Editing Wolfgang Capito

{{Short description|German Protestant reformer}}
{{distinguish|Wolfgang Köpfel}}
[[File:Wolfgang Capito.PNG|thumb|Wolfgang Capito]]
'''Wolfgang Fabricius Capito''' (also '''Koepfel''') ({{circa|1478}} – November 1541) was a [[Germans|German]] [[Protestant reformer]] in the [[Calvinist]] tradition.

==His life and revolutionary work==

Capito was born circa 1478 to a smith at [[Hagenau]] in [[Alsace]]. He attended the famous [[Latin school in Pforzheim]],<ref name="rummel">{{cite book |url=https://www.questia.com/read/90474971/the-confessionalization-of-humanism-in-reformation |title=The Confessionalization of Humanism in Reformation Germany |isbn=9780195350333 |last=Rummel |first=Erika |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url-access=subscription |via= |access-date=2015-12-01 |archive-date=2015-12-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208134157/https://www.questia.com/read/90474971/the-confessionalization-of-humanism-in-reformation |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{rp|111}} where his friend [[Philip Melanchthon]] studied.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kittelson|first=James M.|title=Wolfgang Capito: From Humanist to Reformer|url=https://archive.org/details/wolfgangcapitofr0000kitt|url-access=registration|publisher=E. J. Brill|year=1975|isbn=90-04-04312-8|location=Leiden|pages=[https://archive.org/details/wolfgangcapitofr0000kitt/page/11 11]-12}}</ref>

He was educated for the medical profession but also studied [[law]]. He received a doctorate in theology at [[University of Freiburg Faculty of Theology|Freiburg]].<ref name="rummel"/>{{rp|111}} Having joined the [[Benedictines]], taught for some time at Freiburg. He acted for three years as pastor in [[Bruchsal]]. In 1516 he became cathedral preacher of [[Basel Minster]].<ref name="rummel"/>{{rp|111}} Here he made the acquaintance of [[Huldrych Zwingli|Zwingli]] and began to correspond with [[Martin Luther|Luther]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Capito, Wolfgang|volume=5|page=282}}</ref> He persuaded [[Johann Froben]] to publish a collection of Luther's works in 1518.<ref name="rummel"/>{{rp|111–112}}

In 1519, he removed to [[Mainz]] at the request of Albrecht, [[Archbishop of Mainz|archbishop of that city]], who soon made him his chancellor. In 1523 he settled at [[Strasbourg]], where he remained until his death in November 1541. He had found it increasingly difficult to reconcile the new religion with the old, and from 1524 was one of the leaders of the reformed faith in Strasbourg. He took a prominent part in the earlier ecclesiastical transactions of the 16th century, was present at the second conference of [[Zürich]] and at the conference of [[Marburg]], and along with [[Martin Bucer]] drew up the ''[[Tetrapolitan Confession|Confessio Tetrapolitana]]''.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Capito was always more concerned for the "unity of the spirit" than for dogmatic formularies, and from his endeavours to conciliate the [[Lutheran]] and [[Zwinglian]] parties in regard to the sacraments, he seems to have incurred the suspicions of his own friends; while from his intimacy with [[Martin Cellarius]] and other divines of the [[Socinian]] school he drew on himself the charge of [[Arianism]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1532, Capito married [[Wibrandis Rosenblatt]], the widow of Oecolampadius. After Wolfgang Capito's death, she married [[Martin Bucer]].

Capito died in [[Strasbourg]].

==Works==
His principal works were:
*''Institutionum Hebraicarum libri duo''
*''Enarrationes in Habacuc et Hoseam Prophetas''
* a life of [[Johannes Oecolampadius|Oecolampadius]] and an account of the synod of Bern (1532)<ref name="EB1911"/>
* a Greek version of the ''[[Iliad]]'' in which he refers to himself as {{lang|la|volfivs cephalaevs}} or {{lang|la|wolfius cephalaeus}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Reformed Christianity}}
* [[Hochstratus Ovans]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{prdl}}
*{{MathGenealogy|id=131399}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Capito, Wolfgang Fabricius}}
[[Category:1470s births]]
[[Category:1541 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Haguenau]]
[[Category:16th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians]]
[[Category:Alsatian-German people]]
[[Category:German Protestant Reformers]]
[[Category:University of Freiburg alumni]]
[[Category:Heidelberg University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Ingolstadt alumni]]
[[Category:German Benedictines]]