Lucas Bacmeister

Lucas Bacmeister (18 October 15309 July 1608) was a Lutheran theologian and church music composer.

Alternative spellings of Bacmeister which may be encountered in sources include Backmeister and Bacmeisterus. Lucas Bacmeister (15301608) is sometimes identified as Lucas Bacmeister the elder in order to differentiate him from his younger son, Lucas Bacmeister the younger (15701638) who was also a Lutheran Theologian of note.

Life Lucas Bacmeister was born in Lüneburg, a short distance inland/upriver from Hamburg. 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 the Leucorea University in Wittenberg. 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 the Saliger Conflicts ("... wegen des Saligerschen Streites ").

This first marriage produced ten recorded sons and one daughter. These included the Hebrew scholar and Lutheran theologiamn Jacob Bacmeister (15621591), the medical professor Johann Bacmeister (15631631), the theologian Lucas Bacmeister the younger (15701638)) and the physician Matthäus Bacmeister (15801626). Another son, Heinrich Bacmeister (15841628), became a lawyer and married Sara Dorothea Reiser (15991634) from Lübeck, becoming the progenitor of what became the Württemberg Bacmeister line. The daughter, Margaretha (15681641), married the Lübeck pastor Johann Stolterfoht, becoming the mother of Jacob 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) from Aalst in Flanders. 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.