STADION, CHRISTOPH. — Bishop, born in March 1478 at Schelklingen, of a noble family from Sweden; died at Nuremberg on 15 April 1543.
He studied at Tübingen (1490) and Freiburg im Breisgau, received a degree in law at Ferrara, and in 1507 became a canon of Augsburg, then dean and bishop on 20 April 1517. He was considered the most learned of the prince-bishops of Germany. In obedience to the prescriptions of the Fifth Lateran Council, he undertook the reorganization of the diocese, held a synod in 1517, and ordered its visitation in 1518; in October 1520 he resolved to publish the papal bull against Luther, overcoming the doubts aroused in him by the divisions that had spread in Augsburg. On the occasion of the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, he took part in the great procession of Corpus Domini, which was also attended by Charles V. S, however, was well disposed toward an understanding with the Protestants. Indeed, he moved within the current of Erasmus of Rotterdam, whom he placed above the great theologians of antiquity and admired as a master of the spiritual life.
He openly advocated granting the chalice to the laity, abolishing fasting, permitting priests to marry, and introducing the liturgy in the German language; for this he was reprimanded by the nuncio Morone at Hagenau in June 1540. Nevertheless, in 1542 he promised him that he would undertake the reform of the diocese, although exaggerating its difficulties. In fact, Protestantism had spread widely in many parts of it: in the palatinate of Neuburg, in the county of Ottingen, in the imperial cities of Dinkelsbühl, Memmingen, and Nördlingen, and in the episcopal city, where it had arrived bearing a Zwinglian stamp. He died after having received, the previous month, the papal envoy Otto of Truchsess, who was to succeed him in the bishopric.