Otther, Jacob

Otther, Jacob the reformer of Esslingen, was born at Lautenburg, in Alsace. He studied at Freiburg, where Wimpheling was his teacher, and while a resident at Strasburg Otther published the sermont of Geiler, of Kaiserberg, in a Latin translation, in 1510. In 1520, while preacher at Wolfenweiler, near Freiburg, he openly declared himself an adherent of Luther. In 1522 he was preacher at Kenzingen, in the Breisgau, but he left that place in 1524 on account of the opposition, which he met from the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. Otther went to Neckarsteinach, near Heidelberg, and abolished there the mass and other papistic usages. In 1527 he left that place, and, after a short stay at Strasburg and in Switzerland, finally settled in 1532 at Esslingen, where he brought about the work of reformation, which had been commenced by Ambrosius Blaser. Otther died in the early part of 1547. See Seckendorf, Ausfuhrliche Historie des Lutherthums (Leipsic, 1714); Keim, Reformationsblatter der Reichsstadt Esslingen (1860) and Schwdbische Reformationsgeschichte; Plitt-Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v. (B.P.)