Johannes Agricola

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Johannes Agricola, woodcut by Balthasar Jenichen , 1565

Johannes Agricola ( Latin Agricola: farmer ; * April 20, 1494 in Eisleben ; † September 22, 1566 in Berlin ) was a German reformer and close confidante of Martin Luther . (Some sources give 1490 or 1492 as the year of birth.)

Common variants of his name are Johann Schneider (or Schnitter, Sneider, Schneyder), Johannes Eisleben or Magister Islebius (after his hometown) or Hans Bauer (reverse translation of the Latinized Johannes Agricola).

Life

education

Johann was born in Eisleben in 1494 as the son of master tailor Albrecht Schnitter . First he attended the Martineum Braunschweig and in 1506 switched to a school in Leipzig . In the winter semester of 1509 he enrolled at the University of Leipzig to begin studying at the artistic faculty.

After completing his studies with the acquisition of the first academic degree, the Baccalaureate, he became a teacher in Braunschweig. In the spring of 1516 he enrolled again, this time at the flourishing University of Wittenberg , where he became an enthusiastic student of Martin Luther . First he was registered at the artistic faculty, where he was awarded the academic master's degree in early 1518. He also got to know Philipp Melanchthon , with whom he acquired the baccalaureate in theology on October 13, 1519.

Working in the Reformation

Portal of the superintendent in Eisleben

With the acquisition of the academic degree he held lectures at the theological faculty, was head of the university's pedagogy and was active as a preacher. As early as 1518 he published Luther's version of the Father-Us . Agricola experienced the publication of the 95 theses and the Leipzig disputation as Luther's secretary during his student days .

He was also present when Luther burned Pope Leo X's bull Exsurge Domine in front of the Elstertor on December 10, 1520 . Finally he helped to get the decretal ribbon, which also fell victim to the flames. While Luther was absent from the Wartburg , Agricola began to study medicine in 1521, but after two years - thanks to his wife and Justus Jonas the Elder  - turned back to theology. In 1525 he published a commentary on the Gospel of Luke and interpreted the dialectic that appeared at Melanchthon's faculty of artists in 1520.

Since Agricola could not find a proper teaching post in Wittenberg , in 1525 he became pastor at the St. Nicolaikirche and head of the newly founded St. Andreas Latin School in the house of the old superintendent in Eisleben. In Eisleben he developed the first school regulations and wrote a Latin catechism in 1526 and a German catechism in 1527. He also emerged as a translator, interpreter of the Holy Scriptures and above all as a collector of German proverbs.

Agricola was valued as an able preacher. He accompanied the Elector Johann the Steadfast of Saxony as electoral Saxon court preacher to the Reichstag in Speyer in 1526 and 1529 and in Augsburg in 1530. He also worked on the Augsburg Confession of Faith, the Confessio Augustana , in which the basic teachings of the Lutheran Church were formulated were.

When the first church visits by the Saxon spa districts began in 1527, the first conflict with Luther and Melanchthon arose. Melanchthon had noted in an internal working paper that those who did not repent should be driven to repentance on the basis of the threat of divine law. This came into Agricola's hands, who intervened against it and could only be warned to calm down by Luther, who stood behind Melanchthon so as not to interfere with the work on the church visits that Luther himself had initiated.

In 1536 Agricola gave up his office in Eisleben because of tensions with the sovereign, Count Albrecht VII von Mansfeld . He moved with his family to Wittenberg and was initially accepted into Luther's house . In Wittenberg Agricola represented Luther at his church services and lectures. When Luther returned from a meeting of the Schmalkaldic League in 1537, Agricola's own path began, from which Johannes Bugenhagen initially distanced himself. In further disputations, the dispute with Luther was at times conciliatory, then again controversial. Finally the electoral court intervened and restricted Agricola's stay to Wittenberg. Since Agricola realized that if the dispute continued he could only lose and endanger the existence of his family, he secretly left Wittenberg in mid-August and was recruited by Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg .

At the newly established cathedral and palace church, he worked as court preacher, general superintendent and visitor to the establishment of the Protestant church in Brandenburg. Despite a printed revocation in 1541, there was no personal reconciliation with Luther. In 1541 Agricola took part in the Reichstag in Regensburg . In 1548 he worked in Augsburg alongside Julius von Pflug , Bishop of Naumburg- Zeitz, and Michael Helding , Titular Bishop of Sidon, in a commission appointed by Emperor Karl V , which worked out a compromise for the preliminary order of religious relations. The fact that fundamental Protestant demands were renounced in this compromise was reproached by other reformers and earned him the loud scorn and ridicule of Protestants. In most of the theological disputes of Lutheranism that followed ( antinomistic controversy ), Agricola was able to finally eliminate the influence of the Philippists in the march in favor of the Gnesiolutherans a few years before his death.

Agricola also made a collection of 300 German proverbs that appeared in 1529. This first collection was followed by a second part with 450 proverbs. Agricola united both parts in 1534 into a work entitled Sybenhund und Funfftzig Teutscher Proverbs, rewritten and improved.

He died in Berlin in 1566 during a plague epidemic .

genealogy

Agricola married Else Moshauer in Wittenberg in 1520. In 1536 nine children were born, of whom the names of the sons Hans Albrecht (* 1528), Philipp and Johann Agricola Eisleben junior are known.

Works

literature

Web links

Commons : Johannes Agricola  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christoph Windhorst: Agricola, Johann. (1492 / 94-1566) . In: Helmut Burkhardt and Uwe Swarat (ed.): Evangelical Lexicon for Theology and Congregation . tape 1 . R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal 1992, ISBN 3-417-24641-5 , p. 26 .
personal data
SURNAME Agricola, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schneider, Johann; Schnitter, Johannes; Eisleben, Johannes; Agricola Eisleben, Johannes; Bauer, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German reformer
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1494
PLACE OF BIRTH Eisleben
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 1566
Place of death Berlin