advantage in that it could be worn well with the clothing of that time period when longswords were typically seen as too large to be worn fashionably. Thirty Years' War also led to a massive decline of both fencing schools and practitioners in the Holy Roman Empire. Both Peter Hagendorf (a mercenary who fought in the Thirty Years' War) and Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen make references in their works to the excessive number of deaths among the member of the traditional fencing guilds and the massive destruction of the regions in which they were active (this also explains why most of the surviving schools and lines were active in the eastern part of the Holy Roman Empire or in regions that were far less affected by the war). Author Jean Daniel L'Ange writes in his book Deutliche und gründliche Erklärung der adelichen und ritterlichen freyen Fecht-Kunst, from 1664 (another edition was published in 1708), that "a big sword is very dangerous in our times because it is more difficult to [carry] around with clothing than a smaller thrusting sword, which can easily be worn." He also writes that "it is possible to kill a man who is armed with a gun in a short range, when he stands close to you[,] with the help of the rapier, because of the highly effective thrusting techniques [that] will save your life, rather than with the slower cutting of a bigger sword or a sabre. You may even be able to kill him, before he can take his gun out of its halter, before he can make the first shot". L'Ange also writes, "you can hide your rapier well under your mantle and thus avoid any provocation in public. A long sword may cause problems and excite enemies". But L'Ange also pays tribute to the Marksbrüder and states, "their art is truly a knightly science, it must be preserved for the coming, yet unborn generations!". However, some civilian fencers still practiced the German school instead of the rapier-fencing of the noble elite. The last known practitioner by name was Theodori Verolini in 1679, when he published his book Der Kůnstliche Fechter ("The Artful Fencer"), which was based upon Joachim Meyers fechtbuch. Late survivals in the modern period There are paintings from the middle of the 18th century that show practitioners still using long swords in the fencing schools of the Marxbrüder and