Simon Ulrich Pistoris

Simon Ulrich Pistoris

Simon Ulrich Pistoris von Seusslitz and Hirschstein (born December 3, 1570 in Leipzig , † June 24, 1615 in Berlin ) was a German legal scholar and Latin poet .

Live and act

His father Hartmann Pistoris recognized Simon Ulrich's legal inclination early on and in 1583 sent him to the Princely School in Meissen for three years . Simon Ulrich then studied law at the University of Wittenberg with Petrus Wesenbeck and Matthias Colerus and also attended seminars in philosophy and theology . On the advice of his father, he then spent a few more years of study in Italy and France. After his return to Leipzig he received his doctorate in both rights (secular and ecclesiastical law).

Also through the mediation of his father, who stayed with Elector Joachim Friedrich von Brandenburg in Berlin for various reports , Simon Ulrich was appointed by the same Elector to the Court Council and promoted to the Privy Council and Diplomat . In this position he remained with the Elector until he left the Elector prematurely due to illness. On behalf of the Elector, he was often a delegate to the Imperial Election Day and to various Imperial and Princely Days of the Duchy of Prussia.

Although he was a full-time lawyer and politician , he continued to follow his theological inclinations and interfered vehemently in various religious disputes, especially between Lutherans and Reformed people . Now a member of the Reformed Church himself, he was a respected member of the Berlin congregation, which received a special boost in 1613 when Elector Johann Sigismund von Brandenburg , where Pistoris attended the ceremony as the notary , passed over. This led to violent feuds and personal attacks on Pistoris, which only gradually came to an end after his death. During this time he wrote several theological writings, mainly on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, but also on the German explanation of the Psalms of David with a Latin commentary by his father.

As a legal writer, in addition to creating his own writings, he endeavored to organize, update and supplement his father's works and to put them into print. In addition, he still had the time to write some Latin poems, which at that time received special recognition and which were published by his friend Jan Gruter .

Simon Ulrich Pistoris remained unmarried and childless and died after 15 years of collegial service at the age of 45 of a protracted serious illness. He was buried in the family crypt at Seusslitz Castle and honored with a monumental epitaph .

Literature and Sources

• Karl Pahncke: Simon Ulrich Pistoris, the shop steward of four Hohenzollern ; FBPG, 24, pp. 147-182, 1911
• Daniel Heinrich Hering (1722–1807): Historical news from the Evangelical Reformed Church in Brandenburg ; Meyer-Verlag, Breslau / Leipzig, 1785
• Johann August Ritter von Eisenhart :  Pistoris von Seuselitz, Simon . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, pp. 186-194.
• Delitiae Poetarum Germanorum . 5. Vol., Pp. 95-104 ( online at CAMENA )
• Twelve distinguished well-founded main causes, why the Reformed Evangelical Churches with Doct. Luther and his followers expounding the word of Christ in the heyl. The Lord's Supper, through which an essential yet unrepentant, insensitive presence of the body and blood of Christ all here on earth in, with and under the bread, also an oral nosing of the same is introduced, will not be one: from a noble class persons apart from heyl. divine writing, common consensus and testimonies of the Altvätter recently gathered together ... - Düsseldorf: Buys, 1613. Digitized edition of the University and State Library of Düsseldorf