De mirabili liberacione fratrum in quodam exercitu.
The Master Advances Against Lithuania
In 1292 the master gathers a large army of brothers and armed men and advances to the borders of the Lithuanians.
In the year of the Lord 1292, the master, burdened by the task laid on him and by the destruction of the unbelievers, gathered a large army of brothers and armed men and advanced to the borders of the Lithuanians.
A Warning of Treachery
A Prussian warns Brother Henry that the brothers have been betrayed — the Lithuanians await them ahead, and their own people will kill them if they retreat — and counsels an armed return.
There a certain Prussian approached Brother Henry Zutswert, saying: 'You and your brothers have been handed over. If you enter the land of the Lithuanians, they themselves are gathered and waiting for you, and not one of you will be able to escape death. If you turn back, your own people will kill you on the return.'1 Brother Henry answered: 'If this is how things stand, advise us what must be done more safely.'2 To him he said: 'Return to your own regions armed. Perhaps they will fear your defense and turn back from their conceived malice.'
The Master Acts on the Warning
Brother Henry reports the warning to the master, scouts confirm it, and the master orders an armed retreat while secretly detaining the chief conspirators.
When this was done, Brother Henry revealed all these things to the master, who, on the advice of the brothers, sent scouts to the land of Lithuania. They returned and found that everything said beforehand was true.3 Therefore the master ordered a proclamation to be made that all would march back armed on the return journey. And he sent secretly and in succession for those who were the principal authors of this betrayal, and assigned each one to brothers who would guard them so they could not escape.4
God's Merciful Deliverance
The conspirators, seeing their leaders held close by the brothers, dare no further harm, and the brothers return unharmed by God's grace, hemmed in on every side yet mercifully freed.
But when the common people saw that the principal authors of this crime were continually with the brothers in their company, at table, and in other comforts, they were deeply afraid, and thinking their malice had been uncovered, they no longer dared plot any further harm against the brothers. And so the brothers, unharmed by the grace of God, made their return.5 See how the brothers were hemmed in on every side — but God, who does not abandon those who hope in him, mercifully freed them from slaughters of this kind.
Read the original Latin
Anno domini mccxcii magister sollicitus circa injunctum sibi officium, et infidelium destructionem, congregato magno exercitu fratrum et armatorum, venit ad terminos Lethowinorum. Ubi quidam Pruthenus accessit ad fratrem Henricum Zutswert, dicens: traditus es tu et fratres tui, si inlraveritis terram Lethowinorum; ipsi congregati expectant vos, nec aliquis ex vobis poterit evadere mortem; si reversi fueritis, vestri in reditu vos occident. Respondit frater Henricus: si hec ita se habent, consule nobis, quid tucius sit agendum. Cui ille: redite ad partes vestras armati, si forte defensionem vestram timeant, et a concepta malicia resipiscant. Hoc facto frater Henricus magistro hec omnia revelavit, qui de consilio fratrum misit exploratores ad terram Lethowie, qui re versi invenerunt premissa omnia vera esse. Unde magister jussit preconizari, ut omnes in reditu armati incederent, et misit occulte et successive pro hiis, qui auctores hujus tradicionis fuerant principales, et coraraisit singulos fratribus, qui ipsos, ne evaderent, custodirent. Sed dum videret communis populus, quod principales hujus sceleris essent continue cum fratribus in comitiva, mensa, et aliis solaciis, timuit valde, et estimans suam maliciam detectam nihil mali audebat in fratres ulterius machinari, sieque fratres salvi dei gracia sunt reversi. Ecce quomodo angustie fratribus erant undique, sed deus, qui in se sperantes non derelinquit, ipsos de hujusmodi internecionibus misericorditer liberavit.
Notes
- 1 ↩inlraveritis is likely corrupt for intraveritis ('you have entered'); translated as future/perfect 'you enter' following the most plausible intended sense.
- 2 ↩tucius is a rare form (likely tutius); rendered as 'more safely'.
- 3 ↩re versi: the text splits the compound reversi into two tokens (re + versi); translated as a single verb 'returned'.
- 4 ↩coraraisit: form uncertain, possibly medieval/corrupt; rendered as 'assigned/stationed' based on context.
- 5 ↩sieque: tokenized as sic + -que; rendered as 'and so'.
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