Heinrich Renz

He was a Magister

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HEINRICH RENZ, eldest son of Ulrich Renz II and Anna Euphrosine MOEGENHARDT, was born in Weinsberg on August 10, 1529. As the first of the family that joined the evangelical church, he studied theology in Wuerzburg. He had a prospect of an inheritance from the Canon Moegenhardt, a relative of his mother's side. But in Wuerzburg, where he had already been presented to the Bishop by his father, he turned to the Lutheran faith, whereupon his father first sent him into the college near Stuttgart and in 1547 to Tuebingen. Because of this faith-changing, his mother was disinherited by the Canon Moegenhardt. Georgii wrote in the Wuerttembergischen Dienerbuch concerning this, "by reason of this zealous Ulrich Renz and his sons lost several thousand Gulden that was left to an ordinary priest." Heinrich Renz received a cholarship from Duke Ulrich of Wuerttemberg, a Bachelor of Arts in Feb. 1548, became a Master of Arts on February 4, 1551, was appointed inspector of scholars at the seminary of United Theological Studies in 1554, deacon in Brackenheim in 1556, pastor in Lustnau in 1559, in Winnenden in 1556-1596, prelate and abbot of the St. Georgen Monastry in the Black Forest with the title "Princely Counselor". As such he corrected much of the abuse and justifications "left from the popish time and cleansed the monatery of popish leaven" and had through his zeal much success. In the year 1599, after 32 years of activity, he retired to Nuertingen to be with his daugther Eleanore Wolfhardt and her husband, Alexander Wolfhardt, where he died at age 72. He married in Stuttgart, Maria Graeter, born 1532, daughter of Casper Graeter (born abt. 1500 in Gundelsheim, died 1552), who was court chaplain and a member of the consistorial court. Heinrich Renz died September 2, 1601. His wife died after him in Alpirsbach, June 3, 1620. His daughter, Eleanore, married Alexander Wolfhardt, and was the great-grandmother of Anna Katharina Wolfhardt, wife of Jost Schwab.