Glock, Paul (d. 1585)

Paul Glock (sometimes called Jung Paul to distinguish him from his father, who had the same name), a poet, and from 1577 a preacher of the Hutterian Brethren in Moravia, born at Rommelshausen near Waiblingen, Württemberg, Germany. According to his own confession he lived frivolously in his youth (Lieder der Hutterischen Brüder, p. 727, stanzas 6-8), then appealed to two Lutheran theologians to "teach him Christian morals," but they referred him only to faith (op. cit., p. 710, stanza 15). It is not known who won him to Anabaptism, but it is well known that Württemberg was an active mission field of the Hutterian Brethren.

At the end of December 1550 Glock lay imprisoned in Cannstatt with his father, mother, and wife Else. In January 1551 the leading theologians of the region, Valentine Vannius, at that time pastor in Cannstatt, Matth. Alber, preacher in Tübingen, and M. Martin Cless (Ubinger), preacher at St. Leonhard's Church in Stuttgart, were commissioned to counsel him with kindness; this they did four or five times; but the prisoners rejected the instruction of these preachers, for they (the prisoners) were on the right road, and declared that if the church would practice what it preached, repent and forsake evil living, they would also go into the church, and remain steadfast. Nothing is known of their fate. Very likely they were expelled from the country.

The following years are dark. In 1558 we hear that the wife of the Anabaptist Peter Stürmer told another woman in Rudersberg near Schorndorf, "Your husband helped to capture the pious preacher [meaning Paul Glock]. He would therefore have a difficult position before the Almighty" (Bossert, Quellen, 172). This reveals that Glock worked in the vicinity of Rudersberg for the Anabaptists. He himself says that he could proclaim God's Word for just half a year (Lieder der Hutterischen Brüder, p. 734, stanza 4). After 1558 he was kept in jail continuously. Whether it was during that time that he was painfully racked and much tried by doctors, clergymen, and false brethren, as he states in one of his hymns (the Lieder der Hutterischen Brüder, p. 708), is not certain. Because he remained steadfast in his conviction, defending it with vigor, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the castle of Hohenwittlingen near Urach (Württemberg). But he was apparently in the prison of the Urach castle for some time too (Lieder der Hutterischen Brüder, No. 5, stanza 3, p. 722).

At Easter he was given a fellow prisoner, Adam Hornikel or Horneck, called Beck because he was a baker by trade, of Heiningen, with whom he wrote (in 1563) hymn No. 3, "Gott haltet, was er verspricht"; also No. 4, "Herr, Jesu Christ in deinem Reich" (Lieder der Hutterischen Brüder, pp. 714-18, and 718-21). In September 1559 Duke Christoph learned that these imprisoned Anabaptists were weak with age and ill, and therefore ordered the castle bailiff when he could do so to take them from the prison for three or four hours daily and let them walk in the "Springer" (probably the courtyard of the fortress) and occasionally in the house, but to keep the gates well barred so that they could not escape nor any friend come to therm and not permit them to dispute with the servants and lead them astray, thus spreading their doctrines. In February 1564 Hornikel was taken to Stuttgart, where, after another trial, he was expelled from the country; with two daughters he moved to Moravia.

Now Glock was alone in his cell, but he used his time well in writing hymns and letters to his wife, his brother-in-law, and especially to Peter Walpot, the leader of the Hutterian Brethren in Moravia. Sixteen lengthy epistles (1563-1576) full of a fine Christian spirit are known from his pen and two remarkable confessions of faith (1563-1573), well preserved in several Hutterite codices and now published in full in G. Bossert's great source publication, Quellen zur Geschichte der Wiedertäufer I; Herzogtum Württemberg (Leipzig, 1930), 334-477 and 1049-1102. The confessions are contained in letters to Peter Walpot in which Glock reports in lively detail his disputation with several theologians, and show Glock as a very skillful debater, fully certain of his stand and well versed in the Scriptures.

These letters had great influence on the life of the brotherhood (Beck, Geschichts-Bücher, 270). In 1562 Glock and Adam Hornikel had jointly drawn up a Rechenschaft of their faith before the court in Wittlingen, and in 1573 another. Probably in Wittlingen the court chaplain Lukas Osiander had with some others approached him, and when they were unable to move him, said he did not deserve to be at large, but must be imprisoned for life. (The conversation is reported in the Geschicht-Buch, 376 ff.) Otherwise his treatment was humane. The fact tiiat he was able to get paper for letter-writing and to find carriers indicates this. His food was good. Lukas Osiander said that in 1584, when there was talk of persuading the Anabaptists to recant by means of starvation rations, Glock had as good a diet as if he were in possession of a noble prebend, with good wine and roast meat, and a warm bed, with two small rooms, and if one supposed he was in his room, he had been sent as a messenger over the fields; he was also used for other work in the fields. Indeed as early as 1566 he had acquired the confidence of the bailiff to such an extent that he was sent miles away as a messenger if he merely promised to return (Lieder d. Hutterischen Brüder, p. 708).

In 1574 Glock again received a companion in prison—Matthias Binder, a tailor of Frickenhausen near Neuffen, who had been a preacher of the Hutterian Brethren since 1569, was sent back to his home village as a missionary of the Brethren, and was then imprisoned in Neuffen and tried in Stuttgart. When he refused to promise to leave the country and make no more converts, he was taken to the prison of the Maulbronn monastery in June 1573, where Blasius Greiner had lain, and where Binder was now held on short rations and was to be visited frequently by the abbot to discuss his doctrine with him. Binder refused to enter into these discussions, for he had already defended his position before the theologians in Stuttgart. In vain the abbot, the bailiff, and the caretaker showed him how unsuitable prison was for him and that it offered no security against kidnaping. Finally in 1574 he was taken to Hohenwittlingen, where he found his brother in the faith, Paul Glock. In 1574 Glock wrote the hymn, "Kommet her and tut hie losen (hören)" (Lieder der Hutterischen Brüder, 726), and in 1576 another, "Preisen will ich den Herren" (op. cit., 734), and "Wie lieblich ist gezieret" (736).

In late autumn 1576 a fire broke out in the Hohenwittlingen castle which both Binder and Glock helped to extinguish. When Duke Christoph heard of this he commanded that they be given the fare for the trip to Moravia. This happened after 19 years of captivity. They reached the brotherhood on New Year 1577, "with good conscience, with peace and joy." On 12 February Glock was chosen as a Diener des Wortes (preacher), to serve the brotherhood. 30 January 1585, he died at Schädowitz, Moravia. The Hutterites kept his letters with great care, and the many copies extant prove their great appeal to the Brethren.

Bibliography

Beck, Josef. Die Geschichts-Bücher der Wiedertäufer in Oesterreich-Ungarn. Vienna, 1883; reprinted Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1967.

Bossert, Gustav. Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer I. Band, Herzogtum Württemberg. Leipzig: M. Heinsius, 1930.

Bossert, Gustav, Jr. "Aus der neben-kirchlich-religiösen Bewegung der Reformationszeit in Württemberg (Wiedertäufer und Schwenckfelder)." Blätter zur Württembergischen Kirchengeschichte (1929): esp. 28-31.

Braght, Thieleman J. van. Het Bloedigh Tooneel of Martelaers Spiegel der Doopsgesinde of Weereloose Christenen, Die om 't getuygenis van Jesus haren Salighmaker geleden hebben ende gedood zijn van Christi tijd of tot desen tijd toe. Den Tweeden Druk. Amsterdam: Hieronymus Sweerts, 1685: II, 714.

Braght, Thieleman J. van. The Bloody Theatre or Martyrs' Mirror of the Defenseless Christians Who Baptized Only upon Confession of Faith and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus Their Saviour . . . to the Year A.D. 1660. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1951: 1024. Available online at: [http://www.homecomers.org/mirror/ http://www.homecomers.org/mirror/index.htm.

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Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. II, 123 f.

Die Lieder der Hutterischen Brüder: Gesangbuch darinnen viel und mancherlei schöne Betrachtungen, Lehren, Vermahnungen, Lobgesänge und Glaubensbekenntnisse, von vielen Liebhabern Gottes gedichtet und aus vielen Geschichten und Historien der heiligen Schrift zusammengetragen, allen frommen Liebhabern Gottes sehr nützlich zu singen und zu lessen. Scottdale, Pa. : Mennonitisches Verlagshaus, 1914. Reprinted Cayley, AB: Hutterischen Brüdern in Kanada, 1962: 709-737..

Wolkan, Rudolf. Geschicht-Buch der Hutterischen Brüder. Macleod, AB, and Vienna, 1923: 374-381, bases its story of Glock on his epistles, excerpts from which Wolkan prints in footnote 378-381.

Wolkan, Rudolf. Die Lieder der Wiedertäufer. Berlin, 1903. Reprinted Nieuwkoop: B. De Graaf, 1965.

Author(s)	Gustav, Sr Bossert
Date Published	1956

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MLA style

Bossert, Gustav, Sr. "Glock, Paul (d. 1585)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 23 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Glock,_Paul_(d._1585)&oldid=145251.

APA style

Bossert, Gustav, Sr. (1956). Glock, Paul (d. 1585). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 23 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Glock,_Paul_(d._1585)&oldid=145251.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, pp. 525-526. All rights reserved.

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