The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

the great calamity of the Thirty Years' War fell.
The Pastor of Dolstadt, vexed from day to day with
the impiety of his flock, denounced against them
the judgment of Heaven unless they turned from
their wickedness. They only laughed at his
warnings, and showed him all manner of
disrespect. They tore down his hops from the pole,
they carried off the corn from his field, and many
other injuries, as he complained with tearful eyes in
1634, did they inflict upon him. When he came to
die he burst into tears, uttering the following
sorrowful exclamation – "Alas! poor Dolstadt, how
ill it will go with thee after my departure!"
Directing a look towards the church, and surveying
it with a heart heavy with sorrow and eyes dim
with death, he made his attendants raise him in bed,
and again exclaimed, "Ah! dear, dear church, how
wilt thou fare after my death! thou shalt be swept
into a heap with the broom of judgment!" His
prophecy came true. In 1636 the armed corps of
Hatzfeld fell upon the place, ravaging and spoiling;
the church was plundered, and its wood-work torn
down and burned, as Pastor Dekner had not
obscurely foretold. In the same year the village had
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