The Turks and Islam in Reformation Germany by Gregory J. Miller

Author:Gregory J. Miller [Miller, Gregory J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: History, General, Europe, Germany, Renaissance, Social History, Middle East, Turkey & Ottoman Empire, Religion, Islam, Christianity, Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social
ISBN: 9781315136073
Google: vL-ctQEACAAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-01-15T01:30:55+00:00

Spiritual Warfare

Since the enemy had a fundamental demonic aspect, it is only natural that spiritual warfare was a recommended response against the Ottoman advance. Admonitions for prayer, repentance, and moral improvement were nearly universal in all genres and in all authors of the early sixteenth-century German literature on the Turks.40

The theme of the spiritual battle against the Turks was particularly prominent in ecclesiastical literature. Examples of sermons, hymns, and prayers that admonished spiritual exercises in the face of the Turkish threat are so numerous that they almost form a distinct category of Reformation Era religious publications. It is clear German preachers believed that threatening their congregations with Turkish capture was an excellent means of motivating them toward spiritual activity and improved moral behavior.

At times, the demand for participation in the spiritual war was extreme and used a great deal of fear. A set of Stoer broadsheets show women with ropes around their necks led by two Turkish horsemen. The accompanying text reiterates the worst of the anti-Turkish rhetoric, and then adds the warning:

Awake oh Christian,

if you don’t turn from sin,

the same will happen to you.

Your unthankfulness will also be punished.

“The ax is laid at the tree.”41

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