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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14442	The lamentations of Germany Wherein, as in a glasse, we may behold her miserable condition, and reade the woefull effects of sinne. Composed by Dr Vincent Theol. an eye-witnesse thereof; and illustrated by pictures, the more to affect the reader. Hereunto are added three letters, one whereof was sent to the Dutch consistory in London, under the hand and seales of 14. distressed ministers of Swyburggen in Germany.	Vincent, Philip, b. 1600.	1638 (1638)	STC 24760.7; ESTC S121128	25,071	81

Yet more miserable if more miserable can be have ensued They have traced the dead bodies to the place of their buriall digged them out of their graves dressed and eaten them So that in divers places at Wormes especially they have beene faine to set watch at the Church-yards and over the graves to keepe the dead from being stolne and eaten In Saxony at this present the case is so miserable in this kinde that no pen can expresse it The Saxon-Austrian Army were they not beaten must retreite through hunger having famished both the inhabitants and themselves After the same manner it is upon the Rhine and many other parts where the Armies are or have lately beene To that extremity it is come that some constrained by hunger have taken poyson to advance death Dead Corpes digd out of there Graues to Eate Some take poyson to hastē death In a word the very wild beasts in the woods doe starve for want of prey My Lord the Earle of Arundel travelling homewards towards Frankefort on the Maine a Boore or peasant of the countrey being their guide and having his legs bare a Fox pursued him among my Lords followers and would not forbeare snatching and biting at his bare heeles such was his hunger till they gave him a blow in the necke and so tooke him alive His eyes were sunke his bones stucke out and hee was so extreme leane that his sides almost mot together They carried him alive with them in the coach and after a few daies he died An English gentleman arrived here the other day who travelling from Vlmes to Nurenburg so through Germany for England with such companions as guided him by-waies for escaping of the souldiers reporteth that Wolves Foxes and other wild beasts lie dead for want of food and that in some places men live only upon robbery and spoile of strangers or one another Theevery being become a trade CHAP. XII Of sicknesse and diseases in Basile 1633 died 20000 in Trent 1634 died 30000 Generall Holcke offred 600 Rixdollers for a diuiń to comforte him Before Mastreicht after the Towne was taken our quarters had contracted infectious sicknesses whereof I my selfe had my share being left sicke in the Towne of a purple Feaver But the yeere following both the Towne and Countrey were grievously afflicted with Feavers Fluxes and the Plague above all The same yeere Elsas or Alsatia and the lower Palatinate where the Armies of the Duke of Lorraine and the Rhinegrave had lodged did suffer miserably in this kinde The Army of the Prince of Orange having taken Rhineberg and marching towards Mastriche and Liege left such infection in great Brabant about Firkens-ward that the inhabitants the yeere after were afraid of their owne dwellings About the same time Generall Holck being sent by Wolstein with 6000. to invade Saxony sacked the City of Leipzick and committed as great outrages as Tillies Army had done before But such a pestilence overtooke both him and his that most of his souldiers dyed like sheepe of the rot And being infected himselfe hee offered 600 Rixdollers for a Minister of the Gospell to instruct and comfort him But both himselfe and his Souldiers had so behaved themselves that no Minister was to be found In the meane all his friends servants forsook him except his Concubine who stayed with him to the last He had beene both of the Religion and the Protestants party but revolted from both So guilty of his owne perfidiousnes and the execrable murders and rapines that he had caused hee dyed despairing utterly of all future blisse At length came a Minister but Holcke was dead before The City of Basile that winter lost above 20000. of the plague They of the City of Trent their neighbours rejoyced at their sufferings as being their enemies in religion But it sell out with them as with Edom in Obadiah v. 15. that mocked Jacob in his distresse The winter following 1634. the pestilence so raged among the Tridentines that wee were forbidden to come that way for the sicke and sound were mixed together and that City not great buried above 30000. Besieged in the Castle of Heidleberg I visited every day divers sicke of the plague and like diseases But in neither of these two great plagues in London nor in any other that I have beene in did I ever finde the cause so virulent the symptomes so incorrigible the disease so incurable Some dyed raging others were killed with their carbuncles when the venome seemed to be expelled from the inward parts others were swollen and discoloured as though they had taken poyson and some that dyed were so spotted as I never saw the like If any souldier were but sleightly wounded presently it became a maligne ulcer though all good inward and outward meanes were used If the infection got into a kindred it killed parents children and almost all the blood that were present Whence I perswade my selfe that Hippocrates his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the divine hand and finger of God was more conspicuous in this than in any other visitation I had seene though I doubt not but our foode with the aire might also helpe to impoyson our bodies extraordinarily Toward the end of the siege wee had made an hospitall in the roofe of the house But packing out of the Castle wee left there our sicke some dying some crying out at the windowes not to be left to their sicknesse famine and death and which was worse than the enemy of whom how they were used wee may imagine In the Towne they were much visited before we were shut up which could not but be augmented by the multitudes of the enemy In the siege of Hanaw were buried most of the plague above 22000 people and had not God sent that sicknesse to diminish their numbers they had yeelded the towne through want of victuals In the same siege Souldiers that went to the guard seeing and well came off strucken starke blinde thirty at a time Afterwards the disease falling into their legges the most of them recovered CHAP. XIII Of Sickenesse and Diseases In Bauier men not left to bury the dead but Rattes and mice devoured there carcasses Haue pittey vpon me haue pittey vpon me o yee my frends for the hand of the Lord hath touched me THe yeere 1635 almost whole Germany felt this punishment in most grievous wise In Swaben the Countrey of Tyroll all along the Reine and the Maine it was so furiously hot that all places were alike safe The King of Hungary was faine to dissolve his Court and send them away into divers Cities for their safer abode In Swaben the inhabitants of Memingen Campden and Isnen were utterly consumed and none left In the Countrey thereabout in which were more than thirty thousand men heretofore were not foure hundred soules to be found In the confines of Bavier the living were nothing neere able to bury the dead But Rats and Mice devoured their carcasses most horrible to behold The low Countries smarted sore also The Universitie of Leyden buried thirty thousand The Countrey Villages and the Hague where I was shut up my selfe were miserably afflicted The Infant Cardinall was forced to remove from Bruxels and Antwerp the sicknesse did so increase in those places Nimegen Emericke Rees Guelders with other places neere were not onely visited therewith wherof the Marquesse of Aytoma the Spanish Generall other Commanders died but new contagious diseases among which were strange Fluxes and a kind of pox unheard of The Emperours Army dispersing all over for want of resistance did also scatter the contagion from their quarters at Haylbrun through the Land of Wirtenberg that many places hereby became utterly depopulated But since Gallas his taking in the Townes upon the Rhine such an infection happened through the stinch of the dead unburied bodies that in the Bishopricke of Ments alone there died of this and hunger twenty foure thousand people In Saxony Brandenburg Pomeren Mecklenburg c. this yeare the pestilence with like diseases have beene so universall that these and the sword seeme to strive which shall be the greatest destroyer The retraite of the Swedes in which they did not onely evade but cut in pieces many of the enemies Troopes is not so famous as these calamities The very plague consumed in Saxony the other day in the space of two moneths no lesse than sixteene thousand that the King of Hungary hath given command that none shall come from thence to Prague or the Cities of Bohemia As by the print of Hercules his foot you might guesse at his stature so by these few particulars of the miseries of some places there we may guesse at the lamentable estate of the whole The war having every where caught and raged hath left such wounds as will not in haste be recured and perhaps posterity for some generations will see the scarres Thus is the Virgine daughter of that people destroyed with a great destruction and with a sore and greivous plague Goe into the fieid behold the slaine with the sword Enter into the City behold them that are sicke for hunger also So are they smitten but are not healed They loke for peace but there is no good for the time of health but behold trouble FINIS Imprimatur November 12. 1637. Sam. Baker G. Rodolphus Weckherlin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A devas●●tion of townes villag●● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wolvif●● men

comminatur quòd cognato suo apud quem vixerat hactenus redeunti furtum hoc propalare velit ibi continuò sceleratus ille instinctu mali genii accurrit puero falce putatoria miserè jugulum abscindit In pago Steinhausen propè Hornbacum foemina quaedam puellam 12 annorum blandis verbis pellectam puerumque quinque annorum molitoris filium horresco referens trucida vit cum vicinâ devoravit Milites praesidiarii Bipontini excurrentes in pagum hunc irruunt fortuitò aedes infanticidae bujus nesariae nidore allecti intrant omnes angulos rimantur tandem vas adipe humano resertum Caputque prius aquâ fervente maceratum exinde in furno tostum reperiunt ipsam captivam Bipontum trabunt ubi 24. Ianuarii poenas infandi hujus infanticidii dedit meritas sequ● praeterito anno duos insuper liberos prope Landoviam Annae villam mactasse confessa est altera foemina quae particeps barum carnium suit adbuc in vinculis tenetur se enim hujus facinoris affinem fuisse constanter pernegat Talia proh dolor indies audire cogimur tristissima exempla ô vere malesuadam famem ô ingenia verè Cyclopica ô horrendam metamorphosin quâ homines omnem ubmanitatem exuentes truculentissimarum bestiarum naturam induunt verè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu Lycaones fiunt Fredericus Goelerus Pastor Meissenheimensis The same in English VVHat the state of our most afflicted Countrey is without all doubt you have perceived by others all things as I may use the words of the Poet have runne together for the worse and slid with a backward foot for wheresoere we cast our eyes wee see nothing but misery and a horrid devastation of townes and villages the insolencie and cruelty of the Souldiers exceeds all beliefe they have not beene afraid sor the hope of prey in Sweibruggen to violate the tombes of the illustrious Dukes many yeares agoe deceased to exercise cruelty on their corps to disturb and diminish their bones The dearenesse of provision is such as never hath beene heard of before in this land a bushell of corne is scarsely got with 1● Rix Dollers which is foure pounds one shilling English money which is hither brought with the extreme danger of their lives that bring it Surely without our good God from above should lend us his helping hand those few Inhabitants which yet remaine alive and hitherto for the most part have lived on apples and peares must needs perish The Famine of Saguntum Samaria Ierusalem if they are but paralleld with those most grievous ones oh our griefe that have befalne us in our Countrey seeme but trifles About a fortnight since an Inhabitant of the village of Ilvesbeim a manotherwise of a good report comming into the house of his neighbour when he was absent tooke a little bread intending to goe out a child of some eight yeares of age called after him and threatned him that when his Cousen came home with whom he lived that he would make manifest his theft presently that wicked fellow ranne unto him and with a pruning hooke miserably cut his throate In the Village of Steinhaus neere Hornebach a certaine woman having allured unto her with enticing words a girle of 12. yeares old and a boy of 5 a Millers son I tremble in the relating killed them both and devoured them with her neighbour the Garrison Souldiers of Sweibrugen making an excursion by chance into this village being drawne thither by the smell enter the house of this infant killer they search every corner at last they finde a vessell full of humane grease and a head that had beene scalded in hot water and so baked in an oven they carried her caprive unto Sweibruggen where on the 24 of Ianuary shee suffered condigne punishment At her death she confest that neere Landovia and the Village of Anna she killd two other children the last year The other woman which was partaker in the eating is still kept in prison and constantly denies that shee was a partner in that wicked act Such things oh our grief we are compeld daily to heare most sad examples O ill perswading hunger O wits truly Cyclopicke O dreadful Metamorphosis by which men putting off all humanity and putting on the nature of salvage beasts doe truly become wolvish From Meissenbsim Feb. 1. 1637. Fredericus Goelerus Pastor of Meissenh A true Copy of a Letter written by a worthy Minister Andreas Pilger sometimes Minister of Heydelberg From Wormbs the 10th of Febr. 1637. ALas What stormes and tempests doe now beat upon the ship of Jesus Christ in our Countrey What punishments and plagues doe now oppresse us God is justly angry with us for our manifold sinnes and seemes in his indignation utterly to destroy us and all that is round about us The heavie curses of Moses the bitter lamentations of Ieremy and all the horrible threatnings of the holy Prophets wee see daily here accomplished With this new Winter-quarter beginnes a renewing of our miseries oppression and persecution we being utterly destitute of all helpe and meanes to support us The chiefest of our Countrey are forced to leave their houses and lands and to goe a wandring in strange Countries yea many of them end their lives most miserably It is impossible to expresse either the greatnesse of our wants or the fury of Famine amongst us Mothers forgetting their naturall affections towards their owne children become butchers of them and eate them up in stead of food Wee do heare daily children crying about the streets and lamenting that they dare not goe home for feare of being killed It is kept upon record by the Magistrates of this City how that men have digged out of the graves dead bodies and have eaten them A woman was found dead having a mans head rosted by her and the rib of a man in her mouth holding it betweene her teeth and of this horrible spectacle all sorts of men can give testimony Such and many more signes of Gods heavie wrath wee could write unto you of but this shall suffice to give you a touch of the extremities wee are in O how seasonable are those almes which are sent hither to keepe some of us alive That faithfull God who hath made so many promises to the liberall heart will undoubtedly consider those that consider our poore Countrey-men in these extremities and keep them from famishing Andreas Pilger Pastor CHAP. I. EVills of Punishment are Gods the evil of Sinne is wholly ours Whatsoever was the impulsive cause of his judgements our wholsomest use is to attribute them to our sins to greater sins greater Judgements seeing God seemeth to observe a proportion to our deserts for Ezck. 14. 21. the Prophet speaks of foure sore Judgements that is greater and more grievous than the rest famine sword pestilence and the noisome beast with these hath he lately visited some nations especially Germany before a large populous fertile and flourishing Countrey

flight starke naked in the night Marchants Robed and slaine persons priuelegdd Rifled Divines cutt in peaces Two Countesles of great nobility with their faire daughters and followers in distresse were entertained by us in the castle of Heydelberg the one immediately before the other in the time of the siege When our hope of subsisting began to faile they went away with the enemies pasport Notwithstanding which they were by them robbed and rifled in their coaches of all they had not sparing the very garments that covered them The priviledged persons of royall Embassadours their goods and followers cannot be secured from them witnes this yeare the shamefull plundering of the Danish Embassadour What quarter they give to the traveller the like or worse they afford the inhabitants if they escape with their lives this is all and well too when the time hath beene that one might have travelled safe from the one end of Germany to the other with a white rod in his hand and an hundred pound in his purse Indeed they robbe one another every where out of their quarter nor are they fellow souldiers any longer when they have opportunity to play the theeves Nor God nor devil do they acknowledge but when they sweare nor is any thing so vile but they will doe it CHAP. VI. Of Bloodshed and killing AS for killing this is the least of all the rest Death puts an end to all miseries onely they that survive are oft-times the worse for want of them that are dead To report the blood-shed of this warre would be incredible Alsted saith that before the King of Swedens comming it had consumed no lesse than 100000. If this be true what hath it done since How many millions have miserably perished They have sometimes killed one another and among other precedents this is not least remarkable that Gourdon and Lesley Scotch Colonells with Colonell Butler the Irish man who killed Walstein the Count of Tirskie and other Imperiall officers then ready to revolt to the Swedish party are now this yeere after the same manner hurt or killed themselves as is written by Gallas his followers upon a dispute about that former businesse a Document for all strangers to take heede how they collogue with those monsters in such dangerous actions who love the Treason but hate the Traytor Priests slaine at the Altars Croats eate Children Noses eares Cut of to make hatbandes At Landshood in Bavier the souldiers entring by force killed not only all they found in arms but the innocent inhabitants yea the very Priests kneeling at the Altars and divers other instances of like nature I could produce Now what may the poore peasant and countrey-dwellers expect to kill them if they resist or refuse them any thing is but ordinary in this warre among the Imperiallists is a base sort of rascally horse-men which serve them and are called Croats The tenth part of them are not of that Countrey for they are a miscellany of all strange nations without God without religion and have only the outsides of men and scarse that too They make no conscience of murthering men or women old or young yea the very innocent babes and like the beasts among whom they are bred doe sometimes eat them when other food might be found the poore people have by these beene every where knocked downe in the fields and wayes slaughtered stabbed tortured barbarously Their fellow souldiers are not much behind them having some where left such foot-steps of their cruelty that there scarce remaine living to relate the sufferings of the dead I have seen them beat out the braines of poore old decrepid women as in sport and commit other outrages of like nature which my brevity wil not permit me to relate It is now growne so usuall with the poore people to see one slaine before anothers face that as though there were no relation no affection of neighbourhood kindred or friendship among them none compassionateth almost none cryeth out oh my father or oh my brother As for quarter that is mercy and the saving of the lives of the vanquished when they beg it on their knees the vanquishers have been oft times inhumane The Croats till of late never gave any quarter but killed whatsoever enemy they had at their mercy The like did the Curlins the regiment of hell receive pay of them of Gaunt and Bruges to bring the nose and ears of their enemies away to their Masters Tilly after the defeate of the Duke of Brunswicke at Heuxt on the Maine drew out of that town threescore poor souldiers caused them all to bee killed in the cold blood before the gate saying that he sacrificed them to Count Mansfield their master I could weary my reader with these examples But I forbeare CHAP. VII Of Burning and Destroying 2000. villages burnt in Bauaria No tillage nor Breding Cattell But dringe all in to Citties FOr burning pulling down and ruining of Churches Cities Villages the like hath not been heard The Swedish army burned above 2000 Villages in Bavaria in revenge of the Palatine cause But their enemies spare meither foes nor friends What goodly houses of the Nobility and Gentry shall you there see fallen down or so defaced as is scarce reparable without building new From what quarter soever the army riseth they will bee sure to leave some dwellings in the ashes some in the smoake To that passe it is now come that every one that is a man betaketh himselfe to arms There is now no other aboad but some campe no other plow to follow no other imployment but the warre for he that is not an actor with the rest must needes bee a sufferer among the miserable patients No tilling of the land no breeding of cattell for if they should the next yeare the souldiers devoure it Better to sit still than to labour and let others reape the profits Hence an universall desolation Part of the people swarme as banished in strange countries as I have observed in Suisse at Lausan Berne Basil c. in France in Italy especially the Venetian territories From Basil to Strasburg from Strasburg to Heydelberg from thence to Marpurg I scarse saw a man in the fields or Villages Little better shall a man finde it tha● travelleth from the Kingdome of France to the middle of Bohemia from the Alps above Auspurg to the Baltique sea a square of land little lesle than thrice all Great Britaine Onely here and there as the land hath rest the dwellers return But alas the farre greater part are extinguished by war misery or length of time CHAP. VIII Of Famine Eateing dead horses Fowles eate the dead FAmine commeth next in place a thing so grievous that David preferred the pestilence in his choicy To see men slaine by the sword or die of contagious diseases is not yet so grievous as to see them dye of famine or kill to eate one another In Samaria besieged by Benhadad King of Syria the famine was so