Borrhaus (Borrhaic), Martin

BORRHAUS (BORRHAIC), MARTIN. - Protestant humanist and theologian, also known under the name Cellarius M., b. in Stuttgart in 1499, d. in Basel in 1564. He first studied at Tübingen, where he had occasion to meet Melanchthon; afterward he devoted himself to languages and philosophy at Heidelberg and obtained the title of master of philosophy.

While he was teaching at Wittenberg, an office procured for him by Melanchthon himself, Mark Stubner, a famous Anabaptist, arrived in that city and drew him to his doctrine. But neither this doctrine nor the novelties that they wished to introduce into worship pleased Luther and Melanchthon, and so both B. and Stubner had to leave the city. In 1525 B. propagated Anabaptist doctrines in Prussia; but, disappointed and discouraged, he abandoned them, and in 1536 he accepted a school of Greek and Latin in Basel. When his expertise became known, the chair of Old Testament was offered to him in the same city (1540). During this time he wrote, besides some works on Aristotle, commentaries on the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, the Books of Kings, on some prophets, on Solomon's Ecclesiastes, on Job and on the Apocalypse, and shortly before his death on the Proverbs.