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Preaching to the Laity in Fifteenth-Century Germany: Johannes Nider's ‘Harps’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

John Dahmus
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Extract

Bernd Moeller concludes in his often-quoted study of late medieval German piety that ‘one could dare to call the late fifteenth century in Germany one of the most churchly-minded and devout periods of the Middle Ages’. In his review of Moeller's work, W. D.J. Cargill Thompson points out that the ‘profound conservatism’ of this religiosity, which included devotion to the mass, veneration of saints and their relics, and the reading of vast amounts of religious literature, poses a problem for our understanding of the causes of the Reformation. How does one reconcile this traditional churchliness with the ‘remarkable suddenness’ of its collapse after 1520? One would have expected greater resistance to Lutheran ideas than actually occurred.

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The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , January 1983 , pp. 55 - 68
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

This paper was prepared during the 1979–80 National Endowment for the Humanities seminar directed by Anthony Molho of Brown University, R.I., on ‘Society and Popular Culture in Mediaeval and Early Modern Italy’. I am grateful to him and my colleagues at the seminar for their constructive comments. My thanks go also to Robert Warnock of Brown's German Department for his many helpful suggestions. A faculty research grant from Stephen F. Austin State University aided this research.

1 Moeller, B., ‘Piety in Germany around 1500’, trans. Irwin, Joyce, in Ozment, S. E. (ed.), The Reformation in Medieval Perspective, Chicago 1971, 50–75Google Scholar at p. 60. The article is also translated in Strauss, Gerald (ed.), Pre-Reformation Germany, New York 1972, 13–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Ozment, S. E., The Reformation in the Cities: the appeal of Protestantism to sixteenth-century Germany and Switzerland, New Haven, Conn. 1975, 15–22Google Scholar, for other historians who agree as to the extent of lay piety but disagree as to its health.

2 Thompson, W. D. J. Cargill, ‘Seeing the Reformation in medieval perspective’, this Journal, xxv (1974), 297–308Google Scholar at p. 302; Moeller, ‘Piety’, 52–60.

3 Ozment, Reformation in the Cities, 21.

4 Ibid, 29.

5 Ozment, ibid., 50, remarks: ‘The first Protestants attacked the medieval church for demanding too much, not too little, from laymen and clergymen, and for making religion psychologically and socially burdensome, not for taking it too lightly.’ See also ibid, 15–32, 42–6, 116–20, 206–7 n. 235.

6 Bossy, J., ‘The social history of confession in the age of the Reformation’, Trans. Royal Historical Society, 5th ser, xxv (1975), 21–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar at pp. 21–8. He notes, however, that both the Devotio Modema and Christian humanists were striving to interiorise and ‘to reinforce the desocializing efforts of the earlier scholastics by suggesting that sin was essentially something that occurred in the mind’, p. 27.

7 Tentler, T., Sin and Confession on the Eve of the Reformation, Princeton 1977, 363–70Google Scholar. See also Steven Ozment's review in The Journal of Religion, Iviii (1978), 204–6. J. von Rohr, ‘Medieval consolation and the young Luther's despair’, in Littell, F. H. (ed.), Reformation Studies: essays in honor of Roland H. Bainton, Richmond, Va. 1962, 61–74Google Scholar at PP. 64–7, admits that the practice of confession was meant to, and actually did, console many people although Luther found that confession only worsened his problems of despair.

8 For details of Nider's life see Schieler, K., Magister Johannes Nider aus dem Orden der Prediger-Brüder: ein Beitragiur Kirchengeschichte des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts, Mainz 1885Google Scholar, and Fischer, H., Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, Freiburg i. B. 1960Google Scholar, v. 1066–7.

9 N. Weinrich, Die deulsche Prosa des Dominikaners Johannes Nider in seinen ‘Vierundzwanzig goldenen Harfen’: ein Beitrag zur Sprachedes 15. Jahrhunderts, Dissertation, Wilhelms-Univcrsität zu Münstcr i. Westf. 1933, 2–3.

10 For the Sermones Aurei sec Ludovicus Hain, Repertorium Bibliographicum, Paris 1831, *11797-* 11804.† 11805 is a suspect edition and is not, therefore, included here. K. Burger, Supplement zu Hain und Panzer: Beiträge zur Inkunabelbibliograpie, Hildesheim rpt 1966, 384 casts doubt on the existence of 11800; it is also not counted here. W. A. Copinger, Supplement to Hain's Repertorium Bibliographicum, Milan rpt 1950, however, mentions another edition (4416). So does Adams, H. M., Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, 1501–1600 in Cambridge Libraries, Cambridge 1967Google Scholar, no. 264. Panzer, G., Anndles Typographici ab Arlis Inventae Origine ad Annum AID, Nuremberg 1793–1797Google Scholar, mentions two others which I have not included in the number of certain editions (1, 41.172 and n, 404.49). For the Harps, see Hain, Repertorium, *11846–* 11854. †11848 is a suspect edition and is not counted here. Proctor, R., An Index of German Books 1501–1520 in the British Museum, London2nd edn 1954, 164Google Scholar, adds another edition.

11 Cassianus, Johannes, Conlationes XXIIII, ed. Petschenig, Michael, Vienna 1886Google Scholar, Volume xiii of Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum. A partial translation appears in Chadwick, O. (ed.), Western Asceticism, Philadelphia 1958Google Scholar, Volume XII of the Library of Christian Classics. The Harps is not a translation of the Conferences but wanders far from its model. William Crossgrove, in a talk entitled ‘The late reception of the medieval German Metamorphoses translation’, at Ovid Conference at Brown University, 13 March 1980, suggests that medieval people read books in the original not in translation. Books were, therefore, rendered freely rather than translated. The argument would not apply directly to the Harps since the audience that requested it (see below) did not understand Latin (and therefore could not have read Cassian in the original). But the thesis may help explain why Nider himself made no attempt to translate Cassian.

14 Vierundzweinczig guldin Harpffen, xix. fo. 104r points out that all Christians, religious and lay people alike, must sometimes be separated from the world, but ‘die karthuser und klaussner sind allweg schuldig cin abgescheyden leben ze füren, als verr sÿ mügen’. Although Carthusians and hermits may have read the book with interest (sec note 29 below), it clearly had a much wider audience. (The edition of the Harps used in this paper is the Johannes Bämler 1472 Augsburg edition (Hain *11847) from the copy in the Annmary Brown Memorial Library, Brown University. Hereafter most references to this work will appear in the body of the paper.)

13 Cassian uses the same analogy; Conferences, 363. Both Nider and Cassian use the analogy of a mill, of a miller to the human heart: i. fo. 7r; Conferences, 27.

14 Cassian makes the same point; Conferences, 290. The ascetic Isaac there remarks that it is not strange that ‘a very simple man’ might be deceived by ‘the defect of rusticity and the custom of ancient error’.

15 St Thomas is cited vii. fo. 33r to indicate that the sins of high clerical and lay authorities are more grave because of the authorities’ rank than are the sins of ‘schlecht leiit’. In xviii. fo. 95V Nider distinguishes three types of men based on their ability to understand and interpret scripture. The third group are those who do not enlighten others but are instead themselves enlightened. Those men are ‘all schlecht und einfältig laÿen’.

16 In xx. fo. 110v Nider juxtaposes detachment and charity in such a way as to leave little doubt that he was preaching to the wealthier people of Nuremberg. He says that the third of nine steps to heaven is ‘das eins alien reichtumb verschmächen wöll... zeÿtlichs gütz süllen wir anders nit achten, denn alz des mistes, und wenn es in der kÿsten ob einander leÿt, und so man das armen leüten nit auss strewet, so stinckts vor got als der mÿst’.

17 The Harps is divided into twenty-four pieces, as Cassian similarly divided his Conferences.

18 ‘das es got aller geruchsamlichest möcht dienen’.

19 fo. 4r, ‘durch bete und liebe ersamer burgerin da selbst, in ein teütsch buch ordenlich ze samen geschriben’; fo. 3V, ‘hie liber a quodam egregio sacrarum litterarum professore, magistro Johanne Nider, ordinis predicatorum fratre de latino in vulgarem Nůrcmberge translatus est’. Hain, Repertorium 11851, says that the appeal came from ‘Burger' [sic] not ‘Bürgerinnen’. This edition is one of those that Hain personally did not see, and although Panzer (see Bürger, Supplement, 385) also mentions it, I have found it listed in no other source. Very likely ‘Bürger’ should read ‘Bürgerinnen’.

20 Douglas, E. J. Dempsey, Justification in Late Medieval Preaching: a study of John Getter of Keiserberg, Leiden 1966, 3Google Scholar.

21 Nider expected educated people would read the Harps also, since he admonished readers of Latin not to be turned away from his book because of the ‘barbarism of style’ (German) but to look to ‘the truth of the ideas’, for ‘not a German but Cassian speaks’; fo. 3V. The Harps further demonstrates a process opposite to the one normally followed since it was later translated into Latin from the German; Catalogus Codicum Latinorum Bibliothecae Regiae Monacensis, ed. Carolus Halm et al., Wiesbaden rpt 1968, iii. pt. 3, no. 5605.

22 See also Introduction, fo. 5r and xix, fo. 103V for other references to house and cloister.

23 Jostes, F., Meister Eckhart und seine Jünger, Berlin rpt 1972, 133–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 137 (J viii and xxvii). Also printed in Paul Ruf et al., Mitlelalterliche Bibliothekskalaloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz, Munich 1918Google Scholar–, iii. 615, 618 (hereafter referred to as MBK).

24 MBK, i. 452.

25 Ibid., iii. 399.

26 Ibid., i. 148.

27 Fechter, W., Das Publikum der mittelhochdcutschen Dichtung, Frankfurt a.M. 1935, 90–1Google Scholar.

28 MBK, iv. 799, 860.

29 Ibid., iii. 89.

30 Ibid., iii. 845.

31 Die deutsche Handschriflen der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München, ed. Schneider, Karin, Wiesbaden 1970Google Scholar, v. pt. 2, Cgm 217.

32 Ibid., Cgm 310.

33 Catalogus... Monacensis, iii. pt. 3, no. 5605.

34 Yale University Library, collation slip for its copy of the Harps.

35 Gottlieb, T., Büchersammlung Kaiser Maximilians I, Amsterdam rpt 1968, 95Google Scholar.

36 Schmidt, W., Die vierundzwanzig Allen Ottos von Passau, Leipzig 1938, 306Google Scholar, 323. See also Fechter, Das Publikum, 89, 101, on the nobility and urban citizenry as readers of religious literature.

37 Schmidt, ibid., 323; Schmidt, 349, finds no direct connection between the two books.

38 See also note 21 for the encouragement given to educated readers to take up the Harps.

39 Jostes, Meister Eckhart, xxv. ‘Daher wird die Litteratur nühterner, aber für den Durchschnittchristen verständlicher und brauchbarer...’

40 Gierarths, G. M. O.P., ‘Johannes Nider O.P. und die “deutsche Mystik” des 14. Jahrhunderts’, Divus Thomas, xxx (1952), 321–46Google Scholar, especially 338–46. See also, idem., ‘Johannes Tauler und die Frömmigkeitshaltung des 15. Jahrhunderts’, in Johannes Tauler: Ein Deutscher Mystiker: Gedenkschrift zum 600. Todestag, ed. Filthaut, E. O.P., Essen 1961, 422–34Google Scholar.

41 Gieraths, ‘Johannes Nider’, 344–5; idem. ‘Johannes Tauler’, 433–4.

42 Nider cites the passage in Genesis that all God's creation is good (xiv. fo. 77V), but he does not carry through with the idea.

43 Schieler, Magister, 68; Fischer, Lexikon, v. 1066–7.

44 Schieler, Magister, 67, 156–61; Jostes, Meister, xviii-xx.

45 Before the reform at St Katharina's, infringements ofthe rules on fasting, poverty and clothing were common. W. Fries, Kirche und Kloster zu St. Katharina in Nürnberg, in Mitteilungen des Vereins für Gcschichte der Stadt Nürnberg, xxv (1924), 23; Kist, J., ‘Klosterreform in spätmittelalterlichen Nürnberg’, Zeitschrift für bayerische Kirchengeschichte, xxxii (1963), 31–45Google Scholar at p. 34.

46 But the ascetic Macharius found two women whose husbands refused to permit them to leave' so hätten sÿ in fünffzehen jaren kein unnücz wort geredt’. Macharius felt humbled (xix. fo. 104.V). In the collection of untitled German sermons from Berlin, Nider reports fifty instead of fifteen years! See a transcription of this section in Hansen, J., Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung im Mittelatter, Bonn 1901, 439Google Scholar.

47 Totally lacking from the Harps is anything like the appreciation Poggio Bracciolini had for the value of money. In his De Avaritia, written 1428–9 at the same time as the Harps, Poggio comments that accumulations of money are both useful and necessary for the needs of men. See Garin, E., Italian Humanism: philosophy and civic life in the Renaissance, Oxford 1965, 43–4Google Scholar; Bracciolini, Poggius, Opera Omnia, Turin 1964Google Scholar, i. 11–17.

48 Even here he is primarily concerned with questions like the just price. There is an English translation by Reeves, C. H., On the Contracts of Merchants, Norman, Okla. 1966Google Scholar.

49 However, Nider does justify the ownership of property on the authority of St Thomas. Only in the beginning, when the Church was being built, was property held in common (xviii. fo. 96r).

50 He warns parents that a child may be possessed by the devil in order to punish the child's parents for their neglect (vi. fo. 30V; viii. fo. 45V). Nider is more explicit in the Sermones Aurei regarding the duties of parents in the education of their children (Sunday cycle, 11 E; 34).

51 Gieraths, ‘Johannes Nider’, 340; idem, ‘Johannes Tauler’, 433–4.

52 The fifth group (the second of the second three) earn their own livelihood and do not rely on other men. Nider includes in this group those men who, because they are not members of an order, must live in the world and rely on other men if those men desire o t live as the fifth group does. These latter individuals would normally gain heaven only after purgatory (they are part of the second group), but God will accept their desire for the work they cannot do and they will go directly to heaven.

53 Nider makes as many direct references to the Fathers, to medieval theologians and t o pagan authors as he does to the scriptures.

54 fo. 26v. ‘Das lert Serenus und saget das ewangelium von dem ritter Centurio, der sprach zu ihesu. Herr ich hab ander hundert under mir, wenn ich zu dem sprich gang hin so geet her hin, und so ich sprich zu einem gee her, so geet er her, und was ich heyss, das geschicht...’

55 Nider could express warm feelings. He writes, for example, to an unnamed nun at Unterlinden: ‘Als ich heute auf die wilden Wogen des tiefen Rheines kam, fort von der glücklichen Stätte eures Klosters, wo die grundlose Barmherzigkeit Gottes, des himmlischen Vaters, Dich wie einen wilden Fisch eben crst aus dem bitteren und versalzenen Meere dieser Welt durch das Netz seiner heligen Worte und durch mich, seinen armen Fischer, gefangen hat, - da gedachte ich in väterlicher Treue, mit wclcher Speise ich Dein neugeborenes Herz in Zuversicht und in göttlicher Kraft besser stärken könnte.’ Oehl, W., Deutsche Mystikerbriefe des Mittelalters 1100–1550, Munich 1931, 516Google Scholar.

56 Weinrich, Die deutsche Prosa, 62–9.

57 Even though pious men and women in religious confraternities and third orders may have willingly accepted such advice as Nider's, the fact remains that Nider was offering them a monastic spirituality; not one suited to their lay status.

58 See Dickens, A. G., The German Nation and Martin Luther, New York 1974, 180Google Scholar and passim.

59 The Nuremberg city government in 1429 vainly requested his order to return him to the city from Basle where he had been reassigned. Löhr, G. M. O.P., Die Teutonia im 15. Jahrhundert: Studien und Texte vornehmlich zur Ceschichte ihrer Reform, Leipzig 1924, 15Google Scholar: volume xix of Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte des Dominikancrordens in Deutschland. Perhaps the action of the city government is attributable to the popularity of Nider's preaching.

60 Geiler of Keisersberg used him; Douglas, Justification, 20, 28, 58, 61, 93, 111. J. Surgant (c. 1450–1503) in his Guide for Preachers, printed 1503 with nine further editions between 1504 and 1520, lists Nider's Sermones Aurei (no. 74) in his list of recommended books for preachers. He does not list the Harps, nor any other vernacular book for that matter. Hirsch, R., ‘Surgant's list of recommended books for preachers’, Renaissance Quarterly, xx (1967), 199–210Google Scholar.

61 Ozment, S. E., The Age of Reform 1250–1550: an intellectual and religious history of late medieval and reformation Europe, New Haven, Conn. 1980, 219Google Scholar. See also idem, Reformation in the Cities, 21–2, 29–30, 78 and 177 n. 54.

62 It is difficult to tell just what Ozment considers a burden and what not. He mentions all of these items. See Reformation in the Cities, 30; Age of Reform, 220.