Buchfelder, Ernst Wilhelm

Buchfelder, Ernst Wilhelm a Reformed theologian of Germany, was born June 5, 1645, at Bentheim, and first studied law. In 1669 he attended the preaching of Theodor Under- Eyck, court-preacher to the landgravine Hedwig Sophia of Hesse-Cassel, who impressed him so deeply that, although twenty-four years of age, he betook himself to the study of theology. For this purpose he went to Utrecht. Having finished his studies, he went to Bremen, where he remained two years, regularly attending. the sermons and devotional exercises of Under-Eyck, who, since 1670, was pastor of St. Martin's. In 1678 he received his first appointment as preacher in Gluckstadt, in Holstein, and in the following year he was elected president of the Latin school at Emden, in East Friesland. In 1684 he was called to Budingen, and in 1688 to Einden, where he died, March 8, 1711. He is the author of only one hymn, which may be regarded as a jewel of the Reformed hymnology: Erleucht mich, lerr, mein Licht (Engl. transl. in Mill's Horae Germ. page 39, "Impart, O Lord, my light?") See Koch, Gesch. des deutschen Kirchenliedes, 6:14 sq. (B.P.)