Abraham Scultetus

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Abraham Scultetus, engraving by Cornelis Koning (1633)
Portrait of Abraham Scultetus

Abraham Scultetus (born August 24, 1566 in Grünberg in Silesia ; † October 24, 1624 in Emden ) was professor of theology and court preacher of the Elector Palatinate Friedrich V.

Life

Abraham Scultetus came from a Silesian Lutheran family. In Silesia it provided several mayors (Scultetus is the Latinized form) and members of city councils. He received his school education in Grünberg, Breslau, Freistadt and Görlitz.

Scultetus studied theology in Wittenberg from 1588 and in Heidelberg from 1590 and entered the service of the Elector Palatinate in 1595. He had been a member of the church council of the Electoral Palatinate since 1600 and in 1615 became court preacher Frederick V (* 1596, reigned 1610– † 1632). In 1618 he became professor for the Old Testament in Heidelberg. Through his positions he gained great influence in religious and sometimes also in political questions at the court of Frederick. He worked at the Heidelberg court at the same time as the theologian Bartholomäus Pitiscus , who also came from Grünberg / Silesia .

In addition to visitations in the Upper and Lower Palatinate, Scultetus accompanied the Elector on his honeymoon in 1613 to London and represented the Electoral Palatinate from 1618-19 at the Synod of Dordrecht . When Frederick accepted the election of King of Bohemia in 1619, Scultetus went with him to Prague . He was seen by the imperial party as one of the main people responsible for Frederick's acceptance of the election. However, Scultetus' influence, which could hardly have extended beyond religious questions, was presumed to be greatly exaggerated.

However, Scultetus was mainly responsible for the iconoclasm in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague at Christmas 1619. A particular nuisance for the Calvinist preacher were the relics and images in the churches of Bohemia, which had remained almost unchanged in the former Catholic churches. That is why Scultetus, with the will and knowledge of the king, had the religious art treasures removed or destroyed in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague from December 21, only briefly interrupted by Christmas. On December 27 and 28, 1619, Lucas Cranach's famous St. Mary's altar was destroyed at Scultetus' instigation.

In 1621 Scultetus fled with Friedrich from Bohemia and in 1622 returned briefly to Heidelberg. From 1622 until his death in 1624 he took a position as a preacher in the reformed Emden.

Several of his works have been translated and edited by his son-in-law Reinhard Wolf , and his Psalm studies by Johannes Adam .

literature

  • Gustav Adolf Benrath (editor): The autobiography of the Heidelberg theologian and court preacher Abraham Scultetus (1566–1624) , 1966.
  • Gustav Adolf Benrath : Abraham Scultetus. In: Pfälzer Lebensbilder Vol. 2, ed. by Kurt Baumann, Speyer 1970, pp. 97-116.
  • House of Bavarian History (Ed.): The Winter King. Friedrich of the Palatinate. Bavaria and Europe in the age of the Thirty Years War . Theiss, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8062-1810-2 .
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Cuno :  Abraham Scultetus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 33, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, pp. 492-496.

Web links

Wikisource: Abraham Scultetus  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ↑ Willem van Irhoven (ed.): Canones Synodi nationalis Dordracenae, ofte Oordeel des Synodi nationalis der Gereformeerde Kercken van de Vereenigde Nederlanden: ghehouden in Dordrecht, inden jare 1618 end 1619 . J. H. Vonk van Lynden, Utrecht 1752, pp. 22, 39, 68 and 95 ( Google Books ).
personal data
SURNAME Scultetus, Abraham
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian, professor of theology and court preacher to Elector Friedrich V (Palatinate)
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1566
PLACE OF BIRTH Grünberg , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 1624
Place of death Emden