PFEFFINGER, JOHANN. – Lutheran theologian, b. at Wasserburg am Inn on 27 December 1493, d. at Leipzig on 1 October 1573. A priest serving as a parish pastor in the Salzburg region and at Passau, he converted to Lutheranism in 1523 and took refuge in Wittenberg.
He took part in the introduction of the “Reformation” at Leipzig in 1539: there he became “superintendent” in 1540 and professor of theology in 1543, spending the rest of his life there as a preacher and controversialist. P.’s name is associated with two internal controversies in Lutheran theology: the controversy over the adiaphora, concerning Catholic ceremonies and liturgical usages restored in Saxony in 1548 by Elector Moritz, in accordance with the directives of Charles V. Together with Melanchthon, P. maintained that these were acceptable as things “indifferent” to pure doctrine, whereas Flacius Illyricus and Amadori made them a matter of conscience. In the synergistic controversy (v.), that is, concerning the cooperation of the human will in conversion, P. upheld its possibility, here too in opposition to the strict Lutherans, advocates of “grace alone” and of the “enslaved will.” He set forth his ideas in De libertate voluntatis humanae quaestiones (Leipzig 1556). As a synergist, he was condemned by the Formula of Concord of 1578.