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Overview
Drawing on extensive archival data documenting Marpeck’s professional life, as well as on his numerous published and unpublished writings on theology and religious reform, Stephen B. Boyd traces Marpeck’s unconventional transition from mining magistrate to Anabaptist leader, establishes his connections with various radical social and religious groups, and articulates aspects of his social theology. Marpeck’s distinctive and eclectic theology, Boyd demonstrates, focused on the need for personal, uncoerced conversion, rejected state interference in the affairs of the church, denied the need for a monastic withdrawal from the secular world, and called for the Christian’s active pursuit of justice before God and among human beings.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780822381655 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Duke University Press |
| Publication date: | 07/22/1992 |
| Series: | Duke Monographs in Medieval and Renaissance Studies , #12 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 212 |
| File size: | 366 KB |
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Pilgram Marpeck His Life and Social Theology
By Stephen B. Boyd
Duke University Press
Copyright © 1992 Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am RheinAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8223-8165-5
CHAPTER 1
RATTENBERG: CRISIS OF LOYALTY
Pilgram Marpeck made a decision to identify with a radical Anabaptist group after a series of volatile events in the religious life of Rattenberg on the Inn – events precipitated, in part, by the conflicting interests of social groups in and around his Tirolean hometown. Because of his civil responsibilities and professional activities, Marpeck was in a position not only to understand those often competing interests, but also to appreciate their effects on the expression of religious ideas within the city. His decision to resign his position as mining magistrate is best understood in this context of social tension and religious upheaval. This chapter focuses on the social, political, and ecclesiastical contexts of that decision, while chapter two explores some of the religious ideas which shaped the decision and his later thought and activity.
SOCIAL BACKGROUND AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY
Marpeck, though not of noble birth, came from a family of some wealth and influence. In 1491, while living in the Bavarian city of Rosenheim, his father, Heinrich, sold Gilig von Münchinau mining and grazing rights to lands around Kitzbühel. Five years later he appears in the sources as city and district magistrate of Rattenberg – a Tirolean mining town on the Inn River, south of Rosenheim. After his tenure as magistrate, Heinrich served as a member of the outer and inner councils of the city. In 1509 he and his wife entered the Bergwerkbrüderschaft. He was sent twice to Innsbruck on city business and chosen to represent it in the Landtag. In 1511 he served as Bürgermeister. By 1516 one of the city's five gates was identified in official documents by its proximity to the Marpeck house.
Whether from Heinrich's earlier landholdings or from their stay in Rattenberg, the Marpecks must have accumulated a considerable legacy. On February 1, 1525, Pilgram was one of forty – two men in the city assessed a tax for the princes; he was among seven who paid the most. Further, sometime before April 1, he lent Archduke Ferdinand I the sizable sum of 1,000 Rhenisch guilders, or the equivalent of twenty times the yearly salary of a carpenter. There are also several indications of Marpeck's wealth after he left Rattenberg. A record of the tax for the defense against the Turks lists »Pilgrams beide Häuser.« When Marpeck's confiscated goods were given over to Christoph Philipp von Liechtenstein, they were valued by some at 3,000 guilders.
As for Pilgram's own family, he was married sometime before 1520 and perhaps as early as 1514. His first wife, Sophia Harrer, with whom he had a daughter, Margareth, died sometime before 1528. He was remarried by July 1528 – perhaps to the Anna who is mentioned by him in later correspondence. He also adopted three foster children, who may have been orphans of men killed in the mines. After his resignation from office and upon his departure from Rattenberg, Marpeck left most of his money and goods behind and therefore also his children. The orphans were taken by guardians who received money from Marpeck's confiscated estate for their rearing. He requested that his daughter receive the fifty guilders yearly interest from his loan to Ferdinand.
Marpeck's professional life began when he was about eighteen years old. Because of a dearth of badly needed help in the city hospital, the council, in 1513, appointed him to work there for an indefinite period. He must have proved capable, for we next find him active in a similar position with the mining guild. It appears that the Rattenberg Bergwerkbrüderschaft was similar to the Gewerkschaften of the mines in Central Germany – a relatively small corporation of middle–class investors or older propertied miners. Each mining guild ran a Brüderhaus to care for sick, injured, or retired miners. Every miner contributed one Kreuzer per month to a common fund, administered by a house father and two assistants. On October 3, 1520, eight months after Marpeck joined the guild, the Rattenberg city recorder was instructed to procure a receipt from him listing the grain that he had bought and sold for the Brüderhaus. It appears, then, that Marpeck served the guild as a secretary or treasurer, responsible for the food supply for its incapacitated members.
Although little is known about his educational background, it must be assumed that it was the best that the area had to offer. In other aspects of professional activity, he was involved in the city's crossbow competition; delivered ore from Schneeberg and Gossensass to Kitzbühel; and accompanied Erasmus Männdl, guardian of Engelsberg, to Hopfgarten in 1521, because of Männdl's claim to wood, coal, and land rights in the area surrounding the market.
CIVIL RESPONSIBILITIES
With a confirmation of his father's oath of citizenship in 1514, Marpeck entered a life in the civil community in which he would serve in both the outer and inner city councils, as Bürgermeister, and as mining magistrate. Marpeck probably became a full citizen of Rattenberg with this oath. It consisted of three provisions. First, among other items dealing with the weekly market, he vowed not to sell weapons or inferior goods; second, he promised not to enter any community storehouse without special permission; and finally, after presenting a letter documenting his birth and estate, he submitted in obedience to the council and the Bürgermeister.
Marpeck attended the city council meetings as early as 1518 and may have been a council member by 1520. He served as Bürgermeister in 1522 and in the inner council in 1524 and 1525. During these years he scarcely missed a meeting and took an active role in the affairs of the city. He witnessed the sale of a house in the city, initiated an investigation into the violation of the oath by a Rattenberger, brought charges against a thief, and was authorized to divide and distribute firewood to his fellow Rattenbergers. In late spring and early summer of 1524 he represented Rattenberg at three Landtage called by Ferdinand. As late as November 1527 he sponsored someone for citizenship.
In addition to these activities, Marpeck was involved in the resolution of three protracted disputes having to do with the economic and religious life of Rattenberg. We view here his role in protecting the interests of the city's artisans, while his involvement in the prosecution of the city's two »Lutheran« preachers, Stephan Castenbaur and Wilhelm Kern, is reserved until later.
From 1521 to 1524 Marpeck represented the city council to the Innsbruck administration in a dispute over the rights of artisans to work in the vicinity of Rattenberg. On August 15, 1521, Christoph von Liechtenstein signed an agreement between the Rattenberg council and the »subjects and craftsmen« of the surrounding district of Rattenberg prohibiting them from practicing their trade within a seven–kilometer radius of the city. This measure protected the interests of the city's craftsmen, enabling them to service the needs of not only the city, but also the surrounding villages and mining community.
However, a group of craftsmen from nearby Reith claimed not to have known about the contract and sold their goods within the restricted zone. After failing to persuade von Liechtenstein and the district magistrate to enforce the terms of the contract, the Rattenberg council turned to Ulrich Schmotzer, legal counsel to the Innsbruck administration. In a brief to Ferdinand, dated August 4, 1524, Schmotzer put the council's case before the archduke, requesting that those craftsmen, breaking the terms of the contract, be punished and driven from the area. Ten days later, Ferdinand instructed the Innsbruck administration to authorize his Vorstmeister, Albrecht Stamp, to enforce the contract. Between March 1521 and March 1524 Marpeck travelled seven times to Innsbruck to represent Rattenberg's craftsmen.
After serving the mining guild, Marpeck's next professional position – mining magistrate – involved also civil responsibilities. This office was one of the most important and difficult in the mineral–rich Tirol region.
Among what a modern scholar has called »macroeconomic changes in the empire between 1440 and 1510« were an »intensification of long–distance trade« and a »stronger demand for money as an accepted medium of exchange.« The Tirolean silver and copper mines provided most of this currency. One of the empire's chief mints was in Hall. At first, these mines were developed and controlled through private investment involving powerful merchants, nobility, and higher clergy. For example, the Fuggers of Augsburg participated in the Schwaz mines as early as 1448. The Schmelzherren, Hans and Jörg Stöchl, must have done very well as they paid 800,000 guilders in taxes over a period of forty years on their mining profit.
The control of such an important resource by so few, and in many cases foreign, capitalists constituted a problem for Maximilian I and his grandson, Ferdinand. In addition, the princes needed money for an ever increasing territorial bureaucracy. Further, the miners represented to Maximilian an important military asset. It was, therefore, important that their interests be protected against exploitation which might lead to alienation from the prince.
The solution to these several problems was found in the office of the mining magistrate, or Bergrichter. The mining laws of the period placed the magistrate in the delicate position of adjudicating the competing interests of the princes, the foreign investors, the local investors of the Bergwerkbrüderschaft, the miners, and the nearby cities. The magistrate was appointed by and responsible to the archduke. As the representative of the prince, he could grant exploration and mining rights and mediate all disputes. Further, only he could weigh the ore and thus assure the prince and his administration their Frohn and Wechsel. After the princes and investors were paid, the smelted ore was divided equally among the miners, regardless of their relative wealth.
Within the mining community, the magistrate had almost complete civil jurisdiction. The miners took an oath that they would not seek justice with any but him. The magistrate held court four times a year to hear cases concerning the miners and matters related to the mining community. He was assisted in his judicial responsibility by eleven Berggerichtsgeschworene. The Gerichtsfronbote carried out the decisions of the court. No group could gather without the magistrate's permission and the magistrate was required to report all disobedience and dissension to the administration. In addition, he was responsible for the care of the widows and orphans as well as the retired miners in the community. Therefore, the magistrate had to be a person of »good understanding and reason, experienced in mining, judicial proceedings and customs.«
It is clear that Maximilian and his successors were the chief beneficiaries of the Bergordnungen. Through the mining magistrate, he took the control of the mines out of the hands of the investors. As for the miner, although he was protected from exploitation by the investor, he had little political leverage. The prince, then, gained money from the Frohn and Wechsel, faced a reduced threat from the foreign and local investors, and could draw on the mining community as a military resource. However, these advantages rested on the ability of the magistrate to keep the miners both diligent and cooperative.
On April 20, 1525, Pilgram Marpeck was appointed mining magistrate and on June 7 assumed the office from his predecessor, Hans Griessteter. Griessteter retired because of the »frailty of age« but Marpeck must have already assumed some of his responsibilities even before this time. In August 1523 he is called Perckrichter in the council minutes and instructed to help present gifts to the administration in Innsbruck as a token of the city's loyalty. During this time, the Fuggers briefly took an active role in the Rattenberg smelting works. Marpeck signed and sealed a letter dated April 21, 1525, in which he confirms his vow to Ferdinand. His responsibilities covered not only Rattenberg but also Kufstein and included the forests, as well as the mining and smelting works. He promised to punish wrongdoers diligently while judging the rich and poor without discrimination. In addition, he pledged to bring the books for yearly inspection or as often as they were required. He would make sure the prince received the Frohn and Wechsel and do everything, »a true mining magistrate is bound to do for his lord.«
The records show that he fulfilled these commitments to Ferdinand – at least until late January 1528 when he decided that he would do so no longer. On May 15, 1526, and May 2, 1527, he was called to Innsbruck for the annual review of the books and the mining work in general. Although there are no extant records of the Berggericht, the city council minutes show that his jurisdiction reached even into the city for those connected to the mining community. In May and June 1526 Marpeck was given custody of a smelter and smith, who had been arrested in Rattenberg. The following year an iron worker, who had caused a disturbance outside a city gate, was handed over to him. Marpeck also continued to take part in city affairs. From July to October 1527 he attended the council meeting five times and in November sponsored Matteus Gartner for citizenship. A final entry notes that Marpeck was fined sixteen guilders concerning the Berndarffer case. However, the fine was suspended because of his trip to »Nuremberg and other services he had rendered the city.«
The sources, therefore, profile a man of considerable means, who honored the social responsibilities consequent to his familial, professional, and civil bonds. He defended the rights of his wife's family, spoke for the interests of the artisans, swore and preserved the communal oath, and represented the city in the larger political sphere. In addition to mediating the interests of Rattenberg's citizens on the council, Marpeck accepted a broader responsibility in the mining community. As administrator and judge, he adjudicated the rights and claims of the miners, the investors, and the nobles.
RELIGIOUS FERMENT
After two and one–half years as mining magistrate, Marpeck decided that he could no longer fulfill his oath of loyalty to Ferdinand. The factors affecting his decision included the development of religious movements that spread through the Tirol in the 1520s. These led to several acute crises in Rattenberg in which Marpeck played a significant role. It is important to note that, during this period, the spectrum of opinion within the reform movement was rather broad and the lines delineating specific parties were indistinct. The investigation of this background will be guided, then, by Marpeck's perspective on his own religious and theological development.
On December 9, 1531, a Strassburg clerk made a record of Marpeck's remarks in his first discussion with Martin Bucer before the council:
Afterwards and now, in the whole world, the struggle is only about faith. He was led by his God–fearing parents into the papal church. But he discovered a significant dispute about the Scriptures. Then he experienced a fleshly freedom in the places where the gospel was preached in the Lutheran way. This made him draw back, for he could find no peace in it.... And then he reported that every Christian must yield himself under the bodily word and work of Christ.... Therefore, he stands now and gives the reason for his faith.... And in summary, he received baptism for a testimony of the obedience of faith.
Although initially responsive to the »Lutheran way,« Marpeck indicates that he became disillusioned with the »fleshly freedom« of some of its enthusiasts and was drawn to the baptism of »the obedience of faith« preached by the seemingly more disciplined Anabaptists. Archival material related to the turbulent religious life of Rattenberg during the 1520s, sheds significant light on Marpeck's relation to the various religious movements that touched the city.
ATTRACTION TO AND DISAFFECTION FROM THE »LUTHERAN WAY«
One of the first notices of a reform preacher influenced by Luther in the Tirol is that of Jakob Strauß at Schwaz. Having come from Berchtesgaden in 1521, he preached sermons at open–air services that attracted a large number of miners. From there he moved to Hall where he lectured in Latin on the Gospel of Matthew and then began preaching in the chapel of the women's cloister. His sermons drew so many people from Hall and the surrounding villages that the city pastor, Stefan Seligmann, allowed him to preach in the parish church. On fair days he preached outdoors on the city common which accommodated an even greater number. According to the Hall city chronicler, Strauß had a splendid oratorical style that spellbound the »common man,« but he spoke heated words »against the clerics, such as the bishops, priests, monks and nuns.« Further, he »rejected the sacrament of penance and other ceremonies.«
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Pilgram Marpeck His Life and Social Theology by Stephen B. Boyd. Copyright © 1992 Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein. Excerpted by permission of Duke University Press.
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Table of Contents
CONTENTSAcknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1 Rattenberg: Crisis of Loyalty
Chapter 2 The »Mystery of the Cross«: Theologies of Suffering
Chapter 3 Strassburg: Social and Religious Radicalism
Chapter 4 Marpeck's Theology of the Cross and the Christian Community
Chapter 5 Interim Years: Struggle for Unity and Institutional Identity
Chapter 6 Augsburg: Confessional Pluralism and Political Conflict
Chapter 7 Gerechtigkeit and Marpeck's Social Theology
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index