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[German Version] (Apr 24, 1614, Leipzig – Sep 12, 1680, Dresden), prominent exegete and preacher of Lutheran orthodoxy (II, 2.a). After studying at Leipzig (M.A. in 1633), Strassburg, and Wittenberg, he returned to Leipzig in 1636, where he was appointed professor of Hebrew in 1639. He became deacon in 1645, archdeacon in 1657, and pastor of the Thomaskirche in 1659, gaining his doctorate in theology in the same year. In 1661 he received appointments as professor of theology and superintendent. On…

[German Version] (1646, Montauban, Languedoc – 1707, Wiuwert, Friesland), student and closest companion of J. de Labadie. His parents took him to church as a child when Labadie was preaching and while he was still young sent him to Geneva, where he lived in Labadie’s house and studied philosophy and theology under his direction. Along with Pierre Bulignon and Jean Menuret, he became Labadie’s inseparable companion. Alongside Labadie at his later residences in the Netherlands, Germany (Herford), an…

[German Version] (Nov 5, 1607, Cologne – May 14, 1678, Wieuvert, Friesland), daughter of Dutch Reformed parents, she lived in Utrecht after 1623 and was allowed to study at the university there (e.g. with G. Voetius). Her outstanding erudition and linguistic facility, coupled with artistic talent, gained her renown as the “prodigy of her time.” She corresponded with many scholars, including R. Descartes and Christian Huyghens, and defended the right of women to engage in scientific studies ( Dissertatio de ingenii muliebris ad doctrinam et meliores litteras aptitudine, 1643). Late…

[German Version] The Book of Concord is the most widely circulated collection of Lutheran articles of faith (I). It was published (in German) under the title Concordia. Christian, Reiterated, Unanimous Confession of the Undersigned Electors, Princes, and Estates who Embrace the Augsburg Confession and of the Theologians of the Same Doctrine and Faith on Jun 25, 1580, the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the Augsburg Confession. It contains the three major creeds (Apostles' Creed, Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, …

[German Version] (Sep 7, 1642, Leipsdorf, Saxony – Oct 22, 1721, Leipzig). After studying philosophy, history, and theology, Rechenberg began teaching in 1665 at the University of Leipzig; in 1677 he was appointed professor of philology and history. Through his fourth marriage (1686), to P.J. Spener’s eldest daughter Susann Catharina, he had close ties with Pietism. His appointment to succeed J.B. Carpzov (2) as professor of theology in 1699 effected a reversal in the attitude of the Leipzig theological faculty, which had been hostile to Pietism. His 1700 disputation De gratiae revo…

[German Version] (Jun 15, 1635, Duisburg – Jan 1, 1693, Bremen). After studying from 1654 to 1658 in Utrecht (with G. Voetius), Duisburg (with Johannes Clauberg [1622–1665]), and Leiden (with ¶ J. Coccejus), Undereyck set out on an extensive study tour, visiting Switzerland, France, and England. His piety was shaped by Dutch precisianism (J. van Lodenstein). As a pastor in Mühlheim an der Ruhr from 1660 to 1668, Undereyck pressed for conversion and rebirth (Regeneration), called on people at home, and engaged in catechesis. F…

[German Version] (Mar 27, 1588, Kutten near Angerburg, East Prussia – Apr 30, 1653, Königsberg). Born into the Polish nobility, Myslenta learned German only in adult life. He studied theology in Königsberg, Wittenberg and Giessen (1619 Dr.theol. in Gießen). Then he studied oriental languages under T. Erpenius in Leiden and J. Buxtorf senior in Basel. For six months he pursued rabbinic and talmudic studies in the ghetto in Frankfurt am Main. From 1619 he was professor of Hebrew language and profess…

[German Version] (Nov 25, 1642, Vaihingen an der Enz – summer 1693, Rotterdam) began his studies at Tübingen in 1661, receiving his M.A. in 1664. In 1666 he was appointed lecturer at the Tübingen Stift, and in 1671 he became a deacon in Bietigheim, where he became an adherent of J. Böhme under the influence of L. Brunnquell, a neighboring pastor. He was valued at the Stuttgart court as a mathematician and astronomer; in his Cometo-Scopia (1681) he prophesied the rapidly approaching end of the world and the coming of the millennial kingdom. Suspended from office in 1686…

[German Version] (Oct 10, 1570, Langenstein near Halberstadt – May 30, 1649, Wittenberg). Studied in Helmstedt and Wittenberg; 1597, rector in Norden, East Friesland; 1602, professor of logic and metaphysics in Wittenberg; 1613, also of ethics; 1623, professor of theology. Jakob Martini followed C. Martini in the reestablishment of metaphysics, to which he devoted three works. In his Vernunft-Spiegel (1619; Mirror of reason), one of the first philosophical works in the German language, he combatted Ramist and anti- philosophical tendencies in Lutherani…

[German Version] (Avenarius; Oct 8, 1516, Cheb [Ger. Eder], Czech Republic – Dec 5, 1590, Zeitz), who became a Lutheran between 1540 and 1542, served as pastor in several towns of Electoral Saxony (1564–1571 Falkenau, near Cheb). He was briefly a professor of theology (1571 Jena, 1576 Wittenberg); from 1576 to his death, he served as superintendent of the Stift in Zeitz. Known to his contemporaries as a Hebraist (Hebrew grammar 1571, Hebrew dictionary 1588), ¶ he was remembered by later generations as the author of a Lutheran prayer book equal in popularity to the Paradiesgärtlein of Joha…

[German Version] (Dec 6, 1650, Leipzig – Mar 30, 1712, Stettin). After his studies in Leipzig and Strasbourg, he became Saturday preacher in Leipzig in 1672, superintendent in Leisnig in 1673, superintendent in Grimma in 1678, and fourth professor of theology in Wittenberg in 1684. From 1686, he was ¶ principal pastor at St. Jakobi in Hamburg, and at the same time professor in Kiel; in 1701, he was appointed professor in Greifswald and Swedish general superintendent of Western Pomerania. Even if posterity remembers him only as the “hammerer of heretics and pietists” ( malleus haereticoru…

[German Version] (Dec 29, 1673, Sondershausen – Feb 12, 1749, Dresden). As the son of the Wittenberg professor of theology Caspar Löscher (1636–1718), Valentin Löscher also studied in Wittenberg. After a study tour (extending as far as Holland and Denmark), he received a master's degree and became an adjunct to the faculty of philosophy in 1692. He was appointed pastor and superintendent in Jüterbog (1699), superintendent in Delitzsch (1702), professor of theology in Wittenberg (1707), pastor of t…

[German Version] (Nov 24, 1627, Ilmenau – Jul 8, 1661, Rostock). After studying in Rostock (M.A. in 1650) Großgebauer was deacon of St. Jacobi in Rostock from 1653 onward. Imbued with the reform zeal of the Rostock orthodoxy (II, 2) and influenced by the edifying literature of England, he fought against unbelief ( Praeservativ wider die Pest der heutigen Atheisten, 1661), lamented the futility of many sermons, and devised a radical church reform agenda in his Wächterstimme aus dem verwüsteten Zion (1661). His proposals: precedence of the pastoral ministry over the preaching…

[German Version] (Johann: Jul 1, 1649, Osnabrück – Jan 31, 1727, Gut Thymer bei Zerbst, Anhalt; Johanna, née Merlau, Apr 25, 1644, Frankfurt am Main – Mar 19, 1724, Gut ¶ Thymer), a couple widely read in Pietist circles (Pietism). Their views on eschatology (millenarianism, apocatastasis) define them as radical Pietists. As a student at Rostock and Gießen, Johann became a polyhistor of the Baroque and an expert on orthodox confessional polemic; in Frankfurt am Main, he was won to Pietism by P.J. Spener and J.J. Schütz. There …

[German Version] (May 3, 1536, Salzwedel – May 4, 1603, Salzwedel), author of Lutheran devotional books. After studying at Rostock (with D. Chyträus and Simon Pauli), he became a deacon in Salzwedel and later pastor of the Neustädische Kirche there. Despite calls from other places, he remained faithful to his home town until his death. In his view, Christians should eschew penance and asceticism, knowing only the treasures of God’s grace received in baptism ( Freudenchristentum, “joyful Christianity”). A collection of his writings was published by J. Arndt ( Von der güldenen Zeit, 1622…

[German Version] (1568, Antwerp – Dec 17, 1621, Helmstedt) studied in Rostock under D. Chyträus and J. Caselius. In 1592 Martini became professor of logic in Helmstedt; he took part in the Regensburg Consultation on Religion (Disputations, Religious) in 1601. Presumed to be the first to teach Aristotelian metaphysics at a Protestant university, he is considered the founder of Protestant academic metaphysics ( Disputationes metaphysicae, 1604–1606), and had a decisive influence on the late-humanist shaping of the University of Helmstedt, which was not tied to…

[German Version] (Mar 4, 1579, Riga – Dec 16, 1643, Riga). After studying at Wittenberg (with L. Hütter) and Rostock, he was appointed preacher at St. Petri in Riga as well as superintendent of schools; later he was appointed cathedral preacher. He published attacks on the Jesuit Counter-Reformation (Baltic countries: III, 1.b). After the Swedish conquest in 1622, King Gustav II Adolf appointed him superintendent over Livonia. He strove to restore the Lutheran church and school system, turned the …

[German Version] is the name given to the drawn-out controversies in the second half of the 17th century between high Lutheran orthodoxy (II, 2.a.β) and the union efforts of G. Calixtus and the University of Helmstedt, suspected of religious “syncretism.” Repelled by the horrors of the Thirty Years War, Calixtus shifted from polemics to irenics, calling for toleration and ecclesiastical peace between the confessions on the basis of a shared doctrinal foundation from the Early Church ( consensus antiquitatis). When the Jesuits rejected his plans for a reunion of the univer…

[German Version] (Oct 27, 1640, Lauenburg – Nov 1, 1698, Lübeck). Initially a supporter of the millenarianism of C. Hoburg from his school days in Lauenberg, Pfeiffer studied in Wittenberg (1659, M.A.) under A. Sennert, J. Deutschmann, and A. Calov; the latter cured him of his chiliastic leanings. Pfeiffer was a learned orientalist who could understand 70 oriental languages. In 1668 he became assistant professor of oriental languages in Wittenberg (1677, Dr.theol.). He held church offices in Siles…

[German Version] (Jan 13, 1666, Kühndorf, near Meiningen – Jul 25, 1698, Berlin). While studying in Leipzig, Schade became a follower of A.H. Francke; he joined the Leipzig Collegium Philobiblicum and soon became a spokesman for the Pietist movement in Leipzig. Forced to leave Leipzig, in 1691 he became a deacon at Sankt Nikolai in Berlin, alongside P.J. Spener. There he preached revivalist sermons and led collegia pietatis. His polemic against perfunctory absolution as part of traditional penitential practice (“Beichtstuhl, Satansstuhl, Feuerpfuhl,” linking th…