Michael Stifel attended the University of Wittenberg where he was awarded an M.A. He made his life in the Church entering the Augustinian monastery at Esslingen. He was ordained in 1511 while at the monastery.
However Stifel did not conform correctly to the Catholic faith and he became unhappy with taking money from the poor. He was forced out of the monastery at Esslingen in 1522. He sought refuge with Lutherans and eventually he went to Wittenberg and lived in Luther's own house for a while.
In 1523 Luther obtained a position of pastor for Stifel but anti-Lutheran pressure forced him out of a number of positions. In 1528, Luther set him up in a parish at Lochau (now Annaberg). Stifel made the error of predicting the end of the world and, when it was seen that he was wrong, he was arrested and dismissed from his post.
In 1535 he went to a parish in Holzdorf and remained there for 12 years. In the religious Schmalkaldic War of 1547, the Lutheran duke Maurice of Saxony and Holy Roman emperor Charles V tried to take a region of Saxony away from Protestant control. Stifel was forced to flee from his parish again.
This time Stifel went to Prussia and obtained a parish near Königsberg. During this time he lectured on mathematics and theology at the University of Königsberg. Arguments with colleagues led to him returning to Saxony three years later. In 1559 Stifel obtained a post at the University of Jena, where he lectured on arithmetic and geometry.
Stifel's research was on arithmetic and algebra. He invented logarithms independently of Napier using a totally different approach. His most famous work is Arithmetica integra was published in 1544 while he was in Holzdorf. The work contains binomial coefficients and the notation +, -, √.
Stifel used a clever rearrangement of the letters LEO DECIMVS to "prove" that Leo X was 666, the number of the beast given in the Book of Revelation.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
December 1996