Gerhard Sagittarius

Gerhard Sagittarius (* 1540 ; † May 3, 1612 in Anklam ) was an Evangelical Lutheran pastor and (general) superintendent of the Duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg from 1583 to 1592 and probably superintendent of Tallinn from 1595 to 1602.

Live and act

Little is known about the life of Gerhard Sagittarius before his appointment as superintendent in Lauenburg / Elbe . He is said to have been active in the ministry for nine years in 1583. It is probable that he is identical to that Magister Gerhard Sagittarius from Neuburg ("Neoburgius"), who became a baccalaureus at the University of Frankfurt / Oder in 1574 , since 1576 as a colleague of Hermann Hamelmann pastor at the Lambertikirche in Oldenburg (Oldb) and court preacher was and signed the concord formula here in 1577 .

Soon after the dismissal of his predecessor Franz Baring in April 1582, Sagittarius was appointed superintendent for the Duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg and the third pastor of the city of Lauenburg / Elbe. He was considered to be an extremely learned man and owned a rich library for the time.

The Lübeck superintendent Pouchenius , who introduced it after the general visit of 1583, also seems to have proposed it to Duke Franz II .

During his term of office, the Lauenburg Church Ordinance, written by Pouchenius, was introduced in 1585 .

Under his direction, a general visit was carried out in 1590, "the results of which show the first successes in the order of church life after the introduction of the church order".

Krause: "He is considered to be the founder of solid Lutheranism in Lauenburg, because in the wild goings-on of the Dukes Franz I and Franz II, who had many children and always in need of money, security of faith was not particularly important until then."

Franz I had ordered a church visit in 1564, including a superintendent in the person of Franz Baring, born in Venlo, who had left the pastorate at St. Petri in Hamburg in a dispute with the consistory there. With regard to the adiaphora , synergism and ubiquity, Baring was suspected of being a cryptocatholic , a philippist and cryptocalvinist . He also behaved negatively against the concord formula , which in 1582 prompted his dismissal. He died in 1589 as a pastor of Lütau.

Against this background, the opposite position of Sagittarius, who strictly insisted on the formula of concord, can be inferred. There is no doubt that Sagittarius induced Pouchenius to get Franz II to remove the requirement of the so-called Holstein priesthood introduced in Holstein by Paul von Eitzen , which was achieved in 1587.

Magister Gerhard Sagittarius was followed in 1592 by Magister Johannes Rupertus as general superintendent of Lauenburg, based at the Maria Magdalenen Church (Lauenburg / Elbe) .

Sagittarius is probably identical to that Magister Gerhard Sagittarius (= shooter), who was appointed pastor at the Olaikirche in Tallinn in 1595 . After a few months he became the inspector of the city school and superintendent of Tallinn. He is described as "a very combative hot spur and a quick-tempered, not very decent moral teacher". In 1602 he gave up his office and returned to Germany.

Probably the same was pastor at the Marienkirche in Anklam at the beginning of 1606 , where he died on May 3, 1612.

Krause: “He is not related to the well-known family of teachers and historians Sagittarius . His real name is certainly Sagittarius or Schütte. "

See also

• List of general superintendents, state superintendents and superintendents for Saxony-Lauenburg

literature

• Karl Ernst Hermann Krause:  Sagittarius, Gerhard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 30, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, p. 170.
• Hermann Augustin (Ed.): Country, hear the word of the Lord. Ev.-luth. Church and churches in the Duchy of Lauenburg , Lübeck: Schmidt-Römhild 1984, p. 309 ff.
• Johann Friedrich Burmester : Contributions to the church history of the Duchy of Lauenburg , Ratzeburg: self-published 1832, pp. 27, 33, 78 ( online ); 2nd ed. 1882.
• Eckardt Opitz (Ed.): Biografisches Lexikon Herzogtum Lauenburg , Husum 2015, p. 335.
• Benjamin Hein: Die Propsteien / Kirchenkreise in Nordelbien (Writings of the Landeskirchlichen Archiv der Nordkirche, Volume 2) , Landeskirchliches Archiv, Kiel 2016, p. 18 ( PDF - online ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Acts and documents from the University of Frankfurt a. O. , Volume 1, Breslau: Marcus 1907, p. 66
2. ^ Hermann Hamelmanns Geschichtliche Werke , Volume 1, Münster: Aschendorff 1908, p. LXXIV note 2
3. ^ Gerhard Anton von Halem : History of the Duchy of Oldenburg , Volume 2, Oldenburg 1795, p. 190; Sagittarius' formal and detailed signature in full from Inge Mager : The concord formula in the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel: Contribution to creation, reception, validity (= studies on the church history of Lower Saxony 33) , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1993 ISBN 9783525552384 , p. 302 note 27
4. ↑ Burmester 1832, p. 78.
5. ↑ Lauenburg (Lower Saxony) church ordinance from 1585 ( online )
6. ↑ Claudia Tanck in Opitz 2015, p. 335; see also Burmester 1832, p. 33.
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Krause 1890, p. 170.
8. ↑ Burmester 1832, p. 27.
9. ↑ Burmester 1832, p. 78; no indication of a date of death of Sagittarius, so that a resignation or a transfer rather than an (early?) death of Gerhard Sagittarius must be assumed. Caspar Heinrich Starck narrates in volume 3 of his Lubeca Lutherana-Evangelica or the kaiserl. freyen and salvation. Rom. Imperial Hanseatic and trading city Lübeck Church history. Hamburg: Felginer 1724, p. 542 a letter from Andreas Pouchenius to Polykarp Leyser the Elder from October 1593, in which he writes that Sagittarius, reverendus & pius vir, compater et amicus verus , was from Lübeck (hinc) about a week ago Wittenberg (ad vos) gone: Ecclesiis nostrae Saxoniae inferioirs praefuit, sed didaktron triste recepit. This indicates a loss of office rather than death.
10. ^ Gotthard von Hansen : Superintendent Sagittarius. A revalian moral image from the end of the 16th century , in: Contributions to the customer of Est, Liv and Courland , Volume III, 3 (1886), p. 249
11. ↑ Liivi Aarma, 2007: Brief Life Stories of Clergy in Northern Estonia 1525–1885. Book 2 , Tallinn: G. and T. Aarma Maja n.d., page 299; Entry in the Estonian Wikipedia.
12. ↑ Carl Friedrich Stavenhagen, Joachim Friedrich Sprengel: Topographical and chronological description of the Pomeranian commercial and commercial city of Anklam. Greifswald: Röse 1773, p. 497

predecessor	Office	successor
Franz Baring	(General) Superintendent of the Duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg 1583 - 1592	Johannes Rupertus