Caspar Schaller

Caspar Schaller (also Caspar Schallerus ; * around 1490 in Strasbourg in Alsace ; † 1542 in Bern ) was a town clerk for Basel and Bern, theological journalist and follower of the reformer Ulrich Zwingli .

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On January 28, 1518 he was mentioned as a “notary” in Strasbourg: he “had the castle law; will serve to the encker ”. On September 20, 1519 he revoked the castle rights and left the city. On October 5, 1519 he was granted citizenship in Basel and thus became a citizen of Basel. 1519 guild to purchase wine people . On April 8, 1529 he is in the list of men that the wine guild of the Basler Wehr provides. 1523 to 1532 town clerk in Basel, called "protonotarius civitatis Basiliensis" (lost this position in 1534 as a result of a complaint by the Duke of Württemberg ), in 1532 he became town clerk in Bern . In 1538 he finally gave up his citizenship in Basel. Shortly before, he married his daughter Magdalena in 1536 after the death of his brother-in-law Clemens Keller to one of his younger sons.

He was one of the supporters of the new Protestant preacher Johannes Oekolampad von Basel (1525/26), who, in addition to Schaller, was also able to win over the chief guild master Jakob Meyer zum Hirzen and the council clerk Ryhiner for the Reformation (cf.History of the City of Basel, 1964; p. 15), and also came into close contact with the Swiss reformer Zwingli. Some impressions from documents written by Schaller during this time of the implementation of the Reformation: In July 1526 a messenger with letters and books from Strasbourg was taken prisoner on the way to Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich ; Schaller traveled to Strasbourg because of this.

On August 21, 1527 he wrote to Zwingli, the "proclaimer of the god of the gods of Zurich", that he had been to the shooting in Strasbourg, where he was very happy to hear the oral report from Master Fratz, and passed it on to a very distinguished person; he will gladly take care of it and asks for a written message; he will soon have to ride back to Strasbourg for the Basel team. In January 1528 he wrote the foreword to the book edition of the 1527 report by a Catholic theologian (Augustinus Marius) about the mass for the Basel council; he publishes it on his own initiative and hopes that it will clarify the situation; he hopes that at least he is not forbidden to write books. (In a letter from the council dated May 16, 1527, which he wrote down, preachers from the Catholic and Protestant parties had been asked to “state their reasons for and against the mass”, whereupon the council decided in September that everyone should be free of his faith and no one should be forced to hear or read mass).

Further documents: At the beginning of June 1529, the Basel council certifies that in Strasbourg that "Caspar Schallernn" was acting in the name of Basel, Zurich and Bern. On June 25, 1529 he called the town clerk of Strasbourg Peter Butzen his “dear brother-in-law”, the brother-in-law Heinrich or Onophrion should send wheat and rye; he reports that "Katharin" was sick but was up again. A few more letters to his brother-in-law have been received (May 10, 1529: he writes about the pressure on the "five places", they should break their alliance with Austria again, he writes that he had not previously suspected how quietly he had lived, Now he has a lot to do, a marriage court every week, so he had to learn a new style; May 16: he writes about problems the Basel people have with priests, he asks for greetings to "schweger and sisters all"; On May 1st, he reported to him about a trip to Bern, reported on June 13, 1529 about the departure of the Basel warlords)

This was the time when the city of Basel had just officially joined the Reformation (April 1529) and shortly afterwards, in contradiction to the federal charter, had joined the "Christian castle law" , a Protestant alliance of the places Bern, Zurich, Constance and St. Gallen , which was also joined by Strasbourg shortly after Basel. "Strasbourg had been trying to renew its old friendship with Basel for a long time, and influential people like the town clerk Schaller worked here for the federal government." (Geschichte der Stadt Basel, 1964; p. 27). In reaction to this, the five towns of Uri , Schwyz , Unterwalden , Lucerne and Zug also formed an alliance with the archenemy of the Confederation Austria, as Schaller mentions in his letters. A general rearmament began, but the conclusion of a peace that was favorable to the Reformed postponed the war, which broke out in 1531 after a food blockade of the Catholic towns by the Burgrechtsverband; Zwingli fell in the battle of Kappel .

family

He was the son of the Strasbourg tailor Leonhard Schaller. Caspar Schaller was married twice: first (before 1522) with Margaretha Burgass, widow Schaffhuser (gen. 1541 as dead); then in II. marriage (around 1520) with Dorothea Lombard, whose grandfather also came from Thann in Alsace. Children II. Marriage: Magdalena Schaller (* around 1519; † 1574), married in 1536 Thomas Keller (son of Clemens Keller), the stepson of her aunt Catharina Lompart and the younger brother of her uncle Andreas Keller (* around 1516; † approx. 1571), Gewandmann in Basel (13 children: Barbara, Hans Ludwig, Dorothea, Barbara, Maria, Catharina, Andreas, Magdalena, Elisabeth, Sebastian, Ottilia, Elisabeth, Ester); Elisabeth Schaller, married to the spice grocer Jacob Iselin ; No children are known from the first marriage, only a stepdaughter Barbara Schaffhuser, married in 1536/41 to the episcopal chancellor Dr. Lux Clett.

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• Paul Burckhardt : History of the city of Basel from the time of the Reformation to the present. 2nd edition, Helbing & Lichtenhahn, Basel 1964
• Collection of files on the history of the Basel Reformation from 1519 to the beginning of 1534. 3rd volumes, Basel 1921, 1933, 1937 (including Schaller's letter to Peter Butzenn in Strasbourg 1529)
• Wappenbuch der Stadt Basel , under the auspices of the Historical and Antiquarian Society in Basel, ed. by WR Staehelin, drawings by Carl Roschet, Helbing and Lichtenhahn, Basel without year [1917–1928] (coat of arms and family table Schaller, edited by WR Staehelin, in which only the first wife of Kaspar Schaller is named, but see family table Keller, edit . by Arnold Lotz, who names Caspar Schaller and Dorothea Lompart)
• Charles Wittmer and J.-Charles Meyer: Le livre de bourgeoisie de la Ville de Strasbourg 1440–1530. Strasbourg / Zurich 1948;
• Paul Roth , Hans Lengweiler: Aszendenz Heinrich Roth - Amélie Wartner (…) [Basel] 1955.