Editing Erasmus Alberus

{{Short description|German humanist, reformer and poet}}
{{For|the Dutch humanist and others of this name|Erasmus (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Erasmus Alberus
| birth_date         = 1500
| birth_place        = Bruchenbrücken
| death_date         = 5 May 1553
| alma_mater         = University of Wittenberg
| occupation         = Humanist
Lutheran Reformer
Poet
}}

'''Erasmus Alberus''' (c. 1500{{snd}}5 May 1553) was a German [[Humanism|humanist]], [[Lutheran]] [[reform movement|reformer]], and poet.

==Life==
He was born in the village of [[Bruchenbrücken]] (now part of [[Friedberg, Hesse]]) about the year 1500. Although his father Tilemann Alber was a schoolmaster, his early education was neglected.
Ultimately in 1518, he found his way to the [[University of Wittenberg]], where he studied theology. He had the good fortune to attract the attention of [[Martin Luther]] and [[Philipp Melanchthon]], and subsequently became one of Luther's most active helpers in the Protestant [[Reformation]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Not only did he fight for the Protestant cause as a preacher and theologian, but he was almost the only member of Luther's party who was able to confront the [[Roman Catholics]] with the weapon of literary satire. In 1542 he published a prose satire to which Luther wrote the preface, ''Der Barfusser Monche Eulenspiegel und Alkoran,'' a parodic adaptation of the ''Liber conformitatum'' of the Franciscan [[Bartolommeo Rinonico]] of [[Pisa]], in which the [[Franciscan]] order is held up to ridicule. This drew reactions from Catholic scholars such as [[Henricus Sedulius]], who published the ''Apologeticus aduersus Alcoranum Franciscanorum, pro Libro Conformitatum,'' which criticized Alberus' arguments in this satire.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=GTU|first=BJRT|title=Berkeley Journal of Religion and Theology, Vol.2, No. 2|date=2016|publisher=Berkeley Journal of Religion and Theology|isbn=978-1-365-17158-1|location=Berkeley, CA|pages=89}}</ref>

Of higher literary value is the didactic and satirical ''Buch von der Tugend und Weisheit'' (1550), a collection of forty-nine fables in which Alberus embodies his views on the relations of [[Church and state in medieval Europe|Church and State]]. His satire is incisive, but in a scholarly and humanistic way; it does not appeal to popular passions with the fierce directness which enabled the master of Catholic satire, [[Thomas Murner]], to inflict such telling blows.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Several of Alberus's hymns, all of which show the influence of his master Luther, have been retained in the German Protestant hymnal.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

After Luther's death, Alberus was for a time a deacon in [[Wittenberg]]; he became involved, however, in the political conflicts of the time, and was in [[Magdeburg]] in 1550–1551, while that town was besieged by [[Maurice, Elector of Saxony]]. In 1552 he was appointed General Superintendent at [[Neubrandenburg]] in [[Mecklenburg]],<ref name=H.E.J>Henry Eyster Jacobs, [https://books.google.com/books?id=93ErAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA6&vq Lutheran Cyclopedia] p. 6, Alberus, Erasmus</ref> where he died on 5 May 1553.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Translations==
*''Alberus' Thanksgiving Hymn: To You, O God, Our Thanks We Give'', translated by Nathaniel J. Biebert (Red Brick Parsonage, 2014).

==References==
{{reflist}}
'''Attribution:'''
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Alberus, Erasmus|volume=1|page=504}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alberus, Erasmus}}
[[Category:1500s births]]
[[Category:1553 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Friedberg, Hesse]]
[[Category:German Lutheran theologians]]
[[Category:German Lutheran hymnwriters]]
[[Category:German Protestant Reformers]]
[[Category:University of Wittenberg alumni]]
[[Category:German Renaissance humanists]]
[[Category:Christian humanists]]
[[Category:German male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:16th-century hymnwriters]]
[[Category:16th-century German Protestant theologians]]
[[Category:16th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:16th-century Lutheran theologians]]