Matern Hatten

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Matern Hatten (* around 1470 in Speyer ; † March 14, 1546 in Strasbourg ) was a priest , humanist and supporter of Lutheran teachings.

The Speyer Years (around 1470 to 1527)

Origin and family

Matern Hatten was born in Speyer around 1470, probably the son of Matern von Hatten and his wife Margarethe (?) Ruß. Nothing is known about Matern Hatten's childhood and youth. The origin of his family is not completely certain, but at least on his father's side it can be located in Hatten near Weissenburg in Alsace . She came to Speyer in the 15th century and soon became advisable.

Hatten's mother was born Ruß or Reuss, as he is sometimes called instead of Hatten. Her father was probably Konrad Russ, a citizen of Speyer, who died in June 1479. His son and thus Matern’s mother's likely brother Johannes had been vicar at the cathedral monastery since 1471 and a member of the larger cathedral brotherhood. Presumably, through his mother, Hatten was also related to the vicar Bernhard Russ, who owned one of the two cathedral priests from 1464 to 1495. Matern also had a brother named Valentin who was also a cleric from Speyer.

School education and study

Nothing is known about Hatten's school education. He studied at the renowned University of Leipzig , where he enrolled as Maternus Reuss de Spira in the winter semester of 1496/97 . An academic degree cannot be verified for him.

Vicar in the cathedral monastery

Between 1495 and 1503, Hatten was vicar at the St. Christophorus Altar in the chapel of the same name in the Speyer Cathedral Provosty . From 1504 to 1527 he was one of the four Martinsherren (priest in the St. Martin's Chapel). At the end of November 1526, the Speyer magistrate had given him the vacant chaplain of the Anthonius Altar in the Anthonius Chapel on the grounds of the St. Georgen Hospital, which Hatten gave up two months later. In June 1527, the cathedral chapter raised suspicions of Lutheranism against Hatten and charged them with not having read mass for a while. On July 12, 1527 he was finally suspended from the cathedral chapter because of his Lutheran inclinations and because he had not read mass for some time . A few weeks later he was his benefice against a Vicariate benefice of 1524 had become Lutheran Thomas Church permute in Strasbourg. Until he moved to Strasbourg, he presumably continued to serve as Martin's lord, but certainly only to the extent that it was compatible with Luther's teaching.

Maternus Hattenus alias Reuss as an important link in the humanistic network on the Upper Rhine

Matern Hatten was a central figure in the Speyer humanist circle. In the year of publication he sent the famous Strasbourg humanist Sebastian Brant as a gift a print of a poem by the humanist Adam Werner von Themar, published in Speyer in 1502 . Until 1522, as can be proven, Hatten was in close friendly contact with the great scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam . He had a lifelong, intimate friendship with the Dominican and later Strasbourg reformer Martin Bucer , whom he sheltered in 1520/21 after his escape from the Heidelberg Dominican monastery and helped to dispense with his religious vows. Hatten must also have been good friends with the famous Basel printer and publisher Johannes Froben . The theologians Johannes Brenz and Theobald Billicanus and the Alsatian humanist Johannes Sapidus also belonged to Hatten's circle of friends.

The Strasbourg Years (1527-1546)

Naturalization and vicar at the St. Thomas Church

On August 31, 1527, Matern Hatten acquired Strasbourg citizenship. On September 5, 1527, with the support of Bucer, who had lived and worked in Strasbourg since 1523, he became vicar at the altar of Archangel Michael and all the angels in St. Thomas's Church . In 1534, Hatten published a theological pamphlet by the Italian humanist and poet Giovanni Pierio Valeriano in Johann Albrecht's Strasbourg office . Around 1536/37 Hatten is documented as a village pastor in Westhoffen in Alsace .

Marriage, family and death

Before July 1537, Hatten married Barbara Hager, who immigrated to Strasbourg from Regensburg , who brought her daughter Apollonia into the marriage and gave birth to their son Hieronymus. Apollonia was married to Andreas Ulberger, who practiced the dyeing trade in Speyer. Hieronymus was also a dyer and married a certain Agnes Stock. They had two sons, Philip and Hieronymus. Agnes had died before May 20, 1546. Her husband Jerome survived her by more than two decades. Matern Hatten died on March 14, 1546. After his death, the important reformer and school visitator Caspar Hedio campaigned for the transfer of Hatten's vacant benefices to the poor students of the theological college Collegium Wilhelmitanum, which the Strasbourg magistrate at Hedios's instigation in 1544 in the former Wilhelmitenkloster had founded.

literature

• Sven Gütermann: Matern Hatten - An intellectual life between humanism and Reformation on the Upper Rhine . regional culture publisher, Ubstadt-Weiher 2017, ISBN 978-3-89735-979-6 .
• Sven Gütermann: Materne Hatten - La vie d'un clerc lettré au carrefour de l'Humanisme et de la Réforme en Rhénanie supérieure (Spire from 1470 - † Strasbourg 1546) . regional culture publisher, Ubstadt-Weiher 2018, ISBN 978-3-95505-080-1 .