He was pressed hard . . . . . and was not the strongest;
for they turned him out of his place.] He was suspected of Calvinism
from the year 1561, as it appears from the letter he writ to Melchior Speccer,
on the 26th of October, of the same year[1]; for he informs
him of the reasons that moved him to expound St Chrysostom, and answers what
was said of him, that he was like a snail, which began to shew it's horns after
they had been hid for a long time[2]. He clearly discovered
his thoughts about the Eucharist, which occasioned the first persecution he was
exposed to[3]. He defended
Zanchius in the quarrel, of which I shall speak in another place[4], which made him
more odious still to the Lutherans; and he was so much displeased with their
proceedings, that he had a mind to leave Strasburgh and to go to Zurich. I find
this particular in a letter of Zanchius to Henry Bullinger. “Sed quid si
Sturmius quoque me sequatur, vel potius ego ipsum? Is enim constituit, se ad
vos conferre, & fieri posit, praedium aliquod sibi. apud vos comparare,
& ibi tamquam in quodam Tusculano, totum se S. literarum studio consecrare,
& contra adversarios suum stylum in hac senecta pro Christo exercere. Sed hoc
cupit interim celari, donec videat, quem exitum habitura fit causa. Siigitur,
ut ante dixi, aliter cadat causa nostra quam ipsa meretur: non solum ego sed
etiam Sturmius, libentissimè vobiscum vivemus. Si veró ita controversia nostra
componatur, ut nobis quoque liceat veritatem tueri: Sturmius quidem manebit,
ego veró faciam, quod tu ipse consultius gloriae Dei futurum judicaveris[5].”
[“But what if Sturmius should follow me, or rather I him? For
he is resolved to retire among you, and to purchase a small estate there, if possible,
where he may dedicate himself wholly to the study of the holy Scriptures, and
exercise his pen in his old age against his adversaries in behalf of CHRIST.
But he desires that this may be kept secret in the mean time, till he see what
issue the cause will have. If therefore, as I have already hinted, our cause should
be otherwise determined than justice requires, both Sturmius and I will chuse
to come and live with you. But if the difference should be so made up, as that
we likewise shall be allowed to defend
the truth; in that case Sturmius will remain where he is; and I for my part shall
do whatever you think most advisable for the glory of GOD.”]
[“- - - - Beutherur . . . . proved the same thing against Pappus,
a Strasburgh Divine, or rather a trubulent fellow, who violently displaced those
of our profession, beginning with that venerable, old man John Sturmius.”]
They are the words of a reformed Divine, who calls Pappus a
shuffling and factious man; but the Lutherans maintain that he was an excellent
servant of GOD, a very stout champion, and an invincible combatant in the spiritual
war for the pure Gospel[9]; and that Sturmius was deprived of his place
for no other reason but because he had raised some troubles. Joh. Pappus . . . . . insignis Argentinensum
Athleta adversus Joh. Sturmium, Rectorem Academia, Rhetorem Calvinianorum,
& ob turbas datas, tandem ab officio remotum.[10]. Perhaps
not to overwhelm the good old man, and to make the thing more tolerable to him,
the odious words of destitution and expulsion were omitted, and they gave him
to understand that they dispensed him from the rectorship of the university by
reason of his old age. I have read a reformed author, who makes use of this
turn, that Heaven declared him emeritus in the year 1583. ‘Usque ad annum Christi
1583 quo Deo placuit eundem rude donare[11]
. . . Existimo autem D. Sturmium nostrum, rude, quo divinitus donatus est,
contentum &c[12].
[2] Innius me
limacem esse qui annos jam multos latuerim, nunc demum cornua exeram. Epist. Zanchii, lib. ii, pag. 225.
[5] Epist. Zanchii, lib. ii, pag. 17. [Editor’s note: This letter, which
appears on pages 14-20 of Volume 2 of Hieronymi Zanchii Bergomatis
Epistolarvm, is not dated. All
references, however, and the placement in the volume, place the date of
composition no later than the 1563 Strasbourg Concord. The first of the Anti-Pappus pamphlets
that resulted in Sturmius’s censure and removal was written in 1579.]
[9]
Strenuum
se praestitit in beilo spirituali pro Ecclesia puriere militem atque Athletam invictum. Andr. Carolus,
ubi supra, ad ann. 1610, pag. 226.
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