Jacob Heerbrand

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Jakob Heerbrand on a painting by Hans Ulrich Alt around 1590 in the Tübingen Professorengalerie
Jacob Heerbrand ( woodcut by Joachim Lederlin in Imagines professorum tubingensium , 1596, based on the above painting by Hans Ulrich Alt)

Jacob Heerbrand (born August 12, 1521 in Giengen an der Brenz , † May 22, 1600 in Tübingen ) was a Lutheran theologian , reformer , provost and chancellor of the Eberhard Karls University .

Life

Jacob Heerbrand came from a family of carpet weavers . After thorough preparation, he went to the Latin school in Ulm in 1536 and, at his father's request, studied in Wittenberg in 1538 , among others with Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon . He was recommended to Tübingen as a master's degree in 1543 and was initially vicar at the collegiate church. At that time, Tübingen was the center of the Reformation in the Duchy of Württemberg .

Heerbrand soon made a name for himself as a respected theologian. Together with Johannes Brenz he was sent to the Council of Trento with the mandate to work with Pope Julius III. and the Catholic Church to negotiate regulations for the coexistence of the churches. He was also involved in drafting the Confessio Virtembergica . After the Schmalkaldic War , however, he was ousted by the Augsburg Interim . In 1550 he acquired a doctorate in theology in Tübingen and received the pastor's post in Herrenberg from Duke Christoph .

In 1556 Heerbrand entered the service of Margrave Charles II of Baden and was in a leading position in the implementation of the Reformation in Baden and Pforzheim . A year later, Heerbrand was appointed professor of theology at the University of Tübingen. Heerbrand also had a great influence as a monastery dean. During his ordinariate at the University of Tübingen he was elected rector of the university eight times. Heerbrand also enjoyed a high reputation outside of Württemberg. His representation of Jacob Andreae , who had been absent from Tübingen for a long time , the increased work with the students and the arguments with the Jesuits held up Heerbrand's literary work. He held his position as professor at the University of Tübingen for 40 years.

In 1570 Heerbrand held a disputation on witchcraft with Nikolaus Falck (1540-1616) , in which he took the view that witches can neither do magic nor make weather. But he defended the " magia naturalis " as he saw it in the miracles of Moses ( Ex 7  LUT ), and only condemned the pact with the devil . In his critical stance towards the belief in witches, Heerbrand is in line with other Tübingen and Württemberg Lutheran theologians such as Matthäus Alber , Johannes Brenz , (Theodor) Dietrich Schnepf , Jacob Andreae , Wilhelm Bidembach , Wilhelm Friedrich Lutz or Theodor Thumm (1586-1630), who see God's omnipotence so comprehensively that there can be no magic spell , because ultimately disaster and misfortune is also directed by God himself in order to punish sinners and test the righteous. Witches can only be punished by God for their apostasy.

Heerbrand's Compendium theologiae (1571) became one of the most famous textbooks. Heerbrand was a follower of Melanchthon. His relationship with his teachers and friends was clearly expressed in the obituaries he wrote for Philipp Melanchthon (1560), Johannes Brenz (1570) and Jacob Andreae (1590). Heerbrand, who had become Chancellor of the Tübingen University in 1590, participated in 1559, 1563, 1568, 1572, 1577, 1581, 1588, 1596 also as rector of the Alma Mater in its organizational tasks.

  • A well-known descendant of Jacob Heerbrand is the philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder .
  • The historian Carl Friedrich Haug from Tübingen is one of Jakob Heerbrand's well-known descendants from the 19th century .

Selection of works

  • De magia disputatio ex Cap. 7. Exo [dus] . Deo Patre per Jesum Christum, virtute Spiritus sancti nos iuvante praeside ... Iacobo Heerbrando, Sacrae Theologiae Doctore ..., Domino ac Praeceptore suo omni pietate colendo Nicolaus Falco Salveldensis , ad subiectas cum Quaestione Theses, XV. die Decembris, loco consueto, hora septima antemeridiana, pro ingenii sui viribus, exercitii causa, respondere conabitur, Tübingen 1570
  • Compendium theologiae (1571)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Family stories from the estate of Carl Friedrich Haug , edited by Karl Riecke . With the picture of Haug and 5 family tables. Stuttgart. Printing and publishing by W. Kohlhammer. 1886. p. 107
  2. ↑ Cf. HC Erik Midelfort: Witchcraft and Religion in Sixteenth Century Germany , in: Archive for Reformation History 62 (1971), pp. 266–278, 40f.
  3. ↑ University Library Tübingen (Gf 535.4); Austrian National Library (77.Dd.470) u. a.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Heerbrand, Jacob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Herbrand, Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and reformer
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1521
PLACE OF BIRTH Giengen on the Brenz
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1600
Place of death Tübingen