Crossing the Boundaries of Belief: Geographies of Religious Conversion in Southern Germany, 1648-1800

Introduction

1 On the eve of August 14, 1658, in one of Augsburg’s many taverns, a Lutheran man known in the official record simply as Knapp began singing Psalm 25 to a confessionally mixed group of customers. A decade following the end of the Thirty Years’ War and the implementation of the Peace of Westphalia,LutheransandCatholics were sharingdrinkstogether. They did not, however, share in the singing. At first, Knapp forgot the song’s melody, but then Matthäus Schmid, another Lutheran, picked up where Knapp left off, singing the psalm to completion. After finishing, Schmid gave a spontaneous commentary on the lyrics. Unfortunately, his remarks are not recorded in the archival documentation. Still, the audience would have recognized the psalm’s central theme: the virtue of unwavering religious faith in the midst of treacherous , menacing enemies. In you, Lord my God, I put my trust. I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, But shame will come on those Introduction 2 • Crossing the Boundaries of Belief Who are treacherous without cause. Show me your ways, Lord. Teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me. For you are God my Savior, And my hope is in you all day long. . . . Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted. Relieve the troubles of my heart And free me from my anguish. Look on my affliction and my distress And take away all my sins. See how numerous are my enemies And how fiercely they hate me! Such verses would have definitely ignited tensions in a religiously diverse audience before 1648, when Calvinists, Catholics, and Lutherans were at war, but even after the Peace, in a city renowned for its political parity between Lutheran and Catholic confessional communities, the song sparked an unfriendly exchange between two men drinking together that evening: Melchior Zagelmaier, a Lutheran weaver originally from Donauwörth but now living and working in Augsburg, and Daniel Weilbach, a recent convert to Catholicism . The words they exchanged after Schmid’s performance resulted three days later in Zagelmaier’s arrest and interrogation by the Augsburg magistrates for violating the religious peace. Zagelmaier explained to the Catholic and Lutheran magistrates how the squabblehadensued.HeandtheconvertWeilbachbeganbickeringafterWeilbach challenged Schmid’s interpretation of the psalm’s lyrics.1 Cautious not to seem too aggressive before the judges, Zagelmaier reported that he had simply tried to understand why Weilbach found fault with the content of the psalm. Over the course of their conversation, Zagelmaier wanted Weilbach to admit the superior virtue of those who remain steadfast in their faith, even when faced by religious enemies. Grasping for an analogy, Zagelmaier brought up Weilbach’s father, “who was Lutheran, just like you were once, and who often said he would sooner let his head be chopped off than ever abandon the Augsburg Confession.” Zagelmaier had known Weilbach’s father and had respected the man’s religious commitment. Mentioning Weilbach’s father intended to Introduction • 3 contrast the father’s Lutheran loyalty with the younger Weilbach’s inconstancy. Thus, Zagelmaier’s next question was pure provocation: “So what do you believe in now?” One can easily imagine the biting ring of sarcasm as Zagelmaier emphasized the word “now.” According to Zagelmaier’s own testimony, Weilbach articulated a confessionally neutral answer: “I believe in the Holy Trinity.” Zagelmaier responded, “So do I, but you have others besides to intercede on your behalf.” “Yes,” said Weilbach, referring to the Catholic Church’s cult of the saints, “the blessed Virgin Mary and others as well.” Zagelmaier admitted to pushing Weilbach further: “I don’t think the Virgin Mary can pray on your behalf. Did you learn that from your father, who belonged to the Augsburg Confession?” Again, Zagelmaier felt compelled to remind Weilbach of the divide between his newly adopted Catholicism and his father’s Protestantism. To this, Weilbach answered simply, “No.” At this point in the interrogation, the judges’ questions became more pointed and less patient, unwilling to let Zagelmaier so freely narrate the conversation : Question 9: Did not the arrested Zagelmaier unleash the following calumnious [lästerlich] words, accusing Weilbach of getting his beliefs about the Virgin Mary from the devil (God protect us), and stating that all who have fallen from the faith belong to...