Case Study: The Intellectual Disease
Reading:
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For this case study you are to analyze Chapter 13 The Spread of Protestant Ideas (Pgs. 407 - 415) and review the sources provided below. You are expected to be able to answer the guiding question in full depth with specific historical evidence and supporting details.
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Introduction
After the German Peasants' War (1524–25), a forceful attempt to establish theocracy was made at Münster, in Westphalia (1532–1535). Here a group of Anabaptists had gained considerable influence, through the teachings of Bernhard Rothmann, the Lutheran pastor, and several prominent citizens; and the charismatic leadership of Jan Matthijs, a baker from Haarlem, and Jan Van Leiden a shoemaker and actor from Leiden. Bernhard Rothmann was a tireless and vitriolic opponent of Catholicism and a writer of pamphlets that were published by his ally and wealthy wool merchant Bernhard Knipperdolling. The pamphlets at first denounced Catholicism from a radical Lutheran perspective, but soon started to proclaim that the Bible called for the absolute equality of man in all matters including the distribution of wealth. The pamphlets, which were distributed throughout northern Germany, successfully called upon the poor of the region to join the citizens of Münster to share the wealth of the town and benefit spiritually from being the elect of Heaven. Jan Van Leiden and Gerrit Boekbinder had visited Münster, and returned with a report that Bernhard Rothmann was there teaching doctrines similar to their own. Matthys identified Münster as the "New Jerusalem", and on January 5, 1534, a number of his disciples entered the city and introduced adult baptism. Rothmann apparently accepted "re-baptism" that day, and well over 1000 adults were soon baptized. Vigorous preparations were made, not only to hold what had been gained, but to spread their beliefs to other areas. The many Lutherans who left were outnumbered by the arriving Anabaptist, there was an orgy of iconoclasm in cathedrals and monasteries, and re-baptism became compulsory. The property of the emigrants was shared out with the poor and soon a proclamation was issued that all property was to be held in common. The city was then besieged by Franz von Waldeck, its expelled Prince Bishop. In April 1534 on Easter Sunday, Matthys, who had prophesied God's judgment to come on the wicked on that day, made a sally with only thirty followers, believing that he was a second Gideon, and was cut off with his entire band. He was killed, his head severed and placed on a pole for all in the city to see, and his genitals nailed to the city gate. |
The 25-year old John of Leiden was subsequently recognized as Matthys' religious and political successor, justifying his authority and actions by the receipt of visions from heaven. His authority grew, eventually proclaiming himself to be the successor of David and adopting royal regalia, honors and absolute power in the new "Zion".
After lengthy resistance, the city was taken by the besiegers on June 24, 1535 and John of Leiden and several other prominent Anabaptist leaders were captured and imprisoned. In January 1536 John of Leiden, Bernhard Knipperdolling and one more prominent follower, Bernhard Krechting, were tortured and executed in the marketplace of Münster. Their bodies were exhibited in cages, which hung from the steeple of St. Lambert's Church. The bones were removed later, but the cages hang there still.
After lengthy resistance, the city was taken by the besiegers on June 24, 1535 and John of Leiden and several other prominent Anabaptist leaders were captured and imprisoned. In January 1536 John of Leiden, Bernhard Knipperdolling and one more prominent follower, Bernhard Krechting, were tortured and executed in the marketplace of Münster. Their bodies were exhibited in cages, which hung from the steeple of St. Lambert's Church. The bones were removed later, but the cages hang there still.
Key Concept:
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Guiding Question - Skill: Causation
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Sources:
Source 1: Ulrich Zwingli, The 67 Articles
Ulrich Zwingli, the people's priest in the Great Minster in Zurich, worked for a reform in the church initially guided by Erasmian humanist impulses, but increasingly under evangelical influence. He prepared Sixty-Seven Articles as a basis for a discussion with other religious powers in Switzerland. The disputation resulted in enthusiastic approval of Zwingli's teachings and an order that all priests should promote them. |
ABOUT THE MASS
18. That Christ, having sacrificed Himself once, is to eternity a certain and valid sacrifice for the sins of all faithful, wherefrom it follows that the mass is not a sacrifice, but is a remembrance of the sacrifice and assurance of the salvation which God has given us. 19. That Christ is the only mediator between God and us. ABOUT THE INTERCESSION OF SAINTS 20. That God desires to give us all things in His name, whence it follows that outside of this life we need no mediator except Himself. 21. That when we pray for each other on earth, we do so in such fashion that we believe that all things are given to us through Christ alone. ABOUT GOOD WORKS 22. That Christ is our justice, from which [it] follows that our works insofar as they are good, so far they are of Christ, but in-sofar as they are ours, they are neither right nor good. CONCERNING THE FORBIDDING OF FOOD 24. That no Christian is bound to do those things which God has not decreed, therefore one may eat at all times all food, where-from one learns that the decree about cheese and butter is a Roman swindle. ABOUT THE MARRIAGE OF ECCLESIASTS 28. That all which God has allowed or not forbidden is righteous, hence marriage is permitted to all human beings. ABOUT THE VOW OF CHASTITY 30. That those who promise chastity [outside of matrimony] take foolishly or childishly too much upon themselves, whence is learned that those who make such vows do wrong to the pious being. |
Source 2: The Trial and Martyrdom of Michael Sattler, From Martyr's Mirror, Rottenburgh, 1527
The saintly Anabaptist leader Michael Sattler was perhaps typical of the general membership in the movement by not being a prominent personage. Converted by evangelical preaching, he gave up his position as prior of St. Peter's in Breisgau and went to Zurich where he soon joined the Swiss Anabaptist Brethren. He was later arrested by the Austrian authorities, tried and burned to death as a seditious person and heretic. |
Upon this speech the judges laughed and put their heads together, and the town clerk of Ensisheim said: "Yes, you infamous, desperate rascal of a monk, should we dispute with you? The hangman will dispute with you, I assure you!"
Michael said: "God's will be done." The town clerk said: "It were well if you had never been born." Michael replied: "God knows what is good." The town clerk: "You archheretic, you have seduced pious peo-ple. If they would only now forsake their error and commit them-selves to grace!" Michael: "Grace is with God alone." One of the prisoners also said: "We must not depart from the truth." The town clerk: "Yes, you desperate villain, you archheretic, I say, if there were no hangman here, I would hang you myself and be doing God a good service thereby." Michael: "God will judge aright." Thereupon the town clerk said a few words to him in Latin, what, we do not know. Michael Sattler answered him, "Judica." The town clerk then admonished the judges and said: "He will not cease from this chatter anyway. Therefore, my Lord Judge, you may proceed with the sentence. I call for a decision of the court." The judge asked Michael Sattler whether he too committed it to the court. He replied: "Ministers of God, I am not sent to judge the Word of God. We are sent to testify and hence cannot consent to any adjudication, since we have no command from God concerning it. But we are not for that reason removed from being judged and we are ready to suffer and to await what God is planning to do with us. We will continue in our faith in Christ so long as we have breath in us, unless we be dissuaded from it by the Scriptures." The town clerk said: "The hangman will instruct you, he will dispute with you, archheretic." Michael: "I appeal to the Scriptures." Then the judges arose and went into another room where they remained for an hour and a half and determined on the sentence. In the meantime some of the soldiers in the room treated Michael Sattler most unmercifully, heaping reproach upon him. One of them said: "What have you in prospect for yourself and the others that you have so seduced them?" With this he also drew a sword which lay upon the table, saying: "See with this they will dispute with you." But Michael did not answer upon a single word concerning himself but willingly endured it all. One of the prisoners said: "We must not cast pearls before swine." Being also asked why he had not remained a lord in the convent, Michael answered: "Ac-cording to the flesh I was a lord, but it is better as it is." He did not say more than what is recorded here, and this he spoke fearlessly. The judges having returned to the room, the sentence was read. It was as follows: "In the case of the attorney of His Imperial Majesty vs. Michael Sattler, judgment is passed that Michael Sattler shall be delivered to the executioner, who shall lead him to the place of execution and cut out his tongue, then forge him fast to a wagon and thereon with red hot tongs twice tear pieces from his body; and after he has been brought outside the gate, he shall be plied five times more in the same manner . . ." After this had been done in the manner prescribed, he was burned to ashes as a heretic. His fellow brethren were executed with the sword, and the sisters drowned. His wife, also after being subjected to many entreaties, admonitions and threats, under which she remained steadfast, was drowned a few days afterward. Done the 21st day of May, A.D. 1527. |
Source 3: John Calvin, The Necessity of Reforming the Church (1543)
Studying in Paris at the same time as Ignatius of Loyola, Frenchman John Calvin became a convert to the reform movement. Fleeing the dangers of Paris, Calvin settled in Geneva and produced the first edition of his famous treatise, Institutes of the Christian Religion, in 1536. The excerpt that follows addresses the problem of idolatry, especially the cult of the saints. |
The Necessity of Reforming the Church
Both sides confess that in the sight of God idolatry is an execrable crime. But when we attack the worship of images, our adversaries immediately take the opposite side, and lend support to the crime which they had with us verbally condemned. . .. For they strenuously defend the veneration of images, though they condemn idolatry. But these ingenious men deny that the honor which they pay to images is worship, as if, when compared with ancient idolatry, it were possible to see any difference. Idolaters pretended that they worshiped the celestial gods, though under corporeal figures which represented them. What else do our adversaries pretend? But is God satisfied with such excuses? Did the prophets on this ac-count cease to rebuke the madness of the Egyptians, when, out of the secret mysteries of their theology, they drew subtle distinctions under which to screen themselves? What too do we suppose the brazen serpent which the Jews worshiped to have been, but something which they honored as a representation of God? .. . I have not yet adverted to the grosser superstitions, though these cannot be confined to the ignorant, since they are approved by public consent. They adorn their idols now with flowers and chaplets, now with robes, vests, girdles, purses, and frivolities of every kind. They light tapers and burn incense before them, and carry them on their shoulders in solemn state. They assemble from long distances to one statue, though they have similar things at home. Likewise, though in one shrine there may be several images, of the Virgin Mary, or someone else, they pass these by, and one is frequented as if it were more divine. When they pray to the image of Christopher or Barbara, they mutter the Lord's Prayer and the angel's salutation. The fairer or dingier the images are, the greater is their excellence sup-posed to be. They find new commendation in fabulous miracles. Some they pretend to have spoken, others to have extinguished a fire in the church by trampling on it, others to have moved of their own accord to a new adobe, others to have dropped from heaven. While the whole world teems with these and similar delusions, and the fact is perfectly notorious, we who have brought back the worship of the one God to the rule of his Word, who arc blameless in this matter, and have purged our churches, not only of idolatry but of superstition also, are accused of violating the worship of God, because we have discarded the worship of images... . ... As to the matter of relics, it is almost incredible how impudently the world has been cheated. I can mention three relics of our Savior's circumcision; likewise fourteen nails which are exhibited for the three by which the soldiers cast lots; two inscriptions that were placed over the cross; three blades of the spear by which our Savior's side was pierced, and about five sets of linen clothes which wrapped his body in the tomb. Besides they show all the articles used at the institution of the Lord's Supper, and endless absurdities of this kind. There is no saint of any celebrity of whom two or three bodies are not in existence. I can name the place where a piece of pumice-stone was long held in high veneration as the skull of Peter. Decency will not permit me to mention fouler exhibitions. It is therefore undeservedly that we are blamed for having studied to purify the Church of God from such impurities. In regard to the worship of God, our adversaries next accuse us, because, in omitting trivialities not only foolish but also tending to hypocrisy, we worship God more simply... |
Secondary Sources:
Source 1: Women in the Reformation, Marilyn J. Boxer and Jean H. Quataert
The great figures of the Reformation were men, and traditionally focus has been on their struggles and their doctrines. In recent years scholars have questioned what role women played in the Reformation and whether the Reformation benefited women socially or in any aspect of public life. |
Defying stereotypes, women in good measure also were instrumental in spreading the ideas of the religious Re-formation to the communities, towns, and provinces of Europe after 1517. In their roles as spouses and mothers they were often the ones to bring the early reform ideas to the families of Europe's aristocracy and to those of the common people in urban centers as well. The British theologian Richard Hooker (c. 1553-1600) typically explained the prominence of women in reform movements by reference to their "nature," to the "eagerness of their affection," not to their intelligence or ability to make conscious choices. Similarly, Catholic polemicists used notions about women's immature and frail "nature" to discredit Protestantism.
The important role played by women in the sixteenth-century Reformation should not surprise us, for they had been equally significant in supporting earlier heresies that challenged the established order and at times the gender hierarchy, too. Many medieval anticlerical movements that extolled the virtues of lay men praised lay women as well. . Since the message of the Reformation, like that of the earlier religious movements, meant a loosening of hierarchies, it had a particular appeal to women. By stressing the individual's personal relationship with God and his or her own responsibility for behavior, it affirmed the ability of each to find truth by reading the original Scriptures. Thus, it offered a greater role for lay participation by women, as well as men, than was possible in Roman Catholicism. . . . [Nevertheless,] the Reformation did not markedly transform women's place in society, and the reformers had never intended to do so. To be sure, they called on men and women to read the Bible and participate in religious ceremonies together. But Bible-reading reinforced the Pauline view of woman as weak-minded and sinful. When such practice took a more radical turn in the direction of lay prophesy, as occurred in some Reform churches southwest of Paris, or in the coming together of women to discuss "unchristian pieces" as was recorded in Zwickau, reformers—Lutheran and Calvin alike—pulled back in horror. The radical or Anabaptist brand of reform generally offered women a more active role in religious life than did Lutheranism, even allowing them to preach. "Admonished to Christian righteousness" by more conservative Protestants, Anabaptists were charged with holding that "marriage and whoredom are one and the same thing." The women were even accused of having "dared to deny their husbands' marital rights." During an interrogation one woman explained that "she was wed to Christ and must therefore be chaste, for which she cited the saying, that no one can serve two masters." The response of the magisterial Reformers was unequivocal. The equality of the Gospel was not to overturn the inequalities of social rank or the hierarchies of the sexual order. As the Frenchman Pierre Viret explained it in 1560, appealing to the old polarities again, the Protestant elect were equal as Christians and believers—as man and woman, master and servant, free and serf. Further, while the Reformation thus failed to elevate women's status, it deprived them of the emotion-ally sustaining presence of female imagery, of saints and protectors who long had played a significant role at crucial points in their life cycles. The Reformers rejected the special powers of the saints and downplayed, for example, Saints Margaret and Ann, who had been faithful and succoring companions for women in childbirth and in widowhood. With the rejection of Mary as well as the saints, nuns, and abbesses, God the Father was more firmly in place. |
Source 2: The Bible Translation that Rocked the World, Henry Zecher
Luther's Bible introduced mass media, unified a nation, and set the standard for future translations. |
Martin Luther was many things: preacher, teacher, orator, translator, theologian, composer, and family man. He came to symbolize everything the Protestant Reformation stood for. But perhaps Luther's greatest achievement was the German Bible. No other work has had as strong an impact on a nation's development and heritage as has this Book.
In Luther's time, the German language consisted of several regional dialects (all similar to the tongue spoken in the courts of the Hapsburg and Luxemburg emperors). How were these scattered dialects united into one modern language? The rise of the middle class, the growth of trade, and the invention of the printing press all played a part. But the key factor was Luther's Bible. The Wartburg Wonder Following the Diet of Worms in 1521, Luther's territorial ruler, Frederick the Wise, had Luther hidden away for safekeeping in the castle at Wartburg. Luther settled down and translated Erasmus's Greek New Testament in only eleven weeks. This is a phenomenal feat under any circumstances, but Luther contended with darkened days, poor lighting, and his own generally poor health. Das Newe Testament Deutzsch was published in September 1522. A typographical masterpiece, containing woodcuts from Lucas Cranach's workshop and selections from Albrecht Durer's famous Apocalypse series, the September Bibel sold an estimated five thousand copies in the first two months alone. Luther then turned his attention to the Old Testament. Though well taught in both Greek and Hebrew, he would not attempt it alone. "Translators must never work by themselves," he wrote. "When one is alone, the best and most suitable words do not always occur to him." Luther thus formed a translation committee, which he dubbed his "Sanhedrin." ... |