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Bartholomeaeus Gesius was a German composer who was born in Müncheberg, in the Brandenburg Marches. He attended the University at Frankfurt an der Oder from 1575-1580, and also served briefly as a Kantor at Müncheberg. He was offered the post of Kantor at the Marienkirche in Frankfurt in 1592, which he held for the rest of his life. Gesius represents a tradition of humanist Lutheran theology that flourished during t he late 16th and early 17th centuries. His compositions are exclusively for church and school, and comprise settings of pre-Reformation Latin songs and Protestant hymns. Gesius’s works show a preoccupation with cantus-firmus techniques and an interest in alternatim methods of word-setting. He took no part in the change of styles around 1600, particularly in the move towards the Baroque style. Gesius is important for his role in the history of the Protestant Passion. Also of note are his Magnificat settings, in which there are a number of Christmas songs; these reveal Gesius’s contribution to a particularly popular Christmas tradition extending from the late Middle Ages to the time of J.S. Bach.