Count Simon V of Lippe (1471September 17, 1536) was Noble Lord of Lippe, and from 1528 Count of Lippe. During his reign, the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

was introduced in Lippe.

Life

Simon V was the fifth child and eldest son of Bernard VII "the Bellicose" and Anna of Holstein-Pinneberg and inherited Lippe after his father's death, around 1511. In 1528, he was raised to

Imperial Count Imperial Count (german: Reichsgraf) was a title in the Holy Roman Empire. In the medieval era, it was used exclusively to designate the holder of an imperial county, that is, a fief held directly ( immediately) from the emperor, rather than from ...

and Lippe became one of about 140 Imperial Counties. Since 1518, the Reformation had prevailed, first in

Lemgo Lemgo (; nds, Lemge, Lemje) is a small university town in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated between the Teutoburg Forest and the Weser Uplands, 25 km east of Bielefeld and 70 km west of Hannover. T ...

and then in other cities in Lippe. An open conflict arose in 1530 when Protestant hymns were sung during a Catholic Easter Mass. Simon, who remained a Catholic all his life, was outraged, and spoke of ''insurgent farmers who refuse to endure any authority over themselves''. He was, however, a

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...

of two liege lords: the Bishop of

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...

and Landgrave

Philip I Philip(p) I may refer to: * Philip I of Macedon (7th century BC) * Philip I Philadelphus (between 124 and 109 BC–83 or 75 BC) * Philip the Arab (c. 204–249), Roman Emperor * Philip I of France (1052–1108) * Philip I (archbishop of Cologne) (1 ...

of Hesse, who had been a Lutheran since 1524. This limited his freedom to act. The cities in Lippe, in particular Lippstadt and Lemgo, also favoured a closer relationship with the Lutheran faith. Philip of Hesse urged the citizens of Lemgo to redress their dispute with Simon V; nevertheless,

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

continued to spread in the cities. When in 1533, Simon sought support for military action against Lemgo, Philip intervened and mediated. Later that year, Lemgo adopted the

Church Order Church order is the systematically organized set of rules drawn up by a qualified body of a local church. P. Coertzen. ''Church and Order''. Belgium: Peeters. From the point of view of civil law, the ''church order'' can be described as the inter ...

and thus officially became Lutheran. In 1535, Simon V and Duke John III of Cleves invaded Lippstadt, which had turned

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

. The city surrendered to its liege lord. The citizens of Lemgo were afraid that Simon V and John III would invade Lemgo as well, however, due to Philip's ongoing mediation, this did not happen.

Marriage and issue

Simon V married Countess Walpurgis of Bronckhorst (died: 21 December 1522). With her, he had a son: *Gisbert of Lippe (d. 1522) Simon then married Magdalene of

Mansfeld Mansfeld, sometimes also unofficially Mansfeld-Lutherstadt, is a town in the district of Mansfeld-Südharz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Protestant reformator Martin Luther grew up in Mansfeld, and in 1993 the town became one of sixteen places in ...

-Mittelort (born: ) and had five more children: *Margaret of Lippe (1525-1578) * Bernhard VIII, Count of Lippe *Herman Simon, Count of Sternberg, married Ursula of Pyrmont and

Spiegelberg Spiegelberg is a municipality in the Rems-Murr district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. History Spiegelberg's name comes from a glassworking manufactory built in the town in 1699 that produced mirrors from 1705 to 1794. Geography The municipa ...

(d. 1576) *Anna of Lippe, married Count John I of Waldeck-Landau (born: 1521 or 1522) *Agnes of Lippe (born: 1535), married Dietrich of Plesse

External links

Internet portal Westphalian history: County / Principality of Lippe (-Detmold) / Free State of Lippe
Lords of Lippe Counts of Lippe House of Lippe 1471 births 1536 deaths 15th-century German people 16th-century German people {{Germany-noble-stub