Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qs9v7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T17:38:56.778Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - The Reformed Augustinians of Lower Germany and the Dynamics of the Early Reformation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2020

Get access

Summary

Abstract

After summarizing the evidence that the events in Lower Germany were a watershed in the early Reformation, this chapter turns to an analysis of how the story of Reformed Augustinians deepens our understanding of the dynamics of the early Reformation. It demonstrates how ideas were passed via Augustinian networks, and the strategic element to their dissemination. It also indicates that impulses from Lower Germany influenced Luther, raising fundamental questions about a simplistic model of the Reformation that places Wittenberg at its centre and understands Martin Luther as its sage. Finally, the chapter shows the importance of the Augustinian context, not only for its impact on Luther's theology, but for its institutional and administrative structures, and how they facilitated the early Reformation.

Keywords: Early Reformation, Protestant martyrologies

Although it falls outside the parameters of this study, when evaluating the impact of the struggle over the cloisters of the Reformed Augustinians of Lower Germany and especially the demise of Hendrik Vos and Johann van den Esschen, it is worth noting that these events became notorious all over again in the 1550s when the burnings were included in English, French, Dutch, and German martyrologies. John Foxe's English martyrology, Actes and Monuments, was first published in full in 1563, and thereafter in eight more editions and a handful of abridgements by the late seventeenth century. The French-speaking world gained access to the event through Jean Crespin's Histoire des Martyrs persécutez et mis à mort, first published in 1554 and then in more than fifteen editions, including translations into Latin, Dutch, English, and German, during the next twenty years. The Dutch-speaking world was reminded of the executions through Adriaan van Haemstede's De Gheschiedenisse ende den doodt der vromen Martelaren, published first in 1559 then reprinted a half dozen times by the mid-seventeenth century. And German speakers, if they had not already heard about it via the pamphlets or Luther's ballad, gained access to the event through Ludwig Rabus's Historien der Heyligen Auszerwöllten Gottes Zeugen, Bekennern und Märtyrern, published first in Latin in 1552, then subsequently in a handful of German editions. Via the martyrologies, a new generation of Protestants from across Europe were introduced to the struggles of the Augustinians of Lower Germany.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×