Greter, Kaspar

GRESWELL, EDWARD: English chronologist and harmonist; b. at Denton (5 m. e.s.e. of Manchester), Lancashire, Aug. 3, 1797; d. at Oxford June 29, 1869. He was educated at Brasenose College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford (B.A., 1819; M.A., 1822; B.D., 1830), and was a fellow of Corpus Christi College 1823-69 and vice-president of the college 1840-69. He took part in the controversy precipitated by the appointment, in 1836, of Renn Dickson Hampden to the regius professorship of divinity at Oxford; but otherwise his life at Oxford was uneventful. Some of his works are of high value, the most important being: Dims sertations upon the Principles and Arrangement of a Harmony of the Gospels (3 vols., Oxford, 1830; 2d ed., 4 vols. in 5, 1837); Harmonica evangelica (1830; 5th ed., 1855); An Exposition of the Parables (5 vols. in 6, 1834-35); Prolegomena ad harmoniam evangelicam (1840); Fasti temporis catholici aged origines kalendarite (4 vols., 1852), followed by two volumes of Fables (1852); Origines Kalendarim Italics (4 vols., 1854); Oraginea Kalendarid Hellenicts (6 vols., 1862); and The Three Witnesses, and the Threefold Cord (London, 1862).

Bibliography: DNB, ail. 158.

GRETER, gr6'ter (GRETTER, GRAETER), KASPAR: German Lutheran; b. at Gundelsheim (30 m. s.s.w. of Heidelberg) c. 1501; d. at Stuttgart Apr. 21, 1557. In 1519-20 he studied at Heidelberg where he took his bachelor's degree in 1522, and then accepted the position of tutor in the house of Dietrich von Gemmingen. After the latter's death in 1526 he went to Brenz at Hall, and was recommended by him in 1527 to the town council of Heilbronn as a teacher. Here Johann Lachmann (q.v.) entrusted to him the spiritual instruction of the children, and Greter accordingly prepared in 1528 his Catechesis oder underricht der Kinder (enlarged ed., 1530). Against the conservative and libertinist party in Heilbronn he wrote Des der Christlich Glaub der einich gerecht and wahrhaftig aey (Nuremberg, 1530). He also published Drew schoen Psalmen (Ettlingen,1531), and translated into Latin the work of Brenz on matrimonial questions, under the title Tradatus caauum matrimonialium (Ettlingen, 1536).

On Dec. 8, 1531, Greter was commissioned to treat with the Carmelites on the question of accepting the Reformation, but, feeling the need of more knowledge, he went in Oct., 1533, to Heidelberg, where he took his master's degree on Feb. 10, 1534. He intended at this time to study law, but the Reformation in Warttemberg (1534) gave his life a new turn. In the fall he was called to the Herrenberg parish, where, in 1536, he prepared a catechism which attempted to reconcile those of Luther and Brenz. Together with other prominent theo-

logians, he was summoned to Urach (Sept. 10, 1537), to discuss the abolition of images, in regard to which he took a moderate line. Soon after he was called to Cannatadt and had a voice in the mat rimonial court and in the theological examinations in Stuttgart, where he was made court preacher in 1540. A sermon which he delivered in the spring of 1542 so exasperated Duke Ulrich that Greter had to flee. He went to his former pupil, Philip von Gemmingen, and took up his abode in Neckar miihlbach. The town of Wimpfen called him as pastor, and at the same time, he was recommended to the Margrave George of Brandenburg for the vacancy at the collegiate church of Ansbach. Meanwhile, however, he was recalled by Ulrich. He now enjoyed the fullest confidence of the duke, who sought his advice in all important questions pertaining to the Church of Württemberg. It was due to his quick influence that the period of the Interim in Württemberg did little harm, and that the duke took care of the victims of the imperial policy, such as Alber and Brenz. Greter rendered further assistance to the latter by publishing in 1548 the Explicatio pstlmorum xciv. et cxxx., which Brenz had written in the fortress of Wittlingen, under the name of Gamaliel Gratius, and in 1552 the Catechismus pia et utili explications Wustratus, composed by Brenz for the private use of his friends. After the death of Ulrich (Nov. 6, 1550) Greter had the full confidence of the next duke, Christo pher, with whom he lived at Tübingen from 1551 to 1553, and whom he no doubt advised to appoint Brenz to the highest ecclesiastical office in his gift. He warmly defended Brenz in the answer of the Swabiana to the Thuringians for his position in the Osiandrian controversy.

G. Bossert.

Bibliography: L. M. Fischlin, Memoria theologorum Wir temberpensium, i. 3 sqq., 40 sqq., 281 sqq., 313 sqq., Ulm, 1709; C. F. Sehnurrer, Erlauterumen der urirtemberpiechan KircherrRe/ormatione and Gelehrten-Geschichte, pp. 183 sqq., Tübingen, 1798; C. Jriger, Mittheilungen der adhwdbischen and /r4nkischen Re%rmationegeschichte, pp. 80 sqq., 268, Stuttgart, 1828; J. Brenz, Aneedota Brentiana, pp. 308, 309, 363, 434 sqq., Tübingen, 1868; ADS, ix. 599; Bo echrefbung des Oberamb Heilbronn, 2 vols., Stuttgart, 1901 1903; Monumenta Germaniae paedapopica, vol. xxi., Ber lin, 1900; J. M. Rau, Quellen zur Geschichte des kirdlichen Untemichta, Gütersloh, 1904.