FABRI, JOHANNES. - Born in 1478 at Leutkirch, died in Vienna on 21 May 1541. He took his doctorate in theology at Tübingen and in law at Freiburg. Vicar at Lindau, parish priest in his native town, canon and official of the Bishop of Basel, everywhere he made himself famous for apostolic zeal. After a brief stay in Rome (1517), he became vicar general of Constance; during that period he was the most formidable adversary of Zwingli, with whom he held a public disputation (1523). Confessor and counsellor of Ferdinand of Austria, he was elected Bishop of Vienna in 1530.
At the first signs of the Lutheran reform, he entered decisively into the struggle, both with writings and with preaching. His Malleus in Iueresim Luteranum is from 1524. He took part in the Diet of Augsburg (1530), and on the commission of Charles V he drafted, together with other Catholic theologians, the reply to the "confession." His opinions on the technical preparation of the Council, expressed in a long letter to the Pope (6 July 1536), proved very useful to Contarini; of the Council the F. was one of the most ardent supporters, seeing in it
the ultimate remedy for the ills of the Church. His indeed is a pamphlet of 1537, De necessitate et mera utilitate sacrosancti concilii epistula. As bishop, he was an animator of new energies in his diocese; he recalled the clergy to a more exemplary life, kept the people away from the dangers of heresy by preaching himself on feast days, established a boarding school for poor students, and chose to be poor until his death, which overtook him in Vienna.
Bibliography3 works
Gennaro Auletta