[A Dutch Reformed Student of Geneva, Professor of Theology at Leiden, & Minister in Nijbroek]

Carolus Gallus (Karel de Haan, 1530–1616), born at Arnhem in the year of our Lord 1530, was from his youth set apart by Providence for labors in the vineyard of the Church. Educated first in the principles of the Roman faith, he undertook studies in law and theology, preparing for the priesthood in that communion. Yet, by the secret operation of God’s Spirit and through diligent search of the Scriptures, he was brought to embrace the doctrines of the Reformation. Desiring to learn at the feet of the chiefest lights, he sojourned to Geneva, where he sat under John Calvin and Theodore Beza, imbibing pure doctrine and the method of sound exegesis. Returning to the Netherlands, Gallus was at first compelled to serve as priest in Deventer, whence he was quickly driven for his evangelical convictions. He ministered in the duchy of Cleves, Bremen, and as military chaplain in Gelderland, enduring hardship and opposition for Christ’s sake. In all these posts he faithfully contended for the faith once delivered to the saints, laboring especially to refute the dangerous errors of the Anabaptists, whose spiritual delusions threatened the peace of the Reformed churches. In the year 1587, Gallus was called to the distinguished office of Professor of Theology at the University of Leiden, wherein he trained many in the sacred sciences and polemical divinity. Yet, preferring the pastoral charge, he resigned and spent his latter years ministering at Nijbroek, continuing steadfast in the Word until his death in 1616. Gallus’s writings, especially his Malleus Anabaptistarum and numerous polemical treatises, bear witness to his zeal for pure doctrine, his learning, and his deep concern for the peace and unity of the church. He stands as a vigilant watchman in the midst of an age fraught with schism and heresy.

Carolus Gallus (Karel de Haan, 1530–1616), born at Arnhem in the year of our Lord 1530, was from his youth set apart by Providence for labors in the vineyard of the Church. Educated first in the principles of the Roman faith, he undertook studies in law and theology, preparing for the priesthood in that communion. Yet, by the secret operation of God’s Spirit and through diligent search of the Scriptures, he was brought to embrace the doctrines of the Reformation. Desiring to learn at the feet of the chiefest lights, he sojourned to Geneva, where he sat under John Calvin and Theodore Beza, imbibing pure doctrine and the method of sound exegesis. Returning to the Netherlands, Gallus was at first compelled to serve as priest in Deventer, whence he was quickly driven for his evangelical convictions. He ministered in the duchy of Cleves, Bremen, and as military chaplain in Gelderland, enduring hardship and opposition for Christ’s sake. In all these posts he faithfully contended for the faith once delivered to the saints, laboring especially to refute the dangerous errors of the Anabaptists, whose spiritual delusions threatened the peace of the Reformed churches. In the year 1587, Gallus was called to the distinguished office of Professor of Theology at the University of Leiden, wherein he trained many in the sacred sciences and polemical divinity. Yet, preferring the pastoral charge, he resigned and spent his latter years ministering at Nijbroek, continuing steadfast in the Word until his death in 1616. Gallus’s writings, especially his Malleus Anabaptistarum and numerous polemical treatises, bear witness to his zeal for pure doctrine, his learning, and his deep concern for the peace and unity of the church. He stands as a vigilant watchman in the midst of an age fraught with schism and heresy.

HIS WORKS:

Apologetical Theologies:

Contra the Anabaptists:

The Hammer of the Anabaptists; A Hammer Upon the Head of All Anabaptist Sects, which strikes, breaks, and utterly destroys their head, and defends the Divine truth in thirty-four chapters of Christian doctrine; **(**Arnhem: Jan Janssen, 1606)