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Joshua Stegmann was a German Protestant theologian and poet of hymns. He was the son of Ambrosius Stegmann, Lutheran pastor at Sülzfeld, near Meiningen, and finally, in 1593, superintendent at Eckartsberga, near Merseburg. He entered the University of Leipzig in 1608 (M.A. 1611), and was for sometime adjunct of the Philosophical Faculty. In 1617 he was appointed Superintendent of the district (Grafschaft) of Schaumburg, and also pastor at Stadthagen, and first professor of the Gymnasium there; and before entering on his duties graduated D.D. at Wittenberg, on October 24, 1617. When the Gymnasium was erected into a university, and transferred (1621) to Rinteln, he became ordinary professor of Theology there. By the outbreak of war he was forced to flee from Rinteln, in 1623. After his return he was appointed, in 1625, Ephorus of the Lutheran clergy of Hesse-Schaumburg.
By the Edict of Restitution, promulgated by the emperor on March 6, 1629, Joshua Stegmann was greatly harassed; for the Benedictine monks, after they had settled in Rinteln, in 1630, claimed to be the rightful professors, and demanded the restoration of the old church lands, and especially the property formerly belonging to the nunnery at Rinteln, but which had been devoted to the payment of the stipends of the Lutheran professors. They sent soldiers into Stegmann's house to demand that he should refund his salary, and on July 13, 1632, compelled him to hold a disputation, at which they annoyed him in every possible way. Soon after he was seized with fever, and died August 3, 1632. (Koch, iii., 128; Wetzel, iii., 251; Einladwigsschrift des Gymnasium Bernhardinum, Meiningen, 1888; manuscript from Pastor A. Bicker, Rinteln; Dr. Förstemann, Leipzig), &c.
Joshua Stegmann was known as a writer of Latin verse while yet a student at Leipzig, and by his contemporaries was reckoned as a hymn writer. It is, however, very difficult to discriminate his productions. The hymns interspersed in his devotional works are given without any indications of authorship, and many of them are certainly by earlier writers, or recasts founded on earlier hymns. |
