The German Clergy: Mobility Had Benefits

Every town and village in German lands had or needed a priest. So did all the places in between that extended through the rural countryside. At least to administer the sacraments, say Mass, baptize and christen babies, to preach, bury the dead and keep records. For this they were paid a tithe, they took in a collection. But, Thomas A Brady Jr tells us, most of these priests for small towns were individually poor. Overseeing these necessary rites for every Christian soul wasn't enough to live on, unless they could be done at several places. To improve one's lot in the priesthood a young man had often better chances in the cities.

There, or at university, he might learn that there were many cities of men, but, as in St Augustine's construction, only one city of God. The job of the clergy, Brady reminds us, was to tend the channels or, the means for grace, in connecting these two cities. [p. 49] If the city of God was perfect, then the city of men was far from that and thus needed more channels, more means for connection and communication between the two.

The organization of the church was widespread, far-reaching, ancient and well understood, both in theory and in practice. The sins of man were also understood but could be managed and held back, in theory, by enough servants, at all levels in the hierarchy, topped by the bishops, and extending across German lands and all the way to Rome. Brady reminds as well that there was also the parallel structure of the many orders, the abbeys, convents, monasteries, nunneries, etc. which also had their own structures, priorities and means.

These efforts required benefices to operate. A benefice could be anything and come from anywhere. But they were usually delivered promises. A lord, widow or bishop might give a benefice of land, a castle, a vineyard, or a wine press. The benefit might be remitted by an annual clutch of chickens or sheep, pigs, cattle, or a shipment of parchment. An abbey or order might agree to provide the product of their work to a church or parish in order to maintain their end of a benefice that they had received in days gone by. In short, an agreement had been struck, services were rendered - the delivering of food or fruit or garlands for a holy festival, the ill or maimed getting tended to, sermons being preached - and all in the name of the mercy of God.

In the period 1450 to 1520, Brady tells us that, in the diocese of Strasbourg, 400 of 529 parish priests came from somewhere else. Most were Swabians and Bavarians, with different dialects and 'foreign ways'. They came to this growing city, he suggests, because that is where new benefices could be found. But this example illustrates the trend of new priests making their way in the growing cities. [p.51]

A priest in the fifteenth century here did not even need to remain celibate. A papal dispensation could grant exemption for their sons entering priesthood since officially they were born out of wedlock. This relatively new admission by the church was born from necessity in order to prevent and reduce scandal. But it was also helpful in educating upcoming clergy. Those clergy that had education saw the value in it and if they had children would want to extend that to the next generation, whether legitimately born or not. This change in social mores would extend throughout Protestantism and, in time, many eventually would insist that clergy be married, in order to ensure the education of their children.

There were also many 'regular' clergy assigned to some abbey or monastery, one of the conventual or observant orders or, one of the other mendicant, wandering or beguine orders. More than thirty different orders in German lands, along with dozens or hundreds of much smaller 'collegiate chapters', Brady says. A century after the black plague had struck and, with its deprivations and hardships still in present memory, the impulse to reform lax conventuals gained earnest adherents.

"... the old monastic orders, particularly the Cictercians and Carthusians, remained relatively strict, while others were generally lax, notably the many foundations of canonesses who lived under versions of the Augustinian or Benedictine rule but sometimes kept private servants and property... The struggles to return to the rules were especially pronounced among the mendicants, whose programs went under the name of "Observance,"... ." [p. 53]

The Benedictines did well too. But they led many of the reforms from within. In 1446 the Council of Basel gave approval for six Benedictine abbeys, for example, who chose to follow a stricter life. This spread the practice widely, as was the notion of reform. But reform is popular where corruption is perceived. These regular clergies would get the worst of the criticism until Savonarola.

A great example that Brady mentions is Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516). Abbot at Sponheim by 1483, "... he labored to turn a poor, lax, and physically ruinous abbey into an important center of learning." [p.54]
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quotes and pagination from: Thomas A Brady Jr: German Histories in The Age of Reformations, 1400-1650;  University of California, Berkeley for the Cambridge Univeristy Press, 2009