Thus did the German people seek earnestly after their God at the commencement of this great sixteenth century, and thus powerful was the devil at the close of it. Lofty exaltation was followed by enfeebling relaxation, and the striving after Christ, by the fear of hell; and the opponent of the Holy One pressed himself as a spectre into the whole life of man. Other countries were infected with these superstitions; but in Germany, for many years, the burning of witches was almost the only public action in which the deluded people showed a strong spiritual interest. The want of unity, public spirit and great political aims, was the destruction of the nation.
By the disputes of priests, the selfishness of princes, and the unhappy political position of Germany, the course of Protestantism was checked and the Roman Catholic reaction with fresh vigour raised its head. Throughout the country, in politics, in the pulpit, and in the closets of the ecclesiastics, there was more hatred than love. The minds of men languished under a spiritless dogmatism, and the hearts of believers were oppressed by gloomy forebodings. The wisest felt deep anxiety for the unhappy condition of the German Fatherland, and the devout were kept by the ecclesiastics and countless calendar-makers in continued anxiety, and fear that the end of the world was at hand, and the frequent interference of the devil appeared to many as an additional sign of its approach. Meanwhile the mass of the people of all ranks lived in a state of refined enjoyment in the then opulent country. Luxury was great, and every kind of excess was general. Those who did not fear the devil did not concern themselves much either about God or his saints. It was under such aspects that the fearful century of wars began.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1]: It was not till after the fifteenth century that glass became common in windows in towns; and about the same time they began to find out the comfort of separate rooms. And it is thought worthy of mention, that in 1546, Luther's bedroom at the palace of Eisleben was protected by windows that closed.
[Footnote 2]: Little Hans of Sweinichen was deprived of his post as gooseherd because he had tried to keep the geese quiet by gagging them with small pieces of wood.
[Footnote 3]: The Thirty years' war.
[Footnote 4]: Georg von Podiebrad, King of Bohemia, died 1471.
[Footnote 5]: A town of Silesia, near Riesenberge.
[Footnote 6]: The word house, standing alone, denotes a fortified building in the cities of the mayoralty, in the territory of some nobleman; in such cases it was of stone, the walls very thick, but without foundations, and therefore easily undermined; the windows were provided with iron gratings, and a passage ran under the roof within the walls; sometimes there was a large empty hall between the upper floor and the roof, in the walls of which loop-holes of different kinds were made for arrows, or at a later period for fire-arms, and in the fifteenth century, for light guns. These houses, especially when situated in the country, were often surrounded by an outer wall, which also enclosed the farm buildings. They were often inhabited by many families of noble descent all crowded together, some were husbandmen, others freebooters, all however had a strong feeling of aristocratic privileges.
[Footnote 7]: A linen covering, such as would be spread over the wooden hoops of a waggon.