AMSDORF (1547)

Nikolaus von Amsdorf was a Protestant Reformer and major supporter of Martin Luther, stressed the insufficiency of good works in assuring the salvation of sinners. Educated at Leipzig and then at Wittenberg, where he became a theology professor in 1511, Amsdorf attended the Leipzig Debate with Luther in 1519 and the Diet of Worms two years later, where he participated in the plan to protect Luther from his detractors by pretending to kidnap him while actually lodging him secretly in the Wartburg Castle, near Eisenach. Amsdorf subsequently aided the Reformation at Magdeburg (1524), Goslar (1531), Einbeck (1534), and Schmalkalde (1537).


When Luther, in 1539, supported the intended bigamous marriage of Philip, landgrave of Hesse, Amsdorf temporarily opposed him but was made bishop of Naumburg by Luther and by John Frederick I, elector of Saxony, in 1541. As an evangelical holding a bishopric, Amsdorf found his position difficult but remained under Luther´s persuasion until it was necessary to yield to the Roman Catholic bishop Julius von Pflug in 1547. Exiled to Magdeburg, Amsdorf became a counsellor to the Saxon dukes of Eisenach in 1550 and superintended the Jena edition of Luther´s works. 


Continuing to fight for the purity of Luther´s doctrine, he opposed the more liberal views of Philipp Melanchthon and other Reformers. In particular he emphasized that salvation could come only to men of faith and that their efforts to perform good works might even be self-defeating. Among Amsdorf´s extant writings are numerous letters and varied short works.