THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
1908), during this period making important oxeavations in Palestine; and since 1908 professor at Rostock in Old-Testament exegesis. He has written Beitrtige zur israelitisch-judischen Religionsgeschichte (2 vols., Leipsic, 1896-97); Serubbabel, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der messianischen Erwartung und der Entstehung des Judentums (1898); Studien zur Entstehungsgeschichtc der jiidischen Gemeinde nach dem babylonischen Exil (2 vols., 1900); Tell-Ta'anek. Bericht iiber meine Ausgrabungen in Paldstina (1904); Die alttestamentliche Religion im Rahmen der anderen altorientalischen (1908); Das Ratsel des deuterojesajnnischen Buches (1908); Die israelitischjiidische Hcilandserwartung (in Biblische Zeit- und Streitfragen; Gross-Lichterfelde, 1909); and Altes Testament (Leipsic, 1909).
SELNECKER, NIKOLAUS: German Lutheran theologian, hymnist, and collaborator on the Formula of Concord; b. at Hersbruck (17 m. e.n.e. of Nuremberg) Dec 5. (or 6), 1530; d. at Leipsic May 24, 1592. He early manifested marked musical talent, but it was only after completing his course in law at the University of Wittenberg (1550-54) that he turned to the study of theology, mainly under the influence of Melanchthon, whose distinctly irenic type of theology he adopted. After lecturing for a time on philology, philosophy, and theology, he was recommended by Melanchthon, in 1557, as third court chaplain to Elector August of Saxony, and in Jan., 1558, he accordingly removed to Dresden. A year later he also took charge of the training of the choir in the court chapel, and for four years he was, in addition, tutor of the heirapparent, Alexander (d. 1565). During this Dresden period he published exegeses of the Psalms, Wisdom of Solomon, and I John, as well as Catalogus prcecipuorum conciliorum cecumenicorum et nationalium a tempore apostolorum usque ad nostram eetatem (2 parts, Frankfort, 1571) and such dogmatic and practical works as his Libellus brevis et utilis de ccena Domini (Leipsic, 1561) and Peedagogia Christiana (Frankfort, 1565). Meanwhile Melanchthon had died, and Selnecker came under the far from irenic influence of his father-in-law, Daniel Greiser, thus being transformed into a bitter polemist. The opponents whom he now created seized as a pretext his severe criticism, in one of his sermons, of the elector's inordinate fondness for hunting, and in 1564 Selnecker left Dresden. In the following year he accepted a call to Jena, but two years later he and his Philippistic colleagues (see Philippists) were expelled from the country on the accession of Duke John William. He now turned to his former patron, Elector August, who appointed him, in 1568, professor in Leipsic, and also pastor of the Thomaskirche and superintendent. In 1570, securing from the elector leave of absence for two years, he accepted a call to Wolfenbiittel as court chaplain, ecclesiastical councilor, and supreme superintendent-general. Here, however, he became involved in most rancorous theological discord, accused by the Philippists of being an apostate to Flacianism, and by the Gnesio-Lutherans of being a friend of the despised Wittenberg theologians. Escape seemed impossible, and his only solace was
in writing, this period, while he was residing at Gandersheim, witnessing the composition of his Institutio religionis Christiana; (Frankfort, 1572). In the summer of 1573 he worked for a few months at Oldenburg, where he sought to introduce a Lutheran church order, and was then recalled to his Leipsic professorship, resuming his superintendency and pastorate at the Thomaskirche in 1576.
This second Leipsic period was the most important, theologically, in the career of Selnecker, who found a task distinctly congenial to his irenic type of mind in the furtherance of the Formula of Concord (q.v.), even while becoming utterly estranged from his former friend Jakob Andrea (q.v.), who was bruskly dismissed from office by the elector. Selnecker 's own time was, however, at hand. As long as August lived, his proteg6 was busily engaged in writing, making visitations of churches and schools, and in pastoral work, but with the accession of Christian I. in 1586 Philippism revived, and the second Crypto-Calvinistic controversy broke out. In 1589, unable conscientiously to refrain from criticizing Calvinism, Selnecker was suspended from office, although he still resided for a time at Leipsic. Within a few months, however, he fled, first to Halle and then to Magdeburg, and later secured the position of superintendent at Hildesheim. Late in 1591, on the sudden death of Christian, Selnecker was one of those invited to return to Leipsic and resume office. Despite serious illness, he accepted the call, but died almost immediately after his arrival.
The list of Selnecker's writings includes about 170 items, but of the collected edition which he planned, only four parts of his Latin works appeared (Leipsic, 1584-93). His writings are, in content, dogmatic and polemic, exegetic, historical, and devotional. The chief of these, apart from those already noted, are Relationes aliquot: De consilio scripti Libri Concordia;; De persona Christi et cwna Domini; De autoritate et sententia Confessionis Augustanm; De autoritate Lutheri et Philippi; De controversis nonnullis articulis (Leipsic, 1581) and Historie von der Augsburgischen Konfession (1584). A poet of some ability not only in Latin, but even in Greek, Selnecker occupies a prominent place among the hymnists of his period. He collected his hymns, together with those of other writers, in his Filnfzig Psalmen des koniglichen Propheten David ausgelegt (Nuremberg, 1563); Der ganze Psalter des koniglichen Propheten David ausgelegt (1565-66); Trostliche Sprilche und Grabschriften aus heiliger Schrift (1567); Psalter Davids mit kurzen Summarien und Gebetlein (1572); and Christliche Psalmen, Lieder und Kirchengesdnge (Leipsic, 1587). Many of his hymns mirror forth his personal experiences and events in his career, but they have preserved their popularity in Germany to the present day, while seven of them have been translated into English, the largest collection of the latter being in the Ohio Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal (Columbus, 1880). (Fl W. Dibelius.)
Bibliography: F. Dibelius, in Beitrtige zur siichdschen Kirchengeschichte, part 4, 1888; Buchwald, in Unsere Kirchenliederdichter, iv (1905); G. J. Planck, Geschichte des protestantischen Lehrbegriffs, vol. v., 6 vols., Leipsic,