HF_BAN ROOTS

by David P. Daniel

Jnraj Tranovsku of

SLOVAI'1JA
~possessions with them as they emigrated from

~ lovak Lutherans carried meager but treasured

their homeland to the new world during the three decades before World War I. They usually carried a copy of the "Kralice" Czech translation of the Bible and of their hymn book, the Citharo Sanctorum, or Harp of the Saints. They affectionately called this hymn book the T ranoscius, in honor of J uraj T ranovsky, who compiled and published the first edition in 1636. Desite their now archaic language, the hymns written or translated by Tranovsky have been retained in the many editions of the hymn book. The Tranoscius has remained basic to the devotional life of many Slovak Lutherans for more than three centuries. Encapsulating in song and verse the spirit and content of the Lutheran Reformation, the Cithara Sanctorum is the most enduring literary monument of Slavic Lutheranism. To call Juraj T ranovsky the "father of Slavic Lutheran hymnody" or to consider his work as rivaling that of his younger German contempoary, Paul Gerhardt, is no overstatement. Tranovsky used the Latin version of his name (customary among the educated of his day), Georg Tranosci. He was born on April 9, 1592, in Tesin, Silesia, a city which today lies on the Czechoslovak border with Poland. His father, Valentine, was a coppersmith who left his ancestral home in Trzanowice to seek his fortune in the breweries ofT esin. He and his wife, Hedviga Zentkovska, became moderately well-to-do and provided well for their family of several sons and three daughters, as well as Valentine's grandfather. At the time of Tranovsky's birth, Tesin was a staunchly Lu.theran city whose inhabitants were immortalized in an old Polish proverb: "As firm as a Lutheran from T esin." T ranovsky, enrolled in the Latin grammar school there, was soon recognized as a pupil
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of promise by his teachers and by Pastor Timoteus Levcan. It was decided that Tranovsky should study for the pastorate and, at age 12, he was sent to the German school in Hubin (Guben) in lower Lusatia. He remained there only briefly, for by 1605, he had enrolled at the humanist academy in Kolberg, Pommerania, where Valentine Scherping was rector. There he polished his native Polish and increased his mastery of both German and Latin. He cultivated his poetic skill by memorizing the poems of Horace. On April 13, 1609, George, 16, matriculated at the University of Wittenberg. During his five years at Wittenberg, Tranovsky absorbed the orthodox Lutheran theology ably taught by Leonhard Hutter, whose book, A Compendium of Theology Derived from Sacred Scripture and the Book of Concord, was a popular theological text for two generations. After completing his formal studies at Wittenberg, T ranovsky accepted an assistant professorship at the evangelical school of St. Nicholas Church in Prague. For the school's Christmas celebration in 1611, he composed a poem on the Nativity which manifested his talent for presenting Lutheran theology in poetic form. From March 1612 until March 1613 he tutored the family of Jan Jiri of Svamberk at Trebon Castle in southern Bohemia. But the growing influence of Calvinist theology in Bohemia led Tranovsky to accept a position as rector of the school in Holesov in eastern Moravia. Favorably impressing the Moravian nobleman Jetrich of Zerotin, Tranovsky, in 1615, was called to be rector of the school in Mezirici, about 20 miles northeast of Holesov, where he remained for 10 years. The first five years in Mezirici were perhaps the most pleasant of his adult life. On May 26, 1615, he
THE lUTHERAN WITNESS

married Anna Polan of Polansdorf. They had nine children, five sons and four daughters, but only five outlived their father. In October 1615, Pastor Daniel Hrabovsky was asked to resign because he had married the widow of a suicide, and T ranovsky was asked to conduct services. Six months later, after due examination, Tranovsky was ordained on April21, 1616, at Olesnica in Silesia. Returning to Mezirici, he celebrated his first service as pastor on May 8 in the presence of the district clergy, the noble patron, and the members of the congrega tion. As pastor, Tranovsky continued to rebuild the so-called "literary society," which sang during church services and worked on two major projects. In 1617 he prepared sermonic expositions on portions of the Revelation of St. John. He also labored on a new Czech translation of the Augsburg Confession, which was published in Olomouc in 1620. But in that same year T ranovsky and his fellow Lutherans in Bohemia and Moravia were on the threshold of an era of tribulation and persecution. Although Rudolph II had extended legal toleration to the Protestants of Bohemia and Moravia in his Letter of Majesty of 1609, his successor, Ferdinand II, was determined to restore his kingdoms to the Catholic fold. With the "Defenestration of Prague" in 1618 and the revolt of Czech Protestant nobles, the Thirty Years' War began. On Nov. 8, 1620, the Czech Protestants were defeated at the Battle of White Mountain near Prague. Ferdinand moved to force Moravia into submis sion. In 1621 and 1624 imperial and rebel armies fought or encamped near Mezirici, forcing T ranovsky and his parishioners to flee repeatedly. In addition to the pillaging and foraging troops, the inhabitants had to endure famine, plague, and finally religious persecution. In a little over two years T ranovsky lost three of his children and more than half of his congregation. He was imprisoned briefly in 1623. Finally, in August 1624, Ferdinand ordered all nonCatholics to leave Moravia within six weeks. Neverthe less, T ranovsky was able to minister to his congregation until September 1625 when he left Moravia for Bilici (Bielitz) in Silesia. There he served, until 1627, as the court preacher of his protectors, John von Sonnegk and his wife Anna, and as pastor of the German congregation. Tranovsky would spend the last 12 years of his life in Slovakia, then the northern part of Hungary. Sonnegk, whose wife was the daughter of the Lutheran magnate and palatine of Hungary, George Thurzo, gave Tranovsky refuge in the castles of Budatin and Orava in the Vah river valley of western Slovakia. Tranovsky eventually became the castle preacher at Orava where he completed work on a Latin hymn collection, published in 1629 as Sacred Odes or Hymns. He also worked on a collection of formal liturgical prayers in Czech which he published in 1635 as A Vial of Perfumes, a title taken from Rev. 5:8. Both works
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reveal Tranovsky's thoroughly orthodox Lutheran theology and his conviction that pure doctrine was to be exhibited in the celebration of the sacraments and in corporate and private worship. He carried on this work after becoming pastor of St. Nicholas in Liptovsky Svaty Mikulas in 1632 and completed work on the Harp of the Saints in 1635. Published in Levoca in 1636, the first edition contained numerous liturgical prayers and 414 hymns in four sections, 100 composed by Tranovsky himself. Shortly after publication, Tranovsky became ill. On May 29, 1637, he died at age 45 and was buried on June 2 in the church of St. Nicholas. Although his funerary monument was destroyed during the Counter-Reformation and his parish church re-Catholicized, the name ofT ranoscius lived on and is memorialized wherever the Tranoscius is used. He was the Slavic poet of Lutheran orthodoxy who sought to inculcate the doctrine of Scripture through the worship of the Triune God by the praying, suffering, and struggling church. He believed that even as God had redeemed His people through the suffering 'and death of Jesus, so also would God bring those who believe and live in Him through earthly s11ffering and death to life eternal in heaven. As T ranovs1ty wrote in the hymn "In One True God We All Believe": And to this truth we also cleave, that we forgiveness do receive, True peace and joy and comfort sweet, daily from the Paraclete. From death our bodies shall arise to endless life beyond the skies; By grace through Jesus we shall rest there in heaven, forever blest. (The Lutheran Hymnal, 253) a

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