Abstract
The Protestant polemic of the 16th century against the Roman Church and especially the papacy is generally considered more as an aspect of theological affront than as a fundamental communicative mode of the Reformation movement. Using the example of Hans Sachs’s poem ›The Wittenberg Nightingale‹ of 1523, which has contributed significantly to the literarization and popularization of the figure of the reformer and his teachings, the present article discusses the connection between Protestant Luther stylization, anti-Roman invectives and the formation of the Reformation movement. Their key messages, in their confrontational exclusiveness to the alleged falsification of the Christian doctrine by the papacy, turn out to be central elements of a fundamentally invective communication that establishes the new, Protestant doctrine.
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
