# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 09 23_S19
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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consternation. It was found that, even if the crimes were proved, which was not the case, the punishments were too severe. The ambassadors of Russia and Prussia, and of the German emperor also, interposed, and the city of Danzig, which saw in it nothing but hatred of religion, presented a petition of intercession to the king. It implored him to exercise justice after the example of God, but also not to forget mercy, and begs of God for him in return "the full measure of blessing." It availed nothing.

Speedy execution of the sentence of blood was now the one thought of the men of blood. On the 17th of November already they sent out from Warsaw a letter in which they summoned the three Orders as well as the community of Thorn to appear in person on the 5th of December at the carrying out of the sentence, or, if they stayed away, to expect that all the same everything would be proceeded with according to the king's command. This caused great consternation and lamentation, as may be imagined. The city of Thorn saw itself wholly given over to the butchers. Since these feared that the king and the great men of the realm might yet come to milder thoughts, or foreign powers hasten to the aid of the city, they hastened their murderous business. The ambassadors had at once interceded, and the King of Prussia, Frederick William I., had already on the 28th of November sent a letter to King Augustus. We must communicate some of it. "We cannot refrain from making known to Your Majesty with what deep grief we have learned the sentence which has been passed against the citizens of Thorn on account of a tumult that arose there. And indeed that sentence could only touch us in the most painful manner, by which, under the semblance of godliness, proceedings are taken against our fellow believers with fire and sword, their schools destroyed, and finally the rights of the city suppressed to the greatest disadvantage of the evangelical citizens. Had the citizens of Thorn offended against Your Majesty and the Republic (Poland) by rebellion, or were they brought before a court for some other great crime, then truly no harsher, no more cruel sentence could be passed against them. But now it concerns the punishment of a tumult which the common rabble raised against a handful of miserable Jesuits, and which these themselves to a certain extent increased and drew out. That the cruelty of the punishment is wholly out of keeping with the crime committed, and that only for the madness of a few so many innocent people are to be murdered and the city itself ruined, Your Majesty will easily judge. Yea, all fair-minded persons will perceive, what is also clear from very many signs, that that dreadful sentence against the evangelical citizens has flowed not from love of justice, but rather from the cunning and the irreconcilable hatred of the Jesuits against our religion, and that a more fitting opportunity has not readily offered itself to them to bring the evangelical citizens of Thorn not merely out of their privileges, but also, if it were possible, to root them out." He urged a new impartial investigation. The duty of taking up the cause of his fellow believers, and his assumed obligation to uphold the Peace of Oliva, bound him thereto. So spoke this valiant prince, but the murderers went on, and King Augustus let it be done.

Prince Lubomirsky, who with true delight hastened the execution of the sentence of blood, arrived at Thorn after only 26 hours with his adjutant general. The threatened men could have saved themselves by flight, but trusting in their innocence, and because they firmly believed that a just defense could not be denied them, the oath pushed upon the Jesuits, all this moved them to remain. When the president had received knowledge of the sentence of blood from Warsaw, he announced it himself to the assembled Orders with these words: "I must, as president but at the same time as the messenger of misfortune, make known to you the bloody sentence which has been passed upon us before the royal assessorial court at Warsaw. I myself am to pay for it with my blood. May God through my death deliver the Church and the city." This Christian old man could hardly believe in the possibility of the execution of the sentence. Had he not during the last siege of the city of Thorn shown fidelity toward the Polish king, and after its capture by King Charles XII of Sweden been obliged to pay a fine of 16000 gulden on account of his fidelity? He had therefore also deserved the thanks of King Augustus. Since the Orders of the city had to produce him under their own liability, he wished to spare the city still greater misfortune. He remained, therefore, and still attended, as did the vice-president Zernecke, on Sunday, the 19th of November, the divine service in St. Mary's Church. The city was already occupied by Lubomirski with 150 dragoons and some Polish cavalry, and in the nearest villages lay 3000 foot soldiers. Rösner was just returning home from vespers when eight crown soldiers seized him and brought him into strict custody. So it went also with the vice-president. On the 25th of November the other condemned persons also were cast into prison. What consternation such proceedings caused in Thorn cannot be described. The Catholics triumphed, while the Lutheran preachers in the churches called upon God for protection for the afflicted city and the prisoners, and exhorted the citizens to repentance, prayer, patience and trust in God.

The commissioners, all together, arrived in Thorn one after another in the first days of December, and chose for themselves the finest and best citizens' houses as dwellings. The poor, hard-stricken city stood wholly under the power of its oppressors. The council had immediately brought a petition for postponement of the execution to the king, but the Jesuits pressed for the hastening of it, and that the term of the execution on the 15th of December should not be extended, but rather shortened. Both parties sent their letters to Warsaw, and Prince Lubomirski accompanied them with such a representation that the royal order, which came back, even shortened the term by 8 days. The two burgomasters, conscious of their innocence, had turned to the commission for a mitigation of the punishment, and besides each of them in a special letter to the prince. They were heart-moving letters, but they struck a heart of stone. Therefore they were also fruitless. Karwis turned to the voivode Rybinski, he brought a series of witnesses for his innocence, reminded him of his poor mother of 70 years, of his wife great with child, "who is almost perishing from great heart-grief," of his 4 yet unreared children. The wife of the shoemaker Mertz, who proved by many witnesses that her husband had not in the least helped in the riot, implored the same voivode in a petition, "for the sake of the innocent blood of Jesus Christ," not to let her husband's blood be shed, and to hear the witnesses. Seven of the condemned citizens of Thorn turned to their king. It is a remarkable document; they say therein: "God lets the sword of His strict justice be held in the scabbard by mercy, and the tears, sighing and whimpering of poor women and children have at all times been powerful to soften somewhat the sharpness of justice. Yea, experience testifies that mercy is set at the side of God and His vicegerent for this reason, that through it they can lay hold of and grasp both their hearts most nearly." They therefore ask to be heard according to German rights and Prussian customs, and point to the partial preliminary investigation. They also mention the sacrifices which the city of Thorn had let itself endure for its king; and lay upon the king's heart: "our hearts and eyes welling in tears and blood, together with the whimpering and sighing of our poor women and children, who after our death must take up the beggar's staff." He paid no heed to it; the murderers were so hardened that they wished by all means to take the blood of the innocent with them to the day of eternity.

(To be concluded.)

Notice.

The South Indiana District Conference assembles, God willing, on the 12th and 13th of October of this year, at the home of Pastor Fricke in Indianapolis.

Th. Wichmann, Secretary.