Zwingli, xii.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1]: At the beginning of the sixteenth century the monetary unit in Pomerania was the golden florin, which within a fraction was equivalent to the Rhenish florin and represented eight francs, sixty-five centimes, regard being had to the fact that the value of silver compared to that of gold was a third more than to-day. The golden florin was divided into forty-eight schellings (not shillings), sixteen of which constituted a mark; the schelling again was divided into twelve pfenning. The schelling of Hamburg and of Lubeck were worth double that of Stralsund.--Translator.
[Footnote 2]: House property was classified in three categories: dwelling houses (Häuser), shops (Buden), which were very light constructions set apart for trade or for accommodating strangers, and cellars (Keller), or places below the level of the ground floor. The scale of house-tax was for booths, stalls or shops half, for cellars a quarter of that due for dwelling-houses. A census of 1554 gives for Stralsund 559 houses, 1,133 booths or shops, and 535 cellars; of which numbers 30 dwelling houses, 39 booths and 38 cellars are not tenanted. To these figures must be added for the faubourgs or beyond the gates 239 tenements of lesser importance.
On the site of the house in Huns' Street stands or stood a few years ago the Hotel Jarmer. An inscription on its frontage recalls the birth of Jeremy Sastrow. According to a competent etymological authority, the name of the Hunnenstrasse in Greifswald has not the faintest connexion with the Huns, but is simply a Low German corruption of Hundestrasse, Platea Canum, like in Lubeck and in Barth. In the latter town the thoroughfare thus designated was the locale of the Prince's pack of hounds.--Translator.
[Footnote 3]: Nicholas Smiterlow, who was councillor in 1507 and burgomaster in 1516, enacted an important part at Stralsund at a period when the political influence of that city spread far beyond its walls. Events pleaded loudly in favour of the resolute and prudent burgomaster against his adventurous adversary, George Wullenweber. In spite of his dislike to popular agitation, Smiterlow was "one of the first and best upholders of the Reformation," if we are to believe the evidence of a chronicler of the sixteenth century. He died in July, 1539. Hailing originally from Greifswald, he had got married at Stralsund in 1498. The Smiterlows, Schmiterlows, or Smiterloews interpreted their name in the sense of "Smiters of Lions." Their arms represented a man wielding a club and a lion by his side. It was said that during the Crusades their ancestor had laid low one of those animals with the blow of a club.--Translator.
[Footnote 4]: It was the custom to give a present to a relative or to a friend as a contribution to the furnishing of his house.--Translator.
[Footnote 5]: When Sastrow became secretary of Stralsund he took care to collect, under the title of "Rubrikenbuch" all the documents relating to the privileges and property of the city; a collection which proved useful to the magistrates in office and which is of interest to-day as a contribution to the local history.--Translator.
[Footnote 6]: The ancient monastery of Belbuck, near Treptow on the Rega, became, under Abbot Boldewan, a nursery of learning. From thence came George von Ukermünde, who was the first to preach the reformed doctrine at Stralsund; the impassioned preacher Kurcke or Kureke; Ketelhot, born in 1492, died in 1546, whom the chronicler Berckmann calls the "Apostle of Stralsund and the founder of the holy doctrine"; Peter Suave, the pioneer of the Reformation in Denmark and Holstein; and finally, Johannes Bugenhagen, famous under the name of Pomeranus, born in 1485, died in 1558, pastor at Wittemberg since 1523, the author of the first historical work on Pomerania, the translator of the Bible into Low-German, and the veritable organizer of Protestantism into those northern regions. Duke Bogislaw X, displeased with the spirit that prevailed at Belbuck, suppressed that institution in 1523; the dispersion of the monks only resulted in the prompter diffusion of the new doctrines.
The chronology of the history of the Reformation at Stralsund remained uncertain up to 1859, in which year the archives of the Imperial Chamber, forgotten at Wetzlar, brought to light the documents in connexion with the lawsuit brought by Canon Hippolytus Steinwer against Stralsund, in order to despoil the city of certain revenues and privileges. The principal dates may be fixed as follows: 1522.--First conflict of the city with the Catholic clergy who refuse to be taxed; Zutfeld Wardenburg, administrator of the diocese, flies to Rome. 1523 or end of 1522.--Arrival of the first reformed monks and preachers, George Kempe, Heindrich Sichermann, George von Ukermünde. 1524.--First preachings of Ketelhot (at Easter), and of Kurcke on St. Michael's Day. 1525.--The Monday after Palm Sunday (April 10), the churches and convents are invaded; suppression of Catholic worship. 1525.--The Sunday after All Saints' (November 5), official recognition of the Reformation through the promulgation of the ecclesiastical and scholastic ordinances of Johannes Alpinus.