# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 11 07_S43
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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year 1533 Brenz worked out with A. Osiander the church order for Brandenburg-Anspach and Nuremberg, and defended in Nuremberg Osiander, who demanded private confession, against the other clergy and the Council, who wanted general confession. Absolution, he said, is an application of the Gospel to the individual, who has not been sufficiently freed from the burden of conscience by the preaching of the Gospel. The conscience of such a one remains in unrest until it has received private absolution. As unfitting as it would be for a tub of water, poured out over a crowd of people, to baptize them, so unfitting is it to fling absolution, which concerns the individual, over a whole crowd at once. The preachers did not wish to thrust themselves thereby into secrets, but rather to become servants than lords. — About this time Duke Ulrich was reinstated in his government in Würtemberg. This prince introduced the Reformation there through Erhard Schnepf and Ambrosius Blaurer, but Brenz had to review the labors of these men from 1535 on, yes, even to come himself to Tübingen from Feb. 1537 to April 1538 as ducal commissioner to reform the university; he even gave lectures there and preached diligently. On the occasion of a negotiation then held at Urach concerning the images in the churches he expressed himself to the effect that, as music and singing, so also suitable pictures of pious persons and memorable events might contribute to the enlivening of divine service. The Old Testament prohibition of images, he said, applies not to these, but to ungodly abuse. The stone and wooden idols one is willing to overthrow, but the golden and silver ones one keeps for oneself! — He had attended the princes' convention at Smalcald in 1537 and had subscribed the "Smalcald Articles" through Bugenhagen. Thereafter in 1540 he had to take part in the colloquy at Hagenau and Worms with the Romans, and also went for a short time in 1544 to the colloquy at Regensburg; from such negotiations with the Roman opposing party he promised himself nothing at all. He saw hard times of persecution breaking in and hastened therefore to serve the congregational life in Schw. Hall as much as was still possible. In vain did Moritz of Saxony call him in 1542 to a professorship at Leipzig; Melanchthon had commended him to Moritz as a man who might one day become a bulwark for all Germany. A call to the University of Tübingen he likewise declined. In the year 1543 he completed the "Neue Kirchenordnung für das Hallische Land," a ripe fruit of evangelical faith and rich experience, a testimony of faithfulness in office to a congregation which he had long served, but from which he was soon to be torn away.

In February of the year 1546 Brenz was in Regensburg as delegate of the Schmalcaldic League at the religious colloquy between the Evangelicals and Papists, which was to work out proposals for a union between Evangelicals and Papists for the Diet appointed for that very time. Emperor Charles, then more powerful than ever before, provided particularly with an excellent Spanish army, pressed the allies of the Smalcald League to such a union, while these latter wavered to and fro in great disunity. One could well perceive that the Emperor, if this last attempt at union should fail, would strike; "pray for the Gospel," said Dr. Luther then in his last hours, "the Council of Trent and the Pope are hotly angry with it." On the 17th of February, the day before Luther's death, Brenz wrote to him that the Papists were far too dishonest for a settlement of the dispute to be expected. Then came the news of Luther's death. "Oh that I had water enough," wrote Brenz in his grief to Amsdorf, "to weep for the slain of the daughter of my people! You say: Christ lives still; true, but His chosen instrument is taken from us. The death of great men is generally no good omen. What are we to hope?" — It was as if Luther's death had snatched away the one man of peace in Germany. Upon the Emperor's promise to exterminate the Protestants, Pope Paul promised to all who would fight against the Protestants full indulgence. Now the allies of the Schmalcaldic League hastened to arms; Schw. Hall also made ready. When on the 20th of July the Emperor put under the ban the Elector John Frederick of Saxony and the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, the Protestant princes and cities could have rendered him harmless, but they did not wish to attack. In the midst of the war's uproar then beginning, Brenz wrote yet in the dedication of his exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians: "Wilt Thou, Lord, let the undertaking of the adversaries succeed? Nay, Thou wilt not. The wicked cannot dwell with Thee. We are indeed unworthy to see Thy glory, but Thou art worthy that Thy glory be made manifest in the world. If Thou forsake us now, will not the wicked say: where is their Gospel? where is their Christ? Therefore, merciful God, glorify Thy power, and as Thou hast promised: Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me, so hear us also, who call upon Thy name, through Thy beloved Son, our Redeemer! Amen." — A few months afterward, when the evangelical Duke Moritz suddenly invaded the land of the Elector John Frederick and so drew the main army of the Evangelicals away from the Emperor, the latter himself rushed upon the Upper German cities and took Schw. Hall also on the 16th of December, 1546. Spanish soldiers immediately occupied Brenz's house and seized his papers, letters and sermons; he himself fled first to a high tower in the city, afterward sought protection and refuge among the citizens of the city. These, however, filled with terror, denied their own pastor, who had now served faithfully among them for 24 years, shelter and help, so that he had to complain that he was being trodden under foot by them more than by the Emperor himself. On St. Thomas's evening he took leave of wife and child and fled in severe cold out into field and forest. Indeed he soon returned at the request of the Council, but only to be obliged to flee again under still more distressing circumstances. On the 15th of May, 1548, Emperor Charles issued from Augsburg a religious settlement, which until the decision of a Council was to establish the church orders in the lands of the evangelical Estates of the Empire, called the Interim because it was valid only for the interval, until a Council should make the necessary arrangements. According to this Augsburg Interim the Evangelicals were to be content with being granted the marriage of priests, the cup in the Lord's Supper, and the doctrine of justification in quite indefinite form, while it placed them under the dominion of the Pope and the bishops and made their divine services again like the papistic ones. The demand to submit to this law came also to Schwäbisch Hall. Brenz and his colleague Isenmann declared to the Council at once that they would not let the changes in divine service which were demanded of them be forced upon their conscience. The cities, they said, had been sufficiently afflicted in temporal things by the occupation; did one now wish to deprive them also of the eternal? Not an Interim, but an Interitus (destruction) was this religious settlement, said Brenz. When the Imperial commissioner heard of these protestations, he came into the council chamber and demanded the surrender of Brenz. Councilor Büschler sent the latter in haste a little note: "Flee, flee, dear Brenz, hastily, quite hastily, as hastily as you can." It was just Brenz's 49th birthday; he preached and was for a while with his family; then he hastened out of the city; immediately afterward Spaniards moved into his house and forced his wife, who lay ill of consumption, to move out. By day he roamed about in the forest, at night he lay hidden with acquaintances in a remote region. A price was set upon his head. Once more he called upon the Council to venture it with him and to resist the introduction of the Interim, but the Council declared that to be impossible. In St. Michael's Church, Brenz's parish church, the Catholic Mass was held; a crucifix was hung up, from whose 5 wounds the priests let red wine run; children whom Brenz had baptized were brought again to Baptism as not rightly baptized. Then at last Brenz wrote his farewell to the Council, met secretly once more with his wife, and then journeyed toward the Würtemberg frontier, where Duke Ulrich had him fetch-