Johannes Aurifaber

Who was Johannes Aurifaber?

Joannes Aurifaber was a German Lutheran theologian and reformer.

The younger brother of the physician Andreas Aurifaber often signed his name with Vratislaviensis to distinguish himself from the contemporary fellow theologian Johannes Aurifaber Vimariensis.

He was educated at Wittenberg, where he formed a close and lasting friendship with Philipp Melanchthon. After graduating in 1538, he spent twelve years as docent at the university, and having then received his doctorate of divinity, was appointed professor of divinity and pastor of the church of St. Nicholas at Rostock. He distinguished himself by his conciliatory disposition, earned the special confidence of John Albert, Duke of Mecklenburg, and took a leading part in 1552 in drawing up the constitution of the Mecklenburg church. He also settled some religious disputes in the town of Lübeck.

In 1553 Albert, Duke of Prussia, anxious to heal the differences in the Prussian church caused by the discussion of Andreas Osiander's doctrines, invited Aurifaber to Königsberg, and in the following year appointed him professor of divinity at the Königsberg Albertina University and president of the Samland diocese. Aurifaber, however, found it impossible to conciliate all parties, and in 1565 returned to Breslau, where, in 1567, he became pastor in the church of St. Elizabeth and inspector of the Lutheran churches and schools.