Chapter 3.6: The Reformation in Livonia

The influence of the nailing of a certain 95 point reform program for a certain religion on a certain church in Germany by a certain former monk on the 31th of October 1517 did not take that much time to reach Livonia. In 1523-1524, one could see preachers travelling from town to town to spread the word about the Reformation. It was able to gain a lot of traction In Riga, Tallinn and Tartu. In the (old, now disappeared) church of Saint Mary in Tartu, one of Luther's students started to give sermons in 1524. However, the man was kicked out of the city by the authorities. He consequently travelled to Tallinn, where he probably had more luck. In autumn of 1524, there were riots in the city, as angry mobs went from church to church to smash altars and destroy paintings, symbols of the Catholic faith. The only church that managed to survive the havoc was St. Nicholas, because the pastor there filled the keyholes of the doors with tin. In the spring of 1525, the same happened in Tartu and in Viljandi.

The churches in cities were the first to sever relations with Rome. The town councils took over supporting and governing local churches, pastors lost their special status in society, churches became “bland” and so on.

The reformation did not instantly spread across the land though. The countryside remained Catholic for a while, some people in cities also continued to support the old confession. Monasteries remained intact, and Catholics started to visit them for sermons. The cathedrals also remained Catholic. Town councils soon banned people from going to Catholic sermons though.



The City of Tartu in 1553.

The Reformation did not just change religious life, but also had an immense impact on education. One of the central tenets of Protestantism is that all people had to be able to read the word of God in their native tongue. So two things had to happen: 1) the bible had to be translated into Estonian and 2) Estonians had to be taught how to read.

The schools in cities were reorganised to become places of learning, where humanitarian principles were spread, freed of Catholic rigour. In Tallinn and Tartu, schools for girls were also established, and in 1552, a fund was created to pay for the education of poor children. (As a side note, the school for girls in Tallinn was located in the reformed monastery of St. Michael. The high school I went to will be established in the same building less than a hundred years later.)

The translation of the bible was not an easy job, and it will take quite some time when it will be published in Estonian. However, from 1525, there is a mention of a certain item of interest in regards to a barrel, which is filled with books, confiscated in Lübeck. The item is a religious book in Estonian, which makes it the oldest known Estonian book. Nothing of it survives though. However, a small section of Wandrandt-Koelli catechism from 1535, also in Estonian, has survived.


Here are a couple of surviving pieces of the oldest surviving Estonian book. (The grammar is nonsensical, because Estonian is not compatible with the grammatical rules of German, but that did not stop people from using German as a base for centuries.)

Some notable cultural figures from this era include the artist Michel Sittow, born in Tallinn and active in many royal courts around Europe, and sculptor Arent Passer, born in the Netherlands, but spending almost half a century in Tallinn.

Diego de Guevara by Sittow, ca. 1517



The sarcophagus of Pontus De la Gardie in the St. Mary´s Cathedral, Tallinn. By Passer.