Popular Religion in Germany and Central Europe, 1400-1800 THEMES IN FOCUS Published titles Jonathan Barry and Christopher Brooks THE MIDDLING SORT OF PEOPLE: Culture, Society and Politics in England, 1500-1800 Christopher Durston and Jacqueline Eales THE CULTURE OF ENGLISH PURITANISM, 1560-1700 Paul Griffiths, Adam Fox and Steve Hindle THE EXPERIENCE OF AUTHORITY IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND Tim Harris POPULAR CULTURE IN ENGLAND, c. 1500-1850 Roy Porter and Marie Mulvey Roberts PLEASURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Bob Scribner and Trevor Johnson POPULAR RELIGION IN GERMANY AND CENTRAL EUROPE, 1400-1800 Forthcoming Patrick Collinson andJohn Craig THE REFORMATION IN ENGLISH TOWNS, 1500-1640 Popular Religion in Germany and Central Europe, 1400-1800 Edited by BOB SCRIBNER and TREVOR JOHNSON ~ MACMIllAN Editorial matter and Introduction © Bob Scribner and Trevor Johnson; Chapter 1 © Ulinka Rublack; Chapter 2 © Thomas A. Fudge; Chapter 3 © J. M. Minty; Chapter 4 © Eric Wilson; Chapter 5 © Alison Rowlands; Chapter 6 © C. Scott Dixon; Chapter 7 © J. C. Wolfart; Chapter 8 © Jiirgen Beyer, Chapter 9 © Trevor Johnson, 1996 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1996 by MAC~LLANPRESSLTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-61457-0 ISBN 978-1-349-24836-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24836-0 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10987654321 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 Published in the United States of America 19.96 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-12837-1 Contents List of Illustrations VB Introduction 1 BOB SCRIBNER 1 Female Spirituality and the InfantJesus in Late Medieval Dominican Convents 16 ULINKA RUBlACK 2 The 'Crown' and the 'Red Gown': Hussite Popular Religion ~;8 THOMAS A. FUDGE 3 Judengasse to Christian Quarter: The Phenomenon of the Converted Synagogue in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Holy Roman Empire ~,8 J. M. MINTY 4 Institoris at Innsbruck: Heinrich Institoris, the Summis Desiderantes and the Brixen Witch-Trial of 1485 87 ERIC WILSON 5 Witchcraft and.Popular Religion in Early Modern Rothenburg ob der Tauber 101 ALISON ROWlANDS 6 Popular Beliefs and the Reformation in Brandenburg-Ansbach 119 c. SCOTT DIXON 7 Why was Private Confession so Contentious in Early Seventeenth-Century Lindau? 140 J. C. WOLFART v vi Contents 8 A Liibeck Prophet in Local and Lutheran Context 166 JURGEN BEYER 9 Blood, Tears and Xavier-Water: Jesuit Missionaries and Popular Religion in the Eighteenth-Century Upper Palatinate 183 TREVOR JOHNSON Bibliography 203 Notes and !Wfer-ences 208 Notes on Contributors 276 I,ndex 277 List of Illustrations 1 The Dominican mystic Margaretha von Ebner's infant Jesus doll, carved in Vienna in 1344, now in the Bavarian convent of Maria-Medingen (photograph by Gisela Ott) 24 2 Albrecht Altdorfer, 'View of Entrance Hall of Regensburg Synagogue', etching 1519 (repro- duced courtesy of Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett) 59 3 Albrecht Altdorfer, 'View of Interior of Regensburg Synagogue', etching 1519 (reproduced courtesy of the Museum of Regensburg) 60 4 Topographical reconstruction of Regensburg, c.1519, showing the destroyed Judengasse and synagogue (reproduced courtesy of Artemis Verlag, Zurich) 61 5 Michael Ostendorfer, 'The Old Church of the Schone Maria, Regensburg', woodcut, c.1520 (re- produced courtesy of Hacker Books, New York) 62 6 Michael Ostendorfer, 'The New Church of the Schone Maria, Regensburg', woodcut, c.1520, after design by Hans Hieber (reproduced courtesy of Hacker Books, New York) 63 7 Topographical reconstruction of the mid-four teenth century Nuremberg Judengasse by Karl Kohn (reproduced courtesy ofVerein fur Geschichte der Stadt Nurnberg) 67 vii Vlll List of Illustrations 8 Lorenz Strauch, 'Earliest Panoramic View of the Hauptmarkt, Nuremberg', oil on panel, c.1599 (reproduced courtesy ofI ndustrie-und Handelskammer, Nurnberg) 68 9 Topographical reconstruction of Cologne, c.1l80 as determined by Junghanns (reproduced courtesy of Artemis Verlag, Zurich) 69 10 Topographical reconstruction of medieval Cologne Judengasse as determined by O. Doppelfeld, 1958, ink drawing (1980) by G. Grosch (reproduced courtesy of Kiilnisches Stadtmuseum) 70 11 View of the Town Hall and St Maria in Ieruslame (Ratskapelle), Cologne, lithograph by A. Wunsch as published by Weyer, 1827 (reproduced courtesy of Archiv, Cologne) 71 12 View of St Maria in Ieruslame (Ratskapelle), Cologne, coloured ink drawing (c.1870) by W. Grohs (reproduced courtesy of Rheinisches Archiv, Cologne) 72 Introduction BOB SCRIBNER The purpose of this volume is to provide a collection of essays embodying recent research on popular religion within the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire (Germany and Bohemia) in the later middle ages and early modern period. There has been a considerable efflorescence of research on the general theme of 'popular religion' over the past decade, although very little has been published on German topics, whether in English or German.1 The work presented here represents a sampling of approaches and subjects that is distinctive in three ways. First, it reveals the extremely broad range of problems and issues that may be explored under the heading 'popular religion', encom passing female spirituality, the role of gender, the psychology of religious devotion, the creation of religious mythology and forms of religio-political discourse, attitudes towards the Jews, witchcraft, popular magic, the nature of Protestant 'popular belief' and the appropriation of popular religious phenomena by the Catholic Reformation. Such issues also encompass both the rural and urban worlds, and deal with intensively private as well as with overtly public manifestations of belief. Secondly, these newer perspectives increasingly transcend the divide between the pre-Reformation and Reformation periods, showing how necessary it has become to view popular religion over a longue duree - not only despite the apparently radical break brought by the Reformation, but in many cases because of it, since the innovatory potential of the Reformation can only be discerned by a fuller understanding of the world of religious belief it sought to replace. We are now more than ever aware that a picture of dramatic change is misleading, that replacement of traditional religion was either partial or slow to take effect, so that it is necessary to explore not only innovations in religious forms, but also continuities, mutations and adaptations. The same 1