This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 69-4864

DANIEL, Jr., Charles Edgar, 1933- THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE OF WENZESLAUS LINCK.

The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1968 History, modern Religion

University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SERMONS

OF WENZESLAUS LINCK

DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By Charles Edgar Daniel, Jr., B.A., A.M., M.A.

The Ohio State University 1968 Approved by S J L A V S LINCK, ColditiiiuuyM ifhictfS > jLf.S.’7%iei*

I wish to express my deepest gratitude to

Professor Harold J. Grimm of the Department of History,

The Ohio State University. His patience and encouragement were of incalculable aid to me in the production of this dissertation. I also would like to acknowledge the assist­ ance given me by Professor Gerhard Pfeiffer of the Univer­ sity of Erlangen, Erlangen, . By his intimate know­ ledge of Nttrnberg's past he made its history live for me.

Jfirgen Ohlau helped me in my use of source materials. I greatly treasure his friendship.

iii VITA 12 February 1933 Born - Columbia, Missouri 1955...... B.A., University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri

1955-1957 • • • • Graduate Assistant, Depart­ ment of History, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri

1957 . • • . . . M.A., University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri

1958-1959 .... Instructor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee

1959 ...... A •M., Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

1959-1961 . • . . Graduate Assistant, Depart­ ment of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1961-1962 .... Fulbright Scholar, University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany 1963-1967 .... Instructor, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 1967-1968 .... Instructor, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field! History Renaissance and . Professor Harold J. Grimm

The . Professor Franklin J. Pegues iv Age of the Enlightenment. Professors Harold J. Grimm and John C. Rule Colonial History. Professors Harry L. Coles and Eugene H. Roseboom Recent American History. Professors Robert H. Bremner and Foster Rhea Dulles

Art History. Professor Frank Ludden

v TABLE OP CONTENTS

Page FRONTISPIECE ...... 1A ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... ill

VITA ...... lv INTRODUCTION ...... 1

Chapter I. THE IMPERIAL CITY OP NURNBERG . . . 12 An Overall View •••••...... 12 Early History of Niirnberg • • • • • 16 Niirnberg as an Intellectual Center • 31 II. THE LIFE OP WENZESLAUS LINCK UNTIL 1516 37 Y o u t h ...... * . 37 School ...... 39 Monastic Life ...... ^3 University...... ^9 III. THE AND WENZESLAUS LINCK 57 Development of the German Augustinlan Congregation...... 57 The Influence of 6l Linck and the Sodalltas •••••• 70 Linck's Later L i f e .... 73 IV. LINCK'S TECHNIQUES OP PREACHING . . 80 Change from Scholasticism...... 80 Innovations and Figures of Speech • 93 V. LINCK'S POLEMICS...... ll*f VI. WENZESLAUS LINCK'S .... 13^ The Father and the So n . 135 Justification and Grace .••••• 14-0 Sacraments...... 14-6 Linck's Mysticism ...... 148

vi VII. LINCK'S CONCEPTION OP CIVIC : RESPONSIBILITY...... Economic V i e w s ...... • Social Responsibility • ...... Education...... VIII. IMPACT OP LINCK'S PREACHING . . . Early Days at Niirnberg...... Absence from Niirnberg ...... Return to Niirnberg...... •••• BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... INTRODUCTION

Early In the nineteenth century historians revived an Interest In the persons who assisted the major reformers in the formation and dissemination of Reformation thought. The preliminary biographies were often prejudicial and fragmentary, but they usually presented the core of primary sources available. In the twentieth century most of these minor reformers have been the subject of detailed and thorough biographies and bibliographical studies,1 containing accounts of the lives and messages of the friends and colleagues of , nor mere mirror images of Luther as was common in the nineteenth century. Historians have slighted

Wenzeslaus Linck (14-83-154-7) in the twentieth century for, apparently, two reasons. In the first place, they p knew that Wilhelm Reindell was busy with a study of

For studies of recent literature see: Harold J. Grimm, The Reformation in Recent Historical Thought (New York, 196k51 Harold J. Grimm, "Luther Research since 1920," Journal of Modem History. XXXII (I960), 105-118. For a study of attitudes toward the Reform­ ation see: Gerhard , ", Catholicism, and the Humanistic View of Life," Archly fUr Reformatlons- geschichte, XLIV (i9 6 0), 1-4-5-159. 2 Wilhelm Reindell, Doktor Wenzeslaus Linck aus Coldltz 14-83—154-7 i Nach ungedruokten und gedruckten Quelien: Erster Tell: Blszur reformatorlschen Thatlgkelt in Altenburg1 Mlt Blldnls und elnem Anhang enthaltend die zugehorlgen Documenta Llncklana 5-1522 (Marburg. 1892). 1 Linck and therefore did not engage In research on the reformer. During Relndell's lifetime few other scholars evidenced an Interest In Linck. In the second place, scholars Interested In the group of reformers connected with the University of Wittenberg did not Include Linck in their studies because the most Important part of his career followed his departure from Wittenberg. This work Is an attempt to revive an Interest In Linck by analyzing his extant sermons and to assess their In­ fluence upon the city of Niirnberg. In 1863 Hermann Wilhelm Caselmann published the 3 first modern biography of Linck, one of a series of biographies concerning the first generation of Luther*s followers. Perhaps It was natural to see all these men within the shadow of Luther. Caselmann pictured Linck's life and works as parallel to those of , his warm friend and colleague. In fact, Caselmann forced Linck's life Into such parallel patterns even when the facts did not support them. His work Is extremely useful, however, because he located much of the primary source material available.

3 ^Hermann Wilhelm Caselmann, "Wenzeslaus Link's Leben fiir chrlstllche Leser lnsgemeln aus den Quellen erzShlt," Das Leben der Altvater der lutherlsohen Kirche, edited ty Moritz Meurer (Leipzig and Dresden, Ib W), pp. 321-^28. Late in the nineteenth century, Wilhelm Reindell attempted to portray Linck as a major figure of the Reformation. Reindell saw the start of the Reformation as the work of five major figures, all either Augustlnlan or men connected with the University of Wittenberg. Obviously Martin Luther headed the list. The second Important influence he attributed to Melanchthon, the able advisor to Luther. He included George Spalatin, the priest and secretary to Frederick the Wise, primarily because of his political influence j'. Johann Staupitz, the Vicar General of the Augustinian order, because of his influence on Luther and many of his contemporaries $ and Wenzeslaus Linck, dean of the university at the time Luther received his doctorate, because of his proximity [l to Luther. Unfortunately, only one volume of Relndell's projected three-volume biography was completed. Of the eight volumes planned on the works of Linck, only the first was published. If Relndell had been able to finish his work, Linck might have emerged as a major

A For works on the other three supporting figures sees Clyde Manschreck, Melanchthon. the Quiet Reformer (New York, 1958)$ Irmgard Boss. Georg Spalatin* Bin Leben in der Zelt des wnmanismus und Reformation (Weimar. 19^5) { E. Wolf1. Staupitz und Lusher (Leipzig, i$2?) { Alfred Jeremlas. Johannes von Staupitz. Luthers Vater und Sohtller (Berlin, l$5o). figure of the early Reformation and his work might have served as a bridge between two schools of Reform­ ation scholars, the one centering its research around Luther and his theology, the other working on the city of Niirnberg and its relationship with the Holy Roman EmpireRelndell's projected study could have served

to fill the gap of scholarship that has existed for so long between these two fields of study* Numerous historians of the Reformation, like

Joseph Lortz,^ view the Reformation of the sixteenth century as a two-sided movements one, the religious, theological experience of Martin Luther which resulted in the division of the ohurchi the other, the political and cultural upheaval which resulted in a major change for all Europe. While these historians are finding the relationship between these two movements, others are searching to find the relationship between the religious movement, the Reformation, and developments in society.?

-*For examples of this approach see: Eugen Franz, Niirnberg und Reloh s Studlen zur Relohsstadtlschen Au38enpoli~bik (. 1930) t Adolf Engelhardt, "Die Reformation in Niirnberg," Mittellungen des Verelns filr Geschlohte der Stadt Niirnberg. XXXIII-XXXIV (1936-19T7) and XXXVI (1939)| Friedrich Roth. Die Elnfiihrung der Reformation in Niirnberg 1517-1528 (wdrzburg, lbo5)• ^Joseph Lortz, Die Reformation in Deutschland (Freiburg, 1939), I, W , 2^7, 381-3837 7 'For examples of this tradition of scholarship see Walter Kdhler, "Dr. Martin Luther," Im Morgenrot der Reformation, ed. by Julius von Pflugk-Harttung (Ldrrach, pp. 5 Representative of the latter group of scholars is

Paul Joachimsen,® author of the section on the Reformation in the PropylSen-Weltgeschlohte. He saw the Reformation as the start of the change to what is now called modern times. The impact of the Reformation, to him, transcended

Germany, influenced England and Prance, and affected the whole cultural development of the West. The cult­ ural and Intellectual forces of the Reformation led through the Enlightenment to his own times in a prooess that oreated the modern, emancipated, autonomous individ­ ual of the West. The Reformation, to him, began as an attempt to solve several religious, political, and * social problems and ended as a new approach to life. This dissertation represents an attempt to examine the actual message of the Reformation as presented in its beginnings and to determine, if possible, its immediate effectiveness. The Impact of the theologian Wenzeslaus Linck upon the "Venice of the North," Niirnberg, serves as an excellent case study in examining and testing the thesis held by scholars like Joachimsen. In the sixteenth century Niirnberg was a major Imperial city whose political life was controlled by

®Paul Joachimsen, Die Reformation als Euoche der deutschen Gesohlchte. ed. by Otto Schottenloher TMurIch7"l95TTT^P^"3> 22-25, 276-283. educated patricians. The influences of religious and intellectual ideas upon these men can he seen in the solutions they proposed for the political and social problems facing them. The city was also a major center of German humanism. The humanists in Niirnberg were among the first to Join in the Sodalitas which had as its aim both practical and spiritual reform. As a result, Linck's success and acceptance by them provides a definite answer, at least in this one city, to the questions concerning the position of humanists in the reform movement. Since Linck's parishioners were

townsmen, his works can serve as a case study of the sermons which appealed to the leading townsmen of sixteenth-century Niirnberg. Was the townsman interested in reform because of moral, pious, and religious motives or was he desirous of controlling the clergy as a means of furthering the power of an already almost autonomous city? Was the townsman interested in the Reformation for religious and ethical reasons or for political and economic reasons? A detailed analysis of what Linck preached to the townsmen and humanists in the

^ity provides a basis*for some answers to these questions

^Harold J. GriQim, "The Relations of Luther and Melanchthon with the Townsmen," Luther und Melanchthon (GSttingen, 1961)* PP* 32-48; Heinrich Schmidt, Die deutsohen StSdteohronlken als Spiegel des biirgerllchen Selbstverstandnlsses lm Spatmlttelalter (Gottingen. 195 8) 7 Because Linck was a popular preacher, a consider­ able number of his sermons were published and are ex­ tant. The number is less than that for Luther, but many of Luther's sermons were transcribed by others and Linck himself usually published his sermons on request within the year of their creation. Unlike Luther, he usually edited and published his sermons with a new introduction and conclusion. There are both advantages and disadvantages in this. Long periods elapsed when no sermons appeared in print.

Then a flurry of sermons on a single topic like "The Begging of the Monks” or "Against the Anabaptists" would be collected for a single publication. According to his first biographer Caselmann, there were twenty-one major of sermons in 1525* during Linck's second visit in Niirnberg. Two of these were not included in Reindell's first volume, and all the sermons but these two can be found in the libraries of Erlangen and Niirnberg. Although these original editions were consulted, the footnotes in this work refer to the 10 copies in Heindell for purposes of simplification. Among these first sections of his work, sixty-two -i 11 10 * Wenzeslaus Linck, Wenzel Llncks Werke. gathered, edited, and provided with an introduction by Wilhelm Reindell, Plrst Part: Elgene Sohrlften bis zur zwelten NUmberger Wirksamkel t \ Marburg«1^9*0. separate sermons can be identified, since two or more sermons were often collected under one general . Several introductions and conclusions which Linck added for publication increase the volume of Llnckiana. His sermons varied in length and often a single would be put into sixteen quarto pages in small print. Many of the works counted as one sermon were actually a continuation of several sermons on one theme.

After 1525 there are, according to Caselmann, only ten sermon collections, but these total more than forty-four sermons. Only two of these sermons were not located for this study. Caselmann attributed several sermons to Linck, which have all been published under Luther’s name with Linck as editor. Caselmann’s bibliographical collection includes seventy-three letters from Luther to Linck, one letter from Melanchthon to Linck, seventy-one letters from others to Linck, and eight songs written by Linck.**

11 AAThe documents listed in Caselmann may be found in Wenzeslaus Linck, Sacra superloris aevi analecta, in qulbus variorum ad Venceslaum Llncum eplstolae plures quam septuaglnta. . . ex tabulls manuscrlptls In luoem protullt. edited by Albert Meno Verpoortennius"Tcolburg, 1708)| G.A. Will, Niirnberg:!sohes Gelehrten Lexlkon. continued by Chr. K. Nopitsch (Niirnberg, 1753-33 and 1802-1808)$ Andreas WUrfel, Dlptycha Eccleslae Egydiawe das 1st Verzelohniiss und Lebensbeschrelbungen der Herren Predlger.. • . und Herren~"Suden-Predlger. wellohe selt der geaegneten Reformation bias hlehler. an der Neuen Spltai-Klrche zum hell. Geist In Niirnberg und bey der Kranken-stube in der suden gedlent haben nebst elner Beschrelbung der Klrche (Niirnberg, 1759) • There is also considerable archival material in the city, state, and church archives in Niirnberg. A series of letters by Christoph Scheurl, the legal advisor to the city of Niirnberg, was very helpful. Since Scheurl was a member of the Sodalltas Llnckiana. these letters provide an abundance of material about Linck and his 12 influence upon others. There also exist five other published works by Linck, totaling eight volumes. Manusoript documents in the Hatsbttoher of the city of Niirnberg provide specific facts concerning the life of Wenzeslaus Linck. The manuscript of Johann Muller*s almost contemporary chronicle of the Reformation in Niirnberg presents virtually an eye-witness account of the life of the city during this period.^ In summary, this study is based upon the examination of the consid­ erable number of pertinent manuscripts, one hundred and six sermons by Linck, five volumes of other works by him, and one hundred and forty-five letters written to him.

Christoph Scheurl. Christoph Scheurls Beltrag zur Ge __ _ , _ by Franz von Soden and J.K.F. Knaake (Aalen, 1962) (first published at Leipzig, 1862). ^ S e e Staatsarchlv Niirnberg, RatsbUcher. Nos. 13-18$ Stadtarchlv, Niirnberg, Kirohenamt, Nos. 22, 24, 28, and, for a handwritten account, Johnn. Miiller, Hlstorlscher BerlohtvonAndegung der Religion und Ausmusfcerung des Pabstumbs In der Stadt Niirnberg. und was deswegen vor- gegeengen 7Nttmbergt ca. 1700). A oopper engraving of Linck is in the Stadtblbliothek, Niirnberg. 10 In order to study the message of Wenzeslaus Linck adequately, all the sermons were translated into English. This facilitated an analysis of both the content and the style. Oral readings in and English show the natural poetry of the original language and the sincerity and urgency of the message. All quotations Included! are not verbatim translations but represent an attempt to recreate in English the effect of the original. Complete translations of Linck's works served to exemplify the subtle changes in style and vocabulary he used when appealing to humanists, common workmen, or patrician businessmen. Wenzeslaus Linck's Reformation message was effect­ ive beoause he addressed himself to the townsmen. He stressed personal piety and preached close fellowship with , developing this new kind of evangelical sermon together with Luther, Staupitz, and Veit Dietrich among ill others. Linck's message of piety and ethical earnest­ ness coincided with the virtues extolled by such townsmen 15 as Lazarus Spengler, the town clerk of Niirnberg. His

1^Harold J. Grimm, "The Human Element in Luther's Sermons," Archly fiir Reformatlonsgesohlohte. XLIX (1958), 50-591 Hugo Herrfurth. Veit Dietrichs Predlgt (Priedberg, 1935)| Alfred Jeremlas. Johannes von Staupitz. pp. 161-171; for a general account Boland Bainton, Here I Standi A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville, 1951) • ” ^Harold Grimm, "The Relations of Luther and Melanchthon with the Townsmen," Luther und Melanchthon. pp. 46-48| Karl Holl, The Cultural Significance of the Reformation (New fork, 1959)* knowledge of rhetoric and his Pauline evangelism appealed to the educated humanists of the city.^6 Because Linck concerned himself not with scholastic theology hut with the everyday problems of life, he could and did work with the city fathers. Both formally and informally, the city council at Niirnberg and the town's ministers cooperated in reforming the city* Together they sought to provide social welfare, establish a new school system, and develop church ritual. While the city fathers were defining the town's secular life in terms of the good of the community, Linck made religious life meaningful in terms of the dally life of the townsman. His success in Niirnberg can be traced to the desire of the townsmen, the city fathers, and the humanists to find a real meaning for their lives. His message, the definition of the everyday life of a Christian, coincided precisely with the wishes and needs of his audience in Niirnberg.

16 See Myron P. Gilmore, The World of Humanism (New York, 1952); Lewis Spitz, The Religious Renaissance of the German Humanists (Cambridge, ., 19&3)• CHAPTER 1

THE IMPERIAL CITY OP NORNBERG

An Overall View The city that was to be the home of Wenzeslaus Linck for most of his adult life was not what one Imagines a city to be whose history rose from the dark, unremembered past of the Middle Ages. Cities in the sixteenth century, and even later, were supposed to be seas of mud and slime. The mud of Paris in the seven­ teenth century at times could be smelled two miles outside the city gates. In the normal town a stroller would find a narrow thoroughfare, carpeted in filth, with the central gutter (or rather succession of stagnant pools) choked with rotting litter of all kinds. This was normal even in such cities as Philadelphia until almost the nineteenth century. The city in which Wenzeslaus Linck worked was different. If normal conditions had persisted in Niirnberg, the wet climate would have made the city a mire. But Niirnberg had begun to pave its streets as early as 1368, and it had proceeded systematically 12 13 under the direction of the city architect until all five hundred streets Inside Its massive, protective city walls had been paved at oity expense. 1 Niirnberg* s city council had been most determined In its measures to keep the streets free of trash and refuse. Great efforts had been made to induce house­ holders to surrender their rights to allow pigs to forage freely on the streets for the purpose of eating the rubbish. Finally the city council was able to end the free circulation of pigs by 1^75 and so ensure clean 2 streets. By modern standards, Niirnberg in the sixteenth century left much to be desired, but its citizens took

pride in their city. The first thing a traveler would have noticed as he approached the city was the twenty-five square miles of thick forest growth surrounding it. It would have taken a man on foot almost a whole day to walk through this territory, called the Helohswald. which served Niirnberg as an obvious natural resource, but also as a

“^For an excellent recent history of Niirnberg see Gerald Strauss, in the Sixteenth Century (New York, i9 6 0). For a richly illustrated work see Werner von Schultheiss and Ernst Elchhorn, Niirnberg die alte deutsche Stadt, Schatzkastleln der Deutschen. 2nd enlarged edition (Numberg, 1961). 2 For a long listing of such ordinances see Joseph Baader, NUmberger Pol 1 ziordnungen aus dem XII. bis XV. Jahrhundert. Blbl. d. L. V. in , LXIII Tstuttgart,1861), 275-9 1• Ik place to gather honey, the chief ingredient of an important source of revenue- - the famous lebkuchen.^ Not until almost a half mile from the city could one see her Impressive strong walls and fortified

Imperial , set upon a rook outgrowth to the north, above the city. The Burg had once been an important fortified site for the Hohenstaufens. A Niirnberg citizen would probably not have taken a traveler to the walls of the city or to the castle to explain the city's importance, but rather the visitor would have been shown the activities of its merchants and the craftsmanship of the city's artisans. A Niirnberger might well have begun a city tour by a visit to the Sohdner Brunnen (beautiful fountain) located in the central market square. The gilded figures of the fountain represent what the Niirnberg citizen thought were the three main themes of his history: loyalty to the , Christian piety, and patriotism. Hans Hosenpliit wrote a poem praising the fountain and describing the city's history as seen in the sculptured figures on it. Included in the decoration were the

3 Marianne von Ebert-Wolf, "Geschlchte des Niirnberger Lebkuchen vom Handwerk zur Industrie," Mlttellungen des Verelns fiir Geschlchte der Stadt Niirnberg. LII (1963- 4), 498-50? (Hereafter cited as MVGN). 15 three most pious heathen heroes: Julius Caesar, Trajan, and Hector; the three most pious heroes from Jewish history: David, Joshua, and Judas Maccabees; and the three most Important Christian heroes: King Clovis, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Charlemagne. The electors were added to testify that all this was true. The Niirnbergers believed their city to be founded on these three noble traditions, making Niirnberg a German Imperial city of great Christian piety. This city, the home of the most creative artists of the sixteenth century, was a powerful city, not because of myth, but because of the political sagacity of Its city council. On the surface it appeared to be a fortress of high walls and towers. A local burgher once recorded that there were 365 towers, one for each day; but a more accurate was 168. It was a city governed by a patrician class of able and practical merchants. Because of this, it was called the German Venice. The craftsmen of Niirnberg were proud and artful, but the real power of the city was in the hands of its merchants whose business took them to trading it For literature on the poets of Niirnberg see Waldemar Kawerau, Hand Sachs und die Reformation. Verein fiir Reformat!onsgeschlchte, Nr. 26 (Halle, 1889). 16 centers throughout Europe. As a matter of fact, they led the first German expedition to the New World, traveling to Venezuela.^ Niirnberg became a city of great significance at the time of Emperor Maximilian. Although the merchants did not trace their source of power to the tripartite history recorded in the fountain, the visitor needs to be reminded that they were devoted to and piety as well as to business.

Early History of Niirnberg

The early settlement which became Niirnberg took place in the mid-eleventh century at the foot of a royal castle of the Hohenstaufen . The Burg stood on a kidney-shaped hill above the Pegnltz Biver, a tributary of the Main. The population grew, drawn by the protection of the fortress and .the miracles attributed to the relics of Saint Sebald burled nearby. At first the community was ruled by royal officials, the burgrave and his bailiff (Sohulthelss). Niirnberg sources inform us that the city was the recipient of special freedoms, having received, apparently

^Jiirgen U. Ohlau, "Neue Quellen fiir Familien- geschichte der Spengler," MVGN, LII (1963-^), 233-255. 17 in 1 2 1, 9 an important charter guaranteeing the mainte­ nance of certain customs and rights. Among the more Important of these was the concession that taxes were to be collected only from the community as a whole, not from individual residents.^ The increasing degree of autonomy was achieved at various times as a result of the need for money. Its emerging political importance was recognized in the 12^0's with the construction of

city walls and the appearance of the city council in 7 negotiations with other cities.' With this came 8 market rights with coinage and customs privileges. By 1313 the city officials had been granted by royal privileges the sole legislative jurisdiction over trade and taxes while the Jurors (Sohdffen) who made up the bailiff's court were henceforth drawn from local citizens. Eventually the cooperation with the bfclliffs served to enhance not the emperor's powers but those of the city council, for with increasing

^Gerhard Pfeiffer, "Der Aufstleg der Relchsstadt Niirnberg lm 13. Jahrhundert," MVGN. XLIV (1953), and " Niirnberg s Selbstverwaltung 1236-1956," Ibid., XLVIII (1958), 2. ^Pfeiffer, "Der Aufstleg der Relchsstadt," Ibid., XLIV (1953)• 15. ®Hans von Schubert, Lazarus Soengler und die Reformation in Niirnberg. oompl. and intro, by Hajo Holbom, QueXlen und Forsohungen zur Reformatlons- gesohlohte, Band XVII (Leipzig, 193*0» 3- 18 frequency In the fourteenth century the office was granted to members of the same wealthy families who comprised the city government.^

During the fourteenth century the city of Nttrnberg grew in its own political power and independ­ ence. Earlier the office of bailiff had come under the control of the city families, but the city became virtually an independent sovereign power when the position of bailiff was mortgaged to a wealthy merchant citizen an$ then to the city itself in 1385* With its in­ creasing independence, the city also sought to come into an alliance with the Empire. Frederick Barb&rossa in 1187 bad used Nttrnberg to proclaim peace in the Empire. In 13^9 Emperor Charles IV had proclaimed a peace for Franconian lands. It was at a meeting of the Reichstag at Nttrnberg that the Golden Bull of 1356, the only written constitution for the Empire, was proclaimed.*0 The first day of court (Hoftag) of King Wenzel was held in Nttrnberg because he had been baptized at St. Sebald in Nttrnberg. All of these incidents, small as each is Individually, Indicate

^Pfeiffer, "Nttmbergs Selbsverwaltusg 1256-1956,” MVGN, XLVIII (1958)• 7- 10Schubart, Lazarus Snengler. p. 10. 19 the growth of a close relationship between the city and 11 the Imperial rule. The Hapsburgs of the fifteenth century, Albrecht II and Frederick III, held their first diets at Niimberg and Frederick III was always fond of the city. It Is no wonder that Niimberg thought In terms of cooperation with the emperor. It was not only a part of the move­ ment toward a more centralized and stronger Empire but also the central place for many events associated with these developments. The history of Niimberg's accelerated steps to­

ward independence from the Empire can be traced from the time of the Hussite wars when the emperor was especially in need of money. An Important date in Niimberg* s history is the time it bought for 120,000 gulden almost all its rights and possessions from the Empire. The land situated near and around the emperor's castle, the claim on the Churoh of St. Sebald, the Imperial forests of the Church of St. Sebald3and the Church of St. Lawrence already belonged to the city. This meant that the city had all the hunting grounds around the city and the use of the surrounding vassals,

11 John Paul Friem, Geschichte der Stadt Niimbergt Von dem ersten urkundllchen Nachwels lhres Bestehens bis auf die neueste Zeit, edited by Emil Helcke (Niimberg, n«d»)V pp. 265-7. 20 called the comrades of the forest, who lived In approx- 12 imately eighty-two small villages. During the period the city was expanding Its rights and privileges the merchant families gained control of the municipal government. The power of these families, the Geschleohter. or what we call patricians, originated not from land holdings or from Imperial offices but from their wealth. The number of these families grew during the thirteenth and fourteenth

centuries, and not until 1521 was the rank of patrician closed to newcomers. These families frequently Intermarried and represent a closely-knit power group. The government was in the hands of forty-three patrician families. The contlnuanoe of their power rested notaaLy upon tradition, but also on their ability and their successful management of private and public affairs. The identification of their own Interests with those of the community 13 explains the general acceptance of patrician domination.

^Schubert, Lazarus Spender, p. 13. 13 The problem of the rise of the middle class and the relation of their ethics to society has been a problem of special interest. Sees Hans , "Religion and Politics In the German Imperial Cities During the Reformation.■ The English Historical Review. LXX (1937), ^05-27, 6l4-33. The classic studies on the rise of the entrepreneur classs R.H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (New York, 1926)| Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. 21

By domination of the main body of government, the small council, the control of the city government remained In the hands of this small group of families though changes occurred through evolution and through a revolution of the guilds In the middle of the four­ teenth century. To the medieval thirteen jurors of the bailiff’s court, the city added thirteen councilors to form a body of twenty-six Bttrgermelster or mayors. This body was subdivided into two equal groups of senior and junior mayors. Acting together one senior and one junior mayor conducted the general business of the city for a period of about four weeks. Within a year all twenty-six participated as head mayors. In actuality decisions were made In regular meetings by a majority vote of the council as a whole. trans. by Talcott Parsons (New York, 1930). For a discussion of Weber's views sees Kurt Samuelsson, Religion and Economic Action} A Critique of Max Weber, trans. by E. Geoffrey French, ed. by D. C. Coleman (New York, 196*0. For the actual rise of certain Nttrnberg families see: Richard Ehrenberg, Das Zeltalter der Fugger} Geldkapltal und Credltverkehr im l£7 Jahrhundert (Jena, 1^96) ♦ I, 192, 193-202 Arnold Relmann, Die KLterern Plrckhelmert Geschlohte elnes Nttrnberger Patrlzlergeschleohtes im Zeltalter des Frtthhumanlsmus Tbls l5ol) (Leipzig. 19*f5T. pp. 23-59; Schubert. Lazarus Spengler. p. 19} Gerhard Pfeiffer, "Nttmberger Pgtrlziat und frankische Reichsrltterschaft," Norloat Beltrage zur Nttrnberger Gesohichte ("Blbllotheks- dlrektor a. d. Dr. Friedrich Bock zu selnem 75. Geburts- tag.") (Nttrnberg, 1961), pp. 35-55*

^Strauss, Nuremberg in the Sixteenth Century, p 58} Pfeiffer, "SelbstverwaitungT*’ MVGN. XLVIII (1958), 9-11. 22 Jhis system was temporarily abandoned in 13^8 when the craft workers revolted, taking advantage of a broader political division within the empire between the emperor and the Wlttelsbach family of Bavaria. The patrician city council had sided with the emperor. The gulldsmen claimed the political support of the Bavarian faction and formed a new council which included a large contingent of craftsmen. ^ However, the former city council soon triumphed, and the old system was completely restored after slightly more than a year. One constitutional change, however, seems to have found its origins in this revolt. By the latter part of the fourteenth century representatives of the crafts had been added to the twenty-six aristo­ cratic members of the city council. Although it is not known for certain, it is generally believed that this was a type of concession to the workers. In fact, however, this new representation served as little more than window dressing. The guildsmen could not vote and their number was soon offset by the addition of eight more members (entitled the Alte Germante), drawn from older, retired, wealthy patricians.^

1^Pfeiffer, "Selbstverwaltung," MttGN. XLVIII (1958), 9-11. 16 Ibid., 9-15l Strauss, Nuremberg in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 60-61. The nature of the city government and the manner in which it functioned during the early part of the sixteenth century have been recorded for us in a letter sent by a Niirnberg humanist and legal consultant, Dr. Christoph Scheurl, to Johann von Staupltz, the close friend of Martin Luther and Wenzeslaus Linck and also at that time vicar general of the Augustine order. Scheurl was in a position to acquire an intimate understanding of the topic about which he wrote and performed a great service for posterity. He not only sketched the Internal forms of government but also revealed in a frank and candid manner the social dis­ tinctions upon which they were based and which determined the inner springs of power.*7 The council of twenty-six, plus eight craftsmen and eight Alte Genannte. remained a permanent fixture of the constitution. Together with the large council of Genannte. containing an indefinite and fluctuating membership (usually more than two hundred), these 18 groups made up the basis of the Niimberg government.

*?wChristopf Scheurls Eplstel iiber die Verfassung der Heichsstadt Niimberg, 1516," Die Chronlken der deutschen Stadtei Niimberg. V (Leipzig, 187M * ^81-80^. 18 Ibid., 786. 24 From the thirteen senior mayors of the small council were chosen seven men who served as a select committee known as the altere Herren. From their ranks came the three captains who formed the head of the city military forces,19 controlled the city seal, and held the keys to the city gates. Two of the three were then designated as treasurers (Losunger) a post with still more poww? • and prestige. Finally, the senior of those In office carried the position of 20 official head of state. For administrative purposes the Losunger divided the city Into areas called quarters. Nttrnberg had five quarters In the fourteenth century, six In the first part of the fifteenth century, and from 1499 on four each for the Sebald and Lawrence parishes. Originally the quarter organization was for military purposes, as seen in the 1420's when the council organized the citizens for deepening and widening the moat. Therefore each quarter had two quartermasters

*“^For a view of Nttrnberg at war see: Wlllbald Plrckhelmers Schwelzerkrleg: Nach Plrckhelmers Auiogranhum lm~"Brlilschen Museum, ed. by Karl Ruck (Munich, 1895T. For a description of these wars see Otto Markwart, Wlllbald Plrckhelmer als Gesohiohts- sohrelber (Zurich, l85S)v pp. 15l*--l6o. Also see Jackson Spleivogel, "Willibald Plrckhelmer" (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Dept, of History, The Ohio State University). ^°Strauss, Nuremberg in l6th Century, p. 90. 25 (VIertelmels ter) for each section who were directly responsible to the three captains of the city. Later they became responsible for fire protection and tax 2i collection. The small council was responsible for the most Important decisions. Usually one member of the council was given the supervision of the Implementation of each decision, but there was a distinction between responsibility and execution. Usually a commission was appointed to execute the action. This was not a

delegation of power but rather a shift of the burden of details. The council remained in control and often intervened. Therefore there were no clearly marked and separated channels of authority, not even a table oo of organization. An AmterbUchleln. a booklet of offices, listed the office holders for the year and their duties. The exact limits of power and their degree of control in any position was never certain, though the small council remained dominant. 7116 Losunger were responsible for deciding both the amount of taxes and their collection. A lesser

21 Strauss, Nuremberg in 16th Century, p. 188. The AmterbUchleln for 1516 is printed in Die Chronlken der franklschen Stadtes Nttrnberg (Leipzig, 1874), V, W3-Zol 26 city official, called the Ungelder. collected the indirect taxes and turned the money over to the Losunger who deposited It in a chest to which only he had the key. The Losung. or direct tax, was estimated by the citizen himself and placed in the chest. It was a mark of the developing ethic of the townsman that there was only one controversy and legal entanglement resulting from this Informal and amateurish arrangement.^

The real power of the government rested in the hands of the seven altere Herren. Scheurl states they often met in seoret and made decisions on the basis of information not accessible even to the small council. This is why men like Lazarus Spengler, secretary to the council, were of such importance to the history of the Reformation in Nttrnberg. The altere Herren rolled the city, for the captains and treasurers were chosen from their own number. When matters were presented for a vote in the small council, neither the craftsmen nor the Alte Ge- nannte represented a significant force. As S;oheurl explains, they could either attend or not attend the meeting as they chose. The large council was called

2^The Losunger Nikolaus Muffel was found guilty of embezzlement, after confessing under torture. The case was prosecuted by his personal enemy and there is still doubt as to his guilt. See Chronlken der franklschen StSdtei Niirnberg. V, 753-77* 2^Ibld.. 795-96. 27 upon for consultation and consent only in matters of extreme importance to the city such as taxes, war, and peace.^ Thus the government of the free imperialscity of Nttrnberg exercised wide political and economic powers, far beyond those normally associated with a municipal authority. In addition to the maintenance of law and order, it conducted a sovereign foreign policy and fielded an Independent army. It also intervened in the economy in terms of controls of quality and price on certain basic commodities, and the maintenance of such munlolpally owned or controlled institutions as slaughter houses, a brick kiln, a brewery, and corn and 26 wine storage houses. The council controlled all aspects of town life. It produced a political system that regarded nothing as irrelevant to public purpose. No activity was Immune from its administrative directives. The city council was paternalistic and often no distinction existed between the patricians' own private Interests and the

25 Chronlken der franklsohen Stadte: Nttrnberg. V, 787. 26 The council even controlled the manner of dress. See: Kent Roberts Greenfield, "Sumptuary Law in Nttrnberg; A Study in Paternal Government," John Hopkins University Studies In History and Political Science. XXXVI tl918), 7-13$. 28 public Interest. Niirnberg*s political stability was based upon the Inner dependence and harmony of its parts. Anything that influenced the citizens concerned the council. As the patricians gained control of the secular power, they also became involved in religious Issues. Churches and monasteries owned property and produced inoome. Preachers and confessors influenced

the conduct of the citizens. Therefore the city council perferred the regular and secular clergy to play only those roles given to them by the council. In the struggles to gain control of the religious administration within the city the patricians* methods, purposes, and attitudes were parallel to 27 those described in their rise to political power. Niirnberg was in the southernmost area of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the bishop of Bamberg. When the church of St. Sebald gained a kind of supremacy over Its neighboring village church of Poppenreuth in the fourteenth century, tithes,

27 'The problem of the emergence of the middle class in society has been discussed in Alfred von Martin, Sociology of the Renaissance, trans. by W. L. Luetkens (New York, 19*>3) • Por a broader discussion see the classical study: Fredlnand Tohnies, Community and Society (Gemelnschaft und Gesellsohaft). trans. and ed. by Charles P. Loomis (New York, 1963). 29 annates, and other money flowed Into the city rather than out of It. Prom this date on the bishop of Bamberg began to lose control offohurch privileges In

Nttrnberg.2® In 14?4 the city council received the right of presentation. In odd-numbered months, the papal months, the council could present suitable candidates for positions in the two parish churches. If a position became vacant during the six papal months, the city council chose the candidate whom the would confirm. In 1513 the bishop and the cathedral chapter of Bamberg gave the city council the right of presentation for the even-numbered months, the episcopal months. In 1514 confirmed this practice by granting the council full rights of patronage over the two parish churches.2^ As early as the fourteenth century the council be­ gan to appoint some of its own members to be superin­ tendents of church endowments, Klrchenpfleger. By

OQ fc°Schubert, Lazarus Spengler. p. 2 5; Strauss, Nuremberg in 16th Century, p. 155* 29schubert, Lazarus Spengler. p. 28> Strauss, Nuremberg in 16th Century, p. I56t Hans von Schubert, "Die Reichstadt Nttrnberg und die Reformation," Die Reformation in Nttrnberg (Nttrnberg, 1925)* P« 9; Gerhard Pfeiffer, **Die Enfuhrung der Reformation in Nttrnberg als kirchrechtliches und bekenntniskundliches Problem,” Bltttter fttr deutsche Landsgeschlchte. LXXXVIII (1952), 112-114. administering the endowments donated to the churches by the pious, the council gained further control of church life in NUrnberg. The city council also had the right to make all decisions concerning construction and utilization of real estate within the city, whether secular or ecclesiastical. The council required all seek­ ing to establish monasteries within the city boundaries to submit to investigation and supervision by the council. The council limited the size and activity of the monasteries. The agreement between the monastery and the council usually contained a provision for a council-appointed Schaffer whose duties were to manage the monastery*s finances and inform the council of the state of the chapter. By the sixteenth century Niirnbergers had attained an unusual level of prosperity and the city had acquired a great degree of autonomy. When faced with new challenges and problems Niimberg wished to preserve its 31 attainments. The Reformation in Niimberg was the

30 Shubert, Lazarus Spengler. p. 11; Strauss, Nuremberg in l6th Century, p. 15#! Pfeiffer, "Enfiihrung der Reforma­ tion,” Blatter fiir deutsche Landsgeschlchte. LXXXVTII (1952), 112-114. 31 J For nationalsim in the Renaissance see: Johan Huizinga, "Patriotism and Nationalism In European History,” Men and Ideas: History, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, trans. by James S. Holmes and Hans van Marie (New York, 1959)t PP. 97-1591 Garrett Mattingly, "Changing Attitudes towards the State During the Renaissance," Facets of the Renaissance (New York, 19^3)# pp. 19-^1* 31 logical product of the council’s endeavors to control life within the city and develop civic responsibility. When the actual Reformation took place in Niirnberg in 1525* the city became the legal heir of all secularized clerical property. The growth of political power of the council was complete. The clerics became citizens, and no longer was there in Nttrnberg any vestige of exterior ecclesiastical or feudal power.

Nttrnberg as an Intellectual Center

Nttrnberg in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was able to consolidate all its power, political, economic, and Intellectual, in such a way as to epitomize German industry and skill. This is why its citizens spoke of Nttrnberg as the German Venice, not because the small Pegnltz reminded one of the Adriatic. Its political sagacity, mercantile skills, and a sense of art reminded them of theglbrles of Venice. The reigns of Maximilian and Charles V constituted Nttrnberg9s golden age. She was the artistic, literary, and scientific center of Germany in that period, counting herself first in every area and activity. If was the prio»er.iOf ihvanshlsdbp, 32 Willibald Plrckhelmer was the German Xenophon.J The

•^Willibald Plrckhelmers Brlefwechsel. ed. by Emil Reicke and Arnold Reimann (Munich, 19^0, 1956), II, 30, 52, W . jurist humanist Christoph Scheurl left notebooks which are a valuable source for this period. There were Hieronymus Ebner, Joachim Camerarlus , and the poet Eoban

Hess. The great worker of bronze, Peter Vischer, is well-known for his bronze tomb of Emperor Maximilian in Innsbruck9 but his magnificent grave monument of St. Sebald is a better example of his marvelous dexterity and craftsmanship. Veit Stoss, a masterful wood carver, is excelled only by the greatest of wood carvers, Riemen- schneider, who also lived in the Franconian area. Adam Krafft, a contemporary of both, was known as such a great sculptor that the story circulated that he softened the stone before working with it and then hardened it later. In other words, woodcutters and sculptors flourished there in addition to many greater and lesser men in the workshop of Albrecht Durer. Through this workshop Durer*s style of woodprints and engravings 33 became world famous. Nttrnberg was a center of the theater in folk and carnival plays, produced first by Hans RosenplUt and Hans Folz and later by the most famous of all, .

33 For a complete catalogue of such work see: Melster urn Albrecht DUrer fAnzelger des Germanlsohen Natlonai- Musemn 19&0-6TL Niirnberg. 1961); for an account see: Mpritz Thauslng, AlWeoht Diirer: His Life and Works. trans. and ed. by Fred A. Easton (London, 1882) and Wilhelm Schwemmer, Adam Krafft (Niimberg, 1958) • Niirnberg was an imperial city that not only played a part in the dramatic play and replay of diplomacy between pope and emperor but also was important in the rise of German humanism and the site of a great number of book printers. The literary news of Germany often emanated from her printing shops as well as from such publishers

as the Froben Press in . Niimberg was an essential part of the printing revolution. The humanists made good use of the press and printing played an Important part in the dissemination of classical ideas. Niimberg became an Important printing center after 14?6. Koberger's press, which used only Gothic type, was the first to achieve an excellent reputation. In 1501 the circle of humanists consisting of Tuoher, Schedel, and Plrckhelmer switched to the printer Frederick Peypus, who had published the comedies of the nun Hrosvltha and the Llbrl Amorum of Ovid, translated by Conrad Celtls. Anton Koberger printed most of Diirer's works such as 3 L The Apocalypse. The Passion, and The Life of the Virgin. Niimberg also was a place of creative activity in science. Regiomontanus (14-36-1507) invented the nautical tables of the kind used by Columbus. Martin ' j ^ E m s t P. Goldschmidt. The Printed Book of the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1950), p. l4. 34

Behaim (1459-1507) made the first practical globe. Peter Henleln (1480-1542) Invented the pocket watch. Hartmann Schedel produced his world chronicle. Humanists like Plrckhelmer considered themselves at times scientists, even though their work was usually closer to alchemy and astrology. Scheurl, the jurist, and Lazarus Spengler, the council secretary, also worked In the new sciences. Spengler's son even took part In an expedition to the

New World. The humanists In Nttrnberg were Interested not only in science, but also in the new techniques of humanist learning. The city council In 1498 was persuaded to establish a new primary school tinder purely secular oontrol. Hen like Plrckhelmer had hoped that Conrad Celtis would be the rector, but instead they obtained Heinrich Grlenger for the post. The new school was called a "poet's school," probably to suit Plrckhelmer's humanist taste. Later their Interests changed, and Plrckhelmer and others promoted the cathedral school of St. Lawrence Instead. In 1510 the city council called Johann

^Ohlau, "Neue Quellen..• . Spengler," HVGN, LII (1963-4), 233-37- ^^Plrckhelmers Brlefweohsel. I, Excurs i| Strauss, Nuremberg In lfrflli Century. pp. £34-5. 35 Cochlaeus as rector of the school. He himself had attended the poet’s school and had gone to the University of . In his new position he began to publish text­ books on grammar, geometry, music, and geography. In 1515 he resigned to become tutor to Pirckheimer’s nephew and accompanied him to . Prom there he went to another post and eventually became a well-known antagonist 37 of Luther. ' The humanists promoted their interest in education, and during the Reformation Melanchthon was invited to start a school in Niimberg. Though he did not remain, the school which he established played a major part in developing the secular education that characterized Europe in the post-Reformation period. So it was that Niimberg’s reputation grew. Hutten praised it as the first among German cities and Conrad

Celtis eulogized it in an epic poem.3® When its political Independence as an imperial city, its diplomatic relations with the Empire, its printing and its theatrical

37 Plrckhelmers Brlefweohsel. II, $62, 569 1 Martin Spahn, Johannes Cochlaus t Eln Lebensblld aus der Zelt der Klrchenspaltung (Berlin. l&9&)t P P * 17-21• 38 •'Conrad Celtis Protucii Germani, Primi Poetae, De Origlne, Situ Moribus et Instituis Norlmbergae Libellus,'' Willibald Plrckhelmer, Opera, pp. 116.138: see also Lewis W. Spitz. Conrad Celtis: The German Arch-Humanist (Cambridge, Mass., 1957) and Johannes Scharrer, Die Bliitzelt Niirnberg in dem Jahren 1^80-1530 (Niirnberg, 1838) • developments, Its artistic intellectual, humanist, and scientific activities are seen as a whole, one can under­ stand the important role which Niirnberg played in the

Protestant Reformation. Numerous historians have shown Nurnberg's import­ ance to the early history of the Reformation in terms of the imperial diets held there in the years after the . Whereas considerable attention has been given the actual Reformation, the connection between the ideas of the reformers and the leaders of the in­ tellectual community of Niirnberg needs careful exam­ ination. No scholar has given us a thorough study of the intellectual equipment of the first leaders in the city's reforms, an explanation of the motives behind their actions, or an account of the spread of the Reformation ideas to Nurnberg. It is my purpose to trace the change of climate from the Stoic and Platonic ideas of the Niirnberg circle of humanists to the basic Reformation ideas of these same persons, primarily by examining the sermons of Wenzeslaus Llnck and assessing their impact in Niirnberg. CHAPTER II

THE LIFE OF WENZESLAUS LINCK UNTIL 1516

Wenzeslaus Linck's life is closely connected with

the lives of two of the leaders of the early Reformation: Martin Luther and Johannes Staupitz. All three were Augustinlan monks, close friends, and preachers

developing new emphases in their sermons. The early life of Linck, as , student, and teacher, prepared him for the success he was to achieve in Nurnberg. Linck did not develop his new style of sermon and his reforming message In a vacuum. His early years and education are important in understanding his later accomplishments.

Youth

Wenzeslaus Linck was born on January 8, 1^83 to Hans and Christina Linck. Hans Linck was a Burgermelster of the town of Colditz,1a small city on the Zwickau

i Hermann Wilhelm Caselmann, "Wenzeslaus Link's Leben fUr dhristliche Leser lnsgemein aus den Quellen erzShlt," Das Leben der Altvater der lutherlschen Klrohe. ed. by Moritz Meurer (Leipzig and Dresden, lBSjl), p. 331, says that the parents were Johann Martin Link and Christiana Vetsch. Wilhelm Reindell, Doktor Wenzeslaus Linck aus Coldltz 1483-15^7: Nach ungedruckten und ge- druckten Quellen: Erster Tell: Bis zur reformatorlsohen Thatlgkelt in Altenburg; Mlt Blldnls und elnem Anhang enthaltend die zugehdrlgen Dooumenta Llnoklana 1^85-1522 (Marburg, 1 8 9), 2 says that Hans Linck was the father, p. ?. 37 38

River about four miles from Leipzig* It was a summer residence of the Saxon ruler. The castle there had been burned at the time of the Hussite invasion of this area. Sometime after 1464 the Elector Ernest rebuilt the castle and added a garden. The young son of the Burgermelster spelled his name Linck, Ling, Llncclus, Linckijis, LIneejus, Linccus, Llncius, Llncus, and Link.

Most often he spelled it Linck. We know that Wenzeslaus' parents were well-to-do people. He came from an urban family. The wealth of his family is revealed in the will of Elizabeth, the mother of Hans Linck. Drawn up in 14-85, It named Wenzeslaus as the major beneficiary. In it are listed house, farm, and garden with swine and household goods as her Worldly;possessions.3 Hans Linck, his father, probably died in the plague of 14-85 which swept and killed many thousands. Thus the son grew up with his mother as an only child. His mother was probably also of a well-to-do family since she was able to bestow three hundred gulden on the Augustinlan cloister for charitable purposes when her son entered! the monastery. The education and up­

^"Stadtbuch der Stadt Colditz 14-31-1526,H in Kgl. Sachs. Hauptstaatsarchiv, Loo. 9859* as contained in Reindell, Linck. p. 196, footnote 2. 3 Original in Kgl. Sachs. Hauptstaatsarohiv at Dresden, reprinted in Reindell, Linck. pp. 24-4—46. 39 bringing of Wenzeslaus were left to his mother, and, without a doubt, the early death of the father and the hurt and bereavement of the mother Influenced his char­ acter. Undoubtedly it was, as with Luther, a time of crisis for Wenzeslaus— a time of pious resignation and of spiritual individualism. Hudolf Stadelmann suggests that this period of the turn of the century was for sill Germany a time of pessimism. Linck required no lightning bolt, as did Luther, to shock him. The experience came from his family situation, which helps explain why he, a son of a city councilor, entered a begging order.

School

YouLinck went to the cloister school at Colditz and in 1*98 in the summer semester began to study at Leipzig. Caselmann states Linck traveled to at this time and became Luther's friend, but such evidence is slight and rests upon a single, vague letter.-* From this letter Caselmann Infers an imaginary stay of three or four years. Luther did move to Eisenach in h, Rudolf Stadelmann, Vom Gelat des ausgehendaa. Mlttelalters (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 19^6), pp. 266,278. ^Luther calls him "dulcisslmus frater meus, Magister Wenceslaus Lincus, qul ab ineunte aetate pari mecum studio adolevlt," in a letter to Cajetan, October 17, 1518. Compare Caselmann, Link, pp. 331-6, with Reindell, Linck. p. 196, footnote 12 and documents pp. 3*7-8. 40 1^98, but the basis of their real friendship was estab­ lished much later. More probably Wenzeslaus went to the university in April of his fifteenth year. Nothing more is heard of his mother, so she may have died shortly afterward, or about the time that Linck joined

the monastery in 1503* On April 23, 1^98, "Wentzeslaus Linck de Colditz” matriculated at Leipzig as a bachelor and was admitted

by Hector Jodocus Engerer von Lewterszhawszen, master of arts and both laws. Linck's name is found as number seventy-three of those who attended from the land of

Meissen between 1*1-09 and 1535* The record shows that he paid six groschen to register.^ Leipzig, under Albertine control, was the university for all Saxony. However, its reputation was not the best for it lacked famous names. Furthermore it did not teach any of the new sciences or humanities which were influencing other universities in Germany. On the contrary, it was under the dominance of scholastic professors who, according to the humanists, stifled the new learning. In fact, Leipzig was one of those places that received the butt of ridicule in the Letters of

Obscure Men. To make the point against the foibles of - See Matrikel-manuskrlpts of the Kgl. Unlversltats- blbllothek at Leipzig as oontained in Reindell, Linck. pp. 21*7-9. *n scholasticism, Thomas Langschneider from Leipzig was used and Leipzig became one of the major sources of material in that satire.? Under Albert and George, Leipzig ostracized the humanists and promoted the scholastic technique. It would be difficult from this background to paint Linck as a harbinger of the new learning. However, there were good teachers there In philosophy and grammar: Diingersheim, Pistoris, Breitenbach, Caspar Ursinus Vellus, Hermann Kayser, and the scholar Claricius of Bologna. In philosophical studies there was Martinus Pollloh von Mellerstadt, who taught L&fcck later at 8 Wittenberg. Linok must have had a good background in logic, dialectics, rhetoric, and philosophical studies. Further, there was a humanist circle in Leipzig to which Ulrich von Hutten once attached himself. Under the leadership of Rhayttia Aesticampianus there must have been a dialogue between the scholastics and humanists. Certainly, humanism must already have been o a disturbing element in the university.

?See letters Nos. 1, 2, 6, 9, 14- In Ulrich von Hutten, et al., "Letters of Obscure Men," On the Eve of the Reformation, trans. by Francis Griffin Stokes, intro, by Ha jo Holbom (New York, 196*0 • Q Reindell, Linck. pp. 13-1*** ^Hajo Holbom, Ulrich von Hutten and the German Reformation, trans. by Roland H. Bainton (New Haven, 1937), PP. 3**> 207. kz Linck did acquire a love of classical learning at Leipzig, as shown through later correspondence, not merely with theologians, but also with such men as Eoban Hess, the poet king, Camerarius, Petrus Plateanus, and Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden. One sees in his later sermons a love of the classics. However, his references tend to be Christian classics.10 Leipzig undoubtedly shaped Linck*s life in num­ erous ways. Unfortunately for him, he did ndt, like Erasmus and Luther, attend a Brethren of Common Life school or gain a love of the classics from a humanist university. Melanchthon's reform at Leipzig with its attendant introduction of humanistic studies came too late for Linck. Melanchthon felt that classic culture helped facility of expression, versatility of composition, and mental discipline. Linck would have agreed, but his greatest influence came from an early heritage of the patristic fathers and the . Melanchthon helped reform Wittenberg, foundt 1 the universities of Kdnigs- berg and Jena and Marburg, and revise the curricula of Cologne, Tttbingen, , and Leipzig. This was much later, however, and Linck represents an older

10Many of his sermons refer to works and ideas of St. Augustine, but there are passing references to classical stories like the founding of Home by Romulus and Remus. 4 3 generation which lacked the benefits of Melanchthon's

reforms.11 How long Linck stayed at Leipzig is not known, except that he did not have an academic degree when he went to the University of Wittenberg* It was there that he obtained the degree of master of liberal arts* In any case, he continued his education at , but 12 not in 1501 as Caselmann imagines*

Monastic Life

Why would Wenzeslaus Linck leave a delightful city like Leipzig and suddenly flee into a monastery? Caselmann uses as motivation the story Luther told of the of Anhalt who castigated himself with fastings and vigils so that when Luther saw him he was a picture of death, as an example of the extreme drive toward atonement. As a noble, the Prince of Anhalt had 13 entered a begging order and had to go begging for alms. Just as Luther was Influenced by his story, so Linck

^Clyde Manschreck, Melanchthon. The Quiet Re­ former (New York, 1958)* p. 145. 12Compare Caselmann, Link, pp. 335-6, with Reindell, Linck, p. 16, also see Th. Kolde, Die deutsohe Augustlner- Congregatlon und Johann von Staupitzi Eln Beltrag zur Ordens-und Reformatlonsgeschlchte nach moistens unaedruckten Quellen (Gotha. 1879). p. 356. ^Heinrich Boehmer, Martin Luthert Road to Reformation, trans. by John W. Doberstein and Theodore Tappert (New York, 19^-6), p. 17i Caselmann, Link, p. 33^. was moved by his mother’s concern at the death of his father. Out of fear for his soul, he entered into a life which gave him the assurance of salvation. Caselmann says that Linck became a monk in 1506, but this is false for, as Reindell points out, Linck registered in the winter semester of 1503 In the Liberal Arts faculty lA at Wittenberg as "frater ordinis diui Augustini." The men under whom Linck studied in Leipzig must have reinforced his own inner experience. His decision to enter a monastery was probably based upon sincerity of purpose rather than any direct event. How earnest he was is seen in the fact that he went to the Augustinian cloister at Waldheim, one of the observantist monasteries with severe rules rather than one of the larger conventual monasteries of that order. Undoubtedly one fact that influenced his decision was that two of his Waldheim brothers were Barbholomaus and Christophorus Lehemann, both of whom were from Meissen and had registered at the university in Leipzig in 1^99**^ The Waldheim monastery was only a few miles from Colditz, his birthplace. It had been founded in 140^ and by 1501 it was Influential and well-known.

1^ Caselmann, Link, p. 336; Reindell, Linck. pp. 20-21; Albert Meno Verpoortennius, editor, Sacra Superioris aevi analecta in cuibus variorum ad Venceslaum Llncum epjstolae plures auam septuaginEa. . . (Coburg, p. 11.

^Reindell, Linck. p. 21. Today the cloister is used as a penltenlary. ks In contrast to Its importance the Waldheim monastery was small, both because of its strict rules and because the discipline Mid eduoation of the novices

were so exhausting* Linck could not have become a member until after 1501, since he would not have been admitted before he was eighteen years of age. Probably he was admitted early in 1503* There is no existing information on Linck*s own training, but a great deal 16 is known about the Augustinians. The order of Augustinlan Hermits was a mendicant order, but by the early sixteenth century it had be­ come wealthy. The monasteries were usually located in cities and the inmates no longer wandered from town to town begging. Also they were no longer recruited from the lower classes. Illiterates were admitted only as fratres (monks of the second class). These lay brothers performed menial tasks. Above these were the patres. who were without exception eduoated men and clerics. These studied, taught, held administrative offices, or occupied themselves solely with singing, praying, and ascetic practices conduoive to the sanctification of self. The patres were the voting members of the monastery.*7

1^Caselmann, Link, p. 336) Reindell, Linck. pp. 22-3{ Kolde, Au k u s tlner-Congregation. pp. 75* 8o, 99* 102-*f,ll0. 17Boehmer, Martin Luther, p. 38. 46 The novice had many menial duties, but also great stress was laid upon spiritual education, reading, and studying the Bible. It Is assumed that the Augustlnlans embraced evangelical contemplation, but one should be cautioned in reading later innovations into pre-Reformation practices, especially when one sees that the Augustlnlans were generally zealous supporters of the papal system of thought.1 8

Llhck's chief motives for choosing such a life become apparent from his high expectations and hope that he could witness for God and receive special merit by becoming a begging monk. In later years he wrote to about his disillusionment when he had sought holiness in externals.*9 In 1530 he wrote to Sebastian Fumsohlld about what he had expected to find in a dedicated life and how it had failed him.

Let me comfort you, dear brother, because I can console you in the Master so that you do not have to fear this prison of your body, because your Christ the Holy God has taught us that God makes truth, justice, salvation, and redemption. Finished is our servitude, which came from a timorous conscience. Me were slaves under that power of this world In which we Imagined to serve God through our place, meals, time, person,

■^^Kolde, Augustlner-Congregatlon. p. 223f Relndell, Linck, p. 19* ^-^verpoortennius, flflora Sunerlorls. p. 87* 47 and face and which He Himself had not ordered. Through the blood of Christ, through belief In the Gospels, the obstacles which stood in the way of our justification have been lifted. We judged ourselves when we considered God to be a tyrannical treasurer from whom we could buy heaven, because of our own merits. Han will be won to Christ and he will discover Him, not through the justification by man which out of monastic vows or good works or the laws (signifying something only to men), but through heavenly and Godly justification which comes out of the belief in Christ namely, the ? justification to which God assigns to belief. °

From his sermons one sees that Linck, though he became Vicar General, totally rejected the purposes of a monastic life. In "Der ausgelaufene M6nch,rt a dialogue of 1524, he explained that the goal of the cloister was in opposition to the true trend of Christian development. Only baptism gave one Christian freedom, but the monks had taken a second, useless oath. In this dialogue he questioned whether man can through prayer attain continence. He questioned whether a man could make himself pure through mortification of the flesh and other such practices. Obviously, he answered no. In this dialogue in which Linck represented the evangelical against the papal view, he stated that Christian freedom does not take away good works from God’s message, but rather that Christian freedom gives

20Reindell, Linck. 8 September 1530, p. 17* k8 one trust and in the works* The monastery, how­ ever, forces monks by their vows from such freedom of conscience. Linck said the monks were ensnared by the devil who lured them away from Christ. He pointed out that Paul said if you hear another angel citing the Gospel another way, dismiss that angel and accept only St. Paul's "good news," paraphrasing Gal. 1*8 and Gal. V:l. Linck exhorted the people to stand with Christian freedom and not to get under the yoke again.21 These, however, are his later reflections, after the disillusionment. He remained in the Waldheim monastery long enough to put on the black hood of the Augustinian Eremitic order. Soon his life was changed by the actions of the prior and scholar, Andreas Proles. Proles had made a tie with Wittenberg University and desired the Augustinian monks to receive a higher education. Linck was sent to finish his university education. The rector Johannes Krannapol recorded his registration at the beginning of the winter semester 1503 as "frater Wenceslaus Linck de Koldicz ordlnls diui Augustini," as the sixth student of the German 22 nation.

21Wenzeslaus Linck, "Der ausgelaufene Monch," Wenzel Llncks Werke. ed. and intro, by Wilhelm Reindell (Marburg, 189*0 * PP. 305-332.

22Reindell, Linck. pp. 2 k 9 198. 49

Wittenberg University

At Wittenberg he probably studied under teachers such as Slglsmund Epp and Dionysius Bickel (both Augustlnlans), Hermann Kayser, and Martin Pollich von Mellerst&dt. In the winter semester of 1504 he took his baccalaureate degree and in the summer of 1506 he was promoted to master of philosophy. Among his friends at this time were Nicholas von Amsdorff, Johannes Staupitz, and Karlstadt.^

During this time Linck still belonged to the Waldheim cloister and remained a member when he was appointed to the theological faculty of Wittenberg University. Therefore it is possible that he spent two separate periods in the Waldheim cloister. He may have gone back after graduation, remaining in the cloister from 1506 to 1509.2Zf In January, 1509# Linck, Amsdorff, Karlstadt, Johannes Hergott, Johannes Mantel, and Johann von Mechlen (also from the Waldheim monastery) entered Wittenberg together. Staupitz had just become dean of the faculty. Martin Luther, having just finished his

23 Ibindell, Linck. p. 24} Ernest G. Schwiebert, "New Groups and Ideas at the University of Wittenberg," Arohlv fflr Reformatlonsgeschlchte, XLIX (19583# 60-7 9. 2 L Reindell, Linck, pp. 21, 1?, 198. 50 degree of master of philosophy at Erfurt, arrived as a teacher at Wittenberg a month after Wenzeslaus Linck arrived. Staupitz probably stayed in Munich most of that year and Luther remained there only through the summer of 1 509* ^ Wittenberg was not then the town that in imagination we honor or the place which since has become famous. Cochlaeus called it a "stinking hole, the barbaric underworld," and even friends realized that it was a small, frontier town with a population of two thousand. There was a gray cloister of the Franciscans and the black one of the Augustinian Hermits. The latter was the most popular religious corporation of the district because it provided the preacher for the town's parish church, St. Ann's. It also serviced the castle church which contained the treasury of relics of Elector Frederick the Wise. Closely connected with the chapter was the university which had been called into existence by Elector Frederick the Wise in 1502 in order to rival the neighboring Leipzig. Since Frederick was parsi­ monious, the university did not grow rapidly. The influx of students from the outside, encouraging at

2%eindell, Linck, p. 25; Caselmann, Link, p. 3^0; Boehmer, Martin Luther, p. 53- 51 first, had begun to decline in 1505 and later rose again. When Linck arrived, there could hardly have been more than three hundred students. These, however, became the products of the new learning and achieved such prom­ inence that Wittenberg soon gained the reputation of 2 6 being a great center of learning. Johannes von Staupitz, the vicar general of the

German Augustinian Congregation, was lecturer in the Bible at the University of Wittenberg. He was made dean in 1 5 0, 8 but he probably was there infrequently and spent most of his time at Munich with only brief visits at Wittenberg to lecture. That year the other chair of the Augustlnlans in the arts faculty was held by MHrtin Luther who lectured on 's Nlcomachean ethics. Jodocus Trutvetter, a proponent of Ockham, was 27 at that time the most famous of the professors. ' Luther did not return to Wittenberg for a long stay until after 1512 when Linck was already a doctor and prior of the Wittenberg monastery. When Caselmann said the friendship of Luther and Linck grew during the 28 early dtgy at Wittenberg, he is mistaken.

26 Kolde, Augustlner-Congregatlon. pp. 220-223. 27 Ibid. 2®Caselmann, Link, pp. 337-8. He also reported that Linck studied at Erfurt earlier, but there seems to be no record of this. It is probably an attempt to make Linck*s life parallel Luther's. 52 On October 25, 1509, the acting dean of the ■university, Jodocus Trutvetter, presented Linck with the degree Sententlarus. which meant that he was allowed to sit in the senate of the faculty. On June 7, 1510, he was named Sententlarlus formatus. which meant that he had completed an examination on Lombard's sentences. In August, 1511, after completing the reading of the dogmatic books, he was given a license to teach in the theological faculty.

September 16 and 17, 1511, in famous ceremonies at Wittenberg, at least four doctors* caps were pre­ sented to Augustlnlans in the presence of the members of the order who already held the degree. Among the new doctors of theology were Johann Hergott von Nord- hausen, Johann von Mecheln, Bethel von Spangenberg, and Wenzeslaus Linck. All were presented by the dean Polllch von Mellerstadt and the vicar general. At this time Luther was in Wittenberg. Staupitz, undoubtedly In response to this occasion, decided, much against Luther's own will, that Luther should follow the same course of action. Christoph Scheurl wrote about the festive

^^Heindell, Linck. pp. 27-28. 3°Boehmer, Martin Luther, p. 8 3. 53 occasion, stating that no fewer than eleven Augustinian Hermit monks were now doctors.It seems that this was a turning point for the order and its history. It was suocesful In the next few years Insofar as its preachers and teachers who became active in the Refor­ mation were university-trained. In October, 1512, Linck was elected as dean of the theological faculty and signed the dean's book as professor of philosophy and theology. It was during his term as dean that Luther began his doctorate. Two 32 years later he was again chosen to the office of dean. Linck had much the same money problems as many modern college presidents. In a letter to PUrstin Margaret of Anhalt, whom he must have met on an earlier trip, he stated that the university needed food, and he would like to have the meat of wild animals sent to the university.^3 Linck also served as preacher for the monastery while at Wittenberg. Justus Jonas, who studied law there In 1511$ said that Linck*s preaching made the chapel seem very much like the inn in Bethlehem with the

^Franz von Soden and J.K.F. Knaake, ed., Christoph Scheurls Brlefbuch: Eln Beltrag zur Gesehlchte der Re­ formation und lhrer Zelt (Aalen. 1962L letter 5^, dated October 127T511, I,"75^79- 32 Relndell, Linck. p. 3^. 33 Linck to Fiirstin Margaret von Anhalt, Wittenberg, January 22, 151^ in Reindell, Linck. pp. 253-^» 54 wooden beams and wooden supports. This statement Is somewhat less allegorical than one might suppose. The old monastery chapel which lasted until 1542 stood on a rickety frame propped up on all sides. It was about thirty feet long and twenty feet wide with room for only about twenty people to stand. On the south wall the pulpit, made out of old, rough boards, stood about five feet above the ground. In short, it did, indeed, look like the stable in Bethlehem where Christ was born. In his twenty-eighth year Linck had becme "a very holy and evangelical preacher." Jonas said that Linck was 34 of great influence upon him as a student. It was during this time that Luther returned to Wittenberg, relieved Linck of some of his over-burdening duties, and took over the office of preacher in 1512. As Bendixen says, these three became good friends and influenced each other. Linck also had become prior at Wittenberg in 1511. This showed his leadership and the trust bestowed upon him by his fellow monks. It also showed his development as preacher, scholar, and trusted advisor

3A -' Justus Jonas, Per Brlefwechsel des Justus Jonas. ed. by Gustav Kawerau (Halle, 1884-5), I, 1, 3l$i Reindell, Linck, p. 43| Verpoortennius, Sacra Super1oris, pp. 89-90; Boehmer, Martin Luther, p. 83*

■^R. Bendixen, "Wenzeslaus Link," Zeitsohrlft fur Kirchllche Wlssensohaft und klrohllche Leben. VIII (1887)* 55 to Staupitz. At this time Staupitz needed someone faithful to him In the monastery that had actually opposed him on certain reform measures. It is not known whether or not Linck was prior continuously. He was still prior in 1512 when there was a trade of goods between the Augustinian cloister and the castle church. When he became dean for the second time in October, 151^* and when he wrote the letter requesting the aid of the Fiirstln von Anhalt, he held the same position. Probably he retained this position until he went to Munich in 1516 and Johann Lang became prior. Wenzeslaus Linck was prior and dean at Wittenberg during the time of Luther's critical theological de­ velopment with respect to justification. Unfortunately we do not have a clear picture of their relationship at this time, even though Luther was subprior from 1512. Since they were together every day, there is no written correspondence between them. We can assume, however, that a strong feeling of friendship and intellectual compatibility developed which continued during the rest of their lives. These early years of Linck represent a three-sided activity. This irrepressible monk was an active professor offering lectures, a prior oversselng the day-to-day problems of the monastery, and, most important for his later life, an enthusiastic preacher. He was now ready to bring greater honor to the order and gain wider influence by becoming a preacher in a secular surrounding. CHAPTER III

THE AUGUSTINIANS AND WENZESLAUS LINCK

Development of the German Augustinian Congregation

To understand the importance of the Augustlnlans

both to Linck and to the city of Niirnberg, one must know the history of the Augustinian order itself and particularly the German Augustinian Congregation. The Augustlnlans traced their spiritual lineage to Saint Augustine, though in reality the order began canonically in the thirteenth century. St. Augustine himself was one of the first to have the idea of gathering his clergy around him and practicing poverty and religious discipline. The rule of St. Augustine was taken from his works, but not made formal until the eighth and ninth centuries. It was adopted by a group of canons who followed the rule as it was more completely worked 1 out by St. Chrodegang.

^A.C. Shannon, "Augustlnlans," New Catholic Encyclo­ pedia. I (1967), 1071* Th. Koldd, Die deutsche Augustlner- Congregation und Johann von Staupitzt Eln Beltrag zur OTdens-und Reformatlonsgeschlohte nach melstens ungedruckten Quellen [Gotha. 1#79). Chapter I.

57 The followers of this rule became known as the Canons of St. Augustine. However, the term "canon" led to confusion. At the time of Augustine, the canons In the diocese of Hippo lived with their bishop in a community in the practice of monastic asceticism. These became known as canons regular. There were also canons who lived in their own churches and practiced neither community life nor monastic poverty. They were bound to their bishops by obedience but that did not often press veyy heavily upon them. Since they did not belong to a religious order and were part of the secular clergy, they were known as canons secular. The Augustinian canon chapters at first were independent of each other. Later they were united in a congregation which had its general chapter organized and its statues regularized in the decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and those of Pope Benedict XII In 1339* The plagues of the late Middle Ages kept the order from very rapid growth. The lack of efficient administration during the Babylonian Captivity caused a decline in discipline within the order. New efforts at reform were proposed by Cardinal Branda de Castiglione, John Bush, and Nicholas of Cusa but were not widely accepted. In the sixteenth century the Protestant 59 Reformation struck a fatal blow at the canons regular 2 of St. Augustine. The Hermits of St. Augustine, the monastic move­ ment which claimed Luther's, Staupitz's, and Linck's harts, dated from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Williamites, founded by William of Malval In 1155 near Pisa, and other mendicant groups with followers in Italy, Germany, Belgium, and Prance were brought together by the bull Licet Ecoleslae Catholioae on May 1256, by Alexander IV. This new order was called the Hermits of

St. Augustine and was exempted from episcopal jurisdiction. The constitution of the Augustinian Hermits regularized several variant groups who were living virtually the same kind of monastic life. They swore a special allegiance to the pope and were always close to him. This explains the absence of episcopal administration. One might summarize the objectives of their order as a striving for ’’unity of heart and mind in God, and life in common without personal possessions.The order did, as a necessity, however, hold property as a whole. The special constitution had an office of Superior General who was elected. The order at first was divided into

? Shannon, "Augustlnlans,” New . I, 1071. 3 Ibld. 6o

four : Italy, Spain, Prance, and Germany. As one can see, the title Hermits was not altogether appropriate, since as a united congregation they practiced a conventual life of monasticism and had their cloisters in the midst of towns and cities. At the time of great­ est prosperity, the order had forty-two provinces and two vicar generals with 3 0 ,0 0 0 members living in 2000 monasteries. It Is the German branch, however, that concerns the development of Wenzeslaus Linck. The German branch was united until 1 299* when it was subdivided into four areas: Rhenish-Swabian, Bavarian, Flemish, and Thuringian- Saxon. In 1419 the Observant Augustinian Hermits were organized in Saxony in an attempt to restore pristine observance of their rule. The Waldheim monastery where Linck had taken his vows had Joined with the Observantists and reformed its chapter in 1442."* The first reform in the Ntirnberg Augustinian convent started in 1420 when Heinrich Zolter and Prior Oswald Heinlein introduced the Observantist reforms.^ A second reform was carried out in 1434, and in 1436 a third reform was led by

- P. Cabrol, "Religious Orders," Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. by James Hastings, X (1926),705-6.

^Kolde, Augustlner-Congregatlon. pp. 75* 82-86,102-110. £ Julie Rosenthal-Metzger, "Oas Augustinerkloster in Nttrnberg," Mlttellungen des Verelns fur Geschichte der Stadt Ntirnberg. XXX (193l), 7?“Thereafter cited as MVGN). 61

Cardinal Julian of Siciiy.v The monastery then relaxed its discipline and in 1458 the city council of Nurnberg sent Konrad Eichelsteln to the general meeting of the Augustlnlans in Windshelm to complain personally about 7 the monastery.1 There were continual efforts in Germany to reform the order. Andreas Proles, who became vicar general of the German Augustlnlans for the first time in l46l, helped many German monasteries in their attempts at

reform. It was at this time that the city council of Nurnberg asked Proles to aid them in reforming the o local Augustinian monastery. This combination of secular and religious authority was so successful that the monastery subsequently became very influential.

The Influence of Johann von Staupitz

In 1503 Johann von Staupitz suaceeded Proles as head of the German Augustinian Congregation. Staupitz came from a noble family that lived near Leipzig. Though the date of his birth Is uncertain, it is known that he matriculated at the University of Leipzig in 1485• Later he studied at Cologne where he received his master's

^Rosenthal-Metzger, "Das Augustinerkloster," MVGN. XXX (1931), p. 78. Q Kolde, Augustlner-Congregatlon. p. 215* 62 degree in arts. In 1^97 he joined the Augustinian cloister at Tiiblngen, where he became prior the next year. After he had received his baccalaureus biblicus and sententiarius degrees, in 1510 at Wittenberg he re- Q ceived his licentiate and his doctorate.^ In 1502 while he was prior at Munich, Frederick the Wise called him to aid in founding the University of Wittenberg and to serve as the first dean of the theological faculty. His activities there and his in­ fluence on Luther are well-known, however, the larger portion of his time and energy was devoted to duties in­ volving his position as vicar general. As vicar general, Staupitz regularly visited the monasteries under his control and tried to continue the reforms of his predecessor Proles. In 1507 Staupitz, armed with a bull from the German papal legate, Cardinal Carvajal, started on the task of uniting the more than twenty monasteries in central Germany that hddrndt.been reformed with those that had united in the German Saxon Congregation. It was in this connection that Staupitz 10 first visited Niirnberg's monastery.

Q 7Kolde, Augus tlner-Congregatlon. p. 215; Ernest G. Schwiebert, "New Groups and Ideas at the University of Wittenberg." Archiv fUr Reformationsgeschichte. XLIX (1958), 62-63: °Kolde, Augustlner-Congregatlon. p. 235- 63 The cloister at Ntirnberg, called St. Vitus, was almost unbelievably large In size. Its great stretch of land was near the wine market. It moved there after the first cloister had burned, probably In 1 2 6. 5 In 1278 Bishop Hildebrand of Elchstatt consecrated the altar and the new church. In l*f?9 the nave was enlarged to hold the large crowds that attended services there. Only 11 the choir remained from the earlier building. The altar shrine was flanked by standing saints. The main altar screen was painted by Michael Wolgemut and donated by Sebald Peringsdorffer.^ The main part portrayed Mary between two saints. On the upper section of the right wing was a portrayal of the descent from the cross, including St. Bernard and Bishop Nicholas. The under part of this section pictured St. Christopher carrying the child Jesus. The upper section of the left wing showed Luke painting the Madonna, and the under section St. Sebastian.*3 When Willibald Pirckheimer died, a death monument was erected in front of the altar in the Ik choir, but it was probably destroyed with the church. An epitaph of the Perlngsdorffer family done by Adam

^Bosenthal-Metzger, "Augustinerkloster," MVGN, XXX (1931), 9- 12Ibld.. 3 7. 13Ibid., 3 6.

^Ibid., 61. 6k Krafft hung on the cloister wall.*5 Several of the windows had family crests, among them those of local patricians like Haller, Starch, Ntitzel, Behaim, Volckamer, Hars- 16 dorfer, Ldffelholz, Imhoff, and Pfinzing. The church showed by its very decoration that it was intricately involved in the life of the citizens of Ntirnberg. Staupitz*s arrival coincided with a local scandal involving the Benedictine prior, Johannes Hanlein. The city councilmen, many of whom attended mass at the Augustine monastery, were anxious to see a continuance of reforms within the city, as has been mentioned in Chapter One. Staupitz had the same aims, but his presence, armed as he was with the , indicated a threat to the council's efforts to attain local control of 17 the monasteries within the city's walls. Presumably only by the force of his personality was he able to persuade the city council to accept the bull of Carvajal. This concession shows not only Staupitz's ardor at reform, but also the genuine desire of the council for religious reform.

^5r o s enthal-Metzger, "Augustinerkloster," MVGN. XXX (193D, 62. l6Ibid., 7 5. 17 Paul Prlem, Geschiohte der Stadt Niirnberg. ed. by Emil Reicke (Ntirnberg, n. d.), pp. 1 7 2 , ?16} Friedrich Roth, Die Elnftihrung der Reformation in Ntirnberg. 1517-1528 (Wtirzburg, 16^5)• The citizens of Ntirnberg were so enchanted with

Staupitz that, when he returned the next autumn, they came in great crowds to hear him. After this visit he made long visitations to the Netherlands in 151^* to the lower Hhine and Belgium in 1516. Later in 1516 he re­ turned to Ntirnberg with Wenzeslaus Linck as his 18 companion. Staupitz preached again, this time a series of popular sermons. The self-proclaimed Cicero of Ntirnberg,

Christoph Scheurl, reported to Luther, "In the five years in which I have served my native city no man has been shown the same kind of honor by such sincere friends. The whole Burgertum awaited his (Staupitz's) return. At the same time it was for the great glory of our 19 order." On January 22, 1517* Scheurl reported to the Augustinian, Kaspar Gtittel:

. . . Without doubt you have heard about the size of the crowds of people to whom the friendly Doctor Staupitz has preached here. . . . Everyone, every family loves and honors him. The optlmates consider it an honor to be his friend. . . .Therefore he regrets only one thing— the smallness of your church*2

*®Franz von Soden and J.K.F. Knaake, ed..Christoph Scheurl*s Brlefbuch: Eln Beltrag zur Geschlchte der Reformation und lhrer Zelt (Aalen, 1 962), II, 1; Kolde, Augustlner-Congregatlon. pp. 226, 230, 235* 2^2, 257• *^Scheurl, Brlefbuch. II, 1. 20Ibid.. II, 6 The semon most often referred to in these eulogies is one in which Staupitz repudiated for the first time Justification by good works. His basic message was that man cannot do good works, but only God. God works within man to achieve good works. Thus he preached a message of inner spirituality and practical piety. In this sermon, he started his own religious revival in Nurnberg and created a wide following. A circle of prominent Ntirnbergers was formed in his honor and later was continued by Wenzeslaus Linck. It is astonishing, and certainly illustrates the spirit of the times, that a preacher could in such a short time silence opposition, win the adoration of the people, and become the center 21 of attention on the part of the educated patricians. The people seemed attracted by his mysticism, that is, his view that God is accessible at all times to all those with receptive hearts. Salvation was not necessarily within the sacramental system alone or in merits and good works. Staupitz lessened the importance of the institution of the church and the power of the clergy. Such a view coincided with that of the humanists who tended to be both anticlerics and Christian moralists.

21 Adolf Engelhardt, "Die Reformation in Nurnberg," MVGN. XXXIII (1936), 25. The Advent sermon Is contained in Alfred Jeremias, Johann von Staupitz: Luthers Vater und Schuler (Berlin, 1950), pp. 161-171. The humanists like Pirckhelmer and Spengler, who read widely in the church fathers, tended to accept such a mystical view. Mysticism, preached in this form, con­ firmed the benefits of individual study and contemplation. By a life of piety, the heart is prepared to welcome God. This mystical view of Staupitz was an important long step from the prevalent view of salvation based upon a system of good works and merits. In this sense, it was preparatory for Luther and Linck. Because of this new emphasis upon mysticism, the Augustlnlans held a special position in the spiritual development of Nurnberg, and indeed of all Germany. Their most important contribution was a non-scholastic, but highly intellectual message, exemplified by these early sermons of Staupitz. Their sermons appealed to the townsmen while those of the mendicant preaching orders were ignored and even ridiculed because of their 22 emotionalism. Within an Augustine monastery, there was only one preacher (regardless of its size)• The office,

22 Wilhelm Reiridell, Doktor Wenzeslaus Linck aus Coldltz 1483-1547. Nach ungedruckten und gedruckten Quellen dargestellt: First Part. Bis zur reformatorlsohen Thatlg- kelt in Altenburg; Mlt Blldnls und elnem Anhang enthaltend die zugehorlgen Documents 1485-15^2 (Marburg. 1892), p. 57 j Florenz Lanmann, Das Predlgtweser in Westfalen in der letzten Zelt des Mlttelalters (vorreformatlonsgeschlchte Forschungen, ed. Heinrich Finke, Vol. I) (Miinster, 1900), pp. 27-39. For Luther’s background of mysticism see: Richard Henry Krebs, "Young Luther’s Mysticism," (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Dept, of History, The Ohio State University). therefore, received special emphasis and was crucial to reforms# It was the direct policy of Andreas Proles* reforms of the Ohservantist Congregation, continued by Staupltz, to encourage able monks to obtain special religious training. The support of the University of Wittenberg was an extension of this policy. No doubt it was aided by the fact that the Augustinians had a considerable number of monks from either the or the upper middle class. They were, for the most part, men who already had special education and could, * with further training, become effective preachers. They gained such fame as a preaching order that Caritas Pirckheimer, reflecting upon the Heformation, said that the Augustinians were the beginning of all 23 the misfortunes of the church. ^ In the process of reforming their order, the Augustinians turned to the study of the Bible and the furthering of their education. Because of their rigorous discipline, they did not feel responsible for the corruption of the church. They preached for a religious reformation while remaining within the Institution of the church itself, and they saw no 2U contradiction In this.

^Gerald Strauss, Nuremberg In the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1966), p. 177• Oh c^Kolde, Augustlner-Congregatlon. pp. 99, 102, 10**, 1 1 0, 153. The Augustinians were not alone in their increased interest in preaching. Preaching had been a tradition of the Franciscans and the Dominicans since the Middle Ages. These orders continued their efforts during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Those critical of their style of preaching, like Llnck, called them the chief purveyors of superstitions, legends, and the carrying of the adoration of Mary to extremes. Erasmus' Praise of Folly demonstrates some of the best attacks against these abuses. Preaching, at this time, became popular and was often practiced by roving monks or defrocked monks known as olerlcl vagi, vagabundl. gollardl. questlonaril. eberhardlnl. or begardl. In England those who played the game for all the traffic 25 would bear were called pardoners. The prevalence of criticism against these men and the thousands of sermons that exist for the second half of the fifteenth century alone prove the importance and the extent of the preaching being done. The century was developing a rising, literate, middle-class audience, hungry not only for the food of the ancients rediscovered by the humanists, but also for the word of God, Perhaps intentionally or perhaps

2^Elmer Carl Kiessling, The Barly Sermons of Luther and their Relations to the Pre-Reformation Sermon (Mloh- igan, 1935)* p. 24. 70 in a subconscious reaction to the times, the leaders of the Augustinians promoted the education of their monks in . The rapidity of the change and of its acceptance is seen by the attempts of the Niirnberg city council to find another Augustlnian to preach to their citizens when Llnck left his position there in 1520. 0 Although other orders were involved in preaching, only in the Augustlnian order had the office of preacher become one of such importance that a preacher received a special commission from the vicar general himself. It was his duty to select the monks to be sent out as preachers. Staupitz needed someone to help relieve him of some of his duties in southern Germany and the choice fell upon Wenzeslaus Llnck.

Llnck and the Sodalltas

As a part of his responsibility as an Augustlnian, Wenzeslaus had served as the preacher in the monastery church at Wittenberg. Undoubtedly he had early been selected as one of those destined to lead the order, for he had been returned to the University of Wittenberg to complete his education. At Wittenberg he had served as dean of the school, prior of the monastery,

^Reindell, Llnck. pp. 260-262. 71 professor of theology and philosophy and, to complete his training, he was noto to embark on a career as a preacher in a monastery In the city. He left Witten­ berg in 1516 with the intention of going to live in Munich, at least this is what all of his friends believed.^ In November, 1516, Llnck and Staupltz stopped in NUmberg on their way to Munich and did not leave until after Christmas. By this time, apparently, Llnck*s future plans were changed. Though he did take a trip to Munich with Staupitz and a visitation trip with Nicholas Belser to Colberg, he was to remain in Niirnberg. In March, 1517. he took up residence in the city that was to be his home for most of the rest of 28 his life. By the summer of 1517. Linck was settled and had made friends with the humanist circle, called the Sodalltas. Soon it changed from the Sodalltas Staupltzlanl to the Sodalltas Llnokiana. With this, the circle changed from a group that sought to fulfill its own religious needs to a group that actively pushed for 29 reform.

Martin Luther, Luther* s Works. ed. by Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann TPhiladelhla, 1959) XlvIII, 31j Kolde.Augustlner-Congregation. pp.213, 297. 309. 2 8 Reindell, Llnck. p. 4-8. ^Scheurl, Briefbuch I, 3 6, letter 1591 II. 4-2. 72 The membership of this group is well-known and a mere mentioning of their names demonstrates their importance. Chri&toph Scheurl was the legal advisor to the city and later took part in the debate of the Reformation in NUmberg. His friendship with the Augustinians dated from the time he taught law at the 3° University of Wittenberg. Willibald Pirckheimer was a patron of the arts and, with Lazarus Spengler (the secretary to the city council), was excommunicated with Luther. Other members were Wolfgang Volprecht, the prior of the Augustlnian cloister, and George Behaim, provost at the church of St. Lawrence. The city's two Losunger, Anton Tucher and Hieronymus Ebner, were members. Hieronymus Holzschuher, immoralized by a DUrer portrait, and Kaspar Ntitzel were members both of the city council and the Sodalltas. Representing the artisan class was Albrecht Durer. The members of the Sodalltas led Nurnberg during the Reformation and their ideas were shaped in part by Llnck during this period. Linck's first printed sermon was preached on Palm Sunday,. March 28, 1518. He attacked the

^°Ludwlg Pranz Soden, Beltrage zur Gesohichte der Reformation und der Sitten dener Zelt mlt besonder Elnbllck auf Christopf Scheurl (Nurnberg. 1855)• 73 traditional practices which were based on formalism, pleading for reform of practices so that a life of Christian contemplation could be combined with a practical life, ethically lived. Since his message appealed to the humanist and the townsman, he became very popular in Nurnberg. Hee was also becoming more involved in the Luther controversy as he took an active part in the Heidelburg disputation and the meeting of Cajetan and Luther at Augsburg in 1518. To buttress the courage of the humanist group in the dark days after the Augsburg meeting when seemingly all feared that the reform would end before it began, Linck preached a series of thirty sermons on the seven beatitudes. These were printed the next 31 year and became a storehouse of early Reformation ideas.

Llnck*s Later Life

Linck attended the in 1519* He was soon plunged into the midst of the Reformation when he replaced Staupitz as the vicar general in 1520. Placed in a delicate position, he remained true to Luther and at the same time to his responsibility to

-^Wenzeslaus Linck, Eln Hailsame lere wle das hertz Oder gewlssen durch die Siben Sellgheyt als slben Sewlen des geystllchen bawes auf das Wort Gottes gebauet wlrdt (Nurnberg, 1519)• the Augustinians. He began a long series of visitations in order to improve the Augustinians. During the period 1520-1521 he visited sixty-six monasteries in Germany and the Netherlands. As he traveled, he became more and more concerned with the problem of monks leav­ ing the cloister. In this, as in most important decisions in his life, he asked Luther's advice. Following Luther's suggestion, Linck convened a chapter meeting at Wittenberg and established six propositions which, in effect, stated that each monk might decide in the light of his own conscience and according to Christ­ ian liberty whether to stay or leave the monastery. He thought this to be a moderate position, but it meant that the Augustlnian cloister began to empty.^ Because of the ensuing difficulties, Linck re­ signed as vicar general and took a commission from Frederick the Wise. He was to take the Gospel to Altenburg, a city of seven thousand with a castle of the elector and numerous churches and monasteries. The citizens took a large share of the daily responsibil­ ities of the city. Linck began to build an evangelical

■^Letter of Luther to Linck, Dec. 20, 1521 in Luther, Luther's Work. XLVIII, 357-59* letter 110j Wenueslaus Linck, "Beschlusse der Augustlner auf dem Kapitel fcu W111e n b gy ^ intedein -'

Lent in 1523* he gave communion in both kinds to his parishioners. In 152*1- he performed a baptism service in German, a practice which soon became very popular. Most of all he was a popular preacher sought after by the citizens. His friendship with Luther continued, and Luther performed the wedding ceremony for Linck on April 23* 1523* This festive affair was attended by Melanchthon, Justus Jonas, Hieronymus Schurf, Bugenhagen, the Augustlnian prior Brlsger, Jacob Probst, Joachim Camerarlus, Hieronymus Krappe, and Lucas Cranach. All were protected from the irate monks by armed citizens.^

In 1525 Linck received a call from the city council of Niirnberg to come to that city. He was re-

33 "^Hermann Wilhelm Caselmann, "Wenzeslaus Link's Leben fiir christliche Leser ingemein aus den Quellen erzahlt," Das Leben der Altvater der lutherischen Klrche. ed. by Moritz flfenurer (Leipzig and Dresden, I863), p. 357. ^Ibid., p. 388. 76 placed in Altenburg by Spalatin. As a sign of affection, Llnck received a goblet from the elector as a farewell gift. 35 It Is Indicative of the changes taking place In Germany that Llnck was Invited to Niirnberg by the city council itself. He received two hundred gulden a year as a salary, but the council could not decide to which church to assign him. At first he preached at St. 36 Catherine’s and then moved to the New Hospital Church.-5 He became a popular preacher, especially with children, for he reinstituted special services for them. He received many gifts from the city council and had constant guests since Niirnberg was an important cross­ roads . Linck became involved in a complicated; controversy with George of Saxony in 1528. Linck received a letter from Luther in which Luther said many things about the Duke that were not politic. Linck read at least part of this letter from the chancel of his church. The news spread, and a friend carried the gossip to the Duke. His emissary, Thomas von der Halden, arrived in Niirnberg with instructions to uncover the facts in the

^Caselmann, Link, p. 393* Ibid., p. 394; George Lohlein, "Die Grundungsur- kunde des Niimberger Heilig-Geistspital von 1339 »'* MVGN LII (1963-64), 65-79. 77 case. Linck again mollified everyone concerned, but he failed to produce the letter. Christoph Scheurl Invited Llnck to dinner, asked to see the letter, and immed­ iately turned it over to Hal den. The news returned to 37 Linck, who got the letter back and burned it. Tired of this kind of bickering, Linck felt that he should accept a position at Zwickau. As further proof of the esteem in which he was held by the city council, it directed Kaspar Niitzel and Hans Reiter to write Llnck, convincing him of the council's appreciation

and directing him to refuse the proffered position.^® When Duke George died in 1539* his successor Heinrich opened the door to the Reformation. Melanchthon wrote that Heinrich wanted Linck to come to Leipzig and Melanchthon advised him to accept. As usual Llnck asked the advice of Luther. Luther said that this was a most difficult decision, but that he would advise him to hold on to what was known and let the unknown go. So Linck remained. As a result, he was again honored by the city council, received fifty gulden as a gift of appreciation and eight gulden a year as refund on his indirect tax. He also received from the Waldheim

^Caselmann, Link, pp. ^0^-5. 38 Letter of Melanchthon to Linck, June 11, 1539* and reply in , Corpus Reformation, ed. by Carolus Gottlieb Bretschneider (Halle, 1^3^)* III* 719, 720. monastery thd three hundred gulden his mother had given as an endowment. He was not a poor man. In fact, he 39 often sent gifts to Luther and his father-in-law. In 1540 Linck traveled to Hagenau and Worms, renewing old friendships with Melanchthon and Amsdorf and meeting . His last days were spent preparing for publication his most comprehensive work, an annotation of the Old Testament with an introduction

by Luther. Unfortunately with the approach of old age, Linck began to have family troubles. His son Solomon caused him much grief, especially since he was not doing well at the University of Wittenberg. Also his old friends began to die. He had a last letter from Luther saying, "pray for me for a blessed farewell. I am tired and 41 have not the power to do more." On January 16, 1545, Spalatin died. On February 18, 1546, Luther died. The Schmalkaldic war had started and Linck's last acts were to write prayers to be said daily during those difficult

-^Caselmann, Link, pp. 420-422. Zio Wenzeslaus Linck, Das Erst Teyl des alten Testa­ ments; Annotation in die fdnff~*bucher Mosi, intro, by Martin Luther istrassburg. 1543): Das ander Tevl des alten Testaments: von Josua bis Hlob (Strassburg, 15h4; Das drltt Teyl des alten Testaments, von Jesala bis Maleachl (Strassburg, T54i>). 41 Martin Luther, Dr. Martin Luthers Sammtllche Schrif ten, ed. by John George Walch (St. Louis, 1904-), XXI b col. 3062. 79 times. On March 12, 15^7* he died and was buried in 42 St. John*s cemetery.

42 Caselmann, Link, pp. 426-427. CHAPTER IV

LINCK*S TECHNIQUES OP PREACHING

Change from Scholasticism

The Augustinians emphasized new educational methods and preaching as has been shown in the lives of Luther, Llnck, and Staupitz. This chapter will analyze Linck*s message and illustrate the reasons for its ready acceptance by his audience. Preaching at Llnck*s time was so popular that good preachers attracted large audiences and good sermons were published in large numbers. In Westphalia, from 1378 to 1517* the sermons of seventy known preachers and an equal number of anonymous preachers have been collected. Throughout Europe there exist similar editions of sermons, both printed and In i incunabala. Thus preaching had Indeed become popular. Quite often the monks moved the pulpit into the nave,

1 Florenz Landmann, Das Predlgtwesen in Westfalen in der letzten Zelt des Mlttelalters (Vorreformatlons- geschichte Forschungen, ed. by Heinrich Finke, Vol. I) (Munster, 1900), pp. 3-26j Elmer Carl Kiessling, The Early Sermons of Luther and their Relations to the Pre-Reformation Sermon (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1935)* p. 17. See also Harold Grimm, Martin Luther as a Preacher (Columbus, Ohio, 1929) and "Luther and “ Education," Luther and Culture (Decorah, Iowa, i960), pp. 73-1^2. 80 81 2 as was done In the Augustlnian monastery in Nurnberg. Sometimes the pulpit was raised above the altar as a symbol of the importance attached to preaching. Examples of this latter are prevalent in the churches of the

Bayreuth-Ansbach area. If the older type of sermon was a panegyric of the saints' lives or was a highly complicated sermon given by scholastic theologians for other theologians, then the major reform introduced in the sixteenth century by the Augustinians was to change preaching to a form of education. The new preachers attempted to reach people in various ways, and they often used parts of the new rising popular culture, music, drama, poetry, and art as vehicles for dissemination of Reformation doctrines. As Harold Grimm pointed out, "It is particularly by means of the sermon that Luther practiced 3 what today would be called adult education.The preachers spoke to illiterates as well as literate church members, and they needed to develop a new style that would appeal to both. Linck said that preaching was a type of spiritual feeding on the Word of God for

2 Julie Rosenthal-Metzger, "Das Augustinerkloster in Nurnberg," Mlttellungen des Verelns ftir Geschlchte der Stadt Nurnberg. XXX fT931). 29 (hereafter cited as mvgn~T* 3 Grimm, Luther and Culture, p. 95* consolation and sustenance of the conscience.^ These new sermons were highly ethical In tone and represent a new emphasis on kerygma. or the proclamation of the

Word.'* The pulpit served as an important medium for the transmission of information to all kinds of people. In this sense by necessity preachers spoke to and of the popular culture of the time. As Llnck said, preaching was for "general advice and knowledge of learning1' because it serves for the "furthering of truth and general peace." To Linck preaching implemented the purposes of the humanists and, in a certain sense, the whole of the Renaissance, by preaching a "pious under­ standing" so that people can witness to the "light of truth."7 Linck saw preaching as a part of the whole of the Christian program. In his first major work, entitled A Christian Teaching, he defined the first object of a sermon as education, as teaching how lL Wenzeslaus Llnck, "Homiletische Betrachtung der Versuchungsgeschichte Ifitt. IV, 1-11," Wenzel Lineks Werke, collected edited and provided with an introduction by Wilhelm Reindell (Marburg, 189*0* P» 219 (hereafter cited as Linck, Werke). ^Grimm, Luther and Culture, p. 96. ^Linck, "Vierzig Artikel," Werke. p. 1**7.

7Ibid. "you should live." Second, the preacher should give "proclamation of what you should seek and want." Third, the purpose of the sermon was to give "comfort and promise of redemption in which the individual could find rest."® At the time of Luther and Linck, the preacher usually appeared in the pulpit dressed in a cassock and surplice with a biretta on his head.^ He began his sermon with a short silent prayer, during which he removed his cap, and then, after crossing himself, he greeted the congregation. He recited his text and theme in , though Luther and Linck usually translated these immediately into German. Next in the order of church service was a prayer, usually the Ave Marla, then a reading or a reciting of the Gospel, and then the exordium, or introduction to the sermon. After this the preacher delivered the sermon proper. In contrast to the beginning, the end of the sermon was usually abrupt, since the intercession, prayer, and announce­ ments followed as an integral part of the sermon.10

8 Wenzeslaus Llnck, Bln Hallsame lere wle das hertz oder gewlssen durch die siben sellgkeyt: als slben sewlen des geystilohenn bawess auff das wort gottes gebauet wlrdt (Niirnberg, 1519), Introduction. ^Kiessling, The Early Sermons. p. 29.

l0Ibid 84 Linck, however, usually gave a short summary of his sermon as a conclusion. Luther, on the other hand, very early omitted the introduction, or exordium, and leaped directly into his subject.11 The duration of the sermon was one hour, but this included the beginning and the closing with the announcements. Actually the sermon Itself lasted twenty to thirty minutes. Linck*s published sermons often were only four or five pages long, or approximately twenty minutes in length. If his theme needed more amplification, he merely divided the topic and preached a series of sermons on it. At Wittenberg the ministers preached three sermons each Sunday, the first early in the morning, on Paul's Eolstles. the second at nine o'clock, on the Gospels, and the one in the afternoon, on the catechism or as a 12 continuation of the Sunday morning sermon. Usually these conformed to the pericope texts, the regular schedule of Bible verses for the sermons. Since many of Luther's sermons were copied by men like Justus Jonas who heard them, many more pericope sermons are found in collections of his works than in Linck's.

n Martin Luther, Luther's Works, edited by Jaroslav Pellkan and Helmut T. Lehmann ^Philadelphia, 1959)» LI,xvi. 12Grimm, Luther and Culture, p. 96. 85 Since Linck usually published his sermons on request, most of the extant copies are his expanded publications, Linck decided in 1526 that people could not listen well on a full stomach, so he gave his major sermon before the Sunday meal. The city council agreed, and 13 this reform became generally accepted in Niirnberg. Although Luther preached every day in the week, there Is little evidence that Linck followed his ex­ ample in this. There is extant, however, a series of thirty dally Advent sermons, and during Lent he gave regular children's sermons, a practice he reintroduced at the Holy Ghost Church in 1526.^ He probably preached fifty-two Sunday sermons a year, about forty on various holidays, thirty in Advent, and forty during Lent. In all, Linck educated, proclaimed the Word, and inspired the people 160 times a year. Since he often preached to literate men like Spengler, Pirckhelmer, and Scheurl, his message had to challenge, entertain, and have an Impact upon them. He undoubtedly spent much time in preparing his sermons. The early sermons of Linck were often still scho­ lastic in form. Within scholasticism there was a tendency

13 ^Hermann Wilhelm Caselmann, "Wenzeslaus Link's Leben fiir christliche Leser ingemeln aus den Quellen erzahlt," Das Leben der Altvater der lutherlsohen Klrche. ed. by Moritz Meurer (Leipzig and Dresden, 1863), P« 397 (Hereafter cited as Caselmann, Link). ih Xbld.. p. 396. to make infinitesmal distinctions and subdivisions, a reduotio ad absurdum. Linck often made this kind of artificial divisions. For example, he said there were three types of peacemakers: first, the pacatl or the peaceful; second, the patlentes. or the patient; and 15 third, the frledmacher. the peacemakers. ^ Often in his early sermons he used extended allegories. In his Bselspredigt he subdivided all men into three artificial categories, continuing his metaphor for Palm Sunday. The first group he compared with Noah, the “prelate" who extends to his people the branches of the good teaching and example of Christ; the second with Daniel, the contemplative man who walks beside Christ and spreads out the cloak under Him; and third with Job, the person who spread under Him the cloaks of temporal goods by practice of mercy. After dwelling on this means of beatification, Linck arrived at his main message. A fourth path of beatification exists, one open to all: Each of us may become the simple ass and carry the burden of Christ.^ The examples he used were artificial and merely demonstrated his knowledge. His allegories were figures

15 ^Linck, Eln Hallsame lere, Sermon 28.

*^Linck, ,,Eselspredigt,,, Werke. pp. 4— 10. 87 used to discover divir$; truth. His artificial sub­ divisions provided these factual examples and allegories as visions of divine truth. But he always showed such high ethical sincerity that his humanist listeners must have overlooked these remnants of scholasticism in

their approval of his total message. The scholastic formulas tied the preacher to far-fetched examples that took on a naive quality when delivered orally. In a sermon on greed, Linck used three as a motif running through the entire work. He used the the three friends of Job to illustrate the three volupt­ uousnesses of the world. These were further explained by the gifts of the three who symbolized love of God, hope, and faith. Evil, he pointed out, scorned the demands of God in three ways. He explained how the did not accept the salvation of God for three generations. In a parable concerning threes, he inter­ preted the three obstructions to the reception of the seed of the divine Word. The average person attending church services today could not well remember illustrations 17 or the inner relationships of the various examples. f While still making use of some prevalent scholastic forms, Linck, actually, even in his early

l^Linck, Sin Hallsame lore, Sermon 2. 88 sermons, searched for a simple homiletic style, a more direct sermon. Like Luther, he disregarded the alle­ gorical, tropological, and the anagogical for the

literal interpretation of the Bible, thus giving a simpler message. By 1523* without pedantic rhetoric, he was able to tell a simple story to illustrate the name of faith and to demonstrate how salvation is found 18 only in Christ. This direct homily is a good example of his technique of preaching. He was not interested in an exhaustive, textual exposition of the individual texts or verses, but rather in the general story. This

sign post pointed the way to what was for him the great central fact of Christianity: faith in Christ.*9 Nevertheless, Linck often continued to use, even in his later sermons, the mechanicl device of zum ersten. zum anderen. zum dritten, etc. In one sermon he reaches the number twenty-nine, far beyond the old story of the Puritan preacher who is supposed to have announced, 20 "and now to be brief, I will say eighteenthly." Similar to Luther, Linck was under the Influence 21 of scholasticism until 1521, when he tried to abandon IS------Wenzeslaus Linck, "Homiletische Betrachtung der Geschlchte vom kananaischen Weib Mtt. XV, 21-28," Werke. pp. 206-212. ■^Compare with Kiessling, The Early Sermons. p. 62. 20 J. Neale, Medieval Preachers (London, 1856), p. lxvll. 21 Luther, Luther's Works. LI, xvi. the scholastic structure entirely and construct a thematic organization to his works. He fought against the form­ alism of his training, with the encouragement of the humanists in his congregation who criticized the formal­ ized church practices of the time. For example, in his very first published sermon in Nurnberg, the "Eselspredigt," referred to above, he inveighed against the fetish-like procession on Good Friday, a practice which was for- 22 bidden by the city council in 1525* There are many examples of Linck*s separation from traditional scholasticism. The one that ties him most closely to the humanists in Niirnberg is his usage of Neoplatonic ideas. Although these are never a major theme, his sermons show one of the strong religious currents of his day and how he tried to communicate with his audience. In calling Christ the architect, he followed the same example used by Pico Mirandola in "The 23 Oration on the Dignity of Man." J In another typical sermon, Christ is the cornerstone into which the two walls are closed and fused, 2k a Neoplatonic concept of

22Caselmann, Link, pp. 3k2-k6. 23 Linck, Eln Hallsame lere. Sermon lj for a longer discussion of Neoplatonism see Paul Oskar Kristeller, The Philosophy of Marsillo Flolno. trans. by Virginia Conant 2k (Gloucester, Mass., 196^) (first published in 19^3)* Linck, Eln Hallsame lere. Sermon 2. 90 Christ as a mediator between the spiritual and the material. In the same series of sermons Linck described the "four degrees that men climb toward God."2-* Many of these Neoplatonic ideas, if not derived from, were at least supported by, his friend, Willibald Plrckhelmer, who was Interested in such concepts. Plrckhelmer con­ sidered Plato as one of those who "brought truth to light1' and used^lato as an authority for the knowledge of God.26 However, mysticism had a far greater influence upon Linck than Neoplatonism. One of the major streams of influence upon Linck, as well as Luther and Staupitz, was the mysticism the Augustinians had inherited through the works of St. Bernard of Clalrvaux. The works of St. Bernard and St. Augustine were important counter­ balances to scholasticism, and Linck was especially in­ fluenced by St. Bernard. His first printed sermon was dedicated to him.2? He saw St. Augustine and St. Bernard as the two armed witnesses of God's message who are in 28 accord with reason. He used the example of a beautiful,

25 “ Linck, Sin Hallsame lere. Sermon 26. 2^Paul Drews, Willibald Plrkhelmers Stellung zur Reformation. Eln Beltrag zur Beurtellung des Verhaltnlsses zwlschen Humanlsmus und Reformation (Leipzig. 1887). p. 37. 2?Linck, "Eselspredigt,11 Werke. p. 6. 2®Linck, Eln Hallsame lere. Introduction. 91 pleasant garden as did St. B e r n a r d . St. Augustine's example of living stones is also found in his sermons. The ancient church fathers, Gregory, Jerome, Boniface, and Chrysostum served Linck as sources of inspiration. For him these became a buttress against the invocation and adoration of saints, a practice ex­ tremely rare in his works. He used St. Anne as a good example, but the home church at Wittenberg was dedicated to her. In most cases when he did write about the saints, he was critical and said that through the in­ vocation of saints the kitchens of the monasteries were filled, the bellies of the monks were fattened, and God was deprived of his honor.31 There is only one beatlfier and intercessor between God and man, He Who gave Him- 32 self for the salvation of all men. In the Bible much was written about the memory of dead saints, but no­ thing about the invocation and intercession of them.?3 Man must follow Christ's example and not the example of the saints, because from each saint comes a different example.^

2^Linck, Eln Hallsame lere. Sermon 18. 3°Ibid.. Sermon 1. 31 Linck, "Von Anrufung der Heillgen; Von Fiirbitte und Messe," Werke. p. 126. 32 Ibid., p.-227. 33Ibld. 3^Ibld.. p. 128. 92 Sometimes Linck used the saints as humorous ex­ amples. "St. Margareta played with the devil like a little child with a little bird."3^ "St. Lawrence went to his martyrdom as to a weddlmg."3^ Usually Llnck grouped stories of the saints with pagan stories, as when he said, the "heathen poets wrote of great deeds and wars, for kings and , but these are but love stories (buelhlstorlen) and th$s there is no need to

tell them."3? Linck changed the former emphasis of sermons and the source for his materials was almost solely the Bible. He quoted the New Testament more than the Old. The Epistles of St. Paul and the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke supplied more examples than any other book. Prom the Old Testament he quoted most from the prophets, especially Isaiah and Jeremiah. The Psalms received much of his attention and he published a para­ phrase of all one hundred and fifty of them.3®

35wenzeslaus Linck, Ein niitzllcher Sermon aus dem zehenden oapltel Luce: Was das beste sey Oder des menschen sellgkelt (Nttraberg. 1536) • 36Ibid. 3?Linck, "Homiletische Betrachtung des kananaischen Weib," Werke. p. 2l4.

3®Wenzeslaus Linck, Kurtz Summarla Oder aussziige der Psalmen was elnem yden nemen und die zu werke zlhen muge (n.p.« 1527). 93 He quoted the first five books of the Old Testament as background for Jewish customs and laws. He also often used apocryphal literature like The Wisdom of Israh. He used Revelation as the fount of most of his mystical number examples. In addition, he used one final authority to replace the methods of scholasticism and the lives of the saints, Martin Luther himself.^

Innovations and Figures of Speech

Linck faced problems on his arrival in Numberg. He had to preach sermons that would hold the attention of his Augustinian brothers who were interested in edu­ cation. His sermons had to be polished enough to re­ tain the interest of the humanists in the Sodalltas of Staupitz. In addition he had to appeal to the practical and ethical minds of Tucher, Ebner, and Lazarus Spengler of the city council. Merely to proclaim the Word of God and not communicate in the language of the townsmen would have led to failure. liQ The townsman represented a newly developed culture with its own system of ethics, ennobling honor, diligence,

•^Linck, "Von der Steurpflicht der Geistlichen und Klosterleute: Sin Sermon liber Mtt. XXII, 15-22,*' Werke, P. 297. iLQ Harold J • Grimm, "The Relations of Luther and Melanchthon with the Townsmen," Luther und Melanchthon. ("Heferate und Berichte des Zweiten Intematlonalen Kongresses") (Gottingen, 1961), p. ^6. 9/f and practical Industry* Linck had to make his message meaningful to townsmen, had to preach a polished sermon agreeable to the humanists, and had to have such a wide­ spread appeal that he could reach the educated artisan class represented by such men as Albrecht Durer or the mass of men who were influenced by Hans Sachs. Linck in Nurnberg, like Luther, Bugenhagen, and Spalatin in other places, had to meet a new challenge and thus developed new tools to use in preaching. This develop­ ment armed the Reformation with new weapons and helps to explain why the reformers were able to have their messages accepted by such a wide range of followers. Linck presented smooth sermons which followed logi­ cal order and contained well-turned phrases in order to please and titllate humanists like Pirckheimer. To do this he used few rhetorical devices, because these would have spoiled the ethical sincerity of his town. In fact, the humanists appreciated this new ethical sincerity. Pirckheimer wanted a change in preaching and defended it when he said that "there are certain limited and anxious spirits who in despair claim that we cannot discover or explain truth clearer than our LI ancestors did."

Willibald Pirckheimer, Opera polltlca. historica, phllologlca et eplstolloa. etc., collected by Johannes Imhoff and edited by Melchior Goldast (Frankfort, 1610), p. 222. 95 Linck had few florid passages and his studied

effects made his analogies more effective and simple. His vigorous German appealed to all classes of society and avoided the limited, flowery style of pedantry. He tried to appear folksy and used homely or local sayings. When he wanted to communicate on humility, he used an example from the tanner, “as when a hide is well-tanned, it becomes pliable, in the same way, If the heart is

JLO very humiliated, it becomes gentle.” To explain the importance of humility to the housewife, he explained that you need "to clean the bowl before putting ointment in it."^3 When he talked about justification by faith

alone replacing good works, he pointed out that man must still work, using the following homely example: "'t think when you hear that one should live without care, you should be idle and wait until a roasted £f4 pigeon flies into your mouth." He put across his point of the necessity of a good conscience for mental health by speaking of "the old wife who spends all her money on doctors in vain," which probably got a chuckle from his audience. When he complained against disobedience

42 Linck, Eln Hailsame lere. Sermon 16. ^Ibid., Sermon 13* ^Llnck, "kananaischen Weib," Werke. p. 215* ^5wenzeslaus Linck, "Das Wort Gottes der allein bestandige Pels des christlichen Vertrauens: Ein Sermon iiber Euc. 1, 17*" Werke. p. 117. of God he said, "just look how loosely God's words stuck in her (Eve's) heart. She honored it like a 46 playful tale from a fool's law." To explain how sin passed from man to man he said it was the same as when 47 you get dirty by rubbing against an old kettle. 1 The spiritual realm was visualized as "a fence around a zoo."

Linck used the popular language of his times and filled his sermons with coiloqualisms like "idleness blows on 49 50

46 Linck, "Das Wort Gottes," Werke. p. 120.

^Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 164. 48 * Linck, "Von der Steuerpfllcht," Werke. p. 298. ^Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 157. ^°Linck, "Von der Steuerpfllcht," Werke. p. 295*

5lIbid., p. 2 9 9. 52 Ibid.. p. 294. (alt und kalt). Sometimes he used internal rhymes eh like "Liebe und Priede'* to maintain the flow of the sermon. Periodically the rhythm of his speech took the form of Saxon dialect. When written this quality is obscured. Orally "llegen. trlegen. leiichlen (Sic. leuoheln)11 ^5 in Saxon dialect has a lilting rhythm that is lost in the written version. There are too many of these examples throughout his work for it to be other than a conscious intent to enliven his sermons for his congregation. Occasionally to reinforce his moral, he used ex­ amples from fables. He once retold the story of Marcolfo in which, although the cat was trained to hold the light when they were eating, from nature and the force of habit, she threw the light down to go after a mouse.^ This becomes a charming illustration on the nature of man. When Linck used tales from antiquity, they were never obtuse references intended only for humanists or theologians, but rather simple stories like those 57 concerning Romulus and the beginning of or Apollo.

^Linck, "Das Wort Gottes," Werke, p. 115. -^Linck, "Von der Steuerpfllcht," Werke. p. 299. Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 16^. ^Linck, "Der christliche Adel," Werke. p. 280. 57 Linck, Sin Hallsame lere. Sermon 2. 58 Linck, "Von Anrufung der Heiligen," Werke. p. 126 98 Such simple and forceful stories from fables or from pagan sources indicate his method and technique, but he took from the Bible its rich visual language. For example, from the Genesis story of the expulsion from the garden he used the simile of "thistles and thorns shall it bear for you and you shall eat the herbs of the earth"^ for the hardness of. life that the people to whom he spoke knew so well. Linck used everyday language which may seem vulgar today, but was rather common to the people to whom he preached. He compared the conscience to thin paper which drinks in ink, and if one "wants to scrape it off, one cuts the paper to pieces before one can get rid of the writing."^0 He told his congregation one must "weed"^* out sin. Sin became a spot or blemish which had to be washed off with water or lye or, if necessary, with soap.^2 Many of his words from "manure" to "rump"^ would never be heard from a pulpit today, but were commonplace in his times. In his polemics especially he verged on slang. For example, in his later writings

^Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 153* 60 Linck, Ein Hallsame lere. Sermon 2k. 61 Ibid., Sermon 2 62 Ibid., Sermon 2k. 63 Linck, "Von der Steuerpfllcht," Werke, p. 300. 9 9 a priest Is always a bauoh (paunch), and he constantly referred to fattening the belly as the main concern of the clergy. He described monks as living In fornication 6 and hanging around whores. k Often he enlivened his sermons with humor. Some of his stories are worth Inclusion In modern anthologies of clever sayings for ministers. For example, he said there were three ways to run a man out of his house: 65 smoke, an evil wife, and a tom, leaking roof. With these kinds of stories and anecdotes, he obviously kept his audience awake. Hany of the townsmen to whom he spoke were highly educated and often proud of their learning. To them he frequently appealed by his usage of Latin and Greek. Luther spoke against the common medieval practice of quoting Scripture and other authorities in Latin and 66 Greek before translation, and Linck agreed with him. Linck had also all but totally Abandoned quotations from the church fathers. Nevertheless he realized that many Latin terms had crept Into the language of his educated congregation, just as today in Snglish most literate people use c o u p d'etat or putsch in place of

6U Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke, p. 158. ^Linck, Eln Hallsame lere. Sermon 12. ^Kiessling, The Early Sermons. p. 67* 100

English words. He used the Latin word, adoption, but 67 explained It and translated it Into German. Memorle 68 and gedeohtnlsse are used in succeeding lines. He used Latin forms and Latinized German words in the same sermon, for example, mammonla iniquitatis and mammoluck- i : ’ 60 lsh. y Many Latin words which were technical terms were accepted, like obligatio. exemptlo. prlvlleglo. excommun- icatlo. conditio, and affectlo. Others were legal wo-is words also known to his general public like statut. annaten. subsidea. pension, testatorls. testamentarla. anci principal. He also used common words and phrases like procession, vocation, vagls restitution!bus, and pias causas.70 He even quoted proverbs in Latin.7* These Latin words prove that he spoke, not merely to the illiterate, but also to a literate public who well under­ stood these theological or mercantile terms. NO trans­ lation was necessary because these were part of the language of a city councilman or a business man.

67 Wenzeslaus Linck, "Ein Bedenken iiber Abfassung und Vollstreckung von Testamenten," Werke. p. 266. 68 Linck, "Von Anrufung der Heiligen," Werke. p. 12?. 69 Linck, "von Testamenten," Werke. p. 270. 7°Ibld.. pp. 271-274. 71Linck, "Das Wort Gottes," Werke. p. 116. 101

Because of his educated parish he often tried to explain the meaning of words either historically or etymologically. In explaining the need for public welfare, he said, "on the seventh day after Easter cele­ bration the Bible says there should be a collection for 72 God the .?' As if he were applying the techniques of higher criticism he said, "Even if, in those places the little word Collecta does not mean to collect alms, as some educated men think, nevertheless, it is for sure that they took care of their poor and shared alms 73 at their feasts'1 In another place he said, "Notice, by the way, he calls them operarios not mendicos. Fratres operantes says much more than fratres mendlcantes. or without work, manducantes. which in German means mastvleh (cattle to be fattened)."^ He was aware of the interst engendered by Biblical historical studies, but his prime concern was preaching the Gospel in understandable terms. Linck was sensitive to means of communication other than sermons, such as drama, music, and art. In fact he wrote at least eight for his own church. 7*5

7^Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 151* 73 rjIbid. 7^Ibld.. p. 1 6 8.

7^Caselmann, Link, pp. 4-12-M3* 102 In his sermons he repeatedly mentioned pictures, organs, and bells. Though in some places he spoke against their misuse,7^ in another he criticized those who destroyed

them.77 He also knew well that illustrations concerning sound would be understood. For example, he said, "If something hard is hit against something hard, there results a horrible, mournful sound, but when something r j Q hard hits something soft, it sounds well."r Although he used such terms of the theatre as Larven (masks) and Oa togkensplelen (playing with puppets), he gave no opinion on the theatre of his time. He traced the history of passion plays from their origins in the market place of Rome and denounced them as part of the idolatrous trappings of the clergy,but he did not indict other forms of drama. He knew that his congre­ gation understood his allegories of sound and drama. The language of served Linck with illustrations of obligations and relationships. At times he used the feudal term for

7^Linck, "von Testamenten," Werke. p. 270. 77 rWenzeslaus Linck, "Ubersetzung und Auslegung der Letzten drel Psalmen," Werke. p. 176. 7®Linck, Eln Hallsame lere. Sermon 16. 79Ibid. ®°Linck, "Von der Steuerpfllcht," Werke. p. 299* ^Llnck, "Von Anrufung der Helligen," Werke. p. 125* 103 82 (Srbherr) to explain the concept of "Our Father*" In another place, to show the obligation of man to God, he used the terms for feudal tenant and feudal lord, Lehntreger and Lehnherr. Linck also used guild terms to make his message more meaningful to the townsman. He explained the relationship of a Christian to Christ in terms of Jlinger to Meister, that is, of apprentice to master of the 8 A guild. He also spoke to the artisans of the town. Whenever possible in his sermons, he mentioned the actual tools used. For the carpenter, he mentioned ax or hatchet. For the silversmith he talked about the stamp or mark on the tin or silver dish. To the artist he talked about painting. He recited in great detail the work of the mason in the problems of dressing or hewing stones and the problem of the spotted stone 85 and what to do about unpolished stones. He used technical terms like cornerstone and right angle in 86 depicting Christ as an architect. The workmen must displayed greater Interest in the sermons when they

82 Linck, "Auslegung des Vaterunser," Werke. p. 288. ^Linck, "von Testamenten," Werke. p. 269« 84 Linck, "Von der Steuerpfllcht,” Werke. p. 296. ^Llnck, Bln Hallsame lere. Sermon 2. 86Ibld. 104 heard words like Schurtzsell and Wercktags Kleider from

the pulpit. Linck was also aware of the multitudinous taxes the townsman had to pay and in his sermons he used such technical terms for them as zehendten. geschoss. steuer. zlns. and ungeldt. ^ To make sure that all understood the meaning of the miracle of the loaves of bread, he translated it into contemporary terms of three hundred pfennig worth of bread. He also could give examples to women, for example, saying that "a bad will is like an unfaithful man who wants to take 88 away all a woman1s dowry.” The sixteenth century was close to nature and as could be expected Linck used frequent examples from nature to explain and enrich his sermons. He spoke of the ubiquity of rain to reinforce the omnipresence of God.®9 jje stated that man cannot be cut off from God any more than a branch could be cut from the tree of life.He spoke of the earth, and of the stone and the dust that it made.^* He frequently referred to

87 'Wenzeslaus Linck, "Homiletische Betrachtung des Latareevangeliums von der Spelsung der Fiinftausend; Joh. VI, 1-14,” Werke. p. 215. OO .. Linck, Ein Hailsame lere, Sermon 13• 89 Linck, "Von der Speisung," Werke. p. 216. ^°Linok, "Eselspredigt," Werke. p. 6. 91 7 Linck, Ein Hailsame lere. Sermon 2. 105 cows and pigs that were to be fattened. Again and again he Returned to the rich garden of paradise and Adam and Eve, examples also used by St. Bernard and 92 Erasmus•7 The most numerous of all figures of speech used by Linck were references to health and the human body. The first medicine against your frailty is humility of spirit.95 Man is healed not "by plaster or herbs, but ok by God." "One should avoid the greed of the eyes and the flesh."95

All limbs serve covetousness and strive against reason. The mouth and the shame (private parts) serve for lust, the feet and the eyes farr inquisitiveness, the ears and tongue for opulence and vain praise, and the hands serve for every­ thing. In all these the will has no heart.9°

He detailed almost every part of the body from head to toe and from heart to kidneys. All parts of the body were for Linck "the earthly tent that burdens the 97 thoughtful mind." In his sermons sins were made con­ crete and real by references to the body.

92i,ewis W. Spitz, The Religious Renaissance of the German Humanist (Cambridge, MassT, 1963), p. 93 Linck, Ein Hailsame lere. Sermon 13* 9 If Ibid.

95Ibid., Sermon 17-

96 Ibid-, Sermon 13• 97 it)ld., Sermon 2$. 106

In direct contrast to these specific examples,

Linck indulged in very fanciful forays into the realm of numbers. It is difficult to determine whether his interest in numbers came from medieval mysticism or from his Neoplatonlc humanist friends or from a superstitious approach to apocalyptic literature. Be that as it may, he charmed his listeners with all sorts of magical numbers. Throughout his series of sermons on the seven beatitudes he used the magical number sevens seven eyes of evil, seven villainies, man fell sevenfold in sins, and sevenfold wisdom. His conclusion to prove that all beatification can be obtained through seven beatitudes follows s

First in the law of Moses. Seven times the priest sprayed the blood against the altar for propitiation, seven days they blessed the altar. They set seven candles on the candelabra of the temple. There were seven trumpets of the Jubilee Year. The prophet saw the glory of the Lord through the seven steps to the gates of midnight. The prophet Zechariah saw seven eyes on the stone. In which all these seven virtues have been planned and explained and into which all God's service will be Included. Second, seven was shown in manyfold revelations to St. John the Apocalypse of the order of the holy churches. Namely, seven churches, seven spirits of God, seven candles, seven seals of the book, seven stars, seven lamps, seven horns of the lamb, seven trumpets, seven thunderclaps, seven bowls of God's wrath, seven last plagues, etc. Third, seven is shown in many effects of Christ. Namely, seven prayers in Our Father, seven sacraments, seven gifts of the spirits, seven loaves with which he feeds the people, and seven baskets. 10? In summation, all completeness explained through the number seven is found in these seven beatitudes,98

Although Linck had many early passages like the above which dwell on numbers, he never erected any kind of numerical system and never drew any specific con­ clusions from them. He merely seemed to have had in­ tellectual curiosity about the recurence of certain numbers, specifically seven and three. Linck*s preaching shows how the Reformation preachers changed scholarly, scholastic sermons appro­

priate for the monastery and theologians to make them more effective and popular with the people. With practice Linck developed a simple, direct sermon that met with the approval of a wldeoaudience. He combined three elements in his preaching: education, proclamation of the Word, and Inspiration to make a strong weapon for reform. In order to do this, Linck became sensitive to the oral nature of language. He made each phrase of a sentence meaningful so it could stand alone in the minds of his hearers. For emphasis he often used extremely short sentences, or sentence fragments. Such variety and rhythm gave a sense of drama and force to the language.

Q8 7 Linck, Sin Hailsame lere. Sermon 30. 108 Linck*s sermons have a special quality because they not only read well but sound well when read aloud. When a whole sermon Is read aloud from beginning to end In German or translated into English, it becomes a dramatic entity that builds to a dynamic conclusion. His sermons have a timelessness that makes them for the most part presentable today. They flow smoothly from the presen­ tation of the opening theme to the conclusion. At the conclusion, unlike Luther, he recapitulates. Like a good preacher, he retells his message so that his ideas he has presented will be secured in the minds of his listeners. Linck*s sermons have a quality that makes them specially remarkable for oral presentation. However, he also took special care with the publication of his sermons. Certainly only a small portion of his sermons have come down to us. These are the ones that had some special quality or message that someone noticed. For publication, Linck usually added a dedication, and if it was a series of sermons, he added an introduction to explain the purpose of the publication. He also added marginal notes and Biblical references to aid in the understanding of the written word.

The periodic uses of humor by Linck were rhetorical devices employed to reinforce his concepts. The metaphors, similes, and earthy examples enabled him to 109 communicate. They were never vulgar In our sense of the word, but rather immediate and common to his audience. He was not as direct and earthy as Luther and contrived his examples in an effort to strengthen his message. Of special note is the way In which he incorporated the vocabulary of the townsman, the patrician, the artisan, and the common man in his sermons. If the examples presented seem long and overly abundant, they are representative of his own colorful language that appealddlfco all social levels of his audience. One of the most interesting aspects of these efforts of Linck to develop his preaching into new forms was his work as a children's preacher. Though men like Veit Dietrich worked at great length in this field,99

Linck specialized in preaching to children also and incorporated this into his overall program at Nurnberg after 1525* He had given special thought to it earlier in his booklet Vater Unser. In simple, clear speech it presented a direct message on the meaning of God's message as seen in the Lord's Prayer. Probably no other writing shows as well the didacttoi qualities of his preaching and his complete break with scholasticism.

It was written and published to give children a clear

99 Hugo Herrfurth, Veit Dietrichs Predlgts dargestellt an seinen Kinderpredlgten (Frledberg. 1935)• 110 understanding of the meaning of grace, of the avoidance of temptation, and of the way to slavation. It pro­ vided one of the early examples of catechical training since it was first printed in 1524 with a second edition in 1525, probably done by the printer Jobst Gutknecht at Number g.^ 00 This early example of clatechism presented Linck's efforts at simplification of theological terms. He explains each phrase of the Lord's Prayer by means, first, of a confession of the sins that may come from disobedience of the phrase, and, second, of a prayer asking for aid from God to understand and accept this part of the prayer. The sermon begins by explaining that God is a father who requires obedience.

Grant, Omnipotent Father, that I know You in all Your majesty as a father, take Your fatherly punishment with childlike obedience, hear Your commandments alone, know and honor You as a charitable father with complete childlike trust in You in firm belief and in all my needs ton1 flee to You as my all loving Father. Amen.

Linck showed God as the Sternal God, "Omnipotent ? . ’•* . , '* ?. o f If .0. Father," WLord of the manor," but not as Judge. He

i00Linck, "Auslegung des Vaterunser," Werke. p. 287. 101Ibid., p. 288. Ill emphasized the relationship of God to man as father to child, by terms like ’’Dearest Father," "Charitable Father," "Loving Father," "Merciful Father," and "Father of us all." Heaven is the fatherland (Vaterland). Linck re­ minded all of his fortunate relationship of man to God. He characterizes man as unable to resist temptation. "Poor, miserable man" has attached himself more to men^s laws than God's commandments. He needs "consolation" and help, for he has not been obedient with a "childlike trust." His conception of God as a merciful father is reinforced and the human condition is explained. Man's life is an exile where he is tempted by temporal things. He is like the steward who gave away a castle of his lord to the enemy. He has withdrawn in pride and is an untrue servant. Thus he is confined in a foreign and Babylonian kingdom of sins and death. Man is separated from God's community by putting his heart, feeling, spirit, and thoughts on mortal, temporal things. However, God grants mercy to the perjuror who worked with his enemies. Man's only help comes from a plea to God. "Help me, You Merciful Father, from such imprisonment and infidelity that I, as a loyal resident with civic rights, will be true and obedient to You as my true 112

lord of the manor, obedient to Your kingdom and You 102 alone rule over and In me. Amen.? By God's mercy, Linck explains, man Is made worthy to live In the cleansed life of the spirit. All men are blessed because God deserts no man. When man thinks mean thoughts, God's promise will strengthen his heart against all fears. With God's grace, man loves his neighbor and advances In serving God's will, which, Linck explains, is the purpose of man on earth. Man prays to be relieved of temptation so that he can witness for God, so that "no unchaste, angry, or evil word" comes from him and only words from the "holy God." Man's condition is determined by his "own evil will from which God delivers man."

This misery was so beloved'.byline that I have not had enough of his evil. Out of free will I have lain in it and confirmed myself with my own cares. I have amused myself in this vale of tears of life like a sow in manure and have not willed myself to the everlasting in my heart. Grant, Dear Father, that I will be drawn from evil and this miserable sinful life spiritually with the heart and life up my desire to the ever­ lasting so that I will be freed for it through the death of the body. Amen. 1°3

In simple yet dramatic language, Linck explained

lo^Linck, "Vaterunser," Werke. p. 290. 103 Ibid., p. 291. 113 the Reformation message of how man Is cleansed from evil by God and begins to live spiritually. His pre­ sentation is powerful, clear, and simple. The Vaterunser. probably better than any other work, demonstrates the radical change from scholastic, pedantic inspection of minutiae to Reformation evangelism. CHAPTER V

LINCK*S POLEMICS

In later writings Linck used the Latin word "re formation." which he translated into German as "reoht zuvmachen" (to make right).*1 To make right became a major theme of his sermons, for he found much to correct in the world. Like many of the reformers of his time, he engaged in constant controversy, struggle, and argument. Through this conflict, Linck sought to re­ solve his own theological questions and helped in turn to determine Reformation theology. His polemics, that is, his use of the art of disputation, show most clearly his own personal struggles, his controversies with others, and the issues that he faced. A study of the polemical writings of the re­ formers shows their Immediate concerns. For example, Luther's sermons of l6l? demonstrate his passionate 2 concern over the sale of .

^Wenzeslaus Linck, Svn Sermon von geistliohem und Weltlchem Regiment, aus dem Evangello Luce XXII (Numberg, 153&) • He added the '*n" to reformatio as he did to many of his Latin words, probably in the attempt to Germanize it. 2 Martin Luther, Luther's Works. ed. by Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann (Philadelphia, 1959)* LI, 26-31 11^ 115 Linck*s decision to open the monasteries of the Augustinian order and allow the monks to return to secular life and his own personal decision to leave the vicar generalship of the order and to become an evan­ gelical preacher evidenced his great concern for the advantages of the monastic life. The defense of this double decision and the effort to proclaim the evangel­ ical doctrines resulting from these decisions formed the basis for many of his early sermons. A dialogue

that he wrote, "The Monk that Ran Away,” reflects not only some of his own personal conversations concerning the problem, but also the general tone of his polemics.

Papist: If you want this, then you are a Lutheran heretic under the ban of the pope and outlawed by the emperor. Evangelical preacher: That is the way you act, you hypocrite! If you do not know how to fight with writ and reason, then you rage and fume and threaten with ban and worldly sword. . . . I want to have the writ wherein it can be proven that such clerical ways have a basis. Otherwise I do not think much of it, other than it is a devil's spirit that leads human beings into temptation.3

In his polemic writings Linck lashed out at those who were preventing what he thought was the freedom of

^Wenzeslaus Linck, ”Der ausgelaufene Monch, Ein Dialog,” Wenzel Lineks Werke. gathered, edited, and pro­ vided with an introduction by Wilhelm Reindell (Marburg, 189*0, PP» 312-313 (hereafter cited as Werke)• 116

a Christian man to find God through simple faith. These, Linck felt, who prevented man from finding God or who distorted God's message by false practices profaned the institution of the church and received his special don- demnation. Linck summed up all these as the unreformed clergy. He lashed out against the world of the clergy with such ferocity that he often did not have a logical plan to his topics or did not speak on one topic at a time. He often grouped pope, priest, and monks to­ gether as agents of the devil who were preventing God's

plan of salvation. Early in his writings Linck characterized the pope as the Anti-Christ. He experienced "a great sad­ ness” because the "Holy Chair” tolerated the errors of "the spiritual beggars," the mendicant orders, the "begging monks who live, deceive, and sin against God's Son."^ He never took the time to inveigh against the corruption of the papacy separately, for he reserved his evangelical wrath*for what he called the whole spiritual institution, the clergy as a whole, which, he maintained, prevented the free spread of the Gospel and was"cursed nine hundred times." 2 Therg is Scarcely an extant sermon by Linck in which there are not vituperative condemnations of the

A Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke, p. 169. church. For example, he complained that there were fifteen churches at Altenburg which were really nothing

but Institutions of pleasure or places where "poor people are eaten up by liars and mockers of God,"^ false shrines surrounded by people who Imagine they are In God*s service. In them, "lights are lit*for the devil and Christ has to sit in darkness." He advised the true followers of Christ to flee priests, monks, and their clerical Institutions in which conditions were so bad that he thought it "not without cause that Christ admonishes us to beg God to send us right workers in

His honor."7 Even before Linck broke with the Homan church, he expressed doubts on the powerful position of the clergy. In his first sermon preached and published at Niimberg, he compared the prelate to Noah, who stood near Christ on Palm Sunday and held out a palm branch, a metaphor for good teaching. The clergy served Christ with their mouths. To be seen, the prelate would have to climb a tree to be above the Palm Sunday crowd. This, < Wenzeslaus Linck, "Von Anrufung der Heillgen: von Fiirbltte und Messe, Zwei Sermone," Werke. p. 123. ^Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 173*

7Ibld. 118 Linck advised, was a precarious position, for he would 8 soon fall if he were presumptuous. The humble, simple ass, his metaphor for a crude and simple man with a despairing heart, was closest to Christ. As Christ sat on the ass on Palm Sunday, so also did the simple man serve Christ directly. The apostles only walked at His side, and then only part of the time. The prelate was the servant of the servant of Christ. He merely un­ tethered the ass from the post so the animal could serve Christ directly. The purpose of the clergy is to teach the simple man so that he is unleashed for God' s service. In 1518 he still believed that the clergy were teaching and preaching God’s Word.^ By 1522 he saw no image of Christ in those who served Home. Linck saw the Roman clergy as rendering service neither in the spiritual nor the temporal world. They followed men's teaching rather than God's, but they lived in idleness and gained their nourishment without working. They were "sayers of masses, slaves of the temple, servants of the altar*1 who served only one idol, their paunch, since they "do not walk within the Word of God."10

®LInck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke, p. 173•

^Linck, "Sselspredigt," Werke, p. 10.

l0Llnck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 172. 119 "The clerical vocation or estate has no foundation in God's Word."11 This is why the clergy were unhappy. They ate of the food produced by the labor of others and lived in laziness without work. Their special status was started and sustained by robbing the poor. They were in the realm of Anti-Christ, "glittering asses" playing on the fact that "man fears men more 12 than God," the central agency for the teaching of vices and the seat of sin because they taught "man's doctrines with lies and tricks."1^ Linck itemized every activity of the clergy, maintaining that it was based upon sin, laziness, or deceit. His basic premise was that the clergy wished to live without work and thus perpetrated these sins, that they used "all kinds of deceit, theft, tyranny, simony, , discounting notes, sinecures, begging, i h, and the like." They gained their livelihood by "taking payment for baptism, selling indulgences, and accepting confession money, exploitations for which they get more than Jewish usurers."1^ For their

11 Linck, "Von Anrufung der Heiligen," Werke. p. 125* 12 Linck, "Von der Steuerpfllcht der Gelstlichen und Klosterleute: Sin Sermon uber Mtt. XXII, 15-22," Werke. p. 298. 13Ibid. 1^ Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke, p. 158. 1< Linck, "Von Anrufung der Eeiligen," Werke. p. 125* 120

payment they gave "mortal teachings, laws, and dreams 16 which blaspheme God." These simony merchants "not only give out little letters of , to which they resorted not long ago, but also sell their inter­ cession and holy office."1? They admonish people to buy holiness from them in their saying of masses. They claim to be holy because of good works, castigations, and wakes, and they ask pious people to give them 18 alms so that they the people can share their piety. Such service does not earn the right to be fed. There is no need "to take care of a mob of loafers who should pray in front of the other workers."^9 The

community has no obligation to support them. One Jlshould not even have a child baptized by

them, Linck states, "because even if they christen him or administer the other sacraments of the congregation to him, they do not serve him if they do not act according 20 to the Word. Without the Word no sacrament is valid."

He even doubted their use of the altar, which he believed

16 Linck, "Von Anrufung der Heiligen," Werke. p. 125. ^Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke, p. 1 69. 18Ibld. 19Ibld.. p. 173.

29lbid., p. 172. 121 was the altar of the Old Testament. Only in the Old Testament could he find references to buildings, altars, and servants of the temple. 11 Saying of masses, reading of the mass, singing vespers, and all the other external human traditions" are bound to fail because Christ 21 Himself said "that such people honor God in vain." Linck wgts especially critical of endowments to the church, for he believed that leaving endowments to priests and monks often disinherited the natural heirs. He maintained that it was idolatrous to believe a dying man served God and furthered his own salvation by endowing masses, believing that the endowment in the will gave him grace and ensured his salvation. This was a dangerous policy because it "seemed to serve God 22 by robbing the poor." Linck preferred no will at all to one drawn up in this way. He was so sure of the evil that would derive from such an endowment that he 23 said "the soul of the dying goes to the devil." God disassociates Himself from such a foolish promise. All such promises of the clergy must be foolish because they come not from "belief and obedience to God's words, but

^Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 171. 22 Wenzeslaus Linck, "Ein Bedenken iiber Abfassung und Vollstreckung von Testameiten," Werke. p. 2 6 7.

23Ibid., p. 26^. 122 from man’s own thoughts.” A will with an endowment that disinherits the natural heirs is not In accord with God’s will or commandment and thus void. Anyone who with his will donated to vigils, churches, altar paintings, organs, bells, and the idolatry of preachers confirmed men's laws and roguery by his death and will. oh He believed that these endowments furthered the Abuses of the clergy. The income from ,falms, gifts, endow­ ments, and wills . . . fatten up the powerful rogues.,,25

It Is obvious that Linck believed most of the abuses and errors of the clergy stemmed from their lack of useful work. As could be expected, his most severe criticisms were of the mendicant orders. By lengthy Biblical quotations, he disproved the basis for begging, stating that God, Solomon, David, Paul, and Christ Himself specifically forbade it. He was par­ ticularly influenced by St. Paul whom he called an enemy of the lazy. Undoubtedly Linck's experiences as vicar general of the Augustinian Hermits had had a great effect upon his views of the begging orders. Especially his visit­ ation trips to many monasteries disillusioned him

Linck, "von Testamenten," Werke. p. 2 6 7.

2^Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 159 123 greatly with respect to the value of monastic life. After his experience with the Augustinlans at Wittenberg In 1522 and his shock at the small number of monks who chose to remain in the cloister, he published a booklet, '•Von Arbeit und Betteln," In which he stated all his reasons for opposing begging and monasticism. He had already stated his belief that the life of a true Christian had to be one of grace, not of credit for good works. A life of poverty was no good, if one 26 was proud of it. By 1523#hhe believed monastic life was "a scandal of unbelievers, rude people who were covetous of the goods of others."2? '.'These people boast of their sanctity, sit as idols in God's place, as Anti-Christs in Christ's place, and teach beatification with their human justifications which are wholly unclean before God." In summarizing his views concerning the apostles of the devil, he paraphrased II Timothy 3: 1-7, a comparison of the beggars with those who are damned on Judgment Day. Since in II Timothy there is a command to "go from house to house," Linck assumed that the whole quotation could be used to describe begging monks......

26 - Wenzeslaus Linck, Bln Hallsame lere wle das hertz oder gewlssen durch die si ben sellgke.vt: als si ben sewlen des geystllohennn bawes: auff das wort gottes gebauet wlrdt (Niirnberg. 1519) ♦ Sermon 13* 27 Linck,"Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 165# 28lbid. 124

On Judgment Day horrible things will happen be­ cause there will be people who think much of themselves, are greedy, proud, vain, defamers, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, ir­ reverent, unfriendly, stubborn, slanderous, un­ chaste, brutal, wild, treacherous, reckless, conceited, who love pleasure more than God, who have the forms of a religious way but deny its power. Turn away from such people. Among them are those who run through houses and seize women, those who are laden down with sins and are filled with all kinds of lust, those who always study and never come to the recognition of the truth.z9

Beggars, whom Linck called paunch-fatteners, are

opposed to God's order and brotherly love. The beggar does not want "to serve anybody and wants to have 30 service from everybody." "Vanity, blindness, despising of God, establishment of false masses through which the honor of Christ is diminished and belief is destroyed, fornication, simony, whoring, blasphemy of God, and 31 several other vices" are the result of this. God's order was for man to work and since the clergy do not work they turn their back on God's atone­ ment and fall into sin. They sin, not from stupidity as many are forced to do from poverty, but from "passions and wantonness." "The lust of their eyes has become the lust of their hearts so that nothing

2^Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke, p. l68.

3°Ibld.. p. 161.

31Ibld.. p. 157. 125 32 Is too much for them." Linck quoted a poet who said, "When you ask why St. Egistus became an adulterer, the 33 answer is because he was lazy and idle." The clergy avoid and persecute the institution of marriage because they live in fornication. They should be educated, able, pious men, but, Linck complained, "too often the sellers of masses are crude asses, clumsy oafs, and *5 it unchaste knaves."^ This sort of evidence convinced Linck that the devil had "put himself in their hearts instead of God."3"* Prom such men came the false teaching that shared Linck*s condemnations. There is very little in his sermons against dispensations since many of them had been abolished in Altenburg and Numberg. "Dispensation hawkers and the monks and preachers who carry divine intercession for sale" do not know God and Eis divine justice.Out of false teaching "many men here bought indulgence letters, completed pilgrimages, gave great endowments, accepted holy orders, and did similar things,

32 Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 157» 33Ibid. 3^Ibld.. p. 1 7. 3

35Ibid. 3 6 Wenzeslaus Linck, "Das Wort Gottes der alleln bestandlge Pels der christlichen Pertrauens: Ein Sermon iiber Luc. I, 17*" Werke. p. 115- 126 all man's work."3? Because all these are based on man's teachings Instead of God's, they will perish. "All human work and everything created by it is vain and besmirches you if you touch it,he stated, adding that a treasury of merit comes from "human opinion and foundations" and this comprises only "fake works, sins, and lies of hypocrisy."39 teaching of good

works of man is a fraud and illusion. To show that no merit can really ever be enough, he used the illus­ tration of "many old fathers who practiced great clean­ liness, poverty, obedience, etc., for forty, fifty, or Sikty years and fell in one hour." The reason was that "the building was built on the sand of external practices."^ "Everything which men have undertaken through their reasoning, their ability, or their piety is only an opinion, unstable ground upon which to A? rest." Men should avoid the "Priests of Baal and the paunch clerics." They are godless men who have __ .- Linck, "Das Wort Gottes," Werke. p. 118. 3®Linck, Eln Hallsame lere, Sermon 26. 39 Wenzeslaus Linck. "Vierzig Artikel." Werke. p. 1^. 2*0 Linck, "Das Wort Gottes," Werke. p. 120. ^Ibld. **2Ibld.. p. 116. 127 their hands full of "vigils, requiems, masses for the dead, and the like roguery" ^ of false teaching. Included in this false teaching was the adoration of the saints. On Ascension Day, a522, Linck investigated the practice of invoking saints as intercessors. He explained that a church service with an invocation of the saints was a gross abuse and a blasphemy to God, a it h, "baalisch church service." It was corrupted for two reasons. First, the saints interfered with a true perspective on religion, seeming to replace Christ Him­ self. Linck said, "God plants alone and builds alone from no other foundation than Jesus." J There is only one "beatifier and intercessor between God and man, He Who gave Himself for the salvation of all men."^ Furthermore, Linck believed that the invocation of saints strengthened the already prevalent abuses of the church. "Through invocation of the saints, the kitchen is supplied, the belly fattened, and God is deprived of His honor."^

^Linck, "Von der Steuerpflicht," Werke.p. 2 9 7. Linck, "Anrufung der Heiligen," Werke. pp. 12^-5. ^ Ibld.. p. 1 2 6. Ibid. ^7 Ibid. 128

Linck also found false teachings in the sectarian movements. In Nlirnberg this strife culminated with the expulsion of Hans Denk and his Anabaptist followers. The Nlirnberg preachers took a united stand against them. The city council acceded to their wishes and expelled /lq several of them. Since Linck believed the menace still persisted in the city, he published a polemic against the Anabaptists. To him, the devil was the cause of divisions and sects, for "Through Godless men there comes dissension over baptism and communion with God."^9 Linck, always the good teacher, started his pamphlet against the Anabaptists with a definition of the meaning of the word baptism. Taufe. Linck explained, s' came from the word tief and means to plunge something into the depths of the water. The Pharisees used this word for their ceremonial washing. Taufe also means a baptism with water as performed by John the Baptist, in which people acknowledge their sins, by which they are offended. Following Ascension Day, he stated, the disciples and all people baptized by them were baptized

JlQ "Protokoll iiber die untersuchung von funf Wlder- taufer von Dr. Wenzel Link in April 15» 1528," Nlirnberg Stadtarchlv, Klrchenamt 28, Rep* I, no. 2^; Austin Evans, An Episode in the Struggle for Religious Freedom: The Sectaries of Nlirnberg 1524-1528 (New York. 192*10. p. 21-207. ^9wenzeslaus Linck, Grundliche unterr1chtung elns erbera Rats der Statt Niirmberg. welcher gestalt ire Pfarrher un Predlger • . . das volck wider etllche verfurlsche lere der Wldertauffer in Iren predlgen aus heyllger G^tllcher Sohrlfft zum getrellllohsten ermanen unnd unterrlchten sollen (Nlirnberg. 1527). 129 by the Holy Spirit, Therefore to a Christian, baptism means the ceremony in which the priest says, "I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost."50 The baptisms of the Anabaptists were not valid

because "where God’s Word is not truly present, there can also be no real faith." Linck derived the errors of the Anabaptists "not from rumor but from what we have come to know of them from their own confessions." They were not teaching Christian teaching, but were false apostles, as St. Paul had warned. St, Paul said that it is no wonder there were false prophets when the devil pretended to be the angel of light. Linck included among the "false prophets" the Anabaptists who were "lurking in darkness" and did not "appear in the open" since they 51 were "children of darkness" and the "devil's apostles." Everybody is called to his profession or mission by God or by man, Linck argued, but only God can call a man to preach. Since the Anabaptists are obviously apostles of the devil, they have been called by the devil to do his work. God could not have called them to preach the Gospel.52

5°Hnck, Grundllche unterrlohtung. 51Ibid. 52Ibid. Upon this argument, Linck concluded that the Anabaptists were guilty of false preaching. Accordingly, he listed and refuted their main beliefs with great care. The Anabaptists, he pointed out, said that a Christian must walk in Christ’s footsteps and follow His example and that of His apostles. He objected to this statement because obviously no human could do this. No one, for example, could walk on water or exist forty days without food or water. A Christian, he said, “should live in Christ and His disciples," not follow their example.^3 The Anabaptists opposed the baptism.of children, Linck observed, because there was no Biblical foundation for it. To refute them, he called attention to two references where St. Paul baptized entire households, which must undoubtedly have contained children. God had given the Jews a sign of their admittance as His chosen people, namely, the circumcision of all boys be­ fore they were eight days old. If God gave this sign to the children of the Jews, certainly the Christians would have wanted their children baptized at an early

-^Linck, Grundllche unterrlchtung ^Ibid. Linck argued also that the refusal of the Ana­ baptists to perform infant baptisms came from Christ*s commandment to "Go into all the world, teaching and baptizing. Whosoever believes and is baptized will be saved.'1 The sectarians believed that this forbade baptism to any who had not been taught and could not reason. Linck first refuted this as a ridiculous inter­ pretation of the words and then asked, how one could determine when a person had learned the words of Christ 55 and could reason. Linck also discussed certain secular problems.

The Anabaptists refused to acknowledge any obligation to a worldly authority. He answered by quoting Biblical passages to the effect that man must recognize the temporal government, but that man must be more obedient to God than to man, when the authority attempts to force him to act contrary to God’s will. God, he insisted, 56 opposes and punishes without man’s aid. Nowhere does Linck display his evangelistic zeal more than in his polemics. Many of his tirades against the clergy force the reader to a high pitch of excitement. It does not take much imagination to picture the rising enthusiasm that greeted each new addition in a long

55 Linck, Grundllche unterrlohtung. 56Ibid. 132 series of invectives. His congregation must have heard some of these with almost uncontainable approval. A list of evils like "lie, deceit, dissembling, gossip, simony, wrong teaching, hypocrisy,"-"57 provokes an immediate emotional response. The congregations of Nlirnberg and Altenburg were familiar with the abuses of the monasteries in their vicinity and with the burdens placed upon the community by the begging orders. The only abuses of the papacy which must have touched them as closely were the many taxes imposed upon them, and these are the only evils that Linck clearly denounced. Prom the perusal of his criticisms of Institutions and persons within those institutions, it becomes obvious that Linck, a true evangelical preacher* spoke directly to his congregation and their own personal experiences. Overall his polemics are not as harsh as one might have expected from the temper of the times. Linck's personality, that of a humble preacher with a gentle nature, disallowed extreme invectives. He approached life far too positively to dwell overly long on the evils he found in his day. Even in the sermons which

*57 Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 16^. were mainly polemical in nature, most of his time he devoted to teaching what he considered the true evangelical view of God. CHAPTER VI

WENZESLAUS LINCK'S THEOLOGY

Linck, like Luther, believed himself part of a movement which had rediscovered the Gospel and was, therefore, of utmost Importance to man and civilization.

He had received a special call in his ministry to pro­ claim the Word of God, the Good News of the Gospel. Among the first of the reformed evangelists, Linck tried to give new meaning to old words so as to express the

Reformation idea. Although a former dean of a theological faculty, he avoided traditional theological formulas and ex­ plained the tenets of the new evangelical position in simple stories, often in parables. He avoided legalistic morallsm as well as abstract metaphysical discussions

of God and religion. Instead, Linck emphasized a theology that explained how man changes by receiving God's love. Man learned about God, not through the intellect or emotion, but through transcendent faith. Linck spent his life trying to explain his faith to others, because he believed that if they could understand what he and Luther had found, they also could

13^ 135 live in faith. In place of the logical theology of such later theologians as Calvin, Linck tried to make the Gospel available to all by his paraphrases of the Psalms and his translation of the Old Testament into German. To spread the Gospel, Linck became a teacher and a preacher, not a systematic theologian.

The Father and the Son

'•All creatures were created through God's Word. Through the Word, the world finally became ordered. . . . All creatures shall be preserved or supported in their essence, the nobler the creature, the more it needs the Word.”1, This was one of the earlier statements of Wenzeslaus Linck concerning the world, its order, and the reason for its existence. Influenced by the German mystics, he believed that man's rational powers were limited so that he could not comprehend God in all His majesty. To Linck, God, "The Eternal God or the All-Powerful Father," was beyond comprehension. Those who thought they understood erred and based their lives upon human knowledge, which was mere opinion.

1 Wenzeslaus Linck, Eln HAllsame lere. wle das hertz oder gewlssen duroh die siben sellgkeyt: als siben sewlen des geystllohenn bawes: auff das wort gottes gebauet wlrdt (Nurnberg. 1519), Introduction. 136

"Therefore nobody should base his life on his or 2 another man's opinion or illusions." Linck avoided the problems of scholastic authorities and preferred a mystical view of an incomprehensible Godhead. He did not try to analyze the superempirical nature of God. He acknowledged God's omnipotence by using such phrases as, "Hemember that no little hair from your head may be yanked out without the will of your Heavenly Father."-^ Thereby he recognized God's omnipotence and unexplainable mystery and demonstrated his belief in , for he held that everything that occurred was God's will. He did not, however, see God as a judge. Although he found God the Father in­ comprehensible, nevertheless, he taught that one should "put hope, love and trust in God's Word and not on men or men's teaching."k Linck used the homily of the miracle of the loaves and fishes to illustrate that the Word of God is the source of all knowledge. He said, "Man is not fed by

) bread alone but is sustained by the Word of God. The

2 Wenzeslaus Linck, "Das Wort Gottes der allein bestandige Fels des christlichen Vertrauens: Ein Sermon uber Luc. X, 17*" Wenzel Lineks Werke. collected, edited, and provided with an introduction by Wilhelm Heindell (Marburg, 189*0 * p. 120 (hereafter cited as Werke)• 3 Linck, Ein Hailsame lere. Sermon 3» Linck, "Von der Steuerpflicht der Geistlichen und Klosterleute: Ein Sermon Uber Mtt. XII, 15-22," Werke. p. 137 Lord said you should not worry about food because that is what the heathens do."^ Man must place his whole life In God's hands. In speaking about God's relation to man, he emphasized the father-child relationship, calling God "Loving Father," "Merciful Father," and "Dearest Father," and preaching that man always must be receptive and obedient with complete, childlike trust. His theological approach to an understanding of God is based on the cultivation of love rather than on the speculative abstractions of scholasticism. Although God the Father is incomprehensible, the Word of God is immediate and, in fact, most vital. "Only the speech of God is alive, powerful, penetrating, stronger than any double-edged sword.The Word of God on earth is Christ. Only through Him can man reach God for the distance and vagueness of God is dispelled by His Word in Christ. To substantiate his statement that the Word exists on earth and assumed human form in Christ, Linck quoted II Cor. 6:2, "God sent His Son in the fullness of time." According to Linck, the Christian should view Christ In two ways. First, he should recognize Him as

^Wenzeslaus Linck, "Homiletische Betrachtung der Latareevangeliums von der Spelsung der Fiinftausend, Joh. VI, 1-1^," Werke. p. 216. g Linck, Bin Hallsame lere. Sermon 21. 138

the "Redeemer and Beatlfier of Man,"'’ the divine light which shines impartially upon all men, the merciful

healer of the sick. He quoted Christ as saying, "I shall bless and light up through belief the poor sinners Q who recognize themselves as poor." Christ chooses the polluted, the spotted, the spoiled stones for His building, not the polished ones. He came for the sinners, the spoiled and the sick, not the healthy, pious or perfect. He disregards no man, therefore the Word is open to all. He picks the dust (the enemies and the ostracized of the church) for salvation.^ He shows where human happiness can be found: first, in living lo Christ, second, in the realization that the sins of the disobedient children of God will be forgiven. In the second place, Linck believed that the Christian should view Christ as He will appear on 11 Judgment Day, as a rewarder of evil and good. In Advent of 1518* Linck had made a crucial decision in his theology, based upon Pauline spiritualism. The spiritual birth of Christ in the soul is the first and most Important stage in the Christian's development, he believed. That Christ will Judge good and evil on

7 ‘Linck, Ein Hailsame lere, Sermon 1. 8Ibid. ^Ibld., Sermon 2. ^°Ibld., Dedication. 139 Judgment Day is secondary. Because he stressed the spiritual rebirth of the receptive soul, there is little emphasis upon Christ as a Judge. As we have seen, Linck rejected the imitation of Christ as totally impossible. The Christian should 1 ? not imitate Christ, but rather live in Christ. Christ is portrayed suffering and dying on the cross for the atonement of man’s sins. By man living in Christ and He living in man, the Redeemer’s sacrifice becomes man’s and man can receive the grace of God. Linck, like Luther, was very close to St. Paul, basing much of his theology on Rom. 13:11* "It is time for you to wake from your sleep for our salvation is nearer to us now than we first believed." With the presence of the Word and the Son, he believed, the spirit of sanctification enters to form spiritual man. There is a salvation in the here and now through union with

Christ. A second doctrine which Linck explained concerned the depravity of man. He was much concerned with man’s

l? Wenzeslaus Linck, Grundllohe unterrlchtung elns erbern Rats der Statt Nurmberg. welcher gestalt ire Pfarrher un Frediger in den Stetten un auff dem Land das volck wider etllohe verfilrlsche lere der Widertauffer in Iren predigen auss heyllger Gotlioher schrifft zum getreulichsten ermanen unnd unterrlchten sollen (Nurnberg. 1527). tendency to sin, which he expressed best by paraphrasing Horn. 7:18, "Therefore there is nothing in man that is not spoiled." St. Paul said, "I know that within myself, that is, in my flesh, the good does not live. God's Word alone is able to heal the conscience." Healing grace and salvation are for him an interior and spiritual matter, captured by faith and not by scholastic

rationalism and legalism. Linck, like St. Paul, believed in the Inadequacy

of man to save himself. The inner man must depend upon God's justification. "Thus spoke St. Paul, 'I know not

evil in myself, produced by my conscience, but therefore I am not justified, because I cannot judge myself. God

alone is the one who can judge men.*"*3

Justification and Grace

In the extant sermons of Linck, there are few arguments against the system of justification by merit and the legalistic concept of justification. Perhaps because Luther had effectively acted against them and the Sodalltas at Nurnberg had so widely circulated the literature of Luther beginning with the translation of Luther's 95 Theses, there was no need for printing Linck's sermons on the same subject.

“^Linck, "Das Wort Gottes," Werke, p. 117* i*n Belief in salvation through merit was for Linck based on man's illusion concerning his competence and on his egois m. A system such as that of merit-conscience monasticism or penitential sacramentallsm denied Pauline spiritualism and was based upon the vanity of man and a semi-Pelagianism which ended in either doubt or self- complacency. When man remains tied to an externalized, Pelagian view, "he disrespects God, he remains lying in 1A his sins which shall not be erased." The following of outward observances "all stems from not knowing about God and His divine justice. This can be recognized by 15 belief in and elevation of human works." To ignore God's love and emphasize devotional duty is to "console the conscience according to man's mistaken ideas. By the time of Advent, 1518, Linck had developed his theology with respect to justification outside the sacramental system. He ridiculed man's need for external signs. "The Greeks need causes and proof. The Jews need signs or miracles through which they are brought to faith. But blessed are those who believe from pure 17 obedience and mere listening." 1 Speaking of God's lA Linck, "Das Wort Gottes," Werke. p. 120.

15Ibld.. p. 115. l6Ibid.

*?Linck, Bln Hailsame lere. Sermon 26. 142 own free gift, he has God say, "My grace is enough for you." To illustrate his point, he used the parable in Luke 12 of "the rich man who said to himself: My soul, you have stored up many goods for a long time, eat and drink. Soon he heard: 0, you fool, tonight they will demand your soul. What then will become of the goods 18 you have collected?" Linck doubted the Intentions of those who depended upon an external system of merits, believing they never intended to be faithful to God. Like Luther, he maintained that any appeal to an exterior system was futile because of the ulterior motives of men and because the measurement of merit was a form of vanity, a sin before God. He concluded that all human work and every- 19 thing created by man is vain and besmirches. 7 When the conscience of man is concerned only with the exter­ nality of good works, these themselves accuse him of

being guilty and selfish. In organizing his own ideas of justification,

Linck held up to ridicule the proud Pharisee who relied "more upon his own righteousness than upon the Word of God."^° "Prom all this we note how no external things

|0 Linck, Ein Hallsame lere. Sermon 18. •^ibld.. Sermon 26. 20Ibld.. Sermon 21. 1^3 serve for cleaniness, peace, salvation, and bliss of the conscience, but only God's Word works such within the conscience where it is accepted with firm trust and 21 strong belief." There is only one way to obtain Justification, namely, through the Word of God which is Christ. Man is to "build his religion and faith truly and wholly upon God's Word alone with all his 22 heart." To substantiate this Linck quoted Luke 1:17 as a text, "God gives everything good to man . . . for 23 nothing, without any work, from grace." ^ "All pious,

God-fearing men base their heart and conscience upon God's Word alone which remains eternal against the gates of hell." "Such magnificence is given by the Word of God, the Gospel, add Christ alone to all those who believe in His name and who forgive one another in all things. Trust only the Word of God through which 25 you will be newly born again in spirit or in soul." Divine grace is the gift of God through the Word which was Christ and seen in the Gospel. This simple ex­ pression of such a difficult theological doctrine illustrates Linck's ability as a preacher.

2*Llnck, "Das Wort Gottes," Werke. p. 120. 22 Ibid., p. 116.

23Ibld. 2/*Ibld. 2< Wenzeslaus Linck, "Der christliche Adel," Werke. f . 279. Linck believed the message of God was open to all. In 1517 he demonstrated in the Eselspredlgt that the message of God was open to the simplest, crudest man directly. In 1518 the sick, the sinners, and the blind 26 were the stones Christ used to build His house. He based his belief on two separate concepts of Christ. In 1518 he developed the Neoplatonist formula, ’’eternal Joy in heaven was formed in man’s heart,”^?: that'all men were capable of grace since the form was a part of man himself. Drawing from mysticism, he said, "Zion or Jerusalem is the contemplation of the good and the 28 divine peace." The greatest good is not work but contemplation. Later he dropped both his Neoplatonic and mystic views for a more direct message comparable to that of Luther* "Salvation is open to all . . . but through God’s Word alone.Man does not need to be­ come a monk or reject the secular world, for "all classes are good if they stand in the Word of God alone 10 and are not against it."^ He added that if "one wants to become a monk, another a preacher, in the hope of

^^Linck, Eln Hallsame lere, Sermon 1. 27 Ibid., Introduction. 28Ibid. 29 Linck, "Das Wort Gottes," Werke. p. 121. 30Ibid. 1 b5 31 great improvement and furtherance of beatification," he will be sadly disappointed. God has ordained all to their profession and class, thus there is no difference between one’s situation in the world of God. Redemption depends upon God’s Word in man’s spirit, not upon his position in society. In this way Linck explained not only how divine grace was open to all, but also that it is God who draws man to justification. By this act, man is born again. Through faith man is called "newly born, because through it a damned, unkind sinner becomes a blessed and pious 32 man, just as in physical birth.The Word of God came to the world to heal man And to change his nature, not to judge it. Grace was granted him because his own thoughts could not reach God. Man's own finite, in­ adequate knowledge is wisdom of flesh and entirely against God. Man receives a renewing or rebirth which 33 comes through the grace of God alone. Faith is the only necessary or possible ingredient of salvation, Linck stated, because man himself is totally inadequate. "In this world man is completely beaten down and crucified, his trust in men is taken away from

-^Linck, "Das Wort Gottes," Werke. p. 121.

■^Linck, "Der christliche Adel," Werke. p. 279• 33 Ibid., p. 280. 146 him so that he cannot console himself with his own resources, reason or piety, but must trust alone firmly in God's Word*" Through faith in the Word, in Christ, man can receive salvation without any use of

the sacramental system. In 1523 Linck organized his theology into forty articles of belief. At this time he stated that "Such grace stands on the Words of divine promises through which a believing man will be made powerful and good in rebirth."-^ "Only belief in Christ beatifies and Justifies men through the pure grace of God without man's merit and obligation to do works."36 God forgives the sins of the believer and freely gives His grace.

Sacraments

Linck lessened the importance of the role of the sacraments, as did Luther, in his doctrine of salvation. The church remained vital to him even though he individ­ ualized and personalized justification. Baptism continued to remain important for him, for it was the pledge by which Christ became a man's Lord and claimed His own. By baptism "every Christian is a slave and a servant of

3 /f Linck, "Das Wort Gottes," Werke. p. 117* 35 Wenzeslaus Linck, "Vierzig Artikel," Werke. p.1^3. 36 Ibid. 1^7 yy God.” It Is an outward sign of a Christian to his neighbors, Linck s&id, so that all may know that he is committed to Christianity. He never wavered over the issue of child baptism.In 152*J> he performed a baptism in Altenburg in German, a practice which became very popular and illustrated his approach to reforms.^9 His doctrine of the Lord's Supper always coin­ cided with that of Luther. In his later life, he was involved in the colloquoys of Hagenau, Worms, and

Regensburg and opposed Carlstadt and Zwingli. Linck stated simply, "The Lord's Supper Is a certain sign that Christ our salvation lives and remains in us as a heavenly food for our souls which will be preserved for everlasting life and that we live and remain in Him. But a piece of bread and a drink of wine will not make us certain, but something greater, namely, the Word of

Christ, etc." The true importance of the sacraments was for

Linck the inward spiritual benefit to the receiver. The sacraments, however, were not valid if performed contrary

^Linck, "Von der Steuerpflicht," Werke. p. 268. -^Linck, Grundllche unterrlchtung. -^Hermann Wilhelm Caselmann, "Wenzeslaus Link's Leben fur christliche Leser ingemein aus den Quellen erzahlt," Das Leben der Altvater der lutherlschen Klrohe. edited by Moritz Meure (Leipzig and Dresden, 1863), p.287. Ao Linck, Grundllche unterrlchtung. 148 ki to God*s Word. Linck urged a strong faith In the Importance of baptism and the Lord's Supper as they were tied to faith and justification and not to a sacrament­ al system. Nevertheless, he also maintained that the sacraments had true meaning and reality for the man of faith, thereby steering a course between the completely spiritual views of the Anabaptists and the mechanical doctrine of the Roman Catholics. The fact that the church and the sacraments were

important to Linck can be seen In the Niirnberg-Brandenburg church ordinance of 1533 which he helped to formulate. Although he, like St. Paul, saw the message of Christ in spiritualized terms, he did not Ignore the Importance of the sacraments as vehicles of grace. He is right­ fully remembered as one of the founders of the Lutheran church.

Linck*s Mysticism

Linck*s mysticism can be explained ty; reference to his education and his friendship with Johannes Stau- pitz, who was imbued with the traditions of the mysticism of Gerson and Tauler. The concepts of Gerson and Tauler

41 Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 17?. 1^9 were intertwined with those of St, Bernard and St, kp Augustine, both of whom Linck quoted consistently. The mystics saw the true goal of man as the happiness reached when the soul had perfect communion with God. They tried to show how the soul was drawn away from the human self and from the world to its true union with Christ. One learned or grew in knowledge of God through love, that is, through the immediacy of experience rather than by speculative abstraction. One must approach this union in humility and suffering. For Linck the first step of humility was the ko awareness that it is "impossible for man to do good." J The Christian becomes aware of his inadequacy and humbles himself by self-accusation. He has to realize that he displeases God and "also himself and must have IlLl pity on his own misery." This recognition of inadequacy Linck defined as being poor in spirit, or huiable. "The spirit does not put its trust in itself, but despairs altogether in Itself, and cannot find rest until it puts its foot to rest in Christ alone." "Who is poorer than a man

Uf2 Hichard Henry Kerbs, "Young Luther's Mysticism" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Dept, of History, The Ohio State University, 1959)* PP« 88-226. Linck, Bin Eailsame lere, Sermon 13. 150 who recognizes himself and cannot find any rest at all lit in His spirit but poisons everything with evil?" J In such a way Linck criticized man’s egocentric self-sufficiency and recognized the humility necessary so that man can condemn the sin of his own self will. Humility is a negative virtue, that of self-accusation of one's own sins of pride and lust and stubborness. Thus man begins his spiritual life. While humility does not cure, it is the "medicine of the soul." There- forelit is the beginning. "Poverty does not beatify, but God does not give grace before He purges the heart with poverty. Through humiliation poverty is born."**6 The first step to poverty or humility leads man to the second, despair. Man has to realize that he is utterly forsaken. He has to realize that his guilt because of his sins In insurmountable. "Man is over­ run by the pervasiveness of sin and despairs over It."^ As the bodily eye is blind and is hindered In seeing by dust or other things that fall into it, the other humors, and external darkness, so the inner eye of the soul is hindered from the real­ ization of God and the truth by the darkness

Ll< ^Linck, Bln Hailsame lere. Sermon 13. ^ r u d . Ibid., Sermon 16. 151

of sins or taking away of the light of right­ eousness. ^8

Man descends into despair and despondency because of his feeling of being ultimately forsaken. At the point when grief and the guilt of sins seems insur­ mountable and relief and release seem remote, one re­ ceives God*s mercy. The final realization of despair and the start of good is the fact that man cannot serve and please the secular world and be the servant of

Christ.

As man recognizes evil in himself and becomes very despairing of doing something good of him­ self, then he shall give God a place in himself and begin to please God well and become receptive to God*s grace and mercifulness. In suchj,g poverty or need, the bliss?of man starts. ^

Such bliss is found in suffering with Christ. If man is to Imitate Christ, his model is the suffering Christ. In this model, "salvation, truth, and the beatification of man and all good life, yes, the bliss of the present life and the certain hopes of future life."50

/lp Linck, Bln Hallsame lere. Sermon 13* Ibid. 5°Ibld.. Sermon 29. Suffering brings reward in "the heavenly kingdom,

not in the externalwworld, but in the internal spiritual heaven." "On the outside, they suffer, on the inside they rejoice and exult because external despair pulls them away from temporal voluptuousness."-^ This suffer­ ing, according to Linck, joins man to his forebears in Christ. In despair "man follows the footsteps of the Koly Fathers because evil men have persecuted the prophets and all the just that ever lived. Therefore it is a good sign of the right life."^ Although Linck said, "the law of Christ is easy so it is possible for each 53 to obtain salvation through the help of grace," It is only through pain, poverty, and bitter experience that man can learn patience and the purpose of divine will. "One does not know if a man is poor in spirit, humble, meek, merciful, or covets the good, if he is not tested 5^ by despair and persecution." Through suffering, the righteous man is tested and comes to know the guidance and the wisdom of God. Without experiencing the bitter­ ness of suffering as Christ did on the cross, there Is no sweetness of salvation.

51 Linck, Eln Hallsame lere. Sermon 30. 52Ibid. ^ Ibld., Sermon §* ^Ibid., Sermon 29* In such a mystical process of humility and suffering, Linck offered hope of salvation by means of an Inner spiritualism. This gave man atonement, not through a sacramental, penitential system or a system of merits, but rather by a mystical acceptance of God's love. Linck thought that, without the experience of humiliation and suffering, there could be no comprehension of holiness. Like Luther, Linck early found this mysticism as a way to God outside the scholastic framework. Later he tempered this early mysticism by an emphasis on justification by faith alone, based upon the Lutheran model. However, throughout his life he consistently returned to humility and suffering as essential in­ gredients in a Christian's life. CHAPTER VII

LINCK*S CONCEPTION OF CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY

Economic Views

When Linck left the world of the monastery and entered the life of the town as a preacher, he left the relatively secluded world of the clergy and entered the secular world. Others besides Linck and Luther made this step at the time of the Reformation, and all took their theological baggage with them. It was in the midst of the turbulent, chaotic, events of the Reformation that Linck opened up his bag so that all could see his wares and apply his remedies to the ills of society. To this nascent rebellious world, he brought his theological principles and applied them in his attempts to reconstruct society. Linck*s whole life was a testimony to his belief in the pre-eminence of religion as a remedy for all that troubled man. Thus he based his reforms for the secular world on his conception of the sufficiency of Christ. He de­ signed his social and economic systems to meet the

challenge of this age of heroic confusion, the time

of the emerging Reformation. i This was the period of 15^ 155 the economic problems which led to the upheaval of the peasants* revolts and the dislocations accompanying the

rise of town economy. Linck reconciled the world to his religious ideas.

He had abandoned the idea of earning merit for salvation by good works and had given expression to his new theology in his attacks on the idle life of the monks. Such polemics he had felt were necessary so that man

could cleayly understand the message of justification by faith and see that no special merit could be earned

by any external practice. Linck had left the solitude of contemplation be­ hind monastic walls and had taken his proclamation to the market place of ideas, to the townsmen of Altenburg

and Nurnberg. When in 1523 Eberlin von Gunzburg queried in a pamphlet, "Why was the whole world made poor? And why should God who had made man so rich in 1 soul have made him so poor in worldly things?" it gave Wenzeslaus Linck an occasion to present his ideas on society and economics to the world. In an age when, according to scholars* estimates, the ratio of actual workers varied from only one out

■^Wenzeslaus Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Wenzel Linoks Werke. gathered, edited, and provided with an introduction py Wilhelm Heindell (Marburg, 1894), p. 148 (hereafter cited as Werke). of three to one out of fifteen people, Linck presented a somewhat novel idea, namely, that work as a virtue was necessary for all. It is in this connection that he constructedhhis definition of the conscience of society. His ideas of civic responsibility, social

welfare, care of the sick, and aid for the poor all stemmed from this conception of work. Prom his prin­ ciples of Christianity he took the idea of the divine

calling of man and made it applicable to all society, all occupations, and all work. He assumed that the true calling of the Gospel could be exemplified only in the midst of a secular city, in the midst of evil it­ self. He sided with the ideas of the townsmen in terms of acceptance of the dignity and value of secular work and, in that limited sense, supported a commercial and industrial society. By extending the concept of divine calling to all occupations, he predated the Calvinists* and Puritans* belief that work in and of itself is a virtue. Linck*s polemics against the Catholic’s theology of good works meant that he had to redefine work.

Work is medicine given man after the fall, through which he should atone and return to God, avoid and stay away from evil, get closer to good, kill the old Adam, and attain the new Christ, and through which he should become a new creature, and carry the cross of Christ, 157 follow the law of God obediently, and flee from the devil, death, and sin, etc., 2

Work was the first law God imposed upon Adam. For Linck this signified that man in the active life re­ turned to God by atonement and beatification. For man there was work for atonement, for woman there was the pain of childbirth. Linck clearly transferred his mystical emphasis on humility and suffering to work and pain. "Then is work and pain a wholesome atonBment if they occur in belief and obedience to the divine demands and commandments.By this process Linck applied Christian principles to reconstruct society. Adam was cursed, but work was necessary for all, not just for him. To make sure this was understood, Linck made a special effort to show how and why this always was the case. "Not only after the fall, but also in the condition of innocence and the state of future bliss, it is necessary for man to work and not to be lazy. . . . In paradise God trusted man to build h, and keep paradise." God’s commandment was that "one should work at all times." As proof of this he quoted John 5*17* in

2 Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke, p. 152. 3 Ibid., p. 153. kIbid. 158 which Christ said, "My Father works at all times and I work, too." It is obvious that those who live In Christ must follow the same precepts. Man worked before the fall, works on earth,after the fall, but also will work in paradise, as he quoted from Rev. 14-: 13, "The dead in the Lord from now on shall have rest from their work, but not from the work of God in which they are all skilled." He summed up his point by saying that just

as the bird is born to fly, so man is born to work. "Man shall be born again to the work of God through the Word of God in the belief In Jesus Christ."^ Linck changed from the traditional views of the age that work was the curse of mankind because of origi­ nal sin. He incorporated work into God's plan of atone­ ment. Work became a part of the mystical plan of humility and suffering as the way to salvation. Work received new dignity because it was a part of man In the Garden before evil and In paradise. Work was no longer degrading, it was a part of the divine plan. Work had a great value, for while man worked he avoided evil. The avoidance of sin made man healthy. Work was the medicine that gave man the eternal health of atonement. Work was also a consolation for man

'’Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 154.

6Ibid., p. 1 5 2. 159 when he was burdened with despair for it leads man be­ yond the despair of this world into the peace and rest 7 that God offers through atonement. To work is to be obedient to the divine command- Q ments of God, Linck said. There it is beneficial to o man. Work, he taught, becomes a "prayer." It is the actual sanctifying process for man. Work, rather than devotion alone, is service to God. While man works, he prays to God, "so one must pray at all times and never ease off."10 Linck emphasized the transcendent quality of work. Work is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. He had early come to the conclusion that the consequence of looking upon human work as an end in itself was 11 vanity and lust. The end of work, he preached, was not only earthly satisfaction but primarily a Christian life lived in accord with God's divine calling. Work did hafre therapeutic value for the individual, however, because it gave him no time for earthly lust. In this

- Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 15^. 8Ibid.. p. 159. 9Ibid.. p. 173- 10Ibid. 11Wenzeslaus Linck, Bln Hailsame lere (Niirnberg, 1519)$ Sermon 26. l6o way Linck changed his individualized mysticism of humility into a generalized temporal virtue that all

could attain. Linck had internalized and spiritualized work so that theologically it was synonymous with his earlier mysticism of humility and suffering. Work was also good within the terms of the secular world becgtuse it met Gdd's commandments. Linck was already changing his con­ ception of the two kingdoms, one spiritual and one temporal. He now realized that the church was in the temporal world and that the Gospel lived spiritually in what once he would have called a temporal world. His polemics maintained that the secular clergy and the begging monks performed useless external tasks which had no relation to what he called real religion. He regarded the clergy and monks as living in lust since they coveted secular goods. He now maintained that they were also lazy and did not provide for themselves. By not supporting themselves, they did not follow God's commandment.

All commandments of God have as an aim that man shall not bother or damage anybody but help and console everybody as much as it is possible for him. For this reason one should eat the products of his own labor and not eat the products of other people but help them Instead. According t to this, generally, the farmers and working l6l

people are an estate closer to perfection than the clerics.12

Work is good because it "furthers the general wel­ fare." Linck maintained that God sanctified what was useful to society. He spoke, not only in theological terms, but in terms understandable to the tax-paying, economically-oriented townsman. "Where one feeds him­ self with the products' of his work, there the belief In God is practiced."1^ Those who do not work are not obedient to God and can not be consoled by God. There­ fore "many times the devil draws man away from work and 1/l helps him toward a lazy, loafing life." Linck had a new argument against the clergy, a doctrine of the usefulness of work. They were no longer useful theologically or economically to society.

Prom this It is seen that Idleness is the opposite of God's working in us. Thus all we do without God's Word and commandment Is seen to lead to idleness. Work is beneficial inasmuch as it is done in obedience to the divine Word which God has given man to feed himself by work, etc.15

l2LInck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p . 155* 13Ibld.. p. 156. lffjbld.. p. 159.

15Ibid., pp. 159-3.60. 162

Linck also maintained that there were two types of work. Physical work is all “which one does to be serviceable and useful to others, like the work which that person does who farms the land."xo1ft Teaching or preaching in the pulpit is acceptable spiritual work. If a person can do neither, he should find other work. If he can do no work whatsoever, he will suffer. By such reasoning Linck anticipated the Puritans who put such a high value upon work. Linck's attitude toward work is similar to Luther's conception of Beruf, or vocation.^ Both took certain aspects of their monastic experience, modified them, and widened the spiritual aspects of work to apply to all men. Man must, both believed, work in the temporal world to live according to the will of God. By emphasizing the spiritual value of work, it would at first appear that Linck was close to Calvin's 1 A view that man served God through his vocation.-10

l^Linck, «Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke, p. 160. •^Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. by Talcott Parsons (New York, 1958), PP« 79-82* for a discussion of the overall question see Robert W. Green, and Capitalisms The Weber Thesis and Its Critics (Boston. 1959)» PP* vii-x. l8por an interpretation of Calvin's concept of work see Sidney A. Burrell, "Calvinism, Capitalism and the Middle Class; Some Afterthoughts on an Old Problem," Journal of Modern History. XXXII (i960), 129-1*H; Georgia Harkness, John Calvins the Man and his Ethics (New York, 1931)* Ch. IX; R.H. Tawney. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (New York, 1926)* Chapter z. 163 Linck, however, always emphasized that work was the way one kept his soul humble and his spirit meek. To Linck, work, by producing humility and meekness, aids man in finding faith for salvation.

Social Responsibility

By maintaining that work had value in itself, Linck ennobled physical work. This is the key to an understanding of his economic and social demands. He looked at society and saw its needs and problems. He tried to solve them within the framework of his reli­ gious ideas. As an evangelical preacher, his message had to make sense to the world and answer the questions that the world asked of religion. Prom his religious views Linck saw that man had a responsibility as a citizen of the world. He tried to base his social views on the commandment, Love thy neighbor. This was re­ lated to his belief that the Gospel could be exemplified only in the midst of the secular world. Linck used the commandment, Love thy neighbor, as a guide for the Christian so he could identify with his neighbor.

If one really loves oneself and has pity on his own soul, then one also loves his neighbor and suffers him because the love of the neighbor grows from strong love of oneself. Whereas it is bidden, l 6 k

"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," poverty of spirit makes on really love oneself; meekness, the neighbor.

The first stop in transferring his religious view to the secular world was reinforced for him by the beatitudes. The mercy of God reconciled man with God and, in the same way, man must show mercy to his neighbor. If man wants God to be merciful to him, then man must be merci­ ful to his neighbor.^0 Man had to believe in Christ to love his neighbor as himself. Therefore man had to cancel from his memory past sins. The Christian, in identifying with his neighbor, must take for himself the sins that he personally had not committed. Just as parents assume the sins of their children, so the citizen must assume the sins of his fellow citizens. The Golden Rule, Linck believed, should have an ameliorating effect upon society, man should correct past wrongs in society, should repay all whom he has "cheated, 21 insulted, or damaged." He made clear the terms of retribution and repayment. "If you cannot repay fourfold, 22 as Zacharias taught, do it at least onefold." Prom this he developed his idea of equity.

■^Llnck, Eln Hallsame 1ere.sermon 16. ^Ibid., Sermon 2b, 21Ibid. 22 Ibid. 165 Linck also taught that love of neighbor is charity and expanded this as the basis for social wel­ fare. His view had evolved beyond the traditional con­

ception of giving alms. Giving alms is for him a passive activity because the individual who gives is not involved in any further responsibility. He should have an active sense of responsibility for what society does for the welfare of all. When Linck was preaching in Nurnberg, this city was a powerful city state. The citizen identified with the city. He was proud of the security that the walls of the city gave and felt that he was an important part of the community, the Gemeinde. It was to this awareness of the community that Linck appealed when he maintained that the citizen of a town had the respons­ ibility to take care of its poor. Linck was not a starry-eyed theoretician. He had specific ideas. For example, although all cities main­ tained a common chest for charity, he knew that this did not solve the problem of poverty, that it served, more often than not, as an evasion of responsibility because if a citizen gave something to the collection box he felt that his conscience was clear. Linck pointed out that the collecta had once been a part of the Jewish festivals which ended with the presenting to 166 the poor of goods and food. To him this indicated that an important part of man's religious duties were his social responsibilities. Since society was not doing enough, he made specific recommendations to alleviate 23 the local problem. Many of Linck's ideas reflect his experience in Niirnberg and his friendships there, particularly his close association with Lazarus Spengler. His proposals indicate a reading of the Nurnberg ordinances of 1522, 24 written by Spengler. Whether Linck first influenced Spengler or whether Linck was influenced by the ordi­ nances is impossible to determine. What is of import­ ance is that Linck, from an evangelical pulpit, was preaching social concern. Linck drew upon the tribal tradition of the Ger­ mans in stating that each community should be self- sufficient. Drawing a comparison with the tribes of the Old Testament, he stated that every community must have all the physical means of aiding its needy.

If a tribe or a house is able to give sufficient help to its poor, sick, poverty-stricken members or relatives, then one should not overburden the

2^Llnck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 151. ^Willi Riiger, Mlttelalterllches Almosenwesen: Die Almosenordnungen der Reichsstadt Niirnberg (Nurnberg. 1932), p. 37. 16?

whole community any further, so that it cannot help the other poverty-stricken people. . . . Where, however, individuals cannot take care of the poor, then the community should help. • . . A believer who is a member should spare the community as much as possible so that no damage happens to other poverty-stricken people. ^

The universality of work develops self-sufficiency and individual responsibility. Each community member, by working according to his ability, spares his neighbors. To show that a community is responsible for its poor, Linck used St. Paul's collection of taxes for the poor in Jerusalem as scriptural proof. He quoted Gal. 6:8 to maintain that the Christian community should take care of its own,2^ its sick, and all who are in need. He backed up this general admonition by specific re­ commendations, suggesting, for example, that the city council at Altenburg expropriate the Dominican monastery 27 and turn it into a hostel for the poor. Linck felt impelled to state in definite terms who was eligible for this community care. He believed that any citizen who was unable to sustain himself be­ cause of sickness or infirmity should receive aid.

25 Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln,” Werke. p. 163. 26Ibid.. p. 162. 27Ibid.. p. 1^8. 168 Linck then turned to the problem of the beggars who were not citizens. There were two types, he said, professional beggars and the mendicant orders. He ad­ vised that these non-citizen beggars should be expelled from the city and declared that the begging orders were not scriptural, since they acted contrary to God's com­ mandment of brotherly love. Each man was created to serve others and, since the beggars did not want this, they blasphemed God. Ee decried laziness and believed the city council should expel all those who did not want to work.2® Linck felt that if this economic pressure was taken from the amount collected by alms, the community could more easily take care of its own. He also had another positive suggestion as to how the town could have more money for social welfare. He thought the town should rid itself of the ”mob of loafers,” his name for the clergy. He believed that all those clergy­ men still employed in saying masses were unnecessary and served no useful purpose. He appealed to the townsmen's sense of Gemeinde. He pointed out that the clergy refused to work and help alleviate the troubles of man, exposing them as parasites on the community who

2®Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. l6l. 169 avoided the responsibilities of citizens. The clergy "wanted to be exempt from customs duties, taxes, guard duty, and military duty."2^ Since the clergy did not choose to be a part of the city, the money spent on them was misspent. He suggested that the citizens should gnd.the giving to the clergy of alms, gifts, endowments, and money for the 30 saying of masses, and the city council should see to it that these payments to the clergy should be cancelled. He thought that the money that did not go to the clergy could go to the poor and thus alleviate the local dis­ tress which was causing Increasing unrest. Linck's concern for the community and its welfare was not limited to a single sermon. After "von Arbeit und Betteln," he preached other sermons on similar economic problems. In 1523 he preached to the congre­ gation at Zwickau on the need for social welfare. He debated with Mayor Hermann Muhlpfordt of Altenburg over the problem of Christian death and burial. Afterwards he preached on the proper composition of last wills and 31 testaments and the execution of legacies.

2^Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," VJerke. p. 158. 30Ibid., p. 161. 31 Wenzeslaus Linck, "Ein Bedenken iiber Abfassung und Vollstreckung von Testamenten," Werke, p. 261. Linck maintained that gifts to the church, as en­ dowments for the recitation of death masses or any other such spiritual legacies, was an exploitation of man by the church. After a short foreward, he divided his sermon into two parts. The first part developed the proper way to make a last will and testament. He sub­ divided this part into twenty points all determining the inner and outer validity of a will. In the second part on execution of wills which he subdivided into nine points, he gave his own criteria by which an executor should determine his actions. He pointed out that the clergy seemed to suggest that a dying man would receive eternal benefits from an endowment to the church. Linck claimed that even if the testator stated he agreed to the testament of his own free will, he had sworn under the fear of eternal damnation and had given the bequest, believing it conformed to God*s will. To Linck this was in error and a practice much abused by the clergy for their own benefit. Such an attack upon the recitation of masses for the dead and bequests had such a popular appeal to the townsman that this sermon was reprinted 32 in Numbers, Zwickau, and Magdeburg.

By questioning such wills, Linck questioned the traditions of the church and threatened with immediate

^Linck, "von Testamenten," Werke. pp. 26^-271. 171 damnation the man who left a will with such endowments. Such a will was Idolatrous and a sin. More important economically and socially, Linck argued for the absolute necessity of leaving goods to one's natural heirs so that they would not be future burdens on society. Linck used his pulpit, in this case, to plead for what he considered to be social Justice and civic responsibility in a totally secularized situation. In his economic and social views Linck broke down the old separation of the two realms, secular and

spiritual. Love thy neighbor, God's commandment, in- 34. volved a secular relationship. The Gospel was born in man as he developed in terms of his own human re­ lationships in this world. "If there were one chief commandment which would illustrate one's salvation, it 3*5 would be loving one's neighbor." This message became an integral part of his message to his congregation. As he said many times, "I admonish you to love your brethren.By such concern a Christian served God.

■^Llnck, "von Testamenten," Werke, p. 264. 34 Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln," Werke. p. 15^» -^Llnck, "Von Testamenten," Werke. p. 266. ^Wenzeslaus Linck, Betrachtung wje slch eln Christen Mensch halten soil, des Morgens so er auff gehet und des Abents. so er slch nlderlegt (n.p., 1528), p. 5 . 172

Linck had demonstrated the sanctification of work as God’s commission and had made the workaday life of the laborer as holy as the life of the monk. He had taken the concept of a holy life of service out of the monastery and put It Into the world.

Education

As seen In Wenzeslaus Linck*s economic and social views, the emphasis upon Individual responsibility of man to the plan of salvation provided a powerful dynamic to man in his performance in society. If the Bible is the sole authority, and there Is an of all believers, the preacher must educate the congre­ gation to a proper understanding of the Word. Linck*s very first sermons showed that the preacher had a special responsibility to educate. If the Bible is the sole authority, all should be able to read and understand it to understand their faith. The concept of the universal priesthood of all believers changed the basic concept of education. No longer was it limited to the clergy; it was expanded to the whole congregation. At the time of the Reformation, the purpose of education was broadened. The evangelical preacher Linck cooperated with the city councils at Altenburg and Niirnberg in setting up and maintaining schools. Both the townsmen and the preacher desired a broader base of education so 173 that a better trained population would be able to cope with the problems of a complex urban society. It has been shown that Linck developed a new theory of the universality and benefit of work. He also developed a new theoretical framework for the universality and need for education. Linck saw each child at birth as a beginning. He based his educational views on what he believed was the nature of man*

In physical birth a living human comes Into being which had not existed before. Because Just as In physical birth the seed is received and changed and formed through the natural heat of the mother, and afterwards grows within himself and gains physically through his life or soul, through the teaching or the Word as the seed and through belief or acceptance or the like as through the heat of the mother, the Word grows and gains.

Any distinction between the spiritual life as good and the physical life as bad had disappeared for Linck from the time of his sermon on work. He believed that the Gospel lives in the secular world and that man lives in Christ. He combined these two ideas into a new, if incomplete, doctrine that man is born without evil. The fall of man became a doctrine that he con­ tinued to use, but only historically to explain the

■^Linck, "Der christliche Adel," Werke. p. 179* 17^ separation of man from God* Christ was in the world in spirit, and education was to implant and develop the

character of man. Linck deviated from usual Lutheran doctrine by- drawing upon a principle primarily known to us for Its use by John Locke, tabula rasa.

Man from his physical birth is, with respect to his will like eln blosse Tafel (an empty tablet), upon which nothing has been written or that does not have any form; it is formed by education, teaching, or upbringing and at the same time is born again spiritually.39

Thus Linck denigrated the significance of the fall of Adam. He continued to speak about how man became sinful and full of lust from the world, but this is because of the Improper education that shaped the physical individ­ ual and his will followed suit. Linck emphasized that one needed to keep a child healthy, to shelter him properly, and to teach him the manners of society. This process he called necessary upbringing. This upbringing, however necessary, was not enough. More Important were his family relationships

o Q D The concept that the soul is originally a blank tablet was not original to either Locke or Linck. See Wilhelm Windelband. A History of Philosophy (New York, 1958), I, 203» The~idea was transmitted to the Renaissance through Plutarch and Boethius. The origin of the idea can be found in Plato's dialogue Theatetus, 191C. See The Collected Dialogues of Plato. ed. by Edith Hamilton and Huntington CarIns (New York, 1963)* P« 189* ■^Llnck, "Der cbristliche Adel," Werke. p. 279* 175 and his education. Education was more than reading and writing, for through education man was the very creator of the child’s psyche, his personality his moral training, and also his capacity for the reception of the Word of God or immortality. This tabula rasa of man*s will had no form, but unless there was a total network of instruction, the will learned to be disobedient, proud, and to embrace all the other vices that made man see a dis$oyfced reality and reject God’s divine grace. Through education the total man was formed; that is, man was born again spiritually. This meant that man would not be blinded by his inadequacies, but would see the total reality of God living in the world. A partial education perverted the will as well as the physical man. Therefore there was no such thing as only religious education or only secular education. They were intertwined. Apart they were the basis of man’s corruption. A total network of Instruction was needed so the student would learn what is right and necessary. Thus could he see the true definition of reality that was God. •'Man by nature is greedy for the good." His Instincts are for the good, but he must learn true reality. This is why Linck as a

.Reformation preacher saw education as Important.

^Linck, Eln Hailsame lere, Sermon 21. Linck stated that there are "four ways in which man is formed or spiritually reborn.”^ Man is taught by his natural tendencies. Since man is by nature good, '•the natural little finger points toward the good." Linck changed the concept of the divine spark that re­ sided in man, the synteresls. to an aspect of his total nature that could not be divorced from his physical being. In so doing, he developed by natural imagination and industry. Education of natural man was, of course, limited. To Linck it represented the means to gain knowledge, in contrast to wisdom. Augustine distinguished sclentla from saplentla. the knowledge of earthly things from the wisdom with respect to divine things. Linck, however, did not develop such divisions because he wanted all education to be a workable whole. He wanted no dichotomy. The child is also taught by habits. Linck said, "good bourgeois habits," taught by his family, give a child the knowledge of life in society. This is the place where the child should learn the value of work and other virtues connected with it. Through justice, the will can be formed to be receptive to work.

^Linck, "Qer chrlstliche Adel," Werke. p. 280. ^Ibld. 177 From upbringing and the exercise of good habits, man learns about nature. Actually this aspect of edu­ cation has a negative quality, just as humility to Linck was necessarily a negative quality. The formation of good habits prevents man from learning lust. Good habits form the will to obedience in physical life, which will lead to the obedient serving of God. Linck saw that people learned piety by following the laws. He saw that teaching the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Apostle's Creed were ways to lead man to thirst after righteousness and to make man's will conform to honesty and reason. Such teaching disciplines the will of man to avoid the fleshly lust which would pervert it and thus prepares man for spiritual teaching. Linck saw the Gospel as a legacy left by God. Just as an executor explains a will to the heirs, teachers must explain the Script­ ures to Christ's heirs. But, Linck maintained, man actually is not re­ born from natural imagination or industry, not from human upbringing, that is exercise and learning of good habits, and not from the law. At man's total rebirth he received, as it were, the divine law which came "alone from the grace of God when He wrotfc the

Il 'z holy Word in the heart of man." J Man is converted h'* Linck, "Der christliche Adel," Werke. p. 280. and renewed In his heart. The purpose of the first three types of education was preparation for grace, just as work was preparation for atonement. Prom these two instruments a new total man was created. Sducation precedes wisdom, which Linck distinguished by referring to two types. Wisdom begins when, through fear of God, reason tries to explore and learn what pleases God. This process leads man to despair. Finding that alone he has no answer, man becomes humble and sorrows over his own inadequacy, a step toward atone­ ment. The second origin of wisdom is the desire for righteousness. Wisdom stands in the will, when the will begins to search for what is good. This takes the “most truly desired discipline,” for to desire to suffer for one’s misdeeds is difficult. The benefit of this discipline is the beginning of wisdom.^5 Sducation is the way for the young to discipline their wills from the first, to avoid the long, hard tagk of retraining a sick will. Through education, man receives grace of God and is reborn within the world, where, Linck argued, one must live his religion. Empirically, he said, "Faith

LlIl Linck, Ein Hallsame lere, Sermon 21. ^5Ibid. 179 46 and trust must be tried out,” Once reborn, man has a responsibility to do physical and spiritual work to serve the general welfare. It is education that teaches this responsibility and how to avoid laziness.^? Linck says that the saved man is able to see himself in relation to God and society. He can see be­ yond himself and thus see reality in a true perspective. He is freed from the fears of despair and desolation and his sense of guilt over inadequacy. He is free because he is in accord with divine wisdom. Linck therefore saw education as the way to apply Christian principles to reconstruct society. He took special efforts to apply his ideas in a practical way. Education led people to a prayerful life in Christ, so education led to the good. He attempted to elucidate and implement the Word of God through his own words. The purpose of all sermons, to Linck, was to in­ struct. This is best illustrated in his first major series of sermons, which he called A Wholesome Teaching. They represent an attempt to establish criteria for the new education. These sermons on the seven beatitudes were preached at about the same time that Luther preached his first sermons on the Ten Commandments, but Linck*s

— Wenzeslaus Linck, ”Eomiletische Betrachtung des Latareevangeliums von der Speisung der Funftausend Joh. VI, 1-14,” Werke. p. 214. ^Linck, "Von Arbeit und Betteln,” Werke. p. 158. 180 were designed to prepare people for a confession for Christ and illustrate the method preachers used in their Instruction. Linck also became active in cooperating with local governments in setting up new evangelical schools. While he was at Altenburg, the council built two new schools. The Bartholomew school became a Latin school for higher education and the other was a coeducational [lQ elementary school. Linck wholeheartedly supported the calling of Melanchthon to Numberg to establish a gymnasium in that city. Melanchthon visited with Linck while he was there. Though Melanchthon himself did not stay as its head, as the city council wanted him to do, the school became a landmark in the development of the German school system. At the same time the Augustinian monas­ tery was reopened and used as a school for boys and girls. One of Linck*s most famous books was Preparation of Children for Communion, published in 1528.^° It is

^Hermann Wilhelm Caselmann, "Wenzeslaus Link's Leben riir christliche Leser ingemein aus den Quellen erzahlt." Das Leben der Altvater der lutherlschen Kirche. edited by Moritz Meurer (Leipzig & Dresden, 1863), p. 390. ^Adolf Engelhardt, "Die Reformation in Niirnberg," Mlttellungen des Verelns fur Geschlchte der Stadt Nurnberg. XXXIII (1933)7^33-235. *>W. Linck, Unterrlohtung der Kinder so zu Gottes Tlsche gehen wollen (Niirnberg.1528). called the first catechical evangelical work. Linck, like Luther, worked hard to develop the materials necessary to Improve Christian education. Normally in mid-week he preached a children's sermon. In his life­ time he worked on several types of catechical materials. He published a simplified commentary on the Lord's Prayer to aid in understanding this important part of 51 the church service. Furthermore, he tried to put the essentials of Christian belief in the hands of the

people. His sermons, in general, were examples of the presentation of the Christian message. His polemic sermons were presented to rid the people of non-evangelical ceremonies. He attempted to build materials for a Christian education in his paraphrase of the Psalms and the Old Testament, simplifying them so they would be easier to read and understand. Because of his Interest in children, he reinstituted children's sermons in Nurnberg and specialized in children's preaching. Linck promoted not merely secular education in Nurnberg but also spiritual education because he be­ lieved they were interrelated. He waw the church service itself as a form of education. In connection with this he wrote music because he knew that songs were one of the most inspirational means of spiritual teaching.

-^Wenzeslaus Linck, "Vater Unser," Werke. pp. 287-292. 182

Linck tried to improve the effectiveness of education because he believed it held a special promise for success in spreading the evangelical message. He also tried to improve his own effectiveness as a preacher by the presentation of difficult theological material in a simple, direct way. By precept, concept, and respect, he furthered education throughout his career. CHAPTER VIII

IMPACT OP LINCK*S PREACHING

Early Days at Nurnberg

Staupitz had stimulated the humanists and In­

terested patricians in Nttrnberg in forming a Sodalltas named in his honor and dedicated to reform. When Wenzeslaus Linck came to that city to preach in the Augustinian cloister, this Sodalltas became the nucleus of his congregation and his friends for the rest of his life. These learned men became interested in both the general problems of their age and also the individ­ ual difficulties inherent in striving to live a life which would both satisfy the doctrine of good works and serve their fellow man. These men obviously could not withdraw from life to a monastery, nor did they believe that this was the way to salvation. Staupitz*s early mystical sermons and Linck*s doctrine to the effect that the common man most readily served Christ enabled them to combine their ethical beliefs in the virtue of

183 184 hard work and industry with their spiritual desire for 1 salvation. It is not to be assumed that overnight a few ministers could change the patricians who governed a powerful city. These men had been searching for a new synthesis which would be meaningful to them. They had been Interested in Neo-platonism, mysticism, Srasmian inner spirituality, and also the Hebrew mysticism of 2 Heuchlin. They had at their disposal all the information and all the enthsuiasm needed to carry out

1 Part of Staupitz's Advent sermons appears in Alfred Jeremias, Johannes von Staupitz: Luthers Vater und Schuler, seln Leben. sein Verhaltnls zu Luther und elne Auswahl seiner Schrlften (Berlin, 192FJ", PP* 161-171. Compare with Wenzeslaus Linck, "Eselspredlgt," Wenzel Lineks Werke. collected, edited, and provided with an introduction by Wilhelm Reindell (Marburg., 1894), p. 4-10 (hereafter cited as Werke). For the, membership of the Sodalltas see Chapter III and Adolf Engelhardt, “Die Reformation in Niirnberg," Mittellungen des Verelns fur Geschichte der Stadt Nurnberg. XXXIII (1936), 25-30 (hereafter cited as M¥GN). 2 Pirckheimer*s library had a copy of Babylonloum Hebraoie (Bamberg, 1520). See Emile Offenbach, "La Biblioth&que de Willibald Pirckheimer," La Blbllofllla Rlvista di Storia del Llbro e delle artl graflohe. XL (193&). 247: Lewis Spitz, "Heuchlin's Philosophy: and CabaD*. f or Christ," Archlv fur Reformatlonsgeschlchte. XXXVII (1956), 1-19. For eleven letters between Reuchlin and Pirckheimer see Willibald Pirckheimer, Opera Bolitlca. historica. philolofcloa et epistolica, ed. by Melchior Goldast (Frankfort, T5l0), pp. 258-261. For other letters see . Johann Reuohlins Briefwechsel. ed. by Ludwig Geiger, Bibliothek des litterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, CXXVI (Tubingen, 1875), pp. 290-292. 185 reform. All they lacked was an outside force to con­ solidate their urges and desires. It was only four months after Linck* s arrival in Nurnberg that his popularity was assured. All the men who were to lead the Reformation there were close friends and confidantes 3 of the new preacher. Because of this Sodalltas* close ties with Staupitz and Linck its members were among the first to know of any new developments at Wittenberg. They were among the very first outside the people around Luther to learn some of the reforms suggested by the great re­ former. When Christoph Scheurl received one of the earliest copies of the Ninety-Five Theses, the members of the group were so enthusiastic about them that Kaspar Nutzel translated them Into German so that they lL could receive more widespread attention. Christoph Scheurl, In his admiration for Luther, sent a copy of

3 Christoph Scheurl, Christoph Scheurl*s Briefbuch, ein Beltrag zur Geschlchte der Reformation und ihrer Zelt. ed. by Franz von Soden and J.K.F. Knaake (Leipzig, 1852), II, 24 (hereafter cited as Scheurl, Briefbuch). ^Scheurl, Brlefbuch.il. 36, 39* ^0, 42, 43, 45. Asterlscl and Obellschl were both sent through Linck, Wilhelm Reindell, Doktor Wenzeslaus Linck aus Coldltz: 1483-1547 (Marburg, 1892), p. 78-8 0Thereafter cited as Linck ) ; Wenzeslaus Linck, Sacra Super1oris aevl analecta. In qulbus variorum ad Venceslaum Llnoum eplstolae plures quam septuaglnta. . .ex tabulis Manuscriptis in lucem protullt. ed. by Albert Meno Verpoortennius (Colburg, 1706), p. 53 (hereafter cited as eplstolae). 186 the Ninety-Five Theses to Johannes Eck at Ingolstadt, hoping for his approval. Eck, indignantly, wrote a reply which was sent to Scheurl who in turn gave it to Linck to forward to the reformer. Luther*s reply to Eck, dedicated to Linck, was returned along the same route. From this, the earliest days of the Reformation, Linck played the role that was to he his main function of the Reformation— that of mediator and conciliator looking for stability. Luther on his way to and from Augsburg in 1518 stayed in Nurnberg with Linck. In the dark days following the hearing before Cajetan, Linck, as well as the majority of the members of the Sodalltas. believed that Imprisonment was imminent. It was during these days that Linck preached his series of sermons on the beatitudes, which not only established a strong base for the evangelical belief of salvation by faith, but also encouraged the NUmbergers to take solace from the fact that persecution had usually been the fate of the best men. The last of the beatitudes, and therefore by Linck*s calculations the most Important one, was, "Blessed are those who have endured persecution for their uprightness, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to

^For exchange of correspondence see Scheurl, Brief­ buch, letters 155, 162, 165, 177, 187, 192, 197, 210, and 279 187 them! " There can be no doubt that these sermons were spoken directly to the people who, everyone believed, 6 would be facing persecution in the near future. When Miltitz arrived in Germany, Linck again served as a moderator and conciliator. He and many members of the evangelical group in Nurnberg hoped that some kind of appeasement might be found which would 7 satisfy both Luther and the pope.

Absence from Nurnberg

In 1520 Linck left Nurnberg to become vicar-general of the Augustlnians. During his short term he was responsible for giving the monks at Wittenberg their freedom. It Is true that he was as avid a supporter of Luther as could be found, but he deplored the disorder- liness and chaos resulting from the monks leaving the monasteries. He believed that monks* vows were “against the law, the Gospel, the Writ, the Word, and the works g of God, and also against reason,” but he wanted stability and freedom of choice. Els statements to the

^Wenzeslaus Linck, Ein Hailsamellere wie das hertz oder gewlssen durch die siben sellgkeyts als siben sewlen des ge.vstllchenn bawes: auff das wort gottes gebauet wlrdt (Nurnberg. 1519)* Sermon 30. For a reflection of Linck*s ideas see Pirckheimer, Opera, p. 231, 238, 2^3 and 0. Tyszko, Beitrage zu den Flugschrlften Lazarus Spengler.(Giessen. 1939)* ^Scheurl, Briefbuch. II, 63, 655 Reindell, Linck. p. 9 7 . Q Wenzeslaus Linck, "Der Ausgelaufene Monch," Werke. p. 312. 188

chapter at Wittenberg must have been displeasing to both the firebrands and the conservatives. He chose a middle road which allowed for a trouble-free exodus of those who chose to leave and established reasonable rules and protection for those who of their own free will chose 9 to remain in the cloister. At the same time that Linck was attempting to mediate the Augustinians* problems, the city council at

Nurnberg was doing its share of pouring oil on troubled waters. By 1523, the city was in control of all of the major churches within the city and had installed preach­

ers sympathetic to Luther in each of them. The re-established Governing Counciloof the Holy Homan Empire and the two diets that met in Nurnberg helped make the city the center of the stage for the entire empire for two years. During this time, the members of the city council managed to appease the papal legates and at the

same time protect Nurnberg*s nascent Reformation. At one time they were forced to set up special protective measures because they feared external Intervention in their local affairs, but they emerged from those two years with firm control of the main churches and, by

^"Beschlusse der Augustiner auf dem Kapitel zu Wittenberg," Jan. 8 , 1522 aopears in Relndell, Linck, pp. 273-276. 189 astutely enforcing those portions of the diet’s and the pope’s edicts which most closely paralleled their own 10 wishes, they successfully avoided severe censure. Preachers and citizens favorable to Luther were gaining prominence throughout Saxony. In Altenburg the majority of the city council and the burghers wished to have a preacher for St. Bartholomew's church who would preach this new evangelical faith. The local Augustinian prior was in control of this church and had the right to appoint Its preacher. The community refused to pay its tithes to him and, on Luther's suggestion, called Gabriel Zwllling to the pastorate. Obviously, the chapter was opposed to this move. Elector Frederick was asked to assist in finding a solution to the problem. Zwilling was not satisfactory to the Elector whoffound his candi­ date in Wenzeslaus Linck. Again Linck was called upon H to mediate and stabilize.

l°Franz Ludwig von Sodan, Beltrage zur Geschlchte der Reformation und der Sit ten .1 ener Zelt mlt besonderem Hlnbllok auf Christoph Scheurl (Nurnberg, 1&55)t Eugen Franz, Nurnberg. Kaiser und Reich: Studien zur reichs- stadtlschen Aussenpolltlk (Munich. 1930), PP» 7& ff.} Gerhard Pfeiffer, "Die Einfiihrung der Reformation in Nurnberg als kirchenrechtliches und bekenntniskundliches Problem,’1 Blatter fur deutsche Landsgeschiohte LXXX7III (1952), 133| for a handwritten account see Johann Muller, Historischer Berioht von Anderung der Religion und Aus- musterung des Pabstumbs in der Stadt Nurnberg. und was d6swegen vorgegeengenTNurnberg. ca. 1700). 11 Wilhelm Hermann Caselmann, "Wenzeslaus Link's Leben ftir chrlstliche Leser ingemein aus den Quellen erzahlt," Das Leben der Altvater der lutherischen Klrche. ed. by Moirtz Meurer (Leipzig & Dresden, 1^63), pp. 385-87* 190

His two years at Altenburg were extremely success­ ful. Almost upon his arrival he found close friends among the members of the city council. With their assistance, he could claim by 1525 that the town of Altenburg had been won to Luther. He first offered communion in both kinds to the secretary of the city council and his wife in the spring of 1523* Linck seemed to be extremely astute in his choice of friends. With the full support of the citizens of Altenburg, Linck performed baptismal services in German and introduced 12 an evangelical church service. Linck*s economic and social programs were accepted by the city council of Altenburg. It established two new schools to train its young citizens. The peasants* revolts in Altenburg were unbelievably mild. In the summer of 1525 the peasants plundered a monastery. The first part of July the Elector John the Constant with a group of nobles met at Altenburg to deal with the offenders. The peasants were called to the city and told to bring their weapons with them. They were dis­ armed and taken to the church for trial. Many of them received the death sentence. Out of the great crowd stepped a peasant with a plea to allow them to return

■^Caselmann, “Link,” p. 392. 191 to their lands before the robber stole their chickens. John saw the wisdom of this suggestion and punished only the three ringleaders. The others were only fined two gulden. Peace was thereby restored and Linck* s reforms were retained.^

Return to Nurnberg

Early in the spring of 1525 Nurnberg called the clerics within its jurisdiction to a debate concerning the theological issues at stake in the conflict between the Lutherans and the conservatives. The monks who opposed the reforms were declared defeated. The Domin­ icans, Franciscans, and Carmelites were ordered to stop preaching and hearing confessions. The evangelical church service as used at St. Sebald Church was estab­ lished throughout the city. A great many of the Roman Catholic customs were abolished. Among these was the Corpus Christ! procession against which Wenzeslaus Linck had preached in the Eselspredlgt in 1518. The clergy in Nurnberg had ceased to have any special privileges. They were citizens of the city with all the usual

^Is&S^lqiann, ’’Link," pp. 391-392; Ernst Walter, "Der p&iltische Gehalt der zwolf Artlkel der deutschen Bauernschaft von 1525t" Schwelzer Beltrage zur allge- melnen Geschichte, XII (195^)# 5-23; Franz Gimther, Akten zur Geschichte des Bauemskrlegs in Mlttel- deutschland '(Leipzig and Jena, 192^-19^27* II95^9-50. 192 responsibilities and duties. They were required to pay lit taxes and were subservient to the city government. This Reformation in Nurnberg was carried out by the city council, many of whose members had been greatly influenced by Wenzeslaus Linck during his first period

as a preacher there. When the post of preacher at the New Hospital Church became open, they wrote to Linck at Altenburg, offering the post to him.'*’-’ Because he was undecided whether he should accept, he sought the advice of Luther. Luther counseled him to goeto Niimberg to prevent any damage that might occur to mar the pro­ gress of reform there. Linck accepted his advice. At Nurnberg Linck served on almost every evangelical committee established by the city council. He attended most of the Important meetings of the Lutherans held during his lifetime. His opinion was constantly sought

1 For an account in English see Gerald Strauss, Nuremberg in the Sixteenth Century (New YorV,1966), pp. 154-1&6;see also Adolf Engelhardt, "Die Reformation in Nurnberg," MVGN, XXXIII (1936), 163-182} Emil Reicke, "Reformation und Humanlsmus In Nurnberg,"i:Die Reformation in Nurnberg (Nurnberg, 1925)* pp. 25-49. ^staatsarchiv, Nurnberg, Ratsbuch, No. 13, 5, 49; Adolf Engelhardt, "Die Reformation in Nurnberg, MVGN, XXXIII (1936), 236; Andreas Wurfel, Dlpt.vcha Ecoleslae Egydlane das 1st Verzelchniiss und Lebensbeschreibungen der Herren Predlger.. . . wellche selt der gesegneten Reformation biss hlehler. an der Neuen Spltal-Klrche zum helllgen Geist in Nurnberg. . . (Nurnberg, 1759)* p. 42. 193 by fellow preachers and fellow citizens. He continued in his efforts to establish better education and parti­ cipated in the negotiations involved in establishing the gymnasium. In his new post at the New Hospital Church he was vitally involved in the care of the sick

and age. ° The intensity with which Linck worked to maintain

the gains won in Niirnberg is nowhere more apparent than in his writings on the Anabaptists. Because Nurnberg was one of the first cities to accept the new evangelical faith, it became in the earliest days of the Reformation a haven for religious reformers of various kinds, many of whom had been expelled from other areas. Even during the diets of Nurnberg, the city council managed to protect many of these. When, later, the extremists among them threatened the newly established religious order, Linck joined the city council in suppressing them. In 1523 the schoolat St. Sebald needed a new rector. When Willibald Pirckheimer asked Oecolampadius to recommend someone for the council, he suggested , whom the council employed. During the year 152^ many left-wing reformers came to Nurnberg, among whom were Hans Hut, a bookbinder, and Leonard Schiemer, an ex-Franciscan monk who worked for a while as a tailor.

■^Caselmann, "Link,” pp. ^19-^25. 19^ Thomas Miinzer1s pamphlet against Luther was printed in Nurnberg. Carlstadt’s associate Martin Reinhart came to Nurnberg for a short while. In November 152^, the city council expelled Reinhart, ordered all copies of I Carlstadt's works confiscated, arrested the printer who had published his latest book, and forbade any future sale of Carlstadt*s works.^ Meanwhile a group of dissenting thinkers was

formed with Hans Denck as the leader. Early in 1525 he was ordered by the city council to submit in writing his beliefs on certain issues. His reply was given to the ministers who reported to the city council that he held heretical beliefs and should be expelled. Three painters from his group were expelled at the same time. It is interesting to note that they were not guilty of sedition, but merely divergent religious ideas. It became clear that the city council was acting according to the principle, cuius regio, eius religio, later followed by all German and cities. The primary concern of the council and the preachers was to prevent any dissension within Nurnberg, particularly because

■^Austin Evans, An Episode in the Struggle for Religious Freedom: The Sectaries of Nuremberg 152^-1528 (New York, 1 9 ^ ) » pp. 21-10?} Karl Hagen, Deutschlands religiose und llterarlsche Verhaltnlsse im - zeltalter mlt besonderer Rucksicht auf Willbald Pirck- helmer (Erlangen, 1841-18^4)« I. 177-1?W. 195 of the fear that the peasants* revolts would spread 18 to their city and undo what they had won. There were continuing problems with the Anabaptists, and the work of Wenzeslaus Linck, Basic Advice to the City Council of Nurnberg from Their Ministers Against the Seductive Teachings of the Anabaptists, was an appeal 19 to alert the citizenry to the ever-existing problem. He saw that one of the great dangers of the Anabaptists

was their appeal to the young. He refuted in great detail their negation of civil authority. After all, he was not only writing as a theologian, but for the 20 city council, his friends and his supporters. Throughout his whole career, Linck seems to have

done only one imprudent thing. In June, 1528, he re­ ceived a letter from Luther in which Duke George of Saxony was referred to as "the most foolish of fools." Linck read this letter from his pulpit. As could be predicted, word of it reached Duke George, who, in the middle of November, sent his secretary to Nurnberg to

^Caselmann, "Llnki" p. ^02. 19wenzeslaus Linck, Grundllche Unterrichtung eines erbern Rats der Statt Nurmberg. welcher gestalt ire Pfarrher un Prediger in den Stetten un auff dem Land das volck wider etllche verfurlsche lere der Widertauffer in Iren predlgen auss heyllger Gdtllcher sohrifft zum getreullohsten ermanen unnd unterrlchten sollen fNurnberg. 1527). 20 Staatarchiv, Nurnberg, Rep. E, I, No. 9, "Ettllch Artickel und christenlich leere aus Doctor Wentzeslaus Linckes, 1527/i Xhid., No. "Protokol. . .Apr. 15, 1528." the city council to find out what the letter had con­ tained and what Linck's response was. Linck's reply to the council was that he had received such a letter and had shared it with a few friends, but that he had not authorized its spread. Ke stated that Luther had spoken as a good Christian should against vice, not against a person. Since the council did not have a -copy of the letter, Christoph Scheurl undertook to obtain one. He asked Linck to see the letter, which Scheurl promptly handed over to the Duke's secretary. Exactly what hap­ pened during the next day is uncertain, but Linck re­

gained possession: of the letter the next night and burned it. There was no further discussion of the matter. Even in this relatively rash act, Linck was able to find a respectable solution which did not endanger hlm- 21 self, Luther, or the council. The city council of Nurnberg realized the need for a consolidated policy for its churches. In 1533 it joined with George of Ansbach to draw up a church ordinance to unify the churches under their juris­ dictions and provide a common administration. The city council appointed a committee consisting of Osiander, Schleupner, Linck, and Koberer, with Osiander in charge,

^Caselmann, "Link," pp. ^05-6. 197 to cooperate with the representatives from the Margrave in drawing up the ordinances. In reality the work was done by Osiander and Johann Brenz from Schwablsch Hall. Spengler became disgusted with the obstinacy of his friend Osiander, whom he called "a hard head and like a fresh, unbroken horse that needed to be ridden with sharp spurs." Osiander had dragged his feet in this matter and had quarreled with the other members.offthe committee. The main disagreement among the ministers con­ cerned the Offene Schuld. a combination of general con­ fession and absolution used in the churches in Nurnberg. The Offene Schuld had been used in Bavaria since the eleventh century and later spread elsewhere. Although Luther knew this practice, he did not use it because he considered the Gospel as a form of absolution. He also supported private confession as important to the in­ dividual sinner. When the church ordinance was drawn up, the Offene Schuld was ommitted. I,t was printed before the council noted this omission. It then simply wrote a new intro­ duction' in which it was Included. The Offene Schuld as composed by Wenzeslaus Linck stated

Since we all have sinned and are in need of the grace of God, humble your hearts before God the 198 Lord and confess your sins and needs with sincere hearts and desire His Godly grace and help with firm belief and trust in the promise of grace, and forgive in your hearts each one his neighbors in order that Our Heavenly Father also will forgive your sins and misdeeds. If you do so, I absolve you again in the name of the holy Christian church and Jesus Christ, for He said, "Those whom you: forgive their sins are forgiven all their sins, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

To Osiander and the city council the general con­ fession and absolution were closely tied to the power of excommunication. Osiander wanted the church ordinance to give this power to the clergy. Not only the city council but the other members of the committee opposed this. To men like Linck and Spengler freedom from the jurisdiction of the bishop had been won with great effort and they did not intend to relinquish it now to another authority. The debates over the church ordinance dragged on for years. The city council and Linck insisted upon the general absolution, even though Luther and Melanchthon believed it was unnecessary. They were equally adamant on the question of the general confession. The grounds given by the members of the city council for the retention of the general confession were a blend of economics, history, and knowledge of their citizens. They maintained that many people could not go to confession every Saturday, but that they should 199 not be kept from communion because of this. Nurnberg was such a large city that there were too few preachers to enable everyone to go to private confession. Prom the objections of the city council, it is obvious that it valued the benefit of regular communion more than it feared the damage that might occur from persons taking communion without private confession. Osiander in 1536 wrote to the city council that God*s Word was not in the common absolution and that 22 it was supported only by force. It is astounding that the council allowed him to remain in his pulpit through­ out these years when he consistently ignored its requests. Obviously it believed that Osiander was a good man who was sincerely trying to spread the Word of God. Throughout the controversy, Wenzeslaus Linck did not raise his voice, except when acting on the committee. He agreed completely with the city council and, following Luther*s advice to him earlier, thereby prevented any 23 real damage to the reforms that had been gained. J The city council and Linck had alwys been in close touch with the citizens and perhaps in no other situation

^Wilhelm Mdller, Andreas Osiander (Elberfeld, 1870), pp. 179-180; Engelhardt, ,kDle Reformation in Nurnberg," MVGN. XXXIV (1937)* 108-1^0; Bernard Klaus, Veit Dietrich: Leben und Werke (Nurnberg. 1958), p. 151.

^Caselraann, ,,Li n k , ,, p. ^17» 200

is this so clearly shown. Osiander, Luther,2** Melanchthon, Indeed the whole of the evangelical movement might oppose them, but Lazarus Spengler and Wenzeslaus Linck stood firm in what they knew was the wish of the people. In 154-1 the citizens of Nurnberg were again allowed to hold a Mardi Gras parade. In the ship designating hell they placed the figure of Osiander holding the 25 key (symbol of the power of excommunication). There is little doubt that Linck and the city council had rightly Judged the wishes of the Niirnbergers. They re­ tained Wenzeslaus Linck*s Offene Schuld as a part of their church service until 1790. No man can ask for a better memorial to his understanding. Linck*s life was intimately tied to the life of Nurnberg. He helped form the ideas of the men who led the Heformation, he returned to help care for the young and the old, he Judged the desires of the city well enough to write a confession they would retain despite vigorous opposition, and he won the love and the admir­ ation of all. As Luther said of him, ••Dr. Linck. • . preaches so that the common man learns something. • . . 26 I iaust write a book sometime about smart preachers."

24 Martin Luther, Weimar kritlsche Gesamtausgabe der Werke Luther (Weimar. I883-), Briefe VI, 4-46 ff.,454 ff. (hereafter cited as W.A.). 25 , Klaus, Dietrich, p. 164. 26 . W.A., Tischreden, IV, No. 5047. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. PRIMARY SOURCES

A, Manuscripts Muller, Johann. Historisoher Berlcht von Anderung der Religion uni Ausmusterung des Pabstumbs In der Stadt Nurnberg. und was deswegen vorgegeengen. Niirnberg, ca. 1700. (Handwritten by two hands.) Staatsarchiv, Nurnberg. Ratsbiicher, Nos. 13-18. Stadtarchlv, Niirnberg. Klrchenamt, Nos. 22„ 2if, 28. Stadtbibllothek, Niirnberg. Copper engraving of Wenzeslaus Linck.

B. Printed Works of Wenzeslaus Linck Linck, Wenzeslaus. Bapstgeoreng auss dem Ceremonlen Buch, Auoh etilche Ceremonlen der Blschoffe. auss lhrem Pontifical sehr fleysslg gezogen. Nurnberg: Ulrich Newber and Dieterich Gerlatz, 1565. ______• Betrachtung wle slch eln Christen Mensch halten soil, des Morgens so er auffstehet und des Abents, so er slch nldderleget. N.p., 1528. ______• Das Erst Teyl des alten Testaments: Anno­ tation In die ftinff bucher Mosl. Introduction by Martin Luther. Strassburg: Balthasar Beck, 15^3. ______• Das ander Teyl des alten Testaments: von Josua bis Hlob. Strassburg, 1544.

. Das drltt Teyl des alten Testaments: von Jesala bis Maleachl♦ Introduction by Martin Luther. Strassburg, 15^5*

201 202

Das Jhesus Nazarenus der ware Messlass sey: "Derhalben die Juden auff kavnen anderp warten dorffenT" ZWlckau, 1524. _. Eln Hallsame lere wle das hertz Oder gewlssen “durch die slben sellgke.vt: als slben sewlen des geysillohenn bawes: auff das wort gottes gebauet wlrdt. Niirnberg: Jobst Gutkneoht, 1519 • (Nlcodemus Norlcus). Eln klagred and hertzllohe “bltt zu Gotti alnem yeden Gotsallgen zu dlsen gefarilchen zevten nutzlloh liber den LXXIX Psalmen mit allem fleyss bescrlben: mlt sampt dem selblgen Psalmen Inn Reymen gestallt und Paraphralslert. N.p., c. 1530. Eln nutzllcher Sermon aus dem zehenden capltel “Lucei Was das beste sey Oder des menschen sellg- kelt. Niirnberg: Johann Petreius, 1536. _. Eln Sermon iiber die wort Ohrlstl Joan XIII t ~Nu 1st des Menschen son yerkleret. N.p., 1527.

-• Eyn Sermon von gelstilchem un Weltllohem “Regiment, aus dem Evangello Luce XXII. Nurnberg; Hans Guidenmundt f 1.3267 „• Grundllche unterrlohtung elns erbern Rats der “Statt Nurmbergy welcher gestalt Ire Pfarrher un Predlger In den Stetten un auff aem land das yolck wider etilche verfurlsche lere der Wider- tauffer in lren predlgen auss heyllger Gotilcher sohrlf^t zum getreUllohsten ermanen unnd unter- rlchten"sollen. Niirnberg: Jobst Gutknecht, I $27. _. Kurtz Summarla oder aussziige der Psalmen was “elnem yden nemenuund die zu werke zlhen miige. N.p., T&7- .* Ratsohlag Chris til cher Unterrlohtung: E.vn “Chrlstenlloher Ratsohlag unnd unterrlohtung. welcher gestalt slch alle Christenllohe personen. von o b e m und unterthanen hatten sollen. N.p., Tf>£6.

-• 3acra Super lor Is aevl analecta. In aulbus var­ iorum ad Venceslaum Llncum eplstolae plures quam septuaglnta. • . ex tabulls Manusorlptls In luoem protullt. Edited by Albert Meno Verpoor- tennius. Colburg, 1708. Unterrlchtung der Kinder so zu Gottes Tlsche gehen wollen. Niirnberg. 152%T Wenzel Llncks Werke. Gathered, edited, and "providedwith an Introduction by Wilhelm Helndell. First part: Elgene Sohrlften bis zur zwelten Niirnberger Wlrksamkelt. Marburg. 189**. .. Wle man Chris til ch die Kranken trSstem miige ’durch vater unnseri Zehen Gebot unnd Artlckel des dlaubbens. Sampt"niitzunge der Sacramennt. darauff1 das hanz Christilche wesen stehet. Nurnberg: Jobst Gutkneoht, 1529* .1 Osiander, Andreas* Theodorus, Vituss and Venatorus, Thomas. Eplstola Theologorum Norimbergensium ad Dootorem Rupertumia Mosham. Decanum Patavlensem & Reglum Conslllarlum. Niirnberg, 1539*

C. Other Printed Sources

Bretschneider, Carolus Gottlieb, ed. Corpus Reformatorum. 28 vols. Halle, 183**-6o . "Christoph Scheurl*s Epistel ttber die Verfassung der Relchsstadt Nurnberg, 1516," Die Chronlken der deutschen Stadte. Vol. V. Nurnberg. Leipzig, pp. 791-60^. Franz, Giinther. Akten zur Geschlohte des Bauemskrlegs in Mitteldeufcschland. 2 vols. Leipzig and Jena. 1 9 2 5 - 1 9 ^ : ------Jonas, Justus. Der Briefwechsel des Justus Jonas. Edited by Gustav Kawerau. £ vols. Halle, 199^-5* Luther, Martin. Luther*s Works. Edited by Jaroslav Pellkan andlHelmut T. Lehmann. Philadelphia, 191*9. Vols. XXXI* XLVIII* LI.

.• Weimar krltlsche Gesamtausgabe der Werke Luthers. Weimar, 1893-* Brlefe. Vol. VI and Tlsohreden, Vol. IV. 20*1

Plrckheimer, Willibald. "Apologia seu podagrae laus,” Human!smus und Renaissance in den deutschen StSdten und an den Universlta ten. Edited by Hans Rupprioh. Vol. II. Humanlsmus und Renaissance. Leipzig, 193!?. PP* 1 1 6.-1 3 5. . Opera polltlca. hlstorlca. phllologloa et epi apolloa. etc. Colleoted by Johannes Imhoff and edited by Melchior Goldast. Frankfort, l6l0.,„ . Willibald Plrckhelmers Briefwechsel. Edited by Emit Reicke and Arnold Reimann. Veroffentllch- ungen der Kommisslon zur Erforsohung der Geschlchte der Reformation und Gegenreformatlon. Humanlsten- brief e. IV and V Bands, Munich, 19^0-56. Reuchlln, Johann. Johann Reuchllns Briefwechsel. Edited by Ludwig Geiger. "Bibliothek des litterarischen Vereins Stuttgart,” CXXVI, Tubingen, 1875* Scheurl, Christoph. Christoph Scheurl1s Briefbuch: Beltrag zur Geschlchte der Reformation und lhrer Zeit. Edited by Franz von Soden and J.K.F. Knaake. 2 vols. Aalen, 1962. (First published at Leipzig, 1862.) Soden, Franz Ludwig von. Beltrage zur Geschlchte der Reformation und der Sitten lener Zeit mlt besonderer Hlnbllck auf Christoph Scheurl. Niirnberg, 18^5. II. SECONDARY ACCOUNTS

A. Biographies of Wenzeslaus Linck

Brecher, . "Wenzeslaus Linck," Allgemelne Deutsche Blographle. XVIII (1883)* 66I-663. Bendlxen, R. "Eln Biichleln Wenzeslaus Link's von Arbeit und Betteln," Zeltschrlft fur klrohllche Wlssen- schaft und klrohllche Leben. VI (1884), 584-59 2. . "Wenzeslaus Link," Zeltschrlft fiir klrohllche Wlssenschaft und klrchllohe Leben. VIII (1887), ^0-55J 72-79» 138-153. 205 Caselmann, Hermann Wilhelm. "Wenzeslaus Link's Leben fiir christilche Leser lngemein aus den Quellen erzahlt," Das Leben der Altvater der lutherlschen Klrche. edited by Moritz Meurer. Leipzig and Dresden, 1863- Pp« 321-428. Relndell, Wilhelm. Doktor Wenzeslaus Linck aus Coldltz 1483-1547. Nach ungedruckten und gedruckten Quellen dargestellt. 1. Tell. Bis zur reformatory lsohen Thatlgkelt in Sltenburg. Mlt Blldnls und elnem Anhang enthaTten die zugehorlgen Dooumenta Llncklana lU&ZZj&t, Marburg, 1892. B. Other Secondary Accounts

Baader, Joseph. Niirnberger Pollzeiordnungen aus dem XII. bls!vX3T.r JahBhundert. "Bibliothek des litterarischen Vereins In Stuttgart," LXIII. Stuttgart, 1861. Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. New York7 1950. ” Baron, Hans. "Religion and Politics in the German Im­ perial Cities During the Reformation," The English Historical] Review. LXX (1937). *K>5-^27, 614-&33*" Baughman, Harry. "Martin Luther, The Preacher," Lutheran Church Quarterly. XXI (1948), 21-49* Beifuss, Jos. "Hans Sachs und die Reformation bis zum Tode Luthers," Mlttellungen des Vereins fur Geschlchte der Stadt Niirnberg. XIX (1911), 1- 7 6 . — ■

Boehmer, Heinrich. Martin Luther: Road to Reformation. Translated by John W. Doberstein and Theddore Tappert. New York, 19^6. Burdach, Konrad. Reformation. Renaissance. Humanlsmus. Berlin and Leipzig, 192TT, Burrell, Sidney A. "Calvinism, Capitalism and the Middle Class; Some Afterthoughts on an Old Problem," Journal of Modern History. XXX (I960), 129-141. Drews, Paul. Wlllbald Plrkhelmers Stellung zur Reformation. Eln Beltrag zur Beurtellung des Verhaltnlsses zwlschen Humanlsmus und Reformation. Leipzig,1887. Ebert-Wolf, Marianne von. "Geschlchte des Niiraberger Lebkuchens vom Handwerk zur Industrie," Mlttell- ungen des Verelns fur Geschlchte der Stadt N u m ­ ber g. LII ("1963-^)7^9^-531. Ehrenberg, Richard. Das Zeitalter der Fuggers Geldkapltal und Credltverkehr lm 1 6. Jahrhundert. 2 vols. Hlldesheim, 1965. “TPirst published in Jena, I8 9 6.) Engelhardt, Adolf. "Die Reformation In Niirnberg," Mlt- tellungen des Verelns fiir Geschlchte der Stadt Nurnberg. XXXIII-XXIV 11936-7) and XXVI (19397-

Ernst, Valter. "Der polltische Gehalt der Zwolf Artikel der deutschen Bauernschaft von 1525*" Schwelzer Beltrage zur allgemelnen Geschlchte. XII (195^)• 5=23^ Evans, Austin Patterson. An Episode In the Struggle for Religious Freedom: The Sectaries of Nuremberg 1524-152#. New York, 1 9 ^

Pranz, Eugen. Niirnberg Kaiser und Reich* Studlen zur Relchsstadtl3 chen Aus senpolltlk. Munich, 1930.

Green, Robert W. Protestantism and Capitalism* The Weber Thesis and Its Critics. Boston, 19i>9- Greenfield, Kent Roberts. "Sumptuary Law In Niirnberg} A Study in Paternal Government," Johns Hopkins University Studies In History and Political ~~ Science. XXXVI (1918). '7-139. Grimm, Harold J. "Luther and Education," Luther and Culture. (Decorah, Iowa, i9 6 0), 7 3 -1 4 2 . . "Luther Research since 1920," Journal of M odem History. XXXII (i9 6 0), 105-113. . Martin Luther as a Preacher. Columbus, Ohio, 1929. . "The Human Element in Luther*s Sermons," Archly fiir Reformatlonsgeschlohte. XLIX (1958), 50-59. 207 ______. “The Relations of Luther and Melanchthon with the Townsmen," Luther und Melanchthon ("Re- ferate und Beriohte des Zwelten Intemat-ionalen Kongresses"), (Gdttingen, 1961), 32-48. The Reformation in Recent Historical Thought. New“fork, 19^4. Geiger, Ludwig, ed. Johann Reuchlln seln Leben und seine Werke. Nieuwkoop, 1964. (Firstpublished in 159175 Gilmore, Myron P. The World of Humanism. New York, 1952. Hagen, Karl. Deutsohlands lltterarlsche und rellglfise Verhaltnlsse im Reformatlons zeltalter~~miibesond- erer Rtfokslcht auf Wlllbald Plrokhelmer. 3 vols. Erlangen, l^i-44.

Hamilton, Edith and Huntington Carns. The Collected Dialogues of Plato. New York, l9o3* Harkness, Georgia. John Calvini The Man and His Ethics. New York, 1931* Herrfurth, Hugo. Veit Dietrichs Predigt* Friedberg, 1935* Holborn, Ha jo. Ulrloh_vonj Hut ten and ti^« German Refor­ mation. Translated Dy Roland H. Bainton. New Haven, 193.7 • Holl, Karl. The Cultural Significance of the Reformation. New York, 19^9. H6ss, Irmgard. Georg Spalatlni Eln Leben in der Zeit des Humanlsmus und Reformation. Weimar, Jepson, John J. (ed.). The Lord’s Sermon on the Mount ("Ancient Christian Writers,'.* Vol. V .) . Westminster, Md., 1948. Jeremias, Alfred. Johannes von Staupltz: Luthers Vater und Schiiler. Berlin. 1930. Joachimsen, Paul. Die Reformation als Enoohe der detttschen Geschlchte. Munich, 1951*

"Der Human!smus und die Entwlcklung des deutsohen Geistes," Viertellahrasohift fiir Literaturwissen- schaft und Gelstesgesohlchte. VIII (1930), 419-80. 208

Kalkoff, Paul. Die Reformation In der Belohsstadt Nurnberg naoh den Plugachrlften lhres Rata schr el ti­ ers Lazarus Spengler. Halle, 19&5. Kawerau, Waldemar. Hans Sachs und die Reformation.

Lortz, JOseph. Die Reformation In Deutschland. 2ivbls. Freiburg, 19^6.

Manschreck, Clyde Leonard. Melanchthon. The Quiet Reformer. New York, 1958. / Melster urn Albrecht DUrer. Anzelger des Germanlschen Natlonal-Museumsl'1960*196l. Niirnberg, 1961.

Moller, W. Andreas Osiander; Leben und ausgewahlte Schrlften» Nleuwkoop, 19&5* (First published in 1870.) MUnze und Medallle in Franken. Ausstellung im Germanlschen Natlonal-Museum Nurnberg vom 31• Marz bis 15* Juni 1963* Niirnberg, 1963 • Neal, J. Medieval Preachers. London, 1856. Offenbach, Emile. "La Blblioth&que de Willibald Plrck- heimer," La Blbllofilla R1vista de Storia del Llbro e delle Artl Graflohe. XL *Cl93k), 241-263- Ohlau, Jurgen U. "Neue Quellen zur Familiengeschichte der Spengler,11 Mlttellungen des Verelns fiir Geschlchte der Stadt Niirnberg. LII (1963-^) > 233- 255. Panofsky, Erwin. Albrecht DUrer. 2 vols. Princeton, 19^8. Pfeiffer, Gerhard. "Der Aufstieg der Reichsstadt Niirnberg im 1 3. Jahrhundert," Mlttellungen des Verelns fur Geschlchte der Stadt Nurnberg. X M v i r 9 3 3 T , ' l ^ - " 2 C ------

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