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

preacher at Ulricus’s court, referred the matter to the inner council of advisors, specifically to Balthasar a Gultlingen and D. Joannes Knoderus, the Chancellor, whom he suppliantly asked not to forsake him. Knoderus, a most grave and upright man, was greatly indignant; in Jacobus’s presence, he summoned Hormoldus and rebuked him severely, asking with what face he dared, without the Prince’s knowledge, to dismiss Jacobus and deny the funds promised by Ulricus! Hormoldus excused his actions, but Knoderus, having become even more irate, retorted: "If it were up to this man, the Duchy of Wirtemberg would have long since been filled with mass-priests; he is the cause that many good and learned men have departed to foreign lands, never to return. I shall report this matter to the Prince." He dismissed Jacobus with these words: "You, come to me at home tomorrow to receive the money." The next day, having received the money from the Chancellor, he returned happily to Tübingen and remained in his homeland. o

But even so, Jacobus’s fortune cannot be called all that prosperous. He who attributed so much to popularity, and who from his earliest youth had exercised himself in delivering sermons to the people, could not help but continue in the same arena. For one to whom access to the pulpit in the primary church was not open, he opened a pulpit for himself and his family in the church for lepers, which was tiny and by then almost held in contempt, later in the hospital’s heating-room, and finally in the hospital church. Yet wherever he opened it, crowds of people flocked to hear him. At first appointed under the name of catechist to the primary temple, he did teach, though not from the pulpit—which the Interimistic doctors had closed to him—but from a seat, sitting before the altar. Finally, with the Interimistic fury somewhat subsided, Jacobus was appointed deacon at the main church and was admitted again to the public pulpit, where he devoted himself to sermons and openly administered the sacraments.

o) Fama Andreana, pp. 29–31; cf. the learned Schnurrer, loc. cit., pp. 191 and 192.