Thomas Erastus and the Palatinate: A Renaissance Physician in the Second ReformationThis study is the first monograph to attempt a synthetic treatment of the career of Thomas Erastus (1524-1583). Erastus was a central player in the conversion of the Electoral Palatinate to Reformed Christianity in the early 1560s and a co-author of the Heidelberg Catechism. In the church discipline controversy of the 1560s and 1570s, Erastus opposed the Calvinist effort to institute a consistory of elders with independent authority over excommunication. Erastus s defeat in this controversy, and the ensuing Antitrinitarian affair, proved the watershed of his career. He turned to the refutation of Paracelsus and a debate with Johann Weyer on the punishment of witches. The epilogue tracks Erastus s later career and the reception of his works into the seventeenth century. |
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anti-disciplinist anti-Paracelsian Antitrinitarian April argued Basel UB Benrath Beza Beza’s Boquin Burchill Calvin Calvinismus und Territorialstaat Calvinist Camerarius Caspar Olevianus catechism’s Christ Christian church council church discipline consistory controversy Crato demonic disciplinists early elector Eras Erastian Erastus to Bullinger Erastus to Grynaeus Erastus to Gwalther Erastus’s etiam Eucharist excommunication Explicatio gravissimae quaestionis faculty Frederick Geneva Georg Ernst German Geschichte Gessner Gnesio-Lutheran Goeters Heidelberg Catechism Heinrich Heinrich Bullinger Heshusius Hollweg humanist Ibid Johann Johann Jakob Grynaeus Johann Weyer lamiis later letter likewise Lord’s Supper Luther Lutheran magic medicina nova Melanchthon mihi Musculus Neuser Olevianus Olevianus’s Oporinus Palatine church Paracelsian Paracelsus Paracelsus’s Pellikan philosophical physician Pietro Perna position praestigiis daemonum Printed Protestant quae quam quod Ramus Reformed refutation Reprinted role sacrament Sept StAZ suggested Swiss Sylvan theologians theological Thomas Erastus tion Wesel-Roth Weyer witchcraft witches Zacharias Ursinus Zanchi ZBZ Hot Zurich Zwingli Zwinglian