§ 96. THE REFORMATION IN NORTH GERMANY. 575
He was prior of an Augustinian convent at Dort, and preached there and in Antwerp the doctrines of the Reformation, but had to flee for his life. He followed an invitation to preach in Ditmar, but met with opposition, and was burnt to death by a fanatical and drunken mob excited by the monks. Luther published an account of his death, and dedicated it to the Christians in Bremen, with an exposition of the tenth Psalm. He rejoiced in the return of the spirit of martyrdom, which, he says, “is horrible to behold before the world, but precious in the sight of God.” !
In 1527 all the churches of Bremen were in charge of Protestant pastors, and afterwards divided between the Lutheran and Reformed Confessions. The convents were turned into schools and hospitals.
Hamburg, which shares with Bremen the supremacy in the North German and maritime commerce, followed in 1523. Five years later Dr. Bugenhagen, called Pomeranus (1485- 1558), was called from Wittenberg to superintend the changes. This Reformer, Luther’s faithful friend and pastor, had a special gift of government, and was the principal organizer of the Lutheran churches in Northern Germany and Denmark. For this purpose he labored in the cities of Braunschweig (1528), Hamburg (1529), Liibeck (1580-1532), in his native Pomerania (1534), and in Denmark, where he spent nearly five years (1537-1542). His church constitutions were models.”
Liibeck, a rich commercial city, and capital of the Hanseatic
1 Vom Bruder Heinrich in Ditmar verbrannt, Wittenberg, 1525, in the Erl. ed. XX VI. 313-837; in Walch, X XI. 94 sqq. Comp. Paul Crocius, Das grosse Martyrbuch, Bremen, 1682. Klaus Harms, Heinrich von Ziitphen, in Piper’s ‘‘ Evang. Kalender,’’ 1852.
2 Printed in Richter, Die evang. Kirchenordnungen, vol. I. C. Bertheau, Bugenhagen’s Kirchenordnung fiir die Stadt Hamburg vom J. 1529, 1885. L. Hanselmann, B.’s Kirchenordnung 7. d. Stadt Braunschweig, 1885. Frantz, Die evangelische Kirchenverfassung in den deutschen Sta&dten des 16. Jahrh., Halle, 1876. Vogt, Johannes Bugenhagen Pomeranus, Elberfeld, 1867. The year 1885, the fourth centennial of Bugenhagen’s birth, called
out several popular sketches of his life by Knauth, Petrich, Zitzlaff, and Hering (1888). See also O. Vogt, Bugenhagen’s Briefwechsel, Stettin, 1888.
576 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1580.
League, expelled the first Lutheran preachers, but recalled them, and removed the priests in 1529. Bugenhagen completed the work.
In Braunschweig-Lineburg, Duke Ernst the Confessor favored the new doctrines in 1527, and committed the prosecution of the work to Urbanus Rhegius, whom he met at the Diet of Augsburg, 1530.
Rhegius ! (1489-1541) belongs to the second class of Reformers. He was the son of a priest on the Lake of Constance, educated at Lindau, Freiburg-i.-B. (in the house of Zasius), and Ingolstadt under Dr. Eck, and ordained priest at Constance (1519). He joined the humanistie school, entered into correspondence with Erasmus, Faber, and Zwingli, and became an imperial orator and poet-laureate, though his poetry is stiff and conventional. He acquired the doctorate ‘ of divinity at Basel. He was called to Augsburg by the magistrate, and labored as preacher in the Dome from 1528 to 15380. He passed from Romanism to Lutheranism, from Lutheranism to Zwinglianism, and back to a moderate Lutheranism. He sympathized most with Bucer, and labored afterwards for the Wittenberg Concordia. The imperial prohibition of Protestant preaching, June 16, 1530, terminated his career in Augsburg, though he remained till Aug. 26, and conferred much with Bucer and Melanchthon.
He now entered upon his more important and permanent labors as general superintendent of Lineberg, and took the leading part in the Reformation of Celle, Hannover, Minden, Soest, Lemgo, and other places; but he gives a doleful description of the moral condition. He attended the colloquy at Hagenau, and died soon after his return, May 27, 1541.
He wrote two catechisms and several devotional books. In his earlier career he was vain, changeable, and factious. He lacked originality, but had the talent of utilizing and popularizing the new ideas of others. Luther gives him the
1 So he spells his name (Rieger in German), not Regius (Konig).