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The Reformation from a New Perspective*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
All too frequently writers have been tempted to over-simplify the German Reformation. The literature in the field is enormous, contradictory, kaleidoscopic, and infinitely complex, requiring decades to master the more important sources and standard works. Such labels as “Reformation,” the “Protestant Revolt,” and the “Protestant Revolution” are, in a large measure, propaganda terms presupposing fundamental assumptions and lines of reasoning not entirely supported in fact. Often the casual reader in this field receives the impression that Reformers like Wyclif, Hus, Savonarola, Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin were merely out of step with the accepted, centuries-old teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. He is not aware of the fact that he is reading history in reverse.
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References
1 The best recent bibliographical study was prepared by Pauck, Wilhelm for the American Council of Learned Societies, “The Historiography of the German Reformation during the Past Twenty Years,” Church History, IX (1940), 305–340CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Standard German historiographies are Wolf, Gustav, Quellenkunde der deutschen Reformationgeschichte (Gotha, 1916–1923), 2 vols.Google Scholar; Schnabel, Franz, Deutschlands geschichtliche Quellen und Darstellungen in der Neuzeit, I. Das Zeitalter der Reformation, 1500–1550 (Leipzig, 1931)Google Scholar; and for the most definitive historiography including recent studies on the various topics, see, Schottenloher, Karl, Bibliographie zur deutschen Geschichte im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung (1933–1939), 5 vols.Google Scholar
2 The word “Reformation” has a Protestant orientation implying that basically the Church founded in the days of the Apostles lived through the Middle Ages and was merely reformed and restored. The expression “Protestant Revolution” has a secular emphasis implying that certain political, social, economic, and religious forces became so powerful that a revolt against accepted standards occurred in the early sixteenth century. The use of the label “Protestant Revolt” is Catholic in orientation implying that there is but a single Church in Christendom from which the Protestants revolted in the Lutheran and Reformed churches.
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20 The original document on parchment with the official seal is in Haile, WUA. Tit. III, No. 1. First reprinted in Suevus, G., Academia Witebergensis ad anno fundationis 1502 … usque ad annum 1655 (Wittebergae, [1655])Google Scholar Bl. A1—A3, now quite rare. More accessible in Friedensburg, , Urkundenbuch, I, 1–3Google Scholar. Also Israël, F., Des Wittenberger Universitätsarchiv; seine Geschichte and seine Bestände, Forsehungen zur Thiüringiseh-Sächsischen Geschichte (Halle a.d.S., 1913), IV, 96–99.Google Scholar
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36 Ibid., 29–30. “De carcere et inobedientibus” provided for a special student jail in which they were to be kept for a short time. Ineorrigibles were to be turned over to the magistrates. According to the section “De foro competenti,” the Rector and his Deans were to make the preliminary investigations. If the problem was financial, the student was given fifteen days to make amends.
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57 He was the “Bannerträger des Hellenismus,” reputed to be one of the foremost Greek scholars in northern Germany. Although his colleagues were quite impressed by his knowledge of the classics as evidenced in the commencement address which he delivered in 1503, he nevertheless left Wittenberg because of the scholastic atmosphere. Scheel, Otto, Martin Luther (Tübingen, 1916), I, 221Google Scholar; G. Bauch, Die Anfädnge des Studiums der griechischen Sprache und Literatur in Norddeutschland; Friedensburg, , G. U. W., 75–76.Google Scholar
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91 In earlier years Luther referred to his Biblical humanism as a New Theology, but after being accused of many innovations, he preferred to emphasize that he had merely returned to early Christian practice and doctrine. Cf. Wolfgang Capito, Preface to the Froben edition of Luther's works, October, 1518, reprinted in Herminjard, , Correspondance des Réformateurs des pays de la langue francaise (1866), I, 61Google Scholar, and Luther's, tract of 1539, “On Councils and the Churches,” Works of Martin Luther (Philadelphia, 1931)Google Scholar, V. An original of the 1518 Froben edition of Luther's works is in the Cornell University Library.
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94 After Luther had defied the Pope's a Bull, Exsurge Domine, by burning it with the Canon Law on December 10, 1520, the subsequent Bull, Decet Romanum pontificem, of January 2, 1521, placed him officially under papal excommunication. For literature see Mirbt, , Quellen, 257.Google Scholar
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97 Ibid. The location of each student reveals that most of them were from the lands of those evangelical princes who had already made their position known.
98 An interesting example is the tiny village of Kemberg whose mayor proudly showed the author an old town record which revealed that Luther had experimented with the use of the Lutheran liturgy in that small congregation before attempting to introduce its use in the Wittenberg congregation. The already familiar Bartholomäus Bernhardi was serving as pastor at the time.
99 These and subsequent tables were prepared for the doctoral dissertation cited in note 95, hereafter referred to as Thesis. Figures were compiled from the Album, I, 99–108Google Scholar; cf. supra, n. 37. The original is in the Halle-Witteaberg University Library, Germany.
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123 Rost, J. R., Pädagogische Bedeutung Bugenhagens (1890), 11 ffGoogle Scholar. Cf. Pressel, , Nicolaus von Amsdorf, 20–42Google Scholar, showing how Goslar, Eimsbeck, and other neighboring mission fields were organized.
124 Realencyklopadie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, ed. by D. A. Hauck (1896–1913), III, 792Google Scholar; hereafter, R. E. Dr. Hesz received his M. A. degree from Wittenberg and completed his doctorate in Italy. The success of his reforms in Silesia is reflected in the student enro1ment from that region.
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129 Luther's frequent expressions on the Augsburg Confession leave no doubt as to his position. Enders, VIII, 190, 191, 220, 221, 222, 233, 258, 259. W. A., L, 162 ff.Google Scholar
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132 Above, n. 41. Friedensburg, , Urkundenbuoh, I, 154–186.Google Scholar
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134 Some consideration was given to the plan of teaching Latin, Greek, and Hebrew in the preparatory schools; but Hebrew, particularly, was found impractical at the lower level.
135 Friedensburg, , Urkundentbuch, I, 154–158.Google Scholar
136 Ibid.
137 Rost, J. B., Pädagogische Bedeutung Bugenhagens, 24 ff.Google Scholar; cf. R. E., III, 528–529Google Scholar and Vogt, K. A. T., Johannes Bugenhagen Pomeranus, Leben und ausgewählte Schriften der Väter und Begründer der lutherisohen Kirche, IV, 303 ff. passim.Google Scholar
138 Paulsen, F., Geschichte des Gelehrten Unterrichts, 276–281.Google Scholar
139 Ibid.; Scheel, Otto, “Luther und die Schule seiner Zeit,” Luther-Jahrbuch, VII (1925), 141 ff.Google Scholar
140 Rost, , Pädagogische Bedeutung Bugenhagens, 59 ffGoogle Scholar. Unfortunately these publie lectures for adults met with much opposition. In Lübeck they were opposed by the strong guilds, in Hamburg the Cathedral Chapter was hostile, but in Stettin the lectures flourished, Ibid., 68–69.
141 A good example is the Wittenberg Latin school of 1533 established by Philip Melanohthon. Cf. n. 139.
142 Rost, , Pädagogische Bedeutung Bugenhagens, 66Google Scholar. Ziegler, Heinrich, “Die Gegenreformation in Schlesien,” Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte, VI (1888–1889), 3 ff.Google Scholar
143 Album, I, 177–184; 250–261.Google Scholar
144 Burkhardt, , Visitations, 225 ff.Google Scholar
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146 Album, I, 250 ff.Google Scholar, II, 3–9. Between six and seven hundred students from the Breslau region alone attended Wittenberg during thia period.
147 Album, I, 250 ff.Google Scholar, II, 3–9.
148 Ibid.
149 Ibid.
150 Album, III, 804–806Google Scholar. These figures were computed on the basis of an average enrolment.
151 Ibid.
152 Ibid.
153 Ibid.
154 Another avenue for intriguing research would be to use the names of students in the Album as leads to further investigations in their home communities to ascertain the degree of correlation between Wittenberg and the growth of the Reformation in individual communities. Such a study could be made only an Ort und Stelle and would require infinite patience and time. For a few recorded reactions of students that studied at Wittenberg, see Friedensburg, , G. U. W., 152 ffGoogle Scholar. Cf. Ballenstadius, J. A., Andreae Althameri Vita, 73Google Scholar; Schiesz, , Briefwechsel der Brüder Ambrosius und Thomas Blaurer (1908), I, 29 ff.Google Scholar, no. 28; cf., also, 30, 31, 32, and 34.