GRYNAEUS (or. GRYNER), JOHANN

See also:

• JAKOB, LUDWIG HEINRICH VON (1759—1827)

JAKOB (1540-1617)  , Swiss Protestant divine, was born on the 1st of October 1540 at Bern . His father, Thomas (1512–1564), was for a time professor of ancient languages at Basel and Bern, but afterwards became pastor of Roteln in Baden . He was nephew of the more eminent Simon Grynaeus (q.v.) . Johann was educated at Basel, and in 1559 received an appointment as curate to his father . In 1563 he proceeded to Tubingen for the purpose of completing his theological studies, and in 1565 he returned to Roteln as successor to his father . Here he felt compelled to abjure the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper, and to renounce the formula concordiae . Called in 1575 to the chair of Old Testament exegesis at Basel, he became involved in unpleasant controversy with Simon Sulzer and other champions of Lutheran orthodoxy; and in 1584 he was glad to accept an invitation to assist in the restoration of the university of Heidelberg . Returning to Basel in 1586, after Simon Sulzer's death, as antistes or superintendent of the church there and as professor of the New Testament, he exerted for upwards of twenty-five years a considerable influence upon both the church and the state affairs of that community, and acquired a wide reputation as a skilful theologian of the school of Ulrich Zwingli . Amongst other labours he helped to reorganize the gymnasium in 1588 . Five years before his death he became totally blind, but continued to preach and lecture till his death on the 13th of August 1617 . His many works include commentaries on various books of the Old and New Testament, Theologica theoremata et problemata (1588), and a collection of patristic literature entitled Monumenta S. patrum orthodoxographa (2 vols., fol., 1569) .