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Judah (or Juda), Leo

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Judah (Or Juda), Leo,

one of the Swiss reformers, was born at Germar, in Alsace, in 1482. His father's name was John Jud, but whether of Jewish descent, Leo himself tells us he was unable to say. The name, however, exposed him to reproach, and perhaps for this reason we find him sometimes designating himself as Leo Keller; in Z rich he was known as Meister L w, and this name his descendants adopted. He was educated for the medical profession, but through the influence of Zwingle forsook this for the clerical. He succeeded the latter in the church of Notre Dame des Eremites, and finally became his associate at Zurich. Together they entered zealously on their work of reform, and Judah contributed no little to the spreading and propagating of Zwinglian ideas. With the great reformer he appeared at the second conference in Zurich (1523), and together they replied to all who defended the worship of images and the celebration of the mass as a sacrifice. Judah died June 19, 1542. He made a translation of the greater part of the Old Testament from the Hebrew text, and also of the New from the Greek. It was completed by Bibliander and Peter Cholin, and reviewed by Pellicanus (Zurich, 1543; reprinted at Paris, with the Vulgate, in 1545). (See GERMAN VERSIONS). Of his original productions, his Catechism (1534, Latin and German) is the most noted. He translated the writings of Zwingle and Luther. See Hook, Eccles. Biog. 6, 365; Kitto, Cyclop. s.v.