H3c: Jacob Reihing: 4 histories; pivotal figure in church history

      This continues from Part 3b (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series beginning with Walther's announcement of the republished "little book" by Matthias Hoe von Hoenegg, a book that gave instruction to south German Lutherans oppressed by Roman Catholics. — The history of Jacob Reihing is a history that tells the story of the Reformation in the 1600s and 1700s. His history intersects with both sides in a remarkable way. He was the brilliant star and sharp opponent of both, the Roman Catholics and the Lutherans, the Counter Reformation and the Reformation. His story leads into the infamous Thirty Years' War and beyond. And the land that he came from, south Germany, became perhaps the hottest battleground for people's hearts.

      Although Reihing's publications listed in the Post-Reformation Digital Library are in the Latin and German languages, rendering them inaccessible to all but scholars, I have taken the time to translate several histories into English, to supplement Walther's two brief accounts in Der Lutheraner. This is due in part to the lack of any Wikipedia article on him in English. All descriptions below contain a link to a separate web-based version: 

1) The popular biography in Germany was from the 1888 compendium Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) by historian Th. Schott.  The basic facts of Reihing may be obtained without a rabid Jesuit "bias": 

2) Julius Schall, Doctor Jakob Reihing: Once a Jesuit, then (convert) Evangelical Christian, 1579-1628, 1894 (free on Internet Archive; DE, EN):

Although in a book format, it is only 28 pages, a brief but lively account, and by a German pastor who was likely Lutheran judging by his writing. One excerpt from Schall, a crisp statement of the dramatic turnabout by Father Reihing:

"Just at the time when the Catholic Handbook [against Hoe] was spreading the fame of its author throughout southern Germany and the old church was forcing its way to victory in Palatinate-Neuburg, the unbelievable happened: Father Reihing fled to the enemy, the highly praised Jesuit converted to the Evangelical Church…"

      Schall reports that Dr. Lucas Osiander the Younger, at Jacob Reihing's acceptance into the Lutheran Church, spoke of another noted Catholic turned Lutheran, Petrus Paulus Vergerius, the Pope's representative to try to get Luther to renounce his doctrine. But Luther's answer to him, and his study of Holy Scripture (like Reihing), turned him to the truth of the Gospel. (See Schall on p. 17; also the funeral sermon pp. 9, 27-28)

3) Gottfried Brock, The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the former Palatinate of Neuburg, 1847 (free on Google Books). Brock is cited by other historians. His account is more detailed than Schall's. The following is an extensive excerpt, Chapter 4 pp. 117-191. His is also a lively account (DE version here; EN):

Brock reports that, along with Hoe von Hoenegg, Lutheran theologian Balthasar Meisner was also a targeted polemical opponent of Reihing – see Brock, p. 125. Brock also reports, p. 181-182, how the Jesuits first attempted to coax Reihing back to them: 

"One can imagine how angry his former Jesuit brothers were about Reihing's move and how they used every means at their disposal to bring him back. Father Keller, rector of the Jesuit College in Munich, made him the greatest offers at the end and assured him that he was free to become a Jesuit again, or to accept a canonry, or even to enter the lay state, if only he wanted to profess the Roman Church again; the superiors would grant whatever he wanted. Reihing's brother, Konrad, Rector of the Jesuit College in Augsburg, the Provincial Christoph Grenzing, and even the General of the Order, Mutius Vitelleschi, left no stone unturned to win him over, and Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm wrote to him himself."

Brock then relates how these same Jesuits took off their mask, showed their true selves, and "became fiercely hostile to him". By what methods? They attacked his person, not his doctrine. (Count Wolfgang Wilhelm would have been doubly embarrassed for he had converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism.)

4) Finally, David R. Preus, now a missionary for the LC-MS, wrote on the Lutheran theologian Balthasar Meisner for his 2018 PhD thesis. A small portion was devoted to a history of Jacob Reihing, calling him "the most celebrated Catholic convert to Lutheranism". Below is an excerpt from pages 168-171:

Preus summarizes by stating: "With his mention of Hoe and Meisner by name, Reihing testifies to the effectiveness of the Lutheran arguments."

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      I would invite readers who want to know the real history of the struggles of the steadfast Lutherans of South Germany, and the background of the Thirty Years' War, to read all 4 histories above — they are all short in length, except Gottfried Brock (#3) which is 75 pages. But even when reading that, I could not stop — the testimony of the Evangelicals was so powerful.  Read about the "torture of conscience" by the Jesuits on pages 171-172. Read there of the faith of the locksmith, the baker, the writer, the widow, the shoemaker. — In the next Part 4, we cover the faithful Lutheran Salzburgers of the next century.