Die Crucigers: Caspar der Ältere, Caspar der Jüngere, und Elisabeth Cruciger in ihrer Bedeutung für die Wittenberger Reformation ed. by Armin Kohnle and Irene Dingel

Abstract

Reviewed by: Die Crucigers: Caspar der Ältere, Caspar der Jüngere, und Elisabeth Cruciger in ihrer Bedeutung für die Wittenberger Reformation ed. by Armin Kohnle and Irene Dingel Timothy J. Wengert Die Crucigers: Caspar der Ältere, Caspar der Jüngere, und Elisabeth Cruciger in ihrer Bedeutung für die Wittenberger Reformation. Edited by Armin Kohnle and Irene Dingel. Leucorea-Studien zur Geschichte der Reformation und der Lutherischen Orthodoxie, 40. Leipzig: Evangelischer Verlagsanstalt, 2021. 474 pp. One of the most helpful series published in the last two decades has been the "Leucorea Studies," focused especially on characters around Luther, Melanchthon, and their university. Not since the mid-nineteenth century, when Theodor Pressel and others wrote the first scientific investigations of those surrounding the central figures, have works described the life and thought of Wittenberg's other reformers. Previous volumes investigated Georg Major, Paul Eber, Johannes Mathesius, Nicolaus von Amsdorff, Johannes Bugenhagen, Katharina von Bora, Johann Stigel (the poet), Georg Rörer (Luther's amanuensis), and Justus Jonas. Others have themes such as the Augsburg Interim or the University of Wittenberg itself ("the Leucorea"). This volume focuses on Caspar Cruciger, Sr. (1504–1548), his first wife Elisabeth (née von Meseritz; 1500/1505?–1535), and their son, Caspar, Jr. (1525–1597)—all important contributors to the Wittenberg Reformation. Given the scant scholarship concerning them, these essays increase our knowledge significantly. Those interested in almost any aspect of Wittenberg's sixteenth-century theology and practice will need to consult this book. Indeed, it is perhaps the very best in the series, as the authors combine new archival and original-source investigations with a careful reading of past scholarship. The appendices (providing bibliographies of the works by Cruciger, Sr. and Jr. and a preliminary list of Cruciger, Sr.' s correspondence) give scholars a fine place to begin work. A variety of authors—from recent graduate students to well-known professors—contribute. [End Page 199] The first eight essays concern aspects of Cruciger, Sr.' s life and work. Johannes Träger traces his origins in and connections with Leipzig; Kestutis Daugirdas maps his later interest in astronomy and Copernican theory; Stefan Michel describes new aspects of his relation to Luther; and Marion Bechtold-Mayer does the same for Melanchthon. Others concern specific events: the Cordatus controversy over the necessity of good works (Anna Lena Jungk), his participation in the religious colloquies of the early 1540s (Irene Dingel), his ecclesiological interests in one of his commentaries on some Psalms (Amy Nelson Burnett), and the crisis over the Interim, coinciding with his death in 1548 (Armin Kohnle). All provide new insights into Cruciger's importance as a first-generation reformer. The five essays concerning Cruciger, Jr. are even more impressive for the wealth of new information and corrections of old legends. Beate Kusche traces his development from member of the arts faculty in the 1550s to banished professor of theology in the mid-1570s. Based upon her work on Wittenberg's Scripta publica, Christiane Domtera-Schleichart provides glimpses into his occasional writings for university life. Hans-Peter Hasse uses his wealth of research about the collapse of Philippism in Wittenberg in the 1570s (Zensur theologischer Bücher [Leipzig, 2000]) to describe in great detail Cruciger, Jr.' s own fall from grace, citing from the (unpublished) protocols of interviews with theological examiners and Elector August's personal intervention into the affair. Corinna Ehlers provides new information about his involvement in the dispute over original sin and the way Melanchthon's later positions played a role in forming his own. Jan Martin Lies puts to rest old myths about Cruciger, Jr.'s later life, showing that first in 1578 he went directly from Saxon house arrest to the landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel, where the Landgrave Wilhelm made him tutor for his son and unsuccessfully tried to get him a position at the University of Marburg. In no case did he expressly support Reformed theology, nor did he play a leading role in the church life in Hessen. Four essays deal with the Cruciger family and Elisabeth von Meseritz. Volker Gummelt looks closely at the fragmentary evidence about her early life and convincingly argues for her birth in Meseritz...