The Life and Thought of Michael Sattler

C. Arnold Snyder

• Publisher: Herald Press
• Year: 1984
• Print ISBN: 9780836112641
• eBook ISBN: 9780836198195
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies

C. Arnold Snyder’s full-length biography and analysis of the thought of Michael Sattler, the noted Anabaptist leader, martyr, and author of The Schleitheim Articles. This book is another case study in Anabaptist origins, as well as a being a biographical study of Michael Sattler. It is particularly stimulating in breaking new ground around the Roman Catholic (Benedictine) roots of Swiss and South German Anabaptism. This study, therefore, constitutes a major advance in Anabaptist historiography.

The author of this volume is gentle, unassuming, and deceptively modest in his approach, but clear and incisive in his findings. The book is a model of careful historical method and scholarship. In stimulating the kind of fresh analysis and research indicated, the author has placed all of his colleagues in the field in his debt, and added significantly to our understanding of the early sixteenth century.

End Notes

Chapter 1: Review of Literature

1 Portions of this chapter have been published in the Mennonite Quarterly Review, 53 (1978), 328-32 (hereafter MQR).

2 John H. Yoder, The Legacy of Michael Sattler (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1973), 10 (italics mine).

3 The original artide for the Mermonitisches Lexikon, IV, 29-38 (hereafter ML) was translated into English and printed in the MQR, 25 (1951), 201-18, and for the Mennonite Encyclopedia, IV, 427-34 (hereafter ME). All references will be to the latter version.

4 Wilhelm Wiswedel, Bilder und Führergestalten aus dem Täufertum (Kassel, 1952), 111, 9-23.

5 Walther Köhler, “Brüderlich Vereinigung,” in Flugschriften aus den ersten Jahren der Reformation, ed. by Otto Clemen (Halle, 1907; Nieukoop, 1967), 11, 277-99.

6 Martin Haas,“Michael Sattler: Auf dem Weg in die täuferische Absonderung,” Radikale Reformation, ed. by H.-J. Goertz (Munich: C H. Beck, 1978), 115-24. Now available in English translation. See H.-J. Goertz, ed., and Walter Klaassen, English edition ed.. Profiles of Radical Reformers (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1982).

7 See Bossert, ME, IV, 427; Köhler, “Brüderlich,’’ 277; Wiswedel, Bilder, III, 9; L von Muralt and W, Schmid, eds., Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer in der Schweiz, I (Zürich, 1952), 136 (hereafter TA, zu. 1).

8 See Sattler’s exchange at his trial with the city clerk of Ensisheim. Translation in Yoder, Legacy, 74 and 83, n. 32.

9 See Bossert. ME, IV, 427; Köhler,“Brüderlich” 277; Wiswedel, Bilder, III, 9. Haas says only that Sattler was a person “mit guter theologischer Bildung.” “Sattler,” 116.

10 A. J. F. Zieglschmid, Die älteste Chronik der Hutterischen Brüder (Ithaca, N.Y., 1943), 54-55.

11 Yoder, Legacy, 80, n. 2.

12 Bossert, ME, IV, 427.

13 See the letter from Ottelinus to Bucer in M. Krebs and H. G. Rott, eds., Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer, Elsass, I, (Gütersloh, 1959), 72-73 (hereafter TA, el. I). Translation of relevant portions in Yoder, Legacy, 19.

14 Valerius Anshelm, Die Berner Chronik, V, (Bern, 1896), 185:“was (sic) prior gewesen zu S. Peter im Schwarzwald.”

15 “The 17th century was a difficult time for the monastery, not only because of the Thirty Years’ War, but also because of the French War in whose second half the monastery was repeatedly taxed, plundered and burned.” W. Müller, “St. Peter im Schwarzwald,” in Die Benediktiner-klöster in Baden-Württemberg, Germania Benediktina, VoL 5, ed. by F. Quarthal et al. (Augsburg, 1975), 476.

16 Yoder’s suggestions in this area are a breakthrough in the literature dealing with Sattler. See Yoder, Legacy, 25, n. 18 and n. 19.

17 Yoder, Legacy, 72.

18 See Köhler, “Brüderlich,” 280: “The force of a Lutheran experience of faith allowed the monk to remove the cowl and … to take a wife.” See also Wiswedel, Bilder, III, 10: “Not contenting himself with the study of the Church Fathers and the available theological literature, he rather held to Holy Scripture itself— Like Luther, so Sattler came to certainty of belief and salvation in the monastery. This inner transformation allowed the monk from St. Peter’s to takeoff his cowl and take a wife.”

19 Kehler, “Brüderlich,’ 280. Haas is a little more cautious here and says only: “Die Reformation berührte ihn jedoch sehr stark.” “Sattler,” 115. Haas qualifies this still further by saying: “Aus Gründen, die wir nicht genau kennen, begab er sich dann nach Zürich.’’ Ibid.

20 See Bossert, ME, IV, 427; Köhler, “Brüderlich,” 280; Wiswedel. Bilder, III, 10; Haas, “Sattler,” 115-16.

21 TA, zu. 1, 73. Translation in Yoder, Legacy, 15, n. 1.

22 TA, zu. 1, 136. Translation in Yoder, Legacy, 16, n. 2.

23 TA, zu. 1, 270-73. See especially 273, n. 5.

24 Ibid., 200-02.

25 See Bessert, ME, IV, 427; Köhler, “Brüderlich,” 280; Wiswedel, Bilder, III, 10. Haas, although he speaks of the influence of Grebel, Mantz, and Blaurock upon Sattler, does place Sattler’s missionizing following the November imprisonment.

26 TA, eL 1, 68. The dating of the letter is possible because of Sattler’s request for a “merciful judgement” for those who are in prison. These Anabaptist prisoners, Jörg Tücher, Jacob Gross, Wilhelm Echsel, Matthias Hiller, and Jörg Ziegler, appear in the record as well. They were arrested in late December 1526 and expelled from Strasbourg before January 15, 1527. See Ibid., 67, for the data concerning the dates in question. Sattler’s letter thus falls within this range of time.

27 Ibid., 72-74.

28 Yoder, Legacy, 87. Original in TA, eL 1, 80ff.

29 Yoder, Legacy, 19. Original in TA, eL 1, 110.

30 See Bossert, ME, IV, 427; Köhler, “Brüderlich,” 281.

31 Bossert, ME, IV, 427. The apparent origin of this story is C Gerbert’s Geschichte der Stnssburger Sectenbewegung zur Zeit der Reformation, 1524-1534, (Strasbourg, 1889), 49. If Gerbert had a source concerning this, that source has since disappeared. Krebs and Rott note that Gerbert’s work is “nicht frei von Lücken, Irrtümem und falschen Urteilen.” TA, el. 1, x. Cf. Yoder, Legacy, 24, n. 1.

32 Ibid., 18; TA, eL 1, 60-62.

33 There is never a mention of Sattler in connection with Denck. Rather, Bucer and Capito take pains to distinguish between the two.

34 TA, eL 1, 114. Translation in Yoder, Legacy, 18.

35 As in Bossert, ME, IV, 428.

36 “Both (Denck and Sattler] questioned the Lutheran doctrine of justification and also held works to be important to man’s salvation, but they differed on Christ’s work of redemption. Sattler agreed with Protestant teaching.” Bossert, ME, IV, 427. Bossert’s source here is Bucer’s comment that “with regard to the redemption of Christ, upon which everything depends, we have found no such error in this Michael Sattler as in Denck.” Yoder, Legacy, 19; TA, el. I, 110. Bucer’s word cannot be taken as authoritative here without support in Sattler’s writings.

37 Heinold Fast, ed., Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer in der Schweiz, II (Zürich, 1973), 26ff (hereafter TA, osts. II).

38 See H. Stricker, “Michael Sattler als Verfasser der Schleitheimer Artikel,” Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter, 21 (1964) (hereafter MGB).

39 “Er hat sich damals entweder nach Süddeutschland oder wieder ins Zürcher Unterland begeben.’’ Haas, “Sattler,” 116.

40 See Bossert, ME, IV, 428; Köhler. “Brüderlich,” 283; Wiswedel, Bilder, III, 10-11.

41 Amold Snyder,“Rottenburg Revisited: New Evidence Concerning the Trial of Michael Sattler,” MQR, 54 (July 1960), 206-28.

42 Archduke Ferdinand makes reference to a letter from Count Joachim, dated March 18, 1527, in which Count Joachim reports the arrest. Ferdinand’s letter is found in the Tiroler Landesarchiv, Vonder königlichen Majestät, II, 25r-25v.

43 C F. Sattler, Geschichte da Henogthums Württemberg unter der Regienmg der Herzogen, Zweyter Theil (Tübingen, 1770), 169-70.

44. Four Anabaptist prisoners arrested in Rottenburg in mid-February had escaped already in March, presumably with aid from sympathizers outside the prison. See G Bossert, “Das Blutgericht in Rottenburg am Neckar,” Christliche Welt (1891), 503. See the reference to this escape by Ferdinand in the letter cited in a 42 above.

45 TA, zu. 1, 250-51.

46 The exact number of defendants, and their names, is given in Lina Beger,“Wiedertflufer in der Herrschaft Hohenberg,” Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, 22 (1882), 444-47. Translation in Snyder, “Rottenburg,” 213-15.

47 According to the trial account of Klaus von Graveneck See translation in Yoder, Legacy, 75.

48 See Snyder, “Rottenburg,” 219-22.

Chapter 2: The Benedictine Context

1 Timothy Fry, ed., RB1980: The Rule of S...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Author’s Preface
• Abbreviations
• I. The Life of Michael Sattler
• II. The Thought of Michael Sattler
• End Notes
• Bibliography
• Index of Concepts
• Index of Names and Places
• Map