centuries  past  the  necessity  of  improvement 
in  the  Julian  Calendar  had  been  insisted  on  by  mathe- 
maticians and  theologians,  and  work  after  work  had 
appeared    on   the    subject.1     When    at   last,    however, 

1  By  the  Franciscan  Roger  Bacon  (fl294),  for  instance.  From  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  Popes  had  interested  themselves  in 
the  reform  of  the  Calendar.  The  question  had  been  officially  opened  up 
at  the  Councils  of  Constance  and  Basle — at  the  latter  at  the  instigation 
of  Cardinal  Nicholas  of  Cusa.  Pope  Sixtus  IV.  summoned  the  German 
astronomer  Regiomontanus  to  Rome  (see  our  remarks,  vol.  i.  p.  144)  to 
assist  in  the  improvement  of  the  Calendar  ;  and  for  this  same  purpose  the 
fifth  Lateran  Council  appointed  a  committee  at  Rome  in  1516.  From 
Rome  Paulus  of  Middelburg,  Bishop  of  Fossombrone,  himself  an  astro- 
nomer of  note,  in  conjunction  with  the  Ermland  Cathedral  Dean,  Johannes 
Sculteti,  addressed  himself  to  the  Cathedral  Dean  of  Frauenburg,  Nicholas 
Copernicus,  requesting  him  to  apply  his  astronomical  labours  to  the 
improvement  of  the  Calendar.  See  Dittrich,  Contarini,  p.  280.  Fuller 
details  concerning  the  earlier  attempts  at  reform  and  concerning  the 
improvements  under  Gregory  XIII.  are  found  in  Kaltenbrunner,  Die 
Vorgeschichte  der  gregorianischen  Kalenderreform  (Wien,  1876),  and  Beitriige 
zur  gregorianischen  Kalenderreform  (Wien,  1880) ;  J.  Schmid,'  Zur  Geschichte 
der  gregorianischen  Kalenderreform,'  in  Histor.  Jahrb.  der  Gorresge- 
sellschaft,  iii.  388-415,  543-595  ;  and  Supplement   ibid.  v.  52-87  ;  G.  St. 


THE  IMPKOVED  CALENDAR,  1582         53 

Gregory  XIII.  wanted  to  introduce  a  reformed  Calendar 
which  coincided  with  the  course  of  the  sun,  the  work, 
on  account  of  its  originator,  met  with  bitter  opposition 
from  most  of  the  Protestants  of  Germany  and  Switzer- 
land. Zurich  and  Bern  forthwith  declared  the  new 
Calendar  to  be  a  '  devil's  work.'  l  The  Pope  in  his 
undertaking  had  his  eye  in  the  first  place  only  on  the 
Catholics.  In  a  Bull  of  February  14,  1581,  he  decreed 
that  the  old  Calendar  was  to  be  abolished,  and  the  new 
one,  with  the  omission  of  ten  days  from  October  5  to  14, 
be  introduced  and  observed  by  all  the  clergy.  The 
Bull  ran  as  follows  :  '  By  virtue  of  the  power  conferred 
on  us  by  God  Almighty,  we  admonish  and  beseech  the 
Emperor  Rudolf  and  the  other  kings,  princes,  and 
lords,    and   we   prescribe   to   them,    that   they   should 

Ferrari,  II  Calendario  Gregoriano  (Roma,  1882).  Gregory  XIII.  first  of 
all  sent  the  proposals  made  by  the  Roman  physician  Aloigi  Giglio  and  his 
brother  Antonio  to  different  universities  and  princes  to  procure  their 
opinions,  and  then  he  appointed  a  commission  under  the  presidency  of 
Giglio,  and  later  on  under  that  of  Cardinal  G.  Sirleto,  to  consider  the 
question  more  thoroughly.  When  the  Emperor,  in  January  1579,  sent 
the  memorandum  of  the  Vienna  University  (see  Kaltenbrunner,  Polemik, 
pp.  491-493)  to  Gregory  XIII.,  he  assured  him  at  the  same  time  that 
'  he  prayed  God  that  He  would  grant  His  blessing  on  the  pious  efforts 
and  the  zeal  of  the  Pope  in  this  matter,  and  that  He  would  bring  it  to  a 
fortunate  issue  for  the  glory  of  all  Christendom '  (Kaltenbrunner,  p.  506, 
note  1).  To  the  Cologne  University  Gregory,  on  January  11,  1578,  had 
sent  a  Brief  to  the  effect  that  '  he  had  sent  the  draft  of  the  proposed 
improvements  in  the  Calendar  to  the  Christian  princes,  and  that  he  here- 
with begged  the  University  also,  to  add  any  amendments  that  occurred 
to  them,  or  else  to  ratify  it '  (Bianco,  i.  699  ff.).  Duke  Wilham  V.  of  Bavaria 
pointed  out,  in  the  autumn  of  1582,  that  the  Calendar  had  been  altered  at 
the  suggestion  and  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Emperor  and  other  Christian 
princes  (Stieve,  Kalenderstreit,  p.  21,  note  4  ;  cf.  39).  Luther,  in  his 
pamphlet  Von  den  Konzilien  und  Kirchen,  had  pleaded  for  a  reform  of 
the  Calendar,  but  had  said  that  as  this  matter  had  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  religious  faith,  the  reform  should  be  entirely  the  work  of  the 
secular  authorities. 

1  v.  Segesser,  Ludwig  Pfyffer  und  seine  Zeit,  ii.  491. 


54  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

manifest  the  same  zeal  which  they  desired  us  to  bestow 
on  the  completion  of  the  work — yea,  even  greater  zeal, 
in  accepting  this  our  Calendar  and  in  making  arrange- 
ments for  its  observance  among  all  their  subjects,  in 
order  that  there  may  be  uniformity  among  all  Christian 
nations  in  the  celebration  of  the  festival  days  :  who- 
ever sets  himself  against  this  ordinance,  or  acts  in  oppo- 
sition to  it,  is  informed  that  by  so  doing  he  falls  away 
from  the  favour  of  God  and  of  the  Apostles  Peter  and 
Paul.'  l 

Even  had  this  Bull,  as  was  not  the  case,  formally 
threatened  all  who  did  not  accept  the  Calendar  with 
punishment  by  ban,  such  a  threat  would  have  had  no 
significance  for  those  who  had  long  since  been  separated 
and  banned  from  the  Church. 

In  Italy,  Spain,  France,  and  Poland  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  Calendar  encountered  no  difficulties.  Most 
of  the  Protestant  provinces  of  the  Netherlands  also 
accepted  it  unhesitatingly,  though  under  protest  against 
the  ecclesiastical  supremacy  of  the  Pope.2 

In  Northern  Germany  also  this  reform  met  at  first 
chiefly  with  a  favourable  reception  among  the  Pro- 
testants. The  Elector  of  Brandenburg  promised  to 
consent  to  the  introduction  of  the  new  Calendar  if  the 
Emperor  published  it  in  his  own  name,  for  then  the 
work  would  emanate  from  him  and  not  from  the  Pope  ; 
he  favoured  the  Emperor  with  well-meaning  advice  as 

1  Bulle,  '  Inter  gravissimas '  im  Magnum  Bullarium  Rom.  ii.  454-455. 
See  the  admirable  remarks  of  Schmid,  Nachtrage  im  Hist.  Jahrb.  v.  86  ff. 

2  Stieve,  Kale.nderstre.it,  p.  64.  With  regard  to  the  data  collected  by 
Stieve  concerning  the  introduction  of  the  Gregorian  Calendar  in  the 
different  countries  (Histor.  Zeitschr.  pp.  42,  135),  see  a  correction  in  the 
Mitteil.  des  bsterr.  Instit.  1899,  pp.  107-112,  respecting  the  Archbishop  of 
Salzburg. 


KEPLER  ON  THE  IMPROVED  CALENDAR,  1583   55 

to  the  mode  of  publication.1  The  Protestant  theologian 
Martin  Chemnitz  spoke  in  favour  of  the  necessity  of 
this  reform,  but  he  said  emphatically  that  the  accept- 
ance of  the  Calendar  must  in  no  way  be  regarded 
as  an  admission  that  the  Pope  had  any  rights  over 
the  Protestants  ;  '  this  point,'  he  said,  '  must  be  most 
carefully  kept  in  view.'  2  The  Gorlitz  patrician  Bartho- 
lomew Scultetus,  although  a  Protestant,  defended  the 
Gregorian  reform  and  expressed  his  regret  that  such  a 
good  work  should  be  opposed  out  of  hatred  to  its 
originator.3  The  great  Protestant  astronomer  Tycho 
Brahe  at  once  recommended  the  acceptance  of  the 
Calendar,  and  the  renowned  John  Kepler,  after  the 
Protestant  Imperial  Estates  had  for  years  struggled 
against  the  reform,  wrote  to  his  former  instructor, 
Michael  Mastlin  :  '  What  is  half  Germany  about  ?  How 
long  does  it  mean  to  hold  aloof  from  the  other  half  of 
the  Empire  and  from  the  whole  European  continent  ? 
For  a  century  and  a  half  astronomy  has  called  for  an 
improved  method  of  reckoning  time.  Are  we  now  going 
to  forbid  it  ?  What  are  we  waiting  for  ?  Many 
different  modes  of  improvement  have  been  suggested  ; 
but  that  which  the  Pope  has  introduced  is  the  best. 
Methinks  we  have  sufficiently  proved  to  the  Pope  that 
we  are  able  to  keep  to  the  old  chronology  for  our  festi- 
vals ;  it  is  high  time  now  that  we  began  to  reform  as  he 
has  reformed.  It  is  a  disgrace  to  the  Germans  ;  they  have 

1  Kaltenbrunner,  Polemik,  p.  567.  Professor  Kaltenbrunner  has 
collected  abundant  materials  in  Germany  for  a  complete  history  of  the 
introduction  of  the  Gregorian  Calendar.  In  the  archives  of  Innsbruck, 
Munich,  Dresden,  and  so  forth,  there  is  an  extensive  supply  of  documents 
for  the  purpose. 

2  Stieve,  Kalenderstreit,  p.  18,  note  6  ;  Kaltenbrunner,  p.  523. 

3  Kaltenbrunner,  p.  524,  note  1. 


56  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

themselves  discovered  the  art  of  correcting  the  Calendar, 
and  they  are  now  the  only  people  who  are  deprived  of 
the   improvement.'  1 

In  a  special  memorandum  on  the  subject,  Kepler 
pointed  out  that  a  reform  of  the  Calendar  must  proceed 
from  the  Pope,  and  not  from  the  Emperor,  if  all  the 
nations  were  to  accept  it.  '  If,'  he  said,  '  it  was  main- 
tained that  it  was  not  suitable  for  the  Pope  to  have 
conducted  such  a  reform,  he  answered  that  his  Imperial 
Majesty,  although  he  had  no  one  to  respect  in  these 
political  matters  excepting  God  Almighty,  had  thought 
it  best  that  the  Pope  should  direct  this  reform  because, 
in  view  of  the  authority  which  he  possessed  over  Euro- 
pean countries  not  belonging  immediately  to  the 
Empire,  the  work  would  be  more  profitable  to  Christen- 
dom in  general  than  if  managed  by  the  Emperor.' 
Even  the  opponents  of  the  improvements  must '  acknow- 
ledge that  if  the  schism  in  religious  affairs  did  not  exist, 
it  would  be  better  for  the  above  reason  that  the  Pope — 
albeit  with  his  Imperial  Majesty's  consent — should 
conduct  the  matter  than  that  it  should  emanate  from 
the  Emperor.'  2 

The  fiercest  opposition  proceeded  from  the  Pro- 
testant   theologians    of    South    Germany.     The    most 

1  '.  .  .  Turpe Germaniae, cum artem corrigendi [astronomy] restaurant, 
solam  correctione  carere.'  /.  Kepleri  Opera  omnia  edid.  Chr.  Frisch,  iv. 
6  sq.  The  letter  is  '  stylo  novo  '  of  April  9,  1597.  See  Kaltenbrunner, 
pp.  573-576  ff. 

2  Kepleri  Opera,  iv.  5  sq.  Equally  important  for  the  knowledge  it 
imparts  of  the  reasons  why  the  Protestant  Estates  rejected  the  new  Calendar, 
and  for  presenting  the  view  of  Kepler,  is  a  dialogue  composed  by  the 
latter  between  two  Catholics  and  two  Lutherans,  and  an  impartial '  mathe- 
matician '  who  openly  represents  Kepler's  position,  in  Opera,  iv.  11-57  ; 
see  especially  pp.  11,  13  ff.,  19,  23  below,  51  above,  55.  See  Schuster, 
Joh.  Kepler,  p.  55  ff. 


OPPOSITION   TO   THE   IMPROVED   CALENDAR,    1583        57 

zealous  among  these  was  Lucas  Osiander,  Doctor  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  and  court  preacher  to  the  Duke  of 
Wurtemberg.  In  1583  he  published  a  pamphlet  full 
of  ferocious  charges  against  the  Pope.1  In  the  preface 
written  by  Johann  Magirus,  provost  at  Stuttgart,  the 
reader  is  informed  at  the  outset  that  the  new  Calendar 
is  an  '  unhappy  abortion,'  and  that,  in  the  eyes  of  all 
intelligent,  right-minded  persons,  it  is  'a  childish 
absurdity,'  and  that  they  are  all  convinced  that  the 
Pope  and  his  abortion  will  soon  have  to  hide  their 
shame.  The  object  of  the  change  was  '  the  upsetting 
and  the  abolition  of  the  Religious  Peace  and  of  Christian 
liberty.'  Therefore  the  honourable  and  deeply-learned 
Osiander  had  written  his  pamphlet  as  a  warning  against 
popish  practices,  and  for  the  service  of  the  Church  of 
God,  and  nobody  could  accuse  him  of  '  excessive  severity.' 
For  among  intelligent  Christians  well  versed  in  the 
Word  of  God  there  was  no  doubt  whatever  that  the 
Pope  was  the  Antichrist  and  the  Babylonish  whore, 
concerning  which  it  was  written  in  the  Revelation  of 
St.  John  that  she  was  the  mother  of  all  whoredom  and 
of  all  the  abominations  of  the  earth.  '  Consequently 
there  was  urgent  need,  especially  in  these  later  times, 
that  he  should  be  denuded  of  all  his  brilliant  colours, 
and  should  be  shown  plainly  in  his  true  light  to  the 

1  '  Bedencken,  ob  der  newe  papstische  Kalender  ein  Notturft  bey  der 
Christenbeit  sei,  und  wie  trewbcb  dieser  Papst  Gregorius  XIII.  die  Sachen 
darmit  meine  :  ob  der  Papst  Macbt  habe,  disen  Calendar  der  Christenheit 
aufzudringen,  ob  aucb  fromme  und  recbte  Cbristen  scbuldig  seien,  den- 
selbigen  anzunebm '  (Tubingen,  1583).  See  Stieve,  Kalenderstreit,  xxiv. 
note  2,  40-41,  65 ;  Kaltenbrunner,  pp.  518-519.  (•'  An  inquiry  as  to 
whether  the  new  papal  Calendar  is  a  necessity  for  Christendom,  and  how 
far  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  means  honestly  in  the  matter  ;  whether  also  the 
Pope  has  authority  to  impose  this  Calendar  on  Christendom,  and  whether 
pious  and  true  Christians  are  bound  to  adopt  it.') 


58  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

whole  of  Christendom,  to  those  also  who  have  hitherto 
not  known  him  as  he  is  ;  for  such  a  scab-head  as  his 
needs  a  drastic  lathering,  as  I,  dear  Christian  readers, 
desire  with  friendly  intent  to  remind  you.'  l 

'  Without  any  necessity,  out  of  sheer  arrogance 
and  wickedness,'  Osiander  said,  the  Pope  had  pro- 
duced his  Calendar  in  order  to  '  stir  up  disquietude  and 
serious  schism  in  Christendom.  It  was  not  in  the 
least  necessary  that  now,  at  the  end  of  the  world,  the 
Pope  should  come  forward  with  his  Calendar,'  for  to 
all  Christians  who  had  understanding,  and  were  well 
read  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  '  it  was  manifest  that  the 
end  of  the  world  was  certainly  not  far  off,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  very  near  at  hand.  Gregory,  therefore, 
might  have  kept  quiet  with  his  great  wit  and  extreme 
skill,  and  have  let  matters  remain  in  statu  quo  during 
the  few  remaining  years.'  2 

Besides  all  this,  the  work  was  not  correct,  as  it  was 
given  out.  '  And  there  is  no  doubt  that  if  this  Calendar 
was  also  submitted  to  criticism  at  evangelical  Christian 
universities  a  great  deal  of  clumsy  work  that  is  of  no 
value  would  be  sifted  out  of  it.  For  the  facts  are  about 
as  right  as  an  old  peasant's  matted  tangled  hair,  in 
which  one  would  need  to  break  at  least  nine  combs 
before  getting  it  into  a  satisfactory  state.'  Osiander 
'  confidently  '  predicted  that  the  Calendar  would  not 
live  longer  than  Gregory  himself.3 

1  Bedencken,  Vorrede  A,  pp.  2-3. 

2  Bedencken,  pp.  6,  12,  48.  The  Protestant  Consistory  of  the  princi- 
pality of  Ansbach  also  rejected  the  new  Calendar  for  the  same  reason, 
viz.  that  from  the  Word  of  God  and  other  evidence  it  was  known  that  the 
Day  of  Judgment  was  close  at  hand,  when  the  present  world  with  all 
computations  of  time  would  come  to  an  end.  Lang,  Neuere  Gesch.  des 
Fiirstenthums  Baireuth,  iii.  378-379. 

3  Bedencken,  pp.  7-8. 


OPPOSITION   TO   THE   IMPEOVED   CALENDAR,   1583       59 

The  Calendar-monger  Gregory  wanted  to  sell  Calen- 
dars as  indulgences  had  been  sold  formerly.  He  had 
given  birth  to  this  work  so  that  he  might  not  be 
deemed  unfruitful,  just  as  an  earlier  Pope,  John  VIII., 
'  had  brought  a  lovely  little  child  into  this  world.'  : 
In  such  wise  was  the  fable  of  Pope  Joan  exploited  even 
in  the  Calendar  strife. 

The  actual  object  of  the  Calendar  was  to  bring  about 
'  a  bloody  contest  between  the  Germans  '  by  means  of 
which  a  sanguinary  enforcement  of  the  decrees  of  the 
Council  of  Trent  should  be  accomplished.  The  Pope's 
coat-of-arms  was  in  itself  sufficient  to  show  what  he 
had  in  view,  and  also  the  figure  which  was  printed  on 
the  last  page  of  the  Calendar.  '  For  although  we  do 
not  doubt  that  the  Pope's  arms  are  inherited  from  his 
parents,  and  though  the  figure  at  the  end  of  the  Calendar 
may  possibly  be  the  printer's  usual  book-plate,  never- 
theless, just  as  Caiaphas  prophesied  unconsciously  and 
without  intention  on  his  own  part,  so  Pope  Gregory 
unconsciously  betrays  by  his  arms  and  by  the  printer's 
figure  what  he  has  in  his  mind.  For  this  Pope  displays 
on  his  coat-of-arms  or  shield  a  terrible  gruesome  dragon 
with  two  wings,  and  a  scorpion's  tail  instead  of  a  tongue, 
and  drops  of  blood  are  seen  falling  from  the  dragon. 
This  venomous,  bloodthirsty  beast  would  gladly  fly 
not  only  all  over  Germany,  but  over  Italy,  Spain,  and 
France  also,  poisoning  Christians  with  false  doctrine 
by  means  of  the  Jesuits  and  organising  a  bloody  massacre. 
But  the  dragon  is  cut  or  hacked  in  two,  and  is  spilling 
its  own  blood.'  The  figure  at  the  end  of  the  Calendar 
was  a  cat  with  a  mouse  in  its  mouth,  and  this  picture 
also  referred  to  the  Popes,  who  '  had  long  played  with 

1  Bedencken,  p.  19.     See  pp.  23-24. 


60  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  poor  Christians  as  a  cat  plays  with  a  mouse,  and 
were  now  intent  on  devouring  them  with  their  blood- 
thirsty intrigues  ;  but  if  the  Pope  devours  one  Christian, 
may  he  get  the  devil's  blessing  for  it.'  God  would  grow 
weary  of  the  '  bloodthirsty  hypocrites,'  and  would 
'  pay  back  on  their  heads  '  all  the  innocent  blood  they 
had  shed,  '  even  though  He  should  have  to  use  the 
Turks  for  the  work.'  The  Pope  was  the  veritable 
Antichrist  and  an  enemy  of  Jesus  Christ.  '  Away  to 
the  devil  with  such  a  bishop  and  a  shepherd  who  devours 
his  own  sheep  and  tries  to  drive  their  poor  souls  into 
the  jaws  of  the  dragon.  We  know  the  Pope  of  Rome 
for  the  Babylonish  whore  (as  the  Apostle  John  names 
him  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  his  Apocalypse) 
which  has  now  long  since  been  drunk  with  the  blood  of 
the  saints,  and  has  been  bedaubed  and  poisoned  by  the 
devil  incarnate  with  all  sorts  of  spiritual  and  bodily 
filth,  such  as  syphilis  and  leprosy.  Whosoever  now  is 
willing  to  dally  with  this  Babylonish  whore,  and  to 
adopt  the  Calendar  for  the  sake  of  pleasing  her,  let  him 
do  it  at  his  own  peril.  We,  however,  intend  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  harlot,  which  is  to  say  that  we 
will  not  recognise  the  Pope  as  our  bishop  and  the  pastor 
of  our  souls,  but  consider  him  an  abominable  murderer 
of  souls.  Therefore,  even  if  we  held  this  Calendar  to 
be  a  good  one,  nevertheless,  if  the  Pope  insists  on 
forcing  it  on  us,  we  shall  feel  bound  to  cast  it  aside,  for 
we  must  not  enter  into  collusion  with  the  enemy  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  ourselves 
thus  partakers  of  his  sins  and  abominations.'  x 

1  Bedencken,  pp.  28-30,  42-44.  Zach.  Rivander  (Fest-Chronica,  i. 
[Eisleben,  1602]  128b)  writes :  '  Most  certainly  the  Pope's  only  object 
[with  this  Calendar]  is  by  this  means  to  sneak  back  again  hke  a  thief  into 


OPPOSITION    TO    THE   IMPROVED    CALENDAR,    1583      61 

Jacob  Heerbrand,  professor  of  theology  at  Tubingen, 
also  declared,  like  Osiander,  that  Satan  was  at  the  back 
of  the  Calendar,  that  the  Roman  Antichrist  had  manu- 
factured it  for  the  promotion  of  idolatry  ;  no  secular 
rulers  who  ordered  the  observance  of  this  Calendar 
must  be  obeyed,  for  people  must  not  submit  to  the 
Antichrist  or  have  any  fellowship  with  the  worshippers 
of  idols.1 

On  November  23,  1583,  '  the  rector,  chancellor, 
doctors,  and  governors  of  the  University  of  Tubingen ' 
handed  in  to  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg  the  memorandum 
he  had  asked  them  to  draw  up  against  the  new  Calendar. 
It  was  to  the  following  effect :  '  The  Pope  intended  by 
means  of  this  Calendar  to  obtain  for  himself  '*  the  office 
of  shepherd "  over  the  adherents  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  notwithstanding  that  they  looked  upon 
him,  and  rightly  so,  as  a  cruel,  raging,  devouring  wolf, 
as  Luther  had  been  wont  to  call  him  ;  '  as  Antichrist  he 
exalted  himself  '  above  everything  that  belonged  to 
the  name  of  God  or  the  worship  of  God  ;  he  installed 
himself  in  the  temple  of  God  as  though  he  were  himself 
a  God,  and  gave  out  that  he  was  indeed  as  God.'  '  The 
people  of  Germany  must  not  identify  themselves  with 
the  Antichrist  and  the  enemy  of  our  Lord  Christ  by 
accepting  this  Calendar.'  '  By  means  of  this  Calendar, 
also,  the  Pope  was  making  an  attempt  to  get  the  electors 
and  Estates  with  their  princely  dignities  and  govern- 
ments into  his  hands,  and  to  make  them  recognise  him 

our  churches  and  then  to  rule  them  according  to  his  pleasure  ;  and  if  people 
did  not  at  once  bow  down  before  him  with  their  hats  off,  he  would  then 
make  this  a  ground  for  a  war  or  a  bloody  massacre  in  Germany  ;  no  other 
motive  had  impelled  him  to  the  work,  that  was  certain  and  positively 
true.' 

1  Kaltenbrunner,  pp.  524-527  ;  Stieve,  pp.  66-67. 


62  HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

as  their  overlord,  and  if  they  did  not  take  care  it  might 
happen  to  them  as  to  the  Elector  Gebhard  of  Cologne 
whom  Gregory  XIII.  deposed  from  his  office.  Further- 
more, they  could  not  see  what  the  new  Calendar  was 
wanted  for.  For,  although  the  Spring  Equinox  was 
placed  in  it  a  few  days  later  in  the  year,  summer  would 
not  for  this  reason  begin  either  earlier  or  later.  If, 
however,  a  new  Calendar  was  really  wanted,  the  evan- 
gelical Estates  should  request  the  Emperor  to  com- 
mission his  own  mathematicians  and  those  of  the 
Estates  to  make  a  corrected  version,  which,  not  ema- 
nating from  the  Pope,  might  be  adopted  without  injury 
to  conscience.  In  any  case,  however,  the  Estates  of 
the  Augsburg  Confession  must  prepare  themselves  for 
resistance  against  the  Pope's  Calendar.'  '  Satan  with 
his  idolatry '  had  been  driven  out  of  the  Church,  and 
he  must  not  be  allowed  to  creep  in  again  under  guise 
of  his  substitute  the  Pope  ;  his  satanic  majesty  was 
bent  on  creating  great  woe  and  lamentation.  '  Christian 
princes  and  lords  were  in  duty  bound  to  oppose  him 
with  watchful  eyes,  and  to  consider  that,  if  such  evil 
times  came  about,  they  would  lose  their  lands  and 
people,  possibly  also  their  lives  as  well  as  the  true 
religion,  which,  however,  might  the  Almighty  graciously 
avert.     Amen.'  l 

In  similar  '  Christian  and  peace-loving  strains ' 
mathematicians  and  astronomers  also  lifted  up  their 
voices. 

Lambert  Floridus  Plieninger,  in  January  1583,  com- 
posed '  for  the  warning  and  encouragement  of  Christians, 
especially  those  of  the  German  nation,'  a  '  short  me- 
morandum '   concerning    the  new  Calendar,  '  with  ac- 

1  Sattler,  v.  Beil.  pp.  50-62. 


PROGNOSTICATIONS  CONCERNING  THE  NEW  CALENDAR  63 

companying  prognostications  as  to  the  times  we  lived 

in,  taken  from  the  prophets  Daniel,  Zechariah,  and  the 

Apocalypse   of  John.'  l     This   writer  agreed  with  the 

Magdeburg  Centurists  in  thinking  that  the  beginning 

of  the  growth  of  general  corruption  in  Christian  doctrine 

dates  from  immediately  after  the  death  of  the  Apostle 

John.     Concerning    the    Pope    as    Antichrist,    he    said 

that  he  had  met  with  scarcely  any  writer  who  came 

nearer  to  his  own  opinions  than  George  Nigrinus.     Only 

the  latter  placed  the  '  commencement  of  the  kingdom 

of  the  Antichristian  papacy '  somewhat  later  than  he 

himself  did,  '  dating  it  not  from  Silvester  I.  but  from 

Leo   the   Great.'     Now  the   Pope's   alterations  in  the 

Calendar  proved  that  '  the  numbers  of  the  Antichrist 

must  be  counted  from  Silvester  I.,  who  was  Pope  at 

the  time  of  the  Nicene  Council,  and  that  they  will  run 

out  and  come  to  an  end  in  this  year.'  2     As  a  man  of 

extraordinary  learning  he  demonstrated  that  the  world 

at  that  time  was  in  the  sixth  trumpet  of  the  sixth  angel 

of  the  Apocalypse,  and  that  the  Day  of  Judgment  would 

come  in  seventy  years.     The  Calendar  was  '  the  last 

institution  '  of  the  Antichrist,  for  soon  '  the  kings  of  the 

earth  would  come  to  hate  the  Babylonish  whore,  would 

forsake  her  and  reveal   her  shame,  would  devour  their 

own   flesh   and   destroy  it   with   fire.     Therefore   they 

must  not  let  themselves  be  terrified  by  the  power  of 

the  Pope.' 3     But  if  the  Protestant  Estates  accepted  the 

Antichristian  Calendar,  the  most  terrible  things  would 

1  Kurz  Bedencken  von  der  Emendation  des  Jahres,  durch  Papst  Gregorium 
den  XIII.  fiirgenommen,  &c,  ob  soldier  den  Protestierenden  Stdnden  anzu- 
nehmen  sein  oder  nicht,  &c,  by  Lambert  Floridus  Plieninger,  in  the  year 
MDLXXXIIL,  and  the  month  of  January,  &c.  (Strasburg).  See  Stieve, 
Kalenderstreit,  pp.  91,  No.  8,  and  58-59  ;  Kaltenbrunner,  p.  520. 

2  Kurz  Bedencken,  ii.  22-23.  3  Kurz  Bedencken,  pp.  70,  76,  90-95. 


64  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

come  to  pass,  for  the  Pope  intended  by  its  means  to 
inaugurate    the    tremendous    persecution    which    was 
described  in  the  Apocalypse.     '  The  elements  and  the 
firmaments  in  the  upper  and  the  under  worlds  also 
speak  to  us,   and  have  spoken  to  us  ever  since  the 
apparition  of  the  new  miraculous  star  of  1572,  through 
many  and  various  signs  and  wonders ;  but  especially 
through  the  great  comet  of  the  year  1577,  and  they 
will    never    cease   to   speak   to   us.'      So   too,   among 
other  things,  does  the  tempestuous  weather  speak  to 
us  which  has   prevailed   almost  all  over   Germany  in 
these   ten  days  which   the  Pope  has  excised   from  the 
Calendar  for  its  improvement,  notably  on  October  10, 
when  there  was  a  tremendous  storm  in  Vienna  and  a 
large  two-headed  eagle,  which  had  been  set  up  in  all  its 
splendour   only   two   years  before,   was   thrown   down 
and  shattered  to  pieces,  as  was  also  a  great  iron  cross 
from  the  top  of  the  Jesuits'  church.     '  Then  there  are 
the  voices  of  the  water- floods  which  followed  immedi- 
ately on  this  storm  in  the  days  of  the  correction  of  the 
Calendar.'     He   had   heard    from    trustworthy    people 
that   in   the   Saxon   village   of   Ichtershausen,    in   the 
previous    July,    '  the    fish-stream    Piscina    had    been 
turned  into  pure  blood,  and  had  remained  in  this  con- 
dition for  six  days.' 

The  learned  man  had  heard  of  a  still  more  astonishing 
wonder  from  Morthingen,  in  Lorraine.  '  On  March  3, 
between  8  and  9  o'clock  in  the  evening,  the  moon  had 
been  seen  to  undergo  a  change,  and  to  assume  the 
appearance  of  a  veiled  woman's  face ;  and  when  it  had 
come  down  near  to  the  earth  it  was  heard  to  utter, 
with  a  loud  scream,  "  Woe,  woe,"  and  this  six  or  seven 
separate  times,   after  which  it  returned   to   its   usual 


PROGNOSTICATIONS  CONCERNING  THE  NEW  CALENDAR    65 

shape  and  course.1  Thus  the  powers  of  the  heavens 
according  to  the  prophecy  of  Christ,  Matthew  xxiv., 
must  be  moving  and  speaking.'  2 

And  it  was  not  only  at  Morthingen  that  '  trust- 
worthy informants  told  the  Rhinegrave,  quaking  and 
terrified,  of  a  cry  of  lamentation  seven  times  reiterated 
by  the  moon.'  In  a  village  of  the  Voigtland,  also, 
'  just  at  the  time  when  the  devouring  wolf  and  the 
Antichrist  Gregorius  was  bringing  out  his  iniquitous 
Calendar  with  a  view  to  the  ruin  and  bloodshed  of  the 
poor  evangelical  Christians,  the  moon  came  down  to 
men  on  the  earth,'  this  time,  however,  not  in  the  form 
of  a  veiled  woman's  face,  but  '  with  a  ferocious  visage 
and  bloody  withal,  for  it  was  seen  by  several  intelli- 
gent peasants  who  were  returning  home  from  the  fair, 
as  they  testified  on  their  word  of  honour  as  good  Chris- 
tians. And  they  distinctly  heard  the  moon  exclaiming 
several  times :  "  Woe,  woe,  blood,  blood,  Pope  and 
Jesuits." ' 

And  '  all  these  and  other  appalling  manifestations, 
prodigies,  abortions,  and  fire-tokens  were  all  the  more 
alarming  because  the  stiff-necked  papists,  the  greasy 
parasites  and  satellites  of  the  Roman  Antichrist  would 
actually  not  believe  in  them  at  all,  but  laughed  at  and 
ridiculed  the  stories,  after  their  sceptical  fashion ;  for 
the  Jesuitical  sophists,  epicures,  and  vermin,  as  we  have 
been  often  enough  told  by  numbers  of  godly  Christian 
teachers  and  doctors  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  have 
also  learned  in  other  ways,  believe  in  nothing,  not  in 
God  and  eternity  or  in  the  last  Day  of  Judgment  which 

1  To  this  in  the  margin,  p.  62,  is  the  note  :  '  Septem  plagas  novissimas, 
Apocal.  15,  16.' 

2  Kurz  Bedencken,  pp.  59-64. 

VOL.    X.  F 


66  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

is  standing  at  the  door.  But  Christ,  in  the  seat  of 
judgment,  will  assuredly  find  out  the  villains,  and  with 
scathing  words  of  condemnation,  and  for  an  encouraging 
spectacle  to  godly  Christians  and  followers  of  our  Lord 
and  Saviour,  will  hurl  them  into  the  netherniost  pit  of 
hell,  as  they  have  long  since  deserved,  let  alone  that 
by  this  senseless  new  Calendar  they  have  evinced  that 
they  do  not  believe  in  Christ  and  in  His  return  at  the 
last  judgment.' 

'  Alarming  tales  of  this  sort '  were  related  by  a 
'  simple  minister  of  Christ  and  of  His  Holy  Word ' 
from  the  pulpit  to  his  congregation  in  the  year  1589, 
'  in  order  to  create  a  wholesome  horror  of  the  Pope, 
the  Jesuits,  the  Calendar,  and  all  the  idolatrous,  anti- 
christian  brood  of  vipers  which  were  polluting  and 
dishonouring  the  dear  Fatherland.'  1 

In  the  face  of  '  so  many  wonders  '  which  happened 
in  favour  of  the  Protestants  and  the  old  Calendar,  the 
Catholics,  of  course,  could  not  be  behindhand  with 
their  own  tales  of  marvels.  '  It  is  commonly  said,' 
wrote  Johann  Rasch  in  1590,  '  that  on  St.  Vincent's 
Day  birds  annually  choose  their  mates  and  pair. 
Although  many  people  think  this  an  absurdity,  it  is 
nevertheless  a  visible  fact.  Now  certain  persons  who 
have  made  careful  observations,  both  in  this  and  pre- 
ceding years,  attest  on  the  evidence  of  their  own  eyes 
that  this  year  the  birds  mated  on  the  day  marked  in 
the  new  Calendar  as  St.  Vincent's  Day,  and  no  longer 
went  by  the  old  Calendar.  The  birds  are  good  Catholics, 
and  have  more  understanding  than  many  a  pig-headed, 
obstinate  human  being  !  They  marry  on  the  Church 
festival,  and  reverently   observe   the  new   Calendar.'  2 

1  Ansslegung  der  geheymen  Offenbarung,  pp.  9,  12. 

2  Stieve,  Kalenderstre.it,  p.  32. 


PORTENTS   AGAINST   AND   FOR   THE   CALENDAR       67 

It  was  also  reported  as  a  special  wonder,  and  accepted 
for  truth  by  high  spiritual  and  temporal  dignitaries, 
that  a  nut-tree  at  Campo  Longo,  in  Friaul,  three  miles 
from  Goez,  went  by  the  new  Calendar.  This  tree  had 
always  before,  and  even  in  the  year  1582,  begun  to 
sprout  and  bear  fruit  on  St.  John's  Day.  But  after 
the  new  Calendar  had  been  introduced  into  Friaul  in 
1583,  while  still  keeping  to  St.  John's  Day,  the  tree 
deferred  its  sprouting  till  ten  days  later,  according  to 
the  innovation  of  the  new  Calendar.  A  traveller,  who 
made  closer  inquiries  into  the  matter  on  the  very  spot, 
sent  branches  of  the  tree  to  the  Bishop  of  Olmiitz  and 
the  Count  of  Dietrichstein,  and  was  desirous  also  of 
sending  a  branch  to  the  Pope.  In  1584  he  wrote  as 
follows  to  the  pastor  of  Nikolsburg,  in  Moravia  :  '  I  was 
anxious  to  apprise  your  reverence  of  this  incident,  in 
order  that  you  may  perceive  and  recognise  the  wonders 
of  God's  creation,  and  learn  that,  as  time  goes  on,  the 
unintelligent  trees  are  gaining  more  understanding  and 
becoming  more  loyal  and  obedient  to  the  Church  of 
God  than  those  men  who  set  up  as  most  highly  intelli- 
gent— viz.  the  heretics.'  l 

Among  those  scholars  '  who  were  the  most  deeply 
distressed  concerning  the  antichristian  popish  Calendar, 
and  utterly  weighed  down  in  spirit,'  was  Michael  Mastlin, 
professor  of  mathematics  at  the  University  of  Heidel- 
berg, and  later  on  at  Tubingen.  He  sent  the  Palatine 
Elector  Louis  '  an  exhaustive  and  well-grounded  report,' 
in  which  it  was  stated  that  '  The  Calendar  of  the  Roman 
Antichrist  led  plainly  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Prophet 
Daniel  had  actually  had  this  work  in  his  mind  when  he 

1  Kaltenbrunner,  Polemik,  p.  535  ;  Stieve,  Kalenderstreit,  pp.  32-33, 
92,  No.  12. 

F  2 


68  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

said  (chap,  vii.)  of  the  little  horn,  "  He  shall  speak  great 
words  against  the  Most  High,  and  shall  wear  out  the 
saints  of  the  Most  High,  and  think  to  change  times 
and  laws."  And  that  these  words  apply  to  this  work  is 
all  the  easier  to  believe,  seeing  that  this  present  Pope 
has  taken  on  himself  to  change  the  times  and  the  laws, 
especially  the  Jus  Canonicum,  that  is  the  law  of  the 
Church.'  This  being  so,  and  '  the  blasphemy  of  this 
horn  and  its  false  doctrine  having  been  sufficiently 
brought  to  light  by  other  godly  Christian  teachers,'  he, 
Mastlin,  had  contented  himself  with  showing  in  his 
'  simple  report,  on  political,  ecclesiastical,  and  mathe- 
matical grounds,'  that  the  chronological  alterations  of 
the  Pope  were  'erroneous  in  political  affairs,  scandalous 
in  Church  ritual  and  spiritual  matters,  and  false  and 
worthless  in  mathematical  calculations.'  Whereas  the 
Day  of  Judgment  was  now  at  hand,  and  '  in  the  whole 
extent  of  this  Gregorian  Calendar  there  was  no  mention 
by  a  single  syllable  of  the  Day  of  Judgment,  but  on  the 
contrary  the  title  was  '  The  perpetual  or  everlasting 
Gregorian  Calendar  " — there  was  no  alternative  but  to 
suppose  that  the  author  of  the  Calendar,  together  with 
the  Pope  and  all  those  who  approved  of  it,  took  no 
account  of  the  Day  of  Judgment,  and  therefore  they  did 
not  concern  themselves  either  about  Christ  or  about  the 
end  of  the  world — yea,  verily,  that  they  thought  less 
about  them  than  the  epicurean  scoffers  spoken  of  by 
the  Apostle  Peter  (2  Pet.  iii.),  of  whose  chair  the  Pope 
pretends  to  be  the  inheritor.' 


'  1 


1  Aiisfiilirliclier  wnd  griindlicher  Bericht,  &c.  (the  complete  title  is 
found  in  Stieve,  p.  90,  No.  5)  ;  Kaltenbrunner,  pp.  514-518  ;  Stieve,  p.  27. 
In  the  year  1586  Mastlin  published  a  second  Examination  of  the  New 
Calendar,  in  which  he  maintained  that  the  Calendar  was  characterised  by 
'  numberless  deficiencies  ; '  *  in  short  there  were  no  defects  in  any  Calendar 


THE  PEOPLE  STIRRED  UP   AGAINST  THE  CALENDAR      69 

Among  those  who  approved  of  the  Calendar,  and 
who  were  accordingly  included  in  this  verdict  of  Mastlin, 
was  the  Emperor,  and  the  Elector  Louis  himself  informed 
Rudolf  of  the  judgment  passed  by  Mastlin,  sending 
him  at  the  same  time  the  report  of  the  Heidelberg 
professor. 

When  Rudolf  II.  ordered  the  improved  Calendar 
to  be  introduced  into  his  hereditary  lands  the  Pro- 
testant pulpits  in  these  territories  '  broke  out  loudly  in 
abuse  and  invective.'  Seven  South  Austrian  preachers 
declared  in  a  special  manifesto  that,  if  the  Emperor 
sanctioned  the  papal  Calendar,  it  would  be  nothing  less 
than  '  paying  court  to  the  abominable  Antichrist.' 
Pope  and  devil  were  one  and  the  same  thing  :  whoso 
in  any  way  obeyed  them  became  deserving  of  ever- 
lasting damnation.1 

It  made  no  difference  whatever  to  the  Protestants, 
either  in  the  imperial  hereditary  lands  or  in  the  Empire, 
that  Rudolf  II.  enjoined  the  adoption  of  the  Calendar 


which  were  not  represented  in  this  Gregorian  one.'  His  evidence  appeared 
to  him  so  strong  that  he  challenged  all  the  defenders  of  the  Calendar  to 
enter  the  lists  against  him.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Jesuit  Anton  Possevin, 
in  a  larger  work  printed  at  Cologne  in  1587  (Moscovia,  et  alia  opera,  de 
statu  hujus  saeculi,  &c. :  see  De  Backer,  ii.  2113  to  2116),  said  that  Mastlin's 
arguments  had  already  been  refuted  ;  that  his  quotations,  moreover, 
whatever  he  might  think  or  wish,  told  in  favour  of  the  Gregorian  Calendar. 
Thereupon  Mastlin  flew  into  a  rage,  and  in  1588  wrote  a  defence  of  his 
second  '  examination '  expressly  directed  against  Possevin  (Defensio 
alterius  sui  examinis,  &c,  Tubingae,  1588),  in  which  he  accused  his  adversary 
of  '  venomous  rualice.'  He  set  up  the  assertion  that  the  author  of  the  new 
Calendar  as  well  as  its  patron,  Gregory  XIII. ,  were  consciously  endeavour- 
ing to  lead  the  people  into  error,  and  denounced  the  new  Calendar  as  a 
'  mine  and  sink  '  of  all  the  defects  which  calendars  could  possibly  have 
(pp.  1,  14-15,  16,  20).  '  Ein  Verzeichnis  der  Gelenrten,  welche  gegen  und 
welche  fur  den  neuen  Kalender  schrieben,'  in  Wolfius,  Lediones,  ii.  944  ;  see 
also  Schuster,  Joh.  Kepler,  p.  49  ff. 
1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  viii.  389  ff. 


70  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

in  his  own  name  without  reference  to  the  Pope.  '  The 
Calendar,'  said  a  preacher,  '  is  an  ecclesiastical  matter, 
and  in  ecclesiastical  matters  the  secular  authorities  have 
no  right  to  dictate  ;  it  all  emanated  in  the  first  place 
from  the  Pope  and  the  Jesuits  who  were  manoeuvring 
to  bring  Germany  back  under  their  yoke,  and  who  were 
making  a  show  of  so-called  science.  But  the  whole 
new  scheme  of  astronomy  was  a  miserable  business, 
as  also  that  which  Copernicus  taught,  which  was  con- 
trary to  all  Holy  Writ,  and  which  had  therefore  been 
rejected  by  Luther.'  l  '  The  Roman  Antichrist  and  the 
Jesuits,'  the  preacher  went  on,  '  want  to  compound 
with  reason,  the  devil's  harlot,  as  Luther  says,  and  to 
overthrow  everything  which  is  decreed  in  the  Divine 
Word.  To  this  end  they  have  artfully  devised  this  new 
Calendar,  and  they  want  to  smuggle  it  in  as  if  it  was  a 
Divine  work.'  2  In  the  year  1584  there  appeared  '  a 
true  and  graphic  description  of  the  four  ecclesiastical 
f  omenters  of  mutiny  and  the  seditious  Jesuits  and  priests 
who  had  invented  and  brought  out  the  new  Calendar 
in  order  to  raise  disturbance  throughout  the  whole 
world.'  3  The  Saxon  preacher,  Kaspar  Fluger,  published 
in  the  same  year  a  '  Conversation  between  two  peasants 
of  Meissen  on  the  new  Calendar,'  in  which,  among 
other  things,  he  introduced  the  statement  that  at  Rome 
the  Resurrection  and  eternal  life  were  regarded  as 
fables ;  that  the  Pope  himself  only  cared  to  realise 
money  out  of  the  fables  of  Christ,  as  he  called  the  Gospel, 

1  Luther  had  declared  Copernicus  to  be  a  fool  :  '  The  fool  wants  to 
overturn  the  whole  science  of  astronomy  ; '  Melanchthon  also  had  com- 
bated the  Copernican  system.  See  Hipler,  Nikolaus  Kopernikus  und 
Martin  Luther  (Braunsberg,  1868),  p.  8,  note  16. 

2  Die  rechte  Auslegung  der  geheymen  Offenbarung,  p.  14. 

3  Weller,  Zeitungen,  No.  599. 


THE  PEOPLE  STIEEED  UP  AGAINST  THE  CALENDAE      71 

but  that  he  was  destined,  according  to  the  revelation 
of  St.  John,  to  be  thrown  alive,  with  his  whole  retinue, 
into  the  fiery  pit  which  burns  with  brimstone.  There- 
fore the  following  prayer  was  sung  daily  in  the  churches  : 
'  Lord,  uphold  us  with  Thy  Word,  and  slay  the  Pope 
and  murderous  Turk '  ...  *  for  they  are  all  villains, 
murderers,  robbers,  and  bloodhounds,  the  Pope  as  well 
as  the  Turks,  and  they  are  the  real  Antichrists,  for  they 
dare  to  alter  what  Christ  ordered  and  instituted.  Christ 
was  born  under  and  according  to  the  old  Calendar. 
....  The  Pope  is  afraid  that  He  might  come  back 
too  quickly  to  pronounce  judgment  on  him,  and  so  he 
has  made  this  new  "  Kaldander  "  so  that  Christ  maybe 
puzzled  and  not  know  at  what  time  He  is  to  come, 
where  He  is  to  set  up  His  tribunal ;  and  thus  the  Pope 
will  have  less  cause  for  alarm,  and  will  be  able  to  go  on 
all  the  longer  sinning  and  blaspheming  with  impunity. 
May  God  punish  these  scoundrels ! '  Such  was  the 
fashion  in  which  the  Saxon  pastor  made  one  of  the 
peasants  deliver  himself.  The  other  answered  :  '  The 
Pope  calls  the  Calendar  a  perpetual  one  in  order  to  show 
that  he  does  not  believe  in  the  Day  of  Judgment  and 
the  end  of  the  world  ;  yea,  verily,  he  is  as  cocksure  about 
it  as  though  Christ  were  obliged  to  do  what  he  wished.' 
The  old  Calendar,  they  settle,  must  be  the  right  one 
because  the  animals  went  by  it ;  the  stork,  for  instance, 
times  his  flying  away  exactly  by  the  old,  not  by  the  new, 
Calendar.  '  The  cattle  also  keep  the  right  Christmas 
Day  and  stand  up  in  honour  of  Christ's  birth  on  the 
old  Christmas  night,  and  not  on  the  new  one.'  In  a 
'  Peasant's  Lament,'  composed  at  the  same  time  for  the 
peasants,  and  which  went  through  several  editions, 
there  are  the  following  lines  : 


72  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

0  Pope,  what  evil  thou  hast  brought  us 
With  thy  Calendar  most  impious : 
So  hast  thou  altered  time  and  season 
We  poor  folk  seem  bereft  of  reason, 
We're  sore  perplexed  and  no  more  know 
When  we  should  plant,  or  dig,  or  sow. 

There  appeared  also  a  publication  entitled  '  Ein  Weiber- 
krieg  wider  den  Bapst,  darum,  das  er  zehn  Tage  ans 
dem  Kalendar  gestohlen  hat.'  l 

This  process  of  stirring  up  the  people  had  its  effect. 
In  Lower  Austria  and  Styria,  in  Augsburg,  Riga,  Leut- 
kirch,  Hagenau,  Kaufbeuren,  Donauworth,  Dinkelsbiihl, 
and  elsewhere,  serious  disturbances  broke  out  on  account 
of  the  Calendar.2 

1  Weller,  Annalen,  i.  Abt.  1,  No.  386,  419  ;  cf.  No.  387-391,  and  the 
Appendices  ii.  515  ;  Stieve,  Ealenderstreit,  pp.  91,  Nos.  9  and  10  ;  98,  No.  30. 

-  With  regard  to  Augsburg,  see  Kaltenbrunner  in  the  Mittheil.  des 
Instit.  fiir  osterr.  Gesch.  i.  499-540  ;  Hirn,  ii.  131  ff.  ;  and  Radlkofer,  Die 
volksthiimliche  und  besonderes  die  dichterische  Litteratur ;  see  the  '  Augs- 
burger  Kalenderstreit '  in  the  Beitr.  zur  ba'yer.  Kirchengesch.  vii.  1  ff.,  49  ff. 
In  1584  there  was  an  interval  of  four  weeks  between  the  Easter  festival 
according  to  the  new  Calendar  and  that  according  to  the  old  one.  Now 
at  Augsburg — where  both  confessions  enjoyed  equal  rights — as  the  wardens 
and  privy  councillors  of  the  town  relate,  the  butchers  were  informed  (by 
the  preacher  George  Miller,  so  the  wardens  supposed)  that  whoever  among 
them  regulated  his  slaughtering  by  the  new  Calendar  had  already  lost  his 
God,  his  conscience  and  the  Confession  of  Augsburg.  No  manner  of  mild 
and  amicable  invitations  from  the  authorities  could,  in  consequence, 
prevail  on  them  to  slaughter  for  Easter  Day  of  the  new  Calendar.  It 
was  all  in  vain  that  they  had  been  referred  to  the  Religious  Peace,  and 
also  assured  that  '  their  feasts  and  holy  days  might  still  be  kept  on  the 
same  days  as  before.'  M.  James  Rulich,  Protestant  pastor  at  Heilig 
Kreuz,  himself  assured  the  principal  members  of  the  guild  of  butchers 
that  '  the  proposed  change  had  nothing  to  do  with  conscience  and  religion, 
and  was  not  a  violation  of  either.  .  .  .'  All  was  in  vain.  The  Augsburg 
Protestants  had  '  at  all  times  eaten  and  procured  butcher's  meat  without 
any  distinction  of  day  or  season,  and  many  of  them  had  had  no  com- 
punction in  eating  meat  on  the  sacred  Good  Friday.'  In  the  year  1583, 
however,  they  went  to  such  lengths  out  of  hatred  of  the  new  Calendar  that 
many  of  them  '  for  four  whole  weeks  after  the  Easter  Day  of  the  new 
Calendar,  and  up  to  that  of  the  old  Calendar,  neither  bought  nor  ate  a 


THE  PEOPLE  STIRRED  UP  AGAINST  THE  CALENDAR      73 

When,  in  the  year  1583,  the  Dominican  friars  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main  kept  the  Christmas  festival  ac- 
cording to  the  new  Calendar,  a  wild  and  furious  mob 
broke  into  their  church.  '  I  cannot  hide  from  you,' 
wrote  the  prior  to  the  burgomaster,  '  what  an  amount 
of  outrage,  insolence,  and  rascality  has  been  perpetrated 
in  our  church  by  the  younger  men,  and  also  by  toler- 
ably old  ones.  For.  not  to  mention  the  laughter, 
scoffing,  and  screaming,  they  broke  open  doors,  battered 
in  windows,  so  that  nothing  but  the  lead  was  left,  and 
stabbed  with  knives  the  boys  whom  I  set  to  guard  the 
doors.  After  having  burst  open  the  door  of  the  choir 
they  rushed  on  the  altar  in  such  a  manner  that  even 
to-day  we  have  had  to  pick  up  jewels  that  have  been 
knocked  off  ;  besides  which  some  low  fellows  have  had 
the  impudent  audacity  to  pull  down  all  the  altar  orna- 
ments by  drawing  a  cloth  across  them.  I  will  not 
speak  of  the  shockingly  immoral  language  used  to 
myself,  not  only  by  the  older  people,  but  even  by  young- 
girls  not  more  than  twelve  :  from  which  it  can  be  seen 
what  they  are  in  reality,  for  out  of  the  abundance  of  the 
heart  the  mouth  speaketh.  In  very  truth  it  seemed 
to  me  not  as  though  Christ's  birthday  were  being 
celebrated,  but  Dame  Venus's  festival.'  In  order  to 
prevent  the  spread  of  the  uproar  the  council  had  the 

morsel  of  green  meat.'  See  Der  H  err  en  Pfleger  und  Geheimen  Rath  des 
(sic)  heyligen  Reichstatt  Augsburg  WarJiaffter  gegenbericht  der  Augspur- 
gischen  Handel,  &c.  (Augsburg,  1587),  Bl.  K  2b-K  3b.  For  the  introduction 
of  the  Gregorian  Calendar  into  Vienna  see  the  article  of  K.  Uhlirz  in  the 
Mittheil.  des  Instit.  fiir  osterr.  Oesch.  xii.  (1891),  639-647,  which  is  based  on 
imprinted  documents.  For  the  Calendar  contest  in  Styria,  cf.  Zahn  in 
the  Mittheil.  des  Hist.  Vereins  fiir  Steiermark,  xiii.  126  ff.  ;  Mayer  in  the 
Archiv  fiir  osterr.  Gesch.  p.  74  (1889),  24  ff.,  and  Loserth,  Reformation, 
p.  441  ff .  ;  A  Men,  p.  501  ff .  For  the  opposition  to  the  improved  Calendar 
on  the  Eichsfeld,  cf.  Knieb,  Gesch.  der  Reformation,  p.  223  ff. 


74  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

mob  driven  out.  But  the  rioters  got  off  scot  free=  On 
the  Archbishop  of  Mayence  insisting  on  a  serious  inquiry 
into  the  affair,  the  council  threw  all  the  blame  on  the 
monks,  and  contented  itself  with  warning  the  burghers 
that  they  must  not  in  future  disturb  divine  service  in 
the  abbeys  and  churches.1 

'  This  [lenity  of  the  magistrates]  is  verily  the  chief 
reason,'  says  a  Catholic  in  the  year  1586,  '  why  the 
insolence  and  wickedness  of  the  people  go  on  increas- 
ing ;  for  crimes  and  riots,  though  enacted  on  the  highest 
Christian  festivals  in  public  churches,  and  committed 
against  the  clergy  and  the  devout  Catholic  people,  are 
simply  winked  at  or  passed  over  with  smooth  words 
by  the  magistrates,  examples  of  which  have  been  seen 
ten  and  twenty  fold  in  the  last  years.  Not  to  mention 
that  in  towns  and  boroughs  seditious  mobs  are  heard 
declaring  that  their  proceedings  are  not  at  all  dis- 
pleasing to  the  municipal  authorities  and  the  clergy ; 
and  as  for  the  idolatrous  papists,  they  cannot  be  suffi- 
ciently tormented,  even  should  they  be  driven  from  the 
Empire.' 2 

1  Kirchner,  ii.  298-299.  For  the  Calendar  contest  in  Frankfort-on- 
the-Main  see  also  Grotefend  in  the  Berichte  des  Frankfurter  Altertum- 
vereins,  vii.  98,  and  Frankfurter  Didaskalia,  1883,  No.  135. 

2  Trostwort  und  Vermahnung  zur  Stiirke  in  heiligen  catholischer  Glauben, 
ohngeachtet  aller  Unbilden  und  Widerwiirtigkeiten  von  Friedrich  Kreuz- 
mann  (1586),  pp.  12-13  ;  cf.  pp.  17,  19,  23. 


75 


CHAPTER  IV 

POLEMICAL  ACTIVITY  OF  INDIVIDUAL  CONVERTS — CON- 
VERSION OF  A  REIGNING  PRINCE — CONTROVERSIAL 
BOOKS  CONCERNING  THE  PERSON  OF  LUTHER — CON- 
TEMPORARY   JUDGMENTS    ON   POLEMICS 

'  The  many  signs  and  wonders '  which  were  connected 
with  the  '  Calendar  contest,'  wrote  an  expositor  of  the 
Apocalypse  in  1589,  '  were,  so  to  say,  but  "  a  drop  in 
the  ocean  of  marvels"  which  had  occurred  during  the  last 
fifty  or  sixty  years,  and  had  been  discerned  by  means  of 
the  brightly  illuminating  light  of  the  precious  true  Gospel. 
For  instance,  there  have  been  sea  wonders  more  strange 
and  remarkable  than  any  described  in  former  ages  of 
history — fish  with  popes'  heads,  monks'  cowls,  and 
Jesuits'  hats  ;  new-born  infants  with  two,  three,  and 
even  more  heads  ;  women  who  have  given  birth  to 
little  pigs  or  donkeys  ;  children  who  have  come  into 
the  world  with  a  gold  tooth,  or  wearing  trousers  or 
collars,  sometimes  even  speaking  and  prophesying 
wonders  the  instant  they  were  born  ;  fire-tokens,  bloody 
rain,  blood-red  comets,  images  of  Christ  in  the  sky 
with  blood  flowing  from  Him,  angels  who  had  preached 
audibly  in  the  clouds — in  fact,  the  whole  country  was 
full  of  stories  of  this  sort  which  were  quite  true  and  were 
well  known  to  all  the  people.'  '  Still  more  startling 
and  terrible  were  the  innumerable  wonders  of  hell 
which   happened   almost   daily  :  '  in  many  places  the 


76  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

devil  went  about  in  bodily  shape  and  was  seen  in  all 
sorts  of  forms,  '  for  there  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  he 
lets  himself  be  seen  and  preaches  in  the  form  of  Jesuits 
and  other  such  scoundrels.' 

1  But  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  hell-wonders  is 
that  in  these  latter  distressful  times  so  many  people  are 
being  influenced  by  Satan  and  are  falling  away  again 
from  the  holy  evangel  and  the  godly  doctrine  which 
alone  has  power  to  save,  and  are  running  back  into  the 
jaws  of  the  accursed  diabolical  papacy,  are  actually 
defending  it  with  word  and  pen,  and  want  to  set  it  in 
full  swing  again.' 

So  great  had  grown  the  power  of  hell  that  '  many  of 
these  new  hell-hounds,  who,  knowingly  and  with  certain 
conscious  malice,  as  they  themselves  confess,  deny  the 
evangelical  truth,  were  either  carried  away  alive  by  the 
devil,  or  else  howled  like  tigers  and  wolves  at  their 
deaths,  as  is  certainly  known  to  have  been  the  case  with 
the  low  scoundrel  Staphylus  ;  and  that  cunningest  of 
cunning  villains  and  tailor's  valet  Nas,  who,  on  credible 
report,  carries  about  with  him  a  live  devil  in  a  glass, 
also  in  a  ring  from  which  he  speaks  to  him  and  prompts 
him,  will  surely  meet,  if  he  has  not  done  so  already, 
with  as  terrible  an  end.'  1 

The  sort  of  fate  that  befell  the  enemies  of  the 
'  evangel '  and  the  authors  who  were  so  zealous  in 
writing  against  it  is  described  in  a  pamphlet  written  by 
the  Superintendent  Erasmus  Alber  (fl553)  and  pub- 
lished in  1556.     Alber  was  able  to  inform  the  world 


L  .v1  Die  rechte  Auslegung[der  geheymen  Offenbarung,  pp.  17,  19.  For  the 
innumerable  '  Wonders  and  diabolical  appearances,'  see  our  eleventh 
volume  (German  vi.)  ...  '  Literature  of  wonders  and  apparitions, 
.  .  .  Literature  concerning  the  secret  art,  magic,  and  the  devil.' 


OPPOSITION   TO   THE   CONVERTS  77 

that  many  of  them  had  '  died  suddenly '  in  Worms, 
Brunswick,  Wurzburg,  Bautzen,  Berlin  ;  '  such  cases,' 
he  said,  '  were  so  numerous  that  a  big  book  could  be 
made  out  of  them.'  James  Latomus,  he  reported,  had 
committed  suicide,  and  likewise  the  blasphemer  Pighius  ; 
Johann  Hofmeister  had  become  insane  ;  a  bishop  of 
Treves  had  bellowed  like  an  ox  when  on  his  death-bed. 
'  There  are  some  also  who  believe,  and  it  was  the  common 
talk  in  Italy,  that  Pope  Paul  III.  was  already  dead 
before  Dr.  Martinus  died,  and  that  Satan  took  on  him- 
self the  body  of  this  same  Pope,  and  made  it  appear  as 
if  he  was  still  living  ;  for  the  devil  can  easily  do  this  if 
it  is  permitted  by  God.'  l 

In  the  year  1589  the  expositor  of  the  Apocalypse 
uttered  an  earnest  injunction  that  '  under  pain  of  ever- 
lasting damnation '  the  people  must  read  no  '  popish 
books  '  nor  tolerate  them  in  their  houses,  least  of  all 
the  books  of  '  such  apostate  scoundrels  and  mamalukes 
as  Staphylus,  Nas,  and  many  others  who  had  fallen 
away  from  the  evangel.'  '  The  books  of  these  men  are 
more  to  be  shunned  than  the  pestilence  of  hell ;  who- 
soever looks  at  them  and  reads  them  becomes  deserving  • 
of  damnation,  in  like  manner  as  does  everyone  in  whose 
possession  a  devilish  Jesuitical  book  is  found.  Where- 
fore let  all  who  do  not  wish  to  deny  Christ  and  fall  into 
the  jaws  of  the  devil  beware  of  these  publications.' 
'  I  preach  verily  nothing  else  than  Christian  love  and 
piety,'  said  this  pulpit  orator  in  conclusion,  '  and  I  say 
Amen,  Amen  in  the  Lord.'  2 

Frederic  Staphylus  of    Osnabriick  (placed  first  in 

1    Wider   die   verflucMe   Lehre   der    Carlstader,    &c.    (Newenbrandung, 
1556),  Vorrede,  Bl.  1-3. 

3  Die  rechte  Auslegung  der  geheymeri  Offenbarung,  Schlussivorte. 


78  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  list  of  apostates  by  this  preacher),  who  before  his 
return  to  the  Catholic  Church  had  been  professor  of 
theology  at  the  University  of  Konigsberg,  was  the  first 
convert  whose  writings  caused  serious  agitation  among 
the  Protestant  theologians  and  preachers.  In  1558  he 
had  brought  out  a  treatise  on  the  divisions  among  the 
Protestants,1  which  was  followed  in  1561  by  another 
polemical  pamphlet  entitled  '  Christlicher  Gegenbericht 
an  den  gottseligen  gemeinen  Laien  vom  rechten  wahren 
Verstand  des  gottlichen  Wortes,  von  Verdolmetschung 
der  deutschen  Bibel  und  von  der  Einigkeit  der  Luther- 
ischen  Pradikanten.'  2  Among  the  influences  which  had 
led  to  his  conversion  Staphylus  especially  dwelt  on  the 
effects  of  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  '  faith  alone  '  and  the 
innumerable  sects  and  parties  within  the  pale  of  Protes- 
tantism. The  attacks  which  he  directed  against  the  latter 
were  all  the  more  damaging  because  he  handled  the  Ger- 
man language  with  consummate  skill  and  was  the  spokes- 
man of  a  very  wide  circle  of  the  people.  He  frankly 
recognised  the  deep  abuses  in  his  own  camp  ;  but  these, 
he  insisted,  could  not  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  Catholic 
doctrine.  '  There  is  no  more  dire  complaint  against 
the  clergy  among  the  lower  classes  of  the  laity  now- 
adays,' he  said,  '  than  that  some  of  them  do  not  live  up 
to  their  own  precepts  ;  they  insist  that  the  laity  shall 
live  virtuously  and  honourably  in  the  fear  of  God,  but 
they  themselves  do  not  touch  these  commandments 
with  the  least  of  their  fingers.  The  state  of  things  is 
almost    precisely    what    our    Lord    Himself    described 

1  Epitome  Theologine  M.  Lutheri  trimembris,  s.  1.  1558  ;  cf.  N.  Paulus 
in  Wetzer  und  Welte's  Kirchenlexikon,  ii.  (2  Aufl.)  732. 

2  '  Christian  Information  for  pious  Lay  Folk  concerning  the  true 
understanding  of  the  Divine  Word,  the  Interpretation  of  the  German 
Bible,  and  the  Unity  of  Lutheran  Preachers '   (without  locality,   1563). 


POLEMICS   OF   THE   CONVERT    STAPH YLUS  79 

through  the  prophet :  "  I  looked  that  My  vineyard 
should  bring  forth  grapes,  but  it  hath  brought  forth 
thistles."  And  what  further  ?  "  Woe  unto  them  that 
rise  up  early  in  the  morning  that  they  may  drink  strong 
drink  :  that  continue  until  night  till  wine  inflame  them  ! 
And  the  harp,  and  the  viol,  the  tabret,  and  pipe,  and 
wine  are  in  their  feasts ;  but  they  regard  not  the 
work  of  the  Lord,  neither  consider  the  operation  of 
His  hands." 

'  Who  can  gainsay  this  ?  It  is,  alas,  but  too  true. 
But  is  it  right  ?  Is  it  indeed  Catholic  ?  No  Catholic 
would  answer  "  yes."  No  Christian  would  approve  of 
all  this.  For  the  teaching  of  our  Christian  faith  forbids 
it :  the  Catholic  Church  condemns  it.  But  if  the  oft 
mentioned  vices  are  seen  among  our  priests,  prelates, 
bishops,  and  preachers,  shall  the  teaching  of  our  Catholic 
faith  for  this  reason  be  regarded  as  blasphemous  and 
accursed  ?  God  forbid.  What  they  tell  you  and  teach 
you,  that  shall  ye  do  ;  but  do  not  after  their  works.'  l 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  sins  of  the  Protestants 
must  not  only  be  '  attributed  to  the  persons  who  com- 
mitted them,  but  also  to  the  Lutheran  doctrine.'  Thus, 
for  instance,  Luther  taught  that  '  a  woman  was  justified, 
under  certain  circumstances,  in  contracting  a  secret 
marriage  with  her  husband's  brother,  or  his  most 
intimate  friend.'  '  Is  not  this  a  beautiful  tree  ? 
What  good  fruit  has  come  forth  from  it  ?  Why,  this  : 
that  one  brother  may  take  another  living  brother's 
wife  for  his  own,  as  Herod  did,  and  as  is  very  customary 
now  among  the  Lutherans  ;  that  a  woman  may  have 
several  husbands,  and  likewise  a  man  several  wives,  as 
is  the  custom  of  the   Turks,   and  as  happens  indeed 

1  Christlicher  Gegenbericht,  C  3\ 


80  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

publicly  in  Germany  also,  not  only  at  Minister,  but  in 
other  places  as  well.' 

'  Do  not  these  results  coincide  with  the  doctrine  ? 
Luther  taught :  if  the  wife  will  not,  then  take  the 
maid.  From  this  noble  tree  has  come  forth  such 
exquisite  fruit  that  the  whole  of  Lutherdom  is  over- 
flowing with  adultery  and  debauchery,  and  these 
iniquities  have  so  enormously  gained  the  upper  hand 
that  the  Lutheran  preachers  themselves  are  crying  out 
about  them,  and  wondering  greatly  how  it  is  that  such 
scandals  have  never  been  so  common  in  the  papacy.'  : 
Luther  himself  confesses  that  under  the  new  evangel 
mankind  had  become  a  hundred  times  wickeder  than 
they  had  been  under  the  papacy.  Innumerable  vices 
had  sprung  up  out  of  the  doctrine  of  Luther  and  Calvin 
that  '  God  compelled  men  to  commit  sin.'  2 

Staphylus  dealt  exhaustively  with  the  falsifications 
which  Luther  had  been  guilty  of  in  his  translation  of 
the  Bible,3  and  expressed  the  following  sentiments  con- 
cerning '  Bible-reading '  as  it  was  understood  and 
enjoined  by  the  Protestant :  '  Every  layman,  forsooth, 
is  to  plunge  into  Holy  Writ  with  unwashed  hands  ; 
yea,  verily,  booted  and  spurred,  and  without  any  pre- 
paration for  the  work,  to  extract  the  right  meaning  and 
interpretation.  This  is  exactly  the  same  thing  as  if  the 
common  people  were  to  turn  the  doctors  and  apothe- 
caries out  of  the  chemist's  shop,  and  each  one  of  them 
were  to  set  up  as  understanding  all  about  the  nature 
and  uses  of  all  the  medical  jars,  materials,  and  condi- 
ments.' 4 

1  Bl.  D  2b-D  3a.  2  Bl.  D  2*-\  3  Bl.  L  3  £f. 

4  Bl.  L  2a.     Staphylus  writes  in  greater  detail  on  this  subject  in  his 
pamphlet  Vom  letzter  unci  gr ossein  Abfall,  pp.  16-17,  28,  43. 


POLEMICS   OF   THE   CONVERT   STAPH YL US  81 

At  a  time  when  every  individual  could  set  up  a 
faith  of  his  own  without  regard  to  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities,  it  was  inevitable  that  countless  sects  should 
spring  up  ;  the  catalogue  of  these  compiled  by  Staphylus 
was  considered  by  the  antagonists  '  an  especially 
villainous  piece  of  work  of  this  apostate.' 

It  was  an  additional  dire  cause  of  bitterness  that 
Staphylus  laid  the  decadence  of  the  Empire  to  the 
account  of  Protestantism.  '  It  was  through  the  Catholic 
religion,'  he  wrote,  '  the  faith  common  to  all  believing 
Christians,  that  we  Germans  were  first  Christianised  ;  it 
was  through  this  religion  that  our  dear  and  pious 
forefathers  attained  eternal  salvation :  it  was  through 
this  religion  that  the  Roman  Empire  came  to  the 
German  princes.  In  the  might  of  this  religion  the 
noble  German  nation  has  gained  many  splendid  victories, 
has  augmented  the  Empire,  and  converted  the  heathen 
to  Christianity — witness  the  Hungarians,  Bohemians, 
Poles,  Wends,  Slavs,  Prussians,  Livonians,  Danes,  and 
Swedes.'  '  That  this  is  the  case  is  proved  by  our  old 
chronicles  and  ancient  documents.'  '  But  that  all 
these  advantages  have  been  slipping  from  us  during 
the  last  forty  years,  we  perceive  now  to  our  infinite 
sorrow.  It  is  evidenced  by  our  great  and  manifold 
defeats  and  losses,  by  the  marked"  diminution  of  the 
German  Empire,  by  the  contempt  and  ridicule  which 
German  soldiers  meet  with  among  all  other  nations.' 
'  What  has  become  of  the  Dietmarsch  which  formerly 
belonged  to  the  archbishopric  of  Bremen  ?  Denmark 
has  taken  possession  of  it.  What  has  become  of 
Livonia,  which  of  old  was  the  hospital  of  the  Saxon 
nobility  ?  The  Muscovites  have  wrung  it  from  us  by 
violence.'  Prussia,  '  which  we  conquered  by  means 
vol.  x.  G 


82  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

of  the  old  evangel,  has  been  purloined  from  the  German 
nobles  through  Luther's  new  evangel,  and  made  over 
to  the  Poles,  so  that  a  people  formerly  tributary  to  our 
Emperor  now  rules  over  the  Germans.'  Hungary  also, 
he  said,  had  fallen  a  prey  to  the  Turks  in  consequence 
of  the  discord  in  religious  matters,  and  the  venom  of 
hate  and  envy  which  the  preachers  were  sowing  every- 
where.1 

This  pamphlet  aroused  '  local  indignation  '  in  the 
Protestant  camp.  Staphylus  was  handed  over  to 
general  odium  as  '  an  open  blasphemer  of  God  and 
Christ,  a  desperate  perjurer  and  hell-hound.'  '  A  man 
who  wittingly  and  intentionally  defends  evil  and  ido- 
latry ' — so  the  Superintendent  Nicholas  Gall  us  of  Ratis- 
bon  preached — '  is  an  infamous  wretch  and  a  traitor 
to  God  in  his  heart.  Therefore  Staphylus  is  an  infamous 
wretch  and  a  traitor  to  God.' 2  Cyriacus  Spangenberg 
pronounced  '  this  abominable  blasphemer '  to  be  '  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  disciples  of  the  devil,'  and  to 
be  '  possessed  of  many  legions  of  blaspheming  devils  ;  ' 
he  accused  him  of  having  '  pandered,  against  his  con- 
science, to  the  Romish  dragon,'  and  to  have  been  bent 
on  '  bringing  murder  and  bloodshed  into  all  govern- 
ments.' The  papists  had  long  since  been  convicted  of 
teaching  false,  idolatrous  doctrine,  emanating  from  the 
devil.  The  ruin  of  the  Empire  was  not  the  work  of 
the  evangelicals  but  of  the  papacy.  Spangenberg 
made  a  special  defence  of  the  teaching  and  person  of 
Luther  who  had  been  '  a  holy  man  '  and  a  '  Prophet 
of   the   Lord,'    and  who  had  also  had  '  more  learning, 

1  Bl.  C  3b-4\  D1  b. 

2  Vom  baptischen  abgbttischen  Fest  Corporis  Christi,  &c.  Predigt  (Regens- 
burg,  1561),  Bl.  B*. 


POLEMICS  OF  THE  CONVERT  STAPHYLUS     83 

wisdom,  skill,  and  understanding  in  one  of  his  ringers 
than  all  Popes,  bishops,  monks,  and  parsons  put  together, 
and  than  many  of  all  times  ever  since  the  papacy  had 
existed,  with  all  their  councils,  universities,  schools, 
and  foundations,  nothing  and  no  one  excepted.' 

It  was  not  from  the  Lutheran  evangel  that  all  the 
many  divisions  had  arisen,  but  rather  from  the  papacy, 
which  was  a  mess  of  all  heresies.  Staphylus,  '  the 
accursed  Judas  Iscariot '  and  '  the  murderer  of  souls,' 
'  would  be  as  little  able  to  injure  the  Lutheran  evangel, 
as  had  been  Eck,  Emser,  Murner,  and  other  devil's 
heads.'  The  obdurate  papists,  however,  '  took  such 
immense  delight  in  his  blaspemies,  and  revelled  in  his 
foul  lies,  &c,  like  pigs  in  the  mud.'  l  Other  theologians 
also  gave  vent  to  similar  utterances. 

Staphylus  replied  as  follows  :  '  It  is  the  habit  of 
these  new  '  evangelicals  '  to  slander  their  antagonists 
so  shamelessly  that  many  people  would  rather  let  the 
truth  remain  suppressed  than  involve  themselves  in 
disputations  concerning  our  Catholic  faith  with  such 
loose  and  evasive  adversaries.'  In  reference  to  a  book 
directed  against  him  by  Andrea  he  asked  :  '  What  else 
does  this  Schmidl  do  in  this  book  but  rate,  abuse, 
revile,  and  slander  me  for  a  scoundrel,  a  traitor,  a  Judas 
Iscariot  ? '  'As  far  as  concerns  me  personally,'  he 
adds,  '  I  trust  to  God  Almighty  that  it  is  not  from  any 
fault  of  my  own,  but  only  on  account  of  our  Christian 
Catholic  religion,  that  I  have  to  endure  the  calumnies 
of  the  Lutheran  preachers.  For  verily  it  cannot  be 
alleged  against  me  with  any  foundation  that  I  have 
ever  committed   a   murder   or   a   theft,   or  any  other 

1  Wider  die  bosen  Sieben,  Bl.  SMS3,  T  P,  V  4b,  Y  2b,  F  4b,  L  3b. 

G  2 


84  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

criminal  action,  or  that  I  have  ever  done  injury  to  any 
one  in  his  office.'  l 

As  for  those  who  go  over  to  the  papacy,  wrote  the 
preacher  TJtzinger,  it  is  to  be  feared  of  such  persons, 
even  to  put  it  mildly,  that  there  is  no  '  sound  hair  '  in 
their  heads,  and  that  '  they  are  not  to  be  trusted  in 
the  very  slightest  degree.'  '  Anyone  who  so  wickedly 
deserts  his  God,  becomes  so  treacherous  and  faithless, 
cannot  possibly  ever  again  be  held  in  trust  and  respect 
by  men,  however  nearly  related  by  kindred  or  by  other 
obligations ; '  '  such  a  fellow  would  without  doubt  be 
capable  of  betraying  his  country,  and  no  roguery  or 
iniquity  would  be  too  great  for  him.'  2 

Consequently,  it  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
John  Fischart  should  impute  to  the  convert  James 
Rabe,  son  of  a  superintendent  o  Ulm,  the  most  scanda- 
lous crimes,3  and  that  it  should  be  '  known  on  the  most 
credible  authority  '  that  this  man,  as  well  as  the  convert 
Martin  Eisengrein,  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University  of 
Ingolstadt,  '  had  made  a  special  covenant  with  the 
devil  and  signed  it  with  their  own  blood.'  4 

James  Rabe  had  written  a  refutation  of  a  sermon  on 
bishops  which  John  Marbach  had  delivered  at  Stras- 
burg  and  had  had  printed,  and  he  had  denounced  this 
sermon  as  a  '  libellous  publication.'  He  said  that  its 
author,  the  Lutheran  Superintendent,  had  slandered 
persons  of  high  position  and  also  the  Catholic  Church, 
that  he  had  incensed  subjects  against  their  rulers, 
sheep  against  their  pastors,  and  that  he  was  just  such 

1  Nachdruck,  &c.  (1562),  Bl.  6-7,  8. 

2  Nothwendige  Er inner ung,  Bl.  F  3b-F  4. 

J  In  the  poem  '  Nachtrab  oder  Nebelkrah,'  &c.  in  Kurz,  i.  1-97. 
A  Die  rechte  Auslegung,  &c,  Bl.  43. 


POLEMICS   OF   RABE  85 

another  preacher  of  rebellion  as  Thomas  Miintzer.1 
Marbach  had  better  not  interfere  with  Catholic  matters 
if  he  only  wanted  to  calumniate  ;  let  him  look  first  of 
all  after  his  own  business  and  that  of  his  own  sect. 
He  was  pleased  to  attack  the  pomp  of  the  prelates, 
but  '  where  was  it  written  in  Holy  Scripture  that  an 
evangelical  superintendent  should  drive  about  with 
five,  six,  eighty  or  even  nine  horses,  that  he  should  dress 
in  Brunswick  plaited  coats,  that  he  should  have  one  or 
two  pistols  hanging  at  his  saddle,  or  stand  in  wattled 
boots  in  his  stirrups  ?  Where  also  is  it  written  that  an 
evangelical  overseer  is  to  act  as  judge,  that  he  is  to 
confiscate  convents  and  churches,  to  storm  them,  or  to 
shut  them  up  ?  That  he  is  to  go  about  dressed  in 
velvet  and  silk,  one  or  two  servants  following  him  ?  ' 2 
In  opposition  to  the  everlasting  slandering  of  the 
Catholic  clergy  Rabe  wrote  :  '  I  say  it  openly,  if  you 
want  to  find  anywhere  a  pack  of  low,  godless,  drunken 
fellows,  go  to  any  village  where  they  are  evangelical. 
There  you  will  see  what  sort  of  evangelical  cap-and-bell 
men  they  have  for  preachers,  what  nice,  regular  lives 
they  lead,  when  and  how  they  preach,  how  learned  they 
are  in  the  Scriptures,  and  so  forth.  If  you  want  draughts 
or  card-playing,  drinking,  wrestling,  harlots,  there  you 
will  be  abundantly  supplied.  There  are  very  few  of 
them — scarcely  two  people  among  fifty — who  have 
learnt  grammar  at  all  correctly,  still  less  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. At  the  best  they  are  nothing  more  than  prattlers 
and  babblers,  and  the  utmost  they  can  do  is  to  get  up 
into  the  pulpit  and  inveigh   against   Pope,   Emperor, 

1  Christliche  bescheidene  wohlgegrilndete  ablahnung  der  vermeinter 
Bishofspredigt  so  jilngst  .  .  .  den  26  Januar  dieses  laufenden  69.  Jahrs 
im  Miinster  zu  Strasburg  gehalten,  &c.  (Koln,  1570). 

2  Ablahnung,  Bl.  103. 


86  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

King,  princes,  and  lords.  And  then  they  are  praised 
up  as  excellent,  well-intentioned  preachers,  and  the 
Superintendent's  very  dear  little  chicks.'  '  If  you  call 
me  a  liar,  dear  Herr  Marbach,  I  will  forthwith  produce 
palpable  evidence — indeed,  I  will  mention  those  villages 
and  preachers  by  their  names — for  I  happen  to  have 
been  on  an  (official)  visitation  to  them.  What  I  saw 
there  that  was  good  it  is  not  my  business  to  relate 
here.' 1 

The  convert  Bartholomew  Kleindienst,  who  entered 
the  Dominican  Order  at  Augsburg  shortly  after  1550, 
published  an  '  Exhortation  to  the  beloved  Germans,' L> 
in  which  he  addressed  himself  chiefly  to  those  Christians 
'  who  were  weak  in  the  faith  or  else  erring  and  doubting, 
but  at  the  same  time  well-intentioned  at  heart.'  For 
had  he  not  learnt,  '  through  certain  experiences  he  had 
had,  that  there  were  many  people  to  be  found  among 
the  sectaries  and  elsewhere,  who  could  easily  be 
made  to  see  and  understand  by  what  a  thick,  coarse, 
gigantic  fool's  rope  Germany  had  for  the  last  thirty 
years  allowed  itself  to  be  led  and  dragged  about  by 
any  and  every  fool  ? '  In  this  compendious  pamphlet 
Kleindienst  inveighs  with  special  indignation  against 
the  calumnies  with  which  the  leaders  of  the  sects 
endeavoured  to  make  the  Catholics  hated  by  the  people. 
4  There  were  certain  of  them,'  he  writes,  '  who  were 
so  shameless  in  lying  that  they  dared — presumably 
against  their  own  consciences — to  persuade  the  poor 
people  into  believing  that  we  present-day  Catholics,  or 

1  Bl.  55a"b. 

2  Ein  recht  catholisch  und  evangelisch  Ermanung  an  seine  lieben  Teut- 
schen,  by  Dr.  Bartholomew  Kleindienst  of  St.  Annaberg,  Professor  of 
Holy  Scripture  (Dilingen,  1560).  For  later  editions  see  Paulus  in  the 
Hist.-polit.  Bl.  109  (1892),  493,  note  4. 


POLEMICS   OF   KLEINDIENST  87 

papists  as  they  call  us,  have  nothing  more  to  do  with 
Christ ;  that  we  pray  to  the  saints  as  though  they  were 
gods — yea,  verily,  that  we  look  upon  the  Pope  as  our 
God  ;  that  we  expect  to  wrest  heaven  from  God  by  our 
own  good  works  without  the  help  of  God's  grace,  that 
we  no  longer  believe  in  Holy  Scripture,  that  we  have 
no  genuine  Bible,  and  that,  if  we  had  one,  we  should 
not  be  able  to  read  it,  and  that  we  place  more  reliance 
on  consecrated  water  than  on  the  Blood  of  Christ. 
This  is  the  sort  of  abominable,  blasphemous  lies  that 
they  invent  against  us  without  end.  People  of  any 
sense  know,  moreover,  that  the  sectaries  excel  pre- 
eminently in  the  art  of  making  the  papacy  seem  an 
abomination  in  the  eyes  of  the  common  people  who 
else  would  be  quite  well-disposed  towards  it.'  The  full 
justice  of  this  complaint  is  proved  by  an  utterance  of 
Bucer,  who  in  1544  made  the  acknowledgment  that 
'  Our  party  has  got  to  such  a  pitch  of  wrangling  and 
quarrelling  that  in  certain  points  they  still  persist  daily 
in  accusing  the  opposite  party,  both  in  preaching  and 
writing,  of  things  which  they  repudiate,  and  which  we 
cannot  prove  that  they  hold.' 1 

The  travestied  versions  of  Catholic  doctrine  con- 
cocted by  the  heresiarchs  so  exasperated  Kleindienst 
that  he  declared,  '  I  call  God  in  heaven  to  witness,  on 
behalf  of  my  poor  soul,  that  if  such  things  were  not  a 
pack  of  outrageous,  abominable  lies,  but  were  really 
the  truth,  I  would  use  my  utmost  diligence  to  be  as 
hostile  to  the  Pope  and  the  papacy  as  Luther  was,  or 
as  no  devil  has  yet  been.  I  cannot  sufficiently  lament 
that  the  poor  simple  people  have  been  so  long  led  by  a 

1  Lenz,  Briefwechsel  Landgraf  Philipps  des  Grossmiitigen  von  Hessen 
mit  Bucer,  ii.  240  ;  cf.  Hist.-polit.  Bl.  109  (1892),  497. 


88  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

fool's  rope  and  have  been  so  piteously  deceived.  There 
is  no  doubt  whatever  that,  if  the  people  were  rightly 
informed  about  matters,  their  good  sense  and  feeling 
are  such  that  they  would  become  as  hostile  to  the 
sects  as  they  have  ever  been  to  the  papacy.' 

The  preachers'  fiercest  assailant  among  the  converts 
was  John  Nas,  who  wrote  several  pamphlets  against 
them.  And  he,  above  all  others,  was  denounced  by 
them  as  '  the  grossest  and  foulest  refuse  of  popish 
idolatry,  blasphemy,  and  soul-murdering  iniquity,' 
and  that,  as  they  gave  out,  with  all  the  more  reason 
because,  as  was  known  to  everybody,  he  managed 
to  get  a  very  extensive  sale  for  his  works  by  means  of 
diabolical  magic.  Many  of  his  writings  went  through 
three,  four,  and  five  editions.1 

John  Nas,2  of  Eltmann  in  East  Franconia,  was 
born  of  Catholic  parents,  but  during  his  wanderings 
as  a  tailor's  apprentice  he  went  over  to  Luther's  doc- 
trine. '  At  Nuremberg,  Ratisbon,  and  Augsburg,'  he 
wrote  later,  '  I  hungrily  devoured  the  so-called  Word 
of  God  according  to  its  interpretation  in  Luther's 
books.'  Often  on  Sundays  he  heard  as  many  as  four 
sermons  in  the  day,  and  he  says,  '  I  used  to  sing  the 
hymn  : 

Uphold  us,  Lord,  by  Thine  own  Word, 
And  slay  the  Pope  and  murderous  Turk, 

as  loud  as  any  man.' 

1  See  Schopf,  p.  73. 

2  With  the  careful  work  of  Schopf  compare  (now)  especially  Hirn,  i. 
235  ff.,  252-262.  See  also  Kross,  Der  set.  Petrus  Canisius  in  Osterreich 
(Vienna,  1898).  The  short  Latin  autobiography  of  Nas  has  lately  been 
published  by  J.  Zingerle  in  the  Zeitschrift  fur  deutsche  Philologie,  18  (Halle, 
1886),  p.  488  ff.  A  work  on  Nas  by  Bucer  will  shortly  appear  in  the 
Erliiuterungen  und  Erganzungen  zu  Janssens  Geschichte  des  deutschen 
Volkes. 


POLEMICS   OF   THE   CONVERT   JOHN   NAS  89 

The  invectives  of  the  preachers  had  made  such  an 
impression  on  him,  that  he  would  instantly  look  about 
for  stones  to  throw,  if,  after  hearing  one  of  such  sermons, 
he  chanced  to  meet  a  Catholic  priest  or  bishop.1  All 
his  life  long  he  could  not  shake  off  the  memory  of 
these  '  innumerable  scoundrelly  pulpit  vituperations,' 
and  it  '  went  to  his  heart  to  think  how  greatly  the  poor 
misguided  people  had  had  to  suffer  on  account  of  them.' 
Diligent  reading  of  the  '  Imitation  of  Christ '  awakened 
in  him  a  serious  state  of  mind  ;  2  he  joined  the  Catholic 
Church  again,  turned  his  back  upon  the  world,  and  in 
the  year  1552  entered  the  Franciscan  Order  at  Munich. 
At  first  he  still  carried  on  his  trade  in  the  monastery, 
and  afterwards,  too,  he  always  continued  to  hold  it  in 
esteem.  When  he  became  auxiliary  Bishop  of  Brixen 
he  added  the  tailor's  scissors  to  his  episcopal  arms.3 
After  he  had  applied  himself  to  learned  studies  the 
authorities  sent  him  to  Ingolstadt,  which  was  at  that 
time  the  centre  of  Catholic  learning  and  polemics  in 
South  Germany.  Under  the  guidance  of  the  Jesuits 
he  occupied  himself  with  the  Bible  and  the  Fathers, 
learned  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  tongues,  and  also  came 
forward  as  a  popular  preacher,  in  which  capacity 
he  gained  high  renown.  His  sermons  and  his  polemical 
writings  exhibit  him  as  a  man  of  great  power  of  lan- 
guage and  well  versed  in  national  lore  :  like  Geiler  and 
Luther,  he  dug  '  from  the  mines  of  the  people  ; '  but 
the  moderation  of  Geiler,  who  was  nothing  if  not  honest, 
he  by  no  means  displayed  in  all  his  writings.  To 
appear  as  a  controversial  writer  had  been  altogether 
foreign  to  his  intention  at  the  outset.  '  I  should 
have   liked   best,'    he   said,    '  to   have   devoted   myself 

1  Schopf,  pp.  6-7.  2  Nas,  Centuria  ii.  145.  3  Schopf,  pp.  8-9. 


90  HISTORY   OF    THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

entirely  to  instructing  the  people  in  the  Catholic  faith 
from  the  pulpit  and  through  the  education  of  the  young, 
and  to  have  ministered  to  them  in  the  confessional  and 
in  hospitals  ;  but  the  endless,  unmentionable  calumnies 
of  the  preachers  have  dragged  me  into  the  field,  and 
I  am  now  compelled  to  scourge  and  fight  them  with 
their  own  weapons,  and  to  answer ,  them  back  in  the 
language  which  they  themselves  use,  for  they  neither 
understand  nor  will  listen  to  any  other.'     He  did  not 
take  any  delight  in  his  pen-and-ink  campaign.     :  Who,' 
he  asks,  '  will  be  any  the  more  pious  for  reading  over 
and  over  again  of  other  people's  rascality  ?  '     '  It  is 
not  they  only  who  have  sinned  ;  we  are  all  alike  sinners, 
so  help  us,  God,  and  we  all  stand  in  extreme  need  of 
repentance   and   reform ;    therefore   it   would   be   best 
that  each  one  should  look  to  his  own  door  and  punish 
himself,  and  leave  other  people  alone  and  in  peace.' 
If  the  adversaries  would  also  see  things  in  this  light 
and  strive  after  Christian  peace  it  would  be  far  better, 
'  it    would    be    more    brotherly,   Christian,   and    evan- 
gelical to  bear  one  another's  burdens,  to  cover  each 
other's  weakness,   misery,   and   delinquencies,   to   care 
for  each  other's  interests  as  Germans  did  in  the  good 
old  days,  and  to  act  peaceably,  uprightly,  and  kindly 
towards  each  other  ;  this  would  be  much  better  than 
endless  quarrelling  and  scolding,  brawling,  and  fighting, 
without   any   improvement   on   either   side,    but   with 
great  detriment  to  our  German  reputation  for  upright- 
ness.' l     '  But  what  are  we  to  do  when,  day  after  day,  as 
we  may  truly  say,  fresh  libellous  writings  appear  and 
our  opponents  break  into  the  Catholic  fold  like  wolves 
and   devastate   the   vineyard   of   the   Lord,    upsetting 

1  Centuria  ii.  ;  Vorre.de,  Bl.  3-4. 


HOW    JOHN   NAS   BECAME   A   POLEMICAL   WRITER      91 

all  discipline  and  morality,  delighting  in  the  most 
indecent  language,  circulating  obscene  pictures  and 
paintings  ?  Should  we  remain  silent  at  such  a  time 
and  not  drive  off  the  wolves  ?  I  ask  anyone,  who 
would  assume  the  responsibility  of  such  a  course  ? 
All  their  sermons  are  permeated  with  abuse  against 
the  Catholics,  and  the  unhappy  creatures  imagine 
that  it  is  the  right  thing,  the  very  standard  of  earnest- 
ness and  zeal.' l 

His  first  incentive  to  appear  as  a  polemical  writer 
was  a  work  published  in  the  years  1562  and  1564  by 
Hieronymus  Rauscher,  court  preacher  to  the  Rhine 
Palatine,  with  a  dedication  to  Duke  Chistopher  of 
Wurtemberg,  and  entitled  '  Hundert  auserwahlte,  grosse, 
unverschamte,  feiste,  wohlgemastete,  erstunkene  papis- 
tische  Liigen.' 2 

Rauscher  had  collected  from  different  books  all 
manner  of  legends  and  marvellous  tales  on  the  basis 
of  which  he  had  represented  the  entire  papacy  as  a 
mass  of  idolatry  and  devilry.  For  the  last  forty  years, 
he  wrote,  the  papists  had  been  holding  all  sorts  of  secret 
meetings,  and  had  been  carrying  on  deceitful,  cunning 
intrigues  in  order  to  root  out  the  pure  doctrine  of  the 
Gospel  and  to  bring  everyone  back  under  the  godless 
yoke  of  popish  idolatry.  One  of  their  chief  assistants 
was  Frederic  Staphylus,  into  whom  the  devil  had 
entered  as  into  Judas  Iscariot.     This  man  was  serving 

1  Centuria  vi.  241a^b  ;  cf.  Centuria  v.  188b,  &c. 

2  '  Hundert  auserwelte,  grosse,  unverschempte,  feiste,  woMgemeste,  er- 
stunckene  papistische  Liigen,  which  far  exceed  all  other  fools'  lies,  such  as 
Eulenspiegel's,  Marcolphi's,  the  priest  Kalenberg's,  Fortunati's,  Rollwagen's, 
&c,  with  which  the  papists  defend  the  principal  articles  of  their  creed  (blind- 
ing the  poor  Christians  and  leading  them  into  the  pit  of  hell),  collected  from 
their  own  scribes,  and  with  special  reflections  attached  to  each  one,  1564.' 


92  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

the  devil  '  openly  against  his  own  conscience.'  He 
reviled  and  slandered  the  true  religion,  and  placed 
his  reliance  on  the  secular  lords  who  still  adhered  to 
the  accursed  papacy  ;  as  the  herald  of  the  devil  he 
was  going  to  organise  a  bloody  massacre.1 

'  The  prelates  of  the  papacy  are  the  devil's  servants, 
they  promote  and  extend  the  empire  of  the  devil.' 
'  The  Roman  Popes  live  like  monsters,  and  the  end 
of  it  is  that  they  are  now  going  to  the  devil ; '  '  in  short, 
the  devil  vomits  out  his  lies  into  the  world  through 
the  godless  papists  and  Mahometans,  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  world  is  by  this  means  being  dragged  down 
into  the  pit  of  hell.'  '  The  nunneries  are  public 
brothels  for  the  great  lords,  the  cathedral  priests,  and 
the  nobles  ;  '  '  the  devil  is  the  father  of  the  diabolical 
monks,  and  he  prompts  them  to  utter  all  sorts  of  lies  ; ' 
their  '  place  is  under  the  devil's  tail,  and  he  leads  them 
right  and  left,  he  rules  them,  and  will  finally  take  them 
into  his  kingdom  of  hell.'  The  legend  of  a  Franciscan 
brother  who  was  thrown  into  the  sea  by  sailors  but 
transplanted  thence  to  Paradise,  where  he  was  led 
about  by  Enoch  and  Elias,  after  which  he  reappeared 
on  board  the  ship,  was  altered  and  magnified  into 
the  following  account :  '  He  was  conducted  to  the  dark 
star  and  to  the  Venusberg  ;  there  he  beheld  the  back 
parts  of  Lucifer,  which  are  the  monk's  paradise,  but 
Enoch  and  Elias  had  nothing  to  do  with  this  arch-villain  ; 
Beelzebub,  Lucifer,  and  his  associates  sing  and  dance 
and  make  merry  in  hell  when  they  get  such  a  fellow 
among  them.'  2  Rauscher  heaped  special  obloquy  on 
St.  Francis  of  Assisi.  Report  said  that  this  saint 
had  pulled  off  his  nether  garments  before  his  death 

1    Vorrede.  2  Pp.  23,  63,  81,  83,  95,  172  ff. 


HOW   JOHN   NAS   BECAME   A   POLEMICAL   WRITER      93 

because  he  wanted  to  die  like  Christ,  and  Rauscher 
added  the  tale  that  it  was  '  his  custom  to  do  this  when 
he  was  alone  with  the  sisters  of  St.  Clara,  and  that 
the  nuns  were  obliged  to  take  off  their  veils  and  to  hang 
their  robes  on  the  clothes  line  and  to  pray  naked.' 

'  When  St.  Francis  died,  the  demons  held  carnival 
in  hell ;  Beelzebub,  Lucifer,  and  his  comrades  received 
him  into  their  kingdom  with  great  honours  as  a  faith- 
ful servant,  and  set  him  on  high  beside  the  devil's 
mother.  .  .  .  '  ] 

Rauscher  dedicated  this  work  to  Duke  Christopher 
of  Wurtemberg,  because  the  latter's  ardent  and  active 
love  of  the  true  and  alone-saving  religion  was  well 
known  to  everybody.2  '  The  dear  Christians '  were 
exhorted  to  consider  '  in  what  darkness  those  who 
adhered  to  the  papacy  were  still  sunk  at  the  present 
day,  and  how  abominably  they  were  deceived  every 
day  of  their  lives.'  For  they  were  obliged  to  accept 
all  these  lying  stories  as  truth,  and  whoever  dared 
to  speak  a  word  against  them  was  persecuted  with 
fire,  water,  and  hanging.3 

With  even  stronger  '  Christian  zeal '  did  the  Palatine 
court  preacher  express  himself  in  a  second  '  Centuria  ' 
which  he  dedicated  to  the  Margrave  George  Frederic 
of   Ansbach.     '  The  Babylonish   harlot   at   Rome,'    he 

1  P.  208  ff.  The  Catholic  worship  was  treated  in  like  manner,  for 
instance  :  '  The  sole  object  of  the  holy  water  and  the  consecration  of  the 
impious  priests  is  to  promote  the  kingdom  of  the  devil '  (p.  45)  ;  '  the 
newly  canonised  saints,  who  are  to  be  venerated  and  invoked,  have  many 
of  them  never  even  existed,  and  many  of  them  have  their  abode  with  Beelze- 
bub in  hell '  (p.  100)  ;  '  the  festival  of  Corpus  Christi  has  been  introduced 
into  the  papacy  in  order  to  make  people  stare  with  open  mouths  and 
swallow  mouse-dung  for  pepper  and  horse-droppings  for  figs  '  (p.  154), 
and  so  forth. 

2  Vorrede,  p.  19.  3  P.  210. 


94  HJCTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

informed  the  prince,  had  condemned  the  Word  of  God 
by  the  blasphemous  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent, 
and  was  determined  to  restore  all  the  old  idolatry 
and  blasphemy  in  Germany.  The  Catholic  Church  he 
pronounced  simply  to  be  '  the  devil's  bride,'  and  told 
his  readers,  among  other  monstrous  things,  that  '  to 
beget  illegitimate  children  is  no  sin  in  the  papacy, 
and  if  they  are  put  an  end  to  at  once,  and  the  matter 
hushed  up  and  confessed  to  the  priest,  all  is  forgiven.' 
'  If  you  have  to  live  under  papal  authority,  bethink 
you,'  he  warned  the  Catholics,  '  what  execrable  wolves 
and  soul-murderers  you  have  for  your  pastors  and 
preachers,  and  how  scandalously  they  deceive  you 
under  the  semblance  and  in  the  name  of  the  old  Chris- 
tian Catholic  Church,  to  which  indeed  they  do  not 
belong,  for  they  are  members  of  the  Church  of  Judas 
and  Cain.'  ] 

'  It  passes  all  credence,'  said  Nas,  '  that  these 
preaching  screech-owls  and  stormbirds  should  dare 
to  publish  all  this  abuse  and  calumny  under  the  name 
of  German  princes.'  '  The  ruling  authorities,  already 
heavily  burdened  with  other  business,  are  dragged 
into  quarrels  angi  complications,  the  common  people 
are  embittered  and  incensed  against  the  clergy,  and 
the  whole  world  is  thus  filled  with  strife,  wrangling, 
envy  and  hatred,  out  of  which  follow  war  and  devasta- 
tion of  land  and  people,  as  indeed  we  now  see  before 
our  very  eyes,  and  as  the  poor  misguided  masses  must 
recognise  to  their  great  sorrow.'  2 

Rauscher,  he  said,  had  aroused  him  from  inaction  3 

1  Centuria  secunda  das  andere  hundert  der  auserw'ihlten  &c.  papis- 
tischen  Liigen,  welche  alle  Narrenliigen  weit  iibertreffen,  Sec.  (1565),  Vorrede, 
A.  2  ff.,  J  3.  M  2. 

2  Centuria  3,   ;  Vorrede,  A  2b  ;  cf.  Centuria  v.  13.  3  Centuria  6,  28a. 


NAS   EXPLAINS   HIS    POLEMICS  95 

and  driven  him  to  take  up  his  pen  ;  but  Rauscher  was 
only  one  in  a  great  crowd  of  calumniators  who  were 
flooding  the  world  with  their  '  blasphemies,  scoffings, 
execrations,  against  all  the  saints  and  sacred  things 
of  God,  against  all  Christian  discipline  and  respectability, 
and  above  all  against  Mary  the  Mother  of  God  and 
against  the  body  ecclesiastic.'  l 

In  opposition  to  all  this  scurrilous  abuse  Nas  began 
by  publishing,  in  1565,  his  pamphlet  entitled  :  '  Das 
antipapistisch  Eins  und  hundert  auserlesener  gewisser 
evangelischer  Wahrheit,  bei  welcher,  als  bei  den  Friich- 
tein  der  Baum,  die  reine  Lehre  soil  und  muss  erkannt 
werden.'  2  The  most  prominent  Protestant  controversial 
theologians,  Tilmann  Hesshus,  Nicholas  Gallus,  Lucas 
Osiander,  Cyriacus  Spangenberg,3  Jacob  Andrea  and 
many  others  got  a  '  fine  wigging  '  in  this  pamphlet — 
that  is  to  say,  '  they  were  answered  back  in  their  own 
elegant  language  with  like  vigour  and  plain-speaking, 
so  that  they  might  be  brought  at  length  to  perceive, 
without  any  veiling  or  disguise,  what  sort  of  fruitage 
they  were,  and  what  had  grown  up  out  of  their 
dung-hills.  This  publication,  says  Nas,  set  the  whole 
'  Lutheran  swarm '  in  motion,  and  developed  into 
a  fierce  pen-and-ink  contest  which  dragged  on  till 
1568,  and  in  the  course  of  which  Nas  followed  up  his 
*  Eins  und  hundert '  with  five  other  '  Centuries,'  4 
The  more  acrimonious  the  attacks  became,  the  more 

1  Centuria  i.  ;   Vorrede. 

2  '  The  Antipapistic  One  Hundred  and  One  selected  certain  evangelical 
truths,  by  which,  as  the  tree  by  its  fruit,  the  pure  doctrine  is  to  be  known.' 

3  Rembe  has  lately  published  the  correspondence  (Briefwechsel)  of 
C.  Spangenberg  (Dresden,  1888)  ;  but  this  collection  of  letters  is  by  no 
means  complete  ;  cf.  Kawerau  in  the  Theol.  Lit.-Zeitung. 

4  For  the  full  title  of  the  Centuries  see  Schopf,  p.  73. 


96  HISTOKY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

rasping  was  Nas  in  his  answers,  yet  without  being 
able  to  come  near  his  adversaries  in  the  art  of  personal 
insults  and  vilification.  Lucas  Osiander  himself  alone 
brought  the  number  of  words  of  abuse  used  against 
Nas  up  to  72,  and  these  were  all  recapitulated  by  Nas 
for  his  readers  with  complete  accuracy.  l  Every  coarse 
word  of  abuse  which  he  had  used,  Nas  said,  he  could 
also  point  out  in  the  writings  of  Luther,  Spangenberg, 
Andrea,  Osiander,  Celestin,  Rauscher,  and  others.  '  It 
must  be  remembered  that  it  is  one  thing  to  instruct 
the  Catholics  and  another  to  make  a  defence  against 
apostates.  A  shepherd  must  behave  differently  to 
the  wolves  than  to  the  sheep.  In  my  sermons  and 
my  other  Catholic  writings  I  do  not  scold  and  revile 

1  Centuria  6,  243.  In  the  first  Centuria,  p.  144,  Nas  repeats  all  the 
numerous  terms  of  abuse  which  Cyriacus  Spangenberg  applied  to  the 
excellent  Bishop  of  Naumburg,  Julius  Pflug — a  smeared,  tonsured  stallion, 
an  old  wolf,  a  priest  of  Baal,  a  raging,  senseless,  roaring  fool,  a  devil,  and 
so  on.  This  was  what  the  preachers  were.  To  please  their  father  the 
devil,  they  so  often  write  down  his  name.  '  On  the  other  hand,  if  we 
dare  to  look  at  them  askance,  to  call  them  by  their  true  names,  and  to 
measure  them  with  the  same  measure  that  they  mete  out,  they  cannot 
endure  it.  If  anyone  says  that  Schmidel  (Jacob  Andrea)  has  a  torn  sleeve, 
he  instantly  cries  out  "  Murder !  Not  even  my  sleeves  will  they  leave 
alone  !  "  But  if  he  calls  Staphylus  a  mamaluke,  a  traitor  to  divine  truth,  a 
Judas  Iscariot,  a  villain,  it  is  all  perfectly  correct,  and  the  Holy  Scriptures 
confirm  it.  Indeed,  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  it  is  pious,  just,  and 
entirely  right ;  for  Christ  Himself,  they  say,  called  the  Pharisees  hypocrites, 
vipers,  and  other  bad  names.  George  Nigrinus  also  came  forward  '  man- 
fully.'    He  called  Nas  a  '  pig's  snout '  (a  play  on  the  word  Sau-Nase) : 

Deiner  Nasen  hein  Wilrz  gefallt, 

Denn  welche  einer  jeden  Sate  schmeckt. 

Die  Saunase  niclits  lisberes  reucht, 

Denn  tvas  hinten  aus  dem  Menschen  kreucht  .  .  . 

Nas  was  a  child  of  Satan,  and  the  Catholic  clergy  in  general  were  '  the 
whole  lot  of  them  wicked  rogues,'  '  epicurean  swine  ; '  '  they  hate  and  flee 
from  the  cross  like  Satan  himself,'  and  so  on.  Vom  Bruder  Nasen  Esel, 
B  3a.  Willkomm  und  Abdank  der  Antigratulation  Johann  Nasen,  C  2-3, 
F3-9. 


NAS   EXPLAINS   HIS  POLEMICS  97 

or  indulge  in  words  of  abuse,  and  for  this  reason,  that 
I  am  not  dealing  with  wolves  but  with  sheep.  But 
in  my  controversial  writings,  if  it  is  not  always  "  Dear 
child  "  and  so  on,  if  there  are  ugly  spots  and  patches 
as  well,  it  is,'  he  repeated  again  and  again,  '  because 
I  have  to  do  with  people  who  understand  no  other 
kind  of  language.'  '  The  poor,  misled  Protestant 
people  were  not  to  blame,  they  were  only  to  be  pitied  ; 
on  the  other  hand,  the  preachers  who  were  the  misleaders 
and  blasphemers  must  in  no  way  be  spared.  The 
manner  of  his  campaign  against  them  is  exemplified 
in  the  following  words  :  '  I  seldom  pass  through  an 
evangelical  hamlet  without  hearing  the  cry  of  terror, 
"  Wolf,  wolf."  These  wolves  are  the  murderers  of  souls, 
the  villagers'  own  preachers,  who  are  so  plentiful  that 
scarcely  anyone  can  escape  from  the  vermin.  For 
wherever  they  nest  they  multiply  like  fleas.  For  the 
rest  there  is  everywhere  a  great  lack  of  sound  preach- 
ing, but  in  all  directions  there  are  swarms  of  insipid 
shoemakers  and  tailors,  hangmen,  bailiffs,  women 
and  landsknechts  who  are  quite  fit  to  preach,  accord- 
ing to  the  saying  of  Scripture  :  "  And  these  shall  be  like 
people,  like  priests." 

'And  whereas  they  have  now  dissipated  the  goods 
of  the  Church,  they  perpetrate  one  abomination  after 
another,  and  they  build  more  customs  houses  than 
churches ;  yea,  verily,  in  their  evangelical  fashion 
they  turn  churches  into  thieves'  caverns,  toll-houses, 
and  dens  of  murderers,  of  which  I  shall  gladly  give  a 
number  of  instances  in  case  anyone  should  doubt 
what  I  say.'  2 

Because  Luther  was  the  father  of  all  the  '  calumni- 

1  Schopf,  p.  11.  ~  Centuria  iv.  309. 

VOL.   X.  H 


98  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

ating,  cursing  preachers,  who  had  learnt  all  their  terms 
of  abuse  from  him,'  he  must  undergo  '  special  expia- 
tion.' Luther  had  proclaimed  the  papacy  to  be  an 
institution  of  the  devil,  and  in  revenge  for  this  Nas 
published  an  '  Anatomy  des  ganzen  Luthertums  vom 
Teufel  gestiftet.' 

He  quoted  quantities  of  Luther's  sayings  in  proof 
that  the  latter  was  '  a  low,  indecent  fellow  and  a  swinish 
preacher  :  '  he  called  him  '  the  devil's  piper  and  lute- 
player.'  '  I  often  wonder,'  he  said,  '  whether  Luther 
was  not  the  veritable  son  of  corruption,  the  Antichrist.'  l 
In  the  fourth  '  Centuria  '  '  the  miserable  Lutheranism 
was  dissected  to  such  an  extent  that  it  presented 
a  perfect  Pantheon  of  all  sorts  of  evil  fruits — several 
hundreds  at  least — of  the  accursed  evangelical  fig- 
tree.'  The  fifth  was  '  a  careful  record  of  the  whole 
biography  from  birth  to  death  of  the  saintly  man, 
Dr.  Martin  Luther,  written  down  in  order  that  the 
fruits  of  the  doctrine  might  be  unmistakably  seen 
in  the  "  tree  "  of  the  teacher.'  Nas  acknowledged  that 
he  had  '  written  in  scathing  language  against  the  dead 
Luther  ; '  but  the  opponents,  while  loading  Luther  with 
immoderate  praise  as  a  saint  more  exalted  even  than 
Paul  and  John  the  Baptist,  far  exceeded  him  (Nas)  in 
coarse  '  slanders,  curses,  and  abuse  against  the  saints 
of  God.'  2  He  cited  horrible  instances  in  proof  of  this : 
the  Holy  Virgin  herself  was  described  in  language  '  too 
dreadful  to  repeat.'  3 

Nas  could  also  point  to  the  poet  John  Fischart 
as  a  '  shameless  calumniator  of  the  saints.'  This  man 
had  endeavoured,  in  two  satirical  poems  directed  against 

1  Centuria  v.  266-267,  292,  495.  2  Cf.  Schopf,  pp.  19-26. 

3  Centuria  vi.  205a. 


NAS   AND   HIS   OPPONENTS  99 

Nas,  to  drag  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  and  St.  Dominic  in. 
the  mud. 

In  the  first  poem,  '  Der  Barfiisser  Sekten  und  Kutten- 
streit,'  l  Fischart  compared  St.  Francis  to  Mahommed  ; 
as  the  latter  was  worshipped  by  the  Turks,  so  was  St. 
Francis  by  the  monks.2  When  St.  Catharine  observed 
and  heard 

How  greatly  Francis  was  adored 

On  account  of  his  five  wounds,  great  and  bleeding, 

Which  he  had  probably  scratched  himself, 

She,  too,  thought  of  a  cunning  trick, 

And  inflicted  five  wounds  on  herself, 

And  said  that  when  she  was  in  a  trance 

Mary  had  wounded  her  thus, 

But  that  Francis  had  himself  made  his  wounds, 

And  had  bound  them  up  himself. 

Hereby  she  did  the  poor  man  great  harm, 

For  she  herself,  without  any  shame, 

At  once  gained  a  great  following 

Of  preachers,  monks,  and  agitators, 

Who  all  ridiculed  St.  Francis 

And  praised  their  Catharine  instead. 

Who  will  settle  this  question  of  the  wounds  ?  3 

Through  the  wranglings  of  the  different  parties 
of  one  and  the  same  monastic  Order,  Francis 

Was  daily  and  hourly 
Stigmatised  and  more  deeply  wounded  ; 
Although  he  already  had  five  wounds 
Which  made  him  weak  enough, 
His  friars'  band  devoutly  wished 
To  cause  him  still  more  martyrdom.4 

A  second  pamphlet  bore  the  title  :  '  Von  S.  Domi- 
nici,  des  Predigermiinchs,  und  S.  Francisci  Barfussers, 
artlichem  Leben  und  grossen  Greueln,  dem  grauen 
Bettelmonch  F.  J.  Nasen  zu  Ingelstat   dediciert,  dass 

1  In  Kurz,  i.  101-120.  ~  Verse  19  ff. 

3  Verse  225  ff.  *  Verse  99  ff. 

ii  2 


100  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

er  sich  darinnen  seiner  unverschamten  Lasterungen  und 
Beiwohnung  der  Teufel  bei  den  Miinchen  (welches  die 
Nas  D.  Lnthern  Seliger  aufzudrehen  begeret)  zu  erinnern 
und  zu  ersehen  hab.' x 

Even  in  his  '  Flohhaz,  Weibertrutz  '  he  made  game 
of  St.  Francis : 

...  It  is  told  in  the  legend  of  St.  Francis 

That  the  pious  man  always  called 

The  flea  and  the  louse  his  monastic  brothers, 

And  commanded  that  each  member  of  the  order 

Should  refrain  from  shedding  his  brother's  blood, 

And  therefore  none  of  them  must  kill  a  flea  or  a  louse. 

'  There  is  nothing  so  true,'  says  Fischart  in  another 
place,  '  as  that  the  cowl,  the  frock,  and  the  priest's  long 
coat  have  drawn  down  all  the  shame  and  curses  of  the 
whole  world.  And  the  explanation  of  this  is  that  they 
eat  the  dirt  of  the  world — that  is  to  say,  they  swallow 
its  sins,  and  therefore  they  are  consigned  like  chimney- 
sweeps and  nightmen  to  their  secret  apartments  .  .  . 
which  are  their  cloisters  and  convents,  so  that  they 
may  be  cut  off  from  all  political  fellowship,  like  the 
CI  ...  in  houses  and  the  brothels  in  towns.'  2 

Compared  with  such  abuse  as  this,  the  language 
which  Nas  made  use  of  might  pass  as  respectable. 
If  Fischart  and  his  brother-in-arms  Nigrinus  ridiculed 
the  quarrels — petty  and  unworthy  enough — going  on 
between  different  monastic  orders,  they  did  not  thereby 
by  any  means  '  refute  the  attacks  which  Nas  made  on 

1  Kurz,  i.  121-252.  '  The  peculiar  life  and  great  abominations  of  the 
Friar-Preacher  St.  Dominic,  and  of  St.  Francis  the  Barefoot,  dedicated  to 
the  gray  mendicant  friar,  F.  J.  Nas,  of  Ingolstadt,  in  order  to  place  before 
his  eyes  and  mind  his  shameless  blasphemies,  and  the  cohabitation  of 
devils  with  monks  (which  Nose  [Nas]  attempted  to  palm  off  on  the  late 
Dr.  Luther).' 

2  Geschichtklitterung,  pp.  479  ,483. 


NAS   ON   SECTARIAN   DISCORD  101 

the  numerous  sects  and  parties  into  which  Protestantism 
was  split  up,  and  which  were  at  war  together  concern- 
ing the  most  important  points  of  faith,  and  mutually 
accused  and  condemned  each  other.'  Everything  in 
Germany,  Nas  said,  was  bound  to  fall  out  of  gear, 
because,  outside  the  Catholic  Church,  there  was  no 
stability  in  religious  ordinances,  but  only  constant 
innovation  and  increasing  bitterness  and  strife.  '  It 
is  a  disgrace  before  all  nations,'  he  wrote  in  the  year 
1581,  '  that  we  Germans  should  thus  curse  and  swear 
at  each  other  like  troopers.  Such  princes  and  lords 
are  a  mere  laughing-stock,  for  the  longer  they  live  the 
more  unstable  they  become,  they  make  fresh  church 
ordinances  every  year,  and  they,  the  secular  lords, 
impose  them  on  their  clergy,  the  sheep  on  their 
shepherds,  and  everything  is  declared  to  come  out  of 
the  Word  of  God.  For  a  long  time  they  were  on  good 
terms  with  the  Calvinists  in  France,  England,  and  the 
Netherlands ;  they  praised  them  up  and  placed  life 
and  property  at  their  disposal ;  now  they  condemn 
them  as  strongly  as  the  papacy  !  '  l  Each  sect  insisted 
that  it  alone  was  right  and  tried  to  suppress  all  the 
others.  '  It  is  very  distressing  to  simple-minded  people 
to  hear  each  separate  sect  and  faction  declaring  that 
in  its  fold  alone  is  Christ  to  be  found.  The  Flacians 
proclaim  that  the  whole  world  is  in  error  with  the 
exception  of  themselves.  The  Adiaphorists  say  that 
the  Flacians  lie,  but  they  themselves  lie  just  as  much, 
for  they  declare  that  the  Church  is  nowhere  but  in  their 
midst ;  the  Schwenkfeldians  say  that  it  is  with  them ; 
the  Anabaptists  say  that  all  the  world  has  apostatised 
from  God  and  gone  astray,  and  that  they  alone  have 

1  Examen  Concordiae  (1581),  pp.  403-404. 


t 

102  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

remained  in  the  true  Church.  Each  separate  sect 
sings  this  same  song  concerning  itself.  But  this  is 
no  new  cry  of  to-day,  for  it  has  been  learnt  from  the 
old  heretics,  especially  the  Donatists  and  the  Cathari.'  1 
Only  in  hatred  against  the  Catholic  Church  are  they 
all  one,  and  the  deluded,  misled  people  are  stirred  up 
by  the  preachers,  especially  against  the  priests  and 
Orders.  '  Just  think  of  the  insolent,  unseemly  manner 
in  which  the  commoner  sort  among  the  evangelicals 
have  learnt  from  preachers  to  judge  and  condemn  the 
monks  ;  the  instant  they  catch  sight  of  a  cowl  they 
scream  out  "  murder,  wolf,  wolf,  scoundrel,  thief, 
demon,"  and  so  forth.  They  behave  like  this  to  people 
with  whom  they  have  never  exchanged  a  word  all  their 
lives,  and  who  have  never  done  them  any  harm.  No- 
body can  repeat  all  the  terms  of  opprobrium  and 
mockery  which  they  have  at  their  fingers'  ends.'  2 

Nas  produced  evidence  from  numbers  of  Protestant 
writings  to  show  that  since  the  advent  of  the  new 
Gospel  morality  and  respectability  had  disappeared 
and  the  people  had  become  rough,  savage,  and  un- 
civilised. The  actual  root  of  the  evil,  he  explained, 
lay  in  the  fundamental  principle  of  Protestant  doctrine 
that  faith  alone  justified  men,  and  that  good  works 
were  not  necessary  to  salvation.  Through  the  spread 
of  this  doctrine,  which  destroyed  all  active  Christian 
life  and  put  a  stop  to  all  works  of  benevolence,  Germany 
had  been  altogether  led  astray.  While  the  preachers 
were  denouncing  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  good  works 
as  an  invention  of  the  devil  and  an  outgrowth  of  hell, 
Nas,  in  1588,  expressed  himself  as  follows  concerning 
t  only  believing.'     '  In  like  manner  as  the  Turks  have 

1  Centuria  Hi.  63.  2  Centuria  ii.  4o. 


NAS   ON    '  FAITH   ONLY  '  103 

made  for  themselves  out  of  the  true  God  a  Turkish 
and  a  sham  god,  so  these  ministers  of  the  Word,  with 
their  false  devil's  notions  and  "  only  believe,"  have 
made  out  of  the  true  Christ  a  pseudo-Christ,  who  is 
of  no  use  to  us,  who  wears  the  devil's  mantle  and  is 
subject  to  his  will,  who  only  tenders  the  devil's  chalice 
and  lying  bread ;  wherefore  they,  like  him,  are  inclined 
to  lying  and  murdering.'  * 

'  Oh,  my  beloved  German  Fatherland  !  those  who  tell 
tjiee  that  thou  art  saved  through  faith  alone  upraised 
to  heaven,  are  misleading  thee  as  surely  as  God  lives 
and  reigns.  They  are  all  misleading  thee,  all  of  them 
who  sanctifv,  comfort,  and  allure  thee  in  this  wise, 
and  assure  thee  of  salvation.  Their  fruits  are  murder, 
robbery,  lying,  deceit,  gluttony  and  drunkenness, 
incest  and  villainy,  which  they  practise  without  fear. 
For  faith  alone,  they  say,  justifies  everything,  so  that 
no  sin  is  hurtful,  while  good  works  are  detrimental 
to  salvation.2  When  anyone  forsakes  us,  becomes  a 
rogue  and  criminal,  robs  another  of  his  wife  or  property, 
he  runs  off  to  the  evangelicals,  and  he  is  straightway 
an  honourable  upright  man.  They  have  nothing  else, 
therefore  they  boast  of  their  "  faith  alone,"  and  would 
to  God  they  did  nothing  but  believe.  But  alas  for  faith 
alone  !  They  commit  and  indulge  in  all  sorts  of  iniqui- 
ties— war,  devastation,  uproar,  plunder  of  churches, 
bloodshed,  without  intermission.'  3 

'  Oh,  Germany !  thou  the  beloved  of  my  heart,  my 
noble  Fatherland,  canst  thou  not  yet  understand, 
what  nevertheless  is  so  clumsily  concocted  that  even 

1  Angelas  paraeneticus,  der  Manungsengel  (1588),  p.  173. 

3  P.  171  ;  cf.  Schopf,  pp.  65-66. 

3  Praeludium  in  centurias  hominum  sola  fide  perditorum  (1588),  ii.  3. 


104  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

blind  Jews,  Turks,  and  infidels  see  through  it,  and  mock 
at  thee,  or  are  the  shame  and  ridicule  not  written 
largely  enough  for  thee  to  read  and  be  enlightened  ? 
Ah  me  !  wilt  thou  not  soon  bestir  thyself  ?  Wilt  thou 
not  soon  repent  thee  and  forsake  the  milksops,  the 
"  sugar-preachers  "  and  ministers  of  the  Word,  who  deal 
out  sweet  words,  who  slip  a  silken  cord  into  thy  mouth 
to  lead  thee — wilt  thou  not  forsake  them  and  drive 
them  off  to  the  devil  ?  '  1 

In  the  midst  of  life  we  all 

By  death  are  compassed  round  ; 
Whom  shall  we  seek,  upon  whom  call, 

That  grace  by  us  be  found  ? 
On  Thee,  O  Lord,  alone. 

We  are  oppressed  with  our  sins'  yoke — 
The  sins  which  God's  wrath  did  provoke. 

Oh,  holy  Lord  our  God, 

Oh,  holy,  strong  Lord  God, 

Holy  Saviour  merciful, 
Thou  eternal  God, 

Let  us  not  be  led  astray 

To  the  heretics'  perdition — 

Help  us  in  our  dire  condition. - 

Again  and  again  Nas  returned  to  this  same  point : 
'  Because  the  new  faith  is  so  powerful  that  in  itself 
alone  it  is  sufficient  for  salvation,  all  works  of  benevolence 
have  ceased.  When  were  there  ever  so  many  poor 
people  in  the  land  as  are  to  be  found  nowadays  ?  When 
were  the  hospitals  so  poor  as  at  the  present  day  ?  What 
numbers  of  convents  have  been  confiscated  under 
pretence  of  endowing  the  hospitals  :  but  these  have 
never  been  so  deeply  in  debt  as  they  are  now.  What 
has  become  of  the  revenues  of  the  schools  ?  How  many 
poor  people  have  been  fed  by  the  convents  ? '  3 

1  Wider  einwarnung  (1577),  p.  238.     See  Schopf,  p.  58. 
2  Schopf,  p.  68.  3  Sechs  Hauspredigten,  p.  242b. 


POLEMICS   BETWEEN   NAS   AND   EITTEH  105 

A  quarrel  which  arose  between  Nas  and  Matthias 
Bitter,  preacher  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  is  highly 
significant  as  illustrating  the  tone  and  manner  of  the 
polemics  of  the  period.  Nas  had  said  in  his  fourth 
'  Centuria,'  if  among  the  Catholics  also  '  the  mothers 
and  sisters  are  more  conspicuous  for  chatter  than  for 
piety,'  the  evangelical  women  are  still  more '  inveterate 
gossips,'  especially  in  matters  of  religion  and  of  the 
Divine  Word ;  they  disregard  St.  Paul's  prohibition 
and  his  command  that  they  '  should  learn  from  their 
husbands.'  '  They  chatter  and  babble  like  geese  in 
a  stream,  and  oftentimes  mislead  upright  men,  after 
the  example  of  their  Mother  Eve  and  King  Solomon's 
concubines.  When  Eve  listened  to  the  first  preacher 
who  absolved  her  from  fasting,  this  was  the  first 
manifestation  of  the  devil  in  the  form  of  a  serpent, 
and  Eve  forthwith  led  the  man  astray,  as  Delilah 
did  Samson ;  Summa  Summarum  :  Omnis  Lutherana 
meretrix?  1 

In  answer  to  this  Eitter  published  a  '  Dialogus  das 
ist  ein  Gesprach  von  den  ehrriihrigen  und  lasterlichen 
Urteil  Bruder  Johann  Nasen  zu  Ingolstadt,  dass  alle 
Lutherischen  Weiber  Huren  seien.'  2  Nas,  he  said,  was 
'  an  outrageous  blasphemer,  altogether  resembling  the 
first  pulpit-screecher  in  the  Garden  of  Eden  ; '  for  he 
travestied  and  perverted  God's  Word,  no  less  than  did 
the  devil,  when  he  said  that  '  the  Lutheran  women 
were  harlots  because  they  talked  about  the  Word  of 
God.'  '  What  has  God  to  do  with  whoredom  ?  Does  he 
want  to  make  God  out  to  be  a  keeper  of  harlots  ?     It 

1  Centuria  iv.  258b. 

2  '  A  Dialogue  on  Friar  John  Nasen's  slander,  that  all  Lutheran  women 
be  whores.' 


106  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

is  enough  to  curdle  one's  heart  with  horror  only  to 
think  of  such  utterances.'  l  Moreover,  Nas  had  de- 
clared that  '  not  only  a  few,  or  a  number  of  Lutheran 
women  were  whores,  but  all  of  them,  not  excepting  the 
Lutheran  queens,  electresses,  princesses,  and  others 
of  high  positions  and  belonging  to  the  nobility.  No  life 
is  more  abject  and  devilish  than  that  of  whores;  yet, 
according  to  Friar  Nas,  the  world  must  be  told  that 
such  is  the  life  of  all  Lutheran  women,  of  high  or  low 
degree.  And  note  here  a  very  masterpiece  of  popish 
revengefulness. 

'  Of  us  men  he  does  not  say  that  we  are  whoremongers, 
bat  he  fastens  this  infamy  on  our  wives  in  order  at 
the  same  time  to  cover  us  and  our  children  with  shame. 
For  if  the  wives  are  harlots  and  the  husbands  tolerate 
it,  they  too  are  disreputable  men,  and  the  children  are 
bastards.  Who  under  such  circumstances  will  want 
to  marry  our  daughters  ?  What  guild  or  honourable 
company  will  be  willing  to  admit  us  or  our  children  ?  ' 
Lutheran  princes,  or  the  children  of  Lutheran  princes, 
would  not  be  able  to  sit  at  the  Diets,  or  to  come  into 
their  heritages.  Nas  relegated  all  of  them  to  the  hangman 
and  the  brothel-keeper.  '  On  the  other  hand,  the  papists 
alone  would  be  able  to  bear  high  and  honourable  names 
and  titles,  to  conduct  the  government,  to  be  lords  of 
the  world,  to  carry  on  honourable  trades,  and  to 
maintain  civil  right  and  order.  In  short,  they  alone 
will  be  regarded  as  real  people,  their  concubines  will 
take  precedence  over  our  princesses,  the  priests'  bas- 
tards will  be  set  up  above  the  children  of  our  princes, 
and  it  will  be  woe  to  him  who  shall  think  anything 
discreditable  about  them  :  away  with  such  a  one  to  the 

1  Dialogus,  Bl.  22. 


POLEMICS   BETWEEN   NAS   AND   PJTTER  107 

stake  or  the  gallows  ! '  This  was  what  Brother  Nas 
was  doing  with  the  '  bloodthirsty,  devilish  blasphemy  ' 
contained  in  his  three  words.1 

Nas  entered  the  lists  against  Hitter's  '  Dialogus ' 
with  a  fresh  pamphlet  which  surpassed  all  his  former 
ones  in  virulent  attacks  on  the  '  pulpit-screechers.'  2 

'  It  is  seen  and  realised  better  and  better,  as  time 
goes  on,  that  the  preachers  of  Lutherdom  are  altogether 
blind,  raving,  and  diabolical ;  for,  like  the  devil  himself, 
they  are  immoderately  bent  on  seeking  out  cause  for 
vengeance.' 

'  They  are  aiming  at  my  life  with  all  sorts  of  intrigues, 
open  and  secret ;  they  are  stirring  up  against  me — 
for  such  is  their  power — many  famous  towns  and  estates, 
and  many  of  these  have  gone  so  far  as  actually  to  place 
me  under  the  ban,  although  they  do  not  all  of  them 
read  my  books,  but  only  believe  on  hearsay  all  that 
their  preachers  tell  them  in  the  pulpit  and  at  meals.' 
One  favourite  dodge  of  the  preachers,  he  said,  was  to 
befool  prying,  inquisitive  women — '  to  declare  in  their 
presence  that  I  had  denounced  them  one  and  all,  women 
of  rank  and  distinction  as  well  as  others,  as  harlots, 
and  had  made  this  statement  publicly  in  print.  That 
is  what  they  publish  in  print,  send  to  ladies  of  high 
rank  as  a  "  Beutpfennig,"  sing  and  proclaim  in  the  streets : 
all  Lutheran  women  are  whores  !  In  none  of  my  books, 
however,  is  there  to  be  found  such  "  a  slanderous 
calumny."  '  '  Why,'  he  asks  Hitter,  '  did  you  not  quote 
the  full  passage  with  the  context  as  it  stands  at  p.  372 
of  the  fourth  "  Centuria  "  ?    There  it  is  clearly  aimed  at 

1  Dialogus,  Bl.    22   ff.  ;   cf.    H.    Echartus,  Papa  pharisaizanus  (Jena, 
1605),  p.  444. 

2  O.  Asinus  Nasi  Battimontanus,  das  ist  ein  Bericht  von  Fratris  Joannis 
Nasen  Esel,  auch  von  des  Esels  rechtem  Titel  G.  N.  B.  (Ingolstadt,  1571). 


108  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  pulpit-screechers.  Is  not  that  fine  evangelical 
truth  ?  Forsooth,  all  Lutheran  women  ought  to  rise 
up  against  their  pulpit-screechers,  abuse  them  soundly 
and  publicly  for  having,  through  their  whoring  with 
nunnery  refuse,  brought  upon  them  all  the  accusation 
of  being  whores.'  T 

In  a  pamphlet  published  two  years  before  the 
appearance  of  the  fourth  '  Centuria  '  Nas  had  gone  to  the 
length  of  saying,  concerning  the  marriage  of  persons 
outside  the  fold  of  the  Church :  '  If  they  consider 
the  ceremony  a  sacrament  we  cannot  agree  that  it  is  so 
any  more  than  a  Mahommedan  marriage  is  one.  No, 
dear  Christian  friend,  outside  the  Church  marriage  is 
no  sacrament.'  Nevertheless,  he  allowed  the  conjugal 
union  of  heretics  to  be  marriages.  '  It  is  certainly 
a  conjugal  state,'  he  said,  '  but  no  sacrament.'  But, 
as  regards  the  apostate  priests  and  monks,  he  declared 
that  the  marriage  of  such  persons  was  '  nothing  more 
than  accursed  wickedness,  disguised  under  the  name 
of  marriage.'  2 

It  was  against  apostates  of  this  sort  and  their 
wives,  for  the  most  part  former  nuns,  Nas  said,  that 
his  attacks  were  chiefly  directed.  '  Not  only  have  I 
not  condemned  all  evangelical  women  wholesale,  any 
more  than  I  have  included  Jewesses  and  pagan  women 
in  so  comprehensive  a  verdict,  but  I  have  been  far  more 
restricted  in  my  attacks  on  the  honour  of  Lutheran 
women  than  have  their  own  preachers.  Yea,  verily, 
if  the  poor  deceived  Lutheran  women  were  as  little 
impugned  in  their  honour  by  their  own  pulpit-screechers 
as  they  have  been  by  me,  they  would  be,  without  a  doubt, 
much    more    respectable    than    this    women-rider    has 

1  Bl.  39c-43.  ~  Drei  geschriftfeste  Predigten  (1566),  Bl.  34-35. 


P0LEMICS   BETWEEN   NAS   AND   HITTER  109 

shown  them  to  be  by  his  actions,  his  teachings,  and  his 
writings.  '  1 

Hitter  had  also  invented  and  said  that  '  I  had 
called  the  Lutheran  women  drag-nets  for  no  other 
reason  than  that  they  talk  about  the  Word  of  God 
and  discuss  religious  questions.  To  which  I  answer 
that  everyone  can  see  from  this  that  this  knight 
(Bitter)  himself  had  clearly  perceived  that  I  had  made 
no  attack  on  the  bodily  honour  of  the  Lutheran  women, 
but  that  I  was  speaking  figuratively  and  of  spiritual 
matters.  Nevertheless,  he  sets  up  a  gross  carnal  scandal, 
as  if  I  had  called  them  harlots  in  a  carnal  sense.  Herein 
is  seen  his  malicious  forgery.  For  I  do  not  admit  that 
I  called  them  adulteresses  on  account  of  the  Word  of 
God,  but  on  account  of  irreligion  and  Luther's  or 
Lucifer's  word  and  soul  murder,  of  which  things  they 
are  sent  to  dispute,  as  also  was  Eve.'  All  heresy  is 
spiritual  adultery,  and  by  his  words  '  Omnis  Lutherana 
meretrix  '  he  had  only  meant  that  '  the  whole  of  Luther- 
dom,  instituted  by  the  devil,  had  committed  adultery 
against  God.' 2 

But  Nas  in  his  fourth  '  Centuria  '  had  made  one  far 
more  poignant  statement,  in  respect  of  which  there 
was  no  need  for  him  to  defend  himself  against  Bitter, 
for  the  reason  that  Bitter  had  not  alluded  to  it.  Bitter 
had  either  not  read  the  book  thoroughly  or  else  he 
had  purposely  passed  over  the  statement  in  question, 
in  order  to  lay  more  stress  on  his  contention  that  Nas 
had  called  all  Lutheran  women  whores  because  they 
occupied  themselves  with  the  Word  of  God. 

This  statement,  however,  to  which  Nas  himself 
drew  his  opponent's  attention,  was  as  follows  :  '  The 

1  G.  Asinus,  Bl.  45.  2  G.  Asinus,  Bl.  60-61  ;  Bl.  48. 


110  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

proceedings  of  the  preachers  are  chiefly  made  up  of 
sheer  roguery  and  mutiny.'  '  The  stock  of  harlots  is 
beyond  reckoning,  so  numerous  are  they  ;  for  it  is 
certainly  probable  quod  omnis  Lutherana  sit  meretrix, 
that  they  are  all  adulteresses  or  born  in  adultery ' — 
here  there  is  a  marginal  note  :  '  heretics  are  the  adul- 
terous generation  ' — '  and  as  this  is  incontrovertible 
in  a  spiritual  sense,  so  also  is  it  in  a  carnal  one,  for  I 
have  already  shown  that  every  woman  who  does  not 
violate  her  marriage  vows  is  considered  guilty  of  pride 
by  the  evangelical  preachers.'  l 

What  he  had  '  disclosed  '  about  the  preachers  was 
as  follows  :  '  What  can  I  say  about  their  false  "  wonder- 
works," which  are  nothing  but  deception,  through 
which  the  evangelical  Hetzer  brought  twenty-four 
married  women  to  ruin  ?  This  is  the  way  he  proceeded. 
Whenever  a  beautiful  woman  came  to  see  him,  after 
talking  to  her  about  her  interest  in  the  evangel  and 
her  desire  to  partake  of  the  Eucharist  in  both  forms, 
according  to  the  Lord's  institution,  he  would  say  to 
her,  "  Dear  lady,  you  are  on  the  right  road,  but  there 
is  one  thing  wanting  in  you  ;  you  have  in  you  a  kind 
of  pride  which  you  must  get  rid  of  if  you  wish  to  become 
perfect,  and  it  is  this  :  you  have  not  yet  broken  your 
marriage  vow,  and  for  this  reason  you  have  a  sense 
of  superiority  over  other  women  ;  but  this  is  of  the 
devil ;  and  therefore,  if  you  wish  to  become  perfect, 
you  must  put  away  this  pride,  &c."  In  confirmation 
of  this  Nas  referred,  in  the  margin,  to  Luther's  '  Table- 
talk,'  edited  by  '  Aurifaber,'  p.  459,  and  added :  '  These 
are  Luther's  own  words,  according  to  Aurifaber.'  2  This, 
of    course,    would    make    all    readers   who    were    not 

1  Centuria  iv.  372b,  373.  2  Centuria  iv.  369. 


POLEMICS  CONCERNING  LUTHER        111 

acquainted  with  the  '  Table-talk,'  and  who  did  not  take 
the  trouble  to  refer  to  it,  and  who  did  not  know  who 
the  '  evangelical  Hetzer  '  in  question  was,  think  that 
Luther  himself  had  spoken  '  these  words  '  as  an  expres- 
sion of  his  own  opinion,  whereas  they  only  represented 
his  account  of  the  Gartenbruder  Hetzer,1  an  Anabaptist 
from  Augsburg,2  who  used  to  seduce  women  in  the 
manner  above  described.  Luther  had  plainly  stated 
at  the  end  of  his  narrative  (what  Nas  left  out  and  only 
indicated  with  an  '  &c.')  :  '  In  this  way  he  (Hetzer) 
seduced  numbers  of  women.'  Nas  tried  to  excuse 
himself  for  this  misleading  quotation  by  remarking 
that  he  had  quoted  Luther's  words  '  in  the  same 
way  that  Gallus,  my  cook,  had  quoted  the  words 
of  Hosius.'  But  because  the  Superintendent  Gallus 
of  Ratisbon  allowed  himself  to  make  dishonourable 
citations  from  books,  this  was  no  justification  for  Nas's 
doing  the  same  thing. 

James  Heerbrand,  professor  of  theology  at  Tubingen, 
was  of  opinion  that  '  nothing  proved  so  plainly  that  the 
wrath  of  God  was  visibly  manifest  and  that  the  end  of 
the  world  was  undoubtedly  at  hand  as  the  fact  that  the 
papists  had  no  shame  and  scruple  in  attacking,  both 
in  his  life  and  his  teaching,  the  noblest  jewel  of  the 
Holy  Church,  the  divinely-illumined  Martin  Luther, 
and  in  accusing  him  of  inconsistency  and  changeable- 
ness,  as  if  by  so  doing  they  could  disgrace  the  whole 
evangelical  Church.'  Heerbrand' s  wrath  was  called 
forth  by  a  small  pamphlet  which  the  Jesuit  Sigis- 
mund  Ernhofer  published  anonymously  at  Graz  in 
1587  under  the  title  :  '  Der  evangelische  Wetterhahn, 
das   ist :    Ungleiche  Reden   Martini   Lutheri   von   den 

1  Nickname  of  the  Anabaptists.         -  See  our  remarks,  vol.  v.  p.  158. 


112  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

fiirnehmsten  Artikeln  christlicher  Religion.' 1  That 
Ernhofer  was  guilty  of  making  incorrect  quotations 
or  that  he  mangled  or  falsified  Luther's  words  could 
not  be  asserted  ;  the  rhymes  at  the  back  of  the  title- 
page  were  the  sole  contribution  made  by  the  author 
himself  to  the  collection. 

He  who  to  one  same  thing  saith  Yea  and  Nay, 

Slight  faith  and  trust  doth  verily  betray. 

Now  Luther  he  was  such  a  man, 

To  prove  which  is  this  booklet's  plan. 

A  very  weathercock,  I  swear : 

Let  every  one  of  him  beware. 

Heerbrand  gave  vent  to  his  wrath  by  publishing 
in  the  following  year  a  big  volume  entitled  '  Propffung 
und  Abfertigung  des  vermeinten  neulich  ausgebriiteten 
evangelischen  Wetterhahnen,' 2  in  which,  without  any 
attempt  at  a  real  refutation,  he  hurled  the  most  terrible 
accusations  against  the  Pope  and  the  Catholic  Church. 
The  Mass,  he  said,  '  had  been  invented  and  instituted 
by  the  devil  in  opposition  to  Christ ;  in  this  ceremony 
Christ  was  daily  crucified  anew ;  purgatory  '  had  been 
invented  by  the  heathens  and  trumpeted  up  by  the 
devil ; '  the  Holy  Scriptures  were  as  much  detested  by 
the  papists  as  the  cross  was  by  the  devil ;  the  Pope, 
according  to  Catholic  teaching,  forgave  sins  for  money ; 
he  would  even,  if  such  a  sin  were  possible,  forgive  any 
one  who  had  committed  fornication  with  the  Mother 
of  God  ;  in  short,  '  the  popish  Church  was  not  Christ, 

1  At  the  end :  Gratz,  1587  ;  cf.  Reinlich  in  the  Mitte.il.  des  Hist. 
Vereins  fur  Steiermarh,  27  (Graz,  1879),  p.  160. 

2  '  Examination  and  Refutation  of  the  newly  published  so-called  Evan- 
gelical Weathercock '  (Tubingen,  1588).  Respecting  Heerbrand's  controversy 
against  the  Jesuit  of  Graz,  Sigismund  Ernhofer,  see  also  Loserth,  Reforma- 
tion und  Gegenreformation,  p.  486  ff.  Heerbrand  was  incited  to  proceed  as 
he  did  by  the  Graz  preacher  Zimmermann. 


POLEMICS   OF   THE    CONVERT   FLASCH  113 

but  the  bride  incarnate  of  the  devil ; '  everything  in  this 
Church,  as  every-day  experience  plainly  showed,  was 
antichristian  and  '  abominable  idolatry — worse  than 
that  of  the  heathen.'  Heerbrand  attached  no  import- 
ance to  the  contradictory  statements  of  Luther,  for 
the  latter,  he  said,  had  only  come  gradually  to  the 
recognition  that  '  the  papacy  had  been  founded  by  the 
devil.'  '  Therefore,  you  Jesuits,  and  whoever  is  the 
adulterous  father  of  this  weathercock,  press,  squeeze, 
get  whatever  you  like  or  can  out  of  Luther's  books  : 
you  have  not  convinced  us,  all  the  same,  that  we  believe 
and  teach  false  doctrine  ; '  he  was  fighting  '  with  God's 
Word ; '  '  what  do  the  words  or  sayings  of  Luther 
matter  to  us  ?  '  ] 

With  regard  to  the  personality  of  Luther  the  con- 
vert Sebastian  Flasch,  formerly  preacher  at  Mansfeld, 
had  already,  eleven  years  before  the  publication  of  the 
'  Evangelical  Weathercock,'  provoked  '  the  implacable 
wrath  of  every  respectable  evangelical.'  In  the  year 
1576  Flasch  had  published  at  Ingolstadt,  in  the  Latin 
language,  twenty-two  reasons  ('  Beweggriinde  ')  why  he 
had  embraced  the  Catholic  faith  when  already  an 
old  man.2  The  first  reason  given  is  that,  after  long 
research,  he  had  come  to  the  conviction  that  the  Pro- 
testants had  misrepresented  the  Catholic  religion  with 
numberless  obvious  lies  in  order  to  make  it  appear 
odious  and  contemptible.  Other  reasons  were  de- 
duced from  the  substance  of  Luther's  teaching  and  its 

1  Propffung  und  Abfertigung,  pp.  5,  7,  9,  12,  14,  16,  38,  46-49  ;  cf. 
pp.  174,  260. 

'2  Professio  Catholica  M.  Sebast.  Flaschii  Mansfddiensis,  non  vulgaris 
eruditionis  et  authoritatis  viri,  ubi  Luiheranam  Haeresim,  in  qua  et  natus 
et  a  puero  institutus  fuerat,  libere  abjurat,  simulque  abjurationis  suae  causas 
viginti  duos  adducens  (Ingolstadt,  1576). 

VOL     X.  I 


114  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

contradictory  statements  ;  others  from  the  endless  con- 
troversies which  the  Protestants  kept  up  concerning 
doctrine,  and  the  manner  of  life  of  the  preachers. 
What  he  said  on  this  last  point  exceeded  everything 
that  Nas  had  written,  and  called  down  upon  him  the 
imprecations  of  his  former  colleague  in  office.  '  He  is 
morally  degraded  and  damned,  Flasch,  the  traitor  to 
God  ;  he  is  a  mamaluke  and  a  tool  of  Satan  ;  he  deserves 
to  be  carried  off  by  seven  demons  and  torn  to  pieces.'  l 
'  Although  the  preachers  are  married  men,'  wrote  Flasch, 
'  they  are  nevertheless  so  little  satisfied  with  their 
help-meets  that  for  the  gratification  of  their  insatiable 
lusts,  and  following  Luther's  sanction,  they  abuse  their 
own  maids,  and,  what  is  still  more  scandalous,  they 
do  not  scruple  to  betray  wives  of  other  men,  or  to 
arrange  among  themselves  an  exchange  of  wives.  I 
should  not  dare  to  assert  and  write  such  things  openly, 
but  that  during  my  long  intercourse  with  them  I  have 
myself  had  positive  experience  of  the  truth  of  all  this 
and  much  more.'  '  I  will  give  one  instance  only  : 
A  certain  preacher  of  good  position  wanted  to  make 
a  bargain  with  me  for  an  exchange  of  wives,  and  actually 
endeavoured  to  force  me  into  giving  my  consent, 
when  he  saw  that  at  no  price  could  I  be  talked  into 
such  a  crime.  My  sense  of  shame  forbids  my  dwelling 
longer  on  other  outrageous  actions  of  the  kind.'  Further, 
'  the  ignorance  of  the  Lutheran  ministers  had  grown 
to  such  a  pitch  of  barbarism  that  it  could  not  possi- 
bly become  worse.  For,  since  the  first  champions  of 
Lutheranism  had  died  out,  men  who  had  been  educated 
by  the  Catholics  and  had  been  distinguished  by  great 
learning   and   acquirements,   there   had   been   scarcely 

1  In  the  sermon  quoted  above,  p.  20,  note  2  (Bl.  C  3). 


POLEMICS   OF   THE   CONVERT   FLASCH  115 

anybody  left  who  was  capable  of  rightly  comprehending 
and  defending  the  Lutheran  position.  Even  if  some 
of  them  plume  themselves  on  their  scholarship,  they 
nevertheless  bring  forward  such  absurdities  in  their 
pamphlets  and  extempore  sermons  that  it  is  scarcely 
worth  while  to  read  them  or  listen  to  them.  They  do 
nothing  but  repeat  the  trashy  falsehoods  of  their 
predecessors — falsehoods  which  have  long  ago  been 
shown  up  and  refuted  by  numbers  of  Catholic  authors. 
And  so  it  happens  that,  by  reason  of  this  dearth  of 
educated,  cultivated  men  to  proclaim  the  Divine  Word 
and  to  administer  the  sacraments — men  of  the  most 
degraded  kind,  apostate  monks,  tailors,  shoemakers, 
jailors,  butchers,  and  others  of  the  working  class  hold 
the  field,  so  that  the  cover  is  of  a  piece  with  the  dish 
and  the  bowl  with  its  contents.'  With  regard  to 
Luther,  Flasch  said  he  had  found  frequent  contradictions 
in  his  books,  and  a  mass  of  the  bitterest  invectives 
and  accusations  against  his  adversaries,  together  with 
such  disgusting  expressions,  such  coarse  buffoonery 
and  indecency,  that  the  most  shameless  harlot  would 
blush  at  them.  He  abstained  from  citing  instances 
'  so  as  not  to  offend  chaste  and  pious  ears.'  1  Then  when, 
in  consequence  of  his  '  false  and  shameless  accusations 
against  the  precious  man  of  God,'  he  was  proclaimed 
by  a  preacher  to  be  '  worthy  of  the  gallows  and  every 
imaginable  punishment,'  he  published  another  pamphlet 
in  1577  under  the  title,  '  Augenscheinliche  Erweisung 
aus  Doktor  Martin  Luthers  eigenen  Buchern  und  Worten, 
dass  er  kein  heiliger  Prophet  Deutschlands,  sondern  ein 
reenter  Unflat  gewesen'  ('Plain  evidence,  from  Dr. 
Martin  Luther's   own  books   and  words,  that  he  was 

1  Rass,  Konvertiten,  ii.  254-265. 

i  2 


116  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

not  a  holy  prophet  of  Germany,  but  a  thoroughly 
obscene  person ').  l 

This  pamphlet  contained  violent  marginal  notes  on 
Luther's  utterances,  and  also  '  a  very  abusive '  epilogue. 
Caspar  Goblerus  answered  it  with  a  short  '  Bericht 
wider  die  lasterliche  Calumnia  des  ungelehrten  Esels 
Flasehens,  eines  Mansfeldischen  Jesuiters  '  («  Statement 
in  refutation  of  the  scandalous  calumnies  of  the  ignorant 
donkey  Flasch,  a  Mansfeld  Jesuit '),  published  in  order 
to  save  Luther  from  '  the  Catholic  accursed  children 
of  Ham.'  This  writer  professed  to  entertain  '  filial 
respect '  for  Luther,  and  said  that  he  wrote  '  to  the  best 
of  his  ability.'  2 

Flasch' s  pamphlet  is  to  a  certain  extent  the  proto- 
type of  the  '  Anatomy  of  Luther  '  by  Johann  Pistorius. 
The  appearance  on  the  scene  of  this  most  dreaded  of 
Catholic  controversialists  is  connected  with  an  event 
which  caused  agitation  throughout  the  whole  German 
nation  :  namely,  the  entrance  of  the  Margrave  James  III. 
of  Baden-Hochberg  into  the  Catholic  Church  in  the 
year   1590. 

James,  who  was  conspicuous  among  those  of  his 
own  rank  by  his  intellectual  endowments,  his  solid 
and  many-sided  learning  and  culture,  and,  above  all, 
by  his  honourable  and  blameless  character,  had  been 
troubled  for  many  years  with  serious  doubts  ;  he  ques- 
tioned whether  the  Augsburg  Confession,  in  which  he 
had  been  brought  up,  was  really  '  the  true  religion, 
the  only  religion  which  could  ensure  salvation.'  '  For, 
after  long  and  diligent  reflection,'  he  wrote  to  the  Super- 
intendent and  to  other  Church  officials  of  his  land,  '  we 

1  Ingolstadt,  1577. 

2  Printed  at  Christlingen,  1591  ;  see  Bl.  A  2a,  A  3b,  B  4b. 


CONVERSION   OF   MARGRAVE   JAMES   OF   BADEN    117 

have  come  to  see  that  there  is  no  certain  rule  and 
invariable  code  among  our  co-religionists ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  daily  division  and  change,  while  each  preacher 
introduces  innovations  *  at  his  pleasure,  and  all  of  them 
are  free  to  put  a  different  interpretation  on  any  point 
in  religion.'  '  Furthermore,  we  have  found  so  much 
in  Luther's  own  books  and  pamphlets,  and  also  in  his 
translation  and  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  to  show 
that  he  was  not  a  spiritual  man  but  a  carnally-minded 
one,  that  we  have  come  to  doubt  whether  the  Almighty 
really  intended  this  more  than  fleshly  man,  who 
can  so  well  conceal  the  Holy  Ghost  in  his  books,  to 
be  the  instrument  for  proclaiming  the  true  religion.' 
There  is  also,  '  alas,  no  devoutness  whatever  in  our 
religion  ;  there  is  not  a  single  rite  or  ceremony  which 
conduces  to  reverence,  and  most  of  its  votaries,  including 
the  clergy,  are  even  ashamed  to  kneel  down  in  church 
or  when  they  pray  ;  therefore  it  is  to  be  feared  that 
in  this  case  the  child  is  being  shaken  out  with  the  bath.' 

He  was  only  the  second  member  of  his  ancient 
race  who  had  not  belonged  to  the  Catholic  religion, 
in  which  his  ancestors  had  lived  and,  as  he  hoped,  had 
'  obtained  salvation  like  all  the  holy  fathers,  martyrs, 
and  other  distinguished  Christians.'  All  these  reasons 
and  others  besides  '  had  aroused  his  conscience  and 
filled  him  with  no  slight  doubts  concerning  his  religion.'  2 

Johann  Pistorius,  physician,  and  later  on  councillor 
to  the  Margrave,  had  had  great  influence  on  the  religious 
attitude  of  the  Margrave.3     He  was  the  son  of  a  highly 

1  '  J  a  dass  ein  jeder  Prediger  eine  Neuerung  fiirbringt.''  This  is  obviously 
the  right  reading  instead  of  '  ja  dass  in  der  Predig  ein  Neuerung  fiirbring,'' 
as  in  Kleinschmidt,  p.  87. 

2  Despatch  of  March  23,  1590,  in  Kleinschmidt,  pp.  86-87. 

3  '  Sorgf altige  biographische  Angaben  iiber  Pistorius '  in  Stieve's  Politik 


118  HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

respected  superintendent  at  Nidda  in  Hesse,  a  man 
'  deeply  versed  in  theology,  jurisprudence,  and  medi- 
cine,' who  after  long  spiritual  wanderings  had  entered 
the  haven  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  1588.  After 
studying  all  Luther's  works,  as  he  asserted,  three 
several  times,  it  had  become  plain  to  him  that  Luther 
had  been  anything  rather  than  a  true  reformer  of  the 
Christian  Church,  that  he  was  a  false  prophet  and  a 
disturber  of  the  true  unity  of  the  faith.  On  account 
of  his  apostasy  from  Protestantism,  Pistorius  was 
denounced  as  '  a  real  arch-heretic  '  who  was  '  far  more 
wicked  '  than  Judas  the  traitor.  Protestant  princes  in 
their  letters  to  the  Margrave  James  called  Pistorius 
a  mamaluke  who  '  had  acted  in  violation  of  his  own 
conscience.'  Pistorius,  said  a  poet,  was  a  follower 
of  the  rogue  Staphylus,  who  '  was  now  the  court  piper 
to  the  devil,'  on  whom  '  he  sharpened  his  claws.'  The 
territory  of  Baden  would  soon  '  spew  him  out,' 

To  the  dragon  in  the  flames  of  hell, 
Where  Judas  thine  associate  doth  dwell. 
Thou  art  the  whore  of  Babylon, 
And  sittest  on  the  dragon's  throne  .  .  . 
With  the  blood  of  Christians  drunk  thou  art, 
And  of  all  who  in  the  Lord  have  part  .  .  . 

and  more  to  the  same  effect.1  The  polemical  ardour  and 
activity  which  Pistorius  developed  as  time  went  on 
brought  him  into  such  odium  with  his  former  co- 
religionists that  eight  years  after  his  death,  in  1616, 
a    pamphlet    was    published    informing    the    world    of 

Bayerns,  i.  10-11,  note  1.  See  Rass,  Konvertiten,  ii.  488  ;  Wetzer  und 
Welte's  Kirchenlexikon,  10  (2nd  edition),  41  ff.  ;  Hirn,  i.  270  ff.  ;  and  Roth, 
Kleine  Beitriige  zur  deutschen  Sprachforschung  (Munich,  1850),  Heft  vii. 
62  and  74. 

1  Mone,  Quellensammlung,  iii.  165  ff.  ;  Kleinschmidt,  p.  158  ff. 


CONVERSION    OF   MARGRAVE   JAMES   OF   BADEN    119 

the  terrible  judgment  with  which  God  had  visited  him. 
He  had  died,  it  was  said,  uttering  the  most  horrible 
blasphemies  and  curses  against  God,  and  calling  on 
the  devil ;  the  earth  had  twice  vomited  up  his  corpse, 
and  then  given  it  over  to  the  devil.1 

In  order  to  arrive  at  certainty  in  his  religious  per- 
plexity the  Margrave  James  arranged  for  a  religious 
discussion  to  take  place  at  Baden  in  November  1589, 
between  the  Wiirtemberg  theologians  James  Andrea 
and  James  Heerbrand  and  several  assistant  councillors 
on  the  one  hand,  and  Pistorius,  the  Jesuit  Theodore 
Busseus,  and  several  clergymen  on  the  other  hand. 
But  before  the  beginning  of  the  discussion  Andrea 
already  brought  a  defeat  on  himself  by  asserting  at  a 
gathering  at  which  five  princes  and  several  court  followers 
were  present,  that  the  Catholic  religion  taught  that 
mankind  was  not  saved  by  the  merits  of  Christ.  If 
he  was  not  able,  he  said,  to  prove  this  statement  from 
a  canon  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  he  was  ready  to  write 
himself  down  a  liar  and  no  true  Christian.  A  copy  of 
the  decrees  of  Trent  was  brought  to  him,  Busseus 
writes,  and  Andrea  '  was  proved  to  be  a  liar.'  2  Neither 
did  the  discussion  end  in  his  favour.  Andrea  '  went 
away  with  a  long  face,'  wrote  the  Calvinist  David 
Pareus,  professor  of  theology  at  Heidelberg,  to  a 
friend,  in  December  1589  ;  an  ambassador  of  the 
Elector  Palatine,  who  was  present  at  the  debate, 
praised    '  the    intelligence,    the    astuteness,    and    the 

1  According  to  the  report  of  eye-witnesses  Pistorius  received  the  last 
sacraments,  and  died  a  peaceful  death.  But  the  fable  of  the  '  Divine 
judgment '  met  with  so  much  credence  in  certain  circles  that  the  Jesuit 
Gretser  thought  it  necessary  to  devote  a  special  pamphlet  to  its  refutation 
(Gretseri  Opera,  ii.  924). 

3  Kleinschmidt,  p.  152. 


120  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

eloquence  of  the  renegade  Pistorius.'  l  His  embassies 
and  journeys  in  connection  with  the  Book  of  Concord, 
Andrea  assured  Pistorius,  had  not  been  undertaken 
of  his  own  will,  but  in  response  to  a  '  divine  call.'  After 
the  conclusion  of  the  discussion  Pistorius  addressed 
to  his  adversary  a  letter  which  the  Margrave  James 
called  '  rude  and  harsh.'  Andrea's  answer  was  that 
'  Pistorius  must  be  possessed  by  many  devils  and  it 
would  not  be  strange  if  the  earth  were  to  open  and 
swallow  him  like  up  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram,  and 
if  they  and  all  the  people  who  were  with  Korah,  with 
all  that  belonged  to  them,  were  taken  down  alive  into  hell 
and  the  earth  covered  them  up.'  2 

The  Margrave,  still  labouring  sorely  with  spiri- 
tual doubts,  gathered  together  several  Protestant  and 
Catholic  theologians  for  another  religious  discussion 
at  Emmendingen  the  following  year,  and  presided 
over  the  meeting  himself.  '  This  colloquy,'  he  said, 
'  has  been  arranged  solely  for  the  glory  of  God  and  for 
the  strengthening  and  reassurance  of  my  conscience, 
and  for  no  other  reason.'  As  the  Protestants  refused 
to  carry  on  any  further  discussion  with  Pistorius,  of 
whose    genius    and    knowledge    they    were    cognisant, 

1  Mitto  ad  te  Epistolam  Pistorii  Apostatae,  qua  pro  viatico  instruxit 
Schmidlinum  Badena  ex  Colloquio  magno  cum  naso  discedentem.  Misit 
Illustriss.  Princeps  noster  Secretarium  quemdam,  auditorem  Colloquii  non 
clam  sed  consciis  Marchionibus,  qui  etiam  ad  mensas  commode  fuit  collocatus 
et  excepit  colloquentium  sermones.  Praedicat  is  Apostatae  ingenium,  et 
facundiam.  Schmidlinus  concionibus  pro  more  ad  coronam  agi  voluit- 
Contra  Apostata  syllogistice  et  breviter.  Sic  de  modo  agendi  biduum  con- 
stimptum  est.  Schmidlinus  interrogatus  a  Marchione :  Doctene  an  indocte 
coram  tot  doctis  .  .  .  disputare  vellet  ?  Respondit :  Indocte.  Ita  re  infecta 
discessum  est  (Hummel,  Epistolae,  i.  85-86).  With  this  agrees  what 
Busaeus  wrote  about  the  Colloquy  in  Kleinschmidt,  pp.  149-152. 

2  Acta  of  the  Colloquy  at  Baden  (1590),  pp.  330,  339,  344,  354- 
355. 


CONVERSION   OF  MARGRAVE  JAMES   OF  BADEN   121 

he  was  excluded  from  the  transactions,  and  James 
brought  with  him  in  his  place  the  court  preacher 
Johann  Zehender,  who  had  been  instructed  by  Pis- 
torius  for  a  short  time  in  the  Catholic  faith  and  was 
later  on  converted  to  it.  The  teaching  of  the  Church  was 
to  be  the  principal  subject  of  discussion.  James  and 
Zehender  pleaded  in  defence  of  the  necessity  and  the 
actuality  of  a  visible,  infallible  Church  continuing  in 
uninterrupted  succession  from  the  days  of  the  Apostles. 
This  position  was  disputed  by  Johann  Pappus,  pastor 
and  professor  at  Strasburg,  who  had  been  engaged  by 
the  Baden  preachers  and  who  led  the  dispute  on  their 
side.  Driven  into  a  corner,  he  took  refuge  in  the  asser- 
tion that  the  Church  was  capable  of  erring,  even  if 
inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  the  Galatians,  who  had 
been  bewitched  and  were  full  of  error,  had  still  had 
the  Holy  Ghost  dwelling  in  them.  But  he  was  con- 
fronted with  some  of  Luther's  utterances.  In  a  passage 
in  the  book  against  the  '  Hansworst '  Luther  says : 
'  The  Church  cannot  and  must  not  lie,  or  teach  error, 
not  even  in  a  single  point ;  if  she  but  teaches  one  false- 
hood she  is  altogether  false,  as  Christ  declares  ; '  and 
a  little  further  on  :  '  Simply  and  solely  God's  Word 
or  Truth,  and  no  errors  or  lies,  must  the  Church  teach, 
and  how  can  it  be  otherwise  since  the  Church  is  God's 
mouthpiece  ?  '  And  again,  '  God  cannot  lie,  neither 
therefore  can  the  Church.'  Pappus,  on  the  contrary — 
so  the  official  report  of  the  Colloquy  goes  on  to  say — 
'  contested  most  vehemently  that  the  Church  could 
err  and  be  unsound  in  certain  principal  points  of  re- 
ligion, and  yet  retain  the  Holy  Ghost.'  Being  called 
upon  to  mention  a  few  instances  at  least  of  persons 
who,    before   Luther,    had   thought   and   taught   in   a 


122  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

thoroughly  Lutheran  manner,  Pappus  mentioned  no 
less  a  man  than  St.  Augustine,  adding  that  if  within 
three  or  four  months  he  was  unable  to  prove  that  this 
Father  of  the  Church  had  been  Lutheran  at  every  point, 
he  would  himself  become  Catholic.  George  Hanlin, 
Rector  of  the  University  of  Freiburg,  replied  that  if 
Pappus  proved  his  point,  he  would  become  a  Lutheran. 
The  adversaries  then  pledged  their  faith  by  shaking- 
hands,  and  the  Margrave  himself  would  not  forego  the 
pleasure  of  joining  in  the  compact. 

But  Pappus  had  chosen  an  unfortunate  champion 
of  his  opinions,  for  concerning  the  very  corner-stone 
of  Lutheranism — namely,  the  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith — St.  Augustine  had  said  :  '  If  without  any 
regard  for  laws  we  can  enter  into  life  by  faith  alone, 
which  without  works  is  dead,  how  then  can  that  be  true 
which  Christ  will  say  to  those  on  the  left  side  :  "  Depart 
ye  into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his 
angels  "  ?  Christ  does  not  reproach  them  for  not  having 
believed,  but  for  not  having  done  any  good  works. 
Yea,  verily,  let  no  man  natter  himself  that  he  will  gain 
eternal  life  through  a  faith  which  without  works  is 
dead.'  x 

'  How  can  the  Protestants,'  wrote  a  Catholic  pastor 
in  1587,  '  go  on  appealing  to  the  Holy  Father  of  the 
Church    St.    Augustine,    as    though    he   were    one    of 

1  '  Illud  quoque  non  video  cur  dominus  dixerit  :  Si  vis  venire  ad  vitam, 
serva  mandata,  et  commemoravit  ea,  quae  ad  bonos  mores  'pertinent.  Si  etiam 
Ms  non  servatis  ad  vitam  veniri  potest  per  solarn  fidem,  quae  sine  operibus 
mortua  est,  illud  deinde,  quomodo  verum  erit,  quod  eis,  quos  ad  sinistram 
positurus  est,  dicet :  Ite  in  ignem  aeternum,  qui  paratu^s  est  diabolo  et  angelis 
ejus  ?  Nee  increpat,  quia  in  eum  non  crediderunt,  sed  quia  bona  opera  non 
fecerunt.  Nam  profecto  ne  sibi  quisquam  de  fide,  quae  sine  operibus  mortua 
est,  promittat  aeternam  vitam,'  &c.  (Augustini  Opp.  iv.  [Parisiis,  1531], 
pp.  13-18). 


MARGRAVE   JAMES   OF   BADEN   ON   HIS   CONVERSION   123 

themselves,  when  all  the  time  we  find  in  his  writings 
the  very  opposite  of  all  that  they  teach  ?  '  He  put  this 
question  to  the  Protestants  :  '  Is  it  true  that  St.  Augus- 
tine used  to  say  Mass  and  that  he  taught  concerning 
it  exactly  in  the  same  way  as  the  Catholic  Church  does 
at  the  present  day  ?  Is  it  true  or  not  that  this  holy 
Father  enjoined  invocation  of  the  Blessed  Virgin 
and  of  the  saints  on  all  the  faithful,  and  that  he  him- 
self diligently  obeyed  this  rule  ?  Is  it  true  or  is  it  not 
that  he  considered  prayers  for  the  dead,  according 
to  the  words  of  Scripture,  salutary  and  useful,  and 
that,  as  we  know  from  himself,  he  prayed  for  his  mother 
Monica  after  she  was  dead  ?  His  works  lie  open  before 
our  eyes,  and  if  in  these  you  should  discover  that  he 
taught  and  practised  everything  which  through  all  the 
centuries,  and  still  at  the  present  day,  the  holy  Catholic 
Church  teaches  and  practises,  you  will  do  well  to  leave 
off  proclaiming  such  a  teacher  of  the  Church  to  be 
on  your  own  side  and  to  have  been,  as  has  actually 
been  said  of  him,  a  precursor  of  the  true  gospel  of 
Luther.'  l 

A  few  weeks  after  the  Colloquy  at  Emmendingen, 
in  the  middle  of  July  1590,  the  Margrave  James  was 
solemnly  received  into  the  Catholic  Church  in  the 
Cistercian  convent  of  Thennenbach  near  Freiburg. 
As  his  chief  reason  for  taking  this  step  he  gave  out 
that  '  By  careful  examination  he  had  learnt  that  the 
doctrine   of   the   Catholic   Church   was   quite   different 

1  In  the  pamphlet  (Bl.  5a)  cited  at  vol.  ix.  p.  363,  note  1.  Luther 
and  Melanchthon  both  acknowledged  that  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith  did  not  coincide  with  the  teaching  of  St.  Augustine.  See  our 
quotations,  vol.  v.  pp.  252-256.  Pistorius  challenged  Pappus  to  fulfil  his 
promise,  and  in  his  Epistolae  tres  ad  Pappum  (Coloniae,  1594)  he  set 
himself  to  prove  that  nobody  before  Luther  had  taught  like  Luther. 


124:  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

from  what  the  preachers  had  represented  it  to  be.' 
In  the  '  Motive '  for  his  conversion,  the  publication 
of  which  he  entrusted  to  Pistorius,  and  the  first  part 
of  which  he  read  shortly  before  his  death,  he  began 
by  stating  that  '  We  have  heard  it  said  and  we  have 
subsequently  read  ourselves  in  books  and  pamphlets 
in  what  an  unscrupulous  and  unchristian  manner 
Luther  and  his  followers  and  Lutheran  theologians 
and  theologians  of  other  sects  also  were  wont  to  invent 
uncouth  and  erroneous  doctrines  which  they  imputed 
to  the  Catholics  and  made  out  as  being  believed  by  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  how  with  these  imaginery  spectres 
they  gained  for  themselves  the  favour  of  the  common 
people,  while  they  unjustly  brought  the  Catholics 
into  odium.  If  there  were  any  real  warrant  for  all  that 
is  put  forward  in  Lutheran  books  and  sermons  as 
Catholic  doctrine,  it  certainly  could  not  then  be  denied 
that  the  Catholic  faith  must  be  worthless  and  false, 
and  that  all  pious  souls  should  have  a  righteous  abhor- 
rence of  it.'  The  Margrave  cites  a  number  of  false  '  accu- 
sations,' which  '  with  utter  baselessness '  were  made 
against  the  Church.  '  In  the  first  place  the  Lutheran 
theologians  say  and  write  that  the  Catholics  do  not  allow 
that  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  true  and  valid,  and  they 
do  not  scruple,  in  spite  of  all  the  explanations  they  have 
received,  and  in  the  teeth  of  manifest  truth,  to  scream 
this  out  in  their  German  Church  hymns.  A  further 
invention  was  that  the  papists  (as  the  Catholics  were 
now  mockingly  called)  do  not  rely  on  the  merits,  passion, 
and  death  of  Christ,  and  do  not  think  these  sufficient 
for  our  salvation,  but  expect  to  gain  and  possess  them- 
selves of  heaven  by  their  own  works,  money,  and  human 
laws.     And  this  calumny  is  so  common  and  wide  spread 


OUTKAGES   IN   BADEN,   1590  125 

that  through  it  alone  the  larger  portion  of  the  laity 
of  the  lower  classes  have  been  deceived  and  led 
into  error.'  The  people  were  also  made  to  believe 
that  '  in  the  Mass  Christ  was  again  crucified  by  the 
priest,'  and  further  that  '  the  Catholics  made  the  saints 
of  God  into  idols  and  rendered  them  divine  honour  and 
service.'  1 

Immediately  after  his  conversion  the  Margrave 
availed  himself  of  the  rights  of  reform  which  the  Religious 
Pacification  of  Augsburg  conferred  on  him.  He  desired 
to  convert  his  whole  territory  by  degrees  to  the  Catholic 
faith.  But  he  died  on  August  17,  1590,  and  '  events 
then  occurred  which  filled  the  hearts  of  the  Catholics 
with  profound  bitterness  and  caused  even  loyal  evan- 
gelicals to  say  that  there  was  no  longer  any  justice 
or  equity  left — nothing  but  cruel  tyranny  and  deceit.' 
'  For  in  very  truth,'  wrote  an  eye-witness  of  the  pro- 
ceedings on  the  29th  of  September,  '  we  have  not 
often  heard  in  the  Empire  of  such  deeds  as  the  brother 
of  the  deceased  Margrave  (of  whom  even  the  enemies 

1  Motive  Jakobs,  Marlcgrafen  zu  Baden,  &c.  (the  full  title  is  given  in 
Stieve's  Politik  Bayerns,  ii.  339,  note  1),  pp.  31-126.  In  addition  to  this 
work  of  Pistorius,  we  may  take  into  account,  as  regards  the  conversion  of 
the  Margrave  James  III.  of  Baden  and  Hochberg,  a  report  which  was  pro- 
bably written  by  the  Bavarian  agent,  Minutio  Minucci,  to  whicn  attention 
was  first  drawn  in  the  Hist.-Polit.  El.  38,  962  ff.,  by  Zell,  whose  Italian  text 
was  published  in  the  article  '  Zur  Geschichte  der  Konversion  des  Grafen 
Jakob  '  in  the  Freiburger  Diocesanarchiv,  iv.  91  ff.  Fresh  documents  from 
the  Vatican  archives  have  been  published  by  v.  Weech  in  the  Zeitschr. 
fiir  Gesch.  des  Oberrheins,  7  (Neue  Folge,  1892),  pp.  666-700.  Here,  too, 
all  the  literature  connected  with  the  subject  is  calmly  and  judiciously 
estimated.  The  documents  made  known  to  the  world  by  Weech  bring 
out  with  special  distinctness  the  important  share  which  the  zeal  and  fervour 
of  Louis  of  Saxony,  Guardian  of  the  Capuchins  in  Appenzell,  had  in  the 
conversion  of  the  Margrave  James  (see  above,  vol.  ix.  p.  342-343,  concern- 
ing Louis).  Weech  published  supplements  to  his  article  in  his  Mittheilungen 
aus  dem  Vatican.  Archive,  xii.  (new  series,  1897),  pp.  250-272  (No.  50). 


126  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

of  his  Catholic  faith  said  that  he  was  a  high-minded, 
benevolent,  generous,  and  upright  prince)  has  perpe- 
trated, in  violation  of  all  right  and  honour — deeds  which 
cry  to  heaven  for  revenge  and  punishment.' l 

James  left  two  daughters  and  a  widow,  Elizabeth 
Countess  of  Eulenburg  and  Manderscheid,  who  was 
near  to  her  confinement.  On  his  death-bed  he  had 
made  a  will,  attested  by  seven  witnesses,  appointing 
his  brother  Ernest  Frederic,  and  two  Catholic  relatives, 
Duke  William  V.  of  Bavaria  and  Count  Charles  II. 
of  Hohenzollern  Sigmaringen,  co-guardians  of  his  chil- 
dren with  his  wife  Elizabeth.  The  children  were  to  be 
brought  up  in  Catholic  places,  in  the  Catholic  faith, 
and  if  Elizabeth  should  give  birth  to  a  son  the  Catholic 
reformation  of  the  country  was  to  be  completed.  Among 
his  court  officials  he  specially  commended  to  the  care  of 
the  guardians  '  his  most  learned  councillor  and  dear 
and  trusted  friend  Dr.  Johann  Pistorius,  who  had 
at  all  times  served  him  honourably  and  faithfully  as 
beseems  an  upright  servitor.'  He  gave  instructions 
that  the  guardians  should  clear  him  from  '  the  odium 
which  had  attached  to  his  name  on  account  of  his  (the 
Margrave's)  change  of  religion,'  for  he  had  done  nothing 
more  than  was  commanded  him,  and  what,  '  in  obedience 
to  Christian  duty  and  his  office,'  he  could  not  have 
omitted  doing.  '  Neither  Pistorius  nor  others '  the 
Margrave  declared  to  those  around  him,  with  death 
staring  him  in  the  face,  had  brought  him  to  take  this 
step  :  it  was  solely  the  result  of  his  own  researches 
and  of  the  illumination  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Supplica- 
tingly,  and  with  threats  of  the  wrath  of  God,  he  implored 

1  Bernliard  Perneder,  September  29, 1590,  to  the  ecclesiastical  councillor 
of  Mayence,  Christopher  Hagemann.     Contributed  by  Bohmer. 


OUTRAGES   IN   BADEN,   1590  127 

the  guardians  to  fulfil  the  requirements  of  his  will  and 
testament.1 

The  corpse  of  the  Margrave  was  still  lying  in  state 
in  the  church  of  Emmendingen,  when  the  Margrave 
Ernest  Frederic  appeared  on  August  19  with  an  armed 
retinue,  extinguished  the  candles  burning  round  the 
coffin,  caused  the  images  and  altars  in  the  church  to 
be  overthrown,  and  drove  the  Catholic  priests  out  of 
the  land.  Pistorius  also  was  obliged  to  leave  the 
country,  and  his  goods  were  sequestrated.  A  poet 
addressed  the  Margrave  as  follows  : 

0  Margrave  Ernest,  faithful  lord, 
Who  thirstest  ever  for  God  s  Word, 
Right  princely  let  thy  verdict  be, 
Pistorius  hang  on  gallows  tree, 
Who  thy  brother  has  converted 
And  to  a  lying  creed  perverted. 

'  The  whole  world,'  wrote  Johann  Frey,  professor 
of  medicine,  '  will  be  too  small  for  Pistorius,  as  it  was 
for  Cain,  on  account  of  his  evil  conscience.'  2 

Ernest  Frederic,  regardless  of  all  considerations 
of  right  and  all  the  stipulations  of  the  will,  at  once 
usurped  dominion  over  the  land.3  James  had  left 
orders  that  he  should  be  buried  in  the  Catholic  town 
of  Baden.  But  the  usurper  would  not  even  fall  in 
with  this  stipulation.  In  spite  of  all  the  protestations 
of  the  widow,  he  had  the  corpse  conveyed  by  night 
to  the  Rhine  and  taken  on  to  Pforzheim,  where  it  was 
interred  with  Protestant  rites  by  his  own  court  preacher. 
He  enticed  the  widow,  who  on  August  26  had  made 

1  EJeinschmidt,  pp.  117-119  ;  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayerns,  i.  30-31. 

2  Kleinschmidt,  pp.  123,  164-165. 

3  He  was  '  avaricious  to  the  point  of  utter  unscrupulousness  ;  '  '  right 
feeling  and  equity  were  foreign  to  his  nature  ;  his  savagery  knew  no 
restraints'  (Stieve,  i.  31). 


128  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

confession  of  the  Catholic  faith  at  Freiburg,  to  his 
castle  of  Hochberg,  placed  her  under  the  strictest 
surveillance,  and  when  on  September  4  she  gave  birth 
to  a  son,  he  ordered  her  to  give  him  the  names  of  Ernest 
James  and  to  have  him  baptised  according  to  Protestant 
usage.  The  Countess  Elizabeth  was  condemned  to 
pass  her  days  in  solitary  and  strict  confinement ;  she 
was  not  even  allowed  the  free  exercise  of  her  religion  ; 
her  daughters  were  carried  off  to  Durlach  by  Ernest 
Frederic.  Simultaneously,  however,  he  wrote  to  Duke 
William  of  Bavaria  that  '  it  was  a  wretched  calumny  ' 
to  say  that  he  was  in  any  way  wronging  the  Margravine. 
On  November  15  he  extorted  from  the  poor  woman, 
reduced  almost  to  frenzy,  a  contract  in  which  she  was 
forced  to  designate  him  as  the  '  rightful  guardian,' 
and  to  entrust  the  education  of  her  children  to  him 
without  any  reserve,  and  with  assurance  that  there 
would  be  no  retractation  later  on.  He  endeavoured  by 
all  sorts  of  jugglery  to  establish  that  this  contract 
was  entered  into  willingly  by  Elizabeth.  Of  his  own 
promises  in  it  he  did  not  fulfil  a  single  one  :  he  gave  back 
to  the  mother  neither  her  freedom  nor  her  daughters, 
and  he  even  tore  from  her  her  little  son,  whom  he  had 
sent  to  Durlach.1 

These  revolting  actions  of  the  Margrave  were  per- 
formed in  concert  with  several  of  the  neighbouring 
Protestant  princes.  '  Without  the  knowledge  and  ap- 
proval of  the  Elector  Palatine  John  Casimir  and  of 
Duke  Louis  of  Wiirtemberg,'  Ernest  Frederic  wrote 
to  the  Landgrave  William  IV.  of  Hesse  Cassel  towards 
the  end  of  October,  '  we  have  hitherto  done  and  under- 
taken  nothing.'     On    September    21    he    had    already 

1  Stieve,  i.  33-34. 


OUTRAGES   IN   BADEN,   1590  129 

begun  exerting  himself  to  obtain  the  help  of  Duke 
William  and  of  the  Landgrave  Louis  of  Hesse-Marburg 
in  the  event  of  Elizabeth's  two  co-guardians,  the  Duke 
of  Bavaria  and  the  Count  of  Zollern  insisting  on  the 
fulfilment  of  the  terms  of  the  will.  In  the  face  of 
these  two  and  of  the  Archduke  Ferdinand,  whose 
Austrian  frontier  lands  were  in  part  intermixed  with 
those  of  Baden-Hochberg,  '  he  would  be  too  weak, 
without  cordial  assistance  from  his  nearest  neighbours 
and  associates  in  the  Augsburg  Confession,'  to  accom- 
plish the  '  Christian  work '  which  he  had  begun.  He 
urged,  therefore,  that  the  princes  '  for  the  furtherance 
of  God's  glory  and  the  necessary  maintenance  of  the 
true  and  alone-saving  religion,'  should  '  give  him 
strong  support,'  in  case  of  his  finding  himself  unable, 
by  his  unaided  power,  to  '  establish  on  a  permanent 
footing  the  ministry  of  preaching  which  had  been 
reintroduced  in  the  Margravate  of  Hochberg.'  Both 
these  princes  were  in  full  sympathy  with  Ernest  Frederic's 
proceedings  against  the  '  popish  idolatry '  and  the 
promised  help.  '  The  Margrave,'  wrote  the  Land- 
grave William  on  October  11,  1590,  'has  in  all  things 
acted  wisely,  well,  and  in  a  Christian  manner.  Let 
the  limbs  of  the  wicked  enemy,'  he  added,  '  the  mama- 
lukish  Pistorius  and  others,  work  as  hard  as  they  will, 
God  Almighty,  who  never  forsakes  His  own,  will  never- 
theless provide  us  with  ways  and  means,'  '  and  to  your 
beloved  self  other  evangelical  Estates  will  extend  a 
hand  in  case  of  need.'  On  April  19,  1591,  the  Land- 
grave Louis  stated  that  '  he  could  not  think  otherwise 
than  that  all  Ernest  Frederic  had  done  since  his  brother's, 
death  had  run  in  the  right  groove.'  : 

1  Despatches  of  September  11  and  21,  and  October  1  and  14,  1590,  and 
VOL.    X.  K 


130  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

And  in  the  same  '  right  groove  '  the  matter  rested, 
for  no  help  was  to  be  obtained  from  the  Emperor 
for  the  Catholic  cause.  Rudolf  II.  confined  himself 
to  transmitting  to  the  Margrave  sundry  admonitions 
with  regard  to  restitution,  which  admonitions  Ernest 
Frederic,  backed  up  by  the  Protestant  Estates,  answered 
with  coarse,  defiant,  offensive  language.1 

'  Whatever  the  Estates  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,' 
wrote  Bernhard  Perneder  from  Freiburg-in-Breisgau 
on  February  3,  1592,  '  choose  to  do  in  violation  of 
justice,  the  constitution  of  the  Empire,  testaments  and 
contracts,  that  alone  is  to  be  considered  right,  godly, 
and  good,  and  whoever  speaks  or  acts  in  opposition  to 
them — be  the  right  on  his  side  as  clear  as  sunshine — 
is  denounced  as  a  hater  of  peace,  a  sedition-monger, 
a  mamaluke,  a  reprobate,  a  limb  of  Satan,  as  indeed 
we  here  in  Baden  are  again  experiencing  to  our  despera- 
tion. Let  our  own  writers  at  least  sharpen  their  pens 
for  necessary  defence  and  for  the  contradiction  of  such 
calumnies  as  are  dealt  out  by  the  great  prophets  and 
God- enlightened  teachers  of  the  new  evangel :  may 
God  have  pity  on  us.'  2 

Pistorius  at  Freiburg,  in  particular,  had  indeed 
sharpened  his  pen.  In  the  year  1591,  by  order  of 
James  III.,  he  had  written  the  pamphlet  entitled 
'  Christliche  erhebliche  und  wohlfundierte  Motive ' 
('  Christian,  important,  and  well-grounded  reasons')  why 
the  Margrave  embraced  the  Catholic  faith.  To  the  first 
of  these  reasons,   viz.   that  the  Catholic  religion  was 

April  1,  1591  (old  style)  in  the  Marburg  State  Archives  :  Marhgrafen 
Jakobs  Tod,  kindly  presented  to  me  by  Dr.  J.  Nieru  oiler  (since  dead), 
who  was  at  work  on  an  exhaustive  biography  of  Pistorius. 

1  Fuller  details  in  Stieve,  i.  34  fif. 

2  To  the  Mayence  ecclesiastical  councillor,  Christopher  Hagemann. 


REASONS  FOR  CONVERSION  OF  JAMES  OF  BADEN   131 

quite  different  from  the  caricature  which  had  been 
drawn  of  it  by  the  Protestants,1  he  added  a  second, 
which,  as  the  court  preacher  Johannes  Zehender  wrote, 
*  stares  even  evangelicals  themselves  in  the  face.' 
This  reason  was  the  want  of  unity  among  the  Protes- 
tants. '  It  has  cut  us  to  the  heart  to  see  how,  more 
and  more  as  time  goes  on,  the  Lutheran  religion  becomes 
divided  and  schismatical,  and  how  day  by  day  it  splits 
up  into  more  and  more  new  sects,  so  that  it  is  no  longer 
easy  to  distinguish  between  what  is  and  what  is  not 
Lutheran.'  After  enumerating  the  different  sects  by 
name,  he  goes  on  to  say  :  '  Not  only  is  division  apparent 
in  all  the  many  different  sects,  but,  what  is  still  more 
worthy  of  note,  we  do  not  find  many  Lutheran  scholars 
and  laymen  who  continue  all  their  lives  to  give  the 
same  interpretation  to  Lutheran  doctrine  ;  whole  coun- 
tries, towns,  and  villages  even  have  repeatedly  changed 
their  beliefs  ;  none  of  the  new  Churches  agree  entirely 
with  Luther,  and  he  himself  altered  his  meaning  con- 
tinually. In  the  midst  of  all  these  religious  perplexities 
we  do  not  know  and  we  cannot  know  who  is  right, 
as  there  exists  no  recognised  arbiter.  One  and  all, 
it  is  true,  appeal  to  the  Word  of  God,  to  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures which  they  acknowledge  as  the  only  true  guide, 
and  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  the 
very  fact  that  there  are  such  numberless  different 
sects,  who  all  interpret  the  Bible  in  a  different  manner, 
shows  that  the  Bible  is  not  so  very  plain,  and  that  at 
any  rate  the  Holy  Spirit  can  have  nothing  to  do  with 
all  these  differences  of  interpretation,  these  contentions 
and  contradictions.  No  one  in  all  Christendom  before 
Luther  believed  and  taught  as  he  did,  for  which  reason 

1  See  above,  p.  123. 

k  2 


132  HISTOEY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

he  had  no  scruples  in  asserting  that  he  had  received 
his  doctrine  straight  from  Heaven,  and  that  he  was 
the  first  person  to  whom  God  had  revealed  His  Gospel. 
But  he  did  not  confirm  his  mission  with  miracles. 
Whereas,  however,  we  have  seen  nothing  but  con- 
tention, variableness,  divisions  and  splits  among  the 
Lutherans,  we  have  felt  constrained  to  investigate 
the  old  religion  which  has  been  handed  down  from  the 
Apostles  and  has  throughout  the  ages  been  embodied 
in  one  visible  and  united  Church ;  and  this  all  the  more 
because  the  Lutherans  offer  no  certain  guide,  no  infallible 
method  by  which  we  can  steer  our  course  through  all 
the  conflicting  sects  and  discover  a  Church  with  at 
least  some  few  landmarks  of  truth.'  * 

As  a  third  reason  for  his  conversion  he  adduced 
Luther's  personal  character,  and  his  statements  and 
citations  in  this  connection  launched  Pistorius  on  an 
ocean  of  controversy  and  led  to  his  name  becoming 
especially  feared  and  detested  by  the  Protestants. 

'  Granted,'  he  says,  '  that  the  Catholic  religion 
was  erring  and  decadent,'  it  was  impossible  never- 
theless to  conceive  that  for  the  restoration  of  the  true 
Church  God  would  have  called  such  a  man  as  Luther, 
who  revealed  himself  in  his  writings  as  '  beyond  measure 
unclean,  blasphemous,  dissolute,  untruthful,  puffed-up, 
full  of  doubts,  and  obscene.'  For  each  of  these  '  seven 
characteristics '  of  Luther  '  a  couple  of  examples ' 
were  cited  from  his  own  writings.  With  regard  to  his 
'  spirit  of  blasphemy '  he  says  :  '  As  to  the  scandalous 
and  blasphemous  nature  of  his  pen  and  mouth,  a  whole 
volume,  or  indeed  many  volumes,  might  be  made  of  it. 
If   we  wanted  all  this  to  be  fully  described,  we  could 

1  Motive,  pp.  127-183. 


PISTOKIUS   AGAINST   LUTHEE,   1591  133 

suggest  no  better  way  than  that  all  his  books  should 
be  collected  and  placed  side  by  side,  and  that  every- 
body should  read  them  for  himself  or  herself.  For  there 
are  few  in  which  he  does  not  use  several  legions  of 
words  of  abuse,  and  in  which  he  does  not  behave  as  if 
he  were  possessed  by  a  wicked  spirit.  His  Imperial 
Majesty  and  the  princes  with  him  are  downright  liars, 
they  are  German  beasts  like  unto  wolves  or  swine, 
murderers,  miserable  blinded  beings,  shameless,  mad, 
idiotic,  insensate,  raging,  frenzied  fools  and  blas- 
phemers. .  .  .  Duke  George  of  Saxony  is  pledged 
to  the  devil  in  hell,  he  is  an  accursed  wretch  under 
the  protection  of  the  devil,  spiritually  and  corporeally 
possessed  by  Satan  ...  a  mad,  raging  tyrant,  the 
assassin  of  Dresden.'  Then  follow  similar  outbursts 
of  Luther  against  other  princes,  especially  against 
all  his  opponents  :  '  The  Pope  is  the'  devil ;  if  I  could 
manage  to  put  an  end  to  the  devil  why  should  I  not 
do  it,  even  at  the  risk  of  my  own  life  ?  '  '  The  papists 
in  general  are  in  his  eyes  all  demons  and  demons' 
satellites,  who  glory  in  the  worship  of  the  devil.'  Pis- 
torius  is  bold  to  say  :  '  The  Christian  reader  will  find 
few  of  his  books,  those  especially  that  are  written 
against  the  papists  and  the  heretics,  in  which  all  the 
pages  are  not  blackened  with  the  devil  several  times 
over  ;  and  in  one  book  he  places  as  many  as  seventy- 
seven  legions  of  devils  ;  in  the  book  on  the  Councils 
the  devil  occurs  fifteen  times  in  four  lines  ;  in  the  book 
against  Duke  Henry  of  Brunswick  a  hundred  and  forty- 
six  times.  All  this,  however,  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at,  for  he  writes  openly  of  himself  :  "  And  so  I  will 
now  begin  as  one  whom  God  has  awakened,  to  be  as 
a  devil  against  all  you  Roman  devils,  murderers,  and 


134  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

bloodhounds,  as  indeed  some  call  me,  Elijah  against 
Ahab  and  Jezebel."  Is  not  this  enough  to  stamp 
Luther  as  an  impious  man,  and  is  further  proof  wanted  ? 
Is  he  still  the  prophet  of  God  ?  '  l  The  other  '  spirits  ' 
or  characteristics  of  Luther  were  dealt  with  in  similar 
fashion. 

The  fourth  '  reason  for  [the  Margrave's]  conversion  r 
shows  up  the  unwarrantable  changes  that  the  Augsburg 
Confession  had  undergone.  '  Even  the  first  two  editions 
of  the  Confession  and  of  the  Apology,  which  were  both 
issued  in  the  same  year  and  from  the  same  printing  press 
at  Wittenberg,  agree  neither  with  the  original  copy,  as  it 
was  handed  in  to  the  Emperor,  nor  with  each  other  ; 
but  are,  on  the  contrary,  different  confessions  and 
apologies.  The  original  Latin  text  of  the  Confession 
and  the  German  of  the  Apology  have,  down  to  the 
present  time,  not  yet  seen  daylight ;  the  German  text 
of  the  former  did  not  appear  till  1580,  and  the  Latin 
text  of  the  Apology  not  till  1587.  Nevertheless,  the 
Lutherans,  both  in  churches  and  schools,  for  the  last 
fifty  years  have,  without  knowing  these  documents, 
appealed  to  them,  taken  oaths  on  them,  and  taught 
and  believed  things  quite  opposed  to  them.'  2 

The  fifth  '  motive '  gives  opportunity  for  an  ex- 
haustive disquisition  on  the  reasons  why  the  Catholic 
Church  is  the  only  true  one  and  the  only  one  which 
leads  to  salvation.3     The  work  met  with  no  refutation. 

Simultaneously  with  its  appearance  there  issued 
from  the  pen  of  the  Wiirtemberg  court  preacher, 
Lucas  Osiander,  a  publication  entitled  '  Ein  schoner 
wohlriechender  Rosenkranz  von  acht  und  zwanzig  Rosen' 

1  Motive,  pp.  184  &.,  199  flf.,  242,  260-261. 
~  Motive,  pp.  271-399.  3  Pp.  400-582. 


THE   POLEMICS   OF   OSIANDER,    1591  135 

('  A  beautiful,  sweet-scented  rosary  of  twenty-eight 
roses')  which  had  been  collected  from  the  '  Konfor- 
mitatenbuch '  of  the  Franciscans  '  in  order  to  make 
publicly  known  the  peculiar  devoutness  and  holiness 
of  the  Seraphic  Brothers.'  l 

The  Bamberg  Franciscan,  Michael  Anisius,  wrote 
an  answer  to  this.2  Osiander,  as  Anisius  demonstrated, 
in  his  translations  of  the  '  little  tales '  in  the  book, 
had  perverted  the  Latin  text  in  the  most  shameful 
manner,  in  order  to  heap  all  manner  of  obloquy  on 
the  Franciscans.3 

1  Tubingen,  1591. 

2  Freundliche  Zerreissung  des  schonen  wohlriechenden  Rosenhranz,  &c. 
(Ingolstadt,  1592)  ;  Vorrede,  A  2b.  ('  The  beautiful  and  sweet-smelling 
Rosary  amicably  torn  up,'  &c.) 

3  Thus,  to  give  only  one  instance,  Osiander  in  his  Rosenhranz  trans- 
lated a  passage  at  p.  4  as  follows  :  '  Francis  sent  two  of  his  brothers  to 
Florence,  and  they  stood  under  a  shed  the  whole  night,  quite  naked,  in 
very  cold  winter  weather,  and  a  woman  thought  that  they  were  thieves.' 
To  this  Osiander  made  the  marginal  comment :  '  Here's  a  sample  of  the 
filthy  saintliness  of  the  Barefoot  friars  .  .  .  should  a  respectable  man  stand 
naked  before  a  woman  ?  '  To  this  Anisius  answered,  p.  22  :  '  You  lie, 
Hoserle  [Hoserle  =  Hos  =  Andreas,  the  original  German  name  of  Osiander], 
you  venomous,  accursed  adder,  you  lie !  In  the  Latin  nothing  what- 
ever is  said  about  standing  naked  all  night.  The  text  says  :  "  Then, 
when  they  came  to  Florence,  they  could  not  find  any  lodging  ;  but  they 
came  at  length  to  a  house  which  had  a  shed  in  front  of  it ;  they  begged  the 
woman  for  a  lodging,  but  when  she  refused  them,  in  porticu  ilia  tota  node 
steterunt,  nihil  tegumenti  habentes,  cum  esset  frigus  intensissimum."  O 
Hoserle !  does  nihil  tegumenti  habentes  mean  standing  naked  ?  Are  roof 
and  clothes  one  and  the  same  thing  ?  The  remainder  of  the  Latin  test 
ran :  "  Vir  enim  dictae  mulieris  credebat,  eos  ribaldos  esse  et  fures  ;  nihil 
voluit  eis  accommodare.  Et  summo  mane  recedentes  a  dicta  porticu  ad  eccle- 
siam  perrexerunt,  quos  mulier  predicta  videns  orantes,  intra  se  dixit :  isti 
non  sunt  ribaldi,  ut  dixit  vir  metis  :  "  that  is  to  say,  "  and  early  in  the  morn- 
ing they  went  from  the  shed  to  church,  and  when  the  woman  saw  them 
praying,  she  said  to  herself :  '  Those  men  are  no  thieves  and  robbers,  as 
my  husband  said.'  "  This  whole  context,  Hoserle,  convicts  you  of  lying. 
What  now  becomes  of  your  dirty  gloss,  in  which  you  talk  about  the 
filthy  holiness  of  the  Barefoot  friars,  making  out  that  they  stood  naked 
before  the  woman  ?  ' 


136  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

But  Osiander  did  not  allow  himself  to  be  discon- 
certed. He  could  not  justify  his  translation  or  deny 
the  charge  of  having  falsified  in  numberless  ways. 
He  therefore  adopted  the  line  of  declaring  that  Anisius 
was  '  a  devil  incarnate  and  an  unblushing  slanderer ' 
and  that  he  (Osiander)  troubled'  himself  '  as  little 
about  his  calumnies  as  about  a  goose  hissing  or  a  dog 
barking  at  him.'  With  a  '  proclamation '  of  this 
sort  to  '  all  pious  Christians  '  he  remanded  the  '  slan- 
dering '  Anisius  '  to  the  righteous  judgment  of  God, 
who  would  not  fail  to  vindicate  His  own  honour  and 
truth.     Amen.'  ' 

Before  Anisius,  the  Barefoot  friar  George  Ecker 
had  already  entered  the  lists  against  Osiander' s  '  Rosen  - 
kranz  '  by  publishing  in  1591,  '  to  serve  as  a  mirror  to 
show  up  the  blasphemy  and  abominable  uncleanness 
of  the  Lutherans,'  a  pamphlet  entitled  '  A  beautiful 
wreath  of  nettles  from  the  exquisite,  unsurpassable 
(not  "Table-talk,"  but  other)  illustrious  works  and  books 
of  the  man  who  has  lost  so  many  souls,  and  is  therefore 
so  dear — the  unfrocked  monk,  Martin  Luther.'  2  His 
'  nettles,'  Ecker  said,  he  had  transcribed  from  the 
'  Seven  Lutheran  Spirits  '  of  Johann  Pistorius,  and  that 
the  latter  would  soon  be  produced  in  the  original  and 
enlarge  his  wreath.3 

1  Bericht  an  alle  fromme  Christen,  welche  die  Wahrheit  lieben  ;  warum 
die  beide  rasende  Barfiisser  Mlinche  Georg  Eckhart  und  Michel  Anisius 
Iceiner  Antwort  wert  seien  ('  A  statement  to  all  pious  Christians  who  love 
the  truth,  why  the  two  raving  Barefoot  monks,  George  Eckhart  and  Michael 
Anisius,  are  not  worth  answering')  (Tiibingen,  1592),  pp.  2,  6,  13,  14. 

2  Fiir  ein  Messlcram  zusammen  in  unterschiedenen  Azoaras  gebunden 
und  auf  des  gottlosen  Lukas  Osianders  .  .  .  unsinnig  alkoranische  Hawpt 
zu  Aussziehung  seiner  ehrrugiger  liigenhafter  Diimpf  aufgesetzt  ('  Tied  up 
in  separate  bundles  for  sale  at  the  fair,  and  put  on  the  godless  Lukas 
Osiander's  senseless  and  Mahommedan  head  to  draw  out  its  slanderous  and 
lying  vapours  ')  (Freiburg  im  Uechtland,  1591). 

3  Vorrede,  A  3. 


OSIANDER   AND   HIS   OPPONENTS,    159.  137 

Osiander,  without  going  more  closely  into  the 
contents  of  the  pamphlet  or  attempting  to  refute  it, 
answered  that  '  there  was  no  obligation  to  accept 
every  word  of  Luther's  writings,  but  that  those  who 
maligned  and  slandered  them  were  "children  of  the 
devil,"  and  now  that  George  Eckhart  and  his  allies 
have  already  skimmed  the  broth  of  Pistorius's  "  Seven 
Spirits  "  and,  as  they  say,  taken  off  the  best  of  the  fat, 
I  have  good  hope  that,  when  Pistorius  comes  down 
upon  us  with  his  seven  spirits,  his  brothers  and  co- 
calumniators  will  already  have  laughed  down  the  best 
of  his  jokes.'  l 

Pistorius  had  kept  his  work  on  Luther's  '  execrable 
life  and  teaching '  back  from  the  press,  because,  as  he 
said,  he  '  was  ashamed  to  write  down  things  so  disrepu- 
table, so  indecent,  and  so  distressing  to  many  pious 
hearts.'  2  It  was  not  till  after  the  appearance  of  the 
1  Wiirtemberg  clamourers,  and  of  the  wretched  Friar 
Wilhelm  in  particular,'  that  he  set  his  scruples  aside. 
Wilhelm  Holder,  chief  preacher  and  consistorial  coun- 
cillor at  Stuttgart,  had  published  in  1593,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Wiirtemberg  Consistorium,  a  treatise 
against  the  '  Rosenkranz  '  entitled  '  Die  ausgewaidete 
Maus '  ('  The  disembowelled  mouse').  Instead  of  looking 
out  for  the  motes  in  the  eyes  of  Luther,  whose  utterances 
he  interpreted  so  abominably,  Pistorius  should  turn 
his  attention  to  the  beams  in  the  eyes  of  the  Roman 
Church.  Among  these  immeasurable  beams,  '  popish 
buffoonery,  absurdities,  and  contradictions,'  Holder 
included  the  school  question  widely  discussed  by  School- 
men of  the  Middle  Ages,   and   not   seldom   in   highly 

1  In  the  report  quoted  on  preceding  page,  note  1,  pp.  3-5  of  report. 

2  Anatomie  Luther s,  p.  39. 


138  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

objectionable  forms,  '  whether  a  mouse  which  ate  a  con- 
secrated wafer  had  swallowed  the  body  of  Christ,  what 
had  become  of  this  body,  and  what  would  happen  to 
the  mouse  ?  '  ]  '  The  mice,'  Holder  remarks  frequently 
in  the  margin,  '  make  the  papists  perspire  with  fear.' 
'  Take  care,  Pistorius,  you  too  have  many  mice.  Fran- 
ciscus  the  saint  belongs  also  to  the  "  spirits  of  Luther  ' 
by  reason  of  his  diabolical  temptations.  The  mice 
had  devoured  a  popish  saint  alive  out  of  sheer  piety.'  2 

What  Holder  was  pleased  to  regard  as  the  '  motes 
in  Luther's  eyes '  was  dealt  with  by  Pistorius  in  a  volu- 
minous work  the  first  part  of  which,  550  pages  long, 
appeared  at  Cologne  in  1595  under  the  title  '  Anatomy 
of  Luther,'  and  gave  an  account  of  Luther's  '  seven 
wicked  spirits,'  the  spirits  of  whoredom,  of  blasphemy, 
and  of  lewdness.  According  to  the  testimony  of  a 
Protestant  this  work  was  the  result  of  '  stupendous, 
almost  Herculean  labour  ; '  it  is  '  a  book  of  imperishable 
fame.'  3 

Pistorius  had  read  Luther's  writings  through  three 
times  and  had  taken  the  greatest  trouble  to  procure 
the  oldest  and  most  authentic  copies  of  them,  and  he 
published  a  full  catalogue  of  all  the  different  books  he 
used.4 

1  The  full  title  of  the  treatise  occurs  in  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayerns, 
ii.  341,  note  2. 

2  According  to  the  Tubingen  edition  of  1688,  pp.  128,  137.  The 
refutation  cited  by  Stieve,  i.  342,  note  1,  is  unknown  to  me. 

3  Anatomiae  Luiheri  pars  prima,  das  ist  aus  den  sieben  biisen  Oeistem 
des  vil  Seelen  verlustigen  und  also  teuren  Marines  D.  Martin  Lutheri  die 
drei  ersten  Geister  :  I.  der  fleischliche  Geist  ;  II.  der  Lastergeist ;  III.  der 
Lottergeist  (wherein,  as  also  in  the  remaining  four  '  spirits,'  Luther  is 
painted  in  such  a  lifelike  manner  with  his  own  words,  that  all  readers  can 
at  once  perceive,  trace,  and  understand  without  fail,  whether  he  was  a 
prophet  of  God  or  something  quite  different)  (Cologne,  1595). 

4  '  In  the  first  place  I  declare  publicly  that  I  have  not  done  Luther  any 


PISTORIUS   AGAINST   LUTHER,    1595  139 

Each  of  the  three  '  spirits,'  in  imitation  of  the 
Koran,  is  divided  into  seven  '  Azoars,'  and  these  again 
subdivided  according  to  necessity  into  chapters. 

Each  Azoar  discusses  a  specific  subject  with  precise 
reference  to  the  place  where  it  is  dealt  with  in  Luther's 
works,  and  contains  explanations  and  comments  of  the 
greatest  penetration  and  bluntness.  The  conclusions 
which  Pistorius  deduced  from  his  materials,  and  which  he 
sums  up  at  the  end  of  each  Azoar  as  '  laws  of  Luther,' 
aroused  such  indignation  among  the  Protestants  that 
the  Hessian  theologians  exclaimed  :  '  May  God  reform 
the  laws  of  Pistorius  with  fire  and  brimstone  as  He  did  in 
the  case  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrha.'  l  What  Pistorius 
quotes    in    the    second    and    third    Azoars,  concerning 

injustice  in  respect  of  his  vocabulary,  and  I  will  gladly  submit  to  public 
chastisement  if  in  any  one  syllable  I  have  perverted  his  sense.  But  in 
order  to  save  trouble  in  referring  to  the  book,  and  to  make  it  easy  for 
everyone  to  find  the  sayings  quoted,  I  have  done  my  best  to  supply  the 
reader  with  a  complete  list  of  all  the  books  from  which  I  have  taken  the 
Lutheran  abominations,  with  the  year  and  place  of  publication.'  '  But, 
although  all  the  evidence  is  taken  from  the  Jena  edition,  it  may  still 
sometimes  happen  that  there  were  contributions  from  the  Wittenberg 
copies.  In  such  cases,  however,  I  always  emote  "  Wittenberg."  Wherever 
the  name  Wittenberg  does  not  occur,  it  may  be  understood  that  I  always 
use  the  Jena  text.  At  the  same  time,  in  case  any  should  not  believe  in 
the  Jena  edition — which  nevertheless  has  always  passed  as  the  best 
among  the  Lutherans — I  am  ready  to  prove  all  and  everything  over  again 
from  the  very  first  best-prized  quarto  editions  printed  at  Wittenberg, 
which  I  have  collected  with  great  trouble,  in  order  that  the  Lutherans 
may  have  no  loop-hole  of  escape  in  this  direction.'  The  catalogue  follows 
at  p.  63.  He  speaks  to  the  same  effect  also  in  the  preface,  pp.  3a  and  3 ". 
Spangenberg  could  find  no  other  fault  with  him  but  that  in  one  place  he 
had  written  adulterum  for  adidtum,  although  he  knew  that  it  was  a 
misprint.  In  the  account  of  '  the  first  wicked  spirit,'  p.  50,  '  from  the 
first  copy  Captivitatis  Babylonicce,  anno  1520,  at  Wittenberg,'  Pistorius 
remarked  :  '  The  following  passage  is  shamefully  omitted  in  all  the  volumes 
published  at  Jena  and  at  Wittenberg,  without  doubt  because  the  Lutherans 
were  ashamed  of  their  prophet  Luther.' 

1  Notwendige  Besichtigung  (see  below,  p.  147,  note  1). 


140  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  '  third  wicked  spirit '  as  '  Hurenpossen'  and  '  Dreck- 
possen,'  is  not  fit  for  reproduction.1  Everybody  was 
to  learn  to  know  aright  '  the  execrable  monster '  and 
'  the  blindness  of  poor  Germany '  in  proclaiming  such 
a  man  to  be  a  prophet.  If  Pistorius  had  already 
in  the  '  Motive  '  quoted  the  most  virulent  and  abusive 
invectives  of  Luther  against  the  Emperor  and  different 
German  princes,  he  now,  and  for  a  special  reason,  repro- 
duced his  '  calumnious  utterances  against  the  Elector 
Joachim  I.  of  Brandenburg.'  The  latter  had  been 
described  by  Luther  as  '  a  liar,  a  mad  bloodhound, 
a  devil's  papist,  a  murderer,  a  traitor,  a  good-for- 
nothing  villain,  a  murderer  of  souls,  an  arch-knave, 
an  unclean  sow,  a  child  of  the  devil,  the  devil  himself,' 
and  so  forth.  '  The  House  of  Brandenburg  had  best 
take  heed  of  the  words  of  Luther.'  '  It  is  matter 
indeed  for  wonder  what  they,'  the  descendants  and  re- 
latives of  Joachim  I.,  '  will  think  of  their  prophet  after 
reading  this  pamphlet,  and  learning  how  with  his  swinish 
snout  he  dared  to  bespatter  and  befoul  their  friend 
and  ancestor,  a  German  prince  and  elector,  and  to  im- 
peach him  both  in  his  temporal  and  spiritual  honour  : 
whether  they  will  quietly  endure  such  outrageous 
insults  and  still  believe  that  the  Spirit  of  God  was  in 
this  man,  and  that  he  is  worthy  to  have  any  faith 
placed  in  him.'  2 

Simultaneously  with  the  first  part  of  the  '  Anatomie  ' 
Pistorius  brought  out  a  pamphlet  against  the  Witten- 
berg professor,  Agidius  Hunnius — an  answer,  namely, 
to  the  '  Theses  on  Justification '  which  Hunnius  had 
published  against  him.     In  the  short  space  of  seven 

1  Anatomie,  dritter  biise  Geist,  pp.  13-63. 

2  Anatomie,  der  andere  biise  Geist,  pp.  93-94. 


WRITINGS   AGAINST   PISTORIUS,    1596  141 

pages — so  Pistorius  said — his  adversary  had  been  guilty 
of  '  one  hundred  lies,  besides  eighteen  or  more  falsifi- 
cations of  Holy  Writ,  and  forty  illogical  deductions, 
thus  showing  by  his  own  words  that  he  and  other 
Lutherans  and  Calvinists  knew  very  little  indeed  of 
what  were  the  controverted  points  in  the  discussion  on 
justification.'  All  the  disciples  of  Luther  were  of  the 
same  stamp  as  their  master  who  had  '  perverted  Holy 
Scripture  and  rejected  the  Church  wholesale  and  all 
the  holy  Fathers,  and  had  placed  all  his  hopes  on  the 
wanton  calumnies  and  falsehoods  with  which  our 
poor  Catholic  Church  was  besmirched  in  order  to  fill 
the  people  with  horror  of  it.'  * 

Ever  since  the  appearance  of  the  '  Anatomie  Luthers ' 
Johannes  Pistorius,  '  the  impious  mamaluke  Phister- 
hansj  had  been,  '  in  the  eyes  of  every  single  evangelical 
Christian,  the  most  scandalous  of  debauchees  which 
the  idolatrous  papacy  and  devil's  synagogue  had  pro- 
duced since  the  advent  of  the  Gospel,'  and  consequently 
'  such  an  object  of  horror  and  abomination  to  every 
one  that  the  diabolical  villain  ought  to  be  hanged 
and  burnt  as  he  deserved.'  Samuel  Huber  was  the 
first  to  begin  the  attack,  with  an  almost  inexhaustible 
fund  of  slanderous,  abusive  language  in  his  pamphlet, 
published  in  the  year  1596,  '  Antwort  auf  Hans  Pistorii 
sieben  Teufel  und  unmenschliche  wie  auch  unchristliche 
Schmahschrift.'  2 

He  could  not  deny  the  authenticity  of  the  passages 
which  Pistorius  had  quoted  from  Luther,  and  did  not 

1  Ein    hundert    Unwahrheiten,    &c.    (Konstanz,    1595)  ;    Vorrede,    1% 
2b,  3b. 

2  '  Answer  to  John  Pistorius'  inhuman  and  unchristian  pamphlet,  The 
Seven  Devils '  (without  locality,  1596). 


142  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

trouble  himself  to  make  a  closer  examination  of  the 
book.  He  was  satisfied  with  asserting  that  '  Pistorius, 
for  the  sake  of  his  belly,  had  placed  his  God,  his  soul, 
and  his  salvation  at  stake  ; '  '  he  did  not  dwell  in  a 
church,  but  in  an  owl's  nest,  in  a  habitation  of  dragons 
and  basilisks  ; '  he  was  '  up  to  the  knees  in  blood  which 
the  Roman  Church  had  shed  ; '  he  had  '  swilled  himself 
full  with  this  blood,'  and  he  '  meant  to  feed  and  fatten 
on  the  belly  and  breasts  of  the  Popess  Johanna.'  : 
With  a  certain  amount  of  skill  Huber  collected  together, 
from  all  the  controversial  writings  that  had  so  far 
appeared,  the  most  outrageous  and  abominable  things 
that  had  been  written  and  invented  about  the  papacy.2 
He  concluded  as  follows  :  '  Anyone  who  looks  into  the 
structure  and  nature  of  the  papacy  will  find  himself 
gazing  into  a  region  of  brimstone  and  hell-fire,  where 
the  devil,  masked  in  human  form,  carries  on  his  govern- 
ment of  the  earth.  .  .  .  The  Saugeist  (swine  spirit), 
Ziegengeist  (goat  spirit),  Hundsgeist  (canine  spirit), 
and  all  unclean,  unhallowed  field  devils  and  field 
spirits  have  exalted  a  Gomorrha  into  a  Church.'  3 
When  Pistorius  complained  that  the  most  absurd,  pre- 
posterous statements  were  foisted  on  the  people  as 
doctrines  of  the  Catholic  Church,  Huber  defended 
this  charge  by  writing  among  many  other  things  the 
following  absurdities :  '  The  Pope,  in  the  estimation 
of  the  Catholics,  is  both  God  and  man,  and  a  God  on 
earth  ;  he  can  make  whatever  he  wills  out  of  nothing  ; 
he  has  control  over  the  angels  in  heaven,  and  he  has 
power  over  all  that  is  in  hell ;  he  can  do  all  that  God  can 

1  Huber,  Antwort,  Bl.  2%  2h,  3. 

2  See,  for  instance,  pp.  28  ff.,  99,  103  ff.,  107,  108,  112,  153  ff. 

3  Bl.  106,  145  ff. 


WRITINGS   AGAINST   PISTORIUS,   1596  143 

do ;  for  all  things  that  God  does  in  heaven,  the  Pope 
does  on  the  earth.'  l  '  At  bottom  '  the  Catholic  doctrine 
came  to  this,  that  '  Christ  was  no  Christ,  no  Redeemer, 
and  no  Saviour.'  Under  the  name  of  Christ  they  had 
smuggled  into  the  Church  '  Masses,  pilgrimages,  invo- 
cation of  saints,  cowls,  tonsure,  dead  men's  bones,  rays 
of  fire  issuing  from  St.  Margaret's  head,  chrisom, 
anointing,  purgatory,  consecrated  water,  and  so  on : 
it  was  through  mummery  of  this  sort,  and  not  through 
Christ,  that  they  looked  to  attain  salvation.'  2 

According  to  Huber  the  true  secret  of  the  strength 
of  Protestantism  lay  in  impressing  vividly  on  the  youth 
of  Germany  these  '  abominations  '  of  the  papacy,  and 
it  was  a  matter  of  deep  distress  to  him  that  enough 
was  not  done  in  this  direction.  And  for  this  reason 
he  predicted  '  the  imminent  fulfilment,  alas  !  of  Luther's 
prediction,  viz.  that  the  Gospel  would  not  be  preserved 
in  any  one  place  longer  than  the  period  of  a  man's  life.'  3 

Cyriacus  Spangenberg,  in  his  pamphlet  published 
in  1596  under  the  title  of  '  Gegenbericht  auf  Pistorii 
sieben  bosen  Geister,'  was  no  more  able  than  Samuel 
Huber  to  refute  the  historical  part  of  the  '  Anatomie 
Luthers.'  But  he  complained  that  Pistorius,  whom 
he  loaded  with  as  much  abuse  as  Huber  had  bestowed 
on  him,  '  in  his  glosses  and  additions  writes  much  more 
coarsely  than  Luther,  that  he  actually  revels  in  ob- 
scenity, perjuries,  gives  indecent  meanings  to  words — 
and  this  so  frequently,  often  repeating  offensive  passages 
three  or  four  times,  or  even  oftener — that  it  would  be 
impossible  to  produce  a  fouler  and  uglier  composi- 
tion.' Things  that  never  entered  into  Luther's  head 
or  were  written  down  by  his  pen   '  he  squeezes  and 

1  Bl.  27.  2  Bl.  41.  3  Bl.  2\ 


144  HISTOEY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

presses  out  and  cannot  make  them  loathsome  enough.' 
In  order  to  parry  his  adversary,  Spangenberg,  for  the 
benefit  of  his  readers,  had  painted  the  execrable  '  Anti- 
christ '  with  '  a  hundred  marks  or  characteristics 
derived  from  the  Holy  Scriptures,'  merely  reiterating 
all  that  Luther,  Flacius,  Wigand  and  others  had  uttered 
before  him.  Out  of  the  116  pages  of  the  pamphlet  only 
six  were  directed  against  '  the  three  wicked  spirits  ' 
of  the  '  Anatomic.'  It  was  anything  rather  than  a  refu- 
tation of  the  latter.1 

In  the  opinion  of  the  Protestants,  also,  the  writings 
of  Huber  and  Spangenberg  were  not  adequate  to  the 
occasion.2 

Next,  and  thirdly,  the  Wiirtemberg  theologians  took 
up  the  cudgels  against  Pistorius.  In  their  account 
of  his  '  Lasterbuch '  they  too  expressed  the  opinion 
that '  Satan  had  dictated  it  to  him  from  the  pit  of  hell ;  ' 
they  wished  for  their  antagonist,  '  who  had  sinned 
against  the  Holy  Ghost,'  that '  brimstone  and  pitch  might 
fall  on  his  head.'  They  contrasted  favourably,  how- 
ever, with  Huber  and  Spangenberg  in  that  they  avoided 
immoderate  abuse  and  accusations  against  the  Catholic 
Church.  They  transferred  Luther  from  the  days  of 
great  prophets  to  that  of  smaller  ones,  and  they  allowed 
that  in  some  points,  especially  in  his  decrees  about 
polygamy  and  divorce,  he  had  gone  too  far.     Pistorius, 

1  Gegenbericht  auff  Doctoren  Joh.  Pistorij  Sieben  base  Geister,  so  sich 
merlclich  in  ihme  selbs  regen  ;  darneben  hundert  Merkzeichen  auss  heiliger 
Schrift  zusammengezogen,  darbey  augenscheinlich  zusehen,  wer  eigentlich 
der  Antichrist  sey  ('  Refutation  of  Dr.  Joh.  Pistorius's  Seven  Wicked  Spirits, 
which  rule  so  markedly  in  himself  ;  besides  a  hundred  characteristics 
from  Holy  Scripture,  whereby  it  may  be  plainly  seen  who  was  the  veritable 
Antichrist'  (without  locality,  1596):  Preface,  Bl.  1,  pp.  2,  3,  27,  41-47). 
The  '  Characteristics  '  occur  from  pp.  47-116. 

2  See  Stieve,  ii.  345,  note  1  (83,  note  1). 


WRITINGS   AGAINST   PISTORIUS,   1596  145 

they  said,  wanted  to  make  Luther  out  a  Turkish  pro- 
phet, and  he  had  therefore  divided  his  book  into  Azoars, 
as  the  devil's  prophet  Mohammed  had  done  with  the 
Koran,  so  that  everybody  might  understand  that 
'  all  Luther's  writings  were  nothing  else  than  Turk- 
ish doctrine  and  abomination.'  They  abstained  from 
quoting  passages  from  Luther's  '  Table-talk  '  because  he 
'  had  not  given  instructions  that  these  utterances 
should  be  revered  as  something  sacred  and  put  into 
print ;  they  had  only  been,  as  it  were,  caught  on  the 
wing  ;  they  had  not  been  recorded  by  notaries  :  talk  at 
convivial  meals  ought  not  to  be  posted  up  in  the  council 
house.'  The  theologians  made  a  lame  attempt  to 
justify  Luther's  indecent  and  scandalous  language, 
by  infelicitous  reference  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  in 
which  still  worse  things  were  to  be  found.  '  If  this 
is  the  reason,'  they  said,  '  why  Pistorius  spits  in  Luther's 
face,  why  does  he  not  rather  spit  in  the  face  of  God  ?  ' 
In  his  invectives  against  the  Pope  and  the  Koman 
Church  Luther  had  had  the  example  of  Christ  before 
his  eyes.  Pistorius  had  been  quite  wrong  in  his  judg- 
ment of  these  utterances  of  Luther :  '  as  if  one  were 
bound  to  lay  an  adversary,  who  had  attacked  and 
blasphemed  divine  truth,  on  a  soft  cushion  !  Had  not 
Christ  denounced  such  false  teachers  as  Luther's  oppo- 
nents had  been,  as  hypocrites,  as  an  adulterous  genera- 
tion, a  brood  of  vipers  ?  '  The  princes  had  praised 
or  condemned  Luther  according  as  they  wished  to  follow 
his  teaching  or  not :  emperors,  kings,  and  princes  had 
also  '  had  the  good  sense '  not  to  put  him  to  death 
on  account  of  his  extreme  language,  nor  to  sue  him 
at  law,  but  they  had  allowed  matters  to  take  their 
vol.  x.  t. 


146  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

course.1     This  pamphlet  also  was  in  no  way  a  refuta- 
tion of  the  '  Anatomie.' 

Still    less    so    was    the    '  necessary    examination ' 
(notwendige    Besichtigung)    which    several    theologians 
and  preachers  in  the  upper  principality  of  Hesse  be- 
stowed on  the  book  in   1597.     For  this  examination 
consisted  chiefly  in  wanton  invectives  against  Pistorius, 
that  '  bedevilled  man  and  instrument  of  Satan,'  and 
against  the  Popes,  who  were  treated  collectively  as  'the 
worst  of  scoundrels,'  as  practisers  and  even  defenders 
of  every  kind  of  vice  and  unmentionable  sin  ;  all  pious 
Christians,  it  was  said,  ought  to  take  to  heart  Luther's 
prayer :    '  May  God  fill  you  with  hatred  against  the 
Pope ! '     In  order  to  inspire  the  people  with  righteous 
horror  of  the  Roman  '  devil's  heads,'  every  imaginable 
Pope-fable  was  repeated  and  exaggerated.     One  Pope 
had  had  a  sow  '  who  had  fur  and  claws  like  a  bear.' 
Another  had  been  strangled  by  the  devil  and  '   had 
been  seen  in  a  most  terrific  form,  with  the  body  of  a 
Moor  and  the  head  and  tail  of  a  donkey,'  and  so  forth. 
'  Gregory   VII.   had   engaged   an   agent  to  carry  huge 
stones  to  an  attic  just  over  the  spot  where  the  Emperor 
was  in  the  habit  of  saying  his  prayers,  and  when  he 
was  most  devoutly  absorbed  in  his  devotions,  the  man 
was  to  hurl  them  at  his  head  and  dash  him  to  pieces.' 
This  '  Necessary  Examination  '   was  to  be  the  means 
of  retaining  the  people  in  allegiance  to  the  '  true  evangel.' 
The  Hessites  vented  their  wrath  on  the  Jesuits  also 
in  order  to  ward  off  the  attacks  against  Luther :  they 
called   them    '  wicked   scoundrels,    sorcerers,    ministers 

1  Christlicher,  bescheidenlicher  und  griindlicher  Bericht  liber  das  Liister- 
buch  Doctoris  Joannis  Pistorii  Nidani,  welches  er  Anatomiam  Luiheri 
genennet  hat  .  .  .  durch  die  wiirtenbergischen  Theologen  (Tubingen,  1596), 
pp.  8,  13,  50,  51-52,  54,  62,  74,  75,  79,  83,  93. 


HESSIAN   THEOLOGIANS   AGAINST   PISTORIUS,    1597      147 

of  devils  and  idols,  lovers  of  lust  rather  than  of  God,' 
and  so  forth. '  The  Jesuit  Bellarmin  attributed  indirectly 
to  the  Pope  the  authority  to  '  trample  on  the  heads 
of  emperors  and  kings '  as  the  Emperor  Barbarossa 
had  allowed  Alexander  III.  to  do  to  him.2 

Pistorius  did  not  honour  the  '  libels  '  of  Huber  and 
Spangenberg  with  an  answer ;  but  against  his  theo- 
logical opponents  he  issued,  in  1597,  a  pamphlet  com- 
posed in  four  days  entitled  '  Kleine  Trostschrift  an  die 
wurtenbergische  und  hessische  pradikantische  Gesell- 
schaft.' 3  In  this  he  attempted  '  once  for  all  to  answer 
and  demolish  the  senseless  clamourers  who  were  nocking 
from  all  directions  with  bottomless  tubs  full  of  power- 
less liquids,  to  extinguish  the  raging  flames  that  were 
consuming  their  temple  of  Diana,  and  to  set  before 
their  eyes  the  absurdity,  the  vileness,  and  the  utter 
uselessness  of  all  their  efforts  which  only  served  to 
belittle  and  depreciate  Luther.'  Pistorius  dwelt  espe- 
cially on  Luther's  new  matrimonial  laws,  reproduced 
a  sermon  which  Luther  had  preached  and  published 
on  conjugal  life  in  1519,  and  which  he  had  afterwards 
sought  to  withdraw  from  the  press,  and  demonstrated 
that  their  '  prophet '  had  considered  polygamy  lawful 
and  permissible,  even  if  not  advisable.  '  Herewith,' 
he  said,  '  readers  would  no  doubt  for  the  time  being  be 
satisfied,  and  would,  by  this  sample  alone,  be  convinced 
of  the  wretched,  beggarly  nature  of  Lutheranism.'  4 

1  Notwendige  Besichtigung,  Vorrede,  Bl.  2a,  pp.  46  ff.,  51,  53,  172,  182, 
194-195,  224-225,  226,  266. 

2  Pp.  46,  47.     See  above,  p. 

3  '  A  small  Consolation  Book  for  the  Company  of  Hessian  and  Wtirtem- 
bergian  Preachers  '  (Constance,  1597). 

4  Trostschrift,  Vorrede,  1%  Bl.  B-C  3b,  D  2b.  '  Zwolf  Kontradictionen 
zwischen  dem  Luther  und  den  hessischen  Priidilcanten '  ('  Twelve  Contra- 
dictions between  Luther  and  the  Hessian  Preachers  ').     Bl.  J.    '  Ein  und 

l  2 


148  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

The  '  Notwendige  Abfertigung  der  Trostschrift ' l 
which,  this  publication  called  forth  from  the  Hessian 
theologians  had  no  practical  value  and  was  made 
short  work  of  by  Pistorius  in  the  second  part  of  the 
'  Anatomie  Luthers  '  which  appeared  in  1598,  and  which 
dealt  with  the  fourth  of  the  '  sieben  bosen  Geistern  des 
viel  Seelen  verlustigen  und  also  teuren  Mannes  ' — that  is 
to  say,  the  spirit  of  heresy.  No  less  than  '  one  hundred 
and  three  heresies  against  the  Holy  Trinity '  were 
brought  to  light  'from  Luther's  own  well-known  books.'2 

In  the  following  year  Pistorius  completed  his 
'  Anatomie '  and  again  brought  forward  the  '  Seven 
Wicked  Spirits  of  Luther,'  introducing  them  into  his 
'  Hochwichtigen  Merkzeichen  des  alten  und  neuen 
Glaubens.' 3  His  object,  among  other  things,  was  to 
show  that  the  originators  of  the  new  doctrines  had  been 
altogether  bad  men.      Thus,   for  instance,   he  related 

fiinfzig  Liigen,  so  in  dem  hessischen  Buck  auf  zwei  Blatt  stehen '  ('  Fifty-one 
Lies  found  on  two  Leaves  of  the  Hessian  Book  '). 

1  The  '  Necessary  Refutation  of  the  Consolation  Book.'  Full  title  in 
Stieve,  ii.  347,  note  1. 

2  Koln,  1598.  To  his  knowledge,  Pistorius  says,  at  p.  2,  Luther  '  had 
never  in  plain  words  denied  the  Holy  Trinity  or  written  strongly  against 
it  in  his  general  publications  ;  but  here  and  there,  either  unintentionally 
or  intentionally,  in  order  to  be  better  able  in  the  future  to  overthrow  the 
mystery,  he  had  interspersed  and  insinuated  abominable  things  which 
certainly  implied  denial  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  and  were  calculated  to  raise 
doubts  on  the  subject  in  the  minds  of  intellectual  persons.'  Thus,  for 
instance,  at  p.  87  it  says  :  '  In  the  diabolical  book  of  which,  at  the  present 
day,  all  Lutherans  are  ashamed,  and  which  was  marvellously  expur- 
gated in  its  last  edition,  assertio  omnium  articulorum  per  bullam  damna- 
torum,''  Luther  says,  Art.  27  :  '  Essentiam  non  generate  et  generari  and 
animam  esse  immortalem  are  execrable  doctrines  which  have  grown  up 
on  the  Roman  dung -heap,  and  are  not  written  in  the  Scriptures.'  Pistorius 
explained  this  as  follows  :  '  That  the  soul  is  immortal  is  to  Luther  a  popish 
he.     Open  your  ears,  you  Lutherans  ! ' 

3  Minister,  1599.     The  book,  as  the  title  informs  the  reader,  is  a  new 
revised  edition   of  the  Motive  des   Markgrafen  Jakob   von  Baden.  &c.' 
but  '  as  good  as  a  now  book,'  Preface.  4a. 


VETTER   AGAINST   LUTHER   AND   THE   PREACHERS      149 

as  a  counterpart  to  the  calumnies  against  La  Casa, 
that  Theodore  Beza  had  been  guilty  of  scandalous 
conduct  with  a  boy  named  Audebert,  and  with  his 
paramour  Candida,  and  that  he  had  not  been  ashamed 
to  boast  of  this  behaviour  in  print.1 

The  example  set  by  Pistorius  was  followed  by 
Conrad  Vetter,  one  of  the  few  German  Jesuits  who 
took  the  pulpit  language  of  the  preachers  for  their 
model  and  acquired  an  undesirable  mastery  of  the  art. 
Vetter,  a  native  of  Engen  in  Suabia,  had  not  received 
his  whole  philosophical  and  theological  training  in  the 
Order.  He  entered  it  first  as  a  priest  in  1576,  after 
having  filled  the  office  of  a  choir-master  at  the  church 
of  the  convent  at  Hall,  and  he  was  placed  among  '  the 
clerical  co-adjutors.'  He  gained  great  renown  as 
preacher  at  Munich  and  Ratisbon.- 

After  the  manner  of  Protestant  controversialists 
who  wrote  under  feigned  names,  or  '  assumed  Catholic 
surnames  and  claimed  relationship  with  Catholics,' 
Vetter  posed  in  his  pamphlets  as  '  Conrad  Andrea, 
own  brother  to  James  Andrea  of  saintly  memory.' 
Flasch  and  Pistorius,  he  said,  '  had  given  the  preachers 
plenty  of  bags  to  wash ; '  the  latter,  in  his  '  Anatomie 
Luthers,'  '  had  brought  whole  tubs  full ; '  anyone 
'  desirous  of  seeing  the  whole  mass  of  Lutheran  filth  and 
abomination  collected  in  a  heap  '  should  buy  this  book 
and  read  it :  '  The  Lutheran  preachers  will  know  how  to 

1  P.  240.  See  pp.  239,  242,  243  &.,  what  is  quoted  from  the  life  of  the 
'  Evangelists,'  Calvin,  Kurz,  and  so  forth.  A  controversial  pamphlet 
well  worthy  of  attention  is  the  Wegweiser  (sign-post)  vor  alle  verfiihrten 
Christen,  published  by  Pistorius  in  1599  and  printed  afresh  in  1605. 
Fourteen  of  the  most  important  questions  in  dispute  between  the  Catholics 
and  the  new  religionists  are  here  treated  with  great  skill. 

2  Agricola,  i.  171  ;  Kropf,  iv.  345  ;  cf.  A.  Hirschmann,  'Das  Religions- 
gesprach  zu  Regensberg,  1601,'  in  the  Zeitschr.  fiir  Kathol.  Theol.  1898,  p.  3  ff. 


150  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

give  him  the  Botenbrot,  foremost  among  them  Huber, 
Spangenberg,  and  the  whole  pack  of  Wiirtembergers  and 
Hessites  ; '  these  last  tried  to  devour  Pistorius  (  =  Baker) 
whole,  '  but  this  man  can  knead  them  as  dough.'  l 
But  Pistorius  was  too  expensive,  and  so  he  (Vetter) 
had  divided  his  work  into  separate  '  small  tracts.'  2 
For  he  was  anxious, '  once  at  any  rate,  to  depict  Luther 
from  the  latter's  own  words  and  writings.'  '  And 
what  has  chiefly  moved  me  to  do  this,'  he  says,  '  is 
that  the  preachers  never  cease  to  proclaim  this  person 
as  a  saintly  man,  a  great  prophet,  and  a  third  Elias, 
while  at  the  same  time  they  are  pleased  to  drag  all 
the  great  Catholic  saints  in  the  mud  and  mire,  and 
to  give  out  that  we  Catholics  are  blasphemers  and 
idolaters,  that  we  pray  to  saints  and  images,  that  we 
are  rogues,  whores  and  sodomites  of  the  worst  descrip- 
tion, that  we  think  nothing  of  Christ  and  the  Divine 
Word,  but  expect  to  be  saved  through  our  own  works, 
and  so  on  through  the  whole  gamut  of  innumerable 
unblushing  lies  with  which  these  lying,  blaspheming 
preachers  beslaver  the  whole  world.'  '  They  produce 
enormous  works,  which  they  call  "  Histories  of  the 
Jesuits,"  full  of  most  monstrous  abuse ;  they  say 
"  Ignatius,  the  founder  of  the  Order,  was  a  bloodthirsty 
man,  possessed  and  instigated  by  the  devil ;  all  Jesuits 
are  thieves  and  murderers,  raging  hounds  and  beasts, 
Neronians,  filthy  hogs,  foul  epicures."  All  this  is  to 
be  considered  right  and  lawful,  and  they  actually 
justify  all  their  execrable  calumnies  by  appeal  to  God 
and  to  the  holy  evangel,   and  want  to  have  all  the 

1  Der  unschuldige,   demiitige  u.s.w.    Luther   (Minister   edition,    1606), 
pp.  150,  247. 

2  Zwolf  unterschiedliche  Tractiitlein  (Ingolstadt,  1600),  Vorrede. 


VETTEK  AGAINST   LUTHER  AND   THE   PREACHERS      151 

bishops,  monastic  persons,  and  clergy,  and  all  who  are 
loyal  to  us,  driven  out  of  the  land  or  even  con- 
demned to  the  stake.'  '  And  in  the  teeth  of  such 
innumerable  slanders  and  vilifications  we  forsooth 
are  to  bow  down  meekly  and  cringe  before  our  calum- 
niators. But  they  are  out  in  their  reckoning  here,  the 
rascally  knaves  ;  we  are  not  turned  out  yet,  and  we  will 
pay  them  back  with  their  own  coin,  even  if  their  bones 
should  crack  in  two,  so  that  the  people  may  see  with 
what  vermin  it  has  to  deal  and  by  what  sort  of  prophets 
it  has  been  deceived  and  led  astray.'  In  these  '  expres- 
sions of  opinion,'  Vetter,  '  among  many  other  libellous 
writings '  which  '  had  moved  him  to  take  up  his  pen,' 
had  especially  in  his  mind  a  so-called  '  Gesehichte  des 
Jesuitenordens  '  which  the  Lutheran  theologian  Poly- 
carp  Leiser,  in  the  year  1593,  had  compiled  in  Latin 
from  the  papers  of  Elias  Hafenmuller,  and  which  had 
been  published  in  many  editions  and  had  been  trans- 
lated into  German.1 

In  the  years  1594-1599,  Vetter  published  first  of  all 
ten  separate  pamphlets  under  the  titles :  '  Der  un- 
schuldige  '  (innocent),  '  der  demiitige  '  (humble),  '  der 
wahrhaftige  '  (truthful),  '  der  christenliche  '  (Christian), 
'  der  andachtige  (pious)  Luther,'  and  so  forth ;  and  in 
1600  he  brought  out  a  collection  of  the  above  with 
additions  under  the  title  of  '  Zwolf  unterschiedliche 
Traktatlein  aus  Luthers  eigenen  Schriften  zusammen- 
getragen '  ('  Twelve  separate  little  treatises  collected 
from  Luther's  own  writings '),  dedicated  to  all  lovers 
of  divine  truth.  After  a  fierce  combat  by  word  and  by 
pen  with  James  and  Philip  Heilbrunner,  he  produced 
several   more   similar   '  elegant  posies '   from   Luther's 

1  We  treat  of  this  in  chapter  ix.  of  this  volume. 


152  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

works.1  Finally,  in  1607,  he  came  forward  with  no 
less  than  '  Zweihundert  Luther,'  viz.  with  '  Zweihandert 
hellenund  sonnenklaren  Probendes  unschuldigen  Luther, 
wie  er  an  der  Verwiistung  deutscher  Nation  und  so  vieler 
seelen  Verderben  sich  am  jiingsten  Tag  werde  entschul- 
digen  kiinnen  ' ;?  ('  Two  hundred  proofs  as  clear  as  sun- 
shine of  the  innocent  Luther,  by  which,  at  the  Day  of 
Judgment,  he  will  justify  himself  for  the  ruin  of  the 
German  nation  and  the  perdition  of  so  many  souls'). 
He  says  in  his  preface  that  his  object  in  compiling  this 
work  was  to  supply  '  the  Catholic  preachers  with  a 
much  needed  alphabetical  compendium  and  register, 
by  the  help  of  which,  whenever  they  wanted  to  warn 
the  people  against  that  abominable  heretic  Luther, 
they  could  at  once  lay  their  hands  on  the  required 
passages.' 

That  he  had  made  use  of  gross,  even  the  very  grossest 
terms  of  abuse,  Vetter  did  not  attempt  to  deny,  nor  did 
he  deny  that  such  abuse  was  contrary  to  the  custom 
of  the  Jesuits.  He  challenged  his  adversary  Philip 
Heilbrunner  as  follows  :  '  My  dear  fellow,  I  dare  you  to 
collect  out  of  the  Jesuits'  books  all  their  terms  of  abuse, 
to  lay  them  in  the  balance,  and  to  compare  them  with 
the  slanders  which  your  preachers  alone  circulate 
against  the  Jesuits  by  word  and  by  writing.'  '  Such 
calumnies  are  lying  in  shoals  in  large  and  imposing 
books  in  the  open  market  and  in  cupboards.  But  tell 
me,  where  are  ours  to  be  seen  ?  '  As  for  his  own  '  new 
libels,'  however,  there  was  not  '  a  single  abusive  term 

1  See  full  and  accurate  details  in  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayerns,  ii.  348, 
note  2  ;  589,  notes  3  and  4  ;  597,  note  1  ;  598,  note  1.  See  also  Forschimgen 
zur  bayer.  Gesch.  ii.  (1894)  77. 

2  ingolstadt,  1607. 


VETTER   AGAINST   LUTHER   AND   THE   PREACHERS       153 

in  them '  which  had  not  been  taken  from  the  writings 
of  Luther  or  those  of  his  '  progeny.'  '  Go  on  calling 
the  papists  wicked  hounds  which  leave  the  pious  wolves 
no  rest.'  l 

How  much  '  he  learnt  from  the  language  of  the 
preachers  '  his  own  words,  for  instance,  testify :  '  In 
the  Wittenberg  edition  of  his  works,  vol.  5,  fol.  lb,  §  6, 
Luther  says  :  "  The  Gospel  does  not  preach  to  us  what 
we  ought  to  do  and  what  to  leave  undone ;  it  demands 
nothing  of  us,  it  does  precisely  the  opposite ;  it  does  not 
say,  '  Do  this,'  but  bids  us  open  our  hands  and  receive ; 
and  it  says,  '  See,  dear  friend,  what  God  has  done  for 
you ;  He  has  caused  His  Son  to  be  incarnate  for  you  ; 
for  your  sake  He  has  let  Him  be  put  to  death  and  has 
saved  you  from  your  sins,  from  death,  the  devil,  and 
hell ;  believe  this  and  accept,  and  you  will  be  saved.' 
*  0  Luther,  0  Lucifer,  0  liar,  0  scoundrel !  What 
then  becomes  of  the  Nisi  abundaverit  &c,  and  Nisi 
foenitentiam  &c.  ?  And  how  does  this  pig's  snout 
dare  to  aver  that  the  Gospel  does  not  say :  Do  this  or 
that  ?  Why,  it  is  said  in  plain  words  :  Fac  hoc  I  (Do 
this ! )  and  Fac  similiter !  (Do  thou  also  likewise). 
Countless  sayings  of  the  kind  are  found  in  all  four 
Gospels  and  in  all  the  apostolic  writings.  If  the 
evangelical  law  is  no  law  at  all,  why  then  is  it  called 
law  ?  Is  the  law  of  grace  no  law  ?  And  what  is  the 
whole  of  this  law  but  instruction  to  us  what  to  do 
and  what  not  to  do  :  instruction  to  do  what  is  good  and 
to  leave  undone  what  is  evil  ?  And  what,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  Luther's  opinion  and  conclusion  but  that 
Christ  has  done  everything,  and  therefore  we  are  to  do 

1  Antwart  auf  den  unschuldigen  Luther,  pp.  47-48. 


154  HISTOEY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

nothing  ?  To  the  gallows  with  such  a  teacher  and  his 
doctrine  ! ' 1 

Luther,  said  Vetter,  would  be  able  to  exonerate 
himself  at  the  Day  of  Judgment,  '  because  he  himself 
had  more  than  enough  warned  all  the  world  against 
his  own  person  and  doctrine  ;  but  the  world,  as  he 
says,  was  determined  to  be  deceived.'  The  preachers, 
however,  could  not  justify  themselves.  '  At  the  Day 
of  Judgment  there  would  be  nothing  that  would  cause 
the  preachers  so  much  shame  and  bitter  smarting 
as  the  thought  that  they  had  knowingly  and  palpably 
exalted  into  a  holy  prophet,  apostle,  and  evangelist, 
such  an  insensate  beast,  unclean  sow,  fickle  weather- 
cock, wanton  liar,  shameless  sensualist,  angry  brawler, 
hyperbolical  Thraso,  insolent  Goliath,  ribald  jay,  de- 
clared heretic  and  violator  of  nuns  ;  such  a  mass  of 
filth,  scum,  and  dregs  as  Luther.' 2 

'  The  poor  deluded  Protestant  people,  who  go  on 
in  their  simple  ways,  I  will  not  have  abused  and  damned  ; 
but  the  preachers,  the  liars,  the  noisy  slanderers,  are 
worthy  of  all  ignominy.  Who  can  be  at  peace  in  the 
presence  of  such  scoundrelly  villains  ?  Ought  not 
every  man  of  honour  to  scourge  them  right  and  left  ?  ' 
'  The  Catholics  have  been  driven  to  such  a  state  of 
exasperation   by   the   incessant   lying   and    slandering 

1  Zweihundert  Luther,  '  der  antinomistische  Luther,'  31.   At  p.  59,  it  says  : 

To  Luther  Moses  is  the  greatest  curse, 
Than  devil,  pope  or  antichrist  far  worse 
Off  with  him  to  the  gallows  grim, 
No  longer  must  we  fight  with  him. 

Tom.  Witt.  i.  215a ;  Tischreden,  pp.  153b  and  528a. 

2  Conrad  Andrea's  Alcademischer  Luther,  already  quoted  as  a  deterrent 
specimen  of  the  polemics  at  the  time  by  K.  A.  Menzel,  Deutsche  Gesch.  iii. 
149,  note  ;  Hurter,  Ferdinand  II.,  Bd.  1,  417,  note.  With  Vetter's 
Biischel,  compare  the  abusive  language  quoted  by  us  in  vol.  viii.  p.  182  f., 
which  Wittenberg  theologians  themselves  poured  out  concerning  Luther. 


VETTEE   AGAINST   LUTHEE   AND   THE   PEEACHEES       155 

of  the  preachers,  that  several  eminent  authors  have 
felt  constrained  to  fill  their  books  and  writings  with 
the  glaring  falsehoods  of  the  Protestants,  and  some  of 
these  volumes  contain  fifty,  sixty,  or  a  hundred,  others 
three  hundred,  five  hundred,  and  even  eight  hundred 
lies  with  distinctive  lying  titles,  now  plainly  shown  up, 
and  side  by  side  with  exhaustive  refutations  and  ex- 
posure of  their  mendacity.'  '  It  was  expressly  on 
account  of  the  preachers,  he  said,  that  he  showed 
Luther  up.  For  '  it  must  and  shall  be  known,'  he 
says,  '  that  the  preachers  are  swine  and  the  sucklings 
of  this  saintly  Luther.  But  who  has  ever  heard  that 
a  sow,  saving  your  reverence,  ever  turned  away  in  dis- 
gust from  the  stink  of  its  own  dung  ?  '  '  It  is  posi- 
tively necessary  that  these  hogs  and  beasts  should 
have  the  stinking  filth  of  their  '  prophets '  rubbed 
well  and  often  into  their  long  beards  and  over  their 
noses  and  mouths,  so  that  they  may  at  last  see  and 
taste  that  dirt  is  dirt  and  not  gold,  that  tallow  is  tallow 
and  not  balsam  .  .  .  ' 

'  I  could  bring  forward  many  reasons,'  he  goes  on, 
'  to  show  how  unwilling  I  was  personally  to  touch  this 
Martinian  or  Lutheran  swamp  and  stinking  pond, 
for  not  only  does  the  human  mind  shrink  from  such 
words  and  subjects,  but  also  it  is  inevitable  that  many 
right-minded  Catholics  would  think  the  man  who 
undertook  to  handle  such  materials  was  himself  some- 
what wanting  in  a  sense  of  shame  or  delicacy.  How- 
ever, the  shameless,  brazen-faced  preachers  have  gone 
to  such  lengths  that  we  are  forced  to  some  extent  to 
lay  aside  our  innate  Christian  modesty,  and  against 
our  inclination  to  stir  up  the  dirt  of  this  filthy  hog-sty  ; 

1  Antwort  auf  den  unschuldigen  Luther  (1600),  Vorrede,  iii. 


156  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

though  for  myself,  as  I  have  said  elsewhere,  I  would 
rather  see  it  buried  fifteen  fathoms  deep — yea,  verily, 
sunk  in  the  nethermost  pit  of  hell — than  that  such 
disgusting  uncleanness  should  come  into  the  hands  of 
a  multitude  of  pious  Christians.'  1 

But  these  writings  fell  into  many  hands,  as  their 
author  himself  states  :  '  For  I  have  already  found  out 
through  much  practical  experience  that  everybody 
who  reads  through  a  sample  of  my  "  Innocent  Luther  " 
can  never  rest  till  he  has  read  the  others,  however  many 
there  be,  and  got  them  into  his  own  hands,  as  the 
bookseller  knows  also  to  his  profit,  whose  only  com- 
plaint is  that  his  copies  are  always  running  out,  and 
that  my  samples  are  now  pirated,  plagiarised,  and 
printed  and  arranged  in  such  a  form  that  workmen 
and  journeymen  can  put  them  in  their  pockets  and 
carry  them  about  hither  and  thither.'  2 

'  Your  Excellency,'  wrote  Duke  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria  to  the  Elector  Palatine  Philip  Louis  of  Neu- 
berg,  '  seems  to  be  displeased  with  Conrad  Andrea's 
style  of  writing.  You  say  that  in  his  treatises  he 
condescends  to  absurd  buffoonery.  We,  on  the  other 
hand,  have  discovered  that  he  has  adopted  these 
coarse  jests  from  Luther's  own  works.  Moreover, 
Conrad  Andrea  is  not,  and  does  not,  want  to  be  regarded 
as  a  man  of  whom  one  would  think,  and  from  whom 
one  would  expect,  all  that  one  thinks  and  expects  of  a 
Pope,  or  some  other  great  prelate,  or  from  an  Apostle 
himself.  Luther,  however,  according  to  his  own  state- 
ments,  did  want  to  be   considered   one   of  the  most 

1  Vorrede  zum  sauberen  Luther,  dated  from  Ratisbon,  August  19,  1602  ; 
Munster  edition  of  1606,  pp.  445-455. 

2  Antwort  auf  den  unschuldigen  Luther  (1600),  pp.  12-13. 


MAXIMILIAN   OF   BAVARIA   ON   VETTER,    1600       157 

exemplary  of  men,  more  enlightened  than  all  the  others 
who  had  belonged  to  the  Chnrch  more  than  a  thousand 
years  ago,  and  one  of  the  greatest  evangelists  or  Apostles, 
who,  for  the  first  time  after  so  many  centuries,  had  been 
awakened  to  exterminate  the  idolatry  that  had  taken 
root.  What  sort  of  a  man,  in  God's  name,  ought  he  to 
have  been  if  all  this  were  true  ?  With  what  courage, 
humility,  chastity,  purity  of  life,  steadfastness  in  doc- 
trine, wisdom,  and  other  Christian  virtues — to  judge  only 
according  to  ordinary  human  judgment — ought  he  not 
to  have  been  endowed  ?  But  the  opposite  is  well 
known  ;  it  is  well  known  how  wanton  and  blasphemous 
he  was.  This  no  one  can  deny  who  is  not  altogether 
shameless,  so  that,  if  Conrad  Andrea  is  to  be  measured 
with  Luther,  it  can  with  truth  and  without  trouble  be 
asserted  and  proved  that  he  is  an  eminent  saint  and 
"  doctor  "  compared  to  the  "  prophet."  '  That  Luther 
did  '  now  and  again  teach  and  speak  a  true  word  and 
proclaim  some  good  articles  of  doctrine '  is  so  well 
known  to  the  Catholics  that  out  of  his  own  writings 
'  they  have  compiled  a  thoroughly  Catholic  catechism, 
but  they  have  done  this  only  for  the  purpose  of  proving 
how  changeable  he  was,  in  his  own  way,  as  to  doctrine, 
and  that  he  thought  one  thing  to-day,  another  to- 
morrow.' '  Andrea  was  not  called  upon,  in  his  writings 
against  Luther,  to  point  out  all  the  good  passages  in 
the  works  of  the  latter.  Whenever  do  the  Lutherans, 
often  as  they  attack  the  Jesuits'  lives,  teaching,  and 
vocation,  or  blame  and  denounce  them  quite  falsely 
and,  "as  far  as  we  know,  without  any  basis  of  truth — 
whenever,  I  say,  do  they  praise  that  which  is  praise- 
worthy in  them  ?     Yea,  verily,  never  at  all.'  ! 

1  Wolf,  Maximilian,  i.  461^64. 


158  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

If  Vetter  could  plume  himself  on  his  writings  being 
eagerly  read  by  all  the  people,  this  was  the  symptom 
of  a  sad  aberration.  '  Unfortunately,  God  have  pity 
on  us,'  says  a  Catholic  pastor  in  1603  in  an  '  Erklarung 
der  Bergpredigt  Christ '  ('  Explanation  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount),  owing  to  the  incessant  scandalous 
slanders  and  invectives  of  the  sectarian  preachers  and 
writers,  which  are  now  being  imitated  by  the  Catholic 
writers — though  none  of  them  as  yet  equals  their  models 
in  abuse — it  has  come  to  this  in  German  lands,  that 
the  common  people  on  both  sides  are  greedy  for  such 
books  and  pamphlets,  and  find  this  food  congenial 
to  their  taste,  because  their  taste  is  corrupted  ;  but 
verily  they  afford  no  true  nourishment  for  the  soul 
after  the  pattern  of  our  dear  Saviour's  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.'  '  Another  Catholic  writer  lamented  in  similar 
fashion  over  the  '  corruption  of  taste '  which  was 
also  showing  itself  among  the  Catholics.  In  a  refuta- 
tion of  the  Augsburg  preacher  Bartholomew  Rulich, 
who  had  filled  a  whole  volume  '  full  of  all  manner  of 
abuse  and  vilification  of  the  Christian  Church  and  all 
its  members  from  the  highest  ecclesiastical  and  civil 
authorities  downwards,'  this  writer  said :  '  I  have  no 
intention  whatever  of  resorting  to  abusive  language, 
or  of  paying  them  back  with  the  same  coin.  If  Rulich 
brags  that  "  more  Lutheran  books  issue  from  the  book- 
sellers' hands  than  Catholic  ones,"  there  is  certainly 
no  other  cause  for  such  a  statement  than  the  strange 
new  method  of  calumny  which  flourishes  among  the 
Lutherans ;  for  to  the  large  majority  of  readers 
and  listeners  nowadays  nothing  is  so  delightful  as  to 
come  upon  a  whole  heap   of  abusive  terms.      Of   this 

1  Mayence,  1603,  Vorrede. 


CONTEMPORARIES   ON   THE   POLEMICS   OF   THE   DAY     159 

no  other  proof  is  requisite  than  the  experience  which 
shows  that  when  a  Catholic  scribe  is  moved  to  answer 
the  fool  according  to  his  folly,  and  to  make  their  re- 
joinders echoes  of  the  tones  that  have  first  sounded, 
his  writings  are  sure  to  go  through  two  or  three  editions. 
Personally,  however,  I  would  rather,'  said  the  author, 
'  that  my  work  should  be  read  by  a  few  judicious  persons 
who  love  the  truth,  than  by  a  host  of  light-minded 
people  who  are  only  on  the  look-out  for  fresh  terms 
of  mockery  and  insult.'  1 

Vetter  did  not  act  upon  the  precepts  of  Father 
Canisius,  whose  '  inmost  soul  was  averse '  from  all  harsh 
and  bitter  polemics.  His  dictum  was :  '  We  must 
defend  the  truth  with  all  our  hearts,  but  we  must  do  it 
considerately  and  temperately,  so  that  our  moderation 
maybe  known  unto  all  men,  and  that  we  may,  if  possible, 
obtain  a  good  testimony  from  those  also  who  look  on 
from  outside.  Well-disposed  people  are  disgusted 
with  anything  that  smacks  of  bitterness ;  they  like 
to  see  discretion  coupled  with  dignity  and  weighty 
reasoning.'  2 

When  the  '  sanguinary  '  James  Heerbrand  not  only 
declared  his  Catholic  antagonists  to  be  devils,  but  also 
frankly  demanded  their  execution,3  and  the  Jesuit 
Gregorius  of  Valentia,  in  1579,  answered  him  back 
in  violent  language,  Canisius  wrote  as  follows  to  the 
General  of   the  Order,  Eberhard  Mercurian :     '  Father 

1  '  Kunstreicher  Meisterstiick  M.  Bartholomai  Riilichs,  Pradikanten  zu 
Augsburg,'  in  the  Disputation  wider  Dr.  Konrad  Dosch  (Ingolstadt,  1608), 
Bl.  B. 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  viii.,  219-220,  and  Braunsberger,  ii.  72-73,  75. 

3  G.  de  Valentia,  Confutatio  Calumniarum,  quas  Heerbrandus  Spongia 
quadam  sua,  ut  appellat,  complexus  est  (Ingolstadii,  1579),  Bb.  The  con- 
troversial writings  of  Valentia  against  Heerbrand  catalogued  by  de  Backer, 
iii.  1264. 


160  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Gregory,  the  Spaniard,  in  his  controversy  against 
Heerbrand,  exceeds  the  bounds  of  discretion  which 
befits  our  theologians.  Soon,  I  fear,  he  will  be  embark- 
ing on  a  third  defensive  pamphlet  in  order  to  refute 
this  abusive  and  extraordinarily  quarrelsome  antagonist. 
What  real  benefit  accrues  to  our  Society  or  general 
readers  from  this  kind  of  word-fighting,  I  cannot  under- 
stand.' ]  '  The  members  of  our  Order ' — such  was  the 
earlier  injunction  of  Johannes  Dirsius,  Rector  of  the 
Innsbruck  College,  in  a  memorandum  to  the  superiors 
at  Rome — '  must  guard  themselves  against  denouncing 
our  present-day  religious  antagonists  as  heretics ;  also 
they  must  not  call  them  good-for-nothing  creatures 
or  devils,  or  hurl  other  odious  names  and  calumnies 
at  them.'  2  The  eighth  general  assembly  of  the  Order 
issued  the  following  injunction  for  the  members  of 
the  general  book-revising  committee :  '  In  the  case 
of  the  members  of  the  Order  who  write  against  heretics, 
the  revisers  must  be  particularly  careful  to  see  that 
these  writers  combine  solid  learning  with  such  wise 
moderation  that  no  one  shall  be  able  to  maintain  that 
their  tone  was  unduly  bitter,  or  that  they  were  in  any 
way  lacking  in  becoming  dignity.'  In  the  different 
provinces  of  the  Order  the  revisers,  whose  business 
it  was  to  examine  those  writings  which  were  not  to 
be  sent  to  Rome  for  inspection,  were  obliged  to  observe 
this  injunction  minutely.3 

Among  the  Protestants  Johann  Mathesius,  pastor  at 

1  ' .  .  .  Ex  quo  concertationis  genere  quid  solidi  boni  aut  Societas  aut 
lector  capiat,  nondum  intelligo '  (Fragment  of  an  autograph  letter  ;  copy 
in  the  library  at  Exacten). 

2  ' .  .  .  nee  vocent  eos  nebulones  nee  diabolos  vel  aliis  vocabulis  et  calumniis 
odiosissimis  '  (Copy  in  the  library  at  Exacten). 

3  Regulae  revisorum  generalium,  No.  7, 15 ;  Institutum  Soc.  Jesu,  ii.  71-73 


CONTEMPORARIES  ON  THE  POLEMICS  OF  THE  DAY  101 

Joachimsthal  (f  1565),  had  spoken  out  seriously  and 
honestly  against  '  these  cantankerous  writings '  in  a 
pamphlet  which  appeared  in  1567. 

'  They  corrupt  good  manners,'  he  said,  '  and  in- 
variably leave  a  bad  odour  behind  them.  There  is 
little  comfort,  moreover,  to  be  got  for  a  perplexed  con- 
science and  a  troubled  heart  out  of  such  libellous 
writings  and  books  as  are  produced  everywhere.'  '  Holy 
writers  write  what  is  just  and  true,  and  injustice  falls 
to  pieces  of  itself.  Experience,  alas  !  plainly  shows  that 
neither  poor  Christendom  nor  the  Gospel  are  much  bene- 
fited on  either  side  by  all  this  reviling  and  wrangling. 
May  God  hinder  and  defeat  such  unprofitable  persons 
and  books,  and  give  and  preserve  to  us  gentle  and  kind 
spirits  who  with  patience  and  discretion  will  continue 
to  serve  the  Church  of  God.'  J  Another  preacher  said 
that  '  the  Gospel  ought  to  be  preached  according  to  the 
simple  word  and  letter,  without  invective  and  abuse  : 
that  the  pulpits  should  not  be  dishonoured  every  Sunday 
by  continual  yelping  and  barking.'  '  There  ought  also 
to  be  friendly  relations  between  the  opposite  parties  in 
everyday  life,  in  trade,  and  so  forth  ;  '  it  was  '  a  sign 
of  the  divine  wrath  against  the  beloved  Fatherland  that 
there  was  so  much  hateful  dissension  in  religion,  and 
that  mockery,  wrangling,  and  strife  went  on  increasing, 
so  that  the  brethren  of  one  house  and  one  race  were 
ranged  against  each  other  as  declared  enemies  and 
venomous  slanderers.'  2     A  different  view,  however,  was 

1  Ein  Christlicher  Unterricht  wes  sich  gottselige  Unterthanen  verhalten 
kimnen  zu  der  Zeit  der  Verfolgung  ('  A  Christian  Instruction  for  the  conduct 
of  God-fearing  Men  in  time  of  Persecution ')  (Nuremberg,  1567),  Bl. 
F  2b-F  3a. 

2  Predig  iiber  die  Bitte  :  Und  filhre  uns  nicht  in  Versuchung,  &c.  ('  A  ser- 
mon on  the  prayer :  "  And  leadus  not  into  temptation,' "  &c.  (1593),  Bl.  B  2.) 

VOL.    X.  M 


162  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

taken  by  the  majority  of  the  nominal  '  combatants  for 
the  glory  of  Christ  and  for  the  pure  and  holy  Gospel.' 

'  To  the  devil  with  the  neutralists,  epicureans,  and 
the  peace-brothers,'  wrote  a  preacher  in  1593,  '  who 
actually  preach  in  the  pulpits  and  write  in  pamphlets 
that  we  ought  to  keep  peace  with  the  idolatrous  papists 
and  leave  them  to  follow  their  own  way.  Such  men  as 
these  are  an  accursed,  Jesuitical  sect,  lurking  in  the 
midst  of  the  evangelists  themselves,  and  though  they 
are  not  many  in  number,  they  are  causing  frightful 
disaster  in  the  fold  of  Christ ;  but  they  will  not  escape 
divine  chastisement.'  '  Father  Luther,  the  third  Elias, 
has  said  :  "  They  are  all  miserable  dolts,  who  hold  that 
we  ought  not  to  revile  and  abuse  the  Pope  and  his 
followers  ;  on  the  contrary,  by  word,  writings,  books, 
letters,  and  paintings  we  ought  to  scold,  denounce, 
satirise,  caricature,  and  disgrace  them  in  every  possible 
manner."  "  We  must  tell  the  whole  unvarnished  truth 
to  the  scarlet  whore,  with  whom  the  kings  and  princes 
of  the  earth  have  committed,  and  still  are  committing, 
adultery,"  says  Luther,  on  fire  with  the  Spirit  of  God, 
"  for  she  must  be  trodden  down  like  the  dirt  of  the 
streets.  Cursed  be  all  who  remain  idle  in  the  matter, 
when  they  know  that  they  have  it  in  their  power  to 
render  service  to  God,  who  designs,  and  indeed  has 
already  begun,  to  crush  them  to  earth  and  grind  them 
to  powder."  Every  true  Christian  is  bound  to  echo 
these  godly  prophecies  of  our  venerable  Father  so  long 
as  he  has  power  to  speak  and  write,  to  poetise  and 
paint.'  l 

The  Hessian  Superintendent   George  Nigrinus   had 

1   Wahre  Erlclarung  des  romiscJien  Antichristes  aus  den  heiligen  Schriften 
gezogen  (1593),  pp.  5,  9,  13.     See  Luther's  Collected  Works,  xxix.  377-378. 


CONTEMPORARIES   ON   THE   POLEMICS   OF   THE   DAY     1G3 

• 

fully  realised,  ten  years  earlier,  the  general  state  of 
devastation  which  followed  in  the  train  of  perpetual 
religious  dissension.  '  Faith  is  extinguished,'  he  wrote 
in  1582,  '  in  all  the  children  of  men.  They  are  all 
fighting  and  wrangling  about  their  creeds,  and  each  one 
insists  that  his  own  is  the  true  one  ;  but  it  is  all  nothing 
but  words,  there  is  no  sap  or  strength  anywhere.'  '  Is 
it  possible  for  avarice  to  be  greater  than  it  is  at  present 
among  all  classes  ?  Is  it  possible  for  eating  and  drinking 
to  be  more  thought  of  than  nowadays  ?  Can  ostenta- 
tion, pomp,  and  extravagance  in  dress  rise  to  a  higher 
pitch  ?  '  'To  say  nothing  of  the  immorality,  the 
cursing  and  swearing,  and  all  the  other  vices  of  the  day.' 
With  all  this  endless  '  disputing  and  wrangling  about 
faith  the  people  had  become  utterly  reckless  and  ob- 
durate, and  actually  boasted  of  their  sins,  as  did  the 
people  of  Gomorrha,  and  made  no  attempt  to  conceal 
them.'  Nigrinus  therefore  exerted  himself  strenuously 
against  the  '  sect  of  the  Epicureans,'  which  had  gained 
such  a  strong  footing  among  the  Protestant  population. 
'  These  people,'  he  said,  '  according  to  their  lights, 
seek  peace  and  quiet,  and  a  truce  to  the  squabblings  of 
the  scholars  ;  they  would  like  to  grant  each  man  freedom 
in  religion,  so  long  as  he  kept  quiet  with  his  creed, 
and  nobody  knew  which  party  he  belonged  to  or  was 
inclined  to.  This  carnal  cunning  is  more  dangerous 
and  hurtful  than  anything  else  in  the  way  of  sectarian- 
ism ;  dissension  and  controversy,  at  any  rate,  exercise 
the  soul  and  keep  it  on  the  alert,  but  epicureanism 
plunges  it  into  the  depths  of  security  and  inanition,  and 
dechristianises  the  whole  nature.'  '  We  can  preach  the 
Gospel  quite  well,'  they  say,  '  without  concerning  our- 
selves as  to  whether  the  Pope  or  any  other  man  thinks 

M   2 


164  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

• 

or  teaches  differently.'  Nigrinus  reckoned  this  '  sect  of 
the  Epicureans  '  among  the  certain  signs  that  the  last 
day  was  drawing  near.1 

The  manner  in  which  the  controversy  against  the 
papacy  and  the  Catholics  was  judged  by  Protestant 
imperial  Estates  was  shown  by  a  work  which  the  Carin- 
thian  preacher  Andreas  Lang  published  in  1576  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  under  the  title  of  '  Griindliche 
und  rechte  Unterweisung  von  der  Seligkeit '  ('  Well- 
grounded  and  right  instruction  on  salvation'). 

Lang  imagined  himself  '  filled  with  burning  zeal  for 
God,'  and  '  on  the  strength  of  his  office  '  he  set  about 
to  demonstrate  to  the  whole  body  of  '  papists  '  of  high 
and  low  degree,  spiritual  and  temporal,  kings  and 
princes,  burghers  and  peasants,  that  all  of  them,  '  as 
idolaters  and  blasphemers,'  would  fall  into  the  ever- 
lasting pit  of  hell.  The  Pope,  he  said,  '  gives  out  con- 
cerning himself  that  he  is  as  God,  and  that  he  can 
make  something  out  of  nothing ;  that  he  is  an  earthly 
god  and  a  deified  man.'  In  reality,  however,  as  had 
long  since  been  shown,  he  was  the  Antichrist,  '  the 
bodily  incarnation  of  the  devil.'  He  prayed  to  the 
devil,  annulled  marriage,  considered  the  secular  estate 
sinful,  but  at  the  same  time  allowed  the  greatest  sins 
to  be  committed  with  impunity.'2  Therefore,  all  those 
who  adhere  to  the  papacy  and  obey  the  Pope  are 
following  '  a  diabolical  religion,'  belong  to  '  the  syna- 
gogue of  the  devil,'  do  not  believe  in  Christ,  but  are 
one  and  all  '  Antichristians,'  '  be  they  of  ecclesiastical 
or  secular  estate.' 3     If  such  a  pronouncement  appeared 

1  Papistische  Inquisition,  pp.  724-725,  726,  727. 

2  Von  der  Seligkeit  griindliche  und  rechte  Unterweisung  (Frankfort-on- 
the-Main,  1576),  pp.  17-26,  114,  116,  170. 

3  Pp.  12,  31  ff. 


A   'MANUAL   OF   INSTRUCTION   ON    SALVATION'    165 

too  daring  and  severe,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
'  the  holy  office  of  preaching  '  was  instituted  in  order 
'  to  declare  the  judgment  of  God  against  sinners,'  and 
against  those  sinners  also  who,  though  not  themselves 
papists,  were  so  hardened  and  obdurate  as  not  to  hate 
the  papacy  from  the  bottom  of  their  hearts.  '  Both 
the  papists,'  said  Lang,  '  and  their  flatterers  who  do 
not  detest  the  papacy  with  all  their  heart,  must  be 
confronted  with  the  whole  mass  of  divine  evidences,  so 
that  there  may  be  all  the  less  excuse  for  their  ignorance 
at  the  Day  of  Judgment,  and  that  they  may  be  plunged 
all  the  deeper  into  the  pit  of  hell.'  To  this  end  he  was 
writing  a  book,  in  order  to  fulfil  the  command  of  Christ 
and  to  be  able  to  say  with  Christ :  '  The  words  that  I 
have  spoken,  they  shall  condemn  them  at  the  last  day.' 
He  was  inexhaustible  in  his  denunciations  against  the 
Catholics.  '  The  papists,  like  other  Turks,  Jews,  and 
heathen,  are  outside  the  pale  of  God's  grace,  of  forgive- 
ness of  sins  and  of  salvation ;  they  are  destined  to 
howl,  lament,  and  gnash  their  teeth  everlastingly  in 
the  burning  fire  and  brimstone  of  the  flames  of  hell ; ' 
'  for  they  are  stubborn,  stinking  rams,'  who  '  blaspheme 
and  curse  God's  Word,'  and  observe  and  obey  '  the 
decrees  of  the  Pope,  the  canons  of  the  councils,  the 
precepts  of  the  Fathers,  the  Platonic  theology  of  the 
Schoolmen,  and  the  dreams  of  the  monks.'  As  '  stink- 
ing, stubborn,  stiff-necked  goats,'  they  are  incensed 
beyond  measure  against  us,  the  true  Christians  ;  they 
are  one  and  all  of  them  '  enemies  of  the  Cross  of  Christ 
and  servants  of  the  belly.'  It  is  only  for  the  sake  of 
their  stomachs,  and  quite  against  their  consciences, 
that  they  remain  under  the  papacy ;  and  so  they  will 
be   condemned   to   have   '  their   fat   venison  paunches 


166  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

smelted  down  in  hellfire,  and  to  suffer  everlasting  pain 
in  everlasting  flames.'  l 

Lang  declared  that  as  little  as  Christ  was  a  blas- 
phemer when  He  called  the  Pharisees  a  brood  of  vipers, 
and  so  forth,  so  little  also  was  it  blasphemy  to  de- 
nounce the  papists  as  '  blasphemers,  arch-deceivers,  and 
murderers,  as  idolaters,  soul-murderers,  sodomites,  and 
whoremongers  ; '  for  it  was  '  only  speaking  the  plain  and 
bitter  truth,  and  some  of  these  names  are  the  same  as 
Holy  Scripture  itself  bestows  on  them  as  the  declared 
Antichrists.'  Scripture  makes  no  exceptions,  not  even 
with  regard  to  the  secular  '  idolatrous,  papistical  rulers  ;  ' 
neither,  therefore,  must  Lang,  except  the  Emperor  and 
the  hereditary  Lord  of  Austria,  whose  subject  he  was. 
Although  all  the  papists  did  not  commit  all  the  sins 
that  were  imputed  to  them,  nevertheless  they  all  form 
collectively  one  Church  and  community,  one  body 
corporate,  of  which  all  are  members,  whose  head  is  the 
Antichrist,  the  Pope.  Now,  '  whatsoever  the  head  does, 
all  the  members  consent  to  it.'  Whereas  '  the  popish 
kings,  princes,  counts,  lords,  noblemen,  bishops,  pre- 
lates, burghers,  peasants,  and  lanzknechts  '  give  help  to 
the  Pope  and  his  retinue  for  the  persecution  of  the  true 
Christians,  '  they  are  all  of  them  Antichristian  murderers 
and  children  of  Satan,  who  have  learnt  from  their 
father  the  devil  how  to  shelter  their  diabolical  lies  by 
diabolical  murders.  Therefore  they  are  all  Antichrists, 
and  of  their  father  the  devil,  who  was  a  liar  and  a 
murderer  from  the  beginning ;  they  are  fashioned 
according  to  his  nature  and  character  ;  with  him  they 
will  inherit  the  kingdom  of  hell  and  dwell  in  it  for 
evermore.' 

1    Von  der  Seligkeit,  B\  pp.  12,  179-180,  181. 


OPINIONS   ON    THE    'MANUAL   OF   SALVATION'      167 

In  defence  of  his  invectives  against  '  the  idolatrous 
rulers  '  Lang  appealed  to  the  example  of  the  prophets, 
the  Saviour,  and  the  Apostles,  who  had  often  '  made 
tingle  the  ears  of  kings,'  as  well  as  those  of  the  people. 
'  To  follow  this  example '  he,  as  a  minister  of  Christ, 
'  was  bound  in  this  degenerate  age.'  '  The  faithful 
ministers  of  God  '  must  not  let  themselves  be  restrained 
and  inhibited  in  their  preaching  and  punishing,  even 
though  the  idolatrous  rulers  seriously  espoused  the 
cause  of  their  idolatrous  priests  and  insisted  on  im- 
munity from  penalties  and  reform.1  If  rulers  of  this 
sort  ordered  their  subjects  not  to  teach  any  other 
doctrine,  and  not  to  receive  the  sacraments  in  any  other 
way  than  was  customary  in  the  papacy,  '  such  a  man- 
date was  opposed  to  God.'  '  For  God  says  :  Ye  shall 
not  turn  yourselves  to  the  idols,  and  ye  shall  not  fear 
any  other  rulers,  whether  emperor,  king,  prince,  pope, 
or  bishop,  and  ye  shall  not  venerate  them — that  is, 
obey  them  when  they  issue  such  impious  mandates.' 
'  And  if  the  subjects  of  such  rulers  do  not  become  re- 
bellious, but  submit  to  the  ruler  who  has  given  them 
unchristian  orders,  they  are  rebels  in  the  kingdom  of 
God.  And  God  lets  them  rage  against  His  Christians 
for  a  while,  but  in  His  own  good  time  "  He  puts  down 
the  mighty  from  their  seat."  '  2  Lang  summoned  the 
temporal  powers  to  rob  the  Pope  and  his  spiritual 
satellites  ('  therefore  also  ecclesiastical  princes  of  the 
Empire  ')  of  their  secular  power,  '  to  depose  them  from 
their  offices,'  '  to  abolish  their  idolatrous  worship,  and 
to  punish  them  in  body  and  life.'  3 

This  work  of  Andreas  Lang  was  expressly  approved 

1   Von  der  Seligkeit,  Bb,  C4a"b,  pp.  32-37,  182-183. 
-  Pp.  239,  298.  3  P.  289. 


168  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

by  the  Protestant  Estates  of  the  Empire,  who  declared 
such  language  against  the  '  papists  '  to  be  in  common 
use  among  Protestants. 

As  soon  as  the  Emperor  heard  of  this  work,  which 
was  so  extremely  defamatory  to  all  Catholics,  he 
addressed  a  severe  letter  (September  10,  1577)  to  the 
council  at  Frankfort- on- the-Main.  The  town  printer, 
Nicholas  Basse,  Rudolf  II.  wrote,  had  printed  the 
work  without  giving  his  name,  but  had  entered  it  in 
his  own  catalogue  of  books  and  had  sold  it.  Whereas 
the  book  was  full  of  venomous,  seditious,  and  offensive 
words  directed  against  the  highest  spiritual  and  temporal 
authorities,  as  also  against  the  Electors  and  Estates  of 
the  Empire,  and  as,  therefore,  both  the  author  and  the 
printer  had  rendered  themselves  highly  guilty  and 
punishable  with  regard  to  the  imperial  laws,  the  con- 
stitutions of  the  realm,  and  the  decrees  of  the  Diets, 
the  council  was  herewith  enjoined  to  place  the  printer 
in  custody  and  to  lay  an  embargo  on  all  the  copies  of 
the  book.1  In  conformity  with  this  order  Basse  was 
arrested  and  put  in  prison  on  November  17. 

He  appealed,  however,  to  the  Landgrave  William  of 
Hesse,  who  interceded  for  him.  On  December  10  the 
Landgrave  addressed  himself  to  the  council,  informing 
them  that  '  he  had  looked  through  the  condemned 
book  and  had  given  it  to  others  to  read,  and  he  found 
nothing  in  it  that  was  disparaging  to  the  Emperor,  or 
to  the  electors  and  princes.  Lang's  attacks  on  the 
undeniable  errors  of  the  papacy,  and  his  denunciation 
of  the  Pope  as  Antichrist,  could  not  be  regarded  as 
depreciation,  for  Lang  was  not  the  first  to  bring  for- 
ward such  charges.     On  the  contrary,  the  Estates  of  the 

1  In  the  Frankfort  Archives,  Kaiserschreiben,  pp.  16,  119. 


OPINIONS   ON   THE   'MANUAL   OF   SALVATION  '     169 

Augsburg  Confession  and  several  theologians,  ever  since 
the  beginning  of  the  Reformation,  had  said  the  same 
things  openly  at  Diets  and  had  had  them  printed,  and 
it  had  all  been  so  fully  confirmed  from  Scripture  that 
nothing  could  with  any  plausibility  be  advanced  in 
opposition.  It  was  precisely  because  Lang's  book  was 
grounded  on  the  Word  of  God  that  the  Jesuits  had 
incensed  the  Emperor  against  it.  He  must  therefore 
request  the  council  to  represent  to  the  Emperor  the 
innocence  of  their  fellow  citizen,  and  to  intercede  on 
his  behalf.'  l 

'  The  '  Unterweisung  von  der  Seligkeit,"  which 
Lang  has  so  eloquently  and  delightfully  written  for  the 
Christian  German  people,  driving  the  plain  truth  home 
to  the  idolatrous  papists  of  every  estate,  is  highly  to 
be  esteemed,  and  not  in  any  way  to  be  condemned,' 
wrote  a  Protestant  official  of  the  Imperial  Chamber,  on 
December  7,  1577,  to  a  Frankfort  friend,  '  and  there- 
fore they  ought  to  let  the  printer  Basse  out  of  prison, 
notwithstanding  the  imperial  behest,  if  they  do  not 
wish  to  get  the  name  of  pandering  to  the  Antichrist 
and  his  Jesuitical  brood  and  vermin.'  - 

On  January  30,  1578,  Basse  addressed  himself 
personally  to  the  council,  stating  that  he  had  been  put 
into  prison  quite  unjustly  on  account  of  an  '  evangelical 
book  '  against  the  papacy,  '  but  that  an  incalculable 
number  of  similar  books  had  already  been  and  were 
daily  being  issued '  ;  and  that  the  book  was  being 
sold  publicly   at  the   Leipzig  fair   and  at  Augsburg.3 


1  In  the  Kaiserschreiben,  pp.  16,  122. 

2  Doctor  Joseph  Engelmann  of  Speier  to  Gotthelf  Heinrichs,  counsellor- 
at-law. 

3  Kaiserschreiben,  xvi.  126. 


170  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Before  receiving  this  petition  the  council  had  already 
complied  with  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse's  wish  and 
written  to  Rudolf  II.  that  they  had  examined  the  book 
and  found  nothing  in  it  that  could  bring  dishonour 
on  the  Emperor  and  the  Estates.  If  it  was  to  be  con- 
demned because  it  had  attacked  the  papacy,  then  all 
other  books  of  the  kind  must  be  condemned  and  in- 
hibited ;  but  this  would  not  be  in  accordance  with  the 
Religious  Peace,  as  freedom  of  writing  was  allowed  the 
papists  also.1 

Whether  the  Protestants  were  willing  to  grant  the 
latter  this  freedom,  the  coming  years  were  to  prove. 

While  the  work  of  Andreas  Lang,  which  was  a 
summons  to  root  out  the  Catholic  faith  and  to  exter- 
minate the  ecclesiastical  princes  of  the  Empire,  was 
pronounced  uninjurious  and  taken  under  protection, 
there  arose  among  the  Protestant  Estates  a  storm  of 
indignation  against  Catholic  writings,  which  were  accused 
of  disputing  the  continued  validity  of  the  Religious 
Peace. 

1  Kaiserschreiben,  xvi.  127,  131  :  Kirchner,  Gesch.  von  Frankfurt,  ii. 
292,  briefly  states  the  imperial  command  and  makes  the  marginal  comment : 
'  The  Jesuits  at  the  court  disturb  the  book  trade  at  Frankfort.' 


171 


CHAPTER  V 

CONTROVEESIES  CONCERNING  THE  PERMANENT  VALIDITY 
OF  THE  RELIGIOUS  PACIFICATION — SHOULD  FAITH 
BE  KEPT  WITH  THE  HERETICS  ? — PUNISHMENT  OF 
HERETICS 

At  the  Ratisbon  Diet  of  1576  the  Protestant  Estates 
had  complained  to  the  Emperor  Maximilian  II.  that 
'  there  were  at  the  present  day  people  who  held  the 
opinion  that  the  holy  Religious  Peace  was  merely  a 
temporary  arrangement  drawn  up,  so  to  say,  for  the 
occasion.  This  opinion,  moreover,  was  shamelessly 
asserted  in  public  print,  so  that  the  discontent  of  these 
contumacious  spirits  was  patent  to  the  world,  and  it 
was  obvious  that  they  were  only  watching  their  oppor- 
tunity to  upset  the  whole  treaty  of  religious  peace.' l 

These  complaints  referred  chiefly  to  a  work  which 
the  imperial  court  councillor  George  Eder  had 
published  in  1573  under  the  title  '  Evangelische 
Inquisition  wahrer  und  falscher  Religion  wider  das 
gemeine  unchristliche  Klagegeschrei  dass  sich  niemand 
mehr  wissen  konne,  wie  oder  was  er  glauben  solle.'  2  Eder 
aimed  at  showing,  in  the  form  of  a  Christian  con- 
sultation, '  how  every  Christian  person  might  be  fully 

1  Lehrnann,  De  Pace  Religionis  Acta,  i.  131. 

2  '  Evangelical  Inquisition  concerning  true  and  false  Religion,  in  answer 
to  the  general,  unchristian  outcry  that  nobody  can  know  any  longer  how 
or  what  he  ought  to  believe.' 


172  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

instructed  in  and  convinced  of  his  iaith,  and  in  such  a 
manner  that  he  could  not  easily  be  deceived  or  led 
astray.'  1  '  I  can  well  believe,'  he  said  in  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  work  to  the  Archdukes  Ferdinand  and 
Charles  of  Austria,  '  now  that  our  sect  leaders  of  the 
new  religion  have  shot  out  all  the  contents  of  their 
bags,  that  their  patrons  would  be  extremely  glad  if, 
under  the  pretext  of  peace,  the  Catholics  were  forbidden 
to  write  books.'  '  But  it  would  not  only  be  contrary  to 
all  justice  and  equity,  but  contrary  to  reason  itself, 
that  the  heretics  should  be  allowed  to  revile,  insult,  and 
slander  people  as  much  as  they  please,  while  the  Catholics 
were  rendered  unable  to  reply  and  to  proclaim  and 
prove  their  innocence  ;  besides  which,  it  was  of  itself 
an  altogether  preposterous  thing  to  refuse  to  make 
peace  until  one  party  was  already  entirely  crushed, 
and,  besides,  so  to  press  on  the  weaker  party  that  it 
never  could  rise  again.'  Then,  too,  there  would  spring 
up  day  after  day  numbers  of  fresh  errors  which  would 
never  be  eradicated  if  everybody  was  obliged  to  keep 
silence  regarding  them  ;  and  we  should  at  last  be  com- 
pelled to  accept,  believe,  and  venerate  all  the  absurdi- 
ties of  every  ranting  fanatic  as  the  holy  evangel  and 
the  Word  of  God,  which  would  be  a  monstrous  outrage 
to  Christianity  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  an  everlasting 
disgrace  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.'  '  Whereas,  there- 
fore, the  sects  are  not  growing  idle,  but  go  on  pro- 
ducing one  text-book  after  another  in  order  to  distri- 
bute their  poison  among  the  common  people,  the  Church 

1  Dillingen,  1573.  Concerning  Eder,  see  Aschbach,  Gesch.  der  Wiener 
Universitat,  iii.  (Wien,  1888),  166-179  ;  Mittheilungen  des  Instit.  fur  osterr. 
Gesch.  vi.  440  ff.,  and  especially  Paulus,  Reichshofrat  Dr.  Georg  Eder. 
Ein  katholischer  Rechtsgelehrter  des  16.  Jahrhunderts  in  Hist.-polit.  Bl.  115 
(1895),  13  ff.,  81  ff. 


GEORGE  EDER,  POLEMICAL  WRITER      173 

has  never  before  been  under  so  great  necessity  as  now 
to  write  in  its  own  defence,  in  order  that  our  descen- 
dants may  see  that  we  did  not  remain  silent  all  the 
time,  but  that  we  ever  opposed  the  strongest  resistance 
to  their  errors  and  attacks.  In  particular,  however, 
there  is  among  us  Catholics  a  lack  of  such  German 
books  as  would  enable  the  uneducated  classes  to  under- 
stand not  only  the  real  ground  of  the  whole  religious 
dissension,  but  also  the  difference  between  true  and 
false  religion.'  This  was  the  aim  he  set  before  him  in 
this  book,  which  he  had  compiled  from  the  leading 
controversial  books  of  the  scholars. 

In  proof  of  the  numerous  schisms  among  the  Pro- 
testants, Eder  quoted  '  the  actual  confessions  '  of  their 
own  theologians  and  preachers,  from  James  Andrea, 
George  Major,  Nicholas  Amsdorf,  and  others,  and  made 
use  of  the  writings  of  several  Catholic  controversialists, 
who  had  '  noted  down  and  tabulated  the  principal  sects 
and  factions  from  the  books  of  the  new  religionists.' 
He  showed  also  '  how  the  sects  mutually  denounced 
and  condemned  each  other  as  heretics,'  and  how,  on 
the  other  hand,  '  by  secret,  intangible  accusations,  as 
well  as  by  open  falsehoods  which  they  circulated  every- 
where against  the  Catholics,  they  endeavoured,  as  far 
as  possible,  to  make  the  Roman  Church  contemptible 
and  odious  to  everybody.'  l  '  In  forty-seven  pictures  ' 
'  a  heretics'  dance  '  passes  in  front  of  the  reader.  One 
of  these  representations  deals  with  '  those  articles  in 
which  some  of  the  evangelicals  are  in  agreement  with 
the  Jews  '  ;  in  another  the  subject  is  '  points  in  which 
the  new  evangel  corresponds  to  the  Mohammedan 
Koran  and  the  Turkish  idol '  ;    by  a  third  the  reader 

1  Evangelische  Inquisition,  Bl.  50  ff.,  137b  ff.,  159  ff. 


174  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

is  shown  '  for  what  causes  the  evangelicals  are  still  more 
sacrilegious  than  the  Turks,  heathen,  and  mamalukes, 
whom  to  some  extent  they  surpass  in  wickedness  ;  '  in 
the  fourth  and  fifth   '  points  of  resemblance  between 
the   new   sects   and  the   devil  himself,'   and   '  how  to 
prove  that  under  the  semblance  of  the  Gospel  the  Word 
of  God  is  being  suppressed  and  the  devil's  doctrine  set 
up  in  its  place.'     Like  the  Franciscan  Nas,  Eder  also 
'  paid  the  preachers  back  in  their  own  coin.'     After 
having  mustered  several  *  troops  of  satanic  prophets,' 
he   adds :    '  Many   more   such   devil's   associates,    soul 
murderers,  renegade  Lucifers,  and  lying  spirits  might 
be  described  and  named.     Whereas,  however,  all  sec- 
tarian and  misleading  doctrines  are  at  bottom  nothing 
else  than  so  many  devil  phantoms,  it  is  unnecessary  to 
rake  up  each  of  them  again  individually.'  1     The  actual 
'  end   and   aim,'   he   said,   of   '  the   new   Christians   in 
general '  was  '  carnal  liberty.'     '  They  aim  in  all  things 
at  liberty  of  the  flesh,  and  therefore  they  cannot  endure 
any  spiritual  authority  over  them,  for  each  one  wishes 
to  be  his  own  master  and  to  do  nothing  else  than  what 
he  himself  pleases.     They  consider  it  popish  heresy  and 
oppression  to  have  to  confess  and  retail  their  sins  to 
priests  or  to  receive  any  sort  of  penance  from  them, 
still  more  to  gain  reprieve  from  any  temporal  punish- 
ment by  the  accomplishment  of  good  works,  although 
these  last  proceed  from  the  grace  of  God,  or  to  obtain 
eternal  life  by  their  means.     They  say  that  it  is  by  faith 
only  that  anyone  can  be  saved.'  2 

Eder  depicts  admirably  '  the  Court  Christians,'  '  the 
neutralists,'  '  the  weathercocks,'  and  the  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian  II.  must  have  felt  himself    badly    hit   by  the 

1  Evangelische  Inquisition,  Bl.  89-97a.  2  Bl.  143b-144a. 


GEORGE   EDER,   POLEMICAL   WRITER  175 

pronouncement :  '  Some  of  them  are  Lutherans  at  heart, 
but  pose  outwardly  as  Catholics '  ;  '  some  are  half 
Lutheran,  half  papistical,  but  nothing  wholly,  and 
they  change  coats  according  to  the  wind.  With  the 
papists  they  are  papists,  with  the  Lutherans,  Lutheran.' 
Eder  also  inveighed  indignantly  against  those  '  Chris- 
tians '  '  who  at  bottom  were  neither  papists  nor 
Lutherans,'  and  who,  under  pretence  of  peaceful  media- 
tion, '  stirred  up  all  manner  of  sedition,  incensing  both 
parties,  Lutherans  and  papists,  against  each  other,  and 
bringing  things  to  such  a  pitch  that  they  tear  each 
other's  hair  out,  and  proceed  to  bloody  massacres.' 
'  Insurrectionists  would  be  a  better  name  for  such  men 
than  even  Court  Christians.'  !  Others  of  these  reli- 
gionists '  have  got  round  many  of  the  civil  authorities 
and  persuaded  them  that  they  have  as  much  right  as 
the  bishops,  or  as  the  Pope  himself,  to  dictate  and 
govern  at  their  pleasure  in  matters  of  religion ;  and  the 
result  is  that  the  common  people  are  now  possessed 
with  a  strong  delusion  that  because  the  men  who  fre- 
quent these  mundane,  princely  courts  are,  as  a  rule, 
fluent  in  speech,  well  up  in  the  affairs  of  the  world, 
experienced,  polite,  and  of  good  position,  they  must 
also  know  better  than  anyone  else  about  things  of  the 
faith,  and  be  able  to  talk  about  them  better.  But  to 
tell  the  truth,  things  have  never  been  in  such  a  woeful 
plight  with  regard  to  Christianity  as  in  these  present 
times,  when  religion  is  dragged  from  the  Church  into 
the  courts  of  secular  lords,  from  the  schools  to  the 
pulpits,  from  the  mouths  of  theologians  and  professors 
to  the  pens  of  the  jurists,  and,  finally,  from  the  chairs 

1  Bl.  166-168b.     I  have  already  quoted  a  passage  about  the  Court 
Christians  in  vol.  viii.  p.  298. 


176  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

of  the  preachers  into  cTrinking-taverns  among  the  lowest 
clod-hoppers.'  x 

This  work  aroused  the  greatest  displeasure  at  Court. 
By  an  imperial  mandate  of  October  2,  1573,  the  author 
was  commanded,  under  pain  of  the  highest  disgrace 
and  penalty,  instantly  to  cease  from  all  writing  on 
religious  matters,  and  neither  secretly  nor  openly, 
neither  in  his  own  nor  in  another  name,  to  publish  any- 
thing more  on  the  subject.  Eder  was  at  once  to  hand 
over  to  the  Government  all  the  copies  of  the  work  in 
his  possession,  and  all  that  he  had  given  away  he  was 
to  recall  and  deliver  up.  In  the  imperial  cities,  as  well 
as  in  the  Austrian  lands,  the  book  was  inhibited  and 
laid  under  an  embargo.2 

Three  years  after  the  death  of  the  Emperor,  Eder, 
at  the  instigation  of  Duke  Albert  V.  of  Bavaria,  pub- 
lished the  second  part  of  his  work,  which  had  already 
been  announced  in  the  '  Evangelical  Inquisition,'  under 
the  title  of  Das  guldene  FlUss  christlicher  Gemain  und 
Gesellschaft.:i  His  aim  was  to  present,  as  it  were  in  a 
picture,  '  for  the  benefit  of  ordinary  people  who  in  the 
general  confusion  no  longer  knew  whom  to  believe  and 
follow,'  '  the  old  and  the  new  religions,'  the  good  and 
the  bad,  to  strengthen  and  confirm  their  belief  in  the 
Catholic  truth  and  unity,  and  to  point  out  the  right 
ways  and  means  of  coming  back  to  this  truth  and 
unity.'  4     He  painted  the  '  Babylonish  confusion  '  inside 

1  Bl.  168b-169. 

2  Wiedemann,  Reformation  und  Gegenreformation,  ii.  152-155,  and 
Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayerns,  i.  146-147,  where  there  is  also  information 
respecting  the  further  editions.     See  also  Paulus,  I.e.  81  ff. 

3  The  Golden  Fleece  of  the  Christian  Community  and  Society,  Ingolstad, 
1579.     See  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayerns,  i.  147. 

1  Zueignung  an  den  Herzog  Albrecht,  Bl.  2b,  11  ff.,  28,  332,  429. 


EDER   ON   THE   RELIGIOUS   PACIFICATION  177 

Protestantism  in  still  more  glaring  colours  in  this  second 
part  than  in  the  first,  and  exhorted  all  Germans  in  the 
words  of  the  Prophet :  '  .  .  .  Ask  for  the  old  paths.' 

To  the  question,  '  How  in  these  days  to  deal  with  the 
new  sects  and  all  the  erring  Christians  in  order  to  bring 
them  back  to  the  right  way  and  to  preserve  them  in 
the  right  faith,'  he  gave  the  answer  :  '  We  must  begin 
from  the  beginning  and  deal  with  such  people  almost 
as  if  we  were  instructing  an  infidel,  a  Turk,  a  Hindu, 
or  a  heathen,  and  endeavouring  for  the  first  time  to 
convert  them  to  the  Christian  faith  ;  '  for  numbers  of 
the  new  Christians  had  utterly  lost  every  spark  of 
religion  and  faith.1 

The  Catholics  could  not,  he  said,  reckon  on  tolera- 
tion from  the  new  religionists.  '  Wherever  the  new 
sects  attack  the  old  faith  the  Catholics  are  persistently 
denounced  as  heretics,  seducers,  idolaters,  and  blas- 
phemers ;  they  are  condemned  and  persecuted  until  the 
old  religion  is  at  last  entirely  rooted  out.  In  places 
where  the  Protestants  have  the  government  in  their 
hands  no  Catholics  are  tolerated  ;  they  are  banished 
from  the  land  and  driven  in  public  disgrace  with  their 
wives  and  children  from  house  and  home.'  '  But,  on 
the  other  hand,'  he  says  pointedly,  '  if  a  Catholic  ruler 
attempts  to  proceed  in  similar  fashion  against  his  dis- 
obedient, rebellious  subjects,  everyone  flies  off  to  the 
alarm-bell,  and  a  murder  cry  is  straightway  raised  as 
though  the  Religious  Peace  had  been  violated.' 

That  the  Catholic  Estates  possessed  the  same  rights 
as  the  Protestants  seemed  to  Eder  a  matter  of  course, 
and  he  insisted  emphatically  that  they  should  assert 
their  rights  undauntedly,  and  '  at  all  times  give  their 

1  Bl.  26,  28. 
VOL.   X  N 


178  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

support,  without  any  temporising,  to  the  Catholic 
doctrine,'  and  eradicate  sectarianism  from  within  their 
dominions.1 

At  the  same  time,  however,  he  did  not,  as  he  was 
falsely  accused  of  doing  by  the  Protestant  sects,  call  in 
question  the  validity  of  the  religious  pacification  of 
Augsburg  as  an  '  exterior ' — i.e.  a  political  and  civic 
treaty.2  '  As  regards  the  '  exterior  peace,'  he  wrote, 
'  there  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  whereas  there  was  at 
the  time  no  other  chance  of  altogether  allaying  the 
religious  contention,  the  pious  Emperor  and  the  laudable 
Estates  of  the  Empire  not  only  had  good  reason  to 
resort  to  such  ways  and  means  as  might  at  any  rate 
have  a  temporary  effect  in  maintaining  quiet  in  the 
realm  until  the  full  consummation  and  settlement  of 
peace,  and  whereby  worse  disturbance  might  be  averted, 
but  also  that  they  were  impelled  to  this  step  by  the 
most  urgent  necessity,  and  it  was  consequently  quite 
fair  and  right  that  such  a  decision  should  be  generally 
respected  and  fulfilled.' 

'  Nevertheless,'  he  added,  referring  as  well  to  the 
charter  of  the  treaty  itself  as  to  the  frequent  explana- 
tion of  it  by  the  Lutheran  Estates,  '  under  this  said 
peace  those  only  who  are  included  are  the  adherents  either 
of  the  old  Catholic  religion  or  of  the  original  Augsburg 
Confession,  which  was  handed  in  to  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.  in  1530,  by  a  few  of  the  Estates  at  the  Diet 
of  Augsburg  ;  and  it  follows  that  all  other  sects,  the 
Zwinglians,  Calvinists,  Anabaptists,  Schwenkfeldians, 
and  all  such  separate  factions  are  altogether  excluded 
from  it.' 

1  Das  giddene  Fliiss,  Bl.  399,  400. 

3  Already  pointed  out  by  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayerns,  i.  148. 


EDER   ON   THE   RELIGIOUS   PACIFICATION  179 

Eder  thus  expressly  acknowledged  the  validity  of 
this  religious  pacification  in  political  and  civil  respects. 
'  The  religious  pacification,'  he  reiterated,  '  is  left  intact 
in  its  full  bearing  and  value  according  to  the  true 
reading  of  it.' 

With  regard,  however,  to  the  '  interior  '  aspect  of 
the  peace,  to  that  '  which  concerned  the  soul  and  con- 
science,' there  was  no  reason,  he  said,  to  suppose  that 
the  Imperial  Majesty  and  the  Estates  had  ever  meant 
to  encroach  on  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  in  this 
place  or  to  curtail  it  in  any  way.  For  whereas  these 
two  religions,  the  old  Catholic  faith  and  the  new  Augs- 
burg Confession,  run  diametrically  counter  to  each  other 
in  important  articles,  and  we  cannot  therefore  say 
either  that  both  are  wholly  good  and  true,  or  both 
wholly  false,  it  must  of  necessity  follow  that  there  can 
be  no  means  of  effecting  real  peace  or  reconciliation 
between  two  such  contradictory  systems,  unless  we 
either  admit  both  of  them  as  good  and  lovable,  or  reject 
and  condemn  good  and  evil  alike.  The  Emperor  and 
the  Estates  had  given  a  positive  assurance  at  Augsburg 
that  the  religious  quarrel  should  only  be  settled  by  amic- 
able means.  This  being  the  case,  and  '  whereas  the 
means  of  settlement  were  first  of  all  to  be  considered 
and  decided  on,  it  followed  necessarily  that  this  reli- 
gious pacification  must  be  looked  upon  more  as  a 
"  moratorium,'  a  "  dilation,"  or  a  compromise — that  is 
to  say,  a  truce  or  a  temporary  makeshift  pending  final 
settlement — than  as  a  definitive  decision  or  declara- 
tion.' ] 

This  expression  of  opinion  respecting  the  '  interior 
aspect  of  the  peace  '  was  later  on  interpreted  by  the 

1  Das  guldene  Fliiss,  Bl.  394  ff.,  436. 


180  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Protestants  as  though  Eder  had  disputed  the  validity 
of  the  Religious  Peace  generally,  in  civil  respects  also, 
and  had  '  incited  the  potentates  to  act  in  opposition 
to  this  peace,'  and  '  to  exterminate  the  evangelicals.'  * 

There  had  already  been  an  idea  of  bringing  forward 
complaints  about  Eder's  '  Schandbuch  '  ('  scandalous 
book ')  at  the  Augsburg  Diet  in  1582  ;  at  that  time, 
however,  the  Elector  Palatine's  ambassadors  themselves 
had  remarked  that  '  the  papists  would  not  be  in  such  a 
hurry  to  upset  the  peace  ;  there  was  no  need  to  com- 
plain of  Eder's  book,  for  the  other  side  were  just  as 
bad.' 2 

Another  Catholic  who  was  described  by  the  Pro- 
testants as  '  a  bloodthirsty  agitator  aiming  at  the 
destruction  of  the  Religious  Peace  and  all  the  evange- 
licals '  was  Jodokus  Lorichius,  professor  of  theology 
at  Freiburg  in  the  Breisgau.  This  man  was  not  a 
Jesuit ;  so  little  indeed  was  he  a  thorough-going  friend 
of  the  Order  that  he  hindered  the  appointment  of  Jesuits 
at  the  University  of  Freiburg  in  the  Breisgau ;  3  at  the 
same  time  he  was  denounced  as  an  'out-and-out  Loyolite"1 
who  had  '  proclaimed  to  all  the  world  '  how  inordinately 
cruel  and  inhuman  the  Jesuits  were,  and  how  they 
longed  to  see  all  the  Christians  up  to  their  knees  in 
blood.' 4 

In  1577  Lorichius,  in  a  Latin  treatise,  had  combated 
the  idea  that   it  was  the  duty  of  the  Catholic   ruling 

1  See  L.  Osiander's  V erantwortung  wider  die  zwo  Giftspinnen,  pp.  11-15. 

2  v.  Bezold,  Briefe  Johann  Kasimirs,  i.  496  ;  see  i.  467. 

3  See  St.  Ehses,  '  Jodokus  Lorichius,  a  Catholic  theologian  and  con- 
troversialist of  the  sixteenth  century,'  in  the  Festschrift  zum  1100-j'ihrigen 
Jubiliium  des  deutschen  Campo  Santo  in  Rom  (Freiburg,  1897),  p.  243. 
Nevertheless,  Lorichius  cannot  be  called  '  a  decided  opponent  of  the 
Jesuits,'  as  Stieve  calls  him  in  Die  Politik  Bay  ems,  i.  158. 

4  Wolfe  im  Schafspeltz,  Bl.  17a. 


LORICHIUS,   POLEMICAL   WRITER  181 

authorities  to  use  the  harshest  penalties  for  compelling 
the  heretics  to  obedience  to  the  Church,  in  order  that 
thus  they  [the  heretics]  might  be  deprived  of  the  oppor- 
tunity of  tearing  the  Christian  flock  to  pieces  like 
devouring  wolves.1  He  did  not  attack  the  Augsburg 
Religious  Peace  either  in  this  treatise  or  in  a  German 
pamphlet  which  he  published  in  1583  under  the  title 
*  Religionsfriede  wider  die  hochschadlichen  Begehren  und 
Rathschlage  von  Freistellung  der  Religion '  ('  Religious 
Peace,  against  the  pernicious  Designs  and  Counsels 
concerning  Religious  Autonomy  ').2  In  the  preface 
to  this  pamphlet  he  said  that  he  wished  most 
humbly  to  beg  the  Christian  rulers  of  the  German 
nation  not  to  misinterpret  his  meaning  and  to  think 
that  he  was  advocating  anything  in  the  nature  of 
opposition  to  or  violation  of  the  decrees  and  statutes 
made  for  maintenance   of  peace  between  the  several 

1  De  vera  et  falsa  libertate  credendi  e  sacra  potissimum  scriptura  instituta 
demonstratio,  auctore  Iodoco  Lorichio  (Ingolstadt,  1577).  In  answer  to 
the  reproach  that  Jews  and  heathen  were  allowed  to  live  as  they  pleased, 
and  that  this  liberty  ought  all  the  more  to  be  accorded  to  the  heretics, 
he  argued,  Bl.  69  :  '  Judaei  atque  Gentiles  Christianam  ftdem  nunquam 
agnoverunt,  nunquam  professi  sunt  :  ob  id  non  debent  ad  earn  compelli  : 
credere  enim  voluntarium  est,  nee  habet  in  eos  animadvertendi  ius  ecclesia, 
quippe  foris  sunt,  ut  loquitur  apostolus  (1  Cor.  6).  Ideoque  Deus  eos 
judiedbit.  At  haeretici  fuerunt  aliquando  ex  ovibus.  Sunt  ergo  quoque  inodo  ad 
ovile  reducendi,  ne  in  lupos  incidant.  Si  vero  ex  ovibus  in  lupos  transformati 
sunt,  persequi  eos,  captivare,  vincire,  tollere  oportet,  ne  oves  invadant  atque 
dilacerent.'  At  Bl.  63b-66,  Kap.  24,  he  treats  '  De  justa  compulsione 
rebellium  ad  obediendum  fidei  legibusque  praescriptis."1  In  the  following 
chapter,  '  Quod  non  repugnet  Christianae  modestiae  Dei  et  ecclesiae  hostes 
atrocius  persequi,'  the  treatise  is  directed  against  those  who  assert 
'  liberum  unicuique  concedi  debere,  ut  credat  quod  volet '  (Bl.  53\). 

2  ' .  .  .  filr  die  christlichen  Oberkeiten  teutscher  Nation  zur  Erinnerung 
und  Warming  kiirzlich  beschrieben'  ('briefly  described  as  a  reminder  and 
a  warning  to  the  Christian  rulers  of  the  German  nation  ').  Cologne,  1583. 
Another  edition :  Tractat  von  Freystellung  und  Religionsfrieden,  Freiburg 
in  the  Breisgau,  1610. 


182  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

members  of  the  Roman  Empire.  His  object  was  merely 
to  prove  and  establish  openly  that  '  the  religious  auto- 
nomy which  the  Protestants  demanded  was  an  impossible 
and  destructive  measure.'  Whereas,  he  reiterated  at 
the  conclusion,  he  had  not  treated  the  subject  in  any 
way  from  a  '  civic  or  political  point  of  view,'  but  only 
from  the  judgment- seat  of  conscience  and  with  refer- 
ence to  the  strict  tribunal  of  God,  he  hoped  that '  nobody 
would  accuse  him  of  any  arrogance  or  want  of  modesty 
in  the  matter,'  still  less  of  '  a  deliberate  intention  to 
arouse  mischievous  excitement  and  embitterment  of 
Christian  spirits  against  each  other.'  But  he  felt  bound 
'  to  admonish  and  warn  all  Catholic  rulers  not  to  pin 
their  faith  on,  or  acquiesce  in,  all  the  rosy  language 
and  the  fervent  assurances  of  peaceful  good-fellowship 
which  the  Protestants  would  maintain  with  and 
among  us  if  freedom  of  religion  were  granted  them.' 
True  it  was  that  in  some  of  the  imperial  cities,  after 
the  so-called  Interim,  the  Catholic  religion  '  had  again 
been  openly  preached  and  practised,  but  little  by  little 
not  only  had  it  secretly  begun  to  weaken  and  decline, 
but  it  had  been  suppressed  and  driven  out  with  open 
violence.'  '  Who  will  any  longer  trust  their  painted 
language  ?  '  '  Although  the  Catholics  and  those  who 
have  separated  themselves  from  the  Roman  Christian 
Church  do  and  must  maintain  mutual  fellowship  in 
secular  matters,  it  is  nevertheless  impossible  that  any 
real  and  reliable  understanding  of  spirit  should  exist 
and  be  maintained  between  them.'  The  Religious 
Peace  had  not  been  observed  by  the  Protestants  ;  on 
the  contrary,  ever  since  its  conclusion  '  there  had  been 
neither  peace,  tranquillity,  nor  any  sort  of  well-being '  ; 
'  numbers  of  churches  and  convents  had  been  ravaged  ; 


LORICHIUS — ERSTENBERGER'S   '  AUTONOMY,'   1586      183 

numbers  of  ecclesiastical  holdings  seized  by  violence, 
and  in  many  towns  the  Catholic  religion  had  been  inter- 
dicted and  suppressed.'  The  Church  possessed  autho- 
rity to  employ  coercive  measures  against  the  rene- 
gades ;  '  for  why,'  asked  Lorichius  in  the  words  of 
St.  Augustine — '  why  should  not  the  Catholic  Church 
compel  her  lost  sons  to  return,  when  others  have  com- 
pelled these  lost  sons  to  go  to  ruin  ?  '  Not  force  and 
violence,  however,  but  earnest  repentance  and  reform 
on  the  part  of  the  Catholics  themselves,  '  were  the  best 
means  towards  the  abolition  of  heresy  and  other  evils, 
with  which  the  Church  was  being  more  and  more 
afflicted  and  assailed.'  '  The  greater  number  of  both 
lords  and  subjects,  spiritual  and  temporal,  went  on 
living  just  as  if  there  were  no  trouble  in  the  Church  of 
God  that  we  need  concern  ourselves  about.  There  are 
but  few  people  who  at  all  take  to  heart  the  terrible 
apostasy  of  the  sects  and  the  heavy  persecution  which 
the  Church  has  suffered  and  still  suffers  daily  from 
them :  few  who  weep  and  lament  over  our  sins  and  over 
the  falling-off  of  others  from  God,  and  who  intreat  for 
the  grace  of  forgiveness  and  conversion.'  l 

But  if  Eder  and  Lorichius  were  cited  as  proofs 
'  that  on  the  side  of  the  papists  nothing  less  was  con- 
templated than  the  overthrow  of  the  solemnly  con- 
tracted Religious  Peace,  and  the  cruel  persecution  of 
all  the  evangelical  Estates  in  the  Empire,'  there  was 
still  clearer  evidence  '  of  such  inhuman  plots  '  in  a  work 
which  appeared  in  the  name  of  the  chancellor  of  the 
Elector  of  Cologne,  Franz  Burkhard,  with  the  title 
'  Traktat  von  der  Autonomic'  In  this  treatise,  so  it 
was  said,  '  it  was  frankly  and  freely  stated  that  not 

1  Pp.  22  &.,  44-45.     Last  edition,  pp.  19,  23,  32,  34,  41,  48,  53. 


184  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

only  must  the  Religious  Peace  be  annulled,  but  that 
the  whole  body  of  evangelicals  must  be  proceeded  against 
with  fire  and  sword.'  1  The  Elector  Palatine  Frederic  IV. 
on  one  occasion  laid  before  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
the  draft  of  a  document  in  which  complaint  was  to  be 
made  to  the  Emperor  that  '  the  papists  and  Jesuits 
suggest  in  their  books  that  the  Religious  Peace  should 
be  extinguished,  the  heretics  rooted  out  with  fire  and 
sword,  and  that  all  rulers  who  do  not  help  in  the 
massacre,  and  who  do  not  submit  themselves  entirely 
to  the  will  of  the  Pope,  should  be  put  an  end  to  by  their 
own  subjects.  In  the  book  of  Burkhard  it  says  :  "  The 
Catholics  should  punish  all  heretics  with  the  ban,  nay, 
with  fire  and  sword  ;  the  adherents  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession  must  be  expelled  from  the  country,  and  we 
must  take  their  churches  and  schools  away  from  them 
even  at  the  risk  of  losing  our  lives  and  property." 
Thus  the  classicum  or  summons  to  a  religious  war 
'  had  sounded  in  Germany  also.'  2 

In  reality  matters  stood  quite  differently  as  regards 
the  book  in  question. 

The  actual  author  of  the  '  Traktat  von  der  Auto- 
nomie,  das  ist  von  Freistellung  mehrerlei  Religion  und 
Glauber '('  A  Treatise  on  Autonomy  :  that  is,  on  grant- 
ing liberty  to  adopt  a  different  religion  or  faith '), 
which  appeared  in  1586  and  went  through  several 
editions,  was  Andreas  Erstenberger,  secretary  of  the 
Aulic  Council.3 

1  Wolfe  im  Schafspeltz,  Bl.  17a. 

2  Ritter,  Briefe  und  Akten,  i.  477. 

3  The  Munich  edition  of  1593  is  the  one  to  which  I  refer.  '  The  value  of 
the  book,'  says  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bay  ems,  i.  162-163,  '  lay  in  the  juridical 
arguments  by  which  Erstenberger,  on  the  strength  of  the  Religious  Peace 
and  the  transactions  which  occurred  at  the  time  of  its  settlement,  defended 


ERSTENBEEGER'S   'AUTONOMY,'   1586  185 

Inasmuch   as    the    Emperor     Rudolf    II. ,   like   his 
father,  Maximilian  II.,  was  averse  to  all  doctrinal  and 


the    ecclesiastical    reservation  and    combated    Ferdinand's  declarations ' 
(see  our  remarks,  vol.  viii.   p.   352-359).     The  Autonomic  appeared   '  to 
the  Catholics  an  invincible  bulwark,  and  irrefutable  defence  against  the 
Protestants'  demand  for  religious  freedom,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  the 
adversaries  for  the  space  of  sixteen  years  did  not  once  make  a  serious 
attempt  to  undermine  its  evidence.'     Sugenheim,  Gcsch.  dcr  Jesuiten,  i. 
72,  75-76,  writes  :   '  Erstenberger's  work  may,  without  exaggeration,  be 
described  as  a  very  important  publication,  as  an  epoch-making  event  in 
the  ecclesiastico-political  life  of  those  times.     The  tremendous  noise  which 
it  caused  on  its  first  appearance  was  only  too  natural.     Never  before  had 
the  weaknesses  of  contemporary  Protestantism,  its  glaring  contradictions 
to  its  own  principles,  been  shown  up  with  so  much  penetration  and  clear- 
ness, and  on  such  a  solid  basis  of  fact.     With  regard  to  the  question  of  the 
day — viz.  the  abolition  of  the  ecclesiastical  reservation,  so  often  and  urgently 
called  for  by  the  evangelicals,  and  the  redress  of  all  their  remaining  griev- 
ances— the  author  denied  them  all  and  any  competence  and  right  to  get 
up  a  case  against  the  Cathohc  Estates  of  the  Empire  ;  his  proofs  were 
striking,  and  chiefly  taken  from  the  conduct  of  the  Protestants  themselves. 
It  is  scarcely  possible  to  describe  how  much  damage  was  caused  to  the 
evangelical  portion  of  the  Empire  by  the  timely  appearance  of  this  work, 
shortly  after  the  disastrous  termination  to  the  affair  of  Gebhard  of  Cologne 
had  exposed  the  blindness,  the  want  of  unity,  and  the  internal  weakness 
of  the  new-religionist  party.     That  which  hundreds  of  thousands  among 
both  Catholics  and   Protestants  had  dimly  felt,  was  now  stated  in  plain 
language,  and  reasoned  out  with  logical  acumen  ;  and  while  the  respect 
and  enthusiasm  of  the  Catholics  for  their  own  Church  were  raised  to  a 
higher  pitch  by  the  immensely  increased  contempt  which  this  book  roused 
against  the  evangelical  Church,   there  fell  on  many  of  the  friends  and 
adherents  of  the  latter  a  leaden  weight  of  indolence,  indifference,  and 
despair.     Numbers  who  had  long  felt  dissatisfied  with  and  repelled  by  this 
deformed,  disfigured  Protestantism,  now  silently  asked  themselves  whether, 
for  the  sake  of  this  degenerate  Church,  so  little  in  harmony  with  any  reason- 
able   religious    feehng,    so    inconsequent   and   fanatical,   it  was    worth 
while  to  forfeit  all  the  advantages  which  the  old  Church — incomparably 
more  logical  at  any  rate — held  out  to  her  adherents,  inviting  them  to 
become   martyrs   in  her  service   and   for  her  glorification.'     Respecting 
Erstenberger's  Traktat  von  dcr  Autonomic,''   see  now  the  article  by  Lossen 
in  the  Sitzungsbcrichte  dcr  Munch.  AJcad.,  phil.-hist.  Klasse,  1891,  Heft  i. 
128  ff.     According  to  the  account  of  the  Bavarian  secretary,  Dr.  Winkel- 
mair  (1571),  Erstenberger  was  a  convert,  see  Gotz,  Brief e  und  Aden  zur 
Geschichte  des  16.  Jahrh.  (Munich,  1898),  No.  625  ;  Riegler,  iv.  639.     The 
usefulness  of  the  Latin  translation  of  Erstenberger's  work  is  accentuated 


186  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

dogmatic  discussion  of  religion,  Erstenberger  did  not 
dare  bring  out  this  work  in  his  own  name,  or  have 
it  printed  at  Vienna.  Under  the  auspices  of  Duke 
William  V.  of  Bavaria,  who  had  promised  the  author 
strict  silence,  it  appeared  in  print  at  Munich.  '  At  the 
imperial  court,'  the  Duke  wrote  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Salzburg  on  December  5,  1586,  '  they  will  not  vouch- 
safe their  approval  to  the  newly  published  work  on 
freedom  of  religion,  nor  to  any  others  which  aim  at 
saving,  maintaining,  and  propagating  our  •  Catholic 
religion ;  while  the  other  side  are  allowed  to  make  use 
of  any  means  they  like  without  any  scruple.'  Ersten- 
berger's  fear  that  his  becoming  known  as  the  author 
would  not  only  injure  himself,  but  also  his  wife  and 
family  after  his  death,  was  therefore  probably  not 
groundless.1 

Erstenberger  distinguished  between  five  '  kinds  and 
manners  of  religious  freedom,  which  are  in  vogue 
nowadays.' 

The  first  kind  was  the  freedom  of  the  Electors, 
Princes,  and  Estates  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  who 
had  been  assured  by  the  Religious  Peace  of  Augsburg 
that  '  until  the  final  settlement  of  the  religious  strife 
they  should  be  left  undisturbed  in  their  Confession,  and 
should  not  be  forced  to  renounce  it  against  their  will 
and  conscience,  or  be  molested  and  oppressed  on  account 
of  it.'  '  And  this,'  he  said,  '  is  almost  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance of  the  said  Religious  Peace,  and  therefore  is  not, 
nowadays,  the  subject  of  much  discussion.  In  fact 
this  first  point  does  not  appertain  so  much  to  religion 

by  Minutio  Minucci  in  his  memorandum  on  the  condition  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  Germany  (1588),  in  the  Nuntiaturberichte,  iii.  1,  772. 
1  v.  Aretin,  Maximilian  der  Erste,  pp.  249-252. 


ERSTENBERGEK'S   'AUTONOMY,'   1586  187 

itself,  but  rather  to  temporal  peace  and  to  the  political 
unity  of  the  Estates  of  both  religions,  and  therefore, 
properly  speaking,  it  is  not  an  affair  of  religious  freedom 
but  rather  a  treaty  and  injunction  of  peace.'  '  Since 
the  prospective  settlement  of  the  religious  contest 
alluded  to  in  the  treaty  has  not  been  accomplished, 
this  article  on  religious  autonomy  remains  where  it 
was,  and  it  is  therefore  unnecessary,  so  far  as  concerns 
the  political  and  the  secular  peace,  to  deal  any  more 
with  the  subject.'  l  The  Augsburg  Confession  in  and 
for  itself,  that  is  as  regards  its  doctrine,  had  not  by  any 
means  been  '  approved  and  sanctioned  '  in  the  Religious 
Pacification ;  for  this  treaty,  Erstenberger  repeated, 
did  not  concern  '  religion  itself,'  but  '  only  political 
peace  and  its  guarantee,  in  order  that  peace  and  tran- 
quillity might  be  maintained  in  the  Holy  Empire  and 
that  the  Estates  of  both  religions  might  dwell  securely 
side  by  side.'  The  settlement  of  the  religious  strife 
'  was,  in  express  language,  deferred  to  some  future  time 
and  opportunity '  in  the  said  treaty.  But  even  if, 
which  was  not  the  case,  '  this  said  presumed  settlement 
had  been  included  in  the  Religious  Peace,'  still  no  appeal 
could  have  been  made  to  it,  because  the  secular  authori- 
ties had  no  power  whatever  to  pronounce  judgment  in 
matters  of  faith,  and  because  the  general  Christian 
council,  to  which  the  Emperor  and  the  Estates  had  them- 
selves deferred  the  decision  of  the  religious  contest,  had 
been  already  held  long  ago  and  the  new  teaching  publicly 
condemned  and  anathematised.  This  '  verdict  of  the 
Catholic  Church  is  so  authoritative  in  itself  that  it 
annuls  and  abolishes  any  secular  approbation  that 
may  have  preceded  it '  ;  but  he  remarks  emphatically, 

'   Autonomic,  Bl.  2%  4b. 


188  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

*  which  of  course  means  only  in  matters  relating  to  the 
soul  and  eternity.'  * 

According  to  this.  Erstenberger  acknowledged  the 
binding  nature  of  the  Religious  Peace  as  a  civil  and 
political  treaty,  openly  and  unconditionally,  just  as 
did  Eder  ;  in  his  opinion  also  this  peace,  in  its  civil 
aspect,  had  in  no  way  been  nullified  by  the  Council  of 
Trent.2 

'  If,  however,'  in  spite  of  the  decisions  of  the  Council, 
'  the  advocates  of  religious  autonomy  persist  in  their 
multitudinous  conflicting  confessions,  or  rather  con- 
fusions, in  the  teeth  of  all  warnings  against  eternal 
divine  punishment,  they  cannot  at  the  same  time  be 
saved  against  their  will,  and  we  must  end  by  leaving 
it  to  them — that  is  to  the  Estates  holding  immediately 
from  the  Empire — to  take  their  own  course  at  their 
peril,  and  to  govern  their  subjects  as  they  please  ;  for 
they  themselves  will  have  to  answer  for  themselves  at 
the  last  day.  But  they  must  also  leave  the  Catholic 
Estates  and  their  subjects  undisturbed  in  their  ancient 
and  alone-saving  faith,  and  must  not  arrogate  to  them- 
selves more  than  the  political  part  of  the  religious 
peace  allows  them.'  So  little  did  Erstenberger  dream 
of  calling  the  latter  in  question  that  he  exhorted  the 
'  peace-loving  princes  and  estates '  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession  to  take  care  that  '  the  toleration  of  so  many 
and  various  conflicting  sects,'  whose  existence  could 
not  be  denied,  '  and  the  influence  of  so  many  wrong- 
headed  fanatics  did  not  upset  the  political  peace  and 
the  course  of  justice.' 3     Toleration  of  these  sects,  he 

1  Aulonomie,  Bl.  29P-292. 

2  Already  insisted  on  by  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayerns,  i.  160-161. 

3  Autonomie,  Bl.  292b-293a. 


ERSTENBERGER'S   'AUTONOMY,'    1586  189 

said,  above  all  of  the  Zwinglians  and  Calvinists,  con- 
tradicted the  express  letter  of  the  peace.  In  other 
respects  also  this  peace  was  not  observed  with  regard 
to  the  Catholics  ;  the  new  religionists  were  not  satisfied 
with  the  abbeys,  prelacies,  convents,  and  parsonages 
confiscated  before  the  peace,  but  they  went  on  making 
fresh  violent  seizures,  appointing  sectarian  preachers 
everywhere,  and  stirring  up  the  subjects  of  Catholic 
rulers  to  disobedience. 

While  Erstenberger  fully  recognised  the  validity  and 
legality  of  the  so-called  '  first  kind  of  religious  freedom  ' 
as  guaranteed  in  the  Religious  Peace,  he  enumerates 
four  other  kinds  which  were  opposed  to  the  terms  of 
the  peace.  The  second  kind,  he  says,  was  the  abolition 
of  the  ecclesiastical  reservation,  which  was  insisted  on 
by  the  Estates  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  ;  the  third, 
the  demand,  first  put  forward  in  1566,  '  that  not  only 
should  the  apostate  clergy  be  allowed  to  retain  their 
benefices,  their  status,  their  dignities  and  emoluments, 
but  also,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  princes,  counts 
and  lords  of  the  nobility,  whatever  their  rank,  whether 
married  or  single,  should  be  freely  eligible  to  ecclesi- 
astical foundations,  bishoprics,  prelacies,  and  benefices, 
and  that  to  this  end  the  ancient  oaths  and  statutes  of 
the  benefices  should  be  altered  and  should  be  made  to 
apply  only  to  obedience  in  secular,  political  matters.' 
The  fourth  kind  of  religious  freedom  which  was  claimed 
related  to  the  Protestant  subjects  resident  under 
spiritual  rulers,  for  whom  it  was  demanded  that  they 
should  be  left  free  in  the  exercise  of  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession ;  the  fifth  and  last  was  '  freedom  generally  for 
all  subjects  in  matters  of  religion.' 

Against  these  last  four  kinds  of  '  religious  freedom  ' 


190  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Erstenberger  directed  his  whole  battery  of  arguments 
and  proofs  ;  he  condemned  them  as  altogether  unjusti- 
fiable, inadmissible,  and  injurious  both  to  Church  and 
State,  and  tending  to  nothing  less  than  the  complete 
extermination  of  the  Catholic  faith  in  Germany.  His 
reasonings  and  demonstrations  are  well-grounded  and 
sagacious,  both  as  regards  historical  and  juridical 
aspects ;  but  in  the  manner  of  his  controversy  he 
modelled  himself  to  a  great  extent  on  the  Protestant 
polemical  writings.  He  attributed  the  schism  in  reli- 
gion, with  all  its  disastrous  consequences — the  ruin  of 
ecclesiastical  unity,  the  decay  of  religious  and  moral 
life,  the  dissolution  of  all  social  and  political  bonds — 
to  the  devil,  and  insisted  that  the  Catholic  overlords 
or  landed  proprietors  should  at  least  do  as  much  in 
eradicating  heresy  and  punishing  heretics  within  their 
own  dominions  as  the  Protestants  had  done  against 
the  Catholics.  The  Catholic  Estates,  he  said,  were  not 
bound  to  grant  the  Protestants  in  their  territories  free 
exercise  of  their  religion,  or  even  to  tolerate  their 
presence  there  ;  prescriptive  rights  could  not  be  urged  in 
favour  of  the  latter,  because  according  to  the  principles 
of  Protestantism  itself  there  was  no  such  thing  as  pre- 
scriptive right  in  matter  of  religion,  and  nowhere  under 
Protestant  rulers  had  the  Catholics  ever  enjoyed  tolera- 
tion, or  free  exercise  of  their  religion.  These  rulers  had 
renounced  the  Catholic  faith,  which  had  a  tradition  and 
prescriptive  right  of  nearly  sixteen  hundred  years' 
standing,  '  and  by  means  of  their  misleading  preachers, 
and  partly  by  seductive  words,  partly  by  violence,  had 
coerced  their  unhappy  subjects  into  renouncing  it  also.' 
'  Almost  every  year  they  concoct  fresh  creeds, 
repetitions,   books   of  ritual,   concords,   and   such  like 


ERSTENBERGER'S   'AUTONOMY,'   1586  191 

things,  which  the  subjects,  the  preachers,  the  schools, 
and  the  landowners  are  obliged  to  accept,  approve,  and 
subscribe  to  on  pain  of  being  expelled  from  the  country, 
or  at  any  rate  forfeiting  their  positions,  offices,  pro- 
fessorships, or  pulpits.  In  some  places  even  things  have 
come  to  such  a  pass  that,  whenever  a  new  overlord  or 
a  new  preacher  comes  in,  a  new  religion  is  also  set  up. 
And  so  nobody  is  allowed  to  appeal  to  custom,  or  length 
of  practice,  or  anything  in  the  shape  of  prescriptive 
right ;  we  are  not  allowed  to  take  our  stand  on  the 
religion  of  our  ancient,  pious  German  ancestors  and 
forefathers,  or  on  length  of  possession  and  establish- 
ment ;  we  must  not  talk  about  mistrust,  division,  and 
discord,  and  other  untoward  consequences  !  It  is 
enough  that  the  rulers  are  satisfied  and  pleased,  the 
Papacy  opposed,  and  the  Augsburg  Confession  con- 
formed to,  at  any  rate  in  word  and  outward  appearance. 
It  is  enough  that  they  can  say  :  "  We  are  the  rulers  to 
whom  the  Religious  Peace  gives  power  to  enforce  the 
Augsburg  Confession  and  to  alter  and  organise  religion 
according  to  our  pleasure,  regardless  of  what  our  imme- 
diate predecessor,  or  our  father  and  mother  founded, 
established,  and  commanded."  All  this,  forsooth,  must 
be  swallowed  as  representing  the  letter  and  spirit  of 
the  Augsburg  Confession.  But  if  a  Catholic  prince  or 
Estate,  whether  temporal  or  spiritual,  succeeds  to  the 
government  anywhere,  or  inherits  a  lordship,  or  redeems 
a  mortgaged  property,  the  inhabitants  of  which  have  had 
the  new  religion  forced  on  them  by  the  late  holder,  he 
cannot  take  possession  of  his  inheritance  without  first 
taking  his  oath  that  he  will  allow  his  subjects  to  continue 
in  their  errors.  It  is  not  right  in  this  case  that  the 
prince  or  the  Estate  should  alter  the  religion  of  the 


192  HISTORY   OF  THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

land.     The  Religious  Peace  in  such  a  case  affords  no 
further  benefit.     Yea,  verily,  if  but  one  of  his  subjects, 
who  has  discarded  such  erroneous  teaching,  is  willing 
to  allow  some  slight  reforms,  inspection,  or  instruction, 
there  is  straightway  fire  and  fury  in  all  the  streets. 
Such  proceedings  are  utterly  opposed  to  the  Religious 
Peace  ;  from  pen  and  lips  complaints  are  everywhere 
rife  that  innovations  are  being  introduced  and  distrust 
occasioned,  that  the  poor  inhabitants  are  being  coerced 
against  their  consciences,  that  they  are  being  robbed  of 
their  gospel  and  their  soul's  food.     Steps  are  then  taken 
to  fortify  the  subjects  against  their  rulers  ;  preachers 
are  sent  among  them,  messengers  and  counsellors  are 
despatched   to   them,  to    abet  them,  to  counsel   them 
to  oppose  their  rulers  and  support  the  evangelicals — in 
short,  to  do  anything  and  everything  that  may  serve 
to  hinder  the  Catholic  religion  ;  and  yet  they  will  not 
have  it  said  that  they  are  acting  in  opposition  to  the 
Religious  Peace,  that  they  are  championing  the  subjects 
of  other  rulers,  and  fortifying  and  encouraging  them  in 
their  resistance  to  them !     On  the  contrary,  all  their 
proceedings    must    be    considered    entirely    right    and 
exemplary,  and  must  be  imputed  to  "  Christian  love  and 
conscientious  zeal,"   as  though  "  the  Catholics  had  no 
Christian  love  and  no  consciences."     But  how  can  it  be 
Christian   love    or    even   upright   Christian    conscience 
which  makes  the  Confessionists  refuse  the  Catholics  the 
privileges    which    the    Religious    Peace    grants    them, 
while    they    themselves   insist    on   profiting    by    these 
privileges  ? 

'  Dear  friend,  which  of  them,  I  ask  you,  lets  himself 
be  dictated  to  in  his  own  land,  even  by  the  highest 
ruling  authority,  with  regard  to  alteration  of  religion  ? 


AGAINST   ERSTENBERGER'S   'AUTONOMY'  193 

Which  of  them  would  approve  of  an  ecclesiastic  who 
should  espouse  the  cause  of  his  subjects  in  opposition 
to  himself,  especially  should  the  said  cleric  go  so  far  as 
to  assist  them  in  rebellion,  and  attempt,  as  Protestants 
often  do,  to  push  the  matter  through  by  threatening 
language  ?  ' 

'  If  it  seems  to  them  so  hard  and  unbearable  that 
the  Catholics  should  reform  their  heretical  subjects, 
what  must  the  Catholics  have  felt  all  these  last  fifty 
years  at  seeing  their  bishoprics,  abbeys,  and  convents 
daily  confiscated  before  their  eyes,  devastated  and  pro- 
faned ;  at  seeing  their  revenues  used  for  private  ends, 
the  clergy  and  the  religious  orders  mocked,  despised, 
suspended,  expatriated,  or  put  to  death  ?  Will  all  this 
tend  to  good- will  and  fellowship  ?  Or  what  must  the 
Catholics  think  about  it  all  ?  '  l 

Erstenberger's  work  was  not  refuted  by  the  Pro- 
testants, but  it  was  incessantly  combated 2  and  de- 
scribed as  one  of  the  '  vilest  of  lampoons.' 3  The 
preacher  Utzinger,  at  Smalkald,  called  it,  in  1588, 
the  '  book  of  a  rogue  and  scandalmonger,'  which 
'  dabbled,  slabbered,  cackled,  and  foamed  about  in 
wishy-washy  goose  sermons.'  4 

To  Dommarein  of  Dissingaw  this  work  was  an  in- 

1  Autonomie,  BL  359b-362a 

2  See  Justus  Springer,  De  pace  religionis  in  imperio  Romano  sub  regi- 
mine  D.  Caroli  V.  Caesaris  an.  1555  in  comitiis  Augtistanis  commentatio 
(s.  1.  1607),  and  Griindliche  Widerlegung  dess  von  D.  Andreas  Erstenberger 
a  ussgelegten  Bericht  wider  den  Religion- Frieden,  by  Justus  Springer,  I.  G.  ; 
written  in  Latin,  and  now  translated  into  German  by  Georgius  Beatus 
F.,  1607. 

3  At  the  Westphalian  peace  transactions  complaints  were  still  uttered 
against  the  appearance  of  the  Autonomie.  See  Lipowsky,  Gesch.  der  Jesuiten 
in  Bay  em,  i.  127  note. 

4  Erinnerung,  &c,  Bl.  D.  3b,  E.  2a. 

VOL.    X.  O 


194  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

centive  to  enter  the  field  against  the  'infernal  new  Jesuit- 
ical heresy,'  '  the  Jesuitical  red  and  bloody  sedition- 
mongers.'  In  1610  he  published  '  Eine  kurze  Infor- 
mation und  Anleitung  von  der  Autonomia,'  in  which  he 
said  that  '  the  accursed,  turbulent,  and  bloodthirsty 
sect  of  the  Jesuits,  according  to  their  disgraceful  and 
wicked  habit,  had  agreed  to  incense  the  people,  under 
the  pseudonym  of  Burkhard.'  '  Those  bloodhounds, 
the  Jesuits,  scream  and  write  all  the  world  through  ' 
that  all  those  who  fall  away  from  the  Pope  and  '  do 
not  agree  with  him  in  all  his  abominations  are  not  to 
be  included  in  the  benefits  of  the  Religious  Peace,  but 
that  all  of  them,  of  whatever  rank  or  dignity,  must  be 
demolished  and  extirpated  with  fire  and  sword.'  l 
From  the  history  of  ancient  nations  Dommarein  cited 
both  friends  and  enemies  of  religious  freedom.  Solomon 
was  an  example  of  tolerance  in  that  he  loved  many 
strange  women,  and  allowed  them  free  exercise  of  their 
religion,  until  '  they  turned  away  his  heart  after  other 
gods  ;  and  his  heart  was  not  perfect  with  the  Lord  his 
God.  .  .  .'  Priestly  rule  did  not  exist  in  Israel.  The 
new  King  Jeroboam  '  was  the  first  to  set  up  the  worship 
of  calves,  and  the  priests  did  not  counsel  and  dictate 
to  him  in  the  matter.  On  the  contrary  he  ruled  over 
them,  appointed  and  deposed  them  at  his  will,  as  also 
did  all  the  following  kings  who  would  not  let  themselves 
be  governed  by  their  priests.'  2 

The  Egyptians,  the  Persian  kings,  the  pagan  em- 
perors of  Rome  had  tolerated  Jews  and  Christians. 
But  that,  vice  versa,  Protestant  princes  were  under  very 

1  Dommarein,  pp.  8-9,  12,  19,  55.     On  the  other  hand,  at  p.  363,  the 
Jesuit  origin  of  this  work  is  spoken  of  as  doubtful. 

2  Dommarein,  pp.  38-39. 


DOMMAREIN— WINDECK— '  PROGNOSTICA  '  195 

similar  obligation  towards  Catholic  subjects  Dommarein 
does  not  say.  As  the  '  sworn  enemy,'  on  the  other  hand, 
*  of  autonomy,'  he  cited  the  '  bloodthirsty  Antiochus,' 
'  prototype  and  precursor  '  of  a  Nero,  a  Domitian,  a 
Diocletian,  and  their  counterparts,  '  until  at  last  the 
devil  incarnate,  the  Pope,  as  Luther  calls  the  Roman 
pontiff  in  his  lecture  on  the  Prophet  Daniel,  finally 
gained  the  upper  hand  and  '  banished,  tortured,  stran- 
gled, and  swept  away  everything  and  everybody  that 
was  opposed  to  him.'  l  When  the  Apostles  Peter,  Paul, 
Jude  preach  obedience  to  rulers,  then  the  '  author 
of  the  Autonomy  '  strikes  in  and  '  wants  to  mix  in  the 
ecclesiastical  rulers,  like  mouse-dung  with  pepper ;  but 
at  that  time  there  was  not  yet  any  such  thing  as  eccle- 
siastical authority."-  The  Emperor  Justinian,  who  issued 
decrees  against  heretics,  was  in  some  measure  priest- 
ridden,  and  he  let  himself  be  governed  by  his  wife 
Theodora,  '  because  he  was  a  perfect  simpleton,  and 
could  neither  read  nor  write.'  3  The  Emperor  Julian, 
on  the  other  hand,  who  '  had  also  great  virtues  '  and 
'  many  saintly  gifts,'  deserved  praise  as  the  friend  of 
autonomy.4  Sayings  of  Hilarius,  Chrysostom,  Am- 
brosius  are  quoted  with  approval  by  Dommarein  when 
they  appear  to  speak  in  his  favour.  When  it  is  other- 
wise the  '  holy  Fathers '  are  described  as  '  hot-headed 
fanatics  '  at  '  whose  instigation  and  solicitation  '  several 
severe  edicts  and  statutes  were  enacted  against  heretics. 
In  particular,  the  '  old  gentleman  '  Ambrosius  is  blamed 
when  he  speaks  up  for  that  '  perturber  of  consciences 
Burkhardus.'  5 

Another  '  mischievous  ranter  and  agitator  against 

1  Pp.  66-76.  2  P.  132.  s  Pp.  223-224. 

4  Pp.  213-214.  5  Pp.  216-217,  233-234. 


196  H1ST0EY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  Keligious  Peace  '  who  was  '  most  fiercely  denounced  ' 
by  the  Protestants  was  Johann  Paul  Windeck,  canon 
of  the  collegiate  church  of  Markdorf ,  in  the  bishopric  of 
Constance.  In  the  year  1603  he  published,  and  dedi- 
cated to  Archduke  Maximilian,  a  '  Prognostikon  '  on  the 
future  of  the  Church,1  in  answer  to  a  pamphlet  by  a 
Lutheran  which  had  proclaimed  the  imminent  down- 
fall of  the  papacy,  and  other  similar  '  prophesyings,' 
for  instance  the  prediction  of  a  French  Calvinist  that 
Catholic  doctrine  would  be  utterly  demolished,  and 
that  Calvinism  would  then  obtain  dominion  every- 
where.2 

Six  years  earlier,  in  1597,  George  Casius,  pastor  at 
Burgbernheim,  had  dedicated  to  the  Margrave  George 
Frederic  of  Ansbach  a  '  Prognosticon  astrologicum  oder 
teutsche  Practik,'  in  which  he  predicted  from  the  stars 
that  in  the  years  1598  and  1599  there  would  be  '  great 
and  wonderful  changes,'  '  disastrous,  devastating  wars,' 
and  that  '  several  exalted  personages,  both  spiritual 
and  temporal,  would  suffer  ruin  and  imprisonment,' 
'  nevertheless,  for  good  ends.'  '  In  1598  the  true  faith 
would  be  acknowledged.'  Concerning  the  '  two  eclipses  ' 
which  were  to  happen  in  the  month  of  February, 
'  Hermes  or  Mercurius  Trismegistikus,  the  Egyptian 
philosopher,  priest  and  king,  or,  as  the  reverend  and 
most  learned  scholar  Herr  M.  Heinrich  Biindig  makes 
out  in  his  "  Chronologic,"  the  patriarch  Joseph  himself, 
the  son  of  Jacob,  wrote  1,700  years  before  the  birth  of 
Christ :  "  Wenn  zwo  Finsternus  in  einem  Monat  fallen, 
thut  gross  Ungliick  herein  fr  alien  '    (when  two  eclipses 

1  Prognosticon  futuri  Status  Ecclesiae,  &c.  ;  the  full  title  occurs  in  Stieve, 
Die  Politik  Bmjerns,  ii.  700,  note  2.     Windeck  was  no  Jesuit. 

2  See  the  Epistola  dedicatoria  of  this  work. 


POLEMICS   ABOUT  THE   RELIGIOUS  PACIFICATION     197 

are  seen  in  one  month  there  will  be  great  disasters).' 
The  eclipse  '  in  the  high  heaven  '  '  related  to  religion,' 
and  would  occasion  '  another  great  shock  to  the  papal 
chair  and  to  our  bishops.'  In  addition  to  this,  the 
conjunction  of  Saturn  and  Mars  in  the  third  degree 
of  Libra  in  the  month  of  August  boded  '  nothing  good  ' 
for  '  the  House  of  Austria,'  even  if  the  Turks  did  not 
appear  before  Vienna.  Casius  placed  the  papacy  and 
Mohammedanism  on  the  same  level,  and  expressed  the 
hope  that  '  the  soothsayings  '  of  Antonius  Torquatus, 
who  had  prophesied  the  end  of  the  Mohammedan  and 
the  Antichristian  sects,  which  had  their  commencement 
together  1,000  years  ago,  would  be  fulfilled.1  Ten  years 
earlier,  even,  George  Casius,  in  a  '  Teutsche  Practik,' 
which  he  dedicated  to  the  same  Margrave,  on  the 
strength  of  the  fortunate  '  conjunction  of  the  upper 
planets,'  addressed  the  following  encouragement  to  the 
Protestant  princes  :  '  Our  Christian  potentates  should, 
therefore,  combine  together  all  the  more  hopefully  and 
unanimously  to  quell  the  power  of  the  Pope,  and  they 
should  ponder  well  over  Luther's  admonition  in  the 
little  book  against  the  papacy  at  Rome,  managed  by 
the  devil,  which  he  wrote  shortly  before  his  death.' 
'  This  is  how  the  preachers  proceed,'  the  Jesuit  George 
Scherer  had  said  in  answer :  '  They  peer  into  the  stars 
and  use  their  observations  to  incite  the  peace-loving 
princes  to  take  up  arms  against  the  papists.'  '  To  what 
does  Luther  exhort  the  princes  in  this  same  booklet  ? 
To  surprise  the  papists  with  an  armed  force,  to 
hang,  burn,  drown,  and  flog  them  alive.  This,  then,  is 
the  way  in  which  Casius  thinks  the  princes  ought   to 

1  Prognosticon  astrologicum,  oder  Teutsche  Practik,  Bl.  B(1,  A3-A4,  Cl, 
C.  2b. 


198  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

proceed  with  the  Catholics  at  the  present  day ;  this  is 
the  work  in  which  he  promises  them  all  success  and  good 
fortune,  and  that  the  stars  in  their  courses  will  fight  for 
them.'  l 

Over  against  Protestant  prognostication  of  this  sort 
Windeck  set  up  the  prognostication  that  the  Nemesis 
of  self-disintegration  would  overtake  Protestantism, 
split  up  as  it  was  into  such  countless  different  sects, 
but  that  the  integral  papacy,  instituted  by  Christ, 
would  endure  unto  the  end  of  the  world.  While  an 
endless  multitude  of  Protestant  controversial  writers 
could  tell  of  numbers  of  their  opponents  who  through 
divine  chastisement  had  met  with  sudden  death,  or  had 
fallen  a  prey  to  desperation  before  their  end,  or  had 
actually  been  carried  away  by  the  devil,2  Windeck,  too, 
had  now  similar  tales  of  '  divine  judgment '  to  relate 
concerning  Protestant  leaders  of  sects,  princes,  and 
lords.  He  asserted  the  right  of  rejoinder  against  the 
preachers,  who  persistently  and  incessantly  slandered 
and  vilified  the  lives  and  conduct  of  the  Catholic  clergy, 
by  cataloguing  the  vices  and  criminal  doings  habitual 
among  the  preachers.  He  advocated  at  the  same  time 
resort  to  the  severest  penal  measures — even  the  sword — 
in  order  '  to  keep  all  the  sects  far  away  from  the  terri- 
tories of  the  Catholics,  or,  if  they  had  intruded  them- 
selves, to  root  them  out  entirely.'  '  Cruelty  in  this 
respect  was  the  highest  kind  of  piety.  Nevertheless,  the 
way  of  gentleness  must  first  be  tried,  as  this  was  the  best 
means  of  eradicating  heresies.3     He  declared  emphati- 

1  Scherer,  Verantwortung,  &c,  in  the  Munich  edition  of  his  works, 
i.  420. 

-  See  above,  pp.  75,  76. 

3  Stieve,  ii.  700-704,  has  drawn  attention  to  particular  statements. 
At  p.  236  Windeck  says  :  '  Si  haereses  jam  radices  egissent,  severa  et  intern- 


POLEMICS   ABOUT   THE   EELIGIOUS   PACIFICATION     199 

cally  that  he  was  not  combating  the  Protestant  princes 
and  ruling  authorities  ;  but  of  the  religious  pacification 
he  spoke  disparagingly  in  several  passages  of  his  book. 
These,  indeed,  might  be  interpreted  as  evidence  that  he 
considered  this  treaty  as  having  been  done  away  with 
by  the  Council  of  Trent.1 

Windeck's  book,  a  Catholic  author  wrote  later  on, 
became  a  regular  standing  dish  for  the  preachers  and 
the  Protestant  Estates  to  make  complaints  of  in  multi- 
tudes of  books  and  at  diets.  '  "  See,  then,"  they  would 
say,  "  what  bloodthirsty  intentions  the  papists  are 
cherishing  ;  they  mean  to  drive  us  out  of  the  country 
with  our  wives  and  children,  to  kill  and  massacre  us." 
That  the  preachers  should  raise  this  hue  and  cry  does 
not  astonish  me  at  all,  for  to  most  of  them  lying  is  a 
daily  practice  ;  but  when  princes  talk  in  this  manner,  I 
am  verily  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  they  have  not 
read  a  word  of  Windeck's  book  ;  for  however  sharply 
and  incisively  he  speaks  up  for  the  old  traditional 
laws,  which,  moreover,  have  been  sanctioned  by  numbers 
of  emperors  in  the  Holy  Empire,  who  can  assert  that  his 
work  contains  that  of  which  he  is  accused  ?  '  2 

But  even  if  Windeck  had  really  written  all  with 
which  he  is  credited,  the  indignation  of  the  Protestants 
against  the  book  of  the  canon  of  Markdorf  must  still 
seem  unwarranted  when  we  consider  what  swarms  of 
books  and  pamphlets — many  of  them  dedicated  to 
Protestant   princes — have  appeared  and  are  still  daily 


pestiva  horum  mandatorum  executio  hello  civili  atque  kirbis  longe  gravissimis 
viam  patefaceret.  Qua  in  re  caute  agendum  et  non  temere  decernendum. 
Omnia  enim  benignitate  prius  quam  armis  sapientem  experiri  decet.' 

1  Stieve,  ii.  703. 

2  Von  iiblen  Nachreden,  &c,  p.  4. 


200  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

appearing,  in  which  the  utter  extirpation  of  the  papacy 
is  insisted  on,  and  represented  as  a  divine  command. 

Simultaneously  with  Windeck's  '  Prognosticon  '  there 
appeared  at  Miinster,  in  Westphalia,  a  pamphlet  entitled 
'  Aufwecker  der  Geistlichen '  (*  Awakener  of  the  Clergy  '). 
The  Protestants,  it  said,  had  no  right  to  the  posts  and 
benefices  of  the  Church,  and  must  therefore  be  ejected 
from  them.  It  was  both  the  right  and  the  duty  of  the 
ecclesiastical  princes  to  compel  their  subjects  to  keep  or 
to  adopt  their  faith.  Heretics  must  not  be  tolerated, 
but  persecuted  with  fire  and  sword.  The  religious  pacifi- 
cation of  Augsburg,  as  had  already  been  explained  by 
Ederand  Erstenberger,  related  only  to  political  peace,  but 
even  in  this  respect  it  was  an  impious  compact,  soiled 
with  iniquity,  and,  by  reason  of  the  irreconcilable 
enmity  between  truth  and  falsehood,  it  could  not  have 
a  lasting  existence.  Although  in  earlier  centuries 
Arianism  had  prevailed  almost  all  over  the  world,  the 
few  right-thinking  bishops,  the  Pope,  and  the  Em- 
peror had  not  let  themselves  be  dismayed  by  it,  but 
had  risked  life,  property,  and  renown  in  order  to  ex- 
terminate it.  Let  the  present-day  champions  of  the 
Church  take  example  by  them.  A  refuter  of  this  pam- 
phlet, on  the  other  hand,  disputed  the  right  of  the 
papacy,  which  was  itself  full  of  error  and  idolatry,  to 
the  possession  of  any  ecclesiastical  posts  or  property.1 

As  late  as  the  year  1614  the  Palatine  Elector 
complained  to  the  Elector  of  Mayence  about  the  '  Auf- 
wecker '  and  about  Windeck's  '  Prognosticon.'  From 
these  writings,  he  said,  it  was  clearly  evident  that  the 
intention  was  gradually  to  wear  out  and  exterminate 

1  From   Stieve,  Die   Politik  Bay  ems,  ii.    694-695.     See    Dommarein, 
pp.  16-17. 


POLEMICS   ABOUT   THE   RELIGIOUS   PACIFICATION     201 

the  heretics  and  non-Catholics.  The  Elector  of  May- 
ence  replied  that  '  the  libellous  writings  of  which  the 
Palatine  complained  were  nothing  whatever  to  him, 
but  that  they  had  been  suggested  by  writings  of  a 
similar  nature  from  the  opposite  side.'  l 

The  convert  Caspar  Schoppe,  one  of  the  most  in- 
fluential advisers  of  the  Archduke  Ferdinand  of  Styria,2 
instituted  an  inquiry  into  the  question  whether  there 
was  any  foundation  for  the  reproaches  which  were  made 
against  Eder,  Lorichius,  Erstenberger,  Windeck,  and 
other  Catholic  writers  with  regard  to  the  Religious 
Peace.  '  The  preachers,'  he  wrote,  '  accuse  the  Catholic 
writers  of  disputing  the  validity  of  the  Religious  Peace, 
and  also  of  advising  the  Emperor  and  the  Catholic 
Estates  not  to  observe  it  any  longer,  and  not  to  let 
themselves  be  bound  by  the  faith  pledged  to  the  heretics. 
If  this  is  really  so,  and  if  the  Emperor  as  well  as  the 
Catholic  Estates  can  listen  to  and  tolerate  such  advice, 
I  own  that  the  Protestant  princes  and  lords  have  good 
reason  to  put  no  trust  whatever  in  the  Catholics,  and 
that  they  ought  to  keep  a  sharp  look-out  on  the  game 
and  act  upon  the  maxim,  "It  is  better  to  forestall 
than  to  be  forestalled."  If,  however,  the  Catholic 
writers  not  only  do  not  advocate  all  this,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  admonish  the  Emperor  and  the  Catholic 
Electors,  princes,  and  Estates  to  strict  observance  of 
the  Religious  Peace,  then  indeed  we  must  admit  that 
such  liars  and  defamers  should  be  treated  as  sedition- 
mongers  and  disturbers  of  the  general  peace,  and 
punished  with  all  severity  as  an  example  to  others.  It 
is  therefore  well  worth  while  for  both  Protestant  and 
Catholic  princes  and  lords  to  investigate  the  matter  in 

1  Senkenberg,  xxiii.  717,-725.  2  See  Kowalleck,  425  ff. 


202  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

order  to  come  to  a  thorough  knowledge  of  what  is  the 
exact  truth  in  this  matter.'  1  To  this  end  Schoppe 
collected  from  Eder,  Lorichius,  and  Erstenberger  a 
series  of  statements  which  he  showed  to  be  all  of  them 
in  favour  of  the  rigorous  observance  of  the  Religious 
Peace.  Windeck,  also,  he  said,  had  (p.  333)  '  em- 
phatically declared  that  he  only  wished  to  prevent 
tolerance  of  the  false  religion  in  those  places  in  which 
it  had  not  yet  gained  the  upper  hand,  and  been  sanc- 
tioned by  public  authority.  Wherever,  however,  it  had 
already  taken  root,  and  had  been  countenanced  by  the 
ruling  authorities,  there,  in  the  opinion  of  sensible 
people,  the  tares  must  be  allowed  to  stand  in  order  that 
the  wheat  might  not  be  rooted  up  with  them — that  is 
to  say,  that  the  pious  people  might  not  come  to  greater 
grief.'  The  German  Jesuits,  also,  were  unjustly  charged 
with  having  incensed  the  Emperor  and  the  Catholic 
Estates  against  the  Religious  Peace." 

Among  these  were  Gregory  Rosefius,  who,  under  the 
name  of  Christopher  Rosenbusch,  published  several 
pamphlets,  and  George  Scherer,  one  of  the  most  active 
controversialists  of  the  Order.  Against  both  these  men 
the    Wiirtemberg     court    preacher,    Lucas     Osiander, 

1  Ungersdorff  (the  pseudonym  under  which  Schoppe  wrote),  pp.  41-42. 

2  Ungersdorff,  pp.  42-73,  74-83.  The  chancellor  and  prebendary 
Konrad  Braun  was  also  accused  by  a  Calvinist  of  having  stated  in  his 
pamphlet  Ueber  die  Haretiker,  '  in  which  he  had  dealt  very  thoroughly 
with  the  Religious  Peace,  as  it  was  drawn  up  in  1555,  that  this  treaty, 
being  unbinding  and  invalid,  must  by  no  means  be  observed  '  ;  the  Catholics 
who  act  in  opposition  to  it  can  nevermore  rightly  be  described  as  peace- 
breakers.  Schoppe  (p.  58)  refuted  this  accusation  with  the  simple  state- 
ment that  Braun's  pamphlet  had  appeared  at  Mayence  in  1548 :  that  is, 
seven  years  before  the  Religious  Peace.  Braun's  pamphlet  appeared  in 
1549,  but  it  was  already  written  in  1542.  See  Paulus,  '  Dr.  Konrad  Braun, 
ein  katholischer  Rechtsgelehrter  des  16.  Jahrhundetts,'  in  the  Hist.  Jahrb. 
1893,  p.  537. 


SHOULD   FAITH   BE   KEPT   WITH   HERETICS  ?      203 

brought  the  charge  that  their  '  whole  diabolical  doing 
and  writing  '  was  directed  to  the  one  end  of  '  utterly 
extinguishing  the  Keligious  Peace  to  which  they  were 
pledged,'  '  of  perpetrating  a  general  massacre  .of  all 
pious  Christians,'  '  of  drowning  Germany  in  its  own 
blood,'  and  of  bringing  about,  not  here  only,  but  in 
other  kingdoms  also,  '  a  gruesome  massacre  and 
butchery.'  '  How,  indeed,'  he  says,  '  can  we  expect  the 
Jesuits,  the  children  of  Satan  and  the  messengers  of  the 
devil,  to  have  any  respect  for  the  Religious  Peace  when 
they  openly  teach  and  write  that  "  towards  heretics  no 
contract,  however  solemnly  sworn  to,  is  binding,  and 
that  no  faith  whatever  need  be  kept "  ?  '  ] 

'  It  is  not  unknown  to  me,'  Rosefius  replied  in  1588, 
'  that  nearly  all  the  heretics  give  out  that  we  teach 
that  no  faith  and  honour  need  be  kept  with  heretics. 
And  with  this  announcement  they  proceed  to  robbery, 
plunder,  theft,  saying  :  "  We  cannot  rely  on  any  treaty 
with  our  antagonists,  the  papists  ;  therefore  we  may 
just  as  well  turn  everything  upside  down."  Faith  and 
honour  should  be  kept  by  one  and  all,  for  nothing  pre- 
serves and  knits  together  the  community  so  well  as 
faith  and  honour ;  and  faith  and  honour  must  not  only 
be  observed  in  general  matters,  but  also  in  private 
affairs,  in  conversation  and  in  promises.  Never  at 
any  time  should  we  lie,  for  lies  are  opposed  to  truthful- 
ness. It  is,  however,  a  specially  serious  offence  to  break 
faith  in  public  affairs.'  '  When  a  treaty  of  peace  has 
been  concluded  without  deceit  and  trickery,  and  with 
all  due  formalities,  it  should  be  religiously  observed, 

1  See  above,  vol.  ix.  p.  117  ff,  and  the  further  catalogue  of  pamphlets 
and  counter-pamphlets  of  Osiander  and  the  two  Jesuits  in  Stieve,  Die 
Politik  Bayerns,  i.  151-156. 


204  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

whether  with  friend  or  foe,  with  believers  or  unbelievers.' 
'  Let  us  leave  the  Religious  Peace  out  of  account  and 
imagine  that  it  is  only  a  political  compact  required  by 
the  times  and  circumstances.'  The  punishment  of 
heretics  was,  at  any  rate,  in  accordance  with  divine  and 
human  laws  ;  but  '  in  the  empire  of  the  German  nation 
the  ancient  imperial  constitutions — even  those  against 
stiff-necked,  dangerous  heretics — no  longer  retained 
their  efficacy,  for  they  had  been  so  tampered  with  and 
hedged  in  by  the  Religious  Peace  that  nobody,  on 
account  of  religion,  might  be  impugned  in  his  honour, 
nobody's  property  must  be  touched,  nobody  must  be 
made  to  suffer  for  anything.  Even  the  Pope,  who  was 
only  invested  with  power  in  order  that  he  might  build 
up  the  Church,  not  that  he  might  despoil  it,  was  not 
authorised  to  abolish  the  Religious  Peace,  because  such 
a  step  would  occasion  much  misery  and  the  utmost 
perplexity.'  '  And  it  is  a  fact,  moreover,  that  ever  since 
the  time  of  the  conclusion  of  the  Religious  Peace  the 
Pope  has  sent  his  legates  and  nuncios  to  all  imperial 
assemblies.  And  though  the  nature  of  the  Religious 
Peace  is  well  understood  at  Rome,  the  Pope  has  never 
been  known  to  make  the  slightest  suggestion  with  re- 
gard to  its  abolition,  nor  to  cast  any  doubts  upon  it.' 
'  Yes,'  added  Rosefius,  '  I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that 
the  pious  emperor  and  the  princes  of  the  Catholic 
religion  and  faith  have  acted  in  these  matters  with  his 
Holiness's  knowledge  and  consent,  thereby  ensuring 
greater  safety  to  their  consciences.  And  is  it  likely 
that  the  poor  Jesuits,  as  Osiander's  fables  relate,  are 
now  setting  themselves  up  against  the  will  of  Pope, 
Emperor,  King,  princes,  and  lords  to  annul  the  Re- 
ligious Peace  ?     What  reasonable  being  can  for  a  moment 


SHOULD   FAITH   BE   KEPT   WITH   HERETICS?      205 

believe  such  a  tale  ?  Fie,  for  shame,  you  scandalous 
scribbler  !  '  ] 

The  Jesuit  George  Scherer  had  also  '  as  little  doubt 
that  nobody  ought  to  tamper  with  the  Religious  Peace 
which  had  been  sworn  to.'  '  We  are  bound,'  he  said 
in  a  sermon  at  Vienna  in  1595,  '  to  keep  inviolate  before 
God  and  the  world,  not  with  friends  only,  but  with 
foes,  not  alone  with  our  co-religionists,  but  also  with 
the  unbelievers,  the  oath  and  testament  to  which  we 
pledged  ourselves.  Whosoever  does  not  stick  to  his 
word  and  his  colours  does  violence  to  his  conscience, 
and  is  accounted  a  perfidious  wretch.'  2 

The  question  was  treated  exhaustively  by  the  Jesuit 
Martin  Becanus,  who  had  held  a  theological  professor- 
ship for  twenty-two  years  at  the  universities  of  Wurz- 
burg,  Mayence,  and  Vienna,  and  who  stood  in  as  high 
esteem  with  the  Catholics  as  did  '  Rosenbusch  '  and 
Scherer.  '  The  politicians  of  our  day,'  said  Becanus, 
'  are  commonly  of  opinion  that  it  is  justifiable  to  break 
a  promise,  or  even  an  oath,  when  considerations  of 
profit  or  advantage  require  us  to  do  so.3  The  Catholic 
Church,  however,  teaches  otherwise.  She  says  :  "  The 
promise  which  you  have  given  you  are  bound  faithfully 

1  Rosenbusch,  Declaration  der  untiichtigen  und  unwahrhaftigen  Abferti- 
gung  Osiandri,  pp.  87-97.  Concerning  the  fact  that  not  only  the  Jesuits, 
but  also  Catholic  statesmen  believed  that  the  Religious  Peace  had  been 
concluded  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Pope,  see  Stieve,  Ursprung,  p.  262, 
and  also  the  note  in  the  Anmerkungen,  pp.  93-94.  According  to  a  memo- 
randum of  the  nuncio  Delfinus  to  Duke  Albert  V.  of  Bavaria,  which  is 
quoted  there,  Pope  Gregory  XIII.,  in  1575,  in  order  to  prevent  the  grant 
of  religious  freedom,  was  anxious  that  the  confirmation  of  the  Religious 
Peace  should  take  place  at  once  on  the  day  of  election  of  Rudolf  II. 
See  above,  vol.  ix.  p.  302,  note  2. 

2  Die  zwolfte  Predigt  wider  Mahomet  und  sein  Alkoran,  in  the  Munich 
edition  of  the  works  of  Scherer,  ii.  291  ff. 

3  Opuscula  theologica,  i.  1. 


206  HISTORY   OF  THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

to  keep."  The  assertion  that  "  the  Catholics  teach 
that  there  is  no  need  to  keep  faith  with  heretics  is  a 
miserable  lie."  '  l 

In  a  special  pamphlet,  '  Ueber  die  Treue  welche  man 
den  Haretikern  schuldet,'  Becanus  lays  down  the  general 
rule  :  '  If  you  have  concluded  a  treaty  or  an  alliance 
with  heretics,  you  must  thoroughly  and  honourably 
fulfil  that  which  you  have  promised,  just  as  much  as 
you  would  in  the  case  of  Catholics.'  For  '  we  must 
never  tell  lies,  never  violate  our  neighbours'  rights, 
never  commit  an  act  of  injustice,  never  be  guilty  of 
perjury.  In  very  deed,  if  you  once  admit  that  all  such 
wrong- doing  is  allowable  on  the  ground  that  you  are 
dealing  with  a  heretic,  it  follows  that  you  also  have  the 
right  to  kill,  rob,  and  hate  heretics  ;  but  this  would  be 
contrary  to  reason  and  to  the  law  of  God.'  2  Even 
towards  unbelievers  and  worshippers  of  idols,  according 
to  the  testimony  of  Holy  Writ,  faith  must  be  observed 
— how  much  more,  then,  to  the  Protestant  sects  ?  3 

He  then  brings  forward  some  specially  important 
cases  to  show  how  we  are  bound  to  keep  faith  even 
with  outlaws,  excommunicated  persons,  and  heretics,  in 
marriage,  in  war,  and  in  case  of  having  granted  a  safe- 
conduct.  Charles  V.,  for  instance,  did  all  honour  to 
the  name  of  a  Catholic  emperor  when  he  refused  at 
Worms  to  violate  Luther's  safe-conduct.4  The  most 
important  section  of  the  treatise  bears  the  heading : 
4  Ob  man  den  Haretikern  Treue  halten  miisse,  wenn  es 
sich  um  die  Freiheit  der  Religion  handelt '  ('  Whether  it 

1  Opuscula  theologica,  i.  4b-5a. 

2  De  fide  haereticis  servanda,  Opusc.  iheol.  ii.  1-79.  The  preface  of  the 
second  volume  is  dated  1610.  Concerning  Becan,  see  also  Duhr,  Jesuiten- 
fabeln,  p.  Ill  ff. 

3  Pp.  35-39.  4  Pp.  46-49,  58-68. 


ATTITUDE   OF   JESUITS   TOWARDS   PROTESTANTS      207 

is  necessary  to  keep  faith  with  heretics,  when  it  is  a 
question  of  freedom  of  religion').  Becanus  begins  by 
reminding  his  readers  that  Christ's  ideal,  according  to 
the  testimony  of  the  Gospel,  was  that  men  should  have 
but  one  faith,  one  Church,  and  one  supreme  shepherd. 
A  variety  of  religions  in  a  State  was  dangerous,  and 
disturbed  the  peace  of  civil  life,  as  is  seen  from  the 
history  of  the  Donatists,  the  Iconoclasts,  the  Albi- 
genses,  the  Hussites,  and  the  Calvinists  in  England, 
Belgium,  France,  and  Poland.  No  Catholic  prince, 
therefore,  ought  of  his  own  accord  to  introduce  religious 
freedom.  The  greatest  emperors  of  Christian  antiquity, 
Fathers  of  the  Church,  such  as  Ambrosius,  Chrysostom, 
Augustine,  had  striven  with  the  utmost  zeal  to  preserve 
to  the  Catholic  Church  alone  the  right  of  public  worship 
of  God.  '  If,  however,  the  Catholic  ruling  authorities 
in  any  given  place  are  unable  to  prevent  the  existence 
of  other  modes  of  belief  and  worship  side  by  side  with 
the  Catholic  faith,  without  occasioning  still  worse  evil 
to  the  community,  they  must  then  be  allowed  to  tolerate 
the  unorthodox  religions.'  This  was  the  emphatic 
teaching  of  Thomas  of  Aquinas,  and  in  the  same  sense, 
says  Becanus,  spoke  the  scholars  of  the  Jesuit  Order, 
Maldonat,  Gregory  of  Valentia,  and  Molina.  If,  then, 
he  says,  in  concluding  his  typical  instances,  a  Catholic 
authority  seals  a  contract  with  heretics  with  reference 
to  toleration  of  this  sort,  '  there  is  no  question  what- 
ever but  that  the  contract  must  be  adhered  to  ;  for 
the  obligation  of  faith  and  loyalty  arises  out  of  every 
legitimate,  honest  compact.  At  the  same  time,  how- 
ever, it  is  permissible,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
moral  law,  that  freedom  of  religion  be  tolerated  in  order 
to  avoid  greater  evil,  and  a  Catholic  prince  has  full 


208  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

right  to  make  such  toleration  the  subject-matter  of  a 
treaty  ;  and,  if  he  does  so,  he  is  bound  in  honour  to 
keep  his  word.'  l 

In  1593  Peter  Stevart,  professor  of  theology  at 
Ingolstadt,  entreated  the  Emperor,  princes,  and  Estates 
that  '  for  God's  sake  and  for  the  establishment  of  truth 
they  would  plainly  state  whether  they  had  ever  received 
from  the  Society  of  Jesus  any  such  instructions  and 
counsels  for  the  extermination  of  all  the  Evangelicals 
and  Protestants.'  '  For  if  your  Imperial  Majesty  and 
your  princely  graces  do  really  declare  that  the  Jesuits 
are  contemplating  sanguinary  onslaughts  of  this  kind, 
our  German  nation  will  then  come  forward  and  call  on 
your  Imperial  Majesty  and  the  princes  for  vengeance 
against  these  insurrectionary  people,  and  insist  that 
they  shall  be  at  once  sentenced  to  death.' 

Stevart  wrote  thus  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  '  Apologie 
oder  Rettungsschrift  der  lobwiirdigen  Societat  Jesu,' 
which  was  a  refutation  of  a  so-called  history  of  this 
Order,  compiled  by  Polycarp  Leiser  from  the  papers  of 
Elias  Hasenmiiller.2 

If   the   Jesuits,    as   this   history   says,   were   really 

1  Pp.  49-58.  ' .  .  .  nam  fides  servari  debet  in  omni  pacto  licito  et 
honesto.  Atqui  licitum  et  honestum  est  tolerare  libertatem  religionis  ad  mains 
malum  evitandum,  et  de  ea  toleranda  licite  et  honeste  pacisci  potest  princeps 
Catholicus  :  ergo,  si  paciscitur,  fidem  servare  debet.  See  vol.  ix.  p.  463,  note  1 . 
The  Louvain  professor,  Johann  Molanus,  wrote  three  treatises  in  refuta- 
tion of  the  statement  that  it  was  not  necessary  to  keep  faith  with  heretics. 
On  the  Protestant  side  Johannes  Gisenius,  professor  of  theology  at  the 
University  of  Giessen,  defended  in  1618,  with  repeated  allusion  to  Becanus, 
the  thesis  that  '  with  regard  to  heretics  [i.e.,  for  Gisenius,  chiefly  Catholics] 
faith  must  be  observed.'  De  Papismo,  disputatio  20  (Giessae,  1618), 
pp.  389-390. 

2  The  Latin  title  of  the  Apology  of  1503  is  in  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayerns, 
ii.  327,  note  1.  I  make  use  of  the  German  translation  of  Kleophas  Distl- 
meyer  (Ingolstadt,  1594).  Concerning  the  Hasenmiiller -Leiserische 
'  Geschichte?  I  give  fuller  details  later  on  in  chapter  ix. 


ATTITUDE   OF   JESUITS   TOWARDS   PROTESTANTS     209 

'  bestial  creatures,  sodomists,  diabolical  furies,  sedition- 
mongers,  open  robbers,  traitors  of  the  whole  Roman 
Empire,'  it  was  impossible  '  but  that  such  crimes  and 
enormities  should  be  known  to  the  Emperor  and  to  the 
princes  and  towns  in  which  and  among  whom  the 
Jesuits  not  only  dwell,  but  are  also  highly  beloved  and 
gladly  entertained.'  '  What  else  is  the  act  of  harbouring 
robbers,  murderers,  and  traitors  but  a  crime  of  lese- 
majeste  ?  If  then  the  Imperial  Majesty  and  all  the 
leading  princes  and  lords,  as  well  as  the  imperial  cities, 
house,  harbour,  and  give  maintenance  to  lewd,  mis- 
chievous people  of  this  sort,  what  else  are  they  doing 
than  compassing  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  putting  themselves  on  the  level  of  perfidious  public 
enemies?'  He  declared  Leiser  guilty  of  the  crime  of 
lese-majeste,  and  deserving  of  severe  punishment.1 

The  bitter  hatred  with  which  the  preachers  secretly 
pursued  the  Jesuits  is  easily  explicable  from  the  fact 
that  the  latter  were  the  most  valiant  and  undaunted 
defenders  of  the  Church,  and  that  they  contributed  the 
most  to  its  preservation  in  Germany.  But  it  is  a 
baseless  calumny,  Stevart  declares,  that  they  aimed 
at  overthrowing  the  Religious  Peace,  and  that  they 
thirsted  after  the  blood  of  the  heretics.  In  reality  they 
were  intent  on  other  objects. 

'  When  we  call  to  mind  the  happy,  blessed,  and 
peaceful  state  which  was  the  lot  of  our  dear  ancestors, 
the  ancient  Germans,  and  then  consider  the  wretched, 
disturbed,  anarchical  condition  to  which  we  have  now 
been  brought  by  our  passion  for  innovation,  neither  I 
myself,  nor  the  Society  of  Jesus,  nor  any  good-hearted, 
pious  Christian  can  refrain  from  tears.     What  happiness 

1  Stevart,  vii.  56,  219  ff. 
VOL.   X.  P 


210  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  prosperity  prevailed  in  our  German  land,  and 
indeed  throughout  the  whole  Roman  Empire,  when  the 
people  with  one  consent  lived  in  submission  to  the  will 
of  the  spiritual  overseers  and  bishops,  whom  they 
obeyed  as  the  ministers  of  God  ;  when  in  one  body  they 
attended  one  same  Church  service,  participated  in  the 
same  sacraments,  recognised  the  same  ecclesiastical 
overseer  and  pastor ;  when  with  unanimous  heart  and 
voice  they  invoked  God  in  heaven,  when  they  joined  in 
one  uniform  service,  when  all  life  and  faith  were  united 
and  harmonious,  when  things  sacred  and  things  secular, 
things  earthly  and  things  divine  were  kept  separate, 
when  the  Church  was  enriched  by  the  bounty  of  the 
wealthy  and  the  alms  of  the  poor :  in  return  for  which 
the  divine  blessing  and  favour  vied,  as  it  were,  with  the 
generosity  of  the  pious  God-fearing  men  and  women  in 
such  a  manner  that  it  often  seemed  a  matter  of  doubt 
whether  those  who  despised  riches  and  spent  lavishly 
did  not  acquire  greater  abundance  of  possessions  than 
those  who  toiled  after  them  day  and  night  with  the 
utmost  solicitude.  But  we  have  more  reason  to  weep 
over  our  present  miserable  times  than  we  have  power  to 
improve  them.  A  Polycarpian  satirist,  however,  might 
well  mock  and  declare  that  the  old  times  were  not  so 
happy  as  the  present  ones  ;  this  is  the  real  golden  age  ; 
for  in  these  days  the  right  and  true  gospel  has  been 
dragged  out  from  its  hiding-place  and  brought  to  the 
light  of  day ;  just  as  if  the  wished-for  peace  and  the 
Gospel,  felicity  and  the  true  faith  were  opposed  to  each 
other,  and  could  not  exist  side-by-side.'  * 

Since,  however,  '  the  general  peace  of  Christendom 
has  disappeared,'  we  should  at  any  rate  strive  to  main- 

1  Stevart,  pp.  193-195. 


ATTITUDE   OF  JESUITS   TOWARDS    PROTESTANTS     211 

tain  the  unity  of  the  faith  in  those  lands  which  are 
still  Catholic.  This  is  the  duty  of  princes  and  rulers. 
'  If  in  any  such  places  an  agitator  should  be  discovered 
who  is  attempting  to  introduce  a  new  form  of  worship, 
new  rites  and  Church  usages,  a  new  evangel  and  new 
doctrine,  such  a  one  must  be  excluded  and  ejected  from 
the  Christian  community.  And  if  he  should  interfere 
with  the  general  well-being,  or  it  should  be  feared  that 
he  was  likely  to  stir  up  sedition  or  mutiny,  he  must  be 
driven  out  with  contumely.  If,  however,  after  all  these 
measures  he  should  still  refuse  to  keep  quiet,  he  must 
then  be  punished  in  life  and  person  for  his  impious, 
insurrectionary  behaviour.' 

But  with  regard  to  those  districts  where  '  heresy 
has  not  only  crept  in  to  some  slight  extent,  but  has 
gained  a  strong  and  widespread  footing,  and  where 
consequently  peace  and  tranquillity  cannot  continue, 
the  Catholics  do  not  teach  and  require  that  the  perverts 
should,  either  secretly  or  openly,  be  exterminated  by 
soldiers  or  executioners.  On  the  contrary,  whereas 
they  are  bound  by  the  treaties  and  the  recesses  of  the 
Roman  Empire  to  tolerate  these  said  heretics  and  to 
connive  somewhat  at  their  doings,  the  Catholic  doctors 
and  the  Jesuits  recommend  that  it  be,  at  any  rate, 
required  of  the  heretics  and  preachers  that  they  should 
be  satisfied  with  what  they  have  already  got  possession 
of,  and  that  they  should  not  proceed  any  further  in 
thwarting  us  in  our  church  service,  despoiling  churches, 
pillaging  or  confiscating  convents  and  nunneries,  and 
dishonouring  nuns.  Also  that  influence  should  be 
exercised  over  them  to  keep  them  to  one  religion  and  to 
prevent  their  constantly  changing  the  form  of  their 
confession  ;  if  they  are  Lutherans,  they  should  remain 

p  2 


212  HISTORY   OF   THE   GEEMAN   PEOPLE 

Lutherans,  and  not  become  Calvinists,  or  even  perhaps 
atheists.  And  if  those  who  are  at  liberty  to  profess 
and  practise  any  religion  they  like,  in  opposition  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  faith,  have  recourse  to  the  utmost 
violence  to  stir  up  all  sorts  of  sedition,  to  drive  the  old- 
established  lords  from  their  possessions,  the  priests  from 
their  churches,  the  monks  from  their  monasteries,  why 
should  not  it  be  equally  legitimate  for  us  to  put  down 
such  unlawful  violence  with  a  strong  hand,  to  meet  and 
to  stem  such  agitation  with  force  and  with  firearms,  and 
to  cut  short  the  licence  and  insolence  by  which  the 
ruin  and  destruction  of  such  multitudes  of  human 
beings  is  being  compassed  ?  ' 

'  The  wish  and  aim  of  the  Jesuits  is — first,  that  all 
heresies  be  destroyed,  root  and  branch,  so  that  nobody 
may  suffer  injury  either  in  body  or  soul,  and  that  all 
the  sects  should  return  to  and  be  reunited  in  the  one 
Catholic  religion.  Secondly,  they  desire  that  the  sun 
should  not  shine  on  a  single  evangelical  preacher ;  they 
desire  that  the  preachers  should  either  return  to  the 
true  and  saving  faith  or  else  be  so  effectively  held  in 
check  that  they  will  be  content  to  mind  their  own 
business  without  inciting  the  common  people  against 
the  Catholics  ;  and  that  if  they  should  exceed  these 
bounds  and  proceed  to  upset  the  general  peace,  they 
should  live  on  more  friendly,  trustful,  and  peaceful  terms 
with  us  Catholics  than  has,  alas  !  hitherto  been  the 
case  ;  and  that  the  schisms  which  have  destroyed  the 
old  Catholic  unity  and  confidence  in  matters  of  religion 
should,  at  any  rate,  not  interfere  with  Christian  peace 
and  unity  in  civic  life  :  that  is  to  say,  that  there  be  no 
violation  of  faith  and  honour  and  oaths  that  have 
been  pledged,  no  transgressions  against  the  treaties  and 


CONCERNING   THE   PUNISHMENT   OF   HERETICS     213 

alliances  contracted  in  the  Empire.  This  is  the  feeling 
and  the  heart's  desire  of  all  Catholics  and  of  all  Jesuits.' 

Stevart  declared  as  emphatically  as  Erstenberger 
that  the  Protestants  insisted  on  freedom  of  their  religion 
in  Catholic  territories,  but  that  they  themselves  would 
not  grant  the  Catholics  any  freedom  in  the  exercise  of 
theirs ;  on  the  contrary,  wherever  the  Protestants 
were  in  power  they  extirpated  the  Catholics  entirely. 
'  Would  to  God  that  this  were  realised  more  fully  and 
deeply.  We  Catholics  repudiate  freedom  of  religion 
in  words,  but  for  the  sake  of  peace  we  allow  it  in  fact. 
The  Lutherans,  on  the  contrary,  in  sugared  words,  make 
promises  of  great  freedom  and  liberty  ;  but  in  their 
actions — especially  as  regards  the  Catholic  religion — 
they  do  away  with  freedom  altogether.'  In  particular 
'  the  impious,  raving  preachers  bestir  themselves  to  the 
utmost  to  deprive  us  Catholics  of  all  our  liberties.'  l 

Like  Martin  Becanus,  the  Jesuit  Matthias  Mayrhofer, 
in  1601,  also  '  repudiated  the  slanderous  outcry '  that 
the  Jesuits  preached  that  faith  need  not  be  kept  with 
heretics.  It  was,  however,  '  unjust  and  preposterous 
that  on  the  strength  of  the  Religious  Peace  the  Lutheran 
overlords  should  be  entitled  to  force  their  subjects  into 
their  heresies,  while  the  Catholic  Estates,  who  have 
undoubted  and  irrefutable  knowledge  of  divine  truth, 
should  not  be  allowed  the  exercise  of  the  same  right ;  ' 
'this  "  right "  must  be  taken  away  from  those  caterpillar- 
like preachers  who  could  preach  of  nothing  but  fleshly 
liberty.'  2  The  bloodthirsty  preachers,  at  any  rate, 
deserved  the  most  rigorous  punishment.  In  this  matter 
of  punishing  the  heretics  it  was  not  a  question  of  those 

1  Stevart,  pp.  197,  200-202,  205  ff.,  216. 

2  Mayrhofer,  Katholiscke  Sclvutzschrift,  pp.  310,  364  ff. 


214  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

who  were  '  quiet  and  harmless,'  those  of  whom  St. 
Gregory  says  :  '  If  any  man  does  not  tolerate  evildoers, 
he  shows  by  his  intolerance  that  he  himself  is  not  good.' 
On  the  other  hand,  '  there  were  others  as  dangerous  and 
as  stifmecked  as  their  preachers  ;  and  it  is  with  these 
that  we  are  concerned.'  1 

'  In  Christian  antiquity,  and  still  more  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  existing  law  required  that  the  most  rigorous 
penalties  should  be  enforced  against  public  heretics. 
In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  Catholic 
and  Protestant  teachers  and  ruling  authorities  were 
still  unanimously  in  favour  of  this  rule.'  2 

The  very  mildest  of  the  Jesuits,  Father  Canisius, 
expressed  in  forcible  language  his  conviction  that  the 
Catholic  princes  were  in  duty  bound  to  employ  severe 
penal  measures  for  ridding  their  dominions  of  '  the  pest 
which  had  so  lamentably  disfigured  Germany  and  covered 
her  with  ignominy  in  the  sight  of  all  pious  people.' 
In  a  letter  of  June  18,  1558,  he  referred  Duke  Albert  V. 
of  Bavaria  to  the  example  of  Charles  V.  :  after  his 
abdication  Charles  had  manifested  the  greatest  zeal  in 
the  defence  of  the  true  religion,  and  had  been  active  in 
effecting  that  all  Lutherans  discovered  in  Spain  should 
be  taken  into  custody  and  severely  punished  as  examples 
to  others.  '  I  tell  you  this,'  Canisius  wrote,  '  in  order 
to  afford  your  reverence  consolation,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  hold  up  a  mirror  before  your  eyes  and  thus 
strengthen  your  princely  heart  against  those  craven 
spirits  whose  hesitation,  connivance,  silence,  and  con- 
cessions do  not  restore  to  us  what  we  have  lost,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  tend  to  the  almost  complete  extinction 

1  P.  377.  2  Hergenrother,  pp.  543-616. 


CONCERNING   THE   PUNISHMENT   OF   HERETICS     215 

of  religion  among  the  Catholics.'  l  With  still  greater 
resoluteness  a  few  Cologne  Jesuits  in  1560  urged  Duke 
William  of  Cleves  to  take  forcible  proceedings  against 
the  heretics.  Johannes  Monheim,  president  of  the 
gymnasium  at  Diisseldorf,  had  at  the  time  published  a 
catechism  for  his  '  Quartaner  and  Quint aner,'  2  which, 
under  cover  of  Catholic  orthodoxy,  put  forward  all  sorts 
of  Protestant — essentially  Calvinistic — doctrines.3  In  a 
drastic  refutation  of  this  work — the  so-called  '  Cologne 
Censure,'  4  which  caused  a  tremendous  stir  among  the 
Protestants,  and  gave  rise  to  a  bitter  pen-and-ink 
controversy — the  Cologne  Jesuits  declared  that  '  the 
stubborn  heretics  who  spread  dissension  everywhere 
ought  to  be  punished  as  thieves,  robbers,  and  murderers 
are  punished  :  indeed,  more  severely  even  than  such 
criminals  ;  for  the  latter  only  injure  the  body,  while  the 
former  plunge  souls  into  everlasting  perdition.0  The 
Catholic  princes  ought  to  drive  out  of  their  midst  these 
wolves  and  foxes  that  ravage  the  Lord's  vineyard,'  they 
ought  to  '  check  their  proceedings  by  stern  decrees,  or, 
failing  all  other  means,  expel  them  from  their  lands  with 
fire  and  sword,  or  else  punish  the  desperate  villains  by 
death.' 6  '  If,  forty  years  ago,  Luther  had  been  executed 
or  burnt  at  the  stake,  or  if  certain  other  persons  had 
been  put  out  of  the  world,  we  should  not  have  been 

1  From  Rome  on  June  18,  1558,  in  Braunsberger,  ii.  281-284. 

2  Boys  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  forms. 

3  Catechismus,  in  quo  Christianae  religionis  elementa  sincere  explicantur. 
Diisseldorpii,  1560. 

4  Censura  et  docta  Explicatio  Errorum  Catechismi  I.  Monhemii,  &c. 
Coloniae,  1560.  See  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bay  ems,  ii.  608,  note  1.  The 
work  dedicated  to  Duke  William  was  not  intended  for  the  people  or  for 
the  young  students  ;  but,  as  is  seen  from  the  title,  the  contents,  the  plan, 
and  the  mode  of  reasoning,  for  men  of  learning  and  research. 

5  Censura,  pp.  130-138.  6  Censura,  pp.  313-317. 


216  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

subjected  to  such  abominable  dissensions  nor  to  these 
multitudes  of  sects  who  upset  the  whole  world.'  1 

'  0  ye  princes  and  lords,'  said  the  Munich  canon 
Dobereiner  in  1570,  '  it  is  no  proof  or  act  of  mercy  or 
kindness,  but  rather  cruelty  of  the  worst  description, 
when  a  man  of  this  sort,  through  whose  instrumentality 
thousands  may  be  ruined  and  brought  to  perdition,  is 
allowed  to  go  unpunished.'  2 

The  same  opinion  was  expressed  in  1573  by  the 
theologian  Andreas  Fabricius,  the  tutor  of  Duke  Ernest 
of  Bavaria,  in  a  Latin  work  on  the  Augsburg  Confession 
which  he  dedicated  to  the  Bavarian  Dukes  Albert  V. 
and  Ernest,  and  in  which  he  urged  the  Emperor  and 
the  Catholic  princes  to  make  use  of  the  sword  entrusted 
to  them  for  the  protection  of  the  Church  in  order  to 
enforce  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent."  Two  years 
later  this  exhortation  was  repeated  by  the  Salzburg 
jurist  Johann  Fickler  ;  it  was,  he  wrote,  '  a  paramount 
duty  '  of  the  ruling  authorities  '  to  use  all  means  at 
their  command  '  in  order  to  keep  their  subjects  firm  in 
the  Catholic  faith,  and,  if  necessary,  to  root  out  the 
heretics  with  fire  and  sword.  For  this  new  evangel,  so 
much  boasted  of,  was  '  nothing  else  than  a  cloak  for  all 
manner  of  faithlessness,  perjury,  and  insolence.'  '  They 
bend,  twist,  and  turn  the  Holy  Scriptures  entirely  at 
their  liking.     Each  one  understands  them  and  explains 

1  Censura,  p.  136.  The  zeal  of  the  Cologne  censors  did  not  confine 
itself  to  their  opponents  in  the  faith.  The  Catholic  magnates,  also,  both 
lay  and  spiritual,  were  plied  with  solemn  admonitions.  They  were  re- 
proached with  the  immense  sums  spent  on  the  maintenance  of  quantities 
of  servants,  of  horses  and  dogs,  while  the  schools  were  neglected,  and  the 
poor  little  or  not  at  all  cared  for,  &c.     See  pp.  138-141,  313-315. 

-  Der  Calvinister  Kehrab  (Munich,  1570),  Bl.  Q.  3a. 

;!  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayems,  ii.  607,  note  3.  See  the  Notwendige 
Besichtigung  der  hessischen  Theologen,  p.  519. 


CONCERNING   THE   PUNISHMENT   OF   HERETICS      217 

them  according  as  his  wicked  inclination  dictates  to 
him.  If  a  man  is  inclined  to  commit  adultery,  he 
invents  a  meaning  for  some  passage  of  Scripture  by 
which  he  can  justify  and  excuse  his  sin.  If  any  have 
a  passion  for  extravagance,  gluttony,  drinking,  for 
spending  days  and  nights  in  rioting,  for  despising  and 
neglecting  fasting  and  abstinence,  they  find  plenty  of 
fellows  to  tell  them  that  "  all  things  are  pure,  and  nothing 
defiles  which  goes  in  at  the  mouth."  With  such  words 
they  give  good  cheer  to  drunkards  and  fast-breakers. 
If  anyone  has  a  longing  to  lay  hands  on  another's  goods, 
he  can  find  evangelical  teachers  who  will  sanction  such 
a  proceeding  from  the  Scriptures.  If  anybody  causes 
an  uproar  or  a  rebellion  against  the  rulers  or  against 
the  heads  of  the  Church,  they  have  but  to  go  to  the 
leaders  of  the  sects,  and  they  will  quickly  learn  to  praise 
such  impious  proceedings  and  defend  them  out  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures — and  not  these  only,  but  all  sorts  of 
kindred  offences — insolence,  disobedience,  and  wanton- 
ness.' 1  In  the  year  1588,  Peter  Muchitsch,  provost  at 
Pollau,  in  Styria,  said  in  a  pamphlet  against  the  Wurtem- 
berg  theologians  :  '  The  Augsburg  Confession  has  been 
condemned  by  the  highest  ecclesiastical  and  secular 
ruling  authorities  ;  what  more,  then,  can  happen  or  be 
desired  in  the  matter  ?  Nothing,  indeed,  except  that 
the  preachers  also,  as  convicted  and  condemned  culprits, 
should  be  cast  on  a  funeral  pile  together  with  this 
"  Confession."  He  dedicated  the  pamphlet  to  the  Arch- 
duke Ferdinand  in  order  to  '  advise  and  admonish  him 
to  begin  betimes  in  his  tender  youth  to  combat  and 

1  Theologia  juridica  (1575).  See  Stieve,  Ursprung,  pp.  61-62  ;  Die 
Politik  Bayerns,  ii.  607,  note  4 ;  translated  into  German  in  '  Bichtschnur 
rechter  Lehr  '  (1597),  Bl.  E.  3a-Fb. 


218  HISTOKY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

shun  the  enemies  of  God  and  of  His  divine  word,  and 
of  the  alone-saving  Catholic  religion ;  these  enemies 
being — besides  the  devil,  the  Turks,  and  the  heathen — 
the  Lutherans,  the  Calvinists,  and  other  heretics  ;  he 
must  be  more  on  his  guard  against  these  than  against 
all  other  dangers  and  disasters.' x  In  a  second  pamphlet, 
published  in  1590,  against  the  Wiirtemberg  theologians, 
Muchitsch  exclaims  :  '  0  Moses,  thou  zealous  servant 
of  God,  do  thou  come  back  again  to  this  world  and  give 
us  again  a  law  by  which  these  disobedient,  proud, 
puffed-up  Wiirtemberg  toads,  together  with  all  other 
Lutheran  and  heretical  preachers,  must  die  by  the 
hand  of  the  executioner.'  2 

Pamphlets  of  this  sort  were  '  like  an  echo  of  the 
vociferations  of  countless  preaching  agitators  who  raged 
and  clamoured  for  the  extirpation  of  all  the  Catholic 
clergy  and  of  all  Catholic,  or,  as  they  said,  Baalitish 
religion  and  worship.'  3 

The  worst  of  these  '  vociferators  '  was  the  Calvinist 
David  Pareus,  professor  of  theology  at  Heidelberg.  In 
1618  he  published,  with  a  semblance  of  immense  erudi- 
tion, a  well-weighed  and  calmly  reasoned-out  explana- 
tion  of   the   Apocalypse,   in   the   course   of   which   he 

1  Paedagogia,  oder  Schulfiihrung  der  wiirtenbergischen  Theologen  (Ingol- 
stadt,  1590)  ;  first  edition  1588.  See  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayerns,  ii.  607, 
note  5).     First  part,  preface,  and  p.  41  ;  cf.  pp.  52-53. 

2  This  pamphlet  is  only  known  to  me  from  the  quotation  in  Stieve,  ii. 
607,  note  1,  at  the  conclusion.  On  Peter  Muchitsch  and  his  polemics 
against  the  Wiirtemberg  theologians,  see  also  Loserth,  Reformation, 
p.  547  ff.  What,  however,  is  the  meaning  of  Loserth's  remark  '  he  belonged 
to  the  leading  representatives  of  Jesuit  scholars  in  the  land,'  if  he  was  not 
a  Jesuit  himself  ?  Loserth  expatiates  indignantly  on  the  coarseness  of 
this  man's  polemics,  but  is  careful  not  to  produce  corresponding  specimens 
of  the  '  forcible  replies  '  of  his  Protestant  opponent  Wilhelm  Holder,  of 
Tubingen. 

3  Von  newen  calvinischen  Giftspinnen,  p.  13. 


A  PROPOSED  CRUSADE  AGAINST  THE  PAPACY   219 

summoned  all  the  Protestant  kings  and  princes  to  a 
bloody  crusade  against  the  papacy.  Rome,  he  said, 
was  the  seat  of  the  Beast,  the  Sodom  of  the  Apocalypse, 
where  adultery  and  fornication  reigned,  and  idolatry 
worse  than  that  of  the  Egyptians.  '  Is  there  anything 
more  dreadful  than  the  Pope,  whose  footsteps  are 
worshipped  by  emperors  and  kings  ?  What  can  exceed 
the  rapacity  of  Rome  ?  There  is  no  crime,  no  deed  of 
infamy  committed  anywhere  in  the  world,  which  does 
not  bring  a  cartload  of  ducats  into  the  Roman  treasury. 
Where  do  we  find  greed  of  gold  greater  than  among  the 
clergy  ?  What  can  be  more  terrible  than  the  Pope's 
indulgences,  bulls,  and  breves,  which  are  written,  not 
with  ink,  but  with  blood  ?  '  '  Well,  now,  God  expressly 
commands  all  pious  princes  to  requite  the  Roman  Anti- 
christ and  his  kingdom  with  twofold  measure  what  he 
has  done  amiss.'  The  princes  must  not  be  content  with 
overthrowing  his  throne  with  a  conquering  army ;  in 
this  onslaught  of  divine  retribution  they  must  not 
shrink  from  inflicting  the  most  terrible  deaths,  they 
must  stop  at  no  torture  and  martyrdom  ;  such  is  the 
divine  command.  It  had  been  prophesied  that  a  great 
king  would  arise  who  in  a  forty  years'  war  would  demolish 
all  tyrants,  conquer  Spain  and  Italy,  burn  down  Rome, 
slay  the  Popes,  and  also  subjugate  the  Turks  ;  after 
which  peace  would  ensue  for  all  pious  Christians.1 

At  that  date  the  punishment  of  heretics  was  still 

1  Opera  theologico-exegetica  (Francofurti,  1647),  torn.  ii.  pars  4,  pp.  618- 
844  :  '  In  divinam  Apocalypsin.'  See  especially  pp.  736,  788,  795-796. 
'  .  .  .  nulla  poena,  nullus  cruciatus  sat  magnus  '  .  .  .  '  in  ultione  exer- 
cenda  nullum  severitatis  aut  supplicii  genus  praetermittant,  non  suo 
affectu,  sed  Dei  jussu '  .  .  .  '  Imperatur  vindicta  .  .  .  regibus  et  princi- 
pibus  piis,  ad  hos  et  ad  copias  eorum,  militates  ista  bortationis  pars  praecipue 
pertinet,  et  modus  exponitur  quo  illud  dederit  Deus  in  corda  eorum, 
quia,  videbcet,  expresso  mandato  hanc  eis  vindictam  imperavit.'' 


220  HISTOEY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

considered  by  the  Protestants  themselves  to  be  a  law  of 
the  land.  Even  the  theologian  Johann  Gisenius,  one  of 
their  mildest  spokesmen,  declared  it  to  be  '  the  duty  of 
the  evangelical  ruling  authorities  to  punish  and  excom- 
municate a  simple  sectary  after  he  had  been  subjected 
to  the  verdict  of  the  Church,  in  order  to  prevent  his 
doing  any  further  mischief  by  the  propagation  of  his 
errors  and  by  seduction  of  the  people  ; '  it  was  only  the 
execution  of  sectaries  which  was  not  allowed  to  the 
magistracy  in  the  new  compact.1  But  other  theologians 
were  in  favour  of  execution.  '  Tell  us  yourself,'  wrote 
Jacob  Silvanus  in  his  refutation  of  a  controversial 
pamphlet  of  the  Elector  Palatine's  councillor  Lofenius, 
in  1607,  '  whether  it  is  your  opinion  that  heretics  can 
or  cannot  be  punished  by  the  ruling  powers  ?  What, 
then,  must  poor  Servetus  do  on  the  funeral  pile  ?  Hear 
what  says  Beza,  your  idol :  "  Those  who  deny  that  we 
ought  to  punish  heretics  are  in  league  with  the  party 
which  is  introducing  a  thoroughly  corrupt  and  pestilential 
conception  of  the  Church  of  God.  They  are  acting 
more  senselessly  and  execrably  than  if  they  were  to 
declare  that  it  is  wrong  to  punish  sacrilegious  persons 
and  parricides  ;  for  heretics  are  beyond  all  comparison 
worse  than  blasphemers  of  God  and  murderers." 

Melanchthon  emphatically  corroborated  Beza's 
statement  that  heretics  should  be  punished  by  death. 
Zwingli,  of  course,  regarded  the  slaughter  of  bishops 
and  clergy  as  a  God-ordained  work.  Martin  Bucer  gave 
it  as  his  opinion  that  '  the  civil  authorities  must  not 
tolerate  the  exercise  of  false  religion  and  popish  idolatry 
side-by-side    with    the    ministry    of    the    Gospel.'     If 

1  De  Papismo,  disputatio  19  (Giessae,  1618),  p.  372. 

2  J.  Silvan,  Philippika  (Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayerns,  ii.  919,  note  1),  18- 


PROTESTANT   PUNISHMENT   OF   HERETICS  221 

thieves,  robbers,  and  murderers  are  subjected  to  severe 
punishments,  the  adherents  of  a  false  religion  should  be 
punished  still  more  rigorously  ;  the  civil  authorities,  he 
contended,  had  the  right  to  extirpate  them  with  fire  and 
sword,  and  even  to  strangle  their  wives  and  children, 
as,  indeed,  God  had  commanded  in  the  ancient  covenant.1 


i 


See  our  remarks,  vol.  v.  pp.  180,  290,  291.  Respecting  Bucer's 
opinion,  see  Paulus,  '  M.  Butzer  und  die  Gewissensfreiheit '  in  the  Katholik, 
1891,  ii.  44-71.  See  also  Hist.-pol.  Bl.  107  (1891),  p.  793  flf.  Concerning 
Melanchthon's  approval  of  the  execution  of  Servetus,  see  also  Galli,  Die 
lutherischen  und  calvinischen  Kirchenstrafen  gegen  Laien  im  Reformations - 
zeitalter  (Berlin,  1879),  p.  129.  How  extraordinarily  intolerant  Melan- 
chthon  was,  not  only  towards  the  Catholics  but  also  towards  Anabaptists 
and  other  dissenters  from  the  Church,  is  shown  by  Paulus  in  his  '  Melan- 
chthon  und  die  Gewissensfreiheit '  in  the  Katholik,  1897,  i.  460  ff.,  534  ff . 
When  Funk  says  in  Welzer  und  Wette's  Kirchenlexikon,  viii.  (2nd  edition), 
1213,  '  Melanchthon,  thus,  represents  in  this  respect  [intolerance]  no 
other  standpoint  than  that  of  the  Middle  Ages,'  he  overlooks  one  im- 
portant distinction  to  which  Paulus  emphatically,  and  with  right,  draws 
attention  (I.e.  463).  Melanchthon  concedes  to  the  civil  authorities  the  right 
of  decision  in  matters  of  religion,  while  on  the  Catholic  side  decision  in 
matters  of  religious  doctrine  is  claimed  by  the  infallible  Church.  Dr. 
Conrad  Braun  drew  attention  to  this  important  distinction  as  early  as  the 
days  of  Luther  (see  Paulus,  I.e.  464).  Thus  arose  a  despotism,  '  the  like 
of  which  had  never  yet  been  seen.  The  new  system,  as  it  was  now  built 
up  by  theologians  and  jurists,  was  worse  than  Byzantine  tyranny,  for 
there,  at  any  rate,  the  attempt  had  never  been  made  to  change  the  religion 
of  the  people.  The  Protestant  princes,  however,  were  not  merely  Popes 
in  their  dominions,  they  were  much  more  ;  they  took  upon  themselves  to 
do  what  no  Pope  had  ever  thought  of  doing.  For  every  Pope  knew  well 
that  his  power  was  only  preservative — power  to  guard  and  keep  the 
doctrine  committed  to  him,  and  that  every  attempt  on  his  part  to  alter 
the  teaching  of  the  Church  would  inevitably  be  put  down  by  general 
resistance.  The  Protestant  princes,  however,  were  told,  and  they  them- 
selves believed  and  proclaimed  it,  that  their  power  in  rehgious  matters 
was  altogether  limitless,  and  that  in  the  exercise  of  it  they  had  only  to 
reckon  with  their  own  consciences.  Of  course,  they  always  protested 
that  they  wielded  this  power  in  accordance  with  "  the  Evangel  "  or  the 
Holy  Scriptures  ;  but  it  was  the  Scriptures  as  interpreted  by  themselves 
or  by  the  court-preachers  of  their  own  choosing.'  (Bollinger,  Kirche 
und  Kirchen  [Munich,  1861],  p.  55  ff.).  '  Whereas  formerly  the  State 
had  exercised  its  power  in  subordination  to  the  ecclesiastical  authority  of 
the  Church,  the  religion  of  the  subjects  was  now  the  divided  domain  of 


222  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Luther,  who  had  at  first  strongly  disapproved  of  the 
execution  of  heretics,  began,  after  1530,  to  advocate 
capital  punishment  for  false  doctrine  and  heresy.1 

lords  of  territories.  At  the  word  of  command  the  inhabitants  had  to 
become  Catholic  to-day,  Augsburgian  or  Lutheran  to-morrow.  If,  then, 
the  Reformation,  for  all  its  pains,  brought  no  advantage,  at  any  rate,  with 
regard  to  individual  freedom  of  conscience,  it  is  responsible  for  immeasur- 
able damage  in  respect  of  that  other  fundamental  principle  of  Christianity, 
the  freedom  of  the  Church.'  (Fr.  Maassen,  Neun  Kapitel  iiber  freie  Kirche 
und  Gewissensfreiheit  [Graz,  1876],  p.  279.) 

1  This  comes  out  clearly  (as  Paulus,  Katholik,  1897,  i.  539  if.,  has  shown) 
in  Luther's  explanation  of  the  82nd  Psalm,  as  well  as  in  a  pamphlet  of 
1536.  In  the  explanation  of  the  Psalm  (Der  LXXXII.  Psalm,  ausgelegt 
von  Mart.  Luther,  Wittenberg,  1530,  Ca-F!,  Luther's  Werke,  Erlanger  Ausgabe, 
Bd.  39,  pp.  250-258),  he  deals  exhaustively  with  the  questions  '  whether 
the  secular  rulers  ought  to  check  and  punish  objectionable  doctrines  or 
heresies.'  '  There  are  two  sorts  of  heretics,'  he  says  :  '  first,  those  who  are 
turbulent  and  seditious  ;  these  must  undoubtedly  be  punished.  Then 
there  are  others  who  teach  in  opposition  to  some  recognised  article  of 
faith  which  is  manifestly  grounded  on  Scripture  and  is  believed  by  good 
Christians  all  over  the  world,  such  as  are  taught  to  children  in  the  Creed  : 
as,  for  instance,  the  heresy  which  some  of  them  teach,  that  Christ  is  not 
God,  but  only  an  ordinary  man,  and  just  the  same  as  any  other  prophet 
of  the  Turks  or  of  the  Anabaptists  ;  heretics  of  this  sort  must  not  be 
tolerated,  but  punished  as  open  blasphemers.  Moses  in  his  laws  commands 
that  blasphemers  of  this  sort,  and  indeed  all  false  teachers,  are  to  be  stoned 
to  death.  And  there  must  not  be  lengthy  disputation  on  the  subject  ; 
such  blasphemy  must  be  condemned  without  that  or  examination.  .  .  . 
For  articles  of  belief  of  this  sort,  held  by  united  Christendom,  have  been 
sufficiently  inquired  into  and  thoroughly  established  by  the  Scriptures 
and  by  the  unanimous  assent  of  all  Christians.'  Sermons  calculated  to 
disturb  the  unity  of  the  faith,  Luther  goes  on,  must  not  be  tolerated,  still 
less  must  private  preaching  and  secret  ceremonies  be  allowed.  It  is  the 
duty  of  the  burghers  to  give  information  of  any  of  these  clandestine 
proceedings  to  the  civil  authorities  and  to  the  clergy.  '  If  anyone  wishes 
to  preach  or  to  teach,  let  him  make  known  the  call  or  the  command  which 
impels  him  to  do  so,  or  else  let  him  keep  silence.  If  he  will  not  keep 
quiet,  then  let  the  civil  authorities  commend  the  scoundrel  to  his  rightful 
master — namely,  Master  Hans  [hangman].'  In  the  [injunction]  of  1536 
(published  in  the  Zeitschr.  far  histor.  Theol.  xxviii.  [1358],  p.  560  ff.),  a 
distinction  is  again  drawn  between  seditious  and  purely  heretical  doctrines. 
'  That  seditious  articles  of  doctrine  should  be  punished  with  the  sword 
needed  no  further  proof.  For  the  rest,  the  Anabaptists  hold  tenets 
relating  to  infant  baptism,  original  sin,  and  inspiration  which  have  no 


PROTESTANT   PUNISHMENT   OF   HERETICS  223 

'  Never,'  wrote  the  Kolmar  Augustinian  prior 
Johannes  Hoffmeister  in  1539,  '  has  there  been  greater 
coercion  practised  than  in  the  case  of  the  evangelical 
faith,  where  nobody  is  allowed  to  preach  or  to  do  any- 
thing but  what  Dr.  Luther  and  his  apostates  dictate. 
And  if  we  had  acted  according  to  what  Bucer  wrote  to 
the  Augsburg  Confessionists,  there  would  long  ago  have 
been  another  flood  in  our  German  lands  ;  but  a  flood, 

connection  with  the  Word  of  God,  and  are  indeed  opposed  to  it.  .  .  . 
Concerning  such  tenets,  this  is  our  answer  :  As  the  secular  authorities  are 
bound  to  control  and  punish  open  blasphemy,  so  they  are  also  bound  to 
restrain  and  punish  avowedly  false  doctrine,  irregular  Church  services 
and  heresies  in  their  own  dominions  ;  for  this  is  commanded  by  God  in 
the  other  commandment  where  He  says  :  "  Whoso  dishonours  God's  name 
shall  not  go  unpunished."  Everybody  is  bound,  according  to  his  position 
and  office,  to  prevent  and  check  blasphemy,  and  by  virtue  of  this  com- 
mand the  princes  and  magistrates  have  power  and  authority  to  put  a  stop 
to  irregular  Church  worship.  The  text  in  Leviticus  xxiv.  goes  to  show 
the  same  thing  :  "  He  that  blasphemeth  the  name  of  the  Lord,  he  shall 
surely  be  put  to  death."  The  ruling  authorities,  however,  must  suffer 
themselves  to  be  property  and  correctly  instructed  in  order  that  they  may 
be  certain  how  to  proceed,  and  that  nobody  may  do  wrong.  Now  there 
are  some  among  these  articles  of  faith  which  signify  very  much.  For 
think  what  disaster  would  ensue  if  children  were  not  baptized  ;  what 
would  be  the  final  outcome  but  thoroughly  heathenish  existence  ?  Item, 
infant  baptism  rests  on  such  sure  foundations  that  the  Anabaptists  have 
no  legitimate  grounds  for  rejecting  it.  Item,  if  they  say  that  children  do 
not  need  forgiveness  of  sins,  that  there  is  no  original  sin,  such  statements 
are  downright  and  very  dangerous  errors.  Besides  this  the  Anabaptists 
separate  themselves  from  the  churches,  even  in  those  places  where  pure 
Christian  doctrine  prevails,  and  where  the  abuses  and  idolatrous  practices 
have  been  abolished,  and  they  set  up  a  ministry  and  congregation  of  their 
own,  which  is  also  contrary  to  the  command  of  God.  From  all  this  it 
becomes  clear  that  the  secular  authorities  are  bound  to  suppress  blasphemy, 
false  doctrine,  and  heresy,  and  to  inflict  corporal  punishment  on  the 
offenders.  In  the  case  of  Anabaptist  tenets  which  are  opposed  to  the 
secular  government  the  matter  is  easier  to  deal  with  ;  for  there  is  no  doubt 
that  in  such  cases  the  stiffnecked  recalcitrants  are  sure  to  be  punished 
as  sedition-mongers.  Also  when  it  is  a  case  of  only  upholding  some 
spiritual  tenet,  such  as  infant  baptism,  original  sin,  and  unnecessary 
separation,  then,  because  these  articles  are  also  important  .  .  .  we  con- 
clude that  in  these  cases  also  the  stubborn  sectaries  must  be  put  to  death.' 


224  HISTOEY   OF   THE    GEEMAN   PEOPLE 

not  of  water,  but  of  blood.' x  The  representatives  of  the 
new  Church  system,  almost  without  exception,  con- 
tended for  wholesale  intolerance  of  all  who  thought 
differently  from  themselves.  In  the  year  1554,  the 
'  Reformer  '  Jerome  Zanchi  in  Strasburg,  taught  that 
Catholics  who  would  not  become  Protestants  should  be 
expelled  from  the  country,  thrown  into  prison,  or  even 
sentenced  to  death.  With  regard  to  heretics,  Zanchi 
proclaimed,  both  at  Strasburg  and,  later  on,  at  Heidel- 
berg, that  the  ruling  authorities  were  in  duty  bound  to 
pronounce  sentence  of  death  on  them ;  this,  he  added, 
was  the  opinion  of  all  the  truly  pious  and  learned  men 
of  the  time.  '  It  is  the  teaching  of  the  churches  of 
Zurich,  Bern,  Geneva,  Lausanne,  in  short  of  almost  all 
the  churches  of  Switzerland  and  of  South  Germany. 
Bullinger,  Bucer,  Melanchthon,  all  taught  the  same.' 

The  Protestant  professor  Peter  Martyr,  Vermigli,2 
and  the  well-known  Urban  Rhegius  also  confessed  to 
the  same  principles.  The  latter  taught  that  it  was  the 
duty  of  rulers  '  to  have  recourse  to  the  sword  to  prevent 
the  name  of  the  most  holy  God  being  blasphemed  by 
heresy '  ;  avowed  heretics  should  be  punished  with  the 
sword.  In  the  church-ordinances  which  were  compiled 
for  the  town  by  Urban  Rhegius,  and  were  published  in 
1536,  it  says  :  '  Not  only  every  schoolmaster  among  us, 
but  also  every  father  and  mother  must  be  prohibited 
from  inoculating  their  children  with  false  doctrine.'  3 

1  Katholik,  1891,  ii.  71. 

2  See  Paulus,  '  Die  Stellung  der  protestantischen  Professoren  Zanchi 
und  Vermigli  zur  Gewissensfreiheit,'  Katholik,  1891,  i.  201-228,  and  the 
valuable  monograph :  Die  Strasburger  Reformatoren  und  die  Gewissens- 
freiheit.    Strasburg.  theol.  Studien  (Freiburg  i.  Br.),  Bd.  2,  Heft  2. 

3  See  the  interesting  article  '  Urban  Ehegius  iiber  Glaubenszwang 
und  Kirchenstrafen,'  in  the  Hist.-pol.  Bl.  109  (1892,  pp.  822  ff.  827).  This 
article  fills  an  important  gap  ;  but,  nevertheless,  in  the  otherwise  admirable 


PROTESTANT   PUNISHMENT   OF   HERETICS  225 

Johannes  Benz  also  considered  it  the  duty  of  magis- 
trates to  '  exterminate  false  teachers.'  This  did  not 
constitute  coercion  of  conscience,  he  argued,  for  wherever 
there  was  conscience  there  must  first  have  been  science, 
and  there  can  be  no  science  without  truth.  '  Therefore 
all  persons  who  are  led  astray  by  devil's  deceit  and  who 
wallow  in  lies  and  deception  have,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
no  true  conscience,  but  only  a  false,  blurred,  counterfeit 
one,  just  as  false  coin  is  no  coin,  and  a  painting  of  a 
man  is  not  a  real  man.  When  faith  is  lost,  then  heart, 
wisdom,  and  understanding  are  lost  also,  and  therefore 
to  thwart  such  people  is  not  to  thwart  conscience. 
Where  there  is  no  faith,  there  is  no  conscience  to  be 
looked  for  or  to  be  respected.  Where  there  is  no  faith 
there  is  nothing  that  need  be  spared.'  1 

When,  in  the  year  1570,  the  sentence  on  the  two 
Arians  of  the  Palatine  Electorate,  Neuser  and  Johann 
Silvan,  was  under  discussion,  the  Heidelberg  Calvinist 
theologians  gave  it  as  their  opinion  that  both  these  men 
should  be  put  to  death  either  by  the  sword  or  the  gallows. 
The  Elector  Frederic  III.  signed  the  death-warrants 
with  his  own  hand,  although  Silvan  had  recanted.  The 
Elector  Augustus  of  Saxony  and  his  political  councillors 
had  also,  at  Frederic's  request,  advocated  the  execution 

pamphlet  of  Irenicus,  Die  grundsatzliche  TJnduldsanike.it  der  Reformation 
(Vienna,  1890),  Rhegius  is  not  in  any  way  mentioned.  Schlegel,  in  his 
Kirchen-  und  Reformationsgeschichte  von  Norddeutschland  und  den  hanno- 
verischen  Staaten,  ii.  (Hannover,  1829),  p.  77,  remarks  :  '  To  what  a  pre- 
posterous height  intolerance  had  then  reached  is  seen  from  the  fact  that 
according  to  these  [the  town  regulations  of  1536  and  1544 J  the  Ana- 
baptists were  to  suffer  capital  punishment ;  Zwinglians  and  Papists  were 
to  be  scourged  with  rods  and  condemned  to  perpetual  banishment  ;  and 
blasphemy  and  attendance  at  Mass  were  classed  together  as  regards 
punishment. ' 

1  F.    Bidenbach,    Consilia    theologica,    Decad.    III.  et  IV.  (Franco!,. 
1608),  pp.  168-173  ;  cf.  Hist.-pol.  El.  110  (1892),  85  ff. 

VOL.    X.  Q 


226  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

of  heretics  because  '  their  terrible  blasphemy  and  their 
highly  reprehensible  proceedings  ought  to  be  severely 
punished  as  an  example  to  others.' 1 

In  Saxony,  in  July  1574,  the  court  of  sheriffs  con- 
demned a  linen-weaver  at  Leipzig  to  death  because  he 
had  sinned  against  baptism,  and  had  defended  errors 
concerning  the  Holy  Trinity.  If  '  no  signs  of  mental 
aberration  were  detected  in  him,'  he  was,  '  on  account 
of  his  stiffneckedness,  his  heretical  errors  and  blas- 
phemies, in  accordance  with  justice  and  the  customary 
usage,  to  be  punished  by  loss  of  life  by  fire  ;  and,  further- 
more, his  goods  and  chattels  were  to  be  rightly  seized 
and  sold  by  the  chief  secular  authorities.'  Nine  years 
later,  in  October  1583,  the  court  of  sheriffs  was  again 
called  upon  to  pronounce  judgment  on  another  offender 
who  was  charged  with  being  guilty  of  '  heretical  errors  ' 
against  the  doctrines  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  the  merits 
of  Christ,  and  other  articles  of  the  Christian  faith.  '  If,' 
ran  the  verdict,  '  he  still  persisted  in  these  heresies  before 
the  court,  and  if  also  no  symptom  of  insanity  was  found 
in  him,  then  for  these  offences,  in  accordance  with  the 
common,  written  imperial  law,  and  the  sentence  pre- 
viously passed  of  loss  of  life,  and  according  to  the  usual 
general  custom,  he  must  be  punished  with  fire.'  2 

1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  viii.  pp.  156  -161,  and  Paulus,  '  Joh.  Sylvanus 
und  sein  tragisches  Ende,'  Hist.-pol.  Bl.  121  (1898),  250  ff. 

2  Both  verdicts  are  given  in  full  in  Carpzov,  Practica  nova,  pars  1, 
pp.  245-249.  Carpzov  himself  in  1635  expressed  his  opinion  as  follows 
on  the  punishment  of  heretics  :  '  Nefandum  crimen  haereseos  est  gravissimum 
atque  atrocissimum,  quippe  quod  non  in  homines,  ut  pleraque  iniquitas  et 
malitia,  sed  in  autorem  Deum  communemque  omnium  parentem  ac  Dominum, 
detestabilis  et  execranda  perfidia  est '  (Carpzov,  Practica  nova,  pp.  19,  44, 
note  2,  p.  241).  '  Haeresin  autem  appello  pertinacem  in  articulis  fidei 
errorem '  (note  4).  ' .  .  .  Tantum  itaque  dbest,  magistratum  politicum  in 
haereticos  animadvertere  non  posse,  ut  potius  hoc  facere  eidem  omni  jure 
incumbat,  si  alias  officio  suo  fungi  et  cultum  divinum  sartum  tectumque 


PROTESTANT   PUNISHMENT   OF   HERETICS  227 

In  Ansbach-Bayreuth  also  they  proceeded  according 
to  the  common  usage.  The  criminal  court  ordinance 
of  the  Margrave  George  Frederic  decreed  in  1582  that 
'  All  persons  who  were  recognised  as  heretics  by  the 
regular  ecclesiastical  tribunual,  and  handed  over  to  the 
civil  tribunal  for  judgment,  must  suffer  capital  punish- 
ment by  fire.'  l 

conservare  velit.  Idque  tarn  apud  nostrates  theologos  quam  pontificios  atque 
Calvinianos  minus  dubii  habet.  Ast  Mud  controversum  est,  an  haeretici 
ultimo  supplicio  qfficiendi  '  (note  19).  The  Papists  and  the  Calvinists,  says 
Carpzov,  answer  this  question  in  the  affirmative.  '  Hi  [Calviniani]  enim 
quando  liberiori  fruuntur  aura  et  praesidio  potentiorum  sese  tutos  esse  anim- 
advertunt,  in  hasce  tyrannicas  voces  erumpunt,  haereticos  esse  occidendos 
(Beza,  vol.  i.  fol.  153  sq.  ;  Danaeus  in  Ethica  Christian,  i.  2.  c.  13,  fol.  159  ; 
Francisc.  Jun.  in  Defens.  2  de  S.  Trinitate,  p.  4)  ;  quin  Luc.  Osiander  in 
Responso  ad  apolog.  Heidelbergens.  dixisse  quondam  Ecclesiasten  Cal- 
vinisticum  quemdam  testis  est :  si  Romanus  Imperator  foret,  se  omnes  inter- 
fecturum,  qui  suam  religionem  non  amplecterentur  '  (note  28).  But  the 
'  Evangelici  Orthodoxi '  are  milder  ;  first  of  all  admonition,  then  excom- 
munication, and  if  that  does  no  good,  banishment  (notes  30-31).  Then 
follows  a  modifying  clause  which  almost  neutralises  this  '  mildness  ' : 
'  Quod  si  vero  haeretici  aut  facinorosi  et  seditiosi,  pads  publicae  et  civilis 
violatores  existant,  alios  ad  seditionem  commoventes  ;  vel  si  sint  blasphemi 
qui  absque  fronte  et  manifestis  verbis  Deum  Patrem,  Filium  et  Spiritum 
Sanctum  blasphemant,  his  capitis  poenam  seu  ultimum  supplicium  decerni, 
nulla  prohibet  religio.  Et  in  hoc  fere  conveniunt  omnes  .  .  .  ;  sic  Bernae  de 
Valentino  Oentili,  Genevae  de  Serveto  supplicium  fuit  sumptum  .  .  .  Usu  ac 
consuetudine  Saxonica  obtinuit,  ejusmodi  haereticos  seditiosos  aut  blasphe- 
mantes  igne  comburi '  (notes  41-45,  pp.  242-245).  Carpzov  himself  con- 
siders capital  punishment  by  the  sword  sufficient. 
1  Peinliche  Halssgerichtsordnung,  fol.  27,  no.  132. 


Q  a 


228  HISTOEY   OF   THE    GEEMAN   PEOPLE 


CHAPTER  VI 

ATTEMPTS    TO    DISSOLVE    ALL   FELLOWSHIP   BETWEEN 
CATHOLICS   AND    PROTESTANTS 

During  the  last  thirty  odd  years  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  controversy  between  Catholics  and  Pro- 
testants had  gathered  more  and  more  bitterness,  and 
'  the  number  of  controversial  writers  had  grown  so  large 
— larger  indeed  with  every  year — that  it  might  truly  be 
said  that  all  force  of  mind  and  of  learning  spent  itself  in 
strife  and  wrangling.'  '  It  is  a  source  of  distress  to 
me,'  said  Perellius  in  1576,  '  that  most  of  the  pamphlets 
which  are  publicly  printed,  and  which  come  out  under 
such  imposing  and  ostentatious  titles,  are  so  empty  of 
understanding  and  judgment,  so  reckless  and  ill-con- 
sidered, that  worthy,  pious  people  cannot  read  them 
without  being  shocked.  It  grieves  me  that  the  licence 
of  these  maniacs  of  the  pen — I  dare  not  say  their 
unbridled  behaviour  and  manners — prevails  almost 
everywhere  nowadays,  so  much  so  that  there  is  scarcely 
a  single  individual  who  does  not,  so  to  say,  touch  sacred 
matters  as  well  as  secular  ones  "  with  unwashed  hands  "  ; 
yea,  verily,  who  does  not  scribble  and  prate  just  what- 
ever pleases  him  about,  and  out  of,  the  word  of  God. 
It  also  distresses  me  that  the  flames  of  dissension  which 
are  raging  so  fiercely,  and  which  have  consumed  a  large 
portion  of  Europe,  should  be  fanned  by  all  the  tricks 
and   artifices   of  malicious   authors,   who,   as  it   were, 


FRUITS   OF   POLEMICAL    WRITINGS  229 

throw  oil  on  the  fire,  and  cause  it  to  spread  and  increase 
from  day  to  day,  while  fresh  errors  and  absurdities 
bubble  up  continually  as  from  a  perennial  spring.  And 
lastly,  it  grieves  me  greatly  that  the  Estates  and  magis- 
trates of  the  Empire,  through  all  these  causes,  have 
occasioned  wider  and  wider  estrangement  and  separation 
in  our  German  nation,  so  that  there  can  be  no  hope  of 
emerging  from  all  this  misery  and  dissension,  and  of 
restoring  true  uniformity  of  religion  in  the  Empire.' 
'  Any  and  every  doctrine,  however  preposterous  and 
impious,  finds  writers  to  defend  it  and  disciples  to  swear 
by  it,  disciples  '*  to  whom  the  bread  of  lying  is  sweet," 
and  to  whom  it  is  a  pleasure  to  follow  senseless  leaders 
and  to  fall  down  at  the  feet  of  masters  who  flatter  and 
caress  them.'  '  Oh  the  miserable  times,  the  degenerate 
morals  which  have  introduced  such  countless  evils  and 
abuses  into  our  once  flourishing  and  highly  esteemed 
Germany ! '  l 

Forty  years  later  a  '  simple  layman,'  who  had  given 
special  attention  to  the  publications  of  the  book  trade, 
wrote  :  '  What  true-hearted  German  and  friend  of  the 
Fatherland  is  there,  be  he  Catholic  or  not,  who,  if  he 
turn  to  consider  what  is  the  influence  that  since  the 
beginning  of  the  religious  quarrels  has  been  most  fruitful 
in  embittering  hearts,  in  producing  yearly  greater  and 
greater  perplexity  of  mind,  wider  and  wider  division 
between  the  Estates,  citizens,  and  people  of  one  and  the 
same  nation,  will  not  at  once  declare  that  the  largest 
share  of  blame  attaches  to  the  multitudes  of  scribblers 
and  libellists  who,  against  all  reason,  Christian  love, 
justice,  and  equity,  have  carried  on  a  traffic  in  lies  and 
calumnies    which    cannot   be   sufficiently   bewailed  ?  ' 

1  Ein  Gesprcich,  &c,  Bl.  Cl-C2. 


230  HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

'  Under  the  old  Catholic  Church  our  forefathers  dwelt 
together,  through  many  centuries,  in  one  faith  and  in 
one  mind,  joining  together  in  the  exercises  of  piety  and 
in  Christian  works  of  beneficence,  filling  the  land  with 
countless  institutions  for  the  poor,  the  sick,  and  the 
needy,  with  schools  of  high  and  low  degree,  with  fine 
architecture,  with  paintings  and  statuary,  so  that  we 
were  admired  by  all  other  nations  ;  and  these  ancestors 
of  ours  also  attained  to  so  great  power,  honour,  pro- 
sperity, and  well-being,  that  Germany  stood  in  the  first 
rank  among  the  nations  of  the  world.  But  what  has 
come  of  it  all  ?  Our  country  is  annihilated  and  for- 
gotten, and  the  Catholic  Church  has  become  a  horror 
and  an  abomination  to  many  Estates  of  high  dignity 
and  to  multitudes  of  people  ;  and  those  who  are  still 
loyal  to  her  are  as  much  despised  and  detested  as  though 
they  were  the  lowest  dregs  of  all  wickedness  and  infamy. 
And  this  state  of  things  has  been  brought  about  by 
these  writers,  who,  without  cessation,  pour  out  the 
vilest  of  calumnies  and  abuse  against  the  Church  and 
Church  people,  and  so  effectually  pervert  the  minds  of 
the  lower  orders  that  we  Catholics  have  become  as 
scapegoats  to  the  masses,  and  in  many  places  they  will 
scarcely  have  any  business  or  other  relations  with  us.'  l 
'  The  multitudinous  scribblers  and  screamers  '  set 
about  consciously  and  systematically  to  represent  every 
single  Catholic  dogma  and  religious  practice  as  '  the  very 
scum  of  all  idolatry  and  blasphemy,'  and  to  fill  the 
people  with  disgust  of  the  '  popish  synagogue  of  the 
devil  and  of  Satan's  satellites.'  All  Protestants  who 
returned  to  the  Catholic  Church,  and  who  made  known 
the  reasons  of  their  return,  stated  as  the  first  and  prin- 

1  In  the  passages  referred  to  above,  vol.  ix.  p.  522,  note  1. 


ABUSE   OF   CATHOLIC   DOCTRINE  231 

cipal  reason  that  c  in  consequence  of  diligent  research 
they  had  come  to  see  that  the  Church  taught  wholly 
different  doctrine  from  what  had  been  falsely  repre- 
sented to  them  by  Protestant  theologians  and  preachers, 
especially  with  regard  to  the  doctrines  of  justification 
and  good  works,  of  the  sacraments  and  sacramentals,  of 
invocation  of  saints  and  prayers  for  the  dead.  Among 
other  sources  from  which  we  may  learn  what  false 
representations  of  Catholic  doctrine  were  circulated 
abroad,  even  among  the  cultivated  classes,  is  the  auto- 
biography of  Lucas  Geizkofler.  This  man  was  by  no 
means  fanatical ;  he  was  of  a  philanthropic  disposition, 
and  in  relation  with  Catholics  in  manifold  ways.  Never- 
theless he  put  forward,  among  other  things,  as  Catholic 
doctrine  that  '  Christ  had  only  died  for  original  sin ; 
item,  just  as  Christ  had  attained  to  heaven  by  His 
own  merits,  so,  too,  each  one  of  us  must  attain  heaven 
by  his  own  merits ;  item,  that  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
according  to  the  practice  of  the  Church,  had  had  at  one 
time  to  be  interpreted  and  understood  in  one  way, 
and  at  another  time  in  a  different  way.  Item,  that 
those  who  receive  communion  in  both  kinds  as  instituted 
by  Christ,  not  only  get  no  benefit  or  fruit  of  salvation 
from  their  participation,  but  that  they  "eat  and  drink ,: 
to  their  everlasting  shame  and  perdition.  Item,  that 
the  Holy  Virgin  Mary  should  be  venerated  in  all  times 
of  need  as  an  almighty  helper.'  l 

It  was  obviously  some  such  caricature  of  Catholic 
teaching  which  the  Protestant  theologian  Christopher 
Pezel   had  in   his   mind  when  he  wrote,  in  1599,  that 

1  Wolf,  Lulcas  Geizkofler,  pp.  11-12.  See  p.  20,  where  he  cites  among 
other  '  gross  errors  and  heresies  in  the  papacy  '  that  '  the  greatest  crimes 
and  most  abominable  sins  can  be  atoned  for  by  payment  of  a  few  florins.' 


232  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  Roman  Church  was  '  a  synagogue  of  evildoers,  the 
kingdom  of  Antichrist,  a  den  of  thieves,  the  greatest 
mother  of  whoredom.'  x 

The  preacher  Echart,  in  1605,  undertook  to  demon- 
strate from  '  seventeen  proofs  '  that  the  papists  '  neither 
worshipped  the  true  God,  nor  possessed  Him,  nor  had 
any  fear  or  reverence  for  Him.'  '  The  faith  of  the 
Catholics  is  in  verity  monstrous,  chimerical,  heathenish, 
philosophic,  unnatural,  diabolical  ...  an  abyss  of 
despair,  a  refuge  for  sodomites,  thieves,  and  adulterers.'  2 
The  same  sentiments  had  been  uttered  by  the  theologian 
James  Heerbrand  in  the  year  1589  :  '  The  Church  of 
the  Pope  is  a  renegade,  a  vagabond  harlot  .  .  .  who  is 
mistress  in  the  house,  has  keys,  bed,  board,  cellar,  and 
everything  under  her  command,  but  is  so  wicked  that 
in  comparison  to  her  common  harlots  are  almost  saints  ; 
for  she  is  the  veritable  arch-whore  and  whore  of  the 
devil.' 3 

'  All  that  emanates  from  the  Pope  and  the  papists,' 
so  another  '  faithful  minister  of  the  Word  '  asserted  in 
1588,  '  is  dung  and  stench  and  bespecked  with  blood, 
as  the  new  indulgence  bill  of  the  firebrand  of  hell  and  the 
Antichrist,  Sixtus  Quintus,  will  at  this  very  moment 
easily  convince  all  intelligent  persons  acquainted  with 
papistical  practices.' 

Sixtus  V.  had  at  that  time  issued  an  indulgence  to 
a  brotherhood  at  Augsburg.  This  simple,  purely 
spiritual   dispensation,  was    made    use  of    to   show  up 

1  Jesuiticorum  Catechismorum  Refutatio  (Bremae,   1599,  pp.  276-277) 
The  most  extravagant  perversion  of  Catholic  teaching  came  from  the  pen 
of  Leonhard    Hutter  in  his  work  De  lamentabili,  &c,  Statu  Ecclesiae, 
published  in  1608. 

2  Papa  phar isaizans,  pp.  24  ff.,  161-168.     See  Vorrede,  A  26. 

3  Ketzer-Katzen  (Tubingen,  1589),  p.  58. 


ON   A   PAPAL   INDULGENCE  233 

to  the  Protestant  people  the  enormity  of  '  popish  sense- 
lessness and  open  or  secret  bloodthirstiness.'  '  This 
accursed,  antichristian  indulgence,'  said  '  the  faithful 
minister  of  the  Word,'  '  is  an  excrement  of  the  devil, 
who  will  manage  that  all  the  papists  who  are  thus 
brought  to  the  confessional  will  be  secretly  bound 
over  by  their  father-confessors  to  massacre  all  the 
evangelical  Christians,  above  all  the  Council  of  Augsburg, 
for  which  the  Antichrist  is  hypocritically  causing 
prayers  to  be  offered  up.  For  it  is  well  known,  from 
wide  experience,  that  the  Roman  bear-wolf  considers 
this  sort  of  thing  the  most  acceptable  form  of  divine 
worship,  or  rather  I  should  say  of  his  devil-worship.'  J 
William  Holder  also,  cathedral-preacher  at  Stuttgart, 
devoted  a  special  pamphlet  to  this  indulgence  brief. 
This  publication  deserves  notice  as  it  affords  a  specially 
clear  illustration  of  the  nature  of  the  anti-popish  con- 
troversial literature  of  the  day.  Holder  gave  exact 
calculations  respecting  the  amount  of  grace  conferred 
by  the  different  indulgences.  A  fifty  days'  indulgence 
he  said,  would  be  granted  to  those  '  who  called  devoutly 
on  God  and  prayed  for  the  removal  and  extirpation  of 
heresies,  and  for  the  extension  of  the  Catholic  Church.' 
That  the  Pope  did  not  grant  more  for  such  cause  showed 
him  to  be  '  a  niggardly  miser  '  who  had  but  scant  zeal 
in  his  heart  for  his  Church.  '  Might  one  not  say  indeed 
that  the  Pope  was  an  epicure,  or  even  a  mere  child,  to 
whom  neither  one  religion  nor  the  other  was  a  serious 
matter  ? '  '  But  two  considerations  may  perhaps 
excuse  him  :  first,  that  he  really  thinks  that  fire,  sword, 
and  gallows-rope  are  more  efficacious  than  prayer  for 

1  Ein  christlich  heilsam  Gesprech  i/ber  einen  pcipstlichen  Blutbrief,  genannt 
Ablassbrief.     Eiriblattdruck,  1588. 


234  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

rooting  out  heresy.     Secondly,  that  without  doubt  he 
knows  right  well  from  God's  Word  that  he  himself  is 
the  greatest  heretic  in  the  world.'     Ten  days'  indulgence 
was    granted  by  Sixtus  V.   to  every  member  of   the 
fraternity  who  said  a  Paternoster  and  an  Ave  Maria  for 
the  council  and  the  burghers  of  the  town  of  Augsburg 
in  order  to  procure  their  prosperity,  peace,  and  unity. 
'  See  then,'  says  Holder,  '  to  those  who  pray  for  the 
destruction   of  heresy   he   promises   fifty   days'   indul- 
gence ;  but  to  those  who  pray  for  the  peace  and  pro- 
sperity of  the  community  he  only  promises  ten,  in  order 
to  show  that  the  extirpation  of  the  citizens  would  be 
five  times  dearer  to  him  than  their  peace,  prosperity, 
and   concord.'     By   a   similar   process   of   meting   and 
reckoning  Holder  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  in  the 
Pope's  estimation  the   '  new  brotherhood  was  of  ten 
times  more  value  than  an  honourable  council  or  a  whole 
community  of  burghers  ;  '  the  Pope  attached  so  little 
importance  to  the  office  of  ruler  that  '  he  was  quite 
likely  to  go  over  to  the  Anabaptists.'     '  For  my  part, 
said  Holder,'  '  I  am  quite  ready  to  believe  this.'     The 
fact  that  the  Pope  only  granted  fifty  days'  indulgence 
to  those  who  prayed  for  pregnant  matrons  showed  how 
lightly  Popes  thought  of  the  holy  estate  of  matrimony 
and  of  the  divine  blessing  that  followed  on  it  ;  '  un- 
married women  in  a  state  of  pregnancy  were  not  taken 
into  account  in  the  indulgence  bill.     Finally,  that  the 
Pope  promised  a  rich  reward  to  all  who  devoutly  invoked 
the  Name  of  Jesus  was  no  proof  of  sincere  Christianity, 
but  only  hypocrisy  and  pure  deceit.'  1 

1  Bericht,  welchermassen  Papst  Sixt,  der  fiinfte  dises  Namens,  die  neue 
Augsburgische  Bruderschaft  des  H.  Bergs  Andex,  mit  Gnad  und  Ablass 
hedacht,  auch  was  von  solchem  Ablasskram  zu  halten  (Tubingen,   1588), 


ABUSE   OF   POPE   AND   CATHOLICS  235 

James  Heerband,  in  this  same  year,  gave  out  that 
it  was  '  Catholic  doctrine '  that  '  the  Pope  at  Eome, 
with  his  indulgences,  forgave  the  most  heinous  sins 
even  for  the  sake  of  money  '  ;  '  the  Catholics  were,  the 
whole  lot  of  them,  in  the  clutches  of  the  devil.'  l  In  a 
'  Christian  song  for  children '  the  little  ones  were  made 
to  sing  in  mid-Lent : 

Now  let  us  drive  the  Pope  and  rout 

Him  from  Christ's  Church  and  God's  house  out ; 

He  governed  in  a  murderous  way 

And  souls  unnumbered  led  astray. 

Get  thee  gone,  thou  damned  son, 

Thou  scarlet  bride  of  Babylon  ; 

Crime  and  Antichrist  thou  art, 

Lies  and  cunning  fill  thy  heart. 

Thy  pardon-brief,  thy  bull  and  thy  decree, 

In  water-closets  only  men  now  see.2 

'  Augia  Stall,'  said  '  a  lover  of  divine,  and  there- 
fore of  Lutheran  truth,'  in  1615  : 

Augiii  Stall  hat  nicht  so  viel  Mist, 
Als  ins  Papsts  Stankloch  noch  ist. 
Damit  nun  dieser  greulich  Gstank 
Des  Papst  Sekret  mach  Jcein  Abgang, 
Hat  er  gar  viel  Dekret  gemacht, 
Dass  seine  Diener  kein  Ohnmacht 
Ankommen  mag  ;  darzu  Weihrauch 
Taglich  vielfiiltig  hat  im  Branch, 
Welcher  zwar  fiir  die  Giitzen  gericht, 
Die  Nasen  haben  und  riechen  nicht ; 
Ist  aber  gut  fiir  G'dtzenknecht, 
Schwefel  und  Pech  war  ihn  recht. 

The   next   ten   lines   tell   in   untranslatable  verse  how 
the  Pope's  brain,  infected,  maddened,  and  melted  by 

pp.  8,  15,  35-39,  41^2,  48-51,  70-74.     The  Jesuits,  like  the  Pope,  get 
their  full  share  of  abuse. 

1  Heerbrand,  Propffung,  &c,  pp.  5,  7,  9,  14  ;  Ausklopfung,  &c,  pp. 
1-12. 

2  Ein  christlich  Kinderlied,  damit  die  Kinder  zu  Mittfasten  den  Papst 
austreiben.  D.  M.  L.  (Luther).  Cf.  David  Maier,  Omnium  sanctorum 
jubilaeus  evangelicus  (1617),  p.  109. 


236  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

infernal  vapours,  ran  down  into  his  stomach  and  thence 
into  his  hose. 

All  the  Catholic  clergy  and  monks  were  '  birds  of 
prey,'  and  ought  to  have  pitch  poured  over  them  : 

Your  idolatry  is  open  to  the  day, 
Evidenced  by  idols  and  by  altars 
In  your  churches,  and  also  in  the  streets  ; 
They  are  enough  to  turn  a  black  man  white. 

'  The  Pope  causes  the  kings  who  are  not  entirely 
subservient  to  him  to  be  put  out  of  the  world  by  means 
of  Spanish  soups,  sharp  knives,  and  powders,'  and  '  he 
understands  this  art  much  better  than  does  a  Sicilian 
tyrant : ' 

In  short,  the  Pope  is  the  worst  bloodhound 
Anyone  will  find  the  whole  world  round. 

And  papists  in  general  are  all  as  bloodthirsty  as  he  is. 
In  the  following  twelve  lines  the  papal  thirst  for  blood 
is  fathered  on  the  devil ;  the  papists,  however,  laugh 
and  grow  fat ;  their  fat  ought  to  be  drawn  from  their 
bodies  by  the  executioner  and  used  for  cart-grease,  &c. 
The  poet  cherished  yet  other  wishes  for  the  papists. 
Since  they  were  no  better  than  buffaloes  and  donkeys, 
they  must  have  '  the  same  burial  as  donkeys,  so  that 
their  flesh  might  have  no  rest.'     First  of  all,  however  : 

Ein  blutdiirstiger  Henkersknecht 
Sollt  euch  den  Buckel  fegen  recht, 
Derm  ihr  dessen  wohl  wiirdig  seid, 
Erzketzer  bleibt  in  euer  Haut. 
A  bloodthirsty  hangman's  servant  ought  to  strip  your  backs  of  their 
skin,  for  as  long  as  your  skin  is  on  you  you  are  always  arch-heretics. 

After  this  manner  the  Protestant  people  were  to  be 
instructed  : 

Let  this  with  glosses  be  made  plain 
To  suit  the  common  people's  brain.1 

1   Ventilatio  .  .  .  Erleuterung  .  .  .  der  Bapstischen   Gloss   (1615),   pp. 
10,  12,  17-20,  23,  24,  32,  35,  36-37,  47-48. 


ABUSE   OF  THE   PKEACHE-RS  237 

On  the  Catholic  side  '  they  did  not  accumulate 
yearly  debts  by  tardiness  in  answering  all  the  scurrilous 
writings  directed  against  them.'  '  Whereas  we  are  so 
cruelly  and  persistently  persecuted,'  wrote  a  Catholic  in 
1588,  '  we  too  must  persecute  these  ranting  villains  and 
all  the  heretical  scribblers,  and  show  them  up  to  the 
common  people  as  they  are  in  reality — namely,  as  arch- 
liars,  wolves,  and  cats.'  '  There  is  nothing  in  cats,' 
said  the  author  of  a  '  Ketzerkatz?  '  which  is  of  any  use 
to  their  slaughterer  after  he  has  killed  them.  And 
likewise  a  heretic  is  not  only  of  no  use  in  his  lifetime, 
but  also,  and  above  all,  after  his  death,  except  to  be 
thrown  for  evermore  into  hell,  where  all  fomenters  of 
confusion  are  cast,  as  cats  are  thrown  into  the  carrion- 
pit.'  '  Eating  the  flesh  of  cats  is  very  dangerous, 
because  they  have  poison  in  their  tails  and  heads,  and 
without  doubt  also  in  their  bodies  ;  and  with  heretics 
also  one  must  always  be  on  one's  guard  against  hidden 
poison.'  ] 

'  The  heretics  go  about  in  sheep's  clothing,'  wrote  the 
Bavarian  court  secretary  Aegidius  Albertinus,  the  most 
important  popular  author  of  the  Catholic  Restoration 
period,2  '  but  inwardly  they  are  ravening  wolves.  They 
urge  evangelical  freedom  as  their  pretext ;  but  at  the 
same  time  they  drive  all  virtue  out  of  the  world,  throw 
open  the  door  to  all  sorts  of  iniquity,  and  give  the  rein 
to  vice  of  every  description.  They  give  such  pro- 
minence to,  and  so  greatly  exaggerate,  the  enormity 
of  original  sin  and  the  tendency  to  evil  of  our  corrupt 
nature  as  utterly  and  entirely  to  deny  free  will ;  they 

1  Quoted  from  J.  Heer brand,  Ketzer-Katzen,  p.  11  ;  see  Vorrede. 

2  See  v.  Reinhardstottner  in  Forschungen  zur  Gesch.  Bayerns,  ii.  (1894), 
86  IT. 


238  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

altogether  eliminate  individual  freedom,  impugn  the 
rights  of  nature,  and  say  that  good  works  are  not 
necessary  to  salvation.  While  really  bent  on  nothing 
but  stirring  up  fresh  confusion  and  anarchy  in  the 
world,  they  go  about  in  sheep's  clothing  as  though  they 
were  anxious  to  remove  the  abuses  which  have  crept 
into  the  Church  ;  under  this  disguise,  however,  they  do 
nothing  but  tear  down  altars,  strangle  priests,  desecrate 
the  holy  church  utensils,  condemn  the  Sacrifice  and 
prayers  for  the  dead,  call  funerals  fools'  work,  and 
make  fun  of  purgatory.  Besides  which  they  mock  at 
the  unanimity  and  unity  of  the  holy  Fathers,  reject  the 
authority  of  the  bishops  and  overseers  of  the  Church, 
and  take  no  pleasure  in  any  higher  or  better  pursuit 
than  vilifying  the  Catholic  preachers,  prelates,  and 
monks,  undermining  their  honour,  pouring  out  scurrilous 
books  and  lampoons  against  them,  and  in  this  way 
bringing  the  Catholic  faith  everywhere  into  odium. 
Although  they  are  everlastingly  talking  about  God,  and 
have  the  Name  of  Christ  and  the  faith  for  ever  on 
their  lips,  they  do  nothing  else  than  stir  up  rebellion 
among  subjects,  disturbance  in  the  Empire,  embitter  - 
ment  among  the  Estates,  disobedience  against  appointed 
authorities,  destruction  of  bishoprics,  churches,  and 
convents.'  l 

'  The  heretical  preachers,'  wrote  another  Catholic, 
'  are  like  unto  cats  and  wolves,  and  they  rend  and  tear 
each  other  to  pieces  like  cats  and  wolves,  and  they 
deserve  on  this  account  to  be  loaded  with  all  manner  of 
abuse,  for  they  undoubtedly  proceed  from  hell.'  Abuse 
was  lavishly  heaped  on  them  by  the  Franconian  pastor 
Andreas  Forner.     In  a  publication  entitled  '  Evange- 

1  Lucifers  Eonigreich,  pp.  61-63. 


THE   EVANGELICAL   «  HAFENKAS  '  239 

lischer  Hafenkas,'  issued  in  1617,  lie  ascribed  to  '  King 
Pluto  '  the  character  of  '  chief  of  all  the  preachers.' 
Pluto  is  described  as  sending  forth  an  '  incense-bearing 
angel,'  who  carries  with  him  a  '  large  and  disgusting 
pot  of  brimstone  and  pitch,'  in  which  there  is  '  a  foul, 
stinking,  mangy,  rotten  pot-cheese  alive  with  crawling 
worms  and  insects,  and  which  is  called  pot-cheese  by 
the  populace  because  it  is  made  up  of  all  sorts  of  broken 
remains  of  cheese,  which  cats  and  dogs  have  nibbled 
at,  and  which  has  been  thrown  together  in  a  heap  and 
dirtied  by  flies  and  insects  until  the  whole  mass  has 
become  putrefied  and  stinking,  when  the  peasants  place 
it  on  their  tables  and  consider  it  a  most  dainty  confec- 
tion.' This  '  Pot-cheese '  is  '  a  lifelike  sketch,  portrait, 
and  counterpart  of  the  Augsburg  Confession.'  The 
preachers  are  represented  as  falling  on  the  cheese  with 
ravenous  hunger,  '  licking,  biting,  sucking,  tearing  at 
it.'  Finally,  it  is  carried  in  a  solemn  procession,  with 
hymns  of  praise,  to  the  charnel-house  of  St.  John. 
'  The  glorified  cheese  was  carried  by  the  four  pillars  and 
wardens  of  the  Hafenkas,'  a  Zwinglian,  a  Calvinist,  an 
Ubiquitist,  and  a  Schwenckf eldian,  all  dressed  differently. 
They  sang : 

Erhalt  uns  Herr  beim  Hafenkiis, 
Ganz  lieblich  ist  er  und  ganz  riis, 
Ihm  weichen  Zucker  und  Konfekt, 
Selig  der  dran  leckt  und  geleckt.1 

Preserve  us,  Lord,  by  the  Hafenkiis, 
Quite  exquisite  it  is  and  rare  : 
Sugar  and  confects  are  nothing  to  it, 
He  who  licks  and  eats  it  obtains  salvation. 


1  Evangelischer  Hafenkiis,  pp.  39-40,  42,  115-169.  Forner  told  all 
sorts  of  stories  about  the  preachers ;  for  instance,  of  Lucas  Sternberger, 
who  had  written  on  the  subject  of  the  Trinity,  he  said  that  '  he  did  not 
know  whether  it  was  a  woman  or  a  man,  but  he  thought  it  was  a  woman 
who  had  had  three  husbands  '  (p.  119).    Gottfried  Rab,  an  Augustinian,  had 


240  HISTORY   OF  THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

On  the  other  hand,  Jakob  Bobhard  '  brought  out 
in  1617,  under  the  name  of  '  Publius  Asquillus,  Bachelor 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus,'  a  publication  in  rhyme,  entitled 
'  Eygentliche  grundliclie  und  warhafte  Beschreibung  des 
heiligen  rb'mischen  und  katholischen  Hafenkas,  wie  dersel- 
bige  auf  das  Allerheiligste  und  Kiinstlichste  prapariert 
und  zubereitet  worden,  reimenweise  verfasst '  (Real, 
authentic,  and  veracious  account  of  the  holy  Roman 
and  Catholic  Hafenkas,  showing  how  the  latter  was 
prepared  with  the  greatest  reverence  and  skill,  and 
composed  in  rhyme).  As  a  contribution  to  the  Hafenkas 
which  the  Pope  had  commanded  to  be  concocted,  a 
man  from  Treves  brings 

A  few  tears  from  the  eyes  of  Christ 
Which  the  pain  and  agony  of  the  cross 
Had  pressed  out  of  His  eyes.  .  .  . 

From  Ravenna  comes  a  man  with  a  pitcher  from 
the  wedding  at  Cana  : 

Which  he  had  filled  fall  of  milk 

Which  had  flowed  from  the  breasts 

Of  the  pure  Virgin  Mary, 

When  she  was  still  suckling  her  infant  Jesus, 

And  which  from  year  to  year 

Had  been  preserved  until  now. 

They  used  a  little  sack  '  made  out  of  the  trousers  of 
St.  Joseph,'  a  shirt  of  the  holy  Virgin,  and  so  forth. 
The  pious  hymn,  '  In  the  name  of  God  we  march,'  was 

been  guilty  at  Prague  of  adultery,  of  dishonouring  young  women,  and  of 
incest ;  he  had  seduced  the  wife  of  a  burgher,  and  had  then  come  to  Witten- 
berg, where  he  had  turned  Protestant.  His  '  Recantation  '  appeared  in 
print,  and  also  his  '  Revocation  sermon  '  ;  the  whole  theological  faculty 
and  the  whole  college  of  preachers  issued  a  bombastic  preface  to  it.  The 
author  was  depicted  in  woodcuts  and  copper-plates,  and  medals  with  his 
image  were  actually  struck  in  lead  and  silver,  and  circulated  abroad, 
especially  in  Nuremberg.  Before  long,  however,  he  fell  into  such  contempt 
with  the  preachers  themselves  that  he  was  abandoned  by  them,  and  came 
to  a  miserable  end  (pp.  120-122). 
1  Weller,  Annalen,  369,  No.  465. 


THE  CATHOLIC  '  HAFENKAS '         241 

subjected  to  insolent  mockery.  At  the  church  service 
an  indulgence  for  the  Hafenkiis,  signed  by  the  Jesuit 
Bellarmin  in  the  name  of  all  the  cardinals,  was  read 
out : 

Whoso  comes  unto  this  Kiis 
Obtains  for  all  his  sins  remission, 
«  And  procures  God's  love  and  grace, 
Although  before  he  had  not  felt  contrition. 
Has  he  some  deed  of  evil  done, 
Or  is  he  contemplating  one, 
To  the  Hafenh'is  let  him  repair, 
He'll  be  absolved  and  all  made  square.  .  .  . 
Commit  adultery  even  in  church, 
Then  buy  of  this  Kits  and  be  without  smirch.1 

In  the  following  year  Bobhard,  posing  as  '  a  poet 
and  historiographer  specially  commissioned  thereto  by 
the  Pope,'  supplemented  his  earlier  '  Beschreibung  '  by 
a  new  publication,  '  J  ubelkram  und  Mess  des  heiligen 
romischen  und  katholischen  Hafenkiis  '  ('  Jolly  store  and 
sale  of  holy  Roman  Catholic  pot-cheese  ').  All  the  ser- 
vants of  the  Church  are  represented  as  extortioners  of 
the  people,  as  gluttons  and  whoremongers  ;  the  Capu- 
chins and  the  Jesuits  are  specially  singled  out  for 
vilification.  The  Holy  Scriptures  are  depicted  as  being 
trodden  underfoot  by  one  Jesuit,  thrown  on  the  ground 
and  spit  upon  by  others,  lashed  with  rods,  and  con- 
demned to  the  flames.  From  the  bottom  of  his  heart 
the  author  sings  of  the  Hafenkiis — that  is  to  say,  the 
Catholic  religion  : 

The  Hafenkiis,  O  Lord,  root  out, 
Because  it  causes  all  that's  fell  ; 
And  hurl  it  with  a  mighty  shout — 
It  and  its  doctor  2 — into  hell.1 


1  Eygentliche  .  .  .  Beschreibung,  pp.  21,  22-24,  39-52,  67-70,  71-84. 
The  publication  is  full  of  obscenity  and  indecency  ;  see  pp.  48-51,  60,  95- 
105  ff. 

3  Forner. 

3  Jubelkram,  pp.  32-49,  79-81,  91,  97,  113,  118-119,  135-143.  For  the 
VOL.    X.  R 


242  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

In  devotional  books  for  the  people,  also,  '  the 
papistical  idolatry  and  all  its  antics '  were  painted  in 
glaring  colours.  Martin  Spiess,  in  the  year  1603,  made 
known,  by  quotations  from  the  preface  of  a  House- 
postille  of  the  Wittenberg  scholar  of  divinity  Agidius 
Hunnius,  how  the  latter  had  '  removed  the  mist-cap 
from  the  abominable  papacy,  so  that  the  bare,  naked 
animal,  the  real  and  veritable  Antichrist,  was  left  ex- 
posed to  view.'  '  Hunnius  delivered  himself  in  the 
customary  manner  concerning  '  the  terrible  abomina- 
tions '  of  the  papacy :  '  Christ  had  only  made  atone- 
ment for  original  sin  ;  actual  sins  must  be  atoned  for 
by  their  authors  through  their  own  good  works  ;  the 
papists  adored  saints  and  images  ;  evil  lusts  were  not 
regarded  by  them  as  sins,'  and  so  forth.  In  the  papacy, 
he  said,  '  those  who  had  most  money  could  expiate  most 
largely,  and  there  was  no  greater  sin  or  disgrace  among 
papists  than  to  be  poor.  The  most  unnatural  atrocities, 
also,  and  the  very  worst  sins  could  be  obliterated  by 
payment  of  money.'  Everything  connected  with  the 
papacy  was  altogether  sheer  idolatry :  the  Mass,  the 
Eucharist,  confirmation, '  in  which  all  horrors  and  devil's 
works  '  were  combined ;  extreme  unction  was  '  a  be- 
witched chrism.'  It  seemed  all  the  more  necessary  to 
Hunnius  to  spread  teaching  of  this  sort  because  he 
scented  a  suspicious  inclination  to  the  papacy  among 
the  Protestant  people.  '  Many  of  them,'  he  said, 
'  might  very  likely  begin  to  inoculate  their  children 
with  popery,  to  place  them  in  the  Jesuit  schools,  or  in 

paragraph  (omitted  here)  following  the  above  verses  and  describing 
another  '  object  of  Catholic  worship '  see  the  German,  vol.  v.  p.  499,  and 
see  also  Eygentliche  Beschreibung,  p.  50  ;  Wolfius,  ii.  354  ;  Oratio  de  quadru- 
plici  facie  Ecclesiae  (Wittenb.  1610);  which  works  are  referred  to  in  the 
omitted  passage.  1  Nebelkap,  Bl.  B  2-3. 


SERMONS   ON   CATHOLICS   AND   CATHOLIC   WORSHIP     243 

the  popish  universities  and  convents.'  '  The  true 
teachers  must  therefore  do  the  Lord's  work  faithfully,' 
and  utter  warnings  against  the  devouring  wolves, 
especially  at  the  present  time,  when  the  devil,  by  means 
of  the  papists,  was  labouring  unintermittently  at  the 
re- establishment  of  his  empire  through  '  secret  blood- 
thirsty intrigues,'  and  also  '  through  open  violence.'  l 

The  people  were  also  similarly  instructed  in  sermons. 
Erhard  Lauterbach,  for  instance,  superintendent  of  the 
(former)  diocese  of  Naumburg,  preached  that  '  in  the 
papacy  the  devil  sits  enthroned,  and  bellows  out  nothing 
but  hellish  and  Romish  lies  and  rubbish.'  '  We,  on  the 
contrary,  are  the  people  of  His  pasture  and  the  sheep 
of  His  flock,  to  which  the  Roman  wolf,  the  Pope,  with  his 
hellish,  stinking  rams,  the  cardinals,  bishops,  and  all 
the  parsonhood,  do  not  belong ;  for  we  are  as  far 
apart  from  them  as  heaven  and  earth.'  '  Next  to  the 
devils  themselves  there  are  no  worse  creatures  than  the 
Pope  and  his  belongings.'  '  At  the  day  of  judgment  we 
shall  help  to  pronounce  sentence  on  the  Pope,  and  we 
shall  say  :  "  Go  hence,  thou  accursed  beast,  with  all  thy 
followers,  into  condemnation.  There  shalt  thou  be 
tormented  with  fire  and  brimstone :  that  is,  with  the 
most  exquisite  and  refined  martyrdom,  and  publicly, 
moreover,  in  the  presence  of  Luther  and  all  other  true 
angels,  messengers,  and  servants  of  God." 

The  manner,  also,  in  which,  from  the  pulpit  itself 
and  on  the  most  sacred  festivals,  the  Catholic  Church 
service  was  delivered  over  to  the  contempt  and  ridicule 
of  the  populace  is  exemplified  in  a  '  Recht  evangelische 

1  Bl.  c  D.  1-2. 

2  Vier  Jubelpredigten  im  Naumburgischen  Stift  zu  Zeitz  gehalten,  &c. 
(Leipzig,  1618),  Bl.  C.  F.  3. 

k  2 


244  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Predigt '  (preached  by  Polycarp  Leiser  at  Dresden  on 
Ascension  Day,  1608).  In  a  coarse,  vulgar  manner, 
almost  in  the  language  of  the  '  Bienenkorb,'  he  ridiculed 
all  the  customary  usages  and  benedictions  of  the  Church 
from  the  Mass  down  to  the  consecration  of  bells.  He 
made  fun  of  '  the  way  in  which  the  young  Mass  priests 
read  the  Mass,  now  mumbling  and  muttering  in  whispers, 
now  calling  out  loudly,  anon  thumping  themselves  on 
the  breast  or  stretching  out  their  arms  as  though  they 
were  measuring  out  two  ells  or  a  brace  and  a  half.'  The 
publication  of  this  sermon  was  regarded  in  the  light  of 
a  Christian  work,  profitable  to  the  Church  of  Christ.1 

'  It  must  always  be  remembered,'  so  another  pulpit 
orator  declaimed,  '  how  the  divinely  inspired  theologian, 
James  Heerbrand,  had  written  concerning  the  accursed, 
devilish  Mass  priests  :  "  You  oiled  and  greased  idolaters 
think  and  give  out  that  by  virtue  of  your  filthy  chrism 
and  carriage-grease  you  can  fashion  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  out  of  bread  and  wine.  Oh,  you  God- 
forsaken shavelings,  with  all  the  magic  of  Egypt  you 
could  not  even  make  a  little  louse,  how  much  less 
the  body  of  Christ."      This  is  reverently  spoken,  and 

1  Eine  recht  evangelische  Predig,  &c.  (Leipzig,  1608),  pp.  8-10,  19  ff. 
A  pamphlet  on  the  death  of  Luther  which  came  out  at  Wittenberg  in  1610, 
Bericht  zum  christlichen  Abschied  Dolctor  Martin  Luthers  samt  sechs  Leich- 
predigten  bei  dem  Begrabnis  vornehmer  Theologen,  contains  the  most 
virulent  attacks  against  the  Roman  Antichrist,  '  the  traffickers  of  the 
Babylonian  whore  who  put  up  everything  for  sale,'  '  the  courtesans  and 
chamberwomen  of  the  harlot,'  '  the  bloodthirsty  schemes  of  the  papists,' 
and  so  forth.  Cf.  pp.  57,  58,  68,  74,  82,  178,  180.  The  Superintendent 
Nathaniel  Tilesius,  in  his  Achtzehn  Passions-  und  Achtzehn  Osterpredigten 
(Leipzig,  1611),  is  less  fierce  in  his  attacks  on  the  Catholic  Church,  but  he 
too  does  not  scruple  to  assert  that  the  papacy  with  outrageous  idolatry 
exalts  the  Virgin  Mary  into  a  goddess,  that  it  has  borrowed  the  doctrine 
of  purgatory  from  the  pagans  Plato  and  Virgil,  and  so  forth  (i.  179,  238, 
273). 


CATHOLICS   ACCUSED   OF   BEFRIENDING   THE   JEWS      245 

applies  to  the  whole  of  popedom.  "  They  cannot  make 
lice,  and  yet  they  produce  nothing  but  lousy  rot.  There  is 
scarcely  anything  connected  with  them  that  is  righteous 
and  well-pleasing  to  God,  as  anybody  can  see  who 
enters  a  papistical  town.  Their  church  service  is  rank 
idolatry,  their  sacrifices  impious  hypocrisy,  their  prayers 
mere  pretence  and  sanctimoniousness  (especially  those 
of  the  devout,  whorish  women) ;  their  fasts  are  a  mockery 
of  God  and  a  travesty  of  His  Divine  Word,  for  in  secret 
they  gorge  themselves  full."  On  this  point,  also,  James 
Heerbrand  has  spoken  admirably.  He  says  :  "It  is 
indeed  a  laudable  thing  that  they  should  fast  till  eleven 
o'clock  for  afterwards  they  fill  their  stomachs  so  full  of 
excellent  fish  that  they  are  like  to  burst ;  they  become 
distended  and  swollen  out  like  kettledrums."  The 
papists  are  worse  than  the  worshippers  of  serpents  and 
other  animals,  for  the  latter,  at  any  rate,  pray  to  living 
creatures,  while  the  papists,  like  senseless  blockheads, 
invoke  dirty  cloths,  bones,  and  other  rubbish,  which 
they  dignify  with  the  name  of  relics.'  '  Their  Anti- 
christ, the  Pope,  has  given  his  approval  to  the  story  of 
the  Virgin  Mary  milking  into  the  eyes  of  a  blind  monk 
and  committing  carnal  sin  with  another  ;  and  to  such 
stories  the  papists  give  more  faith  than  to  the  Holy 
Scriptures  and  to  Christ,  Whose  Divine  Word  they  flee 
or  even  trample  underfoot.' 

The  pulpit-orator  imparted  all  this  information  on 
the  festival  of  the  Passion  and  Death  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  accordingly  he  took  the  opportunity  also  of 
*  reminding  his  hearers,  in  a  Christian  and  brotherly 
manner,  that  the  papists,  being  hostile  to  Christ,  were 
for  the  most  part  friendly  to  the  Jews  who  had  nailed 
Him   to   the  Cross,   and  that  the    Roman   Antichrist 


246  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

himself  was  the  foremost  protector  of  the  blasphemous 
Jews.'  '  Pious  Christians  will  take  all  this  in  good 
faith,  and  will  know  how  to  act  upon  it.'  l 

'  The  charge  of  befriending  the  Jews  '  was,  indeed, 
a  favourite  dodge  of  the  preachers  and  writers  for 
incensing  the  Protestant  people  against  '  the  Antichrist 
and  all  his  followers.'  After  the  method  of  the  Magde- 
burg Centuriators,2  they  were  pleased  to  regard  as  a  mark 
of  the  Antichrist  the  fact  that  the  Pope  tolerated  and 
protected  the  Jews.  In  a  summons  to  proceed  against 
the  blasphemous  Jews  and  their  aiders  and  abettors,3 
it  was  said  in  1611  :  '  It  is  plainly  manifest  that  it  is 
the  Antichrist  who  is  sitting  on  the  chair  of  pestilence 
at  Rome,  for  he  is  the  friend  of  the  bloodthirsty,  accursed 
Jews.'  '  This  is  also  the  reason  why  the  Roman  Anti- 
christ and  all  his  followers  in  the  Empire  cherish  such 
a  deadly  hatred  against  Luther,  for  the  latter  wrote, 
with  divine  inspiration  and  wisdom,  that  the  Hebrew 
synagogues  and  schools  must  be  demolished  and  burnt, 
that  the  Jews  must  be  deprived  of  the  goods  they  had 
gotten  by  usury,  and  that  they  must  be  driven  like  mad 
dogs  out  of  the  land.  The  papists  and  Jesuits,  on  the 
contrary,  are  blasphemous  friends  of  the  Jews  ;  they 
associate  with  them,  do  not  scruple  to  employ  Hebrew 
doctors  and  other  sorcerers  in  case  of  illness ;  they 
curry  favour  with  the  extortioners,  are  ready  to  protect 
them,  and  even  contribute  to  the  building  of  their 
synagogues  and  devils'  temples.'  While  the  evangelical 
Christians  were  never  left  at  rest  by  the  Pope,  wrote 

1  Mengering,  pp.  3,  7,  9-10.  Besides  these  passages  from  Heerbrand 
the  preacher  also  quoted  from  a  pamphlet  which  had  appeared  at  Giessen 
in  1614,  under  the  title  of  Legendarum  Papisticarum  Centuria,  &c,  ; 
Vorrede,  pp.  3-4,  183,  197-198. 

3  See  above,  p.  12.  3  '  Einblattdruck  '  of  the  year  1611. 


CATHOLICS   ACCUSED   OF   BEFRIENDING   THE   JEWS      247 

Peter  Dotschmann,  Lutheran  dean  at  Schwabisch-Hall, 
in  1617,  '  the  Jews,  who  daily  blaspheme  the  honour  of 
Christ  and  who  suck  the  blood  of  the  poor  people  by 
their  ungodly  usury,  are  gladly  tolerated  in  the  dominion 
of  his  Holiness.'  l 

In  the  same  year  a  Calvinist  writer  complained  that 
'  the  iniquitous  Jews,  who  pour  out  abominable  blas- 
phemy against  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Christ,  and  who 
suck  the  blood  of  the  poor  man,  are  not  only  not  perse- 
cuted by  the  Pope  and  the  Romanists,  nor  coerced  into 
the  Christian  religion,  but  their  iniquities  are  sanctioned 
by  the  Church.  The  canon  law  decrees  that  their 
schools,  synagogues,  and  ritual  shall  be  respected,  and 
their  conversion  only  attempted  by  means  of  the  most 
lenient  instruction.  "  Heretical  Christians,"  on  the  other 
hand,  were  by  the  Pope's  command  to  be  forthwith 
executed.' 2  John  of  Minister  had  before  this  pro- 
claimed to  Protestant  Germany  that  '  as  Antichrist  the 
Pope  condemned  all  Christians  to  hell-fire,  and  gave  the 
devil  power  and  authority  to  rend  and  devour  the 
members  of  Christ,  he  turned  healthy,  well-made  human 
beings  into  lame  and  deformed  ones,  strangled  all  who 
were  disobedient  to  him — yea,  verily,  he  gulped  them 
down  whole,  like  a  regular  hellish  wolf,  with  their  skin 
and  hair.'  But  he  gladly  tolerated  the  Jews,  in  spite 
of  their  abominations  and  idolatry,  in  all  parts  of  his 
empire.  '  The  papists  and  the  accursed,  Christ-blas- 
pheming Jews  stood  in  the  same  category. ' 3 

There  was  no  shrinking  from  any  sort  of  means 

1  Die  Lehre  der  Papisten,  pp.  79-80. 

2  Gegen-Erinnerungen  gegen  Ungersdorf,  pp.  96-97. 

3  Maximilian  Philos  of  Treves,  Examen  und  Inquisition,   Vorrede,  Bl. 
1-2,  p.  2. 


248  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

which  would  serve  to  produce  among  the  Protestant 
people  irreconcilable  hatred  and  ineradicable  disgust 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  to  stir  up  their  passions 
against  Rome  and  the  '  satellites  of  Satan.' 

'  Our  doctrines  and  our  Church  ritual  and  usages,'  a 
Catholic  complained,  '  are  represented  as  idolatry  and 
blasphemy  to  the  poor  deceived  people  ;  everything  that 
is  called  Catholic  is  dragged  in  the  deepest  mire  and 
given  over  to  the  insolence  of  the  populace.  The  Popes 
are  depicted  as  the  most  consummate  villains,  sodomites, 
and  devil's  tricksters  that  the  sun  has  ever  shone  upon. 
There  is  not  a  single  crime  which  is  not  imputed  to 
them.  All  convents,  in  the  opinion  of  Protestant 
writers  and  preachers,  are  hot-beds  of  immorality. 
Monks  and  nuns  are  fattened  hogs  of  the  devil ;  the  priests 
are  tonsured  stallions  and  greasy,  oiled  idolaters.  All 
Catholics  are  crazy  blockheads,  insensate  fools,  idolaters, 
ministers  of  bones  and  images,  and  fit  for  nothing  but 
to  be  driven  out  of  the  country  like  Jews  and  Turks. 
The  ruling  authorities  are  incensed  by  being  made  to 
believe  that  the  papistical  teachers  reject  all  secular 
rule,  that  the  Popes  have  been  guilty  of  treading  em- 
perors and  kings  underfoot,  and  of  making  them  crouch 
under  their  tables  bound  in  chains.  The  nobles  are 
made  to  believe  that  their  poverty  has  been  caused  by 
the  Pope  and  the  papists,  who  have  grabbed  to  them- 
selves all  worldly  goods  and  revenues  ;  the  poor  of  the 
land  are  told  that  the  papists  have  fattened  on  their 
sweat  and  blood.  Thus  the  fire  is  stirred  incessantly, 
oil  is  thrown  on  the  flames,  and  no  calumnies  are 
spared.'  '  Not  to  omit  one  instance,  how  can  anything 
more  hateful  and  more  egregiously  false  be  said  against 
the    Roman    Catholic    Church     than   the    slanders    of 


*  SO-CALLED'   CATHOLIC   TEACHING    ON   MARRIAGE     249 

preachers  and  writers  respecting  the  so-called  Catholic 
doctrine  of  matrimony — viz.  that,  far  from  being 
pleasing  to  God,  it  is  sinful  and  unholy.  And  they 
employ  such  shameful  tricks  and  silly  inventions  as 
this  to  set  married '  people  against  the  Church ;  and, 
verily,  I  know  not  how  a  greater  lie  and  cause  of  offence 
could  be  invented.  This  sort  of  thing,  however,  is 
quite  habitual  with  those  lying  preachers,  who  live  by 
lies  ;  and  whole  books  might  be  filled  with  their  false- 
hoods, which  they  actually  consider  a  necessary  part  of 
their  preaching.'  x 

There  were,  indeed,  preachers  who  considered  it  '  a 
principal  duty  of  the  office  of  teacher  and  preacher  to 
proclaim  incessantly  to  the  people  how  disgracefully 
and  outrageously  the  Roman  Antichrist  and  the  whole 
popish  church  dealt  with  the  holy  estate  of  matrimony 
both  in  teaching  and  practice,  treating  it  with  as  much 
contempt  as  if  it  had  been  instituted  by  the  incarnate 
devil  and  not  by  God.'  2  Just  as  the  Pope  '  reviles  all 
human  conditions,'  George  Miller  preached  in  1595  to 
the  burghers  and  students  of  Jena,  '  so  has  he  cast 
contumely  on  the  sacred  state  of  marriage,  which  he 
condemns  as  a  carnal,  sinful,  and  unholy  state.  He  has 
written  publicly  concerning  this  estate.  Whosoever 
lives  in  the  flesh — i.e.  in  the  state  of  marriage — cannot 
please  God.'  '  How  could  anything  more  abusive, 
scandalous,  and  dishonourable  be  said  about  holy  matri- 
mony, and  how  could  it  be  treated  with  worse  dis- 
honour ?  '  3  Similarly  it  is  said  in  the  '  Heiliger  Brot- 
korb  der  heiligen  romischen  Reliquien  und  Heiligthums 

1  Von  newen  calvinischen  Giftspinnen,  pp.  19-20. 

2  Mengering,  p.  12. 

3  Georg  Mylius,  Bapstpredigten,  pp.  305-306. 


250  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Brocken,'  edited  by  Johann  Fischart,  '  The  papacy  con- 
demns the  conjugal  estate,  and  repudiates  it  as  a  carnal 
state  in  which  a  Christian  cannot  live  with  a  good 
conscience  or  attain  to  salvation.'  The  moral  of  which 
was  '  such  people  were  not  worthy  of  having  come 
into  the  world  by  lawful  marriage,  or  fit  to  live  under 
Christian  government.  Yes,  that  is  the  true  mark  of 
the  Antichrist,  that  he  has  no  respect  for  the  love  of 
woman,  nor  for  anything  that  is  of  God.'  l 

'  With  the  papists,'  wrote  Jeremiah  Vietor,  pastor 
at  Giessen,  in  1587,  '  adultery,  fornication,  and  incest 
are  not  reckoned  vices,  and  would  not  be,  though  they 
were  forbidden  ten  times  over  in  the  sixth  command- 
ment.' On  the  other  hand,  '  it  is  notorious  that  in  the 
papacy  matrimony,  even  among  the  laity,  is  considered 
a  sinful  state.'  2 

The  papistical  teachers,  so  James  Heerband  said 
emphatically  two  years  later,  call  marriage  '  carnal 
wantonness.'  '  0  Sodom,  with  thy  sins  which  cry 
unto  heaven,  these  people  make  thee  out  to  be  pious.'  3 
The  Elector  of  Saxony's  court-preacher,  Matthias  Hoe, 
reiterated,  in  1607,  in  an  '  Evangelisches  Handbiichlein  ' 
for  the  people  :  '  The  papists  say  that  marriage  is  an 
unholy  state  ;  the  Pope  despises  marriage,  calls  it  a 
fleshly  condition  in  which  we  cannot  please  God.' 4 
The  Lutheran  dean  Peter   Dotschmann  had  the  same 

1  Fischart,  in  1580,  brought  out,  under  the  title  just  mentioned,  a  new 
edition  of  the  translation,  made  at  an  earlier  date  by  James  Eysenberg, 
of  Calvin's  Traite  de  Reliques.  The  passage  quoted  above  is  in  the  edition 
of  1601,  Vorrede,  Bl.  B  8'. 

2  GrUndlicher,  wiederholter  Bericht,  Bl.  47',  55b.  See  also  E.  Lauter- 
bach,  Vier  Jubelpredigten,  Bl.  D.  2b. 

3  Ketzer-Katzen,  pp.  118-119. 

4  Evangelisches  Handbiichlein  (1607),  where  also  other  '  popish  abomina- 
tions '  are  to  be  found,  Bl.  9b,  18a  b,  273,  298,  302. 


'SO-CALLED'   CATHOLIC   TEACHING   ON   MARRIAGE     251 

tale  to  tell.  To  his  knowledge  it  was  '  popish  teaching  ' 
that  '  the  conjugal  state  is  an  unclean  and  carnal  one, 
in  which  it  is  impossible  to  please  God  and  to  serve  Him 
with  a  good  conscience.'  1  The  Dortmunder  preacher 
Hermann  Empsychonius,  also,  who,  according  to  the 
words  of  a  eulogist,  like  a  '  German  Achilles,  with 
Herculean  strength  overthrew  the  Roman  citadel  from 
its  foundations,'  expressed  his  opinion  that  Catholic 
doctrine  represented  marriage  as  a  hindrance  to  piety, 
as  something  quite  carnal  and  worldly,  and  displeasing 
to  the  Lord  God.'  -  Another  preacher  went  still  further 
in  his  assertions.  The  Pope,  he  said,  '  not  only  sanc- 
tioned incestuous  connections  between  others,  but 
actually  indulged  in  them  himself.  Fornication  and 
contempt  of  marriage  were  regarded  by  the  papists  as  a 
glorification  of  God.' 3  The  Wiirtemberg  theologians 
James  Andrea,  James  Heerbrand,  Johann  Magirus,  and 
others,  had  made  similar  statements  in  the  year  1584.4 
Johann  von  Minister  spoke  still  more  strongly.  He 
said  that '  to  be  legally  married  was  a  great  crime  in  the 
eyes  of  the  papists,  but  that  whoredom,  incest,  vice, 
and  sin  were  the  highest  glory  and  boast  of  the  Popes.' 
Such  had  been  the  teaching  of  the  Jesuit  cardinal 
Robert  Bellarmin.5 

'  Seeing,   then,   that  the  papists,   both  clergy  and 
laymen  of  high  and  low  degree,'  said  a  preacher  of  the 

1  Die  Lehr  der  Papisten,  Calvinisten,  u.s.w.  (1617),  p.  34. 

2  Apologia  Orthodoxae  Doctrinae  contra  Pontificios  (Giessae,  1612),  Bl. 
8b,  189. 

3  Echart,  Papa  pharisaizans  (1605),  pp.  139,  141. 

4  ' .  .  .  Synagoga  Romana  .  .  probat  libidines  vagas  in  praecipuis 
membris  .  .  .'  Acta  et  Scripta  Theolog.  Wirtembergensium  et  Patriarchae 
Constantinop.  Bl.  3. 

5  Maximilian  Philos,  Baptischer  Triumph  (edition  of  1607),  pp.  9,  10, 
49,  67  ;  see  also  the  register. 


252  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Divine  Word,  after  an  exhaustive  enumeration  of  all 
the  crimes  and  misdemeanours  of  said  clergy  and  laity, 
*  one  and  all  of  them  stand  out  before  the  world  as 
such  blasphemous,  disreputable,  murderous  scoundrels, 
it  behoves  every  pious  Christian  to  remember  that  he 
must  not  trust  them  in  any  way  in  trade  and  business, 
and  that  he  must  avoid  and  shun  them  as  he  would  the 
devil  himself.'  ] 

All  relations  between  the  Catholics  and  the  Pro- 
testants must  be  dissolved. 

'  I  willingly  grant,'  wrote,  in  1617,  a  Catholic  '  who 
was  in  favour  of  every-day  dealings  between  the  members 
of  the  different  religions ' — '  I  willingly  grant  that  we, 
on  our  part,  who  have  been  so  cruelly  and  disgrace- 
fully attacked  by  writers  innumerable  for  now  more 
than  eighty  years,  have  allowed  our  pens  to  pour  forth 
much  bitterness  of  all  sorts  against  these  scandalous 
scribes  and  libellers,  who  have  invariably  appealed  to 
the  Divine  Word  and  the  Evangel,  and  I  allow  that 
meekness  and  peaceable  Christian  language  would  have 
become  us  better  than  gall,  abuse,  and  words  of  insult. 
But  who  among  our  party  has  ever  anathematised  and 
vilified  the  Lutherans  and  stirred  up  the  Catholics 
against  them,  in  the  way  that  your  Protestant,  peace- 
hating  preachers  and  writers  of  all  sorts  have  done  ?  ' 
"  We  are  pelted  with  hailstorms,  snowstorms  of  furious 
calumny  and  insults.  The  whole  body  of  papists  is 
insensate ;  they  venerate  images,  pictures,  sticks,  and 
stones  ;  they  are  in  league  with  the  devil ;  they  worship 
the  Eoman  devil,  the  Antichrist ;  all  papists  must  be 
shunned  and  fled  from  like  disreputable  people ;  they 
must  not  be  trusted  in  any  way ;  they  will  massacre  all 
the  evangelicals  if  we  are  not  beforehand  with  them  ; 

1  Mengering,  p.  14. 


CATHOLICS   ARE   TO   BE    SHUNNED  253 

and  so  on,  and  so  on.  Such  raging  and  calumniating 
must  lead  to  a  bloody  end,  and  that  which  Luther 
prophesied — from  which  God  preserve  us — may  well 
come  to  pass,  and  "  Germany  be  seen  swimming  as  it 
were  in  blood."  '  l 

'  We  cannot  sufficiently  warn  against  the  papists 
everybody  who  wishes  for  security  of  life  and  property,' 
said  a  preacher  in  1589,  '  for  they  themselves  betray 
their  origin  from  the  devil,  more  plainly  even  than  do 
the  heathen.  No  respectable  person  can  believe  in 
them  or  place  any  confidence  in  them.  They  believe 
no  more  in  our  Redeemer  than  do  the  Jews  and  Turks  ; 
they  are  an  epicurean,  godless  lot,  as  the  most  learned 
Lucas  Lossius  said,  for  they  declare  that  when  a  man 
dies  no  part  of  him  survives,  any  more  than  with  an 
unreasoning  beast — a  sow,  a  cow,  or  a  horse  ;  they  all 
die  alike,  and  neither  body  nor  soul  remains.  Who 
could  ever  have  any  dealings  with  such  bestial  crea- 
tures ?  Who  could  eat,  drink,  trade,  or  traffic  with 
them  ?  '  '  Among  thousands  of  papistical  rascals  and 
whoremongers  such  as  the  Church  is  full  of,  and  who 
bow  down  before  idols,  bones,  and  images,  who  weep 
and  howl  in  the  churches  and  eat  up  the  Lord  God 
made  by  the  priests,  especially  among  the  smeared  and 
tonsured  heads,  there  are  not  as  many  as  three  who 
believe  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  This  is  true  and 
indisputable.'  '  Therefore,  my  brethren,'  the  preacher 
exhorted,  '  beware  of  these  filthy  epicureans  and  de- 
vouring wolves,  as  Christ  admonished  you  in  His  Holy 
Word,  which  should  be  a  lantern  unto  your  feet. 
Amen.'  2 

1  Ein  heilsam  Erinnerung  an  Christi  des  Herrn  Wort  ;  Der  Friede  sei 
mit  ench  (Einblattdruck,  1617). 

2  Ein  hochnottiirfftige  Predig  wider  den  romischen  Antichrist  und  seine 
Eottgesellen  (1589),  Bl.  B\ 


254  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

A  similar  warning  against  all  dealings  with  the 
Catholics  was  uttered  in  1588  by  Alexander  Utzinger, 
preacher  at  Smalkald.  The  papacy,  he  said,  was  '  the 
mother  of  fornication  and  of  all  the  abominations  on 
earth,'  it  was  '  a  frightful  abyss  of  hell,'  '  an  execrable 
den  of  murderers  ' ;  yea,  verily, '  the  very  most  execrable 
den  of  thieves  and  robbers.'  The  truth  of  this  had  now 
been  '  so  thoroughly  proven,  demonstrated,  and  made 
public,  that  no  right-minded,  veracious  person  could 
contradict  it.'  The  Catholic  priests  were  all  of  them 
'  priests  of  idols  and  jackanapeses.  It  was  safer  for 
an  evangelical  Christian  to  dwell  among  Turks  and 
heretics  than  among  papists,  even  though  the  latter 
should  leave  them  free  in  their  faith  and  consciences.'  1 
'  Let  no  one  forbid  or  hinder  me  from  wishing  the 
hardened,  insolent,  and  bloodthirsty  papists  both 
temporal  and  eternal  ruin,  and  that  of  the  most  terrible 
description  ;  nor  let  me  be  hindered  from  praying  inces- 
santly to  God,  from  hoping  for  and  "expecting  their  ruin, 
and  from  consoling  myself  and  other  pious  Christians 
with  this  hope.  I  cannot  do  otherwise,  let  befall  me 
what  God  will.  And  here  I  openly  confess  that  this  is 
my  daily  practice  in  conjunction  with  my  office  of 
preaching.'  L> 

In  the  same  year  (1588)  a  general  synod  in  Hesse 
had  issued  a  '  Christian  and  godly  memorandum '  to 
the  effect  that  '  the  avowed  adherents  of  the  papacy 
were  blasphemers,  idolaters,  and  servants  of  the  Anti- 
christ, and  that  we  must  follow  the  example  of  the 
Apostles  and  avoid  all  outward  fellowship  with  them  ; 
we  must  flee  from  them,   shun  their  conversation  in 

1  Notwendige  Erinnerung,  Bl.  C  1-C  3b,  E  3\ 

2  Notwendige  Erinnerung,  Bl.  Ja. 


CATHOLICS   AKE   TO   BE    SHUNNED  255 

external,  mundane  things,  and  also  refuse  to  eat  and 
drink  with  them,  and  not  salute  them  if  we  meet  them.' 1 
A  synod  in  Cassel  enacted  in  1593  that  first  and  fore- 
most the  common  people  must  be  exhorted  from  the 
pulpit    to    '  keep    themselves    far    removed    from    the 
idolatrous    abominations    of   the    idolatrous    papistical 
religion.'  2     '  The  papists  are  enemies  of  the  Cross  of 
Christ,'  thundered  out  Jeremiah  Vietor  in  1587  ;  '  they 
have  a  brazen  harlot's  forehead,  and  are  ashamed  of 
nothing ;  they  look  upon  God's  Word  as  a  book  of 
fables.'      Therefore  '  we  must  be  on  our  guard  against 
the  papists  as  against  the  devil  himself.'     All  those 
who  submit  to  the  papacy  testify  their  approval  of  it, 
and  cast  in  their  lot  with  an  institution  of  which  the 
Apostle   says   that  its   nature  is   diabolical,   and  that 
devil's  works  are  defended  by  it,  and  worse  than  pagan 
sins  committed  in  it.     What  else  are  its  adherents  doing 
than  breaking  the  vows  which  they  pledged  to  Christ,  and 
giving  themselves  up  to  the  service  of  Satan  and  his 
tools  ?  '     Even  where  the  Protestants  were  allowed  to 
carry  on  the  exercise  of  their  religion  in  Catholic  districts, 
it  was  still  advisable  for  them  to  remove  from  the  land 
with  their  wives  and  children,  and  goods  and  chattels. 
Those,  however,  who  remained  must  '  above  all  things 
recognise  the  papacy  to  be  the  dregs  of  all  idolatry, 
lying  and  murdering,  they  must  hate  and  detest  it  with 
all  their  hearts,  seeing  that  God  does  not  wish  us  to  love 
those  whom  He  hates,  or  who  hate  Him.'  3 

1  Heppe,    Gesch.   der  hessischen   Generalsynoden,   i.  ;    Urkundensamm- 
lung,  pp.  3-10.     See  Ritter,  Deutsche  Gesch.  und  Landeskunde,  vi.  322-323. 

2  Zeitschr.  fiir  hessische  Gesch.  und  Landeskunde,  vi.  322-323. 

3  Griindlicher  Bericht,  &c,  Bl.  13b,  46h,  47%  55b,  75b,  76%  78-80. 


256  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 


CHAPTER  VII 

ANTAGONISM  BETWEEN  THE  LUTHERANS  AND  THE 
CALVINISTS  SINCE  THE  PROCLAMATION  OF  THE 
FORMULA    OF    CONCORD 

While  the  Protestant  controversial  theologians  and 
preachers  of  all  denominations  were  conducting  their 
campaign  against  '  the  Roman  Antichrist,  the  Baby- 
lonish whore,  and  the  whole  idolatrous,  papistical 
rabble,'  they  were  all  at  the  same  time  pitted  one 
against  the  other  in  the  fiercest  warfare.  They  carried 
on  this  intersectarian  contest  with  the  same  weapons 
of  personal  '  vilification  and  bedevilment '  which  they 
used  against  the  Catholics.  All  the  iniquities  of  which 
they  accused  the  Catholic  Church — seduction  of  the 
people,  idolatry,  service  of  the  devil — they  laid  with 
equal  virulence  at  each  other's  doors.  Each  of  the 
combatants  appealed  to  the  Word  of  God  and  to  his 
own  true  interpretation  of  it,  each  looked  upon  the 
other  as  '  an  emanation  from  the  devil,'  and  all  of  them 
mutually  relegated  each  other  to  the  devil.  '  Those 
raging  theologians,  drunk  with  fury,'  wrote  the  Pro- 
testant Dommarein,  in  1610,  '  have  so  greatly  aggra- 
vated and  augmented  the  disastrous  strife  between 
the  Christians  who  have  seceded  from  the  papacy,  that 
there  seems  no  hope  of  all  this  screaming,  scribbling, 
blackguarding,   slandering,   abusing,   damning,   ana  the- 


STRIFE   BETWEEN   LUTHERANS   AND   CALVINISTS       257 

matising,  &c,  coming  to  an  end  before  the  advent  of 
the  last  day.'  2 

The  mass  of  controversial  writing  was  so  immense 
that  it  was  complained  that  '  the  controversialists  had, 
as  it  were,  darkened  the  sun  with  their  books.'  '  Twice 
a  year,'  wrote  Stanislaus  Rescius  in  1592,  '  the  Frankfort 
list  of  publications  is  issued,  and  we  have  noticed  for 
several  years  past  that  the  books  written  by  Protestants 
against  Protestants  are  three  times  as  numerous  as 
those  of  Protestants  against  Catholics.'  "2 

The  controversies  which  the  different  Lutheran 
parties  had  carried  on  at  times  with  each  other  were 
thrown  into  the  background  by  the  general  campaign 
of  all  the  whole  body  of  Lutherans  against  Calvinism, 
which  had  made  greater  and  greater  progress  in  Germany 
during  the  last  thirty  years  of  the  century. 

1  Kurze  Information  (1610),  p.  335.  The  Dutch  Calvinist  theologian 
James  Arminius  wrote  to  Grynaus  in  1591  :  '  Confusio  opinionum  et 
haeresium  apud  nos  est  incredibilis  ;  nihil  tarn  certum  olim,  quod  non  in 
dubium  vocetur,  nihil  tarn  sanctum,  quod  a  blasphemia  immune.'  '  Religiosius 
sane  prisci  illi  patres  sacra  tractarunt,  quam  nos  facimus,  nee  non  Mi  nos 
super  ant,  quos  Pontificios  appellamus,  sacrorum  reverential — Brantii  Vita 
I.  Arminii  (Mosheim's  edition  of  1725),  p.  24.  '  Before  the  change  in 
religion,'  wrote  the  learned  Danish  imperial  chancellor,  Harald  Huit- 
feld,  '  we  had  only  one  single  bishop,  the  Pope,  over  all  of  us  ;  now  instead 
of  one,  we  have  multitudes  ;  every  so-called  reformed  prince  in  Germany 
is  a  separate  pope.  Each  separate  district  has  its  own  rites,  teachers, 
and  writers,  and  these  last  are  not  engaged  in  combating  the  enemies  of 
Christianity,  but  in  fighting  among  themselves.' — Pontoppidan,  iii.  5-6. 
Concerning  the  reciprocal  vituperations  of  the  new  religionists,  see  the 
complaint  of  Geldenhauer,  in  the  year  1537,  in  Dollinger's  Reformation, 
ii.  205. 

2  Ministromachia,  p.  32.  In  the  catalogue  of  the  Frankfort  Easter 
fair  of  1616  there  are  no  Protestant  polemical  writings  against  the  Catholics, 
whereas  there  are  thirty  of  Protestants  against  Protestants.  See  Kohler, 
Lebensbeschreibungen  merlcwilrdiger  Gelehrter  und  Kiinstler,  i.  (Leipzig, 
1794),  p.  240.  Respecting  a  comic  song  ridiculing  the  Calvinists  in  the 
tone  of  the  '  Lindenschmidt '  (1605),  see  Distel  in  Sauer's  Euphorion,  iv. 
(1897),  p.  102. 

VOL.    X.  S 


258  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

'  If  anybody  wishes  to  be  told  in  a  few  words,'  it 
says  in  a  Lutheran  pamphlet  of  1590,  '  concerning  which 
of  the  articles  of  the  faith  we  are  fighting  with  the 
diabolical  Calvinistic  brood  of  vipers,  the  answer  is  : 
all  and  every  one  of  them,  for  the  Calvinists  reject  and 
overthrow  every  single  article  of  the  Christian  faith, 
and  they  are  no  Christians,  but  only  baptized  Jews 
and  Mohammedans.'  1  Melchior  Leporimis,  preacher  at 
Brunswick,  also  declared  in  the  year  1596,  that  '  the 
unholy  Calvinists  had  devastated  the  garden  of  God's 
Paradise  like  wild  boars,'  that  they  had  in  such  wise 
'  trampled  through,  defiled,  and  perverted  our  beloved 
catechism  that  not  a  single  atom  of  our  Christian  doctrine, 
not  a  single  article  of  our  faith  was  left  that  was  not 
permeated,  bedaubed,  and  poisoned  with  their  venomous 
breath.'  2 

'  For  us  Germans,'  said  boastfully  the  above-men- 
tioned pamphlet  of  1590,  '  it  is  a  great  consolation,  and 
much  to  our  credit,  that  the  devilish  Mohammedan 
Calvinists,  who  crush  out  and  destroy  all  that  is 
Christian,  did  not  have  their  origin  in  Germany,  but 
were  hatched  in  France,  and  we  will  not  allow  ourselves 
to  be  contaminated  by  foreign  Mohammedan  unclean- 
ness.'  '  0  Germany,  whither  art  thou  drifting  ?  Thou 
sleepest  with  wide-open  eyes,  and  seest  not  how  the 
accursed  wolves  are  creeping  in  further  and  further,  and 
with  the  help  of  foreign  potentates — always  on  the  watch 
for  thy  ruin — are   contriving   the   bloody   destruction 


1  In  proof  of  this  Johann  Modest,  pastor  of  Dopperschitz,  had  already 
in  1586  brought  out  a  '  Beweis  aus  der  Heiligen  Schrift.'  Strobel,  Miscel- 
laneen,  iv.  157. 

2  Leporinus,  in  the  preface  to  his  translation  of  Elias  Hasenmuller's 
J esuiticum  Jeiunium  (Frankfort  a.  M.  1596),  Bl.  A  3. 


LUTHERANS    AGAINST   CALVINJSTS  259 

of  all  those  who  do  not  participate  in  the  Calvinistic 
devil's  poison.  Will  you  not  hear,  0  you  Germans, 
how  the  Calvinists  are  mocking  and  blaspheming 
you  ?  ' 1  '  The  Calvinists,'  Adam  Crato  wrote  in  the 
year  following,  '  regard  us  Lutherans  as  arrant  German 
fools,  of  whom  it  must  be  said  that  any  booklet  coming 
from  France  is  accepted  by  them  as  a  thing  to  be 
worshipped  and  as  pure  Gospel.' 2 

'  When  the  Calvinistic  wolves  first  effect  an  entrance, 
they  put  on  peaceful  faces,  and  talk  of  toleration  and 
love ;  as  soon,  however,  as  they  have  established  a 
footing  and  gained  power,  they  set  to  work  to  root  out 
us  Lutherans  utterly  and  entirely,  as  though  we  were 
still  altogether  subservient  to  the  idolatrous  papacy. 
It  has  been  proved  by  experience  in  every  place  and 
country  that  they  will  not  endure  anybody  near  them 
who  is  not  attached  to  their  rabble,  and  it  will  be  just 
the  same  with  them  in  Germany  if  we  do  not .  array 
ourselves  against  them  with  all  our  might  and  with  the 
help  of  the  ruling  authorities  :  verily  time  will  show.'  3 

Appealing  to  this  same  teacher,  experience,  Daniel 
Jacobi  wrote  from  Frankfort-on-the-Main  in  1615 : 
'  So  long  as  the  Calvinists  have  not  got  the  government 
in  their  own  hands,  but,  on  the  contrary,  are  under  rule 
and  dominion,  they  remain  pious  and  tolerant,  and  will 
suffer  both  religions,'  the  Lutheran  and  the  Calvinist, 


1  Kurze  Warnung  an  die  lieben  Deutschen  und  Mitbruder  in  Christo 
(1590),  Bl.  A  2. 

2  Sendbrief  gegen  Grundmann  und  Berssmann  (1591),  Bl.  A  2b  ;  cf. 
C  3b,  C  4\  '  The  papists  themselves  know,'  Laurence  Lalius  said  emphatic- 
ally, '  that  Calvinism  did  not  have  its  origin  in  Germany  or  in  the  Roman 
Empire,  but  that  it  comes  from  elsewhere,'  Rettung  Lutkers  wider  Sixtus 
Sartorius  (1614),  p.  502. 

3  Kurze  Warnung,  &c.  (see  note  1  above),  Bl.  B. 

s  2 


260  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

*  to  exist  side  by  side.'  '  Whenever,  however,  they  get 
the  sceptre  in  their  hands  in  any  place,  they  can  no 
longer  tolerate  the  least  particle  of  Lutheran  doctrine  ;  ' 
'  then  everything  must  be  done  away  with,  doctrine, 
ceremonies,  church  ordinances  ;  it  all  reeks,  stinks,  and 
tastes  of  popish  leaven  ;  it  must  all  be  reformed  accord- 
ing to  French  Calvinistic  methods.  If  any  refuse  to 
accept  and  introduce  the  reformed  doctrine,  such 
persons  are  told,  as  the  old  Calvinistic  Amaziah  told 
the  prophet  of  the  Lord,  that  they've  only  got  to  with- 
draw into  another  land  and  eat  their  bread  there  and 
prophesy  there  :  eat,  my  bird,  or  die  !  It  is  notorious 
throughout  the  Empire,  indeed  throughout  the  whole 
world,  that  such  French  and  foreign  practices  have 
become  the  vogue  in  Germany  to  the  great  detriment 
and  injury  of  numbers  of  Christians.'  The  books  of 
the  Calvinists,  he  said,  were  full  of  '  idolatrous,  blas- 
phemous abominations.'  '  One  could  tell  from  the  first 
word  that  their  teaching  was  heathen  and  blasphemous, 
and  did  not  need  much  refuting.' l 

'  0  German  people,'  exclaimed  another  voice  of 
warning,  '  do  not  let  yourselves  be  enslaved  by  the  out- 
landish Calvinists  ;  not  only  are  they  bent  on  robbing 
you  of  your  freedom  and  your  honour,  but,  which  is 
still  more  inhuman  and  diabolical,  of  your  one  Saviour 
and  Redeemer ;  for  they  regard  your  Christ  as  an  im- 
potent Baal,  while  their  God  is  the  devil  and  the  accursed 

1  Zwei  Bedenken,  &c,  pp.  42,  44-47.  On  the  other  hand  there  was 
published  a  '  Kehrab  fiir  Daniel  Jacobi,'  in  which  it  was  said  of  the  latter 
that  he  had  a  brain  as  subtile  as  a  stockfish,  a  long  misshapen  head  like 
a  donkey,  and  that  for  simulating  and  dissimulating  he  was  an  accom- 
plished adept.  The  Calvinists  were  generally  called  '  Spitzfo'ipfe  '  by  the 
Lutherans.  Luther  had  himself  spoken  of  the  '  Spitzkopfe — pointed  heads 
which  got  their  points  from  rubbing  one  against  another.'  See  A.  Hunnius, 
Widerlegung  der  ungegriindeten  Auflagen  Dr.  Hoffmans  (1597),  p.  28. 


LUTHERANS   AGAINST   CALVINISTS  261 

Leviathan,  as  Philip  Nicolai  has  sufficiently  demon- 
strated, and  as  all  our  theologians  can  produce  evidence 
to  prove.'  l  , 

After  evidence  of  this  sort  had  been  brought  forward 
in  numberless  publications,  David  Rungius  wrote  in 
1617:  'We  complain  that  the  Calvinistical  fanatics 
are  blasphemers  of  Christ,  who  mangle  and  mutilate  our 
most  dear  Jesus  and  His  Word,  who  distort  and  over- 
throw all  the  articles  of  faith,  and  forcibly  impose  on 
us  as  God  a  wanton,  lascivious,  cunning,  bloodthirsty 
Moloch  and  advocate  of  sin,  the  very  devil  incarnate, 
and  who,  in  short,  as  Dr.  Luther  said,  have  "  in- devilled, 
through-devilled,  be-devilled  hearts."  And  from  this 
charge,  which  our  party  has  brought  forward  times 
without  number,  the  new  reformers  have  not  so  far 
been  able  to  clear  themselves.'  2 

'  Any  simple,  healthy  human  understanding  could 
see  for  itself  that  the  Calvinists  were  shameless,  coarse, 
rascally  devils,  blasphemers,  lying  fiends,  and  wolves 
incarnate.'  '  People  who  are  not  on  their  guard  against 
their  terrible,  cruel  wolves'  claws,'  said  the  Jena  pro- 
fessor  Johann   Friedrich  Celestinus,   '  must  be  totallv 

1  See  above,  pp.  223-225.  Again  in  the  Treuherzige  Warnung  von 
Meister  Johann  Cuno,  Perlebergischen  Super intendenten  in  der  Priegnitz 
(Hamburg,  no  date),  Nicolai  '  sounded  his  evangelical  watchman's  horn 
against  the  devil  and  his  followers.'  He  gave  an  account  '  of  the  fellow 
Cuno,  a  bird  of  many  adventures,  who  for  his  malignant  Calvinism  was 
punished  by  Pastor  Schelhamer  at  Hamburg  with  a  blow  on  the  snout.' 
Erdmann  Neumeister  of  Hamburg  wrote  later  on  in  the  same  strain  as 
Nicolai :  '  The  Calvinists  worship,  instead  of  God,  the  originator  of  all 
sin,  the  god  of  this  world,  the  great  dragon,  the  old  serpent  which  is  called 
the  devil  and  Satan.'     (Calvinische  Arglistigkeit,  pp.  4-5.) 

2  Neues  Jahr  (1617),  Bl.  A  6%  A  4%  where  it  says :  '  Calvin  wrote  expressly 
that  James  and  the  other  Apostles,  at  the  first  synod  at  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  had  presided,  in  order  to  conciliate  the  Orientals,  had  included 
fornication  among  the  "  indifferent  things,"  adiaphora,  which  might  be 
done  and  permitted  without  sin.' 


262  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

ignorant  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  even  wanting  in 
reason  and  natural  intelligence.'  l 

'  There  were  more  than  twenty  characteristics  of 
wolves  that  could  be  named,'  said  Johann  Modest,  pastor 
of  Dopperschitz, '  which  also  exactly  fitted  the  Calvinists, 
so  that  even  a  child  must  see  that  they  proceeded  from 
the  devil.'  But  the  Luckenwalder  pastor  Nivander 
was  not  even  satisfied  with  this  number.  In  his  '  Wolf- 
ner  Schafspelz  der  Calvinisten  und  Sakramentierer,'  he 
enumerated  in  1582  more  than  forty  qualifications  of 
wolves,  and  '  applied  them  to  the  detested  adversaries.'  2 
'  We  will  now,'  he  proceeds,  '  set  forth  sixty-five  reasons 
on  account  of  which  every  pious  Christian  ought  care- 
fully and  loyally  to  be  on  his  guard  against  the  Calvinists 
and  Sacramentarians,  as  against  the  devil  himself.' 
'  St.  Paul  (2  Timothy,  iii.)  has  already  given  plenty  of 
these  reasons,  not  sixty-five,  it  is  true,  but  at  any  rate 
twenty-two.  One  can  see  clearly  from  the  writings 
of  the  Apostles  that  the  Calvinists  and  Sacramentarians 
were  "  deniers  of  Christ,  blasphemers  of  God,  and 
teachers  sent  by  the  devil."  3  Their  own  consciences  are 
seared  ;  otherwise,  what  reason  is  there  for  their  having 
roared  and  raged  so  terribly  and  disgracefully  when  they 
were  dying  ?  '  Nivander  then  goes  on  to  describe  '  what 
dreadful  deaths  they  had.'  Carlstadt,  for  instance, 
was  put  an  end  to  by  the  devil ;  Zwingli  '  was  cut  into 
straps,  and  the  lanzknechts  used  his  fat — for  he  was  a 
corpulent  man — to  grease  their  boots  and  shoes.'  4 

The  people  were  not  only  told  of  '  the  frightful 
deaths  which  befell  the  popish  teachers  and  writers  ' ;  5 

1  Priifung  des  sakramentierischen  Oeistes,  Bl.  F.  2,  F.  3. 

2  Nivander,  Bl.  A  4-B  4,  and  pp.  5-78. 

3  Bl.  D  4,  pp.  168,  185,  194-196.  4  5,  pp.  195,  309  ft.,  316. 
5  See  pp.  75,  76. 


LUTHERANS   AGAINST   CALVINISTS  263 

'  the  judgment  of  God  on  the  Calvinistic  devil's  teachers  ' 
were  also  made  known  to  them.  Times  innumerable 
they  were  informed  of  '  what  had  happened  to  the 
Sacramentarian  villains,  Carlstadt  and  Zwingli,  of  what 
a  terrible  end  Oekolampadius,  Viktorinus,  Strigel, 
Neuser,  Stossel,  and  many  others  had  met  with.1  When 
Stossel's  wife  had  wanted  to  read  to  the  desperate  man 
from  a  book  of  religious  consolation,  he  had  answered  : 
'  Do  you,  little  devil,  want  to  comfort  me,  a  great  devil  ? 
I  am  damned  both  in  soul  and  body.'  2 

Still  more  fiercely  than  the  earlier  '  God-inspired 
ministers  of  the  true  and  alone-saving  Lutheran  faith  ' 
did  the  preacher  Johann  Praetorius,  from  Halle  in 
Saxony,  inveigh  against  the  Calvinists  in  1591  in  his 
'  Dreikopfiger  Antichrist '  ('  Three-headed  Antichrist '). 
On  the  reverse  side  of  the  title-page  the  three-headed 
monster  is  depicted — big-bellied  and  thick-legged  ;  a 
large  head  in  the  middle  wears  a  tiara,  and  on  the  right 
a  small  head  with  a  turban  has  grown  out,  while  on  the 
left  is  the  peaked  head  of  Calvin  with  the  three-cornered 
preacher's  biretta  ;  of  the  three  hands  in  the  picture 
the  middle  one  holds  a  double-edged  sword,  the  right 
one  a  crooked  Turkish  sabre,  the  left  one  a  pen 
with  bat's  wings.  The  head  with  the  tiara,  Praetorius 
said,  uttered  whatever  it  fancied ;  sometimes  it  denied 
altogether  that  there  was  any  God,  devil,  or  hell ; 
sometimes  spoke  up  for  Mohammed's  followers,  for 
Mohammed  and  the  Pope  were  twins  whom  the  devil  had 
begotten  at  one  birth ; '  '  the  Roman  Cerberus  believed 

1  See,  for  instance,  Toxites,  Die  Lehre  des  Heiligen  Geistes,  &c.  (1602)  ; 
Anhang,  Bl.  D. 

2  A.  v.  Helbach,  Reus  trepidans,  p.  257  ff.  '  The  Elector  of  Saxony- 
has  the  whole  story  of  Stossel's  desperation  by  him  in  writing  ;  for  the 
pastor  of  Senftenberg  and  the  Superintendent  of  Hagen  were  obliged  to 
write  down  all  the  circumstances  for  him  as  eye-witnesses  ' 


264  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

that  God  distributed  salvation  according  to  the  merits 
of  each  individual.' *  As  for  the  Calvinists,  they  were 
all  full  of  iniquity  ;  they  were  '  assassins,  reprobates,  and 
hypocrites.'  '  Woe  unto  you,  you  Calvinists,  for  that 
you  feed  and  fatten  on  the  flesh  and  blood  of  innocent 
lambs,  and  make  a  parade  of  great  wisdom  and  sanctity ; ' 
'  woe  unto  you,  you  will-o'-the-wisps,  you  blind  leaders 
and  liars,  you  nincompoops.'  ;  You  are  brimful  of 
avarice,  greed,  and  gluttony,  and  inwardly  you  are 
full  of  murder,  secret  houndish  biting,  stabbing,  and 
diabolical  disdain.'  '  Your  writings  are  like  whited 
sepulchres  ;  outwardly  they  seem  to  be  spiritual  and 
holy,  but  inwardly  they  are  full  of  horrors,  lies,  and 
calumny.'  '  They  are  Pope- eaters.  And  after  having 
devoured  the  Pope  voraciously  with  skin  and  hair,  they 
puff  up  and  swell  out,  and  grow  from  smeared  shavelings 
into  unbelieving  Calvinists.'  2 

Seven  years  later  Praetorius  completed  his  descrip- 
tion in  the  pamphlet  entitled  '  Calvinisch  Gasthaus  zur 
Narrenkappe.'  On  the  title-page  he  painted  the  devil 
with  a  javelin  in  his  hand,  his  tongue  projecting  a  long 
way  from  his  mouth,  and  riding  on  a  monster  with  a 
dragon's  head  and  a  serpent's  tail.  Under  the  picture 
are  the  following  verses,  among  others  : 

What  long  ago  the  wicked  one 

Through  many  heretics  has  done, 

With  doctrine  false  and  man's  inventions 

Spreading  through  church  and  lands  dissensions, 

He  does  now  infinitely  more 

By  shallow  Calvinistic  lore. 

Ah,  flee  this  beast,  or  you  will  find 

'Twill  rend  and  stab  you  from  behind.3 

1  Dreikripfiger  Antichrist,  Bl.  D  2b-D  3b,  E  2a.      ~  Bl.  0  P,  O  2b-0  3b. 
3  Calvinisch  Gasthaus  (1598)  Titelblatt.    Ein  anderes  Bild  vom  Calvin - 
ismus  Bl.  Mb. 


LUTHERANS   AGAINST   CALVINISTS  265 

;  The  watchword  of  all  the  arch-Calvinists  '  was  : 

With  false  Scripture  teaching, 
With  blasphemous  preaching, 
With  lies  and  deceit 
The  pious  to  cheat. 

'  That  precious  instrument  of  God,  Luther,  and  his 
faithful  disciples,'  said  Praetorius,  quoting  passages 
from  Calvinistic  books,  '  are  decried  by  the  Calvinists 
as  teachers  without  understanding  who  throw  blue  mist 
in  everybody's  eyes,  and  deceive  the  people  scandalously,' 
'  as  murderers,  wolves,  and  bears,  people  who  contra- 
dict themselves,  tools  of  the  devil,'  and  so  forth.  From 
all  such  '  outrageous,  dreadful,  altogether  diabolical 
calumnies,  it  is  manifest  to  every  Christian  and  pious 
German  that  the  Calvinists  are,  first,  liars,  and  secondly, 
the  most  impious  villains  on  earth.'  Their  doctrine 
emanates  '  from  the  stinking  miasma  of  the  Cainish 
synagogue ; '  Christ  called  them  '  prickly  heads,  hypo- 
crites, serpents,  and  vipers  ;  '  Judas,  the  traitor  and  son 
of  perdition,  was  their  precursor ;  and  after  them  came 
Berengar,  the  Waldenses,  the  Picardians,  the  Albigenses, 
and  Wycliffe,  that  little  shrew-mouse  that  came  from 
England.1 

Andreas  Engel,  a  Kurbrandenburg  pastor,  attempted 
also,  after  the  manner  of  Praetorius,  to  prove  in  his 
*  Calvinischer  Bettlersmantel,'  published  in  1596,  that 
the  ringleaders  of  Calvinism  '  had  borrowed  their 
doctrines  from  the  ancient  heathen  and  heretics,  and 
now,  nearly  at  the  end  of  the  world's  history,  had 
foraged  them  up  from  the  dirty,  stinking  caldrons  of 
the  heretics,  yea  verily  from  the  lying  jaws  of  hell.'  2 

In  the  same  year  Albrecht  of  Helbach,  Lutheran 

1  Bl.  A-A  2,  A  2b,  N-N  2b,  N-N  2. 

2  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayerns,  ii.  373,  note  2. 


266  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

court-chaplain  at  Pfalz-Simmern,  became  involved  in  a 
violent  contest  with  the  Palatine  superintendent  Theo- 
bald Meusch.     '  You  call  our  party,'   Helbach  wrote, 
'  cannibals,    bloodsuckers,    eaters    of     the    Lord    God, 
Cyclops,  Pelagians,  swine-herds,  hounds,  and  epicures, 
and  whatever  other  titles  of  distinction  your  brotherly, 
Cainish  hearts   can  invent.'     Meusch  further  asserted 
that  '  the  Lutherans  associate  with  the  papists,  they 
are  Pelagians,  Arians,  Nestorians,  Eutychians,  villains. 
This  unblushing  liar  also  goes  on  to  declare  that  the 
Book  of   Concord   covertly  teaches  that  Christ  in  His 
human  nature  was  incarnate  in  all  creation,  in  foliage, 
in  grass,  in  stones,  apples,  pears,  in  all  unclean  pots,  in 
cheeses  ;  that  He  was  actually  present  with  the  same 
body,  and  while  still  in  his  mother's  womb,  in  Herodias 
and  in  all  other  women.'     While  Meusch  declared  that 
'  the  doctrine  of  the  Lutherans  produced  libertines  and 
epicures,'  because  they  regarded  '  all  epicurean  sows  as 
recipients  of  the  grace  of  God,'  Helbach  asserted  :  '  Your 
Calvinistic  predestination  belongs  to  the  pit  of  hell ; 
for  it  produces  epicures.'     '  They  write  openly,  indeed, 
"  Even  if  one  of  the  elect  be  ever  so  sinful,  yea  even  if 
he  commit  murder  and  adultery,  still  he  is  not  cast  out 
from  grace,  but  lies  like  a  spark  of  fire  hidden  in  ashes  "  ; 
this    doctrine    is    indeed    heard    daily    from    Calvinist 
pulpits.'     At  the  Calvinistic  celebrations  of  the  Eucharist 
'  much  scandalous  procedure '   went  on ;   for  instance, 
'  the  dogs  seized  the  bread  from  the  table,  or  dragged 
the  remains  over  the  floor  of  the  place  where  the  Lord's 
Supper  had  been  celebrated  ;  old  men  would  put  by  their 
share  of  bread,  because  they  had  no  teeth  to  masti- 
cate it.1 

1  Reus  trepidans,  61,  254-255,  287,  289,  294,  297. 


CALVIN  ISTS  AGAINST  THE   '  UBIQUIST    ANTICHRIST'     267 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Calvinist  '  Innocentius  Gott- 
friedus,'  in  1601,  entered  the  field  against  '  the  Ubiquist 
Antichrist,'  and  the  masters  and  disciples  of  the  Formula 
of  Concord,  armed  with  innumerable  citations  from 
Scripture.  He  said  that  '  by  the  Lutheran  process  of 
manufacturing  peace  and  concord  the  evangel  had 
been  day  by  day  weakened  and  minimised.'  '  With 
harlots,  thieves,  usurers,  adulterers,  idolaters,  blas- 
phemers, drunkards,  and  robbers  they  might  keep  up 
friendship  ;  but  the  sons  of  the  mother  and  the  true 
Christians,'  i.e.  the  Calvinists,  '  they  would  not  recognise 
as  brethren ; '  '  they  held  them  to  be  worse  than  heathens 
and  publicans.'  '  Their  princes,'  he  said,  '  are  heroes 
of  the  wine-bottle  and  warriors  in  debauch.  They  rise 
up  early  to  follow  strong  drink,  and  continue  until 
night  time  till  wine  inflames  them,  and  the  harp  and  the 
viol,  the  tabret,  the  pipe  and  wine  are  in  their  feasts  ; 
but  they  regard  not  the  work  of  the  Lord  ; '  no  less  also 
'  the  priest  and  prophet  have  erred  through  strong 
drink,  they  are  swallowed  up  of  wine,  they  are  out  of 
the  way  through  strong  drink  ;  '  '  for  all  tables  are  full 
of  vomit  and  filthiness,  so  that  there  is  no  place  clean.' 
'  They  preach  themselves  of  how  they  drink  and  carouse, 
and  such  erring  spirits  and  preachers  of  lies  are  preachers 
for  the  people.'  The  author  concludes  with  a  hymn  en- 
titled :  '  Vom  Schifflein  der  christlichen  Kirche,  welches 
Satan  gern  ersausen  wollte  '  ('  The  small  boat  of  the 
Christian  Church  which  Satan  wishes  to  wreck  ').1 

This  doctrine  of  the  omnipresence  of  the  Body  of 
Christ,  which  had  had  its  rise  chiefly  in  Wurtemberg, 
and  had  found  harbour  in  the  Book  of  Concord,  was 

1  KVigliche  Supplikation  an  Christus  Jesus  (1601),  pp.  17-22,  32,  35  ff. 
46,  57,  80  ff.,  373. 


268  HISTOEY   OF  THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

fiercely  attacked  by  George  Altenrath  from  Herzberg, 
who  hoped  to  root  it  out  altogether  by  his  '  Ubiquisti- 
scher  Katechismus,'  published  in  1596.  Altenrath,  in 
this  work,  quoted  the  most  preposterous  utterances  of 
Ubiquist  theologians,  in  order  to  make  known  '  the 
gross,  execrable  doctrine '  to  the  whole  world.  For 
instance,  from  the  printed  sermon  of  the  Wiirtemberg 
court-preacher  Johann  Parsimonius  he  cites  the 
following  statement :  '  The  Body  of  Christ  is  in  all 
places  and  in  all  creatures,  not  only  in  the  bread  and 
wine  of  the  Eucharist,  but  also  in  all  kinds  of  wood,  in 
stones,  in  air,  fire,  and  water,  in  apples,  pears,  cheese, 
and  beer.'  Another  Wiirtemberg  court-preacher, 
Lucas  Osiander,  wrote  in  1581  :  '  Although  the  Body  of 
Christ  is  present  in  all  places,  in  all  taverns,  platters, 
beakers,  cans,  &c,  nevertheless,  it  does  not  allow  itself 
to  be  eaten  or  drunk  up  in  these  vessels,  but  it  can  in 
such  wise  extricate  itself  that  the  shell  is  left  behind 
but  the  kernel  is  not  touched.'  Doctor  Simon  Paulus, 
at  Rostock,  says  in  his  comment  on  the  second  Easter 
day  :  '  Christ  is  a  marvellous  Proteus  who  can  clothe 
Himself  in  all  sorts  of  forms,  and  becomes  to  each 
individual  that  which  he  himself  wishes  Him  to  be  and 
considers  Him.'  There  are  some  really  learned  people 
still  living  who,  when  they  were  studying  at  Tubingen 
heard  Doctor  Johann  Brenz,  son  of  the  old  Brenz,  say 
in  public  conclave,  pointing  to  the  professorial  chair, 
'  Here  in  this  chair  is  the  Body  of  Christ.'  In  a  pamphlet 
against  Sturm,  in  Strasburg,  Jakob  Andrea,  '  who  had 
the  chief  hand  in  concocting  the  Book  of  Concord,' 
undertook  to  show  from  Luther's  writings  that  the 
Body  of  Christ  existed  in  all  beer-cans,  wine-glasses, 
taverns,  and  gallows-cords.' 1 

1  Altenrath,    pp.    9-7.      See    Reformationswerk    in    Kurbrandenburg, 


CALVINISTS  AGAINST  THE    '  UBIQUIST   ANTICHRIST'     269 

'  We  are  denounced,  abused,  vilified,  and  condemned 
as  false  teachers  and  heretics,'  said  Andrea  ;  '  however, 
it  certainly  is  a  dogma  of  faith  that  Christ  is  also  present 
as  man  in  all  creatures,  but  only  in  a  supernatural 
manner ;  we  do  not  mean  to  assert  that  Christ,  with 
skin  and  hair,  with  flesh  and  bone,  fills  all  creatures 
like  straw  in  a  sack  or  bread  in  a  basket.'  '  That  is  a 
diabolical  calumny  of  the  Calvinists.'  '  They  want  to 
make  us  detested,  by  this  means,  not  only  among  the 
learned,  but  also  among  the  uneducated  people,  and  the 
farm  servants  in  some  places  are  made  to  believe  their 
slanders,  and  one  of  them  is  made  out  to  have  said  to 
another  :  "  Mind  what  you're  about  when  you  cut  the 
grass  with  the  sickle,  lest  you  should  chop  off  Christ's 
head,  since  the  body  of  Christ  is  in  each  separate  blade 
of  grass,  as  the  Lutherans  declare."  '  1 

'  The  Calvinistic  spirit '  was  '  the  devil.' 2    '  Andrea,' 


pp.  206-207.  By  the  theologians  of  Tubingen,  says  Tholuck  (Geist.  der 
Theol.  Wittenbergs,  p.  64),  the  opinion  that  an  actual  omnipraesentia 
substantialis  and  omnipotentia  of  the  humanity  of  Christ  existed  in  the 
condition  of  abasement,  an  opinion  already  definitely  repudiated  by 
Andrea  in  his  disputation  with  Beza  and  also  in  other  quarters,  was 
maintained  with  a  tenacity  which  did  not  recoil  from  the  necessary  logical 
deduction  that  the  '  humanity  of  Jesus  existed  outside  the  limits  of  his 
mother's  womb,  and  was  also  present — not  indeed  localiter,  but  never- 
theless illocaliter — in  the  bodies  of  all  women,  girls,  men,  and  children ; 
that  Christ's  body  was  present  indistanter  in  all  creatures,  even  in  His 
own  soul  in  Paradise.'  Respecting  the  controversy  which  the  Wiirtem- 
berg  and  Helmstadt  theologians  carried  on  about  the  omnipresence  of 
Christ,  see  the  catalogue  of  pamphlets  since  1535,  published  by  Walch, 
Introduction,  iv.  503  ff.  The  Helmstadt  professor  Daniel  Hofmami  was 
a  specially  zealous  champion  of  this  opinion.     See  Walch,  iv.  507  ff. 

1  Bericht  von  der  Ubiquitat  (1589),  Bl.  Ba,  Ca,  C  3a.  In  an  anonymous 
letter  from  Wittenberg  in  1576  there  is  the  following  remark  on  the  Ubiquity 
controversies  which  exactly  hits  off  the  case  :  '  Ecce  jam  apparent  verae 
controversiae,  quarum  Tvpdfyaais  tantum  quaedam  fuit  ilia  de  coena  Domini.'1 
In  Riederer,  i.  471. 

2  Antwort  auf  die  Protestation  eines  grimmigen  Calvinisten  (1589),  p.  2. 


270  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

wrote  the  Count  Palatine  John  Casimir  in  1589, 
'  denounces  everybody  who  does  not  acquiesce  in  his 
accursed  doctrine  [of  the  omnipresence  of  Christ's  body 
throughout  creation]  as  a  creature  of  the  devil.'  l 

The  poet  Nicodemus  Frischlin  also  took  part  in  the 
controversy.  In  the  year  1589  he  produced  the  follow- 
ing rhymes  : 

What  murderers  are  you  Calvinists 
Thus  to  condemn  us  Ubiguists  ! 
With  us  you  hold  no  fellowship, 
You  arrant,  wicked  drunken  knaves 
Well  known  you  are  and  here  it  is  ; 
On  God  you  play  your  monkey  tricks. - 

In  like  manner  as  the  Calvinists  exploited  '  the 
utterances  '  of  Lutheran  theologians  on  the  doctrine  of 
ubiquity  to  their  own  benefit,  so  did  the  Lutherans 
incessantly  '  quote  and  repeat  veritable  Calvinistic 
statements,'  especially  on  the  subjects  of  predestina- 
tion and  the  Eucharist.  In  a  pamphlet  entitled  '  Von 
der  calvinischen  Pradikanten  Schwindelgift,'  Samuel 
Huber  said  in  1591  that  their  '  chief  doctrine  '  consisted 
in  the  statement  that  '  it  was  a  lying,  false,  and  cursed 
invention  to  say  that  Christ  had  died  for  all  men  ;  He 
had  only  died  for  some ;  by  far  the  larger  portion  He 
had  condemned  to  shame,  misery,  wrath,  gruesome 
punishment  and  everlasting  death,  and  this  indeed 
with  great  delight  and  satisfaction ;  He  had  never 
wished  that  they  should  be  saved  ;  God  led  on  all  these 
reprobates  with  secret  ropes  and  cords,  so  that  they  were 
of  necessity  drawn  into  sin  and  death,  and  must  inevit- 

1  Buttinghausen,  ii.  68-69,  72.     See  i.  373-376. 

2  Deutsche  Dichtungen,  p.  165.  Melanchthon  is  described  by  the 
Doctor  as  a  Mameluke  ;  the  Wittenberg  parsons,  he  said,  were  '  apes  of 
the  Zwinglian  Philip,'  and  so  forth,  pp.  166-167. 


OTHER   DOCTRINAL   DISPUTES  271 

ably  perish  eternally  in  their  wickedness.'  '  Such  was 
the  teaching  of  Theodore  Beza,  David  Pareus,  George 
Spindler,  and  others  ;  first  and  foremost  also  Daniel 
Tossanus  at  Heidelberg  was  a  Calvinistic  firebrand 
and  lying  spirit.'  '  These  and  many  other  such  doc- 
trines, which  are  the  devil's  horrible  flames  of  hell,' 
said  Huber,  '  I  have  forcibly  and  unanswerably  proved 
against  you,  oh  you  Calvinistic  teachers,  from  your 
own  books,  in  your  own  words  out  of  your  own  throats  ; 
yea,  I  have  shown  up  your  very  own  opinions  and 
exposed  them  to  the  light  of  the  mid-day  sun,  and  at 
the  same  time  I  have  laid  bare  and  refuted  all  the 
abomination  of  desolation  and  denial  of  the  blood  of 
Christ  as  to  the  bulk  of  mankind.'  '  God  has  already 
revenged  Himself  on  the  Calvinists,  and  has  knocked 
down  their  throats  "  the  grinders  "  with  which,  in  their 
blasphemous  fury,  they  have  assailed  the  wounds  of  His 
only-begotten  Son.'  1 

'  The  Calvinists,'  Huber  maintained  in  a  later  pam- 
phlet, '  treat  the  Bible  like  a  bagpipe,  which  they  tune? 
play  on,  and  sing  to  just  as  they  like  ;  and  it  may  easily 
come  to  pass  that  with  this  new  legerdemain  they  will 
be  able  to  turn  the  Holy  Testament  into  an  Alcoran, 
and  the  Alcoran  into  a  Testament.2  '  The  Calvinists 
answered  :  '  All  the  time  that  the  Christian  Church  has 
existed  the  Holy  Scriptures  have  never  been  so  much 
falsified,  despoiled,  and  cut  to  pieces  by  any  heretics 
as  by  the  Lutherans,  who  give  themselves  out  as  true 

1  Pp.  3,  8,  9,  49-51.  For  the  last  years  and  the  death  of  Paul,  son  of 
Daniel  Tossanus,  see  Lamey  in  the  Zeitschr.  filr  Gesch.  des  Oberrheins, 
Neue  Folge,  iv.  330  S.  The  history  of  the  father  was  dealt  with  by  Albert 
Muller  in  his  work  tlber  Daniel  Tossanus'  Leben  und  Wirken.  Programm 
des  Gymnasiums  zu  Flensburg,  1882. 

2  Rettung,  &c.  (1598),  pp.  27-28.     Cf.  p.  17  and  Vorrede,  Bl.  A  3b. 


272  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

prophets  of  the  Lord,  and  who  lead  all  the  people  into 
error  and  perplexity,  most  especially  with  their  cyclo- 
pean  eating  of  the  Lord  God,  which  proceeds  no  less 
from  the  devil  than  the  abomination  of  papistical  hosts 
and  all  other  devil's  dirt.'  l 

The  passages  on  the  subject  of  the  Holy  Eucharist 
which  were  quoted  by  Lutheran  theologians  from 
Calvinistic  books  were  of  such  a  nature  as  to  justify 
the  question  whether  '  anything  so  outrageous  had  ever 
before  been  heard  in  any  nation,  and  whether  any  spark 
of  honourable  feeling  remained  in  the  land  ?  '  '  Has 
not  Sturm,'  wrote  the  Rostock  professor,  Johann  Ariel  - 
mann,  '  compared  the  words  of  the  Holy  Communion 
service  taken  with  their  literal  meaning  to  a  snail -shell 
and  its  dirt  and  slime,  and  written  concerning  us  that 
we  do  not  take  into  our  mouths  the  body  and  blood  of 
our  Lord,  but  that  we  bite  snail-shells  with  our  teeth 
and  eat  dung  ?  Does  not  Beza  say  in  opposition  to 
Hesshus  that  our  Christ  is  a  god  of  bran,  a  false  Christ, 
who  would  no  more  hear  us  than  Baal  heard  his  priests  ? 
Does  not  Blyttershagius,  so  highly  prized  by  the  Zurich 
theologians,  say  in  his  libellous  pamphlet  the  '  Pseudo- 
Christus,'  printed  at  Hanau  in  1596,  that  our  Christ  is 
a  senseless  donkey,  an  idolatrous  calf,  a  raging  wolf, 
a  soul-murderer,  an  empty  phantom  of  the  brain,  a 
tyrant,  a  Baal,  fit  only  to  be  mocked  and  ridiculed,  and 
worthy  of  condemnation  greater  than  can  ever  be 
bestowed  ?  '  - 

1  Ein  christlich  Gesprech  zwischen  einem  Landpfarrherr  und  einem 
Gelehrten  des  Rechts  (1599),  Bl.  A  3. 

2  Calvinische  Heuschrecken,  Bl.  C2,  H'.  The  passages  quoted  from 
Beza,  on  p.  C2,  are  not  fit  for  reproduction.  Unintermittently  it  was 
reiterated  in  the  Lutheran  controversial  writings  that  '  the  ruthless  Beza 
had  called  the  Lutherans  "  Cyclops,  Capernaites,  enemies  of  the  Gospel, 


CHARACTER    OF   MOST   OF   THE   PREACHERS  273 

'  Whereas,  however,'  said  the  Lutheran  theologians, 
'  the  Calvinists  do  so  scandalously,  and  in  worse  than 
Turkish  manner,  blaspheme  and  revile  the  living 
God  and  our  only  Saviour,  it  is  the  highest  duty  and 
obligation  of  Christian  princes  and  town  councils  to 
bring  all  their  might  and  all  possible  means  to  bear  on 
opposing  them,  as  the  very  devil  himself,  and  on  rooting 
them  out  utterly  from  their  dominions,  if  they  do 
not  wish  to  incur  everlasting  damnation.'  '  Wantonly 
and  fearfully,'  wrote  Johann  Schelhammer,  preacher  at 
St.  Laurence  at  Nuremberg,  in  1597,  to  the  doctor  of 
the  place,  '  does  that  blasphemous  Calvinism  outrage 
God  and  His  Son.  It  will  not  sit  at  the  feet  of  Jesus, 
but  presumptuously  exalts  itself  over  His  head  and 
pretends  to  have  more  knowledge  and  power  than 
Christ  Himself.'  '  In  the  name  of  God  let  us  open  the 
eyes  of  the  masses  and  let  them  see  the  monstrous 
iniquity  of  the  Calvinist  spirit  which  dares,  by  cunning 
and  deceit,  openly  and  in  secret,  to  carry  on  its  blas- 
phemous work  and  to  impose  upon  the  simple-minded 
people,  here  and  at  Altorf,  in  the  school,  where  the  poor 
young  people  are  being  woefully  misled.  The  Turk  is  not 
so  insensate  as  to  allow  his  Mohammed  or  his  Alcoran 
to  be  spoken  against,  although  it  contains  nothing  but 
devil's  doctrine,  but  a  Christian  magistracy  here  allows 
the  Calvinists  to  pour  out  open  blasphemy  against 
Christ's  Testament  and  sacred  blood.'  Terrible  punish- 
ment, he  said,  awaited  the  magistrates  if  they  did  not 
repulse  the  incarnate  devil.     '  Just  as  the  blood  of  the 

Lastrygones,  monsters,  defenders  of  devilry."  See,  for  instance,  Wolfius, 
ii.  953  ;  M.  Hoe,  Tractatus  luculentus  anticalvinisticus  (1618),  pp.  18-20  ; 
and  Hoe's  Grilndlicher  Beweis  von  den  gottesliisterlichen  Reden  der  Calvinisten 
(1614),  pp.  184-185. 

VOL.    X.  T 


274  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

righteous  Abel  cried  from  earth  to  heaven,  so  the  blood 
of  Christ  would  cry  eternal  woe,  not  only  on  these  the 
revilers  and  blasphemers  of  His  word,  but  also  on  all 
who  tolerated  them  and  had  patience  with  them.'  ] 

The  Nuremberg  preacher  Sebastian  Rodegast 
'  attracted  crowds  of  hearers  because  he  denounced  and 
abused  the  Calvinists  in  a  masterly  manner  from  the 
pulpit.'  He  said  once  in  a  Whitsuntide  sermon  that 
these  people  should  '  all  be  buried  in  a  carrion-pit.' 
Another  proclaimer  of  the  Divine  Word  in  that  place 
wanted  '  the  Papists  and  the  Calvinists  to  be  all  handed 
over  in  a  heap  to  the  devil.'  2 

As  in  print,  so  also  '  from  the  pulpit  there  was 
incessant  invective  and  abuse,'  and  '  whosoever  pre- 
ferred to  preach  the  Gospel  in  a  more  peaceful  manner 
was  denounced  as  a  miserable  time-server,  a  turn- 
coat, a  peace-at-any-price  parson.'  This  was  the  case 
with  the  Ratisbon  preacher  Christopher  Donawer.  He 
could  not  bring  himself,  he  told  the  town  council  in 
1610,  to  insult  and  damn  the  Calvinists  from  the  public 
pulpit.  In  order  to  '  fill  the  common  people  with 
hatred  and  indignation  against  them,'  they  were  told, 
among  other  things,  that  '  the  Calvinists  made  God 
out  to  be  a  liar  and  a  hypocrite,  and  that  they  denied 
that  there  was  any  efficacy  in  baptism.' 3 

1  Waldau,  Neue  Beitnige,  i.  393-412. 

2  Soden,  Kriegs-  und  Sittengesch.  i.  149,  157.  See  p.  320  ff.  The 
Nuremberg  preacher  Joh.  Himricus,  a  Melanchthonian,  complained  on 
November  20,  1598,  of  the  intolerance  of  the  Lutheran  officials  ;  they  had 
called  him  a  senseless  dog  and  an  accursed  Calvinist,  they  had  dogged 
his  footsteps,  and  finally  they  had  falsely  accused  him  of  having  given 
vent  to  blasphemous  utterances  while  administering  the  Holy  Eucharist. 
Hummel,  Celebriorum  Virorum  Epistolae  ineditae  LX.  (Norimb.  1777), 
p.  76  seq. 

3  Donawer,  pp.  9-10,  32. 


CHAEACTER  OF  MOST  OF  THE  PEE ACHE RS    275 

'  By  far  the  greater  number  of  the  preachers,'  it 
says  in  a  '  Christliches  Klagewort '  of  1605,  '  are  so 
wickedly  absorbed  in  wrathful  hatred  '  '  that  no  towns 
and  very  few  villages  are  to  be  found  where  the  sermons 
on  Sundays  and  high  festivals  are  not  chiefly  taken  up 
with  calumniating  and  bedeviling,  or,  at  any  rate,  with 
all  sorts  of  subtle  disputations,  which  the  masses  cannot 
understand  and  which  only  afford  them  matter  for 
ridicule,  or  else  opportunity  even  for  the  young  of  the 
place  to  fight  and  dispute  together.'  :  '  We  hear 
everywhere  complaints  of  the  unruliness,  the  love  of 
disputation,  the  insubordination,  and  all  the  vices  of  the 
young,  and  indeed  all  this  lies  open  before  our  eyes  ; 
but  those  who  complain  thus  are  themselves  chiefly 
to  blame,  because  they  make  a  point  of  cashiering, 
anathematising,  and  sending  to  the  devil  everybody 
who  will  not  dance  to  their  piping,  and  they  teach  the 
young  to  do  the  same.  iVnd  every  tenth  word  they 
utter  is  "  devil,"  by  which  means  they  work  untold 
mischief  and  evil ;  and  if  the  princes  and  magistrates 
and  other  ruling  authorities  attempt  to  put  the  bit  in 
their  mouths  and  to  forbid  slandering  and  reviling  from 
the  open  pulpit,  they  all  cry  out  in  chorus  that  we  are 
interfering  with  the  government  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  they  must  not  refrain  from  exercising  the  Christian 
office  of  punishment.  Then  there  ensues  between 
preachers  and  rulers  and  councillors  as  much  fighting 

1  The  preachers  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main  complained  in  1580  that 
'  the  boys  in  the  school  disputed  together  over  original  sin  '  (Kirchner,  ii. 
295).  '  With  sorrow  we  have  become  aware,'  writes  a  preacher  of  the 
Saxon  Electorate  in  1582,  '  that  nowadays,  whenever  two  ignorant  drunken 
youngsters  who  can  scarcely  decline  and  conjugate  meet  together,  one 
takes  the  part  of  the  Calvinists,  the  other  of  the  Lutherans,  and  they  pro- 
ceed to  set  to  rights  their  pious  teachers  '  (Nivander,  p.  319). 

I  2 


276  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  quarrelling  as  among  the  preachers  themselves,  and 
everybody  everywhere  can  hear  what  honourable  titles 
they  bestow  on  each  other,  and  it  is  a  shame  and  a 
disgrace  that  such  things  should  happen  openly  before 
the  common  people.'  ] 

In  the  pamphlet  entitled  '  Der  Sabbatsteufel '  there 
are  fuller  details  concerning  '  the  proceedings  of  the 
godless  jurists,  chancellors,  syndics,  and  councils ' 
against  the  preachers.  The  author  says  :  '  They  per- 
suade the  high  secular  potentates,  the  great  burgo- 
masters and  councillors  in  the  towns,  and  especially  the 
young  lords,  that  the  preachers  are  the  most  scandalous 
men,  the  very  most  mischievous  people  under  the  sun ; 
that  they  stir  up  tumult,  discord,  and  sedition  in  town 
and  country  ;  that  they  set  princes  and  lords,  neigh- 
bours and  relations  against  each  other ;  that  they  are 
Westphalian  blockheads,  Illyrian  frogs,  coarse,  unruly 
Saxons,  mad  Italians,  runaway  Silesians,  rabid  Slavs, 
untutored,  reckless  Meissners,  rude,  gossiping  Suabians, 
bawling,  stifmecked,  spouting  Franconians,  a  pack  of 
lewd  fellows  from  the  Harz  mines,  and  so  forth.' 
'  Owing  to  these  preachers  it  was  impossible  to  arrive 
at  any  unity  ;  such  hard  heads  must  first  be  got  rid  of.' 

1  Christliches  Klagewort,  '  Einblattdruck '  of  the  year  1605.  The  princely 
prohibitions  of  pulpit  controversy  are  very  numerous.  Duke  Frederic  of 
Schleswig-Holstein, f or  instance, issued  in  1617  the  decree  that  'all  ministers 
of  the  Church  must  avoid  the  cursing,  abusing,  and  damning  which  form 
the  topics  of  sermons  ;  for  it  caused  great  scandal,  perplexity,  and  distress 
among  the  hearers.'  The  preachers  must  proclaim  the  pure  Word  of 
God,  and  set  their  congregations  an  example  of  good  conduct,  '  above  all 
in  abstinence  from  gluttony,  drunkenness,  and  avarice,  which  vices,  with 
many  others,  were  practised  by  the  servants  of  the  Church.'  In  Neo- 
corus,  ii.  418-419.  The  Duchess  Barbara  of  Liegnitz-Brieg  expressed  her- 
self admirably  on  the  subject  of  the  pugnacity  of  the  preachers  in  a  letter 
of  February  4,  1591,  Zeitschr.  des  Vereins  fur  Gesch.  und  Altertum  Schlesiens, 
xiv.  429-430. 


THE   JURISTS   AND   THE   PREACHERS  277 

'  But  God  the  Lord  is  at  last  making  it  openly  manifest,' 
the  author  retaliated,  '  how  it  has  happened  in  some 
cases — God  for  ever  be  praised — that  these  same 
haughty  and  covetous  jurists  and  accursed  popes  in 
princely  clothing  are  the  greatest  seditionmongers  in 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  and  that  they  would  gladly 
foment  all  sorts  of  dangerous  discord  between  the  high 
secular  potentates.'  1 

It  was  a  specially  regrettable  feature  in  the  con- 
troversies of  the  theologians  and  preachers,  and  one  that 
had  particularly  evil  results,  that  the  disputants  not 
only  attributed  to  each  other  the  most  unworthy 
motives,  but  also  frequently  spread  the  worst  possible 
calumnies  about  each  other.  '  What  respect  or  rever- 
ence can  the  people  possibly  entertain  for  the  preachers, 
teachers,  superintendents,  and  other  officials  of  the 
Church,'  asked  the  author  of  the  '  Christliches  Klage- 
wort,'  '  when  they  hear  and  read  of  the  manner  in  which 
these  men  bedevil  each  other  and  drag  each  other  in 
the  dirt  ?  There  is  nothing  scandalous  that  they  will 
not  say  or  write  about  each  other.'  2  The  preacher 
Schelhammer,  at  Nuremberg,  begged  the  Council  to 
assist  him  in  vindicating  his  honour  against  the 
preachers  Sigelius  and  Melissus,  who  had  pursued 
him  with  personal  abuse.3 

'  My  superintendent,  Hermann  Hamelmann,'  wrote 
John,  Count  of  Oldenburg,  in  1594,  '  has  complained  to 
me  of  the  manner  in  which  Dr.  Pezel,  at  Bremen,  has 
abused  and  slandered  him,  in  several  of  his  books, 
making    out   that   he    spent    his    days     in     gluttony, 

1  In  the  Theatrum  Diabolorum,  Bl.  471^71b. 

2  See  p.  276,  note  1. 

3  In  the  letter  quoted  at  p.  274,  note  1. 


278  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

drunkenness,  and  debauchery,  that  he  swallowed  huge 
beakers  of  liquor,  was  seldom  sober,  and,  further,  that 
he  was  a  sycophant,  a  flatterer  and  fawner,  an  Arcadian 
donkey,  a  wicked  prevaricator,  a  veritable  Haman  in 
fact,  a  downright  sheep-devouring  wolf,  a  serpent,  a 
he-goat,  an  abortion,  a  creature  half  goat  and  half  man, 
and  so  forth,  and  that  he  must  be  got  rid  of  either  by 
hanging,  drowning,  or  imprisonment,  by  the  wheel  or 
by  the  sword.'  l 

The  superintendent  and  court  preacher  of  the 
Elector  of  Saxony,  Polycarp  Leiser,  complained  in  1605 
that  '  almost  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
Germany  it  has  been  falsely  reported  that  I  earn  large 
gilded  goblets  in  drinking  matches  ;  that,  moreover,  I 
so  fill  myself  with  wine  that  to  be  removed  I  have  to 
be  propped  up  or  laid  on  a  waggon  and  carted  off  like 
a  drunken  calf  or  sow.'  '  I  am  reliably  informed  that 
it  is  for  the  most  part  only  the  enemies  of  the  Majesty 
of  Christ '  (opponents  of  Christ's  ubiquity)  '  who  amuse 
themselves  with  calumnies  of  this  sort ;  that  it  is,  indeed, 
probably  from  them  that  they  first  proceed.'  2  The 
Superintendent  Nicholas  Selnekker  reported  again  and 
again  on  the  diabolical  manner  in  which  his  life  and 
conduct  were  slandered  by  his  theological  opponents. 
The  Calvinist  Gregory  Berssmann,  school  rector  at 
Zerbst,  wrote  of  him,  in  a  public  pamphlet,  as  a  money- 
grubber,  a  traitor,  a  Judas  Iscariot,  a  swindler.  At  the 
instigation  of  some  of  the  Calvinists  his  daughter  had 
been  dishonoured  by  a  nobleman  from  Carinthia,  and 
Berssmann  now  cast  this  in  his  teeth,  Goliath  that  he 
was.     '  After  this  infernal  Goliath  had  himself  raised 

1  Strobel,  Neue  Beitr.  v.  402-404. 

2  Moser,  Neues  patriotisches  Archiv,  ii.  226-227. 


EECIPROCAL    SLANDERING    AMONG   PREACHERS      279 

this  stench  in  my  house,  he  runs  off  and  rubs  his 
snout  in  the  dirt,  and  calls  out  to  everybody  :  '  See 
what  dirt  and  stink  it  is  !  '  He  has  heaped  on  me,  an 
old,  worn-out,  infirm  man,  and  withal  a  sorely  tried 
and  tormented  Lutheran,  the  most  devilish  and  abomi- 
nable calumnies  that  could  be  invented,  and  it  may 
truly  be  said  that  if  Beelzebub  himself,  with  all  the 
demons  of  hell,  had  scraped  together  all  their  com- 
rades, poetasters,  and  scholars,  they  could  not  have 
produced  anything  more  diabolical  and  scandalous.' 
Selnekker  was  at  the  same  time  compelled  to  defend 
himself  against '  Beelzebub's  servant,'  Christopher  Pezel, 
from  Bremen.1  He  himself  carried  out  the  '  official 
duty  of  punishment '  against  others  with  such  zeal  that 
he  could  scarcely  still  recognise  anything  as  good  within 
the  new  Church.  '  Wherever  one  goes,'  he  wrote,  '  one 
finds  quarrelsome,  envious,  crazy  pates  in  the  churches, 
hypocrites,  conspirators,  inconstant  weathercock  tri- 
flers,  no  one  of  whom  holds  to  any  faith.  Gluttony, 
drunkenness,  avarice,  and  adultery  are  also  found 
among  preachers  in  great  excess.  The  bulk  of  the 
people  make  game  of  the  Gospel,  gossip  and  dispute 
about  it  when  they  are  full  of  wine,  and  sing  songs 
about  it  when  they  are  out  of  their  senses.'  '  There 
are,  however,  numbers  of  pious  souls  who  are  rightly 
much  distressed  when  they  hear  of  all  the  biting  and 
snarling  among  the  scholars,  and  oftentimes  do  not 
know  what  to  do  and  whom  to  believe,  especially  as  at 

1  Antwort  auf  M.  Gregor  Berssmanns  greuliche  Ldsterung  (1591),  Bl. 
A  2a-B  2,  B  3a"b  ;  Ungefahrliche  Entwerfung,  &c,  gegen  Pezel  (1591),  Bl. 
A  4a_b,  Ba.  A  comprehensive  list  of  abusive  and  insulting  terms  used  by 
preachers  and  theologians  against  each  other  is  to  be  found  in  Rescius, 
Ministromachia,  pp.  3,  8,  9-11,  15,  20,  23  25,  26,  29,  51,  58,  86,  133-137, 
140-141. 


280  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

one  moment  they  are  instructed  in  one  way,  at  another 
moment  in  another  way.'  '  We  scarcely  know  what  we 
ourselves  are,  whether  Christians,  pagans,  or  mame- 
iukes.'  l 

In  utter  desperation  the  preacher  Johann  Praetorius 
wrote  of  his  colleagues  in  the  ministry :  '  The  greater 
number  of  them  are  given  up  to  pride,  avarice,  gluttony, 
and  wine-bibbing.'  '  The  common  people  follow  them 
lustily,  live  in  sin  and  iniquity,  and  commit  all  the 
damnable  deeds  of  darkness.  Then  they  say,  "  Our 
lord,  our  squire,  our  parson  does  the  same.  If  it  is 
right  for  them,  it  cannot  be  wrong  for  us."  ' 2 

'  Our  doctrine ' — so  the  preacher  Valentine  Weigel 
declared — '  is  of  men  and  men's  books,  and  our  manner 
of  life  is  of  the  devil ;  for  pride,  selfishness,  sloth,  with 
which  almost  all  theologians  nowadays  are  possessed, 
do  not  proceed  from  God,  but  from  the  devil.'  3 

1  Dollinger,  Reformation,  ii.  346-348. 

-  Eine  christliche  Predigt  (1589),  Bl.  C  2-4.  '  Many  preachers  in  their 
sermons  bluster  and  storm  about  the  hundreds  of  tons  of  heretics  whom 
they  boast  of  having  done  to  death  with  their  screaming  and  writing,  even 
at  the  risk  of  their  own  lives  ;  but  when  it  comes  to  the  point,  and  they 
must  leave  off  talking,  and  begin  to  fight,  their  tongues  turn  into  bats, 
and,  like  the  peasant  of  the  tale,  they  know  not  whether  they  are  "Leppisch 
or  Lippisch"  "  Martinisch  or  Lutherisch,"  and  when  it  comes  to  the  scratch 
their  best  Latin  and  noblest  craft  are  confined  to  subscribo.' 

3  Kirchen-  und  Hauspostille,  i.  124. 


281 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  DISSENSIONS  BETWEEN  LUTHERANS  AND  CALVINISTS 
AGGRAVATED  BY  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  CALVINISM 
INTO    HESSE    AND    ELECTORATE    OF   BRANDENBURG 

The  struggle  between  the  Lutherans  and  the  Calvinists 
increased  continuously  in  strength.  The  sum  of  con- 
troversial pamphlets  multiplied  year  by  year,  and  the 
steady  advance  of  Calvinism  threatened  wholly  to  dis- 
place Lutheranism.  '  The  blasphemous  Calvinistic  doc- 
trines introduced  from  abroad,'  wrote  Nicholas  Sel- 
nekker  in  1591,  '  will  bring  all  Germany  to  ruin,  in 
body,  soul,  and  property.'  '  Ah,  the  wicked  seed  of 
children  that  are  corrupters,  that  have  forsaken  the 
Lord  and  blasphemed  the  Holy  One  in  Israel.  The 
whole  head  is  sick,  and  the  whole  heart  faint.  What  is 
left  is  as  a  cottage  in  a  vineyard,  as  stalks  left  standing 
in  the  stubble.  Except  the  Lord  of  hosts  had  left  us  a 
very  small  remnant  we  should  have  been  as  Sodom, 
and  we  should  have  been  like  unto  Gomorrah.' 

Since  then  Saxony  had  again  become  a  strong  bul- 
wark of  Lutheranism  ; 2  but  in  many  small  districts  '  the 
pure  doctrine  was  crumbling  away,'  this  process  being 
especially  assisted  by  the  influence  of  the  Palatine  court, 
'  concerning  which  it  was  known  to  all  Lutherans  '  that  it 
'  had  everywhere  its  emissaries  who  were  commissioned 

1  See  the  quotation  at  p.  279,  note  1. 
3  See  above,  vol.  ix.  p.  160  ff.,  226  ff.. 


282  HISTORY   OF   3HE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

to  work  for  the  extermination  of  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession.' Since  the  year  1595  John  George,  Prince  of 
Anhalt,  had  been  engaged  in  supplanting  Lutheranism 
by  Calvinism  in  order  to  '  cleanse  the  Church  of  his 
land  from  the  gross  remnant  of  Baal  worship  and 
Antichristian  idolatry.'  From  the  knights  and  the 
burghers  there  arose  serious  complaints  that  the  pic- 
tures and  organs  were  being  removed  from  the  churches, 
that  the  ceremony  of  exorcism  was  left  out  in  baptism, 
and  the  catechism  altered.  '  Many  are  of  opinion  that 
the  Sacrament  is  nothing  more  than  mere  bread  and 
wine  ;  the  people  of  neighbouring  States  are  so  greatly 
shocked  at  all  this  that  they  will  no  longer  allow  their 
children  and  servants  to  take  situations  in  this  prin- 
cipality.' All  expostulations  were  useless  with  John 
George.  The  Lutheran  municipal  authorities  who  would 
not  submit  to  his  ordinances  were  removed.  Refrac- 
tory preachers,  church  officials,  and  teachers  were  com- 
pelled to  leave  the  country,  and  their  offices  were  filled 
with  Calvinists.1 

In  the  year  1596  the  Lutheran  Count  Philip  Louis 
of  Hanau  joined  the  Calvinist  sect,  and  in  1600  Count 
Simon  of  Lippe  did  the  same.  The  year  before  the 
Lutheran  Margrave  Ernest  Frederic  of  Baden-Durlach 
published  a  'new  confession  of  faith,'  which  rejected 

1  Beckinann,  vi.  135-136  ;  Schubring,  Die  Einfiihrung  der  reformierten 
Confession  in  Anhalt,  p.  78  ff.  Even  in  private  houses  the  Anhalt 
theologians  would  not  tolerate  any  images  and  pictures.  See  the  Wiirtem- 
berg  Abfertigung  der  zu  Amberg  ausgesprengten  Anleitung  etlicher  calvin- 
ischen  Blindenleiter  (1597),  pp.  11-12.  See  also  H.  Duncker,  Anhalts 
Belcenntnisstand  vnihrend  der  Vereinigung  der  Fiirstenthiimer  unter 
Joachim  Ernst  und  Johann  Georg,  1570-1606.  A  contribution  to  German 
Church  history  from  unprinted  documents  of  the  Zerbst  State  Archives 
(Dessau,  1892),  respecting  the  narrow  Lutheran  standpoint  of  Duncker 
see  Zarnacke's  Litter.  Centralblatt,  1892,  p.  1195  ff. 


SPREAD   OF   CALVINISM  283 

as  heretical  many  of  the  dogmas  of  the  Book  of  Con- 
cord, and  was  therefore  zealously  opposed  by  the 
theologians  of  the  electorates  of  Saxony  and  Wiir- 
temberg.1  Preachers  who  refused  to  accept  the  Mar- 
grave's '  Confession  '  were  obliged  '  to  seek  the  bread  of 
poverty  ;  '  the  people  were  to  conform  to  the  will  of 
the  territorial  prince.  The  town  of  Pforzheim,  how- 
ever, opposed  a  stout  resistance.  The  burghers  swore 
in  the  market  place  '  to  live  and  die  in  conformity  to 
the  Confession  of  Augsburg.'  A  violent  earthquake, 
which  occurred  in  September  1601,  was  declared  by  the 
Margrave's  bailiff  to  have  happened  '  because  the  people 
of  Pforzheim  would  not  become  Calvinists.'  Notwith- 
standing that  several  of  the  Margrave's  councillors 
pointed  out  the  danger  of  a  rising,  as  the  country- 
people  also  were  good  Lutherans  at  heart,  Ernest 
Frederic,  on  April  14,  1604,  advanced  against  Pforz- 
heim, with  soldiers  and  armed  peasants,  in  order  to 
constrain  the  town  by  force  to  embrace  Calvinism. 
The  burghers  had  already  barricaded  the  gates  and 
seized  arms,  when  the  news  came  that  the  Margrave 
had  died  of  apoplexy  on  April  14.2  The  Lutherans  re- 
garded this  sudden  death  as  a  judgment  of  God.  The 
Margrave  George  Frederic,  who  inherited  the  land,  re- 
introduced Lutheranism  everywhere. 

The  county  of  Isenburg  also  had  to  undergo  a 
variety  of  religious  changes.  In  the  year  1585  Count 
Wolfgang  of  Isenburg-Ronneburg  removed  all  the 
Lutheran  Church  functionaries  from  their  posts,  caused 
images,  crucifixes,  and  altars  to  be  taken  out  of  the 
churches,    and    introduced    Calvinism.     His    successor, 

1  Stieve,  Die  Politilc  Bay  ems,  ii.  623. 

2  Pfliiger,  pp.  365-374. 


284  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Count  Henry,  on  the  other  hand,  immediately  after  his 
brother's  funeral  in  January  1598,  informed  all  the 
Calvinist  preachers  that  they  must  leave  his  territory 
within  a  few  weeks.  In  cold  winter  weather,  some  of 
them  suffering  from  want  and  sickness,  they  were 
ruthlessly  driven  out.  Then,  when,  three  years  later, 
after  the  death  of  Henry,  Count  Wolfgang  Ernest  of 
the  Birstein  line  succeeded  to  the  government,  the 
Lutheran  preachers  underwent  a  similar  fate,  and  once 
more  the  people  had  to  exchange  their  Lutheran  faith 
for  that  of  Calvinism.  In  his  territory  of  Birstein, 
Wolfgang  Ernest  had  already  imposed  by  force  a 
Calvinistic  Church  system  in  1597,  thereby  occasioning 
disturbances  and  alarming  risings  in  many  parishes. 
In  the  pulpits  the  true  religion  was  virulently  dis- 
cussed. At  Sprendlingen,  against  the  will  of  the  Count, 
a  Lutheran  pastor  was  again  installed  by  force  of  arms 
by  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse-Darmstadt,  who  was  the 
patron  of  the  living.1  '  Because  we  will  not  apostatise 
from  the  true  religion,'  wrote  one  of  the  banished 
Lutherans,  '  we  are  obliged  to  make  way  for  the  Cal- 
vinist fanatics.  However  long  we  have  occupied  the 
office  of  preacher,  serving  and  teaching  faithfully  in 
accordance  with  the  will  of  the  authorities  who  have 
ruled  hitherto,  we  have  to  turn  out,  we  ministers  of  the 
Word,  with  our  wives  and  children,  and  the  doctrines 
that  have  been  hitherto  preached  are  regarded  as 
heretical  and  blasphemous.'  '  And  those  Calvinistic 
muck-flies,  hypocrites,  reprobates,  blasphemers,  and 
enemies  of  the  Cross  of  Christ,  have  the  insolence  to 
denounce  our  dear  Father  in  God,  Dr.  Luther,  from 

1  Fuller  details  in  the  Zeitschr.  des  Vereins  fiir  hessische  Gesch.  und 
Landeskunde  9  (Kassel,  1862),  26,  29  ff.,  48-54. 


SPREAD    OF   CALVINISM  285 

their  pulpits  as  a  senseless  donkey,  an  inconstant 
weathercock,  a  paunch -belly,  and  a  fellow  past  salva- 
tion. May  God  strike  them  down  with  thunder  and 
lightning,  and  all  temporal  and  eternal  punishments,  as 
the  hell-hounds  have  already  long  since  deserved  for 
their  foul,  blackguard  jawing.'  ' 

The  most  violent  religious  agitations  sprang  up  in 
Hesse. 

Landgrave  William  IV.   had  positively  refused  to 
accept  the  Formula  of  Concord,   and  had  spoken  so 
strongly   respecting   the    person   of   Luther 2   and   the 
ubiquity  of  the  body  of  Christ  that  he  came  to  be 
denounced  by  the  Ubiquists  '  as  a  man  possessed  with 
the  devil  and  a  veritable  mameluke.'     '  I  cannot  see,' 
wrote  the  Landgrave,  '  how  they  can  make  out  that  it 
is  doing  honour  to  Christ  to  assert,   as  some  people 
have  the  audacity  to  do,  that  He  is  corporeally  present 
in  the  devil ;  item,  that  hell  is  in  God,  and  that  heaven — 
namely,  the  abode  of  the  saints — is  no  definite  place, 
and  was    not    created    by   God.      We    do    not    know 
whether    there    has    ever    been    a    devil    in    hell    so 
daring  as  to  put  forward  such  propositions.' 3     '  It  is 
the  habit  of  the  Ubiquists,'  said  the  Electress  Anna  of 
Saxony,  on  March  24,  1581,  '  instantly  to  denounce  as 
Calvinistic,    indeed   as   worse   than    Turks   and   Jews, 
everybody  who  does  not  agree  to  their  absurdities,  as, 
for  instance,  that  heaven,  as  well  as  Christ's  human 
body,  are  present  in  all  creatures  and  substances,  in 
foliage,  grass,  coal,  and  beer-cans.'  4     When  the  Hessian 

1  Wehruf  eines  Exul  Christi  (1600),  pp.  2,  7. 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  viii.  419,  420. 

3  Heppe,  Generalsynoden,  i.  ;  Urk.  75-78. 

4  Heppe,  Generalsynoden,  ii.  163. 


286  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN  PEOPLE 

court  preacher  Johann  Winkelmann  preached  once,  in 
1583,  on  the  doctrine  of  ubiquity,  the  Landgrave  inter- 
rupted him  in  the  middle  of  the  sermon  and  ordered 
him  to  '  hold  his  jaw.'  The  episode  caused  excitement 
all  over  the  country.  He  had  acted  quite  rightly, 
William  said,  for  Winkelmann  had  preached  that  '  the 
mere  humanity  of  Christ  had  not  been  able  to  extin- 
guish the  smallest  spark  of  sin.  But  this  did  not 
sound  very  unlike  the  words  of  Osiander — viz.  that  the 
death  of  Christ  in  His  human  nature  was  of  no  more 
profit  to  us  than  was  the  cutting  of  a  calf's  throat  by 
a  butcher.'  ] 

The  Ubiquists  became  '  more  and  more  talked  about.' 
'  It  is  impossible  to  describe,'  we  read  in  a  report  of 
1599,  '  the  way  in  which  both  the  thorough-going  and 
the  semi-Calvinist  preachers  in  Hesse  inveigh  from  their 
pulpits  against  the  pure  Lutheran  doctrine  and  the 
Book  of  Concord.'  '  Many  people  are  fascinated, 
against  their  will,  with  this  devilish  Calvinism.'  '  God 
grant  it  may  not  altogether  gain  the  upper  hand.' 

'  Calvinism  is,  indeed,  the  most  diabolical  concoction 
which  the  infernal  regions  have  produced  in  our  latter 
days,  and  every  preacher  is  bound  by  Christian  duty 
and  by  his  office  to  utter  warnings  against  it,  in  the 
pulpit  and  elsewhere,  as  he  would  against  the  devil 
himself.'  Such  warnings  were  not  without  effect.  '  No 
Turk,  no  Jew,  no  heathen,  no  papist,'  wrote  the  Cal- 
vinist  preacher  Fabronius,  in  1607,  '  is  so  much  hated, 
reviled,  and  persecuted  by  the  common  people  in  Hesse 
as  are  the  Calvinists.  Whenever  the  people  catch  but 
sight  of  a  student,  they  call  out :  "  Calvinist,  Calvinist !  ' 

1  Miiller,  Denkwiirdigkeiten,  ii.  420  ;  Heppe,  Generalsynoden,  ii.  268  ; 
Miinscher,  p.  58. 


CALVINISM   IN   HESSE    SINCE   1604  287 

In  a  certain  tavern  there  was  a  book  from  which  I 
heard  such  abominable  things  read  about  the  Calvinists 
that  it  makes  me  shudder  to  think  of  it  all.'  l 

In  Hesse-Cassel  Calvinism  had  had  '  the  upper 
hand  '  ever  since  the  Landgrave  Maurice  had  gone  over 
to  it  in  1604,  and  '  was  bent  on  making  the  whole  land 
happy  by  its  means.'  '  The  episcopal  right,'  he  assured 
the  Lutheran  preachers,  belonged  to  him  because  the 
Landgrave  Philip  had  '  acquired  it '  from  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Mayence.  '  As  my  forefathers  had  authority 
to  regulate  the  Church  system  according  to  the  Word 
of  God,  so  have  I  also.'  '  I  stand  like  a  torch  to  lighten, 
to  teach,  and  to  protect.'  In  justification  of  his  pro- 
ceedings against  Lutheranism  he  appealed  to  the 
example  of  the  ancient  kings  of  Israel,  especially  of 
Hezekiah,  who  had  had  the  courage  to  put  away  the 
brazen  serpent,  the  idol  of  the  people,  and  to  establish 
a  pure  worship  of  God.  '  The  freedom  of  conscience,' 
of  which  Maurice  talked,  was  to  consist  in  subjugating 
the  whole  country  to  his  '  episcopal  will.'  2 

The  Landgrave's  measures  extended  also  to  Upper 
Hesse,  where  he  made  his  entry  as  the  new  territorial 
prince  in  1604,  and  where,  according  to  the  will  and 
testament  of  Ludwig  the  elder,  he  was  to  have  main- 
tained the  established  Lutheran  religion,  on  penalty  of 
forfeiting  the  succession.3 

But  '  might  gave  right.'     The  truth  of  this  adage 

was  experienced  also  by  the  Catholic  imperial  abbey  of 

-Hersfeld.     Unmindful  of  the  Religious  Peace,  Maurice 

1  Fabronius,  pp.  8-9,  10. 

2  Vilmar,   Konfessionsstand,  pp.    67-68,    84,    85,    87,    note    111.     See 
p.  164  ff. 

3  Rommel,  Neuere  Gesch.  ii.  136  ff. 


288  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

brought  this  abbey  under  his  power  in  1606  by  placing 
the  ten-year-old  Prince  Otto  there  as  Administrator, 
after  which,  in  spite  of  all  the  opposition  of  the  clergy 
and  the  people,  Calvinism  was  introduced,  and,  as 
everywhere  else  in  Hesse,  hopeless  religious  confusion 
created.1 

Maurice  began  his  '  highly  necessary  work  of  re- 
form '  with  the  town  of  Marburg.  Preachers  and 
theologians  who  declared  that  '  the  maintenance  of  the 
Lutheran  Catechism  was  a  duty  imposed  on  them  by 
the  laws  of  the  land,  and  that  any  alteration  of  tradi- 
tionary doctrine  and  Church  forms  clashed  with  their 
consciences,'  were  removed  and  replaced  by  Calvinists. 
When  one  of  the  latter,  the  Superintendent  Valentine 
Schoner,  preached  at  Marburg  on  August  6,  1605,  in 
the  presence  of  his  colleagues  Schonfeld,  Pfaff,  and 
Cellarius,  a  fearful  tumult  arose  in  the  church.  '  The 
burghers,'  Schonfeld  informed  his  wife,  '  invaded  the 
church  with  shouts  and  threats  of  murder.  Princes, 
councillors,  burgomasters,  rector,  and  professors  all 
fled  panic-stricken  and  left  us  poor  people  alone.  The 
ruffians  tore  my  clothes  from  off  me ;  five  hundred 
ferocious  men  surrounded  me,  all  crying  out,  "  Strike 
him  dead,  strike  him  dead  !  "  Those  who  could  get  at 
my  face  struck  it  with  their  fists  ;  others  seized  me  by 
the  hair ;  others  pommelled  my  head ;  others  knocked 
me  down  and  trampled  me  under  their  feet.  In  short, 
it  is  impossible  for  anyone  to  describe  the  fury  that 

1  Fuller  details  in  Heppe,  Einfiihrung,  pp.  135-170.  Respecting  an 
earlier  unsuccessful  attempt  of  the  House  of  Hesse-Cassel  to  help  the 
Catholic  imperial  abbey  to  obtain  a  Protestant  superior,  see  G.  Winter's 
article,  '  Die  Wahl  des  Protestanten  Krafft  von  Weissenbach  zum  Abt 
von  Hersfeld  '  (1588),  in  Maurenbrecher's  Hist.  Taschenbuch,  sechste  Folge, 
Jahrg.  9  (Leipzig,  1890),  p.  115  ff. 


RELIGIOUS  DISTURBANCE   IN   HESSE  289 

has  raged  here  about  and  against  us  preachers.'  x 
Schoner  and  Schonfeld  were  kicked  down  from  the  top 
of  the  stairs  at  the  church  door,  and  owed  their  lives  to 
some  students  who  caught  them  in  their  cloaks  and 
their  arms.  Cellarius,  pursued  by  the  infuriated  mob, 
saved  himself,  with  torn  garments,  by  precipitate  flight 
out  of  the  town ;  Pfaff  was  compelled  to  promise  that 
he  would  never  again  preach  at  Marburg. 

On  the  news  of  these  proceedings  Maurice  hastened 
up  with  his  halberdiers,  besieged  the  market  place,  the 
churchyard,  and  the  town  gates,  and  placed  troops  in 
the  houses  of  the  burghers.  On  August  9  he  himself 
led  the  preachers,  still  disfigured  by  their  wounds,  into 
the  church,  and  delivered  a  severe  castigatory  address 
to  the  people.  Whereas  this  uproar,  he  said  in  conclu- 
sion, had  happened  in  consequence  of  the  removal  of 
the  images,  he  would  take  care  that  there  should  be  no 
fear  of  anything  further  of  the  kind  on  account  of 
these  dumb  idols,  and  he  ordered  them  all  to  be  cleared 
away  on  the  spot.2  Even  the  crucifixes  were  smashed 
up  as  '  dumb  idols.'  The  carrying  of  the  cross  in 
funeral  processions  was  an  '  idolatrous  practice,'  Maurice 
said,  and  must  not  be  allowed  '  under  the  reign  of  the 
pure  Gospel.' 

All  resistance  in  Marburg  gave  way  before  the 
Landgrave's  troops.  Twelve  town  delegates  sued  for 
mercy  on  bended  knee. 

'  In  the  country  it  was  just  as  if  civil  war  was  going 

1  Strieder,  Hessische  Gelehrtengesch.  xiii.  173 ;  Historischer  Bericht 
der  im  neulichen  Monat  August  zugetragenen  Marburgischen  Kirchenhdndel 
(Marburg,  1605).     See  Vilmar,  Konfessionsstand,  pp.  28-32. 

2  In  the  church  of  St.  Elizabeth  the  images  were  left  untouched,  because 
the  Teutonic  Order,  which  had  the  guardianship  of  this  church,  success- 
fully opposed  this  vandalism. 

VOL.    X.  U 


290  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

on.'  In  Upper  Hesse  about  sixty  preachers  who  would 
not  abjure  their  Lutheran  faith  were  obliged  to  leave 
the  land.1  But  their  parishes  '  remained  all  the  same, 
fixed  and  firm  in  their  old  belief.'  The  Calvinistic 
preacher  appointed  at  Frankenberg  only  saved  himself 
from  the  fury  of  the  populace  by  hasty  flight.2  '  On 
December  8,  1605,'  another  Calvinistic  preacher  re- 
ported to  Cassel,  '  early  in  the  morning  I  was  pelted 
with  stones.'  A  third  preacher  complained  that  '  a 
nobleman  had  threatened  him  with  his  rapier.  The 
parishioners  had  violently  attacked  his  house.  Almost 
mortally  wounded  by  a  blow  from  a  stone,  he  had 
fallen  on  the  floor  in  his  bedroom.' 

On  the  borders  of  the  Werra  especially,  the  whole  of 
the  nobility,  together  with  all  the  Church  functionaries, 
rose  up  against  the  innovations  of  the  Landgrave,  and 
asserted  their  right  of  patronage  in  nominating  the 
preachers.  But  Maurice  ordered  that  his  command 
should  be  ruthlessly  enforced.  '  My  sword,'  he  said, 
'  cuts  more  sharply  than  the  swords  of  the  young  noble- 
men.' The  nobles  who  had  interfered  with  his  God- 
bestowed  '  bishop's  staff  '  he  declared  to  be  guilty  of 
high  treason.  The  refractory  preachers  were  deposed, 
and  pronounced  offenders  against  the  imperial  majesty. 
The  recalcitrant  pastors  were  deposed,  and,  on  their 
continuing  to  fulfil  ministerial  avocations  in  private 
houses,  they  were  punished  with  chains  and  imprison- 
ment. The  churches  came  to  be  entirely  deserted  ;  the 
sacraments  were  no  longer  received.      As  recently  as 


1  For  the  number  of  the  exiles,  see  Leuchter,  pp.  309-312,  and  also 
the  corrections  and  additions  of  Vilmar  in  the  Zeitschr.  des  Vereins  filr 
hessische  Gesch.  und  Landeskunde,  Neue  Folge,  ii.  174-181. 

2  Rommel,  Neuere  Gesch.  ii.  572. 


RELIGIOUS   DISTURBANCE    IN   HESSE  291 

in  1609,  and  that  in  the  most  populous  places,  there 
were  scarcely  ten  or  fifteen  communicants  ;  in  twenty 
parishes,  up  to  that  date,  nobody  had  yet  partaken  of 
the  Eucharist.1 

Most  melancholy  of  all  was  the  devastation  in  the 
lordship  of  Smalkald.  At  the  end  of  November  1608 
matters  were  brought  to  a  climax  in  this  region  by 
a  tumultuous  uprising.  The  preacher  appointed  by 
Maurice  informed  the  people  that  '  his  princely  Grace 
has  sent  his  councillors  here  with  instructions  to  organise 
the  work  of  Church  reform.  The  images  are  to  be 
cleared  out  of  the  churches,  and  on  the  following  Sun- 
day breaking  of  bread  will  be  initiated.'  On  hearing 
this  men  and  women  precipitated  themselves  out  of  the 
church  with  wild  screaming  and  uproar.  In  four  places 
in  the  town  notices  were  stuck  up  to  the  effect  that 
'  all  who  intend  to  remain  true  to  the  doctrine  of  Luther 
and  the  Augsburg  Confession  and  the  Smalkald  articles, 
and  to  live  as  worthy  Christians  and  abide  by  the 
Word  of  God  in  body  and  life,  are  desired  to  betake 
themselves  to-morrow  to  the  church.  We  mean  to  put 
to  death  all  the  parsons  who  rob  us  and  our  children 
of  our  souls'  salvation.'  A  mob  of  infuriated  ruffians 
marched  to  the  church.  But  the  Landgrave  had  already 
despatched  seventy  musketeers  and  arquebusiers,  and 
he  ordered  2,000  men,  with  six  field-pieces,  to  advance 
in  forced  marches  on  Smalkald,  in  order  to  put  down 
the  tumult  by  force,  and  to  punish  the  rioters  severely. 
The  ringleaders  were  to  be  put  on  the  rack  ;  the  burgher 
accomplices  to  deliver  up  all  their  weapons,  to  pay 
compensation  for  damages,  and  to  give  hostages.  The 
soldiers    entered   the    town   with    drums    beating   and 

1  Heppe,  Einfiihrung,  pp.  50  ff.,  88,  106-109,  113. 

v  2 


292  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

torches  burning,  planted  themselves  in  front  of  the 
church,  and  pointed  their  muskets  ready  to  fire.  The 
iconoclastic  riot  began  in  the  presence  of  the  prince's 
plenipotentiaries.  All  the  images,  carved,  molten,  and 
chiselled,  among  them  works  of  art  of  great  value,  were 
broken  up,  the  paintings  were  daubed  over  with  white- 
wash, and  the  whole  lot  of  them  carted  away.  No  less 
than  eight  waggonloads  of  '  idols  '  were  conveyed  to 
the  castle,  where  some  of  the  pictures  were  burnt.  All 
the  weapons  of  the  insurgents  were  seized.  The  land- 
gravian  '  reformation  '  seemed  assured.  Nevertheless, 
Maurice  was  resolved  to  follow  up  his  success  to  the 
bitter  end.  The  troops  despatched  against  Smalkald  had 
already  occupied  all  the  villages  in  the  neighbourhood. 
Every  company  had  been  attended  by  an  execu- 
tioner brandishing  a  naked  sword.  The  Landgrave,  it 
was  reported,  would  quarter  himself  on  the  town  at 
the  head  of  2,000  men,  and  wreak  a  fearful  vengeance. 
In  dire  trepidation  the  burghers  sent  out  a  deputation 
to  the  prince,  but  they  had  hard  work  to  appease  his 
anger.  The  originators  of  the  riot  were  punished.  But 
the  new  divine  service  and  the  reformed  Communion 
service  were  attended  by  a  very  small  number.  Out  of 
300  boys  only  fifty  went  to  the  school.  Even  in  the 
year  1614  the  ancient  '  stiff -neckedness  '  still  prevailed 
among  the  Smalkaldians,  and  then,  as  before,  the 
preachers  were  in  a  state  of  deplorable  strife  with  their 
congregations.1 

The  attachment  of  the  Lutheran  populace  to  the 

1  Heppe,  pp.  133-154  ;  W.  Rohnert,  Die  Mauritianische  Kirchenreform 
in  der  Herrschaft  Schmalkalden  (Steinbach-Hallenberg,  1879),  pp.  1-24. 
The  usual  term  of  abuse  bestowed  by  the  Smalkaldians  on  the  reformed 
Protestants  was  '  bread  and  cake  gobblers '  (Brot-  und  Weck-fresser). 
Rommel,  Neuere  Gesch.  ii.  580. 


PAPISM   OF   THE   LUTHERAN   POPULACE  293 

old  monuments  of  its  Catholic  past  was  as  living  as  ever. 
As  at  Smalkald  eight  waggons  had  been  required  for 
the  removal  of  the  '  idols,'  so  nearly  everywhere  else 
the  '  carting  away  '  was  a  great  business.  In  the  church 
of  Haina,  for  instance,  there  were  still  twenty-eight  altars 
adorned  with  images  of  their  patron  saints.  '  Hew 
down,  burn,  destroy  all  this  idolatrous  lumber,'  were  the 
watchwords.  '  Away  with  your  St.  John,  Maria,  and 
Ursula,'  was  Maurice's  answer  once  to  a  petition  of  the 
Smalkalders.  '  If  I  were  to  erect  two  crucifixes  for  you 
I  should  be  your  beloved  lord.  Athalia,  the  protectress 
of  idols,  would  be  a  welcome  ruler  for  you.  Sacred 
groves — that  is,  small  woods  in  which  idolatrous  sacri- 
fices were  offered — are  to  my  mind  the  same  as  your 
altars.  You  would  be  delighted  if  exorcism  and  the 
copes  were  reintroduced.'  l 

But  it  was  especially  '  in  matters  connected  with 
the  Communion  service,'  the  Calvinist  complained,  that 
'  the  people  were  as  senseless  as  in  the  days  of  the 
papacy ;  they  would  gladly  have  had  the  disgraceful 
sacrifice  of  the  altar  restored,  and  the  ringing  of  bells 
accompanying  the  Host  to  the  sick.  They  prostrate 
themselves  when  worshipping,  which  is  nothing  else 
than  accursed  idolatry ;  and  numbers  of  the  preachers 
are  still  saturated  with  the  sort  of  popish  idolatrous 
reverence  for  the  accursed  Hosts.' 

This  complaint  of  the  Calvinists  was  not  heard  only 
in  Hesse.  '  Almost  all  over  the  Empire,'  it  says  in  a 
pamphlet  of  the  year  1509,  '  the  Lutherans,  together 
with  numbers  of  preachers,  hold  still  with  tremendous 
obstinacy  to  the  old  popish  dogmas,  ceremonies,  and 
usages,  as  though  no  evangel  had  come  ;  '   '  it  would, 

1  Rommel,  Neuere  Gesch.  ii.  570  ff.,  578  ff.,  583  ;  Miinscher,  pp.  59-90. 


294  HISTOKY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

indeed,  be  by  no  means  difficult  to  bring  the  people 
back  to  popish  idolatry  again,  if  the  ruling  authorities 
and  many  watchful  ministers  of  the  Word  did  not  resist 
this  with  all  their  might.'  1 

In  1616  a  Calvinistic  '  Lover  of  truth  and  honesty ' 
inveighed  indignantly  against  the  Lutheran  people  who 
still  '  from  old  custom  babbled  their  auricular  confes- 
sions under  the  impression  that  it  was  piety,'  and  who 
'  still  played  the  hypocrites  with  images  of  saints  and 
crucifixes.'  It  was  a  crime,  he  said,  as  well  as  gross 
ignorance,  to  stand  up  for  those  images  and  crucifixes, 
and  '  in  sorrow  or  joy,  as  it  was  still  practised,  to  appeal 
to  idols  and  crosses.'  Moreover,  it  was  a  piece  of  insanity 
handed  down  from  the  papacy  to  believe  that  the  clergy 
had  power  to  forgive  sins,  and  that  Christ  was  present 
in  the  Host,  in  the  chalice,  or  in  the  tabernacles." 

1  Ein  Christlich  Oesprech  (see  above,  p.  272,  note  1),  Bl.  B  2. 
'  Numbers  of  evangelical  preachers,'  wrote  Micron  in  the  year  1554, 
'  contend  as  fiercely  about  their  Mass-garments,  altars,  tapers,  images, 
tabernacles,  bells,  confessionals,  organs,  prostrations,  genuflexions,  Latin 
hymns,  and  other  superstitions  that  have  survived,  as  the  bankrupt  Pope 
did  before  '  (Gobel,  '  Gesch.  des  christlichen  Lebens,'  &c,  in  Rheinland 
und   Westfalen,  i.  337). 

2  Reformatio  Evangelicorum,  p.  18  ff.  What  numbers  of  Catholic 
usages  were  still  retained  in  the  Lutheran  territories  was  shown,  for  in- 
stance, in  the  year  1575,  at  the  solemn  opening  of  the  university  founded 
by  the  Council  of  Nuremberg  at  Altorf.  The  Prince  Apostles  Peter  and 
Paul  were  chosen  as  '  patrons  '  of  the  school  ;  the  opening  ceremony  took 
place  on  their  festival,  June  29,  and  was  accompanied  '  with  all  the  Church 
rites  and  processions  ;  all  the  open  places  of  the  town  were  decked  and 
strewed  with  trees  and  boughs,  and  also  with  grass,  so  that  the  town 
looked  like  a  forest.'  As  the  procession  entered  the  church,  the  choir- 
master and  his  cantors  and  five  town  pipers,  with  their  fine  trombones  and 
other  musical  instruments,  played  the  Veni  Creator  Spiritus  ;  after  which 
a  Mass  in  beautiful  figured  chant  was  begun.  After  the  Pater  and  the 
common  suffrages  a  sermon  was  preached,  and  then  '  the  service  was 
finished  with  singing,  organ  playing,  and  trombones,  and  a  few  motets  from 
the  Word  of  God,  and  then  the  benediction  was  given.'  In  the  afternoon 
the  council,  the  professors,  and  scholars,  numbers  of  pastors  who  had 


HESSIAN   COMMUNION   CAKES  295 

It  was  imperatively  necessary  to  abolish  the  Hosts, 
the  Calvinist  theologians  assured  the  Landgrave  Maurice, 
for  the  people  were  under  the  belief  that  in  partaking 
of  them  they  fed  on  the  body  of  Christ.  The  Hosts 
were  replaced  by  heavy  round  biscuits  made  of  so-called 
mill-dust,  or  coarse  flour,  and  which  could  be  broken 
into  four  thick  pieces,  very  hard  to  divide,  and  still 
harder  to  bite  and  chew,  so  that  the  people  might  be 
sure  that  they  were  eating  '  bread,  bread,  and  nothing 
but  bread.'  '  When  anyone  who  believes  in  Christ's 
presence  in  the  bread,'  said  the  theologians,  '  sees  the 
consecrated  bread  broken  in  pieces,  and  it  is  given 
into  his  hands,  taken  by  him  into  his  hands,  bitten 
with  the  teeth,  and  thoroughly  chewed  and  eaten,  he 
will  at  last  consider  and  realise  for  himself  that  the 
body  of  Christ  is  not  actually  present  in  the  bread.'  l 
The  heavy  Communion  cakes  baked  in  Cassel  became 
notorious.2 

The  publication  by  Jeremiah  Vietor,  Superintendent 
at  Giessen,  and  one  of  the  most  virulent  opponents 
of  the  papacy,  of  a  pamphlet  opposing  the  Land- 
grave's innovations  and  defending  the  use  of  the  Hosts, 
called  forth,  in  1604,  a  work  '  by  a  great  and  distin- 
guished personage  in  Hesse,'  probably  Maurice  himself, 

come  to  the  ceremony,  princes,  lords,  and  others  repaired  '  with  equal 
solemnity  '  to  the  church  for  Vespers,  '  and  sang  praises  to  God  with  six 
or  eight  voices,  and  with  all  the  instruments  in  unison  '  (Waldau,  Neue 
Beitnige,  i.  344-359). 

1  Vilmar,  Konfessionsstand,  p.  178. 

2  Valentine  Schoner  complained  to  the  Superintendent  Schonfeld  on 
July  18,  1605,  that  he  had  heard  from  several  people  that  '  panem  Casella- 
num  ad  vescendum  non  satis  aptum  esse,  quod  dentibus,  quibus  con- 
teritur,  inhaereat,  et  in  ventriculum  dimitti  difficulter  possit,  atque  ab  iis, 
qui  dentibus  carent,  imminui  nequeat  et  ideo  integer  deglutiendus  sit ' 
(Heppe,  Einfiihrung,  p.  8,  note). 


296  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

which  hurled  against  Vietor  the  charge  of  papism. 
'  The  accursed  Hosts,'  it  said,  '  were  an  outgrowth  of 
the  Eoman  Antichrist.'  '  The  Antichristian  lying  devil, 
Pope-devil,  had  evolved  them  out  of  his  own  imagina- 
tion merely  to  satisfy  his  avarice,  and  had  introduced 
them  by  force  into  his  idolatry.'  l 

Whereas  Vietor  had  expressed  disapproval  of  the 
iconoclastic  riot  a  '  Notwendige  Abfertigung  '  (necessary 
remonstrance)  was  addressed  to  him,  in  which  among 
other  things  it  was  said  :  '  Your  zeal  concerning  the 
images  and  idols  redounds  to  the  glory  of  the  devil  and 
the  shame  of  God,  to  the  scandal  and  hindrance  of  the 
Church  of  God,  and  to  the  consolidation  of  the  kingdom 
of  Satan,  to  which  you  have  yielded  yourself  up.' 
Vietor' s  desire  for  '  ornamentation  in  the  church '  was 
'  the  true  spirit  of  fornication  of  which  God  had  said  : 
"  Thou  hast  a  whore's  forehead ;  thine  eyes  are  full  of 
whoredom."  As  whores  scold  and  abuse  the  good 
people  who  openly  reproach  them  with  their  secret 
whoredom,  so  you  damn  and  vilify  the  good  people 
who  refuse  to  have  part  in  your  whoredom — that  is,  in 
your  love  for  images  and  idols.'  2 

The  Superintendent  Gregory  Schonfeld  was  indicated 
as  the  author  of  this  '  Abfertigung.''  This  man,  in  con- 
junction with  several  theologians,  had  declared  in 
another  pamphlet  against  Vietor  that  '  spiritual  forni- 

1  Anatomia  D.  Jeremiae  Vietoris  (Marburg.  1606),  pp.  116-124.  For 
the  supposition  that  Maurice  was  probably  himself  the  author,  see  Vilmar, 
pp.  311-312.  The  Belgian  Eremita  who,  in  1609,  visited  the  German 
courts  in  company  with  a  Florentine  ambassador,  praised  the  learning 
and  the  many-sided  culture  of  the  Landgrave  ;  but  even  in  the  presence 
of  these  visitors  Maurice  could  not  conceal  his  inveterate  hatred  of  the 
Pope  and  the  Catholics. 

2  Notwendige  Abfertigung  D.  Jeremiae  Vietoris  (Kassel,  1606),  pp.  67,  69. 


CONTROVERSIAL   BOOKS   IN   HESSE  297 

cation  and  adultery  had  been  committed  at  the  Lord's 
Table  with  images,'  that '  images  ought  to  be  abominated 
as  they  caused  the  greatest  iniquities  in  the  land.' 
The  images  on  the  altar  at  Marburg  used  to  be  adored 
when  marriages  were  blessed  there.1 

'  The  perpetual  reproach  of  fornication  '  which  was 
calumniously  levelled  at  the  Giessen  Superintendent, 
and  which  was  '  in  like  manner  discharged  from  the 
pulpit  almost  every  Sunday  against  him  and  all  faithful 
ministers  of  the  pure  doctrine,  to  the  scandal  and  dis- 
gust of  all  right-minded  people,'  evoked  from  himself, 
'  and  from  numbers  of  rejected  pastors,  loud  and 
indignant  counter-protests  against  the  Calvinistic  devil's 
rabble.'  Vietor  on  one  occasion  enumerated  all  the 
'  titles  of  honour '  with  which  he  had  been  dignified  in 
the  writings  of  two  '  clerical  gentlemen.'  '  I  was  a 
liar,  a  blasphemer,  a  coxcomb,  a  fool,  a  Jew,  a  romancer  ; 
I  gave  false  witness,  I  was  hostile  to  the  Christians,  I 
neither  loved  nor  kept  faith  with  my  neighbour,  I  had 
no  true  faith  in  Christ,  I  had  antichristian  horns,  I  was 
bloodthirsty,  I  contradicted  the  Apostle  Peter,  and  so 
forth.'  2 

This  was  the  way  in  which  they  went  on  fighting. 
'  The  common  people  who  looked  for  Christian  instruc- 
tion and  salutary  admonition  from  the  pulpit,  and  also 
from  books,  met  only  with  wicked  calumnies  and 
mockery.'     As   once   on   a   time   in  the   Electorate   of 


1  Abegenotigte  Antwort  auf  den  Gegenbericht  D.  Jeremiae  Vietoris  (Kassel, 
1606),  pp.  163-164,  168,  182.  Concerning  the  author  of  the  pamphlet, 
see  Vihnar,  p.  314,  No.  29. 

2  Vietor,  Eettung,  &c,  Bl.  B  2b.  An  exact  catalogue  of  the  contro- 
versial writings  called  forth  by  the  innovations  of  the  Landgrave  Maurice 
is  given  in  Vilmar,  Konfessionsstand,  Beil.  5,  pp.  306-335. 


298  HTSTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Saxony,  so  now  in  Hesse,  the  Lutherans  gave  vent  to 
their  feelings  in  singing  the  Church  hymn  : 

Maintain  us  in  Thy  truth,  O  Lord, 
Frustrate  the  Calvinistic  horde 
Who  Jesus  Christ  Thy  Son 
Would  hurl  down  from  His  throne. 

In  a  pamphlet  entitled  '  Augensalbe  fur  etliche 
ubelriechende  Propheten  in  Hessen'  ('Eye-salve  for  some 
ill-smelling  Prophets  in  Hesse')  the  preacher  Leonard 
Rechtenberg  said  that,  '  Out  of  the  Church  innovations 
of  the  Zwinglian  reformers,  the  creatures  and  successors 
of  St.  Hulderich  [i.e.  Ulrich  Zwingli],  there  had  grown 
up  in  many  places  mischievous  errors,  terrible  abomina- 
tions, and  cursed  ideas  and  fancies,'  and  '  the  prophets 
of  ill- odour,  in  palliation  of  the  anarchy  and  scandals  in 
Hesse,'  actually  gave  out  that  the  teachers  in  Saxony 
would  soon  follow  their  example.  The  Landgrave 
Maurice  had  been  so  greatly  misled  that  he  assumed  to 
himself  the  right  and  the  power  to  alter  and  innovate 
in  spite  of  the  supplicating  entreaties  of  the  loyal  pro- 
vincial Estates,  of  the  teachers  of  pure  doctrine,  and  of 
the  Christ-loving  subjects.  'The  Hessian  Inquisition' 
was  carrying  on  its  work  by  means  of  violence.  They 
had  begun  in  the  first  place  with  stringent  orders  and  co- 
ercion by  means  of  bailiffs,  tax-gatherers,  rent  collectors, 
and  secretaries,  and  now  they  were  endeavouring  to 
govern  souls  with  sword  and  shot.  '  The  people  had 
been  terrorised  with  mandates  and  warrants  ;  they  had 
been  compelled  to  hear  from  the  officials  that  they  were 
disobedient  fellows  who  deserved  to  be  sent  to  the 
devil ;  they  must  expect  disgrace  and  punishment  from 
the  chief  authorities.'  '  Theologians  and  laymen  who 
would  not  at  once  agree  to  "breaking  bread,"  to  the 


CONTROVERSIES   IN   HESSE  299 

removal  of  images,  and  so  forth,  were  denounced  as 
popish  idolaters  and  stiff-necked  apostates,  and  coerced 
by  punishment.'  The  churches  were  scenes  of  Zwinglian 
ruffianism  carried  on  with  axes  and  hatchets.  Heavy 
responsibility,  it  was  said,  attached  to  all  parents  who 
'  gratuitously  placed  their  children  in  danger,  and, 
under  cover  of  the  saving  faith,  launched  their  off- 
spring on  the  way  to  the  pit  of  Calvinistic  horrors  with 
its  sequel  of  eternal  damnation.'  '  Even  the  idolatrous 
Jews  had  not  yet  gone  to  such  lengths,  for  though  they 
sacrifice  their  sons  and  daughters  in  the  fire  to  Moloch, 
they  do  not  hinder  their  children  from  salvation.'  l 

The  Calvinists,  on  the  other  hand,  declared  that  it 
was  a  cause  of  gratitude  to  God  that  in  the  Landgrave 
Maurice  '  He  had  resuscitated,  as  head  of  the  House 
of  Hesse,  a  new  Josias  who  would  sweep  away  and 
extirpate  all  the  idolatrous  remnants  of  the  papacy.'  2 
In  Magdeburg  there  appeared  a  portrait  of  the  Land- 
grave with  the  inscription  : 

He  visited  the  schools  and  churches, 
With  God's  pure  Word  he  garnished  thern, 
And  rid  them  in  an  exemplary  way 
Of  human  doctrine  and  idolatry.3 

The  Heidelberg  theologian  David  Pareus,  who  was 
regarded  in  Germany  as  a  sort  of  '  Patriarch  of  the 
whole  of  Calvinism,  called  the  Landgrave  a  '  godlike 
hero  ; '  the  work  he  had  undertaken  was,  he  said,  '  a 
work  of  the  Lord  ; '  '  cursed  be  he  who  was  negligent  in 
the  work  of  the  Lord,  and  who  withheld  his  sword  from 
shedding  blood.'  4 

1  Rechtenhach,  Augensalbe,  pp.  2-4,  9,  31,  41,  48,  52-54,  59,  96,  144- 

145. 

2  Notwendige  Abfertigung  (see  above,  p.  296,  note  2),  p.  71. 

3  Fabronius,  p.  59. 

4  '  Made  Heros  divine  ;  age  opus  Domini,  quod  agis,  fidenter.    Maledictus 


300  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

While  the  religious  controversies  were  going  on  in 
Hesse,  Calvinism  was  making  further  progress  in  the 
north  of  the  Empire.  In  1610  the  Dukes  Adolf  of 
Schleswig-Gottorp  and  Hans  Albert  of  Mecklenburg - 
Giistrow,  and  in  the  following  year  the  Silesian  Dukes 
of  Brieg  and  Leignitz,  espoused  '  the  reformed  doctrine,' 
and  turned  all  their  strength  '  to  removing  from  their 
lands  the  abundant  popish  dregs  and  idolatrous  rubbish 
that  still  remained  in  Lutheranism.' 

'  It  was  enough  to  make  one  despair,'  wrote  Leon- 
hard  Hutter,  professor  of  theology  at  Wittenberg,  '  to 
see  how  the  Calvinistic  wolves  were  forcing  their  way  in 
everywhere,  and  how  cruelly  they  were  deceiving  princes 
and  people  with  lies  and  cunning  wiles,  making  out 
that  they  were  the  true  exponents  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession.'  A  fine  specimen  of  these  public  arch-liars 
was  Johann  Minister.  He  had  dedicated  to  Duke 
Adolf  of  Schleswig-Gottorp  a  book  in  which  he  stated 
that  '  it  was  out  and  out  untrue  that  the  reformed 
Church  had  diverged  from  the  Augsburg  Confession  ; 
the  Calvinists,'  he  said,  '  ought  to  be  regarded  as  genuine 
Lutherans  in  their  doctrine  and  in  their  rites  ;  Luther 
himself  had  died  a  Calvinist.'  Hutter  answered  that 
'  the  exact  opposite  of  this  had,  among  other  ways, 
been  forcibly  demonstrated '  by  the  sermons  which 
Luther  had  preached  shortly  before  his  death,  '  in  which 
he  had  uttered  most  serious  warnings  against  the 
Zwinglian  sacramentarian  devil.'  '  The  French  Con- 
fession '  was  trying  to  insinuate  itself  under  the  German, 
and,  in  order  to  gain  a  following,  was  making  itself  out 
to  be  genuinely  Lutheran,  although  Calvin  had  written 

nimirum  est,  qui  facit  opus  Domini  negligenter  et   prohibet'  gladium  suum 
a  sanguine.''     See  Friedberg,  p.  16  ;  v.  Ungersdorff,  pp.  166,  180. 


KURBRANDENBURG   ANTI-CALVINISTIC  301 

that   '  the    Augsburg    Confession    was    a    hellish   torch 
which  would  consume  France  with  its  flames.'  l 

A  new  pen-and-ink  controversy  was  set  going  when, 
through  the  efforts  of  the  Landgrave  Maurice  of  Hesse, 
the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  also  went  over  to  Calvinism. 

In  the  Electorate  of  Brandenburg,  '  as  everywhere 
else  in  the  Empire,  ever  since,  by  God's  especial  decree, 
Joachim  II.  had  introduced  the  evangel,  strife  and 
contention  had  never  ceased,  and  the  spirit  of  Andreas 
Musculus  rested  on  the  disputants.'  2  '  I  have  been 
much  surprised  to  hear,'  it  says  in  a  letter  from  Berlin, 
'  how  terribly  our  clergy  fight,  wrangle,  and  quarrel ; 
it  is  a  sin  and  a  disgrace.  In  the  Church  of  St.  Nicholas 
they  fought  each  other  with  candlesticks  ;  the  clergy 
of  St.  Martin  threw  stones  at  each  other  in  the  open 
market  place,  and  it  was  a  hard  matter  to  separate 
them.  Methinks  God  will  not  be  good  enough  to  them 
to  allow  pestilence  to  carry  them  off,  but  the  devil  in 
all  probability  will  fetch  them  bodily.'  3 

Under  the  Elector  John  George  the  Formula  of 
Concord  had  been  forced  upon  the  preachers,  '  and 
everything  at  court  was  at  deadly  enmity  with  Cal- 
vinism.' To  carry  Calvinistic  books  about  one's  person 
was  forbidden  under  penalty  of  corporal  punishment. 
The  electoral  chancellor  Diestelmeier,  in  the  year  1593, 
at  a  synod  at  Stettin,  said  in  the  name  of  his  sovereign 
lord  :  '  The  Calvinists  in  their  articles  on  the  person  of 
Christ,  on  predestination,  on  the  Eucharist,  and  on 
baptism,   are  leading  us   from  the   service  of   God  to 

1  Hutter,    Calvinista   aulico-politicus    (1609).     Edition    of    1615.     Bl. 
A  3^,  2b,  127,  152-153,  265. 

2  Concerning  Musculus;  see  our  remarks,  vol.  vii.  pp.  294-301. 

3  Moehsen,  Beitriige,  p.  124  ;  Gallus,  pp.  137-138. 


302  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

contempt  of  Christ,  from  comfort  to  despair,  from  heaven 
to  hell.  Therefore  may  God  fill  us  with  hatred  against 
Calvinism.'  l  The  Elector  himself  said :  '  I  possess 
but  one  university,  that  of  Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  and 
I  regard  it  as  my  great  treasure  ;  if,  however,  I  knew 
that  my  professors  were  Calvinistic  I  should  wish  the 
whole  teaching  staff  to  be  consumed  by  fire.'  2 

John  George's  successor,  Joachim  Frederic,  '  ad- 
hered no  less  firmly  and  faithfully  to  Lutheranism,  and 
stipulated  in  1600,  in  an  agreement  with  his  brothers 
respecting  inheritance,  that  in  all  Brandenburgish  lands, 
henceforth  and  for  ever,  the  doctrine  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession  should  be  maintained,  with  full  exclusion  of 
all  popish  and  Calvinist  errors.'  In  January  1593 
his  son,  John  Sigismund,  had  been  obliged  to  take 
a  solemn  oath  to  his  father  in  writing  that  '  he 
would  remain  constant  and  true  to  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession, as  it  was  delivered  over  to  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.,  and  to  the  apology  thereof,  and  also  to  the 
Smalkaldian  Articles,  to  the  great  and  the  small  Cate- 
chisms of  Luther,  and  the  Book  of  Concord  grounded 
thereon,  and  that  he  would  make  in  churches  or  schools 
no  changes  that  were  at  variance  with  all  the  above 
statements.' 3  The  hereditary  prince  also  took  this 
oath  before  the  provincial  Estates  in  the  year  1602.4 
Immediately  after  his  accession,  however,  on  his  father's 
death  in  1608,  '  there  was  heard,  more  frequently  than 
before,  the  venomous  talk  about  its  being  wrong  to 
anathematise  the  Calvinistic  devil's  rabble  in  print  and 

1  Leuthinger  (ed.  Kuster),  lib.  xxviii.  591. 

2  Gallus,  pp.  176-177. 

1  The  text  of  the  oath  is  in  Hutter,  Calvinista  aulico-politicus  alter, 
pp.  22-24. 

4  Hering,  pp.  12-13. 


CALVINISM   INTRODUCED   INTO   KURBRANDENBURG       303 

from  the  pulpits,  and  that  there  ought  to  be  good 
fellowship  with  them,  which  could  be  regarded  in  no 
other  light  than  that  Christ  the  Lord  and  His  Divine 
Word  should  be  denied,  as  Judas  the  traitor  had  denied 
them,  and  that  we  should  associate  and  hold  com- 
merce with  a  Belial  who  was  even  worse  than  the  Anti- 
christ at  Rome.'  Accordingly  the  preacher  Christopher 
Jordanus  issued  in  1608  a  '  Treuherzige  Warming  vor 
calvinistischer  Briiderschaft '  ('  A  well-meant  Warning 
against  associating  with  Calvinists ').  Since  the  acces- 
sion of  Joachim  II.,  he  said,  '  the  evangelical  form  of 
worship  had  been  maintained  pure  and  unfalsified,  as 
well  against  all  antichristian  tyranny  as  against 
the  heresy  of  all  the  antichristian  plotters  in  the 
Mark  Brandenburg,'  and  it  had  thence  been  carried 
into  the  archbishopric  of  Magdeburg.  But  the  purity 
of  the  land  in  this  respect  was  not  in  favour.  The 
Calvinists  were  at  work  with  secret  manoeuvres  ;  the 
Palatine  theologians  had  written  publicly  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  ubiquity  of  Christ  was  denied  in  the 
Mark ;  a  treatise,  also,  which  the  Superintendent- 
General  Pelargus  had  published  on  the  question  of 
'  breaking  bread '  had  been  befouled  with  Calvinistic 
glossaries.  There  could  be  no  question  of  brotherhood 
with  people  whose  schoolmaster  was  Satan.  '  Against 
all  spirit  of  brotherly  love  the  Calvinist  rabble  accuses 
us  of  placing  the  humanity  of  the  Lord,  by  some  process 
of  natural  extension  or  inclusion,  in  beer- cans  and  in 
the  most  base  utensils.'  * 

By  the  agency  of  the  Landgrave  Maurice  of  Hesse 
and  his  court  preacher  Fabronius,  John  Sigismund  was 
won  over  to  Calvinism,  and  in  1613  he  published  his 

1   Trexiherzige  Warnung,  Bl.  3a,  5a,  258. 


'.) 


04  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 


confession  of  faith,  which  was  henceforth  to  be  the 
recognised  faith  of  Brandenburg.  '  For  eight  years 
and  more,'  the  Elector  informed  his  provincial  Estates 
a  year  later  on,  he  had  been  inclined  to  Calvinism.1 
In  his  Confession,  however,  he  was  guided  by  Holy 
Scripture.  '  This  Empress,  Holy  Scripture,'  he  said, 
'  must  govern  and  rule,  and  all  other  powers,  by  what- 
ever names  they  may  be  called,  must  be  subject  and 
obedient  to  her  ;  be  it  the  Pope,  Luther,  Augustine, 
Paul,  or  an  angel  from  heaven.'  The  Elector  acted  in 
the  matter  like  all  the  other  teachers  who  had  separated 
themselves  from  the  Catholic  Church,  and  who  mutually 
condemned  each  other  ;  his  interpretation  of  the  Bible 
was  to  be  the  only  true  one.2  '  Princes,'  said  John 
Sigismund,  'shall  rule  in  judgment,  as  it  says  in  the 
Prophet  Isaiah.'  He  had  therefore  '  pondered  in  his 
mind  that  whereas  God  Almighty  had  ordained  kings 
to  be  governors,  and  princes  to  be  nursing  mothers  of 
His  beloved  Church,  the  foremost  and  most  urgent 
among  all  princely  aims  and  considerations  was  to  take 
earnest  heed  that  the  pure,  undefiled  Word  of  God, 
straight  from  the  fountain  of  Israel,  without  any  leaven 
of  false  doctrine,  should  be  taught  in  the  churches  and 
schools,  and  that  the  Holy  Sacraments  also  should  be 
administered  according  to  the  institution  of  the  Lord 
Christ,  without  any  popish  superstitions  or  idolatry, 
or  any  rites  devised  by  mere  human  piety  ;  and  that  by 
this  means  the  real  worship  of  God  should  be  rightly  and 
truly  performed  solely  according  to  the  requirements 

1  ReforwMionswerk  in  Kurbrandenburg,  p.  32. 

2  The  reformed  theologian  Samuel  Werenfels,  at  Basle,  wrote  con- 
cerning the  Bible :  * 

Hie  liber  est,  in  quo  sua  qicaerit  dogmata  quisque, 
Invenit  etpariter  dogmata  quisque  sua. 


CALVINISM   INTRODUCED   INTO    KURBRANDENBURG      305 

of  holy  Divine  Scripture,  and  should  be  handed  on  to 
posterity.' 

Since  it  had  pleased  God  to  give  him  such  great 
possessions  in  land  and  people,  he  was  moved  by 
gratitude  to  God  and  the  laudable  pattern  of  pious 
kings  and  princes  of  old,  Jehoshaphat,  Hezekiah, 
Josiah,  Constantine,  Theodosius,  and  many  others,  and 
by  the  working  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  also  by  the 
express  command  of  God,  to  undertake  what  was  more 
dear  to  him  than  anything  else,  and  also  more  important 
— viz.  to  get  rid  altogether  of  all  that  remained  of 
popish  superstition  in  churches  and  schools,  and  to 
reorganise  everything  according  to  the  regulations  of  the 
Divine  Word  and  the  primitive  apostolic  churches.  He 
did  not  intend,  however,  to  force  '  any  subject  against  his 
will '  to  adopt  his  own  confession  of  faith,  but  only  to 
enjoin  that  '  the  truth  of  God  should  have  free  course.'  T 

In  vain  did  the  provincial  Estates  remind  the 
Elector  of  the  written  assurances  which  he  had  given 
his  father  and  themselves  respecting  the  maintenance 
of  pure  Lutheranism.2  '  In  the  things  of  God,'  rejoined 
John  Sigismund,  '  no  such  agreements  are  binding. 
What  an  unpardonable  sin  it  would  be  if  we  were  to 
close  all  access,  bar  all  doors  and  gates,  to  the  Holy 
Spirit  by  human  agreements,  and  hinder  His  carrying 
on  His  work  in  us  and  leading  us  to  the  truth  of  God's 
Woid.'  In  justification  of  his  action  the  Elector 
appealed  to  the  example  of  Joachim  II.  and  his  brother, 
who  had  promised  their  father  on  oath  to  maintain  the 
Catholic  religion  in  their  lands,  and  had  nevertheless 
gone  over  to  Lutheranism.3 

1  Reformationswerk' in  Kurbrandenburg,  pp.  1-2,  2—4,  14. 

2  Reformationswerk,  pp.  20-23. 

3  Compare  also  the  letters  which  the  Margrave  John  George  wrote  to 

VOL.    X.  X 


306  HISTOEY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Though    the    Elector    had    before    solemnly    sworn 
faithfully  to  observe  and  protect  '  the  pure  doctrine  ' 
of   the   Augsburg   Confession   of    1530,    he   afterwards 
spoke  as  follows  to  the  provincial  Estates  :  '  We  are 
not  a  little  surprised  that  you  should  insist  so  strongly 
on  the  unaltered  Augsburg  Confession,  seeing  that  we 
are  inclined  to  think  that  there  are  none  among  you 
who  have  so  much  as  read  it.     For  had  you  done  so, 
you  would  at  once  have  discovered  that  this  Confes- 
sion approves  of  popish  transubstantiation,  which  exe- 
crable  and  withal  blasphemous  abomination  you  will 
never  countenance.'     '  The  altered  Confession,'  he  said, 
'  had  been  published  with  the  approbation  of  Luther 
and  all  the  Estates.'     Then  as  to  what  concerned  the 
Formula  of  Concord,  it  was  known  '  that  the  object  of 
the  ambitious  parson  James  Andrea,  in  publishing  this 
book,  had  been  not  simply  and  solely  to  further  the 
glory  of  God,  but  to  establish  a  primacy  or  Lutheran 
papacy  over  the  Church  and  community  of  God.     The 
Elector  Augustus  of  Saxony  had  himself  complained 
that  he  had  been  vilely  deceived  by  the  parsons  through 
the  publication  of  this  Formula  of  Concord  ;  had  it  not, 
indeed,  been  sufficiently  shown  up  by  friends  and  foes 
as  a  concordia  discors,  and  had  not  its  founders  and 
followers  wrangled,  quarrelled,  and  fought  over  it  like 
very   Cadmean   brothers ;  were   they   not   indeed   still 
doing  so  at  the  present  day  ?  '     Luther  himself,  although 
'  a  chosen  instrument  of  God,'  had  still  been  deeply 
sunk  in  the  darknesses  of  Papacy ;  his  doctrine  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  in  particular,  was  not  derived  from  the 
Holy  Scriptures.     '  Luther  was  also  guilty  in  that  he 

Gedicke  in  justification  of  his   brother  the  Elector  {Reformationswerk, 
pp.  44-46,  50,  235,  238-239).     See  Hering,  pp.  54,  222  ff. 


RELIGIOUS   DISSENSIONS   IN   KURBRANDENBURG       307 

had  not  been  willing  to  own  his  error  in  this  respect, 
although  another  view  of  the  matter  stared  him  plainly 
in  the  face  out  of  God's  Word ;  hence  it  came  that  he 
maintained  one  thing  in  his  doctrinal,  another  in  his 
controversial,  writings,  and  that  in  both  equally  he 
sanctioned  at  one  moment  what  he  had  rejected  at 
another,  and  vice  versa  rejected  what  before  he  had 
approved  of.  The  writings  are  there,  and  you  can  read 
them  for  yourselves  ;  you  will  not  find  it  otherwise 
than  I  have  stated.'  l 

That  Luther's  credit  had  sunk  to  such  a  low  ebb 
everywhere  in  Germany  was  the  constant  complaint  of 
the  defenders  of  his  doctrine.  '  Almost  all  over  the 
land,'  wrote  Cyriacus  Spangenberg  as  early  as  1594, 
'  it  has  come  to  this  that  it  may  well  be  said  as  in 
Exodus  i.  8  :  "  There  arose  up  a  new  king  over  Egypt, 
which  knew  not  Joseph  ; '  for  scarcely  anybody  cares 
to  hear  or  know  anything  more  concerning  the  saintly 
Luther.'  2  '  The  ungrateful  cuckoos,'  so  Matthias  Hoe, 
chief  court  preacher  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  com- 
plained in  1606,  '  although  without  Luther  they  would 
still  be  sunk  in  papish  abominations,  delight  in  improv- 
ing on,  censuring,  blaming,  condemning,  and  slandering 
the  great  teacher  and  divinely  enlightened  evangelist  of 
Germany.' 3 

The  Elector  sent  out  to  the  Lutheran  preachers,  '  as 
unto  the  high  officers  appointed  by  God  to  keep  watch 
over  the  two  tables  of  Commandments,'  a  stringent 
order  to  '  conform  to  the  improved  Confession  of  Augs- 
burg, without  any  falsification,  and  without  the  glosses 

1  March  28,  1614.     Reformationswerk  in  Kurbrandenburg,  pp.  32-34. 

2  Adelsspiegel,  ii.  73. 

3  Kurze  Antwort,  &c,  pp.  2-3. 

x  2 


308  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

of  certain  vain,  presumptuous,  conceited  theologians,' 
and  to  leave  off  all  reviling  and  calumniating  from  the 
pulpit.  Whoever  did  not  obey  this  command  was  to 
be  deposed,  and  proceeded  against  '  by  any  means 
whatever  by  which  he  could  be  brought  to  submission.' 
'  All  such  unseemly  agitators  and  fanatics  '  were  advised 
to  quit  the  electorate  and  betake  themselves  to  places 
where  '  this  unchristian  raging,  reviling,  slandering, 
bedevilling,  and  damning  was  allowed.' 

John  Sigismund  based  his  peace  enactment  on  an 
appeal  against  the  '  Roman  Antichrist,'  who,  he  said, 
was  now  '  more  than  ever  before  thirsting  for  the  blood 
of  true  Christians.'  ] 

Among  these  '  true  Christians,'  however,  the  mutual 
'  damning  and  bedevilling  went  on  persistently  in 
spite  of  the  electoral  prohibition.  The  Superintendent- 
General  Christopher  Pelargus,  who  did  not  oppose  the 
Elector's  regulations,  was  branded  by  the  Lutherans  as 
'  a  renegade  mamaluke  '  and  a  '  murderous  Christian.' 
'  In  order  to  please  men  you  have  scandalously  denied 
the  Lord  Christ.'  Dr.  Conrad,  Superintendent  and  pro- 
fessor at  Stralsund,  said  to  him  in  September  1614 : 
'  Let  the  Calvinists  go  their  way,  like  the  devil's  ser- 
vants that  they  are,  and  do  you  join  with  us  in  de- 
fending and  fighting  for  the  heavenly  truth  reiterated 
in  the  Book  of  Concord,  and  formerly  acknowledged  by 
you  yourself.'  Conrad  Schlusselburg  drew  his  attention 
to  the  '  disastrous  end  of  Berengar  and  Okolampadius, 
of  whom  it  was  believed  that  they  had  been  killed  by 
the  devil.'  Doctor  Cramer  also,  pastor  and  professor 
at  Stettin,  warned  the  Superintendent-General  that  he 

1  February  24,  1614.     Reformationswerk  in  Eurbrandenburg,  pp.  15-20. 


KUKBRANDENBUEG   POLEMICS  309 

was  '  in  very  truth  too  great  an  apostate  or  renegade 
to  escape  the  thunderbolts  of  God.' 1 

The  duty  which  Pelargus  '  neglected  in  so  mama- 
lukish  and  devilish  a  manner  '  was  executed  by  Simon 
Gedicke,  '  a  veritable  God- commissioned  servant  of 
Christ  and  an  enemy  of  all  the  Satanic  rabble  of  accursed 
Calvinists.'  '  Gedicke's  sermons,'  wrote  the  Calvinist 
Martin  Fiissel,  '  are  gruesome  and  bloodthirsty ;  he 
does  all  he  can  towards  the  fulfilment  of  his  wish  to 
see  us  swimming  in  blood.'  2 

In  the  preface  of  a  pamphlet,  '  Von  den  Ceremonien 
bei  dem  heiligen  Abendmahl,'  Gedicke  compared  the 
friends  and  advisers  of  the  Elector,  by  whom,  he  said, 
'  he  was  shamefully  misled  and  lamentably  deceived,' 
with  Haman  under  Ahasuerus,  and  Ziba  in  the  reign  of 
David.  And  he  wished  for  these  councillors,  the 
Elector  wrote  to  the  provincial  Estates,  '  Haman's 
gallows  and  Ahitophel's  rope.'  3  '  Over  and  over  again,' 
Gedicke  complained,  '  Calvinistic  devil's  servants  had 
called  out  to  him  publicly,  "  How  many  Lord  Gods 
have  you  still  got  in  your  pocket  ?  Have  you  per- 
chance eaten  them  all  up  ?  Short  work  should  be  made 
with  a  devourer  of  the  Lord  God."  '  He  felt  that  his 
life  was  no  longer  safe,  and  in  1614  he  left  the  town 
under  cover  of  night.  He  made  known  to  the  people 
that  the  new  Calvinistic  court  preacher  appointed  by 
the  Elector,  Solomon  Finck,  was  a  new  Ecebolus  who, 
in  matter  of  religion,  changed  his  coat  with  the  wind. 
As  recently  as  March  1613,  as  several  thousands  of 
people  could  testify,  he  had  offered  up  a  public  prayer 

1  Die  drei  Briefe  bei  Simon  Gedicke,  Calvinisterei,  p.  594  ff. 
-  Fortgesetzte  Sammlung,  &c.  (1746),  p.  359. 
3  Hering,  pp.  242-252. 


310  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

in  a  sermon  against  the  Calvinists,  beseeching  God  '  to 
preserve  us  from  their  fanaticism.'     When,  however,  he 
perceived  that  at  court  the  wind  blew  from  Calvinistic 
quarters,    he    became    an    apostate.     '  Not    long    ago, 
indeed,  he  had  revealed  his  impious  heart  and  brazen 
fornicator's  forehead  in  the  presence  of  an  honourable 
company  by  saying  :  "  When  I  belonged  to  the  Lutherans 
I  went  with  them  six  times  to  the  Communion.     I  knew 
very  well,  however,  that  I  was  not  partaking  of  the 
Body  of  Christ  in  reality.     In  my  own  mind  I  recog- 
nised what  our  [the  Calvinist]  religion  lays  down."     Is 
not  this  the  depth  of  Satanic  iniquity  which  this  bird 
reveals  ?  '     Now  this  bird  has  let  fly  a  trashy  pamphlet 
called  '  Bespiegelung,'  in  which  he  says,  among  other 
things  of  us  Lutherans,  that  we  proceed  from  the  devil. 
For,  says  the  Prussian  devil,  '  whoever  is  against  Christ 
is  of  the  devil ;  but  whosoever  makes  Christ's  ordinances 
of  no  value  in  order  to  honour  and  maintain  human 
theories,  that  man  is  against  Christ,  and  consequently 
is  of  the  devil.'     '  We,  on  the  other  hand,  conclude  un- 
mistakably from  the  article  on  the  Holy  Scriptures  that 
Finck  and  his  companions  are  of  the  devil.'     Likewise 
'  from  the  articles  on  the  holiness,  love,  mercy,  and 
compassion  of  God,  which  make  God  out  a   fiendish, 
tyrannical,  and  cruel  God,  for   they  say  that  God  has 
predestined  some  people  to  eternal  torment  and  damna- 
tion .  .  .  that  God  is  not  more  indissolubly  connected 
with  us  than  with  unreasoning  beasts,  oxen,  fleas,  or 
gnats.     As  little  as  we  men  are  unjust  if  to-day  we 
slaughter  this  head  of  cattle,  to-morrow  that  other  one, 
so  little  is  God  unjust  if  He  condemns  some  people  of 
His  own  arbitrary  will.'     '  In  the  article  on  the  Person 
of  Christ '  the  Calvinists  say  :  '  Just  as  little  as  it  follows 


GEDICKE   AND   BRANDENBURG   CALVINISTS         311 

that  a  criminal  or  a  murderer  is  exactly  the  same  length 
as  the  gallows  on  which  he  hangs,  so  little  does  it  follow 
that  Christ  extends  as  far  as  the  right  hand  of  God 
on  which  He  sits.'  In  the  article  on  the  Holy  Ghost 
they  make  out  '  .  .  .  a  newly-born  Christian  cannot 
commit  a  deadly  sin,  or  lose  his  faith,  or  forfeit  God's 
grace  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  David  retained  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  midst  of  adultery  and  murder.  Indeed, 
when  a  Christian  commits  adultery  it  is  as  little  a  sin 
in  the  sight  of  God  as  when  a  bull  serves  a  whole  herd 
of  cows  and  heifers.'  In  the  article  on  the  justification 
of  poor  sinners  before  God,  '  they  speak  from  the  devil.' 
In  the  article  on  the  sacrament  of  holy  baptism  they 
write  :  '  it  is  better  that  the  devil  himself,  if  only  he  were 
an  appointed  preacher,  should  baptise,  than  that  a 
Christian  woman  should  do  so.'  In  all  these  cases, 
altogether  fifteen  in  number,  Gedicke  settles  that  Finck 
and  his  followers  are  incontestably  the  mouthpiece  of 
the  devil,  and  he  sums  everything  up  in  the  words  : 
'  Let  me  conclude  this  little  treatise  with  the  following 
argument  against  Finck  :  "  Whosoever  is  against  Christ 
is  of  the  devil.  The  Calvinists  are  against  Christ  in 
the  articles  enumerated ;  therefore  they  are  of  the 
devil."  '  l 

By  this  work  Gedicke  '  had  avenged  the  honour  of 
Christ.'  He  was  quite  a  different  '  fighter  for  God  ' 
than  Pelargus,  whom  the  provincial  Estates  had  vainly 
implored  '  to  combat  that  sneaking  wolf  Finck.'  2 

Gedicke  was  strongly  supported  by  Matthias  Hoe, 

1  Abfertigung  der  sakramentierischen  Bespiegelung  Salomon  Finckens 
(1615),  pp.  1-6,  8-10,  42-60.  He  accused  Finck  of  inordinate  wickedness 
and  premeditated  deceit.  Falsehood  and  frightful  unbelief  dwelt  in  this 
Finck,  pp.  11-13. 

2  See  Reformationswerk  in  Kurbrandenburg,  pp.  240-244. 


312  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

court  preacher  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  who  could 
'  take  no  more  pleasure  in  life  if  compelled  to  be  silent 
concerning  the  Calvinistic  horrors  and  soul  murderers 
in  the  Mark  Brandenburg.'  In  1614  he  wrote  :  '  An 
indispensable  and  true-hearted  reminder  in  the  Name 
of  God  to  all  zealous  Lutheran  Christians  '  in  the  Mark, 
'  by  no  manner  of  means  to  allow  themselves  to  become 
associated  with  the  Calvinistic  poison  of  souls  and  the 
newly-published  Stimpel  Confession.'  The  Calvinists 
had  made  Lutheranism  disgusting  to  the  Elector ;  the 
Borlin  Confession  falsely  asserted  that  they  (the  Cal- 
vinists) did  not  deny  the  Godhead  of  Christ.  In  the 
doctrine  of  the  Person  of  Christ,  '  the  Berliners  say  they 
believe  that  Christ  is  the  eternal  Son  of  God.  The  other 
Calvinists,  also,  in  the  main,  talk  in  the  same  manner. 
At  the  same  time,  however,  they  use  words  by  which 
the  divinity  of  Christ  is  denied  in  genuine  Turkish, 
Jewish,  and  Arian  fashions.'  It  is  a  scandal  that  they 
should  disturb  the  dead  Electors  in  their  peaceful  graves 
by  accusing  them  of  having  left  remnants  of  '  popish 
abominations  '  in  their  schools.  He  prayed  that  God 
might  '  frustrate  the  machinations  of  the  devil  and  his 
tools,'  and  preserve  in  their  steadfastness  the  orthodox 
Christians  who  had  not  bowed  the  knee  '  before  the 
Calvinistic  Baal.'  : 

The  Calvinists  boast,  said  Hoe  in  another  pamphlet, 
of  never  having  been  rejected  in  a  general  Church 
assembly ;  but  they  ought  rather  '  to  be  heartily 
ashamed  of  this  circumstance.'  For  Zwingli,  Carl- 
stadt,  Calvin,  and  other  Sacramentarians  had  been  false 
prophets.     God,  however,  never  said  that  the  doctrine 

'    Unvermeidliche  Erinnerung,  pp.  3-8,  43-44,  45-46,  73  ff.,  104,  106, 
110,  162  ff. 


MATTHIAS   HOE   AND   BRANDENBURG   CALVINISTS      313 

of  a  false  prophet  was  to  be  referred  to  a  council.  Christ 
had  not  held  any  council  in  opposition  to  the  Pharisees 
and  Sadducees,  nor  had  Peter  held  a  council  against 
Simon  the  sorcerer,  but  he  had  simply  declared  the 
latter  to  be  an  arch-heretic,  both  in  Samaria  and  at 
Rome.  '  How  comes  it  that  the  Calvinists  so  furiously 
condemn  the  anabaptist  doctrine,  the  synergist  doctrine, 
the  Flacian  doctrine,  antinomiansm,  the  new  Photinian 
doctrine,  when  none  of  these  doctrines  have  been  venti- 
lated or  investigated  at  any  single  regular  council  ? 
Could  not  the  Turks  by  such  reasoning  free  their  Alcoran 
from  reproach  ?  '  Hoe  uttered  urgent  warnings  against 
a  religious  conference  which  the  Elector  had  called  for. 
The  Berlin  Calvinists,  he  said,  put  the  horse  behind 
the  waggon.  After  having  carried  out  their  Calvinistic 
deformation  at  Berlin,  and  when  the  cart  is  already 
sticking  in  the  mud,  they  begin  to  ask  whether  the 
proceeding  is  just  or  unjust.  Moreover,  none  but 
preachers  from  Berlin  and  Cologne-on-the-Spree  are  to 
take  part  in  the  conference,  and  they  are  first  of  all 
to  be  intimidated  by  having  to  report  themselves  to 
the  court.  '  They  may  hold  conferences  as  often  and 
as  long  as  they  like :  not  one  of  the  Calvinist  heretics 
will  let  himself  be  easily  converted.'  1 

In  a  '  Grundlicher  Beweis  von  den  gotteslasterlichen 
Reden  der  Calvinisten '  ('  well-grounded  proof  of  the 
blasphemous  talk  of  the  Calvinists  '),  Hoe  insists  that  '  a 
true  Calvinist  must  learn  how  to  slander  and  revile  the 
Lutherans.'  '  He  must  learn  to  call  us  cannibals, 
blood-suckers,  men-eaters,  as  Calvin  and  Beza  call  us 
repeatedly,  and  as  we  are  also  called  in  their  public 

1  Kurzer  Dislcurs,  ob  die  calvinische  Lehr  ohne  ein  Konzil  zu  verdamnen 
sei  (1614),  pp.  7-9,  11-12,  22,  33-34. 


314  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

confession.'  '  He  must  call  us  eaters  of  the  Lord  God, 
as  Beza  does.  He  must  learn,  with  Beza,  to  call  us 
God- gobblers.  He  must  learn  to  ring  the  changes  on 
all  that  is  foul  .  .  .  also  to  ask  the  young  boys  and 
girls  whether  there  can  be  anything  left  of  Christ  since 
the  Lutherans  have  been  eating  Him  for  such  a  long 
while  ?  Whether  they  will  not  soon  have  quite  eaten 
Him  up  ?  Whether  any  morsels  of  Him  are  left  sticking 
on  their  teeth  ?  Lying,  denying,  and  slandering  are 
their  daily  bread.'  x 

'  The  Berliners '  were  not  behindhand  in  answering, 
but  they  evinced  great  moderation  in  so  doing,  and 
they  endeavoured  to  show  from  Luther's  works  that 
the  latter  had  himself  propounded  several  dogmas  which 
Hoe  anathematised  as  Calvinistic.  Thus,  for  instance, 
Luther,  as  well  as  Calvin,  had  persistently  taught  that 
God  had  purposed  the  fall  of  Adam  and  Eve.L'  In  the 
book  on  the  '  Slavish  Will,'  Luther  taught  the  same  doc- 
trine as  Calvin,  '  and  if  Calvin  had  expounded  it  in  this 
way  all  Lutherans  would  have  decried  it  as  the  worst 
possible  heresy  and  sacrilege  ;  but  because  Luther  had 
written  it,  they  were  obliged  to  hold  their  tongues  and 
reflect  somewhat,  for  in  the  Formula  of  Concord  it  was 
said  that  this  was  his  best  book.'  3  On  the  other  hand, 
Hoe  drew  attention  to  '  the  godly  zeal  against  the 
sacramentarian   abominations   in   which    Luther,     the 


1  Griindlicher  Beweis  (1614),  pp.  20,  184-185. 

2  Frei  Peter,  ein  christlich  und  ernst  Gespriich  von  den  zwei  Artikeln, 
niimlich  von  Gottes  Wort  und  von  Gott  selbst,  mit  welchen  Dr.  Hoe  .  .  .  sick 
unterstanden  die  reformierten  Kirchen  zu  beschweren,  gehalten  im  freien 
Felde  zwischen  Berlin  und  Brandenburg  (Berlin,  1614).  Das  ander  Ge- 
sprach  .  .  .  1615. 

3  Theodoras  Lazarus,  Synopsis  doctrinae  Lutheranae  et  Calvinianae 
(1615),  p.  16. 


MATTHIAS   HOE    AND  BRANDENBURG   CALVINISTS      315 

saintly  man,  had  died,  to  the  energy  and  skill  with 
which  he  had  refuted  them,  and  condemned  them  to 
the  abyss  of  hell.'  Through  the  Berlin  defamers,  he 
said,  the  devil  had  shaken  out  an  incense-powder  and 
left  a  stench  behind  him.1 

As  in  Hesse,  so  also  in  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg, 
the  controversy  about  the  Hosts  became  an  opportunity 
for  passionate  invective  and  abuse.  To  the  Calvinists 
it  seemed  incomprehensible  that  the  Lutherans,  although 
they  had  '  divested  themselves  of  the  popish  anti- 
christian  devil's  works,'  should  nevertheless  stand  up 
so  zealously  for  the  use  of  the  Hosts.  '  It  was  to  these 
Hosts  and  their  elevation  during  divine  service '  that 
people  attributed  the  fact  that,  '  although  the  Gospel 
had  already  been  preached  in  all  its  purity  for  so  many 
decades,  the  people  both  of  the  upper  and  the  lower 
classes  still  at  heart  clung  steadfastly  to  the  popish 
abomination  of  veneration  of  the  bread.'  James  Fabri- 
cius,  rector  at  Dantzig,  put  the  question,  '  How  it 
could  come  to  pass  that  in  such  a  small  bit  of  bread, 
which  had  neither  the  taste  nor  the  smell  of  bread, 
Christ,  a  man  of  six  and  a  half  feet,  could  possibly  be 
contained.'  2 

The  Hosts,  Theodore  Lazarus  declared,  were  intro- 
duced by  Pope  Sergius,  surnamed  Os  porci — i.e.  swine's 
snout — in  the  sacrifice  of  the  papists,  as  a  target  for 
contempt  and  ridicule.  '  They  could  not  be  regarded  as 
real  bread,  for  they  had  neither  the  name  of  bread,  nor 
its  form  and  substance,  nor  its  qualities,  neither  were 

1  Wohlgegriindete    V erantwortung   auf    das   calvinische   Liistergesprach 
aus  Berlin  (1614),  Bl.  B.  3ab,  D  4b. 

2  Tholuck,  Das  kirchliche  Leben,  i.  264.     Such,  was  the  grossness  of 
the  conception  of  the  holy  mystery. 


316  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

they  to  be  got  from  bakers'  shops.  The  crucifix  on  the 
Hosts  was  enough  in  itself  to  warrant  their  abolition, 
for  the  people  were  befooled  by  this  sign  into  thinking 
that  Christ  was  present  in  them  in  His  own  substance.'  1 
In  order  to  effect  the  gradual  introduction  of  the  Cal- 
vinistic  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist,  the  same  means  were 
employed  as  in  Hesse.  '  The  Hosts,'  wrote  George 
Frank,  in  a  scheme  for  an  inspectoral  council  (Entwurf 
eines  Visitationshonsilii)  drafted  for  the  Elector,  '  are 
baked  tolerably  thick  in  some  places,  in  order  that 
those  who  wish  to  swallow  them  should  be  obliged  to 
grind  them  with  their  teeth.'  2 

The  Wittenberg  professor  Leonard  Hutter  also 
ranged  himself  on  the  side  of  Hoe  as  a  zealous  fighter 
for  '  the  holy,  pure,  infallible  Lutheran  doctrine.'  The 
Calvinists,  he  said,  wickedly  endeavour  to  persuade 
God,  angels,  and  men  that  black  is  white,  and  that 
lies  are  truth.  We  must  beware  of  them  even  at  the 
risk  of  vexing  the  devil  and  his  grandmother.  If  the 
Berliners  believe  that  the  Calvinists  are  one  with  the 
Lutherans  in  the  fundamental  truths  of  the  faith,  why 
do  they  call  us  '  Nestorians,  Eutychianers,  Capernaites, 
idolaters,  popish  hypocrites,  flesh-eaters,  blood-suckers, 
and  so  forth  ?  Why  have  they  driven  the  Lutherans 
out  of  the  Palatinate,  out  of  Hesse,  and  so  forth  ? ' 
Christopher  Pezel  says  in  his  missive  to  the  licentiate 
Hamelmann,  that  the  Lutherans  are  no  Christians, 
nor  sheep  in  the  fold  of  Christ.  George  Hanenfeld 
'  hands  us  over,  with  our  fundamentals  of  the  faith, 
to  the  devil  and  eternal  damnation.  Yea,  verily,  the 
Palatine  theologians  write  in  their  Confession,  p.  167  : 

1  Synopsis  (see  above,  p.  314,  note  3),  p.  161  ff. 

2  Tholuck,  Das  kirchliche  Leben,  i.  263. 


LEONARD   IIUTTER   AND   BRANDENBURG  CALVINISTS    317 

"  The  foundation  of  the  Christian  doctrine  and  religion 
is  markedly  falsified  by  our  opponents  and  the  door 
opened  for  the  wolves — i.e.  the  heretics  and  enemies 
of  Christ — to  rush  into  the  fold."  '  ' 

In  a  '  notwendige  Antwort '  (necessary  answer)  to  the 
Berlin  '  New  Tidings '  of    Hans    Knorr   and    Benedict 
Hobrecht,  Hutter  expressed  the   fear  that   '  it  almost 
seems  as  if  God  now,  as  in  the  days  of  the  impious 
King  Ahab,  was  allowing  the  devil  to  trouble  the  whole 
of  Israel,  and  as  if  a  false  spirit  of  lying  were  in  the 
mouths    of    all    Calvinistic    prophets    and    preachers.' 
'  Not  to  please  the  devil,  who  is  not  worth  answering,' 
but  for  the  instruction  of  perplexed  souls,  Hutter  felt 
bound  to  take  up  the  cudgels  against  the  '  New  Tidings.' 
If   Hobrecht   said   that   cursing   and   slandering    were 
common  among  the  Lutherans,  these  and  other  vices 
could  not  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  Lutheran  doc- 
trine ;  for,  '  to  judge  by  Squire  Hobrecht' s  method  of 
disputation,  the  Calvinistic  doctrines  might  equally  be 
condemned  as  false  and  erroneous  simply  and  solely  on 
this  same  ground,  for  it  showed  plainly  that  gross  sins, 
such  as    cursing,   swearing,   blasphemy,   gluttony    and 
drunkenness,  fornication  and    profligacy  were  just  as 
much,  if  not  more,  in  vogue  in  the  Calvinist  Church  as 
in  the  Lutheran.'  2     The  Berliners  had  asserted  that 
'  the  Lutheran  preachers  impose  auricular  confession  as 
a  strict  obligation,  that  they  forgive  sins  for  half  a 
thaler,  which  the  penitents  are  compelled  to  pay  down, 

1  Calvinista  aulico-politicus  alter,  that  is  :  Christlicher  und  notwendiger 
Begriff  von  den  fiirnehmsten  politischen  Hawptgriinden,  durch  welche  man 
die  verdammte  Calvinisterei  in  die  hochlobliclie  Chur-  und  Mark-Branden- 
burg einzufiihren  sich  eben  stark  bemiihet  (Wittenberg,  1614),  pp.  151-161, 
174. 

3  Notwendige  Antwort,  p.  10. 


318  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  that  they  do  not  concern  themselves  as  to  whether 
the  receivers  of  the  Sacrament  understand  the  faith. 
If  only  the  half-thaler  is  paid,  the  father  confessor  will 
lay  his  hand  on  the  head  of  the  penitent  and  say  : 
"  Thy  sins  are  forgiven. "  '  Thereupon  Hutter  replied, 
without  denying  the  payment  of  half  a  thaler  as  a  con- 
fession fee  :  '  When  the  pamphleteer  tries  to  convince 
the  people  that  our  penitents  imagine  that  the  pay- 
ment of  half  a  thaler  to  the  confessor  gives  efficacy  to 
the  absolution,  he  is  inventing  a  wicked,  diabolical  lie, 
and  villainously  calumniating  and  degrading  our  Church. 
We  would  advise  the  present-day  Calvinist  priests, 
such  as  Flinck,  Fiissel,  Clotho,  and  others,  to  look  into 
their  own  consciences  and  to  consider  well  what  it  is 
that  they  have  chiefly  had  regard  to  hitherto,  in  their 
own  public  confessing  and  absolving,  and  which  of 
them,  as  the  tale  goes,  has  received  a  confession  fee  of 
several  hundred,  if  not  thousand,  imperial  thalers,  and 
what  bad  blood  this  has  made,  so  that  Missel  and 
Flinck,  it  is  said,  wrestled  together  and  bravely  pom- 
melled their  Calvinistic  heads  about  it.' l 

When  the  Elector,  during  the  Lent  season  of  1615, 
commissioned  his  brother  John  George,  governor  of 
the  Mark,  to  have  the  altars,  crosses,  and  images  re- 
moved from  the  Berlin  cathedral  church,  Dean  Stuler 
inveighed  indignantly  in  the  Church  of  St.  Peter  against 
this  '  sacrilege,'  and  then  informed  his  adherents  that 
he  should  be  taken  to  prison  on  account  of  his  sermon. 
Thereupon    the    burghers    and    young    men    collected 

1  Notwendige  Antwori,  pp.  12-13,  14-16,  51-52.  For  the  slandering  of 
Lutheran  ceremonies  by  the  Leidiger  calvinischer  Teufel,  and  the  ber- 
linische  Spiegelmacher  und  Brillenreiner,  see  p.  192,  gegen  die  berlinischen 
neuen  Zeitungen,  Bl.  I). 


SERMONS   AND    RIOTS   IN    BRANDENBURG,  1617       319 

together,  some  of  them  providing  themselves  with  fire- 
arms. The  governor,  who,  in  company  with  some 
armed  men,  attempted  to  restore  quiet,  was  wounded 
in  the  thigh  with  a  stone.  The  alarm  bell  was  rung, 
and  the  house  of  Martin  Fiissel,  who  had  become  court 
preacher  in  place  of  Gedicke,  was  completely  looted. 
After  the  tumult  had  been  allayed,  Fiissel  appeared  in 
the  pulpit  on  Good  Friday  '  in  unusual  apparel — 
namely,  in  an  undergarment  and  a  green  camisole, 
which  was  all  the  clothing  left  him.'  He  had  only  with 
difficulty  saved  his  own  life  and  those  of  his  wife  and 
children  from  the  infuriated  mob.1  The  Lutheran- 
minded  Electress,  it  was  reported,  had  said,  concerning 
the  rising,  that  '  the  people  ought  not  to  let  themselves 
be  robbed  of  the  preacher  Stuler.' 

In  other  towns  of  the  Mark  also  riots  occurred. 
At  Lindau,  in  the  county  of  Ruppin,  the  burghers  and 
the  Lutheran  nuns  opposed  the  installation  of  a  preacher 
appointed  by  John  Sigismund,  and  only  gave  in  when  a 
captain  came  to  them  with  the  threat  that  '  the  Elector 
would  avenge  this  disobedience  in  the  most  summary 
manner  on  clergy  and  laity,  on  young  and  old,  in  order 
to  make  an  example  of  them  to  others.'  At  Stendal 
'  evil-disposed  people  tore  about  at  night  with  torches, 
and  indulged  in  blasphemous  jesting  by  holding  Com- 
munion services  after  the  manner  of  the  reformed 
Church.'  2  In  the  town  of  Brandenburg  also  there 
was  dissatisfaction  with  John  Sigismund.  He  had  pre- 
scribed the  use  of  a  Church  prayer  in  which  God  was 
invoked  '  to  strengthen  this  land  and  people  through 
the  might  of  His  Spirit  and  His  Word,  that  they  might 

1  Fuller  details  in  Hering,  pp.  279-299. 

2  Hering,  pp.  275,  320  ;  cf.  pp.  310-311. 


320  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

fight  with  pure  hearts  for  the  evangel.'  The  Branden- 
burg preachers  sent  in  a  petition  against  this  enactment 
in  1616.  '  If,'  they  said,  '  prayer  was  offered  up  for 
the  strengthening  of  the  followers  of  both  religions,  a 
great  confusion  of  both  religions  would  ensue.;  but  if 
only  one  religion  was  meant,  then  one  would  be  praying 
against  the  other.'  '  With  their  antagonists  in  doctrine,' 
they  said  in  an  address  to  the  town  council,  '  they 
could  have  no  fellowship  in  prayer,  and  they  could  as 
little  obey  this  injunction  as  faithful  shepherds  could 
obey  the  wolf's  orders.'  The  Brandenburg  Archdeacon 
Ulrich  Nagel  turned  the  Superintendent  Joachim  Gar- 
caus  '  away  from  the  Communion '  in  the  presence  of 
the  whole  congregation,  because  he  wanted  to  receive 
the  Sacrament  without  having  first  made  private  con- 
fession. Nagel  was  deposed  from  his  office.  But  the 
other  preachers  also  stood  out  for  the  necessity  of 
private  absolution,  until  John  Sigismund  threatened 
them  with  the  severest  punishment.  '  Luther  himself,' 
he  said,  '  when  he  went  to  the  Communion,  never  con- 
fessed beforehand.'  ]  '  Illumined  with  the  light  of  divine 
truth,'  wrote  the  Elector  in  1616,  'he  abhorred  with  his 
whole  heart '  '  the  dogma  of  ubiquity,'  as  also  '  the 
popish  abomination  of  eating  the  Body  of  Christ  with 
the  mouth.'  He  would  not  have  these  dogmas  taught 
and  advocated  in  his  schools  and  churches.2 

Accordingly,  he  altered  with  his  own  hand  the 
statutes  of  the  theological  faculty  at  the  University  of 
Frankfort- on- the- Oder,  and  placed  reformed  professors 
there.     '  The  Calvinist  dragon,'  wrote  John  Affelmann, 

1  Hering,  pp.  313-320. 

2  Cyprian's    Unterricht   von  kirchlichen    Vereinigung  der  Protestanten* 
Beil.  No.  5. 


SECTARIAN    WRANGLES   IN   BRANDENBURG,    1617      321 

professor  at  Rostock,  '  will  henceforth  ravage  the  fold 
of  Christ  at  Frankfort.'  :  The  locusts  '  spoken  of  in 
the  Book  of  Revelation  '  were  nothing  else  than  the 
Mohammedan  sects  that  had  sprung  up  at  the  present 
day  out  of  the  papacy — namely,  the  Calvinist  Zwinglians 
and  the  Zwinglian  Calvinists — for  St.  John  spoke  of 
locusts  that  had  left  the  smoke  and  darkness  of  popish 
power  and  had  gone  out  from  the  papacy.'  ] 

'  How  greatly  the  minds  of  men  were  everywhere 
inflamed  '  became  evident  also  in  Konigsberg,  where 
the  elector  attended  the  Communion  in  the  hall  of  the 
castle  on  Easter  Day  1617,  in  the  presence  of  a  number 
of  Calvinist  converts.  The  court  preacher  and  pro- 
fessor, John  Behm,  was  so  indignant  that  on  the  follow- 
ing day  he  preached  a  sermon  in  the  castle  church 
on  the  text,  '  I  will  turn  your  feasts  into  mourning, 
and  all  your  songs  into  lamentation '  (Amos  viii.  10). 
'  This  threat,'  he  said,  '  concerns  us  all  now  at  this 
moment,  inasmuch  as  the  Calvinistic  rabble  held  their 
Calvinistic  bread-breaking  here  yesterday,  and  people 
nocked  to  it  from  all  corners,  so  that  they  have  grown 
to  a  great  multitude,  and  they  will  now  proclaim  and 
boast  that  such  and  such  a  number  have  joined  their 
religion  in  our  land.  Anyone  who  does  not  see  this 
harm  done  to  Joseph  is  dishonoured  and  deceived.'  He 
attacked  the  Elector  personally.  *  It  is  stated  in  plain 
words,'  he  said,  '  that  the  grievances  in  the  land  are 
going  to  be  redressed ;  but  how  far  this  is  being  done 
the  actual  proceedings  clearly  show.  More  and  more 
fresh  grievances  are  introduced,  so  that  the  misery 
becomes  greater  and  greater.  We  shall  be  reduced  in 
the  end  to  "  sitting  on  hard  stools."      They  promised 

1  Calvinische  Heuschrecken,  Bl.  A  3. 
VOL.   X.  Y 


322  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

us  that  they  would  maintain  the  constitution  of  the 
land,  but  the  way  in  which  this  is  done  is  a  sin  and  a 
shame.  The  constitutions  of  the  land  require,  among 
other  things,  that  no  Calvinistic  doctrine  should  be 
tolerated  and  propagated  in  it.  This  was  sworn  with 
a  solemn  oath  under  the  open  heavens.  But  Grod  have 
mercy  upon  us,  how  has  this  oath  been  kept !  Con- 
sider well,  dear  Christians,  the  heavy  grievances  of 
your  country.  It  is  high  time  we  should  pray  to  God 
that  He  would  overmaster  the  devil,  and  prevent  him 
proceeding  any  further  with  the  work  he  has  in  mind.'  l 

'  In  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg  ' — so  the  Saxon  court 
preacher  Matthias  Hoe  declared  in  1618 — '  the  devil  has 
now  established  a  Calvinistic  stronghold.'  In  another 
pamphlet  he  maintained  that  '  in  twenty-nine  points 
the  Calvinists  are  in  agreement  with  the  Arians  and 
the  Turks.'  Zacharias  Faber,  Lutheran  elder  and 
pastor  at  Hohenleime,  went  still  further  than  Hoe. 
He  '  could  bring  forward  two  hundred,  if  need  be  three 
hundred,  proofs  to  show  that  the  Calvinistic  doctrine 
was  far  worse  than  that  of  the  devil.'  2 

If  the  Protestant  theologians  and  preachers  could 
everywhere  denounce  each  other  with  such  vehemence, 
it  is  easy  to  understand  the  way  in  which  they  opposed 
the  Jesuits,  against  whom  they  united  all  their  polemical 
forces. 

1  Hering,  pp.  339-342.  2  Hering,  pp.  93-97. 


323 


CHAPTER   IX 


CONTROVERSIAL  WRITINGS  AGAINST  THE  JESUITS —  THE 
ORIGIN  OF  THE  ORDER  ' — '  PRIVATE  CRIMES  OF  THE 
FATHERS ' 1 

The  opinions  held  by  the  Protestants  in  general  about 
the  Jesuits  were  summed  up  briefly  by  the  theologian 
Conrad  Schlusselburg  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, in  the  following  words  :  '  I  firmly  believe  that  the 
race  of  Jesuits  was  not  created  by  God,  but  by  the 
devil.'  2  '  What,  however,'  argued  another  theologian, 
'  has  come  forth  from  the  devil,  what  has  been  called 
up  and  promulgated  by  his  vice-regent,  can  only  act 
and  proceed  in  a  devilish  fashion,  and  the  Jesuits  are 
themselves  devils  incarnate,  the  principal  wicked  angels 
of  the  ninth  chapter  of  the  Apocalypse,  which  sting 
like  snakes  and  scorpions,  as  the  Apocalypse  itself 
testifies.  Whosoever  trusts  in  these  angels  cannot  be 
master  of  his  reason  ;  whosoever  does  not  hate  them 
has  no  love  of  God  ;  and  whosoever  holds  fellowship 

1  A  large  collection  of  writings,  poems,  and  caricatures,  which  appeared 
in  Germany  against  the  Jesuits,  catalogued  by  De  Backer,  i.  74-78,  and  iii. 
1890-1891.  M.  Lipenius,  Bibl.  realis  philosophica  (Francofurti,  1682)  ; 
pp.  707-711.  Numerous  supplements  to  these  are  found  in  the  first  and 
second  volumes  of  Weller's  Annals.  Numbers  of  publications  are  dis- 
cussed by  Stieve  in  the  first  and  second  volumes  of  the  Politik  Bayerns ; 
see  the  Register  under  '  Jesuiten  :  Angriffe  und  Hass  gegen  sie.' 

2  Schlusselburg,  viii.  12.  Concerning  Schlusselburg  (|1619),  see  Allge- 
meine  deutsche  Biographie,  xxxi.  606  ff. 

x  2 


324  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

with  them  exposes  himself  to  everlasting  damnation  in 
the  pit  of  brimstone.'  l 

Language  of  this  sort  was  held  against  the  Jesuits 
as  early  as  in  the  first  decade  of  their  labours  in  Ger- 
many. Already  in  1556  the  theologian  John  Wigand 
declared  that  the  Fathers  were  '  the  very  worst  and 
most  infamous  betrayers  and  persecutors  of  Christ,' 
intent  only  on  robbery  and  plunder  and  on  seducing 
the  people  into  everlasting  hell-fire.  Father  Canisius  in 
especial  was  a  worshipper  of  idols,  an  execrable  blas- 
phemer, and  a  shameless  devil.  In  the  German  trans- 
lation by  the  preacher  Zanger  of  the  Chemnitz  pamphlet 
on  the  Jesuits  it  says,  a  few  years  later :  '  These 
scoundrels  vomit  forth  their  abominable  obscenities 
from  their  stinking  jaws  in  order  to  besmirch,  annul, 
cancel,  and  repudiate  the  Word  of  God.'  The  Fathers, 
he  said,  were  '  treacherous,  perjured,  oath-breaking, 
dishonourable,  abandoned,  infamous  villains.'  Tilmann 
Hesshus,  Wilhelm  Eoding,  and  Paul  Scheidlich  ex- 
pressed themselves  in  a  similar  manner.2  '  The  blas- 
phemous Jesuits,'  wrote  Flacius  Illyricus,  '  these  new 
false  prophets  are  indeed  the  new  frogs  which  the  Anti- 
christ vomits  up,  as  is  written  in  the  Apocalypse,  and 
the  locusts  of  which  this  same  book  prophesies  that  they 
will  come  forth  from  the  pit  of  hell  in  the  time  of  the 
Antichrist  and  will  befoul  and  pollute  everything  in  the 
world,  yea  even  in  the  Church  itself.  They  have  a  very 
harlot's  brow  and  are  ashamed  of  nothing.'  3  After 
the  Dillinger  Jesuits  had  published  a  series  of  '  theo- 

1  Mengering,  p.  12.  See  what  the  astronomer  Lambert  Floridus 
Plieninger  says  in  his  short  memorandum  on  the  Emendation  des  Jahrs 
(see  above,  p.  63,  note  1),  pp.  82-85. 

2  See  our  statements,  vol.  viii.  pp.  237-239,  282-292. 

3  Etliche  hochwiclitige  Ursachen,  &c.,  Bl.  C  4,  C  7b. 


JOHANN   FISCHART   ON   THE   JESUITS  325 

logical  propositions '  which  they  based  on  the  first 
epistle  of  Paul  to  Timothy,  two  Stuttgardt  doctors  of 
theology,  Wilhelm  Bidenbach  and  Lukas  Osiander, 
directed  a  '  pious  rejoinder  '  at  them  in  1566  which  ran 
as  follows  :  '  You  have  resolved  to  extirpate  all  religion  ; 
up  then,  plunder  the  Holy  Scriptures,  burn  them  on 
funeral  piles,  throw  the  ashes  into  the  water.'  They 
accused  the  Fathers,  '  openly  before  the  whole  com- 
munity of  the  Son  of  God,'  of  being  '  Jews,  Turks,  and 
heathen.'  '  Beware,'  they  exclaim  to  their  readers, 
'  of  what  the  wicked  spirit  vomits  forth  through  his 
slaves  from  his  pit  of  hell.'  '  The  "  Jebusites  "  have  no 
scruple  whatever  in  referring  to  the  sham  Council  of 
Trent  as  to  a  synod  of  undoubted  authority — that 
council  at  which  the  Antichrist  and  his  satellites  pre- 
sided, and  whose  judges  were  people  burdened  with  the 
most  execrable  crimes,  with  worship  of  idols,  with 
blasphemy,  lying,  sacrilege,'  and  so  forth.1 

The  poet  Johann  Fischart  was  regarded  as  one  of 
'  the  manliest  Christian  combatants  against  the 
Jebusitish,  diabolical  wickedness.'  His  poem  '  Nachtrab 
oder  Nebelkrah?  which  appeared  in  1570,  is  in  its 
outward  form  a  pasquinade  against  the  convert  Jacob 
Rabe,  but  in  substance  it  is  essentially  intended 
to  drag  the  life  and  teaching  of  the  Jesuits  in  the 
mire,  and,  while  undermining  all  respect  for  them, 
to  put  a  stop  also  to  their  further  activity  in 
Germany.2  Fischart  describes  the  origin,  the  spread, 
and  the  labours  of  the  Order  in  a  detailed  rhyme 
chronicle,    but    feature    by    feature    the    portrait    is 

1  AdJ  esuitarum  Assertiones  .  .  pia  Responsio  (Tiibingae,  1566),  pp.  30, 
53,  69,  91,  150,  184,  192,  200,  209,  213,  229-232. 

2  Kurz,  i.  1-97  ;  not  less  than  3,755  doggerel  rhymes. 


326  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

degraded  into  the  most  frightful  and  indecent  carica- 
ture. The  humane,  benevolent,  loving  labours  of  the 
Fathers  in  the  hospitals,  their  night-watches  by  the 
sick-beds,  are  perverted  in  the  most  abominable 
manner.1 

Fischart  gained  special  renown  in  the  year  1580  on 
account  of  a  satire  on  a  French  poem 2  entitled  Das 
Jesuitenhutlein,  which  consisted  of  1,140  abusive  verses.3 
In  these  he  describes  how  the  devil,  for  the  advance- 
ment of  his  dominion,  first  of  all  formed  the  one-horned 
monk's  cap  out  of  idleness,  false  simplicity,  hypocrisy, 
and  deceit;  then  the  two-horned  bishop's  hat,  the 
wearers  of  which  '  devour  widows'  alms  and  feed  their 
pomp  and  pride  on  the  sweat  and  blood  of  others.' 
Thirdly,  the  devil  fashions  the  three-fold  papal  horn, 
made  up  of  every  imaginable  vice  and  crime  :  avarice, 
envy,  lust,  poisoning,  sedition,  treachery,  perjury, 
sodomy,  and  sorcery. 

The  horn  is  brought  to  Rome,  where  a  pope  is 
chosen  : 

And  all  is  done  as  Satan  bids, 
The  world  henceiorth  invested  lies 
With  the  threefold  horn,  and  nought 
But  crime  to  perpetrate,  it's  taught. 

After  this  has  been  done  all  hell  is  requisitioned  to  work 
at  the  four-horned  Jesuit  hat,  which  '  must  have  four 
times  as  much  poison  in  it  as  the  others,  because  it  is 
to  be  commissioned  with  four  times  as  much  villainy 

1  Most  of  these  rhymes  are  not  fit  for  reproduction.  The  reader  who 
wishes  to  make  their  acquaintance  is  referred  to  the  original  German, 
vol.  v.  p.  553  ff. — Translator. 

2  See  Kurz,  Archiv  fur  das  Studium  der  neueren  Sprachen,  pp.  35,  61-78. 
Kurz,  Fischarts  Dichtungen,  ii.  xxxv-xtjv. 

3  Kurz,  Dichtungen,  ii.  241-271. 


JOHANN   FISCHART   ON   THE   JESUITS  327 

of  the  worst  description,  and  those  who  wear  it  are  to 
be  called  after  me  (Satan)  "  Satanites,"  because  they, 
too,  rage  against  Jesus.' 

The  thread  of  the  biretta  was  stiffened   with   wax 
'  and  pitch  from  Gomorrah  '  : 

Weave  into  it  idolatry, 
Bedazzlement  and  sorcery, 
The  devil's  cunning  and  deceit, 
Soft  flattery  and  poison  sweet ; 
The  hindmost  horn  by  fiends  galore 
With  devil's  trimming  was  decked  o'er, 
With  cruelty  and  blood-intrigues, 
With  murder  and  seditious  leagues  .  .  . 
With  secret  sins,  with  treachery, 
With  Mamelukes,  with  roguery  .  .  . 

Then  followed  the  consecration  of  the  hat  by  Lucifer  : 

Fetch  from  Vulcan's  chamber  dark 

Hell-filth,  fire,  brimstone,  smoke  and  spark ; 

Fetch  Babylonish-Romish  venom, 

Purgatory's  fetid  vapours ; 

Into  this  hat  infuse  them  well 

That  evermore  their  stench  may  smell. 

Such  a  poem  could  not  minister  to  the  elevation  of  the 
people.  At  the  consecration  of  the  hat  Lucifer  speaks 
as  follows  : 

Work  wonders  in  my  power  and  might, 
And  all  my  cuialities  preserve. 
To  mutiny  the  land  incite, 
Cause  persecution,  tyranny, 
Heighten  the  Pope's  infamy, 
His  cursing,  excommunicating ; 
Be  thou  the  agent  avIio  secures 
Worship  for  this  beast's  high  power. 


and  so  on  in  the  same  strain.1 

1  Verses  419  ff.     This  satire  went  through  several  editions,  and  has 


328  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Even  learned  theologians  adopted  the  same  method 
in  their  writings.  For  instance,  Christopher  Pezel, 
in  1599,  prefaced  his  '  Widerlegung  der  Jesuitenkate- 
chismen '  with  a  Latin  poem  which  bore  the  title : 
'  True  origin  of  the  most  execrable  Satanic  rabble,  that 
is  the  new  sect  of  arch-monks  who,  at  the  instigation 
of  the  Spanish  pig,  Ignatius  Loyola,  have  falsely 
usurped  the  most  sacred  name  of  Jesus  and  rejected 
the  name  of  Christian.'  '  God  in  His  fury,'  sings  Pezel, 
*  sent  horrible  spirits  of  vengeance  from  hell.  Before 
Satan  let  them  loose  he  called  out  to  them  three  or  four 
times  :  Procul  ab  Iesu  ite,  go  far  away  from  Jesus  ! 
Then  Father  Ignatius  rushed  up  and  caught  up  this 
phrase,  saying :  '  Yes,  you  sprigs,  worthy  of  your 
father,  procul  ab  Iesu  ite !  Henceforth  they  were 
called    Jesuits.     And    in    fact,    among    all    the    many 


even  found  admirers  in  later  times.  Vilmar  himself,  in  his  Geschichte  der 
deutschen  Nationallitteratur,  i.  (7th  edition),  p.  380,  calls  these  rhymes, 
which  reek  with  coarseness  and  indecency,  '  the  most  pungent,  witty,  and 
admirable  satire  which  was  ever  written  against  the  Jesuits.'  Kurz, 
Fischarfs  Dichtungen,  ii.  43,  reiterates  Vilmar's  praise  concerning  the 
'  masterpiece  of  satire.'  Wackernagel,  p.  89,  says  :  With  Fischart  '  satire 
first  appears  in  its  true  character  when  ridicule — and  in  the  main  this 
legend  [of  the  origin  of  the  four-cornered  Jesuit  hat]  is  a  case  in  point — 
rises  and  is  exalted  into  crushing  irony.'  Fischarfs  '  speciality,'  he  says, 
was  humour.  Of  genuine  sarcasm  and  humour  there  are  no  traces  in 
Fischarfs  religious  polemical  verses.  The  opulent  talents  of  this  man 
were  blackened  by  the  curse  of  hatred,  which  could  plentifully  destroy,  but 
was  impotent  to  build  up.  The  same  spirit  which  incensed  him  against 
the  Jesuits  prompted  his  invectives  against  the  Jews.  In  1575  he  informed 
the  German  nation  that  on  December  12,  1574,  a  Jewess  had  given  birth 
to  two  pigs  (Kurz,  iii.  70-72).  Concerning  Fischarfs  defence  of  the 
utmost  brutality  in  the  persecution  of  witches  in  a  work  intended  for 
national  reading,  see  vol.  vi.  250  fi.  (German  edition).  K.  Goedecke,  in 
Dichtungen  von  J  oh.  Fischart  (Leipzig,  1880),  xvi.  ff.,  says  that  the  pole- 
mical writings  of  Fischart  against  Jak.  Rabe,  Joh.  Nasus,  and  the  Jesuits 
can  attract  attention  at  the  present  day  only  because  they  proceed  from 
Fischart.     Krebs,  Publicistik,  p.  72,  speaks  to  precisely  the  same  effect. 


FALSE   CHARGES   AGAINST   THE   JESUITS  329 

swarms  of  false  brethren,  none  had  wandered  so  far 
from  Jesus  as  this  rabble.'  l 

A  '  Katechismus  oder  griindlicher  Bericht  von  der 
Lehre  und  Leben  der  Jesuiten,'  -  translated  from  the 
French,  could  discover  '  nothing  but  deceit  in  this 
rabble  from  the  very  beignning  of  the  Order  '  ;  even 
the  Bull  of  confirmation  of  the  Order  issued  by  Paul  III. 
had  been  obtained  by  fraud,  and  was  therefore  invalid. 
The  Jesuits  were  '  hypocritical  heretics,'  he  said,  '  a 
fresh  lot  of  monsters  and  prodigies,'  '  atheologists  '  ; 
their  sect,  in  which,  moreover,  an  anabaptism  lurked 
hidden,  had  '  been  condemned  even  in  Rome.' 

With  a  view  to  undermining  the  efficacy  of  the 
Order,  the  Fathers  were  accused  of  the  most  heinous 
crimes.3  As  early  as  1573  Duke  Albert  of  Bavaria  had 
written  :  '  We  are  well  aware  from  constant  experience 
that  the  most  absolutely  outrageous,  and  also  most  absurd 
and  utterly  baseless  reports,  are  circulated  among  the 
people  concerning  the  Fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
and  that  many  sensible  and  learned  men  believe  the 
things  said  of  them  to  be  true.  And  yet,  in  the  interest 
of  truth,  it  must  be  declared  that  all  such  reports  are  un- 
scrupulous and  abominable  inventions,  as  is  invariably 

1  Jesuiticorum  Catechismorum  Refutatio,  tradita  in  Gymnasio  Bremensi 
(Bremae,  1599). 

2  Printed  '  at  Freystadt '  (1603),  pp.  29,  108,  123-140,  328,  344,  428, 
695. 

3  Even  the  saintly  Father  Canisius  did  not  escape  the  attacks  of 
calumny.  What  Flacius  had  written  in  1565  concerning  '  a  canine 
marriage,'  said  to  have  been  celebrated  between  Canisius  and  an  abbess 
of  Mayence  (De  Sectis,  Dissensionibus,  &c,  Pontificiorum  Liber  [Basileae, 
1565],  p.  771),  was  repeated  in  the  year  1600  by  the  Lutheran  jurist 
Johann  Wolf  (Lectiones,  ii.  707),  and  again  twelve  years  later  by  the 
Dortmund  preacher  Hermann  Empsychovius  (Apologia  Orthodoxae 
Doctrinae  [Giessae,  1612],  pp.  672-673).  See  the  refutation  of  the  fable 
in  Raderus,  Vita  Canisii,  pp.  59-61,  and  Braunsberger,  ii.  800-801. 


330  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

seen  whenever  the  reports  are  thoroughly  investi- 
gated. We  and  others  have  never  found  otherwise 
than  that  the  Fathers  of  this  laudable  society  have  in 
these  unhappy  times  done  all  that  they  can  for  the 
establishment  of  justice  and  righteousness,  and  for  the 
building  up  of  a  Christian  people  by  teaching  and 
preaching,  by  ministry  in  the  hospitals,  and  by  loving 
benevolence  to  the  poor  and  the  lepers.  All  this  is 
evident  to  all  eyes  ;  but  nothing  serves  to  convince  the 
antagonists  of  our  holy  religion.'  l 

Since  that  date  the  circulation  of  outrageous  and 
absurd  calumnies  had  gone  on  with  increasing  malig- 
nity. '  Quantities  of  scurrilous  poems,  caricatures, 
and  rhymes,'  wrote  Peter  Hansonius  from  Saxony  in 
1586,  '  have  been  published  against  the  Jesuits ;  at 
Munich  they  are  said  to  have  castrated  young  boys 
for  abominable  purposes  ;  at  Vienna,  some  of  them, 
who  disguised  their  sex,  were  made  pregnant ;  they 
have  even  been  accused  of  persuading  a  poor  man  to 
pretend  that  he  was  dead  and  let  himself  be  carried 
to  church,  and  afterwards  raised  to  life  again  by  the 
Jesuits  in  confirmation  of  their  doctrine,  but  after- 
wards he  was  found  dead  in  the  coffin  ;  again,  that 
some  of  them  were  stabbed  and  killed  at  Augsburg 
whilst  revelling  at  night  in  masquerades,  that  the  same 
happened  at  Dillingen  to  a  Jesuit  sorcerer  and  his 
sorceress  ;  that  at  Prague  the  Jesuits  tried  to  hoist  a 
shameless  woman  in  a  cask  up  to  the  college  windows, 
but  that  the  bottom  fell  out  of  the  cask  and  woman 
and  Jesuits  were  put  to  public  shame  ;  and  there  were 
many  more  libels  and  caricatures  of  this  scurrilous, 
indecent   nature,   which   were   everywhere   hailed   and 

1  See  our  statement  in  vol.  viii.  315-320. 


FALSE   CHARGES   AGAINST   THE   JESUITS  331 

devoured  by  the  people  with  loud  laughter  and  acclama- 
tion. And  although  it  is  always  afterwards  discovered 
that  all  such  accusations  are  shameless  lies  and,  more- 
over, that  in  the  places  mentioned  nobody  either 
among  the  rulers  or  the  subjects  has  heard  or  knows  of 
such  stories,  nevertheless  the  scoundrelly,  lying  spirit 
of  the  devil  cannot  desist  from  instigating  his  filthy, 
carnal  preachers,  who  are  full  of  uncleanness,  and  there- 
fore suspect  and  judge  others  according  to  their  own 
wicked  natures,  to  go  on  with  their  evil  imaginings 
and  inventions  of  lies.' 1  Thus,  for  instance,  in  the  year 
1604  the  Augsburg  preacher  Bartholomew  Riilich 
announced  in  a  'New  Jesuits'  Tidings'  (*  Jesuiterische 
neue  Zeitung  ')  that  the  Jesuits  at  Munich  had  murdered 
young  women  in  their  church,  and  that  in  punishment 
of  this  crime  the  council  of  the  place  had  condemned 
five  Fathers  to  be  tortured  with  red-hot  tongs,  and  to 
have  slices  of  their  flesh  torn  out.  The  Munich  town 
council  replied  in  a  public  printed  document  that  the 
whole  report  was  a  deliberate  lie.  '  On  the  contrary,' 
they  said,  '  it  is  well  known  to  ourselves  and  all  belong- 
ing to  our  town  and  laudable  company  of  burgesses,  as 
also  to  all  those,  of  whatever  nation  or  religion  they 
may  be,  who  have  been  settled  here  for  any  length  of 

1  Offenbarung  der  newen  erschrecklichen  und  teuflichen  Landtliigen,  so 
diss  1586,  gar  wider  die  Societcit  Jesu  im  Reich  und  anderen  Landen  hin 
und  wieder  aussgesprengt  worden.  Durch  Petrum  Hansonium  Saxonem  zu 
Schutz  der  Wahrheit  in  Druck  verfertigt  (Ingolstadt,  1586),  Vorrede,  pp.  1-4. 
This  pamphlet  contains  a  reproduction  of  the  alleged  murders  by,  and 
execution  of,  Jesuits  in  Cracow,  and  a  well-grounded  refutation  of  this 
widely  circulated  fable.  See  Adam  Walasser's  Christliche  Vermahnung 
von  dem  grossen  Laster  der  Nachreder  und  Verleumder  (Dillingen,  1570), 
Bl.  C  2b.  See  also  v.  Reichardstottner  in  the  Forschungen  zur  Oesch. 
Bayerns,  ii.  (1894),  51  ft-.,  58  ft.,  83  ft'.,  where  it  is  maintained  that  Walasser's 
poetry  in  some  passages  rises  to  a  height  of  sentiment  which  is  quite 
remarkable  for  the  time  in  which  he  wrote. 


332  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

time,  in  what  an  honourable,  pious,  upright,  chaste, 
irreproachable,  and  truly  priestly  manner,  the  reverend 
Fathers  of  the  laudable  Society  of  Jesus  have  lived 
among  us  here  for  many  years,  how  assiduous  they 
have  been  in  holding  divine  services,  in  preaching, 
hearing  confessions,  teaching  children,  giving  instruc- 
tion and  learning  to  our  dear  young  people,  and  doing 
everywhere  immense  good ;  how,  too,  they  have 
succoured  and  relieved  the  sick  and  dying,  watching 
day  and  night  assiduously  by  their  bedsides.'  l 

The  town  council  at  Graz  felt  itself  bound  to  make 
a  similar  declaration  respecting  '  a  false  and  scurrilous 
libel '  published  in  Dresden  in  1 602,  and  making  out 
that  '  certain  Fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  had 
allowed  themselves  to  be  employed  there  as  hangman's 
servants,  and  had  applied  the  torture  to  a  preacher  who 
was  lying  in  prison  '  ;  also  that  Father  Scherer  '  had 
been  condemned  to  languish  day  and  night  in  prison  in 
punishment  of  a  crime.'  The  council,  '  on  its  honour,' 
refuted  these  '  gross  and  notorious  falsehoods,'  and,  on 
the  ground  of  long  experience,  bestowed  the  highest 
praise  on  the  conduct  and  the  labours  of  the  Jesuits. 

Father  Scherer,  in  particular,  they  declared,  '  had 
been  most  zealous  in  ministering  day  and  night  to  the 
sick  and  dying,  and  also  to  the  prisoners,  and  in  giving 
them  every  possible  assistance.'  2 

With  equal  decision  did  the  councillors  and  burghers 
of  Freiburg  in  the  Uchtland  (August  18,  1616)  contra- 
dict the  calumny  circulated  against  the  Jesuits  there, 
that  they  had  dishonoured  young  women  and  murdered 
them,  and  that  they  had  consequently  been  expelled 

1  Einblattdruck  vom  12.  Juni  1607,  with  the  Munich  town  seal. 
•  Der  amtliche  Erlass,  in  Gretser,  xi.  838. 


FALSE   CHAEGES   AGAINST   THE   JESUITS  333 

from  the  town.  '  The  reverend  Fathers,'  they  said, 
'  are  faithful  models  to  the  people  in  their  teaching  and 
in  their  lives,  and  for  this  reason  they  are  very  dear 
and  precious  to  us.'  x 

Two  years  before,  when  the  Jesuits  at  Constance 
had  been  impugned  in  their  honour,  '  the  governor,  the 
burgomaster,  and  the  council '  made  the  following 
declaration :  '  We  must  not,  will  not,  and  cannot  leave 
unspoken  our  testimony  that  among  the  Fathers  there 
is  nothing  else  to  be  observed  but  exemplary,  blameless, 
and  priestly  conduct '  ;  also  that  they  '  show  reverence 
to  the  secular  authorities,'  that  '  they  abound  in  good 
deeds  to  their  fellow-men,  and  that  '  all  their  care  and 
energy  are  directed  towards  holding  church  services, 
preaching,  visiting  the  poor  and  the  sick,  and  promoting 
pious  and  useful  works.'  2 

'  There  have  passed  under  my  eyes,'  wrote  Dr.  Chris- 
tian Gudermann  from  Mayence  in  1615,  '  more  than  a 
hundred  pamphlets,  folios,  lampoons,  caricatures,  and 
rhymes,  wherein  the  Fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  are 
accused  of  all  the  most  disgraceful  acts  and  vilest 
crimes  which  have  been  committed  or  invented  in  our 
day  :  adultery,  sodomy,  murder,  pederasty,  poisoning, 
and  every  sin  that  has  ever  been  named.  And  all 
these  disgraceful  lies  and  calumnies  which  are  circulated, 
to  the  degradation  of  the  noble  arts  of  printing,  painting, 
wood-cutting,  and  poetry,  serve  no  other  end  than  to 
incense  the  princes,  the  lords,  and  the  common  people, 
and  to  stir  them  all  up  to  violent  persecution  and 
annihilation  of  the  Jesuits.  And  all  this  is  put  down 
in  great  books,  which  are  called  histories  of  the  Jesuits, 

1  Einblattdruch  vom  18.  Aug.  1616,  with  the  Freiburg  town  seal. 

2  Einblattdruch  vom,  12.  Dezember,  I6I4. 


334  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

but  which  are  full  of  nothing  but  slander  and  abuse, 
and  which  are  proclaimed  openly  before  all  the  world.' 1 

Among  works  of  this  sort  the  first  rank  is  assigned 
to  the  History  of  the  Jesuit  Order  which  the  renowned 
Lutheran  theologian  Polycarp  Leiser  published  in 
1593.  The  author,  so  he  said,  was  Elias  Hasenmiiller, 
a  former  novice  of  the  Order,  who  had  died  at  Witten- 
berg in  1587.  The  book  in  its  original  Latin  form  was 
frequently  reprinted,  and  a  German  translation  of  it 
by  the  Brunswick  preacher  Melchior  Leporinus  appeared 
also  repeatedly  in  fresh  editions.2 

There  were  many  members  of  the  Order,  Hasen- 
miiller declared,  who,  having  become  acquainted  with 
the  hangman's  claws,  the  bloodthirsty  intrigues,  the 
treachery  and  idolatry,  the  impious  and  scandalous 
doings  of  the  Jesuits,  would  gladly  have  left  the  Order ; 
but  they  could  not  do  so.  '  For  when  it  becomes 
known  that  they  want  to  break  away  they  are  separated 

1  In  the  preface  to  the  pamphlet,  Von  den  sieben  Werken  Christlicher 
Barmherzigkeit,  1615. 

2  I  have  made  use  of  the  translated  edition  of  1596 ;  see  Biicher- 
verzeichnis,  '  Historia  Jesuitici  Ordinis.''  For  the  earlier  Latin  and  German 
editions  and  for  Hasenmiiller,  see  Stieve,  Die  Politik  Bayerns,  ii.  322  ff. 
See  also  Krebs,  Publicistik,  pp.  23  ff.,  130  ff.,  and  for  criticism  by  Krebs, 
see  the  article  in  Hist.-polit.  Bl.  109  (1892),  184  ff.  Krebs  himself  says  of 
Hasenmuller's  work  :  '  Any  connected  train  of  thought  or  opinion  is  either 
entirely  wanting,  or  else  disappears  in  the  chaos  of  anecdotes,  gossip,  and 
scandal.  Frequent  repetition  is  the  necessary  result  of  utter  want  of 
arrangement  in  style.  At  p.  458,  for  instance,  we  are  told  for  the  third 
time  the  story  of  the  girl  at  Vienna  from  whom  12,652  devils  were  expelled, 
and  I  cannot  positively  assert  that  this  same  tale  does  not  occur  several 
times  more.  The  whole  book  is  crammed  with  odious  attacks — some  of 
them  childish,  others  coarse  and  low — on  the  Jesuits  and  the  Catholic 
Church  in  general.  The  "  baked  bread-God  "  is  the  standing  name  for  the 
Host.  Obscenity  and  indecency  are  narrated  and  described  with  evident 
gusto.  But  in  spite  of  these  faults  the  book  at  once  acquired  great 
prestige  among  the  Protestants.  They  accepted  all  that  Hasenmiiller 
said  as  pure  gospel  truth.' 


A  'HISTORY'  OF  THE  JESUIT   ORDER  335 

from  the  rest,  they  are  subjected  to  torture,  or  else  burnt 
to  death,  or  drowned,  or  hanged,  or  secretly  poisoned.' 
He  (Hasenmiiller),  however,  had  fortunately  '  escaped 
from  the  strong  fetters  of  their  fiery,  devouring  god 
Vulcan,'  and  was  alive  to  write  '  with  a  good  conscience  ' 
the  history  of  '  all  that  he  himself  had  heard  and  seen,' 
when  he  was  '  a  witness  of  all  the  doings  and  sayings 
of  the  Jesuits.'  1 

This  '  history '  begins  by  stating  that  '  the  blood- 
thirsty '  Ignatius  of  Loyola,  inspired  by  his  '  spiritual 
father '  the  devil,  was  the  founder  of  this  new  Order, 
and  that  all  Jesuits  accordingly,  by  reason  of  their 
diabolical  origin,  are  bent  only  on  devil's  works  ;  they 
are  Reubenites,  Pharaonites,  workers  of  all  inquity, 
thieves,  and  murderers.  In  their  rules  and  regulations 
'  there  is  not  a  single  syllable  which  is  in  accordance 
with  the  teaching  or  the  life  of  Jesus  ;  '  on  the  contrary, 
it  is  their  deliberate  aim  '  to  do  away  altogether  with 
the  name  of  Jesus  and  to  put  themselves  in  the  place 
of  the  Saviour.'  '  They  blaspheme  God,  but  they 
honour  the  devil ;  they  despise  Christ  and  they  worship 
the  Antichrist — that  is,  the  Pope  at  Rome.  What 
Priapus  was  to  the  Lampsacenians,  the  Pope  is  to  the 
Jesuit  doctors.'  2 

'  As  soon  as  they  enter  the  society  they  become 
not  only  worse  than  the  heathen,  but  much  worse  and 
more  inhuman  than  wild   beasts  ;    they  even  heap  up 

1  Pp.  277,  519.  Polycarpus  Leiser  said  in  his  preface,  Bl.  2-3,  that 
he  was  convinced  '  that  Hasenmiiller  had  written  the  whole  and  bitter 
truth  ; '  therefore  it  was  that  he  published  his  History,  because  '  it  was  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  all  Christendom  to  be  thoroughly  informed  of 
the  wickedness  and  deceit  of  this  hypocritical,  sneaking  sect.' 

2  Histnria,  pp.  1-22.  110  ff.,  170,  301.  Concerning  the  pamphlet  of 
the  Heidelberg  professor  Simon  Stein  against  St.  Ignatius,  see  Krebs, 
Publicistik,  p.  25. 


336  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

all  sorts  of  calumny  and  impiety  on  their  parents. 
Whether  or  no  they  would  seek  to  justify  themselves 
by  the  example  of  the  scorpion,  which  is  said  to  kill  its 
parents,  I  must  say  this,  that  the  Jesuits  are  guilty  of 
far  more  abominable  and  terrible  villanies  against  their 
parents.'  '  Fit  were  it  that  they  should  be  called 
Neronians  after  Nero,  who  also  loved  his  mother  so 
dearly  that  he  had  her  cut  up  and  dissected  alive  in 
order  to  see  the  womb  which  had  borne  him  during 
ten  months.1  And  just  as  these  Jesuits  behave  worse 
to  their  parents  than  mad  dogs  and  unreasoning 
beasts,  so  too,  they  perpetrate  the  self-same  godless 
iniquities  against  all  Germans  in  general,  acting  as 
public  assassins  and  devil's  messengers,  as  wild  boars 
and  plunderers  in  the  dear  Fatherland,  as  traitors, 
serpents,  and  vipers ;  showing  themselves  far  more 
inhuman  than  the  Turks  in  all  sorts  of  bloody  plottings 
and  doings.  For  every  single  Jesuit  is  a  bloodthirsty, 
fiendishly  cruel  wretch,  whose  patrons  and  patterns  are 
the  devil  himself  and  the  bloodthirsty,  iniquitous 
soldier,  Ignatius  Loyola,  both  of  whom  have  learnt 
nothing  else  and  can  do  nothing  else  than  propagate 
lies,  and  strangle  and  massacre  the  people.'  '  Even  the 
infernal  Pluto  himself  is  not  so  audacious  as  to  attack 
and  to  plague  the  Church  and  the  Son  of  God  in  the 
manner  that  the  Jesuits  have  begun  to  do.  And  it  is 
verily  more  than  certain  that  no  single  Jesuit  can  be 
found  who  does  not  desire  with  his  whole  heart  to  wash 
his  hands  in  the  blood  of  the  Protestants.'  '  In  par- 
ticular the  professed  members  of  the  Order  are  the 
hunting  hounds  of  the  Roman  Pope,  which  he,  the 
mightiest  hunter  of  the  devil  and  Antichrist,  sends  out 

1  Historia,  pp.  111-115. 


A   'HISTORY'   OF   THE  JESUIT  ORDER  337 

to  track  out,  with  their  wicked  wiles  and  trickery,  the 
evangelical  Christians,  to  drive  them  into  their  hellish 
nests,  to  ensnare,  betray,  catch,  strangle,  kill,  and 
devour  them.'  '  These  men  it  is  who  strengthen  and 
support  the  conspirators,  the  sworn  enemies  of  the 
German  princes,  who  foster  the  Pope's  bloodthirsti- 
ness,  and  whose  aim  and  object  is  to  effect  the  oblitera- 
tion and  destruction  of  the  names  and  the  sovereignty 
of  all  evangelical  princes.'  l 

In  their  private  lives,  according  to  this  historian, 
all  Jesuits  are  '  unclean  hogs,  filthy,  epicurean  sows,' 
who  practise  and  defend  the  most  scandalous  vices, 
who  actually  extol  the  sin  of  sodomy,  and  who,  more- 
over, have  received  from  the  Pope  full  licence  to  commit 
the  grossest  acts  of  immorality.2  If  people  only  knew 
them  as  they  are  '  they  would  be  spat  upon  by  everyone, 
and  nobody  would  entrust  even  a  pig,  let  alone  a  son, 
to  them  for  education.'  '  For  the  schools  of  the  Jesuits 
are  veritably  nothing  else  than  the  hollowed-out  body 
of  Moloch  in  which  the  children  are  roasted,  stewed, 
and  baked.'  3 

'  When  once  at  Augsburg  I  was  walking  through 
the  streets  with  some  Jesuits  the  evangelical  boys  called 
after  us:  "Jesuwider,  Jesuwider  ['  Anti  Jesus'],  where  are 
you  going  ?  To  the  devil  perhaps  ?  "  The  Jesuits  walked 
on,  however,  as  though  they  were  deaf  and  dumb,  for 
they  knew  well  in  their  consciences  that  they  were  indeed 
such  as  these  boys  had  called  them.  And  verily,  if  the 
children  held  their  tongues,  the  stones  would  be  forced 
to  cry  out.'  4     For  all  these  reasons  these   '  swarming 

1  Historia,  13,  144  ff.,  119,  181  ff.,  184,  265. 
2  Pp.  142,  147,  289,  309.  3  Pp.  21,  303  ff.  J  P.  19. 

VOL.   X.  Z 


338  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

devils,  these*  godless,  scoundrelly,  diabolical  legates  of 
the  Pope,  must  not  be  tolerated  any  longer  in  Germany.'  ' 
'  It  is  certain  and  more  than  certain,'  wrote  George 
Heckel  in  1596,  '  that  what  was  written  by  Elias  Hasen- 
muller  (who  lived  so  long  among  the  Jesuits)  and  was 
published  by  Polycarpus,  is  the  infallible  truth,  what- 
ever the  Jesuits  may  say  about  it.'  2 

Whereas,  however,  this  '  History  of  the  Jesuit  Order  ' 
was  not  considered  sufficient  for  the  enlightenment  of 
the  people,  there  appeared  in  1596  a  second  German 
work  under  the  title  *  Jesuiticum  Jejunium,  das  ist 
notwendige  und  zuvor  unerhorte  Erzehlung  des  unchrist- 
lichen  Fastens  der  verdachtigen  Jesuiter,'  '  written  first 
of  all  in  Latin  by  M.  Elias  Hasenmuller,  and  put  into 
print  to  please  the  Jesuits  by  Polycarp  Leiser,  doctor 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  court-preacher  to  the  Saxon 
Elector  at  Dresden,  but  now  done  into  German  by 
Melchior  Leporinus,  preacher  of  evangelical  truth  at 
Brunswick,  for  the  good  instruction  of  all  German 
Christendom,  and  for  a  warning  to  them  to  beware  of 
the  Jesuits.' 3 

In  the  preface  Leporinus  extolled  the  'pious  Israelite' 
Hasenmuller  as  a  man  sent  by  the  providence  of  God. 
'  God  has  ordained,'  he  says,  '  that  this  man  should 
come  forward  in  order  that  we  may  learn  how  much 

1  Pp.  187-188. 

2  Oriindlicher  Bericht,  welcher  Gestalt  die  Jesuiten  unit  den  Biipsten  .  .  . 
umgehen  (1596),  p.  5.  Heckel,  at  p.  7,  reprints  an  ordinary  Obedience- 
formulary  for  Hasenmuller,  and  proves  from  it  in  what  high  esteem 
Hasenmuller  stood  with  the  Jesuits,  although  he  was  still  a  novice  !  Re- 
specting the  polemics  connected  with  Hasenmiiller's  History,  see  Stieve, 
Die  Politik  Bayerns,  ii.  324-333.  The  Jesuit  Gretser  said  that  only  a 
person  possessed  who  raved  blindly  could  have  written  this  History  (ii. 
324,  note  2).     See  Marx,  Protest.  Kanzel,  p.  30  A  1. 

:s  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  1596. 


A   'HISTORY'   OF   THE   JESUIT   ORDER  339 

crime  and  insolence  these  dragon-frogs  the  Jesuits  are 
guilty  of  in  those  caverns  and  robbers'  dens  of  theirs 
which  they  call  colleges,  schools,  and  temples.'  l 

The  language  of  this  book  is,  if  possible,  grosser  and 
more  obscene  even  than  that  of  the  so-called  History 
of  the  Order.  The  Jesuits  are  described  in  it  as  '  down- 
right devilish  stinking  rams,'  as  '  devil's  blood-hounds  ' 
and  so  on.2  '  On  Ash  Wednesday  they  begin  to  visit 
their  idols,  or  rather  the  stinking  bones  of  the  dead, 
which  they  call  the  sacred  relics  of  their  dead  saints  ; 
they  fall  down  before  their  wheaten  and  baked  god, 
which  is  made  by  a  priest  of  the  Mass  by  means  of  a 
magic  mass-sacrifice  ;  they  bend  their  knees  and  pray 
to  the  Host  enclosed  in  the  tabernacle,  the  Host  being 
both  covered  with  cobwebs  and  well  sprinkled  with 
fly-dirt.' 3 

Speaking  of  the  penitential  exercises  which  the 
Jesuits  carry  on  during  Lent,  he  describes  the  Ferularii 
or  flagellants,  who,  because  Christ  was  scourged,  scourge 
themselves  until  the  blood  flows  down  their  backs. 
The  Cloaciani,  or  cesspool  cleaners,  an  exercise  of  ex- 
treme humility,  performed  in  imitation  of  Christ  washing 
His  disciples'  feet,  and  considered  the  only  way  '  of 
attaining  to  true  humility.'  Then  there  are  the  Cultrini, 
who  hold  a  knife  constantly  pointed  to  their  breast 
as  if  they  intended  to  stab  themselves,  in  order  to  verify 
the  words  '  A  sword  shall  pierce  through  thine  own 
soul.'  '  There  are  also  the  Basilisciani :  these  fix 
such  a  terrible  and  murderous  gaze  on  all  whom  they 
meet  as  though  they  meant  to  eat  them  up  or  strangle 
them,  and  proclaim  that  they  are  acting  like  Caiaphas, 

1  Vorrede,  p.  8. 
2  Pp.  15,  16,  18,  20,  41,  61,  101,  103.  3  Pp.  28-29. 

z  2 


340  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

who,  when  Christ  declared  Himself  to  be  the  Son  of 
God,  rent  his  clothes,  saying,  "  He  hath  spoken 
blasphemy."  ' 1 

'  Even  among  the  Protestants,'  wrote  Dr.  Christian 
Gudermann,  '  I  have  heard  honest  folk  say  that  it  was 
quite  inexcusable  for  a  court-preacher  of  the  Saxon 
Electorate,  and  a  preacher  of  evangelical  truths  in 
Brunswick,  to  introduce  so  more  than  low  a  book 
among  the  people,  who  had  already  become  beyond 
measure  debased  and  demoralised  through  the  inces- 
sant cursing  and  calumniating  of  innumerable  scribblers 
and  sedition-mongers.'  2 

Polycarp  Leiser,  however,  did  not  allow  himself 
to  be  disconcerted.  In  a  '  truly  evangelical  sermon  ' 
which  he  preached  on  Ascension  Day  at  Dresden,  he 
made  an  onslaught  on  '  the  marks  of  the  Beast,'  and 
expressed  the  hope  that  the  final  result  would  be  the 
expulsion  of  the  Jesuits — that  brood  of  serpents  and 
vipers — from  the  empire.3  The  theologian  Philip  Heil- 
brunner  went  still  further  in  his  hopes.  He  declared 
the  Jesuits  to  be  '  stiffnecked  idolaters,  brothers  of 
the  devil,  sorcerers  ;  their  sole  cry  is  blood,  fire,  sword, 
war,  coercion,  strangle,  hang,  burn,  and  so  forth ' ; 
'  they  seduce  the  people  into  the  worship  of  idols  ;  if, 
then,  we  want  to  put  an  end  to  idolaters,  we  must 
massacre  the  Jesuits  and  their  associates.'  4 

Earlier  even  than  Heilbrunner  another  '  genuine 
poet '    had    incensed   the    people    against    the    Jesuits 


1  Pp.  129,  137,  139,  166-167. 

2  See  above,  p.  334,  note  1. 

3  Eine  recht   evangelische   Predigt,   gehalten  auf   Christi  Himmelfahrt 
1608  zu  Dresden  (Leipzig,  1608). 

4  Heilbrunner's  Jesuiterspiegel  (1601),  Bl.  97,  115,  128. 


A   'HISTORY'   OF   THE   JESUIT   ORDER  341 

by  means  of  ribald  verses  in  a  publication  called  *  Der 
Jesuiterspiegel.'  l 

Among  those  who  combated  the  Order  there  were 
many  who  made  it  seem  as  if  their  attacks  were  directed 
solely  against  the  Jesuits,  and  not  against  the  Catholics 
and  the  Catholic  Church  in  general.  Thus,  for  instance, 
Poly  carp  in  his  preface  to  Hasenmuller's  History  of  the 
Jesuit  Order,  pretended  that  it  was  neither  his  nor 
Hasenmuller's  intention  '  to  attack  anybody  except 
the  Jesuits,  either  of  high  or  low  degree  ;  '  for  '  this 
History  was  not  concerned  with  any  other  people,  but 
solely  with  the  Jesuits.'  In  reality,  however,  the  book 
is  full  of  the  most  virulent  invectives  and  calumnies 
against  the  whole  Catholic  Church,  against  its  teaching, 
its  worship,  its  constitution,  and  against  all  who  belong 
to  it,  beginning  with  the  Pope,  '  the  Antichrist  and 
head-servant  of  the  devil.'  The  holy  Mass  is  described 
as  the  most  execrable  idolatry ;  the  sacrament  of  con- 
firmation as  a  low,  popish  piece  of  dirty  work ;  sacred 
unction  as  a  quack  ointment,  a  sorcerer's  trick,  with 
which  the  papists  '  had  befouled  the  precious  service 
of  Christ  as  with  flies'  eggs.'  The  bishops  were  *  nothing 
but  fornicators,  adulterers,  sodomites,  beasts,'  &c. 
And  not  the  bishops  only :  '  with  the  whole  lot  of  the 
papists  it  is  the  most  common  thing  for  them  to  be 
defiled  with  all  manner  of  the  most  utterly  abominable 
sins  and  vices.  .  .  '  2 

In   most   of   the   pamphlets  of  the  time  the  '  idol 
Moloch '    was    used     as    '  a   remarkable   type   of    the 

1  For  this  and  quotations  of  a  similar  nature  from  other  rhymesters, 
see  German  original,  v.  565. — Tbanslatob. 

•  Historia  Jesuitici  Ordinis,  pp.  158, 266-267,  479,  484,  492,  493.  See 
above,  p.  334,  n.  2,  the  judgment  of  Krebs,  who  is  certainly  no  friend  of 
the  Jesuits. 


342  HISTOEY   OF   THE   GEEMAN   PEOPLE 

Jesuits,'  and  the  height  of  renown  in  this  respect  was 
attained  in  the  seventeenth  century  when  Johannes 
Riidinger,  poet  laureate  to  the  Emperor  and  pastor  at 
Weyra,  enumerated  from  the  pulpit  '  in  ten  well- 
grounded  sermons  '  the  individual  points  of  resemblance 
between  the  members  of  the  Order  and  Moloch.  '  As 
the  god  Moloch,'  he  said, '  had  been  set  up  by  the  heathen 
Amorites  at  the  instigation  of  the  devil,  so  the  Order 
and  School  of  the  Jesuits  was  the  result  of  the  devil's 
inspiration,  given  in  a  dream  to  the  Spanish  soldier 
who  had  almost  lost  the  use  of  his  hands  and  feet.' 
Further,  '  just  as  Moloch  was  the  idol  of  the  Amorites,  so 
the  Jesuites  were  the  invention  of  the  Roman  Amorites 
the  Popes,  hitherto  themselves  idols.  And  as  the  idol 
Moloch  was  made  of  hard,  smooth,  shining,  brass  metal, 
so,  not  only  are  the  Jesuit  colleges  and  houses  hard, 
well-preserved,  shining  buildings,  but  the  Jesuits  them- 
selves are  hard,  stubborn,  merciless,  cunning  hypo- 
crites, rightly  typified  by  the  hardness,  smoothness, 
and  shininess  of  brass.'  When  one  goes  into  the 
temples  and  churches  of  the  Jesuits  one  always  sees 
overhead  a  perfect  panoply  of  gunnery  and  righting 
gear  ;  and  what  is  still  stranger  and  more  noteworthy, 
there  are  always  holes  with  secret  bolts  underneath 
these  buildings,  in  which  are  kept  exquisite  and  choice 
collections  of  all  sorts  of  cords,  executioners'  blocks, 
instruments  of  torture,  swords,  hatchets,  tongs,  pikes 
on  which  evildoers  are  speared,  ladders  and  such  like 
contrivances,  to  which  they  fasten  the  unhappy  wretches 
who  fall  into  their  hands,  and  torture  and  put  them  to 
death.'  Other  murderous  instruments  of  the  Jesuits, 
the  preacher  said,  were  also  well  known  to  him.  '  They 
have  also  in  their  keeping  all  sorts  of  executioner's  hats 


THE   JESUIT   GRETSER   AND   HIS   OPPONENTS        343 

adorned  with  long,  waving,  black  plumes,  and  garments 
made  like  those  which  executioners  wear,  which  they 
put  on  to  make  their  victims  quake  and  tremble.'  '  With 
devices  and  instruments  of  this  sort  they  take  captive 
the  reason  and  obedience  of  their  disciples  and  pupils.' 

Riidinger  discovered  still  further  points  of  similarity. 
'  The  Jesuits  also  resemble  Moloch  as  regards  their 
nature,  and  the  manner,  the  object,  the  place  and  the 
time  of  their  first  origin.'  '  As,  for  instance,  Moloch 
glowed  with  fire,  so  the  Jesuits  burn  with  all  sorts  of 
evil  lusts  and  desires,  and  not  content  with  burning 
themselves,  they  inspire  their  pupils  with  like  consum- 
ing passions,  and  so  they  slay  before  Moloch  the  children 
committed  to  their  care,  not  corporeally  only,  but  also 
spiritually.'  They  instruct  these  children  in  all  sorts 
of  immorality,  and  when  the  poor  young  things  want 
to  withdraw  themselves  from  all  this  iniquity  the 
Jesuits  apply  '  severe  discipline  and  punishment ;  if 
the  children  attempt  to  escape  and  run  away,  they 
are  despatched  out  of  life  by  means  of  poison.' l 

All  these  '  terrible  reports  '  were  just  as  true  as  the 
'  new  and  veritable  information  '  which  was  circulated 
concerning  the  '  scandalous  and  more  than  brutish 
immorality  '  of  the  Jesuits  James  Gretser  and  Robert 
Bellarmin. 

Gretser  was  one  of  the  most  prolific  controversial 
writers  in  Germany ;  he  kept  up  an  almost  incessant 
fight  with  the  chief  Protestant  leaders,  with  James  and 
Philip  Heilbrunner,  Aegidius  Hunnius,  Polycarp  Leiser, 
Samuel  Huber,  David  Pareus,  Daniel  Cramer,  Melchior 
Goldast   and   numbers   of   others.     No   less   than    150 

1  Riidinger,  Decas  Contionum  secunda  de  Magia  illicita,  pp.  24-25,  27- 
37,  68,  87. 


344  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

pamphlets  against  the  religious  innovators  issued  from 
his  pen.1  He  showed  his  strength  especially  in  the 
depth  and  versatility  of  his  learning,  and  in  exposing 
the  inaccuracies  which  the  opponents  were  guilty  of 
in  their  quotations.2  To  the  libels  and  abuse  directed 
against  him  he  frequently  answered  in  the  same  strain  ; 
the  co-operation  of  Father  Conrad  Vetter  in  some  of 
his  pamphlets  had  an  unfavourable  effect  on  Gretser's 
language.  We  scent  the  influence  of  Vetter,  for  instance, 
when  Gretser  goes  so  far  as  to  say  '  Luther  has  a  rose, 
a  heart,  and  a  crown  on  his  coat  of  arms  :  why  not 
rather  a  snout,  a  pig,  and  a  dandelion  ?  '  3  He  relegated 
Luther  to  everlasting  fire.4  Descanting  on  the  offensive 
libels  and  attacks  which  were  in  vogue  between  the 
Lutherans  and  Calvinists,  he  added  :  '  Here  we  must 
give  an  ear  to  both  parties.'  5  But  it  was  with  Melchior 
Goldast,  above  all,  that  he  used  the  right  of  retaliation.0 
The  result  was  that,  in  spite  of  his  immaculate  con- 
duct, '  the  most  execrable  crimes  '  were  attributed  to 


1  Gretseri  Opp.  i.  iv. 

2  See,  for  instance,  the  exposures  of  Hospinian,  Danaus,  Junius, 
Goldast,  Opp.  iii.  209  and  3",  30,  32,  40,  216-217,  306-333,  and  vi.  298-299. 

3  Opp.  i.  12.     Also  some  distichs. 

4  In  a  parallel  between  Luther  and  the  holy  Bishop  Martin,  Opp.  i. 
161-169. 

5  Opp.  vi.  355. 

6  Goldast  had  asserted  that  the  Jesuit  Order  taught,  sanctioned,  and 
committed  deeds  of  murder  against  the  nearest  relations,  that  the  Jesuit 
James  Gretser  was  a  '  parricida  perjurissimus,''  an  '  incarnatus  diabolus, 
Beelzebubi  malitia  dementatus,'  and  so  forth.  Thereupon  Gretser  produced, 
from  the  Strasburg  Town-book,  the  verdict  on  the  execution  of  Sebastian 
Goldast,  a  brother  of  his  opponent,  who  had  run  away  from  his  wife 
and  had  murdered  the  woman  with  whom  he  had  committed  adultery, 
and  had  consequently  been  condemned  to  death  on  the  wheel.  '  Neque 
haec  dixissem,'  Gretser  added,  '  nisi  Ooldastina  impudentia  me  coegisset, 
qui  proinde,  si  parricidas  quaerit,  domi  suae  quaerat  et  inveniet '  (Opp. 
vi.  303,  306,  315). 


THE   JESUIT   GRETSER   AND   HIS   OPPONENTS      345 

him.  '  This  Jesuit  Gretser,'  a  preacher  proclaimed 
from  the  pulpit  in  1615,  'is  a  true  and  veritable  heretic, 
one  who  carries  a  demon  about  with  him  in  a  glass  ; 
he  is  a  confirmed  adulterer  and  sodomite,  and  given 
up  to  the  most  bestial  profligacy,  as  has  been  thoroughly- 
proved  against  him  by  genuine  facts,  and  similar 
iniquity  has  also  been  established  respecting  his  devil's 
brother  and  associate  Bellarminus,  who  was  a  monster 
of  depravity  such  as  is  never  even  met  with  in  any 
pagan  histories.'  1 

Bellarmin,  the  greatest  Catholic  controversialist 
of  the  time,  whom  none  of  the  Protestant  theologians 
came  up  to  by  a  long  way,  was  the  butt  for  more  virulent 
hatred  than  Gretser.2 

In  the  year  1614  there  appeared  a  publication 
entitled  '  Eine  wahrhaftige  neue  Zeitung,'  of  which  a 
contemporary  said,  '  In  these  pages  insult  and  calumny 
reach  such  a  diabolical  pitch  that  every  right-minded 
person  must  blush  with  shame  and  be  scandalised. 
We  learn  from  this  pamphlet  what  in  general  to  think 
of  all  the  abuse  directed  against  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
one  of  whose  most  distinguished  members,  the  learned 
Bellarminus,  is  scandalously  and  calumniously  attacked. 
In  these  unhallowed  times  shameless  lying  and  false- 
hood have  become  the  best  and  sharpest  weapons  that 
can  be  directed  against  their  adversaries  by  combatants 
who  are  unable  to  master  them  by  learning,  truth,  and 
straightforward  action.' 3 

The  Jesuit   Cardinal   Bellarmin,   '  the  Pope's  most 

1  Mengering,  p.  14. 

2  A  catalogue  of  the  immense  quantity  of  pamphlets  published  against 
Bellarmin  is  given  by  Gretser,  Opp.  viii.  Bl.  C.  3  ff.,  and  ix.  Bl.  C.  3  ff. 

:!  Chr.  Gudermann  in  the  passage  cited  at  p.  334,  note  1.     See  also 
Krebs,  Publicistik,  p.  76. 


Q 


46  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


favoured  privy  councillor,  especially  in  matters  of 
religion  and  faith,'  said  this  '  Wahrhaftige  neue  Zeitung,' 
'  has  shown  himself  princely  in  pomp,  epicurean  to 
the  last  degree  in  eating  and  drinking,  and  sodomitish 
in  his  life  and  demeanour.  He  sinned  with  1,642 
women.  Of  these  563  were  married,  and  with  them 
he  committed  adultery  2,236  times ;  eighteen  were 
the  wives  of  Italian  counts  and  noblemen ;  fifteen 
were  virgins  whom  he  had  gained  over  to  his  lust 
by  magic  arts,  in  which  he  was  very  proficient. 
Such  as  were  not  found  virgins  he  secretly  killed 
by  sword  or  poison  and  had  their  bodies  thrown  into 
the  Tiber.'  All  •  this,  he  said,  could  be  verified  by 
perusal  of  Bellarmin's  own  '  Book  of  Confessions,' 
which  his  secretary,  Johann  de  Montgardo,  had 
published. 

Bellarmin,  a  model  of  all  the  virtues,  lived  on  in 
apostolic  poverty  up  to  the  year  1621  ;  but  the  '  Wahr- 
haftige neue  Zeitung '  of  1614  was  able  to  inform  the 
public  that  '  he  had  died  a  miserable  death  in  utter 
desperation  ;  '  '  he  had  continually  cried  out  and  roared 
like  a  raging  lion,  and  when  he  knew  that  his  hour  had 
come  he  described  beforehand  how  he  should  be  carried 
away  on  a  flaming  he-goat  of  hell,  and  should  be  installed 
in  the  infernal  regions  as  chief  among  Popes  and  bishops, 
monks,  nuns,  and  parsons.  And  so,  denying  God  and 
His  Son  Christ,  he  died  miserably  and  like  one  bereft 
of  his  senses,  and  he  has  perished  eternally.  For  as 
these  people  live,  so  do  they  die.  Moreover,  this  most 
infamous  of  all  Jesuits,  this  Bellarminus,  appears  in 
broad  daylight,  even  at  the  present  day,  on  a  burning, 
fiery  horse  with  wings,  flying  in  the  air,  and  his  execrable 
screams  and  wails  of  lament  are  heard  in  his  palace. 


A   SCANDALOUS   PAMPHLET   AGAINST   BELLARMIN      347 

He  causes  the  Pope  great  fears  in  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo 
and  on  the  bridge  of  the  Tiber.  And  numbers  of  Masses 
for  the  dead  are  therefore  said  in  all  the  churches  and 
convents,  but  all  in  vain  ;  it  is  all  of  no  use,  for  his 
screaming  goes  on  continuously,  and  many  people 
are  so  terrified  by  it  that  they  die  of  fright  in  a  few 
hours.' 

'  It  is  most  piteous,'  said  a  Protestant  physician 
of  Amberg,  who  had  formerly  written  against  Bellarmin 
under  the  name  of  Johann  Angelus  Politianus,  '  that 
they  should  be  allowed  to  print  such  things.'  1 

On  this  scandalous  pamphlet  it  was  announced  that 
it  had  been  printed  at  Basle  '  by  Ludwig  Konig,  1614.' 
Konig,  however,  issued  a  public  denial  of  the  statement, 
saying  that  he  did  not  possess  a  printing-press,  and 
adding  that  not  his  own  reputation  only,  but  also  that 
of  the  laudable  town  of  Basle,  had  been  scandalously 
and  unpardonably  impugned  by  the  defaming  publisher 
of  the  lampoon.2  Nevertheless,  the  second  edition  of 
the  pamphlet  of  1615  bore  this  announcement,  'Printed 
first  at  Basle  by  Ludwig  Konig.'  3 

1  Gretseri  Opp.  xi.  918. 

2  Gretser,  xi.  918. 

3  '  Ehrenkriinzlein  der  Jesuiter  :  that  is  to  say,  a  new  and  veritable 
account  or  historical  report  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Jesuit  Robertus 
Bellarniinus,  late  Cardinal  of  Rome,  of  unholy  memory,  in  his  angelically 
chaste  life  .  .  .  . '  The  Jesuit  Conrad  Vetter  wrote  in  1616  :  '  This  libellous 
pamphlet  against  Bellarminus  was  printed  at  Lauingen.'  '  The  evangelical 
printer  who  printed  and  sold  such  infamously  insulting  lies  at  Lauingen, 
received  a  fitting  reward,  was  expelled  from  the  country,  and  is  now 
reduced  to  misery.'  Gretser,  Umstiirzung  des  ketzerischen  Schlafkam- 
merlein,  deutsche  Vbersetzung  von  Vetter  (Ingolstadt,  1616),  pp.  104-106. 
Vetter  openly  confessed  to  the  opinion  that  the  theologian  James  Heil- 
brunner,  or  one  of  his  abettors  in  calumny,  was  the  author  of  the  pamphlet. 
Gretser,  in  his  rejoinder,  '  Libelli  famosi,  quo  vix  post  hominum  memoriam 
impudentior  prodiit,  adversus  illustrissimum  Card.  Rob.  Bellarminum, 
Castigatio  '  (Opera,  xi.  900-923),  sees  in  the  pamphlet  a  cunning  adaptation 


348  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

The  author  of  the  '  Wahrhaftige  neue  Zeitung,'  how- 
ever, was  not  only  at  pains  to  blacken  Bellarmin. 
*  This  is  the  Jesuit  stem,'  he  said ;  '  what,  think  you, 
will  the  branches  be  ?  This  we  learn  from  everyday 
experience ;  more  especially  is  it  learnt  by  those  unhappy 
husbands  and  fathers  who,  wherever  such  fellows  have 
had  a  hand  in  affairs,  see  the  results  in  their  wives 
and  daughters,  but  nevertheless  are  obliged  to  be  silent 
and  long-suffering.'  '  Bellarmin's  fearful  and  abomin- 
able example  should  fill  all  Jesuits  with  horror  and 
shuddering,  and  make  them  give  up  their  false  hypo- 
critical sanctimoniousness,  and  cease  so  stiffneckedly  to 
oppose  the  Divine  Majesty.  But  they  are  children  of  the 
devil,  and  therefore  they  do  honour  to  him,  and  he  too 
does  them  honour  in  their  last  extremity,  according  to 
all  accounts. 

Arch-rogues,  assassins,  men  of  sin 
Are  Jesuits  in  their  bones  and  skin.' 

A  contemporary  speaks  of  the  age  of  the  politico- 
clerical  revolution  of  1518-1618  as  being  '  throughout 
history  the  century  far  excellence  of  lies  and  calumnies.'  ' 

'  If  the  Jesuits,'  we  read  in  a  '  Kurze  Laufschrift,' 
of  the  year  1612,  'as  is  universally  known  and  indis- 
putably established,  are  the  most  scoundrelly  rogues  and 
criminals  that  in  all  ages  the  sun  has  ever  shone  on,  and 
if,  under  the  pharisaical  semblance  of  piety,  chastity, 

of  that  libellous  publication  on  Luther's  death,  which,  in  the  year  1545, 
was  composed  and  circulated  by  Lutherans  themselves,  and  was  also 
printed  in  the  eighth  volume  of  Luther's  works  with  an  Italian  text,  and 
was  reputed  to  have  emanated  from  the  papal  legates  at  the  French  court 
(xi.  920).  When  Bellarmin  received  information  of  the  pamphlet  directed 
at  him,  he  caused  a  notary  at  Rome  to  prepare  a  document  stating  that  he 
was  still  alive  (xi.  913).     See  Krebs,  Publicistik,  p.  202. 

1  K.  L.  Eyntziger,  Zwei  Predigten  von  den  Silnden  wider  den  Heiligen 
Geist  (1618),  p.  3. 


WHOLESALE   DENUNCIATION  OF  JESUITS  349 

and  self- mortification,  they  are  more  given  up  to  every 
inhuman  and  bestial  vice  than  even  their  father  the 
devil,  from  whom  they  come,  who  then  can  be  so  miser- 
ably and  blindly  infatuated  as  not  to  believe  and  accept 
as  truth  what  is  brought  plainly  before  our  eyes  in  so 
many  fresh  and  trustworthy  reports  and  communica- 
tions :  namely,  that  the  Jesuits  are  at  the  bottom  of 
all  political  quarrels  and  contentions,  that  they  are 
bloody  traitors,  sedition-mongers,  fomenters  of  war, 
incendiaries,  assassins  of  kings  and  princes,  and  masters 
of  all  murderous,  poisonous,  enchanters'  arts.  These 
devils  incarnate  have  no  dearer  wish  in  their  hearts 
than  to  organise  a  bloody  massacre  through  the  whole 
of  Christendom,  to  put  all  Christians  to  death,  and  to 
see  all  Germany  drowned  in  its  own  blood,  as  indeed  the 
Holy  Scriptures  and  Divine  Word  bear  testimony.'  l 

1  Atigenscheinlicher  Beweiss,   &c.    (1612),   Bl.   2a.     See  Echart,   Papa 
pharisaizans,  p.  397. 


350  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


CHAPTER  X 

'  PUBLIC    CRIMES  '    OF   THE    JESUITS — TYRANNICIDE 

'  Every  conceivable  lie,'  wrote  George  Scherer  in  1586, 
'  is  invented  and  told  about  the  Jesuits,  and  every- 
thing wicked  that  is  done  in  the  whole  world  must 
have  been  done  by  the  Jesuits.'  l  '  We  are  the  cause, 
according  to  the  heretics,'  said  another  Jesuit,  Gregory 
Rosefius,  in  the  same  year,  '  of  all  the  wars  in  France 
and  the  Netherlands  ;  kings  and  princes  are  in  our 
power ;  wherever  we  go  and  whatever  we  want,  every- 
thing must  be  done  as  we  wish.'  2 

'  Have  kings  and  princes,'  asked  a  friend  of  the 
Order,  '  all  become  puppets  and  their  councillors  fools, 
that  they  should  let  themselves  be  led  by  a  few  Fathers 
and  scribblers  and  act  entirely  at  their  bidding  ?  I 
call  such  princes  and  councillors  to  witness,  whenever 
and  wherever  have  the  Jesuits  of  their  own  accord 
interfered  in  mundane  matters,  or  shown  any  desire  to 
manage  the  affairs  of  secular  Estates  according  to  their 
own  notions  ?  Nothing  of  the  kind  will  ever  be  found 
to  be  true.  If,  however,  they  happen  to  be  asked  for 
advice  they  are  ready  to  give  it,  to  the  best  of  their 
understanding,  to  high  and  low  alike.  But  who  could 
blame  or  find  fault  with  them  for  so  doing  ?     And  if 

1  Rettung  der  Jesuiter  Unschuld,  p.  27. 

2  Christopk  Rosenbusch,    Wohlbegriindete  und  emewerte  Antwort  und 
Ehrenrettung,  &c,  p.  64.     See  Keller,  Tyrannicidium,  pp.  4-5. 


THE   JESUITS   AND   AFFAIRS   OF   STATE  351 

in  the  counsel  they  tender  there  should  chance  to  be 
anything  amiss  here  or  there,  this  is  not  greatly  to  be 
wondered  at  in  view  of  human  short-sightedness  and 
imperfection,  for  all  men  are  not  equal  in  understanding 
and  cleverness.  Which  of  us  would  be  so  senseless  as 
to  declare  that  there  are  not  faults  and  infirmities  in 
Jesuits  as  well  as  in  other  men  ?  But  to  blacken  the 
whole  society,  and  cry  "  Murderer ! "  at  it,  because  of  the 
imperfection  of  one  or  more  of  its  members,  is  not  any 
less  senseless.  Leave  them  to  their  preaching,  their 
Christian  teaching,  their  scholarly  instruction  to  the 
young,  their  visiting  the  sick  and  other  such  spiritual 
labours,  and  do  not  trouble  them  with  worldly  consulta- 
tions.' l 

Canisius,  from  the  beginning  of  his  activity  in 
Germany,  had  persistently  spoken  most  strongly  against 
any  participation  of  the  members  of  the  Order  in  affairs 
of  State.  '  There  is  nothing,'  he  said,  writing  on  the 
subject  to  the  General  of  the  Order,  Mercurian,  '  which 
is  so  deteriorating  to  the  simplicity  of  the  Order,  or 
more  likely  to  draw  down  more  odium  on  the  Jesuits, 
or  bring  them  into  greater  peril.'  Inasmuch  as  Duke 
William  V.  of  Bavaria  used  to  summon  the  Jesuits  to 
the  sittings  of  the  State- Council  and  insist  that  they 
should  be  '  as  it  were  his  privy  court-councillors,' 
Canisius  begged  that  the  General  '  would  find  ways 
and  means '  to  prevent  the  Fathers  from  being  any 
more  in  future  burdened  with  such  mundane  business, 
and  that  the  Duke  '  would  leave  them  free  to  perfect 
themselves  in  their  sacred  calling,  for  the  edification 
of    their    fellow- creatures.'  2     Nowhere,    said    Canisius, 

1  Calumnien  und  Ausstreuungen  wider  die  Societdt  Jhesu  (1589),  p   13. 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  viii.  p.  314. 


352  HISTOEY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

'  was  the  ground  so  slippery  as  at  the  courts  of  the 
great :     in   company   with   princes   and    courtiers   the 
utmost  Christian  watchfulness  was  needed  in  order  not 
to  become  tainted  with  the  worldly  court  spirit  and 
entangled  with  worldly  matters.     As,  however,  it  was 
infinitely   difficult   to   preserve  such   Christian   watch- 
fulness at  all  hours  and  in  all  circumstances,  it  was  best 
to  avoid  all  such  intercourse  and  to  keep  the  Fathers  away 
from  the  courts  of  princes  and  great  men.'     Canisius,  in 
this  respect,  was  in  agreement  with  the  opinion  of  the 
Jesuit  General,  Francis  Borgia,  who  gave  the  following 
admonition :     '  Our   members   must   tread   with   wary 
feet  in  palaces,  and  deal  with  princes  as  a  wise  hand 
deals  with  adders.' l     Mercurian,  in  replying  to  Canisius, 
wrote  :    '  With  regard  to  your  urgent  entreaty  that  I 
should   keep   our  members   away  from   courts,   I   can 
assure  you  for  my  part  that  nobody  is  more  warmly 
imbued  with  this  idea  than  I  am  myself.     If  all  the 
members  of  our  body  were  of  the  same  mind  as  your- 
self, they  would  not  prepare  so  much  trouble  for  us  in 
all  directions,  and  we  should  have  little  or  nothing  to 
do  with  the  princes  themselves.'  2 

Hoffaus,  to  whom  Canisius  had  handed  over  the 
provincialate  in  1569,  was  as  urgent  and  emphatic 
as  his  predecessor  in  deprecating  all  interference  with 
political  affairs.  '  Our  Father  Ignatius,  of  holy  memory,' 
he  said  in  a  memorial  addressed  to  the  Munich  Jesuits, 
'  foresaw  that  much  harm  might  accrue  to  the  society 
by  its  becoming  involved  in  worldly  affairs.     For  not 

1  ' .  .  .  que  el  trato  con  los  Principes  fuesse  al  modo  con  que  la  memo 
advertida  trata  los  aspides.'  Cien-Fuegos  Alvaro,  La  heroyca  vida,  virtudes 
y  milagros  del  grande  S.  Francisco  de  Borja  (Barcelona,  Quarta  impresion, 
1754),  p.  324. 

8  Riess,  pp.  467-468. 


THE   JESUITS   AND   AFFAIRS   OF   STATE  353 

only  do  these  affairs  greatly  distract  our  minds  and 
hamper  us  in  our  duties  and  obligations,  but  they  also 
make  us  strongly  detested,  and  thus  rob  us  of  the 
fruits  of  our  work  for  our  neighbours.  We  have  been 
taught  by  most  important  examples  and  experiences 
that  God  is  not  with  us  in  such  affairs  ;  for  wherever 
any  of  our  Order  have  been  requested — nay  rather 
compelled — not  alone  by  potentates  but  even  by  Popes, 
to  take  part  in  any  such  business,  the  matter  has  in- 
variably taken  a  bad  turn.  'And  this  contrariety 
has  brought  on  our  society  much  calumny  and  ill- 
repute  both  among  Catholics  and  heretics,  and  has 
never  tended  to  edification.  Even  our  present  Pope, 
through  whom,  as  is  the  pious  belief,  God  speaks  as 
through  His  representative,  has  publicly  brought  the 
reproach  against  us  that  we  mix  ourselves  up  in  the 
affairs  of  princes  and  States  and  want  to  govern  the 
world  according  to  our  own  notions.  Consequently 
the  last  General  Congregation  has  issued  the  most  strin- 
gent orders  that  we  are  to  keep  aloof  from  all  business 
of  this  sort.  If  all  the  many  disasters  which  have 
happened  hitherto  do  not  frighten  us  into  our  senses, 
it  is  to  be  feared  that  to  our  far  greater  suffering  we 
shall  one  day  come  to  know  God  as  an  avenger.'  1 

The  regulations  drawn  up  by  Hoffaus  in  this  respect 
certainly  left  nothing  to  be  desired  as  regards  severity. 
They  were  issued  by  the  fifth  General  Assembly  of  the 
Order,  in  1593,  and  were  to  the  following  effect : 

'  Our  society  has  been  raised  up  by  God  in  order 
to  spread  the  faith  and  win  souls  for  Him.     The  duties 

1  Huber,  Der  Jesuiter-Orden,  p.  99,  note.  Also  the  further  passages 
in  A.  von  Druffel's  Ignatius  von  Loyola  und  die  rnmische  Kurie  (Miinchen, 
1879),  p.  44,  note  105. 

VOL.    X.  A  A 


354  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  occupations  rightly  belonging  to  the  Order  consti- 
tute a  spiritual  equipment  by  means  of  which  it  is 
rendered  capable,  under  the  banner  of  the  cross,  of 
successfully  accomplishing  its  ends  to  the  profit  of  the 
Church  and  the  edification  of  its  fellow-men.  But  the 
Order  would  fail  in  these  grand  aims  and  would  expose 
itself  to  the  greatest  danger  if  it  took  to  mixing  itself 
up  in  worldly  affairs,  in  politics  and  in  the  management 
of  the  State.  Most  wisely,  therefore,  did  our  forbears 
declare  that  we  are  the  soldiers  of  God,  and  that  we  have 
no  right  to  entangle  ourselves  in  quarrels  and  disputes 
which  are  altogether  foreign  to  our  creation.  In  these 
most  disastrous  times,  however,  it  is  precisely  in  this 
way,  either  through  the  ambition  or  the  untactful 
zeal  of  some  of  the  members  of  the  Order,  that  our 
society  has  fallen  into  bad  odour  in  numbers  of  places 
and  with  some  of  the  princes.  Our  revered  Father 
Ignatius,  of  sacred  memory,  was  of  opinion  that  for 
the  sake  of  serving  God  we  must  forego  the  friendship 
and  favour  of  the  princes  ;  and  our  work  can  indeed 
be  no  fruitful  one  if  we  do  not  diffuse  around  us  the 
sweet  savour  of  Christ.  The  Congregation  therefore 
has  resolved  that  we  must  avoid  every  appearance 
of  evil,  and  also,  as  far  as  is  possible,  put  to  silence 
those  accusations  against  us  which  rest  on  false  grounds 
of  suspicion.  To  this  end,  in  the  decree  herewith 
issued,  all  members  of  the  Order  are  strictly  and  sternly 
forbidden  to  take  part  in  any  such  public  affairs,  even 
should  they  be  invited  or  urgently  solicited  to  do  so  ; 
no  amount  of  entreaty  or  persuasion  must  have  power 
to  induce  them  to  disobey  the  rules  of  their  Order. 
Furthermore,  the  Congregation  has  commissioned  the 
Definitors  to  consult  over  and  draw  up  a  code  of  most 


THE   JESUITS   AND   AFFAIRS   OF   STATE  355 

stringent  remedial  measures,   to  be  enforced,  in  case 
of  necessity,  against  such  transgressions.'  l 

Paul  V.  gave  special  confirmation  to  this  decree. 

The  Definitors  came  to  an  agreement  concerning 
the  desired  '  remedial  measures  '  even  before  the  close 
of  the  General  Assembly,  and  these  measures  were  an- 
nexed by  the  latter  to  the  above  decree.  They  were 
as  follows  :  '  To  all  members  of  the  Order  it  is  herewith 
commanded,  in  the  name  of  sacred  obedience,  and  on 
penalty  of  deprivation  of  all  offices  and  dignities  and 
loss  of  the  right  both  of  active  and  passive  voting, 
that  they  do  follow  the  63rd  decree,  viz.  that  no  one 
of  them  shall  take  upon  himself  to  interfere  or  take 
part  in  the  public,  secular  affairs  of  the  princes,  the 
so-called  State  affairs,  or  to  undertake  the  management 
of  political  business  of  this  sort,  how  urgently  so  ever 
and  by  whomsoever  he  may  be  solicited  or  entreated 
so  to  do.  And  the  superiors  are  herewith  earnestly 
implored  not  to  allow  our  people  in  any  way  to  involve 
themselves  in  such  transactions.  Should  they  observe 
that  any  member  is  inclined  to  such  a  course,  they 
must  as  soon  as  possible  draw  their  provincial's  atten- 
tion to  the  fact,  in  order  that  he  may  transpose  the 
person  in  question  should  there  be  opportunity  or  danger 
of  his  becoming  entangled  in  such  worldly  matters 
in  his  present  place  of  abode.' 


■>  ■> 


1  Congreg.  5  Deer.  47  (63  according  to  the  original  numbering), 
Institutum  Societatis,  i.  pp.  254-255. 

2  Congreg.  5  Deer.  79,  Institutum  Societatis,  i.  265.  In  the  year 
1604  the  Jesuit  Provincial  Bernard  Oliverius  drew  up  for  the  Jesuits 
'  in  the  Dutch  mission  '  a  code  of  rules  and  regulations,  which  was  enlarged 
by  the  Provincials  Florentine  and  Verannemann,  and  issued  to  the  members 
of  the  Order  in  this  later  form  in  1612.  In  the  fifth  rule  it  says  :  '  Our 
members  must  all  take  good  heed,  and  the  superior  must  be  watchful  to 
see  that  they  in  no  wise  mix  themselves  up  in  the  affairs  of  State  ('  rebus 


a    \ 


356  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

As  early  as  1592,  even  before  the  issue  of  this  order 
to  the  society,  Simon  Hendl,  Rector  of  the  Munich 
Jesuit  College,  had  refused  to  comply  with  the  wish  of 
Duke  William  V.  that  he  would  advise  him  in  secular 
matters.  He  could  not,  he  said,  burden  himself  with 
such  things  ;  for  if  once  he  began  he  would  have  to  go 
on,  and  he  would  be  drawn  into  neglecting  his  own 
vocation.'  1 

Then,  after  the  decretal  had  been  issued,  the  Rector 
and  Father  Gregory  of  Valencia  again  refused  to  sup- 
port the  Duke  with  their  counsel  in  his  state  affairs  ; 
the  Duke  in  consequence  complained  to  the  General 
of  the  Order,  Aquaviva.2  Canisius  represented  to 
the  Duke  that  every  appearance  of  his  being  even  influ- 
enced in  the  government  of  his  subjects  and  in  his  de- 
cisions by  the  advice  of  some  favoured  Jesuit  must  be 
avoided,  for  otherwise  his  princely  dignity  would  be 
impaired.3 

Special  difficulties  for  the  Jesuits  and  '  special 
incentives  to  the  bitterest  libels,  complaints,  and  de- 
famation '  arose  out  of  the  position  occupied  by  some 
of  the  Fathers  as  confessors  to  spiritual  and  temporal 
princes.  Canisius  deeply  regretted  that  the  members 
of  the  Order  had  been  allowed  to  undertake  such  parts  ; 
for  they  were  a  source  of  danger  to  the  confessors 
themselves,  and  were  sure  to  involve  the  Order  in  fresh 

statuum  ')  ;  they  are  only  to  occupy  themselves  with  things  which  relate 
to  the  salvation  of  souls  and  are  in  harmony  with  the  organisation  of  our 
Order.'     See  the  pamphlet  attacking  the  Jesuits,  Jesuitica  Negociatio,  p.  9. 

1  v.  Aretin,  Maximilian  der  Erste,  p.  403,  note  4  ;  see  B.  Duhr,  Die 
Jesuiten  an  den  dexdschen  Filrstenhofcn  des  10.  Jahrhunderts  {Erliivt.  und 
Erganz.  zu  Janssens  Gesch.  des  deutschen  Volkes,  herausg.  von  L.  Pastor, 
Bd.  2,  Heft  4) :  Freiburg,  1901. 

2  Die  Antwort  Aquavivas  bei  Stieve,  Ursprung,  Anmerkungen,  p.  37. 

3  Sacchinus,  Vita  Canisii,  pp.  296-303. 


THE   JESUITS   AS   CONFESSORS   TO   PRINCES       357 

odium.1  Whereas,  however,  '  it  was  impossible  to  give 
downright  refusals  to  the  numerous  and  oft-reiterated 
appeals  addressed  to  the  Society  for  advice  in  matters 
of  conscience,'  it  was  thought  desirable  at  any  rate 
'  to  safeguard  the  brethren  as  much  as  possible  by 
framing  precautionary  measures.'  Accordingly,  in  1565 
the  second  General  Assembly  of  the  Order  passed  a  reso- 
lution to  the  effect  that  '  no  members  of  the  Order 
were  to  be  installed  as  permanent  residents  at  the 
courts  of  the  princes,  or  of  any  other  secular  or  spiritual 
lords,  either  as  father-confessors,  or  domestic  chaplains, 
or  in  any  other  capacity ;  only  very  brief  stays — one  or 
two  months  at  the  outside — must  be  permitted  them 
at  any  court.' 2  In  the  year  1600,  the  General,  Aqua- 
viva,  sent  the  superiors  of  the  different  houses  of  the 
Order  a  detailed  code  of  instructions  as  to  the  ways 
and  means  by  which  they  were  to  treat  and  heal  the 
spiritual  sicknesses  of  those  placed  under  them.  Among 
these  complaints  he  included  '  worldlymindedness 
and  haughtiness  of  spirit,'  and  he  devoted  a  special 
section  to  this  dangerous  condition.  This  evil,  he  said, 
crept  in  gradually  and  almost  unnoticed,  under  the 
semblance  of  promoting  the  service  of  God  among 
princes,  prelates  and  great  lords,  and  making  them 
friendly  to  the  Order  ;  while  in  reality  it  was  mere 
self-seeking  and  caused  the  members  to  grow  more  and 
more  worldly.  If  a  superior  observed  anything  of 
the  sort  in  a  court-confessor  he  must  at  once  recall 
the  individual  in  question.3 

1  Gutachten  fiir  Aquaviva. 

2  Congreg.  2  Deer.  40,  Institutwm  Societatis,  i.  188. 

3  *  Industriae  ad  curandos  animae  morbo?,'  cap.  15,  Institutwm  Societatis, 
ii.  357-358. 


o 


58  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Two  years  later  there  followed  a  special  injunction 
from  Aquaviva  concerning  confessors  to  princes.  If 
it  was  necessary  for  members  of  the  Society  to  under- 
take this  office,  care  must  be  taken  that  by  so  doing 
they  further  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  princes  and 
the  edification  of  the  people,  and  that  no  injury  accrues 
to  the  Order.  For  this  reason  the  father- confessors 
must  live  in  the  house  of  the  Order  and  not  at  court. 
Even  when  they  accompany  the  princes  on  a  journey 
it  must,  if  possible,  be  arranged  that  they  should  not 
lodge  in  the  same  hostel  as  the  prince,  but  in  a  convent, 
or  with  some  secular  priest ;  also  they  must  always  be 
accompanied  by  another  member  of  the  Order.  Money, 
or  other  presents,  must  not  be  accepted  or  given  by 
them.  While  dwelling  in  the  house  of  the  Order  the 
court  father-confessors  must  conform  to  the  common  or- 
dinances and  rule  of  life,  and  must  not  claim  exceptional 
privileges.  Interference  in  politics  is  strictly  forbidden 
them.  They  must  by  no  means  go  to  court  without 
being  summoned,  unless  any  necessity  should  compel 
them  to  do  so.  In  no  case  whatever  must  they  ever 
intercede  with  a  prince  to  procure  for  anybody  a  token 
of  favour,  an  appointment,  or  anything  of  the  sort ; 
'  for  even  in  cases  where,  in  the  abstract,  there  is  no 
question  of  anything  illegitimate,  scandal  is  apt  to  arise 
when  a  father-confessor — especially  one  of  our  Order — 
interests  himself  in  such  matters.'  The  father-con- 
fessors must  also  be  careful  not  to  commend  this  or 
that  matter  of  business  to  the  attention  of  the  prince's 
officials,  or  to  administer  rebukes  or  admonitions  to 
them  in  the  name  of  their  prince  ;  should  the  prince 
propose  anything  of  the  sort  to  them  they  must  refuse 
point-blank.     On  the  other  hand,  the  confessors  must 


THE   JESUITS   AS   CONFESSORS   TO   PRINCES        359 

be  at  liberty  to  admonish  the  princes  themselves  unre- 
servedly, and  this  not  only  in  matters  which  they  learn 
of  from  the  princes'  own  lips  in  the  confessional,  but 
also  in  other  things  which  they  happen  to  hear  talked 
about,  and  which  require  setting  right ;  '  for  it  happens 
not  seldom  that  through  the  fault  of  officials  cases  of 
oppression  and  scandal  arise  which  the  prince  does  not 
know  of  and  will  not  acknowledge,  but  which,  never- 
theless, are  put  down  to  his  account  and  which  must 
be  put  right  by  him.'  In  difficult  cases,  when  the  prince 
finds  no  comfort  in  the  advice  of  his  confessor,  the 
latter  must  call  two  or  three  other  theologians  in  to 
counsel.  Finally  the  court-confessors  are  exhorted 
to  special  fervour  in  prayer  and  to  searching  examina- 
tion of  their  own  consciences,  in  order  that  they  may 
suffer  no  spiritual  injury  at  court,  and  may  always 
be  worthy  instruments  in  the  hand  of  God. 

These  instructions,  says  Aquaviva,  must  be  sub- 
mitted to  every  prince  who  wishes  for  a  Jesuit  as 
father-confessor.  At  the  same  time  the  prince  must 
be  informed  that  it  must  at  all  times  be  in  the  power 
of  the  provincial  to  remove  a  court-confessor  to  another 
post.1 

The  sixth  General  Assembly  of  the  Order  ratified 
these  regulations  and  added  yet  another  injunction. 
Because,  as  was  stated,  it  was  not  easy  to  refuse  the 
requests  of  princes  who  occasionally  applied  to  the 
society  to  supply  them  with  confessors,  care  must 
always  be  taken  to  proceed  with  the  utmost  dis- 
interestedness and  singlemindedness,  in  order  not 
to  run  the  risk,  while  ministering  help  to  others,  to 
sacrifice  in  any  way  the  purity  of  our  poverty.     The 

1  Ordinationes  Generalium,  cap.  11,  Institutum  Societatis,  ii.  225-228. 


360  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Congregation,  accordingly,  approves  of  the  ordinances 
of  the  General,  ratifies  them  with  its  authority,  and 
adds  moreover  the  further  stipulation  that  '  It  shall  not 
be  permitted  to  any  of  our  people,  either  in  consequence 
of  intercourse  with  princes  or  great  lords,  or  by  virtue 
of  their  position  as  confessors  to  the  aforesaid,  to  accept 
anything  for  their  own  advantage  or  their  own  expen- 
diture ;  the  superiors  must  not  give  their  sanction  to 
anything  of  the  kind.'  This  injunction  was  likewise 
communicated  to  all  other  father-confessors,  preachers, 
and  so  forth.1 

All  these  regulations  point  to  the  fact  that  abuses 
of  many  kinds  had  cropped  up,  but  they  show  at  the 
same  time  the  earnest  desire  of  the  leaders  of  the  Order 
vigorously  to  oppose  and  prevent  such  abuses.  '  We 
punish  all  wrong-doing  among  our  members,'  said  the 
Jesuit  Gregory  Rosenus  in  1586,  in  answer  to  a  pamphlet 
by  Lucas  Osiander,  '  whoever  and  how  great  soever 
the  offender  may  be,  even  should  it  be  the  General  him- 
self. But  altogether  to  prevent  any  evil  occurring  or 
being  perpetrated  is  an  impossibility  in  this  life,  for 
even  Christ  in  His  band  of  disciples  had  a  Judas.  To 
let  wickedness,  however,  pass  unnoticed  and,  as  Osiander 
said,  to  "  cover  it  up  with  the  mantle  of  heaven  "  will 
never,  God  grant,  be  our  way  of  proceeding.' 


'  2 


1  Congreg.  6  Deer.  21,  Institutum  Societatis,  i.  274. 

2  Rosenbusch,  Replica,  p.  102.  In  the  year  1612  there  appeared  at 
Cracow  the  'Monita  privata  Societatis  Jesu;'  this  publication  went  through 
a  number  of  reprints,  and  in  the  course  of  the  sixteenth  century  a  new  and 
enlarged  edition  was  brought  out  under  the  title  '  Monita  Seer  eta.'  The 
work  purported  to  be  a  secret  code  of  instructions  concerning  the  procedure 
to  be  observed  in  matters  affecting  the  interests  of  the  Order,  and  to  be 
communicated  only  to  a  few  chosen  and  trustworthy  members  under  the 
seal  of  strictest  silence.  At  one  moment  it  was  said  to  have  been  dis- 
covered by  Duke  Christian  of  Brunswick  in  the  Jesuit  College  at  Pader- 
born  ;  at  another,  by  the  Jesuits  at  Antwerp  ;  then  again  by  those  at 
Padua,  then  at  Prague  ;  and  finally  to  have  been  carried  off  from  a  ship 


CRIMES   ATTRIBUTED   TO   THE   JESUITS  361 

'  Not  among  the  least  of  the  crimes  attributed 
to  the  Jesuits,  as  intriguing  politicians  and  auricular 
confessors  of  princes  and  great  potentates,  is  the  Parisian 
bloody  wedding,  and  he  must  be  of  dull  and  simple 
understanding  who  will  not  believe  that  the  many 
thousands  who  were  then  massacred  at  their  bidding 
were  a  hundred  times  too  few  to  satisfy  those  murderous 
Jesuitical  blood-hounds  ;  they  would  gladly  have  seen 
the  whole  of  France,  the  whole  body  of  papists  also, 
who  were  not  on  their  side  and  of  their  devil's  company, 
drowned  in  blood.'  l 

Further,  the  Jesuits  were  held  accountable  for  the 
overthrow  of  King  Sebastian  of  Portugal  and  were 
accused  of  having  brought  Portugal  into  the  hands 
of  King  Philip  II.  of  Spain  in  return  for  a  fat  yearly 
income.  This  same  Philip,  however,  had  '  allowed  him- 
self to  be  so  completely  entangled  in  the  snares  of  these 
inhuman  cyclops  and  monsters '  that  he  '  sacrificed 
to  their  wild  beast  cruelty,  Don  Carlos,  the  son  of  his 
most  sanguine  hopes,  and  allowed  him  to  be  killed  by 
cutting  open  his  veins.  Thus  he  suffered  violence  in 
his  own  blood  in  order  to  satisfy  the  rapacious  hearts 
of  his  associates  in  murder.'  2  The  Jesuits — so  a  poet 
sang — '  caused  the  son  of  the  King  of  Spain  to  be  exe- 
cuted :  ' 

Durch  Aderlassen  das  Blut  verbrennt, 
Welches  sie  ketzerisch  Blut  genennt, 
Dieweil  sie  wohl  vermerlcten  dass 
Er  gar  nicht  jesuitisch  was.3 


going  to  the  East  Indies.  The  author  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  General 
Aquaviva.  Gretser  (161S),  Adam  Tanner  and  Forner  attempted  to  show  it 
up  as  impudent  falsehood.  The  book  is  a  satire  on  the  Order.  See 
Huber,  Jesuiten-Orden,  pp.  104-108.  This  satire  will  engage  our  atten- 
tion later  on  in  another  volume. 

1  Mengering,  p.  17.     See  L.  Osiander,  Verantwortunq,  p.  71. 

2  Stupenda  Jesuitica,  Bl.  A2.  3  Scheible,  Fliegende  Blatter,  p.  25. 


362  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

'  By  bleeding  they  shed  his  blood,  which  they  called 
heretical  because  they  were  aware  that  Don  Juan 
was  not  favourable  to  the  Jesuits.' 

'  Then,  because  the  King  was  deeply  grieved  at  the 
death  of  his  son,  they  concluded  that  he  too  was  inclined 
to  Lutheranism,  and  Philip  was  consequently  forced 
to  submit  to  having  a  vein  in  his  forehead  bled,  in  order 
to  remove  the  heretical  blood.'  The  following  is  what 
a  Wahrheitsfreund  reported  in  1597  for  the  warning 
of  Germans  who  might  thus  be  enabled  to  picture  to 
themselves  what  the  Jesuits  had  done  outside  Europe. 
In  Peru  they  made  a  practice  of  piercing  the  natives 
with  red-hot  needles  and  compelling  them  by  all  manner 
of  tortures  to  reveal  the  place  of  their  hidden  treasures. 
In  the  art  of  murder  the  Jesuits  were  far  greater  masters 
than  the  Popes.  Through  the  agency  of  the  latter  only 
nine  times  a  hundred  thousand  human  lives  had  been 
destroyed  within  the  last  thirty  years  ; x  the  Jesuits,  on 
the  other  hand,  in  India  alone,  had  brought  up  the 
number  of  innocent  victims  slaughtered  to  over  two 
millions, '  for  which  reason  many  of  the  Indians  preferred 
first  to  slay  their  wives  and  children  and  afterwards 
put  themselves  to  death.'  '  What  may  not  Germany 
expect  from  them  ?  In  the  towns  where  they  have  col- 
leges it  is  to  be  feared  that  in  course  of  time  they  will 
dig  secret  mines,  through  which  they  will  bring  numbers 
of  soldiers  into  the  towns,  and  thus  one  day  get  the 
government  of  every  town  into  their  own  hands.  They 
are  incessantly  exhorting  and  stirring  up  their  preachers 
to  persecute,  banish,  kill,  burn,  crucify,  and  drown 
the  Augsburg  Confessionists.  Therefore  the  Jesuits 
must  be  swept  out  of  Germany  and  persecuted  to  death. 

1  Mylius,  Bapstpredigten,  p.  116. 


CRIMES   ATTEIBUTED   TO   THE   JESUITS  363 

While  nature  accords  to  other  wild  beasts — to  lions 
for  instance — only  one  young  one,  the  tyrannous, 
bloodthirsty  race  has  already  multiplied  by  hundreds 
of  thousands.'  *  '  So  many  daggers,'  said  another 
writer,  '  so  many  drops  of  poison,  so  many  horns  of 
powder,  so  many  instruments  of  martyrdom,  so  many 
knives  and  all  other  such  things  as  can  be  reckoned 
up,  even  so  great  is  the  number  of  the  misdeeds  of  the 
Jesuits.' 2  The  chief  court  preacher  of  the  Saxon 
Electorate,  Matthias  Hoe,  said  also  in  1606  that  '  the 
Jesuits  were  the  very  worst  of  firebrands  :  they  and  other 
venomous  papist  parsons  could  hardly  sleep  or  rest 
for  bloodthirstiness.'  3 

'  And  how  could  anything  else  but  the  most 
execrable  public  crimes  proceed  from  these  terrible 
Jesuits,  seeing  that  they  had  the  devil  for  their  father 
and  godlessness  for  their  wet-nurse,  and  their  whole 
teaching  was  nothing  but  sacrilege  and  every  imagin- 
able form  of  idolatry  ?  ' 

'  They  feed  on  blood,  they  drink  blood,  as  is  cre- 
dibly reported,  at  the  high  festivals,  and  murder  and 
robbery  are  their  only  trades.'  4 

Some  verses  composed  in  the  spirit  of  Fischart, 
an  '  echo  to  the  '  Jesuits'  '  Raub  und  Mord  :  ' 

Watch  they're  keeping  night  and  day 
All  men  to  slay. 
By  them  the  folk  are  stirred 
To  murder  and  sedition, 
To  extirpate  all  Christians 
Together  with  God's  Word. 


1  Wolfras,  Lectiones,  ii.  1044-1056. 

2  Stupenda  Jesuitica,  p.  4. 

3  Christliches   Bedenken,   wie   sich   die    Protestanten   in   Osterreich   zu 
verhalten  (1606),  Vorrede,  Bl.  A  3b-4b,  pp.  4,  6,  8-10. 

1  Mengering,  p.  18. 


364  HISTORY    OF   TEE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

These  devil's  messengers  must  be 
Rooted  out  entirely  ; 
Straight  to  hell  they  must  be  sent : 
It's  time  they  went. 

The  devil's  trump-card,  that's  the  way 

The  people  name  them,  and  right  are  they. 
Bloodhounds  and  murderers  they  be, 

That's  plain  to  see. 
Rabid  as  mad  dogs  that  scare 
In  very  truth  they  are.1 

'  All  Jesuits,'  said  the  Calvinist  Conrad  Decker, 
professor  at  the  '  Sapienz  College '  at  Heidelberg, 
in  1611,  'at  the  present  day  proclaim  to  the  Catholic 
soldiers  that  it  is  their  duty  to  kill  all  Protestants, 
and  that  if  they  shirk  this  duty  they  will  be  forfeiting 
their  faith  and  their  salvation.'  2 

Earlier  even  than  this  the  Calvinist  Innocent  Gren- 
tillet,  who  assumed  the  false  name  of  Joachim  Ursinus 
'  the  Anti- Jesuit,'  had  had  printed  at  Amberg  a  '  Jesui- 
tenspiegelj  in  which  he  represented  the  Fathers  as 
devil's  lackeys  and  murderers,  and,  in  the  accustomed 
way,  heaped  all  possible  deeds  of  iniquity  upon  them. 
Their  founder  Ignatius,  he  said,  had  been  '  the  most 
brutal  of  soldiers,  thirsting  only  for  Christian  blood  ; ' 
their  dogmas  were  such  monstrosities  that  sun  and 
earth  must  be  aghast  with  horror  at  them.3 

1  Ein  gar  newer  Lobspruch  von  Ignatio  Loiolci,  der  Jesmvider  ihrem 
Stamm,  Ursprung  und  Herkommen  in  einem  Echo  oder  Widerhall  gestellt, 
&c.  (1615),  Bl.  A  2-3. 

2  Tractatus  de  proprietatibus  Jesuitarum  (Oppenheim,  1611).  Dedica- 
tion to  the  Protestants  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Bl.  4%  5,  7b.  That  the  Jesuits 
are  enemies  of  Christ  can  be  known  from  the  fact  that  '  they  worship  a 
Christ  made  out  of  bakers'  dough.' 

J  '  Speculum  Jesuiticum,  Pontificum  Romanorum  erga  Imperatives 
Germanicos  perfidiam,  insolentiam  ac  tyrannidem  repraesentans,-1  &c.  Edente 
haec  Joachimo  Ursino  anti-Jesuita  (Amberg,  ]  611 ),  fol.  2a~b.  '  Ad  haec  et  id 
genua  alia  Jesuiticorum  dogmatum  portenta  quid  mirum,  si  ipse  etiam  sol 
obstupescat !  si  terra  contremiscat !     Nae  pectus  huic  sit  vel  ipso  Caucaso 


DREAD   OF   THE   JESUITS  365 

In  the  year  1612  he  said  in  a  pamphlet  against  the 
Jesuits  :  '  In  order  that  the  godless  arts  and  Catiline 
attacks  of  these  swindlers  and  blockheads  might  be 
brought  to  light,  God  had  ordained  that  the  letters 
written  by  the  Jesuits  from  Belgium  to  the  King  of 
Spain  should  be  captured.'  To  give  the  names  of  the 
authors,  and  the  text  and  dates  of  these  letters,  Ursinus 
did  not  consider  incumbent  on  him  :  '  substantially,'  he 
said,  the  contents  were  as  follows  :  '  As  many  as  were 
the  colleges  opened  and  held  by  the  Jesuits  in  Germany, 
so  many  were  the  bulwarks  of  the  King  of  Spain  in  the 
Empire,  so  many  were  his  footholds  in  Germany — foot- 
holds sure  and  firm.  And  thus  with  little  trouble  he 
will  end  in  obtaining  that  sole  supremacy  which  he  has 
so  long  striven  after  with  great  zeal,  astounding  energy, 
with  incredible  outlay  and  with  Punic  faith.'  l 

'  The  accursed  sect  of  the  Jesuits,'  another  pam- 
phleteer declared  simultaneously,  '  have  no  better  in- 
tentions towards  the  King  of  Spain  than  towards  other 
potentates  ;  they  are  lying  in  wait  for  his  life  and  crown 
also,  and  if  he  had  a  grain  of  intelligence  he  would 
protect  himself  against  these  Baalitish  sodomists  and 
assassins,  no  less  than  against  some  others,  inasmuch 
as  they  are  bent  on  overthrowing  all  the  kingdoms 
of  Christendom  and  immersing  them  in  blood,  as 
indeed  their  father,  the  devil,  has  strictly  commanded 
them  to  do.  Oh,  you  short-sighted,  blinded  princes 
and  leaders,  you  are  nourishing  the  vipers  in  your  own 
bosoms ;   the   princes   of   Bavaria   will   one   day  learn 

durius,  necesse  est,  qui  ex  nobis  protinus  in  stuporem,  si  isia  audierit  vel 
legerit,  non  rapiatur.'     That  the  Speculum  Jesuiticum  appeared  first  in 
1609  is  shown  by  Kiebs,  Publicistik,  p.  170  ;  see  ibid.  p.  61  ff.,  concerning 
the  contents  and  the  author  of  this  libellous  pamphlet. 
1  Flosculi  blasphemiarum  Jesuiticarum  (1612),  p.  2. 


366  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

this  to  their  own  and  their  country's  bloody  ruin  and 
deadly  downfall.'  '  Regicide  and  murder  of  princes 
and  lords  lurks  in  the  vitals  of  these  bloodthirsty, 
pharisaical  villains ;  they  cannot  help  themselves ; 
it  is  their  nature  and  being.  Who  would  not  shrink 
from  enumerating  all  the  many  individuals  of  their 
number  who  have  been  consecrated  to  the  service 
of  poison  and  the  dagger  ?  And  their  methods  of 
poisoning,  moreover,  are  of  more  drastic  and  thorough- 
going a  nature  than  anything  that  has  ever  been  re- 
counted in  any  histories  of  the  past.  Now,  however, 
it  has  been  made  known,  from  the  book  of  a  Jesuit, 
by  the  instrumentality  of  Johann  Pfeiffer  of  Altzen, 
who  has  divulged  the  secret  to  the  German  people  and 
who  writes  :  "  The  murderous  agents  selected  by  them 
are  not  only  to  slay  the  evangelicals,  but  also  to  put 
to  death  and  poison  the  papists.  These  men  have 
been  so  thoroughly  initiated  in  the  art  of  poisoning 
that  they  can  inoculate  plates,  spoons,  beakers,  sauce- 
pans, salt-cellars,  dishes,  and  all  other  utensils  used  in 
daily  life  so  effectually  with  poison,  that  even  if  such 
articles  are  rubbed,  scrubbed,  and  washed  ten  times  over, 
and  even  oftener,  there  still  remains  ingrained  in  them 
so  powerful  a  poisonous  element  that  they  are  ihe 
means  of  death  to  large  numbers  of  people."  It  is 
indeed  a  matter  of  wonder,'  the  pamphleteer  concludes, 
'  that  we  can  enjoy  even  a  single  hour  of  our  lives, 
inasmuch  as  nobody  knows  for  certain  in  what  form 
the  Jesuitical  villains,  by  means  of  servants,  merchants, 
shopkeepers,  pedlars,  butchers,  bakers,  and  so  forth, 
are  lying  in  wait  for  us  poor  unhappy  Christians.'  * 

1  Augenscheinlicher  Beweiss,   &c.    (1612),   Bl.   2b.     See  our  remarks, 
vol.  viii. 


PROTESTANTS   ON   TYRANNICIDE  367 

Fear  of  the  Jesuits,  like  the  fear  of  heretics,  be- 
came a  dominant  complaint  of  the  time. 

A  principal  grievance  against  the  Jesuits  was  that 
they  preached  the  doctrine  of  tyrannicide. 

Already  in  the  Middle  Ages  individual  theologians, 
such  as  the  Englishman  John  of  Salisbury  in  the 
twelfth  century,  and  the  Frenchman  Jean  Petit, 
among  others,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  had  spoken  in 
favour  of  tyrannicide ;  but  the  Council  of  Constance 
in  1415  had  rejected  as  heretical  the  doctrine  that 
it  was  permissible  and  meritorious  for  any  vassal  or 
subject  to  put  a  tyrant  to  death  by  stratagem  or  by 
secret  lying  in  wait.1 

After  the  ecclesiastical  revolution  in  the  sixteenth 
century  the  question  of  tyrannicide  became  the  subject 
of  dispute  as  well  on  the  Catholic  as  on  the  Protestant 
side.  Shortly  after  the  defeat  of  the  peasants  in  1526 
Luther  had  maintained  with  the  utmost  decision  that 
it  was  not  permissible  to  rise  up  against  a  tyrant  and 
put  him  to  death ;  all  punishment,  he  said,  must  be  left 
in  the  hands  of  God.2 

Later  on,  however,  he  had  said  in  his  '  Table-talk  : ' 
'  If  an  overlord  is  tyrannical,  and  acts  in  opposition  to 
justice,  he  lowers  himself  to  the  level  of  other  people, 
for  by  his  conduct  he  forfeits  the  essence  of  rulership, 
and  thereby  justly  loses  his  rights  over  his  subjects.' 
'  If  a  tyrant  attacks  and  persecutes  one  of  his  subjects, 

1  Hergenr other,  pp.  478-484.  For  the  manner  in  which,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  Italian  Humanists,  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  antiquity,  expressed 
themselves  concerning  tyrannicide,  see  L.  Pastor,  Gesch.  der  Pcipste  im 
Zeitalter  der  Renaissance,  i.  (2nd  edition,  Freiburg,  1891),  pp.  459-460,  and 
ii.  465-466.     (There  is  an  English  translation  of  this  work.) 

2  Collected  Works,  pp.  22,  257  ft. 


368  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

it  is  as  likely  that  he  will  attack  and  persecute  them 
all,  or  one  after  the  other :  thus,  if  his  conduct  were 
countenanced,  it  would  follow  that  he  would  proceed 
to  disturb,  disorganise,  and  destroy  ^the  whole  govern- 
ment and  empire.  The  rights  of  justice  are  higher 
than  rulers  and  tyrants,  therefore  we  are  more  bound 
to  rights  and  to  laws,  and  more  pledged  to  obey  them, 
than  to  submit  to  tyrants.'  To  the  question  '  whether, 
then,  it  was  justifiable  to  put  to  death  a  tyrant  who 
should  act  according  to  his  own  pleasure  in  defiance 
of  law  and  justice  ?  '  Luther  answered  :  '  It  would  not 
be  right  for  an  ordinary  private  individual,  holding 
no  public  post  or  office  of  authority,  to  do  so,  even  if 
he  could ;  if,  however,  the  burghers  and  subjects,  unable 
any  longer  to  endure  the  oppression  of  a  tyrant,  should 
band  together  to  resist  his  power,  they  would  be  quite 
justified  in  putting  him  to  death  like  any  common 
murderer  or  highway  robber.'  * 

Melanchthon  went  even  further  than  Luther.  '  In 
the  name  of  human  reason,'  he  said  in  an  exposition  of 
the  fifty-ninth  Psalm,  '  resistance  to  tyranny  which  is  a 
public  and  a  gross  injustice  is  allowable.  And  if  in  the 
course  of  such  resistance  the  tyrant  is  killed,  we  must 
pronounce  the  verdict  that  the  resisting  party  has 
acted  rightly.' L> 

'  Whosoever  assassinates  a  tyrant,'  Melanchthon  says 
elsewhere  emphatically,  '  offers  up  a  sacrifice  to  God  '  ! 3 
'  The  English  tyrant,'  he  wrote  concerning  Henry  VIII. 
in  1540,  '  has  put  Cromwell  to  death,  and  is  seeking  a 

1  Collected  Works,  pp.  62,  201-202,  206-207. 

2  Corp.  Reform,  xiii.  1128. 

3  Victimam  immolat  Deo,  qui  inter ficit  tyr  annum ;  Loesche,  Analecta 
Lutherana  et  Melanchihoniana  (Gotha,  1892),  p.  159 ;  see  also  Corp. 
Reform,  pp.  16,  105. 


PROTESTANTS   ON   TYRANNICIDE  369 

divorce  from  Ann  of  Cleves.  But  how  truly  is  it  said 
in  a  certain  tragedy  :  no  pleasanter  sacrifice  can  be 
offered  up  to  God  than  the  death  of  a  tyrant.  May 
God  inspire  some  strong  man  with  this  sentiment!  '  [ 

At  that  time  nothing  was  yet  known  in  Germany  of 
Jesuits. 

The  leaders  of  Zwinglianism  and  Calvinism  spoke  as 
decisively  as  Melanchthon  on  the  subject.  Zwingli 
declared  in  1528,  that  in  order  to  plant  the  pure  Gospel, 
it  was  necessary  to  massacre  the  bishops.  2  '  If  kings, 
princes,  and  rulers,'  he  wrote,  '  act  in  an  iniquitous 
manner,  and  not  according  to  Christ's  commands,  they 
may  be  deposed  with  a  good  conscience.  If  the  Jews 
had  not  let  their  king  Manasseh  go  unpunished  in  his 
crimes,  they  would  not  have  been  so  severely  punished 
by  God.  We  must  put  out  the  eye  and  cut  off  the  foot 
that  offends.'  Calvin  taught :  we  must  obey  even  an 
unjust  and  tyrannical  ruler,  but  only  in  so  far  as  the 
obedience  which  we  owe  to  God  is  not  thereby  impaired. 
1  When  a  king,  a  prince,  or  a  magistrate,'  he  wrote, 
'  exalts  himself  so  high  that  he  diminishes  the  glory  of 
God  and  the  honour  of  the  law,  he  is  no  better  than 
other  men  ;  whosoever  outsteps  the  limits  of  his  office, 
and  opposes  himself  to  God,  must  be  deprived  of  his 
title  to  honour,  so  that  he  may  not  practise  deceit 
under  a  mask.'  And  he  spoke  still  more  incisively  in 
another  place  :  '  Secular  princes  who  rise  up  against 
God  are  not  worthy  to  be  reckoned  among  the  ranks  of 
men  ;  it  is  therefore  far  more  our  duty  to  spit  at  them 

1  Corp.  Reform,  hi.  1076.  Similar  utterances  from  the  new -religionist 
theologians  concerning  tyrannicide  are  found  in  Ruchat.  Hist,  de  la  re  forme 
en  Suisse,  vi.  59. 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  v.  p.  180. 

3  Gretser  referred  to  these  and  other  utterances  (Opp.  vii.  55). 

VOL.    X.  B  B 


370  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

than  to  obey  them.'  Now,  according  to  Calvinistic  opinion, 
all  rulers  were  setting  themselves  up  against  God  and 
His  honour  who  did  not  join  the  ranks  of  Calvinism, 
which  was  the  only  true  and  trustworthy  form  of 
Christian  teaching.  All  such  persons,  in  the  eyes  of 
Calvin,  were  '  opponents  of  divine  wisdom,'  '  instru- 
ments of  Satan,'  '  unclean  dogs,'  '  hissing  snakes,'  '  wild 
beasts,'  men  who  in  their  stubbornness  acted  against 
their  better  knowledge,  and  who  could  not  be  punished 
severely  enough.  All  the  same,  however,  the  right  to 
rise  up  against  a  tyrannical  ruler  and  to  attack  the 
majesty  of  the  throne  by  no  means  belonged  to  each 
individual  subject ;  but  '  God  often  called  out  some  of 
His  servants  and  invested  them  with  His  authority  to 
punish  the  offences  of  a  despotic  ruler  and  to  rescue  an 
unjustly  oppressed  nation  from  misery.'  '  The  Lord 
fulfilled  His  work  by  breaking  the  bloody  sceptre  of 
the  haughty  kings  and  overthrowing  the  insupportable 
dominion  ;  the  kings  shall  hear  it  and  tremble.' '  With 
statements  of  this  sort  it  was  easy  for  all  those  who 
considered  themselves  called  by  God  to  the  work,  to 
justify  all  the  methods  they  resorted  to  for  removing 
out  of  the  way  '  the  persecutors  of  the  true  Church,' 
those  '  enemies  of  God.'  In  Geneva  the  lawfulness  of 
tyrannicide  was  frequently  taught.  When  Jean  Poltrot, 
in  1563,  assassinated  the  Duke  of  Guise,  that  '  greatest 
of  tyrants  and  enemies  of  God,'  the  Huguenot  Hubert 

1  See  Kampschulte,  Calvin,  i.  272-276.  '  Si  rex  aut  princeps  aut 
magistratus  eo  usque  se  extollat,  ut  Dei  honorem  ac  ius  diminuat,  non  nisi 
homo  est.  Idem  etde  pastor ibus  sentiendum.  Qui  enim  munus  suum  trans - 
greditur,  quia  Deo  se  opponit,  spoliandus  est  honoris  sui  titulo,  ne  sub  larva 
decipiat."  Comment,  in  Acta  apostol.,  Opp.  vi.  44a.  '  Abdicant  se  potestate 
terreni  principes,  cum  insurgunt  contra  Deum  ;  indigni  sunt,  qui  in  numero 
hominum  censeantur,  ideoque  in  capita  potius  eorum  exspuere  oportet,  quam 
Mis  parere.'     Comm.  in  Daniel,  c.  6. 


PROTESTANTS   ON    TYRANNICIDE  371 

Languet  spoke  of  that  '  glorious  deed  ;  '  the  assassin, 
after  expiating  his  deed  with  death,  was  enrolled  in  the 
martyrology  of  the  Church  of  Geneva.  The  Calvinist 
theologian,  Theodore  Beza,  pronounced  the  murder  of 
the  Duke  to  be  a  judgment  of  God  ;  he  himself,  he  said, 
had  he  been  the  assassin,  should  not  think  it  necessary 
to  excuse  himself ;  on  the  contrary,  he  should  con- 
sider that  he  had  done  a  lawful  action  in  ridding  the 
world  of  such  a  malefactor  either  by  treachery  or  by 
open  violence.  The  Calvinist  jurist,  Francis  Hotoman, 
had  already  boasted,  on  the  strength  of  a  Scripture 
text,  that  '  all  the  scions  of  the  Houses  of  Lorraine  and 
Guise  would  be  massacred.'  ' 

The  Calvinist  advocate  Charles  Dumoulin,  the 
'  French  Papinian,'  and,  according  to  the  verdict  of  de 
Thou,  '  a  distinguished  citizen  who  loved  his  Fatherland 

1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  viii.  6-9.  Concerning  Languet,  see  Wad- 
dington,  De  Huberti  Langueti  vita  (Paris,  1888).  See  also  Rev.  Hist.  42 
(1S90),  p.  243  sqq.  ;  Jean  Bodin  (fl596,  see  H.  Baudrillart,  J.  Bodin  et 
son  temps,  Paris,  1853),  French  parliamentary  councillor  and  member 
of  the  so-called  middle  party,  in  a  pamphlet  '  on  the  State,'  which 
appeared  first  in  1576,  and  was  reprinted  later  on,  expounded  in  greater 
detail  that  according  to  most  exponents  the  right  of  tyrannicide  was  recog- 
nised. A  legitimate,  unlimited  monarch,  like  the  Sultan,  for  instance, 
or  the  King  of  France,  who  should  set  himself  up  as  a  tyrant  and  be  uni- 
versally known  as  such,  must  not,  indeed,  be  put  to  death  by  one  of  his 
own  subjects  ;  but  any  foreigner,  whoever  he  might  be,  would  be  justified 
in  taking  his  life  either  by  open  violence  or  else  secretly.  If  it  is  a  question 
of  the  ruler  of  a  state,  whose  authority  is  limited  in  a  democratic  or  an 
aristocratic  sense,  as,  for  instance,  the  Doge  of  Venice  or  the  German 
Emperor,  in  such  cases  a  burgher  would  be  allowed  to  put  the  tyrant  to 
death  by  open  violence,  or  by  order  of  the  Senate.  This  book  was  printed 
in  1601  on  German  soil,  at  Ursel,  and  moreover  '  with  imperial  privilege  ' 
as  the  title-page  says  :  '  Cum  privilegio  S.  Caes.  majest.  ad,  decennium.'' 
We  are  justified  in  emphasising  this  fact  because  in  so  many  directions  so 
much  importance  was  attached  to  the  fact  that  the  book  of  Mariana 
was  accompanied  with  the  permission  of  the  King  of  Spain  and  the  Spanish 
censors  of  the  Jesuit  Order). 

b  b  •! 


372  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

unspeakably,'  said  out  plainly  that  it  was  glorious  to 
kill  tyrants.1 

Under  the  feigned  name  of  Stephanus  Junius  Brutus, 
Duplessis-Mornay,  in  1579,  produced  his  '  Claim  in 
Law  against  Tyrants.'  When  a  monarch,  he  said,  sup- 
pressed the  true  religion,  the  people  were  called  upon 
to  resist  and  to  punish  him  ;  for  God  had  said,  '  Who- 
soever does  not  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  die 
the  death.'  2 

In  Scotland  John  Knox  and  his  colleague  Goodman 
advocated  the  same  principles.  The  nobles,  the  judges, 
and  the  people,  said  Knox,  must  not  only  withstand 
Queen  Mary  Stuart,  this  new  Jezebel,  and  all  her 
priests  and  followers,  but  they  must  also  put  her  to 
death  as  an  avowed  suppressor  of  the  true  Gospel.  No 
idolater — that  is  to  say,  no  Catholic — must  be  allowed  to 
carry  on  the  government ;  no  oath  could  oblige  the 
Christian  people — that  is,  the  Calvinists — to  obey  the 
tyrants — that  is  the  Catholic  princes — in  opposition  to 
God  and  His  declared  truth.3  Christopher  Goodman 
made  the  following  proclamation  to  the  Scotch  :  '  To 
the  people  is  the  sword  of  righteousness  committed. 
When  a  sovereign,  or  any  ruling  authority,  acts  in 
opposition  to  the  laws  of  God,  then  the  men  of  the  land 
must  put  forth  all  their  strength  and  power  to  defend 

1  Annotationes  ad  Clementinas,  lib.  3,  tit.  15.  The  citation  is  taken 
from  Cretineau-Joly,  ii.  238-239. 

2  Vindiciae  contra  tyrannos.  See  Huber,  Der  Jesuiten-Orden,  p.  269. 
That  the  Vindiciae  was  not  written  by  H.  Languet,  but  by  Philip  Duplessis- 
Mornay,  is  shown  by  Thieme  (Disput.  juridic.  inauguralis  de  opusculo 
Vindiciae  c.  tyrannos,  Groningae.  1852)  and  by  Lossen  (Sitzungsberichte 
der  Munch.  Alcad.  1887,  p.  215  ff.).  Waddington,  in  the  Rev.  Hist.  42 
(1890),  pp.  243  and  51,  65-69,  adopts  this  opinion. 

3  In  the  pamphlet  Appellatio  ad  nobilitatem  et  populum  Scotiae.  See 
Gretseri  Opp.  vii.  53. 


A   CATHOLIC   PAMPHLET   ON   TYRANNICIDE        373 

the  righteousness  and  the  laws  of  God  ;  this  is  God's 
express  command.  All  who  are  guilty  of  idol-worship 
must  be  punished  by  the  people,  no  matter  whether 
they  be  kings  or  queens  or  emperors.  Rulers  who 
seduce  the  people  from  the  true  worship  of  God  must 
be  sent  to  the  gallows  and  hanged.'  l 

Another  zealous  advocate  of  tyrannicide  was  George 
Buchanan,  tutor  to  James  I.  of  England.  In  a  political 
dialogue  dedicated  to  the  King  he  wrote  :  A  tyrannical 
sovereign  '  must  be  accounted  an  enemy  of  God  and  of 
mankind,  and  to  my  thinking  deserves  not  so  much  to 
be  reckoned  in  the  category  of  human  beings  as  in  that 
of  wolves  and  other  dangerous  beasts.  The  man  who 
puts  to  death  a  ruler  of  this  sort  confers  a  benefit,  not 
on  himself  only,  but  on  the  whole  community.  Were  I 
to  venture  to  frame  a  law  I  should  ordain,  as  the  Romans 
were  wont  to  do  with  regard  to  monstrosities  of  all  sorts, 
that  such  tyrants  should  either  be  transported  to  some 
uninhabited  land,  or  else  sunk  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea, 
as  far  as  possible  from  the  coast,  to  prevent  any  risk 
of  their  corpses  breeding  a  pestilence.  To  the  agents, 
however,  who  have  been  the  means  of  getting  rid  of 
these  tyrants  rewards  similar  to  those  given  for  killing 
wolves  or  bears,  or  taking  captive  their  young,  should 
be  given  not  only  by  the  nation,  but  also  by  individual 
citizens.'  2 

Paul  Sarpi,  that  most  ferocious  enemy  of  the 
Jesuits,  did  not  dare  actually  to  advise  his  republican 
countrymen,  the  Venetians,  to  assassinate  a  royal 
tyrant ;  but  as   councillor  of  state  he  submitted  the 

1  '  Ad  furcas  arripiant  et  suspendant.''     From  the  pamphlet,  Quando 
superioribus  magistratibus  obediendum  sit.     See  Gretseri  Opp.  vii.  54. 

2  De  jure  regni  apud  Scotos  (edit.  2,  Echnburgi,  1580),  p.  50-51. 


374  HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

following  proposition  to  the  '  Council  of  Ten  :  '  'If  any 
party  leaders  are  found  among  the  inhabitants  of  the 
continent,  they  must  at  all  costs  be  exterminated  ;  if 
they  are  very  powerful,  it  will  be  useless  to  resort  to 
the  regular  course  of  justice  ;  in  such  a  case  poison 
must  do  the  work  of  the  sword  of  the  law.'  ! 

'  You  grant,'  said  the  English  poet  Milton  in  a 
pamphlet  against  Salmasius,  that '  some  of  the  Reformers' 
have  taught  that  a  tyrant  '  must  be  removed  ;  but 
that  the  decision  as  to  what  constitutes  a  tyrant  must 
be  left  to  the  wise  and  learned."  You  do  not  name  the 
particular  Reformers  who  have  spoken  to  this  effect. 
But  I  will  name  them  for  you,  since  you  say  "  they 
are  far  worse  than  the  Jesuits."  They  are  Luther, 
Zwingli,  Calvin,  Bucer,  Pareus,  together  with  many 
others.'  2 

On  the  Catholic  side  there  appeared  in  1592,  under 
the  name  of  William  Rossaus  of  Antwerp,  a  pamphlet 
which  spoke  out  unreservedly  in  favour  of  tyrannicide 
and  the  right  of  the  people  to  depose  an  heretical  prince.3 
'  A  book  beyond  measure  scoundrelly  and  diabolical,' 

1  Opinione  del  P.  Paolo  Sarpi,  consultore  di  Stato,  &c,  quoted  from 
Hergenrother,  p.  493. 

2  Joannis  Miltoni  Angli  pro  populo  Anglicano  defensio  [prior]  contra 
Claudii  anonymi.  alias  Salmasii,  defensionem  regiam  (Londini,  1651 ),  cap. 
i.  16. 

3  '  De  justa  reipublicae  Christianae  in  reges  impios  et  haereticos  auc- 
toritate.'  Huber,  p.  259,  falsely  makes  Rossaus  out  to  be  a  Jesuit,  and 
asserts  that  the  book  was  published  with  the  approval  of  the  Order.  Its 
author,  according  to  Stieve  (Die  Politik  Bay  ems,  ii.  609,  note  1),  was 
William  Gi  fiord.  Reusch  (Beitriige  zur  Gesch.  des  Jesuitenordens  [Munich, 
1894],  p.  27)  pronounces  this  to  be  only  '  probable.'  The  statement  of 
Reusch,  I.e.,  and  of  Stieve,  that  the  Englishman  William  Gifford  had  been 
professor  at  Pont-a-Mousson,  is  erroneous.  Gifford  merely  studied  at 
the  university  there  ;  in  1623  he  became  Archbishop  of  Rheims  (f  1629)  ; 
see  E.  Martin,  UUniversiU  Pont-a-Mousson  (Paris,  Nancy,  1891),  p.  368. 
Gifford  was  an  opponent  of  the  Jesuits,  see  Vic.  de  Meaux,  La  Reforme  et 


MARIANA   ADVOCATES   TYRANNICIDE  375 

a  Protestant  polemical  writer  said  of  it,  '  whereby  the 
Jesuits,  the  servants  of  Satan,  for  the  first  time  inform 
us  conclusively  that  they  intend  to  clear  out  of  the  way, 
by  poison  and  by  the  dagger,  every  single  German 
evangelical  prince  ;  for  without  doubt  the  villain  who 
has  written  the  book  is  a  Jesuit.'  l  The  author  of  the 
pamphlet  was  no  Jesuit.  When  Father  Conrad  Vetter, 
at  a  religious  conference,  asked  the  Lutheran  theologian, 
James  Heilbrunner,  why  he  had  described  William 
Rossaus  and  other  writers,  who  had  called  all  heretical 
princes  tyrants,  as  Jesuits,  when  it  was  known  that  they 
had  never  belonged  to  the  Order,  Heilbrunner  answered 
that  these  writers  were  at  any  rate  papists  ;  '  now  papists 
and  Jesuits  held  the  same  doctrine,  and  so  it  was  of  no 
consequence  that  he  had  made  out  Rossaus  and  others 
to  be  Jesuits.'  L>  It  was  an  absurd  falsehood,  said  Father 
James  Keller,  to  say  that  Rossaus  had  been  a  Jesuit.5 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  first  Jesuit  who  advocated 
false  and  dangerous  doctrine  concerning  tyrannicide 
was  the  Spaniard,  Juan  Mariana,  and  his  teaching  was 
condemned  by  the  General  of  the  Order  and  by  the 
General  Assembly. 

Mariana  was  one  of  the  greatest  linguists  and  most 
learned  men  of  his  time  ;  as  professor  of  theology  at 
Rome  and  in  Paris  he  had  gained  great  renown  ;  his 
'  Universal  History  of  Spain  '  won  him  the  name  of 
a  Spanish  Tacitus  ;  his  fearless  impartiality  in  con- 
demning Spanish  state  management  under  the  contemp- 
tible Count  Lerma  led  him  into  captivity.4     Through 

la  politique  francaise  en  Europe  jusqu'a  la  <paix  de  Westphalie,  ii.  (Paris, 
1889)  75. 

1  Mengering,  p.  19.  2  Flotto,  3,  20.  3  Tyrannicidium,  p.  84. 

4  A.  S.  Peregrinus  (probably  the  Jesuit  Andrew  Schottus)  writes  in 


376  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  practice  of  voluntary  poverty  and  renunciation  of 
the  world  he  had  acquired  a  proud  independence  of 
spirit  which  could  dally  with  no  injustice,  and  which 
did  not  shrink  from  telling  the  bitterest  truths  even  to 
the  mightiest  of  the  earth,  and  referring  the  latter  to 
the  ten  commandments  of  God  and  the  everlasting  laws 
of  justice  and  right.  His  great  desire  was  to  organise 
the  whole  State  system  in  conformity  to  these  command- 
ments and  laws.  '  Burning  love  for  his  nation  and  his 
Fatherland,'  and  genuine  eagerness  to  serve  his  king, 
moved  him  in  1599  to  the  publication  of  a  work  in  three 
books  on  '  The  King  and  the  Education  of  a  King.'  ] 
The  State  press  censor  found  nothing  to  object  to  in 
this  book  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  '  especially  recommended 
it  to  those  who  held  the  State  rudder  in  their  hands  ;  ' 
the  inquisitor  of  the  Jesuit  Order  for  the  province  of 
Toledo,  Stephen  Hojeda,  sanctioned  its  being  printed 
because  it  had  been  approved  of  by  learned  and  serious- 
minded    men ; 2  King    Philip    III.    protected    it   by    a 


his  Hispaniae  Bibliothera  (Francofurti,  1608),  p.  285,  of  Mariana  : 
'  Scripsit  30  annalium  Hispaniae  libros  diserte  admodum  gravique  stylo, 
ut  Thucydidis  prudentiam  ac  Taciti  acumen  unus  complexus  esse  videatur.1 
Mariana  himself  he  describes  as  '  concionator  facundus,  corporis  forma 
egregia,  fronte  lata  gravique  aspectu.'  See  further  F.  Sacchinus,  Hist. 
Soc.  Jesu,  pars  2,  lib.  5,  No.  23,  and  pars  3,  lib.  6,  No.  71.  The  numerous 
and  varied  writings  of  Mariana  are  catalogued  by  De  Backer,  ii.  1083-1092. 
His  treatise  on  currency  is  discussed  under  the  title  "  Un  Jesuite 
economiste,'  by  Pascal  Duprat  in  the  Journal  des  economistes,  revue  de  la 
science  economique  et  de  la  statistique  (Paris,  1870),  Janvier,  pp.  85-91. 
'  C'est  un  traite  de  la  monnaie.'  says  Duprat,  '  dans  lequel  l'auteur, 
devancant  les  maitres  de  la  science  qui  n'existait  pas  encore,  a  su  decouvrir 
et  exposer  les  ventables  principes  sur  la  matiere.'  See  De  Backer,  iii. 
2333. 

1  De  rege  et  regis  institutione.     I  make  use  of  the  original  edition  of 
1590. 

2  '  ...  do  facultatem,  ut   imprimantur   libri  tres  .  .  .  quippe  appro- 
batos  prius  et  viris  doctis  et  gravibus  ex  eodem  nostro  or  dine.'' 


BON  AC  AS  A   AGAINST   MARIANA  377 

privilege  against  reprinting  and  gave  permission  for  it 
to  be  dedicated  to  himself.  In  Germany  also,  after  it 
had  been  several  times  reprinted,  the  work  excited  great 
interest.  Mariana's  opinions  on  tyrannicide  were  to 
become  for  all  ages  a  chief  source  of  complaints  and 
accusations  against  the  Jesuit  Order.  '  Away  with  the 
regicides,'  exclaimed  the  Protestant  Bonacasa ;  '  away 
with  the  miserable,  execrable  arch-criminals,  these  most 
accursed  war-trumpets  and  firebrands.  They  must  be 
swept  off  the  face  of  the  earth,  these  monsters  of 
iniquity,  these  villainous  Jesuits ;  '  they  were  worse, 
he  said,  than  heathens,  Turks,  and  devils.  '  Oh,  you 
blind  princes  who  give  maintenance  to  your  false 
pastors.'  '  It  is  astounding  that  such  villains  should 
be  met  with  in  Germany — yea,  even  in  the  Electoral 
lands.'  Because  a  fresh  edition  of  the  work  appeared 
in  Mayence,  Bonacasa  concluded  that  this  place  was  the 
home  of  the  author.  '  He  has  come  forth  from  hell, 
he  is  the  devil's  son  and  Beelzebub's  nephew,  and  yet 
he  is  allowed  to  hold  divine  service  in  Mayence.  Oh 
that  the  earth  might  vomit  away  this  arch-rogue,  and 
the  fire  devour  him  !  The  Rhine  sheds  tears  for  that 
a  false  monster  like  this  has  been  found  in  Mayence.' 
'  Oh,  godlessness  most  accursed  !  The  soil  of  Germany 
has  produced  a  monster,  of  the  most  terrific,  abominable, 
and  execrable  kind  !  There  is  no  language  which  can 
describe  this  degradation,  no  intelligence  that  can 
comprehend  its  enormity  ;  say  what  I  will,  it  is  still  too 
little.'  ]     In  such  wise  did  Bonacasa  vent  his  feelings 


1  Ficta  Juditha,  pp.  55-56,  64-65.  According  to  Placcius,  De  script, 
anonym,  syntagma,  p.  166,  and  Krebs,  Publicistik,  p.  187,  the  chancellor 
of  Duke  Julius  of  Brunswick-Liineburg,  Eberhard  von  Weihe,  is  con- 
cealed under  the  pseudonym  Mirabilis  de  Bonacasa. 


378  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

in  a  theologico-political  treatise  parading  in  the  garb 
of  learning. 

In  the  first  part  of  his  work  Mariana  dealt  with  the 
doctrine  of  State  management ;  in  the  second  he  gave 
more  detailed  instructions  for  the  education  of  princes  ; 
and  in  the  third  he  discussed  the  various  virtues  and 
accomplishments  with  which  a  prince  should  be  fur- 
nished for  the  benefit  of  his  people.  The  whole  object 
of  the  work  was  to  put  before  the  reigning  king  and  the 
Infante  the  ways  and  means  by  which  they  might  govern 
the  country  for  the  welfare  of  their  subjects,  and  protect 
themselves  against  every  danger  of  degenerating  into 
tyrants. 

Monarchy,  Mariana  maintained,  was  the  oldest  form 
of  government — hereditary  monarchy  the  best   form. 
But,  according  to  a  theory  widely  disseminated  at  that 
period,  he  showed  that  all  monarchies  had  originated  in 
the  transference,  or  handing  over,  of  power  on  the  part 
of  the  people  ;  it  is  in  the  people  that  the  chief  power 
resides.     He  set  forth  admirably  the  truth  that  it  is 
not  by  the  self-seeking,  tyrannical  will  of  one  individual 
that  the   State   must   be   governed.     Kingly  power   is 
restrained  by  the  laws  of  the  land  and  dependent  on 
the  advice  of  the  best  minds  of  the  nation.     The  maxim 
that  '  the  king  is  lord  over  the  laws  '  is  a  veritable  pest 
for  the  machinery  of  State.     Rather  should  it  be  said 
that  the  king  is  only  the  highest  guardian  of  the  laws, 
and  quite  as  much  subject  to  them  as  any  of  his  subjects, 
especially  as  '  most  laws  are  not  enacted  by  princes  but 
by  the  will  of  the  whole  community,  whose  power  to 
bid  and  forbid,  and  whose  sovereignty  is  greater  than 
that  of  the  prince.'     As  leading  to  certain  ruin,  the  king 
must  reject  the  counsel  of  those  courtiers  who,  from 


MARIANA'S   'EDUCATION   OF   A   KING'  379 

hope  of  favour,  would  try  to  persuade  him  that  he 
possesses  authority  higher  than  that  of  the  law  and  the 
nation,  and  that  everything  ought  to  be  subservient  to 
his  will.  On  the  contrary,  the  obedience  which  he  exacts 
from  his  subjects  he  must  himself  first  observe  with 
regard  to  the  laws.1 

To  impress  principles  of  this  sort  on  the  minds  of 
princes  was  a  most  praiseworthy  act  at  a  time  when  the 
old  heathen  and  Byzantine  law  of  slavery,  with  its 
doctrine  of  the  unlimited  power  of  princes,  was  pene- 
trating further  and  further  and  annihilating  all  the 
rights  of  the  people.  '  0  men  born  to  slavery,' 
Mariana  exclaims  to  these  supporters  of  the  unlimited 
power  of  princes,  '  shall  the  people  for  ever  be  doomed 
to  be  slaves  ?  '  He  it  was  who  was  to  blame  for  the 
charge  brought  against  the  Jesuits  that  '  they  mislead 
the  people  by  their  rebellious  and  diabolical  doctrine 
that  the  princes,  who  derive  their  sovereignty  from 
God  alone,  and  are  answerable  to  no  one  else,  are  not 
to  be  obeyed  in  all  secular  matters.'  2 

A  true  prince,  Mariana  said,  must,  however,  not 
only  conform  strictly  to  the  laws,  but  he  must  be  in  all 
things  a  father  to  his  people,  in  particular  a  protector 

1  '  .  .  .  Non  ergo  se  magis  liberum  putet  a  suis  legibus,  quam  singuli 
populares  aut  proceres  ab  Us  essent  exempti,  quas  pro  jure,  arreptae  potestatis 
ipsi  sanxissent.  Praesertim  cum  plures  leges  non  a  principe  latae  sint,  sed 
tiniversae  reipublicae  voluntate  constitutae  ;  cujus  major  auctoritas  iubendi 
vitandique  est  majus  imperium  quam  principis.  .  .  .  Princeps  omnibus 
praestet  probitatis  et  modestiae  specimen  et  quam  a  subditis  obedientiam  exigit, 
legibus  ipse  exhibeat.  .  .  .  Aulicorum  voces  certissimam  pestem  arbitretur, 
qui  placendi  studio  regem  praedicant  legibus  et  patria  majorem  potestatem 
habere,  quaecunque  publice  et  privatim  a  subditis  possidentur  unum  eorum 
dominum  esse,  ex  ejus  arbitratu  pendere  universa,  in  eoque  jus  omne  versari 
ut  principis  voluntati  serviatur.  .  .  .  O  homines  ad  servitutem  natos !  ' 
(lib.  1,  cap.  9,  pp.  102-103). 

2  Predig  von  jesuiterischer  Lehr,  &c.  (Ursel,  1609),  pp.  5-6 


•  > 


80  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


of  the  working  classes. ;  he  must  rule  over  his  subjects 
not  as  over  servants,  but  as  over  children.  Far,  above 
all,  from  suspicion  of  falsehood  and  misrepresentation, 
he  must  stand  forth  always  as  the  friend  of  truth  and 
straightforwardness  ;  he  must  choose  none  but  men  of 
thoroughly  blameless  conduct  for  his  ministers,  and  in 
his  choice  he  must  have  regard  to  the  opinion  which  his 
people  has  formed  of  them.  '  A  prince  must  confine 
himself  to  rewarding  virtue  ;  but  he  must  reward  it 
wherever  he  finds  it,  in  the  hut  as  well  as  in  the  palace. 
Behaviour  of  this  sort  will  win  for  him  the  esteem  and 
love  of  his  people,  and  the  more  a  prince  is  enthroned 
in  the  hearts  of  his  subjects,  the  more  secure  will  be  his 
seat  of  government.'  An  army  is  necessary  for  the 
safety  of  a  State  ;  but  it  must  not  be  allowed  to  become 
a  burden.  In  the  maintenance  of  his  court  the  prince 
must  set  an  example  of  thrift,  he  must  allow  no  extra- 
vagance in  State  expenditure.  He  must  always  bestir 
himself  zealously  in  the  furtherance  of  justice,  in  the 
advancement  of  trade  and  commerce,  and  in  the  encour- 
agement of  the  arts ;  above  all  he  must  devote  all 
possible  care  and  attention  to  the  peasant  class.  Fresh 
means  of  intercommunication  must  be  opened  up, 
bridges  built,  rivers  connected  with  each  other.  Heavy 
taxes  must  only  be  imposed  on  objects  of  luxury,  not 
on  the  indispensable  commodities  of  life — wine,  corn, 
meat,  and  so  forth.  The  ruling  prince  must  guard 
himself  as  from  the  pestilence,  from  those  who  would 
constantly  suggest  to  him  fresh  objects  for  taxation.1 

Mariana's   warmest   sympathies   were   bestowed   on 
the  poor  and  the  helpless  classes.     These,   before  all 

1  '  .  .  .  vaniloqui  assentatores,  fallaces,  quorum  est  magnus  numerus, 
certa  pestis,  quia  blanda '  (lib.  3,  cap.  7,  p.  329). 


MARIANA   ON   CARE   FOR   THE   POOR  381 

others,  he  said,  should  be  the  objects  of  a  true  king's 
entire  energy  and  devotion.  Whereas  superabundant 
riches  in  the  hands  of  a  few  persons,  side  by  side  with 
distress  and  perjury  among  the  masses,  led  to  the  most 
disastrous  results  for  the  commonwealth,  care  must  be 
taken  that  possession  and  power  among  the  few  did  not 
increase  indefinitely,  with  concomitant  spoliation  of  the 
many.  A  certain  amount  of  moderation  in  the  wealth 
of  the  burgher  class  was  most  advantageous  to  the 
State.  An  organised  system  of  poor  relief  must  be  con- 
trived for  diminishing  the  immense  number  of  itinerant 
beggars  ;  benevolent  institutions  of  all  sorts,  sick-houses, 
poor-houses,  orphanages,  foundling  hospitals,  must  be 
provided  for  the  benefit  of  those  whom  the  Christian 
law  made  it  the  duty  of  the  well-to-do  classes  to  support. 
And  not  only  must  the  rich  among  the  laity  spend  a 
portion  of  their  treasures  and  incomes  in  befriending 
the  poor,  but  the  clergy  also  must  of  their  own  free  will 
give  part  of  the  Church  revenues  for  the  same  object. 
Mariana  expressed  himself  strongly  against  anything 
in  the  nature  of  forcible  confiscation  of  Church  property, 
and  demonstrated  the  sinister  effects  of  such  robbery  ;  L 
but  he  was  an  equally  resolute  opponent  of  all  waste 
and  squandering  of  such  property  through  the  luxury 
of  the  clergy.  '  It  never  entered  my  head,'  he  wrote, 
'  to  think  that  it  would  be  advantageous  to  the  common 
interest  that  the  sacerdotal  class  should  be  deprived 
of  the  goods  handed  down  to  them  by  their  forefathers  ; 
at  the  same  time  I  do  maintain  that  it  might  be  very 
salutary  if  the  clergy  themselves  were  to  arrange  that 
this  property  should  be  applied  to  better  uses,  to  uses 
more   in   correspondence   with   the   intention   of   their 

1  See  lib.  1,  cap.  10. 


382  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

ancestors.  Who,  for  instance,  doubts  that  it  would 
be  far  more  profitable  to  the  commonwealth  and  to  the 
priesthood  that  in  future  the  revenue  from  these  goods 
should  be  applied  to  the  necessities  of  the  poor,  and 
thus,  as  it  were,  by  right  of  reversion,  be  restored  to 
their  true  owners  ?  '  Multitudes  of  poor  and  needy 
persons  might  be  fed  and  housed  and  cared  for  out  of 
the  incomes  of  all  the  property  which  for  the  most  part 
is  dissipated  in  wanton  luxury.1 

Everywhere  frankly  and  fearlessly  giving  utterance 
to  his  convictions,  Mariana  persevered  in  his  labours 
with  no  other  aim  than  '  to  establish  a  commonwealth 
that  should  be  the  most  excellent  possible  in  kind  and 
the  happiest  for  the  people,  under  the  most  exemplary 
possible  king.'  In  his  enthusiasm  for  the  general  free- 
dom of  the  citizens,  and  the  welfare  of  the  people,  he 
not  only  advocated  the  national  right  of  self-defence 
against  an  incorrigibly  tyrannical  ruler,  but  he  actually 
let  himself  be  carried  away  into  the  utterly  pernicious 
doctrine  that  if  there  was  no  possibility  of  the  people 
themselves  rising  in  rebellion,  a  tyrannical  ruler  who 
was  pronounced  by  the  nation  to  be  a  public  enemy 
might  be  put  to  death  by  a  private  individual.  '  When 
a  prince  brings  the  country  to  ruin,  abuses  State  pro- 
perty and  the  possessions  of  individuals,  spurns  public 
laws  and  holy  religion,  begins  to  assert  himself  arro- 
gantly, insolently,  and  impiously,'  then  it  is  permitted 
to  his  subjects,  after  general  consultation  and  agree- 
ment, first  of  all  to  warn  and  admonish  him,  and  finally, 
when  all  hope  of  improvement  is  given  up,  to  depose 
him  ;  in  the  conflict  which  will  ensue  the  people  will 
have  the  right  of  defence  ;  it  will  be  free  to  each  one  to 

1  Lib.  3,  cap.  13,  pp.  381-387. 


MAEIANA   ON   TYRANNICIDE  383 

attack  and  slay  the  declared  enemy  of  the  Fatherland 
with  '  weapons  in  hand.'  '  The  same  reasoning,  in  my 
opinion  at  least,  applies  to  the  following  case  :  The 
State  has  been  ruined  by  the  tyranny  of  its  ruler,  the 
burghers  have  been  deprived  of  the  possibility  of 
assembling  for  general  deliberation,  but  they  are  ear- 
nestly minded  to  put  an  end  to  the  existing  tyranny,  to 
avenge  the  criminality  of  the  sovereign — supposing  it, 
of  course,  to  be  notorious  and  unendurable — and  to 
prevent  his  ruining  the  Fatherland  by,  for  instance, 
robbing  it  of  its  religion  and  setting  the  enemy  at  its 
throat.  If  in  such  a  case  any  individual  comes  forward 
who  responds  to  the  general  desire  and  offers  to  put 
such  a  ruler  to  death,  I  for  one  shall  not  regard  him  as 
an  evil-doer.'  Murderers  of  tyrants  have  at  all  times 
been  dignified  with  renown.  Of  Jacques  Clement,  who 
assassinated  the  French  King,  Henry  III.,  a  very 
monster  on  the  throne,  Mariana  said :  '  Most  people 
regard  him  as  an  eternal  honour  to  France  ;  '  '  many 
people  consider  his  deed  worthy  of  immortality  ;  while 
others,  pre-eminent  in  wisdom  and  learning,  think  it 
blamable.'  He  gives  the  reasons  of  these  opinions  ; 
he  himself,  however,  is  not  on  the  side  of  those  who 
blame  the  regicide.1  He  maintained,  with  the  English- 
man Buchanan,  that  a  tyrant  '  like  a  ferocious  wild 
beast,  is  a  butt  for  everybody's  firearms.'  '  When  all 
hope  is  at  an  end,  and  the  public  welfare  and  the  sanctity 
of  religion  are  in  danger,  who  then  will  be  so  wanting 

1  In  the  original  edition  of  the  work  (p.  69)  there  occur  the  following 
words  omitted  in  the  later  editions  :  '  Clemens  periit  aeternum  Oalliae 
decus  ; '  Ranke  has  reproduced  them  in  an  article  on  Mariana  (Samtliche 
Werke,  xxiv.  236),  and  they  have  been  used  since  then,  times  without 
number,  as  weapons  against  the  Jesuits.  But  Mariana  adds  to  them  : 
'  ut  plerisque  visum  est,'  and  these  words  Ranke  has  left  out. 


384  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

in  insight  as  not  to  recognise  that  it  is  a  divine  right 
to  shake  off  such  tyranny  by  means  of  human  justice, 
laws,  and  weapons  ?  '  Mariana's  aim  was  to  frighten 
and  deter  princes  from  all  tyrannous  action  by  such 
statements  as  these.  '  It  would  be  a  salutary  thing 
for  princes,  if  they  knew  for  certain  that  their  tenure 
of  office  was  of  such  a  nature  as  to  make  it  not  merely 
legitimate,  but  even  praiseworthy  and  glorious,  that 
they  should  be  put  to  death  if  they  oppressed  the 
commonwealth,  or  made  themselves  intolerable  through 
vice  and  iniquities.  Fear  of  this  sort  would  perhaps 
restrain  a  prince  from  abandoning  himself  wholly  to 
vice  and  flattery  ;  it  would  put  a  curb  on  his  passions.' 

Mariana  takes  care  to  state  that  his  opinion  on 
tyrannicide  is  purely  personal.  '  This  is  my  opinion, 
which  I  hold  verily  in  all  sincerity  ;  but  I  am  only  a 
man,  and  may  be  mistaken.  If  anybody  can  show  me 
a  better  one  I  shall  be  grateful  to  him.'  l 

In  1599  the  superiors  of  the  French  province  brought 

1  An  tyrannum  opprimere  fas  sit,  lib.  1,  cap.  6,  pp.  65-80.  Thirteen 
Jesuits  are  mentioned  as  opponents  of  tyrannicide  in  the  Erkliirungs- 
schreiben  of  Fr.  Cotton,  in  Von  der  Jesuiten,  wider  Ki'mig-  und  Filrstliche 
Personen  abscheivliche,  hochgefiihrliche  Practiken'  &c.  (Hanau,  1611),  pp. 
18-30.  The  French  Jesuit,  Claudius  Matthieu,  wrote  on  February  11, 
1583  :  '  The  life  of  a  king  cannot  be  attempted  with  a  good  conscience. 
Pope  Gregory  XIII.  has  condemned  all  those  who  dare  to  cherish  or  put 
forward  the  opposite  opinion '  {Memoires  de  Nevers,  i.  657,  quoted  by 
Cretineau-Joly,  ii.  348).  Bellarmin  defends  the  right  to  depose  a  king, 
arguing  from  analogy  with,  and  by  way  of  antithesis  to,  the  right  of  the 
head  of  a  family.  (The  father  has  a  natural  right,  and  cannot,  therefore, 
be  deprived  of  it  ;  the  king  has  only  a  delegated  right  ;  he  can,  there- 
fore, be  deprived  of  it.)  In  his  Controv.  ii.  lib.  2,  cap.  16,  he  says  :  '  Constat 
enim,  patremfamilias  non  habere  a  familia  ullam  auctoritatem,  sed  ex  se  ; 
quia  non  ipse  a  familia  constituitur  pater,  sed  ipse  facit  sibi  familiam 
gignendo  filios,  emendo  servos.  Unde  paterfamilias,  etiamsi  pessimus  sit, 
nunquam  potest  a  familia  judicari  vel  expelli,  sicut  potest  rex,  quando 
degenerat  in  tyrannum.'' 


MARIANA'S   TEACHING   REPUDIATED  385 

Mariana's  work  to  the  notice  of  the  General  of  the 
Order,  Aquaviva,  and  he  at  once  expressed  his  regret 
that  the  book  had  been  published  without  his  being 
consulted.  He  forthwith  issued  directions  that  the  book 
should  be  corrected,  and  he  said  he  should  certainly 
take  good  care  that  nothing  of  the  sort  ever  appeared 
again.1  In  an  enactment  of  July  8,  1610,  Aquaviva, 
'  in  the  name  of  sacred  obedience,'  under  threat  of  the 
ban,  deprivation  of  office,  and  other  punishments,  fore- 
bade  any  member  of  the  Order  '  openly  or  secretly,  as 
professor  or  councillor,  in  any  written  publication  what- 
ever, to  have  the  audacity  to  maintain  that  anybody, 
be  he  who  he  may,  had  a  right,  under  any  pretext  of 
tyranny,  to  put  kings  or  princes  to  death,  or  to  attempt 
their  lives.  Otherwise,  he  said,  the  pretext  of  tyranny 
might  be  made  use  of  to  ruin  princes,  to  disturb  the 
peace,  and  to  endanger  the  safety  of  those  to  whom 
rather,  in  obedience  to  God's  command,  all  honour 
ought  to  be  accorded,  as  to  consecrated  persons  whom 
God  the  Lord  had  exalted  to  their  posts  of  dignity  in 
order  that  they  might  rule  the  nations  beneficially.' 
The  provincials  were  then  enjoined,  under  pain  of  de- 
position, to  provide  for  the  enforcement  of  this  decree 
'  so  that  by  this  means  everybody  should  learn  what 
was  the  opinion  of  the  Society  in  this  matter,  and  that 
the  error  of  a  single  member  should  not  bring  the  whole 
Society  into  contempt ;  for  it  is  the  firm  conviction  of 
all  right-minded  persons  that  the  shortcomings  of  a 

1  '  .  .  .  Primum  collaudare  se  studium  fudiciumque  Provinciae  ;  deinde 
aegerrime  tulisse,  quod  libri  ii  ante  emissi  essent,  quam  ejus  rei  quidquam 
ad  se  deferretur.  Ceterum  et  ubi  primum  rem  accepisset,  mandasse  uti 
corrigerentur,  et  sedulo  daturum  operam,  ne  quid  ejusmodi  in  posterum, 
accideret.'  P.  Bayle,  Dictionnaire  historique  et  critique,  pp.  1924-192n. 
note ;  Iuvencius,  Hist.  Soc.  Jesu,  pars  5,  lib.  12,  No.  86-87. 

VOL.    X.  C  C 


386  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

portion,    or   of   one   member,    of   the   corporate   body 
should  not  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  whole  company.'  ] 
After  Mariana's  work  had  become  known  in  Ger- 
many, it  used  to  be  constantly  affirmed  throughout  the 
Empire  that  '  the  Jesuits  insist  that  all  tyrants  shall 
and  must  be  put  to  death,  and  they  regard  all  evangelical 
princes  as  tyrants,  and  denounce  them  as  rulers  who 
ought  to  be  killed,  and  aver  that  those  who  take  their 
lives,  whoever  they  may  be,  deserve  the  praise  of  God, 
and    are   worthy    of   the   highest   honour.'     Thus   the 
Jesuit  Matthias  Mayrhofer  was  also  accused  of  preach- 
ing tyrannicide,  and  of  denouncing  every  prince  who 
had  abjured  the  Catholic  faith  as  a  tyrant.     He  de- 
fended himself  in  1601,  in  a  '  Katholische  Schutzschrift,' 
against '  calumnies  of  this  sort  and  malignant  attacks.' 
At  any  rate,  Mayrhofer  said,  he  was  convinced  that  the 
prince  existed  for  the  sake  of  the  commonwealth,  and 
not  the  commonwealth  for  the  sake  of  the  prince.     Now 
if  a  prince  wanted  to  force  his  subjects  into  heresy,  the 
latter   might   oppose  resistance   to   him,   and,   indeed, 
were  bound  to  do  so.     '  And  if  he  goes  to  the  length  of 
murder,  robbery,  plunder,  and  suchlike  tyranny,  and 
the  people  are  unable  to  hold  their  own  and  to  defend 
themselves,  except  by  taking  up  arms,  they  have  per- 

1  The  entire  decree  is  given  in  Iuvencius,  Hist.  Soc.  Jesu,  pars  5,  lib. 
12,  No.  157.  On  August  1,  1614;  Aquaviva  renewed  the  decree,  and  it 
is  under  this  date  that  it  stands  in  the  latest  official  edition  of  the 
Institutum  Societatis  Jesu,  ii.  (Romae,  1870),  51.  In  the  Zeitschrift  fur 
Proteslantismus  und  Kirche  von  Harless,  Jahrg.  1838,  i.  103,  the  passage 
'  quocumque  praetextu  tyrannidis  '  is  translated  '  under  the  next  best 
pretext  of  tyranny.'  Anything  so  monstrous  was  never  taught  by  a 
Jesuit,  and  did  not  therefore  need  to  be  guarded  against  by  so  stringent 
a  decree.  Concerning  the  Jesuits  and  tjrrannicide,  see  also  Duhr,  Jesuiten- 
fabeln,  p.  659  ff.,  and  Michael  in  the  Innsbruck  Zeitschrift  fiir  Katholische 
Theologie,  16  (1892),  p.  556  ff. 


JESUITS   ON   TYRANNICIDE  387 

feet  right  to  depose  their  ruler  and  to  deal  further  with 
him  as  necessity  requires.  Even  in  the  end,  should 
they  be  compelled  thereto,  and  he  will  not  desist  from 
murder,  spoliation,  infamy,  and  so  forth,  and  if  they 
have  had  recourse  to  all  moderate  measures  in  vain, 
they  are  free  in  such  a  case  to  take  their  ruler's  life.' 
'  But,'  he  adds,  '  let  me  be  rightly  understood.'  '  First 
of  all,  in  speaking  of  heresy,  it  must  be  made  clear  that 
there  is  undoubted  proof  and  certainty  of  heresy  in  the 
ruler.'  '  The  decision  of  the  collective  Church  must 
always  be  taken  in  the  matter.  Secondly,  recourse 
must  first  be  had  to  all  possible  means  of  gentleness, 
for  it  is  not  permissible  to  seize  the  sovereign  straight- 
way by  the  throat.  Thirdly,  my  remarks  apply  to 
cases  in  which  there  is  no  other  way  of  help.  Such  an 
extreme  measure  is  not  fitting  in  all  communities. 
For  instance,  when  the  lord  is  subject  to  another  over- 
lord, king  or  emperor,  the  case  must  be  brought  before 
this  supreme  head,'  and  '  arms  must  not  be  resorted  to 
without  the  approval  and  sanction  of  this  higher 
authority.'  '  Fifthly,  there  must,  of  course,  be  reason- 
able assurance  that  rebellion  of  this  sort  will  not  lead 
to  still  greater  disaster.  This  is  my  doctrine,  which  I 
confirm  with  legitimate  demonstration.'  1 

The  question  was  still  more  exhaustively  treated  by 
Father  James  Keller,  rector  of  the  college  at  Munich, 
in  a  pamphlet  of  the  year  1611,  dedicated  to  all  the 
princes  of  the  Empire  attached  to  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession. In  this  publication  he  demonstrates  in  detail 
that  the  Jesuits  held  no  other  opinions  on  tyrannicide 
than  those  of  the  Catholic  divines  before  them,  and  of 

1  Des  neulich  ausgegangeneti  Prcidikanlenspiegels  Katholische  Schulz- 
schrijt  (Ingoldstadt,  1601),  pp.  267,  270  27.*. 

c  c  2 


388  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

the  most  distinguished  Lutheran,  Calvinist,  and  Anglican 
theologians  and  politicians.  Mariana  alone,  he  said, 
went  further,  in  one  point,  than  the  Catholic  theologians 
and  his  own  brother  Jesuits  commonly  did.  In  this 
point,  however,  no  Jesuit  had  upheld  him. 

'  We  wish,'  says  Keller,  '  to  distinguish  between 
tyrants  and  tyrants.  Some  there  are  who,  without  any 
right  or  title,  without  any  warrant,  contrary  to  all 
recognised  and  public  authority,  invade,  take  posses- 
sion of,  devastate  a  commonwealth  or  a  country, 
massacre  or  expel  the  inhabitants,  and  behave  in  the 
most  iniquitous  manner.  Men  of  this  sort,  whom  it  is 
impossible  to  withstand  in  any  other  way,  might  quite 
legitimately  be  got  rid  of,  or  put  to  death,  by  anyone 
who  chose.'  On  this  point  Keller  shows  there  is  but 
one  opinion  among  divines  and  jurists.  Among  the 
Jesuits,  Azor  was  the  only  one  who  sought  to  throw 
doubts  on  the  matter.  If,  however,  a  tyrant  of  this 
sort  was  already  established  in  secure  possession  of  his 
lordship,  and  the  subjects  willingly  recognised  him  as 
their  lord,  then  it  was  not  lawful  for  anyone  to  lay 
hands  on  him.1 

'  Other  tyrants  there  are  who  possess  an  empire,  a 
land,  or  a  lordship,  either  because  it  has  come  to  them 
through  inheritance,  or  because  they  have  purchased 
it,  or  because  they  have  been  elected  to  the  govern- 
ment, or  by  some  other  legitimate  title.  Men  of  this 
sort  who  are  lawful  rulers,  although  tyrannical  ones, 
must  by  no  means  be  put  to  death,  either  by  their  own 
subjects  or  by  outsiders.  In  this  doctrine  all  Catholics, 
Jesuits,'  with  the  exception  of  Mariana,  '  and  non- 
Jesuits,  agree  unanimously.'     '  To  this,  however,  some- 

1  T yrannicidium,  pp.  13-19. 


JESUITS   ON   TYRANNICIDE  389 

one  may  object :  "  But  how  is  a  country  to  be  helped 
when  tyranny  has  grown  to  such  enormity  that  the 
whole  community  is  in  danger  of  ruin  ?  '  There  are 
undoubtedly  means  at  hand,  for  every  ruler  is  either 
himself  independent  and  supreme,  or  else  subservient 
to  some  overlord.  If  there  is  someone  else  to  whom 
this  supposed  tyrant  is  subject,  then  there  is  still  a 
chance  for  justice  in  the  land  ;  there  is  still  a  way  of 
escape  ;  the  door  is  open  to  the  great  alarm-bell.  Let 
some  individual,  let  the  State  or  the  province  complain 
of  the  tyrant.  Means  will  be  found  for  proceeding 
against  him.  In  case,  however,  of  the  supreme  lord 
being  as  tyrannical  as  the  underlord,  and  of  there 
being  no  possibility  of  arriving  at  justice,  there  is  one 
only  means,  and  that  is  patience.'  Although  Dominicus 
Baiiez,  Keller  goes  on,  teaches  differently,  we  must 
nevertheless  follow  Thomas  Aquinas,  who  recognises  no 
other  way  of  rescue  than  '  to  fly  to  God,  the  King  of 
kings,  in  whose  hand  are  the  hearts  of  monarchs.' 
'  Rightly  and  well  spoken,  for  it  is  permitted  to  no 
one,  so  he  value  his  soul's  salvation,  to  undertake  a 
murderous  deed.'  '  If,  however,  the  tyrant  has  no  other 
suzerain  over  him,  and  has  become  altogether  insuffer- 
able, then,  according  to  the  advice  of  many,  he  should 
be  deposed  and  deprived  of  his  power,  provided  the 
estates  of  the  country  have  the  means  thereto.'  ' 

Keller  quotes  quantities  of  passages  from  Protestant 
books  to  show  how  far  removed  from  sternness  were 
the  opinions  of  Luther,  Melanchthon,  Zwingli,  Calvin, 
Beza,  Knox,  Junius  Brutus,  Goodman,  the  Lutheran 
Superintendent  John  Gerhard,  the  jurist  John  Althusius, 

1  Tyrannicidium,  pp.  21-22. 


390  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  others,  on  the  questions  of  deposition  of  a  sovereign 
and  of  tyrannicide.  * 

'  According  to  Jesuit  teaching,  it  is  forbidden  to 
touch  a  single  hair  of  the  head  of  any  of  the  princes  of 
the  Empire  ;  for  they  are  all  legitimate  princes,  with 
lawful  titles  and  possession.  And  even  supposing  that 
any  one  of  them  should  develop  into  a  tyrant,  no  private 
individual  would  have  the  right  to  lay  hands  on  the  said 
tyrant,  for  there  would  still  be  a  higher  authority  over 
him,  as  over  every  prince  of  the  Empire — viz.  that  of 
the  Imperial  Chamber  and  the  Emperor.'  *  This  I 
know  well,  that  rulers  of  this  description  who  govern 
by  virtue  of  legitimate  titles,  although  they  may  be 
godless  tyrants,  cannot  be  put  to  death  by  private 
individuals.'  Keller  concludes  his  pamphlet  with  the 
following  remark  addressed  to  the  Protestant  imperial 
princes  :  '  Your  electoral  and  princely  Graces  must  be 
on  your  guard  against  death  from  other  quarters.  As 
far  as  the  Jesuits  are  concerned  you  may  live  on  for 
ever.  Hitherto  the  Jesuits  have  suffered  at  the  hands 
of  hangmen,  but  have  never  been  hangmen  themselves.'  2 
In  reply  to  numbers  of  leaflets  in  which,  either  an- 
onymously or  pseudonymously,  generally  also  without 
giving  the  name  of  printer  or  place,  the  Protestants 
denounced  the  Jesuits  as  foes  of  the  Empire  and  regi- 
cides, Keller  remarks  : 

'  If  it  is  true  that  the  Jesuits  seek  to  compass  the 
downfall  of  all  kings  and  princes  of  the  Empire  who  are 
hostile  to  their  religion,  it  seems  to  me  that  that  man 
must  be  an  abandoned  villain  who,  possessing  such 
information,  does  not  straightway  come  forward  with 
it,  lay  the  case  publicly  and  juridically  before  the  proper 

1  Pp.  51-78.  2  Pp.  40,  115. 


WRITINGS   AGAINST   THE   JESUITS  391 

authorities,  and  make  known  his  own  name  and  stand- 
ing. It  would  be  an  honour  to  him,  a  glory,  if  he  were 
to  bring  these  scoundrelly  hypocrites  and  dangerous 
assassins  out  of  the  darkness  into  light.'  l 

Keller  complains  bitterly  that  numbers  of  Calvinist 
preachers  not  only  slander  the  Jesuits  in  countless 
anonymous  tracts,  but  that  they  actually  '  write  books 
purporting  to  come  from  Jesuits,  in  which  they  impute 
to  the  latter,  not  their  own  true  doctrines  and  opinions, 
but  what  the  Calvinists  themselves  would  gladly  find 
and  read  in  their  books.' 2     Also,  '  there  are  not  a  few 

1  Pp.  2-3. 

2  Pp.  8-12.  As  examples,  Keller  cites  the  '  Apology  '  of  Jean  Chastel 
and  the  '  Quastion  '  which,  it  was  pretended,  had  been  found  with  the 
French  Jesuit  Jean  Guignard.  Among  the  books  ostensibly  written  by 
Catholics  against  the  Jesuits  was,  for  instance,  one  which  appeared  in 
1595,  entitled  Prob  der  Jesuiten  nach  romanischem  Schrott  und  Korn,  in 
sieben  Gespriichen  zwischen  einem  Jesuiten  und  einem  Domherm  ('  A  test 
of  the  Jesuits  according  to  the  Roman  standard,  in  seven  dialogues  be- 
tween a  Jesuit  and  a  canon  ').  See  the  complete  title  in  Stieve,  Die  Politik 
Bayerns.  '  I  announce  myself  as  a  Catholic,'  said  the  cowled  Calvinist 
and  pretended  canon,  '  and  would  to  God  that  all  my  utterances  might 
serve  to  increase  and  multiply  the  number  of  Catholics.'  He  speaks  of 
the  superstitious  worship  of  the  Jesuits,  and  accuses  them  of  having 
introduced  a  new  usage  into  the  ceremony  of  dispensing  the  Sacraments, 
like  veritable  church-robbers,  and  of  bringing  in  great  heresies  and  errors 
He  calls  the  '  spiritual  exercises  '  of  the  Fathers  '  secret  magic  arts  by  means 
of  which,  on  certain  days,  they  biing  to  pass  heaven  knows  what  extra- 
ordinary things,  in  private  apartments  from  which,  after  performing 
their  sorcery,  they  emerge  white  as  death  and  looking  as  though  they 
had  been  terrified  by  a  ghost '  (Bl.  52b,  78,  83,  92).  The  Jesuits  have 
accomplished  nothing  ;  the  Protestants  '  carry  out  more  in  one  day  with 
their  teaching  and  preaching  than  the  Jesuits  effect  in  their  churches 
in  a  whole  year  with  all  their  precepts  and  schoolmasters.'  '  The  writings 
of  the  opponents  show  plainly  that  the  arguments  and  the  trump  cards 
of  the  Catholics  in  matters  of  faith  are  not  strong  enough  for  the  defence 
of  their  doctrine.'  In  such  wise  was  a  Catholic  canon  made  to  speak. 
The  author  of  the  pamphlet  aims  craftily  at  exposing  the  other  Orders 
also  to  shame,  and  this  not  through  the  mouth  of  the  canon,  but  by  the 
Jesuit  who  converses  with  him.  The  latter,  for  instance,  is  made  to  say 
concerning  the  Franciscans  that  they  are  '  blackguard,  lazy  fellows,  stupid 


392  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Calvinistic  soothsayers  who,  though  they  do  not  them- 
selves write  any  books  under  our  name,  nevertheless 
attribute  to  us  certain  works  which  we  have  neither 
composed  nor  had  printed.'  Thus,  for  instance,  Wil- 
helm  Rossaus,  Alanus  Copus,  Paul  Windeck — authors 
who  are  proclaimed  to  be  members  of  the  Order — are 
not  Jesuits  at  all.  Finally,  there  was  a  species  of 
Calvinists  who  took  up  the  Jesuit  writings  but  only  in 
order  '  to  distort  them  maliciously,'  '  to  make  white 
black,  and  to  turn  honey  into  gall.'  1 

'  God  be  praised,'  exclaims  Keller  to  the  Protestants, 
'  we  Jesuits,  up  to  the  present  date,  have  done  nothing 
in  the  Empire  on  account  of  which  we  should  have 
reason  to  fear  the  exile  with  which  you  menace  us. 
We,  too,  are  just  as  much  Germans  as  you  are  ;  we, 
too,  are  lovers  of  the  Fatherland  just  as  much  as  you 
are ;  we,  too,  come  of  quite  as  honourable  a  lineage, 
or,  rather,  since  much  of  the  ancient  blood  of  Germany 
is  incorporated  in  the  society,  of  an  even  better  one 
than  yourselves  ! '  2  It  must  in  fairness  be  said,  with 
regard  to  the  Protestants,  that  the  lords  and  the  common 
people  among  their  numbers  were  merely  dupes  ;  but 
the  preachers  undoubtedly  deserved  the  reproach  of 
heresy  and  wickedness.3 

In  the  same  year,  1611,  in  which  Keller's  pamphlet 

donkeys,  ruffianly  lubbers,  that  they  are  filthy  and  impudent,  always 
overfilled  with  soups  and  bread  ;  that  most  of  those  who  are  called  lay- 
brothers  sleep  day  and  night  ;  that  if  they  are  prelates  they  are  the  most 
desperate  and  insolent  scoundrels  ; '  '  the  Jesuit '  actually  charges  them 
with  parricide  and  fratricide.  At  the  end  of  the  preface  the  author  says 
that  '  the  attacks  of  the  Jesuits  are  aimed  at  the  overthrow  of  the  whole 
of  Christendom  and  the  slaughter  of  Christian  princes  '  (Bl.  40-41,  46,  49, 
04,  66). 

1  P.  11.  -'  Tyrannicidium,  p.  5. 

:t  In  the  Protestatio  ad  lectorem. 


AGAINST   THE   JESUITS    AS   REGICIDES  393 

appeared,  Melchior  Goldast  took  up  the  cudgels  against 
the  'Jesuitical  bloodhounds  and  regicides.'  In  a  pam- 
phlet dedicated  to  the  Landgrave  Maurice  of  Hesse, 
and  directed  against  Father  James  Gretser,  he  com- 
pared the  Jesuits  with  the  '  ruthless  assassins  '  in  the 
East.  These  last,  he  said,  had  introduced  into  Moham- 
medanism a  new  sect  whose  leader  had  lived  in  Muleta, 
a  place  held  sacred  by  them.  Their  articles  of  faith 
were  as  follows  :  Mohammed  is  the  prophet  of  God,  the 
Redeemer  of  the  human  race  ;  his  representative  is  the 
Prophet  and  Prince  of  Muleta,  the  supreme  lord  of  all 
peoples  on  the  earth,  the  only  authorised  interpreter  of 
the  revelations  of  Mohammed.  All  princes  who  refuse 
to  hear  his  word  deserve  to  be,  and  must  be,  put  to 
death  by  violence  or  by  treachery.  Whosoever  slays 
such  a  prince  will  obtain  in  Paradise  the  place  nearest 
Mohammed.  The  chief  seminary  of  this  sect  was 
located  in  Muleta,  and  within  its  walls  bands  of  picked 
youngsters  were  trained  for  the  service  of  Mohammed's 
vicegerent.  All  manner  of  sense-beguiling  arts  were 
employed  to  inflame  and  stir  up  these  youthful  votaries 
to  the  utmost  audacity  in  the  cause  of  their  prince.1 
After  the  assassins  in  the  East  had  been  extirpated, 
new  sectaries  arose  in  the  West,  who  were  called  first  of 
all  Jebusites,  then  Jesuats,  and  lastly  Jesuits,  and 
who  resemble  the  assassins  of  the  East  in  all  points, 
both  as  regards  their  founder  and  head  at  Rome  and 
their  doctrines.  Thus,  for  instance,  they,  like  the 
assassins,  look  forward  to  joys  in  Paradise  which  shall 
correspond  to  all  the  sensuous  pleasures  of  earth.  Also, 
in  respect  to  the  murder  of  princes,  their  tenets  are  the 
same  as  those  of  their  precursors  in  the  East.     They 

1    "  .   .  .  praesto  erant  et  puellae  formosae  varium  libidinum  .  .  .' 


394  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

teach,  for  example,  that  every  subject  wins  for  himself 
celestial  reward  if  he  kills  a  prince  denounced  by  his 
people  as  a  tyrant.  Subjects  of  heretical  princes  are 
absolved  from  all  duty  to  their  rulers.  After  the 
pattern  of  the  assassins  they  excite  chosen  youths  to 
every  kind  of  murderous  deed.1 

Goldast  was  so  fortunate  as  to  be  able  to  contribute, 
from  a  book  which  had  appeared  in  Delft,  quite  accu- 
rate details  concerning  the  solemn  ceremonies  with 
which  the  Jesuits  inaugurated  the  assassination  of 
monarchs.-  These  ceremonies  were  made  known  to 
the  people  in  the  German  language,  in  the  same  year, 
1611,  as  '  Mysterium  oder  Geheimniss,  dessen  sich  die 
Jesuiter  nach  der  Resolution,  einen  Potentaten  umzu- 
bringen,  gebrauchen  '  ('  Mysteries  or  secret  rites  performed 
by  the  Jesuits  after  it  has  been  resolved  to  assassinate 

a  potentate ').  They  are  described  as  follows:  'When 
the  Jesuits  command  anybody  to  put  his  lord  or  ruler 
to  death,  and  after  the  monster  chosen  for  the  murderous 
deed  has  been  admitted  to  their  chamber  of  meditation 
and  prayer,  the  hellish  court  produces  a  knife  wrapped 
up  in  a  veil  and  enclosed  in  a  little  ivory  case,  with  an 
Agnus  Dei  and  painted  characters  inscribed  around  ; 
and  as  they  draw  out  the  knife  they  let  fall  on  it  a 
few  drops  of  holy  water,  and  hang  a  few  consecrated 
coral  beads  on  the  handle  to  signify  that  "  as  many 
thrusts  as  are  made  with  the  knife,  so  many  souls  will 
be  released  from  purgatory."  The  knife  is  then  put 
into  the  murderer's  hands  with  the  following  words  : 

'  Thou  chosen  child  of  God,  take  the  armour  of  Jeph- 
thah,  the  sword  of  Samson,  the  sword  of  David  with 

1  Geldast,  Beplicatio,  pp.  1-8  ;  see  Krebs,  Publicistik,  pp.  190-202. 

2  Replicatio,  pp.  8-10. 


AGAINST   THE    MURDEROUS   PRACTICES   OF   JESUITS     395 

which  he  cut  off  Goliath's  head,  the  sword  of  Gideon, 
the  sword  of  the  Maccabees,  the  sword  of  Pope  Julius 
the  Second,  with  which  he  rescued  himself  from  the 
hands  of  the  princes  with  so  great  shedding  of  blood  in 
the  towns.  Go  forth,  and  be  wise  and  courageous. 
May  God  deign  to  strengthen  thine  hands  !  '  After 
this  they  fall  down  on  their  knees,  and  the  chief  among 
them  repeats  the  adjuration  :  "  Come,  ye  cherubim  ! 
Come,  ye  seraphim,"  &c.  After  this  they  lead  the  man 
up  to  an  altar,  where  they  show  him  the  pictures  repre- 
senting the  angels  protecting  the  Dominican  monk 
Jacques  Clement,  and  present  him  also  before  the  divine 
crown,  saying  :  "  Lord,  behold  here  Thine  own  arm  and 
the  fulfiller  of  justice.  Let  all  the  saints  stand  up  to 
make  place  for  him." 

After  this  four  Jesuits  enter  into  conversation  alone 
with  the  '  consecrated  murderer.'  They  tell  him  that  they 
believe  they  recognise  in  him  the  divine  afflatus,  and 
that  this  impels  them  to  kiss  his  hands  and  feet.  They 
say  that  they  no  longer  look  upon  him  as  a  man  ;  they 
and  others  would  gladly  be  chosen  in  his  place,  for 
they  should  then  be  certain  '  of  going  straight  into 
Paradise  and  not  first  to  purgatory.' 

If,  however,  anyone  who  has  been  selected  for  the 
murder  is  still  troubled  with  scruples,  '  they  attempt 
either  by  means  of  nocturnal  ghosts  or  by  thrusting 
horrible  monsters  before  his  eyes  to  coerce  such  a  one 
to  take  the  assassin's  oath,  or  else  to  encourage  and 
bring  him  up  to  the  scratch  by  false  mutterings  and  by 
apparitions  personifying  either  the  Holy  Virgin  Mary 
or  the  holy  angels,  or  other  saintly  persons  who  have 
died  in  the  Lord.  Sometimes  even  Ignatius  and  his 
associates  are  made  to  play  this  part.' 


396  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

'  And  thus  it  is  that  these  wicked,  murderous 
schoolmasters  .  .  .  get  round  the  young  and  ruin 
them.' 

'  Of  their  schools  the  most  celebrated  is  the  seminary 
at  Rome,  from  which  the  Lateran  Pope  sends  forth  his 
elect  swarm,  armed  with  insolent  steel,  as  from  a  hellish 
pit  and  abyss,  to  ravage  and  lay  waste  the  land  like  a 
pest  of  frogs  and  toads.'  * 

'  Who  could  be  otherwise  than  terrified  by  reading 
such  tales,  which  are  undoubtedly  true,  and  are  taken 
from  the  Jebusites'  own  secret  books  ?  '  said  a  '  minister 
of  the  word  of  the  true  Gospel,'  on  the  strength  of  the 
above  pamphlet.  '  How  can  any  class  of  people,  above 
all,  potentates  and  evangelical  princes,  have  a  moment's 
peace  ?  '  Goldast  received  a  special  eulogy  from  this 
preacher.  '  There  is  scarcely,'  he  said,  '  a  single  Ger- 
man writer  and  scholar  of  eminence  in  our  day  who  has 
painted  the  whole  godless  popish  crew  and  devilish  sect 
of  the  Jesuits  so  truly,  so  plainly,  and  so  subtilely  as 
the  highly-renowned  Melchior  Goldast  has  done  in  a 
pamphlet  against  the  arch-scoundrel  and  heretic  Gretser, 
a  celebrated  leader  of  the  Loyolites  in  the  Empire.  In 
these  pages  it  is  made  manifest  to  the  dullest  under- 
standings of  what  super-abominable  vices  the  whole 
devilish  Jesuitical  crew  are  guilty.  It  is  shown  unmis- 
takably that  they  are  worse  than  the  assassins  among 
the  Turks,  and  that  every  single  Christian  prince  and 
private  individual  will  have  to  succumb  to  their  daggers, 
swords,  poison,  and  all  their  inhuman  intrigues  and 
machinations  if  they  do  not  rally  all  their  strength  and 

1  Von  der  Jesuiten,  wider  Konig-  und  Fiirstliche  Personen  abschewliche, 
hochgefiihrliche  Practiken  und  Thaten  (Hanau,  1611),  pp.  191-194.  See 
Goldast,  Replicatio,  pp.  8-10. 


AGAINST   THE   MURDEROUS   PRACTICES   OF   JESUITS     397 

energy  to  drive  the  gang  and  sect  out  of  the  country, 
to  confiscate  their  goods,  and  to  inflict  on  them  severe 
and  drastic  punishment  according  to  law  and  justice.' 
'  These  villains  plot  the  death  of  everybody  who  will 
not  become  a  tool  for  their  murderous  intrigues.  It  is 
truly  terrific.'  l 

■  Demiitige  Supplication  an  Jesum  Christum  und  Aufmahnung  an  alle 
friedliebenden  christlichen  Herzen  gegen  die  Mordpraktiken  der  Jesuiter. 
'  Getruckt  in  diesem  Jahr,'  Bl  5\  6.  In  the  year  1615  there  appeared  a 
'  Kurr.tr  Discurs,  darinnen  die  Janizaren  in  Turkey,  und  die  Jesuiter  im 
Bapstihumb  wegen  Hires  Ordens  konnen  und  mogen  miteinander  compariert 
und  verglichen  werden.'  '  So  long  as  the  world  has  lasted,'  it  was  said  in 
a  leaflet  '  Uber  die  hollischen  Jebusiter  schrockliche  landesverratherisehe 
Mordthaten  '  (1615),  '  such  hellish  furies  as  the  Jesuits — men  far  surpassing 
the  janissaries  of  Turkey  in  murder,  bloodthirstiness,  robbery,  and  double  - 
distilled  profligacy — have  nowhere  been  known.  They  proceed,  as  has 
long  ago  been  proved,  from  the  devil,  or  rather  from  Beelzebub  the  chief 
of  the  deviLs,  who  patrols  about  in  their  colleges,  as  is  universally  known, 
for  he  has  oftentimes  been  seen.'  An  '  Einblattdruck  '  of  1618,  '  Genea- 
logia  vera  Antichristi,''  contains  the  following  verses  : 

Ein  holliscli  Weib  Mcgdra  lang, 
Die  drgste  Furie,  schwanger  gang 
Mit  einer  Frucht,  die  machtig  sic 
That  vm/mer  krdnJceln  spat  und  friih. 
Und  als  sie  nun  gebdhren  sollt, 
Ihr  Hebam  ward  der  Teuffel  It  old  : 
Durch  dessen  Hilff  aus  Tagl/cht  zart 
Loiola  geboren  ward. 
Als  sie  das  Monstrum  und  Suit 
Ersah,  und  sein  grausam  Gesitt  : 
Du  drger  dann  dein  Mutter  bist, 
Spracli  sie,  ivurd  schamroth  zu  der  Frist. 

Occasionally,  however,  the  devil  came  forward  against  the  Jesuits, 
as,  for  instance,  in  a  '  great  marvel '  at  Molsheim,  which  was  made  known 
in  1615  in  a  '  Wahrhaftige  neue  Zeitung.'  At  their  college  at  Molsheim 
the  Jesuits  had  acted  a  comedy  in  which  Luther,  got  up  as  Judas  Iscariot, 
was  to  be  carried  off  by  the  devil,  as  an  example  of  the  way  in  which  all 
the  Lutherans  in  the  world  ought  to  be  treated.  '  When,  however,  the 
eleventh  devil  (the  Apostles  were  ail  dressed  as  devils)  wanted  to  tear 
Luther  in  pieces,  the  thirteenth  horrible  devii  came  up  with  loud  screaming 
and  with  terrible  fierceness  seized  the  devil  who  wanted  to  tear  Luther 
in  pieces,  and  tore  him  in  pieces  instead  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people,  so 
that  his  heart  and  entrails  fell  at  their  feet.'  This  was  visibly  witnessed 
'  with  great  horror,  trembling  and  quaking  by  the  people  sta.nding  round, 


398  history  or  the  German  people 

Andrew  Lonner  was  gifted  with  still  more  vivid 
power  of  imagination.  In  a  lecture  which  he  delivered 
before  '  the  honourable  and  learned  gentlemen  of  the 
University  of  Giessen  on  the  occasion  of  the  opening  of 
a  student's  house,'  and  which  he  had  printed  in  1612, 
and  had  the  audacity  to  impute  to  the  Count  Palatine 
Wolfgang  Wilhelm,  he  gave  vent  to  the  following 
effusion  :  '  Oh,  ye  princes  of  the  Roman  Empire,  cham- 
pions and  guardians  of  the  evangelical  doctrine,  do  you 
believe  yourselves  to  be  safe  from  the  Jesuits  ?  They 
have  sworn  to  massacre  you  all,  together  with  your 
councillors.  Already  they  have  marked  out  some  of 
you  for  death  and  sent  out  commissioners  of  murder. 
But,  let  me  tell  you,  they  do  not  mean  to  slay  only  a 
few,  but  to  massacre  the  whole  lot  of  you,  to  leave  no 
single  one  of  you  alive  to  weep  and  bewail  the  unhappy 
fate  of  the  State  and  the  Church.'  '  They  are  engaged 
in  bringing  about  your  downfall,  and  it  is  not  only 
your  lives  at  which  they  are  aiming,  but  also  your 
honour,  your  goods,  your  wives,  your  subjects — every- 
thing that  belongs  to  you.  Do  you  know  what  sort  of 
death  they  deserve  ?  They  deserve  to  be  hung  on  the 
trees,  these  regicides,  so  long  as  there  are  branches  on 
which  to  suspend  them,  or  else  to  be  cast  out  of  the 
land.'  '  Their  colleges  are  workshops  of  the  devil  him- 
self, dens  of  every  kind  of  iniquity.  Let  all  such  houses 
of  infamy  be  burnt  down,  and  their  inmates  also  be 
destroyed  by  fire.'  '  Their  secret  crypts  and  caverns 
and  underground  chambers  are  filled  with  coats  of  mail, 

and  although  they  were  forbidden  by  the  civil  authorities,  on  pain  of 
death  to  say  a  word  about  it,  nevertheless,  there  was  not  wanting  a  Nico- 
demus  to  tell  the  tale  abroad'  (Ehrenkrantzhin  der  Jesuiter,'  see  above, 
p.  347,  note  3).  Added,  as  the  second  '  True  Great  Tiding,'  to  the  one 
concerning  Bellarmin. 


AGAINST   THE   MURDEROUS   PRACTICES   OF   JESUITS     399 

swords,  lances,    halberds,   axes,  daggers,  cannons  and 
cannon-balls.     This  is  no  mere  lying  invention.     Fabu- 
lous tales  would,  indeed,  be  unworthy  of  an  audience ' 
consisting  of  the  professors  of  the  University  of  Giessen. 
'  No,  we  have  received  from  Prague  reliable  information 
that  a  quantity  of  muskets  have  been  found  in  the 
college  there.'  *     The  Jesuit  Christopher  Ziegler,  accord- 
ing to  Lonner,  cherished  the  hope  that  after  the  death 
of  the  Duchess  Dorothea  Ursula  of  Wiirtemberg,  the 
Duke  also  would  soon  die,  and  then  all  the  monks  and 
canons,   all  the   clerics,   and   all  their  pious   followers 
would  make  an  inroad  on  Wiirtemberg,  take  possession 
of  the  land,   and  massacre  the  opposite  party.      The 
Jesuits  maintain  that  John  and  Christ  were  the  most 
accomplished  sorcerers.     The  Jesuits  are  '  idolaters,  anti- 
christs,  vagabonds,   rebels,    whoremongers,    sodomites, 
hangmen,  and  bedevilled  magicians.'     For  such  crimes, 
however,  the  law  decreed  a  variety  of  heavy  penalties, 
such  as  execution  by  the  sword  and  confiscation  of 
property  ;  death  by  fire  or  by  the  fury  of  wild  beasts. 
At  the  present  time  quartering  was  the  usual  mode  of 
punishment.     '  I  myself,'  said  Ziegler,  '  was  one  of  an 
enormous  crowd  of  onlookers  who  witnessed  the  manner 
in  which,  in  the  famous  town  of  Brunswick,  a  diabolical 
criminal  of  this  sort  was  dealt  with.     His  fingers  were 
chopped  off,  he  was  pinched  four  times  with  red-hot 
tongs,  his  body  was  torn  asunder  and  cut  up  into  four 
quarters.  .  .  .'     '  And  you   Jesuits,   you  traitors   and 
rebels,  men  full  of  raging  insolence  and  all  lascivious- 
ness,  you  monsters  who  are  working  so  infamously  to 
bring  ruin  on  our  Fatherland,  to  overthrow  the  Roman 
Empire,  and  to  destroy  our  Church  with  fire  and  pillage, 

1  We  shall  return  later  on  to  this  fabulous  story. 


400  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

you  presume,  do  you,  to  live  in  the  same  atmosphere 
as  we  do  ?  Out  with  you,  I  say,  out  with  you  !  You 
shall  no  longer  ravage  the  earth  with  your  swords,  no 
longer  hold  your  fire-brands  in  readiness  to  hurl  them 
over  our  lands.'  If  there  was  any  reluctance  to  slaughter 
the  Jesuits,  the  speaker  said  in  conclusion,  these  wretches 
must,  at  any  rate,  be  driven  as  fast  as  possible  out  of 
the  Empire,  which  would  otherwise  be  completely 
broken  up,  while  every  German  would  have  his  goods 
and  chattels,  his  wife  and  children,  all  torn  from  him. 
There  would  be  a  wholesale  massacre  of  the  entire 
nation.1 

Such  was  the  '  condition  of  continuous  spiritual 
warfare  by  pen  and  pulpit,'  in  which  Germany  was 
involved  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War 
of  annihilation.  '  Almost  all  the  strength  and  energy 
of  German  intellect  and  study  were  wasted' — so  con- 
temporaries complained — '  in  godless  wrangling,  dis- 
puting, cursing  and  anathematising.  The  influence 
of  the  press  on  the  great  masses  of  the  people  was  neither 
educative  nor  ennobling,  but  demoralising  and  upsetting. 

1  Relegatio  Jesnitarum  ex  omni  bene  ordinate,  republica  (1612) ;  see 
especially  the  dedication  and  pp.  27-29,  47-49,  55-56,  65-66,  80-81, 
84-85.  A  scholar  who  belongs  to  the  bitterest  opponents  of  the  Jesuits, 
Krebs  {Publicistik,  p.  68),  remarks  concerning  this  pamphlet :  '  All  that 
enmity  towards  the  Jesuits  has  so  far  brought  to  light  has  been  welded 
together  by  Lonner  into  a  confused  whole  in  order  to  convince  the  princes 
of  the  necessity  for  expelling  the  Jesuits  from  every  well-regulated  State. 
If  we  take  into  account  that  Lonner  also  accepts  credulously  all  the  many 
absurd  calumnies  against  the  Order,  and  even  embellishes  and  enlarges 
them  from  his  own  fancy,  we  may  form  an  approximate  idea  of  the  quality 
of  the  book.  For  its  full  characterisation,  however,  it  is  necessary  also 
to  consider  its  form.  Lonner  is  gifted  with  decided  talent  for  adroit  and 
invariably  suggestive  writing  ;  he  has  excellent  ideas  and  an  extraordinarily 
rich  vocabulary,  but  he  abuses  his  gift  of  language  in  the  most  shameless 
manner.  Such  vulgarity  of  style  and  such  abject  grovelling  in  the  mire 
of  vileness  is  rare  even  in  those  times.' 


THE    PRESS   A   CURSE   OF   THE   AGE  401 

No  ruling  authority,  secular  or  spiritual,  was  safe  from 
the  abuse  and  calumnies  of  the  press  ;  there  was  no  con- 
fession of  faith  which  the  press  did  not  misrepresent 
and  distort,  no  rite  of  worship  which  it  did  not  scoff 
at  and  turn  to  ridicule ;  the  sayings  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 
became  as  tennis-balls  tossed  to  and  fro  between  sinister 
lust  of  innovation  and  blind  charges  of  heresy.  The 
lofty  teachings  of  Christianity — its  injunctions  to  have 
pity  on  the  poor  and  the  sick,  to  do  works  of  penitence, 
to  show  love  to  one's  enemies,  seemed  well-nigh  forgotten 
by  and  expunged  from  the  hearts  of  those  who  plumed 
themselves  on  being  the  teachers  and  friends  of  the 
people.'  Nearly  all  the  printed  publications  of  the 
period  bore  the  stamp  of  unbounded  hatred :  the 
press  had  become  a  veritable  curse.  The  multitudinous 
company  of  scribes  disseminated  everywhere,  in  ever 
augmenting  ratio,  '  mistrust,  suspicion,  envy  and  hos- 
tility,' stirred  up  every  evil  passion,  and  seemed  to 
have  no  other  aim  than  to  '  incite  princes,  great  lords, 
and  common  people  to  rebellion  and  to  the  sword.' 
Well,  therefore,  might  the  '  Simple  Layman,'  in  1617, 
express  his  wonder  '  that  matters  had  not  long  ago  come 
to  universal  bloodshed.'  1 

1  See  vol.  ix.  pp.  520-523.  In  the  '  Responsum  de  recuperanda 
Saxonia,'  published  in  Schwarz's  Zehn  Gutachten,  p.  52  ff.,  the  press  is 
described  as  a  powerful  medium  in  the  hands  of  the  new  religionists  for 
the  dissemination  of  their  doctrines.  The  innovators  understood  how  to 
rule  public  opinion.  While  the  Catholics  for  the  most  part  opposed  no 
resistance  to  the  spread  of  antagonistic  writings,  the  opposite  party  did 
all  they  could  to  hinder  the  production  and  circulation  of  Catholic  publi- 
cations ;  whatever  fell  into  their  hands  they  stamped  out  ;  and  this  explains 
why  so  many  Catholic  pamphlets  and  books  of  the  sixteenth  century  are 
extraordinarily  rare.  The  author  of  the  memorandum  on  the  re-Catho 
lisation  of  Saxony  emphatically  urges  greater  activity  in  writing  and 
distributing  concise,  well-constructed  Catholic  pamphlets.  The  Dominican 
Bartholomew  Kleindienst  suggests,  as  the  best  means  of  enlightening  the 

VOL.    X.  D  D 


402  HISTOEY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Meanwhile,  the  political  conditions  of  the  Empire, 
since  the  establishment  of  the  Protestant  League,  had 
lapsed  into  worse  and  worse  disorder,  and  year  after 
year  voices  were  loud  in  the  outcry  that  the  country 
was  on  the  eve  of  a  great  war. 

ignorant  and  confirming  the  wavering  in  the  faith,  the  publication  of  a 
short,  popular,  truthful  history  of  the  schism  in  the  Church.  He  recom- 
mended, nevertheless,  that  those  who  should  '  undertake  a  useful  work 
of  this  sort  should  recount  the  truth  without  abuse  and  libels,'  for  '  in 
proportion  as  the  one  course  is  profitable,  so  is  the  other  injurious  : 
(Hist.-polit.  Bl.  109  [1892],  pp.  500-501). 


403 


BOOK  III 

GENERAL    POLITICAL    CONFUSION    IN    THE    DECADE 
PRECEDING    THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR 


CHAPTER  I 

POLITICO  -  RELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  IMPERIAL 
HEREDITARY  LANDS,  AND  THEIR  REACTION  ON  THE 
EMPIRE,    1603-1609 

After  the  Archduke  Matthias,  '  favoured  by  fate,' 
had  robbed  his  imperial  brother  '  of  his  finest  lands,'  l 
he  returned  to  Vienna  on  July  14,  1608,  in  order  to 
receive  homage  from  the  hereditary  dominions,  first 
of  all  in  Austria,  and  then  in  Moravia  and  Hungary. 
But  already  on  June  23  his  '  new  friends  and  dear 
allies,'  the  Calvinistic  heads  of  these  three  lands,  had 
concluded  between  them,  in  the  Archduke's  camp  at 
Sterbohol,  a  secret  alliance  which  left  the  new  sovereign 
little  to  expect.  For  it  was  not  for  his  benefit,  but 
solely  for  their  own  advantage  that  they  had  taken 
up  arms  against  the  Emperor.  Scarcely  had  Matthias 
entered  Vienna  than  the  Protestant  Estates  of  the 
Archduchies  of  Upper  and  Lower  Austria  declared 
that  they  would  not  render  him  homage  until  all  their 
'  grievances  '  had  been  redressed,  and  above  all  until 

1  See  vol.  ix.  pp.  500  ff . 

d  d  2 


404  HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

'  unrestricted  freedom  of  religious  worship  '  had  been 
granted  :  and  this  freedom  must  not  be  confined  to 
the  nobles  only,  but  must  extend  to  the  towns  and 
boroughs.  Before  an  answer  had  arrived  the  Estates 
caused  the  Protestant  churches  and  schools  of  all  dis- 
tricts to  be  opened,  took  possession  of  Linz,  installed 
officials  according  to  their  own  liking,  raised  the  taxes, 
enlisted  soldiers,  and  in  short  usurped  and  exercised 
every  single  princely  right.  To  their  new  '  dear  terri- 
torial lord  '  they  intimated  that  the  negation  of  their 
demands  would  lead  to  bloodshed.  What  the  Estates 
had  in  view  was  the  utter  annihilation  of  the  power 
of  the  princes,  coupled  with  the  full  reduction  of  the 
Catholic  Estates  to  subordinate  rank.1 

'  They  want  to  have  a  republic  and  to  be  free,' 
wrote  Melchior  Klesl,  the  most  influential  councillor  of 
the  Archduke,  on  October  ll.2  Their  '  leader  and 
spokesman,'  '  the  Tribune  of  the  Evangelicals,'  George 
Erasmus,  Freiherr  von  Tschernembl,  a  zealous  Calvinist, 
said  out  frankly  that  '  his  party  had  the  right  to  what- 
ever they  had  the  might  to  seize  ; '  the  supreme  power 
lay  with  the  people  who  '  elected  their  sovereign  and 
had  power  also  to  repudiate  him.'  By  '  the  people  ' 
he  meant  the  majority  of  the  aristocracy.  '  Every- 
thing rests  with  the  nobles,'  he  said  once  in  conversation 
at  the  Senate  house  at  Vienna  ;  '  if  they  are  satisfied, 
the  clergy  and  prelates  have  no  cause  to  make  difficulties. 
The  latter  are  obliged  to  keep  the  right  eye  on  Rome 
and  the  left  on  the  Fatherland.     The  greater  number  of 

1  Stiilz,  p.  175  fE.  ;  see  Stieve,  Wittelsbacher  Briefe  aus  dem  Jahren 
1590  bis  1610,  Bd.  7,  and  the  Abhandl.  der  Hist.  Klasse  der  Miinchener 
Akademie,  20  (Miinchen,  1893),  p.  747. 

2  Hammer,  ii.  ;  Urhinden,  Bd.  139  ;  see  Stieve,  Briefe  und  Akten, 
vi.  550  ff. 


HOPES  OF  THE  FALL  OF  THE  HABSBURG  HOUSE   405 

the  towns  are  on  our  side  ;  and  over  300  of  the  nobles, 
scarcely  eighty  of  whom  are  Catholics.  The  prelates 
being  out  of  consideration,  and  the  towns  with  the 
majority  of  the  nobility  being  Calvinist,  these  latter 
constitute  the  Estates.' * 

The  Protestants  alone  were  to  be  regarded  as  the 
actual  possessors  of  power,  and  as  the  only  friends 
of  the  Fatherland.  Some  of  the  nobles  gave  the 
Archdukes  no  higher  title  than  Counts  of  Habsburg, 
and  boasted  that  they  themselves  were  of  more  ancient 
lineage  ;  others  were  heard  to  say  that  the  country 
could  do  very  well  without  a  prince,  but  a  prince  could 
not  exist  without  a  country.1' 

As  the  Protestant  Estates  of  Lower  Austria  associated 
themselves  with  the  demands  of  the  Upper  Austrians, 
Matthias  went  first  to  Moravia,  and  there  at  the  end  of 
August,  after  according  full  religious  freedom  to  the 
nobles  and  investing  them,  to  the  great  detriment  of 
the  people,  with  unlimited  power,  he  received  homage 
as  King.  Complaints  of  the  peasants  against  tyrant 
nobles  were  henceforth  no  longer  to  be  brought  before 
the  ruling  prince  ;  the  towns  were  reduced  to  impotence 
by  the  utter  powerlessness  into  which  their  kingly  pro- 
tector had  sunk.3 

On  the  ground  of  the  '  Concession  '  of  Maximilian  II., 
Matthias  wanted  also  to  grant  the  nobles  of  Upper  and 
Lower  Austria  free  exercise  of  their  religion.  The 
Estates,  he    said  at  a  provincial   diet   at   Vienna,  had 

1  Stiilz,  p.  174.  '  An  adherent  of  the  reformed  religion,  Tschernembl 
had  fed  on  the  most  extreme  doctrines  of  Calvinistic  state  policy,  and  he 
combined  with  a  cold  and  gloomy  fanaticism  the  stubbornness  by  which 
his  fellow-religionists  were  characterised.  He  went  headlong  forward  at 
his  object '  (Chlumecky,  i.  541). 

2  Hurter,  vi.  194.  "  3  Chlumecky,  i.  514-517,  524. 


406  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

not  the  right  to  refuse  him  homage,  when  he  had  con- 
firmed '  existing  rights  and  privileges.'  The  Estates, 
however,  stood  out  for  added  privileges  :  the  whole 
nation  was  to  be  made  participators  in  '  the  true  Evan- 
gel.' '  How  could  we  have  entered  into  alliance  against 
the  former  hereditary  lords,  and  made  light  of  our 
former  oath  of  allegiance,'  they  said,  '  if  we  had  not  been 
encouraged  to  hope  for  redress  of  our  grievances  ? ' 
'  There  is  no  doubt  whatever,'  wrote  a  Lutheran  from 
Vienna  on  September  19,  '  that  the  leaders  among  the 
nobles  '  are  bent  on  introducing  that  accursed  Calvin- 
ism, which  is  a  far  worse  devil  than  the  popish  Satan.' 
The  Protestant  nobles,  indignant  that  Matthias  would 
not  fall  in  with  their  opinions,  suddenly  left  the  Diet 
and  betook  themselves  to  Horn.  The  Catholic  Estates 
did  homage  to  the  new  King  on  October  8.  Their 
example  was  followed  by  two  non-Catholic  lords  and 
by  all  the  towns  of  Lower  Austria.1 

The  men  of  Horn,  strengthened  by  the  accession 
of  their  co-religionists  of  Upper  Austria,  asked  the 
Hungarians  for  armed  support,  and  appealed  also  for 
help  to  the  Protestant  Union.  In  Hungary,  how- 
ever, Matthias  gained  over  the  leader  of  the  Cal- 
vinists,  Illeshazy,  by  appointing  him  Palatine  and 
endowing  him  richly  with  the  goods  of  the  church  of 
Grau.  The  nobles,  as  in  Moravia,  were  invested  with 
unlimited  dominion  ;  the  Archduke  was  solemnly 
crowned  on  November  19,  but  was  King  only  in  title.2 

Meanwhile  Tschernembl,  in  the  name  of  his  party, 
had  offered  alliance  to  Prince  Christian  of  Anhalt,  the 

1  Gindely,  Rudolf,  i.  268  ;  Klapp,  i.  59. 

2  Gindely,  Rudolf,  i.  262-269  ;  Hammer,  ii.  100  ff.  ;  Hurter,  vi.  87  ff.  ; 
Chlumecky,  pp.  548-549  ;  Theol.  Miscellen.,  Heft  1  (einziges  Heft),  pp. 
29-30  ;  Huber,  iv.  529  ff. 


HOPES  OF  THE  FALL  OF  THE  HABSBUBG  HOUSE   407 

actual  founder  of  the  exclusive  Protestant  League,  in 
case  the  princes  of  the  Union  should  espouse  the  cause 
of  the  latter  against  Matthias  ;  Richard  of  Starhemberg 
went  to  Germany  to  carry  out  more  detailed  transac- 
tions.1 

Christian,  who  at  a  meeting  of  the  Union  at  Rothen- 
burg  in  the  month  of  August  was  appointed  Lieutenant- 
General  in  chief  and  Field-Marshal  to  the  Union,2 
indulged  in  the  highest  expectations  :  '  God  at  this 
time,'  he  wrote  on  September  3,  '  was  affording  the 
evangelicals  a  wonderful  opportunity  for  withstanding 
the  Roman  chair ;  a  general  Protestant  League  would 
give  the  death-blow  to  the  House  of  Habsburg  and 
the  Catholic  cause.'  On  September  24  he  sent  the 
following  communication  to  the  Duke  of  Bouillon : 
'  If  we  have  Hungary,  Moravia,  Austria,  and  Silesia 
on  our  side,  there  will  only  remain  to  the  House  of 
Habsburg  Bohemia,  Bavaria,  and  a  few  bishops,  and 
we  are,  humanly  speaking,  strong  enough  not  only  to 
withstand  the  opponents,  but  also  to  subjugate  every- 
thing to  our  religion  and  to  reform  the  whole  of  the 
clergy.  Should  Bavaria  by  chance  take  up  arms  against 
Austria,  on  account  of  this  country  joining  the  Union, 
we  must  then  make  a  raid  on  Bavaria,  snatch  Donau- 
worth  from  her  clutches,  and  seize  two  or  three  bishop- 
rics to  defray  the  war-costs.'  Italy  was  the  only  power 
they  had  cause  to  fear,  and  the  question  turned  entirely 
on  whether  France  would  guarantee  the  allies  security 
against  Italy.  '  If  only  we  act  skilfully  we  shall  be 
able  to  dictate  our  own  laws  to  all,  and  appoint  rulers 
of  our  own  choice.'  3 

1  Bitter,  Brief e  und  Akten,  ii.  90,  No.  38,  note  1  ;  Gindely,  i.  271-272. 

2  Ritter,  ii.  61. 

:;  '  Quand  nous  aurions  la  Hongrie,  Moravie,  Autriche  et  Silesie  pour 


408  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Christian's  object  was  to  show  what  it  would  be 
possible  to  accomplish  if  the  Union  attacked  the  Austrian 
Habsburgers  conjointly  with  France ;  he  did  not, 
however,  succeed  in  winning  over  the  confederates  to 
such  a  policy.1  Dissatisfied  with  the  hesitating  attitude 
of  his  friends,  he  betook  himself  in  the  middle  of  Novem- 
ber to  Wittengau,  a  castle  belonging  to  Peter  Wock  of 
Rosenberg ; 2  here  he  fell  in  with  Tschernembl,  the 
delegate  of  the  Horn  conspirators.  They  discussed 
the  plan  of  taking  possession  of  the  town  of  Vienna  : 
'  the  Turks  had  offered  their  help  ;  with  10,000  men 
the  town  could  be  captured  ;  if  it  were  besieged,  famine 
would  reduce  it  in  ten  days.'  By  the  seizure  of  Vienna 
the  papacy  would  be  strongly  upheaved,  and  the  Union 
would  be  reinforced  in  means  and  in  dignity.3  '  We 
try,'  said  Tschernembl  to  the  delegates  from  Moravia, 

nous,  il  n'y  auroit  autres  forces  dont  ladite  maison  [Habsburg]  se  peust 
servir  contre  nous  que  Boeme  et  Baviere  et  quelque  peu  d'evesques, 
contre  lesquels,  parlant  humainement,  nous  serions  assez  forts  non  seule- 
ment  pour  les  soutenir,  mais  pour  reformer  tout  le  clerge  et  soumettre  tout  a 
la  religion,  et  n'y  auroit  rien  a  craindre  sinon  Vltalie.  Car  en  Pals-bas, 
quelque  pied  que  les  affaires  y  prennent,  les  troubles  y  recornmenceront,  et 
rien  ne  nous  empescheroit.  Selon  l'advis  de  monseigneur  [AnhaltJ  le  jeu 
se  commenceroit  en  cette  facon :  aussitost  que  Baviere  armeroit  pour 
forcer  l'Autriche  (presuppose  membre  de  l'union),  nous  arrnerions  pour 
courir  sus  a  Baviere  et  reprendre  Donavert,  par  mesme  moyen  attirer 
2  ou  3  evesques  per  aiuto  di  costa.  Or  il  faudrait  en  tel  cas  estre  assure 
d'ltalie,  et  monseigneur  prie  led.  sieur  de  Bouillon  de  lui  dire  ce  qu'en  ce 
cas  on  se  pourroit  promettre  de  la  France  pour  divertir  l'ltalie,  et  en 
somme  ce  que  la  France  feroit  en  ce  remuement.  Certes,  il  semble  que 
procedant  dextrement,  moyennant  la  grace  de  Dieu,  nous  pourrions  par 
ce  moyen  donner  la  loy  a  tons  et  installer  des  chefs  tels  que  nous  voudrions  ' 
(Anhalt's  instructions  for  Christopher  of  Dohna,  September  24,  1608,  in 
Ritter,  Brief e  und  Akten,  ii.  104).  For  criticism  of  this  document  and  of 
Anhalt's  influence  generally,  see  Huber,  iv.  525  ff.  and  Bernd,  p.  24,  note  2. 

1  Bernd,  Gesch.  der  osterreichischen  Unruhen,  p.  25. 

2  See  above,  p.  327. 

3  Christian's  '  Aufzeighnungen,'  in  Ritter,  Briefe  und  Akten,  ii.  138- 
141  ;  see  Bernd,  p.  28. 


HOPES  OF  THE  FALL  OF  THE  HABSBURG  HOUSE   409 

'  to  arrange  unions  and  correspondence  with  the  whole 
world,  we  have  delegates  everywhere.  If  it  comes  to 
war,  prelates  and  priests  will  be  our  first  booty  :  the 
climax  will  be  the  extermination  of  the  whole  clerical 
order.'  l  Christian  called  on  the  Horn  conspirators 
to  incite  the  generals  of  King  Matthias  to  breach  of 
faith  and  to  desertion  ;  in  imagination  he  saw  himself 
already  commander-in-chief  of  the  Austrian  troops.2 
Tschernembl  informed  him  at  the  beginning  of  February 
1609  that  it  was  his  intention  to  ask  the  allied  princes 
for  a  governor  belonging  to  the  reformed  Confession 
to  help  them.3  '  Unless  they  had  a  leader  taken  out 
of  the  Empire,'  the  Austrian  Estates  '  would  accomplish 
little  and  would  not  remain  united  in  the  confederacy,' 
for  '  none  would  respect  the  other,  each  would  be  as 
good  as  the  other  ;  '  God  would  send  a  special  punish- 
ment not  only  on  the  hereditary  lord,  but  also  on  the 
lands,  and  '  the  lands  of  the  stem  and  House  of  Austria 
would  have  to  be  cut  off  and  would  pass  into  the  hands 
of  foreign  potentates.' 4 

'  Helpless  and  feckless,'  Matthias  did  not  know 
where  to  turn.  In  order  to  save  his  throne  he  concluded 
on  March  19  a  compact  with  the  Estates,  the  so-called 
'  Kcvpitulations-Resolution,'1  in  which  he  substantially 
consented  to  all  the  stipulations  of  the  people  of  Horn.5 
'  Oh,  Matthias,  Matthias  !  '  wrote  the  Archduke  Leopold, 
'  you  are  the  cause  of  your  own  and  of  our  House's 
ruin.'  6  The  Viennese  Bishop,  Melchior  Klesl,  who, 
in  conjunction  with  the  Bishop  of  Passau  and  the 
Catholic  Estates,  had  entered  a  solemn  protest  against 

1  Stiilz,  pp.  189-190.  "  Chlumecky,  i.  555  ff. 

3  Chlumecky,  i.  555-558.  *  Ritter,  Briefe  und  Alcten,  ii.  186-188. 

5  Stulz,  p.  190  ff.  ;  Huber,  iv.  541  ff.  3  Chlumecky,  i.  560. 


410  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  concessions  that  had  been  made  without  their 
consent,  said,  '  The  King  has  signed  away  a  large  part  of 
our  religion,  for  which  action  he  cannot  be  exculpated  ; 
he  had  become  despondent  and  hopeless  because  Mo- 
ravia, Hungary,  and  Austria  had  united  against  him, 
and  had  all  the  sectaries  on  their  side ;  Bohemia  also 
had  begun  to  rebel,  and  .the  Emperor  too  was  opposed 
to  him.  He  confided  to  me  that  he  did  not  know  him- 
self how  it  had  come  about  that  he  had  subscribed  to 
this  agreement.'  l 

Tschernembl  set  himself  up  as  a  Dictator.  In  the 
name  of  the  Protestant  Estates  he  insisted  that  Matthias 
should  forthwith  rid  the  land  of  the  obnoxious  Klesl, 
who  was  endangering  all  peace  and  security  by  his 
machinations.  The  general  of  the  army  of  the  Estates 
made  a  devastating  inroad  on  the  Bishop's  possessions. 
'  The  Estates,'  Tschernembl  said  unreservedly  to  the 
King  after  the  conclusion  of  the  '  Kapitulation,''  '  are 
in  correspondence  with  the  allied  electors  and  princes, 
and  will  continue  so  to  be  ;  if  in  the  future  anything 
disastrous  should  occur,  let  no  one  accuse  us  of  having 
kept  back  anything  from  your  Majesty.'  2 

'  I  have  received  letters  from  Heidelberg,'  wrote 
the  Calvinist  agitator  Duplessis-Mornay  in  April  1609, 
'  saying  that  the  Austrians  have  obtained  a  general 
guarantee  of  religious  liberty,  and  that  the  Bohemians 
are  standing  out  pertinaciously  for  the  same  object, 
and  have  leagued  themselves  together  to  attain  their 
end.'  '  The  King  of  England  has  written  a  book  against 
the  Pope,  and  in  the  preface  he  exhorts  all  Christians 
to  throw  off  the  papal  yoke  by  force.'     '  The   Arch- 

1  Hammer,  ii.  ;  Urkundensammlung,  No.  256,  pp.  267-268. 

2  Hammer,  ii.  139-140  ;  Stiilz,  p.  190  ;  Huber,  iv.  544. 


HOPES   OF   THE   DOWNFALL   OF   THE   PAPACY,    1609      411 

duke  Ferdinand  of  Styria,'  wrote  Duplessis  in  July  to 
the  English  ambassador  at  Venice,  '  is  the  only  prince 
who  still  refuses  to  grant  religious  liberty,  but  he  must 
be  brought  round  by  force  :  the  League  of  the  Princes 
grows  stronger  from  day  to  day.' *  In  six  years'  time 
at  the  outside  '  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Antichrist 
must  inevitably  happen.'  2 

On  March  21,  1609,  Count  Ambrosius  of  Thurn,  in 
a  despatch  to  Archduke  Ferdinand,  described  the 
position  of  things  which  had  been  brought  about  by 
Matthias.  '  From  the  Catholics  he  has  not  merited 
any  thanks  ;  with  the  Emperor  he  is  not  reconciled  ; 
in  the  Empire  he  is  detested  ;  he  has  forfeited  much 
of  the  esteem  he  possessed  ;  he  has  put  weapons  into 
the  hands  of  the  provinces  against  himself,  and  he  has 
brought  things  to  such  a  pass  that  Austria,  Hungary, 
Bohemia,  Moravia,  and  Silesia  are  allying  themselves 
with  the  Empire,  with  England,  with  Denmark  and 
with  Holland.  From  the  Hungarians  there  is  nothing- 
else  to  expect  than  loss  of  the  frontiers  and  the  devasta- 
tion of  Austria  :  already  they  threaten  invasion.  All 
the  fortresses  are  in  their  power  ;  they  are  keeping  the 
Germans  out  and  showing  pretty  clearly  what  they 
intend  to  do  so  soon  as  they  are  in  possession  of  the 
borderlands.  The  Emperor,  indeed,  still  holds  firmly 
to  his  religion,  but  he  is  in  danger  whichever  course 
he  takes.  If  he  makes  no  concessions  and  the  Bohemians 
and  Silesians  effect  an  alliance,  they  will  then  proceed 
in  the  same  manner  as  the  Austrians.  There  is  no  lack, 
moreover,  of  parties  and  factions  in  Bohemia.  In  the 
end  also  the  common  people  may  very  likely  interpose 
and   massacre  the  lords  who  foment  such  disturbance 

1  Duplessis-Mornay,  x.  322,  323,  356.  -  Id.  x.  249  j  see  p.  326. 


412  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  quarrelling  in  the  land.  These  nobles  battle  too 
much  among  themselves  for  his  Majesty's  sceptre ; 
they  want  to  manage  everything  and  everybody  accord- 
ing to  their  own  ideas ;  they  depose  the  high  officials, 
instal  soldiers  in  the  towns,  burden  the  whole  land 
with  taxes.  Before  six  months  have  passed,  many 
startling  and  strange  intrigues  may  possibly  come  to 
light  in  the  Empire  and  in  other  places.  God  only 
grant  that  a  truly  fraternal  reconciliation  may  take 
place  between  the  Emperor  and  King  Matthias.'  T 

But,  far  from  there  being  any  approach  to  such  a 
reconciliation,  the  brothers  continued  unintermittently 
to  '  work  antagonistically  towards  each  other,'  and  on 
the  side  of  the  opponents  of  the  House  of  Habsburg 
everything  was  done  to  strengthen  their  hostility  and 
hatred.  Christian  of  Anhalt  was  especially  active  in 
this  direction.  The  Margrave  Joachim  Ernest  of  Ans- 
bach  also  considered  it  '  of  the  highest  importance  ' 
that  the  disagreement  between  the  brothers  should  be 
kept  up  :  to  this  end,  he  said,  they  must  '  labour  every- 
where.' 2 

The  results  of  all  these  efforts  became  as  palpable 
in  Bohemia  as  in  Austria. 

The  Emperor  had  given  leave  to  the  Protestant 
Estates  of  Bohemia  to  summon  a  provincial  diet,  at 
which  religious  affairs  should  be  settled.3  When  this 
meeting  took  place,  at  the  end  of  January  1609,  the 
Estates,  under  the  influence  of  the  spiritual  head  of 
the  '  Fraternal  Union,'  Wenzel  Budowec  von  Budowa, 


1  Hurter,  vi.  132-134. 

2  A  letter  of  January  9,  1609,  to  Christian  of  Anhalt.     Ritter,  Brief 'e 
und  Akten,  ii.  174-175. 

3  See  vol.  ix.  pp.  509,  510. 


DEMANDS   OF   THE   PROTESTANTS   IN   BOHEMIA,  1609     41-'> 

demanded  not  only  religious  liberty,  but  also  the  manage- 
ment of  all  matters  connected  with  divine  worship,  and 
the  control  of  education.  The  Prague  University,  with 
which  the  rest  of  the  schools  were  in  close  connection, 
was  to  be  given  over  to  their  direction.  Their  aim 
was,  not  to  establish  religious  equality  between  the 
Catholics  and  the  Protestants,  but  to  bring  about  the 
complete  suppression  of  the  former  ;  and  to  this  end 
Budowec  laboured  with  all  the  weapons  of  force,  ambi- 
tious to  establish  on  the  ruins  of  the  old  Church  and 
of  the  royal  throne  an  unlimited  Czechish-Protestant 
sovereignty  of  the  nobles.  The  chiefs  of  the  Lutherans, 
Count  Andreas  von  Schlick  and  Count  Stephen  of 
Sternberg  and  '  other  moderates  among  the  Augsburg 
Confessionists  '  were  forced  by  Budowec  into  the  back- 
ground. 

Among  the  members  of  the  Emperor's  Council 
Popel  von  Lobkowitz,  Wilhelm  von  Slawata,  and  Jaros- 
law  von  Martinitz  resolutely  opposed  the  demands 
brought  forward,  and  thus  called  forth  once  more  the 
threat  of  the  members  of  the  assembly  :  '  Those  fellows 
must  be  thrown  out  of  the  window.'  The  Emperor, 
filled  only  with  thoughts  of  vengeance  against  Matthias, 
wavered  this  way  and  that  in  his  decisions.  A  delegate 
of  Archduke  Albert  found  him  more  inclined  to  the 
Protestants  than  the  Catholics  ;  he  had  been  heard  to 
say  that  by  giving  in  to  the  Protestants  he  could  do  the 
greatest  injury  to  his  brother.  Finally,  however,  he 
rejected  the  demands,  and  on  April  1  the  provincial 
Diet  was  dissolved.  Then  the  Estates,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  Budowec,  who  was  in  close  relations  with  an 
agent  of  the  Palatine  Elector,  sought  the  help  of  foreign 
princes,  and  at  the  end  of  April  they  assembled  again 


414  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

• 

at  Prague  in  large  numbers  and  with  an  armed  escort. 
In  opposition  to  the  will  of  Rudolf  they  inaugurated 
a  secessionist  Diet  in  the  council-house  at  Neustadt, 
and  threatened  to  assert  their  claims  with  armed  force. 
Their  soldiers  filled  the  streets  and  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  town,  and  watched  for  the  signal  of  their  lords  to 
fall  on  the  Catholics  and  on  the  Emperor.  Destitute 
for  the  moment  of  all  help,  Rudolf  relapsed  into 
his  old  distemper  and  sought  to  drown  his  sufferings 
in  strong  drink  and  other  excesses.  Although  he  had 
at  first  condemned  the  independent  conclave  of  the 
towns  as  an  act  of  rebellion,  he  described  it  a  few  weeks 
later  as  a  '  loyal  and  honourable  '  proceeding,  and  on 
May  25  he  summoned  another  provincial  Diet.  Arch- 
duke Leopold,  who  had  come  to  Prague  at  the  end  of 
May,  found  everything  in  the  greatest  confusion.  '  The 
selfsame  devil,'  he  wrote  to  Archduke  Ferdinand,  '  that 
is  let  loose  in  Austria  is  also  carrying  on  his  work  here 
in  person  :  '  '  the  Bohemians  are  pressing  the  Emperor 
hard  with  their  threats  and  in  other  unbecoming  ways  ;  ' 
'  open  and  secret  enemies  are  active.' 

It  was  thanks  to  the  influence  of  Leopold  and  of 
the  papal  nuncio  that  at  the  second  provincial  Diet 
also  Rudolf  did  not  yield  at  once  :  he  would  grant  no 
more  than  a  de  facto  religious  liberty,  general  tolera- 
tion, such  as  had  existed  under  Maximilian  II.  ;  the 
consistory  and  the  University  were  to  remain  under 
the  control  of  the  territorial  lord.  If  the  Estates 
were  not  satisfied  with  this,  the  Emperor  said,  the 
whole  dispute  must  be  referred  to  the  decision  of  the 
entire  body  of  electors. 

The  Estates,  however,  insisted  that  their  demands 
should   be   granted   forthwith   with   seal   and   charter, 


DEMANDS   OF   THE   PROTESTANTS   IN   BOHEMIA,  1609     415 

and  they  began  to  consider  the  plan  of  open  rebellion. 
At  the  suggestion  of  Count  Heinrich  Matthias  of  Thurn 
they  resolved  (June  24)   on  a  general  arming  of  the 
people  ;  throughout  Bohemia  every  fifth  man  was  to  be 
enlisted,  and  within  six  weeks  a  military  tax  was  to  be 
levied   on   all  immovable  possessions,   and   all   money 
property.     Three  generals  were  appointed  to  manage 
the   business    of   recruiting,    thirty   directors   installed 
as  a  provisional  government,  and  alliances  concluded 
with  the  Protestants  of  Silesia  for  mutual  armed  assis- 
tance.    Rudolf,  paralysed  with  fear,  made  fresh  con- 
cessions.    He  granted  the  Protestants  freedom  of  con- 
fession and  a  consistorium  of  their  own  which  should 
be  solely  dependent  on  them  ;  as  regards  the  control  of 
the  University  he  merely  claimed  for  himself  the  right 
to  appoint  at  his  own  discretion  six  out  of  the  twelve 
directors   whom  the   Estates   should   propose   to   him. 
But  not  even  this  much  would  they  concede  to  the 
Emperor. 

'  Rudolf's  terms,'  wrote  the  Saxon  ambassador  Ger- 
stenberger,  who  had  been  commissioned  by  the  Elector 
Christian  to  undertake  the  role  of  mediator  at  Prague, 
•  are  perfectly  satisfying  ;  the  demands  of  the  Protestants 
exceed  all  bounds.' 

On  June  26  the  Estates  had  declared  the  meeting 
dissolved  and  had  left  the  castle  amid  tumult  and  uproar. 
'  It  sounded  exactly,'  says  a  report  of  June  27  to  the 
Palatine  Elector,  '  as  if  they  were  a  pack  of  wolves, 
hounds,  and  cats.'  Several  of  the  delegates  actually 
rushed  into  the  Emperor's  antechamber,  while  he  was 
at  his   evening   meal,   and  insisted   on   an   immediate 


answer.1 


See  Stieve,  Briefe  und  Akten,  vi.  716. 


416  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   TEOPLE 

Wock  von  Rosenberg,  who  through  the  medium 
of  a  commanding  officer  encouraged  the  insurgents 
in  their  stubbornness,  wrote  to  Christian  of  Anhalt 
on  July  3  :  '  If  the  Emperor  does  not  give  in  we  may 
expect  events  of  great  importance.'  The  matter  at 
stake  was  no  less  a  one  than  wresting  the  government 
of  Bohemia  from  the  Emperor,  concluding  an  alliance 
with  neighbouring  princes  and  countries,  and  above  all 
with  the  German  Union,  and  occupying  the  passes. 
Prince  Christian  was  chosen  as  Commander-in-chief ; 
Rudolf's  incapacity  for  government  was  to  be  declared 
officially,  and  the  Elector  Palatine  was  then  to  be 
installed  as  Administrator  of  the  Empire.1 

While  the  conflict  between  Rudolf  and  the  Bohemian 
Estates  was  threatening  to  end  in  open  war,  a  diet  of 
the  Union  was  held  at  Schwabisch-Hall  on  the  19th  to 
the  20th  of  May,  and  the  Union  was  strengthened 
by  the  accession  of  the  towns  of  Strasburg,  Ulm,  and 
Nuremberg.  At  Nuremberg,  however,  there  had  been 
grave  misgivings  among  the  members  of  the  council 
as  to  the  advisability  of  joining  the  separatist  League  : 
the  alliance  of  the  towns  with  the  princes  was,  they 
said,  dangerous  for  the  former ;  the  Emperor  might 
easily  set  down  the  League  as  rebellion,  and  this  would 
afford  the  papists  ground  for  contemplating  a  counter- 
league  ;  '  a  general  rupture  and  disturbance  of  the 
peace  was  to  be  apprehended  in  Germany,  and  it  was 
quite  certain  that  the  papists  would  blame  the  evan- 
gelicals as  the  source  and  cause  of  all  the  disorder, 
mischief,  and  disaster  arising  therefrom.'  On  the  other 
hand  it  was  insisted  that  by  refusing  to  join  they  would 
offend  the  allied  princes  ;  the  evangelical  Estates  were 

1  Chluinecky.  i.  596-597. 


DIET   OF   THE   UNION    AT   SCHWAB ISH-HALL,    1609      417 

threatened  with  great  danger  because  the  papists  were 
determined  to  massacre  them  all  wholesale  !  By  these 
arguments  the  town  had  been  prevailed  on  to  enter  the 
Union.1 

Frankfort-on-the-Main,  refusing  to  join  the  Union, 
was  accused  at  the  Towns'  Diet  at  Spires  in  October 
1608,  of  '  godless  indifference  to  the  evangel  and  penal 
treachery  to  the  common  liberties.'  2 

At  the  assembly  of  the  Union  at  Schwabisch-Hall 
it  was  decided  that  a  closer  alliance  with  France  and 
England  '  was  not  advisable  at  present,'  but  the  Elector 
Palatine  and  Wiirtemberg  were  to  keep  up  '  the  good 
relations  '  entered  on  with  these  powers.  At  present 
also  there  was  to  be  no  recourse  to  force  on  account 
of  the  town  of  Donauworth  ;  both  in  respect  of  this 
town — so  ran  the  resolution — and  also  of  the  other  Pro- 
testant grievances,  amicable  measures  must  first  be 
tried,  and  to  this  end  an  embassy  headed  by  Christian 
of  Anhalt  must  be  sent  to  the  Emperor.  Christian 
must  in  such  wise  '  commend '  the  Union  to  the  Em- 
peror as  to  cause  him  '  to  look  on  it  with  a  favourable 
eye  and  to  place  reliance  on  it.'  But,  at  the  same  time, 
he  must  also  cultivate  friendly  relations  with  the  Pro- 
testant Estates  of  Hungary,  Bohemia,  Silesia,  and 
Bavaria,  in  order  to  learn  what  their  intentions  were. 
The  formation  of  a  general  league  of  all  these  coun- 
tries was  the  aim  of  the  confederates.  An  agent  was 
also  to  be  sent  to  Venice  '  to  sound  matters  and  deter- 
mine how  best  to  bring  odium  on  the  papacy  in  that 
quarter.'  3 

1  From  the  Niimberger  Unionsakten  II.,  contributed  by  v.  Hofler. 

2  Kirchner,  ii.  344. 

3  '  Protokolle  und  Abschiede  des  Tages,'  in  Ritter,  Briefe  und  Akten, 
ii.  246-272.     See  Chlumecky,  i.  599. 

VOL.    X.  E  E 


418  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Christian  hoped  to  be  able  to  play  a  decisive  part 
at  Prague,  and  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the  pro- 
visional government ;  he  even  for  a  time  entertained 
the  idea  of  becoming  King  of  Bohemia.1  But  when  he 
reached  Prague  on  July  14,  the  decision  had  already 
been  made. 

On  July  9  the  Emperor,  in  the  so-called  '  Majestuts- 
brief,''  had  given  his  consent  to  the  demands  of  the 
Protestants.  '  Summa  Summarum,'  wrote  Archduke 
Leopold  to  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  '  the  Emperor 
has  not  only  been  compelled  to  grant  all  the  demands, 
but  he  has  forsooth  been  obliged  to  back  up  his  con- 
cessions with  a  Privilegium,  the  thought  of  which 
goes  nigh  to  making  my  heart  burst  in  my  body.' 
The  Lutherans  reproached  the  Calvinists  with  having 
muggled  in  the  '  Majestiitsbrief  in  order  to  be  able 
to  fill  the  Bohemian  sheepfold  with  mangy  sheep.'  2 

On  this  same  9th  of  July  there  had  also  been  con- 
cluded, with  the  assent  of  Rudolf,  an  '  agreement 
between  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  Estates,'  which 
went  beyond  the  '  MajesUitsbrief '  in  an  exceedingly  im- 
portant point.  The  so-called  '  Bohemian  Confession,' 
a  mixture  of  Hussite,  Lutheran,  and  Calvinistic  doctrines, 
was  made  free,  in  both  documents,  to  all  the  inhabitants 
of  Bohemia  without  distinction  of  class.  Not  so,  how- 
ever, the  right  of  building  churches.  In  the  '  MajesUits- 
brief '  this  right  was  only  granted  to  the  three  higher 
Estates  :  that  is,  to  the  lords,  knights,  and  royal  cities  ; 
in  the  '  agreement '  it  was  further  granted  to  the  '  dwel- 
lers in  the  royal  possessions.'  Concerning  the  meaning 
of    this    phrase    bitter    contentions    soon    arose.     The 

1  Gindely,  Rudolf,  pp.  2,  4,  14  ;  Ritter,  ii.  420,  note  2. 

2  Hurter,  vii.  236. 


FURTHER   PROTESTANT    DEMANDS,    1609  419 

Protestants,  for  instance,  understood  by  '  royal  pos- 
sessions '  ecclesiastical  possessions  also,  and  insisted 
that  to  the  inhabitants  of  these  the  right  of  building 
their  own  churches,  without  the  consent  of  their  eccle- 
siastical chiefs,  should  be  accorded,  for  the  ecclesiastical 
Estate  was  not  the  possessor  but  only  the  usufructuary 
of  the  Church  property ;  the  real  right  of  ownership 
belonged  to  the  King  alone  ;  the  latter  could  mortgage, 
give  away,  or  sell  the  property  at  pleasure — and  kings, 
moreover,  had  repeatedly  exercised  this  right.  The 
Catholics,  on  the  other  hand,  held  firmly  to  the  position 
that  the  King  was  only  the  chief  protector,  not  the 
supreme  owner  of  the  Church  property.  With  regard 
also  to  all  the  Church  goods  which  the  kings  had  con- 
fiscated, the  ecclesiastical  incumbents,  so  long  as 
they  had  held  them,  had  enjoyed  the  same  right  and 
authority  as  every  landed  proprietor  had  over  his 
property.  Spiritual  lords  had  always  received  homage 
and  submission  from  their  subjects  just  as  much  as 
secular  lords.  If,  therefore,  an  ecclesiastical  '  possessor  ' 
had  hitherto  enjoyed  and  exercised  all  the  same  rights 
as  secular  proprietors,  one  of  these  privileges  could 
not  now  be  snatched  from  them  arbitrarily ;  and  if  no 
subject  was  entitled  to  build  a  church  on  the  property 
of  a  layman  without  that  layman's  permission,  the 
same  restriction  must  hold  good  in  the  case  of  the 
subjects  of  an  ecclesiastical  lord.1 

At  Braunau  and  Klostergrab  the  dissensions  which 
soon  arose  on  the  meaning  of  the  '  agreement '  led 
to  a  disastrous  breach  of  the  peace. 

1  See  fuller  details  in  Gindely,  Gesch.  des  biihmischen  Ausstandes,  i.  61- 
70,  and  in  Swoboda.  '  Die  Kirchenschliessung  zu  Klostergrab  und  Brau- 
nau,' in  the  Zeitschr.  fiir  kathol.  Theologie,  Jahrg.  x.  385-417. 

e  e  2 


420  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

The  forcible  measures  by  which  the  '  Majestatsbrief  ' 
had  been  extorted  did  not  meet  with  the  approval  of 
Karl  von  Zierotin,  the  head  of  the  Moravian  Protestants, 
who  feared  that  '  freedom  would  degenerate  into  licence, 
and  produce  discord  and  schism,  and  that  the  drama 
would  end,  as  it  had  begun,  with  violence  and  oppression.' 1 

The  Emperor's  hope  that  the  Protestants,  having 
obtained  all  their  demands,  would  now  forthwith  lay 
down  their  arms,  was  not  realised.  Budowec  and  Thurn, 
knitting  more  closely  their  alliance  with  Christian  of 
Anhalt,  had  recourse  to  further  measures  of  violence. 
They  extorted  from  Rudolf  the  issue  of  a  document 
guaranteeing  the  Estates  exemption  from  punishment 
for  all  their  proceedings  up  to  the  present  date.  When 
the  Emperor  refused  to  ratify  the  alliance  which  the 
Estates  had  concluded  with  the  Silesians,  the  pro- 
vincial Diet  passed  a  resolution  to  the  effect  that  this 
alliance  was  valid  and  legitimate  without  the  imperial 
sanction.  The  provincial  Diet,  said  Budowec,  possessed 
unlimited  authority  ;  it  was  the  fountain  of  all  law  and 
justice  in  Bohemia.  Rudolf  was  bound  to  grant  to  the 
'  Defensors '  appointed  by  the  Estates  authority  to 
summon  the  representatives  of  all  the  Bohemian  circles 
to  Prague  to  consult  about  Protestant  affairs. 

From  henceforth  the  Protestant  Estates  formed  as  it 
were  a  state  within  a  state. - 

As  in  Moravia  and  Hungary,  so  too  now  in  Bohemia, 
the  nobles  '  were  freed  from  all  subjection  to  their 
King  and  their  territorial  prince,'  and  they  could 
oppress  the  common  people  without  let  or  hindrance. 
'  Do  you  not  think,'  asks  someone  in  a  satirical  dialogue, 

1  Chlumecky,  i.  631. 

2  Fuller  details  in  Ginclely,  Rudolf,  ii.  8-27.     See  also  Huber,  iv.  555. 


CHRISTIAN   OF  ANHALT   AND   THE   EMPEROR      421 

6  that  as  regards  the  poor  people  the  last  state  of  things 
is  worse  than  the  first  ? '  '  You  know  under  what  terrible 
bondage  the  land-owners  have  for  some  time  past 
kept  the  poorer  classes,  so  much  so  that  if  these  land- 
owners had  not  stood  in  fear  of  their  King,  they  would 
not  have  scrupled  to  tear  their  subjects'  skins  off  their 
bodies.  This  fear  has  now  been  abolished,  and  the 
poor  have  no  refuge  in  this  extremity.  Can  this  be 
called  a  good  use  of  heaven-born  liberty  ?  The  devil 
may  believe  it,  but  I  do  not.'  ] 

The  Protestant  Estates  of  Silesia  also  obtained 
a  '  Majestiitsbrief '  from  the  Emperor.  The  merit 
of  this  achievement  lay  especially  with  the  Landgrave 
of  Leuchtenberg,  an  influential  member  of  the  Imperial 
Privy  Council :  his  reward  was  a  heavy  chest  of  silver.2 

To  Prince  Christian  of  Anhalt  the  condition  of  affairs 
offered  a  '  splendid  opportunity  '  for  making  the  union 
acceptable  to  the  sick  Emperor,  '  robbed  almost  of 
all  authority,'  and  of  filling  him  with  fears  of  popish 
conspiracies.  At  the  end  of  July  Christian  with  his 
suite,  which  included  the  Palatine  Elector's  councillor 
Camerarius,  obtained  audience  of  Rudolf.  Camerarius 
made  a  verbal  statement  of  the  claims  of  the  allied 
princes ;  the  town  of  Donauworth  must  be  restored 
to  its  ancient  position  ;  the  judicial  proceedings  must  be 
stopped,  the  '  evil-minded  persons  '  must  be  removed 
from  the  imperial  council-board.  A  written  document 
was  handed  to  the  Emperor,  in  which  all  these  points 

1  Chmel,  Handschriften,  i.  267. 

2  '  Paupertas  meretrix,'  wrote  the  Bavarian  agent  Boden  with  regard 
to  this  present  to  the  needy  Landgrave  ;  '  would  to  God,'  he  added,  '  that 
this  style  of  things  were  at  an  end  '  (Chlumecky,  i.  603).  Concerning  the 
'  Majestiitsbrief '  for  the  Silesians,  see  Griinhagen,  Gesch.  Schlesiens,  ii. 
140  ff. 


422  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

were  treated  in  full :  at  Donauworth  it  was  said  the 
abbot  of  the  Holy  Cross  was  to  blame  for  all  the  un- 
pleasantness that  had  occurred ;  that  the  imperial  work 
of  justice  was  a  lawful  institution  could  not  be  proved  ; 
the  Emperor  was  surrounded  with  traitors.  The  coun- 
cillors— so  the  document  stated  among  other  things — 
give  their  sanction  and  approval  to  highly  mischievous 
books  which  teach  that  the  Eeligious  Peace  never 
possessed  any  legal  validity,  or  at  any  rate  that  it  was 
annulled  by  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  that  the  evan- 
gelical professors  of  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  both 
of  high  and  low  degree,  should  be  exterminated  with 
sword,  fire,  war,  poison,  and  in  every  other  imaginable 
way  persecuted,  killed,  destroyed,  and  rooted  out. 
Not  content  with  having  already  deprived  the  Emperor 
of  some  of  his  hereditary  lands,  his  councillors  are  bent 
also  on  wresting  the  German  and  Bohemian  crowns 
from  off  his  head,  and  on  plunging  these  two  empires 
into  a  frightful  deluge  of  blood  and  ruin.  They  are 
taking  bribes  right  and  left,  and  intend,  by  means  of 
trenchant  proceedings  against  the  Protestants,  to  grow 
rich  in  a  very  short  time.  If  the  demands  of  the  allied 
princes  are  not  reciprocated,  great  complications  and 
disasters  will  probably  ensue  in  the  Empire.1 

On  August  5  the  Emperor  sent  the  Prince  of  Anhalt 
three  casks  of  wine,  two  cartloads  of  oats,  a  stag  and  a 
pig,  and  on  August  14  he  granted  Christian  a  private 
audience,  in  the  course  of  which  he  learnt  startling 
things  from  his  lips.  The  allied  Estates,  the  Prince 
told  him,  had  leagued  themselves  together  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  maintaining  and  strengthening  the  Emperor 

1  The  document  is  in  Londorp,  Acta  publ.  i.  53-57  ;  see  Wolf,  Maxi- 
milian, ii.  355-371. 


CHRISTIAN    OF   ANHALT   AND   THE   EMPEROR      423 

in  his  dignity  and  authority.  If  Rudolf  fell  in  with 
their  wishes  the  Estates  would  as  it  were  '  carry  him 
in  their  arms ; '  the  Emperor  was  the  sun  of  the  Em- 
pire ;  '  if  this  sun  did  not  let  its  beams  shine  forth, 
the  Empire  must  of  necessity  be  in  darkness.'  The 
Union  had  been  organised  for  the  protection  of  Rudolf 
and  as  a  counterfoil  to  the  confederacy  which  the 
archdukes  had  formed  in  1606  for  despoiling  him ; 
this  confederacy,  however,  had  not  been  ratified  and 
signed  at  Vienna  or  at  Graz,  but  at  Madrid  and  Rome 
by  the  Pope  and  the  Spanish  King ;  so  little,  he  said, 
could  the  Emperor  trust  these  sovereigns.  France 
and  England  had  already  begun  to  pay  court  to  the 
Union ;  the  Estates,  however,  had  not  yet  decided 
about  coming  to  terms  with  them.  The  French  King, 
not  without  reason,  was  suspected  of  intending,  with 
the  Pope's  help,  to  re-establish  the  Empire  of  Charle- 
magne, in  which  France  and  Germany  had  been  incor- 
porated under  one  sceptre.  There  was  therefore  no 
safer  course  for  the  Emperor  than  to  remain  in  friendly 
relations  with  the  allies  and  with  Bohemia.1  Chris- 
tian's chief  endeavour  was  to  throw  the  Emperor 
into  consternation  by  depicting  to  him  all  manner  of 
dangers.  He  warned  Rudolf  that  he  would  do  well 
to  read  for  himself  all  the  letters  addressed  to  him,  and 
'  to  bear  in  mind  the  most  memorable  example  '  of 
the  fate  of  the  great  Julius  Caesar.  When  the  latter 
was  going  for  the  last  time  to  the  Capitol  at  Rome  he 
was  warned  in  a  letter  of  the  conspiracy  hatched 
against  him  :  '  had  he  opened  and  read  that  letter, 
he  would  have  escaped  the  five  and  twenty  wounds 
by    which    he    was    treacherously    assassinated.'     The 

1  Ritter,  Briefe  und  Ahten,  ii.  396-402 


424  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

terrified  Emperor  asked  if  the  prince  knew  as  a  fact 
that  something  dangerous  was  being  plotted  against 
him  in  Bohemia,  Austria,  or  the  Empire.  Christian 
answered  that  he  had  only  mentioned  the  example  of 
Caesar  as  a  warning  ;  as  to  leagues  and  alliances  he  knew 
nothing  ;  but  it  was  said  all  over  the  Empire  that  King 
Matthias  was  espousing  the  cause  of  the  Donauworthers, 
that  in  so  doing  he  was  seeking  his  own  advantage 
and  would  find  it,  especially  if  the  Emperor  gave  a 
negative  answer  to  the  complaints  of  the  allies.  If  the 
allies,  he  added  threateningly,  were  still  further  op- 
pressed in  violation  of  their  '  rights  and  liberties,'  they 
were  resolved  to  support  each  other  with  counsel  and 
with  action.1 

Meanwhile  Christian  negotiated  also  in  the  name 
of  the  Union  with  the  Protestant  Estates  of  Bohemia 
and  Silesia  respecting  mutual  aid ;  there  was  no  doubt, 
he  said,  that  '  the  Antichrist  and  his  followers  '  were 
bent  '  on  oppressing  and  then  exterminating  the  ad- 
herents of  evangelical  truth.'  The  charter  of  the 
League  contained  the  following  statement :  '  If  any- 
body should  attempt  to  molest  any  members  of  the 
Union — either  present  or  future  ones,  or  the  evangelical 
Estates  of  Bohemia  and  Silesia,  or  the  subjects  of  the 
said  Estates,  with  respect  to  their  schools  and  churches, 
or  on  account  of  the  reform  either  begun  or  about  to 
be  begun,  in  the  Church  establishments  and  revenues,  in 
a  matter  at  variance  with  the  "  rightful  understanding  ' 
of  the  Religious  Peace,  the  allied  princes  must  stand 
by  each  other  with  mutual  support.  They  must  allow 
no  military  recruiting  against  a  member  of  the  League, 
they  must  prevent  exportation  from  their  lands  and 

1  Beckmann,  v.  318  ff.  ;  Sattler,  vi. ;  Beilage,  pp.  39-57. 


THE   UNION   AND   BOHEMIA,    1609  425 

transit  through  them  ;  on  the  other  hand,  they  must 
mutually  guarantee  each  other  enlistment  of  troops 
and  purchase  of  the  necessaries  of  war.  The  number 
of  armed  men  with  which  they  were  to  come  to  each 
other's  assistance  was  to  be  fixed  at  a  later  assembly.' Y 

From  the  Court  of  Prague  Christian  received  the 
promise  that  Donauworth  should  be  restored  to  its 
former  condition  within  four  months  ;  in  the  '  affair  of 
Jiilich  '  the  Emperor  declared  himself  gladly  willing 
to  accept  the  proposals  of  the  Palatine  Elector. - 

1  Ritter,  Brief e  und  Aklen,  ii.  409,  note  1. 
';  Ritter,  ii.  419,  note  1,  420. 


426  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 


CHAPTER   II 

DISPUTE  CONCERNING  THE  JULICH-CLEVES  SUCCESSION — 

« 

PLANS  OF  THE  UNION  AND  THE  GREAT  LEAGUE  FOR 
THE  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  HABSBURG, 
1609-1610 

On  March  25,  1609,  the  feeble-minded  Duke  John 
William  of  Julich-Cleve-Berg  had  died  childless,  and 
'  nobody  in  the  land  knew  to  whom  the  splendid  in- 
heritance,' one  of  the  largest  and  wealthiest  princi- 
palities of  Germany,  '  ought  to  descend  :  '  '  nobles  and 
commoners,  '  great  jack  and  little  jack,"  all  made 
haste  to  place  their  possessions  in  security  outside 
the  territory.'  The  principal  claimants  were :  the 
Elector  John  Sigismund  of  Brandenburg  as  the  husband 
of  a  daughter  of  John  William's  eldest  sister  ;  the  Count 
Palatine  Philip  Louis  of  Neuberg  as  husband  of  the 
second  daughter  ;  Duke  John  of  Zweibriicken  as  husband 
of  the  third  ;  the  Margrave  Charles  of  Burgau  as  husband 
of  the  fourth  sister.  The  House  of  Saxony  also,  on  the 
basis  of  older  reversions  bestowed  by  former  Emperors, 
laid  claims  to  Julich,  Berg,  and  Ravensberg.  The 
Count  Palatine  claimed  some  portions  of  the  Julich 
lands,  of  which  he  was  the  feoff er,  and  he  had  been  for 
years  in  understanding  with  Brandenburg  and  the 
States -General  not  to  allow  the  Julich  inheritance  to 
fall  into  Catholic  hands. 

At  the  court  of  Prague,  in  conformity  with  the  con- 


THE   '  POSSESSIONERS,'    1609  427 

stitution  of  the  Empire,  it  had  been  settled,  immediately 
after  the  death  of  John  William,  that  the  government 
of  the  land  was  to  be  entrusted  to  the  Dowager  Duchess 
and  her  councillors,  subject  to  the  guidance  of  the 
imperial  plenipotentiaries,  until  the  question  of  the 
succession  had  been  decided.  The  claimants  were  all 
invited  to  appear  before  the  Imperial  Aulic  Council 
with  a  view  to  considering  this  question. 

Instead,  however,  of  responding  to  this  summons, 
Brandenburg  and  Neuberg  placed  themselves  with  all 
haste  in  possession  of  the  land,  and  insisted  that  the 
question  of  right  should  be  decided  by  an  amicable 
committee,  or  else  by  a  court  of  arbitrators  composed 
entirely  '  of  Protestant  princes.'  These  two  princes 
received  the  name  of  '  Possessioners '  As  early  as 
April  6,  Christian  of  Anhalt  had  written  to  Wolfgang 
William,  the  son  of  Philip  Louis,  that  '  the  time  was 
especially  favourable  for  active  procedure,  for  the 
Catholic  court  was  in  the  worst  state  of  embarrassment, 
and  the  Austrian  court  was  more  divided  than 
ever ;  besides  that,  its  strength  was  impaired  ;  if  they 
only  seized  the  right  opportunity  they  would  carry 
the  evangelical  cause  triumphantly  through ;  from 
France  alone,  he  said,  was  any  great  obstruction  to  be 
feared.1 

France,  however,  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  inclined 
to  favour  this  cause,  with  a  view  to  mixing  herself  up 
in  German  affairs  and  preparing  the  downfall  of  the 
Habsburg  Imperial  House.  There  were  German  princes 
even  who  themselves  besought  the  intervention  of 
France. 

The    Elector   John   Sigismund,   in    the    months    of 

1  Hitter,  Briefe  und  Alcten,  ii.  214,  note  2. 


428  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

April  and  May,  appealed  for  help  to  Henry  IV.,  asking 
that,  if  he  should  be  forcibly  assailed  in  his  rights  of 
inheritance,  the  King  would  support  him  '  with  veritable 
defence  ; '  no  one  of  his  co-claimants,  he  said,  '  came 
near  to  the  House  of  Brandenburg  in  traditional  affec- 
tion for  the  King  of  France.'  1  Later  on  the  Kur- 
brandenburg  councillor  Diskau  urged  on  a  French 
ambassador  that  if  Henry  thought  of  securing  the 
dignity  of  Roman  King  for  himself  or  for  the  Dauphin, 
he  had  better  give  his  support  to  the  House  of  Bran- 
denburg ;  by  this  means  he  would  gain  the  alliance 
of  the  Count  Palatine  also  ;  it  was  of  great  importance 
for  the  King  that  the  mightiest  of  the  German  princes 
should  be  in  submission  to  him,  in  order  that  he  might 
break  the  power  of  the  House  of  Austria  or  gain  a  firm 
footing  in  Germany,  as  well  as  help  and  support  in 
foreign  and  civil  wars.2 

The  Elector  also  applied  to  James  I.  of  England 
and  '  based  his  claim  to  English  assistance  on  the 
interests  of  the  Netherlands,  the  Protestant  religion, 
and,  above  all,  the  cause  of  freedom.' 3  The  King  was 
ready  to  give  any  amount  of  support.  He  would  show 
himself,  he  assured  the  Brandenburg  ambassador, 
'  a  true  defender  of  the  faith  ; '  the  Elector's  claims 
were  the  best  founded,  and  in  order  to  maintain  and 
propagate  '  religion  ' — namely,  Protestantism — it  was 
necessary  that  one  princely  house  in  Germany  should  be 
made  powerful.     '  So  many  small  princes  in  the  land 

1  Ritter,  ii.  231-232. 

2  ' .  .  .  qu'il  importe  a  S.M.  d' avoir  les  plus  puissants  en  Allemagne 
a  sa  devotion  pour  abaisser  la  maison  d'Autriche,  pour  y  establir  ses 
affaires,  pour  le  secours  et  assistance  es  guerres  etrangeres  ou  civiles  ' 
(Ritter,  ii.  348). 

3  Ritter,  ii.  232,  note  1. 


THE   EMPEROR   AND   THE   JULICH   HERITAGE,    1609      429 


were  of  no  real  good.'  l     '  These  were  his  Royal  Majesty's 
actual  words,  the  ambassador  reported  to  his  lord.'  2 

Henry  IV.  took  the  most  active  interest  in  the 
matter.  At  the  end  of  May  he  sent  a  delegate  to 
Germany  to  offer  to  the  Protestant  princes,  '  the  ancient 
allies  of  France,'  the  services  '  of  a  true  ally  and  a  good 
neighbour.'  *  Not  by  an  imperial  decree,'  he  informed 
the  Palatine  Elector,  '  must  this  question  of  rightful 
inheritance  be  settled,  but  by  the  free  choice  and  the 
arms  of  the  Julich  lands  : '  he  desired  the  Elector  to  see 
to  it  that  the  interested  parties  should  without  delay, 
if  possible  with  the  help  of  their  friends,  take  steps 
in  both  these  ways.  He  promised  his  support  to  the 
Elector  of  Brandenburg  and  advised  him,  above  all, 
to  conciliate  Neuberg  and  Zweibriicken.3 

Through  the  mediation  of  the  Landgrave  Maurice 
of  Hesse  an  agreement  was  concluded  on  June  10 
between  Brandenburg  and  Neuberg,  by  which,  for  a 
time,  the  latter  were  to  share  the  government  of  the 
appropriated  lands.4 

When  this  news  reached  Prague,  imperial  mandates 
were  issued  to  both  princes  on  July  7  and  11,  stating 
that  any  further  assertion  of  claims  to  these  lands  would 
be  punished  by  '  Ackt  und  Oberacht,'  ban  and  outlawry. 

On  the  side  of  the  Protestants  it  seemed  a  matter 
of  course  that  the  Emperor,  in  agreement  with  Spain, 
should  take  possession  of  the  Julich  inheritance  and 
make  use  of  it  either  for  the  aggrandisement  of  Spain 
or  for  the  strengthening  of  his  own  house.     But  Rudolf 

1  '  .  .  .  Tant  de  petits  princes  n'y  font  rien  qui  vaille.' 

2  Ritter,  Briefe  und  Akten,  ii.  467-468.  3  Ibid.  ii.  274-277. 

4  John  Sigismund  had  already,  April  1-10,  begged  the  Landgrave 
Moritz  to  work  with  all  his  might  for  the  Brandenburg  claimant  (Despatch 
in  Wackenfeld,  p.  31). 


430  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

had  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  idea  in  his  mind. 
With  the  court  of  Madrid  he  had  fallen  out  completely 
on  account  of  the  Spanish  attempts  to  settle  the  suc- 
cession in  the  Empire  ;  in  July  he  actually  forbade 
the  Spanish  ambassador  at  Prague  to  return  to  his 
palace,  so  that  he  might  not  arouse  suspicion  among 
the  Protestants.  With  his  brothers  the  Emperor  lived 
in  bitter  enmity,  and  in  the  blackness  of  his  hatred 
for  Matthias  he  had  no  thoughts  but  of  revenge  and 
of  recovering  the  lands  which  had  been  taken  from 
him.  The  Archduke  Leopold,  a  younger  brother  of 
Ferdinand  of  Styria,  an  adventurous  youth  of  two  and 
twenty,  was  to  be  his  assistant  in  the  matter. 

On  July  11,  two  days  after  the  signature  of  the 
Bohemian  '  Majestittsbrief,'  Leopold  had  proffered  his 
services  to  the  Emperor  and  had  been  adopted  by  Rudolf 
in  the  place  of  a  son.  According  to  Rudolf's  plan, 
Leopold  was  to  be  King  of  Bohemia  and  his  own  suc- 
cessor in  the  Empire,  and  thus  Matthias  was  to  be 
punished  and  ruined.  In  order  to  predispose  the 
spiritual  electors  in  favour  of  the  Archduke  at  the 
next  imperial  election,  he  began  by  committing  to  them 
the  task  of  ousting  the  '  Possessioners  '  from  the  Julich 
inheritance.  When  this  task  had  been  accomplished 
there  would  be  every  hope  of  obtaining  also  the  Elector 
of  Saxony's  vote  for  Leopold  ;  for  Rudolf  had  mentally 
destined  the  Julich  inheritance  to  Saxony,  whose 
claims,  both  in  his  own  and  his  councillors'  opinions, 
were  the  most  valid.  The  Archduke  was  only  to  have 
temporary  possession  of  the  lands  as  imperial  pleni- 
potentiary until  the  legal  decision  had  been  made.1 

1  The  oft-quoted,  notorious  memorandum  of  the  imperial  vice-chan- 
cellor, Leopold  von  Stralendorff,  concerning  the  Julich  inheritance  is  a 


ARCHDUKE   LEOPOLD   IN   JULICH,    1609  431 

Disguised  as  a  servant  he  came  to  the  Rhine,  and 
the  fortress  of  Jiilich,  which  had  been  closed  by  its 
general  to  the  '  Possessionem,'  was  opened  to  him 
on  July  23.  But  all  the  means  which  he  had  at  com- 
mand for  maintaining  his  position  in  the  fortress,  and 
for  further  conquest  of  the  country,  consisted,  on  his 
own  statement,  of  no  more  than  160,000  florins.1  His 
whole  force  in  troops  was  only  nine  hundred  men.'2 
For  the  Rhenish  bishops  and  for  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands it  was  a  vital  question  into  whose  hands  the 
Julich-Cleves  territories  would  permanently  fall.  If 
they  became  the  possessions  of  the  species  of  Protestants 
who  were  in  league  on  the  one  hand  with  the  Palatiners 
and  on  the  other  with  the  States-General,  then,  as 
'  everybody  could  plainly  see,  it  would  soon  be  all  up 
with  the  splendour  of  the  ecclesiastical  princes  and  the 
popish  belief,'  and  Archduke  Albert  in  Brussels,  threat- 
ened with  a  threefold  enemy  on  the  borders  of  his  land, 
'  would  soon  have  to  pack  up  and  be  off.' 3 

Leopold  might  therefore  reasonably  have  expected 
powerful  succour  from  a  people  '  threatened  almost 
in  their  very  existence.'  Among  the  ecclesiastical 
electors,  however,  Treves  alone  was  ready  to  '  con- 
tribute at  once  a  subsidy  in  ready  money,'  and  this 

falsification,  and  in  all  probability  was  concocted  by  the  attorney  of  the 
Elector  of  Brandenburg  ;  see  Stieve's  Abhandlungen  in  den  Sitzungsberichten 
der  philos.-philol.  und  hist.  Klasse  der  K.  layer.  Akademie  der  Wissen- 
schaften,  1883,  Heft  3,  pp.  437-474.  Concerning  the  so-called  Stralen- 
dorff  memorandum,  see  also  Meinecke  in  the  MarJcische  Forschungen,  x. 
(Berlin,  1886)  293-349,  and  also  Stieve  in  the  Sitzungsberichte  der 
Miinchener  Akademie,  iii.  (1886)  445-471,  and  Hirn  in  the  Hist.  Jahrb.  x. 
(1889)  603-608. 

1  Hurter,  vi.  346,  note  12.  3  Bitter,  Briefe  und  Akten,  ii.  315. 

3  '  Aufzeichnungen  des  Dr.  juris  Alexander  Hopmann,  anno  1609, 
September,'  in  the  Convolute,  cited  above  at  p.  350,  note  1. 


432  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

subsidy  '  amounted  in  all  to  12,000  florins,  which  were 
eventually  to  be  recovered  from  Leopold  by  imperial 
taxes  levied  later  on.' ]  The  help  sent  to  the  Archduke 
from  the  Spanish  court  was  not  even  enough  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  fortress  of  Julich,  still  less  for  the  expul- 
sion of  the  '  Possessioners  '  from  the  territories  of  which 
they  had  taken  possession.  The  Emperor,  who  had  again 
relapsed  into  his  mental  illness,  left  his  adopted  son 
altogether  in  the  lurch,  and  Pope  Paul  V.,  intimidated 
by  the  threats  of  France,  did  not  dare  interfere  in 
the  affairs  of  Julich  and  give  his  support  to  Leopold.2 

The  whole  decision  rested  with  France.  An  am- 
bassador whom  the  Archduke  had  sent  to  Paris  in  order, 
at  any  rate,  to  persuade  Henry  IV.  to  remain  neutral, 
was  informed  by  the  French  statesmen  that  his 
sovereign  could  not  and  would  not  forsake  Brandenburg 
and  Neuberg  ;  that  he  was  fully  justified  in  interfering 
in  German  affairs,  '  for  his  right  to  protect  justice  was 
co-equal  with  his  might.'  3 

On  July  23,  the  same  day  on  which  Leopold  entered 
Julich,  Henry  IV.  wrote  to  his  ambassador  Bongars  : 
'  The  name  and  the  authority  of  the  Emperor  is  nothing 
more  than  a  phantom  and  a  mere  scarecrow  ; '  4  and 
as  for  Spain,  he  said  a  few  days  later,  '  the  kingdom 
was  all  in  pieces  and  more   downtrodden  than  ever.'  5 

1  Hurter,  vi.  347.  2  Gindely,  Rudolf,  ii.  62,  64. 

3  Gindely,  ii.  37-38.  Equally  fruitless  with  Henry  IV.  were  the 
efforts  of  the  ecclesiastical  electors  (Despatch  of  the  latter  of  August  20, 
1609,  in  Londorp.  Acta  publ.  i.  85)  and  those  of  an  imperial  ambassador 
(Ritter,  ii.  428). 

4  ' .  .  .  qui  n'est  qu'un  fantosme  et  vray  epouvantail  de  chenevieres  ' 
(Ritter,  ii.  300).  To  the  Brandenburg  councillors,  who  were  still  in  awe 
of  the  Emperor,  Bongars  said  that,  '  ce  nom  n'estoit  plus  qu'une  illusion 
et  une  couverture  de  faineantise  '  (ii.  354). 

5  '  .  .  .  descheu  et  abatu  plus  qu'il  ne  fut  oncques  '  (Ritter,  ii.  317). 


INTENTIONS   OF   HENEY   IV.   OF   FRANCE,   1609      433 

In  public  documents,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was 
constant  talk  of  the  overweening  might  of  the  House 
of  Habsburg  and  of  its  endeavours  after  world-wide 
dominion,  and  of  the  imperative  necessity  of  fighting 
against  both  the  branches  of  this  house  for  the  sake  of 
European  and  German  freedom. 

On  the  grave  of  Imperial  and  Spanish  power  the 
supremacy  of  France  was  to  be  erected,  and  the  German 
princes,  as  Richelieu  once  said  later  on,  were  to  serve 
'  as  it  were  as  footstools  to  the  most  Christian  King.' 
In  his  private  letters  Henry  spoke  with  the  utmost 
contempt  of  these  princes,  who  '  only  drink  and  sleep  ; '  ' 
and  concerning  the  princesses  also,  '  those  female 
drinkers,'  he  indulged  in  highly  depreciatory  remarks.- 
At  the  end  of  July  he  offered  the  '  Possessioners  '  an 
army  of  15,000  men,  and  promised,  if  necessary,  to  come 
in  person  to  their  assistance  in  the  field  with  40,000 
men  and  twenty-five  pieces  of  artillery.3  At  the  same 
time  he  assured  the  papal  nuncio  that  his  intention 
was  to  constitute  himself  the  arbiter  of  the  Protestant 
claims  for  the  benefit  of  the  Catholic  religion,  for  he 
hoped  by  this  means  to  separate  the  princes  from  one 
another,  and  to  incense  them  against  each  other,  or  at 
any  rate  to  manage  that  each  of  them  should  only  get 
a  portion  of  the  inheritance.4 

1  Ritter,  ii.  310. 

2  See  Oeconomies  royales,  iii.  171. 
:!  Ritter,  ii.  311,  note. 

4  ' .  .  .  stiinava  servitio  della  religione  cattolica  nel  governarsi  in  modo 
con  protestanti  da  poter  haver  credito  da  loro  et  di  venir  arbitro  delle  loro 
pretensioni,  perche  per  questa  via  sperava  di  poterli  dividere  e  mettere  alle 
mani  1'  uno  contro  1'  altro,  o  almeno  dare  quelli  stati  un  pezzo  all'  uno  et 
un  pezzo  all'  altro  '  (Despatch  of  Ubaldini  of  August  4,  1609,  in  Ritter,  ii. 
325-326).  In  November  Duplessis-Mornay  gave  an  account  to  a  con- 
fidential friend,  of  Henry  IV. 's  plan  of  procedure.  '  On  pay  era  aulx 
princes  coheritiers  l'argent  qu'on  leur  doibt  tout  a  une  fois,  pour  faire  une 

VOL.  X.  F  F 


'  ] 


434  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

To  set  the  '  Possessioners  '  by  the  ears  would  not 
have  been  difficult  for  Henry,  for  the  relations  between 
them  were  anything  but  those  of  friendship,  and  the 
conditions  in  the  country  were  desperate.     '  There  is 
no  proper  combination  here,'  wrote  the  ambassadors  of 
Wiirtemberg  and  Baden  from  Diisseldorf  on  Septem 
ber  26,  1609,  '  no  order,  no  management,  no  authority 
When  Christian  of  Anhalt  was  in  Diisseldorf  at  the 
beginning  of  November  '  each  of  the  two  "  Possessioners '" 
told  him  of  their  mutual  suspicion  that  the  other  would 
usurp    the    advantage.'     The    burgomasters,    the    tax- 
gatherers,    and    the    town    council    complained    most 
bitterly  of  the  disorderliness  of  the  soldiers  who  formed 
the  body-guards  of  the  princes  ;  they  robbed,  plundered, 
and    committed    murder ;  they    did    not    behave    like 
Christians,   but   were   tyrannical   and   barbarous ;  and 
all  their  iniquities  went  unpunished  ;  on  an  inspection 
of   the    two    companies   quartered   in   the   town,   258 
women  and  children  had  been  discovered.     The  troops 
lying  round  Julich,  Prince  Christian  wrote,  '  for  want 
of   discipline  are   completely  devastating   the  land,  to 
the    exasperation  of   the  peasants  and   the  provincial 
Estates.'       '  Those    who    pretend    to    be    rulers    and 
friends  of  the  land,'  it  says  in  the  memoirs  of  a  jurist 
of  Cleves  (November  3),  '  behave  no  better  than  Turks 
in  an  enemy's  land,  plunder,  burn,  and  violate  women 

bonne  armee,  lesquels  cependant  sont  exhortes  a  se  bien  unir.  Par  la  nous 
gauchissons  les  plaintes  de  l'empereur  et  du  pape.  M.  de  Bongars  s'en  va 
de  la  part  de  sa  majeste  trouver  ces  princes  a  Dusseldorf,  de  la  en  Brande- 
bourg '  (Memoires  et  Correspondance,  x.  431).  From  Kassel  Bongars 
wrote  on  December  24,  to  the  Minister  Villeroy  :  '  The  King  has  none  but 
Protestant  friends  ;  all  who  are  Catholic  in  Germany  are  hostile  to  him  ' 
(Ritter,  ii.  525). 

1  Ritter,  ii.  424.  -  Id.  ii.  491,  and  note  1. 


CONDITIONS   IN   THE   JULICH   LANDS,    1609  435 

and  young  girls  ;  all  complaints  remain  unnoticed  ;  the 
poor  people  are  drained  to  the  very  marrow,  while 
persons  of  importance,  the  councillors  and  the  generals, 
indulge  in  such  extravagant  banqueting  and  drinking- 
bouts,  that,  in  view  of  the  general  need  and  wretched- 
ness, it  is  enough  to  make  one's  heart  burst.'  ] 

Both  the  princes  begged  Christian  to  undertake  the 
management  of  the  war,  and  summoned  the  Union  to 
their  help  ;  for  there  was  '  a  new  popish  League  on 
foot,'  and  consequently  great  danger  that  the  lands  of 
which  they  had  taken  possession  would  again  be  wrested 
from  them  ;  if  this  should  happen  '  the  complete  ruin 
of  all  the  evangelical  Estates  would  ensue.'  2  Towards 
the  end  of  September  terrible  news  was  already  in 
circulation.  The  Duke  of  Wurtemberg  and  the  Mar- 
grave of  Baden  were  informed  from  Diisseldorf  that 
the  Jesuits  in  Cologne  had  confided  to  a  young  Catholic 
nobleman  that  '  in  a  few  days  Diisseldorf  would  be 
surprised  and  captured,  and  then,  because  the  burghers 
of  the  town  had  been  the  first  to  let  in  the  ' '  Posses- 
sionem," they  would  all  be  massacred  as  a  deterrent 
example.'  A  '  great  undertaking  of  the  opponents ' 
was  imminent ;  the  parsons  in  Cologne  were  holding 
days  of  prayer  and  fasting,  and  organising  processions 
for  its  success ;  4,000  Spaniards  were  marching  to 
Aix-la-Chapelle ;  numbers  of  j^ther  troops  were  in  move- 
ment;  Archduke  Ferdinand^. had  arrived  in  Julich ; 
400,000  thalers  had  been  smuggled  in  in  butter-casks. 
They  must  be  prepared  for  the  worst ;  the  opponents 
could  easily  '  get  both  the  princes  in  Diisseldorf  into 
their  hands  and  lead  them  in  triumph  where  they  liked, 

1  Aufzeichnungen  Hopmanns ;  see  above,  p.  431,  note  3. 

2  Ritter,  ii.  481,  note  1. 

fp2 


436  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  by  executing  the  ban  on  the  burghers,  and  a  certain 
amount  of  incendiarism  and  tyranny,  they  might  get 
possession  of  the  country  in  one  day.'  '  If  this  be  done, 
and  done  successfully,  it  is  worth  the  trouble  of  a 
thorough  rampage  within  and  without  the  Empire, 
happen  what  may.'  For  '  the  honour  and  reputation 
of  all  Germans  '  and  of  '  noble  freedom '  were  at  stake. 

Preliminary  negotiations  with  regard  to  joining  the 
Union  were  to  be  held  at  Stuttgart  on  the  occasion  of 
the  marriage  of  Duke  John  Frederic  of  Wiirtemberg 
with  a  princess  of  Brandenburg.  For  full  eight  days, 
from  November  5  to  November  13,  '  the  high  princely 
festivities  '  lasted  on  there  ;  from  one  who  was  present 
they  evoked  the  following  lament :  '  There  was  no  hint 
or  echo  there  of  the  cruel  need  and  poverty  with  which 
nearly  all  the  land  was  crushed,  and  which  were  unceas- 
ingly brought  forward  by  the  provincial  Estates  in  loud 
complaints ;  nothing  but  empty  revelry  and  extra- 
vagant dissipation.' 

To  these  festivities  there  had  flocked  seventeen 
princes  and  twenty-two  princesses,  fifty-two  counts  and 
countesses,  over  five  hundred  nobles,  and  one  hundred 
young  ladies  of  high  and  low  nobility  ;  the  joint  retinues 
amounted  to  nearly  two  thousand  servants  and  three 
thousand  horses.  The  princes'  table  was  served  with 
eighty  dishes ;  there  were  also  artistic  shows ;  for 
instance,  Mount  Helicon  and  the  Hippocrene,  the  Muses 
and  Pegasus,  the  Actseon,  and  the  Rape  of  the  Sabine 
women,  a  ship  with  the  Prophet  Jonah,  in  which  '  sixty 
fiery  shells,  filled  with  perfumes,  were  hidden,  which 
went  off  one  after  the  other.'  The  table  utensils  were 
mostly  silver,  but  some  of  them  even  gold,  studded 
with  precious  stones.     In  all  the  different  pageants  of 


INTENTIONS   OF   THE    UNION,    1609  437 

the  princes,  the  nobles,  and  the  court  people,  there 
appeared,  in  company  with  different  personifications  of 
Virtues,  Dame  Venus  and  her  suite,  and  also  Joshua, 
David,  and  Judas  Maccabseus,  Nestor,  Achilles,  Hector, 
Alexander,  Caesar,  and  other  great  heroes  of  antiquity 
'  to  remind  the  gazers  of  daring  military  exploits.'  In 
the  hall  of  the  knights  twelve  nymphs  performed 
wonderful  dances  with  twelve  knights  in  Roman  cos- 
tume. Ring-racing,  tournaments  on  foot  and  on  horse- 
back, and  fireworks  '  of  the  greatest  costliness  '  added 
further  excitement  to  the  proceedings,  which  ended  on 
November  13  with  a  '  Quintain-tilting,  in  which  Scotch- 
men, Turks,  Tartars,  and  Amazons  took  part.'  '  It 
might  well  have  been  imagined,'  said  an  eye-witness, 
'  that  people  and  princes  were  in  the  highest  affluence, 
and  that  peace  and  prosperity  reigned  in  the  Empire.'  ' 
The  allies,  wrote  Caspar  Schoppe,  '  have  no  longer 
any  scruples  in  speaking  openly  before  everyone  of 
their  intentions  and  of  the  actual  object  of  their  Union, 
as  is  plainly  seen  from  the  historical  narrative  of  the 
Wiirtemberg  wedding  which  appeared  in  print  at 
Stuttgart  in  1610.'  At  p.  94  of  this  book  we  read  : 
'  The  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg  and  others  of  his  com- 
peers have  pledged  themselves  with  lips  and  heart  to 
the  maintenance  of  religion,  justice,  and  German  free- 
dom, and  are  determined  to  defend  and  protect  the 
reputation  of  Germany  at  the  risk  of  life  and  property.' 
The  reasons  which  impelled  him  and  others  to  such  a 
conjuration  or  conspiracy  are  stated  at  pp.  87  and  91  : 
'  Because  our  noble  and  precious  German  freedom  is  no 

1  Beschreibung  bei  Pfaff,  Miscellen,  pp.  81-90  ;  Midlers  und  Falkes 
Zeitschr.  fur  deutsche  Kulturgesch.  Jahrg.  1859,  pp.  266-271  ;  Beschreibung 
einer  hochfiirstlichen  Hochzeit,  &c.  (1609),  pp.  3-8. 


438  HISTOEY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

longer  held  in  any  honour,  but  is  trampled  under  foot 
and  dragged  in  the  dirt,  and  because  religion  and 
justice  are  placed  in  equal  peril.'  What  they  under- 
stood by  religion  we  learn  at  p.  121  in  the  description 
of  the  Margrave  of  Baden's  procession,  where  he  uses 
the  watchword  '  Pure  religion,  exterminator  of  idolatry:' ] 
that  is  to  say,  according  to  their  meaning,  the  Catholic 
religion  ;  and  at  p.  233  it  says  :  ;  This  Baden  pageant  is 
a  veritable  Judaea  and  a  perfect  example  of  a  well- 
regulated  government.'  - 

On  the  last  day  of  the  wedding  festivities,  Novem- 
ber 13,  those  princes  of  the  Union  who  were  present 
agreed  to  summon  a  meeting  of  the  Union  at  Schwabisch- 
Hall  on  the  10th  of  the  following  January,  when  they 
would  settle  in  detail  what  help  was  to  be  given  to  the 
*  Possessionem.'  Christian  of  Anhalt  was  despatched  to 
Paris  to  wind  up  the  negotiations  with  Henry  IV. 

When  he  reached  the  French  capital  he  found  the 
King  more  than  ever  resolved  on  war.  The  constrain- 
ing motive  was  a  fierce  passion  which  he  had  conceived 
for  the  wife  of  Prince  Henry  of  Conde.  Conde  had  left 
the  French  court  in  order  to  save  the  honour  of  his 
House.  Then,  when  the  King  had  planned  to  carry  off 
the  Princess  by  a  nocturnal  surprise,  Conde  had  fled 
with  her  to  Brussels  in  November  1609  ;  had  he  not 
resolved  on  this  step,  he  said,  his  wife  would  have 
fallen  a  victim  to  the  arts  of  seduction  with  which 
Henry  IV.  had  been  surrounding  her  for  the  last  two 
years.3  Scarcely  master  of  himself,  Henry  demanded 
of  Archduke  Albert  the  surrender  of  the  fugitives.     But 

1  Religio  pura,  Idololatriae  exterminatrix. 

2  v.  Friedberg,  p.  63. 

3  Putter,  Briefe  und  Akten,  iii.  530  ;  see  Klopp,  i.  87  fi. 


HENRY   IV.   AND   THE   PRINCESS   OF   CONDE        439 

his  evil  designs  were  frustrated  by  the  honourable 
conduct  of  the  Archduke,  and  also  of  the  King  of  Spain, 
who,  like  the  General  Ambrosius  Spinola,  declared  that 
the  right  of  hospitality  was  sacred ;  a  fugitive  prince 
who  only  sought  protection  for  his  imperilled  honour 
could  not  be  denied  the  boon  he  asked ;  only,  of  course, 
care  must  be  taken  that  the  Prince  was  in  no  respect 
violating  the  duties  of  fidelity  and  obedience  towards 
his  territorial  lord.1 

To  the  papal  nuncio  Henry  pretended  that  he 
demanded  the  return  of  the  Princess  in  the  character  of 
'  Protector  and  defender  of  the  freedom  of  his  subjects.'  2 
He  wanted  to  make  believe  that  he  was  by  no  means  in 
love  with  the  Princess,  but  that  his  royal  dignity  would 
be  injured  if  her  '  liberation '  was  refused.3  In  reality 
his  passion  was  so  overwhelming  that  many  people 
thought  it  would  drive  him  to  insanity.4     He  struggled 

1  v.  Polenz,  v.  22-23.  L  Henrard,  p.  270. 

3  It  was  a  calumny,  said  Henry,  '  that  he  was  in  any  way  moved  by 
the  lady's  charms '  (Gardiner,  ii.  96).  Gardiner,  not  unjustly,  calls  the 
King  '  the  old  profligate.'  Fuller  details  concerning  the  transactions  for  the 
surrender  of  the  Princess  are  given  in  Cornelius,  '  Der  grosse  Plan  Hein- 
richs  IV.,'  in  the  Munich  Histor.  Jahrbuch  of  1866,  p.  33  ff.  See  Heurard, 
p.  194  ff.  One  of  the  King's  mistresses,  the  Marquise  de  Verneuil,  said  to 
Henry  respecting  the  Princess  :  '  N'etes-vous  pas  bien  mechant  de  vouloir 
coucher  avec  la  femme  de  voire  fils  ?  Car  vous  scaves  bien  que  vous 
m'aves  dit  qu'il  l'estoit.'  '  A  fresh  scandal  at  court,'  writes  L'Estoile, 
'  where  all  piety  and  fear  of  God  are  extinct.  One  sees  nothing  but  vice 
reigning,  and  blasphemy  held  in  honour  ;  gambling  is  the  ruling  passion, 
and  in  higher  credit  than  ever.'  See  v.  Polenz,  v.  6-7.  '  The  immense 
and  far-reaching  plans  of  the  King,'  says  the  publisher  of  the  Lettres 
Missives,  7,  XVI.,  '  are  disclosed  in  the  despatches  addressed  to  the  am- 
bassadors in  March  and  Arpil  1610.  In  the  midst  of  the  instructions 
contained  in  these  despatches  and  the  minute  orders  to  all  the  generals 
are  heard  the  laments  of  a  desperate  passion,  which,  according  to  Henry's 
own  statement,  is  killing  him  and  leaving  only  the  skin  on  his  bones 
(et  ne  lui  laisse  que  la  peau  sur  les  os).'     See  v.  Polenz,  iv.  837. 

4  Ritter,  iii.  144. 


440  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

in  vain  to  persuade  the  Spanish  delegate  at  his  court 
that  Albert  and  Philip  III.  might  send  the  Princess 
back  to  France  without  any  fear  of  injury  to  their 
honour.  '  The  King,'  says  a  report  of  the  ambassador, 
'  went  on  incessantly  exclaiming  that  "  the  Princess  is 
detained  in  Brussels  like  a  prisoner,  and  nevertheless 
she  is  not  a  subject  of  Spain  but  of  France."  I  an- 
swered :  '  She  is  the  subject  of  her  husband."  '  No," 
retorted  the  King,  "  of  France."  And  thus,  four  times 
running,  we  bandied  assertion  against  assertion,  while 
the  King  tore  up  and  down  the  room,  roaring  like  a  lion.' 

And  now  '  the  liberation  of  the  Princess  '  was  to  be 
made  the  special  motive  of  a  war  against  the  Nether- 
lands and  against  Spain,  and  the  Julich  affair  was  '  to 
set  the  stone  rolling.'  This  business,  Richelieu  said 
later  to  Henry's  wife,  '  would  have  been  a  sufficiently 
valid  and  dignified  reason  for  the  King's  great  under- 
taking, but  love  was  by  no  means  the  least  of  the 
determining  motives.'  l 

Christian  of  Anhalt,  wrote  the  Dutch  ambassador, 
Francis  van  Aerssen,  from  Paris  to  Duplessis-Mornay 
at  the  beginning  of  January  1610,  promised  the  King 
that  '  the  German  princes  would  bring  into  the  field 
8,000  infantry,  2,000  cavalry,  and  from  twenty  to 
twenty-five  cannons;'  whereupon  Henry  IV.  also  pro- 
mised to  contribute  an  equal  amount  of  military  forces. 
They  wanted  to  develop  the  affair  of  Julich  into  a 
*  general  concern,'  and  Henry  was  ready  to  '  drive  the 
Spaniards  across  the  mountains.'  2  As  early  as  the  end 
of  December  1609  the  minister  Sully  had  confided  to 
the  ambassadors  that  '  the  King  meant  to  drive  the 
Spaniards  completely  out  of  the  Netherlands,  to  take 

1  v.  Polenz,  v.  23.  -  Duplessis-Mornay,  x.  494. 


WAR   NEGOTIATIONS   IN   PARIS,    1610  441 

part  of  the  country  for  himself,  and  to  give  the  rest  to 
the  States-General.'  '  Now,  he  said,  the  right  moment 
had  come  for  striking  the  first  blow,  for  Archduke 
Albert  was  without  troops,  the  King  of  Spain  powerless, 
and  withal  threatened  by  the  Moors  ;  in  Italy,  also,  the 
Puke  of  Savoy  would  keep  him  so  busily  employed  that 
he  would  not  be  able  to  send  even  a  single  soldier  into 
the  Netherlands.1' 

On  April  8,  1609,  the  States-General  had  concluded 
a  twelve-years'  truce  with  Spain,  but  the  solemn  assur- 
ances then  given  did  not  hinder  them  from  promising 
their  help  to  the  German  allies  and  to  the  French  King. 
Accordingly,  on  January  22,  Henry  IV.  laid  his  plan  of 
war  before  the  ambassador  van  Aerssen  :  from  three 
separate  quarters,  and  with  three  separate  armies,  they 
must  suddenly  surprise  the  Spaniards.  In  this  sense 
also  he  negotiated  with  the  Protestant  princes.  The 
Jiilich  affair  afforded  an  admirable  pretext.  The  result 
would  follow  all  the  more  easily  as  the  King  of  Spain, 
'  that  blockhead,  and  minion  of  his  minister  Lerma,' 
was  stripped  bare  of  resources  and  was  about  to  be 
pressed  unexpectedly  on  the  Italian  side  by  the  claims 
of  another  war.3 

Two  years  before,  in  1607,  Du  Fresne-Canoye,  the 
French  ambassador  at  Venice,  had  already  declared  a 
war  with  Italy  to  be  the  right  way  '  of  healing  the 
internal  maladies  of  France  and  of  her  friends,  and  of 
resuscitating  French    renown    and   influence   in  Italy, 

1  '.  .  .  en  prendre  une  partie,  nous  dormer  Fautre.' 

2  Ritter,  Brief e  und  Akten,  ii.  516-524,  526-531. 

3  Ritter,  iii.  17-20.  The  French  ambassador  at  the  Spanish  court 
wrote  on  December  24,  1609,  that  a  war  with  France  was  apprehended  in 
Madrid :  '  Leurs  cavesrsont  bien  basses  et  craignent  fort  de  se  brouiller 
avec  votre  Majeste  '  (Ritter,  ii.  525,  No.  286). 


442  HISTORY   OF    THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

where  they  have  been  in  abeyance  since  the  disastrous 
battle  of  Pavia.'  :  In  the  same  year  Duke  Charles 
Emmanuel  of  Savoy  had  declared  himself  willing  to 
enter  into  a  family  compact  with  Henry  IV.,  and  into 
an  alliance  on  behalf  of  the  recovery  of  the  Duchy  of 
Milan  ;  as  soon  as  he  had  got  possession  of  this  duchy 
with  the  King's  help,  he  would  cede  to  France  his 
whole  ancestral  land  of  Savoy.2  Since  then  Henry  IV. 
and  Charles  Emmanuel  had  carried  on  frequent  nego- 
tiations and  had  been  awaiting  '  the  best  time  for 
striking,  in  order  to  drive  the  Spaniards  clean  out  of 
Italy.' 

For  this  undertaking  the  Republic  of  Venice  was 
also  to  be  won  over.  The  bitter  conflict  between 
Venice  and  Pope  Paul  V.  had  been  amicably  settled 
in  1607.  But  this  peace  was  only  an  outward  one.  In 
the  bosom  of  the  Free  State  a  powerful  party  was  at 
work,  struggling  '  to  win  town  and  country  for  the 
cause  of  the  pure  evangel,  and  if  possible  to  rid  the 
whole  of  Italy  of  the  dominion  of  the  Roman  Anti- 
christ by  means  of  a  formidable  war.'  The  soul  of 
these  endeavours  was  the  renegade  Servite  monk,  Fra 
Paolo  Sarpi,  who  stood  in  the  highest  esteem  with  the 
senate  3  as  State  councillor,  and  who  maintained  inti- 
mate relations  with  the  most  zealous  Calvinists  of  France 
and  Switzerland.  His  confidential  friend,  the  English 
ambassador  Wotton,  organised  a  distribution  of  Geneva 

1  See  Bliclce  in  die  Zustiinde  Venedigs,  p.  195. 

2  Ritter,  ii.  543-544.  On  another  occasion  Charles  Emmanuel  begged 
Henry  IV.  to  assist  him  in  the  conquest  of  the  county  of  Burgundy.  See 
Erdmannsdorffer,  p.  61. 

3  The  Calvinist  Du  Fresne  wrote  on  June  16,  1607,  concerning  Sarpi : 
'  Questo  huomo  possede  tutto  questo  Senato,  et  e  di  grandissimo  valore  et 
prudenza  '  (Blicke  in  die  Zustiinde  Venedigs,  p.  348,  note  2). 


PROTESTANT   PROPAGANDA   IN   ITALY  443 

Bibles  in  Italy,  and  aimed  at  founding  a  reformed  com- 
munity in  Venice  ;  from  12,000  to  15,000  people,  Sarpi 
wrote,  had  determined  to  apostatise  from  the  Pope. 
'  All  is  ready,'  a  secretary  of  Wotton  reported  in  1608 ; 
'  it  remains  only  to  set  fire  to  the  mine.  Already 
Venice  seems  like  a  new  world.  The  Jesuits  are  in- 
veighed against  from  the  pulpits  ;  they  are  mortally 
detested.'  Three-fourths  of  the  nobles  were  '  inclined 
to  the  truth.'  To  these  belonged  the  Doge  himself. 
A  considerable  number  of  clergy,  who  impressed  on  their 
penitents  in  the  confessional  that  it  was  their  duty  to 
obey  the  Pope,  were  secretly  executed.1  Duplessis- 
Mornay,  '  the  Huguenot  Pope,'  was  of  opinion  that  the 
time  had  already  come  for  bearing  down  upon  the 
Antichrist  in  his  own  land,  provided  only  the  alliance 
of  Venice  with  the  Swiss  Cantons,  with  the  Elector  of 
the  Palatinate,  and  with  other  German  princes  were 
concluded  ;  after  the  establishment  '  of  the  pure  reli- 
gion '  in  Hungary,  Austria,  Moravia,  and  Bohemia,  the 
yoke  of  the  papacy  would  be  everywhere  thrown  off. 
So  long  as  the  Germans  and  French,  Sarpi  maintained, 
'  directed  their  energies  to  the  outside  extremities  only,' 
their  efforts  must  remain  fruitless  ;  they  ought  '  to  aim 
their  blows  at  the  heart  itself ; '  in  Italy  '  the  fount  of 
life  was  the  Pope  and  the  Jesuits.' 2  Sarpi's  fellow  con- 
spirator, Diodati,  a  Calvinist  preacher  at  Geneva,  was 
of  the  same  opinion  :  a  war,  he  said,  must  be  kindled 
in  Italy.3     '  We  must  attack  the  beast  in  the  centre 

1  Hofler,  Englisch-franziisische  Propaganda,  pp.  816,  824  ff.  ;  Blicke  in 
die  Zustiinde  Venedigs,  pp.  348-357. 

2  Blicke  in  die  Zustiinde  Venedigs,  p.  397. 

3  ' .  .  .  embraser  une  guerre  en  Italie,  qui  est  a  tout  jugernent  humain  la 
seule  ouverture,  par  ou  la  verite  y  entrera  ;  il  fault  ung  peu  repurger  ceste 
estable,'  and  so  forth  (February  1609  to  Duplessis-Mornay,  x.  282,  299). 


444  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  in  the  heart,'  he  wrote  to  Duplessis-Mornay  in  July 
1609.1 

Six  months  before,  the  French  ambassador  Bongars 
had  advised  that  Venice  should  be  influenced  to  break 
with  Rome  when  she  had  made  sure  of  the  friendship 
of  the  Protestant  princes.  He  suggested  that  the 
Palatine  Elector  should  despatch  an  ambassador  thither 
to  assure  the  senate  of  his  friendship.2  The  Count 
Palatine  sent  off  an  agent,  John  Lenk,  who  attached 
himself  to  Sarpi,  and  at  first  negotiated  only  in  secret 
with  the  members  of  Sarpi' s  party,  but  later  on  was 
solemnly  recognised  by  the  senate  as  the  representative 
of  the  allied  princes.3  An  ambassador  from  the  Nether- 
lands also,  whom  Prince  Maurice  of  Orange  had  de- 
spatched at  the  instigation  of  Duplessis-Mornay,  met  with 
reception  from  the  senate  similar  to  that  which  it  used 
to  bestow  on  the  envoys  of  crowned  heads.  Sarpi  was 
jubilant  at  having  prepared  this  mortification  for  the 
courts  of  Rome  and  Madrid,  and  looked  forward  to  the 
best  results  for  the  progress  of  '  the  evangel '  in  Italy 
from  the  alliance  of  Venice  with  the  Union  and  the 
States-General.4  '  In  war  alone  is  our  hope,'  he  wrote  ; 
'  to  war  alone  can  we  look  for  salvation.' ''     One  of  his 

1  '  Les  affaires  d'Allemaigne  sont  des  grands  coups  ;  mais  c'est  encores 
en  la  circonference ;  il  fault  attaquer  la  beste  au  centre  et  au  coeur  '  (Du- 
plessis-Mornay, x.  340). 

2  Duplessis-Mornay,  x.  266-267. 

3  On  September  4,  1609,  Duplessis  wrote  that  Lenk  was  coming  to 
Venice,  '  pour  resider  pres  de  la  seigneurie,  secretement  neanmoins.'  On 
March  15,  1610,  he  was  recognised  as  agent  of  the  confederate  princes, 
'  en  plein  senat  et  avec  tout  accueil '  (Duplessis-Mornay,  x.  367,  and 
xi.  3-5  ;  Blicke  in  die  Zustande  Venedigs,  p.  358  ff.). 

1  Duplessis-Mornay,  x.  347,  393,  457. 

5  ' .  .  .  sicuti  magni  morbi  per  contrarios  curantur,  sic  in  bello  spes 
.  .  .  non  aliunde  nostra  salus  provenire  potest '  (Opere  di  F.  Paolo  Sarpi, 
vi.  79  ;  see  Blicke  in  die  Zustande  Venedigs,  pp.  360  ff.,  366). 


EFFORTS   TO   OVERTHROW   THE   PAPACY  445 

fellow  conspirators  hugged  himself  with  the  assured 
conviction  that  the  Roman  See,  '  that  great  beast,  is 
near  to  its  end  in  Italy.'  !  Equally  convinced  was 
Duplessis-Mornay  that  the  war  about  to  break  out 
would  '  lead  to  the  downfall  of  that  Babylon.'  '  From 
one  small  spark,'  he  said  triumphantly,  '  there  will 
proceed  a  fire  which  will  spread  its  flames  over  the 
whole  of  Europe.'  2  Lenk  also,  at  the  end  of  September, 
prognosticated  a  general  overthrow  of  all  things.  '  The 
wisest  heads  in  Venice,'  he  wrote  to  Germany,  '  are  of 
opinion  that  two  things  must  be  accomplished  :  first, 
Bohemia  must  be  provided  with  a  head  and  must  take 
possession  of  the  person  of  the  Emperor  ;  and,  secondly, 
the  undertaking  of  Carinthia  and  Styria  must  be  backed 
up,  as  it  would  otherwise  be  impossible  to  introduce 
the  evangel  into  Italy.  For  these  two  operations 
Venice  might  well  contribute  substantial  support.'  3  The 
selfsame  advice  was  given  by  Sarpi  on  September  11 
to  Prince  Christian  of  Anhalt.4 

The  idea  was  that  in  Carinthia,  Carniola,  and  Styria, 
as  soon  as  the  great  war  had  been  kindled,  and  a  rising 
of  the  Protestants  stirred  up  against  the  Archduke 
Ferdinand,  that  '  prime  flunkey  and  aider  and  abettor 
of  the  Antichrist,'  the  heaviest  wound  was  to  be  inflicted 
on  '  the  Roman  harlot,'  as  Sarpi  expressed  himself.5 

1  ' .  .  .  cette  grande  bete  proche  de  sa  fin  en  Italie  '  (Asselineau  to 
Duplessis-Mornay  on  March  15,  1610.  xi,  4). 

2  Duplessis-Mornay,  xi.  11,  12.  '  .  .  .  ab  una  quasi  scintilla  quantum 
ignis  Europam  propediem  universam  conflagraturum.' 

3  Ritter,  ii.  462-463. 

4  Gindely,  ii.  4,  note  2. 

5  See  BlicJce  in  die  Zustcinde  Venedigs,  pp.  395-396.  On  May  12, 1609. 
Asselineau,  one  of  the  conspirators,  wrote  from  Venice  to  Duplessis- 
Mornay  :  '  Tout  ira  encores  mieulx  en  Allemaigne,  si  ceulx  de  la  Carinthie 
et  Carniole  contraignent  aussi,  comme  le  bruict  est,  leur  archiduc  a  octroyer 


446  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

At   the   same   time   Erasmus   of   Tschernembl   was 
'  planning  great  things  '  in  Austria.     Fresh  quarrels  had 
broken  out  there  between  King  Matthias  and  the  Pro- 
testant Estates  ;  the  Estates  summoned  their  allies  in 
Hungary  and  Moravia,  and  also  the  Union  to  their  help. 
Tschernembl    solicited    the    Elector    Palatine    to    send 
troops  to  Austria,  and  on  December  31,  1609,  he  was 
able  to  inform  him  with  thanks  '  that  the  army  was 
already  on  the  road.'  ]     The  Hungarian  magnate  Thurzo 
threatened  the  King  at  a  provincial  diet  at  Vienna  with 
a  '  general  war  of  all  the  allied  lands  '  if  he  did  not 
grant  all  the  demands  of  the  Estates.     It  was  in  vain 
that  Matthias  protested  that  he  had  done  more  than 
any  other  prince  in  the  Empire  ;  that  by  his  action  he 
had  exposed  himself  to  the  ill-will  of  all  the  Catholic 
princes,   and   had   incurred   many   mortifications ;  and 
now,  instead  of  meeting  with  pity  from  the  Protestant 
Estates,  he  received  only  ill-treatment.     In  February 
1610  he  saw  himself  reduced   to   complete  surrender, 
especially  as,  on  the  one  hand,  the  Union  had  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  Estates,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
Emperor  had  entered  into  alliance  with  them  in  order 
to  recover  the  lands  of  which  his  brother  had  robbed 
him,  and  was  making  them  the  most  seductive  over- 
tures.2 

The   Estates   had   obtained   all   they   wanted   from 
Matthias,  but  they  continued  in  '  loyal  correspondence  ' 

la  liberte  de  conscience,  et  soient  fomentes  des  Hongrois  par  la  demande  de 
certaines  places  qiCils  pretendent  du  diet  archiduc,  comme  usurpees  de  lew 
ancien  domaine  ;  car  ce  nous  seroit  ouvrir  ung  passage  de  secours  bien  voisin. 
II  ne  tiendra  qu'au  roy  d'  Angleterre  qu'on  ne  vienne  a  quelque  genereuse 
resolution,  et  s'il  sera  aussi  prodigue  de  ses  navires  que  de  sa  plume,  il  y  a 
apparence  que  serons  a  la  veille  de  quelque  grande  merveille  (Duplessis- 
Mornay,  x.  326). 

1  Gindely,  ii.  96,  note  1.  ~  Fuller  details  in  Stulz,  pp.  193-206. 


EFFORTS   AGAINST   HOUSE   OF   HABSBURG  447 

with  the  Union,  and  towards  the  end  of  March  assured 
the  Palatine  Elector  that  they  would  '  promote  and 
encourage  everything  that  was  conducive  to  the  honour 
of  God,  to  His  pure  evangel,  and  to  the  peace  of  the 
Empire  and  of  the  Christian  dominions,  and  would  oppose 
with  all  their  might  any  plans  of  the  allies  which  were 
inimical  to  these  ends.'  * 

The  way  in  which  the  allies  intended  to  '  safeguard 
the  peace  of  the  Empire  and  the  Austrian  dominions  ' 
revealed  itself  more  clearly  than  ever  in  January  and 
February  at  a  meeting  of  the  Union  at  Schwabisch- 
Hall. 

The  meeting  was  numerously  attended,  and  the 
League  was  strengthened  by  the  accession  of  the  Elector 
of  Brandenburg,  the  Landgrave  Maurice  of  Hesse-Cassel, 
and  several  imperial  towns.  The  French  envoy  Boissise 
presided  at  the  debates.2  He  had  been  instructed  to 
put  obstacles  in  the  way  of  any  pacific  agreement  con- 
cerning the  Jiilich  affair,  and  to  impress  upon  the  allies 
that  it  was  necessary  for  their  safety  to  drive  the 
Spaniards  out  of  the  Netherlands  and  to  take  the 
imperial  crown  away  from  the  House  of  Austria.3  He 
described  the  meritorious  services  of  Henry  IV.  on 
behalf  of  '  the  welfare  and  the  freedom  of  Germany.' 
Christian  of  Anhalt  gave  an  account  of  his  embassy  to 
France,  and  assured  the  assembly  that  '  there  was  no 
doubt  that  a  general  change  was  at  hand  ;  '  they  must 
prepare  themselves  '  for  a  transfer '  of  the  Imperial 
House,  for  the  House  of  Austria  was  complained  of  by 
all  the  Estates.  He  on  his  part  had  first,  immediately 
after  the  Recess  at  Ahausen,  been  of  opinion  that  they 

1  Ritter,  iii.  153.  a  Hofler,  Heinrichs  IV.     Plan  22. 

3  Gindely,  ii.  77-78. 


448  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

'  ought  to  arm  ; '  later  on,  however,  he  had  given  the 
contrary  advice  because  the  opportune  moment  had 
been  missed.  Now  everything  was  favourable.  '  Spain 
was  ill-provisioned,  her  garrisons  were  weak,  her  for- 
tresses falling  into  ruin.'  '  If  the  King  of  France 
threw  the  dice  the  States -General  must  perforce  join 
in  the  game,'  and,  in  fact,  both  Maurice  of  Orange 
and  Oldenbarneveldt  were  well  inclined  to  expel  the 
Spaniards  ;  the  Venetians  also  would  lend  a  helping 
hand.  If  proceedings  were  begun  this  year  against  the 
King  of  Spain,  '  merchants  would  be  found  to  attack 
him  in  his  own  country.'  The  Margrave  of  Ansbach 
'  allowed  that  Henry  IV.  had  no  reason  for  breaking 
the  peace,  since  he  had  himself  helped  to  conclude  it 
with  the  States-General ;  as,  however,  the  French  King 
was  now  anxious  to  do  so,  the  opportunity  was  not  to 
be  thrown  away ;  the  undertaking  was  an  easy  one, 
for  the  House  of  Austria,  inwardly  rent  and  enfeebled, 
would  be  unable  to  do  anything  if  the  King  gave  his 
support  to  the  evangelicals.  Baden  declared  that  they 
had  '  come  to  the  times  of  which  Ezekiel  writes,  of 
Gog  and  Magog.'  The  Estates  of  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands would  be  won  by  the  assurance  that  they  should 
be  made  free  like  the  Dutch  ;  since  France  had  allied 
herself  with  Saxony,  the  war  might  without  any  difficulty 
be  transferred  to  Italy.  The  members  in  conclave 
resolved  to  appeal  also  for  help  to  England,  Denmark, 
Venice,  and  the  Protestant  cantons  of  Switzerland,  and 
to  enter  into  further  negotiations  with  the  Protestant 
Estates  of  Bohemia,  Moravia,  Silesia,  and  Austria 
through  the  agency  of  Christian  of  Anhalt.  In  all  the 
territories  of  the  allies  prayers  were  to  be  offered  up, 
and  by  means  of  '  such  prayers  the  subjects  were  to  be 


AIMS   OF  SCHWAB1SCH-HALL  CONSPIRATORS       449 

imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Union.'  Christian  was 
instructed  to  make  a  fresh  appeal  to  the  French  King, 
urging  him,  for  the  furtherance  '  of  public  peace,'  and 
for  riddance  '  of  the  Spanish  yoke,'  and  '  under  the 
pretext  of  help  to  Julich,'  to  surprise  the  Archduke 
Albert  with  a  great  army  in  the  Netherlands.  As  soon 
as  Henry  IV.  and  the  States -General  embarked  on  open 
war  with  Spain,  the  allied  princes  and  the  '  Possessioners ' 
would  put  into  the  field,  at  their  own  expense,  8,000 
infantry  and  2,200  cavalry  for  the  current  year,  and,  in 
case  the  war  lasted  longer,  4,000  infantry  and  1,000 
cavalry  for  the  following  year. 

The  Catholic  Union,  later  on  called  the  League, 
which  was  then  in  process  of  formation,  did  not  cause 
the  conspirators  any  anxiety.  Christian  declared,  on 
the  ground  of  most  accurate  information,  that  '  the 
ecclesiastical  Estates,  with  the  exception  of  Wiirzburg, 
were  doing  nothing,  and  that  they  had  not  yet  even 
collected  the  necessary  means  for  organising  their 
Union  ;  Austria  had  quite  separated  itself ;  Bavaria 
also  was  little  to  be  feared,  for  though  it  had  two  regi- 
ments it  counted  on  the  fact  that  the  matter  concerned 
Donauworth  alone,  and  it  would  confine  itself  to  self- 
defence  :  they  must  not  let  themselves  be  disconcerted 
on  account  of  Bavaria.'  1 

'  The  true  and  actual  aim  '  of  the  conspirators  at 
Schwabisch-Hall  rested,  wrote  Caspar  Schoppe,  '  on 
three  points.'  The  first  was  the  protection  of  that 
religion  which  was  the  destroyer  of  the  papacy.  The 
second  was  the  defence  of  justice,  by  which  was  meant 
that  nobody  was  any  longer  to  be  subject  to  the  sentence 
and  judgment  of  the  Emperor,  but  that  justice  was 

1  Die  Verhandlungen,  in  Ritter,  iii.  36-113. 
VOL.    X.  G  G 


450  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

to  be  obtained  from  the  Count  Palatine  ;  the  third 
point  was  the  protection  of  liberty — that  is  to  say, 
freedom  for  each  individual  ruler  to  do  and  suffer  to  be 
done  whatever  he  himself  thought  right,  and  that  none 
were  to  be  hindered  from  carrying  out  their  own  wills 
by  imperial  mandates  and  executions.  '  For  instance, 
Maurice  of  Hesse  confiscates  a  cloister  belonging  to  a 
prince,1  and  forces  the  subjects  into  the  Calvinist  religion, 
and  it  is  settled  with  the  Count  Palatine  that  he  has 
acted  quite  rightly.  And  because  he  is  a  free  German, 
he  is  to  be  hindered  by  nobody.  Now  if  the  Emperor 
were  to  punish  him  for  such  a  deed  as  being  contrary 
to  the  plain  letter  of  the  Religious  Peace,  and  were  to 
order  him  to  restore  the  convent  to  its  former  condition 
and  to  turn  out  the  Calvinists  as  being  a  sect  forbidden 
in  the  Empire,  this  would  instantly  be  denounced  as  an 
attack  on  German  liberty,  and  a  long  elegy  or  satire 
would  be  printed  against  the  Emperor,  showing  him  up 
as  a  tyrant.  But  what  may  be  expected  from  such 
free  lords  and  princes — not  only  by  the  ecclesiastical 
Estates,  but  also  by  the  knights  and  the  free  cities — 
if  the  freedom  they  claim  is  granted  them,  any  fool 
may  easily  guess.  At  the  end  of  the  Book  of  Judges 
we  read  :  "  At  that  time  there  was  no  King  in  Israel, 
but  everyone  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes." 
Whereas  now  our  "  corresponding  princes  "  want  to  have 
precisely  the  same  amount  of  freedom,  in  order  that 
each  one  may  do  what  seems  to  him  right,  it  is  as  much 
as  to  say  that  they  will  not  put  up  with  any  King  in 
Israel,  i.e.  any  Emperor  in  Germany,  who  shall  keep 
them  within  the  bounds  of  law  and  justice.'  Here- 
from, also,  it  is  easy  to  understand  what  was  meant  at 

1  Die  Reichsabtei  Hersfeld. 


THE  CONSPIRATORS  ABETTED  BY  FRANCE    451 

the  Diet  at  Ratisbon  in  1608  by  the  Elector,  the  Count 
Palatine,  and  the  Landgrave  Maurice,  who  reiterated 
daily  that  '  the  Empire  must  be  cast  in  a  new  mould, 
or  else  nothing  would  be  done  and  oleum  et  opera  would 
be  wasted  on  the  wearisome  transactions.'  1 

The  French  were  jubilant  over  the  state  of  things. 
Bongars,  who  had  met  with  Boissise  at  Hall,  wrote  to 
the  King  on  February  12,  1610  :  '  Your  Majesty  is  the 
disposer  of  the  fate  of  these  princes,  of  their  safety  or 
their  ruin,  and  their  rank  is  such  that  it  will  be  of  the 
greatest  importance  to  the  whole  of  Christendom,  and 
especially  to  France,  whether  good  or  evil  befalls  them. 
We  have  reached  the  moment  which  must  decide  the 
fate  of  the  House  of  Austria.  Hungary,  Bohemia,  and 
the  Austrian  hereditary  lands  have  resolved  to  accept 
no  territorial  lord  from  the  line  of  Graz,  which  is  as 
debased  and  corrupt  as  it  can  be.  Those  of  the  other 
line  are  still  more  degenerate  than  those  of  Graz.  Your 
Majesty  will  soon  witness  the  end  of  the  House  if  you 
but  strengthen  the  allied  princes,  and  through  them 
the  resolutions  passed  in  the  said  Austrian  hereditary 
lands.'  Boissise,  he  said,  would  give  fuller  information 
about  all  that  was  necessary.2  The  latter  wrote  to 
the  King  that  '  he  had  proposed  to  the  princes  collec- 
tively, and  to  each  one  of  them  individually,  to  transfer 
the  imperial  crown  to  another  princely  house  and  to 
remove  the  Spaniards  from  their  neighbourhood,  and 
that  they  had  responded  with  great  eagerness  to  these 
proposals.  In  order  to  accomplish  this  transfer  of  the 
crown  there  was  still  one  thing  to  be  achieved  :  namely, 
to  obtain  the  accession  of  Saxony  to  the  Union,  and 

1  v.  Friedberg,  pp.  72-74. 

2  Ritter,  iii.  87-88,  note  1,  and  114,  note  1. 

G    G    2 


452  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

this  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  hoped  to  arrange  with 
Christian  IL'  1 

This  hope  did  not  meet  with  fulfilment.  Christian 
rejected  the  proposal  on  March  18  because  '  it  was 
manifest '  that  the  whole  intention  of  the  allies  was 
'  not  to  obey  the  imperial  orders  ; '  moreover,  he  said, 
it  was  very  hazardous  to  draw  foreign  powers  into  the 
League.  No  blame,  he  added,  could  be  cast  on  the 
Catholics,  because  they  too,  instigated  by  proceedings 
of  the  Union,  had  thought  of  getting  into  readiness.2 

A  report  published  in  the  year  1610,  emanating 
probably  from  Doctor  Helfrich,  the  Resident  of  the 
Saxon  Electorate  at  Paris,  disclosed  the  plans  of  the 
conspirators  respecting  the  installation  of  a  new  king. 
The  writer  mentioned  the  names  of  the  persons  con- 
cerned in  the  scheme,  the  means  proposed  for  its 
accomplishment,  and  the  provisions  already  made. 
Either  the  King  of  France  or  the  King  of  Denmark 
was  to  ascend  the  German  throne.  '  Whereas  all 
counsels  are  directed  towards  the  abasement  of  the 
House  of  Austria  and  of  the  papal  Estates,  the  con- 
federates have  in  mind  first  of  all  to  invade  Alsatia  and 
the  Austrian  frontier  lands,  and  if  the  inhabitants  of 
Lorraine  or  the  Burgundians  should  refuse  passage  to 
the  King  of  France,  then  the  allied  army  must  attack 
them  in  their  own  lands  and  scatter  and  destroy  them. 
Above  all  things  they  were  bent  on  seizing  the  bishopric 
of  Strasburg  and  the  (Western)  frontier  lands,  and 
on  planting  their  religion  there,  and  driving  out  the 
Catholics  and  the  papists,  and  for  this  purpose  they 
aimed  at  securing  Breisach,  which  was  the  strongest 

1  Ritter,  iii.  113-114. 

2  Id.  iii.  209,  note  2* 


r^o. 


DETAILS   OF   THE   CONSPIRATORS'   PLANS  45 

fastness  in  the  land.'  '  They  natter  themselves  that, 
if  once  in  possession  of  this  town,  they  would  be  lords 
of  the  whole  Rhine,  and  would  then  have  a  war  base, 
where  they  could  entrench  their  troops  and  whence 
they  could  make  sorties,  overmaster  the  land  on  both 
sides  at  their  pleasure,  and  maintain  their  religion  and 
prestige  in  it  undisturbed  by  Spain  and  Austria.  But, 
above  all,  when  they  had  secured  this  place,  the  Palatine 
Elector  and  Brandenburg  were  to  occupy  it  with  their 
people,  rule  over  it  until  the  election  of  a  Roman  King, 
and  be  helped  with  money  and  men  by  the  King  of 
France.'  The  acquisition  of  the  town  of  Freiburg  in 
the  Breisgau  was  also  contemplated ;  Bongars  had 
'  lately  had  several  maps  of  all  these  lands  made  at 
Strasburg,  with  special  plans  of  the  towns  of  Breisach 
and  Freiburg.'  x  '  And  when  the  bishopric  of  Strasburg 
and  its  lands  had  been  confiscated  they  were  to  invade 
the  bishoprics  of  Spires  and  Worms  and  the  territories 
lying  between  them.'  '  And  although  the  Bishops  of 
Worms,  Spires,  Mayence,  and  others  have  really  no 
connection  with  the  affair  of  Jiilich,'  designs  are  never- 
theless made  on  these  prelates  because  '  the  German 
princes  would  gladly  introduce  their  religion  into  their 
bishoprics  as  well  as  into  all  the  others,  and  would  also 
be  very  glad  to  instal  in  them  the  needy  members  among 
the  nobility,  the  counts  and  the  lords.  They  would 
expect  by  this  means  to  secure  still  greater  stability 
to  their  hitherto  confiscated  convents,  abbeys,  pro- 
vostries,  and  bishoprics.'  In  league  with  France,  Den- 
mark, England  and  Sweden,  with  the  Netherlands  and 

1  Among  the  effects  of  a  prisoner  at  Breisach,  according  to  the  report 
of  a  councillor  of  King  Matthias,  there  was  found  a  document  stating 
that  a  painter  from  Basle  had  made  a  plan  of  the  town. 


454  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

all  the  other  reformed  states  of  the  Empire,  the  German 
princes  had  no  fear  '  that  Austria  would  be  strong  enough 
to  oppose  them,  for  the  King  of  Spain  and  the  whole 
House  of  Austria  in  general,  depleted  by  wars  of  all 
sorts,  had  but  little  left.'  Since  Spain  had  not  even 
been  able  to  overmaster  the  Netherlands,  but  had  been 
forced  to  agree  to  an  amnesty,  it  was  easy  to  calculate 
how  little  help  exhausted  Austria  could  hope  for  in  that 
direction,  in  the  event  of  having  simultaneously  to  deal 
with  the  German  princes  and  the  foreign  powers.1 

At  the  end  of  March  the  Elector  of  Saxony's  coun- 
cillors were  informed  that  '  the  Palatiners  had  given 
their  assurance  on  oath  that  the  Palatine  Elector  would 
be  able  to  bring  up  with  all  speed  30,000  men  of  his 
own  people,  counting  only  those  who  were  experienced 
in  arms ;  this  was  a  large  number,  and  everybody 
therefore  wished  that  the  war  might  begin  quickly.'  2  In 
order  '  to  raise  a  substantial  supply  of  money '  for  his 
preparations,  Frederic  IV.  informed  his  people  that 
'  whereas  the  turbulent  popish  party  '  were  endeavouring 
to  stir  up  dangerous  disturbances  in  Germany,  the 
Elector  and  other  evangelical  princes  were  obliged  to 
hold  themselves  ready  for  defence  ;  the  subjects  were 
therefore  requested,  especially  all  guardians  who  had 
money  to  place  out  for  their  wards,  to  lend  this  money 
to  the  electoral  commissariats.  They  were  promised 
good  security  and  interest ;  notice  was  also  given  that 
'  no  more  moneys  were  to  be  lent  out  in  other  and 
foreign  quarters.' 3 

1  Report  in  Hist.-'polit.  Bl.  27,  77-88,  153-170.  Duke  Henry  Julius 
of  Brunswick  brought  this  report  to  the  notice  of  King  Matthias,  in  order 
to  influence  him  to  make  peace  with  the  Emperor.  See  Senkenberg,  xxiii. 
250-252. 

2  Ritter,  iii.  155,  No.  61.  3  Ritter,  iii.  155,  No.  61,  note  1. 


NEGOTIATIONS  WITH  JAMES  I.  OF  ENGLAND   455 

A  deputation  of  the  allies  to  James  I.  of  England, 
on  April  28,  represented  to  him  in  forcible  language  that 
'  Satan  at  the  present  time  was  doing  all  he  could  to 
ruin  those  who  had  thrown  off  the  yoke  of  the  Antichrist. 
The  Pope  and  the  Jesuits  had  begun  a  fierce  persecution 
entirely  at  variance  with  the  laws  enacted  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  dignity,  freedom,  religion,  and  privileges 
of  the  Estates  of  the  Empire.'  Thus,  for  instance,  the 
imperial  town  of  Donauworth,  simply  and  solely  because, 
on  the  strength  of  the  Religious  Peace,  it  had  stopped 
the  scandalous  processions  '  of  a  neighbouring  abbot,' 
had  been  placed  under  ban  '  without  hearing  or  trial ; ' 
and  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  who  had  enforced  the  sentence 
of  the  ban,  altogether  illegally,  had  compelled  the 
burghers  either  to  renounce  their  religion  or  to  forsake 
their  homes  and  possessions.  What  the  Pope  could 
not  achieve  by  means  of  the  Jesuits  he  accomplished 
through  imperial  councillors  bribed  by  the  Jesuits ; 
the  influence  of  the  electors  was  annulled,  lawlessness 
was  rampant  everywhere,  and  everybody  was  declaring 
openly  that  they  would  not  be  bound  by  any  religious 
peace.'  In  this  dire  extremity  the  Protestant  Estates 
had  resolved  on  the  measure  so  often  suggested  to  them 
by  neighbouring  powers,  especially  by  Queen  Elizabeth 
and  by  King  James  himself  ;  they  had  leagued  them- 
selves together  for  the  maintenance  of  their  religion, 
rights,  and  dignity,  and  they  would  be  glad  also  to  enter 
into  a  close  alliance  with  England.  For  the  support  of 
the  "  Possessioners ':'  in  the  Jiilich  lands  they  had,  to 
commence  with,  raised  4,000  infantry  and  1,000  cavalry  ; 
the  King  of  France  had  promised  double  the  number 
for  the  same  object ;  their  petition  now  was  that  James 
would  not  do  less.' 


456  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

The  King  replied  that  '  the  Union  had  his  full 
approval ; '  'he  would  agree  to  whatever  might  be 
required  of  him  on  its  behalf.'  In  the  affair  of  Jiilich 
he  had  already  promised  a  definite  amount  of  help,  and 
he  would  grant  still  more  if  necessary,  until  the  matter 
was  satisfactorily  arranged.1  The  English  help  promised 
at  the  end  of  February  amounted  to  4,000  men.2 

Henry  IV.  no  longer  doubted  as  to  a  complete  and 
rapid  victory.  '  He  should  manage  his  business  so 
well,'  he  said  to  the  Venetian  ambassadors,  '  and,  with 
the  help  of  England,  Denmark,  the  Netherlands,  the 
allied  German  princes,  the  Savoyards,  the  Grisons,  and 
a  few  Italian  princes,  it  would  be  so  easy  to  bear  down 
upon  the  Habsburg  forces  simultaneously  from  all 
directions,  that  Venice  might  rest  assured  that  with 
one  stride,  and  without  serious  difficulties,  they  would 
pass  straight  from  peace  to  victory — all  the  more  so 
in  consideration  of  the  weakness  under  which  Spain 
at  present  laboured.' 3  After  the  agreement  between 
himself  and  Charles  Emmanuel,  who  was  to  invade  Milan, 
had  been  concluded  on  April  25,  he  wrote  to  Boissise  on 
May  2  :  'he  hoped  towards  the  end  of  the  month  to 
have  an  army  of  30,000  men  ready  for  marching  ;  the 
States-General,  it  was  true,  were  not  willing  to  break 
the  amnesty  with  Spain  during  the  current  year,  but 
they  had  promised  him  to  send  12,000  infantry  and 
1,600  cavalry  to  the  help  of  the  "  Possessionem."  With 
these  troops  the  Landgrave  Moritz  of  Hesse  must  unite 
whatever  contingent  of  the  allied  forces  he  was  able  to 


1  Ritter,  iii.  224  227 

2  Ritter,  iii.  124.     See  Aerssen's  letter  of  March  13,  1610,  to  Duplessis- 
Mornay,  xi.  2. 

3  Hofler,  Plan  Heinrichs  IV.,  p.  25. 


HENRY   IV.   BEFORE   THE   DECISION,   1610  457 

collect.  On  the  same  day  Henry  IV.  encouraged  Prince 
Christian  of  Anhalt,  who  was  already  in  the  Netherlands, 
to  go  on  valiantly  :  he  had  no  need,  he  told  him,  to  fear 
the  enemies,  for,  to  his  knowledge,  they  were  an  ignorant, 
timid,  and  feeble  lot.'  l  Meanwhile,  Christian,  supported 
by  the  States -General  with  twenty-eight  regiments  of 
cavalry,  had  surprised  the  Jiilich  infantry  of  Archduke 
Leopold,  and,  as  he  reported  to  his  wife,  '  gained  no 
slight  victory.'  On  May  7  he  informed  the  French 
ambassador  Boissise  that  he  had  decided  to  begin  the 
war  in  the  territory  of  the  Archduke  Albert.  Archduke 
Leopold,  wrote  Boissise,  was  without  money,  without 
soldiers,  and  without  hope  of  succour,  and  would  there- 
fore be  obliged  to  give  up  Jiilich.2  Archduke  Albert 
managed  to  evade  the  war  :  on  May  13  he  granted 
Henry  IV. 's  army  the  right  of  transit  through  the  Duchy 
of  Luxembourg ;  3  and  he  gave  friendly  assurances  to 
the  allies.4  At  the  head  of  34,000  men  Henry  IV.  had 
planned  to  march  against  Germany,  and  from  Jiilich 
to  invade  Belgium,  in  order  '  to  liberate  '  the  Princess 
of  Conde.  But  on  May  14  the  dagger  of  Eavaillac 
turned  all  his  plans  to  nothingness. 

1  Ritter,  iii.  229-231.  a  Ritter,  iii.  239,  242,  251-252. 

3  Letter  of  Albert  in  Cornelius,  Der  grosse  Plan,  p.  61,  note  25  ;  Hen- 
rard,  pp.  284-285.  Concerning  the  hopeless  position  of  the  court  of 
Brussels,  see  Gardiner,  ii.  98. 

4  Ritter,  iii.  238,  No.  136,  note  1. 


458  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


CHAPTER   III 

MILITARY  DEEDS  AND  FRESH   PLANS    OF   THE  ALLIES,  1610 

By  the  murder  of  Henry  IV.  the  House  of  Habsburg  was 
freed  from  its  most  dangerous  enemy,  and  '  the  great 
war '  which  was  to  have  crushed  all  the  power  of  this 
House,  and  to  have  established  the  supremacy  of  France 
in  Europe,  had  to  be  deferred  to  some  future  time. 
'  The  small  war,'  however,  lasted  on,  '  frightfully  and 
gruesomely  for  all  the  lands  in  which  it  was  waged.' 

'  We  think  best  at  all  events,'  wrote  Frederic  IV. 
of  the  Palatinate  on  May  19,  1610,  to  the  Elector  of 
Brandenburg,  '  not  to  deviate  from  the  course  embarked 
upon.'  1  James  I.  declared  his  intentions  of  fulfilling 
his  promise  to  the  German  princes.2  The  Queen-Regent 
Maria  de'  Medici  also  promised  an  envoy  of  the  allies 
on  June  24,  that  she  should  '  follow  in.  the  footsteps  of 
Henry  IV.,  and  in  order  to  do  this  she  should  send  the 
princes  the  help  promised  them  by  his  late  Majesty.' 
The  States -General,  on  July  26,  expressed  their  willing- 
ness to  conclude  a  treaty  with  the  Union.4 

On  May  5,  Frederic  IV.  had  made  application  to 
the  Bishops  of  Spires  and  Worms  for  the  supply  of  very 
considerable  sums  towards  the  costs  of  his  military  pre- 
parations, for  by  these  preparations,  he  had  the  audacity 

1  Ritter,  iii.  256,  note  1. 

2  '  ...  he  was  determined  to  fulfil  his  engagements  to  the  German 
princes  '  (Gardiner,  ii.  99). 

3  Ritter,  iii.  378.  i  Id.  iii.  370. 


AFFAIRS   IN   THE   JtlLICH   LANDS,   1610  459 

to  assert,  their  domains  would  be  placed  '  in  safety.' 
In  vain  the  Bishops  protested  that  they  were  at  enmity 
with  no  one,  and  that  their  subjects  had  fallen  into  the 
greatest  poverty  and  need,  through  bad  harvests, 
having  soldiers  quartered  on  them,  and  troops  passing 
through  the  land,  and  through  the  imposition  of  military 
taxes  ;  they  begged  that  the  Elector  would  oppress 
them  no  further.  But  Frederic  knew  no  mercy.  At 
the  end  of  May  he  caused  contributions  to  be  levied  in 
several  districts  of  the  two  bishoprics  ;  at  the  same 
time  the  troops  of  the  Margrave  of  Ansbach  quartered 
themselves  unceremoniously  in  two  districts  of  the 
electorate  of  Mayence,  and  took  forcible  possession  of 
the  peasants'  food  supplies,  carts  and  horses.  In  the 
middle  of  June  there  resounded  from  the  three  bishoprics 
fresh  complaints  of  the  plundering  of  the  people  by 
Palatine  and  Hessian  soldiers.  '  By  having  troops 
quartered  on  them  for  the  third  time,'  the  Bishop  of 
Spires  wrote  to  the  Count  Palatine  on  June  21,  the 
subjects  were  almost  completely  drained.1  The  terri- 
tories of  Bamberg  and  Wurzburg  were  invaded  by  the 
Margraves  of  Ansbach  and  Baden,  and  '  for  several 
weeks  the  lands  were  wantonly  ravaged.'  2 

The  prediction  of  a  Protestant  delegate  in  1608  at 
the  Diet  at  Ratisbon  was  now  having  its  fulfilment. 
'  When  once  our  fists  have  clutched  hold  of  weapons  we 
shall  give  some  of  those  priests'  pates  such  a  tremendous 
shearing,  as  will  not  be  forgotten  by  them  for  a  long 
time.'  3  This  '  shearing '  did  live  indeed  also  in  the 
memory  of  the  helpless  subjects. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  Jiilich  lands  the  devastations  of 

1  Ritter,  iii.  258-259,  290-292.  2  Id.  iii.  309,  310,  note  1. 

3  Schreiber,  Maximilian,  p.  128. 


460  HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

'  the  enemies  of  the  Roman  Antichrist  and  the  whole 
papal  yoke '  went  on  in  such  a  manner  that  '  the  very- 
stones  might  have  cried  out  in  pity.'  '  To  put  it 
briefly,'  Dr.  Alexander  Hopmann  of  Cleves  wrote  on 
May  27,  '  to  such  an  extent  has  everything  been  plun- 
dered, devoured,  burnt  and  destroyed,  that  in  most 
villages  and  hamlets  there  is  literally  nothing  but  tracts 
of  empty  desert.'  l 

As  early  as  March  21  the  Count  Palatine  Wolfgang 
Wilhelm  had  written  to  Christian  of  Anhalt :  '  The 
whole  land  of  Jiilich  is  almost  eaten  up,  all  the  inhabi- 
tants rich  enough  to  keep  horses  had  fled  ;  everything 
was  in  such  chaos  that  one  couldn't  tell  where  to 
begin  first.'  2  In  August  the  Hessian  ambassador  Johann 
Zobel  reported  from  Diisseldorf  to  the  Landgrave 
Moritz  :  '  The  inhabitants  are  starved  down  to  their 
last  bones,  and  so  completely  drained  out  that  they 
have  left  everything  and  run  away  ;  '  '  the  blood  and 
poverty  '  of  the  unhappy  people  cry  aloud  to  heaven.3 
In  Cleves  it  became  known  that  Christian  of  Anhalt 
had  made  the  following  announcement :  '  When  once 
we  have  got  Jiilich  in  our  hands  we  intend  to  deal  out 
good  solid  lessons  to  the  papists,  and  we  shall  have  the 
States- General  and  England  on  our  side.'  4 

In  Alsatia  '  good  solid  lessons  '  were  already  being 
dealt  out.  Archduke  Leopold,  administrator  of  the 
bishopric  of  Strasburg,  had  established  there  a  body  of 
troops  for  watching  the  movements  of  France.  In 
order  to  destroy  this  corps  the  Margraves  of  Ansbach 
and  Baden  advanced  into  the  Strasburg  district  and 

1  See  above,  p.  431,  note  3.  2  Ritter,  iii.  152. 

3  Ritter,  iii.  394-395,  407. 

4  Aufzeichnungen  Alex.  Hopmanns  ;  see  above,  p.  431,  note  3. 


VIOLENT   PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   UNION,   1610      461 

plundered  and  levied  contributions  wherever  they  came. 
The  Elector  Palatine  himself  was  filled  with  terror  at 
them.  Such  unwarrantable  proceedings,  he  wrote  to 
the  Margrave  on  August  4,  would  make  the  Union 
hated,  and  would  afford  the  towns,  already  displeased 
at  the  Alsatian  enterprise,  fresh  inducement  to  retire 
from  the  alliance.  Besides  the  towns,  moreover,  '  other 
allied  Estates,  to  whom  the  above  expedition  was 
equally  obnoxious,  might  easily  also  be  influenced  to 
withdraw  their  hands  and  their  help.'  1  The  Strasburg 
and  the  Nuremberg  councillors  of  war  begged  the 
Elector  to  arrange  for  the  improvement  of  the  military 
discipline,  and  to  manage  '  that  the  Union  should  no 
longer  be  made  odious  to  both  friends  and  foes,  as 
unfortunately  had  happened  everywhere  hitherto,  and 
that  there  should  be  no  chance  of  its  breaking  up  into 
the  depths  of  disgrace  and  shame.'  2 

When  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg,  in  the  middle  of 
June,  demanded  of  the  provincial  committees  help  for 
the  expenses  of  the  Union,  he  was  answered  that  '  it 
had  been  represented  to  them  that  the  alliance  had  for 
its  object  the  defence  of  the  Fatherland  ; '  but  these 
'  intentions  '  had  been  departed  from,  and  '  the  money 
supplies  had  been  unnecessarily  squandered  on  the 
Julich  and  Strasburg  disturbances.'  In  this  way  '  the 
Catholics  who  had  abandoned  house  and  home  in 
Alsatia,  and  sought  refuge  in  the  duchy,  were  all  the 
more  exasperated  :  '  the  Duke  was  accused  of  being 
the  chief  promoter  of  the  enterprise,  and  now,  if  he 
could  do  so  with  honour,  he  was  advised  to  separate 
himself  from  it.3 

1  Ritter,  iii.  365-366.  2  Ritter,  iii.  439,  note  2. 

3  Sattler,  vi.  51. 


462  HISTORY   OF  THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

On  August  9,  three  Lutheran  princes,  the  Elector 
of  Saxony,  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  and  the  Landgrave 
of  Hesse-Darmstadt,  addressed  an  earnest  written  appeal 
to  Frederic  IV.  and  his  colleagues.  The  Union,  they 
said,  repudiated  the  charge  of  intending  any  proceedings 
against  the  Emperor,  the  Public  Peace,  and  the  Religious 
Peace.  But  it  was  now  clearly  established  that  '  this 
Union,  the  appeals  to  foreign  potentates,  and  all  the 
existing  military  preparations  had  no  other  object 
than  to  stimulate  disobedience  and  indifference  to  the 
imperial  behests,  and  to  punish  the  Catholic  Estates.' 
Proof  sufficient  of  this  was  the  quartering  of  soldiers 
and  the  marching  of  troops  through  the  bishoprics  in 
opposition  to  the  laws  of  the  realm,  the  invasion  of  the 
bishopric  of  Strasburg,  the  threats  against  other  bishop- 
rics, and  also  against  the  Lutheran  Estates.  If  the 
allies  '  remained  in  an  armed  condition  and  ready  to 
attack  now  one  Estate,  now  another,'  it  would  be 
necessary  for  the  Estates  that  were  loyal  to  the  Emperor, 
whether  Catholic  or  evangelical,  to  consider  as  to  needful 
ways  and  means  of  defence  against  such  violence.1 

Nevertheless,  the  allies  did  not  let  themselves  '  be 
disturbed  by  anything.'  An  Imperial  mandate  which 
complained  of  their  deeds  of  violence  and  wantonness, 
and  insisted  on  the  abolition  of  their  League,  was 
regarded  by  them  as  unbinding  and  as  offensive  to 
their  honour  :  they  were  placed,  they  said,  in  a  position 
of  extremity,  and  were  only  intent  on  the  consolidation 
of  the  Public  Peace  and  the  Eeligious  Peace.2 

In  February  1610  the  Emperor  had  said  in  a  public 
proclamation    that    he    advanced    no    claim    whatever 

1  Ritter,  iii.  397-399.     See  Klopp,  i.  96  ff. 

2  Ritter,  iii.  309-310,  373-375. 


VIOLENT   PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   UNION,    1610      463 

to  the  Jiilich  lands  for  the  House  of  Austria  ;  1  on 
July  7  he  had  solemnly  enfeoffed  the  House  of  Saxony 
with  these  lands.2  In  a  bond  drawn  up  on  the  occasion 
Saxony  had  agreed  that  this  enfeoffment  should  be  in 
no  way  prejudicial  to  the  constitutional  rights  of  the 
Emperor  and  the  Empire,  to  the  rights  of  other  princes, 
especially  the  claimants,  or,  finally,  to  the  rights  and 
the  traditions  of  the  Jtilich  lands  in  both  ecclesiastical 
and  secular  matters  :  if  the  enfeoffment  was  disputed 
by  anybody  the  Elector  would  abide  by  the  decision 
of  the  Emperor  as  incontestable  arbiter.3  Archduke 
Leopold  had  abandoned  Julich  as  early  as  in  June,  and 
had  come  forward  in  support  of  the  Saxon  claims. 

But  '  everything  that  the  Emperor  does,'  remarked 
Alexander  Hopmann,  '  is  mere  sport  and  jest  for  those 
who  have  the  power  and  the  weapons  ;  they  laugh 
finely  over  it  and  say  with  their  foreign  allies  :  "  We  are 
the  lords."  '  4  On  July  28  Prince  Maurice  of  Orange 
appeared  with  his  army  and  was  received  by  Christian 
of  Anhalt  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Julich.  His  forces, 
including  two  Franco-Netherlandish  regiments  and  the 
English  troops,  amounted  to  136  companies  of  infantry 
and  38  of  cavalry.  On  August  18  Christian  and  Maurice 
were  joined  by  the  French  Marshal  La  Chatre,  who 
brought  with  him  5,000  French  and  Swiss  infantry 
and  900  cavalry.  On  one  occasion  when  the  Marshal 
was  entertaining  the  chief  commanding  officers  at 
table,  and  dishes  of  fish  were  being  served,  Maurice 
remarked  somewhat  loud  in  French  :  '  What  an  idiotic 
religion  it  is  which  teaches  that  salvation  is  obtained 

1  Ritter,  Sachsen  und  der  Jiilicher  Erbjolgestreit,  p.  50. 

2  Gindely,  ii.  118. 

3  Ritter,  Sachsen,  pp.  53-54.       4  See  above,  p.  431,  note  3. 


464  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

through  eating  fish  !  '  '  Everybody  remained  silent.' 
On  September  1  the  fortress  of  Jiilich  was  surrendered 
to  the  besieging  army.1 

For  the  allies  the  question  now  was,  What  next  was 
to  happen  ? 

The  Landgrave  Maurice  of  Hesse  had  already 
arranged  with  Christian  of  Anhalt  at  the  beginning  of 
June  that  as  soon  as  Jiilich  was  taken,  the  troops,  '  for 
which  for  a  time  there  would  be  no  special  work,'  were 
to  be  allowed  to  '  relax  themselves  '  in  the  bishoprics 
of  Miinster  and  Paderborn.  Count  John  of  Nassau 
also  approved  of  this  plan.  If,  after  the  successful 
ending  of  the  Jiilich  enterprise,  he  wrote  to  Maurice 
on  June  17,  the  soldiers  were  allowed  '  a  period  of 
relaxation  in  the  lands  of  the  papists,'  great  advantages 
would  accrue  therefrom  :  '  we  should  then  have  ready 
at  hand  a  supply  of  troops  in  fighting  trim,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  ecclesiastics,  who  would  also  be  obliged 
to  keep  themselves  to  a  certain  extent  armed,'  would 
be  enfeebled.  It  would  also  be  necessary,  as  Maurice 
had  proposed,  '  to  levy  contributions  on  the  ecclesiastical 
Estates,  which  would  be  almost  high  enough  to  defray 
the  costs  of  the  war.'  Furthermore,  '  by  good  far-seeing- 
management  they  would  be  able  to  set  their  subjects 
and  the  common  people  at  their  throats.'  Count  John, 
who  was  extolled  by  his  preachers  as  a  divinely  equipped 
c  champion  of  the  dear  evangel  according  to  Calvin,' 
openly  sanctioned  such  proceedings  as  permissible  and 
honourable.  As,  however,  he  himself  did  not  enjoy 
the  necessary  prestige,  the  Landgrave,  he  said,  must 
manage  the  business  at  Diisseldorf  with  the  Union  and 
the  '  Possessionem.'  2 

1  Ritter,  Brief e  und  Akten,  iii.  425-430.  -  Id.  iii.  288,  note  1. 


FRESH   PLANS   OF   THE    UNION,    1610  465 

The  Elector  Palatine,  Frederic  IV.,  had  warned 
the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg  on  August  17  that,  '  as  the 
conquest  of  Jiilich  was  near  at  hand,  they  must  consider 
betimes  in  what  way  it  would  be  most  beneficial  to  the 
general  evangelical  cause,  and  most  conducive  to  the 
settlement  of  the  grievances  which  had  so  long  been 
complained  of  in  vain,  to  utilise  the  large  body  of  troops 
which  they  would  then  have  at  their  disposal.  If  they 
did  not  use  them  for  these  objects  at  this  opportune 
moment,  it  would  be  difficult,  when  necessity  urged, 
to  get  together  again  so  powerful  an  army.  For  secur- 
ing redress  of  grievances  the  most  advantageous  way 
would  be,  after  the  capture  of  Jiilich,  to  keep  part  at 
least  of  the  army  together,  and  '  in  view  of  this  to 
negotiate  in  good  time  with  the  King  of  England  and 
the  States-General.'  ' 

On  September  17,  after  the  taking  of  Jiilich,  the 
Elector  Palatine  reverted  again  '  to  the  opinion  that  it 
would  be  advisable  now,  since  they  had  got  so  very 
much  the  better  of  their  opponents,  to  remain  prepared 
with  a  considerable  body  of  forces  in  the  upper  terri- 
tories, as  well  as  in  Jiilich,  in  order  by  this  means  to 
get  redress  for  their  grievances,  and  also  to  secure  a 
'  lasting  peace ' — that  is  to  say,  the  remodelling  of  the 
Imperial  constitution  according  to  the  wishes  of  the 
allies.  '  To  this  end '  he  solicited  Christian  of  Anhalt 
to  '  prevail  on  the  ambassadors  of  the  auxiliary  poten- 
tates to  hold  at  the  disposal  of  the  allied  electors  and 
princes  a  considerable  portion  of  their  military  forces ; 
the  troops  either  to  be  kept  at  the  expense  of  their 
lordships,  for  a  short  period  only,  or  quartered  (on 
Munster  and  Paderborn)  as  proposed.'  2 

1  Ritter,  iii.  414-415.  -  Id.  iii.  447. 

VOL.    X.  H  H 


4  60  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Two  days  later  all  this  fabric  of  plots  and  plans 
was  rent  in  pieces  by  death.     The  Elector  Frederic  IV. 
expired   on   September    19,   a   victim   to   his   excesses. 
When  Henry  IV.  was  assassinated  there  was  '  general 
lament  among  the  allies  that  snch  a  helper  and  friend 
of  princely  liberty,  one  from  whom  so  mnch  was  hoped, 
should  have  been  prematurely  snatched  away.'     Now 
Christian  of  Anhalt  wrote  to  his  wife  :  '  I  cannot  describe 
to   you   what  lamentation   the   death   of   the    Elector 
Palatine  has  occasioned.     Verily,  it  is  too  much  in  one 
year   to  lose   two   such   great   and   good  patrons    and 
friends.'     The  Union  was  left  without  a  head,  and  its 
negotiations  with  England  and  with  the  States- General 
had  not  yet  been   brought  to   a   conclusion.     In   the 
Palatinate  there  ensued  a  contest  of  far-reaching  signi- 
ficance  between   the   Count   Palatine   Philip   Louis   of 
JSJeuberg,  who    claimed  the  right  of  regency  over  the 
land,    and   the   Count   Palatine   of   Zweibriicken,    who 
practically  held  it.     In  France  an  internal  revolution  in 
political  affairs,  and  external  changes  in  foreign  alliances 
without,  were  brewing,  while  in  the  Empire  a  Catholic 
League  had  developed  into  power,  and  its  leader,  Duke 
Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  superior  to  all  other  princes  in 
powers  of  mind  and  capacity  for  action,  had  no  inten- 
tion of  allowing  the  plans  of  the  revolutionary  party 
'  to  take  effect  quietly,  without  a  formidable  crossing  of 
swords.' 


46' 


CHAPTEK  IV 

CATHOLIC  LEAGUE  OF  DEFENCE — ITS  POSITION  WITH 
REGARD  TO  THE  UNION — A  CATHOLIC-LUTHERAN 
LEAGUE    PROJECTED,    1609-1610 

Up  to  the  year  1606  Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  had 
still  felt  no  inclination  to  found  a  Catholic  League  of 
Defence  ;  ]  but  his  opinions  had  changed  since  he  had 
become  aware  of  the  continuous  progress  of  the  Palatine 
revolutionary  party,  and  since  the  enforcement  of  the 
ban  at  Donauworth,  by  which,  as  he  wrote  on  October  3, 
1608,  to  the  imperial  vice-chancellor  von  Strahlendorf, 
'  he  had  drawn  down  on  himself  the  hatred  and  enmity 
of  all  the  Protestant  princes  and  Estates.'  2  The  Pala- 
tine party  had  broken  up  the  Ratisbon  Diet  in  1608, 
and  soon  afterwards  had  organised  their  League  at 
Ahausen  ;  the  Emperor,  by  the  successful  insurrection 
of  his  brother  Matthias,  had  been  robbed  of  all  influence 
and  authority  in  the  Empire.  Maximilian  accordingly 
set  himself,  with  infinite  tact,  perseverance,  and  self- 
sacrifice,  to  call  into  existence  a  '  Protective  Union ' 
which  should  prevent  the  complete  suppression  of  the 
Catholic  Estates  and  the  overthrow  of  the  imperial 
constitution.     Whereas,  however,  the  Emperor  was  not 

1  See  above,  vol.  ix.  chap.  21. 

2  Wolf,  Maximilian,  ii.  340.  See  the  '  Diskurs '  of  Duke  Maximilian 
for  Cardinal  Millino  on  a  Catholic  alliance  (June  1608)  in  Stieve,  Briefe 
und  Akten,  6,  418  ft'.,  and  ibid.  436  ff.,  a  '  Diskurs  '  issuing  from  the  court 
of  Munich  at  the  beginning  of  Julv  on  the  necessity  for  a  Catholic  League. 

II  h  2 


468  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

in  a  position  to  guarantee  protection,  and  since  his 
lasting  enmity  with  Matthias,  and  the  overwhelming 
power  to  which  the  Protestant  Estates  had  attained, 
gave  reason  to  fear  fresh  formidable  convulsions  in  the 
Austrian  hereditary  lands,  if  not  the  complete  downfall 
of  the  Habsburg  House,  Maximilian  was  anxious  to 
have  the  '  Protective  Alliance  '  concluded  independently 
of  this  House.  In  following  this  course  he  by  no  means 
contemplated  ousting  the  Habsburgs  from  the  throne 
and  securing  it  for  himself.  He  was  merely  guided  by 
a  true  instinct  which  taught  him  that  under  existing 
circumstances  every  league  whose  efficiency  depended 
on  the  court  of  Prague  or  on  that  of  Vienna  would  either 
be  doomed  to  impotence  from  the  outset,  or  else  would 
become  involved  in  complications  which  would  work 
most  ruinously  for  the  Estates  of  the  Empire.  There 
was,  indeed,  no  hope  of  achieving  any  real  and  thorough- 
going organisation  for  defence  of  the  Catholic  religion 
so  long  as  the  dynasty  of  Maximilian  II.  retained  the 
imperial  crown.  Under  Rudolf  II.  the  Catholics  had 
sufficiently  realised  this  fact :  under  Matthias  the  same 
truth  was  again  to  become  evident.  '  To  deal  out  fair- 
seeming  words  this  way  and  that,  on  one  side  and  the 
other,  all  at  the  same  time,  but  to  do  next  to  nothing, 
or  else,  according  to  Viennese  custom,  to  attach  only 
five  days'  importance  to  all  commands  and  prohibi- 
tions— never  more,  at  any  cost — thereby  increasing  the 
contempt  of  all  parties,  such  has  been,  since  the  time 
of  Maximilian  II.,'  we  read  in  an  old  satirical  dialogue 
of  1617,  '  the  imperial  watchword.'  ' 

A  policy  of  this  kind  could  not  commend  itself  to 
the  Bavarian  Duke.     What  he  desired  was   '  a   well- 

1   Ein  kurzes  anmuthliches  Gesprach,  pp.  5-6. 


A  CATHOLIC  DEFENSIVE  LEAGUE  CONCLUDED,  1609      469 

considered,  sagacious,  and  at  the  same  time  energetic 
and  active  championship  of  justice  and  peace  : '  '  a  de- 
finite policy,  and  the  necessary  measures  for  carrying 
it  out,  for  which  every  right-minded  man,  and,  above 
all,  every  prince  of  Catholic  faith  and  German  blood, 
would  think  no  labour  and  no  sacrifice  too  great.'  l 
But  it  was  not  at  the  imperial  court  only  that  action 
towards  a  definite  end  and  devoted  labour  and  self- 
sacrifice  were  lacking.  Among  the  ecclesiastical  Estates, 
who  had  resolved  on  forming  a  protective  alliance, 
there  was  a  lamentable  deficiency  in  this  respect,  as 
Maximilian  learnt  fast  enough,  '  to  his  no  slight  vexa- 
tion and  wrath.' 

After  lengthy  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  Duke,  a 
treaty  was  signed  at  Munich  on  July  10,  1609,  which 
laid  the  foundation  of  a  Catholic  Union,  the  so-called 
League  of  a  later  date.  The  contracting  parties  were 
the  plenipotentiaries  of  the  Duke,  the  Bishops  of  Passau, 
Constance,  Augsburg,  and  Ratisbon,  the  Provost  of 
Ellwangen,  and  the  Abbot  of  Kempten.  The  Bishop  of 
Wurzburg  had  •  also  sent  delegates  to  Munich,  but  the 
latter  were  only  instructed  to  confer  and  report.  The 
object  of  the  alliance  was  declared  to  be  the  defence  of 
the  Catholic  faith  and  the  maintenance  of  the  Religious 
Peace  and  the  other  laws  of  the  Empire.  The  con- 
federates were  to  support  each  other  mutually  against 
all  attacks.  Maximilian  was  appointed  head  of  the 
League,  and  for  the  defrayment  of  its  expenses  the 
establishment  of  a  fund  was  discussed.  But  Maximilian 
was  foiled  in  his  authority  by  three  delegates  from  the 
three  circles  of  the  Oberland,  with  whom  he  had  to 

1  Quoted  as  an  utterance  of  Maximilian  in  a  letter  of  the  Mayence 
official,  Hans  Wiederhopf,  September  13,  1613. 


470  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

reckon  at  every  step.  Immediate  control  over  the 
general  fund  was  denied  him  ;  and  no  agreement  was 
arrived  at  respecting  the  internal  regulations  of  the 
League,  a  common  system  of  defence,  and  the  organisa- 
tion of  the  future  army  of  the  League.'  Thus  from  the 
outset  any  rapid  and  decisive  action  was  rendered  im- 
possible. Christian  of  Anhalt,  who  had  spied  out  every- 
thing, wrote  with  justice  on  December  12,  1609  :  '  The 
Catholic  Union  is  not  to  be  compared  with  ours,  either 
in  matter  or  form,  and  the  nature  of  it  plainly  shows 
the  imbecility  of  the  papists.'  2 

The  Estates  were  no  more  willing  to  yield  their 
proud  independence  to  the  chiefs  of  the  League  than 
they  were  ready  to  submit  to  the  Emperor  in  imperial 
matters,  and  thev  were  as  determined  as  ever  to  avoid 
any  military  enterprise  which  would  occasion  trouble  and 
expense.  The  clerical  electors,  at  whose  head  stood 
the  imperial  chancellor  John  Schweikart  of  Mayence, 
had  not  been  able  to  resist  the  conviction  that  they 
were  threatened  with  ever-growing  danger  from  the 
allies.  Maximilian  had  done  his  utmost  to  encourage 
them.  So  far,  however,  they  had  shown  themselves 
vacillating  and  dilatory.  As  recently  as  May  24,  1609, 
the  Duke  had  complained  of  the  Elector's  indifference 
and  bad  management.  '  He  always  pushed  things  from 
him  and  procrastinated,  and  never,  so  far  as  we  can 
remember,  showed  overmuch  inclination  to  take  this 
work  in  hand  in  earnest.'  But  '  we  are  of  opinion,' 
Maximilian  had  added,  in  a  tone  of  admonition  to  the 
Elector  of  Cologne,  '  that  your  Excellency's  eyes  will  be 
in  some  measure  opened  by  the  unheard-of  violences 
lately  perpetrated  in  the  Empire  by  the  Count  Palatine 

1  Cornelius,  Griindung  der  Liga,  pp.  18-23.         2  Ritter,  ii.  517,  note. 


CATHOLIC    CONGRESS   AT    WURZBURG,    1610         471 

against  the  bishopric  of  Spires.'  The  bishopric  of 
Mayence,  he  said,  '  was  quite  likely  to  be  treated  in  the 
same  way,'  and  therefore  it  was  to  be  hoped  that  John 
Schweikart  '  would  take  up  this  matter  with  more  zeal 
and  would  help  to  bring  it  to  a  final  settlement.'  For 
from  this  conduct  of  the  Count  Palatine  it  was 
plainly  manifest  that,  if  nothing  else  was  done  '  on  the 
Catholic  side,  the  Protestants  would  follow  the  Count's 
example  and  attack  one  Catholic  Estate  after  another 
until  they  had  brought  them  all  under  their  dominion.'  ' 
The  Palatine  aggressions  did  actually  make  the  exact 
impression  which  Maximilian  desired.  On  August  30 
the  ecclesiastical  electors  agreed  to  the  treaty  of  Munich, 
adding,  however,  the  proviso  that  the  Elector  of  May- 
ence should  be  appointed  second  in  command  of  the 
League  under  the  Duke  of  Bavaria.  '  The  Duke,  how- 
ever, was  to  remain  sole  field-marshal.'  The  electors 
undertook  the  task  of  gaining  their  suffragans  and  the 
ecclesiastical  foundations  subject  to  them,  while  Maxi- 
milian was  to  exert  himself  to  bring  in  the  prelates, 
the  knights  of  the  Empire,  and  the  imperial  cities. 
When,  however,  the  Duke  asked  that  a  general  meeting 
of  the  Union  should  be  summoned  in  order  to  arrange 
all  the  details  that  were  still  unsettled,  '  the  old  dilatori- 
ness  '  reappeared  in  John  Schweikart.  It  needed  strong- 
pressure  from  the  Electors  of  Cologne  and  Treves  to 
bring  him  to  consent  to  a  diet  at  Wiirzburg.  In 
February  1610,  delegates  from  all  the  principal  Catholic 
Estates  of  the  Empire,  excepting  Austria  and  Salzburg, 
assembled  at  Wiirzburg,  and  agreed  that  the  contribu- 
tions of  the  different  members  of  the  Union  should  be 
regulated    according   to   the    usual   imperial   Matrikel. 

1  Cornelius,  Griindiing,  p.  24. 


472  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

During  the  current  year  forty-two  Roman  months  were . 
to  be  paid  up  ;  the  different  Estates  were  also  to  hold 
themselves  in  readiness  with  a  definite  supply  of  artil- 
lery in  case  of  need.  The  admission  of  the  whole  House 
of  Austria  could  not,  '  for  certain  reasons  which  it  is 
needless  to  recount,  take  place  this  time,'  but  attempts 
were  made  to  draw  into  the  Union  the  Archdukes 
Ferdinand  of  Styria,  Maximilian,  governor  of  the  Tyrol 
and  the  Austrian  borderlands,  and  Albert,  Stattholder 
of  the  Netherlands.  The  Rhenish  bishops  recom- 
mended interference  on  the  part  of  the  League  in  the 
question  of  the  Jiilich  succession  ;  but  the  Duke  of 
Bavaria  expressed  himself  decidedly  against  such  a 
course,  which,  he  said,  would  involve  the  League  in  a 
struggle  with  the  foreign  powers  who  supported  the 
'  Possessioners '  and  the  allied  princes. 

In  the  course  of  the  transactions  at  Wurzburg 
Maximilian  received  the  news  that  neither  the  King  of 
Spain  nor  the  Pope,  whose  support  had  been  solicited, 
were  ready  to  give  any  help  so  long  as  the  House  of 
Austria  was  debarred  from  a  prominent  position  in  the 
Protective  Union.  In  a  despatch  of  June  24,  1609,  the 
Duke  had  described  to  the  Pope  the  dangers  with  which 
the  victorious  progress  of  the  Protestant  Estates  was 
fraught,  not  only  for  the  safety  of  the  Catholic  religion 
in  Germany,  but  also,  in  the  future,  for  Italy  and  the 
Holy  See.  He  had  bestirred  himself,  he  said,  to  unite 
the  Catholic  Estates  in  a  defensive  Union  ;  he  had 
already  had  some  success,  and  he  hoped  for  still  more  ; 
but  the  Protestant  Estates  far  exceeded  the  Catholic 
ones  in  number  and  in  strength,  especially  as  the  latter 
were  without  foreign  help,  whereas  the  other  side  had 
the  support  of  Denmark,  Sweden,  England,  Holland, 


DIET   AT   MUNICH,    1610  473 

'  and,  alas  !  other  powers  as  well.'  He  begged,  there- 
fore, that  the  Pope  himself,  and  at  his  instigation 
Spain  and  Tuscany  and  other  foreign  princes,  would 
assist  the  Catholic  Union  with  money  and,  where 
necessary,  with  troops  ;  otherwise  there  was  no  hope 
of  rescue  for  religion.  But  Paul  V.,  intimidated  by 
France,  only  gave  vague,  general  assurances,  and  it  was 
a  long  time  before  he  could  be  prevailed  on  to  promise 
a  contribution  of  eight  thousand  florins  monthly  to  the 
fund.  Spain  made  her  support  conditional  on  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand's  becoming  co-director  and  head 
of  the  League. 

The  existence  of  the  Union  seemed  again  called  in 
question.  Not  one  of  all  its  members,  up  to  April 
1610,  had  sent  in  any  contributions,  in  spite  of  the 
promises  of  the  previous  July  and  August,  and  Maxi- 
milian, in  a  letter  to  his  grey-haired  old  father,  to  whom 
he  sent  intelligence  of  all  unpropitious  proceedings, 
announced  his  intention  of  resigning  his  presidency  of 
the  League.  '  It  is  with  astonishment  and  with  lively 
displeasure,'  William  V.  answered  on  May  19,  '  that  I 
have  read  your  communication  to  me.  I  wonder  more 
at  the  Pope  than  at  Spain.  The  Roman  court  requires 
that  all  the  world  should  be  at  its  service,  but  itself  it  will 
do  little  or  nothing  for  others.  The  Austria-Maximilian 
line  has  never  been  well  affected  towards  Bavaria, 
although  it  has  received  much  benefit  from  this  land. 
The  Archdukes  have  always  feared  that  the  Bavarian 
House  might  become  too  great.  The  other  branch — 
i.e.  the  Styrian — is,  I  believe,  less  unfavourably  dis- 
posed towards  us,  apart  from  its  obligations  with  re- 
spect to  Spain,  on  whose  counsels  the  court  of  Graz 
entirely  depends.     Of  this  I  have  been  informed  several 


474  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

times  in  confidence  from  Graz  by  your  sister,  Archduke 
Ferdinand's  wife.  As  regards  your  resignation  of  the 
presidency  of  the  League,  I  advise  you  to  delay  it  for  a 
short  time,  until  you  see  clearly  whither  affairs  are 
tending,  and  especially  what  line  France  means  to 
take.  Otherwise  it  would  certainly  be  best  to  leave 
them  to  make  what  mess  they  like  of  their  affairs,  for 
it  is  evident  that  they  are  violently  bent  on  their  own 
ruin.  But  I  counsel  you  to  keep  an  eye  on  them  a 
little  longer.  Possibly  things  may  take  some  other 
turn.  It  surprises  me  that  the  Elector  of  Cologne,  your 
uncle,  does  not  show  more  ardour  in  what  concerns 
Bavaria,  and  that  he  makes  himself  quite  useless.'  ' 

Meanwhile  the  aggressive  proceedings  against  the 
bishoprics  of  Wurzburg  and  Bamberg  had  become  more 
and  more  violent.  The  troops  of  Wiirtemberg  and 
Ansbach,  which  had  invaded  these  bishoprics  in  the 
midst  of  peace,  now  held  over  fifty  places  in  their 
power,  and  became  daily  more  terrible  '  through  pillage, 
robbery,  rapine,  and  assaults  on  women.'  They  also 
did  violence  to  the  property  of  the  reigning  prince,  for 
they  waylaid  and  robbed  a  cart  laden  with  money 
which  was  on  its  way  to  Munich  with  the  Bishop  of 
Wurzburg's  contributions  to  the  League.  The  Margrave 
of  Baden  extorted  contributions  in  the  archbishopric  of 
Mayence,  seized  the  Elector's  ambassadors,  and  threw 
them  into  prison.-  This  led  to  Maximilian  summoning 
his  '  adj  uncts  '  to  Munich  in  order  to  consult  with  them 
how  best  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  the  members  of  the 
League  who  were  molested  by  the  soldiers  of  the  Protes- 
tant Union  of  Electors,  Princes,  and  Estates,  and  how, 

1  Wolf,  Maximilian,  ii.  549-550. 

2  Wolf,  pp.  550-551  ;  Schreiber,  p.  140. 


WEAKNESS   OF   THE   CATHOLIC   LEAGUE,    1610        475 

under  the  existing  difficult  and  alarming  conditions,  to 
secure  immunity  from  further  oppression. 

The  delegates  of  the  ecclesiastical  electors,  the 
Bishops  of  Passau,  Augsburg,  and  Spires,  and  the 
Suabian  imperial  prelates  wished  at  once  to  adopt  prac- 
tical measures  of  help  for  the  victims  of  the  Jiilich 
affair,  but  they  soon  found  that  the  Catholic  League 
was  too  weak  to  oppose  the  Union,  and  they  determined 
accordingly  to  begin  by  sending  an  admonitory  letter 
to  the  allies — a  letter  '  not  couched  in  the  most  severe 
language,  but  of  a  more  or  less  conciliatory  nature.' 
Bavaria  contended  that  a  document  of  this  sort  would 
have  little  result.  If,  however,  the  plan  was  decided 
on,  the  Estates  must,  at  any  rate,  hold  themselves  in 
readiness,  in  case  of  an  unfavourable  answer,  to  meet 
force  with  force.  If  they  had  no  money  supplies  they 
must  follow  the  example  of  the  Protestants,  who  in 
such  cases  were  quite  ready  to  borrow  loans  and  to 
mortgage  their  lands  ;  for  now  there  was  danger  in 
delay.  Each  one  must  do  his  utmost  to  meet  the 
emergency.  However,  the  delegates  had  not  received 
any  instructions  with  regard  to  such  proposals. 

Again  and  again  Maximilian  reiterated  his  convic- 
tion that  '  the  matter  could  not  be  accomplished  with- 
out some  inconvenience  ;  they  would  never  be  able  to 
free  themselves  from  this  cross,  and  from  the  oppres- 
sions of  the  Calvinists,  if  they  could  not  bring  them- 
selves to  make  any  sacrifice.  The  clergy  had  far  better 
give  up,  once  for  all,  the  half  of  their  yearly  incomes 
than  let  the  whole  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 
Had  the  Bishop  of  Wiirzburg,  for  instance,  '  spent  on 
his  own  defence  all  that  of  which  the  Wurtemberg  and 
Ansbach  troops  robbed  him,  he  would  have  been  able 


476  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

to  expel  them  from  the  land,  and  drive  them  heaven 
knows  where.'  But,  he  said,  '  in  cases  of  this  sort — all 
too  numerous,  alas  !  at  the  present  time — where  the 
Protestant  Estates  take  up  arms  against  the  Catholics 
and  resort  to  all  manner  of  violence,'  most  of  his  col- 
leagues were  not  willing  to  make  ready  for  defence,  to 
enrol  cavalry  and  infantry,  and  to  meet  force  with 
force.  They  preferred  to  spend  their  time  in  writing 
despatches  and  admonitions,  and  they  threw  all  the 
burden  of  action  on  him  (the  Duke),  expecting  him, 
through  his  influence  with  the  Protestants,  to  do  all  he 
could  to  save  them  from  their  danger.  Should  he  him- 
self, however,  be  at  any  time  attacked  by  the  Pro- 
testants on  account  of  the  Catholic  League,  he  would 
have  little  or  indeed  no  help  to  hope  for  from  his 
brother  princes.1 

These  reasons  were  quite  sufficient  explanation  of 
his  resolution  to  resign  the  presidency  of  the  League. 
In  addition  he  informed  the  delegates  from  his  adjuncts 
at  Munich  on  May  23,  that  '  whereas  Spain  and  the 
Pope  were  only  willing  to  contribute  help  if  the  House 
of  Austria  was  invested  with  the  leadership  of  the 
League,  he  intended  to  hand  over  his  post  entirely  to 
that  House.  By  this  means  he  should  eradicate  the 
suspicion  that  he  was  an  opponent  of  the  said  House, 
and  that  he  was  in  league  with  its  enemies.'  France 
had  proposed  to  the  Protestant  princes  to  offer  the 
imperial  crown  to  the  Bavarian  House  of  Wittelsbach, 
with  the  intention  undoubtedly  of  '  so  incensing  Bavaria 
and  Austria  against  each  other  that  one  of  them  would 
inevitably   ruin   the   other.'     He,   the   Duke,   was   far 

1   Maximilians  Instruction  fur  Joachim  von  Donnersberg  vom  26  Juni, 
1610,  in  Wolf,  ii.  566-568,  571-572. 


THE   CATHOLIC   LEAGUE   STRENGTHENED,    1610      477 

from  having  any  such  idea.  Even  after  resigning  his 
office  of  president  he  was  determined  to  do  all  he  could 
for  the  benefit  of  the  League,  and  he  asked  that  strict 
silence  should  be  observed  respecting  his  intention  of 
resigning,  so  that  the  adversaries  might  not  reap  any 
advantage  from  it.1 

It  was  only  at  the  urgent  entreaty  of  the  delegates 
that  Maximilian  promised  to  retain  his  office  until  the 
next  meeting  of  the  League,  which  was  to  be  held  in 
six  weeks.  His  threat  of  retirement  brought  Spain  to 
reducing  the  claims  she  had  previously  advanced.  On 
August  14  an,  agreement  was  concluded  by  which 
Philip  III.  pledged  himself  to  a  monthly  payment  of 
thirty  thousand  ducats,  under  the  sole  condition  that 
Archduke  Ferdinand  should  be  vice-protector  in  the 
place  of  the  King,  with  the  titles  of  Co-director  and 
Commander  of  the  League. - 

Maximilian's  assistant-general,  the  Elector  of  May- 
ence,  who  was  at  Prague  for  an  assembly  of  princes, 
had  at  first  urged  all  sorts  of  excuses  for  postponing  the 
summoning  of  an  assembly  of  the  League,  but  the  in- 
roads of  the  allies  into  the  Strasburg  district  determined 
him  in  favour  of  instant  action.  ;  We  cannot  sufficiently 
wonder  at  the  extraordinary  supineness  of  the  eccle- 
siastical Estates,'  the  Duke  had  sent  word  to  his  am- 
bassador at  Prague  by  a  courier  on  July  21,  '  when  not 
only  have  the  long-standing  aggressions  of  the  Pro- 
testants been  brought  vividly  under  their  very  eyes, 
but  also  the  prelude  with  Wiirzburg  and  Bamberg  has 
clearly   established   in  the  bishopric  of   Strasburg  that 

1  Wolf,  ii.  554-557  ;  Schreiber,  pp.  147-149. 

"  Fuller  details  concerning  the  transactions  with  Spain,  the  Pope,  and 
the  Italian  princes  in  Cornelius,  pp.  29-35.  42-44  ;  Gindely,  ii.  50  ft'.,  62-70. 


478  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  Protestants  will  by  degrees  get  possession  of  all  the 
other  bishoprics,  and  that  therefore  the  lands  and  sub- 
jects of  the  ecclesiastics,  together  with  the  latter' s  own 
persons,  position,  and  vocation,  are  exposed  to  fatal 
danger/  '  Our  beloved  brother,  the  coadjutor  of  Cologne, 
writes  to  us  in  great  distress  that  he  is  in  danger  of 
losing  his  archbishopric.  After  the  great  success  of 
King  Matthias  in  penetrating  to  Prague,  and  even  into 
the  imperial  residence,  and  forcing  the  Emperor  to 
comply  with  all  his  demands,  the  Protestants  are  now 
in  hopes  that  they  will  be  able  to  establish  their  own 
arbitrary  regulations  everywhere  in  the  ^Ionian  Empire.' 
'  If  the  Elector  of  Mayence  still  at  this  juncture  persists 
in  a  mere  pen-and-paper  campaign  of  letters  and 
despatches  against  the  Protestants,  we  now  declare 
before  God  and  the  world  that,  if  any  disaster  occurs, 
the  blame  will  not  be  due  to  us  who  have  hitherto,  for 
no  private,  interested  motive  whatever,  done  all  we 
could  at  our  own  pains  and  exertions  to  help  in  the 
matter,  but  that  it  will  be  chiefly  the  fault  of  those 
who  before  all  others  were  in  duty  bound  to  dare  the 
utmost  for  the  rescue  of  the  Catholic  religion.  In  the 
event  of  such  a  course  being  pursued  we  should  with- 
draw entirely  from  the  League  and  its  leadership.' 

The  Elector  now  declared  himself  ready  to  fall  in 
with  whatever  the  Duke  might  require.  At  an  assembly 
of  the  League,  which  met  on  August  22  at  Munich,  it 
was  unanimously  resolved  to  collect,  at  the  general 
expense,  an  army  of  15,000  infantry  and  4,000  cavalry, 
and  in  case  of  need  to  raise  a  further  regiment  of 
Lanzknechts.  John  Tserclaes,  Baron  of  Tilly,  was 
appointed  field-marshal  of  the  army.  A  letter  was 
addressed  to  the   Protestant   Union   on  September  7, 


THE    CATHOLIC   LEAGUE   AND   THE    UNION,  1610        479 

reproaching  them  in  strong  language  for  their  proceed- 
ings against  the  Catholic  bishoprics,  and  demanding 
instant  withdrawal  of  the  troops  and  compensation  for 
damages.1 

It  was  the  first  time  that  the  Catholic  Estates  had 
come  forward  with  decision  to  insist  on  the  recognition 
of  their  good  rights,  and  to  emphasise  their  words  by 
serious  military  preparations.  In  Bavaria  especially 
the  work  of  equipment  went  on  vigorously. 

The  result  was  a  favourable  one.  The  Union,  which 
had  not  yet  concluded  its  negotiations  with  foreign 
powers,  saw  itself  obliged  to  postpone  the  execution  of 
its  plans.  It  sent  an  embassy  to  Munich  to  '  offer 
terms  of  peace.'  On  October  24  a  treaty  was  arranged 
with  a  view  to  disarming  on  both  sides. - 

The  Catholic  territories  were  freed  from  the  troops 
of  the  Union.  Force  was  not  to  be  resorted  to  for 
obtaining  the  stipulated  damages,  but  '  amicable  mea- 
sures or  a  legal  settlement  before  the  defendants' 
regular  tribunal.'  '  Nothing  more  was  heard  about 
them.' 

Maximilian  explained  to  his  fellow-members  of  the 
League  the  reasons  why  he  had  signed  the  agreement. 
'  The  whole  Catholic  League,'  he  said,  '  has  only  been 
organised  for  defence,'  and  therefore  its  end  was  accom- 
plished when  the  opponents  of  their  own  accord  offered 
to  lay  down  their  arms.  By  an  aggressive  war,  which 
'  was  contrary  to  the  plain  terms  of  the  charter  of  the 
League,'  they  would  not  only  bring  down  upon  them  the 
allies,  but  also  '  all  the  Protestant  Estates  of  the  Empire, 
together  with   their   foreign   confederates.'     The   Pope 

1  Wolf,  ii.  605-630. 

2  Ritter,  iii.  473-483  ;  Senkenberg,  xxiii.  301-324  ;  Wolf,  ii.  633-655. 


480  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  the  King  of  Spain  had  '  by  no  means  granted  their 
money  contributions  for  an  offensive  league,'  and  so 
far  had  sent  nothing.  '  They  must  also  bear  in  mind 
that  the  Spanish  envoy  at  Prague  and  the  papal  nuncio 
had  frequently  said  to  the  ambassadors  from  Cologne 
and  Bavaria  that  there  was  nothing  better  and  more  to 
be  desired  than  that  unity  and  tranquillity  should  be 
restored  in  the  Empire  of  the  German  nation  by  means 
of  conciliatory  measures.'  ' 

These  statements  in  no  way  corresponded  with  the 
continued  reports  of  the  Protestants  and  their  con- 
troversial writers  that  from  Rome  and  Madrid  nothing 
else  was  being  planned  than  '  to  exterminate  the 
evangelical  Estates  with  fire  and  sword,  and  to  drown 
Germany  in  its  own  blood.' 

Shortly  after  the  conclusion  of  the  Munich  compact 
at  the  end  of  October  1610,  the  Elector  of  Mayence,  at 
a  diet  at  Cologne,  at  which  the  Jiilich  disturbances  were 
to  be  amicably  adjusted,  represented  to  the  ambas- 
sadors of  Saxony,  Brunswick,  and  Hesse -Darmstadt 
the  necessity  for  a  league  between  the  Catholics  and  the 
loyal  Lutheran  Estates. 

In  the  previous  April  Archduke  Leopold  had  sent  an 
ambassador  to  Dresden  with  the  petition  that  Chris- 
tian II.  '  would  help  to  devise  ways  and  means  for 
organising  a  strong  alliance  between  the  members 
of  both  the  religions  which  were  permitted  in  the 
Empire,  in  case,  as  indeed  there  was  imminent  fear, 
they  should  be  attacked  by  the  Calvinists.'  The  four 
directors  of  the  League  were  to  be  the  Elector  of  Mayence 

1  Ursachen  und  Beweggrilnde,  warum  auf  Ansuchen  der  unierten  pro- 
testantischen  Kurfiirsten,  Fiirsten  und  Stiinde  wegen  Ablegung  der  Waffen 
der  gesuchten  Handlung  stattgethan  worden,  bei  Wolf,  ii.  655-664. 


CATHOLIC-LUTHERAN  LEAGUE  PROJECTED,  1610-1611    481 

and  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  on  the  Catholic  side,  and  the 
Elector  of  Saxony  and  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  on  the 
Lutheran  side,  and  all  of  them  were  to  be  subject  to  the 
Emperor  as  supreme  head.1 

In  the  course  of  the  summer,  at  an  assembly  of 
princes  at  Prague,  the  Electors  of  Mayence  and  Cologne 
had  endeavoured  to  influence  several  Lutheran  Estates 
in  favour  of  such  a  league,2  and  now  the  Vicegerent  of 
Mayence,  in  agreement  with  the  Elector  of  Cologne, 
handed  over  to  the  above-named  ambassadors  a  formal 
draft  of  a  Union.  The  main  substance  of  this 
draft  was  that,  '  in  consideration  of  the  unlawful 
alliances  that  had  been  contracted  in  the  Empire,  o£ 
the  violent  aggressions  on  unoffending  Estates,  of  the 
dangerous  introduction  of  foreign  troops,  the  obstruc- 
tion of  justice,  and  other  signs  of  insubordination 
towards  the  Emperor,  they  the  undersigned  Estates 
had,  with  imperial  permission,  combined  together  in  a 
League  for  the  maintenance  of  religion  and  the  public 
peace.  Their  object  was  to  try  to  undo  the  mischief 
which  had  arisen  from  the  distortions  and  the  con- 
flicting interpretations  of  the  Augsburg  Peace,  and  to 
remove  the  existing  hindrances  to  the  administration 
of  justice.  If  any  Estate  of  the  League,  of  either 
religion,  should  be  subject  to  forcible  invasion,  the 
other  Estates  guaranteed  their  succour  in  repelling  the 
attack,  and  above  all  in  driving  away  any  foreign 
troops  that  may  be  striving  to  effect  an  entrance.' 
Two  directors,  to  be  nominated  by  friendly  agreement 
of  all  the  members,  shall  be  placed  at  the  head  of  the 

1  Ritter,  Sachsen  und  der  Jiilicher  Erbfolgestreit,  p.  51,  note  2. 

2  See  the  letter  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  to  Christian  IT.  of  Saxony 
(December  25,  1610)  in  Moser's  Patriot.  Archiv,  vi.  477,  482.  See  Ritter,. 
Politik,  p.  88,  note  1. 

VOL.   X.  II 


482  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

League.  '  The  confederates  of  both  confessions  bind 
themselves  with  a  solemn  oath  faithfully  and  truly  to 
observe  the  Religious  Peace  and  the  Public  Peace,  and 
forthwith  to  turn  out  of  the  League  any  member  who 
shall  act  in  opposition  to  the  said  treaties.  Further,  the 
confederates  engage  never  to  attack,  slander,  or  injure 
anybody  on  account  of  religion,  but  in  all  matters 
whatsoever  to  show  themselves  friendly  and  well- 
disposed,  and  to  refer  all  religious  questions  to  the  judg- 
ment of  God  ;  above  all,  no  one  Estate  must  commit 
the  slightest  offence  against  another  in  matters  of 
religion.  The  instruction  of  the  young  shall  be  carried 
on  without  reviling  and  calumniation  of  the  opposite 
party ;  also  every  Estate  must  enjoin  its  clergy  to 
abstain  from  slander  and  abuse  in  their  pulpits,  because 
invective  of  this  sort  does  more  harm  than  good  to  the 
listeners.  Caricatures,  scurrilous  verses,  and  so  forth 
are  most  strictly  forbidden ;  transgressors  of  this 
injunction  will  be  punished  without  respect  of  persons. 
Whereas  the  League  has  for  its  sole  object  the  mainten- 
ance of  the  imperial  prestige,  of  the  Religious  Peace  and 
the  decrees  of  the  Empire,  the  administration  of  justice 
and  protection  from  hostile  invasions,  the  Emperor 
has  been  solicited  to  ratify  the  said  alliance.'  ' 

'  Had  such  an  alliance  been  organised,'  said  the 
Elector  of  Mayence  later  on,  amid  the  anarchy  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  '  much  bitterness  and  bloodshed 
would  have  been  avoided,  and  foreign  potentates  would 
not  have  acquired  such  a  footing  and  so  much  power 
in  the  Empire.'  2 

The  ambassadors  of  the  Saxon  Electorate  commended 

1  Senkenberg,  xxiii.  338-345. 

2  Quoted  in  Etliche  Legationen  bei  Mainz  und  Trier  (1625),  p.  17. 


CATHOLIC-LUTHERAN  LEAGUE  PROJECTED,  1610-1611      483 

to  Christian  II.  the  two  spiritual  Electors'  proposals 
for  an  alliance  ;  the  plenipotentiaries  of  Saxe-Coburg, 
Brunswick,  and  Hesse-Darmstadt  also  reported  that 
they  saw  nothing  to  object  to  in  these.  There  was  a 
great  deal  of  talk,  they  said,  about  the  Pope  and  the 
plans  of  the  Jesuits  ;  in  this  case,  however,  they  had 
only  to  do  with  distinguished  German  princes  who,  since 
the  settlement  of  the  Religious  Peace,  had  never  done 
injury  to  any  Protestant  Estate  on  account  of  religion, 
and  who  had  again  of  late  come  forward  with  overtures 
for  peaceful  intercourse ;  it  was  right,  therefore,  to 
show  towards  them  the  same  confidence  that  the 
Protestants  expected  from  the  Catholics.1 

The  Landgrave  of  Hesse-Darmstadt  showed  instant 
inclination  to  join  the  League,  and  after  a  conversation 
with  John  Schweikart  he  instructed  an  ambassador  to 
prevail  on  the  town  of  Strasburg  also  to  join.2  Christian 
II.  conferred  on  his  brother  John  Casimir,  Duke  of  Saxe- 
Coburg,  plenary  power  for  further  negotiations  with 
Mayence.  Neutrality,  he  wrote,  under  the  disastrous 
conditions  in  the  Empire,  was  no  longer  to  be  thought 
of ;  if  they  did  not  wish  to  incur  great  danger,  they 
must  look  around  them  for  good  friends,  and  such 
friends  were  to  be  sought  among  those  who  had  at 
heart  the  maintenance  of  the  imperial  dignity,  of  the 
statutes  of  the  realm,  and  of  the  peace  of  the  Empire. 
He  would  rather  associate  himself  with  Estates  thus 
minded  than  with  those  '  who  put  the  constitution  of 
the  Empire  wholly  out  of  sight,  who  vouchsafed  only  the 
semblance  of  reverence  and  mere  lip-homage  to  the  head 
of  the  Empire,  while  in  reality  they  insulted  and  vilified 
him,   and  refused  to  be  bound  by  any  obedience  to 

1  Senkenberg,  xxiii.  338.  2  Id.  xxiii.  346. 

i  I  2 


484  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

imperial  decrees  and  ordinances.'  On  the  strength  of 
this  plenary  power,  John  Casimir  informed  the  Elector 
of  Mayence  that  '  The  whole  House  of  Saxony  intended 
to  join  the  projected  Catholic -Protestant  Union  ;  he 
begged  that  timely  notice  might  be  sent  of  the  next 
meeting  of  the  League  which  was  to  be  held,  in  order 
that  the  whole  House  of  Saxony  might  send  representa- 
tives to  it.' l  When,  however,  the  directors  of  the 
League,  in  March  1611,  issued  invitations  for  a  meeting 
at  Wiirzburg,  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  under  the  influence 
of  Duke  Julius  of  Brunswick,2  had  become  undecided, 
and  he  sent  word  to  Mayence  that  '  he  still,  as  before, 
approved  of  the  Catholic  Union,  but  he  thought  it  would 
be  more  advantageous  both  to  the  Empire  and  to  the 
Catholic  Estates  that  the  House  of  Saxony  should 
maintain  the  neutrality  it  had  hitherto  observed,  and 
he  should  therefore  not  be  over-precipitate  in  entering 
the  League.'  3 

At  the  moment  when  Saxony  sent  in  this  answer, 
April  9,  1611,  events  were  occurring  in  Bohemia  which 
led  finally  to  the  Emperor's  joining  the  Protestant 
Union. 


1  Wolf,  iii.  21-24. 

See  his  letter  quoted  above,  p.  481-  note  2. 
3  Senkenberg,  xxiii.  347-349. 


i 


485 


CHAPTER  V 

FRESH  DISTURBANCES  IN  THE  IMPERIAL  HEREDITARY 
LANDS — MEETING  OF  ELECTORS  AT  NUREMBERG, 
1611 — RUDOLF  II.'S  LAST  PLAN,    fl612 

The  King  of  Spain  and  the  Pope  were  unintermittent 
in  their  endeavours  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation 
between  the  Emperor  and  his  brother  Matthias,  in  order 
that  the  House  of  Habsburg  might  not  lose  its  patrimony 
and  the  imperial  crown.  The  Catholic  and  several  of 
the  Lutheran  princes  also  were  bent  on  the  same 
object ;  among  the  Lutherans  may  be  specially  men- 
tioned the  Elector  Christian  II.  of  Saxony  and  Duke 
Henry  Julius  of  Brunswick.  At  the  beginning  of 
May  1610  an  assembly  of  princes  was  opened  at  Prague, 
and  lengthy  transactions  took  place  respecting  this 
reconciliation.  In  the  course  of  the  proceedings  Christian 
of  Anhalt,  the  soul  of  the  Union,  took  every  possible 
trouble  to  set  the  two  brothers  more  fiercely  than  ever 
by  the  ears  ;  as  he  had  done  before,  he  set  Rudolf 
against  Matthias  and  Matthias  against  Rudolf,  with 
a  view  to  perpetuating  the  anarchy  in  Austria,  and  if 
possible  kindling  a  civil  war.  He  represented  to  the 
Emperor  that  his  life  was  in  as  great  danger  as  that  of 
Julius  Caesar,  or  of  Henry  IV.  of  France  ;  he  was  living 
on  longer  than  was  agreeable  to  a  certain  person — 
namely,  his  brother  Matthias ;  Spain  and  the  Pope 
were  in  agreement  with  the  latter  to  overthrow  him  ; 


486  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  councillors  of  Matthias  showed  plainly  by  their 
behaviour  that  '  their  one  aim  was  to  annihilate  the 
House  of  Austria  ;  '  on  the  other  hand,  everything  in 
which  he,  Prince  Christian,  had  had  a  hand — the  Julich 
affair,  the  Union,  the  French  enlistments  to  help  the 
League — was  all  undertaken  on  behalf  of  the  Emperor  ; 
it  was  only  from  the  Union  that  Rudolf  could  expect  any 
help.1  Rudolf  was  seized  with  abject  terror  of  assassin- 
ation. '  He  would  frequently  jump  out  of  bed  in  the 
middle  of  the  night,'  wrote  the  Bavarian  ambassador 
Donnersberg  from  Prague,  '  and  institute  a  search  by 
the  captain  of  his  guard  in  every  corner  of  his  castle.' 
'  In  the  evening  he  behaves  in  a  most  eccentric  manner 
with  his  valets ;  he  often  points  his  rapier  at  their 
chief's  heart.' 2  In  June  Rudolf  had  ordered  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  and  threatened  the  soldiers 
with  ban  and  outlawry  in  case  of  their  continuing  in  the 
service  of  the  allies ; 3  but,  on  the  other  hand,  on 
September  7,  Rosenberg  was  in  a  position  to  inform 
the  Elector  Palatine  that  the  Emperor  had  sent  word 
to  him  confidentially  through  the  General  Gotthard 
von  Starhemberg  that  he  (Rudolf)  was  willing  to 
join  the  Union.4 

Matthias,  at  this  same  time,  was  playing  a  clever 
double  game.  He  sent  ambassadors  to  the  allied 
princes,  offering  to  enter  into  alliance  with  them,  and 
endeavoured  to  win  over  to  his  side  King  James  I.  of 
England,  who  boasted  *  of  his  inextinguishable  enmity 
against  the  papacy,  and  of  his  large  following  ; '  on  the 
other  hand,  Matthias  assured  the  Catholic  princes  of 
his  *  strong  Church  proclivities,   and  recommended  an 

1  CMumecky,  i.  537  ff.,  706-707.  2  Wolf,  Maximilian,  ii.  599. 

3  Ritter,  iii.  309-310.  4  Id.  iii.  432. 


CONTEACT  BETWEEN  RUDOLF  II.  AND  MATTHIAS,  1610  487 

alliance  with  Spain  and  the  Pope  in  order  to  crush  the 
insolence  of  the  Protestants.'  l 

'  On  both  sides  promises  were  as  cheap  as  black- 
berries.' After  '  lengthy  and  incredibly  wearisome 
transactions,'  in  which  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  distin- 
guished himself  pre-eminently  by  indefatigable  zeal, 
the  princes  at  Prague  at  last  succeeded  in  effecting  a 
treaty  of  reconciliation.  It  was  signed  by  the  Emperor 
on  the  10th,  and  by  Matthias  on  September  30.  The 
latter  herein  recognised  his  brother  as  his  feudal  lord 
with  regard  to  the  Austrian  lands,  and  promised  to  beg 
pardon  for  the  past.  Within  the  space  of  a  month,  the 
troops  which  both  brothers  had  enlisted  were  to  be 
disbanded  ;  if  this  could  not  be  done  quite  so  quickly, 
neither  Rudolf  nor  Matthias  was  to  use  their  soldiers 
against  each  other. 

As  regards  the  Emperor,  the  stipulation  for  dis- 
banding referred  especially  to  those  troops  which  he 
had  had  recruited  in  the  bishopric  of  Passau  by  his 
Administrator,  Archduke  Leopold.  These  troops,  how- 
ever, were  not  discharged  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  were 
strengthened  by  fresh  enlistments  and  sent  into  the 
field  against  Matthias  ;  they  were  to  be  the  means  of 
'  satisfying  imperial  revenge.' 

At  the  end  of  December,  General  Ramee,  in  com- 
mand of  8,000  infantry  and  4,000  cavalry,  pressed  on 
towards  Upper  Austria.  The  Spanish  ambassador  had 
vainly  endeavoured  to  deter  the  Emperor  from  this 
'  terrible  decision,'  which  was  so  utterly  at  variance 
with  the  treaty  concluded  with  Matthias.  Rudolf 
thought  of  nothing  but  the  predictions  of  his  astrologers, 

1  Chlumecky,  i.  705. 


488  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

viz.  that  '  the  imperial  army  would  defeat  Matthias 
and  take  him  prisoner.'  1 

'  The  invasion  of  the  Passau  troops,'  said  the  French 
ambassador,  '  is  the  prologue  of  a  long  tragedy.'  2 
Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  foresaw  that  this  proceeding 
would  cost  the  Emperor  his  Bohemian  crown.3 

In  the  bishopric  of  Passau  the  soldiers,  who  were 
mostly  receiving  no  pay,  had  already  behaved  in  the 
most  terrible  manner.  The  troops,  wrote  Maximilian 
to  Leopold,  have  become  an  undisciplined  horde,  pre- 
senting often  the  strange  anomaly  of  captains  who  do 
not  know  their  soldiers,  and  soldiers  who  do  not  know 
their  captains  ;  they  have  plunged  the  bishopric  into  the 
most  abject  poverty ;  the  inhabitants  are  in  despair, 
and  many  are  abandoning  house  and  home.4 

In  Austria  the  troops,  with  their  train  of  some 
2,000  vagrants  and  dissolute  women,5  behaved  '  like 
brutal  robbers  and  incendiaries.'  Count  Starhemberg 
had  promised  the  Emperor  that  the  Austrian  nobility 
would  rise  in  his  favour  against  Matthias.  But  no  one 
stirred  a  finger  for  Rudolf ;  on  the  contrary,  the 
country  set  itself  in  movement  against  the  incendiaries. 
Ramee,  after  accomplishing  2,000,000  florins'  worth  of 
damage  within  five  weeks,  saw  himself  compelled  to 
beat  a  retreat.  His  hordes  carted  off  their  booty  in 
269  waggons,  and  poured  themselves  down  over  the 
south  of  Bohemia.6 

'  And  now   again,'   laments   a   contemporary,    '  the 

1  Gindely,  Rudolf,  ii.  164-183  ;  Chlumecky,  i.  720-721,  739. 

2  Chlumecky,  i.  759.  3  Gindely,  ii.  184. 
4  Hurter,  vi.  356.                                            6  Gindely,  ii.  183. 

6  Gindely,  ii.  184-186.  See  F.  Kurz,  Der  Einfall  des  von  Kaiser 
Rudolf  II.  in  Passau  angeworbenen  Kriegsvolkes  in  Oberosterreich  und 
Bbhmen,  1610  bis  1611  (Linz,  1897).     See  Hirn,  in  the  Osterr.  Litt.-Blatt, 


PASSAU   TROOPS   IN   AUSTRIA   AND   BOHEMIA,   1611     489 

poor  subjects  were  everywhere  obliged  to  gulp  down 
the  soup  which  the  worldly  greed  and  ambition  of  their 
overlords  had  cooked  for  them,  and  the  Catholic  religion 
and  the  Catholic  clergy  were  again  obliged  to  pay  the 
reckoning  ;  for  they — above  all,  the  Jesuits  :  so  the  poor 
oppressed  and  emaciated  people  were  lyingly  and 
shamelessly  told — were  the  cause  of  all  the  misfortune.' 
It  was  they  who  had  brought  about  the  inroad  of  the 
Passau  troops  in  order  by  their  means  '  to  root  out  the 
holy  evangel  from  Austria  and  Bohemia,  and  also  from 
the  Empire,  and  with  the  help  of  Spain  to  institute  a 
tremendous  and  bloody  massacre  among  the  confessors  of 
the  pure  doctrine.'  l 

In  Prague  reports  of  this  sort  bore  sanguinary  fruit. 

After  Ramee  had  taken  possession  of  Krumau, 
Budweis,  and  Tabor,  he  advanced  on  February  13,  1611, 
to  Prague.  And  now  Archduke  Leopold,  unmindful  of 
the  admonitions  of  the  papal  nuncio  and  the  Spanish 
ambassador,  laid  aside  his  ecclesiastical  garb  and  under- 
took the  chief  command  of  the  troops.  He  wished  to 
attain  to  the  Bohemian  crown  and  thus  secure  to  him- 
self the  succession  in  the  Empire,  the  prospect  of  which 
had  been  held  out  to  him  by  the  Electors  of  Mayence, 
Cologne,  and  Saxony.  He  should  not  rest,  he  told  the 
nuncio,  until  his  head  was  encircled  with  a  crown. 
It  was  in  vain  that  the  Pope  adjured  him  that 
'  as  a  Bishop  he  ought  to  go  back  to  his  nock  and 
withdraw   from   a    theatre    of    ambition    and    fighting 


vii.  744,  who  rightly  remarks  :   '  The  Passau  troops  were  genuine  pre- 
cursors of  the  ferocious  hordes  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.     This  mob 
included  in  its  numbers  many  persons  of  the  rank  of  lords,  and  over  300 
members  of  the  imperial  nobility  and  of  distinguished  families.' 
1  Ein  kurzes  anmuthiges  Gesprach,  pp.  11-12. 


490  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

which  an  anointed  servant  of  God  had  no  business 
to  enter.'  l 

After  a  fierce  and  bloody  conflict  with  the  troops  of 
the  Bohemian  Estates,  the  '  Leopoldites  '  occupied  the 
suburbs,  and  strove  to  force  their  way  into  the  old 
town,  which  instantly  became  the  scene  of  a  Hussite 
religious  riot.  The  infuriated  populace,  armed  with 
pikes,  pitchforks,  and  clubs,  fell  murderously  on  the 
defenceless  priests,  monks,  and  nuns,  and  pillaged 
churches  and  convents.  In  the  Franciscan  convent  at 
Maria-Schnee,  fourteen  Fathers  and  Brothers  were  put 
to  death  with  the  utmost  refinement  of  cruelty ;  four  of 
the  murdered  men  were  thrown  out  on  the  street  stark 
naked,  and  left  lying  there  for  three  whole  days.  Amid 
the  wild  yelling  of  women  glutted  with  blood,  the  abbot 
of  a  convent  was  emasculated  ;  his  bones  were  crushed 
to  pieces,  and  the  scalp  of  his  head  torn  off ;  one  of  the 
Fathers  was  hacked  to  bits.2 

'  They  wanted  above  all  to  air  their  evangelical 
vengeance  against  the  treacherous  Jesuits.'  John 
Cambilhon,  who  gave  himself  out  as  a  former  member 
of  the  Order,  had  circulated  the  fabulous  tale  that 
'  over  the  vault  of  the  Jesuit  church  at  Prague,  as  he 
himself  had  seen,  thousands  of  spiked  clubs,  iron  flails, 
&c,  were  concealed ;  all  around  were  placed  field- 
pieces,  flints,  muskets,  and  lances.'  3  This  fable  had 
gained  credence  in  Prague.     Numbers  of  soldiers  also — 

1  Gindely,  ii.  195  ff. 

2  Gindely,  ii.  203-206 ;  Chluniecky,  i.  731.  Copper-prints  were 
published  representing  the  looting  of  the  convent  of  Maria-Schnee  and  the 
murder  of  fourteen  monks.     See  Drugulin,  p.  107,  Nos.  1230  and  1231. 

3  Cambilhon  had  never  belonged  to  the  Order  ;  see  Gretseri  Opp.  xi. 
793.  Respecting  Cambilhon's  scurrilous  pamphlet,  first  written  in  Latin 
and  translated  into  German  under  the  auspices  of  the  Augsburg  preachers  ; 
see  ibid.  xi.  826-828. 


CHARGES   AGAINST   THE   JESUITS,    1611  491 

so  it  was  said — were  hidden  in  their  house.     Accordingly, 
'  the  bloodthirsty  Fathers  '  were  now  '  to  be  led  to  the 
slaughter-house  by  the  people  as  a  signal  example  to 
other  traitors.'     About  3,000  men  advanced  against  the 
college.     But  near  by  stood  the  cavalry  of  the  Bohemian 
Estates ;   and  at  the  head   of  their  cavalry  was   the 
Utraquist  George  of  Wratislaw,  who  in  his  youth  had 
been  a  pupil  of  the  Fathers,  and  who  now,  out  of  grati- 
tude, undertook  the  protection  of  the  Jesuits  against  the 
bloodthirsty  masses.     The  Utraquist  Wenzel  von  Kinsky 
also,  in  spite  of  his  hostility  to  the  Catholics,  zealously 
espoused    the    cause    of    the    Fathers.     An    imperial 
garrison  was  placed  in  their  house,  and  they  were  left  free 
from  maltreatment ;  one  Jesuit  only  was  killed — drowned 
by  the  populace  in  the  Moldau.     In  order  to  quiet  the 
people,  who  had  been  goaded  into  fury  by  preachers 
and  by  '  libellous  pamphlets,'  the  Protestant  Estates 
had  the  convent  carefully  searched  through  three  times, 
and  drew  up  a  report  of  the  results,  which  was  signed 
and  sealed  by  Henry  Matthias  von  Thurn,  Adam  von 
Sternberg,   Johann   von   Bubna,    and   other   directors. 
The  report  ran  as  follows  :  '  Whereas,  at  sundry  different 
times,  reports  have  been  spread  against  the  Jesuits  to 
the  effect  that  they  had  an  enormous  store  of  military 
ammunition  in  their  college,  also  that,  to  the  detriment 
of  the  town  and  of  the  common  Fatherland,  they  had 
collected   together   with   all   serious   intent   no   incon- 
siderable  number   of   soldiers,    we   have   caused   most 
careful  search  to  be  made,  three  successive  times,  by 
certain  persons  whom  we  ourselves  have  selected  for 
the  task  from  all  three  Estates  of  the  kingdom — from 
the  lords,  knights,  and  burgesses — assisted  by  military 
officers ;   the   whole   college   has   been   inspected,    and 


492  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

every  room,  vault,  cellar,  crypt,  church-tower,  above 
ground  and  underground,  has  been  thoroughly  searched 
and  examined  through  and  through,  but  not  even  the 
very  smallest  quantity  either  of  muskets,  powder  or 
other  ammunition  could  be  discovered,  and  soldiers 
still  less.  Indeed,  we  have  quite  positively  assured 
ourselves  that  all  these  stories  have  been  trumped  up 
against  the  worthy  Fathers  by  their  enemies  out  of  pure 
hatred  and  contrary  to  all  Christian  justice,  and  that 
the  said  Fathers  have  been  proved  to  be  quite  innocent.'  l 
This  public  document  of  the  Protestant  directors 
was  not  of  much  use  to  the  Jesuits  later  on.  In  fresh 
lampoons  and  libellous  pamphlets  it  was  declared  that 
what  Cambilhon  had  said  about  the  Prague  college  was 

1  '  Urkunde  vom  23  Sept.  1611,'  in  Londorp,  Acta  publ.  i.  484-485  ; 
Gretser,  xi.  862.  See  in  Gretser,  xi.  863-864,  the  letter  of  Father  George 
Sturn,  of  June  11,  1611,  concerning  the  way  in  which  the  convent  was 
searched.  See  also  Krebs,  Publicistik,  p.  57  ff.  The  lies  related  above 
were  circulated  among  the  people  hi  libellous  verses.  Thus,  for  instance, 
in  '  Ein  schiines  neues  Lied,'  about  the  Passau  soldiers  of  1611  it  was  said 
that  among  the  Jesuits 

In  the  cloisters  there  were  hidden 

Arms  for  several  hundred  fighters  ; 
By  Leopold  this  had  been  bidden 

To  gratify  the  Jesmters. 
Also  there  were  found  with  speed 
Of  powder  twenty  tons  indeed, 
With  which  they  meant,  this  murderous  race, 
To  slay  the  Christians  in  that  place.  .  .  . 

Contributed  by  H.  Pallmann  in  the  Mitteil.  des  Ver.  fiir  Gesch.  und  Alter- 
tumskunde  in  Frankfurt  am  Main,  vi  146.  Another  song  (p.  141)  relates 
that  in  Prague,  in  1611,  '  they  treacherously  murdered  many  pious 
Christians  :  ' 

That  the  Jesuits,  in  sooth, 
Were  masters  of  this  sport, 
Can  be  proved  in  very  truth 
By  the  arms  they  stored 
In  their  cursed  idols'  den 
Where  we  found  them  all, 
And  secretly  they  scurried  them 
From  out  the  city  wall. 


MATTHIAS   INVITED   TO   PRAGUE,   1611  493 

'  undoubtedly  proved  to  be  true  by  the  researches 
instituted.'  Soon  the  accusation  was  extended  to 
'  numbers  of  Jesuitical  nests  and  holes  in  large  towns 
which  were  the  hiding-places  of  firearms,  swords,  and 
munitions  of  war  of  demoniacal  strength.'  '  Things,' 
they  said,  '  that  could  no  longer  be  denied  in  Prague, 
after  undoubted  exposure,  would  be  found  to  be  equally 
true  of  other  places  also,  if  only  these  devil's  nests  were 
searched  more  closely.'  1 

The  Emperor  had  at  first  declared  that  he  was 
innocent  '  as  regards  the  Passau  business.'  As  soon, 
however,  as  the  troops  appeared  in  Prague,  he  pro- 
nounced them  to  be  his  faithful  servants  ;  he  was  their 
general,  he  said,  and  it  was  '  his  business  to  secure  the 
kingdom.'  Then,  when  the  reign  of  atrocities  began  in 
Prague,  when  robber  bands  threw  the  whole  neighbour- 
hood of  the  town  into  consternation,  and  the  peasants 
flew  to  arms  in  order  to  strike  at  the  landowning  nobles, 
their  tyrants  and  oppressors,  and  when  at  the  same  time 
there  came  news  that  King  Matthias  was  hastening 
with  large  military  forces  to  the  help  of  the  people  of 
the  old  town,  Rudolf  again  became  '  of  a  different 
mind,'  and  at  the  request  of  the  Protestant  Estates 
caused  an  army  to  be  raised  against  the  Passauers. 
The  latter  were  disbanded,  received  their  pay,  and  with- 
drew on  March  11. 

On  the  same  day,  however,  the  Protestant  Estates 
invited  Matthias  to  come  to  Prague,  and,  as  King  of 
Bohemia,  to  undertake  their  defence  against  Rudolf. 
At  the  time  of  the  invasion  of  Austria  by  the  Passau 
troops,  Matthias  had  applied  for  help  to  the  Elector 

1  Augenscheinlicher  Beweiss,  Bl.  3b,  C.    See  above,  pp.  341-343  and  398, 
what  Lonner  and  Rudinger  say. 


494  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Palatine  and  to  the  Union,  and  by  the  advice  of  Karl 
von  Zierotin  he  had  concluded  alliances  with  the  chiefs 
of  the  Bohemian  Protestants.  He  had  warned  the 
Bohemian  Estates  against  the  Emperor,  who,  he  told 
them,  was  only  watching  his  opportunity  to  recall  the 
Majestatsbrief,  and  to  annul  all  the  liberties  of  the 
country  ;  he,  the  King,  on  the  contrary,  had  never  once 
broken  his  word,  and  would  rather  die  than  not  fulfil 
his  promises.  On  March  8  he  left  Vienna,  and  on  the 
15th  arrived  at  Iglau,  where  the  delegates  of  the 
Bohemian  Estates  welcomed  him.  General  Schonberg, 
in  the  name  of  the  allied  princes,  assured  him  of  the 
support  of  the  Union,  and  Matthias,  on  his  part,  was  so 
lavish  with  his  inviolable  asseverations  that  Zierotin 
and  other  Protestant  party  leaders  of  his  suite  expressed 
their  opinion  to  Schonberg  that  the  rule  of  Protestantism 
in  Austria  was  now  safely  assured. 

Meanwhile  the  Emperor  was  treated  like  a  prisoner 
by  the  Bohemian  Estates.  The  ambassadors  of  the 
Electors  of  Mayence  and  Saxony,  who  asked  that  Rudolf 
might  be  dealt  with  more  urbanely,  were  answered  by 
some  of  the  Estates  that  '  if  the  Electors  wished  it 
they  were  ready  to  send  them  the  Emperor  and  the 
Elector  of  Bohemia  back  to  them  in  a  sack.' 

Destitute  of  all  help,  Rudolf  gave  his  brother  to 
understand  that  '  his  coming  to  Bohemia  would  not 
be  objectionable  to  him.'  On  March  24  Matthias 
made  a  brilliant  entry  into  Prague,  and  a  provincial 
Diet  was  opened  with  the  object  of  raising  him  to  the. 
Bohemian  throne.  Rudolf  saw  himself  compelled  to 
abdicate.  He  gave  vent  to  an  oath — so  says  report — 
as  he  signed  the  document,  and  bit  the  pen  with  which 
he  had  subscribed  his  name.     On  Whitmonday,  March  3, 


MATTHIAS   KING   OF   BOHEMIA,   1611  495 

the  coronation  of  the  new  King  and  the  ceremony 
of  homage  from  the  Estates  took  place.1 

'  Proceedings  here,'  it  says  in  a  letter  to  Archduke 
Ferdinand  of  Styria,  '  have  the  evil  appearance  of 
being  more  directed  towards  the  overthrow  of  the 
Catholic  religion  than  to  the  elevation  of  Matthias. 
The  Emperor  is  so  badly  treated  by  the  Bohemians 
that  even  the  enemies  of  his  house  have  pity  on  him. 
In  verity  it  may  now  be  said  that  neither  he  nor  King 
Matthias,  but  the  first  best  disturber  of  the  peace,  is 
lord  here.  A  serious  war  must  be  the  final  outcome 
of  all  this.'  2 

In  the  eyes  of  the  Elector  John  Schweikart  of 
Mayence,  the  merciless  treatment  of  the  head  of 
the  Empire  was  a  disgrace  which  blackened  the  Em- 
pire and  the  German  nation  itself.  '  The  Emperor,' 
wrote  Schweikart  on  May  24  to  Archduke  Albert  at 
Brussels,  '  is  even  deprived  of  the  right  of  free  coming 
and  going  in  the  Empire  ;  his  very  life  is  in  danger. 
Were  we  to  keep  silence  any  longer,  and  not  to  take 
some  cognisance  at  least  of  these  wicked  plottings, 
it  would  certainly  not  be  his  Majesty's  fate  only  that 
would  be  sealed,  but  the  covert  intrigues  which  have 
now  gone  on  for  so  many  years  would  break  out  with 
such  violence  that  we  might  then,  however  much 
we  wished  it,  be  powerless  to  overmaster  them.'  '  For, 
as  we  have  been  informed,  these  machinations  are 
not  the  work  of  the  Bohemians  alone,  but  are,  on 
the  contrary,  organised  and  directed  by  others ;  it 
seems  indeed  that   the   States- General  have  had  their 

'  Fuller   details    in   Gindely,    ii.    2-43-309  ;    Chlumecky,    i.    740-760 
Hurter,  vi.  423-529. 
2  Hurter,  vi.  502. 


496  HISTORY    OP   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

ambassadors  at  Prague  up  to  the  present  date,  and  that 
it  is  they  who  have  managed  this  affair,  and  also  many 
another.  If  this  be  so,  then  all  the  Catholic  potentates 
within  and  without  the  Empire  will  have  to  be  well 
on  their  guard.'  l 

From    the    Emperor    himself    these    powers    were 
threatened  with   still  fresh  dangers.     After   his  resig- 
nation   of    Bohemia,    Rudolf    had    forthwith    declared 
that  the  act  was  invalid  because  it  had  been  extorted 
from  him  by  violence.     He  now  set  to  work  in  con- 
junction   with   the   Union    to    overthrow    his    brother. 
His  former  counsellors  had  lost  all  influence  over  him  ; 
more    now    than    ever,   '  valets,    painters,    alchemists, 
distillers,   and  people  of  this  sort  had  got  the  reins 
in   their   hands.'     The   acme   of   imperial   favour   was 
enjoyed  by  the  valets  Rucky  and  Hastal,  who  perpe- 
trated the  most  abominable  frauds,  and  by  the  court 
secretaries  Wacker  and  Hartl,  who  were  in  the  pay 
of  the  Palatine  electoral  court.     But  the  person  who 
had  most  influence  with  the  Emperor  was  the  English 
agent   Gunderot,   a   greedy   adventurer,   who   had   for 
years  kept  up  secret  relations  with  Christian  of  Anhalt 
and  with  the   Union.     Through  him   Rudolf,  towards 
the  end  of  June,  sent  word  to  Christian  and  to  the 
Margrave  Joachim  Ernest  of  Ansbach  that  he  desired 
the  assistance  of  the  Union  for  the  safe  preservation 
of  his  person  and  the  maintenance  of  the  honour  of 
the  Empire  ;    all  this  revolution  in  Bohemia  had  been 
the  work  of  Spain  and  the  Pope,  who  wanted,  he  said, 
'  to  start  Gravamina  in  the  Empire  as  had  been  done 
at  Graz  ; '  Matthias  was  at  the  mercy  of  popish  coun- 
cillors.    '  Whereas    his    Majesty  was   so  forsaken,'   he 

1  von  Hofler,  Friinkische  Studien,  pp.  280-283. 


LEAGUE   OF   ExUPEROR,  MATTHIAS,  AND  ALLIES,  1611    497 

begged  that  the  two  princes  '  might  come  to  him  at 
Prague.'  '  He  did  not  even  dare,'  the  Emperor  told 
Joachim  Ernest,  '  so  much  as  mention  the  name  of 
his  House.'  In  August  he  sent  an  embassy  to  a  meeting 
of  the  Union  at  Rotenburg  and  appealed  to  the  whole 
League  for  help.1 

At  the  same  time  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  Union 
by  Matthias,  who  also  sent  an  ambassador  to  Rotenburg 
to  solicit  help  in  case  of  the  Emperor's  attacking  him.2 
Hoping  with  the  help  of  the  Union  to  attain  to  the 
imperial  crown,  he  had,  as  early  as  February  3,  written 
to  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg  that  he  was  ready  to  do 
all  he  could  '  for  the  allied  princes  and  electors  on 
behalf  of  the  general  peace  of  the  Empire ;  '  the  re- 
mainder, he  said,  could  not  be  entrusted  to  pen  and 
paper.  Matthias  and  the  allies,  said  the  Elector  of 
Mayence  on  April  2,  were,  so  he  heard,  in  league  to- 
gether :  '  I  am  curious  to  know  which  will  first  de- 
ceive the  other.'  In  July  the  Wiirtemberg  councillors 
declared  that '  Matthias  was  the  most  desirable  successor 
to  the  Emperor.'  3 

The  question  of  the  succession  was  to  be  discussed 
at  an  assembly  of  princes  at  Nuremberg. 

'  It  was  a  right  brotherly  Diet '  that  assembled  at 
Nuremberg  in  the  middle  of  October,  1611.  '  Their 
Excellencies  the  electors  and  princes  forgot  for  the  time 
being  all  need  and  misery,  discussed  and  enjoyed 
themselves  lustily  with  jovial  feasting  and  huge  ban- 
quets.' 

1  Gindely,  ii.  310  ff.  ;   Chlumecky,  i.  778  ff.  ;  Ritter,  Politik  und  Ge- 
schichte  der  Union,  pp.  102,  147-148. 

2  Ritter,  Politik,  pp.  149-150. 

3  Ritter,  Politik,  p.  105,  and  note  1,  111,  note  1. 

VOL.    X.  K  K 


498  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

The  three  spiritual  electors,  with  the  new  Elector 
of  Saxony,  John  George — the  brother  and  successor 
of  Christian  II.,  who  had  died  in  July — were  present 
in  person  ;  John  Sigismund  of  Brandenburg  was  repre- 
sented by  ambassadors ;  at  the  suggestion  of  John 
Schweikart  of  Mayence,  Duke  John  of  Zweibrucken, 
administrator  of  the  county  palatine,  was  admitted 
into  the  College  of  Electors.  Matthias,  as  King  of 
Bohemia,  solicited  his  own  admission  by  means  of 
'  an  imposing  embassy,'  which  was  also  instructed 
to  press  for  his  future  election  as  Emperor.  At  the 
head  of  this  embassy  was  Bishop  Melchior  Klesl,  who 
spoke  '  with  so  much  affection  and  in  such  eloquent 
language  in  favour  of  his  overlord  that  the  electors 
and  councillors  were  all  astounded.'  '  The  parson 
has  a  famous  jaw,'  said  John  George  of  Saxony,  '  and  this 
same  jaw  was  already  quite  close  to  what  it  wanted  to 
snap  up.' 

When  Klesl  made  his  entry,  and  on  every  subse- 
quent occasion  when  he  appeared  in  his  carriage,  he 
was  pursued  by  the  jeers  and  abuse  of  the  people. 
Because  he  was  the  son  of  a  baker  he  was  called  the 
baker's  journeyman,  and  certain  coppersmiths'  appren- 
tices declared  that,  if  only  they  had  this  baker  in  the 
street,  '  they  would  sift  his  flour  for  him.'  A  monk 
who  was  in  his  suite  was  regarded  as  a  monster.  By 
order  of  the  council  the  arquebusier  Wolf  Teufel  was 
obliged  to  stand  continuously  outside  the  residence 
of  Klesl,  with  a  whip  in  his  hand  to  keep  back  the 
thronging  masses.  '  And  so,'  says  a  chronicler  (making 
a  play  on  the  name  Teufel),  '  the  devil  became  the  pro- 
tector of  the  Bishop  and  of  the  clerical  Father,  so  long 
as  he  and  his  monk  remained  here.'     The  Elector  of 


DIET   OF   ELECTORS   AT   NUREMBERG,    1611  499 

Mayence  also,  '  a  fine,  venerable-looking,  delightful 
person,'  was  once  outrageously  insulted  in  the  public 
streets,  while  the  following  wish  was  shouted  at  his 
retinue :  '  You  priestly  rabble,  may  you  all  of  you 
be  carried  off  alive  by  the  devil.'  '  No  whit  less  did 
the  Lutherans  and  Calvinists  among  the  people  mutually 
revile  each  other  ;  '  '  and  it  was  a  terrible  state  of 
things,  all  the  more  so  because  the  princes  and  their 
retinues  numbered  more  than  two  thousand  persons, 
few  of  whom,  either  of  the  foreigners  or  of  men  of  the 
land,  paid  the  slightest  attention  to  the  orders  of  the 
council.'  One  of  the  preachers,  who  was  in  the  habit 
of  '  relegating  the  papists  and  Calvinists  in  one  lump 
to  the  devil,'  had  been  most  strictly  enjoined  by  the 
council  to  abstain  from  all  vilifying,  blackguarding, 
calling  people  heretics,  and  anathematising  them  during 
the  assembly  of  princes.'  The  sacristans  were  en- 
joined to  look  after  the  strangers  in  the  churches,  to 
keep  dogs  out  of  the  sacred  buildings,  and  to  keep 
the  chairs  clean ;  the  hymn  '  Erhalt  uns,  Herr,  bei 
deinem  Wort  und  steur  des  Papsts  und  Tiirken  Mord,' 
was  not  to  be  sung  during  the  stay  of  the  princes. 

'  All  the  same,  however,  in  numbers  of  sermons 
there  was  much  talk  of  murder  and  bloodshed  and 
Calvinistic  and  popish  immorality  and  devilry.'  While 
the  princes  '  were  banqueting  in  brotherly  fashion,  their 
preachers  were  wearing  themselves  out  in  the  service  of 
the  true  doctrine.'  '  The  Saxon  court  preacher  Daniel 
Hanisch  took  up  the  cudgels  in  the  pulpit  with  especial 
vehemence  against  the  papists  and  the  Calvinists,  and 
contradicted  their  false  doctrines  and  their  calumnies.' 
In  this  way  he  acquired  '  great  renown  and  attracted 
a  large  audience  both  of  high  and  low,  who  were  eager 

K  K  2 


500  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

to  hear  his  sermons ;  many  of  the  burghers  would 
often  wait  two  hours  in  the  hall  before  the  sermon 
began,  and  they  always  went  away  well  comforted.' 
'  And  as  the  Palatinate  and  Saxony  were  situated 
quite  close  to  each  other,  he  occasionally  had  a  fling 
at  the  Palatinate,  saying :  "  And  indeed  doctrine  of 
this  sort  is  taught  nowadays  in  our  own  neighbour- 
hood." When  John  George,  '  owing  to  the  complaints 
of  the  Administrator  Duke  John,  attempted  to  put  a  bit 
on  the  preacher's  mouth,  the  latter  became  all  the  more 
audacious.'  The  ambassador  from  Bremen  complained 
of  Hanisch  that  he  had  told  the  people  that  a  preacher 
of  this  town  had  proclaimed  openly  from  the  pulpit 
that  Christ  was  not  in  His  right  senses  when  at  the 
Last  Supper  He  spoke  the  words  :  '  This  is  My  body.' 
On  the  other  side  Bartholomew  Petiscus,  Calvinist 
court  preacher  to  the  Administrator  of  the  Palatinate, 
was  indefatigable  in  the  production  of  '  slandering 
sermons  :  '  he  distributed  tracts  and  booklets  '  in  order, 
writes  a  Nuremberg  chronicler,  '  to  smuggle  the  mis- 
chievous Calvinist  doctrine  into  their  town  and  to  procure 
himself  a  following  ; '  but  the  town  council  caused  the 
books  to  be  taken  away  from  the  burghers.  The  con- 
flict even  found  its  way  into  a  banqueting  hall  of  the 
princes.  Two  boys  belonging  to  the  nobility — one  of 
them  a  Saxon  and  the  other  a  Palatiner — who  were 
in  attendance  at  a  banquet,  came  to  blows  in  a  contest 
as  to  the  right  way  of  repeating  the  Pater  Noster. 
Thus,  before  all  the  electors  and  lords,  they  fought 
lustily  over  religion  ;  their  Excellencies  laughed  heartily, 
and  did  not  attempt  to  check  the  combat,  which  went 
on  till  the  boys,  tired  out  with  their  conflict,  stopped  of 
their  own  accord.' 


HOPES  OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL  REVOLUTION  PARTY    501 

'  The  august  and  princely  lords  spent  great  part  of 
the  day  in  banquets,  which  were  for  the  most  part 
much  too  exquisite  and  costly.'  At  the  Elector  of 
Saxony's  they  once  remained  seven  hours  long  at  table. 
Joachim  Ernest  of  Ansbach  had  as  many  as  104  dishes 
served  up,  besides  artificial  dishes  of  a  most  expensive 
kind,  which  he  had  procured  from  Augsburg.  Still 
more  extravagant  in  its  pomp  was  the  entertaining 
of  the  Elector  of  Cologne,  who,  merely  at  the  '  colla- 
tion,' provided  124  dishes  of  confectionery  which  he 
had  obtained  from  Antwerp  for  the  sum  of  1,500  crowns. 
At  a  banquet  given  by  the  Palatine  Administrator,''  the 
sweet  must  and  the  costly  wine  from  Bacharach  accom- 
plished their  full  effect.'  '  The  next  day  the  electors, 
laid  up  by  their  drunken  carousals,  could  not  attend 
the  council  in  person.'  '  This,'  says  a  reporter,  '  is 
not  in  good  accord  with  the  Golden  Bull,  in  which  such 
banquets  are  forbidden  with  the  utmost  severity.' 

Before  the  beginning  of  the  debates  the  lords,  in 
order  to  fortify  themselves,  were  always  served  with 
a  regular  supply  of  Malvoisie,  Rheinfall,  egg-rings, 
confects,  and  so  forth.  The  cost  of  this  early  luncheon 
was  no  less  than  two  hundred  florins. 

The  assembly  of  electors  lasted  full  four  weeks 
and  ended  with  the  resolution  that  in  the  following 
May  an  electoral  Diet  should  be  held  at  Frankfort-on- 
the-Main,  and  that  Matthias  should  also  be  invited 
to  it  as  King  of  Bohemia.  It  was  also  decided  to  send 
an  embassy  to  the  Emperor,  asking  him  for  his  consent 
to  this  plan  of  electing  a  king.1 

'  Ausfiihrlicher  vertraulicher  Bericht  uber  den  Kurfiirstentag  von 
Melchior  Goldast  von  Hainingsfeld '  (a  jurist  attached  to  the  embassy  of 
King  Matthias) '  an  den  Rat  zu  Frankfurt,'  from  Nuremberg,  November  20, 


502  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

But  Rudolf  rejected  the  Elector's  proposal.  He 
had  made  up  his  mind,  before  the  electoral  Diet,  to 
make  a  journey  into  the  Empire  and,  with  the  help 
of  the  allied  princes,  two  of  whom — the  Margrave  of 
Ansbach  and  Prince  John  of  Anhalt — were  staying 
at  Prague,  to  '  exterminate '  his  enemies.  On  the 
Catholic  side  it  was  feared  that  he  too  would  then  join 
the  Protestant  religion.  His  alliance  with  the  Union 
was  near  to  being  concluded.1 

The  international  revolutionary  party,  left  since 
the  death  of  Henry  IV.  '  without  head  and  leader, 
gathered  fresh  courage  and  cherished  the  hope  that 
it  would  now  soon  be  pitted  in  overpowering  combat 
against  the  Beast,  the  Roman  Antichrist  and  his  fol- 
lowers.' '  Our  whole  endeavours,'  wrote  one  of  the 
Venetian  confederates,  '  hoping  for  the  downfall  of 
the  great  beast,'  on  August  16,  1611,  to  Duplessis- 
Mornay,  '  must  be  concentrated  on  kindling  a  war 
in  Italy  ;  this  is  the  opportune  moment,  since  the  Duke 
of  Savoy  is  inclined  that  way.'  2  Duplessis  at  the  same 
time  summoned  the  King  of  England  to  a  war  of  re- 
ligion. '  You,'  he  said,  '  who  have  so  successfully  hit 
the  Pope  with  your  pen,  cannot  fail  to  be  the  most 
eager  for  the  glory  of  thrusting  him  through  with  your 
avenging    sword  ?     Lay    now    your    pen    aside,    great 

1611,  in  the  Reichstagsakten,  Bd.  94,  18  folio  pages.  Schreiben  eines 
Unbelcannten  aus  der  Begleitung  des  Erzbischofs  von  Mainz,  from  Nuremberg, 
November  14,  1611  ;  Senkenberg,  xxiii.  432-445  ;  Soden,  Kriegs-  und 
Sittengesch.  i.  157-159,  186-187,  207-221,  234. 

1  Fuller  details  in  Gindely,  ii.  310-336  ;  Chlumecky,  i.  778-786. 

2  ' .  .  .  de  quelque  endroict  qu'elle  [la  guerre]  nous  vienne,  elle  ne 
peult  estre  sans  insignes  progres  .  .  .  et  c'est  la  ou  doibt  estre  toute  nostre 
mire,  et  notamment  en  ceste  saison  que  nous  avons  ce  due  de  Savoye, 
qui  seul  entre  les  princes  dTtalie  la  recherche  ;  car  tant  que  ce  cceur  ci 
battra  en  son  aise,  il  ne  fault  esperer  la  chute  de  cette  grande  beste  '  (Asse- 
lineau,  in  Duplessis -Mornay,  xi.  268). 


JAMES   I.   OF   ENGLAND   TO   DUPLESSIS,    1611         503 

King  ;  I  too,  weary  of  writing,  have  thrown  my  pen 
from  me.  These  times  call  for  a  different  mode  of 
action,  and  different  weapons  are  therefore  necessary. 
Let  a  new  Constantine  come  forth  from  Britain  to 
tread  down  this  Maxentius,  this  second  Pharaoh, 
on  the  Milvian  bridge.' 

Fearlessly,  he  said,  and  without  any  risk  of  danger, 
he  would  precipitate  himself  on  Rome.  '  Oh,  most 
illustrious  King,  may  the  great  and  good  God,  who 
has  chosen  thee  out  for  this  holy  war,  protect  thee 
from  all  thine  enemies  and  preserve  thee  for  His  Church, 
for  thy  kingdom  and  for  all  the  company  of  the  be- 
lievers.' 1  James  I.  answered  in  October  that  '  a 
war  of  offence  in  matters  of  religion  could  not  be  justified 
by  Holy  Scripture  and  the  teaching  of  the  primitive 
Church  ;  moreover,  his  strength  was  not  adequate  for 
the  annihilation  of  the  Roman  beast ;  but  he  was 
labouring  incessantly  to  unite  all  princes  in  a  close 
alliance  against  the  assaults  of  Satan  and  his  repre- 
sentative at  Rome.'  2  Duplessis  now  turned  his  hopes 
more  than  ever  to  a  war  in  Germany.  The  Emperor, 
he  wrote  to  Venice  at  the  end  of  December,  is  seeking 
to  connect  himself  with  the  allies  ;  the  number  of  these 
grows  daily,  and  their  delegates  intend  to  assemble 
at  Heidelberg  in  order  to  negotiate  concerning  affairs 
of  the  utmost  importance  ;  the  Kings  of  France,  England, 
and  Denmark  will  also  be  represented  at  this  conference 
by  confidential  persons.3 

Hans  Reinhard  Bromser,  the  vicegerent  of  Mayence, 


1  Epistola  suasoria  prefacing  the   work :    Mysterium   Iniquitatis  seu 
Historia  Papains,  1611.     See  Kowallek,  pp.  434-435. 

2  October  7,  1611  (Duplessis-Mornay,  xi.  310-311). 

3  December  28,  1611,  to  Asselineau  (Duplessis-Mornay,  xi.  374). 


504  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

who  was  at  the  head  of  the  electoral  embassy  to  the 
Emperor,  feared  that  the  following  spring  would  see 
the  outbreak  of  a  great  war  in  the  Empire.  But  at  this 
juncture  Rudolf  died.  Dropsy  had  developed  in  his 
system ;  a  wound  opened  on  the  thigh,  mortification 
set  in,  and  in  a  few  days  he  breathed  his  last,  on  January 
20,  1612. ] 

'  It  is  a  great  blessing  for  the  Empire,'  wrote  Bromser 
on  February  13,  '  that  this  death  has  taken  place.  It 
was  hoped,  had  the  Emperor  returned  to  the  Empire, 
to  use  him  as  a  tool  for  letting  fly  at  the  Catholic  Estates, 
and  for  accomplishing  now  what  was  postponed  in  1610, 
namely,  the  redress  of  all  their  pretended  grievances, 
the  organisation  of  justice  according  to  their  ideas, 
the  free  establishment  of  Calvinism  in  the  Empire 
and  in  the  archbishoprics  and  bishoprics,  and  the  gradual 
confiscation  of  these  dioceses  -and  their  transformation 
into  secular  lordships. 

'  Now,  however,  that  the  Emperor  has  been  snatched 
away  by  death,  the  danger  of  a  great  civil  war  seems  again 
deferred.  For  how  long  it  may  be  deferred  will  depend 
on  those  who  honourably  desire  peace — be  they  Catholic 
or  Lutheran  Estates.  If  they  do  not  rally  together 
for  joint  defence,  then,  with  the  help  of  foreign  powers, 
the  fury  of  war  will'  one  day  break  out  unexpectedly. 
And  then,  Finis  Germaniae.''  2 

1  See  Stieve  in  the  Allgem.  deutsche  Biographie,  xxix.  514. 

2  To  Karl  von  Egenolph  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main  on  January  1G  and 
February  13,  1612. 


505 


CHAPTER   VI 

ELECTION    OF   THE    EMPEROR    MATTHIAS,    1612  !  — 
THE    DIRECTOR    OF   THE    NEW   EMPEROR 

Immediately  after  the  death  of  Rudolf  II..  Christian 
of  Anhalt  represented  to  King  Matthias,  through  the 
Margrave  of  Ansbach,  that  in  view  of  his  election  to  the 
Empire  he  would  do  well  '  to  show  favour  to  the  allies,' 
'  to  promise  all  possible  conciliatoriness  in  the  matter  of 
grievances,'  and  above  all  to  maintain  good  relations 
with  the  Palatinate,  because  '  this  territory  had  at  all 
times  openly  stood  up  for  him,'  and  as  head  of  the 
Union  '  might  be  able  to  render  him  good  service.'  The 
Margrave  of  Ansbach  appeared  at  Prague  on  behalf 
of  confidential  negotiations  with  Matthias,  and  was 
sent  by  the  latter  into  the  Empire  charged  to  push 
on  his  election.  k  In  my  mind  there  is  no  doubt,'  said 
the  Margrave  in  a  memorandum  respecting  the  forth- 
coming election,  '  that  for  this  time  they  will  stick  to 
the  House  of  Austria.'  The  members  of  this  House- 
most  advantageous  to  the  Catholics  were  the  King  of 

1  See  Kohl,  Die  Politilc  Kursachsens  wiihrend  des  Interregnums  und 
der  Kaiserwahl  1612,  nach  archivalischen  Quellen  dargestellt  (Hallenser 
Dissertation  von  1887).  Here,  p.  9,  is  quoted  a  confidential  letter  of  the 
Calvinist  Landgrave  Maurice  of  Hesse-Cassel  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
dated  January  30,  1612,  in  which  Maurice  endeavours  to  win  over  the 
Elector  to  the  idea  of  a  Protestant  Empire  ;  in  such  a  case  the  crown 
would  be  offered  to  Saxony,  at  the  same  time,  however,  accession  to  the 
Union  would  be  insisted  on.  Saxony,  nevertheless,  refused  (J.  Heling, 
Die  Wdhl  des  romischen  Konigs  Matthias).  The  first  part  (Belgard,  1892) 
was  not  accessible  to  me. 


")06  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Spain,  Archduke  Albert,  and  Archduke  Ferdinand  of 
Styria.  The  first,  however,  they  would  not  be  able 
to  carry  through,  and  the  last  was  too  resourceless, 
besides  which  he  had  '  the  Turk  for  his  near  neighbour, 
and  likewise  Hungary  and  Austria,  which  countries 
were  chiefly  evangelical ;  the  Venetians  also  were 
near  to  him,  and  these  were  not  sufficiently  Catholic' 
The  best  candidate  for  the  Protestants  as  opposed  to 
Archduke  Albert  was  Matthias,  whom  it  was  '  all  the 
more  advisable  to  uphold  '  as  he  was  '  opposed  to  the 
Catholic  Electors.'  If  Matthias  came  to  the  throne 
through  the  exertions  of  the  Protestants  '  he  would 
be  all  the  more  bound  to  favour  the  Union.' 

His  lands  were  for  the  most  part  evangelical,  and 
had  '  now  acquired  so  much  freedom '  that  there  was 
no  reason  to  fear  that  he  would  use  his  power  to  the 
prejudice  of  the  evangelical  religion.  For  still  greater 
security  they  had  the  means  of  '  allying  themselves 
with  the  said  royal  and  hereditary  dominions.'  True, 
it  was  feared  that  his  elevation  to  the  throne  would 
establish  the  House  of  Austria  more  firmly ;  but  this 
danger  was  lessened  by  the  fact  that  Matthias,  by 
his  election,  would  fall  into  enmity  with  Archduke 
Albert.  The  Pope  and  the  King  of  Spain  had  only 
recommended  Matthias  in  order  to  '  disconcert  the 
evangelicals.'  '  The  Moravian  district  governor,  Karl 
von  Zierotin,  when  asked  his  opinion  by  the  Elector 
Palatine,  also  spoke  in  favour  of  Matthias  :  the  princes, 
he  said,  '  could  make  no  better  choice ;  from  no  one 
else  had  they  more  to  hope  and  less  to  fear.'  It  was 
true,  said  Duplessis-Mornay,  that  Matthias  would  not 
accept  '  the  true  light ' — that  is  to  say,  Calvinism — '  but 

1  Ritter,  Politik  und  Gesch.  der  Union,  pp.  157-158. 


ELECTION   OF   AN   EMPEROR,    1612  507 

at  any  rate  he  would  not  set  himself  in  opposition 
to  this  light ; '  during  his  reign  the  Protestants  would 
gain  time  to  organise  themselves  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  command  the  next  election  at  their  will.1 

In  order  to  dispose  the  ecclesiastical  Klectors  in 
his  favour,  Matthias  caused  it  to  be  intimated  to  them 
that  '  by  his  public  devotions  he  was  showing  himself 
a  fervent  Catholic  and  that  he  was  furthering  all  Catholic 
interests ;  that  for  many  years  he  had  advised  the 
late  Emperor  to  take  back  from  the  Protestants  what 
Maximilian  II.  had  granted  them  ;  that  he  had  abolished 
the  preachers  and  forbidden  attendance  at  Protestant 
sermons ;  in  Bohemia  he  had  wanted  to  defend  the 
Catholic  religion  against  Rudolf's  '  Majest'itsbrief ' 
with  armed  force,  but  had  not  been  able  to  obtain 
from  the  Pope,  the  King  of  Spain,  and  other  Catholic 
princes  the  help  necessary  for  the  purpose  ;  the  con- 
cessions which  he  had  made  to  the  Protestants  were 
merely  a  matter  of  expediency,  and  they  were  not 
binding  on  his  heirs  and  successors ;  moreover,  the 
strength  of  his  leaning  towards  the  Catholics  was  patent 
from  the  complaints  of  the  Protestants  that  he  did  not 
fulfil  the  promises  he  made  them.1' 

Least  of  any  did  the  Elector  Ferdinand  of  Cologne 
trust  the  assurances  of  '  the  man  who  was  no  less  double- 
tongued  than  his  father  Maximilian.'  '  According  to 
all  appearance,'  wrote  Ferdinand  before  the  opening 
of  the  electoral  Diet  at  the  beginning  of  May,  to  his 
brother  Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  '  we  shall  be 
landed  in  such  serious  complications  as  must  not  only 
result  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Catholic  religion  but 
also  in  further  disturbances  and  risings  in  the  Empire. 

1  Chlumecky,  i.  797,  798.        ~  Hammer,  ii.  ;  Urkundenbd.  pp.  401-405. 


508  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

For  even  the  Prince  of  Anhalt  has  informed  the  Elector 
of  Mayence  in  confidence  that  the  King  of  Hungary 
has  come  to  terms  with  them,  i.e.  the  Protestants,  and 
received  promises  of  powerful  help  from  them.  On 
this  matter  the  Pope  and  the  King  of  Spain  keep  silence 
as  though  they  knew  nothing  of  such  things,  or  did  not 
wish  to  know.  To  us  electors  also  they,  the  Protestants, 
very  strongly  recommend  the  said  King  of  Hungary. 
This  makes  some  of  our  party  so  chicken-hearted,  and 
causes  them  to  sink  into  such  forgetfulness  of  their 
duty  to  God,  that  they  can  never  be  justified  in  the 
eyes  of  posterity.  All  this  would  not  have  come  about 
if  the  Pope  and  Spain  had  adopted  measures  in  good 
time.' 

Matthias,  said  Ferdinand  in  a  second  despatch, 
'  must  of  necessity  compass  the  ruin  of  the  Roman 
Empire.1  Already  during  the  election  negotiations 
the  Elector  had  feared  violent  action  from  the  Cal- 
vinists.  '  It  is  now  positively  certain,'  he  wrote  to 
Maximilian,  '  that  if  it  were  in  the  power  of  the  Cal- 
vinists  to  do  so,  they  would  undoubtedly  stir  up  some 
disturbance  and  surprise  us  spiritual  Electors  with 
violence.  I  therefore  deem  it  advisable  that  your 
Excellency  should  place  yourself  somewhat  in  readiness, 
so  that  if  the  turbulent  rabble  should  perchance  begin 
their  villainy  and  make  a  forcible  attack  on  us  spiritual 
electors,  you  may  be  prepared  for  the  emergency.  For 
it  is  certain  that  the  opposite  party  are  plotting  some 
knavish  work,  which,  if  they  could,  they  would  gladly 
carry  out  against  us.'  2 

At  the  beginning  of  the  election  negotiations  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  the  ecclesiastical  Electors  were 

1  Wolf,  Maximilian,  iii.  287,  290.  -  Wolf,  iii  297. 


ELECTION   OF   AN   EMPEROR,    1612  509 

still  exerting  themselves  on  behalf  of  Archduke  Albert. 
The  latter  had,  however,  on  December  27,  1611,  con- 
cluded a  treaty  with  the  other  archdukes,  according 
to  which  Matthias  was  to  be  put  forward  as  the  claimant 
to  the  imperial  throne  on  the  side  of  their  House. 
Matthias  had  gained  the  support  of  Spain  and  of  the 
Pope  by  solemn  assurances  of  '  unutterable  devotion 
to  the  Catholic  faith,'  and  the  Spanish  ambassador, 
Balthasar  Zuniga,  in  conjunction  with  Bishop  Klesl  at 
Frankfort,  was  his  most  zealous  champion.  Zuniga 
procured  him  the  votes  of  the  ecclesiastical  Electors — 
nevertheless,  only  on  the  security  that  Spain  would 
defend  the  Catholic  religion  against  every  enemy,  even 
against  the  new  Emperor.' 

1  Ritter,  Politik  der  Union,  p.  118  ;  Chluruecky,  i.  798  ;  Gindely, 
Rudolf,  ii.  157  ;  and  Gesch.  des  biihmischen  Aufstandes.  ii.  Schmid,  in  the 
Hist.  Jahrbuch  der  Gorresgesellscliaft,  Jahrg.  1885,  pp.  194-195.  In  the 
document  informing  the  Pope  of  the  election,  the  three  ecclesiastical 
Electors  expressed  the  following  wishes,  the  fulfilment  of  which  he  should 
urge  upon  the  newly-elected  Emperor.  I.  Before  all  he  is  to  use  his 
authority  to  enforce  the  restitution  of  all  the  Church  property  confiscated 
by  the  opponents  of  Catholicism.  II.  The  Emperor  shall  not  himself 
enact  any  decree,  nor  shall  he  give  his  consent  or  approval  to  any  decree 
which  might  in  any  way  prejudice  the  Catholic  religion  and  the  rights, 
statutes,  usages,  goods,  and  revenues  of  the  Church.  III.  He  shall 
retract,  in  an  authentic  document,  any  promises  he  may  have  made  to  the 
opponents — either  by  his  free  will  or  under  compulsion — to  the  detriment 
of  the  Catholic  religion  or  of  single  churches.  IV.  Within  the  course  of  a 
year,  without  delay  and  subterfuge,  he  shall,  by  means  of  a  legally  con- 
ducted election,  have  a  King  of  the  Romans  established  at  his  side.  V.  If  it 
should  become  necessary  to  take  up  arms  in  self-defence,  the  Emperor 
shall  favour,  support,  and  defend  the  Catholic  party  with  imperial  autho- 
rity. VI.  That  which  the  Electors,  and  others  in  their  name,  have  done 
up  to  the  present  time  in  the  interest  of  the  public  election  shall  not  be 
ill-construed  by  him,  nor  shall  he,  under  any  pretext  whatever,  embark 
on  a  legally  irregular  course  of  proceeding  against  anyone.  VII.  What 
has  been  done  by  Archduke  Leopold,  he  shall  cover  with  the  mantle  of 
brotherly  love,  and  not  make  into  a  pretext  for  forming  a  hostile  resolu- 
tion against  his  person,  his  goods,  or  his  dependents.  If  he  should  already 
have  formed  any  such  resolution,  he  must  recall  it  and  restore  everything 


510  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

On  June  13,  1612,  Matthias  was  unanimously  elected 
and  afterwards  crowned  with  his  consort  in  the  cathe- 
dral.1 

Feats  of  running  the  ring  and  dancing  concluded  the 
solemnities.  '  The  last  dance,'  it  says  in  a  report  of 
the  coronation,  k  was  performed  by  his  Imperial  Majesty 
with  the  wife  of  the  Administrator- Elector  of  the  Pala- 
tinate.' 2 

Another  kind  of  dance  was  soon  to  begin. 

'  All  seems,  to  outward  appearances,'  wrote  a 
member  of  the  retinue  of  the  Elector  of  Mayence,  '  to 
have  gone  off  peaceably ;  but  the  bitterness  of  feeling 
which  prevailed  during  the  transactions  respecting  the 
Emperor's  capitulation,  and  which  by  no  means  wore 
itself  out,  gives  reason  to  fear  very  different  issues  in 
the  Empire.'  3 

Matthias  was  fifty-five  years  of  age  when  he  acceded 
to  the  imperial  government  He  was  a  '  good-humoured, 
affable  prince,'  very  tenacious  of  external  tokens  of 
honour  and  glittering  state  ceremonies,  such  as  '  befitted 
the    secular    head    of    Christendom.'     Although    '  his 

to  the  status  quo  antea.  VIII.  Above  all  he  must  be  untiring  in  pro- 
moting everything  which  may  tend  to  the  glory  of  God,  the  exaltation  of 
the  Church,  and  the  maintenance  of  peace  in  the  Empire.  In  conclusion 
the  Electors  praised  the  behaviour  of  the  Cologne  nuncio  in  these  and  in 
other  transactions  (Schmid,  in  the  Hist.  Jdhrbuch  der  Gorresgesellschaft, 
Jahrg.  1885,  p.  196).  Respecting  the  part  played  by  the  Pope,  see  also 
Lammer,  Melet.  Romanor.  mantissa,  p.  310. 

1  Khevenhiller  says,  writes  Senkenberg,  xxiii.  512,  that  Matthias, 
kneeling  at  the  altar  before  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence,  requested  that 
his  consort  might  be  crowned  also,  '  but  I  cannot  believe  that  such  request 
was  made  in  a  kneeling  posture.'  The  detailed  account  of  the  coronation 
in  the  Frankfurter  Wahltagakten,  xiv.  43,  confirms  Khevenhiller's 
statement. 

-  Frankfurter  Wahltagakten,  xiv.  47. 

3  Concerning  the  capitulation  business,  see  Wolf,  iii.  299-308  ;  Ritter, 
Politik,  pp.  118-120. 


MATTHIAS  ELECTED  EMPEROR,  1612       511 

coffers  were  in  a  chronic  state  of  emptiness,'  '  the  court 
household  must  nevertheless  be  magnificent,'  even  if 
'  debts  should  be  heaped  on  debts.'  Serious  intellectual 
activity  had  never  been  to  his  taste  ;  he  concerned 
himself  little  or  not  at  all  about  the  affairs  of  govern- 
ment, was  always  dependent  on  his  councillors,  whom 
he  trusted  for  better  or  for  worse. 

Bishop  Klesl,  whom,  in  reward  for  his  services,  he 
had  appointed  President  of  the  Ministry,  once  said 
frankly  to  him :  '  Your  Majesty  must  indeed  exert 
yourself  and  not  give  way  to  indolence  ;  for  where  the 
master  does  not  work  himself,  the  servants  grow  lazy, 
and  land  and  people  go  to  ruin.  Never  to  give  audience 
to  the  Imperial  Chamber,  to  the  Council  of  War,  to  the 
Privy  Council,  is  not  the  way  to  keep  the  State  together, 
and  must  end  in  disaster.  It  grieves  me  respecting 
your  Majesty  that  I  cannot  alter  your  nature  as  I  gladly 
would.'  '  Your  Majesty,'  he  admonished  Matthias 
another  time,  '  will  not  look  after  your  interests  yourself, 
but  you  let  things  happen  as  they  may,  so  long  as  you 
yourself  enjoy  peace  and  quiet.'  '  What  your  coun- 
sellors advise,  that  you  do  ;  what  the  majority  votes 
for,  you  agree  to,  so  that  you  may  have  no  worry  ; 
you  never  think  of  what  the  consequences  may  be. 
When,  however,  people  will  not  attend  to  their  own 
work,  then  follows  surely  a  reckoning  with  God.'  '  Klesl 
himself,  a  man  of  robust,  unimpaired  bodily  vigour, 
of  simple,  temperate,  and  blameless  living,  '  worked 
like  a  horse,'  and  even  when  his  labours  '  went  long- 
without  result,  was  always  enthusiastically  active.' 
'  He  was  not  only  President  of  the  Privy  Council,  whose 
business  it  was  to  appoint  the  other  court  and  privy 
councillors  to  their  offices,'  but  also  '  Director  of  the 

1  Hammer,  iii.  ;  Urhundenband,  pp.  54,  410-411. 


512  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Emperor,'  and  the  actual  '  Factotum  '  during  the  whole 
of    Matthias's    reign.     His    influence    over    the    feeble 
sovereign  was  all  the  greater  for  the  reason  that  out  of 
his  wealthy  fortune  and  his  yearly  revenue  of  40,000 
thalers,  he  was  able  to  advance  considerable  sums  to 
the  ever  impecunious  prince.     If  at  times  he  declared 
that  he  was  '  nothing  but  a  humble  and  faithful  servant 
of  his  lord,'  he  also  boasted  at  other  times  that '  Matthias 
owed  everything  to  him  ;  he  had  helped  him  to  all  his 
crowns.'  ]      '  At  open  table,  in  the  presence  of  electors 
and   princes,   Klesl ' — so   the   Electors   Ferdinand   and 
Maximilian  complained — '  had  had  the  audacity  to  say  : 
"  Here  sits  the  Emperor  ;  let  them  flock  to  the  Emperor, 
to  the  Empress,  let  them  complain,  let  them  petition, 
but  nothing  will  be  done  except  what  I  will ;  I  have 
ordained  it,   I   have   decided   it,    I    have   commanded 
this,  that,  and  the  other."       To  the  Emperor's  behests 
and  commands  no  obedience,  therefore,  was  rendered. 
State  secrets,  these  electors  said,  had  been  ill-kept  by 
Klesl ;  well-meant  letters  from  the  Elector  of  Mayence 
had  been  transmitted  to  the  Margraves  of  Ansbach  and 
Baden  with  the  remark  that  they  were  '  ideas  of  the 
old  fool,'  and  '  others  of  this  sort.'  "2     '  They  are  saying 
everywhere,'   we  read  in  a   satirical    dialogue   on  the 
political    conditions,    '  that   Klesl,   the    Vice-Emperor, 
represents  the  Emperor  in  most  transactions  ;  he  is  all 
in  all ; '  '  Spain  gives  him  money,  the  Emperor  gives 
him  the  world,  the  Pope  gives  him  heaven.'     '  Methinks 
this  is  enough  for  a  baker's  lad.'     *  True,  he  is  a  papist, 
but  he  knows  how  to  turn  his  coat  according  to  the 

1  Kerschbaumer,    pp.    243,    371-374.     Concerning    the    revenues    of 
Klesl,  see  pp.  391-394  ;  Hurter,  vii.  46. 

2  Ehmel,  Handschriften,  i.  282-284  ;  Hammer,  iv.  ;  Urkundenbd.  pp. 
402,  404. 


THE   EMPEROR'S   'DIRECTOR'  KLESL  513 

wind  and  to  carry  water  on  both  shoulders.'  '  Anyone 
who  knows  Klesl  may  make  use  of  him ;  he  knows 
indeed  how  to  get  paid  for  his  jobs ;  but  anyone  who 
can  manage  to  get  round  him  rightly  will  get  a  hundred 
per  cent.,  if  not  more,  out  of  him.' 

The  worst  thing  about  the  all-powerful  President  of 
the  Ministry  was  his  unprincipled  politics  and  his  double- 
tonguedness,  which  deprived  him  of  all  confidence  on 
the  part  of  the  Catholics  as  well  as  of  the  Protestants. 
Neither  the  one  nor  the  other  party,  wrote  the  Venetian 
ambassador  John  Soranzo,  could  rely  on  Klesl,  '  for  he 
was  able  with  skill  and  cunning  and  empty  promises 
to  keep  hold  of  and  influence  both  sides,  so  that  affairs 
never  came  to  any  conclusion.'  * 

The  Viennese  nuncio  had  spoken  of  Klesl's  '  un- 
fathomable wiles '  as  early  as  in  1610,2  and  at  the  same 
time  warned  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  against  the  danger 
with  which  religion  was  threatened  by  his  intrigues.3 
6 1  know  the  man,'  wrote  the  Elector  of  Mayence  to  a 
friend  in  1612,  '  and  I  cannot  trust  him,  for  his  genius 
is  entirely  directed  towards  turning  good  confidence 
into  mistrust  in  order  that  he  may  accomplish  his  own 
ends.'  Nobody  was  worth  anything  in  his  estimation, 
unless  he  chimed  in  with  his  own  song.  The  allied 
princes  boasted  that  they  could  now  do  anything  at 
court  by  means  of  presents  to  Klesl,  who  was  all- 
powerful.4 

Soon,  however,  there  was  heard  on  the  side  of  the 
allies  the  complaint  that  '  the  false  parson  could  not 
be  trusted  ; '  that  '  Klesl  was  an  abortion  of  Satan.'  5 

1  Hurter,  vii.  46.  -  Kerschbaumer,  p.  390,  note  1. 

3  Hammer,  ii.  ;  Urkundenbd.  pp.  190,  266.       4  Hammer,  iii,  33,  note. 
5  Ritter,  Politik  der  Union,  p.  146,  note  2,  169. 

VOL.    X.  L  L 


514  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 


CHAPTER   VII 

UNION   AND    LEAGUE,    1612-1613 

'  The  new  Emperor  is  with  us,  but  the  real  power  in 
the  Empire  does  not  lie  with  him,  or  with  his  court, 
but  elsewhere,'  wrote  a  Mayence  chancellery  official  a 
few  weeks  after  the  coronation  day  at  Frankfort,  '  and 
the  Union  is  like  a  Damocles  sword  over  the  heads  of 
the  Catholics,  and  their  Electoral  Graces  are  in  perpetual 
anxiety  lest  it  should  soon  fall  on  them,  and  that  the 
Holy  Empire  will  be  plunged  in  war  and  bloodshed.'  ! 

Already  before  the  election  the  Elector  John 
Schweikart  had  made  known  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony 
that  '  the  States,  especially  those  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  Rhine,  were  making  vigorous  military  prepara- 
tions ;  the  Palatinate,  Wiirtemberg,  Strasburg,  Baden, 
and  others  among  the  allies  were  engaged  in  recruiting 
commanding  officers  and  were  liberally  dispensing 
recruiting  fees ;  it  was  incumbent,  therefore,  on  the 
Catholics  to  prepare  themselves  for  defence  in  order  to 
safeguard  the  peace  of  the  Empire  and  of  religion. 
During  and  after  the  formation  of  the  Halle  Union 
matters  proceeded  to  such  lengths  that  the  intention 
of  exterminating  the  Catholic  Estates — especially  the 
ecclesiastical  ones — was  not  only  declared  secretly  and 
proclaimed    openly   in    speech    and    in    pamphlets — of 

1  Konzept  eines  Briefes  aus  der  mainzischen  Kanzlei,  vom  17  Juli,  1612, 
contributed  by  Bohmer. 


THE   UNION    IN   ALLIANCE    WITH   ENGLAND       515 

which  last  indeed  there  was  an  abundant  supply — but 
the  adversaries,  furthermore,  did  not  scruple  to  proceed 
to  action,  to  take  up  arms  under  a  feigned  pretext,  and 
to  invite  foreign  powers,  lying  under  the  Empire's  sus- 
picion, to  join  in  the  undertaking  and  enter  the  country. 
In  short,  they  left  nothing  undone  by  which  the  peril 
of  the  Fatherland  might  be  increased.'  This  storm- 
cloud  might  not  indeed  have  passed  over  so  lightly  had 
not  '  Almighty  God  interposed  with  His  strong  arm, 
and  for  this  once,  at  any  rate,  frustrated  these  baneful 
counsels  and  turned  them  to  nought.'  But  the  Union 
was  still  persevering  in  the  work  of  strengthening  itself 
by  means  both  of  internal  and  external  forces,  and  still 
continued  to  hold  out  threats  to  the  Catholics  ;  John 
Schweikart,  therefore,  begged  the  Elector  of  Saxony 
to  point  out  what  ought  to  be  done,  and  to  state  what 
help  the  Catholic  Estates  might  expect  from  him  in 
case  of  need.  Whereas  the  Union  was  in  alliance  with 
England,  Denmark,  and  the  States-General,  and  con- 
sequently superior  in  strength  to  the  loyal  and  peace- 
able Estates,  the  question  arose  whether  these  last 
would  not  do  well  to  send  an  influential  deputation  to 
France,  Lorraine,  Savoy,  and  Burgundy  to  solicit  help 
in  case  of  further  molestation.1 

In  April  1612  the  King  of  England  had  concluded 
with  the  Union,  whose  protector-in-chief  he  had  con- 
sidered himself  since  the  death  of  Henry  IV.,  a  six  years' 
treaty,  by  which  he  pledged  himself  to  a  contribution  of 
4,000  men.  Moreover,  two  years  before  this,  negotia- 
tions had  been  initiated  for  a  marriage  between 
Frederic  V.  of  the  Palatinate,  still  a  minor,  and  the 
Princess  Elizabeth,  a  daughter  of  the  King  of  England  ; 

1  Hitter,  Politih  der  Union,  pp.  159-162. 

Ll2 


516  HISTOKY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

these  negotiations  were  now  brought  to  a  conclusion. 
In  February  1613  the  matrimonial  alliance  was 
solemnised  in  London,  and  that  '  with  a  splendour  and 
magnificence  seldom  witnessed  before.'  One  hundred 
thousand  pounds  sterling,  an  enormous  sum  according 
to  the  then  value  of  money,  were  squandered  on  the 
occasion.  The  future  Electress  brought  with  her  a 
court  retinue  and  household  of  374  persons.  On  the 
journey  to  Heidelberg  she  travelled  from  Cologne  to 
Bonn  in  one  of  the  Palatine  ships  which  contained 
seven  state  rooms ;  among  these  was  a  silver-room, 
an  armoury,  and  three  splendid  apartments  adorned 
with  sumptuous  tapestry  of  red  and  blue  velvet.  The 
festivities  lasted  for  several  weeks.1  There  were  mas- 
querades, knightly  games,  hunts,  banquetings  ;  every 
day  more  than  twenty  Fuders  (3,956  gallons)  of  wine 
were  consumed.  The  luxury  introduced  by  the 
daughter  of  England's  King  swallowed  up  the  last 
resources  of  the  country.1'  Heidelberg,  wrote  a  traveller 
in  1616,  was  '  like  a  little  Paris  in  the  middle  of  Ger- 
many. Everything  is  done  there  according  to  a  foreign 
model,  and  it  is  difficult  to  describe  the  magnificence 
which  the  court  displays  and  the  amount  of  frivolity 
that  goes  on.  Prosperity,  however,  is  quite  at  a  stand- 
still ;  from  the  starving,  emaciated  populace  there 
come  complaints  which  might  move  a  heart  of  stone  ; 
it  is  notorious  also  how  empty  are  the  Elector's  coffers 
and  how  his  debts  increase  and  multiply.' 3 

1  The  Heidelberg  University  sent  the  following  greeting  to  the  future 
Electress  in  Frankenthal  by  a  young  boy  who  presented  her  with  an 
offering  of  fruits :  '  Madame,  la  deesse  Flora  et  Pomona  Vous  saluent,  et 
souhaitent  toute  benediction  et  felicite  :  et  Vous  presentent  cette  corbeille  ' 
(Hausser,  ii.  274). 

2  Fuller  details  in  Hausser,  ii.  258-275. 

3  Allerhand  von  gelehrten  und  curieusen  Sachen,  pp.  23-24. 


VIENNESE   COURT   FAVOURS   ALLIES'    DEMANDS   517 

James  I.  had  dreams  of  a  kingly  crown  for  his  son- 
in-law.  In  a  short  time,  he  said,  Frederic  would 
ascend  the  Bohemian  throne.  He  caused  English 
money  to  be  distributed  in  Prague  by  his  messengers, 
in  order  to  curry  favour  with  the  Protestant  population. 
Bohemia,  wrote  a  Bavarian  confidential  agent  in  April 
1613,  wore  the  aspect  of  a  country  in  which  a  storm 
was  beginning  to  gather  ;  for  the  people  did  not  believe 
that  the  Emperor  would  keep  his  promises  with  regard 
to  religion.  Another  agent  had  already  reported  in 
August  1612  that '  among  all  the  Estates  of  the  imperial 
hereditary  dominions  there  is  great  agitation  ;  every- 
where the  spirit  of  republicanism  is  astir.  At  Vienna 
the  English  ambassador  was  engaged  in  a  lively  corre- 
spondence with  the  leading  Protestant  members  of  the 
Estates  of  Austria,  and  Erasmus  of  Tschernembl  was 
unweariedly  active  in  trying  to  bring  about  an  alliance 
between  the  Union  and  the  Estates.'  l 

There  was  reason  to  fear  the  complete  downfall  of 
the  House  of  Habsburg.  Meanwhile,  however,  Klesl 
carried  on  private  transactions  with  the  allies,  in  order, 
as  he  hoped,  '  to  consolidate  the  said  House.'  '  You 
may  believe  me,  on  my  honour,'  he  declared  on  Septem- 
ber 7,  1612,  to  the  Margrave  of  Ansbach,  whose  letter 
he  had  handed  over  to  the  Emperor  and  the  Empress, 
'  that  you  are  regarded  as  the  child  of  the  House,  and  I 
hope  his  Imperial  Majesty  will  always  make  this  mani- 
fest under  all  circumstances ;  do  you  only  remain 
faithful  to  this  dynasty.'  2  Klesl — so  Caspar  Schoppe 
reported  to  Rome  on  July  6,  1613 — was  so  vigorously 

1  Chlumecky,  i.  821-825  ;  Wolf,  Maximilian,  iii.   312-313  ;  Gindely, 
Gesch.  des  bohmischen  Aufstandes,  i.  78,  186. 
-  Ritter,  Politik  der  Union,  p.  126,  note. 


518   ;i      history  of  the  German  people 

supporting  the  claims  of  the  Protestant  princes,  that  it 
was  to  be  feared  that  in  a  short  time  the  Catholic 
Church  would  be  exterminated  all  over  Germany.1 

On  December  30,  1612,  the  Emperor  had  summoned 
a  Diet  to  meet  at  Ratisbon  on  the  following  April  24 
for  the  chief  purpose  of  deliberating  concerning  the 
organisation  of  the  judicial  system  and  the  raising  of  a 
new  Turkish  subsidy. 

The  allied  Estates  intended  to  assert  their  demands 
on  this  occasion,  and  Klesl  in  the  meanwhile  made 
every  possible  exertion  to  induce  the  Catholics  to  give 
in  at  the  outset.  '  The  rascally  manoeuvres*,'  it  says 
in  a  despatch  of  the  councillor  of  the  Elector  of  Mayence, 
William  Ferdinand  van  Effern,  '  in  order  to  gain  his 
purpose,  scares  the  Catholics  with  pictures  of  the  devil, 
and  is  willing  to  stake  both  honour  and  reputation.' 
The  Elector  of  Mayence  was  informed  from  Vienna  that 
the  League  of  the  Catholics  was  not  equal  to  the  Pro- 
testant Union  ;  on  external  help  they  could  not  reckon 
with  any  certainty  ;  the  Pope  was  an  old  man  ;  the 
King  of  Spain  had  not  even  been  in  a  position  to  put 
down  his  rebellious  subjects  in  the  Netherlands,  but  had 
been  obliged,  on  the  contrary,  to  conclude  an  igno- 
minious treaty  with  them ;  the  French  crown  had 
enough  to  do  with  its  own  insurgent  subjects,  likewise 
the  Poles  with  the  rebels  in  the  interior  of  the  Empire, 
and  with  the  Muscovites  and  Swedes ;  the  Italian 
princes  were  solely  occupied  in  looking  after  their  own 
safety.  On  the  other  hand  the  allies  were  already  on 
good  terms  with  the  Turks  and  the  Austrian  hereditary 
lands,  as  well  as  in  close  alliance  with  the  States- General, 
with  England,  and  with  Switzerland.     Against  all  these 

1  Kerschbaumer,  p.  215. 


VIENNESE   COURT   FAVOURS   ALLIES'   DEMANDS    519 

Powers  the  Catholics,  and  also  the  Emperor,  were  much 
too  weak,  and  it  might  well  happen  that  the  latter 
would  be  compelled  to  act  entirely  according  to  the  will 
of  the  Protestants  ;  the  Catholic  religion  would  then  be 
altogether  rooted  out  of  Germany.  For  these  reasons, 
it  was  urged,  the  Catholic  Estates  should  show  them- 
selves amenable  to  the  Protestants,  especially  as  regards 
the  ecclesiastical  reservation,  against  which  the  Protes- 
tants had  invariably  protested.  This  regulation  had  never 
been  put  into  force  against  them ;  on  the  contrary,  they 
had  always  been  left  in  tranquil  possession  of  the 
abbeys  which  they  had  confiscated.  It  was  desirable, 
therefore,  that  they  should,  according  to  the  demand 
of  the  allies,  give  the  present  holder  of  the  archbishopric 
of  Augsburg,  and  the  other  Protestant  bishops  designate, 
seats  and  votes  at  the  imperial  Diets,  and  that  the 
Religious  Peace  should  be  renewed  as  they  wished.  If 
their  demands  were  not  complied  with  they  would 
certainly  break  up  the  forthcoming  Diet,  and  then  all 
justice  would  be  at  an  end  in  the  State  and  the  whole 
Empire  would  go  to  the  ground.  Now  it  was  the  opinion 
of  the  theologians  that  if  any  given  course  was  likely  to 
result  in  more  injury  than  profit  to  the  Catholic  religion, 
such  course  should  not  be  chosen.  But  far  greater 
disaster  would  certainly  accrue  if  the  Turks  and  the 
heretics  should  get  all  Germany  into  their  power  and 
should  be  able  to  crush  out  the  Catholic  religion  all  over 
the  land,  than  if,  in  a  few  matters,  the  Catholics  were 
to  give  in.1 

'  John  Schweikart,  constitutionally  anxious- minded 
and  desponding,  and  averse  to  all  military  proceedings, 
had  already  often  enough  accommodated  himself  to  the 

1  Wolf,  iii.  331-332,  337-340. 


520  HISTORY  OF  THE   GERMAN  PEOPLE 

Protestants,  and  '  wished  to  arrange  fresh  compromises 
with  the  latter ' ; :  but  he  had  come  to  the  conviction 
that  in  '  all  compromising '  only  '  the  Catholics  had 
to  pay  the  costs.'  Moreover,  he  said  to  a  colleague  on 
the  Frankfort  Council,  '  it  is  impossible  to  trust  to  the 
assurances  of  the  Calvinists  ;  if  they  are  allowed  to 
seize  one  finger  to-day,  to-morrow  they  want  two  or 
three,  and  the  next  day  the  whole  hand  and  arm  to  pull 
down  the  man  who  at  first  gave  them  but  a  finger.' 
'  The  Lutherans  themselves,'  he  added,  '  had  no  less 
cause  than  the  Catholics  to  be  on  their  guard,  and  if 
only  they  begin  to  look  about  them  to  see  how  things 
had  fared  with  them  wherever  the  Calvinists  were  in 
power,  especially  during  the  last  years  in  Hesse,1'  they 
would  see  how  empty  were  all  their  promises,  however 
solemnly  they  might  have  been  recorded  in  writing. 
If  the  imperial  court  was  working  for  the  dissolution 
of  the  Protestant  and  Catholic  unions  and  leagues  on 
the  ground  that  such  confederacies  were  highly  injurious 
to  the  Holy  Empire,  he,  the  Elector,  must  recognise 
that  their  harmfulness  was  patent  to  the  eyes  of  the 
world,  and  that  nothing  would  be  better  than  the  dis- 
solution of  these  leagues,  provided  both  sides  behaved 
honourably,  and  that  the  measure  was  initiated  by  those 
who  had  first  organised  the  leagues  and  compelled  the 
Catholics  to  put  themselves  on  the  defensive.  But 
that  the  Catholics  should  themselves  begin  to  break  up 
their  League,  as  had  been  proposed,  and  should  do  so 
just  now,  when  the  Diet  was  close  at  hand,  and  the 
Protestant  confederates  were  visibly  growing  stronger 
and  conspiring  with  foreign  powers,  would  be  beyond 

1  For  instance,  in  the  year  1607.     See  above,  pp  472,  473. 

2  See  above,  p.  286  ff. 


ELECTOR  OF  MAYENCE  AGAINST  ALLIES'  DEMANDS   521 

measure  senseless,  and  he  could  not  advise  or  help  them 
to  such  a  course  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  should  work  with 
all  his  might  in  the  opposite  direction  ;  not,  however, 
for  the  sake  of  stirring  up  discord  and  obtaining  the 
possessions  of  others,  but  solely  with  the  object  of 
protecting  himself  and  the  Catholics  in  their  just  rights 
and  property.'  1 

He  had  always  thought,  the  Elector  wrote  to  Klesl, 
that  leagues  in  the  Empire  were  dangerous  and  injurious, 
and  for  his  own  part,  he  had  used  all  his  power  to  secure 
the  maintenance  and  strict  observance  of  the  imperial 
decrees  of  the  Public  Peace  and  the  Religious  Peace ; 
he  cherished  no  higher  wish  than  that,  through  the 
power  of  the  Emperor,  peace  and  security  should  be 
guaranteed  to  both  the  clerical  and  secular  adherents 
of  the  Catholic  religion.  But  the  opposite  party,  in 
banding  together  as  they  had  done,  had  given  the  first 
incentive  to  secession,  had  leagued  themselves  with  all 
the  enemies  of  the  Catholic  religion  and  of  the  Empire, 
even  with  the  Turks  and  the  Tartars  ;  as  their  actions 
and  their  writings  showed,  they  were  intent  on  rooting 
out  all  the  Catholics  and  overturning  the  constitution 
of  the  realm,  and  as  a  step  to  this  they  were  aiming  at 
the  destruction  of  the  House  of  Habsburg.  '  It  is 
known  to  all  the  world  that  among  these  people  all 
proper  respect  for  the  Imperial  Majesty  is  at  an  end, 
and  that  all  administration  of  justice  and  enforcement 
of  the  law  is  blocked  by  them  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
stubbornness,  treachery,  deceit,  and  cunning  have 
increased  among  them  to  such  an  extent  that  no  reliance 
can  be  placed  either  on  their  solemnly  attested  word,  or 

1  Aufzeichnungen  des  Maimer  Raths  von  Effern,  of  July   13,   1613, 
contributed  by  Bonnier. 


522  HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

on  the  treaties  which  they  concluded,  or  on  their  letters 
and  seals,  or  on  their  sacred  oaths  ;  for  all  such  pledges, 
according  to  the  detestable  doctrine  of  Machiavelli, 
must  on  every  occasion  give  way  to  "  reasons  of  state," 
as  they  are  called.1  What  abundant  proofs  of  this  can 
be  adduced  from  the  events  of  a  few  years  is  well  known 
to  you.' 

'  We  Catholics,'  Schweikart  went  on,  '  through  over- 
much credulity  and  trustfulness,  have  already  lost  the 
greater  part  of  our  belongings,  and  we  stand  in  great 
danger  with  regard  to  the  remnant  that  is  left  us.  But 
if  the  peace-loving  and  loyal  Catholic  Estates,  together 
with  the  loss  of  their  territories  and  their  subjects, 
should  allow  their  religion  also  to  be  torn  from  them, 
this  could  never  find  justification  in  the  sight  of  God,  or 
escape  the  eternal  reproach  of  ignominy  from  posterity.' 
Since  it  was  obvious  that  the  Catholic  Estates  could  not 
obtain  any  security  by  ordinary  means,  nobody  ought 
to  find  fault  with  them  for  making  preparations  for 
necessary  defence,  in  order  to  preserve  for  themselves 
and  their  subjects  free  exercise  of  their  religion,  and 
the  enjoyment  of  all  the  benefits  of  the  Empire  that 
were  consistent  with  obedience  to  the  Emperor ;  herein 
alone  lay  the  aim  and  object  of  the  Catholic  Union. 
As  for  what  concerned  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  other 
peace-loving  Estates  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  he 
hoped  and  believed,  from  the  uprightness  which  he  had 
hitherto  observed  in  all  their  counsels  and  actions,  that 
they  would  have  no  reason  to  change  their  intentions. 
Furthermore,  Klesl  knew  full  well  how  little  the  good- 
will of  these  people  was  to  be  reckoned  on,  whenever 

1  ' .  .  .  sed  haec  omnia  ad  quamvis  occasionem  ex  detestanda  Machia- 
velli doctrina  "  rationi  status,'''  ut  vocant,  cedere  cogantur.'' 


DUKE   OF  BAVARIA   AGAINST  ALLIES'  DEMANDS   523 

religion  and  all  the  matters  dependent  thereon  came  in 
question,  especially  if  any  hope  of  gain  was  held  out  to 
them.  Besides  which  it  was  well  known  how  energetic- 
ally they  had  worked,  to  what  wiles  and  calumnies  they 
had  had  recourse,  in  order  to  gain  over  to  their  own 
side  these  same  princes,  above  all  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
who,  owing  to  his  high  prestige  and  power,  had  up  till 
then  maintained  the  balance  between  the  two  parties. 
If  these  attempts  should  succeed,  the  Austrian  House 
and  all  the  Catholic  Estates  would  be  exposed  to  great 
danger,  unless  they  prepared  themselves  for  defence. 
If  the  Catholics  came  unprepared,  and  without  means 
of  protection,  to  the  forthcoming  Diet,  the  Emperor 
would  not  be  able  to  carry  through  any  of  his  wishes, 
and  the  Catholic  cause  would  come  to  terrible  grief.1 

Maximilian  of  Bavaria  also  opposed  most  resolutely 
the  opinion  of  the  Viennese  court  that  because  the 
Catholics  were  weak  they  should  give  in  with  regard  to 
the  Ecclesiastical  Keservation  and  renew  the  Religious 
Peace  according  to  the  will  of  the  Protestants.  "  We 
cannot  and  dare  not,'  he  said  in  his  instructions  to  his 
ambassadors,  ■  grant  the  holder  of  the  archbishopric  of 
Magdeburg  and  other  Protestant  occupiers  of  ecclesi- 
astical benefices,  votes  and  seats  at  imperial  and  other 
Diets,  because  to  do  so  would  be  at  variance  with  the 
Religious  Peace.  Were  we  to  respond  to  this  demand 
the   Protestants    would   straightway   encroach   further, 

1  In  v.  Hofler,  Frcinkische  Studien,  pp.  283-285.  Li  October  1612  the 
Augsburg  Bishop,  Henry  von  Knoringen,  sent  the  Pope  a  report  on  the 
formation  and  the  significance  of  the  League,  in  the  conclusion  of  which 
he  had  been  especially  active.  The  onlj-  way  of  warding  off  the  attacks 
of  the  heretics  was,  he  said,  by  the  closest  possible  union  of  the  whole 
body  of  Catholics  '  ad  resistendum  eorum  conatibus  et  Catholic os  omnes, 
imprimis  autem  ecclesiasticos,  ab  eorum  invasionibus  securos  praestandos  ' 
(in  Steichele,  Beitrage,  i.  66). 


524  HISTORY  OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  numbers  of  secular  Estates  would  intrude  them- 
selves into  the  benefices  in  the  character  of  archbishops, 
bishops,  and  abbots.  Even  now  it  was  a  question 
not  only  of  Magdeburg,  but  also  of  the  archbishopric 
of  Bremen  and  the  bishoprics  of  Halberstadt,  Minden, 
Verden,  Osnabriick,  Liibeck,  and  others,  in  all  sixteen 
bishoprics.  Thus,  by  this  measure,  the  Protestant  con- 
tingent in  the  council  of  princes  would  be  strengthened 
by  sixteen  votes,  and  would  become  a  majority,  and  so 
at  all  future  Diets  they  would  carry  everything  their 
own  way,  and  in  a  short  time  would  be  able  to  banish 
the  Catholic  religion  from  the  whole  country,  and  this, 
indeed,  all  the  more  easily  as  they  had  already  got  the 
upper  hand  in  town  councils.  No  Catholic  Estate 
would  any  longer  be  in  a  position  to  obtain  justice,  for 
the  instant  a  complaint  was  made  against  a  Protestant 
Estate,  it  would  be  turned  into  a  religious  question, 
which,  instead  of  being  settled  by  an  imperial  tribunal, 
would  be  brought  before  the  Diet,  where  the  Protestants 
were  in  a  majority,  and  decided  there.  Further,  the 
Catholic  imperial  cities  would  be  compelled  to  grant 
the  non- Catholics  free  exercise  of  their  religion  and  to 
admit  them  to  seats  on  the  council  and  to  public  offices, 
and  gradually  also  religious  autonomy  would  be  forced 
upon  clerical  foundations  and  Catholic  territorial 
princes. 

'  Of  what  use  would  it  be  to  enter  into  new  treaties 
of  alliance  with  the  Protestants  ?  They  had  pledged 
themselves  with  most  solemn  oaths  to  the  Passau 
Treaty  and  the  Religious  Peace,  and  nevertheless,  in 
violation  of  the  plain  letter  of  these  compacts,  they 
had  seized  every  favourable  opportunity  to  possess 
themselves  of  bishoprics  and  convents. 


DUKE   OF  BAVARIA  AGAINST  ALLIES'  DEMANDS   525 

'  That  the  Catholics,  on  account  of  their  inferior 
strength,  ought  to  give  in,  he  could  not  at  all  allow. 
If  the  Catholic  Estates,  he  said,  would  only  stand 
firmly  and  loyally  together,  there  was  not  at  present 
any  danger  of  their  being  put  to  the  rout  by  the  Pro- 
testants. The  Pope,  Spain,  the  Swiss  Catholics,  the 
Governor  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  the  Catholic 
princes  and  the  House  of  Lorraine  were  on  good  terms 
with  the  Catholics,  and  would  not  look  on  with  indif- 
ference at  their  complete  annihilation.  If,  however, 
the  sword  should  decide  against  them,  they  would 
at  any  rate  have  saved  their  honour  in  a  valiant  struggle, 
and  even  if  their  cause  were  lost  they  themselves  would 
be  exonerated  before  God  and  man.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  would  be  an  eternal  disgrace  to  them  if  they 
were  to  succumb  without  a  stroke  of  the  sword,  and 
to  become  traitors  to  their  Church.  If  their  prede- 
cessors had  been  more  steadfast  they  themselves  would 
not  have  become  involved  in  this  labyrinth  of  compli- 
cations.' 

From  these  principles  Maximilian  declared  that 
he  should  not  budge.  His  proposal  was  that  '  every- 
thing should  be  avoided  which  could  give  the  House 
of  Saxony  cause  for  mistrust  or  fear  of  any  measures 
of  violence ;  the  imperial  Estates  must  be  assured 
that  on  the  part  of  the  Catholics  there  was  no 
demand  for  any  change  ;  the  terms  of  the  Religious 
Peace  must  be  unalterably  observed.  If  at  the 
Diet,  as  was  to  be  expected,  the  Emperor  should 
insist  strongly  on  the  dissolution  of  all  unions  and 
confederacies  in  the  Empire,  the  Catholics  must 
not  decide  on  breaking  up  their  League  until  they 
had    been    guaranteed    sufficient    security   that    their 


526  HISTORY   OF    THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

opponents  in  the  faith  would  not  take   advantage  of 
them.1 

At  the  instigation  of  the  Duke  an  assembly  of  the 
League  was  held  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main  on  March 
11,  1613,  when  the  following  resolutions  were  agreed 
upon: 

First,  the  Catholics,  now  as  before,  are  fully 
resolved  to  abide  uprightly  and  honourably  by  the 
Religious  Pacification  of  Augsburg.  If  the  Protestants 
at  the  Diet  should  propose  a  renewal  of  this  treaty, 
and  are  satisfied  '  with  its  being  renewed  in  the  same 
sense  and  spirit  in  which  it  was  renewed  at  Augsburg 
in  1566,'  we  can  give  in  to  them  so  far  as  to  allow  that 
the  renewal  shall  take  place  with  a  view  to  silencing 
every  '  writer  and  clamourer '  who  declares  the  Peace 
'  to  be  no  permanent  bond,  but  only  a  temporary 
measure  of  conciliation.'  It  must,  however,  be  expressly 
stated  in  the  Recess  of  the  Diet  that '  this  renewal  shall 
prevent  no  one  from  pleading  his  case  in  court,  and 
that  it  will  in  no  wise  justify  any  action  undertaken 
in  opposition  to  the  Peace.' 

Secondly,  at  the  imperial  Diets  and  at  the  meetings 
of  deputies  all  matters  of  religion  and  of  government 
must,  now  as  before,  be  settled  by  a  majority  of  votes. 
The  Emperor  must  be  solicited  not  to  consent  in  any 
way  to  those  demands  which  were  put  forward  by 
the  Protestant  Estates  in  contradiction  to  this  long- 
standing tradition  and  to  the  decrees  of  the  Empire ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  to  protect  both  himself  and  the 
Catholic  Estates  '  in  this  customary,  laudable  usage 
and  tradition.'  If  the  majority  of  votes  was  no  longer 
to  have  any  value,  there  was  no  way  left  for  checking 

1  Wolf,  iii.  340-350. 


CATHOLIC   ASSEMBLY   AT   FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN  527 

the  dissensions  in  the  Empire  and  reconciling  the 
Estates  ;  the  Empire  would  be  involved  in  continual 
disturbances,  and  in  a  short  time  would  meet  with  its 
ruin. 

Thirdly,  the  Protestant  occupiers  of  the  archbishop- 
rics and  bishoprics  which  had  been  seized  since  the 
Religious  Peace  cannot  be  recognised  by  the  Catholic 
Estates  as  the  rightful  possessors,  and  there  is  no 
obligation  to  accord  them  seats  and  votes  at  the  Diets 
in  violation  of  the  Religious  Peace.  The  Emperor  must 
be  appealed  to  to  reject  a  possible  claim  of  this  sort 
from  the  Protestants. 

Fourthly,  the  customary  visitations  of  the  Imperial 
Chamber,  with  inclusion  of  the  four  convent  cases, 
must  be  brought  into  operation  again.  The  proposal 
of  the  Protestant  Estates  for  the  dismissal  of  these 
convent  cases  must  be  repudiated ;  for  the  sole  object 
of  such  a  proposal  is  to  make  it  impossible  in  future 
for  the  oppressed  Catholic  Estates  to  make  any  com- 
plaints, to  pave  a  free  way  for  the  Protestants  to  the 
acquisition  of  the  still  remaining  benefices  and  Church 
possessions,  and  in  this  manner  to  deprive  the  Catholics 
of  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights  and  of  the  Religious 
Peace. 

Fifthly,  with  regard  to  the  imperial  jurisdiction 
which  the  Protestants  disputed,  and  the  concurrence 
of  the  Aulic  Council  with  the  Imperial  Chamber,  there 
was  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  Emperor  would  know 
how  to  protect  himself  against  baseless  encroachments 
on  this  his  highest  jurisdiction,  the  actual  basis  indeed 
of  his  authority.  But  for  the  Catholic  Estates  also  it 
was  of  great  importance  that  the  Emperor  should  be 
recognised  as  the  fount  of  all  jurisdiction,  and  that  the 


528  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

scope  of  his  juridical  privileges  should  be  still  more  com- 
prehensive than  those  of   the   Imperial  Chamber  ;   the 
said  Estates  therefore  intended  to  strive  with  all  their 
power  for  the  maintenance  of  this  imperial  supremacy. 

Altogether  the  Catholic  Estates  are  resolved  to  com- 
bine together,  with  life  and  property,  for  the  defence 
of  the  Religious  and  the  Public  Peace,  and  of  other 
ordinances  of  the  Empire,  and  for  the  repulsion  of  the 
force  with  which  they  were  threatened.  With  a  view 
to  this  defence  each  of  the  Estates  agreed,  already 
before  the  Diet,  to  remit  to  the  general  of  the  League 
a  contribution  of  twenty-five  Roman  months,  and 
in  the  case,  which  was  scarcely  to  be  hoped  for,  that 
action  should  be  taken  even  prior  to  the  opening  of 
the  Diet,  they  would  add  a  further  sum  of  ten  months, 
in  order  that  those  who  had  the  management  of  the 
war  might  be  able  to  count  on  support.  If  things  should 
go  to  the  length  of  a  general  rising  and  a  general  scheme 
of  war,  the  Estates  will  stand  together  like  one  man 
and  throw  all  their  worldly  goods  into  the  cause.  All 
this  they  promise  on  their  princely  honour,  and  give 
their  faithful  word  in  place  of  a  formal  oath. ' 

The  ambassadors  of  some  of  the  Catholic  Estates 
not  belonging  to  the  League  also  took  part  in  framing 
this  daring  Recess.  After  the  departure  of  these  latter, 
the  members  of  the  League  continued  their  transac- 
tions until  March  15,  on  which  day  they  signed  a  second 
Recess  authorising  their  chief  to  enter  into  negotiations 
with  France,  Lorraine,  Savoy  and  other  Italian  princes 
respecting  help  to  be  granted  in  case  of  need.  The 
Pope  and  the  King  of  Spain  were  to  be  solicited  for 

1    Abschied  des  Frankfurter  Tages  vom  11.  Marz,  1613,  in  Stumpf, 
Beil.  22-39. 


PROTESTANT   ASSEMBLY   AT   ROTEXBURG,    1613     529 

further  pecuniary  support.  If  the  non-Catholic  con- 
federates should  come  to  the  aid  of  the  Protestant 
Union,  with  which  they  were  already  allied,  the  Bishop 
of  Constance  was  to  endeavour  to  prevail  on  the  Swiss 
Catholics  to  attack  them  in  their  own  country.1 

Shortly  after  the  Frankfort  assembly  the  allies  held 
a  Diet  at  Rotenburg.  This  meeting  had  already 
been  summoned  by  the  Administrator  of  the  Palatinate 
on  January  10  with  a  view  to  arriving  at  a  closer  agree- 
ment respecting  the  proceedings  at  the  Diet.  It  was 
unanimously  resolved  to  stick  fast  to  the  Union,  even 
if  the  Catholics  should  guarantee  the  dissolution  of 
their  own  League.  Negotiations  concerning  a  closer 
understanding  were  to  be  carried  on  with  the  Swiss 
through  Baden  and  Strasburg,  active  correspondence 
was  to  be  kept  up  with  the  Austrian,  Bohemian,  and 
Moravian  Estates,  and  the  Estates  were  to  be  requested 
'  not  to  allow  the  opposite  party  the  privilege  of  recruit- 
ing in  their  lands,  or  any  other  advantage  ; '  corre- 
spondence was  also  to  be  continued  with  Venice,  and 
the  King  of  England,  who  had  already  come  to  an 
understanding  with  the  allies,  was  to  be  solicited 
to  apply  to  Sweden  and  Denmark  for  their  assistance 
in  '  establishing  the  common  evangelical  life  on  a 
firmer  basis,  especially  in  Germany.'  In  order  to 
'  achieve  righteous  unity  among  the  evangelicals  '  the  as- 
sembled allies  once  more  invited  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
Duke  Henry  Julius  of  Brunswick,  and  the  Landgrave 
Louis  of  Hesse-Darmstadt  to  join  the  Union.  A  con- 
federacy of  all  the  evangelicals,  they  said,  was  all  the 
more  urgent  at  the  present  juncture  because  the  League 
was  strengthening  its  forces  more  and  more,  and  '  its 

1  Wolf,  Maximilian,  iii.  362-368. 
VOL.    X.  MM 


530  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

dangerous  intentions '  could  be  discerned  only  too 
plainly  in  its  summons  to  its  assembly  at  Frankfort 
and  in  its  alliance  with  the  Pope  and  with  Spain,  of 
which  '  credible  information  '  was  to  hand.1 

The  princes  declined  the  invitation.2 

The  town  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main  was  also  re- 
peatedly urged  to  join  the  Union  ;  but  it  decided  to 
remain  neutral  because  the  worst  evil  was  to  be  feared 
from  separate  leagues.     They  were  convinced  at  Frank  - 

1  Senkenberg,  xxiii.  547-549. 

2  As  early  as  in  1610,  the   Landgrave   Maurice  of  Hesse-Cassel  had 
asked  the  Landgrave   Ludwig  of  Hesse-Darmstadt  to  join  the   League, 
but  he  and  his  brother  Philip  had  both  declined  the  proposal.     The 
Calvinistic  Estates,  Philip  wrote  to  Ludwig  in  the  middle  of  January,  had 
long  entertained  the  design  of  being  included  in  the  Religious  and  the 
Imperial  Peace,  and  of  filling  the  Imperial  Aulic  Council  at  Prague  as 
well  as  the  Imperial  Chamber  at  Spires  with  their  own  co-religionists. 
This  was  one  of  the  objects  of  their  Union.     It  must  not,  however,  be 
encouraged,  as  it  would  place  restraints  on  the  true  religion  and  its  pro- 
pagation.    There  was  also  no  doubt  that  the  Catholic  Estates  of  the 
Empire  on  account  of  this  Union,  seeing  that  Lutherans  and  Calvinists 
were  allied  together,  would  no  longer  abide  by  the  Religious  Peace  which 
had  been  concluded  with  the  Augsburg  Confessionists,  and  small  blame  to 
them.     '  And  in  our  opinion  the  effect  would  be  to  ruin  altogether  the 
Religious  Peace  which  had  been  so  well  established  on  a  permanent  basis.' 
Furthermore,  great  grievances  would  spring  up  in  the  Hessian  lands  if 
the  inhabitants  were  obliged  to  contribute  men  and  money.     How  much 
evil,  moreover,  had  accrued  to  those  who  had  mixed  themselves  up  in 
foreign  quarrels  and  had  solicited  foreign  potentates  for  help,  and  entered 
into  alliances  with  them,  had  become  well  known  to  Germany  a  few  years 
ago  :  these  foreigners,  as  the  saying  goes,  will  not  keep  watch  over  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  without  pay.     It  was,  indeed,  easy  to  see,  apart  from 
this,  what  sort  of  fate  was  to  be  expected  from  this  Union  if,  as  seemed 
likely,  it  should  set  itself  in  opposition  to  the  Imperial  Majesty  as  the 
supreme  authority  placed  over  the  Estates  by  God.     For  it  is  written  : 
"  Render  to  the  Emperor  that  which  is  the  Emperor's,  whether  he  be  a 
pagan,  or,  at  any  rate,  not  a  Christian,  as  was  undoubtedly  the  case  with 
the  Emperors  in  the  time  of  Christ."     Finally,  it  was  naturally  to  be 
expected  that  as  the  greater  part  of  the  allies  were  Calvinists,  the  Estates 
of  the  unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  would  have  to  dance  to  their  piping, 
and  would  accordingly  not  find  themselves  very  comfortably  off.'    (In  the 
Archiv  fur  hessische  Gesch.  und  Alterthtimslcunde,  x.  313-316.) 


PROTESTANT   ASSEMBLY   AT   ROTENBURG,    1613     531 

fort  that,  '  unless  matters  were  so  arranged  as  to  do 
away  with  the  need  for  these  special  alliances  and 
to  make  it  possible  to  bring  back  into  force  the  ancient, 
wisely  framed  constitutions  of  the  Empire  and  the 
circles,  no  proper  order  could  be  maintained  any  longer, 
and  it  would  be  necessary  to  establish  a  fresh  kind  of 
control  by  means  of  the  sword.'  x 

With  regard  to  the  '  grievances  of  the  Evangelicals,' 
it  was  decided  at  the  Rotenburg  Diet  to  stand  firmly 
by  the  demands  respecting  the  imperial  Aulic  Council 
and  the  statement  of  the  four  convents  business.  The 
Administrator  of  Magdeburg  must  be  assured  a  seat 
and  a  vote,  the  town  of  Donauworth,  from  which  the 
Duke  of  Bavaria  would  not  withdraw  without  com- 
pensation for  the  heavy  expenses  of  execution,  was 
to  be  restored  to  its  former  status  according  to  the 
promise  of  Rudolf  II.,  and  the  damages  charged  to 
those  '  who  had  originated  the  quarrel.'  Altogether 
the  Union  was  prepared  to  bring  forward  all  the 
grievances  of  the  different  Estates  and  to  refuse  '  to 
enter  into  any  deliberations  or  decisions  concerning 
alliance  until  these  had  been  settled.'  At  any  rate, 
they  insisted,  the  principal  grievances,  about  which 
the  Emperor  alone  could  decide,  must  be  removed, 
or  else  they  would  not  consent  to  any  subsidies  against 
the  Turks.  If  nothing  could  be  obtained,  then  '  either 
a  secession  or  the  close  '  of  the  Diet  must  be  decided 
on  '  by  a  majority  of  votes.' 

If  the  princes  of  the  Union  were  sufficiently  prepared 
against  every  emergency,  and  sure  of  alliance  with 
foreign  princes  and  lords,  the  '  dissolution  of  the  Diet 

1  '  Rechtsgutachten  an  den  Rat  und  die  Protokolle  der  Ratssitzungen  ' 
in  the  Reichstagsakten,  95  fol.  27,  37,  41. 

M    31    2 


532  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

might  be  allowed  to  take  place  without  any  anxiety ; 
and  as  for  the  contributions,  they  had  already  been 
refused.'  1 

During  the  transactions  the  allies  jointly  petitioned 
the  King  of  Denmark  for  help  against  the  papists.  In 
May,  at  the  request  of  James  I.  of  England,2  a  treaty  was 
signed  by  the  States-General  with  the  princes  of  the 
Union,  by  which  the  two  parties  engaged  themselves  for 
fifteen  years  to  give  mutual  succour  to  one  another  in 
case  of  need.  Thenceforth  the  States  became  the 
actual  backbone  of  the  Union,  and  exercised  the  most 
important  influence  on  the  course  of  events. 

Of  the  Diet  at  Ratisbon,  even  before  its  opening, 
it  might  easily  have  been  predicted  in  the  words  of  the 
councillor  of  the  Elector  of  Mayence  :  '  All  pains  are 
useless  :  an  accommodation  in  the  Empire  is  no  longer 
to  be  hoped  for.' 

1  Recess  of  the  Rotenburg  Diet  of  March  28,  1613,  contributed  by 
v.  Hofler  (Ritter,  Politik  der  Union,  pp.  162-167). 

2  Gardiner,  ii.  162 ;  cf.  Wenzelburger,  ii.  860. 


533 


CHAPTER  VIII 


DIET   AT   EATISBON,    1618 


The  Diet  was  summoned  for  April  24,  but  was  not 
opened  till  August.     As  the  Emperor,  on  the  4th  of 
this    month,    approached   the   town   of   Ratisbon,    the 
notables,    who    had    already    arrived,    came    forward 
to  meet  him  '  with  great  pomp  and  with  about  1,000 
caparisoned  horses.'     Matthias  had  brought  with  him 
an  immense  retinue  and  more  than  800  horses,  and  his 
progress  '  compared  with  that  of  the  Estates  was  as 
the  sun  in  comparison  to  the  moon.'      He  wore  a  white 
garment,   threaded   with   gold   and   set   with   precious 
stones  ;  a  costly  white  hat  with  a  plume  of  hern- feathers, 
a  mantle  of  orange-coloured  velvet  lined  with  white 
gold-threaded  stuff ;  the  saddle  and  bridle  of  his  horse 
were    embroidered    with    pearls    and    precious    stones. 
The  Empress  drove  in  a  gilt  chariot,  on  which  stood 
a   silver  lion  with  a  gilt  crown  ;  the  coachmen  were 
also   arrayed  in  gold  cloth.     Behind  one   of  the   two 
trumpeters,  who  rode  in  advance,  blowing  his  instru- 
ment, there  figured  a  monkey  dressed  in  red. 

'  Certain  shrewd  observers  were  heard  to  remark 
that  all  the  outward  ostentation  of  this  spectacle,  to 
anyone  not  ignorant  of  the  real  condition  of  affairs  in 
the  Holy  Empire,  was  nothing  but  apish  foolery.' 

'  The  ghastly  splendour  of  the  imperial  get-up  '  did 


534  HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

not  at  any  rate  correspond  with  '  the  crushing  need 
of  money  which  weighed  down  his  Majesty.'  l  '  It  was 
only  with  difficulty,'  wrote  Klesl  from  Ratisbon  to  the 
president  of  the  court  councillor  of  war,  von  Mollart, 
that  the  Emperor  had  been  able  to  obtain  a  loan  from 
the  Spanish  ambassador  and  from  a  banker  to  defray 
the  costs  of  his  sojourn.  '  It  is  certain  that  here  in  the 
Empire  we  have  not  a  farthing  of  income  ;  we  do  nothing 
but  consume.'  '  We  negotiate  with  states,  with  republics, 
with  princes,  spiritual  :Jand  temporal,  but  nobody  will  take 
pity  on  us  ;  all  the  people  are  disposed  of,  all  offices 
and  revenues  mortgaged  and  prescribed.  The  main- 
tenance of  the  imperial  court  involves  immense  outlays. 
What  are  we  to  do  ?  Nobody  will  lend  to  us,  nobody 
is  in  our  debt,  and  we  ourselves  have  literally  nothing.' 
'  The  Emperor  gives  away  and  mortgages,  down  to  his 
very  shirt,  whatever  is  mortgageable  ;  the  poor  unpaid 
retinue  of  the  court  of  Prague  is  perishing  for  want 
and  cannot  get  enough  blood.'  2 

The  imperial  horse-guards  and  halberdiers  were 
in  fact  reduced — so  the  Brandenburg  ambassador,  Abra- 
ham von  Dohna,  reported  on  September  1 — '  to  going  to 
the  butchers  and  catching  the  blood  of  the  slaughtered 
cattle  to  cook  for  their  food ;  so  that  the  misery  of 
the  great  gentlemen  was  often  greater  than  that  of  the 
commoner  people.' 3 

On  August  13,  at  the  opening  of  the  Diet,  the 
proceedings  were  initiated  by  a  Lutheran  prince,  the 
Landgrave   Louis  of  Hesse-Darmstadt.     In  the  name 

1  Despatch  of  the  Elector  of  Mayence's  councillor,  Charles  Henry 
Feyerabend,  of  August  13,  1613.  Description  in  Khevenhiller,  viii.  550- 
556.     See  Gumpelzhaimer,  ii.  1051  to  1052.     Senkenberg,  xxiii.  565-567. 

2  In  Hammer,  iii.  ;  Urkundenbd.  pp.  68-69. 

3  Ritter,  Politik  der  Union,  p.  138,  note  3. 


DIET   AT   EATISBON,    1613  535 

of  the  Emperor  he  delivered  a  short  address  to  the 
assembly,  begging  them  '  to  give  an  attentive  hearing 
and  careful  consideration  to  the  Emperor's  proposal.'  ] 
This  proposal  related  to  the  dissolution  of  the  separate 
alliances  in  the  Empire,  the  Union  and  the  League,  and 
the  defence  of  the  Empire  against  the  attacks  of  the 
Turks.  If  those  '  dangerous  confederacies  and  counter- 
confederacies  '  were  not  opposed  in  good  time,  it  was 
urged,  they  would  result  in  the  final  overthrow  of  the 
Eeligious  and  the  Public  Peace,'  and  then  '  all  sorts  of 
hostile  elements,  which  had  been  engendered  by  the 
surrounding  insurrections  and  wars,  and  which  had 
threatened  the  Empire  for  many  years  past,  would 
as  it  were  be  dragged  into  the  Empire  and  would 
lead  to  its  total  ruin.'  Instead  of  all  these  different 
leagues,  unity  should  be  restored  among  the  Estates, 
and  in  view  of  this  '  the  first  thing  to  be  done  was  to 
consider  how  the  disorganised  judicial  system  and  the 
Imperial  Chamber  might  be  restored  to  efficiency.'  2 
For  the  defence  of  Transylvania  and  the  Hungarian 
frontiers  the  Estates  demanded  such  exorbitant  aid 
that  the  Liibeck  ambassador  wrote :  '  It  is  a  more 
unreasonable  and  extravagant  exaction  than  has  ever 
been  made  by  any  Emperor ;  it  would  amount  in  all 
to  over  twenty-six  millions  of  imperial  thalers.'  3     As 

1  Senkenberg,  xxiii.  570. 

~  Original  printed  version  of  the  proposal  in  the  Frankfort  Reichs- 
tagsakten,  95,  88  ;  see  Senkenberg,  xxiii.  571  ;  Ritter,  Politik  der  Union, 
p.  125.  In  consequence  of  the  chaos  in  the  judicial  system  the  number 
of  law-suits  in  which  revision  was  solicited  had  risen  in  1612  to  over  four 
hundred,  '  so  that,'  as  Zachariah  Geizkofler  wrote  in  a  memorandum 
for  the  Emperor,  '  for  each  and  all  judicial  decisions,  even  in  fiscal 
cases,  revision  is  resorted  to  by  the  defendants  in  order  to  escape  from 
the  verdict '  (in  Liinig,  Staatsconsilia,  i.  778). 

3  Brookes,  ii.  275,  note  8. 


536  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

a  matter  of  fact  the  danger  threatened  by  the  Turks 
was  so  great  that  it  justified  such  a  demand.1 

'  A  highly  significant  symptom '  for  the  Diet  at  the 
very  outset  was  the  fact  that  none  of  the  allied  princes 
came  in  person.  As  late  as  February  they  had  given 
reassuring  promises  to  the  Emperor,  who,  through  an 
ambassador,  Gundakar  von  Polheim,  had  begged  for 
their  personal  attendance  at  the  transactions ;  but 
at  the  meeting  of  the  Union  at  Rotenburg  it  had  been 
afterwards  decided  that  none  of  them  should  appear 
at  Ratisbon.2  '  The  Emperor  has  put  down  the 
ciuestion  of  "  Justice  "  first  in  order,'  wrote  Klesl 
on  August  31  to  the  Margrave  of  Ansbach,  but  the 
whole  of  the  Union  is  keeping  away,  and  plays  with 
trifles,  or  is  seeking  to  create  misunderstandings.  Very 
different  tales  were  told  to  his  Majesty  at  Frankfort, 
and  all  sorts  of  assurances  sent  through  Herr  von 
Polheim,  as  his  Majesty  daily  and  hourly  announces 
with  great  feeling.' 3 

The  delegates  of  the  allies  considered  it  their  first 
duty  to  incite  the  whole  body  of  Protestants  to  form 
separate  leagues  in  the  Palatine  quarter,  and  to  embark 
on  a  general  movement  according  to  the  resolutions 
formed  at  Rotenburg.  In  the  case  of  Saxony  and  the 
Landgrave  of  Hesse-Darmstadt  their  efforts  were  fruit- 
less ;  they  succeeded,  however,  in  winning  over  Meck- 
lenburg, Lauenburg,  Brunswick-Liineburg,  Pomerania- 
Stettin,  the  counts  of  Wetterau,  and  a  number  of  towns 
not  belonging  to  the  Union  :  Lubeck,  Ratisbon,  Lindau, 
and  others.  The  allies  again  took  the  name  of  '  corre- 
sponding Estates.' 

1  Respecting  the  Turkish  danger,  see  Klopp,  i.  154  ff. 

2  Sattler,  vi.  72.  3  Ritter,  Politik  der  Union,  pp.  127,  133,  note  3. 


DIET   AT   RATISBON,   1613  537 

Owing  to  them  the  Diet  came  to  a  standstill  as  early 
as  August  17,  just  when  the  deliberations  on  the  im- 
perial proposals  were  to  have  begun.  On  this  day, 
namely,  they  made  the  announcement  that  '  in  a  few 
days  they  should  hand  in  their  "  grievances,"  and  that, 
until  the  Emperor  had  given  his  decision  on  this  matter, 
they  would  not  take  part  in  any  transactions.'  At  the 
same  time  they  did  not  deny  that  '  this  sort  of  secession 
might  appear  rather  strange  and  unmannerly  to  some 
people.'  l 

In  a  document  of  August  19,  among  other  griev- 
ances which  the  Emperor  ought  at  once  to  remove, 
they  demanded  that  '  The  imperial  Aulic  Council 
should  not  henceforth  lay  claim  to  any  jurisdiction 
except  in  the  matter  of  refusing  or  granting  imperial 
fiefs,  and  in  cases  of  violation  of  the  public  peace.; 
appointments  to  the  Imperial  Chamber  must  be  made 
according  to  their  wishes,  the  Protestant  administrators 
of  bishoprics  must  be  granted  seats  and  votes  at  the 
Diets,  and  the  town  of  Donauworth  must  be  restored 
to  its  former  freedom.'  2  '  Grievances  '  of  this  sort  were 
forsooth  to  be  redressed  by  the  Emperor,  demands  of  this 
sort  to  be  granted  without  regard  to  the  majority  of 
votes — hence  all  constitutional  methods  set  at  defiance. 

In  accordance  with  a  list  drawn  up,  the  validity 
of  a  majority  of  votes  was  rejected  in  the  following 
cases.  First  in  matters  of  religion  and  conscience, 
then  with  regard  to  the  granting  of  subsidies,  to  affairs 

1  '  Protokoll,  was  der  Korrespondierenden  Deputation  bei  Pfalz- 
Neuburg  der  Korrespondenz-Sachen  halber  gehandelt  den  1,  10  September,' 
in  the  Frankfort  Reichstag  sakten,  95,  140-142. 

2  Die  Beschwerden  der  Korrespondierenden  in  Senkenberg  ;  Sammlung, 
ii.  153  to  177  ;  Goldast,  Polit.  Reichshiindel,  pp.  1050-1055  ;  Londorp, 
Acta  publ.  pp.  119-123.     See  Ritter,  Politik,  p.  129. 


538  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

of  the  Imperial  Chamber,  to  the  exemptions,  privileges, 
and  immunities  of  the  Estates,  to  all  which  concerned 
the  Religious  Peace  and  cognate  subjects,  as  also  to 
questions  relating  to  the  well-being  and  tranquillity 
of  the  common  Fatherland.  Further,  it  was  settled 
that  in  the  contentions  between  the  Catholics  and 
the  evangelicals  nothing  must  be  decided  by  a  majority  ; 
also  in  questions  of  violation  of  justice,  of  freed  tribunals, 
of  the  constitutions  of  the  Empire,  of  the  execution 
of  the  ban,  and  of  the  Golden  Bull ;  also  with  regard 
to  dynastic  contracts,  to  negotiations,  alliances  and  so 
forth.1 

Demands  of  this  nature  were  a  direct  mockery  of 
every  constitutional  principle.  With  a  party  which 
put  forward  such  pretensions,  no  transactions  at  a  Diet 
could  lead  to  any  kind  of  goal.- 

While  the  Emperor  became  engaged  in  an  exchange 
of  letters  with  the  corresponding  princes,  the  Catholic 
Estates  on  their  part  were  preparing  a  petition  of 
grievances  which  they  presented  on  September  10. 
In  view  of  the  general  distress,  they  said,  they 
would  gladly  have  spared  the  Emperor  the  pain  of 
their  special  complaints.  But  the  ambassadors  of  some 
of  the  Estates,  who  had  assumed  the  appellation — 
strangely  unfamiliar  in  the  Empire — of  '  corresponding 
princes,'  had  come  forward  with  alleged  grievances,  and 
had  declared  that,  unless  these  grievances  were  redressed, 
they  would  not  take  part  in  any  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  Diet.  The  Catholic  Estates  had  resolved,  therefore, 
that  they   too   would   make   known   their   grievances, 

1  In  Londorp,  Acta  publ.  i.  138. 

2  Karl  August  Miiller,  Forschungen,  hi.  XXXV.,  puts  the  question 
whether  '  a  conflict  against  such  a  faction  was  a  religious  conflict  ?  ' 


DIET   AT   RATISBON,    1613  539 

without,  however,  thereby  hindering  the  business  of 
the  Diet :  they  begged  that  the  Emperor,  at  his  con- 
venience, would  take  into  consideration  the  removal 
of  these  grievances.  In  the  most  incisive  language 
the  Catholic  Estates  reiterated  all  that  they  had  already 
said  at  former  Diets  against  the  proceedings  of  the 
'  new  sects.'  '  '  If  it  could  be  settled,'  they  urged, 
'  that  only  the  old  Catholic  religion  and  the  religion  of 
the  Augsburg  Confessionists  were  to  be  maintained  in 
the  Holy  Empire,  it  would  be  possible  for  both  sides 
to  come  to  a  better  and  more  friendly  understanding 
with  each  other  ;  '  but  the  new  sectaries  called  in  ques- 
tion the  whole  contents  of  the  Religious  Peace.  The 
amount  of  reviling  and  calumniating  in  which  they 
indulged  from  their  pulpits  was  known  to  everyone  : 
the  Pope,  who  in  the  Hungarian  wars  and  in  other 
circumstances  had  certainly  deserved  better  both  from 
them  and  from  the  Empire,  was  denounced  by  them 
in  the  most  disgraceful  manner  ;  the  Catholic  princes 
were  shamelessly  insulted  by  everyone  of  their  party 
in  caricatures  and  scurrilous  lampoons,  and  the  Estates 
of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  who  strove  to  live  in  peace 
and  amity  with  the  Catholics,  were  overwhelmed 
with  scoffing,  names  of  opprobrium,  and  calumnies. 
The  Protestants  were  trying  to  close  up  every  avenue 
of  justice  to  the  Catholics,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Im- 
perial Chamber  was  arrested,  and  every  effort  was 
being  made  to  abolish  also  the  supreme  imperial  juris- 
diction, '  and  in  this  way  to  deprive  the  Catholics  of 
all  means  both  of  recovering  what  had  been  wrested 
from  them  and  of  continuing  in  quiet  possession  of 
the    small  remnant  left  to  them.'      Not  only  did  the 

1  See  above,  pp.  207-209. 


540  HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Protestants  openly  refuse  to  give  up  the  numerous  im- 
portant archbishoprics  and  bishoprics,  lands  and  people 
of  which,  in  defiance  of  the  Religious  Peace,  they  had 
despoiled  the  Catholics,  but  they  persisted  from  year  to 
year  in  making  further  seizures,  and  partly  by  cunning, 
partly  by  force,  in  appropriating  more  and  more  of 
the  Church  possessions  ;  cases  in  point  were  known  to 
everybody.  After  bringing  forward  a  number  of  other 
complaints,  the  Estates  begged  the  Emperor  that  he 
would  see  to  it  that  henceforth  they  should  be  protected 
from  oppression  by  the  decrees  of  the  Empire  and  by 
the  Religious  and  Profane  Peace,  and  that  they  should 
no  longer  be  exposed  like  outlaws  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  their  opponents.1 

In  the  Imperial  Council  Klesl  and  the  Imperial 
Vice- Chancellor,  Hans  Ludwig  von  Ulm,  stood  hostilely 
and  bitterly  opposed  to  each  other.  While  the  former 
still  maintained  friendly  intercourse  with  the  correspond- 
ing princes,  and  wanted  '  to  tack  and  to  make  com- 
promises,' the  Vice-Chancellor  had  assumed  a  repellent 
attitude  towards  them.  To  their  petition  of  grievances 
the  Emperor  had  answered  :  '  On  the  Catholic  side  also 
grievances  had  been  handed  in  ;  both  petitions  should 
be  examined  into,  and  the  business  of  redress  should  be 
attended  to  with  the  other  affairs  of  the  Diet ;  '  he 
entertained  fatherly  and  earnest  hopes  that  the  corre- 
sponding princes  would  not  in  future  shut  themselves 
out  from  participation  in  the  deliberations.  Thereupon 
the  princes  handed  in  a  counter-statement  through  the 
Palatine  ambassadors,  declaring  that  they  abided  by 
their  former  pronouncement.     Ulm  addressed  to  them 

1  '  Die  Beschwerden  der  Katholischen  Stande,'  in  Londorp,  Acta  publ. 
i.  133-137  ;  Goldast,  Politische  Reichshandel,  pp.  1055-1059. 


DIET   AT   RATISBON,    1613  541 

the  question,  '  From  whom  had  they  received  orders 
to  present  this  document  ?  '  and  to  their  answer,  '  that 
they  had  received  orders  from  their  committents,' 
came  the  retort :  '  What  committents  ?  What  sort 
of  a  word  is  that  ?  Is  it  an  English  or  a  Dutch  word  ?  ' 
Ulm,  it  appeared,  was  uninformed  as  to  the  secret 
alliances  of  the  Estates  with  England  and  with  the 
States-General.1  In  speaking  to  some  of  his  friends 
at  the  Eatisbon  Council,  Ulm  expressed  himself  very 
strongly  against  the  corresponding  princes.  The  Em- 
peror, he  said,  had  come  into  the  Empire  with  the 
best  intentions  in  order  to  re-establish  the  course  of  the 
law,  to  enforce  and  administer  impartially  the  terms 
of  the  Eeligious  Peace  and  the  Public  Peace,  and  to  do 
away  with  all  leagues,  unions,  and  factions.  But  the 
corresponding  princes  had  not  even  been  willing  to  join 
in  deliberation  over  the  Emperor's  proposals  until  the 
grievances  they  had  petitioned  against  had  been  re- 
dressed according  to  their  own  wishes.  Besides  which, 
they  wanted  to  abolish  the  validity  of  a  majority  of 
votes,  and  they  would  not  allow  the  head  of  the  Empire 
any  right  of  decision  in  the  matter.  The  Emperor  was 
all  the  more  distressed  as  he  had  in  good  faith  promised 
and  determined  to  do  his  utmost  at  this  Diet  to  put 
straight  the  misunderstandings  that  had  arisen,  and 
to  restore  the  town  of  Donauworth,  by  which  the  other 
towns  possibly  set  great  store,  to  its  former  position. 
The  Catholic  Estates  had  also  handed  in  their  grievances 
— much  greater  ones  indeed — but  had  been  recommended 
to  be  patient.  To  settle  the  matter  in  advance  entirely 
according  to  the  will  of  one  party  was  an  impossibility. 
'  In  addition  to  this  it  seems  very  strange  and  is  very 

1  Sattler,  vi.  74. 


542  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

distressing  to  his  Majesty  that  the  Ratisboners,  for 
the  time  being  directors  in  the  council  of  the  Estates, 
besides  some  other  imperial  cities,  should  unite  them- 
selves with  those  who  have  hitherto  hindered  his  Majesty 
and  the  common  interest  in  the  manner  above  stated. 
If  the  towns  wish  to  correspond,  why  do  they  not  rather 
correspond  with  their  head,  the  Emperor,  and  with 
Saxony,  Brunswick,  Hesse-Darmstadt  and  others  here 
present  who,  with  the  Emperor,  desire  that  the  Religious 
and  the  Public  Peace  should  be  maintained  ?  Ratisbon 
and  other  towns  have  little  reason  to  make  themselves 
dependent  on  those  who  are  seeking  to  overturn  the 
existing  constitution  and  to  organise  everything  accord- 
ing to  their  own  will  and  liking,  and  who  would  prefer 
to  drag  the  Emperor  away  ignominiously  without  his 
having  accomplished  anything,  and  to  let  everything 
in  the  dear  Fatherland  go  to  ruin,  and  even  fall  a  prey 
to  the  hereditary  enemy.  The  towns  ought  not  to  let 
themselves  be  so  taken  in  by  those  who  come  into  the 
Empire  boasting  of  immense  foreign  succour,  and  who 
even,  in  order  to  strike  greater  terror,  threaten  the 
Emperor  to  his  very  face  with  France,  England,  and  the 
States- General.  For  we  have  trustworthy  information 
that  not  all  the  sovereigns  and  lands  they  hold  over  our 
heads  are  quite  so  much  at  their  beck  and  call  as  they 
make  out.  And  if  ever,  contrary  to  our  better  hopes, 
things  should  come  to  the  worst,  the  Emperor  will 
certainly  not  be  wanting  either  in  heart  or  in  resolution, 
still  less  in  such  a  case  will  he  lack  for  help,  both  within 
and  without  the  Empire,  from  those  who,  like  his 
Majesty,  would  stake  everything  to  defend  the  Religious 
and  the  Public  Peace,  as  well  as  other  statutes  of  the 
Empire,  and  the  imperial  honour,  dignity,  and  jurisdic- 


DIET   AT   RATISBON,    1613  543 

tion.  Besides  the  above-named  foreign  powers,  namely, 
France,  England,  and  the  States-General,  the  allies  of 
the  Emperor  in  Spain,  in  the  Netherlands,  in  Italy, 
Poland  and  Denmark,  irrespective  of  religion,  are 
burning  to  invade  our  beloved  Fatherland,  and  not 
without  good  reason  perhaps.  Such  a  contingency, 
however,  ought  never  to  be  suffered  by  right-minded 
German  men  and  princes,  still  less  should  they  be  the 
ones  to  give  the  provocative  cause.  They  might  con- 
fidently believe,  he  said,  that  neither  he  nor  others 
would  counsel  or  help  the  Emperor  to  adopt  such  a 
policy,  but  in  their  advice  to  his  Majesty,  as  also  in 
their  proceedings  at  this  imperial  assembly,  they  should 
strive,  as  far  as  was  humanly  possible,  that  a  good 
understanding  should  be  restored,  and  sacred  peace  be 
maintained  as  long  as  possible.  On  the  other  hand, 
however,  they  and  others  who  had  separated  them- 
selves ought  to  come  to  a  better  mind ;  they  ought  to 
return  to  take  their  part  in  the  usual  deliberations  and 
help  to  make  a  start  with  this  laudable  and  most  neces- 
sary work.  By  this  means  the  dear  Fatherland  would 
long  be  preserved  both  from  inward  and  outward 
danger.'  ' 

This  '  Ermahnung '  (admonition)  of  the  Vice-Chan- 
cellor, which  was  widely  circulated,  incited  the  corre- 
sponding princes  to  address  to  the  Emperor  a  very 
trenchant  document,  in  which  they  insisted  on  their 
loyalty  and  implored  the  Emperor  not  to  suffer  them 
any  longer  to  be  assailed  with  such  undeserved  and 
heavy  threatenings.     Otherwise  they  should  be  justified 

1  '  Ermanung  an  die  Stat  Regensburg,  August  20,  30,  1613,'  in  the 
Frankfort  Reichstag sakten,  96a,  101-104  ;  cf.  the  report  from  a  Ratisbon 
chronicle  in  Gumpelzhairner,  ii.  1056-1558. 


544  HISTOEY   OF   THE   GEEMAN   PEOPLE 

in  demanding  that  the  Emperor  would  remove  from 
among  the  councillors  who  advised  him  '  respecting 
matters  and  transactions  affecting  themselves  and  their 
well-being,  persons  so  ill  affected  towards  them  as  the 
Vice-Chancellor  Ulm.'  l 

Meantime,  while  at  the  Diet  '  everything  had  fallen 
into  great  confusion,'  2  the  Turks  had  begun  their  war- 
like undertakings  with  an  army  of  80,000  men,  and 
Bethlen  Gabor  had  invaded  Transylvania  with  an 
armed  force.  In  view  of  these  increasing  dangers  a  new 
way  of  coming  to  an  understanding  with  the  correspond- 
ing princes  was  attempted  at  the  suggestion  of  Klesl. 
It  was  proposed  that  all  the  different  matters  of  com- 
plaint should  be  discussed  and  settled,  not  by  the 
regular  procedure  of  the  Diet,  but  by  independent 
agreement  among  the  Electors,  and  by  an  impartially 
constituted  committee  of  the  remaining  Estates.  Arch- 
duke Maximilian,  the  brother  of  the  Emperor,  was 
proposed  as  intermediary  between  the  two  parties, 
and  he  came  to  Ratisbon  at  the  end  of  September. 
But  the  transactions  led  to  no  result.3  '  We  stood 
opposite  each  other,'  wrote  the  Brandenburg  am- 
bassador von  Dohna  on  October  10,  '  like  two  rams 
which  would  yield  to  nobody.'  4 


1  In  the  Frankfort  Reichstag sakten,  96b,  106-109  (from  September  25 
to  October  5,  1613). 

2  See  Klesl's  letter  of  September  27,  1613,  in  Hammer,  iii.  ;  Urkun- 
denbd.  p.  70. 

3  Fuller  details  in  Ritter,  Politik  der  Union,  p.  139  ff. 

4  Ritter,  Politik  der  Union,  p.  146,  note  1.  Respecting  the  '  fanatical 
Calvinist,'  Abraham  von  Dohna,  see  the  monograph  of  A.  Chroust,  Abra- 
ham, v.  Dohna,  Sein  Leben  und  sein  Gedicht  auf  den  Reichstag  von  1618 
(Munich,  1896).  See  also  Zeitschr.  fur  Kulturgesch.  ii.  410  ff.,  and  Zoch- 
haur  in  the  Histor.  Jahrb.  1896,  p.  629  ;  the  latter  rightly  remarks  with 
regard  to  the  '  Historische  reimen  von  dem  ungereimten  Reichstag  anno 


DIET   AT   RATISBON,    1613  545 

When  Klesl  realised  that '  nothing  was  to  be  achieved 
with  the  corresponding  princes  against  the  Turks,'  he 
veered  round  a  little  to  the  Catholics,  who,  together  with 
some  of  the  Lutheran  Estates,  had  pronounced  them- 
selves willing  to  pay  down  thirty  Roman  months  to 
the  Emperor ;  the  demands  of  the  corresponding 
princes  no  longer  found  an  advocate  in  Klesl.1 

Since  '  nothing  was  to  be  expected  from  the  corre- 
sponding princes,'  the  Emperor,  on  October  15,  made 
an  attempt  to  gain  the  towns  at  any  rate.  He  had 
them  requested  through  Klesl  and  other  privy  councillors 
to  agree  to  the  aids  promised  by  the  '  obedient  Estates.'  2 
He  begged  that  they  would  not  desert  him  at  a  time 
when  the  inward  and  outward  needs  of  the  Fatherland 
had  grown  greater  than  ever  before.  He  was  exerting 
himself  in  good  faith,  and  trying  all  possible  ways  and 
means  to  bring  about  a  real  redress  of  the  grievances 
on  both  sides  ;  but  the  suspension  of  justice  and  the 
curtailment  of  the  imperial  jurisdiction  he  could  not 
sanction  ;  the  town  of  Donauworth,  as  he  had  repeatedly 
given  assurance  through  his  brother  Maximilian,  '  should 
be  restored  according  to  law,  and  in  such  a  manner 
that  nobody  again  would  have  reason  to  complain  on 
that  score.'    '  It  is  a  question  now,'  said  Klesl,  '  not  of 

1613,'  published  by  Chroust,  that  the  authorship  of  Abraham  is  not  esta- 
blished with  complete  certainty. 

1  Despatch  of  Charles  Henry  Feyerabend,  October  13,  1613.  *  The 
Catholic  Estates,'  wrote  Klesl  to  a  friend,  '  would  hear  nothing  of  accom- 
modation, and  stood  firmly  to  their  principles,  but  they  are  doing  what 
they  can  for  the  Emperor.  The  other  Estates  also  abide  by  their  claims, 
but  they  make  the  Emperor  suffer  for  it,  and  want  to  punish  him  when  he 
is  in  no  way  guilty.  Both  parties  boast  of  their  loyalty  and  devotion  to 
the  Emperor,  but  the  Catholics  show  their  love  in  works  and  words,  the 
Protestants  only  in  intentions  '  (Schmidt,  Neuere  Oesch.  vii.  18-19). 

2  Bitter,  Polilik  der  Union,  p.  169. 

VOL.    X,  N  N 


546  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

religion  or  of  anything  that  requires  much  deliberation 
or  delicacy,  but  simply  of  whether  the  towns  will  leave 
the  Emperor,  their  supreme  head,  in  the  lurch,  in  his 
direst  need  and  expose  him  to  destruction,  and  allow 
the  whole  of  Christendom  to  be  ruined  and  to  fall  a  prey 
to  the  Turks,  who  will  know  well  how  to  profit  by  an 
opportunity  like  this.'  l  All  endeavours  were  fruitless. 
On  the  following  day  the  corresponding  princes  handed 
in  a  resolution  to  the  effect  that  '  prior  to  their 
demands  being  granted  they  could  not  agree  to  any- 
thing ;  in  particular,  they  said,  the  well-known  pro- 
cesses of  execution  must  be  stayed,  because  otherwise 
necessary  commercial  transactions  would  be  impeded, 
and  internecine  bloodshed  would  result  in  the  Empire. 
Their  motives  were  altogether  good,  and  aiming  at 
peace,  tranquillity,  and  security,  and  it  would  be  very 
distressing  to  them  if  these  intentions  should  bring  on 
themselves  the  malediction  of  posterity.'  2 

On  October  19  the  whole  body  of  corresponding 
princes  gave  in  their  ultimatum,  in  which,  among  other 
things,  they  insisted  that  '  The  right  of  the  majority 
claimed  by  their  opponents  was  "  the  chief  and  the 
heaviest  grievance  ;  '  their  lords  and  masters  would 
never  humble  themselves  under  such  a  yoke  ;  they 
would  rather  throw  land  and  people  and  all  that  was 
dear  to  them  to  the  winds.  They  could  not  see  their 
way  to  joining  in  any  further  transactions,  and  they 
had  now  resolved  to  go  back  home  and  report  everything 
to  their  chiefs,  whose  only  desire  was  to  maintain  peace 

1  The  transactions  with  the  towns  in  the  Frankfort  Reichstag sakten, 
96%  1. 

2  The   resolution  of  the  towns,   in  Senkenberg  {Sammlung,  ii.  254- 
258). 


KLESL   AND   THE   'CORRESPONDING   PRINCES,'   1613      547 

and  tranquillity  in  the  Empire  and  to  establish  a  good 
understanding.' 

As  before,  at  the  dissolution  of  the  Diet  of  1608,  so 
too  now,  they  reproached  the  Catholic  Estates  with  being 
the  cause  of  '  all  the  vexation  that  had  arisen.'  In  case 
by  any  chance,  they  added,  a  Recess  should  be  drawn 
up  by  these  Estates  and  published  as  an  imperial  Recess, 
they  herewith  recorded  their  strong  protest  against  it, 
and  declared  that  they  should  not  consider  themselves 
bound  by  it.1 

On  October  22  the  imperial  Recess  was  completed, 
and  a  fresh  Diet  was  summoned  at  Ratisbon  for  May  1 
of  the  following  year.  Thirty  Roman  months,  to  be 
paid  within  two  years,  were  voted  to  the  Emperor  as 
an  immediate  Turkish  subsidy.  Klesl  thought  '  thus  to 
have  achieved  something  great.'  '  We  have  obtained 
a  substantial  triumph,'  he  wrote  to  the  president  of 
the  war  council,  '  and  we  have  accomplished  the  Recess 

1  In  Senkenberg,  Samml.  ii.  259-276.  '  The  allies  or  corresponding 
princes,  who,  as  spokesmen  on  behalf  of  the  Protestant  section  of  the 
Empire,  attempted  to  obstruct  the  progress — or  rather,  indeed,  the  com- 
mencement— of  the  Diet,  were  only,'  says  Charles  Adolphus  Menzel,  iii. 
229-230,  '  representatives  of  the  Palatine  Calvinistic  party,  and  not  of  the 
whole  Protestant  part  of  the  Empire,  for  the  electorate  of  Saxony,  together 
with  the  princes  of  the  Ernestine  line,  and  Darmstadt — the  most  zealous 
of  the  Lutherans,  that  is — were  ranged  with  the  Catholics  on  the  Emperor's 
side.  That  the  mode  of  procedure  of  the  corresponding  princes  and 
their  opposition  to  decision  by  the  majority  was  irreconcilable  with  the 
principles  of  the  common  state  and  popular  rights,  is  a  matter  beyond 
doubt.'  '  History  owes  it  to  truth  to  recognise  that  the  demands  which 
the  corresponding  princes  supported  with  the  name  of  "  religious  grievances 
of  the  evangelicals  "  were  not  made  by  the  old  Protestant  Estates  in  the 
interest  of  their  faith  and  their  Church  reform,  but  solely  by  the  Palatine 
Calvinist  party  as  the  outcome  of  the  political  intrigues  they  were  carrying 
on  in  connection  with  foreign  powers,  and  that  books  of  history,  both 
foreign  and  native,  wrongly  describe  the  two  parties  at  this  Diet  under 
the  names  of  "  Catholics  "  and  "  Protestants."  What  was  the  actual 
object  of  these  machinations  was  soon  to  come  to  the  full  light  of  day.' 

n  k  2 


548  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

with  honour.'  l  The  papal  nuncio,  who  was  present 
at  the  Diet,  praised  Klesl's  '  steadfastness  and  zeal :  ' 
he  recommended  that  the  Pope  should  send  him  an 
appreciative  Breve.2 

'  Klesl  has  told  me,'  said  Feyerabend  on  October  24, 
1  that  he  had  long  been  manoeuvring  with   the    corre- 

1  Hammer,  iii.  ;  Urkundenbd.  p.  73. 

2  Kerschbaumer,  p.  195.     In  February  1614  a  Breve  of  this  nature  was 
issued  (Kerschbaumer,  p.  217,  note  3) ;  on  August  10  and  September  7, 
1613,  the  Cardinal  and  Secretary  of  State  Borghese  had  written  to  Cardinal 
Madruzzi,  charging  him  to  instruct  Bishop  Klesl  in  the  name  of  the  Pope 
that  '  In  matters  of  religion  he  must  proceed  with  all  fidelity  and  open- 
ness, and  that  he  must  never  countenance  evil  with  a  view  to  bringing 
about  good  ;  questions  and  matters  of  the  faith  had  nothing  to  do  with 
"  State  reasons."       All  the  concessions  hitherto  made  to  the  Protestants 
had  been  most  detrimental  to  the  Church  ;  care  must  therefore  be  taken 
not  to  '  occasion  still  greater  disaster   by   fresh    concessions.'      Personal 
considerations  were  also  brought  to  bear  on  Klesl.     Whereas  he  had  for 
years  been  pressing  on  the  Emperor  his  advancement  to  the  dignity  of 
'  Crown-cardinal,'  it  was  signified  to  him  that  his  mode  of  action  '  potrebbe 
ostar  molto  alia  sua  pretensione  nel  Cardinalato  '  (Kerschbaumer,  pp.  213- 
215).     Klesl's  change  of  attitude  at  Ratisbon  may  be  connected  with 
this  advice  given  to  him.     On  September  1,  1614,  he  wrote  to  Borghese 
that  he  was  quite  ready  to  obey  the  Pope's  will  in  everything,  for  such 
obedience  was  the  safest  course  for  him  (Kerschbaumer,  p.  216,  note  1). 
The  letters  which  he  wrote  after  the  Pope  had  invested  him  with  the 
purple  are  very  significant.     '  Early  this  morning,'  he  wrote  to  the  Emperor 
on  April  20,  1616,  '  the  courier  from  Rome  delivered  to  me  letters  from 
Cardinal  Borghese  and  many  other  cardinals,  congratulating  me  on  the 
fact  that  their  lord  had  proclaimed  me  Cardinal  on  April  10.     God  knows 
that  it  does  not  delight  me  ;  but  in  order  to  fall  in  with  your  Majesty's 
wishes,  and  to  refute  the  calumnies  of  wicked  people,  this  thing  must  be, 
for  a  Roman  Emperor  cannot  confer  a  greater  temporal  favour  on  an 
ecclesiastic  than  this.     To  me  your  Majesty's  favour,  affection,  and  con- 
fidence  are  worth   far  more  than  the  papacy  itself '     (Hammer,   iii.  ; 
Urkundenbd.  pp.  397-398).     His  language  had  a  different  ring  on  April  27 
in  a  letter  to  Archduke  Maximilian  of  Tyrol :    '  His   Holiness   the  Pope 
has  unexpectedly  raised  me,  unworthy  and  undeserving  as  I  am,  to  the 
very  high  dignity  of  the  Cardinalate  '  (Khevenhiller,  viii.  894).  According 
to  a  letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Spires  on  May  11,  it  was  not  the  Emperor,  but 

'  the  righteous  God,'  who  was  the  cause  of  his  elevation.  '  How  just  and 
righteous  is  God,  who  has  been  pleased  to  vindicate  me,  the  slandered  one, 
by  the  public  testimony  of  the  whole  Church  '  (Kerschbaumer,  p.  220). 


KLESL   AND   THE   'CORRESPONDING   PRINCES,'    1613      549 

sponding  princes,  and  had  tried  to  move  the  Emperor  to 
various  concessions,  but  he  had  realised  that  they  would 
not  budge  from  any  of  their  pretensions,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  were  determined  to  bring  the  Emperor  com- 
pletely under  their  dominion  ;  with  the  Lutherans  he 
intended  to  remain  on  good  terms,  but  with  the  Calvinists 
there  was  nothing  to  be  done,  for  they  were  backed  up 
by  foreign  troops  and  potentates.'  Later  on  also,  Klesl 
frequently  expressed  himself  in  letters  in  no  gentle  terms 
concerning  the  '  faction  of  the  corresponding  princes.' 
To  an  opponent  of  theirs,  the  Lutheran  Landgrave 
Louis  of  Hesse-Darmstadt,  he  wrote  :  '  The  Catholics 
are  robbed  of  what  is  their  own,  and  that  which  is 
apportioned  to  them  by  legal  judgment  does  not  come 
into  their  possession,  but  is  kept  back  from  them  by  force. 
No  fair  and  just  sentence  is  put  into  execution.  Every 
verdict  that  does  not  please  the  corresponding  princes, 
however  justly  it  may  have  been  given,  is  regarded  by 
them  with  suspicion.  They  set  their  dogs  at  the  law 
and  call  that  evangelical.  Not  to  contribute  help  against 
the  Turks,  to  drive  so  many  beautiful  Christian  lands 
and  so  many  Christian  people  down  the  throats  of  the 
Turks  ;  to  be  ready  to  shed  one  another's  blood  and 
allow  the  Turk  free  play,  except  their  own  will  be  done  : 
is  that,  too,  to  be  called  evangelical  ?  I  cannot  under- 
stand it  :  formerly  this  would  have  been  considered 
blindness.'  1 

'  The  corresponding  princes,'  Feyerabend  said  in 
his  letter  of  October  24,  '  now  utterly  detest  Klesl ; 
they  curse  him  as  a  traitor.'  Klesl  was  reported  to 
have  said — so  the  Brandenburg  ambassador,  Abraham 
von  Dohna,  had  written  ten  days  earlier — that  he  had 

1  June  14,  1614,  in  Hammer,  iii.  ;  Urkundenbd.  No.  428,  p.  100. 


550  HISTORY  OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

prevailed  on  the  loyal  Estates  to  contribute  such  and  such 
a  sum  to  the  Emperor,  and  that  he  meant  to  achieve 
still  greater  results  ;  the  day  would  yet  come  when  the 
corresponding  princes  would  be  glad  to  be  taken  into 
favour.  '  God  will  recompense  the  false  priest  for  his 
treachery  in  dealing  at  Frankfort  that  they  might  safely 
make  large  promises  to  the  heretics,  for  it  was  not 
necessary  to  fulfil  them.  And  he  has  been  as  good  as 
his  word.  Let  him  see  to  it  that  as  from  a  baker  he 
grew  into  a  prince,  so  from  a  bishopric  he  does  not  pass 
to  the  gallows.'  l 

Shortly  after,  however,  Klesl  again  took  up  the 
cause  of  the  corresponding  princes. 

'  The  affair  that  began  with  all  the  great  outward 
splendour  of  the  Emperor's  entry  has  now  come  to  a 
melancholy  end,  and  the  heat  of  both  parties  has  grown 
all  the  more  intense,  and,  unless  God  Almighty  inter- 
poses miraculously,  war  must  be  close  at  the  door.' 
In  the  course  of  a  conversation  Philip  Hainhofer  of 
Augsburg,  the  Elector  of  Treves,  expressed  his  grief  at 
the  dissolution  of  the  Diet  and  the  existence  of  so  many 
'  factions  :  '  '  Unionists,  Leaguists,  Neutralists,  Com- 
ponists,  Csesarites,  Protestants,  Correspondents.'  '  No 
body  can  live  without  a  head,'  said  the  Bishop  of 
Bamberg. - 

*  Equipped  with  promises  only,'  the  Emperor  re- 
turned to  his  hereditary  dominions,  and  on  November  10, 
1613,  described  the  situation  of  affairs  to  the  Archduke 
Ferdinand.  He  was  at  the  end,  he  wrote,  of  all  auxiliary 
means  for  maintaining  intact  the  dominion  of  his  House. 
So  long  as  he  was  alive,  the  building  would  at  least 

1  Ritter,  Politik  der  Union,  pp.  146,  note  2,  169. 
3  Hautle,  Phil.  Hainhofer,  pp.  193,  196,  197. 


THE   EMPEROR'S   DESCRIPTION   OF   AFFAIRS,   1613        551 

hold  together,  but  after  his  death  everything  would 
become  disjointed,  and  the  noble  acquisition  of  the 
ancestors  would  not  be  inherited  by  the  descendants. 
The  Estates  of  Upper  and  Lower  Austria,  whom  he 
had  hoped  to  keep  back  from  open  insurrection  by 
making  the  utmost  possible  concessions  to  them,  were 
now  watching  their  opportunity  to  free  themselves 
from  his  dominion,  and  to  welcome  a  foreign  prince  as 
territorial  sovereign  :  for  this  purpose  they  had  allied 
themselves  with  the  Union  and  with  Hungary.  In 
Hungary  he  was  completely  powerless.  Thurzo  did  just  as 
he  liked  there,  and  did  not  concern  himself  about  royal 
commands  and  interdicts.  '  When  it  is  a  question  of 
Hungary  supporting  me  against  the  Turks,  nobody  stirs  ; 
but  if  the  Prince  of  Transylvania  solicits  help  from  them, 
the  tocsin  is  rung  all  over  the  land.  Their  scheme  is 
to  depose  our  House  ;  the  Palatine  himself  spoke  approv- 
ingly on  the  subject  at  a  social  gathering.  He  cannot 
endure  any  Germans  in  the  fortresses,  he  usurps  kingly 
power  at  every  turn,  entices  the  counties  and  the  nobles 
to  his  side,  and  altogether  is  intent  only  on  preparing 
means  whereby  either  he  himself,  or  his  successors  in 
the  Palatinate,  shall  wrest  the  crown  from  us.  What 
else  remains  for  us  to  do  but  to  work  day  and  night 
to  meet  the  danger  ?  As  for  Bohemia,  I  cannot 
summon  any  provincial  assembly  there  unless  I  am  pre- 
pared to  recognise  the  confederations  of  the  Estates, 
and  if  I  do  not  summon  a  provincial  Diet  I  cannot 
reckon  on  any  subsidies  from  this  country.  In  Silesia 
the  Margrave  of  Jagerndorf  is  carrying  on  disgraceful 
intrigues  against  our  House.  In  Moravia  the  condi- 
tions are  the  same  as  in  Hungary.  The  governor- 
general,  Karl  von  Zierotin,  rules  in  the  land  as  though 


552  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

he  were  the  sovereign,  and  contracts  alliances  with 
foreign  nations  where  and  as  he  pleases.'  x  Three  days 
before,  Klesl  had  written  to  the  president  of  the  War 
Council,  von  Mollart,  '  The  Calvinists  are  endeavouring 
to  obtain  the  sovereignty  over  us  by  force.'  2 

Affairs  took  a  specially  ominous  turn  in  Bohemia. 
While  King  James  I.  of  England  was  hoping  for  the 
Bohemian  crown  for  his  son-in-law,  Frederic  V.  of  the 
Palatinate,3  Count  Heinrich  Matthias  von  Thurn,  the 
prime  originator  of  the  later  insurrection,  in  conjunction 
with  the  Counts  Andreas  Schlick  and  Wenzel  Kinsky, 
caused  the  Elector  of  Saxony  to  be  informed,  in  1614, 
that  the  party  hostile  to  the  government  had  resolved 
on  deposing  the  Habsburgers,  and  intended  to  offer 
the  crown  to  the  Elector.  These  noblemen,  a  Saxon 
confidential  agent  sent  word  to  Dresden,  were  only  the 
spokesmen  of  the  sentiment  in  which  all  the  rest  of 
their  party  concurred.  At  an  assembly  of  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  nobles,  all  present  had  unreservedly 
expressed  their  disaffection  towards  the  Habsburg 
princely  House,  and  their  desire  for  a  Saxon  ruler.4  At 
the  provincial  Diet  of  1614,  the  Bohemians,  wrote 
Francis  Christopher  Khevenhiller,  '  had  clearly  enough 
revealed  their  rebellious  intentions.' 5 

Now  that  the  Emperor  '  stood  weaponless  and 
resourceless  in  face  of  all  these  conspiracies,  every  vestige 
of  his  reputation  vanished  by  degrees,  and  in  the  Empire 
his  Majesty    was  regarded  as  no  more  than  a  figure- 

1  Gindely,  Oesch.   des  boJimischen  Aufstandes,  i.   79-80  ;  Hurter,   vii. 
14-16. 

2  Hammer,  iii.  ;  Urkundenbd.  p.  77.  3  See  above,  p.  517. 

4  Gindely,   Gesch.  des  bohmischen  Aujstandes,  i.   93-94.     See  Miiller, 
Forschungen,  iii.   205-206  ;  Chlumecky,  i.  830. 

5  Wolf,  Bilder,  i.  156. 


THE   EMPEROR'S   HELPLESSNESS,   1614  553 

head,'  and  '  the  commissioners  and  ambassadors  de- 
puted by  him  '  were  '  treated  abominably.'  [  This  was 
the  case  even  in  the  loyal  town  of  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main.  At  the  beginning  of  January  1614,  there  appeared 
there  '  the  imperial  ambassador,'  Laurentius  Riidinger, 
charged  to  solicit  the  council  for  '  an  obliging  and 
willing  loan  of  150,000  florins.'  As  Frankfort  had 
been  fixed  upon  as  the  depot  of  the  thirty  Roman  months 
promised  at  Ratisbon,  the  council  would  be  able  to  get 
back  into  their  hands  the  required  sum  out  of  the 
incoming  moneys,  or  from  '  other  future  imperial  aids,' 
and  '  so  by  degrees  pay  itself  back.'  Riidinger  addressed 
several  highly  moving  speeches  to  the  members  of  the 
council,  who,  he  said,  were  like  unto  '  his  Majesty's  first- 
born children,'  and  therefore  would  surely  not  desert  him 
in  his  dire  necessity.  But  the  councillors'  ears  were  deaf. 
Then  Riidinger  brought  the  sum  down  to  80,000  florins, 
then  to  60,000,  or  even  lower,  and  begged  that  they 
would  call  on  the  burghers  -for  contributions  :  some  of 
these  had  already  offered  to  give  ten,  twenty,  thirty, 
or  forty  florins.  When  all  oratorical  art  proved  fruit- 
less, the  imperial  envoy  asked  that  as  least  some  five 
or  six  hundred  florins  might  be  advanced  him  on  credit, 
as  otherwise  he  would  not  be  able  to  continue  his  journey. 
But  this  request  also  was  not  granted.  '  It  was  no 
small  matter  of  surprise  to  them,'  the  council  informed 
the  envoy,  that  though  his  petition  had  been  three 
times  rejected,  he  still  continued  his  stay  at  Frankfort. 
What  he  had  spent  in  the  hostel  from  January  3  to  11 
should  be  paid  back  to  him  ;  but  nothing  more.  '  Then 
I  shall  be  obliged,'  Riidinger  replied,  '  to  send  a  special 

1  Ein  kurzes  anmuthliches  Gespriich,  p.  7. 


554  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

courier  to  his  Majesty  to  inform  him  of  the  state  of 
things ;  for  no  one,  I  presume,  will  command  me  to  sell 
my  horses  to  pay  mine  host :    if  I've  a  brass  farthing 

about  me,  may  the  D fetch  me,  etc.     Why,  it's  the 

custom  all  the  world  over  to  make  an  ambassador  at 
least  free  of  his  hotel  bill,  and  it  is  indeed  a  wonder  to 
me  that  you  will  not  do  even  this  much  to  please  his 
Imperial  Majesty.'  The  council  used  their  authority 
to  turn  the  ambassador  out  of  the  town.1  At  Lubeck 
an  imperial  ambassador  who  asked  for  a  loan  was  at 
once  sent  away,  without  further  demur,  by  the  burgo- 
master Brockes,  who  said  to  him  :  '  They  forsake  us  in 
our  need ;  but  when  they  want  money,  they  know  well 
how  to  find  us  out.'  '  He  could  not,'  writes  Brockes, 
'  say  much  in  answer  to  this,'  and  he  promised  to  refer 
the  matter  to  his  Majesty.2 

'  It  was  not  only  by  paying  interest  of  thirty  or 
forty  per  cent.,'  wrote  Klesl  in  1615,  that  the  imperial 
Treasury  could  obtain  any  loans,  and  '  the  penury  of 
the  head  of  the  Empire,  which  made  all  government 
in  the  Empire  impossible,  was  as  distressing  as  the  con- 
fusion in  the  finances.'  Klesl  gave  the  Emperor  a 
terrible  account  of  the  state  of  things,  in  order,  he  said, 
'  that  your  Majesty  may  see  as  in  a  mirror  your  own 
misery  and  ruin,  whereby  you  must  inevitably  lose  all 
your  authority   and  renown   and  all   your   greatness.' 


1  A  more  detailed  account  in  the  Frankfort  Archives,  Kaiserschreiben, 
18,  fol.  5-46.  The  Council  called  on  the  host,  with  whom  Riidinger  and 
six  other  people  had  lodged,  for  an  exact  account.  For  daily  consump- 
tion the  following  items,  for  instance,  were  put  down  :  For  the  night  drink, 
twenty-six  measures  of  wine ;  for  the  afternoon  drink,  sixteen  measures 
of  wine.  '  A  right  merry  instance,'  said  Doctor  Karl  Adelmann,  '  of 
possessing  great  thirst  when  possessing  no  money.' 

2  Brockes,  ii.  286-287. 


IMPECUNIOSITY   OF   TREASURY   AND   EMPEROR,  1615     555 

The  bad  management  of  the  Treasury,  he  said,  was 
indescribable.  '  All  orators  and  foreign  ambassadors 
must  see  that  your  Majesty  and  your  Majesty's  officers 
have  not  enough  bread  to  eat,  that  the  horses  are  dying 
for  want  of  food,  that  the  grooms  go  about  begging, 
the  coachmen  are  dressed  like  waggon-drivers,  the 
saddles,  bridles,  bits  and  trappings  are  fastened  with 
rope  and  string  such  as  the  peasants  use.  No  artisans' 
children  are  such  ragged  figures  as  the  boys  of  noblemen  ; 
they  run  about  wild  and  ungovernable,  and  are  entirely 
without  discipline.  It  is  the  same  with  the  imperial 
lackeys  ;  those  of  the  ordinary  nobles  are  better  dressed 
and  provided  for  than  those  of  your  Majesty.'  '  It  is 
lamentable  that  your  Majesty  can  barely  obtain  from 
the  Treasury  1,000  florins  to  clothe  your  own  body,  and 
occasionally  to  tip  a  valet  or  a  stoker  with  fifty  florins  : 
this  is  indeed  beggary  beyond  all  conception  for  one  of 
such  august,  imperial  blood.'  '  What  is  dearer  to  the 
Roman  Emperor's  heart  than  that  justice  should  be  well 
administered  ?  But,  through  all  the  long  years  that 
the  Empire  has  existed,  the  Aulic  Council  has  never  been 
so  meagrely  filled  ;  no  one  indeed  cares  to  belong  to 
it,  for  nobody  is  paid  or  treated  in  a  proper  manner. 
Embassies  which  might  secure  justice,  authority,  and 
friendship  for  a  Roman  Emperor,  and  bring  about 
peace  and  good  order,  can  no  longer  be  despatched ;  it 
is  with  difficulty  even  that  a  courier,  a  postman,  or  a 
messenger  can  be  paid ; '  all  credit  has  disappeared. 
'  It  is  a  lamentable  thing  that,  under  the  rule  of  your 
Majesty,  everything  should  have  gone  to  rack  and  ruin 
owing  to  the  state  of  the  Treasury.'  '  The  government 
councillors  also,  and  the  war  councillors,  the  secretaries 


556  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  officers,  even  the  privy  councillors,  are  not  paid,  so 
that  no  competent  man  is  either  willing  or  able  to  serve 
the  Emperor  any  longer.  Any  government  must  col- 
lapse under  such  conditions.' ] 

1  '  Klesls  Memorial  uiid  Voitrag  nebst  Vorschlagen  zur  Reform  vom 
Jahre  1615,'  in  Hammer,  iii.  ;  Urkundenbd.  No.  569-570,  pp.  318-337. 


557 


CHAPTER  IX 

DISTURBANCES  AND  RISINGS  IN  THE  YEARS  1614-1616 — 
THE  STATES-GENERAL  '  CHIEF  RULERS  IN  THE 
EMPIRE  ' 

While  the  Emperor  had  become  completely  powerless 
in  his  hereditary  dominions,  flames  broke  out  in  many 
parts  of  the  Empire,  which  '  speedily  kindled  a  great 
and  general  war  conflagration.' 

In  the  Jiilich-Cleves  lands  '  the  Possessionem,'  the 
Princes  of  Kurbrandenburg  and  Pfalz-Neuburg,  had 
been  in  continuous  strife  with  one  another  since  1613. 
At  the  court  of  Neuburg  hope  had  been  cherished  that 
the  disagreements  might  be  settled  by  a  marriage  between 
the  Count  Palatine  Wolfgang  Wilhelm  and  a  daughter 
of  the  Elector  John  Sigismund.  The  latter,  so  it  was 
planned,  was  then  to  declare  himself  ready  to  transfer 
the  Brandenburg  claims  to  those  lands  to  his  daughter. 
This  hope  was  disappointed.  Wolfgang  Wilhelm,  in 
November  1613,  contracted  a  marriage  with  Magdalena, 
a  sister  of  Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  having  several 
months  before  secretly  adopted  the  Catholic  faith.  The 
Elector  of  Brandenburg,  in  the  same  year,  went  over  to 
Calvinism.1 

At  Diisseldorf,  where  the  Count  Palatine  went  with 
his  bride,  he  experienced  all  sorts  of  unpleasantness  from 
the   Brandenburgers.      When    the    Countess    Palatine 

1  See  above,  p.  302  ff. 


558  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

attended  the  Catholic  divine  service,  shots  were  fired 
through  the  windows  of  the  church.1  Archbishop 
Ferdinand  of  Cologne  wrote  to  his  brother  Maximilian 
on  January  27,  1614,  '  I  am  informed  by  my  people, 
whom  I  gave  my  sister  as  escort,  that  large  factions 
have  already  formed  themselves,  and  that  even  the 
servants  in  the  castle  are  divided  into  parties,  one  of 
which  shouts  "  Long  live  Brandenburg  "  and  the  other 
'  Long  live  Neuburg,"  and  that  meanwhile  they  throw 
their  torches  at  one  another.  This  is  no  good  omen.' 
The  bodyguards  of  both  the  princes,  Wolfgang  Wilhelm 
and  Georg  Wilhelm  von  Brandenburg,  frequently  crossed 
swords  with  one  another.1' 

Maximilian  and  Ferdinand  admonished  their  brother- 
in-law  to  use  moderation,  and  warned  him  against 
measures  of  violence,  telling  him  that  he  could  place 
little  reliance  on  the  support  of  the  Catholic  powers. 
In  a  letter  of  Ferdinand  to  his  brother  we  read  as 
follows  :  £  Your  Excellency's  opinion  that  the  Count 
Palatine  should  be  more  moderate  in  his  proceedings 
coincides  entirely  with  the  advice  which  I  have  always 
given  him,  both  by  word  and  by  letter.  If  there  is  a 
man  on  earth  who  abhors  the  tumult  of  war,  it  is  my- 
self ;  and  I  have  had  to  pay  my  neighbours  pretty 
dearly  for  my  apprenticeship  in  this  respect.  But, 
between  ourselves,  people  will  not  always  follow  good 
advice.'  The  Count  Palatine,  he  said,  had  people 
about  him  who  recommended  resort  to  force  because 
'  every  man  of  the  Catholics  would  and  must  stand  by 
him  and  support  him.'  w  When,  however,  I  consider 
how  Spain  has  hitherto  neglected  her  own  affairs,  that 

1  Schreiber,  Maximilian,  p.  170. 

2  Wolf,  Maximilian,  iii.  551,  note. 


THE   DUTCH   CALLED   INTO   THE   EMPIKE,   1614       559 

France  is  more  concerned  about  herself  than  about 
others,  that  the  Pope  is  so  timorous  and  so  loth  to 
spend  money,  that  the  zeal  evinced  by  the  Catholics 
of  Germany  in  all  our  affairs  is  of  a  nature  well  calcu- 
lated to  freeze  us  to  death,  I  cannot  see  how  we  are  to 
extricate  ourselves  from  this  labyrinth,  especially  as 
the  initiative  must  proceed  from  the  Count  Palatine.'  l 

'  The  initiative  '  was  taken  by  the  Brandenburgers. 
During  an  absence  of  Wolfgang  Wilhelm  they  attempted, 
on  March  27,  1614,  to  take  possession  of  the  town  of 
Diisseldorf,  and  on  the  failure  of  this  plan  the  Branden- 
burg general  of  the  fortress  of  Jiilich  summoned  the 
Dutch  into  the  land  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  Neuburg 
troops  which  occupied  the  garrison  with  the  Branden- 
burg troops.  The  Dutch  took  possession  of  the  fortress, 
and  George  William  transferred  his  court  to  Cleves,  and 
began  to  enrol  troops.  The  Dutch,  said  Doctor  Matthew 
Wacker,  '  were  solely  and  entirely  to  blame  for  the 
disastrous  state  of  things  in  the  Empire.'  '  Although 
he  had  always  been  their  friend  and  had  before  now 
admired  their  valiant  deeds,  he  could  not,  nevertheless, 
sufficiently  deprecate  the  madness  and  presumption 
which  had  led  them  to  such  repeated  attempts  against 
the  Emperor  and  the  Empire.'  By  taking  possession 
of  Jiilich  they  had  '  as  it  were  bidden  defiance  to  his 
Majesty  and  to  the  whole  Empire.'  2 

Whereas  the  States-General,  '  by  the  forcible  seizure 
of  the  fortress  of  Jiilich,  had  as  it  were  established 
their  authority,  and  from  this  vantage  ground  could 
take  possession  of  the  Rhenish  archbishoprics  and 
bishoprics  almost  without  a  stroke  of  the  sword,'  it  was 

1  Wolf,  Maximilian,  iii.  556-557. 

2  Archivium  Unito-Protestantium,  pp.  41-42. 


560  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

unanimously  resolved,  at  a  meeting  of  the  League  held 
at  Ingoldstadt  in  July  1614,  to  fly  to  the  help  of  the 
Count  Palatine,  and  '  to  put  out  the  incipient  fire  in  his 
neighbours'  rather  than  in  his  own  house.'  If  once  the 
States -General  '  should  get  the  Rhine  and  the  adjacent 
Catholic  archbishoprics  and  abbeys  into  their  power, 
they  would,'  it  was  feared,  '  meet  with  all  the  less  resist- 
ance in  their  attacks  on  the  remaining  benefices,  and 
thus  they  would  altogether  root  out  the  Catholic  religion 
from  Germany,  and  establish  themselves  everywhere 
as  arbiters  and  masters,'  and  this,  indeed,  all  the  more 
easily,  '  since  they  had  the  command  of  Brandenburg, 
of  the  corresponding  princes,  and  also  of  the  Crown  of 
England.'  ]  The  succour  which  the  League  guaranteed 
to  the  Count  Palatine  amounted  to  about  80,000  florins.2 
This  prince  had  constituted  himself  sole  lord  of  Diissel- 
dorf,  and  on  May  25  had  openly  gone  over  to  the 
Catholic  faith.3 

After  the  death  of  his  father,  Philip  Louis,  he 
entered  on  the  Neuburg  succession  in  August.  He 
granted  complete  religious  freedom  to  the  Lutherans 
of  his  land,  but  ordained  at  the  same  time  that  it  should 
be  free  to  all  Catholic  subjects  to  profess  their  faith 
unhindered,  and  to  carry  on  their  divine  service 
with  Mass,  preaching,  organisation  of  Catholic  schools, 

1  Wolf,  Maximilian,  iii.  625-626,  631. 

2  Wolf,  iii.  638,  note  2. 

3  See  Rass,  Konvertiten,  iv.  232  ff.  ;  W.  Werther,  Der  Ubertrirtt  des 
Pfalzgrafen  Wolfgang  Wilhelm  von  Pfalz-Neuburg  zum  Katholizismus  und  der 
Jiilichclevesche  Erbfolgestreit,  1609-1614  (1874);  G.  Froschmaier, '  Quellenbei- 
trage  zur  Gesch.  des  Pfalzgrafen  Wolfgang  Wilhelm  von  Neuburg  '  (Neuburg 
a.  d.  D.  Oymn.  Progr.  1894)  and  Histor.  Jahrb.  15,  894.  For  an  account  of 
the  life  of  the  Count  Palatine  Wolfgang  Wilhelm,  see  also  the  introduction 
to  the  Alctenst'dclce  zur  Geschichte  des  Pfalzgrafen  Wolfgang  Wilhelm  von 
Neuburg  (Munich,  1896). 


DECREE  OF  WOLFGANG  WILHELM       561 

instruction  to  children,  processions  and  pilgrimages. 
'  Whereas  Otto  Henry,'  he  said  to  the  provincial  Estates, 
'  had  been  authorised  to  introduce  the  Augsburg 
Confession  unconditionally  into  his  land,  they  could 
not  and  dare  not  deprive  him,  Otto's  successor,  of  the 
right  to  allow  his  subjects  to  return  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  to  their  ancient,  sacred,  venerable  mother.'  ' 
The  Lutheran  preachers  and  all  the  subjects  received 
orders  to  abstain  thenceforth  from  their  practice  of 
hurling  abuse  at  the  Catholics,  even  at  the  territorial 
Prince  himself.  Above  all  they  were  enjoined  to 
desist,  both  in  writing  and  in  the  pulpit,  from  the  un- 
warrantable accusations  which  they  were  in  the  habit 
of  heaping  on  the  Catholics  whose  doctrines  they 
completely  distorted.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Catholics 
also  were  bidden  to  behave  with  all  discretion.  A 
heavy  penalty  was  affixed  to  the  violation  of  these 
injunctions.2 

The  only  strong  constraint  which  Wolfgang  Wilhelm 
exercised  was  a  decree  enjoining  that  on  the  Catholic 
fast-days  no  more  meat  was  to  be  eaten  at  public 
banquets  and  in  public  houses.3 

In  a  news  sheet  emanating  from  Basle,  the  Pro- 
testant public  was  informed,  in  1615,  that  the  Count 

1  Lipowsky,  Gesch.  der  Landstiinde  von  Pfalz-Neuburg,  p.  116  ;  Ver- 
handl.  des  histor.  Vereins  der  Oberpfalz,  xx   (1861)  311. 

2  Philip  Louis,  the  father  of  the  Count  Palatine,  had  proceeded  quite 
differently  against  the  Catholics.  In  a  prayer  for  Sunday  use,  which  he 
had  introduced  against  them,  they  were  described  as  '  idolatrous  people,' 
'  raging  wolves,'  and  so  forth.  By  this  means  he  hoped  to  fill  the  people 
with  terror  and  abhorrence  for  the  religion  of  their  future  prince.  Cf. 
Menzel,  hi.  235  ;  Zirngiebl,  pp.  360-361.  Wolfgang  Wilhelm's  edict,  which 
accorded  the  same  religious  rights  to  the  Catholics  as  to  the  Protestants, 
was  considered  an  act  of  tyrannical  proselytism. 

3  Meteren,  Niederlandische  Gesch.,  Fo:tsetzung  II.,  Buch  xxxii.  530. 

VOL.    X.  O  O 


562  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Palatine  had  become  Catholic  because  the  Jesuits 
'  had  shown  him  golden  hills,  predicting  to  him  that  he 
would  not  only  obtain  the  Julich  territory,  but  also 
Bavaria,  and  possibly  the  Empire  into  the  bargain.' 
In  a  letter  to  the  Pope  he  had  '  declared  on  oath  '  that 
he  would  eradicate  Lutheranism  from  Germany,  that 
he  would  be  '  a  Saul  to  the  Roman  Church,  would  break 
the  Religious  Peace,  aim  at  the  ruin  and  downfall  of 
the  Protestants,'  and  restore  all  bishoprics,  abbeys,  and 
convents.  Thereupon  Paul  V.  had  answered  that  he 
would  '  use  his  utmost  power '  to  influence  all  Catholic 
princes,  and  would  help  him  '  with  intercession,  with 
money  and  men,  and  would  bring  him  to  yet  higher  and 
greater  honour.'  '  For,'  he  wrote,  '  by  means  of  your 
Excellency's  help  and  counsel  great  profit  and  advance- 
ment may  accrue  to  us,  and  the  final  downfall  and 
destruction  of  the  Lutherans  may  be  accomplished.'  ' 
In  another  equally  veracious  news  sheet  ('  New  Tidings '), 
it  was  asserted,  on  the  strength  of  '  the  most  certain 
information,'  that  the  Jesuits  had  already  had  '  10,000 
or  20,000  poisoned  cannon-balls,  daggers  and  so  forth 
prepared,  and  that  with  these  weapons  the  Count 
Palatine  was  to  make  war  on  the  heretics  quite  unex- 
pectedly.' '  For,'  in  the  Consistory  at  Rome,  '  it  had 
been  once  for  all  decided  and  arranged  that  in  a  few 
years  all  heretics,  as  had  already  happened  at  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  must  be  trampled  underfoot  and  barbarously 
extirpated,  and  that  all  their  towns  must  be  demolished 
and  swept  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  just  as  Miihlheim 

1  Newe  Zeitung  oder  bewegliche  Ursachen  und  stattliche  Bedencken, 
durch  welche  Herzog  Wolffgang  Wilhelm  von  Newburg  bewegt  worden,  zu 
dem  romisch  caiholischen  Glauben  zu  tretten  (Basel,  1615),  Bl.  A  lb.  The 
forged  letter  of  the  Count  Palatine  of  June  16,  1614,  is  given  word  for  word, 
Bl.  A  2-A  3  ;  the  answer  of  the  Pope  on  July  4  is  given  at  Bl.  A  3-A  4. 


RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS   AT   AIX-LA-CHAPELLE,   1614      563 

on  the  Rhine  had  been  destroyed  with  wanton  blood- 
shed that  had  filled  the  world  with  horror.'  l 

This  '  barbarous  extirpation  '  of  the  Protestants  in 
Aix-la-Chapelle  had  happened  as  follows  : 

Since  the  Augsburg  Diet  of  1582  there  had  been 
issued,  with  respect  to  the  town  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,2 
numerous  imperial  injunctions  to  the  effect  that  '  the 
old  Catholic  order  of  things  was  to  be  restored,  and  the 
Protestant  councillors  who  had  intruded  themselves 
were  to  be  dismissed.'  After  '  all  the  orders  had  been 
thrown  to  the  wind,'  the  Emperor,  on  June  30,  1598, 
pronounced  the  ban  over  the  town,3  and  the  Protestants 
saw  themselves  reduced  to  submission.  They  were 
obliged  to  renounce  the  open  exercise  of  their  religion, 
and  were  excluded  from  all  municipal  offices.4  It  was 
not  till  the  outbreak  of  the  Jiilich-Cleves  war  of  suc- 
cession, above  all  after  the  conquest  of  the  fortress  of 
Julich,  when  they  had  such  a  strong  military  force  of 
co-religionists  at  hand  to  help  them,  that  they  sum- 
moned up  courage  on  behalf  of  the  dear  evangel. 
'  Then  ' — so  an  eye-witness  narrates — '  they  flocked  on 
Sundays,  fully  armed,  to  distant  places  to  hear  non- 
Catholic  sermons.'  The  council,  fearing  disturbances, 
repeatedly,  but  vainly,  forbade  this  '  flocking  out,'  and 
finally  laid  on  five  disobedient  citizens  the  penalty  '  of 
giving  a  few  pecks  of  rye  to  the  poor.'  On  their  refusing 
to  do  this  the  council  had  them  taken  into  custody  with 

1  Wahrhafftige  newe  erschriickliche  Zeitung  iiber  die  Gifftpraktiken  zu 
Hiilf  des  Pfalzgrafen  Wolfgang  Wilhelm  und  die  im  Werck  befindliche 
Austilgung  aller  Evangelischen  ('  Terrible  true  and  new  tidings  concerning 
the  poison-plots  in  aid  of  Count  Wolfgang  Wilhelm,  and  the  extirpation 
of  the  evangelicals  now  in  course  of  execution  ')  (1615),  Bl.  A  3-B  2. 

2  See  above,  vol.  ix.,  pp.  25-26. 

3  Keller,  Gegenreformation,  ii.  194. 

4  Cf.  Haagen,  Gesch.  Aachens,  p.  183  ff. 

o  o  2 


564  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

a  view  to  expelling  them  from  the  town.     Thereupon 
200   armed   men   banded   together,    proceeded   to   the 
council  house,  and  insisted  on  the  liberation  of  their  co- 
religionists.    Not  content  with  this,  they  called  out  the 
town  mob,  took  possession  of  the  city  gates,  and,  on 
July  6,  broke  into  the  church  and  the  college  of  the 
Jesuits,   smashed   up   the   altars   and   images,   dressed 
themselves  in  priestly  garments,  and  held  a  mock  Mass, 
trampled  the  Hosts  under  foot,  ransacked  everything, 
tore  up  the  books  in  the  library,  wounded  one  of  the 
Fathers,  and  dragged  eight  others  to  the  council  house, 
maltreating  them  seriously  all  the  way  along.     '  Here 
comes  the  Emperor,'  they  bellowed  out,  '  the  Archduke 
Leopold,  the  Antichrist,  the  imperial  Herod.'     Building 
on  the  help  promised  them  by  the  '  Possessionem,'  they 
seized  the  council  house  and  the  arsenal,  and  had  the 
heavy  artillery  taken  to  the  market  place  ;   they  then 
deposed  the  Catholic  council,  and    elected  a  fresh  one 
from  among  their    own    numbers ;    600    Kurbranden- 
burg  and    Pfalz-Neuburg  soldiers    marched   into   Aix- 
la-Chapelle.      Negotiations   for   peace   were   instituted, 
delegates    from    Julich    representing    the    Protestants, 
delegates  from  the  electorate  of  Cologne  and  Flanders 
the  Catholic  side.     But  it  all  came  to  nothing.     The 
Union  decided  in  August,  at  a  meeting  at  Rotenburg, 
to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  Protestants.     On  the  other 
hand,  the  Emperor  ordered  the  allies,   on  October   1, 
under  penalty  of  the  ban,  to  desist  from  the  contemplated 
'  rebellion,'  and  both  in  religious  and  political  matters 
to  restore  all  to  their  former  condition  ;  the  Elector  of 
Cologne  and  Archduke  Albert  of  the  Netherlands  were 
appointed  executors  of  the  imperial  orders.     The  Pro- 
testants, however,  paid  no  heed  to  the  command.     An 


RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS    AT   AIX-LA-CHAPELLE,   1614     565 

imperial  notary,  who  attempted  to  post  it  up  in  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  was  seriously  wounded.1 

After  the  death  of  Rudolf  II.  they  appealed  for 
help  to  the  Count  Palatine  John  of  Zweibriicken  as 
'  temporary  vicar  of  the  Empire,'  and  the  latter  in 
May  1612  issued  through  plenipotentiaries  a  decree  to 
the  effect  that  '  both  parties,  Catholics  and  Protestants, 
were  to  enjoy  public  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  free 
access  to  the  public  offices  which  were  to  be  refilled.' 
Thereupon  the  Protestants  elected  a  Calvinist  and  a 
Lutheran  Burgomaster  and  a  Protestant  council  con- 
sisting of  seventy-six  Calvinists  and  forty  Lutherans. 
The  Catholics  in  their  extremity  addressed  themselves 
to  the  Emperor  Matthias,  who  promised  them  also  to 
examine  most  carefully  into  the  rights  of  the  question, 
and  meanwhile  despatched  plenipotentiaries  in  Decem- 
ber to  enjoin  on  the  newly-elected  Protestant  council, 
'  under  pain  of  his  Majesty's  extremest  disfavour  and 
penalties,'  that  '  they  were  thenceforth  no  more  to 
molest  the  Catholic  citizens  with  words  or  deeds,  not  to 
oppress  them  with  fresh,  unwonted  imposts,  and  not  to 
hinder  or  interfere  with  them  in  any  way  in  their  domestic 
arrangements,  their  trades  and  industries.'  In  May 
1613  the  Emperor  reiterated  the  command  that  '  at 
the  risk  of  incurring  the  imperial  displeasure  and 
irremissible  arbitrary  punishment,  they  must  at  once, 
without   any   parleying   or   delay,  desist   from   all   the 

1  In  a  verdict  of  December  3,  1616,  pronounced  on  Martin  Schmetz 
and  Andreas  Schwarz,  it  says  :  '  They  treated  the  official  employed  to 
post  up  the  imperial  mandate  in  a  manner  highly  disrespectful  to  his 
Imperial  Majesty.  When  he  had  been  already  well-nigh  mortally  wounded 
by  others,  they  marched  him  from  place  to  place  between  weapons  and 
fire-arms,  and  compelled  him  to  tear  down  the  said  imperial  mandate  ' 
(in  Ropp,  p.  250). 


506  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

oppression  that  was  complained  of,   and  all  actually 
penal  proceedings.'     Finding  that  all  commands  were 
fruitless,  Matthias,  on  February  20,  1614,  ratified  the 
sentence  of  Rudolf  II.  of  the  year  1611  ;   but,  at  the 
intercession  of   the   Margrave  Joachim  Ernest  of  Ans- 
bach,  he  postponed  the  execution,  because,   as  Klesl 
wrote,    '  he  still  persisted  in  the  hope  that  at  some 
future  time  a  better  and  more  submissive  spirit  would 
show  itself.'     This  hope  proved  itself  futile.     At  the 
request  of  the  council,  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  in 
July  and  at  the  beginning  of  August,  sent  some  hundreds 
of  men  under   General  von   Putliz  to  join  the  town 
soldiery  ;  the  city  gates  were  occupied  and  partly  walled 
up.     There  was  then   '  no   other   course   open  to   the 
Emperor    but    the    execution    of    his    sentence.'     The 
Elector  of  Cologne  and  Archduke  Albert  of  the  Nether- 
lands, who  were  commissioned  to  enforce  the  penalty, 
had  posted  up  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  on  August  23,  the 
imperial  decision  that  everything  was  to  be  restored  to 
the  same  condition  as  before  the  disturbance  of  July  5, 
1611.     At  the  command  of  Albert,  General  Ambrosius 
Spinola  had  equipped  himself  with  an  army  of  16,000 
men.     While  he  was  drawing  near,  overtures  for  con- 
ciliatory measures  were  made  by  the  plenipotentiaries 
of  the  two  princes  :   '  Whereas,  however,  they  found 
that  the  non-Catholics  were  quite   obstinate  in  their 
determination,  so  much  so  that  they  '  (the  plenipoten- 
tiaries)   '  were  almost  maltreated  in   the  street,  they 
gave  orders  to  go  on  with  the  siege,  and  to  carry  out 
the   sentence   of  punishment.'     Scarcely  had  the   for- 
midable   army    appeared    before    the    walls    than    the 
Protestants    lost    courage.     They    sent    a    deputation, 
headed  by  a  papal  nuncio,  to  beg  Spinola  to  spare  the 


EELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS    AT   AIX-LA-CHAPELLE,    1614     567 

town  and  to  promise  full  surrender.  On  August  26 
they  opened  the  gates  to  Spinola.  The  Brandenburg 
garrison  was  allowed  to  pass  out  with  flying  banners. 
The  Catholic  council  was  reinstated,  and  on  September 
10  issued  the  order  that '  within  three  days  the  preachers 
were  to  abandon  the  town,  and  within  six  weeks  all  the 
Anabaptists  and  all  the  alien  intruders  who  had  not  yet 
acquired  the  right  of  citizenship  ;  none  but  Catholic 
schools  and  schoolmasters  were  in  future  to  be  tolerated  ; 
heretical  books  were  not  to  be  sold  in  the  town  ;  no 
dishes  made  of  meat  were  to  be  eaten  in  inns  on  the 
fast  days  ;  at  the  public  processions  fitting  homage  was 
to  be  paid  to  the  Holy  Sacrament  and  the  relics.'  l 

Such  was  the  nature  of  the  so-called  '  barbarous 
extirpation  '  of  the  '  innocent  evangelicals  '  of  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  who,  as  that  '  veritable  new  tiding '  of  the 
year  1615  reported,  '  had  always  been  bent  solely  on 
peace  and  Christian  unity,  and  had  in  no  way  molested 
or  injured  the  Catholics.'  2 

'  The  melancholy  example  of  the  ancient  imperial 
city  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  afforded  sufficient  evidence  ' — so 
said  a  Calvinistic  pamphlet  that  went  through  numerous 
reprints — '  that  everywhere  the  extinction  of  the  evan- 
gelical light  was  being  aimed  at.'     It  was  incumbent, 

1  Fuller  details  in  Ropp,  pp.  217-247  ;  Meyer,  Aachensche  Gesch.  pp. 
548-588  ;  '  Der  Brief  Klesls,'  in  Hammer,  iii.  ;  Urlcundenbd.  pp.  138-139  ; 
cf.  Haagen,  pp.  207-231. 

2  Wahrhafftige  newe  Zeitung  (see  above,  p.  563,  note  1),  B  3.  Matthias, 
in  his  declaration  of  the  ban,  had  reserved  to  himself  the  punishment  of 
the  disturbers  of  peace.  In  the  year  1616  these  men  were  called  to  account 
by  imperial  sub-delegates.  Two  ringleaders  were  executed  ;  more  than  a 
hundred  who  had  taken  part  in  the  storming  of  the  council  house,  the 
maltreatment  of  the  imperial  notary,  the  forcible  appropriation  of  the 
town  keys  and  the  arsenal,  and  so  forth,  were  sent  into  exile  ;  many  others 
were  sentenced  to  the  payment  of  money  fines  (Meyer,  p.  583  ff.  ;  Haagen, 
p.  231  ff.). 


568  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

therefore, '  on  all  pious  Christians  to  examine  themselves, 
to  pluck  up  undaunted  hearts  and  valiant  spirits,  and 
to  make  willing  surrender  of  life  and  property  for 
the  defence  of  their  wives  and  children  and  their  dear 
Fatherland  against  such  barbarous  tyrants,  murderers, 
and  depredators,  to  repulse  the  violence  of  these  latter, 
and  to  stake  their  last  drops  of  blood  for  their  own  and 
the  general  welfare.'  They  ought  '  far  rather  to  wish 
to  perish  with  honour  than  from  timidity  and  unseemly 
terror,  put  themselves  in  subjection  to  these  enemies, 
and  fall  into  their  hands  and  power.'  l 

In  addition  to  this  there  was  the  '  very  melancholy 
example  of  Muhlhausen,'  from  which  it  was  obvious  that 
'  all  evangelical  towns  were  to  be  rooted  out  of  the 
earth.' 

On  August  26,  1610,  a  few  days  after  the  seizure  of 
the  fortress  of  Jiilich,  the  princes  of  Brandenburg  and 
Neuburg  had  addressed  to  the  council  at  Cologne  the 
injunction  that  they  were  not  only  to  recognise  them 
both  as  the  rightful  heirs  of  the  Jiilich  lands,  but  also 
to  accept  them  as  the  protectors  of  the  town,  to  allow 
them  to  pass  in  and  out  unhindered  by  day  and  by 
night,  and  to  send  them,  at  the  expense  of  the  town, 
500  infantry  and  1,000  cavalry.  Further,  the  council 
was  to  recall  all  the  Protestants  who  had  been  banished, 
and  to  compensate  them  for  all  damages,  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  under  pain  of  punishment,  they  were  to 
expel  the  Jesuits  within  eight  or  ten  days.2  Since  then 
the  council  had  watched  all  the  measures  of  the  '  Pos- 
sessionem '  with  not  unwarrantable  suspicions,  and  had 
felt  the  greatest  alarm  when  the  latter,  in  1612,  formed 

1  Kurzer  Bericht  wider  die  Spanier,  see  v.  Friedberg,  pp.  43-44. 

2  Soden,  Kriegs-  und  Sittengesch.  i.  96. 


MUHLHEIM   AS   EVANGELICAL   BULWARK  569 

the  plan  of  converting  the  opposite  district  of  Miihl- 
heim  into  a  strongly  fortified  place,  and  of  raising  it  to 
a  commercial  centre  of  the  first  rank,  with  the  obvious 
intention  of  waging  a  war  of  extermination  against  the 
papistical  town  of  Cologne  from  this  '  evangelical 
stronghold.'  Immense  ramparts,  walls,  and  eleven 
bastions  were  to  be  erected  in  Muhlheim  ;  three  new 
churches,  several  schools,  and  an  exchange  were  to  be 
built,  and  two  market  places  established  ;  so  long  as 
the  princes  remained  united,  nearly  1,000  workmen, 
mostly  forced  to  give  their  labour  by  surrounding 
administrations,  were  employed  in  the  building  opera- 
tions. The  council  of  Cologne  entered  a  protest  against 
these  '  unlawful '  proceedings,  and  addressed  a  com- 
plaint to  the  Emperor,  appealing  to  the  ancient  privileges 
of  Cologne,  and  to  old  deeds  of  heritage  with  the  Julich 
princes.  At  the  beginning  of  July  1612,  the  Council 
prevailed  on  the  Emperor  to  issue  an  order  enjoining  the 
'  Possessionem,'  under  penalty  of  payment  of  100  marks, 
to  desist  from  their  building  and  to  pull  down  what 
had  already  been  erected. 

But  these  princes  replied  that  it  was  by  no  means 
their  intention  to  erect  a  fortress  ;  only  '  out  of  most 
urgent,  indispensable  need  had  this  work  of  building 
been  undertaken,'  solely  '  to  prevent  the  complete 
annihilation  of  these  lands  ;  and  for  the  safety  of  the 
Prince's  life,  state,  and  name,'  had  they  employed  a 
means  of  defence  permitted  by  the  law  of  all  nations. 
In  spite  of  a  renewed  imperial  penal  edict,  the  building 
works  were  carried  on  vigorously,  and  in  the  summer  of 
1613  Muhlheim  counted  one  hundred  new  houses.  Then 
Matthias,  '  for  the  maintenance  of  imperial  authority,' 
ordered  the  destruction  of  the  town,  and  appointed  the 


570  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Elector  of  Cologne  and  the  Archduke  Albert  as  his 
plenipotentiaries  in  the  execution  of  the  work.  The 
Count  Palatine  Wolfgang  Wilhelm,  completely  at 
rupture  with  Brandenburg,  recalled  his  workmen  from 
Miihlheim,  and,  in  token  of  his  own  submission,  caused  a 
wide  breach  to  be  made  in  the  wall.  The  electoral 
Prince  of  Brandenburg,  however,  gave  orders  that  the 
hole  was  to  be  filled  up,  and  encouraged  the  workmen 
to  proceed  with  their  building,  till  at  last  Spinola, 
coming  up  from  Aix-la-Chapelle,  caused  the  walls  to 
be  pulled  down  and  the  houses  demolished  by  Spanish 
troops  and  Cologne  workmen.1 

At  the  time  when  Spinola  had  set  his  army  in  move- 
ment against  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Prince  Maurice  of  Orange 
had  invaded  the  Cleves  territory  with  a  Dutch  army. 
In  order  to  prevent  his  further  advance,  Spinola,  at  the 
beginning  of  September,  had  seized  the  towns  of  Rhein- 
berg  and  Duisburg  and  the  fortress  of  Wesel,  while 
Maurice  was  erecting  fresh  works  of  fortification  at 
Emmerich  and  Rees,  and  strengthening  the  garrison  at 
Jiilich. 

Over  against  the  complaints  of  the  allies  about  the 
Archduke  Albert's  troops  being  quartered  there,  the 
perfectly  legitimate  question  was  asked  on  the  Catho- 
lic side  :  '  Who  first  brought  the  foreigners  into  the 
Empire  ?  '  When  Rudolf  II.,  it  says  in  a  '  memoran- 
dum '  of  the  year  1616,  owing  to  fear  of  an  insurrection, 
put  the  Cleves  territory  under  sequestration,  took 
possession  of  the  fortress  of  Jiilich,  and  placed  before 
the  claimants  the  way  of  judicial  proceedings,  the 
corresponding  princes  began  enlisting  troops,  summoned 
Frenchmen,  Englishmen,   Scotchmen,   and  Dutch  into 

1  Ennen,  Gesch.  der  Stadt  Koln,  v.  550-565. 


RISING   AT   FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN  571 

the  Empire,  seized  Jlilich  by  violence,  and  preferred  to 
have  foreign  kings  for  their  arbiters  rather  than  the 
Emperor ;  '  and  over  all  this  they  rejoice  and  triumph 
as  though  they  had  performed  admirable  deeds.'  When, 
however,  in  1614  the  Archduke  Albert,  by  imperial 
order,  executed  the  penal  verdict  against  the  rebellious 
citizens  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  pulled  down  the  new  build- 
ings of  the  Miihlheim  fortress,  marched  with  a  victorious 
army  against  the  Dutch  who  had  already  established 
themselves  in  Julich,  and  contemplated  conquering  the 
whole  country,  and  brought  Wesel,  Diiren,  and  a  few 
other  places  under  the  power  of  the  Emperor,  pending 
the  issue  of  the  contest,  then  the  corresponding  princes 
accused  the  Archduke  of  having  committed  unlawful 
attempts,  and  of  having  brought  foreign  soldiers  into 
the  land ;  '  even  at  the  present  day  they  demand, 
menacingly,  compensation  and  restitution.'  '  They 
have  called  in  foreigners  against  the  Emperor ;  the 
Emperor  summons  an  imperial  prince,  his  own  brother 
in  the  flesh,  to  oppose  resistance  to  the  foreigners,  and 
this,  forsooth,  seems  unjust  and  intolerable  to  the  cor- 
responding princes,  the  other  proceeding,  however, 
holy  and  laudable.'  1 

The  agitation  which  the  proceedings  at  Aix-la- 
Chapelle  and  Miihlheim  had  provoked  was  further 
aggravated  by  a  tumult  which  had  broken  out  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  which  caused  '  serious  alarm  in 
the  whole  Rhine  district.' 

In  Frankfort  the  entire  municipal  government  lay 
in  the  hands  of  a  few  patrician  families  who  posed  as 
'  Regents,'  and  treated  the  free  imperial  burghers  as 
subjects.     Justice  was  administered  at  their  arbitrary 

1  In  Liinig,  Staatsconsilia,  i.  929. 


572  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

pleasure,  and  in  the  management  of  finance  the  most 
flagrant  abuses  were  current.  The  councillors — so  the 
burghers  complained — were  in  the  same  boat  with  the 
usurious  Jews  ;  the  latter,  barely  2,000  in  number,  had 
command  of  the  bulk  of  ready  money ;  the  Christian 
population,  on  the  other  hand,  were  obliged  to  pay 
forty  or  sixty,  or  sometimes  even  100  per  cent,  for 
money  loans,  and  they  grew  visibly  poorer  and  poorer. 
When  the  Emperor  Matthias  was  elected  and  crowned 
in  1612,  '  the  city  guilds  and  the  burghers  of  Frankfort 
and  Sachsenhausen,'  when  proffering  their  homage, 
handed  him  a  petition  in  which  it  was  complained  that 
'  the  Jews,  who  are  in  league  with  the  council,  live  on 
the  flesh  and  blood  of  the  burghers,  and  get  all  the 
money  into  their  own  hands.'  '  We,  however,'  the 
petition  went  on,  '  do  never  doubt  but  that  your  Imperial 
Majesty  will  incline  your  paternal  heart  most  graciously 
towards  us,  that  you  will  extend  to  us  the  rights  of 
children,  and  will  not  suffer  that  we  burghers  should 
be  devoured  by  strangers,  we  freemen  by  bondsmen, 
and  that  we  should  be  driven  out  of  house  and  home, 
away  from  wife  and  children,  and  brought  into  poverty, 
need,  and  bond-service  by  such  an  accursed  people 
which  survives  as  an  everlasting  witness  of  crime  and 
of  the  murder  of  the  Lord  Jesus.'  The  council,  to 
whom  Matthias  handed  over  this  petition  for  their 
report  on  it,  replied  to  the  effect  that  the  complaints  of 
the  burghers  were  unfounded,  and  called  on  the  Emperor 
to  inflict  punishment  on  them. 

Thereupon  there  ensued  a  rising  in  Frankfort,  in 
which  all  the  villages  of  the  district  took  part.  '  Now 
there  is  freedom,'  was  the  general  cry,  '  there  is  no 
longer  any  authority.'     At  the  head  of  the  insurgents 


RISING   AT   FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIX  573 

was  the  confectioner  Vincent  Fettmilch,  of  the  reformed 
religion,  who  had  migrated  from  Hesse,  and  who 
'  had  long  been  exasperated  at  the  tyrannical  yoke 
which  oppressed  his  co-religionists  in  Frankfort.'  The 
Calvinists,  for  the  most  part  immigrants  from  the 
Netherlands,  were  in  perpetual  conflict  with  the  Lutheran 
preachers,  and,  '  in  spite  of  reiterated  supplicatory 
entreaties  from  the  council,  they  had  not  been  able  to 
obtain  any  freedom  of  religious  worship.  This  grievance 
was  now  to  be  set  right,  and,  together  with  the  urgently 
needed  civic  reforms,  the  equality  of  the  Reformed  re- 
ligionists and  the  Calvinists  was  to  be  established,  and 
the  latter  were  henceforward  always  to  be  admitted  to  the 
council  and  the  civic  offices.'  Fettmilch,  a  bold  and  reso- 
lute demagogue,  '  was  determined,  in  short,  not  to  budge 
an  inch,  and,'  as  he  said  in  August  1614  to  a  delegate  of 
the  Elector  of  Mayence,  '  meant  also  to  be  in  the  thick 
of  it,  if,  elsewhere  than  in  Frankfort,  the  working 
people  and  the  artisans  rose  up  against  the  tyrants  and 
blood-suckers  in  the  Empire.'  To  this  end  he  and  his 
friends  '  had  already  laid  good  trains,  and  the  Dutch 
too  would  promptly  coalesce  with  them,  as  soon  as  it 
was  necessary  and  the  enterprise  was  ripe.  Therefore 
they  must  proceed  quietly  and  without  boasting,  for 
it  was  patent  to  the  world  how  miserably  the  labouring 
classes  were  everywhere  oppressed  and  fleeced  ;  and  it 
was  quite  likely  that  in  the  Empire,  as  in  the  Nether- 
lands and  in  Switzerland,  government  by  the  people 
and  republicanism  would  set  in.'  l 

Fettmilch  and  the  insurrection  party  were  joined 
by  all  the  numerous  foreign  journeymen  employed  in 
Frankfort,  who  always  took  the  most  active  part  in  all 

1  Bericht  von  Karl  Heinrich  Feyerabend  vom  12.  August,  lGUh 


574  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

risings  and  disturbances  of  any  sort.  They  were  '  the 
most  numerous  and  the  most  zealous  of  the  insurgents, 
when  the  onslaught  was  made  on  the  godless  Jews  and 
rascally  usurers,'  and  the  '  Judengasse '  was  stormed  and 
plundered  on  August  22,  1614.1 

The  Elector  of  Mayence  and  the  Landgrave  of 
Hesse -Darmstadt  wrote  repeatedly  to  the  Emperor, 
warning  him  solemnly  of  the  great  danger  to  which  the 
whole  Empire,  and  especially  the  Rhine  district,  would  be 
exposed,  if  the  insurrection  in  Frankfort  was  not  quickly 
put  down,  the  populace,  grown  turbulent  with  all  the 
anarchy  of  the  times,  restored  to  calm,  and  commerce 
and  traffic  replaced  on  their  usual  footing  at  the  fairs. 
When,  however,  imperial  officials  made  their  appearance 
at  Frankfort,  and  proceeded  to  re-establish  justice  and 
order,  they  were  subjected  to  ignominy  of  all  sorts. 
An  edict  of  the  Emperor,  bearing  the  imperial  signature, 
which  was  posted  up  on  walls,  was  partly  torn  down, 
and  an  imperial  herald  was  threatened  with  death.  It 
was  only  with  the  greatest  difficulty,  and  after  Fett- 
milch  had  been  imprisoned  by  sentence  of  the  Emperor, 
that  the  tumult  was  gradually  allayed.  The  ring- 
leaders, seven  in  number,  were  executed.2 

During  the  insurrection  at  Frankfort,  serious  dis- 
turbances had  also  broken  out  in  Worms  on  account  of 
'  the   usurious  Jews,'   of  whom  it  was  said  that   '  at 

1  The  Jews  were  compelled  to  leave  the  town.  '  The  number  of  them, 
young  and  old,  that  was  counted  as  they  went  out  of  the  gates  was  1,380  ' 
(Drugulin,  p.  112,  No.  1277  ;  cf.  1278  and  1279).  It  was  not  till  February 
1616  that  the  Jews  returned,  when  they  did  so  by  imperial  mandate. 

2  Fuller  details  concerning  the  insurrection  and  its  consequences  in 
Kriegk,  Oesch.  von  Frankfurt,  pp.  237-417  ;  Sauerland,  in  the  Korrespon- 
denzblatt  der  W estdeutschen  Zeitschr.  fiir  Oesch.  und  Kunst,  9  (1890), 
No.  9,  p.  222  ff.,  draws  attention  to  a  MS.  with  documents  on  the  Fett- 
milch  insurrection,  in  the  Treves  Library. 


DISTURBANCES   IN   WORMS  575 

Worms,  precisely  as  in  Frankfort,  they  were  favoured 
by  one  section  of  the  council,  and  protected  and  patro- 
nised to  the  extreme  detriment  of  all  honourable  Christian 
people.'  On  October  1,  1614,  the  whole  body  of  citizens 
had  obtained  from  the  Imperial  Chamber  a  stringent 
order  to  the  effect  that  the  council  was  to  suppress  the 
unlawful  usury  of  the  Jews  ;  the  latter  were  hence- 
forth not  to  take  more  than  5  per  cent,  interest,  and 
were  to  square  accounts  with  the  burghers  in  respect  of 
all  the  excess  of  interest  which  they  had  exacted  hither- 
to. Whereas  '  no  result  followed  all  the  same,'  the 
burghers  formed  a  committee,  banded  together,  and  on 
April  10,  1615,  drove  the  Jews  out  of  the  town,  and 
destroyed  their  synagogue  and  burying -ground,  for,  they 
said,  '  all  memory  of  the  Jewish  idolatry  must  be  rooted 
out.'  The  council  was  powerless  against  the  insurgents, 
and  was  obliged  to  obtain  help  from  the  Palatine 
Elector,  who,  on  April  25,  sent  4,000  men  with  six 
cannons  and  other  military  apparatus  to  Worms  to 
restore  order.1  '  The  princes  and  the  mighty  ones,'  it 
says  in  a  leaflet,  '  are  for  the  most  part  friends,  and 
as  it  were  house-comrades  of  the  blasphemous  Jews,  and 
things  will  not  be  altered  in  this  respect  until  the  mighty 
ones  themselves  have  been  involved  and  swallowed  up 
by  a  great  war,  such  as  indeed  seems  to  stand  at  the 
door  by  the  judgment  of  God.'  "2 

More  threatening  even  than  the  complications  on 
the  Rhine  was  a  war-flame  which  flickered  up  in  the 
duchy  of  Brunswick,  and  '  which  might  easily  have 
developed  into  a  great  universal  war  in  the  Empire.' 

1  Senkenberg,  24,  37-44. 

2  Gerechte  Strafe  gegen  die  wuclierische  J udenschaft  in  Worms.    Einblatt- 
druck,  1617. 


576  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

The  town  of  Brunswick  had  been  for  years  past 
at  strife  with  the  dukes,  and  had  fallen  under  the 
imperial  ban.  It  had  also  refused  the  customary 
homage  to  the  Duke  Frederick  Ulrich,  who  had  succeeded 
his  father,  Henry  Julius,  in  the  summer  of  1613.  Inside 
the  town  '  the  factions  raged  against  each  other ;  ' 
in  the  year  1614  '  the  burghers,  smarting  under  lengthy 
persecution  and  manifold  oppression,  revolted  against 
their  council  and  government.'  The  ducal  councillors 
in  Wolfenbiittel  fomented  the  rebellion ;  '  they  gave 
the  common  people  great  encouragement,  told  them 
that  they  had  been  treated  shamefully  by  their  town 
council,  and  reduced  to  the  utmost  need  ;  they  had  no 
food  and  were  obliged  to  pay  cruelly  heavy  taxes. 
For  this  reason  the  community,  they  said,  should 
separate  itself  from  the  council  and  conclude  a  treaty 
with  the  Duke.'  Whereas  the  council  was  negotiating 
a  league  with  the  Calvinistic  States- General,  the 
preachers  declaimed  from  the  pulpits  that  '  they 
wanted  to  bring  a  new  religion  and  a  new  nation  into 
the  town.'  The  burghers  elected  a  committee  of  100 
persons  and  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  Duke  ; 
all  to  no  purpose,  however.  In  the  summer  of  1615 
Frederick  Ulrich  encamped  before  the  town  with  a 
powerful  army  and  demanded  entire  submission.  But 
the  so-called  '  corresponding  Hanseatic  towns,'  Liibeck, 
Bremen,  Hamburg,  Magdeburg  and  Liineburg,  hastened 
to  the  help  of  the  besieged  town,  while  the  Duke  obtained 
assistance  from  King  Christian  IV.  of  Denmark.  At 
the  instigation  of  the  Hanseatic  towns  the  States- 
General  directed  Prince  Henry  of  Nassau  to  march 
into  the  Brunswick  territory  with  thirty-two  com- 
panies   of    cavalry    and    4,000    infantry.     When    the 


KING    OF   DENMARK    AND   THE    HANSEATIC   TOWNS      577 

ambassadors  of  the  States  pointed  out  on  November  3 
that  the  Prince  had  already  entered  the  County  of 
Ravenberg  with  the  kernel  of  the  people,  under  the 
best  captains,  '  we  were  manifestly  delighted,'  wrote 
the  burgomaster  Brockes  of  Liibeck,  '  with  such  good 
news,'  and  this  tidings  also  caused  great  rejoicing  in 
Hamburg  among  the  common  people  and  in  the  Ex- 
change— '  more  so  indeed  than  if  many  new  ships  and 
consignments  of  goods  had  come  into  port.'  As  for 
the  King  of  Denmark,  on  the  other  hand,  '  tears  rolled 
down  his  cheeks  '  at  the  news  of  the  arrival  of  the 
Dutch,  and  he  made  ready  to  withdraw.  Frederic 
Ulrich  expressed  himself  as  follows  :  '  The  towns  are 
plotting  to  ruin  one  prince  after  another  and  to  establish 
another  Switzerland  ;  therefore  it  is  high  time  for  the 
princes  to  pull  themselves  together  and  to  prevent 
this  issue.'  His  call  for  help,  however,  fell  everywhere 
on  deaf  ears.  The  Landgrave  Maurice  of  Hesse  advised 
him  to  give  in,  lest  '  by  the  continuance  of  this  discord 
other  princes,  foreign  ones  especially,  should  be  drawn 
in,  and  the  whole  neighbourhood — if  not  the  whole 
Empire — be  plunged  into  war.'  '  Throughout  the 
whole  war,'  chuckled  Brockes  the  burgomaster,  '  it 
was  plainly  seen  how  little  a  prince  in  his  extremity 
can  rely  on  his  blood  relations  and  connections  by 
marriage.'  The  Duke  of  Brunswick  was  related  to, 
and  matrimonially  connected  with,  nearly  all  the 
evangelical  kings  and  princes,  '  but  not  one  of  them 
would  take  much  interest  in  the  matter,  especially 
when  the  danger  became  greater  and  the  might  of  the 
towns  rose  up  on  its  legs.'  What  the  King  of  Den- 
mark did  was  not  so  much  for  the^sake  of  the  Duke 
as  from  hatred  against  the  towns  and  on  account 
vol.  x.  p  p 


578  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

of  his  own  interest  in  the  hope  that  the  conquest  of 
the  town  of  Brunswick  would  enable  him  afterwards 
to  have  his  own  way  more  with  Liibeek  and  other 
towns.' 

It  was  not,  however,  the  might  of  the  German 
towns,  but  the  arrival  of  the  Dutch  troops  that  obliged 
the  Duke  to  raise  the  siege,  which  had  already  cost 
him  10,000  men.  He  was  compelled  to  make  a  very 
disadvantageous  treaty  with  the  town.  '  The  Dutch,' 
wrote  Caspar  Schoppe,  '  might  in  truth  boast  that 
they  were  already  as  good  as  chief  rulers  and  masters 
on  the  Rhine  and  in  the  north  of  the  Empire ; 
Hansa  was  practically  impotent  without  the  will 
of  the  worshipful  States- General.'  At  the  meetings  of 
the  Hansa — so  Brookes  relates — '  the  ambassadors  of 
the  lords  of  the  States  always  took  first  rank.' 

After  the  Brunswick  affair  had  been  settled,  most 
of  the  Hanseatic  towns,  despite  all  the  Emperor's 
admonitions,  entered,  in  December  1615,  into  a  league 
with  the  States-General,  through  which  they  obtained 
'  temporary  succour  against  Denmark.'  * 

Christian  IV.  had  wanted  these  towns  to  be  no 
more  than  '  a  dependency  '  on  his  State  ;  he  had  bur- 
dened their  trade  with  intolerable  taxes,  and,  as  Brockes 
complained  in  1612,  '  had  prescribed  to  them,  as  lord 
and  sovereign  of  the  sea,  on  what  terms  they  were 
to  carry  on  navigation  in  the  East  and  North  Seas.' 
When  the  Emperor  had  informed  him  threateningly, 
in  1613,  that  he  could  no  longer  overlook  the  Danish 
acts  of  violence  against  Liibeek,  for  '  the  East  Sea 
was    undoubtedlv    subject    to    the    German    Empire,' 

1  Klopp,  i.  198.     Liibeek  had  already  concluded  an  alliance  with  the 
States-General  in  May  1613  ;  see  loc.  cit.  197. 


THE    KING   OF   DENMARK'S   PLANS  579 

Christian  had  answered  that  '  not  the  Empire,  but 
Denmark,  had  at  all  times  exercised  authority  over 
the  East  Sea.'  When  the  Hanseatic  towns  in  the 
following  year  complained,  through  a  deputation  to 
Copenhagen,  of  the  molestation  of  their  house  of  busi- 
ness in  Bergen,  they  received  the  simple  answer  :  '  The 
King  has  the  right  to  confiscate  entirely  all  their  esta- 
blishments and  counting-houses.'  In  the  year  1615 
Christian  wrote  to  James  I.  of  England  that  '  on  the 
strength  of  royal  plenary  power  he  had  abolished 
the  earlier  liberties  of  the  Hanseatic  towns  and  that 
he  no  longer  acknowledged  them  any  right  of  com- 
merce in  his  kingdom.'  '  In  these  days  when  every- 
body grabs  with  impunity  whatever  he  can  get,'  he 
said  once  at  table  at  Wolfenbiittel,  '  Denmark  also 
must  look  out  for  its  own  advantage.' 

In  fulfilment  of  this  object,  he  bethought  him 
first  of  all  of  taking  possession  of  the  archbishopric 
of  Bremen,  and  he  soon  began  to  set  all  levers  in  move- 
ment in  order  to  establish  his  son  there  as  coadjutor 
and  successor  of  the  Protestant  archbishop.  At  the 
imperial  court  he  alleged,  in  palliation  of  his  scheme, 
that  the  Calvinists  wanted  to  get  hold  of  the  arch- 
bishopric for  themselves  and  to  turn  out  the  Augsburg 
Confessionists.  To  the  Calvinistic  States- General,  on 
the  other  hand,  from  whom  also  he  hoped  to  get  help, 
he  pleaded  that  '  the  Spaniards  and  the  papists,  to 
the  detriment  of  the  evangelicals,  were  aiming  with 
all  their  might  at  getting  all  the  bishoprics  in  Germany 
into  their  own  possession.'  In  Bremen  he  was  reported 
to  have  said  that  '  he  did  not  set  so  much  store  by  the 
parsonages  and  bishoprics  as  by  the  rivers  Weser  and 
Elbe    and    the    towns    on    their    banks.'      He    beo-an 

o 
p  r  2 


580  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

'  recruiting  cavalry  and  infantry  on  a  large  scale,'  de- 
sisted, however,  temporarily  from  the  undertaking  on 
receiving  news  of  the  preparations  of  the  corresponding 
Hanseatic  towns,  and  the  intention  of  the  States- General 
to  defend  Bremen  against  him.  ' 

'It  is  a  notorious  fact,'  the  Emperor  impressed 
on  the  imperial  Estates  on  March  21,  1616,  '  how 
enormously  the  arrogance  of  the  States  has  increased 
since  their  seizure  of  the  imperial  seaport  at  Emden  ; 
they  are  everlastingly  committing  acts  of  violence  and 
depredation  in  the  Empire,  witness  the  aggression  on 
the  archbishoprics  and  bishoprics  of  Cologne,  Miinster, 
Paderborn,  and  Hildesheim,  in  the  principalities  of 
Julich,  Cleves,  and  Berg,  in  the  counties  and  lordships 
of  Mors,  Eavensberg,  and  elsewhere.  By  this  means 
the  States -General  have  gained  possession  of  the 
principal  passes  on  the  Rhine,  the  Meuse,  the  Ems 
and  the  Weser,  and,  through  the  new  league  with  the 
Hanseatic  towns,  of  those  also  on  the  Elbe  and  the 
Oder — practically,  therefore,  all  the  passes  in  the 
Empire — and  they  now  intend  gradually  to  approach 
the  heart  of  the  Empire.  Only  lately,  under  pretext 
of  obtaining  help  for  the  town  of  Brunswick,  they 
brought  serious  losses  on  the  obedient  Estates  of  the 
realm  by  marching  through  their  lands  and  levy- 
ing contributions,  and  in  the  Julich  territory  they  cap- 
tured several  places  anew.'  And,  not  content  with  all 
this,  they  are  stirring  up  the  Sultan  to  fresh  acts  of 
warfare.2 

1  The  matter  is  dealt  with  by  Brockes,  ii.  34,  284,  288-294,  367,  414- 
415,  417^420,  422  ;  Braunschweigische  Handel  (1616),  pp.  8,  11  ;  Senken- 
berg,  xxiii.  666-667,  and  xxiv.  81. 

2  Archivium  Unito-Protestantium,  pp.  42-43  ;  cf.  Klesl's  Gutachten  of 
March  3,  1616,  in  Hammer,  iii.  ;  Urkundenbd.  p.  366  ff. 


STATES-GENERAL   AS   '  RULERS   IN   THE    EMPIRE '      581 

The  States-General  might  indeed  regard  themselves 
as  the  '  principal  rulers  '  in  the  Empire.  In  order  to 
introduce  '  government  by  the  people  '  they  associated 
themselves  with  every  movement  which  involved 
resistance  to  princely  power.  '  What  sort  of  a  busi- 
ness have  you  Netherlander  in  hand,'  asks  the  author 
of  the  b  Discordista,'  '  that  you  have  thus  fought 
against  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  and  why  did  you  stand 
by  the  town  rather  than  by  him  ?  Why,  he  is  con- 
nected by  marriage  with  the  Brandenburgers,  your 
own  confederates.  There  is  no  question  of  religion 
in  this  contest,  for  nowhere  else  are  the  Calvinists  more 
hated  than  in  the  town  of  Brunswick.  What  other 
reason,  then,  can  you  give,  but  hatred  of  princely 
rule  and  love  of  popular  government  ?  Furthermore, 
Magdeburg  has  been  received  into  your  League.  I 
should  much  like  to  know  why  a  town  so  far  removed 
from  you  should  want  to  join  your  Union  ?  I  know 
the  only  answer  you  can  give :  namely,  that  you  are 
fighting  for  all  the  towns  against  all  the  princes,  and 
you  do  not  consider  the  cause  of  the  war  but  only  the 
nature  of  the  combatants.'  ' 

Even  on  the  part  of  the  Union  great  anxiety  arose 
respecting  the  plans  of  the  States-General.  '  A  dis- 
tinguished South  German  Prince  ' — probably  the  Duke 
of  Wurtemberg — at  the  beginning  of  December,  uttered 
a  very  urgent  warning  in  a  letter  to  a  Brandenburg 
councillor,  against  forming  '  too  close  and  intimate 
an  alliance  '  with  the  States,  who  were  not  concerned 
about  the  cause  of  religion,  but  only  about  dominion 

1  Discordi&ta,  sive  secundus  Scioppius,  &c. ;  cf.  Haagen,  Zur  politischen 
Oesch.  Deutschlands,  pp.  309-311. 


582  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  rule.  Even  if,  with  the  help  of  the  latter,  they 
should  succeed  in  eradicating  the  papist  Estates  from 
the  Empire  and  transferring  their  territories  bodily 
into  the  hands  of  the  Unionists,  the  best  places  would 
nevertheless  still  remain  in  the  possession  of  the  Nether- 
landers,  who  would  then  want  to  deprive  the  secular 
princes  also  of  their  lands.  For  the  States- General 
were  bent  on  establishing  democratic  government 
everywhere,  and  in  these  their  endeavours  they  found 
plentiful  help  and  support  in  the  Empire  itself.  In 
the  Palatinate  and  in  some  of  the  imperial  cities  there 
were  numbers  of  immigrants  from  France,  Holland, 
Scotland,  England,  and  so  forth,  who  were  in  constant 
alliance  with  the  Netherlands,  and  who  would  afford 
the  States  guidance  and  succour  to  carry  out  their 
plans  whenever  they  should  come  into  the  Empire. 
'  If  there  are  any  who  will  not  believe  this,  let  them 
remember  the  Frankfort  and  Worms  rebellion,  which 
was  not  only  plotted  and  started  by  the  Dutch,  but 
also  kept  going  by  them  so  long  that  it  was  a  work 
of  immense  trouble  and  labour,  and  one  that  required 
years  for  its  accomplishment,  to  restore  the  disturbed 
conditions  to  some  sort  of  order ;  '  by  many  people, 
indeed,  a  fresh  outbreak  of  the  fire  is  greatly  feared. 
Moreover,  the  States  were  already  in  league  with  the 
Hanseatic  towns,  and  how  much  trouble  could  be 
raised  by  a  single  one  of  these  towns  was  shown  by 
the  proceedings  at  Brunswick.  '  A  third  circumstance 
in  favour  of  the  States -General  is  the  general  intention 
of  all  the  imperial  cities,  if  not  of  the  senates,  at  any 
rate  of  all  the  citizens,  who  have  no  other  aim  than 
to  establish    a  universal   democracy  and    to  clear  out 


PLANS   OF   THE    UNION  583 

of  the  way  all  obstacles  opposed  to  this  end.'  For 
this  purpose  an  alliance  with  the  like-minded  Nether- 
landers  would  afford  the  most  eligible  opportunity. 
And  over  and  above  the  fact  that  some  of  the  princes 
and  lords  owed  debts  and  mortgages  to  the  towns, 
the  state  of  the  princely  treasuries  was  known  to  the 
towns,  '  so  that  they  had  all  the  less  cause  to  fear  the 
power  of  the  princes.'  If,  however,  the  States-General, 
the  Hanseatic  towns,  and  the  imperial  cities  were  to 
join  their  forces  and  attack  the  princes  and  counts, 
who  would  be  able  to  resist  them,  more  especially 
if  the  possessions  of  the  clergy  were  in  the  hands  of 
the  States  ?  If  innovations  of  this  sort  were  to  come 
about  in  the  Empire,  the  country  folk  and  the  common 
people  would  readily  hail  them  gladly,  for  they  were 
indeed  eager  for  such  changes,  and  hoped  by  means 
of  them  to  obtain  their  freedom.  The  country  folk, 
long  hard-pressed  with  all  sorts  of  usual  and  unusual 
imposts  and  grievances,  would  either  support  these 
foreign  guests  and  take  up  arms — which  in  many  places 
they  were  well  exercised  in — against  their  rulers  them- 
selves, or  else  they  would  make  but  a  poor  show  of  zeal 
in  defence  of  the  latter ;  and  thus  '  princes  and  estates 
would  in  any  case  have  to  give  in.' 

With  ingenuous  candour  this  confidential  letter 
discloses  the  actual  plans  of  the  Union,  which  nomi- 
nally thought  only  of  defence  :  '  If  we  only  tackle  the 
business  rightly,'  says  the  '  distinguished  South  German 
Prince,'  '  means  will  be  at  hand  to  carry  out  our  intention 
without  the  help  of  the  States,  and  to  eradicate  the 
papists.'  '  Otherwise,'  he  goes  on,  '  it  would  be  much 
better  to  let  the  whole  work  pause,  and  to  go  on  as 


584  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

heretofore,  tacking  and  temporising  and  dallying  with 
the  idea  of  revision  and  improvement  of  the  Eeligious 
Peace.'  * 

'  Tacking   and  temporising '   formed   the   policy   of 
the  Union  during  the  following  years. 

1  In  the  Archivium  XJnito-Protestantium,  App.  pp.  243-251.  In 
Hofler,  Friinhische  Studien,  pp.  285-290,  under  the  title  '  Vertrautes 
Schieiben  an  einen  kurfuvstlich  brandenburgischen  Rat  von  einetn  fiir- 
nehmen  oberlandischen  Fiirsten  29.  November  (a.  St.),  1614  ; '  cf.  Pfaff. 
Oesch.  von  Wiirtemberg,  ii.  68  ;  and  Klopp,  i.  185  ff.,  188. 


585 


CHAPTER   X 

MEASURES  OF  THE  UNION  AND  '  DANGEROUS  MACHI- 
NATIONS OF  THE  PAPISTS  ' — DISSOLUTION  OF  THE 
CATHOLIC   LEAGUE    OF    DEFENCE,    1614-1616. 

After  the  Ratisbon  Diet  of  1613,  the  princes  of  the 
Union  and  the  Estates  in  correspondence  with  them 
had  published  a  so-called  '  exhaustive  account '  of  the 
transactions  of  the  assembly,  in  which  they  attributed 
all  failures  to  the  fault  of  the  Catholic  Estates.  The 
latter,  it  was  said,  under  pretext  of  the  imperial  decrees 
and  sacred  justice,  had  aimed  at  nothing  else  than 
'  the  suppression  and  ruin  of  the  whole  evangelical 
body.'  '  With  the  majority  obtained  by  their  united 
votes  they  thought  to  control  and  regulate  everything 
according  to  their  own  will,  and  as  it  were  to  rule 
supreme  over  all  the  evangelical  Electors  and  Estates.'  l 
'  The  papistical  Estates,'  wrote  Duke  John  Frederic 
of  Wurtemberg,  at  the  beginning  of  January  1614,  to 
Duke  Frederic  Ulrich  of  Brunswick,  urgently  entreat- 
ing him  to  join  the  Union — '  the  papistical  Estates 
will  not  enter  into  any  amicable  negotiations  in  the 
matter  of  the  convents,  and  they  set  themselves  against 
all  needful  reforms  of  imperial  legislation ; '  conse- 
quently it  -is  to  be  feared  that  the  evangelicals  will 
be  forced  by  them  to  surrender  not  the  convents  only, 

1   ' .  .  .  cum  tamen,  maxime  in  libero  iniperio,  par  in  parem  non 
habeat  imperium  '  (Senckenberg,  Sammlung,  ii.  151). 


586  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

but  even  their  lands  and  people.  '  The  Landgrave 
Maurice  of  Hesse  also  declared  that  the  papists  were 
ready  for  a  war  of  aggression.  '  They  mean  to  attempt 
the  utmost  and  to  risk  the  remnants  left  them  in  striv- 
ing to  recover  what  they  have  lost.'  2 

To  strengthen  the  Union  was  therefore  regarded 
as  '  the  most  highly  essential  work.'  In  the  first 
months  of  the  year  1614  several  of  the  allied  princes 
resolved,  at  an  assembly  at  Stuttgart,  '  that  they  would 
do  all  they  could  to  draw  Bern  and  Zurich  into  the 
Union.' :J  The  Landgrave  Maurice  was  despatched  on 
a  journey  to  the  Low  Countries  in  order  to  solicit 
the  mediation  of  the  States-General  on  behalf  of  an 
alliance  of  the  Union  with  Sweden.4  The  young  King 
of  Sweden,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  who  had  '  such  an 
indescribable  love  of  war,' 5  stood  forth  as  one  of 
the  most  powerful  future  helpers  of  '  the  Evangel.' 
As  early  as  January  1613  Maurice  had  commended  the 
cause  of  the  Union  to  him  through  the  Count  Palatine 
John  Casimir,  a  younger  brother  of  the  Count  Palatine 
of  Zweibriicken,  who  had  been  educated  in  Cassel, 
was  employed  in  the  Swedish  service,  and  in  the  follow- 
ing year  married  the  half-sister  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.(; 
After  the  King,  in  April  1614,  had  concluded  a  league 
of  friendship  and  protection  with  the  States-General, 
Maurice  sent,  as  confidential  agent  to  Stockholm,  a  man 
who   was   later   on   employed   in  the   most  important 

1  Letter  of  December  27,  1613  (o.  s.)  in  Sattler,  vi.  Beil.  pp.  90-94. 

2  Rommel,  Neuere  Gesch.  iii.  326,  note  324. 

:  Senkenberg,    pp.    23,   726 ;     cf.   Sugenheim,    Frankreichs    Einfluss, 
pp.  2,  7,  note. 

'  Rommel,  Neuere  Gesch.  iii.  329,  note  329. 
So  wrote  Falkenberg  to  Maurice  in  February  1616  (Rommel,  iii.  333. 
note  334). 

'   Rommel,  iii.  332  ;  cf.  Brockes,  ii.  288. 


THE    UNION   AND   KING   GUSTAVUS   ADOLPHCJS      587 

embassies  to  France,  England,  and  the  Netherlands, 
and  the  Hanseatic  towns,1  the  privy  councillor  John 
Zobel.  His  business  at  Stockholm  was  '  to  manage 
certain  important  matters.'  2  In  September  the  allies 
gathered  together  at  a  Diet  at  Heilbronn,  signed  and 
sealed  collectively  the  covenant  contracted  by  the 
Count  Palatine  with  the  States-General  in  May  1613, 
and  addressed  a  formal  invitation  to  Gustavus  Adolphus 
to  join  the  Union.3  In  order  to  make  his  people  ac- 
quainted with  the  importance  of  the  events  going  on 
in  Germany,  the  King  ordered  a  day  of  universal 
prayer  for  the  favourable  progress  of  the  undertaking 
of  their  German  co-religionists  ;  4  from  active  partici- 
pation in  which  he  was  obliged,  he  said,  for  the  present 
to  abstain,  owing  to  his  war  in  Poland.  At  the  beginning 
of  March  1615  he  gave  the  princes  and  Estates  the 
following  answer  to  their  request  that  he  would  '  extend 
to  them  a  helping  hand  in  case  of  their  sustaining 
violence,  and  would  aid  them  in  maintaining  the  evan- 
gelical religion  and  German  liberty.'  '  It  was  a  matter 
of  world-wide  notoriety  that  plots  of  the  most  highly 
dangerous  nature  had  been  stirred  up  by  those  con- 
nected with  the  papist  League,  not  in  the  Empire  only, 
but  also  in  the  neighbouring  sovereignties,  against 
the  evangelical  religion  and  its  members.  The  Estates 
'  must  be  well  aware  how  much  he,  the  King,  had  also 
had  to  endure  during  the  last  years  from  the  King 
of   Poland,    as   a   prominent   member   of  the   League. 

1  Rommel,  ii.  471. 

2  See  Brockes,  ii.  282,  note  15.     In  April  1614  Zobel  was  in  Liibeck 
'  in  order  to  inform  himself  about  the  conditions  in  Sweden.' 

3  Liibeck  was  the  means  of  conveying  the  address  to  the  King  (Brockes, 
ii.  288). 

4  Geijer,  Gesch.  von  Schweden,  iii.  137. 


588  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

The  latter  wanted  to  possess  himself  of  this  northern 
kingdom  in  order  to  be  able  to  establish  in  it  a  war 
basis  against  all  the  neighbouring  evangelical  poten- 
tates, princes,  and  states.'  With  a  view,  however, 
to  '  crippling  this  papistical  enterprise  '  he  was  opposing 
vigorous  resistance  to  the  Poles.  When  his  war  with 
them  was  ended  he  would  be  ready,  '  in  consideration 
of  the  common  danger,  to  stand  by  the  Estates  at 
their  need,  and  would  exert  himself  to  the  utmost 
to  preserve  for  them  their  evangelical  religion.'  1 

In  September  of  the  same  year  the  Landgrave  Maurice 
again  ordered  off  a  plenipotentiary  to  Stockholm,  and 
was  anxious  by  means  of  the  Dutch  ambassadors  at 
the  Swedish  court  to  arrange  '  the  marriage  contracts 
between  the  King  and  his  eldest  daughter.'  2  In  the 
following  year  Gustavus  Adolphus  called  for  the  help 
of  the  Landgrave  in  order  to  bring  about  a  political 
and  religious  alliance  between  Sweden  and  the  electorate 
of  Brandenburg.3 

In  February  1615,  while  the  allies  were  still  expect- 
ing the  answer  of  the  King  of  Sweden,  they  held  a 
numerously  attended  meeting  at  Nuremberg,  at  which 
Frenchmen,  Englishmen,  Danes  and  Hollanders  were 
also  present.  The  whole  of  the  evangelical  Estates, 
it  said  in  the  Recess  of  the  Diet,  '  were  undoubtedly 
in  the  greatest  danger,'  for  it  might  be  considered 
certain  that  '  the  Roman  Catholic  Estates,  being  so 
determined  to  obtain  restitution  of  the  abbeys  and 
convents,  would  devise  and  resort  to  all  possible  ways 
and  means  for  compassing  this  end.'  An  '  effectual 
counter-organisation  '  was  therefore  imperatively  neces- 

1  Sattler,  vi.  Beil.  pp.  101-102.  -  Brookes,  ii.  374,  note  4. 

1  Rommel,  iii.  333,  note  334. 


STRENGTHENING    THE    UNION  589 

sary.1  The  question  of  how  to  keep  warm  the  alliance 
with  the  Protestant  Estates  of  Bohemia  was  carefully 
discussed,  and  Christian  of  Anhalt  was  uninterruptedly 
active  in  endeavouring  to  keep  the  Union  in  close 
connection  with  its  adherents  in  Austria,  Moravia, 
and  Silesia.2  In  a  memorandum  of  the  Palatine 
Elector,  one  of  the  allies,  on  January  30,  had  expressed 
his  conviction  that  '  if  the  ecclesiastical  Estates  saw 
and  knew  that  we  meant  in  good  earnest  to  attack 
them,  they  would  look  out  for  themselves  and  their 
abbeys  in  good  time  and  bethink  them  of  measures  of 
peace.'  3 

Two  weeks  earlier  the  Landgrave  Maurice  had  drawn 
for  his  provincial  Estates  a  terrible  picture  of  the 
contemplated  onslaught  of  the  papists.  '  The  Catholic 
League,'  he  informed  them,  '  protected  by  the  Pope, 
the  King  of  Spain,  the  court  of  Brussels  and  the  Em- 
peror, and  newly  strengthened  by  the  accession  of 
three  ecclesiastical  Electors,  has  ordered  its  munitions 
of  war  and  resolved  on  a  Spanish  campaign,  not  merely— 
so  he  was  credibly  informed  from  France,  Lorraine, 
and  Italy — in  order  to  make  itself  master  of  the  Jiilich 
lands,  but  with  a  view  to  the  final  execution  of  the 
decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  to  the  extirpation  of 
the  evangelical  religion,  and  to  the  election  of  Ferdi- 
nand of  Styria  as  King.'  They  must  therefore  equip 
themselves  lustily,  and  if  possible,  within  eight  months, 
raise  half,  or  at  least  an  eighth,  of  a  million  florins. 
They  must  also  stick  fast  to  the  Union,  which  alone 

1   '  Abschied  vom  12/22.  Februar  1615,'  in  Senkenberg,  xxiv.  xiv.- 
xxxvii.  ;  cf.  Soden,  Kriegs-  und  Sittengesch.  i.  400-404. 
•  Gindely,  Gesch.  des  bohmischen  Aufstandes,  i.  186. 
:;  In  Lunig,  Staatsconsilia,  i.  833-834. 


590  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

*  continued  to  defend  the  imperilled  evangelical  cause,' 
although  '  many  were  of  opinion  that  the  Union  gave 
provocation  to  war.'  L  For  if  we  abandon  the  Union, 
we  too  shall  be  abandoned  by  it,  and  not  by  it  alone, 
but  by  all  its  dependents  :  France,  England,  the  States- 
General,  Sweden,  the  Hanseatic  towns,  Venice  and 
Switzerland.'  1  A  few  months  later,  an  English  am- 
bassador confided  to  the  Liibeck  burgomaster  Brockes, 
that  the  States-General  were  negotiating  with  James  I. 
concerning  a  league  '  against  the  Catholics.'  2 

Through  the  instrumentality  of  Ernest  of  Mansfeld 
the  Union  cemented  relations  with  Duke  Charles 
Emmanuel  of  Savoy,  who  still  entertained  the  hope 
of  gaining  Milan.  In  1615  the  Duke  sent  an  ambas- 
sador to  Germany  to  negotiate  concerning  his  formal 
reception  into  the  Protestant  Union ;  he  promised 
to  exert  himself  with  all  his  might  in  its  service.3 

Greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  Union  the  imperial 
cities,  in  October  1615,  at  an  assembly  at  Esslingen 
decided  to  join  the  alliance  between  the  Union  and  the 
States- General  and  to  pay  45,000  florins  annually  into 
the  fund.4  A  member  of  the  Nuremberg  council  had 
expressed  himself  most  decidedly  against  any  associa- 
tion of  the  imperial  cities  with  the  League  of  princes. 
'  If  we  join  the  Union,'  he  said  in  a  memorandum 
of  the  year  1615,  '  there  is  no  question  but  that  we 
shall  soon  have  to  take  up  arms.  The  princes  and 
lords   will    not    regard     us   as    other     than    walled -in 

'  Rommel,  Neuere  Gesch.  hi.  34  S.,  122-125.  -  Brockes,  ii.  409. 

'  .  .  .  ceste  union,  laquelle  je  serviray,  fomenteray  ct  foitifieray  de 
tout  mon  pouvoir,  me  faisans  l'honneur  de  m'y  admettre.'  Instruction 
for  the  ambassador  Biandra  in  the  year  1615,  in  Erdmannsdorffer,  pp. 
149-151  ;  cf.  p.  95  ff. 

1  Senkenberg,  xxiv.  29. 


A    WARNING   TO   THE    IMPERIAL   TOWNS  591 

peasants,  and  they  will  keep  the  whole  management 
of  the  war  in  their  own  hands.  On  us  and  on  ours 
the  troops  will  be  quartered,  from  our  coffers  the  pay- 
ments will  be  made,  from  our  granaries  the  provisions 
will  be  supplied  ;  with  the  soldiers  recruited  by  means 
of  our  money  they  will  squeeze  out  of  us  whatever 
they  please.  Added  to  this,  trade  and  industry  will 
stagnate  ;  we  ourselves  become  victims  of  the  imperial 
ban,  and  our  wares  exposed  to  seizure  in  foreign  lands. 
If  we  are  defeated,  who  will  protect  the  towns  which 
derive  their  freedom  from  the  Emperor  only  ?  The 
whole  fury  of  the  flood  will  be  poured  out  over  them. 
But  we  have  reason  to  fear  victory  also.  The  leaders 
of  the  war  will  retain  the  booty,  and  in  our  Lutheran 
imperial  cities  Calvinism  will  intrude  itself.  Already 
the  princes,  while  still  manoeuvring  for  us  and  our 
money,  have  '  seriously  distressed  these  towns  with 
all  the  foreign  riffraff  they  have  brought  over  from 
France  and  the  Netherlands,  and  have  gone  on  the 
plan  of  transferring  all  industries,  wealth,  and  pro- 
visions from  the  old  imperial  cities  into  their  own 
dominions.'  What  will  they  do  when  once  they  are 
the  victors  ?  l 

'  There  are  many  people,'  wrote  a  Calvinist  in  this 
same  year  1615,  '  who  feel  all  manner  of  scruples  as 
to  whether  Lutherans  and  Calvinists  should  unite 
together  against  the  Antichrist.  But  who  at  this 
juncture,  when  the  whole  evangelical  cause  is  obviously 
at  stake,  and  when  we  have  to  defend  ourselves  with 
person  and  property,  honour  and  life  against  the 
murderous,  sanguinary  intrigues  of  the  popish  powers 

1  In  Liinig,   Staatsconsilia,  i.   837-839  ;    Senkenberg,   Sammlung,  iii. 
293-303. 


592  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  the  Jesuits— who,  I  ask,  at  such  a  time,  would 
stand  haggling  over  this  or  that  future  danger  which 
the  brain  of  this  one  or  that  one  bodies  forth  ?  Is  it 
not  of  far  more  importance  that  all  those  who  do  not 
wish  to  fall  back  under  the  yoke  of  popish  extortion 
and  idolatry  should  stand  together  as  one  man  and 
take  up  arms  conjointly,  regardless  of 'whether  they 
are  Lutheran  or  Calvinist,  so  that  they  may  not  be 
fallen  upon  unawares,  lose  town  and  land,  house  and 
home,  and  see  their  wives  and  children  reduced  to 
slavery  ;  for  the  danger  is  great — yea,  more  than  great. 
The  armies  of  the  antagonists  are  equipped,  the  com- 
mands allotted,  and  the  mercenaries  are  awaiting  the 
first  beat  of  the  drum  to  pour  into  the  lands  of  the 
evangelicals  and  destroy  everything  with  murder 
and  incendiarism.  Oh  the  blindness  which  will  not 
see  this  !  Oh  the  faithlessness  and  God-forgetfulness 
which  will  not  fight  valiantly  for  the  Gospel !  Oh 
the  execrable  greed  and  stinginess  which  will  not  contri- 
bute abundantly  to  save  the  beloved  Fatherland  and 
the  precious  heirloom  of  German  liberty  !  '  '  Up,  up, 
ye  Germans  !  Up  with  courage  and  zeal  to  battle 
with  the  tonsured,  perjured  parsons,  and  all  their 
shallow-pated  followers.'  '  The  following  lines  occur 
in  a  contemporary  Kurzweiliges  Gesfriich  : 

Some  tidings  new  have  come  to  me : 

In  a  few  years,  the  parsons  say, 

Everything  reformed  will  be 

And  earth  move  in  the  righteous  way. 

I  greatly  hope  to  see  before 

This  year  is  out,  a  fresh  priests'  war. 


1  Ein  ehrliches  deutsches  Mahnwort  an  alle  evangelischen  Christen,  so 
der  Abg otter ei  und  Knechtschaft  entrinnen  wollen  (Einblattdruck,  1615). 


CALVINIST  SUMMONS  AGAINST  THE  CATHOLICS,  1615     593 

It  maketh  me  uncommon  glad 

To  see  the  parsons  all  so  mad, 

For  ever  stirring  up  fresh  plots, 

At  last  they'll  strangle  their  own  throats.1 

These  plots  of  the  '  mad  parsons  '  were  disclosed 
to  the  people  in  1615  by  a  Calvinist  who  described 
himself  as  '  a  true-hearted  German  Catholic'  - 

He  possessed,  he  said,  accurate  information  con- 
cerning the  plans  '  of  all  zealous  Catholics '  in  the 
Empire.  With  the  help  of  the  King  of  Spain  they 
meant  to  begin  the  war  in  Germany.  All  who  were 
not  Catholic,  especially  the  Calvinists  and  the  rest  of  the 
princes  of  the  Union,  if  they  did  not  meanwhile  adopt 
the  Catholic  faith,  were  doomed,  in  the  spring  of  next 
year,  *  in  execution  of  the  Tridentine  Council,  to  forfeit 
their  lives  and  to  be  rooted  out  wholesale  with  their 
religions.'  Afterwards,  '  under  cover  of  religion,  it  was 
intended  to  bring  the  whole  German  nation  under 
the  Spanish  yoke.'  J  While,  however,  the  religious 
war  was  being  planned  in  this  way  by  the  '  Spanish 
and   Jesuitical  creatures,'  the  evangelicals    were  quite 

1  Ein  kurzweilig  Gesprech    zwischen  einem  Soldaten  und  Pfaffen  und 
Hirer  beiden  Kiichin,  1615. 

2  Wolmeinender  warhaffter  Discurs,  war  um  und  wie  die  Romisch- 
Catholischen  in  Teutschland  sich  billich  von  Spaniern  und  Jesuiten  absondern, 
und  Hirer  selbsten  bei  disen  izigen  hochgefehrlichen  Zeiten  wolil  warnehmen 
sollen  und  lconnen  .  .  .  durch  einen  trewherzigen  Catholischen  gestelU, 
1616.  (*  Well-meant  and  true  discourse  why  and  how  the  Roman  Catholics 
in  Germany  could  and  should  break  with  Spain  and  the  Jesuits,  and  look 
after  themselves  in  these  perilous  times,  by  a  true-hearted  German  Catholic, 
1616.')  That  the  author  was  a  Calvinist  is  shown  by  the  whole  contents 
of  the  composition.  The  refutation  '  Draconicidium,  dass  ist,  Dracken 
Mordt'  &c,  quoted  by  Werner,  Gesch.  der  apologetischen  und  polemischen 
Litteralur,  iv.  574,  note  4  ;  cf.  Krebs,  Publicistik,  pp.  79  and  203  ff.,  accord- 
ing to  whom  the  first  edition  of  this  pamphlet  appeared  in  1615.  Ibid 
pp.  80  ft",  and  204  ff.,  also  concerning  the  refutation  '  Draconicidium.'' 

3  Pp.  8-9,  17-18. 

VOL.    X.  Q  Q 


594  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

destitute  of  arms.  The  Lutherans  must  therefore 
unite  in  a  brotherly  manner  with  the  Calvinists,  all 
Germans  must  combine  '  to  rid  themselves  of  the 
Spaniards  and  their  sworn  minions  the  Jesuits,'  and 
afterwards  to  negotiate  '  amicable  interpositions  and 
compositions '  between  the  Estates  of  the  different 
religions.  If  these  efforts  should  be  fruitless,  then 
the  foreign  potentates  might  come  forward  as  friendly 
mediators  and  '  at  the  request  of  both  sides,  or  also 
in  their  own  interest,'  to  exert  themselves  to  establish  a 
lasting  peace  between  the  Catholics  and  the  Protestants 
in  Germany.  These  foreign  powers  might  come  to 
the  agreement  that  those  of  the  contending  parties 
who  would  not  accommodate  themselves  to  these  terms 
should  be  by  them  (the  foreign  powers)  brought  to 
submission,  '  together  with  the  obedient  section  '  by 
force  of  arms.  It  was  by  proposals  such  as  these  that 
the  '  true-hearted  German  '  Calvinist  thought  to  show 
his  care  for  '  the  Roman  Catholics.'  * 

Another  Calvinist,  '  Wernerus  Albertus  ab  Obrinca,' 
sounded  the  war-cry  especially  against  the  ecclesiastical 
princes  of  the  Empire. 

He  was  impelled  so  to  do  by  the  appearance  of  two 
pamphlets  published  in  1616  by  Caspar  Schoppe  under 
the  names  von  Ungersdorff  and  von  Friedberg,  and 
written  with  the  object  of  proving  unmistakably  from 
all  the  past  utterings  of  the  Calvinists,  and  from  the 
pronouncements  of  their  theologians  and  princes,  that 
'  it  was  their  intention  to  overthrow  the  Religious  and 
the  Public  Peace,  and  the  whole  constitution  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  and  to  eradicate  the  Augsburg 
Confession,    as   well   as   the   Catholic   faith,    from   the 

1  Pp.  40,  58,  97-132,  183-192,  212,  220-221. 


CALVINIST   AIMS   TO   UPROOT   THE   EMPIRE        595 

Empire.'  1  Nobody  could  deny  that  on  the  side  of  the 
'  non-Lutheran  Christians  '  it  had  been  asserted,  times 
innumerable,  that  the  struggle  against  the  papacy 
involved  at  the  same  time  a  struggle  against  the 
Roman  Empire  of  the  German  nation.  '  Popedom  and 
Emperordom,'  Zwingli  and  the  Ziirichers  had  written  as 
early  as  1530,  '  both  of  them  from  Rome  do  come.' 
'  They  are  so  intermingled  and  interconnected,  and  so 
closely  related  to  each  other,  that  neither  of  them  can 
stand  or  fall  without  the  other.  Accordingly,  whoso- 
ever wishes  to  abolish  the  papacy  must  depose  the 
Emperor,  and  vice  versa.''  2  Calvinistic  theologians 
clamoured  unceasingly  for  the  extermination  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  Benedictus  Arretius,  for  instance,  in 
his  commentary  on  the  Book  of  Revelation,  explained 
that  *  the  beast  which  fights  against  God  was  the  Em- 
peror, or  the  Roman  Empire,  and  the  dragon  the  devil 
which  affixes  its  ornaments  to  the  Empire.'  3 

Other  theologians  went  more  into  detail.  The  beast 
described  in  the  Apocalypse  as  having  seven  heads  and 
ten  horns  signified  the  Roman  Empire  ;  the  other  beast 
with  two  horns  signified  the  papacy,  which  served  the 
first  beast  and  exerted  itself  for  its  maintenance.  The 
Pope  insisted  that  people  should  worship  the  image  of 
the  first  beast — namely,  the  constitution  of  the  State, 
or  the  Golden  Bull  of  Charles  IV.,  and  he  bestowed  life 
on  this  image,  in  that  he  confirmed  the  election  of  the 
Emperor  and  commanded  everybody  to  adopt  the  mark 

1  See  Biicher-Verzeichniss  under :  Friedberg  und  Ungersdorff ;  and  Krebs, 
Publicistik,  p.  214  ft'. 

2  Zwingl.  Opp.  viii.  388,  493  ;  Bullinger,  Reformationsgesch.  ii.  342. 
5  '  Draco  est  Diabolus,  qui  sua  ornamenta  aflfingit  Imperio.' 

Q  Q  2 


596  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

of  the  first  beast — that  is,  to  swear  the  oath  of  fealty 
to  the  Empire.1 

These  and  other  explanations  of  the  theologians, 
'  Ungersdorff  and  Friedberg  '  communicated  to  their 
readers,  and  even  when  addressing  Calvinist  princes 
these  writers  did  not  observe  any  reticence.  That  they 
should  have  provoked  a  rejoinder  from  '  Wernerus 
Albertus,'  and  have  been  denounced  by  him  as  '  turbu- 
lent, desperate  arch-villains,'  '  outcast  hang-dogs,  fellows 
only  fit  for  the  wheel,'  and  so  forth,  was  by  no  means 
astonishing  considering  the  prevalent  tone  of  the 
polemics  at  the  period.2 

But  Wernerus  Albertus  directed  his  actual  attacks 
against  '  the  tonsured,  upstart  princes '  of  Mayence, 
Treves,  Worms,  Spires,  and  so  forth — '  those  flunkeys 
on  horseback  who  let  the  princes  go  on  foot  like  lackeys,' 
those  '  fools,'  those  '  disreputable,  abandoned  villains.' 
'  They  want  to  lord  it  over  a  Roman  Emperor  at  their 
own  will  and  pleasure,'  although  they  derive  their 
dignity  '  solely  '  from  the  Pope  at  Rome — from  '  that 
beast.'     These  '  highly  tonsured,  dainty  lordlings  '  have 


1  '  Retinet  homines  in  cultu  prions  bestiae,  facit  ut  prior  bestia  adoretur, 
id  est,  vult  imperium  sacrosanctum,  augustum  et  venerabile  esse,  ut  olim  sub 
gentilibus  fuit,  vult  imperatorem  superstitiose  coli  et  invictum  appellari, 
vult  omnes  adorare  et  colere  imaginem  bestiae,  sive  formam  reipublicae  aut 
bullam  auream  Caroli  IV.,  dat  vitam  huic  imagini,  dum  imperatorem  electum 
confirmal,  jubet  omnes  recipere  characterem  prioris  bestiae,  id  est  praestare 
imperio  juramentum  ftdelitatis.'  Cf.  these  and  other  passages  besides  in 
Friedberg,  pp.  3  ff.,  75-77. 

2  Kurze  Erinnerung  und  Verwarnung  auf  die  zwo  verschiedene  kurz 
vor  endung  dess  erst  verwichenen  1016  teu  Jahrs  wider  die  Calvinisten  allein, 
jnnhalt  der  Ueberschrifften,  aber  in  Wahrheitsgrund  wider  alle  und  jede 
Evangelische  Churfiirsten  und  Stand  insgemein,  unter  dem  namen  Jacobi 
(sic)  von  Ungersdorff,  und  Christiani  Gottliebs  von  Friedburgk,  in  offenem 
Truck  aussgesprengte  auffriihrische  Schmekkarten,  Schand-  und  Lester- 
schrifjten.    Von  Wernerus  Albertus  ab  Obrinca  (1617),  pp.  3,  4,  7,  19,  21,  22. 


ATTACK   ON    SPIRITUAL    PRINCES    OF   THE   EMPIRE    597 

now  grown  so  puffed  up  that  they  aspire  after  the  lands 
and  subjects  of  the  evangelical  '  corresponding  '  electors 
and  Estates — yea,  even  after  their  own  persons,  for 
they  '  urge,  stimulate,  incite,  and  worry  the  Emperor,' 
dinning  it  into  him  that  there  is  nothing  further  to  be 
done  with  the  Calvinistic  electors  and  princes  than  to 
point  the  blade  at  their  bellies,  let  them  '  see  the  monkey 
in  the  glass  '  (?),  and  to  suppress,  degrade,  and  extirpate 
them.  There  was  no  other  counsel  to  be  given  in  the 
matter,  and  they  proffered  their  help  and  willing  sup- 
port. '  Mayence,  Treves,  Worms,  Spires  ...  are  de- 
termined to  place  themselves  at  the  head  of  affairs, 
and  first  and  foremost  they  intend  to  tackle  and  bring 
to  order  the  Elector  Count  Palatine,  their  neighbour, 
whom  they  denounce  as  a  rebellious,  disobedient  prince, 
and  accuse  of  aspiring  to  take  the  crown  from  the 
Emperor,  and  to  teach  him  how  in  future  to  venerate 
and  honour  the  Roman  Beast  and  the  whole  of  the 
oiled  pack.'  The  Protestants,  however,  '  if  they  did 
not  at  once  fly  to  arms,'  would  at  any  rate  '  point  the 
dagger  honourably  '  at  the  parsons  who  were  donning 
their  armour,  and  '  sing  their  Requiem  for  them  in 
advance ; '  they  would  '  seize  them  manfully  and 
valiantly  by  the  hair,'  and  '  unfrock  them,'  as  was  '  right 
and  fitting.'  x 

Another  vociferator,  who  gave  himself  out  as  a 
'  lover  of  the  divine  and  the  Lutheran  truth,'  announced 
his  full  confidence  in  a  speedy  victory,  if  only  Lutherans 

1  Kurze  Erinnerung,  pp.  7-8,  10,  12-13,  22.  Von  Effern,  one  of  the 
councillors  of  the  Mayence  electorate,  who  was  the  most  fiercely  attacked 
in  this  pamphlet,  published,  in  1617,  in  answer  to  the  '  wicked  calumniator, 
who  goes  by  the  fictitious  name  of  Wernerus  Albertus  ab  Obrinca,'  a 
pamphlet  entitled  Nothwendige  Abgetrungene  Ehrenrettung.  He  declared 
that  he   had    not   composed  either  of   the   two  pamphlets  attacked  by 


598  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  Calvinists  would  make  common  cause  against  the 
papists,  '  the  Roman-Spanish  foe,'  and  would  take  up 
arms  conjointly  : 

The  Spanish  and  Italian  men 

Are  brimful  of  deceit  and  fraud, 

But  yet  their  hearts  grow  fearful  when 

A  German  jokes  of  drawing  sword  ; 

They  cannot  tolerate  the  fun  : 

Like  timid  hares  away  they  run.1 

'  Oh,  ye  Lutheran  princes  and  people,'  exclaimed,, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  Catholic  in  an  Ernsthafte  Ver- 
mahnung  '  ('  earnest  admonition  '),  'do  not  let  yourselves 
be  befooled  by  the  Calvinists,  who  are  intent  on  war 
and  bloodshed.  Not  from  the  Catholics  have  you  any- 
thing to  fear.  They  do  not  want  war  if  only  they  are 
left  in  peace  and  in  possession  of  what  is  their  own. 
But  you  have  reason  to  fear  those  who  at  all  times  are 
full  of  deceit  and  cunning,  and  who,  ever  since  they 
forced  themselves  into  the  Holy  Empire,  have  brought 

Wernerus,  and  that  he  did  not  know  their  authors.  It  was  untrue  that  he 
had  said  that  the  ecclesiastical  princes  need  not  keep  the  promises  they 
had  made  to  the  Protestants.  '  I  have  never  in  my  life,'  he  said,  '  done 
the  least  injury  to  the  evangelical  kings,  electors,  and  princes,  and  I 
know,  God  be  praised,  better  than  you  do  how  to  show  fitting  honour  to 
the  rulers  appointed  by  God,  without  respect  of  religion.'  '  This  much  I 
can  in  very  truth  testify  before  God,  that  during  all  the  time  of  my  service 
(under  the  Elector  of  Mayence)  no  warlike  counsels  have  ever  been  agreed 
upon,  excepting  such  as  God  Himself  and  nature  could  have  prompted 
in  respect  of  legitimate  defence  on  the  part  of  the  collective  Catholic 
electors,  princes,  and  Estates  ;  and  if  ever  I  or  others  offered  the  slightest 
suggestion  in  favour^of  war  or  the  offensive,  we  were  not  tolerated  at  court.' 
In  conclusion  v.  Effern  challenges  his  opponent  to  appear  '  before  the 
Emperor  and  the  Imperial  Chamber  at  Spires,  or  before  all  the  evangelical 
kings,  electors,  and  princes,  or  before  the  Elector  of  Saxony.'  He  was 
ready,  he  said,  to  answer  for  himself  before  them,  and  to  submit  to  their 
verdict  (pp.  6,  7,  9). 

1   Ventilatio  .  .  .  Erleuterung  .  .  .  der   Bapstlichen  Gloss   (1615),    pp. 
47-48. 


CAUSES   OF   IMPOTENCE   OF   THE   CATHOLIC   LEAGUE    591) 

nothing  but  discord,  disturbance,  and  anarchy  on  lands 
and  people.  Is  it  unbeknown  to  you  what  sort  of  spirit 
dwells  in  them,  and  what  you  will  have  to  undergo  at 
their  hands  if  they  succeed  in  bringing  their  plots  to 
pass  ?  Does  not  history  afford  countless  examples  of 
this  same  spirit  ?  '  l  A  second  admonition  described 
the  seven-headed  spirit  of  Calvinism  :  '  Siebenkii'pfigen 
Calvinistengeist ; '  it  is  as  friendly  as  it  is  possible  to 
be  until  it  has  established  its  sway ;  as  meek  as  a  lamb 
until  it  has  gained  its  ends  ;  as  cunning  as  a  fox  behind 
the  scenes  ;  as  insatiable  as  a  wolf,  which,  the  more  it 
devours,  wants  the  more  ;  bloodthirsty  as  a  leopard, 
fiery  as  a  dragon,  in  all  its  doing  and  striving — the 
very  counterpart  of  the  devil : 

And  every  day  before  our  eyes 

Fresh  massacres  from  it  arise  ; 

With  horriblest  of  fire-brands 

It  devastates  all  realms  and  lands  ; 

Its  raging,  blazing  flames  of  fire 

Mount  fiercely  upward,  high  and  higher, 

Like  unto  hellish  Satan,  who 

From  very  first  no  good  did  do, 

But  everywhere  sowed  villany  ; 

Thus  too  this  baneful  heresy, 

This  spirit  false  of  Calvinism, 

Works  only  misery  and  schism  ; 

Its  words,  its  work,  its  thinking,  all 

Tend  only  to  its  neighbour's  fall. 

Christian  true,  of  it  beware, 

As  you  do  value  your  welfare. - 

'  The  great  papist  League,'  which  was  described  as 
"  in  the  highest  degree  threatening  to  the  stability  of 
all  evangelicism  in  the  Empire,'  was  indeed  reduced  to 

1  Ernsthafte   Vermahnung  wider  der  Calvinisten  Mordgeist  und  Blut- 
praktiken  (Einblattdruck,  1617). 

2  Einblattdruck  of  1617,  also  in  Scheible,  Fliegende  Blatter,  pp.  209-211, 
from  an  impression  of  1619. 


600  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

a  sorry  plight,  and  had  thought  of  nothing  less  than  an 
attack  on  its  opponents. 

'  The  princes  of  the  League,'  said  Duke  Maximilian 
of  Bavaria  in   1613,    '  talk   high   Catholic   sentiments, 
but  when  it  comes  to  paying  up,  to  paying  up,  it's  a 
sorry    business    with    most    of    them.'     Many    of    the 
members  failed  to  send  in  the  contributions  they  had 
promised   to    the    fund.     Special   defaulters    were    the 
Suabian  prelates  and  counts  of  the  Empire,  who  excused 
themselves    on    the   plea    of    'total    inability.'     When 
Maximilian    summoned    the   tardy    Count    Caspar    zu 
Hohenembs  to   pay   his   contribution,   the   Count   an- 
swered :    '  I  live  in  an  out-of-the-way  district,  where  I 
am  seldom  affected  by  the  disturbances  in  the  Empire, 
and  they  do  not  concern  me  at  all.'     He  was  not  in 
any  way  indebted  to  the  League,  he  said ;  the  Roman 
Empire  was  bound  to  protect  him  from  damage  and 
injury.     The  imperial  abbess,  Katherine  von    Buchau, 
would  not  contribute  because  '  there  were  still  numbers 
of  important  abbeys  and  princes  not  yet  enrolled  in 
the  League,'  and  it  would  be  disgraceful  and  detrimental 
to  herself  if  the  world  came  to  know  that  she  was  a 
member  of  the  Catholic  League.1     At  the  assembly  of 
the  League  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main  in  March  1613,  at 
which  '  such  bold  resolutions  were  made,'  2  the  Bishop 
of  Spires  excused  his  own  tardiness  in  paying  up  on 
the  plea  of  the  dilatoriness  of  other  Estates  which  had 
been    equally  remiss.      The   Bishop   of   Ratisbon   was 
willing  to  stake  body  and  life  for  the  Catholic  religion, 
but  ready  money,  he  said,  he  could  not  give.     Arch- 
duke Leopold,  Administrator  of  the  bishoprics  of  Passau 
and  Strasburg,  pleaded  utter  and  entire  want  of  means. 

1  Wolf,  Maximilian,  iii.  314-317.  2  See  above,  p.  52G.      _, 


DUKE    MAXIMILIAN   AND   THE   LEAGUE,    1613       601 

The  new  Archbishop  of  Salzburg  had  to  make  far  too 
large  an  outlay  on  the  building  of  a  new  cathedral 
church  to  be  in  a  position  to  spend  money  on  the 
League.  The  abbot  of  St.  Emmeram,  at  Ratisbon, 
said  he  was  unable  to  contribute  to  the  fund  owing  to 
the  '  well-known  hospitality  of  his  convent.'  l 

'  In  view  of  such  lamentable  demeanour  '  it  was  by 
no  means  surprising  that  Maximilian  should  have 
caused  the  assembly  at  Frankfort  to  be  informed  that 

*  for  weighty  and  important  reasons  he  was  obliged 
again  to  resign  the  leadership  of  the  League.'  In  spite 
of  all  the  assurances  of  the  members  present  that  their 
lords  '  will  solicit  your  Excellency  in  all  friendliness, 
humility,  and  submissiveness  not  to  withdraw,  in  these 
times  of  direst  need  and  peril,  from  the  post  you  have 
so  admirably  filled,  and  to  abandon  all  Catholics  to 
manifest  danger,'  the  only  encouragement  they  received 
from  the  Bavarian  ambassador  was  that  '  their  petition 
should  be  duly  reported  at  court.'  - 

In  order  to  move  Maximilian  from  this  decision,  the 
South  German  Estates  sent  Bishop  Henry  of  Augsburg 
to  Munich.  The  Bishop  was  most  urgent  in  his  attempts 
at  persuasion,  but  the  Duke  for  a  long  lime  refused  to 
give  in.  '  Some  of  the  Estates,'  he  said,  '  had  not  yet 
even  once  paid  up  what  had  been  required  of  them  by 
the  Recess  of  the  League  of  1610.  He  alone,  with  only 
the  few  zealous  members,  could  not  accomplish  any 
satisfactory  results.  Things  looked  exactly  as  though 
it  was  intended  to  leave  him  helpless  ;  for  none  of  the 
contributions  lately  promised  had  yet  come  to  hand.' 

*  God  does  not  work  miracles,'  said  Maximilian,  '  when 

1  Stumpf,  p.  76  ;  Wolf,  iii.  361-362. 

2  Der  Abschied  in  Wolf,  iii.  362-368. 


602  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

people  act  presumptuously  and  fold  their  hands  idly  in 
their  laps  ;  then  only  can  we  hope  for  God's  blessing 
when  we  have  put  forth  all  our  own  strength  and 
energies.'  These  reproaches  did  not  touch  the  Bishop 
himself,  for  he  was  among  the  most  zealous  members  of 
the  League,  but  he  considered  them  quite  well-grounded. 
'  It  is  true,'  he  wrote  to  a  clerical  brother  in  office, 
'  that  this  matter  concerns  us  clergy  most  closely. 
Religion,  of  which  we  are  the  priests,  is  in  danger.  We 
ought,  therefore,  to  bestir  ourselves  more  energetically 
than  the  secular  Estates  allied  with  us.'  It  was  only 
with  much  difficulty  that  the  Bishop  obtained  from 
Maximilian  the  promise  to  retain  the  command  of  the 
League  until  the  next  assembly  of  the  members.  Maxi- 
milian, however,  made  the  stipulation  that  the  Estates, 
without  exception  and  without  delay,  should  fulfil  the 
obligations  imposed  on  them  by  the  Frankfort  Recess.1 

All  matters  that  had  remained  in  abeyance  at 
Frankfort  were  to  be  settled  in  fuller  detail  during  the 
sitting  of  the  Diet  at  Ratisbon,  by  a  fresh  assembly  of 
the  League.  The  proposed  despatch  of  a  '  solemn 
embassy  '  to  Paris  was  regarded  by  Maximilian  as  un- 
necessary, because  the  leading  French  minister,  Villeroy, 
had  already  given  a  Mayence  delegate  the  distinct 
assurance  that  the  King  '  was  not  allied  with  the  Pro- 
testant princes  in  the  Empire  nor  with  some  of  the 
Calvinists  against  a  single  Catholic  prince  ;  but  that,  on 
the  contrary,  he  would  show  himself  a  true  friend  to 
the  Catholic  electors,  princes,  and  Estates  in  case  of 
their  suffering  military  aggression  from  the  Protestant 
Estates.'  The  King  of  Spain — so  Maximilian  informed 
the  Estates — had  promised  on  April  1  '  to  do  all  in  his 

1  Stunipf,  pp.  76-78. 


KLESL    AND   THE    LEAGUE,    1614  60 


■_> 


power  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Catholic  League  and 
for  the  furtherance  of  all  that  was  favourable  to  the 
general  defence  of  the  Catholic  faith.'  The  Duke 
reiterated  his  declaration  that  he  could  only  carry  on 
the  leadership  of  the  League  if  the  members  ceased 
from  the  irresoluteness,  coldness,  and  torpor  which  they 
had  hitherto  shown  with  regard  to  the  necessary  pro- 
visions for  defensive  measures.'  He  proposed  that, 
with  a  view  to  raising  the  necessary  means  for  their 
self-preservation,  the  clergy  should  contribute  the  tenth 
part  of  their  revenues  for  one  year  ;  for,  he  reminded 
them,  it  was  they  themselves  whom  the  danger  most 
nearly  threatened.  They  would  do  well,  also,  he  sug- 
gested, until  the  danger  was  overpast,  to  devote  the 
abundant  revenues  of  certain  unoccupied  clerical  posts, 
with  which  no  cures  of  souls  were  connected,  to  a  fund 
for  means  of  defence.1 

No  business  of  this  sort,  however,  was  discussed  at 
Ratisbon.  On  the  contrary,  through  the  efforts  and 
influence  of  Klesl,  any  power  that  the  Catholic  League 
still  possessed  was  brought  down  to  the  lowest  ebb. 
Without  the  consent  of  Maximilian  a  fresh  constitution 
was  given  to  the  League,  and  by  this  change  the  House 
of  Austria  not  only  became  associated  with  Bavaria 
in  the  directorship,  but  was  also  invested  with  pre- 
ponderating power.  Under  the  former  regime  the  Duke 
of  Bavaria  had  at  any  rate  been  guaranteed,  for  all 
future  occasions  of  war,  undivided  and  unlimited 
control.  By  the  new  organisation,  however,  there 
were  to  be  three  '  military  directorships  ' — a  Bavarian 
one,  a  Rhenish  one,  under  the  Archduke  Albert  of  the 
Netherlands,  and  an  Austrian  one,  under  the  Archduke 

1  Wolf,  iii.  456-468. 


604  HISTOKY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Maximilian  of  Tyrol.  This  change  in  the  management 
must  necessarily,  as  Maximilian's  privy  councillors  pointed 
out,  '  throw  the  affairs  of  the  League  into  serious  con- 
fusion, and  produce  lengthy  and  far-reaching  delays 
and  complications.'  The  directors,  '  armed  all  three 
with  equal  plenary  powers,'  '  would  not  have  time  to 
consult  together  concerning  measures  to  be  adopted, 
because  a  variety  of  interests  would  be  operating  in- 
dependently.' Furthermore,  under  the  new  constitu- 
tion, it  was  necessary  in  every  case,  before  proceeding 
to  actual  accomplishment  of  plans,  to  obtain  the  im- 
perial consent,  so  that  Klesl,  the  director  of  the  Em- 
peror, virtually  retained  the  chief  command  of  the 
League  in  his  own  hands.  He  could  control  '  the 
affairs  of  the  League  according  to  his  own  pleasure.' 
But  that  the  Estates  had  no  reason  '  to  expect  any  good 
and  fruitful  results  from  the  change  needed  no  pointing 
out,'  the  councillors  emphatically  declared  :  that  '  the 
matter  spoke  for  itself.'  '  The  imperial  and  Austrian 
ministers,  the  characters  of  these  gentlemen,  the  way 
also  in  which  they  will  carry  on  the  management,  how 
little  they  will  respect  the  Catholic  electors  and  Estates, 
all  this  is  more  than  well  known.'  If,  then,  the  oppo- 
nents '  make  a  practice  in  future  of  invading  the 
Catholics,  robbing  and  confiscating  their  abbeys  and 
convents,  and  going  to  the  greatest  lengths  of  coercion 
against  them,  and  if  the  Catholics  are  obliged  to  defend 
themselves,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  these  ill-disposed, 
evil-affected  ministers  will  arrange  everything  every- 
where according  to  their  own  minds  and  liking.'  An 
alliance  with  the  Austrian  army  appeared  also  to  the 
Duke  dangerous  for  the  Catholic  League.  '  Everybody 
knows  how  expensive,  ostentatious,  and,  to  speak  truth, 


KLESL   AND   THE   LEAGUE,    1614  605 

how  extravagant  the  pay  and  equipment  of  officers 
have  become,  especially  in  Austria  ;  and  that  the  pay 
of  a  single  officer  of  high  rank  often  amounts  to  as 
much  as  the  joint  subscriptions  of  six,  seven,  or  eight 
members  of  the  Catholic  League.  This  Austrian  ex- 
travagance would  soon  creep  into  the  Bavarian  director- 
ship. But  what  is  most  serious  of  all,  by  alliance  with 
Austria  the  Catholic  League  would  be  drawn  into  all 
the  contests  and  wars  going  on  there.  The  Emperor 
has  lost  the  obedience  of  his  subjects  in  almost  all  his 
lands,  and  he  cannot  raise  five  hundred  men  without 
the  consent  of  the  provincial  Estates  ;  besides  which 
there  seems  likely  to  be  a  general  insurrection  in 
Hungaria,  Bohemia,  Silesia,  and  Moravia.  For  all  these 
reasons  the  Austrian  directorship  would  in  a  short  time, 
and  unexpectedly,  command  the  services  of  the  Bavarian, 
and  what  the  Austrian  ministers  have  allowed  to  drift 
and  be  lost  at  home,  failing  other  means,  they  would 
regain  by  the  help  of  the  Catholic  defence  fund  and  the 
Austrian  directory,  and  thus  they  would  set  themselves 
right  at  the  expense  of  others.'  l 

For  all  these  reasons  combined  Maximilian  would 
not  bother  himself  with  the  Ratisbon  League  Recess. 
In  order,  however,  to  avert  the  complete  disruption  ol 
the  League,  it  was  decided  at  Munich  '  that  the  best 
way  of  salvation '  was  that  '  among  a  certain  number 
of  the  Estates  of  South  Germany '  a  special  defensive 
league  should  be  formed  on  the  basis  of  the  old  con- 
stitution.    Even  if  this  league  should  not  '  secure  the 


1  Abschied  des  Regensburgers  Bundestags  vom  23.  Oktober  1613  ;  Wolf, 
iii.  469^78  ;  Gutachten  der  bayerischen  Rate  iiber  den  Abschied,  pp.  478- 
485  ;  Maximilian's  Instruktion  vom  20.  Januar  1614,  for  a  meeting  of  the 
League  at  Augsburg,  pp.  563-569. 


606  HISTOEY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Spanish  and  papal  succour,  which,  after  all,  had  not 
hitherto  been  of  such  great  importance,'  it  would  not 
at  any  rate  '  be  easy  for  anyone  to  attack  and  harass 
the  allied  Estates  in  their  own  lands.'  The  Rhenish 
princes  of  the  League,  with  whom  friendly  relations 
were  to  be  observed,  would  without  doubt  rally  together 
with  the  assistance  of  Archduke  Albert,  and  avert  from 
themselves  all  threatened  danger.  '  If,  then,  the  oppo- 
site party  should  want  to  bring  on  a  general  action,  it 
would  be  easy  afterwards  to  unite  all  the  military 
forces,  and  then  it  could  soon  be  settled,  according  to 
the  exigencies  of  time,  place,  and  the  particular  danger 
feared,  which  of  the  directors  should  be  entrusted  with 
the  sole  management.'  1 

In  March  1614  a  closer  defensive  alliance  of  this  sort 
was  concluded  between  Bavaria,  the  Bishops  of  Bam- 
berg, Wiirzburg,  Eichstadt,  and  Augsburg,  and  the 
Provost  of  Ellwangen.2  In  June  the  Rhenish  con- 
federates assembled  at  Bingen,  and  resolved  to  stand 
firmly  by  the  Ratisbon  Recess,  to  negotiate  with  the 
Duke  of  Lorraine  respecting  his  accession  to  the  Union, 
and  to  obtain  from  Archduke  Albert  a  promise  that 
'  in  case  the  allied  Protestants  should  be  supported 
either  openly  with  military  forces,  or  secretly  with 
money,  by  the  Dutch  States,  he  would  come  in  like 
manner  to  the  help  of  the  Catholics,  either  with  men  or 
with  money.'  3 

Although  '  everybody  was  aware  that  the  dangers 
were  steadily  increasing,  yet  the  Catholic  League  of 
Defence  was  allowed  to  fall  visibly  to  pieces.' 

While  the  Bavarian  and  Rhenish  directorates  were 

1  Wolf,  iii.  484-485.  -  Id.  iii.  586-597. 

:1  Id  iii.  603-815 


MAXIMILIAN   RESIGNS   COMMAND   OF   LEAGUE,   1616      607 

severed,  Archduke  Maximilian,  not  content  with  the 
position  assigned  to  him  at  Augsburg,  demanded  that 
the  bishopric  of  Augsburg  and  the  provostry  of  Ell- 
wangen  should  pass  '  entirely  under  the  control  of  the 
Austrian  directorate.'  When  this  had  been  accom- 
plished, and  not  before,  he  would  make  known  '  the 
remainder  of  his  grievances  '  at  a  meeting  of  the  League. 
As  if  to  seal  the  doom  of  the  Catholic  cause,  he  raised 
still  further  contentions.  He  insisted  that  Bavaria 
'  should  surrender  to  him  all  the  lands  and  people 
situated  and  dwelling  above  the  Lech ;  '  for  Bavaria 
proper  only  extended  as  far  as  the  Lech,  and  had  no 
claims  on  any  territory  beyond  this  boundary.  Writing 
to  his  brother  Ferdinand  in  complaint  of  this  '  new  and 
unheard-of  pretension,'  Duke  Maximilian  said  :  '  I  seem 
indeed  to  be  the  one  whom  people,  at  every  opportu- 
nity and  for  every  pretext,  conspire  to  dispossess  of  his 
own.'  *  At  the  urgent  solicitation  of  the  Elector  of 
Mayence  he  transferred  the  bishopric  of  Augsburg  to 
the  Austrian  directorate  ;  at  the  same  time,  however, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1616,  he  resigned  his  com- 
mand of  the  League,  stating  his  reasons  for  this  now 
irrevocable  decision  in  an  exhaustive  pamphlet.  '  Never- 
theless,' he  reiterated  again  and  again,  '  we  shall  not 
altogether  and  entirely  sever  ourselves  from  the  Catholics, 
but  as  far  as  lies  in  our  power  we  shall  do  all  we  can  for 
the  Catholic  cause.'  Once  more,  in  urgent  language, 
the  Bishops  of  Bamberg  and  Wiirzburg  attempted  to 
turn  him  from  his  purpose.  k  They  had  hitherto,'  they 
said,  '  placed  their  sole  hope  and  trust  in  him,'  and  they 
could    not    submit    to    any    other    directorate.     If    he 

1  Breyer,  i.  25,  note  12. 


608  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

ceased  to  be  head  of  the  League,  the  whole  confederacy 
would  inevitably  fall  to  pieces,  and  the  adversaries 
would  gain  the  wished-for  opportunity  for  attack ; 
then  all  would  be  over  with  the  Catholic  religion  and 
the  Fatherland.  Had  not  the  opponents  themselves 
lately  declared  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  Duke  of 
Bavaria  they  would  have  proceeded  very  differently 
against  the  bishoprics  ?  The  Duke,  at  any  rate,  was 
not  exposed  to  such  great  dangers  as  they  were,  as  the 
Protestants  were  more  covetous  of  the  clerical  benefices 
than  of  the  princely  lands.  '  If,  however,  the  enemies' 
plans  for  utterly  rooting  out  the  Catholic  religion  should 
succeed,  the  ruin  would  spread  finally  to  Bavaria  also, 
as  had  happened  to  the  powerful  King  of  Spain  through 
his  own  native  subjects  on  account  of  religion.'  When 
these  representations  proved  fruitless,  the  Estates  with 
whom  Maximilian  had  contracted  a  close  alliance  in 
1614  sent  an  embassy  to  Munich  in  April  1616,  to 
inform  the  Duke  that  '  they  were  ready  to  place  not  a 
small  sum  only,  but  the  whole  of  their  fortunes  at  the 
disposal  of  the  League.'  They  pointed  out  how  grievous 
it  was  that  this  League,  which  the  Spirit  of  God  had 
fashioned  to  bind  together  the  Catholic  Estates,  should 
be  so  lightly  torn  asunder  again,  '  whereas  the  con- 
federacy which  the  adversary's  spirit  had  created  had 
hitherto,  in  spite  of  all  contrarieties,  stood  so  firmly 
together  that  neither  the  prestige  of  the  Emperor  nor 
the  combined  resistance  of  the  Catholic  electors,  princes, 
and  Estates,  nor  the  disapproval  of  some  of  the  Pro- 
testant princes,  nor  even  the  lamentable  wailing  and 
complaining  of  the  poor  ruined  subjects,  had  been 
able    to    loosen    it.'  1      But     Maximilian    adhered  im- 

1  Breyer,  i.  10-36. 


BREAK-UP   OF   THE    LEAGUE,    1616  609 

movably  to  his  resolution  no  longer  to  be  head  of  the 
League,  for  '  he  did  not  choose  to  be  the  servant  of 
Austria.' 

Through  his  withdrawal  the  League  was  as  good  as 
broken  up.  All  that  remained  of  it  was  '  a  private, 
neighbourly  understanding  '  arranged  in  May  1617 
between  Bavaria,  the  Bishops  of  Bamberg,  Wiirzburg, 
and  Eichstadt,  and  the  Provost  of  Ellwangen.  Not 
even  Maximilian's  brother,  the  Elector  of  Cologne,  was 
granted  his  request  to  join.1  And  yet  this  very  Elector 
was  especially  in  need  of  help.  '  A  few  days  ago,'  he 
wrote  to  Maximilian  on  April  13,  1617,  '  General  Gent, 
who  serves  under  the  States-General,  under  pretext  of 
leading  his  troops  into  France,  marched  out  of  Gueldres 
into  my  bishopric  of  Minister  with  nineteen  companies 
of  cavalry  numbering  two  thousand  men,  seized  and 
pillaged  the  borough  of  Stadtlohn,  injured  and  shot 
down  the  burgomaster  and  several  other  citizens,  and 
altogether  behaved  in  a  very  evil  and  hostile  manner 
wherever  they  went.'  After  these  undisciplined  soldiers 
'  had  committed  all  sorts  of  excesses  in  Minister,  and 
had  heavily  molested  the  poor  inhabitants,  they  went 
straight  off  to  the  bishopric  of  Paderborn,  where  also 
they  perpetrated  all  sorts  of  enormities.'  Three  thou- 
sand imperial  thalers  had  to  be  spent  in  purchasing 
their  withdrawal.  '  It  is  pitiable  indeed  that  the 
Roman  Empire  should  have  fallen  into  such  contempt 
that  nowadays  any  and  every  one,  even  disorderly  gangs, 
may  boldly  push  their  way  across  the  soil  of  the  Em- 
pire without  asking  permission,  without  even  giving  any 
warning,  and  be  allowed  to  inflict  the  worst  and  most 
irreparable  damages  on  the  lands  thus  passed  through, 

1  Breyer,  i.  90-97. 
VOL.   X.  R  R 


610  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

without  any  resistance  being  offered.  All  this  comes 
from  the  shattered  and  disruptured  condition  of  the 
League,  which  makes  it  impossible  for  any  one  Estate 
to  get  help  from  another,  and  most  especially  so  for  me 
with  my  bishoprics.'  l 

1  Breyer,  i.  13-15,  note 


fill 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  '  COMPOSITION  '  AND  THE  SUCCESSION  IN  THE 
EMPIRE — VIOLENT  MEASURES  OF  THE  UNION,  1615- 
1618 

While  the  Catholic  League  of  Defence  was  in  course 
of  splitting  up,  the  corresponding  princes  clamoured 
incessantly  for  a  '  Composition  Diet,'  at  which  a  fresh 
compact  similar  to  the  Passau  Treaty  should  be  con- 
cluded between  them  and  the  Catholic  Estates.  At 
the  Ratisbon  imperial  Diet  Klesl  had  recommended 
a  meeting  of  this  sort,  and  the  Emperor  had  held  out 
hopes  of  one  in  order  to  induce  the  corresponding 
princes  to  pay  their  promised  Turkish  aids. 

But  already  at  that  time  the  Catholic  Estates  had 
refused  their  assent,  because  '  so  far  all  contracts  had 
begun  and  ended  with  sacrifices  on  their  part.'  '  The 
only  object,'  they  had  said,  '  of  the  corresponding 
princes  was  to  place  themselves  in  secure  possession  of 
the  ecclesiastical  property  confiscated  after  the  con- 
clusion of  the  Passau  Treaty.  To  this,  however,  the 
Catholics  could  not  consent  without  danger  of  also 
losing  the  remainder  of  their  property  ;  let  the  new 
treaty  be  drawn  up  as  it  might,  it  would  all  the  same 
excite  a  desire  for  more  and  more,  just  as  the  Passau 
Treaty  had  done  ;  it  was  therefore  better,  at  the  risk 
of  some  possible  danger,  to  await  the  development  of 
time  and  circumstances,  than  to  subscribe  at  once  to 

E  E   2 


612  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

certain  danger.' l     '  There  is  much  talk  at  present,'  said 
van  EfTern,  counsellor  of  the  Elector  of  Mayence,  in  a 
memorandum  prepared  for  his  lord  during  the  Diet, 
'  on  the  question  whether  the  Catholic  Estates  can  and 
should  give  up  their  rights  in  order  to  preserve  peace 
in   the    Empire.'     The   opponents,    it   is    urged,    '  will 
support  their  delinquencies  with  armed  force,'  whereas 
the  Catholics  were  quite  unprepared  for  war  and  would 
not  be  able  to  stand  the  attack  ;  it  was  therefore  '  better 
to  yield  in  some  measure  than  to  imperil  everything.' 
On  the  other  hand,  it   was  retorted   by  others,    '  The 
Catholics,  by  manifold  concessions — that  is  to  say,  by 
giving    up    the    occupied    abbeys    and    churches — give 
occasion  to  the  Calvinists  to  encroach  more  and  more 
and  to  rase  the  Catholic  Church  to  the  ground.'     In 
this  opinion  van  EfTern  concurred.     Even  if  the  Catholics 
surrendered  to  the  Protestants  all  that  they  had  taken 
possession  of,  the  former  would  still  have  no  certainty 
of  being  able  to  retain  what  was  left  to  them  ;  for  on 
the   part   of   the   Calvinist   corresponding   Estates,    a& 
experience  had  proved,  no  promises  or  oaths  were  kept. 
It  was  therefore  better,  '  by  means  of  necessary  defence,' 
to  save  God's  honour  and  the  Church,  than  to  lose 
everything  by  a  policy  of  concession.     '  All  Catholic 
emperors,  kings,  potentates,  princes,  and  governors  are 
bound  to  God  by  conscience,  office,  oath,  and  duty,  to 
oppose  threatened  warfare  with  all  their  might — yea, 
with  life  and  property.'  2 

In  February  1615,  at  their  assembly  at  Nuremberg, 
the  corresponding  princes  once  more  begged  of  the 
Emperor  that,  after  the  example  of  King  Ferdinand,  he 

1  Schmidt,  Neuere  Gesch.  vii.  12. 

2  Liinig,  Staatsconsilia,  i.  787-792. 


THE    'COMPOSITION'   QUESTION,    1614  613 

would  appoint  peaceable  and  competent  imperial  Estates 
to  act  as  mediators,  to  give  a  kindly  hearing  to  both 
parties,  to  negotiate  impartially  between  them,  and,  if 
possible,  effect  a  reasonable  agreement ;  which  agree- 
ment should  then  be  submitted  to  his  Imperial  Majesty 
and  the  collective  Estates  for  their  joint  ratification. 
Matthias  sent  the  document  to  the  ecclesiastical  electors 
for  their  opinion,  and  they  answered  on  June  9  that, 
'  judging  from  the  behaviour  of  the  opponents  up  to 
the  present  time,  they  could  not  anticipate  any  good 
result  from  the  negotiations  ;  the  corresponding  princes 
must  at  any  rate  express  themselves  more  fully  respect- 
ing the  objects  and  the  terms  of  the  agreement,  and 
also  state  how  this  agreement,  supposing  it  to  be 
arranged,  would  insure  more  mutual  security  than  the 
Religious  Peace.  Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  who 
was  also  solicited  for  an  opinion,  had  already  answered 
on  May  15,  that  '  a  matter  of  such  high  importance, 
and  one  concerning  the  whole  body  of  Catholic  Estates, 
should  be  laid  before  them  for  their  collective  considera- 
tion, and  that  the  first  step  must  be  to  summon  an 
assembly  of  these  Estates.'  He  personally  was  con- 
vinced '  that  the  plan  of  mediation  would  not  have  the 
desired  result,  but,  on  the  contrary,  would  cause  still 
greater  disruption  in  the  Empire  ;  '  for  the  two  parties, 
to  begin  with,  would  never  agree  in  the  choice  of  a 
mediator,  and  if  division  arose  on  this  point  there  would 
be  nobody  at  hand  to  decide  the  matter,  because  every- 
thing was  planned  on  the  assumption  of  a  friendly  under- 
standing, and  the  Emperor  himself,  by  consenting  to  the 
'  composition,'  had  renounced  the  right  of  decision. 
Moreover,  it  was  scarcely  likely  that  in  so  difficult 
and    complicated  a  dispute  the  mediators  themselves 


614  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

would  be  unanimous,  and,  even  if  they  were,  it  is 
not  to  be  expected  that  both  parties  would  be  content 
with  their  pronouncements,  especially  as  the  principal 
point  in  question  is  the  curtailment  of  the  imperial 
jurisdiction.  And  finally,  even  if  a  reasonable  under- 
standing should  be  brought  about,  the  agreement  must 
be  sent  in  to  the  Estates  for  their  confirmation,  and 
this  should  be  given,  not  by  the  majority,  but  individu- 
ally in  an  amicable  manner,  and  without  allowing  the 
Emperor  to  decide  in  doubtful  cases.  He  failed,  how- 
ever, to  see  in  what  manner  so  great  a  desecration  of 
imperial  prestige  and  of  the  constitution  of  the  Empire 
could  promote  the  welfare  of  Germany.1 

Among  the  Catholics  there  was  a  tolerably  firm 
conviction  that  '  the  corresponding  princes  intended  by 
means  of  this  "  composition  "  to  get  all  that  they  wanted 
straight  off,  or  else,  as  they  threatened,  to  wield  the 
sword  to  such  purpose  that  there  would  be  nothing  left 
over  respecting  which  they  could  come  to  amicable 
terms  ;  '  a  composition  was  therefore  an  a  priori  impossi- 
bility because  '  the  corresponding  princes  would  not 
tolerate  any  umpire  who,  in  the  event  of  a  parity  of 
votes  on  the  matters  under  dispute,  should  give  the 
casting  vote  by  an  equitable  decision.'  2 

1  Breyer,  i.  39-52.  Under  appeal  to  a  numerous  correspondence  in 
the  Viennese  State  archives  (Gesch.  des  bohmischen  Aufstandes,  i.  35), 
Gindely  writes  that  the  corresponding  princes,  just  like  the  Catholics, 
'  at  the  Composition  Diet  would  not  take  any  part  in  affairs  unless  certain 
stipulations  were  granted  them  beforehand.'  But  the  stipulations  of 
the  two  parties  '  alternately  excluded  each  other.'  The  possibility  of 
coming  to  any  understanding  was  therefore  out  of  the  question. 

•2  '  Bedenken  '  of  the  year  1616,  in  Liinig,  Staatsconsilia,  i.  934-935. 
The  whole  of  this  '  Bedenken  '  (pp.  923-937)  sums  up  excellently  the 
whole  anarchic  situation  of  the  Empire.  Respecting  this  document,  cf. 
the  accounts  of  Krebs,  Publicistik,  p.  208  ff. 


THE   SUCCESSION   QUESTION,    1616  615 

In  the  imperial  cabinet  the  corresponding  princes 
gained  a  '  powerful  advocate '  in  Klesl,  who  pleaded 
with  the  Emperor  in  favour  of  a  Composition  Diet,  in 
order  to  defer  as  long  as  possible  the  decision  respecting 
the  succession  in  the  Empire.1 

Immediately  on  the  election  of  the  Emperor,  who  had 
entered  on  the  government  at  the  age  of  fifty-five,  the 
question  of  succession  had  been  stirred  up  by  the 
Spanish  ambassador,  and  at  the  Diet  at  Ratisbon 
the  ecclesiastical  Electors  and  the  papal  nuncio  had 
most  warmly  recommended  its  immediate  settlement. 
They  had  been  actuated  by  fear  of  the  corresponding 
princes,  who  might  easily  profit  by  a  change  of  rule  in 
the  Empire  to  procure  the  crown  for  one  of  themselves. 
Archduke  Maximilian  devoted  his  whole  strength  to 
the  cause  of  his  cousin,  Archduke  Ferdinand  of  Styria  ; 
for  it  seemed  to  him  that  this  prince  would  best  be  able 
to  revive  the  much  weakened  might  of  the  House  of 
Habsburg  if,  as  King  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary  and 
lord  of  the  other  hereditary  lands,  he  was  also  elected 
Emperor.  The  ecclesiastical  Electors  showed  themselves 
not  unfavourable  to  this  idea,  and  already  in  1614  an 
Election  Diet  was  proposed.2 

Klesl,  however,  did  not  intend  to  lose  his  dominant 
influence  over  affairs  of  state  and  his  position  as  '  Vice- 
Emperor '  by  an  early  settlement  of  the  succession 
question.  He  was  still  so  all-powerful  with  Matthias 
that  Bromser,  the  ambassador  from  the  Elector  of 
Mayence,  wrote  to  his  lord  on  February  28,  1614, 
:  Without  this  man's  consent  and  interposition  nothing 

'  See    A.   Wahl,   Kompositions-  und  Successions- Verhandlungen  unter 
Kaiser  Matthias  wiihrend  der  Jahre  1G13-1615  (Dissert.,  Bonn,  1895). 
2  Gindely,  Gesch.  des  bohmischen  Aufstandes,  i.  7-21. 


616  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

can  be  accomplished.'  :  To  the  Archduke  Maximilian, 
however,  Klesl  posed  as  an  active  promoter  of  the 
settlement  of  the  succession.  Nevertheless,  he  wrote 
to  the  Archduke  at  the  end  of  October  1614,  the  matter 
could  not  be  decided  without  that  '  unanimous  agree- 
ment '  with  the  Catholics  which  the  corresponding 
princes  desired.  Until  this  had  been  brought  about 
the  Count  Palatine  and  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
would  not  come  to  any  Election  Diet,  but  would,  on  the 
contrary,  protest  against  any  being  held,  possibly  even 
set  up  an  opposition  election,  and  then  '  the  House  of 
Austria,  the  whole  Empire,  and  the  Catholic  religion 
would  be  plunged  in  ruin.'  The  Catholics  must  agree 
together  respecting  a  Composition  Diet,  for  the  things 
they  wanted  were  only  private  matters  ;  the  succession, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  a  universal  matter  ;  the  first 
must  give  way  to  the  latter.  It  was  not  the  first  time, 
moreover,  that  for  the  sake  of  a  greater  good  it  had  been 
necessary  to  '  bite  into  a  hard  and  sour  kind  of  apple 
which  with  time  had  become  sweet  and  mellow.'  Even 
if  the  Catholics  did  not  give  in  to  their  opponents  at 
the  Composition  Diet  they  would  at  any  rate  main- 
tain the  sentiment  of  German  trustfulness,  fresh  good 
feeling  would  be  awakened  by  meeting  together,  the 
motives  and  intentions  of  the  adversaries  would  be 
gauged,  and  possibly  even  a  satisfactory  termination 
be  the  result.2  In  view  of  this  attitude  of  Klesl  it  is 
easily  understood  that  the  corresponding  princes  were 
anxious  for  his  presence  at  such  a  meeting.  '  The 
much  desiderated  man,'  said  they,  '  must  be  especially 
added  to  the  Estates  as  a  supporter ;  on  the  other  hand 

1  Kerschbaumer,  p.  198,  note. 

-  Hammer,  iii.  ;  Urkundenbd.  pp.  143-145. 


THE    SUCCESSION   QUESTION,    1614  617 

the  Lutheran  Elector  of  Saxony  and  the  Lutheran 
Landgrave  of  Hesse-Darmstadt  must  be  excluded  from 
the  proceedings.' 

While  the  Archduke  Maximilian,  conjointly  with 
John  Schweikau  of  Mayence,  was  besieging  the  Emperor 
with  entreaties  not  to  postpone  any  longer  the  fixing  of 
a  date  for  the  Election  Diet,  Klesl  signified  anew,  in  the 
autumn  of  1615,  that  an  election  was  still  impracticable 
because  the  Protestant  Electors  could  not  be  persuaded 
to  agree  to  such  a  measure  ;  '  the  corresponding  princes,' 
he  said,  *  as  is  openly  known,  are  bent  on  nothing  but 
an  interregnum.'  l 

But  just  for  this  very  reason  Maximilian  and  the 
ecclesiastical  Electors  were  anxious  to  hasten  on  the 
election.  They  agreed  in  the  opinion  that  a  meeting 
of  the  Electors  should  be  held,  not  for  the  sake  of  the 
'  composition  '  wished  for  by  the  corresponding  princes, 
but  '  only  on  account  of  the  succession  question.'  "2  On 
February  19,  1616,  the  Archduke  addressed  a  letter  to 
the  Emperor,  informing  him  that  the  ecclesiastical 
Electors  were  ready  to  proceed  with  the  settlement  of 
the  election,  and  advising  him  to  communicate  per- 
sonally with  John  George  of  Saxony,  and  to  insure  the 
latter's  not  only  consenting  himself  to  the  election,  but 
also  gaining  for  it  the  approval  of  the  Palatinate  and 
Brandenburg.  Even,  however,  if  these  two  last  Estates 
should  raise  difficulties  and  should  not  appear  at  the 
meeting  of  Electors,  they  would  still  be  able  to  proceed 
to  the  election,  for,  according  to  the  Golden  Bull, 
the   minority  must  submit   to   the   majority,  even  as 

1  Hammer,  in.  ;  Urkunderibd.  pp.  266-267. 

2  Letter  of  the  Elector  Ferdinand  of  Cologne  to  Maximilian  of  Bavaria, 
May  30,  1616,  in  Breyer,  I.  Beil.  i.  4-5. 


618  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Ferdinand  I.  had  been  elected  without  the  vote  of  the 
Elector  of  Saxony.  But  it  was  not  in  accordance  with 
the  Golden  Bull  for  Maximilian  to  advise  the  Emperor 
that  '  he  must  reserve  to  himself  the  choice  of  his 
successor  in  spite  of  the  result  of  the  election.'  In 
order  to  be  prepared  against  all  adverse  agencies,  the 
Archduke  urged  emphatically,  he  would  require  that 
'  indispensable  military  equipment '  which  he  (the 
Archduke)  had  recommended  in  another  memorandum.1 
This  other  memorandum  was  to  the  effect  that  '  with  the 
support  of  the  courts  of  Brussels  and  Madrid,  and  under 
the  command  of  Ferdinand  of  Styria,  a  well-organised 
army  should  be  established  on  the  soil  of  the  Empire 
in  order  to  intimidate  the  disobedient,  to  arouse  the 
indifferent  to  a  sense  of  their  duties,  and  to  strengthen 
the  loyal  and  obedient.'  2  In  the  middle  of  March  1616 
Matthias  informed  his  brother  that  the  proposed  plan 
met  with  his  approval,  and  that  he  intended  to  visit 
the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  himself  to  take  in  hand  the 
furtherance  of  the  succession  settlement  in  the  Austrian 
lands.3  Maximilian  no  longer  felt  any  doubts  as  to  the 
speedy  summoning  of  an  Electoral  Diet,  after  Klesl,  to 
whom  he  had  sent  his  memorandum  of  February  19, 
had  answered  him  solemnly,  on  April  27,  that  '  he 
thought  everything  was  most  satisfactory,  and  that  he 
would  commend  the  settlement  of  the  succession  to  the 
Emperor ;  '  '  I  could  not  advise  him  otherwise,'  he 
said ;  '  I  should  be  imperilling  my  conscience  most 
seriously  if  I  did.'  4 

1  Maximilian's  '  Gutachten  '  in  Khevenhiller,  viii.  882-888  ;  Londorp 
Acta  publ.  i.  350-351  ;  Liinig,  Staatsconsilia,  i.  916-919. 

;  Letter  of  the  Elector  of  Cologne,  see  above,  p.  617,  note  1. 

::  Gindely,  Gesch.  des  b/ihmischen  Aufstandes. 

4  Khevenhiller,  viii.  891-893  ;  Liinig,  Staatsconsilia,  i.  921-922. 


ARCHDUKE    MAXIMILIAN   AND   KLESL  019 

But  '  the  man  with  the  impenetrable  arts  ' l  did  not 
further  the  cause  of  the  election,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
opposed  hostile  resistance  to  the  elevation  of  Ferdinand, 
and  instilled  into  the  Emperor  anxious  fears  that  he 
might  experience  from  his  brothers  the  same  treatment 
of  which  he  himself  had  been  guilty  towards  Rudolf, 
that  the  archdukes  must  have  evil  designs  against  him, 
and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  opponents  of  his  House, 
furious  in  the  extreme  at  the  hurrying  on  of  the  succes- 
sion question,  were  plotting  his  downfall.2 

Into  the  hands  of  these  opponents  Maximilian's 
secret  memorial  of  February  19  was  smuggled ;  the 
Palatine  court  got  possession  of  a  copy  of  it,  and  soon 
the  whole  of  Germany  was  acquainted  with  its  contents.3 
Maximilian  had  no  doubt  whatever  that  Klesl  was  the 
traitor.  '  It  astonished  him,'  he  said,  '  that  the  devil 
had  not  long  ago  carried  off  this  lying  scoundrel ;  Klesl 
was  the  pest  of  the  House  of  Austria.'  4 

The  Elector  Frederic  V.  used  this  memorial  as  a 
warrant  for  casting  it  in  the  teeth  of  the  Habsburgers 
that  their  intention  was  to  abolish  the  Electors'  rights  of 
choosing  the  Emperor,  to  make  the  Empire  hereditary  ; 
their  stupendous  armaments,  he  said,  were  meant  to 
crush  out  every  breath  of  freedom.5 

But  the  scarecrow  pictures  which  he  conjured  up  of 

1  See  above,  pp.  512-513. 

-  Gindely,  Gesch.  des  biihmischen  Aufstandes,  i.  38.  See  W.  Meier, 
Kom positions-  und  Successions-Verhandlungen  unter  Kaiser  Matthias 
wiihrend  der  Jahre  1615-1618  (Dissert.,  Bonn,  1895).  This  work  carries 
on  the  investigations  of  Wabl  cited  above  at  p.  615,  note  1,  and  rectifies 
and  largely  supplements  the  account  given  by  Gindely. 

Hurter,  vii.  61  ;  Gindely,  i.  39.  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  received  the 
first  intelligence  of  the  memorial  through  Christian  of  Anlialt  (Breyer, 
i.  59). 

4  Wolf,  Maximilian,  iii.  657,  note.  Gindely,  i.  40. 


620  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  '  terrific  '  plans  of  the  Habsburgers,  and  by  which 
he  tried  also,  though  vainly,  to  frighten  the  Elector  of 
Saxony,  he  by  no  means  believed  in  himself.  For  he 
had  learnt  the  true  state  of  things  with  regard  to  the 
Habsburg  House  from  two  ambassadors  who  had  been 
sent  to  Bohemia  at  the  beginning  of  1617  to  inform 
themselves  more  fully  concerning  the  situation  of  affairs. 
The  first  of  these,  Christopher  von  Dohna,  after  his 
return,  collected  together  his  observations  and  informa- 
tion in  a  report  to  the  Prince  of  Anhalt :  '  The  Austrian 
monarchy,'  he  said,  '  was  tottering  at  every  point ; 
each  separate  province  had  its  pretender  to  the  throne, 
who  was  only  waiting  for  the  death  of  the  Emperor  to 
lift  up  his  head.  In  Hungary  any  prince  who  had 
money,  and  who  understood  something  of  the  Hun- 
garian language,  might  stretch  out  his  hand  for  the 
crown  with  hope  of  success.  The  lordship  over  Moravia 
and  Austria  was  the  prize  which  Prince  Charles  meant 
to  get  for  himself  ;  if  the  Protestants  aided  and  abetted 
him,  he  would  let  the  Mass  go.'  The  Union  enjoyed 
high  repute  everywhere,  and  it  had  gained  especial 
favour  by  its  flat  refusal  at  the  Diet  at  Ratisbon  to 
grant  the  Emperor  any  pecuniary  aid.  It  was  desirable 
that  the  allies  should  deal  sparingly  with  their  means, 
in  order  that  when  once  they  drew  the  sword  from  its 
scabbard  they  might  not  have  to  put  it  back  until 
everything  was  won.  The  Emperor,  in  case  of  war, 
had  no  resources  at  hand  ;  the  arsenals  were  empty ; 
the  state  debts,  which  already  amounted  to  twenty-five 
million  florins,  went  on  steadily  augmenting,  owing  to 
non-payment  of  taxes  ;  the  Hungarian  border  fortresses 
were  almost  without  garrisons.  The  second  ambas- 
sador,   the    Palatine   Councillor  Camerarius,   kept  his 


FERDINAND'S   FRIENDS   AND   EFFORTS  G21 

attention  fixed  chiefly  on  the  question  of  the  succession 
in  Bohemia,  and  entered  secretly  into  negotiations  on 
the  matter  with  Count  Matthias  von  Thurn  and  his 
associates  ;  so  great  was  the  importance  of  the  business 
that  he  thought  it  '  perilous  '  to  him  to  trust  his  experi- 
ences to  pen  and  ink.  Under  the  pretext  of  trying  to 
bring  about  a  '  Composition  Diet '  Camerarius  had  had 
several  interviews  with  the  Emperor  and  with  Klesl. 
He  was  able  to  report  with  satisfaction  that  the  former 
was  not  in  favour  of  the  succession  of  Ferdinand,  and 
that  the  latter  was  working  zealously  against  it.  Klesl 
was  apprehensive,  Dohna  wrote ;  he  fought  shy  of 
opposing  the  Protestants,  which  was  very  fortunate  for 
them.1  Nevertheless,  the  first  thing  to  happen  in 
Bohemia  was  '  the  utterly  unexpected.' 

Klesl  had  persistently  explained  his  hesitation  to 
work  for  Ferdinand's  election  on  the  ground  that  no 
agreement  had  yet  been  concluded  with  the  King  of 
Spain,  who  laid  claims  to  the  Austrian  inheritance. 
Philip  III.,  namely,  as  son  of  a  daughter  of  Maxi- 
milian II.,  claimed  that  on  the  extinction  of  the  latter' s 
male  descendants,  he  had  a  better  right  to  the  throne  of 
Bohemia  and  Hungary  than  the  collateral  line  of  Graz, 
from  which  Ferdinand  sprang.  In  the  first  months, 
however,  of  1617,  behind  the  back  of  Klesl  and  the 
Emperor,  a  compact  was  concluded  between  Ferdinand 
and  the  Spanish  ambassador  Ofiate,  by  which  Philip 
renounced  '  his  claims  to  the  crown.'  Ferdinand  in 
exchange  made  two  attestations  on  the  strength  of 
which,  after  his  elevation  to  the  imperial  throne,  every 
vacant  German  fief  in  Italy,  besides  Austrian  Alsatia, 
was  to  pass  over  to  Spain.     Fortunately  these  fateful 

1  Gindely,  i.  186-190. 


022  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

agreements  were  not  carried  into  practical  effect  ; 
Philip  himself  later  on  voluntarily  released  Ferdinand 
from  his  engagement  respecting  Alsatia.  In  the  pre- 
sence of  the  Emperor  and  of  Klesl,  the  Spanish  ambas- 
sador, in  the  name  of  his  sovereign,  expressed  satis- 
faction that  the  male  descendants  of  Philip  should  be 
preferred  before  the  female  descendants  of  Ferdinand, 
and  used  all  his  influence  and  energy  in  favour  of 
establishing  the  former  on  the  throne  of  Bohemia  and 
Hungary.  Klesl  was  prevented  by  threats  of  imprison- 
ment from  further  hindering  the  course  of  the  election, 
and  the  Emperor,  during  a  severe  illness  with  which  he 
was  seized  at  the  end  of  April,  declared  himself  willing 
to  summon  a  Bohemian  provincial  Diet  on  June  5.1 

At  this  Diet,  '  to  the  utmost  astonishment '  of  all 
the  Protestants,  Ferdinand  was  unanimously  accepted 
as  King  by  all  three  Estates.  The  Protestant  Estates 
demanded  of  him  a  formal  written  attestation  that  he 
would  respect  all  rights  and  privileges  '  in  all  points  and 
clauses,  in  like  manner  as  the  present  Emperor  and  his 
ancestors,  the  Kings  of  Bohemia,  had  done.'  The 
matter  particularly  in  question  here  was  the  Majestats- 
brief.  Ferdinand  consulted  the  Jesuits  of  Prague  as  to 
whether  he  could  recognise  this  letter  without  violence 
to  his  conscience.  The  answer  was  unanimously  in  the 
affirmative  ;  true,  he  ought  never  to  have  consented  to 
such  a  letter,  but,  having  once  done  so,  he  might  ratify 
it.  The  wished-for  attestation  was  written  down,  and 
the  new  King  was  solemnly  crowned  on  June  29.2 

A  disconcerting  event  this  for  the  Count  Palatine 
Frederic  V.,  who  had  already,  in  his  suit  for  the  King 

1  Fuller  details  in  Gindely,  i.  45-56. 
-  Ibid.  162-173. 


OPPOSITION   TO   FERDINAND  623 

of  England's  daughter,  mentioned  the  Bohemian  crown 
as  his  future  possession.1 

As  Bohemia — for  the  present  at  any  rate — was  out 
of  their  reach,  it  was  above  all  important  for  the  cor- 
responding princes  to  prevent  Ferdinand'  selection  to 
the  imperial  throne.  They  formed  the  plan  of  putting 
up  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  as  his  opponent.  To  this  end 
Frederic  V.,  at  the  end  of  July  1617,  repaired  to  the 
Duke  of  Bouillon,  the  old  Huguenot  leader,  at  Sedan, 
where  an  ambassador  of  the  King  of  England  also 
appeared  to  oiler  James  I.'s  help  against  Ferdinand. 
A  compact  was  arranged  regarding  joint  operations 
and  the  necessary  preparations  for  future  military 
equipment.  The  Dutch  General  Gent,  who  in  April  had 
ravaged  the  bishoprics  of  Miinster  and  Paderborn,2  was 
recalled  to  Sedan  with  three  other  generals,  and  it  was 
arranged  with  him  that  he  should  come  to  the  help  of 
the  allies  with  his  cavalry.  Thereupon  Frederic  sent 
an  ambassador  to  Nancy  with  instructions  to  offer  the 
Duke  of  Lorraine,  in  case  of  his  being  ready  to  compete 
for  the  crown,  the  assistance  of  the  Union,  of  the  States- 
General,  of  the  King  of  England,  and  of  the  Duke  of 
Savoy ;  at  the  decisive  moment  they  would  come 
forward  resolutely  and  seize  the  electoral  town  of  Frank- 
fort. But  the  Duke  rejected  all  overtures  and  warned 
the  Elector  against  undertakings  of  the  sort.3 

When  this  hope  had  been  wrecked  the  corresponding- 
princes  turned  their  attention  to  Duke  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria.  Already  in  1616,  after  Maximilian  had  re- 
signed the  leadership  of  the  League,  they  had  attempted 

1  Gindely,  i.  186. 

2  See  above,  pp.  609-610. 

3  Khevenhiller,  viii.  1151-1152  ;  Gindely,  i.  191. 


624  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

to  enter  into  closer  relations  with  him,1  and  now  the 
Palatine  court  urged  him  to  try  for  the  dignity  of 
Emperor.  The  Duke's  privy  councillors  regarded  the 
suggestion  from  the  outset  as  '  a  Calvinistic  snare.' 
They  divined  that  the  Calvinistic  party,  realising  that 
the  election  of  Ferdinand  could  scarcely  now  be  pre- 
vented, especially  as  the  electors  were  all  in  favour  of 
it,  and  even  the  Elector  of  Saxony  inclined  that  way, 
were  now  doing  their  best  at  any  rate  to  delay  it.  As, 
however,  they  were  not  in  a  position  to  do  this  unaided, 
they  were  endeavouring  to  draw  the  Duke  into  their 
scheme,  and  thus  to  secure  powerful  support.  If  the 
plan  succeeded,  the  result  would  be  disunion  between 
the  Electors  and  Estates  of  the  realm,  the  bitterest 
hatred  between  Bavaria  and  Austria,  and  war  and  dis- 
aster in  the  Empire.  There  would  undoubtedly  be  a 
dangerous  interregnum,  which  the  Calvinists  would 
know  how  to  prolong  over  the  longest  possible  period, 
so  that  the  Palatine  Elector,  as  Vicar  of  the  Empire, 
would  practically  remain  Emperor,  would  rule  the  land 
at  his  own  pleasure,  and  would  very  likely  cast  the 
government  in  a  new  mould.2  When  an  Ansbach  am- 
bassador, in  spite  of  a  refusal  from  the  Duke,  pressed 
for  further  negotiations,  Maximilian  said  to  his  privy 
councillor  Jocher  :  '  I  grow  more  and  more  confirmed 
in  my  opinion  that  these  people  must  be  spoken  to  in 
plainer  German.     Once  for  all,  I  have  no  intention  of 

1  Breyer,  i.  98-104. 

2  Breyer,  i.  113-118.  That  the  corresponding  princes  had  laid  their 
reckoning  on  an  interregnum  is  plainly  shown  by  a  letter  of  Christian  of 
Anhalt  to  the  Palatine  Chancellor  Griin  on  November  2,  1617.  He  speaks 
in  it  of  '  means  '  '  whereby  to  keep  this  matter  still  a  long  time  in  suspenso, 
and  with  the  help  of  time  to  gain  more  and  more  advantage  both  within 
and  without  the  Empire  '  (Breyer,  i.  122,  note). 


PROCEDURE   OF   THE   UNION,    1617  625 

letting  myself  be  entangled  with  Austria,  or  led  into 
complications  by  her  on  account  of  the  succession  ;  I 
am  convinced,  moreover,  that  it  would  be  more  per- 
nicious than  advantageous  to  myself  and  my  House  to 
saddle  myself  with  so  heavy  a  burden  as  the  imperial 
crown.'  Even  after  this,  in  order  to  augment  the 
mistrust  between  Austria  and  Bavaria,  the  correspond- 
ing princes  spread  the  report  that  Maximilian  was  striv- 
ing after  the  crown.  The  Duke,  accordingly,  on 
November  7,  1617,  sent  an  ambassador  to  Ferdinand 
with  the  assurance  that  this  was  by  no  means  the  case, 
that,  on  the  contrary,  he  had  firmly  repudiated  all  the 
Palatine  overtures.1 

Frederic  V.,  however,  was  determined  to  try  his 
luck  once  more  personally  in  Munich.  Christian  of 
Anhalt  expressed  himself  in  favour  of  his  taking  this 
journey,  for,  he  said,  '  if  we  do  not  now  wrest  the  crown 
from  the  House  of  Habsburg  we  must  give  up  the 
desperate  task  for  ever.'  But  he  entertained  little  hope 
of  a  change  of  mind  in  Maximilian,  because  '  the  Pala- 
tine  proposals  were,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  to  the  advantage 
of  the  Catholics,  and  therefore  calculated  to  stir  up 
division ;  '  the  Duke  would  certainly  see  through  this, 
and  would  not  easily  fall  into  the  trap  laid  for  him. 
After  Frederic  had  assured  himself  of  the  approval  of 
the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  he  betook  himself  to  Munich 
at  the  beginning  of  February  1618,  and  promised  his 
own  vote  and  that  of  Brandenburg ;  Cologne,  he  said, 
could  not  fail  to  be  on  the  Duke's  side,  and  it  would  be 
quite  easy  to  gain  a  fourth  and  even  a  fifth  vote,  and 
thus  to  secure  the  majority ;  there  was  some  hope  also  of 
Saxony  as  well  as  of  Treves.     He  also  produced  a  letter 

1  Gindely,  i.  193-194. 
VOL.    X.  S  S 


626  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

from  King  James  I.  of  England,  in  which  this  monarch 
expressed  his  great  delight  at  the  possible  candidature 
of  Bavaria  for  the  crown,  and  not  only  promised  his 
own  support,  but  also  his  diplomatic  intervention  with 
France.  Maximilian,  however,  '  was  not  caught  in  the 
trap.'  Once  more  with  the  utmost  decision  he  rejected 
all  the  advances  made  to  him.1 

Meanwhile  the  Union  had  made  ample  provision 
'  for  every  future  emergency.' 

The  Emperor  on  April  3,  1617,  in  a  weighty  and 
serious  despatch  to  the  electors  of  the  Palatinate  and 
of  Mayence,  had  formally  prohibited  both  the  Leagues, 
Catholic  and  Protestant.  The  allies,  assembled  at  a 
diet  at  Heilbronn  on  April  17,  had  replied  to  this  com- 
mand, '  it  was  only  on  account  of  the  numerous  enter- 
prises directed  against  them  that  they  had  been  obliged 
to  form  themselves  into  a  league,  and  if  it  was  broken 
up  they  did  not  know  how  they  should  be  able  to 
secure  themselves  against  fresh  molestations.'  They 
prolonged  the  League,  which  was  to  have  come  to  an 
end  in  May  of  the  following  year,  for  three  years  more  ; 
they  bound  the  members  over  in  any  case  to  keep  their 
subjects  well  trained  in  arms,  and  instructed  the  master 
of  the  ordnance,  Jobst  Nolden,  to  multiply  and  re- 
plenish the  arsenals  and  provision  stores.  The  treaty 
of  help  arranged  by  the  Landgrave  Maurice  of  Hesse 
with  the  Nether- Saxon  imperial  circle  was  ratified,  and 
an  ambassador  from  the  Duke  of  Savoy  met  with  '  good 
encouragement.'  2     Another  attempt  was  also  made  to 

1  Gindely,  i.  195.  198-199. 

5  Senkenberg,  xxiv.  122-130"';  Schreiber,  p.  178  ;  Rommel,  Neuere 
Oesch.  iii.  343.  In  the  summer  of  1617,  Christian  of  Anhalt  sent  his  own 
eldest  son  and  heir  to  the  throne  to  the  Turin  court,  under  the  guardian- 
ship of  the  Count  of  Dohna,  '  in  order  to  further  the  evangelical  cause  and 


PROCEDURE   OF   THE    UNION,    1617  621 

win  the  people  of  Zurich  and  Berne  over  to  the  Union. 
A  deputation  was  sent  to  represent  to  them  that  '  the 
enemies  had  not  yet  done  with  their  bloody  machina- 
tions ;  that  they  had  nothing  else  in  their  minds  than 
to  root  out  religion,  to  deprive  the  evangelicals  of  their 
liberty  and  of  everything  that  was  dear  to  them,  and 
finally  to  bring  in  the  Spanish  dominion.  Hence, 
therefore,  those  who  did  not  wish  to  subject  themselves 
to  the  Spanish  bondage  must  stand  by  each  other  and 
come  to  an  agreement  concerning  mutual  help  ;  the 
sole  object  of  the  Union  was  defence.' l 

Whether  this  was  in  truth  the  case  was  soon  to  be 
evidenced  anew. 

Many  years  earlier  the  allies  had  already  been 
occupied  with  the  plan  of  taking  possession  of  the 
fortress  of  Breisach,  in  the  hope  '  that  if  they  held  this 
town  they  would  be  lords  of  the  whole  Rhine,  and  would 
have  a  basis  (sedem  belli)  in  which  they  could  establish 
military  forces,  and  from  which  they  could  make  sorties 
and  control  the  country  on  both  sides  at  their  will  and 
pleasure.'  2  In  the  autumn  of  1617  this  plan  was  again 
mooted  by  the  statesmen  of  the  Palatinate  ;  with  the 
help  of  the  States-General  it  was  thought  that  it  could 
be  worked.  '  The  affair  with  Breisach,'  wrote  Christian 
of  Anhalt  at  the  beginning  of  November  to  the  chan- 
cellor of  Frederic  V.,  '  is  of  importance,  and  in  my 
opinion  the  Palatine  has  no  other  course  open  to  him 

to  procure  more  respect  and  consideration  for  the  Union.'  Cf.  Dr.  M. 
Regel,  Christians  des  Zweiten  von  Anhalt  Gesandtscliaftsreise  nach  Savoy  en, 
I'll 7.  Ein  Beitrag  zur  Vorgeschichte  des  SOjahrigm  Krieges.  Wissen- 
schaftliche  Beigabe  zum  zehnten  Jahresbericht  des  herzogl.  Karls-Realgym- 
nasiums  zn  Bernburg,  1892. 

1  Instruktion  der  Oesandten,  contributed  by  v.  HMer. 

•  See  above,  p.  453. 

s  s  2 


628  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

than  to  avail  himself  of  the  help  of  the  States- General 
(of  the  Netherlands).'  '  I  will  also  arrange,'  he  went 
on,  '  that  by  the  time  of  the  Palatine's  arrival  we  shall 
receive  positive  and  detailed  news  from  Prague.'  l  They 
were  expecting,  namely,  a  rising  of  the  Protestant 
leaders  in  Bohemia,  with  whom  Christian  stood  in  per- 
petual alliance.  Count  Zollern,  the  Lord  Chamberlain 
of  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  professed  to  know  that  Klesl 
also  was  engaged  in  treacherous  dealings  with  the 
Calvinists.  The  House  of  Austria,  said  the  papal 
nuncio,  had  '  never  had  a  bitterer  enemy  than  Klesl.'  2 
In  the  middle  of  December  1617  Frederic  V.  urged  on 
the  allies  that  in  his  opinion  '  necessity  required  of 
them  all  by  all  means  to  adhere  strictly  to  the  measures 
passed  by  the  Union  and  to  conform  to  the  decrees  it 
had  made,  in  order  that  in  any  and  every  emergency 
they  might  with  one  mind  and  soul  work  for  a  definite 
purpose  and  put  all  their  energy  into  it.'  3 

Five  months  later  the  rebellion  broke  out  in  Bohemia 
and  afforded  the  German  confederates  the  long-wished- 
for  opportunity  of  putting  their  '  resolutions '  into 
effect.  The  Heidelberg  theologian  Varrus  drew  atten- 
tion in  the  same  year  to  a  prophecy  that  '  a  great  king 
would  arise  who  in  a  forty  years'  war  would  persecute 
all  tyrants,  would  subjugate  Spain  and  Italy,  burn  down 
Eome,  and  put  the  Popes  to  death.'  4 

'  The  tocsin  and  alarm-bell,'  said  King  Ferdinand  to 
a  Saxon  ambassador  in  June  1618,  '  had  not  been  set 

1  Despatch  of  October  22  (a.   St.),    1617,   in  the  Archiviiim   Unito- 
Protestantium,  App.  pp.  254-255. 

2  Gindely,  i.  231.     See  the  remarks  of  the  Archduke  Maximilian  of 
May  31,  1618  (Kerschbaumer,  p.  286). 

3  Despatch  of  December  4-14,  1617,  in  the  Archivium,  App.  p.  262. 
1  See  above,  pp.  138,  139. 


THE   REBELLION   IN   BOHEMIA,    1618  629 

going  by  the  Bohemians  themselves,'  but  had  been 
pulled  from  other  places,  namely :  from  Heidelberg,  the 
Hague,  and  Turin.1  In  the  following  year  the  position 
of  affairs  was  such  that  the  Margrave  Joachim  Ernest 
of  Ansbach  said  in  a  letter  to  Christian  of  Anhalt : 
'  We  have  in  our  hands  the  means  to  overturn  the 
world.'  2 

1  Miiller,  Forschungen,  iii.  15. 

2  '  Nous  avons  le  rnoyen  entre  nos  mains  de  renverser  le  monde.' 
Letters  of  February  14  and  24,  1619,  in  the  ArcMvium,  App.  iii  26. 


ADDENDUM 


Pages  557-558. 


It  was  not  till  after  this  volume  had  gone  through  the 
press  that  I  received  information  of  the  Dissertation  of  A. 
Miiller,  Der  Jidich-Clecesche  Erbfolgestreit  vm  Jahre  1614 
(Munich,  1901). 


INDEX   OF   PLACES 


Ahausen  (Union),  435-441,  444, 
447-457,  458-466,  467,  470  ff., 
475-i79,  484,  485  ff.,  494,  496, 
505,  514-532,  535-550,  560,  576, 
580-593,  606,  611  ff.,  620,  623  ff. 

Aix-la-Chapelle,  435,  563-570 

Alsatia,  452,  460,  621 

Altorf,  in  Mid-Franconia  (univer- 
sity), 273,  294  (ji.  2) 

Alzey,  366 

Arnberg,  347,  364  (n.  3) 

Anhalt-Dessau  (principality),  282 

Ansbach  (margr aviate).  See  Bran- 
denburg-Ansbach 

Antwerp,  360  In.  2),  374,  501 

Appenzell,  125  (n.  1) 

Armenia,  14 

Augsburg  (bishopric),  469,  475, 
523  (n.  1),  601  f.,  606  f. 

Augsburg  (Confession),  62,  72  (tt.  2). 
116,  129  i.,  134,  169,  178  f.,  186- 
189,  191,  216  f.,  223,  239,  282, 
291,  301,  306,  362,  387,  413,  422, 
522,  530  (n.  2),  539,  561,  579,  594 

Augsburg  (Diet,  1530),  178  ;  (1555) 
179  ;  (1582)  180,  563 

Augsburg  (ecclesiastical  reserva- 
tion), 184  (n.  3),  189,  523 

Augsburg  (Interim),  182 

Augsburg  (Religious  Peace),  72 
(n.  2),  125,  170  f.,  178-213,  287, 
422,  424,  450, 455,  462,  469, 481  f., 
524-528,  530  (n.  2),  535,  538, 
540  ff.,  562,  584,  594,  613 

Augsburg  (town),  25,  72,  86,  111, 
159  («.  1),  169,  232  ff.,  331,  337, 
490  (ft.  3),  550,  607 

Austria,  69,  176,  453,  409-412,  424, 
443,  446,  451,  468,  476,  487,  489, 
493  f.,  506,  603,  609 


Austria  (House),  197,  405,  410,  412, 
433,  448,  451  f.,  463,  468,  472  f., 
476,  485,  505  f.,  517,  521,  551  ff., 
603,  616,  620,  624  f.  ;  the  Gratz 
line,  473  f. 

Austria,  in  the  narrower  sense, 
Upper  and  Lower  Austria,  72, 
403  ff.,  485,  529,  551,  589 

Austria,  outlying  provinces  of,  129, 
452,  472 

Austrian  dukes,  610,  430,  473' 


Badex-Baden  (town),  127  ;  (re- 
ligious discussion,  1589),  119  ff. 

Baden-Durlach  (margraviate),  125, 
282,  434-438,  448,  460.  474,  512, 
529 

Baden-Hochberg,  116-129,  148 
(n.3) 

Baltic,  the  (East  Sea),  578 

Bamberg  (bishopric),  474,  477,  550, 
606 

Bamberg  (town),  135 

Basle  (bishopric),  24  (n.  1) 

Basle  (Council),  52  (n.  1) 

Basle  (town),  4  (».  4),  347, 453  (n.  1), 
561 

Bautzen,  77 

Bavaria,  52  (n.  1),  126.  127  (n.  1), 
129,  156,  176,  184  (n.  3),  205 
(n.  1),  214,  216,  217  (n.  1),  329, 
351,  356,  365,  407,  417  f.,  421 
(n.  2),  449,  455,  466,  480-481, 
488,  507,  523,  557,  562,  600  f„ 
603,  613,  617  (n.  2),  619  (n.  3), 
624  f.,  628 

Belgium,  207,  296  (n.  1),  365,  457. 
See  Netherlands,  Spanish 

Benevento  (archbishopric),  37 


632 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Berg  (county),  426,  580.  See  Jiilich- 
Cloves 

Bergen,  near  Magdeburg  (Book  of 
Concord),  120,  266  ff.,  285  I, 
301  f.,  306,  308  f.,  314 

Bergen,  in  Norway,  579 

Berlin  (court  and  town),  77,  301, 
309-318 

Bern,  53,  224,  586,  627 

Bingen  (assembly  of  confederates, 
1614),  606 

Birstein  (Isenburg-,  county),  284 

Bohemia,  81,  407-425,  430,  443, 
445,  448,  451,  484,  488  ff.,  498, 
501,  517,  529,  551,  589,  605,  614 
(n.  1),  615,  619  (n.  2),  620  f.,  628  f. 
628  f.  ;  (Bohemian  Brothers), 
414  f.,  417  f.,  Bohemian  Confes- 
sion, 418 

Bonn,  516 

Brandenburg  (margraviate  and 
electorate),  54,  140,  265,  301, 
303,  426-429,  447,  452  f.,  458, 
498,  534,  544,  549,  557  ff.,  564, 
566,  581,  616  f.,  625 

Brandenburg  (town),  319 

Brandenburg-Ansbach  (margravi- 
ate), 448.     See  Joachim  Ernest 

Brandenburg  -  Ansbach  -  Baireuth 
(margraviate),  382  (n.  2),  See 
George  Frederic 

Brandenburg  -  Jagerndorf  (mar- 
graviate).    See  John  George 

Brandenburg-Custrin  (margravi- 
ate).    See  John 

Braunau,  419 

Breisach,  453,  627 

Breisgau,  453 

Bremen  (archbishopric),  81,  524, 
579 

Bremen  (town),  277,  279,  500,  576, 
579 

Brieg  (duchy),  300 

Brixen  (bishopric),  89 

Brunswick  (town),  77,  258,  334,  338, 
340,  399,  575  ff. 

Brunswick-Luneburg  (duclvy),  19, 
377  (n.  1),  536 

Brunswick-  Wolfenbuttel     (duchy), 
19,  133,  360, 454  (n.  1),  462, 480  f., 
483,  487,  529,  542,  575  ff.,  585 

Brussels  (court),  431,  438,  457  (n.  3), 
495,  589,  618 

Buchau  (imperial  abbey),  600 


Budweis,  489 

Burgau  (margraviate).     See  Charles 
Burgbemheim,  196 
Burgundy  (county),  442  (n.  2),  452, 
515 


Campo  Longo,  in  Friaul,  67 
Capua    (archbishopric).     See    Gae- 

tano 
Carinthia,  164,  278,  445 
Carniola,  445 
Cassel  (Synod,  1593),  255 
Cleves  (duchy).     See  Julich-Cleves 
Cleves  (town),  460,  559 
Cologne    (archbishopric),    62,    185, 

216,  470  f.,  478,  481,  489,  501, 

507,  558,  564,  566,  580,  609,  617 

(n.  2) 
Cologne  (town),  7  (n.  1),  68  (n.  1), 

138,  215,  216  (n  1),  435,  516,  568 
Cologne  (university),  52  (n.  1) 
Cologne  on  the  Spree,  313 
Constance  (bishopric),  469,  529 
Constance  (council),  52  (n.  1),  367 
Constance  (town),  333 
Copenhagen,  579 
Cracow,  331  (n.  1 ),  360  (n.  2) 
Crete,  30 
Cyprus,  30 

Dantsic,  315 

Delft,  394 

Denmark,  81,  257,  411,  448,  452  f., 

456,  472,  503,  515,  529,  532,  543, 

576-579,  588 
Dietmarschen,  81 
Dillingen,  324,  330 
Dinkelsbiihl,  72 
Donauworth,  72,  407,  417,  422,  425, 

449,  455,  467,  531,  537,  541,  545 
Dopperschitz,  258  (n.  1),  262 
Dortmund,  251,  329 
Dresden,  133,  244,  332,  338  f.,  552 
Duisburg,  570 
Duren,  571 

Durlach,  128.     See  Baden-Durlach 
Diisseldorf,  215  (n.  3),  434  t.  460, 

464,  557,  559 


Egypt,  194 
Eichsfeld,  72  {n.  2) 


INDEX   OF   PLACES 


633 


Eichstatt  (bishopric),  606,  609 

Elbe,  the,  580 

Ellwangen  (provostry),  469,  607, 
609 

Eltmann,  in  East  Franconia,  8S 

Emclen,  580 

Ernmendingen  (town),  127 

Emmendingen  (religious  discussion, 
1590),  120  ff. 

Emmerich,  570 

Ems  (river),  580 

Engen,  in  Suabia.  149 

England,  101,  207,  265,  367,  411, 
417,  423,  443,  448,  453,  455  f., 
466,  472,  486,  496,  515,  541  ff., 
560,  570,  582,  587 

Erfurt,  51 

Ermland  (bishopric),  52  (re.  1) 

Esslingen  (assembly  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  city,  1615), 
590 


Flanders,  564 

Florence,  135  (re.  3),  296  (re.  1) 

Fossombrone  (bishopric),  52  (re.  1) 

France,  54,  59,  258,  301,  350,  361, 
371,  383,  407  f..  417,  423,  428, 
432,  438,  448,  451,  458,  460,  463, 
473,  486,  503,  516,  518,  528,  542, 
559,  570,  582,  587-591,  609,  626  ; 
French  Confession,  300  ;  Jesuit 
Province,  384 

Franconia,  238 

Frankenberg,  290 

Frankentkal,  516  (re.  1) 

Frankfort  on  the  Main,  7  (re.  1),  73, 
105,  164,  168  f.,  357  (re.  2),  275 
(re.  1),  417,  501,  504  (re.  2),  520, 
530,  536,  550,  553,  554  (re.  1), 
571-575,  582,  623 

Frankfort  on  the  Main  (assembly 
of  the  League,  1613),  526  ff., 
600  f. 

Frankfort  on  the  Main  (electoral 
Diet,  1612),  501  ft'.,  508  ff. 

Frankfort  on  the  Oder  (university), 
302,  320 

Frauenburg,  52  (re.  1) 

Freiburg  in  the  Breisgau,  128,  130, 
453  ;  (university),  122,  180 

Freiburg  in  Switzerland,  332 

Friaul,  67 

Friemar,  near  Gotha,  7  (re.  1) 


Geneva,  224,  226  (re.  2),  371 

German  Empire.  See  Charles  V.  ; 
Ferdinand  I.;  Rudolf  II.;  Mat- 
thias*; Ratisbon  and  Augsburg, 
ecclesiastical  reservation  and 
Religious  Pacification  :  Ahausen, 
Union  ;  Munich,  League  ;  Spires, 
Imperial  Chamber  ;  Vienna,  Im- 
perial Chamber  ;  and  Vienna  and 
Prague,  Aulic  Council 

Giessen,  51,  246  (re.  1),  250.  208 
(re.  1),  398 

Gorlitz,  55 

Gran  (archbishopric),  406 

Graz,  111,  332,  423,  474,  496 

Grisons,  the,  456 

Guelders  (province),  609 


Hagen,  263  (re.  2) 

Hagenau  (town),  72 

Hague,  the,  629 

Haina,  in  Hesse,  293 

Halberstadt  (bishopric),  524 

Hall,  in  Suabia.     See  Schwabisch- 

Hall 
Hall  in  the  Tyrol,  149 
Halle,  263 

Halle  (university),  38  (re.  2) 
Hamburg,  261  (re.  1),  577 
Hanau  (county),  282 
Hanau  (town),  272 
Hanover  (town),  19,  224  (re.  3) 
Hanseatic  towns,  578  ff.,  587,  590 
Hasmar,  51 
Heidelberg  (assembly  of  the  League, 

1612),  503 
Heidelberg  (town  and  court).  218, 

224,  410,  503,  516,  629 
Heidelberg     (university),     67.  119, 

218,  225  ff.,  271,  299,  335  (re.  2), 

364,  516,  629 
Heilbronn,  34  (re.  1) 
Heilbronn  (assembly  of    the  allies, 

1614),  587,  (1617)"  626 
Helmstadt  (university),  268  (re.  1) 
Hersfeld  (imperial  abbey),  288  (re.  1) 
Herzberg,  268 
Hesse-Cassel,  2,  20,  21  (re.   1),  49, 

128,   146,   147  (re.   3),    168,  254, 

284  (re.  1),  301,  315  f.,  393,  429, 

447,    450,    456,    459,    464.    505 

(re.  1),  530  (re.  2),  573.  577.  586, 

626 


634 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Hesse-Darmstadt,    284,    462,    480, 

483,  529,  530  (n.  2),  534  f.,  542, 

547  (n.  1),  574,  617 
Hesse-Marbourg,  129,  288 
Hildesheim  (bishopric),  580 
Hochberg  (castle),  128 
Hohenleine,  322 
Holland  (in  the  wider  sense).     See 

Netherlands. 
Holy  Cross  (abbev  in  Donauworth), 

422 
Horn,  406 
Hungary,  81,  403,  406,  410  f.,  417, 

420,  443,  451,  506,  508,  535,  551, 

605,  615,  620,  622 

ICHTERSHATJSEN,  64 

Iglau,  494 

India  (South  American),  362 

Ingolstadt  (assembly  of  the  League, 
1614),  560 

Ingolstadt  (town),  105,  113 

Ingolstadt  (university),  84,  89,  208 

Innsbruck,  160 

Isenburg,  283 

Italy,  54,  59,  77,  219,  367  (n.  1), 
407,  441  ft.,  448,  456,  502  (n.  2), 
518,  528,  543,  589,  621,  628 

J.u;erndorf  (margraviate),  551 
Jena  (town  ,  26  ft'.,  38  («.  2),  138 

(n.  4),  261 
Jena  (university),  26,  261 
Joachimsthal,  161 
Julich,        or        Jiilich-Cleves-Berg 

(duchy),  426,  440,  447,  453,  457, 

472,  475,  480,  486,  557,  559,  568, 

580,  589 
Julich  (fortress),  431-435,  457,  460, 

464  f.,  559,  563,  568 

Kaufbetjren,  72 
Kempten  (abbey),  469 
Klostergrab,  419 
Kolmar,  223 
Konigsberg  (town),  321 
Konigsberg  (university),  78 
Kurbrandenburg,   &c.   &c.        See 
Brandenburg,  &c. 

Lauixgen,  347  (n.  3) 

Lausanne,  224 


Lech,  607 

Leipzig  (town),  169,  226 

Leutkirch,  72 

Liegnitz,  or  LiegnitzJirieg  (duchy), 

276  (n.  1),  300 
Llndau  (imperial  city),  536 
Lindau  in  the  county  of  Ruppin,  319 
Linz,  on  the  Danube,  404 
Lippe  (county),  282 
Livonia,  81 
London,  516 

Lorraine  (duchy),  452,  515,  525 
Lower  Saxon  circle,  626 
Liibeck  (bishopric),  524 
Liibeck,  536,  554,  577  f.,  590.     See 

Hanseatic  towns 
Luckenwalde,  262 
Liineburg  (duchy).   See  Brunswick- 

Liinebiirg 
Liineburg  (town),  576 
Luxemburg  (duchy),  457 


Madrid,  423,  430,  441  (n.  3),  444, 
480,  618 

Magdeburg  (archbishopric),  303, 523, 
524 

Magdeburg  (town),  299,  576,  581 

Magdeburg  (Centuriators),  7,  32, 
63,  246 

Mansfeld,  113 

Marburg,  on  the  Lahn  (town  and 
university),  288  1,  296  (n.  1) 

Maria-Schnee  (Franciscan  monas- 
tery at  Prague),  490 

Markdorf,  on  the  Lake  of  Constance, 
196 

Mayence  (archbishopric),  74,  200, 
287,  453,  459,  471,  474,  477, 
480  ft.,  489,  494  f.,  508,  514.  518, 
532,  574,  596  ft'.,  607,  612,  615 

Mayence  (town),  23,  40,  205,  329 
(».  3),  333,  484 

Mayence  (university),  205 

Mecklenburg,  536 

Mecklenburg-Gustrow,  300 

Meuse,  the,  580 

Milan  (duchy),  456,  590 

Minden  (bishopric),  524 

Moldau,  the,  491 

Molsheim,  397  (n.  1) 

Moravia,  403,  405,  420,  443,  506, 
529,  551,  589,  605.  620 

Mors  (county),  580 


INDEX   OF   PLACES 


635 


Morthingen,  in  Lorraine,  64 
Miihlheim  (Miilheini),  on  the  Rhine, 

562,  569 
Muleta,  393 
Munich,  89,   149,   186,  216  (n.  2), 

330,   352,   353   (n.    1),    387,   467 

(«.  2),  474,  605,  608,  625 
Munich   (assembly  of  the   League, 

1610),  474,  476,  601 
Mimster  (bishopric),  80,  200,  623 

Nancy,  623 

Naumburg  (bishopric),  243 

Netherlands,  the,  40,  54,  101,  350, 
426,  431,  440,  444.  448,  453,  456, 
463,  472,  515,  518,  532,  541  ff., 
560,  561  (n.  3),  564,  570,  573, 
576,  578-583,  606,  609,  623,  627  ; 
Spanish  Netherlands,  456  f..  525 
(c/.  Albert) 

North  Sea,  578 

Nuremberg,  88,  239  (n.  1),  273.  277, 
294  (n.  2),  416,  461,  500,  590 

Nuremberg  (Diet  of  Electors,  1611), 
497  ff. 

Nuremberg  (Diet  of  the  Union, 
1615),  588,  612 

Oder,  the,  580 
Oldenburg,  277 
Olmiitz  (bishopric),  67 
Osnabriick  (town),  77 

Paderborn  (bishopric),  464,  580, 
609,  623 

Paderbom  (town),  360  (n.  2) 

Padua,  360  {n.  2) 

Palatinate  (Electorate),  67,  69, 
119,  128,  180,  184,  201,  220,  225, 
270,  281,  316,  413,  421,  425-  431, 
444,  447,  450  f..  458  ff.,  466,  471, 
4S6,  493-494,  498,  500,  510,  515. 
529,  537  {n.  1),  540,  547  (n.  1), 
551,  565,  575,  582,  587,  589,  597, 
616-628  (c/.  John  Casimir) 

Paris,  432,  438,  440,  452,  (uni- 
versity) 375 

Passau  (bishopric),  409,  469,  475, 
4S8  f.,  600.     See  Leopold 

Passau  (treaty),  524,  611 

Pavia  (battle),  442 

Perleberg,  261  {n.  1) 


Pfalz  (Palatine)  Lautem.  See  John 
Casimir 

Pfalz-Neuburg.  See  Philip  Louis 
and  Wolfgang  William 

Pfalz-Simmern,  266 

Pfalz-Zweibrucken,  420,  466,  498, 
565,  586 

Pforzheim,  127,  283 

Plauen,  35 

Poland,  54,  81  f.,  518,  543,  587  f. 

Pomerania-Stettin,  536 

Portugal,  361 

Prague  (assembly  of  Princes,  1610), 
468,  481,  486  f.,  489 

Prague  (•  Majestatsbrief  '),  418, 
420  f.,  430,  493,  507,  622 

Prague  (town  and  court),  239  (n.  1), 
330,  360  (n.  2),  399.  413,  415,  418, 
425,  430,  468,  478,  486,  489  f., 
492,  502,  505,  517,  530  (n.  2), 
534,  628  ;  (Altstadt)  490  ;  (Neu- 
stadt)  414  ;  (university)  413  f. 

Prussia,  81 

Ratisbon    (assemblv    of    League, 

1613),  602  ff. 
Ratisbon  (bishopric),  469,  600 
Ratisbon  (Diet,  1576),  171  ;  (1608) 

451,  459,  467,  547  ;  (1613),  518  ff., 

529-550,  552,  585,  602,  611,  615, 

620  ;  (1614)  547 
Ratisbon      (religious     conference), 

149  (n.  2) 
Rheims  (archbishopric).  374  (n.  3) 
Rheinberg  (fortress),  570 
Rhine,  Rhinelands,  431,  453,  472, 

514,  559  f.,  571,  575,  578,  606, 

627  ;  Rhine,  directorship,  603  ff. 
Riga,  72 

Rome  (ancient),  195 
Rome  (German  College),  396 
Rome    (fifth   Lateran   Council),  52 

(n.\) 
Rome  (papal),  4,  49,  52  {n.  1),  70, 

160,  219.  303,  313,  329,  347  (n.  3), 

375,  393,  423,  444  f.,  472,  480, 

503,  547,  595  ff.,  628 
Rome  (university),  375 
Rostock,  268 
Rostock  (university).  7  (».  1),  272, 

321 
Rotenburg  (meeting  of  the  Union, 

1611),  497,  564  ;  (1613)  529,  531, 

536 


636 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 


Rothenburg,  on  the  Tauber  (meet- 
ing of  the  Union,  1608),  407 
Russia,  518 

Sachsenhattsen,  572 

St.  Enmierain  (abbey),  601 

Salzburg  (archbishopric),   186,  471, 

601 
Salzburg  (town),  216 
Samaria,  313 

Savoy.     See  Charles  Emmanuel 
Saxe-Coburg,  483 
Saxe-Lauenburg,  536 
Saxe-Weimar,  6,  18  (».  3),  29  {n.  1) 
Saxony  (electorate),  18,  29,  70  i., 
81,  225  f.,  263  (».  2),  281,  283,  298, 
306,  330,  401  (».  1),  415,  426,  430, 
451,  454,  462,  480s  481  (n.  1),  489, 
494,   498-501,    505   (n.    1),    514, 
522,  536,  542,   547  (n.   1),  552, 
597  (».  1),  617  f.,  628 
Saxony  (Albertine  lands),  133 
Schleswig-Holstein,  276  (n.  1) 
Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp,  300 
Schongraben,  in  Lower  Austria,  33 
Schwabisch-Hall,  247 
Schwabisch-Hall  (Diet  of  the  Union, 

1609),  416,  438  ;  (1610),  447 
Scotland,  372,  570 
Sedan,  623 

Senftenberg,  263  (n.  2) 
Silesia,  300,  407,  411,  415,  420  f., 

424,  448,  551,  589,  605 
Slavonia,  81 

Smalcald  (articles),  291,  302 
Smalcald  (lordship),  291  ff. 
Smalcald  (town),  193,  254,  291  ff. 
Spain,  54,  59,  214,  219,  361,  365, 
371  (w.  1),  375,  429-433,  439  ff., 
448  f.,  472  f.,  476,  485,  487,  496, 
506-509,  512,  518,  525,  534,  543, 
558,  579,  589,  593,  602,  606,  622, 
627 
Spires  (bishopric),  453,  458  f.,  471, 

475,  548  {n.  2),  597,  600 
Spires    (Imperial    Chamber),    169, 

528,  530,  535,  537,  597  (n.  1) 
Spires  (towns'  Diet,  1608),  417 
Sprendlingen,  284 
Stadtlohn,  609 

States-General.     See  Netherlands 
Stendal,  319 

Sterbohol    (secret    alliance,    1608), 
403 


Stettin,  308 

Stettin  (synod,  1593),  301 

Stockholm,  586 

Stralsund,  308 

Strasburg  (bishopric),  452,   460   ff., 

477,  600 
Strasburg   (town),   244   (».    4),    24 

(n.  1),  31,  84,  85  (w.  1),  121,  224, 

268,  344  (n.  6),  416,  452,  462,  514, 

529 
Stuttgart,  57,  137,  233,  325,  436 
Stuttgart     (assembly    of    Princes, 

1614),  586 
Styria,  72, 445,  589.     See  Ferdinand 
Suabia,  457,  600 
Sweden,    81,    453,    472,    518,    529, 

586  ff. 
Switzerland,  53,  224,  442  f.,  448. 

463,  518,  525,  573,  590 


Tabor,  489 

Tartars,  the,  521 

Thennenbach  (Cistercian  mona- 
stery), 123 

Thuringia,  11 

Tiber,  the,  346  f. 

Toledo  (province  of  the  Jesuit 
Order),  376 

Transylvania,  535,  544,  551 

Trent  (Council),  4,59,  94,  119,  188, 
199,  216,  325,  422,  589,  593 

Treves  (archbishopric),  77,  431,  471, 
550,  596  f.,  625 

Treves  (town),  574  (n.  2) 

Tubingen  (town),  31 

Tubingen  (university),  61,  67,  111, 
218  (».  2),  268 

Turin  (court),  626  (n.  2),  629 

Turkev,  13  I,  20,  27,  60,  71,  79, 
104,  197,  219,  221  (».  1),  273, 
312,  371  (n.  1),  396,  408,  506, 
518,  521,  535,  549,  611 

Tuscany,  473 

Tyrol,  the,  472 

Ulm,  84,  416 

Upper  Hesse,  147  (nn.  3  &  4),  287 

Ursel,  371  (n.  1) 

Venice,  37,  373,  417,  442  ff.,  448, 

456,  502  £.,  513,  529,  590 
Venice  (Peace,  1177),  14 


INDEX   OF   PLACES 


037 


Verden  (bishopric),  524 

Vienna(  Austrian  Family  treaty),  423 

Vienna,  or  Prague  (Aulic  Council), 

427,  530  f.,  537,  555 
Vienna  (town  and  court),  36  (n.  1), 

64,  72  (n.  2),  197,  205,  330,  334, 

(n.  2),  403  i.,  406,  409,  423,  446, 

468,  494,  513 
Vienna  (university).  52  («.  1) 
Voigtland,  65 


Wends,  the,  81 

Werra,  the,  290 

Wesel  (fortress),  570 

Weser,  the,  579 

Westphalia  (Peace),  193  (n.  3) 

Wetterau  (Counts  of,  in  the  Index 

of  Persons) 
Weyra,  342 
Wittenberg  (edition  of  Luther),  138 

(n.  4),  140,  153 
Wittengau  (castle),  408 


Wolfenbiittel  (duchy).     See  Bruns- 

wick-Wolfenbuttel. 
Wolfenbiittel  (town).  576  ;  (library) 

7 
Worms  (bishopric),  453,  458,  597 
Worms  (Diet,  1521),  206 
Wiirtemberg,    57,  61,  91,  93,  128, 

134,  144,  202.  217  f.,  251,  268, 

282  (n.  1).  283,  399,  417.  435  ff., 

461,  465,  474  f.,  497,  514,  581,  585 
Wurzburg    (bishopric),    449,     461, 

469.  471,4741,477.  606  f. 
Wurzburg  (Diet.  1601),  471  ;  (1611) 

484 
Wurzburg  (town),  36  («.  1).  77 
Wurzburg  (university).  205 


Zeitz,  243  (n,  2) 
Zerbst,  278 

Zurich,  53,  224,  272,  586,  595.  627 
Zweibriicken  (county).     See   Pfalz- 
Zweibriicken 


638 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


INDEX  OF   PERSONS 


Adelmann,  Karl  (doctor),  554 
(n.  1) 

Adiaphorists,  101 

Adolphus  (Duke  of  Schleswig-Got- 
torp,  300 

Aerssen,  Francis  van  (ambassador), 
440  f. 

Affelmann,  John  (Professor  at 
Rostock),  272,  320 

Agnes  (Popess  Johanna),  32 

Alber  Erasmus  (superintendent), 
76 

Albert  (Archduke,  Governor  of  the 
Netherlands),  413,  431,  438  ff., 
449,  457,  472,  495.  506,  509,  525, 
564,  566,  570  f.,  603,  606 

Albertinus,  Aegidius  (Bavarian 
court  secretary),  237 

Albigenses,  207.  265 

Albrecht  V.  (Duke  of  Bavaria).  176 
205  (n.  1).  214,  216,  329 

Albrecht  Lorenz  (convert),  36 
in.  1) 

Alexander  III.  (Pope),  13  ff.,  27, 
147 

Alexander  VI.  (Pope),  24  (n   1) 

Altenrath,  George,  268 

Althusius,  John  (jurist),  389 

Ambrosius,  St.  (Doctor  of  the 
Church),  195,  207 

Amsdorf,  Nich.  (preacher),  176 

Anabaptists,  101,  178,  222  (n.  1), 
224  (n.  3),  234 

Andrea,  Conrad.     See  Vetter 

Andrea,  James  (Schmidlin,  Chan- 
cellor), 83,  95  f.,  119,  149,  173, 
251,  268  f.,  306 

Anisius,  Mich.  (Franciscan  at  Bam- 
berg), 135 


Anna  of  Austria  (Queen  of  Spain). 

621 
Anna    of    Denmark    (Electress    of 

Saxony),  285 
Anna    of    Jiilich-Cleves    (Countess 

Palatine  of  Neuburg),  426 
Anna  of  Prussia  (Electress  of  Bran- 
denburg), 319.  426 
Anna  of  Tyrol  (Empress),  510 
Anna    von    Bentheim-Tecklenburs 

(Princess  of  Anhalt),  457,  466 
Anne  of  Cleves  (wife  of  Henry  VIII. 

of  England),  369 
Antiochus  (King  of  Syria),  195 
Antonia   of   Lorraine   (Duchess   of 

Jiilich-Cleves),  427 
Aquaviva,     Claudius    (General     of 

Jesuits),  356  ff.,  385 
Arians,  200,  225 

Arminius,    James    (Dutch    theolo- 
gian), 257  (n.  1) 
Arretius,  Bened.,  595 
Aschhausen,      Joh.      Gottfr.      von 

(Bishop      of       Bamberg),      550, 

606 
Asquillus,     Publius     (nominally    a 

Jesuit),  240 
Assassins,  393 
Asselineau  (French  ambassador  at 

Venice),  445  (n.  1),  503  (n.  3) 
Audebert,  149 
Augustine,     St.     (Father     of     the 

Church),  122  f.,  183,  304 
Augustus   I.    (Elector   of   Saxony). 

225,  263  (n.  2),  306 
Aurifaber,  110 
Aventin,  Joh.  (Turmair,  historian), 

12  (n.  2) 
Azor,  Juan  (S.  J.),  388 


INDEX    OF   PERSONS 


030 


Bacon,    Roger    (Franciscan),    378 

(«.  1) 
Banez,  Dom.  (Catholic  theologian), 

389 
Barbara   Sophia    of    Brandenburg 

(Duchess  of  Wiirtemberg),  436 
Barns,  Robert,  1 
Basse,   Nich.  (printer  at  Frankfort- 

on-the-Main),  168  f. 
Bayle.  Pierre,  385  (n.  1) 
Becanus,  Martin  (S.  J.  at  Mayence), 

205-207,  213 
Behm,     Job.     (court    preacher    at 

Konigsberg),  321 
Bellarmin.  Robert  (Cardinal),   147; 

241,  251,  343-348,  384  (to.  1) 
Benz,  Joh.,  225 

Berengar  of  Tours  (heretic),  265 
Bernard,  St.,  5 

Berssmann,  Gregory,  259  (n.  2),  278 
Bethlen,  Gabor  (Voyvode  of  Tran- 
sylvania), 544 
Beza,     Theodore,     149,     220,     226 
(to.  2),  268  (to.  1),  271  f.,  314,  371, 
389 
Biandra     (Savoyese     ambassador), 

590  (n.  3) 
Bidenbach.  William  (theologian  at 

Stuttgart),  325 
Blyttershagius,  272 
Bobhard,  James,  241 
Boden  (Bavarian  agent),  421  (to.  2) 
Bodin,  Jean  (French  parliamentary 

councillor),  371  (n.  1) 
Boissise  (French  ambassador).  447, 

451,  457 
Bonacasa,   Mirabilis   de   (Eberhard 

von  Weihe),  377 
Bongars,  Jacques  (French  ambassa- 
dor), 432  (n.  4),  433  (n.  4),  444, 
451-453 
Boniface,  St.,  11 
Boniface  III.  (Pope),  21 
Borghese,  Scipio  (cardinal  and  State 

secretary),  548  (n.  2) 
Borgia,    Francis,    St.     (General    of 

Jesuits),  352 
Bouillon,  Henri  de  la  Tour  d'Au- 
vergne,  Due  de  (marshal),  407  f., 
623 
Brahe,  Tycho  de  (astronomer),  55 
Braun,     Conrad     (chancellor      and 
canon    at  Mavence),   202  (to.   2). 
221  (n.  1) 


Brenz,  Joh.  (Wurtemberg  reformer), 
268 

Brockes  (burgomaster  at  Liibeck), 
554,  577,  590 

Bromser,  Hans  Reinhard  (Vice- 
gerent of  Mayence  and  ambas- 
sador), 503,  615 

Brutus,  Stephanus  Junius  (Pseud- 
onym of  Duplessis-Mornav).  372, 
389 

Bubna,  Joh.  v.  (Bohemian  noble), 
491 

Bucer,  Martin  (reformer),  87.  220, 
223,  374 

Buchanan,  George  (tutor  to 
James  I.).  373,  383 

Budowec  von  Budowa,  AVenzel, 
412.  420 

Bullinger,  Henrv  (Swiss  reformer), 
224 

Biindig,  M.  Heinrich,  196 

Burkhai'd,  Francis  (chancellor  of 
the  Elector  of  Cologne),  183  f., 
194  f.,  201  f.     See  Erstenberger 

Busaus,  Theodore  (S.  J.),  11'.' 


Calvin,   80,    149   (to.    1).   250.   261 

(n.  2),  262  ft'.,  300.   312  ft..  369, 

374,  389 
Calvinists.  Calvinism,  178,  189.  226 

(n.  2).  257-322,  344,  369  ft..  38S. 

403  ft..  442  f.,  450, 464,  475. 499  f . . 

504  ft.,  508,  520,  530  (to.  2).  547 

(n.  1),  557,  565,  573,'  591  ft.,  612- 

624,  628 
Cambilhon,  Jean,  490,  492 
Camerarius,  Louis  (Palatine  coun- 
cillor and  ambassador),  421.  620 
Canisius,  Petrus  (S.  J.),  36  (to.  1), 

46,  159,  214,  324,  329  (to.  3),  352, 

356 
Capuchins,  241 

Carlos,  Don  (Infant  of  Spain),  361 
Carlstadt  (Andr.  Rud.  Bodenstein), 

263,  312 
Carpzov,     Benedict     (jurist).     22/i 

(n.  2) 
Casa,  Giovanni  de  la  (Archbishop 

of  Benevent),  37  ft.,  149 
Casius,    George    (pastor     at    Burg- 

bernheim),  197  f. 
Caesar,  485 
Cassander,  George,  7  (to.  1) 


640 


HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Catharine     (Imperial     Abbess     of 

Buchau),  600 
Catherine  of  Siena,  St.,  99 
Catherine     of     Sweden     (Countess 

Palatine  of  Zweibriicken),  586 
Celestinus,    John   Fred,    (professor 

at  Jena),  96,  261 
Cellarius  (Hessian  superintendent), 

288 
Charles   the   Great   (Charlemagne), 

423 
Charles  V.  (Emperor),  133,  140,  178, 

206,  214,  302 
Charles  (Archduke  of  Styria),  172 
Charles  (Margrave  of  Burgau),  426 
Charles   Emmanuel   I.  (the  Great, 

Duke  of  Savoy),  441  f.,  456,  502, 

515,  528,  590,  623,  626 
Charlotte,    Margaret    (Princess    of 

Conde),  438  ff.,  457 
Chastel,  Jean  (Calvinist),  391  (n.  2) 
Chatre,  Claude  de  la  (French  mar- 
shal), 463 
Chemnitz.     See  Kemnitius 
Christian   (Prince   of  Anhalt-Bern- 

burg),  406,  412,  416  f.,  427,  434, 

438,  440,  445,  448  f.,  457,  460, 

464  ff.,  470,  486,  496,  505,  620, 

625 
Christian     (hereditary    Prince      of 

Anhalt-Bernburg),  625 
Christian     (Duke     of     Brunswick- 
Wolf  enbuttel),  360 
Christian  IV.  (King  of  Denmark). 

See  Denmark 
Christian  II.   (Elector  of  Saxony), 

415,  430,  462,  480  ff.,  489,  494, 

498 
Christian,  William,  of  Brandenburg 

(administrator    of     Magdeburg), 

523 
Christopher  (Duke  of  Wiirtemberg), 

93 
Chrysostom.     See  Johannes 
Clement  of  Rome,  10 
Clement  V.  (Pope),  30 
Clement  VII.  (Pope),  21 
Clement  VIII.  (Pope),  38  (n.  2) 
Clement,      Jacques      (assassin      of 

Henry  III.),  48,  383,  395 
Clotho  (Calvinist  preacher),  318 
Ccelestin  III.  (Pope),  29 
Conde,  Prince  and  Princess  of.     See 

Henry  and  Charlotte  Margaret 


Conrad    (superintendent    at    Stral- 

sund),  308 
Copus,  Alanus,  392 
Cosimo  II.  de  Medici  (Grand  Duke 

of  Tuscany),  473 
Cottoni  (S.  J.),  384 
Cramer,    Daniel   (pastor   and   pro- 
fessor at  Stettin),  308,  343 
Crato,  Adam,  259 
Cromwell,  Thomas   (English   State 

secretary),  368 
Cronberg  (Archbishop).  See  Schwei- 

kart 
Cuno,  Joh.  (superintendent  at  Per- 

leburg),  261 
Cusa,    Nicholas    of    (cardinal),    52 

(«.  1) 


Dalberg  (archbishop).  See  Wolf- 
gang 

Damasus  II.  (Pope),  21  (n.  1) 

Daniius  (Daneau).  Lambert  (theo- 
logian), 226  {n.  2),  344  (n.  2) 

Dandalus,  Franc.  (King  of  Cyprus 
and  Crete),  30 

Daniel  (prophet),  67 

David  (king),  311 

Decker,  Conrad  (professor  at  Hei- 
delberg), 364 

Delfinus,  Zacharias  (cardinal,  nun- 
cio), 205  (n.  1) 

Dienheim,  Eberhard  v.  (Bishop  of 
Spires),  453,  458  f.,  475 

Diestelmeier  (Brandenburg  chan- 
cellor), 301 

Dietrichstein  (Count  of),  67 

Diodati,  Giovanni  (preacher  at 
Geneva),  443 

Dirsius,  Job.  (S.  J.,  Rector  at 
Innsbruck),  160 

Diskau  (Brandenburg  councillor), 
428 

Distlmeyr,  Kleophas,  208  (n.  2) 

Dobereiner  (canon  at  Munich),  216 

Dohna,  Burgrave  Abraham  von 
Brandenburg  (ambassador  at 
Prague),  534,  544,  549 

Dohna,  Burgrave  Christopher  von 
(Palatine  ambassador),  407  (n.  3), 
620  f.,  626  (n.  2) 

Dolhnger  (Church  historian),  221 
(n.  1) 

Dominic,  St.,  5.  99 


INDEX   OF   PERSONS 


641 


Dominicans,  48,  73 

Dommarein  of  Dissingau,  193,  194 

(re.  1),  195,  200  (re.  1),  256 
Donatists,  the,  207 
Donawer,  Christopher  (preacher  at 

Ratisbon),  274 
Donnersberg,  Joachim  v.  (Bavarian 

ambassador     at     Prague),     476 

(n.  1) 
Dorothea       Ursula       of       Baden 

(Duchess  of  Wiirtemberg),  399 
Dosch,  Conrad  (rector),  159  (re.  1) 
Dotschmann,       Peter     (dean       at 

Schwabisch-Hall),  247 
Du    Fresne-Canoye    (French    am- 
bassador at  Venice),  442  (re.  3) 
Dumoulin,  Charles,  371 
Duplessis-Mornay.     See  Mornay 
Durandus  (bishop),  41 


Eremita,    Daniel    (from    Belgium), 

296  (re.  1) 
Ernest     of     Bavaria     (Elector     of 

Cologne,  Bishop  of  Liege,  Hildes- 

heim,  and  Miinster),  216,  470  f., 

481,  489,  501,  628 
Ernest  Fred.  (Margrave  of  Baden- 

Durlach),  126  ff.,  282 
Ernest   James    (Prince    of    Baden- 

Hochberg),  129 
Ernhofer,  Sigismund  (S.  J.  at  Graz), 

111 
Erstenberger,    Andr.    (secretary  of 

the  Aulic   Council),  184  ff.,  193 

(re.  2),  200  ff.,  213 
Eybenhold,     U.     (controversialist), 

18  (re.  3),  32  (re.  3) 
Eyntzinger,  K.   L.   (preacher),   348 

(re.  1) 


Echart,  H.  (preacher),  232,  251  (re. 

3),  349  (re.  1) 
Echter    von    Mespelbrunn,    Julius 

(Bishop  of  Wiirzburg),  449,  469, 

474,  475,  606  f. 
Ecker  (Eckkart),  George  (Barefoot 

Friar),  136 
Eder,     George      (Imperial      court 

councillor),    171    ff.,    183,    188, 

200  ff. 
Effern,     William     of     (Bishop     of 

Worms),  453,  458 
Effern,     William    Ferdinand     von 

(councillor    of    the    Elector    of 

Mayence),  518,  521  (».   1),  532, 

597  (re.  1),  612 
Egenolph,    Charles    (at   Frankfort- 

on-the-Main),  504  (re.  2) 
Einsiedel.     See  Louis  of  Saxony 
Eisengrein,  Martin  (vice-chancellor 

at  Ingolstadt),  5  (re.  1),  84 
Elizabeth  of  Eulenburg  and  Man- 

derscheid  (Margravine  of  Baden- 

Hochberg),  126 
Elizabeth  (Queen  of  England),  455 
Elizabeth    of    England    (Electress 

Palatine),  516,  623 
Empsychovius,  Hermann  (preacher 

at  Dortmund),  251,  329  (re.  3) 
Emser,  Jerome  (theologian),  83 
Engel,  Andreas  (pastor),  265 
Engelmann,  Joseph  (doctor),  169 

VOL.    X. 


Faber,  Zachar.  (preacher  at 
Hohenleine,  322 

Fabri,  John  (Dominican  from  Heil- 
bronn),  34  (re.  1) 

Fabricius,  Andr.  (theologian),  216 

Fabricius,  James  (rector  at  Dant- 
zic),  315 

Fabronius,  H.  (court  preacher), 
286,  303 

Ferdinand  I.  (Emperor),  179,  184 
(re.  3),  612,  618 

Ferdinand  (Archduke  of  Styria, 
later  King  of  Bohemia  and 
Roman  German  Emperor  F.  II.), 
201,  217,  411,  414,  430,  435,  445, 
472  ff.,  477,  495,  506,  512,  550, 
589,  615,  617  ff.,  621  ff.,  628 

Ferdinand  of  Bavaria  (Coadjutor 
and  later  Archbishop  of  Cologne, 
Bishop  of  Liege,  Hildesheim. 
Miinster,  and  Paderborn),  478, 
507,  558,  564,  570,  607, 617(re.  2) 

Ferdinand  (Archduke  of  Tyrol), 
129,  172 

Fettmilch,  Vincent  (confectioner  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main),  573  f. 

Feyerabend,  Charles  Henry  (coun- 
cillor of  the  Elector  of  Mayence), 
534  (re.  1),  545  (re.  1),  548  f.,  573 
(re.  1) 

Fickler,  Joh.  (jurist  at  Salzburg). 
216 

T  T 


642 


HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Finck,       Solomon       (Brandenburg 

court  preacher),  309,  318 
Fischart,  Job.,  23,  40  f.,  84,  98  ff., 

250,  325 
Flacius,  Matthew  (styled  lllyricus, 

theologian),   3-12,   34,    144,   329 

(n.  3)  ;  Flacians,  Flacianism,  101, 

313 
Flasch,     Sebastian     preacher     at 

Mansfield,  convert),  113  ff.,  149 
Florentin    (provincial    of    Jesuits), 

355  {n.  2) 
Forner,  Andr.  (Franconian  pastor), 

238,  360  (n.  2) 
Francis  II.  (Duke  of  Saxe-Lauen- 

burg),  536 
Francis  of  Assisi,  St.,  5,  92  f.,  99  f., 

135     {n.    3),    138  ;  Franciscans, 

135,  391  {n.  2) 
Franck,  Sebastian,  21 
Frederic 

147 
Frederic 


I.  (Emperor),  12    ff.,    27, 
(Elector    Palatine), 


III. 


225 
Frederic   IV.     (Elector     Palatine), 

119,  184,  413  f.,  415  f.,  425,  443, 

446  f.,  451,459,  461,  486 
Frederic    V.      (Elector     Palatine), 

200,  493-494,  551,  619,  622  ff., 

627 
Frederic  (Duke   of    Schleswig-Hol- 

stein),  276  (».  1) 
Frederic  Ulrich  (Duke    of    Bruns- 

wick-Luneburg),  19,  575  ff.,  585 
Frei,  Peter,  314  (n.  2) 
Frey,  Joh.  (professor),  127 
Freyberg,  John  Christopher  v.  (II. 

provost   of  Ellwangen),    606   f., 

609 
Friedburg,    Christian    Gottlieb    v. 

See  Schoppe 
Frischlin,  Nicod.  (poet),  31,  270 
Fiiger,  Caspar  (preacher),  70 
Fugger     von     Kirchberg,     James 

(Bishop  of  Constance),  469,  529 
Funk,  F.  X.  (Church  historian),  221 

(n.l) 
Fiissel,  Martin  (Calvinist),  309,  318 


Galltjs,  Nich.    (superintendent  at 

Ratisbon),  82,  95,  111 
Garcaus,  Joachim    (superintendent 

at  Brandenburg),  320 


Gebhard,  Truchsess  von  Waldburg 

(Archbishop  of  Cologne),  62,  184 

(n,  3) 
Gedicke,  Simon  (cathedral  provost 

and   court   preacher  at   Berlin), 

309  ff.,  319 
Geiler  von  Kaiserberg,  89 
Geizkofler,  Lucas,  231 
Geizkofler,  Zacharias,  535  (n.  2) 
Geldenhauer,  257  (n.  1) 
Gent  (Dutch  General),  609,  623 
Gentilis,  Valentin,  226  (n.  2) 
Gentillet,     Innocent     (pseudonym 

Joachim  Ursinus),  364 
George     the     Bearded     (Duke     of 

Saxony),  133 
George      Frederic     (Margrave     of 

Baden-Durlach),    283,    435^38, 

448,  460,  474,  512 
George      Frederic      (Margrave    of 

Brandenburg-Ansbach),  93,  196, 

227,  448 
George   Rudolf  (Duke  of  Liegnitz), 

300 
George    William  (Electoral  Prince 

of  Brandenburg),  558,  559 
Gerhard,      Joh.     (superintendent), 

389 
Gerstenberger   (Saxon   ambassador 

at  Prague),  415 
Gifford,    William    (Archbishop    of 

Rheims),  374  (n.  3) 
Giglio,  Aloigi  (physician),  52  (n.  1) 
Giglio,  Antonio,  52  (n.  1) 
Gisenius,  Joh.  (professor  at  Giessen), 

208  (n.  1),  220 
Goblerus,  Caspar,  116 
Goldast,  Sebastian,  344  (n.  6) 
Goldast  v.   Haininsfeld,    Melchior, 

343  f.,  393  f.,  396,  501  (n.  1) 
Goodman,  Christopher  (Scotch  re- 
former), 372,  389 
Gottfriedus  Innocentius  (Calvinist), 

267 
Gratian,  5 

Gregory  I.  (Pope),  34 
Gregory  VII.  (Pope),  11  ff.,  21,  23, 

27,  146 
Gregory  XIII.  (Pope),  205  (n.  1), 

384  (n.  1)  ;  Gregorian  Calendar, 

52-74 
Gregory,  St.,  214 

Gregory  of  Valencia  (S.  J.),   159, 
207,  356 


INDEX   OF   PERSONS 


643 


Greiffenklau-Vollraths,  George  Fre- 
deric of  (Bishop  of  Worms), 
596  f. 

Gretser,  James  (S.  J.),  12  [n.  2), 
119  {n.  1),  332  (n.  2),  338  (n.  2), 
343  ff.,  347  (nn.  1,  2),  360  (».  2), 
369  (n.  3),  372  («.  3),  373  (n.  1), 
393,  396,  490  (w.  3) 

Griin  (chancellor  of  the  Palatine 
Elector),  624  (n.  2) 

Grundmann,  259  («..  2) 

Grynaus,  Joh.  James  (theologian 
at  Basle),  257  (».  1) 

Gudermann,  Christian  (doctor),  333, 
340,  345  (n.  3) 

Gueux,  the,  40 

Guignart,  Jean  de  (S.  J.),  391  (».  2) 

Guise  (family),  371 

Guise,  Duke  of,  370 

Guise  (Duke  of  Lorraine).  See  Henry 

Gunderot  (English  agent  at  Prague, 
496 

Gundhng,  Jerome  Nich.  (jurist  at 
Halle),  38 

Gustavus  II.,  Adolphus  (King  of 
Sweden), 

Hagemann,  Christopher  (ecclesias- 
tical councillor  at  Mayence),  126 
(n.  1),  130  {n.  2) 

Hamelmann,  Herm.  (Oldenburg 
superintendent),  277,  316 

Hanau,  Philip  Louis  (Count  of), 
282 

Hanenfeld,  George,  316 

Hanisch,  Daniel  (Saxon  court 
preacher),  499 

Hanlin,  George  (rector  of  the  uni- 
versity at  Freiburg),  122 

Hans,  Albrecht  (Duke  of  Mecklen- 
burg-Giistrow),  300 

Hansonius,  Peter,  330 

Hartl  (Imperial  court  secretary), 
496 

Hasenmiiller,  Elias  (controversi- 
alist, 151,  208,  258,  334 

Hastal  (Imperial  valet),  496 

Hauffen,  A.  (historian),  3  (n.  1) 

Hausen,  Wolfgang  v.  (second  Bishop 
of  Ratisbon),  469,  600 

Heckel,  George,  338  (n.  2) 

Heerbrand,  James  (professor  at 
Tubingen),  19,  61 ,  111  ff.,  119, 159. 
232,  235,  244,  250  f. 


Heilbrunner,    James    (theologian), 

151  f.,  343,  375 
Heilbrunner,     Philip    (theologian), 

151  f.,  340,  343 
Heinrichs,   Gotthelf  (counsellor- at  - 

law),  169  (».  2) 
Helbach,  Albr.  v.  (chaplain  to  the 

court    of    Pfalz-Simmern),     263 

(n.  2),  265 
Helfrich  (doctor,  Saxon  resident  in 

Paris),  452 
Hendl,    Simon    (S.    J.,    rector    at 

Munich),  356 
Henry  IV.  (Emperor),  23,  146 
Henry  VI.  (Emperor),  29 
Henry  VII.  (Emperor),  27 
Henry  (Bishop  of  Augsburg).     See 

Knoringen 
Henry     the      younger     (Duke     of 

Brunswick-Wolf  enbiittel),  133 
Henry  II.  (Prince  of  Conde),  438 
Henry  VIII.  (King  of  England),  368 
Henry  III.   (King  of  France),  48, 

383 
Henrv    of    Navarre    (later,    King 

Henry  IV.  of  France),  423,  427, 

429,   432,   433   (n.   4),   438,   439 

(n.  3),  448,  452  f.,  456  t,  466, 

485 
Henry  II.  (Duke  of  Lorraine),  515, 

528,  606,  623 
Henry  Julius  (Duke  of  Brunswick- 
Wolf  enbiittel),   454   (n.    1),   462, 

480,  481  (n.  2),  483,  487,  529 
Hesshus,    Tilm.    (theologian),    95, 

272,  324 
Hetzer  (Anabaptist   at  Augsburg), 

111 
Hilarius  of  Poictiers,  St.,  195 
Himricus,  Joh.  (preacher  at  Nurem- 
berg), 274  (n.  2) 
Hobrecht,  Bened.,  317 
Hoe,  Matthias  (court  preacher  to 

the  Elector  of  Saxony),  29,  35, 

250,  272  (n,  2),  307,  311  ff.,  322, 

363 
Hoffaus,   Paul   (Jesuit   provincial), 

353 
Hoffmann  (doctor).  260  (n.  2) 
Hoffmeister,      Joh.      (Augustinian 

prior  at  Colmar),  77,  223 
Hofmann,     Daniel     (professor     at 

Helmstadt),  268  {n.  1) 
Hohenernbs,  Caspar  (Count  of),  600 

T   T    '2 


644 


HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Hohenembs,  Marx  Sittich  (Count 
of,  Archbishop  of  Salzburg),  601 

Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen,  Charles 
II.  (Count  of),  126 

Hojeda,  Stephen  (S.  J.  inquisitor), 
376 

Holder,  William  (chief  preacher 
and  consistorial  councillor  at 
Stuttgart),  137  f.,  218  (n.  2).  234 

Hopmann,  Alexander  (doctor  and 
jurist  of  Cleves),  431  (n.  3).  435 
(n.  1),  460,  463 

Hoserlein.     See  Osiander 

Hosius,  Stanisl.  (cardinal),  111 

Hospinian,  344  (n.  2) 

Hotoman,  Francis  (jurist),  371 

Huber,  Hans,  150 

Huber,  Samuel  (theologian  at  Wit- 
tenberg), 20,  38  (».  2),  141  ff., 
270,  343 

Huguenots,  the,  443  (c/.  France 
and  Calvinists) 

Huitfeld,  Harald  (Danish  Imperial 
Chancellor),  257  {n.  1) 

Hunnius,  iEgidius  (theologian  at 
Wittenberg),  140,  242,  511  (n.  1), 
343 

Huss,  Hussites,  207,  418 

Hutter,  Leonard  (theologian  at  Wit- 
tenberg), 232  («.  1),  300,  302 
(71.  3)  " 


Ignatius  of  Antioch,  St.,  10  f. 

Ignatius  of  Loyola,  St.,  150,  328, 
335  f.,  352,  364  {n.  1),  375 

Illeshasy,  Stephen  (magnate),  406 

Innocentius,  Gottfriedus  (pseud- 
onym), 267 

Irenaeus,  St.,  10 

Isenburg,  Counts  of  (Wolfgang 
Ernest  v.  J.-Birstein,  Henry  and 
Wolfgang  v.  J.-Nonnenburg), 
283 


Jacobi,  Daniel,  259 

James  III.  (Margrave  of  Baden- 
Hochberg),  116  ff.,  148  (n.  2) 

James  I.  (King  of  England),  373, 
410,  428,  455,  458,  486,  502,  515, 
529,  532,  552,  579,  623,  626 


Jesuits,  32  f.,  46,  50,  59,  65  f., 
75  ff.,  89,  147,  149  ff.,  157,  159, 
169,  170  (n.  1),  180,  184,  194, 
202-205,  218  {n.  2),  240  ff.,  322- 
367,  339,  373-377,  383-400,  435, 
443,  455,  483,  489-491,  562,  564 

Joachim  I.  (Elector  of  Branden- 
burg), 140,  305 

Joachim  II.  (Elector  of  Branden- 
burg), 301,  303,  305 

Joachim  II.  Ernest  (Prince  of 
Anhalt),  282 

Joachim  Ernest  (Margrave  of 
Brandenburg-Ansbach),  412,  459 
ff.,  474,  496,  501,  505.  512,  517, 
536,  566,  624,  629 

Joachim  Fred,  (administrator  of 
Magdeburg,  then  Elector  of 
Brandenburg),  302 

Joan  (Popess),  32  f.,  35,  39 

Jobin,  Bernard  (bookseller  at  Stras- 
burg),  24 

Jocher  (Bavarian  councillor),  624 

Johannes  Chrysostomus  (doctor  of 
the  Church),  195,  207 

John  VIII.  (Pope),  59 

John  (Margrave  of  Brandenburg- 
Ciistrin),  305  (n.  3) 

John  of  Minister.     See  Miinster 

John  (Count  of  Oldenburg),  277 

John  II.  (Count  Palatine  of  Zwei- 
briicken,  administrator  of  the 
Palatinate),  426,  466,  498  ff.,  510, 
529,  565,  586 

John  Christian  (Duke  of  Brieg),  300 

John  Frederic  of  Holstein-Gottorp 
(Archbishop  of  Bremen),  579 

John  Frederic  (Duke  of  Wiirtem- 
berg),  417,  435  ff.,  461,  465,  474  f., 
497,  514,  581,  585 

John  George  I.  (Prince  of  Anhalt- 
Dessau),  282,  502 

John  George  (Elector  of  Branden- 
burg), 54,  184,  301  f. 

John  George  (Margrave  of  Branden- 
burg-Jagerndorf,  Stattholder  of 
the  Mark,  administrator  of  Stras- 
burg),  551 

John  George  I.  (Duke,  later  on 
Elector  of  Saxony),  498,  500,  514, 
522,  536,  542,  547  (n.  1),  598, 
617-620,  624  f. 

John  Gottfried  (Bishop  of  Bam- 
berg).    See  Aschhausen 


INDEX   OF   PERSONS 


645 


John  Casimir  (Count  Palatine  of 
Pfalz-Lautern,  administrator  of 
the  Palatinate),  128,  270 

John  Casimir  (Count  Palatine  of 
Zweibriicken),  586 

John  Casimir  (Duke  of  Saxe- 
Coburg),  483 

John  Schweikart  of  Cronberg  (Arch- 
bishop of  Mayence),  200,  453, 
470,  474,  477,  478,  482,  484,  489, 
494  f.,  501,  508,  513,  519,  573, 
596,  607,  612,  615 

John  Sigismund  (Elector  of  Bran- 
denburg), 302,  319  f.,  427  f.,  447, 
452  f.,  458,  498,  557  f.,  568,  616  f., 
625 

John  William  (Duke  of  Jiilich- 
Cleves),  426 

John  of  Salisbury,  367 

Jordanus,  Christopher  (Branden- 
burg preacher),  303 

Judex,  Matthias,  8 

Julian,  or  Julius  Ernest  (Duke  of 
Brunswick-Liineburg),  377  (n.  1), 
483 

Julius  (Bishop  of  Wiirzburg).  See 
Echter 

Junius  Brutus.     See  Brutus 

Junius,  Francis  (Calvinist),  226 
{n.  2),  344  (n.  2) 

Justinus  (Doctor  of  the  Church),  10 


Keller,  James  (S.  J.  rector  at 
Munich),  375,  388  ff. 

Kemnitius,  Martin,  55,  324 

Kepler,  Job.  (astronomer),  55 

Khevenhiller,  Francis  Christopher, 
510  (n.  1),  552,  618  (n.  1),  623 
(n.  3) 

Khuenberg,  George  v.  (Archbishop 
of  Salzburg),  186 

Kinsky,  Wenzel  (Count  of),  491, 
552 

Kleindienst,  Barth.  (Professor  of 
Holy  Scripture  at  Annaberg),  86 
(n.  2),  87,  401  {n.  1) 

Klesl,  Melchior  (Bishop  of  Wiener  - 
Neustadt  :  then,  at  the  same  time 
Archbishop  of  Vienna  and  Minis- 
ter), 404,  409,  498,  509,  511  ff., 
517,  521  ff.,  534,  536,  540,  544- 
550,  552,  554,  556  {n.  1),  566, 
603  f.,  611,  615-618,  628 


Knoringen,  Henry  of  (fifth  Bishop 
of  Augsburg),  469,  475,  523  (n.  1), 
601,  606 
Knorr,  Hans,  317 
Knox,  John,  149  (».  1),  372,  389 
Kohl  (historian),  505  (n.  1) 
Konig,  Louis  (printer  at  Basle),  347 
Kreuzmann,  Friedlieb,  74  (n.  2) 


Lalius,  259  (n.  2) 

Lang,  Andr.  (Carinthian  preacher), 
168-170 

Languet,  Hubert  (Huguenot),  370- 
371 

Latomus,  James,  77 

Lauterbach,  Erhard  (superinten- 
dent of  the  bishopric  of  Naum- 
burg),  33  (n.  1),  243,  250  (n.  2) 

Lazarus,  Theodore,  314  (n.  3) 

Leiser,  Polycarp  (Lutheran  contro- 
versialist), 33,  151,  208,  244,  278, 
560,  561  (n.  1),  343 

Lenk,  Joh.  (ambassador  of  the 
Union  at  Venice),  444 

Leo  I.  (Pope),  48 

Leopold  V.  (Archduke  of  Austrian 
Tyrol,  Bishop  of  Passau,  ad- 
ministrator of  Strasburg),  409, 
414,  418,  430  ff.,  457,  463,  469, 
475,  480,  487  ff.,  509  (n.  1),  564, 
600 

Leporinus,  Melchior  (preacher  at 
Brunswick),  258,  334,  338 

Lerma,  Francisco  Gomez  de  Sando- 
val v.  Rojas  (Count,  later  Duke, 
Spanish  Minister),  375,  441 

L'Estoile,  439  (n.  3) 

Leuchtenberg  (Landgrave  of),  421 

Lichtenfels,  Melchior  v.  (Bishop  of 
Basle),  24  (n.  1) 

Liechtenstein,  Prince  Charles  of, 
620 

Lippe,  Simon  (Count  of),  282 

Lobkowitz,  Popel  v.,  413 

Lofenius,  Mich,  (court  jurist  to  the 
Palatine  Elector),  220 

Lonner,  Andr.,  398-400 

Lorichius,  Jod.  (theologian  at  Frei- 
burg), 180,  181  (n.  1),  183,  201  f. 

Lorraine  (House),  371 

Loserth  (historian),  218  (n.  2) 

Lossius,  Lucas,  253 


646 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Lothar  v.  Metternich  (Archbishop 
of  Treves),  431,  471,  550,  625 

Louis  (Dauphin,  later  Louis  XIII. , 
King  of  France),  428,  503,  602 

Louis  V.  (Landgrave  of  Hesse- 
Darmstadt),  462,  480,  483,  529, 
530  (re.  2),  534,  536, 542,  549,  574, 
617 

Louis  III.  (the  elder,  Landgrave  of 
Hesse-Marbourg),  129,  287 

Louis  VI.  (Palatine  Elector),  67,  69 

Louis  of  Saxony  (Louis  of  Einsie- 
del,  Capuchin),  125  (re.  1) 

Louis  III.  (Duke  of  Wiirtemberg), 
57,  61,  128 

Luther  and  Lutheranisni,  1-4,  16  ff., 
19,  26,  35,  36  (re.  1),  52  (re.  1), 
70,  78  ff.,  87  ff.,  96  ff.,  100,  108- 
118, 121-124, 131-158, 162, 195  ff., 
206,  213  ff.,  218,  222  f.,  243, 
246  f.,  250,  252.  257-261,  263, 
265-270,  272,  284,  286  ff.,  290, 
292  f.,  300,  304,  305  ff.,  310,  312, 
314-319,  320,  344,  347  (re.  3), 
367  f.,  374  f.,  389,  397  (re.  1)  ; 
Catechism,  288,  302  ;  Table  Talk, 
110 


Maassen,  Fk.,  221  (re.  1) 

Machiavelh,  522 

Madruzzi,  Charles  Gaudentius  (car- 
dinal, Prince-Bishop  of  Trent), 
548  (re.  2) 

Magdalena  of  Bavaria  (Countess 
Palatine  of  Neuburg),  557 

Magdalena  of  Julich-Cleves  (Coun- 
tess Palatine  of  Zweibriicken),  426 

Magirus,  Joh.  (Provost  at  Stutt- 
gart), 57,  251 

Maier,  Dav.  (Pastor  of  Hanover), 
19 

Major,  George  (professor),  173 

Maldonat  (S.  J.),  207 

Mansfeld,  Ernest  (Count  of),  590 

Marbach,  Joh.  (superintendent  at 
Strasburg),  84 

Maria  Anna  of  Bavaria  (Arch- 
duchess of  Styria),  474 

Maria  Eleonore  of  Julich-Cleves 
(Duchess  of  Prussia),  427 

Mariana  (Juan,  S.  J.),  371,  375 

Marnix,  Phil,  (lord  of  Aldegonde), 
40  46 


Martin,  St.  (Bishop  of  Tours),  344 
(re.  2) 

Martinitz,  Jaroslaw  v.,  413 

Mary  of  Medici  ( Queen,  later  Regent, 
of  France),  440,  458 

Mary  Stuart  (Queen  of  Scotland), 
372 

Mastlin,  Mich,  (astronomer  at 
Heidelberg,  later  at  Tubingen),  55, 
67  ff. 

Mathesius,  Joh.  (pastor  at  Joa- 
chimsthal),  160 

Matthias  (Archduke,  later  Em- 
peror), 403-412,  424,  430,  446, 
453  (re.  1),  454  (re.  1),  467  f.,  478, 
485-488,  493  ff.,  501,  505-512, 
514,  517-523,  526  f.,  533-556, 
557  ff.,  563-567,  569  ff.,  604,  613, 
615,  618 

Matthieu,  Claud  (S.  J.),  384  (re.  1) 

Maurice.     See  Moritz 

Maximilian  II.  (Emperor),  171,  174, 
185,  405,  414,  468,  507,  620 

Maximilian  (Duke  of  Bavaria), 
156,  418,  455,  466-479,  488, 
507,  523,  557,  600  ff.,  613,  618  f., 
623  ff. 

Maximilian  (Archduke,  Grand- 
Master  of  the  Teutonic  Order), 
Governor  of  the  Tyrol  and  the 
outlying  Austrian  provinces),  196, 
512,  544  f.,  548  (re.  2),  604,  605 
(re.  1),  607,  615-619,  628  (re.  2) 

Mayrhofer,  Matthias  (S.  J.),  213, 
386 

Meier,  G.  (historian),  619  (re.  2) 

Melanchthon,  Philip,  7  (re.  1),  70 
(re.  1),  123  (re.  1),  220,  224,  270 
(re.  2),  368,  389 

Melchior,  Bishop  of  Basle.  See 
Lichtenfels 

Menage,  Gilles  (French  savant),  38 
(re.  2) 

Mengering,  249  (re.  2),  324  (re.  1), 
345  (re.  1),  375  (re.  1) 

Menzel,  C.  A.  (historian),  547  (re.  1) 

Mercurian,  Eberhard  (General  of 
Jesuits),  159,  351 

Metternich  (archbishop).  See  Lothar 

Meusch,  Theob.  (superintendent), 
226 

Micron  (preacher),  294  (re.  1) 

Middelburg,  Paul  v.  (Bishop  of  Fos- 
sombrone),  52  (re.  1) 


INDEX   OF   PERSONS 


647 


MilJer,  George  (Mylius,  preacher  at 
Augsburg,  later  professor  at 
Jena),  25  f.,  33  (n.  3),  35  and 
n.  2,  37,  38  (n.  2),  72  (n.  2),  249 

Milton,  John,  374 

Minucci,  Minutio,  125  (n.  1),  184 
n.  3  (end  of) 

Mirus,  Martin  (court  preacher  at 
Dresden),  18 

Modest,  Joh.  (pastor  at  Dopper- 
schitz),  258  (n.  1),  262 

Mohammed,  Mohammedanism,  11, 
99,  145,  197,  263,  393 

Molanus,  Joh.  (S.  J.  professor  at 
Lowen);  208  (n.  1) 

Molina  (S.  J.),  207 

Mollart,  v.  (president  of  the  Court 
Council  of  War),  534,  552 

Monheim,  Joh.  (President  of  the 
gymnasium  at  Diisseldorf),  215 

Montgardo,  Joh.  de  (secretary 
Bellarmin),  345 

Moritz  (Landgrave  of  Hesse-Cassel), 
287-300,  303,  393, 429, 447, 450  f., 
456,  464,  505  (n.  1),  530  («,  2), 
577,  586,  589,  626 

Mornay,  Phil,  de  (Seigneur  Du- 
plessis-Marly,  statesman;  pseud- 
onym, Stephanus  Junius  Bru- 
tus), 372,  410  f.,  433  {n.  4),  440, 
443  (n.  3),  444  (nn.  1.  2,  3,  4)  ; 
445,  456  (n.  2),  502  {n.  2),  503 
{nn.  2,  3),  506 

Minister,  John  v.  (Maximilian  Phi- 
los  of  Treves),  29,  30  (n.  1),  38 
(n.  2),  247,  251,  300 
'Murner,  Thomas,  83 

Musculus  (Meusel),  Andr.  (theolo- 
gian),  301 

Mylius.     See  Miller 


Nagel,    Ulrich     (archdeacon     at 

Brandenburg),  320 
Nas,   Joh.    (Franciscan,    Auxiliary 

Bishop  at  Brixen),  24  (n.  1),  77, 

88,  94  ff.,  99  ff.,  104-111,   114, 

174,  327  (n.  1) 
Nassau,  Henry  (Prince  of),  576 
Nassau,  John  II.  (Count  of),  464 
Navio,  Trajano  (printer  at  Venice), 

37 
Nero  (Emperor),  195  9 

Neumeister,  Erdmann,  261  (n.  1)J| 


Neuser,  Adam,  225,  263 

Nicholas  I.  (Pope),  33 

Nicholas  of  Cusa,  52  (n.  1) 

Nicolai,  Phil,  (preacher  at  Unna,  in 
Westphalia),  261 

Nidanus.     See  Pistorius 

Niedpruck,  Caspar  von  (Imperial 
councillor),  8 

Nigrinus,  George  (Hessian  superin- 
tendent), 2,  3  (n.  1),  22,  50  f.,  63, 
100,  162  ff. 


OEkolampaditts,  263,  308 
Oldenbarneveldt  (statesman),  448 
Oliverius,  Bern.  (Jesuit  provincial), 

355  {n.  2) 
Ofiate  (Spanish  ambassador),  621 
Opitz.  Joshua  (preacher  at  Vienna), 

36  (n.  1) 
Orange,  Maurice  (Prince  of),  444, 

448.  463,  570 
Osiander,  Lucas  (Wurtemberg  court 

preacher),  57  ff.,  95,  135,  202  ff., 

226  (n.  2),   268,   286,  325,   360, 

361  (n.  1) 
Osius  (Hosius   of  Corduba,  7  (n.  1) 
Othlon  (biographer  of  St.  Boniface), 

13 
Otto  v.  Freising,  18 
Otto  (Prince  of  Hesse-Cassel,   ad- 
ministrator of  Hersfeld),  288 
Otto    Truchsess    (Cardinal).       See 

Truchsess 
Otto    Henry    (Count    Palatine    of 

Neuburg),  561 


Pappus,  Joh.  (preacher  and  pro- 
fessor at  Strasburg),  122 

Pareus,  David  (professor  at  Heidel- 
berg), 119,  218,  271,  299,  343, 
374^ 

Parsimomus,  Joh.  (Wurtemberg 
court  preacher),  268 

Paul  III.  (Pope),  29  ff.,  77,  329 

Paul  IV.  (Pope),  38  (».  2) 

Paul  V.  (Pope),  355,  423,  432,  442, 
455,  473,  476,  479,  483,  489,  496, 
507  f.,  518,  523  (n.  1),  539,  548, 
559,  562,  589 

Paulus,  Simon  (doctor  at  Rostock), 
268 


648 


HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Pawlowsky  von  Pawlowitz,  Stanis- 
laus (second  Bishop  of  Olmiitz), 
67 
Pelargus,  Christopher  (Branden- 
burg superintendent-general), 
303,  308 
Peregrinus,  A.  S.  (Andrew Schottus), 

375  (n.  4) 
Perellius,  Joh.,  228 
Perneder,  Bernard,  126  (n.  1),  130 
Petiscus,   Barth.    (court  preacher), 

500 
Petit,  Jean,  367 

Petrus     Lombardus    (Peter    Lom- 
bard), 5 
Pezel,     Christopher     (preacher     at 
Bremen),  231,  277,  279,  316,  328 
Pfaff  (Hessian  superintendent),  288 
Pfauser,      Seb.      (Imperial      court 

preacher),  7  (n.  1) 
Pfeiffer,  Joh.,  366 
Pflug,    Julius    (Bishop   of     Naum- 
I  4 burg),  96,  (n.  1) 
Philip    the    Magnanimous    (Land- 
grave of  Hesse),  287 
Philip  (Landgrave  of  Hesse-Darm- 
stadt), 529  f. 
Philip    II.    (Duke    of    Pomerania- 

Stettin),  536 
Philip  II.  (King  of  Spain),  361,  365, 

371  (n.  1) 
Philip  III.    (King  of  Spain),   376, 
440,  441,  448,  454,  472,  477,  480, 
485,  487,  505-506,  512,  518,  525, 
589,   593.    602,    605,    608,    621, 
627 
Philip,    Louis    (Count   Palatine    of 
Neuburg),  156,  426  1,  466,  558, 
560 
Philos  of  Treves,  Maximilian.     See 

Miinster,  John  v. 
Picardians,  the,  265 
Pickhart,  Jesuwalt.     See  Fischart 
Pighius,  77 

Pistorius,    Joh.     (Bavarian    house 
physician),  38  {n.  2),  117  (n.  3), 
126,  129  f.,  141 
Pius  IV.  (Pope),  21 
Pheninger,   Lambert  Floridus   (as- 
tronomer), 62  f.,  324  (n.  1) 
Polheim,  Gundakar  v.,  536 
Politianus,  Joh.  Angelus,  347 
Poltrot  (de  Mere),  Jean,  370 
Possevin,  Anton  (S.  J.),  68  (n.  1) 


Praetorius,  Joh.  (preacher  at  Halle), 
37  (n.  1),  47,  263  ff.,  280 

Preger  (historian),  7  (n.  1) 

Probus,  Antoninus  (Weimar  super- 
intendent-general), 6,  18  (n.  3), 
29  (n.  1) 

Pullitz,  von  (Brandenburg  general), 
566 

Qttinet,  Edgar,  41  (n.  1) 

Rab,  Gottfried  (Augustinian),  239 
(n.  1) 

Rabe,  James  (convert),  84  f.,  325, 
327  (n.  1) 

Ramee  (Imperial  general).  487 

Rasch,  Joh.,  66 

Rauschenberg,  431 

Rauscher,  flieronymus  (Palatine 
court  preacher),  91-95 

Ravaillac  (assassin),  457 

Rechtenberg,  Leonard  (preacher), 
298 

Regiomontanus  (astronomer),  52 
(n.l) 

Rescius.  Stanislaus,  257,  279 

Rhegius,  Urban,  224 

Rhinegrave,  the,  65 

Richelieu,  Armand  Jean  Duplessis, 
Due  de  (cardinal),  433,  440 

Ritter,  Matthias  (preacher  at  Frank - 
fort-on-the-Main),  105 

Rivander,  Zach.  (pastor  at  Lucken- 
walde),  60  (n.  1),  262  f.,  275 
(n.l) 

Rodegast,  Seb.  (preacher  at  Nurem- 
berg), 274 

Roding,  William,  324 

Rosefius,  Greg.  (Christopher  Rosen- 
busch,  S.  J.).  202  ff..  350,  360 

Rosenberg,  Peter  Wock  v.,  408, 
416,  486 

Rosenbusch.     See  Rosefius 

Rossaus,  William,  374  f.,  392 

Rucky  (Imperial  valet),  496 

Riidinger,  Joh.  (poet  and  pastor  at 
Weyra),  342,  493  (n.  1) 

Riidinger,  Laur.  (Imperial  ambassa- 
dor), 553 

Rudolf  II.  (Emperor),  52  (n.  1),  69, 
130,  168  ff.,  185,  205  {n.  1),  209, 
403,  411-425,  445  f.,  454  (n  1), 
462  f.,  467  f.,  478,  481  ff.,  493- 
504,  505  ff.,  531.  571,  619 


INDEX    OF   PERSONS 


649 


Riilich,  Barth.  (preacher  at  Augs- 
burg), 158  f.,  331 

Riilich,  James  (pastor  at  Augsburg), 
72  (n  2) 

Rungius,  Dav.  (professor  at  Witten- 
berg), 261 

Saccus,  Sieger.,  27 
Sachs,  Hans,  32 

Sacramentarians,  262  f.,  300.  312 
Sahg,  A.  Christopher  (historian),  7 

(».  1) 
Salmasius,  Claudius  (scholar),  374 
Sarpi,  Paolo,  374  (n.  1),  443 
Sartorius,  Sixtus,  259  (n.  2) 
Saxony    (House),    426,    463,    484; 

Ernestine  hne,  547 
Scheidlich,  Paul,  324 
Schelhaninier,    Joh.    (preacher    at 
Nuremberg),  261  (n.  1),  273,  277 
Scherer,  George  (S.  J.,  at  Vienna), 
32,  36  (».  1),  198  {n.  1),  202,  205, 
332,  350 
Schlick,  Count  Andreas  v.,  413,  552 
Schliisselburg,  Conrad  (theologian), 

19,  34,  308,  323 
Schmetz,  Martin,  565  (n.  1) 
Schoolmen,  the,  137 
Schonbere  (General  of  the  Union), 

494 
Schoner,  Valentine  (Hessian  super- 
intendent), 288,  295  (n.  2) 
Schonfeld,  Gregory  (Hessian  super- 
intendent), 288,  295  (».  2) 
Schoppe,  Caspar  (Ungersdorff,  con- 
vert), 201  f.,  437,  449,  517,  578, 
594 
Schottus,  Andreas.     See  Peregrinus 
Schwarz,  Andr.,  565 
Schweikart.     See  John 
Schwenkfeld,  Casp.     v.,   Schwenk- 

feldians,  101,  178,  239 
Sculteti,   Joh.  (Ermland  Cathedral 

dean),  52 
Scultetus,     Barth.     (patrician     at 

Gorlitz),  55 
Sebastian  (King  of  Portugal),  361 
Selnekker,  Nich.    (superintendent), 

278,  281 
Servet,  Mich.,  220,  221  («.  1) 
Sibyl  of  Jiilich-Cleves  (Margravine 

of  Burgau),  426 
Sigelius  (preacher  at  Nuremberg), 
277 


Sigismund    III.  (King  of  Poland), 

587 
Silvanus,  James,  220 
Sirleto,     Giacomo     (cardinal),     52 

(n.  1) 
Sittich.     See  Hohenembs 
Sixtus  IV.  (Pope),  52  (n.  1) 
Sixtus  V.  (Pope),  234 
Slavata,  William  von,  413 
Sleidan  (historian),  38  (n.  2) 
Solomon  (King),  194 
Soranzo,  Joh    (Venetian  ambassa- 
dor), 513 
Sotern,  Phil.  Christopher  von  (Bis- 
hop of  Spires),  548  (rt.  2),  596,  600 
Spangenberg,  Cyriacus,    21,  33,  38 
(».  2),  82,' 95  (n.  3),  96,  143,  147, 
150,  307 
Spiess,  Martin,  242 
Spindler,  George,  271 
Spinola,     Ambrosius    (Spanish  ge- 
neral), 439,  566,  570 
Staphylus,  Fred,    (convert),   77   f., 

91,  96  (n.  1),  118 
Starhemberg,  Gotthard  v.  (general), 

486,  488 
Starhemberg,  Richard  v.,  407 
Stein,  Simon  (professor  at  Heidel- 
berg), 335  (n.  2) 
Sternberg,  Adam  v.,  491 
Sternberg,  Count  Stephen  of,  413 
Sternberger,  Lucas  (preacher),  239 

(».  1) 
Stevart,  Peter  (professor   at  Ingol- 

stadt),  208 
Stoffel,  John  (theologian),  263 
Stralendorff,  Leopold  von  (Imperial 
Vice-Chancellor),     430     (n.     1), 
467 
Strigel,  Viktorinus,  263 
Stuler  (dean  at  Berlin),  318 
Sturm,  John  von,  268,  272 
Stum,    George   (S.  J.,  at  Prague), 

492  (n.  1) 
Sully,  Max  de  Bethune,  Baron  de 
Rosny,  Due  de  (French  Minister), 
440 
Sylvester  I.  (Pope),  63 
Sylvester  II.  (Pope),  21,  27 
Synergists,  the,  313 

Tanner,  Adam,  360  (n.  2) 
Teufel,  Wolf  (arquebusier),  498 
Teutonic  Order,  289  (n.  2) 


650 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Theodora  (Empress),  195 

Thomas  of  Aquinas,  St.,  5,  207,  389 

Thou,  De,  371 

Thurn,  Ambrose  (Count  of).  411 

Thurn,  Henry  Matthias  (Count  of), 

415,  420,  491,  552,  621 
Thurzo  (magnate),  446,  551 
Tilesius,     Nathanael     (superinten- 
dent), 244  (».  1) 
Tilly,   John  Tserclaes   (Baron   v.), 

4*78 
Torquatus,  Antonius,  197 
Tossanus,  Daniel  (professor),  271  ; 

his  son  Paul,  271  (ft.  1) 
Toxites,  263  (».  1) 
Truchsess  von  Waldburg,  Gebhard 

(Archbishop).     See  Gebhard 
Truchsess     von     Waldburg,     Otto 

(Bishop  of  Augsburg,  Cardinal), 

36  (n.  1) 
Tschernembl,      George      Erasmus 

(Baron  v.),  404  ft.,  446,  517 
Turmair.     See  Aventin 


Ubaldini  (nuncio  at  Paris),  433 
(n.  4),  439 

Ubiquists,  239 

Ulenberger,  Caspar,  7  (».  1) 

Ulm,  Hans  Louis  (Imperial  Vice- 
Chancellor),  540  1,  543 

Ulm,  Henry  von  (Abbot  of  Kemp- 
ten),  469 

Ulrich,  St.  (Bishop  of  Augsburg), 
33  ff. 

Ungersdorff,  Christopher  von.  See 
Schoppe 

Ursinus,  Joachim  (Gentillet),  365 

Utzinger,  Alexander  (preacher  at 
Smalcald),  84,  193,  254 


Valencia.     See  Gregory 
Vasari  (historian),  24  {n.  1) 
Verannemann    (Jesuit    provincial), 

355 
Vergerius,  Peter  Paul  (apostate),  33, 

38  (n.  2) 
Vermigli,  Petrus,  martyr  (professor), 

224  (».  2) 
Verneuil,  Cath.  Henr.,  Marquise  de, 

439  {n.  2) 
Vetter,  Cons.  (Cons.  Andrea,  S.  J.), 

149  ff.,  344,  347  (n.  3),  375 


Victor,  Jeremias  (pastor  at  Giessen), 

33,  250,  255,  295 
Villeroy,    Nich.    (II.    de   Neufville, 

Seigneur  de,  State  secretary),  433 

(».  4),  602 
Vincentius    (Roman   presbyter),    7 

(».  1) 
Vitus  (same  as  above),  7  (n.  1) 


Wacker,  Matthew  (Imperial  court 

secretary),  496,  559 
Wackernagel,  24  (n.  1) 
Wagner,  Marcus,  7  (n.  1) 
Waldenses,  265 
Weech  (historian),  125  (n.  1) 
Wegele  (historian),  12  (n.  2) 
Weigel,  Val.  (preacher),  280 
Weihe,  Eberhard  (Brunswick-Lune- 

burg  chancellor),  377  (n.  1) 
Weissenbach,  Kraft  v.  (Protestant 

Abbot  of  Hersfeld),  288  (n.  1) 
Werenfels,     Samuel    (reformer    at 

Wesel),  304  (n.  2) 
Wernerus    ab    Obrinca,    Albertus, 

594 
Westerstetten,  John  Christopher  v. 

(Provost  of     Ellwangen ;    later. 

Bishop  of  Eichstatt),  469,   606, 

609 
Wetterau,  the  Counts  of  the,  536 
Wickliffe,  265 
Wiederhopf,   Hans   (official  of  the 

Electorate     of     Mayence),     469 

(».l) 
Wigand,  John  (theologian),  8,  34, 

144,  324 
William  V.  (Duke  of  Bavaria),  52 

(».   1),  126,   128,   186,  351,  356, 

473 
William  IV.  (Landgrave  of  Hesse- 

Cassel),  49,  128  f.,  168,  285  ff. 
William     IV.     (Duke     of     Jiilich- 

Cleves),  215 
Willibald  (biographer  of  St.  Boni- 
face), 12  (n.  2) 
Windeck,    John    Paul    (Canon    at 

Markdorf),  196,  198-202,  392 
Winkelmair    (Bavarian    secretary), 

184  (n.  3) 
Winkelmann,  John  (court  preacher 

in  Cassel),  286 
Wittelsbach  (House),  476,  624  f. 
Wolf,  John  (jurist),  329  (n.  3) 


INDEX   OF  PERSONS 


651 


Wolfgang  von  Dalberg  (Archbishop 
of  Mayence),  74 

Wolfgang  (Bishop  of  Ratisbon). 
See  Hausen 

Wolfgang  (Count  Palatine  by  the 
Rhine),  398,  427,  460,  557  ff. 

Wotton,  Henry  (English  ambassa- 
dor at  Venice),  443 

Wouters,  Cornelius,  7  (n.  1) 

Wratislaw,  George  v.,  491 


Zanchi,  Jerome  (reformer  at 

Strasburg),  224 
Zanga  (preacher),  324 


Zehender,  John  (court  preacher  at 

Baden),  121,  131 
Ziegler,  Christopher  (S.  J.),  399 
Zierotin,   Charles  v.    (head  of  the 

Moravian  Protestants),  420,  494, 

506,  551 
Zimmermann     (superintendent    at 

Graz),  112  (n.  2) 
Zobel,  John  (Hessian  ambassador), 

460,  587  (».  2) 
Zollern,     Count     (Bavarian     Lord 

Chamberlain),  628 
Zuniga,  Balth.   (Spanish  ambassa- 
dor), 509 
Zwingli,  Zwinglians,  178,  189,  220, 

224  (».   3),  239,  263,  298,   312, 

321.  369,  374,  389,  595 


END    OF   THE    TENTH    VOLUME 


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