With regard to political events the confusion was the same. Otho Frock, the recent historian of Pomerania, made it his business to apply the remedy, and the following are the results arrived at. 1524, from May to June.--Installation of the Forty-Eight; voluntary exile of Smiterlow. 1525, January.--Frustrated attempt of Smiterlow to return to Stralsund with the support of the Hanseatic towns. 1525 (probably April 15).--Riotous election of Rolof Moller and Christopher Lorbeer as burgomasters, of Franz Wessel, Hermann Meyer and six other partisans of the Reformation as councillors. 1525 (at St. John).--Entry into Stralsund of Dukes George and Barnim; the rendering of homage and confirmation of privileges. 1527 (July 24?).--Rolof Moller leaves Stralsund, and on August 1 or 5 Smiterlow returns. 1529.--Return and death of Rolof Moller.--Translator.
[Footnote 7]: There are various versions of the origin of this famous tumult. According to some documents the servant's mistress was a widow named Frese, who lived in the old market.--Translator.
[Footnote 8]: The fishmonger's bench or stall of Vischer reminds one of that of the reformer Froment, preaching on the Place Molard at Geneva, just as the departure of the nuns of St. Brigitta, at Stralsund, reminds one, though not quite so seriously, of the flitting from Geneva of the Sisters of Santa Clara.--Translator.
[Footnote 9]: In the ducal House of Pomerania the law of succession admitted all the sons indistinctly to the throne. They reigned in common, but if an understanding was impossible, the county was divided between them. In 1478 the whole of Pomerania was united under the sceptre of Bogislaw X. At the death of this able prince, which took place in 1523, Dukes George and Barnim wielded power conjointly, in spite of their utterly opposed sentiments. George remained faithful to the old belief; Barnim, on the other hand, proceeded to the university of Wittemberg, and in 1519 had accompanied Luther to Leipzig when he was disputing with Eck. The honour accrued to Barnim in his capacity of rector, a dignity seldom conferred upon a student.
George died in 1531, leaving an only son, Philippe. The division of Pomerania long desired by Barnim occurred the following year. Barnim's chance gave him Eastern Pomerania as far as the Swine, and with Stettin as a residence. To his nephew, Philip I, fell Western Pomerania, of which Wolgast became once more the capital. That agreement, concluded for ten years, was renewed in 1541, and its effects were prolonged until 1625, at which date there was a new reunion under Bogislaw XIV, of the Stettin branch, who died in 1637, the last of the House. The franchises of Stralsund, in fact, were so extensive as to reduce the authority of the princes to a mere nominal rule. The bond between them only consisted of a kind of perfunctory rendering of homage and the payment of a small tribute, the amount of which had been fixed once for all. The suzerain only entered the city after a notice of three months. In 1525, with the political and religious crisis at its height, the rendering of homage was preceded by protracted negotiations. No safe-conduct, though delivered by the prince, was valid at Stralsund unless it was countersigned by the council. The city exercised its jurisdiction not only within its walls, but in its exterior domains. Though exempt from military obligations as far as the reigning dukes were concerned, the city imposed compulsory service both by sea and by land on its citizens. It had the power to conclude treaties and was its sole arbiter with regard to peace or war. These privileges were preserved by Stralsund during the whole of the sixteenth century, in spite of the decline of the Hanseatic bond.--Translator.
[Footnote 10]: Franz Wessel, born at Stralsund, September 30, 1487, died May 19, 1570, was the son of a brewer of the Lange Strasse. At a very early age--when scarcely more than twelve--he embraced a commercial career and made long stays in foreign countries, besides pilgrimages to Trèves, Aix-la-Chapelle, Einfriedlaw, and St. James of Compostella. In 1516 he was back at Stralsund, and was one of the most energetic and first promoters of the Reformation. Councillor in 1524, burgomaster in 1541, he played a scarcely less important political part. Wessel is the author of a curious piece of writing on divine worship at Stralsund at the period of papistry. The very year of his death, Gerard Droege, who had been brought up in his house, published his biography at Rostock.--Translator.
[Footnote 11]: Christopher Lorbeer, who was councillor in 1507, burgomaster in 1524, and who died in 1555, belonged to a much respected family of Stralsund and enjoyed great consideration there.--Translator.
[Footnote 12]: According to tradition King Arthur or Artus, chief of the Knights of the Round Table, lived in the sixth century. He and his companions had devoted themselves to the recovery of the Holy Grail. Arthur himself is supposed to have conquered Sweden and Norway. On the other hand, the historian Johannes Magnus, Archbishop of Upsal, who died in 1554, mentions a Swedish Arthur famed for his doughty deeds, and he adds: "Even in our days, there exist in certain towns along the Baltic, for instance at Dantzig and Stralsund, houses, domus Arthi, on which the term illustrious has been bestowed; it is there that the notables foregather for the relaxation of their minds, as if it were a kind of school of the highest courtesy and amenity." Hence in the trading cities of the north the magnificent structures set apart for public and private rejoicings, as well as for commercial transactions, were intimately bound up with the tradition of a legendary hero. If I am not mistaken, only one of those buildings still remains, namely, the Artushof of Dantzig, which does duty as an exchange, and the ancient halls of which were the scene of the interview of the German Emperor and the Czar in September, 1881. The local chroniclers assert that the Artushof of Stralsund was built with the ransom of Duke Eric of Saxony, taken prisoner by the city troops in 1316 The great fire of June 12, 1680, completely destroyed it. On its site stands the official residence of the military governor of the place.
When near his end Ketelhot expressed his regret at having, at that period of his scant resources, too eagerly accepted the burgher's hospitality. Johannes Knipstro (Knypstro or Knipstrow), born May 1, 1497, at Sandow in the March, was at first a Franciscan monk. He and Ketelhot are considered as the most active propagators of the Reformation at Stralsund. But for the earnings of his wife, it is said, he would have been compelled to beg his bread, his salary being too small to keep body and soul together. She was an erewhile nun, and provided for both with her needle. Knipstro became superintendent-general at Wolgast in 1535, and professor of theology at Greifswald. He died October 4, 1556.--Translator.
[Footnote 13]: Doctor and ducal councillor Valentin Stroïentin was the friend of Ulrich von Hutten. Bugenhagen dedicated his Pomerania to him. He died in 1539.