Hieronymus Schurff

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Hieronymus Schurff
Hieronymus Schurff, Martin Luther and Johannes Eck at the Reichstag in Worms; Relief on the Berlin Cathedral

Hieronymus Schurff ( also Schurf, Schürpff, Schuirpff ; born April 12, 1481 in St. Gallen , † June 6, 1554 in Frankfurt (Oder) ) was a German lawyer.

Life

Born as the son of the respected St. Gallen doctor and later mayor Johann Schurff, he received a solid educational background in his hometown. Jerome, like his father, was supposed to become a doctor and enrolled at the University of Basel . In Basel he heard lectures by Ulrich Krafft from Ulm , which, however, got him enthusiastic about law. With Krafft he went to the University of Tübingen on October 19, 1501 , where he earned his master's degree in Artes on December 8, 1501 . In Tübingen he became friends with Ambrosius Volland , whom he accompanied to the newly founded University of Wittenberg in 1502 at the request of Johann von Staupitz , and he was present at the ceremonial opening of the university on October 18.

After Schurff had initially given philosophical lectures on Aristotle at the university according to the interpretation of Johannes Duns Scotus for 30 guilders and free provision, he completed the first disputation at the philosophical faculty. After he had been rector of the university in the winter semester of 1504 , he entered the law faculty in the spring of 1505, where he gave lectures on canon law on the Liber Sextus and the clementines . In 1507 he was an associate professor, read about the Codex Corpus iuris civilis and received his doctorate in the two rights.

He later received the title of electoral council, was an assessor at the Saxon High Court and carried out extensive work as a legal adviser. With the new foundation of the university in 1536 he received the post of full professor as the first legent of the rights for the Pandects . After the Saxon elector had lost the battle near Mühlberg , Schurff fled to Frankfurt (Oder) , where efforts had been made to recruit him as early as the 1930s. There he taught until the end of his life.

Schurff's importance lies primarily in his personal position on the Reformation and Luther. His reputation as a teacher and consultant was widely praised and he trained students like Ulrich von Mordeisen , Melchior Kling and others. The only known work from his time is his Consilia . As an eyewitness to the emergence of the Reformation , he himself accepted the evangelical conviction. However, he also got into a dispute with Martin Luther when he symbolically burned the canonical rights when he burned the bull threatening the ban . Luther wanted church law to be based on the New Testament , which Schurff saw as positive, but he wanted to retain the most important foundations of the existing legal system. The dispute on this question, which lasted until 1545, ended when the elector decided in favor of Luther.

However, this argument did not overshadow the relationship between the two too much: Schurff accompanied Friedrich the Wise to the Worms Reichstag in 1521, where he stood by his side as legal advisor. When Martin Luther appeared before the Reichstag, he acted as his lawyer. He also supported Philipp Melanchthon when he had to deal with Andreas Bodenstein and Ulrich Zwingli . They wanted to overturn the traditional legal system through the Mosaic Law .

Schurff was an honest and insightful personality of great acumen, according to Luther's phrase "a keen lawyer who loves equity". As a lecturer, he enjoyed a great reputation, even if his lectures suffered from his obligations. Schurff achieved his greatest fame by going to school with the greatest, to whom he then made his legal knowledge available as a support during the difficult times.

Schurff's works were posthumously placed on the index of forbidden books by the Roman Catholic Church in 1559 and 1564 .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Brecht: Martin Luther. His path to the Reformation 1483–1521 . Calwer, Stuttgart 1981, p. 433.
  2. ↑ Schurff (Schurpf), Hieronymus. In: Jesús Martínez de Bujanda , Marcella Richter: Index des livres interdits: Index librorum prohibitorum 1600–1966. Médiaspaul, Montréal 2002, ISBN 2-89420-522-8 , p. 821 (French, digitized ).
personal data
SURNAME Schurff, Hieronymus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schurf, Hieronymus; Schürpff, Hieronymus; Schuirpff, Hieronymus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1481
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Gallen
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1554
Place of death Frankfurt (Oder)