Abraham Scultetus

Abraham Scultetus ( born August 24, 1566 Grünberg in Silesia, † October 24, 1624 in Emden ) was a professor of theology and court preacher known as the Winter King Frederick V, Elector Palatine.

Life

Abraham Scultetus came from a Silesian Lutheran family. This presented in Silesia several mayor ( Scultetus is the Latinized form) and members of city councils. He received his education in Grünberg, Wroclaw, Freistadt and Görlitz.

Scultetus studied theology at Wittenberg from 1588 and 1590 in Heidelberg and entered 1595 in the service of the Elector of the Palatinate. He was a member of the Council of Churches of the Palatinate since 1600 and 1615 the court preacher Friedrich of V. (* 1596 reg 1610 -. † 1632). In 1618 he became professor of Old Testament at Heidelberg. Through his positions, he gained great influence in religious and partly political issues at the court of Frederick. He appeared at the same time at the Heidelberg court with the also derived from Green Mountain / Silesia theologians Bartholomew Pitiscus.

In addition to visitations in the Upper and Lower Palatinate Scultetus accompanied the Elector on his honeymoon in 1613 to London and represented the Electoral Palatinate 1618-19 at the Synod of Dordrecht. When Frederick in 1619 accepted the election as king of Bohemia, Scultetus went with him to Prague. He was part of the imperial party regarded as one of the chief executives that Frederick had accepted his election. In this case, however, was Scultetus ' influence, which is unlikely to have passed out about religious matters, probably assumed to be greatly exaggerated.

The main reason, however, was Scultetus for iconoclasm in Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral at Christmas of the year 1619th A particular nuisance for the Calvinist preacher relics and images in the churches of Bohemia was, which had remained almost unchanged obtained in the formerly Catholic churches. Therefore Scultetus left, with the will and knowledge of the king, as from 21 December, only briefly interrupted by the Christmas, in the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, the religious art treasures taken away or destroyed. On 27 and 28 December 1621 famous Marienplatz altar by Lucas Cranach was destroyed on Scultetus ' instigation.

1621 Scultetus fled with Frederick of Bohemia in 1622 and came back again shortly after Heidelberg. From 1622 until his death in 1624, he took a job as a minister in the Reformed Emden.

Several of his works have been translated by his son Reinhard Wolf and published his Psalmenstudien by John Adam.