Johann Geiler from Kaysersberg

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Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg, portrait by Hans Burgkmair the Elder , 1490
Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg: Sermon, woodcut from A healing and sumptuous preaching Doctor Iohans Geiler von Keisersperg
Johannes Geiler von Kaisersberg (lithograph by P. and F. Simon)
Milk witch, northern arch from the church of Our Lady in Eppingen

Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg (also Johannes or French Jean; * March 16, 1445 in Schaffhausen ; † March 10, 1510 in Strasbourg ) is considered the most important German preacher of the late Middle Ages.

Life

Johann Geiler was born in Schaffhausen as the son of the notarial assistant Hans Geiler, who from 1446 held the office of town clerk of Ammerschweier (Ammerschwihr). After his father's death in 1449, Geiler grew up with his grandfather in Kaysersberg in Alsace . He studied from June / August 1460 to 1471 at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau (among others with Konrad Stürtzel , 1462 Bachelor , 1463/64 Magister Artium ). On December 28, 1465 he was accepted into the council of the artist faculty. From 1469 to 1470 he headed the arts faculty in Freiburg as dean .

In 1470 he was ordained a priest. From 1471 to 1475 he studied theology at the University of Basel , which made him Dr. theol. PhD. In 1476 he became professor of theology at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau and in the same year rector of the university. In 1477 he gave up the university career. Several dioceses tried to win over the highly qualified preacher by means of an appropriate endowment. After a brief activity as cathedral preacher in Würzburg, he worked as a preacher in Strasbourg from 1478 until the end of his life in 1510 (from 1478 as a preacher at the Strasbourg St. Lorenz Church, from 1486 as a cathedral or minster preacher at the Strasbourg cathedral ). In 1488 he was a preacher in Augsburg for several months at the invitation of Bishop Friedrich II. Von Zollern , but then returned to Strasbourg.

effect

In his coarse and humorous sermons, Geiler sharply criticized the state of the church and the secularization of the clergy and called for reforms. His works are considered to be the most important testimonies of popular German edification literature before Martin Luther . His effect as a preacher was comparable to that of Berthold von Regensburg and Abraham a Sancta Clara .

Geiler drafted his sermons in Latin and then kept most of them free in German. Listeners wrote down the popular sermons from memory. For this reason, Geiler's authorship is often questioned. John Pauli in particular published several volumes of sermons that were produced in this way. 1498-1499 Geiler held a series of sermons on Sebastian Brant's ship of fools , which were edited and published in 1520 by Pauli. With the publication, Geiler is one of the most famous representatives of fool literature in the late Middle Ages. In addition to his work as a popular preacher, Geiler became known as co-editor and translator of the writings of Jean Gerson .

“His extensive work, which Pope Paul IV had placed on the index of forbidden books in 1559 , is largely based on transcripts from listeners, Latin records and post-processed materials. It is committed to late scholastic thinking, whereby influences of nominalism are recognizable, and deals with almost all areas of church teaching. In terms of church politics, Geiler should not be seen as a forerunner of the Reformation, but as a representative of the religious renewal movement of the 15th century. With the Reformation, the reception of Geiler's work came to an abrupt end. "

- Michael Bärmann : Biographical article on Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg in the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland.

Witch madness

Geiler gave pulpit speeches about superstition , magic and the fear of witches . He referred to the writings of Johannes Nider , the Formicarius , the Hexenhammer and the witch sermons of the Tübingen theologian and critic of the witch hunt Martin Plantsch (around 1460-1533). Geiler, like Johannes Weyer (1515 / 16–1588), considered the witches' confessions to be a disturbance of the imagination by the devil's dazzling work.

His statement “if you burn a man, you burn ten women,” characterizes the early phase of the witch trials .

Navicula sive Speculum fatuorum (1510)
The buoch Arbore humana (1521)

Geiler gave 26 fasting sermons filled with witchcraft in Strasbourg in 1508. The legend of the milk witch is said to go back to one of these sermons, in which he made witches responsible for the lack of milk in sick cows. The devil therefore carries the milk from the cow so that a witch can milk it from an object elsewhere. The picture shows, as described in Geiler's sermon printed in 1517, how a witch milks milk from an ax. The original lettering on the picture has only survived in fragments.

Works

  • Peregrinus / The bilger with his properties (The Pilgrim) , 1494
  • Tree of Salvation , 1502, Frankfurt (Oder)
  • German sermons , 1509
  • The Erroneous Sheep , 1510
  • The Book of Pomegranate , 1510
  • The Paradise of Souls , 1510
  • Navicula sive speculum fatuorum , 1510

At the latest from here posthumous publications (Geiler died March 10th, 1510):

  • Navicula poenitentiae , 1511
  • Christian pilgrimage , 1512
  • The Passion , 1514
  • Gospel book , 1515 (edited by J. Pauli)
  • Emeis. This is the book of Omeißen , 1517 (edited by J. Pauli)
  • The Brösamli Doct. Kaiserbergs , 1517 (edited by J. Pauli)
  • The Book of the Sins of the Mouth , 1518
  • Sermones & varij [varii] Tractat [us] Keiserspergii iam recens excusi ... , 1518 digitized
  • The buoch Arbore humana… From the human tree… , (edited by Hans Grüninger ), 1521
  • Postill , 1522

expenditure

swell

  • Otto Herding (Ed.): Jakob Wimpfeling , Beatus Rhenanus : The life of Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg . Fink, Munich 1970 (critical edition of the two Geiler vitae with an introduction)

Works

  • Gerhard Bauer (ed.): Complete works . De Gruyter, Berlin 1989–1995 (3 volumes of 11 planned)
  • Kristina Freienhagen-Baumgardt, Werner Williams-Krapp (eds.): Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg: The Augsburger Sermons (= German texts of the Middle Ages 92). Berlin / Boston 2015

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg  - Sources and full texts
Wikiquote: Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg  - Quotes

Remarks

  1. ↑ hence its name completion
  2. ^ Anton Schmid: The beginnings of the cathedral predicatures in the German-speaking dioceses. In: Roman quarterly for Christian antiquity and church history 89 (1994), issue 1–2, pp. 78–110, here p. 92 note 86.102.
  3. ↑ a b c Michael Bärmann: Geiler von Kaysersberg, Johannes. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  4. ↑ Cf. Carl Binz: Doctor Johann Weyer, a Rhenish doctor, the first fighter of the witch madness. A contribution to the German cultural history of the 16th century . In: Zeitschrift des Bergisches Geschichtsverein 21 (1885), pp. 1–171, esp. P. 49 note 1.
  5. ↑ Joseph Hansen, Johannes Franck: Sources and studies on the history of witch madness and the witch hunt in the Middle Ages , Hildesheim 1901, p. 284 ( online ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / books.google.ch
  6. ↑ Mainz City Library : Sign. XIV g: 2 ° / 2b
personal data
SURNAME Geiler from Kaysersberg, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Geiler von Kaysersberg, Johannes; Geiler von Kaysersberg, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German preacher and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1445
PLACE OF BIRTH Schaffhausen
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1510
Place of death Strasbourg