Johannes Ligarius

Johannes Ligarius, also Bender (* 1529 in Nesse ; † January 21, 1596 in Norden ) was a Lutheran theologian, reformer and confessionalist.

Life

Ligarius attended the Latin school in Emden and went to study via Magdeburg to Wittenberg , where he was matriculated on January 1, 1547. When he returned to his homeland in 1556 after many years of study, he took over the parish of Uphusen after a short stay in Hage . The denominational struggle was in full swing when he was called north in 1559. When he was deposed in 1564 because of the quarrel in the pulpit, the chief Eger Houwerda summoned him to Wolthusen in what is now Emden.

In 1566 Ligarius went to Antwerp , where he, together with Hermann Hamelmann , Matthias Flacius and Cyriakus Spangenberg , took care of the establishment of a Lutheran congregation and worked on the "Confessie often confessions ... in the kerke in Antwerp" and as one of six preachers in the Community worked. For a short time Ligarius was field preacher in the army of William of Orange , then he returned to East Frisia and worked in his home village.

In 1577 Count Edzard II appointed him as court preacher in Aurich . This office, which became more and more important, he fulfilled until 1585. He advocated the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper . With his work “Isagoge ad concordantiam in controversia de coena domini” he sought to achieve a balance between the opposites. He was supported by Württemberg . The reasons for his dismissal are unclear, because his successor was Gottfried Heßhusen, who continued the line of the Gnesiolutherans .

Ligarius worked for a short time in Woerden in the Netherlands , then he retired to Emden and dealt with exegetical studies . Soon he was expelled from Emden due to theological disputes and turned to the north, where he died. The East Frisian Lutheranism owes its firm stamp to him, e.g. B. by creating a new order of worship, the Engerhafer liturgy .

literature

• Jacob Cornelis van Slee :  Ligarius, Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, p. 641 f.
• Menno Smid:  Ligarius, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 547 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Erika Bosl:  LIGARIUS, Johannes. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 54-55.
• W. Weerts: History of the Protestant Churches of East Frisia . Emden 1859.
• JW Pont. Nieuwe bijdragen tot know van de Geschiedenis en het wezen van het Lutheranisme in de Nederlanden . 6, 1915, pp. 35-45.
• H. Garrelts: Johannes Ligarius . Emden 1915.
• HK Hesse: Menso Alting . Berlin 1928.
• JW Pont: De Lutherske Kerken in Nederland . Amsterdam 1929
• M. Smid: Ostfriesische Kirchengeschichte (Volume 6 of the series Ostfriesland in the protection of the dike ), Verlag Rautenberg, Leer 1974, page 213.