HESSHUSEN, TILEMANN: German Lutheran; b. at Nieder-Wesel (32 m. n.w. of Düsseldorf), in the duchy of Cleves, Nov. 3, 1527; d. at Helmstedt (22 m. e. of Brunswick) Sept. 25, 1588. He studied at Wittenberg, where he became the pupil, friend, and guest of Melanchthon. During the Interim he went abroad, hearing lectures at Oxford and Paris. In 1550, after his return to Wittenberg, he lectured at the university. In 1553, at the recommendation of his teacher, he was appointed superintendent and Pastor primarius in Goslar; but his zeal for the reformation of the collegiate chapters and convents brought upon him the disfavor of the magistrates so that he was compelled to resign in 1556. He went to Magdeburg, where he collaborated on the "Magdeburg Centuries" and took an active part in attempts at mediating between Melanchthon and Flacius. After a few weeks he went to Rostock as professor at the university and pastor of the church of St. James. Here he joined Peter Eggerdes in preaching against the celebration of marriage ceremonies on Sundays and the carousals which usually followed them, against the participation of Evangelical Christians in Roman Catholic funerals and the employment of Roman Catholic sponsors. He excommunicated the two burgomasters who opposed him, but although many citizens and even Duke Ulrich were on his side and that of Eggerdes, they were both expelled on Oct. 9, 1557.

In the following month Elector Otto Heinrich called Hesshusen to Heidelberg as first professor of theology, preacher at the Church of the Holy Spirit, and general superintendent of the Palatinate. Here, too, he gained few friends, and his attacks on the Calvinistic doctrine of the Lord's Supper made him generally unpopular. Elector Frederick Ill., the successor of Otto Heinrich, demanded adherence to the Augustana variata. As Hesshusen did not submit, he was deposed in 1559. He had a still more vehement encounter on the question of the Lord's Supper with Albert Hardenberg, cathedral preacher in Bremen, who was an adherent of Philippism (see Philippists). In 1560 he became

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pastor of the Church of St. John in Magdeburg, whence he continued his attacks on Hard enberg. In 1561 his opponent was deposed as a disturber of the common peace and expelled. At a convention held in Lilneburg in 1561, Hess husen achieved the victory of strict Lutheranism, but the synod of Lower Saxony accepted its resolutions only under the condition that preachers be forbidden to condemn one another. In the mean time Johann Wigand, whom Strigel had expelled from Jena, had come to Magdeburg. Hesshusen intended to secure for him a position at the Church of St. Ulrich, and for this purpose tried to expel Sebastian Werner. The magistrates, how ever, did not submit to this arbitrary procedure. Riots followed, and Hesshusen declared that he did not consider the council any longer a Christian authority and imposed the ban upon its members. As a consequence, in 1562 he was driven out of Magdeburg by an armed force. He fled to Wesel, his native city; but his denunciations. of the pope as Antichrist aroused the displeasure of the duke of Jülich, and at his instigation the council expelled him. He pleaded in vain with the authorities of Strasburg to be received there. In 1565 Count Palatine Wolfgang of Zweibrücken called him to Neuburg as court preacher. In May, 1566, he took part in the discussions of the Diet of Augsburg, with the permission of his sovereign. On the death of the Count Palatine in 1569, Duke John William called him to the University of Jena, with the special task to reestablish strict Luther anism in the country. With his colleagues Wigand and Coelestin he subjected the clergy of Thuringia to a vigorous examination. The fruit of this visitation was Hesshusen's Examen theologicum (1570). In 1570 Jacob Andreik came to Weimar to win the duke for the Formula of Concord; but all attempts at union were bitterly opposed by Hesshusen, and Andreiiwas dismissed without having achieved his purpose. In 1571 Hesshusen attacked Flacius, his former friend, who, according to him, taught that hereditary sin formed the substance of man. On the death of Duke John William in 1573, the administration of the country was entrusted to Elector Augustus, who speedily expelled Hesahusen and Wigand and a hundred other clergymen and theologians. The two leaders turned to Brunswick, where Chemnitz offered them a place of refuge. On Sept. 21, 1573, Hesshusen was consecrated bishop of Samland. In his zealous defense of the Lutheran doctrine against the Calvinists he went so far as to say that not only is Christ omnipotent, but that the humanity of Christ is omnipotent, on the basis of the unity of the two natures. Now the tables were turned upon him. After having trium phantly represented Flacius as teaching that the devil was a creator as well as God, he was now proved to teach that there were two divine beings, both omnipotent. As Hesshusen did not retreat, the duke deposed him from his office (1577).. With the assistance of Chemnitz, he received a position in the University of Helmstedt. He was finally persuaded to sign the Formula of Concord, and every obstacle to its introduction in Brunswick seemed to be removed; but in comparing the printed copy with the written text, Hesshusen found a considerable number of deviations, and was not satisfied with the explanations of Chemnitz. The duke of Brunswick also opposed the Formula, so that it was not accepted in his country, and thus lost much of its general authority.

Of his works may be mentioned: Von Amt and Gewalt der Pfarrherren (1561; ed. Friedrich August Schiitz, Leipsic, 1854), in which he developed his rigorous views on church discipline, and De servo arbitrdo (1562). Against the supposed adiaphorism of men like Andreii who tried to harmonize, he wrote Vom Bekenntnis des Namens Jesu (1571). Several treatises are directed against the Wittenberg catechism of 1570 and against the Consensus of Dresden. He wrote against Rome in his exposition of the nineteenth Psalm (1571) and in De 600 errorlTws pontificis ecclesice (1572). Against Flacius he wrote Analysis argumentorum Flacii (1571), Gegenbericht von der Erbsiinde wider Flacius (1571). Clara et perapicus testimonia Augustini (1571), and Antidotum contra Flacii dogma (1572, 1576). He developed the thoughts of his Examen theologicum further in De vera ecclesia et ejvs auloritate libri ii. (1572). Against the Calvinistic doctrine of ubiquity he wrote Verce et sacrte Confessionis de prrTsentia eorporis Christi pia defensio (1583); Bekenntnis von der pers6nlichen Vereinigung beider Naturen (1586) and other works. Hesshusen also wrote commentaries on the Psalms and on the epistles of Paul, six books De justifccatione (1587), and several collections of sermons.

(K. Hackenschmidt.)

Bibliography: The chief source is J. G. Leuckfeld, His toria Heahusiana, Quedlinburg, 1716. Consult further: K. von Helmolt, Tilemann Heashusen und seine eieben exilia, Leipsic, 1859; C. A. Wilkens, Tilemann Hes.hmen, tin Streittheologe der Lutherkirche, ib. 1860; Schaff, Christian Church, vii. 671 sqq.; Moeller, Christian Church, iii. 185 et passim.