the intimidated burgesses were
driven to the determination of accepting confirmation; most of the men
of the community took the Lord's Supper according to the Roman Catholic
custom, unblessed by the cup. The more steadfast of the citizens,
however, were compelled to go away in misery. Hardly had the Jesuits
left the town, when the people fell back again, the citizens rushed to
the neighbouring villages, where there were still evangelical pastors,
and were there married and baptized; their churches standing empty
under a Roman Catholic priest. There were new threatenings, and new
deeds of violence. The upright burgomaster Schubert was carried off to
severe imprisonment, but the Council now declared boldly that they
would die for the Augsburg Confession; the burgesses pressed round the
governor of the province in wild tumult. The executioners of the
Emperor, "_the beatifiers_" rode through the gates; great part of the
citizens flew with their wives and children out of the town; all the
villages were full of exiles, who were brought back with violence by
the soldiers and apostate citizens, and put into prison till they could
produce certificates of confession; those who fled further, were driven
into Saxony. A new Council was now established--as was the custom in
those times--of unworthy and disreputable men. The houses abandoned by
the citizens were plundered; many waggons heavily laden with furniture
were bought of Roman Catholic neighbours, by the soldiers, and carried
off. The new Council lived in a shameless manner. The King's judge--an
apostate Loewenberger advocate--and the Senators, ill treated the secret
Protestants, and endeavoured to enrich themselves from the town
property. Two hundred and fifty citizens lived in exile with their
families; one side of the market-place was entirely uninhabited, long
grass grew there, and cattle pastured upon it. In the winter, hunger
and cold drove the women and children at last back to the ruined
houses. The leading spirit of the new Council was one Julius, who had
been a Franciscan, a desperate fellow, not at all like a monk, who wore
under his capoche golden bracelets. Then a Roman Catholic priest,
Exelmann, son of an evangelical preacher, was established there. But
however crushed and dispersed the citizens were, the offices of the
priest and the new town council were not undisputed. All the
authorities of the town were not yet under constraint. How the
opposition resisted, w