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: thus Alting, being appointed preceptor to the prince in 1608, so distinguished himself by his assiduity and success, that 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. His increased knowledge and invigorated talents were always receiving renewed opportunities of exertion; and in the synod of Dort, to which he had been deputed by the palatine, along with other two divines, his eloquence and learning obtained full scope.
From the avowed patronage of the elector it was but reasonable for Alting to expect high preferment and important advantages; 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 as he was entering, the officer who guarded the house 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, who happened to be employed by Count Tilly in the kitchen occupied by him in the chancellor's house, supplied him with food. In this perilous situation he remained till an opportunity offered of making his escape to Heilbron, whither his family had been previously conducted.
But Alting was now as much harassed by ecclesiastical intolerance as he had formerly been 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 palatine by the victorious forces of Count Tilly. It was natural for one who had just escaped the flames of a popish war, to expect a welcome and hospitable reception among Protestants; but whatever might have been their progress in the other doctrines of Christianity, those of candour and mutual forbearance seem at that period to have occupied little of their attention. The palatine 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 arose between the two schools and their respective vicinities. The injuries which Alting had suffered from the common enemy were not sufficient to secure for 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, by his importunity he obtained leave from his patron to remove to Groningen, where he was appointed to 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 his 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 palatine, 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 Frankfurt; when the battle of Norlingen, in which the imperialists were victorious, rendered his further progress impracticable, and he therefore with great difficulty returned to Groningen.
Domestic affliction and personal sufferings embittered the remaining years of this excellent man's life. The death of his eldest daughter, for whom he entertained an ardent affection, brought on a deep melancholy, accompanied with bodily disease, which was with great difficulty removed; but after an interval of four years, the loss of an amiable and beloved wife occasioned the return of his malady, which in a few months put a period to his useful life, in the year 1644.
Alting was a man of eminent talents, extensive learning, and amiable dispositions, and always more solicitous to serve the public than to benefit himself. His character and misfortunes cannot fail deeply to interest every reader. He was averse to quarrels and disputes about trifles, although no friend to the innovations introduced at this period by the Socinians; and, adhering to what he considered the plain doctrine of Scripture, he was equally desirous to avoid fanatical scrupulosity and sophistical subtlety. The productions of his pen are, Nota in Decaden Problematum Jacobi Behm, Heidelbergæ, 1618, Notes on a Decade of Jacob Boehmen's Problems; Loci Communes, Common Places; Problemata, Problems; Explicitio Catecheses Palatine, Explanation of the Palatine Catechism; Exegesis Augustanae Confessionis, &c. Amst. 1647, Exposition of the Augsburg Confession; Methodus Theologiae Didacticae et Catecheticae, Amst. 1650, A Method of Didactic and Catechetical Theology. The Medulla Historiae Profane, Marrow of Profane History, published under the name of Paræus, was written by Alting.