# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 11 07_S41
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

Rev. 14:6-7

"God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall pass away nevermore."

Published by the German Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 11.  St. Louis, Mo., November 7, 1854.  No. 6.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who are to pay in advance and bear the postage. - In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 cents.

Only those letters which contain communications for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent here under the address Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

(Submitted.)

Johann Brenz.

(Narrated chiefly after the article "J. Brenz" in Herzog's Theol. Real-Encyklopädie.)

Some time ago "der Lutheraner" related how God, by means of a hen, fed for several days Johann Brenz, who was persecuted on account of his Lutheran faith and was hiding in a loft behind stacks of firewood. The same man is well known in Christendom, and particularly in Würtemberg, as a chosen instrument of God for the Reformation of the Church in Swabia.

To Martin Brenz, chief magistrate of the town of Weil on the Black Forest in Würtemberg, and his wife Katharina, née Hennig, a son was born on the 24th of June, 1499, who received the name Johann in holy Baptism. The careful upbringing which they gave him and afterward two younger sons, he repaid by leading them to the Evangelical Lutheran confession, for the sake of which the Roman priests finally refused them burial in the churchyard. Johann Brenz was taught in the schools at Weil, Heidelberg and Vaihingen, and studied at Heidelberg, where Oecolompadius instructed him in Greek, Schnepf in philosophy, and Melanchthon, together with many other excellent men, aided him toward the acquisition of a very thorough learned education. After he had become a bachelor in 1514, he did not remain long with philosophy; when in the year 1517 Luther's 95 Theses also reached Heidelberg, Johann Brenz turned to theology, and in 1518 was among the students who went to Dr. Luther, then present in Heidelberg for a disputation, and asked him for instruction concerning the pure evangelical doctrine; Dr. Luther meant him also among those students of whom he said on that occasion that they would one day spread the evangelical doctrine which was rejected by the older scholars of the time. Soon Brenz began, besides philological and philosophical lectures, to give lectures on the Gospel of Matthew, which were so well attended that he had to take the largest lecture hall in Heidelberg for them; but within a short time these also were forbidden him. Then he accepted a position as canon at the collegiate foundation of the Church of the Holy Ghost, had himself ordained by the bishop of Speyer, read his first Mass in the town of Weil, and thereafter, now unhindered, gave lectures on biblical books and instruction in preaching. Luther's writings, for example the exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians, Melanchthon's "Christian Doctrine" (loci), and Luther's speeches at the Diet of Worms in 1521 brought Johann Brenz to full knowledge and confession of the pure doctrine of the Word of God, so that as an adherent of Luther he was, together with him, put under the ban by the Pope and came under investigation on account of innovation in matters of faith. This investigation was not yet at an end when he was called to the town of Schwäbisch-Hall, which was then a Free Imperial City, and there on the 8th of September, 1522, preached his first sermon. Faithfully he preached the Word of God here for 25 years. Not suddenly and tempestuously, but with a calm and firm hand he reformed the church affairs of the city. Above all he laid the foundation of right faith through pure preaching, and brought it about that the Roman abuses were gradually abolished, just as they were recognized as such. Thus he declared, for example, immediately upon assuming his office, that he regarded the Mass not as a sacrifice for the living or the dead, but for the sake of the weak he still occasionally read Mass until 1523. After he had then abolished it entirely, he preached against the worship of saints, the meritoriousness of fasting and similar works, against the Roman doctrine of the Church, as if the true Church were the visible one, governed by the Roman Pope, and especially also against the Roman doctrine according to which the Lord is supposed to have built His Church upon Peter and his successors in person. The Church is a hidden spiritual body