WIMPINA, KONRAD KOCH

Theologian; b. Wimpfen-on-the-Neckar, Germany, c. 1460; d. Amorbach, June 16, 1531. He called himself

Wimpina after his birthplace. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Buchen (Odenwald). Wimpina received the master's degree at the University of Leipzig in 1485. After studying theology at the same university, he received the doctorate in 1503. During this time he served as rector (1494), dean of arts (1494–95), and vice-chancellor of the university (1498–1502). He was ordained subdeacon (1495) and priest in Würzburg (1500?). During a long polemic against his former teacher, M. Polich, over the primacy of theology, he showed himself enthusiastic for scholastic theology, although he was more intent on amassing authoritative opinions than reaching original conclusions from the sources. He left Leipzig in 1505 to exert a decisive influence on the newly founded University of Frankfurt on the Oder. Three times he served as rector, and for many years he was dean of the theological faculty.

In the indulgence controversy, he opposed Luther by drafting 122 (95) theses, which J. tetzel defended on Jan. 20, 1518. In the theses some debated theological opinions were presented as dogma, for example, that the state of grace is not necessary to gain indulgences for the dead. His disputations and essays against Luther, Anacep halaeosis, appeared at Frankfurt in 1528. Here he depicted Lutheranism as a collection of the sects and errors of all times, but the book was too cumbersome to be effective. In 1530 Wimpina accompanied Prince Joachim of Brandenburg to Augsburg where, together with J. Mensing and others, he wrote a refutation of Luther's 17 Schwabach Theses and took part in drafting the Confutatio against the Augsburg Confession. With J. Eck and J. Cochlaeus, he was on the commission that strove in vain from August 16 to 19 to achieve unity. His shorter writings appeared at Cologne in 1531 under the title Farrago miscellaneorum.

Bibliography: l. cristiani, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique. ed. a. vacant et al., (Paris 1903–50) 15.2:3549–53.

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