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Priest, Preacher, Pastor: Research on Clerical Office in Early Modern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Luise Schorn-Schütte
Luise Schorn-Schütte
Affiliation:
Johann Wolfgang Goethe-UniversityFrankfurt am Main
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The discussion above can be summarized in three points that refer back to the introductory remarks.

1. On the basis of their social origin and social integration, both Protestant pastors and Catholic pastoral clergy were a part of that bourgeois group who acted in the service of the secular authority; this applies to all of early modern Europe. What the pastors' family achieved on the social level through familial contacts in Protestant areas was established through the mediated connections of extended family, clientage, and friendship in Catholic areas. The similarities are strengthened by the comparable form and contents of education and of educational institutions. Insofar as the state of research allows generalization, it seems that the pastoral clergy of both confessions had attained a comparable level of education by the seventeenth century. In Catholic areas university study was the exception but priests were required to complete their education at a seminary, whose standards surely met the qualifications for a specialized professional education. A complete course of study in theology was not the rule within Protestantism, either; having graduated from a philosophical faculty was a sufficient qualification. In comparison with the standards of pre-Reformation education, there was a clear improvement in education that can be called the early modern “path toward a profession.” This, together with the development of a social and familial network, allows us to characterize the pastoral clergy of Europe during the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a part of that “power elite”144 who were essential for the early modern period.

2. The formal conditions for the suitability of clerical officeholders reached cum grano salis a comparable level in all confessions throughout Europe during the seventeenth century. The disagreements concerning the evaluation of these conditions stem from the measures by which historical change is characterized. For the group of pastoral clergy examined here, the category of modernization proves to be insufficient, since there was a tendency transcending the confessions to appeal to prereformatory traditions in establishing an understanding of office. Historians must be able to describe how tradition was able both to accommodate and to be transformed.

3. From this point of view the question of the clergy’s suitability for the goal of the developing modern state encompasses only half of the historical reality. The clergy and their contemporaries who comprised their congregations were also concerned with their role as mediators of the holy, of “the religious” in the world. Clerical perception of self and of office was decisively stamped by the conviction that despite all contradictions these formed an insoluble unity. For this reason we must also consider for both confessions the broad impact of the doctrine of the Christian state, whose core was the doctrine of the three estates. In the political and social controversies of the late sixteenth century the political impulse of this doctrine grew in strength in a way more clearly seen in Protestantism than in the territories that remained Catholic. Nevertheless the concept of the monarchia temperata in the Catholic understanding of authority also gave the clergy a right to criticize the ruler. The long tradition of the correctio principis was put into practice through the clerical understanding of office in both confessions and became a very concrete reality for people in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This is a typically early modern way of developing tradition further through the consensus of generations, whose relevance the historian of the early modern period must take just as seriously as the attempts of the secular authority to use the power elites in their own interests.

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Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 2000 , pp. 1 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 2000

References

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21. Cf. Schlögl, R., “‘Aufgeklärter Unglaube’ oder ‘mentale Sükularisierung’? Die Frömmigkeit katholischer Stadtbürger in systemtheoretischer Hinsicht (ca. 1700–1840),” in Geschichte zwischen Kultur und Gesellschaft, ed. Mergel, and Welskopp, , 99–100Google Scholar. The argument from systems theory is here acceptable.

22. Cf. the references in n. 6.

23. For an attempt to apply this approach to political thought as a form of political action in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Schorn-Schütte, L., “‘Politica Christiana’ und ‘Ratio Status’: Überlegungen zu Alternativen politischen Denkens in der Frühen Neuzeit, in Strukturen des politischen Denkens im Europa des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, ed. idem, Google Scholar (Munich, forthcoming).

24. “Wahl, “Karriere, Kinder und Konflikte,” 58f., emphasizes that the social origins of the clergy are not simply statistical figures but also allow us to make “Aussagen über die historisch wandelbaren Wahrnehmungsmuster der Gesellschaft gegenüber dem Pfarramt.” In fact, as D. Gugerli has pointed Out, fathers’ marriage and career strategies for their sons had a long-term impact already in the early modern period, Zwischen Pfrund und Predigt: Die protestantische Pfarrfamilie auf der Zürcher Landschaft im ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert (Zurich, 1988), 141–96Google Scholar. This applies to all other social groups as well.

25. On this term, see Bergin, J., “Between Estate and Profession: The Catholic Parish Clergy of Early Modern Western Europe,” in Social Orders and Social Classes in Europe since 1500: Studies in Social Stratification, ed. Bush, M. L. (London, 1992), 6–85.Google Scholar

26. Cf. Julia, D., “Il prete,” in L’uomo dell’Illuminismo, ed. Vovelle, M. (Rome, 1992), 399–443Google Scholar; Turchini, A., “La nascità del sacerdozio come professione” in Disciplina dell’anima, disciplina del corpo e disciplina dell società tra medioevo ed età moderna, ed. Prodi, P. (Bologna, 1994), 225–56Google Scholar; Fantappié, C., “Istituzioni ecclesiastiche e istruzione secondaria nell’Italia moderna: i seminari-collegi vescovili,” Jahrbuch des italienisch-deutschen historischen Instituts in Trient 15 (1989): 189–240.Google Scholar

27. This conception was clearly shaped by the work of Neher, A., Die katholische und evangelische Geistlichkeit Württembergs 1813–1901 (Ravensberg, 1904)Google Scholar, esp. 22f. There were also studies on the social origin of clergy in religious orders, e.g., Krausen, , “Die Zusammensetzung der bayerischen Prämonstratenserkonvente 1690–1803,” Historisches Jahrbuch 86 (1966): 157–66.Google Scholar

28. This assumption is based on numerous regional studies of the parish clergy in the Old Empire as well as on the research carried Out by the above-mentioned research project financed by the VW-Stiftung. It rests on data concerning Catholic and Protestant parish clergy in the Old Empire, the Swiss Confederation, and the Polish aristocratic republic. The studies which present information on the social origins of both secular and regular clergy who were responsible for pastoral care are Hahn, A., Die Rezeption des tridentinischen Pfarrerideals im westtrierischen Pfarrklerus des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Luxembourg, 1974), 28–32Google Scholar; Knetsch, G., “Die Geistlichen in Frickenhausen/ M.: Grundlagen und Personen,” in Kirche und ländliche Gesellschaft in Mainfranken von der Reformation bis zur neuesten Zeit, ed. Wittstadt, K. W. (Würzburg, 1988), 214Google Scholar; Becker, Th. P., Konfessionalisierung in Kurköln: Untersuchungen zur Durchsetzung der katholischen Reform in den Dekanaten Ahrgau und Bonn anhand von Visitationsprotokollen 1583–1761 (Bonn, 1989), 77–82Google Scholar; Enderle, W., Konfessionsbildung und Ratsregiment in der katholischen Reichsstadt Überlingen (1500–1618) im Kontext der Reformations-geschichte der oberschwäbischen Reichstädte (Stuttgart, 1990), 203–74Google Scholar; Zimmermann, W., Rekatholisierung, Konfessionalisierung und Ratsregiment: Der Prozess des politischen und religiösen Wandels in der österreichischen Stadt Konstanz 1548–1637 (Sigmaringen, 1994), 264–75Google Scholar; see, also Schorn-Schütte, “Christian Clergy.” Surprisingly, two important recent works concerned with the interpretation of Catholic confessionalization contain only cursory references to the social origin of the clergy, but they also confirm this thesis; cf. Freitag, W., Pfarrer, Kirche und ländliche Gemeinschaft: Das Dekanat Vechta 1400–1803 (Bielefeld, 1998)Google Scholar; Holzem, A., “Religion und Lebensformen: Katholische Konfessionalisierung im Sendgericht des Fürstbistums Münster 1570–1800,” (Habil. MS, Universität Münster, 1996)Google Scholar. On the basis of his examination of the eleven village churches in the area he studied, Freitag established that the pastors were mostly sons of the middling classes in small territorial cities or (at least in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries) sons of village pastors (!) or of prosperous peasants.

29. Becker, , Konfessionalisierung, 92–93Google Scholar, with reference to Hegel, E., Geschichte des Erzbistums Köln (Cologne, 1979), 4:170Google Scholar. In order to be ordained, one had to have proof of sufficient economic support (an ordination title). For clergy in Luxembourg, the ordination title required the equivalent of 50 Reichstaler. The title generally was based on the yield of fields and pastures, according to Hahn, , Die Rezeption des tridentinischen Pfarrerideals, 31Google Scholar, n. 111.

30. Becker, , Konfessionalisierung, 81Google Scholar; Knetsch, , “Geistlichen,” 136Google Scholar; Zimmermann, , Rekatholisierung, 272–75Google Scholar. Hahn also refers to the existing proportion of the nobility and the peasant population, Rezeption des tridentinischen, Pfarrerideals, 30–31.

31. Cf. Hsia, R. Po-chia, Social Discipline in the Reformation: Central Europe 1550–1750 (London, 1989), 48–50.Google Scholar

32. Bergin, , “Between Estate,” 76–77.Google Scholar

33. Bergin, “Between Estate,” also points out that in certain French dioceses opportunities existed for the sons of prosperous peasants. The very general statement of Hof, U. Im, Das Europa der Aufklärung (Munich, 1993), 42–43Google Scholar, that the lower clergy were often of peasant background, needs to be revised.

34. Bergin, , “Between Estate,” 77–78.Google Scholar

35. Cf. Fantappié, “Istituzioni ecclesiastiche”; D. Julia, “Il prete.”

36. Cf. the map, “Herkunftsorte und Diözesangrenzen (Bistum Würzburg)” in Knetsch, , “Die Geistlichen,” 159.Google Scholar

37. Cf. the extensive discussion in Freitag, , Pfarrer, Kirche und ländliche Gemeinschaft, 185–87Google Scholar, with Table 8.

38. This discussion follows Freitag, Pfarrer, Kirche und ländliche Gemeinschaft, who characterizes those who originated from the surrounding area as “indigenous.”

39. “Becker, , Konfessionalisierung, 82.Google Scholar

40. On the following cf. Bergin, , “Between Estate,” 72–74.Google Scholar

41. Ibid., 72.

42. Cf. Julia. “Il prete.”

43. For German-speaking areas (including the Swiss Confederation and the three major cities in royal Prussia), fundamental source material includes the Pfarrbücher, which over the past century and up to the present have been compiled on the basis of archival research. For extensive citations on the state of social-historical research on the Protestant clergy in the broader European context, see Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 31–48.Google Scholar

44. Cf. the references in notes 2–3 above as well as the studies that have been produced by the above-mentioned research project taking a comparative perspective for all of Europe.

45. See the Appendix, Table 1: Comparison of the Social Origin of Protestant Clergy which is in part based on my own work, “Zwischen ‘Amt’ und ‘Beruf’” 27, as well as on work done within the above mentioned research project (as of 2 February 1998).

46. Research on the social origin of the pastors of the university city of Rostock during the seventeenth century has sharply revised the dominent picture of self-recruitment. A third of the pastors came from the city’s merchant elite, another third from the urban functional elite, and the last third came from the parsonage; see Strom, J., “Orthodoxy and Reform: The Clergy in 17th Century Rostock” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1996) 419.Google Scholar

47. Wahl also reaches this conclusion for the region he examines, “Karriere,” 58ff.

48. Cf. Mitgau, H., Familienschicksal und soziale Rangordnung: Untersuchungen über den sozialen Aufstieg und Abstieg (Leipzig, 1928)Google Scholar; cf. also Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 52.Google Scholar

49. Documented in Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 493–96Google Scholar (graphs for individual regions in the Old Empire). For an extensive discussion of the role of the pastor’s wife see Schorn-Schütte, L., “‘Gefährtin’ und ‘Mitregentin’: Zur Sozialgeschichte der evangelischen Pfarrfrau in der Frühen Neuzeit,” in Wandel der Geschlechterbeziehungen zu Beginn der Neuzeit, ed. Wunder, H. and Vanja, Chr. (Frankfurt am Main, 1990), 109–53Google Scholar. A revised version in English translation in Seidel-Menchi, S. and Schutte, A. J., eds., Space and Time in Women’s Life (Kirksville, 1999)Google Scholar; a critical discussion of my theses in Wahl, , “Karriere,” 202–17.Google Scholar

50. See Appendix, Table 2: Comparison of the Social Origin of Protestant Clergy (as of 2 February 1998).

51. See the comparison with the Old Empire but concentrating on the eighteenth century in Schorn-Schütte, , “Zwischen ‘Amt’ und ‘Beruf’,” 7–9Google Scholar. The figures for Switzerland are based on the stimulating work of Gugerli, Zwisthen Pfrund.

52. The analysis of “surplus and shortages in the Protestant pastorate since the eighteenth century” is a particularly informative means of explaining the “sponge effect” that clerical office exercised and with whose help certain social groups characterized as “bildungsferne” were able to enter the pastorate in a cyclical pattern from the middle of the eighteenth century. Cf. the article by Titze, , “Überfüllung und Mangel im evangelischen Pfarramt seit dem 18. Jahrhundert,” in Evangelische Pfarrer, ed. Schorn-Schütte, and Sparn, , 56–76.Google Scholar

53. Cf. the informative overview of Barrie-Curien, V., “The English Clergy 1560–1620: Recruitment and Social Status,” History of European Ideas 9 (1988): 451–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 453–54.

54. Ibid., 454.

55. See Appendix, Table 3: Comparison of Regional Origin of Protestant Clergy which is based on the research in the above-mentioned research project (as of 2 Feb. 1998).

56. These differences are particularly obvious in Mecklenburg: the rural clergy studied exclusively in Rostock, while the pastors and the theology professors in the city of Rostock always studied at various universities outside of the territory. The practice of a Studienreise, often as companions to young noblemen, continued into the seventeenth century; cf. Strom, , “Orthodoxy and Reform,” 79–81Google Scholar and Kaufmann, Th., Universität und lutherische Konfessionalisierung: Die Rectocker Theologieprofessoren und ihr Beitrag zur theologischen Bildung und kirchlichen Gestaltund im Herzogtum Mecklenburg zwischen 1550 und 1675 (Gütersloh, 1997), 149–50.Google Scholar

57. Cf. Barrie-Curien, , “English Clergy,” 454–55Google Scholar. In England during the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries some of this mobility can be explained by the search for better-paying positions. A similar phenomenon with regard to Catholic pastoral clergy in France has been described above.

58. Cf. for the eighteenth century, Guggerli, Zwischen Pfrund.

59. Moraw, P., “Aspekte und Dimensionen älterer deutscher Universitätsgeschichte,” in Academia Gissensis, ed. idem, and Press, V. (Marburg, 1982), 1–43, esp. 35.Google Scholar

60. Cf. the stimulating research on England, especially O’Day, R.. The English Clergy: The Emergence and Consolidation of a Profession 1558–1642 (Leicester, 1979)Google Scholar, and more recently Barrie-Curien, “The English Clergy.” Also important is the work by Vogler, B., Le clergé protestant rhénan ausiècle de la reforme (1555–1629) (Paris, 1976)Google Scholar. On Protestantism in the Old Empire cf. Schorn-Schütte, “Christian Clergy,” and idem, Evangelische Geistlichkeit.

61. Schorn-Schütte, “Christian Clergy.”

62. On developments in Protestantism, see Schorn-Schütte, Evangelische Geistlichkeit; for Catholicism, cf. Holzem, , “Religion und Lebensformen,” 46fGoogle Scholar., and Freitag, , Pfarrer, Kirche und ländliche Gemeinschaft, 81–86.Google Scholar

63. In his study of the prince-bishopric of Münster, Holzem states that for the late sixteenth century, “Es ist nicht anzunehmen, dass lutherische visitatoren oder calvinistische Kirchenräte das Wissen, die Überzeugungen und die Amtsführung dieser Geistlichen als rundheraus in ihrem Sinne empfunden hätten” “Religion und Lebensformen” 53.

64. On the process of education in Protestant areas, see Schorn-Schütte, Evangelische Geistlichkeit, for Catholic areas see the two recent case studies by Freitag, Pfarrer, Kirche und ländliche Gemeinschaft, and Holzem, “Religion und Lebensformen” with references to older literature.

65. Despite many counterexamples, Hahn’s statement that “der Pfarrklerus des 16. und des 17. Jahrhunderts erhielt seine theologische Ausbildung insgesamt weder in einem der vom Konzil vorgesehenen Seminare noch in der herkömmlichen Art, auf der Univetsität” still points to the core problem up to the mid-seventeenth century; Rezeption des tridentinischen Pfarrerideals, 115.

66. See the corresponding characterization in Holzem, , “Religion und Lebensformen” 238–39Google Scholar and Freitag, , Pfarrer, Kirche und ländliche Gemeinschaft, 160fGoogle Scholar., who describes this as an “Anforderungsprofile”; cf. also the essays by Dürr, , “… Die Macht und Gewalt,” and in this issue.Google Scholar

67. Holzem, , “Religion und Lebensformen” 239–40Google Scholar, citing Jedin, H., “Das Leitbild des Priesters nach dem Tridentinum und dem Vaticanum II,” Theologie und Glauben 50 (1970): 102–24Google Scholar. esp. 111.

68. Cf. Schindling, A., “Schulen und Universitäten im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert: Zehn Thesen zu Bildungsexpansion, Laienbildung und Konfessionalisierung nach der Reformation,” in Ecclesia militans: Studien zur Konzilien- und Reformationsgeschichte. Remigius Bäumer zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. Brandmüller, W., vol. 2, Zur Reformationsgeschichte (Paderborn, 1988), 561–70Google Scholar; Freitag, , Pfarrer, Kirche und ländliche Gemeinschaft, 163Google Scholar. The cathedral school in Münster was headed by the Jesuits from 1588; the school in Osnabrück from 1623. It seems unlikely to me that this transformed the cathedral schools into “jesuitische Kaderschmieden,” because the Jesuits were concerned with implementing the decrees of the Council of Trent, not yet their own special interests.

69. For the Jesuit course of study, see Hengst, K., Jesuiten an Universitäten und Jesuitenuniversitäten (Munich, 1981), 70fGoogle Scholar. H. Dickerhof surveys the Catholic schools in “Die katholischen Gelehrtenschulen des konfessionellen Zeitalters im heiligen Römischen Reich,” Die katholische Konfessionalisierung, ed. Reinhard, W. and Schilling, H. (Gütersloh, 1995), 348–70.Google Scholar

70. The following is based on the two above-mentioned studies by Freitag and Holzem.

71. Hahn summarizes his results for the early seventeenth century, “Mit Händen zu greifen ist der Mangel an geistigem und geistlichem Format dort, wo Leben und Tätigkeit eines Pfarrers sich merklich weit von dem entfernte was man selbst von einem Laien erwartete,” Rezeption des tridentinischen Pfarrerideals, 123.

72. See Freitag, , Pfarrer, Kirche und ländliche Gemeinschaft, 187–90Google Scholar: “Damit ist evident, dass im Gegensatz zum Spätmittelalter und dem 16. Jahrhundert das Studium, und zwar ein theologisches, Verpflichtung und geübte Praxis war” (p. 189).

73. Ibid.

74. Ibid., 190.

75. For more precise details cf. Holzem, , “Religion und Lebensformen” 246ff.Google Scholar

76. Freitag, , Pfarrer, Kirche und ländliche Gemeinschaft, 191.Google Scholar

77. Ibid., Table 11: Klerikale Verwandtschaft, 198.

78. For details and further literature see Schorn-Schütte, Evangelische Geistlichkeit, chap. 3.

79. Reprinted in Sehlung, E.. ed., Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des 16. Jahrhunderts, vol. 6: Niedersachsen, Part 1, Die welfischen Lande, vol. 1 of Pt 1, Die Fürstentümer Wolfenbüttel und Lüneburg mit den Städten Braunschweig und Lüneburg (Tübingen, 1955), 83–280Google Scholar, esp. 182f.

80. For Mecklenburg, cf. Strom, , “Orthodoxy and Reform,” 77–79Google Scholar. Kaufmann’s observations apply to the theology professors and therefore confirm the basic tendency sketched here, Universität und lutherische Konfessionalisierung, 145–51.

81. On variations in length of study, cf. Schorn-Schütte, Evangelische Geistlichkeit, chap. 3. Among other factors, the cost of education led to varying levels of clerical education within the Protestant clergy, as Strom has rightly stated, “Orthodoxy and Reform,” 78–79, and the establishment of scholarships provided only limited assistance.

82. It is emphasized that all calculations provided here are only approximations. Because there was no formal degree, the duration of study can often only be estimated.

83. Cf. the discussion in Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 199–210Google Scholar; Titze, “Ueberfüllung;” Wahl, , “Karriere, Kinder und Konflikte,” 88ff.Google Scholar

84. Cf. Schorn-Schütte, “Zwischen ‘Amt’ und ‘Beruf’,” with regard to some Hessian territories as well as Württemberg and Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in the eighteenth century.

85. This must be particularly emphasized against the otherwise stimulating argument in Wahl, , “Karriere, Kinder und Konflikte,” 67ff.Google Scholar

86. Cf. Ibid., 97–132; Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 295–304.Google Scholar

87. Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 162ff.Google Scholar

88. This problem occurs in contemporary literature on the Catholic clergy from the seventeenth century and on the Protestant clergy in the eighteenth century under the headings “Verbauerung des Klerus” or “Vom Sinken des Geistlichen Standes;” cf. on the former Holzem, , “Religion und Lebensformen,” 249fGoogle Scholar., and on the latter Schorn-Schütte, “Zwischen ‘Amt’ und ‘Beruf’.”

89. The details have been examined on a regional basis but have yet to be presented in a comparative overview: for the bishopric of Trier, , Hahn, , Rezeption des tridentinischen Pfarrerideals, 134–253Google Scholar; for a Bavarian village Beck, R., Unterfinning: Ländliche Welt vor Anbruch der Moderne (Munich, 1993), 460–72Google Scholar; on the bishopric of Osnabrück, Freitag, , Pfarrer, Kirche und ländliche Gemeinschaft, 202–11Google Scholar, with informative tables; on the prince-bishopric of Münster, , Holzem, , “Religion und Lebensformen,” 249–59Google Scholar, likewise with informative statistics. On the Protestant areas of the Old Empire (using the examples of Hesse-Kassel, Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, and the city of Braunschweig), cf. Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 49–83Google Scholar; on Württemberg, , Wahl, , “Karriere, Kinder und Konflikte,” 39–43Google Scholar; on Rostock, , cf. Strom, , ‘Orthodoxy and Reform,” 45–63Google Scholar. Strom confirms my findings on the income of the city clergy in his comparison of cash payments with income from fees for official duties.

90. The expectation characterized in this way by Freitag, , Pfarrer, Kirche und ländliche Gemeinschaft, 206.Google Scholar

91. Holzem, , “Religion und Lebensformen,” 258.Google Scholar

92. Cf. Freitag, , Pfarrer, Kirche und ländliche Gemeinschaft, 215–20Google Scholar and Holzem, , “Religion und Lebensformen,” 259–63.Google Scholar

93. Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 227–86.Google Scholar

94. With regard to the purchasing power of clerical income in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, Hahn states that a priest earned as much by reading a mass as a laborer earned per day, Rezeption des tridentinischen Pfarrerideals, 200–1.

95. O’Day, The English Clergy.

96. Collinson, P., The Religion of Protestants (Oxford, 1982), 98f.Google Scholar

97. Ibid., 114–15.

98. Cf. Barrie-Curien, , “The English Clergy,” 452Google Scholar, who refers to the results of various regional studies of dioceses close to and far from universities.

99. Ibid., 452.

100. Bergin, , “Between Estate,” 78.Google Scholar

101. Julia, , “Il prete,” 400ff.Google Scholar

102. Bergin, , “Between Estate,” 82–83.Google Scholar

103. Julia, , “Il prete,” 410ff.Google Scholar

104. “… there is no doubting the solidity of the episcopal-royal alliance for the strengthening of episcopal authority.” Bergin, , “Between Estate,” 78.Google Scholar

105. The concours required proof of basic theological knowledge as formulated by the decrees of the Council of Trent.

106. Bergin, , “Between Estate,” 81.Google Scholar

107. Cf. the evidence in Julia, “Il prete,” 440.

108. Details in Fantappié, “Istituzioni ecclesiastiche.”

109. On this term, cf. Turchini, “La nascità del sacerdozio.”

110. On the conception of office in Protestantism, cf. “Amt,” TRE 2: 552–621.

111. Cf. Jedin, , “Das Leitbild des Priesters,” 110 and 115Google Scholar; Holzem, , “Religion und Lebensformen,” 238ff.Google Scholar

112. Holzem, , “Religion und Lebensformen,” 239Google Scholar; cf. also the similar interpretation in the essay by Dürr in this issue.

113. On the development of a clerical conception of office in Protestantism, cf. Baur, J., “Das kirchliche Amt im Protestantismus,” in Das Amt im ökumenischen Kontext, ed. idem, (Stuttgart, 1980), 103–38Google Scholar, as well as the article “Amt” in TRE.

114. Jedin, , “Das Leitbild des Priesters,” 110 and 115.Google Scholar

115. Holzem, , “Religion und Lebensformen,” 266.Google Scholar

116. On the details of this conflict cf. Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 272–73.Google Scholar

117. Ibid., 365ff.

118. Cf. Moser-Rath, E., Dem Kirchenvolk die Leviten gelesen: Alltag im Spiegel süddeutscher Barockpredigten (Stuttgart, 1991), 187f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

119. Holzem, , “Religion und Lebensformen,” 265.Google Scholar

120. Ibid., 277.

121. On the state of research, see Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 390–432Google Scholar. A tremendous amount of contemporary literature (sermons, pamphlets, etc.) make up the textual base; the term itself appears in Chr. Warner, Prudentia Politica Christiana, Gosslar, 1614 (copy in the Herzog August Bibliothek [henceforth HAB] Wolfenbüttel and in the Staatsbibliothek Munich). I am preparing a monograph on this topic. Dreitzel, H. gives a competent classification of the politica christiana in Protestant and Catholic theological discussion, Monarchiebegriffe in der Fürstengesellschaft: Semantik und Theorie der Einherrschaft in Deutschland von der Reformation bis zum Vormärz, 2 vol. (Cologne, 1991), 2:484–500.Google Scholar

122. As summary reference to the literature, see Skinner, Q., The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1978)Google Scholar; Burns, J. H., ed., The Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450–1700 (Cambridge, 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On Graubünden cf. the excellent study by Pfister in this issue.

123. On the Interim as an imperial political event, see the foundational study by Rabe, H., Reichsbund und Interim: Die Verfassungs- und Religionspolitik Karis V. und der Reichstag von Augsburg 1547/48 (Cologne, 1971)Google Scholar. On the aspect of interest here, there are only studies of individual south German imperial cities; its significance for the northwestern part of the empire has recently been examined for the first time in a volume of essays, Sicken, B., ed., Herrschaft und Verfassungsstrukturen im Nordwestern des Reiches: Beiträge zum Zeitalter Karls V (Cologne, 1994)Google Scholar. I. Mager and W. D Hauschild consider the significance of the Interim for the development of theological argumentation in this volume. Studies of regional conflicts concerning the Interim all date from the late nineteenth century; the exception is the stimulating study by Nischan, B., Prince, People and Confession: The Second Reformation in Brandenburg (Philadelphia, 1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

124. On the Magdeburg Confession see Schoenberger, C. G., “The Confession of Magdeburg and the Lutheran Doctrine of Resistance,” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University 1972)Google Scholar. There is no other research on the theological-political importance of this confession.

125. Cf. the references in Dreitzel, , Monarchiebegriffe, 484.Google Scholar

126. This outline follows Ibid., 488–500, who gives further references.

127. Cf. Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 390–415Google Scholar with individual references; Dreitzel, , Monarchiebegriffe, 489.Google Scholar

128. Bellarmine, R., De officio principis christiani libri tres (Rome, 1619), 1–38Google Scholar; cf. Dreitzel, , Monarchiebegriffe, 495Google Scholar and n. 63. On Bellarmine’s doctrine of government see most recently Bireley, R., The Counter-Reformation Prince: Antimachiavellianism or Catholic Statecraft in Early Modern Europe (Chapel Hill, 1990), 136, 219Google Scholar. Bireley’s work is central for the significance of the politica christiana in Catholic theological-political thought discussed here. There is not yet a comparative analysis of Protestant and Catholic printed works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries on this topic (e.g., Regentenspiegel, Hausväterliteratur).

129. on the understanding of office in Chemnitz and Mentzer cf. Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 399–407Google Scholar, and Mager, I., “‘Ich habe dich zum Wächter gesetzt über das Haus Israel.’ Zum Amtsverständnis des Braunschweigischen Stadtsuperintendenten und Wolfenbütteler Kirchenrates M. Chemnitz,” Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch 69 (1988): 57–69.Google Scholar

130. See the detailed references in Schorn-Schütte, “Drei-Stände-Lehre.”

131. This line of argumentation can be found in countless works of Protestant theologians after the Magdeburg Confession; cf Schorn-Schütte, “Obrigkeitskritik.”

132. There is scarcely any biographical detail; cf. the meager information in the Pfarrerbuch.

133. S. Cephalus, Warer grund und gewisse beweisung das die unrecht handeln, die iren predigern gebiten, das Bapstumb mit seinen greweln nit zu straffen, wider die verkerten weltweisen Klügling und Heuchelprediger zu dieser zeit nützlich, zu lesen, Magdeburg 1551 (copy HAB 172.2 Quod (6) MF), fol. C II r/v: “Die oberkeyt aber sol eyn dieb/mörder/ ehebrecher/ gotteslesterer … straffen … Also ist auch ein hausvatter schuldig sein gesind und kinder urn ires unverstandes willen … zu schelten und zu straffen … desgleichen ist eyn lerer und prediger schuldig falsche lehr und allerley sünden zu straffen/ darfür zu warnen/ und den falschen lerern zu widerstehn/ ire falsche lehr zu widerlegen/und fleissig die leut für inen zu warnen/ uff das sich yederman für inen wisse zu hüten. Er sol sich für irem trutzen und drewen nicht entsetzen.”

134. Ibid., fol. F II r.

135. Ibid., fol. G IV r.

136. Cf. the informative essay by Schreiner, K., “‘Correctio principis’: Gedankliche Begründung und geschichtliche Praxis spätmittelalterlicher Herrscherkritik,” in Mentalitäten im Mittelalter: methodische und inhaltliche Probleme, ed. Graus, F. (Sigmaringen, 1987), 203–56.Google Scholar

137. Cf. the references in Schorn-Schütte, , Evangelische Geistlichkeit, 394–99Google Scholar. The list of pastors can easily be expanded, because there is not yet a comprehensive study of acts of resistance; I am preparing a research project on this topic. Cf. Schröder, T. M., Das Kirchenregiment der Reichsstadt Esslingen (Esslingen, 1987), 131–60Google Scholar; Konersmann, F., Kirchenregiment und Kirchenzucht im frühneuzeitlichen Kleinstaat: Pfalz-Zweibrücken (Speyer, 1996), 238f. and 338f.Google Scholar

138. The memoranda of Bugenhagen and Amsdorff are printed in Scheible, H., ed., Das Widerstandsrecht als Problem der deutschen Protestanten 1523–1546 (Gütersloh, 1969), 18–20.Google Scholar

139. Hauschild, W.-D., “Der theologische Widerstand der lutherischen Prediger der Seestädte gegen das Interim und die konfessionelle Fixierung des Luthertums,” in Herrschaft und Verfassungsstrukturen, ed. Sicken, B., 253–64Google Scholar; esp. 260.

140. Basic for this discussion is Heckel, M., Staat und Kirche nach den Lehren der evangelischen Juristen Deutschlands in der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1968)Google Scholar; cf. esp. 139–63. Research on works by clergy from the mid-sixteenth century has made clear the need to revise dating and authorship of new legal formulations concerning the state church.

141. On Flacius cf. Olson, O.K. in TRE 11, 206–14.Google Scholar

142. The theologians’ memorandum: “Gravissimae causae, cur forma et norma Consito rei publice iam edita in pleribus portibus pie probari non possit,” in HAB Cod. Guelf 11, 9, fol. 45–57. Detailed analysis of the memorandum by Kruse, , Speners Kritik, 63f.Google Scholar

143. Holzem reaches a similar conclusion, “Religion und Lebensformen,” 428, and n. 19.

144. On terminology and concept, see Reinhard, W., “Powers Elites, State Servants, Ruling Classes and the Growth of State Power,” in Power Elites and State Building, ed. idem, (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), 1–18.Google Scholar

145. On this concept, with reference to E. Shils, see Peters, B., Die Integration moderner Gesellschaften (Frankfurt am Main, 1993), 279.Google Scholar

146. The intermediate territorial administration includes the city administration.

147. The following subordinate groups are included within the category of clergy. The percentage is the proportion within the clergy.

148. For Basel no distinction is made between higher and lower magistrate.

149. The following subordinate groups are included within the category of clergy. The n-value is the number within the total number of clergy.

150. This category includes teachers, professors (non-clergy) and doctors/apothecaries.

151. Catholic territory such as Hildesheim-Stift and Ermland is included here for the sake of comparison.