Bartholomäus Meyer (General Superintendent)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bartholomäus Meyer (also Barthold Meier and other variants; * September 8, 1644 in Hamburg ; † May 12, 1714 in Hage ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran theologian and general superintendent

Life

Meyer, son of a pastor in Blücher near Boitzenburg in Mecklenburg-Schwerin , studied in Rostock from 1658 and became rector in Altdamm near Stettin in 1668 . In 1670 he became professor of eloquence and poetry at the grammar school in Szczecin . After a brief activity as rector in Uslar , he moved to Blankenburg (Harz) as rector in 1675 , where under his direction the school was expanded and upgraded to a grammar school. Duke Rudolf August von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel promoted Meyer to castle preacher and prior of the Michaelstein monastery and in 1680 to school inspector of the county of Blankenburg. After a short intermezzo as pastor in Braunlage , Duke brought Meyer in 1688 as pastor primarius to the main church Beatae Mariae Virginis in Wolfenbüttel and in 1689, as general superintendent, made him supervise the entire Protestant church system in the duchy. In 1691 he also became provost of the St. Lorenz monastery in Schöningen .

At that time, a number of pietistic theologians worked in Wolfenbüttel, supported by Duke Rudolf August, including Joachim Justus Breithaupt , who had set up the first conventicle as Vice-Rector in 1680, Conrad Gottfried Blanckenberg , Justus Lüders and Heinrich Georg Neuss, and the lawyer and poet Gottfried Wilhelm Sacer . Meyer, who had been in contact with Philipp Jacob Spener and August Hermann Francke since 1690 at the latest, countered the oath of religion directed against the Pietists by Hamburg's late orthodoxy in 1690 . In March 1692, however, the co-ruling Duke Anton Ulrich enforced an edict that prohibited pietistic meetings and correspondence with “enthusiasts” and “separatists”. Meyer, who (like Lüders and Neuss) refused to sign, was removed from his office and only kept the provost's office in Schöningen.

In 1694 Meyer was elected to the parish office of the Lutheran St. Ansgari Church in the East Frisian Hage and shortly before Christmas by the north parish priest Franz Heinrich Hoyer (1639-1699) in his office. Together with his colleague from Hager, Gerhard Lamberti, he vigorously campaigned for the promotion and spread of Pietism in East Frisia in the following years. Although the majority of the Lutheran clergy adhered to Orthodoxy and there were also conflicts with the population, thanks to the protection of Princes Christian Eberhard and Georg Albrecht, he was able to stay in office until his death. However, he had constant friction with the Orthodox pastor Pancratius Voigting, who became his colleague as Lamberti's successor in 1706.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Enrollment in the Rostock matriculation portal
  2. ^ So Menno Smid in the Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland; according to other information also as early as 1687 or 1688.
  3. ↑ Manfred Jakubowski-Tiessen : The Pietism in Lower Saxony. In: Martin Brecht (ed.): History of Pietism. Vol. 2. Göttingen 1995, pp. 428-445, here p. 431 f.
  4. ↑ Menno Smid: East Frisian Church History. H. Risius, Weener 1974, pp. 364-366.
personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Bartholomäus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyer, Bartholomaeus; Meyer, Barthold; Meier, Barthold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lutheran theologian
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1644
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1714
Place of death Hage