Background
Stöckel was born in 1510 in the royal free city of Bártfa (Bardejov), where his father worked as a blacksmith and also served in the city council.
educationist playwright theologian writer
Stöckel was born in 1510 in the royal free city of Bártfa (Bardejov), where his father worked as a blacksmith and also served in the city council.
Subsequently he was sent to Kassa (Košice) where Leonard Cox taught that time. In 1530 Stöckel enrolled at the University of Wittenberg and became a student of Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon. During his stay in Wittenberg, Stöckel developed close ties with both of them and he also worked as a private tutor in Luther"s birth town Eisleben (1533–1536).
Stöckel remained in Saxony until 1539, when he returned to Hungary and became the rector of the school in his hometown Bártfa.
Stöckel immediately re-organized the school system in evangelical spirit and in 1540 he introduced new school laws (Leges scholae Bartphensis). His actions soon lifted the school to the level of those excellent German ones and attracted students from far and wide.
Stöckel"s return also saw the influence and reach of Lutheran ideas in Upper Hungary to grow significantly. Based on the Augsburg Confession of Melanchthon (1530), Stöckel wrote his own Lutheran confession, the Confessio Pentapolitana, that was adopted by the Pentapolitana members in July 1549.
The Confessio Pentapolitana was recognized by King Ferdinand I in 1549 and confirmed again in 1558.