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

he is said to have judged Jacobus to his associates as follows i:

Wherever this chick may come from, it is certain that Snepfius has hatched him.

For just as Snepfius was eloquent by nature and studied popular elegance, so too Jacobus pleased with agreeable eloquence, a sonorous and distinct voice, an amiable stature, a grave diction, a neat and sedate gesture, an action that was not excessive but composed, a weight of opinions, and an easy delivery.

How much Jacobus attributed to popularity, that appeared in the Schmalkaldic War, where he showed most greatly what he himself was worth in bending minds to popular modes. The Spaniards had already filled Marbach with pillage, and they were heading straight for Stuttgart, where the magistrates had fled, and the ecclesiastical men had followed that example, with the sole exception of Jacobus. Twenty years of age at the time, he was so far from desponding in spirit that he instead went of his own accord to the magistrate, asking what they commanded, for he would not depart from the city, even though all things seemed most disturbed k. Thus Jacobus showed he was animated such that he did not despair of the republic. Nor, in truth, did he leave anything to be desired regarding the highest diligence in consoling the people, in preaching to the people, in administering the Sacraments, and in overcoming the anger of the enemies. Therefore, when the herald of Carolus V approached, who commanded the surrender of Stuttgart, he found Jacobus at his station, that is, in the temple occupying himself with baptisms and sacred matters. It happened by chance that, among the Duke’s equestrian messengers, there was a certain Stephanus whose wife had given birth to an infant. He asked the same herald of Carolus to be the sponsor for the infant in baptism. The Spaniard who had taken up the infant offered a small gift, which the baptizer refused. Moved by that matter, the herald showed that he had other small gifts prepared for the midwife and the infant, and he congratulated himself that he had seen Jacobus baptize in the faith of the Catholic church.

i) Ibid. p. 12.                                k) Ibid. p. 15.