Posts Tagged ‘gypsies’
Part 3 in a Series on the Roma of Europe during the Renaissance
Dear Ones, to continue our discussion…
The Roma were still primarily in the area of Saxony. It was at this time that a process of major historical change began in Europe, reflected in the change in relations towards outsiders, wanderers, and to the very conception of work. In 1530, the Augsburg Confession was presented to the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet of Augsburg. Following the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, after which the rights of religious minorities in imperial cities were to be legally protected, a mixed Catholic–Protestant city council presided over a majority Protestant population; see Paritätische Reichsstadt. As a result, conflicts arose very soon between the Gypsies on the one hand, and local people and authorities on the other. There were more and more grievances against them.
Losing their respected status of pilgrims, God’s penitent wanderers, the
Gypsies began to be regarded as tramps, and were often accused of thefts and robberies. Legal instruments were used against them more and more often.
The Gypsies, however, leading their nomadic way of life, were dependent on local society. So, if they couldn’t support themselves by fortune-telling, traditional crafts or begging, all that was left was thievery. In 1500, Roma were accused of practising witchcraft, treachery, and child kidnapping by the Augsburg Reichstag. Louis XII prohibited Gypsies from living in France in 1504, and in 1510 they were prohibited by the Grand Council of France from living in France. The punishment was confiscation of all goods and banishment; second offenders are hanged.
Modernizing trends which took place in Western Europe reached Poland in the 16th century. Together with them came a wave of Gypsies who escaped from German lands to Poland. Documents from that time record the first complaints about Gypsies and the first conflicts between them and local populations.
The new attitude towards the Gypsies can be found in the words which Marcin Bielski – author of the “Kronika…” used in a description of the Gypsies: “They are lazy, sly, mysterious, squalid, wild, black people. Without any religion, when they come, they imitate local beliefs in order to get things from others. Their contrived language is like their thievish customs and, hence they are deft thieves, especially their wives. Men keep themselves busy at swindling, bartering horses, and making false keys for thieves. They roam with their children from town to town among all the countries of the world” (1551).
A great lesson comes to me from this history, my Dear Readers. As I move slowly through the myst of my memory, I am reminded of how suffering so often arises from the narrow thought and misplaced religious zeal of those in power, seeking to cement position. It is with sadness I recall the days of the Rom in Germany, for they were people of passion, art, and magic made victims of those who lived in fear of the power of those they assumed to be greater than themselves, leaders of the eclesiastic.
So I leave this question upon our mutual table, do we continue down this path which is only destined to narrow, or shall we join together to create a place of union and growth through our shared vision, and love?
The answer, I leave to you Dear Readers, to comment and opine as you most certainly deserve.
Tags: augsburg confession, banishment, catholic protestant, child kidnapping, confiscation, diet of augsburg, german lands, gypsies, holy roman emperor, imperial cities, legal instruments, living in france, local society, peace of augsburg, penitent, protestant population, reichstag, religious minorities, time record, traditional crafts