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The Beginning of the Reformation in Estonia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
The history of the Estonian nation begins about 2000 B.C. when they settled down in the land which is now known as Estonia. Roman historians called all the peoples of the Baltic area collectively by the name of “Aesti”; later that name came to apply to the Estonians alone. Tacitus thought that the “Aesti” spoke a language “similar to that of the Britons”, whereas in fact the Estonians, Finns and Livs spoke a so-called Finno-Ugri language, utterly distinct from the languages of Slavs, Germanic groups, Latvians and Lithuanians.
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- Copyright © American Society of Church History 1953
References
1. The conquered lands—Estonia, Livonia, Latgalia, Kuronia and Zemgalia—were dedicated to St. Mary in order to attract crusaders. The Grand Master's injunction to the Teutonic Knights was:
“Dies Schwerdt empfang von meiner Hand
Zn schützen Gottes und Marien Land.”
2. Jackson, , Hampden, J., Estonia. London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., Second Edition, 1948, pp. 46–47.Google Scholar
3. Reiman, Villem, Eesti a jalugu [History of Estonia]. Tallinn: Kirjastus A. S. Varrak, 1920, p. 56.Google Scholar
4. Arbusow, Leonid, Die Einführung der Reformation in Liv-, Est- und Kurland. Leipzig: Verein für Reformationsgesehichte, Vermittlungsverlag von M. Heinsius Nachfolger, 1921, pp. 66–67.Google Scholar
5. Ibid., p. 280.
6. Pohrt, Otto, Reformationsgeschichte Liviands. Ein Überblick. Leipzig: M. Heinsius Naehfolger Eger & Sievers. 1928.Google Scholar (Schrif ten des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte, Jahrgang 46, Heft 2 /Nr. 145/), p. 7.
7. Reiman, p. 54.
8. The phrase was widely used by the peasants.
9. Bienemann, Friedrich Gustav, Aus Livlands Luthertagen. Tallinn (Reval): Franz Kluge, 1883, p. 75 ff.Google Scholar
10. Pohrt, p. 19.
11. Ibid.
12. Hoersehelmann, D. F., Andreas Knopken, der Reformator Rigas. Leipzig: A. Deichert 'sehe Verlagsbuchhandlung Naehf. (Georg Böhme), 1896, 257 p.Google Scholar
13. Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Herausgeben durch die Historische Commission bei der Königliehe Akademie der Wissenschaften (Bayern). Leipzig: Verlag von Duneker and Humbolt, Vol. 37, pp. 529–530.Google Scholar
14. Kruus, Hans, Eesti ajaloo lugemik (Textbook of Estonian History). Tartu: Eesti Kirjastuse Selts, 1924. pp. 156–158.Google Scholar
15. Linden, Friedrich Otto, Melohior Hofmann, ein Prophet der Wiedertdufer. Haarlem: Dc Ereven F. Bohn, 1885, 477 p.Google Scholar
16. According to Pohrt, p. 65, two years later, in 1527, Luther regretted his earlier judgment, writing in a letter “…ich habe ernstliche Vorwürfe über mich ergehen lassen müssen wegen meiner Empfehlung, die ich jenem Mann (Hofmann) unbedachter Weise und von ihm getäuscht gegeben habe…”
17. The first lines of salutation of Luther's first letter to Livonia in 1523.
18. Arbusow, pp. 279, 282.
19. A letter by the municipal council of Tallinn to Wolter von Plettenberg. Kruus, pp. 170–174.
20. Bienemann, p. 21.
21. Hansen, Gotthard, Aus baltisoher Vergangenheit. Miscellanean aus dem Revaler Stadtarchiv. Tallinn (Reval): Franz Kluge, 1894, pp. 123–125.Google Scholar
22. Kruus, pp. 171–174.
23. The reformers called themselves “evangelisehe prediger.” The document of the “christlicker ordinancien” is printed in Bienemann's op. cit. pp. 65–68.
24. Usupuhastus eestlaste maal [Reformation in the land of Estonians]. Published by the Reformation Jubilee Commission. Tartu: Ed. Bergmann, , 1924, p. 45.Google Scholar
25. Reiman, p. 61.
26. I wish to express my gratitude to Professor John T. McNeill who encouraged me to write this essay and made a number of valuable suggestions. Also I wish to thank Dr. Victor Koressaar, an Estonian historian, for reading the manuscript.