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Witzel (Lat. Wicelius), Georg

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Witzel (Lat. Wicelius), Georg

a German theologian, was born at Vach, Hesse, in 1504. He studied theology at Erfurt, and in 1520 went to Wittenberg to attend the lectures of Luther and Melanchthon, but was nevertheless ordained as priest by bishop Adolph, of Merseburg. Appointed vicar in his native town, he preached the doctrines of the reformation, married, and was expelled in 1525. Driven away by the peasants' war from Liibnitz, in Thuringia, where he had settled, he was, on the recommendation of Luther, appointed pastor of Niemeck, but relapsed into Romalnism, began to write with great violence against Luther and Melanchthon, and was expelled in 1530. After some years of uncertain endeavors, he entered the service of abbot John of Fulda, in 1540, published his principal book, Typus Ecclesiae Prioris, and presented his Querela Pacis to Charles V at the Diet of Spires (154-), who appointed him to draw up, together with Agricola, the Augsburg Interim. The troubles of the war induced Witzel to leave Fulda in 1554 and to settle at Mayence, where he published, in 1564, Via Regia see de Controversiis Religionis Capitibus Reconciliandis Sententia. He died in 1573. See Strobel, Beitrage zur Literatur des xvi. Jahrhunderts (Nuremberg, 1786); Schrockh, Kirchengeschichte, 1:570; 4:242 sq.; Neander, De Georgio Wicelio (Berlin, 1839); Holzhausen, in Niedner's Zeitschrift fur histor. Theologie, 1849, page 382 sq.; Kampfschulte, De G. Wicelio ejusque Studiis (Paderborn, 1856); Schmidt, Georg Witzel. Ein Altkatholik des xvi. Jahrhunderts (Vienna, 1876); Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.; Lichtenberger, Encyclop. des Sciences Religieuses, s.v. (B.P.)