ain their
daily food by bodily labour; they were the greatest sufferers from any
decrease in the wealth, morality, or population of their villages. One
must bear witness that a very great number of them endured all these
dangers as true servants of Christ. Most of them adhered to their
parishes almost to the very last man. Their churches were plundered and
burnt, chalice and crucifix stolen, the altar desecrated with
disgusting ordures, and the bells torn from the towers and carried
away. Then they held divine service in a barn, or an open field, or in
the cover of a green wood. When the parishioners had almost perished,
so that the voice of the singer was heard no more, and the penitential
hymns were no longer intoned by the chanter, they still called the
remains of their congregation together at the hour of prayer. They were
vigorous and zealous both in giving comfort and in exercising
discipline; for the greater the misery of their parishioners, the more
reason they had to be dissatisfied with them. Frequently they were the
first to suffer from the demoralization of the villagers: theft and
insolent wantonness were willingly practised against those whose
indignant looks and solemn admonitions had heretofore overawed them.
Hence their fate is particularly characteristic of that iron time, and
we happily possess numerous records concerning them, frequently in
church documents, in which they bemoaned their sufferings, when no one
would listen to them. From such records of Thuringian and Franconian
village pastors, only a few examples will here be given.

Magister Michael Ludwig was pastor at Sonnenfeld, about 1633; there he
preached to his parishioners in the wood under the canopy of heaven;
they were called together by the sound of the trumpet, instead of the
bell, and it was necessary to place an armed watch whilst he preached;
thus he continued for eight years, till his parishioners entirely
disappeared. A Swedish officer then appointed him preacher to his
regiment; he was afterwards made president of the army consistory at
Torstenson, and superintendent at Wismar. Georg Faber preached at
Gellershausen, read prayers daily to three or four hearers, always at
the risk of his life: he rose every morning at three o'clock and
learned his sermon entirely by heart; besides that, he wrote learned
treatises upon the books of the Bible.

In the neighbouring towns of the interior, the clergy had as much to
undergo. For exampl