1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Witsius, Hermann

WITSIUS, HERMANN (1636–1708), Dutch theologian, was born at Enkhuysen, North Holland, and studied at Groningen, Leiden and Utrecht. He was ordained to the ministry, becoming pastor at Westwoud in 1656 and afterwards at Wormeren, Goesen and Leeuwaarden, and became professor of divinity successively at Franeker (1675) and at Utrecht (1680). In 1698 he went to Leiden as the successor of Friedrich Spanheim the younger (1632–1701). He died at Leiden on the 22nd of October 1708.

Witsius tried to mediate between the orthodox theology and the “federal” system of Johannes Cocceius, but did not succeed in pleasing either party. The more important of his works are: Judaeus christianizans—circa principia fidei et SS. Trinitatem (Utrecht, 1661); De oeconomia foederum Dei cum hominibus (1677, still regarded as one of the clearest and most suggestive expositions of the so-called “federal” theology); Diatribe de septem epistolarum apocalypticarum sensu historico ac prophetico (Franeker, 1678); Exercitationes sacrae in symbolum quod apostolorum dicitur et in orationem Dominicam (Franeker, 1681); Miscellanea sacra (Utrecht, 1692–1700, 2 vols.).