From a letter, reproduced in the same book, it appears that instances of the survival of the feudal idea as to the right of the lord to the persons of his vassal woman occurred within the last decenniums of the Nineteenth Century. This letter, written by Mr. D. R. Locke, and dated December, 1891, reads: “One of the Landlords was shot a few years ago and a great ado was made about it. In this case as in most of the others it was not a question of rent. My Lord had visited his estates to see how much more money could be taken out of his tenants, and his lecherous eyes happened to rest upon a very beautiful girl, the eldest daughter of a widow with seven children. Now this girl was betrothed to a nice sort of boy, who, having been in America, knew a thing or two. My Lord, through his agent, who is always a pimp as well as a brigand, ordered Kitty to come to the castle. Kitty, knowing very well what that means, refused. “Very well,” says the agent, “yer mother is in arrear for rent, and you had better see My Lord, or I shall be compelled to evict her.”—Kitty knew what that meant also. It meant that her gray-haired mother, her six helpless brothers and sisters would be pitched out by the roadside to die of starvation and exposure, and so Kitty, without saying a word to her mother or anyone else, went to the castle and was kept there three days, till My Lord was tired of her, when she was permitted to go. She went to her lover, like an honest girl as she was, and told him she would not marry him, but refused to give any reason. Finally the truth was wrenched out of her, and Mike went and found a shot-gun that had escaped the eye of the royal constabulary, and he got powder and shot and old nails, and he lay behind a hedge under a tree for several days. Finally one day My Lord came riding by all so gay, and that gun went off. There was a hole, a blessed hole, clear through him, and he never was so good a man as before because there was less of him. Then Mike went out and told Kitty to be of good cheer and not to be cast down, that the little difference between him and My Lord had been settled, and that they would be married as soon as possible. And they were married, and I had the pleasure of taking in my hand the very hand that fired the blessed shot, and of seeing the wife, to avenge whose cruel wrongs the shot was fired.”
In the same work we read that another of these British lords in Ireland, Leitram, was noted for his attempts to dishonor the wives and daughters of the peasantry upon his vast estate. His character was equal to that of the worst feudal barons, and like these he used his power as magistrate and noble, in addition to that of landlord, to accomplish his purpose. After an assault upon a beautiful and intelligent girl, by a brutal retainer of his lordship, his tenantry finally declared it necessary to resort to the last means in their power to preserve the honor of their wives and daughters. Six men were chosen as the instruments of their crude justice. They took an oath to be true to the end, in life or death, purchased arms, and seeking a convenient opportunity shot the tyrant to death. Nor were those firing the fatal shots ever discovered.
THE DAWNING OF BRIGHTER DAYS.
As the Reformation aimed at the restitution of the purity and simplicity of the first Christian communities, the position of woman in the Church as well as in private life was of course also considered.
As has been shown in former chapters, the authorities of the mediæval Christian Church regarded the daughters of Eve not only as creatures inferior to man, but also as the medium preferred by Satan above all others to lead man astray. Seeing in woman nothing but a necessary evil, they claimed also that a nun is purer than a mother, just as a celibate monk is holier than a father. This prejudice of benighted theologians against woman had influenced the conduct of the State toward the woman and made her everywhere the victim of unjust laws. For a long time in certain countries to ask rights for women exposed one to the suspicion of infidelity.
Therefore it must be regarded as an event of greatest importance in the history of woman, when Martin Luther, the most prominent figure in the Reformation, decided to take a wife. He married Catherine von Bora, a lady twenty-four years of age, of a noble Saxon family.
She had left the convent of Nimbschen together with eight other nuns in order to worship Christ without being compelled to observe endless ceremonies, which gave neither light to the mind nor peace to the soul. Protected by pious citizens of Torgau, the former nuns had lived together in retirement. Luther married his betrothed on June 11, 1525, with Lucas Cranach and another friend as witnesses. The ceremony was performed by Melanchton.
The marriage, blessed with six children, was a very happy one. Catherine proved to be a congenial mate, of whom Luther always spoke as “his heartily beloved house-frau.” The great reformer himself was a tender husband, and the most loving of fathers. Nothing he liked better than to sit amidst his dear ones, enjoying a glass of wine and those beautiful folk-songs, in which German literature is so rich.
Many of these little poems breathe the sincere respect and high appreciation, in which woman was held by the Germans since time immemorial. There is for instance Simon Dach’s well known poem “Anne of Tharau.” Written in 1637, it reads: