schla ̈ger’s sister, the pretty Sophie, wrinkled up her nose at Mynster’s poeti-
cal debut, but then she was known to be virtually impossible to please.
An article Mynster published in Rahbek’s journalMinervain April 1806
was of equal importance. Mynster wrote in opposition to a piece by Bishop
Boisen, who had been nattering on in favor of a more formless liturgy.
Under other circumstances Mynster would not have reacted, but since the
government had taken Boisen’s foolishness seriously and had already con-
vened a commission to consider the matter, Mynster feared that “a mess
would be made of the entire liturgy, the weaknesses of which I was well-
acquainted with but which I loved so profoundly.” Wanting to do the
honest thing, Mynster wrote his essay “On the Proposed Change in Our
Liturgy,” but then he hesitated and let it lie for a few weeks: “I, an un-
known, was not only to go into the lists against a man who at that time
enjoyed universal favor among those of both high and low estate, but I was
also, to a certain degree at least, defending the old arrangements that had
been abandoned by nearly everyone and was speaking in defense of a partic-
ular view of Christianity that would astound, if not infuriate, most readers,
and would in a way cast aspersions upon a governmental initiative.” Myn-
ster sent his polemical piece to the Bakkehus, where Kamma and her
brother approved of it entirely, while Knud Lyne was more dubious. But
it was published anyway. Mynster had crossed his Rubicon; he was praised
and criticized, and Boisen’s idea was shelved.
While Mynster was gradually becoming more and more himself down
in Spjellerup, Napoleon had plunged large portions of Europe into chaos.
Mynster regarded the little Frenchman with unmitigated loathing, not be-
cause he had “usurped royal or imperial power,” or because he was a “con-
queror”; no, the loathing was occasioned by “hypocritical phrases with
which—in the midst of the most horrifying bloodshed and the most heart-
less extortion—it was continually asserted that all this was being done for
the sake of the well-being and salvation of the human race.” Napoleon’s
troops had long been exerting pressure on Denmark through Prussia, which
portended ill, but most people were nonetheless taken aback by the “quite
abominable catastrophe of 1807,” when the English invaded Denmark. “As
we began to harvest our fields in the most profound peace, everything sud-
denly took on a martial appearance. Not only soldiers who were on fur-
lough, but also the local militia were called up for service,” Mynster wrote.
He himself suffered greatly because communication between Spjellerup and
Copenhagen had been cut off, and at times the only person he could com-
municate with was his “half-dotty housekeeper.”
One day, just before evening, bombardment could be heard from the
northeast; the following evenings seemed quiet, but only because the wind
romina
(Romina)
#1