De destructione castri Wischerat.A.
Scriptural Call to Vengeance and Remembrance
The chapter opens with a Deuteronomic exhortation to remember ancestral deeds and trust divine vengeance.
Although the Lord says in Deuteronomy, "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay"—go, remember the deeds of your fathers, which they did in their generations, and you will receive great glory and an eternal name.✦
Scribal Insertion and Liturgical Addition
A scribal note introduces a liturgical addition calling for vengeance on behalf of God's people against enemies.
And after certain words had been inserted, add. Add: Avenge the vengeance of your people, and repay retribution to your enemies.✦
Warning from the Fate of the Unresisting
A cautionary reflection on those who failed to resist their enemies and were destroyed, prompting communal resolve.
And elsewhere, after those who did not resist their enemies in their simplicity had been killed— They are dead, a man said to his neighbor: if we all do as our brothers did, and do not fight against the enemies for our souls and our righteous causes, they will sooner destroy us from the land.
The Teutonic Order's Resolve to Defend Prussia
Inspired by scriptural warnings, the master and brothers commit to defending Prussia at great personal cost.
Instructed by these and other warnings of Holy Scripture, the master and brothers decided to defend the land of Prussia—snatched from the hands of infidels at countless expense and hardship, and the faith there planted with the blood of many nobles—against the attack of the said king, staking their possessions and their very lives for this cause.
The Siege and Destruction of Wyszogród
The Teutonic army besieges and destroys the castle of Wyszogród, executing divine judgment on its wicked inhabitants.
The master, therefore, having gathered a great army, sent him into Poland in the aforesaid year, in summer, and besieged the castle of Wyszogród of the king of Poland, in which lived wicked and notorious men, infamous in their own malice, who—having built a boat on the Vistula—robbed passing men of their goods, and captured or killed them, and no one could escape them without harm; and they continued this for many years, to the grave prejudice of the brothers and their own people. And after many assaults, at last they entered the castle by force, and struck down the sinners in their anger and the wicked men with their indignation; and having captured and killed all, they burned the castle completely, with fury.✦
Read the original Latin
Licet dominus in deuteronomio dicat: Mea est ulcio, et ego retribuam, ite— Mementote operum patrum vestrorum, que fecerunt in generacionibus suis, et accipietis gloriam magnam et nomen eternum. Et interpositis quibusdam, adi. dit: Vindicate vindictam populi vestri, et retribuite retribucionem hostibus vestris. Et alibi, interfectis hiis, qui non resistentes hostibus in simplicitate sua i. mortui sunt, dixit vir proximo suo: si fecerimus omnes sicut fratres nostri, et non pugnaverimus adversus hostes pro animabus nostris, et justificacionibus nostris, cicius disperdent nos a terra. Iliis et aliis sacre scripture monitis salubriter eruditi magister et fratres, terram Prussie sub innumeris expensis et angustiis de manibus infidelium ereptam et fidem inibi multorum nobilium sanguine complantatam contra dicti regis impugnacionem defendere decreverunt, propter hoc res et corpora exponentes. Magister igitur congregato magno exercitu misit eum in Poloniam anno supradicto in estate, et obsedit castrum Wi scherat regis Polonie, in quo habitab^pt viri scelerati, famosi in malicia sua, qui pretereuntes homines facto navigio in Wisela spoliabant rebus suis, eosque captivaverunt aut occiderunt, et nullus poterat eos evadere sine damno, et hoc continuaverunt multis annis in grave prejudicium fratrum et suorum, et post multas impugnaciones tandem intraverunt potenter, et percusserunt peccatores in ira sua et viros iniquos cum indignacione sua, et captis omnibus et occisis castrum cum indignacione penitus cremaverunt.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Deut.32.35 — Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slips; for the day of their calamity is near, and what is appointed for them hastens.
- ↩Ps.79.10;Deut.32.43 — Why should the nations say, \"Where is their God?\" Let the vengeance for the shed blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes. Deut.32.43 — Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and he will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he will make atonement for his land, his people.
- ↩Deut.32.35 — Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slips; for the day of their calamity is near, and what is appointed for them hastens.
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