Neuser Adam

Neuser Adam , (or Neusner, as the name is written by Sandius,) was Minister of St. Peter's Church, at Heidelberg. About the year 1565, a controversy arose in that city respecting Church Government. Till then, excommunication had not been resorted to ; and C. Olevianus was constanlly urging the adoption of the discipline, observed in the Church of Geneva. This was strenuously resisted by Christopher Probus, Thomas Lieber, (better known by the name of Erastus,) and Adam Neuser, who disapproved of this discipline as tyrannical. Neuser said, that he opposed it as false, and repugnant to the word of God ; and both Erastus and he took every opportunity of speaking and writing against it. No long time after this, it was found that Neuser disbelieved the doctrine of the Trinity ; and he was banished on account of his opinions. Sandius refers to a manuscript letter, which Neuser wrote to the Ambassador of John Sigismund, Prince of Transylvania, at the Court of the Emperor, Maximilian II.; and says, that this letter was intercepted, and that its contents led to the apprehension and imprisonment of Adam Neuser and John Sylvanus. James Suter and Matthias Glirius seem also to have been involved in the consequences of this transaction.

The learned Samuel Crellius represents Neuser as having been the first, in modem times, who taught the pure humanity of Christ, as it was afterwards adopted, and professed by Simon Budnaeus and Francis Davidis. Sandius relates, that it was when Neuser had exercised the ministerial function about ten years, that his imprisonment took place in the Lower Palatinate ; and Budzinius describes his providential escape, and flight into Transylvania, in the year 1571. "Socinianism," says Mosheim, "was introduced into Germany by Adam Neuser, and other emissaries, who infected the Palatinate with its errors, having entered into a league with the Transylvanians, at the critical period when the affairs of the Unitarians in Poland carried a dubious and unpromising aspect. But this pernicious league was soon detected, and the schemes of its authors entirely blasted and disconcerted ; upon which Neuser went into Turkey, and enlisted among the Janizaries."

This account of Mosheim represents Neuser as going of his own accord into Turkey: but Chytraeus says, that he was taken up as a spy at Clausenberg, and sent to Constantinople. Zeltner, who refers to this account of Chytraeus, conjectures that Neuser, under these circumstances, found it expedient to make a formal profession of Mahometanism, in order to save his life; and, in confirmation of this conjecture, refers to Heineccius's Appendix to the Description of the Greek Church.

What has been said on the subject of Neuser's apostasy rests chiefly on the testimony of Stephen Gerlach, a Lutheran Divine, who went to Constantinople, in the month of August, 1573, in the capacity of Domestic Chaplain to the Baron Ungnad Von Weiszenwolf, Austrian Ambassador at the Porte. Gerlach says, that he saw Adam Neuser there, and conversed with him ; and that, on asking him how he arrived at such a pitch of error, he replied, " If I had not been a Calvinist, I should never have come to this." A fragment of a letter is referred to, which Neuser is said to have written to Gerlach at Constantinople, dated July 2nd, 1574, and containing the following passage. "No writer in our time, who is known to me, has become an Arian, who was not previously a Calvinist, as Servet, Blandrata, Paul Alciati, Francis Davidis, Gentilis, Gribaldus, Sylvanus, and others. Let him, therefore, who fears lest he should fall into Arianism, beware of Calvinism." There is also a letter, addressed by Gerlach to Martin Crellius, and written in the year 1575, containing an account of Neuser's apostasy. But Ruarus seems to doubt the truth of the whole narrative ; and Fabricius is equally incredulous respecting it. The fact probably was, as Zeltner conjectures, that Neuser, being banished to Constantinople, and finding himself in a situation, in which the safety of his life depended upon his making a profession of the Mahometan faith, he had not the courage to remain steadfast to his Christian principles, and outwardly conformed to the religion of the country, as a means of selfpreservation. Nor is there anything inconsistent with this supposition, in the account given by Gerlach: for it is evident, that Neuser felt the degradation of his position, when he said, that he should not have become what he was, if he had never been a Calvinist. Henry Altingius calls the truth of this relation in question, because Wenceslaiis Budowez, who gives an account of the latter part of Neuser's life, has not mentioned it: but no such inference can be fairly drawn from the silence of Budowez, respecting a private conversation with another person.

In a work entitled, "Monumenta Pietatis et Literar. Virorum in Republ. et Literaria Illustrium selecta," published at Frankfort on the Maine, at the beginning of the last century, is inserted at full length, "A Letter to Selim II., Emperor of the Turks," in which the writer professes Mahometanism, and offers to throw himself upon the Sultan's protection. But the early date of this Letter, (1570,) and the lateness of its publication, (1701,) conspire to render it probable, that it is a forgery. The intercepted letter, which led to Neuser's imprisonment, was not written till the year 1571 ; and it is very unlikely, that he should have solicited the protection of the Sultan before that time. Besides, if such a document had been in existence, why was it allowed to remain in concealment through the whole of the seventeenth century, when its production would have been of great service to the Trinitarian cause ? It has been shewn, too, that the defection of Neuser was not premeditated ; that the profession of Mahometanism was forced upon him by a concurrence of unforeseen circumstances ; and that he himself deeply deplored the step, which he had been compelled to take, for the purpose of ensuring his own safety. He died, October 12th, 1576, of an incurable disease, attended with the most excruciating pains and sufferings, which some have regarded as a judgment upon him for his apostasy.

In addition to the letters already mentioned, namely, the one to the Transylvanian Ambassador, and the one to Stephen Gerlach, we find attributed to Neuser, "Theses concerning the Person of Christ," and remarks on "The Scope of the seventh Chapter to the Romans." The former he is said to have composed in prison, about the end of the year 1570. The latter were written in 1572, and published in 1583, with some other tracts relating to the Christian religion, to which allusion has already been made, in the account of Matthias Glirius. (Vide Art. 81.)

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