Hunnius, Giles

, a celebrated Lutheran divine, was born at Winende, a village in the duchy of Wirtemburg, in 1550. He was educated at the schools in that vicinity, and took his degree in arts at Tubingen, in 1567. He then applied himself earnestly to the study of theology, and was so remarkable for his progress in it, that in 1576he was made professor of divinity at Marpurg. About the same period he married. He was particularly zealous against the Calvinists, and not long after this time began to write against them, by which he gained so much reputation, that in 1592 he was sent for into Saxony to reform that electorate, was made divinity-professor at Wittemburg, and a member of the ecclesiastical consistory. In these offices he proved very vigilant in discovering those who had departed from the Lutheran communion; and, from the accounts of the severities practised against those who would not conform to that rule, it appears that nothing less than a strong persecution was carried on by him and his colleagues. In 1595 he was appointed pastor of the church at Wittemburg, and in the same year published his most celebrated polemical work, entitled “Calvin us Judaizans,” | in which he charges that reformer with all possible heresies. At the same time he carried on a controversy with Hnberus, about predestination and election. Against Calvin he wrote with the most intemperate acrimony. Hunnius was present at the conference at Ratisbon in 1601, between the Lutherans and Roman catholics. He died of an inflammation brought on by the stone, in April 1603. His works have been collected in five volumes; and contain, funeral orations, a catechism, prayers, colloquies, notes on some of the evangelists, &c. &c. His acrimony in writing went beyond his judgment. ¹