Stephan Klotz

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Stephan Klotz
Epitaph in the Nikolaikirche Flensburg

Stephan Klotz (born September 13, 1606 in Lippstadt ; † May 13, 1668 in Flensburg ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran professor of theology and from 1636 to 1668 general superintendent of the royal shares of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.

Life

Family and studies

Stephan Klotz was a son of the eponymous pastor of the Marienkirche in Lippstadt . He had a younger brother Volrad (1610–1666) who was pastor in Lippstadt. The father died in 1612. His mother was the second marriage to the successor of her first husband, at that time the usual form of parish widow care . She died in 1635.

Stephan Klotz graduated from the Lippstadt Latin School in six months and attended the grammar school in Soest from 1616 to 1621 . Since he was still too young to study, he trained himself further. In addition to philosophy, his main interest was medicine. Nevertheless, following his father's example, he began studying theology in Marburg in 1625 with Balthasar Mentzer and Justus Feuerborn , both representatives of Lutheran orthodoxy . His college friend there was Johann Conrad Dannhauer . From January 1627 he continued his studies in Rostock . Here he received his master's degree in 1628 and lectured as a private lecturer.

After Klotz had led a disputation with a Jesuit , which caused a sensation because the Jesuit appeared accompanied by imperial soldiers in order to intimidate his young opponent, Klotz was appointed archdeacon at St. Peter in Rostock in 1630 without a trial sermon . In the same year he married Catharina Runge (1604–1666), the daughter of a Rostock businessman and widow of his predecessor. The only son Stephan Klotz became a land clerk in Dithmarschen, the daughters married pastors, Agneta Andreas Hoyer, pastor in Itzehoe and from 1678 provost of the Pinneberg rule , Sophia Gregorius Michaelis, pastor in Esgrus and later general superintendent of the county of Oldenburg , and the third daughter provost Johannes Jebsen in Rendsburg.

General Superintendent

In September 1632 Klotz was appointed professor for theology in Rostock, elected rector in the winter semester 1633 and in April 1635 Dr. theol. PhD. A year later, Klotz was appointed general superintendent for the royal share of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein in Flensburg by King Christian IV . In 1639 he became provost and pastor at the Nikolaikirche there .

Stephan Klotz is considered to be the most important reformer of the pre-Pietist period in Schleswig-Holstein. He ordered the introduction of Standard German as the church and school language. In the year he took office as provost in Flensburg, he forbade pastors to preach in Low German. Martin Luther's translation of the Bible was to have sole validity in the church , which is why Klotz, as a strict adherent of Lutheran orthodoxy, did not want to tolerate any other language besides Luther's dialect. In 1650 this ban was extended to the entire royal territory of the duchies. The use of Low German books was also prohibited in schools. Adam Olearius then translated the Low German Agende into High German. This decree contributed to the displacement of the Low German language from public life in Schleswig-Holstein. In the Danish-speaking areas of North Schleswig , however, Danish remained the church language.

In 1646 King Christian IV issued the church and school constitution drawn up by Klotz. It was the first law to include compulsory education . The confirmation was introduced with these regulations. An elementary school ordinance based on this for the whole of Schleswig-Holstein remained in the draft stage in 1651. In 1647, under his influence, the formula of the Agreement was adopted throughout the country. Klotz also tried to improve the scientific education of the pastors, but wrote hardly any scientific works himself. He also did not participate in the dogmatic disputes of his time, such as the dispute over Georg Calixt . On the other hand, he defended the Wedel poet Johann Rist from hostility due to an alleged lack of orthodoxy.

Arguments

Only in the case of Holger Rosenkrantz , who was attacked by the professors at the University of Copenhagen for his allegedly un-Lutheran understanding of the Lutheran doctrine of justification , did he take sides against him. Rosenkrantz (1574–1642) from an old Danish noble family and a member of the Imperial Council was probably the most important Danish theologian. In 1636 he had published a pamphlet in which he declared a life modeled on Jesus Christ to be necessary for eternal salvation. For strict Lutherans this was seen as a contradiction to the sola fide doctrine, according to which humans cannot contribute to their justification. Just like the theology professor Jesper Rasmussen Brochmand , Klotz submitted to King Christian IV a pamphlet against Rosenkrantz, in which Rosenkrantz was accused of socinianism .

Klotz served King Friedrich III. also as an advisor, if not always successfully. In 1657 he advised him to go to war against Sweden. However, the war led to the occupation of Denmark and ended with the Peace of Roskilde, which was very disadvantageous for Denmark . Klotz fled the country. During this time, the not yet ordained young Magister Friedrich Breckling administered his Flensburg pastorate. Breckling experienced the conditions in the Schleswig-Holstein church as not corresponding to his pietistic ideals. In 1660 he, meanwhile assistant preacher to his father, Pastor Johannes Breckling in Handewitt , sent the king a letter in which he denounced the grievances of the church system at the time and accused the pastors of guilt for the increasing non-Christianity of his time and the wars . Klotz then ordered Beckling to be dismissed without notice. Because of the excessiveness of Breckling's attacks, he found the approval of most of his contemporaries.

In 1668 Klotz received a call from the king as a councilor to Copenhagen . He died while preparing to leave. A few days earlier he had married the second time. His polyglot explanation of the Sunday Gospels was not published until after his death. The explanation of the Gospel texts is preceded by the text section in ancient Greek, Syriac, Latin ( Vulgate ), French, Italian, Spanish, English and "Belgian".

Works

  • De deo et attributis divinis . Rostock 1630
  • De Angelolatria . 1636
  • Postilla sacramentalis from amicis dicta polyglotta. That is: Declaration of the Sunday Gospels throughout the year ... Glückstadt 1668

literature

Web links

Commons : Stephan Clotz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ FW Bauks: The Protestant Pastors in Westphalia , Bielefeld 1980, No. 3261
  2. ^ FW Bauks: The Protestant Pastors in Westphalia , Bielefeld 1980, No. 2026
  3. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  4. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  5. ^ GW Saß: Chronik des Kirchspiels Esgrus Volume 1, Husum 1990, S. 214/215
  6. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  7. ^ Artur Gabrielsson: The displacement of the Middle Low German by the New High German written language . In: Gerhard Cordes, Dieter Möhn (Hrsg.): Handbook for Low German Linguistics and Literature Studies . Berlin 1983, pp. 119-153; P. 144
  8. ^ Johann Dietrich Bellmann: Low German as a church language . In: Gerhard Cordes, Dieter Möhn (Hrsg.): Handbook for Low German Linguistics and Literature Studies . Berlin 1983, pp. 602-630; P. 617
  9. ^ L. Wiegmann: Brief history of the Christian religion and the church system in the Danish states, especially in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein . Flensburg / Kiel 1840, p. 170
  10. ↑ Kurt Meissner: Adult Education in a Dynamic Society , 1964, p. 194
  11. ↑ Johann Anselm Steiger , Konrad Küster (Ed.): Johann Rist, Neue Himmlische Lieder (1651) , 2011 p. 416f
  12. ↑ Leo Tandrup: Holger Rosenkrantz in: Dansk Biografisk Leksikon 3rd edition 1979-84 (Danish)
  13. ^ Fr. Nielsen:  Breckling, Friedrich . In: Realencyklopadie for Protestant Theology and Church (RE). 3. Edition. Volume 3, Hinrichs, Leipzig 1897, pp. 367-369.
  14. ↑ Friedrich Breckling: Speculum seu Lapis lydius Pastorum (ie mirror or touchstone for the pastors), in which all preachers and teachers of this last world contemplate themselves and seriously examine and judge themselves according to their conscience as eyes that see and judge everything for God, without hypocrisy of themselves should examine whether they are right preachers, teachers, bishops and superintendents, sent and recognized by God, or not; whether they are like right or wrong prophets; whether they have Christ or the Antichrist's image in them; whether they use the right or wrong apostle to designate marks and characteristics: those who are pious and who allow themselves to be taught and punished by the Spirit of God for fraternal remembrance, awakening, testing and improvement; to the wicked, hypocrites, stiffnecked and contradicting but set up as a testimony and presented on their conscience according to the rule of the word of God. Amsterdam 1660
  15. ↑ OF Arends: Gejstligheden i Slesvig og Holsten fra Reformationen til 1864. Personalhistoriske Untersogelser . Copenhagen 1932, volume 1, p. 152
predecessor Office successor
Vacancy (1624–1636)
before that, Bishop Ulrich von Schleswig 		General superintendent for Schleswig's royal share
1636 - 1668 		Bonaventure Rehefeld
Vacancy (1632–1636)
before Detlev Meier 		General superintendent for Holstein royal share
1636 - 1668 		Johann Hudemann
personal data
SURNAME Klotz, Stephan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clotzius, Stephan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1606
PLACE OF BIRTH Lippstadt
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1668
Place of death Flensburg