John of Drandorf

John Of Drandorf, a Saxon Hussite, renowned as one of the ablest of the German reformers before the Reformation, was born of noble parentage at Slieben, or Schlieben, in the diocese of Meissen, about the beginning of the 15th century. He studied at Dresden under the celebrated Peter Dresdensis, then went to Prague, and further imbibed reformatory opinions, and finally completed his studies at the newly-founded University of Leipzig. Unable to obtain ordination on account of his heretical proclivities, he travelled through Germany and Bohemia, preaching against all unfaithful shepherds of the Roman Church, and finally succeeded in gathering a congregation, first at Weinsberg, then at Heilbronn. The civil authorities, however, interfered, and he was imprisoned and transported to Heidelberg, there to be judged by the faculty of the university, which took so active a part in the trial and condemnation of Huss and Jerome at the Council of Constance. The faculty met February 13, 1425, and, after a few days' hearing, John of Drandorf was condemned as a heretic, and was burned at Worms in great haste, lest the laymen, as these doctors have it, should partake of his heretical spirit. See Krummel, in Theol. Stud. und Krit. 1869, 1, 130 sq. (J.H.W.)