Albert VII of Mecklenburg, called the Handsome

ALBERT VII OF MECKLENBURG, called the Handsome. - B. in 1486, d. in 1547. From 1508 he governed with his brother Henry V the Peaceful; from 1520, after a division of the duchy had been made by common agreement, A. governed alone over a part of the city, of the clergy and of the nobility. At the appearance of the Lutheran heresy, convinced of the need for a reform of the Church, he showed himself a lukewarm Catholic and refused to publish the edict of Worms (1521), which outlawed the apostate friar from the empire; and indeed he permitted the preaching of heretics in his lands. In 1524 he married Anna, daughter of Joachim I of Brandenburg, who had been won over to Lutheranism; nevertheless he remained faithful to the Roman Church, and adhered to the anti-Lutheran policy of Charles V, protesting also against his brother, who had gone over entirely to the innovators, for the temporal benefits he received from it. Finally, aspiring to the throne of Denmark, where a papist was not wanted, he declared that he would follow his brother's Lutheran policy. Once the hope of the Danish crown had failed, and, it is said, even before then, A. resumed granting protection and favor to the Catholic Church, to which he also brought back his wife. But his sons, after his death, went over to Protestantism and the whole duchy of Mecklenburg became Lutheran.

Luigi Berra