STAPHYLUS (STAPELLAGE), FRIEDRICH. - Lutheran theologian, later converted to Catholicism, b. 27 Aug. 1512 at Osnabrück, d. 5 March 1564 at Innsbruck.
After spending his early years at Danzig and Cracow with his fellow countryman Johann Hodtfilter, who was in the service of Cardinal Campeggio, he went to Italy and studied philosophy and theology at Padua. In 1533 he returned to Danzig and in 1536 went to Wittenberg where, through contact with Melanchthon, he became a Lutheran. Summoned by Albert of Prussia to the new University of Königsberg (1541), he came into conflict with the philo-Anabaptist Johann Gnaphacus and with Osiander (v.), until, having returned to Danzig, he prepared the little work Synodus Sanctorum Patrum antiquorum contra nova dogmata
Andreae Osiandri (Nuremberg 1553), which manifests his initial return to the Church. He abjured during an illness at Breslau and got in touch with St. Peter Canisius (v.) and in 1554 became aulic councillor to Emperor Ferdinand I. At the colloquy of Worms (1557) S. found himself face to face with his former protector, Melanchthon, but he dominated the situation and wrote his Theologiae M. Lutheri trimembris epitome (1558) with the related Defensio pro trimembri theologia (Naisse 1560), in which he points to free examination as the cause of the discord among the various "reformers." Although a layman and married, he received permission from Rome to teach theology at the University of Ingolstadt (1560). Consulted by Pius IV on the ecclesiastical reforms to be carried out at the Council of Trent, S. sent the Pontiff a memorial, rich in personal observations; at the Emperor's invitation he drafted the Consultatio Ferdinandi I iussu instituta de articulis reformationis in Conc. Trid. proponendi. Posthumous is the work: Vom letzten und grossen Abfall, so vor der Zukunft des Antichrist geschehen soll (Ingolstadt 1565). All the works were collected by his son Friedrich: F. S. spursim editi libelli in unum volumen digestii (ibid. 1613). A convinced assertor of the necessity of the Church's magisterium, S. today deserves particular attention.
Bibliography2 works
Antonio Piolanti