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

his theologians, whether it conforms to the Augsburg Confession; he replied that both documents were correct and conformed to the Augsburg Confession, but that there would not be lacking those who, because of brevity, might desire more; however, he did not entirely deny that he himself did not feel so kindly toward Osiander’s doctrine.

The outcome of the Tübingen Synod was highly auspicious for Jacobus, for at the same time, when it was reported to Christophorus that several competitors for the Doctorate were seeking those honors, Jacobus joined them with his [the Duke’s] consent, and on April 19, 1553, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, he attained the Doctor’s insignia in the customary solemn academic manner. But again he felt the whip of Hormoldus, who, hating Jacobus worse than a dog or a snake, punished him by reducing those ample promises which the Duke had promised to spend on the Doctorate of Jacobus to twenty-five florins from the treasury, compelling Jacobus to supply the remaining expenses from his own purse. Jacobus had departed from this convention—to which the Special Superintendent had come—now more honored and increased with a wider sphere of duty. For although the special inspection of neighboring churches had been entrusted to him for some time, he was now elevated to General Superintendent, which sufficiently shows how much he recommended himself to his Prince and to Brentius in this convention, and how easily that wound which Hormoldus had inflicted on the mind of Jacobus was healed by the Prince and by Brentius.

Nor, however, was Jacobus, whom the Prince had destined for other missions, involved in the Regiomontana Mission. For when Albert had written to Brentius through his Chief Physician, Andreas Aurifaber—Osiander’s son-in-law—asking if, in any possible way, he could greet Albert in the metropolis itself, or at least send learned theologians to him who would restore peace (for which end he was sending him nine articles, about which he would write out his opinion), serious action began regarding which theologian could be sent there. Brentius could not...