FA'BER, or FABRI, JonANNEs (1478 1541). A Roman Catholic bishop, called the `Hammer of Heretics.' His family name was Hei gerlin, which lie changed to Faber. He was horn at Leutkireh, near Lake Constance, in 1478. He studied theology and canon law in Tiibingen and Freiburg in Breisgan, and becana doctor in carom law. After parochial and cathedral service he was appointed in 1518 Vicai-General of the Dio cese of Constance. Ile enjoyed the friendship of such men as Erasmus, I\ lelanolithon, and Zwingli, and seemed likely to agree with them fully. But when the breach IN itri the Church became too wide, he chose the side of the latter, and in 1522 issued a work against Luther, and ever after wards was one of the most indefatigable, learned, and formidable opponents of the movement. Ilis epithet conies from his work .1/a/lcus in liwresin Lutheranani (Cologne, 1524), but it is only one of many such writings. At the last disputation
in Zurich (January, 1523) and the Diets of Nuremberg ( 152:3) , Speier (I529 ) , and A mrsburg (1530), he bore a leading part and won general applause. In 15:31 he became Bishop of Vienna, and in this exposed position the Turks gave him as much to do as the Reformers. Ile died at Baden, near Vienna, May 21, 1541. His collected works, so called, but really only the homiletical, appeared in Cologne (3 vols., 1537 41). The polemical works, pu.s.cula Quirdant J. Fabri Fiennensis ( Leipzig, 1537) , are more valuable. There is no complete biography of him. A. rlorawitz, in his Johannes Heftier/in ge venal Faber, Bishof von Wien, Lis inn? llegens burger Convent (Vienna, 1884), traced his life to 1524 only.