Background
He was born in 1498 at Gunzenhausen, Ansbach, in the region of Franconia.
He was born in 1498 at Gunzenhausen, Ansbach, in the region of Franconia.
Osiander studied at the University of Ingolstadt before being ordained as a priest in 1520 in Nuremberg.
On 9 July 1515 Osiander was admitted to the University of Ingolstadt as a “cleric of the Eichstätt” diocese. Without obtaining a degree he moved to Nuremberg, where he taught Hebrew.
In 1522, he was appointed to the church of St. Lorenz in Nuremberg, and at the same time publicly declared himself to be a Lutheran. During the First Diet of Nuremberg (1522), he met Albert of Prussia, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, and played an important role in converting him to Lutheranism.
The Augsburg Interim of 1548 made it necessary for him to leave Nuremberg, settling first at Breslau (Wrocław), then, in 1549, at Königsberg (Kaliningrad) as professor of the newly founded Königsberg University, appointed by Albert of Prussia. Osiander lived and worked in Königsberg until his death in 1552.
Osiander was a famous theologisn, attended the Marburg Colloquy (1529), the Diet of Augsburg (1530) and the signing of the Schmalkalden articles (1531).
He published a corrected edition of the Vulgate Bible, with notes, in 1522 and a Harmony of the Gospels in 1537 also controversial disputations, De Lege et Evangelio and De Justificatione.
He enthusiastically embraced the new Lutheran movement and soon became one of its most militant spokesmen.
He believed that justification for a Christian believer resulted from Christ dwelling in a person. Contrary to Luther's belief that justification was imputed by God's grace, Osiander believed that the righteousness of a believer was accomplished by the indwelling of God; thus, God finds one righteous because Christ is in that person.
He married in 1525.
