1526Introduction of the Reformation

In October 1526, Landgrave Philip initiated the introduction of the Reformation in Hesse at the synod he convened in Homberg an der Efze, in consensus with the estates of the realm and representatives of the clergy. The conversion to the Lutheran faith and the resulting dissolution of the monasteries provided the Landgrave with significant financial resources, which he used to found the first Protestant university in Marburg and to establish new hospitals, schools, and charitable foundations.

The Landgrave himself had converted to the Lutheran faith in 1524, only one year after he had summoned Tileman Schnabel—Alsfeld’s pastor who had received his doctorate from Luther—to Romrod Castle in the summer of 1523 and reprimanded him so severely that Schnabel fled Alsfeld that same evening out of fear. The reason for this was that Schnabel’s sermons in Alsfeld, delivered in the spirit of his friend and doctoral supervisor Luther, had drawn the masses away from the Walpurgis Church toward the Augustinian monastery.

This fact was the basis for Luther’s later famous statement that Alsfeld was “the first city / to have accepted the religion after the Reformation” (quoted from: Merian/Zeiller: “Topographia Hassiae”). (MNic)