Oswald Myconius

Oswald Myconius (1488-1552), Zwinglian divine, was born at Lucerne in 1488. His family name was Geisshüsler; his father was a miller; hence he was also called Molitoris. The name Myconius seems to have been given him by Erasmus.

From the school at Rottweil, on the Neckar, he went to the university of Basel[?], and became a good classic. From 1514 he obtained schoolmaster posts at Basel, where he married, and made the acquaintance of Erasmus and of Holbein, the painter. In 1516 he was called, as schoolmaster, to Zürich, where (1518) he attached himself to the reforming party of Zwingli. This led to his being transferred to Lucerne, and again (1523) reinstated at Zürich.

On the death of Zwingli (1531) he migrated to Basel, and there held the office of town's preacher, and (till 1541) the chair of New Testament exegesis. His spirit was comprehensive; in confessional matters he was for a union of all Protestants; though a Zwinglian, his readiness to compromise with the advocates of consubstantiation gave him trouble with the Zwinglian stalwarts. He had, however, a distinguished follower in Theodore Bibliander[?]. He died on October 14 1552.

Among his several tractates, the most important is De H Zwinglii vita el obitu (1536), translated into English by Henry Bennet (1561). See Melchior Adam, Vita theologorum (1620); M Kirch-hofer, O. Myconius (1813); KR Hagenbach, J. Oekolampad und O. Myconius (1859); FM Ledderhose, in Allgemeine deutsche Biog. (1886); B Riggenbach and Egli, in Hauck's Realencyklopadie (1903).

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.