ABSTRACT
Erasmus Alber was a reformer and poet whose translation of Aesop's fables is a German literary classic. This chapter focuses the problems on Alber's portrayal of Princes and Emperor. It identify elements in Alber's work that may have prompted Maurice's response, and consider their wider implications for the nature of the Magdeburg campaign. Alber, an eager defender of Luther's position, had already published on related controversies. Charles V triumphed against the Schmalkaldic League of Protestant princes and powers in 1547. His campaign split the Lutheran powers of Northern Germany: Joachim of Brandenburg, George of Mecklenburg and Maurice of Saxony supported him. Maurice was rewarded with the electoral position after Charles deposed Maurice's cousin Elector Johann Friedrich of Saxony, commander of the Schmalkaldic League. Thomas Kaufmann has produced a valuable statistical analysis and typology of the Magdeburg's anti-Interim publications, noting the extent to which pamphlets and broadsheets alike are characterised by crude and virulent polemic.
