Korey D Maas

Because the Danish Protestant theologian and philosopher Niels Hemmingsen (1513-1600) is today little known outside his homeland, some of the claims made for his initial importance and continuing impact can appear rather extravagant. He is described, for example, not only as having "dominated" the theology of his own country for half a century1 but more broadly as having been "the greatest builder of systems in his generation." In the light of this indefatigable system building, he has further been credited with (or blamed for) initiating modern trends in critical biblical scholarship, as well as for being "one of the founders of modern jurisprudence." Illuminating this last claim especially are the more specific claims for Hemmingsen as having been "an important forerunner for more recent founders of natural law," most specifically Hugo Grotius, often deemed the "father" of modern natural law. Such attributions rest primarily on the content and influence of Hemmingsen's De Lege Naturae Apodictica Methodus ("On the Law of Nature: A Demonstrative Method," 1562), which was read widely throughout early modern Europe. The narrative in which the natural law jurisprudence of Grotius and the Enlightenment emanated from that of Hemmingsen is, however, not quite so tidy, as others have also emphasized the great differences between Hemmingsen and Grotius. This confusion with respect to the relationship among Hemmingsen, Grotius, and modernity is perhaps entirely understandable, though, in view of Francis Oakley's droll observation that, among commentators, "there appears to be little agreement about the precise nature of the novelty, or 'modernity,' or break with scholastic thought patterns they so persistently (if somewhat mystifyingly) ascribe to Grotius." E. J. Hutchinson and Korey Maas, "Niels Hemmingsen (1513-1600) and the Development of Lutheran Natural-Law Teaching," Journal of Markets & Morality 17, no. 2 (Fall 2014): 595-617.

The execution in 1540 of the notable English evangelical, Robert Barnes, sparked a flurry of martyrological propaganda. Although much of this literature is well known to scholars of the Henrician reformation, at least one contribution remains obscure: a poem (1542) by the Pomeranian Humanist, Johannes Sastrow. If in line with Protestant portrayals of Barnes as a martyr, Sastrow's poem, produced at safe remove from England, is unique in attempting primarily to cast Henry VIII as a despot comparable to the tyrants of classical antiquity. Both its context and content, crowded with classical allusions, reveal a young Humanist concerned not only to memorialize a friend and to condemn the ruler responsible for his death, but also to advertise his own skills as a budding Humanist. The poem is here contextualized, translated, and annotated for the light it sheds on the multiple uses to which early-modern martyrological propaganda could be put.

When the prominent Henrician evangelical Robert Barnes was burned as a heretic in July 1540, a flurry of pamphleteering ensued both in England and abroad. Coming quickly to dominate this polemical output was the text of Barnes's last words spoken at the stake, which were printed in at least two languages and published by polemicists of three distinct theological orientations, and which survive in twenty editions. Because the extant editions of Barnes's words contain significant variants, they afford a unique opportunity to investigate the processes and complexities of martyrological identity shaping. It is argued that, being aware of attempts to obscure his theology and thus prevent his memorialization as a martyr, Barnes, with his last words, consciously attempted to shape his own posthumous theological identity; his manner of doing so, however, not only complicated his enemies' attempts to vilify him, but also forced his evangelical allies to reshape the identity he had meant to craft for himself.