SLEIDANUS, John (c. 1506-1556), the annalist of the Reformation, was born at Schleiden (now a small village in the Oleffthal, about 42 miles south-west of Cologne) in 1506 or 1508. Passing from the village school, he studied at Liége, Cologne (?), Louvain (where he became tutor to the son of Count Manderscheid of Schleiden), Paris, and Orleans (where he studied law). In 1536 he became secretary to Cardinal du Bellay, minister of Francis I., and spent five years with him and with his brother Cardinal Guillaume du Bellay. The cardinals Du Bellay belonged to that party among the French nobility who desired on political grounds an alliance between the German Protestants and Francis against the emperor Charles V., and who employed the leaders of the Strasburg citizens as intermediaries. Sleidanus, whilst among the humanists of Liège, had adopted Protestant opinions, had learned to distrust the Romanist policy of Charles V., and was himself a strong supporter on religious and political grounds of the plans of the brothers Du Bellay. Their confidence in him was such that he was sent (1540) to watch the conduct of the French ambassador at Hagenau, and this brought him into personal relation with the German Protestant leaders. Next year Du Bellay sent him to confer with the heads of the Schmalkaldic League, when he found his patron’s ideas unacceptable. Philip of Hesse and the elector of Saxony would make no alliance with a foreign power against the emperor, and distrusted Francis personally because of his persecution of French Protestants. It is possible that this news made Du Bellay feel that he had no further need for his secretary, for we find Sleidanus leading a wandering life for two years, and finally making Strasburg his home, although he still kept up a political ...correspondence with France. Sleidanus had been accustomed to copy all documents bearing upon the Reformation to which he had access, and Bucer, who had seen his collection, proposed to Philip of Hesse to appoint him historian of the Reformation, giving him a salary and access to all necessary documents. After some delay the heads of the Schmalkaldic League agreed to Bucer’s proposal, and Sleidanus began his great work and finished the first volume in 1545. In that year he was again recalled to diplomacy and went to England in a French embassy to Henry VIII. While there he diligently collected materials for his history. On his return to Strasburg he was sent by that city as one of its representatives to the diets of Frankfort and Worms; and thence he proceeded to Marburg to explore the archives of Philip of Hesse. The Schmalkald War interfered with this work and also prevented the payment of Sleidanus, who in his difficulties applied to England for aid, and at Cranmer’s intercession received a yearly pension (not long continued) from Edward VI. In 1551 Sleidanus went to the council of Trent as representative from Strasburg, charged also with full powers to act for the imperial cities Esslingen, Ravensburg, Reutlingen, Biberach, and Lindau. On his return his friends got him appointed professor of law in Strasburg, and he was once more able to give his whole attention to his great work, which he finished for the press in 1554. But want of money, the death of his wife— whom he had married in 1546 on his return from the diet of Frankfort — and other misfortunes compelled him to delay printing. The book at length appeared,— Commentariorum de statu religionis et reipublicae, Carolo V. Caesare, Libri XXVI. (translated into English by John Daws in 1560 and by G. Bohum in 1689). But the troubles of Sleidanus were not ended. The work was too impartial to please any one, and even the gentle Melanchthon was unable to praise it. It remains notwithstanding the most valuable contemporary history of the times of the Reformation, and contains the largest collection of important documents. The author died at Strasburg in October 1556 in poverty, and inconsolable since the death of his wife.
See H. Baumgarten, Ueber Sleidanus Leben und Briefwechsel (1878), and Sleidans Briefwechsel (1881).
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