Early Advocacy of The Reformation
Brenz was born in the then Free Imperial City of Weil der Stadt, 20 miles west of Stuttgart. He received his education at Heidelberg, where, shortly after becoming magister and regent of the Realistenbursa in 1518, he delivered philological and philosophical lectures. He also lectured on the Gospel of Matthew, only to be prohibited on account of his popularity and his novel exegesis, especially as he had already been won over to the side of Luther, not only through his ninety-five theses, but still more by personal acquaintance with him at the disputation at Heidelberg in April, 1518. In 1522 Brenz was threatened with a trial for heresy, but escaped through a call to the pastorate of Schwäbisch Hall. In the spring of 1524 he received a strong ally in his activity as a Reformer in Johann Isenmann, who became pastor of the parish-church at Hall. The feast of corpus Christi was the first to be discarded, and in 1524 the monastery of the Discalced Friars was transformed into a school. In the German Peasants' War, on the other hand, Brenz deprecated the abuse of evangelical liberty by the peasants, pleading for mercy to the conquered and warning the magistracy of their duties. At Christmas the Lord's Supper was administered in both kinds, and at Easter of the following year the first regulations were framed for the church and the school. Brenz himself prepared in 1528 a larger and a smaller catechism for the young, both characterized by simplicity, warmth, and a childlike spirit.