# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 02 28_S110
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

110
The Emigration of the Evangelical Lutheran Salzburgers in the Years 1731, 32 and 33.

(Continuation)

The distress of our poor Salzburgers grew the longer the more oppressive. Their possessions dwindled away before the unjust payments to worldly and spiritual extortioners; almost daily they were disturbed in their work outdoors, or in their wretched rest at home; in many districts the prisons filled up.

Then the congregations became restless; a dull murmuring went from mouth to mouth; in the darkness of the night, beside dreadful chasms, through deep abysses and over rigid glaciers the persecuted came together in lonely places. People who had never seen one another before fell here into one another's arms like long-known faithful friends, wept out their misery upon hearts that suffered alike, and gave one another their hands upon it, to hold together faithfully and firmly to the Word of God and among themselves. Such nightly assemblies became ever more frequent. Through fellowship they felt their cares lightened, indeed their fear changing into courage against their oppressors. From this time on one heard now and then protest against the acts of violence, threats against the tyrannical government,—the matter did indeed take on a serious shape. There were even found incitements to rebellion, from those on the mountains to those in the valleys; some writs of the government were torn from the doors of the courthouses, and by night the arsenal at Werfen was broken open and plundered. This threefold offense, however, did not proceed from the Lutherans, as the judges themselves brought to light at the investigation, but from some malicious Papists who wished to bring their poor countrymen under still greater suspicion.

At the first news of these occurrences, and as the treatment of the heretics generally became more difficult, couriers were sent from the residence to Vienna, to the Emperor, and he was asked for auxiliary troops, since a rebellion had broken out in the land. Also in all the surrounding lands they sought to spread the rumor of an outbreak of revolt, and we shall see later quite well why. Meanwhile the Archbishop let his soldiers march into the mountains. These drove apart wherever only four stood together, and otherwise also, as they say, lived in true soldier fashion; and the Lutherans—committed it to God and suffered.

But, I hear the reader ask, did not our fellow believers look about for protection and help from abroad? Or did the Lutherans of other lands look on so quietly and idly while their poor brethren had to suffer so miserably? They did indeed send messengers into the German Empire, to the princes; the Lutherans of other lands did indeed think of putting a stop to the Archbishop; but so long as those remained on Salzburg soil, no justice and no help was to be found for them, as the reader shall likewise learn hereafter to his satisfaction.

But behold, the distress seemed unexpectedly to turn, for the oppressors made as though to treat those of Lutheran mind more kindly than ever before. The Chancellor Röll, whom we already know, suddenly set out from Salzburg with two companions and went from district to district to write down the names and the property of the Lutherans and to hear their grievances. With the greatest kindliness he listened to them, with the gentlest words he spoke to them, yes, he even gave them permission to hold divine service in their houses in their own manner for the time being, and in general made them the most delightful promises for the future. Admiration and rapture seized the guileless minds at such treatment from the minister of the state. From the remotest huts they ran of their own accord to the place and pressed forward to have their names and possessions written down. They thought of nothing evil; they saw into golden days of the future, and their long-oppressed hearts breathed again lightly and gladly. But for us it is not hard to discover the wolf under the sheep's clothing.

When the Chancellor came to the end of his journey, 20,678 persons stood upon his list, and among them 850 rich families, at which he himself was astonished. Now, however, he cast off the sheep's clothing. Scarcely had he re-entered through the gate of the capital when every concession was revoked, every promise given the lie. The old plagues and terrors renewed themselves, and now no one could any longer conceal his faith and his possessions. Truly a bitterly wicked, poisonous, devilish jest which the Chancellor had played with the poor Lutherans.

In consequence of this there vanished from the deceived minds all hope of a better time in the fatherland, and the thought which had risen in them earlier became a firm resolve, namely to emigrate and under another sky to seek a place of freedom and peace. True, we all have a mighty feeling of attachment to the soil where we were born and spent the harmless time of youth; but among mountain dwellers this feeling is much mightier still, so that, for example, it is well known that many a Swiss abroad has been seized with an irresistible longing for his native mountains, and would have died had he not returned to them. No wonder that the resolution to emigrate could ripen in our good Salzburgers only amid bitter pains, that they could look up to their green Alps only with tear-filled eyes and walk through their spring-rich valleys only when they vividly pictured to themselves that they must depart from them forever. Yet the love of God's Word and of the eternal home made them strong to take the resolution to separate from the earthly home and, as we shall hear later, to carry it out steadfastly.

The evangelical congregations now agreed to send together their most pious and wisest men on an appointed day to a great consultation. On the Sunday before St. Lawrence, at earliest morning, more than a hundred men from all sides climbed down over the rocky paths into the Schwarzach, a lonely place in the Salzach valley. A deep stillness hovered over their circle; they uncovered their heads and folded their hands. In the midst of the assembly stood a large salt cask. Around this they knelt down, dipped their moistened fingers into the salt and raised their right hands toward heaven. They swore to the triune God that they would hold to the Lutheran faith unbrokenly in life and in death, and would show one another, in their common misery, brotherly love and unshakable fidelity. Then they swallowed, under silent tears, the salt as a memorial of their covenant. They took salt for this solemn act perhaps once for the reason that it is the most valuable product of the Salzburg land; but then it could serve as a beautiful emblem, showing that their present undertaking was indeed something very bitter, but yet something necessary and very salutary; but chiefly they wished by it, no doubt, to signify the enduring, the incorruptible nature of their covenant, as indeed already in the Holy Scripture the firm covenant between God and Israel is called a covenant of salt. Num. 18, 19. 2 Chron. 13, 5. Thereupon they took counsel how they might mitigate their present misery as far as possible and how they would provide for the future. And in this latter they agreed to send deputies to the Protestant princes of Germany, to ask of them protection for their emigration and new dwelling places. That is the great Council, or the Covenant of Salt, of the fifth of August, 1731.

The next consequence of it among the Lutherans was that the Spirit of the God whom they had called upon in common bound their souls still more closely and mightily strengthened them in the feeling of a common holy cause. Freer and more courageous than ever before they now came forward with their confession of the pure Word of God; more openly and more numerously than ever before they held their religious meetings, and for lack of bells the signals for assembly were given by shots and drums.

But the next consequence of all this on the part of the government was that it promptly sent out a new band of soldiers to take prisoner the leaders of the disturbers of the peace, as they were more and more decried. The news of it ran before the soldiers from district to district. Anxiety and terror drove the Lutherans up; they crowded up into the mountains in a great multitude. But in the fellowship their courage grew again; they kept weapons ready; the danger gave them