exiles Tossan was chosen Moderator and Pareus the Scribe of it In that Synod Pareus gat leave to goe visit his country and friends and so in three weeks space came safely to them where he was received with much joy and at the request of the Senate he preached the Sabbath following upon John 3. 16. And that with great applause and general approbation His Father also was so well pleased with him that presently after the Sermon he cancelled the writing whereby he had disinherited him The Senate also desired him to undertake a Pastoral charge in that place but he chose rather to return into the Palatinate again and coming to Neostad he was appointed to preach in a village hard by where he continued til Prince Casimire as Guardian to the young Prince Elector Palatine sent for him to be a Preacher in the great Church in Heidleberg and not long after he was made Master of the Colledge of Sapience in that University Anno Christi 1587 according to the Statutes of the Colledge he Commenced Master of Arts and a fterwards by the perswasion of his friends Doctor of Divinitie also Anno Christi 1594 at a Convention of States at Ratisbone the Divines of the Palatinate were accused by the Lutherans as holding opinions neither consonant to the Scriptures Augustane Confession nor to their own Catechiâ—m But Pareus at he appointment of the Palatine easily wiped off those aspersions and vindicated the innocencie of them Anno Christi 1596 there brake forth a great Plague in the University of Heidleberg whereof the learned James Kimedontius Pareus his intimate friend died and some other Professors also and the Students by reason of it were driven away yet Pareus stayd and it pleased God to preserve his Colledge free from the infection Not long after he was chosen Professor of the Old Testament in the room of Kimedontius and presently after Rector of the whole University Anno Christi 1596 he was extremely troubled with a Catarrh insomuch as he despaired of life yet it pleased God after a while to restore him Anno Christi 1602 upon the death of Daniel Tossan he was made Professor of the New Testament and grew so famous that many resorted out of Hungarie Borussia France England Scotland Ireland and Germany to see and hear him Anno Christi 1615 his Wife sicken'd and died which was a great grief to him An Chr. 1618 the Low-Countries being exceedingly indangered by the growth of Arminianism the States appointed a Synod at Dort for the curing of that disease and amongst other famous Divines Pareus was chosen by the Elector Palatine to goe to it but he being grown very old and infirm desired to be excused and so Paul Tossan was sent in his room February the second Anno Christi 1620 as Pareus was coming out of his study the steps being slippery with the frost his foot slipt and he fell down sixteen steps and yet it pleased God by a wonderful providence that â—he light upon his feet and received no hurt by the fall which made him think of that promise Psal. 91 He will give his Angels charge over thee c. By his Doctrine and Counsel he was admirably advantageous to the Church of God in many places He strongly asserted the truth of God against its adversaries He was a great studier and promoter of the Churches peace labouring that they which agree in the Fundamentals should not jar about matters of an inferiour nature He wrote many excellent Works whereof some were printed by himself others remained with his son Philip Pareus who hath since published them to the great benefit of the Church About that time the Spaniards came into the Palatinate with their Army which brought great miseries upon that poor Country which Pareus foresaw both by Prodigies and Dreams Then did his friends both in Heidleberg and other places perswade him to retire himself to some other place of safety to whom he yeelded that so he might not fall into the hands of those bloody Papists whom he had irritated by his writings against them At his departure hee cried out O Heidleberg O Heidleberg but it 's better to fall into the hands of God then of men whose tender mercies are cruelty He went to Anvilla where he spent his time in Prayer Study and Meditation waiting and longing for the time of his change There also he wrote his Corpus Doctrinae which when he had finished he said Lord now let thy servant depart in peace because he hath finished that which he desired Presently after he felt his strength much to decay and he fell into a Feaver and finding that the air in that place agreed not with him he went thence to Neapolis earnestly begging of God that if it were his holy will he might yet returne to Heidleberg and lay his bones there He made his Will also finding his former Catarrh to return upon him again yet through Gods mercy and by the help of Physicians he recovered whereupon he resolved to goe to Heidleberg and taking his Grand-son young Daniel Pareus with him whom he loved dearly he came safely to Heidleberg where hee was received with wonderfull acclamations of joy about which time Prince Frederick came thither also from his Exile and the Sabbath following they received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper together with much comfort But three dayes after his former disease returning he was sensible of his approaching death The Professors and Ministers resorted to him much bewailing their own loss amongst whom was Henry Alting to whom he freely opened his mind both concerning Gods house and his own and presently after quietly departed in the Lord Anno Christi 1622 and of his age 73. His Works are bound up together in three volumes The Life of Thomas Erpenius who died A no Christi 1624. THomas Erpenius was born at Gâ—rcome in the Low Countries Anno Christi 1584 of honest Parents In his childhood he was bred in the School of Leiden and admitted into that University at eighteen years old and in the twenty fifth year of his age he commenced Master of Arts. Then he fel to the studies of Divinity and of the Oriental Languages under Joseph Scaliger who observing his ingenuity and promptnesse often foretold what an eminent man he would prove in time to come From thence he travelled into England France Italy and Germany in which peregrinations he profited exceedingly both in learning and prudence At Paris he became intimately acquainted with Isaac Causabon and went with him to Samure where he fel hard to the study of Arabick and profited so exceedingly therein that Causabone had him in great admiration and estimation for the same From thence he went to Venice where by the help of some learned Jews and Tâ—rks he learned the Turkish Persian and Aethiopick languageâ— whereby
THE MARROW OF Ecclesiastical History CONTAINED IN The LIVES of one hundred forty eight FATHERS SCHOOLMEN first REFORMERS and MODERN DIVINES which have flourished in the Church since Christ's time to this present Age Faithfully collected and orderly disposed according to the CENTURIES wherein they lived Together With the Lively Effigies of most of the eminentest of them cut in COPPER The second Edition enlarged in most of the Lives with the addition of nine Lives which were not in the Former By SAMUEL CLARK Pastor of Bennet Fink London Vt qui praeceptis non accendimur saltem exemplis incitemur atque in appetitu Rectitudinis nil sibi mens nostra difficile astimet quod perfectè peragi ab aliis videt Greg. Mag. l. 9. c 43. Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race which is set before us Heb. 12. 1. London Printed for T. V. and are to be sold by William Roybould at the Vnicorn in Pauls-Church-yard 1654. To the Christian Reader CHRISTIAN READER THe nature of man is more apt to be guided by Examples then by Precepts especially by the the examples of men eminently learned and of great repute for Pietie and Godliness Such men are as Looking-glasses to the places where they live by which most people dress themselves and when they fall into sin they fall like men in a croud many falling with them The bodies of men are not so subject to be infected by the illness of the ayr as the souls of men by the ill examples of godly learned Ministers When Peter at Antioch dissembled many of the Jews dissembled likewise with him and Barnâ—ibas was brought into their dissimulation also It is very remarkable that this example of Peter is said to be a constraining of the Gentiles to Judaize Why constrainest thou the Gentiles to do as the Jews Gal. 2 14. There is a compulsive power in the ill examples of godly men to constrain others to do the evil that they do and therefore let godly Ministers especially in these days take heed least by any wicked compliance they build men up in sin and bring destruction upon themselves as the two sons of old Ely did who by their wicked examples made the people of Israel to transgress and thereby brought ruine upon their old Father and themselves 1 Sam. 2. 24. And so on the contrary there is a heavenly power and efficacy in the good examples of men eminent in place and godliness to draw others to Pietie and Holiness As long as Joshua lived and the Elders that had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel the children of Israel served the Lord. The religious cariage of Theodosius the Emperour in his family made not only his family but his whole Court to be a nourcery of Religion Pezel Mel Hist. in vita Theodo 2. But this is most especially seen in the godly Lives of godly and learned Ministers Herod the King reverenced John Baptist observed him and when he heard him did many things and heard him gladly not so much for the love of his doctrine as because he was a just and holy man and as Jesus Christ saith of him a burning and shining light burning in holy zeal for God as well as shining in Orthodox Doctrine He is called by the Prophet The voyce of him that cryeth in the wilderness And as Nazianzen saith of him he cryed louder by the holiness of his life then the sincerity of his doctrine He was Tota vox All voyce his apparel his diet and his conversation did Preach holiness as well as his doctrine Mar. 6 20. John 5. 35. Isay 40. 3. And therefore is cannot but be a work very profitable to the Church of Christ for any man to write a History of the Lives of the eminently learned and godly Ministers of former times as a fair Copy for Posterity to write after and a Patten for them to imitate This Reverend religious and learned Author hath undertaken this work in this ensuing Treatise and effected it so well as that I thought it not sufficient to give a naked Imprimatur unto it without this additional commendation both of the Author and of his work The Apostle having in the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews given us a littleâ—Book of Martyrs in the beginning of the twelfth Chapter he calls them A cloud of witnesses Such a cloud of witnesses is contained in this Book And as the childreu of Israel were directed in their journeys by the Pillar of a Cloud that went before them as long as they were in the Wilderness so let us make this cloud of Witnesses so far as it followeth Christ a Pillar of Cloud to guide us while we are in the Wilderness of this World till we come to enjoy that unexpressible happiness of which they are now made partakers So prayeth your servant in Christ Jesus EDMUND CALAMY TO THE Christian Reader Christian Reader THE right improvement of good Examples doth reach the highest ends of man viz. Gods honor and the souls welfare It was an honor unto King David to have so many men of valor under his command And doubtless the wisdom faith love Zeal courage and humility which Gods faithful servants in the several ages of the Church have expressed in their attendance upon him do publish the high praises of his blessed Majesty For if there appear so much worth in small drops what is there in the Seas of Divine Al-sufficiencie He that seeth the Sun-beams bright will see cause to admire the brightness of the Sun it self The luster left upon Moses his face by the reflection of the glory of Gods back parts was a full demonstration of the incomparable infinite glory of his face When we read of me raised above the World despising promises and scorning threatnings whereby they have been assaulted to desert the Truth of the Gospel and to make shipwrack of a good conscience how can we do less then glorifie God in them For can any power on this side Omnipotencie enable sinful men to deny themselves their dearest relations and the greatest earthly advantages for Jesus Christ How much of Deity shines in their Lives who could trample upon preferments laugh at imprisonment and banishment yea with smiles and joys embrace stakes and endure flames in love unto the Lord Jesus Oh what abundant occasion is administred of adoring the most High God in his rich perfections faithfulness and unchangeableness when we consider how even to admiration he hath furnished many of his Ambassadors with raised parts and graces to defend his cause and edifie his Church in the several corners of the World from generation to generation Histories hold forth the acknowledgements extorted from Heathens to the honor of the true God upon the notice taken of Christians gracious carriage both
in Latin but Hierom reckons him amongst the Greek Fathers and even till this day some of his Works are extant in Greek which shews him to be a Grecian Varia scripsit sed soli qainque libri adversus Haereses eodie supersunt TERTVLLIAN The Life of Tertullian who dyed An. Christ. 202. TErtullian was born in Carthage his Father was a Centurion of the Proconsular Order He was carefully educated in all manner of learning wherein he profited so much that Lactantius saith of him he was in omni genere doctrine peritus skilled in all kinde of Learning Hierom saith that his Works contained cunctam seculi Doctrinam all sorts of Learning Vincentius Lyrinensis saith Inter Latinos omnes hic facile princeps judicandus that amongst the Latine Fathers he was of chiefest account His Works which he hath left to us shew that he was excellently versed in Physicks Mathematicks and History He was eminent for his study of and knowledge in the Civil Law Afterward falling to the study of Divinity he attained to such excellent skill therein that at Rome he was made a Presbyter where he remained to the middle of his age He flourished under the Emperor Severus Anno Christi 183. And burning in holy zeal he became a great opposite to the Hereticks of those times Marcion Valentinian Praxea Hermogenes c. He was very expert both in Greek and Latin and had great acuteness in disputing and writing eloquently as his Books do sufficiently declare So that Vincentius Lyrinensis saith that the force of his arguments was such that whom he could not perswade them he compelled to consent to him God raised him in the time of great Persecution to be as a pillar or stay to his poor afflicted Church For when the Christians were vexed with wrongs and falsly accused by the Gentiles Tertullian taking their cause in hand defended them against their Persecutors and their slanderous accusations shewing that they never intended aâ—â— stirs or rebellions either against the Empire or Emperors of Rome for so much as the manner of Christians was to pray for the prosperous estate of their Governors And whereas they were falsely accused to be enemies to mankinde how can that be saith he when as the proper office of Christians is to pray for all men to love their Enemies never requiting evil for evil whereas all others do profess only to love their friends and starcely them and as touching the horrible slander of murthering Infants how can that be true saith he in the Christians whose custom is to abstain from all blood and things strangled so that it is not lawful for them when they feed at their Tables to meddle with the blood of any Beast And as for filthy copulations no sort of men are more free then they who have ever been the greatest observers of chastily and if they could have chosen to live in perpetual Virginity all their lives long if they could not their manner is to contract Matrimony for the avoiding all Whoredom and Fornication Neither can it be proved that the Christians do Worship the Sun which false surmise saith he ariseth only from this Because they use to pray towards the East Much less was there any of them so mad as to Worship an Asses Head the occasion of which slander arose from the Jews worshipping the Jaw bone of an Ass from the story of Sampson which therefore was falsely and wrongfully charged upon the Christians Likewise against all other lyes and slanders raised by the Heathen against the Christians he clearly purgeth them and evidently proves that they were persecuted not for any deserts of theirs but only out of an hatred to their name and Profession He sheweth also that by those grievous persecutions the Religion or number of Christians was nothing impaired but increased rather The more saith he we are mown down by you the more we rise up The blood of the Christians proves the seed of the Church For what man saith he beholding the painful torments and the perfect patience of the Christians will not search and enquire into the cause and when he hath found it out will not consent and agree to both and when he agreeth to it who will not be willing and desirous to suffer for it So that this Profession can never be extirpated seeing the more it is cut down the more it encreaseth For every man seeing and wondering at the sufferings of the Saints is moved thereby the more to search into the cause and in searching he finds it and in finding he follows it And as Tertullian thus bestirred himself in defending the innocency of the Christians so he compiled many excellent and fruitful Works whereof some are extant others are not to be found By these excellent Apologies of his he perswaded the Emperor Severus to savour the Christians who prayed for his prosperity and imputed the slaughter of his Subjects at Byzartium as a just judgement upon them for the effusion of so much Christian blood Having written excellently against the Hereticks of his time in the end of his Book he made a Catalogue of all the Hereticks that then tore the Bowels of the Church Yea he continued these labours when the Persecution was at the hottest not hiding his head though the times were so dangerous Once in great triumph all the Emperour Severus his Souldiers for the greater pomp were to put on Crowns of Bayes but one Christian Souldier there was amongst them who wore it on his Arm and being demanded the reason he boldly answered Non decet Christianum in hac vita Coronari that a Christian ought not to wear his Crown in this life Upon which occasion Tertullian wrote his Book De Corona Militis Cyprian when he would read Tertullian used to say Da Magistrum give me my Master His manner was constantly to pray thrice a day at the third sixth and ninth hours Writing De quatuor novissimis of Death Judgment Heaven and Hell he saith Haec nos aliquando risimus cum de vobis fuimus fiunt non nascuntur Christiani I sometimes scoffed at these things when I was a Heathen I now perceive that we are not born but made Christians He was converted by reading the Scriptures and the labours of other learned and holy men In reading the Scriptures he found them full of Majesty and truth And saith he Quicquid agitur praenunciabatur Whatsoever is done was in them foretold and after his conversion he was taken up night day in the reading of them and did with great pains get much of them by heart and that so exactly that he knew each period He highly commended Severus for that knowing many Noble men and women to be Christians he did not only not punish them but greatly praised them and did publickly withstand such as were their enemies Yet notwithstanding the great Learning and famous Vertues of this worthy
menaces let all such know that the Church of the Lord will oppose them and that the Tents of Christ will prove immovable and not to be conquered by them His fidelity will notably appear by his Epistles wherein he excellently comforts the afflicted recalls such as were faln or commends the care of them to other Bishops of the Church vigorously opposeth the Hereticks and Schismaticks Neither was he only a Spectator of the Martyrdom of others but suffered himself to be proscribed yea chose death rather then to betray the truth of the Gospel or to approve of the least defection to the impious worship of the Gentiles By these means his fame increased so exceedingly that he was not so much the Bishop of Carthage as of all Africk yea of Spain the East West and Northern Churches Yea he was judged the Father of all Christians And to the further setting forth to the praise of Gods grace of his glorious vertues wherewith he was endued appearing as well in his own works as described by other worthy Writers he was courteous and gentle loving and full of patience and therewithal severe and impartial in his Office Furthermore he was most affable and kinde towards his Brethren and took much pains in helping and releiving the Martyrs Yea he wrote Letters to the Elders and Deacons of his Bishopwrick that with all study and endeavour they should gently entertain and do all the Offices of love that possibly they could to the Martyrs in his absence He was very prudent and circumspect Of a marvellous liberal disposition towards the Brethren that fled for refuge from other Countries and so often as he had cause of absence he committed the care of those poor men to his fellow Officers writing to them that of their own proper goods they should help their banished Brethren to that which was necessary for them He had also great skill in the fore-knowledge of future events He was of so communicative a disposition that he concealed nothing which he knew but with meekness and willingness uttered it to others He maintained Ecclesiastical Peace and Concord with those that differed from him in smaller matters Lastly he neither circumvented nor did prejudice to any man but did that which always seemed good in his judgement He much addicted himself to reading and would let no day pass wherein he read not some part of Tertullians Works and when he called for him he used to say Da Magistrum Give me my Master He chiefly studied to keep his body continent and clean from fleshly lusts saying That then his heart would be truly sit to attain to the full capacity and understanding of the Truth if once he could trample down Concupiscence A great Persecution being raised against the Church of Christ by Aemilianus President of Egypt Paternus and Galerius Maximus Proconsuls of Africk Cyprian sheweth the true causes thereof in his fourth Book Epist the fourth in these words We saith he must acknowledge and confess that this turbulent oppression and calamity which hath wasted for the most part all our Church and doth dayly more and more consume it ariseth chiefly from our own wickedness and sins whilst we walk not in the way of the Lord nor observe his Precepts left unto us for our instruction Our Lord Christ observed the will of his Father in all points but we observe not the will of the Lord having all our minde and study set upon lucre and possessions we are given to pride full of emulation and dissention void of simplicity and faithful dealing renouncing this World in word only but not in deed every man pleasing himself and displeasing all others and therefore are we thus scourged and that worthily for what stripes and scourges do we not deserve when as the Confessors themselves who formerly enaured the trial of their Faith and ought to be an example to the rest in well doing do now observe no Discipline And therefore for their sakes who proudly brag with swelling words of their former Confession and Sufferings these torments come even such as do not easily send us to the Crown except by the mercy of God some being taken away by a quick death do prevent the tediousnes of punishment These things do we suffer for our sins and deserts as by the Lords threatning we have been forewarned where he saith If they shall forsake my Law and will not walk in my Judgements If they shall prophane my Institutions and will not observe my Precepts I will visit their iniquities with the rod and their transgressions with scourges These rods and scourges we justly feel who neither please God with our good deeds nor repent of the evil wherefore saith he let us pray from the bottom of our hearts and with our whole minde and let us intreat his mercy who promiseth that his loving kindness shall not be wholly taken away Let us ask and we shall obtain and though we be delayed yet seeing we have grievously offended let us continue knocking for he hath promised that to them that knock it shall be opened therefore with our Prayers sighs and tears let us still knock and we shall be sure to speed c. And in another part of his Epistle he shews what vices were principally reigning amongst the Christians viz. grievous divisions and dissentions amongst the Brethren For when these words were spoken to them in a Vision Petite impetrabitis Pray and ye shall obtain afterwards when it was required of the Congregation to direct their Prayers unto God in the behalf of certain persons assigned to them by name they could not agree about the persons that were to be prayed for but disagreed in their Petitions which thing did greatly displease God that spake unto them Pray and ye shall obtain because they were not uniform in voice and heart neither was there one joint consent amongst the Brethren Upon which occasion Cyprian moveth them to Prayer with mutual agreement For saith he if it be promised in the Gospel that whatsoever two or three shall agree upon to ask upon Earth it shall be granted in Heaven what shall then be done when the whole Church agree together Or what if this Unanimity were amongst the whole Fraternity which Unanimity if it had been amongst the Brethren Non venissent fratribus haec mala si in unum fraternitas fuisset animata i. e. These evils had not befaln the Brethren if they had joined together in brotherly Unanimity Cyprian having thus described the causes of this Persecution sets down a Vision wherein was shewed unto him by the Lord before the Presecution came what should happen The Vision saith he was this There was a certain aged Father sitting at whose right hand sat a young man very sad and pensive as one that with indignation is sorrowful with his hand upon his breast and an heavie countenance On the other hand sat a person having a Net in
he so contented Modestus the Emperours Praefect that he drew that wicked man by the shining of his vertue to admire him By this when the Emperour Valence himself entred into his Church he first astonished him and afterwards by his discreet conference deterred him from his cruelty year reclaimed him from the faction of the Arians though afterwards those wicked men prevailed to bring him over to them again He had always a minde so prepared for Martyrdom that he desired it as a great favour In all his writings there is such a peculiar grace and excellency that he never tires his Reader but always dismisseth him with a thirst after more One saith of him that the true beauty of his soul did shine forth in his Eloquence Rhetorick being both his companion and servant Hierom was his scholar He was of such Authority in the Greek Churches that whosoever durst oppose his testimony was suspected for an Heretick He so loved solitude that when for his excellent Learning and Sanctity he should first have been made a Bishop he retired himself into obscurity but being discovered the people chose him for their Bishop At last growing old and unfit for his publick imployment he constituted another Bishop and returned to his former solitude He flourished under Theodosius He used to say That in a great multitude of people of several Ages and Conditions who are like an Harp with many strings it is hard to give every one such a touch in Preaching as may please all and off end none He wrote divers works both in prose and verse The Life of Epiphanius who flourished Anno Christi 370. EPiphanius Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus was born in Palestine in an obscure Town called Besanduces of poor and obscure parents his Father dying when he was young he was adopted and brought up by one Tryphon a Jew whereby he attained to an excellent knowledge in the Hebrew He was converted to the Christian Faith by one Lucianus famous for his Learning and Vertue Lucianus put him to Hâ—arion to learn under whom he profited exceedingly Whilest he was a boy certain Hereticks called the Gnosticks cunningly sought to invegle him and to draw him over to their opinions but it pleased God to preserve him from the temptation and to keep him in the Truth In his riper years he was famous in the Church for his Piety Holiness of Life and for the Sincerity of his Doctrine and Elegancy of his Stile as his Books witness which shew their Author to be a man of great reading skilful in the Tongues well acquainted with Controversies prudent in asserting the Truth and acute in confuting Errors whereupon Melancthon saith of him We have no fuller an History of those ancient affairs of the Church then the writings of Epiphanius do contain in which whilest he intends the Confutation of Heresies he inserts many Historical passages So that out of this Author may be collected almost a continued History of the ancient Church if any would with prudence join his Narrations together and I wish that some Prince would take care to see such a work done He was of a very liberal and charitable disposition insomuch as he spent all his estate in relieving the Poor Being afterwards chosen Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus he at first modestly refused that dignity but importunity prevaling with him he so lived that Vitam doctrinâ doctrinam vitâ comprobaret his Doctrine approved his Life and his Life desended his Doctrine He was semper Hereticorum acerrimus oppugnator always a sharp opposer of Hereticks He purged all Cyâ—rus defiled and slurried with divers Heresies and having gained an Edict from Theodosius the Emperour he cast all the Hereticks out of the Island About this time Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria having upon some false surmises conceived displeasure against John Chrysostom Bishop of Constantinople he sought cunningly to thrust him out of his Bishoprick whereupon he sent Letters to the Bishops throughout every City concealing his principal drift and only pretending that he misliked the Books of Origen Epiphanius also being at this time very old Theophilus wrought upon his weakness and prevailed with him to call a Council in Cyprus In which Council the Bishops Decreed that thenceforth none should read the works of Origen and by the instigation of Theophilus they wrote also to Chrysostom exhorting him to abstain from the perusing of those Books and requesting him to summon a Council at Constantinople and to ratifie that Decree with the uniform consent of all After this Epiphanius went to Constantinople and contrary to the Canons of the Church Ordained some Ministers there and administred the Sacrament Yet Chrysostom honoured him highly went with the rest of his Clergy to welcome him to the City invited him to lodge at his own house and to make use of his Church during his abode there But Epiphanius being prepossessed with prejudice answered that he would neither lodge in his house nor join with him in Prayer except he would condemn the Books of Origen and drive away Dioscorus with his associates from him who were favourers of Origen But Chrysostom answered that it would be great injustice to condemn men before their cause was heard especially considering that the time for administration of the Sacrament was now near and with this answer he left him Presently after the Enemies of Chrysostom came to Epiphanius and perswaded him publickly before all the people to condemn the Books of Origen and also Dioscorus and his followers and withall to tax the Bishop of the City for favouring these persons Epiphanius being of too facile a disposition went out the next day to perform these things which Chrysostom hearing of sent Serapion who met him not far from the Church and protested that if he did these things he would do that which was neither just nor equal nor convenient for himself For that hereby he might bring himself into danger if any tumult should be raised amongst the people Hereupon he desisted yet privately he called together some Bishops that stayed in the City and shewed them the Decrees which condemned the Books of Origen and drew some of them to assent to the same but the greatest part refused and Theotymnus Bishop of Scythia blamed him to his face for it and told him that it was altogether unlawful thus to calumniate and asperse a man that was dead long since especially being of so great worth and his writings approved of by their Predecessours c. At last he resolved to return into Cyprus and for a farewel to Chrysostom he said I hope that thou wilt not dye a Bishop To which Chrysostom replyed and I hope thou wilt never return into thy own Country Both which came to pass for a while after Chrysostom was cast out of his Bishoprick and Epiphanius dyed upon the Sea and when he found himself mortally sick he called his
lose his freedom And that in the life of Ministers and Bishops there was a great deal of danger that will he nill he he must be intangled with riches honours and cares of the World and thereby be cast upon many temptations Besides the lives of many of them displeased him seeing the ancient Piety of the Ministry to begin to degenerate into Pride and Tyranny All these things seriously considered he began to be in love with a Monastick life which in those times did far differ from their lives in future Ages which was afterwards intangled with Ceremonies and Superstitions For in those times they had liberty to change their condition when they pleased to go whither they pleased they had a great deal of freedom to attend their studies betaking themselves to Fasting and Prayer they were not bound under any humane constitutions Their Apparel was mean yet not enjoyned but left to every ones free will not which was noted for prodigious novelty so that every one might point at them with the finger but which was most agreeable with Christian simplicity they were tyed by no Vows but such as every true Christian ought to be subject to Having resolved upon this course of life his next endeavour was to associate some companions to him therein But Pammachius who hitherto had been his chamber-fellow and fellow-student for his course of life was wholly of another disposition The greatest freedom was most pleasing to Hierom and a married life to Pammachius Bonosus having setled his affairs forsaking his Country Parents and Friends and only accompanyed with his Books was departed into a solitary Island and therein had out-run Hierom extricating himself from the snares of the World to enjoy more freedom in the service of Christ. Not long after Hierom having setled his affairs and provided things necessary for his journey especially a fair Library he sailed into Syria having Heliodorus for his companion who having remained a while with him in Syria disliking that course of life left him Yet did not Hierom at all break off his good esteem of him for the same Then did Hierom go to Hierusalem veiwing all the observable places about that once famous City But shortly after by reason of the change of Ayr and Country he fell into a grievous sickness at which time Evagrius entertained him into his house and shewed much kindeness to him Having recovered his health he was inflamed with an earnest desire of prosecuting his former resolution for the manner of his life and thereupon retiring himself into a Desart between the Syrians and Saracens he had no company besides wilde Beasts and Serpents and here and there a Monks Cell that had betaken himself to the same course of life as Hierom now did But before his fixing in this Wilderness he spent some time in Antiochia which yet he stayed not long in partly by reason of the celebrity of the place and partly because of a Schism that was in the Church Neither could he stay long in Chalcis because of the neighbourhood of some Arians which molested him and indeed this holy man was grievously vexed by their wicked practises who daily cited him before them to give an account of his Faith In brief he met with so many molestations that many times he repented his coming into Syria And thereupon at length he shut up himself far from the commerce of men in that forenamed Desart thinking it far better to live amongst Thieves and wilde Beasts then amongst such Christians And continuing there four years together he only conversed with Christ and his Books seriously busying himself according to his former purpose And having in his youth fallen into some loosness the first thing he did was with showres of tears to bewail his sins and to endeavour to make his peace with God Then by abstinence watchings and incredible austeritty of life to beat down his body and to bring it into subjection to his spirit that so he might be freed from all temptations to fleshly lusts and left his carnal affections should impede his heavenly life he prescribed and exacted of himself a daily task wherein he was imployed He distributed his time into two parts one for his studies the other for meditation and prayer wherein also he spent a good part of the night He allowed himself the least part for sleep less for his food and none for idleness when he was aweary of study he betook himself to Prayer or singing of a Psalm and then presently returned to his studies again He read over all his Library and then rubbed up his old studies He learned most of the Scripture by heart He meditated much upon the Prophets labouring to finde out the Mysteries of their Prophesies He extracted Christian wisdom out of the Evangelists and Apostolical Writings as out of most pure Fountains For it is the first step to Piety to acquaint our selves with the Truths of God Then he read over the Works of such as had Commented thereon with great Judgement not pretermitting the Works of Ethnicks and Hereticks For he knew how to gather Gold out of a Dunghil and Honey out of Weeds leaving the Poyson to Spiders then did he collect what he could out of the Egyptian Writers endeavouring to beautifie the House of God by the spoils of his Enemies And for the help of his Memory and to make him more prompt he digested all that he read into certain heads and common places â—ut especially he read over Origens Works whom he called Suum his own and some of whose Homilies whilest he was a young man he had turned into Latin His reading also he mixed with writing About this time he interpreted the Prophesie of Obadiah Allegorically because he knew not the History as himself afterwards confessed in his Preface to his second Interpretation of that Prophesie in which he makes amends for his former youthly precipitation In brief he pretermitted nothing that might make him an admirable Doctor of the Church and a most accomplished Divine that nothing might be wanting in his Learning nothing amiss in his Life which might any whit tend to the diminishing of the credit of his Doctrine Afterwards also finding by experience that many secrets could not be understood nor handled as they ought to be without learning those Languages wherein they were first written and taught by hard study and industry he overcame the difficulties which are in the Hebrew tongue Yea he did not only labour for the knowledge of it but to give the right sound and pronuntiation to some barbarous and strange Languages which he studied And for his perfecting in the Hebrew he did with great charges hire the most learned of the Jews to instruct him emptying his Purse to enrich his Soul with Learning He also learned the Chalde because the Books of Job Daniel and some other Portions of the Old Testament though they were written in Hebrew yet much use of
with open mouth upon Gods children to devour them they manfully resist him he thinks to weaken their Faith and they by his assaults are made the stronger he fights against them but they get ground upon him and so what he intended for their destruction full sore against his will makes for their advantage He was called the Champion of the Catholick Faith His Works were printed in two Tomes at Paris Anno Christi 1605. The Life of Peter Chrysologus who flourished Anno Christi 440. PEtrus Chrysologus so called because of his golden Eloquence was born at Imola in France of honest Parents bred under Cornelius Bishop of that City whose care it was not only to instruct him in good Manners and Learning but to fit him for the Work of the Ministry that he might bring glory to God in the service of his Church And not long after he was made Archbishop of Ravenna He excelled in Learning Vertue and all prais-worthy qualities He was present at the Councils the one at Ravenna the other at Rome and sent Letters full of Learning to the Synod of Chalcedon against Eutiches the Heretick He was powerful in Eloquence especially in his Sermons to the people and very holy in Conversation by both which he won many to the Truth Always before he penned any thing he would with great ardency and humility set himself to Prayer to seek unto God for direction therein He lived long having been Bishop about 60 years flourished under Martian the Emperour and dyed Anno Christi 500. He used to say Let not thy care be to have thy hands full whilst the Poors are empty for the only way to have full Barns is to have charitable Hands And God had rather men should love him then fear him to be called Father then Master he wins by Mercy that he may not punish by Justice If thou wilt be like thy Father do likewise And Neither in the Flint alone nor in the Steel alone any fire is to be seen nor extracted but by conjunction and collision So nor by Faith alone nor by good Works alone is Salvation attained but by joining both together And As the Clouds darken Heaven so intemperate Banquetting the Minde as the violence of windes and waves sinks a Ship so drunkenness and gluttony our souls and bodies in the depth of hell And Virtues separated are annihilated Equity without goodness is severitie and Justice without Piety cruelty And some that lived commendably before they attained to dignity being set in the Candlestick of the Church turn their light into darkness It had been better for such lights still to have been hidden under a bushel c. He was a man of an Excellent Wit and by his Ministry and example won many to a love of the Truth He wrote 176. Homilies Lib. ad Eutychen Epistoles alias PROSPER The Life of Prosper who dyed Anno Christi 466. PRosper was born in Aquitane and preferred to be Bishop of Rhegium in France He was Scholar to S. Augustine famous for Learning and Piety learnedly confuted the Pelagian Heresie He was assiduous in reading especially of the Scripture He usually had the four Evangelists in his hands He distributed his goods freely to the Poor His special care was to take away all strife and contentions from amongst his people He was a Father to all ages and sexes that were in the City He much addicted himself to Watching Fasting Prayer and Meditation He continued Bishop there twenty years flourished under Martianus Upon his death-bed speaking to many of his people that wept sore he said The Life which I have enjoyed was but given me upon condition to render it up again not grutchingly but gladly For me to have stayed longer here might seem better for you but for me it is better to be dissolved c. And so Praying and lifting up his hands to God before them all he departed Anno Christi 466. He was excellently versed in the Sacred Scriptures and no less famous in Humane Learning He was a very good Poet and an Eloquent Orator of a profound Judgement subtile Wit a nervous Writer and holy Liver His Works are all printed in Octavo at Cullen Anno Christi 1609. He used to say Thou shalt neither hate the man for his vice nor love the vice for the mans sake And Thou boastest of thy wealth honour strength beauty c. consider what thou arâ— by sin and shalt be in the grave and thy plumes will fall for every proud man forgets himself And As the Soul is the life of the Body so the life of the Soul is God when the Soul departs the Body dies and when God departs the Soul dies And Those things which God would have searched into are not to be neglected but those which God would have hidden are not to be searched into by the later we become unlawfully curious and by the neglect of the former damnably ingrateful And The envious man hath so many tortures as the envied hath praisers It s the Justice of envy to kill and torment the envious And The Life to come is blessed Eternity and Eternal blessedness there is certain security secure quietness quiet joyfulness happy Eternity eternal Felicity The Life of Fulgentius who dyed An. Chri. 529. HVnerick the Arian King of the Vandals having subdued Carthage banished all the Senators thereof into Italy amongst whom was Gordian Grandfather to Fulgentius And after the decease of Gordian Claudius his son returned unto Carthage and though his house was given to an â—rian Priest he recovered a great part of his Inheritance by some favour which he found at the Kings hands and so departing to Lepte he there setled his habitation But shortly after dying he left his son Fulgentius to the care of his Mother Mariana who was very careful to train him up in Learning causing him to be instructed in the Greek Tongue before he learned Latine that thereby he might attain to the greater perfection in that Language and as his years encreased so did he highly profit in all sorts of Learning to the great joy of his Mother who exceedingly rejoyced to see his wisdom and towardness which also much refreshed her after the loss of her dear husband yea she was so well satisfied with his Prudence that she committed to his care the government of her whole house and he so well behaved himself therein that he pleased his friends silenced his il-willers and both by direction and correction procured an awful respect from the servants He was also very careful to preserve his Patrimony By this his deportment he gat so much credit and esteem that he was made the Kings Collector and required to be rigorous in exacting the rated payments But after a while it pleased God that this multiplicity and burden of worldly businesses began to be very heavy to
foreseen to be a likely consequent yet was contemned in respect of the Churches necessity and want which was that the Arian King enraged by this act banished about 60 Bishops into Sardinia amongst whom Fulgentius was one who joyfully ascended the Ship being heartily glad that he had a share in such a glorious confession Divers of his Clergy and Friends followed him and being arrived at Calaris in Sardinia he there lived with them at the same Table and by his Sermons converted many Not long after King Thrasamund amongst the crafty fetches and persecutory drifts whereby he endeavoured to allure the Catholicks to the Arian Heresie used this Policy He feigned a desire to become a Catholick and setting down divers captious and deceitful questions pretended that he could not finde any that could sufficiently answer those questions whereupon hearing the fame of Fulgentius he hastily sent for him who with an undaunted courage came to Carthage and not being presently called to the King endeavoured seriously to confirm the Catholicks in their Faith and with much curtesie and affability answered all questions rejecting no man whereby he reclaimed many from their Errors admonishing them to repent of and to bewail their fall others he exhorted not to hazard the damnation of their Souls for temporal advantages and whom he saw in danger of perdition with milde yet effectual words he stayed and encouraged to a noble and generous resolution animating them to suffer any dangers or torments rather then to deny the Truth and it pleased God so to bless his labors that some who before were staggering were now by his means imboldned plainly to reprove the weak-grounded impudence of the Arian party And thus the Omnipotent God turned the Enemies device to the advancement of his own glory Then did the King send for him and questioned with him and met with such solid and judicious answers that he was forced to acknowledge that he found him every way to answer the report which he had heard of his Wisdom and Learning and withall he proposed sundry difficult questions to which he required his answer in writing Fulgentius having drawn up his Answer communicated it to the most learned Catholicks and after their approbation to the people before it was delivered to the King Thrasamund having with great diligence perused it praised his Wisdom wondred at his Eloquence commended his Humility yet had his heart so hardened that he could not understand and submit to the Truth Fulgentius could not be suffered to stay long at Carthage for the Arians with their clamors incensed the King complaining that he had already gained from them some of their Ministers and that the people fell apace to him so that their whole Religion stood in great hazard by his means Then the King to quiet them sent him back into Sardinia Late in the night was he carryed aboard the Ship that his departure might be the better concealed from the people but it pleased God by contrary windes long to detain the Ship in the harbor so that for many days almost the whole City flocked to him to take their farewel and many communicated at his hands And when great lamentation was made for his departure he took one Juliates a very godly man apart and told him he should shortly again return and that the Church should enjoy peace which also came to pass When he was requested to pray for any that were sick or in misery he commonly used this Petition Thou O Lord knowest best what will make for our Souls health Grant of thy mercy a supply unto our necessities so far forth as shall not hinder our spiritual profit And when God graciously answed his Prayers in their behalf he used to say That God did it for their sakes not for his He commonly said that Miracles make not a man just or righteous but famous When he was come back to Sardinia he returned to his former strict course of life with his Associates who had all things in common and when he distributed more to one then to another by reason of sickness or weakness he used thus to say to them Who taketh of the common so much becometh debtor to all which debt he can only pay by humility It was very pleasing to him when any of the Brethren proposed any hard question and gladly he hearkened to the doubts of any though they were never so simple neither would he through weariness or tediousness cease to give them answers until they confessed them selves to be satisfied Though he was sometimes severe towards the obstinate yet he remained even when he seemed most displeased and angry nothing at all in minde troubled or disquieted Thrasamund the King being shortly after taken away by death Hilderick succeeded him who restored peace and liberty to the Catholicks recalling their Bishops from Exile and amongst the rest Fulgentius who was received with great devotion by the Africans no less in every City then if he had been their peculiar Bishop Everywhere they met him with tokens of joy with whom now rejoycing he rejoyced as before with them lamenting he had lamented Yea their love was so great to him that a showre of rain falling they held their garments over his head to keep him dry Then did he return to his proper seat where he would do nothing without the advice of his Clergy In the Council of Vincensa he was by the common suffrage of the Bishops chosen President Though Bishop Quodvultdeus claimed that preheminence as belonging to his Sea and though Fulgentius for the present would not oppose this choice yet at the next Sessions he procured that the Bishop Quodvultdeus was restored to his right A year before his death he retired with some Brethren into the Island of Circina and there lived a most strict life But the necessities of his people requiring and their importunity prevailing he returned to them and shortly after fell into grievous pangs of sickness wherein he continued sixty days often crying out O Lord give me patience and pardon Physitians perswading him to make use of a Bath he answered Can Baths make that man who hath accomplished the course of Nature that he shall not dye Why then do you go about to perswade me now at my last end to remit of that rigor which I have always used Lastly calling together the Brethren about him he thus spake to them Dear Brethren having been careful of your Souls health perhaps I have been austere and harsh towards you If any one be offended I beseech him to pardon me and if my severity have possibly passed measure and due moderation pray ye to God that he may impute it not to me They all kneeling down acknowledged him to have been always loving gentle and milde towards them Then did he pray for his people that God would provide for them a Pastor after his own heart After
end I my Explication of Genesis God grant that others may more rightly expound it then I have done I cannot proceed further my strength faileth pray for me that I may have a quiet and comfortable departure out of this life This year in Italy was spread a most impudent lye about Luthers death which they called Horrendum inâ—ud tum miraculum quod in aeternum laudandus Dâ—us in foedamâ—te Mart. Lutheri corpore anima damnati exhibuit in gloriam Jesu Christi atque in emendationem consolationem piorum The substance of it was this That when he saw he must die he requested that his body should be set upon the Altar and worshipped with Divine Worship but when his body was laid in the grave suddainly so great a stir and terror arose as if the foundations of the Earth were shaken together whereupon all that were present trembling and astonished lift up their Eyes and saw the sacred Host appear in the Air whereupon they placed that upon the Altar But the night following a loud noise and ratling shriller then the former was heard about Luthers sepulchre which terrified all the City and almost killed them with astonishment in the morning when they opened the sepulchre they found neither bodie bones nor clothes but a sulphureous stink came out thereof which almost overcame the standers by c. This Lye coming printed into Germany Luther subscribed with his own hand I Martin Luther do profess and witness under my own hand that receiving this figment full of anger and fury concerning my death I read it with a joyful mind and cheerful countenance And but that I detest the blasphemy which ascribeth an impudent lye to the Divine Majesty for the other passages I cannot but laugh at Satans the Popes and their complices hatred against me God turn their hearts from their Diabolical malice but if he Decree not to hear my Prayer for their sin unto death then God grant that they may fill up the measure of their sins and solace themselves with their libels full fraught with such like lyes Anno Christi 1546. Luther taking Melancthon and some others along with him went into his own country and returned in safety to Wittenberg again And not long after he was sent for back by the Counts of Mansfield to compose a difference amongst them about the borders of their Countries and their inheritances Luther did not use to meddle with such businesses having all his life been accustomed only to deal in Ecclesiastical affairs yet because he was born in that Country he would not be wanting to promote the peace of it And therefore having preached his last Sermon at Wittenberg January the 17. upon the 23. day he began his journey and at Hall in Saxony he lodged at Justus Jonas his house and passing over the River with Jonas and his own three sons they were in danger of drowning whereupon he said to Justus Jonas Think you not that it would rejoyce the Devil very much if I and you and my three sons should be drowned He was honorably entertained by the Earl of Mansfield who sent an hundred Horse that conveyed him to Isleben being very weak whereupon he said that he never undertook any great business but he was attended with such sickness yet after the use of some Fomentations he was pretily well and attended the business about which he came from the 29. of Ianuary to the 17. of February During which time he preached some times in the Church and twice administred the Lords Supper and Ordained two to the work of the Ministry At his Table he used holy conference and was dayly very fervent in his Prayers The day before his death he dined and supped with his friends discoursing of divers matters and amongst the rest gave his opinion that in heaven we shall know one another because Adam knew Eve at first sight c. After supper his pain in his breast increasing he went aside and prayed then went to bed and slept but about midnight being awakened with the pain and perceiving that his life was at an end he said I pray God to preserve the Doctrine of his Gospel amongst us For the Pope and the Council of Trent have grievous things in hand After which he thus prayed O heavenly Father my gracious God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ thou God of all consolation I give thee hearty thanks that thou hast revealed unto me thy Son Iesus Christ whom I believe whom I profess whom I love whom I glorifie whom the Pope and the rout of the wicked persecute and dishonour I beseech thee Lord Iesus Christ receive my soul O my heavenly Father though I be taken out of this life and must lay down this frail body yet I certainly know that I shall live with thee eternally and that I cannot be taken out of thy hands God so loved the world c. Lord I render up my spirit into thy hands and come to thee And again Lord into thy hands I commend my spirit thou O God of Truth hast redeemed me and so as one falling asleep and without any bodily pain that could be discerned he departed this life February 18. Anno 1546. and in the great Climaâ—terial year of his life This was the Will which he made concerning his Wife with childe and his young son O Lord God I thank thee that thou wouldst have me live a poor and indigent person upon Earth I have neither house nor Land nor possessions nor money to leave Thou Lord hast given me wife and children them Lord I give back to thee nourish instruct and keep them O thou the Father of Orphans and Iudge of the Widow as thou hast done to me so do to them When he was ready to dye Iustus Ionas and Caelius said to him O Reverend Father do you dye in the constant confession of that Doctrine of Christ which you have hitherto preached To which he answered Yea which was the last word that he spake He was ever constant in the known Truth from the confession whereof he could never be removed neither by promises nor threats In the dismal Wars which followed when Wittenberg was yeilded to the Emperour Charles and he came to see Luthers Tomb some of his Spaniards perswaded him that the body of Luther should be taken up and burned the Emperour said Suffer him to rest till the day of the Resurrection and Iudgement of all men When he was fitting himself for his journey to Isleben he confessed to Melancthon that he had gone too far in the Sacramentary Controversie hereupon Melancthon perswaded him to explicate his minde by publishing some Book but he answered hereby I shall bring a suspition upon all my Doctrine as faulty but when I am dead you may do as you see cause He was full of affections towards his children gave them liberal education
to heaven whereupon they asked him whether he would have a Priest to confess to which he denyed then they willed him to call upon S. Mary which he also refused ever looking up to Heaven whereupon one gave him his deaths wound and when his body was known the Enemies condemned him to be cut into four parts and burned This fell out Anno Christi 1531 and of his age 44. after he had been Pastor at Zurick twelve years Three days after his death some of friends coming to the place found his heart untouched by the fire He began to preach at Glarona Anno Christi 1516. against many of the Popish Errors and abuses before the name of Luther was so much as heard of in those parts Beza made this Epitaph on him Zuinglius arderet gemino cùm sanctus amore Nempe Dei imprimis deinde suae patriae Dicitur in solidum se devâ—v â—sse duobus Nempe Deo imprimis deinde suae patriae Quam bene persolvit simul istis votâ— duobus Pro Patra examinis pro Pietate câ—nis He had a wit fitted for great matters honest candid sound and vehement yet not cruel or bloody but heroical and cheerfull His Doctrine and judgment were sound His study of Piety and reforming Religion from Popish superstitions is seen in his Works In his Sermons he was very Methodical teaching the Truth with great Perspicuity He was very sharp in reproving Vices especially the Pentions of the Switzers oppression of the Poor and Prodigality He used to say that it was a wicked warfare and nothing more hateful to God then for the hire of forreign Princes to spill blood When he thundred most against sin least the Innocent should be affrighted he used to say Bone vir haec te non moveant nihil ad te quad dico ne cures igitur Honest man be not affrighted at these things I speak not to thee therefore care not for it He used to study standing and tyed himself to certain hours which he would not omit except necessity compelled him From his first rising till ten a clock he imployed himself in reading writing interpreting the Scripture and making his Sermons After dinner till two a clock he conferred with his friends or gave counsel to such as sought it and so to his study till supper after which having walked awhile he busied himself in writing Letters which many times held him till midnight Monumenta ingenii eruditionis reliquit multa quae in quatuor tomos digesta typisque excusa extant JOHN OECVLAMPADIVS The Life of Oecolampadius who dyed Anno Christi 1531. OEcolampadius was born at Winsperg Anno Christi 1482. of rich and religious Parents especially his Mother for Wisdom Charity and Sanctity was very eminent in the place where she lived They brought up this their son in Religion and Learning His Father intending to make him a Merchant but his Mother by her earnest entreaties prevailed with him still to keep him at School where he profited exceedingly At twelve years of age he was sent to the University of Heidleberg and so profited there that at two years end he was made Batchelor of Art In that place he continued till he was Master of Arts and then went by the will of his Father to Bononia to study the Law But the ayr of Italy not argeeing with him he quickly returned to Heidleberg and betook himself to the study of Divinity read the School-men and profited much thereby He grew so famous both for Piety and Learning that Philip Prince Elector Palatine chose him for a Tutor to his sons But growing weary of a Court-life he left that charge and returned to the study of Divinity Not long after his Parents having no other childe gave all their Estate for the maintenance of a Minister in their own Town and chose this their Son to be the first that should undertake that charge which caused his return from Heidleberg to his own Country but finding himself as yet not throughly furnished for such a work he quickly left it and went to Tubing and from thence to Stutgard where under John Capnio he studyed Greek and from thence he went to Heidleberg where he began to study Hebrew And being by this means better furnished he returned into his own Country to his former Charge and became a severe Preacher and very grave in his carriage He associated himself but with a few and those the best But especially he contracted a strict bond of love with Capito which continued betwixt them so long as they lived From this place he was at last called to be a Preacher at Basil and there also he commenced Doctor in Divinity about which time Erasmus Roteradamus coming thither to print his Annotations on the New Testament he chose Oecolampadius as his assistant in that work and confessed that he was much holpen by him Shortly after he was called to Auspurg to be a Preacher there but finding some timorousness in himself in so great a work he thought that a retired life wherein he might betake himself to Prayer and study would be better for him for the present and therefore he entred into a Monastery near to that City in which also he thought to continue but all his friends especially Capito disswaded him from it which advice he at last hearkning unto and taking occasion to declare his judgement in several things against the Popish Doctrine he began to be much hated and threatned with Prison and death yet he daily encreasing in courage contemned their threats But after awhile the danger growing greater at the importunity of his friends he departed and not long after came to Basil to Print some Works which in his retiredness he had made During his abode there having no other means of subsistence he was maintained by Andrew Cratander the Printer where also to finde himself imployment he translated Chrysostom upon Genesis and preached Christ freely to some that resorted to him Anno Christi 1522. Sir Francis Sickengen sent for him concerning which himself thus writeth Because saith he Sir Francis Sickengen that most famous Knight of Germany and Captain of the Emperours Army hath sent for me to instruct his Family yea rather to feed it with spiritual Sermons being long since instructed I thought it my duty to endeavor that the Law of God should be made familiar in it whereby it might grow in the true and sincere study of Christianity whereupon I dayly read the Gospel and expounded it to those that were present familiarly exhorting them to the study of Piety and whereas they had been accustomed to hear Sermons only upon the Sabbaths and to have Masses all the Week after I so prevailed that Masses were laid aside and some part of the Epistles and Gospels was read and expounded every day to them Shortly after the Senate of Basil chose him to be a
which being published and sent over into England became exceeding profitable to the whole English Nation At his first going over into Germany he went into Saxony and had much conference with Luther and other learned men in those quarters and then returning into the Netherlands made his greatest aboad at Antwerp He wrote also divers other Books under sundry titles amongst which is that most worthy monument of his called The Obedience of a Christian Man with divers other Treatises as the Wicked Mammon the Practice of Prelates with divers Expositions upon sundry portions of Scripture As also some answers to Sir Thomas Moore and other Adversaries of the Truth no less delectable then right fruitful to be read These Books being sent over and dispersed in England it cannot be imagined what a dore of Light they opened to the Eyes of all the Nation which for a long time had been shut up in darkness He wrote also one Book of the Declaration of the Sacrament and against the Mass but he kept it by him and did not print it considering how the people for the present were held under their gross Idolatry and therefore judging that it would be odious to them to hear these things at the first he waited a fitter time for the publication of it These godly Books but especially his translation of the New Testament coming abroad as they brought singular profit to the godly So the ungodly Clergy disdaining and envying that the people should be wiser then they and withall fearing least by the shining beams of the Truth their hypocrisie and works of darkness should be unmasked they began to make a great stir but especially the Devil envying the progress of the Gospel sought by all means to hinder the blessed travels of this worthy man For when he had finished his translation of Deuteronomy minding to print it at Hamborough he sailed thitherward But by the way upon the coast of Holland he suffered shipwrack by which he lost all his Books and Writings and so was compelled to begin all again to his great hinderance and doubling of his labors Thus having by that shipwrack lost all his mony copies and time yet through Gods mercy he was not discouraged but taking the opportunity of another Ship he went to Hamborough where he met with Mr. Coverdal who assisted him in the translation of the five Books of Moses the sweating sickness being in that Town all the while which was Anno Chri. 1529. And during their imployment in that work they were entertained by a religious widow Mistress Margaret Van Emerson When his English Testament came abroad Satans and the Popes instruments raged exceedingly some saying that there were a thousand Heresies in it others that it was impossible to Translate the Scriptures into English others that it was not lawful for the Laye people to have it in their own language c. and at last the Bishops and Priests procured of King Henry the Eight a Proclamation prohibiting the buying or reading of it Anno Christ 1527. Yet not satisfied herewith they suborned one Henry Philipâ— to go over to Antwerp to betray him who when he came thither insinuated himself into Mr. Tindalâ— company and pretended great friendship to him and having learned where his abode was he went to Bruxels and there prevailed so far that he brought with him the Emperours Atturney to Antwerp and pretending to visit Mr. Tindal he betrayed him to two Catchpoles which presently carryed him to the Atturney who after examination sent him to Prison in the Castle of Filford 18 miles of and withall they seized upon all his writings and what else he had at his lodging The English Merchants at Antwerp who loved Tindal very well did what they could to procure his release also Letters were sent by the Lord Cromwel and others out of England in his behalf but Philips so bestirred himself that all their endeavours came to nothing and Tindal was at last brought to his answer and after much reasoning although he deserved not death yet they condemned him to dye When he was brought forth to the place of Execution whilst he was tying to the stake he cryed with a fervent and loud voyce Lord open the King of Englands eyes And so he was first strangled by the Hangman and then burnt Anno Christi 1536. The power of his Doctrine and the sincerity of his Life was such that during his imprisonment which was about a year and an half he converted his Keeper and his daughter and some others of his houshold and Philips that betrayed him long enjoyed not the price of innocent blood but by Gods just judgement was devoured by lice The Emperors Atturney that prosecuted against him left this testimony of him that he was Vir doctus pius bonus a learned pious and godly man Whilst Mr. Tindal was Prisoner in the Castle there was much writing and great Disputations betwixt him and them of the University of Lovain which was but nine or ten miles from thence so that they had all enough of him not knowing how to answer the authorities and testimonies of Scriptures whereupon he grounded his Doctrine On a time the Company of English Merchants being a Supper together at Antwerp there was a Jugler amongst them who by his Magical Art could fetch all kinde of dainty dishes and wine from any place they pleased and set it on the Table incontinent before them with many other such like things This being much talked of abroad Mr. Tindal hearing of it desired of some of the Merchants that he might be present at supper to see the Jugler play his pranks Accordingly supper was appointed and Mr. Tindal with the Merchants went to it and the Jugler being requested to play his pranks and to shew his cunning he after his wonted boldness began to utter all that he could do but all was in vain So that at last after all his sweating toiling and labor when he saw that nothing would go forwards but that all his enchantments were void he openly confessed that there was some man present at supper which disturbed and hindred all his doings Concerning his Translation of the New Testament which was so vilifyed by his Adversaries he thus writes in an Epistle to John Frith I call God to record against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus to give up reckoning of our doings that I never altered one syllable of Gods Word against my conscience nor would do it for all that is in the Earth whether honour pleasure or profit c. Most of his Works are mentioned before in his Life The Life of Bertholdus Hallerus who dyed Anno Christi 1536. BErthold Haller was born in Helvetia Anno Christi 1502. and from his childhood was much addicted to Learning and therefore after he had been trained up at School he went to
Collen where he applyed himself to the study of the Arts and Tongues and afterwards betook himself to the study of Divinity and commenced Batchelor in Divinity Then returned he into his own Country and at Bern was chosen first a Canon and after that a publick Preacher For indeed he excelled all his Colleagues in Piety Learning and Eloquence About this time Hulderick Zuinglius began to Preach at Glorana and afterwards at Zurick the Gospel of Christ purely by whose Ministry it pleased God to enlighten our Haller who not consulting with flesh and blood presently adjoined himself to Zuinglius and endeavoured to propagate the Truth both publickly and privately Anno Christi 1526. the twelve Pages of the Helvetians appointed a Disputation at Baden about matters of Religion whither when Zuinglius could not go with safety Oecolampadius and Haller went thither where they had a great dispute with John Eccius the Pontificians Champion The year after the Bernates which is the most potent Canton of the Switzers desired a Copy of that Disputation and when they could not obtain it and the differences about Religion began to encrease by a publick writing set forth Decemb. the seventeenth they appointed another Disputation in their City to which they invited their neighbor Bishops intreating them also to bring their Divines along with them which if they refused they threatened to lay a fine upon their possessions which were within their Jurisdiction They also invited any other Divines out of other parts to come to the Disputation promising them safety upon the Publick Faith They also agreed upon Laws for the Disputation and published the Questions which were to be handled which were That the Church hath but one head viz. Christ and that she knows not the voice of any other That the Church can make no Laws besides the Word of God and therefore no man is bound by Traditions That Christ hath satisfied for the sins of the World and therefore they which seek out any other way of Salvation or expiating their sins deny Christ. That the body and blood of Christ are not received corporally in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper That the Mass wherein Christ is offered up to his Father for the quick and dead is blasphemy and an abomination before God That Christ alone is our Mediator and Advocate to his Father and that no other is to be sought out or invocated That after this Life there is no Purgatory That Images are not to be worshipped and therefore that all that are set up in Churches for that end ought to be taken away That Matrimony is not prohibited to any order of men January the seventh Anno Christi 1528. this Disputation was held and the issue of it was the most were satisfied in all these points so that presently after Popery was cast out of the City and all the large Territories of the Bernates by the unanimous consent of all though the Pontificians did all that possibly they could to hinder it and by their example some of their neighbors did the like and in particular the City of Geneva When thus our Haller had been a great instrument of Reformation in this Country and had set things in good order in the Church so that his fame began much to spread abroad it pleased God to take him away by an immature death Anno Christi 1536. and of his Age 44. to the great grief of all his friends The Life of Urbanus Regius who dyed Anno Christi 1541. VRbanus Regius was born in Argalonga in the Territories of Count Montfort of honest Parents who bred him up in Learning and when his childhood was over they sent him to Lindau where was a School famous both for the Masters and store of Scholars here he profited much in Grammer Learning so that from thence he was sent to Friburg where he was a diligent Auditor of sundry men excelling in all kinde of Learning Then was he entertained in the house of Zasius an Excellent Lawyer who loved him dearly for his diligence and industry Zasius also allowed him the use of his Library in which Regius did as it were hide himself diligently reading over all such Authors as were fit for his studies and therein especially observed such Notes as Zasius in his younger days had written in the Margins of them which Notes Regius in the night time used to write out so that when Zasius arose sometimes in the night because he could not sleep he still found Regius writing out those Annotations whereupon he used softly to pull him by the Ear saying Thou wilt get all my Art and Learning from me And when at any time he had found him asleep with his head leaning on the table he used to lay one or two great Law-books upon his shoulders and so leave him till he waked Zasius loved him as his son both for the sweetness of his nature and carriage as also for his diligence and industrie in his studies When thus at Friburg he had informed his judgement and stored his minde with Learning he went to Basil that by hearing the Professors of the Arts and Tongues he might enrich himself with more Polite Learning At this time of all the Universities of Germany Ingolstade was the most famous which was governed by John Eccius a most learned man in Philosophy whose fame coming to the Ears of Regius he left Basil and went to Ingolst ade In that place where there was a great confluence of Students besides the publick Lectures there were many which read privately amongst whom Regius also set to reading private Lectures having many that resorted to hear him At last divers Noblemen sent their sons to him to be educated desiring him to furnish their children with books and all other necessaries for which they would take care to pay him again quarterly but when he had run into debt for them they neglected to return their money which caused him to think of departing being tired out with the importunity of his Creditors and having an opportunity he listed himself a Souldier under a Captain that went against the Turks leaving his books and other furniture to be divided amongst the Creditors Being now amongst the Souldiers it happened that John Eccius who was Governor of the University coming forth to see the Souldiers espyed Regius amongst them and enquiring the cause of his so sudden a change he told him how those Noble men had served him whereupon Eccius got him released from his Captain and by his Authority procured the Debts to be paid by the Parents of those Youths which had been with him whereupon he returned to his studies again and growing famous for his wit and learning Maximilian the Emperour passing through Ingolstade made him his Laureat-Poet and Orator After the departure of Maximilian he grew so grateful to Ernest Duke of Bavaria and Leonard Eccius a Noble man
and Naples there to spread his Doctrine privately whereby also he might have the better opportunity of spreading it in Spain but said he we will first go to Trent where are many excellently learned men and from thence into Italy I beseech you therefore Brother go with me and I will furnish you with all things necessary for your journey John Diazius being glad of this presently wrote to Bucer and others at Ratisbone for their advice what he should do They counselled him by no means to stir or go with his brother Then Alphonsus being frustrate of his hope intreated him at least to bear him company to Auspurg But in the interim Bucer coming to Neoburg would not suffer him to stir a foot neither would leave him till his brother Alphonsus was gone Alphonsus hereupon three days after came to take his leave of his brother where he had much conference with him exhorting him to charity and constancy in the profession of the true Religion and at last would needs thrust fourteen Crowns into his brothers hand willing him therewith to buy new cloths and so they parted not without tears Next morning the wagon being ready to depart wherein Alphonsus and his cut-throte were to pass to Auspurg the two brothers again took their leaves with tears and so Alphonsus set forward and came to Auspurg but privately the next day he and his cut-throte returned to Neoburg and by the way they bought an hatchet of a Carpenter and so stayed all night at a Village near Neoburg and the next morning very early went thither disguised that they might not be known and leaving one to hold their horses under an hedge they entered into the City so soon as the gates were open and going strait to the Ministers house where Iohn lodged the Executioner knocked at the door and when a youth came he asked him for Iohn Drazius the youth answered that he was in bed Go said this villain and tell him that I have brought him Letters from his brother Iohn hearing this being in bed with Senarcleus his intimate friend presently leaped up cast a cloke a bout him and so went into a stove which was over against his chamber door then calling for the messenger he went in to him leaving Alphonsus at the stair-foot and presented the Letters to him the effect whereof was the assoon as he came to Auspurg he understood that he was in great danger and therefore out of his brotherly love to him to advised him to beware of Malvenda such as he who being Enemies to Christ went about to shed his blood c. Iohn being busie in reading these Letters the Executioner that stood at his back plucked forth his hatchet and stroke it into the temple of this holy man in the right side of his head even to the helve which in a moment so deprived him of sense that he made no noise and least the fall of his body should make a noise this villain caught it in his arms and laid it own and so went down the stairs softly to his Master Alphonsus and both of them immediately repaired to their horses and fled They of Neoburg hearing of this horrible fact sent out certain Horsemen to pursue the murtherers who coming to Auspurg and hearing that hey were passed the City being out of hope to overtake them returned only one more zealous then the rest would not return but pursued them still and in the City of Oenopont caused them to be apprehended and cast into Prison And Otto the Palatine being informed of all these passages sent to the Magistrates requiring Judgement against them The Magistrates at first seemed very forward But in conclusion through the practice of the Papists and crafty Lawyers suborned by them judgement was deferred from day to day till the Emperours Letters came in post haste to stop their further proceedings pretending to reserve the cause to his own hearing And thus this terrible murther of Cain and his fellow was slipped over by man yea this unnatural act was highly commended by the Papists But the Lord would not suffer such an unnatural villany to go unpunished for not longer after he was so dogged and haunted by the Furies of his own Conscience that being at Trent when the Council was held there he hanged himself about the neck of his own Mule fix years after the murther was committed viz. An. Christi 1551 GASPER CRVCIGER The Life of Cruciger who dyed An. Chri. 1548. GAsper Cruciger was born at Lipsich in Misnia An. 1504. His Fathers name was George a man who was endowed with many virtues but especially to be commended for that in those perillous times he did not onely embrace the Celestial Truth himself but brought up this his son in the knowledge and study of it to the great benefit of the Church His Mother also was eminent for piety This Gasper was melancholy by nature and of a retired disposition much in meditation and of few words Being principled in the Latine he learned Greek and profited much therein and so went to the University of Wittenberg that having studied Divinity there he might be the more useful to the Church He studied also the Hebrew tongue and grew very exquisite therein From thence he was called to govern the School at Magdeburg where he taught with much profit and applause to Anno Christi 1527. In somuch as many of riper years yea some Clerks came to be his hearers So that his School growing too little for his Auditory he was removed into a larger But after a while he was called back to Wittenberg where he preached and expounded the Scriptures with so much dexterity the he was graced with the degree of a Doctor In that University he studyed and practised Physick also and was so much delighted therewith and he endeavoured to know the nature of Herbs and Plats and what Diseases they were good for whereupon he planted two Gardens with his own hands which with singular industry he furnished with variety of Simples and made many excellent Medicines which did much good By reason of his Learning and candid nature he was very dear to Luther and was very helpful to him in his Translation of the Bible He wrote so swiftly that he was chosen Scribe at the Disputation at Worms Anno Christi 1540. and yet withall suggested to Melancthon many things for answer to Eccius his subtilties insomuch that Glanvel who supplyed the Emperours room said of him That the Lutherans has a Scribe that was more learned then all the Pontificians Hee took by characters a great part of Luthers Lectures and Sermons which afterwards he wrote out a large and faithfully printed them after Luthers death He published also some Commentaries of his own upon the Psalms and the Gospel of Saint Iohn which are of excellent use to the learned He was a fine and smooth Orator and always abhorred
the vain phancies of phanatick persons cleaving to the Truth without deviation He shunned in his Sermons strange and uncouth expressions by which erroneous persons oft disturb the peace of the Church He always opposed the Anabaptistical Errors and was very careful to preserve the Truth from corruptions He often contemplated the footsteps of God in Nature saying with Paul That God was so near unto us that he might almost be felt with our hands He studyed the Mathematicks in his latter time and grew so skilful therein that few excelled him He was excellent also in the Opticks but with his excessive pains and incessant studies night and day he contracted to himself a mortal disease whereby he wasted away and yet his intellectuals decayed not he lay sick for above three months all which time he gave forth clear and notable demonstrations of his Faith Patience and Piety He called up his two young daughters and caused them to repete their Prayers before him and then himself prayd with great fervency for himself the Church and those his Orphans concluding Invoco te quanquam languidâ imbecillâ fide sed fide tamen credo promissioni tuae quam sanguine tuo resurrectione obsignasti c. I call upon thee with a weak yet with a true Faith I believe thy promises which thou hast sealed to me with thy Blood and Resurrection c. In his sickness he intermitted not his studies for during the same he turned into Latine Luthers books concerning the last words of David he read he Psalms and other Authors His ordinary discourse with his friends was about the Principles of Religion the admirable government of the Church Immortality and our sweet Communion in Heaven Upon the sixth of November there was a great Chasm or opening in the Heavens and in some places fire fell to the Earth and flew up into the ayr again This Cruciger saw as he lay in his bed in the night and thereupon much bewayled the great commotions and dissipations in the Church with he forelaw by this Prodigie He spent the few days which remained in Prayer and Repentance and so quietly ended his days Nov. 16. Anno Christi 1548. and of his Age 45. Considering the mutability of all Earthly things he used often to say Omnia praetereunt praeter amare Deum Besides Gods love nothing is sure And that for ever doth endure He was a man of an excellent wit whose daily and indefatigable labors were not only very useful to the University of Wittenberg but even to forraign Nations and Churches He had a plentiful knowledge of the Celestial Doctrine which by his ardent Piety and assistance of the Holy Ghost was daily encreased in him He was so exact and ready in the Hebrew tongue that he easily excelled all others that joined with him in the translation of the Bible In his Sermons and speeches he had a sound Judgement joyned with an Eloquent Tongue He shewed the greatness of his minde by his exact knowledge and skill in the Mathematicks wherein he was deservedly accounted inferiour to none And these gifts he adorned with many other excellent vertues with gravity constancy and moderation in every condition with bounty toward strangers and hearty love to his friends He published sundry Commentaries upon the Psalms Iohn and the first Epistle of Paul to Timothy Lectures upon two Articles of the Nicene Creed He turned many of Luthers Lectures and Sermons out of Dutch into Latine and others out of Latine into Dutch The Life of Matthias Zellius who dyed Anno Christi 1548. MAtthias Zellius was born in Alsatia in a Town called Keisersberg Anno Christi 1477. and was trained up in Learning by his Parents from his childhood and afterwards set to the Publick Schools From whence he went to the University where his proficiency was very exemplary And being well grounded in the Arts he commenced Master of Arts and then applyed himself to the study of Divinity Not long after he went to Strasborough where he was Ordained a Minister and Anno Christi 1522. he was made Pastor of S. Lawrence Church At which time Luthers Doctrine spreading abroad Zellius compared it with the Doctrine of his Adversaries the Papists and upon mature deliberation and examination imbraced that of Luther whereupon he began publickly to defend it perswading the Citizens of Strasborough to entertain it Assoon as the Bishop heard hereof he cited him to appear in his Court and caused twenty four Articles to be drawn up against him amongst which these were some That he taught Iustification by Faith That be defended Luther That he Preached against the Mass Held the Marriage of Priests lawful Denyed the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and Humane Traditions Hereupon Zellius An. Chr. 1523. published a Book wherein he answered this charge justified his Doctrine and shewed reasons why he appeared not before the Bishop From this time forward he was much hated by the Popish Clergy and went through many dangers for asserting the Truth yet through Gods mercy he with some others so far prevailed that the Magistrates of Strasborough cast our Popery and embraced the Reformed Religion Anno Christi 1529. Zellius therefore was the first Preacher of the Truth in te Church of Strasborough To whom after a good while Symphorianus an ancient Pastor of S. Martins Church adjoined himself who formerly had been very loose in his carriage and therefore the people did the more admire this great change in him yea some of his former acquaintance led by his example did shake off Popery and embraced the Truth and truly these two were rather Popular Preachers then learned Yet Zellius was a man of singular piety And not long after Anthony Firnius Minister of S. Thomas Church joined himself to them and was the first Minister in that City that marryed a wife Yea after a while there came thither Martin Bucer Capito and D. Gaspar Hedio learned and eminent men who more strongly carryed on the work of Reformation in Strasborough viz. An. Chr. 1523. Zellius continued a faithful and painful Pastor in his Church till the year 1548. and of his Age 71. at which time it pleased God to translate him from Earth to Heaven after he had been a Preacher in Strasborough about 26 years He was a man famous not for Learning only but for other Christian vertues especially Modesty Temperance and Charity He had a good wit was of an Innocent and blameless Life Preached the Truth purely and was free from pride Not only a Theoretick but a Practical Divine What he taught he first practised himself and had a special care of the Poor Being on a time invited to supper by one of his Colleagues he found much Plate set upon his Cupboard at which he was so offended that he went away without his supper and afterwards in private so far
unmoveable in the Truth The sufferings of these godly Divines grew famous in forreign Nations whereupon Bucer and Fagius were sent for by Cranmer into England where they arrived Anno Christi 1549. and were honorably entertained by Doctor Cranmer in his own house where they were instrumental to the great encrease of Religion Also by Cranmer they were set upon the Translation of the Bible with brief notes to which they added an enucleation of hard Texts and a reconciliation of seeming contradictions in Scrâ—pture In this work Fagius undertook the Old Testament and Bucer the New But the work was hindred by the sickness of them both and the death of Fagius who being taken with a Feaver about the end of the Dog-days for change of Ayr was carryed to Cambridge where the 13. of November he ended his days joyfully An. Chri. 1550. and of his Age 45. but not without the suspition of Poyson and was there honorably buryed Yet afterwards in Queen Maries time An. Chr. 1556. he was condemned of Heresie his bones digged up and burned to ashes He was tall of stature of a swarthy complexion under a severe countenance full of curtesie and very Eloquent in his Ministry He translated out of Hebrew Thisbites Heliae Apothegmata Patrum Sententias morales Ben Syrâ— Precationes Hebraicas A little Tractate written by a Iew that turned Christian. Expositionem dictionum Hebraicarum in quatuor capita Geneseos â—ui adâ—icitur Paraphrasis Chaldaica Onkel Comment R. David Kimbi in decem primos Psalmos Targum i. e. paraphrasis Onkeli Chaldaica in 5 libros Mosis with divers others MARTIN BVCER The Life of Martin Bucer who dyed Anno Christi 1551. MArtin Bucer was born at Selestade in Alsatia Anno Christi 1491. being of an excellent wit he entred very young into the Monastery of the Dominicans there and afterwards by consent of the Prior he went to Heidleberg for the encrease of Learning and having gone through other Arts he studied Divinity together with the Greek and Hebrew Tongues whilst he was there he met with and read Erasmus and Luthers Works whereupon he began to dis-rellish Popery and Frederick Prince Elector Palatine being much pleased with his Eloquence and singular Humanity as also with his clear and strong Voice and freedom in reproving the vices of men by the instigation of Sir Francis Sickengen chose him to be his Minister so that he Preached often in Heidleberg and elsewhere During his abode in that place Luther came thither whom he heard disputing against Free Will which kindled in his Breast the first sparks of the Divine Truth which by his conversing with Luther were further encreased Afterwards going with his Prince into the Low-countries he Preached freely against the Superstitions and sins of the times and began to bethink himself of leaving his Order whereupon the Monks lay in wait to take away his Life but escaping thence he went to Sir Francis Sickengen who sheltered him from danger till the Controversies about Religion were determined in his Castle at Naustall and when Luther was sent for to the Diet at Worms he went along with him and after some converse he embraced and defended his cause Not long after War arising between Sickengen and Trevir Bucer finding that he could not follow his studies in the midst of those tumults craved leave to depart and obtained it but a Neighbor Pastor of Wissenburg intreated him to Preach in his charge which he did till by the unhappy fall of Sickengen they were both driven thence by the prevailing power so that he fell into great danger About this time the seeds of the reformed Religion began to be sown in Strasborough by Matthew Zellius and Gasper Hedio Sigismund Count of Hohenlâ— favoring them to whom therefore Bucer went and was curteously entertained and Anno Christi 1523. was appointed publick Preacher in the Church and to read Divinity in the Schools These Colleagues excelling in Wit Eloquence and Zeal did propaâ—â—te the Gospel of Christ notably in that City and the year after published in Print the reasons why they changed the Mass into the Lords Supper c. which Book they dedicated to Frederick the Elector Palatine This Book was subscribed by Capito Hedio Zellius Pollio Niger John Latomus Fâ—rn Hag and Bucer Hereupon the Senate of Strasborough by a general Vote reformed their City casting out Popery and establishing the pure Gospel of Christ. An. Chr 1529. when the Gospellers agreed not in all things amongst themselves a conference was appointed at Marpurg between Luther and Zuinglius whereupon Bucer with Hedio went thither and had much discourse with them wherein they agreed upon all points of Divinity except about the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and so parted friendly resolving ab omni contentione in posterum abstinendum utrinque esse Deumque orandum ut Spiritu suo erudiat ducatque that both sides should abstain from contention c. The year following at Auspurg he disputed with the Papists and had a large testimony for his Learning and modesty hearing his Adversaries patiently rather seeking Truth then Victory and answering them mildly yet strongly He took much pains to reconcile the difference between Luther and Zuinglius about the Lords Supper fore-seeing the great mischief that that difference would bring upon the Church An. Chr. 1531. the Citizens of Vlm sent for him to Reform their Churches where he with Oecolampadius performed the trust put in him with much prudence and faithfulness He was so studious of peace that some said he complyed too much with Luther in that Doctrine against which he had formerly both Preached and Written Whereupon in the Moneth of May Anno Chrâ—sti 1533. he went to Zurick and there in an Assembly of the Ministers of the Church he purged himself from the suspition of revolt shewing that he did still retain the same Doctrine concerning the Supper of the Lord which he had formerly professed and had defended in the Disputation at Bern against the Adversaries thereof and that by the grace of God he would continue therein to his lives end but yet that it seemed to him that Luther dissented from Zuinglius rather in words then in Doctrine and very deed He requested also the Ministers of Zurick that they would not attempt nor write any thing more bitterly against Luther by reason of that Epistle which he had sent to the Magistrates of Franckford To this they of Zurick answered that they admitted his excuse yet withall shewed him out of that Epistle what Luther seemed to think of the Supper of the Lord and what was to be expected of them hereafter withall telling him that they were determined with Gods help to remain in that Doctrine which they had taught hitherto in the Church of Zurick till they were otherwise convinced out of the holy Scriptures and in
the chief Church of Ments he taught the Truth plainly and powerfully which when the tender and delicate Ears of many would not endure a persecution was raised up against him especially by the Popish Clergy which caused him to leave Ments and go to Strasborough An. Chr. 1523. where he was a great assistant to Capito and Bucer in reforming Religion by the command of the Senate though the Papists gnashed their teeth at it For the same year the Senate commanded their Preachers that they should teach the Gospel freely and Publickly and that they should instil into their hearers the Love of God and their Neighbors yet withall that they should abstain from reproaching the contrary opinions and from scandalous provoking the people against them Anno Christi 1523. Hedio marryed a wife and though the Papists raised a great persecution in that City against him yet he Preached boldly against Masses Indulgences Auricular Confession c. and wrote against them also And when the Senators of Strasborough the year after set forth in Print the reasons grounded upon Scripture why they made that alteration in Religion Hedio with his Colleagues subscribed it and withall they published certain Propositions wherein they strongly defended their Doctrine to be grounded upon the Word of God Anno Christi 1543. when Herman Archbishop of Collen began a Reformation he sent for Bucer and Hedio to assist him therein knowing them to be men of very quiet dispositions and very fit to instruct the people But awhile after when Caesar came to Bonna they were in great danger by reason of his Spanish Souldiers and at last by the command of Caesar they were dismissed from Ments and through many difficulties and dangers they returned to Strasborough What time he could spare from his Ministerial imployment he spent in writing Commentaries and Histories of which a great part afterwards were published in Print whereby he deserved excellently of the Church and so continued Preaching and Writing till the year 1552. at which time it pleased God to put an end to his labors on Earth and to translate him to his Heavenly Kingdom concerning whom one made this Epigram Argentina tuis Hedio pia dogmata templis Sincerâ docuit Religione Dei. Cumque tibi pietas sit priscaque gloria cordi Non poteris tanti non meminisse viri He published a Sermon about Tithes An Historical Synopsis wherein he enlarged Sabellicus to the year 1538. He corrected Chronicon Abbatis Vspergensis adding many remarkable matters from the year 1512 to 1537. He wrote Chronicon Germanicum Besides a great many Histories and other Books which he translated into Dutch As he maintained peace and friendship with his Colleagues so he held correspondence with most of the learned men of that Age. And amongst others Nicholas Gerbeline thus writes Mira mihi est cum Hedione familiaritas Hebraica Graeca studia communia ingeniorum rara quaedam aequalitas Deus faxit ne malus aliquis discordiam interserat Scis enim nihil iniquiùs ferre Daemonem quam sinceras amicitias The Life of Oswald Myconius who dyed Anno Christi 1552. OSwald Myconius was born at Lucern in Helvetia Anno Christi 1488. and was first trained up in his Country School after which he went to Basil and there betook himself to the study of the Arts and Tongues which he prosecuted with great diligence and was much delighted with the Works of Erasmus and of his Country-man Henry Glarianus with both of which he was well acquainted and was highly prized by them both for the excellency of his wit and for his singular learning This was about the year 1514. His Learning being taken notice of he was by the Magistrates of Basil made chief Master of Saint Theodores School and awhile after of Saint Peters School in both which he trained up many young men and made them very fine Scholars After some years he was called from Basil to Zurick to moderate a School there where he took great pains in training up youth for three years space at the end whereof he was called into his own Country of Lucern and set over the chief School there About which time the Doctrine of the Gospel began to shine out in all places and our Myconius did not only willingly and readily embrace it himself but was zealous to propagate it and for that end endevoured to instill it into the hearts of his Scholars which were very many insomuch as the Popish party taking notice of it turned him out of his School Anno Christi 1523. From thence therefore he went back to Zurick where he was kindely entertained and made chief Schoolmaster again where he continued till after Zuinglius was slain in the War at which time Learning and the esteem of Learned men began to decay in Zurick whereupon he returned to Basil and giving over the troublesome Office of a Schoolmaster he was made Deacon of the Church of S. Alban where he preached diligently till the death of John Oecolampadius and then he took up his Divinity Lecture and began to expound the Gospel of S. Mark which he performed so well that very many Auditors frequented his Lectures About this time the Magistrates of Basil consulted about surrogating one in the Pastoral Office of Oecolampadius and beyond his expectation Myconius was nominated and appointed thereto and so was made the chief Pastor in Basil having but a little while supplyed the Office of a Deacon In this his Pastoral Office he continued for about twenty years with great fidelity and diligence and both by his Lectures and Ministry was very grateful to his hearers and the rather because his courteous carriage was very pleasing his Learning more then ordinary and his Eloquence very popular When the great controversie about the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament sprang up Myconius inclined to the opinion of Luther and often rendered his reasons for it to his friends in private But when for this some grudges were raised up against him in the University he voluntarily laid down his Divinity Lectures and wholly applyed himself to his Pastoral Office wherein he continued to the end of his life which fell out Anno Christi 1552. and of his age 64. He wrote a learned and pious Exposition upon the Gospel of S. Mark Sermons upon Psalm 101. He translated Oecolampadius his Catechism out of Dutch into Latine He published Commentaries upon Matthew Luke and Iohn as also upon the Prophets Isaiah Ieremiah and Ionas besides some other Theological and Philological Works GEORG PRINCE OF ANHALT The Life of George Prince of Anhalt who died A no Christi 1553. GEorge Prince of Anhalt was born Anno Christi 1507. Of a very ancient and honourable Family His Father was Prince Ernest. Then by the advice of that grave prudent man Adolphus Prince of Anhalt Bishop of Mersburg
enemies rose up against him and his Congregation for differing from them about Christ's presence in the Sacrament especially one Westphalus who wrote bitterly against them calling them Zuinglians and affirming that all those which had suffered about that point in Belgia England or France were the Divels Martyrs At last Lascus returned into his owne Country from which he had been absent twenty years There he found Gods harvest to be great and the labourers to be very â—ew His coming was very unwelcom to the Popish Clergy who sought by all means to destroy him or to get him banished and therefore they accused him to the King for an Heretick beseeching him not to suffer him to stay in the Kingdom To whom the King answered That though they pronounced him an Heretick yet the States of the Kingdom did not so esteem him and that he was ready to clear himselfe from those aspersions When they thus prevailed not they cast abroad reproaches and all manner of lies as if hee would stir up a civil war in the Kingdom But it pleased God when he had spent a little time in instructing his friends that he sickned and dyed An Chr. 1560. He was of an excellent wit and judgement and tooke much paines to have composed that difference in the Churches about Christ's presence in the Sacrament though it succeeded not The King of Poland had him in such esteeme that hee made use of his advice and help in many great and difficult businesses His Works are these Liber de Coena Domini Epistola continens summam controversiae de Coena Domini breviter explicatam Confessio de nostra cum Christo communione corporis sui in Coena exhibitione Epistola ad Bremensis Ecclesiae Ministros â—ontra Mennonem Catabaptistarum Principem De recta Ecclesiarum instituendarum ratione Epistolae tres Epistolae ad Sigismundum Regem Poloniae Purgatio Ministrorum in Ecclesus peregrinis Francofurti Forma ratio totius Ecclesiastici Ministerii Edvardi sexti in peregrinorum maxime Germanorum Ecclesia The Life of Augustine Marlorat who died A no Christi 1562. AUgustine Marlorat was born in Lorrain Anno 1506. His parents dying whilst he was young and his kindred gaping after his estate thrust him at eight years old into a Monastery of Augustine Friars by which means God so ordering it he was brought up in Learning and became a Preacheâ— and being addicted to the study of the Tongues and the Reformed Religion he would no longer live amongst those idle Drones and Slow-bellies but leaving them went to the University of Lausanna in the Country of Bern where he profited much in Learning and came to the knowledge of the Truth and from thence was chosen to be the Pastor at Vivia near to the Lake of Leman and from thence hee was called to Roan where was a populous Church which he instructed and taught so holily and with such prudence that his honesty protected him against the rage and malice of his adversaries Anno Christi 1561 he was present at the conferenc at Possy between the Cardinal of Lorrain and Theâ—dore Beza where he acquitted himself with much courage appearing on the Protestants side against the Papists The year following when the Civil Wars brake forth in France the City of Roan was besieged and after a hard siege was taken by storm at which time this August Marlorat the chief Minister of the City was taken also and carried before Monmorency the Constable of France who grievously chid him and cast him into a streight prison and the next morning the Constable and the Duke of Guise went to the prison and calling for Marlorat the Constable said to him You are he who hath seduced the people Marl. If I have seduced them it 's God that hath done it rather then I for I have preached nothing to them but Divine Truths Const. You are a seditious person and the cause of the ruin of this great City Marl. As for that imputation I referre my self to all that have heard me preach be they Papists or Protestants whether I ever medled with matters of the Politick State or no but contrariwise I have according to my ability laboured to instruct them out of the holy Scriptures To this the Constable with an oath replyed that he and his abettors plotted together to make the Prince of Condie King the Admirall Coligni Duke of Normandy and Andelot Duke of Britaine To this Marlorat answered professing his own innocency and the innocency of those noble personages But the Constable swearing a great oath said We shall see within a few daies whether thy God can deliver thee out of my hand or no and so departed in a great rage Not long after at the instance of Bigot Advocate for the King an Indictment was drawn up against him and some others whereupon they were condemned for high Treason for that he had been as they said the author of the great assemblies which were the cause of Rebellion and Civill Warres and therefore as a punishment to satisfie the Law for these things the Court adjudged and condemned the said Marlorat to be drawn upon a sled and to be hanged upon a gibbeâ— before our Ladies Church in Roan This done his head to bee stricken off from his body and set upon a pole upon the bridge of the same City his goods and inheritance to be confiscated to the Kings use and shortly after this sentence was executed viz. Anno Christi 1562 and of his age 56. Hee was excellently learned and of a most unblameable life and had the testimony even of the Papists themselves that heard him that in his Sermons he never uttered ought that tended to Sedition or Rebellion Yet his malitious adversaries were not content onely to see him drawn upon an hurdle but the Constable also loaded him with a thousand disgraces and outrages as also a sonne of his called Monbrun who shortly after was slaine in the battel of Dreux One Villebon also gave him a switch with a wand adding many reproachfull speeches thereto But this meek â—amb bare all those indignities with admirable patience and meekness When he was come to the place where he should suffer he made an excellent speech as the time then permitted him exhorting two that were to suffer with him to stand stedfast to the end which they also did When he was now dead yet the rage of his adversaries ceased not there but one of the souldiers with his sword struck at his legges Yet Gods judgments found out his adversaries very speedily For the Captain that apprehended Marlorat was slaine within three weeks by one of the basest souldiers in all his company Two of his Judges also died very strangely soon after viz. the President of the Parliament by a flux of blood which could be by no means stanched The other being a Counsellor voyding
forth of the City and bad him fly for his life But it pleased God that by a fall he brake his legg whereby being again apprehended he was sent prisoner to Rome This business succeeding answerable to their desires they intended presently to fal upon Martyr whereupon they laid wait for him in every place They put in an accusation against him at Rome and in all the Colledges of his Order they stirred up his old enemies against him telling them that now the time was come wherein they might recover their former liberty so they called lientiousness â—nd to be revenged on Pet. Martyr So that by these mens instigations they met at Genoa not as usually the Superiours of the Order but those especially that bore the greatest hate to Martyr or envied him most These men summon Martyr presently to appear as Genoa But he being informed of the snares that were laid for him which his enemies being blinded with malice could not conceal And also being admonished by his friends to take heed to himself there being many that sought his life resolved not to goe to this Assembly but rather to convey himselfe else-whither where he might be safe from the power and malice of his adversaries Hereupon first of all hee conveyed part of his Library to Christopher Brent a Godly Senator of Luca who should take care to send it to him into Germany the other part he gave to the Colledge and so setting all things in order in the Colledge he privily departed out of the City onely with three companions Paul Lacis of Verona who was afterwards Greek Professor at Strasborough Theodosius Trebell and Julius Terentian with whom he continued faithfull unto the death Departing from Luca purposing to visit his owne country he went to Pisa where to some Noble men he administred the Lords Supper and meeting there with some faithful messengers he wrote to Cardinal Pool and to some of his friends at Luca. In these Letters he shewed what great errors and abuses were in the Popish Religion and in the Monasticall life with whom he could no longer communicate with a safe conscience He also shewed the other causes of his departure viz. the hatred and snares laid for him by his enmies He signified also what pains and care he had taken for their instruction and what a grief it was to him that he could not more plainely and openly instruct them in the Christian faith The ring also which was the ensigne of his dignity he sent back shewing that he would not imploy any of the Colledge goods to his private use Coming to Florence he met there with a godly and learned man Bernardin Ochine who being cited to Rome was going thitherward but being warned of the danger by his friends he consulted with Martyr and upon deliberation both of them resolved to leave Italy and to go into Germany And accordingly first Ochine departed and went to Geneva and from thence to Ausburg and two dayes after Peter Martyr followed going first to Bononia then to Ferrara then to Verona where being courteously entertained by his old friends He went thence over the Alps into Helvetia In this journey when he came to Zurick he was very kindly entertained by Bullinger Pellicane and Gualter and by the other Ministers belonging to that City to whom he proffered his service if they needed it but having at this time no place void in the Schools they told him that they much desired his company and pains but for the present they had no imployment for him yet would they gratefully remember his kind profer to them He often used to say that as soon as he came to Zurick he fell in love with that City desiring of God that it might be a refuge to him in this his banishment which prayer was afterwards granted though in the interim God pleased to make use of his labours in other places and Nations for his own glory and the good of many From thence he went to Basil where after he had abode about a month he with Paul Lacis was called to Strasborough by the means of Martin Bucer In which place he was made Professor of Divinity and Lacis of the Greek Tongue There he continued five years in which time he interpreted most of the Bible and what his excellency in teaching was may be hence collected in that being joyned with Martin Bucer a great Divine and eminent for learning yet Martyr was not accounted inferiour to him He was very skilful in Hebrew Greek and Latiâ—e He had an admirable dexterity in interpreting Scripture was a very acute disputant and used always to express himselfe very clearly knowing that ambiguity of words is the cause of much contention He lived in most intire friendship with his Collegue Master Bucer At Strasborough being unmarried he lived with his friends that came with him out of Italy being contented with a very small stipend which yet afterwards was augmented For having forsaken his Country his honors and riches for the testimony of Christ he thought it unfit to be solicitous or to trouble any about the increase of his stipend the rather because he was of a frugall disposition so that his stipend did not onely suffice but he spared something out of that little towards the support of his friends But finding some inconvenience of living single by the advice of his friends he married an honest and noble Virgin Katherine Damo-martin who afterwards dyed in England without issue having lived with him eight years She was one that feared God was loving to her husband prudent in administring houshold affairs liberal to the pooâ— and in the whole course of her life pious modest and sober After her death by the command of Cardinal Poole her body was digged up and buried in a dunghill and when he could finde no other cause for it he pretended that it was because she was buried too near to St. Frideswide For though this Cardinall had formerly loved Martyr very well yet when he once forsooke Italy he did not onely give over loving him but shaking off his study of the true Religion which for a time â—e had seemed to like hee became a great hater of Martyr and a bitter prosecutor of the professors of the Truth which occasioned him to deale so with Martyrs Wife seeing that he could not burn her husband as he desired But in Queen Elizabeths daies her body was again taken up and with great solemnity buried in the chiefe place of the Church and to prevent the Popish malice for the time to come her bones were mingled with the boneâ— of St. Frideswide that they should not be distinguished asunder The occasion of Peter Martyrs going into England was this King Henry the eighth being dead and his son Edward the sixth succeeding by the advice of the Protector Edward Duke of Somerset and Doctor Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury he
more obdurate in wickednesse and therefore more opposite to the Truth He was often in great perill of his life and yet by special providences preserved So that perceiving that in that place he could neither enjoy safety nor freedome in the service of God as he desired he resolved to leave the Monastery and to goe elswhere which resolutions he communicated to some of his friends But in the mean time the Prior died and he by common consent of all was chosen to succeed him Musculus looked upon this as a designe of the Devill by these baits of honour pleasure and profit to withdraw him from his zealous purposes of propagating the Truth and to tie him to that kind of life that he was resolved against And thereupon he refused the choice and put it upon another He also married a wife called Margaret Bart an honest and vertuous Virgin At his departure the new Prior gave him a supper after which he bade him and the rest of the Friers farewell who were now but six three also of which shortly after followed him At this time he had but four Florences to which the Prior added four more and so about midnight that he might the more safely escape his enemies he departed being accompanied with a Kinsman called Nicholas Wagner directing his course to Strasborough whether also he came Anno Christi 1527 and of his age thirty and was entertained by the Minister Theobald Niger who also made him a Wedding-feast But his money waxing short and seeing little hopes to be called to the work of the Ministery he placed his wife forth as a servant to Mr. Theobald Niger and agreed with a Weaver to teach him his trade comsorting himself in the mean time with this Distich Est Deus in coelo qui providus omnia ouraâ— Credentes nusquam deseruisse potest A God there is whose providence doth take Care for his Saints whom he will not forsake But it fell out that this Weaver was an Anabaptist and kept one of their Teachers in his house who according to their usual custome laboured not at all but spent his time in eating drinking and sleeping With him Musculus could not agree but often objected that of the Apostle to him He that will not labour ought not to eat This occasioned his Master to fall out with him and having paid him his wages at two months end he turn'd him out of doors contrary to his former bargain Musculus now not knowing how to supply his wants it fell out that at that time the Senate at Strasborough were mending their fortifications about the City Thither he went and was hired to labour in that work amongst oth râ—bâ—t the same nightgoing to set his wife she told him that an Officer had been there to request him to come to the great Church where the Consul and Bucer would speak with him He not knowing the occasion was much troubled at it yet went to the place appointed and when he came thither the Consul commanded him to goe to the Village of Dorlitzheim and there to preach every Sabbath and to teach the people who were prone to Sedition peace and obedience Musculus with joy taking this as a call from God went every Sabbath thither being but three miles off and preached to them and all the wâ—ek lived with Bucer who writing so bad a hand that the Princers could not read it yea many times himselfe could scarce read what he had written imployed Musculus to transcribe his Comments on Lephany which were then in Printing After certain months preaching in that Village and hiâ— wife growing near the time of her travel 〈◊〉 Magistrats sent him and his wife to live there where his bearers entertained him kindly and provided necessaries for his family onâ—ly himself was fain to lie upon the ground in a little straw whilst his wife lay in Thus this man of God waâ— willing to suffer poverty for Christ's cause who amongst the Papists might have lived in much plenty In that Town he preached a whole year without receiving anything for his pains but afterward the Senate at Strasborough allowed him a stipend out of the publick treasury for the supply of his wants There also he began to teach School wherein he carried himselfe with so much industry and affability that he won much love Not far off there was a Monastery in which one a year there was a Feast and a Sermon to which at the request of his neighbours Musculus went The Fryer that preached chose this Text Without Faith it 's impossible to please God In his Sermon he inveighed bitterly against the Lutherans and in particular against them of Strasborough as Apostates c. wherewith many of his hearers were much pleased The Sermon being ended and the Fryer coming downe out of the Pulpit Musculus called to him saying Thou wicked wretch hear me a little and I 'le make thy wickedness appear to all the Congregation And going up into the Pulpit he took the same Text opened the words and preached excellently of the nature and benefit of saving faith and vindicated them of Strasborough from those aspersions which the Fryer had cast upon them wherewith the people were much pleased but the Fryers shrunk away Then came the Steward of the Monastery running in and interrupted him saying Sirrah give over who set you upto preach in this place To whom he answered Who gave you authority to set up a lying Fryer to preach and traduce the Senate and people of Strasborough whom I am bound to defend and vindicate from such false aspersions and so he went on in his Sermon but then the Steward began to entreat him to give over least he caused a tumult but he â—ad him hold his peace and entreated the people to be quiet and so went on to the end of his Sermon without any distraction The fame of this action begat him much credit amongst all good men at Strasborough so that at the years end he was sent for to Strasborough and made a Deacon though he in modesty would have refused it as judging himself unfit and unworthy of it And thus he continued two years longer in that place And whereas in Dosna a Village belonging to Strasborough the people would by no means suffer the Mass to be abolished hee by one Sermon there so wrought upon them that presently they cast it out of their Church together with all the Popish trumpery At Strasborough whil'st he was a Deacon he was a constant hearer of Capito and Bucer and finding his own defect for want of Hebrew fell to the study of it wrote out a Lexicon with his own hand and profited so much therein that he did not onely understand the Bible but the Rabbins also Anno Christ 1531. the Citizens of Ausburg sent to Strasborough to request the Senate to send them Musculus to be their Pastor
such indeed as were stuffed with so many errors and fooleries wherein that society of men did abound as that it is a wonder how any man that had the use of reason should assent thereunto yet many partly through fear and partly through ignorance subscribed them Wherefore Mr. Calvin answered them learnedly confuting their errors by solid arguments and so set forth their fooleries that every man which was not wilfully blind might easily discern the same Thus ended this year to which the next succeeded no whit miâ—der either in regard of the famine or pestilence which infested all Savoy and Master Calvin proceeding according to his accustomed manner confirmed his owne at home and strongly opposed the adversaries abroad publishing his four books about free-will which he dedicated to Phil. Melancthon against Albert Pighius the greatest Sophister of his age and who had singled out Calvin for his antagonist being promised a Cardinals hat if he could carry away the victory from him But being frustrated of his labour he gat that which the enemies of the truth only deserve viz. That he stanke amongst learned and good men himself being deceived by the Divel How much Melancthon esteemed of those books of Master Calvin himself testifies in his Epistles which are in print Master Calvin also the same year wrote to the Church at Montbelgard whereby the mouths of calumniators may be stopped who accuse him of too much rigidness in the exercise of Ecclesiasticall Discipline The year following which was Anno Christi 1544. Master Calvin declared his opinion about the purpose of the Church of Neocome in Ecclesiasticall censures and at home Sebastian Castalio whom we mentioned before being a light man and very ambitious having translated the New Testament into French was exceedingly displeased that Master Calvin did not approve of it yea he grew so angry that he vented divers errors and not consent therewith he publikely preached that the Canticles of Solomon was an impure and obscaene song and therefore would needs have if expunged out of the sacred Canon and because the Ministers opposed him he railed exceedingly against them which they judging unfit for them to bear called him before the Senate where being heard with much patience he was at last condemned of slanders and commanded to depart out of the City From thence he went to Basil where being at last admitted what his carriage was there is besides my purpose The year before the Emperor Charles the fifth being to war against the King of France had promised the Germans that they should not be molested for their Religion till a generall councill should be called which as he told them he would take care to be effected This the Pope Paul the third was much incensed at and published an harsh expostulation against the Emperor because he had equalized the Hereticks with the Catholicks and had thrust his sickle into another â—â—â—ans harvest The Emperour answered That which he thought to be reason But Master Calvin because he saw in the Popes Letters that the truth of the Gospel did suffer together with the innocency of good men took him up very roundly and repressed his impudence At this time a Diet was assembled at Spires upon which occasion Calvin published the Book Of the necessity of reforming the Church then which that age produced not a book of that subject that was more weighty and nervous The same year also Master Calvin in two books did so confute the Anabaptists and Libertines who had revived the monstrous heresies of former ages that whosoever read them except he was willing to it could not be deceived by them and they which had been formerly deceived could not but be reclaimed to the truth Yet the Queen of Navar was offended with his book against the Libertines being so bewitched with two of the chief Patrons of that heresie Quintinus and Pocquetus whom Calvin had noted by name that though she was not otherwise tainted with their errors yet she had a great opinion that they were good men and therefore took her selfe to be wounded through their sides which when Master Calvin understood he wrote to her with admirable moderation as not unmindfull of her dignity nor of all the good she had done for the Church of God and yet withall as became a faithfull servant of Jesus Christ he reprehended her imprudence for admitting such men and asserted the authority of his Ministry and he so far prevailed that the men of that abominable sect of Libertines which began apace to flock into France afterwards kept themselves in Holland and the Countries adjacent The labours of this year being finishâ—d the succeeding year being 1545 brought new and greater labours with it For the Plague increasing in the City and neighbour Villages seemed as if it would devour all before it and coveteousness so prevailed with the poor people who were imployed to attend the rich in their sickness and to cleanse their houses that by an horrible conspiracy amongst themselves with a pestilentious ointment they anointed the posts thresholds and doors of many houses whereby a more grievous pestilence ensued and these wicked instruments of the Divel had bound themselves to Sathan by an oath that by no torments they shouâ—d confess their wickedness Yet many of them being taken in the City and villages were punished according to their deserts It s almost incredible what envy and reproach this act brought upon Geneva and especialâ—y upon Master Calvin as if the Divel should rule there altogether where he was most opposed This year was also infamous by that abominable and cruel Edict which the Parliament of Aquitane set forth against the poor Waldenses of Merindol Cabriers and those parts whereby most unheard-of cruelties were exercised not against some few but against all of them without any distinction of ages or sex yea to the very burning of their Towns Some of these that escaped flying to Geneva Master Calvin was the more afflicted for them and carefull of them because a little before he had written consolatory Letters to them and sent them faithfull Pastors for the instructing of them purely out of the Gospel and had also where they were in danger before preserved them by his intercession to the Germane Princes and Helvetians The unhappy controversie also of the Lords Supper sprange up again Osiander a man of a proud and monstrous wit reviving it out of the ashes For the quenching of which flame Master Calvin did what possibly he could as may appear by his Letters which he wrote to Melancthon about the same But the intemperancy of Osiander was such that he would by no means hearken to the wholsome counsell that was given him by those two men In the mean while the Plague still raging in the City took away many good men Whereupon Master Calvin out of the Pulpit thundred against many wickednesses especially against whoredom
of Life where he first drew the Breath of Life After this he was made Bishop of Salisbury though with much reluctancy looking upon it as a great burthen In that office he took much paines both by Preaching and Governing and was very careful in providing faithfull Pastors and in reforming abuses Anno Christi 1560 he was called to preach at Pauls Cross where he took that Text 1 Cor. 11. 23. For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you c. In which Sermon he confirmed largely the Protestants Doctrine concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper by Scriptures and Fathers adding this solemn Protestation That if any Learned man of all our adversaries or if all the Learned men that be alive are able to shew any one sufficient sentence out of any old Catholick Doctor or Father or out of any old Generall Council or out of the holy Scriptures of God or any one example of the Primitive Church whereby it may be clearly and plainly proved That there was any private Masses in the world at that time for the space of six hundred years after Christ or that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper was ever administred to the people under one kind or that the people then had their Common Prayers in a strange tongue that they understood not or that the Bishop of Rome was then called a Universall Bishop or the Head of the Universall Church or that the people were taught to beleeve that Christs Body is really substantially corporeally carnally or naturally in the Sacrament or that his Body is or may be in above a thousand places at one time or that the Priest did then hold up the Sacrament over his head or that the people did then fall down and worship it with divine honour or that then the Sacrament was hanged up under a Canopy or that in the Sacrament after the words of consecration there remained onely the accidents or shews without the substance of Bread and Wine or that the Priest then divided the Sacrament in three parts and after received all alone himself or that whosoever had then said that the Sacrament is a figure pledge token or remembrance of Christs body had therefore been judged for an Heretick or that it was then lawfull to have thirty twenty fifteen or five Masses said in one Church in one day or that Images were then set up in Churches that the people might worship them or that the Lay-people were then forbidden to read the Word of God in their own language If any man alive can prove any one of these Articles by any one clear or plain clause or sentence of Scripture ancient Fathers or any one Generall Councill or any example of the Primitive Church I here promise that I will give over my opinion and subscribe to him Yea I further promise that if any of all our Adversaries be able clearly and plainly to prove in manner aforesaid that it was then lawfull for a Priest to pronounce the words of consecration closely and in silence to himself or that the Priest had then authority to offer up Christ unto his Father or to receive the Sacrament for another as they now do or apply the virtue of Christs death and passion to any man by means of the Mass or that then it was thought a sound doctrine to teach the people that the Mass ex opere operato is able to remove our sinnes or that any Christian man called the Sacrament his Lord and God or that the people were then taught to beleeve that the Body of Christ remaineth in the Sacranent so long as that bread remaineth without corruption or that a Mouse Worm or other creature may eat the Body of Christ or that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion As I said before so say I new again if any of them can clearly prove any of these things in the manner aforesaid I promise to yeeld and subscribe unto him Indeed they have long boasted of Antiquity c. but when they are put to their proofs they can produce nothing I speake not this out of arrogancy thou Lord knowest it that knowest all things but because it is in the cause of God and for asserting his Truth I should doe God great injury if I should conceal it He was very bountifull in relieving the poor and wise in composing litigious strifes Besides his publick employments he read much and wrote much scarce any yeare in all the time of his Bishoprick passed wherein he published not some famous work or other Diu vixit licet non diâ— fuit He lived long in that short scantling of his life At Meales a Chapter being first read he recreated himself with Scholastical combats between young Scholars whom he maintained at his table the conquerors were bountifully rewarded After Meals his doors and eares were open to all suits and causes and then he retired to his study At nine a clock at night he called all his servants to an account how they had spent that day and after prayer admonished them accordingly Then he returned to his study where often he sate till after midnight When he was layd in bed one that waited upon him read some part of an Author to him which done commending himself to the protection of his Saviour he took his rest His memory was raised by art to the highest pitch of humane possibility for he could readily repeat any thing that he had penned after once reading it And therefore usually at the ringing of the bell he beganne to commit his Sermons to heart and kept what he learned so firmely that he used to say That if he were to make a speech premeditated before a thousand Auditors shouting of fighting all the while yet could he say all that he had provided to speak Many barbarous and hard names out of a Callender and forty strange words VVelsh Irish c. after once or twice reading at the most and short meditation he could repeat both forwards and backwards without hesitation And Sir Francis Bacon reading onely to him the last clauses of tenne lines in Erasmus his Paraphrase in a confused and dismembred manner he sitting silent a while on a sudden rehearsed all those broken parcels of sentences the right way and the contrary without stumbling Long before his sickness he fore-told the approaching and in his sicknesse the precise day of his death And hee was so farre from declining it that by fasting labour and watching he seemed rather to accelerate it that he might be the readier to entertain death and meet his Saviour Being very weak as he was going to preach at Lacock in Wiltshâ—re a Gentleman meeting him friendly admonished him to returne home for his healths sake telling him that it was better the people should want one Sermon then be altogether deprived of such a Preacher To whom he replyed That it best became a Bishop to die preaching in a
answered him stoutly That such arguments might prevail with children but could not with him Having leave at last through bribes to lie amongst the other captives in a more open and cleanly place he wonderfully refreshed and comforted them by his godly exhortations and consolations drawn from the Scriptures whereby they were much confirmed in the Christian Faith And whereas before they were almost pined through want of food God so stirred up the hearts of some to bring relief to Zegedine that all the rest of the prisoners were provided for plentifully thereby Remaining thus in prison he was not idle but wrote there his Common-places and some other Works and his Citizens having tried all means and used the intercession of all their friends for his release began now almost to despair of obtaining it And to adde to his affliction it pleased God in the time of his imprisonment which was above a year three of his children died which added much to his affliction But when all hopes failed let us see by what means through Gods mercy he obtained his liberty It pleased God that a noble Baron and his Lady passing by that way saw this worthy man of God in so miserable a plight that the Lady much pittyed him and afterwards being in Child-bed and ready to dye she requested her Lord who loved her dearly for her sake to improve all his interest in the Beg to procure Zegedines liberty which he with an oath promised to perform and accordingly engaged himself to the Turk that he should pay 1200 Florens for his ransom upon which he was released and went about to divers Cities to gather his ransom and God so enlarged mens hearts towards him that in a short time he carried 800 Florens to this Baron and so returned to his people at Calmantsem The year after being 1564 as he was going by coach to Buda when the horses came near the River Danubius being very hot and dry they ran violently into the river but behold the admirable providence of God when they had swam some twenty paces in the river they turned back again of their own accord and drew the coach and him safely to the shore The same year by Imposition of hands he ordained three excellent men Ministers Aboâ—â— that time there came a bragging Friar and challenged him to a disputation which he willingly accepting of the great Church was appointed for the place and many of both sides resorted thither and the Friar came with much confidence hiâ— servants carrying a great sack of book◠〈◊〉 But in the disputation Zegedine did so baffle him that 〈…〉 shrunk away with shame aâ—d he Frier with his great 〈◊〉 was left all alone so that himself was faine to take it on his own shoulders and go his way About that time the Vayvod who had before betrayed him coming to the place where Zegedine was desired to speake with him and requested him to forgive him professing that he could rest neither night nor day he was so haunted with apparitions and the Furies of his own conscience which Zegedine easily assented unto An. Christi 1566 Zegedine being very hot invited a friend to go with him to the River of Danubius to bathe themselves but as they were swimming his friend looking about him saw not Zegedine and wondering what was become of him so suddenly at last spied his hoary hairs appearing above water and swimming swiftly to him Zegedine was sunk whereupon he diving to the bottom of the river caught hold of him and drew him forth carrying him to a Mill that was not far off where he laid him to bed About midnight Zegedine coming to himselfe enquired how he came there and who drew him out of the River his friend told him the whole story and kept him carefully till he recovered Anno Christi 1572 he fell into a lingring disease in which he loathed meat slept little was much troubled with rheume complained of Head-ach and could find no ease either sitting standing or lying yet he drank much milk and thought that if he could procure some sleep hee might easily recover his former health whereupon he sent for a Chirurgion who gave him a bitter potion which caused him to fall asleep but after a little while he quietly breathed forth his last being 67 years old Anno Christi 1572. He was a zealous assertor of the Truth against Arianism Mahometism and Papism with all which Heresies Hungary at that time was much infected His writings were these Adsertio de Trinitate contra quorundam deliramenta in quibusdam Hungariae partibus exorta Speculum Romanorum Pontificum Loci communes Theologicae Tabulae analyticae de fide Christiana J. KNOX The Life of John Knox who died A no Christi 1572. JOhn Knox was born at Gifford in Lothaine in Scotland Anno 1505. of honest parentage Brought up first at School then sent to the University of Saint Andrews to study under Mr. Jo. Mair who was famous for learning in those dayes and under whom in a short time he profited exceedingly in Philosophy and School-Divinity and tooke his Degrees and afterwards was admitted very young into Orders Then he betook himself to the reading of the Fathers especially Augustines and Hieroms Works and lastly to the earnest study of the holy Scriptures by which being through Gods mercy informed of the Truth he willingly embraced it and freely professed it and imparted it to others But the Bishops and Friers could by no means endure that light which discovered their darknesse and therefore presently raised up a persecution against him especially David Beton Archbishop and Cardinal who caused him to be apprehended and cast into prison purposing to have sacrificed him in the flames But it pleased God by a special providence that he was delivered and therefore presently fled to Berwick to the English where he preached the Truth of the Gospel with great fruit and defended it against the Popish party so that his fame spread abroad exceedingly Hee preached also at Newcastle London and in some other places So that K. Edw the sixth taking notice of him profered him a Bishoprick which he rejected as having Aliquid commune cum Antichristo Something in it common with Antichrist King Edward being dead the persecution raised by Queen Mary made him leave England and goe to Franckfort upon Maine where for a time he preached the Gospel to the English Congregation But meeting with opposition there both from Papists and false brethren he went to Geneva where also he preached to an English Congregation and was very intimate with Master Ralvin continuing there some years Anno Christi 1559 and of his Age 54 the Nobility of Scotland with some others beginning the reformation of Religion sent for him home and at his coming to Edenborough he was lodged in the house
whose Sermons not only the Protestants but many of the Papists were present to hear what and how he taught And indeed both sides commended his study of Peace For he exhorted them to compose their differences not by arms nor mutuall slaughters but by the Disputations of their Divines But God would not suffer his wholsome counsell to take effect at that time For they came to a battell wherein the Popish party prevailed and thereupon Bullinger together with his Father Brother and Colleague Gervase were commanded to depart except they would undergoe the present hazard of their lives Whereupon beginning their journey in the night through Gods providence they escaped the snares which were layd for them by their adversaries and came safely to Zurick Anno Chrâ—â— 1531 and three daies after at the request of Leo Judae with his Colleagues Bullinger preached in the chiefe Church and was entertained by one Werner Steiner his ancient friend that was fled to Zurick for Religion Anno Christi 1532. The Church of Basill wanting a Pastor by the death of Oecolampadius desired Bullinger and at the same time also the Bernates sent for him thither But the Senate of Zurick would by no means part with him choosing him Pastor in the room of Zuinglius who was slaine in the late battell and who had desired before he went into the field with the Army that if any thing befell him otherwise then well Bullinger might succeed him in his office He being thus called to this work in a dangerous time did his endeavour to comfort and rais up the hearts of Gods people under those great afflictions And whereas the Popish adversaries boasted that their Religion was false because they of Zurick were beaten and Zuinglius slain He wrote That the Truth of Religion was not to be judged by the prosperity or adversitie of the Professors of it He took care also to have Synods twice a year to maintain concord and unity in Doctrine and Discipline as Zuinglius had begun before him And finding a great defect of Godly Ministers in the jurisdiction of the Tigurins he tooke care that so many should bee trained up in Religion and Learning as might supply that defect and where there was a want of maintainance he prevailed with the Senate of Zurick to make up a competency out of the Publick Treasury He caused the Publick Library of that City to be set in order by Pellican and by buying Zuinglius his books to be encreased And having gotten Bibliander for his Colleague he wholly applyed himself to his publick Ministry and to writing Commentaries at home Anno Christi 1532 Bucer endeavoured a union between Luther and his followers and the Divines of Zurick perswading them that their differences consisted rather in words then in reality At which time the Tigurins shewed themselves to bee desirous of peace so that it was joyned wiâ—h truth About this time Bullingers Father died being 64 years old who at his death exhorted his sonne to Constancy in Doctrine and Faith which saith he is the onely way to salvation Anno Christi 1534 Bullinger wrote a Confession of Faith in the name of the Tigurian Churches which was sent to Bucer and to the Synod of the Churches of Suevia then met at Constance and was approved by them About the same time he wrote a Tractate of the Covenant of God against some that denied all testimonies out of the Old Testament As also another wherein he asserted the twofold Nature in Christ against Claudius Allobrog Servetus his Emissary of whose poyson the Helvetian Churches were at that time in some danger And when there was a meeting at Basil for to unite Luther and the Helvetian Churches in their difference about the manner of Christs Presence in the Sacrament Bullinger was there and took much pains for the promoting of it The Magistrates also of Zurick by the perswasion of Bullinger erected a new Colledge Anno Christi 1538 which hee had a great care of all his life after Also by his perswasion the Senate of Zurick erected another School in a place where formerly there had been a Nunnery in which fifteen youths were trained up under a good Master having food raiment books and all other necessaries plentifully provided for them and Bullinger took great care to see their proficiency all his life after About this time Schwenfield a Noble man of Silesia taught That Christ's Humane nature being received into Heaven was so farre Deified that it remained a creature no longer and this error beginning to spread into Swevia Bullinger joining with some others confuted it with much modesty Anno Christi 1541 the Plague brake forth in Zurick of which Bullingers Son and Mother died Anno Christi 1542 Leo Judae's Version of the Bible being finished and printed the Printer sent one of them to Luther fair bound up but Luther wrote back to him that hee should send him no more of the Tigurine Ministers bookes for hee would have nothing to doe with them nor read any of their bookes For said he The Church of God can hold no communion with them and whereas they have taken much pains all is in vain for themselves are damned and they lead many miserable men to hell with them Adding that he would have no communion with their damnable and blasphemous Doctrine and that so long as he lived hee would with his prayers and books oppose them Anno Christi 1544 Luther set forth his Annotations on Genesis in which he inveighed bitterly against the Sacramentarians as he called them saying That Zuinglius Oecolampadius and their disciples were Hereticks and eternally damned Melancthon would fain have hindered it but could not whereupon he wrote to Bullinger telling him how much hee was grieved at this violent proceeding of Luther which he knew was so pleasing to their common adversaries the Papists When this book of Luthers came forth there was much dispute whether it should be answered Bucer was against it because Luther was grown old and had deserved well of the Church but others thought that it would bee a betraying of the Truth not to answer it Wherefore Bullinger was appointed to that work which he accordingly performed with much judgement Anno Christi 1546 Luther dyed and the German Warre beganne betwixt the Emperour and the Protestants at which time many accused the Tigurines by reason of Bullingers book as if they had insulted over Luther after his death and gloryed that he dyed of grief because he could not answer that book Hereupon Philip Lantgrave of Hesse acquainted Bullinger with these reports which when Bullinger had read advising with his Colleagues he returned this answer First giving him thanks for his zeale in endeavouring the peace of the Church and for acquainting him with these rumours Then he told him how much he was grieved for that some turbulent spirits sought by such reports
to bring an odium upon the Helvetians and to alienate the Princes affections from them Whereas saith he it is not the manner of the Helvetian Divines to reproach any either in their Sermons or Lectures much lesse Luther who had deserved so well of the Church And although Luther in the controversie about the Sacrament had used much reproachfull language against them yet they never made mention of him but with honour Whereas they were certainly informed that many of the Saxon Ministers used divers reproachfull speeches against them calling them Sacramentarians Image haters blasphemers c. Yea that in his own University of Marpurg Theobald Thammer in his publick Lectures had greatly aspersed them wherefore he earnestly requested him to consider their innocency and to enjoyn silence to such intemperate spirits c. For saith he we cannot with Luther confesse the bread to bee the naturall body of Christ and that Judas and other wicked men received his body as well as Peter and the Saints which are Luthers owne words Yet are we ready to preserve peace so that it be not urged upon us to yeeld to those things which neither our selves can understand nor can wee teach them to others In all other things you shall finde us as peaceable men ready to give an account of our Faith whensoever it shall be required of us The Lantgrave was well satisfied with this answer bearing a great love to the Helvetians and to Bullinger in particular to whom after the Warre was begunne hee often wrote out of his Camp desiring also the Protestant Cantons to send some Auxiliaries to them But upon serious deliberation they denied this request For say they if we shall send you aid the Popish Cantons will also aide the Emperour which hitherto moved by our example they have refused though they have been earnestly solicited both by the Pope and Emperour thereto In the mean time our Ministers cease not daily to pray for the peace of Germany and we have had publick Fasts for that end The same yeare came John Hooper afterwards Bishop of Gloucester to Zurick and lived familiarly with Bullinger by whom he was informed of their opinion about the Sacrament and fully concurred with them Anno Christi 1548 came forth that accursed Interim tending to the overthrow of true Religion which Calvin and Bucer answered though the Printer for fear of the Emperour durst not publish it And the bitter fruit which followed it was the expulsion of many Ministers out of their places divers of which resorted to Zurick and were kindly entertained by bullinger and his Colleagues and commended to divers Protestant Cities in Helvetia though they knew that formerly they had been very violent against them And indeed after their returne into their own Countries forgetting their courtesies they proved so again Anno Christi 1549. Calvin being suspected too much to favour Consubstantiation associating to him Master Farel of Neocom came to Zurick where he conferred with Bullinger and the other Ministers about that question and there was a sweet agreement amongst them which also was published by Calvin and Bullinger and subscribed by all the Helvetian and Rhetian Ministers By which act the Churches of Christ were more strictly united many that were doubtfull were confirmed in the truth and the adversaries took occasion from hence to write more bitterly against them Francis King of France being dead and Henry succeeding he sent to the Helvetians to renew his league with them But Bullinger who was in great authority amongst them did altogether disswade the Tigurines from it teaching them that it was neither just nor lawfull for a man to suffer himselfe to be hired to shed another mans blood who usually was innocent and from whom himselfe had never received any injury c. And hereupon the Tigurines resolved to abstaine from such Leagues Anno Christi 1550 Bullinger published his Decades Sermonum some of which he dedicated to King Edward the sixth and a reformation being now begun in England he wrote upon that occasion to many of our Nobility Bishops and Ministers of our Church Anno Christi 1551 the Helvetians were summoned by a Bull from the Pope to appear at the Councill of Trent by sending their Ministers thither c. Hereupon Master Bullinger consulting with his Fellow-Ministers published a book wherein he declared that the Councill of Trent was gathered for the suppressing of the truth and that the Helvetians owed no subjection to the Pope from under whose yoak they had long since withdrawn their necks About this time there sprange up a contention in the Church of Geneva by reason of one Hierome Bolsecus a Physician who publickly opposed the Doctrine of Master Calvin about Election and boasted that divers other Ministers and particularly Master Bullinger was of his opinion Calvin answered him confuting his error by testimonies of Scripture and out of Saint Augustine but when he would not be satisfied the Senate and brethren of Geneva sent to Zurick to ask their judgements whereupon Bullinger with his brethren did so declare themselves that all might see that they which made Election depend upon faith foreseen and faith upon mans free-will as much as upon the Divine inspiration did maliciously abuse the Tigurine Ministers c. And indeed there was a sweet Harmony between Calvin Bullinger and Peter Martyr about this point Anno Christi 1552 the war waxing hot in Germany and Zurick being afflicted with a Famine Bullinger wrote much for the comforting the afflicted and to stir them up to unfained repentance for their fins whereby they had provoked God against them Anno Christi 1554. a persecution being raised by Queen Mary in England many Nobles and famously learned men fled into Germany and came to Zurick where they erected a Colledg and were by Master Bullinger much holpen therein In the following years viz. 1556 1557 and 1558. Bullinger had divers conflicts with Westphalus Heshusius and others About which time the League amongst the Helvetians being to be renued the Popish Pages would have the oath to be By God and by all his Saints which the Protestant Pages refused and though some Politick men pleaded for the lawfulnesse of it or at least that there should be no contention about so small a matter Bullinger with his Colleagues shewed that an oath being part of Gods worship was onely to be made in the name of the true God who alone was to be called upon and that all appearance of false worship was to be avoided Anno Christi 1560 there arose up one Francis Stancarus who taught That Christ was Mediator onely according to his humane nature Him with some other such Hereticks Calvin and Bullinger confuted as also Blandrata who taught That Christ our Saviour was a meer man and Bernard Ochin who held Polygamie lawfull Anno Christi 1561. Blandrata being gone into Polonia began to discover himself more clearly and
admonished them especially to take heed of Drunkennesse which was so common amongst the Germans and lastly that they should be very observant to the Senate which had so excellently maintained Religion He wrote also his fare well to the Magistrates exhorting them to continue their care of the Church and Schooles thanked them for their kindnesse to him and entreated them to chuse Ralph Gualter to be his successor The day of his death he continued in prayer repeating the one and fiftieth the sixteenth and the forty second Psalms and the Lords Prayer and so gave up his soul unto God An. Chr. 1575 and of his Age 71. He was one of the chiefest of the Helvetian Divines and after Zuinglius and Oecolampadius a strong assertor of their Confession of Faith Of a mild nature clear in his Ministry and one that hated crabbed and unprofitable questions which many delighted in to shew their wit affable in speech courteous of behaviour both towards his own and strangers An excellent Governour of the Church frugall and temâ—rate in his diet merry and pleasant with those that lived wâ—â—h him He was so industrious that he would never be idle He had one Wife by whom he had six sonnes and five daughters of whom he married one to Zuinglius another to Lavate and a third to Simler all Ministers in Zurick He wrote Commentaries upon all the New Testament His Workes are contained in tenne Tomes besides which hee wrote Contra Anabaptistas lib. 4. De annuis Reditibus De Hebdomadibus Danielis De Sacramentis The Life of Edward Deering who died A no Christi 1576. EDward Deering was borne of a very ancient Family in Kent and carefully brought up both in Religion and Learning From School he went to Cambridge and was admitted into Christs Colledge where he profited exceedingly and became a very famous Preacher as may appear by his most learned and holy Sermons and Tractates full of heavenly consolation He never affected nor sought after great titles or preferments and therefore rested content with his Fellowship in that Colledge and onely Commenced Batchelor of Divinity yet afterwards hee was made a Preacher in Saint Paul's Church in London and having worn out himself with his labours in the Work of the Lord hee fell sick and discerning his approaching death hee said in the presence of his friends that came to visit him The good Lord pardon my great negligence that whilst I had time I used not his precious gifts to the advancement of his glory as I might have done Yet I blesse God withall that I have not abused these gifts to ambition and vain studies When I am once dead my enemies shall be reconciled to me except they be such as either knew me not or have no sence of goodnesse in them for I have faithfully and with a good conscience served the Lord my God A Minister standing by said unto him It 's a great happinesse to you that you die in peace and thereby are freed from those troubles which many of your brethren are like to meet with To whom he answered If God hath decreed that I shall sup together with the Saints in Heaven why doe I not goe to them but if there be any doubt or hesitation resting upon my spirit the Lord will reveal the truth unto me When he had layen still a while a friend said unto him that hee hoped that his minde was employed in holy meditation whilst hee lay so silent To whom he answered Poor wretch and miserable man that I am the least of all Saints and the greatest of Sinners yet by the eye of Faith I beleeve in and look upon Christ my Saviour Yet a little while and we shall see our hope The end of the world is come upon us and we shall quickly receive the end of our hope which we have so much looked for Afflictions diseases sicknesse grief are nothing but part of that portion which God hath allotted to us in this world It s not enough to beginne for a little while except we persevere in the fear of the Lord all the daies of our lives for in a moment we shall be taken away Take heed therefore that you doe not make a pastime of nor dis-esteem the Word of God blessed are they that whilst they have tongues use them to Gods glory When he drew near to his end being set up in his bed some of his friends requested him to speake something to them that might bee for their edification and comfort Whereupon the Sun shining in his face hee tooke occasion from thence to say thus unto them There is but one Sunne in the world nor but one Righteousnesse one Communion of Saints If I were the most excellent of all creatures in the world If I were equall in righteousnesse to Abraham Isaac and Jacob yet had I reason to confâ—sse my selfe to bee a sinner and that I could expect no salvation but in the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ For we all stand in need of the grace of God And as for my death I blesse God I feel and finde so much inward joy and comfort in my soul that if I were put to my choice whether to dye or live I would a thousand times rather choose death then life if it may stand with the holy will of God And accordingly shortly after he slept in the Lord Anno Christi 1576. The Life of Flacius Illiricus who died A no Christi 1575. MAtthias Flacius Illiricus was borne in Albona in Sclavonia Anno Christi 1520 of an ancient and numerous Family His Father being learned himself and discerning a good ingeny in his Sonne began in his tender years to instill into him the first Rudiments of Learning But after his death his Masters so neglected him that he almost forgot all Yet when he began to have discretion he desired much to attaine to Learning and returned to his studies and to further him therein went to Venice and after some progress made at seventeen years old hee beganne to study Divinity but wanting means to maintaine him in the University he profered halfe his estate to be admitted into a Monastery either at Bononia or Padua but a friend called Baldus a godly man who afterwards suffered Martyrdom for the Truth disswaded him from that kinde of life and advised him rather to goe into Germany where were store of Learned men Hereupon having read over some of the Protestants bookes and liking Baldus his advice hee went into Germany which he had never before seen and first staying at Basil he studied under Simon Grynaeus who did not only entertain him being very poor but provided for him and instructed him in the Truth which was An. 1539. And about the end of the ear he went from thence to Tubing where also he studied a while under Matthias Garbicius then went to Wittenberg An. Chr. 1541 where he privately
History He had two Wives the first of which was Bullingers daughter who died without issue by the second who was Gualters daughter he had three sons and one daughter He was tall of stature fat fair and strong but that he was somewhat weakned by the Gout He had such an amiable face that his sweet manners might bee seen in his countenance as in a glass In his habit and diet he was neither too sumptuous nor too fordid best liking cleanlinesse and neatness Scripsit Praelectiones in Exodum De aeterno Dei Filio adversus Arianos Tritheitas Samosetaninos Adversus eosdem de S. Sancto Narrationem veterum controversiarum de una â—ersonâ— duabus naturis Christi c. cum multis aliis The particulars you may find in Verheiden The Life of Immanuel Tremelius who died A no Christi 1580. IMmanuel Tremelius was born in Ferrara having a Jew to his Father who so educated him that hee was very skilfull in the Hebrew Tongue Hee was converted by PeterMartyr and went with him to Lucca where he taught Hebrew From thence he went with him to Strasborough and from thence into England under King Edward the sixth after whose death he returned into Germany And in the School of Hornback under the Duke of Bâ—â—â—â—t he taught Hebrew From thence he was called to Heidleberg under Frederick the third Elector Palatine where he was Professor of the Hebrew tongue and translated the Syriack Testament into Latine There also he set upon the Translation of the Bible out of Hebrew associated to himself in that work Fr. Junius who after the death of Tremelius perused the whole work and by adding many things rather made it larger then better in some mens judgement In his old age he left Heidleberg and by the Duke of Bulloin was called to be Hebrew Professor in his new University of Sedan where he dyed Anno Christi 1580 and of his Age seventy He wrote a Chalde and Syriack Grammer hee published the New Testament in Latine and Syriack An exposition upon the Prophet Hosea Together with Junius he translated the Hebrew Bible adding short annotations And lastly Bucers Lectures upon the Epistle to the Ephesians The Life of Peter Boquine who died Anno Christi 1582. PEter Boquinus was borne in Aquitane and being in his youth brought up in learning he entred into a Monastery at Biturg where he was made the Prior and was very much beloved of all the Convent But it pleased God in the midst of all his riches and honours to discover the Truth to him and thereupon after the example of Luther Bucer Oecolampadius and Peter Martyr he resolved to leave all and to follow Christ whose example divers of the Friers also followed From thence he went toward Wittenberg being very desirous to be acquainted with Luther and Melancthon whose fame was very great and some of whose works he had met with and read and so travelling through Germany he came to Basil where he wintered by reason of the Plague very rife at that time in many Countries There he diligently heard the Lectures of Myconius Caralostadius and Sebastian Munster Anno Christi 1542 from thence he went to Lipsich where he stayed three weeks and so went to Wittenberg Coming hither he had some converse with Luther but more with Melancthon And whilst he was there Bucer sent to Melancthon to request him to send an able man to Strasborough to supply Calvins place who was now gone back to Geneva whereupon Melancthon requested Boquine to goe thither which he accordingly did and began to read upon the Epistle to the Galatians Shortly after Peter Martyr came thither also But Bucer being sent for by the Arch-bishop of Collen to assist him in the reformation of his Churches Boquine finding that the Ecclesiasticall and Scholasticall affaires went but slowly forward in his absence upon the request of his brother who was a Doctor of Divinity and not altogether estranged from the Reformed Religion he resolved to goe back into France and so taking Basil in his way he went to Geneva where he heard Calvin preach and had some speech with him and from thence to Biturg where he lived with his brother the Doctor mentioned before and when some hope began to appear that the Churches of France would be reformed at the instigation of his brother he began publickly to read Hebrew and to expound the Scriptures About that time Francis King of France being dead the Queen of Navar came into those parts about the marriage of her daughter to whom Boquine went and presented her with a book written with his own hand about the necessity and use of the holy Scriptures and her daughter with another concerning our spiritual husband Jesus Christ whereupon she took him into her Patronage and allowed him a yearly stipend out of her treasury appointing him to preach a publick Lecture in the great Church in Biturg Whereunto also the Arch-Bishop consented Shortly after the Queen of Navar dying there succeeded to her King Henries sister as in name and stock so also in Doctrine and Piety not unlike her Whereupon Boquine went and presented her with a book which he had written De homine perfecto which she took so gratefully that she confirmed his former stipend to him and he made use of that favour so long as he thought his labours were not unprofitable to the Church but when he saw that there was no hope of any further Reformation in France and that his enemies lay in wait for his life he gave it over of his own accord At that time he underwent the bitter hatred of some Friers and other enemies of the truth by whom his life was in great danger For he was summoned to appear before the Parliament of Paris and then before the Arch-Bishop of Biturg where his life was sought but God raised up some men to stand for him whereby he was delivered from the present danger Then did he resolve to fly into England but hearing of King Edwards death he altered his purpose and by the perswasion of a friend he resolved to returne to his people in Germany and so accordingly accompanied with two young men he went to Strasborough and when he had scarce been there a month it so fell out that the French Church in that place wanted a Pastor and chose him to that office yet for sundry reasons he refused to accept of it till by the perswasion of John Sturmius and some other friends he was content to preach to them till they could provide them another That place he discharged for about the space of four months conflicting with many difficulties and meeting with much trouble by reason of the improbity and perfidiousnesse of some At the end of which time the Senat with the consent of the Church appointed Peter Alexander to be their Pastor and so Boquine
it your own c. His friends hearing him thunder out these things much feared what would become of him And after Sermon some of them told him with tears That now the Bishop had that advantage against him which hee had long looked for c. To whom he answered Be not affraid the Lord God over-ruleth all and if God may bee glorified and his Truth propagated Gods will be done concerning me After they had dined together all men expecting the issue of this businesse Master Gilpin went to take his leave of the Bishop Nay said the Bishop I will bring you home and so went along with him to his house and walking there together in a Parlour the Bishop took him by the hand saying Father Gilpin I acknowledge you are fitter to be Bishop of Durham then my self to be Parson of your Church I ask forgiveness for Errors past Forgive me Father I know you have hatched up some chickens that now seek to pick out your eyes but be sure so long as I am bishop of Durham no man shall injure you Master Gilpin and his friends much rejoyced that God had so over-ruled things that that which was purposed for his disgrace should turn to his greater credit His body being quite worn out with pains-taking at last feeling before hand the approach of death hee commanded the poor to be called together unto whom he made a speech and tooke his leave of them He did the like also to others made many exhortations to the Scholars to his servants and to divers others and so at the last he fell asleep in the Lord March the fourth Anno Christi 1583. and of his Age sixty six Hee was tall of stature slender and hawk-nosed his clothes not costly but frugall in things that belonged to his own body bountifull in things that tended to the good of others especially of the poor and scholars His doores were still open to the poor and strangers He boorded and kept in his owne house four and twenty Scholars most of them poor mens sonnes upon whom hee bestowed meat drink apparel and learning Having a great Parish he entertained them at his Table by course euery Sabbath from Michaelmasse to Easten He bestowed upon his School and for stipends upon the School masters the full sum of 500 pound out of which School he supplied the Church of England with great store of Learned men Hee was carefull not onely to avoyd evil but the least appearance of it Being full of Faith unfeigned and of good works hee was at last put into his grave as an heap of wheat in due time put into the garner Hallelujah The Life of Zacharie Ursin who died A no Christi 1583. ZAcharie Vrsus was borne in Vratislavia the Metropolis of Silesia An. Christ. 1584. of honest parents His Fathers name was Gasper a Minister in Vratislavia who set him to School in the same City where he quickly shewed an excellent wit by which he easily outwent all his schoolfellows and so having perfected his Schol-learning by that he was 16. yeares old having an ample testimony from his Master Andrew Winckle he was sent to Wittenberg An. Chr. 1552 where he heard Melancthon with great diligence two years At the end of which time the Plague breaking forth there he retired with Melancthon to Tergaw and after a while having an ample testimony from him he went thence into his own Country for all that Winter but in the spring hee returned to Wittenberg where he spent five years more in the study of the Arts Tongues and Divinity He was very familiar with Melancthon and much esteemed by many Learned men who flocked to that University out of all Countries with whom also afterwards hee kept correspondencie Anno 1557 he went with Melancthon to the conference at Wormes about Religion and from thence he travelled to Marpurg Strasborâ—ugh Basil Lansanna and Geneva where he grew into familiar acquaintance with many learned men especially with Calvin who gave him such bookes as he had printed From Geneva he went into France to Lions Orleance and Paris where he perfected his skill in the Hebrew under the learned Mercerus In his return he went to Zurick where hee acquainted himself with the learned men and so to Tubing Ulme Nerinberg and from thence to his old Master Melancthon Anno 1558 hee was sent for by the Senate of Uratislave which was his native place to govern the school in that City where besides his Lectures in the Arts and Tongues he was employed in the explication of Melancthons book of the Ordination of Ministers upon which occasion he declared his judgement about the Sacrament and thereupon he was cried out against for a Sacramentarian This caused him to give a publick account of his Faith about the Doctrine of the Sacraments in certain strong and accurate propositions Melancthon hearing of the opposition which hee met with wrote to him to stand firmely to the truth and if he enjoyed not peace in that place to returne to him again and to reserve himself for better times And accordingly Ursin who naturally abhorred brawles and in his judgement could not endure Ecclesiasticall contentions chose rather to leave the place and therefore requested of the Senate that he might be dismissed and obtained his desire upon condition that whensoever his country and the Church there had need of him he should be willing to return home to them again This fell out seven daies after the death of Melancthon Anno Christi 1560. Ursin had a reverend man to his Uncle called Albert Roth who asked him whither hee would goe To whom he answered thus Truly I doe not goe unwillingly out of my own country seeing they will not admit of my confession of the Truth which with a good conscience I could not omit And if my worthy Master Melancthon were now living I would goe to none but him But since he is dead I will goe to Zurick which though it be not esteemed here yet in other Churches it is very famous for there are such godly learned and eminent men that they cannot be obseured by our Preachers and with them through Gods mercy I hope to live with much comfort And thus hee left his Country to the great grief of the godly whom he had instructed and confirmed in the Orthodox Truth From Uratislavia hee went to Wittenberg where he was received by the Professors with great joy and who would have chosen him into their number but hee refused and so went to Zurick Anno 1560 being invited thither by Martyr Bullinger Simler Lavater Gualter Gesner and Frisius who much desired his company and wrote for him With these worthy men he lived pleasantly and comfortably addicting himselfe to the profit of the Church and being a diligent attender upon Peter Martyrs Lectures whereby hee much encreased his knowledge in Divinity Anno Christi 1561 there came
Letters to Zurick from Thomas Erastus signifying that there wanted a Divinity Professor at Heidleberg and that they desired supply from thence whereupon the aforenamed Divines knowing Ursines fitnesse presently sent him with their Letters of ample commendation both to the Elector Palatine and to the University Where he was made governour of the Colledge of Sapience and by his diligence faithfulnesse and ability got such credit that at twenty eight years of age they graced him with the title of a Doctor in Divinity and so hee supplyed the place of publick Professor to the year 1568 at which time Zanchy succeeded him He had for his Colleagues Peter Boquin and Immanuel Tremelius the latter Professor of the Old Testament and the former of the New Five years Ursin continued reading upon his Common places and certainâ—y if he had finished it it had been exceeding usefull to the Church And besides his ordinary Lectures both in the University and Colledge the godly Prince Otho Frederick seeing severall Ministers using severall Catechisms to the prejudice of the Church he employed Ursin in the writing a Catechism for the Palatinate which might be of general use and accordingly he did to the great satisfaction of all Anno 1563 there brake forth a grievous Pestilence that scattered both the Court and University yet Ursin remained at home and wrote his tractates of Mortality and Christian Consolations for the benefit of Gods people The same year presently after Ursins Catechism was printed Flacius Illiricus Heshusius and some others beganne to quarrel at some passages in it about the Ascension of Christ his Presence in the Sacrament c. As also to traduce the Reformation carried on in the Palatinate but at the command of the Palatine Ursin did excellently justifie his Catechism and defend the Truth to the great satisfaction of all that read it Anno Christi 1564 hee was sent by the Elector to Malbrun to dispute with Brentius and Smidlin about the Ubiquity of Christs body which he confuted with such clear and strong arguments as that many both Papists and Lutherans were converted thereby He was so dear to the Elector Palatine that when the Bernates Anno 1578 sent Aretius to Heidleberg to crave leave that Ursine might goe to Lausanna to be the Divinity Professor there he would by no means part with him but for his ease and encouragement to stay gave him leave to choose an assistant that so his body might not bee worne out with his daily and excessive labours Anno Christi 1572 he married a Wife by whom he had one sonne that was afterwards a Minister and inherited his Fathers virtues Anno Christi 1574 at the command of the Elector Frederick he made a Confession of Faith about God the Person of Christ and the Supper of the Lord which was to stop the mouths of some malitious wicked men who had scattered abroad that in Heidleberg they had sowed the seeds of Arianism from which error both the Elector and the Church under him were most free In these employments was Ursin busied and both Religion and Learning prospered exceedingly under him so that he sent forth many excellent men who proved admirable instruments of Gods glory and the Chuches good and this continued till the year 1577 at which time it pleased God to take away that excellent Prince Frederick whereupon ensued that unhappy change when none were suffered to stay in the Palatinate except they held the opinions of Luther in all things So that Ursin with his Colleague Kimedontius were forced to leave the University But hee could not live a private life long for hee was sent for by Prince John Cassimire sonne to Frederick who knew how usefull and profitable he would be both to himself and the Churches under him About the same time also the Senate of Berne sent imporâ—unately for him to succeed A etius or Basil â—arquard in their University Hee was also earnestly solicited by Musculus Gualter Lavater and Hortinus to accept of this call but Prince Cassimire would by no meanes part with him having erected a University at Newstad and chosen Ursin and Zanchy to be the Divinity Professors thereof Whilst hee was thus employed by his excessive studies and neglect of exercise he fell into a sicknesse which held him above a year together After which he returned to his labours again and besides his Divinity Lectures read Logick in the Schools desiring his Auditors to give him what doubts and objections they met with which upon study at his next Lecture hee returned answers to But his continual watchings care meditations and writings cast him into a Consumption and other diseases yet would he not be perswaded to intermit his imployments till at last he was confined to his bed Yet therein also he was never idle but alwayes dictating something that might conduce to the publick good of the Church The hour of death being come his friends standing by he quietly slept in the Lord Anno Christi 1583 and of his Age fifty one He was very pious and grave in his carriage and one that sought not after great things in this world refusing many gifts from Princes and himself was liberall according to his ability He was alwaies like himself very sparing of timeâ— as appeared by these verses set over his study door Amice quisquis huc venis Aut agito paucis aut abi Aut me laborantem adjuva He wrote Commentarium do mortalitate consolationibus Christianis Admonitionem Neustadianam Epigrammata ad Jo. Frisium After his death his Son and Doctor Pareus and Quirinus his Scholars published divers other of his Workes which are printed in three Tomes The Life of Abraham Bucholtzer who died A no Christi 1584. ABraham Bucholtzer was born at Schovavium of a very ancient and honourable Family Anno Christi 1529 and from his infancy was brought up by his Parents in Religion and Learning When he was first set forth to School he profited to admiration outstripping all his Schoolfellowes by his acute wit and industry And being well principled at School he went to the Universities first of Franckfurt then of Wittenberg Accounting it his great happinesse that he was born after the light of the Gospel brake forth and bred up under Melancthon upon whose Lectures he attended diligently and sucked in from him not onely the principles of Learning but of Religion also He was exceeding industrious in seeking Learning attent in hearing Lectures diligent and swift in writing what was spoken by Melancthon About that time there sprang up many errors and much contention was raised in the Church of God about things indifferent the necessity of Good Works Essentiall Righteousness c. But by the help of Melanethon he was able both to discover and confute them There also he studied Greek and Hebrew When hee was six and twenty years
filled with ineffable joy so that he wondred why his wife should ask him whether he were not something better whereas indeed hee could never be better For said he I thought that I was in a most pleasant meddow in which as I walked up and down me thought that I was besprinkled with a heavenly dew and that not sparingly but plentifully powred down whereby both my body and soul were filled with ineffable joy To whom Piscator said That good Shepherd Iesus Christ led thee into fresh pastures Yea said Olevian To the springs of living waters Afterwards having repeated some sentences full of comfort out of Psalm 42. Isa. 9 and Matth. 11. and other places of Scripture hee often repeated I would not have my journey to God long deferred I desire to be dissolved and to be with my Christ. He commended to the Senate the care of the poor by his Deacon Iames Alstede giving directions what he would have done with his writings after his death And then he gave his hand farewel to his Colleagues and friends and when he was in the Agony of death Alstedius asking him whether he was sure of his salvation in Christ c. He answered Most sure and so he gave up the Ghost Anno Christi 1587 and of his age 51. His Works are these Concio de Abrahami fide obedientia De coena Domini Admonitio de Eucharistia Tabula de Ministerio Verbi Dei Sacramentis Expositio Symboli Apostolici Epitome Institutionum Calvini Notae in Epist. ad Galatas Notae in Evangelia Dialect lib. 2. Bezae in Epist. ad Rom. Gal. Phil. Col. notae ex Oleviani concionibus excerptae The Life of John Wigandus who died A no Christi 1587. JOhn Wigandus was born in Mansfield Anno Christi 1523 of honest parents of a middle rank who carefully brought him up in Learning which naturally he was much addicted unto having an excellent wit and firm memorie so that having profited much at School he went to the University of Wittenberg where he continued about three yeares which time hee spent in the study of the Arts and Tongues which night and day he imploied himselfe in In that place he had excellent and faithfull Masters who were Professors of all the Arts. And for Divinity he attended the Lectures of Luther heard his Disputations and Sermons as also Melancthons who was both an excellent Divine and Philosopher He contracted friendship with Cruciger heard the Sermons of J. Joâ—as attended the Greek Lectures of Dr Vitus He had for his private instructor Joh Marcellus a godly and learned man He frequented also the Lectures of Law and Physick Anno Christi 1541 by the advice of his Tutors and friends he went to Norinberg where hee was made Master of Saint Laurences School and for three yeares exercised himselfe with much diligence in instructing youth in which time he heard the excellent Sermons of Andreas Osiander Vitus Theodorus and Thomas Venatorius very learned and eloquent Divines But having an earnest desire to perfect his own studies he returned to Wittenberg again Luther being yet living There he commenced Master of Arts before hee was two and twenty years old and applyed himselfe wholly to the study of Divinity But the Wars waxing hot the Emperour placed a Garrison in the Castle and Town of Wittenberg and the students were driven away from thence At which time Wigand was called to Mansfield his own country to bee an assistant to their ancient Pastor Martin Seligman where also he was ordained Minister by Prayer and imposition of hands by John Spangenberg the Superintendent which was the first Ordination in that place after the banishing of Popery and their embracing the truth of the Gospel That Function hee discharged with much fidelity and industry and knowing the Schooles to bee the seminaries both of the Church and State he read Logick and Philosophy to the youth During which time at the request of the superintendent Spangenberg he wrote a confutation of the Popish Catechism of Ments written by Michael Sidonius which answer was afterwards printed in Latine and Dutch He wrote also a Confutation of George Major who held that a man by Faith only is justified but not saved c. He delighted exceedingly in a Garden and in observing the wisdome of God in the nature shape and various colours of hearbs and flowers for which end he gat the greatest variety of them that possibly he could into his Garden Hâ—e was one of those that strongly opposed the Interim Anno Christi 1553 hee was chosen by them of Madgeburg to be their Superintendent but the Earl of Mansfield and the people strongly opposed his remove from them yet at last by the means of the Prince of Anhalt they consented unto it At Magdeburg he tooke excessive pains in reading writing meditating and preaching whereby hee converted many Popish Priests in those parts to the Truth He also took great pains in writing the Magdeburgenses Centuries which he together with Mathew Judex Flacius Illiricns Basil Faber Andrew Corvinus and Thomas Holthuterus finished to the great benefit of the Church Of which booke Sturmius gave this Testimony that it was necessary and profitable and had these four virtues in it viz veritatem diligentiam ordinem perspicuitatem Truth Diligence Ordâ—r and Perspicuity Anno Christi 1560 the Elector of Saxonie having begunne a University at Jenes sent earnestly to Wigand to come thither to be the Divinity Professor which for weighty reasons hee assented unto and performed that office with much acceptance of all that heard him yet by the subtilty and malice of one Stosselius he was dismissed from that place and so returned to Madgeburg again But not staying there hee was chosen to bee the Superintendent at Wismare Anno Christi 1562 where hee imployed himself wholly in preaching disputing expounding Scripture and governing the Church Anno Christi 1563 hee commenced Doctor of Divinity in the University of Rostoch He stayed at Wismare seven yeares at the end whereof John William Duke of Saxony sent for him again to Jenes but the Duke of Megapole would by no meanes part with him yet at last after severall Embassies the Duke of Saxonie prevailed that he should come for one year to Jenes His people parted with him very unwillingly with many sighs and teares and at the yeares end sent for him back again but could by no means obtaine his returne He was not only made the Professor of Divinity at Jenes but the Superintendent also Anno Christi 1570 he went with his Prince to the Diet at Spire and at his return to Jenes was received with great joy But after five years Duke John William dying he was againe driven from thence and went to the Duke of Brunswick who entertained him kindly But presently after hee was called into Borussia to
like Statues of mourning in humane likenesse But after he had prayed with her and therein endeavoured both to comfort her and those about her he told her that she should not onely recover of her disease but also live to an exceeding great age At which words earnestly beholding him she said You might as well have said that if I should throw this glass against the wall I might beleeve it would not break to pieces And having a Glasse in her hand she threw it forth the Glasse falling first on a chest and then on the ground yet neither brake nor crackt And the event fell out accordingly for the Gentlewoman being then sixty years of age lived in much felicitie till she was above ninetie years old and could reckon above three hundrd and sixtie of her children and childrens children Also one day going to see the Earl of Arundel sonne to the Duke of Norfolk at his house in the Straud when he was going away from him the Earl walked with him to the end of his Garden where he was to take boat but the River being very boysterous the Earl counselled him not to trust himself in so great atempest to whom Master Fox answered So my Lord let these water deal with me as I have in truth and sincerity delivered unto you all that I have spoken And therewithall entering into the boat before they could put off from the Bridge the wind ceased and the river ran with a smooth stream He had many great friends to whom he was very dear and of whose bounty he tasted liberally whereby he was enabled to be so bountiful to the poor He had much familiarity with many Learned and Godly men At length having in such actions and such behaviours spent his time being now full of years he foresaw his own end and would not suffer his sonnes to be present at his death though he entirely loved them but sending them from home ere their return he quietly resigned up his spirit to God An. Christi 1587 and of his age seventie He never denyed to give to any one tha asked for Jesus sake And one asking him whither he knew a certain poor man whom he used to relieve Yea said he I remember him well and I tell you I forget Lords and Ladies to remember such As he was going along London streets a woman of his acquaintance met him and as they discoursed together shee pulled out a Bible telling him she was going to hear a Sermon whereupon he said to her if you will be advised by me go home again But said she when shall I then go to Church To whom he answered When you tell no body of it One of his sonnes had a great mind to travel beyond Sea which his Father could by no means disswade him from after some years travell he returned back in an out-landish habit and coming to his Father the old man asked him who hee was To whom he answered Sir I am your sonne Samuel Whereupon hee replyed Oh my sonne who hath taught thee to make thy self so ridiculous by coming home in so strange and uncoth an habit The Life of George Sohnius who died A no Christi 1589. GEorge Sohnius was born at Friburg in the Wetteraw Anno Christi 1551 of honest Parents and of good esteem who brought him up from his childhood in the knowledge of the principles of Divinity and Grammar and afterwards set him to School in Fridberg where he continued till he was well grounded in School-Learning which he drank in with such eagernesse that he soon outstripped all his fellows and so Anno Christi 1567 he was sent to the University of Marpurg at fifteen years old where he profited so exceedingly in Logick and Philosophy that he was made Batchelor of Arts at the years end And being exceeding desirous to see other countries for the improving both of his learning and carriage Anno Christi 1569 he went to Wittenberg where he studied Philosophy Law and Divinity with incredible pains night and day so that at three years end with the approbation of the whole University he was made Master of Arts. He intended at first the study of Law But it pleased God on a sudden so to divert his heart from it and to encline him to the study of Divinitie that he could have no rest in himselfe till he had resolved upon it concerning which he thus writes to his Father What hath so soon altered my opinion I shall briefly declare unto you that you may know and approve the reason thereof and give thanks to God for his mercy to us When upon the one and twentieth of July I was hearing Tuberus his Lecture of the Law before halfe an hour was past as I was writing what hee spake I fell into very serious cogitations For on a sudden the excellency and Majesty of Divinity came into my mind which suddenly did so delight me and beganne to stirre up in my minde such love to it that I could not but resolve to give over the Law and wholly to apply my self to the study of Divinity And this thought did more and more sink deeply into my mind and was so urgent upon me that I could no longer hearken to the Law Lecture neither could I write out what I had begunne So that I knew not what doe Yea these thoughts did so follow me that I was not onely averse to read any more Law but I abhorred the thoughts of it And thus not knowing what to doe I betook my self with sighs and teares unto God intreating him to restore to me my former love to and delight in the Law But if not that I was ready to follow his call in any thing But so often as I returned to reading the Law my heart did beat my eyes abhorred the letters and neither was my minde or will any more delighted with that study Whereupon consulting with two of my godly and loving friends they judged that I was called by God to the study of Divinity and therefore giving thanks to God I wholly applyed my self thereto Anno Christi 1571 he returned to Marpurg and studied Hebrew and the year after he read the Arts to many Students privately and became Tutor to three Noblemen At twenty three years old he was so famous that by the consent of all the Divines of that University he was chosen into the number and order of Professors of Divinity The year after he married a Wife Christian daughter to Conrade Matthew one of the Professors a choice Maid by whom he had three sons and two daughters The same yeare also he was chosen the Professor of the Hebrew Tongue in that Universitie Anno Christi 1578 he was made Doctor in Divinity and falling sick not long after he made an excellent Confession of his Faith But it pleased God that he recovered and was not onely a
read his Lectures he performed them to the abundant satisfaction of all his hearers nothing being found wanting which could be required in the best Divine and most accomplished Professor For hee shewed much reading a sharp judgement a pure and easie stile with sound and solid learning so that his fame spreading abroad abundance resorted to his Lectures and reaped much profit thereby The first that he began with in his Lectures was to expound the three first Chapters of Luke After which he went over the Epistle to the Galathians the first to Timothy and the Canticles Afterwards he betook himself to the Controversies between the Papists and us Anno Christi 1585. About that time there came into England a proud and vain-glorious Jesuit called Edmund Campian an English man who set forth ten Arguments whereby he boasted that he had utterly overthrown the Protestant Religion To these Whitaker answered so fully and learnedly that all the Jesuits brags vanished into smoak But shortly after there rose up Durie a Scottish Jesuit who undertook to answer Whitaker and to vindicate Campian And whereas Campian had set forth his Arguments with a great deal of ostentation and youthly confidence Durie on the other side prosecuted the cause with dog-like barking and railing and scurrility Whitaker gave him the preheminence in that but did so solidly answer all his Arguments and discover his fallacies that the truth in those points was never more fully cleared by any man Then rose up Nicolas Sanders an English Jesuit who wrote about the person of Antichrist boasting that by forty demonstrative Arguments he had proved that the Pope was not Antichrist These Arguments Whitaker examined answered learnedly and solidly truly retorting many of them upon himself Then Rainolds a Divine of Remes another English Apostate pretended a reply but subtilly and maliciously presented the English Divines differing amongst themselves that by their differences he might expose their Religion to the greater hatred and obloquy But VVhitaker perceived and plainly discovered his craftie fetches and lies yet withall declared that he judged his book so vain and foolish that he scarce thought him worthy of an answer About this time hee married a Wife a prudent pious chaste and charitable woman After whose death at the end of two years he married another a grave Matron the Widdow of Dudley Fenner by these he had eight children whom he educated religiously Upon this occasion the crabbed old man Stapleton who had neither learned to teach the truth nor to speak well nor to thinke chastly of others wrote a book against him objecting his marriage as a great reproach but surely this man had not read the words of Christ Mat. 9. 11. nor of Paul 1 Cor. 9. 5. 1 Tim. 3. 2. Nor what the Council of Nice decreed concerning the Marriage of Presbyters upon the motion of Paphnutius nor what Augustine and others of the Fathers had written about that point Or else he was of Hoâ—â—aeus the Jesuits mind one of the Popes Counsellors who declared openly that Priests sinned lesse by committing Adultery then by marrying wives VVhitaker never had his Catamites as many of the Popish Priests Jesuits Cardinals yea and some of the Popes themselves had But to leave him and return to our matter Doctor VVhitaker was shortly after chosen Master of Saint Johns Colledge in Cambridge which though at first some of the Fellows and Students out of self-ends disliked and opposed yet within a little space by his clemency equitie and goodnesse he so overcame their exulcerated mindes that he turned them into love and admiration of him Yea he alwaies governed the Colledge with much prudence and moderation not seeking his own profit but the publick good as appeared not onely by the testimony of those which lived with him but by his frugality wherein yet his gaines exceeded not his expences In choosing Scholars and Fellows he alwayes carryed himself unblameably and unpartially so as hee would never suffer any corruption to creep into the Election and if he found any who by bribes had sought to buy Suffrages he of all others though otherwise never so deserving should not be chosen Lellarmine about this time growing famous and being looked upon by his own party as an invinicible Champion him Whitaker undertakes and cuts off his head with his own weapons First in the controversie about the Scriptures published Anno Christi 1588. Then about the Church Councils Bishop of Rome the Minister Saints departed the Church Triumphant the Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper though hee had not leisure to print them all In all which controversies he dealt not with his adversarie with taunts reproaches and passion but as one that indeed sought out the truth Hereupon that superstitious old man Thomas Stapleton Professor of Lovane perceiving that Bellarmine held his peace undertook to answer Whitaker in that third question of his first part about the Scriptures which he performed in a volume large enough but as formerly in a scurrilous and railing language Therefore Whitaker lest the testy old man should seeme wise in his own eyes answered him in somewhat a tarter language then he used to doe The week before he dyed he performed an excellent work not only for the University of Cambridge but for the whole English Church for whose peace and unity he alwaies studied in truth by undertaking to compose some differences which sprang up about some â—â—ads of Religion for which end he went toward London in the midst of winter in the company of Doctor Tyndal Master of Queens Colledge but what with his journey and want of sleep being too intent upon his business he fel sick by the way which made him return to Cambridge again and finding his disease to encrease he sent for the Physitians who after debate resolved to let him blood which yet was neglected for two daies The third day when they went about it he was unfit by reason of a continual sweat that he was in yet that night he seemed to sleep quietly and the next morning a friend asking him how he did he answered O happy night I have not taken so sweet a sleep since my disease seised upon me But his friend finding him all in a cold sweat told him that signes of death appeared on him To whom he answered Life or death is welcome to me which God pleaseth for death shall be an advantage to me And after a while he sayd I desire not to live but onely so farre as I may doe God and his Church service And so shortly after he quietly departed in the Lord Anno Christi 1595 and of his age forty seven Having been Professor sixteen years Cardinal Bellarmine procured his picture out of England and hung it up in his study much admiring him for his singular learning and being asked by a Jesuit why he would suffer the picture of that
Heretick to hang there he answered Quòd quamvis Haereticus Adversarius esset esset tamen doctus Adversarius that though hee was an Heretick and his Adversary yet he was a learned Adversary In the whole course of his disease which was a Fever hee demeaned himself quietly and mildly acknowledging God to be the author of his disease to whose will hee willingly submitted himself without the least sign of impatiency saying with Job Lord my God though thou kill me yet I am sure that with these eyes I shall see thee for in thee do I hope In his habit countenance and in the whole course of his life heâ— shewed forth piety and holynesse and in his private family where he most discovered himself he was the same man Hee was most patient in injuries which he quickly forgat was easily reconciled to those which deserved worst of him Hee was very charitable and liberal to the poor according to his estate which yet he alwaies carried privately that others might not take notice of it but especially he was most bountiful to such poor as were modest godly and industrious and yet more especially to such poor Students as were ingenious painful These he would often secretly furnish with mony and prefer them to places as far as by the Statutes of the Colledge he could In passing judgement upon other mens lives and actions he was alwaies very modest and moderate Those whom he saw doe well he would encourage and commend For those that brake out into inordinate practises he would grieve and mourn In his converse with his friends he was very courteous apert and pleasant Faithfull in keeping secrets prudent and grave in serious matters Alwaies most prompt and ready to assist his friends in every condition either with counsel comfort or money His piety towards his parents was singular towards whom he was very dutyfull and whom he supported being faln into decay through ill husbandry And that which added a lustre to his learning virtue and graces was that they were accompanied with Moses-like meekness and almost incredible humility For although hee was endued with a most sharp wit happy memory variety of reading excellent eloquence as ever was in any Divine and lastly with a most learned and polite judgement so that he was the Oracle of the University and miracle of the world yet did he not hold any singular or private opinion but what was agreeable to the sound Doctrine of the Word of God and the peace of the Church yea he was so humble that he despised not his inferiours but carried himself as a child that is weaned from his Mothers breasts Besides what works are mentioned before in his life and are printed he left divers others as Conciones ad Clerum Breves determinationes questionum Theologicarum Determinationes aliae pleniores Libollus contra Thomam Stapletonum de originali peccato L. DANAEVS The Life of Lambert Danaeus who died A no Christi 1596. LAmbaert Daneus was born at Orleance in France Anno Chr. 1530. He was of an acute wit and wonderfully addicted to learning so that by his diligence and extraordinary pains he attained to a great measure of knowledge and skill in all the Liberall sciences which he adorned by adding to the knowledge of them the study of the sacred Scriptures In his younger years he studied the civill Law four yeares at Orleance under that worthy and godly man Annas Burgius who being afterwards for his worth made one of the Parliament of Paris in the year 1559 for his constant defence and confession of the Truth was first strangled and then burnt Danaeus being stirred up by this rare example of his Masters piety changing his former purpose betook himself to the study of Divinity and embracing the Reformed Religion hee thereupon went to Geneva An. Christi 1560 where he wholly applyed himself to attain the knowledge of the Truth and by his extraordinary diligence reading over almost infinite Authors and by his wonderfull memory he easily attained to be esteemed one of the greatest Divines that lived in that age Hee was so versed in the Fathers and School-Divines that none excelled him and few attained to the like exactnesse therein whence one saith of him Marum est homuncionis unius ingenium tot tam diversas scientias haurire retinere potuisse At Geneva he was admitted into the number of Doctors and Pastors and by his learned labours was exceeding usefull both to the Church and University Eruditus enim animus semper aliquid ex se promit quod tum alios doceat delecteâ—ve tum seipsum laudibus illustret He alwaies employed himself in writing something whereby he might approve himself a godly Divine and excellent Scholar to all Learned men From Geneva hee was called to the University of Leiden where hee was received with much joy and was exceedingly admired for his learning acutenesse of wit promptnesse and strength of memory in alledging and reciting the sentences of the Fathers Schoolmen Canonisks and prophane writers From thence after a years â—â—ay he was called to Gaunt Anno Christi 1582 where hee taught not many yeares For when he perceived the City to bee so divided and full of tumults foreseeing the storm that was coming upon it hee left it and being sent for went into Navar where by his teaching and writing he made the University of Orthesia near to Spain famous And at last having by his extraordinary paines profited the Church and the Commonwealth of Learning and by his admirable fruitfull wit published very many bookes hee there laid down his earthly tabernacle Anno Christi 1596 and of his age sixty six His Works are these Elenchi Haereticorum Ethices Christianae lib. tres Tractat. de Amicitia Christiana De ludo Aleae Physices Christianae partes duae De venificis Methodus sacrae Scripturae utiliter tractandae Comment in Epist. ad Timotheum priorem In Mat. In Mar. Orationis Dominicae explicatio Tractatus de Antichristo In Pet. Lombardi lib. 1. Sententiarum Responsio ad novas Genebrardi calumnias Examen libri de duabus in Christo naturis Chemnitii Vera Orthodoxa Orthodoxae Patrum sententiae defensio c. Antosiander Ad insidiosum Osiandri scriptum c. De tribus gravissimis quaestionibus c. Ad Steph. Gerlacium Elenchus Sophismatum ejusdem Ad Selnecceri librum Loci communes Responsio ad Bellarmini disputationes Tabulae in Salomonis Proverb Eccles. Geographiae Poeticae Aphorismi Politici Politices Christianae lib. 7. Vetustissimarum primi mundi antiquitatum lib. 4. tum ex sacris tum aliis authoribus c. The Life of Robert Rollock who died Anno Christi 1598. RObert Rollock was born in Scotland of the ancient Family of the Levingstons Anno Christi 1555 of parents of good quality and credit His Father David Rollock being reasonable well learned
Nowel was born in the County of Lancaster Anno Christi 1511 of an ancient and worshipfull Family and at thirteen years old was sent to Oxford and admitted a member of Brasennose Colledge where hee studied thirteen years and grew very famous both for Religion and Learning In Queen Maries daies he amongst many others left the Kingdom that he might enjoy his conscience and returning when Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory came to the Crown she made him Dean of Pauls where he was a frequent and faithfull Preacher By his writings he defended the truth against some English Popish Renegadoes For thirty years together he preached the first and last Sermons in Lent before the Queen wherein he dealt plainly and faithfully with her He was a great Benefactor to Brasen-nose Colledge where hee had his first education Hee was the enlarger of Pauls School made the threefold Catechism which was much used long after He was very charitable to the poor especially to poor Scholars A great comforter of afflicted consciences He lived till he was ninetie years old and yet neither the eies of his mind nor body waxed dim And dyed peaceably in the Lord Anno Christi 1601. D. TOSSANVS The Life of Daniel Tossanus who dyed A no Christi 1602. DAniel Tossanus was born at Mombelgart in Wirtemberg Anno Christi 1541. His Father was Minister in that town about six and thirty yeares who carefully brought up this his son in learning and 〈◊〉 fourteen years old sent him to the University of Basil where he continued two years and then he commenced Batchelor of Arts From thence Anno Christi 1557 he went to Tubing and was there mainâ—ainâ—d to his studyes for two yeares more by the bounty of 〈◊〉 Châ—istopher who did it for his Fathers sake who for many years had deserved so well of the Church of Mombelgart Our Daniel whilst he was at Tâ—bing applyed himself to the study of humane Arts and Philosophy in which he profited so eminently in a short space that at the end of two years he was made Master of Arts and then was sent for â—ack by his father to Mombelgaâ—t where hee preached for a while and then went to Paris to learne the French Tongue and to proceed in his other studies Anno Christi 1560 he went from Paris to Orleance where he read Hebrew publickly and after a while was made Deacon in that Church and two years after Minister An. Christi 1562 and of his age twenty one which place he undertook there rather than in his own country partly because of the great want of Pastors in the French Churches as also because he agreed with them in his judgement about the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament At this time there was the most flourishing Church in all France in Orleance consisting of above seven thousand persons that had excellent Pastors over them Into the number of which our Daniel being admitted not long after hee resolved to marry and accordingly viz. 1565 hee married Mary Covet of Paris whose Father had been Advocate to the Queen Mother in the Parliament of Paris and whose Mother being a Widdow and having embraced the Reformed Religion transplanted her self with her two daughters to Orleance for the freer exercise of her Religion Whilst he was there the Civil Wars brake out between the Papists and Protestants and Francis Duke of Guise besieged the City of Orleance where Monsieur de Andelot brother to the Admiral of France commanded in chief Tossan continued there all the time of the siege and took extraordinary pains in instructing exhorting and encouraging both Citizens and souldiers and when the City was in great danger to be lost one Poltrot who had devoted his life for his Countries safety went out and slew the Duke of Guise under the walls whereupon the siege was raised and the Church there preserved almost miraculously from ruin Anno Christi 1567 there brake out a second Civill War at which time the Papists in Orleance conspired together to destroy all the Protestants so that they were every hour in danger of being butchered but it pleased God seasonably to send Monsieur Novie with a small party of souldiers who entring the City and joyning with the Protestants drave out some of the Papists and disarmed the rest But after that famous battel at Saint Denis wherein so many of both sides were slain and wounded Peace was againe concluded Yet did the Papists quickly break it and a great company of Souldiers entering into Orleance beganne to breath forth threatnings against the Church of Christ especially against the Ministers of it Hereupon Tossan was in great danger insomuch that when he went into the Church to preach he knew not whether he should returne alive and that which most troubled him was the fear that he had of his wife and two small children Besides he never went to the Congregation but some threw stones others shot bullets at him and their rage grew so great that they burned down the barn wherein the Church used to meet together and every day he heard of one or other of their members that were slain so that he was compelled severall times to change his lodging yet one day the souldiers caught him and pretended that they would carry him out of the City but indeed intended to have Murthered him whereupon his wife great with child ranne to the Governour and with much importunity prevailed with him that her husband might stay in the City And not long after brake out the third Civill War at which time the Popish souldiers that besieged Orleance were so enraged that they burned all the places where the Church used to meet and barbarously slew above eighty of the faithfull servants of Christ in them yet it pleased God miraculously to preserve the Ministers in that great danger and Tossan with his Colleagues by the help of some of the faithfull was conveighed privately away out of the City in the night but whilst hee sought to hid chim in a wood he fel into an ambush and was taken and carried prisoner into a Castle not far off from Orleance His wife which stayed behind in the City hearing this sad news left no means untried for his delivery and at last for a great summe of money shee procured his release whereupon he went to Agrimont and his wife putting her self into the habit of a Maid-servant went towards Agrimont after him where Renata the daughter of Lewis the twelfth of France and Dowager of Ferrara lived in a very strong Castle and was a great friend to the Protestants entertaining many that fled to her for succour But as his wife was going thitherward after him she was taken by some Souldiers and carried back to the Governour of Orleaence but it pleased God to stir up the Governours wife and daughters to intercede for her
and hee had both one desire but not for the same end The Jesuits said he wish my end but for an evill end I wish for it also but that by death I may passe to eternall life purchased for me by the merits of Christ. Anno 1599 the King of France and the King of Navar lying in siege before the Castle of Saint Katharines in Savoy near to Geneva Beza went to visit them and was entertain'd with abundance of courtesie by them and being asked by the King of France if he had any request to make to him he answered That he had nothing but to commend his sacred Majesty to the blessing of the great God and to pray that his Majesty might govern his people in peace Only he requested that seeing the Church at Lions had not yet enjoyed the benefit of his Majesties Edict that he would be pleased to think of them which the King promised and upon their petition granted their desire About the time of his return he began to be much troubled with want of sleep but lying awake in the nights hee deceived the time with holy meditations And speaking to his friends of it he used that speech Psal. 16. v. 7 8. My reins also instruct me in the night season I have set the Lord alwaâ—es before me in whose favour is life And that of Psal. 63 My soul is filled as with marrow and fatnesse when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches Many came out of the Kings Camp to Geneva to see the City which was now so famous but especially to see Beza all whom he courteously entertained with holy and savoury discourses and so dismissed them well pleased Anno Christi 1602 Maurice the Lantgrave of Hesse came to Geneva to see him but disguised for which Beza was very sorry after that he had not known him Finding himself to draw near to his end he revised his Will and so easing his mind of all worldly thoughts he wholly betook himself to exspect the time of his departure which he much longed for He often used that saying of the Apostle We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works And that of St. Augustine Diu vixi diu peccavi fit nomen Domini benedictum I have lived long I have sinned long Blessed be the name of the Lord. And that also Domine quod coepisti perfice nè in portu naufragium accidat Lord perfect that which thou hast begun that I suffer not shipwrack in the haven and that of Bernard Domine sequemur te per te ad te te quia veritas per te quia via ad te quia vita Lord we follow thee by thee to thee Thee because thou art the truth By thee because thou art the way To thee because thou art the life Anno 1605 there came some noble and learned men from Borussia to see him with whose society he was much pleased But diseases encreasing upon him the Pastors of Geneva agreed amongst themselves that every day two of them should visit him by turns and sometimes all of them came together and prâ—ied most fervently with him Octob. 13 being the Sabbath-day he rose in the morning and prayed with his family and then desiring to goe to bed again he sate him down on the side of his bed and asked if all things were quiet in the City they answered him yea but perceiving that he was near to his end they ranne for a Minister who immediately coming whilst he was praying with him without the least pain or groaning he quietly yeelded up his spirit unto God Anno Christi 1605 and of his Age 86 and of his Ministry 46. James Lectius made this Epigram of him Vezelii genuêre piae tenuêre Gebennae Astratenent vixi non mihi sed populis Aliud Si qua fides famae proles mihi defuit omnis At varia vera prole beatus ego Me Populi Mystae Reges dixere parentem Multa virûm genui millia Christe tibi Quin Populi Mystae Reges nascentur ex me Christe tibi toto dum legar orbe frequens He was a thick set man and of a strong Constitution insomuch that he used to say that he never knew what it was to have his head ake He was of an excellent wit an accurate judgement a firm memory very eloquent affable and courteous so that he was called the Phoenix of his time In his Testament he gave thanks 1. That God at sixteen years old had called him to the knowledge of the Truth though for a while he walked not answerable to it till the Lord in mercy brought him home and carried him to Geneva where under that great Calvin he learned Christ more fully 2. That being infected with the Plague at Lausanna and aspersed with grievous calumnies the Lord had delivered him from them both 3. That coming back to Geneva he was there chosen Pastor when as he deserved not to have been one of the sheep 4. That not long after he was made Colleague to that excellent man John Calvin in reading Divinity 5. That being called into France in the first Civill War and tossed there up and down for twenty two moneths God had preserved him from six hundred dangers c. A Papist objecting to him his youthly Poems This man saith he vexeth himself because Christ hath vouchsafed to me his grace Though there was so great worth in this man and his labours were extraordinary yet he had but 1500 Florens per an for his stipend which amount but to seven or eight and fifty pounds sterling by the year besides 20 Coups of corn and his house His Works were these N. Testamenti nova versio cum Annotationibus Confessio Christianae fidei De Haereticis à civili Magistratu puniendis Summa totius Christianismi De Coena Domini De Hypostatica duarum in Christo naturarum unione De unitate essentiae Divina tribus subsistentibus personis Tractatio de Polygamia Divortio Epistolae Theologicae With many others set down particularly by Verheiden and mentioned in this narrative of his life D. RAINOLDS The Life of John Rainolds who dyed A no Christi 1607. JOhn Rainolds was born in Devonshire Anno Christi 1549 and brought up in Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford and for his excellent learning was chosen a Fellow of that House and afterwards Commenced Doctor in Divinity Hee had divers brothers that were all Papists which procured him much sorrow especially his elder brother William Rainolds who wrote seditious and pestilent books against that renowned Queen Elizabeth and her flourishing Kingdome He was so eminent for piety and for his knowledge in the more mysterious parts of Divinity that one saith of him that he was Acad miae lumen Europae decus Divinae gloriae buccinator sanctitatis eximium exemplar
the chiefest Divines of those times who were his special friends as Beza Dan. Tossanus George Sohnius Will Stuckius Pareus Pitiscus c. He had two Wives the first was Mary the daughter of James Grynaeus who dyed in childbed the other was Salome Wasserâ—unia who died the same year with himself Scripsit Commentarium in Danielem contra Bellarminum Analysin Hosea cum Orationibus Historicis Dialecticis De morte Christi pro quibus eam subierit De quatuor Manarchiis â—pud Danielem Analysin Malachiae Partitiones Theologicas Syntagma Theologiae c. The Life of Thomas Holland who died A no Christi 1612. THomas Holland was born in Shropshire Anno Christi 1539 and brought up in Exceter Colledge in Oxford where he took his degrees with much applause Afterwards he Commenced Dr. in Divinity was chosen Master of the Colledge and for his excellent learning was preferred to be the Regius Professor or Doctor of the Chair wherein he succeeded Dr. Humphred and so deported himself in the same that he gat the approbation and admiration both of that of Oxford and of Forreign Univeâ—sities also He was like Apollos a man mighty in the Scriptures and as one saith of him Adeò cum Patribus familiaris ac si ipse Pater cum Scholasticis ac si Seraphicus Doctor i. e. He was so familiarly acquainted with the Fathers as if himself had been one of them and so vers'd in the Schoolmen as if hee were the Seraphick Doctor He was also a faithfull Preacher of the Truth and one that adorned it by his holy life and conversation a zealous defender of the true Religion and a great hater of superstition and Idolatry Insomuch that when he went any journey calling the Fellows of the Colledge together he used to say to them Commendo vos dilectioni Dei â—dio Papatûs superstitionis I commend you to the love of God and to the hatred of Popery and superstition He continued Doctor of the Chair twenty years and was every way as famous for his Religion and holyness of life as he was for his learning When in his old age he grow weak and sickly he spent all his time in fervent prayers and heavenly meditations and when his end approached he often sighed out Come O Come Lord Jesus thou morning star Come Lord Jesus I desire to be dissolved and to be with thee and so he quietly departed in the Lord Anno Christi 1612 and of his age 73. I. DRVSIVS The Life of John Drusius who died A no Christi 1616. JOhn Drusius was born at Aldenard Anno Christi 1550 and first brought up to School in the â—ity of Gaunt and from thence went to the University of Lovain But whilst hee was following his study hard there his Father was proscribed for Religion and thereby deprived of all his estate which caused him to fly into England taking this his son along with him When he came to London he met with Cevalerius lately come thither that was exceeding skilfull in the Hebrew His Lectures therefore he attended upon both in publick and private and when Cevalerius was sent to Cambridge to be the Professor there Drusius went along with him applying himself especially to the study of Greek Afterwards when Cevalerius was called back into France Drusius still accompanyed him and fell hard to the study of the Hebrew He also privately read the same to two young English Gentâ—emen After a while he returned to London again and when hee was purposed to goe back into France he hâ—ard of that bloody Massacre at Paris which made him alter his minde and having preferment profered to him either in Oxford or Cambridge he chose Oxford where for the space of four yeares he read Hebrew Chalde and Syriack with great commendation After which time he went back to Lovain but not long enjoying peace there he returned to London again where he continued till the peace was concluded at Gaunt and then went over into Flanders and from thence into Zeland where the States of Holland chose him to be the Professor in Hebrew Chalde and Syriack in the University of Leiden Anno Christi 1577. During his abode there he married a Wife and the States of Frisland having newly erected a University at Franequer they called him thither In which place he continued taking great paines for the space of thirty one yeares and at length resigned up his spirit unto God Anno Christi 1616 and of his age sixty and six The Life of John James Grynaeus who died A no Christi 1617. JOhn James Grynaeus was born at Berne in Helvetia Anno Christi 1540. His Father was first a Professor in Basil and afterwards removed to a Pastoral charge at Raetela who died of the Plague Anno Christi 1564. His mother was Adelheida Stuberina both of them godly persons His father took the care of his first learning educating him under his own wings and afterwards Anno Christi 1547 hee was sent to School to Basil under Thomas Plater an excellent Schoolmaster with whom he profited so much that Anno Christi 1551 upon examination he was admitted into the University under Boniface Amerbachius the very next year the Plague being hot in Basil he fell sick of the plague but it pleased God to restore him again and he followed his study hard He heard his own Father reading Greek and Latine Huld Coccius reading Logick and John Nisaeus reading Poetry and Rhetorick Anno Christi 1556 his Father was called to a Pastoral charge at Raetela but our James stayed still at Basil joyning the study of Divinity with that of Philosophy One of the Professors of Divinity at that time was Simon Sulcerus who being an Ubiquitarian misled our Grynaeus into the same error as himself confesseth adding that he continued in it for ten years and misled others likewise till at length through Gods mercy he was brought into the way of truth Anno Christi 1559 he began to preach and was ordained Deacon by Sulcerus who was the Superintendent of those Churches which office he supplyed till the year 1563 at which time by the advice of his father and friends he went to Tubing for the further improvement of his learning though himself had rather have gone to Wittenberg where Charlet Marquess of Baden having heard him preach and being taken with him had profered him an exhibition of an hundred Florens per annum When he came to Tubing he delivered his Letters of commendation to Doctor Andreas and so was admitted into that University where he heard Andreas Heerbrand Snepfius and Brentius for Divinity Samuel Hailand for Philosophy and others for the other Arts and it pleased God that he met with William Stuckius of Zurich whom he had formerly known and who now became a partner in his studies and remained his intimate friend ever after Anno
for him to stay here He answered If I shall find favour in the eyes of God he will bring me again and shew me both it and his habitation and if otherwise lo here I am let him do what seemeth good in his eyes 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. And being asked of another if he could be content to live if God would grant it him he said I grant that life is a great blessing of God neither will I neglect any means that may preserve it and do heartily desire to submit to Gods will but of the two I infinitely more desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. To those that came to visit him in his sicknesse he gave very godly and wise exhortations He thanked God for his wonderful mercy in pulling him out of hell in sealing his Ministry by the Conversion of Souls which he wholy ascribed to his glory A week before his death he called for his Wife and desired her to bear his Dissolution with a Christian Fortitude and turning to his children he told them that they should not now expect that in regard of his weaknesse he should say any thing to them he had formerly told them enough and hoped they would remember it and hee verily beleeved that none of them durst think to meet him at the great Tribunal of Christ in an unregenerate state Some of his neighbours moved that as he had in his Ministry discovered to them the exceeding comforts that were in Christ so he would now tel them what he felt in his soul Alass sayd he doe you looke for that now from me that want breath and power to speake I have told you enough in my Ministry yet to satisfie you I am by the wonderful mercies of God as full of comfort as my heart can hold and feel nothing in my soul but Christ with whom I heartily desire to be Then seeing some weeping he said Oh what a deal ado there is before one can dye When the very pangs of Death were upon him some of his dear friends coming to take their leave of him he caused himself to be raised up and after a few gapings for breath he said to them I am now drawing on a pace to my Dissolution hold out Faith and Patience your work will quickly be at an end Then shaking them by the hand he desired them to make sure of heaven and to remember what hee had formerly taught them protesting that it was the Truth of God as he should answer it at the Tribunal of Christ before whom he should shortly appeare and a dear friend taking him by the hand aske him if hee felt not much pain Truly no said he the greatest I feel is your cold hand and then being laid down againe not long after he yeelded up his spirit unto God Anno Christi 1631 and of his age 60. He was one of a thousand for Piety and Courage which were so excellently mixed with wisdom that they who imagined mischief against his Ministry were never able by all their plottings to doe him any more hurt then only to shew their teeth He wrote a discourse of true happiness Directions for a comfortable walking with God Insâ—â—utions for comforting afflicted Consciences A threefold Treatise of the World Sacrament of the Lords Supper and Fasting De quatuor novissimis Laus Deo W. WHATELIE The Life of William Whately who died A no Christi 1639. WIlliam Whately was born at Banbury in Oxfordshire Anno Christi 1583 of godly and religious Parents His Father Master Thomas Whatelie was oft Major of that Town His Mother Mistris Joyce Whately carefully bred him up in the knowledge of the Scriptures from a child He was also trained up in learning in the best Schools in those parts and being of a quick apprehension a clear judgement and a most happy memory He profited so much both in Latine Greek and Hebrew that at fourteen yeares old he went to Christs Colledge in Cambridge There he was an hard Student and quickly became a good Logician and Philosopher a strong Disputant and an excellent Orator He studied also Poetrie and Mathematicks He was a constant hearer of Doctor Chaderton and Master Perkins And his Tutor calling his Pupills to an account what they had learned when any was at a stand he would say Whately what say you And he would repeat as readily as if he had preached the Sermon himself Being Batechelor of Arts his Father tooke him home yet there also he followed his study Afterwards he married a Wife the Daughter of Master George Hunt an eminent Preacher who perswaded him to enter into the Ministry and therefore going to Oxford he Commenced Master of Arts and presently after hee was called to be a Lecturer at Banbury which he performed with good approbation for foure yeares and then was called to the Pastoral charge there in which place he continued untill his death He was of a quick understanding of a clear and deep judgement of a most firme memory and of a lively spirit Hee was naturally Eloquent and had words at will He was of an able body and sound lungs and of a strong and audible voice And according to his matter in hand he was a Boaâ—erges a sonne of Thunder and yet upon occasion a Barnabas a sonne of sweet Consolation and which was the Crowne of all God gave him an heart sincerely to seek his glory and to aime at the saving of all their soules that heard him His speech and praching was not in the inticing words of mans wisdomâ— but in the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power He was an Apollos eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures He catechized and preached twice every Lords day and a weakly Lecture besides yet what he preached was before well studyed and premeditated He usually penned his Sermons at large and if he had but so much time as to read over what he had written and to gather it up into short heads he was able to deliver it well near in the same words His Sermons were plaine yet very Scriptural according to the Rules of Art and right reason Hee made use of his Grammar learning in Greek and Hebrew to examine his Text by Then of Rhetorick to discover what formes of speech in his Text were genuine and used in their proper signification and what was elegantly clothed in Tropes and Figures that hee might unfold them Then by a Logicall examining of the context he searched out the true scope of the Holy Ghost in the words His Doctrines which hee insisted on were naturall not forced These he first proved by Scriptures then by other arguments and reasons and in his Applications he either confirmed some profitable truth which might be questioned or convinced men of some error or reproved some vice or exhorted to some duty or resolved some doubt or case of Conscience or comforted such as
needed consolation And if his reproof or exhortation needed pressing home upon the conscience he would enlarge himselfe by shewing motives to urge the duty or disswasives from the vice taking his Arguments from duty to God decency or shamefulnesse pleasure or paine gaine or losse Sometimes also hee would shew the effectuall meanes of attaining the grace or power to performe the duty exhorted to As also the Remedies against Vices And when hee fell upon any Common place or Head of Divinity hee used to prosecute it very judiciously and profitably So that by all this it appeares that hee made good use of his Learning yet without affectation He used to read Books most swiftly and yet not cursorily being able when he had done to give an account of the substance and most remarkable passages of what he had read Though he preached often yet what he preached was before-hand well studied and premeditated And it pleased God to put a Seal to his Ministry in the converting confirming and building up many thousands in the course of his Ministry Hee was a diligent visitor of the sick under his charge without respect of persons Hee was a great Peace-maker amongst any of his flock that were at variance Hee had an heavenly gift in prayer both for aptnesse and fulnesse of Confessions Petitions Supplications Intercessions and Praises together with fervencie of spirit to pour them out to God in the name of Christ. When he had read a Psalm or Chapter in his Family in his Prayer hee would discover the scope meaning and chiefe notes of observation and their use so that his Prayer was an excellent Commentary thereupon and this not onely in the plainer but â—n the harder Texts of Scripture also In his prayers also after Sermon he could collect into a short summe all that hee had delivered to his hearers and make it the matter of his prayer unto God that they might bee inwardly taught of God and become believers and doers of what was taught them His constant practice was besides Family-prayer twice a day and sometimes catechizing to pray also with his Wife and alone both morning and evening He set a part private daies of Humiliation for his Family upon special occasions and oft for their preparation to the Lords Supper at which times he would exceed himself in pouring out his soul to God with many tears He was much in daies of private fasting and humbling himself alone before God which impaired his health but made much for the health of his soul. He was very able and very ready to confer with and to resolve the doubts of such as came to him He bare such a tender love to that great people over which God had set him that though his means was small and he had many offers of great preferment in the Church yet hee would not leave them Hee was daily inquisitive after the affaires of Gods Church and sympathized with Gods people both in their weale and woe He was much grieved when he saw that difference in opinions bred strangenesse amongst Christians that agreed in the same Fundamentall Truths He was judiciously charitable to such as shewed the power of Godlinesse in their lives though they were not of his judgement in all things He was glad when any of the righteous smote him and would take it well not from his Superiours onely but from his Equals and far Inferiours and would really shew more testimonies of his love to such afterwards then ever he did before Hee abounded in workes of Mercy he was a truly liberal man one that studyed liberall things seeking out to finde objects of his mercie rather then staying till they were offered He did set apart and expend for many yeares together for good uses the tenth part of his yearly commings in both out of his Temporall and Ecclesiasticall meanes of maintenance He entertained some poor Widdows or neceâ—â—itous persons weekly at the least at his Table and his estate prospered the better after hee took this course and in his sicknesse he comforted himself with that promise Psal. 41. 1 2. Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lorâ— will deliver him in the time of trouble the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing c. The truth of grace in his heart was discovered by nothing more then by his slips and strong tentations For hereby hee was made more watchfull over himselfe more humble and more to loath his originall corruption and sinfull nature and so to cry out with the Apostle O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Yea this made him more earnest in his prayers unto God and more pittifull unto others And hee was alwayes the first espier of his own faults when the world could not or did not take notice of them enjoying no rest in himselfe till he had sought and regained pardon and peace with God His last daies were his best dayes for then hee grew exceedingly in humility and in heavenly-mindednesse And a good while before his latter end God gave him victory over his greatest corruptions which for a long time kept him in continuall exercise About eight weeks before his death he was much troubled with a cough and shortnesse of breath which much weakned him yet hee preached divers times till his encreasing weaknesse disabled him In his sicknesse he gave heavenly and wholsom counsel to his people neighbours and friends that came to visit him exhorting them to labour to redeem the time to be much in reading hearing and meditating upon the word of God much in praier brotherly love and communion of Saints and that they would be careful to hold that fast that he had taught them out of the Word of Truth and that waiâ—st the means of salvation was to bee had they would neither spare paines nor cost to enjoy it His pains towards his end were very great yet hee bore them patiently He was much in ejaculations and lifting up his heart to God in behalf of the Church and State and for himself also wherein he was most frequent and earnest A little before his death a godly friend and Minister praying with him that if his time were not expired God would bee pleased to restore him for the good of his Church or if otherwise that he would put an end to his pains if hee saw good he lifting up his eyes stedfastly towards heaven and one of his hands in the close of that prayer gave up the Ghost shutting his eyes himself as if he were fallen into a sweet sleep Anno 1639 and of his Age 56. God took him away a little before the Civill Warres began and before the sad desolations that fell upon the Town of Banbury in particular He wrote Prototypes God Husbandry A Treatise of the New Birth The Redemption of time A Care cloth The Bride bush c.
Greek Tongue so that he made excellent Greek Verses which also were printed He laid solid foundations also of Philosophy so that his Masters caused him to keep publick Disputations about sundry controversies in Philosophy He was so studious that that time which other boys spent in play he refreshed himself by variety of studies His Masters now finding him fit resolved to send him to the University where he might better be instructed in the Arts then he could be in that School For which end he went to Leiden in April Anno Christi 1596. and sojourned in the house of Thomas Spranckhusius Minister of Leiden and presently began to consider how he might best imploy himself for the advancement of his studies whereas other boys used to spend the first year in looking about them And he resolved to go on in this method First to perfect his knowledge in the Tongues then of Philosophy and at last to proceed to the study of Divinity And that he might perfect his skill in the Greek he resolved to read over the Poets who best express the genius of the Language and amongst them he made choice of Homer because he useth every Dialect his speech flows pleasingly and he makes his Reader more wise and that he might better pierce into the profundity of that Language upon every occasion he consults with Joseph Scaliger a man of stupendious Learning to whom Wallaeus was always very dear and he was much delighted with his wit Afterwards from Greek he proceeded to the study of Hebrew wherein he was assisted by Francis Rapbelingius a very courteous man but he shortly after dying and Francis Iunius being chosen into his room our Wallaeus profited so much under him that he could understand the Books of the Old Testament without an Interpreter He proceeded not to the study of the Rabbins because he judged that they that bestow much time in the study of the Tongues are very seldom good Artists For mans minde cannot contain all things the knowledge of the Tongues will take up the whole man and therefore our Wallaeus whilst he studyed the Languages laid aside all other studies only sometimes for recreation-sake he would read over some old Latine Authors Historians Poets and Orators When he was well furnished with the Tongues he went to the study of Philosophy but finding that Leiden at that time was not well furnished with Philosophers he attended the Lectures of Raph Snel the Mathematick Professor under whom he learned Geometry Astronomy and the Opticks which proved very useful to his future studies In his study of Logick he made use of Keckerman to whom he added Zabarel Monlor and some others In Physicks he used Tolet Zabarel Picholhomini In Ethicks he was most taken with Accioalus yet he read Picholhomini Magirus Muret Quarsius Metaphysicks He read over also Thomas and Scotus after which he proceeded to Plato and Aristotle whom he read in their own Language wherein they are most perfect To these he added Plotinus Ficinus Simplicius Aphrodisaeus and Averrhoes And in these studies he could the better proceed without help because he had been well grounded in all the parts of Philosophy by his Master Murdison and indeed he made such a progress therein that he exceeded all his contemporaries so that in his Disputations he often gravelled the Moderators themselves For he was prompt and subtile in Invention clear in Explication and sharp in pressing home his Arguments The chiefest scope which he proposed to himself in the study of Philosophy was to further him in Divinity and therefore judging it necessary to have the advice and assistance of some able Divine with the good leave of Spranckhusius he removed to the table of Francis Gomarus hiring a chamber in the next house till he could get a lodging in Gomarus his house which fell out within some few moneths after At this time Francis Junius was made Professor of Divinity a Divine of profound Learning Grave and of a deep Judgment as also Luke Tralcatius the Father a solid Divine and Francis Gomarus a man of much Learning and servent Piety But Wallaeus preferred Iunius above all and therefore endevoured to follow his example Yet taking Gomarus his counsel he did not begin his study of Divinity by reading Common places least being led with other mens opinions and thereby prepossessed with prejudice he should be led aside from the Truth But he first read the several forms of Concord of the reformed Churches the Catechism of Heidleberg and the Belgick Confession of Faith and so wholly betook himself to the reading of the sacred Scriptures which he read with great attention and assiduity getting the chiefest heads of Doctrine by heart So that when he was old he could repeat without Book the Epistle to the Romans the second to the Corinthians to the Galathians Ephesians and Philippians But he read them all in the Originals so that in his Sermons he was very ready in the words of Scripture Yet finding that by reading the Scripture alone he could hardly comprehend in his minde the whole Body of Doctrine being now well versed in the Scriptures he betook himself to the Theological Institutions of Bucanus that so he might at once see into the whole compendium of Divinity yet did he not stay long upon a Compendium but proceeded to the study of Calvins Institutions and Peter Martyrs Common places yet was he best pleased with Martyr because he handled the whole Doctrine plainly discoursed largely of Controversies and answered them solidly Whilst he was thus busied Luke Tralcatius first and after him Francis Gomarus began privately to read Common places whom he resolved to hear because in private they handled all thing more familiarly and largely then in publick yet especially he attended the publick Lectures because they were more accurate and learned and if after the Lectures he doubted of any thing he repaired to them in private for further satisfaction When he had profited well in the study of Common places he proceeded to the reading of Commentaries upon the Sacred Scriptures and first be read over Piscators Analysis whereby he might get the whole context of each part of Scripture into his minde then for the sense of the Scripture he read Calvin whom he used to call A Divine Interpreter To whom in his reading of the New Testament he adjoyned Beza and in reading of the Old Testament Mercer and Arias Montanus whereby he might attain to the knowledge of the Governments and Rites amongst the Iews without the knowledge whereof it is impossible to attain to the sense of many texts of Scripture Wallaeus having now read much and heard long began to prepare himself for action and disputed publickly three times De vera Theologia De Mysterio Trinitatis Et de Christi mediatoris Officio By which Disputations he procured to himself much admiration For being excellently versed in Philosophy he answered to the terms appositly
Church of Hague and the Prince of Orange with the consent of the Magistrates to fetch him from Middleborough for a time to be a Pastor of the Church at Hague As soon as he was come thither he began in his Sermons to set down the state of the controversie to weigh the Arguments of both sides to answer those of the Remonstrants and to vindicate those of the Contra-Remonstrants and so fully to instruct the people in these controversies Then did Vtenbogard give over his talk of disputing who well knew the Learning of Wallaeus But his followers who did not know Waellaeus so well sometimes set upon him And first of all La Haâ—e a Preacher of the Remonstrants as soon as the Sermon was ended before the Auditory was dissolved began to contend with him about the Perseverance of Saints But VVallaeus dealt so modestly with him equally considering his arguments solidly and clearly answering them and urging others with such acuteness and judgement that the man having nothing to answer shrunk away with shame The Remonstrants thinking to repair this disgrace challenged VVallaeus to a new Disputation wherein an Eloquent and nimble Lawyer was appointed to assist La Haye But this Disputation was to be in a private house where should be present only two Elders for witnesses VVallaeus refused it not And when they were met the Lawyer began very contentiously to propound the point of Predestination VVallaeus answered mildly but solidly whereby he tamed the fierceness of his adversary But when some hundreds of both parts pressed into the house to hear the Remonstrants fearing the like event of this Disputation as was of the former would proceed no further saying that such a conference should not be where so many were present VVallaeus not content with this often invited Vtenbogard to a conference especially by the Lady Alice Coligni the Widdow of VVilliam Prince of Orangâ— because Vtenbogard had by her formerly challenged Rosaeus to a publick dispute but Vtenbogard always by excuses evaded it By which means the Doctrine of the Contra-Remonstrants began to flourish again at the Hague The cause of the Contra-Remonstrants was especially defended by John Becius of Dort Henry Vander Leyden of Delph Festâ—us Hommius of Leiden Peter Plantius and James Triglandius of Amsterdam learned and wise men who were much esteemed by the people These men formerly in all weighty matters used still to consult with VVallaeus and now they were wholly guided by him The Magistrates of Amsterdam who were the chief of those that defended the Contra-Remonstrants continually by their Deputies consulted with VVallaeus and when they had any business of weight they earnestly importuned him to be present both in their Presbytery and City-Council to assist with his advice And the Prince of Orange of whom it was wittily said that when he sate on Horseback he had all his Counsellors with him yet had VVallaeus for his intimate Counsellor in all things which either concerned Religion or this Controversie So that no day passed wherein he did not require his counsel and sometime spent whole nights in deliberating with him that he might conclude upon such matters as he was to dispatch the next day For indeed he much esteemed VVallaeus because though he was very prudent yet would he never dissemble and all his counsels were free from craft For this candor he was respected by the Remonstrants themselves for they knew which ways his counsels tended that though he would have the Contra-Remonstrants setled yet he would not have the Remonstrants destroyed perswading himself that if the contentions were once composed and men could with a more calm minde weigh things indifferently many of them would return to the Truth He also maintained familiarity with Grotius and others of the Remonstrants as formerly he had done and would have taken them off from Barnevelt but that as they used to say a greater humane power hindred them By these means VVallaeus was a chief instrument of bringing the whole controversie to the decision of a National Synod and took care that due preparation should be made for the same which when he had effected he left the Hague Indeed the Prince of Orange endeavoured to hinder his departure and chose him for his Court-Preacher but VVallaeus wholly disliked that course of life as prejudicial to his studies and dangerous seeing he must either flatter or hazard the loss of great mens favour and incur their frowns Anno Christi 1618. he returned to Middleborough where he found the great love of the people to him whilst many came to meet him His Colleagues and the Magistrates visited him with many expressions of their great love The Controversies between the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants was not now confined within the bounds of Holland but it spread into Vtrich Overisle Gelderland yea as far as Sedan where Daniel Tilenus an Eloquent man but no deep Scholar by degrees began to vent the Remonstrants Doctrines and drew in Aurâ—tus a Minister and a better man then himself though not so learned But Ramboursius the Cout-Preacher discovered him so that by the Duke of Bovillian he was forced to leave his Professors place and depart For the supply of which place and to build up what Tilenus had pulled down VVallaeus was again called to Sedan and all means were used to prevail for his remove The messenger was Francis Arsenius a man famous for such employments and VVallaeus his old friend then whom that Age had not a man of more Learning Judgement and Experience The conditions were very large and indeed better then the other Professors did obtain The Dukes invitation was serious frequent and friendly yet could not VVallaeus get away from his wife and friends and for those large conditions which were profered him the Middleburgians would have doubled his stipend rather then part with him Besides it seemed grievous to him who was now forty five years old to change his Country and Customs and leaving his old and intimate friends to go to strangers wherefore returning humble and hearty thanks to the Duke he told him that he thought he should never leave Middleborough In the mean time the States of the United Provinces observing that the factions in Holland tended to the dissolution of the League and to the indangering the ruine of all the Provinces seriously thought of a way of cure and by the advice of Reiner Pavias a Consul of Amsterdam a man of great Authority and by the instigation of Grave Moris they Decreed and called a National Synod and withall required the Prince of Orange to disband those Souldiers which the Magistrate of Vtriâ—h had raised and to put the Magistrate out of his Office and to substitute another in his room To these things Barnevelt openly opposed himself by the Nobility and twelve Cities of Holland and with all his endeavour sought to impede the Synod
Prince Maurice requesting the same of him Yet did VVallaeus desire that he might have time to consider of it telling them that he would seek unto God by Prayer and advise with his friends with the Church and Magistrate In the mean time the Delegates earnestly sollicited the Presbyterie and Magistrates to give their consents which at last with much ado they obtained because he was to go to Leiden where he might take care of theirs as well as of the Holland Youths His friends stuck somewhat at it because he had as good a stipend at Middleborough as he was to have at Leiâ—en and though at Leiden he might bring up his sons at the University yet being so far from his friends he could not place them forth as well to honest Callings as at Middleborough â—o satisfie these therefore he had also a Pastors place in Leiden profered him Wallaeus thought that he might not resist this call because he was not so much to form one Church by it as to prepare Pastors for many nor so much to govern one Church as to assist with his counsels all the Belgick Churches September the tenth he preached his farewel Sermon which filled his people with sighs and tears so that it seemed rather that children were to part with their Father then people with their Pastor During his abode at Middleborough he much wanted his health being troubled with Rheumes Collick Feavers and other Diseases Sometimes also having an intermitting Pulse the cause whereof was partly hereditary from his Mother and partly by reason of studying so soon after meals scarce affording any rest to his minde or food for the refreshing of his body yet a healthful and diligent wife much cheered him up He had seven children five daughters and two sons whereof two dyed very young the other he took much pleasure and delight in September the nineteenth he removed with all his family to Leiden where he was entertained honorâ—bly with a Publicâ— Feast by the Magistrate with much congratulation by thâ— University and very heartily by his old friends At Leâ—den he was presently graced with the Degree of a Doctor without any Examination which is used at other times October the 21. being to begin his Professorship he made an Oratios about the right regulating the study of Divinity which was received by a great Auditory with the great applause of all yet it presently displeased himself because he observed that many things are excellently conceived which cannot be brought into practise Presently after came Anthony Thysius and not long after him Andrew Rivet out of France to adorn the Profession of Divinity who as they were all men of great note so by their excellent parts they made that Faculty far more famous Each of them had his several gifts wherein he excelled Thysius in Memory and Wallaeus and Rivet in Judgement and Polyander in dexterity of performance In actions Thysius was fervent Wallaeus full of vigor Rivet was somewhat slower and Polyander very calm c. The first care of these men was to prevent all discord in matters of Divinity wherefore they testified their mutual agreement by subscribing the Catechism of Heidleberg and the Belgick Confession of Faith They resolved that none of them would pass his judgement about any Controversie in Divinity about the Government of the Church and in cases of Conscience apart but by mutual consulting each with other That no Theses should be publickly disputed of till all had seen and approved them That no book should be printed till all had examined and consented thereto The like care they took to train up young Students to the same unanimity in Religion for which end they agreed upon one rule and method by which all their studies should be directed And because these Controversies with the Remonstrants had occasioned the fuller clearing of many points in Divinity and had taught them to speak more cautiously in many things Therefore in their Publick Disputations they went over the whole Body of Divinity out of which they published their Book which they called Synopsis purioris Theologâ—â— Having thus setled the affairs of the University in good order they began to consider what enemies they had abroad against whom the Truth was to be defended And they found that they must answer John Arnoldi Corvinus who had written a great Volume against Peter Du Moulin They must answer the Remonstrants also who in a Book called Acta Synodalia Remonstrantium had inserted such things as might confirm their own opinions and invalidate the opinions of the Contra-Remonstrants And this task they all agreed Wallaeus should undertake who afterwards published an answer to both those Books whereby he gat very great credit not only amongst his own but amongst the French English and Scots and for a long time silenced the Remonstrants In the mean time these worthy men neglected not to make their Professors places very famous The Old Testament was expounded by Rivet and Thysius the New by Polyander But Wallaeus was imployed in reading Common places which was accounted the more grateful and more worthy imployment In these Common places he did not cull out here and there one head but went over the whole Body of Divinity handling each head fully but principally insisting upon those Controversies or difficulties wherewith the Church was most molested Yet stood he not upon answering all Arguments of the Adversaries but chose out those which had most weight in them by answering whereof the other fell of themselves But he was most copious and acurate in the Modern Controversies as De Deo against Vorstius De Sabbatho De Praedestinatione of the Authority of Magistrates in Ecclesiastical affairs and such like concluding all not so much by the strength of Humane Reason as by the clear Word of God whereupon the greatest confluence of Auditors attended upon Wallaeus And one of his Colleagues thinking that he had so many Auditors because he read Common places he also fell upon the same subject but when he saw that he labored in vain he gave it over again But seeing it was not enough for them thus to instruct their Auditors in the knowledge of Divinity except also they prepared the Candidates for the Ministry enabling them rightly to defend the Truth and to enervate the Adversaries Arguments This therefore they effected by Disputations wherein all were very diligent but especially Wallaeus and Pâ—lyander Wallaeus would not suffer those things to be propounded for Disputation wherein the Reformed might freely differ amongst themselves He would not suffer the Opponents to object vain things which were unprofitable He would not suffer them to oppose immodestly to the scandal of the hearers But he would have the Defendant clearly repeat the Opponents Argument and then not only to give a bare answer but to demonstrate the solidity of it Truly Wallaeus in his Lectures deserved great
of London and Doctor Hackwell Tutor to the Prince of Wales yea and King James himself conferred familiarly with him February following An. Christi 1613. the Prince Elector being marryed sent Henry Alting with his Scholars before him into the Palatinate who in their journey travelled through Zeland Flanders Brabant Limburg Julâ—ers and Collen and so at last arrived at Heidleberg in April the new marryed couple being not long behinde them About four moneths after our Alting was called to be a Professor of Divinity to read Common places in the University of Heidleberg Into which he was admitted August the 16. which was the Princes birth day And because by the Statutes of the University none could be Moderator of the Disputations but a Doctor he was solemnly inaugurated into that degree November the 18. by Paraeus Dean of the University and Bartholomew Coppenius Doctor of Divinity And this was very remarkable that amongst all the tumults and pleasures of the Court his minde was never taken off from the study of Divinity But Gods Providence intended him to some further imployment then a Professors place For there was in Heidleberg an excellent Seminary of the Church endowed with large revenues called the Colledge of Wisdom The Prince therefore chose him Master thereof October the 15. An. Chri. 1616. together with two Colleagues to instruct and train up young Divines for the work of the Ministry and how much good he did therein they are able to relate who gratefully acknowledge what profit they reaped by his care and culture Whilst he was thus laboring in his double imployment Coppenius another Professor dyed whose place was divolved upon our Alting but by a rare and great example of modesty he chose rather to continue in his former imployments and by his favour and authority in the Princes Court prevailed that Abraham Scultetus should have that Professors place transferred upon him About this time a National Synod was called at Dort for the composing of the differences in the Belgick Churches by reason of the Arminians and when grave learned and godly men were chosen out of all the Reformed Churches to be present at it which was Anno Christi 1618 and 1619 our Altingius with two others was sent from Heidleberg to assist in that work where he approved himself to all that were present both for his excellent Learning in Divinity and his dexterity in explicating cases of greater difficulty Thus far we have heard the happier and more comfortable part of his life now follows the more sad and afflicted part of it For scarcely was the Synod ended wherein the Arminians were condemned and the Orthodox Truths established but Alting with his Colleagues returned to Heidleberg and at the same time the tumults in Bohemia began The Prince Elector is chosen King of Bohemia and Crowned Spinola breaks into the Palatinate the great battel was fought nere Prague the Bohemians are beaten which was An. Chri. 1620. And the year following the University of Heidleberg was dissipated the Students flying for fear and the Professors having liberty granted them to go whether they pleased Yet our Alting sending his family into a place of safety stays still in the Colledge of Wisdom keeping the Students in good order remaining unterrified in the midst of emminent dangers whilst he was serviceable to the Church satisfied his own Conscience and the earnest desire of the King who from the Hâ—gue had written to him desiring him not to depart from Heidleberg An 〈…〉 in the moneth of â—â—â—gust Heidleberg was besieged by 〈◊〉 and â—eptember the 6. was taken by storm at which time it suffered whatsoever Military licentâ—ousness could inflict by plunderings murthers and ravishing of Matrons and Virgins all being heightened by the hatred of Religion and the brutishness of the Croâ—â—s At this time our Alting was in his study who hearing of the surprize of the City bolted his door and betook himself to Prayer looking every moment when the bloudy Souldiers would break in to sacrifice him to God But the great Arbiter of life and death took care for his safety For Monsieur Behusius Rector of the School and his dear friend hiring two souldiers called him forth and conveyed him through a back dore into the Lord Chancellors house which Tilly had commanded to be preserved from plundering by reason of the Publick Monuments of the Commonwealth that were kept in that place This house was commanded to be guarded by a Lieutenant Colonel that was under the Count of Hohenzollem a man greedy of prey who least he should lose his share in the booty by his attendance upon that place sent forth his Souldiers as it were a hunting commanding them that if they met with any Citizens of note that under pretence of safe-guarding them they should bring them to him purposing by their ransom to enrich himself To this man Alting was brought who with his naked sword reeking with blood said to him This day with this hand I have slain ten men to whom Doctor Alting shall be added as the eleventh if I knew where to finde him But who art thou Truly such a countenance and such a speech in such a juncture of time might have affrighted the most constant minde But our Alting by a witty answer neither denying himself to be Alting nor unseasonably discovering himself answered as sometimes Athanasius in the like case I was saith he a Schoolmaster in the Colleâ—ge of Wisdom Hereupon the Leiutenant Colonel promised him safety who if he had known him to be Alting would surely have slain him Oh what a sad time had he that night which he passed without sleep hearing the continual shrikes and groans which filled the ayr of Women ravished Virgins defloured men some drawn to torments others immediately slain But when he saw that many fled to this house as to their only refuge fearing lest he should be discovered by some of them either through imprudence or malice he retired into a Cockloft where whilst he hid himself this Leiutenant Colonel was by the authority of Tilly presently commanded away not giving him so much time as to seek out his Schoolmaster that the house might be resigned to the Iesuites for whom it was appointed Yet under these new inhabitants our Alting should not have been one jot safer if God had not by a special providence provided for his safety For the kitchin of this house was reserved for Tillies own use and one of the Palatines Cooks was appointed over it who closely fed and maintained him and whilst the Iesuites were providing all things in a readiness in the Church for the Mass he hired three Bavarian Souldiers that kept guards in the streets to guard him to his own house When he came thither he found all things broken plundred and carryed away and in his study he found a Captain boasting that all things therein were his own yet saith
was most gratefully and heartily welcomed by them and so soon as he came thither it was observed that there ensued a great alteration both in his stile conceptions phrases and manner of life so that he lived amongst the Hollanders as if he had been born amongst them In his Oration which he made at his Inauguration he shewed himself a learned pious prudent and peaceable Divine In his Disputations he was earnest quick and altogether insuperable as one that knew all the lurking holes of Sâ—phâ—â—iers and withall knew how to overthrow them in their own Artifices He was so acute that at the first word he understood the meaning of his Antagonists and many times did so happily enucleate it that expressing it better then themselves could he taught them thereby and when any difficulty arose he could easily by the light of reason discuss and make it clear But when he handled the cause of God and was to assert his truth and honor against the impudence of adversaries you might have seen him go beyond himself rising up with a great spirit and unusual zeal to dispel the objections of his adversaries Many times also in Disputations least they should be jejune and frigid he would furnish the Oppâ—nent with Arguments and arm him against himself least an hour should pass without profit to the Hearers His care was not only to learn the first grounds of some of the Arts but he rested not till he had gained the exact knowledge of all the Arts and had dived into the profundity of Philosophy For it s the sign of an ignoble and slothful minde to retain and conclude it self with in narrow bounds yet rested he not in the knowledge of humane Arts but only made them Handmaids and Servants to Divinity For that indeed he prized above all other studies and therein he spent most of his time endeavouring throughly to understand the Sacred Scriptures and to vindicate the same from all the false glosses put upon them by Hereticks He if ever any man was studious of the Truth to the defence whereof he consecrated all his studies and indeed was then in his Paradice when he had attained to the knowledge of obscure Truths or had brought light to difficult Texts or had â—reed them from the wrestings or cavils of Hereticks He was truly a Scribe taught to the Kingdom of Heaven who out of his treasury brought forth things new and old And although his minde was estranged from contentions yet was he so great a lover of Truth that no bonds of friendship or acquaintance nor fear could divert him from the defence thereof he alwayes preferred the cause of God before all other relations and respects And though he often professed that his chiefest desire was to grapple with the open Adversaries of the Church yet withall he declared that he could not be silent towards those Brethren who through ignorance or infirmity sought to undermine the Truth for many times a little spark neglected at first proves a dangerous fire When men have once undertaken the Patronage of an opinion they begin to cling close unto it and the Error of it being not timely discovered to them begins to please them and at last shame of detracting what they have published makes them incorrigible A great wit sound judgement and strong memory seldom meet in one man by reason of the different tempers whence they proceed but they did all so concur in our Spanheim that it was hard to say in which he most excelled He was somewhat cholerick by nature yet so suppressed the same that he brake not forth at any time into sinful anger He was a man so addicted to his study and the Schools that its a wonder how he could understand any thing else But God had made him a man both for contemplation and action as may appear by the use which Noble men and women made of him for advice in civil affairs When he wrote of Politicks you would have thought that he had studyed nothing else in the whole course of his life Before he grew old he was an old man for wisdom and intentness upon businesses His whole life was an Idaea of wisdom whereby as occasion required he could accommodate himself to affairs of all sorts He was a wary estimator of humane affairs In his friendships he observed this rule that though he did not admit all promiscuously yet did he admit not a few into his familiarity He was very ready to do good to and to deserve well of all and whereas many had daily occasion to make use of him he rather numbred then weighed the good turns he did them He had almost so many friends as acquaintance especially of those that excelled in Learning In England Vsher Selden Prideaux Morton and Twisse who a little before death would trust no body but our Spanheim with sundry writings which he had prepared for the press In France besides many Noble men who were in great places of dignity he had Molinaeus Troâ—chinus William Rivet Garissolius Beaumontius Mestrezatius Drelincourtius Bouteroviusâ— Muratus Blondellus Ferrius Petitus Croius Vincentius Bochartus almost all of them famous for their writings Iâ— Germany he had Zuingerus Vlricus Buxtorsius Crocius with some others yea out of Sweden the Queen her self the mâ—racle of her sexe did lately salute him very kindely by her Bishop and by her Letters signified how much she esteemed him and how much she was delighted with his Works In Transylvania Bisterfield a very learned man kept constant correspondence with him by frequent Letters But we must not forget Andrew Rivet who was inferior to none of the Divines that then lived with whom he had a most strict bond of friendship so that they seemed to have but one soul in two bodies they willed and nilled the same thing their opinions and judgements never differing But as he was always an acute observer of wit and learning so he never desired more intimacy with any then with such as by an unusual kinde of Learning excelled all others whereupon seeing Salmatius as the bright Sun obscuring all other Stars acknowledging the immensity of his Learning and the magnitude of his Heroick motions he often professed that he delighted in nothing more then in his friendship and Salmatius also willingly imbraced the same insomuch as when Spanheim lay sick hearing that he desired to speak with him though at that time he lay sick of the Gout Salmatius hasted to him where with many tears and sighs they imbraced each other conferring of such things as became Christians and such great men to speak of to their mutual satisfaction He lived also most friendly with his other Colleagues weighing prudently what each of them deserved But amongst all observing Bernard Schot to excel for his skill in the Law and dexterity in dispatching businesses as also for his obsequious minde towards him he made choice of him especially to impart his secrets to
and to rest most upon his advice He always as he ought much esteemed the singular good will of the Prince of Orange towards him as also of the Queen of Bohemia and other of the States to whom deservedly he was most dear as they testified by their extraordinary grief at his death He always upon every occasion professed how much he was beholding to the Curators and Magistrates of Leiden for their singular good will towards him whereby they often anticipated and exceeded his modesty in conferring favors upon him The most excellent Princess of Orange also after his death sent to his widdow and eldest son professing that the loss of him was no less a grief to her then if she had lost another husband or dear son so highly did she esteem of him Neither may any man wonder whence it came to pass that he had so many friends if withall he do but consider the multitude of Letters that he sent and received so that his study seemed to be a Compendium of all Europe But behold the mutability of all Earthly things The truth is his labors were so many and great that if his body had been of Oak or Iron he could not have held out long so that we may truly say that the imployment of his soul destroyed its own habitation which was worn out and dissolved with too much exercise For besides the publick labors which he underwent in the Church and University his private and domestical cares his conferences with his friends his frequent intercourse of Letters his various writings and giving counsel to others took up every moment in his life And though he was often admonished by his friends to favour himself and moderate his pains yet would he by no means be perswaded to it Hence it was observed that his strength began sensibly to decay and he was troubled with great obstructions so that himself began to complain of them yet would he not diminish his daily task And thus he continued all the Winter afflicted with weakness and pains at sundry seasons His last Sermon he Preached at Easter upon those memorable words of Saint Paul Phil. 3. 21. Who shall change our vile body that it may be like his glorious body c. Also after his last Lecture returning home he complained of the decay of his strength which was so great that with much difficulty he went on to the end of his Lecture as many of his Auditors observed From thenceforth his health decayed and his strength declined more and more and which was an ill sign his weakness was greater then his disease yet notwithstanding he was delegated in the midst of April by the Church to a Synod of the French Churches which met at Harlem whither he went though the labor was too great for his weak body And at his return he sensibly discerned that he was much worse so that though no signs of death appeared outwardly yet was his weakness such that being taken off his Legs he was confined to his bed Hereupon he foresaw the approach of death and wholly gave up himself to God whom he continually invoked by ardent prayers and sighs which had been his constant practice in the whole course of his life But yet April the 28. he thought himself better and that there were some hopes of his recovery whereupon in the afternoon he sate up at his study window where he had not continued long before he was seized upon by a violent Feaver with a great trembling and shaking of his whole body which at length ended in a burning so that he lay all night as if he had been in the midst of a fire whereupon seeing his end to approach in the presence of his Family he poured forth most ardent Prayers to God Profesting that he knew Christ to be his Redeemer in whom he believed and with whom he knew that he should shortly be and that he desired nothing so much as his happy dissolution his soul still breathing after Christ Only this by earnest prayers he begged of God that he would give him strength to undergo whatsoever he should please to lay upon him and that he would not suffer him to be tempted beyond what he was able to bear that he might have a quiet and comfortable departure out of this miserable and sinful world Presently the famous Physitian Dr. Stratenus was sent for from the Hague who was his special friend to whom was adjoined Dr. Wallaeus who performed all the Offices of good Physitians and did what Art could do But their business was not so much with the disease as with death which refused all remedies The Citizens of Leiden mourned exceedingly for his sickness the Queen of Bohemia and the Princess of Orange shewed most tender affections towards him His wife and family foreseeing their calamity in his loss were dissolved into tears But Heidanus coming to visit him he declared to him the inward peace of his soul his hope of future glory and his faith in Christ together with his earnest desire of leaving this miserable World He also freely forgave all that had wronged him desiring the like from others if he had any way justly offended them Professing that whatsoever he had done he did it out of his love to Truth and his care over the Church The night before his death Dr. Triglandius was sent for to him whom he always loved and honoured as his dear friend and Colleague who being come prayed with him and the next day Dr. Massisius Pastor of the French Church did tho like And thus he spent all that week in Prayers and holy Exercises On Wednesday night he caused his son to read to him the 8. cha of Ezekiel and part of the Epistle to the Romans after which he spake to his eldest son Frederick exhorting him to the study of Divinity requiring him not to be withdrawn from it by any means whatsoever he thought that he could never speak enough of the tender love care and diligence of his wife shewed towards him A little before his death recollecting his spirits in the presence of Samuel Riverius Pastor of Delph with a clear and fervent voice he prayed with such ardency of affections as caused all to wonder In his Prayers he gave immortal thanks to God for all his blessings bestowed so plentifully upon him in the whole course of his life and for that he had blessed him so much amongst strangers acknowledging himself to be lesse then all those blessings and that he had nothing to return to his Majesty for them but his grateful heart Above other things he especially blessed him for bringing him forth in a Reformed and Orthodox Church and for that he had not suffered him to be infected with the Popish Religion whose Doctrine he professed to be erroneous and contrary to the Gospel of Christ and the way of perdition He prayed heartily to God to continue these
His conference with a Fryar The Fryars rage against him His constancy His comfort before death An excellent speech He puts his finger into the candle His faith An excellent speech His charity His martyrdom His patience His death His birth and education His zeal His remove into Glocestershire Blindeness of Papists Mr. Tindals wisdom The fruits of it Popish malice and ignorance He is accused He prayeth for strength He is railed at Popish blasphemy Mr. Tindals zeal He departs from Master Welch Gods providence He goes into Germany His zeal The Bible translated first into English His conference with Luther His excellent works The benefit come by them His prudence Satans malice against the truth His great afflictions Mr. Coverdal assists him A widows charity Popish lyes The Bible prohibited to be read Popish malice He is betraâ—â—d A Judas Cast into prison Means used for his release His martyrdom A jalor converted Gods judgment on a persecutor A Conjuâ—er prevented by Mr. Tindals presence His sincerity His works His birth and education His preferments His conversion A disputation Another disputation The questions A refâ—rmation His death His birth His education His studiousness His remove to Basil. And thâ—n to Ingolstade He is ill dealtxs with He turns souldier He is freed by â—â—cius He is made a Professor in Ingolstade Erasmus testimony of him He goes to Auspurg He joins with Zuinglius Anabaptists disturb the peace of the Church He disputes with a she-Anabaptist He is driven away by Papists His return His marriage His constancy His comfortable conference with Luther The Dukes love unfeigned to him He is made superintendent His sickness His death He desired a sudden death His works His birth His education He settles at Wittenberg A disputation He reforms Wittenberg His remove to Orlamund Luthers infirmities He is bannished by Luthers means His great afflictions He writes to Luther His return into Saxony His death His birth His education He studyes Physick And Divinity Love unfeigned He is chosen Pastor at Basil He is chosen to Ments He favours the Gospel His advice to Luther He goes to Strasborough He is sent to by the Queen of Navar. He affects peace A disputation at Bern. His death His character His birth His education His study of Divinity He is made Pastor at Zurick He translates the Bible His death The confession of his faith His works His birth and education His preferments Luther directs him in his studies His imployments His tentations Luthers counsel therein His death His works His birth His education He enters into a Monastery His bodily exercises His diligence in reading Indulgences brought into Germany Popish blasphemies Myconius well educated Popish covetousness The means of his Conversion The Gospels swift progress Love unfeigned He endeavors 〈◊〉 quiet the Anabaptists His marriagâ— His zeal in preaching He is sent into England King Henry the Eight his hypocrisie His return into Germany An heroical resolution Reformation in Misna and Thuringia Luthers prayer for Myconius A prophetical prayer His recovery Power of Prayer His character His death His works His birth His education His Conversion He goes to Geneva From thence to Strasborough So to Ratisbone He is tempted His conference with Malvenda Popish treachery He is tempted Devillish hypocrisie He is advised not to go with his brother He is basely murthered The murtherers apprehended Escape unpunished Gods judgement upon Alphonsus His birth His fathers plety His education He studies Hebrew He is called back to Wittenberg His delight in simples He assists in translating the Bible His learning His works The preachers pattern He studyes the Mathematicks His last sickness Prayer of Faith His carriage in sickness A wonder His death His character His works His birth and education He is ordained a Minister and Paster in Strasborough His conversion Articles against him His constancy Reformation in Strasborough His assistants His death His character His works His birth and education His works His birth His education He teaches School He studies the Tongues His poverty His diligence He is made Pastor at Isna He is an excellent Hebrician He sets up a Press His carriage in a Plague-time His remove to Strasborough His remove to Heidleberg Religion goes to ruine His constancy The Bible translated His death Popish malice His character His works His birth His education He is made Preacher at Heidleberg His Conversion His zeal Popish malice An. Chr. 1521. He goes with Luther to Worms His troubles He goes to Strasborough Reformation in Strasborough A disputation at Marpurg He disputes with the Papists A blessed peace-maker He reforms Vlm. His Apology at Zurick His imployments Hermannus sends for him The Interim made Bucer disowns it A persecution about the Interim He is sent for into England His imployment there His sickness His indefatâ—gableness His sickness His faith His death Popish malice The Cardinals testimony of him His works His birth and education His conversion He goes to Strasborough Reformation at Strasborough His marriage He is sent for to 〈◊〉 His danger and return His diligence His death His works His birth and education He is made a Schoolmaster Removes to Zurick From thence to Lucern His conversion Goes back to Zurick Thence to Basil He is made a Deacon And a Pastor He adheres to Luther His death His works His Birth His Education His first preferment He professeth the reformed religion He reforms his Country He is ordained His holy life His industry His prudence to improve his parts Synods His works His Constancy His Birth A miracle of mercy His Conversion His call to Wittenburg His employmentâ— in the Schoolâ—â— He reforms some Churches He is called to Hale His death His Character His Tâ—â—tation His works His birth and education He goes to Antwerp His conversion His mariage He goes to Wittenberg His returm to England His zeale and courage His courage and constancy His usage before the Councell His condemnation His speech upon iâ— Gardners cruelty He is warned to preâ—are for death He is degraded â—is constancy His Patience and Martyrdom 〈…〉 A speciall providence His prophesies His cheerfulnes charity His birth and Education He is bound an Apprentice He is released His return to Cambridg Frequent in prayer He commenceth Master of Arts. He is Ordained Minister The success of his Ministry He maâ—ieth a wife His remove to Liâ—hfield Then into Lecestershire Then to London Queen Maâ—ies coming in His zeal He is taken prisoner His faithfulnes Preacher's pattern A faithful Pastor His courage constancy Popish malice Bonner ignâ—â—ance His courage His conference with Gardiner Holy charity Comfort in affliction The best Legacy His zeal A good conscience better then life A brave speech His Martyrdâ—â—e Popish cruelty His admirable patience His Letter to his Wife Doctor Pendleton a turn-coat Proud presumption 〈◊〉 His Education His conversion He leaves the University His conference with Gardiner Flight in persecution He flies into Germany His marriage He returns to England Bullingers
last sicknes His speech to the Lord of Morton A Prophecy His speech to the Ministers and Elders Death desired His Message to the Laird of Crang A Prophesy His preparation for death His sayings His tentations His faith His death His care for Church-Discipline Murrays speech His works His character His courage His Parentage His pain His poverty He goes to Paris His industry His diligence His imployments He is envied He is forbidden Philosophy He is called to another Colledge He is preferred in the University He is sought for by other Princes Is â—ade Dean of the University Flight in persecution He goes to the camp of Conde He travels into Germany His returne to Paris Popish cruelty He is murthered And basely abused His Works His birth and education He is made Chaplain to the Queen And to two Kings And Master of Bennet Colledge â—is sufferings in Queen Maries time He is made Archbishop of Canterbury The Bishops that consecrateâ— him His Charity His 〈◊〉 His Birth and Parentage Gods speciall providence over him His education He is sent to Embric His disposition He goes to Collen He commendeth Batchelor of Arts. He studies the Schoolmen And Fathers And Luther His conversion â—e commenâ—eth Mr. of Arts His paines in reading Lectures He studies the Tongues Reformation in the Monastery Power of the Word Anabaptists Tithes defended He confutes the Anabaptists His endeavours for peace He is banished He comes to Zurick He is chosen Pastor Preachers pattern Synods preserve peace He writes a Confession of Faith He confuâ—es Hereticks A Colledge erected A School erected Schwenfield's Error Confuted by Bullinger A Plague Luthers violence Melancthon grieved for it Bullinger answereth Luther His defence of the Tigurines Why the Helvetians refused to assist the Protestants Mr. Hooper lives with him The Interim Bullingers curtesie Ingratitude Calvin concurs with the Helvetian Divines Hee withdraws them from being mercenaries He encourageth the Reformation in England He writes against the Council of Trent He disclaimes Bolsecus His holy zeal He favours the English exilâ—s His zeal Blandrata's Heresies The infection of heresie Brentius contest with Bullinger Helvetiansagaine summoned to Trent Ochines errors and heresies And death A plague Bullingers sicknesse Power of prayer Manisold afflictions A confession of Faith Persecution in France His Charity His pains A dearth Fasting and Prayers The Massacre in France 1573. A new Statre His sicknesse 1574 He patience Death desired His Faith Why he desired death He taketh his farewel of the Ministers And of the Magistrates His death His Character His birth and education His humility His sicknesse His â—â—eech in his 〈◊〉 An excellenâ— speech Comfort at death His Death His Birth and Parentage His education He goes to Venice He goes to Venice His Poverty His Tentation His Marriage The Interim opposed by him He goes to Magdeburg And from thence to Jeans And to Ratisbone And to Suasborough His Death His Works His birth and education He goes to Basil. And Strasborough He is maâ—e Profeâ—â—or in Zuâ—â—â— He is made 〈◊〉 He is dear to Peter Martyr His Industry His excellent memory His manner of reading His excellent parts His diseases His death His Character His Birth and education His conversion His frequents remoâ—es Bible translated His death His birth and education His Conversion Christ best of all He goes to Basil. He comes to Wittenburg He goes to Strasborough His returnâ— into France He is made the Q. of Navars Chaplain Popish malice Gods providence His return to Strasborough His troubles He goes to Heidleberg His patience He is driven from thence He is called to Lausanna His sudden death His Works His Birth and education His preferment in Cambridge Flight in persecution He is made Bish. of Lond. Arch bishop of York Arch-bishop of Canterbury His death His Charity His birth and Parentage His education He goes to Oxford His great proficiency Power of Prayer His conversion He preaches before the K. His piety Tender conscience He goes beyond sea His return into England His faithfulnes He is accused His great learning Made Parson of Houghton His charity to souls His journies into the North. His charity His enemies Flight in persecution refused Gods providence His conâ—inued charity His humility He refuseâ—h presermâ—â—t His hospitality His esteem in the North. Note A barbarous custom He converts theeves A Rebellion in the North. His house is plundered Inpratitude H. B. oughton Ingratitude The Bishop suspends him Requires him to preach on a sudden His modest answer He preaches boldly His zeal His pions resolution Gods mercy The Bishop askeâ—h him forgivenâ—e Preparâ—tion so death His death His Character His birth and parentage He goes to Wittenberg A plague His return to Wittenberg His travels He is sent for into his own country His enemies Melancthon encourages him He is dismissed His Resolution He goes to Zurick He goes to Heidleberg He commencerh Doctor His imployment there A plague His adversaries He defends the truth The Palatines great love to him His marriage He writes a Confession of Faith A change in the Palatinate He is sent for by P. Cassimite His imployment His sicknesse His industry Incessant labors His death His Character His Works His birth and education He goes to Wittenberg His travels He goes to Grunberg He made excellent scholars His marriage He is chosen Pastor of Sprottavia Preachers pattern His Contentation His humility His excellent virtues He is an enemy to contentions He is a great historiâ—n His sicknesse His death His great care to prepare for death His last Sermon His Works His birth and Parentage His industry He goes to Witâ—enberg He is much beloved He is made Pastor in Brunople His zeal against he eticks His death His commendation His Works His Birâ—h His proficiency He is Pastor in Zurick His diligence His Death His Birâ—h and Education He is chosen Pastor in Zurick His death His Works His birth and education He studies Law He is made Doctor A heavy judgement A vow Gods mercy Hestudies Divinity He goes to Zurick His return to Trevir He is called to teach a School His faithfulnes Sathans malice He preaches in an hospitall The peoples zeal The Arch-bishops malice The prisoners release He goes to Heidleberg His marriage He is chosen Pastor He is called to Berleburg And to Herborn His sicknesse Preparatâ—on for death A sweat dream Ioy unspeakable His death His Works His birth and education He goes to Wittenberg His diligence He goes to Noâ—enberg His return to Witâ—enberg He is called to Mansfield He is ordained Minister He answers a Papist His great pains He delights in a Garden His remove to Madgeburg Conversion of Priests The Authors of the Madgeburgenses His remove to Jenes His return to Magdeburg His remove to Wismare His commenceth Doctor Peoples love to their Pastor He is called into Borussia His sicknesse Preparatâ—on for death His death His Character His Works His Birth His Education He is choseâ— Fellow He studies the Church history He is
parentage His birth His education A persecution in Flanders He goes to school His proficiency He goes to Leiden The method of his studies The Authors which he read He studies Divinity He learns the Scriptures by heart He studies the body of Divinity He studies Commentaries His publick Disputations His first sermon His travels into France He goes to Geneva He studies the Art of Memory The mountain of Jura above the clouds He goes up the mountain Their descent A special providence His further travels He goes to Basil. His exercises at Basil. His travels in Germany His travels in the Low-countries His return to Leiden He studies the Fathers He is called to the Ministry Refuseth it He returns home His deportment His industry His Ordination He is called to another charge Refuseth it He is chosen to Koukerk He is imployed in the Army His return He is chosen to Middleborough His marriage His parents dye A good child His first son He is envyed He wins his adversaries His faithfulness in his Ministry His charity A Popish lye He confutes his adversaries Note He confutes a Jesuite He confutes a Blasphemer His contests with the Remonstrants Their rise in the Low-countries Arminius his education He is chosen professor in Leiden Arminius his policy Barnevelt his patron Did not our late Parliament do so Hereticks subtilty Waellaeus labors to regain him Arminius dies through fear and grief His faction continues A Synod desired Preachers pattern Whence called Remonstrants King James opposeth Vorstius The Ministers oppressed Gomarus leaves Leiden An Illustrious School begun at Middleborough Wallaeus his Lectures Gomarus his ingratitude Wallaeus his modesty Hâ— is called to 〈◊〉 Returns â—o 〈◊〉 He answereth Bagaâ—d Bogards brag Wallaeus endeavors peace Remonstrants persecute the Orthodox Bagards subtilty Rosaeus opposeth him The people stand for the tâ—uth Prince Morice sides with the Ortâ—odox They get a Church in the Hague Wallaeus sent for to the Hague His Disputations It s broken off The truth prevailes His prudence made much use of His integrity His candor His return to Middleborough Heresie like a Gangrene He is sent for to Sedan He refuses to go thither Division dangerous A Synod called The Remonstrants imprisoned The Synod begins How the affairs of it were carryed on Wallaeus highly esteemed The Remonstrants condemned Wallaeus is sâ—nt to prepare them for death He comes to Barnevelt Barnevelt beheaded Wallaeus returns to Middleborough New Professors at Leiden Wallaeus sent for He inclines to go Peoples love to their Pastor His diseâ—ses His children He comes to 〈◊〉 He is made a Doctor His Oraâ—ion The other Professors come Thâ—ir several excellencies Their Prudence Their care to train up youth Their adversaries to be answered Wallaeus his part His imployment in the University His great Audâ—tory His care of Candidates His great pains He is a great Peace-maker His self denial Honors follow him His caâ—â— in giving testimonials He is much â—â—ught to for advice The Acts of the Synod of Port. The Remonstrants Acts. Wallaeus answers them The Remonstrants divâ—ded An attempt for peace Another attempt The 〈◊〉 Confession of Faith He publishes his Ethicks He reforms the Schooles And the schoâ—ars in Zâ—land A 〈…〉 Wallaeus promotes it Contention about the Sabbath Wallaeus puts an end to it The translation of the Bible The Bible begun The Synod carries it on The translators The supervisors The translation finished A special providence The Bible printed It s excellency Wallaeus his further Imployments His strength decayes His character His humillty His modesty His zeal His friends His meekness His love to his wife and children His children well disposed of He is troubled with the Stone His sickness His last Sermon He sâ—â—les peace in a Synod His prudent advice His farewel to his family His death His works His industry and fidelity His birth and parentage His education He goes to Groning His proficiency He goes to Herborn He is made Tutor to three Noble men He goes to Sedan Returns to Heidleberg Is made Tutor to Prince Frederick Returns to Sedan Returns to Heidleberg Goes for England Escapes danger His friends in England His return to Heidleberg Is made a Professor And Doctor in Divinity And Master of the Colledge of Wisdom His modesty The Synod of Dort He is sent thither His return to Heidleberg He stays in dangers Heidleberg taken by storm He prepares for death Yâ—t is preserved His prudence A special providence His house plundered He gets a safe conduct The Lutherans spleen He goes to Embden A special providence He goes to Leiden He goes to Groning His works His care of the University His imployments His care to provide for Exiles Charity His fidelity His Call to Leiden And into the Palatinate His care of the University His marriage His character His zeal He studâ—es the Churches peace His prudence His family government His sickness His wife dies Death foreseen His disease encreasâ—th A good Pastor His faith His death His works His birth His parentage His education His sickness His vow A great plague He goes to Heidleberg His industry His proficiency His disputations He is made Master of Arts. Goes to Geneva His disputations He goes to Ebrodune He disputes with Papists He goes to Paris He is dear to Camero He comes to England His return to Paris He is called to Geneva A special Providence He is chosen Professor His marriage A good Wife Family Government His children His Ordination He is made Professor of Divinity He is desired in several places Leyden obtains him He Commences Doctor He comes to Leyden His great Learning His study of the Scriptures His love to the truth The danger of Schism His excellent parts His prudence in civil affairs His prudence in chusing friends His many friends His high esteem of Salmatius His great friends His great correspondence His great labours His sickness His last Sermon and Lecture He goes to a Synod His preparation for death His ardent Prayer His Faith and Hope His commends his Wife What he gives thanks for His death His works
their large possessions whereupon she with her husband resolved to bequeath all their Revenues to the maintenance of Poor Christians Yet at last God was pleased to answer her requests giving her a son which she named Theodoret The gift of God He proved of great acuteness and in a short time profited so in Piety and in Letters that he was made a Bishop whilest he was yet a young man and shortly after he set forth that excellent work which he called The History of the Lovers of God He was a great opposer of Hereticks and wrote much against them and reduced many round about him that were Marcionites even to the hazard of his life He was wondrous charitable visiting and refreshing the bowels of the poor He was a careful imitator of Chrysostom whom he always proposed as a worthy pattern for his stile in his writings and by this means he proved very fluent and eloquent which his learned Works do plainly declare His Commentaries upon the Scriptures are very excellent wherein he resolved many of the hardest questions in the Old Testament He shewed much learning in his Divine Treatise Of Gods Providence He very strongly opened and confuted the fond conceits of abundance of Hereticks as of Simon Magus Menander Basilides Carpocrates c. A Synod being appointed at Ephesus to stop the Heresie of Nestorius and Cyril coming first thither not knowing that the Bishops of Syria were coming also he of himself condemned Nestorius which afterward caused much contention especially between Theodoret and Cyril But Theodosius junior calling them together to Constantinople by his eare and wisdom healed this breach and Theodoret and Cyril were wondrous loving each to other ever after In that famous Council of Chalcedon wherein were above six hundred Bishops he was stiled by their unanimous consent Catholicus Orthodoxus Ecclesiae Pastor Doctor sincerus A Catholick and Orthodox Pastor of the Church and a sincere Teacher of the Truth Gennadius testifieth of his writings that they were strengthened with impregnable and undeniable Arguments by which with Reasons and Testimonies of Scripture he proves and confirms that Christ was truly incarnate of the Virgin Mary Bellarmine stiles him Viram plane doctissimum An absolute learned man He wrote an Ecclesiastical History which is of great use to the Church He dyed in the reign of Theodosius junior being not very old but rather spent with labors and studies then with age He used to say That the delights of the Soul are to know her Maker to consider his Works and to know her own Estate His Works were printed in two Tomes at Collen Anno Christi 1617. Which besides his Ecclesiastical History contain Expositions upon many portions both of the Old and New Testament JEROM The Life of Hierom who dyed Anno Christi 422. HIerom was born in a Town called Stridon in the confines of Dalmatia and Pannonia Anno Christi 331. His Fathers name was Eusebius a pious and godly man who before his Country was overrun and sacked by the barbarous Goths who about this time laid all waste before them was a man of a middle and competent estate and very careful of the education of this his Son His Mother also was a religious Woman and therefore from his infancy he was trained up like another Timothy in the knowledge of Christ and of the sacred Scriptures and as he grew in years so did he also in learning and when he was a boy he was by his Parents sent to Rome at that time the most famous place both for Piety and Religion in the West where he was brought up in the study of the Liberal Sciences For they seemed to foresee that they had begotten a son for the good of the World and therefore in his Education they did not indulge their private affections but sought to promote the publick good He quickly by reason of his ingenuity became very expert both in the Greek and Latine Tongues then he became a very good Grammarian and Rhetorician having an excellent wit and being of an indefatigable disposition And it was his hap to have excellent Schoolmasters Donatus for the Grammer and Victorinus for Rhetorick who were at that time famous men in Rome Afterwards being grown riper in years he fell to the study of Philosophy of all sorts as Aristotles Platos the Stoicks c. Yet he spent not too much time herein but proceeded to the study of History Cosmography and Antiquities because he perceived that even to that time amongst the Latines Theology was but an Infant whereupon many ahhorred reading of Divinity books and therefore he thought that if a man could attain to set forth the Dignity of Theology with excellency of speech it would come more into request besides he thought by this means to stop the mouths of the Ethnicks who reproached Christians as barren and barbarous persons He had for his fellow Students Pammachius of Noble Parentage a man of such I earning and Integrity that he was solicited to be Bishop of Rome Bonosus who also proved very famous Heliodorus whose vertue advanced him to a Bishoprick Having now sufficiently profited in the knowledge of Humane Arts he proceeded to more grave and weighty studies and after the example of other worthy men for the further polishing of his minde with Wisdom and Experience he travelled all over France procuring the acquaintance of and familiarity with the most worthy men of that Country Bonosus also was his companion in these travels He was very diligent in searching the Libraries in every place where he came and at Trevir he wrote out with his own hand a great Volume of Hilary de Synodis and having much profited himself not only in Learning but Religion also after a long time he returned to visit his Countries both where he was born and where he was new born 〈◊〉 Then did he begin to consider what course of 〈…〉 take himself to and in what place to fix his habitation 〈◊〉 that it would much conduce to his comfort if he 〈…〉 such a course with judgement as was most sutable to his 〈◊〉 He seriously considered that Rome was as yet over spread with Paganism and that it was not safe for a young man to be in a place of so much pleasure which himself sometimes called Babylon He also considered that his own Country was cerrupted with barbarous pleasures as himself somewhere notes in one of his Epistles Whereupon he consulted with some of his intimate friends resolving to depart to some place where he might with more privacy follow the study of Divinity and wholly dedicate himself to Christ. It was also a great trouble to his minde to consider how Christians and Pagans were intermixed together whence it necessarily came to pass that many who professed Christ were Christians rather in name then in truth He considered further that in marriage besides other incumbrances he should