George Spalatin, the name taken by George Burkhardt (January 17, 1484 - January 16, 1545), an important figure in the history of the Reformation, who was born at Spalt (whence he assumed the name Spalatinus), near Nuremberg, where his father was a tanner. January 17 is the 17th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events July 6 - Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cao finds the mouth of Congo River December 5 - Pope Innocent VIII gives the inquisition a mission to hunt heretics and witches in Germany with the lead of Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger First cuirassier units (kyrissers) formed in Austria Births January 1... January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events December 13 - Official opening of the Council of Trent (closed 1563) Births Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Italian (Ferrarese) composer of madrigals, also an organist and influential teacher Giulio Caccini, Italian (Florentine) composer, sometimes called the founder of opera Deaths October 18 - John Taverner, composer... The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ... This article is about the city in Germany. ...

He went to Nuremberg for his education when he was thirteen years of age, and soon afterwards to the university of Erfurt, where he took his bachelor's degree in 1499. There he attracted the notice of Nikolaus Marschalk, the most influential professor, who made Spalatin his amanuensis and took him to the new university of Wittenberg in 1502. The University of Erfurt is one of the oldest universities in Germany. ... The Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg is located in the German cities of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt and Wittenberg. ...

In 1505 Spalatin returned to Erfurt to study jurisprudence, was recommended to Conrad Mutianus, and was welcomed by the little band of German humanists of whom Mutianus was chief. His friend got him a post as teacher in the monastery at Georgenthal, and in 1508 he was ordained priest by Bishop Johann von Laasphe, who had ordained Luther. In 1509 Mutianus recommended him to Frederick III the Wise, the elector of Saxony, who employed him to act as tutor to his nephew, the future elector, John Frederick. Events March 5 - Papal dispensation issued for the marriage of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon June 27 - Henry VIII of England repudiates his engagement to Catherine of Aragon, at his fathers command King Alexander_of_Poland signed Nihil_novi act - Poland became Nobles Democracy Poland prohibits peasants from leaving... Jurisprudence (from Latin: juris prudentia — by the activity of prudentes; advisors, experts), is the philosophy, science, study, and application of law. ... Konrad Mutian (October 15, 1471 - March 30, 1526), German humanist, was born in Homberg of well-to-do parents named Mut, and was subsequently known as Konrad Mutianus Rufus, from his red hair. ... Events February - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor attacks Venice June 6 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor is defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he is forced to sign a three year truce and cede several territories to Venice December 10 - League of Cambrai formed as an alliance against Venice between... Martin Luther (originally Martin Luder or Martinus Luther) (November 10, 1483 – February 18, 1546) was a German theologian and an Augustinian monk whose teachings inspired the Protestant Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines of Lutheran, Protestant and other Christian traditions (a broad movement composed of many congregations and church bodies). ... Events February 2 - Battle of Diu took place near Diu, India. ... Friedrich III (January 17, 1463 — May 5, 1525), also known as Frederick the Wise, was Elector of Saxony (from the House of Wettin) from 1486 to his death. ... Johann Friedrich I, Elector of Saxony (30 June 1503 - 3 March 1554), called John the Magnanimous, was head of the Protestant Confederation of Germany (the Schmalkaldic League), Champion of the Reformation. He was the son of John the Steadfast of Saxony and born in Torgau, Germany. ...

Spalatin speedily gained the confidence of the elector, who sent him to Wittenberg in 1511 to act as tutor to his nephews, and procured for him a canon's stall in Altenburg. In 1512 the elector made him his librarian. He was promoted to be court chaplain and secretary, and took charge of all the elector's private and public correspondence. His solid scholarship, and especially his unusual mastery of Greek, made him indispensable to the Saxon court. Events Diego Velázquez and Hernán Cortés conquer Cuba; Velázquez appointed Governor. ... Altenburg is a town in the German Bundesland of Thuringia. ... Events April 11 - Battle of Ravenna. ...

Spalatin had never cared for theology, and, although a priest and a preacher, had been a mere humanist. How he first became acquainted with Luther it is impossible to say--probably at Wittenberg; but the reformer from the first exercised a great power over him, and became his chief counsellor in all moral and religious matters. His letters to Luther have been lost, but Luther's answers remain, and are extremely interesting. There is scarcely any fact in the opening history of the Reformation which is not connected in some way with Spalatin's name. He read Luther's writings to the elector, and translated for his benefit those in Latin into German. Theology is literally rational discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, rational discourse). By extension, it also refers to the study of other religious topics. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ...

He accompanied Frederick to the Diet of Augsburg in 1518, and shared in the negotiations with the papal legates, Cardinal Cajetan and Karl von Miltitz. He was with the elector when Charles was chosen emperor and when he was crowned. He was with his master at the Diet of Wörms. In short, he stood beside Frederick as his confidential adviser in all the troubled diplomacy of the earlier years of the Reformation. Spalatin would have dissuaded Luther again and again from publishing books orengaging in overt acts against the Papacy, but when the thing was done none was so ready to translate the book or to justify the act. The Diet of Augsburg was an assembly convened by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1530 in Augsburg now in central Germany. ... Events A plague of tropical fire ants devastates crops on Hispaniola (Nature 433, 32 (06 January 2005); doi:10. ... Cardinal Cajetan (or Gaetanus) (1470 - August 9, 1534), was born at Gaeta in the kingdom of Naples. ... Pope John Paul II has reigned since 22 Oct 1978. ...

On the death of Frederick the Wise in 1525 Spalatin no longer lived at the Saxon court. But he attended the imperial diets, and was the constant and valued adviser of the electors, John and John Frederick. He went into residence as canon at Altenburg, and incited the chapter to institute reforms somewhat unsuccessfully. He married in the same year. Events January 21 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manzs mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zurich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. ...

During the later portion of his life, from 1526 onwards, he was chiefly engaged in the visitation of churches and schools in electoral Saxony, reporting on the confiscation and application of ecclesiastical revenues, and he was asked to undertake the same work for Albertine Saxony. He was also permanent visitor of Wittenberg University. Shortly before his death he fell into a state of profound melancholy, and died on the 16th of January 1545, at Altenburg. Events January 14 - Treaty of Madrid. ...

Spalatin left behind him a large number of literary remains, both published and unpublished. His original writings are almost all historical. Perhaps the most important of them are:

• Annales reformationis, edited by ES Cyprian (Leipzig, 1718)
• "Das Leben and die Zeitgeschichte Friedrichs des Weisen," published in Georg Spalatins Historischer Nachlass and Briefe, edited by CG Neudecker and Ludwig Preller (Jena, 1851)

A list of them may be found in A Seelheim's George Spalatin als stichs. Historiographer (1876). Ludwig Preller (September 15, 1809 – June 21, 1861) was a German philologist and antiquarian. ...

There is no good life of Spalatin; nor can there be until his letters have been collected and edited, a work still to be done. There is an excellent article on Spalatin, however, by T Kolde, in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie, Bd. xviii. (1306).

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica ( 1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...