THE EVENTS OF 1538–1553

897897 Then, on December 2 of this year (1538), which was the fi rst Sunday of the Lord’s Advent, the Cathedral of St. Paul was reconsecrated by the reverend Lord John Bischoping, the suffragan bishop. Once the churches in the city were in some way repaired, and the chant books were reprinted at the expense of the main clergy since the earlier books had been either torn up or burned by the rebaptized, divine worship and all the Catholic ceremonies were revived with unparalleled zeal and acclaim on the part of the burghers, and now that a constitution had been established by the prince, every individual returned to his duties and business activities. Now it was thought that everything was pacifi ed, and all the soldiers were discharged, but contrary to everyone’s hope and expectation, around the Sunday “Cantate”1 in the year 1538, the brothers George, Christopher and Anthony of and with them Duke William of Brunswick and Count Otto of Tecklenburg, who was later captured during this war, gathered a large band of soldiers and waged an unde- clared war against the diocese of Münster, which was broken through 898898 what was by now a long | period of war, and worn out to the point of exhaustion through frequent exactions. They took the towns of and Vechta on the fi rst assault, then after several attacks they captured the stronghold itself, where the bishop was almost cut off by the enemy. Next, after taking Haselünne, Meppen, , Niehaus, and Cloppenburg, and placing garrisons in them, they occu- pied this whole region of the province, plundering the property. If 899899 they had laid aside their hesitant delay | and led their large and now seasoned forces on a campaign against Münster and the whole diocese, they would without a doubt have attained victory. The city was stripped of guns and of virtually every sort of weapon, the ramparts had fallen into the ditches through neglect, since there was no one to look after the defenses (in certain places the collapse of the ramparts fi lled the ditches), and the parts of the city walls that had been shattered during the previous siege had not yet been repaired. The burghers could not

1 Fourth Sunday after Easter (May 19).

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stand the tyranny of the governor, and in their disgust at this slavery, they yearned for freedom. Hence, it would not have been diffi cult to take the city and with it the whole diocese. But after the prince enrolled cavalry and infantry forces under the command of John of Raesfeld against this unexpected violence, the enemy left the diocese, burning the town of Vechta with its stronghold and Niehaus, though they fortifi ed Kloppenburg and placed a garrison there. The prince retook by force the towns and strongholds that the enemy had taken from him, and he stormed Kloppenburg. As the enemy fl ed to the County of Oldenburg, he pursued them there, taking Wardenburg and threatening to besiege Oldenburg too, which is the capital of the area. He would have occupied the entire county if his advisers had not dissuaded him, and a chain had not kept the cavalry commander from being able to advance even the width of a straw further.2 Meanwhile, the archbishop of Cologne | and other potentates interrupted this war and then settled it. I am 900900 unaware of the peace terms. After having endured much toil in war, the prince fi nally attained such a degree of peace that he was ordained in 1540 as a deacon by the suf- fragan bishop on the Day of the Innocents3 in the Iburg Monastery and as priest the next day. Next, on the Day of the Lord’s Circumcision,4 he was consecrated as bishop in the Marienfeld Monastery by the Bishop of Lüttich, who was in exile, and by the suffragan bishops of Münster and Paderborn | with the assistance of two abbots, Arnold tom Drecke 901901 of Marienfeld and Bernard Westerholt of Iburg. Being by no means pleased with the form of government by which the burghers were being oppressed under the tyranny of the governor in violation of their previous liberty, the city council pleaded with the prince in various ways for a number of years in almost all assemblies, asking either that this form should be made milder and more tolerable, or that the previous form should be restored. Otherwise, they asked him to allow them in his graciousness to resign from their positions after giving an account of them. Finally, on January 4, 1541, a meeting was held between envoys of 902902 the prince and representatives of the main clergy on the one hand and

2 This is an ironic way of indicating bribery, since gold was often formed into ostentatious gold chains. 3 December 28. 4 January 1, 1541.

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