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

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

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

My brother Johannes had been admitted magister--the first of thirteen--at Wittemberg, and on leaving he brought with him a letter from Dr. Luther to my father, who, in consequence of the Bruser-Leveling lawsuit, had stayed away for many years from the Communion table. The letter was couched as follows: "To the honourable guildmaster, Nicholas Sastrow, my good friend: Grace and peace be with you. Your dear son, magister Johannes, after having expressed to me his sorrow at your having kept away for many years from the Holy Communion table--which absence is calculated to create a bad example--has requested me to rescue you from that dangerous path. Not one hour of our lives in reality belongs to ourselves. His filial solicitude, therefore, induced me to send you these present lines. Let me exhort you as a Christian, as a brother, according to the precept of Christ, to change your resolution, and well to remember the much greater sufferings of the Son of God, who forgave His executioners. Bear in mind that at your last hour you will be bound to forgive, as a brigand who is tied to the gallows forgives. Wait for the decision of the court before whom your suit is pending, but do not forget that nothing prevents you from participating in the Holy Supper. If it were otherwise I myself and our princes would have to remain away from the Holy Board until our differences with the papists be settled. Leave the matter in the hands of the law, and say to yourself for the comfort of your conscience: 'It is the judge's place to decide where lies the right; meanwhile, I forgive those who have wronged me and I will partake of the Holy Communion.' You consider yourself as having been wronged. You have had recourse to the courts; it is they who shall decide. Nothing can be more simple. Take in a friendly spirit this exhortation which was prompted to me at the instance of your son. May God watch over you, Amen. Wednesday after Miser. Dni. 1540. Martinus Luther."

Martin Luther

I trust my descendants will transmit religiously from generation to generation the autograph of the saintly man to whom the whole world owes gratitude and affection. Together with this letter, and as a proof of the wise outlay of the paternal allowance, my brother brought home with him a number of his poemata printed in a volume. My parents' means not admitting of his being maintained in a foreign land, he spent nearly four years at home, studying all the while. Besides the Progymnasmata quaedam, issued from the Lubeck press in 1538, he published in 1542 at Rostock an Elegia de officio principis dedicated to Duke Magnus of Mecklenberg; and in the same year at Lubeck, a Querela de Ecclesia and the Epicidion Martyris Christi Doctoris Ruberti Barns, which caused a good deal of trouble both to him and his printer.^[25]

At the advice of my brother, my parents sent me to study at Rostock with Arnoldus Burenius and Henricus Lingensis. My brother, who became intimately acquainted with the latter, wrote to him that I had already gone through the ceremony of initiation; but the students found out that since then I had gone back to school at Stralsund, and each day my entrance at the lectorium caused a fearful tumult.^[26] The depositor having pulled me by my cloak, I hurled a large inkstand which I happened to have in my hand at him. The ink soaked his long grey mantle with black fastenings, a fashionable garment of the time. Verily, I got my reward, when, for the sake of peace, I submitted a second time to the ordeal. It literally rained blows. The depositor pressed my upper lip with his wooden razor and the wound was a long while healing, for no sooner did it close up than my food, and, above all, salted things inflamed it once more.

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

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

Truly, I had to lay the table, attend at meals, to clear it, and in addition to this to look after young Broecker, who was about my size and who was afterwards confined at Ribbenitz, to dress and undress him, to clean his shoes and to arrange his books. On the other hand, there were certain services to be rendered to magister H. Lingenfis. I had to brush his shoeleather, make his bed, keep his room heated, accompany him to church and to other places, and to carry his lantern in winter. It seemed very hard to me at first not to be served any longer, and not to sit down to meals with my college chums, but there was no help for it.

Besides, we had fallen into good hands. Arnoldus Burenius read us twice Cicero's Offices, which he interpreted in a thoroughly artistic manner, and afterwards the orations pro Milone, pro rege Deiotaro, pro Marco Marcello, pro Roscio Amerino, pro domo sua, and the de Aruspicum responsis, the Epistolae familiares, the long and beautiful chapter ad Quintum fratrem, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, etc. His colleague expounded Terence, the Dialectica Molleri, even the Sphaera Joannis de Sacrobusto, the Theoriae planetarum, the Computum ecclesiasticum Spangenbergii, the libellus de Anima Philippi, and finally he presided over useful exercitia styli et disputationum.

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

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

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

I left Rostock in 1541. My stay at home was, nevertheless, very short. I soon transferred myself and my books to Greifswald, where I rented a room with Joachim Loewenhagen, the pastor that was to be of St. Nicholas' at Stralsund. Master Anthony Walter who shortly afterwards became rector of the Paedagogium of Stettin, instructed me in the Dialectica Caesarii. Master Kismann explained and interpreted Ovid's Fasti.

On Christmas Day, 1541, a vessel hailing from Colberg, and laden with barrels for Falsterbo, anchored at Stralsund. The coopers were in a great state of excitement, declared an embargo, and would not even allow the cargo to be sold at Stralsund.^[27] In vain did the council guarantee proceedings against the purchaser of that merchandise; they went on agitating, refused to buy the barrels themselves, and replied with blows to those who spoke common sense. One burgher died from the consequences of their ill-treatment. They finally destroyed the barrels. Five people were arrested. Johannes Vogt, their dean, fled to Garpenhagen, but he was brought back to Stralsund and placed under lock and key. There was but a narrow escape from the executioner's sword. The coopers were summoned to the Town Hall, where the prisoners made their appearance with the iron collar round their necks and their hands and feet fettered. The corporation was fined four marks per head. Its privileges were withdrawn; it had, moreover, to rebuild at its own expense part of the city walls.

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

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

When the travellers had got beyond the village of Willershagen they left the coach, and, provided with their firearms proceeded on foot, for the country was by no means safe. Instead of prudently escorting the vehicle the two horsemen went on in front. The brigands came up with them and entered into conversation. Suddenly one of them snatched the loaded pistol Lagebusch was carrying at his saddle-bow--the fashion of carrying two had not come in--fired it at Lepper, who was galloping back to the carriage, killing him there and then, while Lagebusch set spurs to his horse in time to warn Sonnenberg, who hid himself in the brushwood. My brother, armed with a pole, and standing with his back against the carriage to prevent an attack from behind, offered a stout and not unsuccessful resistance. He managed to wound in the thigh an assailant who, carried away by his horse, bit the dust further up the road. But another miscreant, charging furiously, sliced away a piece of my brother's skull as big as a crown (the fragment of bone that adhered to the skin was the size of a ducat), and at the same time dealt him a deep gash at the throat. As a matter of course, my brother lost consciousness; nay, was left for dead while the bandits sacked the carriage, caught the horse of their wounded comrade, but seeing that he could not be transported, abandoned him and decamped with their spoil. They, however, did not take the carriage team. In a little while Sonnenberg emerged from his hiding-place, and, with the aid of the driver, hauled my brother into the carriage. The woman bandaged his head and kept it on her knees. Lepper's body was placed between the legs of the wounded young man, and in that condition they reached Ribbenitz, where the surgeon closed the gash in the neck by means of pins.

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

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

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

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

We made for Stettin, then for Berlin and Wittemberg; in fact, "we rode straight on," as people say. At Wittemberg, Johannes ran against Dr. Martin Luther, standing before the bookshop near the cemetery. Dr. Luther shook hands with me. Philip Melanchthon and other learned personages gave us letters of introduction to the procurators and advocates of Spires.

Half-way between Erfurt and Gotha there is a big inn where we halted for half a day to rest our horses and to mend our clothes. We settled our bill before going to bed. Next morning on reaching Gotha my brother found he had lost his purse; he had left it under his pillow. It was a great misfortune, for we were not overburdened with means, and the look of the inn left but little hope of getting our own back again. Immediately after my horse had had its feed, I retraced my steps, galloping all the way. When I reached the hotel I tied up my horse and in the twinkling of an eye ran up to the room with the servant at my heels. We both flung ourselves on the purse. I had the luck of laying hands on it first, but I fancied he was entitled to a tip. If either the girl or the young man had come near the bed after our going we should have never seen our money again.

In spite of the gathering darkness, I was in the saddle again, for it would have been unwise to spend the night alone under such a roof. Half a mile (German) farther there was a nice village, and as night had set in altogether I made up my mind to stop there. The inn was full of peasants. It happened to be Sunday, and these worthy folk, who had noticed my riding by like possessed two hours before, said to each other: "Well, we were mistaken after all. It's His Highness' messenger." Thereupon the host told the servant to look to my horse; nothing would induce him to let me do it myself. He, moreover, insisted on my sitting down to the table immediately; they brought me boiled and roast meats and excellent wine. The peasants in their turn show me all kinds of attentions, and when I mention the settlement of my bill before going to bed, the host declares that he could not hear of such a thing, and moreover swears by all his household gods that he'll not let me go in the morning without a good basin of soup, and that if I were to stay for a week he would not accept a farthing, because he could never do enough for his gracious prince. They put me into a very white and very soft bed, where I slept long and soundly.

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

At Spires we put up at the Arbour, and when our horses were sufficiently rested my brother sold them to the landlord of the Crown. We could not afford, though, to stay at the inn, so we rented a small room with one bed, and with this we had to be content for more than five weeks. At meal times we went to eat three or four rolls under the city walls, after which we drank half a measure of wine at the tavern. The days when BartholomÄi Sastrow led the dance, and feasted at the big wine cellars like KÖnig Arthur and the Rathskeller were over.

Philip Melanchthon had recommended us to his half-brother, Doctor Johannes Hochel, procurator, and to Doctor Jacob Schenck, advocate at the Imperial Chamber. Thanks to the latter, Johannes found bed and board, mensa splendida et delicata at the provost's of the chapter, a great personage occupying the handsomest mansion of Spires, the habitual quarters of the Emperor. This provost entertained daily a number of guests, but he himself lived upon fowl broth and apothecary's stuff prescribed by his doctor. He was fond of listening to the discussions of his guests, some of whom sided with Luther and others with the pope. If, at the end of the debate, he now and again added a few words, it was simply to admit that he had never read "St. Paul," but that, on the other hand, he had read in Terence: "Bonorum extortor, legum contortor." He was practically in the same boat with the Bishop of Wurzburg, who is reported to have said: "I thank heaven that I have never read 'St. Paul,' for I should have become a heretic just like Luther."

On August 10, Dr. Hochel obtained a place for me at Dr. Frederick Reiffstock's, one of the oldest procurators of the Imperial Chamber, a most learned lawyer and excellent practitioner, who was altogether unlike the majority of the procurators at Spires. He had spent several years of his youth at Rome as auditor of the "Rote" (ecclesiastical jurisdiction). He was very conscientious and energetic. At the issue of the sittings, he immediately wrote to the party whose case had been called; then, the moment the minutes and other documents had been copied by his principal clerk, he sealed the whole, and deposited it in a large box on the table of his office. When this or that messenger came to announce his next departure the procurator examined the box to see whether there was anything to dispatch in that direction, and he marked on the outside wrapper the vail to be given according to the condition of the roads or their distance from the main ones. His practice was made up of princes, nobles, and eminent personages. One day he replied to Duke Albrecht of Mecklenburg who had sent him a case, that, unless new facts could be adduced, he advised the withdrawal of the suit. The fees were nevertheless very considerable. The duke handed the case to Dr. Leopold Dick, who allowed himself to be directed to the juramentum calumniae and lost the whole affair.

My master had four sons, all of whom took their doctor's degree. The three elder had returned, one from France, the two others from Leipzig; hence I had three horses to take care of, and three rooms to keep heated. Doctor Reiffstock was determined I should not be idle. One day he placed before me a bundle of documents as thick as my hand but very well written. He told me to copy them, and then to collate them carefully with his second clerk. I was under the impression that it was a most important affair; when it was finished the procurator told me that he simply wished to give me something to do.

On December 14, 1542, an imposing deputation of the Protestant States repudiated as suspect the Imperial Chamber, and declared its decisions and enactments null and void until its complete reformation. The procurators immediately reduced their staff, and Dr. Reiffstock dismissed me, which grieved me very much. As I foresaw, my parents would think me guilty of some grave misconduct, but a letter from Johannes soon undeceived them.

Though a writer's place could easily be had away from Spires, I would not leave my brother or the city before the termination of the lawsuit. We also hoped that the chamber would be reconstituted at the next diet. For all these reasons combined I entered into the service of my father's procurator, Simeon Engelhardt. I might as well have taken service in hell. Dr. Engelhard was an honest man, but he and his family belonged to the Schwenkfeld sect.^[28] He had three daughters and a son between eight and nine whom I had to teach his declensions and conjugations. The matron of the establishment was a virago of the worst description, mean and bitter-spoken, who grudged her husband his food. Often and often did I see her snatch the glass from his lips. People may think she did it for the best, lest he should get drunk. Not in the least; she did that kind of thing at the family table; besides, his worst enemy could not have called him a wine-bibber. The pewter goblet of each child (there were two grown-up daughters) held about the contents of a pigeon's seed-box. The cup was filled once with wine, twice with Mayence beer (an abominable concoction), after which you were at liberty to swill as much water as you pleased. As for the two servants and the two scribes, the pittance was meagre indeed. A piece of meat not as big as an egg, floating in beef tea pellucid to a degree. This was followed by cabbages, turnips, lentils, herbs, oatmeal porridge, dried potatoes, etc., even on fish days. At the end of the meal a goblet (?) of wine. Whoever was thirsty after that--a by no means uncommon state of things--could go and pull the well-rope. Truly, it would be difficult to say how much water I swallowed in that house.

Dr. Simeon Engelhardt had nearly as many lawsuits on hand as Dr. Reiffstock, about four hundred. Each document was copied four times. The first remained with the principal bundle of papers, the second was sent to the client, the third and fourth went to the registry of the court which kept one, wrote the word "Productum" on the other, and dispatched it immediately by the beadle to the procurator of the opposing party. There were two sittings per week, sometimes a third for fiscal cases.

The copying of the protocol and of the acts imposed very hard work upon us. Being only two clerks, there was no time, on court days, for swallowing a piece of bread. On the other hand, the mistress of the house took no notice of anything like that. What her daughters or the servant girls could have done, namely, laying the table, bringing the cold or hot water for washing up, clearing the table and getting rid of the dish-water; all this came to BartholomÄi's share, whether he happened to be head over heels in other work or not, and the master of the house did not dare to utter a syllable. Amidst the biggest stress of business, when we did without our meals, the lady cried across the yard: "BartholomÄi, will you mind troubling yourself to come and throw the dish-water away?" And as if the satire was not obvious enough, she added: "Look at the lazy scamp. He has not attended to the water at all." I was forbidden to go out without asking, even to call upon my brother. Nor was this all. In the morning I saved the servant girls marketing; a basket slung on my arm like Gretchen, I bought the provisions for the household; cabbages, turnips, bread, and what not, and when I came back there was faultfinding without end for not having haggled enough. On washing day, which came round too often to please me, I pumped the water. When the pump was out of order it was I who went down the well to repair the mischief. And I was not a child, but a young man of twenty-three. I was paying for the good times of Stralsund. At each visit my brother was bewailing my fate and preaching patience. "In days to come, when you shall have a wife, children, and servants of your own, you will be able to tell them of your less happy days."

When Mistress Engelhardt was in her "tantrums," she went about for a week without addressing a friendly word to her husband. At such periods her son Solomon would come into the office to tell me that his father was a dissipated brute who had not slept with his mother for a week, etc., etc. The youngest of the girls fell ill and died; her mother put the corpse into a sack in guise of a coffin. An old crone carried it to the cemetery on her back. One can only hope that she dug a grave and placed her burden into it, for no one accompanied the dead child; no one superintended the burial.

Thanks to his capital practice, made up of the nobles and the cities paying him yearly retaining fees, thanks also to the avarice of this virago, Dr. Engelhardt easily put aside two thousand florins per annum. He lent money to the client-cities at interest. For two years running I made payments of two thousand florins each on a simple receipt.

In 1543, on his return from Italy, the emperor hurried on his preparations for a war against the Duke of Juliers. Ulm and Augsburg cast some magnificent pieces of field artillery, with their carriages and wheels; and as it was considered easier to transport the carriages separately, a numberless troop of Swabian carters was engaged. His Imperial Majesty stayed at Spires, the artillery not being ready. Autumn overtook him, and as the roads of the Netherlands were very bad at that season, his Majesty, to his great vexation, had to defer the attack. One day, being on horseback, he hustled a waggoner whose team proceeded too slowly to his taste, and spoke, moreover, very harshly to him. The Swabian, who had no idea of the identity of his interlocutor, merely made a grimace and shrugged his shoulders. A smart rap with a riding crop from the emperor was the result. So far from submitting, however, the stubborn clown promptly belabours his assailant's head with his whip, uttering imprecations all the while: "May the thunder strike and blast you, you scum of a Spaniard," and so forth. Of course the emperor's suite laid hold of him, and he had to pay dearly for his mistake. Not so dearly, though, as he might have done if the colonels entrusted with inquiries and the drawing up of the indictment had not purposely dragged the thing along to let the emperor's anger spend itself. Charles had forgotten all about the affair. He probably thought that his orders had been carried out and that the Swabian culprit was comfortably swinging from this or that gibbet, when the said colonels and captains humbly submitted the reasons for his being pardoned. There was first of all the ignorance of the waggoner, secondly the often excessive roughness of the Spaniards towards these poor Swabians. Furthermore, there was the august leniency of all great potentates and the gratitude of which the army would feel bound to give proof, if it were exercised upon such an occasion as the present. The prince relented to the extent of deciding that the culprit should have his nose cut off in memory of the assault. The colonels and the captains expressed their respectful gratitude, and the condemned man learnt the commutation of his sentence with great joy. They cut off his nose flush with his face. He bore the operation with a good grace, and for the remainder of his life sang the praises of the emperor. For many years he could be seen urging his cattle along the roads between the Rhine and the Danube. I happened to come several times into contact with him at the inns. I asked him before other travellers about the nature of the accident that had cost him his nose, whether he had left it in the French country. "Nay, nay," he replied, and with great glee recounted his adventure, showering blessings on his Imperial Majesty.

While the emperor was warring in Africa, Martin van Rosse^[29] profited by the diversion to work his own will in the Netherlands. He had, for instance, imposed a ransom on Antwerp on the penalty of burning it to the ground. His Majesty, having learnt that he was conducting the expedition as a landsknecht, felt curious to get a glimpse of this personage. Martin van Rosse was warned too late; the emperor was already there. He pulled up his horse before the rebel. The latter, dropping on his knee, begged that the past might be forgotten, and swore to shed his last drop of blood for the emperor, who touched him lightly with his stick on the shoulder, and forgave him everything. "We forgive you, Martin," he said, "but do not begin again."

On February 20, 1544, the Diet was opened at Spires. I have heard it said that the Elector Palatine Lewis always endeavoured to dissuade his Majesty from choosing that town, because his mathematicus had predicted that he should die at Spires. In consequence of this, perhaps, he presented himself in person to the emperor at the very beginning of the session, and at the end of a few days took his leave to return to Heidelberg, where he died on March 16.

In default of a church, the Elector of Saxony had religious service performed in a tavern where he had put up a seat for the ministers. Lutes, fifes, cornets, trumpets and violins, instead of an organ, constituted a most agreeable concert. The elector's horse was a most robust animal, and there was a stepping stone attached to his saddle.

On the eve of Maundy Thursday at sunset twenty-four flagellants of both sexes marched by in their shirts, their faces covered with pieces of stuff into which were cut holes for their eyes and mouth, their backs sufficiently bare for the birch provided with steel-pointed hooks to touch the flesh. It was a hideous spectacle, the hooks tearing pieces of flesh away, and causing the blood to trickle down to the ground. The penitents advanced very slowly, one by one, in two single files, divided as it were by Spanish gentlemen of high degree, each carrying a thick wax candle. The whole street was lighted with them. When they reached the church of the barefooted Carmelites the procession fell on its knees and dragged itself from the porch to the crucifix in the choir in that way. Near the entrance the surgeons dressed the wounds; rumour had it that two corpses were carried away.

The emperor washed the feet of twelve poor men; the King of the Romans did the same. Care had however been taken to ascertain that those people were in good health; nay, their feet had been washed beforehand. The two sovereigns with napkins round their waists merely dried the feet, after which they waited upon the poor at table. "Friends," they cordially said to them, "eat and drink."

Like all gatherings of eminent personages, this diet entailed a rise in the prices of food, but especially of fish. A Rhine salmon cost sixteen crowns; for half of one the purveyor of the Duke of Mecklenburg paid eight crowns.

A Spanish gentleman who had taken up his quarters with an amiable widow who was looking to his comfort, became imbued with the idea that she would not refuse him her favours; so one night he crept into her bed; but the widow having got hold of a knife plunged it into his body and killed him there and then. Of course, she did not know how to get rid of the body; but though certain of her own ruin, she did not stir from her home. Her anguish at the prospect of the consequences had reached its height when the emperor, informed of the real state of the case, sent to reassure her. The Spaniards came to take the body of their countryman, and to perform the last duties to it.

On March 20, 1544, the emperor granted the privilege of a coat of arms to my brother Johannes, and conferred the title of poet laureate^[30] on him, in recognition of a poem dedicated to him. Johannes Stigelius also offered the emperor a scriptum poeticum. His Majesty replied to him through the pen of his vice-chancellor, Seigneur Jean de Naves: "Carmen placet Imperatori; Poeta petat, quid velit habebit; Si voluerit esse nobilis, erit; si poeta laureatus, erit id quoque; sed pecuniam non petat, pecuniam, non habebit." It might serve as a warning to Stralsund not to lavish its money on the first comer who thinks fit to dedicate some poor rhymes to it.

On May 19, 1544, I was made a notary by Imperial diploma. Prelate Otto Truchess, of Waldburg, bestowed upon my brother a gold chain for a carmen gratulatorium on the occasion of his recent installation in the see of Augsburg.

Doctor Christopher Hose, ex-procurator and advocate of Stralsund, who had been struck off on account of his evangelical faith, had built himself a handsome residence at Worms. He came to Spires during the Diet. A veteran practitioner, a straightforward and agreeable man, he was a favourite with his colleagues, and especially with the young ones. He was, however, highly esteemed by everybody, and nobody minded him exposing the astute moves of his adversaries. A learned doctor had invited him and several colleagues, Master Engelhardt among the number. When I got there with my lantern to escort my master home, the evening cup was being poured out, and whether I liked it or not, the host and Dr. Hose, who were acquainted with my family's circumstances, made me sit down at the lower end of the table and offered me cakes, pastry, etc. Thereupon Master Engelhardt got up brusquely and wanted to go. "Seeing that my servant is sitting down, I had better go. At any rate I shall not sit down again unless he remains standing to attend to me," he said. Dr. Hose, however, went on with his little speech to me. "Look you here, Pomeranian," he remarked, "the words 'procurator at the Imperial Court' are simply synonymous with those of hardened rogue, and that is the gist of the matter." (The latter was a favourite interjection of his.) "At your age," he went on, "I was also with a procurator who run up costs very heavily with his clients without doing much for them. Now, just listen to this story. A Franconian gentleman entrusted a most important case to my master, gave him a considerable retaining fee, and promised him another big sum at the end of the year. When the case had been put upon the rolls, the procurator put the documents relating to it into a bag, showing the names of the parties to the suit in large letters; after which he suspended the bag in the usual way with many others in the registry room with which you are familiar. At the end of the year he claimed his fees, announcing at the same time the termination of the suit and his hurrying on of the judgment. The client added to the sum agreed upon a gratification and a present for us, the engrossing and copying clerks. Nevertheless, he fancied the affair was dragging along, and one fine day he came to Spires and rung at our door, and on its being opened my master a once recognized the visitor. You are aware that procurators generally have their own rooms facing the door, in order to see who came in and went out. Thereupon my master runs to the registry chamber, takes down the bag in question, and places it on the table. After which he has the Franconian shown in, receiving him very cordially, imbuing him at the same time with the idea that he never loses sight of his documents. He also tells him that he was constantly demanding the execution of the judgment, but that he will insist still more strongly, and will send an express to his noble client. The latter departed exceedingly satisfied, after having offered a rich gift to the procurator's lady. Well, as a fact, the lawsuit was not even in its first stage.

"Take my word for it," he went on, "the procurators of the Imperial Chamber are past-masters of trickery, and that's the gist of the matter. If you have made up your mind to practise at Spires, Pomeranian, you must provide yourself with three bags: one for the money, one for the documents, and the third for patience. In the course of the suit you will see the purse get flatter, the documents grow bigger, and patience desert altogether; but you will comfort yourself with the thought that the emperor writes to you: 'We, Charles V, by the Grace of God Roman Emperor, Perpetual Aggrandizer of the Germanic Empire, King of Spain, the Two Sicilies, Jerusalem, Hungary, Dalmatia, etc., assure our dear and faithful BartholomÄi Sastrow, of our grace and goodwill.' Think of the pleasure and the honour of receiving that missive, while you are sitting in the inglenook amidst your family. Assuredly it is money well spent." That was the manner of Dr. Hose's discourse.

The diet dissolved. King Ferdinand with his two sons, Maximilian and Ferdinand, reconducted the landgrave. At their return there was a terrible storm, accompanied by hailstones as big as hazel nuts. In Spires itself several hundred florins worth of windows were broken. The cavalry, hussars and royal trabans fled panic-stricken; it was nothing less than a general rout, and the gathering darkness increased the confusion. The runaways only reached Spires after the gates were closed, and lay down in the outer moats in order to save their lives. King Ferdinand appeared on the scene, absolutely alone. He called and knocked, shouted his name, and finally succeeded in finding some one who recognized him, when of course the gates were thrown open, and they sped towards him with many torches. The first question of the king was about his sons; nobody had seen them come up. Thereupon more confusion, shouting, questioning, and contemplated saddling of horses; but just in the nick of time the princes rode up, escorted by a small number of men. The trabans pleaded mortal danger in excuse for their neglect of duty, and their wounds in fact confirmed the plea, for the king, having made them strip, could see how the hailstones had literally riddled their bodies. All declared that their mounts no longer answered the bit.

The reconstitution of the Imperial Chamber was adjourned. I should have regretted returning to the paternal roof before our lawsuit was in a fair way of being settled; on the other hand, life at Master Engelhardt's was intolerable in consequence of his accursed wife, who was a fiend incarnate. Her dreadful character inspired me from that day forward with an aversion for petticoat government, and I am likely to preserve it until I draw my last breath. My father's interest dictated resignation, for my stay at Spires in hurrying up affairs also saved expenses of procedure and of correspondence, the latter of which threatened to be heavy now and again, when a messenger had to be dispatched to Stralsund. I was sufficiently versed in the scribal art and in High-German to find employment elsewhere. I was offered a post at the chancellerie of the Margrave Ernest of Baden and Hochberg, Landgrave of Sansenberg, Overlord of Roetteln and Badenweiler, etc., whose residence was at Pforzheim. It was only six miles (German) distant from Spires, and I accepted.

I and my fellow-scribe had been constantly engaged in engrossing deeds. As a rule these were petitions addressed either to the emperor or to some prince in behalf of the Jews of Swabia or of the Palatinate, who paid largely. Our master left us free in that respect. He knew that we were not inclined to work for nothing. Eager to earn money we even encroached upon our hours of sleep in order to get all the possible benefit of the diet. We had, furthermore, the tips of clients in return for our promise not to neglect their affairs. The receipts were dropped into a solid iron box, secured to the window of the office. Dr. Engelhardt kept the key of it. We estimated the treasure at a hundred crowns, and looked forward with joy to its division. When I was about to leave, the procurator came into the office, opened the box in my presence, and emptied it. We gloated over the admirable collection of florins, crowns, and other specimens of beautiful German and Welch coinage. Master Engelhardt gave me a crown, another to my fellow-clerk, and pocketed the rest. Stupefied and dumbstricken we saw him walk away with the proceeds of our vigils and our labour. No! Dr. Hose did not libel Master Engelhardt.