Heyno Gottschalk

Heyno Gottschalk ( † 1541 Oldenstadt ) was from 1506 to 1531, the last abbot of the Benedictine monastery Oldenstadt. He has described as " early and careful reader, mediator and translator of Luther's writings over a period of 20 years " meaning.

Life

Heyno Gottschalk was after his election as abbot within the Bursfeld monastic reform movement a respected personality ( In 1523 he was Diffinitor, ie administrative officer of the Congregation Bursfeld ). In Oldenstadt the writings of Jakob von Carthusian Jiiterbog, in which he suggested a komtenplativen piety were read intensive. Heyno itself eventually turned to the reform of the Church of the Reformation. Since the early 1520s he was one of the most avid readers of Luther's writings. In the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel 113 Luther writings have been preserved with Gottschalk's handwritten notes today. Already in 1523 he refused on grounds of conscience to participate in the garb of nuns in the convent Lüne. The reformer Martin Luther, he was in correspondence.. This is a reply of Luther from February 28, 1528 After Luther had advised him in this letter, to stay because of his age in the monastery and continue the monastic life in a Reformed way he conducted for reasons of conscience but then the dissolution of the monastery one: 1529/1531 he gave the Duke the monastery. This Oldenstadt was under his leadership, the first monastery of the Congregation Bursfeld, which was transferred to the Reformation.

Then Gottschalk remained until his death in 1541, living with his library on the monastery grounds. When he died, he had only 24 Taler, he had given away to the poor the rest. Here he made both with the Benedictine piety and with the Lutheran ideal of autonomous turning to the fellow seriously.

Document: The Letter of Martin Luther to Heyno Gottschalk

Aftereffect

1992 an exhibition of books from the estate of Heyno Gottschalk found in Holdenstedt Castle near Uelzen and 1999 in the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel instead. Since 2009, recalls the " Abt- Heyno Street " in the Uelzen district Oldenstadt at him.