Andreas Knoepken

Knöpken, Andreas (Cnophius), was born at Kustrin (Custrin) about 1490. He was for some time assistant in the school at Treptow, in East Pomerania, under Bugenhagen. But as they both espoused the cause of the Reformation, they had to flee from Treptow in 1521, Bugenhagen to Wittenberg, and Knopken to Riga. At Riga Knöpken conducted a successful disputation with the monks, and was appointed by tbe Council and burgesses evangelical archidiaconus of St. Peter's Church, where he began his work Oct. 23, 1522. He died at Riga, Feb. 18, 1539.

Knöpken's hymns are almost all Psalm versions. Three appeared under the title of Ethlike psalmen dorch Andream Knöpken vordütscht as an Appendix to B. Waldis's De parabell vam vorlorn Szohn, Riga, 1527. The rest appeared in the Riga Kirchenordnung, 1530, 1537, &c. See the introduction to Dr. J. Geffcken's reprint (Hannover, 1862) of the various eds. of this Kirchenordnung.

Knöpken's hymns translated into English are:—
i. Hilff Gott, wie geht das immer zu. Ps. ii. 1527, as above, and thence in Wackernagel, iii. pp. 99-103, in 8 stanzas of 7 lines, beginning “Help Godt, wo geyt dat yûmer to." The High German form is in the Zwickau Enchiridion, 1628. Translated as "Quhat is the caus, O God omnipotent" in the Gude and Godlie Ballates, 1568, f. 44 (1868, p. 74).
ii. Yon alien Menschen abgewandt. Ps. xxv. 1527, as above, and thence in Wackernagel, iii. pp. 105-109, in 12 stanzas of 7 lines, beginning "Van alien Mynschen afgewandt." In High German in V. Schumann's Gesang-Buch Leipzig, 1539. Translated as "I lyft my soule, Lorde, up to the, My God," by Bp. Coverdale, 1539 (Remains, 1846, p. 578).
A hymn frequently, but erroneously, ascribed to Knöpken is noted under Cruciger, E. (p. 271 i.). [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)