Franz Alard

Franz Alard , occasionally Franciscus Alard , (* in Brussels ; † September 10, 1578 in Wilster , Schleswig-Holstein ) was a Lutheran preacher .

Alard came from a long-established Brabant family; his father called himself "Alard de Cantier" after the ancestral home of the family. At the request of his father, Alard entered the Order of Preachers in Antwerp . There he got to know the works of Martin Luther at the age of 20 and was influenced by them.

Alard left his monastery and went to Hamburg to there the Lutheran theology to study. In the absence of financial support, he was soon forced to abandon this project and return to his hometown. It is unclear who betrayed him to the Inquisition (his own family were also suspected), but he escaped arrest.

He escaped to the court of the Counts of Oldenburg and worked there for some time as a preacher. When the Lutherans were later granted freedom of worship, Alard accepted an offer to Antwerp. He worked there as a preacher until he was driven out again in 1557 by political unrest ( Reformation iconoclasm ).

For six years he worked as a pastor in Norden (East Friesland) , then in Kaltenkirchen and Kellinghusen (Schleswig-Holstein). Alard returned to his parish in Antwerp around 1566. In addition to his duties in the community, he also worked with theologians Matthias Flacius and Cyriacus Spangenberg , with whom he a. a. restructured the church administration.

In Antwerp he married Gertrud Bennings. With her he had a son, Wilhelm , who, like a number of other descendants, became a Lutheran preacher. When the Duke of Alba’s politics drove him and his family back into exile, Alard settled in Wilster . He held the parish office there and held this office until the end of his life.

In 1576 Alard published a paper to refute the doctrine of Matthias Flacius, according to which original sin belongs to the essence of man.

Works (selection)

• Catechism posed with questions and answers . 1568.

literature

• Adolf Brecher, Johann Friedrich Ludwig Theodor Merzdorf:  Alard, Franz . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 171-173.
• Biografisch Archief van de Benelux Munich 1994, part I 9,325-351

Web links

• Short biography on the Controversia et Confessio Digital website . Edited by Irene Dingel (accessed December 8, 2016)