The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

III. Nurnberg Embraces the New Protestant Faith

Four hundred years ago the free town ²⁷ of Nurnberg (Nuremberg) was already famous in Europe. Centrally located on the River Pegnitz, in the midst of the great Franconian plain between the Danube and the Rhine, it was advantageously situated at the crossroads of nations. Founded in the tenth century, it was by the sixteenth a center of industry, art, and letters. ²⁸ It also became a stronghold of liberty. Niirnberg was first governed by burgraves. But this form was succeeded by a great Council of Three Hundred, with a smaller administrative council. Niirnberg, it should be added, was mistress of seven surrounding cities and about 480 villages. PFF2 291.3

Picture 1: REFORMATION EXPOSITION CARVED IN STONE AT NURNBERG
Figure of nebuchadnezzar, seated by the winged lion, symbol of babylon, and of cyrus at right by bear, Symbol of persia, carved over outer portal of city hall in nurnberg (upper); at left statue of alexander the great by grecian leopard, and julius caesar at right by the roman ten-horned beast (center); exterior view of rathaus, or city hall, showing left and extreme right portals with these prophetic symbols, sculptured by leonard Kern in 1607 (lower)
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The Reformation took firm hold there, as Andreas Osiander began to preach the evangelical faith in the Church of St. Lorenz, which was noted as one of the best examples of German Gothic art. ²⁹ Albrecht Diirer, famous painter and sculptor, likewise embraced the Reformed faith and became a friend of Luther. ³⁰ And Hans Sachs, the noted shoemaker-poet, similarly became a disciple, his succession of spiritual songs becoming a power in the Reformation. ³¹ The Rathaus, or Town Hall, was the scene of the famous diets of the empire. This great structure, about 290 feet long, is of Italian design, with three magnificent Doric portals, over which the prophetic beasts of Daniel 7 are carved. ³² These impressive figures, authorized by the city council, were sculptured by the well-known artist, Leonhard Kern, in 1617. They portray in enduring stone the understanding and conviction of the time in the field of prophecy. Under the building are vaulted dungeons and chambers of torture, earlier employed by the “Holy Office” for the prosecution of dissenters and confessors of the reformed faith. ³³ PFF2 293.1

Gutenberg’s revolutionary Invention of movable type was brought to Niirnberg in 1470, the printer Koberger alone publishing over two hundred different works before 1500 on his twenty-four presses, with agents for his product in the principal towns of Christendom. By 1500 twenty-five printers had established themselves in Niirnberg. Significantly enough, the first work of art to leave Koberger’s presses was a magnificent illustrated Bible, in 1483. Theological and other works poured forth, including criticism and satire of popular established abuses. ³⁴ PFF2 293.2

Niirnberg was one of the first towns to express sympathy with Martin Luther when he nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the castle-church door at Wittenberg, in 1517, against “the crime of false pardons.” Luther came to Niirnberg in the course of the next year, on his way to Augsburg to answer for his “heresies” before Cardinal Cajetan. The council was irked by the excommunication of their own Willibald Pirkheimer and Lazarus Spengler (clerk of the council), in the papal bull of 1519 by which Luther was excommunicated, and refused to interfere with the printing of Luther’s works. The council also sent Spengler to represent Niirnberg at the Diet of Worms, called by Charles V in 1521. ³⁵ PFF2 294.1

When an imperial edict forbade representatives of the towns to meet at Spires to discuss religious matters, they met at Rothenberg, and Niirnberg boldly gave reasons why it should not obey the decree. It determined on a new form of worship. The sacrament was now administered in both kinds, and the mass was read in German, with Lutheran omissions. Other towns followed Niirnberg, and imitated her Lutheran services. Dislike for monasteries and nunneries broke out, and satires and cartoons appeared against nuns and monks. After discussion by the council Osiander called upon the council for immediate action. The council gave its vote for the Lutheran cause and cast in its lot with the Reformation. ³⁶ PFF2 294.2

Niirnberg threw itself heartily into the tide of the Reform movement. In the churches of St. Sebald and St. Lorenz, beautified by great artists, the tapers were extinguished, the images removed, and the clouds of incense disappeared. Interest centered for the moment in the Diet of Spires. Then, in 1525, the council declared the Evangelical party victorious. ³⁷ Evangelical pastors were appointed, and the Reformation established. Luther had first visited the town in 1518, and Melanchthon ³⁸ came in 1525 to found a new gymnasium, or classical preparatory school, in which the principles of the Reformation were to be taught. ³⁹ PFF2 294.3