Samuel Fischer (pastor)

Samuel Fischer

Samuel Fischer (born November 25, 1547 in Sankt Joachimsthal ; † June 22, 1600 in Jena ) was pastor and superintendent as well as professor.

Life

Samuel Fischer comes from the Bohemian mountain town of St. Joachimsthal. His father was the citizen Jakob Fischer and his mother was Anne Richter. His godparents included the mayor and the local pastor Johannes Mathesius . Fischer attended the school in his hometown and received lessons in particular from Michael Geiring, who later became the pastor of St. Moritz Church in Halle (Saale) .

On the advice of his cousin Christoph Fischer , he left the Ore Mountains early and attended the Fürstenschule Schleusingen in the county of Henneberg . On September 21, 1561 he enrolled at the University of Wittenberg , where he acquired the academic degree of Magister in Philosophical Sciences on August 29, 1570. His first office was (since 1567) the cantorate at the so-called Stiftsschule in Schmalkalden , where he also administered the diaconate at the mountain church. In Schmalkalden, on October 10, 1569, he married Ottilia Wilhelm, the daughter of the local landgrave Hessian rent master, Balthasar Wilhelm , with whom Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon had been guests in 1537.

In 1572, Fischer was appointed court preacher in Burgbreitungen by Prince Poppo von Henneberg . He held this office until a year after Poppo's death.

In 1576 he was appointed pastor from the princes of the county of Henneberg to the mountain town of Schneeberg , where he worked for two years and actively supported the building of the church there. However, because of the size of the churches in Schneeberg, he would always have been weak and sick . So it must have been very pleasant for Samuel Fischer when he was able to take over the position of pastor and superintendent in Oelsnitz in 1578 , where he spent six years of his life.

At the request of the Mayor and Council of the City of Meißen , at the personal instruction of Elector August von Sachsen, he was given the position of Meißnian Superintendent in 1583, which had been held before Nikolaus Jagenteufel , who at that time went to Weimar as General Superintendent . Samuel Fischer stayed in Meißen for five years until he was appointed pastor in the imperial free mountain town of Schlaggenwald in 1588 . He was reluctant to move from Electoral Saxony to his old home, the Kingdom of Bohemia , and took the opportunity to do his doctorate in theology in the Thuringian university town of Jena on November 25, 1589. Just three days after he was awarded the doctorate, a representative of the sovereign made him the offer to become a professor, pastor and superintendent in Jena, which he gratefully accepted. On April 17, 1590, Samuel Fischer moved with his family to Jena. As a doctor of theology and professor at the university's theological faculty as well as pastor and superintendent, he rendered exemplary services to the university town. He also took part in the organizational tasks of the Salina and was rector of the Alma Mater in the winter semesters of 1591 and 1597 . On April 2, 1600 he gave his last public sermon. A day later, he was in great pain and forced to go to the sickbed. He did not recover and died on June 22nd, 1600. Two days later he was buried in the parish church of Jena.

literature

• Karl Zeitel: A previously unpublished letter from Martin Luther from the former Henneberg high school library in Schleusingen. At the same time an explanation of the ecclesiastical home and origin of the Henneberg superintendent Mag. Christoph Fischer from Joachimsthal in Bohemia . In: Yearbook 1998 of the Hennebergisch-Fränkisches Geschichtsverein , Kloster Veßra / Meiningen / Münnerstadt 1998, pp. 123–170; especially p. 164f.
• Fischer, Samuel. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 9, Leipzig 1735, column 1003.
• Fritz Roth : Complete evaluations of funeral sermons for genealogical and cultural-historical purposes. Self-published, Boppard / Rhein, 1980, vol. 10, p. 280, R 9403

Web links

• Works by and about Samuel Fischer  in the German Digital Library