3. Its Acceptance by the Swiss

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

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present-was intent upon putting obstructions in the way of the new confession and inducing the Swiss to accept the Tetrapolitan Confession (q.v.). In this way Strasburg undoubtedly thought a union of Lutherans and Reformed could more easily be effected, but the result was only that the Swiss promised to examine the Tetrapolitan Confession and not to publish their own. Thus the First Helvetic Confession did not bring about the desired union, in spite of the fact that it contained Lutheranizing formulas; but it cemented the union of the Evangelical cantons of Switzerland, and the new confession formed the basis upon which their later doctrinal discussions rested.

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 dox The order of articles (iii., Scripture; iii.-v., God and worship; vi.-vii., providence and creation; viii.=x3[., the fall and preparation of sal- a. Content. vation; xii.-xvi., appropriation of salvation andnewlife; xvii.-xxi., Church,ser mon, and sacraments; xxii.-axe., church ordinances, etc-) and the thorough treatment of the ecclesiastical organization show the same Reformed peculiarities as the first Helvetic confession. The doctrine of predestination avoids with the utmost care every speculative offense. The confession is entirely silent upon the question of reprobation; it shows Bullinger's practical caution which, by cutting off all speculative consequences, clings to the consoling part of the dogma. Election finds unmitigated expression without any synergism. The doctrine of the sacraments is an expansion of the First Helvetic Confession. The rejection of old and new heresies serves an apologetic tendency, by showing that the Reformed could not be classed as heretics (3[.e., AntiTrinitarians), in the sense of the imperial law of Theodosius, while minor deviations of doctrines and forms ought to be tolerated by Evangelical brethren.

(E. F. Karl Müller.)

Bibliography: 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.