Johannes Blumstein

Johannes Blumstein (* 14th century ; † May 10, 1437 ) was a wealthy citizen of the Strasbourg upper class, allegedly a patrician , and a diplomat on behalf of his hometown. In the run-up to the Strasbourg Waldensian trials in 1400/1401, he stood out as a supporter and protector of the Waldensian heretics . He survived this process completely unscathed, although as the son of the host family of the Waldensian community, he was the focus of this process for a long time.

Environment of the heretic trial

File page 20v / 21r of the Strasbourg Waldensian trial with Klaus von Brumath's list of suspects attached .

The long reign of Elekt Wilhelm II von Diests (1393–1439), during whose reign the Waldensian trial took place, is described in historiography today as "disastrous". The arbitrariness of the bishop did not come to light until after 1400, but various partisanships of Diest suggest that conditions were poisoned due to regional feuds even before the turn of the century. They reflect the warring front line between the city and the bishopric.

The Waldensian trial concerned a group of around 30 people who had previously lived undisturbed in the city of Strasbourg, who were accused of being of different faith, interrogated in a three-week trial and then mostly banned from the city. People like Else zum Black Letters were banned because of the trial verdict despite repeated penalties .

This process is part of a series of similar religious persecutions such as in Regensburg (1378), Stettin (1392-1394), Rothenburg ob der Tauber (1394), Nuremberg and Prague (1396) and most recently in Freiburg im Üechtland (1399-1430). Some of the names of the inquisators of this time have remained accessible through archival material to this day. The most famous heretic hunter on the move, mentioned in the Strasbourg trial files, is Peter Zwicker , but Martin von Amberg and Heinrich Angermeier were also active in the 1390s.

Life

When Johannes Blumstein was born remains in the dark, despite the extensive trial files in which he is mentioned several times. He could have been in the service of the city of Strasbourg as early as 1371. Johannes Blumstein is mentioned twice. First, the name occurs for a crew soldier on the festivals Windeck on the other it is a widower of Dina and son of the Strasbourg citizen and cloth Scherer Nicholas Hőwenschilt blessed called, called in a pension matter 1378th In both cases, however, it could have been a close relative, even his father.

Blumstein's role

In the last decade before the trial, Blumstein is considered a key figure in the Strasbourg Waldensian Circle, as he occupied a central position between the ecclesiastical and urban authorities on the one hand and the believers of the Waldensians on the other. In the process, he relativized his behavior by stating that he had renounced “false belief” as early as 1380. In addition to Johannes Blumstein, his mother was also interrogated. Around this time, however, he had dissuaded the Dominican Johannes Arnold, who had been appointed to the Inquisition, from his position with massive threats. His successor, Nikolaus Böckler, was able to reach an agreement with Blumstein in the first half of the 1390s that the heretics should renounce their faith in camera and made his house in Langen Strasse available for this purpose. Penitent heretics were even allowed to wear their heresy cross, intended as a sign of exclusion , under their coat.

These agreements only lasted until a Basel cursor and Dominican preacher came on a visit to Strasbourg, preached against the heretics in Advent 1399 and thus drew popular anger on them. Blumstein's attempts at appeasement were in vain.

Several testimonies during the trial confirm that Blumstein shielded the Strasbourg heretics. Interestingly, only the mother was summoned to testify in court and later banished. Even a direct statement by Blumstein did not find its way into the trial files, which raises the question of who and why could have held a protective hand over the Waldensian custodian, after all, some visits by Waldensian masters to his house are on record and Klaus von Brumath , a priest, is on record Alt-Sankt-Peter , stated that “Blumstein drove the matter of the matter of kint uff”. The statements about how long Blumstein stayed with "the matter" are contradictory. But it is declared in unison that Blumstein primarily protected repentant heretics from a possible inquisition.

With the trial and the subsequent banishment of 27 Strasbourg citizens, the "mischief" of the heretics has come to an end. Blumstein may have contributed to the fact that many members of the Waldensians were spared this exile.

It is interesting to find out why Johannes Blumstein escaped summons or even condemnation, since he came from this heretical environment and had long professed this belief. Obviously, a subpoena was planned at the beginning of the preliminary investigation, as can be seen from the trial files. It is possible that Blumstein favored the course with his negotiating skills.

The scandal at the turn of the century did not harm his career. A short time later he was back in the city's service and represented the city before the Pope.

Career after 1400

The Strasbourg city archivist Jakob Wencker (1668–1743) praised Blumstein as a “learned man, who was called a master’s degree in several places”, who “took the city into service”, especially in a dispute with Prince-Bishop Wilhelm II of Diest , who subsequently became Blumstein would have traveled to the Council of Constance . In 1393, Ammeister Konrad (Kunz) Müller , who was sentenced to life in prison, appointed Blumstein to be his guarantor . In fact, Müller died in the tower ten years later, after which half of his fortune fell to the city. Timotheus Wilhelm Röhrich's texts, who published the trial files in 1855, were based on Wencker's information, which was in part incorrect. Today Röhrich is therefore seen as a source as grossly flawed in places.

Another detail has been preserved for posterity thanks to the trial files: In the second half of 1392, Blumstein argued with Rulmann von Schalkendorf called Keller in several letters directed against one another about the possession of a horse. Blumstein illegally took this from him, said Keller; but only because of defamation, said Blumstein. Interestingly, both opponents referred to patrons who were inclined to them and had great influence in the city, Blumstein to Bishop Friedrich von Blankenheim and Count Heinrich zu Lichtenberg . A little later, these two patrons of Blumstein are themselves in a feud. With the date of June 11, 1392, the correspondence breaks off without a recognizable agreement, possibly the approaching war has changed the priorities. This petitesse makes it clear, however, in which influential network of relationships Blumstein was involved. Indirectly, this shows that he could not have been unable or uninfluential, which probably also influenced the course of his court. With the court ruling, Blumstein's mother was sent into exile, with absolutely no discernible impact on the son's future: on September 20, 1401, he was appointed Vogt of Strasbourg in the Lichtenau rule on the right bank of the Rhine .

It is doubtful whether Blumstein ever sat on the Strasbourg Council. Although a man of the same name for the so-called salt mothers is mentioned in the records of the council occupation for the years 1411 and 1424 , the guild of salt merchants, through which a council seat could also be climbed “to men with no other prospects”, was not Blumstein's profession. In the following years he is repeatedly mentioned as being in the city's service. His membership in various delegations was probably due to his diplomatic skills, which Strasbourg was happy to use. After all, Blumstein is the only member of parliament who did not necessarily have to have belonged to it because of previous offices.

From March 1416, at the Council of Constance, Blumstein negotiated the so-called Causa Argentinensis (also: Strasbourg dispute) between the cathedral chapter, which was allied with the city, and representatives of Bishop Wilhelm II of Diest, who on December 3, 1415 in a coup abducted, captured and deposed. There was an extensive exchange of letters between the city and the ambassadors about the negotiations. Apparently, Blumstein was professional enough to act as a regular messenger between the parties. His work is documented between July 1416 and October 1417. Just a year later, Blumstein continued his efforts in Mantua at the court of Martin V , but under different circumstances because the front had meanwhile shifted. The grueling negotiations have allowed the city to make concessions to Wilhelm II. However, this led to a dispute within the cathedral chapter, which insisted on the removal of Wilhelm II. Offenburg was the place where the agreement between the bishop and the city was sealed on a day of atonement - without the presence of the cathedral chapter. In order for the Pope to ratify this agreement, a delegation with Blumstein's participation was to travel to Mantua.

At the audience on December 13, 1418, the Pope was presented with two gold goblets for his courtesy, but the hoped-for ratification did not come about because the cathedral chapter had intrigued in the background and the Pope refused to sign. It was not until the following spring that the cathedral chapter and city reached an agreement. With a joint delegation they traveled again at the city's expense to the Pope, who was probably in Florence at the time . The Argentinensis case was now of minor importance. Much more important was the inclusion of 6000 Rhenish guilders, which were probably needed to accommodate Wilhelm II in Rome.

Later on, Blumstein is again on a city mission: During the Dachstein War he was a member of the three-man embassy to decide on the ransom with which Wilhelm II was to be released. On April 28, 1423 he was able to submit the statement. In 1424 he was part of a four-man delegation that settled disputes between the council of Kenzingen and the Herbolzheim community .

Blumstein's descendants and heirs

Johannes Blumstein was married at least once and had a son and a daughter. His first child, Konrad, went to the Carthusian monks as a monk , and his daughter Margarethe became a beguine . Thus, one generation later, no trace of "false belief" can be found in the family. The turn of both children to monastery life speaks against further descendants in the family. At the time of the Waldensian trial, Johannes Blumstein's mother was already a widow. Nothing is mentioned in the files about her husband.

In connection with Blumstein's legacy, his fortune is examined. Daughter Margarethe inherited half of the listed pensions and goods in Kilstett , Schwindratzheim and Mundolsheim . She bequeathed this inheritance to the Chartreuse Mt. Ste Marie Charterhouse in Koenigshoffen in Strasbourg . One and a half years later, on November 13, 1438, Margarethe donated “six quarters of rye and barley each under the spell of Hindisheim and Limersheim .” Brother Konrad's deed of gift to the Strasbourg Charterhouse of June 21, 1441 continues to list and show the assets that the children of Johannes Blumstein must have inherited: pensions and goods in Matzenheim , Sand bei Benfeld , Benfeld , Kertzfeld , Westhausen , Nothalten , Schäffersheim and Herbolzheim. The fields painstakingly listed in this document go into the dozen.

Remarks

1. ↑ In the trial files, Johannes and his mother are listed under the number K138 in the preliminary examination section . In the extensive text apparatus of the process files, K stands for concordance table .
2. ↑ K153
3. ↑ K160
4. ↑ K136
5. ↑ Wencker's texts are often questionable, in some cases even refuted, so that the information should be assessed with caution.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Carles Munier, René Pierre Levresse: Histoire de l'Église Catholique en Alsace des origine à nos jours . Epp, Strasbourg 2003, ISBN 978-27468-1118-8 , p. 131
2. ↑ Martin Alioth : Groups in Power. Guilds and patriciate in Strasbourg in the 14th and 15th centuries: Studies on the constitution, economic fabric and social structure. Basel Contributions to History 156–156a, Helbing & Lichtenhahn 1988, ISBN 978-3-7190-1027-0 , pp. 31–32
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Georg Modestin (ed.): Sources for history. Pp. 230-242
4. ↑ ^{a b} Georg Modestin (ed.): Heretic in the city.
5. ↑ compare: Jean / Johann Brucker: Inventaire sommaire des Archives communales de la ville de Strasbourg antérieures à 1790. Series AA. Actes constitutifs et politiques de la commune. 4 volumes, Strasbourg 1878–1886.

literature

• Georg Modestin (ed.): Heretic in the city. The trial against the Strasbourg Waldensians from 1400. Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 2007, ISBN 978-3-7752-5701-5 .
• Georg Modestin (ed.): Sources on the history of the Waldensians of Strasbourg (1400–1401). Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 2007, ISBN 978-3-7752-1022-5 .
• Timotheus Wilhelm Röhrich: The Winkeler in Strasbourg, together with their interrogations, around 1400, in: Mittheilungen from the history of the Evangelical Church of Alsace. First volume, containing communications from the prehistory of the Reformation, and Alsatian church ordinances, Paris, Strasbourg 1855, pp. 3-77
• Marie-Anne Vannier, Otto Wermelinger, Gregor Wurst: Anthropos Laïkos: mélanges Alexandre Faivre à l'occasion de ses 30 ans d'enseignement . Saint-Paul 2000, ISBN 2-8271-0882-8 , pp. 271-274.