Olaus Petri

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Olaus Petri statue in front of the Storkyrkan in Stockholm's Gamla Stan

Olaus Petri (also Olavus Petri or Olav / Olof Pettersson , born January 6, 1493 in Örebro , Sweden , † April 19, 1552 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish theologian and reformer .

Life

Olaus Petri is - next to his brother Laurentius and Laurentius Andreae - the real reformer of Sweden. Like his younger brother, he was born in Örebro, the son of a blacksmith . He received his training in Uppsala , Leipzig and Wittenberg . In Wittenberg he studied 1516–1518 a. a. with Martin Luther ; He witnessed the posting of the theses on site.

As a Magister he returned to Sweden and became secretary of the Bishop of Strängnäs and Chancellor Matthias Gregorii (or Gregersson). In 1520 he was an eyewitness to the Stockholm bloodbath , to which his employer also fell victim. In the same year he received the ordination as a deacon and worked as such in Strängnäs . Petri was already preaching Reformation there. Despite a church ban against Olaus and his brother Laurentius Petri by the archbishop in Uppsala , thanks to the protection of Gustav I. Wasa, who was elected king in Strängnäs in 1523, they were able to continue preaching in the Reformation.

In 1524 Petri became city secretary and preacher in the St. Nicolai Church . Petri was the most important engine of the Reformation in Sweden in the 1520s. The royal toleration and promotion of the Reformation made it possible for Olaus Petri to marry in February 1525. In doing so, he followed the example of the first Finnish reformer Peter Särkilahti , who had already entered into a marriage during his studies in Wittenberg (before 1522). In 1526 he was involved in the publication of a translation of the New Testament.

After the Reformation Reichstag in Västerås in 1527, he wrote a series of writings that should consolidate the reforms. Among them were a booklet with chants , a postil and a pastoral letter to the pastors in the country. In 1528 he gave the sermon on the coronation of the king, which was printed as En Christelighen formaning til Sweriges inbyggiare . Based on the model of the Lutheran German Mass, he worked out the Then swenska messan 1531 service order. He also participated in the complete translation of the Bible, which appeared in 1541 as the Gustav Wasa Bible .

In 1531, King made Olaus Petri Chancellor of the Empire against his will, but let him return to his theological activities in 1533. Olaus Petri disapproved of the ruthless looting of the churches by the king and the royal pursuit of unrestricted power over the Swedish church . The conflict between the king and the reformer culminated in the death sentence of Olaus Petri and Laurentius Andreae in 1539–40. The sentence was later commuted to a heavy fine. He was later pardoned and appointed pastor again.

Around 1530 he wrote the Chronicle En swensk crönika , which treated the Middle Ages critically. The suspicious Gustav Wasa saw it as an indirect criticism of himself and caused it not to be printed. It was not printed until 1818. His domar regulator , a guide for judges, was used a lot from the beginning; they formed the basis for the first all-Swedish legislation in 1734 and are still part of the collections of laws today. His Tobie Comedia (a dramatization of the apocryphal book Tobit ), published in 1550, is considered the first Swedish play.

In 1549 Petri was appointed to the commission for the appraisal of the Augsburg interim . After his death he was buried in the Storkyrkan . In front of the church there is now a statue created by Theodor Lundberg in 1896 .

There are many legends and historical stories about the person of Olaus Petri. It is reported that when his father died he threw the monks out of the house who wanted to read the funeral prayer on the bier. At one of his sermons in Stockholm's main church, the audience is said to have been so excited by his words that they took off their wooden shoes and threw them at the preacher. He had to seek protection from the projectiles behind the parapet of the pulpit.

August Strindberg treated Olaus Petris in the play Meister Olof ( Mäster Olof ) from 1881, which brought him his breakthrough as a playwright.

Memorial days

Works

  • Olaus Petri: Samlade skrifter. [Collected writings.] 4 vols. Uppsala 1914–1917
  • Hans Ulrich Bächtold, Hans-Peter Naumann (Ed.): Olavus Petri and the Reformation in Sweden. Writings from the years 1528–1531 . Zug / CH, Achius 2002, ISBN 3-905351-04-8 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Friedrich: Petri, Olaus. In: The religion in history and present . Volume 6. 4th edition. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-16-149634-9 , p. 1158.
  2. ↑ Swenske songer eller wisor ( digitized version of the 1536 edition )
  3. ↑ digitized version
  4. ↑ Olavus Petri and the Reformation in Sweden. Writings from the years 1528-1531 . Translated and edited by Hans Ulrich Bächtold and Hans-Peter Naumann; Train 2002; P. 241f
  5. ↑ Cf. Gerhard Schmidt: The judge rules of Olavus Petri: Their meaning in general and for the development of Swedish criminal procedure law from the 14th to the 16th century . Göttingen 1966; Jarkko Tontti: Olaus Petri And The Rules For Judges . In: Associations - Journal for Social and Legal Theory Vol. 4., 2000, No. 1, p. 113-128.
  6. ^ Olaus Petri in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
personal data
SURNAME Petri, Olaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Peterson, Olaf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish theologian and reformer
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1493
PLACE OF BIRTH Örebro
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 1552
Place of death Stockholm