Aventinus 12

Johannes Turmayr's 1520 History of Bavaria, Chapter 12 - translated and annotated by Ras Feqade, AD 2020.

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## 12. Of the Laws and Ordinances of the land that King Tuitsch made.

And since king Ninus, as I have now said, brought people through war (as was the custom) on their elders to be praiseworthy, peace and unity, who has annihilated and noticeably poisoned the golden age and the golden world, the people became incarcerated by force over night, forgetting God and all cheapness, if one wanted to be now, more than to be the other; so one penetrated and gained over hand at one's own benefit, quarreling and grumbling, spoiling the country and following from it, and people became more or less urged by nature only to evil.

Accordingly our first king and father Tuitsch, who had been in administration and regime for a long time and for many years, now wanted to benefit from special law and statutes of common use, the people's sake must not be valued: that's why he makes the rules, but few, so that he doesn’t overwhelm, as an old proverb is 'a lot of laws a lot of disobedience' and 'big law no law'. He gave an ordinance of the land, how one should keep one another in all things, meeting people and God, he composed it in rhymes and songs, they were told to sing openly so that it would not be forgotten, especially everyone, young and old, women and men, would learn, for the reason that nobody dared apologize for ignorance or quit. If quite a few willingly do wrong under the appearance of ignorance, if such ignorance (how will it be respected will be sorry) more complains and persuades the wrongdoing, such a person does not want to know what he should know. We still have laws like this also the Greeks 'nomous' indicated as Aristotle; And we still sing such things in our language, openly in the church that offered tithe. So King Tuitsch divided his law and order into eight main parts: from the service of God, marriage, landscape and rights, nourishment, inheritance, building, duties, and application of punishment.

### Of the service of worship, as king Tuitscho ordained it.

First of all, he arranged the worship service: he built not even church nor altar, he consecrated a number of trees, woods and forests and banned anyone from cutting them, in and to them the people ran, if they wanted to pray, do spiritual work, their prayer and worship should go under the clouds and open sky. He held thus and gave it to the people, that God who lives in heaven, was immortal and greater, than that one should enclose Him in stone and walls, in rocks and heaps of stone, set by mortal hand, also he forbad that He be portrayed and formed in a human mortal form; such a secretly hidden divine being (so that they would be cleansed of all mortal earthly uncleanliness and filth, regarding sin), one would have to see only with the fear of faith, and inquiring after God's form and image would come from human stupidity, misunderstanding and unreason. From this said custom of our ancestors we still call the church journey 'forest journey' and church leaders, running here and there, 'forest walking'. Furthermore, our oft mentioned first father learned to cut and bless loose twigs and wish-roots, so that the herald or pastor in front of God, openly pleading and looking up into the sky, could understand and open up the future outcome of trade and affairs. Likewise he learned to take note of a number of blessed birds singing and flying, and thus to adjudge whether a matter would succeed or not, would proceed happy or unhappy; the old Germans believed in a lot there. He didn’t even think of a sacrifice, he made a point that God wouldn’t let anyone in His way (as a faithful father), He gives to the children and takes nothing. That is why we still have no German word as such, unknown to our fathers, as sacrifice-offering; it is drawn from the Latin word 'offerre'.

The learned, so write about various customs of the world, and very much praise a people by the name of Thysetæ, considered the cleverest in the whole world; they ate off the meat and then sacrificed the bones to their gods and priests.

### Of marriage and child rearing

Our ancestors, by instruction of our first father and Emperor Tuitscho, withstood the child discipline, also refrained strictly of the conjugal relation, the same thing as a well and seed, from which everything springs well, all honesty breeding honor and praise flow and the human race grows up and around the world, country people are held up, because of which they are loved and praised by the ancient Romans (like our scorned enemies) vastly above all other peoples. There was not a bad opinion, where one kept such praiseworthy order. One didn’t allow any fornication; must betrothe one woman and hold on to one while she is alive. And as the ancient Greeks and Latins write of our ancestors, they had an admiring belief in this practice, so that they could find out their wives' piety: if a child had just been born, they put it on a board and from then on carry in the Rhine (or similar flowing water); If it swam up with the board, they accepted it for a legitimate child and brought it up, and the father promised it was his; But if it went under with the board wrong, one's kept bankrupt and punished the mother as an adultress. It is still available in Greek verse and printed by this our custom

The children, boys and maidens, were raised from youth to all kinds of work and hardship. Those who remained a pure servant for a long time were most highly praised and most drawn here, so that the young fellows might strengthen themselves and remain young creatures for a long time. Wherever a man had to do with a woman before twenty years, he was regarded as a villain and dishonorable and put down by everyone; one must come to his years. That is why there is another common saying: 'if a man goes to the mowing, let the wife wait in the bath'. They meant that those who guarded themselves for a long time before women and refrained in abstaining, would grow up, name vast numbers, would be strong, long, tall, old men. Likewise one does not rush like that with the maiden, one gave rein, as soon as the person's bodily grace was strong in manners and gestures (one did not ask about the good at that time), so that strong degrees would come under rein, extracting level and strong children, fathers and mothers alike. Those outside of marriage, who did not abstain from marital relations, one punished harshly, there was no grace: one cut off the noses of such people (as one still does sometimes to women), then threw them in deep bogs and feces, poured feces with restraints drawn on them, drowning and smothered, then left them lying and rotting in the feces and dirt.

### Of the landscapes, their rulings and justice.

Every year in May, when the moon is full or new, you have to have a landscape. As soon as one was reined, the pastor had to stand up and keep quiet, he also had to accept control. There were all the biggest matters, that land and people encountered.

With the ruling, so between the people thought, it was so held. In the landscape alweg the most dreadful ones in the courts and court marches were decreed: the must postpone everything, forgive everything, people fervently hear the details, and judge all matters according to the law, from time to time and put an end to all war, quarreling and rancor, speak out and unite the party. Whoever wanted the right, not dismissing the other person, has to pay the respondent until the matter has been settled with the judiciary so that the people of disagreement and conflict, who much ruined the land and people, would be exposed. If the accuser won, his harm was done away with; but if he lost the matter, the respondent had not been given any unreasonable damage. And from that custom, the common man now calls the right offering 'load', which the Latin name is 'citirn'.

### Of building the city and houses.

With the building, it was kept and tidy, so that one shouldn't make a costly large house, but only build the necessity, more huts than houses, so that one would only want a little rain, cold and heat; when, where one diligently obstructed oneself from the heat and cold, they became lazy soft people who don't want to suffer, neither hot nor cold, neither summer nor winter. Likewise, the city should be small, not vastly large, but at the ends that were naturally vast and high, like the old castles and so still found in Hungary, Poland, Saxony. They also made earthen barns,in which they kept the grain and could barricade from the enemy.

### Of wealth and goods, how to nourish oneself, of eating and drinking.

The fifth piece, to gain from the food and goods (which would be a mockery now, so the wheel has turned), King Tuitscho set as follows hereafter.

He left no one to be certain of his own overlying welfare. Officials being appointed thereto, everyone had to come to inspections, servants, counselors and the neighborhood, who had perchance taken rein in one place, so many revealed where and how they distributed the relevant goods, made against one year to the next, and so forth, so that the great Guilds, the mighty and worldly, did not establish themselves widely and steal ground, the others of lower station brought from their goods, diligently built for cold and heat, also no desire arose after gold, from where comes all disagreement, dispute, resentment, disturbance and war between people, likewise too the common man was more willing and obedient, as a current matter, that his ability could equal the most powerful. In eating and drinking by and by it became with the old Germans after the decree of king Tuitsch, no one was allowed any surplus, everybody would have to struggle with one thing, that overall among the hands it may be loosely and often ordered and brought about. The common man (as is now believed by Muslims, and earlier in the ancient Roman Empire) did not drink wine, they ate and punished hunger, satisfied nature with milk, cheese, oat porridge or mush (that's why Homer names us the stupid milk-eaters like we call the Swiss Cowmilker and the Hungarians call us cheese-eaters) at times with game and birds, thus hunting, rushing, biting, clogs in nets, smoking, hawking, hemp-throwing, rabbits and glue were caught. The clothes, which were short, tight, lay hard on all gliders, like jackets and trousers that were old Franconian skirts of former times; there were twill coats, fox and wolf furs. And just as the old didn’t need an abundance of food and drink, they then ate comfortably with each other and came with a lot of rein, good things, very hospitable and free, which the old Roman chronicles in this case vastly praised over other peoples. When also king Tuitscho with the utmost diligence ordained that one should show and prove to the guests and strangers who came in, great friendship, all discipline and honor, that the old Germans also kept faithful and in the part too have won the award over all other nations, as Cornelius Tacitus and other historians say of us with great praise.

### Of inheritance

In the sixth section, king Tuitscho forbad, that nobody does no business, nobody procures nothing, everything should fall on the children well together; or where there are no children, the next of kin, sister and brother, father and mother's brother and likewise cousin should inherit.

### Of funerals

He offered the same kind of burial of the dead, that one should not have a drink or start with the same, no tombstone and nothing like that, but just put a green wreath on the grave, if the dead would have been very displeased with such forgiven useless tastes, the same is also more of a complaint and dishonor than honor and help: they have finished their journey, one should also rest, carefree and calmly, when they no longer pay attention to such foolish work.

### How one punished the evil and rewarded the good.

As a burden, so that the evil would be punished, the good rewarded and fed, he made a rule, that the priests and pastors should act against the transgressors, reach for them, guide them, bind them and rub them out with restraints, as if not punished or by force of the prince, special would happen out of special decree and will of the almighty God, who are the clergy, minions and bailiffs. And I find that our ancestors called them spiritual minions and heralds. And minion used to be an honored name among the old Germans, and people who were only honored from rich resident people for this office, had only good praise and shouting, as when the Bavarian knighthood then indicates in the shortages and complaints, so they gave written response to duke Gorgen at Landshuet on Friday St Andrew's Eve twenty-seven years ago. Pope bishop pastor priest monk are not German names, they come to us from Latin and Greek. Pope came from the word papa, which the ancient Latins call a father; pastor of parochus is an old Roman Greek word, means one who gives the sölt and the gesture loads and holds freely; priest is drawn from the word presbiteros, which means an elder in Greek, when such people and so well behaved the Old Christians became their caretakers; bishop come from the word episcopus, the name of a scout and spy among the Greeks; monk from monachus is Greek, as much as a loner with us.

But that's enough, I come back to king Tuitsch and his country rules.

The villain, traitor, perjuror, faithless, apostate was told to hang openly on trees, so that there was only such a punishment and to guard against such wickedness. Carelessly hopeless villainous people, whores and rogues, one drowns in feces and bogs and peltd them with feces; he supposed that frivolity and villainy should be hidden so that no one else would be tempted to act. From the humble and masculine good deeds, so that a likeness, warning and stimulation of the offspring would be, he rhymes, makes songs and was called such tunes (when we were still used), where we were with each other, sing: he who does best, was praised, one gave and put a wreath on him, which the old people even hope for is an honest thing and still in the emperor's hope, if one wreaths a poet.

[Tuyscon issued his Landsordnung, basically a Constitution, in rhyme, in 2302 BC, his 97th year. Around the same time, Samothes Dis and Tubal also issued constitutions for their own realms, Samothea and Tubalia respectively. Ten years earlier, Camesenus, aka Ham son of Noah, had begun teaching iniquity in Italy, having seized the throne there from Ochus, who had succeeded Gomer in 2362 BC.

It would be interesting to see or hear the original verses of song. The ancestor of German at this point was probably Proto-Indo-European. While I have attempted a rough English reconstruction in rhyme below to show the idea in the eight sections, I can make no pretense to having any knowledge about the actual text of the original laws beyond what is imparted by Aventinus.

Note that excessively cruel punishments such as nose cutting for fornication were common in many parts of the world even into recent times; such punishments as amputation were notably specifically outlawed, and made to cease entirely, in Ethiopia in 1921 by (then) Dejazmatch Teferi, later Emperor Haile Selassie I.

ARCHSGENING-RHEGTROM / LANDIS-KHARTENUNQUA

I.

No temple or altar in your groves,
But cut no tree the king has chose.
As God in Heaven rules above,
He needs no walls to hold His love;
Nor will He from statues come.
Picturing Him is just plain dumb.
As the Father to us all,
He gives freely to great and small.II.

Twenty is the age of consent.
And marriage only is what that meant.
Outside that there's no legal pair,
So keep your virtue pure and fair.
And if they wont stay out of it,
We cut their nose and throw them in the pit.
And to see if your wife bears to a deceiver,
Tie the baby to a board and cast it in the river.
If the board stays right side up,
Then fetch him out, that's your little pup.
But if the board turns upside down,
A case of adultery has been found.III.

When moon is full in month of May,
We hold our meetings on that day.
To accuse someone to the judge's face,
You pay up front to hear your case.
If the facts are on your side,
You'll get back more as the judge will decide.IV.

Keep your houses neat and small,
Enough to shelter in its wall.
And let your towns be not too great,
But have barns to withstand all quirks of fate.V.

Prosperity must be shared,
And therefore please be prepared
To make account of your produce,
And make it available for common use.
And to guest or stranger there must be
Perfect hospitality.VI.

You still should have some stock to give
Your children, even after you live.
If no child was born for you,
Your next of kin can get it too.VII.

Place but a wreath upon the grave,
So that the dead their rest might save.
It helps them not to have a tomb,
Nor yet a stone with stately room.VIII.

So that the wicked come to see,
It is the priests responsibility.
If they traitor or apostate be,
Then you must hang them on a tree.
But for those who would play the whore,
We have the bog pit as described, and more!