Lambert, Francis (1486–1530)

French-born religious reformer. A Franciscan famous as a preacher, he abandoned his order and travelled to Zürich to meet Zwingli and then to Wittenberg in 1523 to meet Martin Luther. He was appointed professor of Bible studies at Marburg University in 1527. In 1529, on the debate over the Eucharist, he openly advocated the position of Zwingli, denying the real presence, alienating his Lutheran supporters.

The son of a papal official at Avignon, he joined the Franciscan Order there in 1507 and became famous as a preacher. After 1517 he travelled through France, Italy, and Switzerland, his study of the Bible and the religious reformers causing him to abandon Catholicism.

In 1526 he was summoned to Hesse by the landgrave, Philip, who entrusted Lambert with the setting up of a Reformed Church in his domains and appointed him to a professorship at the new university of Marburg, the first Protestant university. He died of the plague, leaving a number of works that include a polemic against Erasmus (1525), and commentaries on the Song of Songs (1524) and on the Book of Revelation (1528).