Justus Menius

Justus Menius (13 December 1499 – 11 August 1558) was a German Lutheran pastor, whose name is Latinized from Jost or Just (i.e. Jodocus) Menig.

Menius was born in Fulda to poor but respectable parents. Entering the University of Erfurt in 1514, he received his bachelor's degree in 1515 and his master's degree in 1516. At this time, in association with the keen humanists Conrad Mutian, Crotus Rubeanus, and Eoban Hess, Menius became more sceptical. Moving to Wittenberg in 1519, he became evangelical under the teaching of Philipp Melanchthon and the preaching of Martin Luther.

After travel in Italy (1521-1522) Menius was appointed (1523) town preacher at Wittenberg, but was soon transferred to the charge of Mühlberg, under Erfurt. Here he published his commentary on Acts (1524) and married. He resigned his charge (1525) and opened a school at Erfurt, but the town council insisted on his resuming his ministry, appointing him preacher in St Thomas, Erfurt. He worked in conjunction with Luther's friend, John Lange, and was opposed by the Franciscans under Conrad Kling.

Menius left for Gotha (1528), resumed teaching, and enjoyed the friendship of Friedrich Myconius. John, Elector of Saxony, had placed him on the commission for church visitation in Thuringia, and in 1529 appointed him pastor and superintendent at Eisenach, where for eighteen years he administered church affairs with tact, and fostered the spread of education. In 1529 he brought out his Oeconomia christiana (a treatise in German, on the right ordering of a Christian household) with a dedication to Duchess Sybil of Saxony and a preface by Luther.

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