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

Synod which he requested, and whose form the requirements of the time did not seem to permit, yet they had signed their names: 1. Jo. Brentius. 2. Matthæus Aulber D. 3. Martinus Frecht Lic. 4. Jac. Beurlin D. 5. Jac. Heerbrandt D. 6. M. Jacob Andreæ Fabri, Minister of the Tübingen church. 7. M. Isenmann, pastor of Tübingen. 8. M. Casp. Grætter, Court Preacher. 9. Jo. Othmar, pastor of the Nürtingen church. 10. Martin Cleſs, of Uhingen, minister of the Stuttgart church. 11. Valentin Vannius, pastor of Cannstatt. They declared that dispute to be a "Grammatical war," since the inquiry was solely about the meaning of the word justify, whether it is equivalent to the word to absolve or to make just. But even so, the dispute was not settled, for although Osiander acquiesced in some way, Moerlinus was the more spirited with his associates, who presented Brentius as suspicious for being a friend of Osiander. Albert also received a third document from the Wirtemberg theologians, but this further declaration by the theologians named a little before was distinguished only in that Mart. Cleſs was omitted, who had died on August 13, 1552, and now Jac. Engelmann, court preacher, and Andreas Cellarius, Pastor of Wildberg, also signed. Christophorus, very solicitous for the purity of Lutheran doctrine, sent the writings of his theologians to Melanchthon, intending to ask whether that doctrine which they proposed was in conformity with the Augsburg Confession.

Christophorus had added his own letter to Albert to establish trust. Plank l. c. p. 324, note 93. The second declaration, which was signed by Brentius and other theologians, was given January 30, 1553, and appeared in print under the title: "Declaration of the Reverend Mr. Joh. Brentius on Osiander’s Disputation, in which he clearly shows what he judges to be punishable. Witteberg, 1553. 4." It is also cited by the venerable Plank, l. c. p. 379, who also provides the bibliography of that document l. c. p. 407, note 200. For that document of Brentius did not appear entirely complete, but was edited at the same time with the Scholias of Flacius and Gallus in Magdeburg and Königsberg in 1554, where the orthodoxy of Brentius is presented by his adversaries as suspicious.