De apostasia prima Pruthenorum. De bello Swantepolci contra fratres.
The Devil's Envy Against the Growing Faith
The chapter opens by noting the year 1242 and identifying the devil's envy as the hidden force opposing the prosperity of the faith in the Teutonic Order's mission.
The house of the Teutonic Order, in the year of our Lord 1242, and first concerning the envy of the devil against the prosperity of the faith.
The Order's Triumphs Like the Maccabees
The chronicler compares the master and brothers of the Teutonic Order to a second Maccabees, praising their vigorous expansion of Christian territories through battle and conquest.
It would be a long task, and one beyond the smallness of my own ability, to recount in detail how powerfully and magnificently, how skillfully and vigorously the master and brothers mentioned above — like a second Maccabees — enlarged the territories of Christians and expanded them, attacking enemies, storming fortifications, and forcing their hands upon them. Their battles and triumphs, down to the very end of the age, the whole church of the saints will proclaim.12
The Serpent Wounded: Satan Rises Against the Faith
Having witnessed the great advance of the faith in Prussia — the submission of neighboring peoples, the expansion of divine worship, and the confounding of the faithless — the ancient serpent, wounded by this prosperity, devises schemes to destroy the Lord's vineyard and sow weeds in His field, at last stirring up a harsh persecution.
After therefore, by God's favor, all the aforementioned camps had been built up to the praise and glory of Christ, and the neighboring peoples round about had submitted their stiff-necked pride to the faith — though not without the greatest slaughter of those nations and much shedding of Christian blood — and the faith of Christ had greatly advanced among them, the ancient serpent, the venomous dragon, the enemy of the human race, no longer able to bear so great a prosperity of the faith and of the faithful — namely, that the holy church was being expanded in the regions of Prussia, divine worship was being enlarged, the faithless were being confounded, Christians were being exalted, signs were being renewed, wonders were being changed — as if wounded to the heart by a deadly blow of his own malice, he began in a thousand ways to think and through various schemes to seek how he could secretly pour in his poison, demolish the vineyard of the Lord, and sow weeds in the field of the Lord.34567 At last he stirred up against the faith and the crowd of the faithful a most harsh persecution, in this manner.
Read the original Latin
domus Theutonice anno domini mccxlii et primo de invidia dyaboli contra prosperitatem fidei. Longum et supra ingenii mei parvitatem esset singulariter enarrare, quam potenter et magnifice, quam eleganter et strenue magister et fratres predicti, tanquam alteri Machabei, in ampliando fines Cristianorum et dilatando, ind impugnando hostes, in expugnando municiones ingesserinte manus suas, quorum prelia et triumphos usque adffinem seculi narrabit omnis ecclesia sanctorum. Postquam ergo deo propicio omnia predicta castra essent ad laudem et gloriam Cristi edificata, et vicine gentes in circuitu durissime cervicis colla fidei et fra tribus submisissent, non tarnen sine ipsarum gencium strage maxima multaque Cristiani sanguinis eflusione, et fides Cristi in eis maxime profecisset, serpens antiquus, draco venenosus, humani generis inimicus, tantam prosperitatem fidei et fidelium diu sustinere non valens, ecclesiam scilicet sanctam in Prussie partibus dilatari, cultum divinum ampliari, infideles confundi, exaltari Cristianos, innovari signa, inmutari mirabilia, quasi letali vulnere malicie sue interius sauciatus, cepit mille modis cogitare et variis machinacionibus procurare, qualiter venenum suum posset latenter infundere, vineam domini demoliri, et in agro domini zizaniam superseminare. Tandem excitavit contra fidem et fidelium turbam persecucionem durissimam, in hunc modum.
Notes
- 1 ↩The form ingesserinte (token 36) is uncertain; the normalized reading ingesserinte is translated as 'forced upon' following the most plausible intended sense of ingesserint. The form ind (token 30) is also uncertain and rendered as 'in.'
- 2 ↩The form adffinem (token 44) is uncertain; translated as 'to the very end' following the most plausible reading ad finem.
- 3 ↩The form fra (token 24) is uncertain; possibly a/ab. Translated as 'to' (i.e., submitted to the faith) following the most plausible reading.
- 4 ↩The form tarnen (token 28) is uncertain; translated as 'though not' following the most plausible reading of tamen.
- 5 ↩The form eflusione (token 37) is uncertain; translated as 'shedding' following the most plausible reading of effusione.
- 6 ↩The form inmutari (token 77) is uncertain; translated as 'changed' following the most plausible intended sense.
- 7 ↩The phrase 'not without the greatest slaughter of those nations and much shedding of Christian blood' presents a tension: the chronicler acknowledges bloodshed on both sides while framing the outcome as God's favor. The translation preserves this tension without resolving it.
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