Johann Friedrich Mayer (theologian)

Johann Friedrich Mayer, engraving by Johann Georg Mentzel

Johann Friedrich Mayer (born December 6, 1650 in Leipzig , † March 30, 1712 in Stettin ) was a German Lutheran theologian.

Live and act

Johann Friedrich Mayer was the son of Johann Ulrich Mayer (1616–1679) and his wife Ursula Sophia Braun. He attended the University of Leipzig and on April 21, 1666 acquired the degree of a Baccalaureus and on January 30, 1668 the academic degree of a Master of Arts in the Faculty of Philosophy. He then went to the University of Strasbourg , where he devoted himself to theological studies with Balthasar Friedrich Salzmann and Balthasar Bebel until 1670 .

In Leipzig he was accepted into the theological faculty of the Leipzig University as a baccalaureate on February 13, 1671 . On January 29, 1672 he became Saturday preacher in his hometown and in the same year superintendent in Leisnig . On May 29, 1673 he was promoted to licentiate and on October 19, 1674 was awarded a doctorate in theology. On November 27, 1678 he became pastor and superintendent in Grimma , but he still wanted to pursue the academic path, as the position in Grimma did not fill him. During his pastoral work, Mayer had made a name for himself as the author of pamphlets against syncretists , Arminians and Papists .

After a decision by the Saxon senior consistory in Dresden, he was appointed to the fourth theological professorship at the University of Wittenberg on May 12, 1684 . Here he worked alongside Abraham Calov , Johann Andreas Quenstedt and Johann Deutschmann and was in charge of the professorship of the second preacher at the Wittenberg Castle Church as well as the administration of the electoral scholarship holders. Already in his inaugural address, referring to Philipp Jacob Spener's Pia desideria , he demanded that theology should reverse and cultivate piety instead of speculation .

Mayer, who had also been rector of the Wittenberg University in the winter semester of 1684 , gave serious impetus in his private life with a falling out with his wife, which ended with a divorce , which was rare at the time . This impaired Mayer's Wittenberg effectiveness and led to his appointment as the main pastor of the St. Jacobi Church in Hamburg in 1686 being quickly approved. Spener was active as an expert in the divorce proceedings, which led to a deep and lasting rift between Mayer and Spener, especially since he also denied him two upcoming professorships in Wittenberg. As a representative of Lutheran orthodoxy, Mayer was to develop into one of Spen's worst opponents.

A violent dispute that broke out among Hamburg's senior pastors about the admissibility of pietistic conventicles through the Hamburg religious reversal in 1690 became notorious . Mayer vehemently rejected this and Pietism as a whole, while Johann Heinrich Horb , the main pastor to St. Nikolai , advocated it, supported by Abraham Hinckelmann , the main pastor to St. Katharinen , and Johann Winckler , the main pastor to St. Michaelis . Mayer initially prevailed and caused Horb to be dismissed; after Mayer's departure, the more mediating Winckler became senior of the Hamburg Ministry of Spirituality.

During his work in Hamburg, Mayer also developed a lively exchange of ideas by letter with representatives of his time. He worked at the Hamburg Academic High School, briefly held a professorship at the University of Kiel and was appointed Oberkirchenrat von Holstein. He was also appointed by King Charles XI in 1691 . from Sweden to the upper church council of the German lands under Swedish rule. In 1698 he was consistorial advisor to the Abbess of Quedlinburg Anna Dorothea von Sachsen-Weimar and also mediated in theological matters in Berlin.

Since he had advanced to one of the most important representatives of Lutheran orthodoxy as a controversial theologian in Hamburg, Karl XII. of Sweden to him after the death of Konrad Tiburtius Rango on May 11, 1701 his post as General Superintendent of Swedish Pomerania , which he responded to on August 12. Associated with the office, he became full professor of the theological faculty of Greifswald University , pastor and city superintendent at the St. Nikolai Cathedral , procurator of the university and chairman of the Greifswald consistory . Based on his already extensive library and art collection, Mayer developed an extensive literary activity in Greifswald.

Mayer participated in the organizational tasks of the university and was its rector in 1701 and 1705.

He dealt with the history of Pomerania and intended to create a learned society . But the events of the Great Northern War got in the way. Loyal to his Swedish master, he was supposed to hold a prayer service for Peter the Great and August the Strong in the Nikolaikirche after the invasion of the opposing troops on January 25, 1712 , in which he should ask for the permanent eviction of his Swedish employer. This made him so upset that he suffered a stroke . As a result of this event, he resigned from all offices and went to Stettin, where he died of another stroke.

JFMayer married Catharina Sabina Welsch on May 29, 1673, the daughter of the Leipzig medical professor Gottfried Welsch ; his son Johann Abraham Mayer later became a professor of medicine in Greifswald. In 1686 the marriage was divorced again.

meaning

Mayer, who, as a strictly Orthodox Lutheran, did not tolerate any deviations in faith, wanted, as a fanatic of faith, to establish a claim to sole representation for Lutheran Orthodoxy in the period of late Orthodoxy. He did not recognize that this hardened position deprived Orthodoxy of the basis of legitimation. Due to the rigid stance, the currents of rationalism and the early enlightenment were only able to develop, but that was probably never his goal.

Book and art collections

Mayer built up an extensive book and art collection. His library was one of the largest private libraries of the early 18th century. His art collection included a synagogue, an extensive collection of medals and numerous pictures, including Cranach's portraits of the Wittenberg reformers. In 1694 Mayer received an eight-part house organ as a gift from the important organ builder Arp Schnitger , which he took with him when he moved to Greifswald in 1701. After Mayer's death, his library was auctioned. Initially, the majority of the paintings remained in the family's possession and were only auctioned at the end of the 18th century. A copy of Rubens from Mayer's collection hangs in the Neuenkirchen church today . The house organ was installed in the Deyelsdorf manor chapel in 1742 ; the case and two original stops by Arp Schnitger have been preserved.

Fonts

Independent writings (selection)

Mayer has published 281 fonts in print, so only a selection can be listed here.

• Museum ministri ecclesiae
• L. de electione Pontificis Rome. , Hamburg 1700
• Historia versionis Germanicae Bibiorum Lutheri
• Historia synodorum Gryphiswaldensium
• De side Baronii & Bellarmini ipsis Pontificiis ambigua
• Ecclesia Papaia Luterane patrona & cliens
• Biblotheca Biblica , Greifswald 1702
• Chrysostomus Lutheranus , Wittenberg 1686
• Ves and rediscovered child of God
• Hamburg Sabbath
• Hamburg's Nineveh
• Biblotheca scriptorum Theologiae moralis, so with Strauchens Theologiae morali , Greifswald 1705
• Eclogae evangelicae
• First fruits of eloquence
• Worthy communicant
• Warning for a false eyd
• Praying child of God
• Penance and prayer sayings
• Evangelical angel
• Repetition of the holy Sabbath work
• Holy morning hours; 1706 Leipzig by Nicolaus Thürmann
• Lanx satura lucubrationum philologicarum , Strasbourg 1669
• Picture of King Karl XII , Greifswald 1708

Letters

• Greifswald weekly paper . 1744. (Reprint of extracts from Mayer's correspondence)
• Handwritten letters from Mayer to Johann Albrecht Fabricius . In: State and University Library Hamburg. Reimarus' estate, M. 7-55.
• Handwritten letters from Mayer to G. Spizel . In: Augsburg State Library.

Others

• Johann Carl Dähnert's "Pomeranian Library" . Vol. 2, Greifswald 1753, pp. 405-424, 445-459, 525-535 Vol. 3, Greifswald 1754. pp. 41-58, 83-93.
• Kurt Detlev Möller: Johann Albrecht Fabricius 1668-1736 . In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History Vol. 36 (1937) pp. 1–64, here especially p. 43.

See also

• List of rectors at the University of Greifswald

literature

• Dirk Alvermann , Birgit Dahlenburg : Greifswald heads. Scholar portraits and life pictures from the 16th to 18th centuries Century from the Pomeranian State University. Hinstorff, Rostock 2006, ISBN 3-356-01139-1 , p. 136 f.
• Dietrich Blaufuss: The theologian Johann Friedrich Mayer (1650-1712). Pious orthodoxy and erudition in Lutheranism . In: Pomerania in the early modern period. Literature and culture in the city and religion . Edited by Wilhelm Kühlmann and Horst Langer, Tübingen 1994
• Ernst Fischer: Patriots and heretics makers . In: Festschrift Wolfgang Martens . Tübingen 1989, pp. 17-47
• Johannes Geffckcn: Johann Friedrich Mayer as a preacher . In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History , Volume 1 (1841), pp. 567-588.
• Volker Gummelt: Johann Friedrich Mayer. His arguments with Philipp Jacob Spener and August Hermann Francke . Habil. Theol. Greifswald 1996
• FL Hoffmann: Johann Friedrich Mayer . In: Serapaeum 26 (1865), pp. 209-222
• Adolf Hofmeister : A memorandum by Johann Friedrich Mayer . In: Monthly papers of the Society for Pomeranian History and Archeology. Volume 45 (1931), pp. 157-161, 173-181.
• Friedehilde Krause: A book auction ... The adventurous fate of Johann Friedrich Mayer's library . In: Marginalia. Magazine for book art u. Bibliographie 45, H. 1 (1972), pp. 16-28
• Mayer, Johann Friedrich. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 19, Leipzig 1739, column 2336-2341.
• Udo Krolzik:  Mayer, Johann Friedrich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 1108-1114.
• Helmut Lother: Pietist. Disputes in Greifswald . Gütersloh 1925
• W. Gordon Marigold (Ed.): Barthold Feind. The confused house of Jacob . Bern / Frankfurt / M. 1983, pp. 25-50, 77-82
• William Nagel: D. Johann Friedrich Mayer ... (1701-12) . In: Festschrift for the 500th anniversary of the University of Greifswald . Vol. 2. Greifswald 1956, pp. 34-47
• Theodor Pyl :  Mayer, Johann Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 99-108.
• O. Rüdiger: The Pfalzgrafendiplom for Johann Friedrich Mayer . In: Communications of the Association for Hamburg History Vol. 7 (1903). Pp. 339-346
• Hermann Rückleben: The overthrow of the Hamburg council power . Hamburg I970
• Hans Schröder: Lexicon of the Hamburg. Writer to the present . Vol. 5, Hamburg 1870, pp. 89–164, here especially p. 102 ff. (By Friedrich Lorenz Hoffmann)
• Spener's “Required Bedencken” on the Hamburger Revers (1690) and the ensuing confrontation with Johann Friedrich Mayer in the years 1691–1696 . In Heike Krauter-Dierolf: Eschatology Philipp Jakob Spener: The dispute with the Lutheran ... . Mohr Siebeck 2005 ISBN 3-16-148577-7
• Johann Anselm Steiger : 500 years of theology in Hamburg: Hamburg as a center of Christian theology ... Walter de Gruyter 2005, ISBN 3-11-018529-6 .
• Johann Georg Walch: Historical and theological introduction to the religious disputes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church . Part. 3 and 5 (each register). Jena 1733. 1739. Reprint Stuttgart 1985 (with a post from Dietrich Blaufuss)

Web links

Commons : Johann Friedrich Mayer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Digitized works by Johann Friedrich Mayer in the Post-Reformation Digital Library (PRDL)
• Literature on Johann Friedrich Mayer (theologian) in the state bibliography MV
• Publications by and about Johann Friedrich Mayer in VD 17 .
• Works by and about Johann Friedrich Mayer  in the German Digital Library

Footnotes

1. ↑ Volker Gummelt: A rediscovered Rubens copy from the estate of General Superintendent Johann Friedrich Mayer. In: Pomerania. Journal of Culture and History. Issue 2/2012, ISSN  0032-4167 , pp. 26-28.
2. ↑ Jan von Busch: Arp Schnitger's house organ for Dr. Johann Friedrich Mayer. In: Ars Organi . Issue 3/2014, ISSN  0004-2919 , pp. 141-147.

predecessor	Office	successor
Anton Reiser	Senior pastor to St. Jacobi in Hamburg 1686–1701	Johannes Riemer
Konrad Tiburtius Rango	General Superintendent of Swedish Pomerania 1701–1712	Albrecht Joachim von Krakevitz
Petrus Maskow	Rector of the University of Greifswald 1701	Alexander Carok
Caspar March (medic, 1654)	Rector of the University of Greifswald 1705	Johann Schack