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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 February 2009
When the first clerical marriage took place in defiance of church law, the Reformation embarked on a course which involved far more than mere tinkering with the moral regulation of the priesthood. Clerical marriage necessitated a reconsideration of one of the oldest Christian conundrums, the relationship between the holy and the body. Now that a life of celibacy was no longer mandatory for the clergy, and sexual abstinence was no longer considered to be the estate most pleasing to God, reformers had to build a new accommodation between sexuality and the sacred. Sexual renunciation and holiness, once indivisible, had been riven apart.
1 See, for the earlier period, Peter, Brown, The Body and Society: men, women and sexual renunciation in Early Christianity, New York 1988;Google Scholarand the interesting review article by John, Bossy, ‘Vile bodies’, Past and Present 224 (1989), 180–7.Google Scholar
2 Such a criticism could be made of my own work! See The Holy Household: women and morals in Reformation Augsburg, Oxford 1989. See also Steven Ozment, When Fathers Ruled: family life in Reformation Europe, Cambridge, Mass., 1983; on the English Reformation Patrick Collinson concludes ‘It was here that the family as we know it experienced its birth’: The Birthpangs of Protestant England: religion and cultural change in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, London 1988, 93.Google Scholar
3 Clasen, Claus Peter deals briefly with the issue in Anabaptism: a social history 1525–1618: Switzerland, Austria, Moravia, South and Central Germany, Ithaca 1972, 136–9, 200–7.Google ScholarDuerr, Hans Peter, in Der Mylhos vom zivilisationsprozess, I: Nacktheit und Scham, Frankfurt 1988, argues that there was a tradition of religious and sexual radicalism (pp. 308–23), but oversimplifies the varied and complex resolutions of the spirit/body dilemma which theGoogle Scholar sects reached.
4 Merry, Wiesner, ‘Women's response to the Reformation’, in Hsia, R. Po Chia (ed.), The German People and the Reformation, Ithaca 1988, 151.Google Scholar
6 I shall be using the term ‘Anabaptist’ loosely in this article, rather as Luther might have used it to refer to non-mainstream Protestants, because my interest here is not in what defines and differentiates Anabaptist sects but in the spectrum of radical views.Google Scholar
6 Klaus, Deppermann, Melchior Hoffman: soziale Unruhen und apokalyptische Visionen im Zeitalter der Reformation, Göttingen 1979, 293.Google ScholarThis excellent biography places Hoffman within the wider Anabaptist tradition, giving a slightly different assessment of the role of sexual radicalism from the one I shall develop here.Google Scholar
7 Stayer, James M., ‘Vielweiberei als “innerweltliche Askese”: neue Eheauffassungen in der Reformationszeit’, Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter NF 32 (1980), 24–41.Google ScholarI am grateful to Professor Stayer for providing me with a copy of his article. Jan van Batenburg and his followers, and later those of Johan Willems in the 1570s and 1580s, continued to practise polygamy: Jansma, L. G., ‘Crime in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century: the Batenburg bands after 1540’, Mennonite Quarterly Review 62 (1988), 221–35, at pp. 223, 234.Google ScholarDavid Joris was defending the overcoming of sexual shame at Strasbourg in 1538: see Manfred Krebs, Hans Georg Rott et al. (eds), Quellen tur Geschichte der Täufer, Elsass, Gütersloh 1959 (hereafter cited as QGT, Elsass), vol. 15, Elsass iii, 156–231 for debate between Joris and other Strasbourg Anabaptists; and Deppermann, Melchior Hoffman, 313, 315–7. Joris's vision was of a sinless sexuality.Google Scholar
8 Clasen, , Anabaptism: a social history, 260–75 on the Hutterites.Google Scholar
9 On asceticism, not sexual promiscuity, as the impulse behind polygamy, see Stayer, ’Vielweiberei‘.Google Scholar
10 See, for example, “Auslegung des Unterschieds Danielis”, Alstedt 1524', in Günter Franz with Paul Kirn (eds), Thomas Müntzer: Schriften und Briefe: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Gütersloh 1968, 241–63, esp. pp. 251–3.Google ScholarOn the origins of Anabaptist views of marriage and on Müntzer, see Stayer,‘Vielweiberei’.Google Scholar
11 Walter, Elliger, Thomas Müntzer: Leben und Werk, 2nd edn, Göttingen 1975, 376–9;Google Scholar and see also Ulrich, Bubenheimer, Thomas Müntzer: Herkunft und Bildung (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 46), Leiden 1989, 168–70.Google Scholar
12 Henry, Abelove, ‘The sexual politics of early Wesleyan Methodism’, in J., Obelkevich, Roper, L. and Samuel, R. (eds), Disciplines of Faith: studies in religion, politics and patriarchy, London 1987.Google Scholar
13 Kobelt-Groch, Marion, ‘Why did Petronella leave her husband? Reflections on marital avoidance amongst the Halberstadt Anabaptists’,Mennonite Quarterly Review lxii; (1988), 26–41;Google ScholarMarr, M. Lucille, ‘Anabaptist women of the North: peers in the faith, subordinates in marriage’, Mennonite Quarterly Review lxi (1987), 347–62. However, I am not convinced that advocacy of monogamy is linked with a more favourable position for women.Google Scholar
14 K., Schornbaum (ed.), Quellen zur Geschichte der Wiedertdäufer, vol. 2, Bayern i, Markgraftum Brandenburg (hereafter cited as QGT, Brandenburg), Leipzig 1934, 24941.;Google ScholarClasen, , Anabaptism: a social history, 131–6. Some of the Dreamers had fallen foul of the authorities before and had been imprisoned for Anabaptism.Google Scholar
15 QGT 2, Brandenburg, 327–9.Google Scholar
16 ‘Dieweil gott die ehe gemacht und eingesetzt hab, dass beide zwo seel und ein leip sollen sein, und dieweil sie dan gesehen haben, dass in der ehe vil zank und unwillens gewest ist, auch eins von dem andern gelaufen und sunst ausgebulet haben, so haben sie vermeint, es sei kein rechte ee von gott’: QGT 2, Brandenburg, 311–12.Google Scholar
17 Roper, , The Holy Household, 165–205.Google Scholar
18 Or, as others argued, it was the voice of the devil: QGT 2, Brandenburg, 263–7, Gutachten der Nürnberger Theologen und Juristen über die Baiersdorfer Wiedertäufer, 268–9, Ansbach Statthalter und Räte.Google Scholar
19 QGT 2, Brandenburg, 316, Philipp Jacob.Google Scholar
20 QGT 2, Brandenburg, 287, 312, Michael Maier; 313, Hans Kern.Google Scholar
21 QGT 2, Brandenburg, 272, Hans Schmid; 316, Philipp Jacob; 323, Else Kern.Google Scholar
22 Here one might compare the practice of ‘marital avoidance’: separation from the unbelieving spouse, which as Marion Kobelt–Groch has argued in ‘Why did Petronella leave her husband?’ was a consequence of the spiritual burden which sexual intercourse bore in Anabaptism.Google Scholar
23 John, Klassen has argued that ordinary Anabaptist marriages in fact approximated to the old clandestine marriages: ‘Women and the family among Dutch Anabaptist martyrs’, Mennonite Quarterly Review lx (1986), 548–71, at p. 555.Google Scholar
24 QGT 2, Brandenburg, 277, Appolonia Kern.Google Scholar
25 Roper, , The Holy Household, 157;Google ScholarMichael, Schröter, ‘Wo zwei zusammen kommen in rechter Ehe...’: sozio– and psycho–genetische Studien über Eheschliessungsvorgänge vom 12. bis 75 Jahrhundert, Frankfurt 1985, 340–5.Google Scholar
26 Thomas, Robisheaux, ‘Peasants and pastors: rural youth control and the Reformation in Hohenlohe, 1540–1680, Social History vi (1981), 281–300.Google Scholar
27 QGT 2, Brandenburg, 321, Thomas Kern.Google Scholar
28 Johannes, Bugenhagen, Vom Ehebruch/vnd Heimlichen weglauffen, Wittenberg, Joseph Klug 1541 (1st edn 1539), fo. M iiiv: ‘so ists auffs newe eine newe Ehe’.Google Scholar
29 Walter, Köhler, Zürcher Ehegericht und Genfer Konsistorium (Quellen und Abhandlungen zur schweizerischen Reformationsgeschichte x), 2, Leipzig 1942, 436–7.Google ScholarSee Roper, , The Holy Household, 1945–5 n. 51Google Scholar
30 ‘und die kinder, so der Schmid zuvor mit benanter frauen gehabt, dieselben erhalten sie jezo in gemein mit einander, wie sie dann sunst andere guter auch in gemein haben’: QGT 2, Brandenburg, 287, Michel Maier.Google Scholar
31 QGT 2, Brandenburg, 303.Google Scholar
32 QGT 2, Brandenburg, 302.Google Scholar
33 QGT 2, Brandenburg, 277, Katharina Kern.Google Scholar
34 Roper, , The Holy Household, 199–205.Google Scholar
35 I have developed this point in ‘Will and honor: sex, words and power in Augsburg criminal trials’, Radical History Review xlü (1989), 45–71.Google Scholar
36 Justus Menius was shrewdly observant of the processes of displacement here: see his Von den Blutfrunden aus der Widertauff, Erfurt, Servasius Sthürmer, 1551, fos D iv–D ür.Google Scholar
37 Goertz, Hans Jurgen, Die Täufer: Geschichte und Deutung, Munich 1980, 67–76.Google Scholar
38 Paul, Wappler, Die Täuferbewegung in Thüringen von 1516–1584 (Beiträge zur neueren Geschichte Thüringens 2), Jena 1913, 189ff., 481–94: according to Jorg Schuchart's interrogation, sexual intercourse by a ‘pure’ one could bring salvation to the partner, if she were of his faith and if she had intercourse willingly and believed (p. 481).Google Scholar
39 Unfortunately there is not space here to deal in detail with the Bloodfriends. But see Menius, , Von den Blutfreunden; Clasen, Anabaptism: a social history, 136–9;Google ScholarFranz, G., Urkundliche Quellen zur hessischen Reformationsgeschichte 1525–1547 (Veröffentlichungen der historischen Kommission für Hessen und Waldeck 11/2), iv, Marburg 1954, 324–7;Google ScholarHochhuth, Karl Wilhelm, ‘Landgraf Philip und die Wiedertäufer’, Zeitschrift für die historische Theologie xxix (1859), 182–96;Google ScholarWappler, , Die Täuferbewegung, 189–206, 408–94.Google Scholar
40 It also occasioned a split between him and the Strasbourg followers of Melchior Hoffman and other Anabaptists. The Münsterite advocacy of polygamy in 1534 was apparently not accepted by Melchior Hoffman in Strasbourg, who was the Munster movement's supposed inspiration. The issue continued to split the Strasbourg and Münster Melchiorites.Google Scholar
41 Published in QGT 8, Elsass ii. 321–42.Google Scholar
42 QGT 8, Elsass ii, shortly before 22 July 1533.Google Scholar
43 According to Capito's account, QGT 8, Elsass ii. 327.Google Scholar
44 QGT 8, Elsass ii. 121–2, Hedio to Musculus, 23 July 1533.Google Scholar
45 Deppermann, , Melchior Hoffman, Tafel1–4, pp. 155–69.Google Scholar
46 QGT 8, Elsass ii. 92–3, interrogation of Claus Frey.Google Scholar
47 QGT 8, Elsass ii. 208–9: ‘Sein Pfertzfelderin sey ein jungfrau vor der geburt, in der geburt und nach der geburt, dann sie hab sich jm vnterwürffig gemacht', interrogation of Claus Frey. Frey seems to be claiming that her subordination to him confers the virginal status upon her.Google Scholar
48 QGT 8, Elsass ii. 92–3, interrogation of Claus Frey: ‘In summa: er will die Pfersfelderin haben vnd sein erste eefrau nit. Sagt, sie hab jne vffden fleischbanck wollen geben... Aber nachdem die erst nit mit jme ziehen wollen, hab er alle macht gehabt, ein andere zu nemmen’(p. 93).Google Scholar
49 QGT 8, Elsass ii. Capito, 324 – he mentions the departure from Windsheim but not Frey's wife; he omits her refusal to sell the house (pp. 92–3) but describes her attendance at the pair's ‘wedding’ in Nuremberg (p. 326); her obedience and virtue are stressed (pp. 329–40).Google Scholar
50 Kohle, r, Zürcher Ehegericht, ii. 396: the stipulations of the ordinance of 1531 allowed for divorce after desertion, and the deserted party could bring the case for examination by the Marriage Court judges after a year.Google Scholar
51 Hsia, R. Po–Chia,‘Münster and the Anabaptists’, in idem (ed.), The German People and the Reformation, 55–6.Google Scholar
52 Otthein, Rammstedt, Sekte und soziale Bewegung: soziologische Analyse der Täufer in Münster, 1534–5 (Dortmunder Schriften zur Sozialforschung 34) Cologne 1966, 95–100; Po–Chia Hsia,‘Münster and the Anabaptists’, 55–6, 59; and see also Stayer, 'Vielweiberei'.Google Scholar
53 Rammstedt, , Sekte und soziale Bewegung, 104–14 and 121–7, argues that Münster Anabaptism was not a movement of the poor but of the crafts and upper bourgeoisie.Google ScholarKarl, Heinz Kirchhoff, in Die Tdufer in Münster, 1534–5: Untersuchungen zum Umfang und zur Sozialstruktur der Bewegung (Geschichtliche Arbeiten zur westfalischen Landesforschung 12) Münster 1973, 86–9, reaches a similar conclusion. Kuratsuka, Taira has recently argued that the movement included lower strata cityfolk but was led by the middle class:Google Scholar‘Gesamtgilde und Taufer: der Radikalisierungsprozess in der Reformation Mtinsters: von der reformatorischen Bewegung zum Täuferreich 1534/5’, Archiv für Reformations– geschichte lxxvi (1985), 231–69.Google Scholar
54 Roper, , The Holy Household, ch. i.Google Scholar
55 Rammstedt, ,Google ScholarSekte und soziale Bewegung, 99.Google Scholar
56 The preachers explicitly defended themselves against the credible charge that polygamy had been instituted because of'der Viller Weiber Lust': Rammstedt, , Sekte und soziale Bewegung, 98.Google Scholar
57 James, Stayer, Anabaptists and the Sword, 1972, 2nd edn Lawrence Ka. 1976.Google Scholar
58 As Schornbaum, the compiler of the Bavarian documents on Anabaptism put it in the index for his second volume, the Anabaptists of Creglingen and Baiersdorf were 'not...Baptists, but mentally ill people who were confused by hallucinations and in this condition deluded themselves that they were hearing the voice of God or of the Holy Spirit, who ordered them (amongst other things) to arbitrarily separate their marriages and live in adultery or bigamy': Karl Schornbaum (ed.), QGT5, Bayern ii, Reichsstadte, Gutersloh 1951, 312, index.Google Scholar
59 Kohler, , Zurcher Ehegericht und Genfer Konsistorium, 2; and on discipline,Google Scholar see Paul, Munch, Zucht und Ordnung: Reformierte Kirchenverfassungen im 16. und iy. Jahrhundert (Nassau– Dillenburg, Kurpfalz, Hessen–Kassel), Stuttgart 1978, 183–9,Google Scholar and William, J. Wright, Capitalism, the State, and the Lutheran Reformation: sixteenth–century Hesse, Athens, Ohio 1988, esp. 161–86.Google Scholar
60 See, for example, OGT 7, Elsass i. 233, 548–50; 0(77"8, Elsass i. 263, 266, 357, 421, 473–4–Google Scholar
61 Jorg, Vogeli, Schriften zur Reformation in Konstanz, 1519–1538 (Schriften zur Kirchen und Rechtsgeschichte 39, 40, 41), 2 vols, Tubingen 1972–1973, 1, 44iff. The Discipline Ordinance, reproduced in full by Vogeli (pp. 442–64), forms a natural climax to his history of the introduction of the Reformation into Constance.Google Scholar
62 John, S. Oyer, Lutheran Reformers against Anabaptists: Luther, Melanchthon and Menius and the Anabaptists of Central Germany, The Hague 1964, 115–16; 132–9, 248–9.Google Scholar
63 On the theological underpinnings of discipline in Anabaptist thought, allied with Anabaptist critique of the clergy, see Goertz, , Die Tdufer, 67–76.Google Scholar
64 Martin, Bucer, Deutsche Schriften, ed. Robert Stupperich, Gütersloh 1960–, 8. 249–78;Google ScholarMunch, , Zucht und Ordnung, 110–16;Google ScholarSehling, Emil (ed.), Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des xvi. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig and Tubingen 1902–1977Google Scholar, vii/i, Hessen, Tubingen 1965, 82–91, 101–12, 148–54, and Introduction, 10–23; QGT 15, Elsass iii. 293–
65 Werner, Bellardi,Google ScholarDie Geschichte der‘Christlichen Gemeinschaft’in Strassburg, 1546–1550 (Quellen und Forschungen zur Reformationsgeschichte 18), Leipzig 1934;Google ScholarJane, Abray, The People's Reformation: magistrates, clergy and commons in Strasbourg 1500–1598, Oxford 1985, 197–8.Google Scholar
66 Deppermann, , Melchior Hoffman, 169–74; but for a different view seeGoogle ScholarJames, Kittelson, Wolfgang Capito: from humanist to reformer (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 17), Leiden 1975, 183–6. He argues against seeing Capito as very deeply influenced by Anabaptism and spiritualism.Google Scholar
67 Deppermann, , Melchior Hoffman, 251–2.Google Scholar
68 Reprinted in QGT 8, Elsass ii. 321–42.Google Scholar
69 Kittelson, , Wolfgang Capito, 186–206, argues that Capito returned to orthodoxy by 1531–2; but as late as November 1533 Bucer's correspondence rejoices in Capito's return to the faith: QGT 8, Elsass i. 207–8.;Google ScholarBriefwechsel der Brüder Ambrosius und Thomas Blaurer 1509–1548, ed. Schiess, T., Freiburg 1908–1922, 1. 441, 453.Google Scholar
70 Kittelson, , Wolfgang Capito. This excellent biography does not, however, deal in detail with Capito's troubled married life nor his attack on Frey.Google Scholar
71 Deppermann, , Melchior Hoffman, 306–7.Google Scholar
72 ’Es kam ein sollicher trib in mich vnnd redet on vnderlass in mir, ich solte hingon vnd mich disem man underwürfflich machen, mit leib, eer vnd gut, das er mit mir machte wie er wolte', QGT 8, Elsass ii. 324. Capito claims these were her written words.Google Scholar
73 QGT 8, Elsass ii. 325.Google Scholar
74 QGT 8, Elsass ii. 337–9.Google Scholar
75 Deppermann, , Melchior Hoffman, 247;Google ScholarRoland, Bainton, Women of the Reformation in Germany and Italy, Minneapolis 1971, 85.Google Scholar
76 See, for example, Newe znttung von den Widderteuffern zu Münster: auff die Newe zeittung' von Münster D.Martini Luther Vorrhede..., n. p. 1535, fo. A iv; and Newe Zejtlung/die Widerteuffer zu Münster belangende 1535, n. p. 1535, fo. A iv. Interestingly, in one of the few images we have of Divara, queen of Münster (a copy after Heinrich Aldegrever), the clothing Divara is wearing is the same as that used by Aldegrever to depict Potiphar's wife in a series about her temptation of Joseph: Hans, Galen (ed.), Die Wiedertdufer in Münster: Katalog, Münster 1982, 190–1. She, too, is a beautiful, lustful female.Google Scholar
77 Martin, Luther, De captivitate Babylonica ecclesiae praeludium, 1520, in D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamlausgabe. Werke, 60 vols, Weimar 1883–1983, 6. 558–9.Google Scholar
78 See Kohler, , Zürcher Ehegericht und Genfer Konsistorium. Interestingly, the distinction was also retained amongst the imperial police ordinances. The Reichspolizeiordnung of 1530 contains a paragraph‘Von leichtfertiger Beywohnung’which condemns the toleration of'offentlich Ehebruch’(p. 257); and the editions of 1548 and 1577 extend this with a further paragraph on adultery: Aller des heiligen rb'mischen Reichs gehaltene Reichstage, Abschiede, etc (1356–1654), Mainz 1660, Nicolas Heyll, 256, 468.Google Scholar
79 Bucer, , Deutsche Schriften vii, 242–3: it was when Capito was about to marry the widow Wibrandis Rosenblatt that the question arose.Google Scholar
80 Eells, Hastings, The Attitude of Martin Bucer toward the Bigamy of Philip of Hesse, New Haven 1924, 58–131.Google Scholar
81 QGT 15, Elsass ii. 511, 512, and see the satirical poem against Bucer and ’Schriftgelehrten', 516–19.Google Scholar
82 He even advised Philip on writings connected with the affair: William, Walker Rockwell, Die Doppelehe des Landgrafen Philipp von Hessen, Marburg 1904, 226–8.Google Scholar
83 Rockwell, , Die Doppelehe, 25, 35ff.,Google Scholar and see Paul, Mikat, Die Polygamiefrage in der frühen Neuzeit (Rheinische Westfalische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Voträge G294), Opladen 1988.Google Scholar
84 Rockwell, , Die Doppelehe, 42–3.Google Scholar
85 Philip's attitude is generally characterised by this robust affirmation of marriage. See Müller, Gerhard, ’Landgraf Philipp von Hessen und das Regensburger Buch', in Marijn de, Kroon and Friedhelm, Krüger (eds), Bucer und seine Zeit (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts fur Europäische Geschichte Mainz, 80), Wiesbaden 1976: his marginal annotations characteristically note‘1st wieder got und paulum; teuffels lerre, die ehe zu verbiten; wellen weisser seyn dan got', p. 115. He was a firm advocate of clerical marriage.Google Scholar
86 Rockwell, , Die Doppelehe, 101–54.Google Scholar
87 Dialogus I das ist/ ein freundtlich Gesprech zweyer personen/ Da von/Ob es Göttlichem/ Natürlichem/ Keyserlichem/vnd Geystlichem Rechte gemesse oder entgegen sei/mehr dann eyn Eeweib zugleich zuhaben, n.p. n.d. It is generally agreed to have been written by Johannes, Lening, pastor of Melsungen in Hesse. By a nice irony of fate, it is catalogued in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, under Bucer.Google Scholar
88 ‘das sie sich selbst wol prüfen/vnd das recht vnderscheyden möge[n] was bei jnen böse fleyschliche lüst/vnd was bey jnen Gottes beruff vnd geschdöff sei’: Dialogus fo. Aa iiv.Google Scholar
89 Dialogus fos. AAr–AAv.Google Scholar
90 ‘die Ee vnnd jren dienst/für etwas vnreyn vnd vnheylig gehalten/darumb den menschenn das best sein solte/in die Ee nimmer kommen/das nechste nur eyn mal in die Ee kommen vnd kurtz in der bleiben’: Dialogus, fo. Aa iv.Google Scholar
91 ‘so alle weibs bilder/so Gott zur Ee geschaffen zur Ehe kommen mochten’: Dialogus fo. Aa iv.Google Scholar
92 Rockwell argues, Die Doppelehe I4ff., that the Landgrave was not influenced by Münsterite arguments for polygamy, since the use of the Biblical examples and the injunction to multiply are obviously going to be used by any defender of polygamy. But while Rockwell may be correct to maintain there was no formal influence, the arguments are clearly similar and derive from a shared milieu.Google Scholar
93 Philip's court preacher Melander was rumoured to have committed bigamy: Rockwell, , Die Doppelehe, 84–92.Google Scholar
94 A librarian by the name of Bogner argued for polygamy in 1698;Google Scholara pastor supported Edward iv Ludwig of Württemberg's bigamous marriage to his mistress: Fichtner, Paula Sutter, Protestantism and Primogeniture in Early Modem Germany, New Haven–London 1989, 77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
95 See Roper, , The Holy Household, ch. i.Google Scholar
