AQUILA

aquila, caspar [kaspar adler] (1488-1560), german reformer, was born at augsburg on the 7th of august 1488, educated there and at ulm (1502), in italy (he met erasmus in rome), at bern (1508), leipzig (1510) and wittenberg (1513). according to his son, he entered the ministry in august 1514, at bern. he was for some time a military chaplain. in 1516 he became pastor of jenga, near augsburg. openly proclaiming his adhesion to luther's doctrine, he was imprisoned for half a year (1520 or 1522) at dillingen, by order of the bishop of augsburg; a death sentence was commuted to banishment through the influence of isabella, wife of christian ii. of denmark and sister of charles v. returning to wittenberg he met luther, acted as tutor to the sons of franz von sickingen at ebernburg, taught hebrew at wittenberg, and aided luther in his version of the old testament. the dates and particulars of his career are uncertain till 1527, when he became pastor at saalfeld, and in 1528, superintendent. his vehement opposition to the augsburg interim (1548) led him to take temporary shelter at rudolstadt with catherine, countess of schwarzburg. in 1550 he was appointed dean of the collegiatstift in schmalkalden. here he had a controversy with andreas osiander. restored to saalfeld, not without opposition, in 1552, he remained there, still engaged in controversy, till his death on the 12th of november 1560. he was twice married, and left four sons. he published numerous sermons, a few old testament expositions and some controversial tracts. see g. kawerau, in a. hauck's _realencyklopadie_ (1896); _allgemeine deutsche biog._ (1875); lives by j. avenarius (1718); j.g. hillinger (1731); chr. schlegel (1737); fr. gensler (1816).