# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 10 11_S25
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.
"God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall pass away nevermore." (Rev. John, ch. 14, v. 6.)
Published by the German Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States.
Edited by C. F. W. Walther.
Year 10.  St. Louis, Mo., the 11th of October 1853.  No. 4.
Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at the annual subscription price of One Dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who must pay it in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 Cents. Only those letters which contain communications for the paper are to be sent to the Editor; all others, however, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent hither under the address Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

The Bloodbath of Thorn.
A Picture from the History of the Jesuits
by
K. F. Ledderhose.
(Conclusion.)

On the 5th of December 1724 the blood-judges assembled in the town hall. The Palatine Rybinski, already named, and the Crown Chamberlain Lubomirski presided. On the side of the accusers stood the Jesuit Martin Wolenski and the Crown Prosecutor. For the city there spoke the burgomaster Schultz together with several members of the court of aldermen and of the third estate. Thereupon all the prisoners were brought in. They appeared in their ordinary clothing. Only the President had laid aside his robe of office and came forward in plain citizen's dress with a staff in his hand. When one of the judges rebuked him for it, he said: "I present myself here as a pilgrim, who, when the staff is broken over him, must journey into eternity, or, if he is allowed to live, must go into exile. Therefore I have clothed myself as is required for both ways." The Warsaw sentence was now read to the prisoners at full length in the Latin language. But since few of them understood it, it had to be interpreted.

The Father Rector of the Jesuits was now asked whether his fellow-brethren Jakob Piotrowitz and Michael Schubert, or one of them, were ready to take the oath. He replied that the rules of his order forbade the oath upon blood, and proposed seven other witnesses who were willing to swear the oath in his stead. The secretary of the city objected to the substitution, because the sentence expressly said that the two Jesuits themselves, or one of them, should swear. He also pointed out that it was already 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and that oaths had hitherto been taken only in the morning. The witnesses he rejected, because among them was a brother of the order known as a drunkard, and the six others, Polish students, had in part not been present at the riot at all. It is told that one of these witnesses, when he was afterwards called to account by a friend for his perjury, answered: "The Lutherans and all other heretics are in any case regarded by us Catholics as nothing else than people condemned to the fire. If we can now help one to it, we do a meritorious work." The friend called that an unchristian cruelty, but the other said: "He and the other witnesses had been instructed thoroughly enough by the Jesuits, and the excommunication which the Pope at Rome pronounces solemnly every year against all heretics could well set his mind at rest." With such a deadened conscience the witnesses took their oath. According to Polish laws everyone had won his case who swore the oath by three, five, or seven witnesses. The oath was already sworn when a letter from the papal legate arrived, which forbade the Jesuits the taking of the oath. It was no longer heeded. The condemned were led back to the prison. Toward 10 o'clock in the evening Captain Röling announced to the President Rösner and to the Vice-President Zernecke that they were to be beheaded early in the morning of the 7th of December and might prepare themselves for death. The others also learned the bloody tidings. On the following day, the 6th of December, on St. Nicholas' Day, the scaffold for the execution was erected in the market-place. The monks of all kinds, such as were at home in Thorn, now set every means of persuasion in motion to make the condemned Catholic, with the promise that their lives should then be given them. They stormed in upon the old President especially all day long. He begged them to leave him alone until 6 o'clock in the evening. Immediately the priests spread the report through the city that he would become Catholic and had only asked for a short time to consider. Polish nobles also sought to move him to change over. But they were shipwrecked on the faith of the honest old man, who also turned away friends who advised him to deny Lutheranism only in appearance. He remained steadfast, this precious witness of blood,