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THE

CHRISTIAN GUARDIAN,

AND

Church of England Magazine.

NOVEMBER 1, 1823.

MEMOIRS OF THE REFORMERS.

J. VADIANUS, M. D.

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Gallen, in Switzerland, on the 29th day of November, 1484. His father, Leonard, was of senatorial dignity, and esteemed by his fellow-citizens for his prudence and talents. His mother, Magdalen, was of the respectable family of Tallmann.

He received the first rudiments of education under a learned schoolmaster named Simon, who was a strict disciplinarian. While at home, he was accustomed to behold in his parents examples of religious profession, decorous habits, and domestic regularity. His fa

THE charge of infidelity has been too indiscriminately alleged against the medical profession. That some physicians should countenance materialism or infidelity will not excite much surprize, if reference is made to the boldness of speculation of which the human mind is capable, and the circumstances in which this class of society is usually placed. Many, however, of this profession have been eminently distinguished for piety as well as erudition; and so remarkably was this the case at the revival of let-ther, observing in him at that early ters, and the reform of religion, that the practitioners of the healing art occupy a considerable portion of the biographical labours of Melchior Adam; and are there described as indirect, and not unfrequently direct, promoters of that grand moral and religious improvement which has rendered the sixteenth century, next to the apostolic age, the most interesting period in the history of our species. Among these highly-gifted characters were many prototypes of the Boerhaaves, the Heberdens, and the Heys of more modern time; none of whom is more worthy of particular notice than the Helvetic Vadianus.

Joachim Von Watt, or as he is named by the ecclesiastical historians Vadianus, was born at St. NOV. 1823

period a promising aptitude to the acquisition of knowledge, with much ingenuousness of disposition, resolved to send him to Vienna, where he would have opportunities of improvement under characters patronized by the house of Austria, and yielding to few men of their day for attainment in mathematical, theological, and legal science. At this university, however, young Joachim, removed from the salutary guardianship of the parental eye, soon became intimate with some careless and dissolute students, whose society tended to efface those decent and virtuous impressions, which had been acquired in the hall of his fathers; and the Helvetian stranger, stout of limb as well as acute in intellect, became a powerful rival to the

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Austrian youth in the various gymnastic exercises.

Kobler, a citizen and merchant of St. Gallen, had settled at Vienna; and, as a man of grave character and known integrity, had been commissioned by Leonard Von Watt to discharge the expense which would be incurred in the education of his son, and to watch over his moral conduct. He observed with pain the peril to which the child of his friend was exposed; and happening one day to meet him in the street ready armed for some expected affray, The seriously admonished him on the course which he was pursuing, and on the disgrace and danger of mixing in academic broils, so contrary to the peaceful lessons inculcated at the sober hearth of St. Gallen; advising him to apply diligently to his studies, and endeavour to fulfil the high hope which had been formed of him by his affectionate parents. His sensibility was awakened by this appeal. He returned to his apartment, sat down to his books, prosecuted his task with ardour, and was wont to make a large copy of Virgil serve him for a pillow.

After a while he began to meditate expedients for lessening the burden of expense hitherto borne by his parents in his education, and went to Villach, in the duchy of Carinthia, where he instructed youth under the patronage of the magistracy. But he felt so strongly the contrast between this insignificant town and the seat of the muses which he had quitted, and desired so earnestly a further intercourse with wellcultivated minds, that he was constrained to return to Vienna. Here he became at length so distinguished for his genius, erudition, and reasoning, as well as for fluent and methodical eloquence, that he was unanimously chosen public Lecturer of liberal Arts in the University. Respected by his learned colleagues, he composed in this situ

ation several pieces both in prose and verse; and on the 12th of May, 1514, was honoured with the laurel by the Emperor Maximilian, at Linz, a town on the Danube; on which occasion he wrote some lines in praise of his patron and his imperial father, Frederick the Third. The versatility of his talents was discovered in the readiness with which he applied to different branches of science; while, on most public interviews between the University and great personages, he sustained the post of Orator. It is worthy of remark, that, although a foreigner, he was selected to address the Emperor and three Kings at the Congress of Vienna, on the 16th of July, 1515; when Lewis of Hungary and the Archduchess Mary, with Anne of Hungary and the Archduke Ferdinand, contracted that double marriage which was so important an event in the Austrian annals *. He also made an harangue before Sigismond, King of Poland, about the same time, in the name of the scholastic body, and obtained the dignity of Rector. To improve the geography of Pomponius Mela, the text-book of the day, he took several long journies. Afterwards he paid particular attention to law; and at length fixed on medicine as his profession, in which he was admitted Doctor on the 13th of November, 1518.

When he had completed his tenth year in the University of Vienna, he began to think that his native country had a prior claim to his services, and returned to St. Gallen. The Council hailed with pleasure the arrival of one who had shed such a lustre on their name, and granted him an annual stipend, which he accepted in preference to more considerable offers from other members of the Helvetic confederacy, fixing his resi

*Cuspiniani Diarium de Congr. Maxim. et trium Regum, Freyher, Script. Rer. Germ.

dence at St. Gallen, and uniting himself in marriage in the following year with Martha Grebel, a lady of Zurich *.

The theological discussions which prevailed at this period attracting his observation, and the necessity of a right understanding in religion affecting his mind, he joined a diligent study of the Holy Scriptures with the duties of his profession. He cultivated the acquaintance of the reforming divines, and sided with the evangelical pastors in opposition to the papistical theologians.

The former found the benefit of the assistance of so able a coadjutor. Not only did he introduce the writings of Luther into Switzerland, but promoted an Exposition of the Acts of the Apostles, that the clergy might be directed by scriptural information both as to tenets and ceremonies. He also assisted in laying the foundation of what he considered a purer ecclesiastical communion. He published about the same time an useful work, for which he was qualified by previous geographical studies, illustrative of such places as had been the scenes of apostolic labours.

But the aid which he had hitherto tendered to the cause of Reformation arose more immediately from his scientific character. He was now called to serve the same cause as a person of influence and authority. Advanced to senatotorial rank, his first care was to provide for the interests of true religion in the state, of which a share in the government had been allotted him by Providence; and it was chiefly through the eloquent and powerful addresses which he made to his countrymen, unfolding the grounds of dispute between the Romanists and the Reformers, and giving a lucid statement of the ar

p. 25.

Melch. Adam. Vita Germ. Medicor.

guments used by the latter, that the majority of the Council of St. Gallen were brought to correct views of Christian faith and practice; and an unanimous vote passed that body in favour of a change in their religious profession. Burgaver and Wetter, the pastor and curate of the church of St. Lawrence, after a perusal of the disputations of Luther on the subject of indulgences, and other works of antipapal character, preached the Gospel with much energy and affection, and were instruments of evangelic illumination to many of their fellow-citizens, se early as in the year 1520*; while Vadianus attended and frequently presided over religious conferences and church synods, held at St. Gallen, Constance, Frauenfeld, Stein, and other places, where the friends of the Reformation were assisted by the presence or advice of Zuinglius of Zurich, and Haller of Berne. In particular, he was associated with Sebastian Hoffmann and Christopher Schappeler, two men distinguished for their wisdom and erudition, in the superintendance of an important convention at Zurich, on the 26th of September, 1523, held on account of some acts of violence and tumult, in which the populace had thrown down and trampled on the crucifixes erected in the public ways. To this assembly the Bishops of Constance, Coire, and Basle had been invited; but they thought proper neither to attend themselves nor send their representatives. Zuinglius, Engelhart, and Leo Juda, bore here a manly testimony in behalf of the new doctrines, particularly on image-worship, and the sacrifice of the mass, for three days against any opponents who might choose to present themselves. The piety and impartiality of Vadianus on this occasion were generally acknowledged.

* Hist. de Reform. Sangall. Seultet. Dee. 1. p. 131.

The esteem entertained for the Senator of St. Gallen, by the great Reformer of Switzerland, is on record. He calls him " a very celebrated and most faithful physician both.of souls and bodies, and a chief ornament of his state of St. Gallen, of all Helvetia, and of the universal Christian church *." He is mentioned by Martin Bucer, and Henry Bullinger, in terms of similar respect. His economic and patriotic virtues were appreciated by the Government, in 1526; when by general consent he was exalted to the Consulship.

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He beheld with much concern the proceedings of the Anabaptists; fearing lest the Reformation, which was as yet a tender plant," and a lily among thorns," might suffer through the turbulence of the storms, which these infatuated religionists were raising in every direction. He thought, with Luther, that though some of this sect might be pious and well-meaning, yet that they were deluded by the more fanatical and seditious; and that by affording a handle to the enemies of the truth of maligning its sacred character, religion would be wounded in the house of her friends. When some of their preachers came to St. Gallen, and zealously endeavoured to propagate their tenets, he was averse from using violence against them, and preferred the more spiritual opposition of Scriptural argument and quotation, without compromising the safety of the Republic. He used to say, that he had often read of heresy, but had never fully understood its nature till engaged in that controversy." In one instance, indeed, he found it necessary to depart from this forbearance. A sectary, who boasted, like many of that class, of visions and revelations from the Lord, declared that he was commissioned to cut off his brother's head, and executed the

* Zuinglius in Pastore suo. Opp. i. 283.

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The same anxiety for the credit of the reformed doctrine, which made him regret the schism of the Anabaptists, prompted him to aim at promoting concord between the disputants ou the question of the Sacrament. He composed a treatise, entitled, Aphorisms," in six books, on the consideration of the Eucharist-on the controversial sentiments regarding iton the old and new Sacramentson the consecration of the elements-on the one partaking of the Lord's body-and on the dogma of transubstantiation: besides an inquiry into the mode of celebration by the primitive Christians, as well as into the persons by whom an accession or change of ceremonies had been introduced, and into the time and manner of the introduction. That the candour of this work was as amiable as its research was creditable, may be gathered from the description given by the author, in his preface, of the state of mind in which it was written, "From the period in which, by the gifts and graces of a few individuals, the light of Christian doctrine was drawn forth from the lurking-places of ignorance, or as it were from a gloomy dungeon, whatever leisure I could afford from public and pri vate duties, I bestowed with real delight on those studies, which in the multiplicity of merely secular investigations might increase my acquaintance with divine truths, confirm my conscientiousness, and especially discover and prescribe a rule of piety which I might receive and cherish. I do not pretend to calculate the value of that leisure, whether successfully or otherwise bestowed. But I thank the Lord that he hath given me such an inclination, that I desire to promote

*Sleidan, ad ann. 1527.

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