Editing Matthias Flacius

{{Short description|16th century Venetian theologian and Lutheran reformer}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = <!-- include middle initial, if not specified in birth_name -->
| image         = Matthias Flacius.png
| alt           = 
| caption       = Matthias Flacius Illyricus
| birth_name    = Matthias Vlacich or Francovich<ref name="Wackernagel"/><ref name="Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht"/><ref name="Treccani"/>
| birth_date    = 3 March 1520
| birth_place   = [[Labin]], [[Venetian Republic]]<br />(modern Croatia)
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1575|03|11|1520|03|03|df=yes}}
| death_place   = [[Free Imperial City of Frankfurt]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]<br />(Present day [[Germany]])
| nationality   = 
| other_names   = Matija Vlačić Ilirik (Franković)
| occupation    = Theologian, church historian, philosopher
| years_active  = 1544–1575
| known_for     = 
| notable_works =
}}

'''Matthias Flacius Illyricus''' ([[Latin]]; {{langx|hr|Matija Vlačić Ilirik}}) or '''Francovich''' ({{langx|hr|Franković}})<ref name="Friedensburg"/><ref name="Wackernagel"/><ref name="Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht"/><ref name="Treccani">{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/flacio-mattia-o-flacio-illirico_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/ |title= FLACIO, Mattia, o Flacio Illirico |author= |publisher= [[Enciclopedia Italiana]] |access-date=28 January 2021|archive-date=28 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128112558/https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/flacio-mattia-o-flacio-illirico_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/|url-status=live}}</ref> (3 March 1520 – 11 March 1575) was a [[Lutheran]] reformer from [[Istria]], present-day [[Croatia]]. He was notable as a theologian, sometimes dissenting strongly with his fellow Lutherans, and as a scholar for his editorial work on the ''[[Magdeburg Centuries]]''.
{{lutheranism |expanded=theologians}}

== Biography ==
=== Early life and education ===
Flacius was born in [[Labin]] (Albona) in [[Istria]], son of Andrea Vlacich (Andrija Vlačić{{efn|Vlacich (Vlačić) is a surname typical of Labin, generally bore by its Slavic-speaking (Croat) inhabitants. Its etymology is not clear. It might be related to the term ''Vlach'', a historical term from the [[Middle Ages]] that designates an [[Exonym and endonym|exonym]] mostly for [[Eastern Romance languages|Eastern Romance]]-speaking peoples living in the Balkans.<ref name="Acta Croatica">{{cite web|url=https://actacroatica.com/en/surname/Vla%C4%8Di%C4%87/ |title= Surname Vlačić |author= |publisher= [[Acta Croatica]] |access-date=28 January 2021|archive-date=28 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128121123/https://actacroatica.com/en/surname/Vla%C4%8Di%C4%87/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://dexonline.ro/definitie/valah|publisher=dexonline.ro|title=Valah|work=Dicționare ale limbii române|access-date=18 June 2018}}</ref>}}) alias Francovich and Jacobea (Jakovica) Luciani, daughter of a wealthy and powerful Albonian civic family.<ref name="Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht"/> Her family was related by marriage<ref name="Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht"/><ref name="Mirkovic">{{cite book |last1=Mirković|first1=Mijo|title=''Matija Vlačić Ilirik''|date=1960|publisher=Jugoslavenska akademija znanosti i umietnosti|location=}}</ref><ref name="Twesten"/> to the local Lupetino (Lupetina) family: Jacobea's brother, Luciano Luciani, married Ivanka Lupetina, the sister of the friar Baldo Lupetino (Lupetina), likewise born in Labin, who later was condemned to death in Venice for his Lutheran sympathies.<ref name="Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht"/>

Andrea Vlacich was a small landowner, who died during his son's early childhood. Flacius went also by the name Franković. He matriculated at the [[University of Basel]] in 1539 under the name ''Mattheus de Francistis [Franković] de Albona''.<ref name="Wackernagel">{{cite book |last1=Wackernagel|first1=Hans Georg|title=''Die Matrikel der Universität Basel'' vol. 2 (1532–1601)|date=1956|publisher=Verlag der Universitätsbibliothek|location=Basel}}</ref><ref name="Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht">{{cite book|last1=Ilić|first1=Luca|title=Theologian of Sin and Grace: The Process of Radicalization in the Theology of Matthias Flacius Illyricus Volume 225 of Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YV4IBAAAQBAJ&q=saint+jerome+istria+theologian+of+sin+and+grace|date=2014|publisher=[[Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht]]|location=Göttingen, Germany|page=34|isbn=9783647101170}}</ref> Further, he himself signed a payment slip at the [[University of Wittenberg]] as ''Mathias Francovich Illyricus''.<ref name="Friedensburg">{{cite book |author=[[Walter Friedensburg]]|title=''Die Anstellung des Flacius Illyricus''|date=1904|publisher=[[:de:Gütersloher Verlagshaus|Gütersloher Verlagshaus]]|location=Gütersloh|page=}}</ref> The origin of the double surname is not clear, but it might have been a double last name resulting from marriage, his or some of his ancestors'.<ref name="Mirkovic"/><ref name="Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht"/> Likewise, the 'Illyricus' is of uncertain origin, likely in reference to his place of origin, the historical province of [[Illyricum (disambiguation)|Illyricum]].<ref>{{cite journal | url = https://hrcak.srce.hr/en/clanak/138 | first = Ivan | last = Kordić | year = 2005 | title = Croatian Philosophers IV: Matija Vlačić Ilirik – Mathias Flacius Illyricus (1520–1575) | journal = Prolegomena: Journal of Philosophy | publisher = Udruga za promicanje filozofije | location = Zagreb, Croatia | issn = 1846-0593 | volume = 4 | number = 2 | page = 219 | access-date = 27 March 2022}}</ref>

At the age of sixteen, Flacius went to study in [[Venice]], where he was taught by the [[Renaissance humanism|humanist]] [[Giambattista Cipelli]] (Baptista Aegnatius / Battista Egnazio). At the age of seventeen, he intended to join a monastic order, with a view to sacred learning. His intention, however, was diverted by his uncle-in-law,{{efn|As mentioned, his uncle Luciano Luciani, married Ivanka Lupetina, the sister of the friar Baldo. Flacius himself calls Lupetino the "brother-in-law of his uncle (''der Schwager meines Oheims'')<ref name="Twesten">{{cite book |author=[[August Detlev Christian Twesten]]|title=''Matthias Flacius Illyricus, eine Vorlesung: Mit autobiographischen Beilagen und einer Abhandlung über Melanchtons Verhalten zum Interim''|date=1844|publisher=G. Bethge|location=Berlin|page=37}}</ref><ref name="Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht"/>}} Baldo Lupetina, [[provincial superior|provincial]] of the [[Franciscan]]s and sympathetic to the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] cause, who convinced him to start a university career.<ref name="Chisholm1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Flacius, Matthias|volume=10|page=543|first=Alexander|last=Gordon|author-link=Alexander Gordon (Unitarian)}}</ref>

Flacius continued his studies in [[Basel]] in 1539, then went to [[Tübingen]] and finally ended up in [[Wittenberg]], where in (1541) he was welcomed{{clarify|meaning what exactly?|date=September 2017}} by [[Philip Melanchthon]]. In Tübingen, Flacius was received into the house of [[Matija Grbac|Matthias Garbitius]] (Matija Grbac) a humanist and a professor of Greek at the [[University of Tübingen]], who, like Flacius, was from Istria, and was called "fellow countryman" (''conterraneous'') by Flacius.<ref name="Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht"/> There he came under the influence of [[Martin Luther]]. In 1544, Flacius was appointed professor of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] at Wittenberg. He finished his master's degree on 24 February 1546, ranking first among the graduates.<ref name="Chisholm1911"/>

=== Career and teachings ===
Soon, Flacius was prominent in the theological discussions of the time, strenuously opposing the ''[[Augsburg Interim]]'', and the compromise of Melanchthon known as the ''[[Leipzig Interim]]''. Melanchthon wrote of him with venom as a renegade (''aluimus in sinu serpentem'', "we have nourished a snake in our bosom"). In 1549, Flacius moved to [[Magdeburg]]. On 7 May 1557, he was appointed professor of [[New Testament]] at the theological faculty in [[Jena]] but was soon involved in controversy with his colleague [[Victorinus Strigel]] on the [[synergistic question]] (relating to the function of the will in the conversion).<ref name="Chisholm1911"/> He remained at the university between 1557 and 1562.<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon">{{cite book |author1=Milorad Živančević |editor = Živan Milisavac |date=1971 |title=Jugoslovenski književni leksikon |trans-title=Yugoslav Literary Lexicon |publisher=[[Matica srpska]] |location= [[Novi Sad]] ([[Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina|SAP Vojvodina]], [[Socialist Republic of Serbia|SR Serbia]]) |page=570 }}</ref>

Affirming the natural inability of man, he adopted a position on [[sin]] as not being an accident of [[human nature]], but involved in its substance, since [[The Fall of Man]].<ref name="Chisholm1911"/> Holding to a strong view of what [[Calvinism|Calvinists]] later called [[total depravity]], Flacius insisted that human nature was entirely transformed by [[original sin]], human beings were transformed from [[Goodness and value theory|good]]ness and almost wholly corrupted with [[evil]], making them kin to the [[Devil]] in his view, so that within them, without divine assistance, there lies no power even to cooperate with the [[Gospel]] when they hear it preached.  Human acts of [[piety]] are valueless in themselves, and humans are entirely dependent on the [[divine grace|grace]] of God for [[salvation]]. Those who agreed with him on this point, for example, [[Cyriacus Spangenberg]], were termed [[Flacians]].

Resisting ecclesiastical censure, he left Jena in December 1561 to found an academy at [[Regensburg]].<ref name="Chisholm1911"/> That assignment was not successful, so in October 1566 he accepted a call from the Lutheran community at [[Antwerp]]. Thence he was driven in early 1567 by the exigencies of war, and went to [[Frankfurt]], where the authorities stood against him. He proceeded to [[Strasbourg]] where he was well received by the superintendent [[Johannes Marbach]]. Here again, his religious views caused controversies. The authorities ordered him to leave the city by [[May Day]] 1573. The prioress [[Catharina von Meerfeld]] of the {{ill|Convent of White Ladies|de|Weißfrauenkirche}} secretly harboured him and his family in Frankfurt where he fell ill and died on 11 March 1575.<ref name="Chisholm1911"/>

=== Impact and aftermath ===
Flacius' life was eventful in a turbulent epoch. He represents in some sense a move in the direction of the scientific study of [[church history]] in the modern sense and similarly of [[hermeneutics]], though no doubt his impelling motive was not dispassionate but polemical, namely to prove the false premises of [[Roman Catholicism]]. His characteristic formula, ''historia est fundamentum doctrinae'', is better understood now than in his own day.<ref name="Chisholm1911"/>

According to Emil Petru Rațiu, the Moldovan president of the Andrei Glavina Cultural Association of the Istro-Romanians, Flacius could have been an ethnic [[Istro-Romanians|Istro-Romanian]]. He based these claims on the fact that there used to be a notorious Istro-Romanian presence in Labin during the times in which Flacius lived, in the surname of his father ("Vlacich", which could originate from "Vlach" and have been Latinized as "Flacius") and other arguments.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.istrianet.org/istria/illustri/vlacic/04_1019ratiu_eroe-rom.htm|title=Un erou modern|first=Emil Petru|last=Rațiu|newspaper=Adevărul literar și artistic|date=19 October 2004|language=ro}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://revistatransilvania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/13-Emil-Petru-Ratiu-Matthias-Flacius-Illyricus.pdf|title=Matthias Flacius Illyricus|first=Emil Petru|last=Rațiu|journal=Transilvania|volume=4|pages=64–72|year=2009|language=ro}}</ref>

=== Family life ===
In 1545, while at Wittenberg, Flacius married a pastor's daughter. He had twelve children with his first wife before she died in 1564. He remarried the same year in Regensburg and had six more children with his second wife. His son {{ill|Matthias Flacius Junior|de|Matthias Flacius der Jüngere}} was professor of [[logic]] and [[medicine]] at [[Rostock]].<ref name="Chisholm1911"/>

== Works ==
[[Image:Matija Vlacic Ilirik kljucsvetogpisma.jpg|175px|thumb|right|''Clavis scripturae sacrae'', 2nd edition, 1674]]
* ''De vocabulo fidei'' (1549)
* ''De voce et re fidei'' (1555)
* [https://digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10207652 Antilogia Papae: hoc est, de corrupto Ecclesiae statu et totius cleri papistici perversitate, Scripta aliquot veterum authorum, ante annos plus minus CCC, et interea: nunc primum in lucem eruta, et ab interitu vindicata] (1555)
* ''Catalogus testium veritatis, qui ante nostram aetatem reclamarunt Papae'' (1556)
* ''Confessio Waldensium'' (1568)
* ''Konfutationsbuch'' (1559)
* [[Magdeburg Centuries|''Ecclesiastica historia, integram Ecclesiae Christi ideam ... secundum singulas Centurias, perspicuo ordine complectens ... ex vetustissimis historicis ...congesta: Per aliquot studiosos et pios viros in urbe Magdeburgica'']] (1559–1574)
* ''Clavis Scripturae Sacrae seu de Sermone Sacrarum literarum'' (1567)
* ''Glossa compendiaria in Novum Testamentum'' (1570)

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* Luka Ilić, '' Theologian of Sin and Grace. The Process of Radicalization in the Theology of Matthias Flacius Illyricus'' (2014)
* Oliver K. Olson, ''Matthias Flacius and the Survival of Luther's Reform'' (2000)
* ''Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Leben & Werk: Internationales Symposium, Mannheim'' (February 1991)
* J. B. Ritter, ''Flacius's Leben u. Tod'' (1725)
* M. Twesten, ''[https://archive.org/details/matthiasflacius02melagoog M. Flacius Illyricus]'' (1844)
* Wilhelm Preger ''[https://archive.org/details/matthiasflacius00preggoog M. Flacius Illyricus u. seine Zeit]'' (1859—1861)
* [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc04.f.iii.html "Flacius, Matthias"], in P. Schaff and J.J. Herzog, eds. ''[[New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge]]'', vol. 4 (1952), pp. 321–323.
* {{cite book|last=Franolić|first=Branko|title=An Historical Survey of Literary Croatian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wZNiAAAAMAAJ|year=1984|publisher=Nouv. éd. latines|isbn=978-2-7233-0126-8}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Matthias Flacius}}
*[http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/138 Life and work of Matthias Flacius]
* [https://archive.today/20130415020756/http://www.istrianet.org/istria/illustri/vlacic/index.htm Biography of Istrian-born Matthias Flacius (in Croatian, German, English and Italian)]
* [https://archive.today/20130414142052/http://www.ccel.org/php/disp.php3?a=schaff&b=encyc04&p=321 Flacius, Matthias] (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge)
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=93ErAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA178&vq=Flacius+niyricus+Matthias&source=gbs_search_r&cad=1_1 Matthias Flacius] in the Lutheran Cyclopedia (1899)
* [http://www.lcms.org/ca/www/cyclopedia/02/display.asp?t1=f&word=FLACIUSILLYRICUS.MATTHIAS Matthias Flacius] in the Christian Cyclopedia (2000)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927012607/http://www.riforma.net/storia/flacio/supplemento.htm supplemento.htm], riforma.net. Accessed 24 February 2024.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180111165554/http://www.flacius.org/index.htm Website dedicated to Matthias Flacius Illyricus (in Croatian, German, English and Italian)]
{{Early Lutheran Controversies}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flacius, Matthias}}
[[Category:1520 births]]
[[Category:1575 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century apocalypticists]]
[[Category:16th-century Croatian people]]
[[Category:16th-century German Protestant theologians]]
[[Category:16th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:Croatian Lutheran clergy]]
[[Category:Croatian Protestant theologians]]
[[Category:German Lutheran theologians]]
[[Category:German male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:People from Labin]]