Decalogue tables in Huguenot churches

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Moses with the first table of the commandments. Etching by Daniel Chodowiecki

The Decalogue (the Ten Commandments ) has a special theological and ethical significance worldwide . The decalogue tables were often used as a substitute for pictures in Huguenot churches.

The Decalogue

According to the tradition of the Old Testament , which is fixed there in Exodus 20: 2-17 and in Deuteronomy 5 : 6-21, Moses received the two tables of the law with the Decalogue from God on Mount Sinai for the people of Israel . The Decalogue is not only important for Judaism , because the Ten Commandments are in a certain way generally valid . The Huguenot descendant Daniel Chodowiecki depicted Moses with a panel of the first four commandments in front of working people on sheet 5 of his etchings on the “history of mankind according to its cultural conditions” and described the Decalogue as “Progres de la Société”, progress for human society. The "father of the Huguenots", John Calvin , demanded respect for the divine majesty as a basic human attitude. The Ten Commandments are given to us for this purpose. They correspond to the inner law that is written in the heart of every person and, so to speak, impressed on them. According to Calvin, the Decalogue is not only a guide not only for Christians , but also for the coexistence of all humanity.

However, the Geneva reformer did not adopt the modified form of the Decalogue, which was common in the medieval Catholic Church and among Lutherans, with the lack of a ban on images (3rd commandment) and the 10th commandment divided into commandments 9 and 10. Calvin stuck to the biblical wording after Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. There is no clear enumeration of the commandments in the Old Testament. To the Old Testament commandments and prohibitions, Calvin added the New Testament double commandment of Jesus to love God and neighbor according to Matthew 22: 37-40 as a summary. Already in the Geneva order of worship of 1542, John Calvin used the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) alongside the Creed ( creed ) and the Lord's prayer ( Our Father ) as the main component of the Reformed worship , which culminated in the sermon . With this, Calvin consciously placed himself in the continuity of the Christian tradition.

The tables of the Decalogue in France

Plaques of the commandments on the wall, etching by Abraham Bosse from the series of the wise and foolish virgins

The Ten Commandments of God had an important function as "substitutes for images" in the Reformed Huguenot churches in France from the beginning. The commandments were written in two columns on wood or on stone and marble. On the first board, after an introduction, there were commandments 1-4 with the commandments or prohibitions for the relationship between man and God and on the second board commandments 4-10 with the regulation of interpersonal relationships. The double commandment of love followed as a decision.

The copperplate engravings by Abraham Bosse (1602–1672) who immigrated from Kranenburg near Kleve to Tours in France are well known . On his etchings there are decalogue boards on the walls in dining rooms and bedrooms. "La Bénédiction de la table" (The grace ) shows the father of the family with folded hands in the circle of his table companions. On the wall behind him the tables of the Decalogue can be clearly seen. In the seven-part series “The wise and foolish virgins”, such as “Das Tischgebet”, written in 1635, four wise virgins are sitting on page 1 next to a table decorated with a cross and a Bible . On the mural on the mantelpiece behind it, Moses holds the two tablets of the Ten Commandments with a staff. The Decalogue is flanked by two images of the birth and resurrection of Jesus.

Inauguration of Pierre Philippe, with the laying on of hands by Pastor Paul Ferry in Metz. Decalogue in the pulpit

Most of the tables of the Decalogue, however, were placed in Reformed churches in French communities instead of the images of God forbidden under the Second Commandment. As a rule, they could be seen above the pulpit in a central position for the entire congregation. For example, it has been proven for the "Temple de Charenton ", the Huguenot church for the Parisian Protestants.

A drawing by the Metz Reformed Pastor Paul Ferry shows the ordination of Pastor Pierre Philippe, who held office in Bischweiler in Alsace and in Hanau , where he died in 1690. The young priest was introduced to his office by the laying on of hands. During the solemn ceremony on May 4, 1654, he stood in front of a decalogue that was attached to the pulpit of the Reformed Metz church. Only the first words of the text lines of the commandments can be recognized. The drawing and description of the laying on of hands by Pastor Paul Ferry are now at the Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français in Paris.

The oldest surviving ten commandments in France is associated with the Creed and Our Father. The spiritual “trio” has been preserved as a wall painting in the chapel of Chamerolles (near Orléans ) . The text of the Ten Commandments, written in light font on a blue background on two boards, is covered by a large heart with the introduction to the Decalogue. The Credo and Lord's Prayer were also read on the walls of the castle chapel for catechetical instruction of the community. The wall painting, created around 1590, was later painted over and thus survived the times of persecution and prohibition of the Huguenots in France. The tables of the Decalogue of the Reformed Churches in France have rarely remained in their original location, because the places of worship such as in Charenton in 1685 after the repeal of the Edict of Nantes by the French King Louis XIV . were destroyed or came into Catholic possession.

Decalogue tables in the German Huguenot churches

Decalogue table in the Reformed Church in Celle

The Huguenots, who fled to German territories in 1685 after the absolute prohibition of the Reformed religious practice in France, stuck to their worship customs.In one of the oldest French Reformed temples in Germany, built in 1686/87 in the Franconian town of Schwabach, it was built according to tradition as in Chamerolles panels with the three main Christian articles Credo, Decalogue and Our Father hung up in French.

The material of the text panels in Schwabach was a specialty : the tapestry maker Michel de Claravaux (1646–1688), who came to Franconia from Aubusson in 1686, tied and signed the command panels with gold thread on a black background. These colors can also be found on the Decalogue boards in the former French Reformed churches in Celle and Erlangen. The court painter François Jeremie Abren from Geneva signed the finished panel in 1717 before it was hung in the Erlangen church (it is now kept in the Erlangen City Museum).

After the simple gold-black-colored initial phase, the few surviving later panels from the German refuge show more color and more varied design. The Huguenot teacher Eléazar Laurent (1707–1775), who was born in the German Refuge, wrote two very similar panels for the French Reformed churches in Groß- and Kleininziethen in the Uckermark with opaque colors on parchment and paper, and with colored columns embellished. The panels, signed in 1748, are kept in the Huguenot Museum in Berlin. The Kleinziethen panel has been badly damaged by ink damage and is being restored.

Decalogue table of the Walloon-Dutch Church in Hanau with Moses and Aaron

An even more colorful decalogue board was made by an unknown artist for the Walloon - Dutch church in Hanau using oil paints on a wooden background. On this board, not only could the church see the text, but also the messenger of the Law, Moses. Moses with a double-horned head as the leader of the people of Israel with his older brother Aaron in priestly robe with a staff in his right hand present the two columns of the commandments to the congregation. Moses was depicted with a horned head on other tablets of the Decalogue. This corresponded to a reading error in the Latin biblical text of the Vulgate of Exodus 34, 29-35, where the original Hebrew text does not speak of horns on the head, but of a shining face of Moses.

The only decalogue table of a German Waldensian community is known from Palmbach in Württemberg . Here the unknown artist has written down the Ten Commandments together with the New Testament double commandment of love on the panel from 1725. Above it, in the gusset between the two columns, the head and chest of Moses can be guessed at. This board consists of wooden planks that are joined together lengthways and framed by a frame.

It can be assumed that decalogue tables were also available in other French Reformed churches in Germany, as demonstrated, for example, by an old photo for Hanover . They did not survive the time trials. The appreciation of the Ten Commandments has remained in the Reformed congregations. Like the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, they have their permanent place in Sunday worship. A use of the bid boards in private houses in the German refuge cannot be proven.

Decalogue tables in the English Refuge

Decalogue tables were also common in the English refuge. This is proven by a resolution and appeal for donations by the consistory of the London parish "Petit Charenton" from 1701. The church elders should gather in their districts in order to purchase a commandment board for their own church. The process shows how important the Huguenots were for their worship and lifestyle even after they left their French homeland. This is also evidenced by a cloth embroidered with woolen threads on linen by Marguerite Joans in 1703, which has been preserved in the French Hospital in London.

Web links

literature

  • Louis Guérin, Jacques Raunet, Jacques Moulin: Chamerolles, Pithiviers 1991.
  • Veronika Thum: The Ten Commandments for the Unlearned People. The Decalogue in the Graphics of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times. Munich Berlin 2006. ISBN 978-3-422-06637-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the period around 1550 also came in Calvinist dominated areas of northern Germany Scripture altars upon which are designed biblical and liturgical texts artistically and instead of images in churches were attached.
  2. ^ Dietrich Diederichs-Gottschalk : The Protestant written altars of the 16th and 17th centuries in northwest Germany . Verlag Schnell + Steiner GmbH, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 978-3-7954-1762-8 .
  3. ^ Jens-Heiner Bauer: Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, The graphic work. Hannover 1982, p. 162, No. 1119
  4. ↑ John Calvin: Lessons in the Christian Religion. Institutio Christianae Religionis. Translated from the last edition and edited by Otto Weber. Neukirchen, 4th ed. 1986, p. 218, chap. II, 8.1.
  5. ^ André Blum: L'oeuvre gravé d'Abraham Bosse, Paris 1924, No. 1048 a. No. 1014.
  6. ↑ Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français 40 (1891), pp. 203-206.
  7. ^ Andreas Flick, The Ten Commandments as Decoration in German Huguenot Churches, in: Reformiert 2002, H. 3, S. 4–5.
  8. ↑ Andreas Flick, Unexpected Optics. The Ten Commandments as decoration in German Huguenot and Waldensian churches in: Der Deutsche Waldenser 223, March 2003, no. 1, pp. 605–607.
  9. ↑ The Ten Commandments Table from Celle. In: Ansgar Reiss and Sabine Witt (eds.): Calvinism. The Reformed in Germany and Europe. Exhibition catalog. Berlin 2009, p. 318 f. ISBN 978-3-940319-65-4
  10. ^ Christoph Friederich (Hofgeismar.): 300 years of the Huguenot city of Erlangen. On the benefit of tolerance. Exhibition catalog. Erlangen 1986, p. 140 and 142.
  11. ↑ Lars Oliver Renftel u. a. (Editor): Effects of founding a town. Exhibition catalog. Hanau 1997, p. 296. ISBN 3-928100-51-3 .
  12. ^ Albert de Lange (ed.): Three Hundred Years of Waldensians in Germany 1699–1999. Origin and history. Karlsruhe 1998, p. 182. ISBN 3-87210-365-2
  13. ↑ Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français 74 (1925), p. 237.
  14. ↑ Tessa Murdoch (ed.): The Quiet Conquest. The Huguenots 1685 to 1985. Museum of London exhibition catalog. London 1985, p. 94 f.