Albrecht of Brandenburg
Albrecht was a Hohenzollern, the younger brother of Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg. At twenty-three he was made Archbishop of Magdeburg and administrator of Halberstadt, and in 1514, at twenty-four, Archbishop and Elector of Mainz, the first prince of the German church. Holding several sees at once was forbidden by canon law, and Rome sold him a dispensation. He borrowed from the Fugger bank of Augsburg to pay for it and for his pallium, and in return Leo X allowed the St. Peter’s indulgence to be preached in his lands, half the proceeds going to repay the loan.1
Albrecht wrote the instructions for the preachers, and chose Johann Tetzel as one of them. On October 31, 1517, Luther sent him a respectful letter with the Ninety-Five Theses, begging him to withdraw the instructions.2 Albrecht forwarded the theses to Rome, and the process against Luther began. In 1518 Cardinal Cajetan placed the red hat on his head at Augsburg.
Albert had neither the virtues nor the vices which are often met with in the high dignitaries of the church. Young, fickle, worldly, but not without some generous feelings, he was perfectly aware of many of the abuses of Catholicism, and cared little for the fanatical monks by whom he was surrounded.1 J. H. Merle d’AubignéHistory of the Reformation, bk. 3, ch. 3
Albrecht was a patron of humanists and for a time kept the future reformer Wolfgang Capito as his chaplain, but he never came over to the Reformation. In 1521 he displayed a vast collection of relics at Halle with indulgences attached, until Luther threatened to publish a tract Against the Idol at Halle and Albrecht backed down. Magdeburg and Halle later turned Protestant under him. Near the end of his life he welcomed the first Jesuits into Germany, and he died at Mainz on September 24, 1545.
