"Über den Ausgang des Heiligen Geistes": Eine Schrift eines anonymen Russen als Beilage im Brief von Simon Budny an Heinrich Bullinger vom 18. April 1563

Simon Budny (ca. 1530–1591) was a Reformed pastor who became a wellknown leader of the Anti-Trinitarian movement in Lithuania. In 1563, Budny wrote a letter to Heinrich Bullinger asking for his opinion on the filioque, which was the object of intense discussion in Lithuania. Budny enclosed a small work written by an anonymous Russian Orthodox author titled De processione Spiritus sancti that contains the main exegetical and theological arguments against the filioque (Zurich Staatsarchiv, E II 367, 231–242). This contribution includes an historical introduction, an edition, a German translation, and a text analysis. I propose that the anonymous author of this text may be the famous Russian theologian Maksim Grek (1470–1556) or one of his students, because the language, the content, the argumentation, the Biblical and Patristic proofs are similar to his Anti-Roman-Catholic works written between 1518 and 1525

Buchdruck und Reformation in Bern

Paving the way towards Reformation in Berne was a process set by the authorities, but it disunited the members of the Council. They empowered themselves on clerical and theological issues which overextended their competency. In the first five years (1538–1523) they underestimated the phenomenon of book printing as a powerful means of mass communication that quickly made the literate middle and upper classes – members of the council as well – understand what the new doctrine was all about. From 1523 on the Council itself used printing to consolidate its own authority. A censorship act set boundaries in the Bernese printing business as from 1539

Konrad Schmids Predigt von 1522 in Luzern: Ein früher Schlüsseltext der eidgenössischen Reformation

The sermon by Konrad Schmid held on 24 March 1522 on the occasion of the procession to the Musegg in Lucerne in front of several thousand listeners, is the oldest printed sermon of the Swiss Reformation. It was printed by its preacher himself. It appears here in a slightly normalized copy with a translation into today’s German and a theological historical classification. Schmid was attacked by Lucerne clergy and defends himself in this pamphlet Antwurt and tries to continue the conversation about the new faith in Lucerne. The sermon expresses the findings of the Zurich Reformation in a concise and committed manner. It provides insights into the early Reformation preaching culture in Switzerland and testifies to Schmid’s great homiletic skills and to his artful language. At the Musegg – 15 days after the sausage dinner in Zurich – Schmid brought up many topics that became important for Reformed theology and the church. Schmid tries to gain the hearts of the listeners and, despite his partly revolutionary message, builds bridges to them. The sermon proves to be an often forgotten early key text of the Swiss Reformation.The sermon by Konrad Schmid held on 24 March 1522 on the occasion of the procession to the Musegg in Lucerne in front of several thousand listeners, is the oldest printed sermon of the Swiss Reformation. It was printed by its preacher himself. It appears here in a slightly normalized copy with a translation into today’s German and a theological historical classification. Schmid was attacked by Lucerne clergy and defends himself in this pamphlet Antwurt and tries to continue the conversation about the new faith in Lucerne. The sermon expresses the findings of the Zurich Reformation in a concise and committed manner. It provides insights into the early Reformation preaching culture in Switzerland and testifies to Schmid’s great homiletic skills and to his artful language. At the Musegg – 15 days after the sausage dinner in Zurich – Schmid brought up many topics that became important for Reformed theology and the church. Schmid tries to gain the hearts of the listeners and, despite his partly revolutionary message, builds bridges to them. The sermon proves to be an often forgotten early key text of the Swiss Reformation

Rainer Henrich / René Specht (Hg.), Johann Conrad Ulmer (1519–1600): Vollender der Reformation in Schaffhausen, 2020

No abstract available

Buchdruck und Reformation in Genf (1478-1600): Ein Überblick

This article links profits from the rich literature in the fields of Reformation history and book-history in order to analyse the relation between printing and the Reformation in Geneva from 1478 to 1600 in a general historian’s perspective. Although various genres of religious and literary (illustrated) books have been printed for a local market since 1478, texts with evangelical  tendency have not been produced in Geneva before 1536. Therefore, the ideas of Reformation were rather introduced by evangelical preachers than by the printing press. But after that Geneva became the centre of protestant or better: Calvinist printed propaganda in French (and Latin) until the early 1560s. Because of changing political contexts – French wars of Religion and the comeback of the Duke of Savoy as a neighbour – and the emerging of reformed printing in France forced Geneva to redirect their production towards more learned and non-religious books in Latin (humanism, classical authors, science). Nether the less, the production of (Genevan) Bibles and texts of Calvin and his followers and successors did not cease

Wie eine 1608 wegen Blasphemie verhängte Exekution das eidgenössische Bündnis auf den Prüfstand stellte: Todeswürdiges Verschulden oder fataler Justizirrtum aufgrund religiöser Voreingenommenheit?

In September 1608, Martin Duvoysin, a reformed citizen of Basel, was accused of blasphemous speech in Sursee, Lucerne, and sentenced to death by beheading and cremation. Three Bernese who happened to be passing through witnessed the pronouncement of sentence and the execution which took place immediately afterwards. They were convinced that this sentence was not free of confessional resentment and that Martin Duvoysin had fallen innocently into the clutches of Sursee’s arbitrary justice. This assessment of the incident was made public by their spokesman Gabriel Hermann in two pamphlets, both of which were reprinted several times and caused a great uproar. The Basel church leader Johann Jakob Grynäus was also deeply convinced of Duvoysin’s innocence, which he expressed in a sermon that was also published in print. The grave accusation of judicial murder that circulated widely as a result of these writings forced the Sursee and Lucerne authorities to vehemently counter the accusation, which initially led to a months-long exchange of blows with the Basel and Bern councillors through diplomatic chan-nels, before Lucerne also had its justifications and counterattacks spread in several printed publications. The danger of a further escalation to the point of a full-blown quarrel between the two confessions was certainly in the air, and a Swiss Confederation divided into two camps would have had to worry seriously about its independence. It took the arbitration of the allies, who were not involved in the conflict, at the «gemeine Tagsatzung» of June 1609 to avert the threatening scenario just in time

Hübsch, keusch und fruchtbar: Theologie der Ehe, Geschlechterrollen und Frauenbildung in volkssprachlichen Eheschriften des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts – Ein Vergleich der Ehetraktate von Albrecht von Eyb, Martin Luther und Heinrich Bullinger

The implications of the Reformation on the roles of women in marriage and society, as well as the education of women, are currently diversely discussed. In this essay, three different vernacular theological texts are portrayed and compared. Those printed texts address married life and are written during the early modern era by men to the mixed-sex audience. During the early modern era, the Reformation brought changes to the legal and social order of marriage. Albrecht von Eyb’s Ehebüchlein from 1472 was a popular tract in its time and stands exemplary for a pre-Reformation view on marriage, gender roles, and the education of women. It is compared to Martin Luther’s Vom ehelichen Leben, one of Luther’s early writings on matrimony, written in the midst of the Reformation endeavors in 1522. The third text chosen for comparison is the tract Christlich Eestand, which was written by the reformed theologian Heinrich Bullinger in 1540, during the time when the new Ehegericht (marriage court) in Zürich has been established for fifteen years. The tract therefore stands exemplary for the consolidation period of the Reformation. The three tracts are compared in a chronological order along the contextual topics: institution of marriage in paradise, sexual ethics, fertility, Ehezwecklehre (the ends of marriage), the ideal man and woman, gender roles in marriage, and women’s education. The high regard the three authors hold for married life is rooted in the biblical story of the creation of Adam and Eve. In the area of marriage theology, gender roles and women’s education, too, there are (early modern) similarities, but also major and minor differences. Furthermore, the ideals of man and woman, sexual ethics, gender roles in marriage, and women’s education partly dependent (on the) different marriage theologies of Albrecht von Eyb, Martin Luther, and Heinrich Bullinger

Titelblatt, Impressum, Inhalt

aaNo abstract available

Donald K. McKim / Jim West, Heinrich Bullinger: An Introduction to His Life and Theology, 2022

No abstract available.No abstract available

Katholische Kuriositäten: Aufarbeitung der Bedeutung und Funktion von Kuriositäten mit katholischem Hintergrund in der frühen Neuzeit, anhand der Sammlung der Bürgerbibliothek im reformierten Winterthur

This article presents an inquiry into the topic of catholic coded curiosities in protestant owned curiosity collections in the early modern period. The specific object of this investigation is the curiosity collections of the Library of Winterthur in Switzerland during the 17th and 18th century. This collection contained several objects of catholic origins, which didn't seem to distinguish themselves threw rarity, exoticism or value, like other curiosities typically would. Therefore, the question arose why these objects were part of the collection. This article tries to answer this question by the following argumentation: The protestant reformation brought with it a new ethos of education. Literacy and learning were promoted, so the believers could read and understand the bible. This new ethos, which saw education as a religious good, also led to the founding of libraries in many protestant cities. This reframes the catholic objects. If the library is seen as a place of education closely tied to religious goals, the catholic objects appear as part of the protestant educational project. Therefore, the catholic curiosities can be understood as pedagogical tools to teach the protestant citizens about the “false” teachings of catholicism as well as the history of the reformation