DUDITH, dū-dit' (DUDICH, DUDICS), ANDREAS: Hungarian bishop, later a Protestant; b. at Budapest Feb. 16,1533; d. at Breslau Feb. 23, 1589. He was educated by his uncle, who was canon at Breslau, and went to Italy about 1550 to continue his studies. There he gained the favor of Cardinal Pole, whom he accompanied on his return to England after the accession of Queen Mary. He was an excellent Latin scholar and had meanwhile been appointed canon at Gran, but in 1558 he again devoted himself to Study in Padua. He was appointed bishop of Tininium (Knin) in Dalmatia by the emperor Ferdinand, and took part in the Council of Trent, where, in compliance with the wish of Ferdinand, he urged that the cup be given to the laity. Although he did not appear there as an opponent of the celibacy of the clergy, he wrote a Demonstratio pro libertate conjugii. Being appointed bishop, first of Fünfkirchen, and then of Szigeth, he went to Poland in 1565, where he married a maid of honor of the queen, and resigned his see, becoming an adherent of Protestantism. In 1575 he became so involved in political intrigues to secure the throne of Poland (then vacant) for Maximilian that his opponents confiscated his estates and expelled him from the city. The last ten years of his life were spent at Breslau. Five orations and a brief biography of Dudith were published at Offenbach in 1610 by Quirinus Reuter.

K. BENRATH.

 

Bibliography: Besides the biography by Reuter, there is available C. B. Stieff, Versuch einer . . . Geschichte von Leben und Meinungen Andreas Dudiths, Breslau, 1756.