Zacharias Ursinus (born Zacharias Baer) was a sixteenth century German theologian born in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland). He is best known as a professor of theology at the University of Heidleberg and co-author with Caspar
Olevianus of the Heidelberg Catechism.
Aged 15 he enrolled at Wittenberg University and boarded with Philipp Melanchthon for the next 7 years. .
In 1561 Prince Frederick III, elector palatine, appointed him professor in the Colleguim Sapientiae at Heidelberg (1561-76). This was on the recommendation of Peter Martyr, the Italian Reformer.
Zacharias supplied the preliminary drafts for the Heidelberg Catechism (HC) and participated in the final revision of the document alongside other theologians, including Caspar Olevianus- the superintendent of the Palatinate church and other church leaders.
In 1563 the Heidelberg Catechism was completed.
Prince Frederick III hoped the result would form a basis for a reconciliation between the Protestant German churches. It failed to reconcile the Protestant groups in Germany but it was widely accepted and used. It has now been translated into more than 25 languages.
(For further info. read H C and Heidelblog)
Prince Frederick III died in 1576. The accession of the Lutheran Ludwig IV led to the removal of Zacharias. He then occupied the professorial chair at the Casmirianum, a Reformed academy at Neustadt an der WistraBe ( or Haardt) from 1578 until his death in 1583.
He died, aged 48,on 6th May 1583 at Neustadt an der WistraBe.
Zacharias’ Works were published between 1587-9. A more complete edition was published by his son and 2 of his pupils, David Pareus and Quirninius Reuter, in 1612. His collected catechical lectures were prominent theological handbooks and popular among seventeen century Reformed Christians in the Netherlands.
Ursinus College in Collegeville. Pennsylvania, is a liberal arts college founded in 1869 in his name.
Zacharias Ursinus is best known as the principal author and interpreter of the Heidelberg Catechism.
Note
Caspar Olevianus (1536-87) was formerly asserted as a co-author of HC but this theory has been largely discard by modern scholarship.
Sources used
Britannica Online Encyclopedia
FamilySearch Wiki
Wikipedia
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