David Voit

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David Voit

David Voit, also: David Vottus, Vogt, Voigt (* around January 1530 in Ronneburg , Thuringia ; † November 26, 1589 in Wittenberg ) was a German Protestant theologian.

Life

David's father Johannes Voit had been court preacher to the Saxon Elector John the Constant . His date of birth is given everywhere as 1529, but the epitaph shows that he was born in early 1530. He enrolled at the University of Wittenberg in 1545 , where he still listened to Martin Luther , but after his death he joined Philipp Melanchthon . After he had obtained the academic degree of a master's degree on February 11, 1550, he took over a professorship in the Greek language at the University of Jena in 1558 .

Due to arguments with the Gnesiolutherans , he left Jena and returned to Wittenberg. There he received an appointment to the Albertus University in Königsberg in 1559 . Before accepting the professorship , he received his doctorate in theology on March 19, 1560 . This was the last solemn act at the university that Melanchthon attended before his death. In Königsberg he enjoyed the trust of Duke Albrecht I of Brandenburg-Ansbach , became his court preacher and gave him the funeral sermon . In Königsberg he was rector of the Alma Mater in the winter semesters 1561/62, 1565/66, 1569/70 .

After the Gnesiolutherans were expelled from Jena, he went back there in 1574. When Christian I of Saxony took over the electoral dignity, his chancellor Nikolaus Krell embarked on a Philippist course, with Crypto-calvinist tendencies in the political orientation of the church. Thereupon the Orthodox Lutherans were again ousted from the offices in Electoral Saxony. As a representative of the Philippists, Voit was appointed in 1587 as the first professor of theology, senior pastor at the town church and general superintendent in Wittenberg.

Yet he was tolerant of deviating directions. He enjoyed great popularity as an academic teacher and preferred to interpret the prophets. However, he was nearing the end of his work, and an illness put an end to his life. On his epitaph , which was set for him in the castle church of Wittenberg, it read:

Vir Reverendus & clariss.
Dr. David Voitus
SS. Theolog. Doctor & Professor Publicus
Ecclesiae Wittebergensis Pastor
& Elect. Saxon. Superintendens
in domino obdormivit
Anno MDLXXXIX. the XXVI. November
Paulo ante horam IV. Matutin.
Cum ad complendum aetatis annum LX.
menses duo deessent.

Works

  • Propositiones de praecipuis doctrinae capitibus , Jena 1574

literature