Burial Order from Spalatin and Luther
(City Archive Altenburg)

Spalatin the Superintendent

Already in 1522 the citizens of Altenburg turned to Luther with the appeal for a german preacher. Luther sent Wenzeslaus Linck. After the death of Friedrich the Wise, Spalatin came at the request of Luther as pastor to Alten­burg, Thuringia in 1525. Spalatin here undertook on the task of implementing the ideas of the Reformation. On behalf of Luther, he began first of all as City Pastor and in 1528, as one of the first Superintendents, he took on the "Pilot Project" Altenburg.

Visitations

The Reformation left only few aspects of daily city-life unchanged: the monasteries were dissolved, which was often associated with a tough, year-long battle. The hospitals, schools and the poor accommodation would have to be reorganized. Influence and real-estate were to be newly allocated between the cities, the church and the electors. The quality of the care-organizations provided by the church was harshly judged and then improved with the help of the ¿visitations¿ suggested by Spalatin. Through numerous visitations between 1527 and 1542, Spalatin managed to build up a great deal of the regional church structures. Spalatin documented these processes during the 20 years of his activities and continued a close correspondence to Luther, in which he often asked his close friend and confidant for personal advice.