The Protestant Clergy of Early Modern Europe

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2 The Protestant Clergy of Early Modern Europe

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4 The Protestant Clergy of Early Modern Europe Edited by C. Scott Dixon The Queen s University of Belfast and Luise Schorn-Schütte Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main

5 Editorial Selection and Introduction C. Scott Dixon and Luise Schorn-Schütte 2003; Other chapters Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 2003 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Protestant clergy of early modern Europe / edited by C. Scott Dixon, Luise Schorn-Schütte. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Protestant churches Europe Clergy History. 2. Clergy Office History. 3. Reformation Europe. 4. Europe Church history 16th century. 5. Europe Church history 17th century. I. Dixon, C. Scott. II. Schorn-Schütte, Luise. BR307.P dc

6 Contents List of Tables Notes on the Contributors Introduction: The Protestant Clergy of Early Modern Europe 1 C. Scott Dixon and Luise Schorn-Schütte 1. Before the Protestant Clergy: The Construction and 39 Deconstruction of Medieval Priesthood R.N. Swanson 2. The Making of the Protestant Pastor: The Theological 60 Foundations of a Clerical Estate R. Emmet McLaughlin 3. The Emergence of the Pastoral Family in the German 79 Reformation: The Parsonage as a Site of Socio-religious Change Susan C. Karant-Nunn 4. The Clergyman between the Cultures of State and Parish: 100 Contestation and Compromise in Reformation Saxony Jay Goodale 5. The Clergy and the Theological Culture of the Age: The 120 Education of Lutheran Pastors in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Thomas Kaufmann 6. The Protestant Ministry and the Cultures of Rule: The 137 Reformed Zurich Clergy of the Sixteenth Century Bruce Gordon 7. Teaching the Reformation: The Clergy as Preachers, 156 Catechists, Authors and Teachers Ian Green 8. The French Pastorate: Confessional Identity and 176 Confessionalization in the Huguenot Minority, Mark Greengrass Notes 196 Index 240 v vii viii

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8 List of Tables 1. Social origins of the clergy of Hildesheim, Danzig and Basel sixteenth eighteenth centuries 7 2. Locations of study of the clergy of Hildesheim, Danzig and Basel sixteenth eighteenth centuries Career stages of the clergy of Hildesheim, Danzig and Basel sixteenth eighteenth centuries Age of clergy at commencement of first office of Hildesheim, Danzig and Basel sixteenth eighteenth centuries 27 vii

9 Notes on the Contributors C. Scott Dixon is Senior Lecturer in European Studies at the Queen s University of Belfast and lectures on British History at the University of Vienna. His publications include The Reformation and Rural Society. The Parishes of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach, (Cambridge, 1996), (editor) The German Reformation: The Essential Readings (Oxford, 1999), and The Reformation in Germany (Oxford, 2002). He is presently completing a book on the historiography of the European Reformation. Jay Goodale is Assistant Professor of History at Bucknell University. He has held visiting appointments at UCLA, the Max Planck Institute for History and the University of Erfurt. Professor Goodale has published several articles on the rural Reformation in journals and edited volumes, and is completing a book on how clerical lay relations affected the reception and development of the Reformation in Saxony and Thuringia. Bruce Gordon is Reader in Modern History and Deputy Director of the Reformation Studies Institute at the University of St Andrews. His publications include The Swiss Reformation (Manchester, 2002); The Place of the Dead (with Peter Marshall) (Cambridge, 2000); and (editor) Protestant History and Identity in Sixteenth-Century Europe (Aldershot, 1996). Ian Green is Professor of Early Modern History in the School of History at the Queen s University of Belfast. He is the author of many articles on the early modern English clergy and church, and of The Christian s ABC : Catechisms and Catechizing in England c (Oxford, 1996) and Print and Protestantism in Early Modern England (Oxford, 2000). He is currently working on the last part of this trilogy, entitled Word, Image, and Ritual in Early Modern English Protestantism. Mark Greengrass works on the history of France in the Renaissance and Reformation. He has published on the French Reformation, the French wars of religion and the reign of Henri IV. He is currently completing a monograph on Governing Passions: the Reformation of the Kingdom of France, , which explores the yearning for fundamental change generated by the religious wars of the later sixteenth viii

10 Notes on the Contributors ix century. He is the executive director of the John Foxe Project, which aims to produce a scholarly edition of his famous Elizabethan martyrology and holds a personal chair in the Department of History at the University of Sheffield. Susan C. Karant-Nunn is Director of the Division for Late Medieval and Reformation Studies as well as Professor of History at the University of Arizona. Her monograph, The Reformation of Ritual: An Interpretation of Early Modern Germany (London, 1997), won the 1998 Roland H. Bainton Prize of the Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference. With Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks she has edited Luther on Women: A Sourcebook (Cambridge, 2003). She is writing a book on the Reformations and the emotions. Thomas Kaufmann is Professor of Church History in the Faculty of Theology at the Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany. Prior to this appointment he held a chair in the Faculty of Evangelical Theology at the Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich ( ). His publications include: Die Abendmahlstheologie der Straßburger Reformatoren bis 1529 (Tübingen, 1992); Universität und lutherische Konfessionalisierung (Gütersloh, 1997); Dreißigjähriger Krieg und Westfälischer Friede. Kirchengeschichtliche Studien zur lutherischer Konfessionskultur (Tübingen, 1998); Reformatoren (Göttingen, 1998); (editor) Evangelische Kirchenhistoriker im Dritten Reich (Gütersloh, 2002); and Das Ende der Reformation. Magdeburgs Herrgottskanzlei /2 (Tübingen, in press). His research interests lie in the area of church history and theology of the early modern period. R. Emmet McLaughlin is Associate Professor of History at Villanova University (USA). He is the author of Caspar Schwenckfeld, Reluctant Radical: His Life to 1540 (New Haven, 1986) and The Freedom of Spirit, Social Privilege, and Religious Dissent: Caspar Schwenckfeld and the Schwenckfelders (Baden-Baden, 1996). He has also published on the Radical Reformation generally and the intellectual roots of the Reformation. Luise Schorn-Schütte is Professor of Modern History at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Her publications include Evangelische Geistlichkeit in der Frühneuzeit. Deren Anteil an der Entfaltung frühmoderner Staatlichkeit und Gesellschaft (Gütersloh, 1996); Die Reformation: Vorgeschichte Verlauf Wirkung (München, 1996); and (editor with W. Sparn) Evangelische Pfarrer: zur sozialen und politischen Rolle einer bürgerlichen Gruppe in der deutschen Gesellschaft des

11 x Notes on the Contributors 18. bis 20. Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart, 1997). Her research interests lie in the area of political thought in the early modern period, Reformation history and theories of history. R.N. Swanson is Professor of Medieval Ecclesiastical History at the University of Birmingham, and has worked extensively on assorted aspects of European church history from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, with a concentration on England after the Black Death. His books include Church and Society in Late Medieval England (Oxford, 1989), Religion and Devotion in Europe, c.1215 c.1515 (Cambridge, 1995) and The Twelfth Century Renaissance (Manchester, 1999). He is currently completing a book on indulgences in pre-reformation England.

12 Introduction: The Protestant Clergy of Early Modern Europe C. Scott Dixon and Luise Schorn-Schütte The Reformation was a European event. It brought an end to the unity of European Christianity, thus effecting a lasting divide, but it also led to a renewed intensification of the fusion of politics and religion, if from that point forward in a landscape distinguished by confessional and cultural disparity. In all of this, throughout the lands of Reformation Europe, the figure at the heart of this development was the Protestant clergyman. In those regions that turned to Protestantism, the Reformation meant the displacement of the existing clerical estate and the emergence of a new social group the evangelical clergy. Clerical marriage, now legitimate, led very quickly to the establishment of a completely new matrix of familial relations within which the pastor and his family were able to work their way into the ranks of the educated middle classes of early modern Europe. In many Protestant lands this happened within the first few generations. Beyond this rather vague commonality, however, the social and confessional discrepancies within the new group were shaped in different regions in widely different ways. National and regional variants of the evangelical parsonage or the pastoral family exist in abundance. Proof of this resides in how recent research has approached the theme: alongside the socio-historical studies devoted to career developments, social interrelations, economic conditions and educational backgrounds, new issues have emerged, including questions relating to the clergyman s room for manoeuvre once in office and how he stood in relation to the ruling elite, secular and spiritual alike, and the commune. In all of this, the developing sense of a unique clerical self-awareness assumed great importance. 1 1

13 2 C. Scott Dixon and Luise Schorn-Schütte In the study of the Protestant clergy, new concerns have been pushed into the foreground. Career strategies, family structures in the parsonage, the position of the pastor s wife in the parish, and the tensions and conflicts that emerged between theologians and parishioners over the elementary expectations of piety in the communes all have become matters of interest. At the same time, excessively sharp points of opposition have been tempered by a dialogue of contrasts and comparisons, while former assertions of methodological purity with exclusive claims to truth and wisdom have faded from view. 2 It is thus a propitious time to present a survey of the state of current knowledge, and that is what the following collection of essays sets out to do. Gathered together in this volume are eight contributions by leading scholars of medieval and early modern Europe on different aspects of the rise and development of the Protestant clergy. Each contribution deals with separate issues and approaches the theme from a different perspective, but taken together the eight essays provide a wide-ranging survey of the emergence of the Protestant clergy in the confessional age, from the construction of the clerical estate and its divergence from the medieval priesthood to the patterns and particulars of development and their implications for interpreting and understanding the confessional era. Many of the essays address a broad theme within a distinct national or territorial framework; the issues are general, the questions universal, but the details which animate the analyses are particular and precise. Using this approach, the volume is able to speak to the general concerns of Reformation historiography, while drawing on the crucial details made possible by research expertise. The end result is a comprehensive overview of a subject at the very heart of early modern history, viewed from a range of perspectives which provides an essential understanding of the age. Medieval traditions Whatever the degree of differentiation in confessional Europe, an important constant for the historian remains the need to situate the new Protestant clergy in the context of medieval traditions. Both the economic structures and the expectations of the commune, for instance, managed to outlast the fundamental upheavals that the Reformation brought in its train. As a consequence, historians have approached the new social group clergy by placing different weight on different aspects: while, on the one hand, there is clear indication of a process of professionalization which must be given serious consid-

14 Introduction 3 eration, on the other, there is a counter-argument, equally serious in nature, that emphasizes the durability of the traditional estates, particularly with reference to the new social groups. The original intent of the Reformation movement was the secularization of the sacral or, to put it another way, the sacralization of the earthly realm. It followed from this that a clerical estate with a unique or elevated status had no need to exist. But this rather abstract condition was difficult to realize in practice, especially in the early years of the movement. Social historians have demonstrated that the first few generations of Protestant clergy were recruited predominantly from among the former monks and priests of Catholic Europe. Similarly, the numerous pastors wives were either formerly illegitimate companions of the parish priests or, as in the famous case of Katharina von Bora, were themselves former nuns. This trend is fairly easy to understand, for a complete exchange of the clerical personnel would have resulted in the collapse of the pastoral care of the parishioners. Given the state of affairs, it was never a possibility. In many lands of Europe, from the middle of the sixteenth century onward, we can get a glimpse of the state of reform and the evolution of the new Church in the visitation reports. These speak of the urgent need for improvement. The theological education of the clergy leaves just as much to be desired as their preaching and pastoral abilities, while their personal conduct often caused offence to parishioners and authorities alike. Many of these abuses also contradicted the vision of the clerical ideal in the medieval church; and yet, as R.N. Swanson makes clear in his study of the precursor to the clerical paradigm (to borrow his phrase) that surfaced with the English Reformation, marked theological competence and preaching ability were not among the requirements which made up the job specifications of the medieval priesthood: The priest s function was essentially practical, not intellectual: to get people to heaven by practical pastoral care rather than intense doctrinal instruction. 3 The need for a well-grounded theological education for the mass of the medieval Catholic clergy simply did not exist; their charge of providing assistance to the parishioners in the quest (via good works) for salvation required technical and practical ability, rather than a gift for the speculative or abstract. Theoretically, the competence required could be acquired in schools, priestly seminaries and theological faculties; practically, however, this type of education (if acquired) rarely sufficed. Moreover, the gift of a priestly office was very closely connected to the assumption of a benefice, and this was only in the rarest of circumstances made conditional on clerical

15 4 C. Scott Dixon and Luise Schorn-Schütte ability. At the close of the Middle Ages, personal strategies of patronage and provision were more decisive than theological competence. Indeed, as Swanson observes, even when criticism did surface, only very rarely did it concern the substance of the priesthood; instead, the contentious issues remained accidents, focusing on property and poverty, stability and movement. All pre-reformation movements directed at the reform of these abuses sought the realization of the clerical ideal. Strictly speaking, they were not anticlerical, but rather characterized by a singular esteem of the office of priest and his badge of sacrality. Yet it was exactly this that was undermined by Martin Luther and his doctrine of justification. As a consequence of this theological principle, the need for a technically competent attendant in the quest for salvation by way of good works had become superfluous. The theological basis for this shift in understanding is examined in the contribution by R. Emmet McLaughlin, as are the consequences of this shift for the clerical estate. In place of a Catholic priest distinguished by his sacerdotal status and viewed as a point of contact between the profane and the sacred (that is, as a source or a channel of grace), the Protestant clergyman emerged, no longer a participant of the divine essence, but rather of faith and forgiveness. As McLaughlin observes: The Protestant minister, in so far as he was a mediator, offered meaning not presence, signification not participation, God s good will not God himself. 4 The principles of this sacerdotal realignment were firmly rooted in Reformation theology, from sola fide and sola scriptura to Luther s explicit rejection of the medieval ministry in the idea of the priesthood of all believers and Jean Calvin s sophisticated structures of church rule. With the Reformation the clergy were no longer mediators or manipulators of God s grace and the church was no longer a repository of the sacred. Indeed, in some instances it became little more than a desacralized bureaucracy, a branch of governance in the evolving state. The character of the social group: estate or profession? For the clergy, the Reformation brought with it the loss of the sacral character of the clerical office. Yet the office still maintained its own unique place of worth. The foundations for a theological understanding of the ministry were prepared in the works of Luther, first given articulation and formulation in his lectures on Genesis ( ). In this work, Luther detailed the proof behind the institution of the three

16 Introduction 5 estates at the act of creation: first came the Church (ecclesia) as the community of human kind in paradise; next came the creation of a companion for man and thus the foundation of marriage (oeconomia); and finally, as an external means of control made necessary by the Fall of Man, systems of rule and governance were established (politia, die Obrigkeit) to maintain order on earth (the latter not necessary in paradise, of course, a sphere free of worldly sovereignty). 5 With this characterization, Luther endeavoured to overcome the late medieval theory of estates rooted in a sacral notion of office. But it was not a blueprint for the structure of social relations. Luther leaves no doubt that in his view of a commonwealth all members belonged simultaneously to all three estates or orders. These estates are not mutually exclusive sectors of the population but definitions of three relationships into which all individuals enter when they became members of a society. 6 Within Lutheranism, this view ultimately came to place considerable stress on the importance of the church office, and in particular on the pastor s function as a shepherd or a sentinel over the other two estates. Grounded in a unique sense of clerical selfawareness, a social and political dynamic evolved (rooted in theological thought), which had a lasting impact on developments in European Lutheranism at the close of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth. 7 And with the teaching of the fourfold ministry of the Church developed within Calvinism, yet another vision of clerical vocation and duty evolved in the Protestant lands. This unique sense of self-awareness accentuated and intensified the range of social and economic transformations confronting the evangelical clergyman, particularly those brought about by the frequency of marriage and the fact that he was now placed on an equal economic and tax footing with the laity. As McLaughlin demonstrates in his survey of the theological framework, there was no warrant for the medieval separation of the secular and the spiritual estates. The way was open for the clergy s integration into the educated bourgeoisie of early modern Europe. Many of the sons of parish clergymen (who were now, of course, recognized as legitimate offspring) went on to practise in professions such as law or medicine, while others simply married into these ranks of the learned middle classes. Recent analysis of the socio-historical data concerning origins, employment, university education, career paths and material conditions has revealed how much variety of experience there was; but even when we keep the diversity and the many regional differences in view, it is possible to make out a general model of development. 8

17 6 C. Scott Dixon and Luise Schorn-Schütte Social and regional mobility The first generation of Protestant clergy came from the medieval priesthood, and indeed from all levels of the hierarchy. The visitation reports from territories in the Holy Roman Empire show this readily enough, as do the historical records in England and Scandinavia. 9 Very little is known, however, about the social or regional origins of this first generation of Protestant men. Only in those cases where the clergyman was in a position of prominence or leadership do details come to light. (See Table 1, Social origins of the clergy). Some facts, however, are known. The number of clergy from noble backgrounds was relatively small, as was the proportion of candidates from the peasantry. The vast majority emerged from among the educated middle classes in the towns and cities, and over the course of the sixteenth century, at least in the German lands, this type of social provenance remained dominant. As the decades passed, new concentrations became evident: in addition to a growing number of pastors sons (who themselves went on to become ministers), there was a marked degree of intermingling with the legally trained office-holders in the territories and the larger cities. And it was not just the professional orders; even in the proportion of craftsmen among the passing generations of fathers, sons and sons-in-law we can see, despite the regional variety, that there is little cause to speak of the building of dynasties or of a general hereditary character of the clerical office. 10 Indeed, in many regions, the ministry worked as a stepping stone for advancement, beginning with the clerical office (which might include a teaching post as well) and occasionally leading to a rise in social standing within one or two generations. 11 Both this degree of social mobility and the rapid integration of the clergy into the ranks of the educated and affluent middle classes (which, in the English setting, might include a closer union with sections of the gentry) were greatly facilitated by the institution of clerical marriage, that is, by utilizing the social network of the pastors wives. For the first few generations, regional mobility was particularly pronounced. Given the initial need for educated Protestant clergymen (not just parish pastors but church leaders as well), the reason for this mobility is clear. From the beginning of the seventeenth century onward, however, regional mobility started to wane. Place of study is a good indicator of this. Until the establishment of Protestant educational establishments in other regions of Europe, the University of Wittenberg was the centre of attraction for potential clergymen in

18 Table 1 Social origins of the clergy of Hildesheim, Danzig and Basel sixteenth eighteenth centuries Occupation of Father Period 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Total Farmer/Peasant Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number Craftsman Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number Clergyman Frequency % Occupation of Father % of the Period % Total Number Court Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number Doctor/Apothecary Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number Merchant/Publisher Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number

19 Table 1 continued 8 Period Occupation of Father 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Total Lawyer Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number Teacher Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number Military Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number Higher Administration Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number Middling Frequency Administration % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number City Administration Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number

20 Table 1 continued Period Occupation of Father 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Total University Lecturer Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number Other Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number Day Labourer/Servant Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number Artists Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number Total Frequency % Occupation of Father % Period % Total Number

21 10 Table 1 continued Period Occupation of Father 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Farmer/Peasant Craftsman Clergyman Court 1 Doctor/Apothecary Merchant/Publisher Lawyer 2 Teacher Military Higher Administration Middling Administration City Administration University Lecturer Other Day Labourer/Servant 1 1 Artists 1

22 Introduction 11 Lutheran Germany. (In the world of Calvinism, Heidelberg and Basel played a similar role.) Not until the beginning of the seventeenth century, as a consequence of the theological controversies, did other Lutheran universities such as Jena, Leipzig and Rostock emerge as serious alternatives to the former home of Martin Luther. (See Table 2 Locations of study of the clergy.) Matriculation lists testify to the extent to which regional centres of education began to establish themselves over the course of the century. In the end, practical concerns often dictated the place of study. Quite frequently the average Protestant clergyman studied at the local university for reasons of expense, and in an ever-increasing number of cases ended up serving the territory of his birth. 12 In England, however, unlike continental Europe, the concentration of the places of learning available to the clergy was more pronounced, while study at a college of theology was not necessarily bound up with a university education. Education and career development The Reformation was a creation of the German university, a point Thomas Kaufmann makes at the outset of his study on the educational backgrounds of the Lutheran clergy in Germany. It is an essential observation and reveals a fundamentally important feature about the Reformation Church. For the Protestant clergyman, the central duty of office was not the facilitation of ritual performance, but rather the ability to preach and interpret the Word of God. That is why the education and training of the clergy became a principal concern of the reformers, as it would become a concern of the Protestant authorities once the Reformation had been introduced. From the middle of the sixteenth century onward, the foundation, provision and maintenance of parish schools, grammar schools and universities became nothing less than a political obligation. Moreover, once the institutional foundations were in place, it soon proved necessary to establish a theological curriculum that could provide the aspiring pastor with an appropriate grounding in the required fields of study (languages, philosophy, theology), followed by the practical knowledge and guidelines to help him write sermons and counsel the parishioners once in office. For it was never just a question of acquired knowledge; the Protestant clergyman had to translate his learning into the proper fulfilment of pastoral care. As Kaufmann notes, The value of a theological education was thus decisive in the concrete encounters with people from the pulpit, in confession, in the cure of souls, in casual praxis, and in apologetic debates. 13

23 Table 2 Locations of study of the clergy of Hildesheim, Danzig and Basel sixteenth eighteenth centuries 12 Period Location of Study 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Total Altdorf Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Basel Frequency %Location of Study % Period % Total Number Bologna Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Breslau Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Erfurt Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Erlangen Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number

24 Table 2 continued Period Location of Study 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Total Franeker Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Frankfurt a.o. Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Freiburg Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Gießen Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Göttingen Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Graz Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number

25 Table 2 continued 14 Period Location of Study 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Total Greifswald Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Groningen Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Halle Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Heidelberg Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Helmstedt Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Herborn Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number

26 Table 2 continued Period Location of Study 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Total Jena Frequency % Location of Study % of the Period % of the Total Number Kassel Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Kiel Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Cologne Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Königsberg Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Krakau Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number

27 Table 2 continued 16 Period Location of Study 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Total Leiden Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Leipzig Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Marburg Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Oxford Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Paris Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Prague Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number

28 Table 2 continued Period Location of Study 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Total Rinteln Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Rostock Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Strasbourg Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Tübingen Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Utrecht Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Vienna Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number

29 Table 2 continued 18 Period Location of Study 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Total Wittenberg Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Würzburg Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Other Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Braunsberg Ps. Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Rome Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number Total Frequency % Location of Study % Period % Total Number

30 Table 2 continued Period Location of Study 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Altdorf 2 2 Basel Bologna 1 Breslau 1 Erfurt Erlangen 2 Franeker 1 Frankfurt a.o Freiburg 3 Gießen 11 1 Göttingen 4 Graz 2 Greifswald Groningen 4 Halle 2 6 Heidelberg 4 6 Helmstedt Herborn 1 Jena Kassel 1 Kiel 1 Cologne 1 1 Königsberg Krakau

31 20 Table 2 continued Period Location of Study 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Leiden 7 2 Leipzig Marburg 7 Oxford 1 Paris 2 Prague 1 Rinteln 4 1 Rostock Strasbourg 2 8 Tübingen 4 1 Utrecht 2 Vienna 2 1 Wittenberg Würzburg 1 Other Braunsberg Ps Rome 3 1 3

32 Table 2 continued Location of Study Total Altdorf 4 Basel 22 Bologna 1 Breslau 1 Erfurt 8 Erlangen 2 Franeker 1 Frankfurt a.o. 12 Freiburg 3 Gießen 12 Göttingen 4 Graz 2 Greifswald 11 Groningen 4 Halle 8 Heidelberg 10 Helmstedt 72 Herborn 1 Jena 66 Kassel 1 Kiel 1 Cologne 2 Königsberg 54 Krakau 2 Leiden 9 Leipzig 59 21

33 22 Table 2 continued Location of Study Total Marburg 7 Oxford 1 Paris 2 Prague 1 Rinteln 5 Rostock 60 Strasbourg 10 Tübingen 5 Utrecht 2 Vienna 3 Wittenberg 139 Würzburg 1 Other 26 Braunsberg Ps. 58 Rome 7

34 Introduction 23 In this sphere, as in others, the passage of a few generations was required before the desired educational model could be established and the contents of learning effectively communicated. And it was longer still before the effects of the process could be discerned. In contrast to the claims of traditional research, it was not at all inevitable that the prospective evangelical pastor would acquire a university degree in theology. On the contrary, the only constant seems to have been that all clergymen studied in the faculty of arts, though it was certainly not the case that they all ended their time at a university by taking a degree. As Kaufmann illustrates, this state of affairs lasted until the early decades of the seventeenth century. Many prospective clergymen were likely to have heard a few lectures in theology along the way; but until well into the seventeenth century, an academic qualification or degree in theology was almost exclusively the preserve of the men who held the highest offices in the newly created Protestant Church. 14 In a similar vein, little is known about the content of what was actually taught. The assumption that the fields of knowledge prescribed in the programmes of study were faithfully taught and effectively internalized is mistaken. Well into the early decades of the seventeenth century, the general level of learning among Protestant pastors consistently remained much lower than has been previously assumed. 15 That is why historians have ascribed such an importance to the range of educational institutions that evolved at the level of local or regional church organization (i.e. preaching synods, prophesyings, borough lectureships, exercises) and accompanied the efforts at educating the Protestant clergy. A variety of historical sources lets us catch a glimpse of these institutions on occasion, and it is clear to see that the issues facing the clergyman in situ stood at the centre of the agenda not only the practical concerns relating to preaching, but the improvement of theological understanding and the fine points of pastoral activity as well. 16 The appointment to office had both a spiritual and an economic side; indeed, the two were closely bound together. In this, the Protestant practice more or less picked up the thread of pre- Reformation developments. The suitability of the candidate, in both a spiritual and a professional sense, was determined by evidence of university education as well as much more importantly an examination (which included a trial sermon) set by the ruling body of the Church. 17 Set in motion by the proposal of the patrons of the local church (and this might include communes with the right of election), the church authorities then confirmed the selection of an appropriately qualified candidate. This pronounced the new calling of the candidate and invested him with his parish benefice (though only for

35 24 those posts that did not have a noble or communal patron). 18 The assumption of the various economic rights and obligations was followed by the ceremonial investment of the clerical office, which was brought to a close with a church service and an inaugural sermon in the presence of the local parishioners and the secular authorities. This combination of traditional parish provision and a selection process oriented round functional and qualitative criteria is characteristic of the standing of the clerical office in Protestantism between estate and profession. This ambiguous status, underscored by the combination of traditional benefice management with a type of career planning, impacted on the daily lives of the Protestant clergy until the end of the eighteenth century. 19 It was a precarious balance. For example, as a very close connection with the commune inhered in the clerical understanding of office, any career consideration that countenanced a change from one post to another for an increase in salary was anathema. The reality, however, was markedly different, and it is easy to understand why when we take into account both the many impoverished parishes and the new idea of office, growing stronger over time, that was devoted exclusively to spiritual matters that is, free from the burdens of handiwork and husbandry. 20 In fact, career planning and increased mobility can be identified in most of Protestant Europe in the seventeenth century; they are revealed in an economic hierarchy of the parish posts, for instance, which allowed for a certain degree of predictability to form in the stages of career advancement. (See Table 3, Career stages of clergy.) Movement along this scale, however, was not simply made possible by applying for a vacant parish. Complex networks of patrons and mentors evolved, branching throughout the Protestant lands, within which family ties, friendships and professional associations played the decisive role. In the process of appointment to a parish, intercession and recommendation proved just as important as the personal aptitude of the candidate. Equally, the age of the candidate and his familial relations might count for just as much as academic qualifications, however faithfully and diligently the latter may have been acquired (see Table 4 Age of clergy at commencement of first office). It is through this type of benefice management that we can best characterize the clerical office of Protestantism. It belongs to an understanding of profession familiar to old Europe, one that does indeed show the first signs of forms of functional mechanisms of provision, but was nevertheless not yet strictly equivalent to a profession in the modern sense of the term and would not become so until well into the eighteenth century. 21

36 Table 3 Career stages of the clergy of Hildesheim, Danzig and Basel sixteenth eighteenth centuries Sequence of Category of Office Offices Total Teacher (School/ Frequency Private Tutor) % Total Number Adjunct/Vicar/Deacon/ Frequency Precentor/Chaplain % Total Number Minister 3. Frequency % Total Number Rector/Teacher Frequency (Gymnasium/ Grammar School) % Total Number Minister 1./2./Priest/ Frequency 1, ,536 Pastor/Regular Clergy % Total Number Vice Senior Frequency % Total Number

37 26 Table 3 continued Career Stages of the Clergy of Hildesheim, Danzig and Basel 16th 18th Centuries Sequence of Category of Office Offices Total Superintendent/1. Frequency Minister/Antistes/ Senior/Abbot/ Prior/Dean % Total Number General Superintendent/ Bishop Frequency % Total Number Total Frequency 2, , ,716 % Total Number

38 Table 4 Age at commencement of first office of the clergy of Hildesheim, Danzig and Basel sixteenth eighteenth centuries Period Age at Commencement 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Total up to 19 years Frequency % Age at Commencement % Period % Total Number years Frequency % Age at Commencement % Period % Total Number years Frequency % Age at Commencement % Period % Total Number years Frequency % Age at Commencement % Period % Total Number years Frequency % of the Age at Commencement % of the Period % of the Total Number years and over Frequency % of the Age at Commencement % of the Period % of the Total Number

39 28 Table 4 continued Period Age at Commencement 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Total Total Frequency % of the Age at Commencement % of the Period % of the Total Number Period Age at Commencement 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century up to 19 years to 29 years years years years years and over 1 2 2

40 Introduction 29 The pastor and his family The parsonage as a locus of morality and Christian conduct, a proverbial assumption of later ages, draws its substance from the exceptionally strong involvement of the pastor s wife and children in the spiritual office of the Protestant clergyman. Susan C. Karant-Nunn makes this essential point in her survey of the rise of the Protestant parsonage in Saxony: Within Lutheranism the burden of serving as an exemplum of domestic propriety fell upon the clergy, their spouses, children, and servants. 22 The existence of a legitimate clerical family was a particularly palpable break with pre-reformation tradition, and it altered life in the commune in a twofold fashion. On the one hand, the standing of the woman as wife, and indeed the wife of the clergyman, became one of esteem; on the other, now that the pastor assumed his role as shepherd of souls in the guise of a family man, his familial obligations became part of his spiritual calling. With the Reformation, the order of the household acquired a special significance in European Protestantism, for the paterfamilias was now viewed as a model of good (that is, Christian) guidance and control. In the estimation of Karant-Nunn, The home of the pastor and his wife became a symbol of active spirituality second only to the church itself. Having said this, however, even though the parsonage was meant to be the exemplary household in the parish, it was at the same time just one house among many others in the commune, if in a sense primum inter pares. This fact reveals a distinctive feature about the association between the evangelical clergy and the communes: it was not the sacral legitimation and clerical functions that characterized the relationship, but rather the exemplary worldliness, the sheer everyday quality of clerical life. That this could lead to difficulties in the execution of office is frequently suggested by the source materials, and it is relatively easy to understand. With the Reformation, the ontological distance between the medieval priest and his parishioners had been removed. The neighbourhood was now very close at hand, and in particular when it touched on the economic sphere or the trials of family life in the village. Karant- Nunn s close study of the villages of Saxony reveals the many problems that arose, from the sheer size and cost of the household to the uncertain status of the pastor and his family. In some instances, conflicts between clerical families and communes were unavoidable, in particular those inflamed by disagreements over the functions of the pastor s wife (a common cause, as she still had to find her place in the towns and villages). There were areas of parish life where she might be integrated successfully; 23 but in general it was a touchy issue, especially in light of the

41 30 C. Scott Dixon and Luise Schorn-Schütte fact that it was the wives of the clergymen who had to gather together the annual dues in kind owed by the parishioners, just as it was the wives who had to admonish the parishioners when they did not pay. In the context of early modern agrarian conditions, where uncertain yields were always a cause of tension and concern, any new demand could quickly become a point of friction, especially for a population whose economic values and standards of social reputation did not always accord with those of the clergy. This conflict of values did not arise because of the Reformation; nevertheless, due to the increased economic burdens placed on the parish now that the clergyman had to care for an entire family, there surfaced in many parishes a new type of scepticism, not only about the pastor s wife, but about the pastor himself, whose useful contribution appeared more and more difficult to identify. With this, a problem is revealed that was common to the Protestant pastor but completely different in nature from anything facing his Catholic counterpart. The tasks expected of a Protestant clergyman were lacking in sacerdotal legitimation; instead of serving as an earthly channel to the divine, he preached the Word of God and fulfilled his pastoral responsibilities. But it was often difficult to bring home the elevated meaning of this new profile to the parishioners, especially in the rural setting. Again and again, the source materials speak of the conflicts triggered by the demands and expectations of the pastors and the lack of obedience among the parishioners. There was thus anticlericalism after the Reformation, though it would be mistaken to think of it as simply a reaction to the teaching of the Church or the fiscal demands of its clergy. Communal expectations of the pastor were not only grounded in the demand for moral deportment and the need for economic moderation. There was also the widespread expectation that the clergy would preserve local and regional traditions, some of which, for generations after the Reformation, were held in the same esteem as religious customs. Protestant pastors, in ever-increasing harmony, railed against the preservation of such traditions, claiming they were heathen and unbiblical and against the truths of the evangelical faith. 24 But the pastor remained a voice in the wilderness unless he could secure the support of the local secular authorities, and he could only do this with the assistance of the state. The Protestant clergyman and the confessional state The Protestant clergyman was a creation of the confessional age; he emerged at a time in history when religious belief played a fundamen-