Lucas Maius

Lucas Maius (also: Mai, May, Majus ; born October 14, 1522 in Römhild ; † March 4th / 5th, 1598 in Kassel ) was a German Protestant theologian and playwright.

Life

Maius was born in Römhild in 1522 as the son of the Römhild citizen and mill owner Michael May and his wife Martha (née Dörrer). In his early years he moved to Hildburghausen with his parents , as his father was persecuted for his involvement in the Peasants' War . There he finished school in winter, but had to help out with field work in the summer months. He learned a simple profession as a cloth cutter. In 1548 he graduated from the University of Wittenberg , where he attended the lectures of Philipp Melanchthon . In 1549 he traveled to Silesia , Prussia , Poland , Denmark and Holland .

In 1550 he became a schoolmaster and after his marriage in 1551 he became principal of the school in Hildburghausen. Ordained by Johann Stössel in Weimar, Maius took over the substitute for the pastor in Eishausen in 1561 and became pastor there in 1562. After another pastor's position in Weimar in 1565 , he acquired the academic degree of a master's degree in philosophy at the University of Jena in 1567 . In 1568 he became senior pastor in Rudolstadt, and in autumn 1575 he went to the church of our dear women in Halle (Saale) as senior pastor and superintendent . In that position he signed the formula of the Concord in Wolmirstedt, but was suspected of being a cryptocalvinist .

He had made himself suspicious in an ubiquistic dispute about the articles of the person of Christ because of some statements against the concord formula and was then interrogated by the administrator of the Magdeburg Archbishopric, Joachim Friedrich von Brandenburg . Since he no longer saw any prospects for himself in Halle, he let himself be dismissed from his employment, changed to Reformed faith and in 1579 accepted a position as second pastor in the old town of Kassel . There he rose to be the first pastor and was court preacher to Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse .

Maius also appeared as a comedy writer and playwright with the work On the Strange Union of Divine Justice and Mercy . He also has the Paedagogia Christiana by Nikolaus Selnecker translated.

family

From his marriage on January 13, 1551, to the daughter of the mayor of Rodach Dorothea Schmuck († April 9, 1560 in Hildburghausen), he had 6 children. He concluded his second marriage on October 4, 1561 in Hildburghausen with Barbara Kirch (* 1540 there; January 20, 1608 in Kassel). From that marriage there were 12 children. The children are known:

1. Nicolaus, became a councilor in Magdeburg
2. Jonas
3. Paul
4. Lucas (born July 7, 1571 in Rudolstadt) pastor in Kassel
5. Rebecca; mated June 12, 1592 in Kassel's old town with Johannes Meurer Schwarzburgischer Kanzleiverwandter in Rudolstadt
6. Sybilla (* 1575) m. 1598 Hermann Fabronius
7. Maria
8. Andreas
9. Eckbrecht (* 1581) conf. 1592 in Kassel old town, d. 1652, married. with Elisabeth Cothmann
10. Johann (born December 6, 1599 in Kassel, mother 59 years old? † March 15, 1640 ibid) pastor in Kassel
11. Daughter NN married with Caspar Lotz

literature

• Oskar Hütteroth: The old Hessen pastors of the Reformation period. NG Elwert, 1966, p. 217
• Wilhelm Scherer:  Maius, Lucas . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, p. 124 f.
• Wilhelm Kosch: German Literature Lexicon. Francke, Bern / Munich 1966, ISBN 3-317-01539-X , Vol. 10, p. 245
• Veronika Albrecht-Birkner : Pastors book of the church province of Saxony. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 978-3-374-02137-6 , p. 503
• Majus, Lucas, born in the Graffschaft Henneberg. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 19, Leipzig 1739, columns 660-668.
• Lupold von Lehsten: The Hessian Reichstag Envoy in the 17th and 18th Century. Hessian Historical Commission, Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-88443-091-2
• Ralf Böckmann:  Mai, Lucas (May, Maius). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 32, Bautz, Nordhausen 2011, ISBN 978-3-88309-615-5 , Sp. 907-911.
• Ralf Böckmann: Theater on the Weser. A catalog raisonné of the drama in the Weser area from 1500 to 1650 Verlag Traugott Bautz GmbH, Nordhausen 2011, ISBN 978-3-88309-666-7 , pp. 206ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
Sebastian Boetius	Senior Pastor at the Marktkirche Our Dear Women 1575–1579	Johannes Olearius