918J Briesmann, Johannes 1488–1549

Vnderricht vnd ermanung Doct. Johannis Grießsmans, Barfůsser Ordens, an die Christlich gemain zů Cotbus 

Wittenberg, 1523. (Augsburg, Steiner,* 1523.)      Price $3,500

Quarto.  A-B4     Bound in later vellum covered with printed leaf   

The Prussian theologian Johannes Briesmann (also Brismann or Briessmann,or as here Grießsmans) was a follower of Luther and an advocate of his teachings. In 1523, on Luther’s advice, he was dismissed from the theological faculty in Wittenberg and appointed to Königsberg to reorganize church affairs. This extremely rare work is directed against Jacob Schwederich, who had slandered Briesmann and Luther in front of the Cottbus congregation

Johannes Briesmann he was serving as lecturer at the University of Wittenberg and pastor at St. Anne’s, directly participating in Luther’s early didactic reform of the arts and theology faculties. The Underricht und Ermanung is, , a catechetical sermon extended into pamphlet form—a teaching exercise aimed at clarifying Luther’s doctrine of faith, confession, and ecclesial authority against slander (Jacob Schwederich). 

Briesmann’s tract is organized around disputation and exhortation rather than scholastic quaestio.  This hybrid form (half-lecture, half-sermon) was typical of Wittenberg-trained reformers and shows the didactic transposition of university theology into parish pedagogy.

Luther’s 1520s reforms sought to fuse the “doctrina et vita” model of the medieval studium with evangelical preaching. Briesmann embodies this transition: a university master turned pastor doctor. His tract shows how Luther’s didactic reforms radiated outward from Wittenberg into civic and parish life, using the printed word as an extension of the classroom.

VD16 B 8306. – not in  Adams or  Panzer. –

* Actual place of publication and publisher statement from VD 16; in his Letter to the Folger, 11-30-78, J. Benzing gives: Melchior Ramminger, Augsburg as printer.