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← Chronicon Terrae Prussiae (Chronicle of the Prussian Land)/Book 5 · Quarta pars: De incidentibus
Chapter 105ChrP.5.105

De vindicta domini.

The Ambush in the Forest

The king of Hungary invades a vassal's realm, and the local peasants fell trees across the forest path so that when the Hungarians return, the cascading trees crush a great multitude of them.

At the time when the Hungarians were laying waste to the land of Kulm, the king of Hungary marched out with a great army against a certain vassal king of his. While he was invading that king's realm, the peasants of that region sawed through the trees of the forest the Hungarians would have to pass through on their return, cutting them partway through so that when one tree fell it would strike and bring down another, and so on in sequence.1 And so it happened that when the Hungarians entered that forest on their return and the aforesaid peasants set the trees in motion, one fell upon another, and as they all came crashing down from both sides they crushed a great multitude of Hungarians.

God the Avenger: Patience and Wrath

Though God is merciful and patient with his own, the prophet Nahum reveals that the Lord is also one who avenges and holds wrath against his enemies.

Behold, although God is by nature good, gentle, and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, yet according to the prophet Nahum, the Lord is also one who avenges and who holds wrath — the Lord avenges, even against the nations.✦23 He is patient with his own, but he is angered against his enemies.✦4

The Land of Christ Avenged

The Lord could not tolerate the Hungarian king's destruction of Christ's land and the brothers who daily risk their lives for the crucified Lord, and so he brought just vengeance upon the invaders.

How, then, could the Lord, in his patience and mercy, tolerate the fact that this king of Hungary had sent his people to destroy the land of Christ and of his mother and of the brothers dwelling there, who are ready every day to risk their lives and their bodies to avenge the wrong done to the crucified Lord?5 Surely the Lord could not let this pass without vengeance.

Read the original Latin

Medio tempore, quo Ungari terram Colmensem destruerent, rex Ungarie cum maximo exercitu processit contra regem quendam subditum suum. Dum regnum illius invaderet, rustici illius regionis arbores sylve, per quam oportebat Ungaros redeundo transire, serrise preciderunt per medium, ut dum una caderet, tangendo aliam deprimeret, et sic deinceps. Unde factum est, ut dum in reditu intrassent Ungari dictam sylvam, et rustici predicti moverent arbores, cecidit una super aliam, et sic cadentes omnes ex utraque parte oppresserunt magnam multitudinem Ungarorum 1. Ecce licet deus natura sit bonus, placidus et misericors, paciens et multe misericordie, tarnen secundum prophetum Naum, est eciam ulciscens dominus, et habens furorem, ulciscens dominus in bestes Kaum i,. suos et irascens ipse inimicis suis. Quomodo ergo poterat dominus in paciencia eta misericordia tolerare, quod iste rex Ungarie gentem suam miserat ad destruendam terram Cristi et matris sue et fratrum inibi habitancium, qui quotidie parati sunt exponere res et corpus, ut vindicent injuriam domini crucifixi. Utique sine ulcione non poterat dominus pertransire.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Nah.1.2 — A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; the LORD is avenging and full of wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and he reserves wrath for his enemies.
  2. ↩Nah.1.2-Nah.1.3 — A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; the LORD is avenging and full of wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and he reserves wrath for his enemies. Nah.1.3 — The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and will by no means acquit the guilty. The LORD — His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of His feet.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩'serrise' is a medieval Latin form (from serra, 'saw'); rendered as 'sawed through' to convey the deliberate, methodical nature of the act.
  2. 2 ↩The passage alludes to Nahum 1:2 ('The Lord is jealous and avenging… the Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not leave the guilty unpunished'). The Latin 'in bestes Kaum i' appears to be a garbled or corrupted reference to Nahum chapter 1; the exact phrase does not correspond to a standard Vulgate reading and may reflect a scribal error or marginal gloss absorbed into the text.
  3. 3 ↩'tarnen' is a medieval spelling of 'tamen'; 'eciam' for 'etiam'; 'bestes Kaum i' is likely a corruption of a scriptural reference to Nahum (Naum) chapter 1. The translation renders the intended sense.
  4. 4 ↩The sentence appears to be a continuation of the Nahum allusion (cf. Nahum 1:2, 'slow to anger' / 'will not leave the guilty unpunished'). The Latin is grammatically incomplete as a standalone sentence — it reads as a continuation of the previous thought.
  5. 5 ↩'eta' is a scribal variant of 'et'; 'paciencia' is medieval Latin for 'patientia'. 'res et corpus' rendered as 'lives and bodies' to capture the sense of exposing one's possessions and person to danger.

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