Johannes Cochlæus
Catholic Champion Against the Errors of Martin Luther
Born
in 1479; d. 11 Jan., 1552, in Breslau, he was ordained in Rome and entered the arena as the opponent of the Lutheran movement. His first works were "De Utroque Sacerdotio" (1520) and several smaller writings published in rapid succession. In 1521 he met the nuncio Aleander at Worms and worked untiringly to bring about the reconciliation of Luther. During the following years he wrote tracts against Luther’s principal theses on the doctrine of justification, on the freedom of the will, and on the teaching of the Church (especially the important work, "De Gratia Sacramentorum", 1522; "De Baptismo parvulorum", 1523; "A commentary on 154 Articles"; etc).
Luther, to the vexation of Cochlæus wrote in answer only a single work, "Adversus Armatum Virum Cocleum".
Cochlæus accompanied Compeggio to the negotiations at Nuremberg and Ratisbon. The Lutheran movement and the Peasants’ War drove him to Cologne in 1525.
From there he wrote against the rebellion and Luther, its real author. In 1526 he received a canonry at Mayence and accompanied Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg to the Diet of Speyer. After Emser’s death Cochlæus took his place as secretary to Duke George of Saxony, whom he defended against an attack of Luther based on the false charge of an alliance between the Catholic princes at Breslau (cf. The Affaire of Otto v.
Pack). Conjointly with Duke George he labored strenuously in 1530, to refute the Augsburg Confession. Because of a pamphlet against Henry VIII of England he was transferred in 1535 to a canonry in Meissen. After the duke’s death, owing to the advance of the Reformation, his further stay in Saxony became quite impossible. For the time being he found a refuge as canon first at Breslau and later at Eichstätt. With indomitable ardor he published pamphlet after pamphlet against Luther and Melanchthon, against Zwingli, Butzer, Bullinger, Cordatus, Ossiander, etc.
His greatest work against Luther is his strictly historical "Commentaria de Actis et Scriptis M. Luther" (extending to his death), an armory of Catholic polemics for all succeeding time.
In 1549, he returned to Breslau where he died shortly after. Naturally of a quiet and studious disposition he was drawn into the arena of polemics by the Lutheran schism. There he developed a productivity and zeal unparalleled by any other Catholic theologian of his time. ■
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