Brochmand, Jesper Rasmussen

Brochmand, Jesper Rasmussen doctor of theology and bishop of Zealand, was born August 5, 1585, at Kjoge, in Zealand. He studied at Leyden, where Grotius and Salmasius were among his fellow-students. In 1606 he went to Franeker, where, although a foreigner, he was permitted to lecture on philosophy. His lectures are for the greater part printed in his Disputationes Variae Philosophicae (Franeker, 1607). From here he returned home, to take charge of the Latin school at Herlufsholm. Two years later he was called as professor paedagogicus to Copenhagen, and in 1615 he succeeded Hans Resen in the theological chair. But his stay here did not last long. King Christian IV appointed him tutor and educator of the crown-prince. In 1620 he was able to resume again his theological chair, and, having selected Luther as his pattern, Brochmand became the leader and defender of Lutheran orthodoxy. In 1638 he was appointed bishop of Zealand, and entered Upon his episcopal duties in, 1639. He introduced a great many reforms throughout the Church of Denmark, and died in 1652. His main work is Universae Theologiae Systema (6th ed. 1658), which Tholuck highly esteemed. He also wrote Systema Theologicum Minius (1649): — In Jacobi Epistolam Commentarius (1641): — Speciminis Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Exercitatio (1633): — Αἵρεσις ἐλεγχομένη, seu Vera de' Haeresi Doctrina (1634): — Apologia Speculi Vesritatis Brandenburgici Confutatio (1653, 4 volumes). See Vinding, Academia

Hafniensis, pages 233-244; Zwerg, Hollandske Clerisei, pages 169-297; Petersen, Den Danske Literaturs Historie, 3:87-91; Tholuck, Lebenszeugen der luthierischen Kirche vor und wihrend des 30 jahrigen Krieges (Berlin, 1859), pages 302-307; Michelsen, in Herzog's Real- Encyklop. (2d ed.), s.v. (B.P.)