The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1888, Page 39

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

John Brentz.

John Brentz was one of the faithful co-
laborers of Luther in: the work of the Refor-
mation. He was born in Suabia.

When he was thirteen years old, John was
sent away to study at the University of Heidel-
berg. <A few years later, he went to hear Lu-
ther preach, and was so much interested in
what was said that he went home and looked
into the Bible to see whether such things were
true. And when he found that Luther had
indeed said only what was in the Bible, then
John saw and believed the new truth with all
his heart. One of the things that he did after
this was to go home to his old father and
mother with the good news, and one historian

.tells us that the parents received the news
gladly, and John ‘‘saw them turn to Christ and
the simplicity of the gospel.”’

But after John resolved to spend his
life in preaching the gospel to the people
of Suabia, he entered upon long years
of persecution for Christ’s sake. At one
time he and his family only managed to
escape from some soldiers, that were
sent against the Protestants, by placing
all the food in the house on the table
and then slipping out at the back of the
house while the men were eating. Soon
after, he and his family had to wander
about in the forest on a bitterly cold
night in December, and found no shel-
ter till morning, when they took refuge
in a little village where they thought
the soldiers would not find them.

At another time a man was sent by
order of the Emperor, Charles V., to
Halle with orders to take Brentz and
bring him back either living or dead.

Calling the town council together, the
legate told them that he had a message
to give them from the king, and that
each one of them must swear that he
would nut tell what the message was.
Each man took the oath except one
councillor, who, providentially, came in
late. No one noticed that he did not
take the oath, for none of the other
members of the council had observed
that he was absent at the beginning, and he
was with them when they all sat down.

Then the legate, having, as he supposed,
taken oath of all present, told them that he
had come to take the minister a prisoner, and
threatened the town with the anger of the
Emperor if the council did not allow Brentz to
be seized. But the legate’s wicked plan was to
be foiled, for the one councillor who had not
made the oath could: not bear to have Brentz
taken away to death—so, taking a card, he
wrote on it in Latin: ‘‘Flee, flee, Brentz!
Quick, quicker, quickest!’’ and sent it to the
minister. -

Brentz was sitting at the table when the card
was handed to him. He knew in an instant
that his life was in danger. He rose from the
table and walked ‘out of the house and down
the street to the town-gate. But not far from
the gate he met the legate, who, not thinking
that Brentz knew anything about his inten-
tions, hypocritically spoke to the minister in a
very friendly manner, and said: ‘‘To-morrow
I hope you will come to me to breakfast.’”

‘*As the Lord will, for man proposeth, but
God disposeth,’’ said Brentz, who knew well

» what would happen to him if he should accept
such an invitation; and, passing on, he left his
enemy. Gaining the forest, Brentz hid himself
among the thick trees, and there he stayed for
several weeks, coming down cautiously at night

39

to see his family in the village, and hurrying
off to hide in the forest before daybreak. 5

At last a kind-hearted man, Duke Ulrich, of
Wuertemberg, heard of this poor minister and
of the persecutions he was enduring, and de-
termined to help him. Duke Ulrich did not
dare do this openly, however, so he called his
secretary and told him to provide a hiding-
place for Brentz, saying “Do not tell me where
you place him or anything about him, so that
if the Emperor insists on it I may be able to
declare I do not know where he is.’

So the secretary hid Brentz in a little valley
among the distant hills, and while secreted
there Breniz wrote an exposition of the Twenty-
third Psalm. And although that little valley

where he was hidden might indeed, for any-
thing he knew, prove ‘‘ the valley of the shadow
of death’’ to Brentz, yet he could say, ‘I will
| fear no evil; for Thou art with me.’

JOHN BRENTZ.

After a time Brentz seems to have come to
the conclusion that he need not hide so se-
cretly, and might go to the city of Stuttgart to
live. There many of the people came to know
and love the good man who tried to teach the
truth to all who were ignorant of it. But after
a time Duke Ulrich heard that the Spanish
soldiers were coming toStuttgart to take Brentz.

He called the minister and read him the
letter of warning that had been sent by a friend,
and then told Brentz that he must find some
secure hiding-place once more.

Brentz hardly knew where to go. He took
a great loaf of bread and walked out with it
into the streets of Stuttgart. As he was pass-
ing along through one street he saw a door
standing open, and felt, as he afterwards said,
as though he heard ‘‘an inward voice” saying
“Enter that house.” —

Brentz walked in through the open door,
but saw noone. He went up stairs and no
one appeared, and so he went on up onejflight
after another until he had reached ‘the garret,
and had seen no one in the house. From the
garret he climbed into a sort of-loft where hay

and timber were kept, and there, he crawled},

on his hands and feet until he got into a corner.
And there the poor minister made himself up
a ‘bed -of hay, and waited to see’ what would
happen.) -) Sim eet Gh ae a eG

he next day the Spanish - troops: that- weré

sent to take Brentz arrived in Stuttgart. At
all of the city gates sentinels were posted to
prevent the minister's escape, and then the
commander gave orders to his soldiers that
every house in Stuttgart be searched.

So the Spanish soldiers went through the
city, searching houses, opening chests and cub-
boards, running their lances into beds and
opening stables and lofts and tossing about the
hay and straw with their swords and spears.
All that day, and for other days following,
3rentz could hear from his hiding place the
sounds of the troops marching in the streets.

At last it came the turn of the house where
Brentz was concealed to be searched. He could
hear the clash of arms as the soldiers mounted
the stairs and went from one room to another.
Poor Brentz, back in his corner in the hay.
threw himself on his knees and began to pray,

But, while he was praying he felt a long
blade or lance come up through the
floor, just between two pieces of wood
at his feet. The Spanish soldier beneath
was trying to pierce that corner of the
loft to find if anything was there. Brentz
felt the cold steel, and then the blade
was withdrawn, and he heard the com-
mand given, “March on, he is not
there,’ and, while Brentz was thanking
God for his escape, the Spanish soldiers
poured out of the house, convinced that
the minister was not near.

And soon Brentz heard the troops
marching out of Stuttgart, for the com-
mander had searched so thoroughly that
he was sure that Brentz was not in that
city. When Brentz felt certain that the
Spaniards had gone, he came down in
the evening and went to Duke Ulrich
and told him. of his marvelous escape
from his enemies.

After a time, King Edward VI. of
England heard of Brentz and the per-
secutions he endured on accuunt of his
preaching, and King Edward sent him
word that he might come to England
and find a safe home there. But Brentz
could not bear to leave his native cuun-
try without the word of God. He said:
‘*No, it was at home I first learned to
know the Lord Jesus Christ; it was at home I
first preached the glad tidings of salvation; it
is Behar I have suffered for the name of my
Saviour, and I hope to serve him at home to
the hour of death.’

And this hope was realized, for Brentz lived
and worked and preached, till he died at the
age of seventy-one in that same city of Stutt-
gart where he had been so wonderfully pre-
served from the power of his enemies, and of
which he might have said in the words of those
Psalms of which he was so fond, ‘‘ Blessed be
the Lord; for he hath showed me his marvel-
ous kindness in a strong city.”

Brentz begged his people to bury him where
his grave might be seen from his old pulpit,
and they did as he requested, since he said
that he hoped that the sight of his grave would
warn those who should preach after him in
that place never to say anything contrary to

the 1 of Jesus Christ. Martin Luther
said of Brentz, that no man expounded the
Holy Scriptures so clearly. Brentz was to

Suabia what Luther was to Germany, the
leader of the Reformation.

~~ A coverous man is fretful because he has
not so much as he desires;*but a Christian man

: tis thankful: because ‘he has ‘so*much more than