CHRISTOPHER, DUKE OF WUERTTEMBERG, AND THE REFORMATION IN WUERTTEMBERG:
Christopher, duke of Wurttemberg, 1550-68, was bom at Urach (22 m. s.e. of Stuttgart) May 12, 1515; d. at Stuttgart Dec. 28, 1568. When he was six months old, his mother, Sabina of Bavaria, fled to her native land, and in 1519 his father, Ulric, was driven from his country. The boy came into the hands of Charles V. and his brother Ferdinand, but was well educated by Michael Tiffemus. At the court of Charies V., from which he fled in 1532, and in France, where he spent eight years, he grew up a statesman and soldier. His father, who in 1534 regained his country and reformed it, made him governor at Mompelgard, and in 1544 brought about his marriage with Anna Maria, daughter of the margrave George of Brandenburg-Ansbach. The reading of the Bible and the writings of the Reformers gave Christopher a firm and clear Evangelical faith, which he proved in filial reverence and love toward the often severe father and obstinate mother and in restless activity for his people and the Evangelical Church.
On Nov. 6, 1550, he succeeded his father as duke and soon obtained a leading position among the Evangelical princes. Ho presented the Confessio Wirtembergicn, prepared by Brenz, to the Council at Trent, and sent Brenz and other theologians to defend it, but they were not heard. Ho then prohibited the mass in the parish-churches, abolished the Interim, removed the images, altars, field-
chapels, and all remains of the former religious service, turned the male monasteries into schools with Evangelical abbots, but allowed the nuns to die in their monasteries; those, however, who left were provided for. He gave a new discipline to the Evangelical Church of Wurttemberg, introduced poor-boxes in 1552, and appointed four The Refer- district-physicians for the care of the mation in sick. The marriage-law was regulated Wiirttem- by act of Jan. 1, 1553; the activity of berg. the higher church-authorities by the visitation act. The religious service, in the simplicity given to it by Blaurer and Schnepff (qq.v.), and the catechetical instruction of the youth were regulated by the Kleine Kirchenordnung of 1553, which was superseded by the Grosse Kirchenordnung of May 15, 1559, including also school, sanitary, and poor regulations. The duke treated the church-property of the Evangelical Church with perfect disinterestedness, divided the large parishes for the better care of the congregation, established new parishes in the Black Forest, cared for the repair of the churches, and enacted in 1559 that church-registers should be kept. He insisted that the teaching of the Confessio Wirtemhergica should be maintained, and issued harsh injunctions against Schwenckfeld and all " sectaries." His harshness was felt especially by the Baptists and by Bartholomaus Hagen, preacher at Dettigen, who was suspected of Calvinism but was convinced of his error at the Stuttgart Synod in Dec., 1559. The university received new regulations in 1557. The scholarship founded by his father was applied to the education of theologians who had received a humanistic preparation in the monastic schools. Students of other faculties, who were prepared in the pedagogical schools at Stuttgart and Tiibingen, were assisted from the funds of the church-property. By the school-regulation of 1559 popular education was promoted ; the sacristan now acted also as teacher.
Christopher was anxious for the reunion of the different religious parties, proposed in 1552 a national council, and avoided all malicious faultfinding. Calvinism he disliked much, especially as it made its inroad into the Palatinate, but he respected the religious courage of the elector Frederick of the Palatinate and did not favor his exclusion from the religious peace. He promoted Protestantism in Austria by supporting the Slavic press at Urach under the former imperial captain Hans Ungnad. He offered a refuge at Ttibingen to the former papal nuncio Petrus Paulus Vergerius. In 1557 he solicited the king of France for the oppressed Waldensians, in 1559 for the Protestants; in 1661 he sent Beurlin (q.v.) and Andrea to Paris, and even went in 1562 with Brenz to Zabem to attend a colloquy with the Guises to win France over to Protestantism, but saw himself at last shamefully deceived, though Catherine Christo- de Medici offered liim the office of pher's In- a supreme viceroy. In the interest fluence of Protestantism his active mind was Abroad, long busy with matrimonial plans for the daughters of Renata of Ferrara and for Queen Elizabeth of England. He aided the Reformation by his advice and by sending theo-