JOHANN LEISENTRIT. — Theologian, Apostolic protonotary, b. at Olmütz (Olomouc) in 1527, d. at Bautzen 14 Nov. 1586. Canon of Bautzen in 1551, he became dean there in 1559 and remained in that office until his death. After the apostasy of the last bishop of Meissen, Johann von Haigwitz, the nuncio Melchior Biglia appointed him (1567) administrator and general commissioner for Lusatia, in which office he preserved Catholicism against Lutheran propaganda.
Leisentrit collected many manuscripts and incunabula (destroyed in 1624 by a fire). He was a prolific writer: the 24 surviving works of his deal with ascetical, liturgical or polemical subjects (list in Gerblich [V. BIBLICA.], pp. 24-30). He promoted the use of the vernacular in the administration of the Sacraments and translated into German the rite of Baptism (Bautzen 1562), of Matrimony (ibid. 1568), and of Extreme Unction (ibid. 1577). His request to celebrate Mass in German was rejected by St Pius V and aroused suspicion of heresy against him. His hymns, spread throughout Germany, were published by Hans Wolrab: Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen... (2 vols., Bautzen 1565, 1567). The 1584 edition bears the title: Catholicism hymnologium Germanicum orthodoxae veraeque Ecclesine, with musical notation and illustrations. More important: Constitutio veteris apostolicae et orthodoxae Ecclesiae.