Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck

Jacob (or Jakob or James or Jacques) Sturm von Sturmeck (10 August 1489 – 30 October 1553) was a German statesman, one of the preeminent promoters of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.

He was educated at the universities of Heidelberg and Freiburg, and about 1517 he entered the service of Henry, provost of Strasbourg (d. 1555), a member of the Wittelsbach family.

He soon became an adherent of the reformed doctrines, and leaving the service of the provost became a member of the governing body of his native city in 1524.

As an advocate of union among the Protestants he took part in the conference at Marburg in 1529; but when the attempts to close the breach between Lutherans and Zwinglians failed, he presented the Confessio tetrapolitana, a Zwinglian document, to the Augsburg Diet of 1530.

The troops of Strasbourg took the field when the league attacked Charles V in 1546; but in February 1547 the citizens were compelled to submit, when Sturm succeeded in securing very favourable terms from the emperor.