Análisis inferencial

89 One of the most detailed accounts of the charges of Anabaptism against a person was the case of

Claus Streler of Haltberg, who appeared before the Ehegericht in 1552. The chief witnesses against

him were the ministers Riidolf Keller of Fischenthal and Martin Mannhart of Wald. Mannhart repwted

to the Ehegericht of Strelef s refusal to attend church, and of his not bringing his child forward for

baptism. The particular matter in question was whether Stenler and his wife could be cmsidered

lawfully married as they had not been wedded in a church. On the evidence of the ministers’ tales of the

Strelers' Anabaptist activities, the Ehegericht decided 'wie u[wer] wisheijt hiervor verstmndigt Claus

Stenlers und siner eejrowen halb, von wegen defi, das sy die ee noch nit nach christenlicher ordnung

said to the minister that he would rather live under the Turks than be subject to such men as controlled the Council in Zürich. The unseemly (ungeburlich) behaviour of the poor and the farmers meant that they were continuously under the watchful eye of ministers looking out for Anabaptists. Yet this was a difficult occupation, and the report of the dean of the Zürichsee gives witness to how much trouble many of the ministers encountered in determining the true sympathies of the people:

Dorumm sy zuo namind, also dafi ein wyb habe gedoren (die sye up dem hqffStafa) den pfarrer von

Manendorffanfallen, worum er die touffer schalte, es syend bibers lût und unser herren duldent sy, zuo Wald, da vil sind, und anderschwo. Wenn sy bofi warend, hette man sy nitt: aber sy die herren sind in iren gmueten überwunden etc. Inn Herrliberg, in Griiningen kumend sy zamen ze hi^en, in hundert und mee, an der Sylbrugg und

anderschwo etc. Diewyl nun alle pfarrer geschworen, iren herren allerley schand zuo wenden und aber das ein groper schand sye, dann man wol wiisse, was unruow man vor iaren gehept und was die toiler boses angericht, wollend sy das mitt ernst anzeygen und bitten, dafi min herren inen vor wytterm leyd, schand und schaden sin wollind.^

That these meetings were held in the hills or woods only confirmed for the ministers the seditious intention of the baptists. Always the Anabaptists were spoken of as seeking to undermine or oppose (widerstrcffen) the authority of the church and Council.

The minister acted as watchman over the morals of the community through the use of his pulpit both to preach and also to instruct the people in the laws of the land. His position was precarious both religiously and politically, and the Synod and the Council took considerable care to develop the position of moral supervision to include the educating of the congregation and the reporting to the authorities of all untoward activities. To his non literate congregation, the minister was the principle disseminator of the Christian teachings of the Gospels essential to their lives and of the civil

mandates which governed their communal lives. It was the concern for the sacred

167

authority of both the church and the state which was the foundation of the minister's

4.4 Sacramentum Administratio

The first celebration of the reformed Eucharist in Zürich at the Easter of 1525 involved a revision of the whole liturgy surrounding the Lord’s Supper by Zwingli into a form which remained largely unaltered for the rest of the sixteenth century. In 1559, ten years after the Consensus Tigurinus, Ludwig Lavater, Bullinger's son-in-law and Gwaltheris successor as Antis tes, wrote De Ritibus et Institutis Ecclesiae Tigurinae'^^ which outlined for the benefit of foreign churches the forms of the Zürich church. It is an important source for the liturgical forms of the performance of the two sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper in Zürich. Lavater's account relates how things were done in the Grossmünster, the situtuation for the minister in the rural parish would be quite different. He would have no assistance other than that of the Ehegaumer or Kirchenpfleger.

Before the days on which the Eucharist was to be celebrated the preacher was to instruct the people in the dignity (yvürde) and the benefit (NUtzen) of the sacrament The people were then warned that they were not to receive the body and blood of Christ unworthily. When the sermon had ended, a portable table was brought out by the assistants (dienern) and placed in front of the congregation; on this table was placed a basket with unleavened bread and a wooden cup filled with wine. Any use of precious metals and stones on the communion vessels, which were to be made of simple

materials in the manner of the Early Church was f o r b i d d e n . 9 2 The assistant ministers

and the senior theological students gathered around the table as the minister.

91 L, Lavater, De ritibus et institutis Ecclesiae Tigurinae opusculum, (Zürich, 1559).

92 Stdcar says that although wooden cups and plates (Schüfilen) were used, it was common for the

vessals to be made of tin. Such tin dishes would be similar to those found in most houses of farmers

and artisans. K. Stokar, Liturgisches Gérât der Ziircher Kirche vom 16. bis ins 19. Jahrhundert.

1 69

accompanied by two helpers, approached that table and began in a clear voice in the

language of the people, so that all might understand, the opening prayer of invocation. Following that prayer, the minister together with the two assistant ministers on either side of him, began a series of prayers and readings from Scripture. When these were concluded the Apostles’ Creed was recited by the minister, followed by a reading of the Articles of Faith and a preparatory exhortation to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Prayer was said by all and the minister read a prayer which outlined for the people the nature of Christ's sacrifice, and this led into the reading of the words of institution over the elements wherein the minister took each in hand at the appropriate moment. When the reading was completed, the assistant ministers took the bread and passed it amongst the congregation, who each broke off a piece for themselves. Likewise, the assistant ministers followed with cups that the wine might be distributed. While these elements were being passed amongst the faithful, one assistant went into the pulpit and began reading from S t John, chapter 13, on Christ's washing of his disciple's feet at the feast of the Passover. When the bread and wine had been received, the minister called the people to prayers of thanksgiving for both the gift of the body and blood of Christ and for man's deliverance fiom sin. The minister closed the service with the blessing

'Geht hin in FriedenP. According to Lavater's account, in the rural areas where a

minister might have one assistant, or perhaps none at all, the Ehegaumer or

Kirchenpfleger was to assist. The people in these rural parish churches would then receive the elements directly from the minister, with the men partaking first followed by the women.

The disciplinary problems surrounding the Lord’s Supper inevitably stemmed from the difficulties encountered by Bullinger and the civil officials in replacing the mass in the churches. There is little evidence to suggest the presence of strong anti­ mass feelings among either the clergy or laity in the pre-Reformation church in Zürich. Even several decades after the post-Kappel settlement many of the ministers in the church seemed hard pressed to distinguish theologically the reformed Eucharist from

the mass. The variety of ideas concerning the worth of the Lord's Supper held by the ministers together with the persistant problem of non-attendance amongst the laity combined to ensure the prominence of sacramental problems for the Zürich church leadership during the sixteenth century. In most cases the failure of the minister to comprehend the sacrament manifested itself in the improper carrying out of the

prescribed liturgy. Hans Hausheer of Rorbas was reported in 1555 as always arriving late for his sermons, and of performing the Lord’s Supper so badly that many in his parish refused to attend.93 He seems to have caused great offence in the community by drinking the wine that was to be used for communion, and was warned by the Synod that he was to read the Council’s mandate on church attendance from the pulpit that the people might be admonished to return to the services. This, the Synod notes, he had not the slightest intention of doing, nor of reporting those who refused to come to church to the Ehegaumer, Kirchenpflegem or the Vogt. He was told by the Synod leaders that two weeks before the celebration of the sacrament he must preach to the people on the proper meaning of the Eucharist {zucht und ersamkeit leeren) in order that it might be properly received and the parishioners daily admonished.94 As for his own behaviour, he was to mend his ways and and set about the tasks required of his office.

Beyond the general problem of ministers either not holding the services or of doing so badly, there were particular misuses surrounding the elements which the Synod took seriously. In 1540, Joachim Gachlinger of Maschwanden was reported by