Gabriel Didymus (Zwilling)
Gabriel Didymus (Zwilling) [1]
a friend and coworker of Luther, was born at Joachimsthal, in Bohemia, in 1487. He studied at Prague and Wittenberg, joined the Augustinians in 1502, and became priest in 1513. He was among the first to embrace the principles of the Reformation, and in 1521 caused private masses to be abolished in the Augustinian convent of Wittenberg, as well as the practice of begging, and substituted in their stead that of preaching on texts taken from Scripture. He afterwards severed his connection with the convents, and engaged in Carlstadt's crusade against learning, but subsequently acknowledged his error on this point. He left Wittenberg, however, and went as pastor to Diiben and Torgau. He was deposed in 1549 by Moritz of Saxony for his opposition to the Leipzig Interim (q.v.), and died in retirement in 1558. See Seckendorf, Commnentarius de Lutheranismo; Terne, Nachricht von des G. Didymus fatalem Leben (Leipsic, 1737, 4to); Herzog, Real-Encyklop die, 3, 384; Planck, Geschichte d. prot. Theologie, 4:243 sq.
