Reformation and counter-reformation in Slovenj Gradec (1527–1629)
Keywords:
Slovenj Gradec, Carinthia, Styria, reformation, counter-reformation, Janž Zajc, Štefan Kimmerling, visitation commissions, Špital church of Holy Spirit, church of St. Ursula on Uršlja gora, Mihael SkoblAbstract
The provincial-princely town of Slovenj Gradec was swiftly captured by the Luther reform ideas as after 1527, the protestant preacher Hans Has (Janž Zajc) was active there. In 1527 he was as a heretic hanged in Gradec. Later, Primož Trubar described this event. Despite the strong contradiction of the Slovenj Gradec Catholic vicar Sebastjan Vokalič (the parish was since 1544 incorporated in the Ljubljana diocese), after the year 1586, the exceptionally popular Štefan Kimmerling from the Augsburg region preached in the town; he was supported by the Styrian States. The first large stroke for the Slovenj Gradec Lutherans was the mediation of the commission of the bishop of Seckau Martin Brenner at the end of December 1599; more successful was after 1600 Tomaž Hren, the patron of the building of the church on Uršlja gora, which became the symbol of recatolisation of that region. In 1629, the last Lutheran nobleman and citizen left Slovenj Gradec.
