Keep us, Lord, by your word

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Six-verse version of the Magdeburg hymn book with the 2nd line overwritten. Mid 19th century

The song received us, Lord, at thy word is one of Martin Luther created hymn . It appeared in 1541 with the addition "A nursery rhyme to sing against the two enemies of Christ and his holy churches, the Bapst and Türcken".

The anti-papal and anti-Turkish battle song, which was commissioned against the backdrop of the Turkish wars in 1542, has been regarded as the most controversial Protestant chant for centuries because of its provocative second line “and steur des Pope and Turkish murder”. This line has since been changed.

history

The battle song

Pope Paul III (1468-1549)
Suleyman I , Sultan of the Ottomans, (1494–1566)

As early as the Turkish wars of 1529 triggered numerous media reactions in Germany, in which Luther also intervened. In his work “ From the war against the Turks ” he named the Turks and the Pope as common enemies of Christianity. Well he see in the Turk, resp. the Ottomans, the instrument, the “rod of discipline” of the devil and thus also of God, nevertheless the Pope would not be inferior to this as a violent Antichrist. Only “Herr Christianus” (the few orthodox believers) and “Herr Carolus” (the imperial authorities) are at the Christian's disposal; he himself has only the means of penance and prayer. Luther countered the contemporary war propaganda - in his diction the "stimulating" - with criticism of the authoritarian efforts of the Pope as well as the ecclesiastical striving for power of the emperor: "Because the emperor is not the head of Christianity nor the protector of the gospel ... With that stimulus one makes it's only worse ”…“ if the emperor should destroy the unbelievers and unbelievers, he must start with the Pope… ”. From the warlike concert of contemporary media, his following sentence stands out as a sign of relative prudence: "Let the Turks believe and live as they want, just as one lets the papacy and other false Christians live."

Siege of Vienna

In 1541 Suleiman I attacked the Hungarians again, who suffered a defeat near Budapest in August. In September, Elector Johann Friedrich commissioned Luther and Bugenhagen to order the preachers "precautionary and excellent" that they "wanted to admonish the people with the utmost seriousness in all sermons about the prayers of touched Turks about the impending hardship and tyrannical acts". There was also a rumor that the Pope had signed a pact between France and the Turks against Germany in July 1542 and that he was responsible for the arson attacks that had raged in Germany until 1541.

On October 11th, Luther's " Admonition to Prayer Against the Turks " appeared. The connection between Pope and Turk made in song Z. 2 appears to be the result of those considerations presented twelve years earlier. The song joins the numerous war chants created for the current occasion.

The nursery rhyme

The song was passed down orally and sung as a nursery rhyme in Wittenberg immediately after its creation. The prayer of innocent children was seen as a last resort in danger.

  • “If someone should do something to the Turks, the simple-minded little children will do, they pray the Our Father. Our wall and rifles and all princes, they will probably leave the Turks unscathed ”. In February 1543, Luther and Bugenhagen demand in a letter to the pastors and superintendents in Wittenberg: "You should also ... let the children pray seriously" ... that the descendants ... "may stay safe from the devil of Mahomet"
  • In the oldest prints, the song was followed by the admonition to prayer “Dear Christian children, sing and pray confidently against the two true and greatest hereditary enemies of Christ and his members, that God the merciful Father should wait for Christ's sake in his holy church, as we well deserve, that there is a paternal punishment. Do the best in this, because unfortunately there are few old people who seriously care about it. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. "
  • But that could do something if one, it would be during Mass, Vespers or after the sermon, let the litany especially the young people sing or read, and everyone ... with himself forever ... sighs to Christ for grace for a better life and help against the Turks.

Reactions

Catholic reactions

In 1586 the Catholic University of Ingolstadt rewrote the song, which was perceived as scandalous, to be "Six beautiful Catholic songs". It was parodied u. a. also with verses like "Preserve us, Lord, with your sausage, / Six measures that quench your thirst."

In the Catholic territories the song became the most widely followed Protestant chant. It was banned on May 19, 1559 in Strasbourg and in 1662 in Öls, and in 1713 in all of Silesia. In Bavaria, Protestants were only allowed to sing on Reformation Day.

Evangelical modifications

After the defeat of the Upper German cities, the Kaiser visited the city of Nuremberg from March 24th to 29th, 1547, which therefore on March 3rd, 1547 forbade the singing of all German songs in public. On March 6th, she sharpened the prohibition: “Because the chant“ Preserve us, Lord… ”has been sung three times a day in the churches, but it results in it being despised, and then all sorts of things when the Imperial Majesty is here If you want to reprimand and defend against foreign servants, it is enacted that such chanting in all churches only once a day, namely in the morning at mass ”.

In the course of the Augsburg Interim in 1548, the papal critic Andreas Osiander formally softened the second line on the grounds that it was the devil himself who urged the pope: “And fight the devil's lust and murder”. The Nuremberg Council decreed the wording in this sense on December 22, 1548

Keep us Lord by your word
and fight off Satan's cunning and murder ...

Further modifications of the 16th century were:

  • 1549: Nuremberg "and stewr of Satan and Turk murders"
  • 1549: Marburger Gesangbuch: und stewr des Teuffels and Türcken mort
  • In 1595 the Erfurt door bell varied: And steur der Heyden and Türcken Mordt.

In Nikolaus Selnecker (1530–1592) the song is represented once in the version with 5 and once with 13 stanzas. Cyriakus Spangenberg (1528–1604) created a 24-stanza version. There were also Latin translations. As a battle song against the Calvinists , it reached 79 stanzas. A parody “Keep us Pope at your word” took up the calendar dispute .

With the Interim and the Peace of Westphalia , concerns grew and the questionable phrase was understood as "offensive to the fashion beast and deference that are so highly conditioned among religions". However, proposals for amendments met with violent Protestant opposition until the 18th century. In 1626 the Leipzig faculty and in 1662 the Wittenberg theological faculty objected to interference with the Luther text.

The song was sung essentially unchanged along with the Da-pacem verse in evangelical church services until the mid-18th century. It was only with Pietism that there was a continuous softening. Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen initially deleted the song from his collection in 1704, whereupon it was violently attacked: He brought it back in a new edition in 1714, but added the phrase "the enemies of Christ" over the offensive words and thus placed the selection in the behavior of the Singer.

Further modifications of the 18th century were: 1719: Halle: And steur der Feinde Christi Murder ... Other:

  • And steer the enemy cunning and murder ...
  • And steer all enemies murder ...
  • And steer your enemies murder ...
  • And steer the anti-Christians murder ...
  • And steer Satan's lie and murder ...

Johann Sebastian Bach , on the other hand, adheres to the Luther text in his cantata Receive us, Lord, by your word, BWV 126 (1725), and supplements the number of two arch enemies in chorale No. 3 with the false brothers named expressly "inner enemy" in the own ranks, as well as the "last enemy", death.

An anti-clerical parody has come down to us from Johann Heinrich Voss (1751–1826): Keep us, Lord, by your word / And chase away Pope and Junker! (1819).

text

The twelve-line song, built up in pair rhymes with three trinitarian stanzas, each four-line stanzas can be found in the Evangelical Hymnal (EG 193).

Have a child, Mart. Luther
Christian Adolf's hymn book,
Magdeburg 1543 		Evangelical hymn book Song against the
arch heretic Lutheri , the cry of lies
Ingolstadt, 1586

Bewys dyne makes Here Ihesu Christ,
de du Here of all
men are Bescherme dyne poor Christianity,
dat se dy laue yn ewicheit.

Recover us Here by dunem Wordt,
unde stüre des Pawest and Türcken murders
De Ihesum Christum dynen Son
Störtzen want van dynem thron.

God help spirit, you worth comforting, gave the
people a sense up earth,
stand by us yn the last nodt,
geled us ynt leeuent yth the dodt.

Vorlene und frede gnedichlick
HERre Godt tho unsen tyden,
this is not yo nen other,
de before un könde stryden
Ane du unse Godt allene.

Keep us, Lord, by your word
and steer the murder of your enemies,
who
want to overthrow Jesus Christ, your son, from your throne

Proof of your power, Lord Jesus Christ,
who are Lord of all lords,
protect your poor Christianity,
that they praise you in Eternity.

God the Holy Spirit, you comforter,
give the same meaning to the people on earth,
stand with us in the last time,
slide us into life from death.

Former additions :
4. “You attacks destroy
them, let them hit the evil
things and throw them into the pits
that they make yours for the Christians.

5. So they will recognize
that you, our God, are still alive
and give tremendous help to your band,
who even rely on you

(4.) And let the Lord command you.
Our church, your children,
in true faith keep us
and save us from enemy violence.

(5.) And we, your children,
with ourselves and also in the community,
will
praise you, Holy Trinity, for that reason forever.

And we will be the children of yours,
with ourselves and also in the Gmeyn
you holy trinity
praise it in ewigkeyt

Preserve us, Lord, by your word,
defend the heretics, murder the Turks,
Christ and the churches
want to fall from their throne.

Prove your power, Lord Jesus Christ,
that you are Lord of all lords,
protect your poor Christianity,
that it may praise you forever.

God holy spirit, you comforter,
keep your church in peace on earth,
stand by her when the heretic Rott
wants to overthrow her in fear and need.

Translations

Translated into Danish “Behold os, Herre! ved dit ord ... “1556, 1569, 1573 and 1837 (edited by Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig ), 1888; in the last arrangement in the Danish hymn book Den Danske Salme Bog , Copenhagen 1993, no. 296, with a strofe. Adopted in the Danish hymn book Den Danske Salmebog , Copenhagen 2002, No. 337.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ “And what should I say about the Most Holy Father Pope? Has it not, then, since he and his bishops became rulers of the world and, by virtue of the lying spirit, turned away from the gospel to their own human teaching, that they have committed nothing but murder up to this hour? ... the main occupation of the popes was ... to kill and kill themselves ... who ordered them to wield the sword, to incite and incite them to murder and war, those who should wait to preach and pray? .. . The Pope ... murders ... as a real Antichrist. Because he is sitting in the temple of God as head of the church, what the Turk does not do. But just as the Pope is the Antichrist, the Turk is the devil in person. Our prayer and that of Christendom are directed against both of them. "
  2. ^ Martin Luther's works for the German people, 420ff.
  3. ↑ Schlißke p. 126
  4. ↑ Schlißke p. 127
  5. ↑ Like the "Song against the Turks" created by Wenzeslaus Link (1483–1547): O good God in eternity, / our father and lord, / the whole of Christianity cries to you / your grace does not block us…. // The Turk. He scares us very much / overcomes us with a large army / to slay the Christians ... // Because our protection and defense does not count, / where you, oh Lord, do not want to help / to drive out the Turks.
  6. ↑ Luther, table speeches at Schlißke 130
  7. ↑ Schlißke 128
  8. ↑ The original versions of: The old year has passed (EG 59) or: O Lord God your divine Word (EKG 117) appear as comparable evangelical songs with an explicitly anti-papist tendency.
  9. ↑ Fischer 168
  10. ↑ Schlißke p. 134
  11. ↑ Kulp, 232
  12. ↑ “The 6th Catholic prayer chant against the arch heretic Lutheri's shout of lies, which, like other previous beginnings and the like, his descendants and fellow heresy use in their profaned and profaned churches or unconsecrated preaching houses. In the familiar tone "
  13. ↑ The Da pacem
  14. ↑ probably from Justus Jonas
  15. ↑ From 1565, Schlißke p. 132
  16. ↑ From 1566, Schlißke p. 132
  17. ↑ Spiritual war armor, Against the Turcken, Salzburg 1566
  18. ↑ Cf. Otto Holzapfel : Lied index: The older German-language popular song tradition ( online version on the Volksmusikarchiv homepage of the Upper Bavaria district ; in PDF format; ongoing updates) with further information.