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PELLICANUS, CONRAD (1478-1556)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 70 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PELLICANUS, See also:CONRAD (1478-1556) , See also:German theologian, was See also:born at Ruffach in See also:Alsace, on the 8th of See also:January 1478. His German name, Kiirsner, was changed to Pellicanus by his See also:mother's See also:brother Jodocus See also:Gallus, an ecclesiastic connected with the university of See also:Heidelberg, who supported his See also:nephew for sixteen months at the university in 1491-1492. On returning to Ruffach, he taught gratis in the Minorite See also:convent school that he might See also:borrow books from the library, and in his sixteenth See also:year resolved to become a See also:friar. This step helped his studies, for he was sent to See also:Tubingen in 1496 and became a favourite See also:pupil of the See also:guardian of the Minorite convent there, See also:Paulus Scriptoris, a See also:man of considerable See also:general learning. There seems to have been at that See also:time in See also:south-See also:west See also:Germany a considerable amount of sturdy See also:independent thought among the See also:Franciscans; Pellicanus himself became a See also:Protestant very gradually, and without any such revulsion of feeling as marked See also:Luther's See also:conversion. At Tubingen the future " apostate in three See also:languages " was able to begin the study of See also:Hebrew. He had no teacher and no See also:grammar; but Paulus Scriptoris carried him a huge codex of the prophets on his own shoulders all the way from See also:Mainz. He learned the letters from the transcription of a few verses in the See also:Star of the See also:Messiah of Petrus See also:Niger, and, with a subsequent hint or two from See also:Reuchlin, who also See also:lent him the grammar of See also:Moses Kimhi, made his way through the See also:Bible for himself with the help of See also:Jerome's Latin. He got on so well that he was not only a useful helper to Reuchlin but anticipated the manuals of the See also:great Hebraist by composing in 1501 the first Hebrew grammar in the See also:European See also:tongue. It was printed in 1503, and afterwards ineluded in Reysch's See also:Margarita philosophica. Hebrew remained a favourite study to the last. Pellican's autobiography de-See also:scribes the See also:gradual multiplication of accessible books on the subjects, and he not only studied but translated a vast See also:mass of rabbinical and Talmudic texts, his See also:interest in Jewish literature being mainly philological.

The See also:

chief See also:fruit of these studies is the vast commentary on the Bible (See also:Zurich, 7 vols., 1532-1539), which shows a remarkably See also:sound See also:judgment on questions of the See also:text, and a sense for See also:historical as opposed to typological exegesis. Pellicanus became See also:priest in 1501 and continued to serve his See also:order at Ruffach, See also:Pforzheim, and See also:Basel till 1526. At Basel he did much laborious See also:work for See also:Froben's See also:editions, and came to the conclusion that the See also:Church taught many doctrines of which the See also:early doctors of Christendom knew nothing. He spoke his views frankly, but he disliked polemic; he found also more See also:toleration than might have been expected, even after he became active in circulating Luther's books. Thus, supported by the civic authorities, he remained guardian of the convent of his order at Basel from 1519 till 1524, and even when he had to give up his See also:post, remained in the monastery for two years, professing See also:theology in the university. At length, when the position was becoming quite untenable, he received through See also:Zwingli a See also:call to Zurich as See also:professor of See also:Greek and Hebrew, and formally throwing off his See also:monk's See also:habit, entered on a new See also:life. Here he remained till his See also:death on the 6th of See also:April 1556. Pellicanus's scholarship, though not brilliant, was really extensive; his sound sense, and his singularly pure and devoted See also:character gave him a great See also:influence. He was remarkably See also:free from the pedantry of the time, as is shown by his views about the use of the German See also:vernacular as a vehicle of culture (Chron. 135, 36). As a theologian his natural See also:affinities were with Zwingli, with whom he shared the See also:advantage of having grown up to the views of the See also:Reformation, by the natural progress of his studies and religious life. Thus he never lost his sympathy with See also:humanism and with its great German representative, See also:Erasmus.

Pellicanus's Latin autobiography (Chronicon C.P.R.) is one of the most interesting documents of the See also:

period. It was first publishedby Riggenbach in 1877, and in this See also:volume the other See also:sources for his life are registered. See also Emil Silberstein, Conrad Pellicanus; ein Beitrag zur Geschichte See also:des Studiums der hebr. Sprache (See also:Berlin, 1900).

End of Article: PELLICANUS, CONRAD (1478-1556)

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