Johannes Matthiae Gothus

Johannes Matthiae Gothus (29 December 1592 in Västra Husby – 18 February 1670 in Stockholm) was a Swedish Lutheran Bishop of Strängnäs and a professor of Uppsala University, the rector of the Collegium illustrious, Collegium Illustre (the school for young noblemen run by the House of Nobility) in Stockholm (1626–1629) and the most eminent teacher in Sweden during the seventeenth century. He was Bishop of Strängnäs from 1643 to 1664. Gothus embodies like no other Swedish clergyman during the confessional era the continuity and renewal of the Reformed Evangelical humanist tradition in Sweden. He had very close contact with the Swedish royal house and with European reform circles; he was a dear friend of John Amos Comenius and John Dury. Thus, he exerted influence on the so-called folk teaching, school order of 1649, which he formulated himself, and on organisational issues relating to the Church. In particular, he was the spokesman for a so-called ecumenical, European religious policy. His fate was therefore sealed when, with the guardianship of 1660, the ecclesiastical cycles changed. He was, then, forced to resign from the position as bishop of Strängnäs. As a man of ecumenism, Gothus' has a special position in the Swedish and European Church history. His only equal, in approach and status, is the Bishop Nathan Söderblom. Family Gothus (born Johan Mattsson) was son of the vicar Matthias Petri Upplänning of Västra Husby (1533–1610) and Anna Danielsdotter Grubbe, the daughter of Daniel Jonsson Grubbe, the mayor of Norrköping. His father's, Matthias Petri Upplänning, ancestors had been part of the ancient frälse of the region of Uppland. A source claims that, Bishop Johannes Matthiae's paternal great-grandmother was Birgitta Vasa, a cousin of king Gustav Vasa. Gothus had 14 siblings, one of whom was the merchant in Söderköping Peder Mattsson Stiernfelt, later ennobled and introduced Stiernfelt. Gothus was great-uncle of Johan Hadorph.