Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval European Literature

by Albrecht Classen

Notes

  1 Hans Rudolf Guggisberg, “Toleration” (1996), 160–63.

  2 Mediating Religious Cultures in Early Modern Europe, ed. Torrance Kirby and Matthew Milner (2013); Perez Zagorin, How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West (2003); Religious Differences in France: Past and Present, ed. Kathleen Perry Long (2006); Contexts of Conscience in Early Modern Europe, 1500–1700, ed. Harald E. Braun and Edward Vallance (2004).

  3 Henry Kamen, Intoleranz und Toleranz (1967); Rainer Forst, Toleranz im Konflikt (2003); Tolerance and Intolerance in the European Reformation, ed. Ole Peter Grell and Bob Scribner (1996).

  4 This is now well documented in the catalog accompanying an exhibition at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, July 13 to November 12, 2017, Luther, Kolumbus und die Folgen: Welt im Wandel 1500–1600, ed. Thomas Eser and Stephanie Armer (2017). The emphasis here rests on the symbiosis of a number of major transformations in the early sixteenth century, concerning the Protestant Reformation, the discovery of the New World and other parts of the world, new approaches to natural sciences and medicine, and astronomy.

  5 www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Religion/Martin%20Luther.htm (last accessed on December 29, 2017. As to the Franciscans, for instance, he commented in 1540 in his Table Talks: “If I had all the Franciscan friars in one house, I would set fire to it. … To the fire with them!” (180; 1540). The situation in early modern England seems to have been quite different, with numerous leading intellectuals arguing quite surprisingly in favor of early modern forms of tolerance; for convenience sake, and actually for a quite reliable study, along with a useful bibliography, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Christian_thought_on_persecution_and_tolerance#Protestant_advocacy_for_toleration (last accessed on December 29, 2017).

  6 See the contributions to Reformation, ed. Matthias Pohlig (2015); and to Säkularisierungen in der Frühen Neuzeit: Methodische Probleme und empirische Fallstudien (2017), especially the contribution by Pohlig.

  7 See, for instance, Heiko Augustinus Oberman, The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation (1981; 1984); Andrew Colin Gow, The Red Jews (1995); Jews, Judaism, and the Reformation in Sixteenth-Century Germany, ed. Dean Phillip Bell and Stephen G. Burnett (2016); Achim Detmers, Reformation und Judentum (2007). The literature on this topic is simply legion.

  8 Andreas Späth, Luther und die Juden (2001); Francesca Mancini, L’ebreo nella teologia luterana della prima età moderna (2012); Eric W. Gritsch, Martin Luther’s Anti-Semitism: Against His Better Judgment (2012); Dietz Bering, War Luther Antisemit? (2014); Thomas Kaufmann, Luther’s Jews (2014; 2017). As to Luther’s relationship with women, see Albrecht Classen, together with Amber Settle, “Martin Luther and his Relationship to Women” (1991): 231–60; cf. now the contributions to “Wir sind frei in allen Dingen …”: Frauen am Lutherweg, ed. Kerstin Schimmel, Kathrin Wallrabe, et al. (2016).

  9 See the contributions to Reformation und Toleranz - Brücken über Jahrhunderte, ed. Dietrich Galter, Roger Pârvu, and Udo Puschnig (2016). For a convenient list of relevant statements by Luther, all confirming his rather rigid, almost absolutist type of thinking concerning his theological and other opponents, see online at: www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Religion/Martin%20Luther.htm (last accessed on December 29, 2017).

  10 Paul Warmbrunn, Zwei Konfessionen in einer Stadt (1983).

  11 Markus Wriedt, “‘Die Sicht des Anderen’: Luthers Verständnis des ‘Türken’ als ‘Zuchtrute Gottes’ und ‘Geißel der Endzeit’” (2010), 107–27.

  12 Martin Luther, Wider die rewbischen unnd mördischen rotten der anderen bawren (1525).

  13 Martin Luther, Eyn brieff an die Christen zuo Straßburg wider den schwermer geyst (Wittenberg: Höltzel, 1525).

  14 Nikolaus Paulus, Protestantismus und Toleranz im 16. Jahrhundert (1911); Karl Völker, Toleranz und Intoleranz im Zeitalter der Reformation (1912); Henry Kamen, Intoleranz und Toleranz zwischen Reformation und Aufklärung (1967); Toleranz und Reformation, ed. Manfred Hoffmann (1979); Schatten der Reformation: der lange Weg zur Toleranz, ed. Thies Gundlach (2012).

  15 Michael Freund, Die Idee der Toleranz im England der großen Revolution (1927); Roland H. Bainton, David Joris: Wiedertäufer und Kämpfer für Toleranz im 16. Jahrhundert (1937); Uwe Plath, Calvin und Basel in den Jahren (1974).

  16 Schwierige Toleranz: der Umgang mit Andersdenkenden und Andersgläubigen in der Christentumsgeschichte, ed. Mariano Delgada, Volker Lepin, and David Neuhold (2012).

  17 Christiane Tietz, Martin Luther im interkulturellen Kontext (2008); Ablehnung, Duldung, Anerkennung: Toleranz in den Niederlanden und in Deutschland, ein historischer und aktueller Vergleich, ed. Horst Lademacher (2004). For a text anthology, see Toleranz und Intoleranz in der Geschichte des Christentums: ausgewählte Quellentexte, ed. Bruno Kammann and Maria-Regina Simmon-Kammann (2014).

  18 See, for instance, Christof Windhorst, Täuferisches Taufverständnis: Balthasar Hubmaiers Lehre zwischen Traditioneller und Reformatorischer Theologie (1976); Rudolph Wiens, Balthasar Hubmaier and the Sword (2011).

  19 Volker Lepin, “Toleranz im Horizont protestantischer Selbstverständigung in der Frühen Neuzeit” (2012), 81–90.

  20 Lepin, “Toleranz im Horizont” (2012), 88. See also Hans R. Guggisberg, Sebastian Castellio: 1515–1563. (1997); Mirjam van Veen, Die Freiheit des Denkens: Sebastian Castellio – Wegbereiter der Toleranz 1515–1563 (2012; 2015).

  21 Franck is mentioned only once in the entry on Paracelsus, in The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade, Vol. 11 (1987), 183. Valentin Weigel is mentioned a number of times (2:275; 5:161; 6:297; 14:465), but always only in passing. In the context of hermetism, for instance, we are informed: “Valentine [sic] Weigel, the father of Germanic theosophy, of which Jakob Boehme is the greatest exponent, cites the name of Hermes Trismegistos more than that of any other author before the sixteenth century … Like Agrippa, however, Weigel invoked this prestigious name more often than he utilized the Hermetic texts themselves” (6:297). Frankly, this means virtually nothing and is an utter disservice to Franck and Weigel. See, however, Alexandre Koyré, Mystiques, spirituels de XVIe siècle allemand, alchimistes (1955).

  22 See the excellent introduction in Sebastian Franck, Paradoxa, ed. and introduced by Siegfried Wollgast. 2., rev. ed. (1995), VII–LXI. Cf. also Christoph Dejung, “Franck, Sebastian” (2008), 524–27.

  23 Sebastian Franck, Sämtliche Werke, vol. 1 (1993), 356–408; for the editorial report, see 503–36. The earlier dating of this text of 1528 is erroneous. The correct date is 1531.

  24 Sebastian Franck, Sämtliche Werke, vol. 1 (1993), 219–35. The original text was composed by Simon Fish as A Supplicyon for the Beggers from 1529. See https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Supplication_for_the_Beggars/Text (last accessed on July 8, 2017). It is unclear how Franck might have learned enough English to carry out his translation. Possibly, he might have had access to a Latin translation, which allowed him to render the text into German. See also Christoph Dejung, Frühe Schriften: Kommentar (2005), 313.

  25 Albrecht Classen, “The World of the Turks Described by an Eye-Witness” (2003), 257–79; id., “Life Writing as a Slave in Turkish Hands” (2012), 55–72.

  26 Sebastian Franck, “Von vier zwieträchtigen Kirchen, deren jede die andre hasset und verdammet” (1962), 246–48; the last stanza is available also online at: https://books.google.de/books?id=aQs7N9YmvxAC&pg=PT22&lpg=PT22& dq=Ein+k%C3%BCnstlich+h%C3%B6flich+Declamation&source= bl&ots=9EeacrlS8s&sig=qkrNeWHjTDHco4KABpnQxxjK4hs&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjCnsjFz_LUAhULthQKHd8XChcQ6 AEINTAA#v=onepage&q=Ein%20k%C3%BCnstlich%20h%C3%B6flich% 20Declamation&f=false (last accessed on July 5, 2017).

  27 Jerome Friedmann, “Michael Servet: Anwalt totaler Häresie” (1978), S. 223–30.

  28 Erasmus is not even listed among the heretics in the 1531 edition. Still, he must have felt personally insulted and criticized and immediately made all possible efforts to defend his good name.

  29 Chronica: Zeytbuch v
nd Geschichtbibel von anbegin biß in diß gegenwertig tausent fuenff hundert vnd fuenff vnd sechtzigste ja verlengt (1565). Here I have consulted the copy in the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, T 375.2° Helmst. The author offers detailed comments about Martin Luther and gives him full credit for his courageous and highly learned strategy to challenge the Catholic Church (CXLIIv–CLr). The 1531 edition has, of course, the slightly different title: Chronica, Zeytbuoch vnd geschycht bibel von anbegyn biß inn diß gegegnewertig M. D. xxxi.jar. The Herzog August Bibliothek also holds a copy of that edition, Dep. 8: 12°. Neither place nor publisher are listed. There is no colophone, but we can assume that it appeared in Strasbourg with Balthasar Beck.

  30 Yvonne Dellsperger, Lebendige Historien und Erfahrungen (2008).

  31 The title page includes the reference to a later editor: “Jetzunndt mit sondern fleiß vbersehen vnd an tag geben” (Now thoroughly revised and published). The editions from 1558 and 1563 were translated into Dutch and printed in Emden, Delft, Leiden, The Hague, and Amsterdam. See Hermann Oncken, “Sebastian Franck als Historiker” (1899): 385–435; esp. 429.

  32 Patrick Hayden-Roy, “Sebastian Franck and the Reformation in Ulm” (1999), 127–58.

  33 Arnold Reimann, Sebastian Franck als Geschichtsphilosoph (1921); Dorothea Wendebourg, “Die Einheit der Reformation als historisches Problem” (1995), S. 30–51.

  34 anonymous, “Franck, Sebastian” (1990), 82–85.

  35 Der linke Flügel der Reformation, ed. Heinold Fast (1962). He copied the text from Philipp. Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kirchenlied von der ältesten Zeit bis zu Anfang des XVII. Jahrhunderts, vol. III (1870), 817, who in turn based it on a song manuscript from Daniel Sudermann from 1596, fol. 256. I will quote from Wackernagel’s edition.

  36 Here quoted from the online article on Sebastian Franck, Christian Pietscher, “Das Christentum des Herzens” (2016); www.deutschlandfunk.de/das-christentum-des-herzens-der-mystiker-sebastian-franck.2540.de.html?dram:article_id=350468 (last accessed on December 29, 2017).

  37 Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer, vol. 7: Elsaß, Part I, ed. Manfred Krebs and Hans Georg Rott (1959), 301–25.

  38 Peter K. Knauer, “Franck, Sebastian” (2000), 208–209; Robert von Friedeburg, “Cuius regio, eius religio: The Ambivalent Meanings of State Building in Protestant Germany, 1555–1655” (2011), 73–91; cf. also Rainer Forst, Toleration in Conflict: Past and Present (2012).

  39 Sebastian Franck, Paradoxa, ed. Siegfried Wollgast (1995), 28–29.

  40 Alfred Hegler, Geist und Schrift bei Sebastian Franck (1892), 127.

  41 See also Sebastian Franck, 280 Paradoxes or Wondrous Sayings, trans. E(dward) J. Furcha 1977). The text was reprinted at least ten times until 1690 (according to the VD16 and VD17).

  42 Alexandre Koyré, Mystiques, spirituels, alchimistes (1955); Protestantische Mystik von Martin Luther bis Friedrich D. Schleiermacher: eine Textsammlung, ed. Klaus Ebert (1996); Kristine Hannak, Geist=reiche Critik: Hermetik, Mystik und das Werden der Aufklärung in spiritualistischer Literatur der Frühen Neuzeit (2013).

  43 He explicitly refers to Tauler’s sermon de Trinitate, 20.

  44 Lotte Blaschke, “Der Toleranzgedanke bei Sebastian Franck” (1928/29; 1977), 42–63; Stephan Waldhoff, “Judentum als Metapher: biblische Hermeneutik und religiöse Toleranz bei Sebastian Franck” (1999), 159–208.

  45 Religiöse Toleranz: 1700 Jahre nach dem Edikt von Mailand, ed. Martin Wallraff (2016); Reformation und Toleranz - Brücken über Jahrhunderte, ed. Dietrich Galter, Roger Pârvu, and Udo Puschnig (2016).

  46 Franck, Sebastian, Paradoxa CCLXXX. Das ist: Zwey hundert und achtzig Wunder-Reden/Aus der Heiligen Schrifft (1690). Here I have used the copy held in the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, H: Yv 1473.8° Helmst.

  47 Since I consulted the examplar in the Wolfenbüttel library, where Lessing worked as a librarian from 1770 to his death in 1781, it is certainly possible that the poet might have read that treatise at some point. The copy, however, is extremely clean and does not show any signs of having been used or read.

  48 Lotte Blaschke, “Der Toleranzgedanke bei Sebastian Franck” (1928/29), 40–56; Christoph Dejung, Wahrheit und Häresie. Eine Untersuchung zur Geschichtsphilosophie bei Sebastian Franck (1980).

  49 André Séguenny, “Franck, Sebastian” (1983), 307–12.

  50 Will-Erich Peuckert, Sebastian Franck: ein deutscher Sucher (1943); Horst Weigelt, Sebastian Franck und die lutherische Reformation (1972); Klaus Kaczerowsky, Sebastian Franck: Bibliographie: Verzeichnis von Francks Werken, der von ihm gedruckten Bücher sowie der Sekundär-Literatur (1976); Gerd Schirmansky, Christ ohne Kirche: Rückfrage beim ersten Radikalen der Reformation: Sebastian Franck (1980); Bibliotheca dissidentium: Répertoire des non-conformistes religieux des seizième et dix-septième siècles, ed. André Séguenny with Irena Backus and Jean Pott (1986).

  51 Sebastian Franck, Sämtliche Werke: Kritische Ausgabe mit Kommentar. Vol. 1 (1993).

  52 To avoid problems later in the printing process, I do not replicate the superscripta here and write out the diphthongs.

  53 I have also consulted an early modern print from 1691 (1691), combined with a treatise on the same topic by Ludovici Cornaro. Exemplar: Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel Xb 9555.

  54 Christoph Dejung, Frühe Schriften: Kommentar (2005), 539–60.

  55 Albrecht Classen, “The World of the Turks Described by an Eye-Witness” (2003); id., “Life Writing as a Slave in Turkish Hands” (2012).

  56 Christoph Dejung, Frühe Schriften: Kommentar (2005), 396–401.

  57 Yvonne Dellsperger, Lebendige Historien und Erfahrungen (2008), 112–17.

  58 Jean-Claude Colbus, La Chronique de Sébastien Franck (1499–1542) (2005).

  59 See the digital version from 1518: www.e-rara.ch/doi/10.3931/e-rara-23180; and from 1521: www.e-rara.ch/doi/10.3931/e-rara-845 (both last accessed on December 29, 2017).

  60 Kriegbüchlin des Friedes wider alle lärmen/auffruhr vnd vnsinnigkeyt zu Kryegen (1539; 1550; the latter version was reprinted under the title Krieg Büchlin des Friedes, 1975). The copy used for this reprint is today in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich.

  61 This was most famously formulated by Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1842 in his popular song “Die Gedanken sind frei.” For a text edition and the melodies, together with a helpful historical survey about previous poets who had formulated the same thought, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Gedanken_sind_frei (December 29, 2017).

  62 Fritz Lieb, Valentin Weigels Kommentar (1962), 67–68.

  63 Charles P. Arand, James A. Nestingen, and Robert Kolb, The Lutheran Confessions (2012); for a text edition, see now Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, ed. Irene Dingel et al. (2014).

  64 Valentin Weigel, Ausgewählte Werke, ed. Siegfried Wollgast (1978), 33–41. Amazingly, there is no entry on Weigel in the otherwise very comprehensive Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, ed. Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz (www.bautz.de/kirchenlexikon [last accessed on December 29, 2017]). Unfortunately, it is available only to paid subscribers. However, there is an extensive biographical article by Siegfried Wollgast, “Weigel, Valentin” (2011), 220–22. See also Andrew Weeks, “Weigel, Valentin” (2006), 1165–66.

  65 Fritz Lieb, Valentin Weigels Kommentar (1962), 69. See also Thomas K. Kuhn, “Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig” (2002), 191–208; Horst Weigelt, Von Schlesien nach Amerika (2007). For a specialized study on Schwenkfeld’s influence in southern Germany, see now Hiram Kümper and Brigitte Fischer, Quellen zur Kaufbeurer Reformationsgeschichte (2017).

  66 Fritz Lieb, Valentin Weigels Kommentar zur Schöpfungsgeschichte und das Schrifttum seines Schülers Benedikt Biedermann (1962).

  67 Georg Müller, “Weigel, Valentin” (1896), 472–76; www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd118630105.html#adbcontent (last accessed on December 29, 2017).

  68 Anonymus, “Weigel” (1747), 295–304.

  69 Gründtlicher Beweiß Wie Theophrastus Paracelsus, Valentinus
Weigel, Paulus Felgenhawer, Nicolaus Tetinge und andere ihres gleichen/mit grosser Heucheley/mit groben Lesterungen/und mit falschen Weissagungen umbgehen: Wie sie viel zeugnüsse der Heiligen Schrifft verkehren und verfälschen: Wie sie mancherley Irrthumb/auch viel schändliche und abschäwliche Lehren führen (s.l.: s.n., 1634); exemplar in the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, 817.58 Theol. (4).

  70 Anonymous, “Weigelianer” (1747), 304–26.

  71 Siegfried Wollgast, “Weigel, Valentin” (2011), 221.

  72 www.adwmainz.de/projekte/valentin-weigel-ausgabe/beschreibung.html (last accessed on December 29, 2017).

  73 See, for instance, Bernard Gorceix, La mystique de Valentin Weigel 1533–1588 et les origines de la théosophie allemande (1972); Gabriele Bosch, Reformatorisches Denken und frühneuzeitliches Philosophieren: eine vergleichende Studie zu Martin Luther und Valentin Weigel (2000); Hermann von Strauch, Das Reich Gottes in dir (2003); Freia Odermatt, Der Himmel in uns: das Selbstverständnis des Seelsorgers Valentin Weigel (1533–1588) (2008); Kristine Hannak, Geist=reiche Critik: Hermetik, Mystik und das Werden der Aufklärung in spiritualistischer Literatur der Frühen Neuzeit (2013); Martin Žemla, Valentin Weigel: mystik – paracelsián – theosof 16. stoleti (2013).