FABER (or LEFEVRE), JOHANN (1478-1541)  , German theologian, styled from the title of one of his works " Malleus Haereticorum," son of one Heigerlin, a smith (faber), was born at Leutkirch, in Swabia, in 1478 . His early life is obscure; the tradition that he joined the Dominicans is untenable . He studied theology and canon law at Tubingen and at Freiburg im Breisgau, where he matriculated on the 26th of July 1509, and graduated M.A. and doctor of canon law . He was soon appointed vicar of Lindau and Leutkirch, and shortly afterwards canon of Basel . In 1518 Hugo von Landenberg, bishop of Constance, made him one of his vicars-general, and Pope Leo X. appointed him papal protonotary . He was an advocate of reforms, in sympathy with Erasmus, and corresponded (1519–1520) with Zwingli . While he defended Luther against Eck, he was as little inclined to adopt the position of Luther as of Carlstadt . His journey to Rome in the autumn of 1521 had the result of estranging him from the views of the Protestant leaders . He published Opus adversus nova quaedam dogmata Lutheri (1522), and appeared as a disputant against Zwingli at Zurich (r523) . Then followed his Malleus in haeresin Lutheranam (1524) . Among his efforts to stem the tide of Protestant innovation was the establishment of a training-house for the maintenance and instruction of popular preachers, drawn from the lower ranks, to compete with the orators of reform . In 1526 he became court preacher to the emperor Ferdinand, and in 1527 and 1528 was sent by him as envoy to Spain and England .

He approved the

death by burning of Balthasar Hubmeier, the Baptist, at Vienna on the loth of March 1528 . In 1531 he was consecrated bishop of Vienna, and combined with this (till 1538) the administration of the diocese of Neustadt . He died at Vienna on the 21st of May 1541 . His works were collected in three volumes, 1537, 1539 and 1541 . See C . E . Kettner, Diss. de J . Fabri Vita Scriptisque (1737) ; Wagenmann and Egli in Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopadie (1898) . (A .