Matthias Waibel

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Matthias Waibel (* late 15th century in Martinszell ; † September 7, 1525 near Leutkirch im Allgäu ) was a Catholic priest who stood up as a preacher of the Reformation at the beginning of the peasant wars against the authorities and finally died as a martyr .

Life

Matthias Waibel was born as a farmer's son in Martinszell in the Allgäu at the end of the 15th century . His exact year of birth is not known, as church registers were generally not yet kept in the 15th century , especially not in small country parishes. Also from other documents, e.g. B. of the State Archives Augsburg no conclusions can be drawn on this. Growing up in a devout but poor family home, he had to help his father Hans Waibel as a cattle herder as a young boy. Probably because of his extraordinary talent, he was allowed to attend the Latin school there at the expense of a Kempten citizen , in 1515 the Prince Abbot Johann Rudolf von Raitenau (1507–1523) sent him to study theology at the University of Vienna for four years . Presumably he was ordained priest in 1519 in Constance , since his hometown at that time belonged to the diocese of Constance . He then became parish vicar of the collegiate church St. Lorenz in Kempten and schoolmaster at the Latin school of the monastery and was the actual pastor of the parish for six years.

The Reformation in the Allgäu

As a farmer's son, Waibel knew the plight of the peasants and their oppression by the Kempten prince abbots, who exercised spiritual and secular power. Around 1520, Luther's ideas and teaching had reached the Allgäu, with a focus on Memmingen . Many pastors in town and country began to preach in line with the new doctrine, e. B. the preachers in the imperial city of Kempten St. Mang Church, Sixtus Rummel (since 1507 pastor of St. Mang) and Jakob Haistung. Matthias Waibel also professed Luther's teaching and became one of the most important propagators of the Reformation in the Allgäu . Despite fierce hostility by the canons he taught the justification of man by faith without works and put so much of the conventional practice of piety - pilgrimages and processions , fasting and abstinence , incense - candles and eternal light Victims - in question . Like the other reform preachers , he urged a. an end to the sale of indulgences , the sermon in German and the distribution of the Lord's Supper in both forms . But Waibel went even further: When on May 10, 1523 the bones of the patrons Gordianus and Epimachus were carried in a solemn procession from the St. who were persuaded to have forgiveness of their sins from the purchase of the indulgence offered on that day. The canons, however, criticized Waibel's impairment of the indulgence sermon, because they had a percentage of the indulgences. The open dispute between the monastery and its vicar then came a few days later on the occasion of the first mass celebration of the new Prince Abbot Sebastian von Breitenstein (1523–1535), whose behavior Waibel denounced from the pulpit as unchristian. He publicly called on the prince abbot to restrict his feudal lifestyle and share it in a Christian way in the spirit of brotherly love. He compared in his homily the autocratic government of the abbots of Kempten with the claim of Scripture : "A bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God ... (Tit 1,7ff) In the ensuing confrontation Waibel escaped only by just one. Assassination by the angry brother of the abbot because the imperial city mayor Gordian Seuter and the council clerk were able to prevent him and friends secretly hid Waibel. Thereupon he lost his office in St. Lorenz, but was employed as a pastor in St. Mang and could, respected by the people to continue for the time being pastoral assistance providers. on October 6 in 1524 he tried along with the reform preachers Jakob Haistung and Sixtus hype to as since August 1523 as the Guardian and preacher in the Franciscan Lenzfried acting Franziskanerobservant John Winzler , who already in Nuremberg and Basel had fought against religious innovations , for an amicable new one in Kempten To gain teaching "so that the Christian people are not unsettled by contradicting preaching". There was an argument about the invocation and intercession of the Mother of God and the saints, as well as the monastic vows . The theological discussion, which was also continued in writing, in which Waibel and his colleagues referred to the Reformation demand for absolute scriptural conformity, was unsuccessful and came to an abrupt end with the peasant war .

The Peasants' War in the Allgäu

When the new Kempten Abbot Sebastian von Breitenstein wrote out a new, additional war tax in the autumn of 1524 in order to be able to meet his increased obligations towards the Swabian Federation , the Stiftkemptischen farmers under the direction of Jörg Knopf von Leubas decided to make a formal complaint to the same Swabian Federation. On February 24, 1525, the rebellious Allgäu peasants also joined the monastery and took over the religious justification for their actions from them. The peasant war was fatal for the monastery. The rebellious peasants seized the monastery on Ash Wednesday 1525, plundered it thoroughly, destroyed the valuable library and the documents and did not even stop at the altars and shrines of the church. Abbot Sebastian von Breitenstein was captured and driven out for almost two years; he fled to Liebenthann Castle near Obergünzburg . He had to cede his rights and the bailiwick that owned the monastery to the city for 30,000 guilders , whereby Kempten was able to get rid of all dependency on princely Catholicism. This contract dated May 6, 1525 went down in the history of the city of Kempten as the "Big Purchase". In the "Martinszell Treaty" on October 25, 1525, further concessions were forced from the prince abbot, but the population continued to suffer from his greed.

Waibel's death

In March 1525, the Christian Association in Memmingen passed the Twelve Articles of Common Peasantry . Matthias Waibel, who had great support in large circles of the insurgent population, spoke out against violence and war in his sermons, was concerned about reconciliation with the authorities and was named by the Allgäu farmers as one of 14 theologians whose arbitration they would recognize. That made him suspicious again. In order to avoid public riot against a violent arrest of the vicar, who was highly respected by the people, Waibel was secretly sued by the captain of the Swabian Confederation, Georg Truchsess von Waldburg-Zeil , as ringleader of the Kempten peasant riots, presumably by Prince Abbot Breitenstein himself the unsuspecting clerics despite the warning of his friends in a fraudulent way his sexton , who him to a baptism called out of town, in an ambush lured and attacked. The seriously injured by a stab was dragged to prison in Leutkirch . A petition from the citizens of Kempten to the prince abbot and the captain of Kempten was fruitless. Waibel is said to have comforted his followers from the prison window and preached the gospel to them. On September 7, 1525, after twelve days imprisonment in Leutkirch, he was hanged from a beech tree by executioner Berthold Aichelin, the notorious Ulm professor of Jörg Truchsess, without trial near Reichenhofen, five kilometers to the north-west, and, according to his followers, died as a martyr of his Belief. His body was buried by brave Leutkircheners in the St. Wolfgang field chapel near Reichenhofen.

As an aside, it should be noted that not only Matthias Waibel was punished for his role in the Peasant War, but also his close relative, Hans Waibel, landlord of Martinszell, who was temporarily incarcerated at Wolkenberg Castle for helping peasant ringleaders to escape. On June 23, 1526 he was released after he had sworn a primal feud (promise not to take revenge).

Legends, veneration of saints and forgetting

Probably based on the death of Jesus (Lk 23.46) and the first Christian martyr Stephen (Acts 7.58) , Waibel's last words have been handed down: "Father, I command my spirit to you. Do not want to avenge my death on my enemies . " A 37-strophic verse poem, which was written shortly after his death and has remained the most important, albeit poetically glorified, source of his life and death to this day, also announces this. In the "Reformation history of the old town of Kempten" (Dr. Ph. Jakob Karrer, Kempten 1822) we read: "On the day before the birth of Mary, September 7th, he ended his life without being interrogated. He stayed for 5–6 days Finally two citizens of Leutkirch buried him in a chapel on the Haide, called St. Wolfgang, after they had previously asked Martin Forstenhauser, then Vogt zu Zeil, for permission. But his bones did not remain in peace there either Christi 1610 this chapel was enlarged, and should be consecrated by the Auxiliary Bishop of Constance at the time, who refused until Waibel's bones were dug up, then placed them in an old fish basket and under the tree on which he was glorious Life ended, were buried. This story gave the simple-minded mob material for superstition and wonder. People made pilgrimages to their graves, pretending that the sick would heal through the earth on their graves l be placed there that no one who was helped to his death died a real natural death. His powerful sermons of the pure Evangellii had a powerful effect on the minds and hearts of his listeners, and the diligent and frequent dealings with this man aroused in many residents of Kempten a passionate desire for the pure teaching of the divine word ... "

In 1925, "Matthias Waibel. A folk play in five acts" was written by A. Winkler, Buchenau / Bavaria. Today there are only a few reminiscences of him. Its outstanding importance for the Reformation in the Allgäu is in danger of being forgotten, as it has apparently been hushed up since the Counter Reformation . Only a small emblem on a Martin column in front of the Catholic parish hall in his birthplace Martinszell still reminds of him. So far, no street or square has been named after him anywhere in the largely Catholic area around the Allgäu.

However, the Evangelical Church in Germany commemorates Matthias Waibel with a day of remembrance in the Evangelical Name Calendar on September 6th .

In 1997, through the initiative of the Evangelical Church in Waltenhofen, a singspiel and information sheet from Matthias Waibel was commemorated at the Martinszell village festival on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the rededication of the Catholic church there.

literature

  • Reformation history of the old town of Kempten, edited by Dr. Ph. Jakob Karrer, Kempten 1822
  • Manuscript "Matthias Waibel", folk play in five acts by A. Winkler, Buchenau / Bavaria, 1925
  • Facsimile of the "Kemptener Zeitung, news for the free imperial city 1527", publisher: Evangelical Luth.Gesamtkirchengemeinde Kempten 1977
  • Johann Bapt. Haggenmüller: History of the city and the princely county of Kempten. Publishing house Tobias Dannheimer Kempten 1988, ISBN 3-88881-009-4
  • Volker Dotter Weich et al. (Ed.): History of the city of Kempten. Publishing house Tobias Dannheimer Kempten 1989, ISBN 3-88881-011-6
  • Peter Blickle : The Kempten serfdom toboggan. In: Journal for Bavarian State History. Volume 42, Munich 1979, pp. 567-629.
  • "You should only argue with the word, not with scythes and spits" or who was Matthias Waibel; Leaflet from Thomas Gläser, Evangelical Church Community Waltenhofen 1997
  • "Ballad about Matthias Waibel, the farmer's son from Martinszell" by Karin Schaber, Evangelical Church Community Waltenhofen 1997
  • Letter from the Augsburg State Archives of April 24, 1997 to Th. Gläser, Martinszell
  • "Waltenhofen yesterday and today", chronicle of Waltenhofen by Dr. Erich Knoll, p. 58 u. 59; Waltenhofen municipality 2005
  • Erb, Jörg: The Cloud of Witnesses - Reader for a Protestant Calendar of Names, Volume 3. Johannes Stauda Verlag Kassel 1952

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Matthias Waibel in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Waibel, Matthias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION reformer
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Martinszell
DATE OF DEATH September 7, 1525
Place of death Reichenhofen