Urban Pierius

Urban Pierius

Urban Pierius, also: Birnbaum (* around 1546 in Schwedt ; † May 12, 1616 in Bremen ) was a German Protestant theologian, professor at the universities of Frankfurt / Oder and Wittenberg, superintendent in Brandenburg an der Havel, Dresden and Bremen, general superintendent of Küstrin and the Saxon spa district, court preacher in Dresden.

Life

Born as a child of poor parents, he first attended high school in Küstrin at the expense of Count von Hohenstein and studied at the University of Frankfurt (Oder) from 1560 . During his studies, he took his surname, Pierius, translated into Greek, as a scholar's name, and in 1570 earned his master's degree . First he began studying law, but then switched to studying theology.

During this time he found admission to the philosophy faculty of the university, where he took over the professorship for philosophy in 1572. In 1576 he received his doctorate in theology under the chairmanship of Andreas Musculus , took over the rectorate of the university the following year and became a professor at the theological faculty. Although he himself had signed the formula of the Agreement , he opposed it. But he did not stay long as a professor in Frankfurt (Oder). Because in the same year he followed a call to Brandenburg an der Havel , where he worked as pastor at the St. Gotthardt Church and as superintendent .

Three years later, in 1581, he followed an appointment as general superintendent in Küstrin. As a Philippist , however, he made himself suspicious of the Gnesiolutherans . Thereupon he was asked to confess his doctrinal views of the person of Christ and the Lord's Supper in 1586 before the Elector Johann Georg von Brandenburg . At the instigation of Nikolaus Krell , he was appointed to the court of Christian I of Saxony , whom he had already met personally in 1586, in Dresden as superintendent and court preacher.

In Saxony he also made himself suspicious of cryptocalvinism . Nevertheless, Pierius was able to assert himself and at the end of 1590, after the death of David Voit , took over his position in Wittenberg as pastor at the city ​​church and general superintendent of the Saxon spa district . On April 26, 1590 he took over the first professorship at the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg . Although his lectures were very well received, he got into a heated argument with the deacons at the castle church about the exorcism , until they left the city out of their Lutheran convictions.

After the death of Christian I of Saxony, his successor, the administrator Friedrich Wilhelm von Sachsen-Weimar , began to reintroduce a Lutheran course. Pierius, who was regarded as the leading exponent of cryptocalvinism, was imprisoned in Wittenberg Castle on November 13, 1591 by order of the regent and was suspended from his offices. Queen Elizabeth of England advocated him because he had written a poem about the fall of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

He was then released from custody in 1593 and left the Electorate of Saxony after pledging never to take action against Lutheran clergy again. He then went to Zerbst in Anhalt , then found a job in Amberg as a pastor and followed a call to Bremen as a pastor in 1599 and became superintendent in 1604, which offices he held until his death.

Works

• Examination and explanation of the new religious disputes brought about in the funeral sermon about the beheaded D. Nicolaum Krell. Bremen 1603
• Dispatch of the ubiquist preacher D., Phil. Nicolai. Bremen 1603
• Brevis repetitio de persona & officio Christi. Wittenberg 1591
• Ejus repetitio seu defensio contra Balthas. Menzerum
• Confessio publica
• Typus doctrinae orthodoxae de persone & officio Christi. Wittenberg 1591
• Lament sermon about the death of Elector Christian of Saxony. Wittenberg 1591
• Formulas precum
• Disp. De animae sentientis facultate interiori. Frankfurt (Oder) 1572
• Report from a baptized Turkish woman in Amberg

literature

• Christian Gottlieb Jöcher : Scholar Lexicon. Volume 4, column 1559
• Johann Christoph Erdmann: Biographies and literary news from the Wittenberg theologians since the foundation of the university in 1502 until the third centenary secular celebration in 1802; from the registers and other credible documents. A contribution to the Kursächs. Reformation and Church History. Samuel Gottfried Zimmermann, Wittenberg 1804
• Thomas Klein: The struggle for the Second Reformation in Electoral Saxony (1586–1591). Central German Research Volume 25, Cologne Graz 1962
• Thomas Klein: Urban Pierius, history of the electoral church and school reformation. Marburg 1970
• Gotthard Lechler:  Pierius, Urban . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, pp. 117-122.
• Pierius, Urban. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 28, Leipzig 1741, column 90 f.