Pratorius, Stephen

Pratorius, Stephen a German minister, flourished at Salzwedel towards the close of the 16th century. He was involved in various disputes in consequence of some doctrines professed or approved by Luther, or which seemed to him logical conclusions to be drawn from Luther's theory of justification. He asserted that between righteousness and beatitude there was no difference; that every man who received baptism and believed in Christ was saved, and could dispense with seeking the means to be saved; that the law was useless; that faith and justification obtained by it could be darkened and benumbed by sin, but never lost. John Arnd, the Fenelon of the Lutheran Church, published a collection of the writings of Pratorius, and Martin Statius (1655), minister at Dantsic, edited extracts from them under the title Ceistliche Schatzkammer der Gläubigen.