Everything about Johannes Oecolampadius totally explained
Johannes Œcolampadius or
Œkolampad (
1482 -
November 24 1531) was a
German religious reformer, whose real name was
Hussgen or
Heussgen (changed to
Hausschein and then into the
Greek equivalent, which is derived from
oikos, "house," and
lâmpada, "lamp").
He was born in
Weinsberg, a small town in the north of what is now
Baden-Württemberg, but then belonged to the
Palatinate. He went to school at Weinsberg and
Heilbronn, and then, intending to study law, he went to
Bologna, but soon returned to
Heidelberg and took up
theology. Enthusiastic about the new learning, he passed from the study of Greek to that of
Hebrew, taking his bachelor's degree in 1503. He became cathedral preacher at
Basel in
1515, serving under
Christoph von Utenheim, the Humanist
bishop of Basel.
From the beginning the sermons of Oecolampadius centred on the
Atonement, and his first reformatory zeal showed itself in a protest (
De risu paschali, 1518) against the introduction of humorous stories into
Easter sermons. In
1520 he published his
Greek Grammar. The same year he received an invitation to become preacher in the high church in
Augsburg.
Germany was ablaze with the questions raised by
Martin Luther's theses, and Oecolampadius's introduction into this environment, when he championed Luther's position, especially in his anonymous
Canonici indocti (1519), seems to have compelled him to severe self-examination, which ended in his becoming a
monk. A short experience convinced him that this wasn't for him the ideal Christian life ("
amisi monachum, inveni Christianum" — "I have lost the monk; I've found the Christian."), and in February 1522 he made his way to Ebernburg, near
Creuznach, where he acted as chaplain to a little group of men holding the new opinions who had settled there under the leadership of
Franz von Sickingen.
Oecolampadius returned to
Basel in November 1522, as vicar of St Martin's, and (in 1523) reader of the Holy Scripture at the
University of Basel. Lecturing on
Isaiah, he condemned current ecclesiastical abuses, and in a public disputation (
August 20 1523) gained such success that
Erasmus writing to
Zürich said "Oecolampadius has the upper hand amongst us." He became
Huldrych Zwingli's assistant, and after more than a year of earnest preaching and four public disputations in which the popular verdict went in favour of Oecolampadius and his friends, the authorities of Basel began to see the need for
reformation.
At last Oecolampadius was able to refrain from some practices he believed to be superstitious. Basel was slow to accept the Reformation; the news of the
Peasants' War and the inroads of
Anabaptists prevented progress; but by 1525, it seemed as if the authorities were resolved to listen to schemes for restoring the purity of worship and teaching. In the midst of these hopes and difficulties Oecolampadius married, in the beginning of
1528,
Wibrandis Rosenblatt, the widow of
Ludwig Keller, who proved a suitable wife. After his death she married
Wolfgang Fabricius Capito, and, when Capito died,
Martin Bucer. She died in
1564.
In January
1528 Oecolampadius and Zwingli took part in the disputation at
Berne which led to the adoption of the new faith in that
canton, and in the following year to the discontinuance of the
mass at Basel. 1529 he became officially the
Antistes of the Reformed Church in Basle. The Anabaptists claimed Oecolampadius for their views, but in a disputation with them he dissociated himself from most of their positions. He died on
24 November 1531.
Oecolampadius wasn't a great theologian, like Luther, Zwingli or
John Calvin, yet he became a trusted religious leader. With Zwingli he represented the Swiss at the
Marburg Colloquy. His views on the
Eucharist upheld the metaphorical against the literal interpretation of the word "body," but he asserted that believers partook of the sacrament more for the sake of others than for their own, though later he emphasized it as a means of grace for the Christian life. To Luther's doctrine of the ubiquity of Christ's body he opposed that of the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in the church. He didn't minutely analyse the doctrine of
predestination as Luther, Calvin and Zwingli did, contenting himself with the summary "Our Salvation is of God, our perdition of ourselves."
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