Erasmus Alberus

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Erasmus Alberus , origin. Alber (* around 1500 in Bruchenbrücken ; † May 5, 1553 in Neubrandenburg ) was a German Protestant theologian , reformer and author of hymns and fables .

Life

Youth and Studies

Alberus was born as the son of the Catholic priest Tilemann Alber in Bruchenbrücken (now part of Friedberg (Hessen) ), who later converted and became the first Protestant pastor in Engelrod . After his school days ( Latin schools in Nidda and Weilburg ), Alberus first began studying humanities in Mainz and enrolled at the University of Wittenberg in 1520 to study theology. Here included, among others , Martin Luther and Andreas Bodenstein his teachers. Initially enthusiastic about Bodenstein's ideas, he eventually became one of the most passionate representatives of Lutheranism.

Wandering life

After graduation, Alberus did not teach until 1522 in Büdingen , where he founded a Latin school and married his wife Katharina, and from 1522–1527 at the Latin school in Oberursel , which had recently been founded , and then in Eisenach . In 1528 he became pastor in Sprendlingen , where he lived until the death of his wife in 1536 and, as in the Duchy of Küstrin , introduced the Reformation. From 1539 onwards, Alberus led a kind of wandering life: short stays in Marburg and Basel were followed by parish posts in Rothenburg ob der Tauber and in the Wetterau . At the end of 1541 Alberus became pastor and superintendent in the St. Katharinenkirche in the new town of Brandenburg (today Brandenburg an der Havel ). At the instigation of the local magistrate, he was released a year later. Whether his protest against the poor pay of the pastors was the real reason for his dismissal is controversial. During his time in Brandenburg, Alberus was present at a visit to the Franciscan monastery in the old town of Brandenburg. There he discovered a font from the 14th century that prompted him to write a pamphlet against the Franciscans : "The Barfüsser Münche Eulenspiegel and Alcoran". This work, which was very popular and translated into several languages, is still one of the earliest evidence of the reception of Till Eulenspiegel's stories . 1543 Alberus was in Wittenberg as a doctor of theology doctorate . After his contract of employment in Staden (now a part of Florstadt ) expired , he was employed by Count Philipp IV of Hanau-Lichtenberg in Babenhausen in 1544 to carry out the Reformation in the Babenhausen district of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg . Again Alberus clashed with his employer. The main cause of the dispute was Alberus' criticism of Count Philip IV's dealings with his aunt Margaretha (* 1486; † August 6, 1560 in Babenhausen). She had been a nun in Marienborn Abbey and was interned in Babenhausen Castle until the end of her life because of a "misstep" . Alberus criticized that the count had isolated her so much that she did not even receive spiritual support. With this he obviously hit a sore point with his sovereign: There was a lawsuit and Alberus' resignation from a parish office. He fled to Wittenberg and was accepted by Luther and Philipp Melanchthon .

In 1548 he went to Magdeburg and in the following years became on the side of the Gnesiolutherans , alongside Matthias Flacius , one of the sharpest spokesmen against the Augsburg Interim and the Leipzig Articles . The consequence was again the dismissal from service (1551), this time exerted by Moritz von Sachsen , whom he had sharply attacked in pamphlets .

Death and fame

After stays in Hamburg and Lübeck , Alberus was sent to Neubrandenburg in the south-east of the country in 1552 by Duke Johann Albrecht I of Mecklenburg as the first superintendent of the Stargard parish . Alberus did not take office until March 1553, seven weeks before his death. In the midst of renewed disputes, this time with the city's magistrate , who felt that the duke had left him behind, Erasmus Alberus died of a throat disease on May 5, 1553.

At the resurrection of Lazarus by Lucas Cranach in the Evangelical Church of Nordhausen , Erasmus Alberus can also be found among the audience, somewhat hidden behind Martin Luther. Wilhelm Raabe made Alberus one of the main characters in his novel Unseres Herrgotts Kanzlei .

plant

Poems, satires, fables

In his poems and satires , as in his numerous pamphlets and tracts , Alberus vehemently defended Martin Luther's theses against the Catholic Church and clearly sided with the Gnesiolutherans around Andreas Osiander and Matthias Flacius.

His fable poetry is considered an important literary achievement of the 16th century. She already inspired writers like Hans Sachs during Alberus' lifetime . Based on the Aesopian fable, Alberus designed short dialogues, the morals of which he expanded through reformatory, pedagogical and polemical approaches and enriched with the description of his own experiences and descriptions of the local landscape.

Alberus' poem Gott hat das Gospel was set to music by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 316).

Poem example

O Jesus Christ, we are waiting for you
O Jesus Christ, we are waiting for you
your holy word shines so fine for us.
Don't be long at the end of the world
and lead us to your father's house.
You are the dear sun clear
whoever believes in you is truly
a child of eternal bliss,
your Christians is ready.
We thank you, we praise you
here temporally and there forever
for your mercy
from now to forever.

Works

Hymns

Fables

  • Quite a few fable Esopi, translated into German and put into rhyme. Haguenau, 1534
  • The book of virtue and wisdom, namely 49 fables. Frankfurt a. M., 1550 (2nd edition of the Esopi fable. )

Latin scripts

  • Iudicium Erasmi Alberti de Spongia Erasmi Roterodami. 1524
  • Praecepta morum utilissima or illuminations of the Ten Commandments through biblical passages and passages from church and secular scriptures in German rhymes. 1536 (2nd edition 1537; 3rd edition 1545/48)
  • Novum Dictionarii Genus. Frankfurt a. M., 1540 (First German dictionary and rhyming lexicon)
  • Virtutes comitis. 1545

Satires, tracts and pamphlets

  • Book of marriage. 1536
  • The barefoot monks Eulenspiegel and Alkoran. Wittenberg, 1542 (with Luther's preface) ( digitized version )
  • Dialogue or conversation between several people from the interim. 1548
  • Admonition to the Christian Church in Sachsenland. 1549
  • The children in Hamburg. 1551
  • Against the reading book of the soaring Osiander. 1551
  • Brief description of the Wetterau. 1552
  • From the children's christening. 1555
  • Against the accursed doctrine of the Carlstaders. 1556 (2nd edition 1594)

literature

Web links

Commons : Erasmus Alberus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ G. Klempert et al. H.-C. Köster: The Protestant Christ Church in Oberursel , Königstein i. Ts. 2014, p. 2.
  2. ^ Only Georg Wittenberger: Stadtlexikon Babenhausen . Babenhausen 1995, p. 92, speaks explicitly of pregnancy.
  3. ↑ Wilhelm Morhardt: Hanau old's - in honor of b'halt's - The Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg in history and stories = Babenhausen then and now 10. Babenhausen 1984, p. 34.
  4. ↑ Peter Gbiorczyk: The Relationship of Philipp Melanchthons to the County of Hanau . In: Neues Magazin für Hanauische Geschichte 2014, pp. 2-60 (30).
  5. ↑ http://www.zgedichte.de/gedicht_beispiel.php?dicht_ID=226&ged_ID=1253
personal data
SURNAME Alberus, Erasmus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alber, Erasmus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian, reformer and poet
DATE OF BIRTH around 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Rupture bridges
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 1553
Place of death Neubrandenburg