Zacharias Praetorius (né Breiter) (15 April 1535 in Mansfeld – 22 December 1575 in Eisleben) was a German Lutheran poet and theologian.
Praetorius then returned, after a time in Regensburg, to Eisleben to work, and was disposed by the church in 1575 for criticizing the expulsion of his colleague Cyriacus Spangenberg after the Flacian controversy.
It is recorded that in 1566, during his tenure in Orth an der Donau with fellow theologian Joachim Magdeburg [de], Barbara von Zinzendorff, daughter of theologian Christoph Reuter, told her father in description of Praetorius's dilemma that "If Magdeburg and Praetorius go back [to Germany], where they will not be persecuted, they will leave their wives and children in the highest degree to preach [Lutheran] theology.
His relationship with the thinkers deteriorated as Thretius became more influenced by Swiss Lutheranism, Selnecker with the Concordians, and Melanchton with his anti-Flacian views.
[5] In Didacus Sarmiento Valladares' Novissimus Librorum Prohibitorum et Expurgandorum Index Pro Catholicis Hispaniarum Regnis Philippi V. Regis Catholici cum integro indice cognominum auctorum primae, & secundae classis, a 1707 listing of all religious books banned by King Phillip V of Spain, Praetorius is listed as a banned author due to his use of the Augsburg Confession in his teachings.