Felix Hemmerlin

Who was Felix Hemmerlin?

Felix Hemmerlin was a member of a well-established Zurich family. He studied in Erfurt and Bologna, and became a priest in 1430. He held numerous church offices in Switzerland, including as chorister in Zofingen and in the Grossmünster Church in Zurich, as a provost at Solothurn, and as a contributor to the Council of Basel,identified with the Church reform party. During the war between Zurich and later the Habsburgs against the remainder of the Swiss Confederation from 1436-1450, he composed several works attacking the Swiss as 'rustic peasants' who had rebelled against their rightful lords, the best known of which is his "De Nobilitate et Rusticitate Dialogus" of the early 1440s, published in 1493. After Zurich's concessions and return to alliance with the other Swiss, Hemmerlin was imprisoned and deprived of his offices.