MURNER, THOMAS. – Theologian and anti-Lutheran polemicist of the Conventual Franciscans, born at Oberchnheim (Obernai) in Alsace on 24 Dec. 1475, died there on 22 Aug. 1537. He preached in various chapters of his religious province; on 25 Sept. 1505 he was licensed for the theological magisterium by the Minister General Egidius Delphin.
In 1508, in close relations with the humanist Jakob Locher, he defended at Freiburg the necessity of a sound classical culture for religious. In the same city he earned a doctorate in theology in 1509 (according to others, more probably already in 1506). In 1505, on account of his literary merits, he had been crowned poet by Emperor Maximilian I. He served as guardian at Speyer in 1510 and three years later at Strasbourg. He then taught for a time at Venice, and subsequently at Trier (law); in 1519 he was at Basel, where he earned a doctorate in utroque.
His teaching methods in logic (Cracow, 1607) and prosody (Freiburg, 1511–12), and later in law (Trier, 1615–18), based on certain card games or *chartiludia*, drew contradictions and accusations, even of heresy. But the greatest difficulties began for him in the years 1520–30, when he took a lively part in the religious struggles, writing some thirty works against Luther and Zwingli. Like other apologists of the time, including his fellow friars (e.g., Johannes Pauli), he made extensive use of satire. In 1522 he translated into German Henry VIII’s *Assertio septem Sacramentorum*, which had great resonance; the king wished to meet him and hosted him in England the following year (1523). In 1524 he was sent by the bishop of Strasbourg to defend Catholic rights at the Diet of Nuremberg. Persecuted by the Lutherans, from 1525 he led the Catholic party against the Zwinglians at Lucerne, continuing the struggle for four years, cited before the courts by the councils of Zurich, Lucerne, and Bern. In 1529 he managed to take refuge first in the Palatinate, with Elector Frederick II, and then in his native town in Alsace, where he spent the last years of his life in peace (1530–1537).
Among his vast and varied literary output, the following are noteworthy: *Germania nova* (n.p. 1502; new ed. by K. Schmidt, Geneva 1875), a rare work against Jakob Wimpfeling in defense of the Strasbourg convent school and the Germanic character of Alsace; *Honestorum poëmatum laudatio* (Cracow 1507); *De sillabarum quantitatibus* (Frankfurt n.d.); *Chariludium logicae* (Cracow 1507); *Ludus studium Friburgenisium* (Frankfurt 1511–12); *Charti-ludium iustitiae summariae* (Strasbourg 1518). In defense of the Immaculate Conception, he wrote: *De quatuor haeresiarchis O. P. de observantia nuncupatorum* (Berlin 1509, and German trans.); among his more substantial or famous apologetic writings: *Von Doctor Martinus Luters Lehren und Predigen* (Strasbourg 1520); *Von dem Babstenthum* (ibid. 1520, in defense of the papacy); *Die gots heylige Mesz* (Lucerne 1528); the most important satirical poem, against the mad “spirit” of the Reformers, *Von dem grossen Lutherischen Narren wie in doctor M. beschworen hat* (Strasbourg 1523; new ed. by H. Kurz, Zurich 1848).
Judged variously, both as a poet and as a polemicist, Murner was a keen and versatile spirit of rich imagination. Though sharing with Luther the need for reform within the Church at various levels, he immediately broke with him as soon as he perceived his spirit and methods. He was the greatest defender of Catholicity in Alsace (Strasbourg) and in Switzerland.
Studi: W. Kaverau, *Th. M. und die Kirche des Mittelalters*, Halle 1890; id., *Th. M. und die deutsche Reformation*, ibid. 1891; G. Balke, *Th. M. Die deutschen Dichtungen des Ulrich von Hutten*, Stuttgart n.d.; Th. von Liebenau, *Der Franziskaner Dr. Th. M.*, Freiburg im Br. 1913; id., *Documenta quaedam circa vitam Fr. Th. Murneri*, in *Arch. Franc. hist.*, 5 (1912), pp. 727–36; 6 (1913), pp. 118–28; cf. ibid., 25 (1932), p. 266; P. Scherrer, *Th. M. Verhältnis zum Humanismus, untersucht auf Grund seiner Reformatio Poitarium*, Basel 1920; M. Sondheim, *Th. M. als Astrolog*, Strasbourg 1938; Fl. Landmann, *Zur Charakteristik Thomas M.s*, in *Arch. f. Elsäss. Kirchengesch.*, 15 (1941–42), pp. 199–210; id., *Eine unvollendete Jugendschrift Th. M.s*, ibid., pp. 73–128 (on a *Tract. de Immaculata Virginis Conceptione* by M. from 1499); *Regesta Ordini, Cod. A. 3, f. 63* (Rome, conv. SS. Apostoli); Sbaralea, III, pp. 132–36; for further bibliography cf. *Bibliographia Franciscana*, VI, Rome 1946–47, p. 477.
Lorenzo Di Fonzo