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Chap. VI.
RELICS OF POPERY.
85
monks were provided for. In the churches matters
remained much as they were; * but the conventual
buildings, being confiscated and becoming property of the
crown, were mostly destroyed, or at any rate despoiled of
their Romish ornaments. I myself have seen, in the
remote villages of the islands, ancient censers of the
Val-demerian period preserved in the same vestry cupboard
with the sacramental plate, and, on inquiring why they
were still retained, have received as answer, “ They
have always been there.” Frederic II. would allow of
no dissent, no Calvinistic tendencies; the Lutheran was
the recognised religion of the land, and that people
must hold to, or nothing. Christian IV., his son, though
he was kind to and fought for the fortunes of our
“ Winter Queen,” the daughter of his sister Anne, never
forgave his nephew for breaking the crucifixes and
images at Prague. One day, on entering a room,
in a corner of which he observed hanging a crucifix
* Superstition became more rife than ever, not only among the
people, but equally with the clergy themselves, who were looked
upon as practisers of the black art, wizards, and necromancers.
“ A parson who knew more than the Lord’s Prayer ”—as the term
was to designate one who dealt in the black art—was supposed
to have gained his knowledge from the Evil One on the stipulation that
he never used the word “ Amen ” in the course of the service. The
historian of the province of Aarhuus declares that a priest of
Øster-haab, near Horsens, was never heard to pronounce it in the course of
his life. By this means he gained a knowledge of all that passed in
his house. He had in his service a girl who was betrothed to the
farmer’s servant, and who sometimes stole down into the cellar to
draw strong beer for her intended. One evening this girl was missing;
everybody wondered, except the parson, who paced up and down the
room, laughing in his sleeve. At bedtime he said, “ Poor Maren!
she has got out the tap, but cannot put it in again.’’ The next
morning he took the farmer’s servant with him into the cellar ; and there
the girl was sitting on the ground, her finger in the tap-hole, and could
not get it out until her master gave her leave. A strong case of
mesmerism !
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