THOMASIUS, CHRISTIAN. - Philosopher and jurist, b. in Leipzig on 1 Jan. 1655, d. in Halle on 23 Sept. 1728.
Under the protection of Frederick III (1690), he was first a professor at the Ritter Akademie in Halle, then, from 1694, professor of jurisprudence at the new University that he himself organized, and finally, from 1710 until his death, dean. He was a tenacious and profound innovator of German culture: he used the German language rather than Latin, applied with absolute rigor the Lutheran formula of the division between morality and law, devised the territorial system, anticipating Josephinism and at the same time supporting the secularization of social life, fought trials for witchcraft and torture, and worked for the formation of a German national law freed from Romanistic influences. For all this he was called the second reformer of Germany after Luther.
Among his works should be remembered: De jure principis circa adiaphora (Halle 1695); Das Recht evangelischer Fürsten in theol. Streitigkeiten (ibid. 1696); De jure principis circa haereticos (ibid. 1697); De fundamentorum definiendi causas matrimoniales hactenus receptorum insufficientia (ibid. 1698); Vindiciae juris majestatis circa sacra, etc. (ibid. 1699); Theses de crimine magiae (ibid. 1701); De tortura e foris christianorum proscribenda (Leipzig 1705); De translatione ministrorum Ecclesiae (ibid. 1706); De foro competente et subjectione clericorum sub potestate civili (ibid. 1709); De originibus processus inquisitorii contra sagas (Halle 1712); Historia contentionis inter Imperium et sacerdotium usque ad saec. XVI, etc. (ibid. 1722).
Bibliography5 works
Cosimo Petino