RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Menologlon Mercersburg' Theology
of the University of Giessen (1607), and Mentzer was one of the first professors chosen. When the political difficulties between the two landgraves ended in 1625, the university was transferred back to Marburg, and Mentzer was elected its first rector. In his new office he showed great zeal and ability, introducing new studies, taking great interest in the moral improvement of the students, and advising the theologians to refrain from mere scholasticism and to base their studies upon the Bible. He was an earnest, sincere, and devoted, if somewhat narrow, theologian. Practically all his writings were polemical, and had value only for his contemporaries. They were aimed in part at Johann Pistorius, Johann and Ludwig Crocius (qq.v.), and Anton Sadeel. Even his Exegesis Augustance Confessionis (Giessen, 1613) had a polemical purpose.
2. Balthasar II.: Theologian and diplomatist; son of the preceding; b. at Giessen May 14, 1614; d. at Darmstadt July 28, 1679. He was educated at the University of Marburg; accompanied Landgrave George II. on a journey to Saxony in 1631, and on his return finished his studies at Jena and Strasburg. He was appointed extraordinary professor at Marburg in 1640, and at the University of Rinteln in 1646; when the University of Giessen was reestablished in 1650, he was made professor of Hebrew and theology. He was, however, more at home in diplomacy and the landgrave made use of his talents in this direction. In 1652 Mentzer was appointed court preacher and superintendent at Darmstadt, and had ample opportunity for displaying his administrative talents. He was the constant companion of the landgrave in the latter's travels, and proved himself a capable diplomat. Several religious difficulties were settled satisfactorily through his skill and tact.
3. Balthasar III.: Mathematician, son of the preceding; b. at Rinteln Feb. 21, 1651; d. at Hamburg Mar. 8, 1727. In his sixteenth year he was elected professor of mathematics at the University of Giessen. He was a member of the orthodox party, and opposed the pietistic movement so energetically that he lost his position in 1693. A few years later he was chosen professor of mathematics at the Johanneum of Hamburg (a private institution) .
4. Balthasar IV.: Theologian, son of the preceding; b. at Giessen Jan. 12, 1679; d. at Hanover Dec. 20, 1741. He studied philosophy and oriental languages at Leipsic and Wittenberg; spent some time in travel, then became pastor of the German Church in London in 1714; court preacher at Hanover, 1722; superintendent at Calenberg in 1726, and at Hanover, 1732. (Erwin Preuschen.)
Bibliography: The Opera Latina of Balthasar I. were published Frankfort, 1669, and contain a brief account of his life by his son-in-law, M. Hannecken; consult further for his life: F. W Strieder, Hessische Gelehrten- und Schriftstellergeschichte, viii. 418 sqq., Cassel, 1788 (contains on p. 424 a list of Balthasar's writings). On 2 consult: E. F. Neubauer, Hessische Hebopfer, i. 379 sqq., Giessen, 1734; F. W. Strieder, ut sup., viii. 442 sqq.; W. M. Becker, Geschichte der Universitat Giessen, Giessen, 1907.
MENZIES, men'zez, ALLAN: Church of Scotland; b. at Edinburgh Jan. 23, 1845. He was
educated at St. Andrews (M.A., 1864) and the universities of Edinburgh (B.D., 1868) and Erlangen. From 1873 to 1890 he was minister of the parish of Abernyte, Perthshire, and was also examiner in classics at St. Andrews from 1881 to 1884. Since 1889 he has been professor of divinity and Biblical criticism at St. Mary's College, St. Andrews. In 1897 he was elected president of the National Church Union, a position which he held for a number of years. He has translated F. C. von Baur's Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi (2d ed., 2 vols., Leipsic, 1866-67) and Das Christentum und die christliche Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte (3d ed., Tubingen, 1863) under the titles Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ (London, 1876) and The Church History of the First Three Centuries (1879); J. Wellhausen's Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels (2d ed., Berlin, 1883) under the title Prolegomena to the History of Israel (in collaboration with J. S. Black, Edinburgh, 1885); and also O. Pfleiderer's Religionsphilosophie auf geschichtlicher Grundlage (2d ed., 2 vols., Berlin, 1883-84) under the title Philosophy of Religion (in collaboration with A. Stewart; 4 vols., London, 1886-88), and has likewise edited the supplementary volume of the Ante-Nicene Fathers (New York, 1896) and the Journal of Theology and Philosophy since 1905. As independent works he has written, in addition to briefer contributions, National Religion (London, 1888); The History of Religion (1895); and The Earliest Gospel (1902).
MERCERSBURG THEOLOGY: A school of philosophy and theology which took its rise about 1836 in Marshall College and in the Theological Seminary of the German Reformed Church, then located at Mercersburg, Pa. It grew out of the contact between the modern Evangelical theology of Germany and Anglo-American church life, and quickened the German Reformed Church to new activity. It produced considerable fermentation and controversy, which affected also the Lutheran and other neighboring churches, but is now a matter of history, though its fruits remain. The movement had three phases. The first was philosophical (1836-43); the second was theological, and turned chiefly on the church question (1843-58); the third was liturgical (1858-66).
The leaders of this school of thought were F. A. Rauch, J. W. Nevin, and Philip Schaff (qq.v.), though Rauch's plans were frustrated by his premature death. Complementing each other reciprocally, Nevin and Schaff developed the ideas of Mercersburg theology in different ways. Nevin discussed the questions concerning the Church and the sacraments. Turning to Cyprian and the Nicene age, he represented the contrast between the church idea then extant and the sect system of the nineteenth century, but aimed chiefly to show that the Oxford Tractarian theory of repristination was historically untenable, and would lead logically to the whole system of the papacy. On the nature of the sacraments he reproduced the anti-Zwinglian and anti-Lutheran conception of John Calvin, which he held to be the true Reformed doctrine. Schaff, in his Principle of Protestantism,
Mercersburg Theology Meribah