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 in Danzig and Kraków with his fellow townsman Giovanni 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 entered into conflict with the pro-Anabaptist Giovanni Gnaphacus and with Osiander (v.), until, after returning to Danzig, he prepared the brief work Synodus Sanctorum Patrum antiquorum contra nova dogmata
Andreae Osiandri (Nuremberg 1553), which reveals his initial return to the Church. He recanted during an illness in Breslau and came into contact with s. Pietro Canisio (v.); in 1554 he became aulic councillor to Emperor Ferdinand I. At the Colloquy of Worms (1557), S. found himself facing his former protector, Melanchthon, but dominated the situation and wrote his Theologiae M. Lutheri trimembris epitome (1558), together 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 concerning the ecclesiastical reforms to be implemented at the Council of Trent, S. sent the Pontiff a memorandum, rich in personal observations; at the Emperor’s invitation he composed the Consultatio Ferdinandi I iussu instituta de articulis reformationis in Conc. Trid. proponendi. The work Vom letzten und grossen Abfall, so vor der Zukunft des Antichrist geschehen soll (Ingolstadt 1565) was published posthumously. All his works were collected by his son Frederick: F. S. spursim editi libelli in unum volumen digestii (there 1613). A convinced advocate of the necessity of the Church’s magisterium, S. deserves particular attention today.