SIMLER, JOSIA. - Swiss humanist, b. 6 Nov. 1530 at Cappel, d. 2 July 1576 at Zurich. He studied Protestant theology at Zurich, Basle, and Strasbourg; he collaborated with Bullinger and founded the Reformed Church of Zurich. In 1552 he became professor of New Testament exegesis at the University of Zurich.
Besides two biographical works on the two reformers Pietro Martire Vermigli and Bullinger, he published Deaeterno Dei filio et de Spiritu Sancto libri IV, against the anti-Trinitarians. He also translated several works by Bullinger into Latin. His greatest renown, however, was chiefly due to the work De republica Helvetiorum, in 2 books, published in the year of his death, which until the beginning of the nineteenth century was the best-known manual of Swiss public law, esteemed also by foreigners, and to the Assertio orthodoxae doctrinae de duobus naturis Christi (1575), in which he opposed the most radical heretics of his time.