Johann Forster
Johann Forster ( also Ioannes Forsterus, foresters or forest home ) (* July 10, 1496 in Augsburg, † December 7, 1558 in Wittenberg) was Lutheran theologian of the 16th century, linguists and companions of the Reformation.
Life
After attending school in his native city, he enrolled on September 24, 1515 at the University of Ingolstadt. In 1517 he acquired the academic degree of bachelor in January 1520 and a master's degree in liberal arts. He also graduated from the Bavarian University under John Reuchlin extensive knowledge of the Hebrew language.
As Ingolstadt was hit by the plague, Forster moved the Leipzig University, where he enrolled in the summer semester 1521 and the famous humanist Petrus Mosellanus heard. In May In 1525 he was appointed by the Council in Zwickau as a teacher of Hebrew at the local college. After a church visitation by Georg Spalatin, Anton Musa and Anarch of wild rock, he requested a transfer because he was passed over for the appointment of a new school Rectorate.
In April 1529 he took his leave of Zwickau and turned to the University of Wittenberg, where he signed the Studentenmatrikel the University on June 1, 1530. In the spring of him a preacher was transferred to the Castle Church. In this office he proved himself so much that he was employed at the request of Martin Luther, whom he helped with the translation of the Bible from Wittenberg Council as a deacon at the town church. Forster was one of the daily table companions in the house of Luther.
1535 Forster was sent at the request of the Augsburg Council as a preacher at Augsburg St. John's Church. After he was on 12 July 1537 became preacher at the Holy Cross Church in Augsburg, he involved himself in disputes with his fellow bishops and the city council, after which he was released on 25 November 1538. That's why he came in December 1538 at the invitation Joachim Camerarius to take over the chair of the Hebrew Language at the University of Tübingen. On January 15, 1539, he arrived there on, there occurred on February 7 in the theological faculty, and was on February 17, 1539 Professor of Hebrew. He earned there on 8 December of the same year the doctorate. However, his adherence to the ideas of the Reformation in 1541 earned him the loss of his office a.
1541 Forster provost administrator at St. Lorenz in Nuremberg. On October 5, he was sent at the request of the Council of the City of Regensburg for a few months to introduce the Reformation there. On January 5, 1543, he returned to Nuremberg. On September 25, 1543 to the Reformation brought about in the county of Henneberg - Schleusingen Forster received his certificate for service from the City of Nuremberg Council and its mid-October, signed by the then Catholic reformer Count William appointment to the county Henneberg - Schleusingen.
From 1544 to 1547 Forster led there by visitations, and establishing appropriate Reformation orders ( inter alia, the liturgy Veit Dietrich ) and ordinations ( at least until Easter 1547) the Reformation. Disputes with the two counts to church discipline and the attitude of the counts in the so. Schmalkaldic war led Forster, to request the dismissal from office in 1547. Nevertheless, remained official and personal connections, also to the count house itself, made up in the last years Forsters.
In March 1548 Forster took office as superintendent of the diocese of Merseburg. This office he managed until around Easter 1549, when he was again called to Wittenberg. Here Forster was the successor of the late Caspar Cruciger the Elder. to the Chair of the professor of theology and Hebrew Language at the University of Wittenberg and the associated preacher in the pulpit and the castle church. In his last years, Forster could still be large scientific life's work, the multi-volume Hebrew- Latin Lexicon ( Dictionary Hebraicum novum, Basel 1557) complete before he died on December 7, 1558.
Works (selection)
- Dictionary Hebraicum novum. Basel 1557. 2nd edition 1564th