CAMPANUS, cam-pa'nus, JOHANNES: Reformer; b. at Mæseyck (17 m. n.e. of Mæstricht) in Belgium; d. at Jülich (Juliers, 15 m. n.e, of Aachen) c. 1575. He studied at Cologne, whence he was expelled in 1520 for opposing the scholastic doctors; went to Jülich and was noted for his vehement Lutheranism; went to Wittenberg in 1527; was present at the Conference of Marburg in 1529, and surprised both sides by his presentation of the view that the bread is indeed bread and at the same time the body of Christ because he makes it so. He was not, however, allowed to take part in the debate. This snub and others incurred by his tendency to unorthodox views turned him against the Reformers and them against him. He was called insane because he would not yield to their arguments. So he was repeatedly imprisoned and died a prisoner. In 1530 he prepared a book in Latin and German "Against All the World Since the Apostles" and circulated it in manuscript–no complete or printed copy is known to east, but extracts have been preserved in a manuscript by Bugenhagen (cf. ZHT, 1846, pp. 495 sqq. ). In 1532 one of his followers, Franz von Streitten, published a popular restatement of his views which he dedicated to King Frederick of Denmark. He taught that the Holy Spirit was not the Third Person but the common essence of the two, while the Son was not coeternal with the Father but, created out of his essence, before all creatures. He was likewise an Anabaptist and in general a radical.
(A. HEGLER†) K. HOLL.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. S. Bock, Historia antitrinitariorum, ii. 244 sqq., Leipsic, 1784; G. J. Dlabacz, Biographie des J. Campanus mit einem Verzeichnisse seiner . . . Schriften, Prague. 1804; K. Rembert, Die "Wiedertäufer" im Jülich, Berlin, 1899; J. Köstlin, Martin Luther, vol. ii. passim, Berlin, 1903.
CAMPBELL, ALEXANDER: Founder of the Disciples of Christ; b. near Ballymena (a mile from Shane's Castle on the northern shore of Lough Neagh), County Antrim, Ireland, Sept. 12, 1788; d. at Bethany, W. Va., Mar. 4, 1866. He
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Mr. Campbell's marriage in 1812 to Margaret Brown, a Presbyterian, turned his attention to the subject of baptism. After diligent study of the Scriptures and critical examination of the words "baptize" and "baptism," he became satisfied they could mean only "immerse" and "immersion," and that believers only could be the proper subjects of this ordinance. With his father and five others he was immersed by Mathias Luse, June 14, 1812. "I have set out," he said, "to follow the Apostles of Christ and their master, and I will be baptised only into the primitive Christian faith" From this time Thomas Campbell conceded to his son the guidance of the movement he had originated. The Brush Run church joined the Redstone Baptist Association after full statement of their views, using the primitive Confession of faith instead of a religious experience, and breaking bread weekly without restricted communion. A second church on the same basis was organized in Wellsburg, W. Va.
In 1820 Mr. Campbell held his first public discussion. He was not disputatious, and at first declined a challenge, but it was forced upon him. The debate was with the Rev. John Walker, a Presbyterian, and the chief point debated was the identity of the covenants upon which the Jewish and Christian institutions rested. His later discussions with Rev. N. L. Rice on baptism, the Holy Spirit, and human creeds as bonds of union, a debate which lasted sixteen days and over which Henry Clay presided (1843), with Robert Owen on the claims of Christianity (at Cincinnati, 1829), and with Archbishop Purcell on the claims of Roman Catholicism (also at Cincinnati, 1837) are masterpieces of discussion which created a profound impression in their time and did much to extend the principles advocated by Mr. Campbell.
In 1823 Mr. Campbell began the publication of The Christian Baptist. In the first seven years from his little country printing-office he issued 46,000 volumes of his works. His writings were read far and wide. His views began to influence large numbers of people. He was assailed as a disorganizer, but it was not his aim merely to overthrow the existing order of religious society. He was well aware of the vast benefit resulting to mankind from Christianity even in its most corrupt forms. He desired simply to dethrone the false that he might reestablish the true, to replace the traditions of men by the teachings of Christ and the Apostles; to substitute the New Testament for creeds and human formularies. His work was positive, not negative. In 1825 he published in The Christian Baptist a series of articles entitled A Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things, in which he argued for the abandonment of everything not in use among the early Christians, such as creeds and confessions, unscriptural words and phrases, theological speculations, etc., and for the adoption of everything sanctioned by primitive practise, as the weekly breaking of the loaf, the fellowship, the simple order of worship, and the independence of each church under the care of elders and deacons. His plea was not for a reformation, but for a restoration of the original Church.
In 1826 Mr. Campbell published The Sacred Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists of Jesus Christ, Commonly Styled the New Testament, with notes. In this work he Anglicized the Greek words commonly rendered "baptism," "baptize," etc., being the first to do so in an English version: The principles taught by the Campbells were now wide-spread, especially among the Baptists; but in 1827 Baptist Associations began to declare non-fellowship with the brethren of "the Reformation" and from this time dates the rise of the people known as the Disciples of Christ.
In 1829 Mr. Campbell began to publish the Millennial Harbinger, a magazine which he continued to issue monthly until his death. In October of the same year he sat in the Virginia State Constitutional Convention. Ex-President Madison, one of his fellow delegates, said of him afterward: "I regard him as the ablest and most original expounder of Scripture I ever heard." In 1840 he founded Bethany College with the Bible as a text-book. In 1847 he traveled and preached in Great Britain. This was his busiest period; he traveled thousands of miles, lectured and preached constantly, edited, presided over the College, and held public discussions. In June, 1850, he spoke before both houses of Congress at the Capitol at Washington. He was gifted with a fine presence, with great ease and skill of utterance,
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F. D. POWER.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Robert Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, Cincinnati, 1888 B. B. Tyler, in American Church History Series, xii. 34-59, New York, 1894.
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