ABSTRACT
Few authors signed their names to the earliest crime reports of early modern Germany, but of those that did, a substantial proportion were Protestant clergy. The most avid sixteenth-century collector of crime reports was also a cleric, of the Reformed persuasion. Clearly, this type of publication was considered worthy of authorship and attention by the guardians of religion and morals. While the overlapping territory between crime and sin made some religious inflection a seemingly routine element of many early crime reports, the activity of clergy in their production and consumption offers a clearer view of the religious meanings that were read in incidents of criminal violence. While some found in them a “living sermon” on forgiveness and salvation, others saw a warning of danger to sinners, to the church, and more broadly, reflections of God’s plan and the coming of the Apocalypse. The clerical authors may not have imprinted the broader crime discourse with their most serious religious content, but they shared the concerns that echoed through crime reports in the sixteenth century, including a focus on violence between blood relatives. With their often graphic depictions and appeals to emotion, these practitioners and collectors effectively endorsed the sensational quality of crime publication. Their participation testifies to the respectability of
1 “Ist derhalben diß Exempel eine lebendige Predigt/ nicht allein der Buß/ sonder auch der gnaden Gottes in Christo. ... Vmb welcher vrsach willen auch wir desto lieber diß Exempel jederman haben durch den Truck mittheilen wöllen,” Johann Schwanfelder, Warhafftiger Bericht von dem jämmerlichen vnd erbärmlichen Mordt/ so zu Sprendenlingen in der Dreyeych an zweyen Kindern im Pfarhof am 26. tag deß Jenners in diesem jetzlauffenden M.D.LXX. jar begangen. ... (Frankfurt a.M., 1570), C2v [Zentralbibiliothek Zurich (ZB) Wick F19, 21, item 15, 3]; for another edition lacking the conclusion in which
the genre and sanctioned the more casual religious content that was common in the genre as a whole.
