35 the other hand, evidence of numerous, apparently longer stays in Torgau by Frederick the Wise between 1513 and 1517 exists.17 However, he did not establish the Ernestine family memorial here, but instead at the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg.18 However, the Elector’s stays became less frequent from 1518 onwards (as evidenced by the items on display in Torgau and insofar as these can be taken as evidence of his presence) and at times ceased altogether. After several documents were issued in Torgau in January and February 1518,19 there is a gap until October 1518.20 In 1519, evidence of stays in January,21 February,22 May,23 August and September exists,24 but then no further stays until February 1520.25 It was not until November 1522, almost three years later, that the Elector issued a document in Torgau again.26 The years 1523, 1524 and 1525 demonstrate a similar pattern. Letters and records discovered to date only suggest that he stayed in Torgau in June,27 July28 and September 152329 as well as in April, August and September 152430 and for March 1525. This is the reason why the Torgau court counsellors were accorded greater importance during this period. Between 1523 and 1525, they appear more often than in earlier years as dispatchers of textual documents.31 The situation changed again with the death of Frederick the Wise. A commonly-held view in the literature is as follows: “With the accession of Elector John the Steadfast in 1525 and under his son and successor John Frederick the Magnanimous, Torgau became the most important residence and capital of the Electorate of Saxony.”32 Strong population growth and brisk construction activity indicate that Torgau flourished in the second quarter of the 16th century. After the Torgau wedding of electoral prince John Frederick to Sibylle of JülichCleves in 1527,33 the couple chose Torgau as their main place of residence. However, the chief argument in favour of Torgau as the main residence is the ever-growing administration, which was concentrated there. While the court council and chancellery regulations of 1499 still provided for four counsellors, their number grew to six, increasing to eight in 1539 and to eleven in 1546.34 This almost threefold increase compared to the time of Frederick the Wise points to the increasing bureaucratisation, which had already begun in earnest in the 1520s and was closely linked to Torgau until the Schmalkaldic War. It is currently impossible to ascertain the precise frequency and length of time during which the Electors John35 and John Frederick were actually present in Torgau in person on the basis of quantifiable sources, even if it can be assumed that Torgau was visited much more frequently than was the case under Frederick the Wise. The question of whether one can refer to Torgau as an Electoral Saxon “capital” on the basis of these findings is open to debate. It would be more accurate to speak of a “capital-like position in the Ernestine electorate”.36 Other centres apart from Torgau and Wittenberg also existed. In any case, the Schmalkaldic War fundamentally changed the status quo. If the term “capital city” is to be used at all during this period, then it is most likely to apply to Dresden in the second half of the 16th century. Torgau—not a command centre of the Reformation until 1525 Even if the importance of Torgau in the first half of the century requires stronger differentiation on the basis of the various phases of its development, there is no doubt that important steps in the history of the Reformation were taken in this royal seat. However, this does not yet apply to the reign of Frederick the Wise. The reasons which moved Frederick to reduce his presence in Torgau so conspicuously during the first years of the Reformation remain as yet unknown. It is undisputed that Lochau became his preferred place of residence during this period.37 But was it only his passion for hunting and his increasing physical immobility that led him to avoid his large residences – Wittenberg as well as Torgau – during these years? One could be forgiven for thinking that Frederick favoured the remoteness of Lochau because he was less personally affected by the events of the Reformation there than in Torgau or Wittenberg. Placing physical distance between himself and events with which he did not wish to be identified publicly was part of his diplomatic repertoire. According to the most recent compilation of Luther’s stays in Torgau, he preached here at the beginning of October 1519, in May 1522 and in August 1523. Luther visited in Torgau a total of five times during Frederick’s reign,38 but not for theological or political consultations, nor on the few occasions when the Elector was also staying there. They certainly never met in Torgau. The Elector may have sidestepped Torgau not only to avoid a meeting with Luther, but also to evade the growing Protestant movement in the town. The first signs of this can be seen from 1518/19 onwards, at the time when Luther first proclaimed his teachings from a Torgau pulpit.39 In 1522, the momentum of the city’s Reformation gathered pace with the expulsion of the Leipzig Dominican friars and the members of the Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine in Herzberg from their appointed districts and the introduction of the Common Chest. 1523 was a “year of unrest and a complete change of heart among the citizenry”.40 Gabriel Zwilling, who at this time followed the radical course of Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt rather than the moderate course of his fellow friar Luther, was appointed preacher by the council. Whether or not Zwilling was largely responsible
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTMyNjA1