Christoph Schappeler

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Schappeler in the mural by Erich Marschner at the MeWo house in Memmingen
Schappeler's oil painting

Christoph Schappeler (* around 1472 in St. Gallen ; † August 25, 1551 there ) was a Reformed theologian , peasant leader and reformer .

Life

Nothing is known about youth and education, until 1513 he was a schoolmaster in St. Gallen .
The Vöhlin family of merchants and patricians from Memmingen donated a preaching on their altar in St. Martins Church in 1479 . After the first owner of the title had died, Schappeler was proposed by the Memmingen City Council in February 1513 and appointed by the patron saint. His popular speech made his work easier here. Since he was incontestable in his life and work, his opponents could not harm him even during the time of religious fermentation when he took the evangelical side. During this period, his sermon brought the social ideas of the Bible to the fore. His thoughts were determined less by Martin Luther than by Ulrich Zwingli , with whom he was just as friends as with Joachim von Watt . Zwingli would have liked to have him back in Switzerland , but the council would not let him go from Memmingen.

Introduction of the Reformation

He proceeded cautiously when introducing the Reformation . He placed the Bible at the center of ecclesiastical life in order from there to criticize the existing conditions with the greatest sharpness. He quickly won citizenship for the new teaching. How respected he was is shown by the fact that he was often called to his home in Switzerland and chaired the 2nd Zurich disputation in 1523 .

In Memmingen, lay people like Sebastian Lotzer now spoke even bolder language, and in 1523 he was barely able to dampen the turmoil his sermons had triggered. Despite the request of the bishop of Augsburg , the council refused to let him go, so the bishop banned him in 1524 and sued the city at the Swabian Federation. On December 7, 1524, Schappeler introduced the Lord's Supper under both forms. For the Memmingen disputation from January 2 to 7, 1525, he put up seven articles as a commitment to his teaching. The result was overcoming the adversaries who left everything to God and the council. Now the council carried out the Reformation in Memmingen on its own initiative , for which it had laid the basis.

Peasants' War

During this time, the peasant uprising broke out into which he was drawn. At times he was even called the main leader. Although he had no direct contact with the farmers' leaders, Lotzer, their clerk, conveyed his thoughts to them. To what extent he was involved in the drafting of the 12 articles is uncertain. In the Swabian Federation , Memmingen was seen as the place of origin of the uprising. When the city was occupied by troops of the Swabian Federation on June 9, 1525, Schappeler fled the city to St. Gallen, where he lived for years without an office and waited in vain to be recalled to his old sphere of activity. He did not get any major activity.

literature

Web links

Commons : Christoph Schappeler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files