Creeds Of Christendom With A History And Critical Notes

Literature.

I. Editions of the Confessio Tetrapolitana.

The Latin text was first printed at Strasburg (Argentorati), A.D.1531, Sept. (21 leaves); then in the Corpus et Syntagma (1612 and 1654); in Augusti's Corpus libr. symb. (1827), pp.327 sqq.; and in Niemeyer's Collect. Confess. (1840), pp.740-770; comp. Proleg. p. lxxxiii.

The German text appeared first at Strasburg, Aug.1531 (together with the Apology, 72 leaves); then again 1579, ed. by John Sturm, but suppressed by the magistrate, 1580; at Zweibrücken, 1604; in Beck's Symbol. Bücher, Vol. I. pp.401 sqq.; in Böckel's Bekenntniss-Schriften, pp.363 sqq.

II. History.

Gottl. Wernsdorff: Historia Confessionis Tetrapolitanæ. Wittenb.1694, ed. iv.1721.

J. H. Fels: Dissert. de varia Confess. Tetrapolitanæ fortuna præsertim in civitate Lindaviensi. Götting.1755.

Planck: Geschichte des Protest. Lehrbegrifs, Vol. III. Part I. (second ed.1796), pp.68-94.

J. W. Röhrich: Geschichte der evangel. Kirche des Elsasses. Strassburg, 1855, 3 vols.

J. W. Baum: Capito und Butzer (Elberf.1860), pp.466 sqq. and 595.

H. Mallet, in Herzog's Encykl. Vol. XV. pp.574-576.

Comp. also the literature on the Augsburg Diet and the Augsburg Confession, especially Salig and Förstemann, quoted in § 41, p.225.

THE REFORMED CHURCH IN GERMANY.

The mighty genius of Luther, aided by the learning of Melanchthon, controlled the German Reformation at first to the exclusion of every other influence; and if Lutheranism had not assumed a hostile and uncompromising attitude towards Zwinglianism, Calvinism, and the later theology of Melanchthon, it would probably have prevailed throughout the German empire, as the Reformed creed prevailed in all the Protestant cantons of Switzerland. But the bitter eucharistic controversies and the triumph of rigid Lutheranism in the Formula of Concord over Melanchthonianism drove some of the fairest portions of Germany, especially the Palatinate and Brandenburg, into the Reformed communion.

The German branch of the Reformed family grew up under the combined influences of Zwingli, Calvin, and Melanchthon. Zwingli's reformation extended to the southern portions of Germany bordering on Switzerland, especially the free imperial cities of Strasburg, Constance, Lindau, Memmingen, and Ulm. It is stated that the majority of the Protestant citizens of Augsburg during the Diet of 1530 sympathized with him rather than with Luther. Calvin spent nearly three years at Strasburg (1538-41), and exerted a great influence on scholars through his writings. Melanchthon (who was a native of the Palatinate), in his later period, emancipated himself gradually from the authority of Luther, and sympathized with Calvin in the sacramental question, while in the doctrines of divine sovereignty and human freedom he pursued an independent course. He trained the principal author of the Heidelberg Catechism (Ursinus), reorganized the University of Heidelberg (1557), which became the Wittenberg of the Reformed Church in Germany, and threw on several occasions the weight of his influence against the exclusive type of Lutheranism advocated by such men as Flacius, Heshusius, and Westphal. He impressed upon the German Reformed Church his mild, conciliatory spirit and tendency towards union, which, at a later period, prevailed also in a large part of the Lutheran Church. The German Reformed Church, then, occupies a mediating position between Calvinism and Lutheranism. It adopts substantially the Calvinistic creed, but without the doctrine of reprobation (which is left to private opinion), and without its strict discipline; while it shares with the Lutheran Church the German language, nationality, hymnology, and mystic type of piety. [995] The great majority of German Reformed congregations have, since 1817, under the lead of the royal house of Prussia, been absorbed in what is called the Evangelical or United Evangelical Church. The aim of this union was originally to substitute one Church for two, but the result has been to add a third Church to the Lutheran and Reformed, since these still continue their separate existence in Germany and among the German emigrants in other countries. [996]

BUCER.

Among the framers of the character of the Reformed Church in Germany, Martin Bucer (Butzer), [997] Wolfgang Fabricius Capito, and Caspar Hedio occupy the next place after Zwingli, Calvin, and Melanchthon. Bucer (1491-1551), the learned and devoted reformer of Strasburg, and a facile diplomatist, was a personal friend of Zwingli, Luther, and Calvin, and a mediator between the Swiss and the German Reformation, as also between Continental and Anglican Protestantism. He labored with indefatigable zeal for an evangelical union, and hoped to attain it by elastic compromise formulas (like the Wittenberg Concordia of 1536), which concealed the real difference, and in the end satisfied neither party. He drew up with Melanchthon the plan of a reformation in Cologne at the request of the archbishop. During the Interim troubles he accepted a call to England, aided Cranmer in his reforms, and died as Professor of Theology at Cambridge, universally lamented. In the reign of Bloody Mary he was formally condemned as a heretic, his bones were dug up and publicly burned (Feb.6, 1556); but Elizabeth solemnly restored the 'blessed' memory of 'the dear martyrs Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius.' In attainments and fertility as a writer he was not surpassed in his age. [998]

THE CONFESSION OF THE FOUR CITIES.

The oldest Confession of the Reformed Church in Germany is the Tetrapolitan Confession, also called the Strasburg and the Swabian Confession. [999]

It was prepared in great haste, during the sessions of the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, by Bucer, with the aid of Capito and Hedio, in the name of the four imperial cities (hence the name) of Strasburg, Constance, Memmingen, and Lindau which, on account of their sympathy with Zwinglianism, were excluded by the Lutherans from their political and theological conferences, and from the Protestant League. They would greatly have preferred to unite with the Lutherans in a common confession; but at that time even Melanchthon was more anxious to conciliate the Papists than the Zwinglians and Anabaptists; and of the Lutheran princes the Landgrave Philip of Hesse was the only one who, from a broad, statesman-like view of the critical situation, favored a solid union of the Protestants against the common foe, but in vain. Hence after the Lutherans had presented their Confession, June 25, and Zwingli his own, July 8, the Four Cities handed theirs, July 11, to the Emperor, in German and Latin. It was not read before the Diet, but a Confutation full of misrepresentations was prepared by Faber and Cochläus, and read October 24 (or 17). The Strasburg divines were not even favored with a copy of this Confutation, but procured one secretly, and answered it by a 'Vindication and Defense' (as Melanchthon wrote his Apology of the Augsburg Confession during the Diet). The Confession and Apology, after being withheld for a year from print for the sake of peace, were officially published in both languages at Strasburg in the autumn of 1531. [1000]

The Tetrapolitan Confession consists of twenty-three chapters, besides Preface and Conclusion. It is in doctrine and arrangement closely conformed to the Lutheran Confession of Augsburg, and breathes the same spirit of moderation. The Reformed element, however, appears in the first chapter (On the Matter of Preaching), in the declaration that nothing should be taught in the pulpit but what was either expressly contained in the Holy Scriptures or fairly deduced therefrom. [1001] (The Lutheran Confession, probably from prudential and irenical considerations, is silent on the supreme authority of the Scriptures.) The evangelical doctrine of justification is stated in the third and fourth chapters more clearly than by Melanchthon, namely, that we are justified not by works of our own, but solely by the grace of God and the merits of Christ through a living faith, which is active in love and productive of good works. Images are rejected in Ch. XXII. The doctrine of the Lord's Supper (Ch. XVIII.) is couched in dubious language, which was intended to comprehend in substance the Lutheran and the Zwinglian theories, and contains the germ of the view afterwards more clearly and fully developed by Calvin. In this ordinance, it is said, Christ offers to his followers, as truly now as at the institution, his very body and blood as spiritual food and drink, whereby their souls are nourished to everlasting life. [1002] Nothing is said of the oral manducation and the fruition of unbelievers, which are the distinctive features of the Lutheran view. Bucer, who had attended the Conference at Marburg in 1529, labored with great zeal afterwards to bring about a doctrinal compromise between the contending theories, but without effect.

We may regard the Strasburg Confession as the first attempt at an evangelical union symbol. But Bucer's love for union was an obstacle to the success of his confession, which never took deep root; for in the Reformed Churches it was soon superseded by the clearer and more logical confessions of the Calvinistic type, and the four cities afterwards signed the Lutheran Confession to join the Smalcald League. Bucer himself remained true to his creed, and reconfessed it in his last will and testament (1548), and on his death-bed. [1003]