Veit Bild, Grund vnnd Schriftliche anzaygungen auß hailiger geschrifft des aynigen Artickel halber vnnsers glaubens Nemlich Christum zun hellen hynunde..., Augsburg 1525 (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, 4 Polem. 1444)

By 1524/25 the Augsburg Benedictine monk, Veit Bild (1481–1529), had not yet broken with the reformatory doctrine. The pamphlet “Grund und schriftlich anzaygung…” (i.e. cause and written notice) printed anonymously with Ulhart in Augsburg in 1525, seems to attest to it. Scholarship attributes the pamphlet to Bild.

In it, Bild deals with the idea of the journey of Christ through the realm of the dead, which he tries to prove by means of several passages from the Bible. Bild formulated the pamphlet as a sermon in which he responded to a request from his confrères at the Benedictine monastery in Augsburg.

The brothers had wanted to know why Christ’s descend into the realm of the dead was included in the Apostles’ Creed, but not in the Creed of Nicaea. In the Apostles’ Creed, the corresponding passage reads “descendit ad inferos” (descended into the realm of the dead). For his answer, Bild uses texts by reformers, i.e. Martin Luther (1483–1546), Johannes Bugenhagen (1485–1558) and Urbanus Rhegius (1489–1541).

To the digitised copy