Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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The chief share in the work fell to the lot of Oecolampadius (1482–1531).
He is the second in rank and importance among the Reformers in German
Switzerland. His relation to Zwingli is similar to that sustained by
Melanchthon to Luther, and by Beza to Calvin,—a relation in part
subordinate, in part supplemental. He was inferior to Zwingli in originality,
force, and popular talent, but surpassed him in scholastic erudition and had
a more gentle disposition. He was, like Melanchthon, a man of thought
rather than of action, but circumstances forced him out of his quiet study to
the public arena.
Johann Oecolampadius f170 was born at Weinsberg in the present kingdom
of Würtemberg in 1482, studied law in Bologna, philology, scholastic
philosophy, and theology in Heidelberg and Tübingen with unusual
success. He was a precocious genius, like Melanchthon. In his twelfth year
he composed (according to Capito) Latin poems. In 1501 he became
Baccalaureus, and soon afterwards Master of Arts. He devoted himself
chiefly to the study of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures. Erasmus gave
him the testimony of being the best Hebraist (after Reuchlin). At Tübingen
he formed a friendship with Melanchthon, his junior by fifteen years, and
continued on good terms with him notwithstanding their difference of
opinion on the Eucharist. He delivered at Weinsberg a series of sermons on
the Seven Words of Christ on the Cross, which were published by Zasius in
1512, and gained for him the reputation of an eminent preacher of the
gospel.
In 1515 he received a call, at Capito’s suggestion, from Christoph von
Utenheim, bishop of Basel (since 1502), to the pulpit of the cathedral in
that city. In the year following he acquired the degree of licentiate, and
later that of doctor of divinity. Christoph von Utenheim belonged to the
better class of prelates, who desired a reformation within the Church, but
drew back after the Diet of Worms, and died at Delsberg in 1522. His
motto was: “The cross of Christ is my hope; I seek mercy, not works.” f171
Oecolampadius entered into intimate relations with Erasmus, who at that
time took up his permanent abode in Basel. He rendered him important
service in his Annotations to the New Testament, and in the second edition
of the Greek Testament (concerning the quotations from the Septuagint
and Hebrew). The friendship afterwards cooled down in consequence of
their different attitude to the question of reform.