Zacharias Praetorius

Zacharias Praetorius (né Breiter; 15 April 1535 in Mansfeld – 22 December 1575 in Eisleben) was a German Lutheran poet and theologian.

Early life and education Praetorius was born to city councilman Sebastian Breiter and Margaret Platner, who was from the city of Stolberg; both were friends of Martin Luther. In 1553, he began his studies at the at the University of Wittenberg, where he was crowned poeta laureatus in 1556, and passed the Magister exams in 1557. After a conversation with fellow Lutheran Philip Melanchthon, who, according to Johann Heinrich Zedler, considered Praetorius to be the best poet in all of Germany, Praetorius Latinized his name from the Germanic name Breiter.

Career He served as a deacon of in 1559, and later served at Orth an der Donau in 1564. Praetorius then returned, after a time in Regensburg, to Eisleben to work, and was disposed by the church in 1575 for criticizing the expulsion of his colleague Cyriacus Spangenberg after the Flacian controversy.

During his time in Austria in the 1560s, Praetorius experienced religious persecution due to his Lutheran beliefs. It is recorded that in 1566, during his tenure in Orth an der Donau with fellow theologian , Barbara von Zinzendorff, daughter of theologian Christoph Reuter, told her father in description of Praetorius's dilemma that "If Magdeburg and Praetorius go back [to Germany], where they will not be persecuted, they will leave their wives and children in the highest degree to preach [Lutheran] theology. What they mean is clear[ly stated] in [Revelation] (lit: Apocalypse) 2-4, where the woman in infancy means the church, and where the dragon comes before the woman who is to give birth, that when she had given birth, he might devour her child." Magdeburg stayed in Austria for many years after that, but Praetorius returned to Germany at the beginning of the 1570s.

Praetorius published a wide array of Latin writings while he was still a student, and later translated Luther's church hymns into Latin verse. With Johannes Aurifaber, he also contributed to the latter's Table Speeches Colloquia. In Eisleben, in addition to sermons, he published many catechisms and writings that were seen as controversial by the church.

One of Praetorius's niches was his writing of poetry for the deceased, such as that Balthasar Podlodowski, who was a peer of Praetorius during his formative years. Podlodowski was killed in Dresden on 30 July 1556 following an accident with his horse.

In Didacus Sarmiento Valladares' Novissimus Librorum Prohibitorum et Expurgandorum Index Pro Catholicis Hispaniarum Regnis Philippi V. Regis Catholici cum integro indice cognominum auctorum primae, & secundae classis, a 1707 listing of all religious books banned by King Phillip V of Spain, Praetorius is listed as a banned author due to his use of the Augsburg Confession in his teachings.

Family In August 1559, Praetorius married Magdalene Sarcerius, daughter of Lutheran theologian Erasmus Sarcerius. Magdalene died in 1660 in Eisleben a year into the marriage.

Upon the death of his father-in-law in 1559, a few months prior to his marriage, Praetorius wrote a eulogy titled Pious Lamentations on the Death of Reverend and Saint Virid. Erasmus Sarcerius in his honor.