From The Autobiography of Johannes Butzbach, A Wandering Scholar of the Fifteenth Century, [Hodoporicon] Translated from the German by Robert Francis Seybolt and Paul Monroe; Ann Arbor, Michigan: Edwards Brothers, Inc., 1933; pp. 43-88.
43
Now that I have told you, dear Philipp, the principal events of my period of schooling, which I was obliged to bring to a close before its time, because of that great fool of a scholar, the second part of this little wanderer’s-chronicle, omitting much for the sake of brevity, will be concerned with telling you what happened to me on the farther side of the mountains, among the heretics. As I have said, at the above-mentioned resort, I was secretly carried off from my host by a distinguished Bohemian and taken to the central part of the kingdom, yet not across the mountains. At a small estate called Sigulow, which belonged to him, I was fairly well treated, and in a short time learned the language, and riding. When I understood this sufficiently, one of his friends from Luditz, who was of noble birth but an extreme heretic, expressed the wish that he might have me in his service. My master consented, and I was taken to the town already mentioned. My new master had married a wealthy woman, whom he later came to hate because of her age. He tried at first cajoling words, and then, when I refused, he resorted to force and blows, to make me win for him young girls from the manor house and estate of my former master, and get them to favor his illicit love. But when he had exerted himself a long time in vain to make me agree to this business of procuring, he took away my good clothes, which I had brought with me, and locked them up; I was not to get them back unless I tried to get the girls whom he desired and who came to market every week from the manor. But fully mindful of my father’s warning to be on my 43 guard against such wickedness, I left these vicious people, as well as my clothes, and fled from these perverted heretics, back again to my former master. He received me kindly and kept me with him when I told him the reason for my flight. A short time after that, however, in response to an urgent request, I was given as a present to another man, from whom, because of heavy work, continual hunting and riding here and there, I fled six months later, to return to my first master. One day when I had to ride with him to the town from which I had fled, I hid myself in the inn because I was very much afraid of my second master’s anger. He finally found me, but promised to do nothing to me and to give me back my clothes if I would steal for them the tail of a horse which he showed me in a stall. For a while I refused to do such a thing, but for fear of him, and for the sake of my clothes, I did as he desired, though I had the greatest fear lest the owner or someone else who lived in the house should discover it. My conscience, however, pricked me so severely that I felt great remorse for not having refused to pacify a sinful man with a theft, against my master’s injunctions and in spite of my father’s final warning, and so had become a sinner myself. In all, I lived two years with the man who, after I gave up my studies, had kidnaped me at the baths and made me his squire. Of other misfortunes that befell me during this time, I will now relate to you as much as I can in a few words.
45Occasionally, when he went away he took me with him; often he left me at home. One time, when he stayed away longer than usual and I had remained behind with a man-servant and two maids, the man-servant made me look after the cows so that he could enjoy himself with the maids, behind my back. But the village people, who liked me rather well, determined, as soon as my master returned, to bring to his notice the bad behavior of the man-servant. He paid no heed to such threats, however, and forced me, as before, to watch the cows while he lived in shameful bliss with the maid, who was really supposed to look after the cows; and more than that, to satisfy his gluttony, secretly stole hens and geese from the farmers. At the same time, he decided to take flight as soon as our master returned. This he did on the night of the master’s arrival. At another time, when my master had again gone far away, and I remained at home with the servants, something similar happened. The wicked and faithless man-servant, in fact, broke open his master’s storeroom, took several things and decamped. To make our master think that I, and not he, had committed the theft, he gave me almonds and figs to eat, which he had stolen. Then when I, unsuspecting evil, imprudently ate them as openly as they had been given to me, I received a terribly severe beating from my master, just as if I had stolen the things. He had me stripped and laid on a table, and then beaten with rods until the blood spurted from my skin in many places.
46While with this master, I was, occasionally, in the winter, so chilled by the cold, from riding, that all gave me up thinking that I would die. Also, in that place, because I would not gallop, something I had not learned to do, I was often lashed with a whip and woefully maltreated by my master who rode behind me. Moreover, since I could not ride well, I was thrown off and trampled on by the horses when they reared, and often I was at death’s door. Then, too, while my master was teaching me to swim, he frequently let me fall into deep water, so that I was almost drowned. But after that, he dismissed all his servants and kept only me. When he entered the service of a lord, he delegated me to keep watch over the castle, besides a horse; except that a few peasants were assigned for supervision. For three months after his departure, the sort of life I led there with the peasants, like a lamb that has fallen among wolves, would take too long to relate. At length my master returned and was received and attended by his friends, with loud rejoicings; to one of them, Pan Shefforsyt by name, who persistently asked for me, I was presented as a little gift. With him I now traveled farther into the interior of Bohemia to the castle of his parents, who were very zealous heretics. This castle is in the county of Henry of Dagoff, situated not far from Petersburg toward the town of Rakonitz, and is called Zoscheck. My new master seldom remained at home, but served with two or three horses at the court of the king or some other noble. But his brothers had not such knightly Inclinations. Instead, they constantly devoted themselves to the hunt, at home, or found it more to their liking to share in their father’s business, of agriculture or cattle raising. But 47 when he got me, he immediately began preparation to enter service at the court of a nobleman, with me as his servant. When we started away, his old mother was very unhappy at parting; with troubled heart, she followed us in front of the castle, and as long as she could see us, she sent after us certain superstitious benedictions. The Bohemians, in fact, devote themselves to many kinds of superstitions, and even I sometimes let myself be persuaded to allow them to cure me of sickness by superstitious means.
48At one time I suffered from a sore on my neck, and they took me to a horrible old woman. She put her thumb, with a whitened nail, into my ear while she rested her other hand on my head, murmuring between her teeth certain words of blessing which I could not understand. When this was over, she gave me the following remedy. “If you want to get well,” said she, “you must put into a goblet three whole oak leaves without breaks or caterpillar’s nests; to which add part of a fine-tooth comb, and three ends of flax waste which has clung to the fingers of the spinning girls. After that, when the potion, properly made, has stood a day and a night, you must drink from it with the sure hope of a cure, as long as you feel the pain of the sore.” To this she added that if, after my recovery, I ever experienced a similar affliction, I should just put my thumb into my mouth at once, turn it around three times and repeat certain words which she taught me. I did all this in pitiable faith, and after I had drunk some from the beaker, was actually well again; and as often after that, as I began to feel anything at that place, I stopped it immediately by following her directions. At another time I suffered from a fever, and for a long time, in spite of all possible remedies, could not be entirely cured; the fever always came back after a few days. Then my mistress herself took me at early dawn, just before sunrise, and led me into an open field. Here she climbed with me upon a piece of flint, and after she had uttered by way of introduction many blessings and enchantments against the fever, she finally, with her own hands, cut the bark from a tree and bound it around my naked body. I remained wrapped in it three days and three nights, and then threw the bark, together with my fever, into the fire, and was cured. 49 Moreover, from that time on, I never had any further trouble from these two ailments until, instructed by the father confessor at Deventer, I refused to have anything more to do with such superstitious things. From that time, these illnesses have often befallen me, and they observe, as it were, the anniversary of the time of their departure.
50We now believed ourselves proof against the mishaps of the journey, because of the mother’s blessings, and betook ourselves to the wooded chain of mountains which, from three to four miles in width, entirely surround Bohemia. These mountains surround Bohemia as if it were the kernel of a nut, to an extent of thirty miles square, and are full of robbers. We entered with loaded muskets, and my master said to me: “Keep behind me. If you should discover an ambush of robbers beside the road, give me a sign quickly and whether I flee or stop, always stay with me.” Hardly had we entered the woods than the robbers were following. They could be seen like crouching black men, poking their heads out from hollows and bushes, and calling their fellows against us by whistling. When we discovered this, we fled at a smart gallop for a mile, so that the horses were covered with lather. Then we rode somewhat more slowly to let the animals recover their breath. Behold! there was one of the robbers coming straight at us. At his right side he wore a long, broad sword, at his left was fastened a short, broad one, at his back in a belt, a double axe, and on his shoulders a great helmet. We shot at him until he turned out of the road. But when we heard that, with certain whistles following in rapid succession, he was calling his companions, we set off anew at a speedy gallop, and ceaselessly applied our spurs, which seemed to give the horses new strength.
51Although we were obliged to flee several times, we always escaped safely. We passed the rest of the journey without mishap, and arrived at the capital of the kingdom which they call Praa in their own tongue, that is to say “threshold.” Prague is famous for its royal stronghold, in which St. Wencelas rests. It is divided into three wards, through which the Moldau flows. Each ward is separated from the others by a wall, and is like a city by itself. But the three wards together compose the one Prague. There is a new town and an old town, in fact, which are inhabited by heretics only. The other part of the city, with the castle, is across the river, and is inhabited by Christians. But the king, who also rules Hungary and the Margravate of Mahren, is a zealous Christian.15 This town, according to Bohemian histories, was founded shortly after the time of Abraham, likewise the cities of Trier and Worms, and was even then an honored royal and ecclesiastical seat. In the smaller ward of the city, which is connected with the hill on which the king’s dwelling is located, is the splendid church of St. Vitus. The old part of the city is built entirely on the plain, and is wonderfully adorned with beautiful buildings, among which the court house, the market, the large town hall, and the college, all founded by Charles IV, are the most conspicuous. The two sides of the city are connected by a stone bridge which rests on twenty-four arches.16 The two parts of the larger side are separated by a moat, protected by a stone wall on each side; the outer extends far and wide to the hill; and the famous memorial churches of St. Catherine and Charles the Great may be seen there. Located there also is a conspicuous castle-like edifice, the seat of a famous college.
FOOTNOTES
15 Ladislas II, King of Bohemia and of Hungary, 1490-1516.
16 As a matter of fact, the bridge has sixteen arches.
52In earlier times this city with its realm enjoyed a good reputation for its piety as well as for its strength and majesty. We read, in fact, that no country in Europe was endowed with so many and such beautiful churches as Bohemia. There were its temples, towering toward heaven, and altars adorned with gold and silver, with the relics of saints upon them. There were sacred vestments trimmed with pearls, rich ornaments and utensils. Light enters through high broad windows adorned with wonderful colored-glass paintings. This splendor is to be admired not only in the city, but also in the villages. In that very place, on the bank of the Moldau, near Prague, stood the monastery of the royal court, wherein the kings were wont to be buried. It was of great splendor, and besides a church of masterful architecture, a splendid dormitory and accommodations for the brothers built in magnificent style, were found there, also a great cloistered walk which surrounded a broad garden. On the walls of the monastery, the Old and New Testaments, from the beginning of Genesis to the Apocalypse of John, were written in large, legible characters. But in what language it was written, whether Latin or Bohemian, I am not certain. Although among them there is sufficient knowledge of Latin, they make greater use of the native language in their writings on account of the instruction of the people. They also have the stories of the saints and the scriptures in their mother tongue, so that they can be understood by all. With regard to this language, they claim that it is one of the seventy-two which sprang up in the confusion of the tower of Babel. They say that he who came from there into this land was called “Böhme”, and when he settled here the 53 land was called “Böhmen”, after him. He also brought to the people there his language, which consequently was the first of all Slavic tongues. In fact, the Slavs themselves, for example the Wends, Poles, Lithuanians, and several others, trace the origin of their languages from the Bohemian. As, at this time also, these individual idioms differ very little from each other, except that in speech one enunciates the syllables more drawlingly, the others more tonelessly and quickly, so we can distinguish in a similar way between High German and Low German.
4To give you a notion of the Bohemian jargon, I have thought it pertinent, following the Lord’s Prayer, which they have taken with the English salutation of the Gospel, to add the Apostles’ Creed. I have used our letters, of course, but they have a very different sound from that which they possess in our usage. When you read the following you will probably restrain yourself from laughing over it for the sake of the reverence which we owe to the truth of the Gospel, no matter what the language in which we see it. When they pray, they stretch out their open hands toward heaven and pray without any stated number, that is, without rosary, or, as we say, without the Paternoster. I do not remember having seen one among them, either of coral or precious stones, or of any other material. When devotion inspires them, they speak in this manner:
Vuotze naz gen zi na nebessich wo zwitze me no twy brzyt gralosty twy wut wula twa iaku phnebi dakus fze mii klyb naz weseleitzy deyz nam tues wot puzt nam naze wynne ia kost ymi wot puztymi nazy wyndikiny ne ot wet naz opokuzze ny a swaff naz sleye amen. Then comes the Ave Maria.
Strawas zy maria myloz yss buelna; Pan wo ztebo; Ty sy bozzenana mesy sze namy bossenanei blott brzycha Twyo zwateyo Jesu Christa amen.
The last words, which the church that they do not wish to acknowledge, has added, they do not use, as they do not appear in the Gospel.
Then follows the Creed compiled by the Apostles, whence it is called “apostolic.”
Werzym woha wze mohutzy sworzy tele newe y wzeme y wyesu crista syna ye ho yedeneho pana nazeo gentzy gest potzal duch em swatem narodgylze marya pany turpiel pod pontzkym pilatem wkzi zowan 5 vinrzeil y poz rewen stoupil dopekel kzezy den wstal zumert weich stoupil na nebessa seed geitz na prawizy o pana wozze wzemontzio wot dot przide sutgit szynech y zumertweigh. Werzym ducha swateo kyrtew wowet znuo wzech Swateych wopzo waainy wutt puzsteni herzichum zciella zkrzizengy y zywot wiezney pos mrthy. Amen.
That, yes that, is the barbarous speech of the super-barbarous Bohemians, in which we may suppose the whole Bible was written on the walls of the cloister in the above-mentioned monastery. One must certainly be amazed at this. In it, the old devotion and purity of belief which used to flourish among these people, shows itself.
56Formerly this region, because of the purity of its Christian faith, was called a fragrant flower which scattered the sweetest perfume among all Christian nations. But fate willed that it should now exhale the most pestilential odor in the region. Oh, that it might become again the ornament it once was! There is still another noted monastery of our order in Bohemia. Once a convert brother of this order, a good simple man, was watching the cows in the woods. There he found a piece of silver ore, picked it up, hung his scapular on a high tree as a landmark, and took the silver home to his Abbot. The latter hurried to the place with his monks, found silver ore in the ground, and had untold treasure taken out. When the king heard of it, he sent people there, who, made wealthy in a short time, by the treasure, built a city on the spot to which they gave the name “Kucinahorach”, in German “Kuttenberg”, because the place had been found on one of the over-hanging ridges on the mountain. In his description of Europe, Aeneas Sylvius writes briefly as follows, concerning this country, but which he has enlarged upon in his work treating the position, condition, race, and customs of the region, as he observed them, and in one of his dialogues on his Bohemian diplomatic journey, and his discussion of other matters there. “Bohemia,” he says, “is surrounded by Germany, and located well toward the North; to the East it borders on Moravia and Silesia; to the North on Saxony and Meissen; to the West on the territory of Nürnberg; to the South on Austria and Bavaria; thus it is entirely surrounded by German races. Its length and breadth are nearly equal, about a three days’ journey. The Hercynian Forest encloses the entire country. The best known river is the Elbe which flows through and waters the center of the country, and receives other fairly important rivers like the Moldau, which 57 almost cuts Prague in two; the Elbe, with its swift waters, finally breaks through between narrow valleys, rugged cliffs, and the wild mountains of the Harz forests, flows through the Province of Meissen, rushes past Hamburg, a city of Saxony, and into the sea. Noteworthy cities of the kingdom are Prague, the celebrated residence of the Bohemian kings; Kaaden, Brüx, Schlackenwerth, which has famous copper and silver mines. It is a very cold region, but has many cattle, wild animals, and fish. The arable land is very good and richly productive of fruit and barley. In our times, much of importance has taken place there. Many battles have been fought, much blood has flowed, cities have been razed to the ground, and religion scorned and trodden under foot. The heresy of the Hussites arose; the errors of the Adamites flourished; the armies of the Taborites and the Orphans took the field; and two war lords Ziska and Procop devastated the country at will; John and Jerome, who had misled the people, were finally burned to death at the great church Council at Constance. Jacobellius, Conrad Rokazana, and Peter of England, these corrupters of the Gospel, were accepted as teachers of the truth. Four kings were unable to exterminate the deadly poison, namely Wencelas, Sigismund, Albrecht, and Ladislas, of whom the last is believed to have been poisoned by them.” With this account, brother Bartholomew of England in his fifteenth volume on the Nature of Things, agrees in all points, as does Jacob of Bergamo, and all other historians and chroniclers.
58The people of Bohemia are of a rough stamp, and like to eat a great deal of strongly seasoned food. It is a saying that a hog in Bohemia eats more saffron in one year than a man in Germany does in his whole life. The common people seldom have less than four dishes at their noon and evening meals; in addition, in summer, for breakfast, dumplings, butter-baked eggs, and cheese; besides the noon meal, they eat, as a vesper meal in the afternoons, as well as at the evening meal, cheese, bread, and milk. They dress in simple, rough cloth; instead of shoes and boots, they generally wind their feet and ankles with animal skins which they fasten back of the knee with a band of straw. They seldom wear boots. In winter, they are accustomed to wear skins as coats, and a garment with a large hood, falling wide from the shoulders to the girdle. The country is notoriously cold. They have dwellings built of fir logs, with stone ovens as broad as bake-ovens, in which they cook their food. When this oven is heated in the morning, they all go out on account of the smoke which fills the entire house even to the garret, and only after the wood has burned up and the smoke let out through doors, and windows, can they spend the day inside. For illumination all the country people use a sort of fir, the wood of which is cut into shavings, and in the evening is lighted and stuck up in the middle of the room as a hanging light. They devote a great deal of attention to the care of their hair; I have often seen men whose carefully cultivated hair reached to the waist, and women on whom it hung to the calves or ankles. They go to great expense in the purchase of shirts, neck-ties, and stomachers which they make out of a fabric woven of silk and gold.
59In the forty days of fasting, as well as on Fridays throughout the year, they deny themselves dairy foods. With us, it has become a saying that “A Bohemian would sooner steal a horse from its stall than eat an egg on Friday.” At work time they use simple drinks, especially the poor, although a number of beers may be found there which are brewed only in the cities. Near the larger cities, wine is made, however, and sold at a rather high price; better wine is imported in great quantities from Hungary and other bordering countries. As we see, they have an abundance of all the necessities of life in their own country, with the exception of salt, which they get in exchange for their own products. The Jews, who live mostly in the cities, are as despised and scorned among them as they are among us. All sorts of sects and all possible kinds of heretics are to be found among them, especially in the town which they call “Berg Tabor”, as Sylvius also attests. The rich are fat like Epicureans, so that they are obliged to carry their protruding abdomens in bands which are fastened at the neck. The men are strongly built, robust, and muscular. The women are also fleshy and well built; they go about decked out in clothes that reach up to the chin. The sleeves are broad and reach only to the elbows, while the shirred shirt sleeves, trimmed like the men’s with silks, reach to the hands.
60Just as toward the interior of Bohemia the country is very fertile, so the people seem to be more inclined to sensuality, and readily give themselves up to the satisfaction of their carnal appetites, when thy have spent a happy hour with food and drink. This is especially noticeable among the country people or peasants, when they come to town and have bought a little of the better beer, which they call “old beer”, and some white bread, which we call “Blatz.” When they come to market, as soon as their business is attended to, they repair to the taverns. Then the peasants sit there, both hands filled with thick chunks of Blatz, and when they begin to get satiated, and, after a few mugs of beer with which they wash down the much enjoyed white bread, they become lively and begin to hum lightly to themselves. After that, if they catch sight of a woman to whom they can sing a song, they let forth the most remarkable and impudent noises, just like a stallion neighing at a mare. Not only do the drunken farmers behave thus, but also people of higher rank, nobles and knights. It happened once that my master wanted to leave the service of a Count, when his time was about up, and offered him his limping horse to be kept as a guaranty. The Count refused, and answered angrily: “How does it concern me that you have ridden your horse almost to death, with your mad running and jumping before women and girls? You did not do it at my command nor to my advantage, but rather from a foolish desire to please women, without my orders thereto.” This was perfectly true. When we rode out with the Count, and perchance passed a castle or stronghold or some other house in which girls or women were supposed to be, as long as the place was in sight, we used to venture like mad at the fastest gallop and with the most dangerous 61 leaps across the fields, while with a great racket, we waved our arms and legs over our heads and cried: ‘Ju Ju heya hoya hossa hossa! O nula peck na grasna pana, etc.” It is also customary among the court people there to make such an uproar before those whom they love. But the girls laugh at their folly, and excite them to more of it; often when only two or three are present, they hand white cushions in the windows to make one believe that there are more who like to hear it. Oh, the folly of men, and the falseness and deceit of women! Whom have the women not worsted and deceived!
62I knew there a Count who, although it was said that he was a believe in the pure Christian faith nevertheless out of love for a young noble woman, who was also beloved by another Bohemian nobleman, not so great in power and rank as he, however, let himself be so overcome by hatred and jealousy that, forgetting his honor and dignity, for that girl’s sake, challenged the other to a duel. When, in the combat, both of their horses had fallen, they continued fighting on foot, and attached each other with their swords. The Count was defeated by his opponent, although the latter was much smaller in stature. One might say of him that “Marvelous strength dwells in tiny bodies.”
In the end, since the Count would not surrender, he was killed. That is the end of love affairs. Oh woe and woe again, when a man permits himself to be led by women in the bonds of love! Such a one is a fool, or will soon become one, if love pleases him in this manner. For, if a man loves, he is destitute of reason; his conduct is without law and order, and love prepares bitter pain for him. But you must not think that such follies belong exclusively to the courtly and noble classes. As a true servant of the nobility, I should protect and praise them rather than censure and blame, inasmuch as I have eaten their bread for five years. These follies are more conspicuous among the townspeople and peasants. Their shrieking and bawling of songs and melodies under their loved ones’ windows may be heard in the towns as well as at the castles and in the country, especially at night and in the winter. There are, however, certain uses of the voice so horrible to listen to that if anyone raised such an outcry in our parts, it would bring the people together in arms. But there, it surprises no one at all because 63 it is the common custom of the young people. Further, the peasants are great eaters, and when they come to town, they talk big, and stuff themselves so full that one would think they were making sausages. You ought to see a meal; it is laughable, how, on the street, they cram white bread between their teeth, and eat and talk through the midst of it in a remarkable manner, while the crumbs fly out of their mouths as they talk. In drinking, to do them justice, they are more reasonable and moderate, even, than one finds in seacoast regions, where (as they say of them in Holland) three or four women are accustomed occasionally to drain a whole keg of beer mixed with butter, in a day or a half day. With such measure, I could certainly entertain ten Bohemians for a week. Drunkenness and tippling are horrible things in women.
64Among the Bohemians it is not the custom to drink healths as it is with our people. Each one drinks as much as he likes, and one is not urged by the others. They have there a very strong and powerful beer which is called “old beer”, and it so heavy that one can almost stick things together with it. While I was there, a cellar was restored, which thirty years earlier had been demolished. They found therein two kinds of beer, without casks, lying in their very thick skins; and when they bored through this, as through wood, they drew out a beer so excellent that no once could claim to have drunk any so rare. I have collected more of such things, in my observations of the Bohemians, than of godly and spiritual matters, for I spent most of my life there among the villagers and castle people, in the woods and country, where religious observance was not held. But once a year, on Maundy Thursday, I saw a priest, whom they had brought there for this purpose, in a room of the castle, at a table, reading the mass and consecrating and administering the sacrament in both forms to those who wished it, and had prepared themselves by confession. I smiled to myself over it, and as I held such proceedings to be heretical, and would not be forced to participate, I scorned it, because I greatly feared that if I ever left there I should not be absolved by our own priests. That was the reason why I remained without confession or communion during the five years of my stay among them, and why I also frequently declined when they invited me to their sacrament. I reassured myself particularly from the example of those who had neither confessed nor partaken of communion for fifteen or twenty years. For there were many among them who considered themselves the best of Christians, while 65 they despised our customs, or were greatly scandalized by them, and scorned us as poor Christians. They kept Sunday according to God’s command, and other than that kept a few saints’ days. Only rarely did I see them praying for the dead. I saw little children and fools taking communion. I never saw any consecrated water or salt. They have ever possible superstition which can be thought of or discovered anywhere. Concerning their religious practices, I can tell you nothing, for I do not know anything definite, except that I have heard a part of the mass, namely the Epistle, the Gospel, and the Creed, and some other parts which the common people have to know, sung in their language. But in these pieces, as Hartmann Schedel briefly points out in his chronicle, a part of which we shall quote, they depart from the pure Christian belief. Whether it always will be so, or always had been, as it was when I stayed there, I do not know for certain, for from aversion I did not pry into the matter; and they kept a watchful eye over me so that I could not discover their various doctrines. They are said to have taken all the articles of their heresy from the evangelical commentary of a certain Englishman, John Wyclif, to which others like John Huss and Jerome of Prague, and John Rockenzan, have added. Then, too, a certain Peter Trecensis and the Premonstratensian monk John have introduced several new errors, and have imparted them to that credulous people to its damnation. Of these, John and Jerome were burned to death at the Council of Constance, but they held fast to their opinions with such stubborn firmness that, as Poggio, who was an eyewitness, writes, one cannot conceive of a philosophy by which one would willingly go to one’s death. Jerome was a man of wonderful eloquence, on whose account the Bohemians annually honor both as saints. The doctrines of their pernicious heresy are said to be as follows. The Roman bishop is like the rest of the bishops. Nowhere is there a purgatory. It is useless to 66 pray for the dead, and it is a contrivance of priestly greed. Pictures of God and the saints should be destroyed. The orders of mendicant friars were founded by evil spirits. Priests must be poor, and be satisfied with alms only. Auricular confession is humbug; it is sufficient for each to confess his sins to God in private. Consecrated cemeteries are a useless custom. At each convenient place, a priest may change the holy body of Christ. The canonical hourly prayer is a useless waste of time. The fasts instituted by the church served no purpose at all. There were many other errors that were introduced by them.
67Information concerning these errors would have penetrated long ago to our part of the country, even if it had not happened that the pastor of Oberwesel, professor of sacred theology, tainted by their errors through one of the Bohemians returning home from Aachen, who he had taken into his own home, had interspersed them in his books of which he had published several. He also evolved a number of doctrines that were in opposition to the faith and the Roman church, of which one runs as follows: “St. Peter instituted fasts because he was a fisherman, so that he could sell his fish more quickly and at a higher price.” In Bohemia there is a town called Taborberg, in which are gathered all kinds of heretics, concerning whom Aeneas Sylvius writes more fully in his Dialogues, and of whom he relates the following errors.
They did not wish to recognize the pope as their head; indeed, neither the primacy nor the church. The clergy should have no landed property. They did not believe in purgatory. They despised all pictures. Supplications to the chief saints were of no use to the dying. They recognize no fast days, except Sunday and Easter. They give the Eucharist in the form of bread and wine to little children and fools. When they make an offering, they say only the Lord’s Prayer and the words of transubstantiation. In this connection, they neither change their attire nor put on any kind of ornaments. Some even maintained that, in the sacraments of the altar, there was not the true body of Christ, but only a representation of it. Of the sacraments of the church, they accepted baptism, the eucharist, marriage, and priestly ordination; they did not believe much in penance, and not at all in confirmation and extreme unction. 68 They are avowed enemies of monastic orders, and declare them to be the invention of the devil. For baptism, they take ordinary water. They bless neither water nor salt. They do not have consecrated cemeteries. They bury their dead in the fields, and as they deserve no better, with the beasts. They scorn the consecration of churches, and administer the sacraments in any convenient place. Nothing is of such great importance to them as the sermon. If anyone is neglectful or dilatory, or if while the sermon is being preached, he goes to work or play, he receives a blow from a rod and is forced to go in and hear God’s word. They have a wooden house which they call a “Temple”, but which looks like a barn; the priests preach and interpret the law there every day. They have only one altar therein, and it is not consecrated and will not be. The priests do not wear the tonsure, nor do they cut their beards. So says Aeneas Sylvius.
69They are very wealthy in worldly goods. What hope they have in heaven is very doubtful. God grant that they may turn back from their errors to a better insight. I am inclined to say so much in brief about the conditions and customs of the country, on the occasion of my sojourn in the capital city, in order that you may by no chance believe that I did not have my eyes open there in the central part of the country. The remarks already made, however, concern the rural rather than the urban inhabitants. Of course, the customs of the better citizens and city people differ a little from those of the country people; it may be on account of their greater wealth or the fuller and longer garments which they wear, or the matter of their hair, upon which they bestow great care and which they either draw together on the crown of their head with linen or many-colored silk bands, or allow to hang down in curls. They also wear their hair parted in long slender plaits under their Hussite gowns, which are covered with fox skins; or one may identify them by the high cap of fox fur which the male heretics wear to church, as well as by the long fur cloaks which their women wear to church. In the above may be seen how good is everywhere close to evil, and how, likewise, poor are mixed with wealthy. In general, the wealthy people are considered stingy and proud, in conformity with Juvenal’s saying “You feel the love of gold steadily growing with increasing possession; not so does he crave it, who has it not.” I saw a miller there, who from a poverty-stricken young stranger became such a wealthy man that, In addition to his mill business, he had his land cultivated daily by fifteen four-horse plows, with two servants to each one. At the same time, he possessed so much ready money and grain of different kinds, that he yielded to 70 none of the great lords in wealth. Although he was known to be so rich, he went about in a shabby, mended smock; and, in addition to other work, attended to carrying the meal to the towns and villages. When the king and his retinue came to the neighboring town of Rakonitz, he had to supply them with bread during their entire stay there.
71I heard of a similar wealthy but generous man who also had come from Germany to the town of Chocen as a poor young man. He had entered the service of a widow whom he married after he grew up, and through whom he suddenly succeeded to unheard of wealth, and won for himself the name “Pan Hanse”, i.e., Squire Hans. They name your German fellow townsmen not with Bohemian but with German names, only slightly changed, so that they will not be taken for native Bohemians. The native calls anyone who differs from him in manners, or dress, position or power, by the title “Squire.” For that reason, they were accustomed to call me, unknown though I was, “Pan Hansel”, that is, “little Squire Hans”, with a diminutive which did not displease me. In fact, I thought and said to myself: “Is it not better to serve the Bohemians by whom you are called “Herr”, or “Panitz”, that is, Squire, rather than to sit behind a book and be reviled by the pupils as a “shooter”, and considered good for nothing? I often thought thus when things went well. But when I was flogged by my master or received a kick, I certainly lost pleasure in being called Squire. However, the servants belonging to the lord, who always accompanied him, or stood around him day and night and waited on him, were treated fairly well. They have better times than the serfs. No one will call it a good time when he has to serve a master with fear and trembling and never has a moment to himself for that recreation which he desires so much as a young man, when he has to bend his knee tremblingly at almost every word his master speaks, and sometimes has to bear the latter’s choler with calmness, and must submit to difficult or degrading orders, and sometimes 71 even to blows. These and many other hardships I had to endure from the aristocracy of whom I spoke earlier, as well as from that lord with whom I remained almost three years, and with whom I came to Prague, mention of which led me to this digression.
73Meanwhile we proceeded on our way from Prague to the castle of the lord, into whose service my master intended to enter. The castle was called Chlum and was situated near Moravia, not far from the Hercynian range of wooded hills, which, as already mentioned, entirely surround Bohemia.17 Three days later we arrived there and were heartily received. While we remained there, we sometimes rode with the lord of the castle to Moravia, where he had a son; sometimes to Prague, and sometimes to other places. He was a corpulent man, very wealthy and powerful, and somewhat proud on that account. His wife was the daughter of a Christian Count, but he kept her, I know not on what suspicions, as if she were a prisoner, and avoided any association with her, while he lived with the wife of a poor nobleman instead. The latter was respected by all the servants as the mother and lady of the house, and managed the household. But I abhorred her as the prostitute that she was, and accorded her no respectful recognition. Therefore, I often incurred her ill will and that of her lord, and as a result of their complaints, was often punished with blows from my own master for very slight cause. She intentionally prepared all sorts of traps for me, in order to get me out of the house. It caused her great annoyance that she should be recognized as lady of the castle by all the others, and should be disregarded and abhorred as a concubine, only by myself, the German Christian boy. She saw well enough that I could not be brought to respect her, that she was, moreover, despised by me on account of the rightful mistress to whom she was preferred by the lord. 74 Once it happened that, through a spy whom she had set to watch me, she learned that I took broken meat from the table, and distributed it among the children of our wash woman who lived in the lower part of the castle. Immediately she brought the matter, with her complaint, to the attention of the lord, and had me driven from the house. But my master thought ill of it that I should be driven out for so slight a cause, and made little secret of his displeasure; and soon afterwards returned to those of his people to whom he had sent me before. When he again thought of going to another court of the same kind, I wanted no more of it, and begged for permission to return home after seven years of misery. Earnestly and tearfully, I implored him to grant this, but it only made him extremely angry with me, so much so that because I did not cease, he beat me half dead. After that he went on with another servant, while he sent back orders to his parents and brothers to lock up my good clothes and to keep careful watch over me; if, perchance, I should take flight, they were to follow me, and wherever they found me, were to tie me to the nearest tree.
FOOTNOTES
17 Chlum, or Kulm, in the district of Leitmaritz, near the Erzgebirge.
75What could I, poor fellow, do in my extreme anxiety? Whither could I turn? I did not know. My mind was in confusion, a tormenting disquiet beat at my heart; it was nothing other than the desire to go home to my mother. I had heard of the morality caused by the great plague in Germany, and on all sides the rumor spread that the horrible pestilence was coming closer and closer to Bohemia. I was afraid, therefore, of dying there, where I had to fear the damnation of my soul. But how to escape? Day and night I dubiously thought out plans for flight. While I was so anxiously thinking now of this, now of that, I took counsel with an old woman. She had pity on me and said: “If you will follow my advice, I will soon bring things about so that you will succeed in getting home.” But when I learned from her the ways and means, as well as the fact that I should reach my destination in the shortest possible time, only a night and a day would be needed, I cried: “Away with you into the fire that you deserve!” She was, in fact, a very wicked witch, skilled in devilish arts. There were many of her kind at that time, and she intended, as she told me, by means of her magic, to send me home over woods, valleys, and mountains on a black cow, if I were willing. There was little wanting to make me consent. Only the fear of injury from the devil held me back. I saw this same old woman under both shapes, which she had never assumed before. She came here from a town in Germany, from which she was probably driven because of her magic. There are many there, who have fled from our part of the country, as if to a place of refuge. One seldom finds a town in which there are not outlaws from other regions; and if they are found out and expelled from one, they 76 seek another. In addition to those mentioned above, that kingdom has many other rather important towns. Besides Prague, whose name we may translate with the word “threshold”, and which, as I have said, is the capital of the kingdom, the residence of the King and Bishop, and where, besides the four monasteries of the mendicant friars, which were totally destroyed thirty years ago, may be seen the houses of several other orders, the following towns were to be noted, namely: “Czaslau, Deutschbrod, Kaurzim, Kuttenberg, Pilsen, Rakonitz, Luditz, Berg Tabor, the refuge of many heretics, Sotz, Leitmaritz, Budweis, Dachsen, Kaaden, Brüx, Kraupen, Kralowitz, Teplitz, where there are a famous abbey and hot springs, Schlan, and Laun. The right reverend Suffragan Bishop of Mainz brought back the last two towns from the disorder of heresy to the fellowship of the church, as he himself assured me long ago in Rheingau, when he came there to attend the consecration of the new Abbot.18 He asked me whether they still remained firm in the faith after he, as he undoubtedly believed, had freed them from the evils of heresy by his preaching.
FOOTNOTES
18 Erhard von Redwitz, Suffragan Bishop of Mainz, 1493-1502.
77As Easter drew near, I asked my master for my clothes which, as I said before, they had taken from me. I desired them not so much because of the feast day as on account of the guests who might perchance come. They were quite ready to give them back to me. I kept them on now every day, while in my heart I meditated flight, and carefully sought a favorable opportunity. Several times I had warily made all preparations for flight, but when the time came, such a great fear seized me that I was not bold enough to take a step. But one day I had to go, as a servant with the old master, to market in the next town; I wore only a shirt and coat, because, already despairing of the chance to escape, I had thought of nothing on leaving. While the master sat with the others at his wine, I was left to shift for myself, and went out of the inn and across the market to buy a half florin’s worth of silk, of which our mistress wished to make a register for the Bible, one of which she recently had had printed in her own language. When I had purchased the silk, I strolled, without thinking, to the gate with a German pilgrim from whom I hoped to hear something of Germany. When our conversation came to an end, and I realized where I was, I perceived what I had done in going away, and broke down in tears and was afraid to return. Perhaps someone had seen me going out, and perhaps my master was already looking for me, in which case I was lost; I would be closely watched at home because of my attempt at flight, and severely punished. At my wit’s end and in deep despair, I asked the mendicant for advice, that he should tell me, for God’s sake, what he thought wise under the circumstances. The man had gathered from our previous talk how unhappy I was at having given up my studies, and that I would gladly have become a member of an order if 78 I had been able to learn enough. Evidently with right, encouraged me to seize the opportunity for flight. “My son,” he said, “since you are now away, and if by returning to town you must, in the future, always fear the suspicion of your people, I advise you to lay aside fear, put your trust in God, take this favorable opportunity of escaping, and set forth on your way with all speed. I hope you will come through successfully. I shall follow you slowly, and if perchance pursuers ask me whether I have seen such and such a one, I shall tell them that they are tiring themselves out uselessly; I will advise them rather to give up the pursuit in this direction and turn elsewhere.” This advice gave me new courage. I took leave of the man, and thanked him many times for his genuine comfort. Now, however, I prepared myself for faster running and, as they say, shouldered my bones in order to put three miles behind me by evening. As I ran, I frequently looked back, fearing that a pursuer might seize me; but I could make out neither the pilgrim nor anyone else. While I was following the road in such great haste, I came upon some travelers who, when they learned the cause of my hurry, invited me to go to their town with them. I readily consented, for I saw that they were really sorry for me, and showed a willingness to take care of me. That evening I was treated by them as a guest, and the man of the house, although he was a heretic, devoutly washed my feet and kindly bade me refresh myself. The town was called Sotz, and the citizen was a very wealthy tanner, who on the same day had purchased many hides at the fair already mentioned, and had seen me going about the market with my master. Through this tanner I sent the silk back to my mistress, and through him also, I later learned how greatly she lamented my flight, chiefly on account of my honesty, which I had proved by returning the silk.
79When morning came, my host at my request, procured a place for me with a weaver, where I thought I should learn something of my father’s trade, so that I might appear again at home more freely and boldly. But when I had been there several days, and day after day came face to face with a number of the nobles who knew me as a former servant of that lord, I grew anxious lest they should betray me to him. I therefore betook myself to another town, called Schlan, three miles away. But as I could find no weaver there who would take me as an apprentice, I bound myself to a journeyman tanner, who was going to another town called Leitmaritz; but here also our hopes were disappointed, so we turned to a third town called Kralowitz. Here he found work with a master of his trade, and found service for me with a dealer in meat, or as they usually say, a butcher. Although I had always had a great dislike for that business, I took the place through extreme need. However, the slaughtering went so against the grain that I had to struggle to learn it. Consequently when I found a traveling companion who also wanted to leave there, I was very happy and asked him to let me journey with him; but when I started to leave with him, the butcher held me back and demanded his expenses. When my companion saw this, he took pity on me — he was also a German, a pedlar who sold his wares from place to place — and went out to the field, and brought back a lamb which according to his statement he found there. He gave this to the butcher in order to get my freedom, and the latter let me go at once. My companion was a citizen of Brüx. Brüx is a little town situated on the German border, and heretics as well as Catholics live there. When I got there, I found a German who, on account of the 80 Bohemian language, which he did not understand, took me with him in order that he might use me as an interpreter when he visited the Bohemian fair. He dealt in sugar, which he was able to refine in various ways. I remained with him only three weeks, however, for I found men who were going to the hot springs where I had been kidnaped by the nobles and taken to Bohemia. Rejoicing greatly at this, I begged the tradesman for permission to leave him, likewise for a pair of shoes to last until I got home. When I received these as desired, I gladly bade farewell to Bohemia; and because of the experiences described and others that occurred there, I regret immeasurably that I had ever seen or known Bohemia. Yes, like Israel without doubt led by an angel, I withdrew as in a dance of victory out of the Egypt of the heretics and away from a barbarous people, after a sojourn of five years. At the very same time of the year at which I had left, I turned into the little town again, and put up with my hostess, whose husband had died in the meantime. She received me with pleasure, recommended me to a Nürnberg tradesman who, with his wife and family, after a completed water cure, was about to return home with his driver, whom he had given orders to let me sit with him. Thus I fared well as far as Nürnberg, and expressed my thanks to them for their kindness in taking me with them. There I found draymen from our own town, and turned back to my home land with them about the feast of John the Baptist, not as a Latin scholar, as our people had hoped, not as a doctor, as I had once predicted in childish arrogance, no longer even as a German, as when I departed; but as a Bohemian, a barbarian, yes, a very heathen in costume and habits, and in conformity with my long hair, which I had cultivated there with great care, according to the custom of the country and which fell about me on all sides, over my shoulders and back, to my belt. Thus disfigured, as they later assured me, and as a stranger, I at last returned home through God’s grace, safe and sound, after an absence of six years, and all looked at me with reserve because of the great change which was certainly not according to the law of the Almighty.
81My return to our native town, from the little Bohemian watering place, where one may see hot water, nay rather, water seething as if from hell itself, springing from the depths of the earth in the most vigorous geyser, did not go off so simply and smoothly as I have just indicated.19 On the contrary, it was combined with various incidents, delays, and accidents, the description of which would necessitate a long account. I experienced various ups and downs, by which travelers on long journeys are usually beset, far more numerous than you could believe unless I told you in detail. However, to say no more of further misfortunes which I had to experience on the way from the Bohemian watering place to Nürnberg, I did not get away from the merchant so easily. When, after our arrival, I wanted to leave and politely expressed my thanks to him, he demanded a compensation from me, poor youngster, with harsh words, and wanted payment, for on the word of the driver, he believed that I had wealthy parents. The driver, in order to get him to take me, had told him that my father was the most respected and well-to-do man in my native town. At the instigation of the above-mentioned Bohemian landlady, I had made him believe this, in order that, through his expectation of a reward from my relatives, as is generally the custom in such cases, I might have an easier and pleasanter journey to Nürnberg in the company of that family. The clever woman, moreover, in order to make the deceit, by which she was attempting to help me, more plausible, had indiscreetly invented the following circumstances. When I had been questioned by the driver, as to who I was, where I came from, who my parents were, how, why, and through what sort of people I had come to that region so young, the woman 82 persuaded me to tell this gullible man the following true-sounding story of her invention. Driven by necessity and homesickness, I went to him and began with these or similar words: “When the Emperor Frederick returned in triumph through our city, from Lower Germany, with his son the Roman King Maximilian who had just been released from captivity, it happened that he remained there several days for refreshment. He made his stay with a certain citizen who is my father (but I named a well known and wealthy citizen with whom all princes and nobility, yes even the Emperor stayed when they came through Miltenberg); perhaps you know him or have heard of him.” The words were hardly out of my mouth, when he answered: “If you are a son of the man, how is it that you are now a poor fellow in misery and in great need in this strange part of the country? Who brought you here? Doesn’t your father know that you are in distress and that, as a vagabond, you are roaming about here like a lost sheep?” Then I answered: “Whether my father knows in what great need I am living, and how shabbily I am roving through this region, I don’t know; I know only one thing, that it is six years since I was lost, and he has not seen me during that time.” Then he said: “Tell me how you were lost, tell me the details of such a shameful happening.”
FOOTNOTES
19 Karlsbad.
83When I continued my previously planned story, I easily made him give credence to my speech. I went on with my tale as follows: “The Emperor held a court for several days at my father’s house which, as you know, is very large and with its many rooms offered accommodations for all the courtiers who accompanied him. The soldiers were quartered throughout the town with the citizens. I began to follow a distinguished knight of this court, attracted by the beauty of his horse, his delight in riding, and his handsome page. When at their departure, this knight saw how unhappy I was, he asked me whether I would like to ride for him, and whether I had a desire for knighthood, as I saw it in him. With that, child that I was, and ignorant of the hardships of court life and the troubles of knights, I answered that I would be glad to ride with him, and so enter a life toward which my dearest wishes turned; and urgently begged him to let me go along with him, without my parents knowing about it. When he heard this, he readily gave his consent and warned me to say nothing about it to anyone. When the day for departure came, the horns as usual sounded the appointed time, the trumpets resounded; in all the inns, foot soldiers and knights noisily prepared to march away. While my parents and all the servants were wholly engrossed in the preparation of a reckoning with the departing guests, and no one had the least care, notice, or fear on my behalf, the knight as secretly as possible got me into the coach and brought me as far as this province without anyone knowing it. But, when I reflected on how I had secretly stolen away, I longed to be home again; but to this very day I have been unable to get there. Now that I 84 have at last escaped, by flight, from the captivity of my abductor, with whom I have endured great hardship, I beg you to help me get home to Germany, as well as you can. I expect that, by so doing, you will render my father a great favor, and without doubt he will give you a reward such as you deserve.”
84This speech moved the man to honest sympathy; he took solicitous care of me, on the word of the merchant, as the child of an important man, and took me with him as far as Nürnberg. When the merchant, as I said above, insisted on his remuneration, the driver took an interest in me, and swore that the reward from my relatives would certainly not escape him. He then took me with him to his inn. Later, whoever, when I realized that he intended to go home with me, I began to wonder anxiously how I could get rid of him in a respectable manner, without revealing the whole fabrication and lie. Then it happened, as we were walking along the street, that a merchant saw him, smiled at him from a distance, and called out loudly: “My dear Schwab,” that was his name, “I have been expecting your arrival for some time. Look here, tomorrow you must go with my wife and me to the hot springs, from which you are now returning.” Schwab answered: “I would gladly do what you wish, if I had already taken this young man, whom I have brought with me from the springs, by order of a lady there, back to his father from whom he was secretly stolen, and who has been grieving for a long time. He is the son of an important citizen in Miltenberg, and I expect to get a good reward when I take his son back to him.” The merchant replied: “Not at all! You are going with me. You can return this youngster to his father by some of the waggoners from his native town. I remember seeing some here yesterday. After we get back, if we are still alive, you can follow him, and you will get your reward then, just as well.” When Schwab heard this fortunate advice, he turned to me and said: “Will you still know me if I come to you and your father? Will you tell your people what I 86 have done for you, so that I shall get a reward for it?” When I assured him that I would never forget it, and promised never to deny it to anyone, he promised his services to the merchant, and went with me to the inn of the Miltenberg waggoners. As we approached, I saw a drayman whom I knew. I went up to him as if he were a stranger to me and quickly, yet in a casual manner, whispered in his ear: “My friend, look here, I am the weaver’s son; my companion thinks I am the son of so and so. I had to make him believe that in order to get him to bring me here from Bohemia with him. If he questions you, be so good as to tell him the same thing.” He immediately saw how matters stood, and said: “All right! I understand. Let me face him; I’ll make it clear to him how things are.” Now, why should I go into details? All went well. He went up to my man and asked, in a dissembling manner, where in the world he had picked me up. The other answered, in surprise: “Do you know the boy and his parents? What do you think they will give me for bringing him home?” “Of course I know that young man,” said the first, “and I know that his father is known to everyone; you needn’t have any fear; whenever you come to his people, there is sure to be a fine reward waiting for you.” Then the other: “I would gladly have taken him home, myself, if certain matters had not interfered; but I hope to follow him soon after I get back, if I am still alive. I wish you would take him under your care now, and return him to his father. But don’t forget to recommend me to him, and to explain that he has been brought back by my help. I guess when I get there, he’ll give me something fine to spend, as is right.” Then we took leave of each other; we went our way, and he his. When we entered the inn, however, the joy which I felt over my good fortune was suddenly changed to sorrow by another of our draymen. As soon as the first one informed him that I was the son of such and such a weaver, the stupid fellow thoughtlessly came out with the information that my 87 father had died long since, and that I had a stepfather. At these words, I overflowed with the bitterest tears, and broke out into inconsolable sobbing and loud weeping. With that, another man and the host called him a liar, because they wanted to comfort me, and with many oaths assured me that my father was still alive; in their kind way, they promised that I should see him in a few days. Somewhat pacified by these assurances, I returned, with them to my native town, but not to my father.
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