Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary Handbook — Biographies and Sources —
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Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary Handbook — Biographies and Sources — Most of the articles in this online handbook are from Library of Christian Hymns by John Dahle, a resource book on The Lutheran Hymnary (1913) and from Handbook to The Lutheran Hymnal (1942) which accompanied The Lutheran Hymnal (1941). Our information tells us that these books are both in the public domain. However, the arrangement of the material in these pages is copyright by the ELS Worship Committee. Please feel free to copy and distribute public domain material from these pages for non-profit, non-commercial use. A few short articles have been taken from other sources, indicating their copyright. They are here under the fair use provision for copyrighted material. If we have inadvertently posted your copyrighted material, please contact us and it will be removed. _________________________________________________________________ 150 Psalms of David, Edinburgh, 1615 363. DUNDEE A Student’s Hymnal, 1923 setting: 103. ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVÖGELEIN Aaberg, Jens Christian, 1877-1970 Aaberg, author of Hymns and Hymnwriters of Denmark, 1945, and editor of Favored Hymns and Songs, 1961, translated some eighty hymns and songs from Danish and served on the committees which compiled the American Lutheran Hymnal, 1930; the Hymnal for Church and Home, 1927; the Junior Hymnal for Church and Home, 1932; and the revised Hymnal for Church and Home, 1928. Born November 8, 1877, in Moberg on the West coast of Denmark, he came to the United States in 1901. He went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to join his brother who was then studying for the ministry at Augsburg College and Seminary. After attending St. Ansgar’s College, and Grand View College and Seminary in Des Moines, Iowa, 1904-1908, he was ordained to the ministry of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His first call was to Marinette, Wisconsin, after which he was pastor from 1912 to 1926 of St. Peder’s Lutheran Church, Dwight, Illinois. From 1926 until his retirement in 1946 he served in Minneapolis. He held various offices throughout the synod, and in 1947 received the Knight Cross of Denmark from King Frederick. In 1908 he was married to Elsie Cathrine Raun. He died June 22, 1970. [© Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship] 229. By Faith We Are Divinely Sure (Tr.) 243. The Power of Sin No Longer (Tr.) 529. Vain World, Now Farewell (Tr.) Adam of St. Victor, d. 1172 ADAM OF ST. VICTOR. Although Adam of St. Victor was one of the most prolific of the Latin hymnists of the Middle Ages, very little is known of him. He is called “Brito” by those nearest his own epoch; but whether this indicates “Britain” or “Brittany” is uncertain. Adam was educated at Paris, and about 1130, when still quite a young man, he became a monk in the Abbey of St. Victor. The abbey was then in the suburbs, but afterwards, through the growth of Paris, it was included within the walls of that city. In this abbey, which was celebrated as a school of theology, Adam passed the whole rest of his life.—Adam of St. Victor had a facile pen and spent his life in study and authorship. It is quite probable that he was the author of many more than the numerous hymns and sequences which are definitely known to be his. He was the author of several prose works as well. His sequences, which were in manuscript, were destroyed at the dissolution of the Abbey of St. Victor in the Revolution, but 37 of them had already found their way into general circulation. These were published by Clichtoveus, a Roman Catholic theologian of the first half of the 16th century in his Elucidatorium Ecclesiasticum. Of the rest of the 106 hymns and sequences of his that we possess, the largest part—some 47 remaining unpublished—were removed to the National Library in the Louvre at Paris on the destruction of the abbey. There they were discovered by M. Leon Gautier, the editor of the first complete edition of them, Paris, 1858. Archbishop Trench, who published a selection of his poems in his Sacred Latin Poetry, says that Adam of St. Victor was “the foremost among the sacred poets of the Middle Ages.” [Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal] 411. Christians, come in sweetest measures Agricola, Johannes, 1494-1566 Johann Agricola (Johannes Eisleben) was born April 20, 1492, in Eisleben, where his father was employed as a tailor. At an early age he was sent to school at Brunswick. In 1515 he came to Wittenberg and was received by Luther, who became interested in the talented young man. He spent several years in Wittenberg and was admitted into the household of Luther, who also secured for him a teaching position at the university. He instructed a class in religion, for which purpose he prepared a catechism. In 1519 he accompanied Luther to the disputation with Dr. Eck at Leipzig, and it is claimed that Agricola was appointed to record the proceedings at this meeting. The same year he and Melanchthon received the degree of baccalaureus Bibliae at the University of Wittenberg. He was married in 1520 at Wittenberg. Luther, Melanchthon and other reformers were present at the wedding. After ten years of service in Wittenberg, he was, through Luther’s influence, in 1525, given the position of rector of the school in Eisleben, an institution lately established by Count Albrecht of Mecklenburg. In connection with this position he should also serve as preacher and pastor of the church of St. Nicholas in Eisleben, and here he gathered a faithful congregation. He was, however, not content with his position at the school, and in 1526 he applied for a professorship at the university. But Melanchthon was chosen in preference to Agricola. Agricola was deeply offended. He was not only disposed to be irritable and vain, but overestimated his own importance. His activity and behavior in later years was not altogether praiseworthy. It soon became apparent that he nourished a grudge against Melanchthon. The fact of the matter was, that Melanchthon and Luther had for some time observed with anxiety that as the Reformation progressed, many became followers for the simple reason that they wished to join the popular movement, and not out of personal conviction from the Word of God. Indeed, many preachers proclaimed salvation through faith alone, but this was often received as a mere external adherence to Reformation ideas, without particularly affecting the life of the people. Melanchthon, accordingly, issued a circular letter wherein he admonished the Lutheran preachers not only to preach on faith, but also to encourage people to the confession of sin, repentance, and conversion, and to dwell upon the commandments of the Law. The same thoughts were repeated in his articles of visitation in Saxony. Agricola criticized these very severely, and, at the same time, directed a violent accusation against Melanchthon personally, charging him with abandoning the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and that Melanchthon was influenced again by the doctrine of the “work-righteousness” of Catholicism. Luther sought to put an end to this controversy and at the meeting in Torgau silenced Agricola. There is very little information in regard to Agricola’s activity during the next few years, except that he fell out with Duke Albrecht and was dismissed by him July 27, 1536. Even the same day Agricola went to Wittenberg, where Luther, thinking that he had bettered his ways, received him and his family into his household, and called him into consultation on the Smalcald Articles. More over, the elector promised him an annual allowance for delivering certain lectures at the university. But in 1537 Agricola appeared in public with his perverted doctrine on the Law and thereby began the Antinomian controversy. Luther conducted five disputations with him, 1537-38, and forced him to retract his false teachings, and Luther was authorized to draw up the statement of retraction for Agricola to sign. While this was going on he learned that Luther had censured him in a private letter to a friend, and in 1540 Agricola sent a complaint against Luther to the elector. The proceedings took a sad turn for Agricola, who was arrested and set free only upon the promise that he would not leave Wittenberg until the case had been tried and settled. Despite his promise he slipped away and came to Berlin. The elector Joachim II became his protector, appointed Agricola court preacher, and later superintendent. From that time on Agricola opposed Luther and the other reformers, and later became the leader in the preparation and carrying out of the Augsburg Interim, which was chiefly a compromise between Catholicism and the Reformation and a denial of the fundamental principles of the Reformation. For this Agricola of course incurred the displeasure of the reformers. He died September, 1566. (H. Nutzhorn, from Herzog and Plitt). [Dahle, Library of Christian Hymns] 255. Lord, Hear the Voice of My Complaint Ahle, Johann Rudolph, 1625-73 Johann Rudolph Ahle was born December 24, 1625, at Mühlhausen, Thuringia. He was educated at the universities of Göttingen and Erfurt. He was elected cantor at St. Andreas’s Church and director of the music school at Erfurt in 1646. Eight years later he was given the lucrative post as organist at St. Blasius’s Church, Mühlhausen, to succeed Johann Vockerrodt. In this town he became an influential citizen. He was elected to the town council in 1656 and made mayor in 1661. He died on July 8, 1673. — Ahle was a well-educated German organist and composer. While at Erfurt he became known as one of the most radical reformers of church music.