# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 09 23_S18
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

18

and was accepted as pure truth. Already earlier, says the sentence, the citizens of the city of Thorn who adhered to the Augsburg uncatholic Confession, who had formerly been wholly Catholic, had abused the benefit of toleration and stirred up several riots, especially recently, to the disgrace of the Roman faith, to the disturbance of the general quiet and peace, to the suppression of the laws and imperial constitutions. One, by the name of Heyder, had on the churchyard of St. Jacob, at the feast of the most holy Scapular of the Mother of God, given a Catholic student, who out of godly zeal had knocked his hat from his head, boxes on the ears, and also, with the help of Karwis and other fellow citizens of his, had dragged him by force from the churchyard and delivered him to the city watch. Neither Heyder nor the vice-president Rösner had released this student at the request of Catholic pupils; on the contrary, the next day they had arrested yet another Jesuit pupil. By this they had so provoked the Catholic students, who had repeatedly asked for the release of their fellow pupils, that they led an uncatholic gymnasiast away into their school. The Uncatholics had taken this for an insult and stirred up a riot. The president, who yet had had authority over Thorn, had neither at the beginning put a stop to this tumult, nor, when the uproar increased, taken counsel with the other councilmen to quell it. Although the uncatholic gymnasiast had been let go, the people had nevertheless gone against the school and then against the college, had broken the doors, stoves, windows and benches, hewn two altars of the holy Virgin to pieces, torn the images of the crucified Savior, of the Mother of God and of many saints, pierced them with sabers and hewn them, and also carried a number of images, together with the statue of the Mother of God, the patron saint of this kingdom, out into the street and thrown and burned them in a fire kindled before the house of the vice-president Zernecke; had uttered many blasphemies and wounded the Father Rector of the Jesuits and two of his fellow brethren. The president had not punished the villains after the tumult, and had not taken such great crimes into investigation. The vice-president had calmly looked on at the tumult, without taking pains to quell the uproar, indeed had even commanded to fire upon the students; had permitted the fire and the burning of the images before his house, and had let the fire be put out only after the tumult.

That was the supposed state of the facts, and the sentence truly barbarous. Since Rösner was guilty in the uproar and Zernecke had not prevented him, their heads were to be cut off, and the goods of the former confiscated, if the plaintiffs Jakob Petrowitz and Michael Schubert, or one of them, and six witnesses should confirm their testimony by oath before the commissioners. The amount of the damage was to be made good by the Lutheran inhabitants of Thorn, and until complete settlement municipal property was to be retained as a pledge. The chief instigators of the riot, namely Heyder, Mohaupt, Hertel, the journeyman mason Hans Christoph, a journeyman carpenter whose name is unknown, the journeyman button-maker Becker, a brass-founder, the shoemakers Mertz and Wunsch, were to be beheaded; but others, who had uttered blasphemies and burned images, the butcher Karwis, the needle-maker Schultz, the gingerbread-baker Hafft, the carpenter Gutbrodt, were to have their right hand cut off before the execution, in the public market of the city of Thorn, on a scaffold erected for the purpose, if it were proved to them by oath by the plaintiffs that they were guilty of these shameful deeds. The body of Karwis was moreover to be quartered and burned, together with the bodies of the 3 other blasphemers, upon a pyre outside the city.

The burgrave Thomas and the councilman Zimmermann, because they had done nothing to quell the tumult, were to be deprived of their offices, the former to be imprisoned three months, and the latter 6 months in the city tower. The councilman Meißner was to be acquitted only if he should swear that he had at first known nothing of the riot, and that no means had been at his command to quell it; likewise the secretary Wedemeyer, if he should confirm by oath that he had thrown no stone against the college, nor incited the people to throw stones, nor given occasion to this tumult by counsel or deed. The officer of the city militia, Graurock, and the apothecary Silber as quartermaster, would indeed have deserved death, since they had men enough to quell the uproar, yes, since they had let fire be given upon the Catholic students instead of upon the rioters, and had not protected the college from the fury of the people; but since they had acted by order of the president, whom they ought certainly not to have obeyed in this case, the punishment was mitigated, they must sit below in the tower 1 year and 6 weeks, and after serving the punishment Silber was to pay 100 and Graurock 50 ducats to the plaintiffs.

The remaining criminals, about forty, partly gymnasiasts, partly citizens, journeymen craftsmen, clerks, were sentenced to imprisonment and fines of 25 to 50 ducats for the benefit of the nuns and Jesuits. The merchants whose apprentices had been present at the riot had to be liable for the proper payment. From these moneys a marble column was to be erected in honor of the holy Virgin Mary at the place where the images were burned. This column of shame, upon which a Jesuit threatening with the whipping-rod was depicted, stood in the marketplace at Thorn until the year 1821. Still other clerks and apprentices were to be chastised with lashes. In order the better to keep the uncatholic rabble in check, the magistracy, the court of aldermen and the Sixty Men were henceforth to be filled one half with Catholics. These were to be elected in the usual manner, yet for the first time in the presence of the royal commissioners, and to enter into the places of the councilmen now executed and deposed; the Catholics were to be admitted without any hindrance to citizenship and to the trade guilds, one half of the city soldiers were to consist of Catholics, all this under penalty of 500 ducats; the St. Mary's Church, in the presence of the commissioners, was to pass into the possession of the Franciscans. If anyone should disturb the processions and funeral trains of the Catholics, the city of Thorn must each time pay a fine of five hundred ducats, and according to circumstances a larger sum. All printed writings containing blasphemies against the Catholic Church, likewise the wedding sermon of the preacher Geret, were to be publicly burned by the hangman, the preachers Geret and Olof, who had not presented themselves by order of the commission, were to be declared outlawed from the kingdom, and the remaining Lutheran teachers of religion were to be warned to refrain, on pain of severe punishment, from all written and oral utterances against the Catholic faith. Also nothing might be printed in Thorn without the approval of the bishop and of the appointed censor. In order to prevent quarrels between the Catholic and Protestant pupils, the Lutheran gymnasium was to be moved to a village. The plaintiffs are reminded to hold their pupils to modesty and discipline, so that they do no violence to the Lutherans. The citizen who sent the son of Heyder, who had gone over to the Catholic Church, out of the city into foreign parts, shall present him before the commissioners on pain of a fine of 1000 thalers. The sentence concludes: "To the commissioners it is appointed for the execution of the decree, and they are charged to carry it out without any delay and exception, whatever names they may have, with military assistance; but to the magistracy and the orders of the city of Thorn it is forbidden, in the severest terms and even on pain of high treason, to oppose it."

When this bloody sentence had been read out, the crown chancellor thanked the assessors for the help they had given, and a Jesuit came forward yet with a speech which heaped praises upon the chancellor, the whole assembly and the sentence itself, of which he said that it was "not humanly, but divinely rendered."

The wretched King Augustus of Poland, a descendant of the heroic princes of the Reformation, confirmed the sentence, as well as the chosen commissioners, and gave the crown general the necessary troops. But hardly had the sentence against the city of Thorn become known in Warsaw on the 16th of November, when there followed, among strangers and outsiders also, a true