ALBERT elector and archbishop of Mainz, and archbishop of Magdeburg, was the younger son of John Cicero, elector of Brandenburg, and was born June 28, 149o, and died at Aschaffenburg Sept. In 1513 he 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 bor rowed a large sum of money from the Fuggers, and had obtained permission from Pope Leo X. to conduct the sale of indulgences in his diocese to obtain funds to repay this loan. For this work he procured the services of John Tetzel, and so indirectly exercised a potent influence on the course of the Reformation. When the imperial election of 1519 drew near, the elector's vote was eagerly solicited both by the partisans of Charles (afterwards the Em peror Charles V.) and 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 would be won over to the reformed faith; but after the peasants' war of 1525 he ranged himself definitely among the supporters of Catholicism. He was nevertheless compelled to grant religious liberty to the inhabitants of Magdeburg in return for Soo,000 florins.
During his latter years indeed he showed more intolerance towards the Protestants. Albert adorned the Sti f tskirche at Halle and the cathedral at Mainz in sumptuous fashion, and took as his motto the words Domine, dilexi decorum domes tuae. A gen erous patron of art and learning, he counted Erasmus among his friends.
See J. H. Hennes, Albrecht von Brandenburg, Erzbischof von Mainz and Magdeburg (Mainz, 1858) ; J. May, Der Kurfiirst, Kardinal, and Erzbischof Albrecht 11. von Mainz and Magdeburg (Munich, 1865 75) ; W. Sebum, Kardinal Albrecht von Mainz and die Erfurten Kirchenreformation (Halle, 1878) ; P. Redlich, Kardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg, and das neue Stift zu Halle (Mainz, 'goo).