Justus Jonas (5 June 1493 - 9 October 1555) was a German Protestant reformer. June 5 is the 156th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (157th in leap years), with 209 days remaining. ... Events January 4 - Christopher Columbus leaves the New World. ... October 9 is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in Leap years). ... Events Russia breaks 60 year old truce with Sweden by attacking Finland May 23 - Paul IV becomes Pope. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ...

He was born at Nordhausen in Thuringia. His real name was Jodokus (Jobst) Koch, which he changed according to the common custom of German scholars in the 16th century, when at the University of Erfurt. He entered that university in 1506, studied law and the humanities, and became Master of Arts in 1510. In 1511 he went to Wittenberg, where he took his bachelors degree in law. He returned to Erfurt in 1514 or 1515, was ordained priest, and in 1518 was promoted doctor in both faculties and appointed to a well-endowed canonry in the Church of St Severus, to which a professorship of law was attached. Nordhausen is a city at the southern border of the Harz mountains, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. ... The Free State of Thuringia (German Freistaat Thüringen) lies in central Germany and is among the smaller of the countrys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states), with an area of 16,200 sq. ... The University of Erfurt is one of the oldest universities in Germany. ... Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a town in Germany, in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, at 12°59 east, 51°51 north. ...

His great admiration for Erasmus first led him to Greek and biblical studies, and his election in May 1519 as rector of the university was regarded as a triumph for the partisans of the New Learning. It was not, however, until after the Leipzig disputation with Eck that Martin Luther won his allegiance. He accompanied Luther to Worms in 1521, and there was appointed professor of canon law at Wittenberg by Frederick III, Elector of Saxony. Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (also Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam) (October 27, probably 1466 – July 12, 1536) was a Dutch humanist and theologian. ... Events March 4 - Hernán Cortés lands in Mexico. ... Map of Germany showing Leipzig Leipzig [ˈlaiptsɪç] (Polish; Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk) is the largest city in the federal state (Bundesland) of Saxony in Germany. ... Martin Luther (originally Martin Luder or Martinus Luther) (November 10, 1483 – February 18, 1546) was a German theologian and an Augustinian monk whose teachings inspired the Protestant Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines of Lutheran, Protestant and other Christian traditions (a broad movement composed of many congregations and church bodies). ... Worm can refer to: The worm, a collection of animal phyla. ... Events January 3 - Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther. ... Friedrich III (January 17, 1463 — May 5, 1525), also known as Frederick the Wise, was Elector of Saxony (from the House of Wettin) from 1486 to his death. ...

During Luther's stay in the Wartburg, Jonas was one of the most active of the Wittenberg reformers. Giving himself up to preaching and polemics, he aided the Reformation by his gift as a translator, turning Luther's and Melanchthon's works into German or Latin as the case might be, thus becoming a sort of double of both. He was busied in conferences and visitations during the next twenty years, and in diplomatic work with the princes. In 1541 he began a successful preaching crusade in Halle, becoming superintendent of its churches in 1542. In 1546 he was present at Luther's deathbed at Eisleben, and preached the funeral sermon; but in the same year was banished from the duchy by Maurice, Duke of Saxony. Wartburg was the name of an automobile manufactured in East Germany. ... The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ... Philipp Melanchthon (February 16, 1497 - April 19, 1560) was a German theologian and writer of the Protestant Reformation and an associate of Martin Luther. ... Map of Germany showing Halle Halle (also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish from Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia) is the largest town in the German Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. ... Eisleben is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. ...

From that time until his death, Jonas was unable to secure a satisfactory living. He wandered from place to place preaching, and finally went to Eisfeld (1553), where he died. He had been married three times.

References

• Briefswechsel des Justus Jonas, gesammelt und bearbeitet von G. Kawerau (2 vols., Halle, 1884-1885);
• Kawerau's article in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, ed. 3, with bibliography.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. Kawerau is a town in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica ( 1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...