Ludwig Crocius (also Ludovicus Crocius; 29 March 1586 – 7 December 1653 or 1655) was a German
Calvinist
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
minister. He was a delegate at the
Synod of Dort and professor of theology and philosophy in
Bremen.
Background and career
Ludwig Crocius was born in
Laasphe, the son of Paul Crocius (1551–1607). He was at one time tutor to the sons of the counts of
Nassau-Dillenburg
The County of Nassau was a German state within the Holy Roman Empire and later part of the German Confederation. Its ruling dynasty, the male line of which is now extinct, was the House of Nassau.
Origins
Nassau, originally a county, developed ...
and
Wittgenstein-Berleburg. From 1583, he was minister and Superintendent in Laasphe. Crocius was the author of a book of Protestant martyrology ''Groß Matyrbuch und Kirchenhistorien'' (1606).
Johann Crocius was his younger brother.
[ :de:ADB:Crocius, Ludwig] His grandfather Matthias Crocius (1479–1557) had been a minister in
Zwickau
Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ...
, and was close to
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
and
Philipp Melanchthon.
Crocius studied at
Herborn Academy The Herborn Academy ( la, Academia Nassauensis) was a Calvinist institution of higher learning in Herborn from 1584 to 1817. The Academy was a centre of encyclopaedic Ramism and the birthplace of both covenant theology and pansophism. Its faculty ...
, and then from 1603 studied theology at the
University of Marburg
The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...
where he graduated M.A. in 1604. On 5 September 1607 his father died, vacating his position as preacher and inspector of the county of
Katzenelnbogen in
Langenschwalbach
Bad Schwalbach (called Langenschwalbach until 1927) is the district seat of Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Geographic location
Bad Schwalbach is a spa town some 20 km northwest of Wiesbaden. It lies at 289 to 465&nbs ...
—Crocius succeeded him, but in 1608 he asked for leave from
Moritz of Hesse-Kassel for further study.
Crocius went to the universities in Bremen, Marburg and Basel. On 4 April 1609, he graduated D.D. in Basel, and travelled on to Geneva, in order to study there further. From Geneva, he returned to Bremen and the St. Martini church as first preacher and teacher of philosophy and theology professor at the Gymnasium Illustre, from 1610.
He turned down later offers of positions made by
John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg
John Sigismund (german: Johann Sigismund; 8 November 1572 – 23 December 1619) was a Prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from the House of Hohenzollern. He became the Duke of Prussia through his marriage to Duchess Anna, the eld ...
(1615) and the Landgrave Moritz of Hesse-Kassel (1618), and also a chance to become General superintendent for
Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
. From 1630 to 1639, and from 1647 to his death, he was a prorector at the High School Illustre. He corresponded with
Samuel Hartlib
Samuel Hartlib or Hartlieb (c. 1600 – 10 March 1662)
M. Greengrass, "Hartlib, Samuel (c. 1600–1662)", ''Oxford D ...
and
John Dury
John Dury (1596 in Edinburgh – 1680 in Kassel) was a Scottish Calvinist minister and an intellectual of the English Civil War period. He made efforts to re-unite the Calvinist and Lutheran wings of Protestantism, hoping to succeed when he moved ...
, and with
Gerardus Vossius
Gerrit Janszoon Vos (March or April 1577, Heidelberg – 19 March 1649, Amsterdam), often known by his Latin name Gerardus Vossius, was a Dutch classical scholar and theologian.
Life
He was the son of Johannes (Jan) Vos, a Protestant from the Ne ...
.
In 1651 Crocius suffered an attack of
apoplexy
Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...
, but he remained until 14 May 1652 at his post of preacher in the Liebfrauenkirche church. He taught at the Gymnasium Illustre up to his death, which occurred in Bremen.
Synod of Dort
Crocius travelled to the 1618 Synod of Dort with
Mathias Martinius and
Heinrich Isselburg. The senate of Bremen required of its three delegates that they would represent a mild theological line going back to
Philipp Melanchthon, as defined in the ''Consensus Bremensis'' of 1595 and corresponds to the local practices; Bremen for prudential reasons had signed up to the
Augsburg Confession.
Crocius and Martinius were in the small group of Dort delegates who rejected
limited atonement. Crocius made a public criticism of
Johannes Bogermann who chaired the Synod, for his harshness towards the
Remonstrants; and gave other clear signs of sympathy with Arminian views. The Bremen representatives, nevertheless, subscribed to the
Canons of Dort
The Canons of Dort, or Canons of Dordrecht, formally titled The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands, is the judgment of the National Synod held in the Dutch city of Dordrecht in 1618†...
. In practical terms they implied no restrictions or obligations for the church in Bremen, given that the conclusions of the Synod were given no confessional standing there. This was not without consequences, for Bremen's reputation among Calvinists.
Controversy
He was attacked by the Lutheran
Balthasar Mentzer in his ''Anti-Crocius'' of (1621).
After the Synod of Dort the arguments over
predestination
Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby G ...
resonated in Bremen. The preacher of the St. Ansgarii Church,
Philipp Caesar, was an advocate of the strict doctrine. Caesar preached along these lines to the local council. In 1624 he resigned his post and left Bremen, but both the St. Ansgari and St. Stephani churches strove to gain Caesar as preachers; but the appointment was rejected by the senate. Heinrich Isselburg, the preacher of the Liebfrauenkirche church, died on 29 March 1628 and it seemed that Caesar could take the vacant position. To prevent that Ludwig Crocius was appointed to the place.
Caesar then in 1628 was able to preach in the St. Martini, since this position had become free; now by the appointment. In 1630, however, Caesar again left the city, and finally converted to Catholicism. The situation in Breman resolved with Crocius, Conrad Bergius (1592-1642) at St. Ansgarii, and Balthasar Willius (1606-1656), preacher at the Liebfrauenkirche as representatives of the moderate teachings of Melanchthon, and on the other hand the High School rector
Johann Combach, Henricus Flockenius at St. Remberti, and Petrus Carpenter at St. Stephani as representatives of the strict doctrine.
The debates at Dort still cast a long shadow, and in 1640, when Crocius was attacked as an
Arminian by
Hendrik Alting who had also participated,
John Davenant
John Davenant (20 May 1572, in London – 20 April 1641, in Salisbury) was an English academic and bishop of Salisbury from 1621. He also served as one of the English delegates to the Synod of Dort.
Life
He was educated at Queens' College, Ca ...
and
Joseph Hall intervened in the controversy to defend him.
Works
Crocius was classed with the
eirenicist writers of his time. He had a reputation as tolerant and moderate, and was on friendly terms with Calixtus at
Helmstedt. His ''Antisocinismus Contractus'' (1639) attacked
Socinian
Socinianism () is a nontrinitarian belief system deemed heretical by the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions. Named after the Italian theologians Lelio Sozzini (Latin: Laelius Socinus) and Fausto Sozzini (Latin: Faustus Socinus), uncle ...
s on the centenary of the death of
Fausto Sozzini
Fausto Paolo Sozzini, also known as Faustus Socinus ( pl, Faust Socyn; 5 December 1539 – 4 March 1604), was an Italian theologian and, alongside his uncle Lelio Sozzini, founder of the Non-trinitarian Christian belief system known as Socinian ...
. The work may have been intended for pedagogical use with students.
He translated
Basilius
''Basileus'' ( el, ) is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs in history. In the English-speaking world it is perhaps most widely understood to mean "monarch", referring to either a "king" or an "emperor" and a ...
, and in 1617 published an edition of
Ficino
Marsilio Ficino (; Latin name: ; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver o ...
's ''De Religione Christiana''.
[Théo Verbeek, ''Johannes Clauberg (1622-1665): and Cartesian philosophy in the seventeenth century'' (1999), p. 182]
Google Books
He was a prolific writer, with an estimated 71 publications. ''Syntagma sacrae Theologiae'' (1636) was a major work. Others were:
*''Vier Tractaten van de Verstandicheit der Heyligen principelyk ghestelt teghens het boek P. Bertii van den Afval der Heyligen door Lud. Crocium'' (1615);
*''Homo Calvinianus impie descriptus a Dr. Matth. Hoe Austriaco'' (1620), polemical;
*''Examen falsae descriptionis Calvinistarum Hoeji IV disputatt. defensis'' (1621);
*''Assertio Augustanae confessionis contra Mentzerum IV disputatt.'' (1621);
* Numerous shorter works against
Robert Bellarmine
Robert Bellarmine, SJ ( it, Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino; 4 October 1542 – 17 September 1621) was an Italian Jesuit and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was canonized a saint in 1930 and named Doctor of the Church, one of only 37. ...
and the
Jesuits.
[
He wrote on the '' De Germania'' of ]Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...
(1618) as a school work, and also the ''Idea viri boni hoc est octo et quadringenta Sixti sive Xisti sententiae quae vitae honestae et religiosae epitomen complectuntur'' (1618).[
]
Notes
External links
WorldCat page
CERL page
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crocius, Ludwig
1586 births
1653 deaths
17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians
German Calvinist and Reformed theologians
Participants in the Synod of Dort
Philosophy academics
University of Marburg alumni
17th-century German Protestant theologians
German male non-fiction writers
17th-century German writers
17th-century German male writers