Soren Kierkegaard

had changed direction and this was in fact the calm before the storm. And
Mynster remembered it so vividly that the pages themselves almost seem to
disappear into the drizzle and the darkness: “At midnight I climbed up a
long thatching ladder that leaned up against the gable of the house; the
whole village was asleep; it was drizzling and it was so dark that I could not
makeoutanynearbyobjects.ButIsawfirespreadacrossthedistanthorizon,
and I knew well that Copenhagen—the site of everything dearest to me—
was burning.” The capitulation came several days later, and Mynster went
to the capital and found his family, who had sought refuge at Frederik’s
Hospital, unharmed and in reasonably good spirits. As the occupation
dragged on, English soldiers were quartered at Mynster’s parsonage, which
was quite difficult for the unmarried curate, though tolerable as long as it
was only a matter of “corporals and common soldiers.” Later on, however,
it became something close to a plague when he had to play host to rude
and ill-mannered officers, who cared about nothing other than their pay
and their own convenience.
During the years that followed, Mynster intensified his theological stud-
ies. He read the Bible in a new light and studied Justin Martyr in relation
to the four Gospels. He was also convinced that he could demonstrate that
theEpistleofJamescontainedthemesthatpointedforwardtowardtheEpis-
tle to the Hebrews, and he wrote a lengthy article on this. Of greatest im-
portance,however,washispublicationin 1809ofalittlevolumecontaining
twelve of his best sermons. During the turbulent war years, of course, no
publisher wanted to assume the risk of publication. Mynster had to invest
his own money in publishing the sermons, but theSpjellerup Sermonsen-
joyedhighpraiseandsuccessfulsales,sohemadeoutwellonhisinvestment.
The following year he publishedOn the Art of Preaching, which was also
quite a success. He had read the manuscript aloud to his theological col-
leagues at theannual diocesan meeting, and he waswell satisfied: “The ideas
were quite clear, the language was good, and in those days I was good at
reading aloud, so the reading made quitean impression.” During these years
Mynster was also collecting material for an ambitious project treating the
first three centuries of Christianity, the days of the true martyrs, but despite
persistent and lifelong work on the subject, he never managed to finish it.
On the other hand, Mynster’s own congregation was not a source of
much joy. The war had occasioned an increase in agricultural prices and
consequently in the standard of living of the peasants, who did not care a
whit about the pastor’s sermon. When they were not drinking and fornicat-
ing to the best of their abilities, they were arrogant, impertinent, and idle.
There was, however, one bright spot: Death had freed Mynster of his intol-
erable housekeeper; but the tender young girl who replaced her refused to