FLACIUS, MATTHIAS.

Early Life (§ 1).

In Wittenberg. Opposition to Melanchthon (§ 2).

In Magdeburg. The Adiaphoristic Controversy (§ 3).

The Majoristic, Osiandrian, and Schwenekfeldian Controversies (§ 4).

Fruitless Attempts at Reconciliation (§ 5).

Flacius Professor in Jena (§ 6).

The Synergistic Dispute (§ 7).

Flacius a Wanderer (§ 8).

Last Days at Frankfort (§ 9).

Flacius' Literary and Scholarly Work (§ 10).

Flacius (Latinized from Vlacich, or Francovich)

was born at Albona (42 m. s.s,e. of Trieste), Istria,

Mar. 3, 1520, and died at Frankfort-on-the-Main

Mar. 11, 1575. From his birthplace he was sur named ZRyricus. His father, a prominent citizen of Albona, died when Flacius was a x. Early mere boy. He received his early

Life, education from the celebrated humanist. Baptists Egnatius in Venice.

Baing a good Catholic he decided to become a monk,

study theology, and preach, but his uncle, Baldo

Lupetino, provincial ( f the Minorites, commended

Luther to him as a restorer of the true Gospel and sent him to Germany in 1539. He now continued his studies at Basel, but went to Tübingen in 1540, and to Wittenberg in 1541, where he was favorably received and assisted by Melanchthon. After an inner conflict that lasted three years, Bugenhagen directed him to Luther and it was through him that Flacius attained peace of soul by accepting the free grace of God. He had personal experience of the consolation of the Evangelical doctrine of justification by faith alone, and henceforth the defense of this doctrine in its purity and inviolability became the guiding star of his life.

In 1544 he accepted the chair of Hebrew at the university, in 1545 he married, and in 1546 received the master's degree. His extraordinary gifts excited great expectations with Luther and Melanchthon. He lectured on the Old Testament,

2. In Wit- epistles of Paul and on Aristotle; but tenberg. his activity was suddenly interrupted

Opposition by the outbreak of the Schmalkald to Melanch- War. In 1547 he fled to Brunswick,

thon. where he lived by teaching. After a few months, however, he was able to return to Wittenberg, but the time of rest was now over for him. After the Augsburg Interim in 1548 the Elector Maurice of Saxony entered into negotiations with the theologians and estates of his realm which resulted in the Leipsic Interim (see Interim). It was then that Flacius as a strict Lutheran protested against the concessions of Melanchthon and the men who shared his views. From now on his relations with the head of the conciliatory party became more and more strained and his position at Wittenberg untenable. After a short sojourn at Hamburg he settled in 1549 at Magdeburg, where printing and publication were still free. In Magdeburg he developed a comprehensive literary activity against the Melanchthonians, and now those unfortunate and often petty quarrels arose which injured the Evangelical cause more than the opposition of the Roman Catholics. The fault was not altogether on one side. In Wittenberg Flacius' departure was ascribed to the most unworthy motives. Flacius contributed not a little by his arrogant and obstinate char- 3. In Mag- acter and by assuming the role deburg. of dictator. He published treatises The Adi- against the Interim, and the Adi- aphoristic aphora (q.v.) and their defenders. Controversy. His criticism was sweeping, and it was due to him more than to any one else that public protest made the execution of the In terim impossible, and thus Luther's great work was saved. From that point of view he rendered inestimable services to the Evangelical. Church; especially in his fight against the Adiaphora he proved himself to be on the right side and Melanch thon had to acknowledge his victory. When Magdeburg fell into the hands of the elector Maurice (1551) attempts were made to reconcile the two opposing parties, the Magdeburg and the Wittenberg circles. In the absence of Flacius, Gallus and his associates agreed to negotiate under the condition that no compromise with the pope should be made. Cer tain articles were drawn up, but Flacius, full of suspicion, declared them unsatisfactory and so the pacificatory work was disrupted. .

The adiaphoristic dispute was followed by that concerning Georg Major (q.v.), Who in a sermon preached at Eisleben had maintained the necessity

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of works for salvation. This controversy was carried on with the same relentless, cruel, and bitter personal insinuations. In 1552 the 4. The Osiandrian dispute arose Majoriatic, (see Osiander, Andreas). Osiander taught psiandrian, that justification is attained by the and indwelling of the essential justice of Schwenck- Christ through faith. In this case feldisa Con- Flacius put himself on the side of the troversies. Melanchthonians, showing thereby that the fight against his former teachers was not personal. Again as a strict Lutheran, he developed clearly the doctrine of forensic satis- faction. In 1553 he attacked the mystic subjec- tivism of Caspar Schwenckfeld, who made a dis- tinction between an inner word of God and the letter in Holy Scripture, and here also Flacius pre- pared the way for Lutheran orthodoxy as laid down in the Formula of Concord by maintaining the identity of the external word and the word of God. In the mean time further attempts were made to assuage the dissensions of the Magdeburg and Wittenberg circles for the sake of concord in the Evangelical party. As early as 1553 Flacius and Gallus desired to have a committee of arbitration appointed, but Melanchthon was silent g. Fruitless in the matter; then Duke Christopher Attempts of Wittenberg proposed a convention at Recon- of theologians, but the Thuringian ciliation. theologians Amsdorf and his asso- ciates were not in favor of it and re- quested the Wittenberg circle to condemn their heresies publicly. Jena in those days was the strong- hold of Lutheran orthodoxy against the unionistic tendencies of Wittenberg. Several other attempts to unite the dissenting parties also failed. Now Flacius published his treatise Von der Einigkeit in which he addressed himself to the whole Church, attempting to justify his character against sus- picions and indicating the necessary steps to be taken for the insurance of peace. Shortly after- ward he wrote a letter to Melanchthon in spite of the fact that the latter had written some verses accompanying a picture which represented Flacius as an ass crowned by other asses. With relentless severity Flacius exposed in this letter his oppo- nent's shortcomings concerning Adiaphorism and admonished him to relieve his conscience by con- fession of defeat. This Melanchthon professed to be willing to do, yet he rejected the articles of peace proposed by Flacius. The latter was not satisfied with this informal confession; again and again he requested written statements, official declarations, common signatures of articles and public revoca- tions. In this way the breach became irreparable. The friends of Flacius spoiled matters by treating Melanchthon as an impenitent sinner and the younger Philippists not less by their insolent trea- tises against Flacius. In 1557 Flacius was called to Jena as professor of the New Tes- 6. Flacius tament and superintendent. Shortly Professor after his arrival a colloquy took place in Jena. in Worms (see Worms) at which it was proposed to array Melanchthon and his associates together with the Thuringi- am and other theologians of the stricter school against the Romanists, but nothing was achieved at this conference because the Evangelicals themselves did not agree. This was owing, of course, chiefly to Flacius. His conduct was gen erally criticized, and he incurred the displeasure of many who had hitherto aided him. The so called Frankfort Recess (q.v.), convoked in 1558 by the leading Evangelical princes, was no more suc cessful than the other attempts at unity. Then Flacius proposed a synod and fifty prominent theo logians signed the Supplicatio pro libera, christiana et legitirna synodo, but all was in vain. A similar outcome resulted from the Naumburg Convention (q.v.) of 1561. In. the mean time the Synergistic dispute had arisen in Jesus (see Synergism). Victorinus Strigel (q.v.) and Superintendent Hilgel of Jena criticized Flacius' doctrine concerning free will, and Duke John Frederic immediately imprisoned them. In 1560 a disputation be 7. The tween Flacius and Strigel took place Synergistic at Weimar, the result of which was that Dispute. the duke confirmed the orthodoxy of Flacius' doctrine. John Frederic, however, becoming tired of these perpetual con troversies, instituted a consistory which possessed the right of excommunication and of censorship in regard to theological treatises. Flacius pro tested against this procedure as an act of violence, and thereupon he was deposed together with others in 1561. He left Jena in 1562 with the bold idea of found ing a Lutheran academy of learned men at Regens burg. Gallus received him kindly. From here he continued with untiring zeal his fight against Strigel and the Calvinistic tendencies, against the arrogance of secular authorities in encroaching upon the rights of the Church, and many other antago nists. With these polemical treatises hatred against him grew and his travels began to become danger ous. The Elector Augustus of Saxony 8. Flacius especially persecuted him, and the a Wanderer. Council of Regensburg found it im possible to protect him longer. In Antwerp William of Orange had allowed at this time to the Lutherans as well as the Calvinists the public exercise of their religion. The Lutheran congregation, needing the counsel of experienced German theologians, called Flacius. He arrived in 1566, but the following year he had to leave the country before the progress of the Spanish army. He attempted now to settle at Frankfort-on-the Main and then at Strasburg, but the cruel hatred of the Elector Augustus reached him even here; in 1569 the elector sent an envoy to Strasburg with the commission to capture Flacius. He fled to Basel, but was not allowed to remain, so he returned to Strasburg and in spite of the pressure exerted by the elector was tolerated. But now he spoiled his good relations with the Strasburg clergy by his opposition against the efforts at union made by Jacob Andrea (q.v.) and by his doctrine concerning original sin; for he was accused of the Manichean heresy. In 1573 the Council of Strasburg decreed his expulsion. In a treatise De pewati originalis out vderis

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Adami appellationibus et essentia Flaeius main tained that original sin is the substance of man him self and not an accident as Strigel taught. This doctrine was chiefly aimed at the Synergists. Flacius was altogether orthodox on this point. The whole controversy amounted to nothing since he attached to the word substantia two different meanings, it was a mere quibble of words, and yet there were men like Hesshusen (q.v.) who absurdly believed that Flacius considered the devil as the creator of substance. After his expulsion from Strasburg he settled at Frankfort, where he was ably protected by Catharina von Meerfeld, prioress of g. Last the nunnery Zu den weissen Frauen, Days at although the Council of the city had Frankfort. not given him permission to remain. Thanks to entreaties and interces sions his order of banishment was deferred from time to time until his death. In spite of all quarrels and turbulences of his life Flacius possessed such a tenacity and deter mination that he found time for scientific works which required the most extensive preparation and gradual ripening. He was not only Io. Flacius' the most learned Lutheran theolo Literary gian, but also the promoter and foun und der of theological disciplines. He was Scholarly chiefly prominent in the sphere of Work. church history. In Magdeburg he conceived the great plan of two his torical works in which he could deal heavy blows at Romanism. He undertook a catalogue of all those who before Luther had combated the heresies of the papacy, and in this way originated his Catalogue testium veritatis, qui ante nostram eetalem reclamarunt Papte (Basel, 1556) and its complement Varia doctorum pwrumque virorum de corrupto ecclesitv statu poemata [(1557) in which for the first time was printed Bernard of Cluny's De contemptu mundij. Still more important was his other plan to write a church history from the original sources which should show how the Church of Christ had deviated from her right course since the time of the apostles, and include a history of antichristianity from its beginning to the development of its highest power and to the restitution of true religion in its purity by Luther. The out come of this plan was the so-called "Magdeburg Centuries" (Basel, 1562-74; see Magdeburg Centuries). Flacius found many patrons who aided his great undertaking financially and he also made extensive travels in Germany, searching for sources and documents. Many assistants helped him. Many manuscripts and books were bought or do nated by patrons. The Magdeburg Centuries denotes a great progress in the science of Church history, not only on account of its extensive tracing of the sources, but also on account of its method. The anti-Roman interest had sharpened the vision and made it capable of critical achievements that marked a new epoch. [In reply Baro nius produced his superior "Annals."] Finally Flacius produced two works of importance in the sphere of Biblical science: his Clovis seriP turtB sacra seu de sermons sacraruin literarum

(1567) and Glossacompendiaria in Novum Testamentum (1570).

Flacius compels admiration by his learning and extraordinary scholarly achievements, his inde fatigable capacity for work, his indomitable zeal in defense of pure doctrine, but it is impossible to overlook certain grave defects in his nature, such as arrogance, obstinacy, and even malice-in fact an entire inability to appreciate the rights of others and their motives. [It is more charitable to suppose that he was mentally slightly unbal anced.]

(G. Kawerau.)

Bibliography: : Some of his letters are in CR, viii. and ix. and the Supplementum. His merits were long insufficiently appreciated and his rehabilitation is largely due to A. Twesten, Matthias Flaccius Illyricus, eine Vorlesung, Berlin, 1844, and W. Preger, Matthiae Placcius Myricw und seine Zeit, 2 vols., Erlangen, 1859-61 (a list of his many publications is given ii. 539-572). Consult also J. J. I. Döllinger, Die Reformation, ii. 224 sqq., Regensburg, 1848; A. Ritschl, Theologie and Metaphysik, pp. 52 sqq., Bonn, 1881; ADB, vii. 88 sqq.