GEORGE OF BRANDENBURG: Margrave of Brandenburg-Anabach-Kuhnbach; b. at Onolzbach (Ansbach, 25 m. s.w. of Nuremberg), Middle Franconia, Mar. 4, 1484; d. there Dec. 27, 1543. He was the third of the eight sons of Margrave Frederick the Elder and a grandson of Albert Achilles, the founder of the Anabach-Kuhnbach Hohenzollern line. Through his mother, Sophie, a Polish princess, sister of King Ladislaus II. of Bohemia and Hungary, he was related to the royal court in Buda. He entered the service of his uncle, the king of Hungary, living at his court from 1506. The king received him as an adopted son, entrusted him in 1515 with the duchy of Oppeln, and in 1516 made him member of the tutelary government in stituted for Hungary, and tutor of his son Louis.
At the court of Hungary there were two parties arrayed against each other-the Magyar party under the leadership of Zapolyas and the German party under the leadership of George of Brandenburg, whose authority was increased by the acquisition of the duchies of Ratibor and Oppeln by hereditary treaties with their respective dukes and of the territories of Oderberg, Beuthen, and Tarnowitz as pledges from the king of Bohemia, who could not redeem his debts. By the further appropriation of the duchy of Jagerndorf, George came into possession of all Upper Silesia. As the owner and mortgagee of these territories he prepared the way for the introduction of the Reformation, here as well as in his native Franconia. At an earlier time than any other German prince and any other member of the Hohenzollern line, even before his younger brother Albert, the grand master of the Teutonic Order (see Albert of Prussia), he turned his eyes and heart to the new faith pro ceeding from Wittenberg.
The first Reformatory writings began the work of winning him over to the Evangelical cause. Luther's powerful testimony of faith at the Diet of Worms in 1521 made an indelible impression upon his mind, and the vigorous sermons of Evangelical preachers in the pulpits of St. Lawrence and St. Sebald in Nuremberg, during the diet there in 1522, deepened the impression. The study of Luther's translation of the New Testament, which appeared in 1522, established his faith on personal conviction. Moreover, he en tered into correspondence with Luther, discussing with him the most important problems of faith, and in 1524 met him personally on the occasion of the negotiations of his brother, Albert, regarding the reformation of the Teutonic Order and its transformation into a secular duchy. George was aided in his reformn.tory efforts, after the accession of King Louis, by his wife, Queen Mary, a sister of Charles V. and Ferdinand, who was favorably inclined toward the new doctrine. As the councilor of the young king, George firmly advocated the cause of the new Gospel against the influences and intrigues of his clerical opponents and successfully prevented their violent measures. His relationship with Duke Frederick II. of Liegnitz, Brieg, and Wohlen and Duke Charles I. of Münsterberg-Oels, who had both admitted the Reformation into their countries, contributed not a little to the expansion of the Gospel in his own territories. But it was his own personal influence, energy, and practical spirit that introduced the new doctrine and founded a new Evangelical and churchly life. He made efforts to secure preachers of the new Gospel from Hungary, Silesia, and Franconia, and tried to introduce the church order of Brandenburg-Nuremberg, which had already found admission in the Franconian territories.
In the hereditary lands of Franconia, where with his older brother Casimir he had assumed the regency in place of their father, he encountered greater difficulties, although the popular spirit was inclined toward the Reformation. Owing to his marriage with a Bavarian princess and to his military commandership in the im perial service, his brother was allied more closely with the old Church and resisted the new reform atory efforts. But the pressure of the estates of the land soon compelled him to allow preaching according to Luther's doctrine, although he exacted the retention of the old church ceremonies, even of those that were contrary to the Gospel. George protested against such half-measures and showed his dissatisfaction with the half-hearted resolutions of the state assembly of Oct., 1526. It was only after the death of his brother, that as sole ruler he could successfully undertake and carry out the Reformation in the Franconian territories, with the assistance of his councilors Johann von Schwarzenberg and the chancellor George and through the new resolutions of the state assembly of Anabach (1528). At the same time George main tained his correspondence with Luther and Melanchthon, discussing such questions as the evangelization of monasteries, the use of monastic property for Evangelical purposes, and especially the foundation of lower schools for the people and of higher schools for the education of talented young men for the service of Church and State. He tried to gain, by his continued correspondence with Luther and other Reformers such as Urbanus Rhegius, efficient men for the preaching of the Gospel and for the organization of the Evangelical Church. Hand in hand with the Council of Nuremberg he worked for the institution of a church visitation after the model of that of electoral Saxony from which developed after repeated revisions and emendations the excellent church order of Brandenburg-Nuremberg of 1533. After its in-
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Margrave George's influence manifested itself also in the development of the German Reformation as a whole. When a union of the Evangelicals in Upper and Lower Germany was contemplated for the more successful defense against the dangers accruing to the new Gospel from the Roman Church, George had a meeting with the elector of Saxony at Schleitz in 1529, where they agreed on certain articles of faith and confession to be drawn up by Luther; the commission was executed in the seventeen articles of Schwabach on the basis of the fifteen theses of the Marburg Colloquy. But neither at the Convention of Schwabach nor at that of Schmalkalden did George approve armed resistance against the emperor and his party even in selfdefense. The more energetically, however, did he oppose the emperor at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, when the emperor demanded the prohibition of Evangelical preaching. King Ferdinand made George the most alluring offers of Silesian possessions if he would take the part of the emperor, but he decidedly rejected them. Next to the elector of Saxony, he stands foremost among the faithful and brave princes who defended the Evangelical faith. After the death of his cousin, Joachim I. of Brandenburg, who was a strict Romanist, he assisted his sons in the introduction of the Reformation in the territories of Brandenburg. He took part in the Religious Colloquy of Regensburg (1541) where Elector Joachim II. made a last attempt to bridge over the differences between the Romanists and Evangelicals and with his nephew requested Luther's cooperation. The Diet of Regensburg was the last religious meeting which he attended.
Bibliography: W. Löhe, Erinnerungen aus der Retormations-Geschichte von Franken, Nuremberg, 1847; L. Neustadt, Markprat Georg als Erzieher am ungarischen Hofe, Breslau, 1883; T. Kolde, Analecta Lutherana, Gotha, 1883; idem, in ZKG, xiii (1892), parts 2-3; J. Meyer, Die Einfürung der Reformation in Franken, Ansbach, 1893; H. Westermeyer, Die brandenburgisch-nürnbergische Kirchenvisitation 1528-33, Erlangen, 1894; F. Vogthern. Die Verfassung der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche in den Fürstentnmern Ansbach and Bayreuth, ii. 209, 289, Erlangen, 1898.
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