Tuesday, January 23, 2024

It is the 23rd of January 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Let’s get exotic today and head to Eastern Europe- to the land we call Romania today, but in the 16th century, there was an old appendage of the Hungarian kingdom “beyond the woods,” which in Latin is “Transylvania.”

And of course, you are justified if, upon hearing “Transylvania,” your mind goes to Count Dracula, Bela Lugosi, Grandpa on the Munsters, and all that…and perhaps you know that there is good reason to believe that the protagonist in the novel by Bram Stoker is Van Helsing who may well have been based on a Lutheran pastor: Georg Andreas Helwing, who was also a physician and dealt with Vampire hysteria in the early 1700s.

But you might also know that Eastern Europe- the Hungarian Kingdom, what is now Romania was thoroughly Catholic after the Reformation. It is not common to find Lutherans, especially here. Except for a brief time- known as the “age of Honter” where Saxons in Transylvania followed the reform of Johannes Honter, an all but forgotten character in church history (and by forgotten, I have been looking through stacks of books, and he maybe gets a footnote or mention as a cartographer and that’s about it). So- who was this man who left a legacy amongst German speakers in Eastern Europe?

The Hungarian Empire was splintered in 1526 with the Battle of Mohacs. The Turks gained a foothold in Eastern Europe while the Habsburgs took over the northern part of the Hungarian empire. And “past the woods” lay Transylvania, a vassal state to the Ottoman Empire. Within this state were historically Saxon, German-speaking people on the precipice of extinction.

Enter a learned Saxon and son of Transylvania: Johannes Honter, born in 1498,  we are told he “emerged from an early life filled only with legend… [he was] the spiritual hero [who] in the face of the impending dissolution of all things recognizes that the only salvation for the people and the fatherland is the turn to the renewed Gospel”. He did so by leaving Transylvania during the wars with the Turks and studying in Vienna, Cracow, and Basel. There, he learned the art of cosmography (map making), wood engraving and printing, and the theology of Luther and Melanchthon.

He moved back home in 1533 from his hometown in Brasso he began printing textbooks for a school he would reform (today the Johannes Honterus School) and a collection of theological texts from Luther and Melanchthon. His “little Reformation book” included Luther’s small catechism and his church order- a kind of service book and hymnal included the Augsburg Confession. This would become the foundation of the church that today is the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania.

Honter was a Humanist who published books on law, poetry, grammar, and cosmology. He is today remembered for his popular map of Transylvania, which helped put the easternmost European region on the radar of those to the West. While Catholic ascendancy in the East up through the 30 Years War in the 1600s wiped out much of the Protestant influence there, it was the work of Johannes Honter and his Saxon Reformation in Transylvania that led to a remnant of Lutherans “beyond the woods." Honters’ theological reforms were downplayed, and he became a type of Saxon national hero, renaissance man, and Transylvanian legend.

Cosmography (map making) and Cosmology (the study of the universe) were aligned with his reforming goals. The Reformation embraced many Humanists, and the birth of a print culture led to the elevation of all texts that could be used to proclaim God’s truth- even seemingly “non-religious” texts. If you find anything in English on Johanne Honter today, it is likely going to be his maps, but the man after whom age is named in Transylvania stands out primarily for his role in bringing about the Reformation in the European East. Born in 1498, Johannes Honter died on the 23rd of January in 1549; he was 50 years old.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary- from Acts 5- the Sanhedrin wants to put some disciples to death until one of their own, Gamaliel, speaks up:

35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 23rd of January 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man for whom Transylvania means one thing: Count Chocula- purveyor of fine breakfast cereal, he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who has had nightmares of Nosferatu since he was a kid- the creepiest old-timey movie ever. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.