Antoni NOLL (ID #I14240)
(male)
blacksmith? (Schmied)
- DEATH: 1544, Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- BIRTH: bef 1480
Father: Hans NOLL (d. 1492)
Family 1
:
Agnes LERBER (dates unknown)
- +Sebastian NOLL (b. bef 1520)
- +Jakob NOLL (b. bef 1526)
- +Hans NOLL (b. bef 1531, d. bef 1573)
- +Maria NOLL (b. BEF 1532?, d. AFT 1575)
- Martha NOLL (b. 1532)
- Barthaba NOLL (dates unknown)
- Margareth NOLL (b. 6 DEC 1534)
- +Elsbeth NOLL (b. 5 JUN 1536, d. 16 DEC 1587)
A key figure in the adoption of the Protestant Reformation at Bern, noted as a friend of the painter, poet, dramatist, and statesman Niklaus Manuel. He is cited on the city council of Bern in 1505, the inner council from 1525, and was sent on a variety of diplomatic missions from as early as 1525, including missions relating to the progress of the Reformation. He was a member of the Chorgericht, or consistory of the newly-reformed church, from its creation in 1528—this body had jurisdiction over matrimonial disputes, among others. The Lexikon notes that he acquired considerable wealth in 1511 as a result of the "extorsion frauduleuse" of the Duke of Savoie (the DuFour affair). The fact that a large sum was demanded by the Swiss Cantons on the basis of documents soon recognized as forgeries is well known, but Noll's possible role in this episode will require more research. He gave testimony in the trial of Johannes Jetzer (1508), accused of confecting false miracles of the Virgin Mary (Quellen zur Schweizer Geschichte, 1904). While he was clearly an influential figure, we are at a loss to explain how he acquired this status. His name has so far not been located among the lists of students at the major medieval universities.
He is believed to be the son of the famous glass painter Hans Noll (died in the year prior to Easter, 1493), a fact that may explain his association with the painter Niklaus Manuel (possibly trained as a glass painter himself). While this parentage is widely reported and very plausible, we are not aware of any documentary proof.
Antoni might have had another wife before Agnes Lerber, and at least some of his children were born before the earliest surviving baptismal registers were started. He may have had a brother Hans and he may have had a sister who married Hans Leman (bookbinder in Bern circa 1540, member of the city council as early as 1505 — isolated mentions of these people in secondary sources have not been investigated). A document dated 10 oct 1529 in the Staadtsarchiv Bern, summarized on their web site, appears to name his mother-in-law: "Anna Hofer, geb. Hegger, verkauft ihrem Tochtermann Anton Noll für 400 Pfund einen Baumgarten (1 Mannsmahd) samt Scheuer und Stall 'oben uss an der Arberg strass by den armbrust schützen' gelegen. Vgl. Urkunde vom 27.10.1519."
The circumstances that led to the creation of the consistory in 1528 were complex. Part of its purpose was to provide official opprobrium against sinful behavior. Abraham Ruchat (Histoire de la réformation de la Suisse, II:14) cites usury and marriage as two of the areas of special interest for the consistory. However, another provision of the reforms created a novel set of questions that were also assigned to the consistory. Ruchat reports, "Ils permirent aussi à chacun de reprendre les donations et les fondations qu'on avait faites, pour des usages superstitieux, pour des luminaires, des anniversaires, etc., jusqu'à la troisième génération; main non pas ce qui avait été donné aux églises pour y entretenir des pasteurs et pour y faire prêcher la Parole de Dieu. Le consistoire fut chargé de régler les difficultés qui pourraient survenir à ce sujet entre les particuliers. Il y eut plus de huit cents personnes qui reprirent ce qui avait été donné, ou par eux ou par leurs pères et mères, ou par leurs grand-pères et grand-mères; sans compter les familles les plus nobles auxquelles on restitua les rentes de leurs chapelles, avec les vases et les ornemens sacrés. Le reste fut employé à bons usages, au service de l'Eglise, et à l'entretien des pauvres." The alert genealogist will have realized that this situation might have resulted in the creation of some very interesting records, which might be expected to reveal the ancestry of a large number of people alive in 1528. Whether such records still exist has not yet been established.
The members of the consistory were described in French documents as "juges et jurisconsultes", but the membership seems to have included a "judge" appointed from the ranks of the city councillors, two pastors, and two other members from the city council. The members appointed in 1528 were Anthoni Noll, "judge", Berchtold Haller and Kaspar Grossman (the latter usually cited under his nom de plume, Megander), pastors, and Diebold von Erlach (died 15 jan 1561) and Wilhelm Schwander from the city council. By 19 jan 1543, we find Anthoni Noll still presiding as "judge", with pastors Peter Kunz and Beat Gering (from Basel, appointed pastor at Bern in 1541, but he favored the Lutherans over the Zwinglians and left Bern for a position in Strasbourg in 1548), and Kaspar Wysshan, Niklaus von Wattenwyl (the one who joined the reforms after a distinguished ecclesiastical career, and presided with Peter Cyro, Pierre Fabri, and Gérard Grand at the Dispute of Lausanne in 1536), Martin Zulauf, Vincenz Gatti, and Niklaus Schorro from the city council. We see here Antoni Noll in very distinguished company.
One of Antoni Noll's claims to fame must surely be that it was on the façade of his house across the square from the cathedral of Bern that Niklaus Manuel installed his famous fresco of the Idolatry of Solomon (1518, although earlier biographers of Manuel thought the house in question belonged to the artist himself—however, the location by the Moses Fountain, and the references to this house in documents such as the testament of Niklaus Gatschet, who married Noll's daughter, seem to us unambiguous). The fresco remained visible until 1735, and it is known today from at least two copies made before the destruction of the original, one of them by Johann Vicktor Manuel. The subject may be viewed as a warning against personal and political corruption—topics very much on the minds of the Burgers of Bern, who had witnessed some fascinating scandals in the preceding decade—but also as a commentary on the corruption of the church. Exactly what Manuel had in mind at the time has been the subject of considerable discussion, ranging all the way from fore-knowledge of the Reformation to personal criticism of his grandfather Thüring Frickart, whose illegitimate daughter was Manuel's mother. The idol in question is clearly labeled, at least in one of the sketches that have come down to us: Deus ab Auro. (The version by Johann Victor Manuel does not add this label.) Unless the label was a later addition, it was the distraction from all the other worthy goals of life that results from money that was Manuel's complaint. But when the Reformation arrived in Bern a few years later, Noll found himself the owner of a house positioned directly across from the cathedral, covered with a politically-charged message that made him seem a leader in the new religion. Is this perhaps another example of historical and political serendipity?
The house itself, incidentally, had not always fronted on the Münsterplatz. Several neighboring houses had been torn down in 1506, resulting in the enlargement of the Münsterplatz, and at that time Noll built a new façade on the wall that now found itself on the west side of the square. It was this wall that was decorated in 1518 by Manuel. The house, though somewhat altered, still stands, and the Moses Fountain, its statue having been replaced several times over the centuries, still stands in front of it. The fresco may have been Manuel's next large project after the Totentanz, a vast mural at the Domincan convent, dating from 1516. Manuel was also working on the vault of the cathedral about the same time.
One possible motivation for the fresco was the sale of indulgences by Pope Leo X, a project that stirred up controversy throughout Europe. The special sale of indulgences was announced in 1516. The Pope had commissioned for this purpose Cardinal Christophe de Forli, head of the order of the Cordeliers, who in turn delegated operations to Bernardin Samson, head of a convent in Milan, who had managed such sales for two previous popes. Each level of delegation, perhaps needless to add, took a cut of the receipts. Samson made the rounds in Switzerland in 1518, reaching Bern in autumn, but preceded by sufficient outrage that he was at first denied admission to the city. When the city council was persuaded to allow him in, he set up shop in the cathedral and presented an elaborate mass to promote the sale. He found many takers, and the whole little drama has come down to us in colorful detail in the 17th Century chronicle of Michael Stettler. The timing is suggestive. Is it possible that Manuel, knowing that Samson must eventually reach Bern, designed the Idolatry of Solomon as a topical jab at the papacy, in preparation for the expected occasion? If the fresco had any effect on the proceedings, history has failed to record it.
The excesses of Leo X and his immediate predecessors, which resulted in depleting the treasury of the Vatican, and hence necessitating such creative fund-raising, are legendary. The early historians of the Reformation found so many examples that every author took it as a matter pride to locate the most outrageous citations directly from 16th Century sources, both within the Catholic church and elsewhere. There was no difficulty in locating examples of what might have necessitated a religious reformation, including such oddities as parish priests who were mute (one cited by the city council of Moudon), priests who had never even seen a Bible, endless examples of corruption, scandals of all sorts, and an inexhaustible repertoire of unholy outbursts by the popes. These historians also had no trouble locating contemporary opinions within the church hierarchy of the urgent need for reforms, as well as the prevarication, vested interests, politics, and the distractions of temporal power and wealth, that postponed the reforms for so long that a revolution—the protestant reformation—became inevitable. In the context of 1518, we can see specific circumstances that would have made the Idolatry of Solomon topical in Bern, in addition to the local events that would seem to call for the same moral lessons. On the other hand, the interpretation of this long-lost painting will forever be a matter of individual opinion, since the extant copies disagree on many details.
Noll is cited at least once as a "Schmied" (smith), but this might simply mean that he was a member of the guild of the smiths, one of the four large charitable organizations in Bern that seem to have operated somewhat like the Odd Fellows or the Elks today. In other words, it is not necessarily the case that he worked as a blacksmith. As a member of the guild of the smiths, though, he may well have taken part in the presentation of Niklaus Manuel's Carnival plays in the 1520's. Another possible link between the men is that a significant part of Manuel's output seems to be in the form of designs for glass paintings. From what little we know of Noll's life, it is possible that he and Manuel were almost exact contemporaries. Some authors have even cited Antoni Noll himself as a "master glass painter", though we have not found any contemporary sources for this conclusion.
At least two documents involving Antoni Noll, possibly stemming from the DuFour affair, are at the Archivio di Stato di Torino. Under the rubric "Materie politiche per rapporto all'estero,Trattati,Trattati cogli Svizzeri; Obblighi e quietanze, Mazzo 1, Fascicolo 28", there is a document bearing the seal of Antoni Noll of Bern (with the image of a seated bear, holding the Noll arms), summarized as follows: "Antonio Noll di Berna rilascia quietanza a favore del duca Carlo II di Savoia per una somma consegnatagli dall'araldo 'Faulcon' a titolo di reddito annuo dovutogli dal duca", and dated 28 nov 1523. (The duke known to the rest of the world as Charles III of Savoie is called Carlo II by the archives and historians of Savoie.) There are several similar documents bearing dates from 1517 to 1530. The mention of "Faulcon" can only refer to Peter Falck, Avoyer of Fribourg, and thus the instrument by which the Duke owed money to Noll in that instance must date from 1519 or earlier. Another document at Turin, evidently of similar import, bears the seal of Peter Falck himself, 27 nov 1517, suggesting that Falck was also involved in extracting money from the Duke of Savoie. (The same archive has a document of similar discription from 1523 involving Hans Noll of Bern, suggesting that Antoni may have had a brother Hans.)
A major caveat for researchers of this period in Bern is that much of what has been published seems to derive from the official chroniclers Valierius Anshelm and Michael Stettler, rather than from primary sources. Information from Stettler's chronicle, for example, can be identified as a major source for Johann Jacob Leu's Allgemeines Schweizerisches Lexicon in the 18th Century, which in turn served as a major source for Tillier, Müller, Daguet, and other historians in the 19th Century. The chroniclers are certainly important, since they had access to sources now lost, but they were not necessarily objective observers, and in any case did not have access to documents located in the archives of Fribourg, Savoie, Milan, etc. Modern scholarship regarding the relations of the major powers with Bern and Fribourg in the early 16th Century is urgently needed. (Anshelm, an early advocate of the Reformation and a member of the guild of the smiths, would have known Antoni Noll personally. His chronicle was published in a critical edition in six volumes, 1884-1901, but we have not yet located a copy of this work. He was a resident of Bern during most of the events leading up to the Reformation, except for a few years beginning in 1523, when he returned to his hometown of Rottweil.)
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_Peter NOLL _________|
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_Hans NOLL __________|
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|--Antoni NOLL
| (1480 - 1544)
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