Nuremberg

The imperial city of Nuremberg played a pioneering role in the introduction and institutionalisation of the Reformation and influenced the neighbouring Franconian regions in particular. Some humanistically educated citizens read Martin Luther’s writings (1483–1546) early on and met the reformer personally in October 1518 during his stay in the imperial city.

When in 1520/21, the provosts’ offices of the parish churches of Saint Sebald and Saint Lawrence stood vacant, the Council occupied them with followers of Luther. Shortly afterwards, reformatory disposed theologians were also appointed as preachers: Andreas Osiander (1498–1552) to Saint Lawrence and Dominikus Schleupner (1483–1547) to Saint Sebald. Together with a number of personages from the citizenry on the council, in particular the secretary Lazarus Spengler (1479–1534), they were responsible for the establishment of the Lutheran doctrine among the population of Nuremberg.

Since the tensions between the followers of the old and the new doctrine increased, in the spring of 1525 a religious dialogue between the preachers of both confessions took place in the town hall. Due to the superiority of the reformatory side, the council formally introduced the Reformation. It banned the “papist mass” and took over ecclesiastical sovereignty. The monasteries in part dissolved themselves, but especially the Clarisse Convent under the leadership of Abbess Caritas Pirckheimer (1467–1532) put up resistance.

In 1528, Nuremberg together with Margrave George the Pious (1484–1543, 1515–1543 margrave of Ansbach, 1515/1527–1541 margrave/regent of Kulmbach) of Ansbach-Kulmbach conducted a visitation. The results offered the foundation for an ecclesiastical order mainly elaborated by Osiander, which came into force in early 1533 in Nuremberg and in the margraviates of Ansbach and Kulmbach. It became a model for further orders of worship.