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[German Version] (Feb 9, 1898, Uman’ – Nov 2, 1970, Berlin), independent scholar who became the outstanding Russian church historian of the 20th century. After involvement in war and civil war and a stay in Constantinople, he was unable to resume his studies until 1923 in Berlin, initially at the Russisches Wissenschaftliches Institut, founded by émigrés, and then at the university, where he received his doctorate in 1934 with a dissertation on I. Kireyevsky. His subsequent research led to several…

[German Version] (Semën Ivanovič; 1658, Javorov near Lemberg – Nov 24, 1722, Moscow). After studying in Polish Jesuit schools, he returned to Kiev in 1689 where he taught in the college and served as abbot. As metropolitan of Rjazan', he was appointed by Peter the ¶ Great administrator of the patriarchate in 1700 and president of the newly created Holy Synod in 1721, although he inwardly opposed Peter's reform plans. Thus, when Peter commissioned an expert's opinion on a union project by the Sorbonne in 1717, the elaboration by Javorskij's …

[German Version] I. General The name Poland derives from the name of one of the West Slavic tribes that joined together in the 9th and 10th centuries to form the Polish nation; it characterizes the members of this tribe as field-dwellers ( Polani or Poleni). The kingdom, founded by the Piast dynasty, was first called Polonia around the year 1000. Today the official name of the state is Rzeczpospolita Polska (Republic of Poland). ¶ Geographically, Poland is bounded by Germany to the west, by the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Federation to the north, …

[German Version] (Petr Egorov, later Levšin; Jun 29, 1737, Chashnikovo near Moscow – Nov 11, 1812, Vifaniya near Sergiyev Posad), metropolitan of Moscow. After study at the Moscow academy, Platon taught there, and later at the seminary of Trinity St. Sergius Monastery. As its rector from 1761, and a gifted preacher, he made such a strong impression on Catherine II that she appointed him as her son’s tutor in religion. In 1766 he became archimandrite of the monastery, which he had already led from …

[German Version] 1. Nicholas the Red (Mikołai Rudy Radziwiłł; Apr 27, 1512 – Apr 27, 1584, Vilnius), high chancellor and high hetman of Lithuania, from 1566 (following his cousin Nicholas the Black [see 2 below]) voivode of Vilnius; he became a Calvinist c. 1564. His descendants remained faithful to the Reformed confession and, until the line failed in 1667, ensured the continuation of Reformed parishes on the Radziwill estates (of the Birse branch) in Lithuania. Peter Hauptmann Bibliography T. Nowakowski, Die Radziwills. Die Geschichte einer großen europäischen Familie, 1968, 79–…

[German Version] The see of Poznań was erected in 968 as a missionary bishopric for all Poland, after the Piast duke Mieszko I began the process of Christianizing Poland with his baptism in 966. By 999/1000, however, it had already been superseded by the erection of the archiepiscopal see of Gniezno, to which it became suffragan at the beginning of the 11th century. From then on, it included the center of Great Poland and the southern part of Mazovia. In 1232 Bishop Paweł Grzymała was granted the …

[German Version] (c. 1120 – post 1177). Helmold worked in eastern Holstein from 1143, after attending the cathedral school in Braunschweig, and as pastor in Bosau on the Plöner See (from 1156). Between 1163 and 1172, he composed, from the notes of Adam of Bremen, oral tradition and his own experience, his Chronica Slavorum which covered the time period up to 1170. In it, despite clear partisanship, he reports vividly and generally reliably the Christianization and Germanization of the Slavs settled east of the lower Elbe (Slavic missions). His wor…

[German Version] (Martinus Polonus; before 1230, Troppau [today Opava] – Jun 12, 1278, Bologna). Initially a Dominican in Prague, Martin became papal chaplain and apostolic penitentiary in Rome; on May 21, 1278, he was consecrated archbishop of Gniezno in Viterbo. He is best known as a chronicler. His Chronicon pontificum et imperatorum (Chronicles: IV), replete with anecdotes and fables, was widely read; its many extensions and imitations gave rise to a genre of “Martin chronicles.” Peter Hauptmann Bibliography A.-D. v. den Brincken, LThK 3 VI, 1997, 1429 (bibl.).

[German Version] During the Middle Ages, the West Slavic tribes behind the original eastern boundary of Germany living between the Baltic and Upper Franconia along the Elbe and Salle, Havel, and Spree, and as far as the Main became known collectively as the Wends. The name comes from the name of the Veneti, an Illyrian tribe. It also served as a name for the Slovenes, especially the Slovene minorities in Austrian territories. Evangelism of the Wends proved uncommonly difficult. The Great Slav Risi…

[German Version] (1st half of the 4th cent.), “enlightener” of Georgia. Tyrannius Rufinus tells in his church history of a female prisoner of war who, c. 330, converted the king and queen of Eastern Georgia to the Christian faith by her asceticism and miraculous cures, and persuaded them to invite Greek missionaries to their country (PL 21, 480–482). Not until local 10th-century sources, heavily embroidered with legend, does this woman appear under the name of Nino, probably a contracted form of “…

[German Version] (Aug 26, 1797, Anginskoye, near Irkutsk – Mar 31, 1879, Moscow). Born Ivan Popov, he was orphaned at an early age. At the seminary in Irkutsk, his patron Bishop Veniamin (Benjamin) of Irkutsk gave him the new patronymic Veniaminov. In 1840, when he was made a monk, his baptismal name was replaced by Innocent. In the same year, Innocent – who had been ordained to the priesthood in 1821 and had been working as a missionary in the Aleutians and Alaska since 1824 – was made bishop of Kamchatka. He took up residence as archbishop in 1852…

[German Version] capital of the Republic of Lithuania (Baltic countries), with a population of 554,060 (2011); it is situated in southeastern Lithuania where the Vilnia joins the Neris, a tributary of the Memel. Its earliest mention in a document is in a 1323 letter of Grand Duke Gediminas. When Grand Duke Jogaila accepted baptism in 1387 and saw to the building of a cathedral, he also granted Vilnius a city charter modeled on the Magdeburg Law. The personal union of Lithuania with Poland in 1385 …

[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. The Early Church – III. Middle Ages, Reformation, Counter-reformation – IV. The Modern Period – V. Martyrs of the Orthodox Church – VI. Judaism – VII. Islam – VIII. Missiology I. History of Religion The term martyrium (Greek μαρτύριον/ martúrion) was coined in early Christianity, where it denotes a self-sacrificial death in religious conflict as a witness to faith Historical and systematic references are found in many contexts, in which comparable terms imply something slightly different. For example, the Islamic šahīd, “witness…

[German Version] (1875, Sep 10 – 1960, Paris) was one of the most prominent lay theologians of Russia in the 20th century. He lectured in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) until 1917, where he also chaired the Society for Philosophy of Religion, and was from 1925 at the theological institute of St. Serge in Paris (of which he was a cofounder), where he taught church history as well as Old Testament. In 1959, he was able to publish his main work in two volumes, Očerki po istorii Russkoj Cerkvi, sketches of the history of the Russian Church. Appointed chief procurator of the Holy Synod by…

[German Version] (c. 1036–1040, Szczepanów – Apr 11, 1079, Cracow), martyr bishop and patron saint of Poland. Initially a parish priest in Czembocz, as bishop of Cracow (from 1072) he came into bitter conflict with King Boleslav II, which cost ¶ him his life. Church tradition has it that he was slain by the king himself during mass in the Church of St. Michael because he had rebuked the king for his immoral way of life, but the alternative tradition is more believable – that he was condemned to death as a traitor for his political opposition and was gruesomely executed by truncatio membrorum. His…

[German Version] (c. 1520, Chios island – 1585, Rome), radical Antitrinitarian who claimed to be descended from the last imperial dynasty of the Byzantine Empire. In trouble with the Inquisition as a Dominican friar in Italy, he was able to flee in 1559. He was in Prague in 1570/1571, in Krakow in 1571/1572, and in Klausenburg from 1572 to 1574. In 1573, he traveled to Turkey and twice to Poland. In 1575, Palaeologus lived in Alzen near Sibiu (Ger. Hermannstadt), Romania, then in Poland and Moravi…

[German Version] (Goddert; c. 1517, near Lippstadt – 1587, Kurland) was the last grand master of the Teutonic Order in Livonia. Following the collapse of the order state, he accepted Polish suzerainty and became the first duke of Kurland in 1562, a part of the territory that had previously belonged to the order and for which the capital Mitau (Jelgava) was eventually built in the vicinity of an old castle. Marrying Anna of Mecklenburg in 1566, he established a dynasty which lasted until 1737. Kurl…

[German Version] (Matěj Pavlík; May 26, 1879, Hrubá Vrbka, near Hodonín – Sept 4, 1942. Prague). Gorazd, bishop of Moravia and Silesia, was the founder of Czech Orthodoxy. Having been a Roman Catholic chaplain in ¶ Kromeríz, in 1920 he joined the Czechoslovakian Church, which had broken its ties with Rome. In 1921 he was sent to Belgrade to be consecrated bishop by the Serbian patriarch, thus securing apostolic succession. As this went together with a sincere conversion to Orthodoxy, in 1924 he broke with the Czechoslovakian Churc…

[German Version] (Polish Chełmno), a city founded on the lower course of the Weichsel River in 1232 and a bishop's seat from 1243. The cathedral chapter established there by Bishop Heidenreich in 1251 was incorporated into the Teutonic order (Orders of Germany) from 1264 to 1466. Originally suffragan to the archbishopric of Riga, the diocese was integrated into the ecclesial province of Gniezno (Gnesen) in 1466. Bishop Johannes Dantiscus (1530–1538) and S. Hosius (1549–1551) succesfully warded off…

[German Version] (Dimitrii Aleksandrovich; Feb 5, 1807, Pokrovskoe, near Gryazovets – Apr 30, 1867, Nikolo-Babaev, near Kostroma) was a Russian ascetic, spiritual writer, and bishop. In 1827, when the aristocratic graduate of the St. Petersburg Engineering School was released from military service for medical reasons, he struck up an acquaintance with the monk…

[German Version] (12th/13th cent.), has a place in world literature as the greatest Georgian poet, earned by his Vephistqaosani (“The Knight in the Panther’s/Tiger’s Skin”), an epic poem of 1669 four-line stanzas. Hundreds of legends, stage plays, and stories about his life and work bear witness to the central place he holds in the Georgians’ sense of identity. But regarding his life and person – like Homer’s – we have no reliable sources. The territorial epithet tells us little, since there are many places in Ge…

[German Version] (c. 1501, Mantua – Nov 12, 1574, Sopnica, near Sandomierz), Hebraist, physician, and theologian, whose contentiousness triggered violent disputes wherever his unsettled life took him. Probably of Jewish descent and initially a priest or monk, after studying in Basel and in southern Germany he was appointed professor of Hebrew in Vienna in 1544 and in Cracow in 1549. Called to the University of Königsberg (Kaliningrad), he left after three months because of a clash with A. Osiander…

[German Version] (Olmütz) is a city on the middle reach of the March river (Morava; Czech Republic) with 106,000 inhabitants (1989). First mentioned in records in 1055, Olomouc developed from a settlement at the foot of the Fürstenberg, subsequently in the center of the city. The cathedral of St. Wenceslas was erected on the site of an old castle complex between 1107 and 1131, rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries, and again between 1883 and 1890. As a bishop’s seat from 1063 (until 1344 under Mainz, and from 1344 to 1421 under Prague), and an archbishop’s seat from 1777 (with suf-¶ fragans in …

[German Version] (Palaiohemerologites) is the name given to the opponents of change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian system in the Church of Greece from Mar 10 to 23, 1924, which happened under state pressure. They understand themselves, however, as the “true Orthodox Christians” who stand for the maintenance of tradition in its entirety. Individual circles quickly grew into a church organization which since 1932 worships in its own buildings, and since the accession of three bishops in 1…

[German Version] (Nov 1, 1844, Khalan, near Kursk – Feb 17, 1925, Prague), pioneer Russian art historian and student of iconography. Kondakov began to teach at the university in Odessa in 1871, went to St. Petersburg in 1888, to Sofia in 1920, and finally to Charles University in Prague in 1922. Of his three-volume iconography of the Theotokos ( Ikonografiia Bogomateri), he was able to publish the first two volumes in 1914/1915 while he was still in St. Petersburg; the third remained in manuscript, kept in the Vatican Library. His incomplete magnum opus on Russian icons ( Russkaia ikona) was…

[German Version] (May 30, 1220, Jaroslav – Nov 14, 1263, Gorodok) was Prince of Novgorod from 1236 and Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1252; he defeated the Swedes on the Neva in 1240 (whence his nickname) and the Knights of the Teutonic Order on the ice of Lake Peipus; in contrast, he submitted to the Tatars whom he saw as less of a threat to Russian Orthodox identity than the Latin West. He died as a monk and has been venerated as a saint since as early as the 14th century. Peter the Great transported his remains to the Lavra in St. Petersburg, which was named after Alexander in 1724. Peter Hauptmann Bibl…

[German Version] (1589, Krempe, Holstein – 1657, Danzig [Gdańsk]), polymath adherent of Socinianism (Socinians). While Ruarus was studying at Altdorf, the physician E. Soner won him to the Socinian cause. After traveling through Denmark, Holland, England, France, and Italy, in 1621/1622 he served as rector of the academy of the Polish Brethren in Raków, near Sandomierz; after further travels, he settled in Danzig in 1631. Coupled with these travels, his extensive correspondence served to propagand…

[German Version] (Čavčavadze, Ilja) (Oct 27, 1837, Qvareli – Aug 30, 1907, Cicamuri), Georgian poet and writer, journalist and politician of royal origins, who was canonized as “St. Ilia the Righteous” on Jul 20, 1987. ¶ After studying philosophy as well as administration and economics in St. Petersburg, he worked as a magistrate in Georgia from 1864, and from 1874 as the chair of the administration of the Bank of the Nobility. In 1906, he was elected to the State Council of the Russian Empire. His verses and …

[German Version] (Mar 25, 1886, Vasilikon, Epirus – Jul 7, 1972, Istanbul). The ecumenical patriarch Athenagoras I (born Aristokles Spyrou) was the son of a physician. After completing his theological studies at the seminary on Halki (1910), he was ordained hierodeacon and assigned administrative duties in the metropoly of Pelagonia. In 1919, after half a year on …

[German Version] This term, first used in the 17th century, denotes the main stream of the anti-Trinitarian movement (Antitrinitarians), moderated in many respects by F. Socinus after 1579. The Socinians explicitly kept the Trinitarian formula in the command to baptize (Matt 28:19). According to the Racovian Catechism, anyone who rejected it could not be a Christian. It was the Early Church’s doctrine of the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son and the personhood of the Holy Spirit that the…

[German Version] (Ger. Gnesen), a town situated roughly 50 km east of Poznań with approx. 50,000 inhabitants, which, as the seat of the first Piaste kings and the center of the archdiocese established in 999, was the cradle of both the Polish state and its church (Poland). The original suffragans Krakow, Wrocław (Ger. Breslau) and Kołobrzeg (Ger. Kolberg) were joined in subsequent centuries by Poznań (Ger. Posen), Włocławek (Ger. Leslau), Płock, Lebus, Vilnius, Łuck and Samogitia. The addition of …

[German Version] (Sep 4 or 16, 1893, Odessa – Dec 4, 1966, Paris) was a Russian Orthodox theologian, forced from his homeland with the White Army, who studied theology in Belgrade from 1921 to 1925 and immigrated to Paris in 1929, where, beginning in 1932, he taught at the Orthodox Theological Institute of St. Serge. He was ordained as a priest in 1940; he led a community in Tunis from 1941–1947, then returned to St. Serge where he was named professor of canonistics in 1950. His main achievement was the rediscovery of the original ecclesiology (Church) which, in …

[German Version] (1478 – Apr 28, 1550, Balga am Frischen Haff [Kaliningrad]), bishop of Samland from 1519. Polentz belonged to the Meissen nobility; after studying in Leipzig and Italy, he was a lawyer in papal and imperial service, before entering the Teutonic Order (Orders of Germany) in 1511 and becoming commander in Königsberg (Krolewiec, Poland) in 1516. Between 1522 and 1525 he ruled the order’s territory of Prussia as the grand master’s deputy. Converted to the Reformation from 1522, he ced…

1. General In Late Antiquity, the term “catechism” (Latin  catechismus from Greek  katéchesis, “oral instruction”) came into use for the instruction of adult catechumens; when infant baptism was introducted in the 2nd/3rd century, it was applied to the instruction of the faithful (Catechetics). In the early modern era, the term came to be applied to systematically organized works designed for elementary religious instruction. Other terms used included  ench( e) iridion (Greek, “small handbook”),  institutio (Latin, “instruction”), and  summa (Latin, “sum”). Catec…

1. AllgemeinK. (lat. catechismus von griech. katḗchēsis, »mündlicher Unterricht«) bezeichnete seit der Spätantike den Unterricht des erwachsenen Taufbewerbers, seit Einführung der Säuglingstaufe im 2./3. Jh. die Unterweisung der Gläubigen (Katechetik). In der Frühen Nz. bürgerte sich der Begriff zur Bezeichnung von systematisch gegliederten und didaktisch aufbereiteten Schriften religiöser Elementarunterweisung ein. Diese wurden auch ench(e)iridion (griech., »Handbüchlein«), institutio (lat., »Unterricht«) oder summa (lat., »Gesamtheit«) genannt. Adress…

[English Version] I. Kirchengeschichtlich 1.  Begriffsgeschichte Der Orthodoxiebegriff (vgl. auch Orthodoxie: I.) stammt aus dem hell. Judentum. So empfiehlt Flavius Josephus »τη`n̆ ο᾿ρϑη`n̆ δο´ξαn̆ περι` Θεου˜/tē´n orthē´n do´xan peri´ Theou´« anstelle der griech. Mythen und überliefert, daß die Essener die anderen Juden als »ε῾τερο´δοξοι/hetero´doxoi« betrachtet hätten (Flav.Jos.Apion. II 256; Bell. II 129). Dieser Sprachgebrauch griff seit dem 2.Jh. auch auf das Christentum über. Entscheidend für seine kirchl. Ausprägung wurde 843…

[English Version] Pauli, Gregor (Grzegorz Paweł; um 1526 Brzeziny – um 1591 Rako´w), polnischer Theologe, der sich nach Studien in Krakau, Königsberg und Wittenberg vom Lutheraner zum Calvinisten und schließlich zum radikalen Antitrinitarier entwickelte. Seit 1551 ref. Pastor in seinem Geburtsort, wurde er 1556 einer der Senioren der ref. Gemeinden Kleinpolens und 1558 Pastor in Krakau. Seit 1562 bestritt er die altkirchl. Trinitätslehre in einer Reihe von Schriften, brach auf dem Reichstag zu Piot…

[English Version] (estnisch: Tallinn) hieß zunächst die anstelle der 1219 vom Dänenkönig Waldemar II. eroberten Estenfestung Lyndanise gegründete Burg mit Bischofssitz. 1227 wurde sie vom Schwertbrüderorden in Besitz genommen. Das führte um 1230 zur Gründung einer dt. Stadt im Anschluß an eine frühere Handelsstätte. 1238 wiederum den Dänen überlassen, wurde R. 1346 vom Deutschen Orden zurückgekauft. Die Bischöfe von R., von jeher ohne Landesherrschaft oder eigenes Territorium, unterstanden noch bi…

[English Version] . Unter dieser erst im 17.Jh. aufgekommenen Bez. versteht man den von F. Sozzini seit 1579 durch mancherlei Mäßigung geprägten Hauptstrom der antitrinitarischen Bewegung (Antitrinitarier). Hier hält man an der trinitarischen Formel im Taufbefehl (Mt 28,19) durchaus fest. Wer sie ablehnt, kann nach dem Rakówer Katechismus kein Christ sein. Allein die altkirchl. Lehre von der Wesenseinheit der Personen des Vaters und des Sohnes sowie von der Personhaftigkeit des Hl. Geistes wird en…

[English Version] I. Allgemeines Der Name P. geht auf einen der westslaw. Stämme zurück, aus deren Zusammenschluß im 9. und 10.Jh. das polnische Volk entstanden ist, und kennzeichnet die Angehörigen dieses Stammes als Feldbewohner (Polani oder Poleni). Das vom Geschlecht der Piasten begründete Reich wird erstmals um das Jahr 1000 als Polonia bez. Heute nennt sich das Staatswesen Polska Rzeczpospolita (Republik P.). Geographisch ist P. von Deutschland im Westen, von der Ostsee und dem Gebiet Kaliningrad der Russ. Föderation im Norden, von Litauen (baltisch…

[English Version] . Nachdem die Slawen von ihrer Urheimat nördlich der Karpaten zw. Weichsel und Dnepr aus ihr Siedlungsgebiet so weit nach Westen und Süden vorgeschoben hatten, daß sie zu Beginn des 7.Jh. die Grenzen des Karolingerreichs erreichten und die byz. Reichsgrenzen überschritten, wurde dort die S. als dringliche Aufgabe erkannt. Der Anfang gelang bei den Alpenslawen (Slowenen), wo der Karantanerherzog Borut um die Mitte des 8.Jh. seinen Sohn taufen ließ. Die Gründung der Klöster Inniche…

[English Version] Nino, die Heilige (1. Hälfte des 4.Jh.), »Erleuchterin« Georgiens. Rufinus von Aquileia berichtet in seiner Kirchengesch. von einer Kriegsgefangenen, die um 330 durch ihre Askese und Wunderheilungen das ostgeorgische Königspaar für den christl. Glauben gewann und zur Einladung griech. Missionare veranlaßte (PL 21, 480–482). Erst in legendär überwucherten einheimischen Quellen aus dem 10.Jh. erscheint sie unter dem Namen N., wohl einer Kontraktionsform aus »Christiana«. Hier verar…

[English Version] I. Stadt und Bistum Nachdem Bf. Albert I. von Livland 1201 nahe einem Handelsplatz gotländischer Kaufleute vor der Mündung der Düna in die Ostsee die Stadt R. gegründet hatte, machte er sie sogleich zum Sitz des 1186 von Bf. Meinhard in Uexküll (etwa 25 km flußaufwärts) begründeten Missionsbistums. Schon 1202 setzte die Zuwanderung aus Deutschland ein. R. wurde auch Sitz des Ordensmeisters in Livland. Seit 1207 Reichslehen, wurde R. 1255 zum Erzbistum erhoben. Seine Suffragane waren…

[English Version] (Čavčavadze), Ilja (27.10.1837 Qvareli – 30.8.1907 Cicamuri), georgischer Dichter und Schriftsteller, Publizist und Politiker von fürstlicher Abkunft, als »hl. Ilia der Gerechte« am 20.7.1987 kanonisiert. Nach philos. sowie verwaltungs- und wirtschaftswiss. Studien in St. Petersburg wirkte er in Georgien seit 1864 als Friedensrichter und seit 1874 als Vorsitzender der Verwaltung der Allgeorgischen Adelsbodenkreditbank. 1906 wurde er in den Staatsrat des Kaiserreichs Rußland gewähl…

[English Version] Vvedenskij, Aleksandr Ivanovič (30.8.1889 Vitebsk – 25.7.1946 Moskau), Apologet und schismatischer Metropolit. Urspr. Lehrer und im 1. Weltkrieg Feldgeistlicher, opponierte er als St. Petersburger Erzpriester und Sekretär einer linken kirchl. Gruppe bereits 1917 gegen die Wiedererrichtung des Moskauer Patriarchats. Als sich Patriarch Tichon in Haft befand, bemächtigte er sich mit zwei anderen Priestern am 18.5.1923 der Patriarchatskanzlei und ermöglichte so die Bildung der »Oberst…

[English Version] . Seit dem MA faßt man die hinter der urspr. dt. Ostgrenze zw. Ostsee und Oberfranken an Elbe und Saale, Havel und Spree sowie bis zum Main ansässigen westslaw. Stämme unter der Sammelbez. W. zus., die vom Namen des illyrischen Stammes der Veneter herzuleiten ist und auch zur Bez. der Slowenen, zumal ihrer Minderheiten auf östr. Gebiet, dient. Die Missionierung der W. gestaltete sich ungemein schwierig. Der große Slawenaufstand von 983 machte alle Anfangserfolge zunichte. Auch de…

[English Version] I. Stadt und Bistum 1224 nach der Eroberung einer alten Festung am Embach, der Wirz- und Peipussee miteinander verbindet, durch den Schwertbrüderorden gegründet, ist T. (estnisch, dt. Dorpat, russ. Jur'ev) die älteste Stadt Estlands (baltische Länder) und mit 101 000 Einwohnern (2001) die zweitgrößte. Der 1219 für die Esten berufene Bf. Hermann nahm 1224 seinen Sitz in T. und begann 1228 mit der Errichtung der Domkirche St. Peter und Paul, die im 14. und 15.Jh. zum größten Sakralbau…

[English Version] Narrheit, heilige. Als solche bez. man in der Ostkirche in Anlehnung an 1Kor 4,10ff. die asketische Praxis, durch vorgetäuschten Verlust des Verstandes sich Mißhandlungen und der Vereinsamung mitten in der Welt auszusetzen und so vor der Gefahr einer Bewunderung durch die Menge zu bewahren. Sie setzt eine christl. Umwelt ebenso voraus wie das Fehlen von Institutionen für Geisteskranke. Die hl.N. begegnet erstmals im 4.Jh. bei einer Nonne in Ägypten, dann zuweilen im Vorderen Orien…

[English Version] Polentz, Georg v. (1478 aus meißnischem Adel – 28.4.1550 Balga am Frischen Haff), Bf. von Samland (seit 1519). Nach Studien in Leipzig und Italien stand er zunächst als Jurist in päpstl. und kaiserlichen Diensten, bevor er 1511 in den Deutschen Orden eintrat und 1516 Hauskomtur in Königsberg wurde. 1522–1525 regierte er als Stellvertreter des Hochmeisters das Ordensland Preußen. Seit 1522 für die Reformation gewonnen, trat er 1525 die Stiftslande seines Bistums an Herzog Albrecht d…

[English Version] Stancarus,  Franciscus (um 1501 Mantua – 12.11.1574 Stopnica bei Sandomierz), Hebraist, Mediziner und Theologe, dessen Streitsucht überall, wohin ihn sein unstetes Leben führte, heftige Auseinandersetzungen auslöste. Wohl jüd. Abkunft und zunächst Priester oder Mönch, wurde er nach Studien in Basel und Süddeutschland 1544 in Wien und 1549 in Krakau Prof. für Hebraistik. Im Mai 1551 an die Universität Königsberg berufen, verließ er diese bereits nach einem Vierteljahr wieder, weil …