Money bag found in leg of German church statue – The

Restorers at St. Andrew’s Church in Eisleben, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in east-central Germany, discovered four bags of coins dating from around 1640 in the leg cavity of a statue of a kneeling count. During the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), Swedish occupying forces wreaked havoc in the area, forcing local residents to house, feed and pay large sums of cash for them, which they stashed in the Count’s legs.

Conservators discovered the treasure in 2022. The leather bag contained 816 coins, including a highly valuable “Golden Angel” coin, several gold coins, gold and silver doubles, half and quarter seles, and 800 pence. In an era when miners earned 24 pence (1 taler) a week, this was a huge sum of money.

The most valuable gold coins were wrapped in paper and labeled, indicating that the money belonged to the church treasury. “This is not a Sunday cloche bag, though,” [head of the State Coin Cabinet of Saxony-Anhalt Ulf] Draeger said. “Rather, it is income collected from special services performed by priests” such as weddings, baptisms and funerals. Pastors also receive money from “chair fees,” in which congregants pay to sit in prominent seats in church, he added.

Historians know that from 1561 Eisleben had an “Aerarium Pastorale” – a public parish fund that served as a pension and medical fund, social insurance for priests and to promote the training of theologians. “Maybe we already have the fund now,” Draeger said. “Historical research will prove that.”

Martin Luther was born in Eisleben in 1483 and died there in 1546. He preached his last four sermons from the pulpit of St. Andrew’s Church, and his funeral was held there, but his remains were taken to Wittenberg for burial. Elector of Saxony. In Luther’s time, Eisleben was the capital of the county of Mansfield, ruled by the earls of the Mansfield family, some of whom converted to Protestantism and broke away from the Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Emperor to follow Martin Luther. Luther acted as an intermediary between the Catholic and Protestant Earls of Mansfield, negotiating a unique truce in the bitter conflict of the Reformation: St. Andrew’s Church held Catholic Mass in the morning and Protestant services in the afternoon. In fact, Luther was in town only because he was settling another dispute between the Mansfield families. He arrived in January, fell ill rapidly and died on 18 February. His body lay in state at St. Andrew’s Church for four days before being transported to Wittenberg.

The statue on which the money was found depicts one of the counts of Mansfield, Count Johann Albrecht von Mansfeld-Arnstein (1522-1586). This is a high-relief scene of the count and his wife, Countess Magdalena von Mansfield (1530-1565), kneeling at the foot of a cross. The sculpture marks the tomb of the Countess, who was buried here in 1574, ten years after her death. Some sixty-five years later, someone, perhaps a church worker, stashed the pension fund in his lap.

The church was built in the 12th century and was undergoing major reconstruction when Martin Luther was born. Most of the church as it stands today – the three-aisled nave, choir and tower ground floor – was completed in 1486. The remainder of the tower and dome were added to the late Gothic hall in 1714-23. The wooden pulpit where Luther delivered his last sermon still exists and has been a place of pilgrimage since his death.