Weisse

(aka WEISS, WISS or other spellings), Michael, b Neisse, Silesia c1480, d Landskron (Landstrewn), Bohemia 1534. He was ordained and for some years was a monk at Breslau. He found the writings of Martin Luther (qv) illuminating and was deeply influenced by him; with two other monks he left the monastery to join the House of the Bohemian Brethren at Leutomischl in Bohemia. Quickly rising to leadership in his new communion, he was their preacher at Landskron and at Fulneck, Moravia. In 1531 he edited their first German hymn-book; see the brief note on ‘Weisse’s Gesangbüchlein ’in the Composers’ index. This featured 155 hymns, a dozen of which were his own German translations of older texts in Bohemian, with some originals. Luther rated him as ‘a good poet, with somewhat erroneous [i.e. non-Lutheran!] views on the sacrament’; James Mearns in Julian expresses warmer appreciation of their thought, tone and style. No.457.