Power and Patronage: Lutheran Revocation Sermons in Germany, 1600–1740

1 Converts as Examples of Lutheranism

Converts held a paradoxical position in the Lutheran Church.^[16] Many of them had publicly converted to Lutheranism only recently, yet Lutheran pastors upheld them as important role models of a good Lutheran.^[17] The converts could claim with some authority to know about the moral shortcomings and theological problems of their former Church, and this made them particularly useful for the Lutheran theologians who supported their conversions. For example, many of the former Catholics criticized the monastic life they had experienced themselves. The former Augustinian monk Gottfried Rabe was particularly critical of vows, writing that there was not a single letter in the Bible that prescribed them.^[18] Friedrich Tanckler, a former Bernardine monk who converted in Tübingen in 1696, told his listeners that as a young man, he had been shown all the pleasures and wealth of monastic life by an abbot, and so joined the order out of youthful ignorance.^[19] The converts frequently employed this narrative of betrayal, realization and redemption, simultaneously attacking Catholicism and praising the power of Lutheranism.

The sermons also discussed theological and ritual differences between Lutherans and Catholics. Heinrich Wichart’s description of the sacraments from his 1667 revocation sermon points in this direction: “formerly, alongside other Papists I had seven […] but now, with the true church, I hold two sacraments.”^[20] These descriptions were not just rhetorical tools to justify why a person had joined the Lutheran Church, they also illustrated the thorough experience of Catholicism these converts had. Their long exposure to Catholicism and intimate knowledge made the converts highly valuable for Lutheran theologians, who could claim that these people knew exactly what they were talking about when they criticized the Catholic Church.

Besides their experience of Catholicism, converts were also viewed as particularly authentic Lutherans because many of them claimed to have left behind their old life, including lands, money, relatives and a higher social status.^[21] Converts’ long journeys and the hardships along the way lent legitimacy to the converts who, so the narrative went, would not have undertaken the long and dangerous journey if they had not been genuinely convinced by Lutheranism’s power. For example, Christoph Grosspietsch stressed that travelling to a Lutheran territory after a conversion was connected with no small costs.^[22] Linked to these journeys could be descriptions of an inner movement. In some of the sermons, the converts emphasized that they had long wanted to convert, but it took them a while to publicly reject Catholicism. This kind of inner journey mirrored the movement to a Lutheran territory.

The Lutheran clerics’ support of converts also posed risks, since it required them to prove to readers and listeners that the conversion had occurred because of the convert’s conscience (Gewissen) or the diligent study of the Bible, and not for practical or financial reasons. Christoph Grosspietsch wrote that he started reading the books of the theologians belonging to the Augsburg Confession, where he found the truth.^[23] After a person who wanted to convert had arrived in a town, Lutheran theologians interrogated them about their beliefs and views on important theological practices. As we know from catechisms and descriptions of the conversion process, questions included whether they were convinced that the Catholic Church was the false church or whether they believed in the two Lutheran sacraments as opposed to the seven Catholic ones.^[24] Once the theologians were convinced that the person was ready to change their confession, the conversion was deemed acceptable and the person received some financial support from the university or the region’s ruler and, if necessary, further instructions. How much support the converts received and for how long varied greatly, and some of them suffered serious financial difficulties after their conversion.^[25]

This process illustrates Lutheran theologians’ position at the centre of the conversion, as these men decided who was a “proper” Lutheran and who was an imposter. Lutheran theological faculties, particularly Wittenberg and Leipzig, acted as authorities on doctrinal questions, so they also verified the motives of the converts.^[26] In southern Germany, most sermons were held and printed not in the state capital of Lutheran Württemberg, Stuttgart, but in the university town of Tübingen, where the Lutheran faculty assessed converts who possessed scholarly credentials.^[27] The attractiveness of these university towns illustrates the combination of princely and intellectual power in these locales.

Once the Lutheran theologians had confirmed the conversion’s truthfulness, they could encourage the converts to make a public statement about the reasons for their conversion, especially if they used to be Catholic clerics. Thomas Reisner received the “highly favourable” permission from the Leipzig professor Elias Siegesmund Reinhard to deliver his revocation sermon in 1669.^[28] Reinhard featured prominently on the title page of the sermon, printed in letters almost as big as those naming the tract’s author. In other words, Reinhard was a significant part of this conversion, and at the same time he gave legitimacy to Reisner’s conversion narrative.

The public nature of conversions further strengthened the role of Lutheran converts as role models. Many of the churches in which revocation sermons were delivered were steeped in Lutheran tradition. This is most obvious in the case of Wittenberg town church, where converts would have given their sermons from the same pulpit that Luther had stood on, in front of the Wittenberg altarpiece. These connections were not just restricted to clerics; simple artisans who converted to Lutheranism could also receive their first Lutheran communion in these important churches. Placing the converts in these decidedly Lutheran spaces also served to tie them more closely to their new-found faith.

One of the central aims the converts and their supporters pursued when printing and promoting the conversions was to strengthen Lutherans in their faith, particularly those in Catholic territories. Ludwig August Maccors, for example, addressed his readers directly:

Oh! Do you not tremble, my human, who is not married to Christ [i.e. Lutheran]? Therefore today, today that you hear the voice of the Lord, no longer lock your heart […] You, children of God, who have accepted the invitation to the wedding of the Lamb.^[29]

Catholics, Maccors and others wrote, were persecuting Lutherans violently and many had converted to Catholicism out of fear or to retain their property. These conversions had led many simple people to doubt the Lutheran teachings.^[30] This narrative constituted a polemical critique of Catholicism that was at the heart of many revocation sermons. The University of Wittenberg’s theology faculty hoped that the revocation sermon and conversion of Gottfried Rabe would show others from Styria, Carinthia and other Habsburg territories that they should remain Lutheran.^[31] Rabe related that God calls the wandering sheep to Him and that one only has to listen to God’s word. It is also with this in mind that in most revocation sermons, Latin was translated into German to ensure that lay congregants would understand them. Sometimes, even whole sermons that were first delivered to students in Latin were then translated. Johann Hieronymus Aureus, for example, held his sermon in Latin in 1663 and had it printed in German in 1677.^[32] Martin Schimschalck, who gave his revocation sermon in Regensburg in Latin in 1654, had it translated into German and it was printed in five German editions between 1656 and 1661.^[33] Christoph Grosspietsch claimed that he did not want to have his revocation sermon printed at all, but the theological faculty of Jena and other “highly respectable and excellent people” asked him to, and so he did.^[34] Although this was a topical expression that cannot be taken at face value, it suggests that the faculty thought it would be beneficial for the sermon to be circulated, a victory of Lutheranism over Catholicism, one soul at a time. Some of the more popular sermons went through multiple editions, suggesting that they could be read widely.

Besides the strengthening of other Lutherans’ faith, there was also a second, more subtle layer to the conversion narratives. They were supposed to lead to further conversions to Lutheranism. In one preface, the University of Wittenberg’s theologians argued that others should follow the convert’s example, while the revocation sermons themselves contained frequent references to those who were still caught in papal darkness, expressing the hope that they, too, would find their way to the light of Lutheranism.^[35]

There are even indications that Lutheran theologians actively engaged with Catholics to convert them. The sermon of Martin Schimschalck refers to a prolonged exchange with the Lutheran pastor von Blumenthal, which eventually led to his conversion.^[36] Barbara Cordula von Lauter claimed that her final decision to become a Lutheran came after she heard a sermon by her future husband, the Lutheran preacher Johann Paul Astmann.^[37] Gabriel Ferdinand Lüstner wrote that he had left the “papal errors after frequent correspondence with highly learned theologians.”^[38]

Once the conversion was completed, the converts themselves could inspire further conversions. Simon Albert, a former preacher in Groß-Ostheim, hoped for further conversions when he formulated that others should see the light of truth in a prayer: “I also ask that every single papist will recognize the light of truth.”^[39] There are further indications that the circulation of revocation sermons and other Lutheran conversion narratives influenced other changes of confession. In 1659, Ferdinand Leopold von Schönhoff wrote about his conversion. As far as we know, he had no theological education, but he wrote that “Protestant doctors and teachers, especially those people who left the insufferable popery and went to the pure, firm evangelical religion, have sufficiently disproven the errors of popery and brought it to the light of day.”^[40] As such, he did not want to repeat what these learned men had already written, but rather restricted himself to those things he had “observed and considered” himself.^[41] Clearly, von Schönhoff had read other conversionary tracts, which he did not want to repeat, and modelled his own conversion narrative on them. Some revocation authors also included passages from previously printed revocation sermons, showing that new converts were aware of their position within a Lutheran conversionary landscape and those who had changed their faith before them.^[42]

One of the most telling examples of the conversion efforts by Lutheran theologians can be found in the revocation sermon of Johann Winckler from the 1690s. At the end of the sermon, the Wittenberg professor of medicine Christian Vater attached a commendation of Winckler and an attack on the Catholic Church. This commendation was followed by a “moving letter by a very concerned mother to her son, who had moved from the evangelical to the Catholic Church.”^[43] The letter (whether real or fictitious) shows the purpose of these kinds of narratives as it stresses that Lutherans should remain steadfast in their beliefs. But by discrediting Catholics in these additional texts, the Wittenberg professors also responded to successful Catholic conversions. In Wenceslaus Altwasser’s revocation sermon of 1611, the author hoped that people might see how “one lost sheep after the other” found their way to Lutheranism, claiming that he wrote the text for the “conversion (Bekehrung) of many more seduced, lost people.”^[44] Other works of the period made similar attempts not only to strengthen Lutherans in their beliefs, but also to win more men and women for their faith. Laurentius Laelius published a tract in 1630 entitled Reasons why an evangelical Christian should stay with the evangelical religion, which was supposed to convince recent converts to Lutheranism to stay Lutheran, but was also specifically aimed at all Catholic lords not to reconvert their subjects, and was therefore an active Lutheran conversionary effort.^[45]

This intended aim of converting more individuals to Lutheranism shows that Lutherans undertook proselytizing efforts. Even allowing for rhetorical strategies and exaggerations, the sermons clearly show the support of Lutheran theologians and the attempts to convert more individuals to Lutheranism. In the seventeenth century, news from the colonies and princely conversions were helping Catholics to claim victories over the Lutherans.^[46] This made it all the more important for Lutherans who found themselves in a defensive position to promote conversion and show to listeners and readers that theirs was the true religion.

2 The Convert as Political Capital

In their revocation sermons, converts to Lutheranism heaped praise onto the rulers of the territories they entered. The converts described how nobles enabled their conversions in the first place.^[47] One convert wrote that he was grateful that he, a poor little shrub, could flourish in the shade of the duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel.^[48] The converts hoped to gain financial favours and permanent employment through this flattery. The converts’ precarious position made them dependent on patronage, even if they were respected clerics. Paul Helmreich, a Dominican monk, doctor of theology and personally acquainted with the bishop of Vienna, converted in 1618. He was forced to travel around Germany after his conversion and journeyed to Nürnberg, Bayreuth, Coburg, Weimar, Jena and back to Nürnberg. He was not appointed to a Lutheran university and lived in poverty for many years. It was not until 1624 that he became preacher in Lausig, thanks to the intervention of Sophia of Brandenburg, widow of the Saxon duke. The treatment of converts, especially those who had to flee persecution in Catholic territories, became an increasingly fine-tuned system in some parts of the Holy Roman Empire.^[49] In Saxony, the system for supplications by those who had fled Catholic territories was well established by the middle of the seventeenth century. A special commission assessed the need of the men and women and dealt with many of the supplications on the same day or, at the latest, a day after the supplication was received.^[50]

Lutheran rulers not only provided positions for converts, but also promoted the conversion narratives. Ludwig August Maccors already stressed in the preface to his revocation sermon that he had given the sermon due to the order of the Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. The sermon was held in the Church of Our Lady in Wolfenbüttel, one of the earliest newly built Lutheran churches and the most important Lutheran church in the region. Not only that, it was even printed by the ducal court’s official printer (Herzögl. Hof-und Canzley-Buchdr.).^[51] Lutheran rulers could also lend prestige to some conversions by personally attending the public revocations. Lucas Osiander delivered a sermon celebrating the conversion of Jacob Reihing under the watchful eyes of John Fredrick, Duke of Württemberg, in 1622.^[52] By being in the church while the revocation sermon was delivered, rulers linked themselves to the converts and their stories, legitimizing them, but also showing themselves to be benevolent princes.

Through the acceptance of Lutheran converts, these rulers portrayed themselves as protectors of Lutheranism. Saxon princes were particularly good at showing themselves to be at the forefront of Lutheranism, making their territory the most popular destination for converts.^[53] The Saxon dukes’ self-portrayal as protectors of Lutheranism had a long tradition dating back to the time of Fredrick the Wise’s protection of Martin Luther in the sixteenth century. Saxony was the motherland of the Lutheran Reformation, where Martin Luther had worked and lived all his life.

On the international stage, the conversion of Catholics in the Saxon lands lent credibility to claims that it was one of Protestantism’s primary powers. The publication of the revocation sermons enhanced Saxony’s reputation or were an attempt to do this and, in turn, attracted more converts to the region. The conversion of former monks and priests, some of whom had held high positions in the Catholic Church, was a major victory for Saxony, including during the Thirty Years’ War when such propaganda was particularly important. This was not a case like in bi-confessional Augsburg, where the simple fact of an individual’s conversion could shift political systems.^[54] Rather, these individual converts had to be fashioned and participate themselves in forms of self-fashioning in order for them to gain their maximum utility for princes and theologians.

The Saxon infrastructure was important for the promotion of Lutheran conversions, and some revocation sermons, although delivered elsewhere, were printed in Saxony. This was true of Georg Ernest Rosenberger’s sermon, for example, which he preached in Dortmund but printed in Halle and dedicated to the Bishop of Magdeburg, a Saxon prince.^[55] The Saxon dukes were the protectors of Lutheranism, and converts expected support from the ducal family in return.^[56]

Although the particularly devastating effect of the Thirty Years’ War on Bohemia contributed to Saxony’s importance as a destination for religious refugees, a significant number of individuals from Austria who converted in Saxony show that Saxony’s reputation reached beyond its immediate neighbours. Ducal officials picked up as many as sixty converts from streets in Saxony who had come to the territory because they wanted to convert. They included individuals from England, the Ottoman Empire, Poland and other parts of the Holy Roman Empire.^[57] Saxony’s reputation travelled and in a 1629 supplication, Petrus Albinus commented that “your ducal highness has shown mercy and benevolence to many worried people and those who were chased away despicably.”^[58] Of course, this was also a rhetorical strategy to flatter the dukes of Saxony, but the numbers and descriptions of the converts suggest that there was also some truth in the fact that Saxony had become a main port of call for converts. The revocation sermons and their circulation were one building bloc in the construction of Saxony as a major Lutheran power.

Catholic detractors also recognized this fact. The Catholic landgrave Ernst of Hesse commented that the former Jesuit Andreas Wigand had gone to Jena to receive ducal protection there.^[59] The example of Saxony illustrates that the reputation of confessional states was not something permanent, but had to be constructed, promoted and defended. Only through continued successes in aiding the spread of Lutheranism was it possible for dynasties to portray themselves as members of a European, Protestant elite. In the case of the conversions, simple monks could provide the means by which the princes could show themselves to be at the forefront of Lutheranism.

The full acceptance of converts was partially based on their usefulness for rulers. The shortage of Lutheran clerics was particularly pronounced after the Thirty Years’ War, when large stretches of land were impoverished. After their Lutheran beliefs had been confirmed, and with the agreement of Lutheran clerics and the dukes, many converts were appointed as Lutheran preachers. The congregation had the chance to veto the decision, but this rarely happened. As Alexander Schunka has pointed out regarding the refugees fleeing the Thirty Years’ War (Exulanten), congregations and the Lutheran consistory “preferred having a former Catholic monk, as long as he met certain standards, rather than not having anyone at all.”^[60] These quick appointments became much rarer in the eighteenth century, so that the former priest Mosmayer complained that he had been relying on alms for twenty years, unable to find a permanent position as a Lutheran preacher.^[61] While it is impossible to ascertain any “true” motivations for conversions, it is likely that the prospect of gaining employment also contributed to decisions to convert.^[62]

It was not just Saxony that played an important role in conversions. Johannes Samson remarked proudly that his revocation sermon, delivered in 1648 in Groß-Glogau in Silesia, was attended by both local dignitaries and those from abroad. He delivered the sermon in the last months of the Thirty Years’ War, when Silesia was heavily fought over and many Swedish troops were present in the region.^[63] There seems to have been some truth in this, as other European powers were also interested in conversions to Lutheranism. Some revocation sermons gratefully acknowledged Swedish help. These dedications peak during the Thirty Years’ War, though the sample size of around one hundred sermons is too small for a more wide-reaching analysis. Gualtero Averdunck’s 1634 sermon is the most explicit as far as these pro-Swedish sentiments are concerned. He questioned the loyalty of monks and nuns, as they followed the teachings of the Pope, and not those of Sweden and the other evangelical territories.^[64] Averdunck wrote that earlier, the Devil would have “drowned the evangelical estate (Standt) in a blood bath, had the merciful God not sent the brave hero of midnight,” referring to Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.^[65] Some of the sermons were also dedicated to generals of the Thirty Years’ War, such as Bernhard von Saxe-Weimar who died in 1639. The biography of Johann Georg Tremelius, a former Jesuit born in Italy in 1622, gives a hint of what Swedish rulers gained from these converts.^[66] Tremelius converted to Lutheranism in 1661 and, as in the case of Saxony, helped to fill vacant positions in Stralsund and Bergen before becoming a military preacher in the Swedish army.^[67]

This function of the converts also explains one of the most striking features of their biographies. Most of them did not end up becoming high-ranking Lutheran clerics, although there are some notable exceptions such as Jacob Reihing at Tübingen, and the fact that only few sources survive makes a definitive assessment impossible.^[68] Most converts, as far as we can tell, did not author further works after they had written their conversion accounts. This was even the case for the converts who had gained some notoriety in the course of their conversion and therefore might have seemed likely to benefit further from their new-found fame. There are some exceptions, but if the converts wrote again, they usually produced occasional poetry, funeral sermons or other small tracts and not major theological works.^[69] This is in line with the argument proposed here that these converts were used by Lutheran actors to illustrate their power. However, this purpose could only be served if the converts were shown to have converted for reasons of conscience rather than political or financial gain. Once they had fulfilled this function, they were no longer as important to those in power. They had helped Lutheran rulers present themselves as champions of Lutheranism, but afterward, they were no longer promoted as actively by these dignitaries. This kind of treatment has also been observed in other contexts, most notably when Muslims converted to Catholicism in the Spanish Empire. These Muslims were baptized publicly during royal services and accounts of the events were printed, after which the converts disappear from the sources.^[70]

Converts and their narratives functioned in a patronage system where powerful actors used the converts’ stories to further their own agendas. These converts, who were in a precarious position having just arrived in a new religious group, had to show their gratitude to powerful rulers, as they lacked alternatives and hoped for continued support. Of course, the converts still had some agency to shape their own destinies by moving to other territories or, in some cases, returning to Catholicism, but they relied heavily on powerful rulers for support. The importance of converts, both for strengthening Lutheran dignitaries’ position as protectors of their faith and as economic assets to their territory, was crucial for the shape of Early Modern Lutheranism.

A similar kind of reasoning lay behind the celebration of Jewish conversions to Lutheranism.^[71] These conversions, much like the ones by Catholics, gave rulers and urban dignitaries the opportunity to celebrate their own power as centres of their religion. Unlike with the Lutheran cases, however, Jews were never allowed to preach, their conversion revolved around a baptism and other tropes and narratives were employed.^[72] Jewish and Catholic converts had in common that in many cases, soon after they had converted, they no longer feature in the sources and seem to have disappeared quickly from the agendas of territorial rulers and town councils. Notable exceptions to this were the converts who used their knowledge of the religion they had left to criticize it, providing a kind of eye-witness account of the heresies of Judaism.^[73]

The fact that former Catholic clerics who were intimately aware of Catholic theology delivered the revocation sermons was one of their greatest strengths, but also limited the circle of authors. Non-clerical authors had to revert to other genres of writing in order to justify their decisions. The former Catholic rector Gabriel Ferdinand Lüstner, for example, had to write a broadsheet in order to justify his conversion to Lutheranism.^[74] While these texts were frequently dedicated to important Lutheran rulers, the fact that sermons were delivered and printed, and rulers could show their benevolence towards their subjects by attending the sermons, made this genre of writing particularly appealing.

Similarly, women were excluded entirely from defending themselves in sermons, as they were not allowed to deliver them. Conversions of women were rarely publicized as prominently as those of men, with the exception of some important noblewomen.^[75] In terms of financial opportunities and the inclusion of new converts into the ecclesial hierarchy, women could not be integrated in the same way as men. While some nuns were able to express their religiosity in printed texts, few female converts to Lutheranism could do the same.

One of the exceptional conversion narratives of women that survived from the period comes from Martha Elisabeth Zitter, a former Ursuline nun from Erfurt whose printed letter to her mother received a significant amount of attention.^[76] Lutheran theologians, those who stressed that Zitter had converted of her own free will, supported the printing of the letter.^[77] Zitter gave an account of how she came to question her Catholic faith by reading books, including a work of evangelical controversial literature, a catechism, a letter by a Lutheran preacher, presumably also printed, and a comedy about Mary Magdalene. As the male authors discussed above, she hoped to convince others to join her in the Lutheran faith, but especially prayed for her mother to abandon her Catholic errors. And just like the former monks, Lutheran clerics encouraged her to have her account printed so that it could reach more people. Five months later and after attacks by Catholics, including her former confessor, Zitter rejoined the Ursulines, this time in Kitzingen.^[78] For Catholic authors, this was a victory for their cause. Many of the reconversions went hand in hand with a return to a Catholic territory. It seems that Zitter was able to return to the Ursulines, something that was not the case for all individuals who rejoined their former confession. The reading of Lutheran books which she had commended earlier was now described as inappropriate arrogance for someone to interpret divine truths.^[79] Zitter was able to justify her return to Catholicism as following divine guidance, and at the same time, she had to discredit her previous arguments. She illustrates that Catholics retained an interest in the converts, which was also the case for the authors of the revocation sermons.

3 Conclusion

Conversions were connected to a range of actors who supported and promoted them, but could also challenge and ridicule them. These conversions were rarely as spectacular as those by Catholics in the New World, which missionaries wrote about in their letters and travel accounts. But they nonetheless formed an important part of Early Modern Lutheranism, as they enabled theologians to show the power of Lutheranism against “popery.” At the same time, the converts brought benefits to regions like Saxony after the Thirty Years’ War while enabling rulers to portray themselves as protectors of Lutheranism. Even in peripheral regions, conversions were a key aspect of Lutheran self-understanding. The active promotion of conversions shows that Lutherans, too, wanted to convert Catholics, and the available financial and logistical support suggests that this was an active effort by Lutheran theologians and princes. Catholics recognized the importance of conversion to Lutheranism, writing against conversions and trying to discredit the converts, or deliberately ignoring the conversions to belittle their significance. These efforts made the reconversion of Lutherans all the more important for them.

The converts all claimed, of course, that the only reason for their conversion was the reading of the Bible or other important Lutheran tracts. They knew that Lutheranism wanted to be the religion of the word, sola scriptura. But these conversions prove to be a lot more complex when we peel away the layers of the conversion narrative. They were influenced by princes, theologians and the converts, all of whom sought to benefit from the conversions. In all these cases, clerics, converts and princes stressed the power of Lutheranism, a kind of Lutheranism that was not just concerned with internal conscience, but openly displayed the right faith and attracted a range of converts from across Europe. Muslims, Catholics and Calvinists, men and women, and elites as well as those lower down the social scale converted to Lutheranism in the Early Modern Period. Far from being unwilling or unprepared to accept these converts, Lutheran regions like Saxony or Württemberg encouraged and supported these converts. Partly, they could use the conversions to illustrate the power of Lutheranism, but they also gained more practical advantages, like the ability to promote the teaching of Hebrew by Jewish converts or knowledge about far-away places from North African converts. Given these benefits, it is not surprising that Lutheran authorities sponsored and promoted conversions. Converts were an essential feature of Early Modern Lutheranism.