Gabriel Zwilling

Gabriel Zwilling, and Gabriel Didymus (* 1487 in Annaberg, † May 1, 1558 in Torgau ) was a Lutheran theologian and reformer.

Life

Place and date of Twins baseline are unknown, as if he entered the Order of Augustinian Hermits Joachimsthal in Bohemia. Earlier it was mostly believed that he had to study in Prague started and would be relocated in 1502 after Wittenberg.

From matriculation at the University of Wittenberg show that he enlisted in 1512 there came from Annaberg and was a member of the Augustinian Order. Presumably, he will have been only a few years as his younger brother Martin Luther. Even then he must have been close to Johann von Staupitz, as this expressed the wish that he would like to operate in Erfurt his studies.

1516, he earned a Bachelor of Arts and artistic Luther sent him in his capacity as district vicar to Erfurt, where he was to devote himself to the study of the Greek language. To this end, Luther wrote to the Prior of Erfurt, Johann Lange, he wants to see that twins are governed by the statutes of the Order and joined the monastic discipline. But twin held it there not long out and returned to Wittenberg, where he was Master in 1518. Under the influence of Luther's twin joined the Reformation and occurred during the Wittenberg movement consists of Andreas Bodenstein in appearance as an innovator in the Augustinian monastery in Wittenberg.

In October 1521, he preached to his friars against the worship of the Eucharist, the abolition of private masses and demanded the distribution of communion in both kinds. In the sacrament question he said that the Communion should be used only in the memory of the Passion. Twins sermons showed the success that the Augustinian convent stopped reading the Fair on 13 October 1521. In November he resigned as one of the first out of the Augustinian monastery, also his brothers joined.

With at the instigation of the exit of many monks from the monastery of Wittenberg is due, a move that the twins took place even in November of that year. While Bodenstein in Wittenberg introduced the new order of worship, he went on in a hurry castle. The unsightly, one-eyed man must have been a captivating preacher. The habit he took off and was wearing a long frock coat and wide-brimmed hat.

Underbody stone influence he turned in January 1522 against the images and altars in the town church of Wittenberg. By the appearance of the Zwickau prophets, the location by the criticism was pointed at the school system, so that Luther returned from Wartburg to Wittenberg. This he leaned over and known to have gone too far. Although Luther regarded him next Bodenstein as the principal author of the riots, he was satisfied especially about its inner transformation.

In April, Luther recommended the twin town of Altenburg as a preacher. But he warned him thoughtfully proceed with consideration for the weak, restraint in innovations and only supported to act on the word and not on human strength or magnitude. Its activity, however, was not of long duration. The Canons resisted its establishment.

In 1523 he has already become a preacher in Torgau, where his passionate commitment to the Reformation caused a storm at the local Franciscan monastery. From 1529 he designed as superintendent the Evangelical Church in 1537 and you will find his signature to the Smalcald Articles. Since then, he worked more in silence.

As the Augsburg Interim was introduced in the Electorate of Saxony, he defied him emphatically. He was therefore arrested and brought to Wittenberg. As much as the Wittenberg theologians strove to him, they did not agree to it. That's why he was shocked in 1549 his office. But he was allowed to remain living in Torgau, where he spent his last 9 years of life as a private preacher of the mother of the elector.