Benedictus Aretius (surname derived from Marti by Greek translation) (1505–1574) was a Swiss Protestant theologian, Protestant reformer and natural philosopher.

He was born at Bätterkinden, in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. He studied at Strasbourg and at Marburg, where he became professor of logic. He was called to Bern as a school-teacher, 1548, and became professor of theology, 1564.

He died at Bern on 22 March 1574.

His major work, Theologiæ problemata (Bern, 1573), was a compendium of the knowledge of the time and was highly valued. His Examen theologicum (1557) ran through six editions in fourteen years. His works also include

• a commentary on the New Testament (1580 and 1616) and on the Pentateuch (1602; 2d ed., with commentary on the Psalms added, 1618);
• a commentary on Pindar (1587);
• a description of the flora of two mountains of the Bernese Oberland, Stockhorn and Niesen (Strasbourg, 1561);
• a Hebrew method for schools (Basel, 1561); and
• a defense of the execution (in 1566) of the antitrinitarian Valentin Gentilis (Geneva, 1567).

• Schaff-Herzog article

• Works by Benedictus Aretius at Post-Reformation Digital Library

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication in the public domain: Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. (1914). "Aretius, Benedictus". New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls.