Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief in Reformation Germany: Anabaptism and Lutheranism, 1525-1585

289 Pages·2015·4.269 MB·English

by  Kat Hill

BAPTISM, BROTHERHOOD, AND BELIEF
IN REFORMATION GERMANY
OXFORD HISTORICAL MONOGRAPHS
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Editors
P. CLAVIN J. DARWIN J. INNES
J. McDOUGALL D. PARROTT S. SMITH
B. WARD-PERKINS J. L. WATTS W. WHYTE
Baptism, Brotherhood,
and Belief in
Reformation Germany
Anabaptism and Lutheranism,
1525–1585
KAT HILL
1
1
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Cover image: Sixteenth-century map of Thuringia produced by Gerhard Mercator.
Reproduced in Viktor Hantsch (ed.), Die ältesten gedruckten Karten der Sächsisch-
Thüringischen Länder (1905).
© The British Library Board, Maps 33.e.29 (Map number 15).
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Preface
When my supervisor Lyndal Roper suggested at the start of my Master’s
year that I might look at the printing history of Anabaptists in the six-
teenth century, I could never have guessed where this task would lead
me. Sitting in my office trying to make sense of the then rather primitive
interface of the new online version of VD16 (the index of printed books
in the German-speaking lands in the sixteenth century), I noted down
names of authors and publishers, and the titles of numerous works about
baptism, the Eucharist, and many other aspects of faith. Then unfamil-
iar, they are now like old acquaintances, and almost ten years on from
that initial foray into radicalism in the Reformation, I have been able to
craft my initial inchoate thoughts about the importance of Anabaptism
in the story of the German Reformation into this book. In the process,
my work has taken me on a physical journey across the archives of central
Germany and on an intellectual journey to think about the meaning of
confessional change and the lives of men and women who faced a series
of emotional and individual struggles as they negotiated the challenge of
the Reformation.
This project would not have been possible without the support of
many individuals, institutions, and organizations. I am very grateful for
funding I have received which has given me the time and resources to
research and write this book. The Arts and Humanities Research Council
financed me through three years of doctoral research, while the Deutscher
Akademischer Austasuch Dienst enabled me to spend several months in
the archives of central Germany. Generous contributions from the Royal
Historical Society, Balliol College, Oriel College, and the History Faculty
at the University of Oxford have funded further archive trips and confer-
ence visits to test out my ideas. While in the German archives, I received
inestimable help from the staff of the Stadtarchiv in Erfurt, the Bavarian
Staatsarchiv in Nuremberg, and the Saxon Hauptstaatsarchiv in Dresden.
In particular, Dagmar Blaha at the Thuringian Hauptsaatsarchiv in
Weimar and Roswitha Henning and Helge Wittmann at the Stadtarchiv
in Mühlhausen assisted me in locating invaluable material, both archi-
val and printed. At the Thuringian Staatsarchiv in Meiningen, Johannes
Mötsch was not only beyond helpful in sourcing documents but also left
me a chocolate to cheer one gloomy afternoon in late December.
My thanks also go to the staff of the Bodleian Library for helping
me find numerous books, modern and early modern, and the librarians
vi Preface
and enquiry staff at the British Library. My gratitude also to Claudia
Ulbrich and Claudia Jarzebowski, and the rest of the faculty at the
Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut at the Freie Universität in Berlin who kindly
hosted me when living in Germany. Grateful mention must also go to
Giles Darkes for creating the map of Anabaptist communities in cen-
tral Germany. His superb sleuthing of tiny Thuringian hamlets not only
produced a wonderful map but also confirmed my instincts about the
remoteness and size of Anabaptist locations.
Numerous colleagues, friends, and family have read and commented
on chapters and drafts, discussed research, and shaped my thoughts about
Anabaptism. My thanks go to Sarah Apetrei, Kathryn Beebe, Wolfgang
Behringer, Martin Christ, Clare Copeland, Johannes Depnering, Jared
Diener, Brad Gregory, Tom Hamilton, Bridget Heal, Pam Hill, Tim Hill,
John Jordan, Chris Kissane, Paul Kosmin, Simone Laqua-O’Donnell,
Suzie Lipscombe, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Jan Machielsen, Hannah
Murphy, Leigh Penman, Katharina Reinholdt, Alan Ross, Carla Roth,
Ulinka Rublack, Monica Stensland, Edmund Wareham, Masatake Wasa,
Roisin Watson, and Jonathan White. Without their insightful criticism
this book would have been a less rich work.
I am also very grateful for the countless suggestions from colleagues
and acquaintances at conferences in England, Europe, and America. In
particular I would like to thank the members of the informal early mod-
ern workshop who met regularly in Oxford over the last decade, drinking
tea and coffee and exchanging edible treats from working trips abroad
while providing a forum to test, retest, and dismiss ideas.
At the centre of this was always Lyndal, who joined Balliol in the same
year that I did, to my good fortune. Tutor, supervisor, and friend, her
unerring support and words of encouragement, incisive analysis, and tire-
less editing of numerous drafts have steered my journey from staring at
VD16 to writing the Preface to this book. My intellectual and personal
debt of gratitude to her is immense.
And finally my eternal thanks go to my husband Tom without whose
love and support this book would never have been written. He has lis-
tened to every conference paper, put up with every deadline fret, proof-
read, edited, and photoshopped. In return for this, he now has the ability
to make Anabaptist jokes for which I hope he is as grateful as I am for his
constant, unflappable encouragement.
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Abbreviations xi
1. Introduction 1
2. Being an Anabaptist in Central Germany 33
3. The Memory of the Peasants’ War 69
4. Believing in Baptism 98
5. Consuming Christ 136
6. Brothers and Sisters 167
7. The Curious Case of Hans Thon 199
8. Conclusion 223
Bibliography 231
Index 265

List of Illustrations
2.1. Anabaptist communities in central Germany 37
2.2. Ernestine Saxony in the sixteenth century 40
2.3. Albertine Saxony in the sixteenth century 41
2.4. Title page from Ambrosius Trota, Der Mordtbrenner Zeichen vnd
Losunge (Wittenberg?, 1540) 65
3.1. Title page from Karsthans (Strasbourg, 1521) 86
4.1. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Christ Blessing the Children 115
7.1. Copper engraving of Mühlhausen by Merian 205