Thomas Murner

Thomas Murner as chancellor of the Gäuchmatt. Ambrosius Holbein (1519)

Thomas Murner, OFM (24 December 1475 – c. 1537) was an Alsatian satirist, poet and translator.

Early life and education

He was born at Oberehnheim (Obernai) near Strasbourg. In 1490 he entered the Franciscan order, and in 1495 began travelling, studying and then teaching and preaching in Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Paris, Cracow and Strasbourg itself. The emperor Maximilian I crowned him in 1505 poeta laureatus; in 1506, he was created doctor theologiae. In 1508, while a preacher of the St. Martin church in Freiburg, he defied a recently died and relative of Ulrich Zasius as well as the scribe of Freiburg. Since, both shall have let Murner know of their enmity. In 1513 was appointed custodian of the Franciscan monastery in Strasbourg, an office which he was forced to vacate the following year for having published a scurrilous book.

Professional career

In 1518, he began the study of jurisprudence at the University of Basel, and in 1519 took the degree of doctor juris. Zasius tried to prevent his graduation appealing to the professor of the University Claudius Catiuncula, but without success. In jurisprudence, Murner focused on the Institutes of Justinian and their translation in the German language from Latin. He hoped that in their native language, the students would have a better understanding of the jurisprudence before often learned from books in a foreign language. In October 1518 his book Utriusque iuris Tituli et Regule was published by Adam Petri in Basel which still included most of the text still in both languages, Latin and German. In April 1519, he published the Instituten in warer ursprung, where the foreword and text were held in the German language and the chapters printed in Latin. But also the chapters counted with a translation into the German language.

In the summer of 1523, at the invitation of Henry VIII, he went to the Kingdom of England, where his writings had caught the attention of Thomas More.

John Headley credits Murner for making More aware of the radical nature of Martin Luther's ecclesiology. Henry VIII felt that Murner was an important orthodox influence in Strasbourg and gave him £100 and a letter to the city magistrates.

After this stay, and a journey to Italy, he again settled in Strasbourg, but, disturbed by the Protestant Reformation, went into exile at Lucerne in Switzerland in 1526. In 1533 he was appointed priest of Oberehnheim, where he died in 1537, or, according to some accounts, in 1536.

Murner was an energetic and passionate character, but made enemies wherever he went. There is little human kindness in his satires, which were directed against the corruption of the times, the Reformation, and especially against Martin Luther. His most powerful satire—the most virulent German satire of the period—is Von dem grossen Lutherischen Narren wie ihn Doctor Murner beschworen hat ("On the Great Lutheran Fool", 1522). Others included Die Narrenbeschwörung (1512); Die Schelmenzunft (1512); Die Gäuchmatt, which treats of enamoured fools (1519), and a translation of Virgil's Aeneid (1515) dedicated to the emperor Maximilian I. Murner also wrote the humorous Chartiludium logicae for the teaching of logic (1507) and the Ludus studentum Friburgensium (1511), besides a translation of Justinian's Institutiones (1519).

Murner's satires were edited in the 1840s by Johann Scheible.

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Greatest German satirist of the sixteenth century, b. at Oberehnheim, Alsace, 24 Dec., 1475; d. there, 1537. During the epoch immediately preceding and during the early years of the Reformation, three figures are especially prominent among the loyal champions of the Church in Germany, namely Johann Geller von Kaysersberg, his friend, Sebastian, the well-known satirist, and Thomas Murner, the ablest and most formidable of Luther's opponents. In 1481 Murner's parents, pious people in comfortable circumstances, settled in Strasburg, where his father practised as an advocate. Thomas, who was of delicate health, entered the Franciscan Order at the age of sixteen. After his ordination, he began his restless and unsettled life, visiting the most celebrated universities either as a student or as a teacher. He studied theology at Paris, philosophy and mathematics at Cracow, and law at Freiburg, where he was awarded the degree of bachelor of Theology in 1500. Six years later, when again at Freiburg, he was made Doctor of Theology. In 1518 he graduated Doctor of Laws at Basle. His impulse towards a roving life was due, not only to his love of learning, but also to his mission as a preacher and his zeal for the interests of his order. From 1519 he took part in the controversies which began with the appearance of Luther as a reformer. In 1523 he went to England and was cordially received by Henry VIII, whose book on the sacraments he had translated into German the previous year. On his return to Strasburg, he found himself compelled to fly before the rebellious peasants and seek refuge at Lucerne. Here he became the most determined adversary of Zwingli. Together with Dr. Eck, he took part in the religious discussion at Baden in 1526. When Lucerne was taken in the first War of Kappel (1529), Murner was to have been given up. He managed, however, to escape, and, after many wanderings, was appointed pastor in his birth-place, where he spent the rest of his days.

As an author, Murner was at first an enthusiastic friend of Humanism. In Cracow he lectured on literary æsthetics, and in Freiburg on Vergil, whose "Æneid" he had translated. In token of gratitude for his appointment as poet-laureate in 1505, he dedicated this translation to Emperor Maximilian. In his "Ludus studentum Friburgensium" (1511),Murner explains the rules of prosody and quantity after the fashion of a game of chess and backgammon. This method he had already employed four years before at Cracow in his "Chartiludium logicæ", but his application of it to jurisprudence provoked the derision of the lawyers. His sympathy with Humanism did not save him from the resentment of the Alsacian Humanists, when he attacked Wimpfeling's "Germania", which aimed at proving that Alsace had never belonged to France. Murner's defence of his position, the "Germania nova", was suppressed by the Strasburg authorities: a further attempt at justifying himself against the attacks of the partisans of Wimpfeling also proved unsuccessful, and did not prevent his opponents from distorting his name into Murnar (growling fool). Even, in this early controversy, Murner had shown a sharp eye for his opponents' weaknesses, and a marked gift for exposing them to ridicule: in his subsequent writings, he is revealed as a master of satire. Just as Geiler illustrated his popular sermons with comparisons drawn from everyday life, Murner compares, in his "Andächtige geistliche Badefahrt" (1511), the forgiveness of sins to a hydropathic treatment. In "Narrenbeschwörung" and "Schelmenzunft" he deals with the same subject as Brant's "Narrenschiff", but his work is entirely original in treatment and far surpasses the earlier work in its popular appeal, its wit, and its vigour¯degenerating, indeed, at times into coarseness. His subsequent satires, "Gäuchmatt" (Fools' Meadow) and "Die Mühle von Schwindelsheim und Gretmüllerin Jahrzeit", in which he severely criticizes a special kind of fools, the "fools of love", form a kind of sequel to the "Schelmenzunft". There is no station, either clerical or lay, that is spared from his castigation.

The appearance of Luther diverted Murner's satire into a new course. Regarding the Wittenberg monk at first as a well-intentioned ally in the battle against the evils afflicting the Church, Murner addressed to him in 1520 an appeal entitled "Christliche und brüderliche Ermahnung an den hochgelehrten Doctor Martin Luther", which was followed by other pamphlets refuting and warning him and beseeching him to abandon his ruinous undertaking. In his "Neues Lied vom Untergang des christlichen Glaubens" (1521), Murner gives feeling expression to his sorrow over the destructive tendencies of the religious innovation. But, when the sole effect of his attempts at conciliation was to bring upon him a shower of lies and calumnies, Murner dealt Luther a crushing blow in his work, "Von dem grossen Lutherischen Narren wie ihn Doctor Murner beschworen hat". Here Murner rises to heights of satire elsewhere unattained during his whole epoch. All the reformatory endeavours are embodied in the "Great Fool", and the newly-founded church is treated allegorically as Luther's daughter Adelheid, who "has a shocking scald-head." Murner wrote many other satires against the reformers, but none which in energy and wit equals this work. This work, so full of fight and honest zeal for the old Faith, was subjected to much calumny and derision during his lifetime, but was never vanquished in controversy. Later generations did him justice. Lessing intended to write a "defence" of Murner, and literary historiographers (especially Kurtz, Vilmar, and Gödeke) have recognized his great importance in the history of literature. Critics have pointed out in his works a peculiar and original metrical and rhythmical system, which distinguished him from all poets of his time. His writings show that he possessed in a conspicuous degree the culture of his age. No doubt is entertained to-day of the purity of his intentions and the probity of his character.

GÖDEKE, Grundriss (2nd ed., 1884-1904), II, 215-20, mentions all Murner's (59) works. Recently edited are: Schelmenzunft by MATTHIAS; Gäuchmatt by UHL; Narrenbeschwörung by SPANIER. Consult POPE, Die Metrik u. Rhythmik M.'s (1898); OTT, Ueber M.'s Verhältnis zu Geiler (Allemania, 23). Murner is, of course, not forgotten in the numerous Protestant writings on the Reformation, which generally criticize him severely. Among recent Catholic writings of JANSSEN-PASTOR, Gesch. des deutschen Volkes, VI (15th ed., 1901); SALZER, Illustrierte Gesch. der deutschen Lit. (in course of publication), pp. 520-24.

N. SCHEID