Martinius, Matthias

Martinius, Matthias a German Reformed theologian, was born in 1572, and became eminent as a scholar, preacher, and instructor. He was made courtpreacher in 1595, professor at Herborn in the following year, and placed in charge of the grammar-school connected with the academy at that place in 1597. He continued in that relation during ten years; and in 1610, after an interval spent in preaching at Emden, accepted a call from the Council of Bremen to become the rector of the famous gymnasium of their city, and to fill the chair of theology in its faculty. Under his direction this institution rose to great prosperity, and students, even from many foreign lands, thronged its halls. In 1618 he was delegated to the Synod of Dort, where he was noted for the moderation of his views. The course of that body never received his approval, although his name appears among its signers, and in later years he was often heard to exclaim, "O Dort, would to God I had never seen thee!" He died in 1630 of apoplexy, and was buried at Bremen. His chief work, the Lexicon philologico-etymologicum, is still used. His other writings, of which sixty-eight have been enumerated, are unimportant. The Lexicon was published at Bremen in folio in 1623, in a second edition at Frankfort in 1665, and at Utrecht in 1697. — Herzog, Real-Encyklopädie, 20:113 sq. (G. M.)