Michael Sattler

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Michael Sattler preaches in the forest - oil painting by Mike Atnip

Michael Sattler (* around 1490 in Staufen im Breisgau ; † May 21, 1527 in Rottenburg am Neckar ) was one of the leading personalities of the first generation of Anabaptists . The preoccupation with the exegetical writings of Luther and Zwingli led to his resigning from his position as Benedictine prior and turning to the Zurich Anabaptist movement. The drafting of the so-called Schleitheim article , an important Anabaptist confession, goes back to his initiative. Sattler and his wife died as martyrs of the Anabaptist movement .

Beginnings

St. Peter's Monastery around 1624

Almost nothing is known about the exact date of birth, origin and youth of Michael Sattler. In the biographical sketches it is only mentioned and documented that Sattler was matriculated at the Freiburg University and devoted himself to studying theology and philosophy .

After his exams, Sattler decided to adopt the monastic way of life and entered the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter near Freiburg in 1510 . There he gained the trust of the order's leadership and was soon appointed prior of the abbey under Abbot Peter Gremmelsbach .

Sattler was particularly interested in the Pauline literature in the New Testament of the Bible . He was particularly fascinated by the interpretation of these writings by the reformers Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli . He gained the insight that "the monastic estate is an unchristian, deceitful and dangerous one". In 1523 Sattler left the monastic community and thus gave up his status as a monk and prior. He married (probably 1524) the beguin Margaretha. The Sattler couple moved to Zurich , where they arrived in the spring of 1525.

Saddler among the Zurich Anabaptists

The foundation of the Zurich Anabaptist congregation had only been completed a few weeks earlier, when Sattler and his wife took up residence in Zurich. It is uncertain about which people and how the Sattler couple made contact with the young free church. In connection with this question, one trace leads to Wilhelm Reublin , who already belonged to the Anabaptist congregation. What is historically certain is that on November 18, 1525 - we learn from the Anabaptist files - they were expelled from Zurich by the Zurich Council because of their Anabaptist engagement. This expulsion was preceded by a disputation that took place from November 6th to 8th, 1525 between Huldrych Zwingli and the leading Anabaptist personalities. Following this, the Anabaptist disputation participants, including Michael Sattler, were arrested and then released against the oath of the original feud . Meetings of the Anabaptist congregation were banned. Michael and Margarethe Sattler as well as Wilhelm Reublin were expelled from the city.

Saddler in Strasbourg

In December 1526 the Sattler couple arrived in Strasbourg via Horb and Rottenburg , where they initially found refuge and asylum , like many other religious refugees . With Reublin, who had recently arrived in Strasbourg, Sattler quickly organized a baptismal congregation and thus unintentionally provoked the intervention of the Strasbourg magistrate. Michael Sattler and other Anabaptists were subjected to extensive interrogation by the Strasbourg reformer Martin Bucer at the instigation of the magistrate . The main issue was the relationship between the Anabaptist community and the authorities. In this investigation, Sattler and the other interrogated persons denied the Christian character of the secular authorities. As a Christian community, in the event of a conflict, one has to obey God more than the earthly rulers. This is particularly evident in military service, to which a true disciple of Jesus can never be committed. The Baptist Jakob Gross , who came from Waldshut , stated in this connection that he was ready to take over the guard duty on the city ​​wall and to carry a spear, but under no circumstances did he want to kill.

Due to the interrogation in January 1527, Bucer had all members of the Anabaptist community expelled from the city. Another conversation that Sattler had with Bucer and Wolfgang Capito , in which he tried to justify the Anabaptist's point of view with biblical arguments, did not change the mandate issued by the magistrate.

In a farewell letter addressed to the Strasbourg reformers Bucer and Capito, Michael Sattler named his basic theological positions, which can be found in the later Schleitheim articles as well as in many of the Anabaptist's doctrines and confessions. Sattler's “Twenty Theses” on a “pure, godly, sincere congregation” probably originate from Sattler's short but eventful time in Strasbourg. With reference to various passages in the New Testament , it says, among other things, that Christ came to save all who believe in him alone. Only those who believe in Jesus Christ and are baptized for it will be saved. A church can only consist of believers who have been incorporated into the body of Christ through baptism . There is a deep rift between the church and the world, since Christians are God's housemates and fellow citizens of the saints. In doing so they would have given up their secular citizenship and therefore they would also be hated by the world. Incidentally, true Christians - according to Sattler - are only those who “do the teaching of Christ with works”.

The couple Sattler left the city to participate in the Austrian county Hohenberg as Anabaptist emissaries to proselytize .

Schleitheim article

Front page of the Schleitheim article

In 1527 Sattler returned to the area around Horb and Rottenburg. On February 24 of the same year he chaired a meeting of the Swiss brothers in Schleitheim . The aim of this conference was to write a common commitment of the Anabaptist movement, which has since grown considerably. Under the leadership of Michael Sattler, the so-called Schleitheim Articles were created under the title Brotherly Association of Several Children of God . This creed was the confessional basis of the following generations of Anabaptists and at the same time the subject of a number of theological replies and pamphlets by Zwingli and Calvin . While the Zurich reformer in 1527 dealt with Sattler's article in the second part of his Elenchus , Calvin took a stand against Michael Sattler in his polemical work A Brief Instruction to Arm all good believers against the communist sect of the Anabaptists in 1544 .

Capture and Martyrdom

Memorial stone for the Sattler couple in Rottenburg am Neckar

Michael Sattler returned to Horb in 1527 and was captured by the authorities on May 17 of the same year, first to Binsdorf and finally to the city of Rottenburg. There the court hearings took place in the city administration on May 17th and 18th. Nine charges, which provide significant insight into Sattler's teaching, were brought against him by the court:

In his reply, Michel Sattler denied point 1 of the indictment. In points 4 and 5 he stated that although he respected Mary as a model of faith, he did not believe in her mediator function between man and God. He considers the anointing of the sick to be biblical, but a specially consecrated papal oil is not necessary for its effectiveness.

Sattler did not contradict Counts 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8, but instead confirmed that his convictions were correctly reproduced here.

On the last charge he added: "Christians are not allowed to kill anyone, they can only call on God for their protection. When the Turks go to war against Christians, it is because they don't know any better as Muslims. People who Calling themselves Christians and killing Turks are Turks by spirit . "

After Sattler's defense speech, the court secretary stated that he would like to take over the executioner's service if there was no executioner for the Baptist. He firmly believed that by doing this he could be of service to God. In the final verdict of the judges it says: Between the lawyer of the imperial majesty and Michael Sattler it has been recognized as a right ... that Michel Sattlern should be handed over to the hencker, who should cut off the place and jm the tongue, then open Schmiden dare and Alda twice with glowing pliers tear his leip, again, if you bring him for dz thor, give the masses five handles. Wilhelm Reublin writes in his report to the Zurich Anabaptists : So it is decreed that afterwards, like eyn heretic, to puluer (= powder) panned.

This execution took place on the morning of May 21, 1527 on the Galgenbuckel in Rottenburg. Sattler's wife Margaretha was drowned a few days later in the Neckar near Rottenburg.

Works (selection)

Michael Sattler is the author of a number of writings, the originals or early printed editions of which are in various European libraries and collections. The Anabaptist hymnbook Ausbund and the Mennonite hymnbook also contain songs that go back to Sattler. This includes must it now go to the parting and As Christ with his true teaching - can be found in the formation and in the Mennonite hymn book .

Appreciations

Memorial stone back

Today, a memorial plaque installed by the Mennonite World Conference in 1957 in the local Protestant church commemorates Margarethe and Michael Sattler's martyrdom.

On the 470th anniversary of her martyrdom, a memorial stone was unveiled at the execution site in 1997 . It bears the inscription: The Baptist Michael Sattler was executed by burning on May 20, 1527 after severe torture here on the "Galgenbuckel". He died an upright witness to Jesus Christ. His wife Margaretha and other parishioners were drowned and burned. They entered

for the baptism of those who want to follow Christ
for an independent community of believers
for the message of peace in the Sermon on the Mount

Michael Sattler's last words at the proclamation of the judgment: “... I am not sent to judge the word of God. We are sent to testify of it. That is why we will not submit to any other right ... If we cannot escape judgment, we are ready to suffer for the sake of the word of God, what is imposed on us to suffer. "

The Michael Sattler Peace Prize is named after Michael Sattler , with which the German Mennonite Peace Committee has been honoring projects or people who have practically, theoretically or theologically committed themselves to peace and reconciliation. The winners:

Literature (selection)

Studies
  • Gustav Bossert: Michael Sattler ; in: Mennonite history sheets 9/1957
  • John Howard Yoder: The Legacy of Michael Sattler , Scottdale / Pennsylvania 1973
  • Martin Haas: Michael Sattler. On the way to the Anabaptist segregation . In: Hans-Jürgen Goertz (Ed.): Radical Reformatoren , Munich 1978, ISBN 3-406-06783-2 , pp. 115-124.
  • Peter Hoover: Baptism by Fire. The radical life of the Anabaptists - a provocation. Down to Earth, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-935992-23-8 , in particular pp. 36-51.
  • G. Arnold Snyder: The Life and Thought of Michael Sattler , Scottdale / Pennsylvania 1984
  • JC Wenger: The Anabaptist Movement - a brief introduction to their history and teaching , Wuppertal and Kassel 1984, ISBN 3-7893-7170-X .
  • Wolfgang Krauss: Michael Sattler - Benedictine monk, radical reformer, public enemy and arch heretic ; in: Young Church. Journal for European Christians , 4/1990
  • Klaus Deppermann: Michael Sattler - radical reformer, pacifist, martyr (lecture in Rottenburg on the 500th birthday of Michael Sattler, held on May 20th in Rottenburg); in: Protestant profiles from Luther to Francke. Socio-historical aspects , Göttingen 1992
  • Hans-Otto Mühleisen: Michael Sattler - Benedictine, humanist, Baptist ; in: Edith-Stein-Jahrbuch 1998 ( Das Christianentum , vol. 1, pp. 225–242)
  • Elisabeth Schröder-Kappus, Wolfgang Wagner: Michael Sattler. A martyr in Rottenburg (1490–1527) , Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-929128-18-7 .
  • Karl-Hermann Kauffmann: Michael Sattler. A Martyr of the Anabaptist Movement Brosamen-Verlag, Albstadt, 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-032755-1 .
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  • Huldreich Zwingli: In Catabaptistarum strophas elenchus , in: Complete Works, Vol. 6/1
  • Heinrich Böhmer (Ed.): Documents on the history of the peasant war and the Anabaptists , Berlin 1933, pp. 28–33
  • Urs B. Leu, Christian Scheidegger (eds.): The Schleitheim Confession 1527 . Introduction, facsimile, translation and commentary. Zug 2004, ISBN 3-905351-10-2 .
Lexicon entries

Web links

Wikisource: Michael Sattler  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  • Elisabeth Schröder-Kappus, Wolfgang Wagener: Michael Sattler. A martyr in Rottenburg (1490-1527) . Tubingen 1998.
  1. ↑ p. 12f
  2. ↑ a b p. 14
  3. ↑ p. 15
  4. ↑ p. 16
  5. ↑ The full text of this 13-stanza song can be found printed from p. 55, among others
  6. ↑ p. 51
  • other sources
  1. ^ C. Arnold Snyder: Sattler, Michael . In: TRE , Volume 30, pp. 54–57, here p. 54.
  2. ↑ The name of his wife can be found in G. Arnold Snyder: The Life and Thought of Michael Sattler , 1984, p. 29ff (chapter Margaretha Sattler )
  3. ↑ See also Klaus Deppermann: Michael Sattler. Radikaler Reformer, Pazifist, Märtyrer , Göttingen 1992, pp. 48-64
  4. ↑ See Gustav Bossert: Michael Sattler , 1957, p. 10
  5. ↑ Peter Hoover: Baptism of Fire. The radical life of the Anabaptists - a provocation , Down to Earth, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-935992-23-7 , pp. 36–51
  6. ↑ Dieter Götz Lichdi: The Mennonites in the past and present , page 46.
  7. ^ Michael Sattler Peace Prize 2010. (No longer available online.) German Mennonite Peace Committee, archived from the original on April 15, 2011 ; Retrieved October 22, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dmfk.de
  8. ^ Michael Sattler Peace Prize for Judy da Silva. Mennonews.de, accessed on May 10, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Mennonews.de: Michael Sattler Peace Prize 2016 for Christian-Muslim Peace Initiative in Nigeria ; accessed on May 12, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Sattler, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Personality of the first generation of Anabaptists
DATE OF BIRTH around 1490
PLACE OF BIRTH Staufen im Breisgau
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 1527
Place of death Rottenburg am Neckar