Johannes Goddaeus (Steinfurt)

Johannes Goddaeus (born as Johann Gödde ) (* in Dortmund ; † 1642 in Steinfurt ) was Professor of Law at the High School in Burgsteinfurt as well as city ​​judge of Burgsteinfurt and Gograf in the Rüschau office .

He was a younger cousin of the eponymous Johannes Goddaeus from Schwerte (1555-1632), who was professor of law in Herborn and Marburg .

The building of the high school Burgsteinfurt

Johannes Goddaeus' house on the market, built in 1614

Origin and years of youth

He was a son of the Dortmund merchant Jakob Gödde and his wife Katharina geb. Rupees. His year of birth is unknown. From 1588 he studied in Marburg , later at the high school in Herborn , where he matriculated in 1592 . Finally, he enrolled in March 1594 to the University of Heidelberg , where he became Doctor of Laws doctorate . Soon afterwards he entered the service of Count Arnold II (IV.) Zu Bentheim-Tecklenburg-Steinfurt (1554-1606) and became court master of his sons.

Judge and professor in Burgsteinfurt

From 1607 to 1640 Goddaeus, who had Latinized his name during his student days according to the fashion of the time , was city judge in Steinfurt , and from 1609 to 1640 he was at the same time gograf in the Rüschau office ; Both offices were taken over by his son Wilhelm Heinrich in 1641.

In 1610 Goddaeus has been called "Professor primarius" one of two successors to the previous after Bentheim law professor Johann Pagenstecher at the Steinfurter High School , the "High School illustrious Arnoldinum". In the following years he also served as vice-rector of the school several times , for example in April – July 1614, 1617/8, 1623/4 and 1633–38 / 39. The Thirty Years 'War had repeated repercussions on the operation of the high school and Goddaeus' activities. In 1633/4 they had to move to Gronau for a time because of the danger of war , and temporarily to Oldenzaal in 1635 . After imperial troops occupied Steinfurt on July 27, 1635, quartered themselves in the school building and plundered the school library, Goddaeus and his colleague Winand Rutgersius successfully tried to buy back most of the books. In 1636/7, Goddaeus and Rutgersius traveled several times to Bentheim on account of the school , as there were disputes between the counts' houses in Bentheim and Tecklenburg . And in July 1641 they traveled to Deventer on school matters , where the school archive had been relocated because of the war.

Johannes Goddaeus died in November 1642. The lavish renaissance house that he had built in 1614 on the market (No. 18) in Steinfurt has been preserved to this day.

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ Also Goeddaeus, Goedaeus, Göddaeus, Gaddaeus and Gaeddaeus.

Web links

• Ingeborg Höting: professors of the high school