OSWALD

See also:

• MYCONIUS, FRIEDRICH (1490-1546)
• OSWALD MYCONIUS (1488-1552)

MYCONIUS (1488-1552)  , Zwinglian divine, was born at Lucerne in 1488 . His family name was Geisshiisler; his father was a miller; hence he was also called MoLITORIS . The name Myconius seems to have been given him by Erasmus . From the school at Rottweil, on the Neckar, he went (1510) to the university of Basel, and became a good classic . From 1514 he obtained schoolmaster posts at Basel, where he married, and made the acquaintance of Erasmus and of Holbein, the painter . In 1516 he was called, as schoolmaster, to Zurich, where (1518) he attached himself to the reforming party of Zwingli . This led to his being transferred to Lucerne, and again (1523) reinstated at Zurich . On the death of Zwingli (1531) he migrated to Basel, and there held the office of town's preacher, and (till 1541) the chair of New Testament exegesis . His spirit was comprehensive; in confessional matters he was for a union of all Protestants; though a Zwinglian, his readiness to compromise with the advocates of consubstantiation gave him trouble with the Zwinglian stalwarts . He had, however, .a distinguished follower in Theodore Bibliander . He died on the 14th of October 1552 . Among his several tractates, the most important is De H .

Zwinglii vita et obitu (1536), translated into

English by Henry Bennet (1561) . See Melchior Adam, Vita theologorum (162o); M . Kirchhofer . 0 . Myconius (1813); K . R . Hagenbach, J . Oekolampad and O . Myconius (1859); F . M . Ledderhose, in Allgemeine deutsche Biog . (1886) ; B .

Riggenbach and Egli, in Hauck's Realencyklopadie (1903) . (A .