Andreas Wilms (clergyman)

Andreas Wilms (* 1494 in Lübeck ; † 1557 ibid) was a German canon lawyer and reformer .

origin

Andreas Wilms was the son of the grocer Gert Wilms († 1517) and his wife Anneke († 1546). The family had lived in Lübeck for several generations, probably for over a hundred years, and had citizenship . In the year Andreas was born, Gert Wilms had become a member of the Lübeck grocer's company and owned real estate within the city .

Academic years

In 1510 Wilms received the Low Consecration , was able to take advantage of a scholarship from the Dwerg Foundation and studied free of charge at the Latin school of the Dwerg College in Herford . One of his teachers at this time was probably the respected theologian and humanist Jacob Montanus .

After completing his four-year undergraduate studies in Herford, Wilms was unable to continue his studies in Cologne , as the statutes of the Dwerg Foundation actually intended, because the places intended for Lübeck students were already occupied. Therefore, on May 16, 1514, he initially enrolled at the University of Rostock , where he obtained the academic degree of a Magister's Artium .

After almost three years of waiting, Wilms was finally given a place at university in Cologne, where he was enrolled as a law student on January 17, 1517 . On November 10th of the same year he obtained the degree of Baccalaureus utriusque juris . In the further course of his law studies he specialized in spiritual law and obtained his doctorate in early 1521 as a licenciatus decretalium .

Immediately after completing his doctorate, Wilms returned to Lübeck, as the four years of study in Cologne covered by the Dwerg scholarship had already been well exceeded.

Priest in Lübeck

From the spring of 1521 Wilms was a priest in Lübeck and permanent vicar to St. Petri . On July 24th, 1524 he was allowed to hold a sermon in the cathedral for the first time , and on October 10th of that year he received the important position of Sunday preacher . The appeal became final after Wilms had taken the obligatory oath on the gospel on November 4th in the presence of the cathedral chapter .

At first, nothing in Wilms' behavior indicated that he sympathized with or even took note of the new teachings of Martin Luther , which the Lübeck Council disapproved of as troubling and tried to contain it. In June 1525, however, contrary to express instructions, he included the thoughts of Reformation theologians such as Erasmus of Rotterdam and Philipp Melanchthon in his sermons. His remarks earned him a warning from his dean ; He was given the obligation to strictly adhere to the applicable regulations in the future and no longer to speak freely in his sermons, but only to read prepared texts. Wilms agreed to keep to the regulations from now on.

In April 1526 Wilms was explicitly accused of lying by citizens who adhered to Lutheran doctrine; In his sermons he presented purgatory as a fact, although the existence of purgatory could not be proven by the gospel.

On August 31, 1526, in addition to his position as cathedral preacher, Wilms was also given the post of plebane to St. Aegidien , which was awarded directly by the canon . This indicates that Wilms still enjoyed the trust of the church at this time and had not become conspicuous through undesirable behavior; he started his new job on September 29th. Thus he had a vicariate, a preaching position and a pastor's position.

Work as a reformer in Lübeck

1528

On April 26, 1528 Wilms left for Wittenberg unannounced , although he was obliged by his oath not to leave the city without the permission of his superiors. After three days later it became known that Wilms was also planning to visit Martin Luther and Andreas Bodenstein in Wittenberg , his employers made preparations to dismiss him from his offices.

Wilms arrived in Wittenberg at the beginning of May and met the reformers Luther, Melanchthon, Jonas and Bugenhagen there . He later delivered a report to the cathedral chapter about the discussions, in which, however, he says little about the actual content and does not reveal his own opinion.

On May 15, Wilms returned to Lübeck and was summoned for interrogation before a committee of the cathedral chapter the following day to determine whether he adhered to Lutheran teachings. However, the questioning did not reveal any evidence of this, and Wilms was able to continue in his office despite the unauthorized trip.

1529

Nevertheless, he aroused the distrust of the cathedral chapter and the council in the period that followed, as he increasingly brought Lutheran elements into his sermons and finally openly attacked the Pope . Finally, on December 30, Bishop Bockholt withdrew his position as cathedral preacher. Thereupon Wilms gave up his position as pleban at St. Aegidien on January 1, 1529 as an expression of his protest. The dismissal of the popular preacher was noted with great displeasure by the Lutheran part of the population and contributed significantly to the exacerbation of the religious and political differences within Lübeck.

Wilms left the city and went to Rostock, where he now openly held Lutheran sermons, while Lutherans in Lübeck demanded his rehabilitation and recall. The Lübeck Singekrieg of the following months also represented a protest statement with which the citizens expressed their displeasure and demanded the return of Wilms and Walhoff. The council and the church, whose position became increasingly uncertain as more and more citizens and clergy professed their support for Lutheranism, finally gave in to the pressure on December 18 and called Wilms back to Lübeck on the condition that he avoid everything in his sermons which could cause disagreement and turmoil. On the occasion of the recall, Luther sent both of them a specially written pastoral letter in which he encouraged them in their work.

1530

On January 7, 1530, Andreas Wilms and the preacher Johann Walhoff, who had been temporarily expelled from the city and now also recalled, read out their appeal in the Lübeck town hall in the presence of a citizens' committee and all four mayors . At the same time, the detailed conditions under which they were to preach Lutheran from now on were announced to them. In particular, they were forbidden to make changes to the rites of the mass as long as the Reichstag, which advised on the admissibility of such innovations , had not come to a decision. The city council and clergy feared further unrest, especially due to masses held in German . These restrictions were not what the Lutheran congregations wanted. Nevertheless, Wilms now had the freedom, in his new position as preacher at St. Peter, to largely openly proclaim Lutheran teaching. His and Walhoff's sermons gave Lutheranism in Lübeck a considerable boost.

Together with Walhoff, Wilms used the changed situation to attract more clergymen to the side of Lutheranism. He forced new clerics appointed by the Church who refused to preach in an evangelical manner to give up their work or to leave the city by threatening them that they would otherwise sharply denounce them in his sermons. Wilms also ignored the restrictions imposed; on May 1, for example, he and Walhoff held mass in the cathedral entirely in German.

Wilms' activities contributed to the fact that in the course of the year the council gradually gave up its initially clearly negative attitude towards the Lutheran doctrine and finally a complete one during the negotiations with the committee of 64 represented by the majority Protestant citizenship elected on April 7, 1530 Turned around when his previous position became untenable. On June 30, 1530, the Reformation was officially introduced in Lübeck by a council resolution.

Further life

The Andreas-Wilms-Haus in Lübeck

Wilms remained active in Lübeck as a Lutheran clergyman. From 1530 to 1536 he was a preacher at St. Petri. Then, until his death in 1557, he held the position of cathedral preacher.

The Andreas-Wilms-Haus , an event center of the Evangelical Lutheran Church District Lübeck , was named after him.

literature

• Wilhelm Jannasch: History of the Reformation of Lübeck from the Petersablass to the Augsburg Reichstag 1515-1530 . Max Schmidt-Römhild publishing house, Lübeck 1958
• Wolfgang Prange: Vicaries and vicars in Lübeck up to the Reformation . Schmidt-Römhild Verlag, Lübeck 2003. ISBN 3-7950-0478-0

Web links

• Johannes Bugenhagen, Martin Luther: Letter to Andreas Wilms and Johann Walhoff in Lübeck (Wittenberg, January 12 or March 12, 1530) , digitized version of the Thuringian University and State Library in Jena

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See the entry of Andreas Wilms' matriculation in the Rostock matriculation portal