Murner, Thomas (1475–1537)

German satirist. A Franciscan friar, he developed a reputation for biting satire, with works like his Die Narrenbeschweerung/Fools' Exorcism (1512). Though he was critical of corruption within the Catholic Church, he was passionately opposed to the Lutheran Reformation and attacked it in several vitriolic satires.

Born in Oberehnheim in Alsace, Murner grew up in Strasbourg and took orders as a Franciscan friar there in 1491. He then studied theology and taught at Fribourg, Cologne, Paris, Rostock, and Cracow, and later studied law at Basel. In both his preaching and his writing, he combined popular sayings and imagery with a love of the grotesque and scurrilous. More biting than Sebastian Brant's gentle satire, Murner's was directed first at folly in general, as in his Die Narrenbeschweerung, modelled on Brant's Narrenschyff. His later works, like Von dem grossen Lutherischen Narren, wie in doctor Murner beschworen hat/Of the Great Lutheran Fool, as Doctor Murner has Exorcised Him (1522) were preoccupied with attacking Luther and his followers. His other works include anti-Lutheran pamphlets, theological works in Latin, and a translation of Virgil's Aeneid into German verse.