Wolleb, Johannes

Wolleb, Johannes a theologian of the Reformed Church, was born November 30, 1586, at Basle, where his father, Oswald, was a magistrate. At the age of twenty, after preliminary courses in philosophy and theology, in both of which he excelled, he was ordained to the ministry. In 1607 he was made city deacon; in 1611 pastor of St. Elizabeth's; in 1618 pastor at the Cathedral, as successor to Grynaeus, and professor of the Old Test., as successor to Sebastian Beck. He wrote a number of dissertations, and a single theological work, the Compendium Theologies Christianae (1626), a volume of only 273 pages, but a masterpiece of compact brevity, clear arrangement, and thorough comprehensiveness as respects all important doctrinal matters. It was made a text-book at Basle and several other reformed universities. A second edition appeared at Basle in 1634, and a third at Amsterdam in 1638. An English edition was prepared by Alexander Ross, and published under the title, Wollebius' Christian Divinity. Wolleb did not live to see the success of his book, but died of the plague, November 24, 1629, leaving two sons, Johann Jacob and Theodor, both of whom afterwards became pastors at Basle, and in 1667 died of the same disease. A volume of funeral sermons by Wolleb appeared in print in 1657. See Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.