Speratus’ orig­in­al fam­i­ly name seems to have been Off­er or Hoff­er. He prob­ab­ly en­rolled at the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Frei­burg (Ba­den) in 1503, and is al­so said to have stu­died in Paris and at some Ital­i­an un­i­ver­si­ties. Speratus had a tur­bu­lent ca­reer, ow­ing to his Re­for­ma­tion­ist views. By 1518, he was a preacher in Dink­els­bühl, Ba­va­ria. At the end of that year, he was in­vit­ed to be­come a preach­er at the ca­thed­ral in Würzburg. He went to Würz­burg in 1519, but his preach­ing was too evan­gel­i­cal for the bi­shop, and he had to leave, ap­par­ent­ly at the start of 1520. Mov­ing to Salz­burg, he preached for some time in the ca­thed­ral, un­til dis­a­gree­ments with the arch­bi­shop forced him out. He moved to Vi­enna in au­tumn 1520, where he seems to have earned a Doc­tor of Di­vin­i­ty de­gree at the un­i­ver­si­ty. He mar­ried, prob­ab­ly as ear­ly as 1519, one of the first priests who dared to take this step. n 1523 he went to Wit­tenberg and helped Mar­tin Lu­ther as­sem­ble the first Lu­ther­an hymn­al. In 1524, the Mar­grave Al­brecht ap­point­ed Spe­ra­tus court preach­er at Kön­igs­berg. There he al­so had charge of the Altstadt church un­til 1525. In 1526, Spe­ra­tus was chos­en as cler­ic­al com­mis­sion­er to vi­sit par­ish­es in Pruss­ia, and in 1529, he be­came Lu­ther­an bi­shop of Pom­er­an­ia, with re­si­dence at Ma­rien­wied­er.

Sources

Hymns

1. Erzurn dich nicht sei nicht neidisch
2. Es ist das Heil uns kommen her
   • Salvation unto Us Has Come
   • To Us Salvation Now Is Come
3. Gelobet sei Gott, unser Gott
4. In Gott gelaub ich, dass er hat aus nicht
   • In God I Trust, for So I Must