PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE

IN THE

FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

VOL. I.

PICTURES

OF

GERMAN LIFE

In the XV^th XVI^th and XVII^th Centuries.

BY

GUSTAV FREYTAG

Translated from the Original by

MRS. MALCOLM.

COPYRIGHT EDITION.--IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 1862.

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET.

CONTENTS.

SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.

Introduction--Retrospect of the results of the sixteenth century--Greater development of individuality--Defects of Protestantism--A more elevated tone in Catholicism--Contrast of the Roman and German systems--Political weakness of Protestantism--The Hapsburgers--Discontent in the people

CHAPTER I.

The Thirty Years' War (1618 to 1638). The Army--Strength of the Army--Cost--Method of conducting the war--Political events of it--Organization of the army--The officers and the banners--Pay--Discipline--Punishments--Camp followers and their discipline--Description of a Soldier's Life before the War, by Adam Junghans

CHAPTER II.

The Thirty Years' War. Life and Manners of the Soldiers (1618 to 1648)--Intermixture of nations--The camp; gambling; luxury; scarcity--Superstition--Vices--Camp language--The cartel--Booty-- Partisan service and spies--Marauders--Oppression

CHAPTER III.

The Thirty Years' War. The Villagers and their Pastors (1618 to 1648)--State of the villages--Position and manners of the peasantry--Effects of the war; money perplexities; quartering of troops; tortures--Fear; insolence; lawlessness--Love of home--The pastors and their endurance--Fate of the Pastor Bötzinger

CHAPTER IV.

The Thirty Years' War. Clippers of Money and Public Opinion (1618 to 1648)--The commencement of newspapers--Struggle of the press at the beginning of the war--The kipper time--Money coining--Depreciation of the coinage in 1621, and its effect upon the people--Discovery of the danger; excitement; storm in the press--Specimen from the flying sheet expurgato der kipper--Theological controversial writings--Enthusiasm for Gustavus Adolphus--Character of that king--Dialogue between the king and the envoy of Brandenburg--The fate of Gustavus Adolphus--Opposition of the press to Sweden--Patriotism of the German press--The Flying Sheet, the German Brutus--The benefit of Sweden to Germany

CHAPTER V.

The Thirty Years' War. The Cities (1618 to 1648)--Aspect of the cities in 1618--Effects of the war; luxury; contributions; sieges--Religious persecution--The Ladies of Löwenberg

CHAPTER VII.

The Thirty Years' War. The Peace (1650)--Festivities of the Ambassadors at Nuremberg--Festive Fair in a Thuringian Village--Condition of the country after the war--Its devastation--Attempted estimation of it--The consequences to the Austrian provinces

CHAPTER VII.

Rogues and Adventurers--Their increase during the war--Their history--The strollers of the middle ages--Gipsies and their language--Gibberish and beggars--Travelling scholars--Robbers and incendiaries--Foreign jugglers--Description of Strolling Players, by Garzoni--Comedians, and influence of adventurers on literature--Swindlers of distinction--Alchemists

CHAPTER VIII.

Engagement and Marriage at Court (1661)--Fashion and gallantry, a foreign means of preserving decorum--Courtly Wooing and Marriage at Vienna--The Royal families--The Elector Palatine Carl Ludwig--Letter of the Electress Palatine Charlotte to the Emperor--Judgment upon her and her husband

CHAPTER IX.

Of the Homes of German Citizens (1675)--Order and decorum in wooing--Narrative of Friedrich Lucä--Change in expression of feelings of the heart--Life at home--Prosperity of Hamburg--Letter of Burgomaster Schulte to his Son in Lisbon--Strong sense of duty in men--Berend Jacob Carpfanger--Sorrowful tidings from Cadiz

CHAPTER X.

German Life at the Baths (1690)--Distinction of ranks--Forms of society--Bath life--Poggio--Baths in the Fifteenth Century, by Poggio--In the Sixteenth, by Pantaleon--In the Seventeenth, by de Merveilleux--In the Eighteenth, by Hess

CHAPTER XI.

Jesuits and Jews--Decay of the Church--Protestants and Catholics--The Jesuits also weaker--Position of the Jews since the middle ages--Their lucrative business--The Jews at Prague Story of Simon Abeles--Victory of humanity over religious intolerance

CHAPTER XII.

The Wasunger War (1747)--Weakness of the German Empire--Division of classes wider--Anthony Ulrick von Meiningen and Philippine Cesar--Quarrels at the Court of Meiningen--Cause of the war--Diary of the Gotha Lieutenant Rauch

Conclusion. From Frederick the Great up to the present time--Object of these pictures--The mind of the people

PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND VOLUME.

The year 1600 dawned upon a people who had gone through a vast change in the last century. Everywhere we perceive marks of progress. Let us compare any learned book of the year 1499 with one of 1599. The former is written in bad Latin, poor in diction, ponderous in composition, and not easy of comprehension. Of independent spirit and individual conviction we find little trace. There are undoubtedly exceptions, but they are very rare. Even the Latin of the earlier Humanitarians reminds us of the subtle vapidness of monkish language, almost as much as of the artistic phrases of ancient rhetoricians. We are sometimes surprised to find in the theology, an undercurrent of deep-thinking speculations of elevated grandeur; but it is a kind of secret doctrine of souls depressed under the constraint of the cloister. It is certainly philosophy, but deprived of vitality. A century later we discover, even in mediocre authors, a certain independent individuality. The writers begin to reflect on human life and faith; they understand how to represent their own feelings and the emotions of the soul, and struggles for their own convictions. Yet still they remain too much bound by general prescription, and there is still much that is monotonous, according to our views, in their judgment and learning, and the cultivation of their minds. But in their prose we find a peculiar and often original style, and almost always a stronger and more active common sense. Three generations struggled for their faith, many individuals perished for their convictions, and thousands were plunged in misery. Martyrdom was no longer a monstrous and unheard-of thing, and men maintained their own judgment on the highest questions. There were few souls strong enough to do this a century earlier; then, among the people, individuals passed their lives without any community of ideas or activity of mind, seeking in the narrow circle of their associates no advantage save that of support against insufferable oppression; that alone was the purport of their struggles. But now enthusiasm had been called forth in the nation, the individual felt himself in close connection with millions, he was carried along the stream by the unanimous impulse of all who were like-minded; he acted and suffered for an idea; this was especially the case with the Protestants; and even Roman Catholics partook of this blessing: so much nobler had men become. But every higher development produces new defects; the child is free from many complaints which attack the youth. Protestantism, which had done so much for the people, did not for a long time achieve its greatest results. It required the unceasing inward workings of the minds of individuals; it gave an impulse everywhere to self-decision, and yet it could not raise itself above the worst principles of the old Church. It wished still to dominate over the faith of its disciples and to persecute as heresy every deviation from its convictions. Luther's giant nature had been able to keep zealous spirits united, but he himself had predicted that after his death they would not remain so. He knew his faithful adherents accurately; their weaknesses, and their eagerness to carry out their own views. Melancthon, who though firm in his theology and in the every-day troubles of life, was embarrassed and uncertain in matters of great import, could not command the fiery spirits of more determined characters. At that Imperial Diet which was held at Augsburg in 1547, the victorious Emperor had endeavoured, in his way, to compose the disputes of the Churches, and had pressed upon the vanquished Protestants a preliminary formula of faith, called the Interim. From the point of view of the Roman Catholics, it was considered as extreme toleration, which was only bearable because it gradually led back to the Old Church; from the point of view of zealous Protestants, it was held to be insupportable tyranny, which ought to be withstood. The ecclesiastical leaders of the opposition rose everywhere against this tyranny; hundreds of preachers were driven from their benefices and went about with their staffs as miserable pilgrims, and many fell victims to the furious reaction. It was the heroic time of the Protestant faith; simple preachers, fathers with wives and children, manfully suffered for their convictions, and were soon followed by thousands of laity. But this enthusiasm was fraught with danger. The Interim was the beginning of vehement theological disputes, even among Luther's followers. The struggle of individuals became also the struggle of the Universities. The successors of Frederick the Wise lost the University of Wittenberg as well as the Electoral dignity; Melancthon and the Wittenbergers were under the influence of Maurice and his brothers; while the most zealous Lutherans were assembled at the new University of Jena. This race of vehement men was followed by another generation of Epigonen. At the end of the century German Protestantism appeared in most of the provinces to be secure from outward dangers. Then the ecclesiastics became too self-sufficient and fond of power--the failings of a privileged order. Influential counsellors of weak princes, and rulers of public opinion, they themselves persecuted other believers with the weapons of the old Church. They sometimes called down the civil power upon heretics; and the populace stormed the houses of the Reformers in Leipzig; at Dresden a courtly ecclesiastic was executed on account of heresy, though perhaps there may also have been political reasons. Thus this new life threw deep shadows over the souls of the people. In Roman Catholic territories also, a vigorous and extraordinary life was roused. The Roman Catholic Church gave birth to a new discipline of the mind, a mode of human culture distinctly opposed to Protestantism. Even in the old Church a greater depth of inward life was attained. A new system of rapturous excitement and self-denial, with high duties and an exalted ideal, was offered to satisfy the needs of the souls of the faithful. In Spain and Italy this new religious zeal was aroused, full of resignation and self-sacrifice, full of great talent, eagerness for combat, and glowing enthusiasm, and rich in manly vigour. But it was not a faith for Germans. It demanded the annihilation of free individuality, a rending from all the ties of the world, fanatical devotion, and an unconditional subjection of the individual to a great community. Each one had to make an offering of his life for a great aim, without criticism or scruple. Whilst Protestantism formed a higher standard, and imposed on each individual, the duty of seeking independently by an effort of his own mind, the key to divine and human knowledge, the new Catholicism grasped his whole being with an iron hand. Protestantism was, notwithstanding all the loyalty of the Reformers, essentially democratic; the new Catholicism concentrated all the powers of men, of which it demanded the most unhesitating submission, in a spiritual tyranny, under the dominion of the head of the Church, and afterwards under that of the State. The great representatives of this new tendency in Church and State were the Jesuits. In the impassioned soul of a Spanish nobleman smouldered the gloomy fire of the new Catholic teaching; amidst ascetic penances, in the restricted intercourse of a small brotherhood, the system was formed. In the year 1540 the Pope confirmed the brotherhood, and shortly after, the first members of the order hastened across the Alps and the Rhine into Germany, and began already to rule in the council of Trent. Their unhesitating determination strengthened the weak, and frightened the wavering. With wonderful rapidity the order established itself in Germany, where the old faith still subsisted along with the new; it acquired favour with the higher classes, and a crowd of adherents amongst the people. Some princes gave up to it the spiritual dominion of their countries, above all the Hapsburgers; and besides them, the German princes of the Church, who could not uphold by their own intrinsic strength, the wavering faith of their subjects: and lastly the Dukes of Bavaria, who for more than a century had been in the habit of seeking advantage for their house in a close union with Rome. When the brotherhood first entered Germany the whole nation was on the point of becoming Protestant; even at the beginning of the Thirty years' war, after losses and successes on both sides, three fourths of Germany were Protestant; but in the year 1650, the whole of the new Imperial state, and the largest third of the rest of Germany, had again become Roman Catholic. So well did these foreign priests serve their Church. The way in which they worked was marvellous; cautiously, step by step, with endless schemes, and firm determination, never wavering, bending to the storm, and indefatigably returning again, never giving up what they had once begun, pursuing the smallest, as well as the greatest plans at any sacrifice, this society presented the only specimen of an unconditional submission of the will, and surrender of everything to one idea, which did not find expression in individuals, but only in the society. The order governed, but no single member of it was free, not even the General of the order. The society gained honour and favour; it understood well how to make itself beloved, or indispensable wherever it came; but it never found a home in Germany. Its fearful principle of mystery and secrecy was felt, not only by the