ABSTRACT
On the third Sunday after Easter 1675, Heinrich Müller launched into a tirade against those high persons who had used cushions while taking communion during Good Friday services at the St Mary’s Church in Rostock. Instead of kneeling on their bare knees, these individuals had ordered a servant to put cushions in place as they approached the altar. Offended by their lack of humility during this most sombre of Christian services, Müller had stewed about the issue for several weeks. He told the congregation in the sermon that he had waited this length of time to let his anger cool, but having taken counsel with Christ, he determined that he was bound by his disciplinary office to demand publicly that those who had sinned against the congregation’s sensibilities repent. Though Müller mentioned no one by name, the unambiguous targets of his barbs were two leading members of the city council. 1
