The early years of Albert's rule in Prussia were fairly prosperous.
Although he had some trouble with the peasantry, the lands
and treasures of the church enabled him to propitiate the
nobles and for a time to provide for the expenses of the
court. He did something for the furtherance of learning by
establishing schools in every town and by giving privileges
to serfs who adopted a scholastic life. In 1544, in spite
of some opposition, he founded a university at Konigsberg,
where he appointed his friend Osiander to a professorship in
1549. This step was the beginning of the troubles which clouded
the closing years of Albert's reign. Osiander's divergence
from Luther's doctrine of justification by faith involved him
in a violent quarrel with XIelanchthon, who had adherents in
Konigsberg, and these theological disputes soon created an
uproar in the town. The duke strenuously supported Osiander,
and the area of the quarrel soon broadened. There were no longer
church lands available with which to conciliate the nobles,
the burden of taxation was heavy, and Albert's rule became
unpopular. After Osiander's death in 1552 he favoured a preacher
named John Funck, who, with an adventurer named Paul Scalich,
exercised great influence over him and obtained considerable
wealth at the public expense. The state of turmoil caused by
these religious and political disputes was increased by the
possibility of Albert's early death and the necessity in that
event for a regency owing to the youth of his only son, Albert
Frederick. The duke was consequently obliged to consent to a
condemnation of the teaching of Osiander, and the climax came
in 1566 when the estates appealed to Sigismund II., king of
Poland, who sent a commission to Konigsberg. Scalich saved
his life by flight, but Funck was executed; the question of
the regency was settled; and a form of Lutheranism was adopted,
and declared binding on all teachers and preachers. Virtually
deprived of power, the duke lived for two years longer, and
died at Tapiau on the 20th of March 1568. In 1526 he had
married Dorothea, daughter of Frederick I., king of Denmark,
and after her death in 1547, Anna Maria, daughter of Eric
I., duke of Brunswick. Albert was a voluminous letterwriter,
and corresponded with many of the leading personages of the
time. In 1891 a statue was erected to his memory at Konigsberg.
See
J. Voigt, Briefwechsel der beruhmtested Gelehrten des
Zeitalters der Reformation mit Herzog Albrecht von Preussen
(Konigsberg, 1841)
E. Joachim, Die Politik des letzten
Hochmeisters in Preussen, Albrecht von Brandenburg (Leipzig,
1892)
K. Lohmeyer, Herzog Albrecht von Preussen (Danzig, 1890).
This article is from the 1911 edition of an
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