On the Life and Missions of Jacobus Andreae for the Reformation of the Lutheran Church, Part I

We infer that Jacobus's theological course was rather short from the fact that he was already called to Stuttgart in 1546, after he had been made a Master just one year before h. We attribute and excuse this brevity of the course by the fact that there was a great scarcity of both doctors and preachers at that time, hence what was available was eagerly seized. Jacobus, following the example of Snepfius, was altogether popular; he exercised himself in popular arts and manners, by which he became so famous that he was called to Stuttgart to undertake the duties of a Deacon. There, on the second day of Easter, with a large influx of people, he gave his first sermon—which they call the probationary sermon—from the pulpit in his eighteenth year of age. When this was received with applause, he was instituted as a deacon of the church under the pastor Valentinus Vannius. Destined therefore for the practical life, he undertook the care of souls and joined to himself a partner in life, Anna, the daughter of Joannes Entringer, a citizen of Tübingen, with whom he passed his life, not free from troubles, yet peacefully and comfortably. He taught by his own example how much difference there is between an ecclesiastic who attains the sacred office at the age of eighteen, and one who attains it in the thirty-sixth year of his life; between one who marries earlier and one who marries later, foreseeing a short life, a wife soon to be a widow, and children soon to be orphans i. However, Jacobus did not neglect the letters that many who are moved to public office neglect, and he paved the way to higher things in this way. For when he had begun to compare an ample fame for himself, he became known to his prince Ulricus, who wished to hear the new deacon preaching himself, at the very time when he had with him in his chamber Bernhard, the Prince of Baden, Georgius, Count of Württemberg, and councillors of the first rank. Once the sermon was completed...

h) Fama Andreana p. 10. and 11.