Bugenhagen, Johannes (1485-1558)

German Lutheran theologian. He was one of the closest friends of Martin Luther, serving as his confessor and assisting him in his New Testament translations. He played a major role in spreading Lutheranism to northern German states and to Denmark, where he lived 1537-39, and was one of the signatories of the Saxon Confession.

After a career as a canon at Treptow in his native Pomerania, Bugenhagen became an early convert to the Reformation through a reading of Luther's De captivitate Babylonica ecclesiae/The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. In 1521 he abandoned his post as rector of the city school in Treptow and enrolled as a theology student in Wittenberg, where he was appointed minister of the town church in 1523 and professor in 1535.

Although Bugenhagen remained in Wittenberg until his death, his most important work was undertaken in missions away from the city, particularly in northern Germany and Denmark, where he was the architect of numerous church orders, notably Hamburg in 1529, Lübeck in 1531, and Denmark in 1537. His contribution to the Danish Reformation was particularly important.

He was responsible for the production of a Low German edition of Luther's Bible.