Franciscus Junius the Elder (bornFrançois du Jon, 1 May 1545 – 23 October 1602)[1] was aReformed scholar,Protestant reformer and theologian. Born inBourges in centralFrance, he initially studied law, but later decided to study theology inGeneva underJohn Calvin andTheodore Beza. He became a minister inAntwerp, but was forced to flee toHeidelberg in 1567. He wrote a translation of the Bible into Latin withEmmanuel Tremellius, and his Treatise on True Theology (De Vera Theologia) was an often used text inReformed scholasticism.
Franciscus Junius was born inBourges, and beginning at age twelve studied law at theuniversity there underFrançois Douaren andHugo Donellus.[2] On account of his abilities in Greek and law, he was given the position of aide to the French ambassador at the court ofSuleiman I inConstantinople, but before he reachedLyon, whence he was to travel by boat, the ambassador had departed.[3][4]
Junius studied for two years at the gymnasium at Lyon, reading Greek and Roman classics. He nearly became an atheist while readingCicero andEpicurus, but after reading the first chapter ofJohn he was convinced to commit himself to God and he entered theFrench Reformed Church.[4] He went in 1562 to study atGeneva underJohn Calvin andTheodore Beza, where he was reduced to poverty by the failure of remittances from home, owing tocivil war in France.[3][5] He would accept only the barest sustenance from a humble friend who had himself been a protégé of Junius's family at Bourges, and his health was permanently injured. The long-expected remittance from home was closely followed by the news of the brutal murder of his father by a Catholic fanatic atIssoudun; and Junius resolved to remain at Geneva, where his reputation enabled him to live by teaching. In 1565, however, he was appointed minister of theWalloon church atAntwerp.[3] Junius was tasked with making a minor revision to theBelgic Confession, which was first prepared in 1561, and he also distributed it in Geneva in order to build consensus. In 1566, aniconoclastic uproar ensued in theNetherlands, but Junius did not take part.[5]William the Silent made an agreement withPhilip II of Spain in 1566 to protect Protestants, but only those who were natives of theLow Countries, placing Junius in danger.[6] Several times he barely escaped arrest, and finally, after spending six months preaching inLimburg, he was forced to flee toHeidelberg in 1567. There he was welcomed by the electorFrederick II, and temporarily settled in charge of the Reformed church atSchönau; but in 1568 his patron sent him aschaplain withPrince William of Orange in his unfortunate expedition to theNetherlands. Junius returned to his church and remained there till 1573.[3]
From 1573 till 1578 he was at Heidelberg, assistingEmmanuel Tremellius,[3] whose daughter he married; their child, also calledFranciscus Junius, became an early scholar of Germanic philology. The Tremellius-Junius Bible, a distinctively Reformed Latin translation, was first published in 1579. It received thirty-three printings between 1579 and 1764 and was very influential on Reformed dogmatics, shaping Protestant theology into the late eighteenth century.[7] The Tremellius-Junius Old Testament was often paired withTheodore Beza's translation of the New Testament.[8][9] Frederick III was succeeded byLouis IV, a Lutheran, in 1576, and the Reformed in Heidelberg who refused to sign theFormula of Concord were forced out. In 1579, German prince and friend of the ReformedJohn Casimir formed theCasimirianum Neustadt. Junius, along with author of theHeidelberg CatechismZacharias Ursinus, was one of the first faculty members. Junius became a friend of Ursinus, and delivered his funeral oration when he died in 1583. In 1583, John Casimir becameregent, and Junius was invited back to become professor of theology at theUniversity of Heidelberg.
From the late 1580s to 1592, Junius participated in diplomatic missions for the duke ofBouillon in France and Germany, which involved meeting personally with the king of France,Henry IV of Navarre.[10] In 1592, he was named professor of theology at theUniversity of Leiden.[3] There he wrote his most famous work A Treatise on True Theology,De Vera Theologia, which became a cornerstone ofReformed scholastic theology. About the same time he also wroteThe Mosaic Polity,De politiae Mosis observatione (1593), which addressed the contemporary political implications of theMosaic Law.[11] In this latter work, Junius analyzes the relationship between church and state and argues against the idea thathumanism andscholasticism are necessarily antithetical. Junius examines the classification of the Mosaic laws as moral, ceremonial, and judicial, and argues that the ceremonial laws typically contain a "composite rationale from the moral, judicial, and ceremonial law."[12] Upon his death in 1602, Junius was succeeded as chair of theology byJacobus Arminius.[13]
As to the date of his death, Latin scholar David C. Noe (ofCalvin College) has identified a discrepancy inAbraham Kuyper's chronology in volume 1 of the Bibliotheca Reformata,D. Francisci Junii Opuscula Theologia Selecta, that lists October 26 as date of death. However, this is in fact the date whenFranciscus Gomarus delivered the funeral oration at Leiden University. Gomarus notes two different dates for Junius's death: October 13 and October 20.[14] Most research libraries, reference materials, and library catalog authority files list the date of death as October 13.[15][16][17]
Upon his deathJoseph Justus Scaliger wrote this lament:
Te moerens scola flet suum magistrum,
Orba ecclesia te suum parentem,
Doctorem gemit orbis universus.
"For you a wailing school her master mourns,
An orphan church weeps for you her father,
And for her doctor groans the whole wide world."
tr. David C. Noe, 2014.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Junius, Franz s.v. Franz Junius (1545–1602)".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 559.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)
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