John Macalpine (Latin : Maccabeus) (died 6 December 1557) was a Scottish Protestant theologian.
He was born in Scotland about the beginning of the 16th century, and graduated at a Scottish university. From 1532 to 1534 he was prior of the Dominican convent of Perth; but having in the latter year been summoned with Alexander Ales and others to answer for heresy before the Bishop of Ross, he left for England. There he was granted letters of denization on 7 April 1537, and married Agnes Macheson, a fellow exile for religion; her sister Elizabeth became the wife of Miles Coverdale. [1]
The reaction of 1539 made England doubtful refuge and on 25 November 1540 MacAlpine matriculated at the university of Wittenberg. He had already graduated BA at Cologne, and in 1542 proceeded to his doctorate at Wittenberg. That year, being known as Maccabeus, he accepted Christian III of Denmark's offer to the chair of theology at the university of Copenhagen, which had been endowed out of the spoils of the Church. [1]
Melanchthon spoke well of Macalpine and with Peter Plade (Palladius) who had studied at Wittenberg, Macalpine took a prominent part in building up the Lutheran Church of Denmark. He encouraged Sir David Lindsay who visited him in 1548, to publish his Monarchie; and persuaded Christian III to intercede with Mary I of England on behalf of Coverdale and invite him to Denmark. [1]
MacAlpine died at Copenhagen on 6 December 1557. [1] His son Christian Maccabeus Macalpine (1541–1598) studied at Wittenberg, Copenhagen and Cambridge, and was professor at the university of Copenhagen 1565–1567.
A joint exposure of Plade and MacAlpine on Osiander's errors was published in 1552 and reprinted in Leipzig and Copenhagen in 1768. MacAlpine was one of the four translators of Luther's German Bible into Danish.
Year 1534 (MDXXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
Philip Melanchthon was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, an intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and influential designer of educational systems.
Myles Coverdale, first name also spelt Miles, was an English ecclesiastical reformer chiefly known as a Bible translator, preacher and, briefly, Bishop of Exeter (1551–1553). In 1535, Coverdale produced the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English. His theological development is a paradigm of the progress of the English Reformation from 1530 to 1552. By the time of his death, he had transitioned into an early Puritan, affiliated to Calvin, yet still advocating the teachings of Augustine.
Frederick II was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1559 until his death in 1588.
Christian III reigned as King of Denmark from 1534 and King of Norway from 1537 until his death in 1559. During his reign, Christian formed close ties between the church and the crown. He established Lutheranism as the state religion within his realms as part of the Protestant Reformation, and was the first King of Denmark-Norway.
John Rogers was an English clergyman, Bible translator and commentator. He guided the development of the Matthew Bible in vernacular English during the reign of Henry VIII and was the first English Protestant executed as a heretic under Mary I, who was determined to restore Roman Catholicism.
Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig, most often referred to as N. F. S. Grundtvig, was a Danish pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher and politician. He was one of the most influential people in Danish history, as his philosophy gave rise to a new form of nationalism in the last half of the 19th century. It was steeped in the national literature and supported by deep spirituality.
Andreas Rudolph Bodenstein von Karlstadt, better known as Andreas Karlstadt, Andreas Carlstadt or Karolostadt, in Latin, Carolstadius, or simply as Andreas Bodenstein, was a German Protestant theologian, University of Wittenberg chancellor, a contemporary of Martin Luther and a reformer of the early Reformation.
Hans Tausen (Tavsen) nicknamed the “Danish Luther” was the leading Lutheran theologian of the Danish Reformation in Denmark. He served as Bishop of Ribe and published the first translation of the Pentateuch into Danish in 1535.
Hans Lassen Martensen was a Danish bishop and academic. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen and Bishop of the Diocese of Zealand.
Peder Oxe was a Danish finance minister and Steward of the Realm.
Herluf Trolle was a Danish naval hero, Admiral of the Fleet and co-founder of Herlufsholm School, a private boarding school at Næstved on the island of Zealand in Denmark.
Niels Hemmingsen, Latinized Nicolaus Hemmingius, was a Danish Lutheran theologian. He was pastor of the Church of the Holy Ghost, Copenhagen and professor at the University of Copenhagen. The street Niels Hemmingsens Gade in Copenhagen is named in his honor.
During the Reformation, the territories ruled by the Danish-based House of Oldenburg converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism. After the break-up of the Kalmar Union in 1521/1523, these realms included the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway and the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, whereby Denmark also extended over today's Gotland and Øsel in Estonia.
In 16th-century Christianity, Protestantism came to the forefront and marked a significant change in the Christian world.
Hieronymus Osius was a German Neo-Latin poet and academic about whom there are few biographical details. He was born about 1530 in Schlotheim and murdered in 1575 in Graz. After studying first at the university of Erfurt, he gained his master's degree from Wittenberg University in 1552 and later lectured on Poetics in the Philosophical faculty there. In 1558 he was crowned poet laureate in Copenhagen by King Christian III of Denmark. Thereafter he held teaching positions in Jena, Regensburg and Graz, identifying with Protestantism in the religious conflicts of the time. Osius was known as a pre-eminent poet whose works were frequently reprinted. They included his "Song on Christ’s Birth" ; an adaptation into Latin of the Homeric comic epic, the Batrachomyomachia ; an epic of the Dithmarschen Peasants’ War, which had only recently concluded and of which he also published a shorter version in German; and his collection of nearly 300 poems based on Aesop’s Fables.
Niels Kaas was a Danish politician who served as Chancellor of Denmark from 1573 until his death. He was influential in the negotiation of the Peace of Stettin and in the upbringing of Christian IV. Kaas also played an important role in the emancipation of Schleswig-Holstein.
Peder Palladius was a Danish theologian, Protestant reformer, and bishop of Zealand. As the first protestant bishop in Denmark, he oversaw the conversion of ecclesiastic affairs. He helped create the church ordinance which founded the Church of Denmark, produced a Danish translation of the Bible, and removed Catholic images and rituals from his diocese.
Peder Svave was a Pomerania-born Danish diplomat, privy councillor and rector of the University of Copenhagen. He owned Gjorslev Manor south of Copenhagen.
Thomas Skat Rørdam (1832–1909) was a Danish priest and theologian who was Bishop of the Diocese of Zealand from 1895 until his death. In the course of his ecclesiastical career, Rørdam served as a local priest in small parishes on Zealand, a parish priest at the Church of the Holy Ghost in Copenhagen, and as provost at Holmen Church before being instated as Bishop of Zealand. He was a decorated member of the Order of the Danneborg.