16 Facts About Johannes Bugenhagen

Johannes Bugenhagen, called Doctor Pomeranus by Martin Luther, was a German theologian and Lutheran priest who introduced the Protestant Reformation in the Duchy of Pomerania and Denmark in the 16th century.

Johannes Bugenhagen has been called the "Second Apostle of the North".

Johannes Bugenhagen was pastor to Martin Luther at St Mary's church in Wittenberg.

In 1517, abbot Johann Boldewan called Johannes Bugenhagen to serve as a Biblical lecturer at his nearby Belbuck Abbey, where the two became the core of a Humanist circle.

Duke Bogislav X of Pomerania ordered Johannes Bugenhagen to write down the history of Pomerania in Latin.

Johannes Bugenhagen first encountered the theology of Luther in the reformer's Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church in 1520.

However, once he had studied it more, Johannes Bugenhagen became a supporter of the Reformation and moved to Wittenberg in 1521.

Johannes Bugenhagen was a member of Luther's team translating the Holy Bible from Greek and Hebrew to German, and opened the debate on Ulrich Zwingli's reforms.

Johannes Bugenhagen was regarded as one of the most important teachers and practitioners of biblical interpretation in the Wittenberg-centered Protestant Reformation, ordaining a generation of Lutheran pastors who were educated at this university.

Johannes Bugenhagen took an active lead in creating new church orders for Hildesheim, Hamburg, Lubeck, the Duchy of Pomerania, East Frisia, Schleswig-Holstein, Braunschweig, Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, and Denmark-Norway, where he crowned Christian III.

Johannes Bugenhagen produced rules and regulations for religious service, for schooling, and for social issues of the church.

Also in 1539, Johannes Bugenhagen reformed the Pomeranian University of Greifswald, which he "re-founded" as a Protestant university, modelled after the university of Wittenberg.

Johannes Bugenhagen sought to inform the public that indulgences, not only done without God's word but against it.

Johannes Bugenhagen died in Wittenberg in 1558 and was buried at St Mary's Church.

Johannes Bugenhagen was appreciated for his work in making a Middle Low German translation of Luther's Bible in 1534.

Johannes Bugenhagen was always a pastor at heart, and because of his love for music, his family coat of arms shows a harp.