Collected Works of Martin Luther

by Martin Luther

  Of the Kandierers, or pretended Mercers.

  The xxij^{nd} chapter is about the KANDIERERS. These are beggars tidily dressed; they make people believe they had once been merchants over the sea, and have with them a LOE BSAFFOT, from the bishop (as common people think), but the trick has been well related in capitulo tertio, together with an account of the LOSSNERS (liberated prisoners), — how they obtain their false letters and seals, saying they have been robbed; but it is all lies. This is called GOING OVER CLANT.

  Of the Veranerins, or baptized Jewesses.

  The xxiij^{rd} chapter is about the VERANERINS. These are women who say they are baptized Jewesses and have turned Christians, and can tell people whether their fathers or mothers are in hell or not, and beg gowns and dresses and other things, and have also false letters and seals. They are called VERANERINS.

  Of Christianers, Calmierers, or (pretended) Pilgrims.

  The xxiiij^{th} chapter is about CHRISTIANERS or CALMIERERS. These are beggars who wear signs in their hats, especially Roman veronicas, shells, and other tokens, which they sell to each other, in order that it shall be thought they have been in distant cities and foreign parts. For this reason they wear these signs, although they have never come thence, and they deceive people thereby. They are called CALMIERERS.

  Of the Seffers, or Salvers.

  The xxv^{th} chapter is about the SEFFERS. These are beggars who besmear themselves all over with salve, and lie down before the churches; thus looking as though they had been ill a long time, and as if their mouth and face had broken out in sores; but if they go to a bath three days after these go away again.

  Of the Schweigers, or the Jaundiced.

  The xxvj^{th} chapter is about the SCHWEIGERS. These are beggars who take horses’ dung and mix it with water, and besmear their legs, hands, and arms with it; thereby appearing as if they had the yellow sickness, or other dreadful disease. Yet it is not true; they cheat people therewith, and they are called SCHWEIGERS.

  Of the Burkhart.

  The xxvij^{th} chapter is about the BURKHART. These are they who thrust their hands into gauntlets, and tie them with kerchiefs to their throats, and say they have Saint Anthony’s penance, or that of any other Saint. Yet it is not true, and they cheat people therewith. This is called GOING ON THE BURKHART.

  Of the Platschierers, or Blind Harpers.

  The xxviij^{th} chapter is about the PLATSCHIERERS. These are the blind men who sit before the churches on chairs, and play on the lute, and sing various songs of foreign lands whither they have never been, and when they have done singing they begin to VOP (to lie) and FERB in what manner they had lost their eye-sight. Item, the hangmen (PLATSCHIERERS) also before the DIFTEL door (church-door) will take their clothes off till they are stark-naked, and lash themselves with whips and sticks for the sake of their sins, and they do this VOPPERY to cheat mankind, as thou hast just heard in the previous chapter; and this is called PLATSCHIERING. Also those who stand on stools, and lash themselves with stones and other things, and talk about the saints, usually become hangmen and slayers.

  THE SECOND PART.

  THIS IS THE Second Part of this Book, which speaketh of several Notabilia that relate to the afore-mentioned customs and methods of getting a living, given in a few words.

  Item, there are some of the afore-mentioned who neither ask before a house nor at the door, but step right into the house, or into the chamber, whether any body be within or no. It is from no good reason. These thou knowest thyself.

  Item, there are also some that go up and down the aisles of churches, and carry a cup in their hands. They wear clothes suitable for this purpose, and pass about very infirm as tho’ they were strangely ill, and go from one to the other, and bow towards those people who are likely to give them something. They are called PFLÜGERS.

  Item, there are also some who borrow children upon All Souls’ or other Feast Day, and sit down before the churches as tho’ they had many children, and they say “these children are motherless” or “fatherless,” but it is not true. This is done in order that people may give to them the more willingly for the sake of ADONE (God).

  Exemplum: In a village in Switzerland, there is a statute whereby they give to every beggar vs. hellers on condition that he shall for a quarter of a year at least not beg in the same neighbourhood. Once a woman took these same vs. hellers on condition that she would not beg any more in the neighbourhood. After that she cut her hair off, and begged up and down the country, and came again to Swytz, into the village, and sat down at the church gate with a young child. When the child was uncovered it was found to be a dog. Then she had to run away from the country. This person was called Weissenburgerin; she had been in prison at Zurich combing wool.

  Item, there are some who put on good clothes and beg in the streets. They accost any person, be it woman or man, and say, they have lain ill a long time, and are mechanics who have expended all their goods and are ashamed to beg, and ask that thou mayest help them to proceed on their journey. These are called GOOSE-SHEARERS.

  Item, there are likewise some among those beforementioned who pretend they can dig or search for hidden treasures, and when they find some one who allows himself to be persuaded, they say they must have gold and silver, and must have many masses celebrated to this same end, et cetera, with many more words added. Thereby they deceive the nobility, the clergy, and also the laity, for it has not yet been heard that such villains have found these valuables. But they have cheated people enough. They are called SEFEL-(dirt-)DIGGERS.

  Item, there are also some among the above who treat their children badly in order that they may become lame (and who would be sorry if they should grow straight-legged) for thereby they are more able to cheat people with their LOE VOTS (lying words).

  Item, there are also others among the above who, when they come into the villages, have a little counterfeit finger and dirt upon it, smearing it all over, and say they have found it, and ask if somebody will buy it. Thus a silly peasant’s wife (HANZIN) thinks it is silver, and knows it not, and gives them vi pennies or more for it, and therewith she is cheated. In like manner with pater nosters, or other signs which they carry underneath their cloaks. They are called WILTNERS.

  Item, there are also some QUESTIONERERS (persons who ask alms) who make evil use of the holy goods which they receive, be it flax, linen-cloth, broken silver plate, or other things; they are easily detected by those who are knowing, but the common man will soon be cheated. I give to no QUESTIONER anything, excepting the four messengers, id est, those that are here written down, viz. Sancti Antonii, Sancti Valentini, Sancti Bernardi, et Spiritus Sancti. The same have been confirmed by the See of Rome.

  Item, beware of the pedlers who seek thee at home, for thou wilt buy nothing good of them, be it silver, haberdashery, spicery, or any other wares.

  Beware, likewise, of the doctors who travel up and down the country, and offer theriack and roots, and make much ado about themselves, and especially some blind doctors. One called Hans of Strasburg, has been a Jew, and was christened at Strasburg at Whitsuntide; years ago his eyes were bored out at Worms, but he is now a physician, and tells fortunes, and travels from place to place, and cheats and defrauds every body. How? I need not say, I could tell well enough.

  Item, beware of the JONERS (gamblers) who practice BESEFLERY with the BRIEF (cheating at cards), who deal falsely and cut one for the other, cheat with BÖGLEIN and SPIES, pick one BRIEF (card) from the ground, and another from a cupboard; they cheat also with the REGERS (dice); with hearts, the chest, in taking off and in laying on, with METZES, STABS, GUMNES, PRISSING, with the four knaves; they use LOE MESS (bad coins), or LOE STETTINGERS (bad florins), and make use of many other rogueries, such as drawing out, the rot, the stake, &c., which I had better not explain, for your own good.

  And these same knaves eat and drink always at such houses as are called the Stick, which means they never pay the landlord what they owe him, but when they leave there “stic
ks” mostly something to them which commonly departs with them.

  Item, there is yet another sort among the land-strollers. These are the tinkers who travel about the country. They have women (WEIBER) who go before them and sing and play; some go about full of mischief, and if thou givest them nothing, one of them mayhap will break a hole in thy kettle with a stick or a knife to give work to a multitude of others.

  Et sic de aliis.

  THE THIRD PART OF THIS LITTLE BOOK IS THE VOCABULARY.

  ADONE, GOD. HEBREW, ADHONAIY, the Lord, i.e. God.

  ACHELN, to eat. Hebrew, AKÁL.

  ALCHEN! to go.

  ALCH DICH! go! or, go quickly!

  ALCH DICH ÜBERN BREITHART! go far away! remove to a distance!

  ALCH DICH ÜBERN GLENZ! go far away! remove to a distance!

  BARLEN, to speak. French, PARLER.

  BESCHÖCHER, tipsy. German, BESOFFEN, drunken, inebriated.

  BETZAM, an egg. Hebrew, BEYTZAH.

  BLECH, a BLAFFART, — an obsolete coin containing 48 hellers.

  German, BLECH, a thin piece of metal.

  BLECHLEIN, a kreuzer, — a smaller coin than the preceding,

  containing 8 hellers. German, BLECHLEIN, the diminutive of BLECH.

  BÖLEN, HELSEN, — probably the German, HALSEN, to embrace any one,

  to jump at one’s neck (HALS); also to veer.

  BOPPEN, to lie; be placed or situated.

  BOSS, or BETT, a house. This term would seem to be from the

  Hebrew, BETH, a house. Bo, or BOS, is a common prefix in the old

  Cornish, and signifies a house, as BOSCAWEN, BOSPIDNICK.

  BOSS DICH! hold thy tongue!

  BOSSHART, meat. The Hebrew, BÁSAR, signifies flesh.

  BOSSHART-VETZER, a butcher. Hebrew.

  BREGEN, to beg. Both this and the following are probably

  corruptions of the German, PREDIGEN, to pray, to preach; or they

  may have come from the Old German, BRACHER, a pauper. Possibly,

  however, they are nothing more than corruptions of BEGHARD, the

  name given to a low order of friars before the Reformation. These

  professed poverty, and lived on alms. Their orthodoxy and morality

  were doubtful. In general they were denounced by the ecclesiastical

  authorities. See Mosheim, de BEGHARDIS et Beguinis. The term

  evidently comes from the Saxon, BEGGEN, mendicare; and HARD, or

  HART, a servant.

  BREGER, a beggar.

  BREITHART, far, wide, — BREIT here being equivalent to broad, or

  wide; and HART, to very, or exceedingly.

  BREITFUSS, a goose, or duck, — literally, a “broad-foot.”

  BRESEM, BRÜCH, to break. The Old German, BRUCH, signifies

  fractura, ruptura; femoralia; locus palustris; infractio

  legis. The Modern German, BRUCH, refers to a breach or rupture

  in a person, especially a breakage caused by violence.

  BRIEF, a playing card. German, BRIEF, a letter.

  BRIEFELVETZER, a clerk. Vide FETZEN.

  BRIEFEN, to play at cards.

  BRISSEN, to denounce.

  BRÜSS, a leper.

  BSAFFOT, a letter, a cipher. The German, ZIFFER, signifies a

  cipher, and probably comes from the Arabic or Hebrew, — SÉPHER in

  the latter being equivalent to writing, a writing, or whatever is

  written in a book.

  BSCHIDERICH, a magistrate. Probably this term, together with

  the following, were merely vulgar adaptations of the German,

  BESCHEIDEN, to appoint, to be discreet. The Old German,

  BESCHEID-RIK, might be translated as “powerful in decision,” and

  BESCHEIDRUOM, “renowned for discretion or modesty.”

  BSCHUDERULM, nobility.

  BÜTZELMAN, ZAGEL. The German, ZAGEL, is a provincial word, and

  signifies a tail. See SCHEISS.

  DALLINGER, a hangman. Probably a corruption of GALGENER, — from the

  German, GALGEN, a gallows, or gibbet.

  DERLING, a die (plural dice).

  DIERLING, the eye. Possibly a diminutive of the German, THÜR, a

  door, or entrance, — not inappropriately applied to the eye, as the

  little door out of which all things are seen.

  DIERN, to see.

  DIFTEL, a church. Probably a corruption of the German,

  STIFTEL, — a diminutive of STIFT, a cathedral. STIFTUNG is a

  foundation, establishment; STIFTER, a founder.

  DIPPEN, to give. German, GEBEN.

  DOLMAN, the gallows. The German, DOLMAN, properly signifies a

  pelisse, — the tight-fitting nature of which may have given rise to

  the cant application to a gallows.

  DOTSCH, vulva. Supposed by some to be from the German,

  TASCHE, a pocket. The Bavarian words DOTSCH, DOST, DOSTEN,

  however, still signify vulva.

  DOUL (i. e. DÖEL, — DAUL), a penny. The fourth part of a

  BLECHLEIN, or kreuzer.

  DRITLING, a shoe. From the Old German, TRITLING, a footstool, a

  bench, — a diminutive of TRITT, gradus, passus incessus, cursus

  pedestris. TRETTEN is omnes pedum motus, from the Celtic,

  TRUD; Ancient British, TROED, — so that it seems very probable that

  TRITLING, or DRITLING, may have meant a little treader, or shoe.

  DÜ EIN HAR, FLEUCH.

  EMS, good. The German, EMSIG, is assiduous; DIE EMSIGE BIENE,

  the busy bee. It seems to come from the Old German, EMMAZZIG, for

  UNMUAZIG, occupatus et minime otiosus. After the same fashion is

  derived the French, A-MUSER.

  ERFERKEN (ERSECKEN?), RETSCHEN.

  ERLAT, the master. The Welch, HERLOD, is a stripling, lad;

  HERLODES, a damsel, girl. It is supposed that the word “harlot,”

  which originally signified a bold stripling, is from this. Chaucer

  says: —

  A sturdie harlot — that was her hostes man,

  He was a gentil harlot, and a kind.

  If ERLAT is from the German, it would be from HERRLAUT, a

  distinguished lord, a master.

  ERLATIN, the mistress.

  FELING, a grocery, or general store; a grocer’s wife.

  FETZEN, or VETZEN, to work, to make. Latin, FACERE. The

  German, FETZEN, signifies a piece, or slice.

  FLADER, a bath-room, a barber’s shop.

  FLADER-FETZER, a barber.

  FLADER-FETZERIN, a barber’s wife.

  FLICK, KNAB. Hilpert refers to FLÜGGE, unfledged.

  FLOSS, soup. From the German, FLOSS, a stream; FLOSSEN, to

  flow.

  FLOSSART, water.

  FLÖSSELT, drowned. Previous to the time of Luther, beggars were

  drowned when caught stealing. Vide Gengenbach.

  FLÖSSLEN, to make water.

  FLÖSSLING, a fish. German, FLOSSE, a fin.

  FLUCKART, poultry, birds. From the German, FLIEGEN, to fly;

  literally, “fly-hard,” or “fast-flyer.”

  FUNKART, fire. German, FUNKE, a spark.

  FUNKARTHOLE, an earthenware stove.

  FÜNKELN, to boil, cook, roast.

  GACKENSCHERR, a chicken. German, GACKERN, to cackle; SCHARREN,

  to scratch.

  GALCH, a parson, priest. The Old German, GALL, is castratus;

  the same with GELDE, — whence GOL, GEL, sterile. The German,

  KELCH, is a chalice, the communion cup. GALCH may be, however,

  simply an extension of GALLE.

  GALCHENBOSS, a parsonage.

  GALLE, a parson. Hebrew, KÁHAL, a priest.

  GALLEN, a town.

  GANHART, the devil.

  GATZAM, a child. Hebrew, GATAM, said to be derived from an

  Arabic word, signif
ying any one puny or thin. Or from the

  German, KÄTZCHEN, a little cat, a kitten.

  GEBICKEN, to catch.

  GENFEN, or JENFEN, to steal.

  GFAR, a village. Hebrew, CHÁFÁR, a village, hamlet.

  GIEL, the mouth.

  GITZLIN, a morsel of bread.

  GLATHART, a table. German, GLATT, smooth.

  GLENZ, a field.

  GLESTERICH, glass. German, GLITZERN, to glitter.

  GLID (i.e. GLEID), a harlot.

  GLIDENBOSS, a brothel.

  GLIDENFETZERIN, a frequenter of brothels.

  GLISS, milk.

  GOFFEN, SCHLAHEN.

  GRIFFLING, a finger. German, GREIFEN, to grasp.

  GRIN (i.e. GRYM), food.

  GRUNHART, a field, i.e. very green, or green-like.

  GUGELFRANZ, a monk.

  GUGELFRENZIN, a nun.

  GURGELN, LANTSKNECHTBETLIN, i.e. GURGELN LANTSKNECHT, would

  seem to refer to a begging foot-soldier.

  HANFSTAUD, a shirt, — literally “hemp-shrub.”

  HANS WALTER, a louse. HANZ literally means Jack or John. The old

  word HANSA refers to a multitude; Old German, HANSE, a society;

  HANS, a companion.

  HANS VON GELLER, coarse bread.

  HAR, FLEUCH.

  HANZ, a peasant. See HANS WALTER.

  HANZIN, a peasant’s wife.

  HEGIS, a hospital. The Old German, HAG, is a house (from HAGEN

  to hedge in, inclose), quasi locus septus habitandi causa. The

  Old German, HEGEN, is to nourish, feed, to receive into one’s

  house and company. The Su. Goth. HÆGA, is to serve.

  HELLERICHTIGER, a florin.

  HERTERICH, a knife or dagger.

  HIMMELSTEIG, the Lord’s Prayer, — literally, “Heaven’s steps.”

  HOCKEN, to sit, to lie.

  HOLDERKAUZ, a hen.

  HORK, a peasant.

  HORNBOCK, a cow.

  ILTIS, a constable, town sergeant. The Modern German, ILTISS,

  or ILTIS, signifies a pole-cat, fitchet; and ILTISFALLE is a trap