Regel, Georg (d. 1547)

Georg Regel (Jörg) (d. 1547), the scion of an old patrician family of Donauwörth, Bavaria, Germany, became a citizen of Augsburg by his first marriage. In 1510 he married as his second wife Anna Manlich(in). In 1517-25 he lived on his estate Lichtenberg on the Lech. Here he read the Gospels to the peasants and took communion in both forms. The dukes of Bavaria, from whom he had acquired the estate, then had him and his wife arrested and imposed a heavy fine upon them; then they returned to Augsburg. Georg carried on an active correspondence with Zwingli  in 1527-1528.

Ludwig Haetzer  had been a guest in the Regel home in 1524. Georg Regel assisted Hans Denck in 1525-1526 in finding a position as a teacher of Latin and Greek at Augsburg. Hans Hut  probably baptized Georg and Anna and their two maids Apollonia and Dorothea in the spring of 1526. Anna, however, recanted in October, and Georg in the following February. But then they were "driven back into the old track," so that they were compelled to flee from Augsburg at the time of the arrests at Easter in 1528. They fled to Constance in May 1528. By the time Ludwig Haetzer arrived there, between Nov. 20 and Nov. 28, the Regels had no doubt already left Constance.

In the autumn of 1528 Ludwig Haetzer was tried in court in Constance. The charge was that "he had a wife here, whose name was Apollonia, and in addition he also married the wife of Jörg Regel of Augsburg, and took the liberty of persuading her and others that she might take him, since Jörg Regel . . . was not a brother in Anabaptism. This Haetzer has also written much about the Trinity and other articles of the Christian faith, but contrary to the Holy Scriptures; hence these unworthy books were done away with." The report says that when the sentence of death was read to Haetzer he said he was satisfied with it, and commended his father and his wife Apollonia to the mayor and the magistrate. Haetzer was executed on 4 February 1529, and in the same year the Regels were readmitted to Augsburg upon recanting and doing penance. The Hutterite chronicles does not mention any guilt; Christian Neff speaks only of "unproved accusations," and Fritz Blanke doubts the correctness of the charge. Others, however, have given sharper verdicts. Goeters says, "It was not only justice that was satisfied in this suit. The accusers were intent on eliminating the man whom they wanted removed as a teacher of heresy. Haetzer's moral lapse —to be sure, at an opportune moment—furnished the formal reason, but the ends pursued extended further. The lawsuit of Constance ... is one of a series of major actions in the attempt to subdue South German Anabaptism." The charge, for example, was issued from Augsburg; Haetzer was merely transiently in Constance when he was arrested.

Later the Regels definitely turned their interests to spiritualism. Georg aided his fellow countryman Sebastian Franck especially by means of a loan, and Anna attached herself to Kaspar Schwenckfeld. In 1532-1533 Georg was an intermediary in settling the friction between Leo Jud and Heinrich Bullinger. Finally, in 1538, Georg was again admitted to patrician society. He died childless in 1547; his will, made in 1542, bequeathed his wealth for the establishment of a charitable foundation.

Bibliography

Bittenfeld, W. Hans Herwarth von. "Zur Geschlechtskunde der Regel von Altisheim." Zeitschrift des historischen Vereins für Schwaben und Neuburg XVIII (1891): 93-100.

Blanke, Fritz. "Beobachtungen zum altesten Taufer-bekenntnis," Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte XXXVII (1940): 245, note 1.

Goeters, J. F. Gerhard. Ludwig Haetzer. Gütersloh, 1957.

Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. III: 444 f.

Hegler, Alfred. “Beitrage zur Geschichte der Mystik in der Reformationszeit.”  Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte. Supplement vol. I. Berlin, (1906): 102, 120, 121, 169, 186.

Renn, Wilhelm.  Cronica newer Geschichten, ed. Friedrich Roth. Die Chroniken der Deutschen Städte XXV, 1896: 57 ff.

Roth, Friedrich. Augsburgs Reformationsgeschichte I, 1517-1530. Munich, 1901.

Schornbaum, Karl. Quellen zur Geschichte der Wiedertäufer II. Band, Markgraftum Brandenburg. Bayern I. Abteilung. Leipzig: M. Heinsius Nachfolger, 1934: v. I, 454-67.

Schwenckfeld, Caspar. Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum. Leipzig : Breitkopf & Haertel, 1907-1961: v. VIII (1927), 432 ff.

Teufel, Eberhard.  "Taufertum und Quakertum im Lichte der neueren Forschung." Theologische Rundschau, n.s. XIV (1942): 148-50.

Author(s)	Christian, Eberhard Teufel Hege
	Ernst Crous
Date Published	1959

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MLA style

Hege, Christian, Eberhard Teufel and Ernst Crous. "Regel, Georg (d. 1547)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 22 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Regel,_Georg_(d._1547)&oldid=106632.

APA style

Hege, Christian, Eberhard Teufel and Ernst Crous. (1959). Regel, Georg (d. 1547). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 22 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Regel,_Georg_(d._1547)&oldid=106632.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 270-271. All rights reserved.

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