Lydius, Martin

Lydius, Martin a noted Dutch theologian, father of Balthasar and Jacob, was born at Lubeck, Germany, in 1539 or 1540, of Dutch parentage. and was educated at the universities of Tübingen and Heidelberg, where in 1566 he was employed at the Collegium Sapientice as teacher. On account of persecution in the Palatinate, he went to Holland, and became in 1579 pastor of a Church at Amsterdam. Upon the founding of the university at Franecker in 1585, he was called thither as professor. He died in 1601. He is noted for the part he took in the Arminian controversy. It is he who forwarded to Arminius the works of Koornhert and Arnold Cornelius for refutation, which resulted instead in the conversion of Arminius. See Herzog, Real-Encykl. 20:61 sq.; Bayle, Hist. Dict. 3:970, 971. SEE ARMINIANISM.