EMBER, PAULUS: Hungarian Reformed church historian; b. at Debreczen c. 1660; d. at Liszka (on the Bodrog, 50 m. n. of Debreczen) 1710. He studied in the Reformed College of Debreczen and became teacher at Patak (6 m. n.e. of Liszka). After a visit to Franeker and Leyden (1684-86) he returned to Patak as pastor, but was soon driven away by the Jesuits. Thenceforth his life was a wandering one; its happiest and most productive period was a residence at Losonez from 1695 till 1701. He suffered in the war following the revolution of Francis Rákóczy and had to flee from Szatmar, where he was then pastor. A place was made for him in his native town, but the advance of the Austrian army drove him thence in 1705. His works were Garizim és Ebal (Kolozsvar, 1702), a defense of the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination, which provoked a fiery attack from a Lutheran writer, Martinus Regis (Wittenberg, 1708); and Historia ecclesiæ reformatæ in Hungaria et Transylvania. The material for this work was collected during his wanderings and it was written at the request of the Prussian court-preacher, E. D. Jablonsky. After Ember's death it was sent to Utrecht and was published there (1728) with alterations and additions by F. A. Lampe, who mentioned the author on the title page only as vir quidam doctissimus. It is still a valuable and indispensable work for the history of the Reformation in Hungary.

F. BALOGH.

 

Bibliography: [Michal Rotarides,] Historia Hungericæ litterariæ lineamenta, pp. 49, 55-57, 179, Altona, 1745. Other literature (in Hungarian) is given in Hauck-Herzog, RE, v. 336.