Ingmar Ahl. Humanistische Politik zwischen Reformation und Gegenreformation: Der FÖ¼rstenspiegel des Jakob Omphalius. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2004. 349 pp. EUR 65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-515-07969-3.
Reviewed by Patrick Hayden-Roy (Nebraska Wesleyan University)
Published on H-German (May, 2006)
Ingmar Ahl's study began as a doctoral dissertation in history at the University of Frankfurt am Main. It deals with the somewhat obscure, though revealing, figure of Jakob Omphalius (1500-67), humanist and court official in Cologne during the 1540s and 1550s. Although a figure of only marginal influence both in his own day and in the ensuing era, his life defines a number of themes and boundaries that throw into relief certain political and intellectual developments of the final generation of humanists in Germany. Ahl's choice of Omphalius as a subject is apt as a means to fill out the picture of humanism's continuing influence in German-speaking Europe up to the Peace of Augsburg.
The purpose of the work is not to pursue Omphalius's biography per se, but, working from the "ideas in context" approach advocated by Quentin Skinner and others, Ahl hopes to sketch the contexts, ideas and experiences that shaped Omphalius so as to understand his most famous work, De officio et potestate Principis (1550), one of the most interesting pieces in the "mirror of the prince" genre produced in sixteenth-century Germany. Toward that end, Ahl divides the work into three parts. The first part is an introduction to his approach and the themes he hopes to elucidate with his study. He notes the relative lack of attention that late German humanism, sixteenth-century Fürstenspiegel literature (and Omphalius himself) have received. In justifying his attention to Omphalius, he sketches a number of historiographical themes that touch upon his life. These include the later history of German humanism, especially within Catholic Germany, the relationship between scholasticism and humanism and the importance of sixteenth-century humanist Fürstenspiegel as signposts toward the more well-known literature of this sort in the seventeenth century.
After his brief introduction, Ahl moves into the longest passage in his book (which takes up a good three fifths of the work), an investigation of Omphalius's life. His focus here is his education and career as court advisor, with an emphasis on the institutions, ideas and forces that shaped his intellectual development. Omphalius's education brought him to centers of learning that were strongly identified with scholasticism and the defense of the Church against the Reformation: Cologne, Louvain, Paris and Toulouse.In all of these universities parts of the faculty cultivated a pronounced hostility to humanism. Despite the reputation of these schools as bastions of orthodoxy and scholasticism, however, Omphalius received a humanist education, not only in terms of language and literature, but also in terms of his intellectual commitments and religious perspective. It is a testament to the influence that humanism exerted on learning that even within these universities, elements of the faculty and curriculum promoted humanist precepts and provided Omphalius with his education and intellectual circle. Further, this humanist influence had a defining influence upon Omphalius, despite his focus on law, one of the faculties least influenced by humanism. As Ahl rightly notes, this influence reflects the fact that by the 1520s and 1530s, humanism had gained such broad influence that it was felt even in those universities and faculties most resistant to it. Particularly important for Omphalius's reception of humanism were his interaction with the Erasmian circle of humanists (though he was never a confidant of Erasmus) and his intense engagement with Cicero, which would especially shape his princely advice tract. Omphalius's long education--it took him over twenty years to finish his university studies--brought him into the court of the Cologne archdiocese of Hermann Wied as a bureaucrat, advisor and finally chancellor. Here he gained wide political experience during an era when political and religious institutions were in flux, making complicated the dealings of a middling religious territory such as Cologne. More complicated still were the religious politics of the archbishop, who sought to define a path of reform somewhere between the religious camps of the Pope and Wittenberg. Omphalius was part of the processes, discussions and debates that marked the late 1530s and 1540s, when it still appeared possible to avoid division and war over religion. The outbreak of the Schmalkaldic War and the initial success of imperial troops marked the end of these attempts, as well as of the tenure of Hermann Wied as archbishop and of Omphalius's career as court official in Cologne. It was in this situation--with his work in Cologne cut off, but with the conviction that a "third way" to reform informed by humanism was the path to peace and religious unity--that Omphalius composed De officio et potestate Principis.
Ahl devotes the last third of his work to discussing the content of Omphalius's advice book. The work reflects the humanist influences that shaped Omphalius, with its reliance on classical authors, in particular Cicero, for its sources. Omphalius's advice for the prince goes beyond most traditional "mirror of the prince" works, as he brings to bear his mastery of legal texts in addition to the moral teachings of the ancients. As the title of Ahl's study indicates, Omphalius's work marks an attempt to negotiate between the lines of religious conflict unfolding in this era. On the one hand, he dedicates the book to the Bishop of Augsburg, Otto Truchseß von Waldburg, a strong supporter of Charles V's attempt to suppress Protestantism in the Holy Roman Empire. On the other hand, his advice to the prince concerning religion avoids advocating the promotion of Catholicism as a mark of the good prince. True religion should be promoted both because it is true and because it brings honor and praise to the prince. But the exact definition of true religion remains vague. Omphalius sought to weave his way through the religious conflicts of the era by providing his prince a humanist piety that eschewed aggressive assertion of orthodoxy. He emphasizes as well the person of the prince as the sole source of authority in his lands, anticipating the absolutism of the seventeenth century. These are the most interesting aspects of the work. Its other dimensions, while marked by great erudition, are more recognizable as part of the genre, in particular the moral advice, or the humanist expectation that education can lead to the moral perfection of the individual.
Ahl emphasizes the originality of the work within the larger genre. Its combination of humanist learning and perspective, as well as the emphasis on the unrestricted sovereignty of the prince coupled with the treatment of religion without clear doctrinal reference points, constitutes a unique contribution to political advice literature of this era. However, as Ahl notes in his brief conclusion, the influence of the tract was quite limited. It was published in Basel in 1550, but with only a small printing run. Its appearance corresponded with the re-ignition of religious war in the Empire, which eventually led to the Peace of Augsburg. The treaty's combination of princely power with a specific confessional profile stood in sharp contrast to the prescriptions for religious and civil peace envisioned by Omphalius. His work did not enjoy much influence, was denounced by later commentators and lapsed into obscurity. The failure of Omphalius's brand of humanist politics and piety can also be seen from his own apparent conversion to Lutheranism toward the end of his life. Still, as Ahl argues, his life and work are worthy of attention because of the light they shed on the course and fate of late humanism, reflected in the unique perspective, features and fate of De officio.
Ahl's study succeeds on a number of levels. First, the work is solidly grounded in a familiarity with the relevant sources, and undergirded with admirable erudition. Given the erudition of the subject himself, anyone hoping to open up his thought is forced to recreate such learning, which Ahl has done. In addition Omphalius's varied (but somewhat obscure) biography necessitated the mastery of a wide variety of secondary literature, reflected in the extensive footnotes and bibliography. This is solid scholarship. Moreover, Ahl's choice of approach to the subject, situating the work and ideas as a microcosm within the larger macrocosm of events and thought, is aptly chosen and effectively, if somewhat mechanically, applied. Two areas of the discussion would have benefited from further development to exploit fully the potential of the subject. Ahl's treatment of the course of German humanism after the outbreak of the Reformation does not fully outline the problems that ensued for the humanist program of reform. In particular Erika Rummel's recent work, The Confessionalization of Humanism in Reformation Germany (2000), would have provided a useful reference point, both in terms of the effects of confessional politics on the humanist project, and as a way of expanding the relevance of Omphalius's own career for understanding the extended struggle of humanists to realize their program of reform. Second, there is more to be made of Omphalius's interesting assertion of princely sovereignty, a sovereignty that is unconstrained by any other legal authority. This idea, combined with the hope for inculcating in the prince the virtues of humanist morality, represents Omphalius's most creative prescription. Here he seems to anticipate the political ideals of the seventeenth and even eighteenth century. Ahl notes this anticipation of a later epoch, but does not draw it out sufficiently.
But taken as a whole, Ahl's work on Omphalius is learned and useful scholarship, which provides entry into the life and work of a figure who--while not at the forefront of the intellectual and political life of his times--reveals the continuing vitality of humanism into the mid-1500s in Germany. It also shows how the dramatic events of the mid-1500s marked the failure of humanism to realize its most cherished goals for remaking political and religious life.
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Citation:
Patrick Hayden-Roy. Review of Ahl, Ingmar, Humanistische Politik zwischen Reformation und Gegenreformation: Der FÖ¼rstenspiegel des Jakob Omphalius.
H-German, H-Net Reviews.
May, 2006.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11807
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