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[German Version] (Feb 18, 1559, Geneva – Jul 12, 1614, London). After study at the Geneva Academy, this son of a Huguenot pastor became professor of Greek there in 1583. He taught in Montpellier (1596–1599) but was called to Paris in 1600 by Henry IV. As royal commissioner he took part in the disputation between P. Duplessis-Mornay and Cardinal Duperron, in which he spoke for the latter, earning him the mistrust of his fellow believers. In 1610 he answered a call…

[German Version] (du Buc, Guillaume; born Rouen, died Lausanne, 1603). After 23 years as a pastor and superintendent in Yverdon, Bucanus was appointed professor of theology at Lausanne in 1591. He died before he could accept an appointment to the academy at Saumur. His importance for French Protestantism comes from his Institutiones, planned as a textbook, which expounds the teaching of Calvinistic orthodoxy. They were circulated posthumously through an English translation, expanded by the addition of a tract on The Practise of Papists against Protestant Princes; because of …

[German Version] (Maier, Meyer; Apr 25, 1502, Nuremberg – Nov 28, 1574, Wittenberg). After studying at Wittenberg, Major succeeded C. Cruciger as rector of the Johannisschule in Magdeburg. In 1537 he returned to Wittenberg as preacher at the Schlosskirche. Appointed to the Wittenberg consistory in 1542, in 1545 he took over the professorship of J. Jonas on the theological faculty, having received his Dr.theol. from Luther at the end of 1544. In 1546 he was one of the participants in the Colloquy o…

[German Version] 1. Peter (Tossanus; 1499, St. Laurent, Lorraine – Oct 5, 1573, Montbéliard), canon in Metz after 1515. His attempt to preach the Reformation in Metz was unsuccessful. In 1535 Tossanus was charged with continuing the Reformation of the Württemberg count of Montbéliard (Mömpelgard), begun by G. Farel. The introduction of the Württemberg church order of 1536 and then the order of 1559 created difficulties, since Tossanus and his colleagues favored the Swiss Reformation. Negotiations le…

[German Version] I. Early Church – II. Middle Ages – III. Reformation – IV. Modern Period – V. Present – VI. Practical Theology I. Early Church The church polity projected and in part realized in early Christianity is one of the most significant institutional inventions of Late Antiquity. Since it has survived into the present, with many modifications and variations, it also represents an element of continuity between the ancient world and the modern world. Church polity as used here means all the institutions affecting the external organization of early Ch…

[German Version] 1. Nicolas Perrenot de (1484/85, Ornans, France – Aug 27, 1550, Augsburg) was a Burgundian official in the service of the Habsburgs, initially at the court of Besançon. After receiving the Dr.iur., Granvelle became chief councilor of the Franche-Comté in 1518. Charles V named him chief minister in 1524. After the death of his protector, Mercurino Arborio di Gattarina, Granvelle succeeded him as minister for the northern regions ¶ of the Empire in 1530. The emperor's great confidence in Granvelle, despite many accusations of bribery, made him one of…

[German Version] (c. 1534, chateau Chabottes-en-Mâconnais – Feb 23, 1591, Geneva). Having already come into contact with Reformed thinking through his tutor in Paris, after law studies in Toulouse Chandieu went to Geneva, where he was won over for the Reformation by Calvin and Beza. From 1557 to 1562 he was pastor of the Protestant congregation in Paris and he took part in the first general synod in 1559, also participating in the preparation of the confession a…

[German Version] The establishment, rise, and heyday of the Saumur academy are closely associated with the name of P. Duplessis-Mornay. In March of 1593, the governor of Saumur received from King Henry IV a decree empowering him to found an academy; this and the Edict of Nantes in 1598 (Huguenots: I, 1) created the conditions for establishing a Calvinist training center in that city, which was one of the safe havens for Huguenots. The Academy comprised a collège, a faculty of arts, and a faculty of theology, with chairs in rhetoric, ancient languages, mathematics, philos…

[German Version] (1518, Vitteaux, France - Sep 30, 1581, Antwerp, Belgium), studied law in Poitiers and earned a doctorate in Padua. He was won over to the Reformation after reading Melanchthon's Loci communes, whereupon he went to Wittenberg in 1549 to meet the praeceptor. The latter's recommendation to the councilor of Electoral Saxony, Ulrich von Mordeisen, enabled him to enter the service of August I, Elector of Saxony (until 1577). Diplomatic missions led him, among other places, to Paris and to the imperial court in Vienna. He was …

[German Version] I. Church History – II. Music I. Church History 1. Europe The term Huguenot – whose etymology is unclear, although it probably traces back to the French eyguenot (cf. Ger. Eidgenossen) attested since 1520 – surfaces in relation to the Amboise conspiracy in 1560 and soon also found entry – in addition to the otherwise customary designation of French Protestants as adherents of the “supposedly reformed religion” ( religion prétendue réformée, R.P.R.) – into official texts. As early as the 1520s and 1530s, under the influence of the biblical humanism…

[German Version] (1599). The Staffort Book is witness to the change of confessional allegiance of Margrave Ernst Friedrich v. Baden-Durlach, one of the three sons of Margrave Charles II, on whose behalf the guardians Louis, elector palatine, Philip Louis, count palatine of Neuburg, and Duke Louis of Württemberg had signed the Formula of Concord after the margrave’s death. The book, printed at Schloß Staffort near Durlach, consisted – in its larger version – of a rejection of the Formula of Concord…

[German Version] The Camisards were Protestants in southern France who, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1686 (Huguenots), secretly formed armed bands in the Cévennes region, the “desert,” to fight for the freedom and rights of their suppressed church in the face of harsh persecution. The term “Camisard” probably derives from the camisia (“shirt”) worn over their clothing during night raids, which were therefore called camisades. The movement, which at times appeared fanatical, survived until 1711; especially when its followers were being pu…

[German Version] (Jun 17, 1657, Paris – Jun 6, 1719, Paris) received his Dr.Theol. from the Sorbonne in 1684 and became professor at the Collège Royal in Paris. His signature to the “Cas de conscience” in sympathy with Jansenism in 1703 cost him his chair and brought him expulsion to Châtellerault. He recanted (1704) and was thus able to return to Paris, but not to his chair. In …

[German Version] (Dec 18, 1610, Amiens – Oct 23, 1688, Paris). After a humanist education at the Jesuit college in Amiens and law studies at the University of Orléans, Du Cange became a parliamentary advocate in Paris in 1631, but soon returned to Amiens. ¶ There he purchased the office of trésorier in 1645, which allowed him to devote himself to his historical and philosophical studies. He continued these in Paris in 1668 after an outbreak of the plague in Amiens. As an aut…

[German Version] (May 30, 1599, Rouen – May 16, 1667, Caen) studied philosophy in Sedan and theology in Saumur as well as in Leiden, where he devoted himself to Arabic. From 1625 he was a pastor in Caen. His dispute with the Jesuit François Véron (Sep 22 – Oct 3, 1628) and the publication of the proceedings made him well known, and the release of his Geographia sacra even more so. An invitation to the court of Christina of Sweden in 1652 gave him the opportunity to evaluate the Arabic manuscripts of the royal library for his Hierozoicon. In 1661 he got into contr…

[English Version] 1.  Peter (Tossanus), (1499 St. Laurent, Lothringen – 5.10.1573 Montbéliard), seit 1515 Kanonikus in Metz. Versuche, dort ev. zu predigen, schlugen fehl. 1535 wurde T. mit der Fortführung der von G. Farel begonnenen Reformation der württembergischen Grafschaft Montbéliard (Mömpelgard) beauftragt. Die Einführung der württembergischen Kirchenordnung von 1536, desgleichen der von 1559, verursachte Schwierigkeiten, da T. und seine Kollegen der Schweizer Reformation zuneigten. Verhandlu…

[English Version] (Rivetus), Andre´ (Andreas; 22.6.1572 St. Maixent – 7.1.1651 Breda), wurde nach seinem Studium an der ref. Akademie in Orthez, u.a. bei L. Daneau, sowie in La Rochelle 1595 Kaplan des Duc de la Trémouille und Pfarrer in Thouars. 1620 folgte er einem Ruf an die Universität Leiden. 1632 wurde er durch Friedrich Heinrich von Oranien als Erzieher seines Sohnes, des späteren Königs Wilhelm II., verpflichtet. Seine damit verbundene Tätigkeit als Rat und Hofprediger endete mit der Überna…

[English Version] Port-Royal, südlich von Versailles bei Chevreuse gelegen, wurde 1204 als Zisterzienserinnenkloster (Zisterzienser/Zisterzienserinnen) gegründet. Unter der Leitung von J.-M. Arnauld (3.), 1602 Äbtissin (Me`re Ange´lique), begann 1608 eine auf innere Heiligung und ernste Frömmigkeit zielende Reform des Klosters, die bald auch ihre Mutter und fünf Schwestern zum Eintritt bewegte, darunter die spätere Me`re Agne`s (1636 Äbtissin). 1625 wurde das Kloster wegen des ungesunden Klimas na…

[English Version] Postel, Guillaume (25.3.1510 Dolerie bei Barenton, Normandie – 6.9.1581 Paris), studierte in Paris und erwarb vielfältige Sprachenkenntnis. Seine Teilnahme an einer franz. Delegation nach Konstantinopel (1535–1537) brachte ihn in Berührung mit dem Arab. Zurückgekehrt, publizierte er nicht nur eine »Grammatik des Arab.« (ca.1538), sondern mit »Linguarum duodecim characteribus« (1538) auch eine vergleichende Sprachstudie, in der seine späteren Ideen bereits angelegt waren: Ableitung…

[English Version] (hugenottische Akademie). Entstehung, Aufstieg und Blüte der Akademie von S. sind eng mit dem Namen Ph. Duplessis-Mornays verbunden. Im März 1593 erhielt der Gouverneur von S. von König Heinrich IV. den ihn zur Gründung ermächtigenden Bescheid, der zus. mit dem Edikt von Nantes (1598; Hugenotten: I.,1.) die Voraussetzungen für die Einrichtung einer calvinistischen Ausbildungsstätte in jener zu den hugenottischen Sicherheitsplätzen gehörenden Stadt schuf. Die Akademie bestand aus …

[English Version] Pufendorf, Samuel Frhr. v. (8.1.1632 Dorfchemnitz – 26.10.1694 Berlin). Nach dem Besuch der Fürstenschule in Grimma (1645–1650) studierte P. 1650–1658 in Leipzig und Jena, bevor er eine Stelle als Hauslehrer bei dem schwedischen Gesandten Peter Julius Coyet in Kopenhagen antrat. Sein während dänischer Gefangenschaft (1658) vf., 1660 publiziertes und Karl Ludwig von der Pfalz gewidmetes Werk »Elementorum Jurisprudentiae Universalis libri duo« trug P. 1661 eine Berufung nach Heidelber…

[English Version] (1599). Das S. ist Zeugnis des Konfessionswechsels des Markgrafen Ernst Friedrich von Baden-Durlach, eines der drei Söhne des Markgrafen Karl II., für die die Vormünder Kurfürst Ludwig von der Pfalz, Pfalzgraf Philipp Ludwig von Neuburg und Herzog Ludwig von Württemberg nach dessen Tod die Konkordienformel unterzeichnet hatten. Mit dem auf Schloß Staffort bei Durlach gedr. Buch, bestehend – in seiner weiteren Fassung – aus einer ablehnenden Stellungnahme zur Formula Concordiae un…