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Born: September 14, 1588, Sülzfeld (near Meiningen), Germany.

Died: August 3, 1632, Rinteln, Germany.

Buried: Rinteln, Germany.


Son of a Lutheran pastor, Joshua entered the University of Leipzig in 1608 (MA 1611), and was for some time adjunct of the Philosophical Faculty. In 1617 he was appointed Superintendent of the district (Grafschaft) of Schaumburg, and also pastor at Stadthagen, and first professor of the Gymnasium there. Before assuming his duties, he graduated DD at Wittenberg, on October 24, 1617. When the Gymnasium became a university, and transferred to Rinteln in 1621, he became a professor of theology there. In 1623, the outbreak of war forced him to flee Rinteln. After his return, he was appointed in 1625 Ephorus of the Lutheran clergy of Hessen-Schaumburg. By the Edict of Restitution, promulgated by the emperor on March 6, 1629, he was greatly harassed; the Benedictine monks, after they had settled in Rinteln, in 1630 claimed to be the rightful professors, and demanded the restoration of the old church lands, and especially the property formerly belonging to the convent at Rinteln, which had been devoted to paying the stipends of the Lutheran professors. They sent soldiers into Stegmann’s house to demand that he refund his salary. He died of a fever shortly afterward.