Johann yeast germs

Johann Hefentreger , also "Johannes Trygophorus" (* around 1497 in Fritzlar ; † June 3, 1542 in Bad Wildungen ) was a Lutheran theologian and reformer of the county of Waldeck .

Origin and education

Hefentreger was the oldest child of the respected master baker and councilor Henn Hefentreger († 1547) and his wife Elsbeth († 1555) in the Electoral Mainz city ​​of Fritzlar. He attended Latin schools in Fritzlar, Kassel , Mühlhausen / Thuringia , Erfurt , Korbach , Nordhausen and Marburg . In 1516 he was enrolled at the University of Erfurt, where he obtained the degree of Baccalaureus Artium in autumn 1517 . The Graecized form of the name “Trygophorus” (from tryx = yeast, phoros = carrier) and his acquaintance with Adam Krafft and Justus Menius suggest contacts with the Erfurt humanist group around Eobanus Hessus . It is not known where he stayed between 1517 and 1521. It is possible that he was a teacher at the Latin school in Fritzlar during this time, but it is more likely that he received his theological training from one or more pastors during this time.

Convert to the Reformation

He was ordained a priest in 1521, probably in Erfurt by the Auxiliary Bishop Paul Huthenne from Mainz, and then received a position as pastor and confessor in St. Catherine's monastery of the Augustinians in his hometown. The reading of Luther's writings and probably also the influence of two Lutheran-minded clergy at the Fritzlarer Petersstift, Johannes Baune and Johannes Huhn ( Gallinarius ), both also former Erfurt students, made him a staunch supporter of the Reformation . He gave Protestant sermons and in 1524 married the former nun Elisabeth Sperbelitz from the St. Catherine's Monastery in Fritzlar. The couple's first child, Jonas, was born on June 25, 1525 and christened Hefentreger by Johannes Huhn in the house of the grandparents' house. At the instigation of a group of nobles, fathers and brothers of nuns from St. Catherine's Monastery, Hefentreger was expelled from the city with his wife and child. On August 13, 1525, he held a farewell sermon for his followers in Fritzlar in the church of the neighboring Landgrave Hessian village of Geismar . (In 1534 his parents left Fritzlar due to religious tensions and moved to Wildungen. The father died there in 1547, his mother in 1555.)

Reformer in Waldeck

Efforts to get a job in Grünberg , Hesse, were unsuccessful, and his future was uncertain until the spring of 1526. But then Count Philip IV of Waldeck-Wildungen invited him (possibly through the mediation of Adam Krafft) to a trial sermon, which he gave on April 29, 1526 in Altwildungen . Then he was of the two Waldeck counts, Philip III. von Waldeck-Eisenberg and Philipp IV. von Waldeck-Wildungen, appointed pastor of the city of Waldeck , where he gave his inaugural sermon on June 17, 1526. Since Hefentreger did not automatically see anyone as a member of the new ecclesiastical community, but wanted to first constitute an evangelical community, he began in 1529 to set up an evangelical "confessional community", of which one could only become a member through a formal act of confession. The confessional form he designed for this purpose was evidently linked to the Homberg Church Ordinance of 1526, which was not introduced in the Landgraviate of Hesse due to Luther's criticism.

In October 1529, Hefentreger was present as an observer at the Marburg Religious Discussion .

In 1532 he became pastor in Niederwildungen, where he immediately began to reorganize the church system. To reorganize the economic situation of the church (salary of the pastors and teachers, poor and sick welfare, maintenance of the buildings) he set up a so-called "common box" with the Wildung caste order of 1532, based on the model of the Hessian caste order of 1530. When setting up the new evangelical congregation, his focus was on the Reformation focus of worship and catechetical instruction.

As early as 1533, as a visitor and superintendent for the southern part of the County of Waldeck, he also took on church leadership tasks, which he used to consolidate the Reformation. When Count Wolrad II took office in the northern (Eisenberger) part of the country in 1539, his influence on the entire county grew. In collaboration with the other superintendents, in 1539, with the “18 Wildung Articles”, he set up generally binding principles of church teaching and order and guidelines for the visitations. He put together an antiphonary and a collection of hymns, designed new forms for baptism, marriage, blessing of women who have recently given birth, the evening meal and consolation of the sick , formulated a number of liturgical prayers, created a new order for catechism instruction, and put together his own catechism from various templates , which, however, has only survived in parts. Although now also appointed to visit the northern part of the country, he soon gave this order back because of the "incompetence of a number of pastors".

Death and aftermath

As early as 1540, his health deteriorated so much that he had to gradually withdraw from the exercise of his offices. He died in 1542 at the age of 45 and was buried in the Wildung city church.

An exchange of letters between Count Wolrad II and Philipp Melanchthon in 1544 about the printing of Hefentreger's writings remained unsuccessful, so that his works remained unprinted. Nevertheless, they were of great influence in the regional church of Waldeck that was being formed , and the Waldeck Church Order of 1556 was based on much of his preparatory work.

After his premature death, his son wrote his life story.

Remarks

1. ↑ The Waldecker counts were obliged by house contract to decide on church issues together and uniformly for the entire county.

Web links

• Real Encyclopedia for Protestant Theology and Church , Volume 20, page 145

literature

• Hans Schneider: The Waldeck reformer Johannes Hefentreger (Trygophorus) 1497–1542 . In Waldeckische Historische Hefte , No. 2, Waldeckischer Geschichtsverein, Arolsen, 1991
• Gerhard Menk: Pastor Jonas Hefentreger's “Memories” in context , Waldeckische Historische Hefte , Heft 6, Ed. Waldeckischer Geschichtsverein, 2000
• V. Schultze: Hefentreger's order of confirmation (NKZ 1900, p. 233f.)
• V. Schultze: Waldeckische Reformationsgeschichte . Leipzig 1903.
• O. Hütteroth: Old Hessen pastors of the Reformation period . Marburg 1953, p. 127
• Sven Hilbert: Fritzlar in the Age of Reformation and Confessionalization, Historical Commission Darmstadt and Historical Commission for Hesse, Darmstadt & Marburg, 2006 (pp. 40–55), ISBN 3-88443-303-2
• Gerhard Bätzing: The pastor family Hefträger and the beginnings of the Reformation in Fritzlar and Naumburg . In Zeitschrift für Hessische Geschichte und Landeskunde (ZHG) 71 (1960), pp. 61–82
• A. Leiss (ed.), The Memories of Jonas Trygophorus , in Waldecker Chroniken (Publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse and Waldeck (VHKHW) 7.2), 1914 (pp. 182-268)
• Hans Schneider:  Trygophorus, Johannes. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 12, Bautz, Herzberg 1997, ISBN 3-88309-068-9 , Sp. 643-646.