History of Hamburg - The Lutheran Church Law and Its Consequences

The Lutheran Church Law and Its Consequences

On 15 May 1529 the city embraced Lutheranism. The senate of Hamburg had asked Martin Luther to send his friend and colleague Johannes Bugenhagen to create a new church regularity. Bugenhagen's work created a state church for Hamburg. The service was held in Low German and the parishes elected their own pastors. There was no iconoclasm in Hamburg mostly because of Johannes Aepinus, the new pastor of St. Petri, who stated the statues of false gods and lying pictures needed to be removed from the churches instantly. He took them down and stored them, so that altarpieces by Meister Bertram and others survived, and are now in the city's museums. At the same time on 24 February, the long compromise (German: Langer Rezeß) reorganized the political system. The senate, now 24 aldermen, held the executive and judicial authority. But without the council of the citizens, no laws could be enacted. The councils were elected by the 4 parishes. The parishes were now also administrative divisions of the city. In May 1531 the cathedral chapter closed the Catholic cathedral, it only reopened as Lutheran proto-cathedral in 1540. Roman Catholics lost their citizenship and were challenged to leave the city, although remaining Catholics could practice their religion in the small chapels of the diplomatic missions of the Holy Roman Empire. Not until 1785 did the senate acknowledge a small community.

In 1558 the Hamburg stock market was founded. In 1567 Hamburg asked a group of English traders to settle in the city. This was in conflict with the rules of the Hanseatic League, but Hamburg used the taxes to downsize the public debt. The cause of this debt was Hamburg's contribution to the Schmalkaldic War (1546–1552) between the Lutheran dukes and cities and the emperor.