Meisner, Balthazar

Meisner, Balthazar one of the most eminent German Protestant theologians of the early part of the 17th century, was born in 1587. He studied at Wittenberg, Giessen, Strasburg, and Tibingen, and in 1613 became professor at Wittenberg. In connection with B. Mentzer (q.v.) of Giessen, and J. Gerhard of Jena, he perceived the requirements of the Church, and did his utmost to satisfy them. This we see in a remarkable sketch of his on the subject, published anonymously at Frankfort in 1679, under the title B. Meisneri pia desideria paulo ante beatum 'obitum ab ipso manifestata.

The principal passages of it were also published in Tholuck's Wittenberger Theologen, p. 96. He had made himself known in the literary world when but twenty-four years of age by his Philosophia sobria (Giessen, 1611), which passed through several editions. This work involved him in a controversy with Cornelius Martin of Helmstadt, the champion of the Aristotelian school (see Henke, Calixtus, 1:258). His merits as a theologian have lately been fully recognised by Kaltenborn, in his Vorldufer d. Grotius auf demn Gebiete des " Jus nature gentium" (1848), p. 220. Meisner died Dec. 29,1626. See Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 9:251. (J. N. P.)