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Zacharias Ursinus was born in 1534 died in 1583.
His real name is Zacharias Baer, which is German for bear.
His Latin name is a pun.
It should be Ursis, but as he was a big fellow he called himself Ursinus, which is diminutive
for little bear.
So it was kind of a joke.
It an inside classical joke.
Ursinus is a pioneer of Reformed Theology in certain respects.
Although he didn't start out reformed.
He was born in Silesia which is today a Polish area, but then was German speaking.
He studied under Philip Melanchton and was Melanchton's graduate assistant.
And traveled with him and studied with him for several years, I think perhaps 7 years.
So he was right at the center of the Protestant Reformation as it develops in the 1550s.
Just after Melanchton's death he travels.
He's in Geneva, he's in Zurich, and he settles on the Reformed side on a number of issues.
For example The Lord's Supper, Christology, and how to talk about election or the divine
decree.
And he's invited by Fredrick III to join the faculty in Heidelberg, so he goes and becomes
a really significant figure.
He wrote a larger catechism in 1561 and that's where he first explains the covenant of works
as distinct from the covenant of grace.
And then he writes a smaller catechism sort of a condensed version, and then out of that
he is the primary author of the Heidelberg Catechism.
And through his career both in Heidelberg until 1576 and then afterwards in Neustadt
until his death in 1583, he lectured on the Heidelberg Catechism.
He continued to use the larger catechism as well as a teaching document for his students.