Thomas Gassner

Thomas Gassner (* approx. 1500 in Bludenz ; † February 13, 1548 in Lindau ) was a Reformed theologian and reformer.

Life

Nothing is known about its origin. He did not have an academic education. First he is mentioned as a chaplain at the Vogt von Bregenz in Hohenems . Because of his evangelical sentiments, he had to flee in 1524 and came to Lindau , where he was gladly accepted and soon became the leading preacher. In March 1525 he celebrated the first evangelical communion there . The peasant war had an inhibiting effect. Gassner was a "sighing spectator".

He advised the authorities to take mild measures. Moral reforms were soon being carried out in the city under his influence. If he was initially strongly impressed by Martin Luther's writings, he gradually came under Swiss influence. Encouraged by the Bern disputation , he had the mass abolished for good, and monasteries and monasteries closed. As early as 1528 some of the pictures were removed, and in 1530 general. This year marked a major turning point : Lindau signed the Confessio Tetrapolitana and approached the Strasbourgers.

Now Gassner's activity within the church began. From him, who married the planned abbess Katharina von Ramschwag in 1530 and was very much loved by the citizens, the Lindau breeding order of 1533 comes from (influence of the Zurich marriage court and the Constance breeding order). Gassner also stood up for the Wittenberg Agreement without having been there himself. Martin Bucer brought the relationship off. Although he led the entire Lindau church system, Gassner submitted to the council. In old age his tendency towards Lutheranism became more evident.

literature

• Karl Wolfart: History of the city of Lindau on Lake Constance . Volume 1. Department 1. Stettner, Lindau 1909, pp. 263–271.
• Walther Koehler: Zurich marriage court and Geneva consistory . Volume 2: The marriage and moral court in the southern German imperial cities, the Duchy of Württemberg and in Geneva . Heinsius, Leipzig 1942, ( Sources and Treatises on the Swiss Reformation History 10), ( Sources on the Swiss Reformation History 13), pp. 186–203.
• Werner Dobras: New Year's Sheet 26 of the Lindau Museum Association - Lindau Personalities , 1981