Hermann Wilken

Hermann Wilken, Hermann Witekind or Augustin Lercheimer (pseudonym ) (* 1522 in Neuenrade, † February 7, 1603 in Heidelberg ) was a German humanist, writer ( witch theorists ) and mathematician.

Life

Wilken studied in Frankfurt (Oder) and in Wittenberg, where among others, Philipp Melanchthon. From this it was recommended in 1552 to teach at the cathedral school in Riga, the Rector, he took over in 1554. 1561 he enrolled as a " Honoratus " in Rostock and 1563 in Heidelberg, where he became professor of Greek language in the Faculty of Arts. It is known that the death of the Elector Friedrich III. 1576 oldest under his son and successor of Louis VI. for the restoration of Lutheranism in the Palatinate and the dismissal of the Reformed theologians of the University of Heidelberg, led the then in Neustadt on the Wine Route under the protection of Count Palatine Johann Casimir continued their teaching.

The Faculty of Arts and with her Hermann Wilken them were initially not affected. Only the refusal to sign under the Formula of Concord in 1580 led to the dismissal Wilkens and five other professors of the Faculty of Arts as well as the legal and the medical school. Also Wilken found in 1581 a shelter on Casimirianum in Neustadt, but where he did not teach more Greek, but mathematics. As a professor of mathematics, he returned in 1584, after the death of Louis VI. and the recent shift in the Palatinate, back to the University of Heidelberg. Wilken, who remained lifelong professor of Faculty of Arts, died in 1603 in Heidelberg.

1564 Wilken had returned for a short time in his Westphalian home where he was commissioned as a non- theologian by the Council of the City Neuenrade, his brother was mayor there, with the drafting of an evangelical church order. This appeared to be even in the same year in Dortmund in print, but was soon banned by Duke William of Jülich -Cleves -Berg as well as of the imperial city of Dortmund. Saw the older literature, largely without sufficient level of expertise, New Rader in Wilkens church order a compilation of the Riga Church Order of 1530 and from the Palatinate Church Order of 1552, the Wolfgang 's palatinate Zweibrückenstraße 's Church Order of 1557 and associated with the Heidelberg Catechism Palatinate Church Order Caspar Olevians 1563. Gryczan by contrast, has conclusively that Wilken while leaning on the Riga church order and, moreover, oriented in the Mecklenburg Church Order of 1552.

" For the use of the church orders Ottheinrich and Frederick III. there are no clues. " And the use of the Wittenberg Klug 's hymn-book of 1543, the Wilken took 30 songs, also Melanchthon's " exam ordinandorum ". This Wilkens corresponds church order " of the Lutheran or the Melanchthon tradition " so that they could " no longer as an early witness of the development of the Reformed Confession in Westphalia " be interpreted Wilken itself has only in the course of time -. Well after 1564 - " a moderately reformed direction " approached, finally probably only with his refusal to sign under the Formula of Concord.

Hermann Wilken published in 1585 under the pseudonym Augustine Lercheimer of Steinfelden his book against the persecution of witches: "Christian bedencken VND erjnnerung of witchcraft ". Among the great witch theorists Johann Georg Gödel man and Anton Praetorius have been significantly influenced by Wilken.