[The following takes place in the community of Agawang, near Augsburg in Southern Germany, and is an excerpt of a report from Father Michael Lebhardt, a priest from the neighboring parish of Kutzenhausen, to his superior, Dr. Kaspar Zeiller, the general provost in Augsburg. It takes place during the Thirty Years War.]
Before Christmas, in a house in Agawang, which belonged to Leonard Weber, four people starved to death, and then five more, one after another. When I learned that they were still lying unburied after such a long time, because nobody was doing anything for anybody anymore, and indeed nobody would do what he was told or asked to do, and Christian charity among people was extinguished, especially in places like Agawang, where there was no priest anymore and things were really going miserably, I went to Agawang last January. I offered the Mass there, and after I finished the church service I gave orders to the sub-bailiff, the schoolmaster, and the chief magistrate in the name of Your Honor and Grace as diocesan provost, that they should immediately, while I was present, dig a grave, collect the bodies, and lay them to rest to prevent further sacrilege. They were agreeable, and they started the grave. They said that there were only the four people in the aforementioned house to be buried, because the others were in a house in the parish where the widow Else Miller and Christina Regler lived, and they had been eaten up.
I was quite horrified to hear this, and with the schoolmaster I hurried to the house to make inquiries about the matter. I was about to go in the door when two women came out carrying a basin full of human entrails. I asked them, aghast, what they were doing. They only answered me that things were miserable. To which I immediately replied, it is of course the greatest of all miseries that such godless people are so impudent and insolent that they allowed themselves to eat these dead bodies, which had died so long ago. They said, “It was the great unbearable famine that did it.”
Because I saw that they still to a certain extend could walk, and that perhaps could have gained their subsistence by bringing hay to the city [of Augsburg], as others had done, I beat them vigorously with a stick and earnestly commanded them to carry to the churchyard the remaining bodies, together with even the smallest pieces of bone in a little sack. After this task I had them come to the bailiff’s house, and I inquired how many people they ate and whether they had all eaten them. They said unanimously that they had eaten in one sitting two women, named Barbara Mayer and Maria Weldeshofer, who died fourteen days before, along with two men. One of them was Gregor Thüringer, on the fifth day after his death. The other was Jacob Kreiner, who lay five whole weeks unburied in his house. They had eaten them on two occasions. I asked about how it tasted and how it was. They answered, “It didn’t taste bad, and the best of it was the brain, the heart, and the kidneys.” While admitting this they bitterly cried and raised their hands and promised never to do such a thing again for the rest of their lives. With these aforementioned people there were two others in the neighborhood, the widows Appolonia and Anna Thüringer, who joined them and were also involved. One of them, namely Appolonia, did not shy away from devouring her own husband, Gregor Thüringer.
I could not fail to tell Your Reverence and Grace about this.
Actum Kutzenhausen, February 3rd 1635
Your Reverence’s and Grace’s
Most subordinately and obediently [signed],
Michael Lebhardt, Plebanus [Pastor]
[Dr. Kaspar Zeiller, Response to Father Lebhardt, February 1635.]
What you reported on Feb. 3, regarding the parish of Agawang and the ghastly deeds that recently happened there, I read with the greatest astonishment. Because God has inflicted such a horrible famine for our manifold sins, we must submit this case to His inscrutable judgement. I would only remind you that you should be compassionate toward the same poor people suffering from this extreme famine and that you should spare them any beatings.
Source:
Medick, Hans, and Benjamin Marschke. “Scourges of War: Plague, Starvation, and Cannibalism.” Experiencing the Thirty Years War: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 122-24. Print.
Further Reading:
Skimur?