Johann Sylvan

Johann Sylvan (died 23 December 1572) was a Reformed German theologian who was executed for his heretical Antitrinitarian beliefs.

The Palatinate would be rocked by controversy in 1568 on the question of church discipline, and Sylvan, along with his friends Thomas Erastus and Adam Neuser, emerged as leaders of the anti-disciplinist faction against Calvinists such as Caspar Olevianus.

Sylvan became part of an Antitrinitarian cell that included Adam Neuser, Matthias Vehe-Glirius, Jakob Suter and Johann Hasler.

Their letter to the Transylvanian prince was discovered and Sylvan – who unlike Adam Neuser was unable to flee – was arrested.

Elector Frederick’s own compromised confessional position, as an advocate of the theoretically illegal Reformed faith, created the context in which the Palatine court felt it had no other choice than to execute Sylvan and thus demonstrate the state’s theological orthodoxy.