ALBERTO VII of MECLEMBURGO, called the FAIR. — B. in 1486, d. in 1547. From 1508 he governed with his brother Enrico V il Pacifico; from 1520, when the duchy was divided by mutual agreement, A. governed alone over part of the city, the clergy, and 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 promulgate the Edict of Worms (1521), which placed the apostate friar under the ban of the Empire; indeed, he permitted the preaching of heretics in his lands. In 1524 he married Anna, daughter of Gioacchino I di Brandeburgo, who had been won over to Lutheranism; nevertheless, he remained faithful to the Roman Church and adhered to the anti-Lutheran policy of Carlo V, even protesting against his brother, who had passed entirely over to the innovators because of the temporal benefits he received from them. Finally,
aspiring to the throne of Denmark, where a papist was not wanted, he declared that he would follow his brother’s Lutheran policy. When hope of the Danish crown failed, and, it is said, even before then, A. again granted protection and favor to the Catholic Church, to which he also brought back his wife. But after his death his sons passed over to Protestantism, and the whole duchy became Lutheran.