ALTING, HENRY, a German divine, was born at Embden, in 1583. His father was minister of the church of Embden, and early destined his son to the same profession. In the year 1602, after a grammatical course he was sent to the university of Herborn: there he studied with so much assiduity and success, that he soon had the honour of being a preceptor. Qualified by the vigorous exertions of his talents, he was appointed tutor to the three young counts of Nassau, Solms, and Isenburg, who studied with the elector prince palatine, first at Sedan, and afterwards at Heidelberg. A proper discharge of the duties of a lower station generally paves the way for a higher. For he was appointed preceptor to the prince in 1608: and in consequence of his assiduity and success, he was chosen to accompany the elector into England. Among the number of celebrated men to whose acquaintance he was introduced in England, was the famous Dr Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury. In 1613, Alting returning to Heidelberg after the marriage of the elector with the princess of England, received his degree of doctor of divinity, and was appointed director of the college of Wisdom. The increased knowledge and invigorated talents of Alting, were always receiving renewed opportunities of exertion; thus his eloquence
quence and learning obtained full scope in the synod of Dort, to which he had been deputed by the Palatinate, along with two other divines.
It was but reasonable for Alting to expect high preferment and high advantages from the avowed patronage of the elector; but in this he was greatly disappointed, and he had only to participate in his misfortunes. In 1622, Count Tilly took the city of Heidelberg, and devoted it to plunder. In order to escape the fury of the soldiers, Alting endeavoured to pass by a back door into the chancellor's house, which was put under a strong guard; but the officer who guarded the house, as he was entering said to him; "with this battle-axe I have to-day killed ten men, and Alting, if I knew where to find him, should be the eleventh; who are you?" Alting with a singular presence of mind returned an evasive answer, which saved his life. "I am (said he) a teacher in the college of Wisdom." The officer took him under his protection; but the Jesuits unfortunately taking possession of the house, the next day, left the generous officer no time at his departure to take care of the teacher of the college of Wisdom." Alting evaded the hands of the Jesuits, by hiding himself in a garret, and a cook of the electoral court supplied him with food, who happened to be employed by Count Tilly in the kitchen occupied by him in the chancellor's house. In this perilous situation he remained until an opportunity offered of making his escape to Heilbron, whither his family had been conducted before.
But ecclesiastical intolerance harassed Alting, as much as he was formerly endangered by military hostility. With the permission of the duke of Wirtemberg he retired for a few months to Schorndorf after the desolation of the Palatinate by the victorious forces of Count Tilly. It was reasonable to expect that a welcome and hospitable reception might have been given, among Protestants, to one who had just escaped the flames of a Popish war. But the doctrine of mutual forbearance and candour seems to have been little attended to by the Protestants, at this period, whatever was their progress in the knowledge of the other doctrines of Christianity. The Palatinate being in the vicinity of the duchy of Wirtemberg, the professors of Tübingen and Heidelberg frequently attacked each other in polemic writings and theological disputations. The natural consequence was, that a settled jealousy and enmity existed between the two schools and their respective vicinities. The injuries which Alting had suffered from the common enemy were not sufficient to secure him a friendly reception among the Lutheran ministers of Schorndorf, who were involved in these feuds, and therefore murmured at the permission which the duke had given to a professor of Heidelberg to reside there. The mischievous effects of religious dissensions have been universally felt.
In 1623, Alting retired with his family to Embden, and afterwards followed to the Hague his late pupil, now king of Bohemia. Such was the unfeigned attachment of his master to him, that he still retained him as a preceptor to his eldest son; and prevented him from accepting the charge of the church at Embden, and likewise of a professorship at the university of Franeker. In 1627 his importunity prevailed upon his patron, and he obtained leave to remove to Groningen, and there ascended the divinity chair; and continued
to lecture with increasing reputation until the day of his death. The ardent desire and repeated endeavours of several universities to appropriate to themselves the honour and benefit of his services, is the most unequivocal proof of the general esteem in which his character was held. The states of Groningen positively refused to give their consent to this removal, when the university of Leyden solicited him to come and labour among them. But some time after, the prospect of extensive usefulness in re-establishing the university of Heidelberg, and restoring the churches of the Palatinate, determined him to accept the office of professor of divinity and ecclesiastical senator, presented to him by Prince Lewis Philip. In the year 1634, amidst numerous hardships, to which the existing war exposed him, he set out for Heidelberg, and pursued his journey as far as Francfort: when the battle of Norlingen, in which the imperialists were victorious, rendered his farther progress impracticable, and therefore with great difficulty he returned to Groningen.
Domestic affliction and personal sufferings embittered the remaining years of this excellent man's life. Deprived of his eldest daughter by death, such was his great affection for her that it brought on a settled melancholy, attended with a bodily disease which was with great difficulty removed; but after an interval of four years a settled and irrecoverable melancholy seized him, in consequence of the loss of an amiable and beloved wife, which, together with a return of his bodily disease, in a few months put a period to his useful life in the year 1644.
Alting was a man of eminent talents and extensive learning, possessed of amiable dispositions, which induced him to be more solicitous to serve the public than to benefit himself. The amiable character and extensive learning of Alting, cannot fail deeply to interest every reader, in consequence of his misfortunes. He was averse to quarrels and disputes about trifles, although no friend to the innovations introduced at this period by the Socinians. According to his own judgment, adhering to the plain doctrine of Scripture, he was equally desirous to avoid fanatical scrupulosity and sophistical subtlety. The productions of his pen are, Notæ in Decadem Problematum Jacobi Behm, Heidelbergæ, 1618; "Notes on a Decad of Jacob Behmen's Problems." Loci Communes; "Common Places." Problemata; "Problems." Explicitio Catecheseos Palatinæ; "Explanation of the Palatine Catechism." Exceris Augustanæ Confessionis, &c. Amst. 1647; "Commentary on the Augustan Confession." Methodus Theologiæ Didactiæ et Catechetiæ, Amst. 1650; "A Method of Didactic and Catechetical Theology." Medulla Historiæ Prophaneæ, "Marrow of Profane History," published under the name of Parcus, was written by Alting. (Gen. Biog.)