KRAFFT, ADAM: Early German Protestant; b. at Fulda 1493; d. at Marburg Sept 9, 1558. He studied at Erfurt (B.A., 1512; M.A., 1519), preached for a time at Fulda, and afterward went to Hersfeld. He then became court-preacher to Philip the Magnanimous, of Hesse, who made him superintendent at Marburg in 1526, and professor of theology in 1527. He took a prominent part in all important measures for establishing Protestantism in Hesse, and as the head of the Reformation in Hesse exerted a large influence on the history of the country.

CARL MIRBT.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. W. Strieder, Hessische Gelehrtengeschichte, ii. 373-383, Cassel, 1782; F. W. Hassencamp, Hessische Kirchengeschichte, i. 76 sqq., Frankfort, 1864.

KRAFFT, JOHANN (CRATO VON CRAFFTHEIM): German physician and advocate of Protestantism; b. at Breslau Nov. 22, 1519; d. there Oct. 19, 1585. In 1534 he entered the University of Wittenberg, where he lived six years on terms of intimate friendship with Luther and Melanchthon. At the instance of the former he studied medicine at Leipsic and at Padua. After his return to Germany he was appointed physician in ordinary to his native town (1550), in 1560 to the Emperor Ferdinand I., and then successively to Maximilian II. and Rudolf II. He utilized the great confidence which he enjoyed under Emperor Maximilian for the advancement of Protestantism, continually frustrating the attempts of Bishop Hoseus and of the Jesuits to lure Maximilian to the side of the opponents of Protestantism. He was an advocate of the milder Melanchthonian tendency of German Protestantism, and opposed the stricter Lutherans under Flacius. After the overthrow of Melanchthonianism in 1574 his opponents succeeded in breaking his influence with the court. In 1581 he retired to his estate, Rückerts, near Reinerz, in the county of Glatz, but in 1583 he returned to Breslau, where he exercised a decisive influence upon the confessional change at the court of Liegnitz, Brieg, and Ohlau.

(PAUL TSCHACKERT.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: His Consilia et epistolæ; medicinales, ed. L. Scholz, appeared in 7 vols., Frankfort, 1671. His life was written by A. G. E. T. Henschel, Breslau, 1853. Consult further J. F. A. Gillet, Crato von Crafftheim und seine Freunde, 2 vols., Frankfort, 1860.