Lydius

LYDDA, LOD: A city of Ephraim, situated in the plain of Sharon, 10 m. se. of Joppa on the road to Jerusalem, identified with the Arab village of Ludd. It is mentioned in the Old Testament as Lod in I Churn. viii. 12; Ezra ii. 33; Neh. vii. 37, xi. 35, and as Lydda in I Maw. xi. 34. In the New Testament it appears only Acts ix. 32-38 as

visited by Peter, who healed there the paralytic Eneas. After the fall of Jerusalem it was famous as a seat of rabbinic learning, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiba being reckoned among its scholars. In the second century its name was changed to Dioapolis, though the older name persisted. In the third century it became the seat of a bishop, but the bishopric seems to have lapsed in the math century. Legend makes it the birthplace of St. George, whose head is said to have been buried there, and a church, built on the spot, was destroyed by the Mohammedans, rebuilt by the Crusaders, and again destroyed by Saladin in 1191.

Bibliography: G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of as Holy Land, pp. 180 sqq., London, 1897; Robinson, Researches, ii. 244-248; $ehOrer, aeeehichte, i. 184-186, ii. 181-188 et passim. Eng. transl., L, i. 190, 191, 245-248, II., i. 157-159 et passim.

LYDIUS, lid'i-as: The name of a Dutch family which produced several Reformed theologians in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

1. Martin Lydius: Professor of theology at Franeker; b. at Lubeck (to which his parents had fled from Deventer, seeking refuge from the Spaniards) in 1539 or 1540; d. at Franeker June 27, 1601. About 1560 he entered the University of Tübingen, but in 1565 migrated to Heidelberg, where he became a teacher in the Collegium Sapientiae in 1566 or 1567. On the death of the Elector Frederick III. (1576), Lydius, after a brief residence in Frankfort, became a pastor in Antwerp, whence he was called in 1579 to Amsterdam. In 1585 he accepted a call to the newly founded University of Franeker and became its first rector in 1586. He sought to avoid religious controversy, yet his part in the struggle between the infralapsariana and the supralapsariana led him to contribute toward the rise of Arminianism, for when, in 1589, an infralapsarian treatise was submitted to him for his opinion, he referred it to the young Amsterdam Preacher Jacobus Arminius (q.v.). The result for Arminius was a complete reversal of his views on predestination. When, however, Arminius was accused of Pelagianism in 1592, Lydius sought to mediate in the controversy. Besides letters to Beza, Ursinus, Arminius, Lipsius, Joseph Scaliger, J. G. Vosaius, and others, also several orations and poems, he wrote Apologia pro Erasmo (edited by his son and included in the Leyden edition of Erasmus, x. 1759-80), but no theological works,

2. Balthasar Lydius: Elder son of Martin Lydius; b. at Umatadt (a suburb of Darmstadt) in 1576 or 1577; d. at Dort Jan. 20, 1629. Educated at Leyden, he was chosen assistant pastor at Dort in 1602, and became full pastor in 1604, retaining this positidn until his death. Though irenic in temperament like his father, he became a bitter opponent of the Remonatranta, especially at the Synod of Dort, which he both opened (Nov. 13, 1618) and closed (May 29, 1619), and of whose protocol he was one of the editors. He made a reputation by his Waldensia, id est ognstwm vcclesice (2 vols., Rotterdam and Dort, 1616-17), which, however, though still of value, is both in- i complete and incorrect, and is little more than a collection of documents on the Taborites and Bohemian Brethren. He also wrote, among other works, Dry historische Tradaetgerea (Amsterdam, 1610), on the Church from the apostles to the Reformation, on the various names of the Waldenses, and on the faith of the Waldenses. As an archeologist he wrote Super loco Mosis de cruentato aportaarum linteo et aliis virginitatis aignia and De Lyncuro lapide (nos. 5 and 16 of J. Beverwyck's Epistolicee qumationes cum doctorum responaia, Rotterdam, 1644), and assisted in the preparation of Mellinus' Groot-Martelaarsboek (Dort, 1619).

3, Johannes Lydius: Younger son of Martin Lydius; b. at Frankfort in 1577; d. at Cnldewater (12 m. s.w. of Utrecht) in 1643, where he had been pastor since 1602, after a year's pastorate at Aarla,nderveen. Like his brother, he was an opponent of Arminianism, but his literary activity was restricted to editing G. du Pr6au's Narratio con.. ciliorum omnium ecclesim Chrestianee (Leyden, 1610); R. Barnes' and J. Balsa' Vitce Pontifictcm (1610); and the works of Nicholas de Cl6manges (2 vols., 1613) and J. Wessel (1617).

4. Jacob Lydius: Third son of Baltha,sar Lydius; b. at Dort about 1610; d. there in 1679. Educated at Leyden, he was pastor at Bleskensgraaf from 1633 to 1637, after which he was pastor at Dort until his death, except in 1643-45, when he was chaplain of the English embassy of the States General. This period resulted in his Historie der beroerten van Enyelandt, aangaende de veelderley secten, die aldaer in de Kercke Jesu Christi zijn ontstaen (Dort, 1647). His exegetical learning was evinced by his Flom- aparsio ad historiam pa, sionia Jesu Christi (Dort, 1672), and his patristic studies by his Agonistica sacra, sine ayntagma vacum et phrasium agonisticarum qua in sancta Scriptura, imprimis vero in epistolis sancti Pauli apostoli, oc currunt (Rotterdam, 1657). High praise was given his Cmyla dominica litteratorum (Dort, 1669). S. van Til edited his posthumous Syntagma sacrum de re malitari, nee non. de iureiurando (1698). As a poet he wrote Vrolieke wren des doodle oJte der tvijaen vermaek (Dort, 1640), while his Belgicum gloriosum (1668; Dutch transl. by himself, 1668) was an ostensible ground for the declaration of war against Holland by Charles II. in 1672. His greatest fame, however, was gained by his anonymous Den Roomschen Uylen^apiegel (Amsterdam, 1671), a savage but witty satire on the Roman Catholic Chunk, In the ensuing controversy between him and the Jesuit Cornelis Hazart of Antwerp, he wrote, besides other polemics, Anttverpschen uyl in doodanoot (1671); Het overlijdxn van, den AntyerpSchen uyl (1671); Ladst olyasel van den A.ntwerpseherl uyl in doodtareoot; and the posthumous Laetsten duywls. dreck, oJte ongehoorde grouwelen van paepsche leeraera sneer eeutve (port, 1687), all works of importance for a knowledge of the relations between the Reformed and the, Roman Catholics in Holland in the seventeenth century.

(S. D. Van Veen.)

Bibliography: E. L. Vriemoet, At3enaru,n Frieiaonrum libri. PP 20-2H Leeuwarden. 1758: G. D. J. Schotel,

ICerkelijk Dordrechl, i. 257_284 391-423 Ut,e~t, 1841; s. Giaeiue, aodyeleerd Nederland, ii. 4i4-421. a .·ole., e Hertogenboseh.1851-58; H. C. Rogge. in Kalender _earl Protutaaten in Nederland, j1857 pp. 228 sqq.; C. BepP. Hd aadyelepdondaryis ixNdaland i.126-135, Leydea, 1873.