Link, Johannes (d. 1545)

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Johannes Link (d. 1545) was a Franciscan monk who was born at Nürnberg, Bavaria, Germany, and died at Bamberg, where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1525 and zealously opposed the Anabaptists. Several of his sermons in manuscript form have been preserved in the Munich state library (cod. germ. 4264). They come from the Franciscan monastery at Freising and were copied in 1532 in the Franciscan monastery at Bamberg by Jacob Angst. The original has been lost. The arguments seem to have served as a basis for Franciscan sermons to combat the Anabaptists. Copies of Link's sermons have also been found among the court records of the Würzburg state archives.

One sermon has the heading, "Eine tröstlich Unterweisung wider die neue Ketzerei auferweckt von den verkehrten Wiedertäufern im Anfang des 1524. Jahres bis hier-her." It was written in 1531 and from the Catholic point of view it condemns 15 articles of the Anabaptist faith as false doctrine. Another copy, also of 1531, ends with the challenge that heretical doctrines must be combated with sermons and sword; he gives ten reasons. Then he gives directions for winning backsliders back into the Catholic Church if they are approachable to indoctrination by learned men while they are in prison. But he has learned that this is usually not the case with the Anabaptists, wherefore he advises against the "instruction of that kind of obstinate persons."

The hopeless conditions in the Catholic Church which gave occasion to falling away are admitted by Johannes Link. He enumerates no fewer than 100 abuses, which he deplores.

Bibliography

Clauss, D. "Der Bamberger Franciscaner-Prediger Hans Link." Zeitschrift für bayerische Kirchengeschichte 8 (1933): 159-169.

Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe; Schneider, 1913-1967: II, 659.

Minges, P. "Johannes Link, Franziskanerprediger (f 1545)." Beiträge zur Geschichte der Renaissance und Reformation, Joseph Schlecht zum sechzigsten Geburtstag (Freising, 1917): 250-254.


Author(s) Christian Hege
Date Published 1957

Cite This Article

MLA style

Hege, Christian. "Link, Johannes (d. 1545)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 24 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Link,_Johannes_(d._1545)&oldid=105875.

APA style

Hege, Christian. (1957). Link, Johannes (d. 1545). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Link,_Johannes_(d._1545)&oldid=105875.



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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 351. All rights reserved.


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