Johannes Ewich

Johannes Ewich (* 1525 in Hoerstgen ; † February 7, 1588 in Bremen , also: Euwyck , Ewych , van Ewick and von Ewich , Latinized: Ewichius , also: Äonius ) was a reformer in Hoerstgen in 1556, and around 1561 the first doctor to graduate in Duisburg and from 1562 until his death city ​​physician in Bremen. He also worked as an illustrious professor of medicine at the grammar school there . In his letters and pamphlets he came out primarily with investigations into the nature of the plague from a medical and social point of view and as a critic of the persecution of witches .

Life

The later "famous Bremen" Johannes Ewich was born in 1525 in the village of Hoerstgen on the left Lower Rhine . The names and social status of his parents are not known. There is no evidence to support the assumption that has been made in literature since the 19th century that Johannes Ewich came from “a noble family”. An immigration of the middle-class van Ewick (Euwyck) family from the Dutch region to the Lower Rhine is conceivable .

School education in Deventer

Johannes Ewich received his school education in Deventer, the Netherlands, from the " Brothers of Common Life " (Broeders van het gemeene leven), a Catholic brotherhood that arose in the Netherlands as part of the piety and renewal movement around Geert Groote known as Devotio moderna . As a pupil of the brothers and sisters in Deventer, Ewich acquired his excellent knowledge of the Latin language as part of extensive training , but also made his first acquaintance with the plague, which will occupy the later doctor and city physicist for a long time.

Studied in Cologne

In 1544 the student Joh. Ewych Geldriensis, classified as pauper ('poor'), can be found in the register of the Universitas Studii Coloniensis ; The designation of origin Geldriensis does not refer to the area of ​​the city of Geldern , but to the fact that the noble house Frohnenbruch and the associated village of Hoerstgen were still Geldrian fiefs at that time . Admission to the bachelor's degree at the artist faculty took place on May 30, 1544. Ewich was also a master's degree and a bachelor's degree in both rights, that is, of Roman and canon law .

After completing his studies in Cologne, Johannes Ewich temporarily became a teacher at the Latin school in Essen at the age of 20 - from 1545 to 1547 - but this activity does not seem to have particularly captivated him. From 1547 to 1556 there was then a gap in biography that could not be filled with the sources known to date.

Reformer in Hoerstgen

The introduction of the Reformed creed in the reign of Frohnenbruch-Hoerstgen, which took place in 1556/57, is generally attributed to the sovereign Gotthardt von Milendonk († 1589) of the Frohnenbruch house, who through his marriage to Maria von Brederode was a relative of the Reformation-oriented Count Hermann von Neuenahr -Moers (1520–1578). According to the church history published in 1897, however, the “driving force” of the Reformation in Hoerstgen was a “capable, unfortunately unknown doctor”. This "doctor" or student of medicine was Johannes Ewich. The Reformation historian Werner Teschenmacher pays tribute to “Joh. Ewichius Horstanus medicus ”as a well-deserved promoter of the Reformed creed. Ewich, to whom the “introduction of pure teaching” is ascribed “mainly” in Hoerstgen, is said to have lived with Gotthard von Milendonk on Frohnenbruch house at the time of the Reformation.

Medical studies in Paris, Toulouse, Venice and Padua

In 1556 he went on to study medicine in Paris , where he said he lived “in the Münch Collegio”. He also studied in Toulouse and Venice . In 1557 Ewich finally moved to the University of Padua . The young physician was particularly impressed by the energy and methods with which the city fought the plague. 1559 was the native Hoerstgener at the University of Padua, a leading position in this time anatomy had to MD PhD . The comprehensively educated theologians, lawyers and physicians then "drove away religion" from Catholic Italy , which was medically advanced .

Doctor in Duisburg

Living again on the Lower Rhine, Ewich became the first doctor to graduate "around 1561" in the city ​​of Duisburg, which is part of the Duchy of Kleve . The motivation to settle down as a general practitioner in Duisburg was probably the cherished hope of being able to work as a professor of medicine at the Duisburg University , which is yet to be founded .

City physician in Bremen

Soon, Dr. Johannes Ewich therefore into at this time increasingly Calvinist embossed Hanseatic City of Bremen , where he was in 1562 officially appointed doctor (Stadtphysikus). As the holder of this office, he also supervised the local pharmacists as well as the bathers and surgeons. The city of Bremen granted its physicist a free apartment and an exemption from civil taxes, a very generous fee of 100 Reichstalers . Ewich was also allowed to run his own medical practice as a municipal health officer. The reputation that was associated with the office of the Bremen City Physician can also be measured by the fact that it was placed directly behind the mayor on public occasions. The city physician was married to Maria van Augry; "Several sons" are said to have emerged from this marriage.

In 1582 Ewich published his pamphlet De officio fidelis et prudentis magistratus tempore pestilentiae rempublicam a contagio praeservandi liberandique libri duo in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse , which describes in a comprehensive way the practice of the prevention and treatment of the plague. In the following year, a German and an English translation were available.

In 1584 Ewich's work De sagarum quas vulgo veneficas appellant (…) appeared in Bremen . The city physicist also mentions the von Milendonk family from Hoerstgen and one of their daughters, who were married and allegedly bewitched on the Nahe . It was probably Alveradis (Alberta) von Milendonk († 1564), first married to Philipp Dietrich von Braunsberg († 1551) in Burgbrohl , who u. a. was also Herr zu Merxheim an der Nahe . After his death she entered into a second marriage with Franz Konrad von Sickingen († 1574).

When, in 1584, the Latin school in the Katharinenkloster in Bremen, today's old grammar school , was converted into a grammar school illustrious (during the Reformation a mixed form of high school and university) and thus at the same time upgraded, Johannes Ewich became the first professor of medicine there. His speech at the opening of the grammar school on October 15, 1584 has also been handed down in print. Johannes Ewich, who is said to have been “a bit violent and quick-tempered” in personal contact, died on February 7, 1588 in Bremen and was buried in the Ansgarii church there.

The traditional inscriptions of his epitaph , erected by “the heirs”, honored him not only as a well-deserved doctor, but also as a “very careful researcher of the Holy Scriptures” and “thorough knowledge of various folk and literary languages”, who was distinguished by “piety” and "Humanity". Ewich's motto was also inscribed on the tomb: “One has to pray that a healthy mind lives in a healthy body. That is what God's Word does. But this is the medical art. ”The Renaissance epitaph was destroyed in a bomb attack on September 1, 1944.

Services

Like Johann Winter von Andernach , Johann Vochs (born 1508) from Cologne , Johann Weyer from Grave an der Maas , with whom he was friends, and Reiner Solenander from Büderich, Johannes Ewich is one of the relatively few outstanding theorists and practitioners who Rhineland donated medicine during the 16th century . As a supporter of Galen , Ewich had to reject contagiousness or infectiousness, i.e. the transmission of disease from person to person or from animal to person. In his role as a health officer, however, Ewich took the possibility of contagion into account in practical terms. His book De officio (…) also contains suggestions that had not yet been made for a more appropriate organization of the health system in Bremen, for a general improvement in hygienic conditions and for more generous building measures. Ewich, who was very familiar with the theological and medical issues of his time, knew how to combine this theoretical knowledge with his own practical experience as a city doctor. He “made a special contribution to the advancement of medicinal science”. At the same time, Ewich's remarks on the subject of witches identify him as an “enlightened man” who “preceded his age”.

Works

For a complete overview of Ewich's surviving publications, see the list of 16th century prints published in the German-speaking area (VD 16) .

Theological writings

• From the child baptism / steadfast and clear counter-report / against the unfounded little book of a rebaptist / which he called / an already clear report and indication of the true baptism of John / Christ / and his apostles. Item two send letter Sebastiani Francken / of the suspension of all church regulations and policey / before never went out in the truck. With one-sided refutation of the same / the unity of the churches of Christ to defend particular / and all sects sects and heresies of this time / almost useful and useful. Written by the nobility to a God-fearing Jungfraw. o. O. 1563 ( dfg-viewer.de) , accessed on March 9, 2011

Medical writings

• De officio fidelis et prudentis magistratus tempore pestilentiae rempublicam a contagio praeservandi liberandique libri duo. Matthäus Harnisch, Neapoli Nementum (Neustadt / Weinstrasse) 1582

• German: Pestilentzordenunge useful and necessary underricht, by the authority of the authorities, in pestilentz times, how the pestilentz can be prevented by their hard work, and since the same can be torn down. Halberstadt 1583 and Mühlhausen 1597
• German: From the office of a trewen, understandable and white government, how and what measure they should reserve, keep and dispose of a common city during the pestilence period for the contagious poison, sol.Levin Brauns / Michael Lantzenberger, Magdeburg / Leipzig 1608
• English: Of the duetie of a faithfull and wise Magistrate in preseruing and deliuering often the common wealth from infection in the time of the plague or pestilence. Written in Latine by Iohn Ewich, ordinary phisition of the woorthie common wealth of Breame, and newlie turned into English by Iohn Stockwood schoolemaister of Tunnbridge. Thomas Drawson, London 1583

• Oratio in qua praeter brevem scholarum commendationem, agitur de vita antiquissimi scriptoris Hippocratis, et nova Philippi Paracelsimi licina. Arnold Wesselius, Bremen 1584
• De officio fidelis et prudentis magistratus tempore pestilentiae rempubl (icam) à contagio praeservandi liberandique libri 2; inscripti olim senatui reip. Bremen. Arend Wesselius, Bremen 1656

Writings on the subject of witches

• De sagarum (quas vulgo veneficas appellant) natura, arte, viribus et factis: item de notis indicisque, quibus agnoscantur: et poena, qua afficiendae sint. Theodor Gluichstein, Bremen 1584 ( historicum.net ), accessed on October 2, 2011

• German: From the witches, who are commonly called sorceress, or in Lower Sixian Töuerschen, nature, art, power and thaaten, item of the symbols because they can be recognized and tightly so that they can be chastised and covered with fairness; With an incorporated explanation of what is to be thought of the essential change and water problem of witches. Dietrich Gloichstein, Bremen 1585

literature

• Christian Gottlieb Jöcher (Hrsg.): Allgemeine Gelehrten-Lexicon. Second part. Johann Friedrich Gleditschen's bookstore, Leipzig 1750, Sp. 451 f. ( Full text in Google Book Search).
• Carl Anton Eduard Lorent : Johann von Ewich, b. 1525, † 1588. In: Biographical sketches of deceased physicians and naturalists from Bremen. A ceremony for the twentieth meeting of German natural scientists and doctors in Bremen. Johann Georg Heyse, Bremen 1844, p. 36 ff. ( Full text in the Google book search).
• Ernst von Oidtman : The gentlemen of Milendonk from the family of the von Mirlaer. In: Journal of the Aachen History Association , 11, 1889, p. 8 ff.
• Robert Cleff: History of the Protestant parish Hörstgen. Festschrift for the inauguration of the rebuilt church on November 4, 1897. Publishing house of the presbytery of the evangelical parish Hörstgen, Hörstgen 1897, p. 6 f.
• Karl Sudhoff : Biographical and literary information on medicine on the Lower Rhine from the 12th to the end of the 18th century. In: Festschrift of the 70th meeting of German natural scientists and doctors, presented by the scientific associations in Düsseldorf. August Bagel, Düsseldorf 1898, p. 25 * ff.
• Gustav C. Knod: Rhineland students in the 16th and 17th centuries at the University of Padua. In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine, in particular the old Archdiocese of Cologne , 68, 1899, p. 168 ( Wikisource )
• Adolf Müller: Documents from the history of the Hörstgen community in the 17th and 18th centuries. In: Theological works from the Rhenish Scientific Preacher Association , New Series VII (1904), p. 104 ff.
• Hermann Keussen (edit.): The register of the University of Cologne. Volume 2 (1476-1559). P. Hansteins Verlag, Bonn 1919, p. 984.
• Wilhelm Haberling : The importance of the Rhinelander for the development of medical science. In: Klinische Wochenschrift , 5, 1926, No. 38, pp. 1740 ff.
• Gerd Dettmann : The Ansgariikirche in Bremen. Bremen 1934.
• Herbert Black Forest : Famous Bremer. Paul List, Munich 1972, p. 51 ff.
• Friedrich Burkart: Johannes Ewich: a Rhenish humanist and doctor 1525–1588. In: Duisburg and the Lower Rhine - 75 years of the Duisburg district group of the West German Society for Family Studies. Duisburg 2002, p. 52 f.
• Klaus Schwarz: The Bremen city doctor Johann von Ewich as the author of plague pamphlets. In: Bremisches Jahrbuch , Volume 72, Bremen 1993, pp. 98 ff.
• Friedhelm Lenz: The beginnings of the parish Hoerstgen. In: Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Hoerstgen (ed.): Christ Lux Nostra - 450 Years Evangelical Church Congregation Hoerstgen. BOSS Druck und Medien, Goch 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-022764-6 , p. 42 ff.
• Martin Koch, Albert Spitzner-Jahn: Johannes Ewich (1525–1588) - reformer in Hoerstgen and city physician in Bremen. In: Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Hoerstgen (ed.): Christ Lux Nostra - 450 Years Evangelical Church Congregation Hoerstgen. BOSS Druck und Medien, Goch 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-022764-6 , p. 78 ff.
• Martin Koch, Albert Spitzner-Jahn: Johannes Ewich (* 1525 in Hoerstgen, † February 7, 1588 in Bremen). In: Michael Basse, Traugott Jähnichen , Harald Schroeter-Wittke (eds.): Protestant profiles in the Ruhr area. 500 life pictures from 5 centuries. Hartmut Spenner, Kamen 2009, ISBN 978-3-89991-092-6 , p. 58 f.

Web links

• Publications by and about Johannes Ewich in VD 16 .
• Publications by and about Johannes Ewich in VD 17 .