Well, I'm not sure Lehndorff wants an erastes exactly, but between him definitely coming across as having a slight crush on Peter (true hero of 1730 and all that)
Yeah, that's why I said FWB, not boyfriend. ;)
I'm with you on the slight crush, though! Serious question: does Lehndorff normally comment on the attractiveness of random courtiers and officers whose death he reports?
Now, we know Heinrich was "as beautiful as an angel," so we have to take Peter's handsomeness with a grain of salt, but what it tells us about is Lehndorff's opinion.
I bet all the Potsdam giants who deserted were "strikingly handsome" in their Wanted dispatches, though!
Incidentally, since you're as baffled about what the "Puncta" could be
Baffled no longer! I dug up Katte's last letter to Fritz, and while I remembered the content, I had forgotten that it was in numbered bullet points. Since I don't think we've shared it with cahn, here goes:
1. The prince royal may, perhaps, think that I consider him as the cause of my death, and that I die in anger with him, but that is not the case. I acknowledge that, for wise reasons, Divine Providence has decreed that these misfortunes should fall upon me, to bring me to true repentance, and to enable me to work out my salvation.
2. The causes to which I attribute this chastisement of Heaven are, first, my ambition; and secondly, my neglect of the Almighty.
3. I promise the prince royal to pray for him before the throne of God.
4. I beseech the prince royal to banish from his heart any anger that he may feel against the king, his father, on account of my punishment; for he is not the cause of my death, since in this he is only the instrument of divine justice.
5. The prince royal ought not to think that this calamity has befallen me for want of prudence, but rather to recognise in it the hand of God, who confounds the wisdom of the wise.
6. I entreat the prince royal to submit to the will of his majesty; in the first place, because he is his father, and in the second, because he is his king.
7. The prince royal must remember what I said to him one day in Brandenburg on the submission which he owes to his father, refering to the examples of Absalom.
8. The prince royal must remember that I remonstrated with him, in the strongest manner, first at the camp in Saxony, where we originally had the idea of absconding, and where I foretold what has now happened; and secondly, more recently, one night when I called upon him in Potsdam.
9. I again implore the prince royal most solemnly, by the sufferings of Jesus Christ, to submit to his father's will; both on account of the promises contained in the fifth commandment, and also for fear of the law of retaliation, which might some day cause him to suffer the like vexations with his own children.
10. I beseech the prince royal to consider the vanity of human projects planned without God. The prince royal's wish was to serve me and to raise me to dignities and honours; see how these schemes are frustrated! I therefore beseech the prince royal to take the law of God for the rule of his actions, and to try them by the test of His sacred will.
11. The prince royal ought to be certain that he is deceived by those who flatter his passions, for they have in view their own interests only, not his; and he ought, on the other hand, to consider as his true friends those who tell him the truth and oppose his inclinations.
12. I implore the prince royal to repent, and to submit his heart to God.
13. Lastly, I implore the prince royal not to believe in fatalism; but to acknowledge the providence and the hand of God in the minutest circumstances.
If you think this reads like it was dictated by FW, yeah. Down to the rejection of predestination. Remember, FW has a preacher standing by to step into Fritz's cell the moment Katte's head falls, to lead him back to the true faith, and most specifically, the lack of predestination.
It reads like such a perfect and instant conformity to FW's will that I'm not the only one who thinks that it's a performance. He rejects atheism when staring death in the face and reverts to the religion of his childhood? Sure, maybe. He's been raised in a world where fathers and kings have absolute power and perfect obedience is owed to them, and he buys into that? Sure.
He really, really cares, of his own accord, that Fritz not believe in predestination, so much that it's his second-to-last words to Fritz?
Riiiight.
Katte: Fritz, just do what he says or he'll chop off your head too!!!1!!11! #MyInterpretation
By the way, cahn, remember when we were emailing back and forth about Fritz wearing the coat in prison, and I said it was all he had left of Katte, that and a letter that might not be the most comforting thing in the world? This is what I meant by "possibly not the most comforting thing ever."
My source for this document, btw, is page 155 of Waldie's Select Circulating Library in the Fritzian library. I wish I knew what their source was. (Do you happen to know of a better source for this letter, selenak?) Especially since they say that Fritz received this document immediately.
It still surprises me that he didn't. August 1731? Really? For something that reads like it was dictated by FW, in the hand of the guy who previously supported Fritz's plan, whose execution is meant to inspire a change of heart in Fritz?
Rereading your post, could it be that Wolden is sending to *FW* a copy of the Puncta in August? And Fritz has had it since November? Lavisse also says Fritz has had since the first moment Müller talked to him after Katte's execution. So unless you tell me the German can't possibly mean that, that's what I think is going on here. FW is getting a copy for the first time.
Thoughts on why I think Katte is lying through his teeth up until the moment of his death:
- Either he believes everything in this letter, or he's writing with an eye to FW.
- It seems highly unlikely that he's spontaneously become a carbon copy of FW with no ulterior motives.
- If Katte's getting killed, either it's Fritz's fault, FW's fault, or the will of God to teach Katte a lesson.
- Based not so much on the letter, but on his final words, the way he goes out of his way to comfort Fritz and say he would die for him a thousand times (however that last exchange went exactly), Katte really doesn't seem to be holding anything against Fritz. He really does still seem to love him, enough to be thinking about making him feel better after he, Katte, is gone.
- So either what he and Fritz did was wrong because it was against the will of God, or this is all FW's fault and it's too bad the escape didn't succeed. Saying one of these things leads to Fritz possibly not getting executed too, the only outcome Katte can be working for on that last day. (Even Lavisse reads that letter and thinks he's hoping against hope, maybe even not aware of it, for a last-minute pardon before the sword falls.)
- Atheists don't generally make good martyrs. They're fond of saying, under pain of death, that they never meant it in the first place.
- We have that quote from Katte's teacher, all the way back when he was at school, saying that he didn't try out of a "proper" (religious) motivation, but to please his father. That's at least a good decade of a lackluster attitude toward religion. Atheism/Deism/whatever wasn't a recent discovery after a lifetime of piety.
- His father is going to be pretty pleased to hear that he repented and accepted Christ in his last days, as opposed to the alternative.
- It's hard to be more obstinate than Fritz, and even Fritz gave in and said things he didn't mean in order to stay alive. In Katte's case, first he wanted a pardon (we know he asked for one); then, when that was a lost cause, we know he wanted to increase the chances of his beloved Fritz surviving, at whatever cost.
So I'm just highly suspicious about that whole sudden repentance. That last letter reads just way too good to be true.
But when you report that Wolden writes that he "is sure FW will approve of them"...yeah. I bet!
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Re: A Katte Related Correspondance, or: No Mercy Like Hohenzollern Mercy
Date: 2020-02-05 11:34 pm (UTC)Yeah, that's why I said FWB, not boyfriend. ;)
I'm with you on the slight crush, though! Serious question: does Lehndorff normally comment on the attractiveness of random courtiers and officers whose death he reports?
Now, we know Heinrich was "as beautiful as an angel," so we have to take Peter's handsomeness with a grain of salt, but what it tells us about is Lehndorff's opinion.
I bet all the Potsdam giants who deserted were "strikingly handsome" in their Wanted dispatches, though!
Incidentally, since you're as baffled about what the "Puncta" could be
Baffled no longer! I dug up Katte's last letter to Fritz, and while I remembered the content, I had forgotten that it was in numbered bullet points. Since I don't think we've shared it with
1. The prince royal may, perhaps, think that I consider him as the cause of my death, and that I die in anger with him, but that is not the case. I acknowledge that, for wise reasons, Divine Providence has decreed that these misfortunes should fall upon me, to bring me to true repentance, and to enable me to work out my salvation.
2. The causes to which I attribute this chastisement of Heaven are, first, my ambition; and secondly, my neglect of the Almighty.
3. I promise the prince royal to pray for him before the throne of God.
4. I beseech the prince royal to banish from his heart any anger that he may feel against the king, his father, on account of my punishment; for he is not the cause of my death, since in this he is only the instrument of divine justice.
5. The prince royal ought not to think that this calamity has befallen me for want of prudence, but rather to recognise in it the hand of God, who confounds the wisdom of the wise.
6. I entreat the prince royal to submit to the will of his majesty; in the first place, because he is his father, and in the second, because he is his king.
7. The prince royal must remember what I said to him one day in Brandenburg on the submission which he owes to his father, refering to the examples of Absalom.
8. The prince royal must remember that I remonstrated with him, in the strongest manner, first at the camp in Saxony, where we originally had the idea of absconding, and where I foretold what has now happened; and secondly, more recently, one night when I called upon him in Potsdam.
9. I again implore the prince royal most solemnly, by the sufferings of Jesus Christ, to submit to his father's will; both on account of the promises contained in the fifth commandment, and also for fear of the law of retaliation, which might some day cause him to suffer the like vexations with his own children.
10. I beseech the prince royal to consider the vanity of human projects planned without God. The prince royal's wish was to serve me and to raise me to dignities and honours; see how these schemes are frustrated! I therefore beseech the prince royal to take the law of God for the rule of his actions, and to try them by the test of His sacred will.
11. The prince royal ought to be certain that he is deceived by those who flatter his passions, for they have in view their own interests only, not his; and he ought, on the other hand, to consider as his true friends those who tell him the truth and oppose his inclinations.
12. I implore the prince royal to repent, and to submit his heart to God.
13. Lastly, I implore the prince royal not to believe in fatalism; but to acknowledge the providence and the hand of God in the minutest circumstances.
If you think this reads like it was dictated by FW, yeah. Down to the rejection of predestination. Remember, FW has a preacher standing by to step into Fritz's cell the moment Katte's head falls, to lead him back to the true faith, and most specifically, the lack of predestination.
It reads like such a perfect and instant conformity to FW's will that I'm not the only one who thinks that it's a performance. He rejects atheism when staring death in the face and reverts to the religion of his childhood? Sure, maybe. He's been raised in a world where fathers and kings have absolute power and perfect obedience is owed to them, and he buys into that? Sure.
He really, really cares, of his own accord, that Fritz not believe in predestination, so much that it's his second-to-last words to Fritz?
Riiiight.
Katte: Fritz, just do what he says or he'll chop off your head too!!!1!!11! #MyInterpretation
By the way,
My source for this document, btw, is page 155 of Waldie's Select Circulating Library in the Fritzian library. I wish I knew what their source was. (Do you happen to know of a better source for this letter,
It still surprises me that he didn't. August 1731? Really? For something that reads like it was dictated by FW, in the hand of the guy who previously supported Fritz's plan, whose execution is meant to inspire a change of heart in Fritz?
Rereading your post, could it be that Wolden is sending to *FW* a copy of the Puncta in August? And Fritz has had it since November? Lavisse also says Fritz has had since the first moment Müller talked to him after Katte's execution. So unless you tell me the German can't possibly mean that, that's what I think is going on here. FW is getting a copy for the first time.
Thoughts on why I think Katte is lying through his teeth up until the moment of his death:
- Either he believes everything in this letter, or he's writing with an eye to FW.
- It seems highly unlikely that he's spontaneously become a carbon copy of FW with no ulterior motives.
- If Katte's getting killed, either it's Fritz's fault, FW's fault, or the will of God to teach Katte a lesson.
- Based not so much on the letter, but on his final words, the way he goes out of his way to comfort Fritz and say he would die for him a thousand times (however that last exchange went exactly), Katte really doesn't seem to be holding anything against Fritz. He really does still seem to love him, enough to be thinking about making him feel better after he, Katte, is gone.
- So either what he and Fritz did was wrong because it was against the will of God, or this is all FW's fault and it's too bad the escape didn't succeed. Saying one of these things leads to Fritz possibly not getting executed too, the only outcome Katte can be working for on that last day. (Even Lavisse reads that letter and thinks he's hoping against hope, maybe even not aware of it, for a last-minute pardon before the sword falls.)
- Atheists don't generally make good martyrs. They're fond of saying, under pain of death, that they never meant it in the first place.
- We have that quote from Katte's teacher, all the way back when he was at school, saying that he didn't try out of a "proper" (religious) motivation, but to please his father. That's at least a good decade of a lackluster attitude toward religion. Atheism/Deism/whatever wasn't a recent discovery after a lifetime of piety.
- His father is going to be pretty pleased to hear that he repented and accepted Christ in his last days, as opposed to the alternative.
- It's hard to be more obstinate than Fritz, and even Fritz gave in and said things he didn't mean in order to stay alive. In Katte's case, first he wanted a pardon (we know he asked for one); then, when that was a lost cause, we know he wanted to increase the chances of his beloved Fritz surviving, at whatever cost.
So I'm just highly suspicious about that whole sudden repentance. That last letter reads just way too good to be true.
But when you report that Wolden writes that he "is sure FW will approve of them"...yeah. I bet!