Homberg Synod
The Homberg Synod took place in Homberg (Efze) in 1526 . Representatives of the ecclesiastical and secular estates of the Landgraviate of Hesse took part in it to discuss in the Homberg town church whether the Protestant faith should be introduced in the Landgraviate. The great advocate was Landgrave Philip I , who was also the initiator of the meeting. Eventually the Landgraviate became Protestant, as the majority of those present at the Synod supported Philip's plans. However, the new church order drawn up as a result of the synod never came into force because the reformer Martin Luther found it too far-reaching.
occasion
At the Reichstag in Speyer in 1526, the execution of the Worms Edict , which had been issued five years earlier at the Reichstag in Worms , which forbade the dissemination of Martin Luther's teachings , was left to the imperial estates and thus effectively suspended. Landgrave Philipp then called a synod in the town church of Homberg, at which the representatives of the estates should discuss the possibility of a new Reformed church order.
At that time, Homberg was the junction of several trade routes and offered sufficient accommodation. In the years 1508, 1509, 1514 and 1518, state parliaments had already taken place in the town church. Those invited included prelates , abbots , religious and secular clergy , the knighthood and the representatives of the cities .
Preparations
In addition to the Reformation, the Landgrave also planned further reorganizations. So he wanted to reform the parish, poor and school system using the church assets. His French adviser Franz Lambert von Avignon was at his side in this endeavor . Franz Lambert had been commissioned to draft principles for the Homberg conversation. He called his theses paradoxes , which probably stems from the contradictions between the old and the new order. One of his most influential helpers in creating the paradox was Adam Krafft , one of Philip's most important advisors.
On October 5th, Philip invited people from the convents to attend the Synod in Homberg on October 20th. The next day, invitations to the altarists ( chaplain or vicar ) and pastors followed , which were brought by the mayor , city councilors and renters . On October 10, the monasteries received a further invitation to come to Homberg on October 19 to comment on Lambert's theses, which had not yet been made known.
After the synod, Lambert published it in a book with brief explanations. There were 158 theses and 47 appendices, which were divided into 23 groups. Each group had a heading to summarize the content. In addition, the script, which was written in Latin (Lambert did not speak German), contained a detailed introduction and a brief summary.
Synod themes
In Lambert's “Paradoxa”, which opposed previous faith, the main focus was on the understanding of faith, church, pastoral office, Lord's Supper and baptism. By pointing out that Jesus Christ is the only mediator between man and God, he ruled out any mediation of the church. At the same time, he made it clear that monks and celibate pastors did not have a special role in this relationship and that they had no special holiness. The existence of monasteries and monasticism is not biblically founded and therefore also without particular holiness. The secularization , which had far-reaching consequences and contributed significantly to the financing of Philip's reform of the school and hospital system, was based on this finding.
Lambert also refused to worship pictures. Should pictures or portraits be worshiped or venerated, they should be destroyed, as only Christ could be worshiped. The notion of purgatory, in the flames of which man had to pay off his sins under agony, disliked the Reformed conception, since man could not justify good deeds before God, but only faith. Another important innovation that was to be a product of the new church order was the holding of the service in German so that everyone present could follow it regardless of their level of education.
Lambert had developed the theses within three weeks. There is no deep erudition in them, but one thing is clear: the confrontation with the Catholics and the establishment of a new order, the basis of which should be the Bible.
course
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The synod began on Sunday October 21st in the town church. In addition to those invited, some curious Homberg citizens were also present. The landgrave had assured everyone present safe conduct. The opening speech was given by Chancellor Johann Feige on behalf of the Landgrave . Lambert's paradox served as the basis of the discussion that began . The theses were first presented in Latin by Lambert himself and then in German by Adam Krafft. In the ensuing debate, anyone who knows Latin should turn to Lambert, while everyone else should turn to Krafft. Then Lambert read, explained and justified his principles of the Reformation from the Bible, which took several hours. In the afternoon, Krafft's translation of the whole thing followed. He then called for counter-opinions, but only the Franciscan Guardian from Marburg , Nikolaus Ferber , spoke up and requested a meeting with the Landgrave for the next day.
The synod continued on Monday, October 22nd, when Lambert read out his 23 sentences again and then invited those who wanted to contradict him to speak. As expected, Nikolaus Ferber rose. He said it was not the place to negotiate and that he would only turn to the Landgrave anyway. This was followed by a two-hour speech by the Franciscan, in which he declared that only the church, the Pope and the bishops were authorized to convene a synod and initiate church ordinance. He also warned the landgrave that the emperor, pope and some universities had condemned Lutheran teaching as heretical.
Chancellor Feige contradicted this by granting the secular authorities the right to hold synods. He justified this with abuses and idolatry within the church and brought forward as examples unspiritual pride , lust for honor and money and the proclamation of a falsified and unchristian faith. Then he asked Ferber to endorse Lambert's theses. Ferber refused and continued to invoke Christ and Paul , according to which heretics and laypeople are not authorized to hold such a disputation . He also tried to get all the clergy present on his side by accusing Philip of creating discord and wanting to use spiritual goods against the will of the founder.
Landgrave Philipp then spoke for the only time during the entire synod, rejected Ferber's accusations and demanded that only arguments compatible with the Bible be used in a religious dispute. But even then, Ferber was not ready to meet. Only when Lambert found triumphantly that no one belonging to the Franciscan order dared to fight did he lure Ferber from his reserve. He read his 100 sentences (assertiones), which, however, hardly met with approval. At the end of the day Ferber once again called for resistance against Lambert's theses and against himself, whereupon he feared for his life and took advantage of the landgrave's assured safe conduct.
The last day of the Synod was Tuesday, October 23, for which there are very inadequate records. However, on that day, Magister Johannes Sperber, the pastor from Waldau , another clergyman, entered into a disputation with Lambert. However, Lambert is said to have refuted him to such an extent that, according to the sources received, everyone present felt sorry for the pastor. Then some of the most respected clergy were selected to work out a Reformation order for the Landgraviate of Hesse.
Results
The immediate result of the Homberg Synod was the convening of a commission to work out church regulations for the Landgraviate of Hesse. However, Philip aimed at far more: with the Homberg Synod he wanted to show the representatives of the clergy and the estates how necessary it was, in his opinion, to introduce the Reformation in his territory as well. In addition, the Homberg Synod was one of the first ever on Reformation soil, making it a model for those who followed.
Under Lambert's leadership, the selected commission worked out the “Reformatio ecclesiarum Hassiae” within two months up to December 1526. This new church order contained 34 chapters with 195 sentences. She saw the sermon as the basis for spreading the Protestant faith. A meeting of all pastors was to be called on a certain Sunday, at which they had to decide whether or not to join the Reformation thinking. Those who agreed should be entered in a register; those who refused should be called heathen . The congregations should elect a pastor to be their leader, who from then on was called a bishop and whose duties should include the exercise of church discipline. Further decisions should be made at an annual synod in Marburg, in which all bishops and selected sydonals and their secular lords took part. In addition, three visitors should be elected at each of these synods to visit each congregation and examine the work of the bishop. Further proposals were the dissolution of the monasteries, the establishment of hospitals , the opening of general schools , universities and scholarship institutions .
implementation
There were not only positive voices on the synod and the new church order. For example, Luther rejected the new church order. He described it as a “bunch of laws with such powerful words” because he liked neither its scope nor its radicalism. In a letter to the landgrave he wrote that he did not accept the church order in this form. He closed the letter with the following words:
- “That is why one has to deal with fear and humility before God and keep this standard: short and good, little and good, not too hastily and steadily on. After that, if they take root, the action will be followed by more than is necessary. "
He made it clear that he preferred a gradual introduction of the church order. Philipp followed Luther's advice and did not introduce the “Reformatio”, but initially only realized some of its projects. There were also political reasons for this, as he did not want to mess with his closest ally, the Elector of Saxony , where Luther's word was considered authoritative.
In addition, Philip was accused of only wanting to accept the Protestant faith in order to enrich himself, since he would be exempt from the tax that he had to pay for the Pope.
As advised by Luther, Landgrave Philipp only pushed through a few demands, such as the secularization of the monasteries. He invested the fortune gained in this way partly in the establishment of the University of Marburg , the first Reformation-inspired university, and partly in the foundation of hospitals.
Further goals of the church ordinance drawn up in 1526 were achieved in the following years, in particular after the conclusion of the Treaty of Hitzkirchen on June 14, 1528, in which the Archbishop of Mainz, Albrecht of Brandenburg, finally renounced the spiritual jurisdiction in Hesse and Philip thus cleared the way, to introduce an independent regional church in Hesse. The office of superintendent was introduced in 1531 with the Church Service Ordinance . In 1532 the Order of Worship and the Hessian Church Order followed, but these were never introduced.
meaning
Opinions differ widely about the Homberg Synod of 1526 and its significance. To the author of the "Paradoxa", Franz Lambert of Avignon, the synod appeared to be a "holy synod, venerable and Christian and worthy of being imitated everywhere." thus, in contrast to the Jesuit Schmitt, benevolent words, who briefly referred to them as the “aftersynod”.
With the church order, which gave the congregations full responsibility for worship, preaching and teaching, an attempt was made for the first time to allow an entire country to participate in a fundamental religious decision. In similar assemblies in later years, this democratic move of the Synod also gained importance beyond Germany's borders. The Homberg Synod enjoys exemplary status in this context. The main features of the "Reformatio" later came to bear mainly in the strictly Reformed churches of France , Switzerland , the Netherlands and Scotland , whereby the Homberg Synod gained not only all-German but also European importance.
The Homberg Synod brought about a new way of keeping church records . All church-relevant events such as baptisms (baptizati), funerals (defuncti), weddings (copulati) and the names of the confirmed of all Protestant parishioners were noted. The membership of different classes was not relevant for the completeness of the data, so that both the data of nobles and shepherds could be read in it. This ensured a process of democratization within the church and is still of cultural importance today. Although the state has been responsible for the complete collection of personal data since the registry offices were introduced, the parish registers still have to be kept in every parish today.
In addition, the introduction of the Reformation in the Landgraviate of Hesse brought about a reform of the school system that was initiated by Martin Luther. For him, the linguistic trinity of logic , rhetoric and poetics , as well as mathematics , history , mother tongue religious instruction with catechism and the Bible, music and physical exercises were particularly important subjects that every boy should be taught. Efforts to make the teaching profession more attractive and to train teachers in a reformed manner led to the emergence of village schools from 1600 onwards, which can definitely be seen as an achievement of the Reformation.
today
Today, two things in or on the Homberg Church remind of the historical event: on the one hand, the magnificent Reformation window in the choir , which depicts the reformers Luther and Zwingli and Landgrave Philipp, and on the other, a plaque next to that of Tyle von Frankenberg from around 1374 created jewelry portal is attached to the outer wall of the church.
There is a monument on Homberg's market square that depicts Landgrave Philipp in a seated pose. It was created by Ewald Rumpf on behalf of the city of Homberg and unveiled on October 21, 2001 on the occasion of the 475th anniversary of the Homberg Synod.
In Kassel, two reliefs from the lost Landgraf-Philipp monument commemorate the events of the Reformation. Today they are attached to the outer wall of the Martinskirche .
literature
- Bodo Fäcke: The Homberg Synod of 1526. The Reformation in Hesse. Homberg / Efze 2001, ISBN 3-9803582-5-9
- Julius Friedrich: The origin of the Reformation Ecclesarium Hessiae from 1526. A study of canon law. Giessen 1905
- Rainer Haas: Lambert's “Paradoxa” and the Hessian church ordinances. In: Pierre Fraenkel (ed.): Pour retrouver Francois Lambert. Bio-bibliographie et études. Baden-Baden 1987
- Gerhard Müller: Franz Lambert and the Reformation in Hesse. Marburg 1958
- Gerhard Müller: The Synod as the foundation of the Evangelical Church in Hesse. In: Yearbook of the Hessian Church History Association 27. 1976. pp. 129–146
- Wilhelm Schmitt: The Synod of Homberg and its prehistory. Festschrift for the 400th anniversary of the Homberg Synod. Homberg 1926
- Emil Weber: The introduction of the Reformation in Hessen (The Synod of Homberg 1526) and the Franciscan Nikolaus Herborn. Kassel 1907
- Fritz Wolff (Ed.): Religion and State. The Reformation in the Landgraviate of Hesse. Fuldatal 1996
- William J. Wright: The Homberg Synod and Philipp of Hesse's Plan for a new Church-State Settlement. In: The Sixteenth Century Journal 4. 1973. pp. 23-46
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 2 ″ N , 9 ° 24 ′ 20 ″ E