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SIDONIA THE SORCERESS V2
SIDONIA THE SORCERESS V2 WILLIAM MIENHOLD Produced by Steve Schulze Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
This file was produced from images generously made available
by the CWRU Preservation Department Digital Library
SIDONIA THE SORCERESS
THE SUPPOSED DESTROYER OF THE WHOLE REIGNING DUCAL HOUSE OF
POMERANIA.
TRANSLATED BY LADY WILDE
MARY SCHWEIDLER
THE AMBER WITCH BY WILLIAM MEINHOLD DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY
IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. II.
1894
CONTENTS
SIDONIA THE SORCERESS.
BOOK III.
Continued.
FROM THE RECEPTION OF SIDONIA INTO THE CONVENT AT MARIENFLIESS
UP TILL HER EXECUTION AUGUST 19TH 1620.
CHAPTER IV.
How Dorothea Stettin is talked out of the sub-prioret by Sidonia
and the priest is prohibited from visiting the convent.
CHAPTER V.
How Sidonia wounds Ambrosia von Guntersberg with an axe because
she purposed to marry--And prays the convent porter Matthias
Winterfeld to death--For these and other causes the reverend
chaplain refuses to shrive the sorceress and denounces her
publicly from the altar.
CHAPTER VI.
Dorothea Stettin falls sick and how the doctor manages to bleed
her--Item how Sidonia chases the princely commissioners into the
oak-forest.
CHAPTER VII.
How the assembled Pomeranian princes hold a council over Sidonia
and at length cite her to appear at the ducal court.
CHAPTER VIII.
Of Sidonia's defence--Item how she has a quarrel with Joachim
Wedel and bewitches him to death.
CHAPTER IX.
How a strange woman (who must assuredly have been Sidonia) incites
the lieges of his Grace to great uproar and tumult in Stettin by
reason of the new tax upon beer.
CHAPTER X.
Of the fearful events that take place at Marienfliess--Item how
Dorothea Stettin becomes possessed by the devil.
CHAPTER XI.
Of the arrival of Diliana and the death of the convent priest--
Item how the unfortunate corpse is torn by a wolf.
CHAPTER XII.
How Jobst Bork has himself carried to Marienfliess in his bed to
reclaim his fair young daughter Diliana--Item how George
Putkammer threatens Sidonia with a drawn sword.
CHAPTER XIII.
How my gracious Lord Bishop Franciscus and the reverend Dr. Joel
go to the Jews' school at Old Stettin in order to steal the Schem
Hamphorasch and how the enterprise finishes with a sound.
cudgelling.
CHAPTER XIV.
How the Duke Francis seeks a virgin at Marienfliess to cite the
angel Och for him--Of Sidonia's evil plot thereupon and the
terrible uproar caused thereby in the convent.
CHAPTER XV.
Of the death of the abbess Magdalena von Petersdorfin--Item how
Duke Francis makes Jobst Bork and his daughter Diliana come to
Camyn and what happens there.
CHAPTER XVI.
Jobst Bork takes away his daughter by force from the Duke and Dr.
Joel; also is strengthened in his unbelief by Dr. Cramer--Item
how my gracious Prince arrives at Marienfliess and there
vehemently menaces Sidonia.
CHAPTER XVII.
Of the fearful death of his Highness Duke Philip II. of
Pomerania and of his melancholy but sumptuous burial.
CHAPTER XVIII.
How Jobst Bork and his little daughter are forced at last into the
"Opus Magicum"--Item how his Highness Duke Francis appoints
Christian Ludecke his attorney-general to be witch-commissioner
of Pomerania.
CHAPTER XIX.
How Christian Ludecke begins the witch-burnings in Marienfliess
and lets the poor dairy-mother die horribly on the rack.
CHAPTER XX.
What Sidonia said to these doings--Item what our Lord God said;
and lastly of the magical experiment performed upon George
Putkammer and Diliana in Old Stettin.
CHAPTER XXI.
Of the awful and majestic appearance of the sun-angel Och.
CHAPTER XXII.
How old Wolde is seized confronted with Sidonia and finally
burned before her window.
CHAPTER XXIII.
How Diliana Bork and George Putkammer are at length betrothed--
Item how Sidonia is degraded from her conventual dignities and
carried to the witches' tower of Saatzig in chains.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Of the execution of Sidonia and the wedding of Diliana.
CONCLUSION.
Mournful destiny of the last princely Pomeranian remains--My visit
to the ducal Pomeranian vault in Wolgast on the 6th May 1840.
THE AMBER WITCH.
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER VII.
How the Imperialists robbed me of all that was left and likewise
broke into the church and stole the Vasa Sacra; also what
more befell us.
CHAPTER VIII.
How our need waxed sorer and sorer and how I sent old Ilse with
another letter to Pudgla and how heavy a misfortune this brought
upon me.
CHAPTER IX.
How the old maid-servant humbled me by her faith and the Lord yet
blessed me His unworthy servant.
CHAPTER X.
How we journeyed to Wolgast and made good barter there.
CHAPTER XI.
How I fed all the congregation--Item how I journeyed to the
horse-fair at Guetzkow and what befell me there.
CHAPTER XII.
What further joy and sorrow befell us-Item how Wittich Appelmann
rode to Damerow to the wolf-hunt and what he proposed to my
daughter.
CHAPTER XIII.
What more happened during the winter--Item how in the spring
witchcraft began in the village.
CHAPTER XIV.
How old Seden disappeared all on a sudden--Item how the great
Gustavus Adolphus came to Pomerania and took the fort at
Peenemuende.
CHAPTER XV.
Of the arrival of the high and mighty King Gustavus Adolphus and
what befell thereat.
CHAPTER XVI.
How little Mary Paasch was sorely plagued of the devil and the
whole parish fell off from me.
CHAPTER XVII.
How my poor child was taken up for a witch and carried to Pudgla.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Of the first trial and what came thereof.
CHAPTER XIX.
How Satan by the permission of the most righteous God sought
altogether to ruin us and how we lost all hope.
CHAPTER XX.
Of the malice of the Governor and of old Lizzie--Item of the
examination of witnesses.
CHAPTER XXI.
De confrontations testium.
CHAPTER XXII.
How the Syndicus Dom. Michelson arrived and prepared his
defence of my poor child.
CHAPTER XXIII.
How my poor child was sentenced to be put to the question.
CHAPTER XXIV.
How in my presence the devil fetched old Lizzie Kolken.
CHAPTER XXV.
How Satan sifted me like wheat whereas my daughter withstood him
right bravely.
CHAPTER XXVI.
How I received the Holy Sacrament with my daughter and the old
maid-servant and how she was then led for the last time before
the court with the drawn sword and the outcry to receive
sentence.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Of that which befell us by the way--Item of the fearful death of
the sheriff at the mill.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
How my daughter was at length saved by the help of the all-merciful
yea of the all-merciful God.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Of our next great sorrow and final joy.
BOOK III. Continued.
FROM THE RECEPTION OF SIDONIA INTO THE CONVENT AT MARIENFLIESS UP
TILL HER EXECUTION AUGUST 19TH 1620.
VOL. II.
CHAPTER IV.
How Dorothea Stettin is talked out of the sub-prioret by
Sidonia and the priest is prohibited from visiting the
convent.
If Sidonia could not be the pastor's wife she was determined at
least to be sub-prioress and commenced her preparations for this
object by knitting a little pair of red hose for her cat. Then she
sent for Dorothea Stettin saying that she was weak and ill and
no one took pity on her.
When the good Dorothea came as she was asked there lay my serpent
on the bed in her nun's robes groaning and moaning as if her last
hour had come; and scarcely had the sub-prioress taken a seat near
her when my cat crept forth from under the bed in his little red
hose mewing and rubbing himself up against the robe of the
sub-prioress as if praying her to remove this unwonted constraint
from him of the little red hose.
After Dorothea had inquired about her sickness she looked at the
cat and asked wonderingly what was the meaning of such a strange
dress?
Illa.--"Ah dear friend it was dreadful to my feelings to see the
little animal going about naked therefore I knit little hose for
him as you see; indeed I am often tempted to wonder how the Lord
God could permit the poor animals to appear naked before us."
Haec (extending her arms for joy so that she almost tumbled back
off the stool).--"Oh God be praised and thanked at last I have
found one chaste soul in this wicked world! (sobs throws up her
eyes falls upon Sidonia's neck kisses her and weeps over her:)
ah yes one chaste soul at last like herself!"
Illa.--"True Dorothea there is no virtue so rare in this
evil world as chastity. Ah why has the Lord God placed such
things before our eyes? I never can comprehend it and never will.
What a sight for a chaste virgin these naked animals! What did the
dear sister think on the matter?"
Haec.--"Ah she knew not what to think had asked the priest
about it."
Illa.--"And what did he say?"
Haec.--"He laughed at her."
Illa.--"Just like him the lewd hypocritical pharisee."
Haec.--"Eh? she was too hard on the good priest. He was a
pure and upright servant of God."
Illa.--"Ay as Judas was. Had not sister Dorothea
heard----"
Haec.--"No; for God's sake what? The dear sister frightened
her already."
Illa.--"First you confess that the priest laughed when you
talked about chastity?"
Haec.--"Yes true ah indeed true."
Illa.--"Then you remember that he preached a sermon lately
upon adul--upon adul--. No she never could utter the word--the
horrible word. Upon the seventh commandment to the great scandal
of the entire convent?"
Haec.--"Ah yes ah yes she was there and had to stop one
ear with her finger the other with her kerchief not to hear all
the strange and dreadful things he was saying."
Illa.--"And yet this was the man that ran in and out of the
cloister daily at his pleasure sent for or not--a young unmarried
man--though the convent rules especially declared an old
man. Ah if she were sub-prioress this scandal should
never be permitted."
Haec.--"What could be done? it was a blessed thing to live
in peace. Besides the priest was such a pious man."
Illa.--"Pious? Heaven defend us from such piety! Why had
she not heard?--the whole convent talked about it."
Haec.--"No no; for God's sake what had happened? tell
her--she had been making sausages all the morning and had heard
nothing."
Illa.--"Then know ah God how it pained her to talk of
it--she had heard a great noise in the kitchen in the morning as
if all the pots and pans were tumbled about and when she ran in
to see--there was the priest--oh her chaste eyes never had seen
such a sight--the pious priest making love to her old maid
Wolde."
Haec.--"Impossible impossible!--to her old maid Wolde?"
Illa.-"Yea and he was praying her for kisses and praising
her fat hand and extolling her white hair. But as to what more
she had seen----"
Haec.--"For God's sake sister what more?"
Illa (sighing and covering her face with both hands).--"No
no that she could never bring her chaste lips to utter. Oh that
such wickedness should be in the world (weeping bitterly). But she
would never enter the chapel again and that priest there; nor
receive the rites from him. But this was not all; the dear sister
must hear how he revenged himself upon her because she
interrupted his toying with the old hag. It was truth all truth!
She (Sidonia) grew so ill with fright and horror that she was
unable to disrobe and threw herself on the bed just as she was
but growing weaker and weaker hour by hour sent for the priest at
last to pray with her and afterwards to offer up general
supplication for her restoration in the chapel with all the
sisterhood; but only think the shameless hypocrite refused to
pray with her because he spied an end of her black robe out of
the bed declaring she was not ill at all that she was a base
liar all because she had lain down in her convent dress and
finally went his way cursing and swearing without even saying one
prayer or uttering one word of comfort as was his duty. And now
alas! she must die without priest or sacrament! To what a Sodom
and Gomorrah she had come! But if an old hag like her maid was not
safe from the shameless parson how could she or any of them be
safe? What was to be done? unless the dear sister as
sub-prioress took the matter in her own hands and brought him to
task about it?"
At this proposal the other trembled like an aspen leaf and seemed
more dead than alive. She wept wrung her hands--for God's sake
what could she do? how could she talk on such a matter? Let the
abbess see to it if she chose.
Illa.--"Stuff the old pussy--the less said of her
the better. Why she was worse than the old maid Wolde herself."
Haec.--"The abbess? why the whole convent and the whole
world too talked of her piety and virtue."
Illa.--"Very virtuous truly to have the priest locked up
with her; and when some of the sisters wished to remain
suspecting that all was not right the priest pushed them out at
the door with his own hands and bolted it after them as many
could testify to her had been done this very day. Oh what a Sodom
and Gomorrah she had been betrayed into! (weeping sobbing and
falling upon Dorothea's neck.) I pray you sister for the sake of
our heavenly bridegroom bring this evil to an end otherwise fire
and brimstone will assuredly and justly be rained down upon our
poor cloister."
Still the other maintained "That the dear sister must err as
regarded the abbess. It might be her chaste zeal that blinded her.
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