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953J  Ferdinand I. Heiliges Römisches Reich, Kaiser Österreich. 1503-1564  Verfasserin (Author)

Ein New Mandat Koniglicher Maiestat zu Hungarn vñ Behem an alle Herrn vñ Stende Ober vnd Nider Schlesien vnd bayder Laußnitz die sachen des glaubens betreffendt.; neues beider Lausitz; Ein neu Mandat an alle Herrn und Stände Ober- und Niederschlesien … die Sachen des Glaubens betreffend; Ein New Mandat Koniglicher Maiestat zu Hungarn vñ Behem an alle Herrn vñ Stende Ober vnd Nider Schlesien vnd bayder Laußnitz die sachen des glaubens betreffendt.

Dresden: Stöckel, Wolfgang.   1529                                               Price $3,600

Quarto cm Signatures; A-B⁴ Modern half parchment. Slight, even browning; minor foxing; a tiny wormtrack. Bound in modern half leather boards.

A very rare royal mandate issued by Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria and later Holy Roman Emperor, addressing all Lords and Estates of Upper and Lower Silesia and both Lusatias regarding matters of faith and the handling of Reformation literature. Printed at Dresden by Wolfgang Stöckel in 1529, this decree was given at Wenceslas’ Castle in our royal palace in Prague, the first day of August” 1528.

“Because through the printing of Lutheran, Karlstadtian, Zwinglian, Oecolampadian, and other heretical books of the new sects, many contradictory and almost as many different beliefs as there are people have been introduced, it is our earnest will and intention that henceforth these or similar books and tracts, which have hitherto been the beginning and cause of unheard-of evils, shall not be printed, bought, sold, given away, read, or kept in any place, but shall be burned immediately without further delay, under penalty of our severe punishment and displeasure.” –

This text belongs to the earliest phase of Habsburg attempts to contain Lutheran teaching in the eastern territories of the Empire. These edicts are among the first documents to reveal the monarchy’s anxiety about the rapid spread of evangelical preachers and illicit pamphlets in Silesia, Görlitz, Bautzen, and the Lusatian towns.

The mandate orders local authorities to suppress unlicensed preachers, to report and confiscate Lutheran books, and to enforce obedience to Catholic rites pending further royal instruction. Its tone reflects the period before Ferdinand adopted more pragmatic toleration; here, the Habsburg state still believes rigorous policing of print and preaching might reverse the evangelical tide.

VD16 ZV 16104   ; urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10999223-4; https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10999223?page=2,