The Book of Vagabonds (1528)
Translated by John Camden Hotten
CONTENTS
PREFACE.
INTRODUCTION.
MARTIN LUTHER’S PREFACE.
PART THE FIRST OF THIS LITTLE BOOK.
THE SECOND PART.
THE THIRD PART OF THIS LITTLE BOOK IS THE VOCABULARY.
THE
Book of Vagabonds and Beggars:
WITH A VOCABULARY OF THEIR LANGUAGE.
EDITED BY
MARTIN LUTHER
IN THE YEAR 1528.
NOW FIRST TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES,
BY
JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN.
LONDON: JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, PICCADILLY. 1860.
PREFACE.
AS A PICTURE of the manners and customs of the Vagabond population of Central Europe before the Reformation, I think this little book, the earliest of its kind, will be found interesting. The fact of Luther writing a Preface and editing it gives it at once some degree of importance, and excites the curiosity of the student.
In this country the Liber Vagatorum is almost unknown, and in Germany only a few scholars and antiquaries are acquainted with the book.
In translating it I have endeavoured as much as possible to preserve the spirit and peculiarities of the original. Some may object to the style as being too antique; but this garb I thought preserved a small portion of the original quaintness, and was best suited to the period when it was written.
For several explanations of old German words, and other hints, I am indebted to a long notice of the Liber Vagatorum, which occurs in the “Wiemarisches Jahrbuch,” 10^{te}, Band, 1856, — the only article of any moment that I know to have been written on the little book.
With respect to the facsimile woodcut, as it was too large to occupy a place on the title, as in the original (of 4to. size), it is here given as a frontispiece.
Perhaps some apology is required for the occasional use of plain-spoken, not to say coarse words. I can only urge, in justification of their adoption, that the nature of the subject would not admit of their being softened, — unless indeed at the expense of the narrative. As it is, I have sent forth this edition in very much more refined language than the great Reformer thought necessary when issuing the old German version.
J. C. H.
Piccadilly, June 1, 1860.
INTRODUCTION.
VAGABONDS AND BEGGARS are ancient blots in the history of the world. Idleness, I suppose, existed before civilization began, but feigned distress must certainly have been practised soon after.
In the records of the Middle Ages enactments for the suppression and ordering of vagrancy continually occur. In this country, as we shall see directly, laws for its abolishment were passed at a very early date.
The begging system of the Friars, perhaps more than any other cause, contributed to swell the ranks of vagabonds. These religious mendicants, who had long been increasing in number and dissoluteness, gave to beggars sundry lessons in hypocrisy, and taught them, in their tales of fictitious distress, how to blend the troubles of the soul with the infirmities of the body. Numerous systems of religious imposture were soon contrived, and mendicants of a hundred orders swarmed through the land. Things were at their worst, or rather both friars and vagabonds were in their palmiest days, towards the latter part of the fifteenth century, just before the suppression of the Religious Houses commenced, and immediately before the first symptoms of the Reformation showed themselves, — that great movement which was so soon to sweep one of the two pests away for ever.
In Schreiber’s account of the Bettler-industrie (begging practices) of Germany in the year 1475, he thus speaks of this golden age for mendicants. His theory, as to the origin of the complicated system of mendicity, is, perhaps, more fanciful than true, but his account is nevertheless very interesting, and well worth extracting from.
“The beggars of Germany rejoiced in their Golden Age; it extended throughout nearly two centuries, from the invasions of the Turks until after the conclusion of the Swedish war (1450 to 1650). During this long period it was frequently the case that begging was practised less from necessity than for pleasure; — indeed, it was pursued like a regular calling. For poetry had estranged herself from the Nobility; knights no longer went out on adventures to seek giants and dragons, or to liberate the Holy Tomb; she had likewise become more and more alien to the Citizen, since he considered it unwise to brood over verses and rhymes, when he was called upon to calculate his profits in hard coin. Even the ‘Sons of the Muses,’ the Scholars, had become more prosaic, since there was so much to learn and so many universities to visit, and the masters could no longer wander from one country to another with thousands of pupils.
“Then poetry (as everything in human life gradually descends) began to ally herself with beggars and vagrants. That which formerly had been misfortune and misery became soon a sort of free art, which only retained the mask of misery in order to pursue its course more safely and undisturbed. Mendicity became a distinct institution, was divided into various branches, and was provided with a language of its own. Doubtless, besides the frequent wars, it was the Gipsies — appearing in Germany, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, in larger swarms than ever — who contributed greatly to this state of things. They formed entire tribes of wanderers, as free as the birds in the air, now dispersing themselves, now reuniting, resting whereever forests or moors pleased, or stupidity and superstition allured them, possessing nothing, but appropriating to themselves the property of everybody, by stratagem or rude force.
“In what manner and to what extent such beggary had grown up and branched off towards the close of the fifteenth century, what artifices and even what language these beggars used to employ, is shown us in Johann Knebel’s Chronicles, the MSS. of which are preserved in the Library of the City and University of Bâle.”
These MSS. are very curious. They contain the proceedings of the Trials at Basle, in Switzerland, in 1475, when a great number of vagabonds, strollers, blind men, and mendicants of all orders, were arrested and examined. Johann Knebel was the chaplain of the cathedral there, and wrote them down at the time. From the reports of these trials it is believed the Liber Vagatorum was compiled; and it is also conjectured that, from the same rich source, Sebastian Brant, who just at that period had established himself at the University of Basle, where he remained until 1500, drew the vivid description of beggars and begging, to be found in his Ship of Fools.3]
Knebel gives a long list of the different orders of beggars, and the names they were known by amongst themselves. This account is similar to, only not so spirited as that given in the Liber Vagatorum. The tricks and impostures are very nearly the same, together with the cant terms for the various tribes of mendicants. Knebel, speaking of the manner in which the tricks of these rogues were first found out, says:— “At those times a great number of knaves went about the country begging and annoying people. Of these several were caught, and they told how they and their fellow-knaves were known, and when and how they used to meet, what they were called, and they told also several of their cant words.”
The Liber Vagatorum, or The Book of Vagabonds, was probably written shortly after 1509, that year being mentioned in the work; it is the earliest book on beggars and their secret language of which we have any record, — preceding by half a century any similar work issued in this country.
Nothing is known of the author other than that it was written by one who styled himself a “Reverend Magister, nomine expertus in truffis,” — which proficiency in roguery, as Luther remarks, “the little book very well proves, even though he had not given himself such a name.”
None of the early impressions bears a date, but the first edition is known to have been printed at Augsburg, about the year 1512-14, by Erhart Öglin, or Ocellus. It is a small quarto, consisting of 12 leaves.
The title: —
Liber Vagatorum; Der Betler Orden:
&
nbsp; is printed in red. The title-page of this, as of most of the early editions, is embellished with a woodcut, — a facsimile of which is given in this translation. The picture, representing a beggar and his family, explains itself. At the foot of the title is printed, in black: — Getrucht zu Augspurg durch Erhart Öglin. The little book was frequently reprinted without any other variations than printers’ blunders (one edition having an error in the first word, Lieber Vagatorum) until 1528, when Luther edited an edition, supplying a preface, and correcting some of the passages. In 1529 another edition, with Luther’s preface, appeared at Wittemberg, and from this, comparing it occasionally with the first edition by Ocellus, the present English version has been made. Nearly all the editions contain the same matter; nor do those issued under Luther’s authority furnish us with additional information. With regard to the Vocabulary, however, I have made, in a few instances, slight variations, as given in two editions of the Liber Vagatorum, preserved in the Library at Munich. Wherever there was a marked divergence in style I have adopted that as my text which seemed to be the most characteristic for the fifteenth and the commencement of the sixteenth centuries, and which is mostly to be found in the better class MSS. and works of that period.
I should state, however, before proceeding further, that a metrical version of the Liber Vagatorum, in 838 verses, appeared about 1517-18, written by Pamphilus Gengenbach, including a vocabulary of the beggars’ cant. Although Karl Gödecke, in his work, Ein Beitrag zur Deutschen Literatur Geschichte der Reformations zeit (Hannover, Carl Rümpler, 1855), has stated that Gengenbach’s poetical version preceded the smaller prose account, it is impossible, upon examining the two publications, to agree with him on this point. Gengenbach’s book certainly did not appear till after 1517, and the direct copies from the Liber Vagatorum, in matter and manner, are too frequent to admit for one moment of the supposition of their being accidental. The cant terms, too, are incorrectly given, and altogether the work bears the appearance of hasty and piratical compilation. It never met with that popularity which the author anticipated, and probably never crossed the frontiers of Switzerland.
The latest prose edition of the Liber Vagatorum was issued towards the close of the seventeenth century. The title ran: — Expertus in truffis. Of False Beggars and their knaveries. A pretty little book, made more than a century and a half since, together with a Vocabulary of some old cant words that occur therein, newly edited. Anno 1668 (12^o. p).
That Luther should have written a Preface to so undignified a little work as The Book of Vagabonds seems remarkable. At this period (1528-9) he was in the midst of his labours, surrounded with difficulties and cares, and with every moment of his time fully occupied. The Protest of Spires had just been signed by the first Protestants. Melancthon, in great affliction at the turbulent state of affairs, was running from city to city; and all Germany was alarmed to hear that the dreaded Turks were preparing to make battle before Vienna. Yet, the centre of all this agitation, engaged in directing and assisting his followers, Luther found time to write several popular pieces, and kept, we are told, the book-hawkers of Augsburg and Spires busy in supplying them to the people. These Christian pamphlets, D’Aubigné informs us, were eagerly sought for and passed through numberless editions. It was not the peasants and townspeople only who read them, but nobles and princes. Luther intended that they should be popular. He knew better than any man of his time how to captivate the reader and fix his attention. His little books were short, easy to read, full of homely sayings and current phrases, and ornamented with curious engravings. They were generally written, too, in Latin and German, to suit both the educated and the unlettered. One was entitled, The Papacy with its Members painted and described by Dr. Luther. In it figured the Pope, the cardinal, and all the religious orders. Under the picture of one of the orders were these lines: —
“We can fast and pray the harder,
With an overflowing larder.”
“Not one of these orders,” said Luther to the reader, “thinks either of faith or charity. This one wears the tonsure, the other a hood, this a cloak, that a robe. One is white, another black, a third gray, and a fourth blue. Here is one holding a looking-glass, there one with a pair of scissors. Each has his playthings.... Ah! these are the palmer-worms, the locusts, the canker-worms, and the caterpillars which, as Joel saith, have eaten up all the earth.”
In this style Luther addressed his readers — scourging the Pope, his cardinals, and all their emissaries. But another class of “locusts” besides these appeared to him to require sweeping away, — these were the beggars and vagabonds who imitated the Mendicant Friars in wandering up and down the country, with lying tales of distress, either of mind or body. As he says in his Preface, explaining the reason of his connection with the book, “I thought it a good thing that such a work should not only be published, but that it should become known everywhere, in order that men can see and understand how mightily the devil rules in this world; and I have also thought how such a book may help mankind to be wise, and on the look out for him, viz. the devil.”
Luther further adds — not forgetting, in passing, to give a blow to Papacy— “Princes, lords, counsellors of state, and everybody should be prudent, and cautious in dealing with beggars, and learn that, whereas people will not give and help honest paupers and needy neighbours, as ordained by God, they give, by the persuasion of the devil, and contrary to God’s judgment, ten times as much to vagabonds and desperate rogues, — in like manner as we have hitherto done to monasteries, cloisters, churches, chapels, and Mendicant Friars, forsaking all the time the truly poor.”
This was Luther’s object in affixing his name to the little book. He saw that the Friars, Beggars, and Jews were eating up his country, and he thought that a graphic account of the various orders of vagrants, together with a list of their secret or cant words, issued under the authority of his name, would put people on their guard, and help to suppress the wretched system.
Luther’s statement as to his own experience with these rogues is very naïve— “I have myself of late years,” he remarks, “been cheated and slandered by such tramps and liars more than I care to confess.”
Both priests and beggars regarded him with a peculiar aversion, and many were the nicknames and vulgar terms applied to him. The slang language of the day, therefore, was not unknown to Luther.
At page 204 of Williams’ Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, 4to. (apparently privately printed for the use of the students of St. Begh’s College,) is the following foot-note: —
Of the violence with which Luther’s enemies attacked his character, and strove to render his name and memory odious to the people, we have an example in the following production of a French Jesuit, Andreas Frusius, printed at Cologne, 1582: —
Each column is an acrostic of the name MARTINVS LUTHERVS, making 80 scurrilous epithets.
I must now say something about the little books on vagabonds which appeared in this country fifty years after the Liber Vagatorum had become popular in Germany. The first and principal of these was edited by Thomas Harman, a gentleman who lived in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and who appears to have spent a considerable portion of his time in ascertaining the artifices and manœuvres of rogues and beggars. From a close comparison of his work with the Liber Vagatorum, I have little hesitation in saying that he obtained the idea and general arrangement, together with a good deal of the matter, from the German work edited by Luther. The title of Harman’s book is: — A Caueat for Cvrsetors vulgarely Called Vagabones, set forth for the vtilitie and profit of his naturell countrey.
This first appeared in 1566. It was very popular, and soon ran through four editions, the last being “augmented and enlarged by the first author thereof, with the tale of the second taking of the counterfeit Crank, and the true report of his behaviour and punishment, most marvellous to the hearer or reader thereof.”
The dates of the four editions are —
The printer of the third edition
is not known. The book is dedicated, somewhat inconsistently, considering the nature of the subject, to Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury. It gives, like the Liber Vagatorum, short but graphic descriptions of the different kinds of beggars, and concludes with a cant dictionary.
The next work on this subject which appeared in England was published nine years later: —
The Fraternitye of Vacabondes, with a Description of the crafty Company of Cousoners and Shifters; whereunto also is adioyned the XXV Orders of Knaues, other wise called a Quartern of Knaues. Confirmed for ever by Cocke Lorell. (London by John Awdeley, 4to. 1575.)
Some have conjectured that it was an original compilation by Audley, the printer; but this little book, perhaps more than Harman’s, shows traces of the German work. The “XXV Orders of Knaues” is nearly the number described in the Liber Vagatorum, and the tricks, and description of beggars’ dresses in both are very similar. There are the rogues with patched cloaks, who begged with their wives and “doxies;” those with forged licenses and letters, who pretended to collect for hospitals; those afflicted with the falling sickness, a numerous number; some without tongues, carrying letters, pretending they have been signed and sealed by the authorities of the towns from whence they came; others, “freshe-water mariners,” with tales of a dreadful shipwreck, and many more, all described in similar words, whether in the pages of the Liber Vagatorum, Harman, or Audley. It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that the German account, being in the hands of the people abroad half a century before anything of the kind was issued here, copies must have found their way to England, and that from these the other two were in a great measure derived.
Collected Works of Martin Luther Page 441
