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  • Luther in Latvian
  • Guntis Kalme

For generations, only Luther's Small Catechism and some of his hymns (such as Ein feste Burg; Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott; Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her; Aus tiefer Not) were translated into the Latvian language. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and especially in this last generation, many more works have been translated.

Livonia, a confederation of the territories of the Livonian Order and several bishoprics from 1225 to 1561, was located south of Scandinavia at the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea in the area of present-day Latvia and Estonia. The territory was colonized by German knights during the thirteenth century. Rīga, the capital of Livonia, embraced the Reformation already in 1522, thus becoming the first city outside of Germany to accept Luther's teachings. The main influence in the original turn toward the Reformation was not Luther's writings but rather the Lutheran preachers who for different reasons came to Rīga. Andreas Knöpken (1468–1539), under the influence of Luther's On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church and of his colleague Johannes Bugenhagen at Treptow's city school, accepted Reformation ideas. Knöpken arrived in Rīga in 1521 with a recommendation letter from Melanchthon. The turning point was the debate between Knöpken, then the Chaplain of St. Peter's, and the Franciscans on June 12, 1522. Knöpken defended twenty-four theses emphasizing justification by faith and attacking medieval church practices. On October 23, 1522, the city council appointed Knöpken as the archdeacon of St. Peter's Church and a Lutheran preacher named Sylvester Tegetmeier (?–1552) as a pastor at St. James. [End Page 435]

Luther knew of these developments and in September of 1523 he wrote To the Christians in Rīga, Reval, and Dorpat.1 In February of 1524 he wrote to Spalatin: "The Gospel has begun and spread in Livonia, especially around Rīga successfully . . . So amazing is Christ."2 To the mayor's response on behalf of the entire Christian Church in Rīga, Luther on June 17, 1524, sent the Exposition of Psalm 127 for the Christians of Rīga and Livonia3 and A Christian Exhortation to the Livonians Concerning Public Worship and Concord.4 Luther's support was instrumental for Rīga to become one of the leading cities of the Reformation in Europe. The first indigenous Latvian-speaking people who accepted the evangelical faith were the workers who comprised more than a third of the inhabitants of Rī (approx. 2500). They became familiar with the ideas of the Reformation through their guilds which had their own priests; for example, Knöpken served the salt loaders. In 1524, a Latvian Lutheran congregation was established at St. James. Notable preachers in Latvian were Nicolaus Ramm (?–1532), Lorenz von Scheden (?–1534), and Johannes Eck (?–1552). Outside of Rīga, Latvian Lutheran congregations were established in Cēsis (1524), Valmiera Valmiera (1530?), Bauska (1530), Tukums (before 1535), Umurga (1532), Aloja (1534), Rubene (1546) and Sventāja. Luther's Reformation and the attendant sermons, liturgical texts, and hymns in the vernacular slowly but surely started to change the religious self-awareness of the Latvians.

Duchy of Courland (1561–1795)

In 1561 Gotthard Kettler (1517–87), the last Master of the Livonian Order, converted to Lutheranism, and became the secular duke of Courland and Semigallia (the western and central parts of Latvia). In 1567 he ordered the establishment of more than seventy congregations, as well as the building or rebuilding of churches, schools, poor houses, and pastors' houses. At this point, the Latvian order of service was available only in manuscript. In order to make the service more available for the Latvians Kettler sponsored the publication of the Latvian Church Agenda. Under the title Enchiridion, it was printed in Königsberg 1586–87. It included the translation of Luther's Small Catechism by pastor Johann Rivius (?–1586), which is the earliest [End Page 436] surviving text of the Small Catechism in Latvian. This Enchiridion also included twenty-eight of Luther's hymns, the order of service and pericopes, as well as a translation of Undeutsche Psalmen.5 Because the...

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