BORRHAUS (BORRHAIC), MARTIN. - Humanist and Protestant theologian, also known by the name of Cellarius M., born at Suttgard in 1499, died at Basel in 1564. He first studied at Tübingen, where he had occasion to meet Melanchthon, and later devoted himself to languages and philosophy at Heidelberg, obtaining the title of Master of Philosophy.
While teaching at Wittenberg, a position procured for him by Melanchthon himself, Marco Stubner, a noted Anabaptist, arrived in that city and converted him to his doctrine. However, neither this nor the innovations they sought to introduce into worship pleased Luther and Melanchthon, and so both B. and Stubner were obliged to leave the city. In 1525, B. propagated Anabaptist doctrines in Prussia; disappointed and disillusioned, he abandoned them and in 1536 accepted a position teaching Greek and Latin in Basel. Recognizing his expertise, he was offered the chair of the Old Testament in the same city in 1540. During this period, besides the aforementioned work on Aristotle, he wrote commentaries on the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, the Books of Kings, on some prophets, on Ecclesiastes, Job, and the Apocalypse, and shortly before his death, on Proverbs.