| Antonius Hulsius Anton Hüls | |
| Birth Date: | 1615 |
| Birth Place: | Haus Hagdorn, Hilden, Berg (Palatinate-Neuburg), Germany |
| Death Date: | 27 February 1685 (Gregorian) |
| Death Place: | Leiden, United Provinces of the Netherlands |
| Occupation: | Philologist Calvinist theologian Hebraist |
| Spouse: | Agnes Elisabeth Rumpf |
| Children: | 10 of whom 4 – all of them sons – survived to adulthood. |
Antonius Hulsius (Anton Hüls: 1615–1685) was a German philologist and Calvinist theologian.[1] [2] [3] [4]
Hulsius was born towards the end of 1615 at Hilden, a midsized manufacturing town in the hill-country east of Düsseldorf, at a time when Lutheran Protestantism had recently been supplanted by Calvinist Protestantism as the mainstream religion of the townsfolk, while the local lord was still adhering to the Catholicism of his forefathers. It was a period of intense religious conflict in the Rhineland, and the life of Antonius Hulsius would be deeply impacted by the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). His father, also called Antonius Hulsius, was the local mayor. His mother, born Catharina von Venne, died in 1628 when the boy was just 13, after which he went to live with his elder brother, the young theologian-paster Wilhelmus Hülsius (Wilhelm Hüls: 1598–1659) at Wesel, some distance to the north. He attended the "Gymnasium" (secondary school) in Wesel where he received a solid academic grounding.[1] [3]
He moved on in 1635 to the "gymnasium illustre" academy at Deventer, then under the direction of Nikolaus Vedelius (1596–1642). His studies at Deventer focused on Hebrew and Theology.[2] By 1636 the war had been underway for eighteen years, and the movements of large armies correlated with an increased frequency and intensity of plague. Deventer was badly affected in that year.[5] Hulsius fled, travelling over the next couple of years to Paris, London and Cambridge. Everywhere he went, he found opportunities for further study. According to at least one source he also spent time in Oxford where he mastered English.[2] In or before 1638 Hulsius travelled to Geneva, where Calvinism was still particularly firmly entrenched. He studied at the "académie de Genève" (as the university was known at that time), while lodging with Friedrich Spanheim (1600–1649), who had been the rector at the académie between 1633 and 1637, and already enjoyed a powerful reputation as an uncompromising advocate of "orthodox calvinism".[2] [6] Hulsius remained in Geneva for approximately two years, during which, there are references to his having delivered his first sermons at the local German language church.[2] [3]
Hulsius returned to the Netherlands during or shortly before 1640, and spent several years working at Leiden, Amsterdam and Groningen, having become in 1640 a backer of the so-called "Walloon church", which was a Protestant-Calvinist community, comprising mainly Huguenots and other Protestants who had moved from France and Catholic southern Flanders to the Netherlands, attracted by the Dutch reputation for religious tolerance.[2] After a period based in Amsterdam he became minister to the francophone community in Breda, participating with particular devotion in the construction of their church building. In 1644 the still recently formed congregation to elected Hulsius minister. He would exercise his ministry at Breda for the next 25 years.[1] [3] [4]
He also took a teaching position at the newly opened Breda "gymnasium illustre" (as it was identified at the time) academy, and began teaching Hebrew there, probably in 1646.[4] He was evidently well established as a staff member at the institution in 1648, when he witnessed the will of the academy's "curator residens", André Rivet.[4]
In 1650, while at Breda, Hulsius had his Hebrew-Latin bible, "Nomenclator biblicus hebraeo-latinus" produced. It was his first significant published work.[7] A succession of further publications relating to Theology quickly followed.[8] [9] [10] [11]
Hulsius was a participant at the church's Synods at Haarlem in April 1660, Middelburg in May 1666 and Naarden in September 1668. In his dealings with representatives of other denominations, he became ever more trenchant in his promotion of the Calvinist orthodoxy associated with what has become known as the Dutch Reformed Church. His robust championing of the "orthodox" wing of his church was on display, in particular, in his sustained attacks on the heterodox mysticist pietism of Jean de Labadie.[2]
On 21 July 1668 Friedrich Spanheim (1632–1701), whom Hulsius must have known as a boy when he lodged in Geneva with Friedrich Spanheim (1600–1649), the child's father, during the 1930s, had Hulsius appointed "Regent of the Flemish College" at Leiden University. Here the duties assigned to Hulsius involved educating and looking after young men destined for the (Calvinist) Christian ministry. He taught Theology and attended to any behavioural issues arising. A parallel appointment followed a few weeks later when he was appointed to an assistant professorship in Hebrew on 23 August. The administrators at the Flemish College took the opportunity to reduce his salary from 1,400 Florins to 1,200 Florins, having regard to his 400 Florin salary as a university assistant professor.[3] [4]
On 16 January 1676 he accepted a full "ordinary" professorship at the university in Theology and Hebrew. He applied himself to his new duties with energy and zeal, and was rewarded with considerable success. Nevertheless, as the intellectual currents in Protestant Theology departments moved on during the second half of the seventeenth century, he also became the target of intensifying criticism and satire from those who did not share his uncompromising religious approach.[1] [2] [3] His final years were marked – and in the eyes of some "less conservative" commentators his reputation was scarred – by high-profile disputes against the covenanter from Franeker, Johannes Cocceius and the Cartesian controversialist, Abraham Heidanus.[3] [4] [12]
More than three centuries later, there is widespread respect and appreciation among scholars for his contributions to the study of Greek and Hebrew. He also was a professor at Leyden University, where he took a share in university and faculty administration. He served as Dean of the Theology Faculty in 1680, and as Rector if the University Senate between 1683 and 1684.[2]
Sources differ as to the precise date of his death, but there is agreement that Antonius Hulsius died during February 1685.[1] [2] [3] [4] His funeral oration was delivered by Friedrich Spanheim.[3]
Antonius Hulsius married Agnes Elisabeth Rumpf at the Hague in January 1945. The bride was the youngest of the seven children born to the physician Christian Rumpf (1580–1645) by his marriage to Agneta de Spina (1590–1649).[13] The marriage was followed by the births of ten children, of whom at least eight lived long enough to be baptised at Breda.[14] The daughters all died young, but four of the sons survived to adulthood. These all became theologians and/or church ministers.