In 1616 Třanovský was ordained a priest in Meziříčí and served as a pastor for four years. Persecution of Lutherans in Bohemia (after the Battle of White Mountain) under Ferdinand II forced him into exile. After imprisonment in 1623 and the deaths of two of his children from plague the following year, Třanovský accepted a call to be pastor to a church in Bielitz, Teschen Silesia. In 1627, he also became personal chaplain to Count Gáspár Illésházy.[1] From 1631 until 1637, Třanovský served as pastor at a church in Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš (Liptószentmiklós), Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Slovakia).
Třanovský appreciated poetry and hymns, and wrote as well as compiled both. In 1629, he published his first hymnal, oddly named in LatinOdarum Sacrarum sive Hymnorum Libri III ("Three Books of Sacred Odes or Hymns"). His most important and most famous work was Cithara Sanctorum ("Lyre of the Saints"), written in Czech, which appeared in 1636 in Levoča (Lőcse). This latter volume has formed the basis of Czech and Slovak Lutheran hymnody to the present day. Třanovský's hymnbook together with the Bible of Kralice (also in Czech) became the cornerstones of the Slovak Reformation. In 1620 Rev. Třanovský also translated the Augsburg Confession into Czech.
Třanovský died, aged forty-six, on 29 May 1637 and was buried in an unmarked grave at his church in Liptovský Mikuláš.
Varia
Uncle of Třanovský's wife Anne was theologian Amandus Polanus.
He was from the Hohenem dynasty which sought to establish a buffer state between Austrian lands and Old Swiss Confederacy, although citizens resented paying taxes to both the Holy Roman Empire and the Swabian League and the area which became Lichtenstein became embroiled in Thirty Years War beginning in 1618
References
Daniel, David Paul, "Juraj Tranovsky: Slavic Hymnodist," The Lutheran Witness, Vol. XCIX (1980), pp.378–379
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