A Memorandum of Bullinger and the Clergy regarding the Punishment of the Anabaptists (May 1535)
2004; Volume: 78; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0025-9373
Autores Tópico(s)Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies
ResumoAbstract: Relatively few documents are still extant regarding the history of the Anabaptists in Zurich during the period from the 1530s to the 1560s. first edition of the Memorandum of 1535, published here along with a mandate issued by the Zurich City Council in the same year, offer a welcome perspective into a little-known portion of Anabaptist history. Both texts illuminate the political and intellectual background of the reformer Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575) and his early years as city pastor of Zurich. TRANSMISSION HISTORY OF THE MEMORANDUM Two manuscript versions of a memorandum regarding the Anabaptists by the Zurich reformer Heinrich Bullinger can be found in the Staatsarchiv Zurich (StAZ). Written in the hand of an unknown sixteenth-century scribe, one of the manuscripts is in German (StAZ, E II 43719, p. 1031-1037, 2[degrees]) and one in Latin (StAZ, E II 43719, p. 1021-1026, 2[degrees]). Since the German version appeared first, the text that follows is based on this copy. (1) On the backside of the last page of the manuscript we find the following title in Bullinger's handwriting: Whether Anabaptists and Others False Teachers May Be Punished, 1535. document is signed: Ordained servants of the Zurich church: preachers, readers, deacons and distinguished preachers from the countryside. A second German manuscript is bound in a copybook of miscellaneous writings that was given to the Zurich city library (Stadtbibliothek) in 1708 by a Zurich physician, Johannes Wagner (1670-1737). copybook, housed today in the Zentralbibliothek Zurich (ZBZ, Ms A 72, p. 315-319, 2[degrees]), contains sources regarding the Anabaptists in Zurich and other Swiss territories, dating from 1525 to 1645. This was the copy that Johann Conrad Fussli used as the basis for a rather free translation into contemporary German that he published in 1747. (2) Prefacing the memorandum is a note, written in the same hand, that attempts to clarify the historical context which Fussli also included in his introduction: Because the Anabaptists were growing in number in many places rather than declining, the honorable authorities of Zurich were deeply troubled, for there were so many of them in Wedischwiel, Grueningen and all around Lake Zurich, who gathered together at night and preached hither and yon in woods and forests. Many foreign Anabaptists also secretly sneaked in, forced to flee by the Protestant war, so that the honorable authorities were compelled to make a thorough inquiry of the matter. For this task they requested that learned scholars should write a report [Bedencken] stating how, and in what manner, they should deal with these people. (3) A third German manuscript copy, also written in an unknown hand sometime in the eighteenth century, can be found in the first of three volumes of sources related to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Anabaptist history (Ms B 163, f. 12-18). In addition, Heinold Fast has noted yet another German copy, supposedly in the ZBZ, which, however, can no longer be located. (4) A manuscript copy of the Latin text appears in the so-called Simmler collection in the ZBZ (Ms S 38, Nr. 93, 12 pages, 2[degrees]). On the last page there appears a handwritten note in German: The author of this German memorandum is without question the Antistes Bullinger. It does not appear, however, that he made this Latin translation. German memorandum was submitted to the magistracy in June. Although Bullinger's name does not appear directly in either the German or the Latin version, and the text was signed in the name of the entire Zurich religious estate, a letter from Bullinger to Tobias Egli of Chur, dated March 9, 1571, makes it clear that he was indeed the author of the document. Bullinger sent Egli a pamphlet by Urbanus Rhegius regarding the legal right to punish heretics and noted in his letter: I am adding also my memorandum, written many years ago for our council. …
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