Lucas Bacmeister (theologian)

Lucas Bacmeister
Lucas Bacmeister
Born	18 October 1530
Died	9 July 1608
Occupation(s)	theologianand church music composer

Lucas Bacmeister(18 October 1530 – 9 July 1608) was aLutherantheologianand church music composer.

Alternative spellings of Bacmeister which may be encountered in sources include Backmeister and Bacmeisterus. Lucas Bacmeister (1530–1608) is sometimes identified asLucas Bacmeister the elderin order to differentiate him from his younger son, Lucas Bacmeister the younger (1570–1638) who was also a Lutheran Theologian of note.

Life

Lucas Bacmeister was born inLüneburg,a short distance inland/upriverfromHamburg.Johannes Bacmeister, his father, was a master brewer. His mother, born Anna Lübbing, also came from a prominent family in the town. In 1548 he enrolled at theLeucorea UniversityinWittenberg.In order to avoid the plague which was lingering in Wittenberg he moved again in 1552, this time to the court ofKing ChristianofDenmarkwhere he was employed till 1555 as a tutor to the king's children, the princesMagnusandJohann.In 1555 he returned to Wittenberg and resumed his own studies, obtaining aMagister degreein 1557. In 1558 he was accepted as anAdjunctto thePhilosophyfaculty and switched to the study ofJurisprudenceand thenTheology.

In 1559 he relocated toKoldingwhere he was employed by the widowedDorothea of Saxe-Lauenburgas court preacher. On the recommendation ofPhilip Melanchthonhe then went on toRostockwhere at Easter 1562 he took over the post ofSuperintendent,simultaneously also becoming a Teacher/Professor of Theology atthe university.To validate his appointment as a professor he was required to achieve a doctorate, which he did in 1564.In 1574 he was in Lübeck on account of theSaliger Conflicts ("... wegen des Saligerschen Streites").

In 1581 the Protestant authorities ("evangelischen Stände") inLower Austriaappointed Bacmeister to lead a visitation during the course of which he examined the preaching in foursynodical assemblies:for theManhartisberg regioninHorn,for theWienerwald regioninSchallaburg,for the"unter dem Wienerwald" regioninCastle Rodaunand for the"unter dem Manhartsberg" regioninFeldsbergandEnzersdorf.In the context of the intensification of the political tensions arising from the Reformation, the exercise can be seen as part of a larger push to counter the rise ofFlacian fundamentalism.Later in 1581 he visitedBremenin connection with issues involving theSacrament.(The city was experiencingintense rivalriesbetween different interpretations of protestantism at this time.) 1582 found Bacmeister inGüstrowin connection with theApologeticsover theBook of Concord.

Of particular significance forMecklenburgchurch history was Bacmeister's"Bann",written for the Rostock church ministry, which retained canonical legal authority for a long time. Later he also controlled the final version of the Mecklenburg Church Ordinance of 1602, after its original author,David Chytraeus,left it incomplete when he died in 1600. Bacmeister had also produced, in 1577, the Rostock Hymnal which opened the way forJoachim Burmeisterchurch music publications. Bacmeister's own hymn "Ach leue Her im höchsten thron" appeared in 1565 during the depths of theRostockplague outbreak.

Patriarch

Through the fecundity of his first marriage Lucas Bacmeister became the ancestor of some distinguished branches of the Bacmeister family, several of which continue to flourish. His first marriage took place inKoldingin 1560. His bride was Johanna Bording (1544–1584), the daughter of theRostockProfessor of MedicineJacob Bordingand hisAvignonborn wife, Francesca Negrone.

This first marriage produced ten recorded sons and one daughter.These included the Hebrew scholar and Lutheran theologiamnJacob Bacmeister(1562–1591), the medical professorJohann Bacmeister(1563–1631), the theologianLucas Bacmeister the younger(1570–1638)) and the physicianMatthäus Bacmeister(1580–1626).Another son, Heinrich Bacmeister (1584–1628), became a lawyer and married Sara Dorothea Reiser (1599–1634) from Lübeck, becoming the progenitor of what became the Württemberg Bacmeister line.The daughter, Margaretha (1568–1641), married the Lübeck pastorJohann Stolterfoht,becoming the mother ofJacob Stolterfoht.

After his first wife died Lucas Bacmeister married Katharina Beselin (1536–1593), widow of the Rostock municipal leader Johannes Herverden. When she died he married Anna Vischer (ca. 1560–1638) fromAalstinFlanders.As far as is known, however, the second and third marriages were childless.

Output (selection)

• Formae precationum piarum collectae ex scriptis Ph. Melanchthonis.Wittenberg 1559, 1560, 1588
• Von christlichen Bann, kurtzer und gründlicher Bericht aus Gottes Wort und aus Dr. M. Lutheri Schriften, durch die Diener der Kirche Christie zu Rostock zusammengetragen.Rostock 1565
• De modo concionandi.Rostock 1570, 1598
• Historia ecclesiarum Rostoch s. narratio de initio et progressu Lutheranismi Rostochio.(bei Westphalen vol. I., Sp. 1553)
• Verschiedene Disputationen über biblisch theologische Fragen(so 1569 üb. sacerdotium u. sacrificium Christi nach d. Hebräerbrief)und einige bibelkundliche Arhh.; Hist. ecclesiae et Ministerii Rostochiensis.herausgegeben von E. J. von Westphalen. In:Monumenta inedita rerum Germanicarum praecipue Cimbricarum et Megalopolitensium.vol. 1, Leipzig 1739, Sp.1553-1656.