Johannes Matthiae Gothus
Johannes Matthiae Gothus (29 December 1592 in Västra Husby – 18 February 1670 in Stockholm) was a Swedish Lutheran Bishop of Strängnäs[1] and a professor of Uppsala University, the rector of the Collegium illustrious, Collegium Illustre (the school for young noblemen run by the House of Nobility) in Stockholm (1626–1629) and the most eminent teacher in Sweden during the seventeenth century.
Gothus embodies like no other Swedish clergyman during the confessional era the continuity and renewal of the Reformed Evangelical humanist tradition in Sweden.
The children of Johannes Matthiae Gothus were introduced at the Riddarhuset, Swedish House of Nobility in Stockholm, under the name Oljeqvist as noble family number 331.
He grew up in a milieu that was shaped by Duke Charles's struggle against Sigismund, the high nobility, the clergy and the practical-religious problem associated with immigration of foreign labor in the mining industry.
He enjoyed financial support from the East Gothic court circles and the burghers, from John, Duke of Östergötland and his wife, king Gustav II Adolf's sister Princess Maria Elizabeth of Sweden, and High Councillor Johan Skytte.
His humanistic religious orientation is reflected in his studies of poetry under Messenius, whose dramas he performed on stage, in his dissertations in ethics, and in his position as informant of his relatives, the sons of Lutheran-Melanchthonic Archbishop Petrus Kenicius.
He deepened his piety focus during studies for the major ethical-religious-oriented theologian, university, church and school reformer Balthasar Mentzer the Elder.
Gothus made only a brief visit to Sweden between his two long foreign trips during, which, he, in 1621, was appointed professor poesos at Uppsala university.
At the time of the House of Knight's establishment, king Gustavus Adolphus had realised that the nobility needed education to maintain their position.
Gustavus Adolphus, who sometimes heard the school's disputes, promised on 24 April 1627, an annual grant from the state funds for this so-called Collegium illustre on 2,000 dollars silver coins.
One of the most characteristic features of humanistic pedagogy was the practice of keeping notebooks; schoolboys were encouraged to compile commonplace books for reference use when they could read and write reasonably accurately.
Like numerous humanistic teaching programmes, it suggested that the students should excerpt sentences, proverbs, similes and other literary elements, write them down in a notebook and memorise them.
In the lower, which was seven-class and intended for children between seven and fourteen years of age, teaching was preferably communicated in the classical languages and French; in the higher, "auditorium publicum", lectures were held in philosophy, mathematics and eloquence.
The intention was, in time, to include lectures that also covered theology, law and medicine, in other words, to form a full university in the capital.
The three professors were Johannes Matthiæ Gothus, author of the above-mentioned curriculum and finally bishop of Strängnäs diocese, Vilhelm Simonius and Jöran Lilja alias Georg Stiernhielm and, after his departure in 1628, Jacobus Boose Rudbeckius.
Physical exercises were an important element in which teaching of singing, dance and instruments was interspersed with more warlike training in the preparation of troops as well as martial and equestrian art.
In 1630–32 he accompanied king Gustavus Adolphus during the German campaign as field bishop in the Thirty Years' War and was responsible for the ecumenical negotiations with John Dury, which he completed during his stay in Sweden as an English envoy in 1636–38.
It was considered of great importance that these were native men – Axel Banér was appointed governor and Gustaf Kristersson Horn af Åminne as sub-governor.
He published at least 92 printed writings, of which 67 were books on religion, seven sermons, four on linguistics, of which one was on Latin grammar, which is still being used in schools in Italy today, three novels and two on education and pedagogy.
