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Thursday, May 03, 2018

Bayle on Johannes Sturmius, Note E.

Note E from Bayle's Dictionary Entry on Johannes Sturmius [Link]:


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.”]


 The quarrel wherein Zanchius was concerned, had such an issue, that Sturmius did not find himself obliged to retire. But he happened to have much less credit and good fortune, when there arose some difference between him and Pappus, Doctor of Divinity, and Minister of Strasburgh. He published[6], several Anti-Pappus's, and many books were published against him. You will find many things in relating to this in Mr Baillet's Anti. At last Pappus, being supported by authority, obtained the victory, and had Sturmius deprived of the rectorship of the university, and the Calvinists turned out of their places. Idem[7] . . . . adversus Pappum Argentinensem Theologum, turbonem verius, a quo quod loco illo the moti sint Nostri, initio facto a venerando sene Johanne Sturmio, coepit, probavit Michael Beutherus, in Declaratione Agendae Ecclesiae Argentinensis[8].

[“- - - - 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].

[‘- - - - Till the year 1583, when it pleased GOD to discharge him as one that had served his time . . . . Now I fancy that Sturmius was very well contented with this discharge, &c.']



[1] It is among those of Zanchius in the second book, pag. 223, & seq.
[2] Innius me limacem esse qui annos jam multos latuerim, nunc demum cornua exeramEpist. Zanchii, lib. ii, pag. 225.
[3] Ibid. pag. 28.
[4] In Bayle’s Dictionary article ZANCHIUS (Jerome).
[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.]
[6] At Neustad, in the Palatinate in the year 1579, and the year 1580, in 4to.
[7] Viz. that the Formulary of Concord had been often altered by the Lutherans.
[8] Hoornbeeck, Summa Controvers. pag. m. 505.
[9] Strenuum se praestitit in beilo spirituali pro Ecclesia puriere militem atque Athletam invictum. Andr. Carolus, ubi supra, ad ann. 1610, pag. 226.
[10] Micraelius, ubi supra, pag. 785.
[11] Jo. Jacobus Grynaeus, Epist. IX, lib. I, pag. 151.
[12] Ibid. pag. 153.




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