Curtius Valentin

Curtius Valentin, a prominent Lutheran minister of the sixteenth century, was born at Lebus Jan. 6, 1493. He studied at the University of Rostock, and early entered the order of Franciscans. He was one of the earliest adherents of the Reformation of Luther, and became its leader, first in the city of Rostock, and subsequently in that of Lubeck. In 1554 he was appointed superintendent of all the churches of Lubeck, and in this position exercised a most beneficent influence upon the religious life of the city. He also took a prominent part in many of the theological conferences of the Lutheran Church. Thus he was present at the "convent of Brunswick" in 1557, which was to settle the adiaphoristie controversies, and in 1561 at the "convent of Luneburg," when the "'Luneburg Articles" were drawn up, which were incorporated with the symbolical books of Brunswick. Curtius is also the author of the so-called "Lubeck Formula" (Formula consensus, etc.), which he drew up in concert with the secular authorities and the entire clergy of the city. By it the ministers pledge themselves to abide by the doctrine of the prophets and the apostles, the Apostolic Creed, the Augsburg Confession, the Apology, and the Articles of Schmalkald. It was signed by Curtius and all the other ministers of Lubeck in 1560, aid afterwards. by all ministers appointed in Lubeck until 1683, when the signing of it was no longer required. Curtius also drew up, in the name of the clergy, a "'Protestatio contra Synodumn Tridentinam." He died Nov. 28, 1573. —Herzog, Real-Encykl. 19:373; Starke, Liub Kirch-Hist. (Hamburg, 1724, 2 vols., where both the "Formula Consensus" and the Protestatio are printed).