Beerwolf

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Woodcut of a werewolf attack by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1512

A Beerwolf (Bärwolf, Werwolf) is a German folk-tale monster[1] commonly known as a werewolf.

In a debate arranged by

resistance theory, the Beerwolf, "in contrast to a mere tyrant, not only broke the law, but overturned the entire moral order upon which it is based. All the subjects of such a ruler ... had the right to resist and even to kill him and all his supporters".[3] The point was that Luther thought the Emperor and the Pope were just such apocalyptic tyrants, and that the present situation justified all efforts to resist them. Despite this Luther continued to resist armed religious conflict against the Emperor and Pope, the Schmalkaldic War
beginning a year after his death.

The significance of the term lies in the fact that, for most of his life, Luther held that no subject could actively resist his secular ruler, an issue of obvious significance in a time when many rulers in the German lands and their respective subjects held competing religious beliefs. The concept of Beerwolf marked Luther's final, and most extreme, position on

Hobbes' right to self-preservation) instead of earlier and more limited rights to resistance that Luther had accepted as flowing from German constitutional law.[4]

The 1550 Magdeburg Confession included a Beerwolf clause that had to be fulfilled before an evil ruler could be resisted by the lesser magistrates.[5]

The concept of just rebellion that the term Beerwolf introduced was subsequently developed by fellow Protestants who faced a similar situation in France, the Huguenot Monarchomachs.

See also

  • Right of rebellion

References

  1. ^ The European Reformation, Euan Cameron, p 354
  2. ^ "Disputation Concerning the Right to resist the Emperor (1539)" in European Reformations: Sourcebook by Carter Lindberg, page 150.
  3. JSTOR 2709257
    .; as specified in Luther's Collected Works, 39(ii) 41-42
  4. ^ Robert V. Friedeburg (Summer 2001). "In Defense of Patria: Resisting Magistrates and the Duties of Patriots in the Empire from the 1530s to the 1640s". Sixteenth Century Journal. 32 (2): 257–382.
  5. ^ Whitford, David, Tyranny and Resistance: The Magdeburg Confession and the Lutheran Tradition, 2001, 144 pages
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