jamesgray2

666J  Jakob Wimpfeling  1450-1528

Concordia curatorum: & fratrum mendicantiu[m]. Carmen elegiacum deplangens discordiam & dissensionem christianorum cuiuscunq[ue] status dignitatis aut professionis.

Straßburg: Johann Prüß, 1503                Price $3,500

Quarto, 20 x 14 cm. Signatures a-b⁴.  Bound in modern bords.  Quite a few notes by a contemporary Rheinish scolar.

After studying philosophy, law, and theology at Freiburg, Erfurt, and Heidelberg (where he was rector of the university in 1481/1482), he served as cathedral vicar in Speyer from 1484 to 1498, then occupied a chair of poetry and rhetoric at Heidelberg until 1501 and finally worked as a teacher and writer in Straßburg and Schlettstadt.

Early treatise on the contemporary abuses of the mendicant friars (chiefly Thomist Dominicans) at Erfurt, penned by the proto- Reformer Jakob Wimpfeling under the pseudonym ‘Wigandus Trebellius’.  Wimpfeling was a member of the celebrated circle of humanists centered on Strasbourg and nearby Sélestat in the late 15th century who maintained close ties with Erasmus. [Heiko Oberman (The Two Reformations, p. 39) identifies the Concordia curatorum as a bold contribution to pre-Reformation agitation in print. 

The title translates roughly as Concord between the [secular] clergy and the mendicant monks. An elegiac poem lamenting the discord and  disagreement among Christians of all statuses, dignities, and professions. The titular poem is found at the very end of the work, preceded by several letters on the same theme by a handful of contributors; the main text (a3r-b4v) is addressed to the reader by Wimpfeling [a.k.a. ‘Trebellius’]. In his chapter “Luther and the Via Moderna”, Heiko Oberman traces pre-Reformation movements for monastic reform and identifies Wimpfeling as an ardent defender of the convicted Erfurt heretic Johann Wesel, himself an outspoken critic of the abuse of church hierarchy who was eventually tried in 1479. Wesel’s unorthodox beliefs ranged from questioning the practices of monasticism, celibacy, and fasting, to refuting the infallibility of the pope. His writings were burned, and he was condemned to life-long imprisonment in an Augustinian monastery where he died in 1481. Wimpfeling’s text is particularly concerned with the discord in Erfurt, and mentions Wesel by name on b4v. “Wimpfeling wrote the treatise Concordia curatorum et fratrum mendicantium, ostensibly as a resolution of the long-standing rivalry between the secular clergy and the mendicant friars. In fact Wimpfeling defended Wesel and assailed the friars. It was published in Strasbourg in 1503 under a pseudonym, like so many other bold tracts of the times; Wesel, he wrote, was not condemned for heresy but for being a secular nominalist rather than a Dominican Thomist.” (Oberman, The Two Reformations, p. 39). Erfurt would remain a hotbed of religious rebellion: in 1510, Martin Luther’s own Augustinian convent there was among those which refused to obey the commands of the Order’s general, Johann Von Staupitz.

Jacob Wimpheling was born in 1450 in the Alsatian town of Schlettstadt. The son of a farmer, he attended the local Latin school run by the renowned Ludwig Dringenberg (1410-1477). He went on to earn a baccalaureate degree from the University of Freiburg and furthered his education at the universities in Erfurt and Heidelberg, earning a master’s degree in 1479 and a licentiate in theology in 1496. Before settling in Strassburg, Wimpheling held the positions of rector at the University of Heidelberg and cathedral preacher at Speyer.

Wimpheling edited the works of medieval theologians and important humanists such as Sebastian Brant, Erasmus, and Pico della Mirandola, but he also authored numerous pieces. He composed Latin poetry and a drama, pieces denouncing the morals of priests, and historical works about Germany including the Epitome rerum Germanicarum (Digest of German History), the first history that was exclusively devoted to Germany.

In addition to his interests in theology and history, Wimpheling was a proponent of education. He gained the reputation of being one of the most important education reformers in Germany. One of his earliest ventures was to urge the city of Strassburg to establish a more advanced system of schools in his work, Germania (Germany). Wimpheling also evaluated curriculum and advocated for new practices. He recognized the the importance of Latin in his Elegantiarum medulla (Kernel of Elegances) and articulated his theories about pedagogy in two works, the Isidoneus germanicus (Guide for Germans) and Adolescentia (Youth). The former focuses on methods and school life. Wimpheling identifies faults with previous teaching methods, particularly those associated with medieval Scholasticism and argues for teaching what is necessary, including Latin grammar based on examples from a list of authors he identified as essential to know. Wimpheling also discusses qualifications teachers should have. The latter work expands upon practices and asserts that moral education is equally important. Wimpheling encourages German teachers to teach authors who are grounded in sound moral and ethical principles and to help children develop and perfect their thought and dispositions. These three works were influential in the sixteenth-century efforts to reform German school curricula so that it included the study important works of pagan, Greco-Roman authors without contradicting notions of Christian piety.

VD 16 T 1850 &. T 1851

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