Hans knew he was at the birth of his son as he had been at the birth of the prior three. He missed only Charlotte's birth by being away in Blieskastel at the time. Their family had used the same midwife for all the family births. By the time Daniel was born Hans was prepared for what was to come and had even read the midwives' manual, Rosengarten, by Eucharius Rosslin, a physician in Frankfurt and the authority on birthing and infant and child care.

Hans closed his eyes and could "see" the midwife bathing the newborns (was it Daniel or someone else, he did not know) in warm water, cleaning out the nose, placing a little olive oil in the eyes, massaging the anus, and smearing the newborn with nut oil to harden the skin. The midwife was a wise and knowledgeable woman, and with hundreds of births behind her, she radiated confidence to all present on such an occasion.

One corner of their house was always set up as a nursery. In it they had the many items needed in their household because they usually had an infant, a couple of toddlers, and older young children. Hans closed his eyes again to see if he could think of everything there. He remembered the walking bench, the wooden tub, the potty chair, the stick horses, and always the swaddling clothes. The main memory Hans had of the nursery corner was an infant covered from the neck down in cloth binding the hands and legs. It kept the babies warm and their limbs grew straight. It was not uncommon in the Moschel household for one infant to go out of swaddling clothes just in time for the next newborn.

Hans was unsuccessful in remembering Daniel's birth and baptism, which probably occurred within hours of each other. A timely baptism assured the newborn a place in heaven if he died suddenly. A blur of infants was all he was remembering and children swaddled in the nursery corner. He knew if he went to the church records and looked at the record of godparents that would help. He would do that later today.

If he thought of Daniel as a young child, he did have a distinct memory. Daniel coughing. And wheezing. And labored breathing. It use to scare Hans and Anna dreadfully. They would try wet cloths; a handkerchief over his nose and mouth; maple seeds mashed with honey; cottonseeds crushed in a cooked egg yolk; and olive oil behind the ears. Hans marveled he could remember this so clearly and forget entirely his birth and baptism. Daniel was the first child they thought might die and the nights and days staying up with him were like yesterday.

Hans looked down at his paper and crossed out the words Baptism of Daniel. This was going nowhere. He thought about getting up again and going outside to look at the new growth appearing daily around his house in the spring weather. The herbs were doing well. The grass was growing. The weeds were growing better. The sunlight beckoned him. He thought that should be no escape for what now was appearing to be a very bad idea.

Hans reached for his goose quill once more; dipped it in the lampblack and moisten it with water; and wrote these words under the crossed out words.

My Baptism 1530

o o o

In his failure as a father, he wondered if he would fail as a son. Were his memories of his parents and childhood clearer than those of Daniel? Perhaps now he should take a few moments and stroll slowly, although the pain in his foot increased as the day went on, to the Mimbach church and see what being there would do for his morale and memory and the task at hand.

As soon as Hans stepped out the door he could see the church. It placed centerstage in the village and the bell in the tower was the voice of the community. Each step he took toward the church was like a step back in time. A time when the church was everything to him and his parents and siblings. His children would never understand how much turmoil existed when he was young and the church was young. In many ways he and the church grew up together.

Yes, we grew up together, Hans thought again, that's how it was. But now the church was growing and he was dying. Not a sad thought, just a true one.

The Mimbach Reform Church started in the late 1520s. Hans' father, Christian, was the first preacher for the church. All of Hans children knew that fact, but little did they comprehend just what it meant. Christian was nothing less than a revolutionary, a part of the tide of religious people who followed Martin Luther in the late 1520s.

Mimbach Church Mimbach, Germany, Photo by Rainer Kreten

Hans made his way to the door of the church and opened it. As he opened the door, he could hear the words of his father from the pulpit. He was a evangelical speaker and he brought THE WORD OF GOD to the people like no priest had ever done. The mystery of God had been in Latin in Mimbach prior to Christian's preaching and he brought THE WORD in German to the village.

His father preached what Luther wrote and preached. He told the parishioners transubstantiation was unbelievable. He served communion as both bread and wine. And most important he spoke to them about the problems of the day and how to solve them in clear and reasonable terms. All this sounds so reasonable now. At the time it was going against all that was sacred and centuries of belief. Reform was needed. Corruption abound. Christian was a solider in changing the church forever.

Reform and change was the name of the day and the people of Mimbach reformed whether they wanted to do so or not. The Dukes of the town of Mimbach required that. Hans shuddered as he began to think of the changes of those days and how his father was in the center of it all.

Controversy was a part of life then. Controversy in the church. Controversy in the towns. Families torn apart. Neighboring villages torn apart. All in the name of God.

And his father, Christian, was speaking THE WORD OF GOD.

Hans had heard the story over and over of his father's coming to Mimbach. Hans went to the pulpit, braced his arms on the lectern, resting his most painful foot by leaning, and began to think back to when he could hear his father from this very spot. Christian's words and voice began filling the air and Hans was absorbing it all.

Christian arrived in Mimbach in 1523 as a former monk and intended to learn a trade. Townspeople knew he was a follower of Luther and asked him to preach with the tacit agreement of the Town Council. His words energized the people and they wanted him to preach. Some of his most eager followers were members of the family of the Dukes of Zweibruecken. They owned the city in every way that is, and was, important. When the Dukes decided to go with Luther the rest of the city were forced to go with them. And Christian kept preaching THE WORD OF GOD. Hans realized his father didn't really make converts in the evangelical sense of the word but he converted the most important people, the Dukes. The rest were made to follow. And they did.

Christian's word spread and God's word spread throughout Mimbach according to the tenets of Luther. There was no alternative.

Hans could not really imagine those years of his father's life. He had tried; in fact tried many times to understand the man who had so energized their village. Changed it forever. This was Christian's legacy. It was his legacy. Now is was his grandson's legacy.

Where was Hans going with his all this? His family clearly had a history worthy of remembering, but how would it all get down. Who would remember it and retell it to others? Should it be retold?

Hans stepped away from the pulpit. This was not really his place. In fact religion had never been that important to him. He didn't know why. His mother's cloister experience and his father's fervent religion should have had more impact on him. Evenings in their house were filled with reciting catechism. Long before he could say the words he remembers all in the house repeating together phrases, words, more words.

Words, yes it all seemed like words. They were good words as far as Hans was concerned, but they never meant as much as to him as they did to his father and mother. Perhaps because Hans never had to gain permission or fight to say them as his father did time and again in those early years of the 1520s. The time one lives means everything Hans thought to himself. His church and religion were accepted in Mimbach now. Lutherism had been accepted and now, more recently, Calvinism. Changes. Through it all his family was a part of it. Currently Daniel was well established in the church and Hans knew that would bode well for his young grandson. Position in the church was important for a Mimbach family.

Times change. People change. Mimbach was no longer the village of the 1520s. They had passed into a new century and Hans had passed into this century as well. He was now part of the 17th century but felt with every part of his being a product of the 16th century. The changes. The transitions from old to new.

As Hans stepped away from the front of the church, a place that was his father's domain, his father's voice diminished, like it did later in his own life, particularly after Calvinism came to the village. Christian, then, no longer represented the CORRECT message.

Hans wanted to change what he was thinking about. This was getting too real. He wanted to find the godparents of Daniel and brought his thinking to that specific task. The Kuester was not available now so he could not look at the records of the church. No matter Hans thought. He was getting both more patient and impatient with the idea of his gift. If it worked, it worked; if not, he would do something else. He could remember his own godparents and he would write about that to his grandson and namesake. His godparents were chosen by his mother, the woman whose life held as much turmoil and revolution as his father's. From cloistered nun to mother of nine, two more stillborn, and wife of the village evangelical preacher. This, too, was the legacy of his grandson.

Hans walked slowly back to the door of the church and readied to go back to his house. At the door he turned, looked back at the pulpit and to the front row, and he could see his father preaching, his mother in the front row, and he and all his siblings in a row. The spring light was beaming through the open window and THE WORD OF GOD was coming back to Mimbach from Christian if only for an instance. Christian was a remarkable man, Hans thought, and she was a remarkable woman. They rebelled against the times; broke contact with their families and the religion of their youth; and lived what they believed. Remarkable people, truly remarkable, Hans uttered to himself and then he shut the door of the church after himself.

o o o

The slow walk back to the house gave him time to assemble his thoughts. When he got back to his quill, paper, and ink, he wrote down the following under

My Baptism 1530

Father administered sacrament
Mother choose godparents
Ritual performed in Mimbach Church In Luther Times Prior to Calvinism

Hans knew he could come back to these phrases and write a bit more under each of them. He felt a sense of accomplishment. He left a little space on the paper and then wrote My Early Childhood. At this pace Hans realized it was going to take all day. So what? What is there more important to do? Nothing.

Ah, my early childhood....a minute or more into thinking and Hans almost laughed out loud realizing the most vivid memory coming to his mind was lice...lice...and more lice. Many of his earliest memories were of being covered with lice and he and his parents picking them off. Lice infested the household many times and twice the entire family had to move because of lice infestation in the house. Isn't it interesting I think of Daniel's coughing and my lice? Well, life is made of misery and misery probably is not far from the word memory, Hans conceded, but he knew lice was not going to make it to the baptismal record for his grandson.

What were my days like? Hans thought and bits and pieces came to mind. Most pieces reminded him how strict his father was. According to the rule of the day a child needed to be reared to get the bestiality out and make a rational, self-controlled child which would translate into the same as an adult. Adults should be rational, not emotional, people. Hans thought his father had succeeded on that score. But what were my days like, he thought again? He could almost hear his father's admonitions on proper daily conduct.

Sleep a proper amount.
Say the Lord's prayer.
Thank God for this new day.
Greet your parents.
Eat and get ready for school.
Ask Christ to send his Spirit to you today.
Be obedient at school.
When called on, answer quickly and modestly.
Do not harm your teachers or peers.
Read incessantly.
Read something from Scripture every day and memorize a few verses each day.
Punish yourself when you have neglected your readings.
Tackle your faults.
Try to make yourself a better person each day.
Go home directly after school.
Help your parents if needed.
Effect the table manners that you are taught.
Be clean.
Sit up straight at the table.
Serve yourself only after others are served.
Listen attentively to all that speak, but say nothing until you are addressed.
Do not put candles out with your fingers.
Take modest bites.
Expect punishment for giggling.
Do not eat and speak at the same time.

Hans could remember much more, but this reminded him of the regime that was important to his parents, really his father, and it made him a very obedient, actually fearing, child. What he remembered the most were mealtimes. The rules were so clear. The punishments clearer. God was present before, during, and after the meals and catechism was the standard in the evenings.

The order...the discipline...God...it was all a part of his childhood. Hans remembered his father as stern, perhaps harsh would be a better word, and he retained with every fiber of his being the incident when his father forbade him to be in his presence for three days and asked him to write a letter to beg for his forgiveness. Hans shuddered. He could not even recall the transgression. He certainly recalled the punishment.

Hans looked down at this paper.

Baptism of Daniel

My Baptism 1530

Father administered sacrament
Mother choose godparents
Ritual performed in Mimbach Church In Luther Times Prior to Calvinism

My Early Childhood

This is all he had done since he started. He was both discouraged and encouraged. Discouraged that it makes no sense to try and pass on a sense of what was, that's over and done with. What is good will be passed on through me Hans thought, and probably what is bad is passed on as well. Young Hans will make his own way thought his grandfather. He did not know what this new century would present to him, but he hoped Daniel would try as hard to be a good father as he had, and with a lighter touch than his own father.

Hans took his quill, cleaned it, and put it back in the box on the ledge. The ink was set to the side of the table and the sheets of paper put back in the trunk.

Maybe tomorrow. If not then, the next day. Maybe.