Heinrich von Kettenbach

Heinrich von Kettenbach, actually Johann Rott (* unsafe in Franconia ; † around 1524 in unsafe Munich ) was an author of Lutheran pamphlets and a reformer.

Life

Apart from the little information from his own writings, not much is learned about him. At the same time as Johann Eberlin von Günzburg , he belonged to the Franciscan monastery in Ulm . As a result of his convictions, of which he made no secret, he was forced to resign at the end of 1522 from the convent, to which he had only belonged for a little over a year. His sermon on “Fasting and Celebrating” received much attention and was reprinted many times.

His rejection of the ecclesiastical commandments had brought him into an argument with the Dominican Nestler in Ulm. In his sermon, “Against the Pope's Sermon in Ulm”, he accounted for him sharply. In the same year he published another sermon "From the Christian Church", in which he develops its true nature and describes Christ as its foundation.

But his bold demeanor could not prevail against all violence. He suddenly had to flee from Ulm without being able to say goodbye to his community. But he did not forget this, but sent her a farewell word and finally a treatise “Conversation with a little old mother in Ulm”, in which he clarified the confused conscience about the Roman church customs and let her find true consolation in Christ's work.

It remains unknown where he stayed in the following years. Perhaps he sought refuge with Franz von Sickingen . His later consolation writings are now printed in Erfurt , now in Wittenberg and Zwickau , without it being known whether he was there himself. His writings from 1523 strongly defend Sickingen and especially Martin Luther . Above all, his pamphlet: “Responsibility of the murderous cries of the papists over the teaching of Martin Luther” should be mentioned here. From the following years only one sermon with violent attacks on the monks is known, then he falls silent. In 1524 he was in prison in Munich. He probably died there.

Works

• "Fasting and Celebrating"
• "Against the Pope's kitchen sermon in Ulm"
• “Responsibility of the papists' murderous cries over the teaching of Martin Luther” Wittenberg, 1523
• "A warning to Junker Franzen von Sickingen to his army" Augsburg, 1523

literature

• Arnold Berger : The Stormtroopers of the Reformation: Selected pamphlets of the years 1520-25. Reclam, Leipzig 1931, pp. 59, 217-241.
• Otto Clemen : Pamphlets from the first years of the Reformation. Volume 2, R. Haupt, Leipzig 1908.
• Jakob Franck :  Kettenbach, Heinrich von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, pp. 676-678.
• Paul Kalkoff : The predicants: Kettenbach. In: Archive for the history of the Reformation . Vol. 25, 1928, pp. 128-150.
• Hans Volz :  Heinrich von Kettenbach. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 412 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Heiko Wulfert:  KETTENBACH, Heinrich von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 3, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-035-2 , Sp. 1425-1427.
• Real Encyclopedia for Protestant Theology and Church . Vol. 10, pp. 265-268.