David Pareus - Works

Works

Pareus began his literary activity with a tract against the doctrine of ubiquity, Methodus ubitquitariae controversiae (Neustadt, 1586). Polemical matter accompanied his issue of the Neustadter Bibel, 1587, an edition of Luther's translation, with appended table of contents and superscriptions. Jakob Andrea, in his Christliche Erinnerung (Tabingen, 1589), styled this publication an "arrant piece of knavery"; while Pareus, in Rettung der Neustadter Bibel (Neustadt, 1589), answered in a more moderate tone.

Pareus further contended against Johann Georg Siegwart in Sieg der Neustädtischen Bibel (Neustadt, 1591), and with Egidius Hunnius, in 1593-99, who accused him of the judaizing error of the Reformed party, with Clypeus veritatis catholicae de sacrosancta trinitate and Orthodoxus Calvinus. He also issued various tracts against the papacy (1604-17).

Despite these many literary battles, Pareus was by nature irenic. In constructive activity were the many editions, after 1593, of his Summarische Erklärung der Katholischen in der Churpfalz geübten Lehre; and his numerous commentaries on the Old and New Testament Scriptures (published 1605-1618). In the Irenicum sive de unione et synodo evangelicorum liber votivus (Heidelberg, 1614-1615), he proposed a general synod of all Evangelicals to unite the Lutherans and the Calvinists, who, he represents, were surely at one in every essential. On only one point, however, not affecting the foundation of belief, was there divergence. This appeal of Pareus brought little response from his contemporaries, and his overture for peace was rejected by the Lutheran theologians Hutter and Siegwart.

Pareus advocated calling rulers to account for their actions. These opinions were viewed with suspicion by the absolute monarchy of James I of England. In 1622, authorities in Oxford were ordered to search libraries and bookshops and to burn every copy of his work.