URSINUS, ZACHARIAS, a German divine of considerable note, was born at Breslau on the 18th of July 1534. He studied at Wittenberg, where the friendship of Melanchthon was drawn out towards him by his zeal and industry. Having attended the conference of Worms with Melanchthon, he subsequently went to Geneva, and afterwards to Paris, where he studied the Hebrew language under Mercer. He was appointed rector of the Gymnasium Elizabethanum at Breslau in 1558; but the theological animosity of the Lutheran divines compelled him to retire to Zürich in 1560. Being chosen professor in the Collegium Sapientiae at Heidelberg, he was soon after made doctor of
divinity, and received an order from the Elector-Palatine, Frederick III., to draw up the Heidelberg Catechism. This small work, which was subsequently received by the German Calvinists as the exposition of their creed, was fiercely attacked by Lutherans, and keenly defended by Ursinus. The Elector died in 1577, and as his successor could only tolerate Lutherans, Ursinus was obliged to quit Heidelberg in 1578. He soon received a professorship at Neustadt, where he taught with much acceptance until his death, which occurred in 1583. His Opera was published in 1587-89; but a more complete edition was published by his son, and his former pupils, David Pareus, and Quirinus Reuterus, 3 vols., 1612.