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University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 A Xerox Education Company I I 72-27,146 ZOPHY, Jonathan Walter, 1945- CHRISTOPH KRESS: NURNBERG'S FOREMOST REFORMATION DIPLOMAT. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1972 History, modem University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan © 1972 JONATHAN WALTER ZOPHY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CHRISTOPH KRESS: n URNBERG'S FOREMOST REFORMATION DIPLOMAT DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jonathan Walter Zophy, B.A., M.A. # * # # The Ohio State University 1972 Approved by Department of History PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to a number of people who have given me immeasurable help in writing this dissertation# My debt to Professor Harold J# Grimm, who has served me well as adviser, critic, friend, and scholarly example, is beyond repayment# I would also like to thank Dr# Otto Puchner, Director of the Staatsarchiv, Nurnberg, Dr. Ludwig Veit, Director of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Dr# Gerhard Hirschmann, Director of the Stadtarchiv, Nttrnberg, and their staffs for their gracious help in making available the materials in their archives# Freiherr Max Kress von Kressenstein kindly permitted me to examine the materials of the Kress Family Archives# I am grateful to the Graduate School and the Department of History at The Ohio State University for their financial assistance and encouragement throughout my years of graduate study# Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to my family and friends and especially to my wife, Angela, for their aid and encouragement# The errors which remain in the dissertation both of commission and emission are my responsibility alone# i i VITA September 5, 1945 • • • Born - Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1967 ..................................... B.A., Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 1967-196$ .*••••• University Fellowship, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1 9 6 $ . M.A*, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1966-1971 .......................... Teaching Associate, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1971-1972 .......................... NDEA Fellowship, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio PUBLICATIONS (with Lawrence P. Buck) The Social History of the Reformation; Essays in Honor o? Harold J. Grimm (Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University Press, 1972). FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field; Renaissance and Reformation* Professor Harold J* Grimm Early Modern Europe* Professor John C* Rule Tudor and Stuart England* Professor R* Clayton Roberts Colonial America* Professor Paul Bowers i i i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ARG Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte BB Letters (Briefbflcher) of the Nftrnberg City Council, located in the Staatsarchiv, Nflrnberg* CR A. Brettschneider et al. (eds.). Corpus Reformatorum. 23 Vols. Halle, 1834~1S60. FA Kress Familien archiv Kress, located in the Germanisches Nationalmuseura, Ntlrnberg, MVGN Mitteilungen des Vereins fflr Geschichte der Stadt h'urnberg Q uellen Gerhard Pfeiffer (ed.). Quellen sur Nflrnberger Reformationsgeschichte (’•Einzelarbeiten aus der Kirchengescnichce Bayems,'1 Vol. XLV). Nttrnberg, 1968. RB Minutes of the meetings of the Nurnberg City Council (Ratsbttcher). located in the Staatsarchiv, NUmberg. RTA August Kluckhohn and Adolf Wrede et al. (eds.). Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Kaiser Karl V; Jtlngere Reihe. 8 vols. Gottingen, l962-l$'/l» RV Protocol from the Nflrnberg City Council meetings (Ratsverl&sse), located in the Staatsarchiv, Ntirnberg. S t AN Staatsarchiv, Ndrnberg. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS............................................ i i VITA . .......................... • i i i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS............................................................... iv INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 C hapter I . NORNBERG and THE HOLY ROMAN E M P IR E .................... 3 I I . THE TRAINING OF A DIPLOMAT..................................... 21 I I I . NORNBERG'S REFORMATION CRISIS . ........................ 50 IV . THE EMERGENCE OF EVANGELICAL POLITICS .... S3 V. MAINTAINING A FREE HAND...................................................113 VI. CONCLUSION............................................................................. 144 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................... 161 Y INTRODUCTION In recent years Reformation historians have begun to examine the political, social, and economic dimensions of the sixteenth century which helps explain the rapid expansion of the movement* Yet much work remains to be done* One area that has been given only limited treatment is the diplomatic activities of the townsmen during the Reformation. This is true even for such an important political center as NHrnberg. - It Is the purpose of this dissertation to examine one aspect of NQrnberg,s diplomatic activity in the early decades of the sixteenth century. Nllrnberg,s foreign policy can perhaps best be approached by studying the career of one of her chief diplomats, Christoph Kress* Kress serves as a useful focal point because he was the only Nflrnberg diplomat to attend every important imperial diet between 1513 and 1532, the critical years for the spread of the Reformation. In addition, this patrician served as Nflrriberg^ chief delegate to the Swabian League as well as the city*s representative at the imperial court and at numerous other important political gatherings. He was 1 particularly active in the important evangelical nego tiations leading up to the formation of the Schmalkaldic League. Special attention will he paid to Nflrnberg's relations with the Holy Roman Bnpire and with other German cities, estates, and principalities. CHAPTER I NflRNBERG AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE The cittie of Nuremberg (comonly called in English Norenborow) being well knowne to forraine nations: and by sctne of them (by reason of the great traffike there) named The Dutch Venice: byeth as it were in middest of high Gemany, betwene Franconia and Norica. And Noremberg as the principallest Imperiall Cittie therein /Franconia/: yieldeth all dewties to the Empire accordingly,! Thus wrote the Englishman, William Smith, in the first known description of Nttrnberg by a foreigner in the sixteenth century. Stoith is correct in calling Ndrnberg an "Imperiall C ittie" for in the political hodgepodge that was the Holy Roman Empire of the late Middle Ages, Nurnberg enjoyed the special status of a "free and imperial" city. The relations between the city and the Empire were an integral part of the story of Nttrnberg’s foreign policy during the first decades of the sixteenth c e n tu ry . Nflrnberg was one of about sixty-five cities in the Empire that had won political independence in the sense that it was an immediate subject of the Empire and not subject to a local territorial lord.^ Not all the cities of the Empire had this status; not even all the major 3 centers were free, imperial cities* Erfurt, for example, belonged to the electorate of Mainz and Leipzig to the duchy of Saxony.^ However, Nttmberg and such other great southern German cities as Augsburg, Strassburg, Frankfort, and Ulm enjoyed the free, imperial status and, because of their wealth, considerable influence within the Empire as w e ll. Indeed, the astute Italian political writer, Niccolo Machiavelli, wrote in his Report on the Affairs of Germany that the

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