Bible Translators Theologians Brenz was born in the then Imperial City of Weil der Stadt, 20 miles west of Stuttgart.

He also lectured on the Gospel of Matthew, only to be prohibited on account of his popularity and his novel exegesis, especially as he had already been won over to the side of Luther, not only through his ninety-five theses, but still more by personal acquaintance with him at the disputation at Heidelberg in April 1518.

In 1532 he collaborated in the church-regulations of Brandenburg and Nuremberg, and furthered the Reformation in the margravate of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Dinkelsbühl, and Heilbronn, while three years later Duke Ulrich of Württemberg called him as an adviser in the framing of regulations for the church, visitations, and marriage.

In 1538 Hall entered the league, and after its defeat Charles V came to the city (on 16 December 1546) and obtained possession of papers, letters, and sermons of Brenz, who, despite the bitter cold, was obliged to flee, although he returned on 4 January 1547.

The condition of his children induced him to go to Swabia, but owing to the pursuit of the emperor, he was often in great danger, and the duke sheltered him in the castle of Hornberg near Gutach.

In August 1549 he ventured to go to Urach, where his friend Isenmann was now minister, in order to take counsel with the duke, his advisers, and Matthaeus Alber, regarding the restoration of the evangelical divine service.

The proposition made by Kaspar Leyser and Jakob Andreä, in 1554 to introduce a form of discipline after a Calvinistic model was opposed by Brenz, since he held that the minister should have charge of the preaching, the exhortation to repentance, and dissuasion from the Lord's Supper, whereas excommunication belonged to the whole church.

In 1554–1555 the question of the Religious Peace of Augsburg occupied his mind; in 1556 the conference with Johannes a Lasco, in 1557 the Frankenthal conference with the Anabaptists and the Worms Colloquy; in 1558 the edict against Schwenckfeld and the Anabaptists, and the Frankfort Recess; in 1559 the plan for a synod of those who were related to the Augsburg Confession and the Stuttgart Synod, to protect Brenz's doctrine of the Lord's Supper against Calvinistic tendencies; in 1563 and 1569 the struggle against Calvinism in the Electorate of the Palatinate (Maulbronn Colloquy) and the crypto-Calvinistic controversies.

The attack of the Dominican Peter a Soto upon the Württemberg Confession in his Assertio fidei (Cologne, 1562) led Brenz to reply with his Apologia confessionis (Frankfort, 1555).

The development of the Reformation in the Palatinate led the aged man to a vehement renewal of his negotiation with Bullinger, with whom he had been forced into close relation through the Interim.

The question concerned the doctrine of the Lord's Supper and also involved a peculiar development of Christology, which was opposed by the Lutheran theologians outside of Württemberg, since Brenz carried to its logical conclusion the concept of "personal union," thus favoring an absolute omnipresence (ubiquity) of the body of Christ, which did not begin with the ascension but with the incarnation.

But all efforts in behalf of the latter, the journey of the Württemberg theologians to Paris to advise King Antony of Navarre in 1561 (see Jakob Beurlin), the meeting of the duke and Brenz with Cardinal Guise of Lorraine at Saverne, the correspondence and the sending of writings, all ended in bitter disappointment.