In 1726, the first Reformed church service was held in Grünstadt. In the time that followed, the Reformed Church's followers were subjected to great oppression, mainly by the Lutheran clergy. They were not allowed to build their own church, and they were even forbidden to bury their dead at the local graveyard. They were instead buried in a barn, where the community also met for its services. The Reformed "Schultheiß" and master tanner Johann Peter Schwartz, especially, put himself forth as the group's spokesman to defend against this treatment. He wrote to royalty (for instance, King Frederick II of Prussia) and eventually forced formal tolerance of the Reformed Church in the county. Not far from his house (which still bears the initials “JPS” today), on the same spot where their old barn had stood, the Reformed Church's followers built themselves their own church in 1740, which is now known as the "Friedenskirche" (“Church of Peace”).