Johann Matthäus Meyfart

MEYFART, Johann Matthäus (Meyfahrt, Mayfart). b. Jena, 9 November 1590; d. Erfurt, 26 January 1642. He was at school at Gotha, and studied at the Universities of Jena (1608, MA 1611) and Wittenberg (1614), where he became ill and had to return home. He was a teacher at the academic Gymnasium at Coburg (1616-), and rector (1623). He became involved in controversy when he distanced himself from the persecution of witches, and he moved to Erfurt in 1633, becoming rector of the university in 1634 and pastor of the Predigerkirche. He published his sermons in several books, including a set of five on the third chapter of Jonah, the ‘Bußprophet’ (‘prophet of penance’): Tuba Poenitentiae...