De novo bello Swantepolci et conflictu in Rensen.
The Duke's Treachery and the Devastation of Colmen
The Pomeranian duke breaks his oath and peace treaty, gathering apostate neophytes and Sudovites to ravage the land of Colmen, then advances arrogantly before its fortress.
But because human inclinations are always prone to evil, and a person who has grown accustomed to a certain path from youth does not easily abandon it even when he has grown old, that perverse duke of Pomerania — full of wickedness and the malice he had been practicing since his youth — could not keep it hidden for long. After the peace had been concluded and a year had passed, forgetting his own safety and the sacrament by which he had confirmed that peace, and forgetting too his own blood — that is, his son — and the other hostages he had given as a pledge, he broke the peace treaty and gathered an excessively large army with the apostate neophytes of the land of Prussia and the Sudovites, who, among their other outrages against captives, the slain, and limitless plunder, reduced the entire land of Colmen — except for three camps, Thorun, Colmine, and Redino — to a wasteland. After this was done, they came with their army before the fortress and city of Colmen, and there they stood until evening in arrogance and excess.
The Battle of Rensen and the Slaughter of the Brothers
The Teutonic brothers pursue the enemy to the marsh of Rensen, where disagreement between the two marshals gives way to a brave but doomed assault that ends in the marshal's death and the near-total destruction of the Christian force.
Afterward they withdrew to the marsh called Rensen and rested there for the night. When the brothers at Colmine learned of this, they pursued them with four hundred men, and while the middle part of the enemy army had crossed the aforementioned marsh, Brother Theodericus, the old marshal, wanted to attack the rear guard, claiming that before the others could return, those men would be cut down. Brother Berlwinus, the new marshal, opposed this plan, and although the older brothers were reluctant — because it seemed to them that attacking the enemy first would force them into a defensive fight — they nevertheless followed his counsel and struck them bravely, killing many and scattering them. After the Christian army had been dispersed, the marshal came with twenty-two squires to a certain hill where a thousand of the enemy young men stood arrayed against him, ready for battle. But when the Prussians saw how few there were around the brothers' banner, they gathered their strength and courage and suddenly rushed at them, and killed the marshal and all the brothers along with the four hundred men, except for ten who escaped by fleeing.
Failed Reinforcements and the Enemy's Triumph
The Thorun brothers arrive too late, find their comrades slain, and flee; the Prussians pursue, kill many, and depart with vast plunder and captives.
At last the brothers from Thorun arrived with two hundred men at the place and time assigned to them by the marshal, and when they saw the brothers slain, they fled. The Prussians pursued them and killed many; the rest got away. Having gathered the plunder, which was exceedingly great, they led away many women and children with great rejoicing.
The Horror at Golina and a Captive's Vow of Vengeance
A pregnant woman is brutally slain by her captor, and her brother Martin, witnessing the atrocity, conceives a burning hatred that will drive him to strike back at the enemy.
Among them was Martin of Golina with his pregnant sister, who, because she couldn't keep up with the advancing army on account of her pregnancy, was taken captive; and the man who had taken her captive cut open her belly with a sword, and the living infant fell out onto the sand, and she herself died. Martin himself came to abhor this detestable deed so greatly, and conceived from it such burning hatred against the enemy, that after he had been freed from them, he struck them repeatedly with great slaughter, as will appear below.
Lamentation and Sackcloth: The People Mourn
The surviving brothers and people lament the ruin of their land in language echoing Lamentations, mourning the slaughter of elders and young men, the desecration of holy places, and the loss of freedom, before tearing their garments and covering themselves in sackcloth.
After the enemy had withdrawn, when the brothers saw the evils they had done among the people, they said to one another: 'Woe to us — why were we ever born, to see the ruin of our people and the ruin of our land, and to sit by while it's handed over into the hands of our enemies?' Its elders were slaughtered, its young men fell by the enemy's sword.✦ She who had once been free was made a slave. Look — our holy place and our beauty and our glory have been laid waste, and the nations have defiled them.✦ Why then should we go on living? So they tore their garments and covered themselves with sackcloth, and along with them the entire surviving people, struck with deep fear, mourned.✦
Read the original Latin
Sed quia sensus humani semper proni sunt in malum, et a via, quam homo ab adolescencia sua consuevit, cum senuerit, de facili non recedit, ideo perversus illec dux Pomeranie, plenus iniquitate, innatam sibi maliciam, quam a juventute sua solitus fuit exercere, non diu potuit occultare, sed post contraetam pacem revoluto anno, immemor salutis sue et sacramenti, quo firmaverat dictam pacem, immemorque sanguinis sui, scilicet filii, et aliorum obsidum, quos dedit in pignus, rupto federe pacis, cum neophitis apostatis terre Prussie et Sudowitis collegit exercitum grandem nimis, qui preter alia mala in captivis et occisis et infinita preda totam terram Colmensem, exceptis tribus castris, Tho run, Colmine et Redino in solitudinem redegerunt. Quo facto cum exercitu suo venerunt ante castrum et civitatem Colmen, et ibi steterunt usque ad vesperam in superbia et abusione. Postea secesserunt usque ad paludem, que dicitur Rensen, et ibi per noctem quieverunt, Que percepto fratres de Colmine cum cccc viris secuti sunt eos, et dum media pars exercitus infidelium paludem predictam transivisset, frater Theodericus antiquus marscalcus voluit posteriorem partem invadere, asserens, quod antequam alii redirent, isti essent occisi. Cui consilio contradixit frater Berlwinusd novus marscalcus, et licet seniores fratres invite facerent, quia videbatur eis, quod, invadendo eos ante, cogerent ipsos ad defensionem; tarnen secuti fuerunt consilium ejus, et aggressi sunt eos viriliter plures occiderunt, et disperse exercitu Cristianorum marscalcus cum xxim armigeris venit circa montem quendam, in quo iuvenil im milia infidelium contra se parata ad bellum. Sed dum Prutheni viderent tarn paucos circa vexilum fratrum, resumptis viribus et audacia, irruerunt repente in eos, et marscalcum et fratres omnes cum cccc viris occiderunt preter x, qui fugientes salvati sunt. Tandem venerunt fratres de Thorun, cum cc viris ad locum et horam eis deputatam a marscalco, et dum viderent fratres occisos, fugerunt. Quos Prutheni sequentes plures occiderunt, alii evaserunt. Collecta igitur preda, que magna fuit nimis, multas mulieres et parvulos cum magno gaudio deduxerunt.
Inter quos fuit Martinus de Golina cum sorore sua impregnata, que dum propter gravedinem partus non posset sequi exercitum accelerantem, is, qui eam captivam duxit, cum gladio ventrem ejus aperuit, et infans vivus cecidit in arenam, et ipsa expiravit. Quod factum detestabile idem Martinus in tantum abhorruit, et tantam concepit inde invidiam contra infideles, quod postquam liberatus fuisset ab eis, percussit ipsos sepius plaga magna, pr'out inferius apparebit. Post recessum ipsorum, dum fratres viderent mala, que fecerant in populo, dixerunt i invicem: ve nobis, ut quid nati sumus videre contricionem populi nostri et contricionem terre nostre et sedere illic, cum detur in manus inimicorum? Trucidati sunt senes ejus, juvenes ejus ceciderunt in gladio inimicorum. Que prius erat libera, facta est ancilla. Ecce sancta nostra et pulcritudo nostra et claritas nostra desolata est, et coinquinaverunt gentes. Quidh ergo nobis adhucc vivere? Sciderunt igitur vestimenta sua, et cooperuerunt se ciliciis, et cum eis gravi timore perterritus omnis populus, qui superstes fuerat, planxit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Lam.2.21 — Young and old lie in the streets on the ground; my young women and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered without pity.
- ↩Lam.1.10 — The enemy has spread his hand over all her precious things, for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary — those you commanded were not to enter your assembly.
- ↩Joel.1.13;Gen.37.34 — Gird yourselves and weep, priests; wail, ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, ministers of my God, for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. Gen.37.34 — Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins, and he mourned for his son many days.
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