Pictures of German Life in the XVth, XVIth, and XVIIth Centuries, Vol. II.Freytag, Gustav
History
Pictures of German Life in the XVth, XVIth, and XVIIth Centuries, Vol. II.
Freytag, Gustav
Germany -- Civilization; Germany -- Social life and customs
Whilst Tilly was conquering Lower Saxony, and Wallenstein made great
havoc in Northern Germany, small literature flowed in an under-current.
After every engagement, and every capture of a city, there appeared
copper engravings, with a text which described the position of the
troops and the appearance of the city; irregular newspapers, and songs
of lament conveyed the information of the advance of the Imperialists,
and the destruction of the Mansfelders. In the midst of all this the
people were dismayed by terrible decrees of the Emperor, who now from
his secure position threw over the evangelicals, or compelled them by
force to return to his Church, in spite of the fruitless intercessions
of the Elector of Saxony. The Elector at last authorized the publication
of a defence of the Augsburg confession, against the attacks of the
Catholic theologians; this comprehensive work, called, 'The necessary
Defence of the Apple of the Eye,' written in 1628, called forth
immediately a theological war; both opponents and allies hastened in
crowds to the field. 'Spectacles for the Evangelical Apple of the Eye;'
'A sharp round Eye on the Romish Pope;' 'Who has struck the Calf in the
Eye? The Catholic Oculist or Coucher;' 'Venetian Spectacles on Lutheran
Nose,' &c. These are specimens of the defiant titles of the most
readable of the controversial writings. But this literary strife was
drowned in the burst of loud outcries against Wallenstein, which pierced
from Pomerania through all the German States, on account of the battle
near Stralsund, and his shameful conduct towards the Pomeranian Duke and
his country, and finally the horrible ill treatment of the men and women
of Pasewalk. Again these lamentations changed into a shout of joy from
all the Protestants. Again hope and confidence revived; this time it was
a man, whom the nation, with the genuine German longing to love and
honour, welcomed with shouts of jubilee. What had been wanting to the
Germans for a century, came to them from the North, an idol and a hero.
But he was a foreigner.
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