Johannes Block (preacher)
Johannes Block , also: Johannes Block von Stolp (* between 1470 and 1480 in Stolp ; † 1545 in Barth ) was a German preacher in Pomerania and the Baltic States as well as the reformer of the city of Barth in Western Pomerania. His collection of books, whose ownership notes provide important biographical information, is now owned by the parish of the Marienkirche in Barth and is placed as a deposit in the local Low German Bible Center St. Jürgen .
Life
Johannes Block was born between 1470 and 1480 in the Hanseatic city of Stolp in the Pomerania region. At the Latin school in Treptow on the Rega or in the vicinity of the universities of Greifswald or Rostock , he received a higher education towards the end of the 15th century, probably through the mediation of the later reformer of Pomerania, Johann Bugenhagen , based on the then modern Dutch school humanism.
In the first decade of the 16th century, Block became a cleric in the Pomeranian diocese of Cammin , initially worked as a preacher and built up a corresponding library. During a short stay in Gdansk in 1512 and 1513, his search for a job failed and in 1514 he went to the Hanseatic city of Dorpat in Estonia . There he obtained a preacher position at the parish church of St. Mary and one at the episcopal cathedral around 1520 . In the religious political quarrels of 1524/25, however, he lost both positions.
As a Lutheran sympathizer, Block went to Wiburg in southern Finland (today Russia) in 1528 to serve as a preacher for the German Count Johann von Hoya († 1535) there until 1532 . Here he is also mentioned as married.
In the early autumn of 1532 he returned to Pomerania to help prepare for the reformation of the sovereigns that took place in December 1534 . At the beginning of Lent in 1533, Block appeared for the first time as a Protestant preacher in the cemetery of the Sankt Jürgen Hospital outside the gates of the city of Barth. Between 1535 and 1544, Block was one of the most reliable pillars of a successful and sustainable Reformation in the Duchy of Pomerania as a preacher and pastor at the St. Marien parish church in Barther .
Book collection
Block's book collection is a prime example of an early reformation preacher's library. After his death she came to the Barther Marienkirche. Today at least 123 volumes with eight late medieval manuscripts and 269 early prints, including 48 incunabula (i.e. printed works published before 1500) can be identified. If you factor in a few losses, Block's library should have consisted of around 130 to 140 books by the end of his life. In terms of its content and largely intact, it is - not only for the church history of Pomerania - a first-rate cultural document. As part of a pilot project led by Greifswald University Library, the Blocks book collection is being digitized and made freely accessible via the Internet.
A few volumes with school prints show block under the influence of school humanism radiating from the Dutch Hanseatic city of Deventer . Since the 1480s, special emphasis has been placed on a solid linguistic and moral-philosophical training in sample texts from ancient and late ancient classical and patristic periods as well as Italian Renaissance humanism .
Block's interest in the educational program of humanism brought him into possession of several expensive editions of the church fathers' Latin works in the following years . In the first two decades of the 16th century, he also focused on the acquisition of Latin sermon literature. He concentrated on proven collections of sample sermons, based on which he could preach in Latin or in a vernacular translation as required.
Under humanistic influence, Block was also open to the late medieval church reform , which helped prepare the ground for the reformation of Martin Luther . The spiritual connection between humanism, church reform and Reformation can be seen particularly clearly in Block in the early 1520s in Dorpat, when he bought several church-critical editions by the two Dutch humanists Johann Wessel (called Gansfort) and Erasmus von Rotterdam . The acquisition of these prints marked the beginning of Block's sympathy for the ideas of the evangelical movement, even before the Reformation was introduced in Dorpat in 1524/25 and he lost both of his preaching posts.
After Block's conversion to the Reformation, as a preacher in the Baltic States, in Finland and finally in Barth in Western Pomerania, he expanded the fund of theological-systematic prints from the late Middle Ages almost exclusively with commentary literature on the Reformation. He did not only have Luther and the Wittenbergers, but also the Swiss-Upper German reformers such as Huldrych Zwingli , Martin Butzer , Johannes Oekolampadius , Johannes Brenz and others. a., broadly received. However, his painful experiences with the Reformation unrest in Dorpat made him cautious about overly profiled opinions. So it is not surprising that Reformation controversial literature , for example on the irritating Lutheran topics “ Peasants' War ” and “Enthusiasm”, is almost completely absent from his library .
literature
- Jürgen Geiß-Wunderlich, Volker Gummelt (ed.): Johannes Block. The Pomeranian reformer and his library. (= Christian hostels. Special volume 22). Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-374-05154-0 .
- Jürgen Geiß: The church library at St. Marien . In: Jörg Scheffelke / Gerd Garber (eds.): Stadt Barth 1255–2005. Contributions to the history of the city . Schwerin 2005, pp. 413-416.
- Jürgen Geiß: Binding for the Barther reformer Johannes Block (1470 / 80–1544 / 45). Part 1: Workshops from Antwerp . In: Einbandforschung 12 (Festgabe für Kurt Hans Staub) (April 2003), pp. 22–31; Part 2: Workshops from Gdansk . In: ibid. 13 (October 2003), pp. 13-25; Part 3: Workshops from Dorpat . In: ibid. 14 (April 2004), pp. 12-20; Part 4: Lübeck, Swedish book guide . In: ibid. 15 (October 2004), pp. 24–32; Part 5: Workshops from Stralsund . In: ibid. 16 (April 2005), pp. 27–35.
- Konrad von Rabenau : Barth. In: Friedhilde Krause (Hrsg.): Handbook of the historical book inventory in Germany , Vol. 16: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Brandenburg. Hildesheim u. a. 1996, pp. 46-52, here: p. 46.
Web links
- Blog post by the Berlin State Library - Prussian cultural heritage under the title "Johannes Block from Pomerania - the silent preacher and his speaking library" (Jürgen Geiß-Wunderlich, April 7, 2017)
- Literature about Johannes Block (preacher) in the state bibliography MV
- Blocks book collection in the church library of the Marienkirche Barth
- Library of the reformer Johannes Block in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Digital Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Block, Johannes |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Block from Stolp, Johannes (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Preacher in Pomerania and the Baltic States |
| DATE OF BIRTH | between 1470 and 1480 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Stumble |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1545 |
| Place of death | Barth |