Amerbach, Veit
AMERBACH, VEIT
Humanist and Lutheran convert to Catholicism; b. Wembding, 1503; d. Ingolstadt, Sept. 13, 1557. Amerbach (known also as Trolman) studied at Ingolstadt, Freiburg, and Wittenberg, taught in the Latin school at Eisleben, and was made professor on the arts faculty in Wittenberg in 1530. He became disaffected with his colleagues, concluded that the patristic writings did not support Luther's doctrine of justification by faith, and was moved by Johann Eck's arguments for the primacy of the pope. In November of 1543 he left Wittenberg and embraced Catholicism. He taught briefly in the Latin school in Eichstätt, and then became a professor of philosophy and rhetoric at Ingolstadt. He published commentaries on Cicero, Ovid, Chrysostom, and other writers of classical and Christian antiquity.
Bibliography: l. fischer, Veit Trolmann von Wemding, genannt Vitus Amerpachius, als Professor in Wittenberg (Freiburg 1926). t. freudenberger, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 2, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 1:433–434. m. simon, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart 3, 7 v. (3d ed. Tübingen 1957–65) 1:310.
[l. w. spitz]