Zacharias Ursinus

The elector’s preface to the Heidelberg Catechism says only that it was prepared with the advice and cooperation of the whole theological faculty at Heidelberg and of the leading ministers (Frederick III, Preface to the Heidelberg Catechism in Richards, pp. 193–195). Tradition names Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus as its authors; the introduction printed with it by the Christian Reformed Church describes a team in which Ursinus was probably the primary writer (Heidelberg Catechism introduction to the edition of the Christian Reformed Church).

The introduction printed with the English translation of his lectures says that he came to Heidelberg in 1561 as head of a college there, lectured on theology in the university from the next year, and that his lectures on the catechism were edited after his death by his pupil David Pareus (Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism introduction, pp. xi–xii, xix). In them he explains the first question, on the believer’s only comfort, as the statement of the design and substance of the whole work (Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism p. 17). See the Heidelberg Catechism.