THOMAS

See also:

• THOMAS MURNER (1475-1537 ?)

MURNER (1475-1537 ?)  , German satirist, was born on the 24th of December 1475 at Oberehnheim near Strassburg . In 1490 he entered the order of Franciscan monks, and in 1495 began a wandering life, studying and then teaching and preaching in Freiburg-in-Breisgau, Paris, Cracow and Strassburg . The emperor Maximilian I. crowned him in 15o5 poeta laureatus; in 15o6, he was created doctor theologiae, and in 1513 Was appointed custodian of the Franciscan monastery in Strassburg; an office which, on account of a scurrilous publication, he was forced to vacate the following year . Late in life, in 1518, he began the study of jurisprudence at the university of Basel, and in 1519 took the degree of doctor juris . After journeys in Italy and England, he again settled in Strassburg, but, disturbed by the Reformation, sought an exile at Lucerne in Switzerland in 1526 . In 1533 he was appointed priest of Oberehnheim, where he died in 1537, or, according to some accounts, in 1536 . Murner was an energetic and passionate character, who made enemies wherever he went . There is not a trace of human kindness in his satires, which were directed against the corruption of the times, the Reformation, and especially against Luther . His most powerful satire—and the most virulent German satire of the period—is Von dem grossen lutherischen Nan-en, wie ihn Dr Murner beschworen hat . Among others may be mentioned Die Narrenbeschworung (1512); Die Schelmertzunft (1512); Die Gduchmatt, which treats of enamoured fools (1519), and a translation of Virgil's Aeneid (1515) dedicated to the emperor Maximilian I . Murner also wrote the humorous Chartiludium logicae (1507) and the Ludus studentum freiburgensium (1511), besides a translation of Justinian's Institutiones (1519) . All Murner's more important works have been republished in critical editions; a selection was published by G .

Balke in Kurschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur (1189o) . Cf . W . Kawerau, Murner and die Kirche

des Mittelalters (189o); and by the same writer, Murner and die deutsche Reformation (1891); also K . Ott, Uber Murners Verhaltniss zu Geller (1896) .