Nicolaus Ferber (1485 – 15 April 1534) was a German

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

and controversialist.

Life

Ferber was born at Herborn, Germany. He was made provincial of the Franciscan province of

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

Pope Clement VII Pope Clement VII (; ; born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the most unfortunate o ...

made him

vicar-general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar ...

of that branch of the order known as the Cismontane Observance, in which capacity he visited the various provinces of the order in England, Germany, Spain, and Belgium. From about 1520 he was based at

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

. At the

synod of Homberg The Synod of Homberg was a Catholic Church Synod held on October 20–22, 1526 with clergy, nobility, and representatives of various European cities attending. The synod proposed to introduce democratic church governance and clerical discipline. ...

in 1526 he debated with

François Lambert Francis Lambert (c. 1486 – April 8, 1530) was a Protestant reformer, the son of a papal official at Avignon, where he was born between 1485 and 1487. At the age of 15 he entered the Franciscan monastery at Avignon, and after 1517 he was an ...

, ex-Franciscan, who had become adviser to

Philip of Hesse Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse (13 November 1504 – 31 March 1567), nicknamed (), was a German nobleman and champion of the Protestant Reformation, notable for being one of the most important of the early Protestant rulers in Germany. He was o ...

. Ferber's position became untenable, and he moved to

Brühl Abbey Brühl or Bruhl may refer to: Places ;Germany * Brühl (Rhineland), a town in North Rhine-Westphalia ** Brühl station, a railway station * Brühl (Baden), a town in Baden-Württemberg, near Mannheim * Brühl (Leipzig), a street in Leipzig * B ...

.Thomas Brian Deutscher and Peter G. Bietenholz, ''Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation'' (2003), p. 16. At the instance of the bishops of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, he was called to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

to champion the Catholic cause against Danish

Lutheranism Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

. He died at

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

Works

In Copenhagen he wrote in 1530, the ''Confutatio Lutheranismi Danici'', first edited by L. Schmitt, S.J., and published at

Quaracchi The College of St Bonaventure (; ) at Quaracchi ('), near Florence, Italy, is a publishing centre of the Order of Friars Minor. History It was founded 14 July 1879, by , Archbishop of Sardis, then minister general of the order. The first direc ...

(1902), which earned for him the sobriquet of Stagefyr (fire-brand). Ferber's principal work is entitled: ''Locorum communium adversus hujus temporis hæreses Enchiridion'', published at Cologne in 1528, with additions in 1529. Besides this he wrote ''Assertiones CCCXXV adversus Fr. Lamberti paradoxa impia'' etc. (Cologne, 1526, and Paris, 1534); and ''Enarrationes latinæ Evangeliorum quadragesimalium'', preached in German and published in Latin (Antwerp, 1533).

References

*Schmitt, ''Der Kölner Theolog Nicolaus Stagefyr und der Franziskaner Nicolaus Herborn'' (Freiburg, 1896) *

Hugo von Hurter The von Hurter family belonged to the Swiss nobility; in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries three of them were known for their conversions to Roman Catholicism, their ecclesiastical careers in Austria and their theological writings. Friedric ...

, ''Nomenclator'' (Innsbruck, 1906), II, 1255–56 *

Sbaralea Giovanni or Gian Giacinto Sbaraglia (13 March 16872 January 1764), otherwise Joannes Hyacinthus Sbaralea, was a historian of the Franciscan Order. His works include ''Supplementum et castigatio ad scriptores trium ordinum S. Francisi'' and ''Bull ...

, ''Supplementum ad scriptores Ordinis Menorum'', 556.

Notes

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferber, Nicolaus 1485 births 1534 deaths German Franciscans 16th-century German Catholic theologians German male non-fiction writers 16th-century German male writers