Hamelmann, Hermann

Hamelmann, Hermann a German Protestant theologian and historian, was born at Osnabrick in 1525. He was brought up in the Roman Catholic Church, and became curate of Camern. Having subsequently embraced the doctrines of the Reformation, he lost his position, and went to Wittemberg, where he lived some time in intimacy with Melancthon. He afterwards preached the Protestant doctrines at Bielefeld and Lemgo, and in the counties of Waldeck, Lippe, Spiegelberg, and Pyrmont, and in Holland. He acquired great renown as a preacher, and prince William of Orange called him to Antwerp, to participate in the preparation of a new ecclesiastical discipline. In 1569 duke Julius of Brunswick appointed him first superintendent of Gandersheim, and his aid was requested by the counts John and Otho oi Oldenburg, to introduce the Reformation in their states. He spent the last years of his life in this occupation, acting as general superintendent of the Protestant churches of Oldenburg, Elmenhorst and Jever. He died in Oldenburg June 26,1595. His theological and historical works are valuable for the history of the Reformation. Among them are De Traditionibus veris falsisque (Frankfort, 1555): — De Eucharistia et controversiis inter Pontificos et Lutheranos hoc de articulo agitatis (Frankf. 1556): — De conjugio sacerdot. brevis interlocutorins a suffaganeo et diacono (Dortmund, 2nd ed. 1582):Historia ecclesiastica renati Evangel. (Altenburg, 1586). See Historische Nachricht fiber d. Leben, Bedienungen u. Schriften Ham. (Quedlinburg, 1720); Burmann, Syllog. Epist. 1, 430; Rotermund, Gelehrtes Hannover, vol. 2, p. 44; Jocher, Allg. Gelehrten Lexikon, 2, 1340.