ECOLAMPADIO (OEKOLAMPAD, HEUSZGEN), JOHANN. — One of the minor reformers, born at Weinsberg (Württemberg), then in the Palatinate, in 1482, and died at Basel in Switzerland on 24 November 1531. After completing his humanistic studies at Heilbronn, Bologna, Heidelberg, Tübingen, and Stuttgart, and being ordained a priest, E. became tutor to the sons of the Elector Palatine; with his excellent knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, he collaborated with Erasmo di Rotterdam on the new Latin version of the New Testament from the Greek (1515–16). In 1521 he joined the reformers, having initially come under the influence of Luther’s doctrines. Having become a pastor in Basel, he distinguished himself there through the vigor of his preaching, especially in the church of S. Martino, with great proselytizing success, until in 1520, 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 laymen). The Waldensians (1530) and many other reformers in Ulm, Memmingen, and Biberach relied upon him. In 1528 he married, and on 24 November 1531, shortly after the conclusion of the Schmalkaldic League, he died in Basel. The widow soon contracted a second and a third marriage, with Capitone and Bucer.
In doctrine, E. embraced the Reformation’s anti-papal ideas and the free interpretation of Sacred Scripture, wavering between Luther, whom he later came to oppose, and Zwingli, with whom he entered into friendship and shared a large part of his ideology. E. was a sacramentarian, and in the celebrated question concerning the meaning of Jesus’ words at the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist, he attributed to them a purely representational value. Instead of “This is my body” (Mt. 26:26; Mk. 14:22; Lk. 22:19), the words were to be understood as: “this is the image (or figure) of my body” (De genuina verborum Domini «hoc est Corpus meum... expositione, 1525). E. inculcated Communion under both kinds and imposed the German language in the liturgy.
In the question concerning the declaration annulling the marriage between Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon, he opposed the papal judgment and favored dissolution.
A combative temperament, E. fought not only against the Catholics, but also against Luther, Brena, Servetus, and the Anabaptists, while nevertheless maintaining a fairly moderate line in comparison with other reformers.
His influence was exercised above all in Basel and southern Germany.