Dr. Thomas Cress J. U. D.

Source of family information: Von, Frank, Karl Frederick. Kress Family History. Vienna 1930

THOMAS KRESS born on 21 Dec 1559 in Halle, Prussia.

He died on 23 Nov 1636 in Halle, Prussia.

He married Esther Von Tieffenbrunch (daughter of Herman von Tieffenbrunch) in 1587. She was born 1563 in Halle, Prussia and died in 1616.

Eventually, the Catholics realized that the Protestants weren’t going to disappear and the Treaty of Peace at Augsburg was signed, agreeing that a prince could determine the religion (i.e., Catholic or Lutheranism) of the people within his territory.

Two years after the signing of the Treaty, Thomas Kress was born to Andres Kress (son of Christoph) and Maria Schawarzbotz.

Andreas was a well-known salt work owner in Halle.

By the time Thomas was eight years old, his mother died and his father remarried.

Thomas began his studies at Halle Grammar Schoo. From there, he went to the Saxon Nation of the University of Leipzig, the University of Orleans in France, spent a year in England, then returned to France.

Finally, in 1583, at age 24, he received a Doctorate in Canon and Civil Laws. The next year, he registered in the University of German Scholars at Siena and attended the famous University of Jurists in Bologna, Italy. The University of Bologna was the last school that he attended.

In 1585, he returned to Halle to practice law. By this time, aldermen with legal training had replaced the traditional aldermen.

Two years later, he married Ester, the daughter of a salt work owner.

They had seven children, including Carl Kress, born in 1606.

After 29 years of marriage, Esther died.

Two years later, Thomas remarried but they had no children. That wife died 12 years later. Both wives are probably buried in Halle Churchyard where Thomas purchased a family vault.

Thomas worked as an alderman until 1621.

At age 62, he paid for the position of attorney and recorder for the Halle Town Council.

While in that position, he wrote two books, “Regulations for Salt Work Owners.” During his life, he also wrote nine pigskinned volumes of “Cress Annuals” which prevented the loss of information regarding important events in Halle. One of the leaf pages on it has the escutcheon of the Kress sword and at the bottom of the page is his signature, the date 4 May 1602, and the phrase “Happy is he who knows how to learn from the misfortunes of others and to become wise by it.”

Thomas also owned a large, expensive library of law books, including the standard books against witch trials - based on the belief that witches were the innocent victims of the devil and therefore diseased, not criminals. He also owned the book by the opposing viewpoint. Everyone, including Luther, believed that witches cast hexes, danced on the Sabat, and flew through the air on brooms or animals. Law generally consisted of charges being filed, a defendant being tortured until he confessed then mutilating or executing him. Every town was equipped with persuasive devices.

Originally, Thomas was well-to-do with professional income and financial interest in the salt industry. Hard times, however, fell on the family. At the beginning of the 17th century, a mini ice age resulted in food shortages and starvation. There was an increase in infanticide and in the persecution of witches and the Jewish. There were internal and external tensions between religions, princes, and kings. There was the general expectation of war.

The war that was destined to use “Germany” for its battlefield for 30 years pitted the Protestants against Catholics, estates against territorial rulers, and territorial rulers against the Emperor. It began in 1618, 2 months before Thomas married his second wife.

The Bohemian Protestant king had died, and a Catholic king assumed the throne. On May 16, the new king attempted to reduce the freedom of the Protestant nobles. Seven days later, the Protestants forced their way into the palace and the discussion grew heated until the protestors threw two Jesuit Royal Councilors and a Secretary out the window.

The Catholics reported that the cloak of the Viriginia Mary softened the fall. The Protestants reported that a pile of dung softened the fall. The king, in response to the protest, declared war. Other Catholic localities joined forces with him, hoping to reverse the religious reformation.

The two leading Catholic generals, Tilly and Wallenstein, with troops of 60,000 penetrated Northern Germany, leaving in their wake gutted houses, barren fields, and violated women.

Six years after Wallenstein entered Halle, General Tilly’s troops pillaged Magdeburg for four days. They burned the entire city, except for the cathedrals. They killed all 3,000 men in the garrison and tortured or put to death 25,000 of the 30,000 citizens. Tilly, then, ordered the corpses thrown into the Elbe River. The river turned red with blood and the bodies clogged it for miles.

Clergyman Johannesburg Malsisu and his daughter, Elizabeth were among the survivors. However, they lost all of their possessions and moved from Magdeburg to Hallie.

A year after the death of his second wife, Thomas married Elizabeth. The following spring, Elizabeth gave 72-year-old Thomas his thirteenth child.

Thomas died five years later and is buried in the family vault in Halle Cemetery.