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[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. New Testament – III. Church History – IV. Dogmatics – V. Liturgy – VI. Practical Theology – VII. Law and Legal History – VIII. Judaism I. Old Testament The search, mainly from a Protestant perspective, for antecedents of ordination in the Old Testament does not seem very promising, since no direct equivalent to Christian ordination as public commissioning of office-bearers by the community is to be found in the Hebrew Bible. Relevant research is mainly limited to the OT Jewish background of ea…

[German Version] (Nov 10, 1547, Schloss Heiligenberg near Lake Constance – May 31, 1601, Strassburg), archbishop and elector of Cologne. He studied at Dillingen, Ingolstadt, Louvain, Perugia, and Bourges. In 1560 he became a canon of the cathe-…

[German Version] (Mar 16, 1445, Schaffhausen – Mar 10, 1510, Strassburg). The most important popular preacher in German-speaking Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. He attended school in Kaysersberg, Alsace. In 1460 he went on to study at Freiburg i.Br., receiving his M.A. in 1463 and becoming dean of the faculty of arts. There he formed a friendship with J. Wimpfeling. He was ordained priest in 1470. In 1471 he moved to Basel, where he was associated with the cathedral and began his study of th…

[German Version] Quiet in the Land, The, collective term for an extraordinary variety of religious groups and individual ¶ figures in Central Europe, especially at the transition from 18th-century Pietism to the revival movements of the 19th century. The term, which derives from Luther’s translation of Ps 35:20 (“. . . they conceive deceitful words against those …

[German Version] (Bernd Rottmann; 1495?, Stadtlohn – 1535, Münster?), Roman Catholic priest (1529), champion of the Reformation in Münster (1532), leading theologian of the Anabaptist kingdom of Münster (1534/1535). After schooling in Deventer, Münster, and Alkmar, Rothmann served initially as a teacher in Warendorf (receiving his M.A. in Mainz in 1524), then became chaplain of Sankt Mauritz in Münster (1529). He began his work as a Reformer in Münster, with a journey to Wittenberg, where he faile…

[German Version] The Confutation ( Confutatio) was a Catholic response to the Augsburg Confession ( CA), which had been presented to the emperor. Late in June 1530, some 20 Catholic theologians (including J. Eck, J. Cochlaeus, and J. Fabri) were instructed to compose a refutation of the CA. The form it should take was …

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[German Version] (c. 1465, Kleinkötz near Günzburg – Oct 1533, Leutershausen [Ansbach]). He married Martha of Aurach in 1524. An adherent of Franciscan Observantism in Heilbronn, Tübingen (until 1519), Basel (contact with K. Pellikan, Beatus Rhenanus, Zwingli) and Ulm (1521), he was also a humanist and the author of the pamphlet cycle …

[German Version] (Oct 11, 1644, Quedlinburg – Feb 25, 1722, Stolp, Pomerania [Słupsk]), Lutheran theologian, a leader of the Pietist movement in Quedlinburg, and father-in-law of G. Arnold. After studying in Leipzig, he taught at the abbey Gymnasium in Quedlinburg and was appointed a deacon of the abbey in 1681. After bitter conflicts with the abbess Anna Dorothea, duchess of Saxony-Weimar (governed 1684–1704), his ties with Pietism (journey to Leipzig in 1689; close co…

[German Version] I. Origin – II. Content – III. Further history The Augsburg Confession of 1530 is the most important confessional document (Articles of Faith) of Protestantism. I. Origin In early 1530 conditions seemed unexpectedly favorable for a settlement of the religious quarrels that had broken out in the empire. After peace agreements with Pope Clement V (1523–34) and Francis I of France (1515–47) Emperor Charles V (1519–56) could for…

[German Version] (alias: Ambrosius Mellilambius, Antenor, Ehrnhold, Philander; Mar, 1610, Giessen – Oct 26, 1661, Hamburg), Lutheran theologian, writer, and educator. After attending school in Giessen, he began university studies at Marburg in 1625, spent three years traveling through northeastern Europe, and received his M.A. at Rostock in 1631. Returning to Marburg, he attended lectures on rhetoric; in 1634 he continued his studies at Leiden and Amsterdam. In 1635 he was appointed professor of h…

[German Version] (Nov 9, 1590, Jena – Jan 26, 1642, Erfurt), theologian and author of devotional works. He was a representative of the pietistic Frömmigkeitsbewegung, focused on the meaning of Lutheran eschatology for the individual, and a hymnwriter (“Jerusalem, du hochgebaute Stadt,” EG 150; ET: “Jerusalem, thou city fair and high,” Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, 541). He began his studies at Jena in 1608 (1624 Dr.theol.) and went to Wittenberg in 1614. Appointed to the faculty of the Gymnasium Casimirianum in Coburg in 1614, he became its direct…

[German Version] (Apology of the Augsburg Confession). Following delivery of the Augsburg Confession by the Protestant estates of the empire on Jun 25, 1530 and the start of work by Roman Catholic theologians on the Confutation , by mid-July Electoral Saxony had already taken the decision to defend the Protestant Confession with a further document, should this prove necessary. On Aug 3, 1530, the Confutatio was read out but not handed out to the Protestants. So for their work on the Apology, which began immediately, Melanchthon and his colleagues were dependent on the…

[German Version] Following delivery of the Augsburg Confession by the Protestant estates of the empire on Jun 25, 1530 and the start of work by Roman Catholic theologians on the Confutatio , by mid-July Electoral Saxony had already taken the decision to defend the Protestant Confession with a further document, should this prove necessary. On Aug 3, 1530, the Confutatio was read out but not handed out to the Protestants. So for their work on the Apology, which began immediately, Melanchthon and his …

[German Version] (1526, Osnabrück – Jun 26, 1595, Oldenburg), Lutheran theologian. He attended school in Osnabrück, Münster and Dortmund and studied in Cologne and Mainz (1549/1550). He served as a chaplain in Münster, became a priest (1550) and pastor in Kamen (1552). Initially a Reform Catholic opponent of the Reformation, he became a Lutheran in 1553 and was removed from office. Hamelmann after-¶ wards worked as a preacher in Bielefeld (Neustadt) in 1554, but was removed from office in 1555. He then became a preacher in Lemgo (Marien). He studied in Rost…

[German Version] I. Western Church – II. Eastern Church I. Western Church CD=Corpus (Corpora) doctrinae, CO=Church Order 1. Concept and Content. Articles of faith are officially authorized, textually authenticated doctrinal statements (Confession [of faith]), confession collections, CD) through which a constitutionally organized (Church order) Christian church articulates its own confessional insights, formulates a normat…