Wolfgang Musculus

Born in the village of Duss (Moselle), in a German-speaking area (French-speaking, from the Thirty Years War), Musculus was a lover of song and of knowledge, of languages, Humanism and religion.

In 1527, he left the Benedictine monastery at Lixheim (now in the area of Moselle), to serve as deacon of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg (French: Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-Strasbourg) and preaching assistant to Matthäus Zell while studying under Bucer and Capito.

At Bern, he wrote several biblical commentaries and Loci communes sacrae theologiae (Common Places of the Christian Religion), a major systematic theology.

[1] J. S. Bach used Musculus' 1530 hymn, a paraphrase of Psalm 23, as the text for his chorale cantata Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt, BWV 112, which he first performed in Leipzig in 1731.

[2][3] He also published a book on usury entitled De usuris ex verbo dei, in which he criticized the practice of the triple contract,[4] and a German version of which appeared in Strasbourg in 1593.