ALVELT, AGOSTINO. - A Franciscan, from Alfeld (Hildesheim), died in 1532 or later; one of Luther’s earliest opponents and among the most effective Catholic controversialists of the period. In 1520 he was lecturer in Sacred Scripture at the convent of Leipzig; in 1523 guardian at Halle; in 1526 provincial minister of Saxony. The persistence of the Franciscans in the Catholic faith was due in large part to his work.
As early as 1520 he published in Latin a defence of the primacy of the Roman Pontiff, which provoked an initial polemical reply by a pupil of Melantone, countered by the Franciscan Giovanni Fritzhaus, and a second, more authoritative response by Giovanni Lonicer, commissioned and assisted by Luther; A. himself replied to this latter, openly directing his attack against Luther. At the same time A. published a defence of the Papacy in German for the common people, provoking Luther’s indignant and violent work Del papato in Roma contro il famosissimo romanista di Lipsia (1520). Another clash between A. and Luther arose from the question of the Eucharist and communion sub utraque specie; A.’s objections led to the exposition of Luther’s programme in Latin: De captivitate bubylonica. A. challenged Luther’s attacks upon Bishop Benno of Meissen, canonized in 1524, and Luther’s letter of consolation to the innovators of Halle on the killing of one of their preachers (1528), though this letter is attributed by some to Duke Giorgio of Saxony.