Samuel Meiger

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Samuel Meiger , also Samuel Meigerius , Samuel Meier or Samuel Meyer (* 1532 in Rendsburg ; † June 12, 1610 in Nortorf ), was a German pastor , author , editor and scholar.

Life

Samuel Meiger was the son of the Rendsburg pastor to St. Marien Johann Meyer, who previously worked as a clergyman in Hamburg and joined the Lutheran Reformation there. Johann Meyer is said to have been one of the first priests in Hamburg to marry. After attending the school of scholars in Rendsburg, his son Samuel studied for nine years at the University of Copenhagen , where he met the German reformer Johann Bugenhagen . In 1555 he came from the Danish island of Amager , where he worked as a vicar , as a pastor at St. Martin's Church in Nortorf. In the same year he married his wife Gundel, who died in 1602 after 47 years of marriage.

He was the author or editor of two books that made him famous in his time. In his first writing he strongly opposed witchcraft and sorcery, which he considered a widespread evil, but warned against the use of torture. His second work is a 10 cm thick tome with texts by around 300 authors, which is still in good condition today in the archives of the city of Nortorf. The articles collected therein deal with religious, ethical, secular and historical topics.

Position on the witch hunt

In Meiger's eyes, witchcraft was "a kind of super crime," the mother of all sins "". It represents a violation of all ten commandments . His three-volume work De Panurgia Lamiarum, Sagarum, Strigum ac Veneficarum totiusque cohortis magicae Cacodaemonia libri tres. Dat ys: nödige und nütte underrichtinge I. Van der Töverschen speedily cunning and skill quodt thodoude, etc. , was written in Low German . Meiger addressed himself mainly to the authorities in town and country and urged them to persecute the wizards and witches. His book was published in 1587. Since 1590 the number of witch trials in Schleswig-Holstein has risen sharply, probably not least due to Meiger's book.

While calling for the sorcerers to be persecuted relentlessly, Meiger warned that the use of torture to extract confessions would lead to the falsely accused and convicted of innocents:

So ys nu dyt myn intens unde mine were dat de overicheit darvan right muchte and are taught, wath töverye before eyne schrecklike sin sy opdat gelyck alse se de right avowed and avertügeden töverschen na Gade's words and key rights do not pretend sunder dat bad van der erden wech dhon, dat se so wedderumme sick wol förseen may dat se op ring esteemed uncertain unfounded yes underwilen valsche betichtinge unde accusation not careless thor marter unde torture with the innocent yle.
“So this has now been my intention and opinion that the authorities should be properly informed of what a terrible sin sorcery is, so that, just as they spare the right, known and convicted magicians according to God's word and imperial law, but that To move evil away from the earth, but in turn it should be careful not to rush to torture and torture with the innocent in the face of contemptuous, uncertain, unfounded, and sometimes false accusations and accusations. "

Others

Meiger's name can be found on the baptismal font from 1589 in the Nortorf Church: You will draw water from the Savior's well - M. Samuel Meiger Pastor zu Nortorf , is the translation of the Latin-Low German inscription ( Isa 12.3  EU ). During his tenure as Nortorf pastor, the pastorate lost the entire library in a fire in 1574. The church tower was built around 1580 and the baptismal font was purchased in 1589.

Works

  • De Panurgia Lamiarum, Sagarum, Strigum ac Veneficarum totiusque cohortis magicae Cacodaemonia libri tres. Dat ys: nödige and nütte underrichtinge I. Van der Töverschen swiftly cunning and skill quodt thodoude, II. Unde dat Töverye a Düvelian sin sy, de wedder alle teyn Gebade Gades strydet. III. Unde, Where a Christlike Overicheit with sodan mean Fienden Minschlikes geslechtes ummeghan schöle ("Three books about the omnipotence of vampires, fortune-tellers, sorceresses and poisoners and about the deviousness of the whole magical army"), Hamburg 1587 ( British Library ; digitized )
  • Nucleus Historiarum - Or extravagant, lovely, memorable and warranted histories from the most credible ancient and newen historians , Hamburg, 1598 ( digitized version )

literature

  • Freytag (Pastor in Nortorf): Festschrift Die Kirche Sankt Martin in Nortorf , 1923
  • Karl Boje: Magister Samuel Meigerius in Nortorfer Zeitung , No. 31, 1959
  • Karl Boje: Magister Samuel Meigerius in Nortorf in Heimatkundliches Jahrbuch for the district of Rendsburg , No. 16, 1966, pp. 102–116
  • Winfried Sarnow: Nortorf: Siedlung - Flecken - Stadt , published by the city of Nortorf, print: Wachholtz 1981
  • Kirsten Sander: Superstition as reflected in Schleswig-Holstein sources from the 16th to 18th centuries , Wachholtz-Verlag, 1991
  • Jürgen Beyer: Meiger, Samuel [1532–1610] . in encyclopedia of fairy tales . Vol. 9 (1999), Col. 497f.
  • Thomas Haye: Humanism in the North: Early Modern Reception of Ancient Culture and Literature on the North and Baltic Seas , Rodopi, 2000
  • Jürgen Beyer: Meiger, Samuel [1532–1610] . In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon 18 (2001), Sp. 897f.
  • Rolf Schulte: Warlocks: The persecution of men in the context of the witch hunt from 1530-1730 in the Old Kingdom , Lang-Verlag, 2001

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Winfried Sarnow in: Nortorf: - Siedlung, Flecken, Stadt , page 195
  2. ^ History of the Nortorf parish
  3. ^ Rolf Schulte: Witch persecutions in Holstein in the lexicon for the history of witch persecution
  4. ↑ Samuel Meiger, Closing Words of Panurgia , pp. 442f
  5. ^ Nortorf in old views
  6. ↑ Winfried Sarnow in: Nortorf: - Siedlung, Flecken, Stadt , page 197
personal data
SURNAME Meiger, Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meigerius, Samuel (full name); Meier, Samuel; Meyer, Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pastor, author, editor and scholar
DATE OF BIRTH 1532
PLACE OF BIRTH Rendsburg
DATE OF DEATH June 12, 1610
Place of death Nortorf