Everything about Albert Of Mainz totally explained
Cardinal
Albert of Hohenzollern (German: ;
June 28,
1490 –
September 24,
1545) was
Elector and
Archbishop of Mainz from 1514 to 1545, and
Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1513 to 1545.
Biography
Born in
Cölln, Albert was the younger son of
John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg.
After their father's death, Albert and his older brother
Joachim I Nestor became
margraves of Brandenburg in
1499, but only his older brother held the title of an
elector of Brandenburg. Having studied at the university of
Frankfurt (Oder), Albert entered the ecclesiastical profession, and in
1513 became
archbishop of
Magdeburg and administrator of the
Diocese of Halberstadt.
In
1514 he obtained the
Electorate of Mainz, and in
1518 was made a
cardinal. Meanwhile to pay for the
pallium of the
see of Mainz and to discharge the other expenses of his elevation, Albert had borrowed 21,000
ducats from
Jacob Fugger, and had obtained permission from
Pope Leo X to conduct the sale of
indulgences in his diocese to obtain funds to repay this loan, as long as half the collection was forwarded to the Papacy. An agent of the Fuggers subsequently traveled in the Cardinal's retinue in charge of the cashbox. For this work he procured the services of
John Tetzel, and so indirectly exercised a potent influence on the course of the
Reformation.
It was as a disgusted response to Tetzel's activities selling indulgences that
Martin Luther wrote his famous
95 Theses, which he sent to Albert on 31 October 1517 and traditionally nailed to the door of Castle Church in
Wittenberg. Albert forwarded the theses to Rome, suspecting them of heresy.
When the imperial election of
1519 drew near, the elector's vote was eagerly solicited by the partisans of Charles (afterwards the emperor
Charles V) and by those of
Francis I, King of France, and he appears to have received a large amount of money for the vote, which he cast eventually for Charles.
Albert's large and liberal ideas, his friendship with
Ulrich von Hutten, and his political ambitions, appear to have raised hopes that he'd be won over to
Protestantism; but after the
Peasants' War of
1525 he ranged himself definitely among the supporters of
Catholicism, and was among the princes who met to concert measures for its defence at
Dessau in July
1525.
His hostility towards the reformers, however, wasn't so extreme as that of his brother Joachim I, Elector of Brandenburg; and he appears to have exerted himself in the interests of peace, although he was a member of the
League of Nuremberg, which was formed in
1538 as a counterpoise to the
League of Schmalkalden.
The new doctrines nevertheless made considerable progress in his dominions, and he was compelled to grant religious liberty to the inhabitants of Magdeburg in return for 500,000
florins. During his latter years indeed he showed more intolerance towards the Protestants, and favoured the teaching of the
Jesuits in his dominions.
Albert adorned the
collegiate church (
Stiftskirche) at
Halle (Saale) and the
cathedral at Mainz in sumptuous fashion, and took as his motto the words
Domine, dilexi decorem domus tuae (Latin for: "Lord, I admired the adornment of your house."). A generous patron of art and learning, he counted
Erasmus among his friends.
He died at
Aschaffenburg in 1545.
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