Definitely GG, as Mildred says! Thank you for the great Knobelsdoff quotes. Having read the Gundling books rather recently, and the book on capital punishment in Germany until ca. 1800, I have to add this, though:
A couple of days ago, I myself saw a dozen duces who were busy trying to convert to the right path towards paradise two Jews on their way to the gallows, but regardless of their efforts - some of them even climbing the ladder with them - the good Hebrews died as martyrs for their religion.
Knobelsdorff, you could have seen something similar at home in Berlin. The court news paper both Stade and Sabrow used as sources, and so did the capital punishment guy, also include the fact that when Jews were condemned to execution, Protestant preachers kept having a go at them, trying to persuade them to convert. And FW era Prussia wasn't alone in this. Famously, Joseph Süß Oppenheimer was offered a reduced sentence after his show trial in equally Protestant Würtemberg if he converted to Christianity. (And didn't take it but remained a Jew and got executed.)
The St. Anthony's ritual is fascinating, though. I only know him as the Saint responsible to help you find items you lost. (My paternal grandmother was called Antonie, so he was her patron and she always prayed to him when looking for something, and lit a candle in church if she found it.) That he was responsible for animals is news to me, though I don't doubt the description. Having googled it, I see Antonius of Padua is specifically responsible for horses, mules and asses, not the rest of the animals.
Re: Harold Acton: Last of the Medici I: How to make really bad marriages
A couple of days ago, I myself saw a dozen duces who were busy trying to convert to the right path towards paradise two Jews on their way to the gallows, but regardless of their efforts - some of them even climbing the ladder with them - the good Hebrews died as martyrs for their religion.
Knobelsdorff, you could have seen something similar at home in Berlin. The court news paper both Stade and Sabrow used as sources, and so did the capital punishment guy, also include the fact that when Jews were condemned to execution, Protestant preachers kept having a go at them, trying to persuade them to convert. And FW era Prussia wasn't alone in this. Famously, Joseph Süß Oppenheimer was offered a reduced sentence after his show trial in equally Protestant Würtemberg if he converted to Christianity. (And didn't take it but remained a Jew and got executed.)
The St. Anthony's ritual is fascinating, though. I only know him as the Saint responsible to help you find items you lost. (My paternal grandmother was called Antonie, so he was her patron and she always prayed to him when looking for something, and lit a candle in church if she found it.) That he was responsible for animals is news to me, though I don't doubt the description. Having googled it, I see Antonius of Padua is specifically responsible for horses, mules and asses, not the rest of the animals.