Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/271

POPULAR POETRY 259 •seen. The bishop of Mentz leads the dance ; better that he should lead the choir. The bishop of Bamberg follows in his train, and he of Eichstadt fills up the set. Battle wild has killed sweet charity. Because the holy propagators of Faith and Christianity have forgotten to sermonise, God, we turn to Thee.' This was answered by the upholders of the princely party. The cities are accused of having destroyed churches and monasteries, not sparing even the Blessed Sacrament. The peasants and the people were accused of rivalling the nobility in pride and pomp until it became unbearable : ' They believe themselves unequalled, and call them- selves the " Eoman Empire," while they are but peas- ants. Formerly they stood behind the door when the princes, who governed the land and the people, passed by. The King Sigismund must surely have been bereft of sense when he permitted those people to carry fife and drum ; it puffed them up with pride, and they as- sumed what by right belonged to the princes alone.' At the close of the song is a wish for the success of the princes' party : — ' That success follow the nobles in ending all this peasant turbulence pray I with all my heart ; and may the people get nothing but humiliation, pain, and re- pentance.' Cyriacus Spangenberg writes in his chronicles of Mansfeld, in the year 1452 : ' Songs were made and sung, exhorting the rulers to maintain justice in the government ; not to allow too much power to the nobles or too much luxury to the citizens, and not to overtax the country people ; to keep the highways safe, and to see that justice and equity were done to all.' s 2