ECOLAMPADIO (Oekolampad, Heuszen), Johann. — One of the lesser reformers, born at Weinsberg (Württemberg), then in the Palatinate, in 1482, died at Basel in Switzerland on 24 November 1531. After studying the humanities at Heilbronn, Bologna, Heidelberg, Tübingen, and Stuttgart, and being ordained priest, E. served as tutor to the sons of the Elector Palatine, and with his outstanding knowledge of Greek and Hebrew collaborated with Erasmus of Rotterdam on the new Latin version of the New Testament from the Greek (1525–36). In 1521 he joined the reformers after initially having been influenced by the doctrines of Luther. Becoming a pastor at Basel, he distinguished himself by the vigour of his preaching, especially in the church of St Martin, with great success, until in 1529, after great struggles, he secured the triumph of the Reformation over Catholicism and promoted an oligarchic-democratic constitution of the Church (a mixed assembly of pastors and laity). He was supported by the Waldensians (1530) and many other reformers at Ulm, Memmingen, and Biberach. In 1528 he married, and on 24 November 1531, shortly after the conclusion of the Smalcaldic League, he died at Basel. His widow soon remarried first to Capitone and then to Bucer.
In doctrine E. embraced the anti-papal ideas of the Reformation, the free interpretation of Holy Scripture, oscillating between Luther, of whom he later became an opponent, and Zwingli, with whom he formed a friendship and shared much of his ideology. E. was a sacramentalist, and in the famous controversy over the meaning of Christ’s words at the institution of the Holy Eucharist, he gave them a purely representative value. Instead of “This is my body” (Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22; Lk 22:19), the words should be understood as: “this is the image (or figure) of my body” (*De genitura verborum Domini hoc est Corpus meum... expositione*, 1525). E. advocated Communion under both kinds and introduced the German language into the liturgy.
In the matter of the declaration of nullity of the marriage between Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon, he opposed the papal sentence and favoured dissolution.
Of combative temperament, E. struggled not only against Catholics but also against Luther, Brenz, Servetus, and the Anabaptists, yet he remained on a fairly moderate line compared with other reformers.
His influence was chiefly exercised at Basel and in southern Germany.