David Titius

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David Titius

David Titius (born December 14, 1619 in Striegau , Principality of Schweidnitz , † June 16, 1679 in Wohlau , Principality of Wohlau ) was a Lutheran theologian and preacher of the German Evangelical Church Community AB in Preßburg .

Life

David Titius came from a German Protestant family of teachers, his father David Titius sen. was a Protestant cantor and teacher. Since the Counter-Reformation in Striegau in 1629 was enforced by force (by the Liechtenstein dragoons ), the family had to leave the town on January 22, 1629. The Protestants had to return all churches to the Catholic clergy. The family found a new refuge in Breslau , where the father worked as a notary for various guilds.

David Titus studying theology at the University in Wittenberg , where he obtained brilliant results. He received his first call as a preacher in 1649 after Queitsch in the Principality of Liegnitz . in 1651 he moved to Peterswaldau .

David Titius came to Pressburg on April 29, 1654. He gave his first sermon here on May 1st, his second on May 10th, 1654. On May 12th, 1654 he signed the laws of the Kontubernium. Titius was next to Anton Reiser , Valentin Sutorius (* February 2, 1633 Römhild / Thuringia , † November 4, 1708 ibid.) And Christian Pihringer (* August 19, 1641 in Preßburg, † December 13, 1694 in Lauf an der Pegnitz near Nuremberg ) one of the four German preachers of the German Evangelical Church Community AB in Preßburg. As the oldest of the three preachers, he was elected superintendent at the Synod of Bösing in 1667 .

In 1672 the Counter Reformation in Hungary reached its climax. The so-called “decade of mourning for Protestantism” (1671–1681) began. The Protestants in old Hungary were robbed of all their churches during this time, and Protestant services were banned. The persecution of Lutheran clergy began under the direction of the then Archbishop von Gran Georg Szelepcsényi and the head of the Hungarian court chancellery Leopold Kollonich . So Titius was arrested on May 26, 1672 and had to answer for lese majesty before a special court in Tyrnau . He was captured on June 13, 1672 and imprisoned in a cellar prison in the "Bishop's Court" in Tyrnau. He was detained for three months during which time he was threatened with a death sentence. Under pressure from the 'extraordinary' court, Titius and his brothers Reiser, Sutorius and Pihringer (who were in prison in Pressburg) were forced to leave Hungary. From this it followed that Titius was allowed to leave Tyrnau on September 12, 1672 and was allowed to travel to Silesia via Groß-Schützen , the seat of the Protestant branch of the Kollonich family. His three evangelical brothers had to leave Pressburg on August 4th, 1672 at 3 o'clock in the morning after the regulations of Count Kollonich under military care and provided with imperial passports. All their belongings were confiscated for the benefit of the state and their families had to leave them behind in Pressburg.

Titius initially went to Breslau and was appointed pastor in Wohlau in 1673 as an exile. Later he also became assessor of the ducal Brieg Consistory. He died on June 16, 1679 in Wohlau and was buried there on June 25.

David Titus was married twice. In 1651 he married Eva geb. Ropilius, the son Andrew was born from this marriage. On February 20, 1658, he married Agnes Heuchelin, the widow of the Pressburg preacher Johann Georg Heuchelin (* 1615, † 1654). From this marriage there was a son named David.

Fonts

David Titius dealt intensively with patristics , in this area he was a recognized expert. His funeral sermons were also of great importance. They are among the most important German-language sermons in the entire Kingdom of Hungary in the 17th century. During this time, David Titius published four printed funeral sermons , which today are among the unique specimens of this genre:

Titius preached in his funeral sermons according to the Lutheran-Orthodox scheme. First the topic of the section was given in summary in Latin . Then a piece of the sermon text was laid out in German and the interpretation supported with appropriate quotations from the church fathers and biblical passages. In the end, the interpretation was applied to the deceased. In keeping with the zeitgeist, Titius showed a preference for elaborate word constructions in connection with the subject.

In his sermons Titius preferred the Church Fathers , who were ultimately his specialty. In addition to Augustine , quotations from Ambrose , Irenaeus and Gregory the Great were also given in Latin. In addition to church fathers, ancient authors were also often quoted.

(For this section see Gábor Bibza: The German-language funeral sermon ...)

In 1669 he published a hymn book under the title Preßburger Büchel.

Two of his works appeared in 1671 and 1672: Calix in manu Domini and Miles Deo et caesari charus et fides.

literature

  • CE Schmidt , S. Markusovßky, G. Ebner: History of the Protestant church community AB in Pozsony-Preßburg. 2 volumes, Pozsony 1906
  • Gábor Bibza: The German-language funeral sermon of the early modern period in Hungary (1571-1711). Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10403-8

Web links

Reinmundus Rimandus: Pressburg School and Church Loss , published in Press in Pressburg (?), Anno 1673, p. 215f

Evidence and Notes

  1. ↑ David also had a brother named Gottfried Titius (born September 10, 1625 in Striegau). From 1650 he studied theology at the University of Wittenberg and was ordained by Abraham Calov in September 1651 . On January 15, 1656, he came to Pressburg as a hospital preacher. From here he was called to Schemnitz in 1660 . But on September 20, 1673 he had to leave Schemnitz in the course of the Counter Reformation and went into exile. Nothing is known about his further fate.
  2. ↑ The Kontubernium was an association of Protestant clergy in the Kingdom of Hungary with its own legislation.
  3. ↑ The main actors and initiators of the persecution of the Protestants were the then Archbishop of Gran Georg Szelepcsényi and the Bishop of Wiener Neustadt Leopold Kollonich. Together with Szelepcsényi, he reached the military occupation of Pressburg in Vienna in 1672 in order to force the Protestants there to evacuate their churches. Then he belonged to the Pressburg court to which he summoned 763 Protestants to force them to convert .
  4. ↑ In 1672 Kollonich became President of the Hungarian Court Chancellery in Pressburg, although as a cleric he should not have held this office.
  5. ↑ Susanna Christina Heuchelin (married) Preuss was born in 1649 as the daughter of the pastor Johann Georg Heuchelin with his then wife Agnes. Agnes married Titius in 1658, whereby Susanna Christina became Titius' stepdaughter.
  6. ↑ a b Gábor Bibza: The German-language funeral sermon of the early modern period in Hungary (1571-1711). P. 183ff. (see literature)
personal data
SURNAME Titius, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lutheran theologian and preacher
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1619
PLACE OF BIRTH Striegau , Principality of Schweidnitz
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1679
Place of death Wohlau , Principality of Wohlau