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The theological term irenicism (“peaceful attitude/behavior,” from Greek  eirenikós, “peaceful”), called “syncretism” by its opponents, goes back to the end of the 17th century and denotes a stance oriented toward balance and peace and aimed at bringing about cooperation among the Christian denominations [3]; [4].The background for this movement was Humanist; Erasmus of Rotterdam, especially, idealized unity within the Church. In the 16th century, it received early support from the German reformer Martin Bucer, initially focused on th…

Der theologische Begriff der I. (»friedliche Haltung/Praxis«, von griech. eirēnikós, »friedlich«), in der Polemik »Synkretismus« genannt, reicht bis zur Wende zum 17. Jh. zurück und bezeichnet eine auf Ausgleich und Frieden bedachte Gesinnung, die um Kooperation der christl. Konfessionen bemüht ist [3]; [4]. Mit ihrem humanistischen Hintergrund, v. a. dem auf Einheit drängenden Kirchenideal des Erasmus von Rotterdam, fand sie im 16. Jh. – zuerst meist bikonfessionell auf Calvinismus und Luthertum orientiert – Unterstützung durch den dt. Reformator Martin Bucer. Sie ver…

[German Version] (Jan 6, 1525, Bautzen – Sep 25, 1602, Dessau). From 1540 to 1548, Peucer studied in Wittenberg and Frankfurt an der Oder; he gained his M.A. in Wittenberg in 1545. From 1548 he taught mathematics, and in 1554 became professor of mathematics. He lived in the house of the Wittenberg scholar, Melanchthon, from 1540, and was his son-in-law from 1550; he was a close and trusted friend. He edited and continued Melanchthon’s Chronicon Carionis, and a collection of his works and letters. In 1560 he became a doctor of medicine, and in 1566 was raised to the imp…

[German Version] (Mar 16, 1621, Bad Langensalza – Jul 8, 1681, Weimar). After 1624 Neumark grew up in Mühlhausen, Thuringia, where he attended the Gymnasium. ¶ He also studied at the Gymnasiums of Schleusingen (1632) and Gotha (1641), and possibly the Latin school in Osterode am Harz (from 1636). Several years of travel included stays in Magdeburg, Lüneburg, Hamburg (1641/1642), and Kiel (1642/1644). In 1648/1649 he studied in Königsberg (today Kaliningrad). Years spent in Thorn (today Torun; 1649/1651), Danzig (today Gd…

[German Version] (May 13, 1515, Fiemar, near Gotha – Feb 11, 1562, Jena). After attending school in Gotha, Stigel went to Wittenberg in 1531 to study law, philology, astronomy, medicine, and physics. He received his master’s degree on Apr 20, 1542; on Aug 27, 1543, he was appointed to a professorship in the faculty of arts. In 1548 he was called to Jena to build up the Hohe Schule in cooperation with V. Strigel and was offered a chair. His contacts indicate that he was associated with the circle o…

[German Version] (Nov 11, 1647, Nürnberg – Oct 19, 1695, Weimar) began studying philosophy and (Near Eastern) philology at Altdorf in 1664 followed by Jena in 1669. He received his Dr. theol. in 1674 and was appointed professor in 1675. In 1694 he received an appointment at Halle. In 1695 he sat on the consistory and the church council, and was chief court pre…

[German Version] (Mar 21, 1684, Freienwalde – Dec 12, 1744, Driesen, Neumark [now Drezdenko, Poland]). After attending school in Berlin, began studying at Halle in 1703. From Halle he brought the spirit of Pietism to his future work as an instructor in Berlin (1705), pastor in Nennhausen, Kreis Rathenow (1709), and senior pastor and garrison chaplain in Driesen (1737). In collaboration with others, he produced a Synopsis bibliothecae in Novum Testamentum (1733–1737), an exegetical and homiletical reference work with many tables, which continued in print into the l…

[German Version] (Dec 18, 1736, Ummerstadt bei Hildburghausen, Thuringia – Mar 14, 1815, Leipzig). After attending school in Nuremberg since 1751, Rosenmüller began his university studies in 1757 in Altdorf. After a time as a tutor, he was appointed pastor in Hildburghausen in 1767 and in Heßberg in 1768. In 1772 he was appointed deacon and adjunct superintendent in Königsberg, Franconia. In 1775 he was appointed to a chair at Erlangen, and in 1783 he was appointed professor, superintendent, and c…

[German Version] (1525, Gardelegen, Altmark – c. 1587) received his bachelor's degree from Wittenberg in 1546, then served as rector in Schöningen until 1547, when he was appointed pastor in Dannenberg. Having served from 1549 to 1551 in Salzwedel, he resigned voluntarily. He served as deacon in Hamburg (Sankt Petri) from 1552 to 1558; after being removed, he served as pastor in Oßmannstedt (Thuringia), where he was removed in 1562. In 1563 he resided in Eisleben. In 1564 he was appointed pastor i…

[German Version] The Zillertal Emigrants were the last population group in modern European history to be banished for religious reasons. The Zillertal, which had been part of Tyrol since 1816, had been spared the expulsion of the Salzburg Emigrants in 1731/1732, but in 1826 there was open resistance to the Roman Catholic Church on the part of lay Christians. When attempts at conversion failed, the 1836 election of a new archbishop of Salzburg led – under legally dubious circumstances – to the use …

[German Version] (Jan 26, 1567, Schloss Schwertberg – Nov 18, 1626, Geneva). After studies in Altdorf and an educational tour of western Europe, he worked in the diplomatic service of the Upper Austrian estates, including stays in Graz and Prague. On the basis of a highly charged theory of a federation of the estates based on Calvinistic theology and hostility to the monarchy ( Consultationes, 1624), he included the Bohemian confederation (president of the Bohemian war council 1619/1620) in his planned federation, which also included the Protestant Union (16…

[German Version] (Unglerus; 1526, Hermannstadt [Sibiu] – Nov 21, 1600, Birthälm, Transylvania [Biertan, Romania]). After studying in Wittenberg, he received his M.A. in 1550 and was appointed lecturer at the Hermannstadt Gymnasium. In 1561 he was a member of a delegation sent to several German universities to confirm the orthodox eucharistic doctrine of the Transylvanian Lutherans. In 1565 he was appointed pastor in Kelling (Calnic), in 1567 in Berthälm. On May 6, 1572, Ungleich received the most …

[German Version] (duke of Saxony-Gotha and Altenburg; Dec 25, 1601, Weimar – Mar 26, 1675, Gotha). As ruler, he advanced the 17th-century Lutheran reform movement. The son of Duke Johann of Saxony-Weimar and Dorothea Maria of Anhalt-Köthen, Ernest was shaped by the strict religious tradition of the Ernestine Wettines. His teachers included W. Ratke, with whom he …

[German Version] (Jan 20, 1518, Joachimsthal [Jáchymov] – Sep 11, 1598, Celle). Christoph Fischer (or Vischer) began his studies at Wittenberg in 1537, and received his baccalaureate in 1540 and his M.A. in 1543. In 1544, he was appointed preacher and provost in Jüterbog. Forced to flee in 1547, he became pastor in Benesov, Bohemia. In October 1552, he was called to Schmalkalden as pastor of the collegiate church and superintendent. In 1555, he was appointed general ¶ superintendent, in November 1571 superintendent in Meiningen, in 1574 adjunct to the general superintende…

[German Version] (Sep 24, 1665, Mühlhausen, Thuringia – Oct 10, 1727, Gotha) began his studies at Jena in 1683, receiving his M.A. in 1685; in 1689 he received calls to both Mühlhausen and Halle. He served as deputy rector in Halle, where he began teaching in 1693. From 1694 to 1727 he served as rector of the Gymnasium in Gotha. His call to Gotha may have involved strategic considerations. There Vockerodt, a highly cultivated educator, played a key role in the early history of the Pietist movement…

[German Version] This movement, whose adherents were already called Gnesio-Lutherans during its heyday, originated as a consequence of the Interim of 1548 because of differences in political ethics among the Wittenberg theologians (Resistance, Right of). Its proponents (including N. v. Amsdorf, M.Flacius, N.Gallus, and J.Westphal), among them also laypersons, some students of P.Melanchthon, appealed in support of their positions in anthropology (doctrine of original sin), eucharistic theology, ecc…

[German Version] (Jun 25, 1667, Anklam – Nov 19, 1729, Gotha) studied in Wittenberg from 1685 to 1689, took his master's degree there in 1687, became adjunct to the philosophical faculty, and began teaching in Jena in 1689. After teaching for one year at the Gymnasium in Coburg, he became professor of moral philosophy in 1693, professor of theology at Halle in …

[German Version] (May 3, 1711, Ernsbach, Odenwald – May 10, 1772, Langenburg, Württemberg). After being tutored and attending the Gymnasium in Öhringen, he studied at Jena from 1729 to 1732, where also engaged in his earliest researches into church history. In 1732 he served as a locum tenens in Kupferzell and from 1732 to 1746 as deacon and consistorial councilor in Wilhermsdorf. In 1739 he received his M.A. from Erlangen. In 1746 he was appointed deputy rector and clerical adjunct in Öhringen, and in 1749 court chaplain and consistorial co…

[German Version] The umbrella term,“Antinomian Controversies,” encompasses disputes with a variety of motivations within Wittenbergian theology between 1527 and roughly 1567. They involved the denial of the importance of the law of God for a person's path to salvation (Antinomism) and were associated with the names of J. Agricola (the so-called first Antinomia…

[German Version] (Schneyder, Sneider, Schnitter) (Apr 20, 1492 or 1494 or 1495, Eisleben – Sep 22, 1566, Berlin). He attended school in Braunschweig, matriculated in Leipzig in 1509, in Wittenberg in 1550; there, he attained his Magister on Feb 11, 1518, and Baccalaureus biblicus on Sep 19, 1519. Close personal relations with Luther in the years from 1516 were…