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Johann Cochlaeus.

Johann Cochlaeus (Cochläus) (1479 - January 10, 1552) was a German humanist and controversialist.

Originally Johann Dobneck, he was born of poor parents at Wendelstein (near Nuremberg), from which he obtained the punning surname Cochlaeus (spiral), for which he occasionally substituted Wendelstinus. Educated at Nuremberg from the humanist Heinrich Grieninger, he entered the University of Cologne in 1504. In 1507 he graduated, and published under the name of Wendelstein his first piece, In musicam exhortatorium. He left Cologne (May 1510) to become schoolmaster at Nuremberg, where he brought out several school manuals. In 1515 he was at Bologna, hearing (with disgust) Eck's famous disputation on the subject of usury, and associating with Ulrich von Hutten and humanists.

He took his doctor's degree at Ferrara (1517), and spent some time in Rome, where he was ordained priest. In 1520 he became dean of the Liebfrauenkirche at Frankfurt, where he first entered the lists as a controversialist against the party of Martin Luther. He was present at the Diets of Worms (1521), Speyer (1526 and 1529), Augsburg (1530) and Regensburg (1541). In his Colloqium Cochlaei cum Luthero, Cochlaeus reported on his discussion with Luther on April 24, 1521, about issues, such as the origin of Luther's doctrine of predestination, the Eucharist, and the authority of the Bible.^[1] After writing a series of pamphlets discussing the main themes of Luther's theology, Cochlaeus became convinced that any further argumention with Luther was futile. Accordingly, instead of convincing Luther, Cochlaeus attempted to come to an agreement with Melanchthon at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, but without much success.^[2]

The peasants' war drove Cochlaeus from Frankfurt; he obtained (1526) a canonry at Mainz, and in 1529 he became secretary to Duke George of Saxony, at Dresden and Meissen. The death of his patron (1539) compelled him to take flight. In September 1539 he became canon at Breslau, where he died.

Cochlaeus was a prolific writer and a feared opponent who attracted very little sympathy. His humanist ideas raised the suspicion of many conservative Catholics, and his influential and combative polemical writings won him the hatred of the Reformers. We owe to him one of the few contemporary notices of the young Michael Servetus as well as important notes on Tyndale's abortive attempt to print his New Testament at Cologne in 1525.^[3]

[edit] Works

Johann Cochlaeus. Adversus cucullatum minotaurum wittenbergensem: De sacramentorum gratia iterum, (1523), Joseph Schweizer, ed., Munster in Westfalen, (1920), Corpus Catholicorum, vol. 3.

Luther's Lives includes a translation of Cochlaeus's biography of Luther

[edit] References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Catholic Encyclopedia article

[edit] Notes

^ Paul Arblaster, Gergely Juhász & Guido Latré (eds.), Tyndale’s Testament, Turnhout: Brepols, 2002, p. 150.
^ Paul Arblaster, Gergely Juhász & Guido Latré (eds.), Tyndale’s Testament, Turnhout: Brepols, 2002, p. 150.
^ Paul Arblaster, Gergely Juhász & Guido Latré (eds.), Tyndale’s Testament, Turnhout: Brepols, 2002, p. 151.

[0] Paul Arblaster, Gergely Juhász & Guido Latré (eds.), Tyndale’s Testament, Turnhout: Brepols, 2002, p. 150.

[1] Paul Arblaster, Gergely Juhász & Guido Latré (eds.), Tyndale’s Testament, Turnhout: Brepols, 2002, p. 150.

[2] Paul Arblaster, Gergely Juhász & Guido Latré (eds.), Tyndale’s Testament, Turnhout: Brepols, 2002, p. 151.

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