65 ([return])
[ Tacit. Germania, c. 40.]
66 ([return])
[ See Dr. Robertson’s History of Charles V. vol. i. note 10.]
But the influence of religion was far more powerful to inflame, than to moderate, the fierce passions of the Germans. Interest and fanaticism often prompted its ministers to sanctify the most daring and the most unjust enterprises, by the approbation of Heaven, and full assurances of success. The consecrated standards, long revered in the groves of superstition, were placed in the front of the battle; [67] and the hostile army was devoted with dire execrations to the gods of war and of thunder. [68] In the faith of soldiers (and such were the Germans) cowardice is the most unpardonable of sins. A brave man was the worthy favorite of their martial deities; the wretch who had lost his shield was alike banished from the religious and civil assemblies of his countrymen. Some tribes of the north seem to have embraced the doctrine of transmigration, [69] others imagined a gross paradise of immortal drunkenness. [70] All agreed that a life spent in arms, and a glorious death in battle, were the best preparations for a happy futurity, either in this or in another world.
67 ([return])
[ Tacit. Germania, c. 7. These standards were only the heads of wild beasts.]
68 ([return])
[ See an instance of this custom, Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57.]