Johann Knipius

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Johann Knipius Andronicus , also Cnipius , actually Kneip (* around 1510 ? In Andernach ?; † 1586 ) was a German humanist , school rector and theologian during the Reformation .

Life

Knipius possibly came from Andernach and was a Magister and Dr. theol. He was pastor and rector at various Latin schools in the Electoral Palatinate , for example in Heppenheim an der Wiese and from 1543 in Andernach . In 1550 he was appointed by the council of the imperial city of Frankfurt am Main as a “man well trained in theological science as well as school matters and other skills, also a good poeta ” as the rector of the city's Latin school .

Knipius was a friend and supporter of Philipp Melanchthon and was the only Frankfurt theologian of his time to represent the moderate Philippist position in the adiaphoristic dispute . In 1548, the Frankfurt council had necessarily accepted the Augsburg interim in order to preserve the vital urban privileges of the election of the emperor and the Frankfurt fair . Since then, the Ministry of Preachers, led by Gnesiolutherans Hartmann Beyer and Matthias Ritter , has opposed the implementation of the interim .

From 1554, the denominational dispute in Frankfurt intensified with the arrival of Calvinist refugees under the leadership of Valérand Poullain and Jan Łaski from England and the Netherlands. While Knipius, with some moderate patricians in the council, advocated the settlement of refugees, the Ministry of Preachers pointed out the insurmountable differences in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper . Ultimately, despite an attempt to mediate by Johannes Calvin , who had come to Frankfurt in 1556 , the Ministry enforced the ban on Reformed worship in Frankfurt in 1561.

Knipius took - with reference to Melanchthon - in the dispute decidedly in favor of the Reformed. In 1560 he had the writing Christiana confessio de coena Domini exhibita nuper quibusdam Theologis appear under the pseudonym Johannes Candidus . In it he advocated the theses that Christ's body is not omnipresent, that the enjoyment of the true body and blood of Christ is spiritual and that God, who is above all creatures, cannot live with us by means of creaturely substances. In a second writing he criticized the views of the Orthodox preachers. The Ministry of Preachers, especially Ritter, reacted with sharp polemics and threatened: “If he wants to persist in his error, we are caused, and we owe God to warn the citizens that they should take their children out of his school so that they are not poisoned with his error ”.

In addition, Knipius apparently lost support in the council because of a conflict of interest: his son Johannes Cnipius the Younger had become a partner in the printing company through his wife Barbara Egenolff , a daughter of the printer Christian Egenolff , whom he had married in 1557. At the same time, he taught as his father's collaborator at the Latin school. Criticism was directed against this, and moreover, Cnipius was denounced for having engaged in “ridiculous antics and boisterous pranks” in class. The council therefore dismissed Cnipius the Younger in 1561 and appointed Georg Dimpelius as a collaborator in his place .

The father then asked to leave his rector's office, which the council granted in February 1562.

Works

Knipius was the author of various theological treatises and pamphlets. He conducted extensive correspondence with leading representatives of the Reformation and with Frankfurt patricians, including Hans and Claus Bromm, Johann von Glauburg and Conrad Humbracht. He also wrote Latin and Greek epigrams , including on Frankfurt personalities at the time of the siege in 1552 in the prince uprising .

literature

  • Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . First volume. A – L (=  publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 1 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7829-0444-3 , p. 405 .
  • Georg Steitz , M. Johannes Cnipius Andronicus, schoolmaster to d. Barfüssern 1550–1562, the theological representative of Melanchthonianism in Frankfurt: along with ungedr. Letters of Melanchton's, Bucer's, Cnipius, and others. a. , Frankfurt a. M.: A. Osterrieth, 1860.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Johann Balthasar Ritter : Evangelical monument of the city of Frankfurt am Main . with Johann Friedrich Fleischern, Frankfurt am Main 1726, p. 436 f . ( Digitally in Google Book Search).
  2. ↑ Representation based on the Frankfurt biography. After Josef Benzing :  Egenolff (Egenolph), Christian. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 325 f. ( Digitized version ). Knipius himself was married to Barbara Egenolff.
personal data
SURNAME Knipius, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cnipius Andronicus, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German humanist, teacher and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: around 1510
PLACE OF BIRTH uncertain: Andernach
DATE OF DEATH 1586