Johann Bergius

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Johannes Bergius, engraving by Heinrich Jakob Otto (1707)
Johann Bergius on the death bed

Johann Bergius , also: Johannes Bergius ; Johannes Berg (born February 24, 1587 in Stettin , † December 19, 1658 in Berlin ) was a Reformed theologian .

Life

After the early death of his father Konrad Bergius (1544–1592), Bergius' mother had to take care of his education. By the age of 15 he had acquired such knowledge that he was able to teach his brother Konrad Bergius the Younger . At that time he was sent to the grammar school in Neuhausen near Worms and then to Heidelberg to the Collegio Casimiriano. In 1601 he started studying at the University of Wittenberg , but soon he moved to the University of Heidelberg , which was particularly dedicated to Reformed theology, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1604 . In 1605 he went to Strasbourg . After a stay in Danzig in 1606 with Bartholomäus Keckermann , he went on a study trip that took him to England , where in 1609 he obtained a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Cambridge . From there he went to Paris as court master of two nobles, moved on to the University of Leiden, where he dealt with theological studies. However, since theological disputes broke out in Holland, he returned to his homeland and in 1612 went to the University of Frankfurt (Oder) , where he hoped to gain a professorship.

Bergius was a member of the Lutheran creed from home, but was shaped and trained by his studies and travels in Reformed theology and was appointed professor for Reformed theology at the University of Frankfurt (Oder) in 1615. In 1618 he married Dorothea Füssel, the daughter of the Berlin court preacher Martin Füssel . After he had exercised the rectorate of the university in 1619 , he was appointed court preacher in Königsberg by Elector Georg Wilhelm von Brandenburg in 1620 . This was an affront to the Lutheran clergy who refused Bergius to exercise their office. As a result, he was given the office of cathedral and court preacher in Berlin in 1623 , since the Berlin Cathedral, as the court church, was directly subordinate to the monarch in its confession. In the same year his son Georg Konrad was born, who was also to become a professor in Frankfurt / Oder and court preacher in Berlin. In 1637, after the death of his first wife Ursula Matthias, Bergius married the daughter of the privy councilor and vice chancellor Daniel Matthias . In the same year he was appointed consistorial councilor. In 1644 the second son Johannes was born, who was to become court preacher in Königsberg. Bergius twice turned down an appointment as General Superintendent in Brandenburg , but was a trusted advisor to Elector Friedrich Wilhelm , whose religion teacher he had been.

As a student of the Irishman David Pareus , Bergius saw Reformed and Lutherans as united on essential issues and advocated a union of both churches in Brandenburg. Because he rejected the doctrine of double predestination in its Calvinist form, which was unacceptable for Lutherans , he did not take part in the Synod of Dordrecht . The salvation of the individual is not determined by a prenatal establishment of God, but by the “general validity of death and the merits of Christ” (“universalitas mortis et meriti Christi”). In 1631 he reached a religious talk with the Saxon Lutherans in Leipzig , which was ultimately just as unsuccessful as the Thorner religious talk in 1645, in which Bergius also took part as a delegate from Brandenburg.

Fonts (selection)

  • Analysis controversiae de persona Christi. Frankfurt 1619
  • Diatribe de primo homine. Frankfurt 1619
  • Collegium Theologicum. Frankfurt 1615
  • Tractatus de quaestione: an Evangelicae per Gemanicam Ecclesiae in fundamento fidei dissentiant. Frankfurt 1617
  • Tractatus de S. Coena. Wesel 1646
  • Regula Apostolica de formandis in religione judiciis. Elbingen 1641
  • Apolegia adversus Johannes Behmium. Berlin 1618
  • Decas Disputtatio Theologicum. Frankfurt 1621

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bergius, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bergius, Johannes; Berg, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German reformed theologian
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1587
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 1658
Place of death Berlin