Balthasar Raid

Balthasar Raid (also Reith and Raida; * around 1495 in Fulda ; † October 1, 1565 in Hersfeld ) was a German Protestant theologian and reformer .

Life

In the winter semester of 1510, Balthasar Raid enrolled in Erfurt , where he received his bachelor's degree in 1514 and later his master's degree . He was then a schoolmaster in Nordhausen until around 1517 . He then stayed in Rome for a year , where he worked as a confessor in the St. John's Hospital and the St. John's Church ( Lateran ) . After his return, Raid worked as a vicar in Vacha in 1523 . At that time Georg Witzel was vicar there. In the same year, Balthasar Raid went to Fulda, where he became coadjutor with the city ​​pastor Adam Krafft . During this time he had also been ordained as a pastor by Philipp Melanchthon .

During this time he turned to the gospel . When Raid wanted to get married in 1524, he was expelled from the country by the abbot . As a result, he stayed for some time in Eisenach and in Großenbehringen , where he was also a pastor for a short time. Here he was again in close contact with Georg Witzel, the pastor in the not far away Wenigenlupnitz . At that time both warned of Thomas Müntzer in Mühlhausen . In 1525 Raid finally went to Hersfeld as a chaplain under Adam Kraft, where he remained a preacher until 1538 . On October 4, 1538, Balthasar Raid was introduced as a regular pastor in the town church of Hersfeld .

Balthasar Raid soon stood out among the Hessian preachers in particular. The Landgrave Philip of Hesse had him for Marburg Colloquy come. In the following years, Balthasar Raid dealt with Georg Witzel and especially with the Hessian Anabaptists . When the Reformation was carried out in Albertine Saxony in 1539 , the Landgrave sent him there to help.

Schmalkalden - Excerpt from the Topographia Hassiae by Matthäus Merian 1655

Philip of Hesse also chose Balthasar Raid as his best man and notary when he married Margarete von der Saale in Rotenburg an der Fulda on March 4, 1540 . Balthasar Raid also took part in the meeting of the Schmalkaldic League in 1540 . He was also called in later to deal with the conflict with the Anabaptists. When the Augsburg interim was introduced in Hesse , Raid wanted to resign, but at the request of the citizens he stayed in Hersfeld and performed his service until 1563.

family

His father was probably Hans Reyt, who was one of the four mayors in Fulda from 1501. That would explain the fact that he could go to university. Family ties to Vacha cannot be ruled out either, where an Anders Raith was mentioned in 1497.

In 1529, probably as early as 1524, Raid married Katharina. They had a son (Abraham). After the death of his first wife, Raid married Barbara (widow of the Rotenburg pastor Georg Möller) in 1542 . With her, Raid had another son (Michael).

literature

• O. Hütteroth: The Althessian pastors . Marburg 1953. page 269
• F. Herrmann: The interim in Hessen . Friedberg 1904. page 76