Leonhard Schiemer

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Leonhard Schiemer (*? In Vöcklabruck ; † January 14, 1528 in Rattenberg am Inn / Tyrol ) was a leading figure in the Anabaptist movement .

Live and act

Schiemer came from a religious family. He first learned the tailoring trade . He gave up his original professional goal of becoming a Roman Catholic secular priest as an adolescent and instead entered the Franciscan barefoot monastery in Judenburg . Six years later he fled the monastic environment and came to Nuremberg , where - disappointed by the monastic life - he worked again in his learned trade.

Encounter with Anabaptism

Whether Schiemer made contact with the Anabaptist movement in Nuremberg is a matter of dispute among Schiemer's biographers. This assumption is supported by the fact that Schiemer felt compelled to hike to Nikolsburg in Moravia , where Balthasar Hubmeier led a large Anabaptist congregation. Here he witnessed a disputation dated May 1527 between the Anabaptist factions of the so-called Stäbler and Schwertler . While the Stäbler, under the leadership of Hans Hut , declared themselves to renounce violence, Hubmeier and the Schwertler declared that a Christian is perfectly allowed to defend himself and others with the sword. It is not known what position Schiemer assumed here. Some biographers suspect that he probably shared Hubmeier's views, as Hans Hut later received him very suspiciously in Vienna .

Schiemer as a Baptist

Only a few weeks after the Nikolsburg disputation, Leonhard Schiemer moved to Vienna. There he met again - as already mentioned - on Hans Hut and also on his baptismal community in the Kärntnerstraße . A two-day stay was enough to win Schiemer for the Anabaptist views and at the same time to convince him of the pacifist basic attitude of the Stäbler . He was baptized by Oswald Glait and became a member of the Vienna Anabaptist Church.

Schiemer immediately began extensive missionary work. He initially worked for a short time in Steyr and Salzburg , took part in the Augsburg Synod of Martyrs in August 1527 and was sent from there as a messenger to Tyrol , where he settled in Rattenberg (Tyrol) am Inn . There was already an Anabaptist congregation there that called him to be its bishop immediately after his arrival . A few weeks later, Schiemer was arrested at the instigation of the Roman Catholic church authorities. During the interrogation, the Baptist bishop reported on his work. In the six months after his baptism, he preached in 28 cities and won over 200 people to become Anabaptists.

Schiemer used the short stay in the remand prison (until January 1528) to write and publish so-called letters . The following writings are known by name:

What grace is
Vom Fläschl ( "Because just as a bottle is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, so the way to bliss is also narrow and narrow ... But the Lord comforts in the highest misery. This consolation is nothing more than a food for eternal life." )
From baptism in the New Testament
A confession before the judge in Rotenburg (= Rattenburg; January 1528).

These missions found a large readership and - after Schiemer's death - had a significant influence on the developments within the Austrian and southern German Anabaptism.

Teaching

Schiemer separated the external word of the Bible, intended for the physical organ of human hearing, from the immediate word of God, which only the spiritually gifted inner human being is able to hear. This word of God drives to love God and to follow Christ, while the external word only aims at keeping external laws and rules of conduct. It only makes people good citizens, not devoted and self-sacrificing followers of Jesus.

According to Schiemer, succession and willingness to make sacrifices also included renouncing private property. He was fascinated by the community of property of the early Jerusalem church and taught it as a sign of real Christianity. The Hutterites have made this ideal their community principle.

At the center of Schiemer's writings was the theology of the cross and the mysticism of suffering in the late Middle Ages : Christ suffers in this world in believers . This theology coined the sealed him hymns (see. Paragon ).

martyrdom

Rattenberg Castle - Schiemer's execution site

At the beginning of January 1528 Leonhard Schiemer attempted to escape, but it failed. He was arrested again and immediately handed over to the executioner . After numerous tortures he was left to the executioner, who finally beheaded him on January 14, 1528 in Rattenberg Castle .

Schiemer's martyrdom was not the only thing in Rattenberg. Between 1528 and 1540, at the instigation of the Roman Catholic church authorities, another 70 Anabaptists died for their beliefs.

Christening succession

The line of baptismal succession goes back to Leonhard Schiemer via Oswald Glait (1526), Balthasar Hubmaier (Easter 1525), Wilhelm Reublin (January 1525), Jörg Blaurock (January 1525) to Konrad Grebel (January 1525). The dates in brackets indicate the respective baptism date. Evidence of this can be found in the biography articles of the persons mentioned.

meaning

Leonhard Schiemer is one of the most important representatives of Hutian Anabaptism, "which led the revolutionary militant forces that arose from the peasant wars to a still apocalyptic, but peaceful, secluded following of Christ, despite his brief period of activity." Despite all the spiritual kinship with hat, Schiemer remains an independent thinker. The apocalyptic teachings of Hut take a backseat with him, but he teaches the ideal of a community that is ready to suffer and sacrifice in this world and consciously renounces the use of means of power and violence. One can certainly call him the avant-garde of the modern pacifist movement.

Works

Schiemer's writings
  • A nice explanation of the 12 articles of the Christian faith
  • What grace be. A preface
  • From the bottle; Quite literally, what it means to read comfortingly to all pious people , 1527
  • From the baptism in the New Testament , other title: Von dreyerlei Tauff
  • Letter of consolation to a weak brother
  • A truly short gospel to preach to the world today
  • An acquaintance before the Rickter zu Rotenburg (1528)
  • Order of the community, as a Christian should live

In addition, there are five anonymous treatises in which Schiemer's authorship is likely. There is also a short catechism among the tracts.

Songs composed by Schiemer
  • Thy holy instead of hond destroy them
  • We ask you, eternal God, neig us your ears (in paragon under the number 31)
  • Shallstu with God thy wolmung han (songs of the Hutterite brothers under the numbers 28-29)
  • How precious is holy death

literature

  • Peter Hoover: Baptism by Fire. The radical life of the Anabaptists - a provocation , Down to Earth, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-935992-23-7 , pp. 36–51 and 77–84
  • J. Loserth: Der Anabaptismus in Tirol , in: Archiv f. Austrian business 78, 1892, 427-604; 79, 1893, 127-276
  • Lydia Müller: Testimonies of Faith of Upper German Baptists , Leipzig 1938
  • R. Wolkan: The songs of the Anabaptists , Berlin 1903;
  • W. Wiswedel: Pictures u. Leadership figures from the Anabaptists , Vol. 2, Kassel 1930, 174-186;
  • Ders .: To the problem: inner u. outer word among the Anabaptists , in: Archiv zur Religionsgeschichte 46, 1955, 1–19
  • R. Friedmann: Leonhard Schiemer and Hans Schlaffer: Two Tyrolean Anabaptist Martyr-Apostles of 1528 , in: Mennonite Quarterly Review 33, 1959, 31-41;
  • Daniel Heinz:  Schiemer, Leonhard. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 9, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-058-1 , Sp. 201-203.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Ludwig Keller:  Schiemer, Leonhard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 31, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, p. 183 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Friedmann: Schiemer, Leonhard (d. 1528) . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
  2. ↑ Martin Rothkegel : The Sabbathers. Baptist Sabbatarianism in Moravia in the 16th century . In: Sabbath and Sabbath observance in the early modern period (Ed. Anselm Schubert). Volume 217 in the series of publications by the Association for the History of the Reformation. Gütersloh publishing house: Gütersloh 2016. ISBN 978-3-579-05997-6 . P. 121
  3. ↑ Collection of sources Faith Voice : Report on the capture and martyrdom of Schiemer (source: Märtyrerspiegel) ; accessed on December 15, 2010
  4. ^ Daniel Heinz:  Schiemer, Leonhard. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 9, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-058-1 , Sp. 201-203.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
personal data
SURNAME Schiemer, Leonhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Personality of the Anabaptist Movement
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century or 16th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Vöcklabruck
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1528
Place of death Rattenberg am Inn, Tyrol