This manuscript contains the so-called Reformatio Sigismundi, a
document about the reform of church and empire that was written
anonymously in German in 1439 during the Council of Basel by an
author who until today has not been reliably identified. The text
was printed for the first time in 1476. The treatise presents
reform proposals that emphasize the importance of pastoral care and
that promote releasing secular clergy from obligatory celibacy and
releasing bishops from exercising temporal power. The treatise also
reports Emperor Sigismund’s alleged vision, according to which a
priest-king Frederick is said to have appeared to him with plans
for the reform. In a colophon on p. 234, the writer gives his name
as Petrus Hamer von Weissenhorn, chaplain in Kirchberg. He begins
the chapters with red initials and decorates two of them with
caricatures of bearded faces (p. 158 and 212).
Place
Preferred form
Kirchberg (Ulm area, Germany)
Original form
Kirchberg (near Ulm)
Rights
e-codices - Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland
