Bartholomaeus Arnoldi (usually calledUsingen;German:Bartholomäus Arnoldi von Usingen; 1465 – 9 September 1532) was anAugustinianfriar and doctor of divinity who taughtMartin Luther and later turned into his earliest and one of his personally closest opponents.[1]
Usually calledUsingen, after his birthplace, Arnoldi received his master's degree in 1491 and was promoted to thedoctorate of divinity in 1514. For thirty years he filled the chairs of philosophy and theology atErfurt University, and, withJodocus Trutfetter,[2] was its leading teacher. He enjoyed the favour of the younger humanists.[1]
A dialectician and logician, Arnoldi was Luther's teacher in both these branches. Luther retained an affectionate regard for him and after theHeidelberg Disputation (May 1518) travelled in his company fromWürzburg to Erfurt, during which he made efforts to wean him from his ecclesiastical allegiance. In 1521, during the uprising against the priesthood and the pillaging of their property, he denounced the rioters from the pulpit. In 1522 he delivered a series of sermons in the cathedral in defence of Catholicism, arraigning the inactivity of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, and predicted the revolution which came in theGerman Peasants' War.[1] A first controversial treatise (1522) was directed against the preaching ofJohannes Cuelsamer andAegidius Mechler; it was followed by many more.[3]
His anti-Reformation attitude and utterances in the end embittered Luther, who attacked his old teacher. He moved to Würzburg, in 1526, and in 1530 accompaniedConrad von Thüngen, theBishop of Würzburg, to theDiet of Augsburg. Returning, he died at Würzburg, on 9 September 1532.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Bartholomaeus Arnoldi".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
This article incorporates text from a publication in thepublic domain: Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. (1914). "Arnoldi, Bartholomæus".New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls.
