Teschenmacher, Werner

Teschenmacher, Werner a minister of the Reformed Church in Juliers-Cleves-Berg, and a writer of some prominence in ecclesiastical and political literature, was born at Elberfeld in September, 1589. He was educated at Herborn and Heidelberg, and afterwards served the Church from 1610 or 1611 until 1633 in her pulpits, where he gained the reputation of an eloquent and able preacher of the Word. His services were much in request by the churches, Elberfeld, Cleves, and Emmerich, at that time the seat of the Brandenburg government, being his principal fields of labor. He was also greatly esteemed for his fine tact and skill in diplomacy, qualities that led to his selection for the conduct of many affairs in which the preservation and welfare of the Protestant churches of the duchy were at stake during that stormy period of religious wars. He was, however, of hasty temperament and exceedingly self-willed, so that he frequently came into conflict with other clergymen, and occasioned the government, which wished him well, considerable trouble in the effort to sustain him. His retirement from the pulpit was the result of a collision with Stover, a newly appointed colleague to his charge. He removed to Xanten and gave himself to literary labors until his death, on Good-Friday, April 2, 1638. Teschenmacher's writings are chiefly historical in character, and of brief extent. They are, Repetitio Brevis Cathol. et Orthodox. Religuae Singularis Dei Beneficio ante Sceculum a Papatu Reform. in Clivic, Julice, Montium. Ducatibus, etc. (Veselise, 1635, 43 pp.): — Annales Eccles. Reformationis AEcclesiarum Cliviae, etc. (1633): — Annales Cliviae, etc. (1638; 2d ed. by Dithmar, Frankf.-on-the-Oder, 1721), a political work which is still valuable. Works in MS.: Sermons: — A Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians, in Latin: — Annalium Eccl. Epitome in qua precipue Gravissima Quaestio explicatur de Successione et Statu Eccl. Christ, etc. An autobiography in extenso, and a biography by P. Teschenmacher, are both lost. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.