Braunschweig church order

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Title page of the church ordinance of 1528

The Braunschweiger Kirchenordnung , original title: Der Erbarn Stadt Brunswig Christlike ordeninge / to dēnste dem hilgen Evangelio, Christliker lève, tucht, freede unde eynicheit. Ock darunder vele Christlike lere before de borgere. Dorch Joannem Bugenhagen Pomern bescreven is a script created by Johannes Bugenhagen in 1528 in the course of the Reformation , with which a uniform order in the areas of church, school and poor welfare in Braunschweig was to be established.

background

The Reformation ideas of Martin Luther met with broad approval in the city very early on. Under its rulers, the city had developed into a place with churches, monasteries and an aspiring bourgeoisie . The citizens of the Hanseatic city of Braunschweig had split off from the state rulership . The Reformation movement was therefore also shaped by the disputes between the city's believers and the Catholic sovereign Duke Heinrich the Younger . Luther's first followers included some monks from the Aegidienkloster and preachers from the parish churches, as well as humanists such as the Stadtphysici Euricius Cordus and Bertram von Damm (around 1495–1542), as well as parts of the urban bourgeoisie and members of the craft guilds .

The fact that the Reformation idea prevailed in Braunschweig was due, among others, to the Benedictine monk Gottschalk Kruse and Heinrich Lampe (1503–1583), who is regarded as the first Protestant preacher in Braunschweig, but also to the lawyer and syndic author Sander (1500–1540) and the mayors the Weichbilde , the merchants or long-distance traders such as the dressmaker Hans Pelt (around 1473-1530). The printer Hans Dorn also contributed to the spread of the Reformation teachings ; he had already copied Luther's writings in 1518.

In 1528, calls for changes were loud at town meetings under the leadership of the author Sander. Among other things, an evangelical celebration of the Lord's Supper and adjustments to the divine service or the appointment of Lutheran preachers or a learned theologian were demanded. In March 1528 a council order and a reform program worked out in the Weichbilden Hagen and Altewiek led to the reorganization of the church system. First the theologian Heinrich Winkel and around Easter 1528 a close confidante of Luther, the city pastor Johannes Bugenhagen, were called to Braunschweig to carry out the Reformation.

Bugenhagen summarized the demands of the Reformation-minded citizens in a constitutional document, which is referred to as the Braunschweig church order . The council of the city of Braunschweig approved these church regulations on September 5, 1528 and officially announced the Reformation in the city of Braunschweig the next day.

Through its supervisory function over church affairs, the city council was given a say in filling church posts. The office of superintendent , who was now at the head of the new church government, was new. Martin Görlitz († 1549) became Braunschweig's first superintendent on the recommendation of Luther and from 1542 he was lecturer and preacher at the collegiate monastery of St. Blasii.

content

The church ordinance describes the provisions on the duties and income of the preachers as well as the conduct of church services. It regulates the areas of baptism, marriage, the establishment of schools, the area of ​​poor relief, which is important for Bugenhagen, but also regulations on the supervision of the priests. The church order is written in Low German . It is an important document of canon law and determined the basis for the development of the Protestant church system up to 1671. A broad field is the regulation of poor welfare and the school system. Bugenhagen's concern was in particular to draw attention to the need for schooling and compulsory schooling for children from all social classes. He also wrote down the requirements for the skills of teachers as well as the level of their salaries, and drew up curricula for the city's Latin schools Martineum and Katharineum as well as for the writing schools and a school for virgins to be built. The latter, however, never came about. Welfare for the poor should be financed by community funds.

reception

In 1528 Bugenhagen wrote a Low German church regulation on which all council members could agree. Through his sermons, he made the reform ideas accessible to “ordinary” people. He wrote further church ordinances based on this model for the cities of Hamburg ( The honorable city of Hamburg Christian order. 1529), Lübeck ( The keyserliken city of Lübeck christlike Ordeninge. 1531), Hildesheim (1544) and Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel ( church order Unnser, from God's Genaden, Julii Hertzieh zu Braunschweig and Lüneburg, etc. 1569) but also for Pomerania ( Pomeranian Church Ordinance 1535) or King Christian of Denmark ( Christlyke Kercken Ordeninge / De yn den Fürstendömen / Schleßwig / Holsten etc. to be shawled 1542).

Issues and extracts

  • Johannes Bugenhagen: Der Erbarn Stadt Brunswig Christlike ordeninge / to dēnste dem hilgen Evangelio, Christliker lève, tucht, freede unde eynicheit. Ock darunder vele Christlike lere before de borgere. Dorch Joannem Bugenhagen Pomern bescreven . Klug, Wittenberg 1528 (Low German, diglib.hab.de ).
  • Johannes Bugenhagen: Bugenhagen's church order for the city of Braunschweig. After the Low German print from 1528. With a historical introduction, the readings of the High German arrangements and a glossary . Ed .: Ludwig Hänselmann. Julius Zwissler, Wolfenbüttel 1885 ( tu-braunschweig.de ).
  • Johannes Bugenhagen: Order of the mass from the Braunschweig church order 1528 . In: Wolfgang Herbst (Ed.): Protestant worship. Sources on its story . 2nd, completely revised edition. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1992, ISBN 3-525-57186-0 , p. 88-102 ( books.google.de - reading sample).
  • Johann Bugenhagen: From child baptism. A chapter of the Brunswick Church Order of 1528 (=  voices of fathers . No. 2 ). Evangelical Luth. Parish office of the St. Ulrici Brothers, Braunschweig 1992, OCLC 257804830 .

literature

  • Hans Lietzmann (Ed.): Johannes Bugenhagens Braunschweiger Kirchenordnung 1528. (=  small texts for lectures and exercises . No. 88 ). A. Marcus and E. Weber, Bonn 1912, OCLC 871488597 .
  • K. Jürgens: The Reformation in the city of Braunschweig from the beginning to the adoption of the church order. In: Hermann Kuhr (Ed.): The Reformation in the city of Braunschweig. Festschrift: 1528–1978 . City Church Association, Braunschweig 1978, OCLC 5831881 , p. 25-70 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Reformation on braunschweig.de, accessed on August 28, 2019.
  2. ^ Astrid Reinberger: Johannes Bugenhagen - Reformer of the North. ndr.de, September 8, 2010, p. 2 , accessed November 3, 2017 .
  3. Johannes Bugenhagen: Church Order Unnser, from God's Genaden, Julii Hertzieh zu Braunschweig and Lüneburg, etc. ( deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de ).
  4. Johannes Bugenhagen: Christlyke Kercken Ordeninge / De yn den Fürstendömen / Schleßwig / Holsten etc. be shallow . ( diglib.hab.de ).