He came from the family of a blacksmith and a richtár from Bardejov. He studied in Košice, Bratislava and from 1530 at the University of Wittenberg under the guidance of representatives of the German Reformation Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon. Especially under their influence, his faith and his cultural and educational level were shaped.
After years as rector of the school in Eisleben (1534 - 1539), he returned to his hometown where he took over the management of the Latin town school (except for a year's stay in Kežmarok in 1555 - 1556, he was at its head until his death), which under his leadership reached an excellent level. Its excellent reputation is evidenced by the fact that sons of prominent noble families also studied there.
Leonard Stöckel is the author of several textbooks (including the Leges scholae Bartfensis from 1540, the oldest pedagogical written monument in Slovakia, which contained methodological instructions for the organisation of pupils' extra-curricular work, instructions for the acquisition of the curriculum, but also regulations concerning pupils' duties and disciplinary guidelines) and also a school drama written in German The history of von Susanna (The Story of Susan), published in Wittenberg in 1559. In the field of theology, L. Stöckel was one of the main disseminators of the Reformation doctrine in the northern regions of Upper Hungary, and wrote several important works in defence of Protestantism. Of particular importance are his Notes on the General Principles of the Christian Doctrine of Philip Melanchthon (published in Basel in 1560) and the Confessio Pentapolitana, the confession of faith by which the Pentapolitana, an association of five Upper Highland towns, subscribed to Protestantism in 1549.
Leonard Stöckel has a great merit for the elevation of cultural, spiritual and artistic life in Bardejov in the first half of the 16th century.
Source: showbiz.sk
Photo source: By Anatol Svahilec - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120616683
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