Petrus Lotichius

Petrus Lotichius (I.), actually Peter Lotz (born November 1501 in Niederzell-Schlüchtern ; † 23 June 1567 in Hanau ) was abbot of the Schlüchtern monastery .

origin

Petrus Lotichius was born the son of the monastery farmer Hen Lotz the Elder (* around 1470) and later changed his name, as was customary at the time, to the Latin form "Loticius". In 1548 he changed it to "Lotichius" again on the advice of Philipp Melanchthon . Many members of his family retained this Latinized form, including his nephews

• Petrus Lotichius Secundus (1528–1560), the important neo-Latin poet
• Christian Lotichius (approx. 1530–1568), coadjutor of the Schlüchtern monastery
• Nikolaus Lotichius (* approx. 1520 - † July 13, 1594), pastor in Steinau
• also great-nephew Johann Peter Lotichius (1598–1669), a German humanist, physician, poet and historiographer

Act

As a traveling student , Peter Lotz visited the “common school” in Leipzig and in 1517 joined the Schlüchtern monastery . It was in 1523 by Konrad II. Von Thüngen , the bishop of Wuerzburg , for priests ordained. In 1525 the whole convent had to flee from rebellious farmers to the sub- county of the County of Hanau-Munzenberg . In the same year Lotichius became pastor of Schlüchtern. On 31 March 1534 he was appointed abbot of the monastery chosen and the Bishop of Wurzburg benediziert .

Reforms

As abbot, Lotichius converted the monastery from 1540 into an educational center for young people from the church. As a result, a Latin school developed , which in turn was the predecessor of today's Ulrich-von-Hutten-Gymnasium . Mediated by Michael Beuther , the son of a Würzburg official, Lotichius came into contact with Philipp Melanchthon , with whom he remained connected for a lifetime, who advised him on the school in the Schlüchtern monastery and also visited him. In a further step he sent seven of his best students in 1544 to study theology at the Philipps University in Marburg . As a result , he enrolled there himself. There he made friends with several professors, such as the Calvinist theologian Andreas Hyperius , with whom he had a lively correspondence.

In 1543 Lotichius joined the Reformation with the entire convent by giving communion to laypeople in both forms on Pentecost . The latter was reserved for the priest in the Roman Catholic Church. Lotichius reported this to the bishop in Würzburg. It was only when Petrus Lotichius also carried out ordinations that he was excommunicated . In November 1548 the excommunication was lifted again.

In the first few years the bishop in Würzburg could do little against the Reformation in Schlüchtern. After the Roman Catholic side in Germany was strengthened by the battle of Mühlberg in 1547, Petrus Lotichius had to answer in Würzburg. He did not retract, only admitted that he was wrong when he conducted ordinations because the bishop alone was responsible. Lotichius also came into conflict with the bishop because of the monastery tithe, which ultimately led to a complete break. The situation used the sovereignty, at that time the guardianship for the underage Count Philip III. von Hanau-Münzenberg , which itself adhered to the Reformation and granted the monastery protection against Würzburg. At the same time, the guardianship extended the sovereignty to the monastery.

Lotichius' nephew, Christian Lotichius, was his coadjutor since 1563 , and Peter Lotichius resigned from the office of abbot two years later.

death

Petrus Lotichius died on June 23, 1567 in Hanau and was buried two days later in the monastery church in Schlüchtern. During the occupation of the monastery by the Bishop of Würzburg in the Thirty Years War , his tombstone was smashed and the preserved, assembled fragments were placed in the Chapel of St. Catherine. It shows the abbot standing in a scholarly robe with the insignia of spiritual dignity, his hands grasping the New Testament . On the pedestal is written in Latin: “This stone shows the image of the famous Lotichius, who first introduced pure teaching in this church. He piously decided his life, which had reached its goal ”.

literature

• Friedrich Wilhelm Cuno:  Lotichius, Petrus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, p. 269 f.
• Max Aschkewitz: Pastor history of the Hanau district ("Hanauer Union") until 1986 , part 2 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse 33. Marburg 1984, p. 654.
• Werner Kathrein: The efforts of Abbot Petrus Lotichius (1501-1567) for the renewal of church life and the maintenance of the Schlüchtern monastery in the age of the Reformation = Diss. Freiburg 1982. Fulda 1984. ISBN 3-7900-0136-8
• Johann Peter Lotichius: Reverendis. Patris, Petri Lotichii, Abbatis Solitariensis, Opuscula in quibus I. vita eiusdem, II. Historiola Coenobii Solitariensis, & reformationis ecclesiarum, III. Confessio fidei, ad Philippum, Abbatem, & Principem Fuldensem, IV. Epistolarum superstitum libellus . Marburg 1640.
• J. Merz: Contributions to a more correct assessment of the course, which the church improvement in the XVI. Taken in the 19th century in the former county of Hanau-Munzenberg . In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies , Volume 5 (1850), p. 197ff.
• Friedrich Michael Schiele : The Reformation of the Schlüchtern Monastery (1907) as an e-book

Web links

• NN: Abbot Petrus Lotichius (1501–1567) . In: Homepage of the city of Schlüchtern.
• NN: Abbot Petrus Lotichius and the Reformation . Homepage of the Ulrich-von-Hutten-Gymnasium.
• NN: Lotichius family . In: German Gender Book (digitized).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Aschkewitz, p. 763f.
2. ↑ Peter Gbiorczyk: The Relationship of Philipp Melanchthons to the County of Hanau . In: Neues Magazin für Hanauische Geschichte 2014 , pp. 2–60 (14–24).