Eglinus, Raphael

Eglinus, RAPHAEL

also called Iconius, a minister of the Reformed Church, was born at Riissicon, in the Swiss canton of Zurich, December 28, 1559. After studying theology at Zurich, Geneva, and Basel, he for some time taught school at Sonders, in the Veltlin (now part of Lombardy,); but, with the Protestants generally, he had to leave this place in 1586. After working for some time as teacher and "diaconus" in Winterscheid, and as "paedagogus" at the college of the alumni at Zurich, he was, in 1592, appointed professor of the New Testament in the latter city. Becoming absorbed in the study of theosophy and alchemy, he spent his whole property in experiments, and in 1601 had to flee on account of debts which he had contracted. Through the intercession of his friends he obtained, however, permission to return, and an honorable dismission. He went to Cassel, where landgrave Moritz, himself a great friend of alchemy, appointed him teacher at the court school, and later, June 13, 1606, professor of theology at Marburg. From the theological faculty of this university he received, in 1607, the title of D.D. Subsequently Moritz also appointed him court preacher at Marburg. He died May 20, 1622. Eglinus was one of the first Reformed theologians in Hesse where landgrave Moritz and his successors endeavored to supplant Lutheranism by the Reformed Church. He wrote in defense of his creed a number of small essays, the most important of which relate to the doctrine of predestination. He is one of those writers in whom the German reformed theology became more scholastic in its character, and was merged in the stricter Calvinistic tendency. In 1618 Eglinus wrote an apology of the Rosicrucians, of which association he had become an active member. He also wrote several books on alchemy and on the Apocalypse. A complete list of his works is given by Strieder, Grundlage zu einer hess. Gelehrten-Gesch. — Heppe, in Herzog, Real-Encyklopadie, 19:456; Hagenbach, History of Doctrines (edited by Smith), 2:175. (A.J.S.)