Johannes Mathesius (1504–1565), Saxon evangelical pastor, mineralogist, and rector of the Jáchymov Latin school. He was born in Rochlitz, Saxony, into the family of a mine entrepreneur. From the age of ten, he was apprenticed as a miner. He later graduated from the Latin school in Nuremberg and studied theology at Ingolstadt University. From 1529, he studied in Wittenberg, where he met Luther and other personalities of the university centre of Reformation education.
When he took up the position of rector of the Latin school in 1532, the people of Jáchymov had just subscribed to the Augsburg Confession. In his inaugural rectoral speech, he mentioned that Christ’s love is above all knowledge; therefore, he made religious instruction and the catechism a priority in the education of the Latin school. He also introduced public performances of Latin and Greek dramas and comedies. Under Mathesius’s influence, the school followed the latest Reformation school regulations (Eisleben 1525 and Electoral-Saxon 1527). The town purchased a new school building from the Šliks, in which Mathesius managed not only the Latin school but also supervised the girls‘ school (founded 1529).
In 1540, Mathesius went to Wittenberg University, where he stayed directly in Luther’s household and participated in the famous Tischreden – table talks. Here, he prepared for his pastoral work. In March 1542, Luther himself ordained him as a preacher, and Phillip Melanchthon sent a letter of recommendation to Jáchymov, where Mathesius also set out to spend the rest of his life as an evangelical pastor. From 1545, he was the chief pastor of the Church of St. Joachim and St. Anne, the first Lutheran church in Bohemia.
Mathesius left behind a significant work, a collection of mining sermons Sarepta oder Bergpostil, and also a chronicle of the oldest history of Jáchymov.