Georg Nespitzer

Georg Nespitzer , also known as Georg Nospitzer and Jörg von Passau (* around the turn of the 15th to the 16th century in Stadtlauringen ; † 16th century in Leutershausen ), was an Anabaptist preacher during the Reformation who worked primarily in Franconia and Augsburg . Towards the end of his life he broke away from his Ansbach teachings while imprisoned in Ansbach and was released from prison.

Life

The available sources are silent about Georg Nespitzer's date of birth and his family origins. What is only known is that before his baptism , which he received by Hans Hut at Easter 1527 , he lived in Passau in Bavaria , which is also referred to by his nickname Jörg von Passau , and traded in woven goods there. He was related by marriage to the Anabaptist Eukarius Binder , who came from Coburg , through his wife, and also to the Augsburg Baptist Thomas Paur . There was a more distant family relationship with Leonhard Schiemer .

First effectiveness

After his baptism, which took place in the presence of his brother-in-law Eukarius Binder (also known as Kellermann), Nespitzer first got to know the large Anabaptist community founded by Balthasar Hubmaier in Nikolsburg / Moravia in 1526 . He then traveled to Strasbourg , but only stayed here for a short time and then moved to Augsburg, where he must have arrived by August 1527 at the latest, because Nespitzer was demonstrably one of the participants in the so-called Augsburg Synod of Martyrs , which took place from August 20 to 24, 1527 met in various craftsmen's houses in Augsburg. Here he was a member of the 17-member parliamentary group of his Baptist Hans Hut, which, because of its chiliastic prophetic teachings, was in a certain tension with the Swiss Anabaptists around Jakob Gross and the spiritualists around Hans Denck . Towards the end of the meeting, however, it was agreed to send missionaries from Augsburg to all the surrounding countries. As a result of this decision, Nespitzer was sent to Franconia as an Anabaptist messenger . Traces of Georg Nespitzer's missionary work can be found mainly in western Franconia. In Gründlach example, he baptized a host in Windheim to from Rothenburg originating Philipp Tuscherer and in Rothenburg - probably through the mediation of the foregoing - the tailor Hartmann. In Iphofen , Nespitzer was baptized as a believer at the baker Peter Weischenfelder and also won a number of followers in and around Staffelstein .

augsburg

On December 6, 1527, Hans Hut, who had been arrested and imprisoned, was killed in a prison fire. At the beginning of 1528 Georg Nespitzer returned to Augsburg to become his successor.

The Anabaptist congregation, which had been founded by Hans Denck in 1526 and which hosted the synod of last August 1527, had gone underground due to the so-called profession - a resolution of the city council of October 11, 1527 directed against the Anabaptists - and gathered secret places in and around Augsburg. Despite the punishments threatened at work and the persecution that began, Anabaptists stuck to their convictions and received approval and help from many Augsburg citizens. Even the strong police controls could not prevent many scattered Anabaptists from repeatedly visiting the imperial city from the surrounding places and attending the local secret meetings. At a later interrogation, a prisoner of the Movement reported that "if 10 [Anabaptists] were brought out, thirty others would come in." In this situation, Georg Nespitzer joined the leadership group of the Augsburg Anabaptists and took over its leadership after the community leader and uncompromising hat supporter Augustin Bader escaped impending impeachment by fleeing to Strasbourg in the spring of 1528 . Nespitzer was extremely active. Under his leadership, the Augsburg Anabaptist Congregation became a center of the movement. According to the contemporary chronicler Clemens Sender , 1100 people are said to have belonged to the Augsburg Anabaptist group. Although this figure is considered exaggerated today, the available sources show 203 newly baptized persons for the period October 1527 to April 1528 alone, who are mentioned there by name. For the period mentioned, 33 houses can be found in Augsburg in which the Anabaptists gathered for worship. In addition to Georg Nespitzer, Claus Schleifer and the ring maker Peter were elected as further heads. Bernhard Zirgkendorffer was entrusted with caring for the poor . Nespitzer's effectiveness was not limited to Augsburg. He did missionary work in the surrounding villages and led meetings in Göggingen , Wellenburg and many villages on the Lech and Wertach . The followers he won were mostly imprisoned or expelled from the country shortly after their baptism.

On the Saturday before Palm Sunday 1528, 50 to 60 people gathered in the cellar of parishioner Barbara Schleifer and celebrated the Lord's Supper in a simple way . Following this service, Nespitzer invited to a meeting in which theological doctrinal questions were to be clarified and decided. There are no sources on the issues discussed here. At this point, Nespitzer himself was still under the influence of Hut's theology, which - again shaped by Thomas Münzer - was marked by a "burning expectation" of the return of Christ . Hut (and probably also Nespitzer) reckoned that the judgment of God against all wicked would begin with Pentecost in 1528. On the following Saturday, April 11, 1528, they met again - this time in the house of the Augsburg citizen Gall Fischer , who was on a missionary trip at the time. Georg Nespitzer and Claus Schleifer chaired the worship service, at which some of the faithful were baptized. An appointment was made for the Easter service on the following Sunday, which was to take place in the house of Susanna Daucher , wife of the well-known Augsburg sculptor Hans Daucher . News of this project had been passed on to the city council. He ordered armed police and had them rearrange the house. Nespitzer and his fellow elder Hans Leupold warned the approximately 100 people attending the service of the impending danger, but most of them stayed. Access took place after about an hour. 88 people were arrested, put in irons and taken to the town hall. Among them were 39 non-resident Anabaptists who were expelled from the city with the whip on the following day, some even after being marked with "the fire on the cheeks". Georg Nespitzer was one of those expelled.

Further way

After his escape from Augsburg, Georg Nespitzer intended to move to Basel :

“ I want to find the elves of the common ones myself . I want to speak through the power of god [...] so that we repented [tore up] all plants that got nit hab planted and we all become one with one another through the holy spirit . "

It remains uncertain whether there was an encounter with the elders of the Basel Anabaptist community and whether he even arrived in Basel. However, it is documented that in 1529 Nespiter traveled together with Claus Schreiber, who was baptized by Melchior Rinck, first to Sorga and from there to Thuringia . In the course of this year he must have internally distanced himself from Anabaptism and finally reached Leutershausen. In any case, the council and the mayor of the city of Leutershausen testify on August 19, 1530 that Nespitzer had lived in their city for a year and a half. There is no reason to complain. This testimony agrees with the statement made by Georg Nespitzer and his wife Brigitte on July 12, 1530 at the court in Ansbach. He swore - according to Nespitzer - [...] at Easter 1529, because the period of three and a half years after the Peasants' War , which Hans Hut, who baptized him in Passau in 1526, had given him as the date for the downfall of those who were not rebaptized, had passed without result . He then settled in Leutershausen. The Nespitzer couple were released from Ansbach prison after their earlier Ansbach views were publicly revoked and they resumed their residence in Leutersdorf.

Nothing is known about the date of Georg Nespitzer's death.

Christening succession

Georg Nespitzer (Easter 1527) followed Hans Hut (Whitsun 1526), Hans Denck (spring 1526), Balthasar Hubmaier (Easter 1525), Wilhelm Reublin (January 1525), Jörg Blaurock (January 1525) and Konrad Grebel (January 1525). The dates in brackets indicate the respective baptism date. Evidence of this can be found in the biography articles of the persons mentioned.

literature

• Christian Hege / Christian Neff: Article Georg Nespitzer , in: Mennonitisches Lexikon , Frankfurt 1913–1967, Volume III, p. 204 f.
• Friedrich Roth: Augsburg Reformation History 1904 (2nd edition)
• Friedrich Roth: On the history of the Baptists in Upper Swabia , in: Journal of the Historical Association for Swabia and Neuburg , 1901/8
• Karl Schornbaum: Sources on the history of the Anabaptists , Volume II: Margraviate Brandenburg (Bavaria I. Department) , Leipzig 1934.
• Paul Wappler: The Anabaptist Movement in Thuringia from 1526–1584 , Jena 1913.
• Wilhelm Wiswedel: Pictures and Leadership Figures from Anabaptism , Volume II, Kassel 1928, pp. 48–51.

Web links

• Christian Hege (1957): Nespitzer, Georg . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kimberly D. Schmidt, Diane Zimmerman Umble, Steven D. Reschly (Eds.): Strangers at home. Amish and Mennonite Women in History. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore 2002, ISBN 0-8018-6786-X , p. 134; Note 25.
2. ↑ James M. Stayer: The German Peasant's War and Anabaptist Community of Goods , Québec 1994, p. 85.
3. ↑ Compare with this Hans Guderian: Die Anabaptist in Augsburg. Their history and their legacy. A contribution to the 2000 year celebration of the city of Augsburg , Augsburg 1984, ISBN 3-7787-2063-5 , pp. 41–44.
4. ↑ Gottfried Seebass: essay peasant war and Anabaptism in Franconia , in: The Reformation and their outsiders. Collected essays and lectures; for his 60th birthday / Gottfried Seebass (Ed. Irene Dingel with the collaboration of Christine Kress), Göttingen 1997, ISBN 3-525-58165-3 , p. 201
5. ^ Günter Dippold: Hans and Martin Weischenfelder (executed 1528). Anabaptist , in: Staffelsteiner Lebensbilder (Eds. Günter Dippold / Alfred Meixner), Staffelstein 2000, pp. 41–43; As a PDF document ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; accessed on December 15, 2010. 
6. ^ Friedrich Roth: On the history of the Anabaptists in Upper Swabia (III: The high point of the Anabaptist movement in Augsburg ), in: Journal of the Historical Association for Swabia and Neuburg , year 28, Augsburg 1901, p. 3.
7. ^ Anselm Schubert: Bader, Augustin. In: Mennonite Lexicon . Volume 5 (MennLex 5) .; accessed on December 15, 2010
8. ^ Hans Guderian: The Anabaptists in Augsburg. Their history and their legacy. A contribution to the 2000th anniversary of the city of Augsburg , Augsburg 1984, ISBN 3-7787-2063-5 , p. 39.
9. ↑ Clemens Sender: The Chronicle of Clemens Sender from the oldest times of the city up to 1536 , in: The Chronicles of the German Cities from the 14th to the 16th Century , Volume XXIII (Augsburg Volume 4), Leipzig 1894, p. 186 .
10. ↑ Gerhard Werthan: The History of the Augsburg Anabaptists in the 16th century , Munich 1972, p 73rd
11. ^ Hans Guderian: The Anabaptists in Augsburg. Their history and their legacy. A contribution to the 2000th anniversary of the city of Augsburg , Augsburg 1984, ISBN 3-7787-2063-5 , p. 45.
12. ^ Christian Hege (1957): Nespitzer, Georg . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online ; accessed on December 15, 2010.
13. ↑ Tina Saji: Christian Social Reformers , New Delhi 2005, ISBN 81-8324-008-9 , p. 294.
14. ↑ Gerhard Maier: The Revelation of John and the Church , Volume 25 in the series Scientific Studies on the New Testament , Tübingen 1981, ISBN 3-16-144132-X , p. 245.
15. ↑ Hans Guderian, Hans Guderian: The Anabaptists in Augsburg. Their history and their legacy. A contribution to the 2000th anniversary of the city of Augsburg , Augsburg 1984, ISBN 3-7787-2063-5 , p. 75.
16. ↑ Hans Guderian, Hans Guderian: The Anabaptists in Augsburg. Their history and their legacy. A contribution to the 2000th anniversary of the city of Augsburg , Augsburg 1984, ISBN 3-7787-2063-5 , p. 76.
17. ↑ Quoted from Werner O. Packull : On the development of southern German Anabaptism ; in: Controversial Anabaptists 1525 - 1975. New research (Ed. Hans-Jürgen Goertz), Göttingen 1975, ISBN 3-525-55354-4 , p. 169.
18. ^ Compare Werner O. Packull: Early Contacts among Anabaptists in Hesse and Maravia ; in: The Contentious Triangle: Church, State and University. A Festschrift in Honor of Professor George Huntston Williams (Eds. George Huntston Williams, Rodney Lawrence Petersen, Calvin Augustine Pater), Kirksville, Missouri 1999, ISBN 0-943549-58-2 , p. 178, notes 18 and 20
19. ↑ Manfred Krebs, Hans-Georg Rott (arr.): Sources for the history of the Anabaptists , Volume VII ( Alsace 1: Strasbourg 1522-1532 ), Gütersloh 1959, p. 266f, note 25.