Ernest I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Ernst I, Duke of Brunswick- Lüneburg ( * June 27, 1497 in Uelzen, † January 11, 1546 ), was from 1521 to 1546 Prince of Lüneburg. Because of its consistently Reformation attitude and the joint signing of the Augsburg Confession, he was nicknamed the Confessor in the 18th century.
Life
Ernst was born in 1497 in Uelzen as the fourth child of Duke Henry the Middle and his wife Margaret. In 1512 he was sent to study at the University of Wittenberg. Although his subject was not theology, he might also heard lectures of Martin Luther, the Reformation turn was developing in these years.
After studying Ernst entered the service of the French king Francis I. When the Emperor Maximilian I in January 1519 died, Francis I endeavored next to Charles I of Spain over the succession. Ernst 's father, Henry the Middle had stood at the election of the king on the side of the French Kronprätenden and thus earned the enmity of Charles V. Because of Henry's role in the Hildesheim pin this feud 1521, the imperial ban imposed on him. Henry, however, had handed over the threat in mind, in 1520 the government of Ernst and his brother Otto and traveled to France to the court of the French king into exile.
After 1527 Otto retired from the government and was resigned to the Office Harburg and also the co-governing since 1536 youngest brother Franz in 1539 had come to terms with the Office Gifhorn, Ernst the Confessor reigned alone. One focus of his government was the rehabilitation of the completely over-indebted principality. So were at his inauguration, with the exception of the castle bailiwick, pledged all the offices, and his efforts focused primarily on their re redemption. The tax increases needed for this led to serious clashes with the stands. However, it was Duke Ernst to be assertive and to take as the mandatory become debt reduction.
A second focus of his work was the introduction of the Reformation. 1525 Ernst known publicly to the doctrine of Luther. 1526 he joined the Confederation of Torgau. 1527 he met personally at a Royal Wedding in Torgau Luther and consulted with him about matters of faith and the reorganization of the Church being. The Imperial Old Believers party then called back Ernst's father, Heinrich, from exile in France to displace Ernst. However, Henry had to renounce definitively in 1527 when Parliament in Scharnebeck monastery on the throne. Now Ernst was consistently on the implementation of the Reformation in his country, supported by the preachers of the residence who wrote for him a theological opinion (Article ), and by the Diet. 1529 Ernst belonged to the main signatories of the protest at Speyer against the repeal of the Reichstag decision from 1526, which had granted the estates of the empire in the Luther question of freedom.
At the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, he signed the Augsburg Confession, the basic confession of the Lutheran, and met the theologian Urbanus Rhegius, which he won for the other ecclesiastical reorganization of his country and appointed General Superintendent. However, a printed church order for the duchy appeared only 1563rd
When in 1531 because of the question of religion announced military conflicts in the kingdom, Ernst won the North German cities for joining the Smalcald League. Ernst's consistent commitment to the Lutheran Reformation had along with the obvious personal conviction also an economic side. Due to the confiscation of monastery estates of Duke won significant resources for the consolidation of public finances. The monasteries themselves were partly continued as a noble Protestant pins.
Ernst's watchword was aliis servio, me ipsum Contero: " I serve others, I myself may devour ."
Ernst I was buried in the royal crypt in St. Mary's Church in Celle.
Progeny
His marriage to Sophie of Mecklenburg -Schwerin (1508-1541) Ernst had the following children:
- Franz Otto (1530-1559)
- Friedrich (1532-1553)
- Henry of Dannenberg (1533-1598)
- Margaret (1534-1596)
- William the Younger (1535-1592)
- Ursula (1536-1538)
- Catherine (1537-1540)
- Elisabeth Ursula (1539-1586)
- Sophie Magdalene (1540-1586)
- Sophie (1541-1631)
Remembrance
January 11 in the Protestant calendar name.