Johann Kröner

Epitaph for Johann Kröner in Kilian's Church in Heilbronn

Johann Kröner (also Kroner , Krener , Chrener u. Ä., * Around 1460 ; † November 16, 1520 ) was a preacher at the Kilian's Church in Heilbronn from 1493 until his death in 1520 and thus the predecessor of the Heilbronn reformer Johann Lachmann . It is disputed whether Kröner himself was already oriented towards the Reformation .

Life

He came from Schärding , more is not known about his ancestry. His date of birth is also unknown and is only estimated from the known biographical information. On March 31, 1476, he enrolled at the University of Ingolstadt , where he received his doctorate in theology in 1493 . As was customary at that time, he was presumably ordained a priest after completing his basic studies around 1484 and given benefices with which he may have financed his livelihood and further studies in Ingolstadt. He was temporarily pastor in Walkertshofen , but was also in the imperial city of Augsburg and in the diocese of Augsburgbacked to an unknown extent. Probably from Augsburg he was recommended to Heilbronn, since traditionally close relations existed between the imperial cities.

It is first documented in Heilbronn in 1493 when he received 4 guilders from the city treasury on the occasion of his doctorate. There he was probably the successor of the preacher Johann Priester from Neipperg , who was last documented in November 1492, even before his doctorate at Kilian's Church . At first, Kröner seems to have only been employed on a temporary basis for one year. In 1494 he was given the sermon stipend for the Kilian Church for seven years, in 1502 again for seven years, and in 1508 for life. He was also entitled to an apartment in the preacher's office and he was part of the Heilbronn presence , i. H. to the amalgamation of the locally sponsored clergy, from which he also received income.

When Kröner came to Heilbronn, he already owned numerous books, which indicates a certain wealth. The Kilianspredigerpfründe was initially endowed with 80 guilders annually, which were paid out to him in quarterly installments of 20 guilders. The benefice of the Heilbronn preacher position was gradually increased and in 1508 already amounted to 130 guilders a year. It is not known how high his income from the Walkertshofer and Augsburger benefices was. At the urging of the Augsburg bishop, Kröner renounced the Augsburg benefices in 1508 and was compensated by the Heilbronn council with the minor benefice of the Heilbronn hospital church .

Kröner enjoyed a high reputation in Heilbronn because he was able to mediate various disputes between the council and the presence as well as monasteries. During his term of office in 1508, a reform of the preaching days fell, which in Heilbronn had been written into the Mettelbach Foundation letter since the establishment of the preacher's office in 1426, but which Kröner adapted to the Sundays and holidays preferred by the population for worship. At his death, Kröner had a fortune of 2,175 guilders and thus belonged to the financial upper class of the imperial city.

Kröner Johann Lachmann dictated his will . Among the witnesses in the will is the later Weinsberg reformer Erhard Schnepf . Based on the life circumstances of the heirs described, the will allows conclusions to be drawn about Kröner's origin from humble circumstances. About a quarter of his fortune (530 guilders) went to church institutions, another larger part went to foundations, one for Augsburg students in Ingolstadt and one for Heilbronn students in Heidelberg. The Heilbronn Foundation existed until after the First World War. In his will he also decreed, among other things, that part of his library, which is probably more than 100 volumes, should go to the Heilbronn preacher office, while the other recipients of the books are not specified. A large number of books from his library have survived to this day. in the Heilbronn city ​​archives , in the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart , in the Tübingen University Library , in the Rottenburg Seminary Library and in the Tübingen Konviktsbibliothek . Nothing of his sermons has survived, nor is anything known about an impact beyond the city.

In Heilbronn's Kilian's Church there is a metal epitaph for Kröner, which, however, indicates a false date of death (September 16 instead of November 16) and may have been made a long time after his death.

reception

It is controversial whether or not Kröner was already reformed. In the early 17th century, the first pastor of Heilbronn at the time, Johann Zückwolf, stated: “[...] from h. like. Strauben blissfully I have often heard that doctor Johann Kröner von Scherding, first of all, that the Gospel all began to preach, but who died all here in jar 1520, as his epitaph in mossing, cast in the parish churches, reveals all here, and everything before Luther too still in the middle of the Bapstumb that the gospel must have already preached [...] ” . The quoted deceased Magister Straub (1565–1603) was born long after Kröner's death and cannot have witnessed Kröner's Reformation sermons.

Kröner's personal written certificates have not survived. Even in the volumes that came to us from his library, there are only very few highlights or comments to be found. Some volumes seem to be handwritten. From the type of library which, in addition to spiritual writings and works on Greek and Roman history, etc. a. also Vitruvius De architectura (Venice 1496) or John Reuchlin ophthalmoscope contained (Tübingen 1511), can be closed in a versatile intellectual and spiritual interests Kröners.

In his will, he made a great effort to save his soul through various anniversary donations to the Kilian Church and the Carmelite Church in Heilbronn as well as to the parish church in Walkertshofen . Because of this and the lack of evidence from the Reformation, Hummel (1986) rejects any of Kröner's early Reformation attitudes.

literature

• Heribert Hummel: Dr. Johann Kröner, preacher at St. Kilian in Heilbronn (1493–1520) . In: Yearbook for Swabian-Franconian History . Volume 31 (1986). Historischer Verein Heilbronn, Heilbronn 1986, ISSN  0175-9841 , pp. 25-43.
• Heribert Hummel (arrangement): Catalog of the incunabula of the Heilbronn city archive . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 1981, DNB 820314285, pp. 83–85 (on Kröner's library).