The Music Ministry at Queen Anne Lutheran Church provides opportunity for children, youth, and adults to share their vocal or instrumental musical gifts in the worship life of the congregation. All the music is prepared to offer praise to God and to proclaim the Word, as well as support and strengthen the congregational song. All choirs welcome new members with joy and thanksgiving, and if you have other musical gifts to share, we look forward to hearing from you as well.
This month marks the 506th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses and the start of the Reformation. After the first of the year, QALC hosts a 3-part forum series on “Women of the Reformation.” Looking ahead toward that, I thought it would be fitting to take another look at Elisabeth Cruciger and her early Lutheran hymn, “The Only Son from Heaven” (ELW 509). What follows builds upon part of a forum presentation I offered in 2022 on Reformation-era hymnody. The ingredients of the story include the early days of the Reformation, a pinch of guilt by association (or perhaps not?), and even some apocalyptic theology fads…
“The Only Son from Heaven”
“The Only Son from Heaven” is a hymn especially well-suited for Epiphany. It was first published in the Erfurt Enchiridion (1524), the second Lutheran hymnal. It gained widespread popularity and has consistently been included in Lutheran hymnals ever since. The author, Elizabeth Cruciger (c. 1500–1535), was a former nun of a noble Polish family and friend of Luther’s wife, Katharina von Bora. Although regarded as the first Lutheran female hymn writer, little else is known of Cruciger besides this hymn—and that she died at the age of 35.
Initially, “The Only Son from Heaven” was consistently attributed to Cruciger. But for roughly 250 years, Elisabeth was often not solely credited—or not credited at all. Why did this happen? Back in 2001, for an issue of Sixteenth Century Journal, Reformation historian Mary Jane Haemig follows the clues in her article, “Elisabeth Cruciger (1500?-1535): The Case of the Disappearing Hymn Writer.” The paragraphs below draw mostly from Haemig’s work.
Wandering Authorship Claims
Fifty years after Cruciger’s death, Elisabeth was still consistently credited with “The Only Son from Heaven.” She herself was even lauded, as in a lengthy sermon preached in 1588 on Cruciger and the hymn. In that era, it seems that some post-Reformation Lutherans expected the End Times to commence. Cruciger’s status as a female author was sometimes framed within the prophecy of Joel 2:28–29, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.” As the years unfolded (and apocalyptic theology fads faded) proper attribution of the hymn also faded. There are some twists and turns along the way as writers and preachers cover Cruciger and her hymn; Haemig believes that contextualizing Cruciger’s authorship within accepted gender norms is indeed part of the story of Elisabeth’s decreasing prominence when pastors and historians write about the hymn in the 1600s and beyond. But there is also more going on behind the scenes—including a family name that may have been problematic.
Cruciger’s husband, Caspar the Elder, was a protégé of Luther, but his works were used by both sides in intra-Lutheran debates after Luther’s death, clouding his reputation in theological circles. More seriously, Elisabeth and Caspar’s son, Caspar the Younger, espoused views that were deemed crypto-Calvinist; he was imprisoned in Wittenberg in 1576 and then exiled. By 1599 a groundbreaking history of Saxony was written by David Chytraeus, who was also a signatory to the Formula of Concord and thus would not have been a fan of the younger Cruciger (and perhaps not the elder, either). Chytraeus credited Cruciger’s hymn to Andreas Knoepken (c. 1468–1539), a Latvian pastor, reformer, and hymn writer. Chytraeus’s plausible (but unprovable) disdain for “all things Cruciger” may have been a factor—not borne of malice, but a predisposition to the notion that another source must exist. Because Chytraeus’s overall scholarship carried weight, a sort of feedback loop was created among later scholars in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Thus, the hymn was credited to Knoepken and Cruciger or, even more problema-tically, to Knoepken alone—despite earliest crediting to Cruciger when the hymn was initially published.
The Return of Elisabeth Cruciger
It would not be until about 1870 that Cruciger was again consistently credited as the author of the hymn. With “The Only Son from Heaven” consistently misattributed to a Latvian pastor—but with Cruciger’s connection still in the ether—German Lutheran pastor and author Johannes Geffcken sleuthed the sequence of Latvian hymnals and church orders from the 1500s. It turns out that Andreas Knoepken was directly involved (perhaps solely responsible, even) for the publication of a 1537 church order that attributes “The Only Son from Heaven” to Elisabeth Cruciger. Geffcken had now found proof from Knoepken’s own works to corroborate the attribution of the hymn to Cruciger. So, if Knoepken knew that Cruciger wrote “The Only Son from Heaven,” how did Knoepken end up credited with the hymn?
Knoepken himself was a prolific hymn writer. It seems that around 1548, a copy error in Latvian hymnals or church orders was introduced, crediting Knoepken. This error was carried forward in later publications. It’s possible that Chytraeus, the influential author of Saxon history, consulted these later publications. As a result, from about the year 1600 onward, scholars (including hymnal compilers) would usually take one of three paths: suggest co-authorship with Cruciger; or mention Cruciger while crediting Knoepken; or, in many cases, only credit Knoepken.
As a result, for nearly 250 years, this beautiful hymn of the Reformation was thus disconnected from the remarkable woman of the Reformation, who is the hymn’s true author. Thanks to Geffcken’s work in the 1800s, plus the modern-day sleuthing and painstaking research in recent years by Mary Jane Haemig, we know “the rest of the story.” Elisabeth Cruciger’s rightful place as the author of “The Only Son from Heaven” is restored, and her talents are rightly celebrated.
God’s blessings to you as we look forward to celebrating the heritage of the Reformation. See you in church!
Kyle Haugen, Cantor
cantor@queenannelutheran.org