Melchior Nicolai

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Melchior Nicolai on a painting by Conrad Melperger in the Tübingen Professorengalerie

Melchior Nicolai (* December 4 or 14, 1578 in Schorndorf ; † August 13, 1659 in Stuttgart ) was a theologian, consistorial councilor and provost .

Live and act

Melchior Nicolai was the son of Melcher Nicolai, a court relative in Schorndorf, and his wife Ursula Nicolai, geb. Saddler. After the untimely death of his mother, he was brought up carefully by his stepmother and, because of his talent, was appointed to study theology. Because of his poor health, among other things, his parents apprenticed him to a related baker in Herrenberg, but he soon returned to the career he had striven for, to which he was excellently suited.

He studied in Tübingen and received his master's degree there on February 15, 1598 as the first among 50 contemporaries . He had a very good knowledge of Latin and Greek and was familiar with the natural sciences , especially astronomy . After completing his studies, he became vicar in accordance with the Württemberg custom, namely in Adelberg with Lucas Osiander the Elder , later a deacon in Waiblingen . After five years he took over the pastoral position in Stetten (Kernen im Remstal) , where he had to fight against Anabaptist sects, and then after 10 years became dean in Marbach am Neckar .

In 1619 he was appointed to Tübingen as an associate professor of theology in Hiemer's place. At first he had difficulties with the other members of the faculty, who were involved in a heated argument with the Giessen theological faculty over the doctrine of the person of Christ. His subordinate position seemed unworthy to him and he was attacked in sermons. For its part, the faculty, which treated its special Württemberg orthodoxy as a matter of honor, accused him of showing affection for the views of Balthasar Mentzer , and even accused him of “gross Calvinian and Nestorian errors”.

In repeated conferences Nicolai declared that he wanted to keep his views to himself, but the disputes, which also came to the ears of the strictly orthodox Duke Johann Friedrich , meant that Nicolai should be transferred to the Anhausen prelature in 1621. At the request of the Senate for the badly affected colleague, the Duke withdrew his resolution, Nicolai gave up all resistance and became a valiant supporter of his fellow faculty. Nevertheless, he was promoted to Lorch (Württemberg) as prelate in 1625 and to Adelberg in 1628. In 1629 he had to vacate the monastery after the edict of restitution .

In 1631 he was appointed full professor in Tübingen in the place of Theodor Thumm . He showed all his manliness during the terrible events to which the city and university were exposed during the Thirty Years War , especially after the Battle of Nördlingen . Against the Jesuits , with whom he often had to share a pulpit, he fearlessly and skillfully defended the evangelical doctrine, even personal abuse, which he had to endure because of this ("an ungodly wargurgel tortured him badly with fist and sword drawn") discouraged him Not. He deserves the fame that without him the Evangelical Monastery in Tübingen, of which he was superintendent , would have collapsed.

In 1632 he became rector and in 1639 vice chancellor of the University of Tübingen. In 1649 he was appointed consistorial councilor and provost to Stuttgart. He held this ecclesiastical office for nine years, after a short illness he died on August 13, 1659 and was buried on August 16, 1659 in the collegiate church.

family

In 1608 he married Katharina Detz called Nutzbeck († 1631). In 1632 he married Margarethe Thumm, the widow of his former colleague Thumm.

Fonts

His main dogmatic writing was directed against the Giessener: “Consideratio quatuor quaestionum controversiarum de profundissima κενώσει Dom. Jesu Christi. ” (Tübingen 1622. Second edition 1676). Against the Jesuit attacks on the Reformation and on Martin Luther he wrote: "Symbolum Lutheranum" (Tübingen 1624).

reception

In his writings he is characterized by the dialectical dexterity he acquired in the study of Aristotle. His theological writings were mostly polemical because of the zeitgeist and its peculiarity: "against all whispers and heretics against papists, Calvinists and Anabaptists", wrote his biographer, "he defended the true religion".

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Nicolai, Melchior
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lutheran theologian, consistorial councilor and provost
DATE OF BIRTH December 4, 1578 or December 14, 1578
PLACE OF BIRTH Schorndorf
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 1659
Place of death Stuttgart