[Footnote 14]: Johannes Aepinus (in German Hoeck or Hoch, high), was born in 1499 at Ziegesar in the Urich, and died in 1553 superintendent at Hamburg, where he had discharged the ministry since 1529. Aepinus laboured hard at ecclesiastical and scholastic reform. Many writings, especially against the Interim, came from his pen.--Translator.
[Footnote 15]: Hermann Bonnus, born in 1504, near Osnaburgh; he preached the new doctrine at Greifswald, Stralsund and Copenhagen, and died on February 12, 1548, superintendent at Lubeck, a post which had been confided to him in 1531. Bonnus has written a chronicle of Lubeck.--Translator.
[Footnote 16]: Nicholas Gentzkow, doctor of law, born December 6, 1502, the son of a shoemaker, according to the annalist Berckmann, and deceased February 24, 1576, was elected burgomaster of Stralsund in 1555. He, nevertheless, remained syndic, that is, legal adviser to the city, just as, after his admission to the council, Sastrow continued his functions of protonotary, or first secretary. Sastrow, who had many disagreements with Gentzkow, as, in fact, with others, succeeded him in the dignity of burgomaster. Gentzkow left a diary of which Zober published extracts in 1870.--Translator.
[Footnote 17]: Wulf Wulflam, the head of the patricians of Stralsund, and illustrious in virtue of his warlike exploits, treated on a footing of equality with the crowned heads of the fourteenth century.--Translator.
[Footnote 18]: The same story is related of the Schwerin family at Lubeck.--Translator.
[Footnote 19]: A jocular allusion to the three Maries of Bethany, viz., the mother of James the Minor and sister of the Virgin; the mother of the Apostles James and John, and Mary of Magdala.--Translator.
[Footnote 20]: The dean of the Drapers had precedence of the deans of all the other corporations; in all the ceremonies he came immediately after the council.--Translator.
[Footnote 21]: George Wullenweber was born about 1492, probably at Hamburg. When the political and religious struggle broke out at Lubeck, he was settled there as a merchant, and he distinguished himself by being in the front rank clamouring for changes. At the end of February, 1533, he was elected councillor and afterwards burgomaster. From that moment the whole of his attempts tended in the direction of the restoration of the commercial monopoly the Hanseatic cities had so long possessed on the shores of the Baltic. The aim was to close those ports to the Dutch merchant navy, and to cause the influence of Lubeck to prevail in the three Scandinavian kingdoms.
In the spring of 1533, Lubeck made up its mind to come to close quarters with the Dutch, those detested rivals. A well-equipped fleet stood out to sea; the erewhile landsknecht, Marcus Meyer, who began by being a blacksmith at Hamburg, and had married the rich widow of a burgomaster, assumed the command of the mercenaries. The others had, however, been forewarned, and only some unimportant captures were made. Meyer, after having confiscated English merchandize found on board of the captured craft, made the mistake of landing on the English coast to revictual; he was arrested for piracy and taken to London. By a whim of Henry VIII, jealous of the power of the Netherlands and of Charles V, Marx Meyer, instead of being put to death, received a knighthood and immediately served as an intermediary between the king and Wullenweber in the more or less serious negotiations they started.
This first campaign had cost much, and its issue was not very profitable. The Dutch fleet had got some good prizes, and pillaged on the Schonen (Swedish) coast some of the factories belonging to the Hanseatic combination. The complaints of the traders themselves became general. Was the war to be pursued? A diet foregathered at Hamburg in March, 1534, in order to come to an understanding. Wullenweber was received with universal recrimination; his haughty attitude drew from the Stralsund delegate the famous and prophetic reminder recorded by Sastrow a few pages further on. The proud burgomaster left the place at the end of a few days, angry and embittered at heart; in spite of this, an armistice of four years was signed: