The Diary of Caspar Kruse III, Executioner: Goslar, 13 March 1635 – Bells for the Emperor

 

Today the bells of the Marktkirche and the Sankt Stephani Church rang without pause, heavy and solemn. It was for the death of our emperor Ferdinand II, who had already died on 15 February in Vienna. The news reached Goslar late, but today it was officially commemorated.

The Council had ordered that all churches ring their bells and that the citizens gather in prayer. In the Marktkirche there was a special service, where the preacher spoke about obedience to the authority instituted by God Himself. He preached that the emperor, distant though he was from us, represented the place of God’s order in the empire, and that therefore we must pray for his soul and for the future of the Holy Roman Empire.

The church was full. I saw citizens, councillors and guild brothers, all in sombre attire. The women whispered softly, the children were silent. Outside, on the marketplace, many remained standing, listening to the bell-ringing that rolled over the city for hours.

I stood in the church and listened, but my thoughts wandered. To me, Ferdinand was a distant ruler, whose decrees we sometimes felt in taxes or commands, but whom I had never seen with my own eyes. Yet I felt that we were leaving an era behind. The empire is torn by war, and with the death of an emperor there always comes uncertainty.

What will his successor bring? More war, more burdens for the people? Or peace, for which we have long yearned? I could not say.

When I walked home, the bells were still ringing. Their sound carried far over the rooftops and echoed along the city walls. Anna walked beside me and said: “May God grant us a better time than the one we now know.”

Today, 13 March 1635, Goslar commemorated the death of the emperor. For us citizens, life remains hard, but we place our hope in God’s hand and wait to see what the future of the empire will bring us.




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