Travels in Turkey and back to England

by Edmund Chishull

The religion of this place is Lutheran, in which the government is so strict, as to admit of no other religious assembly, except that of the church of England, which is allowed to the English company. The city is divided into five parishes, that of St. Catharine, St. Peter, St. James, St. Nicholas, and St. John. To each of these are dedicated so many fair and spatious churches, all well adorned with sculptures, paintings, organs, and altars. That of St. Catharine exceeds the rest, and is particularly remarkable for a noble stone pulpit, the whole consisting of the bed marble, carved into the figures of the twelve Apostles, and other religious devices; for several large inimitable pieces of painting in fresco against the north wall; and for a stately organ, supposed to be the largest and finest in the world. It has fifty four stops, and consists of five thousand pipes, all gradually proportioned from the biggest, which is three fourths of an English yard in diameter, to the least, no larger than the last joint of ones little finger. In the same church is admirably well painted the Temple of Solomon in perspective. Besides these parish churches, there is the cathedral, commonly there called the Dome; and a new church in the middle of the New City. The Dome is now almost out of use, except for some occasional sermons; and the porch, with the several isles, are possessed by booksellers shops: tho this is what is likewise common to the porches, and other outward apartments, of the most frequented churches. The five parish churches, and that of the New City, have each of them their pastor, and besides him two or three chaplains; so that the number of clergymen here amounts to above twenty, of which one is superintendant over them, and the clergy of the whole territory. This however is very small, as not reaching down the river Elbe farther than the limits of Altena, a large town within half a mile of Hamburg, belonging to the King of Denmark. On the other sides it is encompassed with the dominions of the Duke of Holstein, at the distance of two or three miles; only up the Elbe it has a narrow tract of ground subject to the city, for the space of twenty miles, in which are some small villages, that acknowledge its jurisdiction. The church lands belonging to the cathedral are now possessed by burgers, or others of the city; but under the same titles, by which they formerly belonged to the church, as dean, canons, and others. Which sequestration, as it seems to be a sacrilegious usurpation; so their continuing the right under the same titles, is only a monument and confession of the crime.

The government of the city is by a free and sovereign jurisdiction of their own, which is lodged in three orders of men, the burgomasters, the senate, and the burgers. The burgomasters are four persons chosen out of the senate, of which two are yearly regent. The senate consists of about twenty, chosen as vacancies happen out of the burgers. The burgers compose the whole body of the citizens, ranked under their five distinct parishes. This government some what resembles that of antient Rome, by consuls, senate, and people; and is excellent in itself, but very liable to be perverted by the prevalency of any of the parts, of which it consists. This is at present seen in the case of Hamburg, where the burgers by reason of their multitude, and the seditious spirit of inferior persons, have so far usurped the power of the place, that they terrify the senate, and stop all public proceedings, which are not to their relish. Particularly they are now so obstinate, as to refuse their consent to the supply towards the war, required by the Emperor, and to other public levies of the city, till they can extort the consent of the senate for restoring one Dr. Meyer to his pastoral office of St James. This is a violent seditious man, suspected of an ill life, but of a ready overbearing eloquence in the pulpit; who, about five years since had quitted his pastoral office in Hamburg, for another like charge, and superintendency in Pomerania. His parishioners now recall him to his cure at Hamburg, which he publicly declines; but privately encourages, and thereby occasions a lamentable faction and sedition in the town. His own and two other parishes press his return, and refuse to treat of other business, till the senate shall consent thereto. But they being duly cautious of admitting so dangerous a person into the city, who is now more particularly suspected of intriguing against them, in dependence on the King of Sweden, will never admit thereof; especially as he insists upon returning in his own rank, and in prospect of the same seniority, he before obtained in the place.

The burgomasters of this place never appear in public, but in a peculiar dress; which consists of an high crowned hat made of cloth, plated thick and strong in numerous folds; with a large ruff; and a black velvet coat ending at the knees, and plaited from the middle. There are likewise several other antient habits used by all public persons, even to midwives, dressers of the dead, and those who bear the corps to funerals. The habit of their divines is a round black cap, a ruff, and a gown without sleeves. All these may commonly be seen at once in the solemnity of a funeral, which they here affect to make very pompous for all persons, even those of little children. The burgomasters, senators, divines, lawyers, physicians, and as many of all sorts, as they can procure, attend the corps from the house to the church; for which they are each paid a certain fee, the chief about a florin, and inferiors proportionably. It is observable, that the bearers of the corps have a peculiar step, all moving their leg at the same time croswise from one side to the other.

This city wholly subsists by trade, which it still enjoys to a great degree. But they now complain, that they begin to be robbed of their former flourishing commerce by Lubeck and Bremen, and even the poor town of Altena, which with regret they see rising under their walls. Here is the staple of linen from Germany; cloth from England; and wines from Spain, France, and the Rhine. Of this last the city preserves a vast stock in public cellars; the largest of which, being a magazine of Rhenish wine, I visited one evening, and was there assured, that they have the wine of every year since 1623; and accordingly we then drank of three sorts, 1623, 1664, and 1678. At the same time I tried the perfect clearness of the loaf sugar of this place; which they purify to such a degree, that it does not discolour the cleared Rhenish wine.

The English company, which upon the decay of Antwerp removed to this place, is a regular, gentile, and hospitable society of merchants. They were here granted large privileges, which they still enjoy; tho at home our English parliament has lately infringed those, which they had permitted them. Their goods from England are imported free of custom, except that they pay a trifle as an acknowledgement. Their own jurisdiction, and religion, is freely granted them. The town first presented them with a large piece of building, which they obliged themselves to keep in perpetual repair. In this there is a public chapel; and an apartment, which they call the Ordinary room, where all the company, who are unmarried, dine and sup at one table, and the deputy governor and assistants meet upon public occasions. Adjoining to it is the house of the deputy governor, the minister, and the secretary; all likewise given by the town, and maintained by them. The governor of this company at present resides in England; but the other officers, as the deputy governor, secretary, and assistants, to the number of twenty four, are all resident upon the place, and dispatch all business relating to the society; which is contrary to the custom of the Turkey company, the governing part whereof always resides in England. The deputy governor and secretary are chosen, or confirmed, either quarterly or yearly; and the same is practised with the minister, whose salary, besides the benefit of an house, is two hundred pounds a year. The number of merchants, assistants, and others, may here amount from thirty to forty persons; and with their wives, children, and servants, their congregation (which is very regular) is seen on Sunday from an hundred and fifty to two hundred persons. My conversation during my stay at Hamburg was chiefly among these; and I had more particularly the friendship of Mr. Free, deputy governor; Mr. Aldersey, secretary; Mr. Emerson, minister; Mr. Stratford, Manning, Lethieullier, and Remington merchants; and their respective families. I preached every Sunday, while I continued here; and received many tokens of favour from the whole company; particularly on the sixteenth of January, a present of a silver tankard, value forty crowns. At the same time I had the honour of being known to Mr. Wyat, her Majesty’s resident at this place, and deputed likewise to the Hanse towns of Bremen and Lubeck.

There is a good and well furnished library belonging to this city, which adjoins to the church of St. John. And during my stay here I had the opportunity of conversing with Jo. Albertus Fabricius, a person of great learning, and famous for some works he has already published. I visited likewise Mynhéer Langerman, a druggist, who shewed me some curious ores; and pieces of eight, fished up from a Spanish wreck; with the piedra de puerco, about the size of a large nutmeg, which is found in the bladder of some hogs in the Philippine islands, a great sudorific, and esteemed a sovereign remedy against intermitting fevers. One stone is usually valued at a hundred ducats.

The night I visited the wine cellar at Mr. Manning’s house, we saw a man, named George Po, born at Prague, who eat raw flesh, glass, paper, and above all things raw flax and tow, which he devoured very greedily, and called it his chief delicacy. He likewise swallows large stones, and accustoms himself to devour all unnatural substances, even perukes; tho of this last he is now somewhat cautious, since his twin brother died by eating one at Halberstadt. A senator’s wife of this city maintains an opera house, where they have a prodigious large stage, and great variety of well painted scenes. Here Mr. Lethieullier one night entertained us to our great satisfaction. At the same place, and belonging to the same woman, is shewn the famous model of Solomon’s Temple, being the exact resemblance of that fabric, as described by the best authors, expressed in every part by carved wood work to the hight of an English yard, and all the inward apartments perfectly exhibited to the eye, as the workman takes it to pieces for the satisfaction of the spectators. This ingenious machine cost no less than ten thousand dollars.

The inhabitants of Hamburg are censured as proud, formal, and ceremonious; the magistrates as addicted to vice, libertinism, and self interest; and the people as turbulent, and seditious; whence many prognosticate ill to the trade, and future power of the city. The language, which they here speak, is called the Plat Dutch, being a medium betwixt that of Germany and Holland.

During my stay here, I was informed of a detestable practice, frequent among many melancholy and disordered persons of this place; who being weary of life, and apprehensive of the sin of self murder, rather choose to murder some innocent child, and by that means to be brought to capital punishment, by which they attain their desire of death, with the advantage, as they imagine, of a previous time for repentance, without the guilt of their own hand. At the same time they esteem the child, whom they choose to sacrifice, to be without any guilt of conscience, as having not yet arrived to years of discretion[140]. This tragedy happens every year, as many experienced witnesses among our merchants assured me; and they attribute the frequency of the practice to the great facility of their confessors, in affording peace and fair promises to all sorts of dying penitents.