Johannes Bugenhagen
Johannes Bugenhagen
Main page
2127455

Johannes Bugenhagen

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Johannes Bugenhagen

Johannes Bugenhagen (24 June 1485 – 20 April 1558), also called Doctor Pomeranus by Martin Luther, was a German theologian and Lutheran priest who introduced the Protestant Reformation in the Duchy of Pomerania and Denmark in the 16th century. Contributions of Karlstadt and Luther to the translation of theology into social legislation were most fully realized by Bugenhagen. Among his major accomplishments was organization of Lutheran churches in Northern Germany and Scandinavia. He has also been called the "Second Apostle of the North".

Johannes Bugenhagen was pastor to Martin Luther at St. Mary's church in Wittenberg. He is also commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod as a pastor on 20 April.

Bugenhagen was born in Wollin (now Wolin), Duchy of Pomerania, on 24 June 1485 as one of three children of local Ratsherr Gerhard Bugenhagen. From 1502 to 1504, he studied artes at the University of Greifswald. In 1504, he moved to Treptow an der Rega (now Trzebiatów) and became the rector of the local school. Though he had not studied theology, he was ordained as a priest at St. Mary's Church in Treptow in 1509, and served as a vicar at the Kanonikerkolleg of that church thereafter.

In 1517, abbot Johann Boldewan called Bugenhagen to serve as a Biblical lecturer at his nearby Belbuck Abbey, where the two became the core of a Humanist circle. Duke Bogislav X of Pomerania ordered Bugenhagen to write down the history of Pomerania in Latin. The year 1518 is the beginning of historical writing of the combined territory Pomerania.

Bugenhagen first encountered the theology of Luther in the reformer's Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church in 1520. At first he did not like Luther's thoughts at all. However, once he had studied it more, Bugenhagen became a supporter of the Reformation and moved to Wittenberg in 1521.

In Wittenberg, Bugenhagen was elected parish pastor on 25 October 1523, making him Martin Luther's pastor and confessor. He was a member of Luther's team translating the Holy Bible from Greek and Hebrew to German, and opened the debate on Ulrich Zwingli's reforms.

By 1523, his private lectures had become well known, so he was called to lecture the following years at the Leucorea, the university in Wittenberg (today Martin Luther University). In March 1524 the printer Adam Petri of Basel printed his "Interpretations of the Psalms" (Lat.Librum Psalmorum interpretatio) in the Latin language. The cover was cut after a drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger depicting biographical events of David’s life in relation to the New Testament. The book saw four further editions in the Latin language within half a year. A second edition by Adam Petri in August, one by Johannes Petreius in Nuremberg and also by Johannes Knobloch in Strassburg. Another one is assumed to have been printed by Johann Schöffer in Mainz. Two years later, a German translation was printed by Adam Petri in which for the Psalms text, the German translation by Martin Luther were used. Bugenhagen was regarded as one of the most important teachers and practitioners of biblical interpretation in the Wittenberg-centered Protestant Reformation, ordaining a generation of Lutheran pastors who were educated at this university.

On 17 March 1533, he was promoted doctor of theology at the university of Wittenberg, together with Johannes Aepinus and Kaspar Cruciger. The promotion was supervised by Martin Luther, based on Philipp Melanchthon's theses, financed and attended by Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, and formally granted by deacon Justus Jonas. With the ceremony in Wittenberg's castle church (Schloßkirche), Aepinus, Bugenhagen and Cruciger became the first three Protestant doctors of theology.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.