Johannes Pistorius the Younger

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Johannes Pistorius the Younger, contemporary engraving
Pistorius Medal from 1584. Transcription (translation): Johannes Pistorius from Nidda at the age of 39

Johannes Pistorius (the younger) , also Latinized (Iohannes Pistorius) Niddanus after his place of birth (born February 14, 1546 in Nidda / Hessen ; † June 19, 1608 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German doctor , historian and Catholic theologian in the Time of confessionalization .

Life

Pistorius' father was the Protestant reformer of Hesse, Johannes Pistorius the Elder , his mother Margaretha (* February 1, 1516; † May 24, 1560) was the daughter of Konrad Schreiber, writer for the city of Nidda in the Wetterau . In 1555 he lost all of his siblings during a plague epidemic.

Pistorius the Younger attended the Latin School of Nidda and studied law and medicine in Marburg , Wittenberg , Tübingen , Padua , Paris and finally again in Marburg from 1559 to 1567 . In 1567 he was promoted to Dr. jur. and on June 11 in Marburg MD PhD . In the same year he married Catharina geb. Mayer, with whom he had eight children, four of whom reached adulthood. The couple lived in Frankfurt am Main from 1568 and in Worms until 1575 , where Pistorius practiced as a doctor. In 1575 Margrave Karl II of Baden-Durlach appointed him his personal physician and historiographer. Pistorius moved to Durlach . He also became Karl's adviser on political and theological issues. Karl died in 1577. The second oldest living son, Jakob III. , the region of Baden-Hachberg . He made Pistorius his privy councilor in 1584 .

In 1583 Johannes Pistorius the Elder died, in 1585 Johannes the Younger's wife Catharina. The son inherited his father's large library with many archives on the history of the Reformation . The solidification of the Reformation idea after the introduction of the concord formula on the one hand and the optimistic mood in the Catholic Church after the Tridentinum on the other hand prompted him to convert from the Lutheran confession to Catholicism in 1588 (after that he devoted himself only to spiritual functions). The Margrave Jacob III. On his initiative, called religious talks in Baden (1589) and Emmendingen (1590). After the second dispute, the court preacher Johannes Zehender and the margrave himself converted to the Catholic creed. The 28-year-old Jakob III. died on August 17, 1590 as a result of arsenic poisoning . His successor was his Protestant brother Ernst Friedrich von Baden .

Johannes Pistorius as a Catholic priest

Pistorius had to leave the court and moved to Offenburg. After 1589 he went to Freiburg im Breisgau, where he bought a house in the suburb of Neuburg , studied theology from 1590 to 1591 , received his doctorate from the theological faculty and became a priest in 1592, and until 1594 Vicar General of the Diocese of Constance , where he founded the Jesuit College in 1592 would have. In the dispute over the occupation of Upper Baden , in 1595, he submitted the compromise proposal that the Lutheran Margrave Ernst Friedrich von Baden-Durlach, as imperial commissioner, should keep the occupied area for around 28 years while invoking certain secular and spiritual conditions, in order to compensate for the outstanding claims his cousin, the Catholic Margrave Eduard Fortunat of Baden-Baden . It was a quarrel within the House of Baden , in which dynastic and denominational differences dangerously intertwined. The compromise proposal was unsuccessful: however, it is remarkable how Pistorius foresaw future calamities - the Thirty Years' War - when he wrote to the Catholic Bavarian Duke Wilhelm V (from Latin): “ If the use of force were used, seeds would become unimaginable between the imperial majesty and the Lutherans Scattered discord. Then a war, unimaginably terrible in its proportions, would be kindled such as has not existed since the memory of the father. "

In the following years he was imperial councilor, provost of the Cathedral of Breslau , apostolic notary and from 1601 confessor of Emperor Rudolph II. At the suggestion of Duke Charles III. of Lorraine and with the consent of the emperor, he directed an exorcism for the mentally ill Duke Johann Wilhelm von Jülich-Kleve-Berg in 1605 , which however did not bring about the hoped-for cure. Pistorius died of Marasmus in Freiburg on June 19, 1608 and was buried in the church of the Augustinian monastery . His library came into the possession of the Jesuits of Molsheim and, after the French Revolution, in the theological Grand Seminaire in Strasbourg .

The Pistoriusbrückle in Emmendingen has been commemorating, among other things, his services to becoming a town in 1590 since 1998.

A witch trial in Freiburg

Between 1599 and 1603, 25 women were executed as witches in Freiburg , the last in August 1603 was the laundress Ursula Gatter from Waldkirch . This had a subsequent problem for the city and the university.

Freiburg City Archives: Research assignment and results

Ursula Gatter had a 14-year-old daughter Agatha Gatter . The girl admitted that "it wasn’t only for ten times that witches met with an intended mother of his, but that God and his saints were denied and that the evil spirit had been seduced by the evil spirit on two different occasions". A lawyer at the university recommended that Agatha should be imprisoned up to the age of 16, but then, if the suspicion of witchcraft persisted, "with a benevolent or embarrassing inquisition through the ordeal and after finding out the wrongdoing administer and exequire the beloved iustitiam" .

On November 17th, Pistorius told the city council that he wanted to interrogate the girl again. As a doctor and lawyer, he felt compelled to take the confession to the point of absurdity. Jury midwives and women should examine the girl. Three days later, the council representative Jacob Keder reported the result. The girl was “pardoned, the strict legal arrogance and with the advice of the legal and spiritual special mr. Johann Pistory ... a frawen are hired for breeding and costing in Constantz. ... pulled away from here on Monday, January 12th anno 1604. "

Pistorius' intervention continued: In the following seven years there was no more witch burning in Freiburg.

Fonts (selection)

Theological writings

His numerous writings against Protestantism, against Luther and contemporary evangelical controversial theologians are equally characterized by enormous specialist knowledge and thorough knowledge of the printed works of Luther as well as archival documented church history during the Reformation. They are characterized by clarity in their argumentation and, if provoked, by sharpness and even polemics.

So Pistorius published a detailed report on the conversion of Margrave Jakob III: Jakobs Marggrafen zu Baden ... Christian, substantial and wolfundirte motifs (Cologne, 1591). Other important writings are:

  • Anatomia Lutheri. Cologne, 1595–1598.
  • Most important marks of the old and new faith. Munster 1599.
  • Guide to all deceived Christians. Munster 1599.

Pistorius was heavily attacked. His opponents included Lucas Osiander the Elder , Jacob Heerbrand , Johann Jakob Grynaeus , Jakob Andreae , Johannes Pappus , Aegidius Hunnius the Elder , Cyriacus Spangenberg , Samuel Huber and Christoph Agricola . Theologians from Wittenberg and Hessen wrote responses to the Anatomia Lutheri .

Historical writings

Pistorius also dealt with studies of Kabbalah and published the Artis cabbalisticæ, he reconditæ theologiæ et philosophiæ scriptorum tomus unus (Basel, 1587). As the court historian of the Margrave of Baden, he examined the genealogy of the princes of Zähringen and brought two works with historical sources into circulation: Polonicæ historiæ corpus, ie Polonicarum rerum latini veteres et recentiores scriptores quotquot exstant (Basel 1582), in which book also that of Aeneus Sylvius (later Pope) written history of Polonia, Lithuania & Prussia sive Borussia, as well as Martin Cromer's Polonia is included. Then he wrote Rerum Germanicarum veteres jam primum publicati scriptores aliquot insignes medii ævi ad Carolum V (Frankfurt am Main, 1583-1607). A manuscript Collectanea Badensia, from which Johannes Gamans made extracts, has been lost since the 17th century. Letters from him to Franz Guillimann have survived .

Medical writings

As a nine-year-old Johannes in Nidda experienced the death of his five siblings from the plague within only 19 days . Perhaps that is why he chose De vera curandae pestis ratione as the subject of his dissertation, printed in Frankfurt am Main in 1568. What is the plague, what are its causes, what are its symptoms, how can one avoid the "breath of the plague", does bloodletting make sense - these are some of his questions. He insists not to take over ancient authors like Galen without looking, but to judge according to new knowledge like the anatomy of Andreas Vesalius and from his own observation. Ignorance of the inside of the body is, for example, bleaching the vein with symptoms on the right side of the body on the right arm, with symptoms on the left side of the body on the left arm. Even in concrete terms, Pistorius does not get past his time - the plague arises from poisonous fumes, miasms : He opens medicine to critical empiricism.

Further medical writings appeared later: Daemonomania Pistoriana, magica et caballistica morborum curandorum ratio (Lauingen 1601), Consilium antipodagricum (Halberstadt 1659).

His reports about the poisoning of Jacob III are unique.

  • Pistorius and forensic medicine

  • Title page of Pistorius' protocol of the section

  • Page 63: Jacob's organs were healthy ( totum corpus affectum optime ) ...

  • Page 64: ... with the exception of the stomach, where the poison adhered ( ubi venenum adhaeserat ).

He was present during the brief illness, characterized by cholera-like diarrhea , and had autopsied the margrave together with two professors from the Freiburg Medical Faculty . The medical history and the autopsy protocol are very precise and, in retrospect, allow a reliable diagnosis: Arsenic poisoning. It was one of the first forensic autopsies in Germany and the first to be carried out by Freiburg professors.

literature

  • Wilhelm Gaß :  Pistorius, Johannes (humanist) . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, pp. 199-201.
  • Hans-Jürgen Günther: Johannes Pistorius, Hanns Bär and the Herbolzheimer coat of arms . Herbolzheim 1991.
  • Hans-Jürgen Günther: The Reformation and its children. Father and son Johannes Pistorius Niddanus - a double biography . In: Niddaer Geschichtsblätter . Issue 2, Nidda 1994, ISBN 3-9803915-1-5 (contains a list of all Pistorius writings).
  • Hans-Jürgen Günther: Dr. Johannes Pistorius (1546–1608) - A doctor, humanist and theologian shaped Baden history . In: Arbeitskreis für Stadtgeschichte Baden-Baden (Ed. :) AQUAE ., Baden-Baden 1995, pp. 37–70.
  • Hans-Jürgen Günther, Louis Schlaefli: Libraryography of the books from the former library of Johannes Pistorius, which can be found in the Grand Séminaire in Strasbourg . A: Catalog according to the Strasbourg library regulations , 31 pages; B: Catalog by authors , 35 pages; C: Catalog by year of publication of the books , 36 p., Emmendingen 1995.
  • Hans-Jürgen Günther: Johannes Pistorius Niddanus d. J. - humanist, doctor, historian, politician and theologian (1546–1608) . In: Life pictures from Baden-Württemberg . 19. Vol. 109-145, Stuttgart 1998.
  • Hans-Jürgen Günther: Pistorius . In: Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3rd edition, Vol. 8, Freiburg 1999, pp. 319f.
  • Hans-Jürgen Günther:  Pistorius, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 486 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Hans-Jürgen Günther: J. Pistorius Niddanus, father and son. Two Nidda personalities in the century of Reformation and Catholic reform . In: NIDDA. The history of a city and its surroundings . Nidda 2003, pp. 123-134.
  • Hans-Jürgen Günther: Margrave Jacob III. von Baden (1562–1590) - A denominational conflict and its victims . In: Freiburg Diocesan Archive , Volume 126, 2006, pp. 201–269
  • Hans-Jürgen Günther: Pistorius, Johannes d. J. In: Killy Literature Lexicon . Vol. 9, Berlin 2011, pp. 248f.
  • Rudolf Reinhardt:  PISTORIUS, Johannes. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 7, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-048-4 , Sp. 649-651.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Ernst Julius Gurlt , August Hirsch . Biographical lexicon of the outstanding doctors of all times and peoples. Volume 4, p. 578.
  • Andreas Mettenleiter : Testimonials, memories, diaries and letters from German-speaking doctors. Supplements and supplements III (I – Z). In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 22, 2003, pp. 269-305, here: pp. 284 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rolf Heyers: Dr. Georg Marius, called Mayer von Würzburg (1533-1606). (Dental) medical dissertation Würzburg 1957, p. 32.
  2. ↑ see Günther 1995a, p. 61.
  3. ↑ Cf. Emil Pauls: The Exorcism to Duke Johann Wilhelm von Jülich 1604 and 1605 . In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine in particular the Old Archdiocese of Cologne 63 (1897), pp. 27–53 ( digitized version of the University and State Library in Düsseldorf).
  4. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Günther: Courageous against the witch craze. In: Badische Zeitung from June 17, 2008.
  5. ↑ John Pistorius Aeneus Sylvius Polonia, Lithuania, Prussia, p.1, and Martin Cromer p.74, Basel 1582
  6. ^ Franz Joseph Mone, Sources on Baden History , Volume 1
  7. ^ Rolf Heyers: Dr. Georg Marius, called Mayer von Würzburg (1533-1606). (Dental) medical dissertation Würzburg 1957, p. 118 f.
  8. ^ Rolf Heyers: Dr. Georg Marius, called Mayer von Würzburg (1533-1606). (Dental) medical dissertation Würzburg 1957, p. 119.
  9. ↑ Johannes Pistorius: Warhaffte short description (of the last illness ... of Jacobs Margrafens zu Baden). Caspar Behem, Mainz 1590. (online)
  10. ↑ Johannes Pistorius: De vita et morte illustrissimi sanctissimique principis et domini D. Iacobi… orationes duae. Gervinus Calenius and heirs of Johannes Quentel, Cologne 1591.
personal data
SURNAME Pistorius, John the Younger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Niddanus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German controversial theologian and historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1546
PLACE OF BIRTH Nidda , Hesse
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1608
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau