Martin Chemnitz

Chemnitz, born in Treuenbrietzen in Brandenburg to Paul and Euphemia Chemnitz, was the last of three children.[4] His older siblings' names were Matthew and Ursula. His father was a successful merchant who died when Martin was eleven:[1] thereafter, the family suffered from financial difficulties.

When he was old enough, Martin matriculated in Magdeburg. Upon completion of the course work, he became a weaver's apprentice. He helped his family with its clothing business for the next few years. When he was 20, he resumed his education at the University of Frankfurt (Oder). He remained in school until his finances were exhausted; he then took a teaching job in the town of Wriezen, supplementing his income by collecting the local sales tax on fish. His time at Frankfurt gave him the basic tools to continue his education on his own, researching areas in which he was interested and applying his naturally inquisitive mind to problems that others had worried over in the past.

In 1545 Chemnitz accompanied his cousin Georg Sabinus to school at the University of Wittenberg in Wittenberg, Germany[1] (1545–1547), where he studied under Martin Luther (1483-1546) and Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560). From Melanchthon he learned to shape his theological education, beginning with the difference between "law" and "gospel". In Chemnitz's words, though he heard Luther lecture often, he "did not pay Luther the attention he should have." (cf. Autobiography) Because of Luther's death and political events, Chemnitz transferred to the University of Königsberg (1547–1548). Chemnitz graduated in the first class with a Master of Arts degree (1548). However, a plague soon infested the Baltic Sea Hanseatic German port town of Königsberg in East Prussia, (today renamed Kaliningrad since occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945 at the end of World War II, now annexed into the Russian Federation) so Chemnitz left quickly for Saalfeld. When he judged it safe, Chemnitz returned to Königsberg in 1550, now employed by Albert, Duke of Prussia, as the court librarian for the Konigsberg State and University Library. In return for caring for the library and teaching a few courses as a tutor, he had unrestricted access to what was then considered one of the finest libraries in Europe (and unfortunately later damaged and lost with its contents and elaborate building 400 years later during the battles swirling around the Prussian city on the Eastern Front of the Second World War in 1944–1945).

For the first time Chemnitz applied himself completely to theological study. During these years his interest shifted from astrology, which he had studied in Magdeburg, to theology. He began his own course of study by carefully working through the Bible in the original languages of Hebrew and Ancient Greek with the goal of answering questions that had previously puzzled him. When he felt ready to move on, he turned his attention to the early theologians of the Church, whose writings he read slowly and carefully. Then he turned to current theological concerns, again reading slowly while painstakingly making copious notes. This early method of Lutheran scholastic self-study had been suggested by Melanchthon in his Writings (cf. Autobiography).

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Chemnitz moved back to Wittenberg in 1553[1] as a guest of Melanchthon. In January 1554 he joined the Wittenberg University faculty. He lectured on Melanchthon's Loci Communes, from which lectures he compiled his own Loci Theologici, a system of theology. He was ordained to the ministry on 26 November 1554 by Johannes Bugenhagen (1485-1558), and became co-adjutor of Joachim Mörlin (1514-1571), who was ecclesiastical superintendent for the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. When Mörlin resigned in 1567, Chemnitz became his successor; he held the post for the rest of his life.

Through his leadership, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was brought firmly into Evangelical Lutheranism. There he helped his prince, Duke Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, establish the University of Helmstedt (1575–76). With Jakob Andreae, David Chytraeus, Nicholas Selnecker, Andrew Musculus and others, Chemnitz took part in a centrist movement that brought agreement among German Lutherans in the writing and publication of the Formula of Concord (1577), of which Chemnitz was one of the primary authors. He was instrumental in the publication of the definitive Book of Concord: Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church presented in 1580, containing a series of important earlier confessional theological documents, treatises, commentaries, catechisms as the compilation of the doctrinal standard of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Other major works are Examen Concilii Tridentini[1] (Examination of the Council of Trent) and De Duabis Naturis in Christo (On the Two Natures in Christ). These works demonstrate Martin Chemnitz's abilities as a biblical, doctrinal and historical theologian in the orthodox Lutheran tradition. He died in Braunschweig.

• Antiqvitates Ecclestiaticae inclytae urbis Braunsvigae, oder: Der Beruhmten Stadt Braunschweig Kirchenhistorie. by Philippo Julio Rehtmeyer. Braunschweig: Gedruckt Verlagt von Christoph Friedrich Zilligers, 1710.
• The Doctrine of Man in Classical Lutheran Theology edited by Herman A. Preus and Edmund Smits. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1962.
• Formulators of the Formula of Concord. by Theodore R. Jungkuntz. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1977.
• Grundlinien der Theolgie des Martin Chemnitz by G. Noth, 1930.
• Loci Theologici; De Coena Domini; De Duabus Naturis in Christo; Theologiae Jesuitarum. Chelsea, Michigan: Sheridan Books, 2000. [Facsimile reprint of a 1653 anthology of these four treatises of Chemnitz in Latin by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation].
• Martin Chemnitz nach seinem Leben und Wirken by H. Hachfeld, 1867.
• "Martin Chemnitz' Views on Trent: The Genesis and the Genius of the Examen Concilii Tridentini" by Arthur C. Piepkorn, Concordia Theological Monthly XXXVII [37](January 1966):5–37.
• Die Polemik des Martin Chemnitz gegen das Konzil von Trent by R. Mumm, Leipzig, 1905.
• The Second Martin: The Life and Theology of Martin Chemnitz. by J. A. O. Preus. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1994.
• "The Works of Martin Chemnitz," by D. Georg Williams. Concordia Theological Quarterly. Vol. 42, 1978.
• Der Zweite Martin der Lutherischen Kirche, Festschrift zum 400. Todestag von Martin Chemnitz {The Second Martin of the Lutheran Church, Jubilee Writing for the 400th [anniversary of the day of the death] of Martin Chemnitz} edited by W.A. Jünke, Braunschweig, 1986.
• Studium Excitare: Biography of Martin Chemnitz by Joshua M. Zarling.

• Martin Chemnitz website
• CHEMNITZ (KEMNITZ), MARTIN (Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. III)
• Article on Martin Chemnitz from the Christian Cyclopedia
• Martin Chemnitz on the Doctrine of Justification by J. A. O. Preus II
• Chemnitz and Authority by Eugene F.A. Klug
• Works by or about Martin Chemnitz at Internet Archive
• Works by Martin Chemnitz at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)