Eccius Dedolatus

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The Eccius Dedolatus (also Eckius dedolatus ) ( "The discovered corner" ) is a mockery that appeared in 1520 under the pseudonym Johannfranciscus Cottalembergius in three editions. It mocks the theologian and opponent of Martin Luther , Johannes Eck . The authors are unknown, it is considered likely that the humanist Willibald Pirckheimer was the main author of this joint work. Co-authors include: a. the humanists Nikolaus Gerbel and Fabius Zonarius , but there is no evidence of their collaboration.

background

With the publication of Martin Luther's 95 theses in 1517, a theological dispute between humanists and theologians began. It was Johann Eck who first responded to Luther with counter-theses and became a committed defender of the treasures of grace, the Mass and the Pope, but at the same time also a sharp critic within the church and a demand for reforms. As early as the spring of 1518 Luther was accused of heresy by the Dominicans, and the trial of Luther opened in Rome in June. Friedrich III. , Elector of Saxony, insisted that the papal legate Thomas Cajetan first meet with Luther personally, to which Rome consented, since the election of the Roman-German king was pending at the same time and the Pope did not want to lose the elector's benevolence. So the process was delayed. A disputation in Leipzig was agreed between Luther and Eck , which took place in the three weeks between June 27 and July 15, 1519.

Time of origin

The topic and course of the Leipzig disputation are not the subject matter, but they were the immediate impetus for Eckius dedolatus, which was probably created directly afterwards in the late summer of 1519. Exactly from this arises the temporal threshold situation of satire: its internal degree of topicality is the time immediately after Eck's return from Leipzig to Ingolstadt and should coincide with the period of writing. On the one hand Eck prepared a report on the disputation for Rome, on the other hand he wrote the extensive text “De primatu Petri”. In February he traveled to Rome, where on February 1, 1520 the trial of Luther was resumed under the chairmanship of Cardinals Cajetan and Pietro Accolti . Another commission, which included Eck as well as those mentioned, prepared the bull Exsurge Domine , which was issued on June 15, 1520. All of this is no longer mentioned in Eckius dedolatus. As can be reconstructed from various letters, the text must have been ready by the end of February 1520, because Bernhard Adelmann mentions it on February 17, and later on July 10, Luther writes about the printed dialogue.

content

After returning from the Leipzig disputation, Johannes Eck is ill in Ingolstadt. He hopes to alleviate his inner burning sensation through excessive wine consumption. The patient sends for his friends and together they decide to call a doctor from Leipzig. The witch Canidia is assigned to deliver a letter. The ailments described in it trigger great sympathy. Finally, the theological faculty Eck sends a famous surgeon. Together they fly back to Ingolstadt on a billy goat. The surgeon examines the patient and makes the diagnosis that Eck can hardly be saved. At the insistence of his friends, Eck is ready to go to confession before the dangerous operation. A long conversation develops between him and the confessor, at the end of which Eck gives himself absolution. Now the operation known as de-cornering begins. First seven of the friends beat him flat with clubs, a dog's tooth is torn out and he is shaved, he is given a bilateral laxative sleeping potion and all four of him are tied to the bed. Throwing up and emptying, Eck got rid of the first troubles: his badly digested theological writings and his doctorate in canon law . Finally indulgences and the money that he is said to have received for his work in the interest rate dispute come out. Then Eck is skinned and various tumors cut out and burned out: Against all protests of the reawakened Eck, he is emasculated and his wounds coated with pitch. Now Eck feels better, he says goodbye to the surgeon whose services he would like to convey to Löwen and Cologne. The chorus of his friends rebukes the surgeon who believed that a theologian like Eck could be cured.

shape

The most striking thing in the figure of Eccius dedolatus is his consistently sustained dramatic form. Reading it gives the impression of a scenic sequence and at the end a performance date is given (February 20, 1520). Attempts have been made on various occasions to make up for the scene and nudes that were missing in the text and came to different results, namely four to five acts. This corresponds very well to the circumstances of the original, because the text imitates Lucian dialogues in its form and, in terms of the plot and design of the individual scenes, is closely based on the Attic comedy of Aristophanes, from which he takes important characteristics: the loose structure, the lack a normal structure, the diversity of the locations, the extreme variety of the staff, the peculiar mixture of joke and seriousness and finally the broadly painted naturalia. There is no epic costume, such as a preface or synopsis, the dialogues are lively and entertaining, the characters are sharp and clearly drawn. The plot is straightforward without digressions and finds its substantive focus on the one hand in the central confessional conversation and on the other hand a dramatic pause before the dedolation ends the scenario as a dramatic climax. In this way, the text of Eccius Dedolatus stands between the genres of humanistic satire and the much sharper, also less humorous, Reformation pamphlet.

intention

After the Leipzig disputation , the trial against Luther was resumed in the summer of 1520. The Eccius Dedolatus is an attempt by the opposing side who was the subject of the disputation to put Eck in the worst possible light and thus expose him to ridicule. The authors tried to portray Eck as a morally depraved, completely secular and vicious cleric . Since character and physical weaknesses are equated in the text, Eck is also physically attacked here (e.g. emasculation).

Addressees

The Eccius Dedolatus was primarily aimed at an educated, humanistic audience, if only because it was written in Latin. The events on the stage and the constellation of characters are easily understandable, but only form the first layer of joke within the text. Above all, the second layer presupposes a high level of reading of ancient Roman and Greek literature. The unknown authors put a further, third satirical layer in the text, which was much less accessible to contemporaries because it refers to events that are very closely linked to the persons concerned, the attacked and the authors. It's a kind of internal joke that assumes knowledge of letters and private events. Only those who knew their way around this group and were also informed about the little things knew what to do with the blows and stitches that were constantly distributed sideways and to appreciate their wit. In particular, the basic idea behind the text, Eck's drunkenness, goes back, together with the allusions to girls and whores, to a letter from Eck to two Ingolstadt friends of July 1, 1519, which was quickly known in Lutheran circles and often used against Eck.

author

A Joannes Franciscus Cottalambergius Poeta Laureatus was given as the author on the prints in Erfurt and Basel in 1520 . It is still not clear who was behind this pseudonym. The font was created in the environment of Willibald Pirckheimer, a significant portion of which is attributed by some researchers to the young doctor Fabian Zonarius (Gürtler).

history

Eck apparently made Willibald Pirckheimer responsible for the script, whose name appeared in the bulls of 1520 and 1521 against Luther, probably at Eck's instigation. However, the theologian Thomas Murner reported in a letter to Sebastian Brant on January 13, 1521, about a young man writing who was expelled from the city by the city council of Basel because of Eccius dedoratus . The name was not mentioned, but it was obviously not meant by Pirckheimer. This also denied all his life to have written the mockery.

Since 1750 he was suspected to be the author. The Reformation historian Andreas Jung expressed concerns about Pirckheimer's authorship in 1830, as did the Ulrich von Hutten researcher Siegfried Szamatólski in 1891. In 1923, Paul Merker suggested the Strasbourg lawyer Nikolaus Kerbel as an author, which, however, was soon rejected by most of the other historians. In 1931, the Pirckheim researcher Hans Rupprich referred to the doctor Fabian Gürtler, who was practically unknown until then . Otto Clemen emphasized Pirckheimer's influence in 1932. The Hutten researcher Heinrich Grimm , on the other hand, again underlined the alleged authorship of Fabian Gürtler in 1963. As a doctor, he was the only one in Pirckheimer's environment who had the necessary knowledge to present the anamnesis in detail in the text. He is also known to have written satirical texts in the style of the dark man's letters and was well acquainted with Hutten.

Niklas Holzberg, on the other hand, described Fabian Zonarius as remote and barely comprehensible in 1983 and was skeptical of his authorship. The author's lexicon on German humanism 1480–1520 from 2008 lists Rupprech's and Grimm's theses, but also refers to the arguments in favor of Pirckheimer.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the study by Holzberg 1983
  2. ^ Commented Internet edition of the letter Latin - German
  3. ↑ Karl Goedike:  Gnidius, Matthew . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 293 f.
  4. ^ Paul Merker : The author of the "Eccius dedolatus" and other Reformation dialogues. With a contribution to the author's question of the " Epistolae obscurorum virorum " . Niemeyer, Halle / Saale 1923.
  5. ^ Hans Rupprich : The Eccius dedolatus and its author . Austrian federal publisher for teaching, science and art. Vienna / Leipzig 1931.
  6. ↑ Otto Clemen : Who is the author of the Eccius dedolatus? . In the archive for the history of the Reformation. Year 29. 1932. pp. 249-253, excerpt
  7. ^ Heinrich Grimm:  Gürtler, Fabian. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 286 ( digitized version ).
  8. ↑ Niklas Holzberg: On the problem of author identification: The “Eccius dedolatus” - a work by Willibald Pirckheimer? , in: D. Peschel (Ed.): Germanistik in Erlangen (Erlanger Research, Series A, Vol. 31), Erlangen 1983. S. 137
  9. ^ Franz-Josef Worstbrock (Ed.): German Humanism 1480–1520. Author Lexicon. Volume 1. A-K. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin New York 2008. p. 511

Web links

literature

Text by Eckius dedolatus

Research literature

  • Best, Thomas W .: Eccius dedolatus. A reformation satire . University Press, Lexington, Mass. 1971.
  • Holzberg, Niklas: On the problem of author identification: The "Eccius dedolatus" - a work by Willibald Pirckheimer? , in: D. Peschel (Ed.): Germanistik in Erlangen (Erlanger Research, Series A, Vol. 31), Erlangen 1983
  • Iserloh, Erwin: Johannes Eck (1486–1543), scholastic - humanist - controversial theologian , Münster 1981
  • Könneker, Barbara: Satire in the 16th Century. Epoch - Works - Effect , Munich 1991.
  • Paul Merker : The author of the "Eccius dedolatus" and other Reformation dialogues. With a contribution to the author's question of the " Epistolae obscurorum virorum " . Niemeyer, Halle / Saale 1923.
  • Moeller, Bernd: The German humanists and the beginnings of the Reformation , in: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 70, 1959, pp. 46–61, also in: ders .: The Reformation and the Middle Ages. Church history essays. Edited by J. Schilling, Göttingen, 1991