Disquisition on the Celebrated Poetic Book Theuerdanck

He vigorously managed the Emperor's business, but also praiseworthily promoted the interests of his native Republic Nuremberg, which functioned as an independent city-state. He remained at the Emperor’s side during the Imperial Diet original: comitiis; a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire in Cologne. Strengthened by Imperial Authority, he was present—along with Ernst von Welden—at the 1513 election of the Bishop of Speyer, Philipp I von Rosenberg, on the Emperor's behalf. Having completed these most serious matters, he moved back once again to Nuremberg; however, after attending to his religious duties there, he returned to Vienna original: Vindobonam. There, he not only attained the rank of Imperial Councilor, but through the Emperor’s patronage, he also obtained a Canonry a staff position at a cathedral at the Church of Trento and at St. Stephan’s in Bamberg, as well as the Provostship of St. Alban in the city of Mainz original: Moguntiaca.

But when the Light of the Gospel a contemporary term for the Protestant Reformation began to gradually scatter the Papal darkness original: Caliginem Pontificiam; a phrase used by supporters of the Reformation to describe the era before their movement in Nuremberg, and certain changes were made to his Provostship by order of the most noble Senate, Melchior—shrewdly anticipating future events—voluntarily resigned his Nuremberg priesthood in the year 1531, though he reserved a contracted annual pension. He did not, however, abandon his remaining religious duties; instead, having also acquired the Provostship of St. Victor in Mainz, he performed those roles diligently. Adorned with these honors, he met his final day in Mainz on November 24, 1535. He was buried in the choir of the Church of St. Victor, where his memory was preserved with an epitaph by his brother Pfintzing; however, a copy of that inscription has not come into our hands. In the Imperial Diploma we cited above, honorable mention is made of him and his brother in these words:

And thereafter, regarding your late uncles Ulrich and Melchior Pfintzing, brothers: their outstanding qualities of soul, the ornaments of their virtues, their genius, their experience and practical use of affairs, as well as their learning and eloquence—extraordinary gifts of nature and industry with which they were endowed above others—and also many industrious, subtle, and never-before-known inventions, devised especially by Melchior himself to the great benefit of the State and to the immortal praise and demonstration of his own genius and that of his descendants; likewise their faithful services,