Andrea, Jakob

ANDREÄ, an´drê-ɑ, JAKOB: Lutheran; b. at Waiblingen (7 m. n.e. of Stuttgart), Württemberg, Mar. 25, 1528; d. at Tübingen Jan. 7, 1590. He was educated at the Pædagogium at Stuttgart, and studied theology at Tübingen from 1541 to 1546. In the latter year he became deacon at Stuttgart, but had to leave in 1548, after the introduction of the Interim, and went to Tübingen, where he was appointed deacon at the Stiftskirche. In 1553 he took the degree of doctor of theology, was appointed city pastor and afterward superintendent-general at Göppingen. He now developed activity in behalf of the Evangelical Church at large, helping to introduce the Reformation in many places. In 1557 he attended the diets of Frankfort and Regensburg, and was present at the Conference of Worms. In 1559 he attended the Diet of Augsburg; in 1560 he held a church-visitation in Lauingen; in 1561 he was at Erfurt; and in the fall of the same year, in company with the Tübingen chancellor Jakob Beurlin and the Stuttgart court-preacher Balthasar Bidembach, he went to Paris to attend the religious colloquy in Poissy.

Beurlin having died at Paris, Andreä was appointed professor of theology, provost, and chancellor in Tübingen. In 1563 he went to Strasburg to settle a dispute caused by Zanchi on the inamissibilitas gratiæ, in 1564 he attended the conference in Bebenhausen to examine the Heidelberg Catechism, and the colloquy in Maulbronn. In 1568 his prince sent him to Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel to assist in the introduction of the Reformation and in framing an Evangelical Church ordinance; at the same time also he joined with Chemnitz, Selnekker, and other theologians of northern Germany, in paving the way for a consensus of the Saxon and other Evangelical Churches. Therewith began 170 the most important period in Andreä’s life, his activity in behalf of the Formula of Concord.

Andreä’s first plan was to neutralize the differences by means of formulas so general that they could be accepted by all. Two years were spent in traveling, during which he visited every Evangelical Church, university, and city in northern and southern Germany, and conferred with all important theologians. But neither the Flacians nor the Philippists, the two extreme parties among the Lutherans, had full confidence in him; and in the convention at Zerbst, May, 1570, his attempt proved a failure. Andreä now changed his plan. There was to be no more attempt at compromise, but the line was to be sharply drawn between Lutherans and the adherents of Zwingli and Calvin; and thus the Philippists and all other individual shades of Lutheranism were to be destroyed. Andreä preached six sermons on the points in controversy in 1572 and published them in the two following years. Copies were sent to Duke Julius, Chemnitz, Chyträus, and others. He then sent an epitome of these sermons, with the approval of the Tübingen faculty and the Stuttgart consistory, to the theologians of north Germany, for examination and criticism, who introduced some changes and produced the so-called Swabian-Saxon Concordia. A comparison of this Swabian-Saxon Concordia with Andreä’s original Swabian Concordia and the Maulbronn Formula by a convention at Torgau, May 28, 1576, resulted in the Liber Torgensis, which was again revised by Andreä, Chemnitz, and Selnekker at the monastery of Bergen in March, 1577. Three further conferences were held at Bergen, May 19-28, 1580, at which Chyträus, Musculus, and Körner were present besides Andreä, Chemnitz, and Selnekker. The outcome was the Bergische Buch or Formula Concordiæ, which appeared June 25, 1580, and which became the symbolical book of the Lutheran Church (see Formula of Concord). Andreä received much abuse—even Selnekker, Chyträus, and Chemnitz were dissatisfied—but he bore it patiently, convinced that he had worked for the truth and the peace of the Church. He continued his reformatory work, visited churches, and took part in controversies; at the request of Duke Frederick of Württemberg he spoke against Beza at the colloquy of Mümpelgart in March, 1586, discussing the Lord’s Supper, the person of Christ, predestination, baptism, etc.

There is no collected edition of Andreä’s writings, which numbered more than one hundred and fifty. Among the more noteworthy were: Refutatio criminationum Hosii (Tübingen, 1560); De duabus naturis in Christo (1565); Bericht von der Ubiquität (1589); De instauratione studii theologici, De studio sacrarum literarum, published posthumously (1591 sqq.). His sermons have been often published (cf. Zwanzig Predigten von den Jahren 1557, 1569, 1560, ed. Schmoller, Gütersloh, 1890).

(T. Kolde).

Bibliography: J. V. Andreä, Fama Andreana reflorescens, Strasburg, 1630 (an autobiography written in 1562, edited by his grandson, the main source for Andreä’s life); C. M. Fittbogen, Jacob Andreä, der Verfasser des Concordienbuches. Sein Leben und seine theologische Bedeutung, Leipsic, 1881 (not altogether satisfactory); KL, i. 818-821.