Wilhelm Gnapheus

Wilhelm Gnapheus, also Willem de Volder, Willem van de Voldersgraft or Gulielmus Fullonius (* 1493 in The Hague, † September 29, 1568 in the North) was a humanist and Reformed Protestant scholar.

The a wealthy family that were found Gnapheus was appointed rector of the Latin school in The Hague to study in Cologne 1520. Here he came up with the ideas of the Reformation in touch. During the Inquisition and the persecution in Holland, he was imprisoned with his friend Cornelis Hoen. In other months of imprisonment, he came in 1523 with Jan van Woerden, the first Protestant martyr in the Netherlands in contact, whose writings he revised.

After his release, he left the Netherlands in 1528, because after an improvement in the situation, the persecutions were reinstated. He emigrated to Prussia and came to Elbing, where he was involved in a Fastnachtsschabernack 1531, at the Bishop Mauritius Ferber, Nicolaus Copernicus (as Morosophus, a foolish wise man ) and other Catholics were ridiculed. Gnapheus there was in 1535 the first rector of the Elbląg High School, a grammar school. When it was under there to disagreements with John Dantiscus, the Prince-Bishop of Warmia, which Elbing, came, he had to leave in 1541 Elbing. The gymnasium degenerated. Gnaphius then moved to the court of Duke Albrecht of Prussia to Königsberg ( Prussia), first as Duke's advice, as rector of the newly founded Pedagogium and also a lecturer at the new university. Falsely denounced, he left in 1547 under pressure from the Lutherans who excommunicated him, East Prussia. Gnapheus went as secretary and tutor to the princes at the court of the East Frisian regent Anna of Oldenburg, in whose service he remained until his death.

Works

• Acolastus ( The Prodigal Son ), Latin school drama, 1529
• Eloquentiae Triumphus ( Triumph of oratory ), Latin school drama, 1541
• Morosophus ( A foolish wise ), Latin Comedy, 1541
• Hypo Crisis ( hypocrisy ), Latin school drama, 1544