Justus Jonas the Younger

Justus Jonas the Younger (born December 3, 1525 in Wittenberg , † June 28, 1567 in Copenhagen ) was a lawyer and diplomat.

Life

As a child, Jonas was associated with Martin Luther's children . He showed excellent skills early on. That is why he was accepted into the university in 1530 as the son of his father, Justus Jonas the Elder, who was elected rector . In 1539 he received the Baccalaureate . In 1542 Philipp Melanchthon took care of him . He accompanied him to Cologne in 1543 and met Kaspar Hedio in Bonn . In 1544 he acquired the degree of licentiate in law . Initially, the father was proud of his son's rapid progress. Jonas tried to find a job at the French court in 1547, but failed because of an illness. When the old Jonas left Halle, the younger Jonas stayed there. Captured by the ideas of the sacramentarians , he briefly turned away from Luther's teaching. It was not until Sebastian Boetius intervened in 1551 that he turned back to the Lutheran religious community. In 1553 he married the daughter of a pan (salt maker) Martha Hausner from Halle. Because Jonas took his wife's entire family to live with him, he got into financial difficulties.

In those years the young Jonas also had arguments with his father, which Philipp Melanchthon was able to mediate. These arguments must have been quite intense. A Nordhausen chronicle writes about this: “Just as Adam produced a Cain , just as Isaac produced an Esau and David produced an Absalom, so our pious theologian also had a son who, although he had the father's name, had a very different sense of humor and temperament always treated his father disdainfully ”. Since both are said to have rhetorical skills, the argument will probably have been quite violent. A statement that the young Jonas is said to have pulled the older one out of bed by the beard in the sacrament controversy is likely to be rejected in the realm of legends.

Soon after his wedding, the young Jonas took up another degree and in 1560 obtained a doctorate in law in Leipzig . This earned him a lecture position at the University of Wittenberg in 1561, with the prospect of a professorship. Since he received 50 guilders for the position, there were disagreements. Jonas wanted to represent a new teaching method and did not meet with approval due to his self-confident demeanor. Although he was able to gather a number of students, he was denied the title of professor.

Since he had already accumulated considerable debts, he went to the Dresden court to act as envoy of the Elector August . At the same time, however, he continued to work for his former employers and, in 1564, was employed by the Ernestine Duke Johann Friedrich the Middle . This was politically very explosive. Since the division of Leipzig in 1485 there have been two Saxon territories, an Albertine and an Ernestine part. The two dynastic lines faced each other in constant political competition, which intensified when after the Schmalkaldic War the electoral dignity passed to the Albertines and the Ernestine territory not only lost large parts of its territory, but also lost political importance.

So he went to the service of various sovereigns. Although he had revoked the doctrine of the sacramentarians in Halle, he represented the Calvinist doctrine at the court of Duke Johann Albrechts of Mecklenburg . The Wismar superintendent Johannes Freder sent the younger Jonas in 1557 writings by Joachim Westphal , which the latter had written in defense of the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper against Calvin. They made no impression on him with his Calvinist attitude. On the contrary, he reported to Freder that Calvin had asked him to translate his book into German.

Justus Jonas was temporarily imprisoned by the Saxon Elector because of his work for various sovereigns, which was not authorized by Elector August, and was only released on condition that he be available to August at any time. Jonas, however, went to the Ernestine Duke and had him send him to an embassy in Sweden . It was about a war alliance between the Ernestine and Sweden against the emperor and Denmark , in particular about financial support from Sweden. The background was the so-called Grumbachian Handel .

The Ernestine Duke Johann Friedrich the Middle had the knight William of Grumbach , about the imperial imperial ban , granted refuge was imposed. Thereupon the Saxon elector August besieged the Ernestine Gotha in order to enforce the imperial ban on behalf of the emperor. At the same time he was concerned with securing the newly acquired electoral dignity and his position vis-à-vis the Ernestine duke. Johann Friedrich the Middle was defeated in this conflict. Justus Jonas, who was caught in a storm on his way back from Sweden with his ship and had to enter a Danish port, was captured there and executed in Copenhagen on June 28, 1567 at the instigation of the Saxon Elector August.

literature

• Siegfried Bräuer (Ed.): Justus Jonas. Contributions to the 500th anniversary of his birthday . City Archives, Nordhausen 1993.
• Walter Friedensburg : History of the University of Wittenberg . Niemeyer, Halle / Saale 1917.
• Martin Schellbach: Justus Jonas . Lichtweg-Verlag, Essen 1941.
• Walter Delius : Life and Teaching. Justus Jonas 1493–1555 . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1952.
• Ulrike Ludwig: The former Canzley and Probstey in Wittenberg published by the Wittenberg Health and Conference Center in 2005
• Heinz Scheible : Melanchthon's correspondence persons 12. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 2005, ISBN 3-7728-2258-4
• Ernst Wülcker :  Jonas, Justus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, pp. 494-497.
• Helmar Junghans : Directory of the rectors, vice-rectors, deans, professors and castle church preachers of Leucorea from the summer semester 1536 to the winter semester 1574/75. In: Irene Dingel and Günther Wartenberg : Georg Major (1502–1574). A theologian of the Wittenberg Reformation. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3374023320