Andreas Aurifaber (born Goldschmidt, 1514 – 12 December 1559) was a German

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

of some repute, but through his influence with Albert of Brandenburg, last grand-master of the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...

, and first

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

duke of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

, became an outstanding figure in the controversy associated with

Andreas Osiander Andreas Osiander (; 19 December 1498 – 17 October 1552) was a German Lutheran theologian and Protestant reformer. Career Born at Gunzenhausen, Ansbach, in the region of Franconia, Osiander studied at the University of Ingolstadt before ...

whose daughter he had married.

Early life and education

Andreas Aurifaber was born in Breslau (Wrocław);

Johannes Aurifaber of Breslau Joannes Aurifaber Vratislaviensis (30 January 151719 October 1568), born Johann Goldschmidt in Breslau, was a Lutheran theologian and Protestant reformer. He adopted the cognomen ''Vratislaviensis'' ("of Breslau") to distinguish himself from anoth ...

was his younger brother. He studied at the

University of Wittenberg Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university in ...

in 1527, and there became a friend of

Philip Melanchthon Philip Melanchthon. (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lu ...

. In 1529 he became rector of the Latin school at Danzig (Gdańsk), and two years later accepted a similar post at Elbing ( Elbląg). The bounty of Duke Albert of Prussia enabled him to pursue the study of medicine at Wittenberg and in Italy.

Career

After 1545 Aurifaber was physician to the Duke and professor of physics and medicine in the newly established

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Pruss ...

. There he wrote a number of treatises on physics and physiology. In 1550 he married a daughter of Osiander, and became involved in the bitter controversy aroused by the latter's views on justification and grace. After Osiander's death in 1552, Aurifaber, who in the preceding year had been made rector of the university, became the leader of the Osiandrian faction and made use of his office and his influence over the duke to crush the rival faction in Prussia, driving its adherents from the university in 1554. He went on to travel extensively throughout Germany, aroused the hatred of the conservatives, who assailed him with extreme virulence. Aurifaber, however, retained his influence until his death, which occurred suddenly, in the antechamber of the Duke in Königsberg, on December 12, 1559.

Early life and education

Career

See also

References

Works cited

Attribution

Further reading