Pfaffenspiegel

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Pfaffenspiegel

" Der Pfaffenspiegel " was the title of the 1845 book, which was critical of the clergy, " Der Pfaffenspiegel " ( Historical Monuments of Christian Fanaticism) by the East Prussian author Otto von Corvin (1812–1886) from 1845. The "peppered polemical work" experienced new ones well into the 20th century Pads. He was accused of superficial misrepresentation of history which the National Socialists used to incite agitation against the Catholic Church .

Emergence

The author Otto von Corvin

Corvin worked as a writer and journalist after completing his military service. He was a free thinker and belonged to liberal democratic and anti-clerical circles. The debate about the Trier pilgrimage of 1844 and the “ Holy Rock ” shown there led him to write his work on the church. It is understood as a settlement with the Papal States or the spiritual authorities; According to the author's intention, it does not represent a “work of cultural history”, but rather a report on the conditions and historical development of “divine perversion”.

The book appeared in 1845 under the title Historical Monuments of Christian Fanaticism at the Gebauer'schen Buchhandlung in Leipzig . From the second edition in 1868 under the name Pfaffenspiegel .

  • Historical monuments of Christian fanaticism . Gebauer'sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1845
    • Historical monuments of Christian fanaticism . Volume 1 print from 1847 digitized
    • Historical monuments of Christian fanaticism. The flagellants . Volume 2
  • Pfaffenspiegel. Historical monuments of fanaticism in the Roman Catholic Church . 2nd edition 1868
  • Pfaffenspiegel. Historical monuments of fanaticism in the Roman Catholic Church . Third revised edition. Vogler and Beinhauer, Stuttgart 1870 digitized
  • Pfaffenspiegel. Historical monuments of fanaticism in the Roman Catholic Church . 4th edition. Expedition of the Pfaffenspiegel, Zurich 1870.
  • Pfaffenspiegel. Historical monuments of fanaticism in the Roman Catholic Church . 5th edition. A. Bock, Rudolstadt 1885

effect

The blunt polemics met with strong hostility from church circles, but also with significant interest. As early as 1860, a total print run of 1.6 million copies was recorded.

After a judgment of March 28, 1927, some text passages had to be  deleted due to a violation of §166 StGB - "Insulting creeds, religious societies and ideological associations".

During the time of National Socialism the book was used by the NSDAP for smear campaigns against the Catholic Church and its distribution was promoted. Church representatives resisted the spread of the Pfaffenspiegel by the National Socialists. Among other things, the bishops Michael Buchberger and Conrad Gröber tried with the assertion that Corvin was "particularly Un-Aryan" and half- Jewish, to discredit him with the National Socialists; they referred to publications by Theodor Fritsch . In 1937, Clemens Gahlen wrote a counter-writ under the title The Broken Pfaffenspiegel .

In a scientific and historical context, Corvin's collection of materials is considered worthless.

Structure and content

How the priests came into being

Historical outline of the alleged development of Christianity and its religious leaders from the times of persecution in the Roman Empire to the heyday of Christian power, with the context referring to the increasing decline in values ​​and a "curious" logic of the church representatives with regard to the legitimation of their power relations is placed. According to Corvin, the dignity of the superiors declines in the same proportion as the period of exercise of power. Corvin's polemic was condemned as extremely provocative and inappropriate by the church apparatus, namely that Jesus was "a revolutionary who, even in our time, if not crucified, would be shot or imprisoned in prison ".

The dear good saints

The theme of the previous chapter is taken up again here, but the focus is more on Christian fanaticism , which ranges from self-mortification to ethnic persecution and torture . Often (and not without irony ) the worst barbarians and the mentally ill were venerated as "saints" by the faithful . This chapter is supported by the description of Christian fanaticism in the Near East, which is largely directed against one's own body and is driven to the point of complete decomposition. The statements of this " schizophrenia " drag on for several centuries and find practice in all social classes. As he explained, the dear, good saints could only suppress the sex drive through self-mutilation, since the two-legged explosive (sic!) Always lured them to "sin".

The holy junk shop

This chapter is a critical consideration of the church representatives and their methods. It is intended to show that above all the gullibility of churchgoers is being exploited, "because nobody is poor enough not to give the church their tears". Corvin represents an increasingly tighter organization of control mechanisms and intrigue apparatus, which, according to his analysis, served financial purposes rather than humanitarian and religious purposes. The focus of the explanation is above all the trade in indulgences , through which believers can free themselves from all sins , including those that have yet to be committed, through payments of money , which does not correspond to historical facts.

The Lieutenancy of God in Rome

The crimes committed by church leaders listed here range from murder, pimping, pedophilia to sodomy. Corvin describes in detail how the papacy grew historically and reached a higher level than the secular rulers. B. " Henry IV. Had to crawl to the cross in the freezing cold in front of his Pope in the courtyard of Canossa " ( walk to Canossa ).

Sodom and Gomorrah

On the basis of the specifically propagated and implemented ostracism of all perversions on the part of the Christian church, the author clarifies the actual moral conditions and events within the dioceses and makes several references to the capitalist creativity of the worshipers.

Monasticism

This part deals in detail with the conditions in monasteries and abbeys . Interpersonal relationships and teaching methods towards protected children who attended the monasteries as an educational institution are also examined, as is the actual compliance with the prescribed order. In many anecdotes, the moral and sexual depravity of the monks and nuns is presented and here, too, related to celibacy .

The confessional

(missing e.g. in Stephenson edition from 1979)

As a conclusion, Corvin chose an explanation of the ear confession and its interpretative scope as well as explanations about self-flagellation as a punishment. At the end there are stories about sexual abuse by the confessor, such as the affair about the Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Girard .

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Digital copies of the Pfaffenspiegel  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fränkel, Ludwig:  Corvin, Otto . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 47, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1903, pp. 531-538.
  2. ^ Hans Schleier: History of German cultural historiography . Volume 1: From the end of the 18th to the end of the 19th century . Reprint, Spenner, Kamen 2002, pp. 875-879.
  3. ^ Wilmont Haacke:  Corvin-Wiersbitzki, Otto Julius Bernhard von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 370 ( digitized version ).
  4. ^ Till Kössler: Between Milieu and Market. The popular historiography of the labor movement 1890–1933 ; in: Wolfgang Hardtwig, Erhard Schütz (Hrsg.): History for readers. Popular historiography in Germany in the 20th century ; Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2005; P. 277
  5. ^ Guenter Lewy: With a firm step into the New Kingdom. The Catholic Church between the Cross and the Swastika, Part 5 . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 1965 ( online ).
  6. ↑ Clemens Gahlen: The Broken Pfaffenspiegel . Bocholt 1938, DNB  573201633 .
  7. ↑ See for example Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz:  Corvin-Wiersbitzki, Otto von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 1137-1138.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )