Albert, Erasmus

Albert, Erasmus a Lutheran divine of Germany, was born at Wetterau (or, according to some, at a small village near Frankfort-on-the-Main) at the close of the 15th century. He studied divinity, and became one of the most zealous adherents of Luther. For a time he was preacher to Joachim II, elector of Brandenburg; but, on a dispute respecting the revenues of the clergy, he lost that situation, and travelled in the interest of the doctrines of the Reformation. In 1548 he was a preacher of Magdeburg; but the Interim proposed by Charles V obliged him to leave that place and reside in a private station at Hamburg. He was afterwards appointed superintendent- general of New Brandenburg, in Mecklenburg, where he died, May 1, 1553. He published the Acoran of the Cordeliers, collected from the book written by Albizzi on the Conformities of St. Francis with Jesus Christ (in German, 1531; in Latin, Wittenberg, 1542-44). Luther honored it with a preface, and Conrad Baudius augmented it with a second book, translated into French (1556, 12mo; Geneva, 1560, 2 vols. 12mo). The last edition of this satirical work is that of Amsterdam (1734, 3 vols. 12mo), There is also of this author, Judicium de Spongia Erasmi Roterodami: and the Book of Wisdom and Virtue (Frankf. 1579, 8vo), in German verse. See Chalmers, Biog. Dict. s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.