COCHLAUS (Dobneck), JOHANN German humanist and controversialist, was born at Wendelstein (near Nuremberg), whence the punning surname Cochlaus (spiral). In 1507 he graduated at Cologne and published under the name of Wendelstein his first piece, In musicam exhortatorium. He then became a schoolmaster at Nuremberg. In 1515 he was at Bologna, hearing (with disgust) Eck's famous disputation against usury, and associating with Ulrich von Hutten and humanists. He took his doctor's degree at Ferrara (1517), and spent some time in Rome, where he was ordained priest. In 152o he became dean of the Liebfrauenkirche at Frankfurt, where he first entered the lists as a controversialist against the party of Luther, developing that bitter hatred to the Reformation which animated his force ful but shallow ascription of the movement to the meanest mo tives, due to a quarrel between the Dominicans and Augustinians. Luther would not meet him in discussion at Mainz in 1521. He was present at the diets of Worms, Regensburg, Speyer and Augs burg. The peasants' war drove him from Frankfurt; he obtained (15 2 6) a canonry at Mainz; in 1529 he became secretary to Duke George of Saxony, at Dresden and Meissen. The death of his patron (1539) compelled him to take flight. He became canon (Sept. 1539) at Breslau, where he died on Jan. Io, 1552.
His best known work is Commentaria de Actis et scriptis Lutheris : German ed. 158o and 1582). His Kleine Schri f ten were edited by J. Schweizer (192o). See M. Spahn, Johannes Cochldus (1898).