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In connexion with Cellarius , the ministers of Sarmatia and Transylvania speak of Alfonso Lingurius , of Tarragona in Spain , and say , " What has not Alfonso of Tarragona attempted , who , in his * Five Books on the One God , and his only Son , ' has some excellent observations directed against the tyranny and pride of those Aristarchuses who teach the commonly-received doctrine ?"
Wolfgang Fabricius Capito is also mentioned , by the ministers and elders of Transylvania , as the friend and fellow-labourer of Cellarius , in a book " On the Divinity of the Mediator , the man Christ Jesus . "— " Fabricius Capito , " say they , " a man who was remarkable alike for piety and erudition , after some preliminary observations on the superior mental endowments of his fellow-labourer Cellarius , and the excellent character of his book , ( On the Works of God , ) mentions certain religious topics on which
he had some private conversation with Cellarius , such as the knowledge of the one God , and of Christ , and the Holy Spirit . " To a portion of the above work of Cellarius , published in quarto at Weissenburg , A . D . 1568 , a preliminary epistle , written by Capito , was prefixed , in which he thus expresses himself as to the imperfect nature and limited extent of the Reformation in which he and his fellow-labourers were then engaged : " This book of Cellarius concerning the Works of God , however excellent , and 4
Bucer ' s Matthew , ' which cautiously teaches many things above the capacity of the vulgar , as well as our own ' Hosea , Malachi and Isaiah , ' in which , according to the best of our ability , we have treated upon matters relating to God and truth in a manner not altogether different from the style of Cellarius ; all these things of ours , I say , will decay and perish , with us their authors , like all other human things , in spite of ourselves . This we know , and write accordingly , but only for present use , till God
shall reveal greater things . " Capito was brought up to the study of physic , in which profession he graduated ; but after the death of his father , about the year 1504 , he began to devote his attention to law and theology . The latter of these he finally made choice of as his profession . He first became a preacher at Spire , from which place he was invited to Basil . The Archbishop of Mentz , having heard of his great merit , appointed him his chancellor in 1520 . This office he accepted , with the view of enlisting the
chief of the German clergy into the service of the Reformation , and bringing about the contemplated change without disturbance ; and as long as he entertained any hope of success in this laudable design , he prevailed with Luther not to exasperate the heads of the church by his vehemence , who might perhaps be gained over by gentler means . But when he saw that interest and ambition prevailed with the archbishop , he renounced the office to
which he had been appointed , and quitting the court , retired to Strasburg , where he exercised , during the remainder of his life , the humble functions of a pastor . He fell a victim to the plague in the year 1541 or 1542 . He is represented by contemporary writers as a learned and eloquent divine , and is said particularly to have excelled as a Hebrew scholar . His principal works were * ' Hebrew Institutions , in two Books , " " Commentaries on
some of the Prophets , " and " A Life of CEcolampadius , " besides which he published some remarks on the subject of Marriage , and on the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Affairs of Religion . Sandius assigns to him the first place in his Catalogue of Antitrinitarian Writers . In the year 1527 , Lewis Hetzer and John Denk , two of the earliest among the continental Unitarians , published a joint translation of the prophetic books of the Old Testament into German . Denk was a native of Nurem-
Untitled Article
232 Biographical Notices of Eminent Continental Unitarians .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 232, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/16/
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