German Reformation (Renaissance and Reformation)

Introduction
In the 16th century, “Germany” existed only as a kind of shorthand term to designate the German-speaking lands of the Holy Roman Empire that encompassed, in addition to these, large areas such as the Low Countries, eastern France, and northern Italy. It was in these German-speaking lands that Martin Luther first voiced his theological concerns, and it was there that the major theological controversies of the 16th century were fought. Here, the first generation of Reform leaders emerged; the new Reformation liturgy was first put into practice; pamphlets circulated in a propaganda war in support of Reform; marginal persons, such as women and peasants, were drawn into discussions that at first involved only reformers and their princely or patrician patrons; and Protestant views on perennial outsiders—Jews and Turks—were first articulated.
General Overviews
Though the place of the Reformation as a preeminent watershed event—a bridge, so to speak—between the medieval world and mind and modernity has now been seriously compromised, there is no question that the movement itself had an indelible effect on European and world history and especially on the history of Germany. Wohlfeil 1982 and Hsia 2007 present a general introduction (one older and one newer) to the German Reformation itself as well as to some of the relevant historical issues and debates that have exercised the field. Dixon 2002 offers an introduction heavy on the political element, whereas Köhler 1951 stresses the theological. Scribner and Dixon 2003 attacks the Reformation’s historiographic centrality by portraying it as a single (and unfulfilled at that) movement among many that aimed at societal renewal.
Dixon, C. Scott. The Reformation in Germany. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2002.
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The best brief introduction to particular aspects of the German Reformation in the early part of the 16th century; concentrates on the meaning of the movement for the German people, and especially emphasizes the role the German princes and their territorial entities played in the propagation of the new set of beliefs.
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Hsia, R. Po-chia, ed. History of Christianity. Vol. 6. Reform and Expansion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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Exemplary essays by noted authorities who take the story of Reformation from the movement’s first stirrings all the way to the height of the Catholic countercampaign, paying particular attention to the reform’s German roots.
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Köhler, Walther. Dogmengeschichte, als Geschichte des Christlichen Selbstbewusstseins: Das Zeitalter der Reformation. Zürich, Switzerland: Max Niehan, 1951.
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Despite a somewhat unusual structure, this is the best introduction to the complicated theologies of the 16th century.
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Scribner, Robert W., and C. Scott Dixon, eds. The German Reformation. 2d ed. Studies in European History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
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This somewhat idiosyncratic collection of essays posits the Reformation as only one of several movements for social and spiritual growth and renewal and speaks to its incomplete nature.
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Wohlfeil, Rainer. Einführung in die Geschichte der deutschen Reformation. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1982.
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Although a bit older, this narrative is interspersed with brilliant insights concerning the historiography of the German Reformation.
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Bibliographies
Because so much of importance took place in the Holy Roman Empire (for which the shorthand designation “Germany” is widely used), general bibliographies of the Reformation also include items of importance for the German course of events. Archive for Reformation History and Schottenloher 1958 still retain their value as such necessary sources.
Archive for Reformation History. Literature Survey. 1972–.
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A thorough annotated annual bibliography of the period 1450–1600 that amends the Archive for Reformation History/Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte journal, published jointly by the Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte and the Society for Reformation Research.
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Schottenloher, Karl, ed. Bibliographie zur deutschen Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation. 6 vols. Stuttgart, West Germany: Hiersemann, 1958.
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Despite its datedness (the original edition was published in the 1930s), this monumental bibliography remains the best bibliographical source for the German Reformation and 16th-century history.
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Source Editions
Given the 19th-century interest in political (“diplomatic”) history, scholarship focused on editing sources relevant to the political course of events. The interest in religious and theological sources came later in the century and initially focused on the writings of the major reformers. Deutsche Reichstagsakten follows the early trend of concentrating on the political aspects. Dixon 1999 offers a broad and general sample of works by some of the leading reformers. Kolb and Wengert 2000 focuses on one major text. Busch 2007 notes the plenitude of Reformed confessions (statements of faith), whereas Laube 1983 offers a sampling of pro-Reformation pamphlets and Laube 1997, a counter-sample of anti-Reformation productions.
Busch, Eberhard, ed. Reformierte Bekenntnisschriften. Vol. 1/1. 1523–1534. Neukirchen Vluyn, Germany: Neukirchener Verlag, 2007.
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The first of a three-volume set aiming to analyze Reformed confessions (statements of faith) from the 16th and 17th centuries. Each included confession receives its own analysis in terms of context, public acceptance, and importance. What is excluded is as telling as what confessions are present.
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Deutsche Reichstagsakten,Jüngere Reihe: Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Kaiser Karl V. 19 vols. Gotha, Germany: F. A. Perthes, 1893ff–.
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The minutes of the proceedings of the several German diets held from 1521 to 1555 under the auspices of Emperor Charles V. Though the proceedings obviously dealt with more than just theological matters, the heavy dose of religious concerns is strikingly apparent.
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Dixon, C. Scott, ed. The German Reformation: The Essential Readings. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
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A companion source study to Dixon 2002; provides a number of important texts to augment the author’s analysis.
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Kolb, Robert, and Timothy Wengert, eds. The Book of Concord: The Confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2000.
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The theological source for the eventual resolution of the internal Lutheran controversies is available in a new English translation. It is useful but unfortunately marred by mistranslations.
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Laube, Adolf, and Annerose Schneider under Sigrid Looss. Flugschriften der frühen Reformationsbewegung. 2 vols. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1983.
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A collection of vernacular pamphlets from the early Reformation period, selected from a broad Marxist perspective to stress the economic and the revolutionary.
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Laube, Adolf, and Ulman Weiss, eds. Flugschriften gegen die Reformation. 3 vols. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1997.
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A follow-up on Laube 1983, done this time with a focus on, and analysis of, the anti-Reformation writings in Germany.
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Historiography
The story of the Reformation changes relative to the time period of the story’s construction or to the bias—historiographical, theological, or ideological—of the constructor. Has the Reformation made advances toward modernity? Has it helped or hindered the role of women in the private and the public sphere? Histories written by partisans of one confession or the other share little with productions written in the German Democratic Republic, for instance. More recently, scholars have attempted to trace such changes in historiography, illuminating not only their distinctive forms and themes, but also the social reasons for their distinctiveness. In Hamm 1995 prominent historians argue whether the Reformation was a cohesive and a singular movement. In Moeller and Buckwalter 1998 they argue whether the Reformation constituted a break with the past.
Hamm, Berndt, Bernd Moeller, and Dorothea Wendebourg. Reformationstheorien: Ein kirchenhistorischer Disput über Einheit und Vielfalt der Reformation. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1995.
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Three eminent German Reformation historians discuss the essence of the Reformation in essays that argue either for (Moeller and Hamm) or against (Wendebourg) a cohesiveness and singularity of the movement. Wendebourg sees the Reformation more as a part of church, as opposed to social, history and the nature of its cohesion as nothing more than a negative construction built around its rejection by the Catholic Church.
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Moeller, Bernd, and Stephen E. Buckwalter, eds. Die frühe Reformation in Deutschland als Umbruch. Gütersloh, Germany: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1998.
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A thoughtful symposium on the question of the “newness” of the Reformation that offers, in a variety of essays by top-notch historians, new interpretations regarding the continuity and discontinuity of 16th-century theological and social upheavals and the medieval mind-set on the one hand and 17th-century repercussions on the other.
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Worship and Ritual
In challenging the accepted Catholic authoritative and social norms, the German reformers also attacked the normative rituals, traditions, and forms of worship that gave such norms their special meaning. Whether in the form of one’s changing relationship to high theological points, such as God’s revealed word, the presence in the Host, and the sacraments, or to the functionally rich rituals that encompassed everyday life and made it understandable, like funerals, marriages, and veneration of images, the Reformation provided a qualitative and quantitative break rightly seen by historians as defining. In this environment, studies that concentrate on one aspect of worship or one ritual dominate. Thus, Crowther-Heyck 2002 looks at the Protestant attempt to redefine procreation, Koslofsky 2000 traces the changes in approaches toward the dead and death, and Harrington 1995 covers the Protestant and Catholic attempt to discipline the institution of marriage. The question of discipline is also at the forefront of Karant-Nunn 1997, which sees in it an all-encompassing theme in the Reformation’s preoccupation with ritual. Muir 2005 traces exactly how the concept and meaning of ritual changed from the Catholic to the Protestant. Spruyt 2006 and Köhler 1924–1953 look into the questions regarding the great Eucharist controversy. Krarup 2007 presents the Protestant viewpoints on the sacrament of ordination. Kreitzer 2004 takes a look at the dethronement of the Virgin Mary from her role as Queen of Heaven in the Protestant worldview.
Crowther-Heyck, Kathleen. “‘Be Fruitful and Multiply’: Genesis and Generation in Reformation Germany.” Renaissance Quarterly 55.3 (2002): 904–935.
DOI: 10.2307/1261560Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Through an analysis of source materials, this article traces the Reformation era’s attempt to discipline and define the role of procreation as a Christian ritual meant to instill and provoke certain values, especially in the woman undergoing the pregnancy.
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Harrington, Joel F. Reordering Marriage and Society in Reformation Germany. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
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Discusses the civic impact of the theological reconceptualization of marriage by Protestant and Catholic reformers. Sees continuity, rather than divergence, in the preservation of many pre-Reformation concepts of marriage among both Catholics and Protestants.
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Karant-Nunn, Susan C. The Reformation of Ritual: An Interpretation of Early Modern Germany. Christianity and Society in the Modern World. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.
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An anthropologically based study of the changes in social and church customs and rituals initiated by the German Reformers with the aim of achieving greater social discipline. Analyzes marriage customs, confessions, childbirth, funerals, and more, to make its case.
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Köhler, Walther. Zwingli und Luther, ihr Streit über das Abendmahl nach seinen politischen und religiösen Beziehungen. 2 vols. Leipzig: M. Heinsius Nachfolger, 1924–1953.
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Still the most competent treatment of the great controversy between Luther and Zwingli concerning the nature of the Eucharist that formed the divisive point of their Marburg colloquy in 1529.
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Koslofsky, Craig. The Reformation of the Dead: Death and Ritual in Early Modern Germany, 1450–1700. New York: St. Martin’s, 2000.
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A fascinating study that traces the changes in burial practices and rituals to the influence of new theological considerations on the soul and Purgatory and to civic concerns over pestilence and urban space.
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Krarup, Martin. Ordination in Wittenberg: Die Einsetzung in das kirchliche Amt in Kursachsen zur Zeit der Reformation. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.
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Traces the complicated issue of how the reformers, including Luther, Melanchthon, and Johannes Bugenhagen, dealt with the theology and meaning of ordination.
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Kreitzer, Beth. Reforming Mary: Changing Images of the Virgin Mary in Lutheran Sermons of the Sixteenth Century. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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An account of Lutheran “de-sainting” of the Virgin Mary, from a near-divine intercessor, a cult head, and an object of prayers, to a simple model of virtue, prayerfulness, and humility. The work notes abundantly the methods and weapons used by Lutheran preachers and other clergy in deconstructing the Queen of Heaven into a silent, chaste, and obedient figure.
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Muir, Edward. Ritual in Early Modern Europe. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
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A well-received study of the place of ritual in society and religion. Pertaining to Reformation in Germany, shows how the concept of Catholic ritual as practice that altered or created something actually was remodeled by the reformers’ insistence on ritual as a mode conveying meaning.
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Spruyt, Bart Jan. Cornelius Henrici Hoen (Honius) and his Epistle on the Eucharist (1525): Medieval Heresy, Erasmian Humanism, and Reform in the Early Sixteenth-Century Low Countries. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 2006.
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A thorough study of Hoen’s Christian Letter, the catalyst of the great Communion controversy of the 1520s, which, based on medieval heretical sources, argues against transubstantiation in the Eucharist and forms the basis for Zwingli’s embrace of the “symbolic” meaning of the ritual.
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Confessionalization
One of the most important trends in Reformation studies since about 1980 is the development of the so-called confessional paradigm, which saw the emergence of locality- and polity-defined identity of creed as central to the social and religious development of early modern Germany. Schilling 1988 provides the original statement of the paradigm, which is expanded to include the influence of popular culture in Hsia 1989. Klueting 2003 and Lotz-Heumann and Pohling 2007 provide the historiographical background to the confessionalization debate in Germany. Ziegler 2008 looks at the meaning of confessionalization in Reformation Germany vis-à-vis the Empire and the rising territorial entities. To trace the development of Lutheran confessional identity, see Kolb 1996. For a discussion of how the public became responsive to the construction of such an identity, see Müller 2002. Rummel 2000 reports on how the confessional crisis affected German humanists.
Hsia, R. Po-chia. Social Discipline in the Reformation Central Europe, 1550–1750: Christianity and Society in the Modern World. London and New York: Routledge, 1989.
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An account on how confessionalization shaped, and was in turn shaped by, the rising notion of the territorial state in 16th- to 18th-century Germany. Also of importance is the acculturation of the confession, or how the leading faiths embraced aspects of popular culture.
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Klueting, Harm. “‘Zweite Reformation’— Konfessionsbildung—Konfessionalisierung: Zwanzig Jahre Kontroversen und Ergebnisse nach zwanzig Jahren.” Historische Zeitschrift 277.2 (2003): 309–341.
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Traces the historiography of the historical controversy over the connection between confessionalization and the emergence of the territorial state in Reformation-era Germany, a debate originated by Schelling’s publications of the 1980s.
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Kolb, Robert. Luther’s Heirs Define His Legacy: Studies on Lutheran Confessionalization. Aldershot, UK: Variorum, 1996.
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An admiring account of how the followers of Luther and his disciple Melanchthon preserved the legacy and teachings of their spiritual leaders in the centuries following their deaths.
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Lotz-Heumann, Ute, and Matthias Pohlig. “Confessionalization and Literature in the Empire, 1555–1700.” Central European History 40.1 (2007): 35–61.
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Adumbrates the main thrust of the German historiographical confessionalization debate since the 1960s and looks into how confessionalization was reinforced by the printed word and visual images in the century and a half between 1555 and 1700.
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Müller, Siegfried. “Repräsentationen des Luthertums: Disziplinierung und konfessionelle Kultur in Bildern: Ein problemaufriss Anhand von regionalen Beispielen.” Zeitschrift fuer Historische Forschung 29.2 (2002): 215–255.
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Argues that the success of Protestant efforts at confessionalization did not depend on imposition of disciplining methodology and theology from above, but rather from the wholesale acceptance of confessionalization from below, by the interested public. This conclusion is based on the survivability of confessionally oriented material culture from the 16th to 18th century.
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Rummel, Erika. The Confessionalization of Humanism in Reformation Germany. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
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Traces the progress of the Reform movement’s deep impact on German (and European) humanism and how the theological divides eventually led to the splintering of the humanistic camp into confessionally influenced branches.
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Schilling, Heinz. “Die Konfessionalisierung im Reich.” Historische Zeitschrift 246 (1988): 1–45.
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The basic introduction to the confessionalization paradigm in the Holy Roman Empire and to its relationship to the establishment of territorial authority through the development of the so-called principle of cuius regio, eius religio.
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Ziegler, Walter. Die Entscheidung deutscher Länder für oder gegen Luther: Studien zu Reformation und Konfessionalisierung im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert; gesammelte Aufsätze. Münster, Germany: Aschendorff, 2008.
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A series of essays that analyzes the impact of the Reformation on the German-speaking lands, including the Austrian provinces, from the perspective of what it meant to “turn Protestant” for those involved. Also discusses the confessional paradigm issue.
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Religion and Politics
The Reformation was both a religious and a political transfiguration, affecting established theological and social order and authority. The interplay of the two spheres at the time of the acute systemic stress caused by the reform has often been seen as formative to the movement’s success or failure. Kohnle 2001 is a general account, well supported by primary sources, on how the imperial government tried to deal with the theological questions raised by the advent of the Protestant Reformation in the first two decades of the movement. Brady 1997 is an exposition of Jacob Sturm, a leading Protestant politician of the early Reformation in Germany. Cahill 2001 looks at the early life and career of Philip of Hesse, without whose approval and protection the story of the Reformation would have developed along different lines. For another look at Philip and his importance to early Reformation see Schneider-Ludorff 2006. Dingel 2006 is a general analysis of the intersection between politics and theology in post-Interim Germany. Schorn-Schütte 2005 traces the reception of the Interim in Germany and beyond. Cameron 1996 sees the shaping of religious identities by political developments in the transition from pre- to post-Interim Germany. For the history of the formation of the Protestant political arm in Germany, the Schmalkaldic League, see Ekkehart 1962. For the history of the League once it was formed, and its integration within existing imperial networks, see Haug-Moritz 2002.
Brady, Thomas A. The Politics of the Reformation in Germany: Jacob Sturm (1489–1553) of Strasbourg. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1997.
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A reworking of the author’s earlier Protestant Politics: Jacob Sturm (1489–1553) and the German Reformation, this more popularly aimed version notes the impact of the Reformation on the political culture and government of the Holy Roman Empire and makes the claim that existing, and diffused, imperial territorial and governing structures were quite capable of absorbing the social and political changes brought about by the Reform movement.
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Cahill, Richard Andrew. Philipp of Hesse and the Reformation. Mainz: von Zabern, 2001.
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Though limited chronologically to the early years of Philip the Magnanimous’s reign, this is a thoughtful study of the key political figure of the German Reformation.
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Cameron, Euan. “One Reformation or Many: Protestant Identities in the Later Reformation in Germany.” In Tolerance and Intolerance in the European Reformation. Edited by Ole Peter Frell and Robert W. Scribner, 108–127. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
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This essay, a chapter of a collective volume on the rise of tolerance in 16th- and 17th-century Europe as an arm of political expediency rather than an ideological trend, analyzes the question of diversity and identity in Reformation Germany, finding a marked difference between the ecumenical earlier approaches and the more confessionally stringent concepts of the movement’s later years.
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Dingel, Irene. Politik und Bekenntnis: Die Reaktionen auf das Interim von 1548. Leipzig, Germany: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2006.
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Thorough study of the intermingling of religion and politics in the controversies following the imposition of the Interim in 1548.
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Ekkehart, Fabian. Die Entstehung des Schmalkaldischen Bundes und seiner Verfassung 1524/29–1531/35: Brück, Philipp von Hessen, und Jakob Sturm; Darstellung und Quellen mit einer Brück-Bibliographie. Tübingen, West Germany: Osiandersche Buchhandlung, 1962.
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Too diverse, but informative on the prehistory, the beginnings, and the establishment of the legal constitutional patterns of the Schmalkaldic League. This volume basically traces the early political and military attempts of disparate Protestant territories and authorities to organize themselves and to create a distinct geopolitical identity.
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Haug-Moritz, Gabriele. Der Schmalkaldische Bund 1530–1541/42: Eine Studie zu den genossenschaftlichen Strukturelementen der politischen Ordnung des Heiligen Römischen Reiches Deutscher Nation. Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany: DRW Verlag, 2002.
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A detailed and helpful study of politics in German Protestantism from the formation of the League to Landgrave Philip’s bigamy. This study follows the transformative effect of the German Reformation on the development of new cooperative and confessionally driven federated political mechanisms in the Holy Roman Empire at the time of religious turbulence.
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Kohnle, Armin. Reichstag und Reformation: Kaiserliche und Ständische Religionspolitik von den Anfängen der Causa Lutheri bis zum Nürnberger Religionsfrieden. Gütersloh, Germany: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2001.
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The Reformation controversy seen from the perspective of the emperor and the German estates. The book analyzes politically several imperial diets (from the Diet of Worms in 1521 to the Diet of Regensburg in 1532) and their promulgations in regard to the theological developments.
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Schneider-Ludorff, Gury. Der fürstliche Reformator: Theologische Aspekte im Wirken Philipps von Hessen von der Homberger Synode bis zum Interim. Arbeiten zur Kirchen- und Theologiegeschichte. Leipzig, Germany: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2006.
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Analyzes the influence of Landgrave Philip of Hesse on the progress and development of the theological aspects of the Reformation.
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Schorn-Schütte, Luise, ed. Das Interim 1548/50: Herrschaftskrise und Glaubenskonflikt. Gütersloh, Germany: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2005.
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A series of conference papers that includes a concise summary of political events after the promulgation of the Interim of Augsburg in Germany in 1548 and traces the resonance of the Interim across Europe, including England, France, and even Poland.
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The Reformation of the Cities and Countryside
The Reformation was a phenomenon of both the German city and the countryside. It flourished in one and found it difficult to proliferate in the other until the confessional compromises of the 1550s. Scholars have long sought reasons for such a disparate reception. Moeller 1972 provides a potent introduction to the effect urban power structures had on the spread and acceptance of the reform movement. Hamm 1996 is a general historiographical account of the interaction of politics and religion in the German urban setting. Ozment 1975 explains the appeal new religious ideas had for German burghers and their cities. Broadhead 2005 sees the promulgation of the Reformation in German cities as a process thoroughly controlled by civic organizations, such as city councils. Karant-Nunn 1987 provides a case study of the Protestant success in Zwickau, whereas Rittgers 2004 uses Nuremberg. Dixon 2007 challenges the paradigm of easy Protestant success in the cities by outlining Catholic survivability in the leading German urban centers. Finally, Goodale 2002 discusses one possible social and material reason for the Reformation’s seemingly sporadic reception in the countryside.
Broadhead, P. J. “Public Worship, Liturgy and the Introduction of the Lutheran Reformation in the Territorial Lands of Nuremberg.” English Historical Review 120 (2005): 277–302.
DOI: 10.1093/ehr/cei116Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Sees the introduction of the Reformation in Nuremberg as a process dominated and controlled by the town authorities. The implementation of the town council’s plan, however, depended on local conditions, which often were not in favor of the undertaking.
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Dixon, C. Scott. “Urban Order and Religious Coexistence in the German Imperial City: Augsburg and Donauwörth, 1548–1608.” Central European History 40.1 (2007): 1–33.
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This article distills the interactions between Catholics and Protestants in two German cities that challenge the traditional historiographical contextualization of the Reformation’s spread and success in urban centers.
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Goodale, Jay. “Pastors, Privation, and the Process of Reformation in Saxony.” Sixteenth Century Journal 33.1 (2002): 71–92.
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This article suggests that the difficulties in promulgating the Reformation to the countryside often lay in the inability of the pastors to fit within the traditional kin networks that dominated property and interpersonal relations in agricultural areas.
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Hamm, Berndt. “The Urban Reformation in the Holy Roman Empire.” In Handbook of European History, 1400–1600. Vol. 2. Edited by Thomas A. Brady, Heiko A. Oberman, and James D. Tracy, 193–227. Leiden and New York: E. J. Brill, 1996.
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An essay that summarizes the historiography of the interplay between religious developments and urban centers in Reformation-era Germany.
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Karant-Nunn, Susan C. Zwickau in Transition, 1500–1547: The Reformation as an Agent of Change. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1987.
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A case study of Reformation unfolding in the important Saxon city of Zwickau, where political and social changes, such as the dissolution of medieval communal ideologies and the rapid growth and increase in wealth of the urban population, laid the groundwork for the eventual triumph of the Reformation.
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Moeller, Bernd. Imperial Cities and the Reformation: Three Essays. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972.
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Groundbreaking essays on the impact of the Reformation on imperial German urban centers, or, more to the point, on the impact of German cities on the Reformation. Reanalyzes the theological issues from the perspective of the urban social and power politics in which they occurred, setting up a dynamic connection between modes and structures of authority within German cities and the influence and spread of new religious ideas.
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Ozment, Steven. The Reformation in the Cities: The Appeal of Protestantism to Sixteenth-Century Germany and Switzerland. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1975.
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Argues that the impact of the Reformation on urban communities is best explained by the reformers’ offering a simpler religion, devoid of traditional notions of authority and heavy-handed ritual, which were often perceived as a heavy burden for the developing mercantile urban centers.
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Rittgers, Ronald K. The Reformation of the Keys: Confession, Conscience, and Authority in Sixteenth-Century Germany. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
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Shows how the first couple of decades of the Reformation affected the exercise of power and authority within the Franconian city of Nuremberg. The study makes its focus the debate over public and private confession between the reformed church orders and the city council.
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Propaganda
The Reformation was above all a propaganda war in which both sides of the confessional divide utilized the totality of the media and representational resources at their disposal to make their theological cases clearer and more pronounced. Especially important were new methods of presentation, such as the printed word in all its forms. Scribner 1994 offers a general look at Protestant strategies to spread its message. Matheson 1998 provides a magisterial study of the newness of Reformation’s language in delivering this message. Matheson 2000 broadens the analysis to include popular culture and visual and literary imagery. Russell 1985 traces ideas found in Protestant pamphlet literature to their sources in pre-Reformation pietist movements. Dipple 1996 assesses the success of pamphlets in their attack on established Catholic orders. Moger 2001 looks at the propaganda war over the veneration of images. Strauss 1978 looks at the early methods to indoctrinate confessionally the apparatus of education.
Dipple, Geoffery. Antifraternalism and Anticlericalism in the German Reformation: Johann Eberlin von Günzburg and the Campaign against the Friars. Brookfield, VT: Scolar Press, 1996.
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Examines the widely popular pamphlets of Johann Eberlin and their place in the traditional polemic involving Franciscans (whom Eberlin abandoned when he turned Protestant) and antifraternal and anticlerical writings in general.
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Matheson, Peter. The Rhetoric of the Reformation. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1998.
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Offers insightful suggestions for understanding reform rhetoric in terms of its language and style, as opposed to theological arguments. This approach underlines the newness of the Reformation’s language and its influence on the concepts of authority and social reimagining.
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Matheson, Peter. The Imaginative World of the Reformation. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 2000.
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The Reformation as a metaphor? Using pamphlets and sermons, woodcuts and paintings, poetry and song, and personal correspondence, this work attempts to delineate the Reformation’s novel use of images and metaphors as an act of social and religious reimagination.
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Moger, J. T. “Pamphlets, Preaching, and Politics: The Image Controversy in Reformation Wittenberg, Zurich, and Strassburg.” Mennonite Quarterly Review 75.3 (2001): 325–353.
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Looks at the propaganda war waged by early Reformation theologians against the veneration of images and at the local and political structures of authority that either promoted or resisted such a campaign.
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Russell, Paul. Lay Theology in the Reformation: Popular Pamphleteers in Southwest Germany, 1521–1525. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
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A good introduction to the pamphlet literature in a clearly defined geographic area, this work also serves as an attempt to carve a construction of lay theology based on pre-Reformation notions of piety out of the general pamphlet literature.
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Scribner, Robert. For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propaganda for the German Reformation. 2d ed. New York: Clarendon, 1994.
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The second edition of Scribner’s influential monograph (originally published in 1981) on the Reformation’s use of material culture, especially visual representations, as a propaganda weapon.
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Strauss, Gerald. Luther’s House of Learning: Indoctrination of the Young in the German Reformation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978.
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Argues that the introduction of the Reformation was followed by a concerted effort to create a new Christian individual through schooling discipline. This attempt failed, as teachers and preachers eventually had to realign their instruction to meet pressing secular needs.
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Women
Was the Reformation good for women? This question has been at the forefront of the historiographical debate about the effect of the movement on gender issues and the private and public roles of women in society. Unsurprisingly, early scholarship tended to fall along distinctions of creed, as the Protestant supporters of the Reformation noted the liberating effects, whereas its Catholic opponents emphasized exactly the opposite. Recent historiographic trends appeal to a more balanced view and lead an attempt to restore, if at all possible, the voices of the women themselves and what they had to say about the theological and social changes affecting them. Conrad 1999 is one such attempt to capture the women’s voices. So is Zitzlsperger 2003. For a seminal study of the problem, and one of the earliest challenges to the Protestant notion of the Reformation’s having a positive effect on women, see Roper 1989. Leonard 2005 shows that not all female religious orders were eliminated in regions controlled by the Reformation. Matheson 2008 traces the interaction between the founder of the Reformation and one of its female supporters. Plummer 2008 looks at patterns of marriage as an attempt to integrate early reformers into the local community.
Conrad, Anne. ‘In Christo ist weder MAN noch Weyb’: Frauen in der Zeit der Reformation und der Katholischen Reform. Münster, Germany: Aschendorff, 1999.
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A series of essays that treat women’s responses to the Reformation (both Protestant and Catholic) from a social as opposed to a religious perspective. The analysis presents both mothers and nuns, women living alone and in communities.
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Leonard, Amy. Nails in the Wall: Catholic Nuns in Reformation Germany. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
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By analyzing the survivability of Dominican nuns in 16th-century Strasbourg, this work shatters the prevailing older paradigm that the Reformation completely destroyed women’s organized spiritual life in Germany. The study shows that many nuns decided to stay true to their vocation rather than embrace the Reformation.
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Matheson, Peter. “Martin Luther and Argula von Grumbach (1492–1556/7).” Lutheran Quarterly 22.1 (2008): 1–15.
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The relationship between Martin Luther and his correspondent, the nobly born Argula von Grumbach, is analyzed from the perspective of her theological production and stated support for the work of the Wittenberg reformer.
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Plummer, Marjorie Elizabeth. “‘Partner in His Calamities’: Pastors’ Wives, Married Nuns, and the Experience of Clerical Marriage in the Early German Reformation.” Gender and History 20.2 (2008): 207–227.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0424.2008.00518.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article looks at marriage patterns of Reformed clergy in 16th-century Germany, noting how very little of the women’s perspectives on such matches, often considered risky—especially in the beginning of the movement—has survived in source materials.
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Roper, Lyndal. The Holy Household: Women and Morals in Reformation Augsburg. Oxford Studies in Social History. Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press, 1989.
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This seminal study on the Protestant Reformation’s impact on the gender issue was one of the first to challenge the notion, prevalent in Protestant historiography, of the Reformation’s beneficent consequences for women.
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Zitzlsperger, Ulrike. “Mother, Marty, and Mary Magdalene: German Female Pamphleteers and Their Self-Images.” History 88.3 (2003): 379–392.
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Discusses the production of four Protestant female pamphleteers (Argula von Grumbach, Elisabeth von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Katharina Schütz Zell, and Ursula Weida) and is especially concerned with the reasons, both literary and theological, these women used to justify their entry into the male-dominated field of religious and social discourse.
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Individual Reformers
The Reformation in Germany was a movement created, led, and promulgated by individuals: theologians, preachers, members of city councils, burghers, princes, and some women. It was their fiery temperament, their quest for the establishment (or reestablishment) of a godly society, and their vision that originally guided the process of change. In their hands the movement succeeded or failed. To a large extent, therefore, the Reformation’s story is the story of the people who made it, as shown by Lindberg 2002.
Lindberg, Carter, ed. The Reformation Theologians: An Introduction to Theology in the Early Modern Period. The Great Theologians. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2002.
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Essays on the life, times, and thought of twenty-five Reformation-era theologians. Parts of the book deal with humanist, Lutheran, Reformed, Catholic, and “radical” theologians, both well known and obscure.
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Martin Luther
The Reformation in Germany starts with the towering figure of the Wittenberg reformer (b. 1483–d. 1546). Loved or hated, his importance cannot be overstated, and his fiery, often incendiary persona attracted to itself both positive and negative historical reactions. Bainton 1950 provides a good biographical introduction focused more on Luther’s life than on his thought. Marius 1999 is a critical biography that argues Luther’s life was marked by an unsettling fear of death. For a useful summary of Luther’s thought, see Lohse 1999. Bayer 2008 provides a straightforward reading of Luther’s theology. Finally, for those interested in the “old” Luther, there is Edwards 1983. Additional materials are found in the separate article on Martin Luther.
Bainton, Roland Herbert. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. New York, Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950.
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A thorough and magisterial exposition of the life and times of the Wittenberg reformer, which concentrates more on aspects of his life story than on his theological expositions. Still a classic.
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Bayer, Oswald. Martin Luther’s Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation. Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans, 2008.
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An analysis of Luther’s main theological postulates by a trained theologian. Bayer, a German systematic theologian, concentrates his exposition of Luther’s themes on certain key texts that indicate the reformer’s preoccupation with God’s promises to humankind.
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Edwards, Mark. Luther’s Last Battles: Politics and Polemics, 1531–46. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983.
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Concentrates on the last fifteen years of Luther’s life in an attempt to imagine a mature Luther, whose political and theological conceptions differ, by temperament or expediency, from his much more discussed and studied earlier years.
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Lohse, Bernd. Martin Luther’s Theology: Its Historical and Systematic Development. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1999.
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A straightforward rendering of the developments in Luther’s theological positions, from his days as an Augustine monk to his later debates with the Antinomians.
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Marius, Richard. Martin Luther: The Christian between God and Death. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999.
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Poses the question: Would we be better off if Luther never existed? This negative biography answers in the affirmative by emphasizing Luther’s anti-Semitism, his ambiguous thoughts pertaining to women, his fear of death without salvation, and his preference for theological imposition and diatribe rather than discussion and consensus. The world Luther helped build was thus a dogmatic one wrecked by religious strife and intolerance.
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Works
Luther’s own writings have proved fundamental in propelling his theological challenge beyond the doors of the castle-church in Wittenberg. These writings have often been collected and analyzed. Luther 1883 offers the widest range of Luther’s writings in German. Pelikan 1955–1986 is the English edition of most of Luther’s writings, but it is still incomplete. McKim 2003 is a collection of essays on the reformer’s major writing themes and the ways in which his ideas proliferated. For Luther’s thoughts on women, see Karant-Nunn and Wiesner-Hanks 2003.
Luther, Martin. D. Martin Luthers Schriften: Weimar Ausgabe. 107 vols. Weimar, Germany: H. Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1883–.
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A monumental compilation of Luther’s writings, first appearing in the anniversary year 1883. There are four sections: Luther’s writings (conventionally cited as “WA,” with seventy-two folio volumes); letters (cited as “WA Br,” with seventeen volumes); Bible translation (cited as “WA DB,” with twelve volumes); and Table Talks (cited as “WA TR,” with six volumes). Since the late 1970s several supplementary volumes have become available as well.
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Karant-Nunn, Susan C., and Merry Wiesner-Hanks, eds. Luther on Women: A Sourcebook. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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A necessary addition to any scholarly discourse of the Reformation’s impact on women, this collection of Luther’s important texts addressing the issue covers his entire oeuvre, from Table Talk to his biblical exegesis.
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McKim, Donald K., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther. Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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A collection of Luther’s writings paired with critical essays by eminent Luther scholars. The examination of his themes and projects gauges the reformer’s importance to his time, to the Reformation at large, and to modernity as well.
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Pelikan, Jaroslav, ed. Luther’s Works: American Edition. 55 vols. St. Louis, MO: Concordia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1955–1986.
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Divided into two sections, one on the exegetical writings and the other on the theological, this compilation, also available as an electronic resource on CD-ROM, presents the Anglophone reader with a thorough selection of the reformer’s writings and thought.
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Martin Bucer
Known more for his penchant for compromise in an attempt to bridge the gap between the theologies of various reformers, Bucer cut a major figure as he helped spread the Reformation throughout Germany, especially in Augsburg. Bucer 1960 is the definitive collection of Bucer’s writings in the vernacular and a great starting point for any research. Pils et al. 2005 presents a bibliography that serves as a good entry point to any research as well. Pauck 1969 presents an analysis of a major piece of Bucer’s theological thought. Greschat 2004 portrays Bucer as a peacemaker and consensus builder at a time of religious friction.
Bucer, Martin. Martin Bucer Deutsche Schriften. 5 vols. Gütersloh, West Germany: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1960.
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Superb edition of Bucer’s writings in the German vernacular. This is the definitive starting point for scholarship into the life, times, and work of the Strasbourg reformer.
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Greschat, Martin. Martin Bucer: A Reformer and His Times. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2004.
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A well-structured intellectual biography of the oft-forgotten Strasbourg reformer that restores him to first-rank importance among the constellation of Reformation-era theologians and emphasizes his preference for dialogue, structured disputation, and negotiated consensus in reaching religious conclusions, as opposed to the dogmatic assertions and diatribes made famous by many of his contemporaries.
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Pauck, Wilhelm, ed. Melanchthon and Bucer: Philip Melanchthon, Loci communes theologici; Martin Bucer, De regno Christi. Vol. 19 of The Library of Christian Classics. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969.
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Two important documents from Martin Bucer and Philipp Melanchthon. The De regno Christi is undoubtedly Bucer’s major contribution, clearly encapsulating the leading themes of his theology.
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Pils, Holger, Stephan Ruderer, Petra Schaffrodt, and Gottfried Seebass, eds. Martin Bucer Bibliography. Gütersloh, Germany: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2005.
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A major bibliographical project aiming at presenting the entire range of works of this often underrated Strasbourg reformer. A comprehensive introduction to his works.
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Philipp Melanchthon
Martin Luther’s friend and successor at Wittenberg ensured the survival of Lutheran traditions past the death of the movement’s founder, although he was also his own man and theologian, with views often in disagreement with those of Luther. Corpus Reformatorum is the major primary source compilation for the German Reformation. The works of Melanchthon are among those gathered. Melanchthon 1988 is an English-language collection of a well-chosen sample of Melanchthon’s writing. Pauck 1969 concentrates on the analysis of a single important piece of writing from Melanchthon’s pen. Frank and Köpf 2003 shows Melanchthon’s influence on the development of Lutheran confessional consciousness, whereas Maag 1999 shows his influence beyond Wittenberg. Manschreck 1958 and Scheible 1997 provide standard biographies, with Scheible 1997 being the more modern of the two.
Corpus Reformatorum. 101 vols. Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, 1834–1907.
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A compilation of the writings of Melanchthon (Vols. 1–28, collectively called Opera quae supersunt omnia) and other major 16th-century reformers (Calvin, Vols. 29–87, and Zwingli, Vols. 88–101).
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Frank, Günter, and Ulrich Köpf, eds. Melanchthon und die Neuzeit. Bad Cannstatt, Stuttgart, Germany: Frommann-Holzboog, 2003.
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Essays presenting an inventory of scholarship on Melanchthon’s influence on the future development of Lutheran confessional theology.
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Maag, Karin, ed. Melanchthon in Europe. His Work and Influence beyond Wittenberg. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999.
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A series of wide-ranging essays that analyzes Luther’s successor in terms of developing his own theological pedagogy, his preference for consensus and agreement in spiritual matters, and his influence on other reformers from all corners of Europe.
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Manschreck, Clyde. Melanchthon: The Quiet Reformer. New York: Abingdon, 1958.
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An older biography of the leading reformer, stressing his preference for consensus and compromise. Still readable, though heavily overtaken by the more current research.
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Melanchthon, Philipp. A Melanchthon Reader. Translated by Ralph Keen. American University Studies, Series VII, Theology and Religion. New York: Lang, 1988.
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A sample of writings that presents the reader with the most important theological themes from the pen of Luther’s successor at Wittenberg.
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Pauck, Wilhelm, ed. Melanchthon and Bucer: Philip Melanchthon, Loci communes theologici; Martin Bucer, De regno Christi. Vol. 19 of The Library of Christian Classics. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969.
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English translations of the key works of the two reformers. The Melanchthon piece shows the young reformer in his early years, before later introspection led him to break with some of Luther’s teachings.
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Scheible, Heinz. Melanchthon: Eine Biographie. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1997.
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A well-developed, very knowledgeable biography of Luther’s successor from the dean of Melanchthon scholars. Well articulated.
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Thomas Müntzer
The fiery and revolutionary spirit behind the so-called German Peasants’ War has been a focal point of debate ever since the 1520s. Condemned by some historians as a theologian in the grasp of error and promoted by others to the epic status of a premodern hero of the masses, Müntzer cuts an almost apocalyptic figure amid the Reformation crisis. His impact on Germany and German self-identity is undeniable. For a straightforward examination of Müntzer’s theology and its impact on the German Peasants’ War, see Bräuer 1989. Gritsch 1989 aims for a straightforward account of the life and times of this “first Protestant theocrat.” Scott 1989 sees him as a mystic. Cattepoel 2007 reads Müntzer as an end-of-days mystic as well, but hence not necessarily a revolutionary hell-bent on changing the society around him. Goertz-Matheson 1993, on the other hand, sees Müntzer as nothing but a revolutionary. Quilisch 1999 tries to see past the revolutionary and views Müntzer as an important political player in an urban setting. For an analysis of Müntzer’s background and his intellectual context, see Friesen 1990. Finally, Schwarz 1977 attempts to connect Müntzer’s theology to the earlier Hussites.
Bräuer, Siegfried. Der Theologe Thomas Müntzer: Untersuchungen zu seiner Entwicklung und Lehre. Göttingen, West Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1989.
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A straightforward examination of Müntzer’s social and political theology as it pertained to the German Peasants’ War movement.
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Cattepoel, Jan. Thomas Müntzer: Ein Mystiker als Terrorist. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Lang, 2007.
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Argues that Müntzer, as a millenarian mystic, expected the imminent end of days and was not, therefore, concerned with changing society.
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Friesen, Abraham. Thomas Muentzer, a Destroyer of the Godless: The Making of a Sixteenth-Century Religious Revolutionary. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990.
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Strong on the exploration of Müntzer’s intellectual sources, this work offers an analysis of the radical reformer as a product of his intellectual milieu.
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Goertz, Hans-Jürgen, and Peter Matheson, eds. Thomas Müntzer: Apocalyptic, Mystic, and Revolutionary. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1993.
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An English translation of a series of insightful essays, originally offered in German, that argues for continuity, rather than development and change, in Müntzer’s theology, which, the authors argue, could always be summed up as a theology of revolution.
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Gritsch, Eric W. Thomas Müntzer: A Tragedy of Errors. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1989.
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In an attempt to untangle the theoretical knots that Protestant, Catholic, and Marxist reinterpretations have woven around his murky portrayal, this work aims at a straightforward and often sympathetic account of the life and times of “the first Protestant theocrat.”
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Quilisch, Tobias. Das Widerstandsrecht und die Idee des religiösen Bundes bei Thomas Müntzer: Ein Beitrag zur politischen Theologie. Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1999.
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A keen examination of Müntzer’s political involvements in Thuringia and Muhlhausen. This work aims to present the radical reformer as something more than just a fire-breathing preacher of change and to show him as a political player in an urban setting.
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Schwarz, Reinhard. Die apokalyptische Theologie Thomas Müntzers und der Taboriten. Tübingen, West Germany: Mohr, 1977.
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One trend in the scholarly analysis of the life and times of the radical Thuringian reformer has concentrated on developing connections between his thought and earlier mystical and heretical movements. This account attempts to connect Müntzer to the 15th-century Hussites.
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Scott, Tom. Thomas Müntzer: Theology and Revolution in the German Reformation. New York: St. Martin’s, 1989.
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A sympathetic account that emphasizes the evasiveness of our sources on the radical reformer and that sees Müntzer as a violently anticlerical German mystic.
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Works
Müntzer’s theological (and political) thought has been an early province of historical exegesis. Müntzer 1982 is a compilation of the extant works of the radical reformer. Müntzer 1990 offers another compilation that includes liturgical texts and letters. Held 2004 provides a critical analysis of the whole panoply of Müntzer’s writings, whereas Müntzer 1973 takes a critical look at a single one of Müntzer’s most important documents. Matheson (Müntzer 1988) offers a sample of Müntzer’s writings that traces the reformer’s development from a radical into a revolutionary.
Held, Wieland, ed. Thomas-Müntzer-Ausgabe: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Vol. 3. Quellen zu Thomas Müntzer. Leipzig, Germany: Verlag der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2004.
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A recent scholarly edition of the panoply of Müntzer’s writings that also includes an in-depth critical analysis of the pieces.
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Müntzer, Thomas. Die Fürstenpredigt: theologisch-politische Schriften. Edited by Franz Günther. Stuttgart, West Germany: Reclam, 1973.
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An in-depth presentation of Müntzer’s “sermon to the Saxon princes,” perhaps the most formative and one of Müntzer’s most famous theological writings, a pivotal document in the development of his radical program. The sermon, closely following the second chapter of the Book of Daniel, imagines the German lands propelled into a millenarian struggle for the restoration of a true faith under the banner of a prophet anointed by God.
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Müntzer, Thomas. Theologische Schriften aus dem Jahr 1523. Edited by Siegfried Brauer and Wolfgang Ullmann. Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1982.
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An edition of Müntzer’s theological writings from the formative year 1523 onward that shows the theological and revolutionary development of the incendiary spirit behind the Peasants’ War movement.
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Müntzer, Thomas. The Collected Works of Thomas Müntzer. Edited by Peter Matheson. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1988.
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An excellent English translation of Müntzer’s writings, showing the Thuringian reformer’s development into a religious and social revolutionary.
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Müntzer, Thomas. Schriften, Liturgische Texte, Briefe. Edited by Rudolf Bentzinger and Siegfried Hoyer. Berlin: Union-Verlag, 1990.
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A competent edition of Müntzer’s literary remains that includes a compilation of his liturgical texts and letters.
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Other Reformers
Besides the leading theologians, there existed many other individuals who wrote or lived the story of the Reformation in Germany. They included local reformers whose collective efforts ensured the success of the movement in particular places as well as burghers (and burghers’ wives) who shaped the movement’s identity among the masses. For a discussion of the north German reformer Nikolaus von Amsdorf, see Dingel 2008. For the theologian Johannes Benz, see Estes 2002. Hendel 2004 talks about Johannes Bugenhagen. Hendrix 2004 and Zschoch 1995 focus on Urbanus Rhegius. Finally, McKee 1999 presents the story of Katharina Schütz Zell, an early female supporter of the Reformation and a pamphlet writer in her own right.
Dingel, Irene, Johannes Hund, and Henning P. Jürgens, ed. Nikolaus von Amsdorf, 1483–1565: zwischen Reformation und Politik. Leipzig, Germany: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2008.
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A symposium on the north German reformer and early supporter of Luther who found himself more and more distanced from Lutheran orthodoxy, especially following the Interim crisis.
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Estes, James M. “Johannes Brenz and the German Reformation.” Lutheran Quarterly 16.4 (2002): 374–414.
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Discusses the life and career of Johannes Benz, an important Lutheran theologian who oversaw the spread of the Reformation during and after the Interim crisis.
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Hendel, Kurt K. “Johannes Bugenhagen, Organizer of the Lutheran Reformation.” Lutheran Quarterly 18.1 (2004): 43–75.
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Concerned with the role the pastor and preacher Johannes Bugenhagen, a colleague of both Luther and Melanchthon, played in the success of the Lutheran Reformation in Wittenberg and in the surrounding lands.
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Hendrix, Scott. “Urbanus Rhegius, Frontline Reformer.” Lutheran Quarterly 18.1 (2004): 76–87.
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Discusses the role of Urbanus Rhegius in spreading the Lutheran Reformation in Augsburg and beyond. Although not a part of Luther’s immediate circle, the Augsburg reformer was a staunch supporter of Luther’s theological ideas.
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McKee, Elsie. Katharina Schütz Zell. 2 vols. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1999.
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Two thorough volumes on an often overlooked early female Reformation partisan and reformer demonstrate well her important role in the defense of clerical marriage.
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Zschoch, Hellmut. Reformatorische Existenz und konfessionelle Identität: Urbanus Rhegius als evangelischer Theologe in den Jahren 1520 bis 1530. Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1995.
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A thorough study of the Augsburg reformer’s theological and social standpoint, an (unrealized) attempt to keep the Protestant camp united in the Holy Roman Empire.
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Radical Reformation
The Reformation’s early insistence on the availability of the Bible, and its approachability by the individual intellect, soon led to the splintering of the movement and the emergence of trends that challenged both the Roman Catholic Church and the established magisterial models of reform of Luther and Calvin. These more radical voices, often revolutionary in nature, became a staple of the political and religious environment of early Reformation Germany, especially in the 1520s and 1530s. The Anabaptists in particular played a prominent role in the history of some German localities (for example, Münster), but they were not the only ones. For a seminal introduction to the whole topic of radical reformation, see Williams 1962, in which the term was coined. For a source study of writings produced by these radical groups, see Baylor 1991. For a well-told account of what transpired in Münster in 1534–1535, see Arthur 1999. For the perceptions of what occurred in Münster by Catholics and Protestants of that time, see Haude 2000.
Arthur, Anthony. The Tailor King: The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptist Kingdom of Münster. New York: St. Martin’s, 1999.
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An engaging, mostly chronological account of events that transpired in Münster in 1534–1535, written with the general reader in mind.
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Baylor, Michael G., ed. The Radical Reformation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
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A collection of important texts from many of the leaders of the radical sects that existed at the margins of the German Reformation. Deals with radical movements both outside and inside Germany. Attempts to show the radicals as politically and religiously diffuse and yet possessing a core set of commonalities.
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Haude, Sigrun. In the Shadow of ‘Savage Wolves’: Anabaptist Münster and the German Reformation during the 1530s. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities, 2000.
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An analysis of the portrayal and perception of the events in Münster, as seen in the surrounding Protestant and Catholic lands.
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Williams, George Huntston. The Radical Reformation. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962.
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The book and the scholar that coined the term “Radical Reformation.” The encyclopedic work covers all major European radical sects, their origins as well as their theological stands. Also good on the movement within Germany itself.
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The German Peasants’ War
No other social event in the early part of the Reformation (except perhaps the equally studied catastrophe at Münster in 1534–1535) has had such an indelible effect on historical imagination or on shaping the historical debate about the nature and meanings of the movement as the story of the so-called German Peasants’ War. The events of 1525 have long been a favorite of historians, who have approached them from a variety of perspectives, both theological and ideological. Scott and Scribner 1991 is the basic general introduction to the topic, illuminated by the inclusion of some source materials. Günther 1977 is a restatement of the classic view that the rebelling masses were theologically motivated in their actions. To begin a review of more recent literature on the German Peasants’ War, it is impossible to omit Blickle 1985, one of the primary statements of the theory that the uprising was the work of a cross-section of the common public and not just of peasants. Blickle 1992, Blickle 1998, and Blickle 2002 agree and develop the argument further, looking at the social context of the actors and their stated goals.
Blickle, Peter, ed. Der Deutsche Bauernkrieg von 1525. Darmstadt, West Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1985.
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A summary of research sympathetic to Blickle’s thesis that the revolution was composed of a general cross-section of the urban and agricultural segments of the society, motivated by communal thought and religious propaganda.
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Blickle, Peter. Communal Reformation: The Quest for Salvation in Sixteenth Century Germany. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities, 1992.
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This study is a sequel to the author’s monograph on the “revolution of the common man,” which radically altered the scholarly understanding of the German Peasants’ War. A deepening sense of community serves as the best explanation for the cause of the upheaval of the Reformation.
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Blickle, Peter. The Revolution of 1525: The German Peasants’ War from a New Perspective. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
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A reinterpretation of the sources and events that argues that the uprisings occurred as much in the towns as out in the countryside and thus answered to both urban and social concerns.
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Blickle, Peter. Der Bauernkrieg: Die Revolution des Gemeinen Mannes. 2d ed. Munich: C. H. Beck, 2002.
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Restates the argument of the Peasants’ War as a broad class uprising that included the agricultural and urban segments of the society, based on timely social concerns to which was appended religious ideology.
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Franz, Günther. Der deutsche Bauernkrieg. Darmstadt, West Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977.
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The newer edition of a classic 1939 study; argues that the newness of the German uprising was the appeal to a “divine law.”
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Scott, Tom, and Bob Scribner, eds. The German Peasants’ War: A History in Documents. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities, 1991.
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A useful introduction to the events surrounding the German Peasants’ War, augmented by the inclusion of a collection of salient documents from that period.
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Reformation and the Other
The Reformation in Germany did not exist in a social or political vacuum. The formation of one’s own identity, political or religious, required a formative understanding and identification of all that one was not—that is, the “other.” Although for most Germans affected by the movement, the “other” usually implied simply the other side of the theological debate, certain social and political truths, like the presence of Jews in Germany and the unfolding of the Turkish threat, also played a major role in identity formation. Bohnstedt 1968 and Kaufmann 2008, though separated by forty years, both look at the pamphlets produced in response to the Turkish military advance and conclude that the image of the Turks became a motif in the theological debates between Protestants and Catholics. Bell and Burnett 2006, on the other hand, looks at the image, place, and role of the Jews in Reformation-era German society.
Bell, Dean Philip, and Stephen G. Burnett. Jews, Judaism, and the Reformation in Sixteenth-Century Germany. Boston: E. J. Brill, 2006.
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The imagining of Jews and Judaism in 16th-century Germany, which forms the core of the series of essays included in this text, allowed for both Christian–Jewish coexistence and the persistence of anti-Semitic sentiments that plagued not only popular culture but also the thoughts of the leading reformers.
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Bohnstedt, John. The Infidel Scourge of God: The Turkish Menace as Seen by Protestant Pamphleteers of the Reformation Era. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1968.
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An analysis of about thirty anti-Turkish propaganda pamphlets published in Germany between the third and the fifth decades of the 16th century. The pamphlets themselves, more than just being anti-Turkish, were also utilized by both proponents and opponents of the Reformation to underline their theological propositions by treating the Turkish menace as a divine condemnation of their opponents’ policies.
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Kaufmann, Thomas. Türckenbüchlein: zur christlichen Wahrnehmung “türkischer Religion” in Spätmittelalter und Reformation. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2008.
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An assessment of the views of Turks and their religion present in German anti-Turkish pamphlets of the 16th century, demonstrating how the Turkish threat was also used as a weapon in the European confessional struggle, in which images of the Turks were often associated with one’s religious opponents. Includes images of the pamphlets themselves.
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