Johann Heß

Johann Hess, also (Jan ) Hess, Hesse ( born September 23, 1490 Nuremberg, † January 5, 1547 in Breslau) was a Lutheran theologian and reformer.

Life

Hess comes from a wealthy middle-class family in Nuremberg. Prefigured thoroughly humanist, he studied in Leipzig from 1505 to 1510, then two years in Wittenberg, where he joined Johann Lange and Georg Spalatin. From here he went to Breslau and entered the service of the Bishop John V. Turzo, which gave him a canonry in Neisse. In Neisse he met the humanists Valentin Krautwald know who held the office of bishop's secretary in 1515.

1518/19 he went on a trip to Italy and earned doctoral degrees. In Breslau, he received the priesthood in 1520, but remained with the Wittenberg friends in conjunction. Philipp Melanchthon admonished him often because of his anxiety. After the death of the bishop, he took a job as a court chaplain at Duke Charles I of Münsterberg and then went to Nuremberg. 1523 appointed him to the Breslau magistrate against the resistance of the chapter to the pastor at St. Mary Magdalene. There he remained until his death.

After the defense of Breslau in 1524, he began quietly to introduce Wittenberg orders and to improve the education and poor relief. The innovations remained within narrow limits. This peculiarity retained the Breslauer Reformation into the 19th century. In this way, the denominational peace was obtained.

Hess gave away any theological dispute of Wroclaw. He rejected the Swiss Reformation from as Kaspar Schwenckfeld. In the major conflicts in the kingdom, he did not participate. He had a well- rounded education, but said nothing literary. In the world of the Reformers he was still in high esteem and led to the most important theologians correspondence. 1540/41 he visited for the last time his native town and traveled with Veit Dietrich to Regensburg Colloquy. In his last years he no longer stood out.

The Reformation in Silesia is intimately with him.