Buch, Englisch, Band 158, 270 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 626 g
Religious and Social Dynamics of the Eucharistic Conflicts in Early Modern Augsburg 1520-1530
Buch, Englisch, Band 158, 270 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 626 g
Reihe: Studies in the History of Christian Traditions
ISBN: 978-90-04-21698-3
Verlag: Brill
Augsburg, Reformation, Eucharist, Anabaptism, early-modern Germany, early-modern cities,
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FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 — AUGSBURG, THE REFORMATION, AND THE DEBATE OVER THE EUCHARIST
Political Developments in Late Medieval and Early Modern Augsburg
Economic Developments in Late Medieval and Early Modern Augsburg
Religion and Religious Developments in Augsburg through the Sixteenth Century
A Synopsis of the Eucharistic Debates in the Empire up to the Marburg Colloquy
CHAPTER 2 — THE SCHILLING AFFAIR: POPULISM, REVOLT, AND THE EUCHARIST
Church and City: The Development of “Zu den Barfüßern” in Augsburg
The Preaching and Program of Brother Johann Schilling
Schilling, Hhis Supporters, and the Eucharist as an Interpretive Center
Lay Communion and Rebellion: The Death of Hans Speyser
CHAPTER 3 — MICHAEL KELLER: THE BUILDER OF THE SACRAMENTARIAN CHURCH IN AUGSBURG
Keller’s Preparation for the Eucharistic Conflicts
The Growth of Early Sacramentarianism in Augsburg, 1524
Keller’s Early Church- Building Endeavors
Keller’s Polemical Program
CHAPTER 4 — SACRAMENTARIAN SECTS IN AUGSBURG AND THEIR TRANSITION TO ANABAPTISM
Linking the Argument for Moral Improvement with a Symbolic View of the Eucharist
Urbanus Rhegius: The Merchant Preacher of Augsburg
Developments among the Sectarians in 1526
The Transition to Anabaptism as Displayed in the Writings of Hans Langenmantel
CHAPTER 5 — THE COMMUNAL DIMENSION OF THE EUCHARISTIC CONFLICT IN AUGSBURG
The Theological Debate over the Canon
Anthropological Perspectives on Sacrifice
Sacrifice and Community in the Medieval Mass
Reforms in the Eucharistic Service
Michael Keller’s Eucharistic Service and the Fraternity of the Common Man
Zwinglianism, Communalism, and the South German Reformation
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
This study reconstructs and interprets the efforts of a devoted group of largely laymen and women to advance a symbolic interpretation of the Eucharist in the free imperial city of Augsburg between 1524 and 1530. Although this is essentially a local study, the conclusions that it reaches have relevance far beyond the walls of the city. In 1524 conflict broke out within the fledgling Reformation movement over the nature of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. Trends emanating from Wittenberg to the north and Zurich to the south converged in Augsburg to produce a local movement that questioned fundamental assumptions about the church, the priesthood, contemporary social structures, and the relationship between spirit and matter. Generations of scholarship has analyzed this movement in the context of the academic debate over the mode of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. This traditional narrative emphasizes the complex and nuanced debate among academically trained Protestant theologians over the proper interpretation of the words of institution, and in particular the phrase, “This is my body.” Primacy of place is given to understanding the intellectual origins of the interlocutors’ thought, systematically outlining the positions of each participant, accounting for apparent inconsistencies and changes in the theologians’ positions, and placing their Eucharistic theology in the context of their broader theological outlook, all the while following the shifting alliances among the debaters. Eventually the politicians join the narrative as they become aware that a confessional agreement will be the necessary precondition for an effective political alliance against the Catholic powers.
This approach has substantially advanced our understanding of the issues at stake in the Eucharistic controversy for academic theologians and political leaders, and has in the process created a taxonomy of Eucharistic theology that allows historians to categorize their subjects’ Eucharistic views with greater clarity and precision. However, the movement in support of a symbolic understanding of the Eucharist was not composed exclusively of theologians and rulers. For over two decades scholarship on the German Reformation has recognized the significant contribution of the laity to Reformation theology and has explored the unique perspective that men and women, by virtue of their lay experience and lack of formal theological training, brought to religious debate. In the debate over the Eucharist, common people—artisans, merchants, soldiers, housewives, farmers, government employees—formed the backbone of this movement and, where it was successful, played an instrumental role in ensuring its advance. These people wrote treatises, interrupted sermons, organized supporters, staged public demonstrations, and even committed acts of violence to promote their cause. They expended considerable effort and occasionally put themselves at personal risk to support the seemingly academic theological opinion that Christ was not corporeally present in the elements of the Eucharist. Within Germany this movement displayed particular strength among the imperial free cities of the south. Nevertheless, supporters of the Lutheran Eucharistic theology, which maintained a corporeal presence of Christ in the bread and wine, were also represented in these cities.
Also informing this study is the work of scholars who have detailed how the Eucharistic host functioned as the symbolic center of the medieval cultural system. The host served as an organizing, multivalent symbol on which laity and clergy alike inscribed overlapping meanings from different realms of experience—religious, social, and political. This book explores how in the early years of the Reformation, the host could still function as an organizing symbol on which a group of laity could project an agenda composed of overlapping religious, political, and economic concerns. More recently, Christophe
