Matthias Flacius Illyricus (Labin March 3, 1520 - Frankfurt am Main, March 11, 1575). Lutheran reformer, theologian, linguist, philosopher and church historian Matthias Flacius had an extremely exciting life. In addition to his family of 18 children, he was able to write more than 200 books, pamphlets and other works. He was born in Labin (Albona), which at that time belonged to the Venetian Republic. At the age of sixteen he left his hometown and went to study in Venice. His cousin, who was a Provincial of the Franciscan Order on the island of Cres and a supporter of reformist ideas, Baldo Lupetina, persuaded him to go to Germany for further study. He received his master's degree at the age of 24 in Wittenberg, where he got married and met Martin Luther, to whom he remained loyal for the rest of his life.
Matthias first married in November 1545 to Elizabeth Faust with whom he had 12 children, and after her death he married for the second time in 1564 with Magdalen Ilbeck with whom he had 6 more children. The first son of Matthias Flacius Jr. was born in Braunschweig in 1547, where Matija and Elizabeth temporarily resided as Protestant refugees from Wittenberg. Matthias Jr. later became a medicine doctor in Rostock, and the younger son Hošea suffered from dementia. In Magdeburg, Flacius developed a publishing business and began working on a colossal project, the Magdeburg Centuriae - a history of the first thirteen centuries of Christianity, published in eleven large volumes. At the invitation of the Antwerp City Senate, Flacius went to live there for a short time and wrote a denomination for the Lutherans in the Netherlands. His second oldest son Daniel was a note taker on their numerous journeys and was with his father on his deathbed.
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