Reform und Reformation. Geschichte der deutschen Reformkongregation der Augustinereremiten (1432-1539) by Wolfgang Günter (review)

The starting point of the book is the year 1432; its endpoint the year 1539. In between, we find the hundred years of history of a group of religious men who are known as the friars of the German Reform Congregation of the Order of St. Augustine, a mendicant order, to which Martin Luther belonged. Why these dates? They mark the time between the Council of Basel, which lasted from 1431 to 1449, and the time of the termination of the last friaries of the reformed Augustinians in Saxony by its territorial lord who in 1539 officially introduced the Lutheran Reformation in his realm.

Prior to the Council of Basel a small reform congregation of Augustinians had formed in Saxony. In their reform efforts with respect to upholding monastic discipline (also called "observance"), they had to struggle with their superiors (provincials) and had to seek help from the Council, pope, and also political leaders. Under their long-serving vicar general, the authoritarian Andreas Proles (1429–1503), the reform congregation gained more than regional significance. Under the other vicar general, Johann von Staupitz (who, however, died in 1524 as the abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Salzburg), the reform congregation finally ended in the estuary of the Reformation in German-speaking lands since its most prominent member then was Martin Luther (1483–1546), who had entered the Order in 1505 and who left the Order and got married in 1525.

Wolfgang Günter is profoundly familiar with the respective historical studies by his colleagues, the German scholars, both Catholic and Protestant, Theodor Kolde (1850–1913), Winfried Hümpfner, O.S.A. (1889–1962), Adalbero Kunzelmann, O.S.A. (1898–1975), Hans Schneider (*1941), Manfred Schulze (*1945), Hellmut Zschoch (*1957), and Ralph Weinbrenner (*1962). Their works are included in Günter's short review of the history of research on the subject (pp. 11–18). One could argue that the contributions of other scholars who focus on the same subject, such as Rudolph Arbesmann, O.S.A. (1895–1982), Adolar Zumkeller, O.S.A. (1915–2011), Heiko A. Oberman (1930–2001), Lothar Graf zu Dohna (*1924), or Richard Wetzel (*1936), should also be included in that review. Their works are, indeed, acknowledged, used, and listed in the bibliography.

The author's own starting point was influenced by the new source material that he was able to uncover in various archives—to the effect that Kolde's interpretation, which was influential for so many decades, may now appear outdated. Günter offers a revised view of the observant (reform) congregation, now within its international networking and its good connections to the headquarters of the order in Rome. With Staupitz's leading role on the eve of and during the early Reformation, the reform congregation of the Augustinians had become a factor in European history (p. 18).

Scholars who expected to learn of Günter's opinion concerning the theological connections between Staupitz and Luther or between the Augustinian Order and the Reformation will be a bit disappointed because the author has explicitly refrained from investigating them. Any definite answers are not to be expected from present-day research due to what the author calls an on-going "moratorium" in this regard. The author does not enter into a discussion of the characterization of Staupitz as found in my The Front-Runner of the Catholic Reformation (2003). Günter is reluctant to enter into discussions on theological issues.

The great strength of his monumental study is the author's meticulous work directly from the sources, although the source material with respect to the spirituality (Innenleben) of the Reform Congregation is very scarce. Günter includes an appendix of forty-four legal documents which comprise about one hundred pages (pp. 437–533); they mirror the quarrels among the Augustinians in German lands—"quarrels" of which...