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Chronicon Terrae Prussiae (Chronicle of the Prussian Land)/Book 4 · Tercia pars: De bellis fratrum domus Theutonice contra Pruthenos
Chapter 220ChrP.4.220

De destructione oppidi Straisbergk.d.

The Sack of Straisbergk and Its Vengeance

Lithuanian raiders massacre the inhabitants of Straisbergk and desecrate the baptistery, but Brother Conrad Saccus pursues them into the wilderness, frees the captives, and slays every last raider so that none survive to tell the tale.

In this year of the Lord, namely 1297, 140 men from Lithuania rushed so unexpectedly on the feast of blessed Michael into the town of Straisbergk, and they killed the entire population along with one priest; after the women and children had been captured, and beyond the shame they inflicted, they defiled the baptistery by one of them emptying his bowels in it. Brother Conrad Saccus, provincial master of the land of Kolm, followed them with many brothers and men-at-arms into the deepest wilderness, and after capturing them, he freed the Christians who had been taken and killed all of them, so completely that not one escaped who could report such an outcome to later generations.

Read the original Latin

Hoc anno scilicet domini mccxcvih de Lethowia cxl viri tarn improvisee irruerunt in die beati Michaelis in oppidum Straisbergk, quod totum populum et unum sacerdotem occiderunt, mulieribus et parvulis captis et preter verecundiam, quam aliis sacramentis fecerunt, unus purgando alvum baptisterium defedavit. Quos frater Conradus Saccus provincialis terre Colmensis cum multis fratribus et armigeris sequutus usque ad interiora deserti, comprehendit, et liberatis Cristianis captis, omnes interfecit, sic quod unus non evasit, qui talem eventum posset posteris nunciare.

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