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GRYNAEUS, J. J.—GRYPHIUS

the historical capital is the very picturesque little town of Gruyères (which keeps its final “s” in order to distinguish it from the district), perched on a steep hill (S.E. of Bulle) above the left bank of the Sarine, and at a height of 2713 ft. above the sea-level. It is only accessible by a rough carriage road, and boasts of a very fine old castle, at the foot of which is the solitary street of the town, which in 1900 had 1389 inhabitants.

The castle was the seat of the counts of the Gruyère, who are first mentioned in 1073. The name is said to come from the word gruyer, meaning the officer of woods and forests, but the counts bore the canting arms of a crane (grue), which are seen all over the castle and the town. That valiant family ended (in the legitimate line) with Count Michel (d. 1575) whose extravagance and consequent indebtedness compelled him in 1555 to sell his domains to Bern and Fribourg. Bern took the upper Sarine valley (it still keeps Saanen at its head, but in 1798 lost the Pays d’En-Haut to the canton du Léman, which in 1803 became the canton of Vaud). Fribourg took the rest of the county, which it added to Bulle and Albeuve (taken in 1537 from the bishop of Lausanne), and to the lordship of Jaun in the Jaun or Jogne valley (bought in 1502–1504 from its lords), in order to form the present administrative district of Gruyère, which is not co-extensive with the historical county of that name.

See the materials collected by J. J. Hisely and published in successive vols. of the Mémoires et documents de la suisse romande . . . introa. à l’hist. (1851); Histoire (2 vols., 1855–1857); and Monuments de l’histoire (2 vols., 1867–1869); K. V. von Bonstetten, Briefe über ein schweiz. Hirtenland (1781) (Eng. trans., 1784); J. Reichlen, La Gruyère illustrée (1890), seq.; H. Raemy, La Gruyère (1867); and Les Alpes fribourgeoises, by many authors (Lausanne, 1908).  (W. A. B. C.) 


GRYNAEUS (or Gryner), JOHANN JAKOB (1540–1617), Swiss Protestant divine, was born on the 1st of October 1540 at Bern. His father, Thomas (1512–1564), was for a time professor of ancient languages at Basel and Bern, but afterwards became pastor of Röteln in Baden. He was nephew of the more eminent Simon Grynaeus (q.v.). Johann was educated at Basel, and in 1559 received an appointment as curate to his father. In 1563 he proceeded to Tübingen for the purpose of completing his theological studies, and in 1565 he returned to Röteln as successor to his father. Here he felt compelled to abjure the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, and to renounce the formula concordiae. Called in 1575 to the chair of Old Testament exegesis at Basel, he became involved in unpleasant controversy with Simon Sulzer and other champions of Lutheran orthodoxy; and in 1584 he was glad to accept an invitation to assist in the restoration of the university of Heidelberg. Returning to Basel in 1586, after Simon Sulzer’s death, as antistes or superintendent of the church there and as professor of the New Testament, he exerted for upwards of twenty-five years a considerable influence upon both the church and the state affairs of that community, and acquired a wide reputation as a skilful theologian of the school of Ulrich Zwingli. Amongst other labours he helped to reorganize the gymnasium in 1588. Five years before his death he became totally blind, but continued to preach and lecture till his death on the 13th of August 1617.

His many works include commentaries on various books of the Old and New Testament, Theologica theoremata et problemata (1588), and a collection of patristic literature entitled Monumenta S. patrum orthodoxographa (2 vols., fol., 1569).


GRYNAEUS, SIMON (1493–1541), German scholar and theologian of the Reformation, son of Jacob Gryner, a Swabian peasant, was born in 1493 at Vehringen, in Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. He adopted the name Grynaeus from the epithet of Apollo in Virgil. He was a schoolfellow with Melanchthon at Pforzheim, whence he went to the university of Vienna, distinguishing himself there as a Latinist and Grecian. His appointment as rector of a school at Buda was of no long continuance; his views excited the zeal of the Dominicans and he was thrown into prison. Gaining his freedom at the instance of Hungarian magnates, he visited Melanchthon at Wittenberg, and in 1524 became professor of Greek at the university of Heidelberg, being in addition professor of Latin from 1526. His Zwinglian view of the Eucharist disturbed his relations with his Catholic colleagues. From 1526 he had corresponded with Oecolampadius, who in 1529 invited him to Basel, which Erasmus had just left. The university being disorganized, Grynaeus pursued his studies, and in 1531 visited England for research in libraries. A commendatory letter from Erasmus gained him the good offices of Sir Thomas More. He returned to Basel charged with the task of collecting the opinions of continental reformers on the subject of Henry VIII.’s divorce, and was present at the death of Oecolampadius (Nov. 24, 1531). He now, while holding the chair of Greek, was appointed extraordinary professor of theology, and gave exegetical lectures on the New Testament. In 1534 Duke Ulrich called him to Württemberg in aid of the reformation there, as well as for the reconstitution of the university of Tübingen, which he carried out in concert with Ambrosius Blarer of Constanz. Two years later he had an active hand in the so-called First Helvetic Confession (the work of Swiss divines at Basel in January 1536); also in the conferences which urged the Swiss acceptance of the Wittenberg Concord (1536). At the Worms conference (1540) between Catholics and Protestants he was the sole representative of the Swiss churches, being deputed by the authorities of Basel. He was carried off suddenly in his prime by the plague at Basel on the 1st of August 1541. A brilliant scholar, a mediating theologian, and personally of lovable temperament, his influence was great and wisely exercised. Erasmus and Calvin were among his correspondents. His chief works were Latin versions of Plutarch, Aristotle and Chrysostom.

His son Samuel (1539–1599) was professor of jurisprudence at Basel. His nephew Thomas (1512?–1564) was professor at Basel and minister in Baden, and left four distinguished sons of whom Johann Jakob (1540–1617) was a leader in the religious affairs of Basel. The last of the direct descendants of Simon Grynaeus was his namesake Simon (1725–1799), translator into German of French and English anti-deistical works, and author of a version of the Bible in modern German (1776).

See Bayle’s Dictionnaire; W. T. Streuber in Hauck’s Realencyklopädie (1899); and for bibliography, Streuber’s S. Grynaei epistolae (1847).  (A. Go.*) 


GRYPHIUS, ANDREAS (1616–1664), German lyric poet and dramatist, was born on the 11th of October 1616, at Grossglogau in Silesia, where his father was a clergyman. The family name was Greif, latinized, according to the prevailing fashion, as Gryphius. Left early an orphan and driven from his native town by the troubles of the Thirty Years’ War, he received his schooling in various places, but notably at Fraustadt, where he enjoyed an excellent classical education. In 1634 he became tutor to the sons of the eminent jurist Georg von Schönborn (1579–1637), a man of wide culture and considerable wealth, who, after filling various administrative posts and writing many erudite volumes on law, had been rewarded by the emperor Ferdinand II. with the title and office of imperial count-palatine (Pfalzgraf). Schönborn, who recognized Gryphius’s genius, crowned him poëta laureatus, gave him the diploma of master of philosophy, and bestowed on him a patent of nobility, though Gryphius never used the title. A month later, on the 23rd of December 1637, Schönborn died; and next year Gryphius went to continue his studies at Leiden, where he remained six years, both hearing and delivering lectures. Here he fell under the influence of the great Dutch dramatists, Pieter Cornelissen Hooft (1581–1647) and Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679), who largely determined the character of his later dramatic works. After travelling in France, Italy and South Germany, Gryphius settled in 1647 at Fraustadt, where he began his dramatic work, and in 1650 was appointed syndic of Glogau, a post he held until his death on the 16th of July 1664. A short time previously he had been admitted under the title of “The Immortal” into the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, a literary society, founded in 1617 by Ludwig, prince of Anhalt-Köthen on the model of the Italian academies.

Gryphius was a man of morbid disposition, and his melancholy temperament, fostered by the misfortunes of his childhood, is largely reflected in his lyrics, of which the most famous are the