Hermann Samson

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Hermann Samson

Hermann Samson (born March 4, 1579 in Riga ; † December 16, 1643 there ) was a German-Baltic Protestant clergyman.

Life

family

Hermann Samson was the third child of Naeman Samson (* 1520 in Putten in the province of Gelderland , † 1583 in Riga) and his wife Anne, b. Böker, born. His father had initially served as a soldier in the army of the King of France and then came to Riga. There he became citizen captain and commander of the city militia in 1568. Hermann Samson had two siblings:

  • Elisabeth Jaster (from Samson);
  • Hans Samson

Hermann Samson was married to Helene Hartmann, a daughter of the merchant in Riga Bruno Hartmann, on June 24, 1609. The marriage resulted in three sons and five daughters, of whom two sons and two daughters survived the father. From the children we know:

  1. Son Hermann Samson von Himmelstjerna (born June 6, 1619 in Riga, † 1678 in Dropat) 1643 Uni. Strasbourg, Ass. D. royal Swedish Court Court Dropat, 1647 councilor Dropat, 1650 to 1666 Insp. Gertrudenkirche ibid., 1659 mayor ibid., 1661 royal. Burgrave, ∞ I. January 25, 1647 with Hedwig Zimmermann (* 1619; † November 1, 1661) daughter of Burgrave Lorenz Zimmermann ud Katharina Nordhausen, ∞ II. 1663 with Catharina von Helmersen (* November 1, 1636; † - 25. March 1690), daughter of councilor Moritz von Helmersen and Hedwig zur Horst, widow of Reinhold von Rennenkampf and the mayor Johann von Flügeln († August 22, 1662)
  2. Son Bruno Samson († 1647 in Rinteln) January 28, 1643 Uni. Wittenberg, October 12, 1643 Magister phil. ibid., January 1647 Uni. Marburg,
  3. Daughter Elisabeth Samson (* 1622 in Riga; † February 26, 1660 ibid.) ∞ February 11, 1650 with d. Secretary u. later mayor of Riga Melchior von Dreyling († May 24, 1682 in Riga)
  4. Daughter Anna Samson ∞ Caspar von Hoffe
  5. Daughter Helena Samson ∞ with the councilor in Riga Christian Zimmermann

Career

Hermann Samson attended the cathedral school in Riga and attracted attention early on because of his talent, so that the Jesuits became aware of him. Because he refused to join the Jesuit order, they forcibly abducted him to take him to their alumni , the Lyceum Hosianum , in Braunsberg . However, he was able to flee on the way and return to Riga.

In August 1599 he began to study theology at the University of Rostock and heard lectures in Greek and Latin with Eilhard Lubin . In May 1600 he went to the University of Wittenberg and was enrolled at the same time as Axel Oxenstierna , who later became the Swedish Chancellor. He has heard lectures from Aegidius Hunnius , Salomon Gesner and Leonhard Hutter , as well as in philosophy from Jakob Martini . In the course of his studies he worked so intensively on Martin Chemnitz's Concilii Tridentini exam that he knew the work by heart. He was so valued by his teachers that he gave the ceremonial speech on behalf of the university on the 66th anniversary of Martin Luther's death ; Furthermore, he was asked to give sermons in the castle church in his place after the death of Salomon Gesner. On September 25, 1604, he completed his master's degree in Wittenberg as the best candidate of 32 people in the summer semester .

Due to the Catholic Counter Reformation in Livonia , he returned home. At that time, Riga was the metropolis of the Baltic States and ensured the continued existence of the Evangelical Church in Livonia. During the calendar unrest in Riga , during which a Protestant opposition to the council and its indulgence to the demands of the Polish king and the Jesuits had formed, but which ended with a victory of the council due to the intervention of the Polish government, it had become clear how the citizenship and the council were deeply enemies. The council, led by Mayor Nicolaus Eck , relied on the Polish rulers and put only a weak defensive against the advance of the Jesuits in Riga. The Jesuits had recognized that with the submission of Riga the victory of the Catholic Church in Livonia would be decided.

Hermann Samson returned to Riga under these conditions in the summer of 1608. He resolutely took up the fight against the Jesuits and held his first sermon in the Petrikirche on June 24th, 1608 with the theme “... that the faith that the Lutherans have is the ancient Catholic faith, while the Jesuits and the Babbish faith are again a tension Believe it. ”In this sermon he openly attacked the Jesuits, and later had them printed and distributed. This strengthened the Protestant awareness in the council and in the citizenship. Samson was therefore considered a champion and defender of the evangelical faith, who was shortly thereafter accepted into the spiritual ministry of the city and appointed inspector of the city schools. In 1611 he became senior pastor at the cathedral and in 1616 senior pastor at St. Peter and thus head of the evangelical clergy in Riga. As inspector of schools, his primary goal was to oppose the efforts of the Jesuits to draw the children of the bourgeois and nobility into their schools. Because of his knowledge of Greek and Latin, he taught himself and was venerated by his students.

The Jesuits challenged him several times to public disputations. However, he was familiar with their kind of polemics and their usual arguments and was perfectly matched by his quick wit, linguistic dexterity and logic. The Jesuits filed a lawsuit against Hermann Samson with King Sigismund III. who summoned him to Warsaw by royal order . Thereupon the city of Riga declared through its Syndicus Johann Ulrich in Warsaw that they would not let their chief shepherd travel, so that was enforced. that a royal commission came to Riga; before this, the charges raised could be refuted.

Through his dealings with the Jesuits, through his writings and sermons, Hermann Samson had become known throughout northern Germany and received appointments to Rostock as professor and pastor, as well as to Hamburg and Danzig , but he stayed in Riga and declined all requests. He would rather continue his fight against the Jesuits, who in the meantime kept bringing new charges against him; in the end there were 400 charges.

In August 1621 Gustav Adolf besieged Riga and after a month the city had to surrender; the townspeople paid homage to their liberator on September 25, 1621. Hermann Samson gave the homage sermon to the king in Petrikirche on the same day. Gustav Adolf was made aware of Hermann Samson by Axel Oxenstierna, and so he was appointed superintendent of all of Livonia by Gustav Adolf , with the task of restoring the destroyed regional church.

In 1631 the council founded an academic high school ( 1st Riga State High School ) for higher education in Riga , at which Hermann Samsons was appointed professor of theology.

In recognition of his services, he was given the Festen estate in Livonia by the Swedish government in 1638. On September 19, 1640, Queen Christina gave him the hereditary Swedish nobility with the addition of Himmelstjerna.

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • German biography: Samson, Hermann - German biography. Retrieved March 28, 2018 .
  • Christian August Berkholz: M. Hermann Samson, Rigaischer Oberpastor, Superintendent of Livonia [etcetera]: a church historical sketch from the first half of the seventeenth century . Götschel, 1856 ( google.de [accessed on March 28, 2018]).
  • Friederich Konrad Gadebusch: Livonian library in alphabetical order, p. 73 ff. H. v. Hirschheydt, 1777 ( google.de [accessed on March 28, 2018]).
  • Wilhelm Beste: The most important pulpit speakers: the older Lutheran Church from Luther to Spener: Biographies and a selection of their sermons, p. 103 ff. G. Mayer, 1856 ( google.de [accessed on March 28, 2018]).
  • Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung - Theologisches Literaturblatt, 34th year 1857, pp. 546 ff. Will, 1857 ( google.de [accessed on March 28, 2018]).
  • Oskar Schabert: Mag. Hermann Samson, the first general superintendent: An image of life for old and young. Riga: Jonck & Poliewsky 1906 ( digitized version , Tartu University Library )
  • Carola L. Gottzmann , Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg . De Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 , p. 1106 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  2. ↑ digitized version
  3. ^ Halle University Archives: Title XXXXV, 1, 2, p. 415.
  4. ↑ Origin. Retrieved March 28, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Samson, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Samson, Hermann von; Samsonius, Hermann; Samsonius, Hermannus; Samson-Himmelstjerna, Hermann; Himmelstjerna, Hermann Samson; Samson von Himmelstierna, Herman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Baltic clergyman and educator
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1579
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1643
Place of death Riga