Creeds Of Christendom With A History And Critical Notes

By Various

§ 44. The Articles of Smalcald. A.D. 1537.

Literature.

Carpzov: Isagoge in Libras Symbolicos, etc., 1675, pp.767 sqq.

J. C. Bertram: Geschichte des symbol. Anhangs der Schmalk. Artikel. Altdorf, 1770.

M. Meurer: Der Tag zu Schmalkalden und die Schmalk. Artikel. Leipz.1837.

Köllner: Symbolik (1837), I. pp.439-472.

G. H. Klippel, in Herzog's Real-Encykl. Vol. XIII. (1860), pp.600 sqq.

Ch. P. Krauth: The Conservative Reformation and its Theology, Phila.1872, pp.280-283.

F. Sander: Geschichtliche Einleitung zu den Schmalkaldischen Artikeln. In the Jahrbücher für Deutsche Theologie, Gotha, 1875, pp.475-489.

The older literature, mostly doctrinal and polemical, is given by Fabricius, Walch, Baumgarten, Hase (Libri Symb. Proleg. cxl.), and Köllner.

ORIGIN.

Pope Paul III., yielding at last to the request of the German Emperor and the pressure of public opinion, convoked a general Council, to be opened May 23, 1537, at Mantua, [475] and extended, through his legate, Peter Paul Vergerius (who subsequently became a Protestant), an invitation also to the Lutherans. [476] Though by no means sanguine as to the result, Luther, by order of the Elector of Saxony (Dec.11, 1536), prepared a Creed as a basis of negotiations at the Council, submitted it to Amsdorf, Agricola, Spalatin, and Melanchthon for approval, and sent it to the Elector, Jan.3, 1537.

Melanchthon, at the request of the convent assembled at Smalcald, prepared an Appendix on the power and primacy of the Pope, about which the Augsburg Confession and Apology are silent.

SIGNATURE. MELANCHTHON'S POSITION.

The Articles, including the Appendix, were laid before the convent of Lutheran Princes and theologians held in the town of Smalcald (Schmalkalden), in Thuringia, which lent its name to the political league of those Princes for mutual protection, and also to this new Creed. [477] They were signed by the theologians (but not by the Princes) without being publicly discussed. [478]

Melanchthon signed the Articles with the following remarkable qualification: 'I, Philip Melanchthon, approve the foregoing Articles as pious and Christian. But in regard to the Pope, I hold that, if he would admit the Gospel, we might also permit him, for the sake of peace and the common concord of Christendom, to exercise, by human right, his present jurisdiction over the bishops, who are now or may hereafter be under his authority.' [479]

This remarkable concession strongly contrasts with the uncompromising anti-popery spirit of the Articles, and exposed Melanchthon to much suspicion and abuse. It is self-contradictory and impracticable, since the Pope and his hierarchy will never allow the free preaching of the Gospel in the Protestant sense. But the author's motive was a noble desire for a more independent and dignified position of the Church. He feared -- and not without good reason -- a worse than papal tyranny from rapacious Protestant Princes, who now exercised the power of supreme bishops and little popes in their territories. He sincerely regretted the loss, not of the episcopal domination, but of the episcopal administration, as a check upon secular despotism. [480]

CONTENTS.

The Articles of Smalcald consist of three parts.

The first reaffirms, very briefly in four articles, the doctrines of the Apostles' and Athanasian Creeds, about which there was no dispute with the Papists. It corresponds to Articles I. and III. of the Augsburg Confession.

The second and principal part, concerning 'the office and work of Christ, or our redemption,' is polemical against the mass, purgatory, the invocation of saints, monasticism, and popery, which interfere and set aside the true doctrine of redemption. Justification by faith alone is emphasized as the chief article of faith, 'upon which depends all that we teach and do against the Pope, the devil, and all the world. We must, therefore, be entirely certain of this, and not doubt it, otherwise all will be lost, and the Pope, and the devil, and our opponents will prevail and obtain the victory.' The mass is denounced as 'the greatest and most horrible abomination,' [481] purgatory as a 'satanic delusion,' the Pope as 'the true Antichrist' predicted by Paul (2 Thess. ii.4), because 'he will not permit Christians to be saved without his power.'

The third part treats, in fifteen articles, of sin, of the law, of repentance, of the sacraments, and other doctrines and ordinances, concerning which Protestants may dispute either among themselves or with 'learned and sensible men' (i.e., Catholics in the Council, but not with the Pope, who is said to have no conscience, and to care only about 'gold, honor, and power'). In the article on the Lord's Supper, transubstantiation is expressly excluded, but otherwise the Lutheran doctrine is asserted even in stronger terms than in the Augsburg Confession (viz. that 'the true body and blood of Christ are administered and received, not only by pious, but also by impious Christians.' [482] Luther concludes with spicy remarks against the juggling tricks of the Pope.

The Appendix of Melanchthon is a theological masterpiece for his age, written in a calm, moderate, and scholarly tone; and refutes, from the Bible and from the history of the early Church, these three assumptions of the Pope, as 'false, impious, tyrannical, and pernicious in the extreme,' viz.: 1. That the Pope, as the Vicar of Christ, has by divine right supreme authority over the bishops and pastors of the whole Christian world; 2. That he has by divine right both swords, that is, the power to enthrone and dethrone kings, and to regulate civil affairs; 3. That Christians are bound to believe this at the risk of eternal salvation. He also shows from Scripture and from Jerome that the power and jurisdiction of bishops, as far as it differs from that of other ministers, is of human origin, and has been grossly abused in connection with the papal tyranny.

CHARACTER AND AUTHORITY.

It is clear from this outline that the Articles of Smalcald mark a considerable advance in the final separation of the Lutheran body from the Church of Rome. Luther left Smalcald in bad health (he suffered much of the stone), with the prayer that God may fill his associates with hatred of the Pope, and wrote as his epitaph,

'Pestis eram vivus, moriens tua mors ero, Papa.'

The Articles themselves differ from the Augsburg Confession as much as Luther differs from Melanchthon. They are more fresh, vigorous, and original, but less cautions, wise, circumspect, and symmetrical. They are not defensive, but aggressive; not an overture of peace, but a declaration of war. They scorn all compromises, and made a reconciliation impossible. They were, therefore, poorly calculated to be a basis of negotiation at a general Council, and were, in fact, never used for that purpose. The Convent at Smalcald resolved not to send any delegates to the Council. But the Smalcald Articles define the position of Lutheranism towards the Papacy, and give the strongest expression to the doctrine of justification by faith. They accordingly took their place, together with the Appendix, among the symbolical books of the Lutheran Church, and were received into various Corpora Doctrinæ, and at last into the 'Book of Concord.' [483]

TEXT. [484]

Luther prepared the Smalcald Articles at Wittenberg in the German language, and edited them, in 1538, with a preface and considerable changes and additions, but without the signatures, and without the Appendix of Melanchthon. In 1543 and 1545 he issued new editions with slight changes. The first draft, as copied by Spalatin, and signed at Smalcald, was published from the archives of Weimar in 1553, together with Luther's additions and Melanchthon's Appendix, and embodied in the 'Book of Concord.' [485]

The Latin text, as it appeared in the first edition of the 'Book of Concord,' was a poor translation, but was much improved in the edition of 1584.

Melanchthon wrote the Appendix at Smalcald in Latin, but a German translation by Dietrich was signed there, and passed, as the supposed original, into the works of Luther and the first edition of the 'Book of Concord' (1580). The corrected Latin edition of 1584 gave the Latin original, but as the work of all the theologians convened at Smalcald. [486] This error prevailed nearly two hundred years, until the careful researches of Bertram dispelled it.