Vita clarissimi viri D. Iosiae Simleri Tigurini, S. Theologiae in Schola Tigurina Professoris fidelissimi

to him. Afterwards, on the 15th of March in the year 1546, he went from Zurich to Basel, that most celebrated home of the Muses, by the judgment and will of his parents, and there he expended no small amount of labor and study on the languages and more refined disciplines, with which that age is accustomed to be formed toward humanity. At that time, that academy was most abundant in learned men, such as Borrhaeus, Amerbach, Münster, Acronius, Curio, Castalio, and many others. Therefore, he did not at all neglect this opportunity for learning, again divinely offered to him, and having used the hospitality and board of Conrad Lycosthenes, he applied his efforts mostly to the mathematics and astronomy of Acronius, and to the eloquence of Caelius Secundus Curio. However, having stayed in Basel for no longer than about a year, he proceeded to the city of Strasbourg, a city famous for its well-mannered and constituted Republic—or rather a silver or even golden one—and abundant in learned men. At that time, there flourished Johann Sturm, who still flourishes and will always flourish, the most noble flower and ornament of Germany, and also Martyr, Bucer, Fagius, Herlin, Seuenus, Dasypodius, Hedio, Niger, Conrad Hubert, and many other shining lights of that academy. He listened to some of these diligently, and he spent the time of nearly two years, during which he stayed there, in the study of the liberal arts and disciplines, being as yet little given to theology. Therefore, he consumed almost three years in that literary pilgrimage of his, in which, however, he made greater progress in letters than others could have made in double or even triple the time, which must be attributed to his exceptional diligence and the speed of his talent. Finally, increased in learning and erudition from those two Academies, as if they were the most celebrated emporiums of the liberal arts and disciplines, he returned home, received with great joy and congratulation by his parents and Bullinger. This was the year of the Lord 1549, the 20th day of February. And as soon as Simler was once again master of his fatherland, he did not, as is customary for many, give himself to leisure, remissions, delights, and pleasures—which are unworthy of a free man, let alone a Christian—but he exercised himself vehemently partly by learning (for in theological matters he heard Bibliander, Pellican, and Martyr, most learned theologians; and in Hebrew, Sebastian Guldenbeck, who was most skilled in both the Greek and Hebrew languages), partly by preaching in the city and territory of Zurich, and finally partly by teaching in the school: and thus, immediately after his happy return to his fatherland, barely 20 years old, he began to serve the church and school faithfully.