Mandate of Gustavus Adolphus for the Protection of Travelers and Farmers

and visual evidence shows all too clearly) so [that] many fields lie uncultivated and desolate for the most part, and therefore humans and livestock have suffered a ruinous lack and deficiency of indispensable means of nourishment and sustenance; many places still experience continuous inflation The German term "Theurung" refers to a period of high prices and scarcity, usually caused by war or crop failure. and must therefore suffer miserably.

However, since such disorder would lead to nothing other than the total ruin of the lands and their inhabitants, and consequently also to the utter ruin, damage, and depletion of the indispensable means of sustenance for Our various armies stationed throughout the Circles The "Imperial Circles" (Reichskreise) were administrative groupings of territories within the Holy Roman Empire used for taxation and defense.; and [since] We would not tolerate such insolence and excesses if We did not stop them through proper, earnest intervention and sharp military discipline; We have therefore, out of Our obligatory duty of care, [decided] to remedy and prevent such mischief during the upcoming Frankfurt Lent Fair, as well as during the approaching spring original: "Lentzen" and the planting season, with all earnest diligence. We regard it as a matter of the highest necessity to ensure both free and safe transport of supplies, trade, and commerce, as well as to restore and promote the noble, though ruined, cultivation of the fields.

We therefore command all the aforementioned, Our high and low officers and soldiers, both on horse and on foot, most earnestly and under threat of unavoidable corporal and capital punishment original: "Leibs vnd Lebens Straffen"; literally "punishments of body and life," meaning execution or physical discipline., that they...