TAUSEN, HANS (1494-1561), the protagonist of the Danish Reformation, was born at Birkende in in 1494. The quick witted peasant lad ran away from the plough at an early age, finally settling down as a friar in the Johannite cloister of Ant vorskov near Slagelse. After teaching for a time at Rostock and Copenhagen, he was again sent abroad by his prior, visiting the newly founded University of Leyden and making the acquaint ance of the Dutch humanists. He was already a good linguist, understanding both Latin and Hebrew. Later he translated the books of Moses from the original. In May 1523 Tausen went to Wittenberg, where he studied for a year and a half, when he was recalled to Antvorskov. In consequence of his adherence to Lutheran doctrines he was first imprisoned in the dungeons of Antvorskov and thence transferred, in 1525, to the Grey Friars' cloister at Viborg in Jutland, where he preached from his prison to the people assembled outside, till his prior, whom he won over to his views, lent him the pulpit of the priory church.
Several young men in Viborg had studied at Wittenberg, and the burghers had already expelled their youthful bishop Jorgen Friis. Tausen no longer felt safe among the Franciscans ; he dis carded his monastic habit, and placed himself under the protec tion of the burgesses of Viborg. At first he preached in the parish church of St. John, then in the market-place from the church tower. When the Franciscans refused to allow him to preach in
their large church, the mob broke in by force. A compromise was at last arranged, whereby the friars were to preach in the f ore noon and Tausen in the afternoon. The bishop sent armed men to the church to arrest Tausen, but the burghers drove them back. In Oct. 1526 King Frederick I., made Hans Tausen one of his chaplains, and charged him to continue "to preach the holy Gos pel" to the citizens of Viborg, who were to be responsible for his safety. Tausen found a fellow-worker in Jorgen Viberg, better known as Sadolin, whose sister, Dorothea, he married. He was the first Danish priest to marry. He was also the first to use Danish instead of Latin in the church services.
On the death of King Frederick, Tausen, at the instance of Ronne, was, at the Herredag of 1533, convicted of blasphemy and condemned to expulsion from the diocese of Sjaelland, whereupon the mob rose in arms against the bishop, who would have been murdered but for Tausen's intervention. Ronne then permitted Tausen to preach in all his churches on condition that he mod erate his tone. On the final triumph of the Reformation Tausen was appointed bishop of Ribe (1542), an office which he held for 20 years.
See Suhr, Tausens Levnet (Ribe, 5836) ; Danmarks Riges Historie, vol. ii. (Copenhagen, 1897-1905).