Cochlaeus, Johannes (1479–1552)

German humanist and Roman Catholic controversialist. An active supporter of the Counter-Reformation, he was a fervent opponent of Luther. He strenuously opposed the marriage of Henry VIII of England to Anne Boleyn, and in 1525 also opposed the printing (in Cologne) of a translation of the New Testament by the English reformer Tyndale. In 1549 he published a historically important commentary on the words and deeds of Luther in the period 1517–46.

He was born at Wendelstein, near Schwabach, and studied philosophy in Nuremberg, where he was a protégé of Willibald Pirckheimer, and in Cologne. About 1518 he was ordained priest in Rome. In 1526 he was a canon of Mainz, transferring to Meissen around 1535 and then to Breslau (Wrocław, now in Poland) in 1539. He was a member of the Catholic delegation at both the Regensburg Colloquy in 1546 and the drawing up of the Interim of Augsburg in 1548.

His attack on the marriage of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn is contained in his De Matrimonio Regis Anglicae (1535) and Scopa in Araneas Ricardi Morysini Angli (1538). His book on Luther is Commentaria de Actis et Scriptis Lutheris; a translation from Latin into German appeared in 1580. Among his books is a 12-volume history of the Hussites, published as Historia Hussitorum in 1549.