Johann Major

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Lucas Cranach the Elder J. (around 1580): Johann Major, single-sheet print (with honorable verse), detail
Christ on the Cross , painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder J. on the stairway to the exhibition rooms in Lutherhaus Wittenberg . In the Latin verses by Johann Major (printed in Elegiae , 1584), Christ addresses the viewer and interprets his suffering and death as an atonement for his sins.

Johann Major (born January 2, 1533 in Sankt Joachimsthal , † March 16, 1600 in Zerbst ) was a German Protestant theologian , humanist and neo-Latin poet .

Life

He is the son of Johann Major from Franconia and Lucia born. Sarcander (Fleischmann), daughter of the Hassfurt citizen Johannes Sarcander.

Major enrolled at the University of Wittenberg in 1549 and moved to the University of Leipzig in 1551 . Returning to Wittenberg , he acquired the degree of master's degree on February 27, 1556 and then went to Würzburg as a teacher . From there, he earned his doctorate at the University of Mainz for doctor of theology and was in 1558 in Frankfurt am Main for Laureate crowned.

In 1560 he returned to Wittenberg as a professor of poetics , where, as a follower of Melanchthon , he published a great poem in his honor every year on the day of his death. As a poet, he polemically attacked the Gnesiolutherans and, after they were enforced in Wittenberg, he himself became on the defensive. In 1578 he was dismissed from the university after he was accused of holding a false seal and perjury. He was then imprisoned in Rochlitz and when his innocence was proven in 1581, he was able to return to Wittenberg.

In 1586 he was initially dismissed for resisting the formula of the Agreement , and then accepted again. Because of his Filipino creed, however, he was demoted to associate professor. Imprisoned as a cryptocalvinist from 1591 to 1593 . After his final expulsion from Wittenberg, he lived in Zerbst from 1595, where he could no longer find employment.

family

I. °° December 11, 1558 Magdalene born. Schmidels († before 1575), daughter of Johannis Schmidels from Herzberg, Berggeschworner in St. Joachimsthal
Children (one son, one daughter):
  • Johann (born October 2, 1560 in Wittenberg)
  • Maria (born August 1, 1563 in Wittenberg)
II. °° January 6, 1575 in Wittenberg with Kunigunda born. Bapst, daughter of the Rochlitz Mayor Moritz Bapst
Children (three daughters):
  • Anna (born August 21, 1578 in Wittenberg; † November 30, 1582 in Belzig)
  • Concordia (born March 25, 1582 in Wittenberg; † December 15, 1582, born in Wittenberg)
  • Sibylla (born January 9, 1584 in Wittenberg, † March 16, 1594 in Zerbst)

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Major  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Portrait collection of the Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel
  2. ↑ attribution not sure; see. lucascranach.org
  3. ↑ Lic. G. Frank "Johann Major der Wittenberger Poet". In: Journal for Scientific Theology, Volume 6 183, p. 135
  4. ^ Theodor Wotschke : From Wittenberg church books. In: Archive for the history of the Reformation. (ARG) Vol. 29, 1932, pp. 169-223
  5. ↑ Lic. G. Frank "Johann Major der Wittenberger Poet". In: Journal for Scientific Theology, Volume 6 183, p. 135
  6. ^ Theodor Wotschke: From Wittenberg church books. In: Archive for the history of the Reformation. (ARG) Vol. 29, 1932, pp. 169-223
  7. ↑ Hans-Jochen Schiewer, Stefan Seeber, Markus Stock: Pain in the literature of the Middle Ages and the early modern period, V&R unipress GmbH 2010, pp. 73–75; ISBN 3899717716 , 9783899717716 (Volume 4 of Transatlantic Studies on the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times)
personal data
SURNAME Major, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian, humanist and poet
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1533
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Joachimsthal
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1600
Place of death Zerbst