The confession was written in Latin, and trans lated into German by Leo Judge. After the com pletion of the theological work, the secular and spiritual delegates acceptance by sembled on Feb. 4 for a final session. the Swiss. The Strasburg party once more em phasized the necessity of Christian harmony with the German estates, but the delegates claimed to possess no authority in that matter.
On Mar. 27 the delegates of the town councils assembled again at Basel, without theologians, and unanimously accepted the confession. Then the delegates of Strasburg and Constant were called before the assembly, but they refused their eignsture; the Strasburg delegate especially, who was accompanied by Capito-the only theologian
217 |
II. The Second Helvetic Confession, 3[566 (Confeasio Helvdica Posterior): This was the work of Heinrich Bullinger (q.v.), who made i. Origin the first draft of it in 1562. During and the plague in 1564 he revised and
History. elaborated this sketch, and laid it beside his will, to be presented, in case of his death, to the magistrates of Zurich, as a tes timony of his faith. An incident brought it before the public. The Emperor Maximilian II. called a diet to Augsburg, Jan. 14, 1566. As the Elector palatine Frederick III., who had seceded from the Lutheran and joined the Reformed Church, was afraid that, for this reason, he would be put under the ban of the realm, he addressed himself to Bullinger, and asked him to draw up a confession showing that the Reformed Church in no point differed from the true apostolic doctrine. Bullinger sent him the above-mentioned memoir, and it pleased him so much that he asked permission to have it translated into German and published. Bullinger's work appeared in Mar., 1566, at Zurich, under the title Con/essio et mpositio simplex ortho doxBibliography: The text is given in H. A. Niemeyer, Colleetio eonfesaionum, Leipsic, 1840; Schaff, Creeds, iii. 211306, 829-909 (of First, in Lat. and Germ.; of Second, in Lat. and Eng.); K. Miller, Die Bakenntnisschriften der rejormierte» Kirden, Leipsic, 1903. For the history consult: Schaff, Creeds, i. 388-420; idem, Christian Church, vii. 219-222; J. J. Hottinger, Helvetische Kirchengeschichte, vol. iii., Zurich, 1708; C. Pestalossi,
Heimich Bullinger, Elberfeld, 1858; K. Miller, Sym-bolik, Leipsic, 1896; E. Bldsch, Geschichte der achueizerisdvreformirten Kirchen, Bern, 1898-99. On the First Confession, besides the above, consult: Sammlung der ltlteren eidpen6saischen AbecAiede, iv., i., pp. 598, 616 sqq., 669 sqq., 682 sqq., 784 sqq., Lucerne, 1878; M. Kirchhofer, Oswald Myconiue, Zurich, 1813. On the Second, consult: H. A. Niemeyer, ut sup., prolegomena, pp. lx(ii. lxviii.; L. Thomas, La &onfession h elvaiqw, Geneva. 1853.
![]() | Calvin College. Last modified on 08/11/06. Contact the CCEL. | ![]() |