**PFEFFINGER**, JOHANN. - Lutheran theologian, b. at Wasserburg am Inn on 27 Dec. 1493, d. at Leipzig on 10 Oct. 1573. Priest in charge in the Salubrighese and at Passau, he turned 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, professor of theology in 1543, and spent the rest of his life there as preacher and controversialist. P.’s name is linked to two internal controversies of Lutheran theology: that of the *adiaphora*, concerning the ceremonies and liturgical usages of Catholicism reintegrated in Saxony in 1548 by Elector Maurice, following the directives of Charles V; of these, P. with Melanchthon upheld their acceptability as matters “indifferent” to pure doctrine, while Flacius Illyricus and Amsdorf made a matter of conscience of them. In the synergistic controversy (v.), i.e., of the cooperation of the human will in conversion, P. upheld its possibility, again in contrast with the strict Lutherans, advocates of “grace alone” and of the “servile will.”
He set out his ideas in *De libertate voluntatis humanae quaestiones* (Leipzig 1556). As a synergist he was condemned by the Formula of Concord in 1578.