Johannes Kessler (theologian)

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Johannes Kessler , Latinized Ahenarius (* around 1502 in St. Gallen ; † March 7, 1574 there ) was a Reformed theologian , reformer and chronicler .

Life

Little is known about Johannes Kessler's first years of life. What is certain is that he came from a simple bourgeois but poor background and was soon destined for the clergy. In 1521 he studied at the University of Basel , where he followed Martin Luther's teaching during the decisive years of the Reformation . He had met Erasmus von Rotterdam in Basel . This influence led him to go to Wittenberg in 1522 . His report about the meeting with Luther in knight armor from the Wartburg in the inn "zum Bären" in Jena has become famous . With the help of letters of recommendation to his compatriots, the brothers Hieronymus and Augustin Schurff in Wittenberg, he was soon able to establish personal relationships with the reformers there. He owed a lot to Philipp Melanchthon during this time .

After his return home, he was unable to be ordained a priest. He also took up no other learned profession, but began an apprenticeship as a saddler. As a master, he was asked by his guild members from New Year's Day in 1524 to give them biblical lectures. In this way he came to interpret First John and Romans .

Council and citizens approved his undertaking and stood by him. Since the Diet , following the rumor that a preacher had appeared in St. Gallen, seriously warned the council to intervene, Kessler had to hold back for a while. He stood far from the Anabaptists without condemning them.

In his leisure hours, the master saddler Kessler wrote a chronicle-like report, which he called Sabbata and in which he provides detailed information on the events of the Swiss Reformation from 1519 to 1539. Since he was valued as a preacher, he was drawn back to church work from 1525 on. He later wrote a biography about his friend Joachim von Watt , the Vita Joachimi Vadiani, which in turn was copied by his friend Johannes Rütiner .

In times of excitement, he was also benevolent towards those who thought differently and took a moderate theological standpoint. After Watts' death he had to take over part of his work. As synod writer and chairman, he endeavored to consolidate the Reformation character in the Church of St. Gallen, where he was still active for two decades.

Johannes Kessler is an ancestor of the banker Adolf Wilhelm Kessler and his son, the writer and pacifist Harry Graf Kessler .

Fonts

  • Emil Egli, Rudolf Schoch (ed.): Johannes Kessler's Sabbata. With smaller writings and letters. St. Gallen / Zurich 1902.
  • Traugott Schiess (ed.): Johannes Kessler's "Sabbata". St. Gallen Reformation Chronicle 1523–1539. Leipzig 1911.
  • Wilhelm Ehrenzeller (Ed.): From Johannes Kessler's Sabbata. St. Gallen 1945.
  • Ernst Goetzinger (Ed.): Johannes Kessler's Sabbata. Chronicle of the years 1523–1539. St. Gallen 1866–1868.
  • Ernst Goetzinger (Ed.): Joachimi Vadiani Vita, German. The life of Joachim von Watt. St. Gallen 1865.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Emil Egli: Swiss Reformation History , Volume 1, Zürcher and Furrer, Zurich 1910, page 344
personal data
SURNAME Kessler, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ahenarius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Reformed theologian, reformer and chronicler
DATE OF BIRTH around 1502
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Gallen
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1574
Place of death St. Gallen