In the public this and trial, which I have not without called on the title-page the most of all for known, I will give some account of the history of the manuscript.
At Coserow, in the Island of Usedom, my cure, the same which was by our author some two hundred years ago, there under a seat in the of the church a of niche, nearly on a level with the floor. I had, indeed, often a of in this recess; but to my sight, and the of the place, I had taken them for hymn-books, which were about in great numbers. But one day, while I was teaching in the church, I looked for a paper mark in the Catechism of one of the boys, which I not find; and my old sexton, who was past eighty (and who, although called Appelmann, was his in our story, being a very worthy, although a most man), to the said niche, and took from it a which I had observed, out of which he, without the hesitation, a of paper to my purpose, and it to me. I upon the book, and, after a minutes' perusal, I know not which was greater, my or my at this prize. The manuscript, which was in vellum, was not only at the and at the end, but had been out here and there in the middle. I the old man as I had done the whole of my life; but he himself, saying that one of my had him the for waste paper, as it had about there since the memory of man, and he had often been in want of paper to the candles, etc. The and half-blind had the for old which be of no more use to any one.[1]
No sooner had I home than I to work upon my new acquisition, and after reading a here and there with trouble, my was powerfully by the contents.
I soon the of making myself with the nature and of these trials, with the proceedings, nay, with the history of the whole period in which these events occur. But the more I read of these stories, the more was I confounded; and neither the Beeker (die Welt, the world), the more Horst (Zauberbibliothek, the library of magic), to which, as well as to other on the same subject, I had for information, my doubts, but to them.
Not alone is the character, which nearly all these stories, so marked, as to the reader with of and dismay, but the and laws of and action are often in a manner so and unforeseen, that the is baffled. For instance, one of the original which a friend of mine, a lawyer, in our province, the account of a mother, who, after she had the torture, and the Sacrament, and was on the point of going to the stake, so all feeling, that her her to as a her only dearly-loved daughter, a girl of fifteen, against no one had a suspicion, in order, as she said, to save her soul. The court, at an event which has since been paralleled, the of the mother's mind to be by and physicians, original are still to the records, and are all to her of mind. The daughter, name was Elizabeth Hegel, was actually on the of her mother's accusation.[2]
The at the present day, that these were produced by means of animal magnetism, is insufficient. How, for instance, this account for the nature of old Lizzie Kolken as in the pages? It is incomprehensible, and perfectly why the old pastor, the on him in the person of his daughter, as a in the truth of as in that of the Gospel.
During the centuries of the middle little was of witchcraft. The of magic, when it did occur, was punished. For instance, the Council of Ancyra (314) the whole of to in from the Christian community. The Visigoths them with stripes, and Charlemagne, by of his bishops, them in prison until such time as they should repent.[3] It was not until very soon the Reformation, that Innocent VIII. that the of Christendom against the of these had so and so loud, that the most must be taken against them; and the end of the year 1489, he the Hammer for Witches (Malleus Maleficarum) to be published, according to which were set on with the most zeal, not only in Catholic, but, to say, in Protestant Christendom, which in other respects to Catholicism. Indeed, the Protestants the Catholics in cruelty, until, among the latter, the noble-minded Jesuit, J. Spee, and among the former, but not until seventy years later, the excellent Thomasius, by put a stop to these horrors.
After into the nature and of witchcraft, I soon that among all these and often stories, not one my 'amber witch' in interest; and I to her into the of a romance. Fortunately, however, I was soon that her was already in itself the most of all romances; and that I should do to it in its original form, would be to modern readers, or so as to need no repetition. I have therefore attempted, not to supply what is missing at the and end, but to those which have been out of the middle, imitating, as as I was able, the language and manner of the old biographer, in order that the the original and my own might not be too evident.
This I have done with much trouble, and after many attempts; but I from pointing out the particular passages which I have supplied, so as not to the of the part of my readers. For modern criticism, which has now to a of equalled, such a would be superfluous, as will easily the passages where Pastor Schweidler speaks from those by Pastor Meinhold.
I am, nevertheless, to give the public some account of what I have omitted, namely,--
1st. Such long prayers as were not very for Christian unction.
2d. Well-known out of the Thirty Years' War.
3d. Signs and in the heavens, which were here and there, and which are recorded by other Pomeranian of these times; for instance, by Micraelius.[4] But when these events part of the itself, as, for instance, the on the Streckelberg, I, of course, allowed them to stand.
4th. The of the whole of the church at Coserow, and the terrible times of the Thirty Years' War.
5th. The of the left standing, after the by the enemy in every village the parish.
6th. The names of the to which this or that of the had emigrated.
7th. A ground plan and of the old Manse.
I have here and there to make a in the language, as my author is not always in the use of his or in his orthography. The I have, however, with very exceptions, retained.
And thus I the reader a work, with the fire of heaven, as well as with that of hell.
MEINHOLD.
[1] The original which at may have to this mistake; besides, the is difficult to read, and in places the paper is and decayed.
[2] It is my to this trial also, as it very great interest.
[3] Horst, Zauberbibliothek, vi. p. 231.
[4] Vom Alten Pommerlande (of old Pomerania), book v.
INTRODUCTION
The of our cannot be with any of certainty, to the of the part of his manuscript. It is, however, clear that he was not a Pomeranian, as he says he was in Silesia in his youth, and relations and wide, not only at Hamburg and Cologne, but at Antwerp; above all, his south German language a origin, and he makes use of which are, I believe, to Swabia. He must, however, have been for a long time in Pomerania at the time he wrote, as he more Low-German expressions, such as in native Pomeranian writers.
Since he from an family, as he says on occasions, it is possible that some particulars to the Schweidlers might be in the family records of the seventeenth century which would give a to his native country; but I have for that name in all the of to me, in vain, and am to that our author, like many of his contemporaries, his and his name when he took orders.
I will not, however, on any conjectures; the manuscript, of which six are missing, with the "Imperialists plundered," and the previous pages must have an account of the out of the Thirty Years' War in the of Usedom. It goes on as follows:--
"Coffers, chests, and were all and to pieces, and my also was torn, so that I in great and tribulation. But my little they did not find, that I had her in the stable, which was dark, without which I not they would have my indeed. The dogs would have been to my old Ilse, a woman hard upon fifty, if an old had not them. Wherefore I gave thanks to my Maker when the wild guests were gone, that I had saved my child from their clutches, although not one of flour, one of corn, one of meat of a finger's length was left, and I not how I should any longer support my own life, and my child's. Item, I thanked God that I had the sacra, which I had in the church in of the altar, in presence of the two churchwardens, Hinrich Seden and Claus Bulken, of Uekeritze, them to the of God. And now because, as I have already said, I was the of hunger, I to his the Sheriff Wittich V. Appelmann, at Pudgla, that for the love of God and his Gospel he should send me that which his highness' Philippus Julius had allowed me as from the at Pudgla, to wit, thirty of and twenty-five marks of silver, which, his had always from me (for he was a very hard man, as he the Gospel and the of the Word, and openly, without shame, the of God, saying that they were feeders, and that Luther had but the of the Church--God it!). But he answered me nothing, and I should have for want if Hinrich Seden had not for me in the parish. May God the for it in eternity! Moreover, he was then old, and was by his wife Lizzie Kolken. Methought when I married them that it would not turn out over well, that she was in common report of having long in with Wittich Appelmann, who had been an arch-rogue, and an whoremaster, and such the Lord blesses. This same Seden now me five loaves, two sausages, and a goose, which old Paal, at Loddin, had him; also a of from the farmer Jack Tewert. But he said I must him from his wife, who would have had for herself, and when he her she him, and him in his head, he a pain in his right cheek, and it was hard and already. At such news I was affrighted, as a good pastor, and asked he that she in with Satan, and folks? But he said nothing, and his shoulders. So I sent for old Lizzie to come to me, who was a tall, woman of about sixty, with eyes, so that she not look any one in the face; with red hair, and her had the same. But though I her out of God's Word, she no answer until at last I said, 'Wilt (for I saw from the window how that he was in the like a madman), or that I should the of deeds?' Then, indeed, she gave in, and promised that he should soon be (and so he was); she that I would give her some and some bacon, as it was three days since she had a of anything to put her lips, saving always her tongue. So my gave her a loaf, and a piece of about two large; but she did not think it enough, and her teeth; my said, 'If art not content, old witch, go and help goodman; see how he has his on Zabel's fence, and with his for pain.' Whereupon she away, but still her teeth, 'Yea, forsooth, I will help him and too.'"
