Martin Luther asks Elector Frederick III. to confirm the Ordinance of a “Common Chest” for the city of Leisnig, August 11, 1523
The Electoral Saxonian city of Leisnig had turned to evangelical doctrine early on. By the end of 1522, many Roman Catholic customs had been abolished and the pastorates and preacher positions restaffed with evangelically-minded clergy at the insistence of the parishioners. At the beginning of the following year, the parish agreed on an arrangement for the “common chest” (“Gemeiner Kasten”), i.e. on a statute for a municipal treasury, which was to be used to cover various expenses, especially the salaries of clerical staff and support for the needy. The practical implementation of the ideas of the Reformation in the parishes that wanted to convert to the evangelical doctrine resulted in the need to re-examine the remuneration of the clergy and the care of the poor. Previous sources of revenue, such as foundations or fees for services that had ceased to exist in these parishes because they were now considered unsuitable, Roman Catholic customs, were no longer available to the clergy. The Protestant view of poverty, begging, and almsgiving differed from the Roman Catholic one. For evangelical believers, almsgiving did not present an opportunity to get closer to one's own salvation by such good, meritorious deeds; faith alone was the key to attaining salvation. This also had an impact on the willingness of people to donate.
A look at the Leisnig Ordinance of a Common Chest is worthwhile if one wants more detailed information about the purposes the Leisnig parish treasury was intended to serve. The Ordinance mandated the remuneration of the pastor, the preacher, and other curates as well as a schoolmaster and a schoolmistress, who was to teach the girls, from the municipal treasury funds. Begging was henceforth forbidden, but people who had fallen into poverty through no fault of their own were promised support from the “common chest.” Thus, begging was supposed to be replaced by systematic care for the poor. Furthermore, the maintenance of the buildings associated with the causes supported by funds from the “common chest,” for example those of the church, the schools, and hospitals, was to be financed from the “common chest.” In addition, the Ordinance of a Common Chest also included regulations on the granting of loans, the support of strangers, and the building up of a stock of food for the parish.
The Leisnig Ordinance of a Common Chest also provides information about the financing of the municipal treasury itself and the management thereof: Ten persons chosen by the parish were to be responsible for managing the funds of the “common chest.” The Ordinance of a Common Chest refers to these as wardens or managers of the "common chest." These chest managers recorded and controlled the income and expenditure of the municipal funds. According to the Ordinance of a Common Chest, funds and goods that were to be provided to the “common chest” included ecclesiastical possessions and foundations as well as voluntary donations and bequests.
However, disputes about the financing and management of the “common chest” arose in Leisnig soon after the adoption of the Ordinance of a Common Chest, since the city council did not want to cede its authority over the church foundations and testamentary bequests for the benefit of the “common chest” to the chest wardens. This in turn meant that the remuneration of church and school personnel was in question. Electoral attempts at mediation failed to bring about any real solution to the conflict. Therefore, in August 1523, the reformer Martin Luther, who had visited Leisnig in the September of the previous year at the request of the parish in an advisory capacity and who received word of the establishment of the “common chest” from the Leisnig parish on January 25, 1523, got involved. After his journey to Leisnig, he wrote a letter to the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise on August 11 and asked him to confirm the validity of the controversial point of the Ordinance of a Common Chest. On August 19, he repeated his request. However, the Elector never provided the requested confirmation.
The “common chest” was not confirmed until the year 1529 by a decree of the visitors Justus Jonas, Wolfgang Fuß, Sebastian von Kötteritz, Asmus von Haubitz, and Benedikt Pauli. As part of a visitation ordered by the Saxon Elector – during such visitations, a commission of jurists examined the church conditions directly in the various parishes – they had also visited Leisnig and prescribed measures regarding various church and school matters.
However, the Leisnig Ordinance of a Common Chest had printed prior to that – probably mid-1523 – at Martin Luther’s insistence. More widely distributed and made known to a broader circle in this way, Luther intended it to serve as a “common example” (a general example) for other communities. And sure enough, in the period that followed, other parishes seeking guidance looked to the Ordinance of a Common Chest of the city of Leisnig, which, alongside Wittenberg, played a leading role in introducing a “common chest.”