Life of Aventinus

In the first volume of the Collected Works of Aventinus (actually Johannes Turmair), there is a biographical sketch that provides interesting tid-bits that are worth noting.

Reading Notes

• Aventinus had contact to Conrad Celtis circle in Vienna and their Danubian society during his studying in Vienna.
• In 1516, Aventinus founded a similar society in Ingolstadt which included Bavarian chancellor Dr Leonhard von Eck, who was the "head and protector" (p.XV) of that association. However, the association was only active until 1520, and the authors blame the rabies theologica of the theologian Dr Eck in Ingolstadt for this (ibid).
• 1517, wie Herzog Ernst becoming the bishop of Passau, Aventinus was elevated to court historian for the Dukes Wilhelm and Ludwig (p.XVI).
• After two years of data collection (1517-1519) for his Historia Baiorum, Aventinus spent 1519 to 1521 in Abensberg, where his sister took care of him, to write the first draft, immediately followed by a second draft (p.XVIII). Occasionally he interrupted his work, for example, to meet with Chancellor von Eck in Regensburg (ibid).
• November 1522 he begins with the translation of the Historia into the vernacular (p.XIX)
• Aventinus makes another influential friend in the Cardinal and Archbishop of Salzburg, Matthaeus Lang, who keeps him at Salzburg for two months in the Spring of 1523 and will remain his friend even into the 1530s (p.XX).
• In 1524, the dukes raised his salary from 60fl, which he had received already for tutoring Ernst, to 100fl annually, provided he gave them control over the printing of the chronicle and would not accept offers from other dukes without notifying them (p.XXI).
• Aventinus managed to glide through the Peasant Revolt of 1525, which the dukes quickly battered down, and enjoy life in Abensberg in 1526, now with the official order to translate his work into German (p.XXII).
• In 1527, he began to frequent Regensburg, because there was no one in Abensberg that he could discuss matters with (ibid); the authors suggest it was the beginning of Aventinus being pulled into the question of the Reformation (p.XXIII).
• Unsurprisingly, as the Introduction of his work shows, he thinks of history as a moral and political effort (p.XXVI).
• In his moral crusade, his preferred enemies are the clericals, and especially the monks, and his warning against them extends even into Anti-Semitism: "Beware with equal care vis-a-vis a preacher, a Jew and a wolf." (Sigh ... :P) (p.XXIX).
• In his crusade against the church Aventinus also reveals a crusade for German Nationalism, even though he is employed by Bavarian dukes, for the German empire and the emperor (p.XXXI). "Deutschland ist nach seiner Ansicht in das Erbe des römischen imperium mundi eingetreten, "die vierte und letzte Monarchie der Daniel'schen Weissangung, an deren Fortbestand die Weltdauer geknüpft ist" (ibid).
• "Sonderinteressen zu verfolgen und eigene Politik zu treiben verurtheilt [sic] er stets als Unrecht und Untreue gegen die Gesamtheit." (p.XXXII) 
• For this reason, Aventinus criticizes the aristocracy for their focus on their special interests and advantages (p.XXXIII), leading him to demand public justice and free discourse (p.XXXIV).
• The three external enemies are the Pope, the French and the Turks (p.XXXV).
• For Aventinus, Religion is primarily about Justice, and he can praise the Romans and the Ancients for being just (p.XXXVII) --- including Alexander the Great.
• In the discussion of his historiographical achievements, the overly strong dependence on the forged Chaldean book of Berosos of Annio of Viterbo (Giovanni Nanni) is a black mark (p.XLI). His friend Beatus Rhenanus exposed the work as a forgery, but Aventinus either did not share his convictions or died before he could (p.XLII).
• The publication of his works was blocked by the two dukes (p.XLVI) since 1522, when they had forbidden the departure from the old faith, as supportive as they had been of reformatorical writings earlier, and there was just too much critical writing in Aventinus' books.
• Dr Eck of Ingolstadt got the dukes to execute tough punishments for the lapsed, which cost several anabaptists their life (ibid).
• 1528 was a troublesome year for Aventinus, the Turks were back in Hungary and Carinthia and were sending people into slavery (p.XLVII).
• Aventinus had friends in Regensburg, two of the cities' Stadtschreiber, as well as the Abbot Minzer, and there had been both the Jewish pogrom as well as the beginnings of the Reformation, both related to Dr Balthasar Huber, the preacher at the cathedral (p.XLVIII).
• But then (ibid) the preacher Nicolaus Georgius Fabri, a friend of Aventinus, was arrested in Landshut, where he was the chaplain of Duke Ludwig, and this struck fear into Aventinus, who fled to Regensburg. More preachers were imprisoned, 
• Aventinus himself was imprisoned on October 7th, 1528 (p.XLIX), but the Chancellor Leonhard von Eck quickly intervened to free him again, eleven days later, from jail, and Aventinus quickly returned to Regensburg (ibid).
• Aventinus had been an active Catholic during his time as tutor of Prince Ernst, and he prayed the breviary every day with him in 1513 (p.L).
• Aventinus knew too much history to believe in the indulgences and was too much a critic of the clergy and the monks, but he may not have ever left the Faith, comparable to Dr Konrad Peutinger and other supporters of Church reform (p.LI).
• During this time, he was sick and deeply discouraged and only found comfort in his work on the Germania Illustrata (p.LII).
• Aventinus tried to influence the matter by marrying Barbara Fröschmann, a Suebian girl from Niederrieden, December 1529 (p.LIII), but the expectation for this marriage as a source of calm in these confused times apparently did not materialize. However, the evidence for Aventinus being unhappy with his wife comes only from his biographers (p.LIV), and they had two children (two of which died quickly), and were able to buy a house in Regensburg for 150fl without selling the Abensberg estate. So clearly it was not a financial problem. And the inventory at his death (middle of the long footnote on p.LV-LVII) of old books, some from the 9th century, is impressive.
• In 1530, Aventinus was looking for a new position, and Philip Melanchthon suggested to him to try his friend Matthaeus Lang in Salzburg (p.LVII), instead of going to Saxony or even Wittenberg.
• His old friend Chancellor Dr von Eck helped him out and hired him as the tutor for his son Oswald at Ingolstadt (p.LVIII), a task he kept up until Christmas 1533, when he caught cold on his way back to Regensburg (ibid) and died January 9th, 1534.
• The publication of his main works was suppressed for many years after his death (p.LIX): the German Chronicle's Book I was printed in Nuremberg in 1541, and the Bavarian Chronicle in 1566 in Frankfurt am Main. 

Discussion

• When the authors write: "Wie unverständig es war, seine Mahnworte zu verachten, zeigte die schon im Jahre 1529 erfolgte Belagerung Wiens durch die Türken." (p.XXXVI) then this skips the fact that the pamphlet against the Turks was reworked in 1529.