RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Loehe Loescher
with pastoral functions at the Cistercian monastery of Birkenfeld (near Neustadt-on-the-Aisch). There is reason to believe that he was already cautiously active in the cause of the Reformation, and the two conservative imitations of Luther's baptismal ordinal — Ordnung der Tauff nach wirtzburgischer Rubricken von wort zu wort verteutscht and Ordnung der Tauff nach banibergischer Rubricken von wort zu wort verteutscht (both subsequent to 1523) — are very plausibly ascribed to him. In 1524 the Margrave Frederick of Brandenburg transferred him to Hof, as his representative in the incumbency of St. Michael's. His Evangelical attitude, however, caused his speedy removal, and after preaching for a short time in the Franciscan church, he was obliged to leave Brandenburg and went to Wittenberg, where he matriculated at the university in
1526. After a brief visit to Markt Erlbach in Jan.,
1527, and a short incumbency in Oelsnitz, the accession of Margrave George permitted him to return to Hof late in 1527 or early in 1528. Here he introduced Evangelical worship and also prepared an agenda, a hymnal, and a catechism for his congregation, the first-named forming the basis of the Naumburg agenda of Nikolaus Medler (1537-38) and Widmann's agenda of 1592.
Loner was equally independent as a hymnologist, and in 1527 twenty-six of his compositions were printed anonymously under the title Gantz newe geystliche teutsche Hymnus vnd gesang; while as late as 1561 hymns written by him, but hitherto unpublished, were still printed, so that their entire number amounts to something more than thirtyseven. In like manner his Vnterricht des glaubens oder Christlicher kinderzucht jn LXXII. Fragen vnd Antwortt verfast (Nuremberg, 1529) is an independent work, despite its indebtedness to Althamer's catechism and the earlier catechetical writings of Luther.
Loner took an active part in the preparation of the Brandenburg-Nuremberg agenda, but in May, 1531, his position became intolerable through the opposition which he had aroused, intensified by his attacks on the papacy, and in July he was expelled from Hof and retired to Oelsnitz. There, after a brief period of poverty with his wife and children, he resumed his pastorate through Melanchthon's influence, and there he published, under the title Geistliche gesang, aus heiliger Schrift mit vleis zu samen gebracht, Vnd auffs new zu gericht (Wittenberg, 1538), a collection of twenty of his hymns, three of them new. In 1539 he preached in Leipsic, but failed to secure the call he desired and contemplated retiring from pastoral work, declining a call to Oschatz. In 1542, however, he became preacher at the Naumburg cathedral, although the opposition of the canons gave him little scope for activity. In Jan., 1544, he became pastor of St. George's, Nordlingen, where he remained until his death, and where, as first superintendent, he organized ecclesiastical affairs as he would, sometimes with an excess of zeal, and prepared a new agenda, catechism, and hymnal. The agenda is essentially the same as the one he had prepared for Hof, while the catechism, despite its dependence on Luther's Enchiridion, is noteworthy for its division into six conversations with 128 questions
and answers, its abundant meditations, and its seven original catechismal hymns. The hymnal, moreover, is of liturgical interest in its distribution of the hymns according to individual services and the seasons of the Christian year.
Bibliography: His Brief buck is in Beitrage zur bayerischen Kirchengeschichte, ed. T. Kolde, vols, i.-iii., Erlangen, 1895-97. Other sources are the letters of Melanchthon in CR, v.-vi. passim, and of Luther in De Wette's ed. of Luther's letters, vols, iv.-v.; V. L. von Seckendorf, Commentarius criticus . . de Lutheranismo, i. 241, iii. 186, 219, 221, Leipsic, 1692. Modern treatment of the subject will be found in G. W. A. Fikenscher, Gelehrtes Fiirstentum Baireut, v. 305-316, Nuremberg, 1803; P. Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kirchenlied, i. 386 sqq., 392, 408- 409, 421-422, iii. 618-643, Leipsic, 1862 sqq.; G. Kawerau, in ZKW, x (1889), 467 sqq., 519-525; F. Cohrs, in Monumenta Germanue pcedagogica, xxii. 463-480, Berlin, 1901; C. Geygr, A us der Reformationsgeschichte N ordlingens, pp. 18-23, Nordlingen, 1901; ABB, xix. 152 sqq.