Onus ecclesie

[Berthold Pürstinger, Bishop of Chiemsee (1465–1543)].
Onus ecclesie.
Landshut: Johann Weyssenburger, 1524. (BRB0215)

Class III: Anonymous Works

The Onus ecclesie was listed in the Tridentine Index in Class III among the anonymous works. However, its author is now known to be Berthold Pürstinger, the Bishop of Chiemsee in the Bavarian Alps. Written in 1519, the work was a daring call for internal reform within the Catholic Church. In the large woodcut by Jörg Breu, the earthly Church suffers a firestorm, plagues of insects, and attacks by Satan, as predicted in the quotations from the Book of Revelation held aloft by God and the angels.