Cultural Contacts of Seventeenth Century Estonia as Reflected in Clerical and Historical Source Materials

Cultural Contacts of Seventeenth Century Estonia
as Reflected in Clerical and Historical Source Materials
JUHAN KAHK
At the end of the 16th century the European witch-hunting campaign finally
reached the Baltic. We do not know when the first trial for witchcraft
was held in Estonia and how many were persecuted at the turn of the 16th
to the 1 7th century. Up to the Gustav Adolf court reform of the 1630’s
the nobility tried their own peasants and the archives contain very few
trial records from those years. The first piece of information dates back
to 1596, when according to the Tartu Jesuits some witches were burned at
the stake in Tartu.1
Already the first trial records suggest typical maleficium-trials. Either
the manorial offleials or (more often) peasants themselves accused some
peasant woman or man of having harmed them through sorcery – the
sickness or death of animals and people, crop failure and fires were blamed
on witches.2 Accusations like these prevail at the trials in Estonia as weil
as elsewhere in Europe all through the 1 7th century.3
Estonian trial reccords also contain data on the all-European themes
like pacts with the devil, werewolves and flying to sabbaths. By studying
the specific features and spread of these themes we can learn something of
Estonian cultural ties and influences.
As we know, one of the so-called ideological pillars of witch-hunting
and trials for witchcraft was the image of the devil luring people to enter
into contracts with him. The contract was sealed with the man or woman
giving three drops of his/her blood and the devil putting his mark on
his/her body (the judges always tried to find this mark on the body of the
1 V. Helk, Die Jesuiten in Dorpat 1 5 83-1625. Ein Vorpost der Gegenreformation in
Nordosteuropa (Odense, 1977) 84.
2 M.J. Eisen, Eestimaa nöidade pöletamine [The burning of witches in Estonia], in:
„Agu“ 1923, 1 5 87-1590, 1633-1638.
3 J. Kahk, Inimesed ja olud „vanal heal“ Rootsi ajal [People and circumstances in „good
old“ Swedish time], in: „Looming“ 1983 , 8, 1102-1103, 1107-1108, 1111-1113.
28
accused) . The contractor could then use sorcery for procuring wealth or
harming enemies, but in the end would burn in hell.
Images of pacts with the devil rarely appear in Estonian witch-trials.
In 1699, a Räpina cotter Tatrasandi Mihkel went to the manorial mill to
have his master’s grain ground. There he was told to wait his turn by
the manorial master brewer Preedi Villem. This „irritated him to such
an extent that he cast a spell on him at once“ . The master brewer lost
his sanity and almost drowned himself. The local bailiff claimed that
“ … the peasants have long ago complained of Mihkel being a sorcerer and
having harmed many people, horses and cattle“ .4 The bailiff then had him
captured and interrogated. According to Tatrasandi Mihkel’s confession
his father had taken him to some lonely place in his early childhood and
invoked an invisible devil. The father had praised the devil’s witchcraft
and asked him to teach it to his son. As the devil had required a pledge,
the father had cut a lock of Mihkel’s hair and made his nose bleed and
given the hair and the blood to the devil. After that, the devil had tutored
him, giving him power to „harm anyone at his own choice“ .5 On his deathbed
the father had summoned the devil once more and told him to serve
his son as he had served hirnself in the past. But Mihkel was not half as
good as his father at sorcery, who had always been successful at it. While
making the pact with the devil, Mihkel’s father had used some incantation.
In 1694 an Anija peasant who knew the magic formula for stopping
haemorrhage, told that while making the pact with the devil he had given
him a piece of meat from his left thigh, which had left a scar as the „mark
of the devil“. 6
In Northern Estonia victims of the witch-trials of the first decades of
the 17t h century sometimes confessed to having turned into werewolves to
kill animals. Records of one trial for witchcraft clearly indicate that the
„evidence“ did not have to be spectacular – an old cottar’s wife Sihvri Kai
stumbled and fell while crossing a field in the dark and the dog accompanying
her ran away.7 Often the women who at night cured people with
magic formulas at sacred stones were suspected of being werewolves. In
4 Eesti Ajaloo Keskarhiiv Tartus (Estonian Central Archive of History in Tartu =
EAKT), f. 914, n. 1 , s. 84, 1. 4-5.
5 lbid. 1. 6.
6 EAKT, f. 861, n. 1, s. 9124, 1. 1.
7 Beit räge zur Kunde Est h – , Liv- und Kurlands 2 (Riga, 1874) 325-343.
29
1667 some church oflicials on their visitation tour spied on the county of
Maarja-Magdaleena a peasants‘ Midsummer Night ritual to eure illnesses.8
Researchers have already pointed out that Livonia became groundlessly
famous for werewolves because of the fanciful writings of the 16th
century scribe Olaus Magnus. When at the beginning of the 1920’s H. Bruining
studied the 850 prosecution cases from the years 1630 to 1710 at the
Livonian Highest Court Archive, he found that only one of them mentioned
werewolves.9 R. Winkler, who went through the documents of the gubernial
archive, discovered 35 trials for witchcraft for the whole of the 17th
century, of which only 3 dealt with werewolves.1° Folklorists agree that the
werewolf-theme is characteristic of Slavonic and German folklore, where
it is seldom mentioned and even then from the aspect of wolves turning
into humans through eating human food rather than humans turning into
wolves.
·
The central theme of dernonist ideology, however, is the witches‘ sabbath.
A detailed description can be found in a book by M. Kunze, based
on corresponding Iiterature and records of a trial for witchcraft held in
1600 in Munich.11 The traditional story runs as follows. Riding on broomsticks
and oven forks witches ßy to a hillock, where devil’s apprentices lead
them to their seats that form two circles ( the inner circle is for the more
deserving witches). To the roll of thunder a radiant throne rises from the
earth with Lucifer on it, and the witches turn to him in prayer, mockingly
distorting the paternoster. The witches offer up dead bodies of unbaptized
children that are boiled in cauldrons and eaten at the feast later on. Wild
dancing and orgy to flute music follows, the dancers hopping backwards in
a long row or in pairs, with the pairs back to back. All sorts of improprieties
take place. The newcomers swear allegiance to Lucifer. Lucifer turns
into a goat and the witches kiss his genitals. In the end Lucifer turns back
into the demonie ruler. At a sign from him the orgy stops, the magnificent
grand hall disappears, all is darkness and bleakness and the witches must
hurry home, because at the first cockcrow they will loose the ability to ßy.
8 Keel ja Kirjandus 1980, nr. 1 1 , 678.
9 Mitteilungen aus der livländischen Geschichte 22 (Riga, 1924-1928) 167, 175, 185-186.
10 Baltische Monatschrift 13 (Reval, 1895) 46-56.
11 M. Kunze, Straße ins Feuer. Vom Leben und Sterben in der Zeit des Hexenwahns
(Munich, 1982) 258-260.
30
Of course, witch-sabbaths were the product of fantasy fed with fear
and suppressed sexuality. But did they cornpieteiy iack links to reality?
Concerning secret nocturnai gatherings round carnpfire, researchers
have pointed out that shortiy before the spread of witch-hunts severai
dissenter sects (Manichees, Albigenses etc.) becarne active in Europe.
They heid secret rneetings and the Official Church accused thern of wild
orgies and devil worship.12 Moreover, European village custorns included
ancient nocturnal rituals for celebrating pre-Christian anniversaries round
campfire, which were kept secret from the Official Church.U One was the
tradition of Midsurnmer Night popular in Estonia and Latvia.
Up to 1990, nothing was published on Estonian witch-sabbaths. Historians
were of the opinion that in Estonia this rather central therne of
dernonist ideology was unknown, although M. Madar bad found out that
from 1580 to 1770 alone 137 trials for witchcraft were held in Estonia.14
But in the spring of 1990 records of a trial that lasted frorn January 15 to
February 23 of 1619 were found arnong the Tartu Town Council protocois,
containing unique inforrnation on a witch-sabbath.15 It started as an ordinary
maleficium-lawsuit against Eisa, wife of Piper. But when tortured
Eisa and her „accornplice“ Röngu peasant Rein described a witch-sabbath.
Let us study this description in detail so as to cornpare it to the so-to-say
dassie sabbath rnodel. Elsa said that she and Rein “ … always went to
the sabbaths held on a hill near Tartu (zu Dörben)“ . All in all, sorne 50
witches gathered there, but Eisa did not know their narnes, because rnost
of thern were already dead and, anyway, her spirit, „the flying dragon“
(ihr Geist der fliegende Trach), did not hobnob with thern. However, they
decided together, who would get good iuck and who bad luck. During
those gatherings they drank rnead and beer frorn silver rnugs. The drink
was provided by those who bad received good luck. They could go to their
gatherings whenever they wanted. But as soon as the feast was over, there
was nothing (so wäre es nichts).
Elsa was found guilty on January 16 and burned at the stake on
12 B. Ankarloo, Trolldomsprocesserna i Sverige (L und, 1 984) 48.
13 Häxornas Europa 1400-1700. H ist oriska och ant ropologiska Studier utgivna av Bengt
Ankarloo och Gustav H enningsen (Lund, 1 987) 136, 175, 182.
14 M. Madar, Estland I: varulvar och giftb landaru, in: Häxornas Europa 1400-1700,
228.
15 EAKT, f. 995, n. 1, s. 250, 1. 4 96-5 04.
31
January 18. The peasant Rein named by Elsa as her accomplice was
brought to trial on February 23. He was tortured and 41 questions were
put to him. According to Rein, about 1000 witches gathered four sabbaths,
where they ate and drank mead and beer from silver plate. He could not
say where all those witches came from, as he was no more than their
servant, his task being to bring water to the cooks. (According to Elsa,
Rein had been the top sawyer – der Vornehmste at the sabbaths.) The wife
of Saksa Jaak (Saxe Jackon) and a widow from „Löwikülla“ ( Witteben) had
been cooks.
After the meal, the wife of Saksa Jaak had gathered up all the knives
and put them in a box. Saksa Jaak hirnself summoned the witches by
blowing a brass horn (kupferen Horn) resembling a sackbut (Posaune) .
This Saksa Jaak was chief to 300 witches. Rein had met him for or five
years ago at Parike Lauren’s. Jaak had hit him twice on the mouth and
said, „Come, I’ll show you how to use a good plough“ . Rein had refused
and to punish him a few days after that, Jaak had set his spirits upon
him when he was sleeping in the field, so that for several weeks Rein could
hardly move. Afterwards at Elsa’s suggestion, Rein hirnself had been made
chief of five witches. One of the five, named Pikkus, had later told him how
he had bewitched a peasant’s crop. The second, by the name of Pülzi, had
„given good luck“ to two peasants. The third was Billicen from Löwenküll
(Leevi Röuge parish?) , who had spoilt the eyesight of some people (die
Augen verdorben) and put a spell on a peasant’s wife to make her barren.
The fourth was wife of Tiltzen, who had bewitched some calves. The
fifth, Kerna Perscke Peeter, had bewitched his own children and also two
orphans. Another witch by the name of Hellida could cope with dragons
(mit dem Trachen umgehen).
Saksa J aak taught Rein to become a werewolf and showed him a
werewolf-skin, but Rein was captured before he could practice it. Rein
also had two spirits ( Geister), who were called Kaup and Philip, one wore
grey, the other blue stockings. They were tall strong men with widebrimmed
hats. Witches came to sabbath in human shape and sat by their
masters. Rein hirnself wore a fur coat. When they flew off they turned
into owls, crows and ravens.
Rein claimed that 50 years ago, in Russia, he had learned to bewitch
weapons and that he knew the magic formula for childbirth. Once he had
lifted a spell off a woman in the name of Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
32
(in Namen des V. S. und des Heiligen Geistes), using salt and wax candles
blessed at the Tartu Paarja Church.
He had not dared to speak so long at the interrogations because Saksa
Jaak had warned him not to plead guilty to witchcraft no matter what they
did to him. In the end Rein named some more witches – two peasants
Hürdi Mick and Löhll, who belonged to squire Peter Prezcowski. Rein was
sentenced to death and burnt on February 23, 1619.
When comparing the Tartu trial records to the German sabbath description
we can see that the setup is basically the same. There is the
fiying to the witches‘ hill, the feast and the music (in both cases the flute),
the hierarchy of witches (masters and subordinates) and at last the disappearing
of everything and flying home of the witches. However, there
are considerable differences in the tone of the two descriptions – the Tartu
version lacks such brutal details as the eating of children and sexual obscenities.
It seems that the peasants accused to witchcraft remernbered details
of the dissipated way of life on manorial Iords ( the sumptuous tableware
carefully kept – the knives that are put away into a box).
At the same time the Tartu version was obviously influenced by the
local popular culture-Estonian folklore. Witches at the sabbath are engaged
in „making luck“ , giving good luck to some and bad luck to others.
This is the typical occupation of the „spark-tails“ (pisuhänd) and devices
endowed with life by the devil for collecting treasures ( kratt), characters
from Estonian folk tales – goblins who move through the air like fiery flying
dragons and bring treasures to their masters that they steal from other
peasant ’s outbuildings.16 By the way, treasure-stealing was practiced by
some German ßying witches as well.17
As a deviation from the all-European standard, Estonian witches do
not use brooms or oven forks for ßying – they turn into birds. Flying in
the shape of black birds is, by the way, known to Swedish folklore.18
A closer examination, however, reveals that these national elements
are only loans. A specialist of Estonian national mythology, 0 . Loorits,
argues that the Fenno-Ugric peoples had borrowed them from the Teutons
and Scandinavians. According to Loorits, already in the third to second
16 0. Loorits, Grundzüge des e stnische n Volksgl aubens I (Lund, 1949) 27Q-272.
17 Kunze, Straße ins Feuer 189, 237-238.
18 B. Ankarloo, Sverige i dct stora oväsendct 1668-1676, in: Häxornas Buropa 1400-
1700, 273.
33
millennium B. C. our ancestors adopted the dualistic world outlook of their
neighbours, and later on they took over the goblins mentioned above as
well.19 The role of the Catholic Church as mediator of culture was in this
process negligible. He writes: „In Eastern Baltic the occidental medieval
culture was actually spread by the international vagabonds – wandering
tramps, buffoons, witch-doctors etc.“20
Folk tradition of the 16th -17th centuries already contained motifs like
the fl.ying of witches to Lokspäri Hili (an obvious derivation from the German
seat of witch-sabbaths, Blocksberg Hi11).21 .
R. Muchembled maintains that trials for witchcraft originated and
spread from the time when books were becoming popular in Europe and
the ernerging educated middle classes wanted to find more rational explanations
to natural and life phenomena.22 It is clear that during the period
under discussion there were more educated people in Tartu than in the
rest of the country.
The most important conclusion, however, is that, although the „demonist
culture“ reached Estonia, it did not set roots in the mentality of
peasants. Apparently, such „satanic images“ were too weird for Estonian
mentality. Let us recall that on more than 130 occasions Estonian peasants
were accused of witchcraft and that the judges were very keen on sabbaths
and pacts with the devil, but only one trial – in Tartu town and its vicinity
– yielded data on a witch-sabbath, and pacts with the devil were also a
rare motif. By the way, in Finland, too, such motifs were more common
to the vicinity of towns and the coastal area, where contracts with Sweden
were closer and the number of resident Swedes bigger. Estonian peasants
found it easier to believe in the capacity of special people ( witches) to harm
others ( maleficium), a superstition typical of the whole oi rural Europe.
As we can see by analyzing trial records, we can learn interesting facts
about cultural infl.uences. We can find out more by taking a closer look at
the magic words, incantations and magic rituals recorded in the course of
trials for witchcraft.
A peasant Pavel Willapulck interrogated at Pärnu Country Court in
1640 confessed to having used the following words for healing animals:
19 Loorits, Grundzüge III, 262, 334-335.
20 Ibid. 347.
21 lbid. 262, 334-335.
22 Häxornas Europa 1400-1700, 131.
34
„God, Father and Son, save my animals from all suffering, affiiction and
disease, as you have created animals for our benefi t“. 23
A Vorbuse peasant Pölve Jüri said in court in 1667 that he used the
following words for helping women in childbed: „Virtuous Virgin Mary and
God, save this woman in childbed, save her from this misery and death,
help on angels, Father God please help this woman in childbed.“24
An lliuste peasant Vanapere Jürgen confessed before the Läänemaa
Court in 1684 to having cured people by making the sign of the cross three
tim es and saying: „In the name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy
Ghost.“25
In the present case we have deliberately selected the magic words
and incantations that contain Christian terminology. But can we claim
that their meaning is to some extent congruous with church doctrine?
Apparently not: The pagan gods and fairies had simply been renamed and
Jesus or some other biblical character was asked to relieve pain or improve
the crop. Sometimes the positive heroes are coupled with negative ones.
In 1723, a peasant by the name Wielo Ado used the following formula:
„Help me, blessed Virgin Mary, help me, dear God, and you, Devil, help
me too, if God will not hear me.“26•
From the trial records of the case against Tatrasandi Mihkel in 1699
discussed earlier, we can also find interesting data on the peculiar blending
of church doctrine with pre-Christian beliefs and folk tradition. Apparently,
Mihkel was tortured at the Räpina manor, and later on, at the Tartu
Provincial Court, he withdrew a large part of his confession. In Räpina
he confessed to having made pacts with two devils, one named Judas and
the other Neck. He also told the interrogators that at the age of eight an
„evil spirit Judas“ had started to persecute him, had „thrown dirt at him
and forced him to renounce God and become his servant, for which Judas
would teach him witchcraft and magic words“ . 27
In Tartu, Mihkel denied having met or having had any dealings with
23 V. Uuspuu, Noiaprotsesse Pärnu Maakohtu arhiivist kuni 1642 [Witch-trials from
the Archive of Pärnu Country], in: Usuteadusline Ajakiri 1937,3/4, 117.
24 EAKT, f. 914, n. 1 , s. 61b, I. 5-7.
25 EAKT, f. 863, n. 1 , s. 4252, I. 17.
26 V. Uuspuu, Esti noiasonade usuliscst iseloomust [About the religious charactcr of
Estonian magic words], in: Usuteaduslinc Ajakiri 1938, 1, 23.
27 EAKT, f. 914, n. 1, s. 84, I. 1 2 .
3 5
any Judas. He said he had seen a water sprite once, and others had seen
her too. The water sprite had looked sort of whitish. But he had not
spoken to her. The water sprite had come to the manorial courtyard and
tried to seduce the master brewer – the others had noticed it as well. She
had worn a white shirt, but otherwise looked just like a human being.
Like other European peoples, Estonians believed that water sprites
lived in splendid palaces. Often they tried to seduce men, for marriage to
a human being could give them an immortal soul.
Typically, the interrogators and the person interrogated tried to reach
an agreement. At first, the water sprite from Mihkel’s world of ideas was
cast for the myrmidon of the Prince of Darkness. Afterwards, an analogous
character was looked for in the Bible and Judas replaced the wather sprite.
This kind of infiltration of biblical motifs and mixing of clerical images
with the magic imagery of peasants continued up to the middle of the 18th
century.
We can learn much from what happened in September 1720 near
Otepä.ä. A Nüpli peasant Soo Jaak went home after having worked for
the estate, passing Prä.äma manor. At the same time, someone stole a
beer cauldron from Prä.äma manor.
Local peasants, in order to find the missing cauldron, turned to the
local wizard – a peasant by the name of Vahese Jaan. Later on, the latter
said in court that he had been taught how to find out thieves nine years
earlier by a Puhja peasant Raudate Andrei, according to whom only those
could find out the truth who truly believed in God.
Jaan had acted out the followings ritual: He attached a small wax
ball to a string and held it over a vessel filled with water, a few inches
from the surface of the water. While doing this, he prayed to God from
the bottom of his heart, saying: „God Almighty, my creator and savior,
let me see through this blessed wax, who is guilty of this crime, and do not
keep anything from me or I might hurt the innocent“ . He stressed in court
that the words had to come from the bottem of one’s heart, accompanied
by deep sighs. After that Jaan recited the names of all the suspects – the
culprit’s name would make the wax ball move and spin. Thus, the Prä.äma
peasants became convinced that Soo Jaak had stolen the beer cauldron.
Some time later the Müpli bailiff and two Prä.äma peasants came to
the farm of Soo Jaak and told him to return the stolen cauldron. Jaak
pleaded not guilty. He was then tied up and taken to a tavern. near Otepä.ä.
Many peasants gathered there to try his case. lt seems that Estonian peas-
36
ants had learnt a lot from the dozens of witch-trials they had witnessed.
They started by torturing Soo Jaak with thumbscrews, then tied him to
the tavern’s fence and belted him. Jaak still did not confess to the crime
and was dragged to the outbuilding where a mock service of the Eucharist
was staged. J aak was given weak sour beer to drink with the words: „This
here is the Holy Communion und herewith we pardon your sins and tomorrow
you will be burned at the stake“. A peasant named Männiku
Toomas put salt into the sour beer, saying: „Now you will drink the blood
of Christ. As your sins will be forgiven you will tomorrow burn in fire“.
As we can see, those events illustrate the blending of the new and old
beliefs. Still quite strong is the position of the representative of old beliefs
– peasants think of him as a wizard, while the authorities call him witch. It
is important to remernher that he repeatedly speaks of the need for strong
emotions, although the magic words derive from Christianity. The ancient
shamanist tradition is camouflaged with a layer of Christianity – key to
success is in the collective mesmeric experience. The ancient ritual gets
weirdly mixed up with the methods of torture widely used by the Church.
As a third aspect there is the mocking attitude towards Christian rituals,
as expressed in the derisive Eucharist.
In October 1725 a Valgu peasant Pragi Hans was sued for witchcraft
and idolatry.28 A few years before that, his house had burnt down and
his wife Els had had a dream, in which her mother had told her that the
fire was punishment for not observing the All Souls‘ Day. Els had then
promised God (?) to celebrate the All Souls‘ Day in the future and told
her husband about the dream. Pragi Hans had forbidden her to do this,
and learnt only later that his wife and another woman had secretly held
an All Souls‘ Day ritual. Peasants from the neighbourhood had flocked
to Els’ses celebration. Some of them had worn ritual bandages on their
heads and carried wax candles. In court, they said that one Sunday night
the wife of Pragi Hans had given communion in honour of the dead. On
straw in a corner of the room, some food was laid out for the souls of the
dead. „Afterwards this was taken away and thrown to the dogs“.
Can a dream of a peasant’s wife really be important? In the present
case is seems so. Anyway, information on a dream dreamt .in the first
quarter of the 18th century is rather unusual. During the lifetime of the
last two generations the Church had intensified its ideological pressure on
28 EAKT, f. 917, n. 1, s. 197.
37
peasants, trying desperately to uproot the old beliefs, sacrificial rituals at
the sacred groves and worsbip of ancestors on All Souls‘ Day. Banning
of the latter tradition could in some peasants cause a depression deep
enough to make them dream of repreachful ancestors. Here and there, the
All Souls‘ Day was observed in secret and the dead buried into the old
burial mounds, but soon church and court officials would find out about it
and punish the offenders.
From the turn of the 1 7th to the 18th century the nature ofthe cultural
contacts of Estonian people changed radically. With the spread of printing,
books were beginning t􀃅 reach Estonian villages ( above all the ecclesiastical
literature). From Germany the first Herrnhut missionaries arrived, who
unlike representatives of the Official Church quickly learned the Estonian
language ( the local clergymen seldom botbered to do tbis) and associated
with peasants on almost equal terms, living in villages as ordinary artisans.
However, often tbings happened at the prayer gatherings of the first
Herrnhut missionaries that had their roots deep in the local national culture.
Shamanic wizards and foretellers of the past used to faint during
magical rituals – their souls then travelled in „another world“ and could
after returning to their borlies tell fortunes. In the 1730s-40s Herrnhut
missionaries were mazed to see many of the peasants who had come to
listen to them suddenly faint or contract convulsively.29
In Estonia the movement of United Brethren (Herrnhut) started to
spread from the Island of Saaremaa. The first peasants to disseminate it
were Jüri and bis wife Triin from Üpe commune. Soon another preacher
became famous – weaver Lund, who said that all people have been atoned
through the blood of Christ, and from bis words it seemed as if everybody
was soaked in blood. A peasant girl claimed to have seen a bloody hand.
Two peasant girls declared that blood had rained on them from the sky on
their way to church. Another girl met J esus in the paddock of Türimetsa. 30
Well-known became a 20-year old woman, Tuleselja Reet. Authorities
tried in vain to scatter the crowds who gathered to hear her preach. She
also had visions. Among other tbings, she saw four devils drag two squires
29 J. Eckardt, Livland im achtzehnten Jahrhundert {Leipzig, 1876) 224.
30 P. Sass, Zur Geschichte der herrnhutischen Brüdergemeinde auf Ocsel, in: Mitteilungen
und Nachrichten für die Evangelische Kirche in Russland 40 {Riga, 1884) 160.
38
Vietinghof into hell. Some Mustla parishioners saw an angel fight and win
the devil.31
Data on the United Brethren in Southern Estonia date back to the
year 1 7 40. Again, there are the fanaticism and visions. A peasant girl
drowned herself to escape from the sinful world. Even children who herded
cattle gathered to sing religious songs. A peasant farmer tried to flog the
fanaticism out of his daughter, only to hear her say that while he had
power over her body, he could not touch her soul. 32
During church visitations peasants and pastors were asked, as we can
see from the visitation records of Märjamaa 1790, if „there was still superstition
and idolatry among the people, and do peasants still go to their
wizards?“33.
Today, we can study data on the spread of „superstition“ in 14 Northern
Estonian parishes collected in the course of church visitations up to
the end of the 18th century. In nine parishes peasants adrnitted the continuance
of ancient beliefs. The visitation records contain interesting data on
those beliefs of peasants. Visitations were made regularly with the aim of
inspecting the work of churches. Among other things, the visitors inquired
after church attendance and the remnants of old beliefs. We have studied
all the visitation records from the 18th and first half of the 19th century
preserved at the Tartu Central History Archive and after analyzing them,
we have come to the following conclusions.34
While studying data from the 18th century two things strike the eye.
First of all, it seems that only about the rniddle of the 18th century some
few peasants betray the tacit agreement of silence of the village and voluntarily
inform authorities of instances of idolatry (there is no record of
similar acts from the earlier decades of the 18th century) . Secondly, in
Northern Estonia the old religious traditions, one rnight say, retreat to the
peripheral centres. Peasants of the coastal region of Läänemaa start going
31 Ibid.
32 H. Plitt, Die Brüdergemeinde und die lutherische Kirche in Livland, in: Zeitschrift
für das Diasporawerk (Gotha, 1861) 113-114.
33 EAKT, f. 1247, n. 1, s. 22, 1. 21.
34 J. Kahk, Eesti talupoegade religioossetest töekspidamistest ja kultuuritasemest kahe
sajandi eest [About the religious ideas and cultural level of Estonian peasants two
centuries ago], in: Keel je Kirjandus 1979, 1 , 11-20.
39
to the Island of Saaremaa for their „old religion“ and in Bastern Estonia
some districts of Virumaa become centres of „idolatry“ .
For a couple of decades about tbe turn of the 1 8th to tbe 19th century
the pastors are very vague on the topic of idolatry in their visitation reports.
Usually they say that „maybe there is some“ or „some superstitious
practices are likely to be observed among peasants“, but tbey cannot give
examples. Up to the year 1820 tbere is some fragmentary data reflecting
tbe existence of ancient customs.
The last random data on „wizards“ and „exorcists“ again originate
from Virumaa-Simuna in 1817 and Viru-Nigula in 1820. After tbat, the
pastors seem to change their views on the local beliefs, ceasing to regard
them as a serious threat.
In 1806 a llidala pastor cautiously said tbat „superstition has been
rather uprooted“ . In 1836, tbe pastor of the same congregation wrote:
„Most likely some superstition is still practiced everywhere, but its mode
of expression is not really harmful.“
When a Jüri pastor was asked in 1824, if there was still idolatry in
his parish, be answered: „No, or at any rate it does not strike the eye.“
In 1820, a Kuusalu pastor assured that idolatry „has died out in this
neighbourhood“. „Here and there some fortune telling may occur“, said a
Järva-Jaani pastor in 1820, but could not recall anything worth mentioning.
The pastor of tbe same congregation declared in 1836: „If tbere is
any superstition left, it is nothing serious.“
Spread of religous Iiterature is inversely proportional to the retreat
of old religious traditions. Up to tbe middle of the 18th century some
of the Northern Estonian parishes reported that few peasant farms bad
Bibles and New Testaments and only some bad catechisms and bymnals
{the parishes of Jüri in 1740, Viru-Nigula in 1738, Jöhvi in 1753; in 1745
Jöelähtme peasants said they had no money for religious books). At the
1745 visitation, the Viru-Nigula pastor complained that there were only
three Bibles in his parish.
From the middle of tbe 18th century, everywhere in Northern Estonia
few peasants had Bibles and New Testaments, whereas all housebolds were
equipped witb catechisms and bymnals. Churchgoers were obliged to take
along their hymnals, and checkups were frequent.
In 1745, tbe Haljala pastor thought there were some 100 bibles in his
40
parish. A Türi pastor claimed already in 1722 that some farms had 3-4
catechisms and hymnals.35
Drawing u􀀃on the rather fragmentary observations of the turn of the
18th to the 1 9t century enlighteners (A. W. Hupel, J. Chr. Petri, 0 . W.
Wasing), as well as F. R. Kreutzwald and F. J. Wiedmann, A. Viires comes
to the conclusion that in the opening decades of the 19th century the
Official Church at last attained the end it had aspired to for centuries –
the wide-spread worship of sacred groves and holy trees died out.36
All these data on the spread of ancient customs teils us that, when
J. G. Herder arrived in Riga and „discovered“ the local folklore for the
civilisized world, Estonian peasants were still observing their old traditions,
and doing it quite openly.
During the classical period of enlightenment at the turn of the 18th to
the 1 9th century, when Merkel, Petri and Masing were active in the Baltics,
the Church furiously persecuted the old religious customs, regardless of
which peasants still secretly sacrificed at the sacred groves and stones and
turned to wizards and exorcists for help.
The beginning of the 1 9th century, when Kreutzwald and Faehlman
were still young, marks a watershed: Estonians neglected their sacred
groves and sacrificial stones and the incantations and magic formulas
slowly degenera.ted into old habits and mere superstition.
A characteristic feature of the cultural development of Estonia is the
fact that simultaneously a more profound understanding of Christian ideology
and national-romantic ideas started to infiuence peasant psychology.
Baltic aborigines and their cultures were almost at the same time discovered
by the Herrnhut missionaries and authors propagating nationalromatic
ideas. As to the latter, Herder, a representative of German culture,
was followed by the locally active generation of Baltic Germans like Merkel
and Petri, and then, in a decade or so, by the Kreutzwald-Faehlmann generation
of Estonian origin. The latter two generations published on a large
scale, and apparently, at least partly, their ideas concerning the ancient Estonian
fight for freedom and the crimes of the conquering German knights
reached the peasants fairly soon. Clearly in this case too, we are deal-
35 EAKT, f. 1187, n. 2, s. 5181, I. 46; f. 1224, n. 1, s. 21, I. 14-15.
36 A. Viires, Puud ja inimesed. Puude osast Eesti rahvuskultuuris [Trees and people.
Trees in Estonian folk-culture) (Tallinn, 1975), 50.
41
ing with the interlocking of ideas – ideas of national-romantic literature
connect with the beliefs and images of folklore.
Acculturation may be seen as the changing of objects, traditions and
beliefs as result of contacts between societies with different cultural traditions.
This may occur peacefully as weil as violently – if the culture
of rulers suppresses elements of the culture of those subjugated (an example
of negative acculturation is Russification). We can speak of the
displacement of local popular beliefs by universal all-European beliefs.37
The rather slow and often painful acceptance of Christianity by Estonians
may obviously be regarded as a case of acculturation. For Estonians,
Christianity was after all an imported religion, spread by people
of another nationality. The spread and acceptance of Christian ideology
was an extremely complicated process, as we can see from the 1619 Tartu
trial records. On the one hand the imagery of witch-sabbaths had come
through the so-to-say official channels – the Church, courts and antidemonist
literature. The Tartu judges were familiar with it. But when they
started to interrogate peasants, they came upon details that had traveiled
through the so-to-say unofficial channels (the vagabonds mentioned by
0. Loorits), probably from towns. The final picture was to a considerable
extent infiuenced by the local atmosphere and traditions.
Acculturation again made itself felt later on in the writings addressed
to the Estonian people and authored by Herrnhut missionaries and the first
Estonian publicists. It even turned out to be an aspect of the development
of national-romantic ideology. But all this is true only if we proceed from
the principle that acculturation is a phenomenon that changes with time,
and at least in Estonia, but probably more generally as weil, we are always
dealing with contacts between two kinds of culture and the final synthesis
is affected by both – the more international culture of the rulers from above
and the national local culture from below. History knows of contacts at
many Ievels (rulers – local common people; foreign common people – local
common people), and their nature keeps changing (while the witch-trial
period of the 17th century is dominated by violence, from the middle of
the 18th century it is step-by-step replaced by cultural activities based on
humanist principles).
37 Häxornas Europa 1400-1700, 54.
42
MED IUM AEVUM
QUOTIDIANUM
24
KREMS 1991
Herausgegeben von Gerhard Jaritz
Gedruckt mit Unterstützung der Kulturabteilung
des Amtes der Niederösterreichischen Landesregierung
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der materiellen
Kultur des Mittelalters. Körnermarkt 13, A-3500 Krems, Österreich. – Für
den Inhalt verantwortlich zeichnen die Autoren, ohne deren ausdrückliche Zustimmung
jeglicher Nachdruck, auch in Auszügen, nicht gestattet ist. -Druck: KOPYTU
Ges. m. b. H., Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, A-1050 Wien.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Vorwort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Gerhard Jaritz- Werner Schwarz – Verena Winiwarter:
Umweltbewältigung. Historische Muster
des Umgangs mit der Krise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Stefan Poser:
Umwelt und Technik.
Ein Plädoyer für Umwelt und Umweltgeschichte
Juhan Kahk:
Cultural Contacts of Seventeenth Century Estonia
a.s Reflected in Clerical and Historical Source Materials
Rezensionen:
Wenzelsbibel (H. Schüppert)
Margit Irniger: Der Sihlwald und sein Umland (W. Schwarz)
La lepre dans les pays ba.s (R. Jütte)
20
28
43
45
47
Reinhold Reith (Hg.): Lexikon des alten Handwerks (K. Keller) 49
Zwischen Herren und Ackerleuten (W. Störmer)
Glanz und Elend der alten Klöster (H. Schüppert)
Berichte und Ankündigungen:
Arbeitsorganisation und Entwicklung der Arbeitsethik
aus historischer Sicht (Lidija Tichonovna Mil’skaja)
19
52
55
Vom DDR-Arbeitskreis zum Berliner Arbeitskreis
für Alltagsgeschichte (Wolfgang Urban) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Ficino 62
„The Role of Woman in the Middle Ages: a Reassessment“
( conference announeerneut) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The European Association for the History
of Medicine and Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Vorwort
Der vorliegende Band von Medium Aevum Quotidianum ist seit längerem
wieder ein offenes, keiner speziellen Thematik gewidmetes Heft. Dennoch
zeigt sich ein gewisser Schwerpunkt auf der Problematik umweltgeschichtlicher
Forschung, die jüngst auch in Österreich mehr Beachtung gefunden
hat. Die beiden grundsätzlichen, methodisch orientierten Beiträge von
Gerhard Jaritz, Werner Schwarz und Verena Winiwarter bzw. von Stefan
Poser stehen im Zusammenhang mit der Veranstaltung eines Arbeitsgespräches
an der Niederösterreichischen Landesakademie in Krems, das am
13. und 14. Dezember 1991 stattfand. Die Ergebnisse der Diskussion werden
im Jahr 1992 in Medium Aevum Quotidianum veröffentijcht werden.
Die anderen Beiträge und Berichte vermitteln eine besondere internationale
Streuung und zeigen den inzwischen weiten Einzugsbereich unserer
Gesellschaft. Wie bereits angekündigt, wird der aufstrebenden estnischen
Forschung im Rahmen einer Geschichte von Alltag und materieller Kultur
des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit, die bereits in diesem Heft durch
einen Beitrag von Juhan Kahk (Tallinn} vertreten ist, voraussichtlich im
Jahre 1992 ein eigener Band gewidmet werden.
Die Planung für die weiteren nächsten Nummern ist bereits weit fortgeschritten.
Wir freuen uns mitteilen zu können, daß anfangs 1992 Sonderband
li zum Erscheinen kommen wird, welcher die Referate einer im
Frühjahr 1991 in Finnland veranstalteten internationalen Tagung zum
Thema „Crudelitas in Antike und Mittelalter“ enthalten wird. Diese Publikation
ist als Gemeinschaftsproduktion mit dem Historischen Institut
der Universität Turku geplant. Ein umfangreicheres Heft wird die Arbeit
eines ungarischen Kollegen, Sandor Petenyi, zur Veröffentlichung bringen,
welche sich mit „Games and Play in Medieval Hungary“ auseinandersetzt.
Die bereits seit längerem angekündigte Auswahlbibliographie zum mittelalterlichen
Kleidungswesen befindet sich weiterhin in Vorbereitung. Gleiches
gilt für den ebenfalls bereits avisierten Band zur computergestützten
Analyse mittelalterlicher Bildquellen.
5
Im Jahr 1992 fungiert Medium Aevum Quotidianum zusammen mit
dem Institut für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit der
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften neuerlich als Veranstalter
eines internationalen Kongresses, welcher sich mit der Thematik „Kommunikation
zwischen Orient und Okzident. Alltag und Sachkultur“ {Krems,
6. bis 9. Oktober 1992) beschäftigen wird. Unsere Mitglieder werden anfangs
1992 ein entsprechendes Vorprogramm erhalten. Wie gewohnt, wird
aus Anlaß der Veranstaltung auch ein Heft unserer Reihe erscheinen, das
die Kurzfassungen der gehaltenen Referate enthält.
Gerhard Jaritz
u
6