Johann Matthäus Meyfart, also Johann Matthaeus Meyfahrt, Mayfart (9 November 1590 – 26 January 1642) was a German Lutheran theologist, educator, academic teacher, hymn writer and minister. He was an opponent fighter of

witch trials A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The Witch trials in the early modern period, classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and European Colon ...

Career

Meyfart was born in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

, the son of a minister, and studied at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The ...

from 1608, first the liberal arts graduating in 1603, then theology, continued at the

University of Wittenberg Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

from 1614. He taught from 1617 at the Gymnasium in

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it ...

, serving as its Rektor from 1623. In 1633 Meyfart was appointed professor of theology at the

University of Erfurt The University of Erfurt (german: Universität Erfurt) is a public university located in Erfurt, the capital city of the German state of Thuringia. It was founded in 1379, and closed in 1816. It was re-established in 1994, three years after Germ ...

. He was the Rektor of the university from 1634 to 1636. During the last years of his life he served as a minister at the Predigerkirche, where he is buried. Johann Matthäus Meyfart Buch

Meyfart is known as the author of

hymns A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

such as "“ ('' Evangelisches Gesangbuch'' EG. 150), written in 1626. He wrote from 1629 to 1632 ', a call against

, published in 1635.

Selected works

* ' Erfurt 1635. * ' ed. Erich Trunz, Tübingen 1977. (Deutsche Neudrucke, Reihe Barock 25; new edition) * '', .'' ed. Erich Trunz, Tübingen 1979. (Deutsche Neudrucke, Reihe Barock 26, first Coburg 1626) * '', '' Coburg 1626. * ' 1633. * ' Schleusingen 1636. * ' three volumes, Leipzig 1628, 1633, 1637.

Recognition

* His day in the Evangelischer Namenkalender (Lutheran Calendar of Saints) is 26 January.

Literature

* C. Hallier: ' ed. . Neumünster 1982. (Kieler Studien 15) * Traudl Kleefeld: '. In Hartmut Hegeler: ''Unterrichtsmaterialien Hexenverfolgungen''. Unna 2005, p. 68f * Erich Trunz: ' Munich 1987 *

Gerhard Dünnhaupt Gerhard Dünnhaupt, FRSC (born August 15, 1927 in Bernburg (Saale)) is a German bibliographer, literary historian, emeritus professor of the University of Michigan, an honorary life member of the Modern Language Association of America, Elected Fe ...

: ''Johann Matthäus Meyfart (1590–1642)''. In: ''Personalbibliographien zu den Drucken des Barock.'' Band 4, Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1991, . S. 2721–2750. *

Walther Killy Walther Killy (26 August 191728 December 1995) was a German literary scholar who specialised in poetry, especially that of Friedrich Hölderlin and Georg Trakl. He taught at the Free University of Berlin, the Georg-August-Universität Göttinge ...

(ed.): ''Literaturlexikon. Autoren und Werke deutscher Sprache.'' (15 vol). Bertelsmann-Lexikon-Verlag, Gütersloh/München 1988–1991. (CD-ROM: Berlin 1998, ) * * * *

External links

* *
Johann Matthäus Meyfart: ''Christliche Erinnerung / An Gewaltige Regenten''
* Schmid, Markus: ''Eine kritische Stimme zur Hexenverfolgung: Johannes Matthäus Meyfarts Christliche Erinnerung von 1635,'' in: Skriptum 2 (2012), No. 2, URN
urn:nbn:de:0289-2012110259
Open-Access verfügbarer Artikel mit Schwerpunkt auf der Entstehung und Bedeutung der ''Christlichen Erinnerung.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyfart, Johann Matthaus German Lutheran theologians German Lutheran hymnwriters 1590 births 1642 deaths 16th-century Lutheran theologians 17th-century Lutheran theologians