the mystical theology of valentin weigel - DataSpace at Princeton ...

spokesman for the state-sponsored Lutheran Church, whereas the Layman voices
Weigel’s own beliefs as the pious layperson, 6 and Mors speaks for Christ. As their debate
unfolds, the Preacher finds himself rhetorically out-maneuvered by the Layman and
Death, but declares that he is unable to deviate from his theological positions because he
has sworn an oath to uphold the teaching contained in confessional books and theological
treatises, and does not want to be “vorketzert und zum Lande ausgetrieben” for breaking
his oath. 7 The Layman has little sympathy, as he had also once signed under duress (“aus
beweglichen Ursachen”), but dismisses his “Verschreiben” on the grounds that the oath
he made did not pledge loyalty to “Menschenbücher” but rather to the writings of the
Prophets and Apostles alone. Others are loyal to mere men (the Pope, Luther,
Melanchthon, Zwingli, or Mohammed), but he is only loyal to Christ: “An Jesum
Christum hange ich mich, bei den Schrifften der Aposteln und Propheten bleibe ich bis in
den Tod.” 8 The Preacher asks again how he can claim not to be loyal to human books and
drawing is quite rough, it does suggest that the characters are interacting (they face each other with
complementary gestures, the Auditor’s mouth appears to be open, as if the sketch arrested him mid-speech)
in an imaginary (or staged?) space suggested by the grass/vegetation on which they stand. Moreover, some
of the usual lengthy subtitles in Weigel’s text are even reminiscent of stage directions, suggesting a change
of scene: the last chapter shifts the action to a field somewhere (“auf dem Felde”) in which the ghosts of the
two main characters, and Death, appear to the Auditor’s brothers to testify from beyond the grave. The
sketch is reprinted in Dialogus, 2-3. Alternatively, this small sketch could be drawing on the iconography
of the Todtentanz. This suggestion is thanks to Monika Schausten from the Universität Siegen, who
commented on a conference paper I gave on Weigel’s Dialogus in March, 2012 at Princeton University. On
the Totentanz see Zentralinstitut und Museum für Sepulkralkultur, Tanz der Toten – Todestanz: Der
Monumentale Totentanz im deutschsprachigen Raum, ed. Wolfgang Neumann (Dettelbach: J.H. Röll,
1998); Ihr müßt alle nach meiner Pfeife tanzen: Totentänze vom 15. bis 20. Jahrhunder aus den Beständen
der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel und der Bibliothek Otto Schäfer Schweinfurt, ed. Winfried Frey
and Hartmut Freytag (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000).
6 Curiously, Weigel imagines himself not as the ordained minister and servant of the state (as he in reality
was) but rather as a member of a congregation; not as a university trained theologian but rather as an
Autodidact, as the Concionator scornfully calls him. Weigel, Dialogus, 42. Chapter 4 of this dissertation
will discuss this text in much greater detail, showing how Weigel transferred all spiritual power and
responsibility away from ordained clergy over to laypeople. This shift in perspective in his final text is
indicative of Weigel’s changing alliegance, from the church that employed him to the congregation he
ministers to.
7 Weigel, Dialogus, 58.
8 Ibid., 59.
4