FROESCHEL, frū'shel, SEBASTIAN: German Protestant; b. at Amberg (35 m. e. of Nuremberg), Bavaria, Feb. 24, 1497; d. at Wittenberg Dec. 20, 1570. From 1514 till 1519 he studied at Leipsic, when he heard the disputation between Luther and Eck in the latter year and received an impression therefrom which proved decisive for his subsequent career. Ordained deacon in 1520, and priest in 1521, he soon came into conflict with the Roman Church, and, as a result, removed to Wittenberg in the autumn of 1522. While on a visit to Leipsic in Oct., 1523, he preached a series of sermons, which led to his arrest and expulsion from the country as a heretic. After a short ministry at Halle he returned to Wittenberg in 1525 as assistant to Bugenhagen. During the remainder of his life he served the church at Wittenberg, becoming deacon there in 1528, and later archdeacon. He was on terms of intimacy with both Luther and Melanchthon. From 1542 to 1566 he frequently assisted in the ordination of foreign ministers at Wittenberg. In his writings he appears as the interpreter of Melanchthon. He published a Latin commentary on St. Matthew (Wittenberg, 1558; Germ. transl., 1559; reprinted in CR, xiv. 535-1042); Catechismus (1559; 2d. ed., 1560); Von den heiligen Engeln, vom Teufel, und des Menschen Seele (1563); Von der Passion Christi (1565); Vom Priestertum (1565); and Vom Königreich Christi (1566).