Konrad Cordatus

Konrad Cordatus, also Cordatus Conrad, Conrad Hertz ( * 1480 in Leombach, † March 25, 1546 in Spandau) was Lutheran theologian and reformer. Cordatus (lat. of the Brave, cor of the heart) is the Latinization of his family name Hertz.

Life and work

The Austrian farmer's son from Leombach bei Wels received his humanistic education at Conrad Celtis in Vienna. He then went to Italy and earned Ferrara the academic degree of licentiate of theology. When he became a preacher in 1510 oven and began to spread his reformist ideas during his sermons, he was imprisoned as a rebel.

On May 9, 1524 Cordatus applied to Wittenberg, where he examined at the university with the ideas of Martin Luther and was awarded his doctorate in theology. In 1525 he moved back to Hungary, where he was again detained and after 38 weeks freed by a guard, fled to Wittenberg.

Philipp Melanchthon recommended him on July 1, 1526 to Nuremberg to find a job in the newly formed Upper School St. Egidien. The end of 1526 he followed a call to Liegnitz in 1527 where he taught at the Academy was to April. This was the reigning Duke University to develop what it did not come.

Therefore, he turned back to Hungary to spread the teachings of the Reformation there. This attempt was, however, again failed and Cordatus was imprisoned again. On his return to Wittenberg, Luther gave him in the spring of 1529 to Zwickau, where he became the second preacher at St. Mary's Church. Because of a dispute with the city council and with some priests, he left again in the direction of Wittenberg Zwickau, where he first found refuge in Luther.

This made ​​sure that he took over in 1532, the parish Niemegk. Driven by over-zealous doctrine of justification, he came in 1536 in disputes with Philipp Melanchthon and Casper Cruciger the Elder .. Cruciger had taught in a lecture on the first letter to Timothy that the buses of man is needed in addition to the work of Christ for justification. Since Cruciger used notes of Melancthon, Cordatus threw later Melanchthon before that he taught in his 1535 re- issued Loci communes ( Theology " commonplaces " or main doctrines, for the first time in 1521 appeared ) that the "opera necessaria were ad salutem " or " ad vitam aeternam " and that the" bona opera in articulo justificationis causa sine qua non " are. This attack was by Melanchthon with the letter addressed to Luther saying " ego neque volui unquam alia docere, quam quae vos " ( I never wanted to teach differently than your ) answers. Luther sought innerlutherischen these, settle to the heart of Reformation theology pathetic argument by a defense de iustificatione ( 1536, WA 39 / I, 82-126 ) organized, in which it also dealt with the question whether the good works of Christians were necessary to his rescue.

Although Luther said in the course of the disputation (WA 39 / I, 96.1-2 ) ". Nostra oboedientia est necessaria ad salutem Ergo est causa partialis iustificationis " ( Our obedience is essential to sent to salvation So it is a part cause of our justification. ). But this must not be understood as teaching the reformer here a kind of synergism, according to lead only God and our actions together to everlasting salvation. For Luther does say ( from 96.2 to 3 ): " multa sunt necessaria, quae non causant et iustificant " ( Many things are essential to sent ( to justify ), but which do not cause and justify ) such as the earth and the sinful man. Therefore, clearly ( from 96.6 to 8 ) applies: "Opera sunt ad necessaria salutem, sed non causant salutem, quia sola fides dat vitam " ( The works are necessary for salvation but they do not cause salvation, because faith alone life there ). Nevertheless, the good works are to teach as necessary for salvation because of the hypocrites ( hypocritae ). After all, the show works so whether a person's faith is genuine ( 96,11-12.14 ): "Opera salvant external, hoc est, testantur nos esse iustos, et fidem eat in homine, quae internal salvat Externa ... salvatio ut fructus ostendit arborem Bonam, ostendit adesse fidem " ( the works save externally, that is, they testify that we are righteous and that faith in man, which saves internally ... the external rescue shows like a fruit the tree good, and it shows that there is faith ). Luther teaches so here is a double justification: externally, that is, before men by works; and internally, that is, before God and is by faith.

These formulations, which form a compromise between Melanchthon and Cruciger on one side and on the other side Cordatus been when Luther here yet "necessary" operated by the term; but in the matter of course, he agreed to Cordatus! In a disputation on the same subject in 1537, Luther then advocated in this context as misleading completely abandoning the Necessity term (see WA 39 / I ,210,20 -21). It is further to be noted that this so-called Cordatus dispute belongs in the history of the antinomian controversy, in which engages from 1537 John Agricola of Eisleben in the innerlutherische debate over the proper relationship between faith, repentance, law and gospel.

Luther recommended the obvious estimate of its fellow Cordatus in the same year ( 1537 ) in his native town of Eisleben and instructed him in the fall of 1539 with the introduction of the Reformation in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. In 1540 he became the first superintendent of Stendal, where he died on a trip to Frankfurt in the service of his community on the Oder near Spandau on 25 March 1546.

Cordatus has represented systematically in this belief in the Scriptures conformity of his Reformation teachings, even as he was for assigned detention. That he clashed in matters of faith with Melanchthon, this did not appear to grudge him: He wrote Cordatus after his death a glorious obituary ( published in 1554 in Nuremberg). Martin Luther is said to have even said " If I had to go into the fire, so is Dr. Pommer up to the flames, but Cordatus with inside ". For Luther, he had a special relationship and is known as Nachschreiber and collectors of Luther's Table Talk, the John Aurifaber published in Frankfurt in 1568.

Cordatushaus

The Cordatushaus the Evangelical parish catfish is named after the born near Wels Protestant reformer. The "Great Hall" in Cordatushaus, a space for events for 350 people, bears the name Cordatussaal.

Writings

• Ursach why Ungern is desolate is bekrieget and ytzt Austria, Zwisckau 1529
• Außlegung EVV. , On Sundays and festivals fürnembsten, ed. v. Philipp Melanchthon, 2 Tle, Nuremberg in 1556;
• Diary of Dr. Martin Luther, ed. v. Hermann Wrampelmeyer, 1885;
• The collection. Konrad Cordatus, in: WATR II, 1913, XXI, 273 ff ff; III, 1914, 1 ff