Born: Jan­u­a­ry 3, 1540, Nürn­berg, Ger­ma­ny.

Died: Sep­tem­ber 12,1591, Alt­en­burg, Ger­ma­ny.

Pseudonym: Mel­is­san­der.

Son of Con­rad Bien­e­mann, a bur­gess of Nürn­berg, Kas­par was ed­u­cat­ed at Je­na and Tü­bing­en. Af­ter com­plet­ing his stu­dies, he was sent by Em­per­or Max­i­mil­i­an II with an em­bas­sy to Greece as an in­ter­pre­ter. In Greece, he as­sumed the name Mel­is­san­der (a Greek trans­la­tion of his Ger­man name), by which he is fre­quent­ly known. Af­ter his re­turn, he was ap­point­ed a pro­fess­or at Lau­ing­en, Ba­va­ria, and then at Abt at Bahr (Lahr?), and Gen­er­al Su­per­in­tend­ent of Pfalz Neu­burg, but on the out­break of the Syn­er­gis­tic Con­tro­ver­sy, he had to re­sign his post. In 1571, he re­ceived a DD de­gree from the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Je­na, and in the same year Duke Jo­hann Wil­helm of Sach­sen Wei­mar made him tu­tor to crown prince Fried­rich Wil­helm. However, on the death of the Duke in 1573, Elect­or Au­gust of Sax­o­ny as­sumed the Re­gen­cy, and the Cal­vin­is­tic par­ty gained ascend­an­cy and suc­ceed­ed in dis­plac­ing Bien­e­mann and other Lu­ther­an pas­tors in the Duchy. Fi­nal­ly, in 1578, he was ap­point­ed pas­tor and Gen­er­al Su­per­in­tend­ent at Al­ten­burg.

Sources

Hymns

  1. Herr, wie dull willst, so schick’s mit mir

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