ticularly to the family of Seckendorf, whilst he gave himself up to the pleasures of the chace, to a couple of mistresses, and to fits of rage, which caused him to imbrue his hands in the blood of others. He was for some time completely guided by a Jew, named Isaac Nathan, who practised financial swindling, and, for a short period, solely reigned under the title of "resident." The little Margrave, wishing to bestow a great honour on the English monarch, sent him the red order of the eagle set in brilliants. The Jew, Ischerlein, who was on an understanding with Nathan, undertook the commission and falsified the diamonds, which was instantly perceived by King George, who accordingly neglected to send a reply to the Margrave. An inquiry took place and the imposition was discovered. The Margrave instantly sent for the Jew and for a headsman. Ischerlein came, was bound down to a chair, but no sooner caught sight of the headsman, than, springing up, he ran, with the chair attached to him, round the long table standing in the middle of the hall, until the headsman, encouraged by the Margrave, at length contrived to strike off his head across the table. Nor did the resident escape the Margrave's wrath; he was closely imprisoned, deprived of the whole of his illgotten wealth, and [A. D. 1740] expelled the country. The Margrave, during another of his fits of rage, shot the keeper of his hounds. He died of apoplexy, caused by the fury to which he was roused by the conduct of Mayer, the Prussian general, who, at that period, A. D. 1757, chastised the petty princes of the empire. These Margraves of Ansbach and Bayreuth appeared as protectors of Protestantism in opposition to the princes of Hohenlohe, (Bartenstein and Schillingsfürst,) who, as Catholics, tyrannized over their Protestant relatives, the Counts von Hohenlohe, (Ehringen,) attempted to abrogate the consistory at Ehringen and to extirpate Protestantism. The Margrave's troops compelled the princes to remain tranquil, and, notwithstanding the loud complaints of the Bavarian Jesuits, to make full restitution. CCXXXIII. The ecclesiastical courts.-The Salzburg emigration. THE archbishops and prince-bishops of the Catholic church, instead of being taught by the great lesson inculcated by the Reformation, emulated the temporal princes in luxury and licence. Clement of Cologne, brother to the elector of Bavaria, had fixed his voluptuous court at Bonn. Here, French alone was spoken, and luxury was carried to such a height that even during Lent there were no fewer than twenty dishes on the archiepiscopal table. This gallant churchman had a hundred and fifty chamberlains and passed great part of his time at Paris, where he associated with the licentious courtiers and acted in a manner that inspired even the French with astonishment. Duclos relates, "It was very strange to see the elector of Cologne, who resided at Paris, standing in the royal presence, the king sitting in an arm-chair, and, when dining with the Dauphin, sitting among the courtiers at the lowest end of the table. When at Valenciennes, he caused his intention of preaching on the first of April to be proclaimed. The church was thronged on the given day. The elector mounted the pulpit, gravely bowed to the assembly, made the sign of the cross, and exclaiming, April fools all of ye!' descended amid the sound of trumpets, hunting-horns, and kettle-drums, and quitted the church." The city of Cologne was completely ruined under his government. The religious persecution drove all the industrious manufacturers and traders into the neighbouring country and enriched Mühlheim, Dusseldorf, and Elberfeld at the expense of Cologne, which was at length almost solely inhabited by monks and beggars. The bishops, to whom the venerable episcopal cities and cathedrals offered a silent reproof, withdrew, for the more undisturbed enjoyment of their pleasures, to more modern resi. dences, where they revelled in magnificence and luxury. Bonn, Bruchsal, and Dillingen severally afforded a voluptuous retreat to the archbishops of Cologne, Spires, and Augsburg. John Philip Francis, bishop of Würzburg, a scion of the noble house of Schönborn, held an extremely splendid court. His palace and the buildings appertaining to it were built on the plan of Versailles, and are, even at the present day, objects of admiration.* He was, moreover, bishop of Bamberg, where he held * One of his predecessors, Peter Philip von Dornbach, had [A. D. 1669] thrown the cornet, Eckhard von Peckern, a handsome youth, whose attractions were, in the eyes of a Madame von Polheim, superior to those of the bishop, into prison and starved him to death. See Schramberg's article concerning the family of Dornbach. a separate court, to which no less than thirty chamberlains belonged. Father Horn, who ventured to preach against ecclesiastical luxury and licence, languished for twenty years chained in a deep dungeon at Würzburg, until 1750, when death released him from his sufferings. The archbishop of Salzburg had twenty-three chamberlains and sixteen courtiers, the châteaux of Mirabella, Klessheim, and Hellbrünn, establishments, completely on a temporal footing, with pleasuregardens, basons, fountains, grottos with statues of naked divinities, nymphs and satyrs, a menagerie, orangery, and theatre. Luxury was here hereditary and was transmitted from one archbishop to another. In 1699, for instance, the archbishop, John Ernest, entertained the consort of Joseph, the Roman king, with fètes; among others, with a grande battue, in which bulls, bears, wild boars, deer, etc., were driven into a narrow circle and torn to pieces by large hounds, and with a ball, on the conclusion of which he presented her with a silver table and a costly mirror for her morning toilette. This example was followed by numerous other bishops, princely abbots, and prelates of every description. Augustin, abbot of Altaich, had an annual income of 100,000 florins and expended 300,000. The priests of the Teacher of humility paraded in gilt carriages drawn by six stallions, Heiducks standing behind, footmen running before, followed by a train of gay cavaliers, chased the wild-boar in their forests or lounged in luxurious boudoirs, their fat fingers gleaming with diamonds, on soft cushions, their mistresses around, a dainty banquet before them. Their luxury had long become proverbial. The episcopal cellars abounded with the good things of this world, and men, bound by a vow of denial and poverty, unhesitatingly named their store-places, the cellar of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, of all saints, etc. The depravity, especially of the women, in all the episcopal demesnes and cities was proverbial. The spiritual fathers took their daughters to their bosom and servility boasted of the honour. The rich benefices, the offices in the cathedrals and other establishments, were, like all the higher civil and military posts, monopolized by the nobility. In order to secure the exclusion of the burghers, those alone who counted a certain number of ancestors or who paid a considerable sum of money, could be admitted. An ill-successful applicant said, on one occasion, "I am not rich enough to take the vow of poverty !" The nobility, habituated from their birth to luxury and licence, continued the same practices in the establishments of the church. Deep amid the mountains of Salzburg dwelt a pious community, which, since the time of the first Reformation, had secretly studied the German Bible, and, unaided by a priesthood, obeyed the precepts of a pure and holy religion. The gradual extension of this community at length betrayed its existence to the priests, and, in 1685, the first cruel persecution commenced in the Tefferekerthal, and, on the failure of the most revolting measures for the conversion of the wretched peasants to Popery, they were expelled their homes and sent to wander o'er the wide world, deprived even of a parent's joy, their children being torn from them in order to be educated by the Jesuits. In the ensuing year, a number of mountaineers with their preacher, Joseph Schaidberger, were also compelled to quit their native country. The secret church, however, far from being annihilated by these measures, rapidly increased her number of proselytes. The purity and beauty of a religion free from the false dogmas of a grasping hierarchy offered irresistible attractions to the hardy and free-spirited mountaineers; the persecution, the licence permitted at the ecclesiastical court of their spiritual sovereign, the utter depravity pervading the whole of the upper classes, the church, and the army, filled them with the deepest disgust and caused them to cling with still greater tenacity to their secret persuasion. Divine service was performed during the silent night in the depths of the forest or in the hidden recesses of the mountains. They buried their Bibles in the forest, and, at first, refused to confide the place of their concealment to their wives and daughters. By practising the external ceremonies of the Catholic church, they remained, notwithstanding their numbers, long undiscovered. A trifling incident at length disclosed the whole. One of their number, shocked at the profanation of the Saviour's name by the use of the Catholic salutation, "Praised be Jesus Christ," by drunkards and gamesters, refused to reply to it, and, being imitated by the rest of his persuasion, a discovery took place. The brutal archbishop, Leopold Antony von Firmian,* condemned the first who refused to return this salutation to be cruelly beaten, to be bound up awry with dislocated limbs, to be exposed during the depth of winter to hunger and cold, in order to compel them to recant. They remained firm. The miserable peasants imagined in their simplicity that the diet would exert itself in their favour! They still harboured a hope that the interests of the great German nation, of which they formed a part, might be represented in the diet! But their deputation found that in Ratisbon affairs dragged slowly on, and that whilst the lawyers scribbled the bishop acted. The Protestant deputies, who had taken up the cause of the Salzburg peasantry, allowed themselves to be led astray by the sophistry, evasions, and impudent assertions of the Baron von Zillerberg, Firmian's subtle agent at Ratisbon. The deputation was, on its return, thrown into prison, and the persecution was carried on with unrelenting cruelty. Physical torture proving ineffectual, the archbishop tried the effect of enormous fines. This measure proved equally futile. Enraged at his ill success, he at length sent a commission to find out the numbers of the heretics, and, on being informed that they amounted to twenty thousand, observed, "It does not matter, I will clear the country of the heretics although it may hereafter produce but thorns and thistles." The commissioners asked the people whether they were Lutheran or Zwinglian. The simple-minded peasants had never heard of either; they had only studied the Bible, and replied, "We are evangelical." They were now irremediably lost. However, putting their trust in God, they formed a great confederacy at Schwarzach, August the 5th, 1731, and swore to lay down their lives rather than deny their faith. Each man, * Firmian had given the pope 100,000 dollars for the Pallium. His attendants and associates were chiefly Italians, and he would follow the chace for days together. The rest of his time was devoted to the Countess Arco at the château of Elesheim, and the government was intrusted to his chancellor, a poor Tyrolese, named Christian, a native of Räll, who Italianized his name and termed himself Christiani da Rallo. The pope bribed him with 50,000 dollars to gain the archbishop over to his interests.-Panse, History of the Salzburg Emigration. Part of the city of Salzburg had been buried, shortly before these events, [A. D. 1669,] by the fall of a mountain. |