Formation (hymn book)
The Ausbund (actually Aus Bundt ; meaning: "The selected selection") is the oldest hymn book of the Anabaptist movement . A worship it is used today in North American communities of the Amish . It is the oldest collection of hymns that is still used in a Christian church today.
history
The core of the formation consists of 51 songs, which were composed by a group of Anabaptists who were arrested in Passau in the late summer of 1535 and then held in Passau Castle . The group consisted of around 60 Philippians returning from Moravia to southern Germany, many of whom, however, remained unknown. Eleven songs in this collection come from Michael Schneider , the head of this group of Anabaptists. Twelve other chants could be assigned to Hans Betz . The place of compilation was the dungeon of Passau Castle, in which the Anabaptists sat between 1535 and 1540 because of their convictions. Some - including Hans Betz - did not survive captivity. Many of the captive Anabaptists were martyred following their imprisonment .
The collection of songs was printed around 1564. The first edition, whose only preserved copy owned by the Mennonite Historical Library ( Mennonite Historical Library ) at Goshen College in Indiana , is, is entitled: Several beautiful Christian Geseng as in the Gefengtniß to Passaw [Passau] in the castle by the Schweitzer brothers through divine grace [poem] and sung. The printed hymn book must have found widespread use, because during the Frankenthal Colloquium (1571) it was already used by the opponents of Anabaptism as a source of evidence for their criticism.
A second edition of the hymn book, expanded by 80 songs, appeared in 1583. On the title page of this edition, the key word " Aus" appeared for the first time : " Aus". That is quite a few beautiful Christian songs, etc. All and every Christian, whatever religion they are, impartially useful.
The later releases featured 137 ( Europe ) and 140 ( North America ) songs. There are a total of 11 known European editions of the formation . The places of publication in the 16th and 17th centuries were Cologne and the Rhineland . The new editions appear in Basel and Strasbourg in the 18th and 19th centuries . The last European edition dates from 1838; its place of publication is Basel. It was still used in many southern German Mennonite communities until the 19th century .
The first American edition of the paragon appeared in 1742. It was printed by Christopher Saur's Germantown press . The editor of the hymn book, which was used in the Swiss Mennonite congregations until the end of the 18th century , was the Mennonite bishop Henry Funck. It was then replaced by The Little Spiritual Harp and the Impartheyische Gesangbuch from 1804 (both written in Pennsylvania ).
The paragon is used today only in the services of the Amish Mennonites and preserved in a unique way the spirit of Anabaptism of the 16th century.
Characteristic
The oldest songs of Ausbunds are primarily songs of "suffering Church in a hostile environment." At its center is the martyrdom of those who “seriously want to be Christians”. But they not only reflect sadness and despair , but also the awareness of being carried by God . In the opinion of the authors, there are always more reasons to thank God than to complain to him for suffering. For this, among other things, stands the Ausund song No. 131: O God, Father, we praise you and we praise your kindness , which is sung at the beginning of every Amish service to this day.
Go to content
The first song of the band comes from the pen of Sebastian Franck . It is a teaching song and shows “how Christians are to sing, pray and praise God in the Psalem in spirit and in truth .” The second song is a rewrite of the Atlantean creed . Songs 6, 7 and 8 are poems by Felix Manz , Michael Sattler and Hans Hut - all martyrs of the Anabaptist movement. Other martyr songs come from Leonhard Schiemer , Hans Schlaffer , Georg Blaurock and Hans Leupold , who were among the Anabaptist victims of the first great wave of persecution. Hans Büchl , participant in the Frankenthaler Colloquium, is the poet of another five auspicious songs. Eleven songs are of Dutch origin. The Low German Anabaptists contributed eleven more songs. Five songs can be attributed to the Bohemian Brothers .
Many of the parade's songs have a didactic character: Biblical teachings, the Anabaptist understanding of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and also eschatology are at the center. The song Büchls (No. 46) also belongs to the last-mentioned cycle of themes: Ain new christelich song of the present-day terrible last days, in which so many different sects, rebellious and false prophets appear, also bloodthirsty tyrants .
The European pattern was brought onto the market until 1809 without specifying the location and without specifying the publisher. In 1692, the Bern government forbade the distribution and possession of this hymn book and ordered its confiscation under threat of severe penalties. The American editions contained, among other things, the Creed of Thomas von Imbroich (1558) and the True Report on the great tribulation that the brothers and sisters around Zurich had to endure for their religious cause between 1635 and 1645 (a collection of martyr reports).
From a formal point of view, the songs of the paragon are of inferior quality, but in terms of content they are testimony to a deep religiousness and self-sacrificing devotion to faith.
Singing way
The formation does not contain any notes, but does contain references to popular melodies to which the recorded songs can be sung. Some of the wise men are taken from secular folk and love songs, and some of them are well-known church hymns and hymns. The oldest melodies date from the 13th and 14th centuries. Today's way of singing is very slow and has a certain similarity to Gregorian chant .
Text sample
The language of the early editions of the form was written in a strongly Upper German form, similar to the Maximilian chancellery language . An example of this is the following poem by Leonhard Schiemer from Upper Austria:
- Leonhard Schiemer: Your holy place
Thy holy instead of hond they destroyed / your altar dug up, / for which also murdered your servants / where they took hold of it. / Only we alone / your little boy, / are little left over, / with shame and shame / through all the country / chased away and chased away.
We are scattered like the sheep / who have no shepherd, / leave our house and hooff / and are like the night raven / who also often / keeps in stone crevices. / In rocks and in crevices / is our gmach, / we are stalked, / like little birds in the air.
We sneak in the woods umb, / they look for us with the dogs, / they lead us as little lemurs mute / caught and bound. / We are shown to everyone / as if we were rebels / we are respected / like sheep to slaughter / as heretics and seducers.
Vil are also close in the gangs / spoiled in their bodies, / others are severely damaged by the marter / perished and died / it's all to blame; / Here is patient / to find the saints. / We have to be tried all / through vil tribulation / all so.
They were hanged on the trees, / strangled and cut to death, / secretly and publicly drowned / vil women and youngsters. / They have free / without all certainty / to give witness to the truth / that Jesus Christ / the truth is / the way and also the life.
The world is still raging and not resting, / has become completely nonsensical, / vil they lie for us, / with burning and with murder / it worries us. / O Lord, how long / will you be silent? / Judge the arrogance / the holy blood / let who ascend your throne!
See also
- Hans Haslibacher - The famous last song of the band , the so-called Haslibacherlied, is about his beheading .
- Martyrs of the Anabaptist Movement
literature
- Robert Friedmann: Formation . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
- John C. Wenger: History of the Mennonites of the Franconia Conference. Franconia Mennonite Historical Society, Telford PA 1937, (Also: Mennonite Publishing House, Scottdale PA 1938).
- Rudolf Wolkan : The songs of the Anabaptist: A contribution to German and Dutch literature and church history ; published as a Classic Reprint in the Forgotten Books series . FB&C LTD: London 2018. ISBN 978-0484978828
Web links
- Digitized edition of the Aus Bundt ; edited by Jason Heinrich von Mechel, 1838
- Digitized edition of the Ausunds from 1856 (J. Bär)
- Text of the Haslibacherlied
Individual evidence
- ^ Robert Friedmann: Ausbund . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online