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THE THEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE of ENTHUSIASM in This Chapter I Shall

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THE THEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE of ENTHUSIASM in This Chapter I Shall CHAPTER ONE THE THEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE OF ENTHUSIASM In this chapter I shall try to delineate some of the ways in which Protestant theological discourse from the Reformation and up to the middle of the seventeenth century dealt with the phenomenon of enthusiasm. How was the term understood by Lutheran and Re­ formed theologians? What kind of challenge did enthusiasm consti­ tute to the established Church? What were the responses given to that challenge, and in what ways was enthusiasm de-legitimized? Fi­ nally, how did the opponents of enthusiasm account for the prophe­ cies, ecstasies and convulsions of the enthusiasts? The topic of course is vast and here I can only outline some central characteristics of that discourse, by analysing several selected texts. This analysis, which by no means attempts to be exhaustive, may serve as a background against which developments in the reaction to enthusiasm during the seventeenth and early eighteenth century can be appreciated. The Protestant critique of enthusiasm, of claims to the gift of prophecy and to direct divine inspiration, started almost from the beginning of the Reformation itself, with the appearance of the "Zwickau prophets" in Wittenberg in late December 1521, and with Luther's attack on them in 1522, and his subsequent debates with Andreas Carlstadt and Thomas Müntzer. Luther, however, used the term "Schwärmer" with respect to these prophets, rather than "en­ thusiasts".1 While focusing mostly on the erroneous doctrines of the 1 Luther coined the term "Schwärmer" (taken from the designation for swarm­ ing, stirred-up bees), for the Zwickau prophets—Nicholas Storch, Thomas Drechsel and Marcus Thomas Stübner, and their followers—as well as Müntzer and Carlstadt. The literature on Luther's debate with the "Schwärmer" is very extensive. For a recent survey see Martin Brecht, Martin Luther. Shaping and Defining the Reformation 1521-1532, trans, by James L. Schaaf (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990), chapter III: "Prophets, Enthusiasts, Iconoclasts, Fanatics, and the Peasants' War", pp. 137— 195. For an earlier study see John S. Oyer, Lutheran Reformers against Anabaptists (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1964), chapter 1. See also Günther Mühlpfordt, "Luther und die 'Linken': eine Untersuchung seiner Schwärmerterminologie", in Günther Vogler, ed., Martin Luther: ^en, Werk, Wirkung (Berlin: Academie-Verlag, 1983), pp. 325-45. Siegfried Braeuer, "Die Vorgeschichte von Luthers 'Ein Brief an die Fürsten zu Sachsen von dem aufrührerischen Geist", Luthers Jahrbuch 47 (1980): 40-70. For 12 CHAPTER ONE "Schwärmer", he also referred to their claims to hear the voice of God directly, unmediated by Scripture.2 In the next generation, the controversy with the various Anabaptists was to increasingly engage the pens of the "Magisterial Reformers". Whether justifiably or not, they saw the later Anabaptists as direct successors of the "Schwärmer" —the Zwickau prophets, Müntzer and Carlstadt.3 It was in the course of controversy with the Anabaptists that the label "enthusiasts" be­ gan to appear. One of the central texts written against the Anabaptists in the middle of the sixteenth century was Heinrich Bullinger's Der Wvkrtoeufferen Ursprung, published in 1560.4 Bullinger, who was Zwingli's successor at Zurich, summed up in that extensive text his long struggle against Anabaptists of various types. It was extremely important for him to show that both he and his former teacher, Zwingli, were adamantly opposed to the radical doctrines of the Anabaptists.5 He counted the "Enthusiastae" and "Extatici", or "Verzückten Brüder", among the thirteen types of Anabaptists against whom he wrote his tract, and devoted the first chapter of Book II to them.6 Yet, as an older article which stresses Luther's own spiritualistic tendencies, see Karl Gerhard Steck, "Luther und die Schwärmer", Theologische Studien 44 (1955). We shall return to some of Luther's own texts below. 2 See for example, his "Letter to the Princes of Saxony" of July 1524 in Martin Luthers Werke (Weimar edition, henceforward WA), vol. 15, p. 216, lines 12-20, in English translation, Luther's WorL· (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, henceforward LW), vol. 40, p. 55; and in his "Lectures on Deuteronomy" of the following year, WA, vol. 14, pp. 681, line 14-682, line 15; LW, vol. 9, pp. 184-185. For an early use of the term "Schwärmer", see his sermon on Matt. 15, on March 1, 1523, WA, vol. 11, p. 42, lines 24-31. For the use of the term "Schwärmer" in connection also with Müntzer and Carlstadt, see Luther's letter to Count Johann Friedrich of Saxony of June 18, 1524 (WA, Briefwechsel, vol. 3, pp. 305-308). 3 See Oyer, Lutheran Reformers against Anabaptists, pp. 246-249. The complex ques­ tion of the possible relationship between the Zwickau prophets Müntzer and Carlstadt on the one hand, and the origins of Anabaptism in Switzerland and Southern Germany on the other, has long been debated by historians, and we cannot go into it here. 4 Der Widertoeufferen Ursprung/ fiirgang/ Secten/ waesen/ ßirnemme vnd gemeine jrer leer Artickel/. abgeteilt in VI. Buecher/ und beschnben durch Heinrychen Bullingem/ dienern der kirchen zuo Zjirych (Zurich, 1560; the 1561 edition, which included only slight alter­ ations, has been reproduced by the Zentralantiquariat der DDR, Leipzig, 1975). I have also used the Latin translation, done by Simler, Bullinger's son-in-law, and published in Zurich already in the summer of 1560, since that was the version quoted by later critics of enthusiasm: Adversus Anabaptistas libn VI nunc pnmum e Germanico sermone in Latine conversi, per Iosiam Simlerum (Zurich: 1560). 5 On Bullinger's book, its sources, the circumstances surrounding its publication, and its diffusion, see Heinold Fast, Heinnch Bullinger und die Täufer (Weierhof, Pfalz: Mennonitischen Geschichtsverein, 1959), pp. 64-69, 79-80, 120-121, 128-129. 6 The chapter was entitled "Von den verzuckten Brüdern/jrem irrthums/und .
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