Hess, Johann

Hess, Johann one of the German Reformers, was born in Nuremberg about 1490, studied at Leipzig from 1506 to 1510, and at Wittenberg from 1510 to 1512. In 1513 he became secretary to the bishop of Breslau. After traveling and studying in Italy, he returned in 1529 to Wittenberg, and there became connected with Luther and Melancthon. Returning to Breslau with reformatory views, he found no opposition from his bishop, who was imbued with the new humanistic learning, and was a friend of Erasmus. But the bishop (Turzo) died in 1520, and his successor (Jacob of Salza) was a strenuous Romanist. He left Breslau for a time. but the seed had taken root, and the magistrates recalled Hess as pastor in 1523. Thenceforward he was the soul of the Reformation in Breslau. In 1525 he married, and continued his labors in reforming the Church and the schools, and in providing institutions for the relief of the poor. He died in 1547. — Herzog, Real-Encyklopadie, 19, 642.