BREDENBACH, MATTHIAS. - German humanist and Catholic polemicist, b. at Kierspe (duchy of Berg) in 1499, d. at Emmerich on 5 June 1559. Having completed his studies at the University of Cologne, he was appointed professor at the Emmerich gymnasium in 1524, and rector in 1534, an office he held until his death.
Besides various literary works, he wrote, in controversy against the Protestants: De dissidiis (Cologne 1557), which constitutes B.'s most important work. To defend himself against the attacks brought upon him by this work, he wrote in the same year, 1557, an Apologia pro acerbitatibus in Lutherum in libro de dissidiis (ibid. 1557), and later, against the Lutheran Heinrich Pileus, Hyperaspistes pro suo de componendis in religione dissidiis libello. This work, however, was published in 1560, after B.'s death, by his son Tilmann, who was also responsible for the posthumous publication of the other two works: In psalmos et evangelium secundum Matthaeum commentarium (ibid. 1560), and Epistolae duae de negocio religionis (ibid. 1567).