Johannes Brötli

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Johannes Brötli (* around 1494 in Sevelen ; † 1528 , also called Panicellus ( from Latin small bread )) was a leading figure in the Swiss Anabaptist movement in the 16th century.

Life

After studying in Basel, Johannes Brötli was initially parish priest in Vilters and from 1521 in Quarten am Walensee . From 1523 he lived with his family in Zollikon in the canton of Zurich . Here he joined the Reformation movement around Zwingli and later the circle around Felix Manz and Konrad Grebel , from which the first Anabaptist congregation emerged in January 1525. Brötli was one of the co-signers (as Johannes Panicellus ) of the letter that was written to Thomas Münzer in September 1524 from the Zurich Anabaptist circle .

After the Zurich Anabaptist disputation on January 17, 1525, Brötli had to leave the city of Zurich within eight days, together with Wilhelm Reublin and all other Anabaptists. He used these eight days to set up an Anabaptist parish together with Georg Blaurock and Felix Manz in his parish. There, on January 22, 1525, Brötli performed the first documented baptism of believers in Fridli Schumacher.

Hallau: St. Moritz Church (built 1491)

Before the expulsion period expired, he and Reublin went to Hallau and then to Schaffhausen , where he met Konrad Grebel and Sebastian Hofmeister . In Hallau there was a strong anti-clerical atmosphere in connection with the peasant uprisings in the nearby Black Forest . After several bad harvests , the farmers demanded, among other things, an end to the tithing . This resulted in a link between the economic interests of the peasants and the program of the Reformation Anabaptists around Johannes Brötli, because both the peasants and the Anabaptists demanded the choice of local pastors and the associated abolition of taxes. After Brötli had expelled the local Catholic priest and took over the church building, a mass movement broke out in Hallau that led to the first Anabaptist national church . Starting from Hallau, new Anabaptist congregations were soon founded. The events in Hallau were also closely linked to the uprising of the winemakers in Schaffhausen, who demanded the overthrow of the city council.

When the city of Hallau was later handed over to the Austrians, many residents fled. According to the Mennonite Martyrs' Mirror (as Hans Pretle ), Johannes Brötli himself was burned at the stake in 1528 . However, details of his death are not known.

After the events in Hallau and other places where the attempt to establish an Anabaptist national church had failed, the Anabaptist movement developed consciously as a free church outside of state structures, as became particularly clear in the Schleitheim articles of 1527.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Blanke: Brothers in Christ. The history of the oldest Anabaptist community . Zurich 1955
personal data
SURNAME Brötli, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Panicellus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Figure of the Swiss Anabaptist movement
DATE OF BIRTH around 1494
PLACE OF BIRTH Sevelen
DATE OF DEATH 1528