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THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


VOL.    XI. 


Demy  Svo.    25s.  per  2  Vols. 

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.— XII.  translated  by  A.  M.  Christie. 


LONDON : 
KEGAN  PAUL,  TRENCH,  TRUBNER  &  CO.  Ltd. 


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

By  Johannes  Janssen 

vol.  XL 

ART  AND  POPULAR  LITERATURE 
TO  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE 
TPIIRTY    YEARS'    WAR 

TRANSLATED  BY  A.  M.  CHRISTIE 


LONDON 

KEGAN   PAUL.  TRENCH,  TRUBNER  &  CO.  LTD. 

DRYDEN    HOUSE,    GERRARD    STREET,    W. 

1907 


TRANSLATOR'S  NOTE. 

These  Volumes  (XI.  and  XII.)  are  translated  from 
Vol.  VI.  of  the  German  [Fifteenth  and  Sixteenth  Editions, 
improved  and  added  to  by  Ludivig  Pastor]. 


<■  rights  of  transltXi  reproduction  are  reserved.) 


EDITOR'S    PREFACE 


The  principles  which  guided  me  in  compiling  the  new 
editions  of  Janssen's  '  History  of  the  German  People  ' 
have  been  explained  in  my  Preface  to  the  Thirteenth  and 
Fourteenth  edition  of  Vol.  V.  While  referring  to  what 
is  there  written,  I  may  add  that  for  the  present  edition 
of  Vol.  VI.  I  have  also  numerous  manuscript  notes 
by  the  late  author.  In  addition  to  these  I  could  also 
insert  many  verbal  utterances  made  to  me  by  Janssen 
in  July  1891,  when  I  had  lengthy  talks  with  my 
never-to-be-forgotten  instructor  and  friend,  especially 
with  regard  to  the  alterations  to  be  made  in  the  first 
book  of  Vol.  VI.  (English,  Vol.  XL).  Particulars  of 
these  conversations  I  noted  down  on  the  spot.  As  in 
Vol.  V.,  so  in  the  present  one,  Vol.  VI. ,  I  have,  as  far 
as  possible,  indicated  my  own  notes  and  emendations 
by  double  asterisks  (**). 

For  valuable  contributions  to  the  new  edition  of 
this  present  volume,  I  wish  to  express  my  heartiest 
thanks  to  the  distinguished  Professor  (now  Bishop  of 
Rottenburg)  P.  W.  v.  Keppler,  to  Professor  Wackernell 


vi  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

of  Innsbruck,  to  Dr.  Baiimker  of  Zurich,  and  Dr. 
Bertram  of  Hildesheim,  and  also  to  my  dear  friends 
Nicholas  Paulus  at  Munich  and  the  Rev.  Joseph  Graen 
at  Hildesheim. 

Ludwig  Pastor. 

Innsbruck  :  January  6,  1893-September  8,  1900. 


CONTENTS 

OF 

THE    ELEVENTH    VOLUME 

BOOKS  I  AND   II 

CIVILISATION  AND  CULTURE  OF  THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE 
FROM  THE  END  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  TO  THE  BEGIN- 
NING  OF   THE    THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR 

INTRODUCTION  PAGE 

General  Survey  of  the  Conditions  of  Culture  and 
Civilisation 1 

BOOK  I 

PLASTIC   ART,    MUSIC,   AND   CHURCH   HYMNS 

CHAPTER 

I.  Survey  of  Plastic  Art  in  the  Middle  Ages     .       .       .       .17 

Aim  and  task  of  this  art — Its  position  in  the  Church  and  in 
public  life — Gothic  art — It  did  not  repudiate  nature,  but  gave 
it  a  higher  consecration — The  Flemish-German  schools — 
Change  in  the  nature  of  German  art,  17-27. 

II.  Influence  of  the  Religious  Revolution  on  Plastic  Art — 
Anti-Art  Doctrines  and  Iconoclasm — Art  Life  begins 
to  Decay 28 

Zwinglians  and  Calvinists  against  Christian  art — Iconoclastic 
riots  in  Switzerland,  in  the  South  German  imperial  towns,  in 
the  Palatinate,  and  so  forth,  28-33. 

Luther  on  the  abolition  of  images — Destruction  of  images  by 
Lutheran  rulers — Preachers  on  the  destruction  of  churches, 
34-38. 

Luther's  attitude  towards  Christian  art,  38-42. 

Reasons  why  the  decay  of  art  life  set  in — Utterances  of  Pro- 
testant contemporaries — The  life  of  Hans  Holbein  the  Younger 


viii  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

CHAPTER  PACE 

gives  a  vivid  insight  into  the  effects  of  the  religious  revolu- 
tion— Dogmatising  pictures  by  Lucas  Cranach,  43-52. 

ITT.  Art  in  the  Service  of  Sectarian  Polemics     ....     53 

Caricatures  and  libellous  pictures — Nicholas  Manuel — Innumer- 
able woodcuts  against  '  the  accursed,  devilish  pope  race ' — 
Luther  on  the  influence  of  such  pictures — Lucas  Cranach's 
picture  of  the  Pope — His  numerous  imitators — With  the  ex- 
pression of  hatred  is  combined  a  preference  for  the  vulgar  and 
the  indecent,  53-64. 

Polemics  introduced  into  the  illustrated  editions  of  the  Bible 
and  the  explanations  of  the  Apocalypse,  64-65. 

Whole  collections  of  caricatures  and  libellous  pictures — Polemical 
pictures  even  in  the  churches— Polemical  manifestations  on  the 
part  of  the  Catholics,  65-71. 

Other  causes  of  the  corruption  of  German  art,  71-77. 

IV.  Influence   of   the  Newly  Introduced    '  Antique-Italian  ' 
Art — Its  Character  and  its  Productions 

Section  I. :  Inner  Relationship  of  the  Old  Indigenous 
Art  to  the  Genuine  Antique — The  Influence  of  the 
Degenerate  Antique — The  Italian  Renaissance  and 
German  Art 78 

Wherein  this  inner  relationship  consisted,  and  how  it  manifested 
itself  in  the  master  works  of  the  Greek  and  German  golden 
epochs — Art  and  handicraft — Architectonic  ornamentation  in 
both  epochs,  78-82. 

Inner  relationship  of  the  degenerate  Graeco-Roman  art  and  the 
'  antique-Italian  manner  '  imported  into  Germany,  82-87. 

Towards  the  understanding  of  the  Italian  Renaissance — Michael 
Angelo  and  Raphael — The  cult  of  the  nude  and  the  desecra- 
tion of  religious  art,  87-93. 

Art  sinks  into  being  a  servant  of  the  great  people  and  the  courts 
— The  outward  position  of  artists  changes — Diirer's  impressions 
in  Venice,  93-96. 

Difference  between  the  Italian  and  the  German  Renaissance — 
The  latter  destitute  of  any  national  foundation,  only  an  after- 
birth of  the  Italian — The  most  fundamental  cause  of  the 
degeneracy  of  the  new  art-method  in  Germany — Renaissance 
and  reformation,  96-100. 

V.  Section  II. :  Art  Writers  in  Support  of  the  Antique-Italian 

Method 101 

Influence  of  the  learned  researches  of  Diirer  on  the  Italianisation 
of  art — The  great  master  Vitruvius — Diirer's  designs  for  three 
monuments,  101-104. 


CONTENTS   OF   THE   ELEVENTH   VOLUME  IX 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Walter  Rivius  (1547-1548)  fashions  the  cradle  of  the  German 
Zopf — His  artistic  inventions — Wendel  Dietterlein  (1591-1592), 
the  grand-master  of  the  baroque  style — A  veritable  archi- 
tectonic Hell-Breughel,  104-111. 

VI.  Section  III. :    Architecture     and     Sculpture    after     the 

Antique-Italian  Manner — Ostentation  of  the  Great 
People  and  the  Nobles 112 

The  new  German  architecture  had  no  style  of  its  own,  least  of 
all  a  national  one — Antique  modes  of  decoration— The  so- 
called  mixed  style — The  metal-work  style — Aimlessness  in  all 
directions,  112-117. 

Ecclesiastical  architecture  in  Catholic  Germany — Protestant 
church  buildings,  117-124. 

The  secular  architecture  the  plainest  index  of  the  existing  condi- 
tions of  culture — That  whereon  most  art  and  outward  splendour 
were  lavished — The  Pellerhaus  at  Nuremberg — The  fine 
buildings  of  the  princes  devour  the  substance  of  the  people — 
Buildings  erected  by  Cardinal  Albert  of  Brandenburg — 
The  '  Otto-Henry  building  '  at  Heidelberg — Buildings  in 
Saxony— The  Plassenburg — Buildings  in  Stuttgart — In  Tyrol 
—The  '  New  Residence  '  at  Munich,  125-136. 

Sculpture — Only  a  few  striking  specimens — Mannerism  and  un- 
naturalness — Innumerable  show-sepulchres — Italian  artists  in 
Germany — '  Soul-stirring  conceptions  '—The  cemetery  at  Halle, 
136-144. 

Large  pretentious  fountains,  chiefly  affected  in  taste — Statues  as 
mere  ornaments — Nude  pagan  figures  in  private  apartments, 
144-148. 

VII.  Section  IV. :  Painting — Court  Painters  to  Princes   .       .   149 
Only  a  few  masters  of  importance  :  Bartholomew  Brunn,  Martin 

Schaffner,  Adam  Elzheimer,  149-152. 
Decay  of  glass-painting — Distinguished  cabinet  glass -painters  in 

Switzerland — Influence    of    the    '  antique-Italian    learning  ' — 

Complaints  of  faulty  work,  153-155. 
Dutch  painting  Italianised — Dutch  portrait  painters — '  Schiitzen 

and  Regentenbilder  ' — Peter  Paul  Rubens,  156-161. 
Court  painters  to  the  Emperor  Rudolf  II.  and  at  Munich  :  John 

of  Aachen,  Bartholomew  Spranger,  Hans  Muelich,  Christopher 

Schwarz — Their  salaries,  161-165. 
A  characteristic  letter  of   instructions  for    a  Brunswick    court 

painter — Portrait  painting — What  remuneration  the  painters 

received  for  their  work,  165-171. 

VIII.  Section  V. :  Copper  Engraving  and  Woodcuts    .        .       .172 
How  long  these  both  retained  artistic  importance— Diircr's  pupils, 

172-174. 


X  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Anton  von  Worms,  Virgil  Solis,  Tobias  Stimmer,  and  Jost 
Amman — Woodcuts  in  books  of  religious  instruction  and 
devotion — Bible  pictures — Amman's  '  Wappen-  und  Stamm- 
buch  ' — Deterioration  of  every  form  of  style,  175-180. 

IX.  Section  VI. :  The  Minor  Arts  and  Art-Handwork       .       .181 

They  take  the  foremost  place  in  artistic  work — The  goldsmith's 
art  and  the  chief  seats  of  its  activity — Wenzel  and  Christopher 
Jamnitzer — Anton  Eisenhut— The  armourer's  art — Artistic 
carpentry — Degeneracy  of  the  decorative  art — Leather  orna- 
ment— The  art  potter  Augustine  Hirsvogel — '  Cunning  in- 
genuities '  and  '  wonderful  curiosities,'  especially  at  Nurem- 
berg, 181-196. 

X.  Section  VII. :  Art  Collections  of  Princes        .        .       .        .197 

Duke  Albert  I.  of  Bavaria  as  art  collector — What  large  sums 
he  spent — Complaints  of  the  Provincial  Estates — The  Em- 
peror Rudolf's  museum  of  treasures  and  wonders  at  Prague — 
His  sense  of  art,  197-206. 

XL  Naturalism  in  Religious  Art  and  in  the  Representation 

from  the  Life  of  the  People — Absurdity  and  Vulgarity  207 

Religious  subjects  and  sacred  persons  also  treated  in  a  mundane 
fashion — Contemporary  men  and  women  figure  as  sacred 
characters — Corruption  of  religious  art — Christian  and  mytho- 
logical pictures  side  by  side— Coats  of  arms  in  churches,  207- 
212. 

Nudities  in  religious  pictures — Scenes  from  the  Old  Testament 
used  for  shameless  representations,  notably  by  the  so-called 
'  Kleinmeisters  ' — Moral  deterioration  in  the  ornamentation  of 
books,  212-218. 

Treatment  of  the  '  four  last  things  of  man  ' — Representation  of 
the  bad  and  the  repulsive  in  religious  art — The  devil's  artists — 
The  painting  of  hell  torments,  218-222. 

Character  of  art  in  the  treatment  of  secular  matters — Repre- 
sentation of  outbreaks  of  grossest  sensuality — Bad  women  a 
favourite  theme — Things  '  wonderful  and  terrible  in  heaven 
and  earth  ' — The  pictures  of  John  Herold  and  John  George 
Schenck  of  Grafenberg — Abortions — The  horrible  and  the 
gruesome — Pictures  of  witches — Representation  of  tortures  and 
executions,  222-232. 

Indecency  in  art — Nudities  and  love  scenes  in  profusion — 
Utterances  of  contemporaries,  232-238. 

The  deterioration  of  art  goes  hand-in-hand  with  the  demoralised 
lives  of  many  of  the  artists — Examples,  notably  from  the 
'  Schilderbuch  '  of  Karl  van  Mander,  238-241. 


CONTENTS   OF  THE   ELEVENTH   VOLUME  xi 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XII:  Music,  Church  Hymns,  and  Sacred  Song       ....  242 

The   greatest   masters   of    the    art    of    music — Louis   Senfl — 

Orlandus  Lassus,  242-246. 
Composers  of  the  second  rank,  246-247. 
Attempt  at  a  '  rebirth  '  of  ancient  music — German  pupils  of  the 

Venetians — Hans  Leo  Hasler,  247-249. 
Contemporaries  on  the  decline  and  deterioration  of  Church  song, 

249-252. 
Protestant  composers  :  John  Eccard,  John  Walther,  252-253. 
Luther's  work  on  behalf  of  Church  song — Pre-Lutheran  German 

hymns — Luther's  new  Church  hymns,  253-258. 
Character  of  Protestant  hymns — Single   examples — Hymns   of 

Hans  Sachs  and  John  Fischart,  258-269. 
Nicholas    Selnekker    and    other    composers    of    sacred    songs — 

Hymns    of    the    Anabaptists    and    the    Bohemian-Moravian 

Brothers,  269-273. 
New    modes    of    feeling    and    expression  by  John  Mathesius, 

Bartholomew  Ringwalt,  and  Henry  Knaust,  273-274. 
Old  Catholic  hymns  used  by  the  Protestants,  274-277. 
Protestant  hymns  in  Catholic  hymnals — Objects  aimed  at  by  the 

hymnals — Catholic  poets  of  new  hymns — Catholic  writers  of 

new   hymns — Different    examples — Caspar    Ulenberg    against 

Protestant  hymn-books,  277-283. 
Polemical   hymns   and   sacred   songs    by   Protestant   writers — 

Opposed  by  Catholic  hymns — Polemical  Catholic  hymns — The 

chief  polemical  hymnologists  among  the  Protestants,  284-295. 


BOOK  II 

POPULAR  LITERATURE 

I.  Folksong — Songs    for    Occasions    and     '  High    Princely 

Court  Poetry  ' — Meistersinging — Hans  Sachs    .       .       .  297 

General  remarks  on  folksong — Wine  and  drinking  songs — 
Amorous  songs — Complaints  of  contemporary  writers — Collec- 
tions of  songs — Introduction  of  Italian  forms  and  melodies — 
Singular  mixture  of  languages — Popular  poetry  lapses  into 
barrenness,  297-309. 

Songs  for  occasions  of  joy  or  sorrow — '  Professional  court  poetry ' 
— Special  representatives  of  this  poetry — The  '  Lustgart  neuer 
deutscher  Poeterei '  (Pleasure  garden  of  new  German  poetry) 
by  Matthew  Holzwart,  309-314. 

Meistersinging  and  its  deterioration — Hans   Sachs — His  utter- 


xii  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

CHATTER  PAGH 

ances  on  the  moral,  religious,  and  social  conditions,  on  the 
decay  of  Germany,  on  the  princes  and  the  nobles,  315-328. 
Decadence  of  his  poetry,  329-330. 

II.  Satires  and  Lampoons — Pictures  of  the  Time  and  its 
Morals. — John  Fischart  and  his  Defence  of  the  Per- 
secution of  Witches 331 

General  remarks — Thomas  Murner  and  his  satires — '  Narren- 
beschworung  '  and  '  Schelmenzunft  '—He  foresees  the  religious, 
political,  and  social  revolution — Lashes  clerical  abuses — His 
xitterances  on  the  position  of  the  peasants — Robber  knights 
and  the  Bundschuh,  331-339. 

Murner  against  the  religious-social  revolution — His  poem  '  Von 
dem  grossen  lutherischen  Narren '  (the  great  Lutheran  fool), 
339-341. 

The  vindication  of  Murner  by  later  Protestant  historians  of 
literature,  342-344,  note. 

Ulrich  von  Hutten's  firebrand  writings — His  summons  to  a  war 
of  religion— The  '  Neuer  Karsthans,'  344-347. 

Innumerable  lampoons  and  satires — Remarks  of  the  Superinten- 
dent George  Nigrinus  on  these — '  Das  Papstisch  Reich,'  by 
Burchard  Waldis,  for  the  instruction  of  youth — A  '  Hand- 
booklet  of  the  Papists,'  '  Der  Barfiisser  Monche  Eulenspiegel 
unci  Alkoran,'  by  Erasmus  Alber — Mocking  travesties  of  Bible 
stories,  344-357. 

The  Catholic  controversial  poet,  Hans  Salat — His  '  Triumph  of 
the  Helvetian  Hercules  ' — John  Engerd's  illustration  of  the 
name  Luther — John  Nas  on  the  Antichrist  as  the  '  chief  of 
all  heretics,'  357-362. 

Pictures  of  the  age  and  its  morals — Bartholomew  Ringwalt's 
•  Lauter  Wahrheit ' — His  utterances  on  the  Catholic  past — 
on  the  robbery  of  Church  goods — Invectives  against  the  Holy 
Mass,  363-369. 

John  Fischart  and  his  satirical  poems — How  he  exploited  the 
popular  love  of  wonders  for  vilification  of  the  papacy — His 
utterances  on  the  causes  of  general  schism — Holy  Scripture  still 
only  a  '  conjuror's  bag  ' — His  '  Geschichtklitterung  '  depicts 
the  whole  demoralised  condition  of  the  period — His  defence  of 
the  most  brutal  persecution  of  witches  in  a  work  destined  for 
the  whole  nation,  369-388. 

Hippolytus  Guarinoni,  389. 

Transition  to  dramatic  literature,  389-391. 

Index  of  Places 393 

Index  of  Persons   ....       .  398 


HISTOEY 


OF 


THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

AT    THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    MIDDLE    AGES 


BOOKS   I   AND   II 

CIVILISATION  AND  CULTURE  OF  THE  GERMAN 
PEOPLE  FROM  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  MIDDLE 
AGES  TO  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  THIRTY 
YEARS'   WAR 


INTRODUCTION  l 

When  at  the  beginning  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War 
the  Margrave  Joachim  Ernest  wrote  to  Christian  of 
Anhalt,  '  We  have  the  means  in  hand  for  overturn- 
ing the  world,'  Germany  was  a  very  different  country 
from  what  it  had  been  a  hundred  years  before. 
During  the  course  of  a  century  it  had  undergone  an 
almost  entire  change,  both  in  inward  character  and 
outward  aspect,  in  every  part  of  its  existence  ;  and 
the  reason  of  this  lay  in  its  separation  from  its  own 
past,  in  the  violent  breach  which  had  taken  place 

1  The  references  for  the  quotations  follow  later  on,  where  that  which 
is  only  briefly  indicated  here  is  given  in  fuller  detail. 

VOL.   XL  B 


2  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

with  all  the  traditions  of  former  times.  Not  only 
had  a  vast  preponderating  majority  of  the  German 
people  lost  all  genuine  and  loyal-hearted  trust  in  the 
ancient  faith  of  their  forefathers,  but  this  faith  had 
actually  come  to  be  denounced  as  idolatry  and 
blasphemy.  '  The  devil,'  it  was  declared,  '  was  the 
inventor  of  the  papacy,'  and  '  the  works  of  the 
papacy '  had  '  originated  in  hell.'  All  mediaeval 
achievements  in  spiritual  and  intellectual  fields  were 
reckoned  as  fruits  of  darkness.  The  fiercest  fire  of 
religious  hatred  blazed  abroad,  and  Germany  became 
gradually  filled  with  a  spirit  of  theologising  savage- 
ness  and  barbarity  which  had  the  effect  of  under- 
mining all  strongholds  of  faith  among  the  people, 
of  obscuring  the  moral  judgment  of  the  nation,  and 
of  bringing  learning  and  art  into  contempt  and  ruin. 
Keason  was  pronounced  by  the  leading  theologian 
of  the  day  to  be  '  a  whore  of  the  devil.' 

While  nominally  seeking  to  throw  off  the  '  foreign 
Roman  yoke  '  in  matters  of  religion,  Germany  fell  more 
and  more  under  the  tyranny  of  the  foreign  Byzantine 
rule  for  slaves,  under  the  bondage  of  foreign  art, 
foreign  morality,  foreign  customs  and  culture.  '  They 
talk  still  a  great  deal  about  the  unchristian  Italian 
papacy,  which  was  laid  on  the  necks  of  our  fore- 
fathers, and  which  closed  the  lips  of  all  honest 
Germans,'  wrote  an  honourable  and  patriotically 
minded  preacher  in  the  year  1603,  '  but  if  these  same 
forefathers  could  now  see  the  shoals  of  German 
jackanapes  who  gaze  admiringly,  with  wide-open 
mouths,  at  all  Italian  and  French  foolery,  they  would 
not  have  hands  enough  wherewith  to  box  the  ears 
of  those  same  Kelto-Germans.' 


INTRODUCTION  3 

Submerged  in  a  flood  of  foreign  influences,  the 
German  mind  lost  all  power  of  rousing  itself  to  con- 
structive independence,  till  at  last  Germany,  after 
a  long  period  of  intellectual  subservience  to  its 
neighbour  countries,  fell  a  hopeless  victim  to  them 
in  a  thirty  years'  war  of  extermination.  What 
Sebastian  Brant  had  foretold  towards  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century  was  now  fulfilled : 

Such  tumult  everywhere  is  brewing, 
Such  gruesome  happenings  occur, 
As  though  the  world  were  doomed  to  ruin  ; 
On  stilts  the  Roman  Empire  strides 
And  German  honour  overrides. 

In  consequence  of  the  general  '  hurly-burly  '  the 
Roman  Empire  of  the  German  nation  had  already, 
before  the  beginning  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  lost 
its  world-prestige,  and  was  scarcely  to  be  reckoned  as 
one  of  the  great  European  Powers. 

Under  the  Emperor  Maximilian  I,  Switzerland  had 
severed  itself  from  Germany.  During  the  reign 
of  Charles  V.  the  Prussian  territory  of  the  Teutonic 
Knights  had  become  a  Polish  fief,  and  in  the  West, 
France  had  taken  possession  of  the  three  strongest 
frontier  fortresses.  Under  the  succeeding  Emperors 
the  three  great  frontier  strongholds  in  the  North-East 
fell  to  the  Russians  ;  Spaniards  and  Hollanders  set 
themselves  up  as  '  Lords  on  the  Rhine,'  the  Hollanders 
indeed  as  '  principal  rulers  in  the  Empire,'  while  the 
Emperors  stood  powerless  and  helpless  before  the 
princes,  and  had  become  tributaries  to  the  Turks, 
who  pressed  on  ever  further  and  further.  In  league 
with  foreign  nations,  German  princes  again  and  again 
plotted  the  complete  annihilation  of  the  Empire,  and 

B  2 


4  HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  betrayal  of  the  Empire  into  the  hands  of  foreign 
potentates. 

'  The  Roman  Empire,  at  first  mighty  and  iron,' 
wrote  Lambert  Floridus  Plieninger  in  1583,  '  has 
become  earthen  and  weak,  is  reduced  to  the  utmost 
extremity,  besieged  and  attacked  by  all  the  surround- 
ing kingdoms  ;  the  tale  of  the  Roman  Emperors  is 
drawing  to  an  end.'  On  the  other  hand,  '  every 
prince  and  lord  is  as  a  king  in  his  own  land,  and  it  is 
his  privilege  to  deal  with  and  command  his  subjects 
as  he  likes  and  as  seems  good  to  him  both  in  matters 
of  religion  and  in  civil  affairs.' 

The  princes  of  the  Empire  had  built  up  their 
might  on  the  ruins  of  the  Empire  ;  they  had  known 
how  to  turn  to  their  own  advantage  all  the  religious, 
political,  and  social  movements  of  the  century,  and 
had  acquired  by  degrees  almost  entire  control  over 
the  destiny  of  the  nation. 

Those  of  the  princes  who  had  attached  them- 
selves to  the  '  new  evangel  '  had  known  how  to  make 
the  latter  subservient  to  their  own  special  ends. 
In  the  character  of  '  chief  bishops  with  supreme  and 
unlimited  authority  '  they  displayed  an  immeasurable 
degree  of  arbitrariness  in  all  ecclesiastical  matters. 
They  assumed  the  same  '  complete  control  over  the 
faith  and  consciences  of  their  people  as  over  bridges, 
roads  and  footpaths.'  And  in  all  this  they  had  the 
support  of  Protestant  theologians  and  preachers, 
who  themselves  sanctioned,  by  formal  declarations, 
the  authority  of  the  princes  over  the  '  free-born  ' 
Church,  and  kept  up  continuous  agitation  against 
the  ;  Roman  Antichrist.'  At  the  same  time  '  they 
had  everywhere  ample  means  for  realising  what  sort 


INTRODUCTION  5 

of  judgment  was  deserved  by  the  political  Antichrist 
of  the  evangelical  rulers  ;  '  Johann  Valentin  Andrea 
was  not  the  only  person  who  declared  the  Csesaro- 
papacy  to  be  an  invention  of  the  devil. 

Dire  were  the  effects  of  this  Caesaro-papacy 
on  the  people.  Seizure  and  squandering  of  Church 
property  followed  in  its  train,  and  worked  most 
injuriously  against  the  welfare  of  the  people  and 
the  economy  of  the  nation.  Over  against  the 
numerous  Protestant  theologians  and  court  preachers, 
who  not  only  sanctioned  this  plunder  of  the  Church 
but  even  helped  on  the  princely  raids,  there  were, 
however,  a  goodly  number  who  openly  denounced 
'  the  robbers  of  churches  and  charities,'  pointing 
them  to  the  punishment  threatened  in  the  Scripture 
against  robbery  of  God,  and  reminding  them  of 
'  the  heavy  curses  '  frequently  occurring  in  founda- 
tion charters  '  against  any  who  should  divert  and 
squander  sacred  endowments.'  Countless  charitable 
endowments,  founded  of  old  for  the  benefit  of  parishes 
and  churches,  for  schools,  hospitals  and  poor-houses, 
were  devoured  by  these  vultures,  and  multitudes 
of  poor  people  were  reduced  to  utter  misery  ;  the 
'  helpful  Christian  system  '  of  olden  times,  writes 
the  Protestant  nobleman,  Joachim  von  Wedel,  was 
almost  everywhere  '  turned  upside  down,  if  not  alto- 
gether demolished.'  A  preacher  of  the  day  laments 
that  *  God  is  allowed  to  starve  in  churches  and  in 
schools  in  a  way  that  makes  his  heart  ache  within 
him.'  Landed  estates,  farms,  fields  and  buildings, 
tithes  and  rents,  were  appropriated  for  personal 
enrichment,  and  if  here  and  there  individual  princes 
or  municipal  authorities  devoted  a  portion  of  former 


6  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Church  or  convent  property  to  some  good  purpose, 
yet  even  of  such  persons  the  words  of  Nicholas 
Selnekker  held  good  :  '  They  give  away  a  gnat  and 
they  have  taken  a  camel  ;  or  if  they  give  an  occasional 
farthing,  they  steal  a  horse.'  Appeals  to  the  sense 
of  right  and  to  economical  considerations  were  in 
most  cases  fruitless.  And  the  experience  of  the 
majority  was  in  accordance  with  the  dictum  in  the 
Pomeranian  Church  regulations  :  '  Stolen  church  goods 
do  not  prosper,'  but  '  they  devour  other  goods  with 
themselves.'  The  following  lines  became  a  universal 
maxim  even  in  the  districts  which  had  remained 
Catholic  : 

He  who  with  Church  goods  maketh  free 
Will,  ere  he  knows,  a  beggar  be. 

Other  results,  already  manifest,  of  this  practice 
of  Church  robbery  were  fearlessly  discussed  by  the 
Brunswick  court-preacher,  Basilius  Sattler. 

The  clergy  had  been  represented  as  a  '  giant 
devouring  the  property  '  of  the  nation  ;  now,  however, 
for  the  first  time  this  devouring  process  was  carried  on 
at  the  expense  of  the  poor  and  the  needy,  to  whom, 
lormerly,  help  and  maintenance  had  flowed  from 
the  Church  funds.  The  old-established  conditions 
of  landed  property  also  suffered  a  shock  to  their 
stability,  simultaneously  with  the  breaking-up  of 
Church  property. 

While  on  the  stepping-stone  of  the  Boman  Code, 
which  gained  steadily  greater  and  greater  prestige, 
the  princes  raised  and  extended  their  sovereignty, 
crushing  out  in  their  progress  all  national  and  State 
organisations,  and  advancing  gradually  to  unlimited 
power,    the    requirements    and    exactions    of    these 


INTRODUCTION  / 

rulers,  of  their  courts,  of  their  governments  and 
officials,  became  greater  and  greater.  To  meet  these 
continually  increasing  demands  by  fresh  taxes  and 
impositions  of  all  sorts  was  the  great  problem  of  the 
financial  skill  of  the  day.  And  in  dealing  with  the 
problem  the  initial  idea  was  that  all  the  revenues  of 
the  State  were  first  and  foremost  for  the  benefit  of  the 
ruling  Prince,  who  formed  the  central  point  of  the 
court ;  for  the  erection  of  costly  buildings  ;  for  un- 
measured extravagance  in  clothing  and  adornment ; 
for  gambling  debts  ;  for  '  princely  banquets  and  drink- 
ing-bouts,' and  endless  court  festivals  and  fireworks — 
in  short,  for  every  description  of  select  and  aristocratic 
pastimes,  which  sucked  the  blood  of  the  people — not 
least  among  which  was  '  the  holy  art '  of  gold-making. 
Boundless  extravagance  and  absolute  financial  chaos 
reigned  in  many  departments  of  national  life.  Notice 
and  consideration  of  very  special  character  is  required 
by  the  '  high  princely  department  of  the  chase,'  which 
deserves  the  chief  blame  for  the  decay  of  agriculture, 
and  the  impoverishment  of  the  peasants.  There  was 
justification  for  the  question  :  which  has  the  best  of 
it,  the  long-cherished  and  quickly-baited  game,  or  the 
forever-baited  and  never-cherished  subject  ? 

The  life  and  goings  on  at  the  princely  courts  became 
a  model  for  the  nobles  to  follow.  '  Among  the  counts 
and  lords  there  was,  so  to  say,  a  standing  wager  as  to 
who  could  best  emulate  the  august  princes  in  extrava- 
gance of  food  and  drink,  in  numbers  of  servants,  in 
hunting-parties,  brilliant  festivities,  and  unheard  of 
display  in  foreign  fashions  and  luxuries.' 

'  Wherefrom  there  ensued  to  excess,  as  well  among 
the   nobles   as   at   all   the   princely   courts,    enormous 


8  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

insolvency  and  impoverishment.'  The  reports  con- 
cerning this  insolvency  and  impoverishment  of  countless 
princes,  counts,  and  lords  would  appear  incredible  did 
we  not  possess  accurate  and  indubitable  records  on  the 
subject. 

In  connection  with  the  institution  of  the  nobility 
come  the  organisations  of  war  and  of  mercenary  troops. 
The  latter,  even  in  times  of  peace,  were  '  a  plague  and 
a  scourge  of  all  the  world  ; '  for  '  everybody  gained 
bitter  experience  '  of  what  the  men  of  war  were,  namely 
'  robbers  of  houses  and  freebooters,  garrotters,  torturers, 
executioners,  hangmen,  and  the  peasants'  fiends.'  It 
was  before  the  Thirty  Years'  War  that  Adam  Junghans 
von  der  Olnitz  wrote  in  his  war-diary  :  '  It  is  a  genuine 
Landsknecht  conflagration,  when  fifty  villages  and 
hamlets  stand  in  flames.' 

The  restless  striving  of  the  territorial  sovereigns  to 
extend  their  unlimited  authority  over  public  life  also 
was  in  no  small  degree  disastrous  to  the  general  welfare. 
The  different  princely  domains  became  separated  from 
each  other  by  outrageous  taxes,  by  export  and  import 
duties,  affecting  even  the  most  indispensable  necessities 
of  food  and  clothing,  and  within  each  different  territory 
all  economic  movement  and  industry  became  gradually 
chain-bound. 

Under  the  title  of  '  royalty  '  the  sovereigns  usurped 
the  control  of  the  forests,  of  the  mining  and  smelting 
works,  and  of  numerous  industrial  and  commercial 
undertakings.  Princes  themselves— as  for  instance 
Julius  of  Brunswick— became  the  foremost  merchants 
of  their  land ;  others,  like  the  Elector  Augustus  of 
Saxony,  busied  themselves  actively  with  the  exploita- 
tion of  monopolies.     The  prosperous  economic  conditions 


INTRODUCTION  9 

which  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  had  witnessed 
in  Germany  had  already  vanished  by  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  Whereas  formerly  the  German 
towns  had  led  the  great  movement  of  world  commerce, 
had  held  command  both  over  inland  trade  and  over 
the  seas  and  ports  of  Europe  in  the  North,  now  the 
supremacy  in  the  international  mart,  with  its  world - 
uniting  power,  fell  to  England  and  to  the  Netherlands. 
Through  the  Dutch  revolution  the  chief  fountain  of 
gold  in  South  Germany — trade  with  Antwerp — had 
been  dried  up.  In  place  of  Antwerp  Amsterdam  had 
come  to  the  front,  and  German  merchants  themselves 
were  actively  influential  in  establishing  the  commercial 
strength  of  this  town  which  undermined  all  German 
trade  ;  first  the  Netherlanders  barred  up  the  Rhine, 
then  the  Scheldt ;  for  Denmark  the  Sound  was  '  the 
principal  ingress  ;  '  trade  on  the  Belt  was  annihilated 
by  Sweden  ;  Queen  Elizabeth  built  up  the  commerce 
of  England  on  the  ruins  of  Hanseatic  trade  ;  almost 
everywhere  the  once  powerful  Hanseatic  League  suffered 
humiliating  destruction. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  the  towns  had  still 
been  reckoned  as  '  the  core  of  the  Empire  ; '  the  year 
1550  found  them  already  at  a  very  low  ebb  in  their 
political  and  industrial  importance,  sundered  from 
each  other,  and  standing  disconnectedly  opposed  to 
one  another.  It  was  from  the  inner  conditions  of  the 
town  constitutions  that  the  seed  of  destruction  had 
sprung.  In  many  of  the  towns  the  old  guild  regulations 
had  been  broken  through  ;  in  most  of  them  they  had 
suffered  ossification ;  guild  discipline  had  hardened 
into  an  oppressive  monopoly  for  a  small  number  of 
'  master '  families,  who,  closely  bound  together,  defied 


10  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  reiterated  but  powerless  complaints  of  imperial 
recesses,  and  exploited  the  town  market,  often  amassing 
to  themselves  enormous  fortunes,  while  the  journeymen- 
class,  which  was  scarcely  able  to  attain  even  to  the  right 
of  mastership,  fell  into  pauperism. 

Hans  Sachs  had  already  complained  on  this  score 
that  '  handwork  was  becoming  worthless  because  the 
labourers  were  debarred  from  their  proper  wages,  and 
the  avaricious  employers  were  served  by  lazy  and 
insolent  workmen.  Skilled  artisans  in  the  large  towns 
were  kept  fully  employed  in  supplying  the  wants  of 
luxury,  but  "  ordinary  handwork  "  was  lapsing  visibly 
into  decay.' 

The  hardest  and  heaviest  lot  befell  the  peasants. 
The  yoke  which  they  had  endeavoured  to  throw  off 
in  the  social  revolution  was  transformed  almost  every- 
where into  hard  and  gruesome  bondage.  There  was 
no  longer  any  talk  of  '  righteous  statutes  '  and  '  pro- 
sperity of  the  peasants,'  but  only  of  the  '  illimitable- 
ness  of  feudal  obligations,'  the  disentail  of  farms,  '  the 
rasing  of  villages  and  the  slaughter  of  the  peasants.' 
With  regard  to  the  peasants,  the  nobleman  Matthew 
von  Normann  (f  1556)  said  '  the  ruling  powers  do  with 
them  just  as  they  please  ; '  the  Gorlitz  Burgomaster, 
John  Hass,  adds  to  this  testimony,  as  a  fact  of  general 
experience  :  :  The  peasants  are  treated  as  dwellers 
among  Turks  and  heathen  would  be.'  Monstrous  are 
the  accounts  of  their  sufferings :  witness,  for  instance, 
what  Cyriacus  Spangenberg  tells  of  the  lot  of  the 
peasant  class.  Eoman  jurists  declared  it  to  be  '  accord- 
ing to  justice'  that  princes  and  landlords  should 
rule  over  peasants  '  as  over  slaves  ;  '  that  they  should 
have  unlimited  command  not  only  of  their  hours  of 


INTRODUCTION  1 1 

work  and  powers  of  work,  but  also  of  their  whole  private 
lives  and  of  all  their  substance.  There  were  theo- 
logians also  who  had  so  completely  lost  all  their  former 
ideas  of  the  dignity  of  agriculture  and  farm  labour  as  to 
insist  that  this  work  ought  to  be  carried  on  entirely 
by  slaves,  or  by  rough,  uncivilised  men  hired  for  the 
purpose. 

The  new  socio-political  and  economic  principles 
which  gradually  displaced  the  mediaeval  Christian 
German  system  of  law  and  political  economy,  and  the 
mediaeval  social  order,  led  to  the  oppression,  and  hence 
to  the  impoverishment,  of  the  masses  of  the  people. 

But  the  causes  of  this  '  impoverishment  and  exhaus- 
tion of  the  nation,'  which  forms  a  standing  ground  of 
complaint  in  all  the  transactions  of  provincial  diets, 
in  all  chronicles  and  reports,  and  of  which  there  is 
actual  circumstantial  evidence  for  all  the  different 
German  lands,  did  not  lie  only  in  the  political  and 
economic  but  also  in  the  religious  and  moral  conditions 
of  the  time.  Amongst  the  writers  of  those  days  no 
one  has  better  summed  up  the  situation  in  brief  than 
the  Brunswick  inspector  of  mines,  George  Engelhart 
Lohneiss ;  and  the  Tyrolese  physician,  Hippolytus 
Guarinoni,  has  furnished  us  with  enormously  rich 
materials  for  the  study  of  this  subject,  as  indeed  for 
a  general  knowledge  of  the  life  of  the  times. 

The  ruin  of  economic  life  was  followed  on  the  heels 
by  the  moral  corruption  which  was  increasing  in  all 
grades  of  society.  How  terribly  this  demoralisation 
was  gaining  ground  among  the  upper  classes  the 
memoirs  of  the  Silesian  knight,  Hans  von  Schweinichen, 
alone  suffice  to  show  ;  how  it  fared  with  the  burgher 
circles    in    this    respect    can    be    adequately    gathered 


12  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

• 

from  the  comprehensive  work  '  Nothgedrungenen  Aus- 
schreiben '  (a  notification  wrung  from  me  by  need) 
of  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg's  house  physician, 
Leonhard  Thurn  von  Thurneissen.  Many  other  writings, 
amongst  which  are  several  from  the  pen  of  Aegidius 
Albertinus,  court  secretary  to  the  Duke  of  Bavaria, 
afford  the  same  disgraceful  picture.  One  prolific  cause 
of  demoralisation  among  the  people  was,  according 
to  contemporary  opinion,  to  be  found  in  the  sermons 
of  that  period  preached  against  good  works.  The 
effect  of  this  preaching  on  the  people,  said  the  Protes- 
tant Melchior  von  Ossa,  in  concert  with  many  other 
Protestants,  was  to  make  them  '  thoroughly  coarse  and 
light-minded,  so  that  neither  trustworthiness,  honour 
nor  faith  were  found  any  more  in  the  common  people, 
but  immorality  and  vice  everywhere.' 

That  contemporary  writers  were  not  carried  away 
by  self-deception  or  exaggeration  in  this  matter,  is 
proved  by  all  the  wailing  and  denunciatory  sermons 
in  which  preachers  described  in  detail  the  sins,  crimes 
and  vices  of  which  they  had  often,  during  long  years, 
been  themselves  witnesses  in  their  parishes.  The 
number  of  such  '  preacher- witnesses  '  who  published 
their  sermons  in  print  is  especially  large  among  the 
Protestants.  Next  to  Luther  we  find,  among  these 
pulpit-orators  from  all  the  different  parts  of  Germany, 
such  names  as  Melchior  Ambach,  James  Andrea, 
Hartmann  Braun,  Kaspar  Chemlin,  Nicholas  Corno- 
piius,  Matthew  Friedrich,  Erasmus^  Griininger,  John 
Mathesius,  Andrew  Musculus,  the  two  Lucas  Osianders, 
Andrew  Pancratius,  Andrew  Schoppius,  Nicholas 
Selnekker,  John  George  Sigwart,  Cyriacus  Spangen- 
berg,    James    Stocker,   Gregory    Strigenicius,    Erasmus 


INTRODUCTION  lo 

Winter,  and  many  others.  What  a  wealth  of  evidence, 
for  instance,  is  supplied  by  the  hundred  sermons  which 
Strigenicius,  superintendent  at  Meissen,  delivered  on 
the  Flood,  in  order  to  put  before  his  age  a  mirror  of  its 
depravity !  The  reader  is  pleasantly  impressed  by 
the  frankness  and  fearlessness  with  which  he,  and  not 
a  few  other  preachers,  told  plain  truths  to  '  tyrannical 
rulers,'  to  princes  and  lords,  '  together  with  their  court 
parasites,  their  grand  retinues  of  nobles  and  their 
courtesans.' 

From  decade  to  decade  the  symptoms  of  social 
disease  became  more  and  more  threatening.  Crimes 
against  the  security  of  property  and  person,  against 
the  power  of  the  law  and  the  public  peace,  robbery, 
murder,  and  assassination,  rape  and  unnatural  vices 
increased  in  an  alarming  manner,  and  specially  noto- 
rious was  the  growth  of  crime  amongst  the  young. 
Whatever  criminal  statistics  can  be  collected  from 
the  different  German  territories  produce  an  impression 
of  veritably  tragic  nature.  '  The  office  of  hangman,' 
it  was  said,  was  one  of  the  most  hard-worked  occupa- 
tions, '  almost  equalling  in  heavy  daily  labour  the 
office  of  a  schoolmaster  among  the  depraved,  brutalised 
children  of  the  day.'  Very  noteworthy  in  this  respect 
is  the  diary  of  the  Nuremberg  executioner,  Francis 
Schmidt,  who  recounts  in  gruesome  detail  how  he 
had  executed  361  persons,  and  had  administered  the 
penalties  of  flogging,  and  cutting  off  ears  or  fingers, 
to  345  others. 

In  connection  with  the  growth  of  crime  came  the 
development  of  penal  law,  which  in  its  turn  presents 
fresh  convincing  evidence  of  the  demoralisation  of 
the  age,  especially  of  the  increase  of  witch  persecution, 


14  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

that  most  monstrous  outgrowth  of  the  depravity  of 
the  times.  The  production  of  fresh  instruments  of  tor- 
ture and  execution  was  pursued  as  a  fine  art,  '  which, 
for  the  good  of  the  fatherland,  it  was  as  necessary  to 
learn  and  practise,  as  any  other  art  and  skilled  handi- 
craft.' If  we  had  no  further  information  on  the  art 
of  torture  than  what  is  contained  in  the  accounts  of 
the  preacher  Johann  Greve,  of  Cleves,  we  should  still 
clearly  realise  how  the  penal  code  of  that  period  was 
the  actual  fosterer  of  all  the  cruelties  and  abomina- 
tions which  later  on,  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
were  perpetrated  by  the  mercenary  troops  on  German 
soil. 

The  full  description  of  these  conditions,  which  were 
the  outgrowth  of  the  shattering  of  the  unity  of  faith 
and  religious  concert,  of  traditional  Church  authority 
and  all  ancient  principles  of  right  and  judicial  relations, 
is  one  of  the  saddest  tasks  of  the  writer  of  civil  and 
political  history.  But,  however  much  that  is  melan- 
choly he  may  have  to  report  from  all  classes  of  the 
nation,  he  will  nevertheless,  if  he  desires  to  be  just 
and  reasonable,  guard  himself  from  over-hasty  con- 
clusions, as  though  forsooth  the  whole  nation  'had 
been  ruined  from  top  to  bottom.'  For  side  by  side 
with  the  multitudes  who,  in  the  fearful  hurly-burly 
of  the  times,  had  entirely  lost  all  firm  faith  and  stand- 
ing ground,  and  who  by  their  mode  of  life  were  a  mockery 
to  all  Christian  habits  and  culture,  and  side  by  side  with 
the  countless  ruined  existences  whose,  vices  and  crimes 
drew  the  eyes  of  all  the  world  upon  them,  there  were 
still  millions  of  pious  Christian  souls  who,  in  the  old 
simplicity  of  faith  and  fear  of  God,  continued  in  the 
enjoyment  of  peace,  and  worked  their  ways  through 


INTRODUCTION  15 

life  earnestly  and  honourably,  without  attracting  atten- 
tion beyond  their  immediate  neighbourhood. 

The  author  of  a  religious  book  of  instruction, 
towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  referred 
to  this  fact  in  order  to  '  encourage  his  contemporaries, 
and  warn  them  against  faintheartedness  and  despair.' 
'  Whereas,  before  our  eyes,'  he  wrote,  '  everything 
has  become  so  bad  and  is  constantly  growing  worse, 
so  has  the  number  of  those  who  keep  up  a  good  courage 
become  small  and  insignificant ;  most  people  are  asking 
who  can  have  any  hope  of  improvement,  and  wishing 
themselves  dead.  One  hears,  say  they,  of  nothing 
but  sin,  scandal,  vice  and  corruption,  and  one  sees 
nothing  else,  and  when  God's  vengeance  and  punish- 
ment come  we  shall  all  be  included  in  them ;  why 
should  I  live  any  longer  ?  '  Posterity  will  say,  '  that 
the  men  of  this  age  were  worse  than  the  inhabitants 
of  Sodom  and  Gomorrha.'  '  If,  however,  posterity,' 
the  author  goes  on  in  a  consolatory  strain,  '  could 
also  know  of  all  the  manifold  good  which  was  still 
enacted  in  everyday  life  among  high  and  low  alike,  it 
would  modify  its  judgment.  But  it  is  the  same  now 
as  it  always  has  been  at  all  times  :  '  the  virtues  prac- 
tised in  the  quiet  of  private  life  are  not  catalogued  in 
'  archives,  libraries,  and  chronicles,'  and  do  not  come 
to  the  knowledge  of  later  generations.  '  Of  such  God- 
fearing, virtuous  men  and  women  there  are  still  a  goodly 
number  in  every  condition  of  life,  in  towns  and  villages, 
carrying  on  works  of  love.' 

It  was,  however,  a  momentous  fact  that  '  in  that 
age  crime  and  vice  were  no  longer  reckoned  as  such,' 
but  '  actually  vaunted  themselves  as  though  they  were 
honour    and   fame.'      The   significant   '  universal  sym- 


16  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

ptom  '  of  the  times,  which  later  generations  also  would 
recognise  as  such,  was  this  :  '  things  honourable  and 
sacred  find  but  very  scant  room  in  the  writings  and  in 
the  art  of  the  day,  whereas  baseness  and  commonness 
bear  the  sceptre  everywhere.'  What  was  presented 
to  the  people  as  intellectual  food  was  '  for  the  most 
part  rotten  wares,  a  mass  of  filth,  if  not  of  deadly 
poison.'  Hence,  '  that  which  ought  to  have  tended 
to  reinvigoration,  moral  improvement  and  salvation, 
produced  on  the  contrary  sickness,  disgrace  and  spiritual 
death.' 

To  how  great  an  extent  all  this  was  actually  the 
case  is  lamentably  evident  from  the  art  and  the  folk- 
lore of  the  time.  These  two  branches  of  intellectual 
creativeness,  destined  as  they  are  for  the  nation  in  its 
entirety,  give  the  plainest  indications  of  the  internal 
and  external  character  of  a  particular  epoch,  of  the 
forces  at  work  and  the  results  achieved. 


BOOK  I 

PLASTIC   ART,    MUSIC,   AND   CHURCH   HYMNS 


CHAPTER   I 

SURVEY  OF  THE  PLASTIC  ART  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  l 

German  mediaeval  art,  as  indeed  all  art  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  served  the  high  vocation  of  glorifying  God, 
edifying  the  people,  fostering  religious  life,  and  at  the 
same  time  contributing  to  the  beauty  and  joy  of  daily 
existence— in  short,  to  the  general  ennoblement  of  the 
national  mind. 

In  accordance  with  the  universal  and  dominant 
conviction  of  the  day,  that  all  things  were  subservient 
to,  and  must  be  judged  by,  their  relation  to  the  divine 
idea,  and  hence  that  all  departments  of  life  ought 
only  to  be  reflections  of  the  highest  truth,  and  should 
strengthen  our  faith  in  the  divine  wisdom,  it  became 
also  the  great  aim  of  art,  as  the  noblest  embodiment  of 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  human  soul,  to  express  this  same 
exalted  conviction,  to  give  it  visible  form  in  the  con- 
crete language  of  painting,  sculpture  and  architecture. 
Art,  it  was  felt,  must  be  the  teacher  and  educator  of 
the  nation,  the  builder  up  of  the  people — an  agency 
which  should  lift  them  out  of  their  everyday  pursuits, 

1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  i.  pp.  169-265  (1st  edition  of  English).  :::::  The 
quotations  from  vols.  i.  ii.  and  iii.  are  from  the  17th  and  18th  editions 
(German)  ;  those  from  vol.  iv.  from  the  15th  and  16th  editions  ;  those 
from  vol.  v.  from  the  13th  and  14th  editions. 

VOL.   XI.  C 


18  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

out  of  the  pressure  and  wants  of  the  temporal  into  the 
region  of  the  eternal,  which  should  express  and  embody 
their  highest  aspirations  and  thoughts  in  forms  instinct 
with  life,  forms  whose  constraining  power  would  work 
with  lasting  influence  on  mind,  heart  and  will.  Art, 
in  short,  was  to  be  the  people's  friend  and  companion 
in  all  the  varied  walks  of  life,  in  joy  and  mirth,  in  sorrow 
and  trouble. 

Art,  therefore,  in  those  days,  was  not  regarded 
as  the  possession  of  a  privileged  circle  favoured  by 
riches  and  position,  or  as  an  adjunct  of  splendour  and 
fashion,  but  as  the  common  property  of  all  classes 
of  society.  Like  religion  itself,  whose  handmaid  it 
was,  and  from  which  it  derived  its  purity  and  its  power, 
it  was  the  concern  of  the  whole  nation,  and  also  the 
concern  of  each  individual  of  the  nation  ;  it  was  one  of 
the  most  urgent  necessities  of  life  for  the  people,  whose 
doing  and  thinking  and  being  supplied  its  motives, 
forms  and  material.  Art  in  those  days  was  indeed 
popular  in  the  best  sense  of  the  term  :  its  masterpieces 
were  not  only  noble  monuments  of  life  with  God  and 
of  beauty,  but  they  were  also  reflections  and  embodi- 
ments of  the  national  mind,  which  was  largely  co- 
operative in  the  creative  work  of  the  artists  of  the 
period. 

And  just  because  art  was  thus  rooted  in  the  national 
mind,  was  the  immediate  outcome  of  the  ruling  convic- 
tions of  the  people,  and  ministered  to  the  general 
needs  of  the  country,  it  was  exempt  from  all  restless 
seeking  after  out-of-the-way  tasks  :  objects  and  motives 
came  spontaneously  to  hand  in  inexhaustible  abundance. 
The  religious  enthusiasm  and  the  generosity  of  the 
nation  impelled  to  the  production  of  fine  ecclesiastical 


A   GLANCE   AT   MEDIAEVAL   ART  19 

buildings.  In  eager  rivalry  the  towns  built  their 
cathedrals,  and  their  monastic  and  parochial  churches  ; 
even  the  villages  and  hamlets  erected  buildings  of  great 
artistic  beauty.1 

Scarcely  less  keen  was  the  competition  that  went 
on  in  the  towns  in  erecting  buildings  for  purposes  of 
communal  life — town-halls,  commercial  and  guild-halls, 
enclosing  walls,  towers  and  battlements.  All  these 
civic  buildings,  as  well  as  the  countless  fortresses,  the 
ruins  of  which  look  down  from  the  mountain  heights, 
called  forth  the  inventive  genius  of  the  artists,  and  all 
in  their  special  ways,  in  fitness  and  harmony  of  con- 
struction, received  the  stamp  of  artistic  perfection. 
Matthew  Merian's  '  Topographie  '  affords  eloquent  testi- 
mony to  the  splendid  wealth  of  towers  in  the  German 
mediaeval  towns.2 

There  was  also  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  work  for 
the  sculptors  and  painters  who  supplied  sacred  and 
secular  buildings  and  private  homesteads  with  the 
noblest  ornaments  of  art.3 

The  position  of  honour  which  art  occupied  in  the 
Church  and  in  public  life  laid  the  foundation  of  its 
prosperity ;  its  intimate  connection  with  handicraft 
gave  it  its  extensive  diffusion.     There  were,  in  those 

1  Concerning  '  the  epoch  of  true  Church  spirit  and  piety '  which  pre- 
ceded the  age  of  '  enlightenment  and  reform,'  Van  Eye  writes  as  follows  : 
'  Whereas  humility  is  essentially  the  beginning  of  wisdom,  so  here,  too, 
we  have  a  single-hearted  generation,  free  from  all  presumption  and  pride, 
working  itself  up  to  the  most  excellent  condition  of  human  virtue,  to  the 
enjoyment  of  self-earned  freedom  and  home-grown  rights.  From  count- 
less monuments  that  have  been  preserved  to  us  there  shines  forth  a 
spirit  of  this  sort.' — Eggers,  Jahrg.  v.  225. 

2  Fuller  details  in  A.  Reichensperger's  Matthias  Merian  und  seine 
Topographie. 

3  See  our  more  detailed  remarks  in  vol.  i.  pp.  186-214. 

c  2 


20  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

days,  no  artists  throning  above  the  handicrafts  :  there 
were  only  masters,  fellows  and  apprentices.1 

The  queen  of  all  the  plastic  arts,  the  centre  of  all 
art-life,  was  architecture,  and  at  the  close  of  the  Middle 
Ages  the  Gothic  style  still  maintained  undisputed  sway. 
Being  the  loftiest  embodiment  of  the  prevalent  higher 
thought,  it  manifested,  in  spite  of  the  strictest  rules, 
such  a  degree  of  freedom  that,  wherever  it  gained  a 
footing  and  became  popular,  it  mirrored  the  peculiar 
character  of  the  people,  and  even  of  individual  masters.2 

1  It  is  well  said  by  Kugler,  Museum,  i.  14  :  '  At  its  first  beginnings 
art  was  cradled  close  in  the  lap  of  religion  and  civil  life  ;  it  ministered  in 
the  service  of  religion — thence  its  special  character  and  significance  ; 
it  was  under  the  protection  of  morals — thence  its  forms  and  methods  ; 
it  was  handwork — thence  its  means  of  subsistence.  This  last  feature 
explains  the  widespread  understanding  and  appreciation  which  it  gained. 
Thus  art  grew  up,  childlike  and  thoughtful'  When,  however,  it  made 
itself  independent  of  the  crafts,  '  it  gained,  indeed,  with  the  conscious- 
ness of  freedom  both  many-sidedness  and  a  wider  scope,  but  lost  the 
advantages  of  concentration.  The  influence  of  the  guilds  gave  way  to 
models  or  to  great  personalities.  The  profession  of  artist  became  well- 
nigh  the  most  poverty-stricken,  the  most  hazardous  of  all  professions  ; 
dragging  on  its  existence  in  periods  of  history  which  were  themselves 
disintegrating  and  difforming,  art  degenerated  into  affectation  or  vulgarity, 
flippancy  or  puerility — in  short,  into  a  new  species  of  barbarism.' 

*  In  this  manifold  variety,  writes  Liibke  in  his  Kunsihistor.  Studien 
(p.  208),  Gothic  architecture  is  '  the  true  expression  of  Christianas  opposed 
to  pagan  civilisation.  For  whereas  the  latter  recognised  no  national 
individuality,  but  spread  the  forms  of  Grseco-Roman  culture  without 
distinction  over  all  parts  of  the  earth's  globe,  the  former  conceded  to  each 
different  people  the  full  individuality  of  its  national  development,  which 
runs  as  a  ground  tone  in  richest  variety  through  all  the  universal  forms  of 
life  ;  and  by  reason  of  which  it  is  as  far  superior  to  the  ancient  methods  as 
is  the  polyphony  of  Christian  music  to  the  monody  of  the  ancient  music.' 
See  Reichensperger,  '  Miscellaneous  Writings '  ( Vermischte  Schriften), 
65  ff.  ;  Forster,  ii.  1  ff.  '  Religious  elevation  is  inevitably  produced  by 
the  contemplation  of  a  Gothic  work  of  art ;  for  all  that  is  impressive  and 
sublime  the  Gothic  style  furnishes  the  most  abundant  and  most  admirable 
specimens.  This  style,  moreover,  has  acquired  and  retained  popularity 
in  a  degree  which  is  scarcely  equalled  by  any  other  form  in  art.'  Springer, 
Hilder,  i.  223.     The  Gothic  style  is  by  no  means  merely  a  gradual  de- 


A   GLANCE   AT    MEDLEVAL   ART  21 

Arbitrariness  and  fancy  alone  were  excluded  by  the 
fixed  law  of  tradition.  Tradition  kept  the  dominant 
art  ideas  awake  in  the  consciousness  of  long  periods  of 
time,  and  was  the  true  school  which  magnified  the 
power  of  lesser  talents,  whilst  later  on  even  talent  of 
a  high  order,  working  independently  of  tradition,  was 
only  able  to  produce  a  few  works  of  lasting  value.1 
The  works  also  of  the  late  Gothic,  notwithstanding  its 
departure  from  the  strict  architectural  method,  and 
in  spite  of  its  fantastic  playing  with  ornamentation 
and  geometric  forms,  displayed  much  vigorous  artistic 
spirit.  Possibly  in  the  erection  of  large  buildings 
the  striving  after  lifelike  variety  and  diversity  of  form 
may  have  carried  the  masters  too  far,  but  all  the  same 

velopment  of  the  Romantic  style  which  preceded  it ;  it  is  a  bold  depar- 
ture in  an  entirely  new  system  ;  it  is,  by  its  principles,  an  emancipation 
from  the  antique  elements  which  always  dominated  the  Romantic  school, 
a  new  formation  of  language,  as  it  were,  in  which  what  had  gone  before 
was  naturally  gathered  up  and  incorporated.  The  man  most  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  Gothic  art,  Viollet-le-Duc,  discusses  the  subject  in  his 
Dictionnaire  de  V Architecture  Francaise  du  XP  au  XV  P  siecle,  under 
the  heading  '  Style.'  He  says,  amongst  other  things  :  '  Si  du  romain  a 
ce  qu'on  appelle  l'art  gothique  il  y  a  des  transitions  dans  la  forme,  il 
n'y  en  a  pas  dans  le  principe  de  structure.'  The  essence  of  Gothic  archi- 
tecture lies  in  the  fact  that  it  starts  with  a  geometrical  ground-plan, 
which  it  develops  according  to  immutable  rules  of  proportion.  The  out- 
come of  the  Germanic  genius  (see  Reichensperger,  Profanarchitektur, 
p.  20  ff.  ::"::  See  also  Kraus,  Gesch.  der  Christl.  Kunst,  ii.  1, 14S  ff.,  and  Pastor, 
A.  Reichensperger,  ii.  283),  the  Gothic  style  very  quickly  became  the 
ruling  art-language  of  the  whole  Christian  Occident,  differentiating  itself 
in  the  most  manifold  dialects,  according  to  the  nature  of  different  peoples, 
climates,  materials,  &c.  Containing  in  itself  a  powerful  creative  force, 
and  not  dependent  hke  the  antique  on  ready-made  formations,  but 
working  from  the  basis  of  mathematical  ground-forms,  it  might  still 
have  developed  further  varieties  had  not  the  Renaissance  struck  at  its 
roots.  Moreover,  in  art,  as  in  all  other  fields,  all  side  issues  are  ulti- 
mately resolved  into  the  great  leading  question — either  Christian  idealism, 
or  else  infidel  materialism,  ending  in  anarchy. 

1  See  Schorn,  Kunstblatt,  Jahrg.  1820,  p.  217  ff.  ;  ZwUf  Biicher  eines 
dsthetischen  Ketzers,  p.  78. 


22  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

they  still  produced  much  that  was  highly  meritorious, 
especially  in  works  of  subordinate  rank.1 

But    whilst    Gothic    architecture    and    the    arts    of 
sculpture  and  painting  which  were  connected  with  it 

1  Cf.  Reber,  Kunstgesch.  p.  499  ;  Pressel,  p.  77.  ::  E.  Haenel  (Spiitgotik 
und  Renaissance,  a  contribution  to  the  history  of  German  architecture 
[Stuttgart,  1899J)  would  like  to  introduce  a  new  distinguishing  name  for 
the  late  Gothic.  Hence  he  lays  great  stress  on  the  new  features  of  style, 
especially  the  tendency  to  expand  into  breadth,  to  produce  wide  light 
spaces,  in  which  the  horizontal  again  asserts  itself,  and  the  ceiling  ap- 
pears as  something  independent  in  juxtaposition  to  the  walls.  The  late 
Gothic  is  a  spacious  style,  '  the  Gothic  building  system,  at  the  time  of 
its  highest  development  like  unto  bones  and  sinews,  now  again  shows 
flesh  and  skin.'  Haenel  concludes  as  follows  :  '  There  is  no  reason  what- 
ever to  withhold  from  architecture,  as  it  appeared  on  German  soil  in  the 
second  half  of  the  fourteenth  century  and  in  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
name  which  it  deserves — it  is  Renaissance,  and  by  this  name  we  have 
a  right  to  call  it.'  There  is  somewhat  of  truth  in  these  words.  But  it 
would  certainly  not  be  any  advantage  to  the  history  of  art  if  this  nomen- 
clature were  adopted,  as  misunderstanding  would  inevitably  arise.  A 
flaw  in  Haenel's  argument  has  been  pointed  out  by  H.  Wolffin  in  the 
Literar.  Centralblatt  Zarnckes,  1900,  p.  61.  Haenel,  it  is  said,  confines 
himself  to  ecclesiastical  buildings,  and  does  not  deal  at  all  with  secular 
architecture.  Against  such  one-sidedness,  and  in  favour  of  the  beauty 
of  the  late  Gothic,  B.  Riehl  had  already  expressed  himself  earlier  in  his 
admirable  pamphlet,  Die  Kunst  an  der  Brennerstrasse  (Leipzig,  1898). 
'  In  an  altogether  one-sided  manner,'  he  says  (p.  99),  '  the  late  Gothic  is 
here  regarded  only  from  the  standpoint  of  sacred  architecture,  and  also, 
for  which  there  is  not  full  justification,  as  a  period  of  the  decadence, 
indeed  of  the  final  decay,  of  mediaeval  art.  The  abundance  of  young 
life  still  germinating  in  it  was  quite  overlooked.'  Long  before  B.  Riehl, 
moreover,  A.  Reichensperger  entered  the  lists  vigorously  in  defence  of 
the  beauty  of  late  Gothic  (cf.  Pastor,  A.  Reichensperger,  i.  511).  As  I 
now  sec,  J.  Neuwirth  also  comes  to  a  by  no  means  favourable  conclusion 
with  regard  to  Haenel's  pamphlet.  In  his  paper  (Allgcm.  Lileratur- 
blatt  der  Leogesellschaft,  1900,  No.  15)  he  points  out  a  further  omission 
in  Haenel's  argument,  the  almost  entire  exclusion  of  the  important  monu- 
ments on  Austrian  territory,  and  then  remarks  :  '  His  work,  which  is 
certainly  not  altogether  unopen  to  objections,  contains  a  number  of  new 
ideas  which  merit  further  consideration.  However,  the  problem  opened 
up  by  him  needs  still  further  evidence  and  a  broader  foundation  before 
the  general  public  will  be  willing  to  accept  it '  (cf.  also  Bezold,  Baukunst 
der  Renaissance,  p.  7). 


A   GLANCE   AT   MEDLEVAL   ART  23 


'  l 


'  made  things  divine  and  eternal  their  chief  end 
they  were  very  far  from  being  hostile  to  nature,  or  even 
from  wishing  to  restrain  a  free  outlook  on  nature. 
The  art  of  that  period  was  as  little  inimical  to  nature 
as  was  the  Church  which  it  served.  The  Church,  it 
is  true,  preaches  constant  warfare  against  the  sinful 
inclinations  of  nature,  and  insists  above  all  on  living 
the  inner  life,  on  knowledge  of  the  human  heart;  the 
Church  directs  and  leads  the  longings,  which  this 
world  cannot  satisfy,  up  to  an  eternal  existence,  but  it 
does  not  '  repudiate  '  nature  ;  on  the  contrary  it  rejoices 
in  it,  purifies  and  transmutes  it  in  her  teaching  con- 
cerning the  Redeemer,  who  took  on  Himself  human 
nature,  in  her  use  of  earthly  substances  for  the  holy 
Sacraments,  in  her  doctrine  of  the  sanctity  of  the  body 
as  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  of  its  resurrection  and 
destined  transfiguration.  In  like  manner  the  hand 
of  art  invested  nature  with  a  higher  consecration : 
by  the  magic  of  architectural  art  the  massive  block 
lost  its  heaviness  and  oppressiveness  ;  stone  was  lifted 
into  the  realm  of  higher  organic  products,  flowers  and 
leaves  from  field  and  forest  were  made  to  speak  in  the 

**  l  See  F.  X.  Kraus,  Gesch.  d,  Christl.  Kunst,  ii.  230-231,  who  extols 
the  earnestness  of  religions  thought  in  the  late  Gothic  sculpture.  It  is, 
nevertheless,  an  undoubted  fact  that  German  art  at  the  close  of  the 
Middle  Ages  had  its  shady  side.  F.  Schneider,  in  his  Gotik  und  Kunst, 
Brief  an  cinen  Freund  (1888),  has  asserted  this  with  great  vigour  in  opposi- 
tion to  Janssen's  views.  Schneider  insists,  namely,  that  art  in  Germany 
at  that  period  lapsed  into  mere  bourgeois  handicraft,  that  the  Jife  of  the 
burgher  class  gave  the  standard  for  its  aims.  '  Thence  the  home-brewed 
character,  the  element  of  triviality  Avhich  dominated  art.'  '  Both  in 
sculpture  and  painting,'  Schneider  goes  on,  '  the  taste  for  external  scenery 
and  splendour  of  apparel,  for  fashion  and  posing,  together  with  delight 
in  coarseness,  superabundance  of  accessories,  mannerisms,  and  con- 
ventional patterning,  had  been  pushed  so  far  that  they  frequently  bordered 
on  caricature.'     Emphasis  might  be  laid  on  the  word  '  frequently.' 


24  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

language  of  art,  and  woven  into  garlands  of  the  greatest 
artistic  beauty.  Sculpture  no  less  than  architecture 
produced  works  of  distinction  and  revelled  in  the  trans- 
figuration of  nature.1 

Specially  distinguished  by  truth  to  nature  were  the 
masters  of  the  Cologne  school,  and  the  brothers  Van 
Eyck  and  their  successors  ;  their  works,  which  can  only 
be  compared  to  the  old  folksongs,  breathe  the  deepest 
poetry  of  nature-life,  while  at  the  same  time  they  reach 
and  exalt  the  human  soul  by  their  ideality  and  their 
mystic  depth.  The  delight  in  intercourse  with  nature, 
so  specially  characteristic  of  the  German  people,  re- 
ceived in  the  creations  of  the  Flanders- German  schools 
its  purest  expression :  every  blade  of  grass,  every 
flower,  every  tiny  insect,  was  worked  up  with  the 
most  loving  assiduity,  and  the  result  was  perfect  life- 
likeness  and  reality  clothed  with  ideal  beauty.  These 
artists  loved  to  surround  their  subjects  with  a  setting 
of  homely  and  familiar  objects,  and  every  form  and 
figure  on  their  canvas  gave  the  impression  of  perfect 
truth  and  fidelity  combined  with  deep  religious  feeling. 
A  pious,  childlike  spirit  informed  these  works  of  art, 
and  gave  them  their  chaste  expression  of  innocent 
beauty  and  modest  charm.  An  air  of  joyous  hilarity, 
as  though  the  divine  redemption  from  all  earthly 
complication  were  accomplished,  impresses  the  gazer 
with  a  feeling  that  all  discord  is  solved  in  harmony  : 

1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  i.  pp.  198-218.  '  The  sculptors  were  very  far 
from  despising  the  impulses  produced  in  them  by  the  outer  world.  Studies 
of  nature  and  exercises  in  sketching  were  not  unknown  as  early  as  the 
thirteenth  century.  At  any  rate  it  can  never  be  asserted  that  the 
mediseval  epoch  detested  nature,  and  prohibited  the  study  of  it.  Any 
idea  of  this  sort  is  fully  corrected  by  the  songs  of  the  Minnesingers,  who 
give  us  such  charming  pictures  of  nature,  and  call  up  woods  and  meadows 
\  i  \  idly  before  our  eyes  '  (Rahn,  p.  554). 


A    GLANCE   AT   MEDLEVAL   ART  25 

nature    and    man    appear   transfigured   in    a    Sabbath 
rest.1 

And  all  these  pictures  were  genuine  German  art, 
originating  from  the  mind  and  character  of  the  native.-' 

1  '  Van  Eyck  created  a  national  style  in  which  the  highest  truthful- 
ness and  fidelity  of  representation  and  the  most  lofty  ideality  were  com- 
bined in  equal  measure.'  In  the  compositions  of  Van  Eyck,  Hemmelinck 
(Mending),  Schoreel,  and  other  artists  of  the  first  class,  there  is  no  trace 
of  the  trivial,  affected  treatment  of  drapery,  '  lacking  any  sort  of  breadth, 
which  was  introduced  by  some  later  painters  of  the  old  Dutch  and  South 
German  schools,  and  was  often,  from  ignorance,  falsely  attributed  to  all 
the  old-German  painters  '  (Schorn,  Kunstblatt,  1820,  pp.  230-233).  See. 
Schnaase,  Niederliind.  Briefe,  pp.  237-241.  '  When  at  the  Hague  '  (p.  313) 
'  I  gazed  with  delight  at  the  works  of  the  joyous  Netherlanders  of  later 
times,  trying  to  identify  myself  with  their  views  and  their  attitude.  When 
afterwards  I  gave  myself  up  to  the  contemplation  of  Rubens,  finding  in 
him  also  an  element  of  sublimity,  how  much  greater  was  the  enjoyment 
which  those  older  masters  gave  me  !  With  these  I  could  surrender 
myself  without  reserve  to  the  delight  of  gazing  and  admiring,  whereas 
with  Rubens,  even  if  I  was  able  to  shake  off  harsher  impressions,  there 
always  remained  a  slight  feeling  of  dissatisfaction  or  desecration.' 

Schorn  writes  to  the  same  effect  (Kunstblatt,  1828,  p.  380).  In  por- 
trait-painting, also,  Jan  van  Eyck  especially  excels  nearly  all  later  artists. 
Concerning  the  double  portrait  by  him  in  1434  of  Giovanni  Arnolfini 
and  his  wife,  Reber  says  (Kunstgesch.  p.  634),  '  that  the  resemblance  of 
the  portraits  is  striking  is  its  least  merit.  Of  higher  excellence  still  is 
the  painting  of  the  interior,  and  of  all  the  accessory  work,  which  is  un- 
surpassed by  any  production  of  other  epochs,  not  only  in  delicacy  and 
finish  of  execution,  but  in  the  general  disposition  of  light  and  shade, 
and  the  tone  of  the  colouring.  In  these  last  respects  Jan  van  Eyck 
appears  to  have  been  unsurpassed  by  any  later  Dutchman  down  to  Pieter 
de  Hooghe.'  It  is  a  point  worthy  of  notice  at  what  an  early  date  Hegel, 
in  his  lectures  on  aesthetics  (the  latest  notes  used  for  the  lectures  are  of 
the  year  1818  ;  see  I.  Vorrede  vii.  and  xi.),  vol.  iii.  p.  118  ff.,  was  able 
to  appreciate  the  superior  excellence  of  the  two  Van  Eycks. 

*:;:  2  Concerning  the  popular  character  of  mediaeval  art,  cf.  Kraus, 
Gcsch.  d.  Ckristl.  Kunst,  ii.  1,  457.  In  order  to  save  the  so-called  German 
Renaissance  period  from  the  reproach  of  being  barren  of  any  great  works, 
certain  later  art-historians,  enamoured  of  this  said  '  Renaissance,'  have 
made  it  begin  almost  a  century  earlier  than  it  really  did.  Thus  Wolt- 
mann,  in  his  Aus  r>ier  Jahrhunderten,  p.  2  ft'.,  says  that  the  Flanders  school 
of  painting  '  had  departed  from  the  spirit  and  feeling  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  that  it  must  be  included  in  the  "  Renaissance  "  because  it  had  repre- 


26  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Even  if  in  the  representation  of  the  different  parts 
of  the  body  the  artists  not  infrequently  displayed 
lack  of  anatomical  knowledge,  every  onlooker  is  never- 
theless greeted  by  true-hearted  German  figures,  which 
though  fashioned  in  one  and  the  same  technical  style, 
yet  display  in  endless  variety  all  the  different  types 
of  German  nationality.  Consequently  these  pictures 
made  a  profound  impression  on  the  whole  nation,  and 
for  nearly  a  whole  century  (1420-1520)  they  determined 
the  character  of  all  native  German  art.1     German  art 

sented  nature  so  admirably;'  for  the  'Renaissance,'  as  Scbnaase  em- 
phatically asserts,  is  not  only  a  '  re-birth  of  classic  antiquity,'  but  also 
'  a  re-birth  of  nature,  a  restoration  of  nature  to  humanity.'  Hence  we 
are  concerned  with  a  twofold  re-birth.  It  follows,  moreover,  that  German 
folksong,  with  its  exuberant  delight  in  nature,  and  its  close  observation 
of  the  life  of  nature,  must  also  be  included  in  the  '  Renaissance.'  So, 
too,  must  German  jurisprudence,  the  definitions,  formulas,  and  symbols 
of  which  showed  the  keenest  insight  into  nature  ;  and  even  German 
architecture,  which  could  transform  a  stone  house  into  a  forest  of  stems, 
foliage,  and  flowers,  and  fill  it  with  countless  forms  taken  from  the  animal 
world.  It  is  very  pertinently  said  by  Reber  (Kunstge-sch.  xxxii.)  : 
'  The  Flemish-Brabant  painting  is  the  highest  achievement  of  mediaeval 
pictorial  art  in  the  northern  countries,  and  it  forms  the  close  of  the  Gothic 
period,  not  the  commencement  of  a  new  epoch.'  In  the  Cologne  school 
also,  in  the  paintings  of  Schongauer,  Zeitblom,  Wohlgemuth,  in  part  at 
least  resultant  from  the  Brabant  school,  and  chronologically  half  a  cen- 
tury later  than  the  Van  Eyck  period,  we  can  as  little  detect  any  element 
foreign  to  the  Middle  Ages  as  in  the  types  used  by  Gutenberg,  however 
much  this  invention  served  to  advance  the  development  of  thought. 
And  just  as  the  Krailsheim  altar  work  of  Holbein  the  Elder,  executed 
at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  is  decidedly  Gothic,  so  too  in  an 
out-and-out  Gothic  Sacrament-house  of  Adam  Krafft,  we  find  it  impossible 
to  detect  any  other  than  mediaeval  art.  In  short,  before  the  sixteenth 
century  there  is  no  trace  of  a  '  Renaissance  '  in  Germany,  and  even  of  the 
initiators  of  the  movement  it  must  be  said  that  Hans  Holbein  the  Younger 
is  the  only  one  whose  '  beginnings,'  so  to  say,  belong  to  the  new  depar- 
ture ;  those  of  a  Peter  Vischer  and  of  Albert  Diirer  belong  to  mediajval 
ground. 

1  '  The  force  and  energy  of  Roger  van  der  Weyden  and  the  tender- 
ness of  Memling  seem  still  blended  in  Quentin  Massys  '  (Liibke,  Kunst- 
werke  und  Kiinstler,  p.  418  ;  cf.  pp.  548,  575). 


A   GLANCE    AT   MEDIEVAL   ART  27 

methods  penetrated  even  to  France  and  Italy,  and  still 
further  afield.1 

The  whole  fabric  of  art-life  was  shattered,  almost 
at  one  blow,  when  the  frightful  tempests  of  Church 
schism  gathered  and  discharged  themselves  over  Ger- 
many. The  domains  of  art  were  the  first  to  surfer. 
There  was  no  longer  time  or  inclination  left  for  art. 
The  religious  revolution  was  in  direct  antagonism  to  it. 
Whatever  survived  of  art  or  the  promotion  of  art  was 
drawn  into  the  vortex  of  sectarian  controversy,  there 
to  perish.  The  Gothic  style  died  out.  A  new,  foreign 
kind  of  art,  the  '  Renaissance,'  made  its  way  into 
Germany. 

1  Concerning  the  '  unusual  power  of  attraction '  which  belonged 
especially  to  the  earlier  German  art,  we  read  in  Springer's  Bilder,  ii.  11-12  : 
'  It  is  known  to  us  that  Michael  Angelo  was  so  greatly  interested  in  the 
productions  of  German  art  that  he  did  not  shun  the  laborious  task  of 
copying  with  his  own  hands  an  engraving  of  Martin  Schon.  Raphael's 
honourable  appreciation  of  Diirer  is  also  well  known.  That  multitudes 
of  Italian  painters  nourished  themselves  on  the  creations  of  German 
fantasy,  falsifying  them,  and  publishing  them  under  their  own  names, 
in  order  to  gain  renown  by  them,  we  should  easily  discover  by  com- 
parison, even  if  Vasari  had  not,  unwillingly  enough,  let  out  the  secret.' 
But  when,  later  on,  German  art  succumbed  to  the  Renaissance,  and 
became  itself  merely  a  cold  and  affected  imitator,  its  influence  entirely 
ceased. 


28  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 


CHAPTER  II 

INFLUENCE     OF     THE     RELIGIOUS     REVOLUTION     ON     THE 
FINE  ARTS— ANTI-ART  DOCTRINES  AND  ICONOCLASM- 
ART-LIFE    BEGINS    TO    DECAY 

Amongst  the  preachers  of  the  new  religious  opinions 
there  were  multitudes  who,  like  WicldifTe  of  old,  de- 
nounced all  arts  and  sciences  as  devil's  traps.  Zwingli 
and  his  followers  designated  Christian  art,  within  the 
churches  at  any  rate,  as  a  snare  of  the  devil  which  the 
Roman  Antichrist  and  his  rabble  had  thrown  over  men's 
souls.  They  assumed  a  hostile  attitude  towards  Chris- 
tian art  in  general.  The  divine  word,  Zwingli  says, 
distinctly  teaches  that  not  only  must  we  not  worship 
images,  but  that  we  must  not  possess  them,  or  fashion 
them  ;  Zwingli  would  not  even  tolerate  the  pictures 
of  Christ.  The  Helvetian  confession  of  faith,  drawn 
up  by  Bullinger,  rejected  images  of  Christ  as  though 
they  were  pagan  idols,  because  '  the  Lord  had  com- 
manded to  preach  the  Gospel,  not  to  paint  it.'  In  the 
Basle  Church  Regulations  of  the  year  1529,  introduced 
by  Oecolampadius,  it  is  said  :  God  has  '  cursed  all  those 
who  make  images.'  William  Farel  went  so  far  as  to 
denounce  the  making  of  pictures  and  images  as  a  sin 
against  nature ;  the  Empress  Helena,  he  said,  was 
'  cursed  among  women,'  because  by  the  Invention  of  the 
Cross  she  had  introduced  the  worship  of  idols.  Calvin 
called  the  setting-up  of  pictures  and  images  in  churches 


ICONOCLASTIC  RIOTS  29 

a  desecration  of  divine  worship  ;  he  denounced  it  as 
'  miserable  folly  which  had  been  the  destruction  of  all 
piety  on  the  earth  ; '  it  was  also  iniquitous  to  give  re- 
presentations of  events  from  sacred  history.  Theodore 
Beza  directed  his  fury  especially  against  pictures  of 
the  Crucifixion,  which  he  '  abominated,'  he  wished 
that  '  the  Christian  magistracy  would  reduce  all  pictures 
to  powder.' 

But  there  was  a  further  strong  reason  for  the  re- 
moval and  the  destruction  of  pictures  and  images, 
namely  the  wish  to  efface  from  the  minds  of  the  people 
the  memory  of  the  Catholic  past,  and  to  prevent  a 
return  to  the  old  faith.  '  Away  with  the  pictures  !  ' 
exclaimed  Zwingli,  '  for  they  are  a  prop  for  the  papists  ; 
if  the  nests  are  demolished,  the  storks  will  not  come  back 
again.'  1  '  There  is  no  small  number  of  pious  and  learned 
men,'  wrote  the  Protestant  Professor  Zanchi,  '  who  are 
of  opinion  that  all  the  churches  of  the  popish  idolaters, 
as  also  all  other  monuments  of  their  superstition,  should 
be  destroyed  from  top  to  bottom  ;  that  every  trace  of 
them  should  be  obliterated  in  order  that  the  people 
may  not,  later  on,  be  reminded  of  this  superstitious  faith 
and  induced  to  return  to  it.  For  this  reason,  and  also 
on  account  of  the  divine  commands,  some  men,  and 
those,  moreover,  very  learned  and  pious  ones,  insist  that 
all  the  churches  in  which  this  idolatrous  worship  is 
carried  on,  especially  those  which  are  dedicated  to 
saints,  must  be  utterly  destroyed  ;  they  also  say  it  is 
not  becoming  that  Christians  should  hold  their  en- 
lightened services  in  such  unclean  places.'      Of  course 

1  Gaupp,  pp.  691-708.  :::;;:  For  the  documentary  evidence  cf.  Janssen, 
Ein  zweites  Wort  an  meine  Kritiker,  new  edition  prepared  by  L.  Pastor 
(Freiburg,  1895),  p.  50  ft'. 


30  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Zanchi  is  in  full  agreement  with  the  above  opinions  ; 
he  commends  the  destruction  of  Catholic  churches,  and 
says  emphatically  that  often  and  in  many  places  it  is 
advisable  to  level  Catholic  churches  with  the  ground  ; 
at  the  same  time  he  is  of  opinion  that  the  ruling  authori- 
ties should  everywhere  be  free  to  use  these  buildings 
for  Protestant  worship.  Zanchi,  however,  is  inexorable 
as  to  the  necessity  of  destroying  everything  which  the 
piety  and  the  artistic  sense  of  the  past  devised  for  the 
adornment  of  Catholic  churches.  All  altars,  he  says, 
all  crucifixes,  all  paintings  and  sculpture,  the  priestly 
garments,  the  golden  chalices,  the  incense  burners,  and 
other  similar  things— all  these  instruments  of  the  old 
superstition  must  be  utterly  destroyed  ;  above  all  must 
the  images  be  removed,  the  paintings  be  daubed  over, 
the  statues  broken  up  or  burnt.  Petrus  Martyr  Ver- 
migli,  an  apostate  priest,  and  later  on  a  Protestant 
professor,  urged  more  particularly,  '  Have  a  care 
that  such  things  are  not  merely  taken  out  of  the 
churches,  they  must  be  utterly  destroyed  and  not 
preserved  anywhere,  or  they  might  later  on  be  placed 
back  again  in  the  churches.' l 

■■■■■■■  J  Of.  Paulus,  in  the  Katholik,  1891,  i.  210,  who  adds,  greatly  to  the 
point :  '  When  "  highly  esteemed  "  '  (Schmid,  Stud,  und  Krit.  1859,  p.  625) 
'  university  professors  use  such  language  as  this,  can  we  wonder  that  so 
many  irreplaceable  objects  of  mediaeval  German  art  should  have  fallen 
a  prey  to  the  vandalism  of  the  so-called  Reformation  ?  Instead  of  working 
themselves  up  into  such  fury  against  the  veneration  of  saints,  this  merely 
supposed  "  idolatry "  and  superstition,  these  innovators  would  do  far 
better  to  fight  against  the  true  superstition  of  the  day — viz.  the  mania 
for  witches.  But,  very  far  from  setting  themselves  against  this  enormity, 
they  encourage  their  contemporaries  in  this  respect.  In  1574  the  preacher 
of  Arfeld,  in  the  county  of  Wittgenstein,  asked  Zanchi  whether  witches 
ought  to  be  burned.  "  Most  certainly"  replied  the  Heidelberg  professor 
on  October  22.  Zanchi  gave  exactly  the  same  answer  to  the  physician, 
Thomas  Erastus.' 


ICONOCLASTIC   RIOTS  31 

Frightful  scenes  of  iconoclasm  ensued,  first  of  all 
in  Switzerland,  at  Zurich,  Bern,  St.  Gall,  Basle  and 
other  places.1  In  St.  Gall,  in  1529,  all  the  altars  were 
destroyed,  all  images  broken  and  smashed  up  with  axes 
and  hammers.  '  It  was  a  wonderful  tumult  and  com- 
motion :  the  fragments  were  carted  out  of  the  church  in 
forty  waggons,  and  that  very  hour  a  fire  was  lighted 
and  they  were  all  burnt  to  ashes.' 

Concerning  the  riots  in  Basle,  Erasmus  reported, 
as  an  eye-witness,  to  Pirkheimer  :  '  Such  sacrilegious 
mocking  went  on  over  the  images  of  saints,  and  even 
over  the  crucifixes,  that  we  could  not  but  feel  that 
some  miraculous  judgment  of  God  must  occur.  Not  a 
vestige  was  left  over  of  the  pictures  and  images,  whether 
in  the  cloisters,  or  on  the  portals,  or  in  the  convents  ;  all 
the  paintings  were  covered  with  whitewash,  and  every- 
thing that  would  burn  was  thrown  on  to  the  funeral 
pile,  and  the  rest  smashed  to  pieces  ;  neither  gold-work 
nor  artistic  value  could  avail  to  save  a  single  object. 
Of  the  proceedings  at  Neuenburg  the  governor  of  the 
place  wrote  :  '  They  break  the  images  in  pieces,  and 
mutilate  the  pictures  by  cutting  out  their  noses  and 
eyes  :  even  those  of  the  Mother  of  God  are  thus  in- 
sulted.' Zwingli's  opinion  was  that  '  none  but  very 
feeble-minded  or  cantankerous  persons  could  object 
to  the  idols  being  done  away  with.' 2 

In  Germany,  at  a  much  earlier  date,  viz.  during  the 
Peasant  War,  countless  works  of  art  had  been  destroyed 
by  the  '  savage,  drunken  iconoclasts.'  Later  on  there 
was  inaugurated  '  an  authorised  process  of  destruction  ' 
in  all  those  South  German  towns  which  had  adopted 

1  See  our  references,  vol.  v.  pp.  127-14.'). 
'  Gaupp,  pp.  G99,  705. 


32  H1ST0EY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Zwinglianism.     '  All  that  our  forefathers  had  done  in 
piety  and  love  of  art,  and  for  the  encouragement  of 
noble  masters  of  art,  all  that  for  the  glory  of  God  and 
of  His  Blessed  Mother  they  had  erected  and  established 
to  promote  the  piety  of  the  people,'  says  a  chronicler, 
'  was  hurled  to  the  ground,  dishonoured,  cursed,  by  a 
degenerate  race,  to  the  no  small  indignation  of  Christian 
people.'     This  sort  of   thing  happened  in  Strassburg, 
Constance,    Lindau,     Eentlingen,     Ulm,     Memmingen, 
Biberach,   Geislingen,   Esslingen,   Isny,   Augsburg,  and 
elsewhere.     Gospel    preachers    took    the    lead    in    the 
work  of  destruction,  and  often  themselves  lent  a  hand 
to  '  throw  down  the  accursed  idols.'     In  Memmingen, 
for  instance,  the  preacher  Schenk,  so  says  a  report,  '  tore 
down  the  pictures  over  the  altar,  trampled  them  under- 
foot, carried  them  home  in  cartloads,  and  set  fire   to 
them.'  l     In  Ulm,  in  1531,  the  preachers  Bucer,  Blarer 
and   Oecolampadius  were   the    '  cause   of  the   purging 
from   all  idolatrous   stuff.'     Over  fifty   altars,   all  the 
images   of  saints   on   pillars   and  walls  were   '  thrown 
down   and   smashed   up ; '    what   could   not   be   taken 
away   was   '  chopped   up,   hacked  to   pieces,   pounded 
and  trampled  on,  so  that  even  an  adherent  of  the  new 
faith  was  forced  to  exclaim  that  the  beautiful,  exquisite, 
cathedral  building  was  sullied  with  a  blot  of  shame  so 
infamous  that  all  eternity  could  never  wipe  it  out.' 
Not  even  the  magnificent  organs  were  spared,  for  they 
too  were  regarded  as  '  devil's  work.'     In  the  following 
century    the    Lutheran    superintendent     Dietrich    still 
recounted    with    loathing    the    horrors    of    destruction 
that  had  gone  on.     They  toppled  over  in  a  heap  the 
two  beautiful  organs,  and  when  they  found  that  they 

1  See  fuller  details  in  Gauj>p,  p.  720  ff. 


ICONOCLASTIC   RIOTS  33 

could  not  conveniently  lift  up  the  body  with  the  pipes 
in  the  great  organ,  they  bound  cords  and  chains  round 
it,  fastened  horses  to  it,  and  let  them  drag  it  down 
and  hurl  it  over.'  l 

Wherever  the  iconoclastic  storms  raged  there  was 
the  same  wanton  destruction  of  the  costliest  gold  and 
silver  church  and  art  treasures — monstrances,  chalices, 
vessels  were  either  smashed  in  pieces,  sold,  or  sent  to 
the  mint.- 

In  the  duchy  of  Wiirttemberg  also,  in  Hesse,  in  the 
Palatinate,  an  untold  number  of  precious  church 
treasures  were  swept  away.  The  Elector  Palatine, 
Frederic  III.,  frequently  organised  the  riots  himself, 
and  ordered  '  pictures,  images  and  church  utensils 
to  be  broken  up  and  burnt  in  his  presence.'  Like 
Theodore  Beza,  he  was  of  opinion  that  not  only  altars 
and  baptismal  fonts,  but  also  crucifixes,  were  '  objects 
of  idolatry  ; '  he  gave  directions  that  everything  '  should 
be  entirely  cleared  out,  whether  paintings  or  sculpture.'  3 
Many  of  the  princes  were  eager  to  show  themselves 
personal  combatants  against  the  popish  iniquity,  as, 
for  instance,  Count  John  of  Orange-Nassau,  who  dis- 
tinguished himself  at  Diez  in  1577  by  striking  with  his 
sword  the  forehead  of  the  beautifully  carved  and  gilded 
life-size  image  of  the  Mother  of  God.4 

'  Our  image-breakers  of  the  new  sect,'  wrote  George 
Wizel,  '  detest  and  destroy  the  holy  images  like  very 

1  See  our  references,  vol.  v.  p.  356  ff.  Liibke  appears  to  know  nothing 
of  all  these  atrocities.  He  reckons  (Bunte  Bliitter,  p.  94)  the  Ulm  cathedral 
amongst  the  number  of  the  churches  which  '  preserved  the  old  condition 
of  their  monuments  undamaged  from  the  Middle  Ages.' 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  i.  p.  20G,  note  1  ;  vol.  v.  pp.  131  ff.,  336  ff. 

3  See  our  references,  vol.  vii.  p.  313  ff. 

4  Vol.  viii.  p.  397. 

VOL.   XL  D 


34  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Jews  and  Felicians,  tear  them  down,  hack  them  to 
pieces  and  bnrn  them,  exactly  as  though  they  were 
trying  to  win  their  knightly  spurs  by  giving  proofs  of 
their  manly  courage  against  dead  images.'  l 

Luther  was  by  no  means  in  favour  of  ruthless 
iconoclasm  such  as  had  been  set  on  foot  by  Carlstadt 
and  other  '  fanatical  spirits  '  in  Wittenberg  and  in  many 
other  places  in  Saxony  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  distinctly 
condemned  the  action  of  the  mob  in  proceeding  to 
destroy  and  disfigure  pictures  and  images  without  the 
knowledge  and  sanction  of  the  municipal  authorities. 
Further,  he  did  not  think  it  was  necessary  to  do  away 
with  all  images  :  he  held  that  Christians  were  free  to 
have  them  or  not  to  have  them,  and  that  it  was  even 
'  praiseworthy  and  estimable  '  to  possess  '  mementoes 
and  tokens,'  but  if  they  wanted  to  do  away  with  them  — 
a  step  which  he  sanctioned  and  had  in  no  way  hindered 
— it  must  be  done  '  without  storming  and  fanaticism, 
and  in  a  regular  and  authorised  manner.'  '  We  read 
in  the  Old  Testament,'  he  wrote,  '  wherever  there  is 
a  question  of  getting  rid  of  images  or  idols,  that  the 
proceedings  were  not  conducted  by  the  populace  but 
by  the  ruling  authorities  ; '  the  populace  had  no  right  to 
proceed  without  the  authorities,  '  lest  the  dog  should 
learn  to  eat  leather  by  biting  his  strap  :  that  is,  accustom 
themselves  to  riot  against  lawful  authority  by  rioting 


1  See  Dollinger,  Reformation,  i.  101  (2nd  edit.).  :;:  The  works  of  art 
which  were  not  destroyed  or  sold,  especially  the  images  of  saints,  found 
their  way  into  the  sacristies  which  were  no  longer  wanted.  As  the  people, 
after  the  example  of  the  founders  of  the  new  religion,  called  the  saints 
'  idols,'  the  places  which  served  for  the  housing  of  the  transported  art 
treasures  went  by  the  name  of  '  idol  chambers.'  This  term  was  actually 
registered  in  technical  dictionaries !  S.  Falk,  in  the  Katholik,  1891, 
i.  500. 


LUTHER  ON  THE  ABOLITION  OF  IMAGES     35 

against  images  :  the  devil  ought  not  to  be  painted  over 
one's  door.' 

The  proper  course  was  to  request  the  authorities  to 
remove  the  images  ;  '  if  they  refuse  to  do  so,  we  have 
the  assurance  of  the  Word  of  God  that  it  is  enough  to 
expel  them  from  our  hearts,  until  they  are  removed 
outwardly  with  the  hand  by  those  who  have  the  right 
to  do  so.'  '  But  to  speak  according  to  the  Gospel 
concerning  the  images,  I  say  and  insist,  that  nobody  is 
bound  to  lay  violent  hands  on  pictures  or  images  of 
God ;  but  all  is  free,  and  there  is  no  sin  in  omitting  to 
damage  them  with  the  fist.'  l 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  '  regular  authority '  of 
Lutheran-minded  rulers,  as  displayed  in  the  work  of 
iconoclasm,  often  differed  very  slightly  from  the  pro- 
ceedings of  Zwinglians  and  Calvinists.  In  the  Prussian 
territory  of  the  Teutonic  Order  there  had  been  persistent 
destruction  of  crosses  and  images  of  saints  since  the 
year  1525  ;  from  the  silver  art-treasures  of  the  Church, 
bowls  and  drinking-cups  had  been  fashioned  for  the 
Duke  ;  '  when  all  the  silver  had  been  taken  they  laid 
hands  on  the  bells  also.'  2  At  Stralsund,  in  1525, 
nearly  all  the  Christian  churches  and  convents  were 
stormed,  and  the  crucifixes  and  images  were  broken 
up  in  the  presence  of  members  of  the  council.  In  the 
town  of  Brunswick,  where  Luther's  '  friend  and  father 

1  Collected  Works,  pp.  29,  141  ff.  In  his  exposition  of  the  first  com- 
mandment he  said,  in  1528  :  '  The  iconoclasts  fall  to  and  pull  down  the 
images.  This  I  am  not  so  much  concerned  to  oppose.  But  they  go  on 
to  say  that  this  must  of  necessity  be  done,  and  that  it  is  well-pleasing  to 
God.  The  utmost,  however,  that  they  accomplish  in  this  way  is  to 
remove  the  images  from  the  people's  sight,  and  to  fix  them  more  firmly 
in  their  hearts,'  while  the  populace  falsely  believes  that  '  it  is  giving 
God  pleasure  by  tearing  down  the  images  '  (vol.  xxxvi.  p.  54). 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  v.  pp.  114,  115. 


36  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Confessor,'  Bugenhagen,  had  introduced  Luther anism, 
the  altars  were  all  pulled  down  in  the  year  1528,  the 
pictures  and  images  smashed  up  and  burnt,  the  chalices 
and  other  church  vessels  melted.  Iconoclastic  riots 
took  place  at  the  same  time  in  Hamburg.1 

The  fury  of  destruction  was  no  less  rabid  in  Mag- 
deburg.2 The  proceedings  which  the  Elector  John 
Frederic,  in  conjunction  with  the  Landgrave  William 
of  Hesse,  caused  to  be  carried  on  in  1542  in  the  duchv 


1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  v.  pp.  119-121.  At  Zerbst,  in  1524,  the  images 
and  church  vessels  were  used  '  to  keep  going  the  lire  for  brewing  the 
beer '  (Beckmann,  Historic  des  Fiirstentums  Anhalt,  vi.  43).  On  pulling 
down  a  portion  of  the  building  of  the  Zerbst  Town  Hall  the  wall  was  found 
to  have  been  filled  up  with  a  quantity  of  broken  figures  of  saints,  still 
radiant  with  gold  and  colour,  but  destitute  of  heads,  '  whereby  an  in- 
sight was  gained  into  the  horrors  of  the  iconoclasm  which  had  run  riot 
in  the  neighbouring  churches  '  (Repert.  f.  Kunstwissenschaft,  pp.  20,  46). 

2  See  Piorillo,  Gesch.  der  zeichnenden  Kiinste,  ii.  184.  Concerning  the 
barbarous  destruction  of  the  stone  statues  of  the  Apostles  Peter  and 
Paul,  which  stood  in  front  of  the  Kreuzkirche  at  Hildesheim,  by  Hildes- 
heim  burghers,  the  chronicler  Oldecop  (pp.  284-285)  writes,  in  1548  : 
'  The  day  after  the  festival  of  St.  Damasus  groups  of  citizens  were  col- 
lected, some  on  the  "  Neuer  Schaden  "  (a  tavern),  some  in  front  of  the 
Holy  Cross  church  gate,  Kreuzthor,  drinking  beer.  Amongst  them  was 
a  rogue,  Sander  Bruns,  from  the  Judenstrasse.  He  took  a  big  piece  of 
green  wood  from  mine  host's  courtyard,  and  got  up  on  the  wall  by  the 
door  of  the  church  of  the  Holy  Cross  and  struck  the  head  off  the  stone 
statue  of  St.  Paul.  The  head  of  the  statue  of  St.  Peter  had  been  knocked 
off  the  night  before.  The  following  day  information  was  given  as  to 
who  was  the  miscreant.  The  desperate  villain  remained  undaunted,  and 
he  took  the  heads  of  two  corpses  from  the  mortuary  and  stuck  them  up 
on  the  stumps  of  the  statues.  And  at  Vesper  time  there  came  a  number 
of  youths,  more  than  forty,  and  each  had  his  apron  full  of  stones,  and  they 
threw  them  at  the  corpse  heads,  until  they  knocked  them  off  from  the 
statues  of  the  Apostles.  And  to  some  this  was  good  reason  for  saying : 
Te  Deum  Laudamus.  Then,  in  order  that  no  conrplaint  should  be  made 
against  the  rascal  Bruns,  the  council  anticipated  affairs,  and  they  took 
twenty  florins  from  the  evildoer.  And  then  he  was  referred  to  another 
j  udge ;  for  the  chapter  of  Holy  Cross  left  all  revenging  to  the  Apostles 
on  whom  the  insult  had  been  committed,  and  to  God,  Who  is  a  righteous 
Judge,  and  rewards  everyone  according  to  his  works.' 


LUTHERAN   PREACHERS   ON   ICONOCLASM  37 

of  Brunswick,1  were  on  a  par,  as  regards  fury  of  destruc- 
tion against  the  monuments  of  pious  veneration,  with 
the  fiercest  iconoclastic  riots  that  occurred  in  1566  in 
the  Netherlands.  Within  a  few  days,  over  four  hundred 
churches,  altars  innumerable,  Sacrament-houses,  pictures 
and  works  of  sculpture  were  desecrated  and  destroyed, 
and  even  monuments  on  graves  were  not  spared.2 
There  were  highly  esteemed  Lutheran  preachers  in  the 
duchy  who  exulted  publicly  over  these  abominations. 
'  Many  a  man  who  heard  and  saw  that  so  many  churches 
and  convents  had  been  plundered,  and,  in  France  and 
Brabant  especially,  destroyed  by  fire,  was  grieved 
thereat,'  preached  the  Superintendent  George  Nigrinus  in 
1570, '  and  thought  such  work  came  from  the  wickedness 
of  men  :  it  would  all  bring  the  greatest  discredit,  not  only 
on  the  lords  of  the  war,  but  on  the  evangel  itself.' 
Let  those  '  of  their  pack  '  pity  them.  '  We  know  that 
it  is  God's  judgment  and  punishment ;  He  has  borne 
long  enough  with  the  clerical  harlot-houses  and  temples 
of  idols  ;  He  means  them  now  to  be  reduced  to  ashes. 
The  work  must  be  done.  Yea,  if  He  cannot  stir  up 
men  to  do  it,  He  will  use  His  thunder  and  lightning.' 
'  His  bow  is  still  stretched,  His  sword  sharp  and  sure, 
His  fire  still  burns  on,  devours  and  licks  up  bishoprics 
and  convents  one  after  the  other.'  '  Only  let  us  not 
have  pity  on  them,  but  let  us  praise  God,  the  righteous 
judge,  and  be  glad  to  rejoice  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
in  this  time  of  grace  in  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.' 3 

1  Vol.  vi.  p.  204. 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  viii.  pp.  22,  23.  Detailed  information  is  given 
in  Rathgeber's  Annalen,  pp.  196-199. 

3  Nigrinus,  Apocalypse,  pp.  G31,  043,  649.  According  to  the  title 
these  sermons  were  to  minister  '  to  the  comfort  and  improvement  of  all 
true  Christians.'  In  the  preface  of  January  25,  1572,  it  is  said  that  the 
sermons  '  were  preached  two  years  before.' 


38  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Another  pulpit -orator,  who  wanted  '  all  images  routed 
out  from  top  to  bottom,'  reminded  his  hearers  that 
Luther  himself  had  repeatedly  preached  that  '  it  would 
be  better  that  all  churches  and  abbeys  in  the  world 
should  be  rooted  out  and  burnt  to  ashes,  that  it  would 
be  less  sinful,  even  if  done  from  criminal  motives,  than 
that  a  single  soul  should  be  led  astray  into  popish 
error  and  be  ruined.'  If  people  would  not  accept  his 
teaching,  then  he, '  the  God's  man  Luther  had  exclaimed, 
wished  not  only  that  his  teaching  might  be  the  cause 
of  the  destruction  of  popish  churches  and  convents, 
but  he  wished  that  they  were  already  lying  in  a  heap  of 
ashes.'  l 

As  regards  Christian  art,  Luther  had  repeatedly 
expressed  himself  greatly  in  favour  of  it.  '  I  am  not 
of  opinion,'  he  wrote  in  the  preface  to  his  booklet  of 
sacred  hymns  of  the  year  1524,  '  that  the  Gospel  requires 
all  arts  to  be  abolished,  as  some  false  clergy  insist,  but 
I  should  wish  all  arts,  especially  music,  to  be  used  in 
the  service  of  Him  Who  gave  and  created  them.'  - 
In  the  following  year  he  spoke  in  accordance  with  the 
old  Church  system  to  the  effect  that  '  pictures  should  be 
painted  on  the  walls  as  helps  to  the  memory  and  to 
better  understanding.'  '  It  is  far  better,'  he  wrote, 
'  to  paint  on  the  walls  the  way  in  which  God  created 
the  world,  how  Noah  built  the  ark,  and  any  other 
sacred  stories,  than  to  paint  up  any  other  worldly, 
shameless  thing ;  yea,  would  God  I  could  persuade 
the  great  lords  and  the  rich  people  to  have  the  whole 

1  A  Whitsuntide  sermon  of  K.  Reinholdt  (1560),  Bl.  A2.  The  utter- 
ances of  Luther  which  have  been  quoted,  and  others  also  of  the  same  kind, 
in  his  Collected  Works,  pp.  7,  121,  131,  222-223,  330.  :;::;c  See  the 
remarks  of  the  Protestant  Professor  Zanchi,  given  above,  pp.  29,  30. 

2  Collected  Works,  pp.  56,  297. 


LUTHER'S   ATTITUDE   TOWARDS   CHRISTIAN   ART        39 

Bible  painted  inside  and  outside  their  houses  for  every- 
body's eyes  to  see  :  that  would  be  a  Christian  work.' 
'  If  it  is  not  sinful,  but  good  and  holy  that  I  should  have 
Christ's  image  in  my  heart,  why  should  it  be  sinful 
for  me  to  have  it  in  my  eyes  ?  ' l  At  the  same  time  he 
abolished  those  very  doctrines  of  faith  which,  till  then, 
had  supplied  Christian  art  with  its  most  fertile  sources 
of  inspiration  and  achievement.2    For  instance,  the  old 

1  Collected  Works,  pp.  29,  158-159  (cf.  C.  Griineisen,  De  Protest- 
tantismo  artibus  hand  infesto,  Stuttg.  et  Tubinga?,  1839).  Quotations 
therefrom  in  Schorn's  KunstblaU,  pp.  20,258.  ::  P.  Lehfeldt,  in  Luther's 
VerhdUniss  zu  Kunst  vnd  Kunstleren  (Berlin,  1892),  shows  that '  Luther 
could  not  lay  claim  to  any  understanding  of  the  language  of  the  plastic 
arts,  or  of  the  scope  and  nature  of  the  service  they  could  render,  for  on 
this  particular  side  he  was  wholly  deficient  in  susceptibility.  Luther's 
multitudinous  remarks  on  works  of  art  all  testify  to  this  want  of  artistic 
sense '  (p.  93).  At  p.  21  ff.  Lehfeldt  shows  how  '  Luther  on  his  Roman 
journey  was  only  to  a  certain  extent  interested  in  all  that  we  to-day 
think  worthy  of  contemplation.'  His  impressions  of  travel  generally 
appear  '  in  this  direction  extremely  barren,  his  remarks  on  all  he  saw 
devoid  of  originality,  his  opinions  often  erroneous.'  Respecting  some 
of  the  works  of  sculpture  and  painting,  Luther  allowed  himself  to  be 
altogether  gulled  by  other  monks.  '  Some  of  Luther's  utterances,'  it  is 
said  at  p.  32,  '  which  apparently  betoken  special  understanding  of  paint- 
ing, stand  in  juxtaposition  to  others  which  plainly  show  the  perverted 
dilettante  idea  that  art  is  to  be  regarded  as  subordinate  to  religion.' 
Now  the  influence  of  Luther's  personality,  as  in  all  other  departments 
so  also  in  that  of  art,  especially  in  the  narrower  circle  of  Saxon  and 
Thuringian  artists,  was  as  powerful  as  it  was  dangerous,  for  he  com- 
pelled the  artists  to  overstep  the  limits  of  their  domain,  and  drove  them 
into  false  fines  (pp.  94-95).  Fuller  details  at  pp.  93-97.  Concerning  the 
general  development  of  art  in  the  sixteenth  century,  Lehfeldt  says,  at 
p.  84  :  '  The  rock  on  which  art  made  shipwreck  was  not,  as  a  recent  art- 
writer  says,  the  fact  that  "  German  art  was  too  early  severed  from  its 
bond  with  the  Church,"  but  that,  with  regard  to  its  subject-matter  and 
its  methods  of  expression,  it  was  forced  into  false  service  by  the  leading 
men  of  the  intellectual  and  religious  movement.'  But  how  could  it  have 
been  brought  into  this  false  service  if  it  had  remained  in  union  with 
the  Church  ?  Concerning  Protestantism  and  art,  see  also  Nagl-Zeidler, 
p.  654  ff.  ;  L.  Vaury,  Le  Protestantisme  et  Tart  ;  These-Montauban,  1899  ; 
and  Miintz,  in  the  Revue  des  Revues,  Mars  et  Juillet  1900. 

2  Fuller  details  in  Gaupp,  pp.  566-584.     Cf.  Graus,  p.  29. 


/ 

/ 


40  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Catholic  belief  in  the  real  presence  of  the  Saviour  in 
the  Sacred  Host  and  the  custorln  of  preserving  the  Host 
in  the  churches,  not  only  le/d  to  the  production  of 
quantities  of  Sacrament-houses,  but  also  engendered 
a  feeling  of  veneration  for  /places  of  worship,  as  the 
veritable  habitations  of  God,  akin  to  the  reverence  of 
the  Old  Testament  Jews  for  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant 
and  the  Holy  of  Holies ;  later  on  also  for  Solomon's 
Temple,  for  the  adornment  of  which  nothing  was 
thought  too  costly.1 

Again,  the  doctrine  of  good  works  had  been  one  of 
the  most  powerful  factors  in  the  development  of  art : 
the  most  exquisite  creations  of  architecture,  sculpture 
and  painting  had  sprung  from  the  belief  that  it  was 
well  pleasing  in  the  Mght  of  God  to  erect  churches, 
and  to  adorn  them  with  all  the  highest  beauty  that 
the  hand  of  the  artist  could  produce. 

This  view  of  tihings,  however,  excited  Luther's 
deepest  indignation ;  he  declared  it  to  be  not  only 
'  the  greatest  abuse '  but  even  '  idolatry.'  When  in 
1522  and  1523  3tie  preached  and  wrote  against  the 
iconoclasts,  he  blamed  the  latter  for  defending  their 
proceedings  on  the  ground  that  the  people  prayed  to 
the  images  ;  for,  said  he,  the  papists  might  answer  : 
'  You  were  senseless  in  that  you  charged  them  with 

1  Respecting  the  influence  of  Protestantism  on  sacred  art,  Alberdingk 
Thijm  (p.  123)  says  :  '  II  suffit  de  remarquer  que  le  protestantisme  avait 
mis  au  rang  des  damnables  heresies  le  principe  meme  de  l'art,  c'est-a-dirc 
le  protestantisme  avait  proscrit  l'apparition  materielle  de  l'essence 
spirituelle,  la  manifestation  de  l'infini  dans  le  fini.  Combattre  et  abolir 
le  mystere  de  la  Sainte-Eucharistie  .  .  .  c'etait  defendre  a  l'art  de  se 
produire  dans  ses  expressions  les  plus  sublimes,  dans  la  representation 
materielle  de  la  Divinite.  Au  fond  de  toute  question  se  retrouve  la 
question  religieuse  ou  theologique  ;  personne  ne  s'en  etonnera,  puisque 
le  principe  de  toutes  choses  se  trouve  en  Dieu.' 


LUTHER'S   ATTITUDE   TOWARDS   CHRISTIAN   ART        41 

praying  to  wood  and  stone.'  The  right  way  to  answer 
this  accusation  of  the  iconoclasts  was  :  '  What  right 
have  you  to  accuse  us  of  having  prayed  to  images  ? 
How  can  you  see  into  our  hearts  ?  How  can  you  tell 
whether  we  have  prayed  to  them  or  not  ?  To  this 
answer  they  would  remain  dumb.' 

'  I  hold,  therefore,  that  there  is  no  man  alive  who 
has  such  dull  understanding  as  to  think  :  This  crucifix 
is  my  Christ  and  my  God ;  but  he  looks  upon  it  as  a 
symbol  by  which  he  is  kept  in  mind  of  the  Lord  Christ 
and  of  His  suffering.'  On  the  other  hand, '  the  greatest 
and  best  reason '  why  it  is  better  '  to  have  no  images 
at  all '  lies  herein,  that  '  when  some  one  has  set  up  an 
image  in  a  church,  he  soon  comes  to  think  that  he  has 
thereby  conferred  a  service  and  benefit  on  Cod,  and  has 
done  a  good  work,  by  which  he  will  deserve  something 
from  God ;  and  that  is  sheer  idolatry,  of  which  the  world 
is  full.'  '  For  who  would  place  a  wooden,  still  less  a 
silver  or  golden,  image  in  a  church  if  he  did  not  think 
he  was  rendering  Cod  a  service  in  so  doing  ?  Do  you 
think,  moreover,  that  princes,  bishops,  and  other  great 
magnates  would  have  so  many  costly  silver  and  gold 
images  made  for  their  churches  and  abbeys  if  they 
did  not  think  it  would  be  some  gain  to  them  with 
Cod  ?  No,  indeed,  they  would  soon  give  it  up.' 
Preachers  must  preach  that  '  the  images  were  nothing,' 
that  '  one  could  not  do  Cod  any  service  by  setting  up 
images  ; '  then  these  things  would  cease  and  die  out  of 
themselves1  Five  years  later  Luther  said  in  his 
commentary  on  the  first  commandment :  '  When  the 
people  are  taught  that  with  Cod  nothing  avails  but 

1  Collected  Works,  pp.  28,  225-229,  309-310.     See  also  the  letter  of 
April  25,  1522,  to  Count  Louis  of  Stalberg,  in  De  Wette,  ii.  188. 


42  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

His  own  grace  and  tender  mercy,  the  images  will  drop 
out  of  themselves  and  fall  into  contempt,  for  the  people 
will  think  to  themselves  :  ' '  If,  then,  it's  no  good  work 
to  make  images,  let  the  devil  make  images  and  painted 
pictures :  I  shall  henceforth  keep  my  money  in  my 
pocket  or  lay  it  out  in  a  better  way."  '  1 

This  teaching  was  frequently  only  too  faithfully 
followed.  In  many  places  of  Lutheran  persuasion  the 
images  and  works  of  art  were  not  taken  out  of  the 
churches,  but  new  ones  were  seldom  added.  Where- 
ever  the  new  doctrine  of  '  faith  alone '  prevailed,  it 
soon  happened  as  Luther  had  predicted :  '  People 
would  not  long  go  on  founding  churches,  building 
altars,  setting  up  images,  when  they  no  longer  thought 
they  were  doing  God  a  service  thereby.'  2 

Ecclesiastical  architecture,  which,  as  the  outcome  of 
the  nation's  piety  and  love  of  sacrifice,  had  formerly 
produced  the  grandest  works,  and  had  dominated  the 
whole  system  of  building,  fell  into  the  background  in  all 
the  Protestant  districts.  Not  only  were  no  fresh  sacred 
edifices  built,  but  many  of  those  already  begun  were 
left  unfinished  ;  many  were  pulled  down,  because  under 
the  new  thought  they  were  no  longer  needed,  and 
princely  castles  were  built  out  of  their  stones  ;  3  many 
were  turned  to  secular  uses.  In  Ulm,  for  instance,  they 
ceased  building  on  to  the  cathedral  as  early  as  1529, 
and  the  chapel  of  St.  Valentine  was  turned  into  a 
grease-market ;  they  were  obliged,  however,  to  forbid 
the  people  to  play  ninepins  in  the  churchyard,  to  throw 

1  Collected  Works,  pp.  36,  50.  -  Ibid.  pp.  15,  518. 

3  For  instance,  in  Wismar  and  Giistrow  ;  see  Lisch,  Jahrbiicher,  iii.  59, 
and  v.  15,  note  2  ;  23,  note  1  ;  51.  In  Silesia,  Wiburg,  and  so  forth, 
ten  large  churches,  and  more,  were  rased  to  the  ground  (Pontoppidan, 
Annates,  iii.  34). 


DECAY   OF   ART-LIFE  43 

stones  at  the  windows,  and  otherwise  to  misbehave 
themselves  within  the  precincts.1 

In  Brunswick  the  building  of  the  tower  of  the 
Church  of  St.  Andrew  was  stopped  '  because  they  had 
gone  over  to  Luther's  teaching.'  2 

Before  the  outbreak  of  the  religious  revolution, 
artists  and  art- workers  of  all  sorts  had  had  '  plenty  to 
do  '  in  consequence  of  the  general  activity  in  building 
and  the  multitudinous  orders  '  for  images  and  carving, 
for  gold  and  silver  ornamentation,  and  other  church- 
treasures,  and  church-plate,  and  costly  vestments  for 
divine  service,  which  were  given  by  private  individuals 
of  high  and  low  degree,  by  brotherhoods,  by  guilds,  and 
by  Christians  of  all  classes  and  both  sexes.'  '  There  is 
an  end  now  to  all  this,'  we  read  in  a  pamphlet  of  1524. 
'  Churches  and  convents  are  no  longer  built  and  adorned, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  they  are  destroyed,  and  numbers 
of  hands  are  thrown  out  of  work ; '  '  art  of  a  noble 
kind  is  no  longer  much  wanted.'  3 

Artists  and  art- workers  broke  out  in  complaints  on 
this  score.  They  reproached  Luther  in  the  following 
doggerel : 

All  church  building  and  adorning  he  despises, 
Treats  with  scorning, 
He  not  wise  is. 

But  this  was  a  complaint   of  the  godless,  concerning 
which  Christ  is  appealed  to  for  judgment : 

Bell-founders  and  organists, 
Gold-beaters  and  illuminists, 


1  Pressel,  Ulm  und  sein  Miinster,  pp.  114,  115. 

2  See  Gesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst,  i.  288. 

3  Glos  und  Comment  uff  LXXX.  Artickeln  und  Ketzeryen  der  Luther- 
ischen,  &c.  (Strassburg,  1534),  Bl.  K'.  ■'■*  See  also  Basler  Chroniken,  pub- 
lished by  Vischer-Stern  (Leipzig,  1872),  i.  388. 


44  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Hand-painters,  carvers  and  goldsmiths. 
Glass-painters,  silk-workers,  coppersmiths, 
Stone-masons,  carpenters  and  joiners  .  .  . 
'Gainst  all  these  did  Luther  wield  a  sword  ; 
From  Thee  we  ask  a  verdict,  Lord. 

Christ's  verdict  is  then  introduced  ;  the  complainants, 
who  His  Word — namely  Luther's  teaching — 

With  scorn  disdain 
From  greed  of  gain, 

must  cease  to  be  '  careful  concerning  worldly  goods, 
like  unto  the  heathen,  but  must  seek  the  kingdom  of 
God  with  eagerness,  and  things  temporal  will  be  added 
unto  them  ;  otherwise,  hell-fire  will  be  their  reward.'  ' 

But  there  soon  followed  other  charges  which  Hans 
Sachs  no  longer  put  into  the  mouth  of  artists  and  art- 
workers,  but  into  that  of  '  the  Muses  ; '  formerly,  he 
said,  the  arts  '  had  been  held  in  veneration  in  Germany 
by  young  and  old ; '  every  corner  of  the  land  had  been 
full  of  scholars,  and  everywhere  there  were  '  free  artists 
and  artistic  workmen  without  end ; '  now,  on  the  con- 
trary, all  the  arts  were  considered  worthless  and  despic- 
able ;  pleasure,  power,  and  pomp  were  the  only  things 
sought  after,  and  everyone  was  intent  only  on  gaining 
money  : 

Ah,  do  but  see 
How  usury,  deceit  and  fraud 
In  Germany  now  stalk  abroad. 
Who  gold  has  got  wants  nothing  more. 
And  art  is  valueless  therefore. 
And  Ave  must  perish  from  starvation, 
Be  ruined  with  this  foolish  nation. 
From  Germany,  then,  we  will  depart, 
Leave  it  senseless  and  bare  of  art." 


1  See  Weller,  Hans  Sachs,  pp.  118-120. 

2  Hans  Sachs,  iv.  124-127.     See  his  lament  of  the  year  1558,  vol.  viii. 
p.  615. 


DECAY   OF    ART-LIFE  45 

It  was  this  same  complaint  which  the  Protestant 
art-writer,  Walter  Rivius  of  Nuremberg,  raised  in 
1548 :  '  it  is  pitiful,'  he  said,  '  that  in  these  days 
excellent  artists  not  only  get  no  honour,  but  they 
cannot  even  earn  their  daily  bread.'  Rivius  also  gave 
as  the  reason  for  this  state  of  things  that  '  finance, 
usury,  and  fraud  have  reached  such  a  pitch,  and  asserted 
themselves  so  shamelessly  that  not  only  were  the  laud- 
able arts  regarded  as  beggary,  and  little  thought  of, 
but  they  were  in  the  highest  measure  despised  and  ridi- 
culed.' 1  About  the  same  time  a  third  Protestant  writer, 
Henry  Vogtherr  of  Strassburg,  said  unhesitatingly,  in 
the  preface  to  his  '  Kunstbuchlein,'  that  owing  to  the 
new  evangel  the  arts  had  fallen  into  decay.  '  God  had,' 
he  said,  '  by  a  special  dispensation  of  His  Holy  Word, 
now  in  these  our  days  brought  about  a  noticeable 
decline  and  arrest  of  all  the  subtle  and  liberal  arts, 
whereby  numbers  of  people  had  been  obliged  to  with- 
draw from  these  arts  and  to  turn  to  other  kind  of 
handicraft.'  '  It  might,  therefore,  be  expected  that  in 
a  few  years  there  would  scarcely  be  found  any  persons 
in  German  lands  working  as  painters  and  carvers.' 


■>  2 


1  Rivius,  Vitruv  (Basle  edition  of  1614),  pp.  45-46,  181,  369. 

'  Preface  to  the  Kunstbiichlein,  Strassburg,  1545.  :  That  even  before 
the  religious  revolution  there  were  (as  Lange,  Fliitner,  p.  17,  asserts)  fre- 
quent complaints  of  the  decline  of  art  is  undoubtedly  true.  This,  however, 
does  not  detract  from  the  force  of  Janssen's  evidence.  Lange  himself  is 
obliged  (loc.  cit.)  to  allow  that  the  special  department  of  ecclesiastical 
art  underwent  deterioration  owing  to  the  Reformation.  '  The  Reforma- 
tion,' says  Bezold  (Baukunst  der  Renaissance  in  Deutschland,  p.  14),  '  has 
no  immediate  relation  to  the  plastic  arts,  and  was  not  conducive  to  their 
progress,  least  of  all  to  architecture.'  '  We  cannot  deny,'  says  another 
Protestant  writer,  '  that  in  consequence  of  the  Church  reform  the  interest 
in  art  decreased  both  in  our  district  and  in  other  Lutheran — and  still 
more  in  Calvinistic — countries.  Even  though  iconoclasm  did  not  invade 
our  territory,  the  minds  of  our  people  were  not  unaffected  by  the  teachings 


46  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

In  Basle,  as  early  as  1526,  the  whole  body  of  painters, 
had  represented  to  the  council  how  badly  they  fared, 
as  married  men  with  wives  and  children,  for  want  of 
employment ;  now,  too,  they  were  further  injured  by 
shops  which  had  taken  fco  selling  false  beards  and 
carnival  masks  ;  they  begged  that  the  council  would 
forbid  this  practice,  as  it  was  the  exclusive  right  of  the 
painters  to  supply  these  stage  properties.1 

The  Bernese  painter,  Nicholas  Manuel,  betook  him- 
self to  military  service,  because  art  no  longer  maintained 
his  family.2 

'  By  reason  of  the  imperative  necessity  for  mainten- 

of  John  of  Leyden  and  of  the  Miinster  Anabaptists.  If  there  were  no 
other  evidence  in  proof  of  this  statement — such,  for  instance,  as  the 
issue  of  the  mandate  against  the  Anabaptists  in  1535 — its  truth  would 
be  indubitably  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  among  the  quantities  of  fine 
images  and  statues  of  jsast  epochs  found  in  our  churches,  there  is  scarcely 
one  belonging  to  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century.'  '  The  gold  and 
silver  church  treasures  were  sold  by  public  auction,  without  any  regard 
to  their  value  as  works  of  art ;  as,  for  instance,  amongst  others,  those  of 
the  Church  of  St.  Peter,  presumably  as  early  as  lf>.*>5,  and  others  on  July  7, 
1560,  and  March  10.  1565.' 

Zeitschrift  f.  Hamburger  Qesch.  v.  258.  Noteworthy,  also,  as  cor- 
roborating Jansscn's  opinion  is  a  Strassburg  Ratsprotocoll,  February  3, 
1525:  'Painters  and  sculptors  petition  that,  whereas  through  the  Word 
of  God  their  handicraft  has  died  out,  they  may  be  jjrovided  -with  posts 
before  other  claimants.'  The  answer  was :  '  Let  them  be  informed  that, 
as  offices  fall  vacant,  if  they  will  make  application,  their  appeals  shall 
be  borne  in  mind  .  .  .'  in  the  minutes  of  the  Society  for  the  Preservation 
of  Historic  Monuments  in  Alsatia,  xv.  (Strassburg,  1892),  248. 

1  Woltmann,  Holbein,  i.  340. 

2  Griineisen,  p.  89.  ::  Concerning  the  Schlettstadt  sculptors  Paul 
Windeck  and  Sixt  Schultheiss,  who  became  town  messengers,  see  Geny, 
Die  Reichsstadt  Schlettstadt  und  ihr  Antheil  an  der  socialpolitischen  und 
religiosen  Bewegungen  der  Jahre  1490-1536  (explanations  and  additions 
to  Janssen's  Hist,  of  the  German  People,  edited  by  Ludwig  Pastor,  vol.  i.  ; 
Heft  5  u.  6  [Freiburg,  1900],  p.  149).  Sometimes,  however,  it  was 
purely  politico-economic  reasons  which  reduced  artists  to  poverty.  Con- 
cerning Flotner,  Lange's  emphatic  assertion  to  this  effect  is  epiite  right. 
Fliitner,  p.  18  ff. 


DECAY   OF   ART-LIFE  47 

ance  of  wives  and  children,  now  that,  in  the  painters' 
and  in  other  art  trades,  there  was  little  more  to  do  and 
little  traffic,'  the  restrictions  in  the  towns  against 
'  foreign  competition  '  became  more  severe  than  ever 
before,  and  the  free  exercise  of  art  was  greatly  limited. 
In  Ratisbon,  for  instance,  the  foreign  painter,  George 
Boheim,  was  only  allowed  to  paint  the  sepulchre  of 
Sebastian  Schilter,  and  was  forbidden,  on  pain  of 
punishment,  to  undertake  any  other  work.1  The 
painter,  Matthew  Kager,  who  wanted  to  settle  in 
Augsburg,  was  bound  over  only  to  work  at  frescoes, 
and  never  to  paint  in  oils.2  Because  the  Brieg  painters 
were  short  of  work,  they  got  a  written  agreement  drawn 
up  that  not  more  than  three  foreigners  were  to  be 
admitted.3  Many  families  of  renowned  artists  such 
as  that  of  Hans  Burgkmair,  ended  in  misery.4  The 
famous  painter  and  wood-carver,  Michael  Ostendorfer, 
lived  at  Ratisbon  in  the  most  needy  circumstances  ; 
the  pay  that  he  received  from  the  Protestant 
Council  for  his  art-work  was  so  meagre  as  scarcely  to 
cover  the  expense  of  his  colours,  oil,  and  canvas.  He 
was,  and  continued  to  be,  '  the  poor  Michael,'  '  the 
disconsolate  Michael.'  '  If  my  lords  the  councillors,' 
he  once  wrote,  '  would  graciously  send  me  a  measure 
of  meal,  it  would  be  quite  a  boon  to  me,  and  very 
helpful,  indeed,  in  my  work.'  The  pangs  of  hunger 
and  grief  at  the  slight  esteem  in  which  his  art  was 
held  were    largely  to   blame   for  that   wantonness   of 

1  Gunipelzhaimer,  ii.  980. 

2  Ree,  p.  83. 

'  Von  Zahn,  Jahrbiicher,  ii.  356.  Further  evidence  showing  how  greatly 
the  freedom  of  art  work  had  become  restricted  in  Andresen,  ii.  211  ; 
Ree,  pp.  83-84  ;  Merlo,  master  of  the  old  Cologne  school  of  painters,  p.  220. 

4  See  Von  Liitzow,  Zeitschr.  pp.  19,  399. 


48  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

conduct  which   occasioned   such   frequent  and   serious 
complaints  against  him.1 

At  Frankfort-on-the-Main  the  painter,  Jerome  Wan- 
necker,  was  driven  by  poverty  and  grief  to  hanging 
himself.2 

The  life  of  Hans  Holbein  the  Younger  is  an  object- 
lesson  concerning  the  influence  of  the  religious  revolu- 
tion on  German  art.  In  1526,  true  to  the  old  Catholic 
conception  and  technique  of  art,  and  moved  by  strong 
inward  feeling  n,nd  pious  veneration,  he  produced  his 
incomparable  '  Madonna  of  the  Burgomaster  James 
Meyer,'  a  representation  of  the  Holy  Virgin  as  the 
mother  of  mercy  spreading  her  mantle  over  the  figures 
kneeling  before  her.3  It  was  his  last  great  religious 
work ;  indeed,  it  was  one  of  the  last  religious  master- 
pieces of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  Basle,  where 
Holbein  lived,  complete  stagnation  of  all  artistic 
activity  was  the  result  of  the  religious  revolution. 
Holbein  was  obliged  to  give  up  working  at  his  beautiful 
wall  pictures  for  the  town  council  house,4  and  to  take 
to  ordinary  house-painter's  work  in  order  to  earn  his 
daily  bread.  Want  of  employment  drove  him  to 
England.  '  Here  the  arts  are  freezing,'  wrote  Erasmus 
in  1526,  in  a  letter  in  which  he  gave  Holbein  an  intro- 
duction to  a  friend  at  Antwerp.  In  1528  Holbein 
returned  to  Basle.     During  the  carnival  of  the  follow- 

1  Fuller  details  in  Schuegraf,  pp.  8-76.  Specially  noteworthy  are  the 
remarks  concerning  the  preparation  of  his  altar-work  for  the  parish 
church,  pp.  34^43.     See  Gurnpelzhaimer,  ii.  893. 

2  Kirchner,  Oesch.  von  Frankfurt,  ii.  460. 

3  Cf.  C.  von  Lutzow  in  the  separate  section  devoted  to  the  '  Chronik 
fiir  vervielfaltigende  Kunst,'  1888,  No.  1.  To  a  period  earlier  than  1526 
this  master- work  cannot  be  put  back  ;  cf.  E.  His  in  v.  Zahn's  Jahrbiicher, 
iii.  157. 

1  Cf.  Woltmann,  Holbein,  i.  293-302. 


DECAY   OF  ART-LIFE  49 

itig  year  the  great  iconoclastic  storm  broke  out.  Several 
of  Holbein's  works  were  destroyed  on  that  occasion. 
The  announcement  of  the  Basle  Council  in  its  new 
'  regulations  '  concerning  religious  pictures  and  images, 
that  '  God  has  cursed  all  those  who  make  images,' 
gave  this  great  artist  little  prospect  of  fresh  orders ; 
the  sole  tasks  left  him  were  to  finish  the  pictures  for  the 
town  hall,  and  to  revarnish  the  image  of  the  '  Lalen- 
konig  '  on  the  clockwork  of  the  Rheinthor.  In  order 
to  obtain  employment  he  turned  his  steps  again  towards 
England,1  and  he  never  returned  to  Basle,  although 
the  town  council  assured  him  that  they  would  provide 
for  him  better  in  future,  to  enable  him  to  feed  his  wife 
and  children.  In  England  he  became  court-painter 
to  Henry  VIII.,  and  was  obliged  to  paint  portraits  of 
the  King,  and  his  courtiers  and  concubines.  His  higher 
capacities  were  in  the  main  restricted  to  taking  portraits. 
In  addition  to  this  his  chief  occupation  consisted  in 
making  designs  for  practical  art-work,  table  ornaments, 
beakers,  clocks,  dagger-sheaths,  and  so  forth.  At  his 
death  in  1543  he  left  a  legacy  of  debts,  and  property  to 
the  amount  of  one  horse  and  sundry  other  items.  For 
his  brother  German  artists  it  was  no  good  example 
that  he  set  in  taking  no  further  thought  for  his  wife  and 
children  at  Basle.  In  his  will  there  is  no  allusion  to 
them,  but  only  mertion  of  two  other  children  born  in 
England  out  of  wedlock.  To  these  he  left,  out  of  the 
profits  of  his  possessions,  and  after  payment  of  his 
debts,  a  monthly  sum  of  seven  shillings  and  sixpence.2 

*#i  '  Thereby  Germany  lost  the  greatest  historic  painter  it  had  ever 
possessed,  without  having  made  use  of  his  powers,'  says  Janitschek, 
in  his  History  of  German  Art,  iii.  463. 

-  Woltmann,  ii.  358-360  ;  Grimm,  Kiinstler  und  Kimstiverke,  ii.  129. 
W.  A.  Becker  (i.  391)  actually  excuses   Holbein's   neglect   of   his   wife 

VOL.    XI.  E 


50  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

And  so  one  of  the  greatest  artists  ever  born  on 
German  soil  ended  his  days,  homeless,  in  a  foreign 
land.1 

The  old  Church  had  been  the  mother  and  fosterer 
of  the  arts  ;  the  new  Church  cannot  claim  as  its  offspring 
any  striking  monuments  or  productions  of  religious  art. 

In  the  department  of  painting,  the  workshops  of 
Lucas  Cranach,  '  who  was  renowned  as  the  greatest 
painter  in  the  service  of  the  holy  evangel,'  sent  forth 
numbers  of  dogmatising,  denominational  pictures, 
executed  for  the  purpose  of  setting  forth  the  Lutheran 
doctrine  of  justification,  but  in  all  these  productions 
art,  as  such,  had  little  place.2     Since  the  middle  of  the 

and  family  as  follows  :  '  When  one  beholds  the  picture  which  he  painted 
of  his  wife  and  children  ("  the  unattractive,  dismal  woman  with  red 
eyes,  the  plain  girl,  and  the  miserable-looking  boy "),  it  becomes 
obvious  that  it  would  have  been  out  of  the  cpiestion  for  him  to  take 
them  into  the  circles  in  which  he  was  received  in  London,  apart  from 
the  fact  that  he  was  only  too  glad  to  keep  the  fresh  sphere  in  which 
he  was  then  living  free  from  the  storms  of  married  life  '  ! 

**  1  '  Hans  Holbein  the  Younger,'  says  Sighart  (Gesch.  der  bildenden 
Kilnste  im  Konigreich  Bayern,  p.  599),  '  was  an  artistic  genius  of  an  all- 
sidedness  which  few  before  or  after  him  have  displayed.'  Cf.  also  the 
article  by  A.  Zottmann,  Hans  Holbein  der  Jiingere  (a  memorial  to  the 
four  hundredth  anniversary  of  his  birthday).  Beil.  zur  Augsburger  Post- 
zeitung,  1897,  No.  34  ff. 

-  On  this  point  most  of  the  art  historians  are  agreed.  See  Rosenberg, 
p.  25  ;  Waagen,  Malerei,  i.  249-252  ;  Woltmann,  Deutsche  Kunst  und 
Reformation,  pp.  35-36.  '  The  text  inscribed  under  the  picture  was 
necessary  for  explaining  the  thought-enigma'  (Lindau,  pp.  239-240). 
Cranach' s  '  Siindenfall '  was  pasted  over  with  texts  suitable  to  the  sub- 
ject (Schuchardt,  iii.  200  ;  cf.  ii.  107-109).  Cranach's  '  large  altar-pictures 
in  the  town  churches  of  Wittenberg  and  Weimar  are  chiefly  conspicuous 
for  their  lack  of  depth  and  originality.  They  preach  dogmas  of  faith, 
but  amongst  his  figures  there  is  seldom  seen  one  head  which  gives  evidence 
of  any  depth  of  conception  and  vigorous  spiritual  life  '  (Leixner,  p.  231). 
'  It  is  true,'  says  Schnaase  (Kimstblatt,  1849,  No.  14),  '  that  Cranach,  at 
his  death,  left  behind  him  a  school  of  art,  but  it  was  a  stereotyped  school 
whose  productions  were  only  distinguished  from  those  of  the  master  by 
a  decrease  of  merit,  not  by  any  original  talent,  and  he  had  no  permanent 


DECAY   OF   ART-LIFE  51 

sixteenth  century  religious  art  had  come  entirely  to  an 
end  in  all  the  Protestant  parts  of  Germany.1 

Once  more  it  was  plain  to  see  how  intimately  art  is 
associated  with  the  events  and  occurrences  of  the 
general  life  of  the  nation  ;  how  truly,  as  in  a  mirror,  it 
reflects  the  whole  picture  of  any  given  age.  Apart 
from  all  other  causes  which  worked  for  its  destruction, 
religious  art  was  bound  to   go  gradually  to  ruin  on 


influence  on  art.  At  the  period  when  the  breach  with  its  pre- Reformation 
traditions  came  generally  and  prominently  into  notice — and  this  is  the 
period  which  may  bo  described  as  "  the  epoch  of  Protestant  art  " — 
German  art  was  as  a  tree  stript  of  its  leafage  by  the  religious  storms  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  whose  last  blossoms  Cranach  and  Holbein 
had  taken  with  them  to  the  grave  '  (Lindau,  pp.  122-123).  **  See  also 
Janitschek  in  the  Gesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst,  iii.  495,  and  Lehfeldt  in  the 
passage  quoted  above,  p.  39,  n.  1. 

1  '  The  confined  creeds,  which  were  the  outcome  of  the  reform  move- 
ments, had  no  affinity  with  art.  Even  the  Catholic  counter-reformation 
possessed  more  creative  power.'  '  Through  the  latter  there  coursed  a 
stream  of  life  which  was  entirely  lacking  in  Protestantism '  (Woltmann, 
Deutsche  Kunst  und  Reformation,  p.  37).  Nothing  but  sectarian  narrow- 
ness could  deny  that  German,  above  all  plastic  art,  stood  higher  before 
the  Reformation  than  after  it.  For  nearly  two  centuries  architecture, 
sculpture,  and  painting  produced  nothing  more  in  Germany  that  could 
be  compared  with  the  creations  of  these  different  arts  either  immediately 
before  or  simultaneously  with  the  schism  in  the  Church  '  (Scherr,  Ger- 
mania,  p.  240).  '  The  Protestant  world  gave  itself  up  to  enslave- 
ment by  the  clergy.'  '  All  fresh  and  living  religious  life  had  completely 
disappeared  ;  formalism  ruled  everywhere.'  '  Here  the  letter,  there 
morality.  With' these  men's  consciences  had  to  be  satisfied.  How  could 
religious  art  grow  from  such  a  soil,  how  enthusiasm  for  the  production 
of  fine  church  buildings,  how  zeal  for  the  creation  of  nobly  conceived 
pictures  of  religious  or  Biblical  life  ?  '  (Falke,  Gesch.  des  Geschmacks, 
pp.  148-149).  It  is  a  general  principle,  says  Riegel,  Grundriss  der  bildenden 
Kiinste,  p.  279,  that  '  there  is  no  such  tiling  as  Protestant  art,  for  as  soon 
as  art  aims  at  being  religious  it  at  once  and  of  necessity  becomes  Catholic' 
'  After  the  downfall  of  Catholicism,  owing  to  Luther's  reformation,'  says 
Bergau  (Inventory  of  the  Architectural  and  Art  Monuments  of  the  Province 
of  Brandenburg  [Berlin,  1885],  p.  7),  '  ecclesiastical  architecture  ceased 
entirely  in  the  land  of  Brandenburg.'  See  Reichensperger,  in  the  Lit. 
Handweiser,  1886,  p.  21. 

e  2 


52  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

account  of  the  deadly  poison  infused  into  it  by  the 
religious  dissensions. 

Formerly  art  had  been  the  '  expression  of  the 
holiest  and  highest  sentiments,'  it  had  lifted  men  out 
of  their  earthly  troubles,  and  '  announced  the  joyous 
message  from  the  other  world,'  it  had  ministered  to 
reverence  and  edification,  and  as  '  a  noble  daughter  of 
heaven,'  had  preached  a  gospel  of  peace  ;  now  it  found 
itself  drawn  away  into  the  tumultuous  whirlpool  of 
religious  party  strife,  and  pressed  into  the  service  of 
the  demon  of  hatred  and  scorn. 


53 


CHAPTER   III 

AET   IN   THE    SERVICE    OF    SECTARIAN    POLEMICS  ] 

Just  as  in  the  fifteenth  century  the  Hussites  produced 
'  numbers  of  scandalous  pictures  '  in  ridicule  of  th  e 
Pope  and  the  clergy,2  so  now  '  in  Germany  a  great 
many  engravers,  wood-carvers,  and  painters  thought 
to  distinguish  themselves  and  to  make  large  sums  of 
money  (notwithstanding  that  the  object  of  art  was 
to  promote  piety,  peace  and  spirituality)  by  producing 
and  disseminating  innumerable  caricatures  and  libellous 
pictures,  which  served  no  other  purpose  than  to  stir 
up  odious  and  unclean  sentiments  against  clergy  and 
laity  alike.'  3 

These  productions,  in  addition  to  the  hatred  which 
they  exhibit,  show  also  a  taste  for  things  base  and 
impure.  A  chief  representative  of  this  degenerate 
art-tendency  was  the  Bernese  painter,  Nicholas  Manuel, 

1  It  will  be  no  less  unpleasant  to  the  reader  of  this  section  to  find  in 
it  much  scandalous  matter  than  it  was  to  the  author  to  collect  together 
all  the  objectionable  details.  But  the  work  seemed  necessary  in  order 
to  give  a  complete  picture  of  the  times,  and  to  show  by  this  great  mass 
of  circumstantial  evidence  that  the  ills  in  question  were  not  confined  to 
mere  isolated  cases,  but  represented  a  general  tendency  running  through 
the  whole  age.  As  in  the  field  of  literature,  so  also,  to  a  certain  extent, 
in  that  of  art,  the  Thirty  Years'  War  of  annihilation  was  preceded  by  a 
century  of  religious  warfare.  **  This  Thirty  Years' War,  Lehfeldt  (p.  99) 
also  allows,  '  is  the  last  stage  of  this  decadence  (the  decline  of  art),  most 
certainly  not  the  beginning  of  the  disappearance  of  culture  and  art.' 

2  See  Schultz,  Gesch.  der  Breslauer  Maler-Innung,  p.  12,  note  2. 

3  Ein  Erlclerung  des  Voter  Unsers  (1617),  Bl.  9\ 


54  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

who  assailed  the  Catholic  Church  at  every  point  with 
showers  of  venomous  rancour  and  shameless  ridicule. 
He  went  so  far  as  to  make  a  picture  of  the  resurrection 
of  Christ  the  handle  for  an  improper  scene  between  a 
monk  and  a  nun.1 

Hans  Holbein,  especially  during  his  sojourn  in 
England  as  court-painter  to  Henry  VIII.,  worked 
actively  in  the  service  of  the  Protestants.  In  a  series 
of  drawings  in  which  he  represented  the  passion  of 
Christ,  the  judges,  accusers,  and  executioners  of  the 
Saviour  are  personified  by  the  Pope,  and  by  monks  and 
priests.  Judas  Iscariot  is  a  monk,  Caiaphas  is  the  Pope, 
who  pronounces  the  sentence,  and  those  who  scourge 
and  mock  and  lead  the  Saviour  to  death  are  priests  of 
the  Church.2 

The  lampoons  and  libellous  pamphlets  which,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  religious  revolution  had  been 
distributed  in  such  quantities,  were  often  illustrated 
by  woodcuts  which  '  supplied  the  common  people  with 

1  Griineisen,  p.  185.  On  his  coat-of-arms  there  are  two  priests  in 
wolf -skins  who  are  holding  the  rosary  beads  in  the  wolf's  elaws  (p.  183). 
Respecting  Manuel  as  painter,  F.  S.  Vogelin  says,  in  Baechtold  CX.  : 
'  Though  he  had  grown  up  in  the  Catholic  faith,  and  had  served  it  as 
artist,  he  early  turned  his  mind  and  his  art  against  the  edifice  of  Catho- 
licism. He  was  not  least  among  the  contributors  to  its  ruin,  but  at  the 
same  time  he  shook  the  foundations  of  his  own  art  industry.  The  Reforma- 
tion destroyed  sacred  art,  but  it  did  not  build  up  in  its  place  a  school  of 
national  art.' 

2  Woltmann,  Holbein,  ii.  225  ff.  Respecting  two  wood-engravings 
of  an  earlier  period  ascribed  to  Holbein  '  Ablasshandel '  (traffic  in  indul- 
gences) and  '  Christ  the  True  Light,'  cf.  Woltmann,  ii.  74-75  ;  Passavant, 
iii.  380,  Nos.  28,  29.  In  this  last  engraving  the  Pope,  a  bishop,  a  pre- 
bendary, and  a  monk  are  turning  their  backs  to  the  fight  and  hurrying 
with  closed  eyes  to  a  precipice,  with  Aristotle  and  Plato  in  front  of 
them.  The  latter  has  already  fallen  down  the  precipice.  The  artist  here 
embodies  the  exhortations  of  multitudes  of  preachers  to  disregard,  to 
disdain,  Greek  philosophy. 


ART   IN    THE   SERVICE   OF   SECTARIAN   POLEMICS      55 

rare  counterfeits  and  caricatures  of  the  accursed,  devilish 
race  of  clergy.'  One  of  these  illustrations,  for  instance, 
represents  a  priest  on  a  bank  opposite  a  church  ;  a  devil 
floating  in  the  air  had  stuck  the  broken-off  point  of  the 
church  tower  in  the  priest's  mouth  ;  another  devil  in 
the  air  holds  in  each  hand  a  tablet  on  which  two  keys 
are  crossed.  A  second  pamphlet  has  on  its  title-page 
a  fat  pope  whom  devils  are  carrying  up  on  high  ;  in  a 
third  the  Pope  is  on  his  throne  surrounded  with  car- 
dinals, bishops,  clergy  and  monks,  each  wearing  a  wolf's 
head  ;  geese  are  strutting  round  about  and  cackling 
prayers,  while  a  monk  with  a  cat's  head  is  playing  on 
a  lute  ;  a  fourth  shows  a  bishop  and  a  monk  each  with 
a  cat's  head,  another  with  a  buck's  head,  who  are  all 
storming  against  a  cross.1  The  reiterated  imperial 
commands  that  '  nothing  calumnious,  no  pasquilles, 
or  anything  of  the  sort,  were  to  be  written,  printed, 
painted,  engraved  or  cast,'  and  that  such  writings, 
paintings,  engravings,  &c,  were  not  to  be  put  up 
for  sale  and  hawked  about,  were  for  the  most  part 
ineffectual.2 

On  one  occasion,  in  1549,  the  town  council  at 
Nuremberg  caused  certain  scandalous  and  calumnious 
pictures  directed  against  the  Catholic  Church,  its 
doctrines  and  its  priests,  to  be  taken  away  and  their 
disseminators  to  be  turned  out  of  the  town.  But 
'  slanderous  pictures  '  of  this  sort  reappeared  again  and 
again.  After  the  Emperor  had  made  repeated  com- 
plaints on  this  score,  the  council,  in  1551,  laid  the  blame 

1  Schade,  i.  181  (cf.  p.  180),  and  ii.  352,  and  iii.  221,  255  ;  Hagen,  ii. 
181. 

-  Commands  of  this  sort  are  recorded  by  Voigt,  fiber  Pasquille, 
pp.  351-358. 


56  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

on  the  foreign  messengers  and  letter-carriers  '  who 
spread  such  things  among  the  common  people.'  ] 

Concerning  the  influence  of  all  this  flood  of  caricature 
Luther  had  already  expressed  himself  at  the  time  of  the 
Peasants'  War.  '  The  common  people,'  he  wrote  on 
June  2,  1525,  to  the  Archbishop  Albert  of  Mayence, 
'  are  now  widely  informed  and  enlightened  as  to  the 
nonentity  of  the  clerical  status  ;  wherever  one  goes  one 
sees  on  all  the  walls,  on  all  sorts  of  bits  of  paper,  even 
on  playing-cards,  caricatures  of  priests  and  monks,'  so 
that  '  one  now  experiences  a  feeling  of  disgust  on  seeing 
or  hearing  of  a  clerical  person.'  2 

Luther  himself  was  not  in  any  way  concerned  to 
protect  art  from  such  excesses.  In  1526  he  called  on 
his  followers  to  '  assail  the  noble  race  of  idolaters  of 
the  Roman  Antichrist  by  means  of  painting ; '  the 
dirt  and  dregs,  with  '  which  they  would  like  to  fill  the 
world  with  its  stink,  must  be  stirred  up  till  they  are 
fain  to  stop  up  their  jaws  and  their  nostrils.'  '  Cursed 
be  he  who  remains  idle  in  this  matter,  while  he  knows 
that  he  can  do  God  a  service  by  helping  it  on.' 3 

Lucas  Cranach  was  most  ready  of  all  to  follow  this 
exhortation.  In  1521  lie  had  already  fought  the 
papacy   in   a    '  Passional   Christi   und   Anti-Christi ; '  4 

1  J.  Baader  in  Von  Zahn's  Jahrbiicher,  i.  225-22G  ;  cf.  p.  233,  the 
edicts  of  the  council  against  the  Formschneider,  '  who  were  to  abstain 
from  all  scurrilous  poetry  and  jiainting.' 

2  De  Wette,  Letters  of  Luther,  ii.  674. 

3  See  our  remarks,  vol.  iv.  355-350.  The  drawings  for  the  wood- 
cuts of  this  representation  of  the  papacy  were  done  by  Hans  Sebald 
Beham  ;  cf.  Rosenberg,  xi.-xii.  126,  No.  211. 

4  Passional  Christi  und  Antichristi.  Lucas  Cranach's  woodcuts  to 
the  text  of  Melanchthon,  with  an  introduction  by  G.  Kawerau  (Berlin, 
1885) ;  **  Lehfeldt,  p.  65.  Concerning  a  series  of  pictures  (no  longer  extant) 
in  the  chapel  of  the  castle  of  Smalcald,  connected  with  these  woodcuts, 
the  execution  of  which  was  entrusted  by  the  Landgrave  William  about 


ART   IN   THE    SERVICE   OF   SECTARIAN   POLEMICS      57 

later  on  he  issued  from  Wittenberg  all  manner  of 
caricatures  and  scurrilous  pictures,  and  even,  as  an  old 
man  of  seventy-three,  he  produced,  in  illustration  of 
the  papacy,  his  collection  of  woodcuts,  some  of  which 
were  unspeakably  low,  and  which  Luther  published  in 
1545  in  his  own  name  and  supplied  with  rhymes.  Luther, 
says  his  enthusiastic  admirer,  Mathesius,  '  in  the  year 
1545  was  instrumental  in  the  production  of  many 
vigorously  conceived  pictures,  which  represented,  for 
the  benefit  of  those  who  could  not  read,  the  true  nature 
and  monstrosity  of  the  Antichrist,  just  as  the  Spirit 
of  God  in  the  Apocalypse  of  St.  John  depicted  the  red 
whore  of  Babylon.'  ] 

In  one  of  these  woodcuts  of  Cranach  the  Pope  holds 
a  bull  of  excommunication,  out  of  which  flames  and 
stones  are  being  emitted  against  two  men  who  are 
standing  before  his  Holiness,  with  their  hind  parts 
naked  turned  towards  him.  In  another  the  Pope,  in 
full  pontifical  array,  is  seen  riding  on  a  sow,  and  blessing 
with  his  right  hand  a  heap  of  reeking  dung  which  he 
carries  in  his  left  hand,  and  towards  which  the  sow  is 
stretching  its  snout.2 

]  587  to  George  Kronhard,  painter  to  the  castle,  while  his  fifteen-year-old 
son  Moritz  composed  the  verses  for  them,  cf.  O.  Gerland,  '  Die  Antithesis 
Christi  et  Papae,'  in  the  castle  church  at  Smalcald,  in  the  Zeitschrift  des 
Vereins  filr  hessische  Gesch.  rind  Landeskunde.     New  series,  xvi.  189-201. 

!  Historien  von  des  ehrwiirdigen  in  Oott  seligen  teuren  Mamies  Oottes 
Lutheri,  &c.  (Nuremberg,  1570),  Bl.  167". 

2  [For  further  descriptions  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  German  original, 
vol.  vi.  p.  42. — Translator.] 

Schuchardt,  Cranach,  i.  170,  and  ii.  248-255  ;  also  iii.  231  ;  re- 
printed at  the  first  Reformation  jubilee  in  the  year  1617.  Cf.  also 
our  remarks,  vol.  vi.  pp.  273  and  274,  note  1.  A.  W.  Becker  (i.  360) 
describes  these  artistic  performances  of  Cranach  as  '  solid  food  which 
the  healthy  "  stomachs  "  produced  by  the  sound  culture  and  customs  of 
the  epoch  could  stand  and  assimilate '  !  Lindau,  who  in  his  biography 
of  Cranach  eulogises  the  latter  as  the  '  most  chaste  and  genuine  painter 


58  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Peter  Gottland,  a  pupil  of  Cranach,  depicted  Christ 
as  a  triumphant  boy,  driving  the  shaft  of  a  spear  into 
the  body  of  a  four-footed  monster  with  three  heads, 
one  of  which  was  a  pope's  head  with  a  tiara  ;  from  the 
pierced  body  snakes  are  issuing.1  By  another  artist 
the  Pope  was  drawn  as  a  three-headed  dragon  ;  by  a 
third  as  spittir.g  poison  ;  by  a  fourth  as  a  gambler  in 
the  company  of  devils,  Turks  and  Jews  ;  by  a  fifth 
as  a  glutton  at  a  dissolute  banquet ;  by  a  sixth  he 
was  drawn  seated  on  a  dragon  whose  throat  represented 
the  entrance  into  hell,  into  which  abode  the  devil, 
with  a  birdcatcher's  mirror,  was  enticing  emperors, 
kings,  bishops,  princes  and  lords,  priests  and  mer- 
chants.'2 

of  the  Reformation  '  (p.  401),  does  not  give  his  readers  any  idea  of  the 
nature  of  these  caricatures.  He  mentions  them  only  (p.  341)  as  '  a  collec- 
tion of  pictures  which  Cranach  from  time  to  time  produced  in  opposition 
to  the  papacy.'  **  C.  Wendeler  ( M .  Lathers  Bilderpolemik  gegen  das  Papst- 
thum  von  1545,  in  the  Archiv  fiir  Literatur-Gesch.  pp.  14,  17-40)  remarks, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  '  the  coarse-grained  satire  '  of  that  production 
was  in  certain  instances  repulsive  even  to  the  taste  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, accustomed,  as  it  was,  to  nudities  of  every  kind.  Lehfeldt  also 
(j).  67)  speaks  of  '  pictures  that  were  sometimes  highly  objectionable 
and  offensive,'  declares  himself  opposed  to  the  belief  in  Cranach's  author- 
ship, and  concludes  by  saying :  '  Whoever  the  author  may  have  been, 
we  may  note  as  an  interesting  point  that,  in  the  series  of  woodcuts  of 
1545  there  is,  in  relation  to  earlier  woodcuts  of  a  similar  tendency,  a 
strong  infusion  of  Lutheran  influence  on  the  technical  method.  This 
influence  has  been  by  no  means  a  happy  one  as  far  as  art  is  concerned.' 

1   Schuchardt,  Cranach,  iii.  105-106. 

:  <  'atalogueof  these  and  other  caricatures  in  Drugulin,  p.  21,  Nos.  112, 
115, 119 ;  further,  p.  22,  Nos.  120-124, 136,  and  p.  39,  Nos.  322,  324.  Bartsch, 
viii.  413,  and  ix.  157.  Passavant,  Peintre-Graveur,  iii.  126,  309  (cycle 
of  ten  caricatures),  and  iv.  182,  224,  227,  281  ;  Heller,  pp.  361,  872,  873, 
893  ;  Andresen,  iii.  46-48.  Cf.  also  the  libellous  pictures  in  the  Antithesis 
de  praeclaris  Christi  et  indignis  Papae  facinoribus  .  .  .  per  Zachariam 
Durentium"  (the  book-printer),  1557,  without  locality.  The  Westphalian 
copper-engraver,  Henry  Aldegrever,  in  his  works,  '  handed  over  the  clerical 
power  to  every  species  of  ridicule  and  contempt.'  His  works  '  gained 
ever  more  and  more  the  approval  of  the  burghers  at  Soest,  who  were 


ART   IN   THE   SERVICE   OF   SECTARIAN   POLEMICS      59 

A  slightly  coloured  pen-and-ink  drawing  of  Peter 
Vischer  of  the  year  1534  is  full  of  fierce  hostility  against 
the  Pope.  It  represents  the  Vatican  being  destroyed 
by  flames  ;  some  of  the  inmates  are  lying  on  the  ground, 
others  are  fleeing  from  the  fire ;  one  poor  peasant- 
man  with  his  flail  on  his  back,  accompanied  only  by 
his  fettered  conscience,  as  by  his  wife,  is  turning  away 
from  St.  Peter  and  appears  wishful  to  attach  himself 
to  the  enthroned  worldly  power  on  the  left ;  but  Luther, 
in  the  figure  of  a  youthful  hero,  steps  in  the  way  and 
points  to  the  Christ  emerging  from  the  clouds  in  the 
background.  All  the  figures  here  represented,  with 
the  exception  of  Christ,  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope, 
are  unclothed  ;  in  many  of  them,  like  the  figure  of 
Luther  and  the  female  figures,  there  are  signs  of  special 
devotion  having  been  bestowed  on  their  execution.1 

Under  the  title  '  Gorgoneum  Caput '  (Gorgon  Medusa) 
'  A  foreign  Romish  sea-wonder,  discovered  in  recent 
times  in  the  new  islands,'  Tobias  Stimmer,  in  1577, 
produced  a  comic  picture  in  which  the  Pope,  instead  of 
a  tiara,  wears  a  bell  decked  with  tapers  and  other 
objects,  has  a  nose  in  the  shape  of  a  fish,  a  pyx  for 
an  eye,  a  pot  with  half-open  lid  for  a  mouth,  and  a 
missal  with  the  papal  arms  for  his  back ;  among  the 

stirred  up  by  the  fanatical  Anabaptists  (Gehrken,  pp.  7-8).  **  Whether 
the  Nuremberg  artist  Peter  Flotner  (see  Neudorffer,  p.  115)  made  carica- 
tures of  the  Catholic  clergy  is,  according  to  Lange,  Flotner,  p.  7,  a  matter 
of  doubt.  Respecting  H.  Aldegrever,  cf.  (now)  also  K.  v.  Liitzow  in  the 
Gesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst,  iv.  211.  See  also  the  catalogue  of  caricatures 
against  the  papacy  and  the  clergy  in  the  antiquarian  catalogue  of  F.  A. 
Brockhaus,  Histor.  Flugbliitter  des  16.  bis  19.  Jahrh.  (Leipzig,  1890), 
Nos.  1061,  1063,  1084,  1102,  1106,  1109. 

**  l  This  remarkable  drawing  was  presented  to  Goethe  on  his  birthday 
in  1818.  It  still  forms  part  of  the  Goethe  collection  at  Weimar.  See 
Zeitschrift  f.  bildende  Kunst,  xxi.  12. 


60  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

accessories  there  is,  inter  alia,  a  wolf  in  bishop's 
habiliments  with  a  sheep  in  its  mouth,  and  a  pig  with 
an  incense-burner.1  In  another  of  Stimmer's  sheets 
a  devil  holds  the  staff  of  the  Pope,  who  is  being  struck 
with  clenched  fist  by  St.  Peter,  from  whom  he  is  trying 
to  wrest  the  key  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  John 
Fischart,  '  for  the  shame  of  the  dark  owl- visage,' 
illuminated  both  these  sheets  with  rhymes.2  In  the 
same  spirit  as  Cranach,  another  artist,  in  1586,  pro- 
duced a  large  coloured  picture  in  mockery  of  a  jubilee 
proclamation  of  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  :  the  Pope  with 
his  tiara  and  threefold  cross  rides  on  a  sow  carrying 
the  bull  of  indulgences,  on  which  is  a  heap  of  steaming 
human  dung ;  in  front  of  him  kneel  the  Emperor,  a 
cardinal,  the  Electors  of  Mayence  and  Treves,  and 
others,  while  behind  him  stands  the  devil  with  out- 
stretched tongue.3  Comic  medals  were  also  dissemi- 
nated. One  of  these  shows  on  one  side  the  double 
head  of  the  Pope  and  the  devil,  on  the  other  side  that 
of  a  cardinal  and  a  fool.4     On  a  beautifully  designed 

1  Andresen,  iii.  47  ;  Passavant,  iii.  457,  No.  90. 

2  Andresen,  iii.  45.     Cf.  Kurz,  Fischart,  iii.  243-240. 

3  In  the  Thesaurus  Picturarum  of  the  Court  Library  at  Darmstadt, 
Bd.  '  Calumniae  et  Sycophantic,'  &c.,  fol.  113. 

1  R.  Lepke's  Art  Catalogue  (Berlin,  1888),  Nos.  644,  88G.  In  the  arch- 
bishopric of  Cologne  reformed  pottery-makers  at  Frechen,  in  1604,  ridi- 
culed the  Catholic  doctrines  by  pictorial  representations,  a  celebrating 
monk,  and  so  forth,  on  their  goods.  Cf.  Ennen,  Gesch.  der  Stadt  Koln, 
v.  383  ;  Rosellen,  Gesch.  der  Pfarreien  des  Dekanates  Briihl  (Koln,  1887), 
pp.  274-275.  **  On  a  cannon  at  Kusti-in,  in  1545,  the  Pope  was  depicted 
as  a  savage  man,  with  the  inscription  :  '  The  Pope  is  rightly  called  the 
wild  man,  who,  by  his  false  rogue's  career,  has  brought  about  all  this 
unhappiness  which  neither  God  nor  man  can  tolerate.  1545  '  (Miirlcische 
Forschungen,  xiii.  496  note).  In  the  Luneburg  Museum  there  is  a  Pokal 
(drinking-cup),  a  so-called  Interim's  beaker  of  1548.  The  foot  of  it  repre- 
sents the  Saviour  in  the  act  of  blessing,  and  standing  on  a  dragon  with 
three  heads  (the  Pope's,  a  Turk's,  and  an  angel's).  Above  is  the  Baby- 
lonish whore  and  a  coat  of  arms  (Lotz,  Kunsttopogr.  i.  410). 


ART   IN   THE    SERVICE    OF   SECTARIAN   POLEMICS      61 

plate,  engraved  by  Th.  de  Bry,  is  seen  the  head  of  the 
Pope  ;  if  the  plate  is  turned  round  the  other  way  there 
appears  a  devil's  face.1 

The  Franciscan  John  Nas  told  of  '  more  than 
thirty '  artists  who  had  made  it  their  business  '  to 
represent  the  Pope  and  all  the  clergy  as  the  enemies 
of  Christ,  as  monsters  and  messengers  of  the  devil, 
and  to  make  them  detested  by  the  people.'  '  They 
also,'  he  wrote,  '  put  immoral  pictures  of  monks, 
priests  and  nuns  into  the  hands  of  young  people,  with 
scandalous  rhymes  under  them,  and  disseminate  them 
through  the  land  by  letter-carriers  and  hawkers.'  L> 

One  woodcut  represents  a  monk  undressing  a  nun 
in  order  to  whip  her  with  a  fox's  brush  fastened  to  a 
stick.  Above  is  the  commentary,  '  In  the  convent 
gardens  they  practise  the  sort  of  discipline  that  is 
seen  here.'  In  another  picture  the  devil  is  blowing 
with  a  pair  of  bellows  into  the  ear  of  a  monk  who  is 
making  love  to  a  nun.  Equally  objectionable  is  another 
sheet  which  depicts  two  nuns  dragging  along  a  tipsy 
man  on  a  truck  ;  a  third  nun  drives  them  on  with  a 
whip  ;  underneath  are  some  scandalous  lines. 

A  fourth  large  sheet,  with  the  superscription  '  The 
Dedication  feast  and  indulgence  of  the  monks  and 
nuns,'  represents  a  procession  of  monks  and  nuns  led 
by  a  fox,  over  which  a  fat  monk  is  swinging  a  censer  ; 
several  of  the  monks  are  imbibing,  others  are  vomiting, 
and  so  forth.  A  fifth  exhibits  three  naked  devils  on  a 
gallows  ;  from  the  body  of  the  middle  one  monks  are- 
dropped.     A    long    Latin    note    explains    the    process. 

**  l  Wessely,  Gestalten  des  Todes  und  Teufels,  p.  112. 
2  Quoted  in   Ein  Erklerung   des    Voter    Timers   (1617),    Bl.    9a.     Cf. 
Gretser. 


62  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Another  one  is  intended  to  show  why  it  is  that  the 
devil  is  always  present  when  two  monks  meet  each 
other.1  A  woodcnt  of  Geron  von  Launingen,  of  the 
year  1546,  represents  a  huge  cauldron  in  which  Catholic- 
priests  are  being  boiled  alive  over  a  roaring  fire  ;  a 
Protestant  preacher  is  blowing  the  fire  with  bellows, 
while  a  demon  places  wood  and  coals  beside  it.2  In 
1569  a  woodcut  with  explanatory  rhymes  was  dis- 
tributed, intended  to  depict  '  the  origin,  manners, 
and  character  of  the  "  Suiten"  who  call  themselves 
"  Jesuiten."  The  Pope,  represented  by  a  pig  lying  on 
a  mattress,  is  giving  birth  to  the  Jesuits  ;  priests  are 
praying  around  him ;  furies  are  acting  the  part  of 
midwives  ;  they  represent  swinelike  monsters,  and  are 
grubbing  up  the  graves  in  a  churchyard,  and  are  being 
instructed  in  a  stable  by  a  dog  and  a  pig. 

'  The  men  of  art  are  highly  to  be  commended,'  said 
a  preacher  to  his  congregation  from  the  pulpit  on  the 
first  day  of  Easter,  1572,  '  in  that  they  obey  the  whole- 
some instructions  of  the  dear  man  of  God,  Martin 
Luther,  and  for  the  love  of  pious,  saintly  Christians  do, 
both  by  painting  and  engraving,  mercilessly  counter- 
feit and  caricature  the  accursed  papacy,  with  all  its 
popish,  satanic  rabble,  devils  and  witches,  who  are  all 
leagued  together  to  persecute  and  condemn  God's 
Word,  and  our  holy  religion  which  cries  aloud  for  help.' ;j 

1  All  these  caricatures  in  the  Thesaurus  Picturarum  at  the  Court 
Library  at  Darmstadt,  Bd.  '  Antichristiana,'  fol.  249,  253,  258,  263,  20(5, 
270.  **  The  pictures  are  the  work  of  Henry  Aldegrever,  s.v.  Lichtenberg, 
p.  54,  who  speaks  plainly  of  their  coarseness. 

**  -  Wessely  (Gestalten  des  Todes  imd  Teufels,  p.  112),  who  describes  the 
picture,  remarks  of  it :  :  Did  it  not  occur  to  the  artist  that  the  company 
and  co-operation  of  a  devil  in  this  work  is  not  exactly  complimentary  to 
the  preacher  '!  ' 

'  Easter  sermon  of  Melchior  Zeysig  (Jhena,  1572),  p.  8. 


ART   IN   THE    SERVICE   OF   SECTARIAN    POLEMICS      63 

Thus,  for  instance,  the  Nuremberg  copper- etcher, 
Matthew  Ziindt,  had  represented  the  Christian  religion 
as  a  woman  screaming  for  help :  demoniacal  bird- 
figures  with  the  papal  tiara  and  with  cardinals'  hats  on 
their  heads  are  coming  forth  from  hell ;  three  satanic 
forms  are  rising  out  of  the  water  ;  an  old  woman  with 
goat's  feet  steps  on  to  the  bank  holding  a  reeking  pot 
on  a  fork.1 

Some  jesting  verses  on  the  Sacred  Host,  that  'poison- 
ous bread-God,'  with  the  superscription,  '  The  birth 
of  Jan  de  Weiss,'  -  gave  occasion  for  the  explanation  : 
'  This  bread-god's  father,  the  miller  who  ground  the 
Hour,  is  a  thief ;  the  nun  who  baked  it  is  a  whore  ;  its 
godfather  the  priest  who  consecrated  it,  and  gave  it 
its  name  or  made  it  into  god,  is  generally  an  infamous 
scoundrel.  This  is  the  glorious  lineage  and  stately 
origin  of  the  bread-god,  which  nowadays  almost  all 
the  world  worships.' 3 

Even  in  the  illustrated  editions  of  the  Bible  contro- 
versy was  represented.  For  instance,  in  the  Frankfort 
edition  of  the  Lutheran  translation,  supplied  with  '  beau- 
tiful pictures '  by  Virgil  Solis,  the  beast  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse, which  comes  up  from  the  abyss,  wears  a  papal 
tiara,  and  the  Pope  is  represented  as  praying  to  the 
seven-headed   monster ;  marginal  notes  explain  that  it 

1  Andresen,  i.  16.  -  Jean  le  Blanc. 

3  Thesaurus  Picturarum  in  the  Court  Library  at  Darmstadt,  Bd. 
'  Calurnniae,'  etc.  fol.  95.  The  Calvinists  drew  caricatures  of  the  '  Lutheran 
bread-god,'  on  the  doctrine  of  the  ubiquity  of  the  body  of  Christ,  and  of 
the  chief  champion  of  this  doctrine,  James  Andrea,  as  a  new  German  pope 
with  a  cat's  head  and  the  papal  insignia.  In  the  volume  '  Calumnise,' 
fol.  82,  86,  88  ff.,  under  the  '  ubiquity  '  caricatures  are  the  lines  :  '  Pan- 
dora ubiquistica  concepit  dolum,  peperit  mendacium  et  monstrum  alit 
horrendum.'  One  caricature  of  the  Lutherans  against  the  Calvinists  is 
catalogued  as  the  work  of  Drugulin,  p.  72,  No.  790. 


64  HISTOKY  OF   THE   GERMAN  PEOPLE 

is  '  popish  abominations  '  which  are  meant  here.1  The 
commentaries  on  the  Apocalypse  were  indeed  generally 
the  occasion  for  the  most  unbridled  attacks  on  the 
papacy  and  the  '  papists ; '  they  were  accompanied 
with  woodcuts  and  '  dainty  rhymes,'  in  order  that  '  the 
common  people  might  have  the  devilish  horrors  of  the 
Romish  school  of  Satan  vividly  before  their  eyes,  and 
that  they  might  retain  the  verses  indelibly  in  their 
memory.'  It  was  thus  that  the  Superintendent  George 
Nigrinus,  among  others,  in  1593,  dealt  with  the  publica- 
tion of  his  sixty  sermons  on  the  Apocalypse.  Who, 
says  he, 

Who  Antichrist  knows  not  as  yet, 
Nor  the  papacy's  arch  knavish  set, 
The  violence,  crime,  and  hellish  tricks 
And  malice  of  the  heretics,  .  .  . 
Let  liim  read  what's  in  this  book, 
And  at  all  the  pictures  look, 
He'd  have  it  clear  then  in  his  mind, 
E'en  were  he  altogether  blind. -' 

To  one  of  the  pictures  are  appended  the  lines  : 

The  horrible  and  gruesome  beast 
Crawling  up  from  the  abyss 
Is  the  Romish  Antichrist. 


To  another 


The  beast  that  standeth  in  the  sand, 
With  ten  fierce  horns  and  seven  crowns, 
Is  the  Roman  empire  and  town 
That  rules  o'er  many  a  race  and  land, 
And  Satan  serveth  at  all  times.  .  .  . 
The  other  beast  that  stands  quite  near, 
With  ram's  horns,  like  a  prophet-seer, 
And  preaches  of  things  mighty  great, 
Yet  as  a  dragon  eke  doth  prate, 


1  Biblia,  Teutsch  (1561),  Bl.  402"  ff. 
-  Nigrinus,  Apokalypsis,  Bl.  jjjj\ 


ART   IN   THE   SERVICE   OF   SECTARIAN   POLEMICS      65 

For  the  Pope  and  his  dominion's  painted 
Who  rightly  as  Antichrist  is  represented  ; 
By  the  devil  is  this  kingdom  founded, 
On  murder,  lies,  and  poison  grounded.1 

Whole  collections  of  caricatures  and  libellous  pic- 
tures were  also  circulated.  Towards  1560  there  ap- 
peared at  Basle  a  pamphlet  with  more  than  a  hundred 
woodcuts,  and  bearing  the  lengthy  title  :  '  Concern- 
ing the  terrible  destruction  and  overthrow  of  the  whole 
papacy,  prophesied  and  foreseen  by  the  prophets,  by 
Christ,  and  by  His  apostles,  and  prefigured  and  visibly 
seen  in  the  Apocalypse  of  John,  for  the  benefit  and  good 
of  souls,  and  for  their  eternal  life.'  2  Ten  years  later 
there  appeared,  under  the  name  of  Theophrastus 
Paracelsus,  a  quantity  of  '  magic  '  Pope-pictures,  which 
once  upon  a  time,  the  author  said,  had  been  found  at 
Nuremberg,  and  which  he  now  proposed  '  to  explain 
magically.'  They  were  caricatures  with  a  meaning  as 
odious  as  it  is  confused.  On  one  of  the  woodcuts  the 
Pope  is  depicted  with  a  threefold  crown  and  a  cope  ; 
with  the  right  hand  he  is  strangling  an  eagle,  '  that  is 
the  Emperor ; '  with  the  left  hand  he  holds  a  staff 
ending  in  a  three-pronged  fork,  a  symbol  of  '  false 
power  '  which  he  pretends  to  have  received  '  from  the 
Holy  Trinity  ; '  at  his  feet  stand  a  cock  and  a  goose  as 
counterfeits  of  '  the  lower  clergy,  who  corrupt  the  laity 
and  the  common  people  ; '  a  monk,  on  to  whose  head  a 
devil  is  descending,  '  typifies  all  the  Orders,'  '  for  since 
the  accession  of  Barbarossa  no  monk  has  ever  had  any- 
thing else  in  his  mind  but  lying,  deceit  and  intrigue.' 3 

1  Apolcalypsis,  pp.  339,  424-425  ;  cf.  pp.  271,  530. 

2  Weller,  Annalen,  i.  322,  No.  159,  and  also  ii.  549. 

3  Expositio  vera   harum  imaginum   olim   Nurenbergae    repertarum  ex 
fundatissimo  verae  Magiae  Vaticinio  deducta,  per  Doctorem  Theophrastum 

VOL.   XI.  F 


66  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

In  a  voluminous  work  of  John  Wolf,  the  councillor 
of  the  Count  Palatine  of  Zweibriicken,  which  appeared 
in  1600,  there  are  a  number  of  horrible,  often  indecent, 
illustrations,  the  object  of  which  is  to  hold  the  Pope 
and  the  clergy  up  to  ridicule  and  disgrace.  Amongst 
those  that  are  comparatively  respectable  may  be 
mentioned  :  a  donkey  saying  the  mass  ;  a  wolf  preaches 
in  monk's  garb  before  a  flock  of  geese,  watched  by  a 
buffoon,  each  of  which  holds  a  rosary  in  its  beak.1 
A  picture-book  with  explanatory  text,  published  in 
1615,  and  entitled  Von  der  schrecklichen  Zerstorung  des 
Papstlums?  represented  the  '  Popess  Agnes '  as  a 
Babylonish  harlot  on  the  seven-headed  beast :  she  is 
drinking  to  the  Emperor  and  nine  other  princes,  who 
are  kneeling  at  her  feet,  from  the  chalice  of  unchastity. 
In  a  second  picture  the  '  Saviour '  is  raining  down 
fire  and  brimstone  on  Pope,  bishops  and  monks.  In 
a  third  the  papacy  is  being  plundered  :  the  Emperor 
grabs  at  the  tiara  and  cross,  a  king  is  pulling  the  mass- 
vestment  over  the  Pope's  ears ;  priests  and  monks  are 
lying  on  the  floor,  half-naked,  between  devil's  hounds. 
In  a  fourth  they  are  all  being  driven  into  the  jaws  of 
hell.  In  a  fifth  picture,  on  the  other  hand,  the  elect 
preachers  are  standing  round  the  Lamb  in  glory-shine.3 

Paracelsum  (1570,  without  locality),  Bl.  9-10.  See  also  the  pamphlet 
with  thirty  large  satirical  woodcuts,  entitled  Wunderliche  Weissagung 
von  dem  Bapstum,  wie  es  yhm  bis  an  das  Ende  der  Welt  gehen  sol,  ynn 
Figuren  odder  Gemelde  begriffen,  gefunden  zu  Niirmberg,  ym  Chartheuser 
Klosler,  vnd  ist  seller  alt.  Mil  gutter  Auslegung  .  .  .  Wilche  Hans  Sachs 
yn  Deudsche  reymen  gefasset  (without  locality  [Nuremberg],  1527). 

1  Lectiones,  ii.  711-747,  856,  908,  909,  920-921.  A  monk-fish  is  given 
as  type  of  the  Jesuits,  ii.  573.  See  F.  Pieper,  Einleitung  in  die  monu- 
mentale  Theologie,  pp.  703-704. 

2  Without  name  of  author  or  publisher.  Probably  printed  at  Lau- 
ingen,  where  the  most  rabid  polemics  then  raged. 

3  Bl.  A  5b,  A  6b,  B  4%  and  so  forth. 


ART    IN   THE   SERVICE   OF   SECTARIAN    POLEMICS      67 

Even  in  the  churches  polemical  pictures  found  a 
place.  Lucas  Cranach  painted  a  whole  series  of  polemi- 
cal and  sectarian  church -pictures.  In  many  of  these 
the  object  is  to  glorify  the  great  Lutheran  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith  only,  which  renders  the  works  of 
the  law  superfluous.  Pictures  by  Cranach  with  a 
sectarian  motive  are  to  be  seen  in  the  gallery  at  Gotha, 
in  the  Maurice  chapel  at  Nuremberg,  in  the  art  collec- 
tion at  Prague,  in  the  Wart  burg,  in  the  town  churches 
of  Schneeberg  and  Weimar.1  On  the  Weimar  altar- 
picture,  completed  in  1555,  Luther  appears  in  the 
foreground  with  John  the  Baptist,  and  he  is  illustrating 
from  an  open  book  the  words  :  '  The  blood  of  Christ 
cleanseth  us  from  all  sin.  Therefore  let  us  come  boldly 
to  the  throne  of  grace,  so  that  we  may  obtain  mercy  and 
grace  to  save  us  in  the  time  of  need,'  and  so  forth. 
On  the  altar  panels  are  painted  the  likenesses  of  Luther's 
patrons,  the  members  of  the  palatine -electoral  family. 
The  latter  appear  also  on  the  panels  of  Schneeberg 
altar,  and  a  few  Bible  scenes  as  well,  one  of  which 
(Lot  with  his  daughters)  looks  passing  strange  in  such 
a  place.2 

The  sympathy  evoked  by  Cranach's  pictorial  cham- 
pionship of  Lutheran  doctrine  is  evidenced  by  the 
remarkable  fact  that  his  glorification  of  the  doctrine 
of  justification  was  imitated  by  the  Protestants  even 
in  Styria  and  Carinthia.  The  same  was  the  case  also 
in  the  outside  paintings  of  the  Gothic  parish  church 
at  Ranten  in  Upper  Styria,  which  were  ordered  by  the 

**  '  S.  Schuchardt,  Cranach,  i.  212  ff.  ;  ii.  63  ff.,  104  ff.(  107  ff.,  112  ££.  ; 
iii.  199  ff.  Reber-Beyersdorffer,  Klassischer  Bilderschatz,  plate  488. 
Janitschek,  p.  498,  and  Graus  in  the  Kirchenschtnuck,  1900,  No.  6,  p.  78. 

**  2  Graus,  I.e.  79. 


68  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

parish  priest  Martin  Zeiller,1  an  apostate  to  Protes- 
tantism.2 Still  more  clearly  does  the  Lutheran  ten- 
dency show  itself  in  a  panel-painting  of  the  Teutonic 
Order  at  Friesach  in  Carinthia,  which  coincides  in  a 
striking  manner  with  the  chief  representation  at  Ranten. 
The  same  intention  is  expressed  with  greater  freedom 
and  higher  artistic  skill  in  a  sepulchral  picture  which 
came  originally  from  the  Church  of  the  Sacred  Blood  at 
Wolfsberg  in  Carinthia/3  Finally,  as  the  most  important 
work  of  art  with  a  Lutheran  tendency  which  survived 
the  period  of  Catholic  restoration  in  Austria,  we  must 
mention  the  high  altar  at  Schladming.  This  work,  now 
in  the  provincial  museum  at  Graz,  was  produced  about 
1570.  On  it  is  inscribed  the  famous  Bible  text  from 
St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  iii.  28  :  '  Therefore  we 
conclude  that  a  man  is  justified  by  faith  alone  without 
the  deeds  of  the  law.' 

The  interpolated  word  '  alone  '  is  now  missing  ;  it 
was  evidently  removed  at  the  time  of  the  Catholic 
restoration,  when  no  doubt  many  monuments  of  this 
sort  may  have  been  mutilated.4 

**  l  See  Zahn,  Styriaka,  ii.,  Graz,  1896. 

**  2  See  the  description  of  these,  till  then  unnoticed,  paintings  by 
Graus  in  the  Kirchenschmuck,  1898,  No.  8. 

**  3  Both  works  are  thoroughly  done  justice  to  by  Graus  in  the  Kir- 
chenschmuck, 1900,  No.  6.  A  tombstone  also  at  Scheifling  contains  an 
allusion  to  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  justification  ;  see  Kirchenschmuck, 
1898,  p.  66  ff.  See  in  the  same  place,  on  a  Catholic  monument  of  1555, 
viz.  tablets  which  the  pastor  of  Stallhofen  in  the  bishopric  of  Seckau 
had  placed  on  the  walls  of  the  entrance  hall  to  his  church.  The  inscrip- 
tions on  them  bring  the  frequenters  of  the  church  face  to  face  with  the 
Symbolum  apostolorum  fully  reproduced  with  Latin  text,  and  side  by 
side  with  the  Decalogue,  '  as  though  in  order  to  recall  to  memory  of  the 
congregation  the  fundamental  supports  of  the  Christian  life,  and  to  ad- 
monish them  to  unbroken  observance  of  the  same.' 

**  '  This  monument  also  was  discovered  by  Graus,  and  described  in 
the  Kirchenschmuck,  1881,  p.  104  ff. 


ART   IN  THE   SERVICE  OF   SECTARIAN  POLEMICS      69 

A  picture  in  the  castle  church  at  Wittenberg  repre- 
sents Luther  in  the  pulpit ;  with  his  right  hand  he  is 
pointing  to  the  Crucified  One,  with  his  left  to  the  Pope 
and  the  cardinals,  who  are  seen  proceeding  into  the 
open  abyss  of  hell.  A  '  Vineyard  of  the  Lord '  in  the 
town  church  at  Wittenberg,  by  Cranach  the  Younger, 
depicts  the  Pope  with  the  tiara,  in  a  frenzy  of  rage 
tearing  down  the  grapes  with  his  crozier,  while  the 
clergy,  also  furious,  are  rooting  up  the  vine-stems, 
throwing  stones  into  the  fountains,  and  doing  all  sorts 
of  mischief  to  destroy  the  garden.1  In  Dresden,  over  an 
altar  with  carved  work  of  the  fifteenth  century,  there 
was  an  oil  painting  with  a  great  variety  of  figures, 
intended  to  ridicule  the  confessional,  the  so-called 
'  devil's  confessional.'  2 

Glass-painting,  also,  was  used  in  many  places  for 
attacks  of  this  sort.  The  History  museum  at  Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main  possesses  a  window-pane  which  comes 
under  the  head  of  caricature  painting.  In  a  room  is 
the  figure  of  a  man  richly  clad,  and  with  self-conscious 
dignity  supporting  himself  on  his  sword.  He  is  the 
founder,  described  in  an  inscription  as  '  Balthasar 
von  der  Borcht,  burgher  of  Frankfort,  1610.'  On  the 
roof  Christ  is  seen  floating  out  of  the  clouds,  and  point- 
ing to  a  group  in  the  room.     Luther  has  forcibly  seized 

1  Liibke,  Bunte  Blatter,  pp.  387,  397.  Liibke  bestows  full  approval 
on  pictures  of  this  sort.  '  Our  ancestors,'  he  says,  '  knew  very  well  that 
there  was  no  compact  to  be  made  with  Rome,  that  with  regard  to  the 
Vatican  there  was  no  alternative  but  unconditional  subjection  or  war 
to  the  death.     A  third  course  there  was  not  and  is  not.' 

-  See  v.  Eye,  Fiihrer  durch  das  Museum  zu  Dresden,  p.  69.  **  On 
a  slanderous  caricature  on  tapestry  against  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor  in 
the  church  at  St.  Wenzel  in  Naumburg,  executed  by  commission  of 
the  preacher  Nicholas  Medler,  cf.  Neue  Mittheilungen  aus  dem  Gebiete 
histor-antiquarischer  Forschungen,  xiii.  528. 


70 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


the  Pope,  who  is  recognisable  by  the  triple  crown,  and 
from  whom  his  episcopal  staff  has  fallen,  and  holds  him 
over  a  grinding-stone,  which  another  preacher,  in  whom 
we  recognise  Melanchthon,  is  turning.  Two  inscrip- 
tions explain  more  fully  the  meaning  of  the  picture. 
The  upper  one  reads  as  follows  : 

My  Holy  Word  is  as  a  judge, 
To  shame  is  put  the  Antichrist. 

The  second  inscription  is  : 

I  shall  now  take  right  good  care 
They  'scape  me  not  with  skin  and  hair. 
Ah,  Luther,  pious  servant  of  God, 
Lead  on,  the  way  of  grace  by  thee  is  trod.1 

Another  window-pane  of  1556  is  to  be  seen  in 
Switzerland.  Two  devils  in  striped  pantaloons,  and 
aprons  tied  round  them,  are  throwing  a  pope  and  other 
members  of  the  higher  clergy  into  a  mill-hopper  ;  below, 
crawling  out  of  the  meal  box,  are  snakes,  dragons,  and 
all  sorts  of  vermin.  Two  other  devils  are  looking  on 
delighted  at  the  comedy,  whilst  by  the  side  of  them  is 
a  vat  filled  with  prelates  awaiting  the  same  treatment. 
Above  is  the  maxim  :  '  As  is  the  corn  so  will  be  the 
flour.' 2 


**  '  The  pane  is  described  by  Dr.  Fries,  though  not  yet  quite  fully,  in 
Die  Olasgemdlde  des  stadtischen  Museums  zu  Frankfurt,  in  the  Frankfurt 
Zeitung  of  August  3,  1896.  Concerning  the  origin  of  the  pane  the  director 
of  the  museum,  Dr.  Cornill,  could  unfortunately  give  us  no  information. 

2  Lubke,  Kunsthist.  Studien,  pp.  431-432.  **  Church  bells  were  like- 
wise pressed  into  the  service  of  polemics  against  the  old  Church.  Cf. 
Zingeler,  in  the  Beilage  zur  Allgem.  Zeitung,  1895,  No.  308,  who  remarks  : 
'  Bells  also  are  made  to  take  part  in  polemics.'  Otte  quotes  several  in- 
scriptions which  are  strongly  opposed  to  Catholic  opinions.     For  instance  : 

Mir  gilt  nicht  Weill'  noch  Taut', 
Em  antichristlich  Zeichen. 


ART   IN  THE   SERVICE   OF   SECTARIAN   POLEMICS      71 

The  Catholics,  in  the  distress  of  their  hearts,  thought 
it  their  duty  '  to  take  up  the  cudgels  for  necessary- 
defence  against  the  countless  insults  and  libellous 
caricatures  by  which  art  was  misused  against  them,' 
as  John  Nas  puts  it,  and  '  on  their  side  too  there 
was  no  stint  in  similar  works  of  art.'  1  But  their 
productions  are  few  in  number  in  comparison  with 
those  of  the  Protestants.2 

(I  care  not  for  consecration  or  baptism,  anti-Christian  symbols),  and  so 
forth.     Or : 

To  Romish  abuses  at  first  bound, 
Now  joyfully  I've  joined  my  sound 
In  praise  of  the  Gospel  newly  found,  &c,  &c. 
Or,  again : 

I  am  not  baptised,  no  calamity  can  I  dispel — ■ 
No  storms,  no  evil  spirits ;  I  only  call  you  to  God. 

On  bells  in  Catholic  churches  I  found  no  such  inscriptions ;  only  twice 
the  descriptive  epithet,  '  Catholic.' 

•       '  The  words  of  Nas  quoted  in  Ein  Erklerung  des  Vater  Unsers  (1617), 
Bl.  9b. 

2  We  here  make  mention  of  those  productions  which  have  come  to 
our  knowledge.  Possibly  someone  may  draw  our  attention  to  additional 
examples.  I  am  able  to  name  four  other  productions  of  the  same  kind  : 
(1)  In  the  collection  of  antiquities  at  Karlsruhe  I  saw  in  1880,  under 
the  signature  C.  321,  a  caricature  of  Luther,  the  origin  of  which  is  un-- 
known.  Luther  appears  in  a  nunnery.  While  Moses  in  the  upper  part 
of  the  picture  is  striking  water  from  the  rock,  Luther  strikes  out  of  the 
cupboard  roasted  geese,  hams,  &c,  &c,  and  all  this  for  the  benefit  of  a 
nun  (Catherine  of  Bora),  who  is  holding  out  eggs  to  the  other  fasting 
nuns.  Under  Luther  is  the  inscription  :  '  Luther  lumen.'  (2)  Scheible, 
Das  Schaltjahr  i.  (Stuttgart,  1846),  publishes  (p.  128)  a  hand-drawing 
which  is  a  virulent  caricature  against  Luther.  On  the  left  is  depicted 
the  mouth  of  the  prince  of  hell,  to  whom  Luther,  riding  on  a  sow,  is 
hastening.  Numbers  of  comrades  are  following  him,  all  riding  on  pigs. 
'  Come,  brand  of  hell,'  says  one  of  the  satirical  inscriptions,  '  thou  art 
already  mine  ;  this  shall  be  the  reward  of  thy  faith.  Ride,  Luther,  ride, 
thou  hast  already  the  right  people.'  (3)  Behind  the  high  altar  of  the 
famous  abbey-church  at  Ottobeuren,  in  Suabia,  the  tabernacle  from  the 
church  built  some  years  before  by  the  abbot  Kindelmann,  and  consecrated 
in  1558,  has  been  let  into  the  wall.  If  the  lock  is  unfastened  the  richly 
decorated  interior  appears  as  good  as  new.  The  inside  of  the  tabernacle 
door  presents  an  interesting  picture  of  Catholic  polemics  of  the  Re- 
formation period.     In  the  upper  space  sits  Christ  the  Lord  at  a  table 


72  HISTORY   OF  THE  GERMAN    PEOPLE 

As  a  retort  against  an  '  Indulgence  letter  and 
Calendar  '  of  Doctor  John  Kopp,  in  which  the  Catholic 
cantons  of  Switzerland  and  the  Bishop  of  Constance 
'  had  been  figuratively  held  up  as  liable  to  loss  of  life 
and  limb,  of  honour  and  goods,  on  account  of  idolatry,' 
Thomas  Murner,  in  1527,  published  a  '  Lutheran- 
evangelical  calendar  of  church-robbers  and  heretics.' 
In  a  woodcut  belonging  to  this  calendar  Moses  and 
Christ  are  seen  pointing  out  to  a  group  of  persons 
who  are  carrying  away  stolen  Church  property  the 
words  '  Thou  shalt  not  steal ; '  on  a  gallows  '  hangs 
Zwingli  in  person  and  with  his  name,'  because, 
according  to  Murner's  explanation,  '  he  was  a  forty - 
times  perjured,  dishonourable,  thievish  scoundrel,  an 
apostate  Christian,  and  a  misleader  of  poor  Christian 
folk.'  ]     A  large  woodcut  of   the  year  1521  represents 

with  the  consecrated  Host  in  His  hands,  while  on  a  motto-ribhon  are 
the  words  :  '  This  is  my  body.'  On  one  side  of  the  table  stands  Luther 
in  a  black  doctor's  gown,  and  in  his  hand  an  open  book,  on  which  is  written  : 
'  This  will  become  my  body.'  The  other  side  is  occupied  by  Calvin, 
who  also  holds  an  open  book,  on  which  is  written :  '  This  signifies  my 
body.'  At  the  bottom  of  all  is  the  short  question  :  '  Who  is  right  ?  ' 
Precisely  analogous  is  the  pictorial  representation  on  the  other  space. 
In  the  middle  a  priest  is  administering  extreme  unction  to  a  sick  man. 
Here,  again,  the  two  reformers  both  appear,  but  Christ's  place  is  occupied 
by  the  Apostle  St.  James.  From  the  well-known  words  of  the  latter 
(chap.  v.  14,  15,  of  his  Epistle),  and  from  the  acknowledgments  in  favour 
of  unction  for  the  sick  made  by  Luther  and  Calvin  in  their  writings,  there 
is  then  deduced,  as  it  were,  in  form  of  a  question,  an  argument  for  the 
truth  of  the  Catholic  opinion  on  this  point.  Sfr.  Scheebens  Period.  Blatter 
zur  wissenschaftlichen  Besprechung  der  grossen  religiiisen  Fragen  der  Gegen- 
wart,  vol.  vi.  (Ratisbon,  1877),  p.  192.  (4)  The  Frankfort  bookseller 
A.  Th.  V  dicker  has  in  his  possession  (see  Lager -Katalog  174,  No.  2116) 
a  highly  interesting  broadside,  which  is  directed  in  the  most  pungent 
manner  against  the  renegade  monks  and  nuns.  It  is  a  copper  engraving 
with  the  inscription,  '  Typus  piscationis  novae  novorum  apostolorum,'  and 
Latin  verses.  Date  of  origin  about  1550  ;  height,  twenty-six  centimetres  ; 
breadth,  thirty-six  centimetres. 

^The  calendar  was  printed  by  Scheible,  Kloster,  x.  201-215. 


ART   IN   THE   SERVICE  OF   SECTARIAN  POLEMICS      73 

a  monk  with  a  bagpipe  for  a  head  ;  the  devil  as  bag- 
piper is  blowing  into  his  ear,  whilst  with  his  fingers 
he  plays  on  the  nose  which  is  lengthened  out  into  a 
clarionette  :  the  head  of  this  monk  is  supposed  to  bear 
a  great  resemblance  to  Luther.1  In  a  picture  of  the 
Stations  of  the  Cross  in  front  of  the  St.  Victor  Church 
at  Xanten,  executed  in  1531,  and  representing  the 
mocking  of  Christ,  two  of  the  figures  are  said  to  be 
Luther  and  Calvin.2 

John  Nas  wanted  to  append  to  his  Vierten  Cen- 
turia  a  representation  of  Luther's  marriage,  but  the 
woodcut  was  abstracted  from  him  at  Augsburg  by  his 
opponents.3 

To  another  of  his  pamphlets  he  added  a  small- 
sized  woodcut  depicting  Luther  with  two  little  horns 
on  his  head,  in  bed  with  his  half -naked  Katie,  disputing 
with  the  devil  about  the  Mass.4  A  caricature  called 
'  Abbild  von  dem  gebrandmarkten  Sodomit  Johann 
Calvin  '  is  in  three  divisions.  On  the  left  Calvin  is  being 
branded  in  Noyon ;  in  the  middle  stands  Servetus  at 
a  burning  stake ;  on  the  right  Beza  with  his  mistress 
Candide  and  his  obscene  boy,  Aubert.  Another  picture 
of   the    same   date   (1569)   shows    Luther  emigrating: 

1  Lindau,  Cranach,  p.  175. 

2  This  may  be  incorrect,  however,  '  at  any  rate,  as  regards  Calvin, 
who  at  the  time  of  the  production  of  the  picture  had  not  yet  begun  to 
play  any  prominent  part'  (Beissel,  p.  51).  I  never  heard  of  any  such 
explanation  in  my  youth  at  Xanten.  **  In  the  Hildesheim  Cathedral 
there  is  a  picture  of  Christ  carrying  the  Cross,  which  came  originally  from 
the  Benedictine  monastery  of  St.  Michael.  The  head  of  one  of  the  hang- 
men is  said  to  be  meant  for  Luther.  Meanwhile,  according  to  trust- 
worthy information  from  Pastor  Graen,  there  is  no  likeness  to  be  seen, 
and  it  may  be  assumed  to  be  a  mistake. 

:1  Schopf,  p.  26. 

4  In  the  Examen  Chartaceae  Luther.  Cone.  (Ingolst.  1581),  p.  98  ;  cf. 
Graesse,  Tresor,  iv.  648. 


74  HISTORY  OF  THE   GERMAN  PEOPLE 

he  is  carrying  his  followers  on  his  back  in  a  night- 
stool  ;  his  outrageously  large  stomach  and  the  busts 
of  three  friends  rest  on  a  wheelbarrow,  pulled  by  him- 
self by  means  of  a  shoulder-strap,  and  he  holds 
a  wine-glass  in  his  hand  ;  his  wife,  lean-figured,  with 
her  child  and  dog,  is  following  him.  In  another  of 
1587,  a  naked  man  lying  on  a  table  is  being  tortured, 
cut  up,  and  eaten  by  a  group  of  theologians,  and  below 
is  the  inscription  :  '  See  how  this  wretched  Lutherdom 
is  martyred  by  its  own  champions,  and  at  last  even 
devoured  by  them.'  1  A  much  earlier  plate  represents 
the  Catholic  Church  as  a  large  ship  navigated  by  Christ : 
at  the  bow  sits  St.  Peter,  adorned  with  the  tiara  and 
holding  the  keys  of  heaven  ;  on  the  deck  are  grouped 
the  representatives  of  the  Church  ;  angels  are  steering, 
and  the  ship  rides  with  full  sails  towards  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  at  whose  entrance  Mary  and  the  saints  are 
awaiting  their  arrival.  Three  small  ships  on  the  other 
hand  are  going  straight  into  the  open  jaws  of  hell : 
the  first  is  the  Lutheran  Church  with  devils  for  sailors  ; 
Luther  is  steering  it  with  one  hand,  while  in  the  other 
hand  he  holds  a  trumpet  in  which  he  is  blowing  lustily. 
The  second  is  the  Zwinglian  Church,  also  manned  by 
devils,  while  Zwingli  stands  disconsolate  at  the  helm. 
The  third  represents  the  Anabaptists,  one  of  whom 
is  vomiting ;  wrecked  craft,  with  the  inscriptions, 
Arians,  Mahomet,  Wickliffe,  Huss,  are  drifting  on  the 
sea  towards  hell.2  The  Westphalian  copper-engraver, 
Anthony  Eisenhut,  represented  heresy  as  a  three-headed 

1  Drugulin,  p.  41,  Nos.  341  and  342,  and  p.  68,  No.  741.  Cf.  p.  118, 
No.  1335  :  '  Luther  und  Ketherle  auf  der  Wanderschaft.' 

•  Mentioned  by  the  Frankfort  bookseller,  A.  Th.  Volcker,  in  his 
Antiquar.  Lager-Catalog  127,  No.  137. 


ART   IN    THE   SERVICE   OF   SECTARIAN   POLEMICS       lb 

goddess,  half  woman,  half  beast,  riding  away  on  a 
monster.1  In  a  '  genealogical  tree  of  heresy '  of  the 
year  1569,  heresy  is  depicted  as  growing  out  of  Satan 
who  is  lying  on  the  ground.2  In  another  '  genealogical 
tree  of  heretics '  Luther,  with  seven  heads,  is  in  the 
middle  of  the  tree,  holding  out  the  chalice  to  his  wife.3 
As  an  answer  to  the  '  Origin  of  the  Jesuits  '  (*  Ankunft 
der  Suiten '  4)  there  appeared  a  caricature  in  three  sec- 
tions :  above,  a  seven-headed  dragon  is  laying  hold  of 
the  Church  ;  in  the  middle,  a  herd  of  swine,  surrounded 
by  abortive,  misshapen  children,  are  forcing  their  way 
into  a  church  ;  below,  on  the  left  hand,  Christ  stands 
as  the  Good  Shepherd  ;  on  the  right  hand  the  Baby- 
lonish whore  near  the  pit  of  hell.5 

Eustace  Glinzberger  executed  for  the  monastery 
of  Wiblingen,  in  championship  of  the  new  faith,  some 
painted  windows,  of  which  the  Council  of  Ulm  in  the 
years  1564  and  1566  ordered  the  removal.6  A  glass 
painting  from  the  cloisters  in  the  monastery  of  Rath- 
hausen  near  Lucerne,  crowded  with  figures,  represents 
the  Last  Judgment.  In  the  middle  of  the  wide-open 
jaws  of  hell  the  painter  shows  us,  amidst  other  con- 
demned souls,  Luther  and  Zwingli  disputing  over  an 
open  Bible,  all  unconscious  of  a  crowned  devil  who  is 
seizing  the  one  by  the  neck,  the  other  by  the  head.' 

Whilst  art,  ignoring  completely  its  true  vocation, 

1  Drugulin,  p.  40,  No.  326.  2  Ibid.  p.  39,  No.  325. 

3  '  Soror  mea  sponsa,'  Ibid.  p.  22,  No.  126. 

4  See  above,  p.  62. 

5  Drugulin,  p.  69,  No.  761.  This  caricature  was  described  as  '  Ecclesia 
militans,'  and  accompanied  by  '  a  most  offensively  coarse,  rhymed  ex- 
planation.' 

B  Schorn,  Kunstblatt,  1830,  pp.  27-28. 

7  See    the  article  of  J.  R.  Rahn  in  the   Geschichtsfreund  (Einsiedel 
1882),  xxxvii.  264.     Liibke,  Kunsthistor.  Studien.  p.  432. 


76  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

gave  itself  up  thus  to  the  service  of  religious  schism,  it 
fell  away  from  all  idealism  in  the  treatment  of  religious 
subjects  and  sank  gradually  to  the  level  of  naked, 
human  reality,  settling  down  at  last  into  sheer  natural- 
ism, devoid  alike  of  the  nobility  of  true  beauty  and  the 
consecration  of  lofty  sentiment.  In  the  treatment  of 
secular  subjects — especially  incidents  and  objects  of 
every-day  life — art  became  out-and-out  realistic,  often 
even  sordid.  Finally,  towards  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  Germany  experienced  a  complete  decay  of 
all  artistic  creativeness.  German  art,  in  the  real  sense 
of  the  word,  virtually  died  out.  Artistic  handicraft, 
ministering  to  luxury  and  fashion,  and  maintaining 
a  diversified  existence  by  all  sorts  of  over-refinements, 
was  all  that  remained. 

The  religious  revolution,  however,  altering  as  it 
did  the  early  attitude  of  art  to  religious  and  public 
life,  closing  up  many  of  its  channels  of  activity,  and 
debasing  its  character  by  mixing  it  up  with  religious 
schism  and  dissension,  was  not  the  sole  cause  of  its 
decadence  and  decay  ;  these  were  largely  due  also  to 
the  introduction  of  a  new  and  foreign  school  of  art, 
which  never  became  an  integral  part  of  the  national 
life,  and  which  displaced  the  old  home-grown  German 
art  methods. 

This  foreign  intruder,  on  its  first  advent  in  Ger- 
many, was  described  as  the  Antique-Italian  manner ; 
later  on  the  not  very  appropriate  name  of  '  Renaissance  ' 
came  into  vogue. 

The  Renaissance,  which,  starting  from  Italy,  pene- 
trated into  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  found  in  Germany 
no  favourable  conditions,  no  points  of  contact  with 
the  past,  and  no  congenial  soil :  it  dwelt  at  first  as  an 


DETERIORATION   AND   DECAY   OF   ART  77 

alien  in  the  land.  The  foreign  style  was  wholly  antago- 
nistic to  the  thought  and  feeling,  the  artistic  sense  and 
culture,  of  the  nation,  and  it  was  accorded,  therefore, 
a  merely  external  reception ;  outward  characteristics 
were  copied,  but  its  essence  and  nature  were  little, 
if  at  all,  understood,  and  it  was  chiefly  its  least  meri- 
torious attributes  which  were  chosen  for  reproduction. 
This  is  the  explanation  of  the  fact  that  German  art  of 
the  sixteenth  century  exhibits  the  same  characteristics 
as  does  the  antique  school  at  the  time  of  its  decadence  ; 
whereas  the  old  indigenous  German  art  of  the  later 
Middle  Ages  was  in  many  respects  in  unconscious 
affinity  with  the  nobler  antique  style — i.e.  with  the 
classic  art  of  Greece  at  its  most  nourishing  period. 


78  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


CHAPTER  IV 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  NEWLY  INTRODUCED  '  ANTIQUE- 
ITALIAN  '  ART  —ITS  CHARACTER  AND  ITS  PRODUC- 
TIONS 

SECTION  I. — INNER  RELATIONSHIP  OF  THE  OLD  INDI- 
GENOUS ART  TO  THE  GENUINE  ANTIQUE— THE 
INFLUENCE  OF  THE  DEGENERATE  ANTIQUE— THE 
ITALIAN    RENAISSANCE   AND    GERMAN    ART 

With  the  Greeks,  as  with  all  other  nations,  art  had  its 
origin  and  basis  in  religion.  In  its  golden  epoch,  no 
less  than  in  the  Middle  Ages,  it  ministered  essentially 
to  religious  worship.  At  the  same  time  it  maintained 
an  equally  firm  and  close  connection  with  the  common- 
wealth, by  which  the  worthy  cultivation  of  art  was  re- 
garded as  an  affair  of  honour.  In  both  these  periods 
the  glory  of  art  was  the  outcome  of  the  greatness  of 
national  sentiment.  As  all  the  creations  of  art  were 
intended  for  the  nation  as  a  whole  and  were  dedicated 
to  the  nation,  the  people  regarded  them  as  their  own 
property,  as  monuments  of  their  own  glory,  greatness 
and  might.  And  these  masterpieces  of  art,  embodi- 
ments as  they  were  of  vigorous  thought  and  conception, 
replete  both  with  power  and  restraint,  were  a  fruitful 
means  of  culture  and  enlightenment,  not  only  as  regards 
artistic  sense  and  taste,  but  for  the  whole  intellectual 
life  of  the  people,  who  looked  on  at  their  growth  and 


INDIGENOUS  ART  AND  THE  GENUINE  ANTIQUE   79 

development,  and  who  had  them  continually  in  sight 
when  completed. 

In  both  the  periods  to  which  we  have  alluded 
architecture  was  the  foundation  of  all  other  arts  ;  it 
was  the  measure  of  the  intellectual  force  and  the  reli- 
gious and  moral  development  of  the  nation,  and  the 
building  of  sacred  temples  constituted  its  primary  func- 
tion. Although  the  Greek  temples  *  could  not  rival  the 
Christian  churches  and  cathedrals  in  their  aspect  of 
joyous  heavenward  soaring,  though  they  lacked  the 
super-earthly  glory  with  which  in  Christian  '  God's 
houses '  the  hard  stone  substance  was  transmuted 
and  transfigured,  the  temples  of  pagan  deities  were 
nevertheless  noble  witnesses  of  the  reverence  for  every- 
thing great  and  holy  which  inspired  the  builders. 

'  Art,'  so  it  used  to  be  said,  '  was  a  gift  of  the  gods, 
and  must  always  be  mindful  of  its  divine  origin  :  in  none 
of  its  branches  must  it  pander  to  unworthy  aims,  but 
it  must  always  edify  and  ennoble,  and  raise  men  above 
the  narrow  limits  of  everyday  circumstances  ;  and  as 
a  law  of  Arcadia  relating  to  music  expressed  it,  '  it  must 
be  an  antidote  against  the  injurious  influences  of  a 
toilsome  existence.' 

This  feeling  dominated  both  sculptors  and  painters 
at  the  period  when  Greek  art  was  at  its  zenith,  and  it 
was  this  that  enabled  them  to  produce  works  of  such 


1  At  all  periods  the  highest  achievements  of  art  have  always  been 
associated  with  the  religious  needs  and  conditions  of  life.  No  art-work 
of  the  highest  order  has  ever  been  accomplished  except  when  the  subject 
treated  has  also  been  of  the  highest  order — viz.  religious  faith,  and  the 
artist  has  been  concerned  to  make  the  outward  form  a  worthy  embodi- 
ment of  some  sacred  motive  (Kugler,  Kleine  Schriften,  iii.  231).  'It  is 
with  temple  building  that  architecture  begins '  (Schnaase,  Gesch.  der 
bildenden  Kilnste,  i.  33). 


80  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

grandeur,  free  from  all  ensnaring  attractiveness  and 
voluptuous  charm,  breathing  out  only  strength  and 
purity,  and,  like  the  masterpieces  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
containing  the  secret  of  their  greatness  in  their  sublime 
calm  and  simplicity.  The  Greek  statues,  like  those  of 
the  Christian  epoch,  were  never  nude.  Not  only 
Jupiter  and  Hera,  Apollo  and  the  Muses,  and  other 
gods  and  goddesses,  but  even  Venus,  the  goddess  of 
love,  always  had  some  drapery  about  them.  It  was 
not  until  the  period  of  decay  that  naked  statues  of 
Venus  became  the  fashion. 

In  other  essential  points  also  the  golden  epoch  of 
Greek  art  resembled  that  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  both 
periods  all  the  separate  arts  came  into  existence  simul- 
taneously as  parts  of  an  organic  whole,  bound  together 
by  a  system  of  mutual  interchange  and  service.  Sculp- 
ture and  painting  began  their  careers  in  subordination 
to  architecture,  and  it  was  from  this  circumstance, 
which  acted  by  no  means  as  a  disturbing  or  cramping 
restraint,  that  the  harmonious  unison  of  the  arts  arose. 
Greek  builders,  sculptors  and  painters  worked  together 
in  their  ateliers,  as  did  the  mediaeval  artists,  on  one 
same  principle  and  in  one  style,  and  chose  for  the 
expression  of  their  thoughts  the  purest  and  simplest 
forms,  such  as  would  fit  in  with  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  architecture.  The  minor  arts  and  handicrafts 
were  also  closely  bound  up  with  monumental  art, 
and  through  this  connection  they  acquired  a  higher 
character  and  became  worthy  of  the  noblest  service.1 

1  Fuller  details  concerning  the  above  remarks  are  given  by  Curtius, 
Griech.  Geschichte  (Berlin,  1861),  ii.  277  ff.  ;  Vischer,  iii.  260  ff.  ;  Hegel, 
ii.  409  ;  Springer,  Kunsthistor.  Briefe,  p.  237  ;  Lasaulx,  Philosophic  dcr 
schonen  Kilnste,  pp.  29  ff.,  65  ff.  See  also  Reichensperger,  Parlamentar- 
isches  ubcr  Kunst,  p.  52  ;  Jungniann,  p.  603. 


INDIGENOUS    ART   AND   THE   GENUINE   ANTIQUE      81 

With  the  Greeks  the  inward  unity  of  all  the  different 
arts  was  accompanied  by  an  outward  unity,  which  was 
especially  manifest  in  the  technique  of  polychrome, 
or  the  application  of  colour  to  buildings  and  works  of 
sculpture.  The  works  of  a  Phidias  stand  in  this  respect 
on  a  level  with  the  painted  carving  and  sculpture  of 
Gothic  cathedrals.  Even  marble  temples  glowed  with 
resplendent  colouring  like  the  mediaeval  cathedrals. 
It  was  nothing  but  '  barbarism,'  boasting  itself  as  a 
high  sense  of  art,  wdiich  condemned  '  monuments  to  be 
colourless.'  1 

Another  point  of  similarity  between  the  two  ages  — 
the  golden  epoch  of  Greek  art  and  the  Middle  Ages  — 
lies  in  the  fact  that  in  both  the  training  of  the  artists 
followed  the  same  lines.  The  rules  and  customs  of  the 
mediaeval  art  schools,  such  as  hereditary  succession  of 
father  and  son,  local  master-workshops,  looking  out  for 
distinguished  foreign  artists,  are  found  to  have  pre- 
vailed in  Greece  also.2 

As  regards  the  works  it  achieved,  German  art  of  the 
later  Middle  Ages  has  nothing  to  fear  from  comparison 
with  the  classic  period  of  Greek  art.  The  two  are 
on  very  much  the  same  plane  of  excellence,  and  where 
German  art  may  fail  in  perfection  of  form,  the  defect 
is  counterbalanced  by  profundity  of  thought,  sincerity 
and  warmth  of  feeling.     As  with  the  Greeks,  so  too  with 

1  See  Kugler,  Kleine  Schriften,  i.  265-327  ;  Vischer,  iii.  248 ;  Semper, 
Kleine  Schriften,  pp.  232  ff.,  250-251.  With  regard  to  polychrome  the 
famous  antique  art  of  Greece  followed  exactly  the  same  principles  as  did 
Catholic  mediaeval  art  in  the  days  of  the  Gothic  style  (Feuerbach,  Der  vati- 
canische  Apollo,  p.  187).  '  All  periods  of  high  artistic  culture  are  in  agree- 
ment with  the  principle  which  is  here  contested.  How  wrong  and  unjust 
it  is  to  cast  the  reproach  of  barbarism  on  such  times  !  '  (Semper,  p.  236.) 

2  See  Vischer,  iii.  104-105  ;  Portig,  i.  27. 

VOL.    XT.  G 


82  HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  mediaeval  Germans,  each  separate  building  was  a 
public  monument  of  art ;  and  this  is  true  not  only  as 
regards  the  Gothic  :  the  Romantic  style  at  its  best  is  on 
a  par  with  the  best  works  of  Greece  both  in  grandeur 
and  vigour  of  conception,  and  in  simplicity  and  clear- 
ness of  execution,  and  strict  adhesion  to  law.  In 
Greece,  as  in  Germany,  gables  and  walls  were  adorned 
with  artistic  statues,  groups  and  paintings.  Even  ob- 
jects of  everyday  use  showed  artistic  imagination ; 
their  beauty  of  form  and  design  transmuted  the  material 
of  which  they  were  made,  and  invested  them  with  the 
stamp  of  a  higher  signification.  Skill  and  talent  of 
every  description  were  trained  up  to  masterly  perfec- 
tion.1 The  parallel  between  the  two  epochs  extends 
even  to  their  decorative  work,  which  was  never  allowed 
to  be  mere  meaningless  ornamentation,  but  was  always 
symbolic,  and  always  kept  in  the  closest  connection 
and  conformity  with  the  laws  of  the  particular  work 
of  art  which  it  was  intended  to  embellish.2 

1  See  Hotho,  Die  Malerschule  van  Eychs,  p.  13  ;  Ralin,  pp.  550, 
557-558.  '  All  great  epochs  of  art  have  this  in  common— that  their 
highest  blossoming  is  the  outgrowth  of  the  healthy  soil  of  national  life, 
so  that  the  ideal  creations  of  great  masters  at  any  given  epoch  represent 
the  latest  and  highest  levels  of  that  sense  of  the  beautiful  which  is  seen 
struggling  to  hfe  in  all  outbursts  of  the  national  mind,  and  which  imparts 
a  stamp  of  nobility  to  the  simplest  productions  of  handiwork.  At  such 
times  all  the  common  articles  and  utensils  of  daily  life  are  the  outcome 
of  individual  artistic  endowment,  and  it  is  from  these  beginnings  of  sterling 
handwork,  hitting  by  aesthetic  instinct  on  the  true  and  the  beautiful, 
that  are  evolved  the  high  powers  of  the  great  masters  who  are  able  to 
embody  the  people's  ideals  in  shapes  of  undying  beauty.  Conversely, 
too,  when  art  has  reached  its  climax  of  perfection,  a  flood  of  artistic  ideas 
pours  down  from  the  upper  levels  of  hfe  into  the  region  of  everyday 
wants,  not  unfrequently  raising  the  productions  of  handwork  to  the  rank 
of  true  art  achievement,  and  the  lower  industries  to  the  level  of  artistic 
handwork  '  (Liibke,  Plastik,  i.  341). 

-  The  same  may  be  said  in  this  respect  of  the  works  of  the  Middle 
Ages  as  Overbeck  (Oesch.  der  griech.  Plastik,  ii.  307)  says  of  Greek  art : 


THE   DEGENERATE    ANTIQUE  83 

The  same  inner  relationship  which,  how  different 
soever  the  character  of  the  Christian  and  the  antique 
ideals,1  prevailed  in  all  essential  respects  between 
Greek  and  mediaeval  art  during  their  golden  epochs, 
becomes  apparent  on  comparison  of  the  decadent 
Greek  art  with  that  school  of  art  which  in  Germany 
succeeded  mediaeval  art,  and  was  regarded  as  a  re-birth 
from  the  antique. 

The  decay  of  ancient  art  keeps  pace  on  the  whole 
with  the  decay  and  ruin  of  the  Greek  nation.  It  was 
at  the  moment  when,  after  the  Peloponnesian  war,  the 
State  was  torn  in  pieces  by  factions,  when  all  higher 
strivings  and  aspirations  had  become  stifled,  when 
law  and  justice  tottered  and  trembled,  and  scepticism, 
scorn  and  infidelity  were  destroying  the  old  religious 
ideas — it  was  then  that  art  too  lost  all  high  inspiration, 
all  faculty  for  pure  and  sublime  conception,  all  power 
of  embodying  lofty  religious  ideas  in  concrete  form. 
Painting,  it  is  true,  still  occupied  itself  with  religious 
subjects,  but  only  for  purposes  of  reproach  and  criticism, 
and  the  comic  element,  tending  to  buffoonery,  became 
largely  predominant :  at  any  rate  sacred  things  were  not 
treated  with  sacred  awe  and  reverence. 

Now  too,  in  contradistinction  to  the  period  of  true 

'  However  rich  and  diversified  architectural  ornamentation  in  Greece 
may  appear,  it  was  nevertheless  always  subservient  to  architecture,  con- 
formed to  the  fundamental  forms  evolved  by  architecture,  derived  the 
principles  of  its  designs  from  the  nature  and  intention  of  the  particular 
architectural  parts  it  was  intended  to  adorn,  and  kept  in  view  the  main 
scheme  of  the  structure  to  which  the  decoration  was  to  add  higher  artistic 
expression.' 

1  See  Kugler,  Mus  urn,  i.  293-294,  and  ii.  17-19  ;  Portig,  i.  37-38, 
290-292  ;  G.  H.  Schubert,  Die  Alter  der  Kunst,  pp.  18,  35  ;  Reichensperger, 
Vermischte  Schriften,  pp.  129-130  ;  Hettinger,  Die  Kunst  im  Christen- 
thum,  p.  41. 

g  2 


84  HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN  PEOPLE 

art,  when  things  domestic  and  accidental  had  been 
considered  unworthy  material  for  art,  the  small  details 
of  life — often  moreover  of  a  thoroughly  despicable 
life — pressed  into  the  foreground.  There  arose  at  this 
juncture  a  school  of  cabinet  or  genre  painting  of  a 
threefold  nature  :  the  painting  of  still  life,  the  painting 
of  nastiness,  and  the  painting  of  indecency. 

Subjects  were  chosen  from  the  lowest  strata  of 
society,  and  in  their  treatment  regard  wTas  no  longer 
had  to  artistic  truth,  but  only  to  realism.  Pauson 
did  not  even  rise  to  the  level  of  the  beauty  of  ordinary 
nature,  his  depraved  taste  delighted  most  in  depict- 
ing the  deformities  and  the  ugliness  of  human  life. 
Peiraeikos,  the  most  renowned  of  the  '  still-life  painters,' 
chose  for  his  subjects  barbers'  rooms,  dirty  workshops, 
donkeys  and  vegetables.  The  most  abundant  material 
for  art,  however,  was  supplied  by  the  habits  and  tastes 
of  an  age  of  extravagance  and  luxury,  an  age  which 
delighted  inordinately  in  the  sensual  attraction  of 
outward  show,  above  all  in  the  exhibition  of  nude 
figures  and  immoral  scenes.1 

Greek  sculpture,  like  Greek  painting,  came  to  be 
a  mirror  of  the  general  condition  of  things,  in  which 

1  See  Reber,  Kunstgesch.  des  Alterthums  (Leipzig,  1871),  pp.  370-371  ; 
Springer,  Kunsthistor.  Briefe,  p.  298  ff.  '  The  decadence,  which  in  Greece 
penetrated  after  Alexander,  has  reached  Rome,  and  is  pressing  ever 
onwards.  Coarseness,  sensuality,  pandering  to  luxury,  increased  porno- 
graphy, quick,  slovenly  work  are  all  symptoms  of  approaching  decay  ' 
(Vischer,  iii.  698).  In  Greece,  says  Lessing,  '  the  civil  authorities  did  not 
think  it  beneath  their  dignity  to  constrain  artists  to  keep  within  their 
own  sphere.'  '  We  laugh  when  we  hear  that  among  the  ancients  even 
the  arts  were  subjected  to  municipal  laws.  But  we  are  not  always  in  the 
right  when  we  laugh.'  '  The  plastic  arts  especially,  besides  the  inevitable 
effect  which  they  have  on  the  character  of  the  nation,  are  capable  of 
influences  which  require  the  close  surveillance  of  the  law  '  (in  the  Laokoon, 
Samtl.  Schriften,  ed.  Lachmann,  vi.  368-370). 


THE   DEGENERATE   ANTIQUE  85 

it  was  plainly  shown  liow  the  old  austerity  of  life  and 
morals  had  disappeared,  how  family  ties  had  become 
loosened,  how  the  might  of  passion  ruled.  Sculpture 
lost  more  and  more  the  noble,  simple  sublimity  of 
ancient  art,  all  the  strength  and  virtue  of  self-sustained 
character  ;  it  gave  itself  up  to  the  representation  of 
emotional  feeling  and  the  sentiments  of  passion,  cared 
only  for  external  effects  and  sought  to  shine  by  mere 
excellence  of  technical  skill.1  After  Skopas  and  Praxi- 
teles had  set  the  fashion  of  representing  the  Aphrodite 
entirely  nude,  the  sculptors  soon  fell  into  unbounded 
licentiousness  :  the  statues  of  Venus  and  other  god- 
desses, which  Greek,  and  later  on,  Roman,  art  produced 
in  greater  and  greater  numbers,  became  nothing  more 
or  less  than  a  deification  of  the  flesh.  Side  by  side 
with  these  performances,  and  in  closer  correspondence 
to  the  character  of  the  new  art,  which  was  more  private 
than  public,  came  collections  of  genre  pictures,  pictures 
of  animals,  and  above  all  portraits  of  distinguished 
people  and  princes.  The  individualism  which  had  been 
condemned  and  despised  by  the  great  artists  of  the  past 
now  obtained  dominion  ;  outward  embodiment  of  some 

1  '  Art,  when  it  no  longer  strives  after  lofty  and  ideal  loveliness,  but 
seeks  only  to  attract  and  excite  the  senses,  at  the  same  time  overstepping 
the  limits  of  truth  to  nature,  rapidly  degenerates  into  meretriciousness 
and  mere  striving  after  effect,  panders  to  porap  and  luxury,  and  falls 
into  naturalism  and  mannerism.  These  signs  of  degeneracy,  which  are 
first  noticeable  in  works  of  the  later  Greek  schools,  such  as  the  Laocoon 
and  the  Apollo  Belvedere  as  slight  tendencies  to  sensationalism,  when 
transplanted  into  the  Roman  world  become  glaringly  obvious.  Effect 
alone  becomes  the  artist's  object,  spiritual  grace  turns  to  voluptuous 
charm,  unity  of  composition  is  sacrificed  to  elaborateness  of  detail,  the 
motive  idea  is  lost  under  overloading  externals,  inward  greatness  is  re- 
placed by  colossal  outwardness.  All  these  characteristics  result  from  an 
excess  of  subjectivity  over  objectivity  in  the  artist,  and  may  be  summed 
up  under  the  head  of  mannerism.' — Vischer,  iii.  134,  137-8. 


86  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

inward  and  spiritual  idea  no  longer  constituted  the 
highest  ideal  of  art,  the  outward  delineation  or  model- 
ling of  form  was  all  that  mattered  :  skilful  technique 
and  manner  had  taken  the  place  of  inward  substance. 

Growing  more  and  more  estranged  from  the  people, 
art  at  length  became  a  hot-house  plant  of  wealthy 
so-called  lovers  of  art,  especially  of  the  princes,  who 
constituted  themselves  its  patrons,  but  only  en- 
couraged it  in  so  far  as  it  ministered  to  their  love  of 
display,  and  adapted  itself  to  all  their  moods  and  fancies, 
and  carried  out  their  orders,  however  tasteless  these 
might  be.  Under  such  circumstances  there  could  no 
longer  be  any  question  of  great  and  inspiring  thoughts, 
of  fresh  creative  ardour — in  short,  of  all  those  indispen- 
sable conditions  which  fed  the  life  of  the  old  untram- 
melled national  art.  The  numerous  art  collections 
made  by  great  people  were  clear  tokens  of  the  decay  of 
art ;  they  were  so  to  say  '  the  dungeons  of  art.'  1 

The  arts  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  authors  of 
their  own  decay  when  they  dissolved  their  long-standing 
partnership  and  ceased  to  co-operate  with  one  another 
in  noble  emulation.  The  separation  of  painting  and 
sculpture  from  architecture  induced  utter  lawlessness  in 
all  three.  Each  of  these  arts  wanted  to  be  independent 
in  order  to  develop  its  own  skill  and  genius  in  a  more 
brilliant  manner  ;  but  the  further  they  strayed  from 

1  Pliny  speaks  of  the  moribund  art  of  his  times.  Pictures  and  works 
of  sculpture  are  sent  off  '  in  banishment '  to  wealthy  country  houses  ; 
for  the  distinguished  painter  Amulius,  Nero's  Golden  House  had  become 
'  the  dungeon  of  his  art.'  '  All  the  more  worthy  of  honour,'  he  says, 
'  seem  to  us  the  achievements  of  the  past,'  when  the  painters  were  still 
the  common  property  of  the  whole  nation,  and  the  walls  of  houses  were 
not  beautified  merely  for  the  benefit  of  their  owners  (Hist,  natur.  xxxv. 
cap.  2,  11,  37). 


DEGENERATE   ANTIQUE   AND   '  NEW   ITALIAN    MODE  '     87 

each  other,  the  more  uncompromisingly  they  pursued 
each  its  different  way,  the  more  flagrant  became  their 
loss  of  artistic  power  as  such ;  the  work  produced 
without  combined  effort  was  devoid  pf  deeper  mean- 
ing and  harmonious  effect. 

All  the  above  characteristics  which  art  developed 
after  it  had  severed  itself  from  old  traditions  and  true 
nationality,  after  it  had  lost  all  inward  inspiration  and 
substance,  and  had  given  itself  up  to  the  production 
of  outward  effect  only,  are,  broadly  speaking,  still  more 
noticeable  in  the  German  art  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
which,  while  posing  as  '  antique,'  was  in  reality  only  an 
imitation  of  '  the  new  Italian  manner '  which  had 
migrated  from  Italy  to  Germany.1 

1  Concerning  the  development  of  the  plastic  arts  before  and  after 
the  '  Renaissance  '  nobody  has  written  better  than  Goethe  in  his  life  of 
Winckelmann  (1805),  p.  204  ff.  Paulsen,  Gesch.  des  gelehrten  Unterrichts 
(Leipzig,  1885),  p.  296,  has  aptly  commented  thereon.  In  the  later 
editions  of  Goethe's  works  these  remarks  are  not  included.  '  We  grant,' 
he  wrote  in  1805,  '  that  the  Greeks  enjoyed  many  advantages  which  the 
moderns  do  not  possess  ;  but  it  was  less  the  beauty  of  their  mytho- 
logical poems,  their  games,  and  so  forth,  than  the  religious  zeal,  and 
added  to  this  the  patriotic,  or.  if  a  lesser  name  is  preferred,  the  general 
sense  of  national  honour  and  the  ambition  of  each  different  district  to 
outshine  the  others  in  remarkable  possessions,  that  they  have  to  thank 
for  the  glory  of  their  art  ;  and  we,  too,  so  it  seems,  are  indebted  to  the 
Catholic  religious  zeal  of  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries 
for  the  birth  and  growth  of  the  plastic  arts.  So  long  as  sacred  founda- 
tions of  all  sorts  afforded  the  arts  a  wide  scope,  supplied  them  with  worthy, 
and,  we  may  add,  frequent  opportunities  for  exercise,  so  long  did  they 
continue  to  progress  rapidly  and  joyously.  Gloomy,  monastic  ideas 
seem  to  have  been  very  slight  hindrances  to  the  artist,  for  he  was  able 
to  work  them  up,  to  enliven  and  beautify  them.  If  only  we  consider 
without  prejudice  what  a  high  degree  of  beauty  the  plastic  arts  had 
reached  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth, it  is  by  no  means  difficult  to  imagine  that  they  might  have  ad- 
vanced still  further  in  this  direction  ;  nay  more,  that,  without  losing  their 
individual  character,  they  might  have  attained  to  the  level  of  the  antique  ; 
but  the  uplifting  energy  had  grown  weak,  and  their  bounds  were  set. 
Powerful  patrons  came,  indeed,  to  the  fore,  but  they  could  not   replace 


88  HISTORY   OF   TUP]    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

For  the  Italian  artists  there  was  a  kind  of  magic 
enchantment  in  the  '  re-birth  of  the  antique.'  The 
modes  of  thought  and  the  traditions  of  Roman  antiquity 
had  never  quite  disappeared  in  Italy  during  the  Middle 
Ages  ;  the  numerous  monuments,  either  still  extant  or 
newly  dug  up  in  the  fifteenth  century,  were,  moreover, 
a  lively  reminder  of  the  days  of  Roman  world-dominion. 
There  was  an  eager  desire  to  bring  back  to  life  this 
ancient  indigenous  art,  as  well  as  the  ancient  literature 
for  which  the  humanists  had  engendered  unbounded 
enthusiasm. 

But  as  in  the  field  of  literature,  so  too  in  that  of  art, 
ominous  and  dubious  tokens  soon  became  manifest.1 
Preoccupation  with  ancient  art  became  for  many  people 
a  grave  danger.  There  was  over-much  dallying  with 
the  gross  sensuality  and  licentiousness  of  the  degenerate 
antique,  and  also  a  tendency  to  disregard  the  boun- 
daries imposed  both  on  art  in  general  and  on  each 
separate  art  in  particular.  The  Titan,  Michael  Angelo, 
held  himself  '  bound  by  no  architectonic  rules  whether 
ancient  or  modern.'     He  not  only  '  imitated  the  antique, 

the  lost  holy  inspiration.  Art  became  a  thing  of  fashion  ;  it  continued  to 
give  pleasure,  no  doubt,  but  it  was  no  longer  a  necessity  of  life.  Raphael 
joainted  halls  and  saloons.  Michael  Angelo1  s  principal  works  of  sculp- 
ture are  monuments  to  the  dead.  We  will  not  go  so  far  as  to  say  that 
these  were  unworthy  occupations  for  such  great  masters,  but  it  is  the 
beginning  of  the  decline  of  art.  In  the  stillness  and  freedom  of  altars 
art  no  longer  found  adequate  employment,  and  it  was  compelled  to  enter 
the  service  of  the  world,  and,  to  a  great  extent,  to  flatter  the  humours 
of  the  world.  Its  area  of  work  became  more  extensive,  but  also  more 
commonplace.  With  less  worthy  subjects  for  treatment  came  the  striving 
after  greater  dexterity  ;  the  necessity  for  rapid  work  induced  tricks  of 
manner,  and  tricks  of  manner  led  to  soullessness,  to  mere  industrial 
labour.  These  are  the  steps  by  which  the  later  art  came  down  from 
its  heights,  and  the  way  of  descent  of  ancient  art  was  very  little  different.'' 
**  x  See  Pastor,  Gesch,  der  Papste,  iii.  (3rd  and  4th  edition)  147  ff. 


THE    'REVIVAL   OF   TIIE    ANTIQUE'   IN    ITALY        80 

but  surpassed  it,  endeavouring  by  new  methods  to 
produce  the  strongest  possible  effects.'  In  the  various 
branches  of  art  he  overstepped  the  limits  of  each,  and 
applied  the  laws  of  the  different  branches  indiscrimi- 
nately.1 

From  out  this  confusion  there  came  presently  into 
existence  the  Baroque  style,  which,  in  place  of  strict 
law-abiding  order,  and  the  authority  of  universally 
recognised  traditions,  allowed  boundless  liberty  and 
personal  caprice  to  each  artist,  with  the  inevitable 
result  of  the  total  collapse  of  all  art.  Michael  Angelo, 
whose  death  occurred  in  1563,  survived  this  final  decay 
of  art,  which,  as  regards  painting,  had  already  set  in 
under  the  first  pupils  of  Raphael,  who  died  in  1520. 
In  his  sacred  creations  the  great  painter  of  Urbino 
embodied  the  loftiest  religious   ideas  with  most  con- 

1  '  Michael  Angelo's  genius  is  still  less  easy  of  comprehension,'  wrote 
Sulpice  Boisseree,  on  June  26,  1837,  from  Rome  to  his  brother,  '  when 
one  considers  him  in  relation  to  his  predecessors  and  his  contemporaries 
here  in  Italy.  For  these  sculptors  were  as  highly  distinguished  and  as 
thoroughly  impregnated  with  true  artistic  sense  as  were  Raphael's  pre- 
decessors in  painting,  so  much  so  that  they  might  well  have  been  followed 
by  a  Christian  Phidias.  Instead,  however,  there  comes  this  Titanic 
fellow,  who  oversteps  the  boundaries  of  art  in  each  of  its  branches,  throws 
sculptors,  painters,  and  architects  into  hopeless  perplexity,  and  reduces 
art  itself  to  boundless  confusion.'  Carstens  said  of  him  :  '  Michael  Angelo 
is  the  father  of  that  bad  taste  in  architecture  which  under  his  successors 
has  grown  worse  and  worse  down  to  our  own  days.  In  the  works  of 
Gothic  architecture  we  find  genius  everywhere  ;  in  the  works-  of  later 
architects  nothing  but  rule  and  rote  '  (Springer,  Bilder,  ii.  313).  **  Con- 
cerning the  Buonarrottic  style,  Reumont  says  (Gesch.  der  Stadt  Rom, 
iii.  2,  723) :  '  In  bondage  to  imitation  of  ancient  art,  too  often  also  to 
merely  external  imitation  -with  no  regard  to  the  soul  within,  and  occupied 
exclusively  in  attaining  to  independence,  modern  art,  incapable  of  pro- 
ducing new  models,  settled  down  into  that  artificial  style  in  which  the 
absence  of  soul  was  all  the  more  evident  the  more  the  outward  form  was 
assertive.  The  further  it  advances  the  more  apparent  becomes  its  de- 
cadent nature,' 


90  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

summate  skill,  and  by  the  originality  of  his  genius,  the 
grandeur  of  his  designs,  and  the  splendour  of  his  colour- 
ing he  reached  an  extraordinary  eminence  ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  amongst  his  secular  paintings  (those,  for 
instance,  in  the  Farnesina  and  in  the  bath-room  of 
Cardinal  Bibbiena)  there  are  things  to  which  no  Christian 
critic  can  give  unqualified  praise.  His  disciples,  who 
only  followed  him  in  externals,  fell  into  exaggeration, 
and  into  even  worse  faults.1  Before  long  painting, 
like  sculpture,  began  to  affect  bombastic  embellish- 
ment, and  a  number  of  German  and  Dutch  painters, 
who  sought  their  models  on  the  other  side  of  the  Alps, 
considered  this  particular  characteristic  as  specially 
worthy  of  imitation. 

The  '  cult  of  the  nude,'  which  had  gained  such 
prominence  in  the  degenerate  antique,  met  with  lively 
admiration,  even  amongst  the  most  notable  Italian 
masters.  Michael  Angelo,  in  one  of  his  most  famous 
works, '  The  Last  Judgment,'  went  to  extremes  in  this 
direction.2 

Far  worse  was  the  manner  in  which  Correggio 
celebrated  the  triumph  of  sensual  nude  beauty. 
The  great  Titian  also,  who  treated  so  many  sacred 
subjects  with  reverence   and   solemnity,   was   never- 

1  Of  Raphael's  disciples  Rio  says  (De  Vart  chretien,  iv.  561):  'Telle 
fut  leur  decadence,  au  point  de  vue  des  inspirations,  que  1' appreciation 
de  leurs  ceuvres  n'appartient  plus  a  l'histoire  de  l'art  chretien.'  The 
religious  ideals  of  Christendom  were,  in  a  certain  sense,  represented  in  a 
pagan  manner  ;  see  Springer,  Bilder,  ii.  182. 

**  2  Concerning  the  nude  figures  in  the  '  Last  Judgment '  of  Michael 
Angelo,  P.  Keppler,  in  the  Hist.-pol.  El.  91,  p.  755,  justly  points  out  that 
Michael  Angelo  is  still  widely  different  from  those  artists  who  drag  art 
down  to  prostitution,  and,  with  lascivious  intent,  jmint  the  flesh  for  the 
sake  of  the  flesh.  Moreover,  in  the  '  Last  Judgment '  of  H.  Memling, 
and  in  the  painting  of  the  same  subject  by  Meister  Stephan  of  Cologne, 
there  are  a  number  of  nude  figures. 


THE   'REVIVAL   OF   THE   ANTIQUE'   IN    ITALY        91 

theless  guilty  in  several  other  of  his  pictures  of  the 
same  shameless  glorification  of  the  flesh ;  and  his 
intimate  friend,  Pietro  Aretino,  one  of  the  most 
profligate  of  men,  wrote  in  praise  of  these  pictures.1 

Even  in  the  first  days  of  the  Kenaissance  there 
were  not  wanting  specimens  of  the  most  corrupt 
art.  Some  of  the  Italian  artists  had  at  this  period 
fallen  into  that  '  quite  exceptional  vulgarity  '  which 
Pliny  at  the  time  of  the  degenerate  Roman  antique 
had  most  severely  reprehended  in  the  painter  Arellius. 
'  Arellius,'  Pliny  writes,  '  had  become  famous  in 
Rome  as  a  painter  shortly  before  the  time  of  Augustus, 
but  he  dishonoured  his  art  by  vulgarity  of  quite  a 
special  kind.  He  was  in  a  constant  state  of  con- 
suming passion  for  some  damsel  or  other,  and  he 
painted  his  goddesses  after  the  models  of  his  para- 
mours, so  that  one  could  count  the  number  of  the 
latter  from  his  pictures.' 2  The  same  was  the  case 
with  the  highly  gifted  painter  Fra  Filippo  Lippi  in 
Florence,  who  was  patronised  to  so  great  an  extent 
by  Cosimo  de'  Medici  and  his  sons.  When  in  1458 
he  seduced  the  novice,  Lucrezia  Buti,  they  laughed 
at  court  over  this  misdemeanour  of  the  artist,  and 
allowed  him  to  set  up  in  a  consecrated  place,  as  a 
monument  to  his  shame,  a  picture  in  which  Lucrezia 
appeared  three  times  as  the  daughter  of  Herodias. 
In  another  picture  he  actually  made  her  figure  as 
the  Holy  Virgin  Mary.3 

'  See  Springer,  Bilder,  i.  349.  '  We  know  how  to  distinguish  the 
idealising  method  of  the  artist  from  the  cynicism  of  the  writer.  The 
basic  idea,  however,  is,  after  all  said  and  done,  the  same.'  See  Molmenti, 
cap.  v.  ('  Die  Kunst  ein  Spiegelbild  der  Sitten  ')  241  ff. 

2  Hist,  natur.  xxxv.  37. 

:!  See  Rio,  De  Vart  chretien,  i.  361-364  ;  v.  Reumont,  Lorenzo  de'  Medici, 


92  H [STORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

In  this  desecration  of  sacred  art  others  were  found 
to  imitate  him,  especially  under  Cosmo's  son,  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici,  surnamed  the  Magnificent,  who  was  no 
less  ready  than  his  father  to  patronise  the  new- 
fashioned  naturalistic-sensual  tendency  in  art.  The 
Christian  congregations  who  looked  for  piety  and 
edification  in  their  churches,  were  frequently  con- 
fronted by  women  of  ill-fame  under  the  guise  of  the 
Holy  Virgin,  or  St.  Mary  Magdalen,  or  St.  John  the 
Evangelist.  The  holy  women,  too,  were  often  repre- 
sented dressed  as  notorious  harlots.  You  painters,' 
exclaimed  Savonarola,  '  you  make  the  Holy  Virgin 
appear  dressed  like  a  public  whore  ! ' -  Tintoretto 
in  one  of  his  pictures  introduces  the  Saviour  in  the 
midst  of  half-naked  women.2  '  Who,'  asked  Cardinal 
Contarini  in  1536,  '  who  would  not  praise  that  canon 
which,  under  pain  of  excommunication,  forbids  the 
painting  of  anything  which  might  excite  impure  desires  ? 
In  our  days,  however,  not  to  speak  of  private  houses 
and  public  buildings,  we  actually  go  so  far  as  to  adorn 
the  temples  of  God,  the  monuments  of  saints,  yea, 
even  the  very  altars,  with  pictures  and  statues  of  this 
description,  and  this  is  certainly  a  monstrous  scandal.'  3 

Very  salutary  edicts  against  abuses  of  this  sort  were 

ii.  (2nd  edition)  129,  134  ff.  ;  Jungmann,  p.  412  ;  cf.  Kraus,  Gesch.  d. 
christl.  Kunst,  ii.  2,  Part  I.,  p.  186.  This  occurred  a  few  years  after 
the  death  of  Fra  Angelico  da  Fiesole,  that  almost  solitary  instance 
of  God-inspired  sincerity  and  angelic  purity  of  soul,  who  realised  the  most 
perfect  union  of  Christian  art  and  Christian  holiness.  In  many  of  his 
compositions  the  influence  of  the  anticme  is  manifest,  but  the  Christian 
idea  is  always  present  and  intact,  and  expressed  with  the  utmost  com- 
pleteness.    See  Pastor,  Geschichte  der  Piipste,  i.  (2nd  edition)  435-436. 

1  Rio,  ii.  60-61,  423-424.     Under  Savonarola's  direction  a  quantity 
of  indecent  pictures  were  publicly  burnt  (pp.  450-452). 

2  Ibid.  iv.  282. 

:!  Dittrich,  Gasparo  Contarini  (Braunsberg,  1885),  pp.  338-339. 


THE   'REVIVAL   OF   THE   ANTIQUE'   IN   ITALY        93 

decreed  by  the  Council  of  Trent.  At  the  twenty-fifth 
session  of  this  Church  gathering  it  was  emphatically 
laid  down  that  the  arts  must  not  represent  anything 
which  might  in  any  way  imperil  the  faith,  or  produce 
error  or  superstition  in  the  minds  of  the  gazers  ;  nothing 
was  to  be  produced  in  the  way  of  church  painting  or 
sculpture  which  was  not  of  a  worthy  and  elevating 
character ;  everything  that  was  improper,  or  only 
attractive  to  the  senses,  or  considered  as  ministering 
only  to  secular  objects,  was  to  be  avoided.1 

It  was  also  a  further  sign  of  decadence  that  art 
gradually  lost  more  and  more  of  its  national  character, 
and  sank  into  being  a  mere  servitor  of  great  people 
and  of  courts  ;  and  in  harmony  with  this  character  its 
principal  achievements  consisted  in  the  building  and 
sumptuous  decoration  of  palaces,  castles,  and  pleasure 
houses. 

With  the  character  of  art  the  outward  position  of 
artists  altered  also.  Art  guilds  continued  to  exist, 
it  is  true,  but  most  of  the  artists  dissolved  their  con- 
nection with  them,  and  thus  ceased  to  hold  any  fixed 
position  in  the  civil  organisation. 

There  were  indeed  many  among  them  who  were 
as  distinguished  as  the  old  masters  for  humility  and 
simplicity  of  heart,  for  quiet,  steady  industry,  and  for 

1  Jacob,  p.  111.  Dejob  (p.  24G  ff.)  discusses  the  Italian  writers  who, 
on  the  ground  of  the  decrees  of  the  council,  take  up  the  cudgels  against 
profanation  of  sacred  art.  Strange  is  his  dictum  (p.  240)  :  '  L'art  de  la 
Renaissance  n'avait  point  ete  licencieux.'  It  was  precisely  with  the 
so-called  Renaissance  that  licentiousness  among  artists  began,  and  Dejob 
rightly  says  (p.  251),  concerning  the  Christian  theorisers  whom  he  criti- 
cises :  '  On  s'etonne  cjue  les  theoriciens  qui  voulaient  ramener  l'esprit 
chretien  dans  l'art,  procedassent  unifpiement  par  preceptes,  sans  jamais 
proposer  l'exemple  des  artistes  anterieurs  a  la  Renaissance  proprement 
elite.' 


94  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

active  charity,  and  who,  with  all  their  preference  and 
enthusiasm  for  the  '  antique,'  still  retained  the  same 
deep  Christian  spirit  which  Michael  Angelo  expressed 
when,  as  an  old  man  of  seventy-five,  he  said  :  '  Art,  like 
all  things  earthly,  is  nothingness,  and  cannot  satisfy 
the  soul ;  only  the  love  of  the  Crucified  One  can  do 
this.' ' 

But  there  were  only  too  many  to  whom  this  in- 
dependence of  position  was  in  the  highest  degree 
pernicious.  From  plain  burghers  they  had  become 
distinguished  people,  with  all  the  habits  and  needs  of 
the  higher  society  of  that  luxurious,  pleasure-seeking 
age. 

How  things  stood  in  this  respect  at  Venice,  as  early 
as  the  time  of  Durer's  sojourn  there  in  1506,  may  be 
gathered  from  that  artist's  letters  to  Willibald  Pirk- 
heimer,  Well-disposed  Italians  themselves  empha- 
tically warned  Diirer  against  associating  too  closely 
with  the  painters  there,  against  eating  and  drinking 
with  them.  Durer's  account  is  that  he  found  '  many 
excellent  companions,  intelligent  scholars,  good  lute 
players,  and  pipers,  connoisseurs  in  painting,  and  men 
of  much  noble  feeling  and  genuine  virtue,'  but  also 
'  the  most  perfidious,  lying,  thieving  villains,  such  as,' 
he  writes,  '  I  could  not  have  believed  darkened  the  face 
of  the  earth.'  '  They  are  fully  aware  that  all  their 
infamy  is  well  known,  but  they  do  not  care  an  atom.' 
'  Nearly  everybody  is  afflicted  with  the  French  disease, 
and  there  is  nothing  I  fear  more.  Many  are  devoured 
by  it  and  die.'  The  light,  frivolous  tone  which  fre- 
quently occurs  in  his  letters  betrays,  moreover,  the  fact 

1  Guhl,  Kiinsthrbriefe,  i.  238-239,  242  ;  cf.  Graus,  pp.  12-14. 


THE   'NEW   ANTIQUE-ITALIAN    ART'   IN   GERMANY      95 

that  the  life  of  the  place  was  not  without  influence  upon 
him,  and  that  the  '  smart  life  '  met  with  his  approval. 
He  took  leave  of  Venice  with  a  heavy  heart.  '  Oh, 
how  I  shall  pine  for  the  sun  !  Here  I  am  a  fine  gentle- 
man ;  at  home  I  am  a  parasite,  i.e.  a  beggar.' ] 

Later  German  and  Dutch  artists,  who  nocked  in 
numbers  to  the  city  of  the  Lagoons,  got  their  fill  of 
pleasure  from  the  brilliant  and  dissolute  place. 

The  '  new  antique-Italian '  art  was  transplanted 
into  Germany  ;  the  old  indigenous  art,  practised  for 
many  centuries,  approved  by  works  of  the  finest  order, 
was  displaced.  In  Italy  this  preference  for  '  the 
antique,'  which  appealed  to  old  popular  traditions, 
had  in  it  some  show  of  historic  justification  ;"  but  in 
Germany  it  was  wanting  in  any  national  basis,  and  it 
was  only  grafted  on  to  the  German  style  as  an  entirely 
foreign  growth.  In  Italy,  under  the  guidance  of 
artists  of  importance,  it  was,  during  its  short  blossom- 
ing, fruitful  in  works  of  sterling  beauty  and  finished 
technique  ;  in  Germany,  at  least  in  the  department  of 
high  art,  it  could  not  boast  of  a  single  master  of  the 
first  rank,  and  it  did  not  produce  a  single  work  which  in 
real  greatness  and  beauty,  and  in  enduring  worth,  could 
bear  comparison  with  the  achievements  of  the  old, 
native  art.  This  indigenous  art,  at  the  time  when  the 
foreign  intruder  came,  had  by  no  means  become  '  out- 
worn and  exhausted,'  any  more  than  Christianity  had 
outlived  itself  when  the  humanists  began  to  enthuse 
for  the  heaven  of  the  pagan  gods  ;  or  than  German 
jurisprudence  had  outgrown  itself  when  it  was  displaced 

1  M.  Thausing,  Diirers  Briefe,  Tagebiicher  und  JReime  (Wien,  1872), 
pp.  5,  6,  7,  13,  15,  17,  21,  22.  Concerning  the  word  Schmarotzer  or 
Schmorotzer,  —  Bettler,  cf.  Weigand's  German  Dictionary. 


96  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

by  the  foreign  Roman  law  ;  or  than  the  Germa.n  lan- 
guage had  outlived  its  day  when  the  scholars  voted  it 
'  a  barbarous  tongue,'  and  exchanged  their  German 
names  for  Latinised  and  Hellenised  ones.  Just  as 
German  national  life,  in  all  its  branches,  was  driven 
out  by  the  men  of  might  and  the  leaders  of  fashion,  and 
forced  to  give  way  to  foreign  customs,  till  by  degrees 
it  lapsed  into  complete  alienism,  so  too  native  art 
disappeared  from  the  land. 

While  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  great 
body  of  artistic  activity  was  inspired  and  dominated 
by  the  spirit  of  the  Middle  Ages,  twenty  years  later 
Diirer  wrote  :  '  Nowadays  everything  must  be  antique.' 
Mere  imitation  was  the  highest  level  aimed  at  or 
reached.  The  German  Renaissance  is  at  bottom  only 
a  re-birth  of  the  Italian  re-birth,  an  after-birth  of  the 
latter.1 

Only  so  long  as  the  old  traditions  of  art  were  re- 
cognised and  the  inner  organisation  of  the  old  art 
guilds  continued  to  exist,  was  any  abundance  of  beau- 
tiful and  excellent  work  produced.  The  more  these 
traditions  died  out  or  became  disregarded,  the  more 
masons'  guilds  and  guild  workshops  went  out  of  fashion, 
so  much  the  more  apparent  was  the  deterioration  of  all 
art.     The  marked  antagonism  which  gradually  grew  up 

1  Riehl  (Kutturstudien,  pp.  129-130)  says  most  aptly :  '  In  the  Re- 
naissance the  antique  forms  were  resuscitated.  At  first  these  appeared 
in  combination  side  by  side  with  the  mediaeval  ones,  which  later  on  they 
triumphed  over.  To  adapt  art  models  and  forms  is  as  difficult  as  to  alter 
gowns.  Only  a  few  of  the  greatest  architects  and  sculptors  succeeded 
in  exorcising  the  inner  contradiction  between  the  new  life  and  the  old 
art.  No  other  period  of  art  had  such  a  short  season  of  blossoming  as 
the  genuine  Renaissance.  On  its  first  advent  into  the  world  it  bore 
the  stamp  of  mannerism  on  its  brow.  This  mannerism  in  its  full  maturity 
is  what  has  received  the  name  of  Rococo.' 


THE   RENAISSANCE   IN    GERMANY  97 

between  art  and  craftsmanship  contributed  largely  to 
this  result.1 

Speaking  generally  it  may  be  said  that  the  new- 
school  of  art  had  no  roots  in  the  broad  strata  of  the  life 
of  the  people,  and  derived  no  nourishment  from  the 
spirit  of  the  nation,  but  was  a  mere  plaything  of  the 
courts  and  of  the  great  world,  and  was  obliged  to 
submit  to  their  tyranny  and  caprice,  and  to  adapt  itself 
to  the  ruling  fashions.  But,  however  much  it  was 
propped  up  by  the  courts,  it  succumbed  finally  through 
inward  weakness ;  because  it  had  not  come  into  exis- 
tence organically,  it  lacked  from  the  very  first  all 
harmonious  unity.  The  different  branches  of  art  stood 
out  separately  and  independently  ;  architecture,  which 
in  all  epochs  of  true  art  prosperity  forms  the  centre  and 
the  point  of  departure  of  the  collective  art  life,  held 
a  subordinate  position.  Ornamentation  became  the 
chief  concern  of  art,  and  remained  the  most  important 
element  in  all  its  branches.2     The  Italian  artist  Gioviano 

1  See  Rahn,  p.  766  ;  A.  Schultz  in  v.  Zahn's  Jahrb'icher,  ii.  358-359. 
See  also  Lange,  Fliitner,  p.  176  ft". 

2  '  For  all  the  great  masters  of  older  generations  art  had  been  so 
entirely  a  matter  of  inward  and  spiritual  significance,  that  ornament 
played  no  large  part  in  their  work.  The  sphere  of  ornament  is  outward 
and  sensuous.  It  was  not,  therefore,  until  art  had  btgun  to  separate 
itself  from  its  connections  with  national  life  and  from  its  religious  basis 
that  decoration  began  to  assume  an  important  character  and  position,  and 
expanded  into  exuberant  blossoming.'  C.  von  Lutzow,  in  the  Gesch.  der 
deutschen  Kunst,  iv.  214.  F.  Schneider,  in  the  work  quoted  "above,  p.  23, 
n.  1  (Gotik  und  Kunst  :  Brief  an  einen  Freund),  says  very  pertinently  : 
'  It  is  highly  significant  of  the  petty,  parochial,  pedantic  art  of  us  Germans, 
that  it  remains  virtually  untouched  by  the  great  wave  of  inspiration  which 
at  that  time  influenced  nearly  all  departments  of  Italian  art,  but  continues 
to  cling  only  to  externals.  For  the  sake  of  decorative  novelty  they  over- 
look the  things  that  are  essential.'  '  It  cannot  be  denied,'  says  Lange 
(Fliitner,  p.  164),  '  that  in  these  modern  efforts  and  strivings,  especially 
in  the  unqualified  adoption  of  the  ideas  and  models  of  the  Italian  Re- 

VOL.   XI.  H 


98  HISTORY  OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Pontano,  in  1500,  assigned  the  first  place  in  art  to 
ornament,  and  actually  declared  it  to  be  praiseworthy 
to  go  to  extremes  in  this  direction.1 

As  regards  the  connection  of  the  new  '  antique- 
Italian  '  school  of  art  with  the  religious  revolution,  the 
former  was  by  no  means  an  outcome  of  the  latter. 
Catholics  as  well  as  Protestants  in  Germany  decided 
in  favour  of  the  new  art.2    'The  reign  of  the  Gothic 

naissance,  there  was  great  danger  for  German  art,  a  danger  which  certainly 
had  some  share  in  bringing  on  the  decay  of  German  art.' 

1  '  Et  in  ornatu  quidem,  cum  hie  maxime  opus  commendet,  modum 
excessisse  etiam  laudabile  est ; '  see  Burckhardt,  Gesch.  der  Renaissance 
in  Italien,  p.  46  (3rd  edition,  1891,  p.  48).  The  antique  models,  which 
they  had  before  their  eyes,  corresponded  to  these  views.  '  Roman  archi- 
tecture, of  which  a  leading  characteristic  is  straining  after  pomp  and 
splendour,  naturally  indulges  to  excess  in  profusion  of  ornamentation, 
and  by  its  union  with  sculpture  produces  results  in  which  decoration  is 
no  longer  an  accessory,  but  an  integral  part,  or,  rather,  the  most  important 
part,  and  that  for  which  architecture  exists.'  Overbeck,  Gesch.  der  griech. 
Plastik,  ii.  307.  To  the  Germans  the  new  style  of  art  which  they  learnt 
in  Italy  appeared,  so  says  R.  Dohme,  in  his  Geschichte  der  deidschen  Kunst, 
i.  287,  '  only  as  decoration,  nothing  more.'  The  German  taste,  so  peculi- 
arly susceptible  to  fanciful,  exuberant  ornamentation,  was  fascinated  by 
the  baroque  element  in  the  North  Italian  early  Renaissance,  'attracted 
by  those  speciahties  which  degenerate  only  too  easily  into  caricature.' 

**  -  Opinions  well  worthy  of  notice  on  the  encroachment  of  the  Re- 
naissance on  North  German  art  are  propounded  by  G.  Schneeli,  Renais- 
sance in  der  Schweiz.  Studien  iiber  das  Eindringen  der  Renaissance  in  die 
Kunst  diesseits  der  Alpen  (Munich,  1896).  Cf.  H.  A.  Schmid  in  Re- 
pertorium  filr  Kunstwissenschaft,  pp.  20,  480  ff.,  who  sums  up  Schneeli 's 
views  briefly  as  follows :  '  The  political  circumstances,  the  never- 
ending  military  campaigns,  influenced  not  only  the  subject-matter, 
but  also  the  outward  form  of  plastic  art.  The  eye  became  accustomed 
in  Italy  to'  the  Renaissance,  and  the  military  life  of  the  times  created 
a  demand  for  a  variety  of  new  objects,  and  also  for  their  decoration.  The 
services  of  plastic  art  were  requisitioned,  and  new  types  came  accordingly 
into  existence.  Thus,  while  the  specimens  of  earlier  art  which  survived 
the  ravages  of  iconoclasm  were  only  sufficient  to  enable  historians  to 
trace  the  development  of  art  on  broad  fines,  humanism  settled  the 
character  which  secular,  civic  art  should  thenceforth  display.  Even  if 
the  humanists  themselves  were  wholly  wanting  in  any  sense  of  art,  the 
intellectual    nature   of    the    new   material    supplied   by   humanism    was 


EENAtSSANCE   AND   REFORMATION  99 

was   everywhere    at    an   end.      In   Catholic    circles    it 

potent,  according  to  Schneeli,  to  turn  realism  into  a    higher    method  of 
representation.      The  political  conditions    and  the  intellectual  currents 
might  indeed  easily  "  have  had  their  influence  "  on  style.     But  the  revo- 
lution which  was  accomplished  corresponded  to  no  real  need,  and  in 
principle    nothing    was    changed.      Decoration — and    decoration    easily 
combines   with   other   elements — installed  itself,    but   the    Gothic   style 
remained  still   a  long    time   firmly  established,  and  might  in  the  main 
have  satisfied  all  requirements.     The  process  was  merely  an  outward 
manifestation,  fortunate,  accidental,  just  as  one  is  pleased  to  call  it, 
but  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  fashion  by  which  the  great  artists  were 
carried  away,   often  without  being  able  to  assert  their  own  free-will. 
Diirer,  at  heart,  stands  far  aloof  from  a  style  of  art  which  makes  outward 
form  its  chief  aim.     So,  too,  to  a  lesser  degree,  does  Peter  Vischer.     Hol- 
bein was  the  first  to  endow  the  new  fashion  with  the  real  spirit  of  Italian 
art,  with  its  undefinable  feeling  for  rhythm  and  harmony.     The  actual 
causes  of  the  change  of  style  he  in  the  perception  of  the  enslaving  of 
free  decoration  by  the  Gothic.     The  Van  Eycks  were  the  first  to  perceive 
this,  and  hence  their  preference  for  Romanesque  forms,  for  hangings,  and 
draperies.     The  minor  arts  developed  the  late  Gothic,  naturalistic  orna- 
ment.    This  prepared  the  advent  of  the  Renaissance,  to  which  the  chief 
impulse  was  given  by  printing.     In  the  nineties  it  became  the  fashion  in 
Upper  Italy  to  have  more  elaborate  embellishment  on  title-pages,  and 
soon  afterwards  the  Renaissance  appeared  in  Germany.     Italian  artists 
furthered  the  movement  in  German  lands.'     On  this  point  H.  A.  Schmid 
remarks :  '  Schneeli's   hypothesis    concerning  the  outward    cause  which 
brought  the  Renaissance  to  Germany  is  very  enlightening,  and  whether 
or  no  it  exactly  hits  the  mark,  it  is  one  of  the  most  felicitous  thoughts 
of  his  book.     It  seems,  moreover,  as  if  Schneeh  had  struck  on  the  truth 
as  far  as  he  goes.     On  the  other  hand,  the  actual  causes  must  lie  deeper 
down  than  this.     To  us  it  appears  that  the  same  changes  in  national 
character  which  make  certain  political  conditions  impossible,  which  stir 
up  fresh  literary  and  learned  movements,  and  so  forth,  have  also  the 
effect  of  changing  the  tastes  of  the  small  portion  of  the  population  who 
are  susceptible  to  plastic  art,  and  making  that  seem  ugly  and  unbeautiful 
to  them  which  before  they  thought  beautiful.     There  are  no  such  fashions 
as  Schneeh  assumes,  and  no  such  accidents.     Moreover,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century  there  was  a  general  craving  for  something  new, 
not  only  among  a  small  group  of  painters,  but  over  the  whole  of  Germany  ; 
not  only  with  regard  to  ornamentation,  but  in  architecture  generally ; 
one  proof  of  this,  among  others,  is  the  erection  of  the  large  and  spacious 
hall-churches,  which  came  into  vogue  at  this  time  (see  above,  p.  22,  note). 
The  demand  for  something  new  existed.     The  Gothic  style  was  about  to 
undergo  a  process  of  remodelling  when  the  new  style  arrived  from  abroad. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  cannot  attribute  any  groat  importance — above  all, 

H  -I 


100  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

was  even  more  strongly  repudiated   than  among  Pro- 
testants.' 1 

any  developing  influence — to  the  effect  on  art  of  ancient  subject-matter, 
for  it  is  precisely  with  the  introduction  of  themes  from  Roman  history 
that  an  essentially  prosaic  character  becomes  apparent  in  panel-painting.' 
1  Springer,  Bilder,  ii.  136.  '  Gothic  architecture,'  says  Liibke  (Plastik, 
ii.  G78),  was  '  the  purest  offspring  of  the  mediaeval  spirit.'  Naumann 
(i.  388  ff.),  on  the  other  hand,  sees  in  it  '  something  Protestant,' 
because  in  it  '  the  Cross  dominates  all  and  everything,'  and  this  '  sug- 
gests the  devotion  of  Protestant  art  to  the  Passion,  and  the  death  on  the 
Cross.'  No  less  does  he  see  '  Protestant  tendencies '  in  the  '  ever  in- 
creasing prominence  given  to  representations  of  the  Passion  in  painting  at 
the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  in  opposition  (!)  to  veneration  of  saints 
which  had  till  then  been  the  favourite  subject  (!),  and  the  veneration  of 
Mary.'  Strangely  original  views  on  art  are  put  forward  by  Richard 
Fischer  in  his  work  Ueber  Protestantismus  und  Katholizismus  in  der 
Kunst  (Berlin,  1853),  where  we  find  such  statements  as  the  following  : 
'  Protestantism  is  altogether  the  foundation  of  all  art  and  all  art-life  ' 
(p.  13)  ; '  annihilating  the  lies  of  all  transcendentalism,  all  supernaturalism, 
it  enshrines  the  spirit  of  the  real  as  the  true  ideal '  (p.  15)  ;  it  is  '  the 
source  of  all  monumental  art '  (p.  16)  ;  '  of  any  such  thing  as  Catholic 
art,  of  Catholic  artistic  beauty,  there  can  be  no  question  '  (p.  23)  ;  '  the 
Protestant  element '  of  civic  life  (Biirgertum)  has  prevailed  since  the  end 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  notably  in  Wilhelm  and  Stephan,  the  masters 
of  Cologne  (p.  38)  ;  the  brothers  Van  Eyck  were  already  very  advanced 
Protestants  ;  with  them  '  the  mysticism  of  dogma  vanishes  before  the 
religion  of  nature  which  they  venerated  as  artists  '  (p.  48),  and  so  forth. 
To  the  works  of  the  devil  and  the  '  heretical  revolts  against  the  majesty  of 
God  '  belongs  notoriously,  '  according  to  Catholic  opinion,'  the  invention 
of  printing,  which  first  saw  the  light  under  the  curses  of  the  monks  and 
priests  '  (p.  22).  '  The  ghostly  spirit  of  Catholicism  '  (p.  83)  leaves  the 
author  no  rest  or  peace. 


101 


CHAPTER  V 

SECTION    II. — ART    WRITERS   IN   SUPPORT   OF   THE 
ANTIQUE -ITALIAN   METHOD 

Remarkable  insight  into  the  early  development  of 
the  German  Renaissance  is  obtained  from  certain 
writings  of  the  sixteenth  century  which  aim  at  pro- 
paganda of  the  new  style,  and  which  are  at  the  same 
time  guides  to  its  understanding  and  practice.  From 
these  it  is  clearly  seen  that  the  German  Renaissance 
was  not  the  result  of  real  inward  absorption  of  the 
Italian  methods,  but  only  of  outward  imitation,  that  it 
was  not  built  upon  a  profound  understanding  of  the 
laws  of  the  new  Italian  art — still  less  on  an  enlightened 
perception  of  the  antique  element  underlying  it — but 
was  merely  a  matter  of  playing  with  externals. 

On  the  threshold  of  the  subject  we  are  confronted 
with  no  less  a  figure  than  Albert  Diirer.  In  almost  all 
his  great  achievements  in  the  domains  of  painting,  of 
engraving,  of  woodcuts,  he  is,  it  is  true,  by  no  means 
a  '  Renaissance  master,'  but  still  stands  firmly  on  the 
ground  of  Christian  German  views  and  mediaeval  art 
traditions.  Those  works  of  art  also  which  he  executed 
after  his  return  from  Venice — with  the  exception  of  some 
accessories  imitating  the  antique,  and  his  '  Triumphal 
Arch  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian,'  in  which  there  are 
already  signs  of  a  tendency  to  the  baroque — show  very 
slight  traces  of  Renaissance  influence. 


102  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

It  is  quite  otherwise,  however,  with  his  learned 
disquisitions  in  his  '  Unterweisung  der  Messung  mit 
dem  Zirkel  und  Bichtscheit '  of  the  year  1525,  and  in 
his  '  Proportionslehre,'  which  was  not  published  till  after 
his  death. 

In  the  first  of  these  works  he  expresses  the  opinion 
that  it  was  the  Italians  who  first  resuscitated  true  art, 
that  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans.  '  How  greatly 
art  was  honoured  and  venerated  by  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,'  he  writes,'  '  is  amply  shown  by  old  books, 
notwithstanding  that  it  subsequently  disappeared  and 
was  hidden  from  sight  for  some  2,000  years,  and  that  it 
is  only  two  centuries  ago  that  it  was  again  resuscitated 
by  the  Italians  (W allien,  Walscheri).  For  verily  it  is 
an  easy  matter  for  the  arts  to  disappear,  but  it  is  only 
with  difficulty  and  length  of  time  that  they  are  brought 
back  again  to  light.'  '  The  old  books  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,'  he  said,  '  must  form  the  basis  of  art  instruc- 
tion, especially  those  of  the  "  great  master  Vitruvius," 
who  wrote  in  such  a  truly  artistic  manner  concerning 
solidity,  utility,  and  decoration  in  architecture,  that 
he  deserves  to  be  studied  and  obeyed  before  other 
teachers.' 

In  the  working  out  of  a  new  style  of  architecture, 
to  which  task  Diirer  appears  to  have  devoted  himself,1 
he  could  count  on  extensive  support  from  his  German 
contemporaries,  who  were  most  of  them  dominated  by 
the  craving  for  novelty ;  for,  said  Diirer,  '  as  a  rule, 
everybody  who  wants  to  build  something  new  is 
delighted  to  get  hold  of  some  new  fashion  that  has  never 
been  seen  before.' 

Considering,  however,  the  specimens  of  '  new  art ' 

1  See  v.  Zahn,  Diirers  Verhattnis,  pp.  96-97. 


WRITERS   SUPPORTING   ANTIQUE-ITALIAN    ART      103 

which  he  left  behind  in  his  sketches  for  a  pillar  com- 
memorating a  battle,  for  a  triumphal  monument  in 
honour  of  the  subjugation  of  the  rebellious  peasants, 
for  the  gravestone  of  a  drunkard,  it  is  scarcely  to  be 
regretted  for  his  fame's  sake  that  he  was  prevented 
by  death  from  executing  '  a  still  greater  number  of 
admirable,  rare,  and  artistic  things,'  which,  according 
to  Pirkheimer,  he  had  in  his  mind.1 

In  the  first  of  these  monuments  the  pillar  consists 
of  the  tube  of  a  cannon  set  up  on  end,  powder  barrels 
and  ammunition  bullets  being  placed  at  the  corners 
of  the  base  ;  in  the  second,  untethered  cows,  sheep  and 
swine  surround  the  quadrangular  pedestal  of  the 
column.  Four  baskets,  containing  cheese,  eggs,  butter, 
onions  and  cabbages,  crown  the  corners  of  the  pedestal : 
the  artist  who  executed  the  design  was  free,  Diirer 
said,  to  add  to  it  anything  else  '  that  occurred  to  him.' 
He  himself  added  to  the  above  articles  an  oat-bin, 
over  which  he  placed  an  overturned  kettle,  and  on  the 
kettle  a  cheese-bowl  covered  with  a  plate  ;  on  the  plate 
a  butter-dish,  and  on  the  butter-dish  a  milk-jug.  In 
the  milk- jug  he  stuck  a  sheaf  of  corn,  in  which  shovels, 
flails  and  dung-forks  were  bound  up.  An  overturned 
hen-coop  forms  the  capital  of  the  column ;  a  '  mourn- 
ing '  peasant,  sitting  on  a  grease  pot  and  pierced  by  a 
sword,  adorns  the  summit  of  the  monument.2 

A  more  incisive  satire  on  the  new  art  methods 
coming  into  vogue  could  not  easily  have  been  pro- 
duced. 

1  See  v.  Eye,  Albrecht  Diirer,  p.  4fi6. 

2  Hermann  Grimm,  Kiinstler  unci  Kunstwerke,  ii.  228,  says  :  '  Diirer's 
design  for  a  monument  of  the  conquered  peasants  (1525)  is  such  a  baroque, 
but  at  the  same  time  pleasing,  pile  of  naturalistic  objects  as  nobody 
before  or  after  him  has  ever  produced.' 


104  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

The  '  new  element '  is  no  less  to  the  fore  in  Diirer's 
monument  of  a  drunkard.  On  the  pedestal  stands 
a  cask  of  beer  covered  with  a  draughts-board,  on 
which  are  two  bowls,  one  on  the  top  of  the  other, 
with  the  motto  :  '  Herein  you'll  find  a  banquet.'  Then 
comes  '  another  squat  beer-jug  with  two  handles,' 
covered  with  a  plate  on  which  stands  a  tall  beer-glass 
turned  upside  down,  and  lastly  a  basket  containing 
bread,  cheese  and  butter.1 

Considering  the  great  renown  which  Diirer  every- 
where enjoyed,  such  inventions  must  have  made  a 
vivid  impression  on  the  imaginative  genius  of  his 
contemporaries  in  art,  bitten  as  they  already  were 
with  all  sorts  of  fantastic  ideas  ;  and  there  was  scarcely 
need  of  his  express  admonition  that  each  one  should 
strive  '  to  make  further  new  developments.'  How  very 
differently  did  Diirer's  fine  artistic  sense  display  itself, 
both  as  regards  grandeur  of  conception  and  power 
of  expression,  so  long  as  he  remained  free — as,  for 
instance,  in  his  '  Apocalypse,'  or  '  The  Knight,  Death 
and  the  Devil,'  '  St.  Jerome  in  his  Cell,'  and  in  '  Melan- 
choly '  2 — from  the  influence  of  a  false  naturalism.3 

Twenty  years  later  another  theoriser,  the  Nurem- 

1  These  sketches  are  in  the  Unterweisung  der  Messung  mit  dem  Zirckel 
und  Richtscheyt  (Nuremberg  edition  of  1538),  Bl.  J-J-'. 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  i.  pp.  245-248. 

3  In  the  year  1531  Jerome  Rodler,  secretary  to  the  Prince  of  Simmern, 
published  Ein  schiin  niitzlich  Biichlin  von  Unterweisung  der  Kunst  des 
Messens  mit  dem  Zirckel,  Richtscheidt,  oder  Linial  because  the  two  books 
by  Albert  Diirer,  Die  Kunst  und  Unterweisung  der  Messung  and  the 
Proportz  menschlicher  Bild,  were  written  in  '  such  a  hyper-artistic,  un- 
intelligible manner '  that  they  were  not  adapted  to  beginners  in  art,  but 
'  only  to  the  highly  initiated.'  '  We  see  here  everywhere,'  says  Liibke 
{Renaissance  in  Deutschland,  i.  152),  '  a  growing  desire  for  the  adoption 
of  Renaissance  models  and  forms,  but  without  any  real  understanding  of 
the  new'  methods.' 


WRITERS   SUPPORTING   ANTIQUE-ITALIAN    ART        105 

berg  physician  and  mathematician  Walter  Rivius, 
fashioned  the  cradle  of  the  German  Zopf.  He  pub- 
lished in  1547  a  book  entitled  '  In  miissigen  Zeiten  zu 
sonderlicher  Ergotzung  und  Recreation '  ('In  Idle 
Hours,  for  Enjoyment  and  Recreation'),  and  a  'Neue 
Perspectiv,'  and  in  the  following  year  a  '  deutscher 
Vitruv  '  ('  German  Vitruvius '),  and  these  comprehensive 
works  went  through  several  editions.1  In  the  last  book 
Rivius  literally  revels  in  Vitruvius  and  his  successors. 
The  dedicatory  preface,  addressed  to  the  burgomaster 
and  council  of  Nuremberg,  is  to  the  effect  that  before 
the  resuscitation  of  the  Roman  architect  there  had 
been  no  architects  worthy  of  mention.  Nowhere  but 
in  the  antique  would  Rivius  recognise  '  the  true  basis 
of  architecture '  which  '  was  quite  extinct  in  Germany,' 
and  he  insisted  first  and  foremost  on  the  training  up 
of  '  learned '  architects,  such  as  were  to  be  found  in 
Italy.2  German  architects,  he  said,  must  learn  Latin 
and  Greek,  and  where  possible  new  languages  also, 
'  because  in  no  barbarous  foreign  tongue  hitherto 
spoken  had  there  been  fewer  writings  or  books  on  the 
newly  discovered  arts  than  in  the  German  language, 
with  the  exception  of  the  books  by  the  far-famed 
artist  Albert  Diirer.'  Furthermore,  architects  must 
have  a  knowledge  of  music,  medicine  and  astronomy ; 
but  they  would  only  attain  to  perfection,  according  to 
the  dictum  of  Vitruvius,  by  the  study  of  philosophy.3 

1  Liibke,  Renaissance,  i.  152. 

'■  Rivius,  Vitruv,  pp.  18,  19,  34,  189,  249. 

:5  Liibke,  Renaissance,  i.  1G0-163.  '  la  the  North,  fortunately,  the 
adoption  of  such  theories  was  long  hindered  by  mediaeval  traditions.' 
In  his  Neue  Perspectiv  Rivius,  among  other  circumstantial  instructions, 
gave  directions  as  to  how  by  means  of  a  mass  of  geometrical  lines  an 
antique  drinking-cup  could  be  made  out  of  an  egg,  in  a  way,  the  author 


106  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

In  order  to  show  off  his  own  learning,  Bivius  recom- 
mended, in  conformity  with  the  directions  of  foreign 
books  on  art,  '  the  alteration  of  the  bosses  which  an 
intelligent  architect  might  make  according  to  his  own 
taste  in  a  variety  of  ways  ; '  for  instance,  '  the  intro- 
duction of  Caryatides '  in  embroidered  and  decorated 
drapery,  bas-reliefs  representing  kneeling  warriors  '  in 
antique  dress,'  '  such  as  '  he  knew  '  were  fashioned  with 
great  care  and  marvellous  thought  and  cunning  by  the 
ancient  architects  for  the  Persian  halls  of  the  Lacedae- 
monians.' He  further  recommended  as  models  '  the 
artistically  sculptured  pillars,  such  as  are  in  vogue  with 
the  Italians  of  our  own  day  ; '  Hermae,  mummified, 
or  ending  in  the  stem  of  a  tree,  with  Turkish  turbans 
and  flowing  mantles,  or  with  two  female  busts.  Fol- 
lowing the  lead  of  his  Italian  predecessors,  he  aimed 
at  reintroducing  the  Greek  temple  by  adopting  its 
principal  shapes  and  its  facades,  and  applying  these 
to  the  many-aisled  Renaissance  churches  with  cross 
vaults  and  cupolas,  and  sometimes  crowning  volutes 
and  gables  with  couching  dragons  and  stags.  On  the 
model  of  Vitruvius  he  was  most  insistent  in  pointing 
out  to  the  architects  the  manner  in  which  the  Greek 
temples  varied  according  to  the  different  deities  to 
whom  they  were  dedicated.  Above  all,  '  the  buildings 
erected  to  goddesses  and  tender  virgins  were  so  pretty, 
so  tastefully  and  elegantly  adorned  and  decorated,  that 
these  tender  goddesses  could  dwell  in  them  with  delight.' 
The  tower  of  Andronicus  Cyrrhestes,  according  to  his 
description,  is  an  octagonal  building  with  five  stories, 

adds,  '  that  oven  the  far-famed,  wonderful  artist  Albrecht  Diirer  had  not 
demonstrated.'  The  geometrical  juggleries  of  the  late  Gothic  were  far 
outstripped  here, 


WRITERS   SUPPORTING   ANTIQUE-ITALIAN   ART      107 

and  covered  with  all  sorts  of  exquisite  ornamentation 
in  the  shape  of  couching  lions,  dolphins  and  dragons, 
an  angel  with  sword  and  shield,  and  skeleton  figure 
of  death,  a  naked  woman  with  the  dial  of  a  clock, 
a  Madonna  and  Child,  angels  blowing  trumpets,  and 
a  number  of  bells  ;  on  the  top  of  the  roof,  to  serve  as 
a  weathercock,  a  Triton  lies  on  its  stomach  blowing  a 
trumpet.  The  monument  of  the  '  great  and  mighty 
King  Mausolus,'  as  planned  by  Rivius,  was  a  quadran- 
gular structure  with  cross  vault,  expanding  into  a 
Greek  cross  ;  it  was  to  be  built  up  with  pilasters  and 
gable-crowned  windows,  with  little  cupolas  over  the 
arms  of  the  cross  ;  a  town  with  mediaeval  gates  and 
battlemented  walls,  and  a  royal  palace  with  towers, 
projections,  balconies  and  pinnacles  was  to  form  the 
background.1 

To  produce  '  wonders  and  novelties  of  this  sort ' 
was  naturally  not  given  to  everyone,  and  accordingly 
Rivius  wisely  warned  young  artists  against  embarking 
on  the  vocation  of  a  '  veritable  architect ; '  for  this  was 
no  light  matter  in  view  of  the  extraordinary  astuteness 
of  the  present  age,  which  knew  how  to  do  and  to  '  outdo  ' 
everything  with  the  utmost  perfection.  Rivius  looked 
down  contemptuously  on  the  old  masonic  guilds,  '  the 
vulgar,  ordinary  master-builders  and  stone-masons ; ' 
these  men,  he  said,  were  so  coarse-minded  that  they 
could  not  understand  or  make  anything  of  worth.2 

The  more  pronounced  the  decadence  of  true  archi- 
tecture, sculpture  and  painting  became,  the  more 
numerous  were  the  publications  which  aimed  at  '  in- 
structing  all   well-disposed   and   intelligent   people   in 

1  Liibke,  Renaissance,  i.  162. 

2  From  the  Neve  Perspectiv,  in  Liibke,  i.  164. 


108  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

these  arts,'  and  '  bringing  back  into  fashion  true  antique 
art.'  1  Among  a  number  of  others  Rutger  Kassmann, 
'  the  Vitruvian  architect,'  stands  out  as  an  instructor  of 
this  kind  :  according  to  him,  '  architecture  after  the 
antique '  flourished  '  as  early  as  the  time  of  Solomon,' 
'  who  caused  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  to  be  built  in 
Corinthian  style.'  2 

Amongst  the  devotees  of  the  new  art  the  man  of 
most  fertile  fancy  and  invention  was  the  Strassburg 
architect  and  painter,  Wendel  Dietterlein,  a  highly 
esteemed  man,  who,  with  other  artists,  was  summoned 
to  Stuttgart  by  Duke  Louis  of  Wurtemberg  for  the 
rebuilding  of  his  '  far-famed  pleasure-house.'  In  1593 
he  published  in  this  town  a  work  entitled  '  Architectura 
und  Austheilung  der  fiinf  Saulen,'  which  gained  great 
approval,  and  appeared  in  1598  in  an  improved  edition.3 

1  In  addition  to  the  books  mentioned  in  Liibke,  i.  165,  see  those  of 
Pieter  Koeck,  mentioned  in  Fiorillo,  ii.  461,  and  (p.  485)  the  remarks  on 
Johann  Fredemann  de  Vries,  who  published  no  fewer  than  twenty-six 
volumes.  Carl  von  Mander  (1603-1604)  published  an  explanation  of 
Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  in  order  to  provide  artists  with  directions  for 
executing  the  figures  ;  see  Schnaase,  viii.  109.  Respecting  the  Nurem- 
berg printer,  Johannes  Petrejus,  Neudorffer  says  (p.  177) :  '  His  thoughts 
will  always  be  a  standing  guide  to  those  who  may  wish  to  compile  good 
books  about  the  fine  arts.' 

2  Liibke,  i.  166. 

3  Nuremberg,  1598.  Wendel  Dietterlein  must  not  be  confounded 
with  Wendel  Dietrich,  the  architect  who  was  so  active  at  Munich  (see 
Ree,  p.  33).  Respecting  Dietterlein,  cf.  the  Ausfiihrungen  von  Klemm, 
Wurtemberg  architect  and  sculptor,  p.  145  ff.  ;  K.  v.  Liitzow  in  the 
Gesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst,  iv.  232  ;  and  the  monograph  of  Ohnesorge, 
Leipzig,  1893.  Bezold,  in  Bankunst  der  Renaissance  in  Deutschland,  p.  97, 
calls  Dietterlein's  Architectura  '  a  worthy  pendant  to  Fischart's  Gargantua. 
Whoever  will  take  the  trouble  to  compare  these  two  works  will  be 
astonished  at  the  parallelism  in  their  ideas.  W.  Dietterlein  has  also  at 
command  an  astounding  cpiantity  of  forms,  which  he  scattered  about 
wholesale  among  his  designs.  He  is  one  of  the  most  prolific  spirits  of 
the  German  Renaissance  ;  but  he,  too,  did  not  free  himself  from  the 
incubus  of  the  new  art  which  kept  it  down  to  the  level  of  the  minor  arts  ; 


WRITERS   SUPPORTING    ANTIQUE-ITALIAN   ART       109 

He  was  not  concerned,  Dietterlein  says  in  his  preface, 
about  his  own  fame  or  profit,  but  only  desired,  from 
love  of  the  subject,  to  spread  the  right  taste  in  art,  most 
especially  for  the  benefit  of  the  young,  who  hitherto 
had  not  been  instructed  in  the  true  principles  of  art. 

Dietterlein  figures  in  Germany  as  the  great  master 
of  the  baroque  style,  which  entirely  ignored  the  mutual 
relationship  of  the  different  arts.  All  his  work  is  heavy 
and  cumbersome,  notwithstanding  that  the  masonry 
seems  alive  with  ornamental  accessories  of  all  sorts.1 

In  defence  of  his  fancies  '  beyond  everything  wonder- 
ful,' he  might  appeal  to  Diirer's  admonition  that  '  every 
artist  should  endeavour  to  produce  something  novel ; ' 
that  '  even  if  the  renowned  Vitruvius  and  others  had 
sought  out  and  found  excellent  things,  this  did  not 
prove  that  there  was  nothing  more  that  was  good  to 
be  discovered.'  Diirer's  extraordinary  memorial  pillars 
evidently  served  Dietterlein  as  models,  when,  for  instance, 
he  was  working  at  his  '  Culinary  Portal '  which  has  so 
often  been  described,  in  which  Atlas  is  represented  as 
a  corpulent  cook,  bearing  two  bowls  on  his  head  to 
represent  the  capital  of  the  pillar,  at  his  girdle  two 
bundles  of  snipes  and  a  kitchen  knife,  and  holding  a 
soup-ladle  in  his  hand  ;  on  the  frieze  are  seen  kitchen 
spoons  crossed,  in  the  cornices  heads  of  wild  swine, 

indeed,  he  was  not  aware  that  it  was  an  incubus,  but  in  a  happy-go-lucky 
way  mixed  up  art  proper  and  industrial  art.  In  his  designs  he  takes  no 
account  either  of  material  or  execution  ;  as  they  are  here  sketched 
no  great  architectural  work  could  be  carried  out  from  them.  He  even 
harks  back  to  the  Gothic  style,  and  takes  it  up  at  the  point  where  it 
ceased  a  hundred  years  before.  If,  however,  we  are  content  to  take  him 
for  what  he  is,  we  cannot  but  admire  his  wealth  of  forms,  his  inexhaustible 
fancy,  and  the  plastic  power  with  which  he  is  able  to  bring  the  most 
antagonistic  forms  into  harmonious  unity  of  effect.' 
1  Leixner,  pp.  218-250  ;  Falke,  Geschmack,  p.  166. 


110  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  above  these  a  group  of  hares  and  deer,  with  kitchen 
kettles,  and  a  spit  with  sausages  on  it ;  as  a  reminder 
of  the  antique  a  half -naked  Ceres  was  also  introduced.1 
If  Vitruvius  compared  Doric  pillars  to  the  figure  of 
a  man,  Dietterlein  went  even  further  and  made  a  man 
stand  for  a  pillar,  and  moreover,  in  order  to  emphasise 
the  military  character  of  the  Dorians,  a  man  in  com- 
plete warlike  accoutrement.2  Statues  of  Mercury  are 
represented  by  him  as  peasants  enclosed  in  wine -barrels, 
with  their  feet,  shod  in  wooden  sabots,  sticking  out 
below,  and  their  heads,  covered  with  a  hand-basin  for 
a  capital,  showing  above.3  Such  '  ingenious '  flights  of 
invention  as  this  Diirer  could  scarcely  have  foreseen 
when  he  himself  loaded  his  capitals  with  all  sorts  of 
arbitrary  decoration,  and  encouraged  the  workmen  who 
should  execute  his  designs  to  add  '  further  beautiful 
objects,'  '  such  as  foliage,  heads  of  animals,  birds — 
anything  in  short  which  commended  itself  to  their 
genius.'  To  the  '  genius  '  of  Dietterlein  the  antique 
'  nudities '  also  commended  themselves.  The  climax 
in  this  respect  is  reached  in  a  design  for  a  chimney- 
piece,  a  naked  Juno  on  the  lap  of  Jupiter.1 

1  Figur  75  ;  cf.  Lubke,  i.  170-171.  Figur  144  corresponds  in  utter 
want  of  taste  to  the  '  Culinary  Portal.' 

2  Figur  46.  The  Corinthian  pillar  (fig.  136)  is  the  figure  of  a  voluptuous 
woman  clad  only  round  the  loins. 

1  The  most  extraordinary  conceits  and  fancies  appear  in  figures  36, 
76,  82,  83,  146,  164,  183  ;  cf.  Lubke,  i.  170  ;  J.  Wasslcr,  Das  Dorische 
in  der  Renaissance,  in  v.  Liitzow's  Zeitschr.  xiv.  338-339.  '  The  "  golden 
age  "  of  the  German  Renaissance,'  says  Wassler,  '  produced  the  most 
inconceivable  eccentricities.  The  German  offspring  far  overtopped  the 
head  of  its  Italian  father.  Italian  art-literature  contains  no  book  which, 
in  exaggeration  and  extravagance,  comes  in  the  least  near  to  our  Wendel 
Dietterlein  :  compared  to  Dietterlein,  Pozzo  is  a  chaste  spirit.'  '  Dietter- 
lein is  in  very  truth  an  architectural  Hell-Breughel.' 

4  Figur  149  ;  see  Andresen,  ii.  270.     Cf.  the  figure  76  in  Lubke,  i.  168. 


WRITERS   SUPPORTING   ANTIQUE-ITALIAN    ART      111 

Such  was  the  depth  of  decadence  to  which  architec- 
ture and  sculpture  had  come  in  the  sixteenth  century 
in  Germany.  All  that  theorisers  asserted  as  to  the 
right  of  giving  free  play  to  the  fancy  in  the  invention 
of  new  forms  was  abundantly  carried  out  in  practice. 
Even  Dietterlein's  wild  eccentricities  found  many 
imitators.1 

1  See  R.  Dohme  in  the  Gesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst,  i.  327,  369  ;  Ebe, 
i.  235-236.  Liibke  (i.  170)  inveighs  against  Dietterlein's  '  veritable 
witches'  sabbath  of  the  baroque  style,  then  sowing  its  wild  oats,'  but  he 
makes  the  Jesuit  Order  responsible  for  the  imitations  of  this  Protestant 
architect.  '  It  was  the  time,'  he  says,  '  in  which  the  Jesuit  Order  was 
setting  in  motion  every  possible  means — legitimate  and  illegitimate — 
for  the  advancement  of  the  newly  rekindled  Catholicism.  The  fantastic 
abortions  of  the  baroque  style  were  admirably  adapted  to  this  purpose.' 
Woltmann  (Kunst  im  Elsass,  p.  315)  says  that  this  remark  of  Liibke  is 
excellent.  While,  however,  Liibke  at  first  accuses  Dietterlein  of  having 
produced  a  '  veritable  witches'  sabbath,'  at  p.  270  he  says  eulogistically  : 
'  The  Strassburg  masters  still  retain  something  of  the  character  of  the  old 
German  masons'  guilds,  and  continue  to  stand  in  active  relation  to  Ger- 
many '  [but  did  the  Strassburgers  at  that  time  already  belong  to  France, 
and,  nevertheless,  '  still  stand  in  active  relationship  to  Germany '  !]. 
At  the  end  of  the  century  it  is  Wendel  Dietterlein  who,  summoned  to 
Stuttgart,  publishes  there  his  widely  influential  copper-engravings.  At 
p.  376  Liibke  reckons  him  among  '  the  best  artists  of  the  time.' 


112  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


CHAPTER  VI 

SECTION  III. — ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  AFTER 
THE  ANTIQUE -ITALIAN  MANNER —OSTENTATION  OF 
THE    GREAT   PEOPLE   AND    OF   THE    PRINCES  1 

From   the   very   outset   the   new   architecture,    which 
was    described    as    German    Renaissance    art,    had    no 

1  '  German  Renaissance  is    the    standing   name  for  all  present-day 
German  art  achievement,  art  instruction,  and  so  forth,  above  all  in  the 
sphere  of  industrial  art.     It  is  believed  that  in  the  architectural  and 
decorative  art  of  the  sixteenth  century  there  lurks  a  genuine  national 
element,  by  the  development  of  which  German  art  will  advance  to  new, 
independent  blossoming.     An  egregious  blunder,  which,  in  view  of  the 
confusion  it  has  already  caused,  will  scarcely  enjoy  lengthy  duration  ' 
(Wilhelm  Bode,  Oesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst,  ii.  228).     If,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  are  to  believe  Woltmann,  this  is  the  state  of  the  case :   '  In 
Italy  it  was  easier  than  elsewhere  to  discard  the  Gothic  style  when  it  had 
outlived  itself,  for  its  loss  there  was  made  up  for  by  the  renewed  connec- 
tion with  the  classic  traditions  of  the  land.     When  this  "  classicised  " 
Renaissance  style  found  its  way  into  Germany,  it  came  as  no  mere  foreign, 
imported  product,  but  as  something  which  had  been  long  yearned  after, 
for  which  the  way  had  long  been  preparing  by  the  work  of  indigenous 
craft,  and  it  was  incorporated  in  its  new  home  in  a  manner  adapted  to 
the  national  characteristics  of  Germany.     By  the  development  of  Re- 
naissance architecture  German  architecture  received  a  new  impulse,  and 
passed  through  a  fresh  period  of  excellence  '   (Aus  vier  Jahrhunderten, 
pp.  19,  26).     In  what  this  so-called  '  new  period  of  excellence  '  consisted, 
R.  Dohme,  comparing  it  with  the  mediaeval  period,  has  admirably  de- 
scribed :   '  The  mediaeval  development  presents  a  picture  of  progressive 
ripening  to  a  definite  goal,  for  the  realisation  of  which  artists  of  different 
times  and  places  all  worked  unconsciously.     When  ecclesiastical  archi- 
tecture had  completed  its  task  of  bringing  the  building  of  five-nave  cathe- 
drals to  the  utmost  pitch  of  perfection,  another  variant  of  the  problem 
presented  itself  in  the  construction  of  the  (so-called)  hall-churches,  which 
lasted  to  the  end  of  the  period.     With  the  Renaissance,  however,  there 
set  in,  instead  of  the  accustomed  definite  working  towards  a  well-define:! 


'ANTIQUE-ITALIAN'   ART   IN    GERMANY  113 

actual  style  of  its  own,  least  of  all  had  it  a  '  national ' 
style :  it  evolved  no  organic  development  of  new  forms 

goal,  an  aimless,  uncertain  groping  and  feeling  about  in  all  directions, 
and  the  building   of  churches  and  cathedrals,   previously  the  leading 
feature  in  architecture,  was  thrown  into  the  background  by  the  Reforma- 
tion movement.     But  secular  architecture  also  suffered  from  the  political 
conditions  of  the  country.'     '  The  political  and  financial  might  of  the 
German  princes  was  frittered  away  in  the  pursuit  of  personal  and  private 
interests  ;  such,  also,  was  the  case  with  the  power  of  the  imperial  house.' 
'  As  in  politics,  so,  too,  in  architecture,  the  absence  of  large,  impersonal 
motives  made  itself  felt.     To  such  an  extent  did  the  art  of  the  period 
concern  itself  with  small  things  that  even  the  works  executed  for  princely 
patrons  were  small  in  conception.'     '  Even  the  one  ecclesiastical  prince  in 
whom  there   was   some   vein   of    the   Italian  Maecenas,  Cardinal  Albert 
of  Brandenburg,  notwithstanding  the  vastness  of  his  aspirations,  never 
but  once  rose  to  an  elevated  point  of  view,  and  even  this  once  the  execu- 
tion ended  in  commonplaceness.      I  allude  to  the    cemetery  at  Halle, 
planned  on  a  monumental  scale,  with  its  circumambient  arcades.     It 
is  in  its  way  a  unique  achievement  in  Germany,  but  it  lacks  all  grandeur 
of  execution.     How  poor  and  feeble  its  arcades  seem  compared  with  the 
artistic  distinction  of  every  loggia  on  a  Tuscan  villa  !  '     Even  the  most 
important  achievement  of  the  Renaissance  in  Germany,  the  Otto-Henry 
wing  of  the  castle  of  Heidelberg,  is  mere  patchwork.     '  When  the  Elector 
Otto    Henry  had  this  wing,  which  bears  his  name,  added  to  the  castle 
at  Heidelberg,  it  did  not  occur  to  him,  as  it  would  have  done  to  any  Italian 
or  Frenchman,  that  the  old  irregular  buildings  should  be  remodelled  in 
order  to  harmonise  with  the  new  part.     His  only  thought  was  to  add  to 
the  old  medley  of  buildings  a  new  structure,  and  to  make  this  new  part 
as  perfect  as  possible.     The  whole  of  Germany  cannot  show,  as  the  out- 
come of  this  period,  one  grandly  conceived  and  throughout  finely  executed 
work,  such,  for  instance,  among  many  other  specimens  of  the  Romanesque 
period,  as  the  citadel  of  Henry  the  Lion  at  Brunswick,  or,  from  the  Gothic 
epoch,  the  headquarters  of  the  Teutonic  Order  at  Marienburg,  and,  at 
the  threshold  of  the  seventeenth-century  art,  the  residential  building  at 
Munich.'     It  is  only  in  the  sphere  of  the  minor  arts  that  any  '  artistic 
power '  is  still  displayed,  but  the  influence  of  craftsmanship  on  archi- 
tectonic work  is  not  advantageous  to  the  latter.     For  the  taste  for  elaborate 
working  up  of  details  gradually  overgrows  and  stifles  the  fundamental 
structural  ideas.     Added  to  this  was  the  wilful  misinterpretation  of  the 
classic  canons  concerning  the  mutual  relationship  of  parts  ;  so  that  at 
last,  at  the  highest  period  of  the  Renaissance,  scarcely  any  difference 
is  made  between  the  forms  and  mouldings  on  the  wooden  wainscottings 
in  the  interior  of  houses  and  the  ornamental  stone  carvings  of  the  facades  ; 
for  the  whole  style  altogether  lacks  the  constructive  basis  which  restricts 
ornament  within   definite  limits,   and  is  nothing  more  than  arbitrary 

VOL.  XI.  I 


114  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

originating  in  constructive  ideas ;  on  the  contrary,  this 
so-called  new  art  consisted  more  or  less  only  in  the 
revival  of  antique  modes  of  decoration.1  It  merely 
repeated — often,  indeed,  confusing  and  spoiling — all  the 
new  elements  that  the  fifteenth  century  had  produced 
as  regards  enclosure  of  space  and  treatment  of  pro- 
portions ;  while  it  borrowed  the  language  of  form 
either  directly  from  the  Italian  art  which  it  only  half 
understood,  or  else,  in  the  North,  from  Flemish  art 
which  it  wofully  distorted.2 

Work  of  real  merit  and  distinction  was  only  pro- 
decoration  dominating  and  displacing  the  original  forms  at  its  pleasure, 
and  having  no  inherent  connection  with  the  inward  motive  of  the  struc- 
ture '  (Gesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst,  i.  290-291.  See  also  C.  Schnaase  in 
v.  Lutzow,  Zeitschr.  ix.  212).  Lotz  (Statistik,  i.  15-16)  says  :  '  Ere  long 
the  whole  wealth  of  methods  which  Christian  art  had  evolved  during 
centuries  of  unparalleled  development  were  all  cast  aside.  With  a  few 
rare  exceptions  the  works  of  the  Renaissance  are  destitute  of  true  life, 
of  inward  law  (inevitableness),  and  they  bear  the  stamp  of  arbitrary 
superficiality,  or  spiritual  barrenness.  As  for  the  churches,  so  far  as 
they  are  anything  more  than  mere  translations  from  the  Gothic,  as  the 
Church  of  St.  Mary  at  Wolfenbiittel,  and  the  superstructure  on  the  tower 
of  St.  Kilian  at  Heilbronn,  the  Renaissance  style  suits  them  least  of  all.' 

1  Kugler,  Kleine  Schriften,  i.  394 :  '  It  was  a  mongrel  growth,  and 
even  worse  than  this,  just  as  was  the  old  Roman  art.'  Cf.  Liibke,  Plastik, 
ii.  678-679.  Concerning  the  pre-eminently  decorative  character  of  Re- 
naissance art,  see  also  Carriere,  Renaissance  et  Reformation,  pp.  70-73. 

2  Wilhelm  Bode,  in  the  Gesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst,  ii.  228,  says  : 
'  German  Renaissance  architectural  decoration  has  little  perfect  work 
to  show'  (v.  Lutzow,  xi.  111).  'In  the  later  German  buildings  con- 
structed according  to  Renaissance  forms  it  is  plainly  manifest  that  the 
painter  and  designer  had  been  at  work  before  the  architect.  All  that  is 
blamed,  and  justly  so,  in  German  Renaissance  architecture — the  want  of 
regard  to  the  material,  the  incongruous  and  excessive  ornamentation  by 
which  the  structure  is  always  overloaded  and  obscured— is  quite  easily 
explained,  and  ceases  to  be  a  matter  of  reproach  (!)  when  these  forms 
of  the  designer  are  found  used  with  decorative  intent '  (Springer,  Bilder, 
ii.  38-39).  The  Italian  art  theoriser,  Leon  Battista  Alberti,  '  actually 
derived  the  art  of  building  from  a  pre-existing  school  of  painting.  The 
architect,  he  said,  had  got  his  first  ideas  of  pillars  and  beams  from  the 
painter '  (Burckhardt,  History  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy,  p.  42). 


'ANTIQUE-ITALIAN'   ART   IN    GERMANY  115 

duced  when  the  architect  still  held  firmly  to  the  old 
traditions,  and  to  the  Gothic  principles,1  or  else  turned 
entirely  to  the  Italian  Eenaissance. 

When,  through  study  of  the  numerous  textbooks 
of  art,  a  closer  acquaintance  had  been  gained  with  the 
models  and  methods  of  ancient  art,  these  last  came  to 
be  combined  with  Gothic  forms,  and  thus  there  arose  a 
so-called  '  mixed  style  '  (mongrel  style  would  be  a  better 
name)  which  very  soon  passed  into  the  baroque  style, 
or  senseless,  immoderate  piling  up  of  ornamentation. 
At  first  the  artists  went  to  the  plant  world  for  their 
models  for  decoration  ;  but  by  the  middle  of  the  century 
cartouche  work  and  metal  style  work  had  already  come 
into  fashion ;  all  sense  of  necessary  correspondence 
between  the  structure  as  a  whole  and  the  decoration 
of  the  structural  parts  disappeared,  and  no  such  thing* 
as  true  architecture  any  longer  existed.  Regard  for 
the  nature  of  the  material— so  strenuously  insisted  on 
by  Gothic  art — was  entirely  forgotten  ;  the  technique 
of  wood-carving  was  applied  equally  to  stone  ;  the  stone- 

1  '  The  principal  charm  of  those  buildings  which  the  Renaissance 
artists  recommended  as  models  is  found  in  the  sections  which  have  sur- 
vived from  the  Gothic  period  in  spite  of  the  influence  of  the  Renaissance, 
and  their  charm  is  due  to  the  fact  that  in  these  portions  the  German 
character  is  not  completely  denied  and  the  old  traditions  altogether  dis- 
regarded ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  Gothic  root-principles  are  kept  steadily 
in  sight,  while  it  is  only  with  regard  to  externals  that  the  artist  borrows 
more  or  less  from  the  antique.  Precisely  the  same  thing  happened, 
moreover,  in  other  countries,  especially  in  France,  where  a  considerable 
number  of  architectural  works  present  the  same  characteristics  as  do 
those  in  our  own  country  which  are  labelled  "  Renaissance."  There  can 
therefore  be  no  question  of  specific  German  art,  or  of  a  "  national  "  style. 
All  the  same,  the  old  masters  of  the  early  Renaissance  did  admirable 
work.  In  them  alone  mediaeval  tradition  was  not  quite  extinguished, 
and  they  had,  moreover,  at  their  disposal  the  earlier  technique  which 
was  so  especially  brilliant  during  the  late  Gothic  period  '  (Reichensperger, 
Tjxit  Profanarchitectur,  p.  39). 

I  2 


116  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

cutters  borrowed  from  ironworkers  ideas  for  the  orna- 
mentation of  gate  pillars,  columns,  and  socles  ;  decora- 
tive designs  for  wooden  buildings  were  taken  from  stone 
architecture ;  for  allegorical  or  figurative  decoration 
designs  were  collected  from  all  the  various  branches  of 
art ; l  the  decoration  of  inside  spaces  was  treated  in  the 
same  manner  as  that  of  external  facades.  There  was 
aimless  expenditure  of  energy  and  invention  in  all 
directions  and  of  all  kinds ;  pillars  were  designed 
merely  for  the  sake  of  cornices,  cornices  for  the  sake  of 
mouldings.  Thus  ornament  became  the  principal  ele- 
ment of  the  new  style,  the  actual  basis  of  all  architec- 
ture. The  voluptuousness  and  ostentation  of  the  time 
showed  itself  in  the  fashions  of  decoration  which, 
keeping  pace  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  very  soon 
developed  all  sorts  of  monstrosities.1'     In  the  depart- 

1  Springer  (Bilder,  ii.  152)  says  :  '  It  is  precisely  this  mixture  of  kinds, 
this  miscellaneous  borrowing  from  different  branches  of  art,  which  con- 
stitutes the  "  independence  and  originality  of  the  decorative  art."  It  is 
in  the  domain  of  ornament  that  we  must  look  for  the  artistic  value  of  the 
German  Renaissance.' 

~  The  course  of  development  indicated  above  is  also  exemplified  in 
the  district  of  Old  Nether  Saxony — above  all,  in  the  beautiful  and  artistic 
town  of  Hildesheim — where  the  German  wooden  architecture,  which  has 
lately  attained  to  honourable  recognition,  put  forth  its  richest  and 
noblest  fruits,  and  has  lasted  down  to  the  present  day.  The  Gothic 
wooden  houses  built  before  the  coming  in  of  the  Renaissance  still  retain 
intact  that  indigenous  character  which  resulted  from  an  harmonious 
combination  of  style  and  material.  Their  boldly  projecting,  picturesque 
profiles  are  produced  by  the  overhanging  of  the  different  stories,  each  of 
which  projects  considerably  beyond  the  one  beneath  it.  By  means  of 
wooden  struts  (called  in  German  Kopfbander)  the  pressure  of  the  pro- 
jecting joists  or  beams  is  thrown  on  the  uprights,  which  last  are  fixed 
firmly  by  cross-beams.  The  angles  formed  by  the  struts  are  filled  in  with 
planks,  embellished  by  appropriate  painting  or  flat  carving.  In  like 
manner  the  struts  are  decorated  with  figures  and  coats  of  arms,  the 
horizontal  beams  with  friezes,  the  beam-heads  are  carved  into  faces, 
the  doors  and  windows  are  framed  with  carving,  and  the  bricks  of  the 
panels  are  arranged  in  varying  patterns  ;  the  uprights  only  are  left  bare 


ART   OF   THE   CATHOLIC   RESTORATION   PERIOD       117 

ment  of  ecclesiastical  architecture,  strict  adhesion  to 
the  Gothic  style  continued  in  some  districts  until  long 

of  ornament.  Above  the  lower  structure,  often  exceeding  it  in  height, . 
there  rises  a  steep,  so-called  saddle-roof,  which  in  Westphalia  turns  the 
gable  end  towards  the  street,  but  east  of  the  Weser  runs  parallel  to  the 
street.  Even  after  the  advent  of  the  Renaissance  this  feature  of  Gothic 
architecture  was  still  retained  with  Nether  Saxon  tenacity  :  it  is  only 
in  the  ornamentation  that  '  antique  forms  '  appear.  Such,  for  instance, 
is  the  case  with  the  most  beautiful  creation  of  wooden  architecture — the 
Hildesheim  Butchers'  Hall  of  the  year  1529,  a  mighty  edifice  with  eight 
overhanging  stories,  which  looks  majestically  down  on  the  beautiful 
market-place.  The  carving  on  the  horizontal  beams,  the  beam-heads  and 
the  struts,  which  belong  mostly  to  the  new  style,  are  of  consummate  beauty 
and  masterly  technique.  The  further  course  of  the  sixteenth  century 
shows  the  struggle  between  the  wooden  Gothic  and  the  Renaissance 
forms  taken  from  stone  architecture.  Instead  of  filling  in  the  spaces 
with  bricks,  after  1540  they  are  filled  in  with  panels,  and  from  1578  these 
panels  give  place  to  edged  or  rounded  staves.  The  figures  of  saints,  so 
beloved  of  old,  have  given  place  to  mythological  and  allegorical  figures, 
which,  being  quite  unfamiliar  to  the  people,  have  to  be  made  intelligible 
by  the  addition  of  their  names.  At  the  end  of  the  century  we  have  a 
translation  of  stone  into  wooden  architecture.  The  struts  are  worked 
up  like  stone  consoles,  the  uprights  have  become  carved  pilasters  ;  dentils, 
strings  of  pearls,  and  so  forth,  displace  the  Gothic  mouldings  which  cor- 
responded to  the  nature  of  the  wood  ;  the  horizontal  beams  have  become 
architraves  ;  the  window-parapets  metopes.  The  ornamentation,  seldom 
designed  from  plants,  and  taken  generally  from  stone  or  metal  work,  is 
modelled  flat,  and  stands  out  with  sharp  edges.  We  notice  only  one 
constructive  innovation  at  this  period,  and  that  is  the  so-called  Aus- 
luchten  (i.e.  look-outs),  a  rectangular  projection  in  the  facade  which 
rises  from  the  ground  like  a  bow-window,  and  at  a  later  date  is  actually 
built  up  to  the  roof.  In  many  cases,  moreover,  instead  of  there  being 
only  one  of  these  projections,  there  are  several  to  the  same  building, 
so  that  the  facade  is  divided  into  groups,  with  a  very  picturesque  result. 
It  must,  indeed,  be  acknowledged  that  the  houses  at  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth and  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  owing  to  their 
felicitous  situation,  their  picturesque  design,  and  their  wealth  of  orna- 
ment, produce  a  very  favourable  impression.  It  is  not  until  the  grue- 
some times  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  that  the  complete  decay  of  wooden 
architecture  begins  ;  its  characteristic  features  are  gradually  effaced, 
and  finally  the  overhanging  stories  disappear,  and  with  these  the  last 
reminiscence  of  mediaeval  art.  Concerning  the  high  buildings  of  Hildes- 
heim, see,  in  addition  to  the  work  of  C.  Lochner,  the  admirable  article 
of    Pastor    Graen,   in    the    JahresbericM   des   Giirres-Vereins    for    1891  ; 


118  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

past  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  ;  but  in  conse- 
quence of  the  disturbed  conditions  and  the  material 
distress  brought  about  by  the  religious  revolution,  we 
find  that  in  Catholic  Germany  also,  as  compared  with 
earlier  periods,  few  important  buildings  appeared  for 
a  long  space  of  time.1  It  was  not  till  the  work  of 
Catholic  restoration  had  been  accomplished  that  this 
condition  of  things  was  changed.  The  re- establish- 
ment of  Church  and  religious  life,  which  took  place 
under  the  influence  of  this  strong  ecclesiastical  move- 
ment, was  followed  by  the  production  of  a  long  series 
of  sacred  monuments  and  works  of  art  which  almost 
all  belong  to  the  new  style  of  the  epoch,  i.e.  the  Renais- 
sance." 

Chiefly  in  Bavaria  and  Austria,  but  also  in  many 
other  ecclesiastical  territories,  new  churches  sprang  up  ; 
and  at  the  same  time  old  ones  were  remodelled  in  the 
style  of  the  day,  not  always  to  the  advantage  of  true 
art.  The  churches  were  refurnished  with  the  products 
of  Renaissance  art,  often  in  such  abundance  that  the 
olden-time  monuments  completely  disappeared.3  How- 
ever much  this  new  art  may  be  condemned  from  an 

S.  and  K.  Steinacker,  Die  Holzbaukunst  Ooslars.  Ursachen  ihrer  Bliite  und 
ihres  Verfalls.     Diss.  Heidelberg,  1899. 

1  Lubke,  Renaissance  in  Germany,  ii.  230  ;  Neumann,  pp.  112-113. 

2  Amongst  other  additions  built  on  to  Gothic  churches  may  be  noticed 
those  in  Magdeburg  up  to  the  year  1520,  in  Zerbst  up  to  1530,  in  Zwickau 
up  to  1536,  in  Merseburg  up  to  1540,  in  Xanten,  on  the  Lower  Rhine, 
up  to  1525,  in  Liidinghausen,  in  Westphalia,  up  to  1558,  in  Miinster 
up  to  1568.  In  Bavaria  and  Suabia  there  was  even  more  energetic  action 
in  this  respect :  in  Amberg  up  to  1534  ;  in  Freising  up  to  1545  ;  in  Scheyern 
up  to  1565  ;  in  Lauingen  up  to  1576  ;  in  Landshut  up  to  1580  ;  in  Bob- 
lingen  up  to  1587.  In  the  Church  of  St.  Ulrich,  in  Augsburg,  additional 
building  went  on  up  to  1594.  See  H.  Otte,  Handbuch  der  kirchlichen 
Kunstarchaulogie,  p.  506  ff. 

**  !  Graus,  in  the  Kirchenschmuck,  1897,  p.  41. 


ART   OF   THE    CATHOLIC   RESTORATION   PERIOD       119 

aesthetic  point   of  view,  innumerable  specimens  of  it' 
bear  striking  witness  to  vitality  of  faith,   and  pious 
delight  in  beautifying  the  holy  sanctuaries,  and  to  the 
undoubted   merits   of   the   Catholic   restoration   which 
resulted  from  the  Tridentine  Church  reform.1 

From  the  artistic  standpoint  it  was  decidedly  an 
advantage  that  the  two  German  princely  houses  which 
remained  true  to  the  old  Church,  the  Hapsburgers  and 
the  Wittelsbachers,  did  not  employ  artists  of  the 
'  empire,'  who  would  have  built  and  sculptured  and 
painted  in  the  German  Renaissance  style ;  but  that 
they  sent  for  Italians,  who  worked  in  genuine,  southern 
Renaissance  methods  familiar  to  them  from  their  birth. 
'  In  this  choice  of  foreign  artists,  which  had  such 
important  results  on  German  native  art,  the  deter- 
mining causes  were  the  close  intercourse  of  the  Houses 
of  Hapsburg  and  Wittelsbach  with  the  great  Catholic 
centre,  imperial  Rome ;  their  connection  with  the 
reigning  families  of  Italy  (at  Mantua  and  Florence), 
as  also  with  the  Spanish  Government  at  Milan ;  and, 
lastly,  the  support  which  the  champions  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  Germany  enjoyed  pre-eminently  in  Italy, 
the  headquarters  of  Catholicism.'  The  fact,  also,  that 
the  Italian  masters  in  the  art  of  fortress-building 
enjoyed  a  monopoly  of  fame  had  much  to  do  with  their 
transportation  to  Austria  and  Bavaria.2  Masters  of 
the  Venetian  school  of  Sansovino  had  been  employed 
in  Prague  by  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  I.  since  1534. 
Archduke  Charles  II.  followed  the  example  of  his  father. 

**  x  Graus,  Kirchenschmuck,  1897,  p.  41. 

**  -  Graus,  I.  c.  1897,  pp.  41-43.  Concerning  Italian  fortress-builders 
in  Styria,  see  Wassler  in  the  Mitihe.il.  d.  Vereins  /.  Geschichte  in  Steier- 
mark,  pp.  43,  167  ff.  For  general  matters,  see  also  Bezold,  Baukunst, 
p.  16. 


120  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

•Under  him  and  under  Archduke  Ferdinand,  there  grew 
up  at  the  court  an  active  art  life,  the  history  of  which 
has  only  lately  become  known.1  Of  special  importance 
as  to  results  was  the  appointment  of  Salustro  Peruzzi, 
the  son  of  the  famous  Roman  artist,  who  transplanted 
Renaissance  art  directly,  and  in  all  its  purity,  into 
Styria.2 

A  still  more  important  centre  for  art  in  Catholic 
Germany  was  the  town  of  Munich.  While  here,  under 
Albert  V.,  and  above  all  under  William  V.,  preference 
was  given  to  religious  art,  at  the  imperial  court  at 
Prague  and  at  the  archducal  court  at  Innsbruck 
secular  art  held  the  prominent  place.3 

Amongst  the  ecclesiastical  princes,  Julius  of  Mespel- 
brunn  (1573-1618),  prince-bishop  of  Wiirzburg,  was 
especially  distinguished  for  enthusiastic  love  of  archi- 
tecture, and  for  genuine  religious  zeal  in  the  erection  of 
sacred  edifices.  At  his  death  it  was  calculated  that  as 
many  as  three  hundred  churches  in  his  diocese  had  been 
either  built  or  restored  by  him.4     The  most  striking 

**  J  J.  Wassler,  Das  Kunstleben  am  Hofe  zu  Grazunter  den  Erzherzogen 
Karl  II.  und  Ferdinand,  Graz,  1898. 

2  The  most  striking  monument  of  the  reign  of  the  Archduke  Charles 
is  the  beautiful  mausoleum  in  the  cathedral  of  Seckau  (1587).  '  Although 
it  is  not  an  independent  structure,  it  exhibits  such  abundance  of  artistic 
work  in  marble  and  metal,  stuccos  and  paintings,  that  it  may  be  said  to 
present  a  whole  storehouse  of  the  art  capacity  of  that  period  '  **  (cf.  the 
fine  article  by  J.  Graus,  '  Ein  Andenken  an  die  Erzherzogin  Maria  von 
Baj-ern,'  in  the  Kirchenschmack,  1897,  No.  4). 

**  -■  Fuller  details  below. 

4  In  the  'Franconian  prize  poem'  of  1604  it  is  boasted  that:  'There 
were  so  many  churches  built  that — 

Well  it  might  be  wondered  at 
How  it  thus  had  happened  that 
So  many  churches  new  had  been 
Erected  in  one  Prince's  reign, 
So  many  old  ones  renovated, 
Enlarged,  embellished,  decorated 


SACRED    ARCHITECTURE    (JESUIT   CHURCHES)       121 

of  his  achievements  are  the  Juliussfital  with  the  Church 
of  St.  Kilian  at  Wiirzburg,  and  the  university  building 
in  the  same  place  with  the  church  adjoining  it.  It  is 
worthy  of  special  mention  that  he  employed  almost 
exclusively  German  master-builders  ;  in  1609  he  found 
himself  for  the  first  time  compelled  to  appoint  an 
Italian  as  master-builder  of  the  cathedral.1  The 
numerous  churches  built  by  him  are  known  by  their 
'  pointed  towers,'  which,  says  a  contemporary  bio- 
grapher, '  everywhere  proclaim  what  districts  belong 
and  are  subject  to  the  Bishop  of  Wiirzburg  and  Duke 
of  Franconia.'  2  Of  any  special  '  Julius  style"  there  can 
be  no  question ;  for  Bishop  Julius,  mixing  up  Gothic 
and  baroque,  practised  the  new  art  methods  in  precisely 
the  same  way  as  was  done  all  over  the  rest  of  Germany. 
The  so-called  '  Jesuit  style,'  also,  did  not  exist  in 
Germany  until  after  the  first  decades  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  The  churches  and  colleges  which  were  either 
built  by  the  Jesuits,  or  built  to  their  orders,  correspond 
throughout  to  the  other  buildings  of  the  period.3     They 

1  Fuller  details  concerning  the  buildings  and  the  whole  art  activity 
of  the  bishop,  in  Niederrnayer's  Kunstgesch.  von  Wiirzburg  (Wiirzburg, 
18G0),  pp.  265-280.     Cf.  Sighart,  p.  678  ff. 

2  Niederrnayer,  p.  271  ;  Buchinger,  Julius  Echter  von  Mespelbrunn, 
p.  206. 

**  '  '  If,  however,  there  is  any  distinctly  Jesuit  feature  in  the  churches 
of  the  Order,'  says  Graus  (Kirchenschmuck,  1897,  p.  107),  '  I  should  say 
that,  besides  the  strict  conformity  of  means  to  end  which  they  exhibit, 
and  the  perfect  fitness  for  worship,  it  is  a  certain  nobility  in  form,  ani 
still  more  so  in  the  material.  Marble  altars,  incised  carvings  (intaglio), 
and  inlaid  work  (intarsia)  of  precious  coloured  stone,  and  a  wealth  of 
sculpture  are  predominant.  Impressive  dignity,  dazzling  brilliancy,  and 
majestic  proportions  all  combined  to  stimulate  solemn  and  festive  feelings. 
In  the  management  of  festive  pomp  for  religious  ends  the  Jesuits  were 
eminently  distinguished :  buildings,  altars,  pictures,  and  statues  all 
served  to  raise  the  people  to  a  state  of  festive  delight  in  the  super-earthly 
treasures  of  the  life  beyond.     The  costliness  of  the  stuffs,  the  exuberance 


122  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

belong,  however,  to  those  of  their  works  which  are  the 
least  worth  knowing.  The  Church  of  St.  Michael, 
built  by  Duke  William  V.  for  the  Order  at  Munich 
(1582-1597),  is  the  grandest  ecclesiastical  creation  of 
the  so-called  German  Renaissance.1  It  is  also  '  the 
grandest  ecclesiastical  monument  of  the  Order,  and 
the  clearest  mirror  of  its  popular  influence.'  2 

of  ornament,  the  life  and  energy  in  the  attitudes  of  the  figures  of  saints, 
the  splendour  of  the  vessels  and  the  draperies  on  the  altars,  the  swelling 
music  at  divine  service,  all  combined  with  the  wonderful  display  of 
decoration  to  arouse  a  veritable  jubilee  in  the  minds  of  the  people. 
Furthermore,  it  is  very  important  to  credit  the  Jesuits  with  never  pro- 
curing their  artists  from  a  distance,  but  invariably  making  use  of  the 
labour  forces  which  they  had  found  well  tested  at  home.'  See  also 
Bezold,  p.  130  ff. 

1  So  says  Liibke,  ii.  22.  He  calls  it  '  an  eminent  achievement  as 
regards  technical  construction.'  '  The  interior  is  of  extraordinary  beauty 
and  grandeur  of  proportions,  while  the  moderation  and  simplicity  of  the 
decoration  enhance  the  beautiful  effect  of  spaciousness :  no  contem- 
porary building  in  Italy  can  compare  with  it.'  Ebe  (p.  236)  dilates  on 
'  the  cylindric  vault  of  the  nave  '  as  '  one  of  the  most  splendid  vaults  of 
all  times.'  The  Jesuits  Eisenreich,  Haindl,  and  Valerian  drew  up  the 
first  plans  for  the  St.  Michael's  Church.  The  actual  master-builder  was, 
at  first,  Wilhelm  Eggl '  (Fr.  Trautmann,  Jahrbuch  fiir  Miinchener  Oesch. 
i.  21).  **  To  the  Estates,  who  pointed  to  the  evil  condition  of  finances, 
William  V.  declared  that  in  this  sinful  age  the  wrath  of  God  must  be 
propitiated.  There  were,  besides,  other  great  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
building,  but  they  did  not  discourage  the  pious  Duke  ;  see  Riezler,  iv.  631. 
See  also  Gurlitt,  p.  16  ;  Bezold  (Baukunst),  p.  117  ff.,  and  A.  Schulz,  Die 
St.  Micliaelskirche  in  Miinchen.  Festschrift  zum  300jahrigen  Jubildicm 
der  Einweihung,  Munich,  1897.  The  designs  for  the  Church  of  St.  Michael 
at  Munich  were  made  by  Wendel  Dietrich,  who  was  court  architect  to 
Duke  William  from  1587  to  1597,  for  which  office  he  received  the  then 
not  inconsiderable  pay  of  300  florins.  It  is  probable  also  that  Wendel 
Dietrich  drew  the  plans  for  the  Jesuit  Church  of  St.  Salvator  at  Augs- 
burg, which  was  built  in  1580  and  1581.  See  Augsburg  in  der  Renaissance- 
zeit,  Bamberg,  1893. 

**  "'  See  J.  Graus  in  the  Kirchenschmuck,  1897,  pp.  102-103.  This 
meritorious  art  historian  remarks  further  on  :  "The  magnificently  spacious 
interior  of  this  church — unique  in  Germany — is  richly  roofed  in  with 
architectural  device  and  stucco  decoration  ;  but  the  internal  decoration 
clearly  shows  that  it  was  no  longer  the  feeling  of   Italian  masters,  but 


JESUIT    CHURCHES  123 

The  Jesuit  church  at  Coblentz  (1609-1617)  is  also 
an  imposing  ecclesiastical  edifice  of  technical  excellence.1 
At  Dillingen  (1607-1617)  a  beautiful  church  was  built 
for  the  Order  of  the  Jesuits.2  The  sumptuous  orna- 
mentation of  these  churches  is  thoroughly  in  character 
with  the  taste  of  the  period  ;  '  the  naves  extended  wide 
in  admired  popular  fashion,  the  decoration  and  paintings 
frolicked  in  festive  abundance,  the  architectural  struc- 
ture of  the  altars,  with  enormous  paintings  between 
resplendent  golden  statues  of  saints,  was  most  im- 
posing.' 3  To  a  later  date  belongs  the  long  series  of 
convent  churches,  grand  also  in  their  way,  which 
were  built  (in  South  Germany  especially)  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries  in  the  baroque  style.4 

Protestant  Germany  has  nothing  to  set  beside  this 
vigorous  activity.  New  churches  were,  comparatively 
speaking,  seldom  built,5  and  many  old  ones  were  de- 

nortkern  taste  with  its  "  German  Renaissance,"  which  influenced  the 
completion  of  the  building.  The  facade  also  displays  the  same  charac- 
teristics ;  its  storied  divisions  and  the  gable  forms  remind  one  of  the 
style  of  a  German  burgher  house.  The  fittings  and  furniture  of  the 
church,  the  altars,  choir  stalls,  altar  screens,  &c,  are  in  full  keeping 
with  the  dignity  of  the  interior.  The  high  altar,  with  the  beautiful 
tabernacle  and  the  large  picture  of  the  holy  archangel  Michael,  is  a  work 
of  Master  Wendel  Dietrich  of  Augsburg,  done  whilst  the  church  was 
being  built.' 

1  Liibke,  ii.  462  ;  Kugler,  Kleine  Schriften,  ii.  249.  **  See  also  Gurlitt, 
p.  20. 

**  -  S.  0.  von  Lochner,  Die  J esuitenhirche  zu  Dillingen,  Stuttgart,  1895. 

**  3  See  the  important  article  of  J.  Graus,  '  Von  alten  Jesuitenkircken 
und  Jesuitenkunst,'  in  the  Kirchenschmuck,  1897,  No.  8  ff.  See  especially 
No.  11  respecting  the  Jesuit  church  at  Laibach,  built  in  1613-1615. 

**  i  Keppler,  Wanderung  durch  W iirttembergs  letzte  Klosterbauten  (Hist.- 
pol.  Bl.  1888),  Wiirttemb.  Kunstalterthiimer,  xxxiv. 

**  5  The  church  built  by  the  Protestant  Provincial  Estates  at  Klagen- 
furt  is  worthy  of  notice.  This  house  of  God,  consecrated  in  1597,  ex- 
hibits throughout,  both  in  design  and  construction,  the  traditions  and 
methods  of  Catholic  baroque  churches  ;  see  Grazer,  Kirclienschmuck,  1884, 


124  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

stroyed.  In  some  Protestant  religious  buildings  Gothic 
influence  continues  for  a  longish  period,  and  a  style 
obtains  which  is  an  amalgam  of  Gothic  and  Renais- 
sance. The  Prince  of  Wiirttemberg's  architect,  Henry 
Schickhardt  of  Herrenberg  (1558-1634),  built  a  series 
of  churches  in  the  mongrel  style.1 

In  the  interior  of  the  Protestant  chapel  of  the  castle 
at  Liebenstein  near  Heilbronn  the  vaulting  rests  on  ribs, 
but  instead  of  pillars  there  are  Corinthian  columns  ; 
in  front  there  are  two  Renaissance  porches,  with  a 
pediment  above  with  pilasters,  medallions,  volutes,  and 
obelisks  :    all  exquisite,  but  profane.2 

p.  44  ff.,  and  1897,  p.  129.  It  passed,  in  1604,  into  the  possession  of  the 
Jesuits — a  case  that  stands  alone. 

**  :  Keppler,  Wiirttemb.  Kunstalterthiimer,  xxxiv. 

**  -  Keppler,  Wiirttemb.  Kunstalterthiimer,  p.  21  ff.  The  so-called  '  hall- 
churches  '  (Saal-Kirchen)  are  peculiar  to  Protestant  Germany.  To  these 
belongs  the  castle  chapel  at  Torgau,  consecrated  by  Luther  in  1544.  See 
the  account  (not,  indeed,  wholly  above  criticism)  of  N.  Midler,  Uber  die 
deutschen  evangelischen  Kirchengebiiude  im  Jahrhundert  der  Reformation, 
Leipzig,  1895. — R.  Dohme,  in  the  Gesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst,  i.  368,  370, 
says :  '  There  is  not  even  an  attempt  to  trace  the  development  of  the 
gallery,  which  forms  so  important  a  feature  of  evangelical  churches, 
although  it  was  certainly  struggling  into  existence  in  the  later  period  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  now  in  Catholic  Wurzburg  (1582-1591)  has  blossomed 
into  a  brilliant  adjunct.  The  question  of  fixing  on  some  definite  normal 
plan  of  building  for  evangelical  worship  did,  indeed,  occupy  the  archi- 
tectural world  from  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  but  the  solutions 
at  first  offered  have  no  deeper  significance.  So,  for  instance,  Schick- 
hardt (1599)  builds  his  church  at  Freudenstadt  from  the  two  sides  of  a 
right  angle,  and  at  Hanau  there  is  actually  an  attempt  to  combine  two 
polygonal  structures,  a  larger  and  a  smaller  one,  in  such  a  manner  that 
the  belfry  tower  and  a  part  of  the  outside  walls  should  be  one  common 
structure — an  architectonic  monstrosity.'  On  the  whole,  what  Naumann 
(p.  119)  says  of  the  Baltic  provinces  is  applicable  to  the  whole  of  Pro- 
testant Germany :  '  Grandiose  ecclesiastical  edifices,  such  as  the  fervent 
piety  of  the  Middle  Ages  produced,  were  no  longer  seen  in  the  land.  Into 
the  old  Catholic  churches,  robbed  of  their  primitive  glory  of  artistic  adorn- 
ment, the  new  religion  made  its  way,  and  settled  itself  in  them  according 
to  the  exigencies  of  its  own  rites.' 


OSTENTATION   OF   GREAT   PEOPLE   AND    PRINCES      12-5 

While  the  want  of  any  great  and  new  artistic  crea- 
tions of  a  religious  character  showed  up  the  nature  of 
the  German  Protestant  spirit,  which,  however  much 
religion  might  be  professed  and  fought  about,  was  by 
no  means  a  religious  spirit,  so,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
general  spirit  of  the  age  was  clearly  revealed  in  the 
achievements  of  secular  architecture,  with  its  hosts  of 
buildings  remarkable  chiefly  for  gorgeous,  extravagant 
pomp  and  splendour  ;  in  this  respect,  indeed,  there  is  no 
preceptible  difference  between  the  Catholic  and  the 
Protestant  districts.  This  architecture  is  in  fact  one  of 
the  most  speaking  evidences  of  the  political  and  social 
conditions  of  the  day.  It  was  a  period  when  care  and 
consideration  for  the  general  well-being,  for  that  which 
affected  the  community  at  large,  no  longer  prevailed, 
but  only  the  egotistical  self-seeking  of  the  class  favoured 
by  outward  position  ;  and  in  art  also  the  general  needs 
and  great  public  ends  were  driven  far  into  the  back- 
ground :  luxury,  personal  comfort,  and  the  caprices  of 
the  rich  and  distinguished  classes  were  the  leading  factors 
and  influences  in  the  world  of  art.  Although  in  many 
towns  respect  was  paid  to  buildings  intended  for  public 
use,  especially  to  town  halls,  and  many  fine  new  ones  were 
built,  and  old  ones  were  often  improved  by  handsome 
additions  l  or  alterations,  still  as  a  rule  the  labours  of 
art  and  the  pomp  of  outward  splendour  were  chiefly 
bestowed  on  those  parts  of  the  buildings  destined  for  the 
use  of  the  great  ones  of  the  earth,  on  '  golden  saloons  ' 
for  the  magnificent  banquets  and  festivities  which  were 
regarded  as  one  of  the  most  important  items  of  public 
life :   as,  for  instance,  in  the  town  hall  at  Augsburg, 

**  l  Bezold,  Baukunst,  p.  49  ff.  See  also  p.  11  ff.  concerning  the  wealthy 
burghers  and  the  princes  as  promoters  of  the  new  art. 


126  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

built  in  1615  by  Elias  Holl,1  the  four  '  Princes'  rooms  ' 
intended  for  festivities  of  this  sort,  and  the  saloon 
one  hundred  feet  long,  and  fifty  feet  broad,  which  are 
among  the  most  richly  furnished  public  halls.  The 
last  of  these  is  resplendent  with  gold  and  colour,  and 
abounds  altogether  in  a  profusion  of  fantastic  baroque 
ornamentation.2  Although  the  decline  of  economic 
prosperity  in  the  towns  was  glaringly  obvious,  building 

**  1  Elias  Holl  is  generally  included  under  the  Renaissances  architects. 
Buff,  however  (Augsburg  in  der  Renaissancezeit,  Bamberg,  1893),  places 
him  more  correctly  among  the  first  masters  of  the  baroque  style,  '  not 
because  he  most  often  made  use  of  architectural  forms,  which,  like  the 
ascending  spiral  lines  on  many  of  his  gables,  belong  actually  to  the  baroque, 
but  because  his  most  important  buildings,  with  their  facades  aiming 
chiefly  at  strong  effects,  belong  rather,  in  essence  and  character,  to  this 
later  style.  Even  in  the  town  hall,  whose  exterior  is  of  decidedly  simple, 
not  to  say  bare,  construction,  and  whose  facades  show  no  sharply  pro- 
jecting devices,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  master  was  not  so  much  con- 
cerned to  construct  a  beautiful  harmonious  architectural  monument  as  to 
produce  a  striking  and  powerful  effect  by  the  massive  bulk  of  the  building. 
It  is  the  architectural  influence  of  the  baroque,  not  that  of  the  Renais- 
sance !  ' 

2  See  Liibke,  Renaissance  in  Deutschland,  i.  424-428.     **  See  A.  Buff, 

'  Der  Bau  des  Augsburger  Rathhauses  mit  besonderer  Riicksichtnahme  auf 

die  decorative  Anstaltung  des  Innern '  in  the  Zeitschr.  des  histor.  Vereins 

fiir  ScJiwaben  und  Neuburg,  xiv.  221-301. — Elias  Holl,  when  he  built  his 

town  hall  at  Augsburg,  may  be  said  to  have  transformed  the  whole  town. 

He  removed  the  familiar  pointed  spires  from  all  the  Gothic  towers,  and 

replaced  them  by  round  Italian  caps,  so  that  in  the  whole  town  there  was 

not  left  a  single  pyramidal  tower.     Within  a  few  decades  prisons  and 

churches,  palaces  and  fortress  towers,  were  so  thoroughly  remodelled  in 

the  Renaissance    style   that  the  whole  town  appears    uniform   down  to 

the  present  day.     '  As  the  poetry  of  the  people  gave  way  before  the 

poetry  of  art,  so  did  the  old  Augsburg  shrink  into  the  background  before 

the  new  one.'     The  chronicle  tells  of  a  butcher  who  put  the  whole  council 

of  the  imperial  city  to  shame  by  his  patriotic  and  historic  sense.     When, 

namely,  the  old  council-house  was  pulled  down,  this  butcher  saved   the 

artistic  Gothic  wainscotting  of  the  saloon  by  asking  that  it  should  be 

given  to  him  (Riehl,  Kulturstudien,  pp.  289,  302).  The  eighteenth  century 

was  by  no  means  the  first  epoch  deserving  the  reproach  of  Riehl  (p.  313)  : 

•  Contempt  for  the  monuments  of  one's  native  town  is  the  surest  sign  of 

the  decay  of  the  old  burgher  spirit.' 


OSTENTATION   OF   GREAT   PEOPLE   AND   PRINCES      127 

and  adding  to  buildings  still  went  on  with  extravagant 
splendour.  Thus,  for  instance,  in  the  Bremen  council- 
house,  erected  in  1612,  all  the  surfaces  were  covered 
with  sculpture  :  antique  gods  and  goddesses,  wonderful 
sea-creatures,  columns  disposed  in  all  sorts  of  ways, 
statues  of  Mercury,  and  other  ornamental  figures  of 
baroque  description,  among  which  indecent  scenes  were 
not  wanting.  A  spiral  staircase  was  turned  into  an 
agglomeration  of  carved  ornaments  and  figures.1  In 
the  construction,  also,  of  dwelling-houses  for  distin- 
guished personages,  external  splendour  '  after  the 
antique-Italian  style '  developed  more  and  more  in  pro- 
portion as  concern  for  the  common  well-being  decreased. 
The  building  which  gained  the  widest  renown,  and  was 
most  stared  at  by  travellers  as  a  marvel  of  the  town, 
was  the  Pellerhaus  at  Nuremberg,2  a  gorgeous  structure 
of  the  Zwitter  style,  executed  in  extravagant  Italian 
fashion,  without  any  understanding  of  the  principles  of 
the  antique  which  it  purports  to  imitate,  and  dominated 
by  caprice  and  fancifulness.3 

1  Liibke,  ii.  285,  admires  the  devices,  but  adds :  '  It  is  the  music  of 
the  first  stage  (?)  of  the  baroque  at  its  loudest  fortissimo.''  **  See,  now, 
also  G.  Pauli,  Die  Renaissance  Bremens  im  Zusammenhange  mit  der  Re- 
naissance Norddeutschlands  (Leipzig  Dissert.  1891),  p.  99  £f.,  and  Pauli, 
Das  Rathhaus  zu  Bremen,  Berlin,  1898. 

2  See  what  Erstinger  says  about  it  in  his  Raisbuch,  p.  264. 

3  See  v.  Rettberg,  Niirnberger  Briefe,  pp.  85-86  ;  Forster,  iii.  12 ; 
Waagen,  Kunst  und  Kiinstler,  i.  284-285.  '  It  is  most  interesting,'  writes 
J.  Wassler,  in  v.  Liitzow,  Zeitschr.  xiv.  328,  '  to  follow  the  process  of 
adaptation  of  antique  forms  in  the  German  Renaissance  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  Everywhere  there  is  a  craving  to  build  in  "  antique  "  fashion  ; 
but  only  too  often  the  naive  results  suggest  to  the  mind  a  savage  who 
has  become  possessed  of  a  coat  and  puts  it  on  upside  down.  Two  capitals, 
one  over  the  other,  or  one  capital  at  the  upper  end  and  the  other  at  the 
foot  of  the  pillar,  and  suchlike  irregularities  show  how  little  our  industrious 
forefathers  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  antique.  The  same  truth  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 


128  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

'  These  extravagantly  costly  buildings,'  writes  a  con- 
temporary, '  of  which  there  is  such  an  excess  in  German 
lands,  are  erected  by  princely  commands ; '  'and 
they  give  rise  to  many  strange  reflections,  and  people 
say,  most  of  them  are  not  only  of  no  use  to  the  people, 
but  they  swallow  up  industry,  labour,  goods  and  chat- 
tels in  making  costly  castles  and  pleasure-houses. 
The  people  are,  as  it  were,  mad  with  rage  at  all  these 
buildings,  but  their  complaints  about  them  bring  no 
redress.'  l  In  a  like  strain  Aegidius  Albertinus  wrote 
in  1616  :  '  We  observe  that  it  is  not  enough  for  the 
princes  and  lords  to  build  grand  palaces  in  the  towns, 
but  in  deserts  also  and  waste  places  they  must  needs 
erect  pleasure-houses  and  fortresses,  even  though 
they  should  never  set  eyes  on  them.  Likewise  they 
build  magnificent  houses  and  dwelling-places  of  such 
enormous  size  that  they  are  like  unto  deserts,  and 
for  this  purpose  they  take  possession  of  meadows, 
acres  and  fields  which  belong  to  others.'  These  and 
other  encroachments  Albertinus  reckoned  among  '  the 
signs  of  an  inhuman,  tyrannical  spirit,'  which,  '  to  say 
the  least,  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  mercy,  kindness 
and  pity  of  Christ  who  said,  "  I  have  compassion  on 
the  people."  ' 2 

In  the  first  half  of  the  century  one  of  the  most  '  in- 
veterate builders  '  among  the  great  lords  was  Cardinal 

at  Nuremberg,  and  quite  lately,  Gothic  dimensions  were  mixed  up  with 
antique  forms,  as  is  seen  in  the  Pellerhaus  of  1605,  and  other  buildings.' 
In  a  house  in  Brunswick  one  sees,  among  all  sorts  of  media? val  charac- 
teristics, the  elements  of  the  Renaissance  in  dolphins,  candelabras,  cupids, 
pagan  deities  and  heroes,  as  well  as  genre  scenes,  of  ludicrous  or  dis- 
gusting nature.'  '  It  is  a  veritable  conglomeration  of  fantasies  '  (Liibke, 
Renaissance,  ii.  404-405). 

1  Von  der  Werlte  Eitelkeit,  Bl.  B2. 

2  Lucifers  Klinigreich,  pp.  74,  75-76. 


OSTENTATION   OF   GREAT   PEOPLE    AND   PRINCES      129 

Albert  of  Brandenburg,  Archbishop  of  Magdeburg  and 
Mayence,  '  a  generous  and  magnificent  lord,'  who  kept 
up  great  court  state  with  immense  expenditure,  and  who 
also  consequently  had  a  pile  of  debts.'  In  his  residence, 
Halle,  where  he  introduced  the  '  Renaissance  '  regard- 
less of  the  complaints  of  the  clergy  and  the  people,  he 
demolished  churches,  chapels,  convents  and  hospitals, 
fine  buildings,  in  perfect  repair,  solely  in  order  to  supply 
himself  with  building  materials  for  a  new  cathedral 
church  !  and  other  buildings.     To  his  favourite  Hans  von 

**  '  This  church  was  consecrated  in  1523.     Griinewald  and  Cranach 
were  commissioned  to  carry  out  its  pictorial  decoration.     It  was  also  to 
be  the  treasure-house  in  which  to  stow  away  in  costly  shrines  the  quanti- 
ties of  relics  which  Albert,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  eagerly 
'  collected  ;  concerning  this  so-called  treasure-house,'   or,   more  correctly, 
sanctuary,   the  so-called  Heiligtumsbuch  of  1520,  with  its  quantities  of 
woodcuts,  and  the  codex  de  luxe  of  the  Aschaffenburg  library,  famous 
for  its  large  number  of  miniatures,  are  excellent  guides.     According  to 
G.  v.  Terey    (Albreckt  v.  B.  und  das  Hallische  Heiligtumsbuch  von  1520, 
Strassburg,    1858  ;    cf.  Hefner  Alteneck,  Trachten  und  Kunstwerke,  p.   7 
[Frankfort,   1886],  plates  484-485  ;  and  Lebenserinnerungen,  p.  61),  this 
illustrated  catalogue  was  compiled  between  1521  and  1526.     Three  hun- 
dred and  fifty-three  relics  were  described  in  it,  but  only  350  were  copied. 
The  miniatures  are  by  different  artists,  whose  style  throughout  is  akin  to 
Cranach's.     Nine  of  these  were  missing  till  a  short  time  ago  ;  they  had 
been  cut  out.     In  1896  the  prelate,  F.  Schneider,  succeeded  in  finding 
six   of   these   missing   leaves    and   recovering    them   for   Aschaffenburg. 
S.  Schneider,  in  vol.  i.  of  the  Hohenzollern   Jahrbuch,  Berlin,   1897  ;  cf. 
also  Maimer  Journal,  1897,  No.  295  :  '  Vom  Kirchenschatz  des  Kardinal- 
Erzbischofs    Albrecht   von   Mainz  ; '    and   especially    P.    Redlich,    Car- 
dinal Albrecht  von  Brandenburg  und  das  neue  Stift  zu  Halle,  15.20-1541, 
Chap.  IV.  Das  Heiligtum.     Eine  kirchen-  und  Icunst-geschichtlichc  Studie. 
Diss.  Leipzig,  1899.     In  Aschaffenburg  is  preserved  also  the  large  missal 
which  Albert  v.  B.  had  executed  by  Nik.  Glockendon,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Diirer.     Respecting  Albert's  prayer-books,  see  Zeitschrift  /.  christl. 
Kunst,  xi.   149  ff.      See   also,  in   the   same  place,   ii.    305   ff.,    about   a 
pax  belonging  to  the  cardinal.     This  prelate's  episcopal  staff  is  now  in 
the  National  Museum  at  Stockholm    (see  Zeitschrift  fiir  christl.    Kunst, 
xi.  109  ff.).     About  a  portrait  of  Albert,  see  Allg.  Ztg.  1900,  Beil.  No.  94, 
See  also  F.   Schneider,  Die  Brandenburgische  DomstiftsJcurie  zu  Mainz, 
Berlin-Leipzig,  1899. 

VOL.  xr.  K 


130  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Schonitz  he  made  a  present  of  several  chapels  standing 
near  the  market-place,  so  that  he  might  use  the  stones 
for  building  fine  houses.  Notorious  among  the  people 
was  the  '  house  of  the  cool  fountain,'  the  upper  story 
of  which  consisted  of  luxuriously  furnished  apartments 
which  this  unholy  prince  of  the  Church  used  for  secret 
intercourse  with  a  mistress.  What  he  built  on  to  the 
cathedral  was  more  of  a  secular  than  an  ecclesiastical 
character  ;  two  towers  which  he  caused  to  be  added 
to  it  were  so  badly  built  that  they  had  to  be  removed. 
As  the  Moritzburg  was  not  sufficient  for  his  magnificent 
court,  a  new  palace  was  erected ;  for  '  he  wanted  to  be 
powerful,  and  felt  no  concern  whatever  when  he  was 
told  that  his  debts  were  inordinate,  and  the  honour  of 
God  and  man  violated  under  his  rule.'  1  Well  might  it 
be  regarded  as  a  just  judgment  that  Albert,  when  he 
'  lay  in  the  anguish  of  death,'  was  forced  to  send  word 
to  the  cathedral  chapter  that  '  his  Electoral  Grace 
had  scarcely  anything  to  eat  or  drink.'  2 

Incomparably  finer  than  anything  that  Albert  had 
built  is  the  Otto-Henry  wing  added  on  to  the  Heidel- 
berg Castle  (1556-1559)  by  the  Elector  Palatine  Otto 

1  Full  details  are  given  in  Schonerniark,  pp.  7  ff.,  300,  387  ff.  Cf. 
also  Schonermark' s  article,  '  Kardinal-Erzbisckof  Albrecht  von  Branden- 
burg als  Kunstfreund,'  in  the  Beil.  zur  Allgem.  Zeitung,  1884,  No.  260. 
The  consequences  to  the  Church  of  Albert's  mania  for  building  are  well 
described  by  Woker,  Gesch.  der  norddeutschen  Franziskaner-Missionen 
(Freiburg,  1880),  pp.  144-148.  **  Cardinal  Albert  von  Brandenburg 
erected  in  1526,  on  the  market-place  at  Mayence,  in  honour  of  Charles  V.'s 
victory  over  Francis  I.  at  Pavia,  and  of  the  triumphant  end  of  the  Peasant 
War,  a  fountain,  which  is  important  because  it  represents  the  oldest 
finished  Renaissance  building  in  the  Rhine-lands.  The  design  of  the 
whole  structure,  as  also  of  the  different  ornaments,  goes  back  certainly 
as  far  as  Peter  Flotner  ;  see  F.  Schneider  in  the  Maimer  Journal,  1890, 
No.  276,  and  Lange,  Flotner,  81  ff.  There  is  a  copy  of  it  in  Seemann, 
Deutsche  Renaissance,  Bd.  1,  Abteil.  vi.  Tafel  13-15,  and  Fritsch, 
Denkmdler  deutscher  Renaissance,  iii.  181. 

-  J.  May,  Kurfiirst  Albrecht  II.  (Munich,  1875),  ii.  478. 


OSTENTATION  OF  GREAT  PEOPLE  AND  PRINCES   131 

Henry  :  it  belongs  to  the  best  work  which  the  new 
art  method  produced  on  German  territory,  but  the 
people  could  not  take  much  delight  in  the  prince's 
splendid  achievement  seeing  that  the  land  was  bur- 
dened with  debts.  '  When  Otto  Henry  dies,'  wrote 
the  Countess  Palatine  Maria,  wife  of  the  later  Elector 
Frederic  III.,  to  Duke  Albert  of  Prussia,  '  we  shall 
find  a  sum  of  debts  twice  as  big  as  the  whole  revenue 
of  our  principality.'  ! 

It  is  highly  significant  that  the  Heidelberg  Castle, 
superbly  appointed  as  it  was,  had  no  chapel. 

The  magnificent  homes  of  the  princes,  with  their 
ornamental  gardens,  their  hothouses,  and  their  pleasure- 
houses,  swallowed  up  enormous  sums.  Eating  and 
drinking  being  reckoned  among  the  most  important 
occupations  of  life,  immense  banqueting-halls,  decorated 
in  the  most  costly  style,  were  a  chief  requisite.  The 
building  of  the  Dresden  Castle  alone  (1548-1554)  con- 
sumed more  than  100,000  Meissen  florins — a  very 
serious  amount  considering  the  then  value  of  money. 
Double  this  sum  was  spent  on  the  stables  erected  by 
Christian  I.  after  1586,  and  fitted  up  inside  and  outside 
with  the  utmost  possible  splendour.  For  its  adornment 
180  round  shields,  painted  and  gilded,  were  ordered  in 
Modena,  and  an  Italian  founder  cast  forty-six  princely 
busts  with  pediments  and  coats  of  arms.  Carved  seats 
inlaid  with  stones,  marble  sideboards,  and  other  costly 
articles  made  the  place  into  a  sort  of  art  gallery,"  which 

1  Voigt,  Hofleben,  ii.  260.  Concerning  the  growth  of  State  debts 
under  Otto  Heinrich,  and  the  ahenation  of  hospital  funds,  see  Verhandl. 
des  Histor.  Vereins  fiir  die  Oberpfalz  und  Regensburg,  xxiv.  288  ff.  **For 
the  Heidelberg  Castle,  cf.  Bezold,  p.  99  ff.,  and  the  work  of  Koch  and 
Seitz,  Darmstadt,  1891. 

2  See  Liibke,  Renaiss.  ii.  333-334 

k  2 


132  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

however  only  ministered  to  the  luxurious  gratification 
of  the  Elector  in  a  thoroughly  impoverished  land.  The 
subjects,  said  the  court  preacher  Jenisch,  in  1591,  were 
so  denuded  of  means  that  even  life  itself  scarcely  re- 
mained to  them.1  In  1580  a  Torgau  chronicle  stated 
that  '  many  people  had  been  driven  by  poverty  to  eating 
the  husks  in  the  brewhouse.'  -  But  '  princely  extrava- 
gance in  costly  buildings  and  all  other  wanton  expendi- 
ture '  recognised  'no  poverty.'  In  1611  the  expenses 
of  the  Dresden  Court  amounted  to  more  than  half  the 
revenues  of  all  the  districts  of  the  Electorate  put 
together.3 

Among  the  districts  reduced  to  the  lowest  extremity 
of  insolvency  was  the  Margraviate  of  Ansbach-Bayreuth  ; 
and  yet  the  Margrave  George  Frederic  embarked,  at 
a  cost  of  237,014  florins,  on  the  building  of  the  new 
Plassenburg,  which  is  notorious  among  architectural 
works  of  the  '  new  style '  for  the  extravagance  of  its 
sculptural  ornamentation.  It  cost  more  than  the  whole 
income  of  the  land  could  refund  in  four  years.4  When 
the  Margrave  formed  the  plan  of  the  building  in  1557 
the  principality  was  in  debt  to  three  times  the  amount 
of  its  revenue  ; 5  when  three  years  later  the  building 
operations  were  going  on  the  debts  of  the  little  country 
had  risen  to  2,500,000  florins.0 

At  Stuttgart  there  were  a  number  of  very  imposing 
princely  buildings.     Duke  Christopher,  after  1553,  built 

1  Annal.  Annaeberg,  p.  45. 

2  Arnold,  Kirchen-  und  Ketzerhistorie,  i.  792. 

3  Miiller,  Forschungen,  i.  199-206,  209,  212. 

4  Liibke,  Renaissance,  i.  519-523. 

5  J.  Voigt,  '  Wilkelni  von  Grunibach,'  in  v.  Raumer's  Histor.  Taschen- 
buch,  vii.  163. 

6  Lang,  Gesch.  des  Fiirstenthums  Bayre.uth,  iii.  19,  261;  cf.  iii.  295. 


OSTENTATION   OF   GEE  AT   PEOPLE   AND   PRINCES      133 

three  new  wings  to  the  old  castle  ;  in  the  dining  hall 
for  the  inferior  officials  and  the  court  servants 
there  were  daily  about  450  persons  at  meals  ;  in  the 
knights'  hall  the  prince's  table  and  the  marshal's 
table  were  generally  occupied  by  166  higher  officials 
and  court  servants  ;  the  large  dancing  hall,  and  twenty- 
two  adjoining  apartments  were  furnished  with  the 
most  costly  silk  carpets.  Near  to  the  castle  there  was 
a  large  pleasure  garden,  a  pleasure-house,  and  two  large 
running  courses,  in  the  middle  of  which  stood  two 
pillars  with  statues  of  '  Dame  Venus  and  her  son  Cupid, 
on  which  the  cords  were  hung  when  the  game  of  "  run- 
ning the  ring  '  was  played  ;  which  figures  were  a  spur 
to  the  knights  when  they  want  to  win  the  grace  and 
favour  of  Dame  Venus  and  the  fair  ladies.'  In  the  year 
1564  the  magistrates  represented  to  the  Duke  that  the 
luxury  of  the  court  life,  especially  the  extravagance 
in  building,  must  positively  be  curtailed ;  the  outlays 
during  his  reign,  they  told  him,  had  increased  to  such 
an  extent  that  neither  the  Duke  himself,  nor  his 
impoverished,  ruined  subjects  could  any  longer  afford 
them.1  This  protest,  however,  did  not  prevent  Chris- 
topher's successor,  Duke  Louis,  from  erecting  a  '  new 
pleasure -house,'  a  magnificent  edifice  270  feet  long 
by  120  feet  wide,  the  building  of  which  by  George 
Beer  lasted  nine  years,  and  was  completed  in  1593, 
and  cost  three  tons  of  gold.     The  whole  length  of  the 

1  Kugler,  Christoph  Herzog  zu  Wiirttemberg  (Stuttgart,  1868-1872), 
ii.  584.  **  Concerning  Aberlin  Tretsch,  Duke  Christoph  von  Wurttem- 
berg's  architect,  see  A.  Klemm  in  Janitschek,  Repertorium  fiir  Kunstwissen- 
sclutjt,  ix.  28-58.  Respecting  the  plaster  handwork,  '  with  us  in  Ger- 
many a  new  handicraft,'  Tretsch  says  it  was  '  begun  in  1540  on  the  Asperg. 
The  late  Meister  Cunrot  Haug,  a  joiner,  of  Niirtingen,  was  master  of  the 
trade,  who  carved  foliage  and  figures  in  plaster.' 


134  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

upper  story  was  one  single  apartment,  in  which,  with 
royal  state,  festivities  innumerable  were  held,  and  where 
also  the  first  operas  and  ballet  dancing  took  place.1 
Duke  Louis,  who  succeeded  Duke  Frederic  I.,  had 
even  more  extensive  needs.  The  architect,  Henry 
Schickhardt,  was  required  to  add  to  the  castle  the  so- 
called  '  new  building,'  built  of  beautiful  polished  blocks 
of  freestone.2  Frederic  wanted  to  organise  his  court 
after  the  pattern  of  the  brilliant  courts  of  Paris  and 
London  which  he  had  visited.  When  after  long  striving 
he  had  obtained  the  Order  of  the  Garter,  he  celebrated 
every  year  the  festival  of  this  Order.  In  1605  the 
festivities  lasted  fully  eight  days.  The  Duke  always 
appeared  on  the  occasion  in  the  costly  dress  of  the 
Order,  adorned  with  more  than  600  diamonds.3  In  all 
his  buildings  he  had  the  Order  introduced  in  plaster 
moulding  or  in  painting.4 

The  land  could  no  longer  endure  its  terrible  burden 
of  debts.  Already  in  1599  the  Provincial  Estates  had 
complained ;    within    six    years    they    had    voted    the 

1  Liibke,  Renaissance,  i.  368-380  ;  Spittler,  Gesch.  von  Wiirttemberg, 
p.  190  ;  **  Klemm,  Wiirttemb.  Baumeister,  p.  141  ff. 

**  -  Concerning  Schickhardt,  '  in  very  truth  the  life  and  soul  of  all 
building  at  that  time  in  the  whole  of  Wiirttemberg  ; '  see  A.  Klemm, 
Wiirttemb.  Baumeister  unci  Bildhauer,  pp.  143-144. 

3  Pfaff,  Oesch.  von  Wirtemberg,  2%  pp.  41-42. 

4  Liibke  (Bunte  Blatter,  p.  138  ff.)  sings  the  praises  of  the  Dukes,  and 
is  enchanted  with  all  their  buildings.  '  It  is  the  common  feature  of  the 
Renaissance,  in  contrast  to  the  theocratic  art  of  the  Middle  Ages,  that  it 
strives  in  the  first  place  to  idealise  secular  life.'  '  It  makes  up  for  the 
want  of  purity,  which  at  that  time  had  everywhere  disappeared  from 
architecture,  by  freshness  of  invention  and  lifelike  warmth  of  expres- 
sion '  [which,  by  the  way,  can  no  longer  be  seen  in  the  principal  buildings, 
the  '  New  Pleasure  House,'  and  the  '  New  Building,'  since  these  were 
long  ago  destroyed].  In  the  '  original  remarkable  style '  we  note  '  the 
same  wonderful  effervescence,  the  same  blending  of  classic  Romanesque 
ideas  with  mediaeval  Germanic  conception  that  we  find  in  the  greatest 
poetic  genius  of  the  Teutonic  race — to  wit,  Williarn  Shakespeare ' ! 


OSTENTATIOUS  ART  OF  THE  PRINCES      135 

Duke  sixteen  tons  of  gold.1  When  in  1607  they  first 
refused  once  more  to  take  over  a  princely  debt  of 
1,100,000  florins,  they  were  reminded,  as  if  to  comfort 
them,  that  under  the  last  two  Dukes  they  had  under- 
taken debts  of  over  three  millions.  On  the  death  of 
Frederic  in  1608  another  debt  of  nearly  one  and  a  half 
millions  had  been  incurred.2 

The  Archduke  Ferdinand  II.  of  Tyrol  was  another 
vigorous  princely  builder.  Solely  for  the  buildings 
in  his  estates  at  Innsbruck  and  Ambras  he  spent 
380,000  florins,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  rotten  condition 
of  finances  and  the  almost  yearly  recurring  remon- 
strances of  the  treasurers,  who  declared  that  it  was 
impossible  for  them  to  meet  the  demands  in  question, 
and  that  it  waslnglorious  for  princes  to  build  '  on  loan.'  3 

The  finest  prince's  castle,  in  the  new  style,  and  the 
one  which  was  most  lavishly  decorated  and  contained 
the  richest  store  of  art  treasures,  was  the  '  New  Resi- 
dence '  at  Munich,  built  in  the  years  1600-1616,  by 
Duke  Maximilian  I.  It  was  built  from  the  designs, 
and  probably  under  the  direction,  of  the  Dutch  painter 
and  architect  Peter  de  Witte,  who  changed  his  name 
to  Pietro  Candido.  It  cost  nearly  1,200,000  florins,  and 
was  admired  by  contemporaries  as  a  new  wonder  of 
the  world.     The  Swedish  King,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  so 

1  Sattler,  v.  230. 

2  Spittler,  Gesch.  von  Wiirttemberg,  pp.  220-221  ;  Pfaff,  pp.  2%  34-39, 
54-55. 

3  Him,  i.  387-388.  '  Even  the  unfavourable  financial  situation  could 
not  damp  his  ardour.  Meanwhile  all  the  available  workmen  of  the  capital 
and  its  immediate  surroundings  were  so  entirely  monopolised  by  the 
court  that  for  any  other  building  operations  workmen  had  to  be  brought 
from  a  distance.'  In  the  main,  however,  it  was  only  the  court  which 
built.  In  the  country,  as  in  all  German  principalities,  building  opera- 
tions were  very  scarce.  '  I  find  them  for  our  period,'  says  Hirn  (p.  391), 
'  only  very  little  worthy  of  notice.' 


136  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

report  says,  lamented  later  on  that  he  could  not  remove 
the  building  on  rollers  to  Stockholm.  Munich,  he  said, 
was  a  golden  saddle  on  a  lean  horse.1 

For  the  embellishment  and  enrichment  of  princely 
castles  and  pleasure-houses,  of  council-houses  and  aristo- 
cratic dwelling-houses,  for  the  erection  of  fine  public 
fountains,  statues,  and  busts,  for  the  adornment  of 
churches  with  pulpits  and  monuments  to  the  dead, 
lively  demands  were  made  on  sculpture,  but  the 
achievements  in  this  respect  are  in  general  still  more 
infelicitous  than  those  in  architecture.2 

In  the  second  and  third  decades  of  the  sixteenth 
century  a  few  exquisite  works  were  executed  in  the 
spirit  of  the  earlier  native  art.  To  these  belongs  pre- 
eminently the  magnificent  altar-screen,  executed  in 
1521  by  Hans  Briiggemann  of  Husum  for  the  Augustine 
canons  in  Bordesholm,  of  which  Henry  Eanzau  wrote 
in  1593  :  '  Many  persons  who  have  travelled  through 
the  greater  part  of  Germany  declare  that  they  have 
never  seen  a  work  equal  to  it.'  3 

1  Ree,pp.  152-196  ;  Liibke,  Renaissance, ii.  20-30  ;  **  K.  Hautle,  'Die 
Residenz  in  Miinehen '  {Batjrische  Bibliothek  von  K.  v.  Reinhardstottner 
und  K.  Trautniann),  Bamberg,  1892.  See  also  C4urlitt,  p.  39.  For  the 
buildings  of  Albert  V.,  see  Riezler,  iv.  482  ff. 

'  The  famed  epoch  of  the  Haute  Renaissance  and  the  following  late 
Renaissance,'  writes  Wilhelm  Bode,  '  is  in  Germany,  as  far  as  sculpture 
is  concerned,  the  period  of  deepest  decay — a  gradual  lapsing  of  all  plastic 
activity  into  mere  empty  superficial  forms  of  beauty,  which  finally  led 
to  the  dying  out  of  nearly  all  independent  impulse.  The  fact,  however, 
that  these  productions  were  nearly  all  the  work  of  foreign  sculptors  is  a 
striking  testimony  to  the  incapacity  of  native  artists.  Fifty  years  before 
Germany  was  made  into  a  fighting-ground  for  ambition  and  for  the  wars 
of  foreign  rulers  ;  she  frankly  recognises  her  weakness  and  dependence  on 
foreign  art,  at  any  rate  in  the  domain  of  great  sculpture.'  '  The  great 
majority  of  native  works  are  not  even  worthy  of  mention,  still  less  of 
detailed  criticism  '  (Gesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst,  ii.  228-229). 

3  Fuller  details  on  this  subject  in  Miinzenberger,  p.  130  ff.     It  is  a 


SCULPTURE  137 

In  front  of  the  Church  of  St.  Victor,  at  Xanten, 
there  are  five  '  Stations  of  the  Cross,'  the  work  of  an 
unknown  Master  in  the  years  1525  to  1536,  which  may- 
be reckoned  among  the  best  specimens  of  German  stone 
sculpture  ;  the  group  especially  which  represents  the 
interment  of  Christ  is  a  work  of  such  pure  loveliness, 
deep  feeling,  and  noble  conception  as  is  not  often 
achieved  by  German  art.1  Another  very  excellent 
piece  of  work  both  in  composition  and  execution  is 
the  '  Mount  of  Olives,'  at  Offenburg,  of  the  year  1524  ; 2 
also  the  lectern  of  the  Hildesheim  Cathedral  (1546),3 
the  Sacrament-house  in  the  town  parish  church  in 
Weil  Town  in  Wiirtemberg,  a  work  by  George  Miler  of 
Stuttgart,  of  1611.4 

striking  fact  that  up  to  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  altars 
with  folding  panels  were  constructed  in  Schleswig-Holstein  (Miinzen- 
berger,  p.  129).  **  See  also  Jahrbuch  d.  Leogesellschaft  fur  d.  J.  1890, 
p.  102,  and  Grazer,  Kirchenschmuck,  1899,  No.  7,  concerning  the  ex- 
quisite triptych  of  St.  Martha,  in  the  parish  of  St.  Marein,  near  Knittel- 
feld,  in  Upper  Styria.  It  was  executed  in  1524  for  Provost  Gregory 
Schiirdinger,  and  is  in  all  its  parts  consistently  Gothic.  In  1523  Schiir- 
dinger  caused  the  erection  of  the  Seckau  Renaissance  altar,  which  is 
described  in  the  same  place.  '  These  two  altars,  produced  almost  at  one 
and  the  same  time  for  the  same  person,'  says  Graus,  '  though  different 
in  style,  are  nevertheless  an  unmistakable  sign  that  the  style  of  that 
period  was  not  anything  more  (?)  than  a  pure  matter  of  taste  and  fashion.' 

1  Fuller  details  in  Beissel,  pp.  49-54.  The  Canon  Berendonk,  for 
whom  these  groups  were  erected,  paid  for  the  whole  five,  at  the  present 
value  of  money,  about  13,000  marks  (p.  54). 

2  Lubke,  Kunstwerke,  pp.  342-344. 

**  3  See  Kratz,  Der  Bom  zu  Hildesheim,  p.  223  ff.  Beissel,  in  Die 
Verehrung  der  Heiligen  und  ihre  Reliquien  in  Deutschland  wdhrend  der  zweiter 
Hidfte  des  Mittelalters  (Freiburg  i.  B.  1892,  p.  140),  insists  that,  in  spite 
of  the  thoroughly  Christian  meaning  of  the  sculpture  of  this  lectern,  the 
mounting  and  the  quantities  of  genii  and  mythological  figures  give  the 
whole  structure  a  somewhat  secular  appearance. 

**  '  Klemm,  Wiirttemb.  Baumeister,  p.  175  ff.  ;  Keppler,  Wilrttemb. 
Kunstalterthum,  p.  194.  The  Berlin  Art  Industrial  Museum,  and  the 
Museum  of  the  Historical  and  Antiquarian  Society  in  Minister  possess  a 
large  number  of  works  by  an  artist  of  whom,  till  quite  recently,  only  his 


138  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

The  celebrated  Wiirzburg  sculptor,  Dill  Riemen- 
schneider,  got  no  more  large  commissions  after  the 
social  revolution,  in  consequence  of  the  ensuing  poverty 
and  distress  ;  he  was  obliged  to  be  content  with  small 
jobs  up  to  his  death  in  1531.1 

Artists  of  such  importance  as  the  great  old  masters, 
Peter  Vischer,  Veit  Stoss,  Adam  Krafrt,  and  Jorg 
Syrlin  L>  arose  no  more.  After  the  example  of  architects 
and  painters,  sculptors  and  carvers  flocked  out  of 
Germany  and  the  Netherlands  to  Italy  ; 3  when  they 
returned  home  they  wanted  to  imitate,  or  even  to  sur- 
pass, the  masters  they  had  admired  abroad— yea,  even 
Michael  Angelo  himself.   All  understanding  and  apprecia- 

signature  was  known — namely,  the  Carthusian,  Jodokus  Vredis.  This 
artist  chose  for  his  material  the  common  but  pliable  clay,  and  this  simple, 
worthless  substance  he  transfigured  by  his  art.  For  the  particular  form 
of  his  art  he  chose  bas-relief,  in  the  management  of  which  he  displayed 
great  delicacy  of  feeling  and  artistic  sense  of  proportion.  His  works — 
once  upon  a  time  only  intended  to  supply  the  cells  of  monks  with  pictorial 
food  for  private  devotion — are  chiefly  representations  of  the  Holy  Virgin 
and  the  child  Jesus,  sometimes  in  combination  with  St.  Anna  and  other 
female  saints.  Larger  compositions,  such  as  that  of  '  The  Trinity,'  are 
rare  ;  male  saints  are  altogether  wanting.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the 
figures  of  Vredis,  who  became  prior  of  the  Carthusian  monastery  at 
Weddern,  near  Diilmen,  in  Westphalia,  in  1531,  and  died  on  December  16, 
1540,  still  exhibit  the  Gothic  stamp.  One  of  his  chief  characteristics  is 
the  wealth  of  flowers  covering  the  background  of  his  reliefs.  The  lilies, 
roses,  carnations,  and  strawberry  blossoms  which  appear  in  his  sculp- 
ture, and  are  perfectly  true  to  nature,  are  undoubtedly  copied  from  the 
artist's  convent  garden.  The  bas-reliefs  are  painted,  and  show  the  delight 
in  colour  which  characterised  the  period.  Fuller  details  in  the  beautiful 
monograph  of  A.  Wormstall,  Jodocus  Vredis  und  das  Karthiiuserhloster 
zu  Weddern,  Minister,  1896. 

1  See  A.  Weber,  Dill  Riemenschneider  (2nd  ed.,  Wiirzburg  and  Vienna, 
1888),  pp.  7-9,  **  and  Tonnies,  Leben  und  Werk\des  Tilmann  Riemen- 
schneider, Diss.  Heidelberg,  1900. 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  i.  pp.  209-214. 

3  Rivius,  p.  143.  **  On  this  writer's  evidence  Lange  (Flotner,  p.  165) 
justly  lays  weight  against  Kurzwelly  {Forschungen  zu  Oeorg  Rencz  [1895], 
p.  54  ff.). 


SCULPTURE— SEPULCHRAL   MONUMENTS  139 

tion  of  Gothic  beauty  of  form  gradually  disappeared  ;  ' 
in  place  of  truth  there  was  merely  '  taste  ; '  the  want  of 
creative  imagination  was  to  be  supplied  by  '  reason  and 
learning  ; '  technical  skill  often  asserted  itself  brilliantly, 
but  it  could  not  breathe  life  into  cold,  barren  works. 
It  was  only  in  statuary  that  anything  excellent  was  still 
frequently  achieved.  After  all  native  originality  in 
conception,  execution  and  composition  had  disappeared, 
then  soon  followed,  after  the  middle  of  the  century,  a 
period  of  complete  spiritual  barrenness  and  untruth  to 
nature,  when  art,  devoid  of  all  genuine  feeling,  sought 
to  rouse  emotion  by  artificial  prettiness  or  by  sensa- 
tional movements  and  contortions  of  the  figure  exhibit- 
ing a  merely  mechanical  life. 

A  bronze  tablet  of  1616  in  the  cathedral  at  Magde- 
burg, on  which  angels  weeping  and  tearing  their  hair 
out  are  seen  side  by  side  with  sprawling  allegorical 
figures  of  virtues,  is  an  excellent  exemplification  of  all 
this  mannerism.2 

The  early  date  at  which  the  decline  became  apparent 
is  shown  by  the  famous  monument  over  the  tomb  of  the 
Emperor  Maximilian  at  Innsbruck :  the  older  figures 
are  distinguished  by  a  simple  beauty  ;  in  most  of  the 
later  ones  the  unbeautiful,  affected  costume  appears  in 
the  foreground  ;  some  of  the  statues  executed  after  1540 
tend  already  to  the  theatrical  style  ;  the  figure  of  Count 
Rudolf  IV.  of  Hapsburg  is  a  veritable  caricature.3 

And  yet  it  was  these  very  funeral  monuments  which 
procured  entrance  for  the  new  decorative  art  into 
Germany,  and  which  stand  out  as  its  most  brilliant 
achievements.     From  the  artistic  point  of  view,  how- 

1  See  Von  Zahn,  Diirers  Verhiiltniss,  pp.  21-22. 

2  Liibke,  Plastik,  ii.  873.  3  Ibid.  ii.  770-772. 


140  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

ever,  the  innumerable  monuments  produced  by  order  of 
ostentatious  lords,  greedy  for  self-glorification,  are  but 
poor  performances  compared  with  the  grandiose  sepul- 
chral monuments  of  earlier  German  art.  The  whole 
lot  of  them  put  together  do  not  possess  the  artistic 
merit  of  that  single  one  of  Peter  Vischer,  the  sepulchre 
of  Archbishop  Ernest  in  the  cathedral  at  Magdeburg, 
a  wonderful  specimen  throughout  of  rich  Gothic  work. 
Admirable  specimens  of  Vischer  foundries  exist  also  in 
the  sepulchres  of  the  Electors  Frederic  and  John  of 
Saxony  in  the  castle  church  at  Wittenberg.1  But  the 
suddenness  with  which  deterioration  set  in,  in  this  most 
important  German  foundry,  is  seen  from  the  sepulchre 
executed  in  1544  by  Hans  Vischer  in  memory  of  the 
defunct  Bishop  Sigmund  of  Lindenau  ;  this  monument 
is  constructed  in  a  superficial  manner  and  in  a  style 
derived  from  conventional  Italian  models ;  the  dead 
bishop  is  kneeling,  and  spreading  out  short,  fat  hands, 
as  if  in  admiration,  before  a  small  'over-elegant  crucifix.' 2 
The  foundry,  formerly  besieged  by  commissions,  came 
down  to  such  a  low  ebb  that  Hans  Vischer  was  forced 
in  1549  to  beg  permission  of  the  Nuremberg  Council  to 
emigrate  to  Eichstadt  in  order  to  find  work  there.3 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  century  and  afterwards  it 
became  necessary,  for  want  of  any  German  masters,  to 
get  all  art  work  done  either  by  Dutch  artists  educated 
in  Italy  or  by  Italians  who  were  brought  into  Germany 

1  See  Liibke,  Bunte  Blatter,  pp.  114,  389-391.  **  Concerning  Frederick 
the  Wise's  artistic  sense,  see  Gurlitt,  Die  Funst  unter  Friedrich  den  Weisen. 
Archival.  Forschungen  ii.,  Dresden,  1897. 

2  So  says  Liibke,  Plastik,  ii.  766.  The  sepulchre  also  of  a  bishop  of 
Merseburg,  executed  in  1550,  shows  traces  of  Italian  influence  in  '  the 
elegant  treatment  and  movement  of  the  body  of  the  Crucified  '  {ibid. 
ii.  769). 

3  Von  Zahn,  Jahrbiicher,  i.  244-245. 


SCULPTURE— SEPULCHRAL   MONUMENTS  141 

at  great  expense.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  Elector 
Augustus  of  Saxony  had  the  sumptuous  tombstone  of 
his  brother  Moritz,  in  the  cathedral  of  Freiberg,  exe- 
cuted after  the  designs  of  two  '  Italian  musicians  and 
painters.'  The  monument  also  presented  jointly  to 
this  same  prince  by  the  Saxon  princes  was  the  work 
of  Italians,  the  architectural  part  being  executed  by 
Giovanni  Maria  Nosseni  of  Lugano,  who  since  1575 
had  held  the  post  of  sculptor  and  painter  to  the 
Elector,  and  the  copper  work  by  the  Venetian  Pietro 
Boselli.1  But  by  far  the  greater  number  of  artists 
who  worked  in  Germany  came  from  the  Netherlands, 
especially  from  Holland.  While  in  earlier  times 
Dutch  artists  had  worked  by  preference  in  North 
Germany,  they  now  came  into  the  South  also ;  as,  for 
instance,  Adrian  de  Vries,  who  came  to  Augsburg, 
Peter  de  Witte  (Candid)  to  Munich,  Alexander  Colin  to 
Innsbruck.2 

1  Liibke,  Renaissance,  ii.  317. 

2  **  See  Gesch.  d.  deutsch.  Kunst,  Bode,  Plastik,  p.  232.  Alexander  Colin 
(1562-1612)  was,  up  to  1889,  known  almost  only  by  Ins  sculptural  work 
for  the  Otto  Heinrich  building  at  Heidelberg,  and  the  wonderful  bas- 
reliefs  on  the  monument  of  Maximilian  at  Innsbruck.  It  is  to  the  in- 
defatigable compiler  of  Tyrolese  art  history,  David  v.  Schonherr,  that 
the  public  owes  a  succinct  account  of  the  life  and  exuberant  activity  of 
a  man  whose  personality  was  as  admirable  as  his  art :  '  Alexander  Colin 
und  seine  Werke,'  in  vol.  ii.  of  the  Mittheilungcn  zur  Gesch.  des  Heidel- 
berger  Schlosses,  published  by  the  Heidelberger  Schlossverein  (reprinted  in 
Schonherr's  Collected  Writings,  i.  507-589).  This  volume  contains  exhaus- 
tive descriptions  of  all  the  works  of  this  indefatigable  master,  especially  of 
the  splendid  sepulchral  monuments  executed  by  him  for  Ferdinand  I. 
and  his  wife,  Queen  Anna,  and  for  the  Emperor  Maximilian  II.,  in  the 
cathedral  at  Prague,  for  the  bronzefounder  Gregory  Loffler  (in  the  museum 
at  Innsbruck),  for  Philippina  Welser  and  Archduke  Ferdinand  (in  the 
chapel  of  the  court  church  at  Innsbruck),  for  Johann  Nas  (in  the  above 
court  church),  and  so  forth,  and  of  his  works  in  wood,  stucco,  and  clay. 
Colin  is  a  most  remarkable  personage.  With  all  his  ardent  study  of  the 
antique,  he  did  not  sacrifice  his  Germanic  art,  and  he  was  also  distin- 


142  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Orders  amounting  to  immense  sums  were  even  sent 
out  to  Italy  for  the  execution  of  commemorative  monu- 
ments. Thus,  for  instance,  at  Lieberose  in  1594,  an 
epitaph  was  put  up  for  Joachim  von  der  Schulenburg, 
which  had  been  brought  from  Venice  and  which  cost 
from  10,000  to  20,000  thalers.1  German  merchants 
carried  on  a  profitable  trade  in  alabaster  epitaphs 
carved  or  moulded  for  Protestant  churches ;  they 
bought  these  in  large  quantities  in  the  Netherlands  in 
order  to  sell  them  in  Germany.  Epitaphs  of  this  sort, 
after  the  manner  of  Francis  Floris  at  Antwerp,  are 
found  in  Berlin,  Elbing,  Konigsberg,  and  elsewhere.2 
All  Flemish  sculpture,  however,  was  on  a  low  level ; 
with  but  few  exceptions  it  was  only  a  soulless  imitation 
of  Italian  forms.3 

To  what  depths  art  and  its  quickening  spirit  had 
fallen,  as  compared  with  earlier  times,  is  shown  also 
by  the  dead-aliveness  of  so  many  of  the  episcopal  grave 
moDuments  which  one  frequently  meets  with  in  different 
cathedrals  :  they  show  little  trace  of  pious  conception, 
or  spiritual  dignity  ;  all  is  mere  external  show  and  deco- 
rative parade.4     There  were  also  afloat  all  manner   of 

guished  by  deep  and  fervent  religiousness.  In  a  critique  of  the  work  of 
Schonherr,  H.  Semper  (Zarnckes  Litt.  Zentralblatt,  1900,  p.  1295)  rightly 
describes  him  as  being,  next  to  Peter  Candid,  the  most  important  of  his 
numerous  countrymen  then  working  as  artists  in  Germany  and  Austria. 

1  Bergau,  Brandenburger  Inventar,  pp.  494-495. 

2  Kugler,  Museum,  iii.  59,  60. 

3  '  We  must  not  expect  to  find  in  the  Netherlands  any  signs  of  that 
after-blossoming  of  the  sculptural  art  which  occurred  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  ;  for  whereas  in  those  days  sculpture  every- 
where connected  itself  with  painting  as  the  dominant  art,  in  the  Nether- 
lands, where  painting  stood  in  sharp  antagonism  to  all  plastic  tendencies, 
sculpture  was  necessarily  at  a  low  ebb  '  (Schnaase,  NiederUindische  Briefe, 
p.  219).  Cf.  Ebe,  ii.  269  ;  Suhsland,  Aphorismen  iiber  bildende  Kunst, 
p.  81. 

4  Liibke,  Plastik,  pp.  875-876.     **  A  number  of  really  fine  tombstones 


SCULPTURE— SEPULCHRAL   MONUMENTS  143 

new  artistic  conceits  which  passed  for  '  soul-stirring  con- 
ceptions.' On  a  sepulchre  made  of  sandstone,  which 
was  executed  in  1558  by  the  Halberstadt  Adminis- 
trator, Frederic  of  Brandenburg,  Adam  and  Eve  are 
represented  standing  by  a  pillar  with  the  serpent  coiled 
round  them,  and  Death  holding  them  by  a  chain.  On 
the  left  side  the  devil  is  playing  on  a  mandolin,  and  he 
appears  again  in  the  middle  eagerly  writing  out  a  list 
of  sins ;  over  all  this  is  the  portrait  of  Frederick  in  life- 
size.  On  the  other  side  stands  a  figure  of  Mercy,  who 
is  tearing  up  the  list  of  sins,  and  Christ  with  the  victor's 
banner,  who  has  fastened  Death  and  the  devil  to  a 
chain,   and  is  leading  them  away ;   the  devil  is   also 

were  executed  by  Loy  Hering,  who  gained  for  Eichstatt  sculpture  a  pro- 
minent place  in  Germany  for  the  space  of  nearly  half  a  century.  See  the 
valuable  treatise  of  Schlecht,  Zur  Kunstgeschichte  von  Eichstatt  (Eich- 
statt, 1898),  p.  101.  Here,  too,  are  fuller  details  about  the  beautiful 
sepulchre  of  the  Prince  Bishop  of  Eichstatt,  Johann  Konrad  von  Gem- 
minger  (famous  as  a  patron  of  art  and  a  collector  of  curios),  which  his 
successor,  Johann  Christoph  v.  Westersteller,  had  placed  in  the  cathedral 
of  Eichstatt.  '  Grand  and  impressive  looms  the  figure  of  the  bishop  here 
interred.  He  rests  on  his  coffin,  not,  however,  stretched  out  stiffly  in 
death,  but  in  a  semi-recumbent  attitude,  his  fine  intellectual  head  sup- 
ported on  his  left  hand,  his  glance  fixed  meditatively  and  prayerfully  on 
the  crucifix,  which  he  holds  firmly  in  his  right  hand.  What  a  solemn 
sermon  on  the  perishableness  of  earth  and  on  the  mournfulness  of  Ihings 
human,  and  yet  also  what  holy,  heart-uplifting  consolation  in  the  religion 
of  the  Cross  !  The  lines  of  the  body  combine  grace  with  dignity.  With 
fine  instinct  the  artist  has  rejected  the  heavy  episcopal  robes  of  State, 
and  retained  only  the  flowing  gown  and  the  clinging  dalmatic,  making 
up  for  his  omission,  however,  by  placing  on  the  podium  on  which  the 
coffin  rests  two  mourning  angels,  one  on  each  side  of  the  coffin,  holding 
the  mitre  and  the  staff.  Behind  this  group  there  is  built  up  against  the 
wall  a  plain  architectural  structure  consisting  of  Ionic  pillars,  a  straight 
cornice  and  open  pediment,  of  which  the  space  is  entirely  dominated  by 
elegantly  conventional  twistings  of  the  arms  of  the  bishop  and  the  See, 
while  eight  coats  of  arms  of  his  ancestors  adorn  the  architrave  and 
pilasters.  Statues,  coats  of  arms,  and  all  the  decorative  details  are 
executed  in  fine  cast  bronze  ore,  the  sarcophagus  and  the  background  in 
dark  brown  marble.'     Because  there  is  much  here  to  remind  one  of  Peter 


144  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

secured  in  stocks.1  Other  eccentric  productions,  ad- 
mirably indicative  of  the  spirit  of  the  new  art,  were 
occasionally  placed  in  cemeteries.  In  the  most  artistic 
quarter  of  the  much-admired  cemetery  of  Halle-on-the- 
Saale,  the  Christians  who  visited  the  graves  of  their 
relatives  had  their  eyes  delighted  with  visions  of 
half-length  figures  of  nude,  buxom  women,  surrounded 
by  dancing  children,  and  ending  in  scroll-work  with 
leaves,  fruits,  and  masks.2 

Besides  these  gorgeous  sepulchral  monuments,  the 
luxury  of  the  age  also  showed  itself  in  the  erection  of 
magnificent  fountains.  One  of  the  best  specimens  of 
technical  finish  in  this  line  was  the  fountain  executed 
in  1618  by  Hans  Krumper  of  Weilheim  for  the  court- 
yard of  the  Residence  at  Munich.  For  the  town  of 
Nuremberg,  Benedict  Wurzelbauer  cast,  in  1589,  the 
fountain  in  front  of  the  Lorenzkirche  ;  the  statue  of 

Candid  and  his  mausoleum  for  Louis  of  Bavaria  in  the  Liebfrau  church 
at  Munich,  Schlecht  supposes  that  P.  Candid  must  also  have  executed 
this  fine  work.     In  my  opinion  this  supposition  is  undoubtedly  right. 

1  Fiorillo,  ii.  159. 

2  '  It  is  the  irrepressible  joy  in  life,1  says  Schonermark  (p.  428),  '  which 
the  master  in  his  decorative  art  preaches  here,  here  in  the  midst  of  the 
graves.  He  is,  if  one  may  dare  to  say  so,  a  reincarnated  Hellene  full  of 
the  humanity  of  Christ,  but  free  from  the  Christianity  of  men.'  Liibke 
(Renaissance,  ii.  360)  sees  in  this  cemetery  a  '  proof  of  the  fine  taste  of 
the  town  in  monumental  art  and  also  of  a  particularly  fervent  religious 
life.  He  is  of  opinion  that  all  the  pilasters  and  spandrels  are  '  decorated 
with  ornaments  of  the  best  Renaissance  work,'  and,  furthermore,  that 
they  exhibit  'great  unity  of  design'  and  'wonderful  inventive  power.' 
Schonermark  (pp.  424-425)  damps  this  enthusiasm  by  discovering,  among 
other  faults,  '  shadowy,  phantomlike  meagreness  and  mannerism.'  On 
the  western  side  '  the  principal  motive  is  borrowed  from  the  tinsmith's 
technique  and  copied  in  stone.'  Screws,  rivets  and  nails  are  all  imita- 
tions, '  and  in  between  these  sham  articles  are  drawn  cords  and  hangings 

©        © 

of  flowers,  fruit,  and  drapings.  Figures,  masks,  and  monsters,  &c,  are  also 
mixed  up  with  the  intricate  network  of  forms.'  On  the  whole,  the  decora- 
tion here,  however  great  its  variety,  can  lay  claim  to  no  merit  beyond 
that  of  technical  invention  and  execution. 


SCULPTURE— GRAND   FOUNTAINS  145 

Justice  surrounded  by  six  other  virtues,  and  by  boys 
performing  music  ;  design  and  execution  correspond  to 
the  prevailing  affected  taste  of  the  day,1  and  challenge 
comparison  with  the  '  beautiful  fountain  '  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Frauenkirche,  which  was  executed  in 
the  golden  period  of  Gothic  art  by  the  simple  burgher 
stonemason  '  Heinrich  der  Parlier,'  who  had  not  yet 
been  inoculated  '  with  learning  and  the  antique  Italian 
manner.' 2  Compared  with  this  true  work  of  art,  the 
fountain  which,  with  the  full  approval  of  the  com- 
missioner, Wurzelbauer  set  up  in  Prague  in  1600,  is 
soulless  and  tasteless  :  it  is  a  life-sized  figure  of  Venus, 
from  whose  breasts  streams  of  water  are  pouring ;  at 
her  feet  Cupid  and  dolphins  and  other  water-spouting 
sea  animals  are  playing.3  Italian  models  were  followed 
in  the  execution  of  these  '  eminently  artistic  '  works. 
Nothing  made  so  deep  an  impression  on  the  Wurttem- 
berg  architect,  Henry  Schickhardt,  during  his  journey 
in  Italy,  as  the  fountains  and  waterworks.  He  delighted 
in  describing  them  and  copying  them  ;  of  the  great 
fountain  at  Bologna  he  drew  four  copies  ;  it  is  described 
as  follows :  '  the  upper  part  consists  of  a  woman's 
figure,  with  fish  for  feet ;  the  woman  sits  on  dolphins, 
and  gives  to  each  of  them  out  of  each  of  her  breasts 
very  fine  streams  of  water  like  threads  ;  likewise  the 

1  Waagen,  Kunst  u.  Kiinstler,  i.  251. 

2  See  Sighart,  pp.  394-395.  This  fountain  forms  a  tower  in  three 
stories,  and  contains  statues  of  the  seven  Electors,  and  of  many  heroes 
of  pagan,  Jewish,  and  Christian  history,  all  of  the  most  exquisite,  ideal 
character,  and  yet  showing  perfect  truth  to  nature  and  spirited  execu- 
tion. We  recognise  in  them  the  powerful  influence  which  ecclesiastical 
architecture  exercised  at  that  time  on  secular  buildings  destined  for 
public  use. 

3  Liibke,  Renaissance,  ii.  119.  This  fountain  was  destroyed  by  the 
Calvinists  in  1620. 

VOL.  XI.  L 


146  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

dolphins,  out  of  their  nostrils,  spout  two  pure  sprays 
of  water.'  l  '  It  is  no  longer  allowed,'  says  a  contem- 
porary, '  to  set  up  Christian  and  German  figures  on  the 
public  works  so  that  everybody  in  the  streets  may  see 
them ;  everything  must  be  pagan  and  mythological, 
and  we  must  learn,  forsooth,  to  know  the  heathen  gods 
and  goddesses  better  than  the  saints  and  great  heroes 
of  Christian  and  German  history.'  2  Augsburg  erected 
many  splendid  fountains  :  the  Augustus  fountain,  cast 
by  the  Netherlander  Hubert  Gerhard,  and  regarded  as 
a  marvel  of  art ; 3  the  Mercury  and  Hercules  fountain 
of  the  Netherlander  Adrian  de  Vries  ;  4  and  the  Neptune 
fountain.  A  colossal  group  of  Mars  and  Venus,  which 
Hubert  Gerhard  executed  in  conjunction  with  the 
Italian  Carlo  Polaggio  (1584-1590)  for  Count  John 
Fugo-er,  is  a  gorgeous  specimen  of  artificiality  and 
distortion;' 

1  Liibke,  Renaissance,  i.  3G0. 

2  Von  der  Werlte  Eitelkeit,  Bl.  B.  2". 

3  Ayrer,  i.  521-522. 

**  4  A.  de  Vries,  a  faithful  pupil  of  Gian  Bologna,  was  also  for  a  long 
time  in  the  service  of  the  Emperor  Rudolph  II.  (see  C.  Buchwald, 
Adrian  de  Vries  [with  eight  plates],  Leipzig,  1899  ;  Beitriige  zur 
Kunstgeschichte,  new  series,  p.  25).  He  belongs  to  the  number  of  those 
Netherlander  schooled  in  Italy,  who,  more  even  than  actual  Italians, 
brought  into  Germany  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  an  Italianised 
and  pre-eminently  decorative  style  of  sculpture.  The  most  important 
representatives  of  this  school  are  Alexander  Colin  (see  above,  p.  141,  n.  2) 
and  Peter  Candid  (see  above,  p.  141). 

5  Waa^en  (Kunst  und  Kiinstler,  ii.  74-75)  says  it  is  curious  to  observe 
how  Liibke,  generally  overflowing  with  enthusiasm  for  '  the  golden  epoch 
of  German  Renaissance,'  expresses  himself  in  his  quieter  moments.  '  The 
antique,'  he  says,  '  for  those  great  masters  who  sought  to  grasp  and 
emulate  it  with  all  the  ardour  and  seriousness  of  their  being,  was,  indeed, 
a  fresh  fountain  from  which  art  could  drink  new  life.  But  as  it  was 
necessary  to  adapt  the  antique  conceptions  to  Christian  material,  dis- 
cord and  schism  soon  became  apparent,  and  the  Christian  subject-matter 
was  the  first  to  suffer  detriment.  As  soon,  however,  as  outward  form 
came  to  be  more  highly  valued  and  studied  than  the  inward  idea,  art  of 


SCULPTURE— ORNAMENTAL   STATUES  147 

A.s  in  the  time  of  decadent  Roman  taste,  statues,  large 
and  small,  sculptured  only  with  a  view  to  decoration, 
were  often  set  up  in  houses  and  villas,  and  above  all  in 

necessity  became  hollow  and  soulless,  because  it  could  only  assert  itself 
at  the  expense  of  the  subject.  This  explains  the  beginning  of  mannerism. 
And  if  even  the  great  masters  fell  a  prey  to  this  demon,  how  could  it  be 
otherwise  than  fatal  for  all  the  lesser  artists,  the  mere  copyists  and 
imitators  ?  But  it  was  in  allegory  that  the  spirit  of  the  age  asserted 
itself  most  completely,  and  this  fashion  lured  art  into  a  region  where, 
loosened  from  the  general  consciousness,  and  divorced  from  living  inter- 
change with  the  national  mind,  it  very  soon  fell  inevitably  into  empty 
jejuneness  and  subjective  subtlety.'  Dating  from  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  there  were  still  a  number  of  gifted  masters.  '  If  we  ask, 
however,  about  the  spiritual  substance,  the  imperishable  worth  of  their 
achievements,  the  great  mass  of  productions  dwindles  woefully  down, 
and  the  individualities  of  most  of  the  artists  disappear  in  the  typical 
mannerism  which  is  common  to  them  all,  for  all  national  independence 
in  art  has  long  since  ceased  to  exist.  Italian  art,  changed  into  dead 
formality,  rules  all  lands  with  the  tyranny  of  a  fashion  to  which  all  bow 
down.  Strange  fate  of  that  modern  subjectivity  which  Michael  Angelo 
was  the  first  to  proclaim  in  his  works  as  the  principal  law  of  art !  It 
dared,  as  time  went  on,  to  break  down  the  wholesome  restraints  which 
are  imposed  on  all  artistic  creativeness,  and  to  leave  the  individual  standing 
free  and  unfettered  face  to  face  with  his  material  and  his  task,  but  all 
truly  original  individual  achievement  disappeared  with  the  restraints. 
For  in  the  absence  of  true  laws  and  rules  of  art,  artists  depended  more 
and  more  on  the  false  precepts  of  mannerism.  Freedom  of  individual 
genius  flourishes  only  within  the  boundaries  of  law  ;  it  dries  up  under 
the  rule  of  anarchy.  All  the  specimens  of  plastic  art  of  this  period,  in 
all  countries,  have  a  family  likeness,  as  the  statues  of  the  thirteenth 
century  had  ;  but  with  this  difference — that  in  the  case  of  tha  latter  there 
was  genuine  character  at  the  bottom  of  the  resemblance,  whereas  in  the 
former,  as  a  rule,  there  was  merely  the  affectation  of  similarity.  But 
whence  came  this  affectation  ?  It  sprang  essentially  from  the  fact  that 
art  was  no  longer  in  communion  with  the  national  mind.'  '  Intellectual 
interests  were  now  confined  to  the  "  higher  circles  of  society."  Torn 
away  from  the  soil  of  national  consciousness,  this  intellectual  life  was 
bound  to  dry  up — art  most  of  all,  for  art  needs  the  quickening  streams 
of  communal  life.  It  now  became  exclusive,  courtly  ;  it  ministered  only 
to  the  glorification  of  power.  Thence  came  dearth  of  ideas  and  super- 
fluity of  phrases  ;  thence  coldness  and  external  playing  with  forms  devoid 
of  soul.  And  wherever  it  was  obliged  to  exhibit  enthusiasm  at  com- 
mand, it  excited  itself  without  inward  warmth,  became  theatrical,  affected, 
artificial '  (Lubke,  Gesch.  der  Plastik,  ii.  795,  857,  858). 

l  2 


148  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

those  pleasure  gardens  which  were  laid  out  with  such 
gusto.  The  Roman  edile  Scaurus  once  used  3,500 
statues  for  the  decoration  of  a  theatre  which  he  built ; l 
Archduke  Ferdinand  II.  of  Tyrol  did  not  require  so 
large  a  number  for  his  '  Wurzgarten,'  but  he  had  134 
'  large  gods,'  250  '  Diernlein '  (female  figures),  little 
figures,  and  twenty-four  large  statues.2 

The  private  apartments  also  of  distinguished  persons 
and  princes  were  '  often  filled  with  nude  heathen 
sculpture  ;  '  '  there  were  even  seen  in  the  apartments 
of  princesses— a  thing  unheard  of  before— many  such 
abominable  nude  figures.3  For  the  private  apartment 
of  an  Electress  of  Saxony  the  sculptor  Zacharias  Hege- 
wald  was  commissioned  to  execute  a  group  consisting 
of  '  a  Venus  and  two  Cupids  sitting  by  the  Venus,  a 
Ceres  and  two  Bacchus  children.'  To  judge  from  the 
remuneration  he  received,  the  Electress  cannot  have 
set  much  store  by  the  artistic  value  of  the  decorative 
work ;  Hegewald  was  paid  for  each  Cupid  and  for  each 
child  Bacchus  only  six  thalers.4 

Very  considerably  smaller  was  the  remuneration 
bestowed  on  the  court  painters  of  the  princes  for  all 
the  '  elegant  counterfeits '  they  had  to  produce  at 
command  of  their  illustrious  employers,  and  for  all 
sorts  of  eccentric  and  utterly  tasteless  commissions, 
that  had  to  be  executed  in  the  most  superlative  and 
withal  the  quickest  and  cheapest  manner  possible 
to  the  art  of  painting.5 

1  Overbeck,  Gesch.  der  griechischen  Plastlk,  ii.  284,  where  there  are 
other  proofs  that  it  is  impossible  to  '  form  a  large  enough  estimate  '  of 
the  quantities  of  statues  there  used  in  Rome  for  decoration. 

2  Hirn,  i.  380.  3   Von  der  Werlte  Eitdlceit,  Bl.  B.  2b. 
1  Miiller,  Forschungen,  i.  158.  5  See  below,  p.  162. 


149 


CHAPTER    VII 

SECTION    IV. — PAINTING— COURT   PAINTERS    TO    PRINCES 

In  proportion  as  architecture  underwent  deterioration, 
losing  its  independence  as  the  free  domain  of  stone- 
masonry,  and  being  compelled  to  adapt  itself  more  or 
less  to  the  whims  and  caprices  of  the  individuals  by 
whose  orders  buildings  were  erected,1  so  also  did  the 

1  '  Early  German  art  had  sprung  up  like  a  vigorous,  healthy  tree, 
giving  promise  of  rarest  blossom  and  fruit ;  but  its  growth  had  been 
checked  by  two  causes — the  change  in  religious  opinions  which  had 
deprived  art  of  its  chief  field  of  work,  and  the  influence  of  foreign  art 
methods.'  '  Chief  amongst  the  latter  was  the  brilliant  colouring  of  the 
Venetian  painters  which  commanded  general  admiration.  But  the 
Florentine  school  had  also  its  devotees  who  sought  to  master  its  style 
and  methods.  German  artists  found  employment  with  Italian  painters, 
to  whom  they  rendered  good  service  as  assistants.  When  these  German 
artists  returned  home,  they  introduced  in  their  country  the  foreign 
methods  they  had  learnt.  The  demand  for  artistic  work  of  a  high  order 
was  by  no  means  large,  and  nobody  seems  to  have  urged  or  encouraged 
the  German  artists  to  go  on  painting  in  the  German  manner  instead  of 
adopting  foreign  fashions  ;  and  thus  the  indifference  of  the  patrons  of 
art  and  the  want  of  national  spirit  in  the  artists  combined  to  bring  the 
native  art  of  the  Fatherland  to  its  grave '  (Rathgeber,  Gallerie,  pp.  263- 
204).  '  In  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  plastic  arts  de- 
generated into  mere  bombast  and  affectation.  Excellent,  often  indeed 
masterly,  as  was  the  technique,  it  could  not  conceal  absence  of  soul, 
feeling,  and  character.  The  same  fate  befell  painting  as  had  befallen 
architecture.  National  and  even  personal  treasures  of  art  were  cast 
aside  for  the  sake  of  showy  foreign  trash.  Tasteless  allegories  and  pagan 
mythological  fables  became  the  order  of  the  day.  Art  revelled  in  paganism 
and  sensuousness.  The  few  genuinely  artistic  workers  who  were  left 
could  not  stem  or  overpower  the  affectation  and  degeneracy  which 
characterised  the  majority  of  artists,  and  which  reached  its  climax  in 
Bartholomew  Spranger  (born  1546) '  (Lotz,  Stalistik,  i.  23). 


150  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

sister  art  of  painting  decline  from  the  height  from 
which,  in  co-operation  with  architecture,  it  had  ad- 
dressed itself  to  the  nation  at  large  and  inspired  it  with 
enthusiasm  for  the  Christian  ideal.  As  it  had  become 
a  well-nigh  universal  rule  to  follow  Italian  taste,  there 
were  no  longer  any  actual  German  schools  of  any 
importance  and  individuality.  In  the  Protestant  dis- 
tricts ecclesiastical  art  had  no  status  whatever;  in 
places  that  had  remained  Catholic  orders  were  still 
issued  for  Church  pictures,  but  until  the  complete 
establishment  of  the  Catholic  Restoration  the  demand 
for  sacred  art  was  very  small  compared  to  what  it  had 
formerly  been.  In  the  towns  the  painters  earned  their 
living  chiefly  by  taking  portraits  ;  or  else  they  kept  up 
a  precarious  existence  by  making  designs  for  goldsmiths 
and  other  crafts,  by  painting  coats  of  arms,  and  by 
giving  instruction  in  drawing.  The  separation  of  art 
from  handicraft  had  an  altogether  pernicious  effect  on 
art  life  in  general.1 

There  is  only  a  small  number  of  artists  of  this 
period  worthy  of  mention. 

Up  to   shortly   after  the   middle   of  the   sixteenth 

1  '  It  was  altogether  in  accord  with  the  views  of  art,  current  in  Ger- 
many also  since  the  sixteenth  century,  that  the  artists  considered  actual 
industrial  work  with  apprentices  and  journeymen  as  beneath  their  dignity. 
We  learn,  nevertheless,  by  closer  study  of  the  history  of  the  painters  of 
former  centuries,  that  so  long  as  the  old  guild-laws  were  universally 
observed,  the  majority  of  artists  were  able  to  earn  a  sufficient  livelihood  ; 
whereas  after  the  separation  of  art  from  handicraft  the  lives  of  artists, 
almost  without  exception,  were  full  of  trouble,  disappointment,  and 
anxiety.  Individual  cases  contradicting  this  general  experience  are  only 
exceptions  to  the  rule.'  '  The  industrial  work,  in  which  a  master  who 
employed  journeymen  and  apprentices,  had  no  need  to  take  actual  part, 
guaranteed  fixed  remuneration,  and  also  association  with  a  corporation 
which  provided'  for  its  members  and  afforded  opportunity  for  exercise, 
in  the  humbler  spheres  of  art,  of  talents  possibly  not  adequate  to  great 
achievements  '  (A.  Schultz,  in  v.  Zahn,  Jahrbiicher,  ii.  358-359). 


PAINTING  151 

century  the  painters  Anton  von  Worms  l  and  Bartho- 
lomew Bruyn  figure  as  worthy  representatives  of  the 
old  Cologne  school.  The  latter  executed  a  whole 
series  of  important  works,  and  was  held  in  such  respect 
by  the  Cologne  burghers  that  in  the  years  1550  and 
1553  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  council.2 

To  his  best  work  belongs  the  high  altar  in  the 
collegiate  church  of  Xanten,  completed  in  1534,  with 
which  the  canons  were  so  well  pleased  that  of  their 
own  accord  they  added  100  extra  florins  to  the  sum  of 
500  gold  florins  agreed  upon  as  remuneration.3 

The  Suabian  master,  Martin  ScharTner,  who  worked 
as  painter  in  Ulm,  also  executed  in  the  years  1520-1524 
several  excellent  pieces  of  work,  amongst  which  a 
representation  of  the  '  Child  Jesus  in  the  Temple '  and 
the  '  Death  of  Mary '  are  specially  distinguished  by 
artistic  merit ;  later  on  he  fell  under  the  influence  of 
the  school  of  Venice.4 

1  J.  J.  Merlo,  Anton  Woensam  von  Worms,  Maler  und  Xylograph  zu 
KnJn,  Leipzig,  1864,  and  Nacktrage,  1884  (cf.  Niessen,  pp.  53-54). 

2  See  J.  J.  Merlo,  Nachrichten,  p.  69  ff.,  and  Die  Meister  der  AUkoln- 
ischen  Malerschule,  p.  158  ff.  Catalogue  of  the  collection  of  his  works 
preserved  in  Cologne  in  Niessen,  pp.  54-56  ;  of  those  in  Munich  in  v.  Reber, 
Katalog,  pp.  15-19.  **  See  now  the  work  of  Firmenich-Richartz,  Barth. 
Bruyn,  Leipzig,  1891. 

3  Fuller  details  concerning  the  altar  and  its  origin  in  Beissel,  p.  12  ff. 
Side  by  side  with  Bruyn,  other  distinguished  artists,  two  carvers  and  an 
art-smith,  worked  at  this  altar.  The  cost  of  production  for  the  whole 
structure  amounted,  according  to  the  present  value  of  money,  to  about 
50,000  marks.  It  is  'a  last  specimen  of  mediaeval  art  and  excellence.' 
'  The  canons  of  Xanten  gathered  together  the  last  German  masters  in 
order  to  plan  the  erection  of  a  worthy  monument  to  old  customs  and  old 
religious  faith.' 

4  V.  Reber,  Catalogue,  pp.  45-6.  See  Graf  Piickler-Limburg,  '  Martin 
Schaffner  '  (Studien  z.  deutschen  Kunstgeschichte),  Strassburg,  1900.  A  large 
collection  of  '  exquisitely  beautiful '  miniature  paintings,  which  were 
executed  in  the  years  1530-1532,  to  illustrate  a  German  translation  of  the 
New  Testament,  is  described  by  Rathgeber,  Gallerie,  pp.  136-146. 


152  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

On  the  whole  it  may  be  said  that  the  decadence  of 
art  was  already  discernible  in  the  immediate  pupils 
and  followers  of  Diirer  and  Holbein.  Hans  Burgmayr, 
one  of  the  most  thoughtful  painters,  retrogressed  in 
his  art  in  proportion  as  he  yielded  to  Italian  influence. 
In  like  manner  the  equally  gifted  Christopher  Amberger 
lost  all  vigour  and  all  depth  of  sentiment  through  un- 
intelligent imitation ;  his  pictures  became  superficial 
and  affected.  Hans  Schaufelein  also  deteriorated 
visibly,  and  George  Penz,  who  went  to  Italy  for 
culture,  came  back  a  soulless  mannerist.1 

Adam  Elzheimer  of  Frankfort  was  the  only  artist 
of  importance  who  retained  his  individuality,  but  his 
works  were  not  appreciated  by  his  contemporaries, 
and  he  had  to  battle  continually  with  distress  and 
poverty.2 

1  See,  concerning  the  above  statement,  Sighart,  p.  600  ff.  ;  Weise, 
Diirer  und  sein  ZeitaUer,  p.  85  ;  Waagen,  Kunst  und  Kiinstler,  ii.  67  ; 
Woltmann,  Holbein,  ii.  368-369.  **  Concerning  Schaufelein,  see  the  mono- 
graph of  U.  Thieme,  Leipzig,  1892,  and  Repertorium  fiir  Kunstwissen- 
schaft,  xvi.  306  ft'.  ;  xix.  219  ft.,  401  ft.,  496  f.  ;  xx.  477  f.  For  Christopher 
Amberger,  see  the  Dissertation  by  E.  Haasler,  Heidelberg,  1894.  Con- 
cerning the  general  development  of  art,  an  art  historian,  who  is  other- 
wise by  no  means  in  agreement  with  Janssen's  views,  F.  Rieffel,  remarks 
in  a  review  of  my  biography  of  A.  Reichensperger,  '  It  is  becoming  more 
and  more  plainly  evident  that  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
was  not  the  noonday,  but  the  sunset,  of  German  art.  As  for  Gothic 
sculpture  and  painting  our  respect  for  it  increases  the  more  closely  we 
become  acquainted  with  it.  .  .  .  How  rapid  and  how  deep  is  the  decline 
of  Diirer's  pupils  Avhen  once  they  begin  to  ape  Italian  art  methods  ! ' 
In  conclusion,  Rieffel  throws  out  the  question  whether  it  was  not  '  a 
blessing  for  Diirer's  renown  that  he  died  early.'  '  Wherever  humanism 
lays  its  grip  on  him  (Diirer)  he  becomes  lamentably  Italianate  ;  only 
the  great  and  glorious  Matthias  Griinewald  remained  entirely  German  ' 
{Frankfurter  Zeitung,  1900,  No.  9,  p.  1).  Ibid.  No.  18  (Abendblatt),  Rieffel 
speaks  concerning  a  publication  about  the  painter,  M.  Schaffner,  of  the 
miserable  after-effects  which  German  art  brought  on  itself  by  its  intoxica- 
tion through  the  '  southern  wine  '  of  the  Italian  Renaissance. 

s  M.  Seibt,  A.  Elzheimers  Leben  und  Wirken,  Frankfort-on-the-Main, 


GLASS-PAINTING  153 

Painting  on  a  large  and  monumental  scale,  as  far  as 
anything  of  the  kind  still  survived  here  and  there, 
degenerated  into  mere  caprice  and  bombast. 

Glass-painting  also,  which  in  the  fifteenth  century 
reached  its  zenith,1  and  formed  almost  the  pinnacle 
of  pictorial  achievement,  fell  from  its  height  of  glory 
after  it  had  been  driven  out  of  the  service  of  the  Church, 
and  had  ceased  to  be  humbly  subordinate  to  archi- 
tecture, with  which  before  it  had  been  so  closely  con- 
nected ;  when  it  embarked  on  an  independent  existence 
it  lost  itself  in  virtuosity,  and  extravagant  tasteless 
ornamentation.2  Here  and  there,  nevertheless,  works 
of  great  beauty  were  still  produced ;  for  instance,  the 
splendid  glass-windows  in  the  Church  of  St.  Gudule  in 
Brussels,  and  the  glass-paintings  in  the  cloisters  in  the 
Swiss  convents  of  Muri,  Eathhausen  and  Wettingen, 
executed  during  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
The  '  painter  of  the  venerable  House  of  God  at  Wet- 
tingen '  addresses  us  in  warm  and  pithy  pictorial  lan- 
guage from  the  sixty  coloured  window-panes,  in  which 

1885  ;  Bode,  Studien,  pp.  261-272,  310-311  ;  Rathgeber,  Gallerie,  p.  263. 
German  taste,  completely  ignoring  the  Italian  Cinquecento,  turned  by- 
preference  to  the  later  eclectics,  and  finally  to  the  school  of  Caravaggio, 
the  effective  coarseness  of  which  was  specially  seducti-va  to  the  northern 
art  students.  The  soulless  virtuosity  and  faultless  technicme,  which  were 
the  chief  characteristics  of  Italian  art  at  that  period,  exercised  too  strong 
a  glamour  on  the  superficial,  easily  pleased  taste  of  the  Germans,  to  leave 
any  chance  for  the  development  of  aught  which  should  differ  from  the 
methods  that  had  crept  in  from  beyond  the  Alps  (Reber,  Gesch.  der 
neuem  deutscheri  Kunst,  pp.  8-9).  **  The  sterling  and  industrious 
painter,  Martinus  Theophilus  Polak,  specimens  of  whose  works  are 
preserved  in  the  churches  of  Riva,  Trent,  Brixen,  and,  above  all,  of 
Innsbruck,  is  deserving  of  notice.  Cf.  M.  Bersohn,  M.  Th.  Polak,  Ein 
Maler  des  17.  Jahrhunderts,  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  1891. 

1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  i.  pp.  232-236. 

2  It  was  Holbein  who  first  introduced  the  Renaissance  methods  into 
glass-painting  (von  Zahn,  Jahrbiicher,  i.  24  ;  see  pp.  28-29). 


154  HISTORY  OF   THE   GERMAN  PEOPLE 

he  strung  together  a  collection  of  Biblical  incidents  and 
events  from  the  history  of  the  Fatherland.1  Towards 
the  end  of  the  century  the  celebrated  Swiss  glass-painter, 
Christopher  Maurer,  executed  a  number  of  works  in 
Nuremberg,  notably  four  pictures  from  the  parable  of 
the  Prodigal  Son.2  It  is  characteristic  of  the  spirit  of 
the  age  that  on  one  occasion  he  introduced  into  a  glass 
painting  a  likeness  of  himself  crowned  with  a  wreath  of 
laurel,  and  facing  an  easel  on  which  stood  a  Venus.3 
On  the  whole  it  may  be  said  that  in  this  branch  of 
art  also  the  old  religious  art  methods  had  given  place 
to  a  mundane  spirit,  which  showed  itself  markedly  in 
the  grouping  of  figures  in  painted  windows  ;  whereas 
formerly  the  members  of  the  patron's  family  had  occu- 
pied a  humble  position  at  the  bottom  of  the  window, 
they  now  formed  the  central  group,  and  were  sur- 
rounded with  armorial  shields  and  all  the  emblems 
of  worldly  dignity,  while  Scripture  and  secular  stories 
alike  were  used  to  enhance  the  personal  glory  of 
these  important  individuals.4  The  art  of  painting  on 
glass  received  a  great  impulse  in  the  form  of  cabinet- 
painting,  especially  in  Switzerland,''  where  between  the 

1  Liibke,  Kunsthistor .  Studien,  p.  404  ;  Kunstgewerbeblatt,  Jahrg.  2, 
Heft  G-S.  The  great  cycle  of  window  paintings  in  town  halls  is  dis- 
cussed by  J.  R.  Rahn  in  the  Geschichtsfreund  (Einsiedeln,  1882),  xxxvii. 
196-207.  **  See  Oidtmann,  '  Die  Schweizer  Glasnialer  vom  Ausgang  des 
f  iinfzehnten  bis  zum  Beginn  des  achtzehnten  Jalnhunderts,'  in  the  Zeitschr. 
fiir  christl.  Kunst,  xii.  301  ff.  See  in  the  same  place,  1899,  pp.  55  ff., 
67  ff.,  the  remarks  concerning  Rhenish  glass-paintings  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  Respecting  glass -painting  in  Bavaria,  where  attention  was 
chiefly  bestowed  on  armorial  bearings,  see  Sighart,  p.  712. 

2  Schorn,  Kunstblatt,  xiv.  74-75.  3  Andresen,  iii.  228. 
4  Liibke,  Kunsthist.  Studien,  p.  426. 

r'  See  M.  A.  Gessert,  Oesch.  der  Glasmalerei  in  Deutschland  (Stuttgart, 
1839),  p.  110  ff.  '  As  regards  decorative  style,'  says  Rahn  (pp.  701-704), 
'  the  cycles  of  the  sixteenth  century  are  far  inferior  to  those  of  the  fifteenth 


DECLINE   OF   GLASS-PAINTING  155 

years  1580-1600  no  less  than  fifty-two  cabinet-painters 
settled  permanently :  twenty-seven  in  Zurich,  sixteen 
in  Schaffhausen,  and  nine  in  Basle.1  The  more  the 
'  antique-Italian  learning  '  insinuated  itself  in  the 
place  of  religious  convictions,  the  more  soulless  did 
painting  become  in  this  country  also.  Painted  win- 
dows were  produced  by  rules  of  grammar  and  rhetoric,2 
and  covered  with  unintelligible  allegories  ;  personified 
virtues  of  all  sorts,  in  antiquated  garments,  took  the 
place  of  patron  saints  or  armorial  bearings.3 

As  early  as  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century 
complaints  of  faulty  work  began  to  be  heard.  When, 
in  1554,  Paul  Dax  of  Nuremberg  sent  in  his  window- 
panes  for  the  council-house  at  Ensisheim,  it  was  found 
that  '  the  greater  number  of  them  had  not  been  smelted, 
but  in  many  parts  painted  over  with  oil  colours  which 
would  not  bear  exposure  to  weather.'  Of  the  glass- 
paintings  of  the  master  Thomas  Neidhart,  the  Inns- 
bruck Chamber  complained,  in  1575,  that  '  the  colour- 
ing was  bad,  and  that  they  were  not  smelted  all  over.' 
It  must,  however,  in  fairness  be  said  that  the  prices 
paid  were  not  such  as  to  command  lasting  work ;  Paul 
Dax,  for  instance,  received  no  more  than  five  florins 
apiece  for  each  pane  ;  and  in  Alsace,  in  order  to  keep 
out  the  foreign  artists,  glass -painters  offered  to  work  for 

century.'  **  See  also  H.  Meyer,  Die  Schiveizerische  Sitte  der  Fenster  und 
Wappe7ischenkungen  vom  fiinfzchntcn  bis  sechzehnten  Jahrhundert,  Frauen- 
feld,  1884.  Concerning  the  admirable  glass-painter,  Lorenz  Link  (men- 
tioned at  p.  259  ff.  of  the  above  work),  who  was  born  at  Strassburg  in 
1582,  see  also  v.  Hefner- Alteneck,  Lebenserinnerungen,  p.  83. 

1  See  the  article  by  H.  E.  v.  Berlepsch,  in  the  Beil.  zur  Allgem,  Zeitung, 
1887,  No.  14. 

-  See  Von  Zahn,  Jahrbiicher,  i.  30-31. 

8  Concerning  the  allegories  of  Christopher  Maurer,  see  Andresen, 
iii.  225-226. 


156  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

two  florins  the  pane.1     In  the  course  of  the  seventeenth 
century  glass-painting  came  altogether  to  an  end.2 

Even  before  German  painters  had  begun  migrating 
to  Italy,  Dutch  artists  had  already  sought  their  models 
in  this  classic  land.  When  first  they  crossed  the  Alps 
in  search  of  art  culture,  art  life  in  the  Netherlands  had 
not  yet  been  disturbed  by  political  or  religious  up- 
heavals ;  the  Van  Eyck  school  was  still  in  its  glory,  as 
is  shown  pre-eminently  by  the  works  of  Quentin  Massys 
(t  1529),  and  its  flourishing  condition  was  maintained  at 
Bruges  at  a  still  later  period,  when  its  chief  pillars  were 
Peter  Claessens  and  his  two  sons,  who  executed  many 
works  worthy  of  the  Van  Eycks  and  of  the  German 
master  Hans  Memling.3  Peter  Purbus,  from  Gouda 
in  Holland,  also  remained  true  to  the  old  indigenous 
school.    His  '  Transfiguration  of  Christ '  in  the  Church  of 


1  Liibke,  Kunsthistor.  Studien,  p.  460.  Abel  Stimmer  executed 
paintings  in  the  glass  itself  (Andresen,  i.  62).  In  Brandenburg,  also, 
armorial  bearings  and  small  pictures  were  painted  on  glass  (Bergau, 
Brandenburger  Inventor,  p.  79). 

2  '  The  disregard  of  the  laws  of  style  in  this  branch  of  art,  and  the 
loss  of  deep  spiritual  significance  in  composition,  were  accompanied  by 
deterioration  of  technique.  The  washy,  feeble  painting  of  emblems, 
escutcheons,  and  ornaments,  put  together  in  single  pieces,  was  plain 
proof  of  this,  and  pointed  to  the  imminent  death  of  the  art '  (Karl  v. 
Rosen  in  the  Baltische  Studien,  xvii.  182).  See  Waagen,  Malerei,  i.  231- 
232  ;  Kugler,  Kleine  Schriften,  iii.  493  ;  Abry,  pp.  298-299.  The  glass- 
paintings  in  the  cloisters  of  the  Capuchin  nuns  in  the  Church  of  St.  Anna- 
in-the-Fen,  at  Lucerne,  executed  after  1605,  are  also  distinguished  by 
much  depth,  splendour,  and  harmony  of  colouring :  they  represent 
scenes  from  the  life  of  Christ  and  that  of  the  Holy  Virgin.  Cf.  J.  Schneller 
in  the  Geschichtsfreund  (Einsiedeln,  1860),  xvi.  177-186. 

3  See  the  catalogue  of  thirteen  paintings  of  the  family  of  Claessen,  in 
Michiels,  iii.  352-363.  Concerning  one  of  these,  the  execution  of  a  con- 
demned person  in  the  town  hall  at  Bruges,  Michiels  says  :  '  On  dirait  que 
le  genie  de  Memling  a  passe  un  moment  dans  Tame  du  peintre  et  fait 
eclore  dans  son  atelier,  comme  un  souvenir  des  anciens  jours,  cette  fleur 
merveilleuse.' 


DECAY   OF   DUTCH    PAINTING  157 

Our  Lady  at  Gouda  (of  the  year  1573)  is  quite  worthy 
of  comparison  with  the  work  of  Memling.1  Purbus, 
says  the  painter  and  artists'  biographer,  Karl  van 
Mander,  could  not  '  sufficiently  gaze  at  and  admire  ' 
Memling's  pictures.2  These  artists,  like  the  earlier 
ones,  belonged  all  of  them  to  the  plain  burgher  class  ; 
filled  with  zealous  ardour  to  work  for  the  glory  of  God, 
they  were  wholly  uncorrupted  in  their  morals.  Of 
Franz  Purbus,  a  son  of  Peter,  Mander  says  :  he  was 
'  so  friendly  and  lovable  in  society,  that  he  might  be 
called  friendliness  itself ;  he  was  never  known  to  be 
out  of  temper.' 3 

Several  other  Dutch  painters  of  mark,  such  as 
Jan  Schoreel,  Jan  Mabuse,  Martin  van  Veen,  did 
admirable  work,  so  long  as  they  worked  in  the  spirit 
of  the  old  native  school ;  4  as  soon,  however,  as  they 
began  to  regard  the  old  methods  of  art  as  '  old-fashioned 
and  obsolete,'  and  set  about  '  to  find  something  newer 
and  greater  in  Italy,'  they  became  frostily  virtuose, 
though  at  the  same  time  they  were  still  most  highly 
praised  by  Karl  van  Mander,  whose  own  drawings  and 
paintings  show  signs  of  the  deepest  decadence.5 

'  Jan  Schoreel,'  wrote  van  Mander,  '  was  the  very 
first  who  visited  Italy,  and  brought  back  enlighten- 
ment to  the  Netherlands  on  the  arts  of  drawing  and 

1  Michiels,  iii.  341-362,  where  there  is  also  a  catalogue  of  fifty  paintings 
by  this  artist. 

2  Van  Mander,  Bl.  204b  ;  Das  Lob  des  Kilnstlers,  p.  257\ 

3  Van  Mander,  Bl.  257.  **  See  Rooses-Reber,  Oesch.  der  MalersdmU 
Antwerpens  (Munich,  1881),  p.  108. 

4  See  v.lWurzbach,  in  v.  Liitzow's  Zeitschr.  xviii.  54-59  ;  Michiels, 
iii.  64-65,  223-227,  where  several  works  of  these  artists,  which  they 
executed  before  going  to  Italy,  are  compared  with  their  later  ones.  Con- 
cerning Schoreel,  see  also  Bode,  Studien,^.  7-10. 

'  Rathgeber,  Annalen,  p.  286. 


158  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

painting.  Hence  he  was  called  '  the  lantern-bearer  and 
the  pioneer  of  art  in  the  Netherlands.'  1  Next  to  him 
Lambert  Lombard,  after  his  return  from  Italy,  became 
a  father  of  drawing  and  painting  at  Liege ;  he  did 
away  with  the  rough,  coarse,  barbarous  methods  in 
vogue,  and  introduced  in  their  stead  the  beautiful  an- 
tique style,  for  which  he  deserves  no  slight  praise  and 
gratitude.2 

Jan  Mabuse  claims  for  himself  the  glory  of  having 
brought  out  of  Italy  into  Flanders  the  right  and  true 
style  in  the  representation  of  naked  figures  ;  the  pin- 
nacle of  fame,  however,  was  reached  by  Franz  Floris 
in  Antwerp,  who  became  the  '  Flemish  Raphael ; ' 
none  stands  higher  than  he  does.3 

While  all  these  artists  were  striving  to  appropriate 
Italian  methods  they  lost  the  characteristics  of  earlier 
native  art :  its  truth,  and  warmth  of  feeling,  its  quiet 
simplicity,  its  spontaneity,  its  genuine  inspiration  ; 
no  less  also  did  they  lose  the  old  sense  of  harmonious 
colouring.  Their  religious  paintings  grew  cold  and 
meaningless,  and  nude  mythological  representations, 
which  they  produced  in  ever-increasing  quantities, 
became  repulsive,  often  even  disgusting.4 

1  Van  Mander,  Bl.  234.  '-'  Van  Mander,  Bl.  220. 

3  See  Abry,  154  ;  De  Canditto,  pp.  67,  180,  285-286,  439  ff.  For  Franz 
Floris,  see  Schnaase,  Niederland.  Briefe,  pp.  250-252,  Waagen,  Kleine 
Schriften,  p.  236. 

4  See  Woltmann,  Aus  Vier  Jahrhunderten,  p.  31  :  '  Those  Nether- 
landers  who  attempted  to  rival  the  choice  beauty,  the  glorious  freedom 
of  a  Leonardo,  or  a  Raphael,  became  jejune,  prosaic,  and  affected.  The 
case  was  even  more  serious  with  the  imitators  of  Michael  Angelo :  his 
Italian  disciples  had  already  lapsed  into  deterioration,  but  in  the  case  of 
the  Netherlander  the  practice  of  copying  the  great  Florentine  was  still 
more  pernicious.'  Vischer  (iii.  739)  says  :  '  Such  men  as  Mabuse,  Bern- 
hard  van  Orley,  Coxcie,  Schoreel,  Hemskerk,  would  have  been  no  mean 
artists  if  they  had  kept  to  the  severe  style  of  painting,  but  in  the  school 


DUTCH  PORTRAIT-PAINTERS— P.   P.   RUBENS        159 

Even  with  Lucas  von  Leyden  the  sacred  had  often 
sunk  to  the  vulgar  and  common.  Italian  taste  was  a 
fashion,  and  it  led  to  the  distortion  of  the  natural  into 
monstrosity.1  We  find  a  significant  indication  of  this 
whole  tendency  to  exaggeration,  sensationalism  and 
ugliness  in  the  wild  jumble  of  human  beings,  angels, 
and  fiendish  monsters  which  Franz  Floris  painted  in 
1554  in  his  '  Fall  of  the  Angels '  (Engelsturz).2  It  was 
in  accordance  also  with  the  inner  spirit  of  this  tendency 
that  Cornelius  Ketl  ceased  to  use  a  brush  and  painted 
with  his  fingers  only,  using  his  left  hand  as  a  palette  ; 
from  this  he  went  on  to  painting  with  his  left  hand  also, 
and  when  this  kind  of  art-work  met  with  approval  and 
purchasers,  he  used  alternately  his  right  and  left  foot, 
and  finally  showed  his  dexterity  by  working  in  turn 
with  both  hands  and  feet  at  the  same  picture.3 

The  Dutch  painters,  debarred  by  Calvinism  from 
connecting  art  with  religion  (the  highest  aim  of  art), 
turned  their  efforts  to  the  lower  sphere  of  everyday  life, 
and  produced  new  and  out  of  the  way  results  in  the 

of  the  Italians  they  became  empty  formalists  ;  they  discarded  stern  truth 
to  nature  and  physiognomy  because  of  its  want  of  beauty,  and  they 
produced  beauty  without  the  warmth  of  life.'  Camille  Lemonnier  of 
Brussels,  in  his  Chronique  des  Arts  (1877),  p.  384,  calls  the  Renaissance 
epoch  '  a  truly  sinister  page  in  the  history  of  Flemish  painting.'  '  It  may 
safely  be  asserted,'  he  says,  '  that  the  journeyings  to  Italy  threw  Flemish 
art  into  a  death  agony,  and  brought  it  to  the  brink  of  the  grave.'  Max 
Rooses  writes  in  the  same  strain  in  his  Geschiedenis  der  Antwerpsche 
schilder  school  (1879),  p.  136  :  '  The  followers  of  the  Italian  school  lost 
their  way  in  their  pursuit  of  an  unfamiliar  and  misunderstood  ideal.  It 
was  no  revival  or  rebirth  that  they  brought  to  our  art  ;  they  simply  drove 
it  to  suicide  '  (see  Riegel,  Beitrlige,  i.  13-14).  When,  however,  the  Nether- 
lands had  become  the  prey  of  Italianisra,  the  countries  which  had  been, 
so  to  say,  their  tributaries  in  respect  of  art  naturally  fell  also  under  the 
Italian  influence,  which  in  the  sixteenth  century  conquered  nearly  the 
whole  continent '  (Reber,  p.  640). 

1  Waagen,  Kunst  und  Kilnstler,  i.  1?4,  289.  2  Riegel,  i.  23. 

3  Deschamps,  pp.  199-202  ;  Michiels,  iv.  65-66. 


160  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

department  of  still-life  painting.  In  addition  to  this 
they  worked  at  portrait  painting,  distinguishing  them- 
selves especially  in  their  likenesses  of  rulers  and  members 
of  guilds,  without,  however,  attaining  to  the  height 
which  portrait  painting  had  reached  in  Jan  van  Eyck.1 
These  pictures,  known  as  Schutzen-  und  Regentenbilder, 
in  which  the  members  were  either  artistically  grouped 
together,  or  represented  sitting  together  at  a  banquet, 
became  in  Holland  the  most  important  branch  of  art. 
Nearly  every  town  had  its  own  special  master  whose 
business  it  was  to  produce  these  monuments  of  personal 
glorification.2 

Far  surpassing  all  his  brother  artists  by  his  origin- 
ality, his  inexhaustible  imagination,  his  astounding 
versatility,  and  his  indefatigable  energy,  the  giant 
Peter  Paul  Rubens  became  at  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century  — a  time  when  in  Germany  proper 
all  creative  art  faculty  had  died  out— the  founder  of 
a  new  school.  Young  artists,  eager  for  instruction, 
flocked  from  all  directions  to  his  studio  at  Antwerp  : 
he  was  obliged,  he  said,  in  1611,  to  turn  away  more  than 
a  hundred  pupils  on  account  of  excessive  numbers. 
Rubens  included  all  branches  of  painting  in  the  sphere 
of  his  activity  :  historical  painting,  portrait  painting, 
interiors,  landscapes,  still-life,  love  scenes,  drinking 
scenes,  incidents  of  the  chase.  His  dominating  taste 
for  the  forcible  and  the  rude,  as  well  as  for  the  horrible 
and  the  startling,  makes  him  a  living  mirror  of  his  age. 
Many  of  his  religious  pictures,  for  instance,  the  '  Eleva- 

1  See  above,  p.  25,  note  1. 

-  Cf.  Liibke,  Bunte  Blatter,  pp.  179-210;  Riegel,  i.  118-112;  Rath- 
geber,  Annalen,  p.  203.  The  admirable  Dutch  masters  of  a  later  date 
naturally  do  not  come  under  discussion  here.  • 


PETER   PAUL   RUBENS  161 

tion  of  the  Cross  '  (1610),  and  the  '  Descent  from  the 
Cross  '  (1611)  in  the  cathedral  at  ilntwerp,  exhibit  fine 
dramatic  composition,  but  only  a  few  here  and  there 
have  any  religious  import.1 

In  fulness  and  variety  of  conception  scarcely  any 
artist  can  compete  with  Rubens ;  the  rapidity  with 
which  he  executed  even  important  works  has  never 
been  equalled.  His  large  picture  '  The  Adoration  of  the 
Three  Kings,'  now  in  the  Louvre  at  Paris,  was  finished 
in  thirteen  days  ;    the  triptych  of  '  The   Descent  from 

1  When  Rubens  '  wants  to  give  his  subject  a  religious  colouring,' 
'  he  falls  into  a  false  pathos,  an  unnatural  sadness,  into  vehement  declama- 
tion and  gesticulation,  into  contortion  of  heads  and  limbs,  behind  which 
there  is  no  trace  of  genuine  feeling.  Take,  for  instance,  in  Vienna,  the 
picture  of  the  Magdalen  wringing  her  hands  and  kicking  away  from  her 
her  casket  of  jewels.  She  is  a  disappointed,  but  not  a  penitent,  sinner — 
or  else  she  is  merely  acting  a  part !  The  Apostles  in  the  Pinakothek  at 
Munich  have  the  exaggerated  pose  of  stage  saints.  Compare  also  the 
pictures  of  the  Assumption  of  the  Virgin,  that  beautiful  symbol  of  the 
soul's  immortality,  under  the  old  art  methods,  with  those  by  Rubens : 
the  former  are  instinct  with  love  and  dignity  ;  the  latter,  however  often 
repeated,  never  anything  more  than  immense  celestial  spectacles,  in 
which  the  blessed  saints  ascend  with  impossible  writhings  and  contor- 
tions through  the  clouds,  and  through  an  innumerable  host  of  angels. 
Rubens  reached  the  climax  of  this  theatrical  style  in  a  picture  of  St. 
Catherine,  in  which,  with  a  drawn  sword  in  her  left  hand,  her  left  foot 
planted  on  the  wheel,  her  head  swathed  in  a  floating  veil  and  thrown 
back  defiantly,  she  takes  her  place  among  the  saints,  not  only  with  a 
theatrical  air,  but  also  with  that  of  a  ballet-dancer  !  '  (Forster,  iii.  95-96). 
In  a  different  way,  again,  the  tendency  of  the  age  is  seen  in  those  pictures 
in  which  Rubens  depicts  the  history  of  the  French  Queen,  Maria  de' 
Medici.  In  these  we  see  the  gods  and  demi-gods  descending  the  '  antique  ' 
Olympus,  reborn  in  Flemish  bodies,  in  order  to  assist  in  the  destiny  of 
the  Queen.  Apollo,  Minerva,  Mercury,  and  the  Graces  take  charge  of 
her  education  ;  Hymen  carries  her  train  at  the  religious  ceremony  of 
marriage  ;  Tritons  and  Nereids  dance  in  wild  ecstasies  round  the  ship 
from  which  she  steps  out  on  to  the  soil  of  France  (Kugler,  Kleine  Schriften, 
iii.  478-479).  Concerning  P.  P.  Rubens  and  his  religious  paintings,  see 
the  excellent  article — in  my  opinion  a  correct  criticism — by  Keppler  in 
the  Hist.-pol.  Bl.  95,  286  ff.  See  also  J.  Burckhardt,  Erinnerungen  aus 
Rubens,  Basel,  1898. 

VOL.   XL  M 


162  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  Cross  '  in  twenty-five  days  ;  for  the  first  he  received 
1,300,  for  the  second  2,500  florins.1  He  calculated 
each  day's  work  at  100  florins,  an  enormous  sum,  com- 
pared with  the  miserable  pittance  paid  to  the  artists 
working  in  Germany  at  the  Imperial  Court  and  at  the 
courts  of  the  princes. 

John  of  Aachen,  a  firstrate  master,2  received,  as 
court  painter  to  Rudolf  II.,  at  first  a  monthly  payment 
of  only  twenty-five  florins,  whereas  a  necromancer,  the 
Englishman  Kelley,  appointed  by  the  Emperor,  was 
loaded  with  favours  and  bounties,  and  the  Polish 
alchemist  Michael  Sendiwoj ,  a  confidant  of  Rudolf,  was 
so  handsomely  paid  that  he  was  able  to  buy  himself 
a  house  and  two  large  estates.3  The  Netherlander, 
Bartholomew  Spranger  (f  1615),  another  court  painter, 
received  the  same  remuneration  as  John  of  Aachen,  but 
in  addition  was  raised  by  the  Emperor  to  the  rank  of 
nobility.  He  was  one  of  the  most  extreme  mannerists  of 
his  day,  a  caricature  of  Michael  Angelo,  whom  he  pre- 
sumed to  imitate.4  He  was  indefatigable  in  drawing  and 
painting  heathen  gods  and  goddesses  and  every  possible 
subject  from  the  domain  of  mythology  and  ancient 
history.''  On  a  triumphal  arch  for  the  old  peasant- 
market  at  Vienna  he  represents  the  Emperors  Maxi- 
milian II.  and  Rudolf  II.  side  by  side  with  Neptune 
and   Pegasus.11     One   of   his   best   works   is   the   '  Last 

1  Liibke,  Kunstwerke,  p.  432. 

-  See  van  Mander,  Bl.  289-291  ;  Merlo,  Nachrichten  1-1 4. 

3  Svatek,  pp.  81,  241.  **  After  1600  John  of  Aachen  received  a  yearly 
income  of  400  florins.      **  See  Ug,  Kunstgeschtl.  Charakterbilder,  p.  219. 

"'  Rathgeber,  p.  285.  Michiels  (iv.  25)  says  :  '  Language  is  too  poor 
to  describe  the  mannerism  of  Spranger.'  **  Sec  Ilg,  Kunstgeschtl.  Cltarak- 
terbilder,  p.  218. 

5  See  the  catalogue  of  Rathgeber,  pp.  362-364,  Nos.  2094-2160. 

6  Rathgeber,  p.  362,  No.  2103. 


COURT-PAINTERS   TO   PRINCES  163 

Judgment,'  executed  for  Pope  Pius  V.,  but  this  picture 
also  is  spoilt  by  absurd  exaggeration :  it  contains  about 
500  faces.1  These  artists  thought  to  attain  to  '  high 
artistic  excellence  '  by  '  quantity  and  bulk.'  2 

In  still-life  and  in  landscape  painting  the  same 
tendency  is  apparent.  In  a  '  Village  Festival '  by  Jan 
Breughel  more  than  200  figures  may  be  counted.3 
The  artists  of  that  period  often  crowded  so  many 
figures  into  their  landscapes  that  it  became  a  favourite 
amusement  of  lovers  of  art  to  count  them.4 

Among  the  artists  of  most  mark  were  the  Bavarian 
court  painter  Hans  Muelich  of  Munich  (f  1573),  Chris- 
topher Schwarz  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Ingolstadt 
(f  1596),  and  Frederic  Sustris  of  Amsterdam  (f  1599).5 
The  first  of  these  was  one  of  the  best  portrait  and 
miniature  painters  of  that  time ;  he  made  admir- 
able designs  for  vessels  and  ornamental  articles, 
and  he  executed,  in  conjunction  with  Schwarz,  the 
well-known  altar  with  wing  panels  in  the  Frauenkirche 
at  Ingolstadt,  the  pictures  on  which  contain  almost 
the  whole  teaching  of  Christian  faith  and  morality. 
As  '  exemplifying  the  connection  between  art  and 
learning,'  it  is  worthy  of  mention  that  the  theological 
and  philosophical  faculties  in  their  entirety  co-operated 

1  Rathgeber,  p.  367,  No.  2202. 

2  For  instance,  in  the  '  Kreuztragung  '  ('  Bearing  the  Cross  ')  and  the 
'  Tower  of  Babel,'  of  the  year  1563,  by  Peter  Breughel  the  Elder,  an 
innumerable  quantity  of  figures  are  introduced.  These  pictures  are  in 
the  picture-gallery  at  Vienna  (Lotz,  ii.  570). 

3  Deschamps,  p.  381.  4  Rathgeber,  Annalen,  p.  298. 

3  M.  Zimmermann,  Hans  Muelich  und  Herzog  Albrecht  V.  von  Bayern, 
Munich,  1885.  **  See  also,  concerning  Muelich,  W.  Schmidt  in  the 
Zeitschr.  d.  bayrischen  Kunstgewerbevereins,  ix.  3  ff.,  8  ff.  All  sorts  of 
information  about  the  old  Munich  masters  is  given  by  Fr.  Trautmann  in 
the  Jahrbuch  fiir  Miinchener  Gesch.  i.  1-74. 

M  -1 


164  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

in  the  production  of  this  work.1  While  Miielich  still 
kept  to  a  great  extent  to  the  traditions  of  the  old 
German  schools,  Schwarz  who  had  at  first  done  likewise, 
in  his  later  works  followed  almost  entirely  the  taste  of 
his  teacher  Tintoretto.  '  He  is  an  enthusiastic  follower 
of  Italianism,'  wrote  Karl  van  Mander ;  '  he  is  the 
pearl  of  all  Germany  in  our  art.'  -  The  Munich  guild 
of  painters  named  him  '  the  patron  over  all  painters  in 
Germany.' 3  His  most  important  work  is  the  victory 
of  St.  Michael  over  Lucifer  on  the  high  altar  of  the 
Church  of  St.  Michael  at  Munich.  As  for  the  court 
painter,  Frederic  Sustris,  most  of  his  pictures  are  only 
known  through  copper  engravings. 

In  Munich  the  artists  had  the  advantage  of  being 
under  patrons — Dukes  William  V.  and  Maximilian  I. — 
who  did  not  stint  in  payment.  Sustris  was  in  yearly 
receipt  of  a  sum  amounting  to  600  florins  ;  the  Italian 
painter  Antonio  Maria  Viviani  received  as  much  as 
1,100  florins  a  year;  the  Netherlander  Peter  Candid, 
a  remarkably  prolific  painter,  had  an  annual  salary 
of  500  florins,  besides  presents  to  the  same  amount.4 


1  Ree,  pp.  20-21  ;  Sighart,  p.  707  ;  Lotz,  ii.  193. 

2  Van  Mander,  Bl.  258. 

3  Ree,  p.  22.  Cf.  Sighart,  p.  708  ;  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  I.  con- 
sidered Jacob  Seiseneker  (t  1567)  the  best  portrait  painter  of  his  time, 
but  through  aping  Titian  he  became  '  empty  and  superficial.'  '  His 
strongest  point  is  German  accuracy.'     Von  Lutzow,  Zeitschr.  x.  154  158. 

4  Ree,  pp.  34,  50,  64  ff.  See  pp.  260-266,  an  exact  alphabetical 
catalogue  of  the  numerous  works  of  Candid.  George  Hof-  or  Hufnagcl, 
a  native  of  Antwerp,  painted  at  Munich  for  William  V.  and  Maximilian  I. 
'  a  number  of  charming  little  landscapes,  for  which  he  received  handsome 
payments  ;  for  instance,  in  1584,  he  was  paid  a  lump  sum  of  575  florins  ' 
(Fr.  Trautmann  in  the  Jahrb.  fiir  Milnchener  Gesch.  i.  28).  Concerning 
William  V.'s  love  of  art,  see  also  Riezler,  iv.  627  f.;  of  George  and 
James  Hofnagel,  Ehmelarz,  treats  in  the  Jahrb.  d.  kunsthistorischen 
Sammlungen  des  allerhiichsten  Kaiserhauses,  xvii.  276  if. 


COURT-PAINTERS   TO   PRINCES  165 

Less  enviable  appears  the  lot  of  the  North  German 
court   painters.     What   a    '  gruesome   quantity   of   art 
work  '  was  committed  to  them  for  meagre  payment, 
and  how  intelligent  (or  non-intelligent !)  from  an  artistic 
standpoint  were  the  orders  given  to  them,  we  learn, 
for  instance,  from  a  written  order  which  Duke  Julius 
of  Brunswick  sent  on  March  4,  1572,  to  his  court  painter 
and   portrait    painter,    David    von    Hemmerdey.     He 
wrote    to   him    that   he  wished   him  '  as    beautifully, 
quickly,  and  cheaply  as  the  art  of  painting  would  allow  ' 
to  sketch  and  paint  the  following  objects :   '  First,  the 
ducal  mines  with  all  the  beauties  appertaining  to  them, 
the  mountains,  valleys,  woods,    ponds,    meadows  and 
landscapes  around  them,  with  all  the  buildings,  work- 
shops, foundries,  and  all  adjuncts  above  and  below  the 
earth,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  different  works  were 
carried   on.     Likewise  the  galleries   and   pits,   all  the 
rivers,  streams  and  mountain  springs,  the  waterworks, 
the  iron  and  smelting  works,  the  mint,  the  offices  and 
streets,  together  with  the  whole  of  the  Harz  and  all  the 
game  and  the  birds,  and  to  insert  on  vacant  spaces, 
or  bye-work,  hunting  scenes,  battles  of  savage  men, 
heroes  and  pigmies,  and  all  sorts  of  merry,  amusing 
things.     Secondly,  the  rafts  floating  from  Goslar  as  far 
as  to  Wolfenbiittel  and  thence  to  Celle,  with  all  the 
objects  alongside;  also  all  the  scenery  and  objects  of 
interest    stretching    for    miles    around    Wolfenbiittel. 
Thirdly,  all  sorts  of  four-footed  animals  and  birds,  each 
after  its  kind  and  nature  by  land  or  by  water,  and  all 
the  incidents  of  the  chase  of  birds  and  beasts  and  the 
way  in  which  the  different  kinds  of  animals  are  baited, 
hunted  and  caught.     Fourthly,  the  artist  shall  make 
pictures    of   the  human,  first  of   all  naked  and  then 


166  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

clothed,  both  of  men  and  of  women,  just  as  they  came 
out  of  their  mother's  womb,  and  showing  their  growth 
from  stage  to  stage,  from  year  to  year  down  to  old 
age  ;  and  if  he  can  do  nothing  more  he  shall  at  any 
rate  represent  ten  ages  ;  and  at  every  stage  they  shall 
be  depicted  first  naked  and  then  clothed,  and  finally 
swathed  in  their  burial  clothes  as  they  are  put  into  their 
graves.'  '  All  these  pictures,'  the  necessary  materials 
for  which  would  be  ordered  for  the  painter,  were  to  be 
executed  as  the  Duke  wished  and  according  to  the 
order  given  to  the  court  painter.  In  reward  for  the 
work  Hemmerdey  received  board,  firing  and  bed- 
linen,  a  fee  of  one  thaler  a  week,  and  every  year  one 
summer  and  one  winter  suit  of  clothing  ;  the  Duke  also 
promised  him  that  if  the  work  was  done  entirely  to  his 
satisfaction  he  would  give  him  an  extra  honorarium.1 

The  court  painter  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  Heinrich 
Godig,  had  to  be  content,  from  the  year  1573,  with  an 
annual  salary  of  600  florins  ;  amongst  other  jobs  given 
him  he  was  employed  to  paint  in  a  saloon  of  the  Augus- 
tusburg,  on  a  dry  plaster  ground,  hares  either  dressed 
up  like  human  beings  or  in  their  natural  state  and 
imitating  the  actions  of  men.2 

An  essential  part  of  the  court  painter's  work  was 
taking  likenesses. 

The  love  of  portraits  was  very  widespread  in  all 

1  Bodmann,  Julius  von  Braunschiveig,  pp.  237-239.  A  court  painter 
appointed  by  Duke  Henry  the  Elder  in  1502  received  as  yearly  salary 
thirty  florins  in  gold,  one  fat  ox,  two  fat  hogs,  five  bushels  of  rye,  and 
twelve  cartloads  of  wood  (Muller,  Zeitschr.  fur  deutsche  Kulturgesch. 
1873,  p.  520). 

2  See  Andresen,  i.  71.  '  Godig's  works  do  not  deserve  any  further 
attention  except  as  indexes  of  the  decline  of  German  painting  in  the  second 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century,'  says  Von  Eye  (Fiihrer  durch  das  Museum 
des  sticks.  Alter thumsver tins  in  Dresden,  p.  36). 


PORTRAIT-PAINTING  1 07 

classes.    The  painter  Michael  Janssen  Miereveldt  is  said 
to  have  painted  as  many  as  10,000. l 

1  Rathgeber,  Annalen,  p.  296.     **  The  workshop  of  Lucas  Cranach  pro- 
duced a  very  large  number  of  portraits.     As  works  of  art  these  are  mostly 
on  a  very  low  level.     '  Insipid  doll-like  heads,  that  look  as  if  they  were 
made  of  wood,  painted  red  and  white  ;  blinking  eyes,  which  almost  resemble 
the  Chinese  ideal  of  beauty,  ungainly  affected  postures  after  the  manner 
of  the  most  eccentric  fashions  of  the  day  ;  ponderous  ladies'  hats  with 
waving    plumes,  puffed    sleeves,   and    pantaloons  ;    a   profusion   of   gold 
chains   and  rings  ;   heavy,    ostentatious   silks   and  satins  ;   and,   finally, 
inharmonious,   hard,   enamel-hke   colouring,'    this   is   how   Franz   Rieffel 
describes  Cranach's  paintings,  in  a  clever  article  published  in  connection 
with    the    Dresden    Cranach    exhibition    (Frankf.    Zeitung    of  5  Sept. 
1899  ;    cf.    also    the    same   author's  Ausfiihrungen  im  Repertorium  fiir 
Kunstwissenschaft,  xviii.  424  ff.     See,  further,  ibid.  22,  p.  236  ff.,  and 
Zeitschr.  fiir  bildende  Kunst,  n.s.  xi.  25  ff.,  51  ff.,  78  ff.).     '  The  current 
idea  of  Cranach's  painting,'  the  above-mentioned  savant  goes  on,  '  has 
formed  itself  unconsciously,  as  it  were,  from  the  innumerable  portraits 
and  half-length  figures,  as  well  as  from  the  Bible  pictures,  which  are  so 
often  exhibited  under  his  name.     As  a  fact,  however,  the  majority  of 
such   paintings   are   only  the  products   of  his   workshops.     No  painter 
carried  on  his  art  more  as  mere  manufacture  than  did  Cranach.     In 
order  to  understand  and  properly  estimate  this  great  business  one  must 
picture  to  oneself  the  conditions  of  the  time.     Delight  in  pictorial  repre- 
sentation, especially  in  portraits,  had  become  general.     People  wished  to 
leave  their  likenesses  behind  them  for  their  families,  or  to  give  them  to 
friends  and  relations.    Princes  and  lords,  also,  presented  their  portraits  as 
tokens  of  favour.     In  order  to  meet  this  strong  though  chiefly  material 
need,  no  great  artistic  endowment  was  requisite.     The  extensiveness  of  the 
demand  called  forth  a  cheap  and  extensive  supply.     If  Cranach,  and 
Cranach  only,  happened  to  meet  this  want,  the  explanation  simply  is 
that,  from  his   position  as  court  painter,  his  work  was  in  immense  de- 
mand, and  that  his  industrial  organisation  enabled  him  to  execute  such 
a  mass  of  work.     The  immense  staff  of  workers  that  he  must  have  had 
at  his  command  enabled  him  to  undertake  the  most  comprehensive  com- 
missions of  all  sorts,  and,  above  all,  to  carry  them  out  at  a  cheap  rate. 
Many,  I  fear,  of  those  who  gave  him  orders,  even  the  Elector  Albert  of 
Mayence,  whose  purse  was  by  no  means  always  ecmal  to  his  love  of  art, 
were  probably  satisfied  if  Cranach  undertook  their  commissions,  prepared 
the  rough  designs,  and,  finally,  stamped  the  goods  with  his  own  emblem — 
the  winged  snake.     It  would,  therefore,  be  a  great  mistake  to  build  up 
an  artistic  conception  of  this  painter  from  the  barren  performances  of 
the  average  Cranach  type  (easily  recognised    even  by  the  uninitiated), 
and  to  let  oneself  be  deterred  by  these  from  closer  study  of  his  art  methods.' 
Rieffel,  while  undertaking  the  above  task,  also  dilates  admirably  on  the 


168  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Exceedingly  modest  was  the  request  of  Herr  Chris  - 
toph  von  Schallenberg  (f  1597)  that  his  descendants 
should  have  all  the  members  of  their  families  painted 

great  original  gifts  of  Cranach,  gifts  especially  shown  in  several  sacred 
pictures  of  his  Catholic  period.  The  oldest  that  is  certainly  known  to 
be  his  is  the  '  Ruhe  auf  der  Flucht '  (the  repose  during  the  flight) 
of  1504  (once  in  the  palace  of  Sciarra,  at  Rome,  now  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Munich  director-general  of  music,  Levi).  It  is  described  by 
Rieffel  as  not  only  '  the  most  tender,  the  most  lyric,  and  the  finest  of 
Cranach's  works,  but  also  as  one  of  the  profoundest  and  most  remark- 
able creations  of  our  German  art  at  a  time  when  it  was  still  fresh,  un- 
spoiled by  learning,  and  full  of  soul — before  the  Italian  sirocco  had 
scorched  and  parched  it  up.  Dating  from  the  year  1518  there  is  no  more 
any  question  of  development  with  Cranach.  He  (or,  shall  we  say,  his 
workshop  ?)  soon  petrified  ;  it  kept  thenceforth  to  the  approved  and  beaten 
tracks.  One  might  naturally  suppose  that  at  this  time  he  would  have 
been  appointed  academical  professor  in  the  electorate  of  Saxony  had 
there  been  then  such  a  post  of  distinction  for  deserving  masters.  This 
does  not  mean,  however,  that  he  did  not  now  and  then  in  his  later  years 
accomplish  some  master-work,  such,  for  instance,  as  his  own  portrait 
in  1550.  But  his  pictures,  as  a  rule,  no  longer  have  any  soul  in  them. 
Nothing  is  expected  from  them,  and  they  have  nothing  to  give.  His 
art  has  worn  itself  out.'  The  painter  of  '  Ruhe  auf  der  Flucht '  (rest 
during  the  flight)  and  the  painter  of  the  later  pictures  are  '  two  different 
beings.  The  one  is  a  fresh,  hearty,  unfettered  enthusiast,  full  of  fervent 
poetry  and  music,  an  artist,  a  poet  who  has  caught  the  soul  of  nature, 
whose  place  is  certainly  beside  the  great  masters  of  art,  Diirer,  Griine- 
wald,  &c.  The  other  is  a  dry,  academical  painter,  a  skilful  practitioner, 
who  feels  the  pulse  of  the  fashion,  and  knows  exactly  what  and  how  he 
must  paint  in  order  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  his  valued  customers— 
namely,  shallow,  sentimental,  soulless,  tastelessly  dressed  or  tastelessly 
undressed  human  puppets.  He  has  at  his  disposal  an  array  of  fixed 
stamps  and  types  which  the  workshop  repeats  and  reproduces  over  and 
over  again.  Of  anything  like  inward  sympathy  with  the  objects  de- 
picted there  is  no  trace.  A  slight  change  of  costume  would  make  a 
Lucretia  into  a  Judith,  a  Judith  into  a  Madonna.  The  landscape  in  his 
pictures  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  action  :  it  is  typical  and  conventional, 
an  irrelevant  accessory.  He  is  lacking  in  all  finer  sense  of  colour.  He 
ranks  with  painters  of  the  third  class.  What  bridge  joins  these  two 
beings,  if  not  the  auri  sacra  fames  ?  This,  so  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  psycho- 
logical and  tragic  point  in  Cranach's  life.'  Concerning  the  work  of 
E.  Flechsig,  Cranach- Studien,  1st  part  (Leipzig,  1900),  written  in  con- 
nection with  the  Cranach  Exhibition,  see  remarks  by  W.  von  Seidlitz  in 
Beil.  zur  Allcj.  Zeitung,  1900,  note  185. 


PORTRAIT-PAINTING  169 

every  ten  years,  '  let  it  cost  what  it  might.'  l  The 
Augsburg  citizen  Matthias  Schwarz  had  himself  painted 
137  times  from  the  time  when  '  he  was  hidden  in  his 
mother's  womb  '  down  to  his  63rd  year,  in  1560,  and 
that  moreover  in  every  possible  position  and  manner 
of  dress ;  twice  also  completely  naked,  a  front  view 
and  a  back  one.  He  appears  in  specially  magnificent 
apparel  when  '  the  fool  (Cupid  ?)  hit  him  in  the  shape 
of  a  young  Dutch  lady ; '  he  is  depicted  scratching 
himself  meditatively  behind  the  ear  when  he  '  was  so 
bold  as  to  take  unto  himself  a  wife.'  His  son  Veit 
Conrad  Schwarz  had  been  painted  in  portraits  twenty- 
four  times  by  the  time  he  was  nineteen.2 

If  however  '  taking  fine  likenesses  '  was  considered 
'  the  best  and  highest  work  that  art  could  do,'  it  was 
'  easily  explicable  that  most  illustrious  princes  and 
lords  and  their  most  illustrious  wives  and  relations 
should  have  nothing  so  much  at  heart  as  their  own 
beautiful  portraits  which  they  had  taken  in  countless 
numbers,  each  of  them  being  often  painted  twice  a 
year.'  Of  the  Elector  Augustus  of  Saxony  there  are 
as  many  as  thirty- two  different  portraits.3 

What  sort  of  artistic  value  was  attributed  to  the 
'  innumerable  counterfeits  '  with  which  '  castles  were 
ornamented,'  and  which  were  given  as  costly  presents 
to  foreign  potentates  and  princes,  to  relations  and 
friends,  may  be  estimated  by  the  prices  paid  for  these 
pictures.  The  Elector  Joachim  I.  of  Brandenburg 
paid  in  1533  for  his  likeness  painted  on  gold  the  sum  of 
eighteen    groschen.      His  successor    Joachim   II.   gave 

1  Von  Hormayr,  Taschenbuch,  n.s.,  viii.  224. 

2  Fuller  details  in  v.  Zahn,  Jahrbiicher,  iv.  129-134. 

3  Von  der  Werlte  Eitelkeit,  Bl.  C. 


170  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

four  thalers   and  twelve  groscheri  for   '  three  painted 

portraits  of  the  King  of  France,  the  Duke  of  Alva  and 

the  Emperor  Maximilian.'  '     For  the  portrait  gallery  of 

the  Duke   of  Pomerania    each    copy  was  reckoned  at 

three  thalers.1'     Lucas  Cranach  received  in  1532,  for  two 

portraits  of  the  Saxon  Elector,  eight  florins.3     Later  on 

the  prices  sank  even  lower  :   for  sixty  pairs  of  tablets 

adorned  with   princely    portraits    only  100  florins   and 

fourteen  kreuzers  were  paid — for  each  pair,  that  is,  not 

even  two  florins.4     When  Lucas  Cranach  the  Younger, 

who  by  order  of  the  Elector  Augustus  of  Saxony  had 

executed  a  number   of  portraits   of    former    dukes    of 

Saxony,  '  very  beautifully   and  artistically,'   was   very 

desirous  of  receiving  five  thalers  apiece  for  them,  the 

Elector  thought  the  price  too  high,  his  artist  was  paid 

only  three  thalers.' 

Incomparably  better  was  the  lot  of  Hans  Wornle 
in  Munich.  He  received  forty-five  florins  apiece  for  a 
number  of  portraits  of  Bavarian  dukes  intended  for 
presents  to  other  courts/'     Foreign  painters  made  quite 

1  Moehsen,  Oesch.  der  Wissenschaften,  p.  497,  note  6. 

2  Baltische  Studien,  xx.  122-123. 

3  Richard,  p.  370.  '  Lindau,  Cranach,  p.  272. 

5  V.  Weber,  Anna  von  Sachsen,  p.  337.  At  the  above  rates  of  pay- 
ment for  portrait  painting  it  is  difficult  to  make  out  what  Von  Eye  (Eggers, 
v.  227),  speaking  of  the  portraits  of  the  princes  of  the  first  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  means  when  he  says  that  '  at  this  epoch  the  expenses 
of  government  cannot  have  been -so  very  burdensome,  seeing  that  they 
contracted  all  sorts  of  private  liabilities.' 

"  Jahrbuch  fur  Miinchener  Gesch.  i.  34.  The  quality  of  portraits 
which  Hans  Schopfer  had  to  paint  for  the  Bavarian  Court  from  1558  to 
1579  is  seen  from  the  records  in  Von  Hormayr,  Taschenbuch,  n.s. 
xiv.  179-190.  For  the  year  1560,  for  instance,  there  is  the  following 
entry :  '  H.  Schopfer  painted  eleven  "  counterfeits "  representing  the 
Duke,  the  Duchess,  and  then  their  princes  and  princesses,  for  190  guldens.' 
In  the  year  1578  he  received  sixty-five  guldens  for  six  '  counterfeits.' 
**  JohndeWitte,  in  1578,  executed  portraits  of  the  Margrave  James  III. 
of  Baden  '  for   twenty  thalers— i.e.  nineteen   batzen  for  each.'     For  the 


LABOURERS'    WAGES   FOR   PAINTERS  171 

different  charges.  Ferdinand  II.,  Archduke  of  Tyrol, 
who  according  to  the  eulogistic  account  of  Hans  von 
Khevenhiller  excelled  other  potentates  '  in  the  collection 
of  portraits  as  well  as  of  other  curiosities,'  guaranteed 
the  Spanish  painter  x4.1onso  Sanchez  twenty-six  ducats 
for  every  copy  he  made  of  the  old  portraits  of  Spanish 
kings  ;  on  sending  in  the  pictures  ordered  the  artist 
raised  the  price  to  almost  double.1 

Ferdinand's  own  court  painters,  whose  business  was 
to  decorate  his  castles,  were  paid  like  day-labourers  '  by 
the  yard.'  - 

The  town  magistracies  also  often  paid  painters  at  a 
miserably  low  rate.  When,  in  1617,  the  town  council 
of  Hanover  employed  Dietrich  Wedemeyer,  a  *  master 
of  the  profound  and  difficult  art  of  painting,'  to  cover 
sixteen  ells  of  linen  with  the  history  of  Samson,  painted 
in  oils,  they  paid  him  ten  thalers  for  the  work  ;  each 
ell  of  painting  thus  brought  him  in  a  little  over  two- 
thirds  of  a  thaler.3 

Margravine  '  he  painted  a  "  counterfeit "  in  gold  for  two  crowns.  Item, 
six  other  small  tablets,  "  your  Princely  Grace's  "  likeness  for  two  crowns 
apiece '  (Zeitschr.  fiir  die  Geschichte  des  Oberrheins,  xxviii.  194). 

1  Hirn,  ii.  431-433  ;  cf.  434-435.  **  In  1588  Archduke  Ferdinand 
wrote  to  the  Elector  John  George  of  Brandenburg :  '  Whereas  we  also 
are  applying  ourselves  to  the  special  work  of  collecting  all  sorts  of  por- 
traits from  the  princely  houses,  both  of  men  and  women,  of  which  we 
have  already  a  goodly  number  to  hand,  we  make  a  friendly  request  to 
your  Grace  that  you  would  kindly  send  us  also  portraits  of  the  House  of 
Brandenburg,  which  no  doubt  you  have  of  all  the  princely  families.'  A 
similar  recmest  was  to  have  been  sent  at  the  same  time  to  Prince  Joachim 
Ernest  of  Anhalt  (who,  however,  died  meanwhile),  and  in  the  recmest 
it  was  expressly  said  :  '  But  only  of  the  dimensions  given  in  the  accom- 
panying paper  pattern,  so  that  they  may  be  despatched  the  more  easily ' 
(Zeitschr.  fiir  preuss.  Oesch.  und  Landeskunde,  i.  261,  note).  Concerning 
Archduke  Ferdinand's  love  of  art,  and  especially  his  collections,  see  the 
literature  cited  below,  Section  VII. ,  p.  197. 

-  Hirn,  i.  379-380. 

3   Zeitschr  if t  des  histor.  Vereins  fiir  Niedersachsen,  1873,  p.  24. 


172  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SECTION   V. — COPPER   AND    WOOD    ENGRAVING 

While  chamber-painting  in  Germany  was  at  its  last 
gasp,  copper  and  wood  engraving  were  also  dragging 
on  a  sorry  existence.  These  trades  had  only  exhibited 
any  sort  of  artistic  merit  so  long  as  the  engravers  had 
kept  up  the  practice  of  making  their  own  designs,  in- 
stead of  merely  copying  forms  taken  from  other  branches 
of  art— notably  from  the  pictorial  art.  With  Martin 
Schon,  Diirer  and  Holbein  the  mind  had  been  as  active 
as  the  hand  :  later  on  mind  became  overmastered  by 
technique,  and  the  inward  substance  was  lost  sight  of, 
until  at  last  dry  mechanical  industrialism  took  the 
place  of  genuine  art  work,  and  rapidly  developed  into 
a  mere  process  of  money-making. 

Diirer's  influence  continued  to  be  felt  for  a  long  time 
in  the  domain  of  copper  and  wood  engraving,  but  not 
one  of  his  pupils  and  copyists  possessed  anything  ap- 
proaching to  his  '  rich,  secret  treasure  of  the  heart,' 
and  none  of  them  could  in  any  way  come  up  to  their 
master.  As  soon  as  his  influence  ceased,  German 
art  lost  all  claim  to  originality  in  any  important  sense 
of  the  word.  In  Hans  Sebald  and  Bartel  Beham, 
Diirer's  immediate  pupils,1  we  still  note  great  truth 
to  nature  and  much  fresh  individuality,  as  well  as 
considerable  inventive  fancy  in  decorative  design  of  all 

1  See  Seibt,  p.  6  ff. 


COPPER-ENGRAVING   AND    WOODCUTS  173 

sorts  for  goldsmith's  work.  The  two  Behams,  James 
Binck,  George  Penz  and  Albert  Altorfer  '  did  all  their 
work,'  says  Quad  en  von  Kinckelbach,  *  chiefly  from  life,' 
whereas  with  the  later  artists,  such  as  Kornelis  Bosch, 
Kornelis  Mathys,  Virgil  Solis,  and  others,  life  had  been 
gradually  lost  sight  of  and  '  the  spirit  of  cleverness  and 
superficiality  '  had  insinuated  itself,  until  at  last  '  the 
reins  had  been  entirely  given  to  this  spirit,'  and  the 
'  old  art  had  been  trampled  under  foot.'  l 

The  figures  were  manufactured  in  mere  outward 
imitation  of  Italian  models,  or  else  after  the  fashion 
of  the  versatile  Henry  Goltzius  who  produced  such  a 
multitude  of  pictures,  remarkable  for  wonderful  tech- 
nical skill,  but  for  the  most  part  mawkish  and  soulless.2 

One  of  the  most  prolific  artists  of  the  first  half  of  the 
century  was  Anton  von  Worms,  who  in  the  course  of 
twelve  years  prepared  more  than  a  thousand  drawings 
for  woodcuts  ;  he  still  clung  with  a  certain  amount 
of  tenacity  to  the  traditions  of  early  German  art.3 
In  the  second  half  of  the  century  Virgil  Solis  of  Nurem- 
berg, Tobias  Stimmer  of  Schaffhausen,  and  Jost  Amman 
of  Zurich,  were  distinguished  by   '  inexhaustible  pro- 

1  Quaden  von  Kinckelbach,  pp.  430-431  ;  cf.  p.  403.  '  The  predilec- 
tion for  pagan  subjects,  for  "  antique  forms,"  for  plastic  treatment  of 
the  human  figure  for  its  own  sake,  was  introduced  into  German  art  chiefly 
through  the  young  Nuremberg  engravers,  and  it  led,  on  the  one  hand, 
to  a  cold,  academic  style  ;  while,  on  the  other,  it  degenerated  into 
obscenity '  (M.  Friedlander,  A.  Altdorfer  [Leipzig,  1891],  p.  82).  '  It 
was  the  siren-calls  from  the  land  of  the  antique  ideal  of  beauty  which 
brought  this  change  about,  and  the  Nuremberg  school  plunged  German 
art  into  the  snares  of  mannerism  '  (C.  v.  Liitzow  in  Oesch.  der  deutschen 
Kunst,  iv.  198). 

-  Notable  examples  of  this  mannerism,  which  had  already  set  in  with 
Lucas  of  Leyden,  are  the  latter's  '  Siindenfall,  the  first  case  of  fratricide,' 
and  '  Adam  and  Eve  by  the  corpse  of  Abel '  (Woltmann,  Malerei,  ii.  534). 

3  See  above,  p.  151,  n.  2  ;   Butsch,  i.  53-54. 


174  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

ductiveness  in  work  of  all  sorts.'  Solis  was  not  only 
a  copper- engraver,  but  also  an  etcher,  a  modeller,  a 
painter,  and  an  illuminator ;  he  wrote  under  his 
portrait : 

Mit  Moln,  Stechen,  Dluminirn, 

Mit  Reissen,  Atzen,  und  Visirn, 

Es  that  mir  keiner  gleicli  mit  Arbeit  fein, 

Drum  heiss  ich  billig  Solis  allein.1 

With  painting  and  illuminating, 
Engraving,  drawing,  etching,  emblazoning, 
None  can  come  near  me  in  delicate  work  : 
Well,  therefore,  am  I  called  Solis  alone. 

Of  Amman  it  was  said  by  his  pupil,  George  Keller 
of  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  that  in  four  years  he  had 
made  '  enough  drawings  to  fill  an  enormous  hay- cart.5  2 
Stimmer  executed  over  1,300  plates,  among  which  were 
nearly  300  likenesses  of  scholars  and  other  celebrities.3 

1  Mittheilungen  der  kaiserl.  Centralcommission,  v.  144. 

2  Waldau,  Vermischte  Beitrdge,  iii.  305  ff.  For  the  bookseller,  Sig- 
niund  Feyerabend,  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  Amman  executed  after 
1564  '  within  twenty-four  years,  illustrations  for  such  a  quantity  of  works 
that  it  is  scarcely  conceivable  how  a  publisher  could  be  in  a  position  to 
undertake  so  much.'  That  '  the  woodcuts  were  in  demand  without 
reference  to  the  text  is  shown  by  Feyerabend' s  enterprise  in  publishing 
the  favourite  plates  of  the  master  in  a  separate  work.'  In  an  enlarged 
edition  of  Amman's  Kunst  und  Lehrbiichlein  (1599)  there  are  no  fewer 
than  296  plates  (0.  Becker,  Jost  Amman,  Zeichner  und  Formschneider, 
Kupferatzer  und  Steelier  [Leipzig,  1854],  p.  v.  ft'.  ;  **  see  also  Von  Hefner  - 
Altencck,  '  Dber  den  Maler,  Kupferstecher  und  Formschneider  Jost 
Amman,'  in  the  Sitzungsberichtev.  Milnch.  Akad.  Hist.  Kl.  1878,  u.  Lebens- 
crinnerungen,  p.  254  ft.). 

**  '  See  Andresen,  iii.  7-217  ;  Heller,  pp.  702-703.  Concerning  Stimmer 
see  Stolberg,  '  E.  Stimmers  Malereien  an  der  astronomischen  Miinsteruhr 
zu  Strassburg  '  (Studien  z.  deutschen  Kunstgesch.  13).  Worthy  of  men- 
tion as  a  curiosity  are  the  Prosopographia  heroum  atque  illustrium  virorum 
totius  Germankt,  published  by  the  Basle  physicist,  Heinrich  Pantaleon 
(1565-1566),  in  three  parts  (folio).  He  begins  with  Adam,  protoplastus  ; 
then  comes  Noah,  qui  et  Janus  dicitur,  and  immediately  after  Tuisco, 
Germanorum  conditor  [i.e.  Tuisco,  the  father  of  the  Germans).  The 
Saviour  stands  between  Eric,  King  of  Sweden  and  Gothland,  and  the 
Vandal  King    Strumiko  (part  i.  pp.  91-95).     Most  wonderful  of  all  are 


COPPER-ENGRAVING    AND   WOODCUTS  175 

But  with  all  three  artists  skill  and  swiftness  led  to 
superficial  reproduction  of  ideas  without  thoroughness 
and  clearness  of  understanding  or  drawing. 

The  addition  of  title-page  borders,  ornamental 
letters  and  pictures,  both  to  religious  and  popular 
books,  was  still,  as  in  the  Middle  Ages,  considered  as 
a  matter  of  course.  Authors  and  publishers  of  the 
different  writings  often  exchanged  these  artistic  adjuncts 
among  one  another  ;  in  Catholic  and  Protestant  books, 
whose  authors  were  fiercely  pitted  against  each  other, 
we  do  not  seldom  find  one  and  the  same  set  of  illus- 
trations ;  for  instance,  in  a  Frankfort  edition  of  the 
Lutheran  translation  of  the  Bible  of  1533-1534,  and  in 
the  Catholic  translation  of  the  Bible  by  Dietenberger 
of  the  same  date.1 

Among  the  Catholic  books  of  instruction  and 
devotion  the  catechisms  and  prayer-books  of  the 
Jesuit  Father  Canisius  were  especially  well  supplied 
with  woodcuts  :  the  larger  German  Catechism  printed 
at  Dillingen  in  1575,  together  with  the  prayer-book, 
has  eighty-eight  illustrations  in  half-size  plates ;  the 
Greek  translation  of  the  smaller  Latin  Catechism,  of 
1613,  published  at  Augsburg,  has  104,  a  French  trans- 
lation of  the  following  year,  eighty-four,  and  one 
destined  for  China  of  the  year  1617,  more  than  100.2 

the  Prosopa.  At  the  beginning  of  each  biographical  account  stands  the 
bust  of  the  hero,  and  very  frequently  the  same  picture  is  made  to  do 
duty  for  ten  or  more  characters.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  CarmeUte 
Provincial,  Johannes  Meyer  (about  1565),  looks  exactly  like  the  pre- 
Christian  '  Philosopher  Zamolxis,'  and  Heligast,  the  Sicambrian  priest 
of  idols,  just  like  the  Cologne  professor  of  theology,  Matthias  Aquensis, 
and  also  like  Rudolf  Agricola.  The  last  vir  illustris  is  Heinrich  Pantaleon 
himself. 

1  See  Wedewer,  p.  451  ff. 

2  According  to  catalogues  by  Rosenthal    in  Munich  and    Weigel  in 
Leipzig. 


176  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

That  these  artists  had  neither  great  wealth  of 
ideas  nor  lively  power  of  imagination,  is  shown  by  the 
hundreds  of  woodcuts,  often  praised  as  '  clever  Bible- 
pictures,'  executed  by  Virgil  Solis  for  the  Frankfort 
edition  of  the  Lutheran  translation  of  1561,  by  Tobias 
Stimmer    for   the    Basle    edition  of    1576.1      Scarcely 

**  '  See  Meyer,  '  Die  Bibelillustration  in  der  zweiten  Halite  des  sech- 
zehnten  Jahrhunderts,'  in  the  Zeitschr.  fiir  allgcm.  Gestih.  iv.  178-182. 
Side  by  aide  with  his  faults  Stirmner's  merits  are  here  discussed,  but  they 
are  sometimes  emphasised  too  strongly.  On  the  general  question  of 
Bible  illustration  in  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Meyer 
says,  loc.  cit.  iv.  167  :  '  The  fine  proportion  between  the  incidents  repre- 
sented and  their  surroundings,  between  figures  and  landscape,  or  archi- 
tecture, which  gives  us  so  much  pleasure  in  Diirer  and  Holbein,  disap- 
pears little  by  little  ;  accessory  matter  gains  more  and  more  importance, 
and,  moreover,  as  a  rule,  at  sacrifice  of  the  main  subject,  the  persons  or 
events  represented.  Brilliancy  of  outward  effect  and  elegance  (?)  remain  ; 
but  the  spiritual  substance  dwindles  more  and  more,  and  the  harmony 
between  spirit  and  form,  between  idea  and  outward  shape — the  mark  of 
true  classicism — goes  out.  Great  results  attained  by  simple  means  become 
rarer  and  rarer,  while  more  and  more  frequently  we  meet  with  artists 
who,  with  all  their  abundance  and  pomp  of  matter,  their  crowds  of  figures, 
their  luxurious  architecture,  still  leave  the  eye  unsatisfied.'  The  Bible 
pictures  of  Virgil  Solis  '  have  in  the  main  the  above-mentioned  charac- 
teristics of  the  epoch,  without,  however,  ever  rising  above  the  average 
merit  of  these.'  Concerning  '  the  excesses  '  of  Solis,  '  whereby  he  over- 
stepped the  boundaries  of  what  is  permissible  and  even  desirable  in  art,' 
see  Meyer,  pp.  179-180.  Jost  Amman  suffered  from  '  the  tendency  to  over- 
load his  pictures  with  figures  and  incident.'  'A  highly  fantastic  element  in 
his  decorative  art  reminds  one  almost  of  the  age  of  Rococo.  He  is  almost 
entirely  wanting  in  capacity  to  produce  great  results  with  simple  means.' 
The  Virgin  Mary  receives  the  salutation  of  the  angel  in  sumptuous  attire. 
In  the  picture  of  John  the  Baptist  there  are  '  so  many  newly  baptised 
people  putting  on  their  shifts  and  stockings  that  one  seems  almost  to  be 
looking  at  a  bathing-place.'  In  Amman's  representation  of  the  parable 
of  the  mote  and  the  beam  '  the  appearance  of  the  man  with  the  beam  in 
his  eye  is  most  comical.  The  beam  is  exactly  half  as  long  as  its  bearer, 
who  yet  does  not  seem  to  notice  it,  so  engrossed  is  he  in  taking  out  the 
shorter  splinter  from  his  brother's  eye,'  and  so  forth  (pp.  180-182).  Tobias 
Stimmer  is  much  more  favourably  criticised,  especially  as  regards  technique: 
'  He  handled  his  landscapes  and  more  ideal  scenes  in  a  masterly  manner  ' 
(pp.  182-185).  '  This  whole  period,'  says  Meyer  (p.  186),  '  cannot  be 
better  characterised   than  in  the  words  of   Louis  Richtcr :    "  When  the 


COPPER-ENGRAVING   AND   WOODCUTS  177 

one  of  these  woodcuts  shows  any  elevation,  still  less 
grandeur,  of  conception.  Poverty  of  mind  and  of 
artistic  sense  is  especially  conspicuous,  in  both  the  Bible 
editions,  in  the  treatment  of  the  Prophets.  The 
marvellous  grandeur  and  spiritual  inspiration  of  Isaiah, 
proclaiming  in  words  of  thunder  the  divine  judgment 
on  the  crimes  of  the  rulers  and  the  sins  of  the  people 
in  an  age  which  greatly  resembled  the  sixteenth  century, 
is  represented  by  Stimmer  in  the  person  of  an  infirm 
old  man,  to  whom  a  little  angel  with  a  pair  of  fire- tongs 
is  handing  a  glowing  coal,  while  in  the  background 
another  old  man,  representing  God  the  Father,  with 
a  long  beard  and  royal  robes  of  state,  is  looking  on  at 
the  performance.  To  this  picture  the  poet  John 
Fischart,  who  supplied  170  pictures  '  with  rhymes  for 
the  edification  of  God-fearing  hearts,'  appended  the 
following  doggerel : 

How  keen  a  prophet  must  have  been 
Isaiah,  in  this  picture  is  seen, 
For  on  his  mouth  an  angel  bright 
A  coal  from  off  God's  altar  lays  : 
Hence  the  pure  truth  of  Christ  he  says.1 

idea  takes  shape  in  beautiful  and  living  form,  when  the  word  becomes 
flesh,  then  the  summit,  the  classic  height,  is  reached.  Invariably,  how- 
ever, the  spiritual  essence  recedes  more  and  more,  and  at  last  nothing 
remains  but  the  dead  flesh.  This  is  the  regular  course  of  all  art  history." 
1  Newly  published  by  George  Hirth  in  Munich  and  Leipzig,  1S81. 
In  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  Fischart's  verses  run  as  follows  : 

Die  Lad  des  Bunds  saint  Gnadenstulil 
Ward  gziert  mit  Engeln,  wies  Gott  gfuhl, 
Und  audi  der  iibergulte  Tiscli 
Mit  guldnen  Gschirren  zugeriist : 
Welchs  als  auf  Christum  Deitnus  ist. 

The  Ark  of  the  Covenant  with  the  mercy- seat 
Were  adorned  with  angels,  as  it  pleased  God, 
And  also  the  table  with  gold  overlaid 
With  vessels  of  gold  was  furnished ; 
Which  all  is  a  type  of  Christ. 

**  Cf.  L.  G(eiger)  in  the  Beil.  zur  Allgemein.  Zeitung,  1881,  No.  205. 

VOL.   XI.  N 


178  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

When  the  Wittenberg  printer,  Christopher  Walter, 
said  disparagingly  of  the  Frankfort  edition  brought 
out  by  Sigmund  Feyerabend,1  that  it  contained  lewd 
figures  and  abominable  pictures,2  he  did  it  injustice  ; 
only  from  the  Catholic  standpoint  could  the  polemical 
plates  designed  for  the  Apocalypse  3  be  described  as 
'  abominable  and  extraordinary.' 

In  Amman's  '  Wappen-  und  Stammbuch ' 4  the 
pictorial  merit  is,  in  most  of  the  woodcuts,  on  a  level 
with  the  poetical  merit  of  the  verses  which  explain 
the  illustrations  ;  thus,  for  instance,  '  Die  Melancholie,' 
a  miserable  performance  when  compared  with  its 
namesake  by  Diirer,  has  the  following  verses  attached 
to  it : 

Far  out,  far  out  my  fancy  wings, 
Conceiving  many  wondrous  things. 
Mislead  me  not  if  you're  my  friend, 
Or  you  will  render  me  crack-brained. 
No  joy  brings  me  the  children's  laughter, 
Nor  cackling  that  the  hens  make  after 
Laying  eggs.     Oh  let  me  in  this  mood  remain, 
Or  you  will  have  but  little  gain  ! 

Under  a  revolting  picture  of  Bacchus  are  the  lines  : 

Hail  to  thee,  Bacchus,  thou  noble  boy, 
Of  gods  the  gift,  of  man  the  joy."' 

With  Amman  and  Stimmer  German  wood- engraving 
as  a  means  of  illustration  and  ornamentation  came  to 
an  end.  All  designs  and  forms  degenerated.  In  Basle, 
Strassburg,  Augsburg,  Nuremberg,  and  other  towns, 
where,  in  the  fifteenth  century  and  down  to  the  middle 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  quantities  of  ornamental 
works  both  great  and  small  had  issued  from  the  printing- 

1  Biblia,  das  ist  die  gantze  Id.  Schrijt  Teutsch,  1561. 

2  Cf.  Archiv  fur  Gesch.  des  deutschen  Buchhandels,  ii.   50-51  ;  Pall- 
mann,  p.  10. 

3  See  above,  pp.  63,  64.        4  Frankfort  edition  of  1589.       5  Bl.  N.  Qt 


DECAY   OF   ART  179 

houses,  nothing  more  of  any  note  was  produced.  Even 
in  important  works,  such  as  the  edition  of  Hans  Sachs 
published  at  Nuremberg  by  Leonard  Heussler  (1578- 
1591),  there  is  nothing  in  the  way  of  ornamentation, 
beside  some  worthless  Gothic  initials,  but  borders  and 
colophons ;  and  as  these  were  manufactured  with 
mould-cutters,  they  could  scarcely  lay  any  claim  to 
artistic  merit.  Almost  everywhere  people  were  content 
with  bad  imitation  of  earlier  German  or  French  work.1 

Thus,  towards  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century 
all  grand  monumental  art,  whether  connected  with  the 
Church  or  with  public  life,  all  high-class  sculpture  and 
painting,  as  well  as  wood  and  copper  engraving,  had, 
with  few  exceptions,  lost  all  originality  and  creative 
force,  and  were  approaching  their  end.  Nevertheless, 
there  were  still  at  the  time  learned  folk  whose  opinion 
was  summed  up  in  the  following  lines  : 

'Twas  said  in  former  years  whene'er 

The  arts  the  theme  of  talkers  were, 

To  such  high  pitch  these  had  been  brought 

That  nothing  higher  could  be  wrought. 

Yet  I  to-day  declare  no  ground 

Whatever  in  such  talk  is  found, 

For  true  appearance  showeth  me 

The  opposite  correct  to  be, 

Whereas  all  arts  have  better  grown 

Than  any  that  before  were  known.'2 


1  Fuller  details  concerning  the  falling-off  of  the  printing-houses  in 
the  different  towns  in  Butsch,  i.  23  ff.  ;  ii.  24  ff.  From  as  early  a  date 
as  1535  '  we  no  longer  find  in  any  German  printing-house  the  clever 
ornamental  alphabets  of  the  old  German  masters  replaced  by  modern 
ones  of  equal  merit.  The  worn-out  types  and  blocks  are  still  in  con- 
stant use  '  (ibid.  ii.  19  ;  cf.  ii.  29).  '  In  Germany,  its  actual  home,  the  art 
of  wood-engraving  sank  lower  and  lower,  so  that  it  became  impossible  to 
print  anything  but  copper-plates  in  books.'  '  Woodcuts  were  only  fit 
for  calendars,  popular  leaflets,  and  street  placards  of  the  roughest  kind  ' 
(Falke,  Geschmack,  p.  161). 

2  Theatrum   oder   Schawlvch   allerlei    Werckzeug   und    Riistungen,    by 

N  2 


180  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

As  a  matter  of  fact  there  was  only  one  sphere  of 
activity  in  which  any  real  artistic  work  had  even  a 
share,  and  this  was  not  a  national  concern,  and  in 
no  way  benefited  the  people  at  large. 

James  Besson,  translated  from  Latin  into  German  (Mompelgard,  1595), 
Bl.  A.  2b.  Woltmann  (Aus  vier  JahrMinderten,  p.  27)  will  not  allow  that 
'  the  national  art  was  not  in  a  nourishing  condition  about  1618.'  It 
was  not  till  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  he  says,  that  the  decadence  set  in. 
Liibke  sums  up  his  opinion  concerning  the  German  Renaissance  as  follows 
in  the  Beilage  zur  Allgem.  Zeitung,  1887,  No.  357  :  '  We  must  not  expect 
to  find  in  it  the  noble  distinction  of  the  Italian  work,  or  the  delicate 
grace  of  the  French.  Its  prevalent  characteristics  are  not  only  a  per- 
sistent reiteration  of  mediaeval  forms,  of  late  Gothic  construction  and 
decorative  elements,  but  also,  on  the  whole,  a  tendency  to  complexity, 
gaudiness,  caprice,  and  coarseness.'  But  what  this  '  Renaissance '  art 
lacks  in  artistic  harmony  and  organic  structure,  in  systematic  adhesion 
to  law,  it  makes  up  for  '  abundantly  by  its  inexhaustible  fecundity, 
variety,  freshness,  and  vitality.'  Whatever  influence  Italy,  France,  and 
the  Netherlands  may  have  had  on  our  art  at  that  period,  it  still  possessed 
an  original  force  which  assimilated  everything  into  its  own  flesh  and 
blood  ;  and  from  about  1530  clown  to  the  outbreak  of  the  unholy  Thirty 
Years'  War  it  brought  forth  a  world  of  manifold  creations,  in  which  we 
are  delightfully  aware  of  a  genuine  love  of  creation,  a  joyous  sense  of 
newly  acquired  political  security  and  religious  freedom,  a  vital  pleasure 
in  honest  burgher  life.'  Of  this  so-called  '  newly  acquired  political  and 
religious  freedom,'  this  '  vital  pleasure,'  &c.,  there  is  no  evidence  to  be 
found  in  contemporary  records,  but  only  evidence  of  the  opposite. 


181 


CHAPTER   IX 

SECTION    VI. MINOR   ARTS    AND    HANDICRAFT 

For  the  secondary  arts  also  the  fifteenth  century 
had  been  the  actual  golden  epoch.  These,  however, 
had  enjoyed  an  exuberant  after-blossoming,  while  the 
higher  arts  were  on  the  decline,  and  had  then  stood 
in  the  forefront  of  art-creativeness.  Goldsmiths  and 
silversmiths,  jewellers,  ivory-cutters,  armourers,  en- 
gravers, found  plentiful  employment  in  supplying  the 
luxurious  needs  of  the  wealthy  classes,  and  they  pro- 
duced in  abundance  choice  and  costly  objects  of  solid 
excellence.  The  goldsmith's  art,  which,  in  the  Middle 
Ages  had  done  real  wonders,  surpassing  even  the  works 
of  the  Greeks,  was  the  longest  to  retain  its  place  of 
honour ;  down  to  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century  the  goldsmiths  produced  objects  of  art,  gene- 
rally brilliantly  enamelled,  far  superior  even  to  the 
achievements    of    the    earlier    period.1     In    its    main 

1  See  F.  Luthuier, '  Zur  Geschichte  des  Geschnieides,'  in  the  Feuilleton 
of  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung  of  May  8,  1888.  The  goldsmith's  work  of  the 
sixteenth  century  served,  above  all,  as  a  channel  for  man's  love  of  a 
picturesque  personal  appearance.  The  element  of  colour  appears  trium- 
phantly in  the  foreground,  and  gives  its  special  character  to  Renaissance 
ornaments.  **  '  What  is  still  preserved,'  says  J.  v.  Falke,  '  is  altogether 
such  as  to  give  us  a  high  idea  both  of  the  perfection  of  the  art,  of  the 
purity  of  taste  of  the  period,  and  of  the  quantity  and  the  richness  of  the 
objects  executed.  And  yet  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  all 
that  was  most  admired,  or  even  all  the  best  work  of  the  whole  century, 
has  been  preserved  to  us.  On  the  contrary,  if  we  read  the  contemporary 
accounts  of  famous  masters  of  the  period  and  their  works,  if  we  look 


182  HISTORY    OF   TF1E   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

forms,    moreover,   the   goldsmith's    art     adhered     the 
longest  to  the  old  traditions  of  the  Gothic. 

Munich,  Augsburg  and  Nuremberg  were  the  chief 
centres  of  its  activity.  The  treasures  of  the  Church 
of  St.  Michael  and  the  '  rich  chapel '  at  Munich  bear 
eloquent  witness  to  the  '  wonderfully  subtle  manner 
in  which  the  goldsmiths  worked.'  ] 

Augsburg  was  regarded  as  the  actual  centre  and 
high  school  of  the  art.  The  goldsmiths'  guild  there, 
in  1588,  counted  170  masters,  and  the  number  went  on 
increasing  down  to  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  Each 
master  was  allowed  three  companions  and  one  appren- 
tice ;  in  the  year  1602  as  many  as  thirty  new  apprentices 
were  enrolled ;  the  influx  of  foreign  journeymen  was 
so  large  that  in  the  town  churchyards  special  burial 
quarters  were  allotted  to  them.2     Among  the  numerous 

through  the  numerous  inventories  of  treasures  of  distinguished  families, 
still  preserved  in  the  archives,  inventories  of  hundreds  of  objects  of  which 
not  a  single  atom  has  survived  to  the  present  day,  we  shall  at  once  become 
convinced  that  we  possess  nothing  more  than  fragments — and,  relatively 
speaking,  inferior  fragments — of  the  jewellery  and  the  goldsmith's  art 
of  the  German  Renaissance  '  (Gesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst,  v.  126). 

1  '  The  flourishing  condition  of  the  goldsmiths'  art  under  Albert  V. 
is  specially  shown  by  an  inventory  of  all  those  objects  of  art  which  Albert 
declared  to  be  the  inalienable  possessions  of  the  Bavarian  princely  family, 
and  which  represented  a  solid  value  of  213,000  florins.  How  important 
a  sum  this  was  for  the  period  is  shown  from  the  fact  that  a  jewel  casket, 
valued  in  1565  at  12,618  florins,  was  priced  at  173,810  florins  in  1845  ' 
(Stockbauer,  pp.  85-88).  See  also  Hainhofer,  pp.  61-67,  84-105.  **  Cf.  in 
addition  J.  H.  v.  Hefner-Alteneck.  Detitsche  Goldschmiede  Arbeiter  des 
sechzehnten  Jahrhunderts,  Frankfort,  1890,  and  Lebenserinnerungen,  p.  107  ff. 
See  also  Janitschek,  Repertorinm,  xiv.  522-524,  and  Zimmermann,  Die 
bildenden  Kiinste  am  Hofe  Herzog  Albrechts  V.  von  Bayern  (Strassburg, 
1895),  p.  86  ff. 

-  Fuller  details  in  A.  Buff,  '  Das  Augs burger  Kunstgewerbe,'  in  the 
Beil.  zur  Allgem.  Zeitung,  1887,  No.  258  ff.  In  1618  the  number  of  Augs- 
burg goldsmiths  had  risen  to  200  (Von  Liitzow,  Zeitschr.  xx.  83,  note). 
With  regard  to  other  towns  it  is  said,  for  instance,  that  in  1618  at  Frank - 
fort-on-the-Main  there  were  forty-eight  goldsmiths  besides  118  jewellers 


MINOR   ARTS    AND   HANDICRAFT  183 

goldsmiths  of  Nuremberg,1  Wenzel,  Albrecht  and 
Christopher  Jamnitzer,  and  Jonas  Silber  attained  the 
highest  renown.  In  accordance  with  the  general  spirit 
of  the  age  and  the  craving  for  luxuries,  the  principal 
work  of  the  goldsmiths  consisted  in  the  manufacture 
of  all  sorts  of  costly  drinking-cups  and  ornaments  ;  the 
most  distinguished  painters  and  copper-engravers,  such 
as  Hans  Holbein,  Hans  Miielich,  Jost  Amman,  and 
others  drew  the  designs  for  them ;  Bernard  Zan  made 
more  than  fifty  designs  for  beakers  and  goblets. - 
What  Aloisius  von  Orelli  wrote  in  the  second  half  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  viz.  '  that  since  the  inhibition  of 
all  religious  pictures  and  pictures  of  saints,  the  walls 
of  dwelling-rooms  had  been  hung  with  drinking -vessels 
of  all  sizes  and  shapes,'  did  not  apply  to  Zurich  only. 
'  Wealthy  houses,'  he  said,  '  possess  large  capital  in 
quantities  of  silver-gilt  drinking-vessels,  goblets,  bowls, 
and  so  forth,  and  among  these  objects  there  is  much 
admirable  work.'  '  The  large  drinking-vessels  are  in 
the  shape  of  warriors,  and  horses  or  other  animals, 
which  the  possessor  wears  on  his  coat  of  arms.'  '  The 
articles  on  which  most  art  and  splendour  were  displayed 
were  the  vessels  used  for  eating  and  drinking.' 3 

and  ruby  and  diamond  cutters  (Kirchner,  Oesch.  von  Frankfurt,  ii.  465). 
At  Hermannstadt,  in  Transylvania,  the  goldsmiths'  guild,  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  numbered  seventy  to  eighty  masters  (Mittheilungen  der 
kaiserl.  Centralcommission,  vi.  148).  **  Respecting  Konigsberg,  see  P. 
Schwenke  and  K.  Lange,  Die  Silberbibliothek  Herzog  Albrechts  von  Preussen, 
und  seiner  Gemahlin  Anna  Maria,  Leipzig,  1894.  On  the  general  ernes - 
tion  of  art  at  the  court  of  the  Dukes  of  Prussia,  see  the  copious  work 
with  the  same  title  by  H.  Ehrenberg,  Berlin  and  Leipzig,  1899. 

1  See   Neudorffer,   pp.  115,  124,    125,    126,    127,    159-160,   203-204  ; 
J.  Baader  on  Nuremberg  goldsmiths,  in  Von  Zahn's  Jahrbiicher,  i.  246-248. 

-  Andresen,  iii.  257-262. 

3  Scheible,    Kloster,    vi.    707,    708.     Drinking-vessels    were    named 
according  to  their  special  shapes :  as,  for  instance,  muscat  or  cocoanut, 


184  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

One  freak  of  fancy  was  to  make  sets  of  silver-plate 
for  the  table  {silberne  Gesellschaften,  as  they  were  called), 
with  all  the  members  of  the  family  in  their  special 
costumes  represented  on  them.  Wenzel  Jamnitzer 
(f  1588)  executed  a  table-set — one  of  his  most  prized 
works — consisting  of  a  field-piece  covered  with  flowers, 
vegetables,  reptiles,  lizards  and  snakes,  over  which 
rises  a  woman's  figure  typifying  nature  ;  on  her  head 
she  carries  a  chalice-shaped  vessel,  from  the  middle  of 
which  springs  an  urn  full  of  flowers.1  '  What  this 
Jamnitzer  and  his  brother  Albrecht  produced  in  the 
way  of  animals,  reptiles,  plants  and  snails 2  of  silver 
wherewith  to  decorate  silver  table-sets,'  writes  Neu- 
dorfler,  '  is  beyond  anything  heard   of  before.'     '  The 

acorn,  pear,  grape,  pelican,  swan,  cork,  ship,  and  so  forth.  If  the  utensil 
had  the  shape  of  an  animal  it  was  called  by  that  animal's  name.  Others 
made  in  the  form  of  chalices  were  adorned  with  raised  bumps  or  knots, 
and  are  classed  in  all  inventories  under  the  head  of  '  Knorrechte  Becher  ' 
(embossed).  Other  kinds,  again,  were  of  burlesque  or  fantastic  shapes, 
such  as  monks,  nuns,  fools,  and  so  forth.  '  Sometimes  the  shapes  appear 
so  inconvenient  for  drinking  purposes  that  the  supposition  is  these  articles 
must  have  been  meant  merely  for  ornaments.  There  were  some  even 
to  which  was  attached  machinery  for  making  them  run  about  the  table. 
In  the  sixteenth  century  it  was  very  common  to  have  a  kind  of  beaker 
made  out  of  coins  '  (Becker  and  Von  Hefner,  i.  47).  In  the  Dresden  His- 
torical Museum  there  is  a  silver  drinking- vessel  in  the  shape  of  a  wheel, 
barrow,  in  which  lies  a  dwarf  with  a  cap  and  bells  (Frenzel,  p.  11). 

1  At  present  in  the  Rothschild  Museum  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main. 
**  Jamnitzer's  principal  work,  an  immense  table-set,  called  '  Lustbrunnen,' 
which  he  began  by  order  of  Maximilian  II.  and  completed  for  his  suc- 
cessor, has  unfortunately  disappeared  (J.  v.  Falke  in  the  Gesch.  der  deut- 
schen  Kunst,  v.  128).  Likewise  it  is  unknown  what  has  become  of  Wenzel 
Jamnitzer's  work  for  Archduke  Ferdinand  (cf.  Schonherr  in  the  Mittheil. 
des  Instit.  fiir  Osterr.  Gesch.  ix.  289-305).  Some  letters  of  Wenzel  Jam- 
nitzer from  the  Litteralia  of  the  former  Obermiinster  monastery  at 
Ratisbon  (now  in  the  keeping  of  the  General  Imperial  Archives  custodian 
at  Munich)  were  published  by  Anton  Miiller  in  the  Hist.  Jahrb.  xviii. 
857  ff. 

2  Blumenstrausse  ;  cf.  Liibke,  Renaissance,  i.  105. 


MINOR   ARTS   AND   HANDICRAFT  185 

leaves  and  grasses  are  all  so  fine  and  delicate  that  even 
a  puff  of  breath  will  set  them  in  motion.'  1  A  relative 
of  these  brothers,  Christopher  Jamnitzer,  made  a 
table- set  of  silver-gilt  representing  an  elephant  carry- 
ing a  tower  and  led  by  a  fool ;  in  the  tower  were 
fighting  warriors.  Jonas  Silber  executed  a  goblet  with 
a  richly  embellished  cover  and  pedestal  which  repre- 
sented a  sort  of  world  history  in  all  manner  of  scenes. 2 

A  master  of  the  very  first  rank — far  surpassing 
perhaps  all  contemporary  goldsmiths — was  the  West- 
phalian  Anton  Eisenhut,  born  at  Warburg  in  1554. 
The  works  which  he  executed  in  1588  for  the  Prince- 
Bishop  of  Paderborn,  Theodore  of  Fiirstenberg,  show, 
even  in  the  handling  of  Gothic  forms,  high  artistic 
and  technical  perfection.  His  chief  works  are  two 
silver  bindings  for  a  Roman  Pontifical  and  a  Cologne 
missal,  a'  silver-gilt  crucifix  exquisitely  constructed  and 
richly  embellished,  a  silver-gilt  chalice  of  equal  delicacy 
and  beauty,  and  a  kettle  for  holy  water,  with  a  sprinkling 
brush  so  artistically  devised  that  it  stands  almost  alone 
among  all  works  of  this  kind.3 

1  Neudorffer,  p.  126.  2  Ferster,  iii.  40-41. 

3  Fuller  details  in  J.  Lessing,  Die  Silberarbeiten  von  Anton  Eisenhoit 
aus  Warburg  (with  an  introductory  guide  and  fourteen  photographic 
plates),  Berlin,  1880  ;  Liibke,  Kunstwerke,  pp.  507-519  ;  J.  B.  Nordhoff, 
Jahrbuch  des  Vereins  fur  AUerthumsfreunde  im  Rheinlande,  Heft  67, 
p.  137  ff.  Nordhoff  was  the  first  to  point  out  the  great  importance  of  this 
work  of  Eisenhut,  in  the  possession  of  the  Count  of  Fiirstenberg,  in  his 
Herdringen  castle,  in  the  Beilage  zur  Allg.  Ztg.  1878,  No.  82.  What 
numbers  of  treasures  also,  in  different  branches  of  art  belonging  to  the 
sixteenth  century,  are  to  be  found  and  criticised  in  Westphalia,  has  been 
lately  shown  by  that  admirable  work  by  the  same  author,  Kunst-  und 
Geschichts-DenkmiiUr  des  Kreises  Warendorf,  Miinster,  1886.  Many  of 
the  finest  sacred  works  date  from  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
**  It  is,  moreover,  certain  that  the  goldsmith's  art  was  no  longer  in  the 
same  recmest  as  in  earlier  times  for  religious  objects.  J.  v.  Falke  (Gesch. 
der  deutschen  Kunst,  v.  133)  remarks  in  this  connection  :  '  Protestantism, 


186  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Military  arms,  too,  which.,  with  drinking-vessels, 
were  the  most  coveted  treasures,  were  also  embellished 
with  costly  ornamentation  by  workers  in  gold  and  by 
ivory- carvers ;  for  the  hilts  and  sheaths  especially 
every  possible  mode  of  decoration  was  invented.1 
In  place  of  the  earlier  armouries,  the  great  lords 
made  collections  of  weapons  and  had  suits  of  armour 
made  for  them  as  articles  of  luxury  :  not  for  the  battle- 
field but  for  '  parade.'  Thus,  for  instance,  Rudolf  II., 
who  never  once  showed  himself  in  the  field,  had  a 
splendid  suit  of  armour  which,  with  its  picturesque 
ornamentation,  was  a  marvel  of  the  arts  of  goldsmithery 
and  armoury.  Several  German  armourers  executed 
for  the  Kings  of  Spain  and  France  '  parade '  suits  of 
silver  inlaid  with  gold  and  precious  stones,  and  most 
luxuriantly  ornamented.  From  Augsburg,  a  chief  centre 
of  artistic  metal- work,  there  was  a  specially  large  export 
trade  in  costly  suits  of  armour  to  all  countries.  The 
Elector  Christian  I.  of  Saxony  paid  14,000  thalers  for 
one  of  these  suits.1'    What  great  results  were  achieved 

with  its  small  need  for  ornament  and  church  utensils,  robbed  the  gold- 
smith's art  of  a  large  part  of  its  field  of  labour.' 

**  '  Concerning  the  spread  of  the  art  of  etching,  cf.  C.  v.  Lutzow  in 
the  Gesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst,  iv.  221-223. 

2  Von  Stetten,  i.  492.  Among  the  most  exquisite  of  these  suits  of 
armour  is  reckoned  one  belonging  to  the  Saxon  Elector  Christian  II., 
which  is  now  in  the  Dresden  Museum  ;  see  the  description  in  Frenzel, 
p.  89.  This  same  Elector  also  had  saddles  and  saddle-coverings  made 
in  the  most  costly  style.  In  one  of  his  parade-suits  the  pommel  of  the 
saddle  consists  of  a  large  golden-topaz  ;  the  spurs,  stirrups,  and  knee-caps 
are  covered  all  over  with  garnets,  and  two  swords,  which  hang  on  either 
side,  are  also  richly  ornamented  with  garnets,  as  well  as  amethysts,  rubies, 
and  other  stones.  The  widow  of  the  Elector  Christian  I.,  in  1608,  made 
Duke  John  George  a  present  of  a  German  saddle  and  saddle-case  '  em- 
broidered all  over  with  pearls  '  (Frenzel,  p.  114).  **  See  also  C.  Gurlitt, 
Deutsche  Turniere,  Ritstungen  und  Plattner  (Dresden,  1889)  ;  W.  Boeheim, 
'  Augsburger  Waffenschmiede,  ihre  Werke  und  ihre  Beziehung  zum  kaiser- 


MINOR   ARTS    AND   HANDICRAFT  187 

in  Augsburg  in  artistic  ironwork  is  sufficiently  shown  by 
an  ironwork  armchair  made  by  Thomas  Rucker  and 
ornamented  with  all  sorts  of  ingenious  devices,  which 
the  Augsburg  town  council  presented  to  the  Emperor 
Rudolf  II.1 

The  fashionable  world  of  Germany  was  inoculated 
from  Italy  with  a  taste  for  all  sorts  of  articles  that  tended 
to  personal  glorification :  medallions,  memorial  coins, 
and  kindred  objects.2  Work  of  this  sort,  executed  in 
the  Italian  spirit,  belongs  in  its  way  to  the  best  achieve- 
ments ever  attained  by  German  art.  In  the  department 
of  heraldry,  however,  the  all-pervading  Renaissance 
spirit  produced  only  confusion.3 

All  objects  destined  for  the  personal  use  of  the  great, 

lichen  und  anderen  Hofen,'  in  the  Jahrbuch  der  kunsthistor.  Sammlungen 
des  iisterr.  Kaiserhauses,  xii.  165  ff.  ;  xiii.  202  ff.  ;  xiv.  329  ff.  ;  as  also 
A.  Buff,  '  Aug.-sburge"r  Plattner  der  Renaissancezeit,'  in  the  Beilage  zur 
Allgem.  Zeitung,  1892,  No.  228,  229,  230.  Boeheim  has  also  treated  the 
subject  of  the  Nuremberg  armourers,  their  works  and  their  relations  to 
the  imperial  and  other  courts,  in  the  Jahrb.  der  kunsthistor.  Sammlungen 
des  allerh.  Kaiserhauses,  xvi.  364  ff. 

1  Von  Stetten,  i.  492-493.  Cf.  Liibke,  Renaissance,  i.  110-112  ;  Ebe, 
i.  80  ;  Falke,  Geschmack,  p.  126  ff.  ;  Forster,  iii.  42.  **  '  At  this  period 
bronze  was  not  so  much  the  material  in  request  by  the  goldsmith's  art, 
as  iron.  Up  till  then  a  material  used  only  in  the  blacksmith's  forge, 
iron,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  entered  into  such  close  connection  with 
the  nobler  metals  that  in  many  cases  it  is  not  possible  to  decide  to  which 
branch  of  handicraft  to  relegate  it '  (J.  v.  Falke  in  the  Gesch.  der  deutschen 
Kunst,  v.  136  ;  see  pp.  136-141). 

2  Liibke,  Plastik,  ii.  774. 

3  See  in  this  connection  the  important  work,  Heraldisches  ABC- 
Buch,  by  Dr.  Karl  Ritter  von  Mayer  (Munich,  1857),  p.  98  ff.  At 
p.  427  ff.  the  author  draws  a  parallel  between  the  development  of  heraldry 
and  that  of  Gothic  art.  Diirer  still  paints  his  coats  of  arms  according 
to  a  fixed  method  on  a  geometrical  basis.  Later  on  the  style  degenerated 
into  pure  rococo.  The  change  is  also  perceptible  in  seals.  In  Gothic 
times  they  were  made  on  architectonic  principles.  During  the  Renais- 
sance they  become  arbitrary  ornaments.  Cf.  Reichensperger,  Finger- 
zeige,  &c,  pp.  109-110.  The  mediaeval  seal-cutters  were  among  the  most 
distinguished  artists. 


188  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

or  even  only  for  the  embellishment  of  their  houses, 
'  were  made  with  such  inordinate  costliness,'  says  a 
contemporary,  '  that  everybody  wondered  how  much 
time  and  money  were  wasted  upon  them.'  !  At  Inns- 
bruck the  gun-maker,  Wiguleus  Elsasser,  and  three  of 
his  journeymen  were  once  employed  for  a  whole  year 
on  the  fabrication  of  a  gorgeous  state-litter  for  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand.1'  For  an  ebony  writing-table, 
manufactured  at  Augsburg,  with  ten  gold-embossed 
shields  representing  stories,  landscapes  and  stag-hunts, 
Ferdinand  paid  the  carpenter  and  the  goldsmith  in 
1587  nearly  1,200  florins.3  A  side-board  table,  made 
in  1568  for  Duke  Albert  V.  of  Bavaria,  cost  him  the 
enormous  sum  of  8,202  florins.4  The  Elector  Ferdinand 
of  Cologne  ordered  of  Hainhofer  in  Augsburg,  in  1612, 
for  Cardinal  Borghese,  a  writing-table  which  was  to 
cost  from  2,000  to  3,000  thalers.5  At  the  making  of  a 
cupboard,  finished  in  1616,  for  Duke  Philip  II.  of 
Pomerania,  no  less  than  twenty-four  artists  and  artisans 
were  employed,  under  the  direction  of  the  Augsburg 
art  carpenter,  Ulrich  Paumgartner.  This  cupboard, 
which  was  to  some  extent  a  compendium  of  the  collec- 
tive art  work  of  that  period,  is  made  of  ebony,  covered 
with  innumerable  precious  stones,  pictures,  sculpture 
and   silver  decorations;    it  is  adorned  with  figures  of 

1   Von  der  Werlte  Eitelkeit,  Bl.  Bb.  2  Hirn,  i.  378,  note  3. 

:1  Hirn,  ii.  437.  For  other  very  artistic  cupboards  made  at  Augs- 
burg, see  Von  Stetten,  i.  114.  Daniel  Schicker,  in  1G00,  did  '  some  ex- 
cellent work  in  inlaid  historical  pictures.'  The  Augsburg  smelter,  George 
Renner,  invented  the  first  inlaying  mill  for  the  fine  sawing  of  the  rarer 
kinds  of  wood  used  for  inlaying  work.  The  joiners  would  no  longer 
do  any  common  work,  as  the  writing-tables  made  by  them  met  with  such 
great  approval  (Von  Stetten,  ii.  36-37). 

4  L.  Westenrieder,  Baierischer  histor.  Kalender  fiir  1788,  viii.  10  ff. 

3  Zeitschr.  des  histor.  Vereins  fiir  Schwaben  und  Neuburg,  viii.  10  ff. 


MINOR   ARTS   AND   HANDICRAFT  189 

griffins  with  weapons  in  silver  or  silver-gilt,  allegorical 
figures  of  the  fine  arts  in  silver  bas-relief,  female  figures 
performing  music,  little  boys  with  musical  instruments, 
insects  made  of  silver,  the  elements  and  the  seasons  in 
painted  enamel,  mythological  representations  in  medal- 
lions, and,  to  crown  all,  a  silver-gilt  representation 
of  Mount  Parnassus.  The  inside  is  fitted  up  with 
portraits  of  the  ducal  family  and  other  oil  paintings, 
mosaics,  musical  clocks,  and  other  '  precious  art  pro- 
ductions.' ]  The  Dresden  art  carpenter,  Hans  Schiffer- 
stein,  after  twenty  years'  work,  so  it  is  said,  completed 
a  cupboard  of  ebony  and  Konigsholz  (a  kind  of  pine- 
wood)  :  it  was  decorated  with  ivory  ornaments  and 
carved  figures,  and  contained  over  100  drawers ; 
also  a  small  piano  or  spinette,  and  a  map  of  the  world 
engraved  on  ivory.2  '  Artistic  carpentry  '  stood  every- 
where in  such  high  esteem  that  at  Halle-on-the-Saale, 
in  the  year  1616,  Augustine  Stellwagen,  who  was  con- 
demned to  be  hanged  for  a  theft  of  silver,  was  let  off 
because  he  was  an  '  art  carpenter.' 3 

During  the  Middle  Ages  house  furniture  had  been 
of  a  thoroughly  simple  kind,  but  artistically  beautiful. 
Bannisters  and  ceilings,  doors  and  windows,  tables  and 
chairs,  cupboards  and  chests,  locks,  stoves,  and  lamps 
all  bore  witness  to  the  fine  taste  and  skilful  hand  of  the 
workman ;  even  the  commoner  utensils  and  articles  of 
furniture  were  characterised  by  fitness  and  beauty,  and 
had  in  them  something  special  and  individual,  which 
pleased  the  eye  and  satisfied  the  aesthetic  sense.  The 
ancient    simplicity  had,    however,   long    since    disap- 

1  In  the  Art  Industrial  Museum  at  Berlin.     See  Forster,  iii.  41-44  ; 
Lubke,  Renaissance,  i.  99-100. 

2  Frenzel,  pp.  9-10.  3  Schonermark,  p.  411,  note. 


190  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

peared,  when  in  1543  Hans  Sachs  enumerated  300 
articles  which  '  belonged  almost  to  every  house,'  and 
like  the  state  saloon  and  the  state  kitchen  were  the 
highest  pride  of  a  noble  family.  Then  soon  came  the 
craze  for  all  sorts  of  meaningless,  bombastic  display  ; 
in  industrial  art  as  in  architecture,  decoration  ran  wild. ' 
This  degeneracy  of  the  decorative  art  is  a  notable 
sign  of  the  prevalent  spirit  of  the  age,  for  decoration  is 
just  as  much  an  expression  of  contemporary  conditions 
of  culture,  a  mirror  of  national  life,  as  are  the  higher 
arts,  and  as  is  literature.  So  long  as  a  nation  is  fired 
with  a  genuinely  artistic  spirit,  its  decorative  work  is 
always  in  close  connection  with  the  object  decorated  ; 
between  the  object  and  its  decoration  there  exists  a 
symbolic  relationship  ;  ornament  has  artistic  form  and 
real  meaning.  This  was  the  case  with  the  ancient 
Greeks  in  their  golden  epoch  of  art ;  such  also  was  the 
case  in  the  best  periods  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  the 
new  art  methods,  however,  no  regard  was  paid  to  the 
inner  appropriateness  of  ornamentation.  Even  Hans 
Holbein  was  guilty  of  mixing  figures  of  sphinxes  with 
pictures  of  saints ;  round  a  figure  of  Christ,  with  all  the 
sick  and  the  poor  coming  to  Him,  he  placed  all  sorts  of 
musical    instruments.2    In    Durer's    exquisite    borders 

1  Comparing  the  whole  range  of  so-called  Renaissance  decorative  art 
with  the  Gothic  art,  Van  Eye  says,  in  Eggers,  vi.  118  :  '  Ornamentation, 
whose  basic  forms  had  expanded  by  their  own  nature  and  energy  to 
their  utmost  limits  and  could  develop  no  further,  was  compelled  to  seek 
new  ground-forms  from  which  to  evolve  fresh  decorative  varieties.' 
'  These  were  found  in  the  traditions  of  antiquity.'  '  The  question,  how- 
ever, arises  whether  the  same  formative  energy  was  present.  The  history 
at  the  back  of  later  achievements  gives  a  decided  negative  answer.'  '  The 
later  ornamentation  never  accomplished  results  such  as  the  Gothic  had 
produced.'  And  yet  the  chief  excellence  of  the  Renaissance  lies  in  its 
ornamentation. 

-  Woltmann,  Holbein,  ii.  297-298. 


MINOR   ARTS   AND   HANDICRAFT  191 

to  the  prayer-book  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  I.  all 
the  ideas  and  conceits  are  kept  in  strict  subjection 
to  the  thought  of  the  prayer ;  playful  and  amusing 
accessories  help,  by  contrast,  to  bring  out  all  the 
earnestness  and  sublimity  of  the  subject,1  whereas  the 
decorations  executed  by  Lucas  Cranach  for  a  prayer- 
book  seem  meaningless,  eccentric,  and  tasteless  in  com- 
parison.2 

A  few  decades  later  Daniel  Hopfer  went  to  the 
wildest  extremes  of  confusion  in  his  decorative  designs  : 
caricatures  and  animal  monsters  in  combination  with 
Renaissance  elements,  with  vases,  foliage,  fruits,  and 
naked  human  figures  of  repulsive  hideousness.3 

In  the  free  domain  of  art  every  kind  of  caprice 
was  to  be  allowed.  The  so-called  minor  masters  made 
innumerable  designs  for  all  branches  of  minor  art, 
for  utensils  and  vessels,  table-sets,  plates,  goblets, 
salt-cellars,  and  so  forth.4     These  objects  are  decorated 

I  See  our  remarks,  vol.  i.  pp.  252,  253. 

-  Schuchardt,  Cranach,  ii.  98-100  ;  see  also  iii.  173,  331. 

II  Falke,  Oeschmach,  pp.  119-120.  '  In  this  wild  confusion  of  mind  he 
is  a  veritable  child  of  the  first  effervescent  period  of  the  Reformation.' 

4  Whereas  '  all  subtile  and  liberal  arts  have  lapsed  into  veritable 
decay  and  ruin,'  the  Strassburg  painter  Heinrich  Vogtherr  published  in 
the  year  1545  Ein  fremdes  und  wunderbares  Kunstbuchlin  alien  Malern, 
Bildschnitzern,  Goldschmieden,  Steinmetzen,  Schreinern,  Plattnern,  Waffen- 
und  Messer Schmieden  hochniitzlich  zu  gebrauchen,  dergleich  vor  nie  kein  ge- 
sehen  oder  in  den  Druclc  Icommen  ist  (getruckt  zu  Strassburg  bei  Jacob  Friilich) 
('  A  strange  and  wonderful  art  booklet  for  the  use  of  all  painters,  carvers, 
goldsmiths,  stonemasons,  joiners,  armourers,  and  forgers  of  weapons  and 
knives,  the  hke  of  which  has  never  been  seen  or  printed  before :  printed 
at  Strassburg  by  James  Frolich').  He  presented  himself  solemnly  to  the 
public  with  the  announcement :  '  Grace,  mercy,  and  peace  from  God  the 
Father  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,'  '  to  all  lovers  of  the  liberal  graces  and 
arts  given  by  God,'  which  he  herewith  presented  in  a  '  summary  or  booklet 
of  all  sorts  of  strange  and  difficult  pieces  which  require  a  great  deal  of 
imagination  and  thought.'  By  means  of  this  little  handbook  of  art  '  dull 
heads  were  to  be  helped  and  guided,  the  highly  intelligent  and  inspired 


192  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

with  wreaths  of  foliage  growing  out  of  goats'  skulls 
and  bits  of  armour,  men  turned  into  fish,  fish  into 
branches  and  leaves,  while  the  leaves  shape  themselves 
into  grinning  faces.  Objects  of  every  description, 
religious  and  mundane,  domestic  utensils,  vessels  of 
wood  or  iron,  of  gold  or  clay,  all  alike  were  ornamented 
in  the  same  manner  as  representatives  of  '  antique  ' 
art ;  the  decorators  inaugurated  a  wholesale  resurrection 
of  ancient  mythology  ;  they  ushered  in  a  new  epoch  in 
which  the  gods  were  decked  with  crowns,  the  goddesses 
with  fans  and  peacocks'  feathers.  There  was  also  a 
general  rage  for  all  sorts  of  extraordinary  allegorical 
pictures  which  were  unintelligible  to  the  people. 

Any  true  sense  of  modelling  and  painting  which  the 
artists  may  have  had  previously  had  altogether  dis- 
appeared after  the  middle  of  the  century,  when  the 
debased  Italian  taste  poured  like  a  flood  over  Germany. 
All  beauty  of  outline  in  pots,  vases  and  other  utensils 
was  lost  under  a  mass  of  heavy  exaggerated  ornament. 
The  most  extraordinary  and  incongruous  objects  were 
seen  in  juxtaposition,  or  even  mixed  up  together  in 
eccentric  confusion :  buildings,  musical  instruments, 
festoons  of  flowers  and  fruit,  pictures  of  human  beings, 
real  and  fabulous,  amourettes,  sirens  and  sphinxes, 
tritons,  dragons  and  monsters. 

In  connection  with  all  these  monstrosities  there 
appeared  also  at  this  juncture  a  new  kind  of  ornamenta- 

artists  were  to  be  encouraged  and  admonished  to  produce  still  higher 
and  more  subtile  works  of  art,  out  of  brotherly  love,  in  order  that  art 
might  once  more  rise  up  and  attain  to  its  true  dignity  and  honour.'  For 
this  purpose  he  introduces  (see  Woltmann,  Kunst  im  Elsass,  p.  314) 
quantities  of  little  woodcuts  of  all  sorts  of  articles,  helmets,  harness, 
arms  of  different  kinds,  candelabras,  and  rare  and  extraordinary  head- 
gear for  men  and  women. 


MINOR   ARTS  AND   HANDICRAFTS  193 

tion  called  '  leather  ornamentation,'  which  superseded 
the  foliage-work,  the  correct  treatment  of  which  was 
no  longer  understood,  and  which  consisted  in  imitation 
straps  bending,  interlacing  and  winding  under  and  over 
each  other.  It  was  at  first  applied  to  buildings  in  so 
far  as  stone  could  adapt  itself  to  this  treatment,  and 
later  on  to  gold  and  iron  work  in  the  decoration  of 
borders  and  frames,  and  all  articles  of  domestic  car- 
pentry.1 Whereas  formerly  industrial  artists  had  made 
it  their  aim  and  business  to  connect  beauty  with  suit- 
ability and  usefulness,  they  now  gave  themselves  up 
to  all  sorts  of  useless  and  aimless  trivialities,  while  with 
them,  as  with  the  architects,  decoration  and  ornament- 
ation became  the  chief  concern ;  they  devoted  their 
energies  to  all  sorts  of  ingenuities,  made  jewel-cases, 
wardrobes,  writing-tables  like  small  buildings  with 
columns,  friezes,  juttings  and  gables  of  all  kinds,  even 
with  portals ;  frequently  these  objects  were  so  con- 
structed that  the  whole  scheme  of  columns  was  set  in 
motion  by  the  opening  of  the  cupboards.1'  In  like  pro- 
fusion, and  merely  for  show,  they  made  utterly  useless 
tables,  chairs,  bedsteads,  plates,  dishes  and  goblets, 
besides   innumerable   other   worthless   objects   of   art.3 

1  See  Falke,  GescJimack,  p.  123  ff.,  162-165  ;  Falke,  Zur  Kultur  und 
Kunst,  pp.  204-205.  **  Concerning  the  so-called  '  bent  ornament,'  which 
led  immediately  to  the  Baroque,  see  also  J.  v.  Falke,  in  the  Gesch.  der 
deutschen  Kunst,  v.  125.  '  In  Germany  there  appeared  also  at  Cologne, 
in  1599,  a  handbook  on  this  kind  of  art  (a  Schweifbuch),  drawn  and  etched 
by  Edelmann,  containing  cmantities  of  such  ornaments  which  could  be 
applied  at  the  discretion  of  the  artist,  and  dedicated  to  all  carpenters, 
upholsterers,  goldsmiths,  and  so  forth.'  See  also  A.  Lichtwark,  Der 
Ornamentstich  der  deutschen  Friihrenaissance,  Berlin,  1888.  Cf.  W.  von 
Seidlitz  in  Von  Liitzow,  Zeitschr.  xxiv.  22-232. 

**  2  Cf.  in  this  connection  J.  v.  Falke  in  the  Gesch.  der  deutschen  Kunst, 
v.  125. 

3  Another  art  that  flourished  in  Augsburg  was  the  manufacture  of 

VOL.   XI.  0 


194  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

As  in  the  period  of  decadent  Greece  and  Koman 
Csesarism,  so  at  the  time  we  are  treating  of,  it  was  the 
inordinate,  limitless  demands  of  luxury  which  called 
forth  articles  of  this  sort. ] 

In  art  pottery  Augustine  Hirsvogel  of  Nuremberg 
was  especially  famous  ;  the  flourishing  pottery  factory 
at  Nuremberg  became  as  it  were  a  high  school  for 
German  potters.  '  From  Venice,'  so  writes  Neudorffer, 
'  Hirsvogel  brought  much  art  pottery  work  with  him, 
and  he  made  Italian  ovens,  jugs  and  pictures  after  the 
model  of  the  antique,  as  though  they  were  cast  in 
metal.'  2  He  also  executed  a  quantity  of  different 
designs  of  vessels  for  goldsmiths  or  potters.  The 
handles  of  these  vessels  consist  mostly  of  dolphins, 
snakes,  the  horns  of  rams  or  satyrs,  lions'  feet,  and 
so  on ;  the  vessels  themselves  are  made  to  represent 
a  goat,  a  human  leg,  a  male  or  female  bust,  and  what 
not.3 

'  Automata,'  or  self -moving  articles.  Achilles  Langenbuclier,  who  in 
reward  of  his  skill  was  presented  with  the  right  of  citizenship  in  1610, 
constructed  '  self -working  musical  instruments  which  performed  madrigals 
and  suchlike  compositions.  He  even  made  a  great  instrument  for  a 
church  which  performed  a  whole  Vesper  of  2,000  measures.  He  also 
invented  all  sorts  of  mechanical  toys  representing  dancing  scenes,  stag- 
hunts,  sheepfolds,  and  so  forth  '  (Von  Stetten,  i.  184-190).  A  peepshow, 
made  at  Augsburg  in  1586  for  Ferdinand  II.,  Archduke  of  Tyrol,  repre- 
sents a  forest  in  which  a  huntsman  with  a  dog  is  following  a  stag, 
which  is  caught  by  a  second  huntsman.  All  these  figures  are  moved  by 
mechanical  clockwork,  which  is  also  supposed  to  imitate  the  cry  of  the 
hound  (Hirn,  ii.  437,  note). 

1  Admired  and  gazed  at  as  '  wonder  works  '  of  German  art,  these 
objects  are  still  the  attraction  in  private  collections,  treasuries,  and 
'  Green  Vaults.' 

-  Neudorffer,  p.  151. 

3  Fuller  details  on  the  many-sided  activity  of  this  artist  in  K.  Fried- 
rich's  Augustin  Hirsvogel  als  Topfer.  Seine  Gefassentwiirfe,  Of  en  und 
Glasgemulde,  Nuremberg,  1885.  **  See  also  J.  v.  Falke  in  the  Gesch.  der 
devischen  Kunst,  v.  156-158.     Concerning  the  curiosities  in  pottery-work 


MINOR   ARTS   AND   HANDICRAFTS  195 

Nuremberg  was  also  the  actual  home  of  an  infinity 
of  small  '  very  wonderful  curiosities,'  by  which  the 
artists,  as  in  Greece  at  the  time  when  high  art  was 
decaying,  exhibited  their  particular  skill.  In  Greece, 
for  instance,  the  Lacedaemonian  Kallikrates  used  to 
make  ivory  emmets  and  other  little  animals  of  such 
wonderful  minuteness  that  the  different  limbs  were  not 
visible  to  the  naked  eye.  The  Milesian  Myrmekides 
carved  a  four-in-hand  equipage,  the  whole  of  which, 
including  the  driver,  could  be  covered  with  the  wings 
of  a  bee ;  also  a  ship  which  could  be  concealed  under 
the  wings  of  a  bee.1  Ingenious  toys  of  this  sort  were 
constructed  by  Hieronymus  Gartner  of  Nuremberg. 
He  carved  '  out  of  a  bit  of  wood,  about  the  length  of 
the  first  finger,  an  agriot,  or  cherry,  with  its  stalk,  and 
■  which  was  the  greatest  and  most  praiseworthy  feat, 
out  of  the  same  little  piece  of  wood,  a  midge  with  wings 
and  feet,  and  all  so  perfect  as  if  it  was  alive  ;  it  was  all 
also  so  cunningly  contrived  that  if  one  blew  into  it 
only  once  the  cherry-stalk  and  the  midge  were  set  in 
movement.'  2  Peter  Flotner  also  turned  his  mind  to 
producing  something  equally  '  great  and  praise- 
worthy;  '  'he  carved  on  a  cherry-stone  113  different 
faces  of  men  and  women  ;  he  also  carved  little  animals 
and  flies  on  coral  beads  which  looked  as  if  they  had 
grown  there.'     Leo  Bronner  proved  himself  even  more 

in  the  sixteenth  century,  see  Falke,  Kuttur  unci  Kunst,  pp.  255-284. 
'  The  majolica  fabrications  of  the  Renaissance  period,  once  in  such  high 
repute,  were  already  beginning  to  deteriorate  towards  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  partly  owing  to  the  dechne  of  the  art  and  partly  to 
the  greater  popularity  of  Oriental  porcelain  and  white  glazing.  In  the 
course  of  the  seventeenth  century  majolica  ware  came  altogether  to  an 
end'  (p.  291). 

1  Pliny,  Hist.  not.  book  vii.  chapter  21  ;  book  xxxvi.  chapter  4. 

-  Neudorffer,  pp.  115,  116. 

o  2 


196  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

ingenious.  He  took  '  a  cherry-stone  and  carved  on  it 
eight  different  little  heads  or  faces  :  as,  for  instance,  an 
emperor's,  a  king's,  a  prince's,  a  bishop's,  &c,  besides 
an  inscription  in  Latin  letters  and  other  ornamental 
work  (all  which  could  be  seen  and  read  distinctly 
through  a  magnifying  glass),  and  on  the  same  cherry- 
stone over  100  articles  of  household  furniture  and 
implements,  such  as  tables,  benches,  chairs,  dishes, 
salt-cellars,  knives,  compasses,  scissors,  &c,  of  wood, 
iron,  tin,  brass,  each  in  right  proportion  with  its  winding 
and  motion,  and  nevertheless  the  stone  was  not  quite 
filled  up.'  ] 

Such  and  similar  '  most  meritorious  ingenuities, 
never  heard  of  before,  and  which  even  a  Phidias  would 
have  found  it  impossible  to  make,'  were  very  popular. 
The  ducal  art  treasure- room  at  Munich  was  once  pre- 
sented with  a  work  of  art  of  the  size  of  a  Kreuzer  (a 
farthing)  with  ten  faces,  which  had  only  four  eyes 
between  them,  and  yet  each  face  appeared  to  have 
two.1' 

1  Neudorffer,  pp.  115, 110,  211.     See  Von  Rettberg,  Niimberger  Brief e, 
pp.  128-131,  **  and  Lange,  Fliilner,  p.  7. 
~  Stockbauer,  p.  121. 


19' 


CHAPTER  X 

SECTION   VII. — ART   COLLECTIONS    OF   THE   PRINCES 

In  Germany  at  that  time,  as  is  the  case  with  all  nations 
in  periods  of  the  decay  of  art,  there  was  a  strong  ten- 
dency to  collect  and  preserve  the  treasures  of  centuries 
of  autochthonous  work,  and  to  make  costly  collections 
of  objects  of  art  of  all  kinds.  This  practice  prevailed 
especially  among  the  princes,  whose  outlays  for  the 
purpose  were  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  revenues 
and  to  the  material  prosperity  of  their  territories. 

One  of  the  most  renowned  of  these  art  collectors 
was  Duke  Albert  V.  of  Bavaria.  He  had  become 
acquainted  in  Italy  with  the  excellence  of  the  new  art, 
and  he  was  anxious  to  model  his  own  court  after  the 
pattern  of  Italian  princely  courts  ;  like  Lorenzo  de' 
Medici,  he  was  styled  the  father  of  the  Muses,  the 
Magnificent,  the  golden  fountain  which  flooded  and 
fructified  all  intellectual  domains ;  his  epoch  was 
praised  as  the  Meclicean  era  in  Bavaria.  The  treasures 
collected  by  him  form  the  groundwork  of  the  later 
court  library,  treasure-chamber,  and  collection  of 
coins  ;  by  his  purchases  of  antiques  he  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  the  future  Antiquarium.  The  old  Pinakothek 
also,  the  Glyptothek,  and  the  '  Rich  Chapel '  of  the 
Residence  contain  valuable  acquisitions  of  this  art- 
loving    prince.1      From  the  correspondence   of    Albert 

1  **  See  Rjezler,  Geschichte  Bay  ems,  iv.  481.     For  the  Munich  Library 


198  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

with  his  agents  it  has  come  to  light  that  the  Duke  was 
often  very  badly  used  in  regard  to  his  costly  purchases 
of  antiques :  portraits  to  which  he  attached  great 
value  in  most  cases  bore  false  names.1  The  Venetian 
Nicolo  Stoppio,  who  was  commissioned  to  buy  '  cele- 
brated antiquities,'  once  sent  in  a  consignment  worth 
7,163  florins;  most  of  the  articles,  however,  were 
only  '  faulty  casts,'  '  rubbishy  stuff  ;  '  all  the  same  his 
services  were  retained  and  several  hundred  crowns 
were  forwarded  to  him  from  time  to  time.2 

Another  Italian  was  commissioned  by  the  Duke  to 
buy  up  corals,  shells,  and  specimens  of  enamelled  glass, 
but  when  his  purchases  arrived  in  Munich,  Albert 
saw  that  they  were  rubbish.  '  They  are  worth  nothing,' 
he  said,  '  I  wouldn't  give  ten  farthings  for  them,'  and 
yet  this  art  connoisseur  also  was  later  on  again  entrusted 
with  considerable  sums.3  The  news  that  the  Countess 
of  Mont  fort  had  given  100  thalers  for  a  '  rusty  brass 
penny '  did  not  astonish  the  Duke.  '  We  can  well 
believe  it,'  he  wrote,  '  for  we  have  ourselves  experienced 
the  same  sort  of  thing.'  4  For  additions  to  his  art 
museum  the  Duke  begged  for  presents  of  the  Pope  and 


see  Muffat  in  the  Bayerische  Blatter  far  Geschichte,  Statistik  und  Knnst,  1832, 
Nos.  10  and  11,  and  Von  Reinhardstottner  in  the  Jahrbuch  fiir  Munch. 
Gesch.  iv.  54  ff.  For  the  history  of  the  Munich  cabinet  of  coins  see  J.  v. 
iStrcher  in  the  Denkschriften  der  konigl.  bayerischen  Akademie  der  Wissen- 
schaften,  1807,  p.  1814  ft'.,  and  H.  Riggauer,  Gesch.  des  konigl.  M'tinz- 
kabinetts  in  Miinchen  ('  Bayerische  Bibliothek  von  K.  v.  Reinhardstottner 
and  K.  Trautmann'),  Bamberg,  1890. 

1  Ree,  pp.  11-12.  **  Cf.  Christ,  '  Beitrage  zur  Oeschichte  der 
Antikensanimlungen  Miinchens,'  in  the  Abhandlungen  der  Miinchener 
Akademie,  Philos.-philolog.  Kl.,  X.  Part  ii.  (1864),  p.  361  ft. 

2  Stockbauer,  pp.  26,  63  ft".  '  We  can  rightly  recognise  some  of  the 
purchases  of  this  said  Stoppio  among  those  rococo  figures  which  are  now 
for  the  most  part  relegated  to  the  lumber-room.' 

3  Ibid.  pp.  67-69.  4  Ibid.  p.  81. 


ALBERT    V.   OF    BAVARIA   AS   ART-COLLECTOR         199 

the  Emperor,  of  cardinals  and  of  German  and  foreign 
princes  ;  the  Queen  of  France  also  was  asked  '  to  send 
specimens  of  things  rare  and  foreign  to  this  country.' 
The  Duke  of  Florence  once  sent  over,  among  other 
things,  '  parrots  and  sea-cats,  our  Lady's  likeness 
made  of  all  sorts  of  feathers  from  Mexico,  a  Mexican 
idol,  a  chessboard  with  mother-of-pearl  squares,  leathern 
flasks  decorated  with  colours,  the  tooth  of  a  sea-horse, 
from  which  were  made  a  variety  of  rings  that  were 
good  for  all  sorts  of  things,  Indian  mice,'  and  so  forth. 
'  An  antique  charm  for  bleeding  '  was  later  on  added  to 
the  treasures  of  the  art  museum.  The  licentiate  Ludwig 
Miiller  presented  a  drinking -shell  of  ultramarine,  which 
was  '  a  charm  against  greed  of  money  and  other  evils,' 
and  he  wanted  in  return  for  it  a  present  of  100  florins.1 

1  Albert  '  as  collector  seems  to  have  been  more  keen  on  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  curiosities  with  which  the  so-called  art  museums  of  the  princes 
were  wont  to  be  filled  than  of  pictures  ;  these  last  also  were  far  more 
in  rerpiest  for  the  sake  of  the  objects  they  represented  than  for  that  of 
art  or  of  the  artists  who  painted  them.  Indeed,  the  likenesses  of  em- 
perors, princes,  and  philosophers — above  all,  the  portraits  of  famous 
men  from  the  half-mythic  heroes  down  to  criminals  broken  on  the  wheel, 
or  human  deformities— play  the  chief  part  in  the  catalogue  of  pictures. 
The  descriptions,  moreover,  linger  by  preference  over  works  which 
from  their  treatment  fall  under  the  category  of  curiosities,  as,  for  instance, 
a  Salvator  Mundi  "  with  a  cord  by  which  the  eyes  can  be  moved,"  and 
in  other  respects  the  inventory  which  has  come  down  to  us  is  as  barren 
and  unscientific  as  it  can  be.  In  a  list  of  almost  700  works  in  the 
Fickler  inventory  of  1598,  with  the  exception  of  the  historical  pictures 
of  William  IV.,  there  are  scarcely  a  dozen  paintings  which  are  to 
be  found  in  the  present  collection'  (Von  Reber,  Catalogue,  v.-vi.). 
**  Riezler  (Geschichte  Bayerns,  iv.  476)  says  emphatically  that  the  patronage 
of  the  arts  at  Albert's  court  '  presents  a  delightful  contrast  to  most 
German  courts  of  the  period,  where  especially  in  the  north,  besides  feats 
of  arms,  hunting,  and  dissolute  carousals,  there  was  no  taste  for  anything 
but  dogmatic  disputations.'  '  It  has  indeed  been  inferred,'  Riezler 
goes  on  to  say,  '  from  the  nature  of  the  articles  in  the  ducal  art  museums, 
that  in  the  domain  of  painting  Albert  was  wanting  in  actual  interest 
in  and  understanding  of  art,  and  undoubtedly  many  of  his  commissions 


200  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

This  art  museum  was  to  the  princes  a  source  of 
'  great  delight,'  hut  for  the  people  it  was  little  more 
than  a  coveted  treasure  ;  it  was  only  by  special  favour 
that  they  could  be  admitted  to  see  it,  and  they  had  to 
pay  for  the  visit  with  a  present.  A  councillor  and 
custom-house  officer  at  Straubing,  on  whom  this  favour 
was  conferred,  presented  '  only  a  trifling  Paternoster ' 
(=a  rosary),  for  '  everyone,'  he  wrote,  'to  whom  such 
a  favour  is  granted  has,  according  to  old  custom,  to 
make  a  present  to  the  aforesaid  museum.'  ] 

From  numerous  quarters  Albrecht  was  solicited  with 
respect  to  '  costly  artistic  purchases.'  Thus,  for  in- 
stance, Herr  Wilhelm  von  Loubenberg  was  ready  '  for  a 
sum  of  earnest-money  '  to  hand  over  to  him  his  '  heathen 
earthly  treasure,  chests,  silver  books,  shells,  and  similar 
antiquities,'  for  '  his  sons  had  no  appreciation  of  these 
heathen  mysteries.'  '  A  splendid  art  study,'  to  which 
Louis  Welser,  of  Augsburg,  directed  the  Duke's  atten- 
tion, was  offered  for  5,000  ducats  ;  four  Balasse  (light 
red  rubies)  were  valued  at  150,000  crowns.2 

The  Duke   expended  large — or   rather,  in    view   of 

and  purchases  had  to  do  with  curiosities,  and  not  with  art  work.  This, 
however,  need  not  essentially  lessen  his  well-founded  fame.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion whether  a  more  favourable  impression  of  his  pictorial  acquisitions 
would  not  be  formed  if  we  were  to  survey  also  the  paintings  preserved 
in  the  apartments  of  the  castle.'  That  it  was  not  possible  even  for  the 
historian  of  Bavaria  to  do  this  may  well  cause  wonder. 

1  Stockbauer,  pp.  74-70,  79,  120-121.  **  'These  old  collections,' 
says  Ilg  (Kaiser  Rudolf  IT.  als  Kiinstfreund,  p.  03),  '  had  no  instructional, 
no  national,  aim.  They  were  in  no  way  educational  institutions  ;  they 
were  not  institutes  for  the  "  encouragement  of  the  arts  and  crafts  "  as 
the  modern  phrase  goes.'  And  in  another  place  (p.  70) :  '  I  know  not 
whether  the  Emperor  Rudolf  was  fond  of  reading  Horace,  but  Odi 
profanum  vulgus  was  written  in  invisible  letters  over  the  door  of  his 
museum,  for  during  his  lifetime  there  were  very  few  mortals  to  whom 
a  glimpse  into  this  sanctuary  of  his  genius  was  vouchsafed.' 

2  Stockbauer,  pp.  72,  80,  81,  108. 


ALBERT   V.   OF   BAVARIA   AS   ART-COLLECTOR        201 

the  then  value  of  money,  enormous — sums.  James 
Strada  of  Mantua  received  from  him  for  the  pur- 
chase of  antiquities  nearly  22,000  florins ;  the  painter 
Titian  was  paid  1,000  ducats  for  a  '  little  crystal  coffer 
chest ;  '  24,000  florins  for  a  Balass  and  a  diamond ; 
10,500  florins  for  a  jewel ;  12,000  crowns  for  a  jewel 
with  pearls  from  Venice,  and  400  ducats  for  pearls. 
Besides  all  this  there  was  the  payment  for  guarding 
and  transporting.  In  the  course  of  one  year  (1567) 
Strada  received  in  payment  for  the  travelling  expenses 
to  fetch  some  works  of  art  200  gold  crowns,  besides 
310  florins,  and  a  further  sum  of  284  gold  crowns,  and 
for  the  final  settling  up  100  florins.1  For  goldsmith's 
work  alone  from  Munich  and  Augsburg  200,000  florins 
were  spent ;  2  a  single  bed  canopy,  which  the  Duke 
had  made  for  himself,  cost  450  crowns.3 

Although  he  might  have  been  lauded  by  a  court 
official  after  his  death  as  a  '  God-fearing,  excellent,  and 
most  reasonable  lord,  who  was  extremely  fond  of 
learned  and  artistic  people,  and  who  wanted  to  em- 
bellish Bavaria  both  within  and  without,'  4  the  Pro- 
vincial Estates,  nevertheless,  by  reason  of  a  debt  of 
2,300,000  florins  which  he  bequeathed  to  his  son, 
were  somewhat  less  full  of  artistic  enthusiasm.  They 
complained    repeatedly  during   Albert's   lifetime,"'   and 

1  Stockbauer,  pp.  25,  51  note,  92-94,  10  \  108. 

2  Ree,  p.  24.  3  Stockbauer,  p.  118. 
4  Westenrieder,  Beitriige,  iii.  86  ;  Stockbauer,  pp.  1-2. 

s  **  gee  Riezler,  iv.  485  ff.,  620  ff.  The  ducal  councillors  spoke  out 
very  freely  in  a  memorandum  of  the  year  1557.  They  urged  emphatically 
that  all  means  aiming  at  the  improvement  of  finances  would  be  fruitless 
unless  a  change  took  place  in  the  prince's  own  person.  True,  these  ad- 
monishers  were  entirely  deficient  in  the  understanding  of  art,  and  they 
may  frequently  have  overstated  their  case,  but  in  the  main  their  descrip- 
tions hit  the  mark.     '  Whatever  he  sees  that  is  costly,  foreign,  rare, 


202  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

immediately  after  his  death,  in  1579,  they  complained 
to  William  V.  that,  '  Pleasure-houses  and  other  unneces- 
sary buildings  had  gained  ground  enormously  ;  besides 
which,  pernicious  commissions,  especially  to  foreigners, 
had  come  into  vogue,  through  which  all  sorts  of  ruinous 
purchases  of  rare  but  useless  things  were  effected.'  ' 

By  no  means  better  were  the  economic  conditions 
of  the  Austrian  lands  when  the  Emperor  Rudolf  II. 
'  distinguished  himself  as  the  most  lavish  patron  of 
art.'  As  the  alchemists  proclaimed  him  their  new 
Hermes  Trismegistos,  so  those  who  derived  profit  from 
his  purchases  called  him  a  '  beyond  all  measure  highly 
famed  lover  and  connoisseur  of  all  ingenious  arts,'  a 
'  German  Medici  who  gathered  together  the  most 
beautiful  things  from  all  parts  of  the  world.'  His 
collections  in  the  large  halls  of  the  Prague  citadel  were, 
at  any  rate,  among  the  most  distinguished  and  costly 
that  existed  at  that  period.  While  for  '  political  affairs 
of  the  empire,  and  necessary  enterprises  for  safeguarding 
the  imperial  dignity,  money  was  scarcely  ever  forth- 
coming,' and  the  State  coffers  were  often  so  empty  that 
there  was  no  means  even  of  despatching  couriers,  the 
Emperor  always  had  incredible  sums  in  readiness  for 
matters  of  art :  for  instance,  for  a  statue  of  the  Greek 
Scopas  22,000 — according   to   another   authority,  even 

that  lie  must  have  !  Two  or  three  goldsmiths  are  kept  constantly  at  work 
for  the  Prince  alone.  What  they  make  one  year  is  either  broken  up  or 
replaced  the  next  year.  The  painters  and  portrait  painters  scarcely 
come  out  of  the  new  fortress  the  whole  year  through  !  Added  to  these 
are  the  carvers,  turners,  stonemasons,  the  preposterous  outlay  for  clothes, 
tapestry,  mummeries,  &c,  the  injurious  excess  in  eating  and  drinking, 
in  banquets  and  social  gatherings.' 

1  See  Ree,  p.  25  ;  Stockbauer,  p.  19.  '  Any  sympathetic  understanding 
of  Albert's  collections  the  Provincial  Estates  certainly  had  not,  but 
they  had  a  good  understanding  of  the  country's  need.' 


THE  EMPEROR  RUDOLF  II.  AS  ART-COLLECTOR    203 

34,000 — ducats,    and    for    a    cameo    representing    the 
apotheosis  of  Augustus,  12,000  ducats.1 

In  almost  all  countries — not  only  in  Germany,  France, 
and  Italy,  but  also  in  Greece,  in  the  Levant,  in  Egypt 

1  Svatek,  p.  242.     In  the  Hofburg,  on  the  other  hand,  for  want  of 
money,  they  thankfully  accepted  the  offer  of  the  Fuggers  to  send  the 
despatches  of  the  imperial  cabinet  to  Madrid  or  Rome  by  their  com- 
mercial couriers  ;  see  Von  Hiibner,  Sixtvs  der  Fiinfte,  ii.  28.     Concerning 
Rudolf  II.'s  purchases  for  his  '  museum  of  ti'easures  and  marvels,'  see  also 
the  records  in  Von  Hormayr,  Taschenbuch  (new  series),  ix.  282-286.   **  See, 
further,  Urlich,    '  Beitrage   zur  Geschichte   der   Kunstbestrebungen   und 
Sammlungen  Kaiser  Rudolfs  II.'  in  the  Zeitschr.  fur  bildcnde  Kunst,  1870  ; 
A.  v.  Perger,  '  Studien  zur  Gesch.  der  k.k.  Gemaldegalerie,'  in  the  reports 
and  contributions  of  the  Antiquarian  Society  at  Vienna  (1864),  vol.  7  ;  and 
Venturi's  important  article  embodying  contributions  from  the  Archives 
of  Modena,  Turin,  and  Venice  to  the  Geschichte  der  Kunstsammlungen 
Kaiser    Rudolfs    II.    in    Janitschek's    Repertorium    fur    Kunstwissensch. 
viii.  1  ff.  ;    Tig,  '  Kaiser  Rudolf  II.  als  Kunstfreund  '  in  '  Die  Diiiskuren.'' 
Liter.  Jahrh.  d.  Beamtenvereins  d.  AUstadt-Gu  tunas,  zu  Prog,  1893  ;   Ilg, 
Kunstgeschichtl.    Charakterbilder,    p.   210   ff.  ;    as    also    Th.    v.    Frimmel, 
Galeriestudien    {Gesch.    der   Wiener    Gemuldesammlungen),   Leipzig,    1889, 
and  Grauberg,  La  Galerie  des  tableaux   de  la  reine   Christine  de  Suede 
ayant   appartenue    auparavant    a     V empereur    Rodolphe    II.,    Stockholm, 
1897.     In  the  Jahrbuch  der  kunsthistor.  Sammlungen  des  allerh.  Kaiser- 
houses,  i.  118  ft'.,  Ilg  deals  exhaustively  with  the  subject  of  the  sculptor 
Adrian  de  Vries,  in  the  service  of  King  Rudolf  II.     In  the  same  Jahrbuch, 
iv.  38  ft.,  Ilg  writes  on  the  relations  of  Giovanni  da  Bologna  to  Max  II.  and 
Rudolf  II.  ;  see  also  in  the  same  place,  xv.  15  ft.,  Von  Drach,  Jost  Burgi, 
private  clockmaker  to  Rudolf  II.,  and  (p.  45  ff.)  Haendke,  Joseph  Heintz, 
court  painter  to  Rudolf  II.      Another  great  lover  of  art  and  zealous 
collector,  of  portraits  especially,  was  the  Archduke  Ferdinand  of  Tyrol  ; 
see,    besides   the   monograph   of   Hirn,    Ilg,    Kunstgeschichtl.     Charahter- 
bilder, p.  206  ff.,  and,  above  all,  the  valuable  work  of  F.  Kenner,  '  Die 
Portratsammlung  des  Erzherzogs  Ferdinand  von  Tirol'  in  the  Jahrbuch  d. 
kunsthistor.  Sammlungen  des  allerh.  Kaiserhauses,  xiv.  37  ft.  ;   xv.  147  ff.  ; 
xvii.  101  ff.  ;  xviii.  135  ff.  ;  xix.  6  ff.     In  the  same  place,  ix.  235  ff.,  Ilg 
on  Francesco  Terzio,  court  painter  to  Archduke  Ferdinand  of   Tyrol. 
In  the  same  place,  xviii.  262  ff.,  W.  Boeheim,  '  Der  Hofplattner  des  Erz- 
herzogs Ferdinand  von  Tirol,  Jakob  Topf.'     Maria,  the  wife  of  Archduke 
Charles  II.  of  Styria,  developed  also  very  great  enthusiasm  in  collecting  ; 
see  Wastler,  '  Zur  Geschichte  der  Schatz-,  Kunst-  und  Riistkammcr  in  der 
k.k.  Burg  zu  Graz,'  in  the  Mittheil.  d.  k.k.  Centralcommission,  1879,  1880, 
and  1881. 


204  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

— Rudolf  employed  paid  agents,  whose  business  it  was 
to  procure  him  all  possible  objects  of  art:  paintings, 
carvings,  jewels,  gems  ;  also  rare  natural  objects  and 
'  rarities  '  of  every  kind  ;  his  morbid  craze  for  collecting 
extended  even  to  America.  In  a  catalogue  compiled 
after  his  death,  in  1612,  the  worth  of  his  art  museum 
was  reckoned  at  17  millions  in  gold,  while  the  court 
chamberlain,  Christopher  Siegfried  von  Breuner,  esti- 
mated the  debts  left  behind  by  the  Emperor  at  30 
millions.  Hardly  any  impawned  object  could  be  found.1 
But  whatever  the  costliness  of  the  art  treasures 
collected  by  Rudolf,  and  however  large  the  number  of 
really  fine  works  among  them,  neither  the  Emperor  nor 
the  men  entrusted  with  the  arrangement  of  the  trea- 
sures had  any  true  understanding  of  art :  the  objects 
were  placed  in  cheerful  confusion,  beside  and  upon  each 
other  just  as  in  a  curiosity  shop,  the  most  valuable 
ones  next  the  most  worthless.  A  catalogue,  fifty-seven 
sheets  long,  compiled  by  one  of  the  overseers,  gives  a 
closer  insight  in  this  respect.  We  find  in  it  such  entries 
as  the  following  :  '  In  the  compartment  No.  1  in  the 
German  room  in  the  upper  shelf,  the  bust  of  a  woman's 
portrait  in  flesh-coloured  gypsum,  lying  on  a  flesh- 
coloured  and  red  taffety  cushion,  and  underneath  it 
some  boxes  containing  Indian  feathers.'  In  another 
compartment  '  all  sorts  of  rare  sea-fishes,  and  among 
them  a  bat,  two  boxes  with  magnet-stones,  and  two 
iron  nails,  said  to  come  from  Noah's  ark,  a  stone  which 
goes  on  growing,  two  cannon  balls  from  a  Transyl- 
vanian  mare,  a  box  with  mandrake  roots,  a  crocodile  in 
a  case,  a  monster  with  two  heads.'  In  a  third  com- 
partment, '  eighty-two  specimens  of  all  sorts  of  artistic 

1  Svatek,  p.  246  ;  Hurter,  Ferdinand  II.,  iii.  71-75. 


THE   EMPEROR   RUDOLF   II.   AS   ART-COLLECTOR        205 

objects  turned  in  ivory,  a  soft  skin  which  fell  from 
heaven  into  his  Majesty's  camp  in  Hungary  ;  a  death's 
head  of  yellow  agate,  a  case  containing  a  large  piece 
of  bone,  three  bagpipes.'  In  a  fourth,  '  three  landscapes 
on  Bohemian  jasper  framed  with  Bohemian  garnets, 
a  large  painted  mirror  ornamented  with  pictures,  a 
miniature  painting  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  a  crystal  lion, 
a  little  silver  altar.'  Next  to  a  '  fruit-ma  tket  by 
Long  Peter  hung  copies  of  a  Judith  of  Leonardo  da 
Vinci,  a  bath  of  Joseph  Arginas,'  and  so  forth.1 

The  particular  nature  of  the  Emperor's  own  artistic 
taste  and  of  that  of  his  circle  becomes  apparent,  in 
the  year  1596,  in  the  '  restoration '  of  the  Church  of 
St.  Mary  on  the  Karlstein  ;  by  imperial  command  the 
beautiful  Carolian  frescoes  were  overlaid  with  white- 
wash ;  2  a  life-size,  full-length  picture  of  the  Mother  of 
God  was  dwarfed  into  a  bust  and  framed  in  a  halo.3 
Even  the  portraits  of  Charles  IV. 's  ancestors  in  the 
hall  were  subjected  to  whitewashing.4 

1  From  a  MS.  of  the  Viennese  Court  library  in  Svatek,  pp.  246-248. 
'  Verily  Barnurn's  museum  could  not  be  more  higgledy-piggledy '  (p.  248). 
**  Ilg,  Kaiser  Rudolf  II.  als  Kunstfreand,  p.  Gl  ff.,  pronounces  Svatek's 
judgment  to  be  too  severe  ;  nevertheless  he,  too,  is  forced  to  own  that 
'  It  is  true  that  there  is  no  discoverable  trace  of  system,  plan,  or  methodical 
distribution  in  all  that  is  known  concerning  this  gigantic  mass  of  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  objects  of  art,  of  natural  curiosities,  minerals, 
&c,  in  the  apartments  of  the  Prague  Castle.  .  .  .  The  inventories,  one 
and  all,  call  up  to  the  reader's  eye  a  picture  of  most  hopeless  confusion 
and  disorder.  A  mummy  next  to  a  wild  boar,  bronze  busts  side  by  side 
with  knee-breeches  of  Spanish  leather,  globes  and  firearms,  mosaics  and 
saddles,  miniature  paintings  and  buttons — all  in  friendly  juxtaposition 
one  with  the  other.' 

-  Report  of  the  Imperial  Central  Commission,  iii.  274,  275. 

3  '  The  remains  of  which,  disjointed  and  ludicrous,  now  fall  trans- 
versely over  the  bust  like  a  scarf -fringe.' 

1  We  cannot,  therefore,  with  Ranke  (Zur  deutschen  Geschichte,  p.  177  ff.), 
celebrate  the  Emperor  as  a  veritable  Maecenas  of  art,  and  say  of  him 
that   '  he    loved    both   art   and    its  significance.'      **  Another    diligent 


206  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

collector,  but  chiefly  of  curiosities,  was  Duke  Philip  II.  of  Pornerania, 
Stettin.  He,  too,  was  wanting  in  all  understanding  of  art.  His  art 
agent  also,  the  Augsburg  patrician,  Philip  Hainhofer,  did  not  under- 
stand much  about  it.  From  the  correspondence  between  these  two  we 
get  a  very  clear  idea  of  the  character  of  the  art  collections  of  that 
period.  Between  good  and  bad,  between  pictures  and  playthings,  works 
of  art  and  natural  history  curiosities,  scarcely  any  difference  was 
made.  See  O.  Doering,  '  Des  Augsburger  Patriziers  Philipp  Hainhofer 
Beziehungen  zu  Herzog  Philipp  II.  von  Pommern-Stettin.  Korre- 
spondenzen  aus  den  Jahren  1610-1619  im  Auszuge  mitgetheilt  und  kom- 
mentiert,'  Vienna,  1874  (Quellenschriften  fiir  Kunstgeschichte  und  Kunst- 
technik  des  Mittdatters  und  der  Neuzeit,  N.F.  Bd.  vi.  Herausg.  von  A.  Ilg). 


207 


CHAPTER   XI 

NATURALISM  IN  RELIGIOUS  ART  AND  IN  THE  REPRE- 
SENTATIONS FROM  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  PEOPLE — 
ABSURDITY  AND  VULGARITY 

The  depth  of  degradation  to  which  art  had  gradually 
sunk  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  religious  subjects  and 
sacred  personages  were  often  treated  in  a  purely  mun- 
dane fashion.  Sacred  pictures  lost  the  stamp  of 
innocence  and  piety  which  had  belonged  to  the  old 
indigenous  art,  and  they  showed  scarcely  any  trace  of 
the  fervent  spirituality  from  which,  formerly,  the  most 
beautiful  creations  had  sprung. 

In  earlier  times  the  patrons  who  gave  orders  for 
sacred  pictures  had  had  themselves  painted  '  kneeling 
humbly  before  God  and  the  heavenly  hosts,'  '  but  now- 
adays,' so  runs  the  lament  of  a  book  of  religious  instruc- 
tion, '  it  has  become  the  evil  custom  for  men  to  wish 
to  see  themselves,  their  wives,  children,  relations,  and 
friends  painted  in  churches  as  holy  saints,  if  not,  indeed, 
actually  in  the  character  of  the  Saviour  Himself.'  ' 

In  Saxony  contemporary  celebrities  were  often  in- 
troduced into  pictures  of  '  The  Last  Supper  '  and  other 
paintings  as  Scripture  characters  :  Luther  appears  as 
St.  Peter  or  St.  Luke,  Melanchthon  as  St.  Mark,  the 
Elector  Augustus  as  Christ  Himself.1'    When  the  Cologne 

1  Ein  Erklcrung  des  Voter  U users,  Bl.  10'. 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  viii.  p.  185  ;  Schulz,   Vortrag  iiber  die  Gesch. 
der  Kunst  in  Sachsen  (Dresden,  1846),  p.  ±1  ;  Von  Eye,  Fiihrer,  p.  36. 


208  HISTORY  OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

councillor  Hermann  von  Weinsberg,  in  the  year  1556, 
gave  an  order  for  a  church  picture,  he  wrote  to  the 
painter  that  his  own  portrait  must  appear  in  it  as  St. 
John,  and  that  of  his  wife  as  the  Holy  Virgin  Mary  ; 
in  the  following  year  he  had  an  altar-picture  executed  in 
which  his  stepson  figured  as  St.  John,  his  brothers  as 
St.  Mark  and  St.  Luke,  two  churchwardens  as  Abraham 
and  Moses,  and  so  forth.1  Cornelius  Ketl  executed  a 
'  Last  Supper '  made  up  of  likenesses  of  contemporary 
artists  and  friends  of  art.^'  Even  the  favourites  or  the 
mistresses  of  the  princes  figured  in  the  characters  of 
saints  :  the  pictures  were  to  represent  experiences  of  the 
heart.3 

Even  in  some  of  Diirers  and  Holbein's  works  there 
had  already  appeared  a  tendency  to  coarse  realism  which 
by  no  means  accorded  with  the  ideal  of  old  German 
art.  Diirer  once  represented  St.  Joseph  asleep  by  a 
great  bowl  of  beer.1  Holbein's  '  Dead  Christ,'  executed 
from  the  corpse  of  a  drunkard,  or  a  man  who  has  been 
hanged,  is  gruesome  ;  u  his  God  the  Father  as  an  old 

1  Buch  Weinsberg,  ii.  87,  91.  ~  Descliarnps,  p.  201. 

3  See  Schuchardt,  Cranach,  i.  154-155,  and  ii.  35,  40  ;  Lindau,  p.  220  ; 
Seibt,  i.  23,  note  1  ;  Descliarnps,  p.  201  ;  Michiels,  iii.  40,  368-371  ;  Waagen, 
Malerei,  i.  296  ;  De  Canditto,  pp.  148,  291,  476-477,  479-481,  504  ;  Rath- 
gcber,  Annalen,  ii.  294  ;  Carriere,  p.  97.  '  As  the  old  Catholic  modes  of 
thought,'  says  Lecky,  '  began  to  fade,  the  religious  idea  disappeared 
from  the  paintings,  and  they  became  purely  secular,  if  not  sensual,  in 
their  tone.  Religion,  which  was  once  the  mistress,  was  now  the  servant 
of  art.  Formerly  the  painter  employed  his  skill  simply  in  embellishing 
and  enhancing  a  religious  idea.  He  now  employed  a  religious  subject 
as  a  pretext  for  the  exhibition  of  mere  worldly  beauty.  He  commonly 
painted  his  mistress  as  the  Virgin.  He  arrayed  her  in  the  richest  attire, 
and  surrounded  her  with  all  the  circumstances  of  splendour '  (W.  E.  H. 
Lecky,  Rise  and  Influence  of  nationalism  in  Europe,  5th  ed.  i.  242). 

4  In  the  Basle  Museum. 

5  Hegner,  Holbein,  pp.  165-167  ;  Woltmann,  Holbein,  ii.  61  ;   Grimm, 
Uber  Kiinstler  und  Kunstwerke,  ii.  128.     **  Holbein's  naturalistic  treat- 


NATURALISM   IN   RELIGIOUS   ART  209 

man  in  an  arm-chair,1  or  his  own  father  as  God  the 
Father,  his  son  as  the  boy  Christ,2  are  unpleasant 
specimens  of  the  realistic  '  naturalism '  which  soon 
invaded  German  painting,  to  the  expulsion  of  the  noble 
natural  elevation  and  dignity,  together  with  the  super- 
natural glory,  which  had  formerly  characterised  it. 
The  new  spirit  showed  itself  indirectly  in  a  different 
way  in  Holbein's  pen-and-ink  illustrations  of  Erasmus's 
'  Praise  of  Folly,'  notably  in  the  picture  of  John  the 
Baptist  with  the  Lamb  of  God,  under  which  are  the 
words  :  '  Sheep  are  the  most  stupid  of  animals,  and  yet 
Christ  loved  to  compare  Himself  to  a  lamb.' 3 

With  many  of  the  painters  of  that  period  religious 
art  soon  came  to  be  completely  travestied.  Urs  Graf 
represented  the  Holy  Family,  Christ  being  taken 
prisoner,  the  fight  between  St.  George  and  the  Dragon, 
in  caricature  ;  4  he  made  fun  of  the  Angel  of  the  Day  of 
Judgment.5    A  facetious  picture  of  Christ  bearing  the 

ment  of  the  burial  of  Christ  is  criticised  as  follows  by  Janitschek 
in  his  History  of  German  Art,  iii.  450 :  '  The  ideal  atmosphere  has 
vanished.  A  man's  head  completely  disfigured  by  suffering,  with 
wide-open  mouth,  swollen,  drooping  eyelids,  wrinkled  forehead,  hair 
matted  with  the  sweat  of  anguish,  and  sticking  to  his  head — this  is 
the  picture  of  the  Christ.  Still  more  horrible  is  the  physical 
distortion  caused  by  pain  and  death  in  the  easel-picture  of  "  Christ  in 
the  Grave."  Here,  too,  the  mouth  is  wide  open,  the  nose  peaked,  the 
cheeks  sunken,  the  eyelids  swollen,  and  the  soft  brown  hair  hanging  in 
matted  hanks  round  his  head.  The  lean  body  is  stretched  out  stiff  and 
stark  in  the  rigidity  of  death,  the  backs  of  the  hands  and  the  insteps 
are  swollen  in  consequence  of  the  wounds,  the  fingers  and  nails  are  stretched 
out  in  a  cramp.  It  is  just  as  if  Holbein  had  bent  all  his  energies  on 
copying  a  model  from  the  mortuary,  so  appallingly  true  to  nature  is  the 
picture,  as  a  whole,  and  in  its  details.' 

1  Von  Zahn,  Jahrbiicher,  i.  144-145. 

2  Woltmann,  Holbein,  i.  161,  and  ii.  p.  xiii. 

3  Ibid.  i.  283.  4  Ibid.  i.  200. 

5  The  angel  is  represented  as  laughing  while  holding  the  scales  for 
weighing  souls,  and  little  devils  are  dragging  millstones  along  (Woltmann, 

VOL.   XI.  P 


210  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Cross  by  Peter  Breughel  the  Elder  resembles  a  village 
feast ;  l  a  picture  of  Christ  bearing  the  Cross,  by  Peter 
Artzen,  is  treated  like  the  execution  of  a  poor  criminal 
at  the  time  of  the  painter.2  Sebastian  Vrancks  repre- 
sented the  Saviour  with  the  two  disciples  at  Emmaus 
in  a  common  tavern,  where  the  guests  are  drinking  and 
playing  cards.3 

Another  characteristic  of  the  epoch  was  the  craze 
which  possessed  many  of  the  artists  for  inventing 
'  something  new  and  out  of  the  way.'  4  One  painter 
depicted  the  Saviour,  bleeding  from  his  wounds,  throw- 
ing the  horned  devil  with  great  force  to  the  ground  : 5 
another  placed  in  the  hand  of  the  Virgin  Mary  a  pestle 
with  which  she  crushed  Satan.0  In  a  tasteless  picture 
by  Lucas  of  Leyden  the  Holy  Virgin,  crowned,  is 
kneeling  with  the  child  Jesus  before  St.  Anne.7 

Christian  and  mythological  paintings  were  placed 
indiscriminately  side  by  side  ;  next  to  the  Crucified 
One  were  Hermse  and  Caryatides  ;  next  to  a  St.  Mar- 
garet with  the  dragon,  Amor  and  Psyche  embracing 
each  other  and  Diana  hunting  ; 8  next  to  an  oceansprite 
a  St.  Christopher.'1      Now  a  pulpit  was  adorned  with 

i.  207).  Among  the  numerous  woodcuts  with  which  Urs  Graf  illustrated 
the  Basle  edition  of  the  Homilies  of  Guillermus,  there  is  one  which  notably 
shows  the  pitch  of  downright  realism  which  he  had  reached  in  1509.  It  is 
the  picture  of  '  Christ  on  the  road  to  Emmaus,  in  which  the  Saviour  not  only 
carries  a  knapsack,  but  actually  wears  a  cap  which  looks  strange  enough 
between  the  head  and  the  glory'  (Meyer,  Oeistliches  Schausjriel,  p.  165). 

1  Michiels,  iii.  339-340.  '  Un  tableau  facetieux.'  '  On  croirait  voir 
une  kermesse  plutot  qu'une  scene  tragique.' 

2  Waagen,  Malerei,  i.  30G-307.  3  Bartseh,  iii.  188. 

4  Ein  Erklerung  des  Voter  Unsers,  Bl.  9h. 

5  Copper-engraving  without  monogram,  and  with  the  date  of  the  year 
1563.     From  the  Bohmer  bequest. 

6  Deschamps,  p.  170.  '  Michiels,  iii.  119. 
H  See  Liibke,  Renaissance,  ii.  149,  478.                 9  Andresen,  ii.  162 


NATURALISM   IN   RELIGIOUS   ART  211 

satyrlike  Hermae,1  now  a  church-bell  with  dancing 
fauns  and  bacchantes.2  On  the  sepulchral  monument 
of  the  Elector  Maurice  in  the  Cathedral  at  Freiberg,  it 
is  the  mourning  Muses  and  Graces  that  attract  most 
admiration ;  3  on  the  monument  of  Albert  of  Branden- 
burg, Archbishop  of  Mayence,  there  is  a  figure  of  Christ 
in  a  state  of  theatrical  agitation :  Christ  surrounded 
by  merry,  dancing  angels  ;  a  squatting  Pan  serves  as 
groundwork  for  the  figure.4  On  one  of  the  most 
superb  sepulchres  of  Germany,  in  the  funeral  chapel  of 
the  Fuggers  at  Augsburg,  two  satyrs  are  kneeling  by 
the  coffin  of  the  deceased  ; ;'  on  a  sarcophagus  of  Duke 
Philip  of  Pomerania  (1560)  all  the  free  spaces  are 
filled  in  with  genii  and  masks  of  satyrs.6  On  a  richly 
adorned  monument  in  the  church  at  Jever  (1563)  there 
appear,  beside  the  Holy  Trinity,  and  the  figures  of 
Moses,  Peter,  and  Paul,  the  figures  of  Jupiter,  Mercury, 
Venus,  and  other  gods  and  goddesses ;  beside  the 
representation  of  the  funeral  procession  are  proces- 
sions of  warriors,  fauns,  and  satyrs,  battles  of  knights, 
monsters  and  gorgons.' 

1  Kugler,  Kleine  Schriften,  i.  829.  -  Liibke,  Renaissance,  ii.  147. 

3  Ebe,  i.  245  ;  see  Zeitschr.  f.  Bildkunst,  N.F.  xi.  20  ff. 

4  Liibke,  Renaissance,  i.  437  ;  Kugler,  Kleine  Schriften,  ii.  347. 
**  There  is  a  copy  of  Albert's  monument  in  Seemann,  Deutsche 
Renaissance,  Bd.  IV.  Abt.  vi.  Tafel  27.  Schneider,  in  his  valuable 
treatise,  '  Der  Urheber  des  Marktbrunnens  zu  Mainz '  {Mayence  Journal, 
1890,  No.  273),  attributes  the  design  of  this  monument,  executed  by 
Dietrich  Schro,  to  Peter  Flotner.  Lange  (Flbtner,  p.  84)  is  of  opinion  that 
the  treatment  of  ornamental  detail  is  not  Flotnerisch.  Nevertheless, 
even  he  does  not  deny  that  a  rough  sketch  by  the  master  may  at  any  rate 
underlie  the  whole. 

8  Geschichte  der  detitschen  Kunst,  ii.  186. 

6  Kugler,  Kleine  Schriften,  i.  819. 

7  Liibke,  Renaissance,  ii.  294-296,  507.  '  An  instructive  example  of 
the  wanton  eccentricities  of  the  baroque  style  already  coming  into  vogue 
in  the  last  third  of  the  sixteenth  century '  is  seen  in  a  monument  to  a 

p  2 


212  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Hours  and  Graces  in  company  with  allegorical 
figures  of  the  virtues  often  appear  side  by  side  with  the 
risen  Saviour.  The  Saviour  with  the  banner  of  victory 
was  often  depicted  on  epitaphs  surrounded  by  many 
coats  of  arms.  Balthasar  Jenichen  of  Nuremberg 
executed  a  coat  of  arms  of  Christ,  in  six  fields,  with  the 
inscription  '  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  King  of  the  Jews,  our 
Redeemer.'  1  Most  of  the  distinguished  people  who 
ordered  Church  pictures  had  at  heart  what  Christopher 
von  Schallenberg  ("f  1597)  enjoined  on  his  successors: 
'  If  anyone  in  his  lifetime  has  pictures  made  for  churches 
he  must  always  have  his  coat  of  arms  added  to  them.'  2 
The  walls  and  pillars  of  churches  were  covered  with 
coats  of  arms.  A  patron  of  the  Church  of  St.  Nicholas 
at  Reval  insisted,  in  the  year  1603,  that  '  none  of  the 
nobles  must  be  allowed  to  hang  up  their  arms  in  the 
church  unless  they  pay  a  just  remuneration,  for  how  is 
the  church  benefited  by  their  arms  if  it  gets  nothing 
from  them ;  it  is  a  bad  sort  of  decoration,  and  shows 
great  arrogance  on  the  part  of  the  nobles.'  3 

The  author  of  a  book  of  spiritual  instruction,  com- 
menting on  what  to  him  appears  the  worst  sign  of  the 
low  ebb  of  religious  and  moral  feeling,  says  :  '  What  I 
specially  deplore  in  all  this  art,  which  professes  to  serve 
God  and  religion,  and  what  I  often  hear  complained  of 
by  many  Christian  men  and  women,  is  the  great  licence 
and  indecency  in  which  the  painters,  engravers,  and 
sculptors  indulge,  which  they  seem  indeed  to  make  their 
chief  study.     They  no  longer  represent  holy   women 

Count  of  Stolberg  and  his  wife  (f  1578)  in  the  church  at  Wertheim  (Liibke, 
i.  82). 

1  Andresen,  ii.  156. 

2  Von  Hormayr,  Taschenbuch  (new  series),  viii.  224. 

3  Andresen,  ii.  150. 


NATURALISM  IN   RELIGIOUS   ART  213 

and  saints  decorously,  as  in  the  old  pictures,  with  all 
their  limbs  covered,  so  that  no  one  may  be  incited  by 
them  to  evil  thoughts,  but  they  paint  them  shamelessly 
naked  and  indecent,  so  much  so  that  one  can  only  think 
it  is  done  advisedly  for  the  excitement  of  passion.'  l 
In  like  manner  Lorichius,  in  his  '  Christlicher  Laien- 
spiegel,'  of  the  year  1593,  inveighed  against  all  those 
painters,  sculptors,  and  carvers  who  represented  sacred 
subjects  in  an  '  indecent,  farcical,  or  offensive  manner.'  2 
Christ  Himself  was  sometimes  depicted  in  paintings  and 
engravings  without  a  vestige  of  clothing ;  3  a  copper- 
print  of  1603  shows  St.  Mary  Magdalene,  at  the  feast  of 
the  Pharisee,  at  the  Saviour's  feet,  with  the  upper  part 
of  her  body  almost  bare,  and  in  the  most  voluptuous 
form ;  for,  says  an  accompanying  inscription,  '  To  the 
pure  all  things  are  pure  and  beautiful.'  l  More  fre- 
quently this  saint  was  represented  as  a  penitent,  quite 
naked,  and  without  a  trace  of  feminine  modesty.  Urs 
Graf  painted  a  naked  female  saint  being  scourged  by 
soldiers  with  whips  and  rods,  and  by  another  artist  a 
holy  woman  was  represented  being  tempted  by  the 
devil.  Artists  also  preferred  to  represent  the  Christian 
virtues,  like  the  vices,  by  naked  figures.     Lucas  Cranach 

1  Em  Erlelerung  des  Voter  Unsers,  Bl.  10a.  In  the  ordinances  of  the 
Strassburg  diocesan  synod  of  1549  we  read  :  '  Procaces  imagines,  et  minis 
artis  lenocinio,  ad  mundanae  potius  vanitatis  speciem,  quam  ad  pietatis 
comniotioneni  effigiatas,  in  templis  poni  omnino  vetainus  ; '  see  Jacob, 
p.  Ill,  note  2,  where  also  other  similar  ordinances  are  printed.  Concerning 
objectionable  pictures  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  and  a  no  less  objectionable 
representation  of  the  '  Puerperium  beatae  virginis  decumbentis  et  aegro- 
tantis,'  see  Molanus,  pp.  43,  71-72. 

2  Part  II.  chap.  xix.  p.  117. 

3  See,  for  instance,  Schuchardt,  Cranach,  ii.  pp.  12,  232  ;  Bartsch, 
vi.  286. 

4  A  copper-print  with  a  little  bird  as  the  sign  of  the  engraver.  From 
the  Bohmer  bequest. 


214  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

even  depicted  Religion  as  a  perfectly  nude  recumbent 
female  figure.  Peter  Flotner,  on  his  Plaquettes,  re- 
presented Faith  as  a  female  figure  with  the  upper  part 
of  the  body  bare,  and  holding  in  one  hand  the  cross, 
in  the  other  the  chalice  and  the  Host.1  The  so-called 
Lesser  Masters,  Hans  Sebald  Beham,  Barthel  Beham, 
and  George  Penz,2  stand  out  prominently  in  the  nude 
treatment  of  Bible  and  Christian  subjects.  They 
delighted  in  choosing  scenes  from  the  Old  Testament 
which  lent  themselves  to  shameless  representation  :  3 
Susanna  observed  by  the  lascivious  old  men,  Bathsheba 
by  David,  Lot's  adultery  with  his  daughters,  Poti- 
phar's  wife  and  Joseph,  the  naked  Judith,  Abraham 
and  Hagar,  and  so  forth.  With  odious  hypocrisy  they 
appended  moral  maxims  to  these  pictures  which  mocked 
at  all  sense  of  propriety  ;  sometimes,  however,  maxims 
of  quite  a  different  kind.  Cornelius  Cornelissen  painted 
a  Bathsheba  in  her  bath,  waited  on  by  naked  women.4 
Tobias  Stimmer,  in  his  woodcuts  for  the  Basle  edition  of 
the  Bible  of  1576,"'  introduced  nudities  on  almost  every 
page ;  more  than  twenty  times  an  almost  naked  Eve, 
with  the  serpent,  appears  in  the  marginal  decorations  ; 
many  of  the  pictures  sin  against  all  decency.  They 
were  certainly  not  calculated  '  for  the  godly  edification 
of  pious  hearts.' 6     Even  in  the  catechisms  for  school 

**  1  Lange,  Flotner,  p.  P28 ;  illustration  plate  x.  No.  83. 

2  Urs  Graf  ;    see  Woltinann,  Holbein,  i.  297  ;    Bartsch,  x.  128. 

3  See  Lichtenberg,  p.  28.  J  Forster,  iii.  28. 
5  See  above,  pp.  176,  177. 

,;  See  Nos.  2-5,  8,  9  (Ham),  15  (Lot  and  his  daughters),  31  (Joseph 
and  Potiphar's  wife),  81  (David  and  Bathsheba),  135  (Susanna).  In  the 
illustrated  Catholic  translation  of  the  Bible  by  Dietenberger  (1st  edition, 
1534)  there  are  no  pictures  to  the  stories,  except  that  of  Bathsheba.  She 
is  sitting  with  her  feet  in  the  water,  a  towel  covering  her  body.  Somewhat 
indecorous,  on  the  other  hand,  at  sheet  1%  is  the  initial  '  I '  decorated 


NATURALISM   IN   RELIGIOUS   ART  215 

children  all  sorts  of  extraordinary  and  far  from  edifying 
woodcuts  were  introduced.1 

Just  as  Christian  pictures  were  scattered  about 
thoughtlessly  in  heathen  books,  so  Christian  books 
were  filled  with  mythological,  caricaturist,  and  even 
indecent  illustrations  and  decorations.  On  a  decora- 
tive title-page,  executed  by  Lucas  Cranach  for  a 
treatise  by  Luther  on  the  Holy  Communion,  there  was 
a  deer  and  three  stags,  with  all  sorts  of  odd,  naked, 
tailed  figures,  and  one  female  figure  of  this  kind.2 
In  the  volume  of  '  Old  and  new  spiritual  songs  and 
hymns  of  praise  on  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,' 
published  by  John  Spang  in  1544  '  for  young  Chris- 
tians,' the  ornamental  border  of  the  title-page  shows 
among  other  items  a  naked  woman  with  an  hour-glass, 
Jael  in  the  act  of  killing  Sisera,  and  a  naked  woman 


with  a  picture  of  our  first  parents  (see  Wedewer,  p.  456),  and  sheets  3a 
and  3b,  the  Creation  and  the  Fall. 

1  Concerning  such  illustrations  Loschke  (pp.  50-51)  says,  among 
other  things  :  In  the  picture  of  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  true  to  the 
Scripture  words  '  and  there  appeared  unto  them  cloven  tongues  hke  as 
of  fire,  and  it  sat  upon  each,'  the  Apostles  are  represented  with  tongues 
projecting  far  out  of  their  mouths,  and  split  lengthways  down  the  middle. 
In  order  to  make  the  cleavage  quite  indubitable,  one  of  the  halves  generally 
hangs  down  over  the  chin,  while  the  other  is  turned  upwards,  and  is  long 
enough  to  close  an  eye  if  necessary.  .  .  .  This  eccentricity  is  specially 
evident  in  an  edition  de  luxe  of  the  Lutheran  Catechism,  illustrated  by 
Joh.  Tettelbach,  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  1579.'  '  Of  still  more  doubtful 
nature  are  other  situations,  which  are  brought  under  the  eye  of  school 
children  of  all  ages.  In  the  first  article  there  occurs  frecpiently  a  picture 
of  Eve  in  a  state  of  innocence,  standing  hand-in-hand  with  Adam  by  the 
forbidden  tree,  and  turning  her  face  to  onlookers.  The  duty  of  children 
to  their  parents,  as  stated  in  the  Fourth  Commandment,  is  illustrated 
by  the  warning  example  of  Ham,  who  did  not  cover  the  nakedness  of  his 
sleeping  father.  Noah  appears  also  in  a  picture  in  the  catechism,  un- 
clothed, as  Ham  saw  him.'  (For  the  rest  of  these  illustrations  readers  are 
referred  to  the  German,  vol.  vi.  p.  150,  note  6.) 

-  Butsch,  i.  71,  plate  93. 


216  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

who  is  plunging  a  dagger  into  her  own  heart.1  No  less 
unsuitable  are  the  title  decorations  of  John  Dieten- 
berger's  pamphlet  on  monastic  vows,  written  against 
Luther  in  1524  :  here  are  seen  the  naked  Graces  four 
times  repeated  ;  at  the  top  they  are  dancing  before 
Apollo,  who,  with  his  head  crowned  in  court  fashion,  is 
playing  the  lute  ;  at  the  sides  they  are  leading  a  round 
dance  ;  at  the  bottom  they  are  flying  from  Venus  in  the 
bath.1'  Hans  Holbein's  vignettes,  often  offensive  and 
nasty,  were  used  by  Froben  for  theological  works.3 

An  engraver  of  the  year  1603  was  actually  not 
ashamed  to  represent  the  Saviour  Himself  embracing 
one  of  the  holy  women,  whilst  the  Holy  Virgin  looked 
on  sideways,  and  he  added  the  inscription :  '  Love, 
says  St.  Paul,  overcomes  all  things,  and  love  makes  all 
things  pure.'  4 

Art  had  ceased  to  be  a  '  contemplator  of  heavenly 
joys.'    How  low  she  had  fallen  from  her  earlier  height  is 

1  Wackernagel,  Bibliographic,  p.  475.  See  Wedewer,  p.  483,  on  the 
title-page  to  the  writing  of  A.  Corvinus,  Von  der  Concilien  Gewatt  und 
Autoritiit. 

2  Wedewer,  p.  451. 

3  Butsch,  i.  68,  plate  59.  In  a  book  of  Peter  Martyr  the  '  S  '  from 
Holbein's  Toten- Alphabet  actually  stands,  '  with  a  picture  as  horrible  as 
it  is  obscene,  at  the  head  of  the  dedication  to  Charles  V.'  (Woltinann, 
Holbein,  ii.  18).  '  In  those  days,'  says  A.  Kirchhoff  in  the  Archiv  fur 
Gesch.  des  Buchhandcls,  x.  124,  '  in  literature,  art,  and  ornamentation, 
in  words  and  in  pictures,  things  were  taken  lightly  which  nowadays  the 
energetic  interference  of  the  police  and  the  press  censors  would  rule  out. 
We  are  astonished,  on  a  closer  study  of  book  decoration,  at  the  ex- 
treme impropriety  constantly  apparent,  at  the  naivete  or  thoughtlessness 
with  which  vignettes  of  the  most  doubtful  kind  are  introduced  even  into 
theological  works.  But  this  much  applauded  naivete  and  ingenuousness 
of  the  so-called  good  old  times  appears  on  closer  inspection  somewhat 
skin-deep,  This,  at  least,  is  the  opinion  I  have  formed  after  a  perusa 
of  all  the  Leipzig  town-books  of  the  sixteenth  century.' 

4  Plate  of  artist  quoted  above,  pp.  212,  213.  See  what  Molanus 
(lib.  ii.  cap.  42)  says  about  a  picture. 


THE   BAD   AND   THE    UGLY   DEPICTED   IN   ART      217 

shown  most  especially  in  the  treatment  of  the  Four  Last 
Things  of  man.  On  Diirer's  splendid  cartoon  of  the  year 
1513,  '  The  Knight,  Death,  and  the  Devil,'  firm  faith 
and  Christian  confidence  still  carry  off  the  palm  over 
the  spectres  of  darkness  ;  in  Holbein's  pictures  of  death, 
completed  before  the  year  1526,  there  is  the  expression 
of  bitter  irony,  but  at  the  same  time  also  of  deeply 
moving  sentiment,  especially  on  one  plate  on  which 
Death  performs  for  the  priest,  who  is  carrying  the 
sacred  Viaticum  to  a  sick  man,  the  services  of  sacristan 
with  bell  and  taper,  goes  into  the  house  before  the 
priest  and  blows  out  the  light  of  life  in  the  dying  man 
before  he  has  received  the  last  consolations.1  Holbein 
makes  death  triumph  over  life,  but  he  is  still  artistically 
elevated.  On  the  other  hand,  Nicholas  Manuel's  '  Dance 
of  Death  '  is  nothing  more  than  a  farcical  game  of  death 
with  life  ;  and  the  '  Triumph  of  Death '  of  the  Peasant- 
Breughel  is  like  a  bad  nightmare,  or  dream  of  delirium.- 
As  represented  by  Hieronymus  Bosch,  Death,  over- 
throwing everything  and  spreading  terror,  rides  through 
a  crowd  of  people  of  all  ranks,  races  and  ages,  while  a 
hay-waggon,  on  which  sit  Vanity,  Fame,  and  a  devil 
blowing  a  trumpet,  is  drawn  along  by  seven  men  half 
changed  into  animals.3 

Hans  Sebald  Beham  used  '  Death  '  on  an  engraving 
merely  for  the  sake  of  introducing  an  indecent  scene ; 
Henry  Aldegrever  painted  Death  as  a  naked  woman.4 

1  See  Hist.-pol.  Bl.  64,  693  ff. 

2  Waagen,  Malerei,  i.  258  ;  Woltinann,  Holbein,  ii.  129 ;  Becker, 
Kunst,  pp.  386-387  ;  Carriere,  pp.  216-217  ;  Ebe,  i.  78  ;  Von  Zahn,  Jahr- 
biicher,  i.  53.  Holbein's  skeletons  have  something  demoniacal  about  them 
(Woltmann,  ii.  107).     **  See  Lichtenberg,  p.  60  ff. 

:'  J.  D.  Passavant,  in  Eggers,  iv.  223. 

1  Bartsch,  viii.  173-177,  Nos.  146-147,  150-152  ;  and  viii.  404. 


218  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

In  the  representation  of  the  Day  of  Judgment  no  painter 
any  longer  attained  anything  like  the  grandeur  and 
elevation  which  characterise,  for  instance,  the  famous 
picture  at  Dantzig,  and  a  wall  picture  in  the  Ulm 
Cathedral  executed  probably  by  Hans  Schuhlein  in 
1470. '  Above  all,  the  art  of  depicting  the  rapture  of 
heavenly  bliss  had  been  entirely  lost.  In  Lucas  von 
Leyden's  '  Day  of  Judgment '  the  delineation  of  nudity 
appears  to  be  the  sole  aim  of  the  painter.  '  From  his 
nude  figures  of  men  and  women,'  says  Van  Mander, 
'  it  is  plain  to  see  that  he  has  observed  life  very  closely, 
especially  naked  women.'  L>  The  picture  shows  no  trace 
of  heavenly  beatitude.  The  pictures  of  the  Day  of 
Judgment  by  Jan  van  Heemsen  and  Bernard  Vc.n  Orley 
are  no  better.' 

The  one-sided  representation  of  what  was  bad  and 
ugly  was  a  chief  and  integral  fault  of  the  whole  ten- 
dency.4 '  It  is  no  longer  pure  and  sacred  art  that  finds 
the  most  makers  and  lovers,'  says  a  contemporary,  '  but 
gruesome  art    which  delights  in  counterfeiting  devils 

1  See,  concerning  the  latter,  Liibke,  Bunte  Blatter,  pp.  338-348. 

2  Van  Mander,  Bl.  213\  Certainly  there  are  unclothed  figures  on  the 
Dantzig  picture  also,  but  the  attitudes  and  treatment  of  the  resuscitated 
bodies,  who  are  entering  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  and  are  being  clothed 
with  the  garments  of  grace  by  an  angel  at  the  gate,  are  extremely  modest 
and  chaste. 

3  Schnaase,  Niederliindische  Briefe,  pp.  03,  228  ;  Waagen,  Malerei, 
i.  150-151  ;  Michiels,  hi.  95-90. 

4  '  Not  that  good  was  despised  and  downtrodden,  but  the  triumph 
of  good  appears  to  a  certain  extent  clouded  over  by  the  superabundance 
of  its  opposite,  and  the  space  covered  by  the  latter,  as,  for  instance,  in 
the  "  Last  Judgments,"  there  are,  as  a  rule,  scarcely  room  or  figures 
enough  left  over  for  the  representation  of  felicity.  The  element  of  good 
is  often  chiefly  conspicuous  through  its  absence  ;  and,  moreover,  "the 
figures  meant  to  represent  it  are  generally  characterised  by  stiffness  and 
hardness  which  point  to  the  restraint  put  on  imaginations  corrupted  by 
unbridled  Mights  '  (P.  M.  in  Eggers,  vii.  358). 


THE  BAD  AND  THE  UGLY  DEPICTED  IN  ART   219 

and  ghosts ;  for  it  has  come  to  this,  that  artists  are 
more  anxious  to  inspire  fear  and  terror  by  their  works 
than  to  give  consolation.'  ! 

For  this  purpose  engravings  and  woodcuts  were  the 
principal  mediums  used,  and  there  grew  up  '  a  whole 
cycle  of  devil-pictures.'  Jost  Amman,  in  a  plate  for  the 
'  Theatrum  Diabolorum,'  drew  fourteen  devils  in  human 
form,  with  animals'  heads  to  characterise  them  more 
closely.2  Hieronymus  Niitzel  put  in  three  devils,  to  lash 
female  extravagance  in  dress.3  Hans  Burgkmair  intro- 
duced seven. 4  On  a  plate  by  Urs  Graf  the  devil,  a 
horrible  monster  with  a  large  horn,  tusks,  outstretched 
tongue,  bat's  wings  and  a  long  tail,  is  driving  wildly 
before  him  a  man  in  chains  who  is  wringing  his  hands  in 
despair.5  In  a  '  Temptation  of  Christ,'  by  George  Penz, 
the  devil  has  an  absurdly  bizarre  disguise  :  he  is  a  fish 
above  and  a  man  below.0  Lucas  Cranach's  representa- 
tion of  hell  is  made  revolting  by  monstrous  or  by  im- 
moral scenes. '  Melchior  Bocksberger  of  Salzburg  also 
used  his  inventive  powers  in  painting  numbers  of  hor- 
rible devils,  which  he  introduced  into  a  large  picture, 
'  Die  Befreiung  der  Altvater  aus  der  Vorholle  durch 
Christus  '  (The  Liberation  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church 
from  Limbo  by  Christ).8 

But  in  invention  and  representation  of  horrible 
figures  and  scenes,  all  these  painters  of  devils  were  far 
behind  the  Netherlander,  Hieronymus  Bosch  and 
Peter  Breughel  the  Younger,  commonly  called  Hell- 
Breughel,  and  their  successors,  who  depicted  the  in- 

1    Von  der  Wertte  Eitelkeit,  Bl.  C.      -  Andresen,  i.  317.     s  Ibid,  ii.  108. 

4  Bartseh,  vii.  218  ;   see  vii.  272,  and  ix,  399. 

5  Woltmann,  Holbein,  i.  209.  '    Eggers,  viii.  12. 
7  Sckuckardt,  Cranach,  iii.  226-227. 

-  Waagen,  Kunst  und  Kiinstler,  ii.  127. 


220  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

fernal  regions   with   a   ghastly   power  of  imagination, 
and,  as  one  may  say,  with  the  genius  of  an  executioner.1 
In   the   representations  of   the   Seven  Deadly  Sins  by 
P.  Breughel,  engraved  by  Mirycenus,  the  form  of   the 
devil   is   terrifying   and    spectral,    while   at    the    same 
time  infinitely  varied.     These  pictures  are  made  up  of 
hobgoblins    and    sorcery ;    even    harmless    household 
utensils  or  crockery  are  invested  with  life  and  move- 
ment ;  bare  trees  stretch  out  arms  and  snouts  of  won- 
drous shapes  ;  lattice  windows  of  tumble-down  huts  look 
out  with  grinning  eyes,  while  the  house  doors  become 
abysses.     Pride  is  represented  by  a  lady  of  distinction 
with  a  mirror  and  accompanied  by  a  peacock.     If  this 
lady  took  the  trouble  to  look  behind  her  she  would  see 
a  naked  girl  being  led  by  devils  as  by  bailiffs.     Avarice 
sits  as  a  richly  dressed  woman  beside  a  money  casket, 
surrounded  by  sacks  of  money  and  a  pair  of  gold  scales. 
Behind  this  figure  a  usurer    is    buying  a  silver  plate 
from   a  poor  woman  at  a  very  low  price,   'in  pawn.' 
Other  naked  figures — also  poor  people  who  have  nothing 
left  to  pawn — are  being  led  along  by  devils.     On  the 
right  hand  a  frog-devil  is  rolling  a  miser  before  him  in 
a   barrel  spiked  with  pointed  nails,  like  Kegulus,  and 
the  miser  is  still  hankering  after  the  coins  which  have 
fallen  from  his  grasp.     In  front  a  sack  of  gold  is  actually 
moving    along,    transformed    into    a    devil.     Anger    is 
personified  as  an  armed  woman,  accompanied  by  bears, 
chasing  naked  men  who  fall  down  on  the  ground.     Over 

**  ■  See  E.  Michel,  Les  Breughel,  Paris,  1892.  See  H.  Dollmayr,  '  Hie- 
ronymus  Bosch  and  the  Representation  of  the  Four  Last  Things '  in  the 
Niederlandische  Malerei  des  fiinfzehnten  unci  sechzehnten  Jahrhundert,  in  the 
Jahrb.  d.  kunsthistor.  Sammlungen  des  allerh.  Kaiserhauses,  xix.  284  ff. 
This  author's  incursions  into  the  domain  of  theology  and  Church  history 
are  as  unfortunate  as  his  contributions  to  the  history  of  art  are  valuable. 


THE   BAD   AND   THE   UGLY   DEPICTED    IN    ART      221 

these  men  there  falls  a  long  knife,  with  the  sharp  side 
underneath.  On  the  left  a  devil  is  roasting  a  victim 
on  a  spit,  while  a  quarrelsome  husband  and  wife  are 
seething  in  the  cauldron.  Envy  is  represented  by  a 
lady  with  a  turkey-cock  crowing  at  her  side.  At  the 
bottom  of  the  picture  stands  a  kettle  representing  a 
building  of  which  the  attic  windows  are  eyes  ;  one  large 
window  is  the  abyss  through  which  the  devils  are  seen 
inside.  The  whole  plate  is  full  of  unbridled  coarseness. 
Drunkenness  is  an  obese  woman  sitting  on  a  pig. 
Behind  her  a  devil  with  a  monk's  hood  is  tapping  wine 
from  the  barrel,  and  drinking  it  slowly  out  of  a  large 
pitcher.  On  the  ground  stands  a  windmill,  resembling 
a  spectral  sphinx  with  eyes  and  open  jaw.  The  wind- 
mill with  its  rapid  motion,  stretching  out  its  wings  in  all 
directions,  and  yet  fastened  to  one  place,  is  an  admir- 
able figure  of  the  devil  who,  with  all  his  exertions,  gets 
no  forwarder.  Finally,  laziness  is  typified  by  a  poor 
woman  reposing  on  a  sleeping  donkey,  while  the  devil 
is  pulling  her  bed  away  from  under  her  head.  Another 
woman,  wrapped  up  in  bed,  is  being  drawn  round  on 
a  little  chariot  by  one  limping  devil,  and  fed  by  another.1 
Another  picture  of  Breughel  exhibits  former  gour- 
mands being  cooked  for  a  banquet  in  hell,  nobles  who  op- 
pressed their  peasants  being  ploughed  over  like  manure, 
besides  '  so  much  else  that  is  horrible,  that  it  may  well 
be  asked  how  it  was  possible  to  invent  all  this.'  '  It  is 
a  wonder,'  says  Van  Mander  of  Breughel's  hell-pictures, 
'  how  much  there  is  to  be  seen  in  them  of  gruesome 
spectres  and  hobgoblins,'  and  wonderful  also  how  he  was 
at  home  with  flames,  firebrands,  fuming  and  roasting.2 

i   **  Wessely,  Die  Gestalfen  des  Todes  und  des  Teufels,  pp.  109-110. 
2  Van  Mander,  Bl.  21 6b. 


222  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

In  the  great  devil's  kitchens  too,  which  are  at- 
tributed to  Bosch,  the  damned  souls  are  being  cooked 
and  roasted.1 

Rubens  also  was  no  less  blood-curdling  in  his  paint- 
ings of  hell- torments  ;  he  represents  snakes,  dragons, 
devils  and  monsters  of  all  sorts  attacking  the  damned 
souls,  especially  the  women  addicted  to  sensual  pleasure, 
scratching,  biting,  devouring  and  burning  them.2 

Pictures  such  as  these,  outgrowths  of  an  excited, 
delirious  fancy,  could  not  serve  a  religious  end,  even 
if  they  had  been  intended  to  do  so  ;  instead  of  awaken- 
ing fear  and  trembling,  and  overawing  the  soul,  they 
roused  disgust,  and  dragged  down  into  ridicule  even 
the  idea  of  the  all-ruling  divine  righteousness.3 

If  even  in  religious  art  the  most  naked  realism  and 
naturalism  prevailed,  and  the  most  dismal  pictures 
were  sought  by  preference,  and  the  ugliest  objects 
depicted,  this  was  incomparably  more  the  case  in  the 
treatment  of  secular  matters  from  ordinary  life. 

Among  the  earlier  artists  also  it  was  largely  the 
habit  to  exhibit  the  many-sided  life  of  the  people  and 
domestic  life  in  pictures  and  miniatures,  on  glass- 
paintings,    copper-prints,  and    woodcuts ;    and    these 

1  '  Nowadays  even  artists  themselves  eannot  perhaps  understand  how 
it  was  possible  to  produce  such  pictures.  At  that  time  there  was  without 
doubt  a  corresponding  tendency  in  public  feeling.  These  painters  would 
certainly  have  done  different  work  if  these  horrors  had  not  been  bought 
and  admired  ;  indeed,  it  is  possible  that  approval  and  orders  carried 
them  on  against  their  will  in  the  direction  once  taken  '  (P.  M.  in  Eggers, 
vii.  358). 

-  See  Schorn,  Kunstblatt,  1831,  pp.  89-90  ;  Michiels,  ii.  379-40-4,  and 
iii.  301-339;  Forster,  iii.  90.  Adam  Willaei'ts  was  especially  'distin- 
guished in  the  painting  of  firebrands  '  (Houbraken,  p.  31). 

3  See  the  treatise  of  P.  M.,  Der  Teujel  und  seine  Oesellen  in  der  bildenden 
Kunst,  in  Eggers,  vii.  301,  310,  329,  345,  350,  409  ;  and  viii.  12,  20,  128, 
141,  155. 


DETERIORATION    OF    SECULAR   ART  223 

works  were  characterised  by  German  jocundity  and 
fidelity,  by  fine  observation,  delicate  humour,  and  not 
unfrequently  by  caustic  satire,1  but  all  these  pictures 
bear  quite  a  different  character  from  the  large  majority 
of  those,  even  those  of  highly  gifted  artists,  dating 
from  about  the  second  third  of  the  sixteenth  century 
down  to  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 

Just  as  with  the  Greeks  at  the  time  of  their  de- 
cadence,2 a  threefold  school  of  cabinet-painting  came 
now  to  the  front :  genre,  or  still -life  painting,  the 
painting  of  nastiness,  and  the  painting  of  indecency. 

Sensuality,  coarseness  and  ugliness  were  no  longer 
restricted  to  a  subordinate  position,  and  used  only  as 
counterfoils  to  throw  into  stronger  effect  what  was 
beautiful  and  noble,  but  they  were  considered  in  and 
for  themselves  legitimate  objects  of  artistic  representa- 
tion. They  were  cultivated  with  particular  zest.  Art 
of  this  kind,  however,  was  not  calculated  to  ennoble 
everyday  life,  to  promote  joyousness  and  peaceful 
happiness,  even  if  it  did  not,  as  was  only  too  often  the 
case,  drag  the  people  down  to  the  lowest  depths  of 
vice. 

There  were,  of  course,  many  pictures  also  in  which 
the  mirthful  element  in  the  friendly  intercourse  of 
respectable  men  and  women  was  harmlessly  portrayed  ; 
but  as  a  rule  the  artists  moved  among  the  lowest  classes 
of  society,  delineated  by  preference  all  that  was  wildest 
and  maddest,  most  licentious  and  unbridled,  above  all 
the  most  coarsely  sensual  incidents  at  weddings  and 
village  feasts.  The  low  taste  of  the  artists  showed  the 
coarseness  of  their  feelings  and  the  small  amount  of 
moral  sense  possessed  by  them  ;    especially  when  they 

1  See  our  statements,  vol.  i.  pp.  250-261.  2  See  above,  pp.  83,  84. 


224  history  of  the  German  people 

reproduced  in  their  pictures  what  they  had  witnessed 
in  the  vilest  haunts  of  iniquity. 

To  whom,  asks  Walter  Rivius  in  1548,  can  the  pic- 
ture of  '  a  drunken,  frenzied  peasant  vomiting  behind 
a  hedge  give  pleasure  ?  '  And  yet  '  nowadays  there 
are  numbers  of  disgusting  fellows  who,  to  their  shame 
as  painters,  draw  and  paint  such  monstrous  things — 
things  that  ought  indeed  to  horrify  a  right-minded 
person.'  l 

Diirer  himself  complained  that '  many  artists  choose 
what  is  ugly  rather  than  what  is  beautiful,  and  this 
habit  is  especially  rampant  with  us.'  2 

The  peasant  scenes  of  Hans  Sebald  Beham,  one 
of  the  most  skilful  engravers,  include  many  which 
are  vulgar  in  the  extreme.3  Among  the  subjects 
which  had  already  come  into  vogue  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  which  later  on  became  immensely  popular, 
was  the  representation  of  bad  and  masterful  wives  : 
one  woman  is  depicted  flogging  her  good  man  ;  another 
with  a  whip  in  her  hand  riding  on  the  neck  of  her 
husband,  who  is  crouching  on  hands  and  feet ;  a  third, 
also  holding  a  whip,  is  sitting  in  a  basket  which  her 
husband  is  obliged  to  draw  along  with  a  rope ;  a  fourth 
is  dragging  her  man  by  the  hair  in  front  of  the  house, 
and  at  the  same  time  dealing  out  blows  to  him  with 
a  stick,  and  so  forth.  George  Penz,  Hans  Brosamer, 
Martin  Zeissinger,  Virgil  Solis,  Balthasar  Jenichen, 
and  other  engravers,  used  their  art  '  for  the  counter- 
feiting of  suchlike  amiable  wifely  deeds.'  4 

1  Rivius,  p.  443. 

2  Diirer,  Vier  Biicher  von  menschl.  Proportion,  7,  IP. 

3  Bartsch,  viii.  179  ff.,  Nos.  162,  163,  165,   174,   177.      See  also  Von 
Lichtenberg,  p.  78  ff. 

»  Bartsch,  vi.  268,  277,  379  ;  further,  vii.  221,  317,  and  viii.  350,  463, 


GROTESQUENESS   AND   VULGARITY   IN   ART  225 

Jenichen  once  depicted  seven  women  fighting  for  a 
pair  of  trousers.1  In  a  drawing  of  Urs  Graf,  Aristotle 
is  seen  crouching  on  all  fours  and  serving  as  riding  - 
horse  to  his  mistress,  a  wanton,  light-minded  young 
woman.2  But  foremost  in  inexhaustible  production 
of  unedifying  scenes,  wild  carousals  and  brawls  of 
drunken  peasants,  monsters  and  deformities,  was  the 
Dutch  artist  Peter  Breughel,  nicknamed  Peasant- 
Breughel  ;  '  he  loved  best  to  paint  what  nobody  likes 
to  see  in  life  ;  '  a  characteristic  specimen  of  his  style  of 
art  is  his  '  naked  figure  of  Luxury  on  the  lap  of  a  bestial 
creature.' :J 

To  his  countryman  Hieronymus  Bosch  are  ascribed 
the  famous  Fett  und  Wurstfresser  ('  Fat  and  Sausage- 
eaters  ') ;  in  one  picture  there  figure  no  less  than  thirty  - 

and  ix.  77,  277,  and  x.  48,  51,  52  ;  Passavant,  Peintre-Graveur,  iii.  102, 
256,  323,  413,  426  ;  Heller,  pp.  849,  893  ;  Andresen,  ii.  179.  The  female 
rider  who  is  managing  her  husband  with  bridle  and  whip  is  drawn 
quite  naked.  See  Sotzmann,  in  Eggers,  ii.  302.  **  A  '  Game  at 
Cards,'  attributed  to  Peter  Flotner  (in  part  copied  by  Hirth,  Kultur- 
histor.  Bilderbuch,  i.  305  ff.),  contains,  among  other  things,  two  fight- 
ing women — a  woman  beating  her  husband  with  a  rod,  two  pigs 
eating  with  spoons  from  a  plate  on  which  lies  a  lump  of  dirt,  two 
pigs  turning  a  roasting-spit  on  which  a  lump  of  dirt  is  stuck,  two  pigs 
with  a  draughtboard  on  which  lies  a  lump  of  dirt,  and  even  worse  things 
(S.  Lange,  Flotner,  p.  27  ff.).  The  same  writer  remarks  (p.  17) :  '  With 
Flotner  dirt  is  not  introduced,  as  with  the  other  minor  masters,  in  due 
connection  with  the  rest  of  the  composition,  but  in  an  isolated  manner, 
and  evidently  intentionally  so  ;  for  instance,  in  the  above-mentioned 
pack  of  cards  and  in  the  coping  of  the  marvellous  portal  design  by  Reimer 
(fig.  10),  and  on  a  drinking-bowl  lately  sold  by  auction  in  Dresden, 
which  bears  as  signature  in  the  right-hand  corner  a  heap  of  excrement 
pierced  with  an  arrow,  a  graving-tool,  and  a  chisel.  Here,  as  in  the 
'  Human  Alphabet,'  the  signature  is  suggestive  of  the  artist's  dirty  mind. 

1  Andresen,  ii.  181.  Refractory  wives  were  also  a  favourite  theme 
of  the  poets  of  that  period,  as  we  shall  show  later  on. 

2  Woltmann,  Holbein,  i.  207-208.  Concerning  this  legend  of  Aris- 
totle, see  Sotzmann  in  Eggers,  ii.  302-303. 

3  Rathgeber,  Annalen,  p.  255,  Nos.  1493-1518  ;  cf.  440  to  251. 

VOL.   XI.  Q 


22G  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

one  cripples.1  Even  the  most  harmless  animals,  ducks 
and  fowls,  crabs  and  sea  fish,  are  transformed  into 
uncanny  creatures,  able  to  cause  fear  and  shuddering 
not  only  by  the  grimness  and  dangerousness  of  their 
appearance,  but  by  their  mere  presence.  The  spell  of 
this  witchcraft  is  also  cast  over  objects  of  other  sorts  : 
hatchets  and  choppers  start  up  in  a  threatening  manner  ; 
jugs  and  pitchers  stretch  out  claw -like  fingers  around 
them ;  tumble-down  cabins  squint  wickedly  out  of 
window  eyes  from  under  thatched  roofs ;  elfin  ships 
creak  along  to  the  shore  ;  naked  trees  send  out  grotesque 
snouts,  and  hills  raise  on  high  now  a  thick  sodden  nose, 
now  some  other  limb  or  feature  protruding  through 
their  green  mantles  of  turf.  No  less  is  the  magic  with 
which  this  artist  in  unheard-of  ways  transforms  every- 
thing that  possesses  human  shape  :  ears  grow  like  the 
claws  of  birds ;  pheasants'  tails  hang  down  from 
human  necks  and  swing  behind  dwarfish  human  feet ; 
hands  walk,  feet  clutch  hold,  not  to  speak  of  what  is 
still  more  repulsive.2  The  Augsburg  engraver  Daniel 
Hopfer  was  also  ambitious  of  showing  his  skill  in  every 
imaginable  ugly,  apish,  disgusting  kind  of  picture.3 

1  Rathgeber,  p.  126,  Nos.  516,  516\  523,  527.  Cf.  Schorn,  Kunst- 
blatt,  1882,  p.  217  ff.  ;  Michiels,  iii.  41. 

2  P.  M.  in  Eggers,  vii.  356-357. 

3  See  Falke,  Geschmack,  pp.  119-120.  Even  in  the  representation  of 
monsters  and  spectres  '  our  country  presents  an  appalling  example  of 
how  little  mere  arbitrai'y  caprice  can  effect  without  any  actual  artistic 
power.'  '  There  is  nothing  more  sensually  repulsive,  bearing  on  this 
point,  than  the  plates  (a  long  festive  procession,  or  procession  of  gypsies) 
of  Wenclel  Dietterlein '  (see  above,  p.  108  ff . ).  '  This  want  of  creative  genius, 
which  perhaps  is  the  great  cause  of  the  incapacity  for  distinguishing 
between  genuine  fancy  and  what  is  merely  bizarre,  is  undoubtedly  the 
worst  fault  of  this  period,  a  period  which,  in  other  artistic  respects — for 
instance  in  technique  and  truth  to  nature — has  produced  such  highly 
meritorious  work  '  (Eggers,  viii.  141). 


GBOTESQUENESS   AND   VULGARITY   IN   ART         227 

The  court  painter  and  engraver  to  the  Elector  of 
Saxony,  Henry  G<">dig,  executed  the  following  four  plates: 
(1)  A  huntsman  made  up  of  hunting  implements  and 
heads  of  animals  of  the  chase,  with  a  stag-head  for  his 
nose.  (2)  A  bird-catcher  consisting  of  implements  for 
snaring  birds,  with  an  owl  for  his  nose.  (3)  A  fisherman 
with  a  frog  for  his  nose.  (4)  A  musician  formed  of 
musical  instruments,  with  a  drinking-cup  beside  him.1 
Peter  Breughel  painted  four  giant  heads  as  pictures  of 
the  seasons,  and  each  head  was  made  up  of  the  products 
of  the  particular  season  it  typified  :  spring  of  leaves  and 
flowers  ;  summer  and  autumn  of  fruits  and  ears  of  corn  ; 
winter  of  thorns  and  straw ;  so  that  when  seen  closely 
they  looked  quite  dreadful.1'  A  Bacchus  of  Balthasar 
Jenichen  appears  in  peasant  dress  with  tattered  hose, 
crowned  with  grapes,  apples  and  turnips,  and  holding 
a  bowl  in  his  hand  ;  at  his  girdle  hangs  a  sausage  ;  from 
a  hole  in  his  purse  pieces  of  money  are  falling  on  the 
ground.3 

Cornelius  Tenissen  represented  intemperance  by  a 
man  with  a  pig's  head,  surrounded  with  vine -leaves, 
playing-cards  and  dice  ;  a  barrel  forms  his  body.4 

Altogether  the  one  great  aim  of  the  artists  was  '  to 
find  out  everything  that  was  terrifying  and  wonderful 

1  Andresen,  i.  93,  94.  **  Concerning  the  'gruesome  figures'  of 
P.  Flotner,  see  Lange,  Flotner,  p.  163.  See  also  in  the  same  place  Flotner's 
devil  figures,  by  means  of  which  the  representative  of  faith  is  being 
seduced,  and  which  '  would  do  honour  to  an  H.  Bosch,  a  P.  Breughel, 
or  a  D.  Teniers.'  Monstrosities  were  also  used  for  the  decoration  of  guns 
and  artillery.  Duke  Henry  of  Saxony,  for  instance,  had  Ins  artillery 
ornamented  with  pictures  from  drawings  of  Cranach,  which  his  secretary 
and  biographer,  Freydinger,  describes  as  '  shameless  and  disgusting ' 
(Lindau,  p.  184). 

2  Von  der  Hagen,  Briefe  in  die  Heimat,  i.  104-105. 

3  Andresen,  ii.  168. 

4  Heller,  p.  864. 

Q  2 


228  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

in  heaven  and  on  earth,  and  to  depict  it  in  quite  new 
and  artistic  fashion,  for  the  curiosity,  the  terror,  the 
anguish,  and   the   horror   of   mankind,'    on   engravings 
and  woodcuts,  to  be  spread  broadcast  among  the  people. 
For  instance,  they  represented  all  sorts  of  wondrous 
celestial  apparitions  that  had  been  seen  in  Nuremberg, 
Cologne,  Worms,  Leipzig  and  elsewhere  ;  a  '  new  fierce 
and  gruesome  battle  '  between  two  armies  in  the  air  ; 
a  man's  head  with  snakes  for  hair,  which  was  found  in 
an  egg ;   a  boy  sweating  blood,  and  a  winged  serpent 
in  the  heavens  at  Augsburg;    a  spring  of   blood  near 
Beyelstein ;   extraordinary   bearded  grapes,   which  ap- 
peared in   the   Palatinate   as  a  sign  of   divine  wrath  ; 
strange  prodigies  of  birth,  which  happened  in  Saxony  ; 
apparitions  in  the  sky  and  exorcism  of  devils,  as  well 
as  the  '  everywhere  highly  famed  '  demoniacal  appari- 
tions and  other  signs  of  wrath  in  the  Mark  of  Branden- 
burg ;  wonderful  herrings,  white  whales,  mullets,  caught 
in  Holstein,  in  Silesia,  the  Kattegat,  and  other  places, 
and  on  the  bodies  of  some  of  them  inscriptions  which 
proclaimed  '  the  great  and  high  omnipotence  of  God, 
above  all  wisdom  and  beyond  our  reason  to  apprehend.'  1 
The    Basle   preacher   John    Herold    presented    '  all 
godly  Christians'    in  the  year   1567  with  hundreds  of 
'  beautiful  pictures  of  God's  wonder-works  in  strange 
creatures,   abortions,  and  apparitions  in  the  heavens, 
on  the  earth,  and  in  the  water.'     Amongst  these  there 
is  a  calf  and  a  goat  with  a  man's  head,  a  child  with 

1  See  concerning  these  and  similar  objects  the  plates  mentioned  by 
Drugulin,  pp.  19,  24,  30,  31,  32,  38,  44,  53,  60,  61,  68,  69,  70,  71,  74,  78, 
83,  85,  86,  87,  96,  105,  106,  114,  116,  117  ;  Andresen,  ii.  317.  Concerning 
«  an  animal  prodigy  born  of  a  cow,  which  makes  everybody  think  horrible 
thoughts,'  '  counterfeited  '  by  Cranach,  so  says  Bugenhagen  (1547),  see 
Schuchardt,  Cranach,  i.  184,  observation. 


GROTESQUENESS   AND   VULGARITY   IN   ART        229 

horns,  another  child  with  a  monkey's  face,  a  third 
'  with  a  mouth  and  nose  like  an  ox,  and  dogs'  heads  at 
its  elbows  ;  '  and  many  other  such  marvellous  works.1 
John  George  Schenck  of  Grafenberg  also  published 
in  1610  a  '  Wonder-book,'  which  contains  over  a  hundred 
horrible  '  Kontrafacturen : '  for  instance,  a  lion  and  a 
cow  with  a  human  head  ;  .a  pig  '  with  face,  forefeet, 
and  shoulders  of  a  man ;  also  two-headed,  four-handed, 
three-  and  four-footed  children ;  children  of  both  sexes, 
and  what  was  still  more  dreadful,  children  which 
looked  like  unreasoning  animals,  bears,  hounds,  pigs, 
monkeys,  and  even  the  devil  himself ;  '  and  three 
pictures  of  '  a  wonderful,  unheard  of,  memorable  story 
of  a  stone- child,  which  had  been  carried  twenty- eight 
years  in  its  mother's  womb,  and  had  grown  into  a  whole 
stone  and  hard  rock,  which  is  a  wonder  of  wonders, 
quite  strange  and  rare.'  '  One  such  general  example 
should  be  enough,'  says  the  author,  '  to  stamp  this 
whole  wonder-book  of  strange  abortions  with  special 
glory  and  excellence.'  2 

The  representation  also  of  '  the  terrible  devil's 
brides,  witches  and  sorceresses  '  came  more  and  more 
into  vogue.  We  are  shown  the  witches  calling  the 
devils  to  them,  and  either  coquetting  or  righting  with 
them,  or  else  we  see  them  preparing  their  salves, 
or  getting  themselves  dressed  for  the  Sabbath.  The 
witches'  dance  and  even  the  witches'  Sabbath  were 
also  favourite  subjects  for  pictures. :J    One  of  the  most 

1   We  shall  return  to  this  work  later  on. 

-  Schenck,  Wunderbuch,  Preface  hi.,  and  pp.  113-116.  Readers  should 
especially  compare  the  pictures  at  pp.  6,  20,  27,  29,  53,  62  ff.,  73,  85-89, 
99,  109,  114.  At  p.  91  there  is  a  picture  of  '  two  bodies  which  have  grown 
together  at  the  back,  the  one  the  body  of  a  man,  the  other  of  a  dog.' 

:1  Bartsch,  vii.  82,  187,  319,  447  ;  also  viii.  280,  490,  and  ix.  463-464. 


230  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

remarkable  series  of  engravings  of  this  sort  was  pre- 
sented '  to  all  true-hearted  Christians  '  in  1594  in  a 
'  Book  of  Witches,'  by  Thomas  Sigfridus  :  in  sixteen 
scenes  this  artist  represents  the  whole  proceedings  of 
the  witches.1  With  the  same  fulness  of  detail  the 
artists  depicted  all  the  frightful  tortures  which  witches, 
magicians,  and  other  criminals  had  to  endure  '  for 
the  needful  consolation  of  godly  Christians,  who  learn 
thereby  that  the  magistrates  are  ready  with  their 
punishments.'  '  And  Christian  parents,'  said  the  phy- 
sicist and  alchemist,  Jodokus  Krautblatt,  in  1553, 
'  must  be  careful  to  stick  up  all  these  many  terrible 
spectacles  in  their  houses  for  a  wholesome  warning  to 
their  children,  lest  the  like  should  happen  to  them  if 
they  are  ill-advised  and  godless.'  2  On  a  woodcut  of 
the  year  1540  there  are  four  unhappy  beings,  naked 
and  with  frightfully  mangled  limbs,  half  in  the  form 
of  animals  and  fastened  to  four  burning  stakes.  The 
inscription  underneath  says  :  '  On  account  of  many  and 
various  wicked  misdoings  these  four  persons,  as  here 

Passavant,  Peintre-Graveur,  iii.  120,  No.  50.  The  vignettes  to  most 
witch- books  should  also  be  compared  ;  for  instance,  those  to  the  Theatrum 
de  veneflcis.  '  The  prince  of  darkness,  who  disappears  gradually  from 
art,  is  now,  characteristically  enough,  succeeded  by  his  terrestrial  subjects, 
the  witches.  In  the  place  of  religious  and  moral  antitheses  there  now 
comes  superstition  without  antithesis.  Hell  closes,  and  we  behold  only 
the  Blocksberg,  or,  rather,  the  preparations  for  it :  the  bubbling  of  the 
ill-famed  salves  and  ointments,  the  gathering  together  of  their  uncanny 
ingredients  under  gallows  and  at  the  crossing  of  roads  (where  we  chance 
to  make  the  acquaintance  of  a  wretched-looking  little  man,  with  root- 
fibres  for  hair,  arms  and  belt,  the  mystic  mandrake)  ;  and,  lastly,  the 
departure  on  brooms,  the  old  ones  clothed,  the  young  ones  naked,  as  in 
Goethe '  (Eggers,  viii.  20).  **  For  representations  of  witches  by  Diirer 
and  other  artists  of  the  sixteenth  century,  see  Wessely,  Gestalten  des 
Todes  und  des  Teufels,  p.  112  ff. 

1  Sigfridus,  Bl.  2-3  to  the  engraving  added  at  the  end. 

2  Etlich  Gedenkzeichen  und  wolmeinende  Warnung  (1553),  Bl.  C2. 


IMMORALITY   IN    ART  231 

painted,  were  punished  with  fire  at  Wittenberg  on  the 
day  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  in  the  year  1540  ;  namely, 
an  old  woman  and  her  son,  who  had  given  themselves  up 
to  the  devil,  but  especially  the  woman,  who  had  had 
much  shameful  intercourse  with  the  devil,  had  for 
some  years  practised  sorcery,  raised  storms  and  stopped 
fine  weather,  and  had  also  worked  evil  to  numbers  of 
poor  people  by  poisoned  powders,'  and  so  forth.  '  And 
the  only  reason  why  this  picture  has  been  made,  is 
because  there  are  still  numbers  of  these  dangerous 
evil-doers  in  the  land,  who  go  about  as  beggars,  usurers, 
hangman's  servants,  and  even  as  herdsmen,  so  that 
the  magistrates  may  keep  a  watchful  eye,  and  harm  be 
thus  averted  from  the  poor  people.'  :  A  large  coloured 
woodcut  of  1586  showed  how,  on  October  31  of  that 
year,  the  '  Stump-Peter,'  a  prodigious  criminal,  who 
could  '  change  himself  into  a  wolf,'  and  who,  as  a  wolf, 
'  had  torn  in  pieces  thirteen  children,  two  women  and 
a  man,'  had  writhed  on  the  gallows  wheel  at  Bedburg, 
how  his  heart  had  been  torn  out  of  his  body,  how  he 
had  been  beheaded,  and  finally  burnt  beside  two 
witches.2 

All  such  representations,  distributed  among  the 
people,  tended  not  only  to  the  demoralisation  of  taste 
and  character,  but  also  and  especially  to  the  encourage- 
ment of  superstition  and  belief  in  witchcraft. 

Side  by  side  with  the  horrible  and  the  gruesome, 

1  In  the  superscription  and  at  the  end  there  are  Bible  texts.  A  wood- 
cut in  my  possession. 

2  In  the  Thesaurus  Picturarum  in  the  Court  library  at  Darmstadt, 
vol.  Einziige,  fol.  5.  In  the  vol.  Calumnice,  on  fol.  77  there  is  a  '  veritable 
and  actual  representation  of  how  Dr.  Nicholas  Krell,  on  October  9,  1601, 
was  carried,  sitting  on  a  chair,  from  the  town  hall  to  the  Neumarkt  on 
a  chair  and  beheaded.'  The  execution  of  Silvan  (see  our  remarks, 
vol.  viii.  pp.  157-160)  in  this  same  Thesaurus,  vol.  Palatina,  i.  117. 


232  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

immorality  gained  a  wider  and  wider  footing  in  art, 
as  indeed  in  the  whole  of  the  life  of  the  period.  The 
saying  of  Plato  comes  aptly  to  mind  :  '  Art  goes  up 
and  down  with  the  spirit  of  the  world.' 

The  pictures  of  saints,  wrote  George  Wizel,  in  1535, 
are  '  torn  down,  hacked  in  pieces  and  burnt ;  '  on  the 
other  hand  all  sorts  of  pictures  are  produced  which 
cannot  move  anyone  to  godliness  :  on  gates  and  walls 
there  hang  '  drunken  soldiers,  women  bathing,  dances, 
card-players,  banquets '  and  other  mundane  things, 
by  which  many  people  are  filled  with  impure  thoughts 
and  enticed  into  wickedness.  '  With  uncleanness  of 
this  sort  they  adorn  their  dwellings,  and  inveigh  against 
those  who  decorate  the  churches  with  pictures  of  the 
true  old  saints.'  l  The  Roman  Pliny,  said  another 
Catholic  contemporary,  had  complained  of  the  indecent 
painters  ;  '  if,  however,  Pliny  could  see  how  the  houses 
are  painted  nowadays,  what  sort  of  beautiful  pictures 
are  hung  on  the  walls,  what  sort  of  sculpture  adorns 
the  bathing-rooms  and  private  apartments  of  the 
princes  and  great  lords,  .  .  .  what  would  he  say  ?  '  The 
pictures  of  God  and  the  saints  are  often  carried  away 
out  of  the  churches,  as  if  danger  of  idolatry  and  impure 
thoughts  lurked  behind  them.  '  But  the  best  and  most 
renowned  artists  are  not  condemned,  but  loaded  from 
foreign  lands  with  great  sums  of  money  and  much 
encouragement,  when  they  paint  bedrooms,  sitting- 
rooms,  vaults,  &c,  with  naked  figures,  and  hang  up 
all  sorts  of  indecent  illustrations  in  the  most  private 
apartments,  in  which  the  Heavenly  Father  and  Creator 
of  all  things  should  be  communed  with  and  prayed  to 
in  secret  from  the  bottom  of  the  heart  and  with  a  pure 

1   Quoted  in  Dollinger,  Reformation,  i.  (2nd  ed.)  101. 


IMMORALITY    IN    ART  233 

spirit.'  !  '  Most  of  the  painters,'  wrote  Hippolytus 
Guarinoni,  '  seem  to  think  that  art  cannot  be  expressed 
in  painting  save  by  naked  figures ;  '  such  indecent 
painters,  he  declares,  are  '  sheer  implements  of  vice  and 
profligacy,  huntsmen  of  the  devil,  who  by  these  nets 
catch  the  game  and  drive  it  up  to  him.'  2 

Among  the  Protestants  also  there  were  many  who 
lamented  '  the  grievous  and  unspeakable  misfortune 
that  art,  which  ought  to  serve  the  Lord  God  and  all 
righteousness,  should  have  become  a  minister  of  sin.' 
'  Anyone  who  has  the  opportunity,'  so  Karl  Doltz 
preached  in  1557,  '  of  seeing  what  serves  for  decoration 
in  the  homes  of  numbers  of  princes,  lords,  luxurious 
merchants,  and  even  artisans,  what  sort  of  pictures 
are  sold  at  annual  fairs,  and  carried  round  about  by 
hawkers,  letter-carriers,  strolling  players,  and  other 
itinerant  vendors,  must  recognise  that  present-day  art 
is  a  school  of  immorality.'  3  Vadian  wrote  as  follows  : 
'  And  it  is  well  known  that  images  and  all  pictures  have 
been  introduced  and  increased  in  number  only  during 

1  Fielder,  Tractat  Bl.  60b-70.  The  treatise,  translated  by  Fickler 
from  the  Latin  and  enlarged  by  supplements,  had  appeared  first  at  Paris 
in  1549,  published  by  Gabriel  Puits-Herbault,  a  monk  at  Fontevrault  ; 
see  Dejob,  p.  204. 

2  Guarinoni,  pp.  231,  232. 

3  Sermon  preached  at  Erfurt  on  the  day  of  our  Lord's  Ascension 
(1557),  Bl.  CJ.  '  The  town  council  of  Leipzig  took  into  custody  at 
Michaelmas,  1571,  a  hawker  who  at  the  fair  had  offered  for  sale  shameful 
paintings  and  pictures  to  women,  girls,  and  chiklxen.'  The  pictures  taken 
from  hirn,  together  with  those  found  on  other  vendors,  '  were  publicly 
burnt  in  the  market  by  the  hangman  '  (A.  Kirchhoff,  in  the  Archiv  fiir 
Gesch.  des  Buchhandels,  x.  124-125).  The  Elector  Christian  II.  of  Saxony 
decreed  that  the  pupils  of  the  Schulpjorta  should  neither  buy  nor  have 
in  their  rooms  'scandalous  pictures'  (Bertuch,  p.  144,  No.  21).  At  the 
Ratisbon  Diet  of  1594  indecent  pictures  were  sold  publicly  (Guarinoni, 
p.  303).  The  Emperor  Ferdinand  II.  had  many  obscene  paintings  burnt 
(Dejob,  p.  358). 


234  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  last  hundred  years :  now  painters  and  sculptors, 
pandering  to  our  bad  morals  and  style  of  dressing, 
represent  females  with  such  indecency  that,  gazing  at 
them,  one  is  more  inclined  to  sin  than  to  prayer.'  l 

The  preacher  Erasmus  Grtininger,  in  a  sermon  on 
morality,  preached  in  1605  in  the  court  chapel  at  Stutt- 
gart against  '  all  those  painters,  sculptors,  engravers, 
and  designers  who  reproduced  all  sorts  of  licentious 
scenes,  pictures  of  Venus  and  Cupid  and  other  wanton 
and  objectionable  subjects,  calculated  to  corrupt  inno- 
cent hearts.'2  Amorous  scenes  from  mythology  of 
the  most  repulsive  kind  were  the  favourite  subjects 
of  art,  and  by  the  manner  of  their  treatment  they  not 
unfrequently  developed  into  regular  brothel  pictures. 
Aldegrever  could  not  even  depict  the  leap  of  the  Roman 
hero,  Marcus  Curtius,  without  introducing  five  naked 


women.0 


1   **  Watt,  i.  349  note. 

-  Guarinoni,  pp.  228-229.  **  Very  improper  scenes  are  depicted  on 
the  so-called  Emperor's  house  at  Hildesheim,  especially  on  the  side  of  the 
building  looking  towards  the  adjoining  farmhouse,  and  also  on  the  facade 
of  the  town  hall  at  Bremen.  The  frieze  on  the  so-called  '  Brusttuch,'  in 
Goslar,  built  in  1526,  is,  to  put  it  mildly,  very  coarse.  See  also  Von  Hesner- 
Alteneck,  Lebenserinnerungen,  p.  118  ff.  Objectionable  pictures  even  found 
admittance  to  the  palaces  of  ecclesiastical  princes.  Concerning  the  Salzburg 
archbishop,  Wolf  Dietrich  von  Raittenau,  described  in  vol.  ix.  pp.  203, 204, 
see  Mayr-Deisinger,  p.  90  (but  cf.  also  p.  182).  The  frescoes  in  the  Castello 
del  Buon  Consiglio,  the  seat  of  the  Prince-Bishop  of  Trent,  contained  such 
offensive  nudities  that  before  the  assembling  of  the  Council  it  was  thought 
fit  to  paint  them  over  in  part  with  clothes.  Cf.  II  Castello  del  Buon  Con- 
siglio ml  1780,  in  a  MS.  of  Francesco  Bartoli  (Nozze  Zippel,  Trento, 

1890),  p.  25. 

3  For  a  clearer  idea  of  the  mass  of  these  objectionable  representations 
from  mythology,  from  old  sagas  and  history,  and  from  every-day  hfe, 
readers  are  specially  referred  to  Bartsch,  iii.  43,  54,  102-103,  105-110, 
122-125,  138-139,  145,  147,  150-151,  155,  168-169,  176,  180,  204,  234- 
235,  243-249,  252,  268,  284-286  ;  vii.  85-87,  318,  346,  406-409,  419-420, 
522,  524,  527,  541,  544  ;  viii.  61-63,  90-92,  98,  104,  154,  159,  161,  177, 
202-203,  241,  244-245,  263,  278-279,  281-282,  285,  348-349,  368,  373, 


IMMORALITY   IN   ART  235 

Amongst    German    painters    Lucas    Cranach    was 
notorious  for  the  depth  of  degradation  to  which  he 

386,  411,  413,  462-463,  513,  536-538,  540,  544-545  (the  plates  of  the  two 
Behams  also  in  Rosenberg,  p.  83  ff.,  Nos.  16,  17,  28-30,  32-36,  41,  44, 
53,  55-56,  58,  65  ;  p.  91  ff.,  Nos.  4,  6  ;  p.  94,  No.  9,  13-15,  17  ;  p.  99  ff., 
Nos.  68,  82,  107,  108,  113,  114,  154-161,  271,  272)  ;  further,  9,  21-22, 
36,  47,  49,  54,  64-65,  76-77,  91,  112,  119-120,  131,  136,  163,  241,  249, 
256,  277,  497,  510-512,  513,  584  ;  Andresen,  ii.  86-87,  169,  and  hi.  230  ; 
Passavant,  iii.  7,  20,  87,  102,  253,  255,  298,  319,  and  iv.  52-53,  55,  83, 
93,  130,  284-289  ;  Drugulin,  Histor.  Bilderatlas,  Part  I.  (Leipzig,  1863), 
p.  97  ff.,  Nos.  2490,  2492,  2511-2515.  (For  the  rest  of  this  note  see  vol.  vi. 
of  the  German,  p.  164,  note  3  ff.)  **  Cf.  Von  Lichtenberg,  p.  37  ff.  For 
Nicholas  Manuel's  quantities  of  nude  figures — a  naked  girl  with  a  plumed 
hat,  another  with  a  biretta  and  neckband,  a  third  with  flowing  hair, 
a  fourth  with  a  biretta  trimmed  with  feathers  and  a  chain  on  her  neck,  a 
fifth  with  a  staff,  a  sixth  with  a  hat  and  neckband,  a  naked  woman  floating 
in  the  air,  a  naked  woman  playing  the  violin,  a  woman  with  a  saint's  halo  (!) 
holding  her  petticoats  high  up,  and  so  forth,  see  Baechtold,  cxiii.-cxix. 
**  B.  Haendke  (Nicholas  Manuel  Deutsch  as  Artist.  Frauenfeld,  1889) 
considers  Manuel's  delight  in  the  nude  and  his  '  refreshing  sensuality  ' 
(p.  55)  altogether  justifiable.  It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  the  author 
can  deny  (p.  31)  that  Manuel  painted  indecent  scenes  by  preference. 
Haendke  contradicts  himself  by  the  very  examples  which  he  cites.  Of 
the  picture  '  Die  Umarmung  des  Todes  und  einer  Dime  '  even  Haendke 
must  allow  that  it  is  'a  demoniacal,  fiery,  ultra-lascivious  conception.' 
In  an  article  on  Urs  Graf,  praising  the  direction  of  Manuel's  taste,  Edward 
His  speaks  of  the  '  frequently  very  lascivious  character  of  his  drawings ' 
and  of  his  '  preference  for  the  frivolous.'  '  Nudities  are  not  only  pre- 
dominant in  his  hand-drawings,'  but  also  in  the  title-page  decorations 
which  he  executed  for  printers  (Von  Zahn,  Jahrbiicher,  vi.  180-187).  A 
border  designed  by  Urs  Graf  in  1519  ('  Pyramus  and  Thisbe')  is  unfit  for 
description  (Butsch,  i.  34  ;  cf.  Woltmann,  Holbein,  i.  209-210).  To  what 
extent  nudities  figured  in  book  decoration  is  shown,  for  instance,  by  the 
alphabet  in  woodcut  executed  at  Frankfort  in  1542,  which,  with  few 
exceptions,  contains  only  naked  figures  or  love  scenes  (Butsch,  ii.  48  and 
plate  46).  Concerning  the  nudities  of  Hans  Baldung  Grien,  see  Wolt- 
mann, Art  in  Alsace,  p.  289  ;  for  those  of  Adam  Elzheimer,  see  Seibt, 
A.  Elzheimer,  pp.  70-71.  Amorous  old  men  or  women  in  Bartsch,  iii. 
122-124,  209  ;  further,  vii.  102-103,  544,  and  ix.  152  ;  Passavant,  iii.  7, 
20,  319  ;  HeDer,  pp.  299,  367,  445,  823,  849,  871,  885,  900.  As  early  as 
the  fifteenth  century  Israel  von  Mecken  painted  amorous  old  people  ; 
cf.  Bartsch,  vi.  266,  Buhlschajtsszenen  aus  damaliger  Zeil,  vi.  88,  270, 
378.  Concerning  the  increasing  licentiousness  in  such  representations 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  see  Von  Rettberg,  Kulturgesch.  Brief e,  pp.  251- 
266  ;  Bartsch,  viii.  90.     The  so-called  Anabaptist  bath  of  naked  men  and 


236  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

dragged  art  down  by  his  nudities,  his  Venus  figures, 
his   sleeping   nymphs,    &c,    as   also   by   his   lampoons 

women  by  Henry  Aldegrever  is  criticised  by  Wessely,  pp.  58-59.  Cornelius 
Cornelissen  painted  a  whole  party  of  unclothed  men  and  women  sitting  at 
a  banquet  (Forster,  iii.  28).  As  regards  the  engraver,  Albert  Altdorfer, 
Waagen  (Gesch.  der  Malerei,  i.  239)  speaks  of  his  '  naked  figures  taken  from 
ancient  mythology,  such  as  Neptune,  Venus,  the  winged  woman,'  as  '  taste- 
less and  repulsive  in  the  extreme.'  On  the  other  hand,  another  art  critic 
finds  '  the  awakening  sensuousness  '  in  Altdorfer  '  always  quite  charming. 
But,'  he  says,  '  we  can  find  no  charm  in  Penz's  and  Beham's  broad- 
hipped  heroines,  temptingly  spreading  out  their  limbs,  and  showing  no 
more  of  antique  gracefulness  or  Venetian  luxuriancy  than  the  wish  for 
them '  (Eggers,  viii.  12).  Hans  Sebald  Beham  sets  up  naked  women  '  to 
teach  morality.'  In  a  series  of  drawings  he  attempts  to  prove  that 
'  death  does  away  with  all  human  beauty,'  but  he  falls  into  lascivious- 
ness.  Nor  is  his  trespassing  on  aesthetic  decency  excused  by  the  saying  : 
'  Mors  ultima  linea  rerum  '  ('  Death  ends  all ').  Occasionally  S.  Beham 
puts  hypocrisy  aside :  thus  he  recommends  the  fearless  portraying  of 
female  beauty  in  an  etching  representing  a  winged  Venus  with  a  blind- 
folded Cupid,  and  bearing  the  inscription  '  Audaces  Venus  ipsa  juvat ' 
('Venus  herself  helps  those  who  dare')  (Svoboda,  Beil.  Allg.  Zeit.  1885, 
No.  220).  The  most  revolting  brothel  painter  was  Hans  Torrentius,  of 
Amsterdam  :  '  Les  libertins  memes  avoient  horreur  de  ses  compositions ' 
(Deschamps,  pp.  382-383 ;  Houbraken,  pp.  63, 212-213 ;  Fiorillo,  iii.  204-205 ; 
Michiels,  iii.  33G).  **  Of  Hans  Sebald  Beham,  Liitzow  writes,  in  the  Gesch. 
der  deutschen  Kunst,  v.  205-206  :  '  The  imagination  of  the  artist  goes  off,  on 
the  one  hand  into  cold  allegories,  on  the  other  into  nudity  and  obscenity. 
The  more  than  coarse  taste  of  the  time  may  have  called  forth  these  things. 
Hans  Sebald,  however,  was  only  too  ready  to  gratify  this  taste.  He  is 
not  content  with  mythological  representations  from  the  cycle  of  Venus, 
which  are  legitimate  subjects  for  such  treatment,  but  he  has  plates  of  quite 
undisguised  naturalism,  such  as  "  Night  "  (Plate  153),  in  which  nudity  is 
depicted  entirely  for  its  own  sake,  and  with  the  most  scrupulous  accuracy.' 
**  See  also  Von  Lichtenberg,  p.  77  ff.  With  regard  to  Altdorfer,  cf.  the 
careful  monograph  of  Max  Friedliinder,  Albrecht  Altdorfer  der  Maler  von 
Regensburg,  Leipzig,  1891.  'With  Peter  Flotner,'  says  Lange  (p.  160), 
'  the  nude  plays,  on  the  whole,  a  less  important  part  than  one  might  ex- 
pect considering  the  general  coarseness  of  his  conceptions.  In  some  of 
his  works — for  instance,  the  bas-relief  of  the  "  Holzschuhersche  Pokal " 
(a  bowl  in  the  shape  of  a  sabot) — he  has  certainly  gone  to  full  length  in  this 
direction,  but  in  his  Plaquettes,  in  his  women  at  any  rate,  he  avoids 
complete  nudity  more  than  many  of  his  contemporaries  ;  indeed,  he 
actually  shows  a  striking  inclination  for  covering  up  hands.  He  evidently 
desired  to  place  no  difficulties  in  the  way  of  his  Plaquettes  being  used 
for  the  decoration  of  church  utensils,  though  this  was  certainly  not  the 


ARTIST   LIFE  237 

against  the  papacy.1  As  an  old  man  of  seventy-four  his 
depraved  taste  still  appears  in  his  '  Jungbrunnen ' 
('Fountain  of  Youth '). 

The  entire  tendency  of  art  stood  in  complete 
antagonism  not  only  to  Christian  doctrine  and  the 
teaching  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  also  to  the  theories 
and  practice  of  the  genuine  classic  antique.  It  brought 
back  to  sight  the  fashions  of  the  degenerate  Greek  and 
Roman  times.2 

The  degradation  of  art  was  very  closely  connected 
with  the  demoralised  lives  of  numbers  of  the  artists.3 
The  Swiss  painter  Urs  Graf,  according  to  the  evidence 

first  object  that  he  had  in  view.  For  the  rest  he  thoroughly  understands 
the  art  of  expressing  or  suggesting  nudity  more  by  the  clothing  of  his 
figures  than  by  leaving  them  unclothed.  Not  only  does  he  cover  them 
with  diaphanous  drapery,  which  clings  closely  to  the  form,  but  there  is 
a  kind  of  coquetry  in  its  arrangement  ;  it  is  opened  or  pushed  aside  in 
certain  places  in  order  to  show  parts  of  the  naked  body.'  '  Least  of  all 
delightful,'  Lange  goes  on  to  say  (p.  163),  '  is  the  third  and  specially 
prominent  feature  in  his  (Flotner's)  art — preference  for  coarseness  and 
obscenity.  The  characteristic  example  in  this  respect  is  his  "  bowl 
imitating  a  wooden  shoe,"  of  which,  however,  it  is  fair  to  say  that  it  is 
not  known  how  far  the  decorative  figures  may  have  been  made  to  order.' 
Lange  then  draws  attention  to  a  few  modifying  circumstances — for  instance, 
the  coarseness  of  the  age — and  concludes  thus  :  '  A  strongly  expressed 
sensual  vein  cannot  be  denied  in  our  master,  and  I  also  seem  to  scent 
a  certain  suppressed  lasciviousness  in  many  of  his  female  figures  ;  but  the 
most  repulsive  and  coarse  productions  which  he  has  bequeathed  to  us 
must  be  considered  rather  in  the  light  of  the  period  than  as  the  outcome 
of  an  unclean  personal  character.'  The  above-mentioned  shameless 
representation  of  Faith  (p.  214)  by  Flotner  can  scarcely  be  excused. 
A.  Weese,  Der  schone  Mensch  in  der  Kunst  oiler  Zeiten  (Munich.  1900), 
says  of  Cranach  :  '  Investigation  of  his  works  can  but  give  as  its  best 
result  an  unravelling  of  complicated  historical  conditions,  only  in  the 
very  rarest  cases  does  it  afford  any  enjoyment  from  the  point  of  view  of 
art  history.  His  discursive  manner  of  treating  mythological  subjects 
is  less  of  a  stumbling-stone  than  his  trivial,  philistine  conception  of  the 
human  body.' 

J  See  above,  pp.  56,  57.  2  See  above,  p.  83  ff. 

3  See  above,  p.  48. 


238  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

of  the  police  reports,  was  '  not  unfrequently  involved 
in  drunken  nocturnal  rows  and  quarrels.'  On 
November  20,  1522,  he  was  obliged,  after  undergoing 
punishment,  to  swear  a  solemn  oath,  '  to  abstain  from 
such  disgraceful  proceedings,  from  adultery  and  other 
misdemeanours,'  and  to  give  up  '  shaking,  beating, 
starving,  and  in  other  ways  maltreating  his  wife.' 
The  following  year  he  was  again  in  prison.1  Virgil  Solis 
*  was  long  held  in  memory  as  a  good  boon-companion ; '  2 
the  designers  Samson  and  David  Dienecker,  sons  of 
the  famous  Jost  Dienecker,  who  died  in  1548,  were 
sentenced  for  thieving  and  adultery.3  The  Dutch 
painter,  James  Barbari,  one  of  the  first  painters  of 
nudity  on  this  side  of  the  Alps,  led  a  licentious  life, 
and  had  at  one  time  exercised  a  very  evil  influence  on 
the  two  Behams  and  on  George  Penz.4 

These  three  painters  were  banished  from  Nuremberg 
at  the  end  of  January  1525,  '  because  they  had  shown 
themselves  to  be  more  godless  and  heathenish  than  any- 
one had  been  known  to  be  before.'  Before  a  court  of 
justice  the  two  Behams  had  declared  that  they  could 
not  believe  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  nor  yet  in  baptism 
or  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  To  the  question  whether 
he  and  his  brother  had  expressed  the  opinion  that  '  no 
one  ought  to  work,  that  goods  should  be  divided,  and 
that  they  despised  outward  authority,'  Barthel  Beham 
answered  that  he  recognised  no  authority  but  that 
of   Almighty   God.      Veit   Wirsperger,  cross-examined 

1  E.  His  in  Von  Zahn's  Jahrbiicher,  v.  259  ff. 

2  Quaden  von  Kinckelbach,  p.  430  ;    see  Pallmann,  p.  9. 

3  Butsch,  i.  16-17. 

4  De  Ganditto,  p.  219.  Cf.  concerning  Barbari,  pp.  6-7,  284  ff.,  302  ff. 
'  Jacob  de  Barbari  est  le  veritable  renovateur  de  ce  nouveau  type  du 
beau  chaste  (!)  et  voluptueux,  que  l'art  a  vetu  de  sa  seule  nudite  '  (p.  399). 


ARTIST   LIFE  239 

concerning    his   intercourse   with  the  brothers  Beham, 
deposed  that   '  Barthel  said  he  knew  no  Christ,   and 
could  say  nothing  about  Him  ;  it  was  just  the  same  to 
him  as  when  he  heard  tell  of  Duke  Ernest,   said  to 
have  gone  away  into  a  mountain.     The  brother  Sebald 
was  no  less  obstinate  and  devilish,  and  it  was  a  grievous 
thing  that  Christian  people  should  live  with  them  as 
their    wives.'     George    Penz    said    out    frankly    before 
the  court  of  justice  :  '  He  felt  certainly  to  some  extent 
that  there   was  a   God,   but  what  exactly  to  believe 
about  Him  he  did  not  know  ;  about  Christ  he  held  no 
opinions  ;  he  could  not  believe  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  ; 
he  did  not  believe  in  the  Sacraments  of  Baptism  and 
the   Lord's   Supper.'     He,   too,   recognised  no   earthly 
authority  ;  '  he  knew  of  no  Lord,'  he  said,  '  but  God 
alone.'     '  These    three    painters,'    it    was    said    in   the 
decision  of  the  court,  '  are  beyond  others  proud,  inso- 
lent, and  great  in  the  opinion  of  the  public,  and  it  is 
therefore  well  to  consider  what  noxious  poison  they 
may  sow  and  spread  more  now  even  than  before.'  1 
These  '  godless  painters  '  of  Nuremberg  were  associated 
with  the  Westphalian    painter    and    engraver    Henry 
Aldegrever,  who  at  one  time  had  worked  for  John  of 
Leyden,  the  king  of  the  Anabaptists  at  Miinster,  and 
had  been  sentenced  to  punishment  by  the  magistrate 
at  Soest  for  painting  an  indecent  picture.2 

The  conduct  of  numbers  of  Dutch  painters  was 
indeed  notoriously  bad.  Jan  Mabuse,  who  was  first 
to  follow  the  lead  of  Barbari  in  introducing  from  Italy 

1  Verh'irsprotocoll,  but  not  quite  complete,  in  Kolde,  in  the  Kirchen- 
geschichtlichen  Studien,  pp.  243-249.  See  also  our  remarks,  vol.  iv. 
pp.  109,  110.  **  And  A.  Bauch,  in  the  Repertorium  fiir  Kunstivissen- 
schaft,  pp.  20,  194  ff. 

2  Gehrken,  pp.  8-9. 


240  HISTORY   OF   TflE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

the  art  of  '  illustrating  stories  with  all  sorts  of  naked 
figures  and  indecent  rhymes,'  led  an  extremely  scan- 
dalous life.1  Francis  Floris,  the  so-called  '  Flemish 
Raphael,'  who  had  over  120  pupils,  ranked  as  the 
'  most  notorious  of  all  debauchees.'  All  '  votaries 
of  Bacchus '  frequented  his  society,  and  he  '  was  con- 
sidered equally  great  both  as  drinker  and  painter.' 
Cornelius  of  Gouda  and  Cornelius  Molenaer  were  also 
renowned  as  mighty  topers,  and  Adam  van  Oort, 
Joachim  Patenier  and  Hans  Torrentius  as  rakes.1' 

The  '  Schilderbuch '  of  Charles  van  Mander,  pub- 
lished in  1604,  throws  the  most  melancholy  light  on 
the  morals  prevalent  among  the  painters.  The  author, 
himself  a  painter,  admonishes  his  fellow- artists  not  to 
give  themselves  up  to  bestial  drunkenness,  or  to  take 
the  lives  of  others  ;  not  to  fight  out  their  quarrels  with 
fists  and  knives,  and  to  fly  at  each  other  with  abusive 
language  as  is  the  custom  among  the  fishwives  on  the 
market-place.     The    young    painters    should    make    it 

1  Van  Mander,  Bl.  225  ;  see  p.  235. 

2  Ibid.  Bl.  227b,  239-240,  2561'.  Details  concerning  the  frightful 
drinking  capacity  of  Francis  Floris  are  given  at  Bl.  242b-243  ;  Deschamps, 
pp.  229,  382-383  ;  cf.  Michiels,  iii.  54-55,  143-145,  172-175,  217,  299, 
314,  and  iv.  42,  44.  Of  the  older  Christian  school  of  painting  Michiels 
(iii.  54-55)  says  :  '  Nulle  ombre  ne  ternit  leur  image,  la  gloire  l'eclaire 
de  purs  rayons.'  On  the  other  hand  :  '  Avec  Jean  de  Maubeuge  le  spectacle 
change  ;  il  inaugure  la  debauche  au  sein  des  ateliers  flamands,  la  consacre 
par  son  merite  et  entraine  sur  ses  pas  une  foule  avinee.  D'autres  scenes 
vont  maintenant  frapper  nos  yeux  ;  un  grand  nombre  d' artistes  poseront 
devant  nous,  l'oeil  hagard,  les  con  des  sur  la  table,  remplissant  leur  cho])e 
jusqu'au  bord,  debrailles,  humides  de  la  sueur  des  cabarets,  psalmodiant 
ou  hurlant  quelque  chanson  grisoise,  la  bouehe  mal  essuyee,  la  coiffure 
de  travers,  et  tenant  a  la  main  leur  pipe  fidele.'  '  On  a  voulu,'  says 
Michiels  (iii.  55),  '  rendre  douteuse,  en  Belgique  et  en  Hollande,  la  realite 
de  ces  mceurs  grossieres  .  .  .  mais  Thistoire  est  inexorable  et  la  tenta- 
tive a  echoue.  Mille  preuves,  mille  circonstances  refutent  les  hableries 
des  patriotes  neerlandais.' 


ARTIST   LIFE  241 

their  aim  to  see  that  the  common  saying  among  the 
people,  Hoe  Schilder  hoe  wilder  (the  more  painter  the 
more  savage),  became  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  that 
it  should  no  more  be  said,  '  most  of  the  painters  are 
the  worst  good-for-nothings : '  '  coarse,  dissolute  bar- 
barians '  had  no  right  to  the  name  of  artist.1 

1  Van  Mander,  Bl.  2tJ-3b. 


VOL.   XL  R 


242  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 


CHAPTEE   XII 

MUSIC,    CHURCH   HYMNS   AND    SACRED   SONG 

At  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages  Dutch- German  music 
enjoyed  very  remarkable  eminence ;  !  the  influence 
of  the  great  masters  of  that  time  dominated  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Musical  literature 
increased  proportionately.2 

One  of  the  greatest  masters  of  music  was  Henry 
Isaak,  the  '  symphonist '  of  the  chapel  of  the  Emperor 
Maximilian  I.  Among  his  motets  two  compositions 
arranged  for  six  voices,  and  glorifying  the  highest 
ecclesiastical  and  the  highest  worldly  power — the  Pope 
and  the  Emperor — are  regarded  as  art  works  of  the 
very  first  rank.  His  revision  of  the  offices  for  the 
Sundays  and  festivals  of  the  Church  year,  which 
appeared  first  in  1555,  contains  the  most  instructive 
examples  for  the  study  of  the  Gregorian  choral  and 
figured  counterpoint ;  it  is  prized  by  connoisseurs  of 
music  as  one  of  the  most  precious  monuments  of  the 
musical  past.  A  considerable  portion  of  this  work  was 
completed  by  Isaak's  pupil,  Louis  Senfl  of  Basel-Augst, 
who  for  several  decades*  up  to  his  death  in  1555, 
was   choir-master  to   Duke  William   IV.    of    Bavaria. 

1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  i.  pp.  264-273. 

2  In  the  catalogues  of  the  fairs  which  begin  with  the  year  1564,  the 
record  of  musical  writings  published  from  1564  to  1618  is  :  678  in  Latin, 
482  in  German,  136  in  Italian,  49  in  French.  Collected  from  Schwetschke, 
nn.  1-69. 


MUSIC— ORLANDUS  LASSUS  243 

His  motets,  both  as  regards  their  emotional  or  dramatic 
expression  and  their  artistic  technique,  may  be  ranked 
as  the  best  of  what  strict,  closely  knit,  polyphonic 
treatment  (or  method)  could  produce  in  Germany 
during  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  still 
later  on.  One  of  the  finest  is  the  five- voiced  hymn  to 
Mary,  '  Ave  rosa  sine  spinis,'  a  veritable  '  Maria  im 
Rosenhag  '  ('  Mary  among  the  Roses  ').  His  compositions 
of  the  Magnificat  in  the  eight  Church  modes  have  become 
the  standard  classic  form  for  this  kind  of  music.  Senfl 
was  a  sincere  believer,  and  a  pious,  humble-minded, 
honourable  man.  In  his  German  songs  of  a  religious 
character,  especially  in  the  four-part  song  '  Eternal 
God,  at  whose  decree  the  Son  came  down  to  earth,' 
there  breathes  a  power  of  faith,  a  depth  and  purity  of 
sentiment  such  as  have  scarcely  been  surpassed  in  any 
of  the  songs  of  that  period.1 

After  the  death  of  Senfl,  Roland  de  Lattre  (Orlandus 
Lassus)  from  Hainault  became  director  of  Chamber 
music  in  1557,  and  in  1562  head  choir-master  to  the 
court  of  Albert  V.  at  Munich.  Albert  was  famous  in 
German  and  Italian  lands  '  as  one  of  the  most  generous 
patrons  of  music  ; '  he  took  pains  to  procure  from  out 
the  length  and  breadth  of  Europe  '  excellent  good 
singers  who  would  be  an  ornament  to  the  chapel.'  2 
The    choir-master    Orlandus    was    one     of     the     most 

1  From  Ambros,  iii.  380-389,  405-409  ;  Nauinann,  i.  404.  Con- 
cerning the  composer,  Paul  Hofheimer  of  Radstadt,  in  the  Salzburg 
Alps  (f  1537)v  his  pupil,  Ottmar  Luscinius  wrote  :  '  All  his  works  are 
clear  and  intelligent.  There  is  nothing  dry  and  cold  in  them,  and  nobody- 
is  ever  tired  of  listening  to  this  truly  angelic  harmony.  However  full 
and  complex  the  harmony,  the  style  is  always  clear,  fiery,  and  powerful ' 
(Baumker,  Tonkunst,  p.  161). 

2  K.  Trautmann  in  the  Jahrbuch  fiir  Mi/nchener  Oesch.  i.  218-219  ; 
cf.  p.  286. 

E  2 


244  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

prolific  composers  ever  known.  He  advanced  poly- 
phony on  towards  its  highest  perfection,  and  gained  for 
his  own  Church  music  in  the  North  the  same  importance 
which  Palestrina  enjoyed  in  the  South.  His  Seven 
Penitential  Psalms  especially  are  unequalled  for  depth, 
purity  and  beauty.1 

His  Masses,  almost  fifty  in  number,  bear  throughout 
the  stamp  of  religious  elevation  and  dignity.  A  devout 
venerator  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  he  set  the  Magnificat  to 
music  more  than  a  hundred  times,  so  that,  as  his  son 
puts  it,  '  it  would  seem  as  though  he  had  wished  to 
devote  the  whole  of  his  musical  art  to  the  laudation  of 
Holy  Mary ; '  'by  means  of  the  lovely  and  devout 
harmonies  of  these  songs  he  hoped  to  inspire  as  many 
people  as  possible  with  veneration  and  love  for  the  most 
blessed  Virgin.'  His  four-,  five-,  and  six-part  German 
Church  hymns,  '  Vater  Unser  im  Himmelreich,'  '  Aus 
hartem  Wehe  klagt,'  '  In  vil  Triibsal  und  Versuchung,' 
and  others,  may  also  be  reckoned  as  masterpieces  of 
sacred  song.  In  his  private  life  this  homely  German, 
'  this  peaceful,  quiet,  modest-minded  man,'  was  a  model 
of  blameless  conduct.  At  the  Bavarian  princely  court 
he  counted  among  the  most  highly  esteemed  person- 
ages ;  he  stood  in  friendly  relations  with  the  highest 
spiritual  and  secular  dignitaries  ;  Pope  Gregory  XIII. 
nominated  him  Knight  of  the  Golden  Spur,  and  the 
Emperor  Maximilian  II.  invested  him  with  imperial 
nobility  ;  but  '  the  most  flattering  tokens  of  recognition 
from  numbers  of  great  people,'  says  the  French  historian 

1  '  They  belong,'  says  Ainbros  (iii.  353),  '  to  those  grandest  monu- 
ments of  art  which  time  and  its  torrents,  bringing  and  sweeping  away 
lesser  things,  are  powerless  to  overwhelm.  Whenever  mention  is  made 
of  the  music  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  mind  at  once  reverts  to  these 
Psalms  and  to  Palestrina's  Missa  Papoe  Marcdli? 


ORLANDUS   LASSUS   AND   OTHER   COMPOSERS      240 

De  Thou,  '  and  a  fame  that  extended  through  the 
whole  of  Europe,  never  spoilt  the  humility  which 
rather  endured  than  enjoyed  all  this  distinction.' 
Amid  his  arduous  services  as  choir-master  he  com- 
posed over  2,000  works.  Even  at  an  advanced  age  his 
motto  still  was  :  '  So  long  as  God  gives  me  health,  I  can- 
not and  will  not  be  idle.'  At  the  age  of  seventy-four, 
on  May  24,  1594,  he  dedicated  his  last  musical  composi- 
tion :  '  The  Tears  of  St.  Peter,'  to  Pope  Clement  VIII. ; 
'  Set  to  music  by  me,'  he  says  in  the  dedicatory  preface, 
'  out  of  particular  high  esteem  for  your  Holiness.' 
Three  weeks  later  he  died,  after  having  made  a  bequest 
'  in  perpetual  memory  of  himself,  his  heirs  and  descend- 
ants, and  for  the  consolation  and  salvation  of  his  and 
their  souls,'  of  a  yearly  sum  to  be  given  to  every  poor 
person  in  the  Hospital  of  the  Holy  Ghost  at  Munich 
on  the  first  Sunday  after  Michaelmas  Day,  and  also  for 
a  perpetual  anniversary,  with  a  High  Mass  and  two 
Low  Masses,  to  be  held  in  the  Church  of  St.  John  the 
Baptist  at  Geising-on-the-Ampel.  Both  in  his  art 
and  in  his  private  life  Orlandus  was  in  every  way  a 
firm  adherent  to  the  Christian- German  throught  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  he  transmitted  to  posterity,  in  im- 
perishable creations,  the  old  Dutch- German  art-spirit, 
blended  and  assimilated  with  the  still  uncorrupted 
art  of  the  romanesque  peoples.1 

1  Fuller  details  occur  in  W.  Baumker,  Orlandus  de  Lassus,  der  letzte 
grosse  Meister  der  niederUindischen  Tonschide,  Freiburg,  1878.  Cf. 
Ambros,  iii.  351  ff.  (**  2nd  ed.,  1881,  p.  354  ff.)  ;  Naurnann,  i.  356- 
369  ;  Kostlin,  Gcschkhte  der  Musik,  pp.  132-135.  **  F.  X.  Haberl,  in 
his  Kirchenmusical.  Jahrb.  for  1891,  p.  98  ff.,  gives  interesting  extracts 
from  the  correspondence  of  Orlando  di  Lasso  with  Prince  (after- 
wards Duke)  William  IV.  of  Bavaria.  It  is,  however,  to  be  regretted 
that  the  publisher  only  prints  those  passages  which  are  important 
in  the   history   of  music.      In  the  same    publication,    1893,    p.    61   ff., 


246  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Four  months  before  liini  his  brother  artist  Palestrina 
had  died.  Both  these  masters  raised  sacred  song  to  its 
full  height  and  dignity  :  they  were  reformers  in  the 
true  sense  of  the  word  ;  full  of  reverence  for  the  tradi- 
tional forms  of  art,  they  never  broke  with  the  organism 
of  art,  but  on  the  contrary  penetrated  into  its  depths, 
ennobled  and  transfigured  it  In  this  respect  they 
were  the  prototypes  of  all  really  great  masters  of  later 
periods. 

Among  German  composers  of  second  rank,  who 
nevertheless  did  a  great  deal  of  admirable  work,  may 
be  mentioned  Arnold  von  Brack,  Dean  of  the  Abbey 
at  Laibach  and  chapel-master  in  Vienna  (f  after  1545), 
and  Leonard  Pamminger,  master  at  the  Thomas  School 
at  Passau  (f  1567).  The  first  of  these  is  especially  dis- 
tinguished for  his  deeply  pious  German  songs.  His 
profound  grief  at  the  Church  schism  which  had  broken 
out  is  expressed  in  his  six-voiced  prayer  to  the  Holy 
Trinity.  '  Help  us  to  right  this  strife,'  he  implores  the 
Saviour,  '  since  Thou  art  the  Mediator  :  see  what  misery 
has  sprung  up  in  Thine  house.'  He  composed  an 
exquisite  piece  for  six  voices  on  the  old  German  hymn  : 
'  0  du  armer  Judas,  was  hast  du  gethan  ?  '  '  Pam- 
minger treated  the  liturgy  of  the  whole  Church  year 
in  an  almost  exhaustive  manner,  including  the  har- 
monisation  of  nearly  all  the  Psalms.2 

there  are  extracts  from  archives  concerning  0.  di  Lasso  and  his  descen- 
dants. At  the  third  centenary  of  the  death  of  O.  di  Lasso  there  appeared 
several  valuable  works  such  as  :  (I.)  Beitriige  zur  Geschichte  der  bayr. 
Hofkapclle  writer  0.  di  Lasso,  by  A.  Sanclberger,  vol.  i.,  Munich,  1894  ; 
(II.)  O.  di  lasso,  ein  Lebensbild,  von  E.  v.  Destouches,  Munich,  1894. 
See  also  the  Liter aturangeben,  in  Riezler,  iv.  478. 

1  Arnbros,  hi.  401-403  (2nd  ed.  p.  413  ff.).  **  Baumker,  Kirchenlied, 
iii.  349. 

-  So  says  Proske,  preface  to  the  Musica  divina,  p.  15.     See  Baumker, 


MUSIC— THE   HUMANISTS  247 

As  in  the  case  of  the  plastic  arts,  so,  too,  in  music 
an  attempt  was  made  to  revive  the  antique.  The 
German  humanists,  with  Conrad  Celtes  at  their  head, 
endeavoured  to  bring  about  this  revival  or  '  Renais- 
sance '  by  fitting  musical  rhythm  as  far  as  possible 
to  that  of  language,  and  thus  founding  a  style  of  music 
adapted  to  syllabic  verse  structure.  They  set  poems 
of  Horace  and  Virgil,  hymns  of  Prudentius  and  Sedulius, 
as  well  as  theiu  own  poetic  efforts,  to  music,  metrically 
for  one  voice,  and  attempted  to  subordinate  the  other 
voices  to  a  mere  harmonised  accompaniment.1  What 
they  succeeded  in  producing  is,  in  its  commonplace, 
bourgeois  insipidity,  on  a  level  with  the  productions 
of  the  Meistersanger  of  this  time.- 

While  the  humanists,  like  the  disciples  of  the  plastic 
arts,  aimed  only  at  external  imitation  of  all  the  new 
art    forms   that   had   come   into   vogue   in  Italy,    and 

Tonkunst,    pp.    161-162.     For    other    composers,    Lorenz    Liimlin,    Sixt 
Dietrich,  &c,  see  Ambros,  hi.  393  ft'.  (2nd  eel.  p.  403  ft.). 

1  I.e.  one  sang  a  tune,  and  the  others  notes  in  harmony  below,  instead 
of  an  instrumental  accompaniment. — [Translator]. 

2  See  Jacob,  p.  454  ;  Kostlin,  pp.  201-202.  Ambros  (iii.  376-377) 
says  :  '  By  strict  and  hteral  adhesion  to  Horace,  Catullus,  Virgil,  and 
Propertius,  music  was  to  be  brought  nearer  to  the  antique — that  is, 
according  to  the  opinion  of  the  day,  nearer  to  the  only  art  and  culture 
which  could  be  legitimately  so  called.  Music,  in  fact,  was  to  be  reborn 
in  the  antique  sense.  While  the  learned  and  cultivated  Florentine  circles 
were  intent  on  a  revival  of  antique  tragedy  set  to  appropriate  music, 
music  which  should  interpret  the  spirit  of  the  words,  not  servilely  imitating 
their  metrical  arrangement,  in  Germany  this  musical  renaissance,  just 
like  the  German  art  renaissance,  was  a  merely  outward,  formal,  school- 
masterish  affair.'  '  These  German  schoolmasters  in  Roman  togas,  mutually 
crowning  each  other  with  laurels,  have  something  irresistibly  comic 
about  them.'  See  R.  v.  Liliencron,  '  Die  horazischen  Metren  in  den  deut- 
schen  Kompositionen  des  sechzehnten  Jahrhunderts.'  Vierteljahrschrift  fiir 
Musikwissenschaft,  1887,  Heft  i.  26-92  ;  and  also  Von  Liliencron,  '  Die 
Chorgesange  des  lateinisch-deutschen  Schuldramas  im  sechzehnten  Jahr- 
hundert,'  he.  cit.  1890,  p.  309  ff. 


248  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

consequently  failed  lamentably  in  their  works,  those 
German  composers,  on  the  other  hand,  who  went  through 
their  apprenticeship  under  the  Venetians,  Andrea  and 
Giovanni  Gabrieli,  became  initiated  in  the  spirit  of 
their  masters  and  produced  works  of  lasting  value  ; 
in  the  first  rank  of  these  are  the  Nuremberger,  Hans 
Leo  Hasler,  James  Handl,  styled  Gallus,  from  Carniola, 
and  Gregory  Aichinger  of  Ratisbon.  Hasler  served 
for  many  years  in  the  Fugger  chapel  at  Augsburg  ;  in 
the  later  years  of  his  life  (fl612  at  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main)  he  joined  the  new  religion,  and  arranged  an 
admirable  book  of  chorales  for  Protestant  use  ;  but  his 
real  renown  as  a  classic  master  lies  in  the  composi- 
tions prepared  for  the  Catholic  Church,  above  all  in 
a  twelve-part  Mass  which  has  no  equal.1  His  five- voice 
piece  'Mein  Gemiith  ist  mir  verwirrt'  lives  on  still  in  the 
Chorale  of  Paul  Gerhard's  song  :  '  0  Haupt  voll  Blut 
und  Wunden.'  -  James  Handl  (fl591  at  Prague)  gained 
such  distinction  by  his  Church  music  that  he  was 
regarded  as  '  a  German  Palestrina.'  For  pure  beauty, 
however,  and  thoroughness  of  artistic  culture  Hasler 
and  Handl,  according  to  the  opinion  of  musical  con- 
noisseurs, were  far  surpassed  by  Aichinger,  who  was  for 
many  years  organist  to  the  Fugger  chapel  at  Augsburg, 
and  who  died  there  in  charge  of  the  cathedral  choir 
in  1628.3 

At  the  time  when  these  great  composers  flourished, 

1  Franz  Commer  has  published  two  volumes  of  Hasler's  Church  music 
in  the  Musica  sacra,  vols.  xiii.  and  xiv.  (Berlin,  1872,  1873) 

2  Ambros,  iii.  557  (**  2nd  ed.  p.  574). 

3  His  motets  especially  show  '  the  indefinable  mark  of  genius.'  '  One 
wonders  at  last  whether  one  should  not,  without  further  ado,  award  the 
palm  among  the  German  masters  to  this  Ratisbon  priest,  so  simple  and 
withal  of  such  rich  an:l  profound  intellect '  (Ambros,  iii.  531). 


DECAY   OF   LITURGICAL   SONG  249 

vocal  Church  music,  especially  in  the  larger  chapels, 
had  long  been  to  a  great  extent  superseded  by  instru- 
mental music,1  and  sacred  song  had  very  generally 
lapsed  into  a  state  of  decay  by  which  '  piety  and  devo- 
tion were  rather  hindered  than  promoted.'  The  ut- 
terances of  contemporaries  leave  no  doubt  whatever 
on  this  point.  In  proportion  as  the  musical  system 
established  by  Gregory  the  Great  was  abandoned, 
liturgical  song  degenerated.  The  famous  theologian, 
William  Lindanus,  complained  in  a  work  published  at 
Cologne  in  1559  that  '  Instead  of  stimulating  the  con- 
gregation to  religious  feelings  and  to  the  utterance  of 
fervent  prayer,  the  singing  of  the  singers  nowadays  is 
much  more  calculated  to  disturb  prayer  and  worship  ;  ' 
what  one  hears  at  divine  service  is  not  song  but  a 
medley  of  constantly  reiterated  syllables,  a  hurly-burly 
of    voices,   a   confused   screaming   and  wild    howling.  - 

Violins,  trombones,  horns,  and  bassoons  were  used  for  Church 
singing  ;  see  Jacob,  p.  464,  note  1.  As  regards  organs,  '  their  size  in- 
creased greatly  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  whereas  at  the  same  time 
the  actual  liturgical  vocal  music  was  more  and  more  thrown  out  by  the 
development  of  the  newer  music  and  the  adoption  of  all  possible  instru- 
ments, the  part  of  the  organ  grew  to  giant  proportions,  but  also,  not  un- 
frequently,  it  became  proportionately  unsuited  to  the  actual  service  of  the 
altar'  (Jacob,  p.  270).  **  The  organs  were  used:  (1)  for  preludes  ;  (2)  for 
accompanying  different  choir  pieces  ;  (3)  alternately  with  the  choir  in 
the  performance  of  liturgical  song.  By  the  Ccerimoniale  Episcoporum, 
which  Clement  VIII.  published  in  the  year  1600,  certain  abuses  which 
had  arisen  in  connection  with  organ-playing  were  abolished,  and  definite 
rules  were  laid  down  for  the  use  of  organs.  See  G.  Rietschel,  Die  Avfgabe 
der  Org  el  im  Gottesdienste  (Leipzig,  1893),  p.  16.  See  now  also  the  admir- 
able article  '  Orgel '  by  Baumker  in  Wetzer  and  Welte's  Kirchenlexikon,  x. 
(2nd  ed.),  1048  ff.  See  also  H.  Weber,  Der  Kircliengesang  im  Fiirstbistum 
Bamberg  (Vereinsschrift  der  Gorres-Gesellschaft,  Cologne,  1893),  p.  25  ff. 
Here  there  are  fuller  details  concerning  the  culture  of  music  in  the  college 
for  the  education  of  the  clergy,  erected  in  1586  in  compliance  with  the 
rules  of  the  Council  of  Trent. 

-  Jungmann,  p.  832.     The  Panopl.  Evangel,  appeared  first  at  Cologne 
in  1559. 


250  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Iii  spite  of  the  reform,  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent 
and  the  ordinances  of  provincial  and  diocesan  synods,1 
'  they  went  further  and  further  with  these  bad  usages.' 
'  They  think,'  wrote  Jodokus  Lorichius,  professor  of 
theology  at  Freiburg  in  the  Breisgau,  in  1593,  '  they 
think  to  do  God  special  honour  and  to  praise  Him  better 
with  quantities  of  stringed  instruments,  and  much 
figured  music  ; '  but  '  good  and  strong  management  is 
necessary  here  to  prevent  the  worship  of  God  being 
turned  into  theatrical  performance,  and  the  attention 
of  the  congregation  being  more  diverted  from  worship 
than  helped  in  it ; '  they  ought  '  to  proceed  with  suitable 
order,  discretion  and  piety  ;  '  it  was  not  '  every  kind 
of  song  that  was  fit  for  church  services.'  2  '  In  church 
and  at  the  service  of  God,'  says  the  Bavarian  court 
secretary  Aegidius  Albertinus  in  1602,  '  music  is  often 
misused :  they  no  longer  sing  in  a  manly,  modest, 
clear  and  intelligent  voice,  but  in  a  feminine,  immodest, 
unintelligent  and  vulgar  manner ;  there  is  so  much 
extraordinary  colouring,  fancifulness  and  fireworks, 
as  if  the  music  were  not  composed  for  the  praise  and 
glory  of  the  Lord,  but  for  the  magnifying  of  art  and 
pride.'  3 

In  many  different  ways  '  things  that  were  still 
worse  '  were  introduced  into  divine  service. 

'  One  hears  rapturous  love-songs,'  wrote  John 
Fickler  in  1581,  '  played  on  organs  in  churches,  and 
songs  of  this  kind  do  not  come  out  of  David's  Psalms 
or  from  the  evangel  or  from  Paul,  but  from  the  "Katzi- 
pori,"   the   "Rollwagen,"   the  "  Gartengesellschaf t "   or 

1  See  Jacob,  pp.  38C  ff.,  424  ff. 

-  Lorichius,  Aberglaub,  p.  54. 

3  Hausspolizei,  seventh  part,  p.  135b. 


PROTESTANT  COMPOSERS  251 

from  indecent  Italian  song-books. ' l  On  the  Protestant 
side  the  Ulm  superintendent  Conrad  Dietrich  (b.  1575) 
complained  in  a  sermon  :  '  There  are  numbers  of  com- 
posers who  display  their  musical  skill  in  concerted 
pieces,  madrigals  and  so  forth,  but  such  music  is  not 
fit  for  churches.  Others  compose  pretty,  cheerful, 
sprightly  dance-music,  and  write  under  it  all  sorts  of 
frivolous,  amorous,  licentious  words  ;  these  pieces  also 
are  not  suitable  in  the  Lord's  house  of  song,  but  are 
fit  only  for  the  playhouse  of  Dame  Venus.  Oh,  you 
cantors,  what  a  heavy  reckoning  you  will  have  to  pay 
one  day  for  having  accustomed  your  pupils  and 
choristers  to  this  sort  of  thing  !  '  2 

Among  the  Protestant  composers  of  the  sixteenth 
century  there  is  scarcely  one  who  stands  on  the  level 
of  the  great  Catholic  masters  ;  many  of  them,  however, 
fill  a  prominent  place  in  the  history  of  music,  and 
earned  lasting  distinction  in  the  field  of  Protestant 
sacred  song.  Foremost  among  the  latter  was  John 
Eccard,  a  pupil  of  Orlandus  Lassus,  at  first  choir- 
master in  the  Fugger  chapel  at  Augsburg,  and  later 
in  similar  positions  at  Konigsberg  and  at  Berlin  (f  1611). 
It  was  said  of  him,  as  of  his  master,  that  he  was 
'  a  peaceable,  quiet  man.'  3  His  works  are  all  written 
for  choir  singing,  not  for  accompaniments  to  congrega- 
tional singing.  In  company  with  him  Sethus  Calvisius, 
cantor  at  the  St.  Thomas  School  at  Leipzig,  Bartholo- 
mew Gesius,  cantor  at  Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  Melchior 

1  Fickler,  Tractat,  Bl.  40\  For  the  collections  of  anecdotes,  '  Katzi- 
pori,  Rollwagen,  Gartengesellschaft,'  see  our  later  section,  '  Unterhaltungs- 
literatur'  ('  Entertaining  Literature')  in  vol.  xii. 

2  Sonderbare  Predigten,  i.  234-235. 

3  Von  Winterfeld,  Zur  Gesch.  heiliger  Tonkunst,  ii.  281  ;  cf.  i.  57-78, 
the  article  '  Orlandus  Lassus  and  John  Eccard.' 


252  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Frank,1  court  choir-master  at  Coburg,  and  Michael 
Praetorius,  court  choir-master  at  Wolfenbiittel,  deserve 
honourable  mention.  The  last-named  ("f  1621)  was 
largely  instrumental,  by  his  original  composition,  by 
his  adaptations  of  Italian  works,  and  by  his  literary 
works,  in  paving  the  way  into  Germany  for  the  music 
of  Italy,  which  by  that  time  had  become  very  much 
secularised.2  The  Protestants  very  early  complained 
that  among  them  Church  music  enjoyed  no  high  esteem. 
'  It  is  no  wonder,'  wrote  John  Walther,  one  of  the 
earliest  composers  in  the  service  of  the  new  faith,  '  that 
music  is  nowadays  so  much  despised  and  abused,  seeing 
that  other  arts  also,  which  nevertheless  are  indispens- 
able to  us,  are  treated  by  everyone  as  almost  nothing 
worth.'  The  blame  of  all  this  lies  with  the  devil, 
'  because  by  the  grace  of  God  the  papistical  Mass  and 
all  belonging  to  it  has  been  abolished,  Satan  is  doing 
his  best  to  overthrow  all  that  is  well-pleasing  to  God.' 

Walther,  '  chief  singer  and  by  appointment  director 
of  the  chanting '  to  the  Prince  Elector  of  Saxony, 
Luther's  friend  and  best  adviser  on  the  publication  of 
the  first  Protestant  hymn-book,  was  not  an  original 
composer,  but  a  clever  manipulator  and  adapter  of  the 

**  T  W.  Oberst,  Melchior  Franck.  A  contribution  to  the  history  of 
Italian  composition  in  Germany  at  the  time  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 
With  a  musical  appendix.     Berlin  Dissertation,  1892. 

2  According  to  Ambros,  iii.  563 ;  Naumann,  i.  432-435 ;  Chrysander, 
ii.  317  ;  Reissmann,  ii.  68-75  ;  Kostlin,  p.  214. 

:;  Preface  to  the  Wittenbergisches  Qesangbuchlein  of  1537,  printed  by 
Wackernagel,  BibliograpMe,  p.  558.  Walther' s  Lob  unci  Preis  der  lob- 
lichen  Kunst  Musica  of  the  year  1538,  printed  last  by  Goedekc,  Dich- 
tungen  von  M.  Luther,  pp.  203-204.  Hermann  Finck  wrote  in  1556  in 
his  Practica  musicee  that  among  foreign  nations  the  masters  of  music 
stood  in  high  repute,  and  were  richly  remunerated,  '  apud  nos  vero  ex- 
cellentes  artifices  (ut  nihil  dicam  amplius)  in  tanto  honore  et  pretio  non 
sunt,  immo  saepe  periculum  famis  vix  effugiunt '  (Ambros,  iii.  365  note). 


HOW  WALTHER  AND  LUTHER  SERVED  HYMNOLOGY      253 

melodies  taken  from  the  treasury  of  hymns  of  the  old 
Church,  and  from  the  sacred  and  secular  volkslied.1 
While  the  Catholic  composers  Louis  Senfl  and  Arnold 
von  Brack  did  not  hesitate  to  set  to  music  numbers  of 
hymns  which,  though  intended  for  Protestant  worship, 
were  of  universal  Christian  import,  Walther  took  up  a 
bigoted  doctrinal  attitude.  In  a  '  new  spiritual  song ' 
of  sixty-four  eight-lined  strophes,  in  which  he  magnified 
Luther  as  '  the  prophet  and  apostle  of  the  German 
land,'  he  sings  of  the  Pope,  among  other  things  : 

Idolatry  he's  spread  abroad, 

And  much  dishonoured  Christ  the  Lord  ; 

Mankind  he's  blinded  with  the  evil 

Deceit  and  poison  of  the  devil : 

In  God's  high  place  himself  has  seated, 

As  God  been  worshipped  and  intreated, 

Has  trampled  underneath 

His  feet  Christ's  blood  and  death.2 

In  1566  Walther  published  in  an  arrangement  for 
six  voices  Luther's  famous  '  Christian  Children's  Song,' 
of  which  the  first  verse  runs  as  follows  : 

In  Thy  Word  preserve  us,  Lord, 

Slay  Pope  and  Turk  with  Thy  sharp  sword, 

Who  Jesus  Christ,  Thy  Son, 

Would  hurl  down  from  His  throne.3 

Luther's  activity  on  behalf  of  sacred  song  was 
indefatigable.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  lover  of  music, 
an  expert  connoisseur  and  singer  of  polyphonic  music. 
At  many  different  times  he  said  of  himself :   '  I  have 

1  Von  Winterfeld,  i.  167  ;  Naumann,  i.  429-432  ;  Baumker,  Tonkunst, 
pp.  150-151  ;  Kostlin,  202-207  ;  Ambros,  iii.  412-414.  '  The  Palestrina 
of  the  Protestant  Church  is  not  Walther,  but  John  Sebastian  Bach.' 

2  Wackernagel,  Kirchenlied,  iii.  192-197  ;  see  the  more  detailed  re- 
marks, vol.  i.  p.  777,  No.  526.     The  song  is  of  the  year  15J4. 

3  For  Walther  see  H.  Holstein  in  the  Archiv  far  Litterahirgesch. 
xii.  184  ff. 


254  IIISTOEY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

always  delighted  in  music  :  I  would  not  give  up  my 
humble  musical  gift  for  anything,  however  great.'  '  I 
am  quite  of  the  opinion,  and  am  not  afraid  of  saying  so 
openly,  that  next  to  theology  there  is  no  art  which 
can  be  compared  to  music,  for  it  alone,  after  theology, 
gives  us  that  which  otherwise  we  should  only  get  from 
theology — rest  and  joy  of  heart.'  '  Music  disciplines 
and  chastens,  and  makes  people  kinder  and  more  soft- 
hearted, more  moral  and  reasonable.'  'Music  drives 
away  the  spirit  of  melancholy,  as  is  seen  in  the  case  of 
King  Saul.'  '  We  should  always  accustom  the  young  to 
this  art,  for  it  makes  people  refined  and  intelligent.  It 
should  be  compulsory  to  teach  music  in  schools,  and  a 
schoolmaster  should  be  able  to  sing,  or  I  for  one  cannot 
respect  him.'  ' 

Luther  took  special  delight  in  the  old  German 
Church  hymns,  and  praised  them  in  the  warmest 
manner.  '  Under  the  papacy,'  he  said,  '  they  sang  grand 
hymns  :  He  who  broke  the  gates  of  hell  and  overcame 
the  devil  himself  therein.  Item  :  Christ  has  risen  from 
all  His  martyrdom.  This  was  sung  then  from  the  bottom 
of  the  breast.  At  Christmas  they  sang  "Ein  Kindelein 
so  lobelich  ist  uns  geboren  heute."  At  Whitsuntide 
they  sang  "  Nun  bitten  wir  den  Heiligen  Geist."  At  the 
Mass  they  sang  the  beautiful  hymn  "  Gott  sei  gelobt 
und  gebenedeit,  der  uns  selber  hat  gespeiset."  '-  But  if 
Luther  loved  the  simple  style  in  which  the  people  sang 
the   '  grand  hymns '   in  churches,   he  also  took  great 

1  Fuller  details  are  given  in  Baumker,  Tonkunst,  pp.  138-142. 
**  Melanchthon  also,  in  his  Wittenberg  school  ordinance  of  1528,  insists 
on  the  importance  of  teaching  singing  ;  see  A.  Priifer,  Untersuchungen 
iiber  den  ausserkirchlichen  Kunstgesang  in  den  evangelischen  Schulen  des 
sechzehnten  Jahrhunderts.     Leipzig  inaugural  dissertation.     Leipzig,  1890. 

J  Collected  Works,  v.  23. 


PRE-LUTHERAN   GERMAN   HYMNS  255 

delight  in  choral  and  figured  song.  In  his  own  house  he 
set  up  a  chantry  where  the  motets  of  Josquin,  Senfl,  and 
other  masters  were  sung.  In  his  arrangement  of  sacred 
song  for  the  communities  which  joined  his  new  confes- 
sion of  faith,  he  strove  most  eagerly  to  retain  the  old 
polyphonic  Church  music,  and  used  existing  melodies 
with  skill  and  circumspection.  He  did  not  apparently 
compose  original  tunes,  nor  has  he  anywhere  in  his 
writings  claimed  to  have  done  so.1 

German  Church-song  enjoyed  very  wide  extension  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  number  of  beautiful  hymns  still 
preserved,  some  full  of  loveliness  and  tenderness,  others 

1  '  About  fifty  years  after  Luther's  death  Sethus  Calvisius  still 
ascribed  to  him  137  hymns,  and  also  implicitly  a  large  proportion  of  the 
tunes  belonging  to  them.  Later  on,  however,  the  number  of  the  latter 
diminishes  in  an  interesting  and  remarkable  progression.  Before  Ram- 
bach's  work  on  Luther's  services  to  Church  song  only  thirty-two  tunes 
were  still  regarded  as  emanating  from  our  reformer.  Rambach  himself, 
in  the  year  1813,  leaves  him  twenty-four  as  his  own  compositions  ;  Koch, 
Oeschichte  des  Kirchenliedes  (1852),  comes  down  to  nine  ;  Reissmann,  in 
the  first  [it  should  be  called  second  volume,  p.  59]  volume  of  his  Musik- 
geschichte  (18G4),  says  only  eight,  three  of  which  he  speaks  of  as  certain, 
while  five  are  doubtful  ;  Schilling's  Universallexikon  gives  only  six  ; 
von  Winterfeld,  as  also  the  Musikalisches  Conversationslexikon  Mendels, 
only  three  ;  and,  finally,  Kade,  in  his  Luthercodex,  published  in  1871, 
with  specification  of  the  name,  allows  him  only  the  old  battle  song,  '  Eine 
feste  Burg,'  and  even  this  later  on,  in  1877,  in  the  introduction  to  his 
collection  of  oldest  Wittenberg  songs  by  John  Walther,  he  gives  to 
the  latter  (Naumann,  i.  417).  See  below,  p.  258,  n.  1.  Fuller  details  con- 
cerning the  theory  that  the  tune  of  this  '  Kampflied  '  also  dates  from  earlier 
times  occur  in  Baumker,  Kirchenlied.  i.  22,  26  ff.,  and  in  Bauniker's 
article  (cf.  Beil.  zur  Allgem.  Zeitung,  1887,  No.  6)  against  A.  Thiirling,  '  Zum 
Streit  fiber  die  Entstehung  der  Luthernielodie,'  in  the  Monatsschrift  fiir 
Musikgesch.  1887,  No.  5,  pp.  73-77.  Cf.  Von  Liliencron  in  the  Zeitschr. 
fiir  vergleichende  Liter  at  urgesch.  und  Renaissance-Liter  atur,  by  Koch  and 
Geiger,  n.s.,  i.  147  ff.  ;  **  and  Ph.  Wolfrum,  Die  Entstehung  und  erste 
Entwickelung  des  deutschen  evangelischen  Kirchenliedes  in  mtisikalischer 
Beziehung  (Leipzig,  1890),  p.  72  ff.  See  also  F.  Zelle,  Die  Singweisen  der 
iiltesten  evangel.  Kirchenlieder,  I.  Die  Melodien  des  Erfurter  Enchiridion. 
Progr.,  Berlin,  1890. 


256  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

of  strength  and  solemnity,  others  again  of  jubilant 
rejoicing,  and  all  accompanied  by  inimitably  expres- 
sive and  heart-stirring  melodies,  amounts  to  many 
hundreds.1 

Among  the  composers  who  arranged  sacred  and 
Church  song  in  an  artistic  manner,  Henry  Finck,  with 
whom  are  associated  Henry  Isaak  and  Louis  Senfl, 
holds  the  first  rank.  His  five-part  piece,  '  Christ  ist 
erstanden,'  and  his  four-part  Pilgrim  song,  '  In  Gottes 
Nam  so  fahren  wir,'  are  full  of  primitive,  rugged  force. 
The  conclusion  of  the  last  piece  with  the  full  sounding 
Kyrie  Eleison  reminds  one  exactly  of  Handel's  sublime 
choruses  and  chorus  endings.  In  the  working  out  of 
the  hymns  in  several  parts  which  are  contained  in  the 
collections  published  by  the  printers  Erhard  Oeglin 
in  1512  and  Peter  Schoffer  in  1513,  we  find  the  first 
solid  foundations  of  the  marvellous  structure  of 
Sebastian  Bach's  chorales  in  figured  counterpoint.2 

German  songs  were  sung  in  church  on  high  festival 
days,  at  dramatic  performances,  and  also  in  combination 
with  the  sequences  in  which  the  mediaeval  liturgy  was 
uncommonly  rich;    also  during  Low  Masses  after  the 

1  Concerning  old  German  Church-song  and  its  use  in  divine  service, 
see  our  remarks,  vol.  i.  pp.  285-296  ;  W.  Baumker, '  Niederlandische  geist- 
liche  Lieder  nebst  ihren  Singweisen  aus  Handschriften  des  funfzehnten 
Jahrhunderts,'  in  the  Vierteljdhrsschrift  fur  Mus.  Wissensch.  Jahrg.  4 
(1888),  Heft  ii.  153-254. 

2  So  says  Ambros,  iii.  366,  370.  The  Protestant  Arrey  von  Dommer 
says  in  his  Handbook  of  Musical  History  (2nd  ed.,  Leipzig,  1878),  p.  181  : 
'  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark  that  the  contrapuntal  development 
of  the  melody  can  no  more  be  regarded  as  a  discovery  of  the  Protestants 
than  the  introduction  of  German  folksong  into  the  Church  service.  The 
tunes  of  congregational  singing  served  the  composers  of  the  Reformation 
as  material  for  their  counterpoint  work  just  in  the  same  way  as  their 
Gregorian  choral  served  the  Catholics,  and  counterpoint  compositions 
on  songs  were  written  long  before  the  Reformation.' 


PROTESTANT   HYMNS  257 

consecration,  and  at  the  Holy  Communion,  as  well  as 
before  and  after  the  sermon  preached  in  most  places 
in  connexion  with  the  High  Mass.  In  like  manner 
German  songs  were  also  sung  at  the  frequent  people's 
services  in  honour  of  the  Passion  of  the  Lord,  of  the 
Blessed  Sacrament,  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  other  saints, 
but  most  especially  at  the  solemn  or  penitential  proces- 
sions and  pilgrimages  which  were  among  the  essential 
modes  of  expression  of  the  religious  life  of  that  period.1 

But  the  hymns  and  songs  in  use  during  divine 
service  were  not  allowed  to  displace  the  liturgical  text 
and  the  Gregorian  choral  chant. 

On  the  other  hand,  Luther  placed  side  by  side  with 
the  old  Latin  choral  song  the  German  Church- song,  as 
equally  legitimate,  and  raised  it  later  on  to  the  dignity 
of  the  actual  liturgical  song  of  the  new  congregation.1' 

As  regards  his  own  poetic  work  as  author  of  new 
sacred  songs  and  hymns,  of  the  thirty-seven  that  are 
ascribed  to  him  without  doubt,  twelve  are  only  re- 
arrangements and  enlargements  of  earlier  German 
songs,  eight  are  translations  of  hymns  and  other  Latin 
songs,  eight  are  Psalms,  two  are  poetised  Bible  passages, 
hence  there  are  very  few  original  songs  among  them.3 

1  Baumker,  Tonkunst,  pp.  130-135,  and  Kirchenlied,  ii.  8-14.  A. 
Schachleiter  in  the  Mayence  Katholik,  1884,  Juliheft,  p.  54  ff. 

2  Even  in  1523  Luther,  in  his  pamphlet  Von  Ordnung  des  Gottes- 
dienstes,  gave  the  following  instruction  :  '  The  songs  in  the  Sunday  Masses 
and  Vespers  are  to  be  left,  for  they  are  very  good,  and  taken  from  Scrip- 
ture.' But  only  three  years  later  appeared  his  Deutsche  Messe  und 
Ordnung  des  Oottesdienstes,  according  to  which  only  the  Kyrie  of  the  old 
liturgy  was  retained,  whilst  all  the  other  Latin  songs  only  passed  muster 
in  their  German  garb.     See  Reissmann,  ii.  48-49. 

3  According  to  the  evidence  of  Baumker' s  researches  in  the  first  and 
second  volumes  of  Kirchenlieder  ;  cf.  vol.  i.  p.  19.  '  Most  of  his  songs 
are,  and  do  not  pretend  to  be  anything  else  than,  popular  arrangements 
of  given  models,  to  which  they  remain  more  or  less  true  in  thought  and 

VOL,    XL  S 


258  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

But  even  in  this  work  of  adapting  and  expanding  he 
not  seldom  shows  himself  a  true  poet ;  above  all  in  that 
much  sung  hymn  '  Eine  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott ; ' 
even  though  the  first  four  lines  follow  the  diction  of  the 
Psalm,  it  is  nevertheless  an  original  creation  of  tre- 
mendous power.1 

A  song  of  great  intensity  is  that  which  he  published 
first  in  1524,  '  Ach  Gott  vom  Himmel,  sieh  darein,'  in 
which  he  gives  vent  to  his  sorrow  at  the  schism  and 
dissensions  which  had  already  crept  into  his  party. 
'  They  teach,'  says  the  second  strophe : 

They  teach  deceitful,  empty  lore 
£j  By  their  own  wisdom  founded, 
Their  hearts  are  not  ingenuous,  or 

On  God's  Word  firmly  grounded  : 
One  chooses  this,  another  that, 

Immeasurably  they  us  divide, 

While  making  a  fine  show  outside. 

The  following  are  among  many  of  the  older  song 
tunes  which  passed  over  into  the  Protestant  Church 
hymnal :  ;  Wir  glauben  all  an  einen  Gott,'  '  Vater 
Unser  im  Himmelreich,'  '  Es  ist  ein  Ros  entsprungen,' 
'  Christ  ist  erstanden  von  der  Marter  alle,'  '  Freu  dich, 

in  form,'  says  F.  Wagenmann  in  Goedeke,  Dichtungen  von  M.  Luther, 
xxxiii. 

**  '  Concerning  the  date  of  the  composition  of  this  song  see  Knaackc 
in  the  Zeitschr.  fiir  Icirchl.  WissenscJiaft  und  kirchl.  Leben,  i.  39  ff.  ;  and 
against  him,  Ellinger  in  the  Zeitschr.  fiir  deutsche  Philologie,  xxii.  252  ft'. 
See  also  Zelle,  Eine  Feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott.  Zur  Entwickelung  des  evan- 
gelischen  Kirchengesangs.  Programm,  Berlin,  1895,  who  declares  John. 
Walther,  not  Luther,  to  be  the  author  of  the  tune  (see  above,  pp.  253-5). 
Objections  to  this  theory  are  raised  by  G.  Kawerau  in  the  Jahresbericht 
fiir  neuere  deutsche  Literaturgesch.  vol.  6,  ii.  6,  No.  79.  Concerning  the 
date  of  the  words,  opinions  are  also  discordant.  Hausrath,  in  the  Pro- 
test. Kirchenzeitung,  pp.  43,  169  ft'.,  thinks  they  were  composed  in  the 
tumult  of  war,  which  began  1528,  and  lasted  through  the  following  year. 
Concerning  the  oldest  versions  of  the  song  Zelle  has  written  in  the  Pro- 
gramm, Berlin,  1890. 


PROTESTANT   HYMNS  259 

du  werte  Christ enheit,'  '  Christus  fuhr  gen  Himmel,' 
'  Nun  bitten  wir  den  Heil'gen  Geist.'  Various  songs 
to  Mary  underwent  '  Christian  correction ' — that  is  to 
say,  were  adapted  to  the  new  doctrine.1 

Whereas  in  the  new  cult  preaching  was  the  most 
important  element,2  the  new  Protestant  Church  hymns 
also  assumed  an  essentially  didactic  character  little 
suited  to  the  nature  of  Church  music.  Church  hymns 
were  mixed  up  with  didactic  poetry,  and,  losing  all 
lyric  swing  and  movement,  fell  into  the  measure  of 
rhymed  dogmatic  and  moral  preaching.3 

1  See  Von  Winterfeld,  i.  98-123. 

-  **  At  the  beginning  of  the  Church  schism  a  German  Mass  formulary 
was  still  retained  in  use.  See  J.  Smend,  Die  evangelischen  deutscher 
Messen  bis  zu  Luther s  deutscher  M esse,  Gottingen,  1896. 

3  Protestant  historians  and  historians  of  literature  speak  as  follows 
on  this  subject :  '  A  speedy  result  of  the  liturgical  freedom  that  had 
been  obtained,'  says  Gervinus,  '  was  that  every  reformed  clergyman  made 
separate  hymns,  which  he  introduced  among  his  congregation,  and  it 
was  by  no  means  a  libel  that  George  Wizel  uttered  when  he  said  that 
over  half  the  villages  of  Germany  there  was  scarcely  a  pastor  or  a  shoe- 
maker, however  incompetent,  who  had  not  composed  at  least  one  or  two 
little  songs  over  his  pipe,  which  he  afterwards  sang  with  his  peasants 
in  church  ;  and  Luther  was  soon  forced  to  complain  of  dull  blockheads 
who  adulterate  pepper  by  mixing  with  it  their  "  Mausemist."  '  '  What 
made  Church  hymns  a  mongrel  production  was  that  they  were  composed 
with  the  object  of  working  on  opinions  and  views,  and  this  forsooth  by 
means  of  song.  To  suit  this  object  the  poetry  had  to  be  thoughtful 
and  didactic,  wliile  the  music  was  to  enable  it  to  appeal  to  the  emotions. 
The  poetry  of  songs  is,  in  itself,  strictly  speaking,  an  abortion,  as  it  has 
in  it  little  of  the  imaginative.  Didactic  poetry  is  most  decidedly  de- 
generate. And  now  these  two  abortions  were  to  be  fused  in  one  !  This 
circumstance  alone  puts  sacred  song  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  Pro- 
testant era,  as  it  were,  in  a  position  of  inferiority  in  comparison  with 
the  old  Christian  hymns.'  '  We  do  not  hesitate  to  place  these  hymns, 
both  poetically  and  musically,  above  our  German  ones,  not  in  general, 
but  the  best  of  those  over  the  best  of  these  '  (Gervinus,  iii.  10-12, 22-23). 
Carl  Adolf  Menzel  (ii.  300)  says,  concerning  the  religious  worship  and 
the  hymns  of  the  Protestants  :  '  Protestant  divine  service  had  rid  itself 
of  all  those  elements  which  elevate  the  feelings  by  means  of  contempla- 
tion.    The  aim,  however,  which  it  set  itself  of  edifying  by  means  of 

s  2 


260  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

One  of  the  hymns  sung  most  frequently  and,  ac- 
cording   to    contemporaries,    with    the    most    fervour, 

instruction  was  reached  less  and  less  the  further  teaching  and  teachers 
departed  from  the  source  of  the  living  idea,  and  the  more  preaching, 
after  Luther's  death,  sank  down  to  mere  reiteration  of  empty  theological 
disputations.  The  expansion  of  Church-song  did,  indeed,  appear  to  give 
a  certain  scope  for  the  feelings  and  the  imagination,  but,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  congregational  hymns  had  only  received  a  somewhat  altered  challenge 
to  follow  learning  and  preaching  on  the  way  of  comprehensible  definition 
of  the  incomprehensible.  Actual  poetry  could  not  possibly  flourish  on  the 
soil  of  a  religious  system  of  thought  which  clipped  the  wings  of  imagination 
in  order  to  mount  to  heaven  by  the  ladder  of  reason,  which  compressed 
the  whole  life  of  the  feelings  within  the  narrow  limits  of  automatic  and 
unfruitful  faith,  presented  everlasting  love  in  the  rigid  form  of  arbitrary 
divine  determinism,  and  which  only  failed  to  jmralyse  and  lame  the  pinions 
of  the  human  spirit  because  it  was  not  possible  for  it  to  follow  out  its  prin- 
ciples logically,  and  to  apply  them  thoroughly  to  life.'  Wolfgang  Menzel 
{Deutsche  Dichtung,  ii.  203  ff.)  writes  :  '  The  oldest  and  the  most  beautiful 
hymns  in  evangelical  hymn-books  are  translations  of  older  Catholic  hymns. 
Luther's  old  soulful  songs  arc  almost  throughout  transpositions,  but 
admirable  transpositions,  of  older  Catholic  songs.'  '  Next  to  the  Lutheran 
the  hymns  of  Decius  (f  1529)  form  the  old  Catholic  kernel  of  the  Pro- 
testant hymn-books.'  '  It  was  a  great  misfortune  for  the  Lutheran  hymn- 
books  that  there  were  far  too  many  hymn-writers  without  any  vocation 
for  the  office.  Every  man  who  had  but  the  goodwill  to  write,  and  who 
could  string  together  a  few  rhymes,  considered  himself  a  sacred  poet. 
The  Calvinists,  in  many  respects  the  most  practical  of  the  sects,  discerned 
this  evil,  and  obviated  it  by  translating  the  Psalms  into  German  rhyme, 
and  making  them  their  only  hymnal.  The  Lutherans,  however,  went  on 
rhyming,  and  flooded  the  hymn-books  with  a  mass  of  compositions  which 
in  the  previous  century  had  already  amounted  to  60,000  in  number. 
'  Mary  and  all  the  saints  were  banished  from  the  Lutheran  and  reformed 
hymn-books,  the  Church  tradition  was  broken,  the  spiritual  architecture 
of  the  mediaeval  Church  became  obsolete.  To  the  over-exuberant  idealism 
to  which  at  that  very  period  Catholic  poetry  was  rising  in  Spain  under 
Calderon,  the.  new  Church  opposed  the  stern  and  hard  barrenness  of  a 
realism  which  clung  more  to  the  Old  than  to  the  New  Testament.  It 
fell  back,  indeed,  into  Judaism.'  '  Protestant  hymnology  was  further 
characterised  by  didacticity.  As  preaching  became  the  essential  part 
of  divine  service,  it  was  obviously  necessary  that  the  hymns  should  be 
chiefly  instructional.  The  Word  of  God  was  broken  up  into  innumerable 
texts,  and  these  put  together  in  rhymes  to  make  hymns.  The  catechism 
also  was  turned  into  rhyme  and  incorporated  in  the  hymn-books.'  Thus, 
for  instance,  Joachim  Aberlin,  in  1534,  published  Ein  kurzer  Begriff 
und  Inhatt  der  ganzen  Bibel  in  drei  Lieder  zu  singen,  Wackernagel,  Biblio- 


PROTESTANT   HYMNS  261 

treated,  in  fourteen  seven-lined  strophes,  the  dogmatic 
dissensions   concerning  faith   and  works.     It  was  the 

graphic,  p.  551.  Whereas  the  '  beautiful  and  divine  art  of  music  was  now 
used  for  all  sorts  of  shame  and  impropriety,'  Wolfgang  Figulus,  '  in  order 
that  the  young  might  learn  to  use  music  rightly,'  published  in  the  year 
1560  an  improved  edition  of  Martin  Agricola's  Deutsche  Musica  mid 
Gesangbiichlein,  in  which  the  Gospels  were  arranged  in  German  rhymes 
for  singing  (Wackernagel,  p.  606).  Ambrosius  Lobwasser  (f  1585)  earned 
the  most  praise,  and  also  the  most  blame,  for  translating  the  Psalms 
into  German,  not  from  the  Lutheran  text,  but  with  the  help  of  a  French- 
man from  a  French  translation  (cf.  Gervinus,  iii.  41-42).  In  inten- 
tional opposition  to  this  Calvinistic  psalter,  Cornelius  Becker  published 
his  psalter  in  1602.  In  the  preface  "Polycarp  Leiser  says  :  '  It  is  a  great 
misfortune  with  us  Germans  that  we  are  so  governed  by  curiosity,  quud 
sunn/us  admiratores  rerum  exoticarum  et  contemtores  propriarum.  What- 
ever is  foreign  and  rare,  that  we  esteem  highly  ;  that  which  God  bestows 
upon  us,  even  if  it  is  better  and  more  beautiful,  we  despise.  So  it  is  with 
the  dear  Psalms  of  David.  Because  Ambrosius  Lobwasser  D.  has  set 
the  Psalms  of  David  to  foreign,  French  music,  to  tunes  which  ring  plea- 
santly to  sensual  ears,  and  which  can  be  sung  by  four  voices,  this  same 
psalter  is  so  highly  thought  of  publice  and  privation,  as  if  nothing  better 
could  be  found,  notwithstanding  that  the  rhymes  are  very  middling, 
most  of  them  forced,  unintelligible,  and  not  at  all  like  German  rhymes, 
but  more  after  the  manner  of  French  rhymes  '  (Wackernagel,  p.  447  ; 
cf.  Becker's  Vorrede,  pp.  680-683.  '  Verzeichniss  der  Psalmendichtungen' 
in  Goedeke,  Grundriss,  ii.  172-175  ;  cf.  Reissmann,  ii.  66  ff.)  However 
high  in  public  estimation  the  Lutheran  treasury  of  hymns  rose  in  the 
course  of  time,  '  it  was,  after  all,'  says  Tholuck,  Das  Kirchliche  Lcben, 
p.  128,  '  only  the  thirty-two  hymns  contained  in  Luther's  Wittenberg 
hymnal  of  1525,  and  prescribed  by  the  Church  ordinances  for  use  on 
Sundays  and  festivals,  which  were  always  sung  and  resung.  These  few 
hymns  were  taught  orally  in  the  schools.  Until  the  nineteenth  century 
the  use  of  the  hymn-book  was  unknown  in  the  country  churches.'  '  The 
collections  of  hymns  in  the  sixteenth  century,'  says  Curtze,  Gesch.  des 
evangel.  Kirchengesangs  im  Fiirstentum  Waldeck,  p.  55,  '  were  chiefly  for 
private  use.  Preachers  and  cantors  were  expected  to  repeat  the  hymns 
to  the  people  until  they  knew  them  by  heart.'  Tholuck  (p.  129)  alludes 
to  the  '  widespread  complaint  that,  as  a  rule,  the  women,  and  sometimes 
also  the  men,  did  not  join  in  the  singing.'  Altogether,  German  Church- 
singing  was  by  no  means  so  general  among  the  Protestants  as  is  usually 
supposed.  Cyriacus  Spangenberg  complains  that  in  many  places  '  there 
was  no  singing  either  before  or  after  the  sermon  '  (Von  der  Musica,  p.  153). 
George  Bruchmann,  glancing  back  at  his  sojourn  in  Ziillichau  during 
his  youth  (1600),  says  :  '  Often  during  divine  service  not  a  single  German 
hymn  was  sung,  unless  by  chance,  when  the  pastor  failed  to  mount  the 


262  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

hymn  composed  by  Paul  Speratus,  '  Vom  Gesetz  und 
Glauben,'  set  to  the  old  tune  '  Freu  dich,  du  werte 
Christenheit : ' l 

Salvation  has  come  down  to  us 

From  grace  and  goodness  pure, 
Good  works  are  all  superfluous  -  .  .  . 

since  Christ  has  made  satisfaction  for  all  mankind. 
In  the  same  sense  the  Zwinglian,  John  Zwick,  sang 
about  law.  Christ  had  subjected  Himself  to  it,  and 
therefore 

We  also  now  are  free  from  law, 

No  more  to  it  we're  subject.  .  .  . 
The  God-Child  has  His  precious  blood 

Poured  out,  while  young,  to  save  us, 
That  unto  us  might  come  all  good, 

And  law  no  more  enslave  us.3 

A  petition al  hymn  concerning  matters  of  daily  food 
from  the  pen  of  the  prolific  hymn- writer,  Bartholomew 
Ringwalt,  passed  into  several  different  Protestant 
hymn-books ;  it  prayed  that  '  God  would  observe 
measure  and  limit,  and  not  give  too  much,' 

But  also  do  not  give  us  less 

Than  is  our  due  of  bread, 
Lest  we  be  tempted  to  transgress 

Thy  law  through  dire  need, 
Or  forced  to  borrow  from  the  hoard 

Of  usurers  whose  finest  wheat 
In  meadows  strange  is  grown  : 
From  these  devourers  save  us,  Lord.* 


pulpit,  and  then  you  could  not  tell  whether  the  execution  was  done  by 
"  striking  or  by  sticking,"  as  the  saying  is  '  (Loschke,  pp.  113-114). 

1  See  Baumker,  Kirchenlied,  i.  549,  551. 

-  Wackernagel,  Kirchenlied,  iii.  31-32.  '  This  hymn  was  often  used 
in  order  to  "  sing  down  "  Catholic  preachers  from  the  pulpit '  (Cunz, 
i.  52-53,  160  ;  Wangemann,  Oesch.  des  evangel,  Kirrhenliedes,  p.  187). 

3  Wackernagel,  iii.  607. 

4  Ibid.  iv.  955.  Cf.  Wangemann,  p.  237.  **  See  also  Scherer,  Gesrh. 
der  dentschen  Literatur,  p.  290. 


PROTESTANT   HYMNS  263 

Well  intended  was  also  a  spiritual  admonition  of 
Hans  Ober's  against  '  the  greed  of  mammon,'  which 
runs  as  follows  : 

In  Matthew  six  we  find  it  writ, 

No  man  to  masters  twain 
Can  render  service  true  and  Jit, 

And  favour  from  both  gain. 
For  he  will  be  all  diligent 

To  serve  the  one  with  zeal 
He  likes  the  best,  and  negligent 

Of  all  the  other's  weal. 
Therefore  thou  canst  not  serve  thy  God, 

And  greedy  Mammon  too. 
Abstain  from  wealth  is  Paul's  advice 

In  chapter  six  of  Timothy.  .  .  . 
And  Matthew  says  decisively 

To  the  same  effect, 
Treasures  on  this  earth 

For  yourselves  do  not  collect.1 

In  a  '  Geistlicher  Gesang  von  alien  Standen,'  to  be 
sung  to  the  tune  '  Nun  freut  euch,  lieben  Christen 
gemein,'  Caspar  Loner  says  among  other  things : 

Ye  fathers,  do  not  ye  incense 
The  children  of  you  born, 
By  ill-considered  punishments 
To  sinful  wrath  and  scorn, 
So  that  they  be  not  stupefied, 
But  rather  grow  up  in  the  Lord 
Admonished  well  and  edified.- 

In  the  Zurich  hymn-books  there  is  a  '  religious  song ' 
of  Hans  Fries  from  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon  '  about 
a  God-fearing  and  virtuous  woman  : ' 

Much  clothing  makes  she  daily 

Of  scarlet  and  fine  linen, 
She  smileth  at  them  gaily, 

For  they  are  her  own  spinning.  .  .  . 


Wackernagel,  iii.  516-517.  "  Ibid.  iii.  639, 


2G4  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

She  maketh  costly  laces, 

And  silken  cloths  as  well ; 
To  merchants  of  all  places 

For  ready  gold  they  sell.1  .  .  . 

A  number  of  hymns  were  on  the  subject  of  good 
preachers,  as,  for  instance,  Erasmus  Alber's  rhymes 
called  '  Lied  von  der  Himmelfahrt  Christi :  ' 

The  Lord  forsakes  us  never, 
He  giveth  us  good  preachers  ever, 
Who  in  the  world  take  care  of  us  ; 
He  with  His  Word  upholdeth  us  .  .  . 
Each  one  who  plays  the  preacher's  part 
Should  know  that  he  whose  heart 
Unmoved  is  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
Is  not  well  fitted  for  the  post.- 

To  the  tune  of  '  Es  ist  das  Heil  uns  kommen  her,' 
Bartholomew  Ringwalt  made  the  congregation  entreat 
God  as  follows : 

Leave  us  not  alone  to  perish, 

Send  us  preachers  true 
Who  our  souls  will  cherish.  .  .  . 

From  dog's  apothecaries  who 
Break  good  sound  teeth,  and  cry 
The  false  wares  up  on  high, 
Bring  poisoned  vegetables  in, 
Are  rogues  and  villains  in  their  skin, 
The  land  and  people  cheat, 
Good  Lord,  deliver  us.3 

In  another  hymn  to  the  same  tune  preachers  were 
again  the  subject : 

From  avarice,  envy,  hatred,  greed, 

Mercifully  save  them  all, 
That  unto  thy  dear  Christian  creed 

No  evil  may  befall 

1  Wackernagel,  iii.  852-853.  '  It  is  instructive  to  compare  this  song 
with  that  of  Paul  Gerhardt,  "  Ein  Weib,  das  Gott  den  Herrn  liebt."  ' 
Paul  Gerhardt  (born  about  1607),  with  his  vigorous  songs  full  of  glowing 
feeling,  does  not  come  under  our  consideration  till  a  later  volume. 

2  Wackernagel,  iii.  881,  882.  3  Ibid.  iv.  964. 


PROTESTANT   HYMNS  265 

Through  their  disputes,  as  well  may  be 

If  preachers  do  not  all  agree 

In  concord  sweet  and  brotherly.1 

The  two  poets  most  honoured  by  the  Protestants, 
Hans  Sachs  and  John  Fischart,  also  took  part  in 
the  arrangement  of  Christian  hymns,  and  made  songs 
from  the  Psalms  which  found  acceptance  in  different 
congregational  hymn-books.  In  1527  the  Nuremberg 
Enchiridia  (handbooks)  gave  four  songs  from  the  Psalms 
by  Hans  Sachs  '  in  four  figured  tunes.'  The  strophes 
are  badly  adapted  to  singing. 

The  heathen  are  engulfed  within 

The  grave  themselves  have  made, 
Their  feet  are  tangled  in  the  gin 

Which  they  for  us  have  laid. 
Over  the  godless  haters,  fire 

And  brimstone  will  be  poured, 
Hurricanes  and  tempests  dire 

He'll  give  them  as  reward.  .  .  . 
Then  will  the  just  rejoice  and  laugh 

For  whom  God  vengeance  takes, 
And  walk  exulting  through  the  bath 

The  blood  of  the  godless  makes.2  .  .  . 

Among  the  religious  poems  composed  by  Fischart, 
and  inserted  in  the  Protestant  hymn-books  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,3  there  was  an 
adaptation  of  the  beautiful  old  Christmas  hymn,  '  In 
dulci  Jubilo,  Nu  singet  und  seid  fro,'  and  a  '  Trost- 
psalm  wider  unrechtfertige  Leut.'  The  first  ran  as 
follows  : 

O  Jesu,  draw  Thou  nigh 
To  us,  for  Thee  long  time  we  sigh  ! 
Comfort  Thou  my  soul, 
O  gracious  little  boy 
With  all  Thy  goodness  ! 


Wackernagel,  iv.  964,  967.  2  Ibid.  hi.  62-66. 

3  Koch,  Oesch.  des  Kirchenlieds,  ii.  282. 


266  HISTORY   OF  THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

O  Prince  of  Peace  on  high, 
Draw  me  to  Thee,  that  I 
May  ever  see  thee  nigh  !  1 

In  the  Catholic  song-book  this  strophe  was  as  fol- 
lows.2 

In  the  '  Trostpsalm  '  (Psalm  Iviii.)  Fischart  versifies 
about  the  godless  kind : 

They  rage  and  they  know  not  for  what, 

At  all  that  is  solemn  they  jeer, 
And  like  a  deaf  adder  they  shut 

To  all  good  counsel  their  ear. 

Break  his  teeth  in  his  mouth  like  stones, 

And  him  with  might  overthrow, 
Break  the  young  lion's  jaw-bones, 

And  cast  his  arrogance  low. 

Psalm  xlix.,  '  Hear  this,  all  ye  people,'  says  con- 
cerning the  godless : 

Like  beasts  of  the  field  they  must  pass 

From  hence,  remembered  by  none, 
For  they  lived  like  beasts  of  the  grass, 

Hankering  for  earth  alone. 

1  Wackernagel,  iv.  826-827. 

2  As  it  is  impossible  to  indicate  the  difference  between  the  two  ver- 
sions satisfactorily  in  translations,  we  give  the  originals  of  both  versions. — 

[Translator.] 

The  Protestant  Version. 

O  Jesu,  zu  una  nah, 
Nach  dir  war  uns  lang  we, 
Trost  mir  mem  Gemiithe, 
O  gnadrichs  Knablein,  meh, 
Nach  aller  deiner  Giite, 
O  Friedfiirst  aus  der  Hob., 
Zieh  mich  nach  dir  meh, 
Dass  ich  dich  ewig  seh. 

Catholic  Version, 
O  liebes  Jesulem, 
Bei  dir  da  wollen  wir  sein, 
Trost  uns  unser  Gemiithe, 
O  herziges  Kindelein, 
Durch  deine  grosse  Giite, 
Du  bist  der  Herr  allein, 
Wolst  uns  gniidig  sein. 
See  Kehrein,  i.  252. 


PROTESTANT   HYMNS  267 

They  lie  in  hell  like  the  sheep, 

That  death  on  them  may  feed. 
Their  bodies  await  in  the  tomb, 
Like  sheep  on  the  trestle,  their  doom. 
To  hell  they  are  driven  in  herds, 
That  death  may  batten  on  them  ; 
There  is  howling,  and  wailing,  and  woe. 

In  order  that  *  the  young '  might  more  easily  pray 
and  sing  the  Athanasian  Creed,  Fischart  put  it  into 
rhymes  as  follows  : 

Almighty  God  the  Father  is, 

Almighty  God  the  Son, 

And  the  Holy  Ghost,  yet  one 
Only  God  there  is. 

Not  three  Gods  uncreate  or  three 

Almighties  we  avow, 
To  one  God  uncreated  we, 

To  one  Almighty  bow. 

So  then  the  Father  is  the  Lord, 

Lord  also  is  the  Son, 
Likewise  the  Holy  Ghost  adored, 

Yet  not  three  Lords,  but  one. 

We  quote  two  stanzas  of  a  thirteen- stanza  benedic- 
tion before  meals  by  Fischart : 

May  He  Who  in  the  desert  fed 

Five  thousand  with  five  loaves  of  bread, 

Wanderers  come  to  hear  His  Word, 

For  all  abounds  to  those  who  seek  the  Lord.  .  .  . 

Grant  that  our  hearts  may  never  grow 
Dull  with  eating  and  drinking  here  below, 
But  may  we  for  His  advent  wait, 
As  He  taught  us,  early  and  late. 

Another  equally  quaint  specimen  of  poetry  is  a 
burial  hymn  of  twenty-five  stanzas  : 

The  body  while  down  here  it  tabernacled 

Was  the  spirit's  hostel-home, 
Which  God  therein  a  length  of  time  left  shackled 

Until  again  He  called  it  forth  to  roam.1  .  .  . 


Wackernagel,  iv.  811,  814,  825,  839-840. 


268  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Not  much  happier  in  style  was  Erasmus  Alber  in  a 
hymn  for  '  The  Lord's  Communion  :  ' 

This  is  the  rightful  Easter  lamb 

Roasted  on  the  cross's  stem, 

Of  which  it  needful  is  to  eat, 

It  is  the  dear  Lord  Christ  so  sweet.1 

A  poet  with  a  real  gift  for  religious  song,  and  of 
more  than  usual  power  of  language,  was  Nicholas 
Selnekker.  Even  those  who  are  forced  to  criticise 
him  unfavourably  as  a  controversial  theologian 2  will 
love  him  as  a  poet  in  his  '  Psalter  und  Gebetlein  fur  die 
Hausvater  und  ihre  Kinder'  (1578),  and  in  his  '  Christ- 
lichen  Psalmen,  Liedern  und  Kirchengesangen  '  (1587), 
and  be  edified  by  his  earnestness,  piety  and  sincerity. 
His  hymns  are  also  of  importance  in  the  history  of 
culture.  He,  too,  after  the  custom  of  the  times,  in- 
veighed against  the  Pope  ;  but  what  stirred  his  soul 
the  most  deeply  was  the  sight  of  the  internal  dissen- 
sions in  the  new  Church,  the  growing  hatred  between 
theologians  and  preachers,  and  the  universally  increas- 
ing demoralisation  : 

Where  nowadays  is  honesty  ? 

Where  reverence  and  modesty  ? 

Where  faith,  love,  loyalty,  goodwill  ? 

Who  is  there  serves  his  neighbour  still  ?  .  .  . 

The  fear  of  God  from  earth  has  fled, 

Faith's  vanished,  love  is  dead.  .  .  . 

To  the  last  days  we  now  have  come, 

Since  faith  and  love  are  lying  dumb  ; 

And  everywhere  there's  trickery, 

Hate,  envy,  grasping,  roguery.  .  .  . 

At  the  end  of  Psalm  cxlii.  he  laments  concerning 
'  the  false  teachers  :  ' 

1  Wackernagel,  iii.  883. 

2  In  the  eighth  volume  of  our  work  we  had  to  speak  of  him  repeatedly 
in  this  respect.     See  the  references  in  the  index  of  persons. 


PROTESTANT  SACRED  SONGS  269 

Where'er  I  gaze  now,  far  and  wide, 
To  right  or  left,  on  either  side, 
Defiance,  infidelity, 

Pride,  wrangling,  and  heartburn  I  see  ; 
Anent  Thy  Word  they  are  divided, 
When  I  speak  aught  I  am  derided.  .  .  . 
Lord,  what  I  mean  thou  knowest  well, 
To  Thee  alone  my  'plaint  I  tell.  .  .  . 

For  Luther's  '  Und  steur  des  Bapsts  und  Tiirken 
Mord  '  he  substituted  : 

Preserve  us  in  the  Word,  O  Lord, 
Ward  off  the  devil's  wiles  and  sword. 
Give  to  Thy  Church  protection,  grace, 
Courage  and  patience,  union,  peace. 
Do  Thou  the  haughty  souls  abase 
Who  force  themselves  into  high  place, 
And  ever  bring  forth  something  new 
To  falsify  Thy  doctrine  true. 

A  very  beautiful  consolatory  hymn  ran  as  follows  : 

Walk  day  by  day 

In  the  right  way, 

Bear  and  be  brave, 

No  envy  have  ; 

Pray,  hope  in  God 

Whate'er  thy  rod. 

Trust  and  be  still, 

Watch  and  you  will 

Great  wonders  sure  behold.1 

In  all  cases  where  the  poets  retained  the  old  pithy 
and  vigorous  language,  and  the  simple,  homely,  sincere 
character  of  the  German  religious  and  Church  songs  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  their  hymns  are  interesting  and  bene- 
ficial. Here,  for  instance,  is  a  hymn  of  Benedict 
Gletting  : 

In  the  garden  of  my  God 

Many  flow'rets  grow  ; 
Faith  tills  for  them  the  sod, 

Love  makes  them  blow, 
With  faithful  heart, 

In  patience  and  affliction  sore.   .  .   . 

1  Wackernagel,  iv.  216,  235,  241,  243,  272-274,  286. 


270  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Paul  Eber  is  equally  interesting  in  his  '  Betliedlin 
zu  Chris  bo  urn  einen  seligen  Abschied  :  ' 

When  I  come  to  my  dying  breath 

And  I  am  struggling  hard  with  death, 

When  my  vision  all  is  blurred, 

When  nothing  by  my  ears  is  heard, 

When  my  tongue  can  speak  no  word, 

And  my  heart's  with  anguish  stirred, 

When  my  understanding  fails 

And  no  human  help  avails, 

Then  quickly  come,  Lord  Christ,  to  me, 

Help  me  in  my  extremity, 

Lead  me  from  out  the  vale  of  grief 

And  to  my  death-pangs  give  relief . '  .  .  . 

Nicholas  Hermann,  cantor  at  Joachirnsthal  (f  1561), 
also  speaks  in  language  full  of  faith  and  humility  in  his 
morning  and  evening  hymns.  His  hymn  praying  for 
a  happy  death : 

When  my  little  hour  is  there, 

And  I  must  hence  into  the  street, 
Do  thou,  Lord  Jesus,  guide  my  feet, 

Leave  me  not  helpless  in  despair,-  .  .  . 

was  inserted,  with  its  beautiful  tune,  in  the  Catholic 
hymn-books.3  So,  too,  was  Philip  Nicholai's  most 
pathetic  '  Geistlich  Brautlied  der  glaubigen  Seele : ' 4 

How  brightly  shines  the  morning  star, 
Full  of  grace  and  truth  from  the  Lord, 
The  root  of  Jesse  sweet !"'... 

The  following  hymn  by  the  preacher  Martin  Schal- 
ling  was  a  source  of  consolation  and  edification  to 
countless  numbers : 

1  Wackernagel,  iv.  4.  2  Ibid.  iii.  1211. 

:i  Baurnker,  ii.  305-306.  **  Concerning  N.  Hermann,  see  Nagl-Zeidlcr, 
pp.  407  ff.,  584  ff. 

1  Baurnker,  i.  92-93,  97,  No.  327. 

5  Wackernagel,  iii.  258.  Concerning  the  misuse  of  this  hymn  by  the 
people,  who  turned  the  spiritual  marriage  with  Christ  into  a  carnal  sense, 
see  Cunz,  i.  433,  437. ' 


PROTESTANT  SACRED  SONGS  271 

With  all  my  heart,  Lord,  Thee  I  love  , 
I  pray  Thou  wilt  not  far  remove 

Thy  grace  and  goodness  from  me  ! 
The  whole  world  giveth  me  no  mirth, 
For  heaven  I  ask  not,  nor  for  earth, 

If  only  Thou  art  with  me. 
And  e'en  should  sorrow  break  my  heart 
Thou  still  my  sure  dependence  art, 
My  portion  and  my  consolation, 
Whose  blood  has  wrought  my  soul's  salvation. ' 

A  warm  breath  of  strong  feeling  pervades  many 
hymns  of  the  Anabaptists  and  of  the  Bohemian- 
Moravian  Brothers.2 

This  was  the  case  with  one  of  the  earliest  of  these 
singers,  George  Griienwald,  a  shoemaker,  who,  according 
to  the  report  of  a  chronicle  of  the  Anabaptists,  in  1530, 
'  at  Kopfstain,  in  the  cause  of  God's  truth,  was  con- 
demned to  death  and  burnt.'  He  composed  the  song 
'  Kommt  her  zu  mir,  sagt  Gottes  Sohn  :  ' 

The  world  would  gladly  salvation  gain, 
Wer't  not  for  the  contempt  and  pain 

They  see  all  Christians  tasting  : 
And  yet  no  other  road  is  there ; 
Let  all  start  on  it,  then,  who  care 

To  escape  pain  everlasting. 

1  Among  others  in  the  Dresden  hymn-book  of  1590  ;  in  Wackernagel, 
iv.  788. 

-  Concerning  the  sacred  song  of  the  Anabaptists  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  see  Von  Winterfeld,  Zur  Gesch.  heiliger  Tonktinst,  ii.  1-27.  See  also 
Bachtold,  Deutsche  Literatur,  p.  415,  and  remarks,  p.  128  ff.  **  Unger, 
'  Uber  eine  Wiedertaufer-Lielerhandschrift  des  17.  Jahrhunderts '  in 
the  Jahrb.  d.  Gesch.  d.  Protest,  in  Oesterreich.  xiii.  (1892),  pp.  41  ff.,  81  ff., 
136  ff.  ;  xvii.  187  ff.  ;  and  Nagl-Zeidler,  p.  500  ff.  Refer  here  also  con- 
cerning the  exile  and  emigrant  songs  of  the  Austrian  Protestants.  An 
admirable  work  on  Das  deutsche  Kirchenlied  der  biihmischen  Brilder  im 
sechzehnten  Jahrhundert  (Prague,  1891)  was  produced  by  R.  Wolkan. 
It  is  here  pointed  out  that  a  large  number  of  the  hymns 'of  the  Bohemian 
Brothers  were  inserted  in  the  Protestant  hymn-books  of  Germany.  See 
Biiumker  in  the  Literar.  Handmeiser,  1892,  p.  204  ff. 


272  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

What  boots  the  scholar's  wisdom  high  ? 

The  worldling's  pomp  ?     They  all  must  die- 
Vain  are  the  things  they  cherish. 

He  who  in  Christ  finds  not  a  place 

The  while  it  still  is  time  of  grace, 
He  must  for  ever  perish. 

The  worldly  quake  with  fear  of  death, 
And  when  they  near  their  latest  breath, 

Bethink  them  of  pious  turning. 
This  way  and  that  they  work  or  play, 
Forgetting  their  true  selves,  while  they 

Are  on  the  earth  sojourning. 

And  when  their  lives  draw  to  an  end, 
To  God  a  mighty  wail  they  send, 

The  first  that's  risen  from  them. 
I  fear,  indeed,  the  heavenly  grace, 
From  which  they  turned  with  mocking  face, 

Will  scarce  descend  upon  them.1  .  .  . 

Among  the  Bohemian- Moravian  Brethren  Michael 
Weisse  stands  out  prominently  as  a  poet.  In  1531  he 
published  the  first  German  hymn-book  of  the  Brethren. 
A  well-known  hymn  of  his  which  Luther  has  commended 
is  the  Burial  Hymn  : 

The  body  let  us  now  inter, 
In  sure  faith  which  does  not  err, 
That  at  the  Judgment  Day  'twill  rise 
Again  to  life  that  never  dies. 

The  Brother,  George  Vetter,  was  the  author  of  the 
much  sung  hymn  : 

Cease,  Lord,  from  anger 

Over  us  wretched  ones  ! 
Cease  from  Thy  fury, 

Turn  Thee  unto  us.-  .  .  . 

There  are   many  other  hymns   besides  these  con- 


i 


Wackernagel.  iii.  128-129. 


"o 


2  Ibid.  iv.  462.  **  See  R.  Wolkan,  Das  devische  Kirchenlied  dcr 
biihmiscJien  Briider  im  sechzehnten  Jahrhundert,  Prague,  1891,  and  Oesch. 
d.  deutschen  Literatur  in  Bohmen,  p.  245  ff. 


PROTESTANT  SACKED  SONGS  273 

nected  with  the  mediaeval  school  of  religious  song 
which  developed  new  modes  of  feeling  and  expression. 
The  list  of  the  '  honigsiissen  Wiegenliedlein '  (honey- 
sweet  cradle  songs)  was  opened  by  John  Mathesius 
with  a  hymn,  printed  in  the  Wittenberg  hymn-book  of 
1562,  in  which  Christ  the  Lord  is  thus  invoked  : 

Oh  Thou  little  Jesus  dear, 
God's  little  lamb, 
Pity  me,  I  pray, 
Take  me  on  Thy  back, 
And  safely  carry  me ! 
0  Jesu,  little  brother  mine, 
Thou  art  our  little  Emmanuel 
And  our  eternal  little  priest !  ' 

In  a  Geistliches  Berglied  (miners'  song)  of  1556  the 
same  poet  wrote : 

God,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 

Speaks  and  good  ore  is  grown, 
Of  quicksilver  and  sulphur  pure 

In  washings,  galleries,  hewings,  stone. 

He  joined  on  to  them  this  prayer  : 

0  God,  Who  makest  gravel,  mica,  quartz, 
Change  these  for  us  in  ore, 
Improve  our  hewings  cleverly, 
Through  Thy  Spirit  our  sins  undo.- 

In  special  confidence  Bartholomew  Eingwalt  put  to 
God  the  question : 

Why  dost  Thou  Thy  face 
Thus  hide  with  a  veil, 
And  like  a  man 
Rush  at  me  thus 
With  gestures  terrible  ? 
Ah,  Lord,  take  off 
This  hideous  mask, 
I  might  indeed  be  killed.3 

1  Wackernagel,  iii.  1153.  2  Ibid.  1151 ;  of  the  year  1556. 

3  Ibid.  iv.  933,     This  hymn  appears  very  eccentric  when  compared 

VOL.   XI.  T 


274  HISTOEY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Still  stranger  is  the  following  conversation  in  the 
'  Gassenhauer,  Renter-  nnd  Berglidlin,'  a  song  for  the 
common  man,  the  knight  and  the  miner,  altered  in  a 
Christianly  moral  and  suitable  way  for  the  use  of  the 
young,  by  Doctor  Henry  Knaust  in  1571  : 

How  in  my  heart  I  loved  my  God 

To  Him  in  childlike  speech  I  said, 
But  that  He,  with  a  heavy  rod. 

Much  sorrow  on  me  laid. 

To  which  God  answered  : 

With  right  1  do 

Thus,  man,  to  you  ! 

Such  my  custom  is  ! 

Ju,  Ju,  Ju,  Ju,  Ju  ! 

Dear  man'kin,  murmur  not — 

Trust  still  in  Me 

Though  I  hew  thee  : 

Such  My  custom  is  ! 

Ju,  Ju,  Ju,  Ju,  Ju  ! 

Dear  man'kin,  murmur  not.1 

with  the  simple,  homely,  and  soulful  penitential  hymn  of  Ringwalt, 
written  during  a  ravaging  plague,  '  0  frommer  und  getreuer  Gott ' 
(Wackernagel,  iv.  909). 

1  Wackernagel,  iv.  781.  The  full  title  is  in  Wackernagel,  Biblio- 
graphic, p.  369.  A  poem  of  Andreas  Gartner  following  the  preface  has 
for  its  special  object  to  save  tender  youth  from  the  follies  of  love : 

A  book  prepared  to  help  the  young 

We  here  to  them  present, 
A  booklet  in  best  manner  sung 

With  Christian  good  intent. 
The  noble  Dr.  Knauste  of  such 

High  learning  the  work  planned, 
And  he  the  young  has  honoured  much 

By  writing  it  with  his  hand. 
All  is  most  carefully  thought  out 

On  true  Scripture  ground, 
And  in  the  present  form  it's  put 

To  spread  God's  fear  around.  .  .  . 

The  custom  which  had  already  obtained  in  earlier  times  of  settirg 
religious  texts  to  secular  tunes  was  still  further  developed  by  the  Protes- 
tants, '  partly  because  in  this  way  their  doctrines  gained  rapid  entrance 


OLD   CATHOLIC   HYMNS   USED   BY   PROTESTANTS      275 

The  beautiful  German  hymns  which  had  been  in 
use  long  before  Luther's  time  lived  on  through  the 
whole  of  the  seventeenth  century  in  the  mouths  of  the 
Protestant  people,1  but  the  memory  of  their  Catholic 
origin  had  almost  entirely  disappeared  in  the  second 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century  after  numbers  of  them 
had  been  incorporated  in  Protestant  hymn-books. 
'  The  sectaries,'  said  a  Catholic  preacher  in  1562,  '  will 
not  recognise  the  fact  that  the  beautiful  German  hymns 
which  they  use  in  their  churches  on  high  festivals  were 
already  sung  by  our  laudable  Christian  ancestors  a 
hundred  years  ago  and  more  ;  they  have  the  audacity 
to  say  that  we  Catholics  stole  these  hymns,  which  we 
still  sing  to-day,  out  of  their  prophet  Luther's  and  other 
hymn-books  ;  as  though  we  had  never  before  then  sung 
hymns  about  Christ  the  Lord,  but  had  hidden  ourselves 
from  Him  in  fear  and  trembling  ;  '  they  pretend  this, 
'  notwithstanding  that  our  old  hymns  to  H  is  love, 
thanksgiving,  praise,  and  glory  show  the  opposite.' 
'  The  sectaries  have  taken  away  what  is  ours,  and  now 
say  that  we  Catholics  are  the  thieves.'  2 

Among  others  who  made  this  assertion  was  the 
Protestant  hymn- writer  Nicholas  Hermann.  In  the  old 
Church,  he  wrote  in  1560,  '  no  one  knew  how  to  write 

among  the  people  and  into  homes,  partly  because  the  need  of  the  con- 
gregation to  take  part  in  the  singing  was  thus  most  easily  gratified.  There 
were  whole  collections  of  hymns  in  which  not  only  the  secular  melodies 
or  the  beginnings  of  songs  were  retained,  but  the  larger  part  of  the  secular 
text.'  The  abuse  of  this  custom  bordered,  naturally,  close  on  its  advan- 
tages. Fischart  had  to  complain  of  the  scandal  of  preachers  writing  hymns 
about  a  wild  sow  and  the  brave  brown  maiden,  the  spiritual  Felbinger  (?) 
and  the  box  tree.  Gervinus,  iii.  28  ;  '  Sammlungen  geistlicher  Umdiehtungen ' 
verzeichnet  bei  Goedeke,  Grundriss,  ii.  85-87,  210-213. 

1  See  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben  in  the  Weimar  Jahrh.  v.  79. 

-  Sermon  on  the  high  festival  of  the  nativity  of  Christ,  preached  in 
the  Cathedral  of  Mayence,  1562,  by  P.  Gerhard  Fabri,  Bl.  2%  3. 

T  2 


276  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

and  to  speak  of  Christ ;  He  was  merely  looked  on  as  a 
stern  judge,  from  Whom  no  mercy  was  to  be  expected, 
but  only  anger  and  punishment.'  John  of  Miinster, 
hereditary  farmer  at  Vortlage,  published  in  1607  a  de- 
tailed list  of  a  number  of  hymns  which  the  Catholics  had 
stolen.1  It  was  a  ruse  of  the  Pope,  he  declared,  to  lead 
all  Christendom  astray.  The  Pope  '  was  hiding  himself 
in  the  form  of  the  devil  under  Luther  and  causing  all 
his  hymns — "  Now  pray  we  to  the  Holy  Ghost,"  "  Come, 
Holy  Ghost,"  "  God  the  Father,  dwell  with  us,"  "  Praised 
be  Thou,  Jesu  Christ,"  "  The  day  that  is  so  full  of  joy  "— 
and  others  to  be  sung  and  shouted  everywhere  publicly ; 
but  the  sole  object  of  all  this  was,  that  by  such  popish 
birds  of  prey  and  decoy  ducks,  under  the  delicious  ring 
of  the  Lutheran  hymns  the  simple  should  be  more 
easily  enticed  to  them,  drawn  into  their  nets,  and  then 
altogether  led  astray  by  their  idolatry  and  plunged  into 
everlasting  damnation.'  2 

The  hymns  mentioned,  however,  belonged  to  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.3 

When  David  Corner,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
prepared  his  Catholic  hymn-book,  he  thought  at  first 
*of  leaving  out  all  hymns  '  that  were  to  be  found  in 
heretical  collections.'  *  But  I  was  persuaded  to  change 
my  mind  by  a  godly  Father  of  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
who  pointed   out  to   me  that  the  non-Catholics   had 

1  Reissmann,  ii.  56-57.  Cyriacus  Spangenberg  said  in  his  pamphlet, 
Von  der  Musica,  p.  161  :  '  Under  the  papacy  all  the  singing  in  the  church 
and  the  congregation  was  in  the  Latin  tongue  ;  and  if  ever  any  one  of  the 
laity  wanted  to  put  into  German  what  was  sung  in  Latin,  the  clergy  did 
not  approve  of  it.' 

-  Examen  und  Inquisition  der  Papisten  und  Jesuiter,  published  under 
the  name  of  Maximilian  Philos  of  Treves  (1607),  p.  190.  See  our  state- 
ments, vol.  ix.  pp.  413,  414,  and  vol.  x.  p.  14. 

;l  Raumker,  Kirchenlied,  i,  13  ff,  v.       -    k 


PROTESTANT   HYMNS   IN   CATHOLIC    HYMNALS       277 

interlarded  their  hymn-books  with  not  a  few  of  our 
earliest  devotional  songs,  and  had  actually  been  so 
audacious  as  to  attach  Luther's  name  to  some  of  them ; 
as,  for  instance,  to  the  following  :  "  Der  Tag  der  ist  so 
freudenreich,"  "  Gelobet  seystu  Jesu  Christ,"  "  Christ 
ist  erstanden,"  "  Nun  bitten  wir  den  heiligen  Geist," 
"  Wir  glauben  all  an  einen  Gott,"  "  Jesus  ist  ein  siisser 
Nam,"  and  a  good  many  others,  which  nevertheless 
all  Christendom  knows  to  be  older  than  Luther  and  his 
new  gospel.  And,  said  the  Father,  it  was  by  no  means 
desirable  to  leave  out  such  good  old  hymns,  to  which 
the  common  people  had  been  used  so  long,  simply 
because  they  had  been  used  by  the  enemies  of  the  true 
faith  and  falsely  ascribed  to  them.'  ' 

On  the  other  hand,  the  editors  of  Catholic  hymn- 
books  also  borrowed  numbers  of  Protestant  hymns 
which  had  nothing  un-Catholic  in  them.  For  instance, 
in  the  hymn-book  of  the  Dean  of  Bautzen,  Johann 
Leisentrit,  published  in  1567,  among  250  hymns 
there  are  not  less  than  thirty-nine  taken  from  the 
'  Schlesisches  Singbuchlein  '  of  Pastor  Valentine  Triller 
of  Gora,  published  in  1555,  besides  many  other 
Protestant  songs.2  As  early  as  1537  Michael  Vehe, 
provost  at  Halle,  in  compiling  his  '  Neues  Gesang- 
biichlein  geistlicher  Lieder,'  made  use  of  Protestant 
hymn-books  dating  from  1524,  and  put  several  old 
Catholic  hymns  into  a  form  approved  by  Protestants.3 

1  Bauinker,  i.  226  ;  cf.  p.  202,  the  preface  of  the  Andernacher  Catholic 
hymn-book  of  the  year  1608.     See  also  p.  233. 

-  Baumker,  i.  139,  and  ii.  44-47. 

3  Ibid.  34-35,  127.  See  Von  Liliencron  in  Koch  and  Geiger's  Zeitschr. 
filr  vergleichende  LUeraturgesch.,  &c.  (new  series),  i.  146-147.  **  Con- 
cerning Michael  Vehe  and  the  first  Catholic  hymn-book  see  the  article 
of  Paulus  in  the  Hist.-pol.  Bl.  Bd.  ex.  469-490  ;  Baumker  in  the  Allg. 
deulsche  Biugr.  xxxix.  534   ff.  ;    Schonherr,  Ges.  Schriflen,  published   by 


278  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

As  with  the  Protestants  the  German  hymns,  accord- 
ing to  their  authors'  admonitions,  were  not  intended 
merely  for  use  in  church,  but  also  for  instruction  in 
the  schools,  and  for  household  devotion,  so,  too,  was  it 
with  the  Catholics.     In  the  prefaces  to  Catholic  hymn- 
books    it   is    frequently    stated   that    the    hymns    and 
spiritual  songs  for  '  children  and  adults '  are  intended 
'  for  their  Christian  exercise  in  house  and  field  and 
church,  for  their  use  at  school,  at  Holy  Mass,  at  cate- 
chisings,  pilgrimages,  and  processions,  yea,  actually  also 
in  their  homes  and  everywhere  at  their  daily  work.' 
The  Spires  hymn-book  of  1599,  in  especial,  earnestly 
exhorts  that  '  the  beautiful  old  Catholic  devotional  and 
religious  Church- songs'  should  be  sung  and  used  by 
Latin  and  German  school  children  and  by  the  common 
people  '  before  and  after  the  catechism  and  the  sermon, 
during  and  after  Mass,  at  the  processions  of  the  cross 
and  other  processions,  and  indeed  also  in  their  homes 
and  out  in  the  field,  at  their  handiwork,  at  stated  times 
throughout  the  whole  year,  and  that  by  young  and  old 
God  should  be  praised  and  entreated  that  many  wicked-, 
scandalous  songs,  very  hurtful  to  the  young,  which  are 
in   vogue   in   this   wicked,    deceitful   world   should   be 
avoided  and  abolished.'     '  Young  and  old,   male  and 
female,'  were  urged,  '  for  the  praise  and  glory  of  God 
and  for  the  kindling  of  their  own  devotion,  to  exercise 
themselves  diligently  therein.'     An  Andernacher  hymn- 
book  of  1608  expressed  the  desire,  '  Would  God  that  all 
pious  parents  would  be  careful  to  take  their  children 
frequently  to  church  and  to  children's  classes,  and  also 
would  instruct  them  well  in  these  hymns  in  addition  to 

M.   Mayr,  i.  (1900),  365  ff.  ;  Waldner  in  the  Mitte.il.  f.  Musikgesch.  1895, 
p.  13  if.  ;  and,  on  the  opposite  side,  Baumker,  ibidem,  p.  50  ff. 


NEW    CATHOLIC   HYMNS  279 

the  prayers  and  catechism :  indeed,  these  hymns  could 
sometimes  be  used-  instead  of  the  prayers.'  '  Oh,  how 
blessed  are  the  parents  whose  children's  earliest  words 
are  prayer  and  praise  to  Jesus  !  For,  as  a  rule,  that 
which  begins  in  the  name  of  God  ends  also  in  the  name 
of  God.  Blessed  therefore  are  the  children  who  early 
lisp  the  names  of  Jesus  and  Mary  !  Oh,  blessed  will 
be  the  end  of  these  children  in  the  alone  saving  name 
of  Jesus  !  How  lovingly  will  the  gentle  Mother  of 
God,  Mary,  show  her  Son  to  these  children  at  the 
end ! '  l 

Among  the  Catholic  writers  of  new  hymns  or  trans- 
lators of  Psalms  and  Latin  hymns  the  following  stand 
out  prominently  :  George  Wizel,  Caspar  Querhammer, 
Christopher  Sweher  (Christophorus  Hecyrus),  John 
Haym,  Caspar  Ulenberg,  Kutgerus  Edingius,  Conrad 
Vetter,1'  and  others  ;  many  beautiful  hymns  come  from 
unknown  authors.3  To  these  belongs,  for  instance, 
a  hymn  to  the  Holy  Virgin  which  concludes  with  the 
following  words  : 

Save  us  in  death  from  all  distress, 

And  leave  us  not  in  torment, 
Deliver  us  from  hell's  abyss 

When  comes  our  dying  moment. 
Grant  that  Thy  Son  Jboth  Man  and  God, 

May  not  in  wrath  undo  us  ; 
0  feed  us  with  His  heavenly  food 

Whereby  grace  comes  unto  us  !  ' 

One  of  the  tenderest  and  most  touching  of  the  hymns 
to  Mary  is  that  of  H.  J.  Soder,  published  in  1598,  and 

1  These  and  similar  exhortations  from  other  hymn-books  in  Baumker, 
Kirchenlied,  i.  193,  195,  196,  202  (cf.  231),  and  ii.  56,  58,  62. 

■>  **  Qf  Allgem.  Deutsche  Biographie,  xxxix.  665  ff.  See  the  index  of 
persons  to  vol.  i.  of  Baumker's  Kirchenlied. 

3  The  Catholic  hymns  in  Wackernagel,  v.  888-1361. 

4  Wackernagel,  v.  pp.  1093  1094. 


280  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

consisting  of  thirty-five  stanzas  :  '  Ein  Jungfrau  zart, 
von  edler  Art,  Ihr's  Gleichen  nie  gesehen  ward'  ('A 
tender  Virgin,  of  noble  nature,  her  like  has  never  been 
seen'). 

In  power,  grace,  and  beauty  she 

Excels  all  angels  bright : 

There's  no  man  understandeth  right 

That  greeting's  mystery, 

Which  God  at  the  appointed  day 

Himself  to  her  did  say.  .  .  . 

Mary,  the  poor  sinner's  friend, 

Mother  of  mercy,  thou 

Wilt  not  cast  me  out,  1  trow  ; 

In  mercy  bend, 

Pray  for  my  sins,  let  me 

Taste  thy  fidelity.  .  .  . 

Jesus,  God,  and  Saviour  mine, 

Though  Thou  my  helper,  and  no  other, 

Thou  wilt  honour  still  Thy  mother, 

Mary,  mother  thine. 

Thou  wilt  listen  to  the  prayer 

She  lifts  for  us  in  our  despair.1 

That  in  these  or  in  all  the  other  extant  hymns  to 
Mary  there  is  any  false  trust  placed  in  the  Holy  Virgin, 
any  reliance  that  impugns  the  honour  of  Christ,  cannot 
possibly  be  maintained.  Similarly  all  the  numerous 
hymns  invoking  other  saints  contain  nothing  more 
than  the  prayer  which  Caspar  Querhammer  utters  in 
his  All  Saints'  hymn,  '  0  ihr  Heiligen  Gottes  Freundt ' 
('  0  ye  Saints,  ye  friends  of  Cod  !  '). 

You  all  alike  we  do  beseech 

To  gain  us  grace,  that  we 
The  heavenly  kingdom  soon  may  reach 

When  we  have  ceased  to  be  : 
Now  God  the  Lord  for  us  implore, 
That  He  forsake  us  nevermore, 

To  perish  everlastingly. 

1  The  full  title  is  in  Baumker,  i.  74,  No.  186.     Reprinted  in  Wacker- 
nagel,  v.  1283-1285  ;   cf.  Kehrein,  ii.  55-GO. 


NEW   CATHOLIC   HYMNS  281 

Through  all  the  many  hundreds  of  hymns  and 
religious  songs — those  especially  on  the  birth,  life, 
passion  and  death  of  the  Saviour — the  keynote  is  :  All 
trust  is  in  God  through  the  one  only  mediator,  Jesus 
Christ : 

Eternal  God,  to  Thee  we  pray, 

Give  peace  in  our  day  ; 

In  love  to  Thee  may  all  agree, 

And  constantly  Thy  Will  obey  : 

For  there's  no  other  God  indeed 

Who  striveth  for  us  in  our  need  ; 

Thou  art  our  God  alone.  .  .  . 

Grant  us  unity  of  mind 

And  endless  bliss  to  find, 

Which  dwells  in  Thee  alone. 
Ah,  gracious  Saviour,  Christ  Jesu, 
Who  art  my  sole  Redeemer  too, 
Pity  me,  my  God  and  Lord, 
Through  Thy  sacred  blood  outpoured !  .  .  . 

Lord  Jesu  Christ, 

My  anchor  still, 
In  all  distress  my  stay  ; 
Give  life  respite, 

As  is  Thy  Will : 
No  sinner  wilt  Thou  slay, 

Who  to  Thee  turns, 

Thus  Thy  Word  learns  ; 
Who  build  thereon  securely 

Find  saving  grace  ; 

Therefore  I'll  place 
On  Thee  my  trust  entirely. 
Lord  Jesu  Christ,  my  hope,  delight, 
I  wait  for  Thee  from  morn  to  night, 
Come  when  Thou  wilt,  I'm  ready  quite.1 

The  best  translations  of  the  Psalms  were  done  by 
Caspar  Ulenberg,  pastor  at  Kaiserswerth,  for  his  Psalter 
of  1582  ;  many  of  these  may  be  regarded  as  model 
works.2 

1  Kehrein,  ii.  153,  529,  600;  Wackernagel,  iii.  955,  1050-1051,  1054, 
1116. 

2  See  Baumker,  i.  148-149,  194-195  ;  Abdriicke  von  Psalmen  in  Wacker- 
nagel, v.  1067-1085. 


282  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

In  his  polemical  preface  of  forty  pages  Ulenberg 
insists  on  the  necessity  that,  '  according  to  old  example, 
the  common  people  should  be  supplied  with  godly, 
pure  and  unfalsifled  hymns,  instead  of  the  misleading 
collections  nowadays  compiled.'  '  If  in  these  days  it 
is  unadvisable  and  forbidden  to  use  all  sorts  of  sectarian 
hymn-books,  this  does  not  mean  that  there  is  any  wish 
to  hinder  what  is  good  and  to  reject  Christian  hymns  ; 
it  is  only  done  because  these  new  collections  are  impure 
and  misleading,  and  bespattered  by  false  teaching,  and 
sometimes,  owing  to  the  sectarian  catechisms  and 
schismatic  Church  ordinances  printed  with  them,  are 
found  injurious  to  simple-minded  persons.  For  they 
have  actually  woven  into  these  hymns  the  baseless, 
senseless  lie  that  up  till  now  the  precious  truth  and  the 
Word  of  God  have  not  been  known  to  the  world,  but 
now  finally  have  been  sent  to  earth  by  them,  the  sec- 
taries ;  in  these  hymns  the  heads  of  Christendom  have 
been  unjustly  slandered,  and  because  they  have  set 
themselves  against  the  intruding  heretical  horrors, 
it  has  been  sung  in  hymns  concerning  them  that  they 
wanted  to  drive  out  God  and  His  work.  All  sorts  of 
error  have  been  mixed  up  in  these  hymn-books,  and 
what  is  most  scandalous  of  all,  the  Psalmist,  David, 
without  his  consent,  has  been  pressed  into  the  service  ; 
for  several  of  the  best  Psalms,  by  omissions  and  addi- 
tions, have  been  so  falsified  by  the  sectarians  that  the 
prophet,  in  these  hymnals,  is  sometimes  made  to  speak 
of  things  which  never  were  in  his  mind  nor  in  that  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.'  This,  says  Ulenberg,  was  especially 
the  case  with  the  Psalms  translated  and  arranged  by 
Luther,  Justus  Jonas,  and  Michael  Styfel.  '  From 
these  examples  everybody  could  judge  in  what  direction 


POLEMICAL   HYMNS  283 

the  sectarians  were  going  and  working  with  their  new 
hymn-books,  and  that  it  was  not  without  justice  that 
they  were  held  in  contempt.  For  what  trust  could  be 
put  in  people  who  so  wickedly  and  knowingly  perverted 
God's  Word  and  the  holy  Psalms  of  David,  by  omitting 
and  adding,  twisting  and  turning,  and  who  forced  them 
in  the  most  contradictory  ways  to  fit  in  with  their  own 
advantage,  or  else  dared  to  poison  them  with  false 
doctrine  ?  However,  what  was  going  on  now  was 
nothing  new,  the  old  sectarians  twelve  and  thirteen 
hundred  years  before  had  acted  in  just  the  same  way.' 
Ulenberg  then  gives  examples.  Just  as  those  early 
sectarians  had  done,  so  had  '  the  present-day  ones  also 
done :  '  they  had  introduced  their  doctrines  of  '  faith 
alone,  of  slavish  fettered  will,  their  falsification  of  the 
doctrine  of  law,  hatred  of  authorities  and  other  such 
heresies,'  into  their  hymns,  '  and  with  exquisite  melo- 
dies and  enticing  words  they  had  pitifully  misled  the 
simple  people.'  And  just  as  '  the  insolent,  rabid 
singing  of  the  Arians  had  once  at  Constantinople 
almost  occasioned  an  uproar,'  '  so,  too,  these  present- 
day  sectarians,  at  the  beginning  of  their  bloodthirsty 
evangelising,  had  composed  and  sung  all  sorts  of  revo- 
lutionary, murderous  hymns,  of  which  it  might  truly 
be  said,  as  the  Greeks  said  of  Draco's  statutes,  that 
they  were  written  in  human  blood.'  l 

The  fiercely  polemical  nature  of  many  of  the  Pro- 
testant hymns  had  been  sternly  censured  by  George 
Wizel  as  early  as  the  years  1534  and  1537.  '  The 
heretics,'  he  wrote,  '  take  wonderful  delight  in  their 
new  hymns,  or  rather  their  scurrilous  songs,  by  means 
of  which  they  pour  the  poison  of  their  heresies  in- 

1  Kehrein,  i.  105-107  ;  Wackernagel,  pp.  401-402. 


284  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

sidiously  into  the  heads  of  the  simple-minded,  calum- 
niate the  Church,  and  rage  and  curse  against  her.'  '  A 
large  number  of  their  Christian  hymns  are  not  only 
against  God  and  His  Word,  but  also  for  the  most  part 
insolent  and  violent,  and  many  people  when  they  join 
in  such  Doric  tunes  would  rather  strike  in  with  their 
fists  than  sing.'  !     '  New  songs  and  hymns,'  writes  the 

1  Quoted  in  Dollinger,  F , formation,  i.  (2nd  ed.)  46,  58-59.  In  the 
preface  to  the  Catholic  hymn-book,  printed  at  Tegernsee  in  1574,  Adam 
Walasser  said :  '  Christian  and  dear  readers :  after  the  footsteps  of  our 
pious  ancestors  had  been  abandoned,  and  people  had  strayed  into  all 
sorts  of  wrong  ways,  godlessness  and  frivolity  of  every  description  came 
into  the  world.  Then  the  divine  Scriptures,  together  with  the  holy 
Fathers'  doctrine,  became  falsified,  perverted,  cut  down,  and  added  to. 
The  hymns  also  were  treated  in  the  same  manner,  as  has  been  indicated 
here  in  connection  with  one  or  two  of  the  Gospels.  In  the  hymn,  "  Wir 
glauben  all  an  einen  Gott,"  &c,  Christ's  going  down  into  hell  and  the 
communion  of  the  saints  were  left  out  just  as  if  they  were  not  articles 
of  our  Christian  faith.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  interpolated  that 
"  here  all  sins  will  be  forgiven,"  although  Christ  said  "  the  sin  against 
the  Holy  Ghost  would  never  be  forgiven,  either  here  or  in  the  world  to 
come."  Item,  at  the  end  of  the  Ten  Commandments  they  have  added  : 
"  Es  ist  mit  unserm  Thun  verloren,  verdienen  dock  eitel  Zoren  "  ("All  our 
doing  is  of  no  profit,  we  deserve  nothing  but  wrath  "),  and  in  the  Psalm 
"  Aus  tiefster  Noth  "  they  sing,  "  Es  ist  dock  unser  Thun  umsonst,  audi 
in  dem  besten  Leben  "  ("All  our  doing  is  in  vain,  even  in  the  best  of  lives  "), 
which  words  occur  neither  in  this  Psalm  nor  in  the  whole  of  Scripture. 
However,  I  gladly  allow  that  the  "  doing  "  of  the  sects  is  vain,  and  that 
they  deserve  only  wrath  ;  but  it  is  not  so  with  the  pious  Catholic  Chris- 
tians. Their  works  will,  if  God  will,  not  be  lost.  But  the  result  of  giving 
people  sanction  for  not  doing  any  good  works  is  that  all  spiritual  discipline 
and  all  good  conduct  are  disappearing.  Hundreds  of  examples  might 
be  adduced  to  prove  this,  but  these  are  sufficient  to  warn  a  simple  Chris- 
tian against  the  sectarian  Psalm-books  and  Church  hymns.  Besides 
these  hymns  there  have  also  come  into  vogue  all  sorts  of  wanton,  im- 
moral songs,  which  also  originate  in  this  false  carnal  teaching.  And,  alas  ! 
it  has  come  to  this— that  all  that  the  old  Christians  were  ashamed  of 
the  new  Christians  make  a  boast  of.  Yea,  verily,  what  is  read  or  sung 
in  numbers  of  places  is  either  heresy,  or  frivolity,  or  immorality.  Thence 
it  happens,  also,  that  there  is  neither  happiness  nor  welfare  in  the  land 
any  more,  which  was  not  the  case  when  we  kept  to  the  footsteps  of  our 
pious  forefathers,  who  sang  numbers  of  beautiful  devotional  hymns  all 
the  year  through,  from  festival  to  festival,  and  who  sang  to  the  praise 


POLEMICAL   HYMNS  285 

Franciscan  John  Nas  in  the  year  1568,  '  were  pro- 
duced by  them  at  first  without  limit  or  reason  ;  one 
booklet  of  Psalms  after  another  was  manufactured, 
and  all  the  songs  must  forsooth  go  by  the  name  of 
Psalms.'  Numbers  of  them  '  were  indeed  too  coarse 
to  be  given  as  examples ; '  for  instance  : 

Martinus  gave  advice 

To  roast  the  priests 
And  to  stoke  the  fire  with  monks, 
And  to  lead  the  nuns  into  brothels, 
Kyrie  eleison. 


Or 


From  deepest  need — beat  the  priests  to  death, 
And  leave  no  monk  alive,  &c.  &c. 


But  *  still  they  go  on  singing  their  bloodthirsty 
hymn,  "  Erhalt  uns,  Herr,  bei  deinem  Wort."  '  From 
the  hymn  '  Lobt  Gott,  ihr  frummen  Christen  '  ('  Praise 
God,  ye  pious  Christians ')  Nas  quoted  the  following 
stanza  as  an  example  of  '  evangelical  tenderness  :  ' 

Hark,  hark,  beloved  brothers, 

Ye  who  good  Christians  are, 
Take  each  of  you  a  banner, 

We'll  gain  renown  in  war. 


and  glory  of  God  and  His  saints  at  pilgrimages  and  penitential  proces- 
sions, and  received  thereby  benediction  and  grace.  Of  such  old  pious 
songs  and  hymns  many  have  been  collected  together  in  this  little  book, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Christian  laity  in  general,  so  that  not  alone  in  church, 
but  also  in  his  home,  or  in  the  field  at  his  work,  he  may  sing  praise  to  God, 
and  abstain  from  all  the  worldly,  unchaste,  improper  songs.  Make 
use,  O  Christian  reader  !  of  this  hymn-book  for  the  praise  and  glory  of 
God  and  of  His  saints,  and  guard  yourself  against  the  hymns  and  the 
teaching  of  the  sects,  and  rejoice  ye  in  the  Lord.'  In  the  preface  to  an 
enlarged  edition  of  the  year  1577  Walasser  added,  further,  that  '  there 
is  no  happiness  or  blessing  to  be  expected  until  we  Catholics  abstain 
from  sins  and  turn  again  to  God  in  true  penitence,  and  the  sectarians 
also  turn  back  from  their  heresies,  and  seek  shelter  again  in  the  old  Catholic 
Roman  Church  '  (Wackernagel,  Bibliographie,  pp.  649,  653).  **  Concerning 
A.  Walasser,  see  Paulus  in  the  Katholik,  1895,  ii.  453  ff.  ;  Von  Reinhard- 
stottner,  Forschungen,  ii.  54  ff.,  58  ff.,  83  ff, 


286  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

We'll  give  the  foe  a  pounding — 

I  mean  the  tonsured  crew — 
The  drums  and  fifes  are  sounding, 

Come  on,  ye  Christians  true.1 

David  Gregory  Corner  wrote  later  on :  'If  one 
convincing  example  — not  to  mention  others — is  wanted 
of  the  Lutheran  spirit,  we  recommend  perusal  of  the 
first  lines  of  the  very  last  hymn  which  Luther  wrote 
shortly  before  his  death  ;  it  may  be  seen  in  the  Nurem- 
berg Lutheran  hymn-book  with  the  following  super- 
scription :  "  Dr.  Martin  Luther's  last  hymn,  made  for 
the  farewell  of  the  Eoman  Pope  and  for  the  children  at 
Mid-Lent,  instead  of  carrying  a  figure  of  Death  out 
of  the  church,  to  drive  out  the  said  Pope,  to  the  tune, 
*  Erhalt  uns,  Herr,  bei  deinem  Wort :  ' 

Now  let  us  drive  the  Pope  from  out 

Christ's  kingdom  and  God's  house  devout, 

For  murderously  he  has  ruled, 

And  countless  souls  to  ruin  fooled. 

Be  off  with  you,  you  damned  son, 

You  scarlet  bride  of  Babylon, 

Horror  and  antichrist  thou  art, 

Lies,  murder,  cunning  fill  thy  heart."  '  -  .  .  . 

It  was  a  firmly  rooted  conviction  of  the  Protestants 
that  the  Church  hymns  which  Cyriacus  Spangenberg 
wrote  were  also  intended  '  for  opposing  the  heretics 
and  their  false  doctrines.'  And  so  they  sang,  for 
instance,  '  Es  ist  das  Heil  uns  kommen  her  '  ('  Salvation 
has  come  down  to  us')  against  the  papists  and  those 
who  held  the  doctrine  of  good  works,  which  indeed  is  by 

1  Schopf,  pp.  25-26.  The  last-quoted  song  is  by  Louis  Hailman  ;  it 
was  inserted  in  the  Marburg  hymnal  of  1549  (Wackernagel,  Kirchenlied, 
iii.  369-370). 

-  Baumker,  Kirchenlied,  i.  219.  The  hymn  is  not  Luther's  own 
composition,  but  he  let  it  appear  under  his  name.  See  Goedeke,  Dich- 
tungen  ion  M.  Luther,  p.  155. 


POLEMICAL   HYMNS  287 

no  means  an  unnecessary  thing.  '  The  most  intolerable 
part  of  it  all,'  they  said,  was  '  when  the  authorities 
would  not  suffer  them  to  sing  hymns,  as  at  the  time 
of  the  Interim  they  were  forbidden  in  many  places  to 
sing  publicly  ki  Erhalt  uns,  Herr,  bei  deinem  Wort.'1 
In  some  places  from  respect  of  the  Pope  this  hymn  had 
been  so  altered  that  the  Protestants  replaced  the  word 
'•  Pope  "  by  "  devil,"  so  that,  against  the  papists'  will, 
it  was  made  clear  what  the  Pope  was  and  how  good  he 
was.' x 

On  the  part  of  the  Catholics  the  Protestant  pole- 
mical hymns  were  repeatedly  opposed  by  counter-hymns. 
Thus,  for  instance,  Luther's  '  Christliches  Kinderlied ' 

In  Thy  Word  preserve  us,  Lord, 

Slay  Pope  and  Turk  with  Thy  sharp  sword. 

was  answered  by  the  hymn  in  Leisentrit's  collection  : 

Lord,  in  Thy  Church  us  guard  and  keep, 
From  the  sects'  doctrine  save  Thy  sheep  ; 
Thy  Church  is  one,  without  a  rent, 
Known  is  it  by  Thine  own  garment. 

The  sects'  doctrines  are  made  by  man, 
Divided  are  they,  void  of  plan, 
Misleading  many  a  heart  upright — 
No  laughing  matter  in  God's  sight.  .  .  . 

Show  forth,  O  God,  Thy  mighty  work 
That  we  may  not  suffer  from  the  Turk  ; 
Help  us,  and  may  the  sects  malign 
Be  cast  out  by  Thy  Word  divine.2  .  .  . 

The  hymn  of  Paul  Speratus,  '  Es  ist  das  Heil  uns 
kommen  her,' 3  was  altered  by  the  Spires  hymn-book  of 

1  Von  der  Musica,  xxviii.  154. 

2  Six  stanzas  (Wackernagel,  v.  1002).  See  the  Umdichtung  im  Rhein- 
felsischen  Oesangbuch  of  1666,  in  Baumker,  ii.  295-296.  Songs  for  and 
against  Luther  catalogued  by  Goedeke,  Grundriss,  ii.  156-158,  §  121. 

3  See  above,  p.  261  ff. 


288  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

1599  and  the  Mayence  Cantual  of  1605  into  the  fol- 
lowing : 

Salvation  certainly  descends 
Alone  from  mercy  and  from  grace  ; 
Christ  by  His  passion  made  amends, 
An  Jl  with  His  blood  redeemed  our  race  ; 
His  Cross,  deserts,  and  death  contain 
Alone  salvation,  and  we  must 
In  these  place  all  our  trust. 

Not  faith  alone,  however,  but  faith  made  active 
through  love,  ensures  justification  and  salvation  before 
God: 

Faith  first  within  our  hearts  must  be, 

And  give  firm  confidence, 
Then  works  of  love  and  charity 

Build  up  faith's  evidence  ; 
These  twain  are  like  two  arms  that  clasp 
The  Saviour  in  a  loving  grasp 
And  make  Him  their  own  property. 

From  these,  then,  hope  has  birth, 

Which  from  despair  doth  save, 
And  in  this  world  and  earth 

Makes  hearts  more  brave  : 
We  must  have  all  these  three 
If  we  would  saved  be, 
Bare  faith  is  nothing  worth.1 

Another  begins  : 

Faith  that  through  love  has  active  grown, 

According  to  God's  Word  and  will, 
In  Jesus  Christ,  has  power  alone 

The  Father's  wrath  to  still.2  .  .  . 


1  Wackernagel,  v.  1154-1156.     See  Baumker,  i.  156. 

-  Kehrein,  ii.  365  ;  Wackernagel,  v.  1003.  See  Baumker,  ii.  208.  In 
opposition  to  the  hymn  of  Lazarus  Spengler,  '  Durch  Adam's  Fall  ist  ganz 
verderbt  .  .  .'  in  Wackernagel,  i.  48-49,  stands  the  Catholic  answer, 
'  Die  Erbsund  kommt  von  Adam's  Schuldt,'  in  Wackernagel,  v.  988. 
To  the  Protestant  '  Ein  Kindelwiegen  oder  Wyhenachten  Lied  den  ver- 
mainten  Geistlichen  zu  Lob  zugericht,'  of  the  year  1524,  and  '  Der  Tag 
der  ist  so  frewdenreich  Allen  Curtisanen  .  .  .'  in  Wackernagel,  iii.  393- 
394,  there  followed  the  next  year  the  answer  of  a  Catholic  '  Wider  die 
falschen  Evangelischen,'  in  Wackernagel,  v.  913-917. 


POLEMICAL   HYMNS  289 

In  a  hymn  for  the  Holy  Communion  in  Vehe's 
hymn-book  the  Church's  practice  of  administering  to 
the  laity  in  one  kind  only  is  defended,  and  the  following 
advice  given  : 

Let's  fight  no  longer,  for  thereby 
Love,  too,  within  our  hearts  will  die ; 
This  is  my  best  advice  to  you  : 
Prove  your  true  faith  by  action  true. 
Grace  then  will  God  soon  give, 
No  more  against  the  Church  to  strive, 
And  He  will  give  us  unity, 
To  last  unto  eternity.1 

The  concluding  stanza  of  a  '  Gesang  von  den  heiligen 
sieben  Sacramenten '  which  appeared  in  a  '  Catholic 
Hymn-book,'  published  at  Innsbruck  in  1587,  is  strongly 
polemical : 

Drive  far  as  you  can 

That  godless  man. 
Luther,  and  all  his  abettors, 

Who  with  false  lies 

Our  noble  prize 
Would  steal  from  us  like  traitors. 

One  wants  one, 

Another  none, 
A  third,  two,  three,  or  four  ; 
From  which  it's  plainly  seen 

What  spirit  lurks 

In  all  their  works, 
The  serpent,  that's  to  say, 
Who  from  the  earliest  day 
A  liar  has  ever  been  ; 

God  help  that  we 

Right  soon  may  be 

From  heresies  set  free.2 

In  opposition  to  isolated  hymns  of  this  sort  there 
occur  in  Protestant  collections  a  large  number  of  hymns 
against  the  Pope  and  the  Catholics.  To  the  number  of 
these  belongs,  and  is  found  in  the  Nuremberg,  Erfurt 

1  Wackernagel,  v.  947-948.  2  Ibid.  1134-1135. 

VOL.    XI.  U 


290  HISTORY   OF   THE    GEKMAN    PEOPLE 

and  Zwickau  Enchiridions  of  1525-1528,  in  the  Strass- 
burg  hymn-books  of  1525-1543,  and  in  other  collections, 
a  hymn  composed  by  Michael  Styfel,  of  not  less  than 
eighteen  six-lined  stanzas,  against  the  Pope  as  Anti- 
christ : 

Himself  as  teacher  he's  erected, 

Strangling  is  his  chief  delight  ; 
His  church  and  court  must  be  protected 

By  ban  and  army's  fright  ; 
Who  injures  him  straightway' s  ejected. 

His  chair  has  no  support  but  might. 

Therefore  he  looks  with  care  around  him, 

Like  a  lion  in  his  lair, 
To  see  that  none  be  hidden  from  him 

Who  to  oppose  him  would  dare  ; 
Who  doeth  like  this  must  be  strangled. 
In  his  net  he  will  lie  entangled.' 


'B1 


A  Zurich  hymn-book  of  1540  contains,  in  a  hymn 
of  Thomas  Blarer,  the  following  lines  : 

How  much  the  churches  I  do  hate, 
Falsely  called  the  spiritual  estate, 
The  laity  and  clergy  both — 
I  mean  the  rabble  of  the  pope.2 

The  Strassburg  congregational  hymn-books  of  1562 
and  1566  accused  the  papists  as  follows  : 

From  false  lips  does  their  talk  proceed, 

From  disunited  hearts, 
Their  doctrine's  empty,  baseless  creed, 

Which  gives  the  conscience  smarts  ; 
With  purgatory,  absolution,  mass 
And  ban,  the  world  misled  it  has. 
The  Lord  have  pity  on  us  ! 
For  where  the  godless  rabble  rules 
The  people  it  perverts,  befools, 
In  sacrilegious  manner.' 

In  a  hymn  of  eight  stanzas  in  use  at  Greifswald, 

1  Wackernagel,  iii.  79-80.  -  Ibid.  599.  ■'■  Ibid.  650. 


POLEMICAL   HYMNS  291 

'  Der  Bapst  hat  sich  zu  Tode  gefallen,'  Lutlier  is 
praised  for  having  deprived  '  the  devil  and  Pope  '  of 
his  kingdom  and  destroyed  his  power.1 

A  song  of  jubilee  by  Martin  Schrod,  '  Freudengeschrei 
iiber  das  gefallene  Bapstum,'  of  thirty-seven  strophes 
ending  with  Hallelujah,  runs  as  follows  : 

There  sit'st  thou  naked  on  bare  earth, 
Thy  priesthood  now  of  no  more  worth, 

Banished  or  stricken  dead. 
'  The  seventh  will  his  life  forego, 
He's  acted  like  a  villain,'  so 

The  Sibyl  to  you  said. 
As  Lucifer  fell  from  heaven's  throne, 
So  thou,  too,  dost  receive  thine  own 
Reward,  like  Pharaoh  in  the  waters  red.'2 

In  opposition  to  the  endless  verses  and  songs 
written  by  the  sectarians  in  vilification  of  the  Pope, 
and  used  as  hymns  for  singing  in  church,  John  Nas 
composed  a  few  which  made  no  pretence  of  being 
edifying  or  piously  worded,  but  were  frankly  coarse 
and  unpolished.  '  For  if  I  should  attempt  to  be 
tender,  the  godless  preachers,'  Nas  said,  '  would  not  at 
all  understand  me.'  In  the  year  1568  he  published, 
'  Ein  Widerschall  und  Gegenhall  von  den  bosen  Friich- 
ten  der  evangelosen  Pradigkanten,  so  jetziger  Zeit  den 
christlichen  Fried  zustoren  mit  Gemalen,  Schreiben, 
Singen  und  Lehren,  und  die  katholischen  Kirchen 
calumniren.'     It  begins  as  follows  : 

I  raise  my  voice  in  pity's  name, 
And  must  to  every  one  proclaim 

The  evil  that's  at  hand, 
From  Satan  who's  at  liberty 

To  preach  through  all  the  land. 

1  Wackernagel,  iii.  789  ;  cf.  iv.  742,  No.  1098.  a  Ibid.  iii.  974. 

v  2 


292  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

And  that  you  may  know  aright 
This  wicked  antichristian  wight 

Of  Lucifer  the  son  : 
Good  Catholics  at  first  they  were 

But  now  all  faithless  grown.  .  .  . 

Of  the  Augsburg  Confession  lie  sang  in  1588  : 

Luther's,  Melckthon's  confession 

Which  at  Augsburg  had  its  birth, 
And  was  the  mother  of  corruption, 

Caused  monks  and  fools  much  mirth. 

By  it  have  many  customs  wise 

And  old  decayed  and  perished. 
But  yet  the  world  elects  to  prize 

And  bow  to  Luther's  calf  the  knees.1 

Polemical  effusions  of  this  sort  are  lamentable. 
They  are,  however,  of  little  importance  compared  to 
all  the  songs  and  hymns  of  those  poets  who  considered 
the  battle  against  the  papacy  as  '  a  sacred  heirloom 
of  Luther  to  be  continually  enlarged.' 

The  preacher  Justus  Jonas  set  the  following  lines  to 
the  tune  of  '  Wo  Gott  der  Herr  nicht  bei  uns  h  It :  ' 

Shower  Thy  wrath  on  Rome,  the  town 

Which  Christ  has  long  betrayed  ;  on  monk  and  prjest 

All  godless,  shower  it  down. 

Shower  Thy  wrath  on  godless  folk 

Who  know  Thee  not,  Lord  God, 

On  all  the  papists,  devil's  folk, 

Who  know  not  how  to  pray  aright, 

Who  trust  to  their  Itahan  wiles, 

The  Pope's  and  priests'  intrigues.2 

The  preacher  Bartholomew  Bingwalt  in  a  '  geist- 
liches  Kinderlied  '  taught  the  children  to  invoke  God 
against  the  Roman  Antichrist : 

1  Sextce  Centurice  prodromus  (1569),  Bl.  252  ff.  ;  Wackemagel,  v.  1023- 
1030. 

2  Wackernagel,  iii.  44. 


POLEMICAL   HYMNS  293 

He  means  to  root  out  with  the  sword 
All  Thine  own  true  children,  Lord, 
Who  hiin  and  his  decrees  will  not 
Honour  a£  they  honour  God. 

It  went  on  to  pray  that  God  would  protect  His 
bride  '  against  the  devil's  evil  skin.' 

Of  Babylon  who  in  such  wise 

Has  soiled  thine  honour  with  her  lies, 

Cast  her  and  her  allies  as  well, 

Into  the  abyss  of  hell. 

As  John  has  told  us  must  befall — 

John  who  in  the  Spirit  saw  it  all.1 

In  another  song  the  same  poet  inveighed  against  the 
Pope,  '  Die  Hur  von  Babylon  : ' 

O  Lord,  protect  Thy  covenant 

With  the  word  of  grace, 
And  cast  down  the  loose  woman 

With  her  Easter-cakes 
With  which  she  daily  doth  Thee  shame, 
And  sacrifice  her  mass  doth  name, 

For  the  soul's  redemption. 

Allow  not  in  Thy  Church,  in  pity, 

Such  sacrilegious  courses, 
Burn  down  the  ancient  murder  city 

With  chariots  and  horses. 
That  all  may  cry,  She's  gone,  she's  gone, 
With  all  her  wondrous  glory, 

The  mighty  Babylon  !  - 

The  schoolmaster  and  deacon  Louis  Helmbold  at 
Miihlhausen  in  Thuringia,  in  his  collection  entitled 
'  den  gottseligen  Christen  zugerichtete  geistliche 
Lieder '  (1575),  also  repeatedly  invoked  God  against 
the  *  idolatrous  papists  :  ' 

1  Die  lautere  Wahrheit,  edition  of  1588,  p.  443  ff. 

2  Wackernagel,  iv.  991. 


294  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Command  each  Christian  magistrate 
Not  in  the  land  to  tolerate 
Prophets  so  idolatrous. 
It  is,  indeed,  a  monstrous  thing 
The  papacy's  blood-thirst  to  learn 
And  still  go  beating  in  ';he  wind  : 
The  heart  of  everyone  should  burn, 
And  would  each  one  be  in  the  right, 
He  ought  to  fight,  with  all  his  might, 
The  Roman  Antichrist's  great  evil, 
And  what  more  cometh  from  the  devil. 

To  the  tune  of  '  Herr  Christ  der  einig  Gottes  Sohn 
he  sang  : 

The  Antichristian  popedom, 
By  which  the  world's  deceived, 
Has  been  by  Thine  evangel 
To  Luther's  eyes  revealed. 

He  does  indeed  go  faster, 
That  wicked  fiend,  than  we, 
With  all  his  Jesuiters, 
But  all  that  is  against  Thee 
Must  perish  in  disaster.1 

In  a  '  New  Te  Deum  laudanrus  of  Pope  Paul  III., 
Erasmus  Alber  exclaims  : 

Thy  sanctity  accursed  is, 
Thou  man  of  sin  and  Antichrist  ; 
To  Satan,  thy  head,  thou  hangest  on, 
Who  nought  but  lie  and  strangle  can. 
The  whole  of  the  great  shaven  crew 
Praise  thee  with  loud  hullabaloo. 

Oh,  thou,  the  holiest  of  all ! 

Oh,  thou,  the  holiest  of  all  ! 
Far  holier  than  the  crucified  Christ !  .  .  . 
Thy  rabble  says  the  indulgence  chest 
Forgives  sins  quicker  than  the  Christ. 
From  thee  and  thine  idolatry, 
We,  God  be  praised,  are  henceforth  free, 
Daily  we  curse  thee,  thou  pope-ass, 
And  Christ  His  Name  we  praise.  .  .  . 

1  Wackernagel,  iv.  645  ff.,  668-669. 


POLEMICAL   HYMNS  205 

This  song  is  followed  by  a  prayer  '  against  the 
devilish  kingdom  of  the  Antichrist.'  1 

While  religious  and  secular  song  thus  simultaneously 
flooded  the  German  book-market  with  didactic  and 
polemical  productions  of  very  doubtful  poetic  worth, 
the  once  fruitful  soil  of  natural  poetry  became  a  barren 
waste. 

1  Wackernagel,  iii.  892-893.  We  have  left  out  the  worst  verses 
against  the  Pope  as  'the  grossest  criminal.'  A  new  '  Vater  Unser  '  by 
this  same  sacred  songster  began  :  '  Pope  Father  of  all  perjured  Christians, 
slandered  be  thine  accursed  name.  Thy  kingdom  come  in  hell.  Thy  devilish 
will  must  soon  be  subjugated,'  and  so  forth  (pp.  894-895).  Philip  Wacker- 
nagel, the  most  industrious  Protestant  hymnologist  of  the  new  epoch, 
expresses  his  delight  in  such  productions.  They  were  certainly  not 
always,  he  says  in  his  Kirchenlied,  iii.  12,  '  hymns  of  the  most  elevated 
Church  style,  suited  to  congregational  hymnals,  but  frequently  rather  of 
the  low  popular  style,'  but  they  were  '  all  the  same,  songs  of  great  earnest- 
ness, often  of  grimmest  earnestness,  even  when  humorous,  as  when  the 
man  of  sin  ' — i.e.  the  Pope — '  is  shown  up  in  all  his  maskings  and  mum- 
meries, and  shown  up  fearlessly  as  was  the  way  of  the  Germans  in  those 
days.     In  those  days  ! ' 


297 


BOOK  II 

POPULAR  LITERATURE 


CHAPTER  I 

FOLKSONG — SONGS  FOR  OCCASIONS   AND    '  HIGH  PRINCELY 
COURT   POETRY  ' — MEISTERSINGING — HANS    SACHS 

In  its  transition  from  the  fifteenth  to  the  sixteenth 
century  the  German  nation  still  evinced  much  versatility 
and  originality  in  poetic  creation,  and  also  an  inex- 
haustible love  of  song.  All  classes  of  society  delighted 
in  the  beautiful  treasury  of  poetry,  the  heritage  of 
earlier  times,  which  had  now  become  the  common 
property  of  all,  and  which  brightened  and  transfigured 
daily  life,  and  added  fresh  lustre  and  joy  to  the  Church 
festivals  and  solemnities.1  And  even  when  the  storm 
of  the  great  religious  and  political  disturbances  broke 
loose  and  shattered  the  unity  and  strength  of  the  people, 
the  young  generation,  which  had  grown  up  in  the  midst 
of  these  terrible  agitations,  preserved  still  for  a  long 
period  the  '  old,  noble  love  of  the  beautiful  songs 
which  had  been  born  in  the  hearts  of  their  ancestors.'  2 
While  the  social  organisation  was  tottering  on  its 
foundations,  and  complaints  of  internal  disruption, 
sanguinary  fighting,   and  growing  distress  among  the 

1  See  our  statements,  vol.  i.  p.  264  ff. 
3   Von  der  WerUe  Eitdkeit,  Bl.  A2. 


298  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

lower  classes  filled  all  Germany,  many  of  the  old 
melodies  were  still  heard  amid  the  wails  of  lamenta- 
tion, and  until  after  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century 
occasional  additions  of  charming  and  edifying  songs 
were  still  made  to  the  old  repertory. 

But  a  new  spring-time  of  poetry  could  not  blossom 
out  at  a  period  when  sedition,  devastation,  and  hostile 
factions  filled  the  land.  Hatred,  envy  and  greed, 
mutual  vilification  and  abuse,  became  the  ruling  factors 
in  the  life  of  the  times,  and  all  joyousness  of  heart, 
all  the  deeper  and  nobler  feelings  of  the  soul,  whence 
the  old  folksongs  had  welled  up  so  plentifully,  were 
crushed  and  stifled.1  All  that  was  henceforth  produced 
in  the  way  of  secular  folksong  was,  for  the  most  part, 
mechanical  and  vulgar,  at  best  only  akin  to  the  common 
type  of  religious  poetry  of  the  period,  the  chief  charac- 
teristics of  which  were  didacticity  and  absence  of  lyric 
feeling.  In  either  case,  whether  folksong  or  hymns, 
the  diction  was  nothing  more  than  dry,  unpliant  prose 
turned  into  rhyme,  with  the  additional  demerit  of  being 
unutterably  diffuse. 

Even  in  the  wine  and  drinking  songs  contemplation 

1  Prutz,  Vorlesungen,  p.  49,  says  :  '  The  Reformation  brought  in  a  new 
springtime  of  poetry.'  '  But  where,'  asks  Frederick  William  Arnold, 
one  of  the  soundest  investigators  among  the  non-Catholics,  '  where  are 
the  artistic  achievements  produced  by  this  so-called  blossoming  period  of 
popular  poetry  during  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  ?  Not  a 
single  important  result  can  we  lay  hands  on.'  '  The  blossoming  period 
of  German  civic  life,  as  well  as  of  German  national  song,  was  over  and 
past.'  '  The  Reformation  had  been  as  a  firebrand  thrown  among  the 
German  nation,  which  swept  everything  away  with  its  devouring  flames. 
Church  and  State  had  tottered  on  their  foundations,  all  things  had 
threatened  to  become  disjointed,  everyone  had  believed  that  the  world 
was  coming  to  an  end.  This  was  no  time  for  the  soft  accents  of  our 
innocent  folksong  to  make  themselves  heard.'  In  Chrysander's  Jahr- 
biicher,  ii.  21,  169. 


DETERIORATION  OF  FOLKSONG         299 

loomed  large,  and  they  were  no  longer  the  expression 
of  mirth  and  joviality,  but  of  licentiousness.  Here  is 
a  specimen : 

To  be  merry  and  jolly  is  ruy  way, 

And  I  mean  to  stick  to  it, 
And  even  should  the  devil  be  grieved 

I  shall  not  be  moved  from  it.  .  .  . 
And  so  I  wish  you  a  drunken  night, 

And  eke  a  drunken  morning. 

Or  again : 

A  woman  wanted  to  go  drink  wine, 

He  ro  ri  ma  to  ri, 

She  wouldn't  let  her  husband  go  with  her, 

Guretzch,  guretzch,  gu  ritzi  maretzch, 

He  ro  ri  ma  to  ri. 

If  you  won't  let  me  go  and  drink  with  you, 

He  ro  ri  ma  to  ri, 

Then  I'll  go  to  another  woman, 

Guretzch.  .  .  .* 

A  singer  of  the  '  Katzenjammer  '  2  complains  that 
his  brain  has  gone,  that  he  is  mad  and  stupid  : 

Oh,  woe,  I  cannot  go  ! 
What  has  befallen  me  ? 
I  cannot  stand  upon  my  feet, 
How  I  have  forgotten  myself  ! 

I  stagger  and  fall  on  a  bench, 
Oh,  woe,  I  cannot  sit ! 
My  stomach  swells,  it's  over-full, 
The  wine  is  oozing  out  of  it. ' 

Aegidius  Albertinus  quotes  the  following  as  a  popular 
drinking  song  : 

1  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben,  Gesellschaftslieder,  pp.  155-156  ;  Goedeke 
and  Tittmann,  Liederbuch  aus  dem  sechzehnten  Jahrhundert,  pp.  129,  133. 
Cf.  Menzel,  Deutsche  Dichtung,  ii.  348. 

2  'Katzenjammer,'  a  piece  of  student  slang  meaning  '  the  aftereffects 
of  drinking.' — (Translator.) 

3  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben,  Gesellschaftslieder,  p.  174.  Cf.  the 
Schlemmer  Vorsatz,  p.  156. 


300  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

We'll  drink  and  swill  till  the  morrow, 
We'll  be  jolly  and  free  from  sorrow.  .  .  . 
We've  never  from  anyone  learned 
Who  hither  from  hell's  returned, 

And  told  us  what  there  goes  on, 
That  conviviality's  wrong. 
So  drink  thy  fill,  he  down,  and  then 
Get  up  and  drink  thy  fill  again.1  .  .  . 

In  Caspar  Stein's  *  Peregrinus '   there  are  drinking 
songs  to  the  following  effect : 

Drink  thyself  full,  lie  down,  and  then 
Get  up  and  chink  thy  fill  again, 
Vomit  from  liver  and  lung, 
That's  to  say  .  .  .  over  the  tongue  : 
For  thus  writes  the  great  Alexander, 
One  surfeit  drives  out  another.'-  .  .  . 

As  regards  military  songs  the  Landsknechts  had  a 
collection  of  ballads  full  of  fresh,  exhilarating  joy  in 

1  De  Conviviis,  pp.  65b-66. 

2  Contributed  by  H.  Frischbier  in  the  Zeitschr.  fiir  deutsche  Psychologic, 
ix.  213-219.  In  the  songs  of  the  sixteenth  century  incidents  of  lower 
life  were  represented  with  a  fidelity  often  bordering  on  brutality,  and 
the  musical  accompaniments  played  willingly  and  with  great  variety 
the  most  extensive  part  in  this  representation  (Reissmann,  ii.  37-38). 
Gervinus    (ii.   258,   275-276)    says  concerning  the  dechne  of   folksong : 

It  may  in  general  be  assumed  that  in  proportion  as  vulgarity  and  blunt- 
ness  become  more  flagrant  in  the  bawdy  songs,  and  coarseness  in  the 
chinking  songs,  the  songs  are  of  later  date.'  'The  worst  stage  of  coarse- 
ness in  folksong  came  in  with  the  period  of  demoralisation  in  the  sixteenth 
century.'  '  Towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  coarse  and  savage 
element  was  more  and  more  discarded  both  from  romantic  stories  in 
prose  and  from  romantic  poetry  and  song.  The  frightful  and  blood- 
curdling stories  of  vengeance,  the  horrible  scenes  of  savagery,  robbery, 
and  murder  which  entertained  and  delighted  the  dissolute,  wandering 
people  of  earlier  ages  in  their  theatre — the  public -house — were  replaced 
at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century  by  tales  of  a  more  human,  tender,  and  touching  kind.  The 
difference  appears  to  some  extent  in  the  text,  but  very  decidedly  in  the 
music.  Later  on,  however,  and  even  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
style  of  romance  literature  frequently  reverted  to  the  taste  of  the 
demoralised  epochs.' 


DETERIORATION  OF  FOLKSONG         301 

battle  ;  but  there  were  others  which  depicted,  more 
vividly  than  agreeably,  the  ways  and  manners  of  the 
soldiers  even  in  friendly  countries  : 

Wine  in  plenty  for  Brother  Veit, 

Plenty  to  eat,  that  something  be  left  over  ; 

Drink  on  tick,  with  nothing  part, 

So  pay  the  landlord  that  he  shall  cry  for  a  doctor. 

'  When  they  draw  near  a  village,'  writes  a  con- 
temporary, '  they  sing  the  following  jargon  to  the 
accompaniment  of  their  drums  : 

Pide,  pide,  pum, 
Beware,  0  peasant,  I  come  ! 
And  I'm  not  pious  like  some, 
I  steal  and  rob  ad  libitum.' 

Another  song  was  as  follows  : 

A  Landsknecht  and  a  bacon  pig 
Must  be  stuffed  full  alway, 
For  neither  of  them  knows  what  day 
They'll  strangled  be  and  stabbed. l 

The  love  songs  at  this  period  lost  all  sincerity  of 
feeling  and  tenderness  of  thought ;  under  the  influence 
of  growing  demoralisation  the  erotic  element  gained 
very  undue  preponderance  in  this  department  also. 
'  There  are  nowadays,'  wrote  Katherine  Zell,  in  1534, 
'  so  many  scandalous  songs  of  men  and  women  sung 
everywhere,  even  to  children,  songs  in  which  vice, 
adultery,  and  other  disgraceful  things  are  put  before 
the  old  and  the  young,  and  the  world  insists  on  having 
them  sung.'  -  '  The  wicked  enemy  has  brought  things 
to  such  a  pass,'  said  Martin  Bucer  nine  years  later, 
'  that  this  beautiful  art  and  gift  of  music  is  almost 
solely   used,    or   rather   misused,    for   voluptuousness ; 

1  G.  Scherer,  Postille,  Bl.  438b,  439,  543. 
-  Wackernagel,  Bibliographie,  p.  554. 


302  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  it  is  not  only  that  this  is  a  very  grievous  sin,  inas- 
much as  music  is  an  excellent  gift  of  God,  but  also  that 
it  makes  all  words  that  are  set  to  it  penetrate  all  the 
more  powerfully  into  the  heart  and  the  feelings.  Hence 
it  is  terrible  to  think  what  harm  may  be  done  to  the 
young  and  to  others  by  the  devilish  songs  of  passion 
they  hear  sung,  because  what  is  already  by  itself  too 
alluring  to  the  senses  becomes  still  more  so  by  the  aid 
of  music,  and  sinks  deeper  into  the  heart.'  ] 

Multitudes    of   drinking  songs  and    amorous    songs 
were    distributed    on    leaflets.     '  Every    year,'     John 
Herolt   complains   in    1542,    '  they   make   fresh   songs, 
which   our  daughters   are   obliged  to   learn   by  heart, 
and  of  which  the  burden  generally  is  how  the  man  was 
deceived  by  the  woman,  or  how  the  parents'  care  of 
a  daughter  had  been  all  in  vain,  and  how  she  had  been 
seduced.     And  these  things,  moreover,  are  related  as 
if  they  were  good  actions,  and  the  wickedness  which 
has     succeeded     so    well     is    praised.     The     corrupt 
subject-matter    is    dressed   up    with    shameless    words 
of  double  meaning,  so  that  scandal  itself  could  not  be 
more  scandalous.     And  by  means  of  this  trade  numbers 
make  their  living,   especially  in  the  Netherlands.     If 
justice  had  its  right  course  the  authors  of  such  songs 
would  soon  learn  to  sing  songs  of  tribulation  under  the 
rod  of  the  executioner.     As  it  is,  however,  those  who 
corrupt  the  young  live  on  the  fruits  of  their  criminal 
work.     And  there  are  actually  some  parents  who  think 
that  their  daughters  are  not  up  in  the  ways  of  good 
society  if  they  are  not  acquainted  with  these  songs. 


'   2 


1  Wackernagel,  p.  584. 

-  Goedeke,  Orundriss,  ii.  23-24,  where  several  more  similar  remarks 
by  contemporaries  are  quoted. 


AMOROUS   SONGS  30° 


o 


Cyriaciii    Spangenberg    complained    in    1598   that   '  in 
many  places  the  authorities  allowed  everybody  to  sing 
revolting,  indecent,  godless  songs  in  the  streets  and  at 
their  work.' ]     In  his  '  Ehespiegel '  ( '  Mirror  of  Marriage ' ) 
of  1570,  Spangenberg  inveighed  against  the  '  singing- 
dances,'   in  which   men   and  women,   young  and  old, 
joined   together,    forming    a    ring.'       These    in   them- 
selves,  he    said,    '  are    not    reprehensible,    so    long   as 
improper  songs   are  left    out ;    but   nowadays    people 
seem  to  think  that  those  who  can  sing  the  most  filthy, 
shameless  songs,  and  introduce  the  utmost  amount  of 
impropriety  into  the  proceedings,   form   the   life    and 
soul  of  the   party.'  2     In  opposition   to    '  an   abomin- 
able song  which  it  is  now  very  much  the  fashion  to 
sing  to  an  accompaniment  of  fifes  and  fiddles,   with 
dancing  and  jumping,'  a  '  new  beautiful  sacred  song ' 
was    published    at   Nuremberg   in    157 1.3     'Is    it   not 
beyond  measure  shameless  and  devilish,'  asks  the  writer 
of  an  '  Ermahnung  wider  Huren-  und  Buben-Schand ' 
of  1557,  '  that   in  many  places  sword-dances  are  per- 
formed by  men  almost  naked,  with  singing  of  lewd, 
scandalous  songs  (Huren-  und  Venuslieder),  fresh  speci- 
mens being  made  and  sold  every  year  ? '  4 

Collections  of  improper  love  songs  appeared  under 
the  titles  '  Venus-Kranzlein,'  '  Venus-Glocklein,'  '  Neue 
amorische  Gesanglein  mit  hierzu  allerseits  artigen  und 
sehnlichen  Texten '  ( '  New  amorous  ditties  with  all  sorts 

1  Von  der  Musica,  p.  154. 

2  Ehespiegel,  p.  294  ff.;  cf.  Aegidius  Albertinus,  De  conviviis,  pp.  74-75. 

3  Weller,  Annalen,  ii.  435,  No.  588. 

4  Without  locality,  1557  ;  two  sheets.  In  1555  a  number  of  people 
were  taken  into  custody  in  Dresden  for  having  admittedly  performed 
all  sorts  of  dances  in  a  state  of  nudity,  or  with  nothing  but  shirts  on 
them,  at  night-time  in  the  churchyard  round  the  church,  and  on  the 
graves  (Falke,  Gesch.  des  Kurfiirsten  August,  pp.  331-332). 


304  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

of  pretty  and  passionate  texts' ),  '  Musikalische  Strauss- 
lein  von  schonen  wohlriechenden  Bllimlein,  so  in  Venus 
Garten  gewachsen '  (  '  Musical  nosegays  of  beautiful 
sweet-smelling  flowers,  which  are  grown  in  the  garden 
of  Venus '  ),  '  GTildener  Venuspfeil '  (  '  Golden  arrows  of 
Venus '  ),  '  Musikalische  Wollust,  allerhand  newe,  an- 
miithige,  amorosische  Sachen  '  (  '  Musical  treasure  of  all 
sorts  of  new,  inspiriting,  amorous  things '  ),  and  so  forth.1 

The  number  of  books  of  songs  was  extraordinarily 
large,  and  many  publishers  of  new  collections  took  care 
to  designate  earlier  ones  as  morally  objectionable. 
Thus  Paul  von  der  Alst,  in  the  preface  to  his  song-book 
'  Blumen  und  Ausbund  allerhand  auserlesener  weltlicher 
ziichtiger  Lieder  und  Reime  '  ( '  Flowers  and  selections 
of  all  sorts  of  exquisite,  secular,  chaste  songs  and 
rhymes' )  of  the  year  1602,  says  :  '  In  many  different 
places  there  have  been  printed  certain  German  books  of 
songs  which  are  full  of  all  sorts  of  disgraceful,  immoral 
and  good-for-nothing  songs,  by  which  the  young  are 
enticed  and  stirred  into  light-mindedness.'  He  himself, 
on  the  contrary,  had  only  printed  the  loveliest,  most 
beautiful  and  most  chaste  and  innocent  little  songs, 
in  order  '  in  some  measure  to  divert  young  lads  and 
maidens  from  vice  and  immorality,  and  to  keep  them 
to  the  paths  of  virtue.'  And  yet  his  own  collection 
contains  not  a  few  of  the  most  thoroughly  immoral 
songs.2  This  is  also  the  case  with  the  Frankfort  booklet 
of  songs  of  1584,  dedicated  to  '  all  young  lads  and 
modest  maidens.'  3 

George  Forster,  whose  collection  of  1539  forms  one 

1  Goedeke,  Grundriss,  ii.  70,  75,  79,  80,  81. 

2  Alphabetical  catalogue  of  the  songs  in  Goedeke,  ii.  42-44,  No.  36. 
Cf.  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben  in  the  Weimarer  Jahrb.  ii.  320-356. 

3  The  title  in  Goedeke,  Grundriss,  ii.  42,  No.  38\ 


AMOROUS   SONGS  305 

of  the  most  important  sources  for  folksong  melodies, 
presented  an  immaculate  front  to  the  public,  but  all 
the  same  he  composed  one  of  the  most  abominable 
indecencies.1  A  '  Peasants'  Calendar '  also,  which  is 
not  wanting  in  lasciviousness,1'  was  set  by  him  to 
music  for  four  voices.  The  composers,  even  Orlandus 
Lassus,  selected  by  special  preference  materials  which 
were  by  no  means  suitable  for  musical  treatment, 
but  which  it  is  necessary  to  mention  in  order  to  give 
a  right  impression  of  the  taste  and  tendency  of  the 
period.  Lassus,  for  instance,  arranged  as  four-  or  six- 
part  songs  such  subjects  as  a  basket-maker  who  beats 
his  wife  because  she  will  not  say  '  God  be  praised,  the 
basket  is  made  !  ' ;  a  valiant  young  woman  who  has 
curbed  and  tamed  her  wicked  step-mother  ;  the  cries  of 
distress  of  a  husband  at  the  palpable  ill-usage  of  his 
stronger  half ;  and,  in  contrast,  a  wife's  complaints  of 
her  husband  who  is  going  to  ruin ;  and  even  an  out- 
and-out  tasteless  song  of  noses  ('  Nasenlied  ') :  '  Hort 
zu  ein  neu's  Gedicht,  von  Nasen  zugericht '  ( '  Listen 
to  a  new  poem,  written  about  noses').3 

1  See  Ambros,  iii.  397,  398.  '  Forster  does  verily  make  up  for  this 
by  a  truly  appalling  "  moral  song  "  ("  Ach  Magdlein  fein  ").  The  pre- 
sence of  the  moral  here  is  as  objectionable  in  its  conspicuousness  as  is  the 
absence  of  a  moral  in  the  other  song.' 

-  Von  Liliencron,  Deutsches  Leben  im  Volkslied,  pp.  135-143.  The 
calendar  contains,  indeed,  more  than  '  some  coarsenesses  '  (cf.  vol.  xlvii.). 

3  From  E.  Bohn,  '  Orl.  de  Lassus  als  Komponist  weltlicher  deutscher 
Lieder,'  in  the  Jahrb.  fur  Milnchener  Geschichte,  i.  188  ff.  In  the  song  of 
noses  '  all  possible  and  impossible  varieties  of  the  human  organ  of  smell 
are  described  with  appalling  truth  to  nature.  The  different  epithets 
counted  up  in  this  song  are  so  coarsely  original  that  one  can  scarcely  be 
mistaken  in  assuming  that  they  belong  to  the  jargon  of  the  very  lowest 
classes  of  the  Munich  people.'  '  Lassus  has  persistently  resisted  the 
temptation  to  illustrate  indecent  scenes  by  music.  Sexual  misdemeanours, 
such  as  his  colleague,  Ivo  de  Vento,  published  with  the  utmost  indiffer- 
ence, are  not  introduced  into  his  songs — a  proof  this  of  his  higher  artistic 

VOL.    XI.  X 


306  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

The  '  simple  melodies '  of  the  genuine  folksongs 
were  only  referred  to  mockingly,  and  their  original 
wording  fell  so  quickly  into  oblivion  that  even  Forster 
in  his  book  of  songs  said  emphatically  he  had  often 
striven  in  vain  to  recover  it,  and  therefore  '  when  the 
old  text  was  missing,  or  the  rhymes  seemed  to  him 
inappropriate,  he  had  substituted  fresh  words.' l 

The  increased  cultivation  of  the  art  of  song,  and  the 
introduction  of  all  sorts  of  Italian  forms  and  melodies, 
brought  folksong  to  ruin.- 

Every  book-fair  brought  fresh  madrigals,  canzonets, 
motets,  terzinas,  intradas,  villanelles,  galliards,  cour- 
ants,  songs  from  Padua  and  Naples,  saltarellas,  voltas, 
ballets,  parodies,  passamezzos  and  such  like.  Italian 
modes  of  sentiment  and  forms  of  poetry  gained  wider 
and  wider  ground,  all  naturalness  and  national  charac- 

nature  and  more  enlightened  conception  of  art.'  '  Lassus  is  at  his  best 
in  folk,  drinking,  and  love  songs.  His  folksongs  have  not,  it  is  true, 
throughout  the  naive  sincerity  which  charms  and  touches  us  in  the 
old  folksongs,  but  they  are  not  wanting  in  traces  of  it.'  '  One  of  his 
best  love  songs,  "  Wohl  kommt  der  Mai,"  gives  the  impression  that 
the  composer,  at  the  end,  was  seized  with  penitence  for  having  at 
the  beginning  sung  so  heartily  and  naturally,  and  therefore  hastens  to 
show,  by  the  most  complicated  and  intricate  syncopes,  that  he  is  able, 
even  when  there  is  no  occasion  for  it,  to  write  in  a  quite  terribly  learned 
and  artistic  manner.' 

1  Wackernagel,  Gesch.  der  dewtsrhen  Litteratur,  pp.  395,  397. 

-  **  See  Steinhausen,  Die  Anfiinge  des  franz.  Litteratur-  u.  Kulturein- 
ff.usscx,  p.  375. — Riehl,  KuUurstudien,  p.  349  ft.,  points  out  in  a  section  on 
the  '  Volksgesang  '  how  admirably  a  nation  can  educate  itself  musically, 
but  only  so  long  as  '  no  foreign  hands  take  hold  of  the  plough.'  The 
people  only  take  delight  in  that  which  '  is  quite  their  own.'  Only  a 
song  '  whose  form  and  idea  have  grown  out  of  the  heart  of  the  people  itself, 
and  expresses  nothing  but  what  this  particular  tribe  understands  and 
feels  called  and  compelled  to  utter,  only  a  "  home-grown  "  song  of  this 
sort  is  at  all  times  a  sound  and  true  folksong.'  '  Musical  forms  and 
ideas,  which  are  foreign  to  the  organism  of  any  tribe  of  people,  which 
are  poured  in  from  outside,  undigested  and  indigestible  matter,  are  ex- 
tremely unwholesome.' 


ITALIAN   FORMS   AND   MELODIES   INTRODUCED     o07 

teristics  disappeared  by  degrees,  and  most  of  the  songs 
were  stuffed  with  learning,  allegories,  mythological 
names  and  allusions,  foreign  words  and  phraseology.1 

The  outward  form  of  the  compositions  was  more 
and  more  worked  up  in  proportion  as  the  subject- 
matter  became  coarser  and  ruder.  In  place  of  the  old 
songs  of  nature,  of  love,  of  leave-takings,  &c,  full  of 
deep  and  tender  feeling,  bawdy  and  drinking  songs 
came  into  fashion,  obscenity  of  all  sorts  was  put  into 
the  form  of  songs,  songs  in  honour  of  marriages  and 
festivities,  songs  on  names  (acrostics),  echoes,  '  Motti,' 
and  so  forth.  A  specially  favourite  form  of  composition 
was  the  '  Quodlibets,'  which  consisted  of  a  number 
of  beginnings  of  well-known  songs  strung  together 
in  the  most  inconsequent  and  contradictory  manner.2 
These  last  are  typical  of  the  confused,  discordant, 
troubled  life  of  the  times.  A  Quodlibet  of  the  year 
1610,  '  Sieben  lacherliche  Geschnaltz  '  (seven  ridiculous 
pairs  of  lovers),  is  conspicuous  among  all  the  rest  for  its 
indecencies.3 

At  the  same  time  the  delight  that  was  taken  in 
'  exquisite  poetic  '  productions  from  abroad  led  to  the 
composition  of  '  Tender  Venus  sweetnesses,  and  pastoral 
songs  '  in  a  strange  mixture  of  languages.     In  the  three- 

1  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben,  Geellschaftslieder,  viii.-x.  For  the  rest, 
German  song  in  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  by  no 
means  '  completely  under  the  dominion  of  Italians  and  Netherlander  ' 
(cf.  E.  Bohn  in  the  Jahrbuch  far  Miinchener  Gesch.  i.  185-186). 

-  See  Ambros,  iii.  397  ;  Gervinus,  ii.  284  ff.  ;  Hoffmann  von  Fallers- 
leben in  the  Weimarer  Jahrb.  ii.  320  ff. 

1  See  the  '  Mitteilungen  von  A.  Liibden  '  in  the  Zeitschr.  fur  deutsche 
Pkilologie,  xv.  48-65.  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben,  who  in  the  Weimarer 
Jahrbuch,  iii.  126  ff.,  erroneously  places  this  Quodlibet  in  the  year  1620, 
expresses  regretful  astonishment  that  such  wanton  things  should  have 
been  published  at  the  sad  and  serious  time  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War 
then  beginning  (cf.  Liibden,  p.  49). 

x  2 


308  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

part  '  German  songs,'  published  by  Nicholas  Zangius  at 
Vienna  in  1611,  there  occur  the  following  stanzas  :  ' 

Therefore  now  I'll  diligently 

Visit  Venus-school, 
To  study  courtly  gallantry 

And  master  every  rule. 
0  Amor  free,  preceptor  be, 
And  teach  me  rationally 
To  practise  always  gallantry. 

The  Venus-school 

...  is  so  privileged 

And  everywhere  so  free, 

That  a  gallant  with  virtue  hedged 

And  true  courtliness 

Even  should  he  be  disgusted,  &c.- 

After  the  Thirty  Years'  War  had  already  begun  to 
spread  its  terrors  over  Germany,  the  Leipzig  music 
director,  John  Hermann  Schein,  still  went  on  singing 
'  beautiful  flowery  and  ornate  rhymes  '  about  Phyllis 
and  Amaryllis,  about  the  arch-rogue  Amor  and  his 
tricks,  and  also  about  nature  ;  for  example  : 

Now  have  your  leaves  returned  once  more,  ye  woods  and  myrtle 

groves, 
Your  buds  show  green  allegreznent,  rejoice  in  chorus  all. 
Ho  (Amor)  that  many  tenderly  and  exquisitely  paints, 
Himself  again  presents,  &c.3 

In  addition  to  such  disquisitions  on  '  sweet  amorous 

i  **  xhe  noticeable  feature  in  these  verses,  and  one  which  cannot 
be  inchoated  in  a  translation,  is  the  introduction  of  foreign,  Germanised 
words,  such  as  '  visitieren,'  '  gallanisieren,'  '  Amor,'  '  Praceptor,'  '  privi- 
legiert,'  '  disgustiert,'  '  corbisiert.' — (Translator.) 

2  Hoffmann  von  Fallcrslcben,  Gescllschaftlicher  Lieder,  x.  note  (cf. 
pp.  45-46). 

:!  Gervinus,  ii.  287.  Compare  the  beginnings  of  numerous  songs  of 
this  sort  in  Goedeke,  Grundriss,  ii.  71-73.  **  Concerning  Joh.  Herm. 
Schein,  cf.  the  monograph  of  Priifer,  Leipzig,  1895. 


POPULAR   SONG   BECOMES    BARREN   AND    SOULLESS      309 

delights  ,  there  appeared  a  mass  of  all  sorts  of  '  rhymed 
novelties  '  from  public  and  private  life,  rhymed  medicine - 
books,  manuals  for  peasants,  health-receipts,  rules  of 
weather,  hints  concerning  domestic  furniture,  con- 
cerning horse-riding,  and  the  best  way  of  training 
horses.1 

How  barren  and  soulless  popular  poetry  had  become 
is  shown  also  by  the  countless  vers  cV  occasion  which 
were  concocted  in  honour  of  important  family  events. 
Thus,  for  instance,  the  preacher  Bartholomew  Ringwalt, 
who  passed  as  an  admirable  poet  and  whose  didactic 
poetry  had  the  widest  circulation,  composed  verses 
in  honour  of  all  the  guests  present  at  the  wedding  of 
the  daughter  of  a  preacher  in  1588,  and  of  a  bookseller 
in  1595.  For  each  separate  guest  he  made  a  separate 
verse.     Of  the  one  he  said  : 

The  worthy  Henry  Meder  is 

A  sheriff  and  innkeeper, 
He's  very  fond  of  eating  young  chicken 

And  the  liver  of  the  pike. 

1  See  Gervinus,  ii.  280  ff.,  382,  401-402.  'The  struggles  of  actual 
life  dragged  poetry  down  to  such  low  depths  that  the  art  seemed  gradually 
drawing  to  its  end.'  '  There  was  no  class  that  did  not  occupy  itself  with 
rhyming,  or  that  abstained  from  putting  the  coarsest,  the  vulgarest,  the 
most  purely  prosaic  and  industrial  things  into  verse.'  '  Historical  inci- 
dents, also,  of  the  most  ordinary  kind,  and  theological  controversies, 
which  in  no  manner  of  way  lent  themselves  to  poetic  form,  were  put  into 
verse.'  The  high-falutin  way  in  which  everything  was  treated  is  seen, 
for  instance,  in  the  poetic  description  of  '  a  signorial  shooting  match  at 
Ulm  in  1556.'     It  begins  with  the  words  : 

Eternal  God,  upon  Thy  throne, 
I  pray  thee  leave  me  not  alone, 
Thy  Holy  Spirit  to  me  give, 
In  Whom  all  truth  and  wisdom  live, 
Thy  grace  divine  shed  on  me  too, 
Without  which  no  one  aught  can  do, 
That  I  my  poem  may  complete. 

And  so  forth,  in  Scheible,  SchaUjahr,  iv.  341. 


310  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Of  another  : 

The  very  learned  Mr.  C4eorge  Sausagemaker 

(As  he  is  called) 
Is  now  investigating  high  matters  ; 

He  is  no  one's  antagonist. 

Of  a  third,  the  burgomaster  of  Frankfort-on-the- 
Oder  : 

God  keep  him  long  time  hale  and  fresh, 

As  all  his  children  wish  it  ; 
He  often  gives  me  mountain  fish, 

Wine,  Swedish  cheese  and  plaices.1 

Of  melancholy  import,  on  the  other  hand,  were  the 
rhymes  published  by  the  Kiindorf  preacher,  John 
Ebert,  as,  for  instance,  the  story  of  '  Seven  Christian 
persons  at  Rohra,  who  during  a  terrific  thunderstorm 
of  long  duration  were  suddenly  overtaken  by  inunda- 
tion, and  disastrously  buried  with  different  buildings.' 

Claus  Sturm,  a  pious  man  and  tailor, 
Margaret  Ins  wife,  alas  !  alas  ! 
Anna,  their  daughter,  a  girl  about 
Six  years  old,  or  maybe  more  ; 
Hanslein,  their  little  son,  about 
Two  years  old,  could  not  get  away. 
/  These  four  people  all  at  once 

With  house  and  farm  were  drowned. 

In  some  lines  that  follow  we  are  told  : 

The  barber  Halbhaus,  who  was  drowned, 
Beside  a  cowshed  tottering  sunk. 
With  a  shed,  a  horse,  and  a  pig-sty 
Stephen  Moller  away  did  hie.2 

On  the  death  of  princes  and  lords  the  muse  of 
tributary  verses  not  seldom  took  the  opportunity  of 

1  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben,  B.  Ringwaldt,  pp.  28-31. 
-  Einfiiltige    Wetter  predigt    bei    erbarmlielier  Leichbestattang    u.    s.   w. 
(Schleusingen,  1607),  Bl.  F--G. 


VERSES   FOR   OCCASIONS  311 

producing  some  sort  of  funeral  oration,  even  if  she  did 
not  soar  quite  so  high  as  the  preacher  John  Strack, 
who,  on  the  death  of  the  Elector  John  Casimir  of  the 
Palatinate,  wrote  : 

Ye  vales  and  mountains,  trees  and  grass, 
No  dew  shall  fall  on  you  until 
With  me  ye  lamentation  make.1  .  .  . 

A  special  and  separate  class  of  poetry  consisted  of 
the  so-called  '  priviligierte  und  professionierte  hoch- 
furstliche  Hofpoesie  '  (privileged  and  professional  high- 
princely  court  poetry),  which  had  to  do  duty  on  every 
kind  of  joyful  or  sorrowful  occasion,  at  princely  wed- 
dings, baptisms,  and  deaths,  at  court  festivities  and 
other  '  exalted  princely  recreations.'  Philip  Agricola, 
in  1581,  sang  in  honour  of  the  '  Ring-running  of  John 
George,  Margrave  of  Brandenburg,'  and  published  in 
the  same  year  in  poetic  enthusiasm  a  rhymed  '  Gliick- 
wiinschendes  Gesprach  der  Taube  und  Nachtigall  iiber 
die  Niederkunft  Frauen  Elisabeth,  Johann  Georgs 
Gemahlin '  ('  Congratulations  on  the  delivery  in  childbirth 
of  Frau  Elizabeth,  wife  of  John  George,  in  the  shape  of 
a  rhymed  dialogue  between  a  dove  and  a  nightingale').2 
The  Brandenburg  court  musician,  George  Pfund,  in 
1610,  enriched  the  treasury  of  Parnassus  with  more 
than  2,000  verses  under  the  title  of,  '  Freud,  Leid  und 
Hoffnung,  das  ist  etliche  denkwiirdige  Sachen  von 
unserer  hohen  Obrigkeit  und  loblichsten  Herrschaften 
in  der  hochloblichen  Chur  und  Mark  Brandenburg ' 
('  Joy,  sorrow,  and  hope — that  is  to  say,  some  memor- 
able events  among  our   high  rulers  and  most  laudable 

1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  ix.  pp.  160,  167. 

2  Weller,  Annalen,  i.  337,  Nos.  236,  237. 


312  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

lordships  in  the  highly  laudable  Electorate  and   Mark 
of  Brandenburg').1 

John  Ditmar  sang  in  1583  of  the  '  Heimfahrt  und 
Beilager  Friedrich  Wilhelms,  Herzogen  zu  Sachsen  ;  ' 
George  Molysdorfmus  in  1585  of  the  '  Edle  Rauten- 
kranz  mit  seinem  schonen  Geheimnis,  welches  bedeut 
den  herrlichen  Einzug  des  Ehrenkonigs  Johann  Christian 
ins  hochlobliche  Chur-  und  fiirstliche  Haus  zu  Sachsen  ;  ' 
('  Of  the  noble  garland  of  rue  with  its  beautiful  secret, 
which  signifies  the  glorious  entry  of  the  illustrious  King 
John  Christian  into  the  most  laudable  electoral  and 
princely  house  of  Saxony ' )  ;  Balthasar  Mentzius  von 
Nimeck  sang  of  the  '  Eigentliche  Bikinis  des  durch- 
lauchtigsten  Fiirsten  Augusti,  Herzogen  zu  Sachsen.' 

If  anyone  deserves  praise  here  upon  earth, 
It  is  this  Elector  of  so  great  worth. - 

The  court  poets  in  Saxony,  however,  were  not  held 
in  high  esteem.  In  the  Dresden  court  book  (of  accounts) 
they  were  included  among  the  '  menials  of  the  court,' 
in  company  with  the  cymbal-beater,  lion-tamers,  and 
rat-catchers.13 

In  nearly  all  the  principalities  '  there  flourished 
poetic  geniuses  of  this  kind  who  could  not  sing  enough 
of  the  glory  of  the  most  laudable  lords  and  of  their 
joyful  festive  proceedings  and  expeditions.'  4  One  of 
the  most  extraordinary  books  in  praise  of  princes  is  the 
one  dedicated  to  Duke  Christopher  of  Wurttemberg 
under  the  title  '  Lustgart  neuer  deutscher  Poeterei  in 
fiinf  Buchern  beschrieben  und  gedicht  durch  Matthiam 

1  See  Friedlander,  xi.  note. 

-  Weller,  Annalen,  i.  340  ft,  Nos.  250,  261,  289. 

?l  Miiller,  Forschungen,  i.  196. 

1  See  the  writings  quoted  in  Goedeke,  Grundriss,  ii.  326,  No.  iv.  ff. 


PRINCELY  HIGH  POETRY  313 

Holzwart  von  Harburg,  zu  Ehren  dem  fiirstlichen 
hochloblichen  Haus  Wlirtenberg  '  ('  Pleasure  garden  of 
German  poetry  in  five  books,  written,'  &c,  &C.).1 

Pagan  mythology  and  ancient  and  modern  history 
are  here  jumbled  together  in  the  most  cheerful  manner, 
and  adapted  to  Wiirttemberg.  The  versifier  has  a  high 
opinion  of  his  vocation  :  '  Most  certainly,'  he  says  in 
the  preface,  '  that  man  uttered  the  truth  who  wrote  of 
the  poets  :  God  is  in  us ;  we  fathom  the  heavenliness  of 
heaven.'  '  I  do  not  doubt  but  that  many  cynical  sneerers, 
and  coarse,  unintelligent  blockheads  will  laugh  at  and 
ridicule  this  my  pleasant,  but  very  arduous,  work  and 
poetry,  and  will  regard  me  as  half  a  Pagan  or  an  ido- 
later ;  but  I  am  indifferent  to  them  all,  for  to  the  pure 
all  things  are  pure,  to  the  impure  all  is  impure.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  am  equally  certain  that  from  all  intelligent 
artists  and  lovers  of  all  honourable  diversions  and 
virtues  I  shall  obtain  some  renown  and  honour.'  The 
supreme  God  Jupiter  was  certainly,  as  the  poet  informs 
the  reader  in  the  numerous  marginal  notes  intended  to 
explain  the  rhymes,  '  a  great  scoundrel  and  debauchee,' 
but  it  appears  to  him  highly  praiseworthy  that  this 
celestial  potentate,  in  company  with  all  the  other  gods 
and  goddesses,  looked  with  special  favour  on  the  House 
of  Wiirttemberg.     Diana  above  all  was  its  patron. 

Now  when  before  Jove's  majesty  she  stood, 
'  Oh,  bounteous  god,  oh,  father  good !  ' 
She  cried,  '  thou  knowest  well  how  strong 
The  love,  how  great  the  care  that  all  along 
I  for  the  noble  House  of  Wiirtemberg 
Have  had,  because  in  my  own  work 


1  At  the  end  is  inscribed  :    '  Printed  at  Strassburg  by  Josiah  Rihel, 
15G8.     Folio.' 


314  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Skilful  it's  been  and  gladsome  ever. 
The  hunt,  the  chase  neglected  never  ; 
Me  at  all  times  they've  glorified 
By  hunting  daily,  far  and  wide, 
Night  and  day.'  .  .  . 

'  Diana  came  down  in  person  to  Count  Ulrich,'  after 
having  first  given  the  following  explanation  to  Minerva  : 

....  Rather  than  suffer 
Wiirttemberg  to  be  forsaken 
I'd  be  a  child's  mother  on  this  earth, 
Though  that  would  be  more  terrible  to  me 
Than  if  this  instant  I  should  die. 

'  The  gods  all  offer  to  do  something  for  the  honour 
of  the  laudable  House  of  Wiirttemberg  :  first,  Juno 
gives  chaste  wives  and  obedient  children ; '  Jupiter 
'  sends  Mercury  to  Worms  to  the  Diet,  where  Duke 
Eberhart  VI.  was  ;  '  on  the  other  hand,  '  the  Furies 
make  a  league  with  Lucina  '  to  prevent  the  Duke  from 
having  any  offspring.1 

In  contradistinction  to  the  plain,  simple  folksong 
of  old,  there  had  grown  up,  in  the  golden  period  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  a  class  of  poetry  known  as  artistic  court 
song,  which,  not  content  with  simple  lyric  expression 
of  poetic  feeling,  sought  to  embody  thoughts  and 
sentiments  in  the  artistic  form  of  architecturally  con- 
structed and  mellifluous  stanzas.  In  the  hands  of 
genuine  poets  this  method  escaped  the  snare  of  barren, 
soulless  formalism.  The  spirit,  the  thought  maintained 
supremacy,  and  the  form  adapted  itself  easily,  harmo- 
niously and  naturally  to  the  controlling  ideas. 

1  Pp.  101,  106,  108,  133b,  145".  '  It  will  soon  come  to  this,'  so  the 
Meissen  Superintendent  Strigenicius  complained  in  his  sermons  on  Jonas  50a, 
'  that  no  carmen  will  any  more" be  written  or  printed,  without  invocations 
in  them  to  the  pagan  gods  and  goddesses,  Apollo,  or  Phoebus,  and  the 
Muses.' 


'  MEISTERGESANG  '  315 

However  metrically  rigid  the  stanzas  might  be,  they 
were  still,  as  a  rule,  instinct  with  the  same  warm  life 
that  had  pulsated  in  the  primitive  folksongs.  Even 
when  these  ornate  lyrical  compositions  came  down  to  the 
status  of  burgher-song  in  the  halls  of  the  guilds,  there 
was  still  sufficient  poetic  force  in  the  national  spirit  to 
save  the  diction,  as  a  rule,  from  stiffening  into  mere 
outward  formalism.  Nevertheless  the  danger  was  there, 
and  it  became  greater  and  greater.  When  everything 
was  done  according  to  definite  prescriptions  and  rules, 
when  even  pleasures  and  entertainments  had  their  fixed, 
unalterable  days,  and  mechanical  handiwork  derived 
its  best  practical  support  from  a  strictly  organised 
system  of  membership,  it  was  only  too  likely  that  art 
also  would  fall  under  the  same  tyranny  of  system. 
Schools  of  song  were  erected,  fixed  rules  and  forms 
established  for  the  structure  of  strophes  and  for  making 
rhymes  ;  the  pursuit  of  art  was  regulated  down  to  the 
minutest  details,  and  the  same  extreme  and  rigid 
exactness  with  which  all  mechanical  work  is  carried  on, 
was  imposed  on  what  should  be  the  most  spontaneous 
of  all  arts,  viz.  song. 

Under  favourable  conditions  the  poetic  spirit  might, 
even  in  these  surroundings,  have  triumphed  over  the  form, 
for  the  atmosphere  of  the  guildhalls  did  not  exclude  the 
most  tender  sentiments.  The  guilds  had  also  their 
summer  festivals  in  the  open  air :  all  the  different  utter- 
ances of  folk  poetry  could  find  echoes  among  the  worthy 
artisans  and  craftsmen.  The  '  Meistergesang  '  of  the 
fifteenth  century  is  by  no  means  completely  deadened 
by  pedantic  artificiality  and  barren  pedagogy. 

When,  however,  the  towns,  and  with  them  the  guilds, 
were  drawn  into  the  terrible  whirlpool  of  political  and 


316  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

religious  revolution,  when  the  old  stability  of  faith  was 
lost,  and  almost  the  whole  fabric  of  national  life  was 
torn  by  dissolute  quarrels  and  party  intrigues,  it  was 
inevitable  that  Meistersinging  also  should  lose  all 
artistic  impulse  and  spirit,  and  should  be  reduced  to 
pure  mechanicality.  The  harmless  desire  to  rise  from 
pupil  to  school  friend,  to  singer,  poet,  '  Meister,'  became 
adulterated  by  perilous  ambition  among  the  lower 
classes  to  rise  out  of  their  humble  position,  and,  under 
cover  of  the  '  evangel,'  to  take  their  share  in  politics. 

In  place  of  the  earlier  spirit  of  good  fellowship  a 
bitter,  odious  spirit  of  religious  controversy  prevailed  ; 
the  barrenness  of  the  polemical  preaching  which  was 
everywhere  in  vogue  pervaded  all  the  moralising 
didacticism  of  the  guildhalls.  With  most  exemplary 
jejuneness  the  '  Meistersingers  '  and  their  pupils  dressed 
up  the  highest  objects  of  Christian  faith  and  morality 
in  homely  twaddling  rhymes,  whilst,  in  fighting  the 
papacy,  the  rudest  street  jargon,  abuse  of  every  kind, 
even  vulgarity  and  obscenity,  were  considered  allowable. 
Hence,  in  spite  of  careful  and  anxious  cultivation  of 
outward  form,  the  poetic  art,  pursued  on  the  lines  of 
mechanical  precision,  became  distinguished  by  utter 
absence  of  taste,  and  when  once  the  finer  artistic  sense 
had  been  extinguished,  the  driest  and  prosiest  of  prose 
came  to  be  regarded  as  poetry  if  only  the  metre  and 
rhymes  had  been  carefully  worked  up.  Mere  artificiality 
took  the  place  of  art  in  nearly  all  the  innumerable 
rhymed  productions — as  coarse  as  they  were  empty 
and  unideal — which  flooded  town  and  country.  There 
was  no  weapon  of  criticism  to  separate  the  wheat  from 
the  chaff  and  tares,  no  higher  culture  to  point  the  poets 
to  the  classic  models  ;  but  the  worst  feature  of  all  was 


'  MEISTERGESANG  '— HANS   SACHS  317 

that  the  poetisers  gave  themselves  out  as  true  heirs 
and  successors  of  the  famous  knightly  poets,  as  the 
only  legitimate  representatives  of  '  divine  poesie,'  and 
posed  as  the  chief  tribunal  of  art,  from  which  it  resulted 
that  the  healthy  grit  of  the  national  spirit  of  poetry, 
which  in  its  own  sphere  always  strikes  the  natural  vein, 
disappeared  more  and  more. 

The  most  comprehensive  and  distinguished  of  the 
Meistersingers,  and  the  one  therefore  who  was  longest 
held  up  as  a  proverbial  model,  was  the  Nuremberg 
shoemaker,  Hans  Sachs,  who  far  surpassed  all  his  guild 
associates  in  poetic  endowment,  and  who  was  one  of 
the  most  fruitful  and  facile  poets  of  all  times. 

He  was  the  son  of  a  tailor,  and  was  born  on  Novem- 
ber 5,  1494.  At  the  age  of  seven  he  was  sent  to  the 
Latin  school,  and  in  his  fifteenth  year  he  entered  on  the 
business  of  shoemaker.  After  two  years'  apprentice- 
ship he  started  off  as  journeyman,  and  wandered  over 
the  greater  part  of  Germany.  At  Innsbruck  he  received 
instruction  in  Meistersinging  from  the  linen-weaver, 
Leonard  Nonnenbeck ;  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main  he 
started  a  school  of  Meistersinging,  and  on  his  return 
to  Nuremberg  he  composed,  in  1515,  his  first  didactic 
poem  (Biblical).  Having  attained  the  position  of 
master  in  his  shoemaker's  trade,  he  married  in  1519, 
and  lived  over  forty  years  in  happy  wedlock.  After 
death  had  robbed  him  of  his  wife  in  1560,  he  contracted 
at  the  age  of  sixty-eight  another  marriage  with  a 
young  woman  of  twenty -seven,  and  he  died  universally 
esteemed  in  January  1570.  His  children,  two  sons  and 
five  daughters,  had  all  pre-deceased  him.1 

**  The  most  exhaustive  and  the  best  work  on  H.  Sachs  that  we  possess 


318  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

The  whole  number  of  his  poems,  over  6,000,  may 
be  said   to  represent   at   least   half   a   million  verses.1 

at  the  present  day  we  owe  to  a  Frenchman,  Ch.  Schweitzer,  Un  poete 
allemand  au  XVP  siecle.  Etude  sur  la  vie  et  les  oeuvres  de  Hans  Sachs, 
Paris,  1887  (pub.  1889).  Cf.  Rachel  in  the  Zeitschr.  fiir  deutsche  Philohgie, 
xxiv.  265  ff.,  where  also  other  new  writings  are  catalogued.  For  the 
newest  information  concerning  Hans  Sachs,  which  comes  in  part  from 
the  jubilee  celebration  of  1893,  see,  besides,  E.  Petzel  in  the  Allgemdn. 
Zcitung,  1895,  Beil.  No.  288,  especially  the  Jahresbericht  ji'ir  neuere  deutsche 
Litteraturgcsch.,  vols.  v.  vi.  vii.  and  viii.  Drescher  here  passes  a  very 
unfavourable  sentence  on  the  monograph  of  R.  Genee,  Hans  Sachs  und 
seine  Zeit.  Ein  Lebens  und  Kulturbild  aus  der  Zeit  der  Reformation  (Leipzig, 
1894).  According  to  M.  Hermann,  also  (Deutsche  Litter  aturzeitung,  1894, 
p.  809),  Genee's  work  is  '  a  remarkable  falling-off  from  the  "  popular 
Hans  Sachs  booklet  "  published  by  the  same  author  in  1888.  Genee 
in  his  preface  promises  a  "  Kulturbild  "  of  the  time  of  Hans  Sachs,  and  he 
also  announces  that  he  means  "  to  represent  the  man  Hans  Sachs  clearly 
and  vividly  in  his  entire  life."  Both  these  tasks,  however,  according 
to  Hermann,  have  lately  been  '  incomparably  better  accomplished  by  the 
Frenchman  Schweitzer.'  The  pamphlet  of  A.  Bauch,  Barbara  Har- 
scherin,  Hans  Sachs's  second  wife,  is  of  especial  value  as  regards  the 
history  of  culture  and  for  correction  of  opinions  that  have  hitherto  passed 
muster.  Beit  rage  zur  Biographic  des  Dichters.  Nurnberg,  1896.  See 
also  the  Gemerkbiichlein  des  Hans  Sachs  (1555-1561),  with  an  appendix, 
Die  Niirnberger  Meistersinger-Protocolle  of  1595-1605,  published  by  Karl 
Drescher  (Neudrucke  deutscher  Litteraturwerke  des  16  u.  17.  Jahrh.,  pub. 
by  W.  Braune,  Nos.  419-152).     Halle,  1898. 

1  Goedeke,  Orundriss,  ii.  412.  '  When  on  January  1,  1567,  he  counted 
up  all  his  poems,  he  found  sixteen  books  of  Meister  songs  with  4,275 
numbers  in  275  Meister  tunes,  of  which  thirteen  were  his  own  composi- 
tion. Besides  these  there  were  seventeen  books  of  recitations  and  one 
unfinished  one,  which  makes  eighteen,  in  which  there  were  208 — on 
June  9,  1563,  the  number  had  mounted  to  204  (Buch  iv.  3,  118) — merry 
comedies,  sad  tragedies,  and  amusing  plays,  most  of  which  were  per- 
formed in  Nuremberg  and  other  towns,  far  and  wide  ;  besides  which 
there  were  about  1,700  religious  and  secular  maxims,  proverbs,  fables, 
and  farces.  Further,  seven  dialogues  in  prose,  a  quantity  of  Psalms 
and  other  Church  hymns  ;  also  adapted  hymns,  vaudevilles  and  songs 
of  soldiers,  a  number  of  ballads,  seventy-three  altogether,  with  tunes, 
"  bad  and  very  vulgar,"  of  which  sixteen  were  original  ones  of  his  own. 
According  to  his  enumeration,  and  seeing  that  the  208  dramatic  pieces 
were  included  in  the  1,700  poems,  and  the  seven  dialogues  under  the 
seventy- three,  the  number  of  his  poems  may  be  computed  at  6,048, 
"  rather  more  than  less."  After  January  1,  1507,  several  more  came  to 
light,  and  a  few  writings,  which  appeared  to  be  original,  must  be  taken 


HANS   SACHS  319 

Such  a  mass  of  poetry  would  be  truly  astounding  if  it 
were  a  question  of  finished  work.     The  secret,  however, 
of    the    enormous    quantity  lies  in  the   Meistersinger 
knack.     After  Hans  Sachs  had  once  learnt  to  '  poetise  ' 
he  '  knew  how  to  do  it.'     He  did  not  carry  his  theme 
about  with  him,  revolving  it  over  and  over  again  in  his 
mind,  neither  did  he  go  through  the  agonies  of  wrestling 
with  unmanageable  material  until  he  had  transformed 
it  into  the  spiritual  and  ideal ;   no  subject  appeared 
either   difficult   or   unpoetical   to   him.     Just   as   with 
perfect  facility  he  turned  the  whole  Bible,  bit  by  bit, 
into  rhyme,  so  also  did  he  deal  with  the  whole  of  ancient 
mythology  and  with  all  sorts  of  old  sagas  and  stories. 
Wherever  he  lighted  on  a,  fable  or  a  story  from  the  Greek 
or  Roman  world,  on  an  Italian  novel,  a  German  farce, 
an  ephemeral  debate,   or  even  a  simple  anecdote,  he 
straightway  clapped  it  into  his  poetic  mill.     No  need 
for  him  to  worry  himself  about  working  up  the  material. 
With  rhymes  always  at  his  finger  ends,  all  he  required 
was  the  particular  book  or  story  he  was  going  to  turn 
into  verse,  writing  materials  and  table. 

At  this  table  there  sat 

(so  wrote  his  pupil  Adam  Puschman) 

An  old  fellow  that 

Was  grey  and  white  like  a  dove,  and  had 

A  great  big  beard,  and  behold 

In  a  beautiful  book  he  read 

That  was  finely  studded  with  gold.1 


into  account.  The  Meister  songs  were  reserved  for  adding  lustre  to  the 
repertoire  of  the  singing  school.  Of  the  remainder  there  appeared  in 
three  folio  volumes,  according  to  his  directions,  788  pieces  during  his 
lifetime,  and  after  his  death  two  folio  volumes  with  642  numbers.' 

1  Concerning  the  unusually  extensive  library  of  Hans  Sachs,  see  the 
article  of  R.  Genee  in  the  Beil.  zur  Allgemein.  Zeitimg,  1888,  No.  50. 


320  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Whatever  the  Meister  read  in  his  books  he  put  into 
verse.  It  would  take  him  a  couple  of  days  to  get  his 
material  into  shape,  and  he  did  this  with  the  same 
mechanical  precision  with  which  he  would  have  snipped 
and  stitched  the  leather  for  his  shoemaking.  Strophe 
and  antistrophe  fitted  each  other  as  exactly  as  one 
boot  corresponded  to  its  fellow.1  At  the  same  time 
there  were  not  wanting  here  and  there  occasional  traces 
of  genuine  poetry. 

'  Sehr  herrliche,  schbne  und  wahrhafte  Gedicht,  geist- 
licli  und  weltlich,  allerlei  Art,  als  ernstliche  Tragedien, 
liebliche  Comedien,  seltsame  Spil,  kurzweilige  Gesprech, 
sehnliche  Klagreden,  wunderbarliche  Fabel,  sammt  "an- 
deren  lecherlichen  Schwefiken  und  Bos  sen,  und  so  weiter  : 


'   '  The  works  of  Hans  Sachs  also  go  to  confirm  the  opinion  that  this 
whole  epoch  was  at  bottom  an  unpoetical  one,   and  that  the  store  of 
poetic  language  which  it  had  inherited  was  used  solely  for  the  treatment 
of  subjects  belonging  to  the  realm  of  the  understanding.     It  is.  therefore, 
impossible  from  an  aesthetic  point  of  view  to  accord  a  lasting  place  of 
honour  either  to  Hans  Sachs  or   to   the  Meistersingers,  or  the  poets  of 
the  burgher  class  in  general.'     '  Hans  Sachs,  however,  is  entitled  to  truer 
and  more  lasting  praise  for  the  sincerity  of  his  intentions.     It  is  the 
healthiness   of  tone   and   feeling  which   ennobles   the   man   himself,   and 
spurs  him  on  to  work  for  the  ennoblement  of  his  contemporaries,  that 
kindles  in  Hans  Sachs  the  soul  of  a  poet '   (Cholevius,  i.  289).     '  Hans 
Sachs's  indiscriminate  use  of  all  and  any  material  was  no  less  diseased 
and  unnatural  than  was  the  empty  formality  of  the  art  of  Martin  Opitz. 
He  exercised  no  sort  of  selection,  and  reduced  German  poetry  to  a  mere 
storehouse  full  of  packing-cases  and  barrels.     As  a  passive  poet  Hans 
Sachs  was  one  of  the  greatest  on  earth,  as  an  active  poet  one  of  the  smallest. 
His  power  of  invention  is  slight  ;  in  his  farces  alone  is  he  distinguished 
by  an  original  and  invariably  (?)  naive  and  well-intentioned  roguishness. 
His  diction,  however,  is  almost  without  exception  excruciatingly,  intoler- 
ably harsh  and  grating.'     On  the  other  hand,  there  is  '  something  praise- 
worthy in  his  burgher  industry,  his  honest  sincerity  of  purpose,  and  in 
the  abundance  of  poetry  with  which  he  surrounded  his  existence  '  (Menzel, 
Dichtung,  ii.   12,   14).     '  As  for  seriousness  and  delicacy  of  feeling  Hans 
Sachs  only  possessed  sufficient  of  these  qualities  to  save  him  from  vapid 
jokes  and  mere  meaningless  babble  '  (Wackernagel,  Drama,  p.  125). 


HANS   SACHS   ON   THE    MORAL   CONDITIONS         321 

welcher  St'ucke  seind  376.  Darunter  170  Stuck,  die 
vormals  nie  in  Truck  ausgegangen  sind,  jetzund  aber 
aller  Welt  zu  Nutz  und  Frummen  in  Truck  verfertiget 
durch  den  sinnreiclien  und  weitberuhmten  Hans  Sachsen, 
ein  Liebhaber  teutscher  Poeterei,  vom  1516.  Jar  bis 
auf  diss  1558.  Jar  zusammengetragen  und  vollendt ' 
('  Very  exquisite,  beautiful  and  true  poetry,  sacred  and 
secular,  of  all  sorts,  such  as  serious  tragedies,  lively 
comedies,  original  plays,  amusing  dialogues,  pathetic 
laments,  wonderful  fables,  besides  other  comic  farces 
and  pleasantries,  and  so  forth  ;  of  which  pieces  there 
are  376.  Amongst  these  170  pieces,  never  before 
printed,  but  now  arranged  and  published  for  the  use 
and  pious  edification  of  all  the  world  by  the  clever  and 
far-famed  Hans  Sachs,  a  lover  of  German  poetry,  from 
the  year  1516  to  this  year  1558.') 

So  runs  the  title  of  the  first  great  collection  of 
the  Meister's  works,  and  this  title  reveals  at  one  and 
the  same  time  the  many-sidedness,  the  seriousness,  the 
stiff  formality,  the  native  German  humour  and  the 
'  Meister  '  self-consciousness  of  this  poet  of  the  guilds. 

Hans  Sachs  the  poet  was  a  primitive,  vigorous, 
sound-hearted  nature,  altogether  the  outgrowth  of  the 
people,  full  of  deep  feeling  and  brave-heartedness. 

His  first  book  of  poems,  as  he  himself  explains  in 
the  preface,  is  intended  '  to  promote  the  praise  and 
glory  of  God,'  and  also  '  to  help  his  fellow-creatures  to 
a  life  of  penitence.'  In  the  '  Spiegel  der  Gotteslasterer  ' 
('  Mirror  of  the  Blasphemers ')  he  lamented  most  bitterly 
over  the  blasphemous  spirit,  which  in  the  tumult  of  the 
age  had  gained  further  and  further  ground ;  x  with 
manly  courage  he  raised  his  voice  against  the  prevalent 

1  Hans  Sachs,  i.  190. 
VOL.   XI.  Y 


322  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

vices :  contempt  of  C4od  and  His  commandments, 
and  fleshly  sins  of  all  sorts.1  He  inveighed  with  special 
indignation  against  the  criminal  desecration  of  Sunday 
by  work,  fencing,  hunting,  carousing,  quarrelling  and 
murder,  immorality  and  adultery. 

Should  not  God  send  us  dreadful  plagues 
Since  we  His  Sabbath  violate, 
Dishonour,  break,  and  desecrate 
With  numbers  of  unchristian  works, 
As  though  we  were  but  heathen  Turks  ? 
The  magistrates  account  must  give 
Of  those  who  so  profanely  live, 
For  where  they  punishment  neglect. 
They,  too,  show  criminal  disrespect 
For  Sunday,  which  our  God  decreed 
That  we  might  have  the  rest  we  need. 
With  cattle,  maid,  man,  child,  and  wife, 
And  not  alone  for  the  body's  life  ; 
The  soul  must  have  its  Sabbath  too, 
In  all  things  freely  subznit, 
Obey  Him  and  do  His  will. 

To  stem  the  ever-growing  tide  of  '  cursed  whore- 
mongery,'  he  called  to  remembrance,  in  1540,  the  early 
Christians  who 

Placed  whoremongers  under  the  ban  ; 
But  blinded  now  in  the  conscience  of  man. 
And  sin  has  now  from  day  to  day 
Made  further  and  more  desperate  way, 
Has  more  and  more  increased  and  spread, 
Till  now  itVgained  such  mighty  head 
That  unashamed  and  unconcealed, 
The  streets  are  almost  all  quite  filled 
With  faithless  wives,  &c,  &c. 

However  wooden  and  clumsy  his  exhortations  to 
repentance,  to  prayer,  to  patience  in  suffering,  to  trust 
in  God,1'  may  seem,  if  compared  with  contemporary 
religious  lyrics  of  Spain,  the  songs  of  a  Teresa  a  Jesu, 

1  Vol.  i.  pp.  415,  418,  122-424.         -  Cf.,  e.g.,  vol  i.  pp.  363,  425-428. 


HANS   SACHS   ON    SOCIAL    AND   MORAL   CONDITIONS      323 

a  Louis  de  Granada,  and  others,  they  at  any  rate  bear 
witness  to  a  pious,  religious  disposition,  which  makes 
a  beneficent  impression  amid  the  moral  degeneracy  of 
the  times.  The  worthy  Meistersinger  had  nothing  in 
common  with  the  new  spirit  of  society. 

His  '  Lament  of  Dame  Work  over  the  great  idle 
masses '  (Klagred  Frau  Arbeit  liber  den  grossen  miissigen 
Haufen),  of  the  year  1535,  is  drawn  entirely  from  existing 
conditions.  As  a  reason  why  '  so  few  people  will  attach 
themselves  to  her,'  Dame  Work  says  : 

For  while  employers  cut  down  pay. 
Drive  hard  bargains,  fleece  and  flay 
Their  workmen,  give  them  not  what  they 
Deserve  (for  the  old  adage  says  on  earth 
The  labourer  is  his  hire  worth), 
This  makes  them  rabid,  turbulent, 
Each  on  his  own  advantage  bent : 
The  humblest  of  them  follow  suit 
And  much  spoilt  handiwork's  the  fruit. 
Idle,  too,  they  grow,  and  negligent, 
Gambling,  drunken,  gluttonous  to  boot. 

Of  the  middlemen  Dame  Work  complains  : 

They  complicate  all  business  in  the  land, 
All  profit  comes  into  the  third  hand 
Before  the  labourer  is  paid, 
And  poorer  every  day  he's  made, 
And  must  in  time  to  ruin  come.  .  .  . 

Formerly,  so  say  the  concluding  lines, 

There  was  not  so  much  idleness, 

The  cause  of  famine  and  distress  ; 

Because  all  the  world  wants  to  make  holiday 

Much  evil  must  increase  among  us, 

And  everything  will  go  to  ruin.1 

Any  authoritative  judgment  in  matters  of  faith 
the  Nuremberg  shoemaker  could  not  lay  claim  to,  least 

1  Hans  Sachs,  iii.  480-485. 

y  2 


324  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

of  all  at  a  time  in  which  everything  was  out  of  joint, 
and,  as  it  were,  on  the  verge  of  disruption.  But  no 
one  will  dispute  that  it  was  from  full  conviction  that 
Hans  Sachs  attached  himself  to  the  Lutheran  creed. 
Luther  was  in  his  eyes  '  the  Wittenberg  nightingale  ' 
which  announced  the.  daylight,  viz.  the  teaching  of  the 
'  evangel,'  that  Christians  are  saved  by  faith  alone, 
and  that  good  works  are  not  necessary  to  salvation. 
The  whole  papacy,  in  the  opinion  of  Sachs,  was  man's 
invention,  and  the  Pope  was  the  Antichrist,  who  with 
his  innumerable  decrees 

Drives  the  people  to  the  pit  of  hell. 

To  the  devil  with  body  and  soul  as  well.' 

It  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Charles  V., 
according  to  Sachs,  that '  the  Word  of  God  had  its  rise.'  2 
Luther  had  freed  theology — that  is  to  say,  the  Bible  :! — 
from  the  Babylonish  captivity.4  In  the  frightful  hurly- 
burly  which  arose  out  of  the  contradictory  explanations 
of  the  Bible,  he  knew  no  other  way  out  of  the  difficulty 
than  that  the  Word  of  God  should  be  believed  '  in  sim- 
plicity.' It  incensed  him  to  think  that  '  the  German 
nation  was  nowadays  crammed  so  full  of  error,  mobs 
and  sects.'  Each  one  twisted  the  Holy  Scriptures  to 
his  own  meaning,  his  own  profit,  and  his  own  pleasure  : 

No  heretic  so  vile 

But  understands  the  Scripture  style. 

Among  them  also  there  abound 

Meanings  as  many  as  heads  are  found, 

And  every  party  thinks 

Itself  alone  is  right, 

The  others  all  in  error. 


1  Vol.  vi.  p.  386.  2  Vol.  ii.  p.  371. 

'  For  the  fact  that  '  theology  '  and  the  Bible  meant  the  same  for  him 
see  vol.  i.  p.  341,  verses  9-10. 
4  Vol.  i.  pp.  401-403. 


HANS   SACHS  ON   SCRIPTURE    INTERPRETATION      325 
'  They  write  and  they  discuss,' 

And  each  one  for  salvation  reads 
The  Scripture  by  his  party's  creeds, 
His  meaning  into  it  he  weaves, 
Wherefore  one  well  perceives 
That  things  are  very  perilous, 
Difficult  and  ruinous. 
For  the  scholars  are  dissentient. 

And  not  the  scholars  (theologians)  only,  but  the 
laity  also  '  exonerate,  defend,  and  sanctify  their  vices 
by  means  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,' 

They  mock  and  ridicule 

The  Scriptures,  in  many  places, 

With  fables  and  proverbs 

So  coarse  and  immodest, 

As  though  they  were  heathens, 

And  as  if  everywhere 

The  precious  Word  of  God 

Were  only  a  cloak  for  shame. 

As  early  as  1524  he  admonished  his  co-religionists 
as  follows.  '  There  is  only  a  great  deal  of  chatter  and 
very  little  goodwill  among  you  all ;  if  you  do  not  think 
it  necessary  to  love  your  neighbour,  you  cannot  be 
called  disciples  of  Christ.'  '  If  you  were  evangelical, 
as  you  boast,  you  would  do  the  works  of  the  evangel.' 
'  It  is  certain  that  if  you  Lutherans  led  moral  and 
irreproachable  lives,  your  doctrine  would  commend 
itself  more  to  all  the  world  ;  those  who  now  call  you 
heretics  would  speak  well  of  you  ;  those  who  now  despise 
you  would  learn  of  you.  But  with  your  flesh-eating, 
your  uproars,  your  abuse  of  priests,  your  quarrelling, 
mocking,  insulting,  and  all  your  other  improper  be- 
haviour, you  Lutherans  have  brought  the  Gospel  into 


320  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

great  contempt.     All  this,  alas  !  is  notorious.'  l     In  the 
year  1540  he  made  '  the  evangel '  say : 

On  their  lips  I'm  all  day  heard, 
But  their  lives  deny  the  Word. 
Little  love  and  truth  appear  ; 
From  the  most  of  them  we  hear 
Christ  hath  done  enough  for  us, 
Good  works  are  all  superfluous. 
With  minds  perverted  so 
On  their  way  they  go. 
Hell's  destroyed,  they  say, 

The  devil  long  since  dead, 
Death  captive,  and  away 

Justice  stern  has  fled. 
They  have  but  accepted  me 
So  far  as  I  will  let  them  be 
Pious  as  best  themselves  doth  suit, 
With  freedom,  honour  and  wealth  to  boot. 
And  whensoe'er  they  God  offend 
By  me  their  conduct  they  defend.2 

The  poet  was  at  the  same  time  profoundly  moved 
by  the  growing  deterioration  of  learning  and  the  arts, 
the  decline  of  national  vigour  and  general  well-being, 
and  constantly  increasing  anarchy  in  the  Empire  which 
made  it  powerless  against  its  foreign  enemies.  Above 
all  did  it  grieve  him,  the  fervent  advocate  of  the  war 
of  freedom  of  Christendom  against  the  Turks,J  that 
anything  like  serious,  persistent  resistance  was  made 
impossible  by  the  perpetual  discord  among  the  princes, 
and  the  degeneracy  of  the  princely  and  noble  class, 
which  he  described  in  the  most  dismal  colours  : 

Corrupted  are  both  folk  and  land  ! 
Methinks  the  wild  beasts  are  at  hand, 
With  which  God — so  writes  Ezekiel — 
Threatened  the  people  Israel, 


1  Ein  Oesprech  eines  evangelischen  Christen  mit  einem  Lutherischen,  &c. 
(1524  ;  cf.  Goedeke,  Grundriss,  ii.  416,  No.  12),  Bl.  4C. 
1  Hans  Sachs,  i.  338-344. 
3  See  vol.  ii.  pp.  404-41S.  410-433,  434-439. 


iians  saciis  on  the  decay  or  Germany     327 

To  punish  their  iniquities  ; 
While  Isaiah  also  prophesies 
That  when  a  nation  in  sin  lives, 
God  wicked  rulers  to  them  gives 
As  judgment,  hard  chastisers, 
Extortioners  and  tyrannisers. 

Almost  '  throughout  the  whole  German  land  '  the 
princes  and  the  nobles  thought  of  nothing  but  extra- 
vagant '  pomp  and  splendour.' 

Therefore  seest  thou  how  they 

Mortgage,  sell,  transfer  all  day 

Towns,  hamlets,  castles,  farmsteads  galore. 

Merchandisers  they  are  named, 

And  of  usury  they're  not  ashamed  ; 

All  things  grow  dear  in  town  and  country, 

Through  tax,  toll,  import,  rate  and  duty. 

They  suck  the  blood,  in  land  and  city, 

Of  widows  and  orphans  without  pity. 

With  their  game  they  cause  much  ravage 

To  fields  of  turnips,  wheat  and  cabbage  ; 

Plaguing  and  robbery  they  commit ; 

Their  word  and  promise  keep  no  whit ; 

Are  not  ashamed  of  lies  and  artifice, 

Amongst  each  other  practise  this. 

The  princes  themselves  are  sanguinary 

To  each  other,  and  always  very 

Quarrelsome  ;  much  evil  they  devise, 

And  e'en  against  each  other  rise. 

So  that  a  dreadful  war  is  probable, 

For  this  discord  is  favourable 

To  the  Turks,  who  unwithstood  will  make 

Their  entry,  and  our  country  take. 

The  demoralisation  among  the  princes  and  nobles 
went  on  increasing  : 

Their  whoredom  and  adultery, 

Their  drunkenness  and  wine-consuming, 

Their  gambling,  cursing  and  blaspheming. 

Grow  worse  each  day  than  yesterday. 

Small  care  unto  the  poor  give  they, 

The  common  good  thus  falls  away, 

As  from  experience  you  see. 

My  conscience  therefore  nags  at  me 


328  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

That  I  should  sharply  reprimand 

For  their  "gross  iniquity 

The  princes  and  nobles  of  the  land. 

There  are  only  '  a  few  princes  and  nobles  left '  who 
act  as  guardians  and  friends  of  the  poor,  and  carry  on 
good  government.1 

Hans  Sachs,  however,  was  not  likely  to  improve 
this  state  of  things  by  holding  up  all  the  laws  and 
devotional  exercises  of  the  Catholic  Church  to  contempt,2 
by  accusing  the  Catholics  of  idolatry,  and  by  exhorting 
'  the  Christian  authorities  to  root  out  this  idolatry  in 
all  places.' 3  Many  of  his  carnival  plays  and  farces  and 
his  numerous  and  obscene  burlesques  on  the  clergy 
and  monks,  especially  those  belonging  to  the  last 
period  of  his  literary  activity,  were  by  no  means  cal- 
culated to  spread  good  morals,  but  rather  to  increase 
the  animosity  which  had  grown  up  among  Protestants 
against  everything  Catholic.  In  a  farce  of  the  year 
1559  he  traces  the  origin  of  the  first  monk  from  the 
devil,  who  has  clothed  and  shaved  a  lazy,  hypocritical 
hermit,  and  instructed  him  to  spend  his  time  in  idleness 
and  not  to  think  of  working.  A  village  bullock  gave 
him  the  name.  When  the  geese-herds  of  a  certain  vil- 
lage saw  this  brother,  dressed  up  in  a  cowl  by  the  devil 

In  such  strange  way,  they  thought  at  least 
It  must  be  some  wild  savage  beast. 
Their  flocks  of  geese  they  all  forsook, 
Swift  to  the  village  their  way  they  took. 
As  the  Brother  to  the  parsonage  hied 
The  village  bullock  him  espied, 
And  Eymu,  Eymu  bellowed  loud. 
Then  the  peasants  all  cried  out, 
That  creature's  a  Monnich  without  doubt. 


1  Hans  Sachs,  iii.  569-571.         2  See,  for  instance,  vol.  i.  pp.  398-400. 

2  See  vol.  i.  p.  236. 


ELANS   SACHS— DECLINE   OF   HIS   POETRY  3-29 

And  that's  how  the  first  Monnich  came, 

By  the  devil  clothed  and  shorn. 

While  from  the  bullock  he  got  his  name  ; 

And  from  this  monk  all  monks  have  been  born.1 

In  another  farce  he  showed  up  holy  water  as  an 
invention  of  the  devil,  who  had  appeared  in  the  form 
of  an  angel  to  the  maid-servant  of  a  priest,  and  .ordered 
her  to  tell  the  priest  that  people  who  sprinkled  them- 
selves with  holy  water  would  have  their  sins  forgiven.2 

In  many  of  the  poems  of  the  last  decades  of  his  life 
there  are  unmistakable  marks  of  the  influence  of  an  age 
in  which  morality  was  sinking  lower  and  lower.3  In 
a  whole  series  of  '  burlesques  and  farces,'  on  account 
of  which  he  was  '  considerably  decried  '  by  the  Catholics,4 
his  favourite  dramatis  personce  are  the  priest  and  his 
cook,  a  priest  and  the  peasant-girl  he  has  seduced  ; 
also  a  monk  with  a  capon,  a  monk  as  a  ruffian,  a  monk 
with  a  stolen  hen,  the  village  priest  trying  to  seduce 
peasant  girls,  the  priest  who  is  paying  court  to  his 
maidservant  and  walks  up  tipsy  to  the  altar,  and  so 
forth.''  All  these  figures  are  seldom  witty,  and  generally 
coarse  and  repulsive. 

1  Hans  Sachs,  ix.  458-461.  -  See  ix.  486-489. 

3  '  At  an  earlier  date,  between  1530  and  1540,  his  farces  were  alle- 
gorical ;  now  he  takes  us  into  the  actual  world,  into  the  slummiest  scenes, 
the  very  lowest  surroundings.  His  poetry  also  follows  the  course  of  the 
folksong,  which  we  see  in  the  same  manner  falling  from  heights  of 
beauty  to  a  low  level.'  In  the  last  decades  of  Hans  Sachs's  poetising 
a  marked  change  goes  on.  He  himself  complains  frequently  of  the  falling- 
off  of  art  in  general.  Formerly  it  had  been  flourishing,  '  now  art  has 
become  common  and  despised ;  there  are  few  of  its  disciples  left,  and  those 
are  looked  at  askance  as  visionaries  ;  the  world  runs  after  pleasure  and 
money,  the  Muses  are  forsaking  the  Fatherland  '  (Gervinus,  ii.  424,  425). 

1  See  Corner  in  the  preface  to  his  song-book,  in  Baumker,  Kirchenlied, 
i.  226. 

5  Hans  Sachs,  ix.  5,  7,  17,  74,  91,  388,  393,  396,  406,  412-415,  420, 
478. 


330  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

For  farces  of  this  description,  as  also  for  his  '  History 
in  Rhyme  '  of  the  Popess  Joan,1  Hans  Sachs  could  be 
certain  of  abundant  approval,  but  they  darken  the 
pleasant  picture  which  the  poetry  of  his  first  period 
presents,  and  occasionally  come  very  near  to  the  out- 
and-out  coarse  pasquils  to  which  it  remained  for  the 
satirist- Fischart  to  drag  down  German  verse. 

1  Vol.  viii.  pp.  652-655. 


331 


CHAPTER  II 

SATIRES  AND  LAMPOONS — PICTURES  OF  THE  TIME  AND 
ITS  MORALS — JOHN  FISCHART  AND  HIS  DEFENCE  OF 
THE  PERSECUTION  OF    WITCHES 

Periods  of  decay  in  religion  and  morals,  in  social  and 
political  life,  have  always  been  productive  of  satire. 
When  childlike  trust  in  the  ancestral  traditions  of 
faith  disappears,  and  the  minds  of  a  people  become 
troubled  by  doubt,  when  internal  religious  strife  pro- 
duces venom  and  hatred,  when  the  moral  basis  of 
national  life  grows  weak  and  tottering,  and  social 
improprieties  cause  general  dissatisfaction,  and  pro- 
voke the  ruling  powers  in  Church  and  State  to  well- 
grounded  indignation,  then  mockery  and  ridicule  be- 
come welcome  weapons,  and  where  there  is  no  high 
moral  force  to  keep  the  might  of  the  passions  within 
bounds,  the  artistic  sense  alone  is  unable  to  control 
them. 

In  Germany  towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century 
Sebastian  Brant  with  his  '  Narrenschiff '  opened  the  list 
of  satirists,  and  boldly  and  mercilessly  scourged  the 
shortcomings,  follies  and  vices  of  all  classes  ;  but  with 
him  a  deep  religious  earnestness  overcame  the  bitter 
hatred  and  scorn  which,  later  on,  after  the  outbreak  of 
the  religious  and  politico -social  revolution,  became  the 
chief  features  of  satire. 

Brant's   immediate   successor    was   the    Franciscan 


3*9 


32  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

monk,  Thomas  Murner,  who  far  surpassed  his  prede- 
cessor in  the  popular  trend  of  his  genius,  in  invention, 
trenchant  wit  and  power  of  vivid  representation, 
though  at  the  same  time  lie  was  coarser  and  more 
reckless  in  his  cuts  and  thrusts,  in  many  parts  of  his 
writings  even  proffering  homage  to  that  newly  canonised 
saint  '  St.  Grobian  '  (from  grob  =  coarse),  of  whom  Brant 
had  predicted  that  in  society  as  in  literature  he  would 
attain  to  rulership.  '  Herr  Glimphius  '  (Glimph  = 
moderation),  said  Brant,  '  is  also  dead  ' : 

Coarseness  is  the  fashion  now, 
And  dwells  in  every  home,  I  vow. ' 

Murner,  who  was  born  in  Oberehnheim  in  1475,  and 
entered  the  Franciscan  Order  in  Strassburg  in  1491, 
had  already  travelled  extensively  in  early  youth  in 
France,  Germany  and  Poland.  He  studied  theology 
in  Paris,  and  law  at  Freiburg  in  the  Breisgau,  and  in 
1506  received  the  poet's  crown  from  the  hands  of  the 
Emperor  Maximilian  I.  ;  at  Cracow  he  became  teacher 
of  logic,  at  Bern  lecturer  to  the  Barefoot  Friars.  The 
Chapter- General  of  the  Order  summoned  him  to  Rome  ; 
Henry  VIII.  sent  for  him  to  England  to  oppose  Luther  ; 
as  delegate  of  the  Bishop  of  Strassburg  he  attended 
the  Diet  at  Nuremberg  in  1524.  He  preached  in 
several  towns  of  Germany,  in  Treves,  Frankfort,  Strass- 
burg and  elsewhere.  Driven  out  of  Alsatia  by  the 
Peasant  War,  he  obtained  a  post  as  preacher  at  Lucerne, 
and  in  1526  he  took  part  in  the  religious  disputation 
at  Baden.  When  the  revolution  in  Switzerland  had 
triumphed  by  force  of  arms,  he  was  obliged  in  1529  to 

'  Brant's  Narrenschiff,  No.  72.     See  concerning  this  work  our  remarks 
in  vol.  i.  pp.  286-289. 


THOMAS   MURNER   AND   HIS   SATIRES  333 

take  flight  from  Lucerne,  and  he  found  friendly  welcome 
with  the  Elector  Palatine  Frederick  ;  finally  he  received 
a  small  benefice  at  Oberehnheim,  where  he  died  in  1537. l 

Murner  was  widely  versed  in  the  learning  and 
culture  of  his  age  ;  he  understood  Greek  and  Hebrew, 
was  crowned  as  humanist  poet,  gave  instruction  in 
theology  and  philosophy,  and  was  the  author  of  several 
theological,  philosophical  and  juridical  writings ;  he 
was  accurately  acquainted  with  the  literature  of  the 
day,  and  was  as  expert  as  a  writer  as  he  was  beloved 
as  a  preacher.  His  dominant  characteristic  was  his 
poetic  endowment,  but  this  talent  was  turned  in  the 
direction  of  satire  from  the  first  by  the  conditions  and 
tendencies  of  the  time.1' 

Brant's  '  Narrenschiff  '  had  not  improved  the  world, 
which  had  grown  even  more  senseless  and  idiotic  since 
its  publication.  Murner  therefore  resolved  to  be  even 
more  outspoken,  and  in  his  '  Narrenbeschworung '  and 
'  Schelmenzunft  '  of  1512,  and  his  "  Geuchmat '  of  1519 
(with  the  exception  of  a  few  less  significant  satires), 
far  exceeds  Brant  in  coarseness  and  abusiveness.  In  his 
'  Geuchmat '  he  depicts  '  for  the  punishment  of  all  effemi- 
nate men  '  the  doings  of  enamoured  fools  of  both  sexes, 
and  the  fashionable  follies  of  the  day.  We  may  believe 
him  when  he  declares  that  in  all  his  writings  he  has 
only  been  influenced  by  the  desire  to  get  rid  of  sin, 

1  **  The  new  literature  concerning  Murner  has  been  well  summed  up 
by  Bachtold,  Deutsche  Litter atur,  Anmerkungen,  p.  136.  Cf.  Jahres- 
bericht  fur  neuere  deutsche  Litteraturgeschichte,  1896  and  1897. 

-  There  is  a  complete  catalogue  of  Murner's  works  in  Goedeke,  Qrund- 
riss,  ii.  215-220.  **  For  Murner's  Badenfahrt  (Neudruck  durch  E. 
Martin  in  the  Beitrlige  zur  Landes-  u.  Volkes-Kunde  von  Elsass-Lothringen, 
Heft  ii.  Strassburg,  1887),  see  Kawerau  in  the  Munch.  Allgemein.  Zeitung, 
1889,  No.  277  Beil. 


334  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

and  to  warn  the  world  of  the  hell  torments  which  they 
will  have  to  suffer  for  their  sins,  &c,  &c. 

Since,  however,  the  world,  he  says  at  the  conclusion 
of  his  '  Greuchmat,'  has  come  to  such  a  state  that  it  will 
not  allow  itself  to  be  punished  in  good  earnest,  since 
prayers  and  entreaties  are  of  no  avail  with  it,  it  com- 
pels '  the  learned  to  speak  abusively  of  all  these  things. 

With  ridicule  we  must  forsooth 
Reprove,  though  we  prefer  in  truth 
More  seriously  to  write  and  teach.  .  .  . 
This,  on  my  honour,  is  all  that 
In  writing  I  am  aiming  at  : 
Always  a  reprimand  to  utter, 
Mixed  also  with  more  serious  matter. 
For  the  world  so  frivolous  now  is 
'Twill  not  be  preached  to  otherwise  ; 
I  must  punish  them  to  their  own  taste. 
And  not  as  I  myself  like  best. 

I  have  written  as  many  as  fifty  books  of  a  serious, 
religious  nature,  but  the  printers  were  not  willing  to 
print  them,  because  there  was  no  demand  for  such 
writings.     They  said : 

Not  godly  lore,  dear  sir,  the  world  desires, 
Naught  but  scandal  it  admires. 
That's  what  these  gawks  do  print, 
And  leave  alone  my  serious  matter  ; 
Take  only  from  my  writings  what 
Will  make  their  coffers  fatter.'  ' 

1  Geuchmatt,  conclusion,  see  also  the  preface.  If  they  cast  it  in  his 
teeth  that  his  language  ill  became  a  man  of  the  clerical  office,  they  should 
remember  that  he  spoke  in  the  language  of  the  '  Grobians,' 

Such  as  in  every  place  they  use ; 

Not  that  I  else  such  words  should  choose, 

But  only  by  way  of  introduction. 

Schelmenzunft,  No.  10.     And  in  No.  52  : 

Although  I  have  in  the  German  tongue 
Much  speech  abusive  writ  and  sung, 
You  must  not  angry  with  me  be 
As  though  such  talk  was  liked  by  me  : 
But  he  who  would  the  unlearned  teach 
Must  speak  to  them  in  their  own  speech 


THOMAS   MURNERS    SATIRES  335 

Both  in  his  *  Narrenbeschworung  '  and  in  his  '  Schel- 
menzunft,'  which  to  a  great  extent  deal  with  the  same 
subjects,  he  held  up  to  clergy  and  laity,  to  high  and  low, 
after  the  example  of  Brant,  their  serious  faults  and 
follies,  and  lamented  the  decay  of  the  Empire,  which 
was  being  brought  on,  in  spite  of  Maximilian  I.'s  good 
intentions,  by  the  insubordination  of  the  princes,  the 
selfish  greed  of  the  towns,  and  the  rapacious  behaviour 
of  the  nobles  : 

That  I  have  called  you  fools,  each  one, 
Is  in  the  understanding  done 
That  I  count  you  all  as  miscreants,  who 
Much  contrary  to  God's  laws  do 

Out  of  sheer  stupidity. 
For  they  are  fools,  it's  very  clear, 
Who  in  their  sins  still  persevere. 
And  take  their  fill  in  such  wise  here 

That  they'll  feel  want  eternally.1 

Sebastian  Brant,  after  he  had  settled  the  avaricious 
fools,  the  dandy-fools,  the  vainglorious  fools,  all  safely 
in  his  ship,  placed  himself  with  exquisite  humour  at  the 
head  of  the  ship's  company.  Murner  contented  himself 
with  declaring  the  '  learned  fools  '  to  be  the  worst  of  all. 

A  learned  fool's  the  biggest  curse 

God  sends,  God  gives  no  thing  that's  worse. 

A  heavy  task  indeed  I  find 

What  I  have  set  before  my  mind  .  .  . 

For  scholars  never  will  allow 

That  they  are  fools,  and  yet  I  vow 

If  other  fools  they're  standing  by, 

A  head  and  ears  they  are  more  high.2 

He  treated  the  Pope  and  Emperor  with  reverence,  but 
foreseeing  the  religious  and  political  revolution  which 
actually  came  to  pass,  he. admonished  them  : 

That  the  spiritual  and  temporal  powers  of  the  land 
Should  deal  out  punishment  with  stronger  hand  ; 


1  Narrenbeschworung,  No.  97.  -  Ibid.  No.  5. 


33G  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

Methinks  indeed  there  is  great  need, 
If  not  done  soon  'twill  be  too  late 
Above  all  for  the  spiritual  estate. 

Although  '  St.  Peter's  ship,'  according  to  the  words 
of  Christ,  '  will  never  go  down,'  there  are  nevertheless 
'  many  fools  ' 

Who  say  that  it  is  tottering, 

And  swear  a  thousand  oaths  that  it 

Is  ready  to  go  down. 

Therefore  let  your  papal  worthiness, 

And  also  your  imperial  majesty, 

Take  note  how  miserably 

Order,  honour,  right, 

Land  and  people  all 

Are  hastening  on  to  their  downfall.1 

Mercilessly  he  laid  bare  the  abuses  both  in  the  private 
lives  and  the  public  ministry  of  the  clergy  ;  their  wan- 
tonness, greed  of  possession,  mercenary  abuse  of  sacred 
things  ;  their  misuse  of  ecclesiastical  penalties  :  the  ban, 
for  instance,  was  often  applied  to  quite  trifling  matters, 
enforced  for  a  theft  of  '  three  hazel  nuts.' 

And  thus  in  many  a  land  to-day 
The  ban  is  nothing  but  child's  play.2 

As  one  of  the  heaviest  clerical  abuses  he  denounced 
the  custom,  which  had  almost  become  a  rule,  of  filling 
the  higher  and  the  highest  posts  and  dignities  of  the 
Church  with  the  younger  sons  of  princely  and  noble 
families  : 

A  bishop  is  for  this  ordained 

That  he  Christ's  souls  may  tend, 

Also  instruct  them  well,  and  lead 

Them  with  all  diligence  and  heed. 

But  since  the  devil  has  brought  the  great 

Nobles  into  the  Church's  state, 

1  Narrenbeschworung,  No.  92.  2  Ibid.  No.  20. 


THOMAS   MURNER'S   SATIRES— THE   PEASANTS      337 

Since  now  no  one  a  bishop  can 
Become  except  a  nobleman, 
The  devil  tore  many  a  shoe 
Before  he  bit  this  matter  through 
That  the  princes'  children  should  be  free 
To  wear  the  mitre  with  dignity. 
Hot  Hunder  !  l  off  we're  driving  all  ; 
I  fear  nought  worse  than  the  downfall.2 

The  high  spiritual  lords  were  told  amongst  other 
things  : 

Spiritual  prelates  join  in  the  chase, 
Blow,  howl,  kill  game,  and  race 
With  heedless  and  destructive  feet 
Through  the  poor  folks'  fields  of  wheat, 
With  twenty,  thirty,  forty  steeds. 
Those  are  scarcely  priestly  deeds 
When  the  bishops  go  a-hunting, 
And  the  dogs  are  Matins  chanting, 
Howling  out  the  hymns  and  creeds  ! 3 

What  Murner  wrote  about  the  robbing  and  squander- 
ing of  Church  property  in  Bohemia  applied  also  to 
Germany  : 

Tell  me,  pray,  where  is  the  right 
That  the  worldly  lords  should  fight 
To  gain  the  holy  Church's  funds, 
As  in  Bohemia  is  done  ? 
Of  all  that  was  endowed  of  old 
The  princes  now  have  taken  hold, 
And  merrily  each  one  carouses, 
Till  to  dust  are  turned  God's  houses.4 

He  also  pointed  in  plain  language  to  the  social 
revolutionary  disturbances  which  were  at  hand,  at  the 
same  time  describing  the  almost  unbearable  condition 
of  things  that  prevailed,  in  many  districts,  among  the 
overburdened  peasantry  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 

1  Hot  Hunder  :  driver's  call  to  horses  down  to  the  right. 

-  Narrenbescliworung,  No.  35. 

3  Schelmenzunft,  No.  40  :  '  Des  Teufel  ist  Abt.' 

1  Nurreribeschwirunij,  No.  35. 

VOL.    XI.  Z 


338  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

century,  and  side  by  side  with  it  growing  drunkenness 
and  demoralisation  in  the  peasant  class  : 

All  things  are  upside  down  to-day, 
The  poor  man's  goods  all  taxed  away  : 
It's  all  that  he  can  do  to  live. 
E'en  for  his  skin  he  now  must  pay. 
By  his  plough  he  can  hardly  stay. 
Rent  in  cash  and  kind  sufficetk  not, 
Taxes  he  must  pay  on  all  he's  got. 
Rent  and  rate  and  taxes  ( ? ) 
Our  masters  have  invented 
Contributions,  help  in  everything, 
Tolls  on  bridges  from  us  they  do  wring, 
Watching,  tending,  treating,  travelling — 
These  make  widows  and  orphans,  alas  ! 
And  if  death  becomes  their  lot, 
I  have  heard  it  said, 
It  is  but  as  straw  for  the  peasant. l  .  .  . 

One  of  the  worst  plagues  from  which  the  peasants 
suffered  was  the  '  saddle-diet,'  the  highway  robbing  of 
the  nobles,  who  taught  their  children  : 

From  the  saddle  soups  to  cook, 

And  how  the  peasants  bring  to  book, 

Land  folk  and  villages  to  take  ; 

A  gag  to  introduce  into  the  mouth, 

To  hold  the  stirrup  and  the  bridle, 

And  bind  a  peasant  to  a  tree, 

Set  foot  traps  for  him,  burn  him  out 

As  one  treats  the  country's  foes, 

To  waste  the  fields,  break  down  the  vines, 

Stab  a  wretched  horse  to  death.  .  .  . 

His  labour  our  pleasure  becomes 

When  on  him  we  begin  to  levy  toll.  .  .  . 

Then  fur  years  we  can  once  more 

Live  riotously  as  before.2 

Robber  knights  of  another  kind,  who  perverted  all 
law  and  justice  and  plundered  the  people,  were  the 
Roman  jurists.3 

1  Narrenbeschiuorung,  No.  33.  2  Ibid.  No.  4. 

1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  ii.  pp.  101—186. 


MURNER'S   SATIRES— ROBBER    KNIGHTS— BUNDsCHUH  339 

The  reverse  side  of  the  picture  shows  those  peasant 
spendthrifts  and  rioters,  who  often  squander  in  one  day 
what  they  have  earned  during  the  year,  who  misplace 
letters  and  account-books,  and  finally,  when  they  have 
'  devoured  their  substance  with  vice  and  shame,'  set 
up  the  '  Bundschuh,'  that  is,  the  banner  of  revolt : 

Then  they'll  strike  in  with  their  fists, 
Drive  out  the  nobles  from  the  land 
And  murder  all  the  priests.1  .  .  . 

Then,  after  the  terrible  politico-social  revolution 
had  broken  out,  Murner  reiterated,  what  he  had  so  often 
said  in  warning  accents  before,  that  the  many  abuses  and 
scandals  in  the  administration  of  the  Church  institutions 
were  in  great  measure  to  blame  for  the  disastrous  con- 
dition of  the  country ;  but,  as  before,  he  still  held  firmly 
to  the  doctrines  and  constitution  of  the  Church,  and 
opposed  decisive  resistance  to  the  violent  disruption, 
the  complete  overthrow  of  all  existing  organisation 
which  was  preached  by  the  new  religious  revolutionists. 
His  song  of  lament  over  the  downfall  of  the  Christian 
faith,  '  Von  dem  Untergang  des  christlichen  Glaubens,' 
full  of  the  deepest  pathos,  is  amongst  the  most  im- 
pressive productions  of  the  whole  epoch  : 

The  Gospel  was  of  old 

A  message  of  glad  mirth, 
Which  heaven  did  unfold 

To  fill  with  peace  the  earth. 
But  now  they've  poisoned  it 

With  wrath  and  bitterness  ; 
The  sacred  Holy  Writ 

Brings  only  wretchedness. 


'  Narrenbeschworung,  .No.  79;  see  our  statement,  vol.  iv.  p.  149. 

z  2 


340  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Of  God's  most  Holy  Word 

Complaint  I  would  not  make  ; 
But  these  men  do  pervert 

The  truth  for  slaughter's  sake. 
The  Word  of  endless  life, 

Which  Christ  brought  from  above, 
They've  used  for  war  and  strife, 

Instead  of  peace  and  love, 

Since  Christ  His  time,  indeed, 

Upon  my  oath  I  say, 
There  ne'er  was  such  sore  need 

'Mong  Christians  as  to-day  ; 
The  beauty  of  our  trust 

Has  fallen  with  great  might ; 
Our  crown  lies  in  the  dust 

And  is  bemocked  outright.1 

Murner  was  one  of  the  most  important,  and  at 
the  same  time  most  popular,  literary  defenders  of  the 
papacy,  and  therefore  the  most  hated  and  calumniated. 
His  poem,  published  in  1522  as  an  answer  to  several 
libellous  pamphlets  directed  against  him,  :  Von  dem 
grossen  lutherischen  Narren,  wie  ihn  Doktor  Murner 
beschworen  hat,'  is  the  most  incisive  satire  which  was 
ever  penned  against  the  whole  mass  of  revolutionary 
activity.2 

With  humorous  irony  and  keen  observation  of 
events,  in  fresh,  vivid  and  caustic  language  he  delineated 
the  living  and  doing  of  the  new  seducers  of  the  people, 
who,  with  the  watchwords  '  evangel,  liberty,  truth ' 
on  their  lips,  had  no  other  thought  in  their  minds  than 

1  See  in  vol.  iii.  p.  150,  the  other  verses  quoted  by  us  from  this  poem. 
**  Sec  also  the  criticism  of  Vogt-Koch,  Deutsche  Litteraturgesch.  p.  290. 

2  See  what  Vilmar  says  in  the  Gesch.  der  deutschen  National- Litter  atur 
(7th  ed.),  vol.  i.  p.  377.  **  Kawerau  also  (Th.  Murner,  p.  69)  says  that 
'  the  poem  of  the  Lutheran  Fool  is  unquestionably  the  most  effective, 
bitter  and  incisive  of  all  the  satires  which  were  written  at  thai  period  in 
defence  of  the  Church  against  the  Reformation.' 


MURNER   AGAINST   REVOLUTION  341 

to  overturn  the  Church  and  State,  to  take  possession 
of  the  Church  goods,  and  to  set  up  the  Bundschuh  : 

AH  their  evangelical  lore 

Is  how  to  turn  all  topsy-turvy, 
Till  down  come  crashing  ground  and  floor, 

And  all  the  world  lives  idly. 
For  Gospel,  rightly  illustrated, 
Means,  cloister,  abbey,  land,  all  confiscated.1 

In  order  to  hoodwink  the  people  they  published 
all  sorts  of  '  libellous  books  under  unknown  names  and 
altogether  devoid  of  truth,'  2  they  taught  the  vulgarest 
language  of  abuse  against  the  Pope,  the  bishops,  and 
the  priests,  all  the  time  constantly  appealing  to  the 
divine  Word,  which  they  explained  and  falsified  accord- 
ing to  their  own  pleasure  :  each  one  interpreting  it  to 
his  own  advantage.3  Above  all  they  represented  to  the 
common  people  that  they  intended  to  divide  the  goods, 
and  that  the  poor  would  also  have  their  share.  But 
the  same  thing  would  happen  in  Germany  as  had 
happened   in   Bohemia   in  the   time   of  the   Hussites : 

For  when  the  goods  they  all  have  taken, 
And  a  mighty  heap  have  maken, 

1    Vom  grossen  hitherisclim  Narren,  No.  7.  2  Ibid.  No.  29. 

3  Even  Murner's  opponent,  the  Zwinglian  preacher  Utz  Eckstein, 
recognised  in  his  dialogues  on  the  Reichstag,  der  Edlen  und  Bauern  Bericht 
und  King,  in  the  year  1527,  that 

All  the  unrest  that  nowadays  is  seen 

By  no  other  cause  produced  has  been, 

Than  that  in  these  days  God  the  Lord 

Has  sown  His  Word  through  all  the  world  abroad, 

And  each  and  all  from  it  now  choose 

What  suits  them  best  to  read  and  use. 

And  God's  Word's  only  used  as  cover 

For  the  wish :  Were  but  my  satchel  full, 

Did  God  but  give  me  what  others  have. 

Thus  they  turn  things  solemn  to  derision, 

And  even  if  God's  Word  is  taught  to  the  spirit, 

What  they  seek  for  with  most  zest 

Is  all  that  for  the  body  is  best. 

—  M.  Scheible,  Das  Kloster,  viii.  829 


642  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

The  poor  will  get  as  fair  a  lot 

As  poor  men  in  Bohemia  got. 

There  too  the  people  thought  to  reap 

An  equal  portion  of  the  heap  ; 

But  lo  !  the  rich  man  took  the  whole, 

And  left  the  poor  man  making  dole.1 


1  No.  8  ;  cf.  No.  45.  It  is  only  quite  lately  that  justice  has  been  done 
to  the  character,  hfe,  and  influence  of  the  Catholic  poet  who  was  the 
ablest  literary  opponent  of  the  innovations  of  religion.  After  the  example 
of  Wachler,  Laube  and  Vilmar,  Henry  Kurz,  in  the  introduction  to  his 
essay  on  Murner's  GedicM  vom  grossen  lutherischen  Narren  (Zurich,  1848), 
p.  xxviii.  ff.,  endeavoured  to  restore  to  a  place  of  honour  a  name  that 
had  come  to  be  almost  universally  misknown  and  calumniated.  '  In 
Murner,'  Kurz  says,  '  there  dwelt  a  deep  feeling  for  the  right  and  the  true. 
Murner  was  a  man  of  the  people  in  the  strongest  sense  of  the  word  ;  ' 
'  even  if  he  often  used  words  which  offend  our  ears,  he  never  did  so  in 
order  to  please  any  special  class  of  readers  by  such  language  ;  he  merely 
called  the  things  of  which  he  was  speaking  by  the  simplest,  pithiest  names.' 
Kurz  also  drew  attention  to  the  fact  that  Lessing  was  already  contem- 
plating a  vindication  of  Murner.  '  His  desire  was  not  only  to  justify 
him  in  his  personal  character,  but  also  to  stand  up  for  him  as  poet  and 
writer  against  unjust  accusations.'  From  the  side  of  the  Catholics  Kurz 
remarks,  '  Nothing  at  all  has  been  done  to  rescue  the  honour  of  the  most 
powerful  enemy  of  the  Reformation.'  Murner's  warmest  advocate  is 
Karl  Goedeke.  In  his  introduction  to  the  Narrmbeschwitiung  (Leipzig, 
1879),  pp.  viii-liii,  he  says  amoiigst  other  things:  '  Murner,  the  champion 
of  the  existing  order  against  the  attacks  of  innovators,  was,  according  to  the 
current  logic  of  the  age,  made  into  an  aggressor,  and  accordingly  most 
disgracefully  used,  slandered  and  calumniated  ;  and,  when  he  attempted 
to  "  save  his  skin,"  baited  and  persecuted  like  a  malefactor,  so  that  even 
now  violent  partisans  "  blow  the  same  horn,"  and  even  well-meaning  his- 
torians are  in  bondage  to  the  influence  of  traditional  opinion.'  Even  the 
Strassburg  Humanists  '  distinguished  themselves  by  immoderately  fierce 
calumnies  against  Murner,'  and  '  described  him  as  an  inveterate  calum- 
niator, whereas  he  himself  was  the  one  slandered  and  calumniated.  This 
practice  was  observed  against  him  so  long  as  he  worked  publicly.  No 
wonder  that  the  echoes  of  the  centuries  have  more  and  more  deformed 
his  portrait.'  '  The  accusation,  so  often  brought  up  afresh,  that  Murner 
before  the  Reformation  fought  against,  and  after  the  Reformation  defended, 
what  the  reformers  opposed,  is  altogether  unfounded.  Before,  as  after, 
he  declared  himself  against  all  the  abuses,  but  at  no  time  did  he  ever 
assail  the  papal  constitution,  or  enter  a  protest  against  veneration  of  the 
Holy  Virgin  and  the  Saints,  or  oppose  the  Church  doctrine  that  the  Mass 
is  a  sacrifice  for  the  living  and  the  dead.'     '  But  if  the  favourite  title  of  a 


MURNEE   AGAINST   REVOLUTION  343 

One  of  the  principal  leaders  of  the  revolution,  as 
Murner  described    him,  was  Ulrich  von  Hutten,   '  the 

reformer  before  the  Reformation  in  no  way  applies  to  Mnrner,  since  he 
never  assailed  a  single  doctrine  of  the  Church,  he  is  at  any  rate  entitled 
to  rank  as  one  of  the  most  keen-sighted,  unprejudiced,  and  bold-minded 
regular  clergy  of  his  day.'  That  he  '  could  not  give  up  the  opinions  of  a 
lifetime,  the  doctrines  to  which  he  had  given  his  faith,  and  which  in  this 
faith  he  had  preached,  at  the  bidding  of  Luther's  contradictory  teaching, 
is  made  a  reproach  against  him  by  the  disciples  of  the  Reformation,  as  if 
firm  adhesion  to  sincere  conviction  were  a  crime.  Luther  was  but  a  single 
individual,  and  as  such,  according  to  Murner" s  view,  not  more  entitled  than 
any  other  individual — Murner  himself  for  instance — to  alter  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Church  organisation.  After  as  well  as  before  the  Reformation 
Murner  allowed  that  there  were  abuses  in  the  administration  of  eccle- 
siastical institutions,  but  he  did  not  wish  these  to  be  altered  without  the 
concurrence  of  the  legitimate  authorities.  This  was  the  principal  point  of 
separation  between  him  and  the  reformers.  A  second  point  was  that  he 
did  not  think  the  reasons  brought  forward  by  the  reformers  convincing, 
and  he  therefore  opposed  them  on  the  principles  of  the  existing  Church, 
and  he  did  this  on  purely  abstract  grounds,  without  any  personal  feeling, 
and  in  a  form  which,  though  occasionally  sharp  and  caustic,  must  neverthe- 
less, in  comparison  with  the  polemical  methods  of  his  adversaries,  and  even 
with  those  of  other  champions  of  the  Papal  Church,  be  called  calm  and 
temperate.'  '  Of  the  two  and  thirty  "  booklets  "  which  he  wrote  against 
Luther  and  his  followers,  including  his  Lied  vom  Untergang  des  Olaubens, 
only  six  or  seven  appeared  in  print.  Prom  these  it  is  seen  that  he  by  no 
means  overlooked  the  arguments  and  proofs  which  Luther  took  from  the 
Scriptures  ;  he  merely  disputed  the  fact  that  Luther  had  rightly  interpreted 
Scripture,  and  frequently  appealed  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Church, 
which,  as  the  joint  representative  of  all  Christendom,  he  preferred  before 
the  opinions  of  one  individual.  Luther's  method  of  polemics  was  a 
different  one.  He  alludes,  for  the  diversion  of  his  readers,  to  the  lice  in 
Murner' s  monk's  cowl,  and  contrives  that  a  pasquil  against  Murner 
shall  be  printed  and  sent  to  him  from  the  Rhine  district,  though  it  was 
certainly  published  by  none  other  than  Luther.'  Goedeke  speaks  of  the 
'  contemptible  lampoons  '  against  Murner, '  which,  in  spite  of  their  manifest 
lies,  have  hitherto  served  as  the  chief  sources  of  information  to  the  later 
historians.'  '  Murner  answered  these  libellous  writings  in  his  Beschworung 
des  yrossen  lutherischen  Nan-en,  his  best  poem,  and  one  which  abounds 
in  boisterous,  joyous,  bacchanalian  humour,  such  as  is  nowhere  else  to 
be  found  in  the  whole  period  of  the  Reformation.  The  Council  of  Strass- 
burg,  which  opposed  him  with  the  most  avowed  partisanship,  inhibited 
this  poem  and  altogether  deprived  its  author  of  liberty  to  print,  while  the 
so-called  reformers  of  Strassburg — that  is  to  say,  the  religious  revolu- 
tionists who  were  proceeding  with  the  cognisance  of  the  highest  official 


344  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

noble  poet,'  who  since  the  year  1520  had  exhibited  in 
various  firebrand  writings  an  indefatigable  revolu- 
tionary zeal,  and  had  no  scruples  in  openly  declaring, 
in  a  missive  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  that  his  in- 
tentions were  directed  towards  the  overthrow  of  the 
existing  order.  The  Pope,  he  said,  was  a  bandit,  '  and 
the  gang  of  this  bandit  was  called  the  Church.' 
"  Why  do  we  still  delay  ?  Has  Germany  no  honour, 
has  it  no  fire  ?  '  '  Rome  is  the  soul  of  all  uncleanness, 
the  slough  of  profligacy,  the  inexhaustible  mire  of 
iniquity ;  and  for  its  destruction  ought  they  not,  as 
for  defence  against  a  general  disaster,  to  flock  together 
from  all  quarters,  to  hoist  all  sails,  to  saddle  all  horses  ? 
Should  they  not  let  loose  with  fire  and  sword  ?  '  He 
summoned  the  nobles  and  the  towns  and  the  whole 
nation  to  take  up  arms  for  a  war  of  religion,  and  wrote 
on  his  banner  the  motto  quoted  by  Murner,  '■'  Evangel, 
Liberty  and  Truth.'  The  fall  of  the  papacy  was  the 
will  of  God,  he  said,  and  it  could  not  be  accomplished 
'  without  murder  and  bloodshed  ;  ' 

Now  is  the  time  that  calls  to  us : 
'  For  freedom  fight,  God  wills  it  thus.'  .  .  . 

Those  to  whose  hearts  this  call  did  not  appeal  did 

authorities,  had  full  freedom  to  slander  and  to  lie.'  In  1524,  'the  hatred 
against  him,  fanned  by  Bucer,  Capito  and  their  associates,  had  grown 
to  such  a  pitch  that  Murner  would  probably  have  fallen  a  victim  to  the 
maltreatment  of  the  evangelical  hordes  during  the  disgraceful  attack  on 
his  monastery,  which  took  place  on  September  15  with  the  connivance  of 
the  town  council,  had  he  not  happened,  accidentally,  to  be  at  Oberehenheim 
at  the  time.'  '  Refuted  he  never  was,  only  dismissed  with  calumnies.' 
**  Kawerau  {Th.  Murner,  p.  90)  seeks  as  much  as  possible  to  depreciate  the 
'  cowl- wearer,'  but  he  is  forced  to  acknowledge  his  '  rich  endowments 
and  his  unequalled  tenacity.'  In  Vogt-Koch,  Deutsche  Litteratwgesch . 
286  ff.,  Murner  is  treated  with  aversion  and  onesidedness,  but  it  is  also  em- 
phatically stated  that  he  was  the  '  most  important  opponent  of  Luther 
among  the  army  of  writers.' 


MURNEE  345 

not   love   the   Fatherland,   he   said,   neither   was   God 
rightly  known  by  them  : 

Come  hither,  ye  pious  Germans  all, 

With  God's  good  help,  the  truth  loud  call  ! 

Landsknechts  and  knights  come  out, 

And  all  possessed  of  valour  stout  ! 

Superstition  we'll  destroy, 

The  truth  bring  back  with  joy  ; 

And  if  no  other  way  is  found. 

We'll  shed  our  blood  on  battle-ground. 

'  A  hundred  thousand  men  I  see,  and  at  their  head 
my  boon  companion  Franz.'  To  this  boon  companion, 
Franz  von  Sickingen,  he  communicated  in  detail,  in 
several  letters  entitled  '  Gesprache,'  the  plans  and 
aims  of  the  contemplated  revolution  ;  the  merchants 
who  despoiled  the  people  must  be  expelled,  the  justice- 
perverting  jurists  be  destroyed  root  and  branch,  and 
above  all  Germany  must  be  set  free  from  the  '  ruthless 
robber-hordes  of  the  priests.'  The  Hussite  Ziska  was 
the  model  of  a  liberator.  In  a  mandate  of  war  of  1423 
Ziska,  who  also  appealed  to  a  '  commission  sent  him 
from  God,'  had  announced  openly  :  '  We  shall  pursue 
all  the  godless  people  with  punishments  ;  we  shall  beat, 
kill,  behead,  hang,  drown  and  burn  them,  and,  with 
every  kind  of  vengeance  which  according  to  God's 
law  overtakes  the  wicked,  we  shall  visit  every  indi- 
vidual without  exception,  and  without  distinction  of 
class  or  race.'  Convents  innumerable  were  plundered 
and  destroyed,  libraries,  archives,  works  of  art  of  all 
sorts  demolished,  monks  and  priests  slaughtered.  These 
horrors  had  remained  in  the  memory  of  the  German 
people,  and  Hutten  himself  quoted  the  words  of  '  a 
warner,'  who  said  he  had  heard  that  '  Ziska's  deeds 
were  full  of  infamy  and  godlessness.' 


346  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

None  the  less,  however,  did  he  wish  to  bring  about 
another  Hussite  war  of  religion  in  Germany.  It  is  '  no 
crime,'  he  said  in  answer  to  this  '  warner,'  '  to  punish 
the  guilty,  and  to  take  away  from  haughty,  avaricious, 
gluttonous,  and  lazy  people  that  which  they  have  got 
possession  of  unlawfully,  and  to  drive  them  out  of  the 
Fatherland  where  their  numbers  cause  famine  prices.' 
1  Why  should  not  Sickingen  follow  Ziska's  example  ?  '  x 

In  a  '  Gesprachbiichlein  '  entitled  '  Neu  Karsthans,' 

and   belonging   to   the   Hutten- Sickingen  series,  Ziska 

is  also  praised  by  Sickingen  as  a  worthy  model.     The 

clergy  deceived  the  people  with  their  '  ceremonies  and 

juggleries ; '   God  only  required  worship  in  spirit  and 

in  truth,  therefore  they  were  bound,  '  as  had  been  done 

in  Bohemia,  to  pull  down  most  of  the  churches  ;  for  so 

long  as  these  remained  standing  there  was  always  the 

attraction  of  the  priestly  spirit,   and  the  false  belief 

could  not  be  destroyed  in  the  common  people  until 

these  superfluities  were  removed  and  all  the  monastic 

orders  rooted  out.     Therefore  Ziska  was  no  fool  because 

he  destroyed  the  churches  ;  and  I  cannot  sufficiently 

praise  his  high  understanding  for  having  expelled  and 

exterminated   all   the   monks.'     If   the   priests   during 

their  tremendous  massacre  '  appealed  to  their  freedom, 

the  slaughterers  would  care  nothing,'  but  would  abide 

by  the  dictum  of  St.  Paul,  who  says  to  the  Corinthians, 

'  Where  the  Spirit  of   God  is  there  is  freedom.'     In 

thirty  articles   appended  to  the   dialogues  '  by  which 

Squire    Helferich,    Knight    Heinz    and   (the    peasant) 

Karsthans,  with    their    followers,    pledged   themselves 

1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  iii.  pp.  106  ff.,  13.3  ff.,  138-139, 145-148  ;  vol.  iv. 
p.  122 ;  concerning  the  depth  of  Hutten's  hatred  and  desire  for  revenge 
even  against  merely  literary  opponents,  see  vol.  iii.  pp.  74-76. 


SATIRES— TJLRICH   VOX  HUTTEN  347 

to  hold  hard  and  fast,'  they  promised  among  other 
things  to  regard  the  Pope  as  the  Antichrist,  the  cardinals 
as  the  apostles  of  the  devil,  to  strangle  and  kill  the 
Eoman  courtiers  and  all  their  followers,  to  scourge  or 
trample  under  foot  the  priests,  to  cut  off  the  ears  of 
messengers  bringing  spiritual  commands,  and  if  they 
came  a  second  time,  to  put  their  eyes  out.1 

What  sort  of  procedure  might  have  been  expected 
from  Sickingen,  had  he  succeeded  in  his  contemplated 
overthrow  of  Church  and  State,  may  be  judged  from 
the  atrocities  which  he  perpetrated  against  the  imperial 
city  of  Worms  in  the  years  1515-1517.  '  The  said 
Franz,'  so  runs  an  edict  of  the  Worms  Council  of  March  4, 
1517,  '  has  now  for  the  space  of  two  years  cut  down  the 
vines  in  the  fields,  burnt  and  laid  waste  the  orchards, 
chopped  off  the  hands  and  ears  of  the  poor  peasants 
who  were  at  work,  maltreated  and  dishonoured  women 
and  girls,  seized  young  boys  and  beaten,  wounded, 
and  sometimes  killed  them.'  '  He  has  robbed,  beaten 
and  wounded  pilgrims,  messengers,  and  merchants, 
cut  crosses  on  their  foreheads,  whipped,  wounded  and 
plundered  priests  and  monks.'  2 

On  his  return  from  Treves  in  1522  Sickingen,  follow- 
ing Ziska's  example,  deliberately  burnt  down  all  the 
churches  and  convents.3 

Libellous  lampoons  of  all  sorts,  some  in  verse, 
some  in  prose,  soon  came  to  form  the  principal  branch 
of  literature.4     In  by  far  the  greater  number  of  these 

1  See  our  statements,  vol.  iii.  pp.  224-227. 

2  Einblattdruck  of  March  4,    1517  ;    cf.  Niemoller,  Thaten  Sichingens 
(Frankfurt,  1888),  pp.  3-4. 

:'  See.  our  remarks,  vol.  iii.  pp.  290,  291. 

4  '  For  pasquils,  satires  and  ilbellous  poetry  the  period  of  the  Refor- 


o 


48  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


productions  fierce  passion  and  wild  screaming  are  sup- 
posed to  make  up  for  poverty  of  thought.  Their  chief 
object  was  to  stir  up  and  intensify  more  and  more, 
by  means  of  scorn,  ridicule  and  calumny,  feelings  of 
irreconcilable   enmity,    deepest   contempt,    hatred   and 

mation  was  the  golden  epoch,'  says  Johannes  Voigt,  Pasquille  p.  337. 
Carl  Hagen,  blamed  by  a  reviewer  for  '  having  often  quoted  very  coarse 
passages  from  such  waitings,'  says  in  self -justification  (vol.  ii.  pp.  xiii,  xiv)  : 
'It  is  just  these  coarse  passages  which  quite  admirably  represent  the  character 
of  that  period.'  '  If  our  writing  of  history  is  to  be  really  objective  it  must 
not  be  governed  by  accidental  fashion  and  by  expediency,  but  it  must 
penetrate  into  the  spirit  of  the  epoch  which  is  being  described,  and  must 
leave  out  no  single  item  which  throws  light  on  it.'  Now  it  was  precisely 
'  coarseness  in  literature  which  was  an  essential  feature  of  the  Reformation 
period.'  Oskar  Schade  (vol.  i.  pp.  v,  vi)  finds  '  in  the  countless  pamphlets  and 
leaflets  which  inundated  the  land  at  that  epoch,'  '  occasionally  great  coarse- 
ness and  passionateness.'  The  word  '  occasionally  '  seems  scarcely  appro- 
priate, for  it  would  be  difficult  in  these  writings  to  find  even  a  few  passages 
in  which  violent  hatred  and  unbridled  love  of  slander  do  not  find  expression, 
**  The  learned  authors  of  the  libellous  dialogues,  as  Matthias  points  out  in 
'  Ein  Pasquill  aus  der  Zeit  des  schmalkaldigen  Krieges '  (Zeitsch.  fur  deutsche 
Philologie,  xx.  154),  chose  by  preference  for  their  spokesmen  people  from 
the  lowest  classes.  A  principal  reason  for  this  was  that  far  coarser  language 
against  the  papacy  could  be  put  into  their  mouths  than  into  the  mouths 
of  representatives  of  the  cultivated  classes.  The  dialogue  contributed 
by  Matthias,  which  appeared  in  November  1546,  '  breathes  from  beginning 
to  end  fanatical  hatred  against  the  papacy.'  St.  Peter  is  called  by  terms  of 
abuse  such  as  '  cabbage-head  '  and '  senseless  Peter  head ;  '  the  '  villain.' 
Pope  Paul  III.  is  called  '  wicked  old  French  dog  ; '  Pope  Clement  VII. 
is  apostrophised  as  '  you  bad,  shaven  lump  of  dirt.'  Concerning  the 
pasquils  quoted  by  Voigt,  I.e.,  the  Protestant  Ropel  says:  'Most 
of  them  possess  neither  wit  nor  poetic  merit.  They  show,  however,  by 
what  sort  of  means  the  Protestants  at  that  time  endeavoured  to  influence 
the  general  feeling  of  the  people,  and  what  sympathy  and  wide  circulation 
these  lampoons  and  satires  found  in  the  most  remote  districts  of  Germany 
and  among  all  classes  of  society,  from  princes  downwards  to  the  lowest 
grades.  In  the  strongest,  not  to  say  the  most  insolent,  tones,  unsparingly, 
without  the  slightest  regard  for  all  that  had  hitherto  been  held  sacred, 
or  that  was  dear  to  the  opposite  party,  without  the  least  recognition  of  the 
truth  that  lay  on  that  side,  these  writings,  from  the  very  coarseness  and 
repulsiveness  of  their  utterances,  show  how  entirely  the  Protestants  had 
emancipated  themselves  from  the  morality  of  earlier  times '  ('  Referat  fiber 
Raumer,  Hist.  Taschenbuch,'  in  Hallische  Jahrbiicher,  1838,  No.  230). 


SQUIBS   AND    LIBELLOUS   WETTINGS  349 

ferocity  against  the  Pope  and  the  clergy  and  '  the  whole 
papistical  rabble.'  They  kept  to  the  same  key  which 
Luther  had  struck  in  his  innumerable  controversial 
books. 

Luther  stigmatised  the  Holy  Mass  as  an  outgrowth 
of  hell  and  as  scandalous  idolatry,  the  clergy  as  thieves, 
blasphemers,  hypocrites,  robbers,  '  priests  of  the  devil ;  ' 
in  all  their  '  books  and  writings  there  was  nothing  else 
than  the  devil  himself  ;  '  it  was  '  much  better  to  be  a 
hangman  and  a  murderer  than  a  priest  or  a  monk  ;  ' 
consecration  imprinted  on  the  priests  '  the  sign  of  the 
beast  in  the  Apocalypse.'  The  Pope  was  '  the  devil's 
sow  ;  '  the  bishops  his  '  idols  and  larva),  unbelieving, 
unchristian,  ignorant  apes ;  '  the  universities  were 
'  temples  of  Moloch  and  dens  of  murderers.'  * 

Language  of  the  same  sort,  if  of  feebler  quality,  was 
used  by  authors  innumerable,  whose  pamphlets  were 
mostly  published  anonymously.  Thus,  for  instance, 
one  of  them  announced  that  '  the  horned  idols  are  not 
bishops  but  carnival  masks ;  '  another  found  in  the 
abbeys  and  convents  '  crowned  asses,  fatted  hogs, 
coarse  bacchanalians,  and  godless,  unintelligent  clowns ; ' 
a  third  traced  the  origin  of  ecclesiastical  law  '  to  the 
hellish  hound  ;  '  '  their  spirit  is  a  dog ;  they  show  this 
by  their  works,  for  they  rend  the  sheep  of  Christ,  and 
even  devour  them.'  A  priest,  wrote  in  1522  the  former 
Franciscan  monk,  Eberlin  von  Glinzburg,  one  of  the 
most  active  pamphleteers,  is  only  another  name  for 
'  a  wicked,  godless  man,  drunken,  lazy,  avaricious, 
quarrelsome,  adulterous ; '  the  wrath  of  God  was  falling 
on  the  priests,  and  it  was  a  wonder  that  the  people 
did  not  stone  them  ;  it  was  the  sign  of  a  good  Christian 

1  See  our  remarks,  vol.  iii.  p.  231  ff. 


350  HISTOliY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

to  despise  the  priests  to  the  utmost,  or  even  to  slaughter 
them.1 

As  in  the  theological  literature  of  the  day  so  also  in 
these  popular  writings,  the  devil  played  an  important 
part ;  he  was  represented  now  as  a  servant  of  the  papacy, 
now  as  its  supreme  head  who  issued  public  official 
edicts,  now  he  was  introduced  in  conversation  with  the 
Pope,  on  whom  he  heaped  scorn  and  ridicule.2 

And  not  alone  in  the  first  decades  of  the  religious 
revolution,  but  during  a  whole  century,  lampoons, 
pasquils,  satires  and  scurrilous  poems  poured  like  a 
flood  over  the  land,  and  that  for  the  most  part  in 
those  very  districts  in  which  every  vestige  of  Catholicism 
had  long  been  rooted  out.  The  Hessian  Superintendent, 
George  Nigrinus,  in  1593,  was  pleased  to  discern  in 
all  these  signs  of  irreconcilable  hatred  the  work  of 
'  evangelical  angels,'  and  sang  jubilate  from  the  bottom 
of  his  heart  over  the  constantly  increasing  mania  for 
assault  of  these  '  evangelical  angels.'  '  I  fancy,'  he 
wrote,  '  it  must  have  thundered  and  lightened  finely  at 
Rome  in  our  days  ;  I  fancy  the  earth  must  have  been 
set  in  movement  by  this  fire  and  light  of  the  divine 
Word  that  was  kindled.'  '  They  will  not  allow  any 
good  in  the  Pope,  for  there  is  nothing  good  found  in 
him,  in  this  Antichrist  and  tyrant  beyond  ail  tyranny, 
this  liar  beyond  all  heresy,  this  murderer  beyond  all 
murder.'  '  Only  go  at  them  boldly  and  stir  up  the 
firebrands,  that  they  may  grow  right  burning  hot, 
for  this  is  the  will  of  God  ;  in  this  way  God,  the  true 
and  the  righteous,  will  be  glorified  and  His  Church  built 

1  For  these  and  many  similar  abusive  phrases  in  the  fugitive  pieces 
see  Hagen,  ii.  176-227,  and  iii.  13  ff.,  and  our  statements,  vol.  iii.  p.  214  ff 
-  See  the  articles  in  Schade,  ii.  85-104.  Voigt,  Pasqaille,  pp.  397-39S. 


SQUIBS   AND   LIBELLOUS    WRITINGS  351 

up.  Cursed  be  all  who  do  the  Lord's  work  negligently ; 
cursed  be  all  peace  in  this  feud  between  the  woman 
and  the  serpent's  seed,  between  Christ  and  the  Anti- 
christ with  all  his  followers.  Let  all  to  whom  this 
appeals  say  from  their  heart,  Amen.  Come,  dear  Lord 
Jesus.     Amen.' 

'  What  is  said  of  the  Pope  must  be  understood  of 
all  his  members,  therefore  lay  bare  the  Babylonian 
harlot  and  uncover  her  shame.  It  is  not  only  the  clergy 
in  the  papacy  who  are  belly-servants,  but  also  all  who 
follow  them,  both  of  high  and  low  degree ;  they  are  all 
belly-servants.  The  belly  is  their  God,  says  Paul.' 
'  In  spiritual  matters  they  have  no  understanding, 
and  are  less  fit  to  pronounce  judgment  concerning 
these  things  than  are  unreasoning  animals  to  judge 
of  human  things.  They  are  also  downright  beasts  in 
gross  vices :  in  adultery,  whoremongery,  sodomy  and 
murder.'  Accordingly,  Nigrinus,  '  the  preacher  of  the 
gospel  of  love,'  insisted  on  relentless  battle  against  all 
the  adherents  of  the  Catholic  Church.1 

Among  the  most  violent  specimens  of  libellous 
writings  of  the  century  was  one  in  more  than  9,000 
'  comical  rhymes  for  the  benefit  of  the  young,'  published 
in  1555  by  the  former  Franciscan  monk,  Burchard  Waldis, 
and  re-edited  in  the  years  1556,  1560,  1563,  1575.  The 
title  runs  :  '  Das  Papstisch  Reich  :  ist  ein  Buch  liistig  zu 
lesen  alien,  so  die  Wahrheit  lieb  haben,  darin  der  Papst 
mit  seinen  Geliedern,  Leben,  Glauben,  Gottesdienst, 
Gebreuchen  und  Ceremonien,  so  viel  muglich,  wahr- 
haftig  und  auf's  kiirzeste  beschriben  ist '  ('  The  Popish 

1  Nigrinus,  Apocalypse,  pp.  238,  354,  527,  546,  615,  635.  In  vol.  x. 
Book  II.  there  are  many  such  utterances  of  Protestant  preachers  and 
laymen. 


352  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Kingdom  :  a  book  pleasant  to  read  for  all  who  love  the 
truth ;  wherein  the  Pope  with  his  members,  life,  faith, 
divine  worship,  crimes  and  ceremonies,  as  far  as  possible, 
is  truly  and  as  briefly  as  possible  described ').' 

It  was  a  translation  of  a  Latin  work  made  by  order 
of  the  Landgrave  Philip  of  Hesse,  from  the  original 
which  the  preacher,  Thomas  Kirchmair,  had  pub- 
lished in  1553  under  the  name  Naogeorg.  Waldis 
dedicated  his  work  to  the  much  depreciated  and  '  most 
virtuous  Frau  Margaretha  von  der  Sale,  Philip's  wedded 
wife,'  as  whose  '  poor  servant  and  chaplain  '  he  desig- 
nated himself.  All  the  Catholic  doctrines  are  deformed 
and  perverted  in  this  work  ;  the  holy  sacraments  and 
the  rites  of  divine  service  are  held  up  to  scorn  as  works 
of  the  devil : 

Ail  popedom  liveth  in  that  way 

For  which  serpents  we  do  slay  : 

Such  a  sight  is  every  church  and  temple, 

It  is  a  heathenish  example 

With  foul  atrocities  o'erflowing. 

The  bread  in  golden  shrine  is  placed, 

And  then  within  the  wall  incased, 

A  railing  strong  with  iron  door 

And  double  bolts  is  placed  before. 

Lest  the  heathen  Turks,  perchance, 

At  such  idolatry  should  glance, 

And  boldly  say  the  Papists  are 

Not  Christians  but  idolaters. 

With  regard  to  the  Lord's  Supper  it  says  : 

God  help,  less  reasoning,  than  dumb 
Brutes  the  papacy's  become.  .  .  . 
The  devil  who  doth  them  possess 
Has  given  them  the  fatal  Mass.  .  .  . 

At  Confirmation  '  the  Spirit  of  God  can  be  bought  for 
the  child  with  silver  and  red  gold  :  ' 

1  Goedeke,  Gnuidriss,  ii.  153,  No.  14. 


SQUIBS   AND   LIBELLOUS   VERSES  353 

'    The  chrism  on  his  brow  they  smear 
And  slap  the  innocent  young  dear, 
So  that  the  people  laugh  outright — 
The  child  alone  doth  weep  with  fright. 
Then  the  infant's  head  is  bound 
With  a  linen  cloth  around, 
As  though  it  had  a  deadly  pain, 
And  all  the  people  laugh  again. 

But  '  the  veritable  monkey-play  '  and  devil's  work 
is  performed  by  the  Papists  at  the  feast  of  the  Corpus 
Christi.  The  worship  of  the  Turks  is  far  preferable  to 
that  of  the  Papists  : 

For  if  one  should  compare  the  creed 
Of  Turk  and  Pope,  it's  seen  indeed 
That  the  Turk  a  better  sense  has  got 
Of  God  than  all  the  Popish  lot. 

For  the  young,  the  author  slanderously  said,  the 
Papists  kept  bad  houses  : 

As  the  Pope  has  given  freedom 

To  Florence,  in  the  beautiful  city  ; 

Whosoever  goes  into  the  common  .  .  . 

And  does  what  you  well  know 

Is  loaded  with  praise  by  the  Pope, 

Is  granted  an  indulgence  thereto. 

No  less  atrocious  is  it  that  the  Pope  '  is  worshipped 
as  a  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth  '  by  the  monarchs  who 
are  tributary  to  him,  and  who  all  receive  their  fiefs 
and  crowns  from  him  alone. 

When  the  Pope  bids  strangle  or  kill 
They  fly  like  hangman's  servants  at  his  will, 
With  fire  and  water  they  chastise, 
Cross-bow,  musket,  sword  they  seize. 
Learned  or  unlearned,  churl  or  lord, 
They'll  kill  them  all  for  the  Pope's  reward. 
Who  the  victim  is  none  do  care, 
Father  or  mother  they  would  not  spare. 
None  can  get  from  death  away 
When  this  holy  man  bids  slay. 

VOL.   XL  A  A 


354  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

After  this  manner  the  whole  '  Popish  empire  '  is 
described,  and  moreover,  as  Waldis  boasts  in  the  preface, 
for  the  special  benefit  of  '  the  present  generation  and 
young  Christians,'  who  have  never  seen  the  papacy 
*  with  its  devil's  doctrine  and  idolatrous  worship,' 
nor  have  been  brought  up  under  it,  and  who  have  not 
had  their  consciences  besmirched  and  corrupted  by 
such  poisonous  error.  True,  he  says,  the  young  hear 
'  daily  in  all  sermons '  that  the  papacy  *  ought  to  be 
sent  back  to  the  devil  and  hell,  whence  it  first  came,  as 
a  devilish  invention,  but  this  is  not  enough  because 
'  all  the  same  the  common  people  and  the  great  majority 
are  still  in  such  a  state  of  ignorance  that  they  do  not 
thoroughly  understand  the  prophecies  concerning  the 
papacy,'  and  not  having  seen  and  experienced  its  horrors, 
they  cannot  protect  themselves  against  it.  '  As  the 
popular  saying  runs,  we  cannot  either  love  or  hate  a 
thing  until  we  know  how  good  or  bad  it  is.'  For  this 
reason  was  this  work  written,  '  very  carefully  and 
truthfully.'  ] 

Further  information  concerning  the  papacy  was  im- 
parted in  1559  by  an  unknown  author,  in  a  '  Hand- 
biichlein  der  Papisten.'  It  begins  with  the  question  : 
'  How  shall  an  impious  popish  bishop,  pastor,  or 
preacher  behave  in  his  vocation  ?  How  shall  he  teach, 
how  shall  he  live  ?  '  To  which  the  answer  is  :  '  He  will 
be  ignorant  and  an  evil  liver  ;  he  will  be  ashamed  of 
the  Gospel,  and  spend  his  life  in  all  sorts  of  profligacy 
and  shame  ;  he  will  falsify  God's  Word,  allow  sin  and 
wickedness,  and  join  in  it  himself ;  he  will  be  a  shame- 
less babauchee,  a  wine-bibber,  a  gambler;  ...  he  will 

1  The  passages  referred  to  occur  in  the  dedication,  and  in  Book  I.  ch.  4, 
Book  III.  chs.  5  and  7,  and  Book  IV.  chs.  19.  22,  29,  31,  33. 


SQUIBS   AND    LIBELLOUS   VERSES  355 

be  in  the  thick  of  all  vice  and  corruption.'  To  another 
of  the  many  questions  :  '  How  shall  the  impious  behave 
to  their  parents  ? '  the  answer  is  :  '  The  impious  shall 
be  disobedient  to  their  parents,  shall  scold  and  curse 
them,  shall  not  provide  them  with  any  necessaries, 
but  shall  only  give  them  crusts  of  bread  to  eat  and 
water  to  drink,  and  finally  they  shall  drive  them  out 
of  the  house,  or  run  away  from  them  into  a  convent 
and  leave  them  in  distress  and  want.'  All  this  was 
commanded  them  by  the  convent  rules  ;  for  in  the 
convents  they  acquired  '  other  parents ;  the  Father 
Prior  and  Mater  Domina,  yea,  Satan  himself.'  1 

A  pamphlet  for  the  people,  published  first  in  1542 
by  the  preacher  Erasmus  Alber,  with  a  preface  by 
Luther,  and  much  praised  by  the  Protestants,  bore 
the  title :  '  Der  Barfusser  Monche  Eulenspiegel  und 
Alkoran.'  2  It  contained  all  sorts  of  mocking  remarks 
on  the  so-called  '  Book  of  Conformity  '  of  the  Fran- 
ciscans, in  which  the  life  of  Saint  Francis  of  Assisi 
is  compared  with  the  life  of  Christ.3  In  the  inter- 
pretation of  this  book  Alber  went  so  far  as  to  assert 
that  the  monks  '  make  Christ  our  Lord  into  a  figure 
and  prototype  of  Francis — that  is  to  say,  Christ  is  the 
servant  and  Francis  is  His  lord ; '  '  they  set  Francis 
far,  far  above  Christ.'  On  the  statement  that  St. 
Francis  during  an  illness  would  not  let  anything  be  read 
to  him,  and  had  said  :  '  I  will  know  nothing  save  Jesus 
the  crucified,'  Alber  makes  the  remark  :  '  By  this  we  see 
what  a  great  donkey  and  godless  fanatic  he  was  :  '    he 

1  Schade,  ii.  264-274  ;  cf.  380. 

2  Goedeke,  Orunclriss,  ii.  444,  No.  16a  ;  **  cf.  Matthias  in  the  Zeitschr- 
fiir  deutsche  Philologie,  xxi.  432. 

3  Liber  conformitatum  vitae  S.  Francisci  cum  vita  D.  N.  Jesu  Christi. 

A  a  2 


356  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

would  not  hear  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  thought  to 
comfort  himself  with  his  own  ideas.  The  passage  :  '  The 
Mother  of  Christ  prayed  to  God  the  Father  to  send 
Francis  into  the  world  for  the  good  of  poor  sinners,'  he 
accompanies  with  the  marginal  note  :  '  Lucifer's  mother 
is  said  to  have  prayed  to  Beelzebub.'  The  story  that  once 
upon  a  time  a  count  on  his  death-bed  recommended 
himself  to  the  prayers  of  a  pious  brother  puts  him  in 
such  a  frenzy  that  he  exclaims  :  '  Shall  we  not  hang  or 
drown  all  monks  ?  See  what  murderers  of  souls  they 
are  !  '  A  brother  Aegidius,  it  says  in  this  book,  was 
once  caught  up  into  the  third  heaven  like  Paul ;  to  which 
Alber  says,  '  The  state  of  being  caught  up  is  very 
commonly  enjoyed  by  the  holy  devils  :  they  ought  to 
be  caught  up  to  the  gallows  and  to  the  hangman.' 
Whereas  in  this  work  there  are  references  '  to  some 
hundred  books  compiled  by  the  Barefoot  Friars,' 
Alber  says  :  '  These  same  monks  must  all  be  devils, 
because  Francis  insists  that  his  brothers  are  only  to 
have  one  book,  viz.  his  rules.  Therefore  all  the  books 
of  the  Barefoot  Friars  are  of  the  devil  except  the  word 
of  their  own  god  Francis.' ] 

1  Oldest  edition  (Wittenberg,  1542),  pp.  5,  25,  42,  141,  142,  436.  The 
flocks  of  birds  which  sang  to  St.  Francis  while  he  was  preaching  '  were 
devils '  (p.  147) ;  the  Mother  of  God,  who  appeared  to  the  Brother  Accursius, 
was  '  the  devil's  mother  '  (p.  219),  and  so  forth.  A  later  edition  of  the 
pamphlet  adds  about  ninety-five  more  marginal  notes,  most  of  them 
containing  two  or  three  foul  words.  Wendeler,  pp.  104,  191.  **  Fr.  Schnorr 
von  Carolsfeld  (Erasmus  Alberus,  Dresden,  1893,  p.  54)  speaks  of  Alber's 
Der  Barfilsser  Eulenspiegel  as  '  the  work  which  is  still  full  of  importance 
at  the  present  day.'  On  the  other  hand,  the  Protestant  P.  Sabatier  ( Vie 
de  S.  Francois  a" Assise,  Paris,  1894,  p.  cxv.)  remarks  concerning  the  Liber 
Conform,  of  Bartholomew  de  Pisa :  '  Je  n'hesite  pas  a  y  voir  l'ouvrage 
le  plus  important  qui  a  ete  fait  sur  la  vie  de  Saint  Francois.  .  .  .  Je  n'ai 
a  m'occuper  ici  des  sottes  attaques  de  quelques  auteurs  protestants  contre 
ce  livre.  Nulle  part  Barth.  de  Pise  ne  fait  de  S.  Francois  l'egal  de  Jesus, 
et  il  lui  arrive  meme  de  prevenir  la  critique  a  cet  egard.'  e 


SQUIBS   AND   LIBELLOUS    VERSES  357 

The  prevalent  rage  for  libellous  writing  manifested 
itself  also  in  mocking  travesties  of  Biblical  stories  or 
of  prayers  such  as  the  Pater  Noster,  the  Ave  Maria, 
the  Benedicite  and  the  Gratias  (grace  before  and 
after  meat).  Protestant  writers  began  early  to  supply 
the  market  abundantly  with  productions  of  this  sort,1 
and  here  and  there  Catholics  followed  the  melancholy 
example.  The  Catholic  satirist,  Daniel  von  Soest, 
travestied  the  Pater  Noster  in  his  '  Gemeine  Beichte.'  - 
The  Franciscan,  John  Nas,  introduced  at  the  end  of 
his  '  Fiinfte  Centuria  '  (1570)  an  '  Irrequies  Luthers,' 
which  was  a  travestied  version  of  the  Requiem  and 
other  prayers  applied  to  Luther.3  The  Lucerne  ac- 
tuary Hans  Salat  in  1532  made  parodies  applicable 
to  Zwingli  on  the  Pater  Noster,  the  Ave  and  the  Credo.4 

For  violent  bitterness,  indeed,  Salat  in  many  of  his 
poetical  performances  stood  on  the  same  level  as  the 
Protestant  controversial  poets.  In  1531,  after  the 
battle  of  Kappel,  he  composed  a  '  fine  ode  '  on  the  war 
which  had  been  waged  by  the  Confederates  in  five 
cantons  and  in  other  districts ;  the  poem  is  called 
the  '  Tanngrotz.' 

1  Schade,  ii.  105-113,  310  ft'.  **  Extensive  attempts  were  also  made  on 
the  Protestant  side  to  transmogrify  into  apologies  of  Protestantism  works 
which  had  come  into  existence  long  before  the  Church  schism,  of  which  the 
religious  views,  it  stands  to  reason,  were  based  on  Catholic  principles. 
This  was  done  the  most  systematically  by  the  publisher  Cammerlander, 
who  availed  himself  for  the  purjiose  of  the  help  of  the  renegade  monk 
Vielfield.  See  B.  Wenzel,  Cammerlander  und  Vielfield,  ein  Beitrag  zur 
Litteraturgesrhichte  des  sechzehnten  Jahrhunderts.  Rostocke  Inaugural- 
Dissertation.  Berlin,  1891.  See  also  Kelchner  in  the  Allgem.  deutsche 
Bibliographie,  iii.  277,  as  well  as  the  notices  of  Falk  in  the  Litter.  Hand- 
weiser,  1892,  pp.  547-548. 

2  Jostes,  pp.  210-211. 

3  Schopf,  p.  28. 

4  Bachtold,  Hans  Salat,  pp.  13-14. 


358  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

The  villain  who  misled 

A  pious  community  and  so  many  honest  men, 

Has  here  left  his  pomp  and  his  life — 

I  mean  Ulrich  Zwingli,  whom  I  have  known — 

He  was  quartered  and  burned, 

As  imperial  law  decrees, 

Of  which  a  little  song  I  write. 1 

In  this  '  Liedlein  von  Zwinglin  '  it  says  : 

On  the  battlefield  they  found  him 
With  his  wicked  ones  around  him. 
They  should  all  be  flayed  alive : 
The  villains,  I  mean  to  say, 
Who  led  a  whole  parish  astray. 

The  executioner  of  Lucerne  sang  the  following 
'  Requiem  '  to  Zwingli : 

Mid  joyfulness  and  laughter 

We  cut  him  in  four  quarters  ; 

Upon  his  thighs  he  had  much  fat, 

But  the  hangman  threw  it  away  for  all  that, 

As  though  he'd  been  a  dog.- 

In  a  like  bitter  strain  he  wrote  in  the  following  year 
the  '  Triumph  des  helvetischen  Herkules,'  as  Zwingli, 
he  said,  '  was  called  by  some  of  his  party.'  He  trans- 
ports his  readers  to  the  Schwarzwald.  In  this  forest 
he,  the  poet,  is  overtaken  by  night  on  the  first  day  of 
the  vintage  month,  October  1531,  the  day  of  Zwingli's 
death  ;  he  takes  shelter  in  a  hollow  tree,  and  as  the 
grey  dawn  appears  he  suddenly  hears  a  wild  tumult 
and  screaming,  which  seem  to  shake  the  earth  : 

Then  from  the  rocks  came  a  gruesome  horde, 
From  the  wall  of  stone  helter-skelter  they  poured, 
On  horses  and  beasts  of  every  sort, 
So  horribly  formed  and  shaped,  I  thought 
The  devil  was  charging  at  me  ! 

1  The  Tanngrotz,  printed  by  Bachtold,  H.  Salat,  pp.  89-109. 

-  Bachtold,  p.  117,  note.     The  whole  song  is  given  at  pp.  114-118. 


SQUIBS   AND   LIBELLOUS   VERSES  359 

But  on  second  thoughts  I  felt  sure, 
'Twas  from  niy  hostel  they  rode  thus  here, 
Through  stick  and  stone,  through  bush  and  briar. 
Methought,  a  wondrous  queer  prince  is  that, 
It  must  be  the  folk  from  the  Brattelenmatt.1 

The  poet  then  makes  the  whole  army  of  religious 
innovators,  with  the  monks,  clergy  and  nuns  in  the 
van,  pass  by  like  a  '  Witches'  sabbath  procession,'  all 
clad  in  stolen  Mass  vestments,  choir  robes,  and  other 
Church  garments,  and  laden  with  all  sorts  of  Church 
plunder,  and  quarrelling  fiercely  with  each  other.  Thus, 
for  instance,  an  abbot  with  his  '  Frau  Meisterin.' 

In  grimmest  wrath  to  her  he  swore  : 

Thou  cursed,  vile,  adulterous  whore, 

Unto  this  punishment  thou  hast  me  led, 

That  I  my  priestly  state  have  forfeited. 

The  oath  I  swore  to  God  did  break, 

Vile  woman,  for  thy  wretched  sake, 

Therefore,  for  ever,  must  I  burn  in  hell  ! 

And  then  he  shook  and  scratched  and  whacked  her  well. 

As  he  did,  so  did  all  the  gang, 

Their  shrieks  through  hill  and  valley  rang.  .  .  . 

Strange  yells  they  raised  and  jabber  shocking, 

Villains  and  whores  each  other  mocking.  .  .  . 

But  all  rushed  with  avenging  swoop 

On  one  who  now  came  in  the  troop, 

With  pomp  he  marches  on,  and  he's 

By  all  of  them  called  Hercules. 

'  The  German  Hercules,'  Zwingli,  celebrates  a 
triumphal  march,  like  the  temple  robbers  Nebuchad- 
nezzar and  Balthasar,  but 

Then  came  a  terrible  thunder-blast, 

And  Hercules  down  from  his  chariot  was  cast. 

The  chariot  was  followed  by 

A  miserable  bloody  horde, 

Wounded,  shot,  or  hacked  with  sword  ; 


1  '  Brattelenmatt,'  the  rendezvous  of  the  witches.     Bachtold,  p.  123  note. 


360  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

And  then  another  poorer  crowd 

To  whom  seemed  scanty  food  and  drink  allowed, 

While  men  and  women,  rich  and  poor  alike, 

Raised  a  piteous,  lamentable  shriek. 

Burghers,  peasants,  workmen,  all  the  lot, 

Would  fain  have  fallen  on  the  booty,  I  wot.  .  .  . 

Then  came  another  gruesome  throng 

Riding  furiously  along, 

Riding  the  poor  folk  down  to  the  earth 

With  snorting  steeds  and  grimmest  wrath. 

Finally  the  whole  procession 

Rushed  upon  the  rocks  pell-mell 

With  screaming,  anguish,  wailing,  yell. 

Cries  and  lamentations  weird. 

Distorted  form  and  visage  scared, 

Stabs,  blows  and  lashes,  pomp,  throng  and  rending, 

As  though  the  heavens  and  earth  were  ending. 

Behind  them  then  fell  in  the  rock, 

Shattered  in  pieces  with  the  shock.' 

The  convert,  John  Engerd,  since  1576  professor 
of  poetry  at  the  university  of  Ingolstadt,  made  the 
following  alphabetical  rhymes  on  the  different  letters 
of  the  name  Luther.1' 

Was  zeigt  der  erste  Buchstab  an  ? 
L.  Lotter,  Lugner,  Lumpenmann, 
Leichtfertig,  Lauter  Lehren  Los, 
Das  sei  der  erste  Titul  gross. 

Sag  was  das  U  [V]  bedeuten  soil  ? 
Verbanter,  Unrlat,  Uebels  Vol, 
Verwiister  Unsers  Vaterlands, 
So  ist  der  andre  Buchstab  ganz. 

Was  denn  der  dritt  ?  brings  auch  herfiir  : 
T.  Treulos,  Trotzig,  Teuflisch  Tier, 
Tyrannisch,  Tiickisch,  Tugendleer, 
Und  was  sonst  sein  der  Laster  mehr. 


1  The  '  Triumphus  Herculis  Helvetici '  (1532),  printed  for  the  first  time 
by  Bachtold,  H.  Salat,  pp.  121-13G. 

2  It  is  obviously  impossible  to  give  an  exact  reproduction  of  this 
alphabetical  contrivance,  as  the  ecpiivalent  English  terms  do  not  invariably 
begin  with  the  same  letter.  We  therefore  give  the  original  German  as 
well  as  the  translation. — (Translator.) 


SQUIBS   AND   LIBELLOUS   VERSES  361 

Sag,  was  der  viert  bedeuten  muss  ? 
H.  Halsstarrig,  Hareticus, 
Hofiartig,  Hadrisch,  Hurisch,  Hart, 
Das  ist  der  Ketzer  vierte  Art. 

Was  steckt  nun  in  dem  fiinften  drin  ? 
E.  Eitel,  Ehrgeiz,  Eigensinn, 
Eidbriichig,  Ehrlos,  Ehrverletzer, 
Das  ist  die  f iinfte  Art  der  Ketzer. 

Was  ist  der  Ketzer  letzte  Kron  ? 
R.  Radbrecht,  Rein  Religion, 
Ruhnisiichtig,  Raubr,  Rachgierig,  Rauch, 
Das  ist  der  Ketzer  sechst  Gebrauch.1 

1 .  What  does  the  first  letter  show  ? 

L.  Licentious,  liar,  Lumpenmann  [vendor  of  rags], 
Lightminded,  leaving  all  pure  doctrine : 
Thus  does  the  first  title  go. 

2.  Say  what  shall  U  [V]  stand  for  ? 
Unclean,  outcast,  vicious,  vile, 
Upsetter  of  our  Vaterland, 
Untrue  to  his  heart's  core. 

3.  What  then  the  third  ?   how  write  it  down  ? 
T.  Truthless,  defiant,  devilish  beast, 
Tyrannical,  trickery,  turbulent, 

And  every  other  vice  that's  known. 

4.  Say  what  shall  letter  4  betoken  ? 
H.  Heretical,  headstrong, 
Haughty,  hating,  whorish,  hard — 
This  is  the  fourth  thing  of  him  spoken. 

5.  And  what  of  letter  5  shall  be  said  ? 
E.  Empty,  egoist,  avaricious, 
Erring,  egregious,  evil. 

That's  how  letter  5  is  read. 

6.  What  is  the  heretic's  last  crown  ? 
R.  Rabid,  '  right  religionist,' 
Robber,  revengeful,  renown-seeker, 
Rauch,  reek-smoke  [in  hell]  is  the  crown. 

As  a  counter-attack  on  the  endless  vituperations 
against  the  Pope  as  the  Antichrist  and  the  author  of 
all  corruption,  John  Nas  declared  in  1588  that, 
'  the   anarchy   which   had  invaded   Germany   was  the 

1  Holstein,  Die  Reformation,  p.  193. 


362  HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

consequence  of  the  secession  from  the  true  Catholic 
faith,  and  a  manifest  sign  that  the  Antichrist,  '  the 
chief  of  all  heretics,'  would  shortly  appear.  He  would 
'  overturn  all  government,'  '  root  out  all  piety,'  '  lay 
waste  all  altars  and  church  ornaments.' 

As  now  his  predecessors  and 

His  heralds  do  in  our  land — 

The  sects'  seducing,  murdering  agents, 

Who  act  with  might  at  their  own  liking, 

Whereby  the  Empire  is  laid  waste.   .  .   . 

The  world  is  full  of  prophets  false, 

Each  his  own  nonsense  God's  Word  calls. 

Sects  and  parties  much  abound, 

While  the  true  faith  nowhere  is  found. 

War-cries  and  evil  news  we  hear 

Repeated  daily  far  and  near.  .  .  . 

On  earth  there's  everywhere  sore  need, 

The  poor  are  overtaxed  indeed, 

Taxed  they  are  with  grief  and  need. 

No  one  at  court  for  them  doth  care, 

Hunger  and  wailing  are  everywhere.   .   .  . 

Unprincely  dealing,  wrong  iinance, 

Fraud,  cunning,  cheating  words  that  glance, 

Profits  unfair,  forestalling,  usury, 

Scandals,  vices,  untrue  currency,  .   .  . 

Looseness,  boldness,  insolence, 

Perjury,  malevolence, 

Are  f ound  in  every  region  where 

Lutherdom  sounds  in  the  air. 

Discipline  and  fear  of  God  grow  cold 

Wherever  men  the  doctrine  hold 

Of  faith  alone  ;  and  so  the  world  to-day 

Is  hard  bestead  with  eating  gross, 

And  drinking,  to  the  certain  loss 

Of  love  and  good  and  souls  most  precious, 

Not  to  speak  of  other  things  atrocious.  .  .  . 

But  greater  evils  still  would  soon  follow  : 

Everywhere  there'll  be  storming  and  battling, 
All  the  world  in  armour  rattling, 
Seizing  sword,  musket,  spear,  and  even 
Strangling  each  other  and  shedding  blood.1 


1  Praeludium   in   Centurias   hominum,   sola   fide   perditorum,   das    ist 


PICTURES   OF   THE   TIMES   AND   MANNERS  363 

Iii  colours  as  dark  as  those  of  Nas,  the  Protestant 
preacher  Bartholomew  Ringwalt  related  in  a  large  poem 
of  the  times  and  manners,  '  The  Pure  Truth  '  about 
the  general  corruption  that  had  set  in.  The  book 
went  through  fourteen  editions  between  1585  and  1610.1 
'  These  are  the  last  and  the  worst  times,'  the  author 
said  in  the  preface,  '  which  have  come  upon  the  world, 
times  in  which  all  faith  has  decayed,  love  has  grown 
cold,  and  all  manner  of  insolence,  scandal,  vice  and 
contempt  of  the  divine  Word  have  increased  to  such  a 
degree,  that  now  in  no  classes  of  society  is  any  improve- 
ment to  be  hoped  for.'  2 

As  even,  all  the  Christian  band 

Come  daily  niore  to  understand, 

That  many  a  one  in  village  and  town 

Aweary  of  his  hfe  has  grown  ; 

He  goes  about,  'tis  truly  said, 

As  though  he  had  been  struck  on  his  head, 

Little  for  his  goods  doth  care, 

And  wishes  that  in  his  grave  he  were." 

Ringwalt's  great  aim  in  this  work,  as  also  in  a  second, 
'  Der  getreue  Eckart '  (1588),  was  to  admonish  the 
world  faithfully  and  honestly  to  repent  and  improve 
their  lives,  but  he  feared  : 

I  fear  I  shall  not  with  my  rhyme 
Snatch  the  world  from  the  devil's  lime, 
To  which  they're  willing  to  stay  clinging, 
Thus  their  own  perdition  bringing.4 

The  universal  complaint  that  in  the  earlier  Catholic 
times  the  people  had  been  much  more  benevolent  and 

Newer  Zeitung  Vorgang,  &c.  (Ingolstadt,  1588),  35  ff.     Cf.  Schopf,  pp.  66 
and  76,  No.  31. 

1  Goedeke,  Ch-undriss,  ii.  515,  No.  T2. 

2  Die  lauter  Wahrheit,  edition  of  1588,  Bl.  A3. 

3  Edition  of  1597,  p.  4.      Hoffmann   von  Fallersleben,  B.  liingivalt, 
p.  5. 

4  Edition  of  1588,  p.  271  ;  cf.  pp.  295-296. 


364  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

generous  in  endowing  churches  and  schools  was  con- 
sidered perfectly  well-grounded  by  Ringwalt : 

I  tell  you  verily,  dear  sirs, 

But  for  the  ancient  stores 

Of  tithes  and  tributes  manifold, 

Of  hides  and  corn,  which  were  of  old 

Founded  by  our  ancestors 

For  the  servants  of  God's  Word, 

Indeed  the  holy  preaching-stool 

With  Church's  and  with  children's  school, 

Left  without  help  in  our  day, 

Would  starve  and  fall  into  decay  ; 

For  in  these  times  no  single  penny 

Is  put  into  God's  chest  by  any. 

Our  forefathers  under  the  papacy  had  maintained 
numbers  of  monks  and  priests  : 

And  from  free  love  they  did  all  this, 

And  what  they  gave  they  did  not  miss. 

But  nowadays  we  scarcely  even 

Can  pay  in  a  city  six  or  seven 

Persons,  who  for  Christ  His  sake, 

Of  church  and  schools  good  care  will  take. 

So  loth  are  all  the  folk  who  live 

In  these  our  evil  days  to  give 

For  God's  service,  in  due  measure, 

Something  of  their  rightful  treasure  ; 

Which  hard-heartedness  does  not 

Tend  to  fatten  them  one  jot, 

But  brings  curses  on  their  head, 

As  Moses  in  his  book  hath  said. 

All  former  delight  in  almsgiving  had  disappeared  : 

Great  buildings  men,  in  former  days, 

Loved  for  God's  ministry  to  raise. 

Churches,  monasteries,  and 

The  like,  which  still  as  tokens  stand. 

But  now  the  roofs  are  left  to  fall 

To  pieces,  and  to  let  in  all 

The  rain  and  snow,  the  dirt  and  dust, 

Which  he  and  putrefy  and  rust.  " 

Hence  none  with  reverence  now  treat 

The  clergy  whom  they  chance  to  meet, 

And  no  one  troubles  in  the  least 

How  to  support  church,  school  or  priest. 


PICTURES   OF   THE   TIMES   AND    MANNERS         365 

On  the  contrary,  they  laid  plundering  hands  on  the 
old  endowments : 

What  in  days  of  old  our  good 

Forebears,  with  hardest  sweat  and  blood, 

For  God's  ministry  did  save, 

And  in  frequent  presents  gave, 

Now  the  lordships,  great  and  small, 

By  degrees  appropriate  all, 

Among  their  members  share  the  prey, 

And  not  an  atom  back  they  pay.  .  .  . 

Woe  be  to  you  in  soul  and  flesh 

Who  take  their  bounties  in  your  mesh, 

While  in  return,  amongst  you  all, 

Not  one  erects  a  hospital, 

Or  builds  a  schoolhouse,  great  or  little, 

Where  the  young  children  of  poor  people 

May  be  taught  from  early  youth 

On  the  sure  basis  of  God's  truth. 

But  this  is  the  long  and  short  of  it  all, 

Into  your  clutches  the  whole  doth  fall, 

While  in  the  Lord  Christ  Jesus'  coat 

You  bound  and  caper  like  a  goat. 

Predicting  heavy  chastisements,  Ringwalt  exclaims  : 

Behold,  such  gains,  I  tell  you  true, 

Will  be  a  curse  to  yours  and  you  ; 

Either  you'll  find  that  all  your  race 

On  earth  will  flourish  in  no  place, 

Or  else  with  all  your  sins  unshriven 

You'll  suddenly  from  earth  be  driven. 

'Tis  said  that  if  an  eagle's  feather 

Is  laid  with  other  plumes  together, 

It  will  eat  up  the  whole  bunch, 

Much  faster  than  the  moths  could  munch. 

And  so  we  verily  may  say, 

The  church-goods  also  have  a  way 

Of  ruining  the  house  and  hoards 

Acquired  by  unrighteous  lords. 

His  brother  officials,  the  preachers,  he  admonished 
as  follows  : 

You  must  not  out  of  vengeance  rough. 
Each  fable  new,  and  your  own  stuff 
Lightly  to  the  pulpit  bring 
And  at  the  congregation  fling  ; 


366  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

For  he  who  doth  his  people  shock 
Loses  all  favour  with  his  flock, 
And  brings  upon  himself  their  hate, 
Because  he  does  nought  else  but  rate. 
Therefore  this  injunction  keep 
Well  in  mind,  and  by  your  sheep 
Let  no  barefaced,  forbidden  word 
(As  rogue  or  thief)  be  ever  heard. 

When  a  preacher  had  suffered  some  wrong  he  must 
not  vent  his  indignation  in  the  pulpit : 

With  much  scolding,  snorting,  rating, 
Damning,  cursing,  fulminating ; 
For  well  such  stinging  words  may  make 
The  heart  of  many  a  hearer  break. 

Ringwalt     addressed     another   admonition    to    the 
preachers  : 

Now  verily  in  every  place 

It  is  a  terrible  disgrace 

That  you,  soul-shepherds  of  this  age, 

So  fiercely  'gainst  each  other  rage, 

And  more  for  paltry  honours  fight 

Than  for  what  faith  or  doctrine's  right. 

Fatal  pride  and  envy  fierce 

Make  it  that,  nowadays,  you  scarce 

In  any  churches  ever  find 

Pastor  and  chaplain  of  one  mind, 

But  often  by  contention  hard 

In  trivial  things  their  peace  is  marred,  .  .  . 

And  from  the  pulpit  openly 

They  rate  each  other  angrily. 

So  that   '  often  an  uproar  arises  among  the   people  ;  ' 
between  pastor  and  chaplain 

In  such  quarrels  often  it's 
The  wives  who  are  the  first  culprits, 
Who  for  pride's  sake  fall  out  and  wrangle, 
And  their  spouses  in  the  brawl  entangle.1 

Very  touching  is  the  '  humble  petition  '  which  the 

1  Die  lauter  Wahrheit,  pp.  275-276,  345,  354-355. 


PICTURES   OF   THE   TIMES   AND   MANNERS         367 

poet  addresses  '  to  all  the  high  authorities  and  all 
other  Christian  feudal  lords  '  to  take  the  preachers 
under  their  care,  so  that  they  '  might  not  be  driven 
by  sharp  hunger  to  remove  to  other  places  ;  '  above 
all  they  begged  these  lords  after  the  death  of  a  preacher 
to  look  after  his  widow  : 

That  she  should  not  in  a  short  moon's  space, 

As  in  some  districts  is  the  case, 

Like  a  servant  girl  receive 

Notice  the  parsonage  to  leave. 

But  that  they  would  their  utmost  do 

To  keep  her  in  the  ministry 

As  wife  or  as  assistant  to 

The  person  of  some'learning  who 

Her  husband  doth  replace  : 

And  if  for  marriage  she  be  not  fit 

That  they  would  give  her  a  year's  grace, 

As  so  generously  with  us 

The  Brandenburg  Elector  does, 

A  pious  father  in  the  land 

Margrave  Johann  George  he's  named  ; 

So  that  she  somewhat  better  fare, 

And  not  at  once  sink  in  despair 

With  all  her  children,  who  too  often 

Are  not  half  educated  even.1 

Very  vividly  Ringwalt  depicts  the  '  carousing  of 
the  Germans  '  and  the  love  of  fine  clothes  which  goes 
on  growing  in  spite  of  '  all  the  hard  times  :  ' 

Dear  God,  what  will  on  earth  betide 
To  us  through  this  great,  growing  pride. 
Indulged  in  nowadays,  alas  ! 
With  no  distinguishing  of  class  ?  2 

'  For  the  admonition  of  impenitent  sinners '  he 
introduced  in  his  '  Treuer  Eckart,'  a  description  of  hell, 
made  all  the  various  kinds  of  sinners,  male  and  female, 


1  Die  lauter  Wahrhe.it,  pp.  328-331. 

2  JhiA    n    RS  fF 


Ibid.  p.  58  ff. 


3G8  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

hold  conversations,   and  placed  the   '  hideous  figure ' 
of  the  devil  before  his  readers'  eyes  : 

Like  mad  dogs  they  ran  about 

With  their  mouths  wide  opened  out, 

From  which  there  hung,  with  stench  most  strong, 

A  black  tongue  fully  ten  yards  long. 

Prickly  snouts  they  had,  and  eyes 

Like  a  huge  cheese-bowl  in  size, 

And  when  they  moved  these  eyes  about 

Myriad  sparks  from  them  flew  out.1  .  .  . 

Ringwalt  praised  up  the  earlier  Catholic  times  in 
comparison  with  his  own,  but  in  the  songs  which  he 
added  to  the  '  Lauter  Wahrheit '  he  could  not  all  the 
same  resist  having  a  fling  at  '  the  Roman  Antichrist ' 
and  '  the  devil's  knavish  skin,'  in  order  to  instil  into 
his  co-religionists  a  wholesome  horror  of  the  papacy ,2 
under  which  the  '  lewd  rabble '  are  free  to  commit 
'  adultery,  sodomy,  and  all  sorts  of  wickedness.' 

And  when  some  great  enormity 

They've  in  the  flesh  committed. 
In  the  name  of  holy  Mary 

They  say  a  mass,  and  all's  remitted  ; 
Yea,  all's  forgiven  in  her  name. 

Then  straightway  they  again  begin, 

As  before,  to  live  in  sin 
And  every  kind  of  shame.1' 

If  Burchard  Waldis  said  that  it  was  the  devil  '  who 
gave  the  Mass'   to  those  possessed  by  him,4   another 

1  Christliche  Warming  des  trewen  Eckarts  (Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  1588). 
Bl.  H.  6b  ;  cf.  Goedeke,  Grundriss,  ii.  514,  No.  7.  Hoffmann  von  Fallers- 
leben,  B.  Ringwalt,  pp.  22-28. 

2  See  also  above,  pp.  292,  293. 

3  Die  lauter  Wahrheit,  pp.  443-446.  The  '  strict  honesty  of  sentiment 
which  nevertheless  does  not  exclude  all  tolerance,'  praised  by  Goedeke, 
Grundriss,  ii.  512,  in  Ringwalt's  poems,  does  not  let  itself  be  seen  in  these 
satires. 

4  See  above,  p.  353. 


JOHN   FISCHART  369 

verse-maker,  alluding  to  a  picture  in  which  the  holy 
Mass  was  represented  as  a  '  terrific  and  frightful 
monster,'  put  the  question  : 

Now,  good  friend,  I  prythee  tell 
Why  there  are  so  many  devils  in  hell, 
And  only  one  Lord  God  :  why  this  is,  say, 
Without  mocking  me,  I  pray  ? 

The  answer  is : 

Ah,  have  patience,  brother  dear ! 

The  monks  and  priests  are  guilty  here, 

For  had  they  swallowed  in  their  Masses  wheaten 

Devils  as  many  as  gods  they've  eaten, 

They  would  have  destroyed  so  many 

There' d  scarcely  be  left  over  any.1 

Verses  of  this  sort  breathe  the  spirit  of  John  Fischart. 

Four  and  twenty  years  after  the  death  of  Luther, 
when  the  most  strongly  contradictory  opinions  had 
developed  in  the  Protestant  camp  and  were  combating 
each  other  fiercely,  John  Fischart,  then  a  youth  of 
twenty,  made  his  di'but,  and  became  one  of  the  most 
active  and  versatile  writers  of  the  century.  Born, 
probably,  at  Strassburg  in  the  year  1550,2  he  came  in 
boyhood  to  Worms  to  Caspar  Scheid,  his  '  dear  father 
and  preceptor,'  and  the  '  best  of  rhymesters,'  who  had 
made  himself  a  name  by  the  translation  of  Dedekind's 
■  '  Grobianus.'  The  coarse  humour  of  the  schoolmaster, 
his  love  for  French  books,  for  brilliant  poetry,  for 
music  and  authorship,  communicated  themselves  to  his 

1  In  the  Thesaurus  pidurarum  in  the  court  library  at  Darmstadt, 
vol.  Calumniae,  &c,  fol.  108. 

-  **  S.  Hauffen,  Zur  Familien-  und  Lebensgeschichte  Fischarts  in  the 
Euphorion,  1896,  iii.  303  ff.,  which  places  Fischart's  birth  somewhere 
between  1545  and  1551. 

VOL.  XI.  B  B 


370  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

pupil.  Fischart's  years  of  study  were  followed  by  a 
restless  '  Wanderleben '  in  Italy,  Flanders,  England 
and  France.  In  1574  he  became  doctor  of  law  at  the 
University  of  Basle  ;  from  1576  he  lived  for  some  time 
at  Strassburg  as  an  active  assistant  to  his  brother- 
in-law,  the  bookseller  Bernard  Jobin,  became  then 
assistant  clerk  to  the  Imperial  Chamber  at  Spires, 
later  on  an  official  at  Forbach,  and  died  in  1589  when 
scarcely  forty  years  of  age.  But  his  influence  lived  on 
into  the  following  century  through  a  whole  flood  of 
writings  greater  and  smaller.  Fischart,  as  is  shown 
by  his  justly  famed  writings  '  Das  gliickhaft  SchifT  ' 
and  the  '  Ehezuchtbiichlein,'  was  gifted  with  extra- 
ordinary power  of  language,  but  he  did  not  possess 
a  creative  imagination.  Most  of  his  materials  are 
borrowed,  and  in  no  single  case  was  he  able  to  work 
them  up  into  an  artistic  masterpiece.'  He  made 
foreign  works  his  own  property,  and  once  unscrupulously 
appropriated  an  anonymous  pamphlet  by  John  Nas, 
whom  he  despised  and  nicknamed  '  the  grey  beggar- 

1  Zincref  is  of  opinion,  says  Goedeke,  Dichtungen  Fischarts,  vi.,  that 
'  Fischart  had  not  been  industrious,  whereas  all  that  he  published  was  the 
fruit  of  his  industry.'  Fischart  '  never  really  showed  a  creative  spirit ; 
an  imaginative  genius  he  decidedly  was  not.'  '  Fischart's  most  important 
matter  is  in  the  main  all  borrowed.'  E.  Schmidt,  Fischart,  pp.  3(5,  40. 
**  Fischart's  works  betray  the  literate  who  is  intent  on  a  rapid  harvest 
with  his  pen.  He  does  not  spend  much  trouble  in  searching  out  original 
inventions.  He  introduces  foreign  productions,  with  all  sorts  of  additions 
of  his  own,  among  the  people,  modernises  all  German  works,translates  from 
the  French  and  the  Dutch,  fashions  new  books  out  of  a  variety  of  elements 
borrowed  here  and  there,  and  seldom  brings  out  anything  quite  original. 
Notwithstanding  all  this,  however,  Fischart  is  still  an  original  character 
who,  like  the  court  epic  writers  of  the  middledaigh-German  golden  epoch, 
worked  up  foreign  matter  into  his  special  manner,  which  also  had  a  share 
in  determining  the  choice  of  the  materials.  Vogt-Koch,  Deutsche  Lit- 
teraturgesch.  p.  316.  Concerning  Fischart  as  the  representative  of  French 
influence  on  German  literature  see  Steinhausen,  Die  Anfange,  p.  374  ff. 


FISCHART'S   SATIRICAL  POEMS  371 

monk  at  Ingolstadt,'  not  knowing  that  it  was  lie  who 
was  the  author  of  the  stolen  publication.1 

Without  having  completed  his  law  studies,  without 
having  pursued  the  usual  preparatory  theological 
studies,  Fischart  threw  himself  at  once  with  all  the 
presumption  of  a  happy-go-lucky  student  into  religious 
polemics,  and  that  with  a  violence  of  passion  which 
recalled  the  most  vehement  invectives  against  '  the 
papacy  founded  by  the  devil.'  His  first  satirical  poems 
of  the  years  1570  and  1571  were  directed  against  the 
converts  James  Rabe  and  John  Nas  in  particular, 
but  also  in  general  against  the  Jesuits,  the  Franciscans 
and  Dominicans,  and  the  whole  monastic  life  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  In  these  satires,  and  in  a  yet  higher 
degree  in  the  later  '  Jesuiterhutlein,'  we  note  that 
skilful  playing  with  words,  rhymes  and  fancies  of  which 
none  but  gifted  writers  are  capable.  But  everything 
turns  on  odious  ridiculing.'2  Nowhere  is  there  a  sign 
of  true  understanding  of  the  Church  and  its  institu- 
tions, nowhere  any  trace  of  high  religious  aspiration. 
Fischart  simply  strove  to  drag  down  in  the  mire,  and 
overwhelm  with  libellous  language,  the  two  converts 
who,  and  the  three  societies  which,  threatened  the 
future  of  Protestantism. 

His  was  not  the  manly  wrath  which  uses  sarcasm 
only  as  an  instrument,  but  mean  hatred,  which  makes 
scorn,  defamation  and  slander  its  chief  object,  and 
revels  in  it  with  delight.  What  he  once  said  himself 
about  wild  hunt-music  which  set  the  people  in  a  fury 
might  be  applied  to  his  own  poems  : 

1  See  Goedeke,  Pamphilus  Gengenbach,  pp.  415  and  526,  and  Dichtungen 
Fischarts,  xiv.     Schopf,  pp.  34-35. 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  x.  pp.  56,  57,  70-73,  291-297. 

b  b  2 


372  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Is  this  not  simply  sheer  pain  and  grief  ? 

Where  is  the  enjoyment,  where  the  relief 

That  should  in  music  be  found  ? 

How  can  the  ears  be  charmed  with  such  sound  ? 

They  shriek,  they  shout,  they  yell,  they  curse, 

They  puff,  they  blow — Avhat  can  be  worse  ;  .  .   . 

How  can  such  wild  and  raging  clamour 

Any  proper  taste  enamour  ?  .  .  . 

A  craiet  heart  soon  with  wisdom  mates, 

A  wild  one,  wisdom  spurns  and  hates,  .  .  . 

For  from  hating  springs  the  hateful, 

In  men  and  beasts  it  looks  disgraceful.' 

The  calumnies  and  abuse  which  he  dared  to  hurl 
at  the  whole  Catholic  religion  in  his  '  Bienenkorb  des 
heiligen  Romischen  Immenschwarms  '  of  1579  remained 
unequalled  in  after  times.2  He  put  before  the  people 
the  following  statements  as  doctrines  of  the  Catholic 
Church  :  the  Pope  is  a  visible  god,  he  can  alter  creatures 
and  control  angels  ;  he  is  greater  than  St.  Paul,  and 
St.  Peter  makes  him  sinless.3  Like  a  charlatan  and  a 
quack  tooth-extractor,  the  Pope,  he  said,  '  offered  his 
patent  electuary  and  treacle-water  for  sale  :  ' 

As  holy  water,  bread  and  wine, 

Oil,  salt,  grease,  wax,  and  dead  men's  bones.4 

All  this,  however,  did  not  prevent  Fischart,  for  the 
sake  of  daily  bread,  from  associating  himself  with  a 
publisher's  undertaking  in  honour  of  the  Pope.5 

He  speaks  of  himself  as  full  of  compassion  '  for  the 
credulous  people  living  on  the  latest  news  and  gossip, 
and   being   deliberately   led   astray,'    and   reminds   his 

1  From  '  Ein  artliches  Lob  der  Lauten  '  in  Kurz,  Dichtungen  Fischarts, 
hi.  11  ff. 

2  See  our  statements,  vol.  x.  p.  10  ff. 

1  In  the  '  Erklarung  des  uralten  gemeinen  Spriichivortes  :  Die  Gelehrten 
die  Verkehrten,'  in  Kurz,  ii.  343  ff. 

1  In  the  Gorgoneum  Caput,  in  Kurz,  hi.  115. 
5  See  our  statements,  vol.  x.  p.  24,  note  1. 


FISCH ART'S   SATIRICAL   POEMS  373 

readers  of  the  saying :  '  the  printer  wants  money, 
and  so  he  has  concocted  some  fresh  sensational  news.' 
He  also  makes  game  of  the  people  '  who  are  so  terribly 
anxious  for  news  that  they  rate  the  poor  devils  who  do 
not  supply  them  with  sheets  and  trunks  full  of  gossip, 
and  call  them  donkeys  and  simpletons  who  do  not 
know  where  it  has  rained.' ]  And  yet  in  fighting  the 
papacy  and  abusing  the  Jews  he  himself  worked  largely 
on  the  people's  thirst  for  wonders. 

In  1577  he  informed  the  people  that  '  the  head  of 
the  Gorgon  Medusa,  a  Roman  sea-wonder,  had  been 
discovered  in  the  new  islands  :  ' 

In  the  sea  they've  chanced  to  find 

Sea  wonders  of  a  Roman  kind : 

Sea  bishops,  sea  monks,  and  sea  priests, 

Mass  grottoes,  pilgrim  apes,  all  which 

Bear  a  strong  resemblance  to 

The  Romish  ecclesiastical  crew. 

For  Scripture  calls  the  sea  a  world 

From  which  huge  monsters  are  up-hurled. 

But  no  greater  ones  are  bred 

Than  the  so-called  Church's  heads, 

Who  in  the  sea  of  the  world  do  roar 

And  bring  forth  sea-devils  galore.  .  .  . 

But  the  present  '  find  '  is  '  a  veritable  arch-sea- wonder.' 
Such  a  sea-lamb,  an  animal  on  a  stool,  a  Babylonish 
whore  is  the  hellish  monster  at  Rome,  with  its  scales  and 
its  grovelling  company. 

This  is  the  Medusa,  the  famed  sea-whore 
Whom  the  sea-god  Phorcys  bore, 
From  Ceto  of  the  whale-fish  race.  .  .  . 
This  is  Circe,  the  sea-queen, 
The  venomous  spider  and  enchantress, 
Who,  by  a  magic  drink,  the  guests 
Who  visit  her  can  change  to  beasts. 


1  In  the  preface  to  his  pamphlet  Aller  Practik  Grossmutter,  in  Scheible, 
Das  Kloster,  viii.  546,  552. 


374  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN    PEOPLE 

This  '  hussy '  plagues  with  ban,  burning,  poison 
and  murder,  but  knows  how  to  parade  before  the 
world  in  all  sorts  of  dazzling  church  pageantry,  mummy 
shows  and  ornaments,  fasts,  confessions,  Masses, 

All  these  outward  functions  were 

The  Babylonish  whore's  attire, 
Which  her  lovers  did  ensnare, 

And  half  the  world  around  her  gather. 
But  as  to-day  the  varnishing 

Grows  shabby  and  the  colours  fade, 
We  see  that  all  this  garnishing 

Was  finery  the  sorry  jade 
Had  borrowed  from  the  Jew  and  pagan. 
And  from  the  storehouse  of  the  dragon. 

But  after  the  manner  of  shameless  harlots  she 
wanted  now : 

To  compel  the  folk  to  follow  her.  .  .  . 

She  uses  banning,  murdering, 

Roasting,  seething,  and  forbids 

Scripture  reading  ;  the  people  binds 

By  oath  and  vow  to  praise 

All  her  wantonness  ;  breaks  contracts  and 

Dissolves  all  vows  at  will  ; 

Stirs  rulers  up  to  war 

Against  their  subjects,  and  commands 

To  shed  the  blood  of  all  alike.1 

The  Swiss  Bodmer  was  not  so  very  wrong  when  he 
wrote  : 

A  head  of  Rabelais'  pattern  followed  after  Brant's,2 
The  name  was  John  Fischart,  the  darling  of  Bacchants  !  3 

Against  the  Jews,  in  1575,  Fischart  directed  '  Eine 
gewisse  Wunderzeitung '  ('A  certain  marvellous  story') 
of  a  Jewess  at  Binzwangen,  four  miles  from  Augsburg, 
who  on  December  12  of  the  preceding  year  had  given 
birth  to  two  living  pigs,  or  .  .  . 

1  Kurz,  iii.  117-121.  2  Sebastian  Brant. 

3  See  Goedeke,  Dichtungen  Fischarts,  p.  viii.  note  2. 


FISCH ART'S   SATIRICAL   POEMS  375 

So  wondrous  is  the  tale  related. 

That  were  it  not  authenticated. 

To  write  it  I  should  almost  fear, 

For  men  might  think  it  a  mere  joke 

I  made  against  the  Hebrew  folk. 

But  God  has  made  it  all  so  clear 

That  the  whole  world  is  forced  to  hear 

And  learn  how  Christ,  Messiah  true, 

Intends  to  bring  the  purblind  Jew 

To  ridicule  and  scorn  before 

He  comes  Himself  to  earth  once  more, 

And  show  them,  in  the  whole  Avorld's  eyes, 

That  as  His  honour  they  won't  prize, 

To  Him  they  are  of  no  more  worth 

Than  pigs  that  grovel  on  the  earth. 

Because  the  Jews  expected  an  earthly  kingdom, 
and  spent  their  lives  only  in  pleasure  and  usury, 

.  .  .  dishonour  Christ,  the  high  anointed, 

So  let  them  smear  themselves  with  sow-grease. ' 

Fischart's  epoch,  by  reason  of  the  religious  revolu- 
tion, resembled  '  a  devastated  paradise  full  of  wild 
beasts.'  Hatred  and  schism  flared  up  everywhere, 
and  the  poet  himself  gave  the  reasons  for  this  state  of 
things  : 

All  dissensions,  error,  strife, 

Of  which  to-day  complaints  are  rife, 

From  the  self-same  causes  spring : 

Either  zeal  unreasoning, 

Or  pride,  or  worldly  coveting, 

Or  that  each  other,  without  shame, 

We  criminally  judge  and  blame  ; 

Each  one  the  upper  hand  would  win, 

And  to  his  creed  the  world  bring  in  ; 

Each  strives  how  he  by  violent  course 

His  doctrine  on  all  men  may  force. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  were  no  more  than  a  '  conjuror's 
bag,' 

1  Kurz,  iii.  70-72  ;  cf.  vol.  iii.  p.  xviiL 


376  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Wherewith  a  monkey-game  they  play, 
Each  dealing  with  it  his  own  way  ; 
This  way  and  that  they  bend  and  twist 
The  Word,  as  they  themselves  do  list  ; 
They  make  the  matter  seem  all  right, 
God's  Word  and  will  call  everything 
That  ministers  to  their  delight, 
So  that  the  people  cannot  know 
What  to  think,  which  way  to  go.1 

In  his  '  Affenteuerlich  naupen-geheuerliche  Ge- 
schichtklitterimg,'  his  most  important  work,  first  pub- 
lished in  1575,  Fischart  aimed  at  '  placing  a  chaotic, 
deformed  picture  before  a  chaotic,  deformed  world  '  in 
order  '  to  lead  them  and  frighten  them  away  from  their 
chaotic  deformity  and  deformed  chaos.'  L>  His  method 
of  presentation  was  by  no  means  suited  to  this  object, 
but  the  picture  he  presents  is  a  true  representation 
of  the  whole  dissolute,  demoralised  life  of  the  period, 
and  is  full  of  keen  observation ;  the  drinking  and 
carousing,  the  immorality,  the  senseless  fashions,  the 
perverted  education  of  children,  the  oppression  of  the 
poor  and  other  grievous  evils,  are  brought  before  the 
eyes  in  living  colours,  such  as  no  other  contemporary 
moralist  had  at  his  command.  Thoroughly  German 
is  the  eighth  chapter  of  this  work,  entitled :  '  Das 
Trunken  Gespriich,  oder  die  gesprachig  Trunkenzech, 
ja  die  Trunken  Litanei  und  der  Saufer  und  guten 
Schlucker  Pf  ngsttag,  mit  ihren  unfeurigen  doch  durst- 
igen  Weingengen,  Zungenlos,  schonem  Gefrass  und 
Getos  '  ('  Drink  talk,  or  the  talkative  drinking  com- 
pany, yea  the  Drink  Litany  and  the  Pentecost  of 
imbibers  and   deep   swallowers,  with  their  tireless  yet 

1  Die  Gelehrten  die  Verkehrten,  in  Kurz,  ii.  378,  381. 

2  Fischart,  Geschichtklitterung,  iv. 


FISCHART'S   PICTURES   OF   THE   TIMES  377 

thirsty  wine  passages,  the  unloosing  of  their  tongues, 
their  fulsome  feeding  and  great  noise  ').T 

'  I  am  no  sinner  without  thirst ;  I  drink  eternally  ; 
drinking  is  my  eternity,  and  eternity  is  my  drinking. 
If  I  eat  myself  poor,  and  drink  myself  to  death, 
I  certainly  have  power  over  death.'  '  I  am  not  yet 
Schwenkfeidian,  but  swinefeldian,  or  Reissfeldian — 
Ha  !  ha  ! — and  cold-winish  (Calvinistic)  when  my  wine 
is  cold,  and  Lutheran  when  my  wine  is  maddy.' 
'  Forgive  me  that  I  compare  you  to  sows  ;  at  any 
rate  they  give  good  bacon  ;  how  can  you  thrive  if  you 
cannot  bravely  chew,  and  throw  up  and  chew  again 
like  sows  ?  '  2 

This  work  is  '  based  on  Francois  Rabelais  in  a  French 
form,  but,'  says  Fischart,  '  cast  in  an  extravagantly 
burlesque  German  mould,  and  superficially — as  one 
louses  a  scabby  scalp — set  up,  or  down,  in  our  native 
babble,  and  reset  on  the  anvil  in  new  print,  embossed, 
forged  and  shaped  in  Pantagruel  fashion  in  such  a 
way  that  nothing  without  an  iron  Nisi  is  wanting 
therein,  by  Huldrich  Elloposcleron '  (Ulrich  Fischart).3 

1  Fischart,  Geschichtklitterung,  iv.  pp.  155-194. 

2  Ibid.  pp.  158,  165,  and  above,  p.  72. 

3  It  is  a  free  dishing  up  of  the  first  book  of  Rabelais'  Vie,  faicls  et 
diets  heroiques  de  Gargantua  et  de  son  fdz  Pantagruel.  '  All  the  French 
in  it  Fischart  replaces  by  German  matter.  The  whole  book  is  crowded 
with  open  and  covert,  comic  and  serious  satire  on  German  conditions  and 
customs.  It  is  an  inexhaustible  repertory  of  the  morals,  manners  and 
habits  of  life  of  the  sixteenth  century  '  (E.  Schmidt,  Fischart,  p.  41).  The 
trick  often  resorted  to  by  authors  and  publishers  of  that  period  of  exciting 
the  curiosity  and  attracting  the  custom  of  the  public  by  extravagant 
and  startling  titles  (cf.  Kirchhoff,  Beitriige,  ii.  105-106,  and  also  117,  No.  8) 
was  understood  by  no  one  better  than  by  Fischart.  His  pamphlet  Alter 
Practik  Grossmutter  was  announced  by  him  under  the  title  Die  dickgeprockte 
Pantagruelinische  Btrugdicke  Procdic,  oder  Pruchnastikaz,  Lastafel,  Bauern- 
regel  oder  Wetterbiichlin,  auf  alle  Jahr  und  Land  gerechnei  und  gericht, 
durck    den    volbeschreiten    Maussiorer     Winhold    Alcofribas     Wustblutus 


378  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

This  work  not  only  affords  a  deep  insight  into  the 
corrupt  conditions  of  the  period,  but  in  the  strange  and 
monstrous  corruption  of  its  language  it  is  itself  an 
embodiment  of  those  conditions.  Fischart  was  master 
of  the  German  vocabulary  and  language  to  an  extent 
which,  except  in  the  case  of  Luther,  was  unequalled  by 
any  writer  of  the  century  ;  but  he  does  not  here  remind 
one  of  Luther,  with  his  originality  and  vigorous  force, 
but  of  Rabelais  the  Frenchman,  with  his  unbounded, 
weedy-wild  and  often  distorted  luxuriance.  Almost 
every  sentence  is  hampered  and  lamed  by  this  mass  of 
playful  creepers  ;  no  form  of  speech  retains  its  function 
of  quickly  and  clearly  representing  thought.1 

The  work  is  full  of  dirt  and  obscenity.     Even  where 

von  Aristophans  Nebelstatt,  des  Herrn  Pantagruel  zu  Landagreuel 
Obersten  Loffelreformirer  &c.  (Cf.  Goedeke,  Grundriss,  ii.  492,  No.  7.) 
Another  of  his  dodges  for  attracting  notice  was  to  write  under  all  sorts 
of  absurd  and  wonderful  names.  He  called  himself  for  instance  in  turn  : 
'  J.  Noha  Trauschiff  von  Triibuchen,  Jesuwalt  Pickhart,  Artwisus  von 
Fischmentzweiler,  Alonicus  Meliphron  Teutofrancus,  H.  Engelprecht 
Morewinder  von  Fredewart  aus  Seeland,  Georg  Goldrich  Salzwasser  von 
Badborn,  and  so  forth  ;  cf.  Kurz,  I.  xx.-xxii.  ;  Wendeler,  pp.  289-293.  In 
his  Podagrammisches  Trostbiichlein  (1577  :  **  Reprint  with  Introduction 
by  A.  Haussen,  Fischarts  Werlce,  vol.  iii.  [Deutsche.  Nationallitteratur, 
published  by  Kiirschner  :]  Stuttgart,  1893)  he  treats  Podagra  as  a  '  lirnb- 
cramping  foot-tickler,'  with  a  following  of  musk-smelling  women,  Methe 
Drunkenness  and  Acratia  Gluttony,  Polyphagia  Gobblinghouse,  &c,  &c.  : 
all  names  and  titles  composed  with  true  Rabelaisian  instinct. 

1  '  Fischart  is  repulsive  to  me,'  says  Paul  de  Lagarde,  Die  revidirte 
Lutherbibel  (Gottingen,  1885),  p.  2.  Gervinus,  otherwise  an  enthusiastic 
eulogist  of  Fischart,  writes  (iii.  163) :  '  In  this  bacchanalian  orgy  of  wit  and 
words,  for  very  abundance  of  wealth  we  arrive  at  nothing.'  '  His  language 
in  this  work  is  on  a  par  with  the  gigantic  monstrous  "  mouthings  "  of  his 
heroes  in  Gargantua,  but  in  this  case  there  is  no  proportion  between  the 
figures  and  their  speech.  As  the  garments  of  these  giants  measure  endless 
yards,  so  do  the  trailings  of  Fischart's  periods.'  **  See  also  L.  Ganghofer, 
Die  Beurtheilung  welche  Fischarts  Gargantua  so  wie  sein  V erhiiltniss  zu_ 
Rabelais  in  der  Litteraturgeschichte  gefunden  hat,  Leipzig  Dissertation, 
edition  of  1880,  and  A.  Frantzen,  Kritische  Bemerkungen  zu  Fischarts 
Ubersetzung  von  Rabelais'  Gargantua,  Strassburg,  1892. 


FISCHART   DEFENDS   PERSECUTION    OF   ^WITCHES      379 

Fischart  in  his  own  additions  to  Eabelais  speaks  worthily 
concerning  the  significance  of  marriage,  he  mixes  in 
such  indecencies  that  every  beautiful  feature  of  the 
picture  is  completely  lost.1 

While  Fischart  with  inexhaustible  hatred  went  on 
persecuting  the  Catholic  Church,  and  with  equal  un- 
scrupulousness  poured  contempt  on  the  baptismal  cere- 
monies and  the  Communion  service  of  the  Lutherans,- 
and  while  he  was  setting  himself  up  as  moral  arbiter 
of  the  follies,  crimes  and  vices  of  his  day,  he  undertook 
at  the  same  time  the  part  of  champion  orator  of  the 
most  melancholy  manifestation  and  most  hideous 
crime  of  the  period,  viz.  the  persecution  of  witches. 
Almost  everywhere  in  Germany,  in  the  districts  also 
where  Fischart  lived,  witches  were  tortured  on  the 
rack,  and  burnt  alive  by  hundreds.  Among  the  few 
who  '  out  of  pity  for  the  poor  creatures '  had  the 
courage  to  protest  openly  against  the  frightful  tortures 
and  executions  was  John  Weyer,  house-physician  of 
William  IV.,   Duke  of  Jiilich-Cleves.3     For   this,  how- 

1  The  fifth  chapter, '  How  Grandgoschier  married '  (Bobertag,  i.  269  ff.), 
calls  Fischart  a  '  great  man,'  and  considers  his  adaptation  from  Rabelais' 
Oargantua  a  new  intellectual  feat.  '  Eabelais  fought  nothing  more  fiercely 
and  hated  nothing  more  bitterly  than  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  monastic 
system.  But  he  did  not  have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  his  country  healed 
of  this  poison  destructive  to  national  happiness,  indeed  he  could  not  even 
hope  for  such  a  consummation  in  his  own  day.  Fischart  was  a  Protestant, 
and  he  regarded  his  nation  as  going  on  to  victory  over  the  Roman  Church  ; ' 
'  hence  Fischart's  joyous  courage  in  battle.'  P.  280  draws  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  writer  who  comes  nearest  to  Fischart's  writings  is  the  '  some- 
what [only  somewhat  !]  unclean  fellow  Michael  Lindener.'  .  .  .  This 
writer  '  deserves  especial  mention  among  Fischart's  precursors.'  What 
sort  of  a  character  Lindener  was,  we  shall  see  later  on  in  the  chapter 
'  Unterhaltungsliteratur  '  ('Entertaining  Literature  ')  in  vol.  xii. 

2  See  our  remarks,  vol.  x.  p.  23  ff. 

3  See  our  remarks,  vol.  viii.  551  ff.  (German,  the  Eng.  trans,  of  this  vol. 
is  not  yet  published),  and  Binze,  John  Weyer,  2nd  edition,  Berlin,  1896. 


380  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 

ever,  he  was  denounced  in  numerous  pamphlets  as 
'  a  blasphemous  rebel  against  God.'  The  most  virulent 
of  his  antagonists  was  the  French  parliamentary  coun- 
cillor, Jean  Bodin.  Weyer,  so  said  Bodin  in  1580,  in  a 
great  work,  had  '  entered  the  field  against  the  honour 
of  God,'  and  palmed  off  on  the  judges  a  depraved 
opinion  as  though  it  were  not  right  to  punish  all  witches 
and  sorceresses  with  death  by  fire.  Weyer  is  said  to  write 
as  '  altogether  forsaken  of  God,'  '  in  the  style  and 
fashion  of  the  devil,'  thus  to  augment  the  kingdom  of 
Satan  on  earth.  Hard  language  this.  But,  said  Bodin, 
'  it  is  scarcely  possible  for  one  with  even  a  little  zeal 
for  God's  glory,  when  he  sees  and  hears  such  great  and 
numerous  blasphemies,  not  to  feel  just  indignation 
against  the  guilty  upholder  of  this  injustice  ;  in  order 
that  the  honour  of  God  should  not  be  trodden  under 
foot,  everybody  must  verily  manifest  such  zeal  in  good 
earnest.'  * 

Fischart  was  the  one  who  thought  himself  called 
'  to  show  this  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God  ;  '  as  an  honour- 
able and  highly  learned  doctor  of  the  law  he  went  in 
for  the  hunting  down  and  gruesome  persecution  of 
witches.  He  published  in  1581  a  German  translation 
of  Bodin's  work  under  the  title  :  '  Vom  ausgelassnen 
wiitigen  Teufelsheer  der  besessenen  unsinnigen  Hexen 
und  Hexenmeister,  Unholden,  Teufelsbeschworer, 
Wahrsager,  Schwarzkiinstler  Vergifter,  Nestelverkniip- 
fer,  Veruntreuer,  Nachtschadiger,  Augenverblender 
und  aller  anderen  Zauberer  Geschlecht,  sammt  ihren 
ungeheueren    Handeln ;    wie   sie   vermoge    der    Eecht 

1  **  De  Daemonomania  Magorum  in  Fischart's  translation  (edition  of 
1591),  vol.  v.  Die  Widerlegvng  der  Meinungen  und  Opinionen  Johannis 
Weyer,  pp.  258-297. 


FISCHART   DEFENDS   PERSECUTION   OF   WITCHES      381 

erkannt,  eingetrieben,  gehindert,  erkuncligt,  erforscht, 
peinlich  ersucht  und  gestraft  sollen  werden ' 1  ('Of  the 
wild,  raging  devil's  army  of  the  possessed,  senseless 
witches  and  sorcerers,  exorcists,  soothsayers,  wizards, 
black-art  practitioners,  poisoners,  &c,  &c,  with  all 
their  monstrous  dealings ;  showing  how  according  to 
justice  they  ought  to  be  exposed,  shut  up,  hindered, 
tried,  and  most  severely  punished  '). 

This  work,  he  said,  was  not  only  necessary  for 
'theologians,  jurists,  doctors,  officials,  judges,  coun- 
cillors, magistrates  and  all  persons  in  authority,'  but 
also  '  in  many  ways  useful '  for  the  people  in  general, 
in  order  to  instruct  them  about  and  warn  them  against 
'  the  devilish  practice  of  magic  and  witchcraft.' 
Fischart  therefore  dedicated  it  to  the  '  German  reader 
in  general.'  The  work  was  to  have  its  place  among 
instructive  national  literature.  His  '  well-intentioned 
work,'  Fischart  said  in  the  dedication  to  Egenolf,  Herr 
zu  Rappoltstein,  Hoheneck  and  Geroldseck,  was  for 
the  common  benefit  of  the  Fatherland,  '  that  amid  all 
the  existing  injustice,  uncertainty,  doubt  and  dis- 
agreement concerning  the  punishment  of  witches  and 
sorcerers,  the  Germans  might  find  herein  a  sure  prin- 
ciple to  guide  them  and  clear  enlightenment.' 

No  work  had  hitherto  appeared  in  the  German 
language  which  so  recklessly  treated  every  ghost  and 
suspicion  of  witchcraft  as  proved  reality,  and  incited  to 
such  merciless  persecution  of  the  unhappy  creatures. 

That   Weyer   should   have   espoused   the   cause   of 

1  Strassburg,  1581.     **  See  Hauffen  in  the  Euphorion,   1897,  p.  9  ff. 
Fischart  also  prepared  in  1582  a  new  edition  of  the  Latin  Malleus  male- 
ficarum.     **  See  our  remarks,  vol.  viii.  p.  601  (German  ed.),  and  Hauffen 
he.  cit.  p.  254  ff. 


382  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

'  the  poor  wretched  women  who  were  oppressed  with 
melancholy  '  was  considered  a  special  sign  of  godless- 
ness.  '  The  more  women,  the  more  witches,'  so  ran  a 
Hebrew  saying.  Women  were  so  enormously  addicted 
to  witchcraft,  that  to  one  sorcerer  there  were  always 
fifty  sorceresses.  The  reason  of  this  did  not  lie  in  '  the 
deficient  intelligence  of  the  female  sex,'  but  in  the 
persistent  stubbornness  and  stiff-neckedness  of  women  ; 
they  often  bore  torture  more  courageously  than  men, 
but  this  was  owing  to  '  the  force  of  animal  passion  which 
drove  women  to  satisfy  their  desires  or  else  to  seek 
revenge.'  '  Perhaps  it  was  for  this  reason  that  Plato 
placed  women  between  men  and  animals.'  The  poets 
moreover  had  taught  them  that  '  Pallas,  the  goddess  of 
wisdom,  had  sprung  from  the  brain  of  Jupiter  and  had 
had  no  mother,  which  showed  that  wisdom  did  not 
proceed  from  women,  since  they  were  much  nearer  akin 
to  the  nature  of  animals.'  Weyer  was  a  mad  visionary, 
for  he  gave  women  credit  for  suffering  from  '  melancholic 
diseases.'  These  fell  to  their  lot  '  as  little  as  the  estim- 
able effects  and  influences  of  temperate  melancholy,' 
which  on  the  showing  of  all  ancient  philosophers  and 
physicians  '  made  men  wise,  discreet,  prudent,  thought- 
ful and  contemplative  ;  all  which  qualities  belong  as 
little  to  women  as  fire  to  water.'  ' 

It  was  a  further  sign  of  godlessness  in  Weyer  that 
he  put  no  faith  in  the  confessions  and  depositions  of 
witches  and  sorcerers,  because  the  things  acknow- 
ledged by  them  were  impossible  :  through  the  power  of 
the  devil  anything  was  possible  to  them.  From  the 
lips  of  scholars  who  stood  in  high  repute  most  astound- 
ing things  were  told  the  readers  of  this  work.     Caspar 

1  De  Daemonomania  Magorum  (see  above),  pp.  265-268. 


FISCHART   DEFENDS   PERSECUTION   OF   WITCHES      383 

Peucer,  the  son-in-law  of  Melanchthon,  had  testified 
to  the  fact  that  men  could  change  themselves  into 
wolves,  but,  he  added,  no  example  was  known  of  animals 
being  transformed  into  human  bodies.1  In  Livonia 
it  was  the  rule  that  at  the  end  of  the  Christmas  month 
all  the  sorcerers  should  assemble  at  a  particular  place. 
'  If  they  were  slow  in  coming  the  devil  lashed  them  so 
violently  with  iron  rods  that  the  scars  always  remained 
on  their  bodies.  When  they  were  all  assembled  the 
leader  went  in  front  and  several  thousands  of  them 
followed  him  through  a  stream.  As  soon  as  they 
had  crossed  the  stream  they  changed  themselves  into 
wolves,  fell  on  the  people  and  the  cattle  and  did  an 
immensity  of  damage.  About  twelve  days  afterwards 
they  went  back  across  this  stream  and  resumed  the  shape 
of  human  beings.'  Such  wolf -brood  is  most  common 
in  Livonia,  but  not  only  there,  '  everywhere  it  is  very 
common.'  - 

Joachim  Camerarius  told  of  some  sorcerers  who  had 
made  the  devil  speak  through  the  skulls  of  dead  men  ; 
a  chancellor  of  Milan  had  possessed  a  ring  out  of  which 
the  devil  had  spoken.  George  Agricola  told  of  a  mine 
in  Saxony  which  had  been  discovered  by  the  help  of 
the  devil :  a  spirit  in  the  shape  of  a  horse  had  killed 
twelve  men  there.  Louis  Lavater  of  Zurich  was  brought 
forward  as  witness  that  the  children  born  in  the  Ember- 
weeks  were  much  more  plagued  by  ghosts  than  those 
born  at  other  times,  and  the  devil's  favourite  time  for 
practising   his   witcheries   was   at   night-time   between 

1  **  Pp.  122,  286. 

2  P.  122.  The  Duke  of  Prussia,  so  it  was  said,  had  once  compelled 
a  sorcerer  to  change  into  a  wolf,  and  had  then  had  him  put  to  death  by 
fire.     Gross,  p.  127. 


384  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

Friday  and  Sunday.  The  worst  charge  of  all  against 
Weyer  was  that  he  was  a  pupil  of  Cornelius  Agrippa  of 
Nettesheim,  who  kept  constantly  by  him  a  devil  in  the 
shape  of  a  black  dog,  which  he  called  '  Dominus.'  l' 

The  iniquities  with  which  the  witches  and  sorcerers 
were  charged  were  as  follows  :  they  deny  and  blaspheme 
God  and  all  religion ;  they  worship  the  devil ;  they 
dedicate  to  him  the  fruit  of  their  bodies,  and  offer  up 
their  children  to  him  before  they  have  been  baptised ; 
they  make  a  trade  of  killing  and  murdering  men  and 
women  ;  they  eat  human  flesh  (especially  that  of  little 
boys),  and  if  they  cannot  procure  it  otherwise,  they 
dig  up  corpses  from  graves,  or  take  down  thieves  from 
the  gallows  to  devour  them  ;  and  indeed  all  this  had 
been  made  known  very  often.  Furthermore  they 
occasion  death  by  poison  and  magic  arts,  they  kill 
cattle,  destroy  fruit,  produce  hunger,  famine  and 
scarcity,  and  carry  on  carnal  intercourse  with  the 
devil. 

'  Say  now,'  he  says  to  the  horrified  reader,  '  are 
these  not  all  abominable  vices,  the  least  of  which 
deserves  an  excruciating  form  of  death  ?  '  It  is  true 
that  '  all  the  sorcerers  do  not  commit  all  the  above- 
mentioned  crimes.  But  it  has  been  shown  by  experi- 
ence that  all  those  who  have  made  express  contracts 
with  the  devil  and  are  in  full  understanding  with  him 

i  **  pp  72,  93,  155,  166,  269.  In  the  Vorwarnung,  p.  1,  he  urges  his 
readers  at  any  rate  '  not  instantly  to  give  consent  and  credence  to  all  that 
is  herein  adduced,  or  to  load  their  stomachs  with  all  the  dishes  concocted 
by  a  skilful  cook,  and  which  may  not  be  digestible  for  everybody,  before 
informing  themselves  as  to  how  and  why  they  have  been  cooked,  but  to 
remember  the  saying  : 

Consent  should  be  withheld  until 
Confirmation  by  others  has  been  obtained.' 

But  where  should  they  inform  themselves  ? 


FISCHART   DEFENDS    PERSECUTION   OF   WITCHES      385 

are  generally  guilty  of  the  whole  lot  of  these  villainies, 
or  at  least  of  the  greater  number  of  them.'  But  when 
'  one  person  '  has  committed  a  number  of  crimes  it  is 
necessary  '  that  all  should  be  punished  ;  and  that  not 
only  according  to  law  and  statute,'  but  also  according 
to  what  the  judge  thinks  fit.1 

Such  principles  were  spread  by  Fischart,  '  the 
most  honourable  and  learned  doctor  of  law  '  and  future 
magistrate  of  Forbach. 

While  Weyer  had  exhorted  the  judges  and  magis- 
trates to  show  considerateness  and  mercy,  Bodin  and 
Fischart  demanded  the  utmost  severity  and  relent- 
lessness.  A  judge  who  softened  down  legal  punish- 
ment or  remitted  it  altogether  deserved,  in  their  eyes, 
confiscation  of  goods  or  even  banishment  from  the 
country,  and  he  was  in  no  way  exonerated  by  saying 
that  he  could  not  believe  that  the  witches  could  have 
done  the  things  charged  against  them,  and  therefore 
could  not  agree  that  they  deserved  death  by  fire.  If 
the  ordinary  legal  processes  were  followed  in  dealing 
with  sorcerers  and  witches  not  one  out  of  a  hundred 
thousand  would  be  punished  ;  in  the  case  of  witchcraft 
and  sorcery  strong  proof  was  not  necessary ;  on  the 
contrary,  '  conjectural  evidence  and  presumption  '  were 
quite  sufficient  to  justify  condemnation  and  punish- 
ment. If,  for  instance,  '  any  person  in  the  business  of 
witchcraft  was  seen  coming  out  of  his  or  her  enemy's 
stables  or  sheepfold,  and  it  was  found  immediately 
afterwards  that  the  animals  began  to  sicken  and  die,' 
this  was  in  itself  '  a  strong  presumption '  without  any 
further  evidence,  and  without  a  single  further  witness, 

i  **  Yon  den  Straffen,  so  die  Zauberer  und  Unholden  beschulden  ('  Con- 
cerning the  punishments  which  sorcerers  and  magicians  deserve  '),  p.  234  £f. 

VOL,  XI.  C  C 


386  HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

or  any  further  information,  for  punishing  this  person 
'  with  scourging,  cutting  off  limbs,  branding,  perpetual 
imprisonment,  fines  and  confiscations.' 

In  order  '  to  ferret  out '  and  punish  the  witches 
and  sorcerers,  Fischart  said  the  magistrates  must 
appoint  commissary  judges  in  all  the  different  districts 
to  help  the  ordinary  judges  in  this  '  holy  work.'  These 
judges  must  not  wait  till  people  came  to  them  with 
complaints,  but  must  '  in  virtue  of  their  office  procure 
information  about  suspicious  people,  which  is  the  most 
secret  and  perhaps  also  the  safest  way.' 

Further,  '  the  accomplices  in  any  evil  deed  must  be 
summoned  as  informers  against  each  other,  and  exemp- 
tion from  punishment  must  be  guaranteed  to  these 
informers,'  '  notwithstanding  that  according  to  ordinary 
law  persons  charged  with  the  same  misdemeanour 
cannot  appear  as  plaintiffs.  Whereas  the  plague  of 
witches  was  most  virulent  in  the  villages  and  the  sub- 
urbs, and  the  people  were  too  frightened  to  complain, 
'  it  was  necessary  for  tracking  out  this  abominable 
evil,  to  follow  the  laudable  example  of  the  Scotch  and 
Milanese,  and  set  up  a  special  letter-box  in  every  church.' 
Then  everybody  would  be  free  to  throw  into  it  '  a 
rolled  up  paper  on  which  the  name  of  the  witch  or 
sorcerer  was  written,  together  with  the  particular 
misdemeanour  committed,  the  place,  the  time  and  the 
witnesses  of  the  offence,  and  any  other  circumstances.' 
Every  fortnight  these  witch-boxes  must  be  opened  by 
the  judges  or  the  procurators,  and  '  secret  reports  ' 
taken  down  concerning  the  accused  persons. 

Another  '  useful  plan  '  for  finding  out  these  mis- 
creants was  to  '  use  persuasion  or  constraint  with 
those   who   were   either   afraid   or   unwilling  to   lodge 


FISCHART  DEFENDS  PERSECUTION   OF   WITCHES      387 

accusations,  or  to  give  information  or  to  complain.' 
The  commissaries  must  obtain  the  entry  into  families 
and  get  daughters  to  witness  against  mothers,  sons 
against  fathers,  and  conversely.  '  For  it  has  often 
been  found  that  little  daughters  have  been  instructed 
by  their  mothers  and  taken  by  them  to  their  assemblies.' 
Such  little  girls  are  easily  gained  over  as  witnesses 
if  they  are  promised  that  their  misdeeds  will  be  for- 
given because  they  were  led  astray.  '  In  these  cases 
it  will  be  seen  how  well  they  are  able  to  reveal  the 
persons,  the  time,  the  place  of  assembly,  and  what  is 
going  to  be  done  there.'  Again  and  again  witches  have 
been  convicted  of  all  sorts  of  ill-doing  on  the  evidence 
of  their  little  daughters.  When,  however,  they  are 
shy  of  speaking  out  before  a  number  of  listeners,  the 
judge  can  conceal  two  or  three  persons  behind  tapestry, 
and  thus,  without  the  evidence  being  written  down, 
it  can  be  retained,  and  afterwards  put  in  writing. 
If  they  were  to  have  respect  to  'the  ordinary  rules 
of  trials  with  regard  to  the  admission  and  rejection 
of  .witnesses,'  namely  that  'daughters  must  not  give 
evidence  against  mothers,  sons  against  fathers,  fathers 
against  sons,  &c.,'  they  would  never  be  free  from  the 
devilish  herd  of  witches.1  With  a  work  of  this  sort 
Fischart  thought  to  serve  '  the  common  welfare  and 
the  Fatherland.' 

'  All  sorts  of  comic  and  amusing  things  '  of  which  he 
speaks  in  his  preface  are  not  to  be  found  in  this  horrible 
book. 

Bodin  at  any  rate  held  firmly  to  the  opinion  that 
sorcerers  and  witches  could  only  be  misled  by  the  devil 

i  **  Yon    rechtmiissiger    Ausshundschaftung,    Erforschung,   Inquisition 
und  Straff  ung  gegen  den  Hechssen  und  Zauberer  fiirzunehmen,  p.  200  ff. 


388  HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 

with  the  consent  of  their  own  free  wills,  that  the  devil 
had  power  only  over  those  persons  who  gave  themselves 
up  to  him  willingly.  '  They  have  free  will,'  he  said, 
'  to  be  good  or  wicked,  inasmuch  as  God  says  in  His 
Word  :  See,  I  have  set  before  thee  this  day  life  and 
good,  and  death  and  evil ;  so  choose  the  good  if  thou 
wilt  live.  And  much  more  plainly  it  is  said  in  another 
place  :  When  God  created  man,  He  gave  him  a  free 
will,  and  said  to  him  :  If  thou  wilt  thou  canst  keep 
My  commandments,  and  they  will  preserve  thee.'  * 
Fischart,  however,  in  his  preface  warns  his  readers 
against  that  which  '  Bodin  thinks  he  has  got  from  the 
evidence  of  the  Jewish  Eabbis  concerning  the  free  will 
of  the  regenerate.'  2 

Two  years  after  Fischart' s  work  had  appeared  in 
Strassburg,  a  Strassburg  newspaper  told  how,  on  the 
15th,  19th,  24th,  and  28th  of  October,  1582,  '  no  fewer 
than  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  witches  had  been 
put  in  prison,  condemned  to  death  by  fire  and  burnt 
alive.' 3  One  hundred  and  thirty-four  witch-burnings 
in  four  days  ! 

1  P.  9.  2  Vorwarmmg,  p.  1. 

3  Weller,  Zeitungen,  No.  572.  **  The  title  of  this  newspaper,  of  which 
a  copy  may  be  seen  in  the  town  library  at  Munich,  is  as  follows :  '  Wahrhafte 
unci  glaubwirdige  Zeitung.  Von  hundert  und  vier  und  dreyssig  Unholden, 
so  umb  irer  Zauberei  halben  diss  verschinen  1582.  Jars,  zu  Gefenknus 
gebracht  und  den  15,  19,  24,  28,  October  auff  ihr  unmenschlichen 
thaten  und  graudliche  aussag  unnd  Bekandtnus  mit  rechtem  Urtheyl  zum 
Fewer  verdampft  und  verbrennet  worden,  wie  dann  die  Ort,  da  sich  alles 
verlauffen,  ordentlich  hernach  vermelt  und  angezeygt,'  Strassburg,  1583 
('Veritable  and  credible  tidings  concerning  134  sorcerers  who  on  account 
of  their  witchcraft  were  taken  to  prison  in  the  past  year  1582,  and  on 
the  15,  19,  24,  and  28  October,  for  their  inhuman  deeds  and  horrible 
confessions  were  by  just  sentence  condemned  and  burnt  to  death  by  fire, 
as  also  the  places  where  all  this  happened  are  clearly  set  forth,'  Strassburg, 
1583). 


GUARINONI  389 

But  Fischart  was  not  moved  to  mercy.  After  he 
became  an  official  at  Forbach  he  published  a  new  edition 
of  his  book  in  1586, '  with  many  additions  and  explana- 
tions.' After  his  death  in  1591  there  followed  still  a 
further  edition.1 

Of  a  very  different  spirit  from  Fischart,  in  spite  of 
his  occasional  sharp  polemics  against  the  Protestants, 
was  Hippolytus  Guarinoni,  one  of  the  most  original 
of  writers  and  the  most  vivid  depicter  of  the  manners 
of  the  time.  He  was  a  former  pupil  of  the  Prague 
Jesuit  College,  town  physician  of  Hall  in  Tyrol,  and 
house-physician  to  the  Archduchesses  Maria  Christina 
and  Eleonore  in  the  '  Damenstift '  (institution  for  noble 
ladies)  in  that  place.  His  folio  volume,  '  Griiuel  der 
Verwiistung  menschlichen  Geschlechtes,'  published  in 
1610  for  the  furtherance  of  '  the  especial  happiness, 
welfare,  continuous  health,  temporal  and  eternal  life 
of  the  whole  highly  laudable  German  nation,'  is  one 
of  the  most  fruitful  sources  for  the  history  of  the  cul- 
ture and  civilisation  of  that  period,  and  at  the  same 
time  an  imperishable  monument  of  honour  to  its  phil- 
anthropic author.2  In  contrast  to  Fischart,  Guarinoni, 
in  the  terrible  age  of  witch-trials,  espoused  with  noble 
ardour  the  cause  of  the  poor  persecuted  old  women. 

1  See  Kurz,  vol.  iii.  pp.  xlvi-1,  **  and  Hauffen  in  Euphorion,  1897, 
p.  251  ff.  W.  Wackernagel  {Fiscliart,  p.  109)  devotes  only  a  few  lines  to  this 
work.  He  ought  at  any  rate  not  to  have  taken  his  hero  under  his  protec- 
tion in  this  matter  ;  for  the  question  is  not  whether  Fischart  shared  the 
general  belief  of  his  period  in  witches,  but  that  he  became  the  champion 
of  a  system  of  persecution  of  the  most  brutal  nature,  and  which  offended 
every  feeling  of  justice. 

2  Ingolstadt,  1610.  The  complete  title  is  in  Goedeke,  Grundriss,  ii. 
585,  No.  21.  We  have  already  frequently  quoted  from  this  work,  and 
shall  often  have  occasion  to  refer  to  it  again  in  the  course  of  this  volume 
(Engl.  vol.  xii.) 


390  HISTORY   OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 

'  What  glory  is  there,'  he  says  among  other  things,  '  in 
despising  those  who  by  nature  and  youth,  let  alone  by 
age,  are  the  weakest  members  ?  '  x 

Of  still  greater  importance,  as  regards  the  history  of 
culture,  than  the  satires  and  libellous  caricature  writings 

1  See  Adolf  Pichler's  very  noteworthy  article  on  Guarinoni  in  the 
Feuilleton  of  the  Wiener  Presse,  1884,  March  11  ff.  We  quote  here  a  few 
passages  :  '  His  calling  led  him  among  all  circles  of  society :  from  the 
cottage  of  the  day-labourer  to  the  mansion  of  the  noble  lord  ;  from  the 
hospital  bed  to  the  silken  armchairs  of  archduchesses.'  '  He  wanted 
"  to  be  understood  in  German  by  Germans."  Hence  he  collected  saws  and 
proverbs  from  the  lips  of  burghers  and  peasants  ;  he  knew  that  the  latter 
related  stories  about  Dietrich  of  Bern,  which  are  now  cniite  forgotten,  and 
he  also  cpxoted  matter  which  later  on  modern  poets  have  worked  up — for 
instance,  Schiller's  Handschuh.''  His  comprehensive  work  has  rightly 
been  described  as  a  polyhistoric  Macrobiotic  ;  but  it  is  also  one  of  the 
wealthiest  sources  of  information  concerning  the  history  of  German 
culture  in  every  direction.  '  Of  the  place  which  Guarinoni  occupies 
in  the  development  of  medicine  we  are  silent :  he  is  among  the  world's 
pioneers.'  '  His  clear  vision  saw  through  the  folly  of  the  astrology  which 
the  most  famous  of  his  time  did  homage  to.'  '  We  possess  from  his  pen 
a  description  of  his  Italian  travels,  the  first  on  the  subject  from  a  German 
author.'  '  He  paints  the  magic  of  the  Highlands  (Hochgebirg)  in  eloquent 
words,  which  are  certainly  more  poetical  than  the  dressed-up  stanzas 
of  the  Silesians.  He  is  perhaps  the  first  German  writer  to  whom  it  occurred 
to  write  the  description  of  a  mountain  excursion.  He  has  left  us  an  account 
of  a  trip  made  with  three  friends  to  the  Wallensee  and  on  the  Tarnthaler- 
kopfe  in  1609.  Of  modern  sentimentality  there  is  not  the  slightest 
trace  in  these  pages  ;  the  healthy  Tyrolese  writes  in  a  vein  of  fun  and 
humour,  we  must  forgo  the  pleasure  of  giving  extracts  and  confine  our- 
selves to  remarking  that  he  collected  an  herbarium  of  600  species,  and 
thus  earned  himself  a  place  in  the  history  of  botany.'  '  As  pohtician  also 
Guarinoni  calls  for  notice  in  his  brochure  Der  christliche  Weltmann.  He 
makes  game  of  those  '  who  under  the  title  of  Christians  introduced  a 
reign  of  accursed  heathenism  with  all  its  tyranny,  as,  for  instance,  a  godless 
foreign  Florentine  bird,  by  name  Nicholas  Machiavelli  (called  in  German 
Schleierbeschmutzer,  "  veil-besmircher,"  Machia-velo),  had  done  ;  this  is  a 
horror  of  horrible  arch-horrible  horrors.'  See  also  concerning  Guarinoni 
our  remarks,  vol.  ix.  p.  321  note  (Eng.  trans.),  and  vol.  vii.  p.  363  ff.  (German 
— the  trans,  of  this  vol.  is  not  yet  ready),  **  and  Pichler  in  the  Oster.  ungar. 
Revue,  1891,  p.  35  ff.,  145  ff. 


TRANSITION   TO   DRAMATIC   LITERATURE  391 

of  all  sorts,  is  the  dramatic  literature  of  that  period. 
Still  more  faithfully  than  they  does  it  mirror  the  condi- 
tions of  the  age,  and  the  increasing  degeneration  from 
decade  to  decade.  The  religious  dramas  were,  by  far 
the  greater  number  of  them,  merely  corollaries  either  of 
sermons  or  of  controversies  on  creeds  ;  little  by  little  em- 
bittered polemics  became  the  actual  life  and  substance 
of  dramatic  literature.  As  in  the  contemporary  plastic 
arts,  so  too  with  the  drama,  all  that  was  sacred  and 
venerable  became  too  often  secularised,  if  not  distorted, 
dishonoured,  and  desecrated.  In  the  treatment  of  secu- 
lar matter  the  stage  in  general  by  no  means  opposed 
a  salutary  counter-influence  to  the  demoralising  ten- 
dency of  the  spirit  of  the  age  ;  it  served  rather  to 
encourage  this  tendency,  contributed  materially  to  the 
coarsening  and  degradation  of  taste,  delighted  in  the 
representation  of  vulgarity  and  the  commonest  life, 
of  all  that  was  horrible  and  gruesome,  and  became 
by  degrees  a  school  of  immorality. 


INDEX  OF  PLACES 


Alps,  the,  90,  152  (n.  2),  156,  238 

Alsace,  155,  332 

Amberg,  118  (n.  2) 

Anibras  (castle),  135 

America,  204 

Amsterdam,  9,  163 

Andernach,  277  {n.  1) 

Anhalt  (principality),  171  (n.  1) 

Anhalt-Bernburg  (principality),  1 

Ansbach-Bayreuth.  See  Branden- 
burg 

Antwerp,  9,  48,  142,  158,  161,  164 
(n.3) 

Arfeld,  county  of  Wittgenstein,  30 
(n.  1)       .  ' 

Aschaffenburg,  129  (n.  1) 

Asperg,  the,  133  (».  1) 

Augsburg  (Confession),  292 

Augsburg  (town),  32,  47,  73,  118 
(n.  2),  122  (n.  1),  125  f.,  141,  146, 
169,  175,  178,  182,  186  ff.,  193 
(n.  3),  200  i,  205  (n.  4),  211,  226, 
228,  248,  251,  374 

Augustenburg  (Augustusburg,  cas- 
tle), 166 

Austria  (archduchy),  68,  118  f., 
141  (n.  2),  202,  271  {n.  2) 


Baden,    in   Switzerland    (religious 

conference,  1526),  332 
Baden-Hochberg  (margraviate),  170 

(n.  6) 
Baltic  Provinces,  124  (n.  2) 
Basle  (Church  Regulations),  28 
Basle  (town),  31,  46,  48  f.,  65,  155, 

174  (».  3),  176,  178,  208  (».  4), 

209  (».  5),  214,  228 
Basle  (university),  370 


Basle-Augst,  242 

Bautzen,  277 

Bavaria,  12,  118  f.,  135,  154  (».  1), 

163  f.,  170,  182  (n.  1),  188,  197, 

242,  244,  245  (w.  1),  250 
Bedburg,  231 
Belt,  the,  9 
Berlin,  137  (n.  4),  142,  189  (n.  1), 

251 
Bern,  31,  46,  53,  332 
Beyelstein,  228 
Biberach,  32 
Boblingen,  118  (n.  2) 
Bohemia,  271  f.,  337,  341  f.,  346 
Bologna,  145 
Bordesholm,  136 
Brabant,  25  (n.  2),  37 
Brandenburg(margraviateandElec- 

torate),  12,  51  (n.  1),  156  (n.  1), 

169,  171  (n.  1),  228,  311,  367 
Brandenburg  -  Ansbach  -  Bayreuth 

(margraviate),  1,  132 
Bremen,  127  (n.  1) 
Brieg,  47 
Brixen,  152  (n.  1) 
Bruges,  156 
Brunswick  (duchy),  11 
Brunswick    (town),     35,    43,     112 

(n.  1),  127  (n.  3) 
Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel  (duchy),  6, 

8,  37 
Brussels,  153 


Carinthia,  68 
Carniola,  248 

I  Celle,  165 
China,  175 

I  Cleve  (town),  14 


394 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 


Coblentz,  123 

Coburg  (town),  252 

Cologne    (archbishopric),    60,    185, 

188 
Cologne    (school   of   painting),    24, 

25  (n.  2),  100  (n.  1),  151 
Cologne  (town),  151,  193  (n.  1),  207, 

228,  249 
Cologne  (university),  174  (n.  3) 
Constance  (bishopric),  72 
Constance  (town),  32 
Constantinople,  283 
Cracow  (town),  332 


Dantzig,  218 

Darmstadt,  60  (n.  3),  62  (n.  1),  63 
(».  3),  231  (n.  2),  369  (n.  1) 

Denmark,  9 

Diez,  33 

Dillingen,  123,  175 

Dresden,  69  (n.  2),  132,  167  (w.  1), 
183  (n.  3),  186  (n.  2),  189,  224 
(w.  4),  271  (».  1),  303  (n.  4),  312 

Dulmen,  137  (».  4) 


Egypt,  203 

Eichstatt,  140,  143 

Elbing,  142 

England,    9,   48   f.,    54,    162,    332, 

370 
Ensisheim,  155 
Erfurt,  289 
Esslingen,  32 
Europe,  3,  9,  76,  243 


Flandebs,  24,  25  (».  2),  158,  370 
Florence,  91,  119,  149  (n.   1),  158 

(n.  4),  199,  247  (w.  2),  353 
Fontevrault,  233 
Forbach,  370,  385,  389 
France,  3,  27,  37,  111  (».  1),  112 

(n.  1),  170,  174  (n.  3),  179  (».  2), 

186,  199,  203,  244,  259  (n.  3),  332, 

370,  377  f.,  380 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  48,  63,  69, 

152, 174  f.,  178, 182  [nn.  1  and  2), 

184  (n.  1),  215  (».  1),  234  (n.  3), 

248,  304,  317,  332 
Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  251,  310 
Frechen,  60  [n.  4) 
Freiberg,  in  Saxony,  141,  211 


Freiburg,  in  the  Breisgau,  250,  332 
Freising,  118  (n.  2) 
Freudenstadt,  124  (n.  2) 
Friesach,  68 


GEisiNG-on-the-Ampel,  245 

Geislingen,  32 

Germany,  German  Empire,  1  ff., 
.  9,llff.,17, 19,23  ff.,  31,  45,49  f., 
76,  81  f.,  87,  90,  95  f.,  98  f., 
101  f.,  105,  109,  111,  112-131, 
134,  136  f.,  138-143,  146,  149- 
156,  160,  162,  166  {n.  7),  172- 
175,  179  f.,  181,  187,  192,  197, 
203,  211,  235,  242-248,  252,  255 
ff.,  271  (n,  2),  275,  278,  295,  297  f., 
308,  317,  324,  331,  335,  337, 
344  f.,  348,  361,  367,  370  (n.  1), 
378  f. 

Gora,  277 

Gorlitz,  10 

Goslar,  165,  234  (».  2) 

Gotha,  67 

Gouda,  156 

Graz,  68,  120  {n.  1) 

Greece  (ancient),  78-86,  102,   100, 
181,  195,  203,  223,  237,  283 

Greece  (modern),  203 

Greifswald  (town),  290 

Gustrow,  42  {n.  3) 


Hague,  the,  25  (n.  1) 

Hainault,  243 

Halberstadt  (bishopric),  143 

Hall  in  Tyrol,  389 

Halle-on-the-Saale,  112  {n.  1),  129 

(».  1),  144,  189,  277 
Hamburg,  36 
Hanau,  124  (n.  2) 
Hanover,  171 

Hansa,  the  (Hanseatic  League),  9 
Harburg,  313 
Harz,  the,  165 
Heidelberg  (town),  78  (n.  1),  130  f., 

141  (n.  2) 
Heidelberg  (university),  30  (n.  1) 
Heilbronn,  112  (n.  1),  124 
Herdringen  (castle),  185  (n.  3) 
Hermannstadt  in  Transylvania,  182 

{n.  2) 
Herrenberg,  124 
Hesse,  33,  36,  350 


INDEX   OF   PLACES 


395 


Hesse-Cassel  (landgraviate),  56  (ft. 

4) 
Hildesheini,  36  (ft.  2),  73  (ft.  2),  116 

(ft.  2),  137,  234  (n.  2) 
Hochberg.     See  Baden-Hockberg 
Holland,  3,  9  ;  cf.  the  Netherlands 
Holstein,  228 
Hungary,  204 
Husum,  136 


Ingolstadt  (town),  163,  371 
Ingolstadt  (university),  360 
Innsbruck,  120,  135,  139,  188,  289, 

317 
Isny,  32 

Italy,  27,  76,  87-99,  101  f.,  105  f., 
110,  112  ff.,  119  &.,  131,  138,  140 
f.,  145  f.,  150,  152,  155,  157,  159, 
164,  173,  179  (».  2),  187,  192, 
197,  203,  239,  247,  252,  306,  370 


Jerusalem, 108 
Jever,  211 
Joachimsthal,  270 
Julich-Cleves  (duchy),  379 


Kaiserswerth,  281 

Kappel  (battle,  1531),  357 

Karlstein,  the,  205 

Kattegat,  the,  228 

Klagenfurt,  in  Carinthia,  123  (ft.  5) 

Knittelfeld,  in  Styria,  136  (ft.  3) 

Konigsberg  (in  Prussia),   142,   182 

(ft.  2),  251 
Kopf stain,  271 
Krailsheim,  25  (ft.  2) 
Kiindorf,  310 
Kustrin,  60  (ft.  4) 


Laced^monia,  106,  195 
Laibach  (abbey),  246 
Laibach  (town),  123  (».  3) 
Landshut,  118  (ft.  2) 
Lauingen,  66  (ft.  2),  118  (ft.  2) 
Leipzig,  216  (ft.  3),  228,  233  (ft.  3), 

251,  308 
Levant.     See  Orient 
Liebenstein  near  Heilbronn,  124 
Lieberose,  142 
Liege,  158 


Lindau,  32,  50  (ft.  2) 

Livonia,  383 

London,  49  (ft.  2),  134 

Lucerne,  75,  156  (ft.  2),  333,  357  f. 

Liidinghausen,  118  (ft.  2) 

Lugano,  141 

Liineburg,  60  (n.  4) 


Madrid,  203  (ft.  1) 

Magdeburg     (archbishopric),     129, 

140 
Magdeburg  (town),  36,  118  (ft.  2), 

139 
Mantua,  119,  201 
Marburg,  286  (ft.  1) 
Marienburg,  112  (ft.  1) 
Mayence  (archbishopric),  56,  60,  113 

(ft.),  129,  130  (ft.  1),  167  (ft.  1), 

211,  288 
Mayence  (town),  130  (ft.  1),  275  (ft.  2) 
Meissen  (town),  13,  131,  314  (ft.  1) 
Memmingen,  32 

Merseburg  (bishopric),  140  (ft.  2) 
Merseburg  (town),  118  (ft.  2) 
Mexico,  199 
Milan,  119,  383,  386 
Modena,  131,  203  (ft.  1) 
Moravia,  271  f. 

Moritzburg,  the,  near  Halle,  130 
Miihlhausen,  in  Thuringia,  293 
Munich,  108  (ft.  3),  112  (ft.  1),  120, 

122  (ft.  1),  136,  141,  142  (ft.  1), 

144,  161  (ft.  1),  163  f.,  167  (ft.  1), 

170,   182,   184  (ft.   1),   196,   198, 

201,   243,   245,   305   (ft.   3),   388 

(ft.  3) 
Minister,  in  Westphalia,  45  (ft.  2), 

118  (ft.  2),  137  (ft.  4),  239 
Muri  (convent),  153 


Naumburg,  69  (ft.  2) 

Netherlands,  the,  9,  25  (ftft.  1  and 
2),  37,  95,  114,  135,  138,  142,  146, 
156-162,  163  f.,  169,  179  (ft.  2), 
225,  238  ££.,  242,  245,  302,  307 
(ft.  1) 

Nether  Saxony,  116  (».  2) 

North  Germany,  116 

Noyon,  73 

Nuremberg  (diet,  1524),  332 

Nuremberg,  13,  45,  55,  58  (».  2),  63, 
65  (ft.3),  67, 105, 108  (wft.  1  and  3) 


396 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


127  f.,  140,  144,'154  f.,  173  (n.l), 
178  f.,  182  f.,  186  (n.  2),  194  1, 
212,    228,    239,   248,    265,    286, 
289,  303,  317,  323 
Niirtingen,  133 

OBEREHNHEIM,r332  f.,  342  (n.  1)] 

Offenburg,  137 

Orient  (Levant),  194  (n.  3),  203 

Paderborn  (bishopric),  185 

Paris,  134,  161,  233  (n.  1),  332 

Passau,  246 

Pavia,  130  (n.  1) 

Pfalz   (Palatine),   (Electorate),    33, 

112  (n.  1),  131,228,311,333 
Pfalz-Zweibriicken,  66 
Plassenbnrg,  the,  132 
Poland,  3,  162,  332 
Pomerania    (duchy),    6,    170,    188, 

205  {n.  4),  211 
Prague,  67,  120,  141  (n.  2),  145,  202, 

205  (n.  1),  248,  389 
Prussia  (duchy),  3,  35,  182  (n.  2), 

383  (n.  2) 

Radstadt,  243  (n.  1) 

Ranten,  in  Styria,  67 

Rathhausen  (monastery),  75,  153 

Ratisbon  (diet,  1594),  233 

Ratisbon  (town),  47,  184  (n.  1),  248 

Reutlingen,  32 

Reval,  212 

Rheinfels  (Rheinpfalz  ?),  287 

Rhine,  Rhinelands,  3,  9,  130,  154 

Riva,  106  (n.  1) 

Rohra,  310 

Rome  (ancient),  68,  84  (n.  1),  85  ff., 

91,  102,  114  (n.  1),   147  f.,  194, 

237 
Rome  (modern),  39  (n.  1),  64,  69 

(n.  1),  89  (n.  1),  120,  167  {n.  1), 

203  (n.  1),  332,  344 
Rome  (Roman  law),  338 
Russia,  3 

Salzburg  (archbishopric),  234  (n.  2) 

Salzburg  (town),  219 

St.  Gall,  31 

St.   Marein,   in   Upper  Styria,  136 

M  (n.  3) 

Saxe-Altenburg,  312 


Saxony,  227 

Saxony  (Electorate),  8,  34,  36,  39 
f(n.  1),  131  f.,  140  f.,  148;  166-170, 
~  186,  207  {n.  2),  229,  233,  252,  312 
Schaffhausen,  155,  173 
Scheifling,  68  (n.  3) 
Scheldt,  the,  9 
Scheyern,  118  (n.  2) 
Schladming,  68 
Schleswig,  42  (n.  3) 
Schleswig-Holstein,  136  (n.  3) 
Schlettstadt,  46  (n.  2) 
Schneeberg,  in  Saxony,  67 
Schulpforta,  233  (n.  3) 
Schwarzfall  (Black  Forest),  the,  358 
Scotland,  386 

Seckau  (bishopric),  68  (n.  3) 
Seckau  (cathedral),  120  (n.  2),  136 

(n.  3) 
Silesia,  228,  277 
Simmern,  104  (n.  3) 
Smalcald,  56  (n.  4) 
Soest,  58  (n.  2),  239,  357 
South  Germany,  9,  31,  141 
Spain,  3,  119,  186,  259  (n.  3),  322 
Spires  (bishopric),  278,  287 
Spires  (Imperial  Chamber),  370 
Stallhofen,  68  (n.  3) 
Stockholm,  129  (n.  1),  136 
Stralsund,  35 

Strassburg  (bishopric),  332 
Strassburg  (synod,  1549),  213  (n.  1) 
Strassburg  (town),  32,  45,  108,  111 

(n.  1),  154  [n.  5),  178,  191  (».  4), 

290,  313  (n.  1),  332,  333  (n.  2), 

342  {n.  1),  357  (n.  1),  369,  388 
Straubing,  200 
Stuttgart,  108,  111  (n.   1),  132  f., 

137,  234 
Styria,  67,  120,  136  (n.  3),  203  {n.  1) 
Suabia,  118  {n.  2),  151 
Sund,  the,  9 
Sweden,  9,  135 
Switzerland,  3,  31,  70,  72,  153,  237, 

332,  358,  374 
Switzerland   (Helvetian   confession 

of  faith),  28 


Tegernsee,  284  (n.  1 ) 
Thuringia,  39  (n.  1) 
Torgau,  124  {n.  2),  132 
Trent  (Council),  93,  119,  234  (n.  2), 
249  {n.  1) 


INDEX   OF  PLACES 


397 


Trent  (prince-bishopric),  234  (n.  1) 
Treves  (archbishopric),  60 
Treves  (town),  276  (n.  2),  332,  347 
Turin,  203  (n.  1) 
Turkey,  3,  327,  352 
Tuscany,  112  (n.  1) 
Tyrol,  11,  135,  148,  171,  193  (n.  3), 
203  {n.  1) 


Ulm,  32,  33  {n.  1),  75,  151,  218,  251, 

309  (n.  1) 
Upper  Germany,  9 
Upper  Styria,  67 

Venice,  94  f.,  101,  119,  141,  149 
(n.  1),  194,  198,  201,  203  (n.  1), 
248 

Vienna  (town),  162,  205  (n.  1),  246, 
308 

Vortlage,  276 

Waldeck  (principality),  259  (n.  3) 

Warburg,  185 

Warendorf  (circle),  185  (n.  3) 

Wartburg,  the,  67 

Weddern,  in  Westphalia,  137  (n.  4) 

Weil  Town,  137 

Weilheim,  144 


Weimar,  50  (n.  2),  67 
Weser,  the,  116  (w.  2) 
Westphalia,  58  (n.  2),  74,  116  {n.  2), 

137  (n.  4),  185,  239 
Wettingen  (convent),  153 
Wiblingen  (monastery),  75 
Wiburg,  42  (n.  3) 
Wismar,  42  (n.  3) 
Wittenberg  (town),  34,  50  (n.  2), 

57,  69,  140,  178,  231,  252  (n.  3), 

254  (n.  1),  255  (n.  1),  259  (n.  3), 

273 
Wolfenbiittel,  112  (n.  1),  165,  252 
Wolfsberg,  68 
Worms,  151,  228,  347,  369 
Worms  (diet,  1495),  314 
Wurttemberg,  33,  108,  124,  133  (n. 

1),  134  (n.  2),  135  (n.  2),  145,  312 
Wurzburg,  121,  124,  138 


Xanten,  on  the  Lower  Rhine,  73, 
118  (n.  2),  137,  151 


Zeebst,  36  {n.  1),  118  (n.  2) 

Zullichau,  259  (n.  3) 

Zurich,  31,  155,  173,  183,  263,  290, 

383 
Zwickau,  118  (n.  2),  290 


398 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


INDEX   OF   PERSONS 


Aberlin,  Joach.  (poet),  260 

Accursius  (brother),  356  (n.  1) 

Aegidius  (brother),  356 

Agnes  ('  popess  '),  66 

Agricola,  George  (mineralogist),  383 

Agricola,  Martin  (musician),  261 
(note) 

Agricola,  Philip,  311 

Agricola,  Rudolf  (humanist),  175 

Agrippa  v.  Nettesheim,  H.  Cor- 
nelius (physician  and  necro- 
mancer), 384 

Aichinger,  Gregory  (composer),  248 

Alber,  Erasmus  (writer  of  songs  and 
fables),  264,  268,  294,  355 

Alberdingk,  Thijm  Jos.  Alb.  (ety- 
mologist and  archaeologist),  40 
(n.1) 

Albert  of  Brandenburg  (Arch- 
bishop of  Mayence),  56,  113,  129, 
167  (n.  1),  211 

Albert  V.  (Duke  of  Bavaria), 
120,  170,  182  f.,  188,  197  ff. 

Albert  (Duke  in  Prussia),  35,  130 

Alberti,  Leon  Battista  (art  theorist), 
114  (n.  2) 

Albertinus,  Aegidius  (court  secre- 
tary), 12,  128,  250,  299 

Aldegrever,  Heinrich  (painter, 
goldsmith,  and  copper  engraver), 
58  (n.  2),  62  (n.  1),  217,  234,  234 
(w.  3),  239 

Alexander  the  Great,  84  (n.  1) 

Alst,  Paul  von  der  (author),  304 

Altorfer  (Altdorfer),  Albrecht 
(painter  and  copper  engraver), 
173,  234  (n.  3) 

Alva,  Duke  of,  170 

Ambach,  Melchior  (preacher),  12 


Amberger,  Christopher  (painter), 
152  (n.  1) 

Ambros,  August  Wilh.  (historian 
of  music),  243  (n.  1),  246  (».  1), 
256  (».  2) 

Amman,  Jost  (painter,  draughts- 
man, and  copper-etcher),  173, 
174,  176  {n.  1),  178,  183,  219 

Amulius  (painter),  86  (n.  1) 

Andrea,  James  (chancellor),  12,  63 

Andrea,  Joh.  Valent.  (theologian),  5 

Andronicus,  Cyrrhestes,  106 

Anna  of  Austria  (Duchess  of  Ba- 
varia), 170  (n.  6) 

Anna,  Queen  (wife  of  Ferdinand  I. 
of  Austria),  141  (n.  2) 

Anton  of  Worms  (Woensam),  151, 
173 

Aquensis,  Matthias  (theologian), 
174  (n.  3) 

Arellius  (painter),  91 

Aretino,  Pietro  (poet),  91 

Arginas,  Jos.,  205 

Aristotle,  54  (n.  2),  225 

Arius,  Arians,  74,  283 

Arnold,  Fredr.  Will,  (scholar),  298 

Arnolfini,  Giovanni,  25  (n.  1) 

Artzen,  Peter  (painter),  210 

Athanasius  (Father  of  the  Church), 
267 

Aubert  (Audebert),  boy,  73 

Augustinians,  136 

Augustus  (Elector  of  Saxony),  8, 
141,  170,  207,  312 

Augustus  (Emperor),  91 

Bach,  John  Sebast.  (composer), 
253  (n.  1),  256 


INDEX   OF   PERSONS 


399 


Baechtold,  Jacob,  333  (re.  1) 

Baldung  (Grien),  Hans  (painter, 
copper-engraver,  and  draughts- 
man), 234  (re.  3) 

Bartholomew  of  Pisa,  356  (re.  1) 

Bartsch,  Adam  v.  (engraver  and 
art  writer),  234  (re.  3) 

Baumker,  Wilhelm  (historian  of 
music),  243  (re.  1),  256,  257  (re.  3) 

Becker,  A.  Wolfg.  (writer  on  art), 
49  (re.  2),  57  (re.  2) 

Becker,  Cornelius  (theologian),  259 
(re.  3) 

Beer,  George  (architect),  133  (re.  1) 

Beham,  Barthel  (painter  and  cop- 
per-engraver), 173,  214,  238 

Beham,  Hans  Sebald  (painter, 
copper-engraver  and  designer), 
56  (re.  3),  173,  214,  217,  224, 
236  (note),  238 

Beissel,  Stephen  (S.J.,  historian  of 
art),  73  (re.  2),  137  (re.  3),  151  (re.  3) 

Berendonk  (canon),  137  (re.  1) 

Bergau  (writer  on  art),  51  (re.  1) 

Besson,  James,  179  (re.  2) 

Beza,  Theod.,  29,  33,  73 

Bezold,  Gust.  v.  (writer  on  art), 
45  (re.  2) 

Bibbiena,  Bernardo  da  (cardinal), 
90 

Binck,  James  (painter  and  en- 
graver), 173 

Blarer,  Ambrosius,  32 

Blarer,  Thomas  (writer  of  songs), 
290 

Bobertag,  Fel.  (historian  of  litera- 
ture), 379  (re.  1) 

Bocksberger,  Melchior  (painter), 
219 

Bode,  Wilh.  (historian  of  art),  112 
(re.  1),  114  (re.  2),  136  (re.  2) 

Bodin,  Jean  (parliamentary  coun- 
cillor), 380,  385,  387 

Bodmer,  John  James  (poet  and 
litterateur),  374 

Boheim,  George  (painter),  47 

Bohmer,  John  Frederic  (historian), 
210,  213  (re.  4) 

Boisser6e,  Sulpice  (art  connoisseur), 
89  (re.  1) 

Bologna,  Gian  (sculptor  and  archi- 
tect), 146  (re.  4),  203  (re.  1) 

Bora,  Kath.  v.,  73,  75 

Borghese  (cardinal),  188 


Bosch,  Hieronymus  (painter),  217, 

220,  222,  225,  227 
Bosch,  Kornelis  (draughtsman  and 

engraver),  173 
Boselli,  Pietro  (brass-founder),  141 

(re.  1) 
Brant,  Sebastian,  3,  331,  333,  335, 

374  (re.  2) 
Braun,  Hartmann  (pastor),  12 
Breughel,  Jan  (painter),  163 
Breughel,  Peter,  the  Elder  (peasant 

B.),  163  (re.  2),  217,  225,  227 
Breughel,  Peter,  the  Younger  (Hell- 
Breughel),  221,  227  (re.  1) 
Breuner,     Christopher     Siegfr.     v. 

(court  chamberlain),  204 
Bronner,  Leo  (sculptor),  195 
Brosamer,  Hans  (painter  and  en- 
graver), 224 
Bruchmann,  George,  259  (re.  3) 
Bruck,  Arnold  v.  (dean),  246,  253 
Briiggemann,  Hans  (sculptor),  136 
Bruns,  Sander  (iconoclast),  36  (re.  2) 
Bruyn,  Barth.  (painter),  151 
Bry,  Theod.  de  (goldsmith  and  en- 
graver), 61 
Bucer,  Martin  (theologian),  32,  301, 

342  (re.  1) 
Buff  (historian  of  art),  126  (re.  2) 
Bugenhagen,  John  (Pomeranus),  36, 

228  (re.  1) 
Bullinger,  Henry  (theologian),  28 
Burckhardt,  James  (art  historian), 

114  (re.  2) 
Burgkmair,     Hans     (painter     and 

draughtsman),  47,  152,  219 
Buti,  Lucrezia  (novice),  91 
Butsch  (art  historian),  179  (re.  1) 


Calderon    de    la    Baeca,    Don 

Pedro,  259  (re.  3) 
Calvin,    Calvinism,    Calvinists,    28, 

35,  63  (re.  3),  73,  145  (re.  3),  159, 

259  (re.  3),  377 
Calvisius,  Sethus  (cantor),  251,  255 

(re.  1) 
Camerarius,    Joachim    (humanist), 

383 
Cammerlander  (bookseller),  357 
Candid  (Candido),  Pet.     See  Witte, 

Pet.  de. 
Candida,  73 
Canisius,  Petrus  (S.J.),  175 


400 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Capito,  Wolfg.  Fabr.   (theologian), 

342  (n.  1) 
Capuchin  nuns,  156  (n.  2) 
Caravaggio       (Amerighi),       Michel 

Angelo  de,  152  (n.  1) 
Carlstadt  (Bodenstein),  Andr.  Rud. 

(theologian),  34 
Carmelites,  174  (n.  3) 
Carstens,  Asmus  Jas.  (painter),  89 

(n.  1) 
Catherine,  St.,  of  Alexandria,   161 

(n.  1) 
Catullus,  247  (n.  2) 
Celtes,  Conrad  (humanist),  247 
Charles  IV.  (Emperor),  205 
Charles  V.   (Emperor),   3,  55,   130 

(n.  1),  216  (n.  3),  324,  344 
Charles  II.    (Archduke  of  Styria), 

119,  203  (n.  1) 
Chemlin,  Kasp.  (theologian),  12 
Cholevius,     C.     L.     (historian     of 

literature),  320  (n.  1) 
Christian   I.    (Elector   of  Saxony), 

131,  186 
Christian  II.  (Elector  of  Saxony), 

186  (n.  2),  233  (n.  3) 
Christian    I.     (Prince    of    Anhalt- 

Bernburg),  1 
Christopher    (Duke    of     Wiir Wein- 
berg), 132,  312 
Claessens  (family  of  painters),  156 
Clement  VII.  (Pope),  347  (n.  4) 
Clement    VIII.    (Pope),    245,    249 

(n.  1) 
Cohn,  Alex,  (sculptor),  141  (n.  2), 

146  (n.  4) 
Commer,     Franz     (musician     and 

writer  on  music),  248  (n.  1) 
Contarini,  Gasp,  (cardinal),  92 
Cornells  of  Gouda  (painter),  240 
Cornelissen,  Cornells  (painter),  214, 

234  (n.  3) 
Corner,    Dav.  Greg.  (Benedictine), 

276,  286 
Cornill,  Dr.  (director  of  the  Frank- 
fort Museum),  70  (».  1) 
Cornopous,  Nick,  (theologian),  12 
Correggio  (Antonio  Allegri  of),  90 
Coxcie,  Michiel  van  (painter),  158 

{n.  4) 
Cranach,  Lucas,  the  Elder,   50  f., 

56  ff.,  67,  129  (n.  1),  167  (w.  1), 

170,  191,  213,  215,  219,  227  (».  1), 

228  (n.  1),  234  (n.  3) 


Cranach,  Lucas,  the  Younger,  69, 

170 
Curtze  (author),  259  (n.  3) 


Daniel  von  Soest  (satirist),  357 
Dax,  Paul  (glass-painter),  155 
Decius  (writer  of  hymns),  259  (n.  3) 
Dedekind,  Fred,  (poet),  369 
Dejob,  Ch.  (historian),  93  (n.  1) 
Dienecker,  Dav.  (designer),  238 
Dienecker,  Jost  (designer),  238 
Dienecker,  Sams,  (designer),  238 
Dietenberger,  Johann  (theologian), 

175,  214  (n.  6),  216 
Dietrich,  Conrad  (superintendent), 

32,  251 
Dietrich,  Sixt  (composer),  246  (n.  2) 
Dietrich,   Wendel  (architect),   108, 

122  (n.  2) 
Dietterlein,  Wendel  (architect  and 

painter),  108  ff.,  226  (n.  3) 
Ditmar,  Joh.  (court  poet),  312 
Dohme,    Rob.    (art   historian),    98 

(n.  1),  112  (n.  1),  124  (n.  2) 
Dollmayr,  H.  (art  writer),  220  (n.  1) 
Doltz,  Karl  (preacher),  233 
Dominicans,  371 
Dommer,     Arrey    v.     (writer     on 

music),  256  (n.  2) 
Drescher,  Karl  (historian  of  litera- 
ture), 317  (n.  1) 
Diirer,  Albert,  27  (n.  1),  94,  95  (rc.  1), 
96,  98  (n.  2),  101-105,  105  (».  3), 
109  f.,  129  (n.  1),  152,  167  (n.  1), 
178,  187  (n.  3),  190,  208,  217, 
224,  229  {n.  3) 


Ebe,  Gttstavtjs  (architect  and  art 

writer),  122  (n.  1) 
Ebelmann       (draughtsman       and 

etcher),  193  (n.  1) 
Eber,  Paul  (hymn-writer),  270 
Eberhart  VI.  (Duke  of  Wiirttem- 

berg),  314 
Eberhn    of     Giinzburg    (apostate), 

349 
Ebert,  Joh.  (preacher),  310 
Eccard,  Joh.  (composer),  251 
Echter     of     Mespelbrunn,     Julius 

(Prince-Bishop  of  Wiirzburg),  121 
Eckstein,  Utz  (preacher),  341  (n.  3) 
Edingius,  Rutg.  (hymn-writer),  279 


INDEX   OF   PERSONS 


401 


Egg),    Willi,   (master-builder),   122 

(n.  1) 

Eisenhut  (Eisenhoit),  Ant.  (gold- 
smith and  engraver),  74,  185 

Eisenreich  (S.  J.),  122  (to.  1) 

Eleonore  (archduchess  of  Tyrol), 
389 

Elizabeth  of  Anhalt  (Electress  of 
Brandenburg),  311 

Elizabeth  (Queen  of  England),  9 

Elsasser,  Wiguleus  (gun-maker), 
188 

Elzheimer,  Adam  (painter),  152, 
234  (to.  3) 

Engerd,  Joh.  (convert),  360 

Erasmus,  Desiderius,  of  Rotterdam, 
31,  48,  209 

Erast  (Erastus),  Thomas  (phy- 
sician), 30  (to.  1) 

Ernest,  Duke  of  Saxony  (Arch- 
bishop of  Magdeburg),  140 

Eyck,  Hub.  van  (painter),  24,  25, 
(to.  1),  100  (to.  1),  156 

Eyck,  Jan  van  (painter),  24,  25 
(to.  1),  100  (to.  1),  156,  160 

Eye,  Aug.  van  (writer  on  art  and 
culture),  19  (to.  1),  166  (n.  2), 
170  (to.  5),  190  (to.  1) 


Fabri,  Gerh.  (Father),  275  (to.  2) 
Falke,  Jak.   v.  (writer  on  art  and 

culture),  51  (to.  1),  181  (to.  1),  185 

(to.  3),  187  (to.  2),  191  (to.  3),  193 

(to.  2) 
Farel,  Willi.  ('  reformer  '),  28 
Ferdinand  I.  (Emperor),   119,   141 

(to.  2),  164  (to.  3) 
Ferdinand  II.  (Emperor),  233  (to.  3) 
Ferdinand  of  Bavaria  (Elector  of 

Cologne),  188 
Ferdinand  II.  (Archduke  of  Tyrol), 

135,   148,   171,   184  (to.    1),   188, 

193  (to.  3),  203  (to.  1) 
Ferdinand    (Archduke    of    Styria), 

120 
Feuerbach,  Ans.  (archaeologist),  81 
Feyerabend,  Sigm.  (bookseller),  174 

(to.  2),  178 
Fickler,  Joh.  (councillor),  199  (to.1), 

233  (to.  1),  250 
Fiesole,  Fra  Angelico  da,  91  (to.  3) 
Figulus,    Wolfg.     (musician),     259 

(to.  3) 

VOL.    XL 


Finck,  Henry  (composer),  256 
Finck,    Herm.    (writer   on   music), 

252  (to.  3) 
Fischart,    Johann    (poet),    60,    108 

(to.  3),  177,  265  ff.,  274  (to.  1),  330, 

369-391 
Fischer,  Rich,  (writer  on  art),  100 

(TO.    1) 

Floris  (de  Briendt),  Francis 
(painter),  142,  158  f.,  240 

Flotner,  Peter  (sculptor),  45  (to.  2), 
58  (to.  2),  130  (to.  1),  195,  211 
(to.  4),  214,  224  (to.  4),  227  (to.  1), 
234  (to.  3) 

Forster,  Ernest  (painter  and  art 
writer),  161  (to.  1) 

Forster,  George  (musician),  304,  306 

Francis  I.  (King  of  France),  130 
(to.  1) 

Francis  of  Assisi,  St.,  Francis- 
cans, 61,  285,  331  f.,  351,  355, 
357,  371 

Franck,  Melchior  (court  choir- 
master), 251  f. 

Frederic  Barbarossa  (Emperor),  65 

Frederic  II.  (Count  Palatine,  later 
Elector  of  the  Palatinate),  333 

Frederic  III.  (Palatine  Elector),  33, 
131 

Frederic  III.,  the  Wise  (Elector  of 
Saxony),  140 

Frederic  III.  of  Brandenburg  (Ad- 
ministrator of  Halberstadt),  143 

Frederic  I.  (Duke  of  Wiirttemberg), 
134 

Frederic  William  (Herzog  zu  Sack- 
sen- Altenburg),  312 

Frederic,  Matthew  (preacher),  12 

Freydinger  (secretary),  227  (to.  1) 

Fries,  Dr.,  70  (to.  1) 

Fries,  Hans  (sacred  song-writer), 
263 

Froben  (printer),  216 

Fugger  (family),  203  (to.  1),  211, 
248,  251 

Fugger,  Johann  (Count),  146 

Fiirstenberg,  Theod.  v.  (Prince- 
Bishop  of  Paderborn),  185 


Gabrieli,  Andrea  (composer),  248 
Gabrieli,  Giovanni  (composer),  248 
Gallus.     See  Handl. 
Gartner,  Andr.  (poet),  274  (to.  1) 


D  D 


402 


HISTORY    OF   THE   GERMAN    PEOPLE 


Gartner,     Hieron.     (wood-carver), 

195 
Gemminger,     Joh.      Konrad     von 

(Prince -Bishop  of  Eichstatt),  142 

(n.  4) 
Genee,   Rud.    (literary  critic),   317 

(n.  1) 
George  Frederic  (Margrave  of  Ans- 

bach-Bayreuth),  132 
Gerhard,    Hubert    (brass-founder), 

146 
Gerhardt,  Paul  (hymn-writer),  248, 

264 
Gervinus, George  Gottfr.  (historian), 

259  (n.  3),  300  (n.  2),  308  (».  3), 

329  (n.  3),  378  (n.  1) 
Gesius,  Barth.  (cantor),  251 
Gletting,     Bened.      (hymn-writer), 

269 
Glockendon,        Nik.        (miniature 

painter),  129  (n.  1) 
Goedeke,  Karl  (literary  critic),  342 

(n.  1),  368  (n.  1),  370  (n.  1) 
Goedig,    Heinrich     (court    painter 

and  engraver),  166,  227 
Goethe,  Johann  Wolfg.  v.,  59  (n.  1), 

87  (n.  1),  229  (n.  3) 
Gottland,  Peter  (engraver),  58. 
Graen,  Joseph  (pastor),  73  (n.  2), 

116  (».  2) 
Graf,  Urs  (painter  and  goldsmith), 

209,  213,  219,  225,  237 
Graus  (art  writer),  67  (n.  1),  68  (n. 

2),  120  (n.  2),  122  (n.  2),  123  (n. 

3),  136  (11.  3) 
Gregory  I.  the  Great  (Pope),  249, 

256  (n.  2),  257 
Gregory  XIII.  (Pope),  59  ft,  244 
Greve,  Joh.  (preacher  and  writer), 

14 
Grien.     See  Baldung 
Grimm,  Herm.  (art  historian),  103 

(n.  2) 
Gruenwald,  George  (shoemaker  and 

hymn-writer),  271 
Grunewald,  Matthias  (painter),  129 

(n.  1),  167  (n.  1) 
Griininger,  Erasni.   (preacher),   12, 

234 
Guarinoni,     Hippol.     (house    phy- 
sician and  author),  11,  233  f. 
Gufflermus,  209  (n.  5) 
Giinzberger,    Eust.    (glass-painter), 

75 


Gustavus      Adolphus       (King      of 

Sweden),  135 
Gutenberg,    Joh.    Gensfleisch    zu, 

25  (n.  2) 


Haberl,  Franz  Xaver  (writer  on 
music),  245  (n.  1) 

Haendke  (art  historian),  234  (n.  3) 

Haenel,  C.  (writer  on  art),  22  (n.  1) 

Hagen,  Karl  (historian),  347  (n.  4), 
350  (n,  1) 

Hailman,  Louis  (hymn- writer), 
286  (n.  1) 

Haindl  (S.  J.),  122  (n.  1) 

Hainhofer,  Phil,  (patrician,  art 
dealer  and  agent),  188,  205  (n.  4) 

Handel,  George  Friedr.  (composer), 
256 

Handl,  Gallus  Jas.  (composer),  248 

Hapsburg  (house  of),  119 

Hasler,  Hans  Leo  (composer),  248 

Hass,  Joh.  (burgomaster),  10 

Haug,  C.  (joiner),  133  (n.  1) 

Haym,  Joh.  (hymn-writer),  279 

Heemsen,  Jan  van  (painter),  218 

Hegel,  George  Wilh.  Friedr.  (philo- 
sopher), 25  (n.  1) 

Hegewald,  Zachar.  (sculptor),  148 

Helena,  St.  (Empress),  28 

Helmbold,  Louis  (schoolmaster  and 
deacon),  293 

Hemmelink.     #ee  Mending 

Hemmerdey,  David  von  (court 
painter),  165 

Hemskerk  (van  Veen),  Martin 
(painter  and  engraver),  158  (n.  4) 

Henry  the  Elder  (Duke  of  Bruns- 
wick), 166 

Henry  the  Lion  (Duke  of  Saxony), 
112  (n.  1) 

Henry  the  Pious  (Duke  of  Saxony), 
227  (n.  1) 

Henry  VIII.  (King  of  England),  49, 
54,  332 

Henry  the  Parlier  (stonemason), 
145 

Hering,  Loy  (sculptor),  142  (n.  4) 

Hermann,  Nich.  (cantor  and  hymn- 
writer),  270,  275 

Herold  (Herolt),  Joh.  (preacher), 
228,  302 

Herrmann,  M.  (literary  critic),  317 
(n.l) 


INDEX   OF   PERSONS 


403 


Heussler,  Leon,  (printer),  179 
Hirn,  Jos.  (historian),  135  (n.  3) 
Hirsvogel,  Augustine  (art  potter), 

194 
His,  Edward  (art  writer),  234  (».  3) 
Hoffmann   v.    Fallersleben,  Henry 

(poet  and  philologist),  307  (n.  3) 
Hofheiruer,    Paul    (composer),    243 

(n.  1) 
Hohnstein,   Willi.    III.    (Count   of, 

Bishop  of  Strassburg),  332 
Holbein,  Hans,  the  Elder  (painter), 

25  (n.  2) 
Holbein,      Hans,      the      Younger 

(painter   and   draughtsman),    25 

(n.  2),  48,  49  ff.,  54,  98  (».  2),  152, 

153  (n.  2),  172,  176  (n.  1),  183, 

190,  208,  216,  217  ;  his  wife  and 

family,  49  (n.  2) 
Holl,  Elias  (architect),  126 
Holzwart,  Matthias  (town  scribe), 

313 
Hooghe,  Pieter  de  (painter),  25  (n. 

1) 
Hopfer,  Dan  (engraver),  191,  226 
Horace,  200  (».  1),  247 
Hufnagel,    George    (painter),     164 

(n.  3) 
Huss,  Hussites,  53,  74,  341,  345  ff. 
Hutten,  Ulrich  v.,  343-347 

Ilg,  Alb.  (art  historian),  200  (n.  1), 

203  (».  1),  205  (n.  1) 
Isaak,  Henry  (composer),  242,  256 

James  III.  (Margrave  of  Baden), 
170  (n.  6) 

Jamnitzer,  the  brothers  Albrecht, 
Christopher  and  Wenzel  (gold- 
smiths), 183,  184 

Janitschek,  Hubert  (art  historian), 
49  (?i.  1),  208  (n.  1) 

Jenichen,  Balthasar  (engraver,  de- 
signer, and  art  printer),  212,  224, 
227 

Jenisch,  Paul  (court  preacher),  132 

Jesuits,  62,  66  (n.  1),  111  (n.  1), 
121  (n.  3),  122  ff.,  175,  276  (n.  2), 
371,  389 

Joachim  I.  (Elector  of  Branden- 
burg), 169 

Joachim  II.  (Elector  of  Branden- 
burg), 169 


Joachim,     Ernest      (Margrave     of 

Brandenburg -Ansbach),  1 
Joachim,  Ernest  (Prince  of  Anhalt), 

171  (n.  1) 
Jobin,  Bernh.  (bookseller),  370 
Johanna  ('  popess  '),  330 
John    the    Steadfast    (Elector    of 

Saxony),  140 
John  Christian  of  Saxony,  312 
John  Frederic  I.  (Elector  of  Saxony), 

36 
John  George  (Elector  of  Branden- 
burg), 171  (n.  1),  311,  367 
John  George  I.  (Duke,  later  Elector, 

of  Saxony),  186  (n.  2) 
John    Casimir    (Palatine    Elector), 

311 
John    of    Leyden    (Beuckelszoon, 

Anabaptist),  45  (n.  2),  239 
Jonas,  Justus  (theologian),  282,  292 
Josquin  des  Pres  (composer),  255 
Julius  (Duke  of  Brunswick-Wolfen- 

biittel),  8,  165 
Julius  (Prince-Bishop).     See  Echter 

von  Mespelbrunn 


Kageb,  Matthew  (painter,  en- 
graver and  architect),  47 

Kallikrates,  195 

Kassmann,  Rutger  (architect),  108 

Kawerau,  W.  (author),  340  (n.  2), 
342  (n.  1) 

Keller,  George  (painter  and  en- 
graver), 174 

Kelley  (apothecary  and  necro- 
mancer), 162 

Keppler,  Paul  Wilh.  v.  (Bishop  of 
Rottenburg),  90  (».  2),  161  (n.  1) 

Ketl,  Cornelius  (painter,  architect 
and  modeller),  159,  208 

Khevenhiller,  Hans  v.,  171 

Kirchhoff,  Albr.  (bookseller),  216 
(».  3) 

Kirckrnair,  Thomas  (Naogeorgus) 
(preacher),  352 

Knaust,  Henry  (dramatic  poet), 
274 

Koch.     See  Vogt-Koch 

Kopp,  Joh.  (doctor),  72 

Krafft,  Adam  (stonemason  and 
sculptor),  26,  138 

Kraus,  Fr.  X.  (theologian  and  art 
historian),  23  (n.  1) 

D  D  2 


404 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Krautblatt,    Jod.     (physicist    and 

alchemist),  230 
Krell,  Nich.  (chancellor),  231  (n.  2) 
Kronhard,  George  (painter  to  the 

castle),  56  (».  4) 
Krumper,     Hans     (brass-founder), 

144 
Kugler,    Franz  (art  historian),    20 

(n.  1),  79  (n.  1),  114  (n.  1) 
Kurz,   Henry  (literary  critic),   342 

(n.  1) 
Kurzwelly,  F.,  138  (n.  3) 


Lagarde,   Paul  Anton   de  (Ori- 
entalist), 378  (n.  1) 
Lamlin,  Lor.  (composer),  246  (n.  2) 
Lange,     Fr.     (architect      and    art 
historian),  45  (n.  2),  46  {n.  2), 
58  {n.  2),  97  (n.  1),  138  {n.  3),  211 
{%.  4),  224  {n.  4),  234  {n.  3) 
Langenbucher,  Achilles,  193  (n.  1) 
Lassns  (de  Lattre),  Orlandus  (com- 
poser), 243,  245  (n.  1),  251,  305 
(n.3) 
Laube,  Heinr.  (author),  342  (ft.  1) 
Launingen,  Geron  v.  (wood-carver), 

62 
Lavater,  Ludw.  (preacher),  383 
Lecky,  Will.   Edw.   Hartpole  (his- 
torian), 208  (n.  3) 
Lehfeldt,  Paul  (art   historian),    39 

(n.  1),  53,  57  (n.  2) 
Leisentritt,  Joh.  (dean),  277,  287 
Leiser,      Polycarp       (controversial 

theologian),  259  (n.  1) 
Leixner,  Otto  v.  (poet  and  writer), 

50  {n.  2) 
Lemonnier,  Cam.  (art  writer),  158 

(n.  4) 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  158  (n.  4),  205 
Lessing,  Gotth.  Ephr.,  84  {n.  1),  342 

(n.  1)  _ 
Levi    (director-general    of    music), 

167  (n.  1) 
Lindanus,  Wilh.  (theologian),  249 
Lindau,  Mart.  Bernh.  (author),  50 

(n.  2),  57  (n.  2) 
Lindenau,  Sigmund  v.    (Bishop  of 

Merseburg),  140 
Lindener,  Mich,  (poet),  379  (n.  1), 
Link,    Lorenz    (glass-painter),    154 

(n.  5) 
Lippi,  Fra  Filippo  (painter),  91 


Lobwasser,  Ambr.  (jurist),  259  (n.  3) 

Loftier,  Gregory  (brass  -  founder), 
141  (n.  2) 

Lohneiss,  George  Engelh.  (inspec- 
tor of  mines),  11 

Lombard,  Lamb,  (painter),  158 

Loner,  Caspar  (hymn-wi'iter),  263 

Lorichius,  Jod.  (theologian),  213, 
250 

Loschke,  Karl  Jul.  (historian),  215 
(n.l) 

Lotz,  Wilh.  (architect  and  art 
historian),  112  («.  1),  149  (n.  1) 

Loubenberg,  Wilh.  v.  (collector), 
200 

Louis  IV.,  the  Bavarian  (Em- 
peror), 142  (n.  4) 

Louis  (Duke  of  Wiirttemberg), 
108,  133 

Liibke,  Wilh.  (art  historian),  20 
(».  2),26(n.  1),  33  (n.  1),  69  (n.  1), 
82  (n.  1),  100  (n.  1),  105  (n.  1), 
110  (».  1),  122  {n.  1),  126  (n.  2), 
127  {n.  1),  134  {nn.  1  and  4),  140 
{nn.  1  and  2),  141  {n.  1),  142  {n. 
4),  144  (».  2),  146  {n.  1),  179  (n.  2) 

Luis  de  Granada  (poet),  323 

Lukas  (Damecz),  von  Leyden 
(painter  and  engraver),  159,  173 
{n.  2),  210,  218 

Luscinius  (nightingale),  Ottmar, 
243  {n.  1) 

Luther,  Lutherans,  Lutherdom,  12, 
32,  34-44,  51  (n.  1),  56-59,  63, 
67  ff.,  71-75,  124  (n.  3),  175  f., 
207,  215  f.,  252-255,  257-261, 
269,  272,  275  ff.,  282,  286  f.,  291 
ff.,  324  f.,  332,  340,  343,  349,  355, 
357,  360  ff.,  369,  377  ff. 


Mabuse  (Gossabt),  Jan  (painter), 
158  {n.  4),  239 

Mahomet,  74 

Mander,  Karl  van  (painter  and  art 
biographer),  108  (n.  1),  157,  164, 
218,  221,  240 

Manuel,  Nich.  (painter  and  poet), 
46,  53,  217,  234  (n.  3) 

Maria  Christina  of  Tyrol  (Arch- 
duchess), 389 

Maria  Magdalena  of  Styria  (Arch- 
duchess, later  Grand-Duchess,  of 
Florence),  203  {n.l) 


INDEX   OF   PERSONS 


405 


Maria,  Margravine  of  Brandenburg- 

Culmbach    (Countess    Palatine), 

131 
Maria  de'  Medici  (Queen  of  France), 

161  (n.  1) 
Massys,  Quentin  (painter),  26  (n.  1), 

156 
Mathesius,    Job.    (theologian),    12, 

57,  273 
Mathys  (Mattys),  Cornells  (painter, 

draughtsman  and  engraver),  173 
Matthias  (philologist),  3-47  (n.  4) 
Maurer,  Christopher  (painter,  glass - 

painter,  etcher  and  wood-carver), 

154,  155  (n.  3) 
Maximihan  I.    (Emperor),   3,    139, 

191,  242,  332,  335 
Maximilian  II.  (Emperor),  141  (n. 

2),  162,  170,  184  (re.  1),  203  (re.  1), 

244 
Maximihan  I.  of  Bavaria  (Duke), 

135,  164 
Mayer,  Karl,  Knight  of  (writer  on 

heraldry),  187  (re.  3) 
Mecken,    Israel    v.    (painter),    234 

(re.  3) 
Medici,  Cosimo  de',  91,  92 
Medici,  Lorenzo  de',  92,  197 
Medler,  Nich.  (superintendent),  69 

(re.  2) 
Melanchthon,  Phil.,  56  (re.  4),  207, 

254  (re.  1),  292,  383 
Memling,  Hans  (painter),  26  (re.  1), 

90  (re.  2),  156 
Mentzius    (von     Nimeck),    Balth., 

312 
Menzel,  Karl  Adolf  (historian),  259 

(re.  3) 
Menzel,  Wolfg.  (critic  and  hterary 

historian),  259  (re.  3),  320  (re.  1) 
Merian,  Matth.  (engraver),  19  (re..  2) 
Meyer,  James  (burgomaster),  48 
Meyer,     Johann     (Carmehte     Pro- 
vincial), 174  (re.  3) 
Meyer,  K.  (art  historian),  176  (re.  1), 

209  (re.  5) 
Michael    Angelo    (Buonarotti),    27 

(re.  1),  87  (re.  1),  88,  89  (re.  1),  90, 

94,  138,  146  (re.  5),  158  (re.  4),  162 
Michiels,  Jos.  Alfr.  Xav.  (historian 

of  art  and  literature),  156  (re.  3), 

157  (re.  1),  210  (re.  1),  240  (re.  2) 
Miereveldt,  Mich.  Janssen  (painter), 

167 


Miler,  George  (master-builder),  137 
Mirycenus  (engraver),  220 
Molenaer,  Cornelis  (painter),  240 
Molysdorfinus,  George  (court  poet), 

312 
Montfort  (Countess  of),  198 
Moritz      (Maurice),      (Elector      of 

Saxony),  141,  211 
Moritz     (Maurice)     (Prince,     later 

Landgrave,  of  Hesse-Cassel),  56 

(re.  4) 
Miielich,     Hans     (court     painter), 

163  f.,  183 
Muller,  Ludwig  (licentiate),  199 
Minister,  Joh.  v.  (Philos  of  Treves, 

controversialist),  276  (re.  2) 
Murner,  Thomas  (Franciscan),  72, 

331-344 
Museums,  Andr.  (theologian),  12 
Myrmekides,  195 


Naogeorgtts.     See  Kirchmair 

Nas,  Joh.  (Franciscan),  61,  71,  73, 
141  (re.  2),  285,  291,  357,  361,  371 

Naumann,  Emil  (composer  and 
writer  on  music),  100  (re.  1) 

Neidhart,  Thorn,  (glass-painter), 
155 

Nero  (Emperor),  86  (re.  1) 

Neudorffer,  J.  (writing  and  arith- 
metic master),  108  (n.  1),  183 
{n.  1),  185  (n.  1) 

Neuwirth,  J.  (art  critic),  22  (n.  1) 

Nicolai,  Phil,  (hymn-writer),  270 

Nigrinus,  George  (superintendent), 
37,  64,  350 

Nonnenbeck,  Leonard  (linen- 
weaver),  317 

Nordhoff,  Jos.  Bemh.,  185 

Normann,  Matth.  v.  (nobleman), 
10 

Nosseni,  Giov.  Maria  (architect, 
sculptor  and  painter),  141 

Niitzel,  Hier.  (engraver),  219 


Ober,  Hans  (hynin-writer),  263 
Oecolampadius,  28,  32 
Oglin,  Erhard  (printer),  256 
Oldekop,  Joh.  (chronicler),  36  (n.  1) 
Ohiitz,  Adam  Junghans  v.  d.,  8 
Oort,  Adam  van  (draughtsman  and 
historical  painter),  240 


406 


HISTORY   OF   THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Opitz,  Mart,  (poet),  320  (n.  1) 
Orange-Nassau,  John  (Count  of),  33 
Orelli,  Aloisius  v.  (theologian),  183 
Orley,  Bernhard  van  (painter),  158 

(n.  4),  218 
Osiander,  Lucas  I.  and  II.   (theo- 
logians), 12 
Ossa,  Melchior  v.  (jurist),  12 
Ostendorfer,    Mich,    (sculptor    and 

wood-carver),  47 
Otte  (art  historian),  70  (n.  2) 
Otto,    Heinr.     (Elector    Palatine), 

112  (n.  1) 
Overbeck,   Joh.    (archaeologist),   82 
{n.  2) 


Palestrina,  Giovanni  Pierluigi 
da,  244 

Parnminger,  Leonh.  (composer), 
246 

Pancratius,  Andr.  (theologian),  12 

Pantaleon,  Heinr.  (physicist),  174 
(n.3) 

Paracelsus,  Theophrastus,  65 

Patenier,  Joachim  (painter),  240 

Paul  III.  (Pope),  294,  347  {n.  4) 

Paulsen,  Friedr.  Wilh.  (philo- 
sopher and  historian),  87  (n.  1) 

Paulus  (historian),  30  (n.  1) 

Paumgartner,  Ulr.  (art  carpenter), 
188 

Pauson  (painter),  84 

Peiraeikos  (painter),  84 

Penz,  George  (painter  and  en- 
graver), 152,  173,  214,  219,  224, 
234  (n.  3),  239 

Peruzzi,  Giov.  Salustro  (architect), 
120 

Petrejus,  Joh.  (printer),  108  (n.  1) 

Petrus,  Martyr.     See  Vermigli 

Peucer,  Casp.,  382-383 

Pfund,  George  (court  musician), 
311 

Phidias,  81,  196 

Philip  (Landgrave  of  Hesse),  36, 
352 

Philip  I.  (Duke  of  Pomerania),  211 

Philip  II.  (Duke  of  Pomerania), 
188,  205  {n.  4) 

Pichler,  Adolf  (poet  and  literary 
historian),  390  (n.  1) 

Pirkheimer,  Willibald,  31,  94,  103 

Pius  V.  (Pope),  163 


Plato,  232,  382 

Plieninger,  Lamb.  Floridus  (astro- 
nomer), 4 

Pliny,  the  Elder,  86  (n.  1),  91,  232 

Polack,  Martin,  Theoph.  (painter), 
152  (n.  1) 

Polaggio,  Carlo  (brass-founder),  146 

Pontano,  Gioviano  (statesman  and 
humanist),  97-98 

Pozzo  (Pozzi),  Gius.,  110 

Praetorius,  Mich,  (court  choir- 
master), 252 

Praxiteles,  85 

Propertius,  247  (n.  2) 

Proske,  Karl  (musical  scholar),  246 
(n.  2) 

Prudentius,  247 

Prutz,  Rob.  Ernest  (author),  298 
(n.  1) 

Puitz-Herbault,  Gabriel  (monk), 
233  (n.  1) 

Pur  bus,  Franz  (painter),  157 

Purbus,  Peter  (painter),  156 

Puschmann,  Adam  (Meistersinger), 
319 

QUADEN     VON     KlNCKELBACH,      M. 

(historian),  173 
Querhammer,       Caspar        (hymn- 
writer),  279,  280 

Rabe,  James  (convert),  371 
Rabelais,    Francois    (satirist),    374 

377  if. 
Rahn,  J.   Rud.   (art  historian),  24 

(n.  1),  154  (n.  5) 
Raittenau,  Wolf.  Dietr.   v.    (Arch- 
bishop of  Salzburg),  234  (n.  2) 
Rambach,  Joh.  Jak.  (pastor),  255 

(n.  1) 
Ranke,    Leopold    von    (historian), 

205  \n.  4) 
Ranzau,  Heinr.,  136 
Raphael,  27,  89,  158 
Rappoltstein,    Egenolf    (Herr   zu), 

381 
Rathgeber,   G.   (art  historian),   149 

{n.  1),  152  {n.  2) 
Reber,  Franz  v.  (art  historian),  25 

(nn.  1  and  2),  152  {n.  2),  158  (n. 

4),  199  (n.  1) 
Reichensperger,    Aug.,    20    (n.    2), 
{       115  (».  1) 


INDEX   OF   PERSONS 


407 


Reimer,  224  (re.  4) 

Reinholdt,  K.  (theologian),  38  (re. 

1) 

Reissmann  (writer  on  music),  255 

(n.l) 
Renner,  George  (smelter),  188  (re.  3) 
Reumont,     Alfred    v.     (historian), 

89  (re.  1) 
Richter,      Ludwig     (painter     and 

draughtsman),  176  (re.  1) 
Rieffel,  Franz  (art  historian),   152 

(re.  1),  167  (re.  1) 
Riegel,  Herm.   (writer  on  art),  51 

(re.  1) 
Riehl,  B.  (art  historian),  22  (re.  1) 
Riehl,  Wilh.  (historian  of  civilisa- 
tion), 96  (re.  1),   126  (n.  2),  306 

(re.  2) 
Riemenschneider,    Dill    (sculptor), 

138 
Riezler,    Sigmund   (historian),    199 

(n.l) 
Rihel,  Josias  (printer),  313 
Ringwalt,    Barth.     (preacher    and 

hymn-writer),  262,  264,  273,  292, 

309,  363-369 
Rio,  A.  F.  (author),  90  (re.  1) 
Rivius,  Walter  (physician  and  ma- 
thematician), 45,  105-108,  224 
Rodler,    Jerome    (secretary),     104 

(re.  3) 
Rooses,   Max   (art   historian),    158 

(re.  4) 
Ropell,  Rich,  (historian),  347  (re.  4) 
Rosen,   Karl    von   (art  historian), 

156  (re.  2) 
Rothschild,  184  (re.  1) 
Rubens,  Peter  Paul,  25  (re.  1),  111  t, 

222 
Rucker,    Thorn,    (art    ironworker), 

187 
Rudolf  II.   (Emperor),   146  (re.  4), 

162,  186,  187,  200  (re.  1),  202  ff. 
Rudolf  IV.  of  Hapsburg  (Count), 

139 


Sabatier,  P.  (historian),  356  (re.  1) 
Sachs,  Hans,  10,  44  f.,  65  (re.  3), 

179,  190,  265,  317-330 
Salat,    Hans    (controversial    poet), 

357 
Sale,  Margarete  v.  d.,  352 
Sanchez,  Alonso  (painter),  171 


Sansovino,    Jacopo    (sculptor    and 

architect),  119 
Sattler,  Basilius  (court  preacher),  6 
Savonarola,  Girolamo,  92 
Scaurus  (edile),  148 
Schade,     Oscar    (Germanist),     347 

(re.  4) 
Schaffner,  Martin  (painter),  151 
Schallenberg,  Christoph.  von,  168, 

212 
Schalling,  Martin  (preacher),  270 
Schauffelin,     Hans     (painter     and 

wood-carver),  152 
Scheid  (Scheidt),  Caspar  ('  rhyme- 
ster '),  369 
Schein,    Job.    Herm.    (director    of 

music),  308  (re.  3) 
Schenck      von     Grafenberg,     Job. 

George,  229 
Schenk  (preacher),  32 
Scherr,  Joh.  (author),  51  (re.  1) 
Schicker,    Daniel    (art    carpenter), 

188  (re.  3) 
Schickhardt,  Heinr.  (architect),  124, 

134,  145 
Schifferstein,  Hans  (art  carpenter), 

189 
Schilter,  Sebast.,  47 
Schlecht  (art  historian),  142  (re.  4) 
Schmid,  Erich  (historian  of  litera- 
ture), 377  (re.  3) 
Schmid,  H.  A.  (writer  on  art),  98 

(re.  2) 
Schmidt,  Francis  (executioner),  13 
Schnaase,   Karl  (art  historian),   25 

(re.  1),  50  (re.  2),  79  (re.  1),  142 

(re.  3) 
Schneeh,  G.  (art  writer),  98  (re.  2) 
Schneider,   Friedr.    (art  historian), 

23  (re.  1),  97  (re.  2),  129  (re.   1), 

211  (re.  4) 
Schnorr     von     Carolsfeld,      Franz 

(historian  of  literature),  356  (re.  1) 
Schoffer,  Peter  (printer),  256 
Schon.     See  Schongauer 
Schonermark,    G.    (art    historian), 

130  (re.  1),  144  (re.  2) 
Schongauer  (Schon),  Mart,  (painter 

and  engraver),  25  (re.  2),  172 
Schonherr,  David  v.  (art  historian), 

141  (re.  2) 
Schonitz,  Hans  v.  (favourite),  129- 

130 
Schopfer,  Hans  (painter),  170  (re,  6 ) 


408 


HISTORY    OF   THE    GERMAN   PEOPLE 


Schoppius,  Andr.  (theologian),  12 
Schoreel,  Jan  (painter),  25  (ft.   1), 

157 
Schorn,  Ludwig  v.  (writer  on  art), 

25  (n.  1) 
Schro,  Dietrich  (sculptor),  211  (ft.  4) 
Schrod,  Martin  (song- writer),  291 
Schiihlein,  Hans  (painter),  218 
Schulenberg,  Joach.  v.  d.,  142 
Schultheiss,  Sixt.  (sculptor),  46  (ft. 

2) 
Schulz,  A.  (art  writer),  150  (ft.  1) 
Schiirdinger,     Gregory     (provost), 

136  (ft.  3) 
Schwarz,  Christoph.  (court  painter), 

163  f. 
Schwarz,  Matthias,  169 
Schwarz,  Veit  Conrad,  169 
Schweinichen,  Hans  v.  (knight),  11 
Schweitzer,  Ch.  (historian  of  litera- 
ture), 317  (ft.  1) 
Schwenkfeld,  Caspar  v.  (theologian), 

377 
Sedulius,  Ca^lius  (poet),  247 
Seiseneker,    Jacob    (painter),     164 

(ft.  3) 
Selnekker,    Nich.    (theologian),    6, 

12,  268 
Semper,     Gottfr.     (architect),     81 

(ft.  1) 
Semper,    Hans    (art    writer),    141 

(ft.  2) 
Sendiwoj,  Mich,  (alchemist),  162 
Senfl,  Louis  (composer),  242  f.,  253, 

255,  256 
Servetus,  Mich,  (physician),  73 
Shakespeare,  Will.,  134  (ft.  4) 
Sickingen,  Franz  von,  345  ff. 
Sigfridus,  Thorn,  (author),  230 
Sighart,  Joh.  (art  writer),  50  (ft.  1) 
Sigwart,  Joh.  George  (theologian), 

12 
Silber,  Jonas  (goldsmith),  183,  185 
Silvan,  Joh.  (theologian),  231  (ft.  2) 
Skopas  (sculptor),  85,  202 
Soder,  H.  J.  (hymn-writer),  279 
Solis,  Virgil  (engraver  and  painter), 

63,  173,  176,  224,  238 
Sophia  of   Kurbrandenburg  (Elec- 

tress  of  Saxony),  186  (ft.  2) 
Spang,  Joh.,  215 
Spangenberg,  Cyriacus  (chronicler), 

10,  12,  259  (ft.  3),  276  (ft.  1),  286, 

303 


Spengler,  Laz.  (hymn-writer),  288 
(ft.  2) 

Speratus,  Paul  (hymn-writer),  262, 
287 

Spranger,  Barth.  (painter),  104  (ft. 
1),  162  (ft.  4) 

Springer,  Ant.  (art  historian),  20 
(ft.  1),  27  (ft.  1),  89  (ft.  1),  91  (ft. 
1),  100  (ft.  1),  114  (ft.  2) 

Stein,  Caspar  (poet),  300 

Stellwagen,  Augustine  (art  car- 
penter), 189 

Stephan  (master  of  Cologne),  90 
(ft.  2),  100  (ft.  1) 

Stimmer,  Abel  (glass-painter),  156 
(ft.  1) 

Stimmer,  Tobias  (painter  and  de- 
signer), 59,  174,  176,  177,  178  f., 
214 

Stockbauer,  Jak.  (art  historian), 
196  (ft.  2),  198  (ft.  2),  200  (wft. 
1  and  2),  201  (ftft.  1  and  2),  202 
(ft.  1) 

Stocker,  James  (theologian),  12 

Stolberg  (Count  of),  211  (ft.  7) 
:  Stoppio,  Nicolo  (agent),  198 
:  Stoss,  Veit  (sculptor  and  engraver), 

138 
i  Strack,  Joh.  (preacher),  311 
1  Strada,    Jak.     (draughtsman    and 
agent),  201 

Strigenicius,  Gregory  (superinten- 
dent), 13,  314  (ft.  1) 

Stump-Peter,  the,  231 

Styfel,  Mich,  (poet),  282,  290 

Sustris,  Fred,  (painter  and  archi- 
tect), 163 

Svatek,  J.  (historian),  205  (ft.  1) 

Sweher,  Christopher  (Christophorus 
Hecyrus),  279 

Syrlin,  Jorg,  the  Elder  (joiner  and 
carver),  138 

Teniees,     David,     the     Younger 

(painter),  227  (ft.  1) 
Tenissen,  Cornelius  (painter),  227 
Teresa  a  Jesu,  St.,  322 
Terey,   G.    v.    (art  historian),    129 

(ft.  1) 
Terzio,   Francesco  (court  painter), 

203  (ft.  1) 
Tettelbach,  Joh.,  215  (ft.  1) 
Tholuck,      Fried.     Aug.     Gottren 

(theologian),  259  (ft.  3) 


INDEX   OF   PERSONS 


409 


Thou,  Jacques  Aug.  cle  (states- 
man and  historian),  245 

Thurn  von  Thurneissen,  Leonh. 
(house  physician),  12 

Tintoretto  (Robusti),  Jacopo,  92, 
164 

Titian  (VeceUio),  90,  164  (».  3),  201 

Torrentius,  Hans  (painter),  234 
(n.  3),  240 

Trautmann,  Fr.  (historian),  122 
(n,  1),  163  (n.  5) 

Tretsch,  Aberlin  (architect),  133 
(n.1) 

Triller,  Valentine  (pastor),  277 

Ulenberg,    Caspar    (pastor    and 

hymn-writer),  279,  282 
Uh'ich  V.  (Count  of  Wiirttemberg), 

314 


Vab-ian,  233 

Valerian  (S.J. ),  122  (n.  1) 

Vasari,  Giorgio  (painter,  architect 

and  art  writer),  27  (n.  1) 
Veen,  Mart.  van.     See  Hemskerk 
Vehe,  Mich,  (provost),  277  (n.  3) 
Vento,  Ivo  de  (organist),  305  (n.  3) 
Vermigli,  Petrus  Martyr  (apostate 

priest),  30,  216  (n.  3) 
Vetter,  Conrad  (hymn-writer),  279 
Vetter,  George  (hyrnn-writer),  272 
Vielfeld  (apostate  monk),  357  (n.  1) 
Vilmar,     Aug.     Friedr.     Christian 
(historian  of  literature),  342  (n.  1) 
Vinci,  da.     See  Leonardo  da  Vinci. 
Viollet-le-duc,  Eugen  Emm.  (archi- 
tect, archaeologist  and  art  histo- 
rian), 20  (n.  2) 
Virgil,  247 

Vischer,  Friedr.  Theod.,  84  (n.  1) 
Vischer,  Hans  (brass-founder),  140 
Vischer,  Peter   (brass -founder),  25 

(n.  2),  59,  98  (n.  2),  138,  140 
Vitruvius,  102,  105,  106,  110 
Viviani,   Antonio   Maria   (painter), 

164 
Vogelin,  Sal.  (historian  of  civilisa- 
tion and  art),  54  (n.  1) 
Vogt-Koch  (historian  of  literature), 

342  (n.  1) 
Vogtherr,  Heiirr.  (painter),  45,  191 

(».4) 
Voigt,  Joh.  (historian),  347  (n.  4) 


Volcker,    A.    Th.    (bookseller),   74 

(n.  2) 
Vrancks,  Sebast.  (painter),  210 
Vredis,        Jodokus        (Carthusian, 

sculptor),  137  {n.  4) 
Vries,    Adrian   de   (sculptor),    141, 

146,  203  (n.  1) 
Vries,  Joh.  Fredemann  de  (painter 

and  art  writer),  108  (n.  1) 


Waagen,  Gust.  Fried,  (art  writer), 

234  (n.  3) 
Wachler,  Joh.  Friedr.  Ludwig  (his- 
torian of  literature),  342  (n.  1) 
Wackernagel,    Phil,    (author),    295 

(n.  1),  320  {n.  1) 
Wackernagel,    Wilh.     (Germanist), 

389  (n.  1) 
Walasser,  Adam,  284  (n.  1) 
Waldis,  Burchard  (poet),  352,  354, 

368 
Walter,  Christopher  (printer),  178 
Walther,  Joh.  (composer),  252,  253, 

255  (».  1),  258  (n.  1) 
Wannecker,    Jerome    (painter   and 

engraver),  48 
Wassler,  J.  (art  writer),  110  (n.  3), 

127  (n.  3) 
Wedemeyer,  Dietr.  (painter),  171 
Weese,  A.  (art  writer),  234  \n.  3) 
Weinsberg,  Herm.  von  (councillor), 

208 
Weisse,  Mich,  (hymn-writer),  272 
Welfer,  LudAv.,  200 
j  Wendeler,  Cam.  (historian  of  lite- 
rature), 57  (n.  2) 
Wessely,  J.  C.  (art  writer),  62  (n.  2) 
Westerstetten,   Joh.    Christoph.    v. 

(Prince-Bishop  of  Eichstatt),  142 

(n.4) 
Weyden,  Roger  van  der  (painter), 

26  (n.  1) 
Weyer,     Joh.     (house     physician), 

380  ff. 
Wickliffe,  John,  28,  74 
Wilhelm  (master  of  Cologne),   100 

(n.  1) 
Willaerts,     Adam     (painter),     222 

(n.  2) 
William  V.  (Duke  of  Bavaria),  120, 

122,  164,  202 
William     IV.     (Duke     of    Jiilick- 

Cleves),  379 


410 


HISTORY   OF  THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE 


William     (Landgrave     of     Hesse- 

Cassel),  56  (».  4) 
Windeck,  Paul  (sculptor),  46  (n.  2) 
Winter,  Erasmus  (preacher),  12-13 
Wirsperger,  Veit,  238 
Witte,  John  de  (painter),  170  (n.  6) 
Witte,  Peter  de  (Candid)  (painter 

and    architect),     135,     141,     142 

(n.  4) 
Wittelsbach  (house  of),  119 
Wizel,  George,  33,  232,  259  (n.  3), 

279,  283 
Woensam.     See  Anton  von  Worms 
Wohlgemuth,    Mich,    (painter    and 

wood-carver),  25  (n.  2) 
Wolf,  Joh.  (councillor),  66 
Wolfflin,  H.  (art  historian),  22  (n.  1) 
Wolkan,  R.  (writer  on  music),  272 

(n.2) 
Woltmann,   A.    (art  historian),   25 

(n.  2),  51  (n.  1),  111  (».  1),  158 

(n.  4),  1?9  (n.  2),  216  (n.  3),  234 

(».  3) 
Wornle,  Hans  (painter),  170 


Wurzebauer,  Bened.(brass-founder), 
144,  145 


Zan,  Bernh.  (art  goldsmith),  183 
Zanchi  (preacher  and  poet),  30  ff., 

38  (n.  1) 
Zangius,  Nich.  (poet),  308 
Zeiller,  Martin  (parish  priest),  68 
Zeissinger,  Martin  (engraver),  224 
Zeitblom,  Barth.  (painter),  25  (n.  2) 
Zell,  Katharine,  301 
Zeysig,  Melchior  (preacher),  62  (n. 

3) 

Zincref,     Jul.     Willi,     (poet     and 

author),  370  (n.  1) 
Zingeler  (historian),  70  (n.  2) 
Ziska  (von  Trocnow),  Joh.  (Hussite 

leader),  345 
Ziindt,  Matthias  (etcher),  63 
Zwick,  Joh.  (poet),  262 
Zwingli,  Zwinglians,  Zwinglianism, 

28  ff.,  31  f.,  35,  72,  74  f.,  262,  341 


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