[FloreatIacobus]

Handel’s music would also be very Lutheran.

That just might be a show-stopper.

Was his setting of Carmelite Vespers Lutheran? Or his Dixit Dominus? Messiah was written when he was settled in England (after the Anglican Chandos Anthems), so if anything would be Anglican rather than Lutheran.

[xzins]

Handel went to England solely because his German royal patron, George I, became King of England. George, the elector of Hanover, oversaw the Saxony region of Germany, to include Wittenberg. Frederick III of Hanover was the particular royal who supported Martin Luther. His brother was a particular supporter, and the religion of state became evangelische Lutheran. George, a product of that history, took his Lutheranism to England, and found a welcome union with the Reformation Anglicanism of that day. Recall that George Whitefield, an Anglican priest of the time, was a solidly predestinarian preacher, which put him the exact mold of Luther and Calvin.

This is the religious tradition of Handel. His patron was a thorough-going Lutheran. It is clearly seen later in Handel's life in a comment on his work "Jephtha." Handel writes about his eyesight and sums it up as one of those mysterious "decrees of God."

Handel of Hanover was no different than his patron, George I of Hanover, who regularly returned to his German realm even as he ruled his British realm.

I remember my journey through the castle at Coberg in Germany wherein Luther remained hidden for so long by his Saxon protector. The guide took great pains to point out visits of Queen Victoria to her German estates.

[xzins]

Handel went to England solely because his German royal patron, George I, became King of England. George, the elector of Hanover, oversaw the Saxony region of Germany, to include Wittenberg. Frederick III of Hanover was the particular royal who supported Martin Luther. His brother was a particular supporter, and the religion of state became evangelische Lutheran. George, a product of that history, took his Lutheranism to England, and found a welcome union with the Reformation Anglicanism of that day. Recall that George Whitefield, an Anglican priest of the time, was a solidly predestinarian preacher, which put him the exact mold of Luther and Calvin.

This is the religious tradition of Handel. His patron was a thorough-going Lutheran. It is clearly seen later in Handel's life in a comment on his work "Jephtha." Handel writes about his eyesight and sums it up as one of those mysterious "decrees of God."

Handel of Hanover was no different than his patron, George I of Hanover, who regularly returned to his German realm even as he ruled his British realm.

I remember my tour through the castle at Coberg in Germany wherein Luther remained hidden for so long by his Saxon protector. The guide took great pains to point out visits centuries later of Queen Victoria to her German estates.