DR. SAMUEL MARESIUS (1599–1673)

Samuel Maresius (or Des Marets) was a renowned polemicist (i.e., one who defends against error) for Reformed orthodoxy. He was born seventy-five miles northwest of Paris at Oisemont, Picardy in 1599. He was educated at Paris and Geneva, and subsequently undertook theological studies in Saumur (under Gomarus and Cappel, 1616–1618), and in Geneva at the time of the Synod of Dort (1618–1619, under B. Turretin).

Maresius was ordained into the ministry in 1620 and served a small congregation at Laon until a controversy with Roman Catholic missionaries—namely, the Jesuits—forced him to leave. One night he was stabbed by several Jesuits in retaliation for his verbal and written opposition against their doctrine and conduct, but it pleased the Lord to spare his life.

Maresius then went to Leiden where he obtained his doctorate in July, 1625 (studying largely under Rivet). He accepted the invitation to become a professor of theology at Sedan, where he remained for eight profitable years (1625–1632), after which he re-entered the pastorate at Maestricht (1632–1636). In 1636, he accepted a call to become both pastor and professor at ’s-Hertogenbosch (1636–1643), and subsequently became Gomarus’s successor as theological professor at Groningen (1643–1673), where he remained for the last thirty years of his life and was instrumental in assisting this university to become one of the most flourishing in the Netherlands. On four occasions he served as president, and was much involved in the organization of the university and faculty throughout these decades.

Dr. Maresius wrote more than one hundred works, including a scholastic, systematic theology which was widely used for several generations as a major textbook in many seminaries—Systhema theologiae (Groningen, 1645; 4th and best edition, 1673, includes an appended bibliography of his writings). He also penned expositions of the Belgic Confession of Faith and the Heidelberg Catechism. Most of Maresius’s writings, however, were of a polemical bent. Though small in stature, he was strong and impulsive in character, often militant in waging war against the errors of his day. Specifically, he wrote ably and at length against Roman Catholicism, Socinianism, Arminianism, Amyraldianism, Chiliasm.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with able polemicists, Maresius also entered into several lengthy disputes on non-essential matters with brothers of the household of faith, including Spanheim, Gomarus, and most notably, Voetius. In his debates with Voetius, one item of controversy led to another, ultimately focussing on the differences between infra and supralapsarianism, and on the foundation for the adoration and worship of Christ. Happily, this series of controversies with Voetius was resolved in 1669 under the mediation efforts of Johannes VanderWaeyen, who had previously been a student of Voetius and a friend of Maresius. Through Vander Waeyen’s persuasion, Voetius and Maresius agreed to unite in opposing the dangerous influences which they felt were surfacing from students of Cocceius.

In 1673 Maresius accepted a professorship at Leiden, but died before his duties commenced.

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