Hermann Bonnus (Hymn-Writer)

Born: 1504 - Quakenbrück, near Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, Germany
Died: February 12, 1548 - Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Hermann Bonnus [Bonn, Gude] (actually: Hermann von Bunne (n), after the town of Bunnen near Löningen as Bonnus Latinized, where his father's family came from) was a German reformer and first superintendent of Lübeck. He was son of Arnold Gude, Councillor at Quakenbrück near Osnabrück. He matriculated at Wittenberg in 1523, and studied under Martin Luther and Melanchthon. He then studied in Greifswald . In 1528 he became tutor to the seven-year-old Danish prince Johann in Copenhagen and Gottorf and wrote at that time a Latin-Low German grammar. Then he became a teacher at the Stadtschule in Treptow an der Rega, where he met Johannes Bugenhagen

After the introduction of the Reformation in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck in 1531, Hermann Bonnus was appointed by Bugenhagen's first Rector of Katharineum, the newly founded Latin School of the Räumen des Franziskanerklosters St. Katharinen,. Shortly thereafter, in 1531, the City Council of the city of Lübeck appointed him to the new office of the Superintendent. In the years 1532/1533 he was involved in the Lübeck translation of Martin Luther's Bible into Low German , the Lübecker Bibel (1533/1534).

In the political turmoil of the coming years until 1535, Hermann Bonnus took a critical stand against the council and the mayor Jürgen Wullenwever and exposed the church guardianship, represented by the ministry, to the politicians. He promoted the co-operation of the ministries of Lübeck, Hamburg and Lüneburg in the so-called Ministerium Tripolitanum (Ministry of Tripolitanum) and thereby accelerated the formation of a Lutheran-denominational church system in the northern German cities.

In 1543, at the request of the Council of the City of Osnabrück and with the consent of Bishop Franz von Waldeck, Hermann Bonnus created a reformatory church code for the city and the Hochstift Osnabrück , including the offices of Cloppenburg and Vechta . Their population was so from 1543 to 1613 in the 70-year phase of the Catholic so-called "Verblendung" (delusion) Protestant, from 1613 again Catholic. The "Kerckenordnung vor de landkercken des stiftes Osenbrugge" (Order of the Osenbrugge Foundation) was based on the city's ecclesiastical order, but was not an excerpt from it and was entitled: Ordinatio magistri Hermanni Bonni... Exercitium quotidianum in sacris scripturis et psalmis cantandis pro ecclesiis collegiatis' ubi praedicatur evangelium, als dar is Quakenbrugge und anders mer. Anno 1543. There were also arranged the worship and the holidays, of which 13 apostolic days remained. Assumption of Mary did not qualify as scriptural.

When Hermann Bonnus died in 1548, he left his pregnant wife Katharina and the six children under the care of the mayor Anton von Stiten . His son Arnold was 1594 Lübeck mayor.

Hermann Bonnus was a practitioner who created a variety of works: a catechism, an adaptation of the Rostocker Gesangbuchs (Rostock hymn-book), which was used as a hymn book of the Lübeck church from 1545, the Farrago, an anthology of life images of the apostles, saints and martyrs, a Latin textbook, a chronicle and exegetical lectures. As a hymn-writer his work consisted mainly of revisions of the older Latin hymns, and translations of some of them and of a few High German hymns into Low German. His hymns appeared as Etlike schone Geistlike gesenge appended to the Magdeburg Gesang-Buch, 1542-1543. The only one translated into English is: O wir armen Sünder. [Fall & Redemption). First published 1542 as above in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and thence in Wackernagel, iii. p. 735. It begins "Och wy armen sünders! unse missedadt," and first appeared in High German in the Magdeburg Gesang-Buch, 1588. Based on the old Judas hymn, c. 1400, "O du armer Judas." His chorale "Och wy armen sünder"" is still spread through the Evangelical hymnal.Translated as "We wratcheit sinnaris pure" in the Gude and Godly Ballates (edition 1567-68, folio 13), edition 1868, p. 21. (2) "'Twas our great transgression," in the Christian Examiner, Boston, U.S., September 1860 [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

Source: German Wikipedia Website (March 2018), English translation by Aryeh Oron (October 2018); Hymnary.org Website (from John Julian: Dictionary of Hymnology, 1907)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (October 2018)

Texts of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

BWV 407

Chorale Texts used in Bach’s Vocal Works

O wir armen Sünder (1542; NLGB 68; ELS 100)

Links to other Sites

Hermann Bonnus (Wikipedia) [German]
Bonn, Herman (Hymnary.otg)

Bibliography

Olof Ahlers: Bonnus, Hermann. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 2 (Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955; Digitalisat).
Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz: BONNUS (Bonn), Hermann. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Band 1 (Bautz, Hamm 1975). 2., unveränderte Auflage Hamm 1990, Sp. 696.
Georg Wilhelm Dittmer: Genealogische und biographische Nachrichten über Lückeckische Familien aus älterer Zeit.(Dittmer, Lübeck 1859(, S. 12 (Digitalisat in der Google-Buchsuche).
Martin Espenhorst: Der Reformator Hermann Bonnus (1504–1548) als Übersetzer der Weltchronik des Johann Carion. In: Osnabrücker Mitteilungen. Bd. 122 (2017), S. 89–127.
Hans Friedl (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch zur Geschichte des Landes Oldenburg (Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, S. 85 (PDF).
Heinrich Heppe: Bonnus, Hermann. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Band 3 (Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876), S. 133.
Gustav Kawerau: Bonnus, Hermann. In: Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche (RE). 3. Auflage. Band 3 (Hinrichs, Leipzig 1897), S. 313–314.
Walther Killy: Literaturlexikon. Autoren und Werke deutscher Sprache. Band 2 (Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1989), S. 108.
Jan Friedrich Richter: Porträt des Hermann Bonnus auf dem Totenbett. In: Jan Friedrich Richter (Hrsg.): Lübeck 1500 – Kunstmetropole im Ostseeraum. Katalog (Imhoff, Petersberg 2015), S. 366–367 (Nr. 71).
Petra Sawidis: Hermann Bonnus. Superintendent von Lübeck (1504-1548). Sein kirchenpolitisch-organisatorisches Wirken und sein praktisch-theologisches Schrifttum (= Veröffentlichungen zur Geschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck. Reihe B, Bd. 20). (Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 1992)
Bernhard Spiegel: Hermann Bonnus: Erster Superintendent von Lübeck und Reformator von Osnabrück (Roßberg, Leipzig 1864).
Heide Stratenwerth: Die Reformation in der Stadt Osnabrück (Steiner, Wiesbaden 1971)
Dietrich Wölfel: Bonnus, Hermann In: Wolfgang Herbst (Hrsg.): Wer ist wer im Gesangbuch? (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Heidelberg 2001)