HYPERIUS, ANDREW GERHARD ; the name Hyperius, taken from his birth-place Yperu, was used in his published writings in preference to that of his family. He was born May 16, 1511. In 1528 he commenced his studies in that city under Joachim Ringelberg, an eminent teacher, whose favourite maxim was, Quit-pad dediceris, confestim doceas. In 1532 he began to attend a course of theology ; but dissatisfied with the dry scholasticism of the Sorbonne, he read in private the Fathers, especially Augustine, and made himself well ac quainked with church history and the canon law ; at the same time he attended the lectures of the classical scholars who had been invited to the new college founded by Francis I. in 1529, some of whom were warm friends of the Reformation, and propagated its principles among their students. During his theological triennium he travelled through all France and north Italy ; at the conclu sion of his studies in 1535 he vv.ent through the Netherlands and tbe north of Germany ; and in i537 he visited Hesse and Saxony, and made the acquaintance of the Protestant theologians in Mar burg, Erfurt, Wittenberg, and Leipsic. Soon after he openly joined the Reformers, and declined a lucrative post in the Papal Court which his friends, without his knowledge, had obtained for him. He ultimately became professor of theology
at Marburg, where he died 1st Feb. 1564. Be sides several works in theology, he prepared a com mentary on the Epistles of Paul and the Epistle to the Hebrews, which was published after his death by Mylius, in 4 vols. fol., Ziir. 1582-84. This, though comparatively but little known,* is one nf the most valuable of the exegetical remains of the Reformers. Hyperius pursues the grammatico-his torical method of interpretation, examining the meaning of the words, carefully tracing the con nection of the passage, taking note of the analogy of Scripture, and so arriving at the true sense of the place. Not until be has thus done justice to the exegesis, does he proceed to the dogmatical or practical use of the passage. He also frequently gives citations from the Fathers to shew the agree ment of his conclusions with the understanding of the ancient church. In his Opusczela are to be found also some exegetical treatises.—J. E. R.