redt / als wann er eingeborner Sachs were. Es ſein auch / wie D. Eitz berichtet damahln vil Leut auß vielen Landen / vnd weit gelegenen Orten / jn zuſehen vnnd zu hören gen Hamburg kommen: auch vilerley Judicia vber jm ergangen: der meh⸗ rertheil aber habe dafür gehalten / er habe ein flie⸗ genden Geiſt bey ſich / der jm ſolche ding offenbare: Welches aber er nit dafür gehalten / weil er nit allein Gottes wort gern gehört vnd davon ge⸗ redt / auch alwegen mit groſſer andacht vnd groſ⸗ ſem ſeufftzen den Namen Gottes geneñt: Son⸗ dern auch das er kein Fluchen dulden können / dañ wann er iemandt bey Gottes leyden vnd wunden Fluchen höret / er darüber erzittert vnd mit grim⸗ migem eyffer getrawet. Du Elender Menſch / du Elende Creatur / ſoltu den Namen Gottes vnd ſeine Marter alſo mißbrauchen / Ja ſolteſtu geſehen vnnd gehöret haben / wie ſawr dem Herrn Chriſto ſeine Wunden vnd Leyden / dein vnd mei⸗ net wegen wordẽ were / wie ichs geſehen / du wür⸗ deſt dir ehe leidt thun laſſen / dann daß du alſo ſei⸗ nen Namen nenneſt. Vnnd dieſes hat Ehren ge⸗ melter Herr Paulus von Eitzen mir vñ andern mündlich doch mit vil mehr vñ weitern vmbſtän⸗ den erzelet / welches ich gleich wol ſeithero von et⸗ lichen altẽ burgern / alhie zu Schleßwig / die auch zum theil denſelbigen damaln geſehen / vnnd mit jhme geredt / affirmieren gehört.
Kurtze beſchreibung vnd Erzehlung /
von einem Juden / mit Namen Ahaſverus:
Image 11
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translation
—as if he were a native Saxon.
Doctor Eitzen also reported that many people from many countries and distant places came to Hamburg at that time to see and hear him, and that many different judgments were made concerning him. Most held that he had a familiar spirit that revealed such things to him. Eitzen, however, did not believe this, because the man not only gladly listened to and spoke about God’s word, always naming God with great devotion and deep sighing, but could also tolerate no cursing. Whenever he heard someone curse by God’s passion and wounds, he trembled and rebuked him with fierce zeal:
You wretched man, you wretched creature! Will you misuse God’s name and his torment in this way? Indeed, if you had seen and heard how bitter the Lord Christ’s wounds and passion became for your sake and mine, as I saw them, you would sooner allow suffering to be done to you than name him in such a way.
The aforesaid honorable Lord Paul von Eitzen told this orally to me and others, though with many more and fuller circumstances. Since then I have likewise heard it affirmed by several old citizens here at Schleswig, some of whom had also seen the same man at that time and spoken with him.
Analysis
The narrator rejects an explanation that the man had a familiar spirit. He instead uses the man’s reported devotion to Jesus and rebuke of blasphemy to support the Christian account. The narrator says Eitzen and older Schleswig citizens confirmed the meeting, but their own statements are not reproduced here. The speech assigned to Ahasuerus is evidence of the pamphlet’s Christian message, not a recorded Jewish testimony.