Rocky Cape Christian Community

Komárom, on the Danube, last protection of the Holy Roman Empire against the Turks, in the 1600s. Should this fortress have fallen, all of Europe might lie in Muslim hands today.

Rumbling across the Danube on the Erzevet bridge with my friend Jan Szöllös, my first sight of Komárom on the Slovak-Hungarian border took me by surprise. What a large stone fortress!  What massive rail yards along the Danube! But I knew that to answer a few questions, to get my passport stamped and pay a modest toll to cross the bridge did not compare to what Solomon Böger faced on his arrival in this city, shortly before Christmas, 1606.  
 
Coming to look for his wife and child, carried off with 240 captives during raids on Hutterite communities in Moravia the year before, Solomon hoped and prayed the Lord would help him find her. It looked hard. He knew neither Hungarian nor Turkish. He had only a little Zehrgeld (personal spending money) along from home. At Komárom he found lodging at the fortress, still under Austrian command. But the city itself and all lands south of the Danube lay under the rule of Ali Pasha, the crafty commander of Ottoman forces in Europe, now stationed with his harem at Budapest, only a short distance down the river.
 
At Komárom, Solomon conferred with two Austrian diplomats -- Philipp Morgenthaler and Lukas Pfeiffer -- staying in the crowded fortress by the river. The emperor, Rudolf II of Habsburg, had sent them to negotiate with the Turks for the exchange of captives. Solomon found them friendly and most eager to work with him. Almost like brothers. Even though they represented the Roman Catholic government (a government that had caused the Hutterites unspeakably much grief), now that all suffered together, all seemed ready to lay their differences aside and work together where they could.
 
From Philipp and Lukas, Solomon learned the Turks were selling off their captives for 50 to 300 ducats each, or the equivalent of that in cloth (a very high price, considering the poverty of Austria after so many years at war). Worse yet, he learned that wealthy Turks kept the captive women and girls secluded in their harems, nearly impossible to find and never visible to passers by. But he set out bravely in the name of the Lord -- unarmed -- and after a month in Turkish-held Hungary he had something to write to his friend Matthias, back home in the Altenmarkt community from which he came.

The bridge at Komárom, crossing the Danube from Slovakia to Hungary, today.

13 January 1607, from Komárom on the Danube to Matthias Binder, Lundenburg (Břeclav)

The Lord be with you, much loved brother, Matthias Binder! I cannot keep from writing you about your Frönick. I have arranged for her to be brought out and you may have good hopes that in a short time, with the help of God Almighty she will be with you again.

As to Elsbeth and Els Bäuerin, I spent four weeks in Raab making arrangements with the son of an Austrian citizen who has a captive Turk. He has promised to let him go, in exchange for two German captives. If something comes of it I beg you, for God’s sake not to be slow in fulfilling your part of the bargain. Do not let all sorts of negative talk by people that don’t know anything about these things sway you. Some German captives have been brought out, but when not enough money is given they are sent back and things go worse for them than before.

I have very little money and have not been able to find work. The fortress where I am staying is crowded, but I thank God for a place to stay.

So far I have not found a trace of my Gretl, but if she is still alive and not far away I have good hopes of seeing her again. I am just so sorry I could not get off to an earlier start, to look for her. That I will regret as long as I live, but it was not my fault. I would not have been so lazy and sleepy about the matter, but I was held back by my brothers. I hope to soon get to Budapest and do my own investigations.

Dear Matthias, can you send me some lettuce seed? That is some Hungarian and some crinkly lettuce, also some parsley seed? You can send it to me along with the payment for your Frönick. Send me some crinkly cabbage, some regular cabbage, some marjoram, red beet and carrot seed. You can arrange to have it sent through the seed house on the Hohenmarkt in Vienna.

I greet you faithfully in the peace of Christ. Greet my brother-in-law Adam and Appele, my sister-in-law. Also greet Uhl Kupferschmidt and everyone that asks about me.

* * * * *

From the fortress at Komárom, Solomon travelled ever further into Turkish-held Hungary. No one gave him food or lodging. He could not converse with many, but through German-speaking merchants and labourers here and there he continually made more contacts -- some exciting, some discouraging, and the more he heard the more desperate he became to find Gretl and the baby. After another month he wrote a letter home:

11 February 1607, from Budapest in Hungary to Klaus Braidl and all the brothers and sisters in Moravia

May the Lord of peace be with you, dear brothers. For the great anguish and sorrow of my heart I cannot keep from telling you how it goes with me. I am so deeply troubled, and my heart pains me so much that you did not let me go sooner to find my wife and my child. Now I have no idea where they have gotten to and I cannot find them.

I have seen Matthias Binder’s wife many times, and I try to be of comfort to her, in her distress. She said she and the other captive sisters had to endure terrible violations and shameful deeds time after time. She said in the Turkish camp there was such a screaming of the sisters it sounded as if one were butchering pigs -- and some of them are still there. Along with this they always went hungry and they got beaten four or five times a day.

Els the baker’s wife and Elisabeth the Weinzierl’s wife from Prušánky and the young girl from Prušánky (by now with a baby from a Turk) are still there. All of them are crying to the mercy of God for deliverance. Some of the sisters hurt themselves during the rough riding on horseback, so much that the blood flowed from them and it is to be feared that they died. 

Hans from Hessen’s wife is in Gran and I was able to see her. She told me about a captive that wrote two letters for my Gretl -- messages Gretl dictated during anguished weeping, and I weep too, thinking about it. Peter from Hessen’s wife and two children have died. Schällerbaum’s wife, Turl, went about all summer with nothing to wear but a shirt, and it is feared she is no longer alive. The wife of the Haushalter, Conrad, is believed to have drowned. The sisters think two of our brothers held captive in the tower, here in Budapest, have died. They were Adam Müller and the steward from Prušánky. The last time anyone saw them they were in a miserable state, literally covered with lice. Abraham the tailor is still being held in Eger. Gretl Assarin and Trina the milkmaid are also reported to be in that place. Salome the school mother is in Eger and Gretl Holzmann in Szigeth.

Our other sisters and the children were all taken further into Hungary. The Pasha, it is reported, is keeping 28 of them at a school. David the tailor’s wife was given to a high-ranking Turkish man.

My dear brothers I beg you for God’s sake, for Jesus’ sake, in the light of the coming day of judgement, not to abandon our sisters in this great distress only because of the money it might cost to redeem them! How should we answer to God if we did that? Many of these sisters left their homelands and all they had to come and join the church community. They came such a long way to live for the Lord and rescue their souls from hell. Yet now they have come to this! Many light-hearted people are making fun of how the godly are suffering. Such great and shocking things are happening that even a stone would have to be moved to mercy. . . .

I have been able to get a few supplies to the captives, a pair of stockings, some blouses. Whatever I can spare I send to them when I can. . . . I have tried to comfort the sisters, and told them not to be too distressed about what the Turks are doing to them. Because they are being forced into evil, God will not hold it against them. I have told them that the entire church community is bound with them in their distress, remembering them continually before God, and that with tears. I have assured them that we will help in any way we can.

Martin Steppen, an Austrian merchant from Komárom, was making arrangements to bring ten of our sisters out to be ransomed. But a rumour came that we will not pay any money for them so the deal was dropped. Now they are back to suffering body and soul, perhaps to the end of their lives. I feel we have been way too slow to get something done about this, and through our procrastination much has been lost that could have been gained.

Solomon Böger, your brother in Christ Jesus

* * * * *
 
Hurring along on foot, always hungry, always in danger, Solomon struggled with deep questions about life, about his church community, about the strange ways of God. But hope burned in his heart and kept him going. Surely Gretl and the baby were still alive, somehow, somewhere in this wild wicked world.

Would the Lord, in his mercy, let him find her yet?

To be continued.

Peter

Note: Translated letters are abridged. The entire body of Solomon's letters from Hungary (never yet published, to my knowledge, but held in photocopied format here at Rocky Cape) is more than a hundred pages. In these English translations I have used modern Czech, Slovak and Hungarian place names so you may find the towns mentioned on today's maps.

Rocky Cape Christian Community
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Detention River, Tasmania 7321
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