Johannes Campanus
Johannes Campanus [1]
an anti-Trinitarian theologian of the 16th century. He was a native of the duchy of Julich, and in 1528 was appointed lecturer on theology at the University of Wittenberg. Here he seems to have imbibed Arian opinions, which he afterward developed openly. He avowed his opposition to Luther, and left Saxony for Julich. The Roman Catholic authorities imprisoned him at Cleves on a charge of having excited the peasantry by his preaching that the world was soon coming to an end, about 1535, and he is said to have remained in prison 25 years, and to have died between 1575 and 1580, out of his mind. He wrote a number of books, among which are Wider alle Welt nach den Aposteln, in which his peculiar views are set forth; reproduced in his Gottliche und, Heil. Schrift. He rejected the divinity of the Holy Spirit, and taught that the Son of God is of the same substance with the Father, but not coeternal. See Schelhorn, Diss. de J. Campano, in his Aneonit. Litterarum, t. 11:1; Mosheim, Ch. History, cent. 16, 3, pt. 2, ch. 4; Herzog, RealEncyklopadie, 1:192; Dorner, Person ofChrist, div. 2, vol. 2, p. 160.
