Brenz

Brenz, JOHANN, the Reformer of Württemberg, was born 24th June 1499, at Weil, in Swabia, and went in his thirteenth year to study at Heidelberg. From Luther's visit to Heidelberg in 1518 he became his zealous adherent, and after his appointment as a preacher in the imperial free city of Hall, in Swabia (1522), he openly attached himself to the Reformation. He was at the Marburg Disputation in 1529, and the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, and in 1536 was summoned by Duke Ulrich to Württemberg to lead the Reformation there. For his energetic opposition to the Interim of Charles V. he was forced to flee to Stuttgart, where in 1553 he became 'propst' (or superintendent), and died 11th September 1570. Brenz was co-author of the Württemberg Confession of Faith, and his Catechism (1551) has held the next place to that of Luther in Protestant Germany. Eight volumes of his collected works were published in 1576-90. See his biography by Hartmann (1862).