Bugenhagen, Johann
BUGENHAGEN, JOHANN (1485-1558), surnamed Pomeranus, German Protestant reformer, was born at Wollin near Stettin on the 24th of June 1485. At the university of Greifswald he gained much distinction as a humanist, and in 1504 was appointed by the abbot of the Praemonstratensian monastery at Belbuck rector of the town school at Treptow. In 1509 he was ordained priest and became a vicar in the collegiate Marienkirche at Treptow; in 1517 he was appointed lecturer on the Bible and Church Fathers at the abbey school at Belbuck. In 1520 Luther's De Captivitate Babylonica converted him into a zealous supporter of the Reformer's views, to which he won over the abbot among others. In 1521 he went to Wittenberg, where he formed a close friendship with Luther and Melanchthon, and in 1522 he married. He preached and lectured in the university, but his zeal and organizing skill soon spread his reforming influence far beyond its limits. In 1528 he arranged the church affairs of Brunswick and Hamburg; in 1530 those of Lübeck and Pomerania. In 1537 he was invited to Denmark by Christian III., and remained five years in that country, organizing the church (though only a presbyter, he consecrated the new Danish bishops) and schools. He passed the remainder of his life at Wittenberg, braving the perils of war and persecution rather than desert the place dear to him as the home of the Reformation. He died on the 20th of April 1558. Among his numerous works is a history of Pomerania, which remained unpublished till 1728. Perhaps his best book is the Interpretatio in Librum Psalmorum (1523), and he is also remembered as having helped Luther in his translation of the Bible.
See Life by H. Hering (Halle, 1888); Emil Görigk, Bugenhagen und die Protestantisierung Pommerns (1895). O. Vogt published a collection of Bugenhagen's correspondence in 1888, and a supplement in 1890.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
