Jørgen Sadolin

Who was Jørgen Sadolin?

Jørgen Jensen Sadolin was a Danish reformer, the son of Jens Christensen, a curate and subsequently a canon of Viborg Cathedral, and consequently, in all probability, born c. 1499 out of wedlock, as his Catholic opponents frequently took care to remind him.

He himself never used the name Sadolin, which seems to have been invented subsequently by his son Hans, and points to the fact that the family were originally saddle-makers.

We first hear of him on December 1, 1525, when Frederick I permitted him to settle at Viborg to teach young persons of the poorer classes "whatever might be profitable." On this occasion he is described as "magister" and no doubt got his degree abroad, where he seems to have been won for the Reformation.

He sided with Hans Tausen when the latter first began to preach the gospel at Viborg and Tausen, though himself only in priest's orders, shortly before he left the place, ordained Sadolin. Amongst "the free priests" who attended the herredag of Copenhagen in 1530 Sadolin occupied a prominent place. Frederick subsequently transferred him to Funen, where he acted, according to his own expression, as "adjutor in verbo" to the Bishop of Odense.