16 June 1628

I begin this journal for my soul’s comfort and to record these times for my family if the Last Judgement, which I feel approaching with every hour, does not sweep us away first. The Devil is loose in Bamberg, and it seems that wherever one looks one finds him or his works.  I pray my rosary every morning and evening, for the safety of my family and myself, but with every week exposing more witches, even among those people I believed devout Christians, I fear in my heart that God has abandoned Bamberg.  I confessed this fear to the priest last week, and he admonished me greatly.  My God is a merciful God; he will deliver from evil those of us who keep faith.

My father has been busy, for the city council is in disarray with some members imprisoned.  I am also much occupied since my mother (whose innocence or guilt I still cannot decide) was executed last year (Apps and Gow, 76).  With Anna Maria in the convent (Apps and Gow, 166), it is just Father, Hans, myself, and the servants in the house, and I must keep things in order.  Father speaks of going on pilgrimage soon, to Rome, but I do not know when that might be. 

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