Maresius

Maresius

(Des Marets), Samuel, a noted French Reformed theologian, was born at Oisemond, Picardy, in 1599; was educated at Geneva and at Paris; studied theology at Saumur and Geneva, entered the ministry in 1620, and was settled at Laon by the Synod of Charenton. His experience in this place was rather of a peculiar nature. He was stabbed one night, and this attack on his life is charged to the Jesuits, because he had violently opposed them, and had, in a pamphlet defending the Protestant faith, severely criticized their conduct. In 1624 he accepted a call to Sedan, both as pastor and theological instructor in the school of theology situated in this place, lately so celebrated in history. Before he entered upon this new position he went to Leyden, and there secured the degree of D.D. in July, 1625. Having made a small tour into England, he returned to Sedan. In 1632 he was called as pastor to Maestricht; in 1636 he removed to Herzogenbusch as minister and professor at the Schola illustris; in 1640 he had an invitation to a professorship at Franeker, and to another at Groningen in 1642. This last he accepted, and from that time to his death did such great services to that university that it was reckoned one of the most flourishing in the Netherlands. The magistrates of Bearn, well informed of his abilities and learning, offered him, in 1671, the professor of divinity's chair at Lausanne; and in 1673 the University of Leyden invited him to a like professorship there. He accepted this last, but died before he had taken possession of it (May 18, 1673). Maresius's literary activity was very great, and his ability as a writer equal to that of any man of his day. He was an able polemic, and wrote much against the Roman Catholics. the Socinians, the Millenarians, and the Arminians, and even against many of his own confession. Indeed, Maresius was quite a literary pugilist. His contest with Voetius, the UItrecht professor, is famous. (See Voetius). His ablest work is his Systemna Theologiae (Gron. 1673), in the appendix of which is found a list of all the productions from his pen. Their number is prodigious, and the variety of their subjects shows an unbounded genius. He designed to collect all his works into a body, as well those which had been already published as those which were in MS. He revised and augmented them for that purpose, and had materials for four volumes in folio, but his death prevented the execution of that project. The first volume was to have contained all those works which he had published before settling at Groningen. The second his Operac theologicct didacfica. The third his Opera theologica polemicac. The title of the fourth was to have been Impietals triumnphacta. Its contents were to have been the "Hydra Socinianismi expugnata," one of the ablest works against the Socinians, the "Biga fanaticorum eversa," and the "Fabula preadamitarum refuttat," three works which had been printed at different times. Marets's system of divinity was found to be so methodical that it was made use of at other academies; indeed, his reputation procured him so much authority in foreign countries as well as his own that a person in Germany who had published some severe censures against Marets received orders to suppress his book. See Genesis Biog. Dict. vol. 9, s.v.; Bayle, Dict. Hist. s.v. larets; Effigies et Vitae professorumn Groning.; Herzog, Real-Encyklop die, vol. 9, s.v. (J. H.W.)