Heerbrand, James

, a German divine, and one of the propagators of the reformation, was born at Nuremberg in 1521. He was educated in the principles of the reformed religion by his father, and happened to be at school at Ulm, when Erasmus’s Colloquies were prohibited, as containing too many reflections on the papists; but Heerbrand continued to read them privately, and imbibed their spirit. After a classical education at Ulm, his father sent him to Witteniberg in 1538, to hear Luther and Melanctbon, Bugenhagius, and other divines; and in 1540 he commenced M. A. After five years* study here, he was ordained deacon at Tubingen, where he prosecuted his studies, and where in 1547 he married. The year following, as he objected to the Interim, he was banished from Tubingen, but was soon recalled, and made pastor of Herenberg. In 1550 he took his degree of D. D. and this being about the time of the council of Trent, he | endeavoured to make himself master of the controversy between the Roman catholic and reformed church, by a careful study of the Fathers. In 1559 he was invited by Charles, marquis of Baden, to assist in the reformation in his dominions; and while here he prescribed a form for the ordination of ministers. Very soon after, he was chosen divinitvprofessor at Tubingen, and expounded the Pentateuch in his lectures, and preached statedly. In this city, likewise, he wrote his answer to Peter Soto, “De Ecclesia, pa'.ribus, et conciliis,” which was afterwards printed. In 1557 he was chosen successively rector and chancellor of the university, and pastor and superintendant of the church. Having rejected some valuable offers to remove to other universities, he fixed his final residence at Tubingen, where prince Christopher giving him some land, he built a house; and when old age obliged him to remit his labours, a stipend was allowed him. He died at Tubingen, of a lethargic complaint in 1600. He was a man of great learning, and happil > adapted to the times in which he lived and appears to have been consulted in difficult emergencies by many of the German princes and noblemen. Of his works, which are numerous, both in German and Latin, the principal are, “Compendium Theologian,” and Hiany theological dissertations and lives. ¹