MATHESIUS, JOHANNES: German Reformer; b. at Rochlitz (16 m. n.n.w. of Chemnitz) June 24, 1504; d. at Joachimsthal (14 m. n.n.e. of Elbogen), Bohemia, Oct. 7, 1565. He was the first biographer of Luther, the Reformer of Joachimathal, and one of the most powerful preachers among the Reformers of the second period (1504-65). He studied at Wit tenberg, which he gratefully praised as his spiritual home, always regarding himself as a member of the church and school there. In 1532 he became the seventh rector of the Latin school at Joachimsthal, the then new city of northwestern Bohemia which had achieved prosperity by its silver mines and had adopted Lutheranism. In 1540 Mathesius went again to Wittenberg, where he became Luther's table-companion and made notes of his table-talk. In 1542 he was ordained by Luther. In the church at Joachimsthal he labored for nearly a quarter of a century, first as preacher, then as pastor. He was the most famous preacher of that place and of German Bohemia, being distinguished for learning and for spirited and genial eloquence. Under him church affairs became firmly established and pro tected against disturbances from without and with in. Mathesius was so closely bound to his office and position that he refused all offers from abroad, including a call to the University of Leipsic. Against his desire he went to Prague (1546) together with the magistrate and thirty delegates to defend them selves before King Ferdinand I. for their attitude in the Schmalkald war. After that affair, there followed some years of relief, of successful work, of literary activity, and of beneficial intercourse with colleagues in school and church, at home and abroad. But domestic troubles, new political storms, relig ious persecutions, and physical ailments brought him, prematurely aged, to an early grave. For snore than one hundred years the effects of his work remained. The memory of the joachimathal " " angel of the church," disturbed by the rage of the Jesuits, was renewed there even by Catholics through a me morial tablet. His sermons have been circulated in numerous editions and revisions; some were translated into foreign languages. Best known are two collections of popular yet scientific, instructive yet devotional, lectures delivered in the carnival season, when something amusing was expected. The "Sarepta" was intended to explain sayings, stories, and examples from the Scriptures which mention mining, in order that the Joachimsthal people might have their,, mining-book of homilies " as farmers and viticulturists had theirs. In the "Lutherhistorien" Mathesius proved himself a pio neer in the kind of homilies for the church of the Reformation which the Roman Church had given in her "sermons on the saints." They constitute the first real biography of Luther (Nuremberg, 1W6). These more than any others carried through the centuries the memory of the joachimstbal preacher, and in spite of deficiencies, inaccuracies, and mis takes they are still a source of information (last critical edition, Prague, 1906). In Mathesius' ser mons seriousness and humor, bluntness and tenderness, go hand in band.

(Georg Loesche.)

Bibliography: The AuegsmShtte Werke, 4 vols., are ed. by G, Loesche, with introduction and commentary, Prague, 1896-1908. Extracts are by K. F. Ledderhose, Heidel. berg, 1849, in French by L. Schweitzer, 1871. The chief biographical work is by G. Loesche, 2 vols., Gotha, 1895; cf. his Matheeiana, in Jahrbuch für die Geschichte des Protestantismus Ca Oesterreich, Vienna, 1904; idem, in ZeifedaVl für deutsche WoWorschung, i (1900), 235-238. Consult also the works by: Balthazar Mathesius, Dresden, 1705; J. Abraham, Wittenberg, 1883; K. Amelung, Gütersloh, 1894; G. F. Fuchs, in Halts was du had, uv (1902), 386-373.