AGOSTINO d'ALFELD (Aveldensis). – German Franciscan controversialist, b. at Alfeld (Hannover) in the second half of the 15th century and d. after the year 1532. He served as lector in Sacred Scripture (Leipzig 1520), guardian (Halle 1523), and provincial (1529).
He was among the very first to rise up against the nascent Protestantism. In 1520, commissioned by Adolfo, bishop of Merseburg, he began publishing a series of pamphlets: Super apostolica Sede (Leipzig 1520); Malagma optimum (Leipzig 1520); Confessio Aveldiana (Leipzig 1530), etc., which aroused Luther’s vengeful fury to the point of frenzy and reveal A. as a profound theologian, well versed in Sacred Scripture.
BIBL.: L. Lemmens, Pater Augustin von Alfeld, ein Franziskaner aus der ersten Jahren der Glaubensspaltung in Deutschland, Freiburg 1889. Emanuele Chietini