Mauritius Rachel

Mauritius Rachel , also Moritz (born January 13, 1594 in Malchow , † January 5, 1637 in Lunden ) was a German pastor and poet.

Live and act

Mauritius Rachel was a son of the alderman and chamberlain in Malchow Joachim Rachel († probably before 1613) and his wife Margareta († 1614/15). Her father was the Malchow pastor Martin Bambam.

Rachel probably went to the Katharineum in Lübeck and enrolled in December 1613 to study theology at the University of Rostock . Due to the death of his parents, he had to finish his studies as soon as possible. The following year Christian Schlee gave him a job as cantor at the Husum Latin School .

In Husum , Rachel was supported by Duchess Augusta von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf . She lived as a widow in Husum Castle and occasionally offered him the opportunity to preach in the castle chapel. She also promised him to pay for the continuation of his studies. Since Rachel had to support his four younger brothers living with him, he was unable to take this opportunity. Augusta von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf therefore asked her court preacher Jacob Fabricius the Younger to propose Rachel as the deacon of Lunden. Fabricius' younger brother Philipp, who had changed to the pastorate, had previously held this position. Rachel then gave a trial sermon and got the position as a deacon. When Philipp Fabricius died two years later, he took over the position of pastor that had become vacant and which he would hold until the end of his life. As a strict Lutheran , he took part in conflicts over Nicolaus Teting and Hartwig Lohmann .

Works

Rachel wrote poetry that was only distributed as occasional prints. Nevertheless, he was a famous neo-Latin poet in northern Germany. Probably because of these works he was appointed Poeta laureatus and was able to do his master's degree in 1620 with Johann Lauremberg . In contrast to the majority of neo-Latin poets of his time, Rachel was also interested in German poetry. Probably for this reason he was in contact with Johannes Rist .

In the form of independent prints of Rachel exist several sermons and a writing with which he defended Johann Arndt . A funeral sermon to the wife of a governor from 1624 has been preserved. In this he said about the deceased that she was known to be generally greedy and that there had been a quarrel in the family.

family

Rachel married a woman named Margareta on May 4, 1617, who died after October 6, 1667. She was a daughter of the Husum citizen Martin Tetens. From this marriage three daughters and four sons were born. They included the satirist Joachim Rachel , their son Martin (* 1623), who worked as a land clerk for Norderdithmarschen in Lunden, and the lawyer and statesman Samuel Rachel .

Rachel placed several relatives in various offices, probably due to his contacts with Augusta von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf and Jacob Fabricius:

• The cousin Joachim Rachel got a position as rector in Husum in 1624.
• His younger brother Joachim worked as a cantor in Lunden.
• The brother Samuel (1603–1666) initially worked as a cantor in Tondern , then as rector in Lunden and from 1629 as pastor in St. Annen.
• The brother Franz succeeded his brother as rector in Lunden around 1630 and became a deacon in Tellingstedt in 1637 .

Thus the Rachel family settled in Norderdithmarschen.

literature

• Dieter Lohmeier: Rachel, Mauritius . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 6 - 1982. ISBN 3-529-02646-8 , pages 233-235.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal

Web links

• Literature about Mauritius Rachel in the Landesbibliographie MV