Peter Kunz (theologian)

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Peter Kunz , latinized Petrus Conzenius (* around 1480 in Eschlen , municipality of Erlenbach in the Simmental ; † February 11, 1544 in Bern ), is considered the reformer of the Lower Simmental .

Life

Peter Kunz comes from a wealthy mining family of Bäuerten Eschlen in the town of Erlenbach at the foot of the Stockhorn . He probably received his first training from Pastor Niklaus von Hürenberg, who enabled him to get a training position at the Augustinian monastery in Interlaken . It is not known where he continued his studies. He later named Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon as his praeceptores (teachers), but this does not mean that he was studying in Wittenberg .

As an Augustinian canon , he took over the position of Kilchherrn in his home town of Erlenbach in 1517 . It is not known when he came into contact with the Reformation ideas and publicly represented the new teaching. The city reformer Berchtold Haller describes him as one of the first who was evangelical by us . In several offices surveys the Niedersimmental presented, in contrast to the Obersimmental early on the side of the new faith. Probably around 1524 he resisted celibacy and entered into a concubination with a woman whose name was unknown . The two daughters Sara and Affra emerged from this relationship.

In 1526 he took part in the Baden disputation with Berchtold Haller . A request to speak has not been passed down, but he seemed to have made contact with the Reformation side in Baden . Kunz had been in correspondence with Ulrich Zwingli since the summer of 1526 . On May 13, 1527, the Reformation of the Lower Simmental was confirmed under his leadership in the church of Erlenbach. A year later, Kunz took part in the Bern disputation and was one of the signatories. After the formal introduction of the Reformation , Kunz was commissioned by the council to help the Reformation to break through in the Upper Simmental (1528–1529).

After the death of Berchtold Haller in 1536, Kunz was appointed as a preacher at the Bern Minster and until his death in 1544 had a major impact on the history of the church in Bern. Together with Sebastian Meyer , he represented the Lutheran position in the dispute over an agreement in the Last Supper dispute within the meaning of the Wittenberg Agreement . After the conquest of Vaud by Bern in 1536, Kunz played a leading role in building the Reformed Church in Vaud. Because of his impulsive appearance in the conversations, he was referred to by John Calvin as an "angry beast". Other reformers, such as Martin Bucer from Strasbourg or Simon Grynaeus from Basel, defended him despite his coarseness.

Kunz was in correspondence with many of his Reformation contemporaries. He corresponded with Heinrich Bullinger , Joachim von Watt (Vadian), Oswald Myconius , Theodor Bibliander , Wolfgang Capito and Calvin, among others . The Bernese professor Rhellikanus (Johannes Müller), whom he accompanied on his ascent of the Stockhorn in 1536 , dedicated the resulting poem Stockhornias (1537) to him.

literature

  • Ernst von Känel: Peter Kunz . In: 450 Years of the Bern Reformation . Bern 1980, pp. 156-193.
  • Kurt Guggisberg : Bernese church history . Bern 1958.
  • Henri Vuilleumier: Histoire de l'Eglise réformée du Pays de Vaud sous le régime bernois . Volume 1. Lausanne 1927.
  • Eduard Bähler : A Stockhorn ascent in 1536 . In: Blätter für Bernische Geschichte, Kunst und Altertum , 2, 1906, p. 97 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Haller's letter to Bullinger, July 24, 1535.
  2. ↑ On August 24, 1526, Kunz thanked Zwingli for a script he had received. Huldreich Zwingli's complete works VIII, No. 521.
  3. ↑ von Känel: Peter Kunz , p. 159f.
personal data
SURNAME Kunz, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Conzenius, Petrus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Reformer of the Lower Simmental
DATE OF BIRTH around 1480
PLACE OF BIRTH Erlenbach in the Simmental
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1544
Place of death Bern