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Standing Still or Running On? Reconsidering Rhetoric in the Strasbourg Anabaptist-Spiritualist Debates, 1530–1531
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 December 2010
Abstract
This article assesses the strikingly different rhetoric used in pamphlets published in 1530 by the Strasbourg Spiritualists Christian Entfelder and Johannes Bünderlin. Whilst these texts are most commonly read in light of their shared critique of Anabaptism, this article argues that Bünderlin's work also reveals his rejection of Entfelder's Spiritualist alternative, characterised by the term ‘standing still’ (Stillstand). By exploring these pamphlets, and other texts associated with the Strasbourg Anabaptist-Spiritualist debates, this article seeks to demonstrate the importance not only of fully contextualising such sources, but also of understanding the divisive and potentially destabilising nature of Spiritualist rhetoric itself.
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References
1 Marc Lienhard, Religiöse Toleranz in Strassburg im 16. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart 1991; Lorna Jane Abray, ‘Confession, conscience and honour: the limits of magisterial toleration in sixteenth-century Strassburg’, in Ole Peter Grell and Bob Scribner (eds), Tolerance and intolerance in the European Reformation, Cambridge 1996, 94–107.
2 The estimate of 2,000 was given by Andreas Paner, a non-Anabaptist questioned by the city council in October 1530: Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer VII. Band. Elsass, I. Teil: Stadt Straßburg, 1522–1532, ed. Manfred Krebs and Hans Georg Rott, Gütersloh 1959, 271. On Strasbourg radicalism more generally see Klaus Deppermann, Melchior Hoffman: social unrest and apocalyptic visions in the age of the Reformation, Edinburgh 1987, 160–203, 268–78; George Huntston Williams, The radical Reformation, Kirksville, Mo 1992, 363–410; and John D. Derksen, From radicals to survivors: Strasbourg's religious nonconformists over two generations, 1525–1570, ‘t Goy-Houten 2002.
3 Derksen, Radicals to survivors, 16.
4 Ibid. 56.
5 On the 1533 Strasbourg synod see François Wendel, L'Eglise de Strasbourg: sa constitution et son organisation, 1532–1535, Paris 1942; Miriam Usher Chrisman, Strasbourg and the reform: a study in the process of change, New Haven–London 1967, 210–19; Deppermann, Melchior Hoffman, 283–311; and Derksen, Radicals to survivors, 76–86.
6 Christian Entfelder, Von den manigfaltigen im glaubenn Zerspaltungenn/dise jar erstanden, [Augsburg?] 1530; Johannes Bünderlin, Erklerung durch vergleichung der Biblischen geschrifft/das der wassertauff…wider erfert wirt, [Strasbourg] 1530.
7 [Pilgram Marpeck], Clare verantwurtung ettlicher Artickel, [Strasbourg 1531], and Ain klarer/vast nützlicher vnterricht/wider ettliche Trůck/vnd schleichendt Geyster, [Strasbourg 1531].
8 Werner O. Packull, Hutterite beginnings: communitarian experiments during the Reformation, Baltimore–London 1995, 145–6.
9 Dipple, Geoffrey, ‘Sebastian Franck in Strasbourg’, MQR lxxiii (1999), 790–3Google Scholar.
10 See, for example, Werner O. Packull, Mysticism and the early South German-Austrian Anabaptist movement, 1525–1531, Scottdale, Pa 1977, 163, 183–4; The writings of Pilgram Marpeck, ed. William Klassen and Walter Klaassen, Scottdale, Pa 1978, 28–9; and Stephen B. Boyd, Pilgram Marpeck: his life and social theology, Durham 1992, 62.
11 McLaughlin, R. Emmet, ‘Schwenckfeld and the Strasbourg radicals’, MQR lix (1985), 278Google Scholar; Dipple, ‘Franck in Strasbourg’, 801.
12 Geoffrey Dipple, ‘Just as in the time of the Apostles’: uses of history in the radical Reformation, Kitchener, On 2005, 213.
13 Packull, Hutterite beginnings, 134–5.
14 Geoffrey Dipple, ‘The Spiritualist Anabaptists’, in John D. Roth and James M. Stayer (eds), A companion to Anabaptism and Spiritualism, 1521–1700, Leiden 2006, 257–97.
15 The importance of refocusing on Strasbourg has already been noted by McLaughlin and Dipple: McLaughlin, ‘Strasbourg radicals’, 269; Dipple, ‘Franck in Strasbourg’, 798.
16 Rufus M. Jones, Spiritual reformers in the 16th and 17th centuries, London 1914, 39; Packull, Mysticism, 163.
17 Claude R. Foster, ‘Johannes Buenderlin: radical reformer of the sixteenth century’, unpubl. PhD diss. Pennsylvania 1963, 99; Jones, Spiritual reformers, 41.
18 For brief biographical outlines see Séguenny, André, ‘Christian Entfelder’, BD i. 37Google Scholar, and Gäbler, Ulrich, ‘Johannes Bünderlin’, BD iii. 9–10Google Scholar. Further details and discussion can be found in Séguenny, André, ‘A l'Origine de la philosophie et de la théologie spirituelles en Allemagne au xvie siècle: Christian Entfelder’, Revue d'histoire et de philosophie religieuses lvii (1977), 167–81Google Scholar, and Gäbler, Ulrich, ‘Zum Problem des Spiritualismus im 16. Jahrhundert: das Glaubensverständnis bei Johannes Bünderlin von Linz’, Theologisches Zeitschrift xxix (1973), 334–44Google Scholar, and ‘Johannes Bünderlin von Linz (vor 1500 bis nach 1540): eine biographische Skizze’, Jahrbuch für die Geschichte des Protestantismus im Österreich xcvi (1980), 355–70Google Scholar.
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20 See Stadt Strassburg, 1522–1532, 226–7, 229, 232. Entfelder's presence in the city is harder to prove. Recent studies have assumed that he was in Strasbourg from 1529 to 1533: Williams, Radical Reformation, 399; Dipple, Uses of history, 207. However, the only firm evidence linking Entfelder to Strasbourg is the colophon to the Manifold divisions: ‘Given at Strasbourg, 24 January 1530’, MZ, sig. Dviii v. Entfelder clearly had links with Strasbourg, and his works were known and debated there, even if it seems that probably they were first printed in Augsburg. Nevertheless, the evidence does not exist to justify the conclusion that he was a permanent resident in the city at this time.
21 MZ, sig. Dviii r.
22 Johannes Bünderlin, Ein gemeyne berechnung vber der heyligen schrifft innhalt, [Strasbourg 1529]; Ausz was vrsach sich Gott in die nyder gelassen vnd in Christo vermenschet ist, [Strasbourg] 1529; and Ein gemayne einlayttüng in den aygentlichen verstand Mosi/vnd der Propheten, [Strasbourg] 1529.
23 MZ, sig. Dvii v.
24 EV, sigs Dviii v–Ei r, Diii v–Diiii r.
25 For example, see MZ, sigs Av r–v, Biii v–Biiii r, Diii v–Diiii r, Dv v–Dvi r; EV, sigs Dvi r, Eiiii v–Ev r, Gi r–v, Giii v–Giiii r.
26 For example, see MZ, sigs Aiii r, Bviii r–v, Dvi v.
27 MZ, sigs Bi v–Bii r, Bii v–Biii r, Bviii v, Cviii r.
28 EV, sig. Diii r.
29 MZ, sigs Aiii v, Bi r, Dvi r–Dviii v.
30 EV, sigs Fvii v–Fviii v, Gi v–Gii r.
31 MZ, sig. Aiiii r–v.
32 MZ, sig. Bvi r–v.
33 EV, sig. Cviii r.
34 EV, sig. Fi v.
35 EV, sig. Giii r.
36 Dipple, Uses of history, 213.
37 EV, sig. Bi r, Diiiir–v, Diii v.
38 Bünderlin, Ein gemayne einlayttüng, sig. Di v.
39 See Hans-Joachim Diekmannshenke, Die Schlagwörter der Radikalen der Reformationszeit (1520–1536), Frankfurt-am-Main 1994.
40 See Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Leipzig 1854–1960, xviii. 3042–9.
41 See Selina Gerhard Schultz, Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig (1489–1561), Norristown, Pa 1946, and R. Emmet McLaughlin, Caspar Schwenckfeld, reluctant radical: his life to 1540, New Haven–London 1986.
42 R. McLaughlin, Emmet, ‘The genesis of Schwenckfeld's eucharistic doctrine’, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte lxxiv (1983), 94–121Google Scholar.
43 Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum: letters and treatises of Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig, ed. Chester David Hartranft and others, Pennsburg, Pa 1907–61, ii. 332.
44 Caspar Schwenckfeld to N. Holstenius, after 3 June 1526, ibid. ii. 359, trans. McLaughlin in Reluctant radical, 75.
45 McLaughlin, ‘Strasbourg radicals’, 271; Dipple, Uses of history, 216.
46 MZ, sig. Cvi v.
47 Dipple, Uses of history, 213–16.
48 MZ, sig. Diiii r–v.
49 Packull, Hutterite beginnings, 142.
50 Dipple, Uses of history, 216, and ‘Spiritualist Anabaptists’, 276–7.
51 Flugschriften vom Bauernkrieg zum Täuferreich (1526–1535), ed. Adolf Laube, Annerose Schneider and Ulman Weiss, Berlin 1992, ii. 973–4.
52 See William Klassen, Covenant and community: the life, writings and hermeneutics of Pilgram Marpeck, Grand Rapids, Mi 1968; Boyd, Pilgram Marpeck.
53 See, for example, Neal Blough, ‘Pilgram Marpeck and Caspar Schwenckfeld: the Strasbourg years’, in Jean-Georges Rott and Simon L. Verheus (eds), Anabaptistes et dissidents au XVIe siècle, Baden-Baden 1987, 378; Packull, Hutterite beginnings, 134; and Dipple, ‘Spiritualist Anabaptists’, 274.
54 Writings of Pilgram Marpeck, 52.
55 Ibid. 65.
56 Ibid. 71.
57 Ibid. 78.
58 Ibid. 101.
59 Klassen, Covenant and community, 39; Writings of Pilgram Marpeck, 69.
60 Blough, ‘Marpeck and Schwenckfeld’, 371–2, 374.
61 Klassen, William, ‘The legacy of the Marpeck community in Anabaptist scholarship’, MQR lxxviii (2004), 17Google Scholar n. 43.
62 For Franck's career before his arrival in Strasbourg see Patrick Hayden-Roy, The inner word and the outer world: a biography of Sebastian Franck, New York 1994, 3–42.
63 Sebastian Franck to Johannes Campanus, 4 Feb. 1531, in Spiritual and Anabaptist writers: documents illustrative of the Radical Reformation and evangelical Catholicism, ed. George Huntston Williams and Angel M. Mergal, London 1957, 156.
64 Sebastian Franck, Die Guldin Arch, Augsburg 1538, clxvv–clxvir.
65 The Chronicle is perhaps the best known and most studied of Franck's works. See, for example, Jean Claude Colbus, La Chronique de Sébastian Franck (1499–1542): vision de l'histoire et image de l'homme, Bern 2005; Hayden-Roy, Inner word, 68–96; and André Séguenny, Les Spirituels: philosophie et religion chez les jeunes humanistes allemands du seizième siècle, Baden-Baden 2000, 142–81.
66 For more on Franck's account of the Anabaptists see Colbus, La Chronique, 329–42; Hayden-Roy, Inner word, 91–3; and Dipple, ‘Franck in Strasbourg’, 790–3.
67 Sebastian Franck, Chronica, Zeytbůch vnd geschychtbibel von anbegyn biß inn diss gegewertig M.D.xxxj. jar, Strasbourg 1531, pt iii, ccccli r–v.
68 EV, sig. Ai r.
69 Jones, Spiritual reformers, 86.
70 McLaughlin, Radical reformer, 126–7; Dipple, ‘Franck in Strasbourg’, 801.
71 See Dipple, ‘Spiritualist Anabaptists’, 260–71.
72 Martin Rothkegel, ‘Täufer, Spiritualist, Antitrinitarier – und Nikodemit: Jakob Kautz als Schulmeister in Mähren’, Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter lvii (2000), 58.
73 Deppermann, Melchior Hoffman, 330; Williams, Radical Reformation, 542.
74 For Scribner's ideas see R. W. Scribner, ‘Flugblatt und Analphabetenum: wie kam der gemeine Mann zu reformatorischen Ideen?’, in Hans-Joachim Köhler (ed.), Flugschriften als Massenmedium der Reformationszeit, Stuttgart 1981, 65–76; ‘Oral culture and the diffusion of Reformation ideas’, History of European Ideas v (1984), 237Google Scholar–56; and For the sake of simple folk: popular propaganda for the German Reformation, Oxford 1994. For a recent discussion of the challenge of communicating the Reformation message see Andrew Pettegree, Reformation and the culture of persuasion, Cambridge 2005. See also Judith Pollmann and Mark Greengrass, ‘Religious communication: print and beyond: introduction’, in Heinz Schilling and István György Tóth (eds), Religion and cultural exchange in Europe, 1400–1700, Cambridge 2006, 221–35.
75 Snyder, Arnold, ‘Orality, literacy and the study of Anabaptism’, MQR lxv (1991), 373Google Scholar.
76 McLaughlin, ‘Strasbourg radicals’, 278.
77 See Miriam Usher Chrisman, Lay culture, learned culture: books and social change in Strasbourg, 1480–1599, New Haven–London 1982.
78 Beck was perhaps the most important radical printer in early Reformation Strasbourg, but he has not been the subject of any detailed study. See the outline in Josef Benzing, Die Buchdrucker des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts im deutschen Sprachgebiet, Wiesbaden 1982, 442, and Ritter, François, ‘Elsässische Buchdrucker im Dienste der Strassburger Sektenbewegungen zur Zeit der Reformation’, Gutenberg Jahrbuch xxxvii (1962), 225–33Google Scholar; xxxviii (1963), 97–108.
79 Stadt Strassburg, 1522–1532, 335.
80 Unfortunately, The writings of Pilgram Marpeck does not include the title page of A clear refutation. See instead the facsimile in Boyd, Stephen B., ‘Pilgram Marpeck’, BD xvii. 56Google Scholar.
81 Stadt Strassburg, 1522–1532, 232.
82 MZ, sig. Dviii v.
83 The insistence on a Strasbourg first edition for the Manifold divisions is one of a number of bibliographical errors in Séguenny, ‘Christian Entfelder’. See instead Flugschriften vom Bauernkrieg zum Täuferreich, 974.
84 Christian Entfelder, Von Gottes vnnd Christi Jesu vnnsers Herren erkandtnuss, [Augsburg? 1533?], sig. Cvii r.
85 Weigelt, Horst, ‘Sebastian Franck und Caspar Schwenckfeld in ihren Beziehungen zueinander’, Zeitschrift für bayerischen Kirchengeschichte xxxix (1970), 3–19Google Scholar; R. Emmet McLaughlin, ‘Sebastian Franck and Caspar Schwenckfeld: two Spiritualist viae’, in Jan-Dirk Müller (ed.), Sebastian Franck (1499–1542), Wiesbaden 1993, 71–86, and ‘Reformation Spiritualism: typology, sources and significance’, in Hans-Jürgen Goertz and James M. Stayer (eds), Radikalität und Dissent im 16. Jahrhundert, Berlin 2002, 123–40.
86 Dipple, Uses of history, 216–17.
87 Sebastian Franck, Weltbůch: Spiegel vnd bildniss des gantzen erdbodens, Tübingen 1534, xliiii v.
88 See Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum, viii. 415–24.