Christian Schesaeus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Christian Schesaeus (* around 1536 in Mediaş in Transylvania ; † June 30, 1585 there ) was a Transylvanian-Saxon pastor of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church , historian and poet. His most important work is the verse epic " Ruinae pannonicae ".

Life

The father, Joachim Schesaeus, was a chair judge in Mediaş. Christian Schesaeus received his education at the Reformed School of Kronstadt and from the spring of 1566 at the University of Wittenberg . He then worked as a preacher in Cluj-Napoca , pastor of the rural community of Tobsdorf and most recently as the city pastor of Mediaş, where he died in 1585. He was buried in the Margaret Church of Mediaș, where his tombstone is still on the wall of the choir room today.

Works

On May 8, 1580 Schesaeus stopped in front of the Synod of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Biertan a speech "De origine et progressu inchoatae et propagatae coelestis doctrinae in hac miserrima patria nostra. - On the origin and growth of the heavenly doctrine that was built up and spread in our poor fatherland, ”which is the first comprehensive account of the Reformation history of Transylvania. In it he shows “by what great miracle the teaching of the divine word among so many divided nations, so many monstrosities of human opinions, among so many civil wars and dangerous changes of regiment in this corner of the world, which is almost in the middle of the jaws of the Turks, by God special grace begun, disseminated, defended, received. ”The work was handed down in numerous manuscripts from the 16th and 17th centuries and was first published in print in 1883 by Georg Daniel Teutsch .

As a pastoral supplement, refer to the "image of the good shepherd" (Imago bonuses pastoris) , dedicated to his friend Nicholas Selnecker , pastor in Leipzig , an ideal description of the new Protestant parish office and the intercession: "Take 'you us rett' us and umbrellas against the enemy us, nobody, if not you, fights the battles for us. "

Schesaeus' most important work is the epic poem "Ruinae pannonicae". The first four books appeared with an appendix in 1571 in Wittenberg by Clemens Schleich. Based on the example of Virgil's Aeneid, written in epic hexameters , the work describes events from Transylvanian and Hungarian history between 1540 and 1552. It describes the country of Transylvania and the history of its Reformation movement, as well as the history of the last Hungarian campaign of the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman I. who died in the siege of Szigetvár in 1566 . Schesaeus sometimes foregoes historical accuracy in favor of the poetic effect. He himself wrote that the intention of his work was to arouse free peoples' understanding and compassion for the country oppressed by the Ottoman Empire. At the end of the fourth song he writes:

“At tu sum pater, nostri patriaeque misertus
Ardentes odijs animos, bellique tumultus,
Comprime, ciuilis fatiis est iam sanguinis haustum [...]
Nos, inter quorum saeuissima bella, manemus,
Ceu manus imposita incudi, cui desuper ingens
Malleus incumbit, pressamque graui obterit ictu.
Regem cum populo ferua, defende, guberna:
Vt faciant, dicantque, tuo non dissona verbo. "
"But you, father of power, remembering the fatherland,
Tie your hearts with hatred and fetter the storms of war!
See, the earth has already drank enough of the blood of the citizens [...]
In the midst of the wild waves of the cruel struggle
We, like the hand that lies there, stretched out on the anvil:
Above her the burden of the hammer rises and a crushing blow threatens -
still awaits fulfillment today to a large extent. "(Ex .: GD Deutsch, 1890)

meaning

Schesaeus' writings are among the few testimonies from the early days of the Reformation in Transylvania. Stephan Báthory , the King of Poland-Lithuania and Prince of Transylvania, to whom Schesaeus had sent the six last unprinted books of the Ruinae Pannonicae 1584 in 1584, awarded him the poet's laurel .

Work edition

  • Christianus Schesäus, Opera quae supersunt omnia . Edidit Franciscus Csonka. Academy Publishing House, Budapest 1979.

literature

  • Georg Daniel Teutsch :  Schesäus, Christian . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 31, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, p. 139 f.
  • Hermann Schuller: The Christian Schesäus "Bellum Pannonicum Solymanni imperatoris Turcorum ultimum" . In: Contributions to the history of the Evangelical Church AB in Transylvania. (Festschrift Teutsch) . Sibiu 1922, pp. 85-109
  • Hermann Schuller: The handwritten chants from Schesäus' Ruina Pannonica . Medias 1923
  • Hermann Schuller: Christian Schesäus as a poet . Medias 1927.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ GD Teutsch: The Synodal Negotiations of the Evangelical Regional Church AB in Transylvania. Sibiu 1883, pp. 230-251
personal data
SURNAME Schesaeus, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Transylvanian-Saxon pastor of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church, historian and poet
DATE OF BIRTH around 1536
PLACE OF BIRTH Mediaș , Transylvania
DATE OF DEATH June 30, 1585
Place of death Mediaș , Transylvania