Die Bruder vom gemeinsamen Leben im Jahrhundert der Reformation. by MunsterscheKolloquiumReview by: Rudolf K. HoferThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 1999), pp. 241-243Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2544962 .

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Book Reviews 241

introduction to Greenham's works. Primus is quite right to emphasize that Greenham was not a systematic theologian, and that he is even inconsistent. Primus also shows that Green- ham drew from many different theological traditions. In some of his writings, he is heavily indebted to Luther and in others to Bucer, for example. This is an important point that could be made more generally. English divines are mistakenly pigeonholed as "Calvinist" far too often.

Primus chose to ignore a good deal of relevant recent published scholarship, including work specifically on Greenham by Peter Iver Kaufhian and this reviewer. Using Ian Green's book on catechisms would have greatly enriched the discussion of Greenham's catechism. Moreover, Primus ignored recent works by Patrick Collinson and Peter Lake that bear directly on his argument about Greenham's alleged puritanism. His comments on that sub- ject are extremely problematic, though I was persuaded by his criticism of the label "mod- erate puritan." Primus considers this an oxymoron, and he is certainly correct. In its place, he proposes calling people like Greenham "cooperative puritans," thus emphasizing their desire to stay within the bounds of the established church, fighting the pope and the devil for the souls of God's people rather than contending with the queen and her bishops over ceremonies. Although Greenham was a partial nonconformist-he did not wear a surplice, or use the sign of the cross when baptizing, for example-he was unrelentingly critical of those who allowed the pursuit of ceremonial purity to take precedence over the fight against the devil and the devil's minions.

In spite of occasional jargony excesses (e.g., "the inscripturated Word") and jarring anachronisms (references to political correctness and Greenham's tea breaks), the prose is lucid and engaging. This is a well-written monograph clearly composed with more than just scholars of the period in mind. In spite of the factual errors and omissions, readers looking for a general introduction to Greenham will find it useful but far from definitive. Eric Josef Carlson ............. Gustavus Adolphus College

Die Bruider vom gemeinsamen Leben im Jahrhundert der Reformation. Das Miinstersche Kolloquium. Spdtmittelalter und Reformation, N. R. 9 Ulrich Hinz. Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997. xii + 357 pp. DM 158.

The present book is a somewhat enlarged version of a dissertation written under Prof. Kaspar Elm (Berlin), an international expert on religious communities. The book is not only based on a broad exploration of archives, but also on the relevant literature comprising more than five hundred titles.

The identity of the "Briider des gemeinsamen Lebens" (Brothers of the Common Life) was oriented according to the original community.They lived together in freedom without fundamental vows, as was demanded from monastic life. From the beginning of the discus- sion between the confessions in the sixteenth century, the brothers insisted on the way of a third status between church and world.

Early in the introduction, the author found that the handling of the Devotio moderna was confessionally conditioned, classified either as the prelude to the Reformation or as part of the late medieval reformational effort.The author also emphasizes the interconfes- sional common interests of the Devotio moderna.

As far as their daily lives were concerned, the brothers lived in contrast to Luther's doc- trine "trust only in faith" or Calvin's doctrine emphasizing predestination. They held on to their doctrine that men could contribute to their salvation, along with the grace of God. The pursuit of spiritual progress in the form of meditation of the Bible and the life ofJesus caused a special form of spirituality of the Devotio moderna. The complete alignment of

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242 Sixteenth CenturyJournal XXX / 1 (1999)

every person to God was to be the guiding principle of Christian life. The brothers did not take vows and their promises under the private law of donatio

inter vivos disabled them from leaving their houses. Luther's reproach of monasticism as contrary to evangelic freedom did not concern the brothers. Since 1431, the houses of brothers had united to form the so-called Miinsterisches Kolloquium (Colloquium of Miinster) and retained considerable freedom, even though they accepted some of the duties of religious foundations.

At the end of the fifteenth century, the houses in Miinster, Cologne, Herford,Wesel, Hildesheim, Kassel, Rostock, Marburg, and Magdeburg were members of the Colloquium of Miinster and so were their sister houses.

The privilege of Pope EugeniusV became quite important for the houses in Miinster, Cologne, and Wesel. They obtained, under law, the status of a collegium, so they were allowed to build a bell tower, to enact statutes, and to elect a director as praepositus. Up until this time, they had only been permitted to elect the paterfamilias as primus inter pares. Furthermore, their houses were exempted from the parish and put under the charge of the bishop. In 1499, the attempt to unite all German houses of brothers failed.

In conferences of the union the brothers found ways of improving their life in the com- munity. Periodic visitations created an intact sense of community in the early sixteenth cen- tury, although with different habits in some houses. An attempt to tighten the legal bonds among the houses of brothers not united by the papal privilege was unsuccessful. This meant that there was an increased danger of interventions by new religious, secular, and spiritual authorities in their houses.

There are hardly any narrative sources of the communities at the beginning of Luther's active work. The author analyzed the Doesburger chronicle and the correspondence of the brothers. These detail the reactions of the brothers to the reformational movement, and included worry, anxiety, and incertainty. As a result, many a brother left.

In spite of all restrictive measures, the brothers ensured their existence during the six- teenth century. It is noticeable that they did not participate in the introduction of the Ref- ormation. Some chapters in the book deal with the personal and economic status of the brothers.The houses in Magdeburg and Merseburg fell victim to the municipal Reforma- tion. Admission to the houses was no longer allowed and the brothers were even asked to leave the community. Philip of Hesse closed the houses in Marburg and Kassel.

In the chapter evaluating life in the community, the author presents Luther's doctrine that vows are attempts to consider human merits instead of believing only in the grace of God. This is described in Luther's publication against monasticism, De votis monasticis iudi- cium. Most of the houses of brothers kept their old faith as long as possible, in spite of initial openness to Luther. Hinz holds the opinion that Luther's doctrine of monasticism is the reason of the break with the reformer. Frater J. Holtmann of Miinster published Unter- weisung zum geistlichen Leben, in which he argued that the grace of God was the origin of all justification, but that the actions of humans created through grace and love are important. In Herford, Gerhard Wilskamp's publication Grund des Fraterlevendes proved essential for the identity of the brothers and their understanding of freedom as defined in Martin Luther's libertas evangelica.Wilskamp regarded life in community as ordo apostolorum or ordo dis- cipulorum Christi, which was appreciated by both Luther and Melanchthon, simply because many of the brothers also appreciated the evangelical doctrine.The house of broth- ers Zum Springborn in Miinster was saved after the recapture of the town by Catholics in 1535; as the oldest house, it was given a leading status among the other houses. This house helped others in different ways and pressed the other communities to accept the resolutions

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Book Reviews 243

of the Council of Trent demanding the realization of the reform in the life and practice of the church.

Pope PiusV put special emphasis on poverty, obedience, and enclosure for regular com- munities. He abolished all communities following a via media and living together in free- dom with the bull Lubricum vitae genus of 1568. The brothers of Doesburg dropped out, while others adapted as secular clergy and redivided their common property. The house in Wesel was closed thanks to Pius V. Throughout the phase of Catholic reform and Counter- Reformation, the houses were in danger of being closed, because they had been suggested as new residences forJesuits or diocese seminaries.

All in all, the book offers confessional positions as well as the special profile of the Brothers of Common Life in the Northern German area. Furthermore, there is a carefully investigated view of the movement Devotio moderna during the time of reformation. Rudolf K. Hofer......................................................................................

Ii vincolo del giuramento e il tribunale della coscienza. Ed. Nestore Pirillo. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1997. 490 pp. IL 62.000.

The publication of Paolo Prodi's great work on oaths in the constitutional history of the western world (II Sacramento del potere: II giuramento politico nella storia costituzionale dell'Occi- dente [Bologna: Il Mulino, 1992]) has represented an important starting point. The Istituto storico italo-germanico, in collaboration with the Department of Social Theory, History, and Research at the University ofTrent, established four thematic research teams to push forward from Prodi's beginning. The articles presented here reflect the work of the teams gathered in a series of interdisciplinary discussions between 1992 and 1996.

The two-part introduction describes Prodi's investigation and outlines some initial reflections on his work, through essays by Nestore Pirillo and Umberto Allegretti. Prodi's history, as Pirillo relates, placed the oath at the foundation of modern political power, as a dynamic meeting point between sacred and secular authority. The oath, for Prodi, guaran- teed not just ties between rulers and subjects, but also served to bind citizens to one another in a given state. The practice of oath taking, he argued, was anything but static or unchang- ing. Rather, it evolved, illustrating the struggles between ecclesiastical and state institutions. The evolution mirrored also the contention between those institutions and the theological, political, and legal ideology behind them. Pirillo reiterates Prodi's assertion that while oaths are shot through political and legal proceedings everywhere in the west, they are no longer the subject of much interest, let alone fascination, as they were during the Middle Ages. Allegretti goes further, asserting that today many, at first glance, would find Prodi's subject to be of marginal interest at best. Most works of history trace the historical roots, Allegretti explains, of something we are familiar with in the contemporary world. He is correct to identify Prodi's work as unique, in part, because it identifies the contemporary value of something that seems absent from-if not to say ridiculed in-western consciousness today.

The articles that follow reinforce and deepen Prodi's essential insights. In part 2, Paolo De Benedetti, Lorenzo Zani, and Giampietro Bof relate the theological background of oath taking. De Benedetti considered examples from the Hebrew Bible and from the Talmud. These texts illustrate that in Judaic culture, the oath was sometimes public, sometimes pri- vate, and sometimes served as a form of alliance. In his essay on New Testament consider- ation of oaths, Zani reexamines apparently antithetical positions on oath taking from Christian scriptures. He argues that contradictory statements attributed to Jesus on the matter amounted to a unilateral condemnation only of abusive oaths that profaned the name of God. The study by Bof on the oath in history and theology reexamines Prodi's

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