Page 123

Page 123

123 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA 9turm atvllte. not imply a confusion of the bread and the wine with the body and blood of Christ, there is no spa tial enclosure but only such a sacramental union of the bread and body as is described by the Word of the Lord; hence, there is no sacrament aside from the use. (4) The ascension of Christ into heaven is no obstacle to the doctrine, inasmuch as Christ in his majesty and glory at the right hand of the Father fills all things not only by his divin ity, but also by his humanity, in a mysterious way conceivable not to reason but only to faith. (5) Not only the pious and worthy, but also the godless and hypocrites receive the body and blood, the latter to their judgment; therefore to be received by the godless does not detract from the glory and majesty of Christ, because as a just judge for him to punish the impenitent is as laudable as to show grace to the penitent. This " Confession," which was claimed to rest upon Scripture and to be in accord with the Augsburg Confession (q.v.) and the Wittenberg Confession submitted to the Council of Trent, was forthwith incorporated with the Wiirttemberg church order. The historical significance of the Stuttgart Synod lies in the fact that there, for the first time, was the difference between the Lutheran and the Calvinistic doctrines of the Lord's Supper sharply distin guished; namely, the three main points: giving and receiving by hand and mouth, partaking by the unbelieving, and the founding of the doctrine of the Lord's Supper on the teaching concerning the person of Christ and his sitting at the right hand of the Father. Epoch-making was the last, in which Brenz, in strict dependence upon Luther, coor dinated the doctrine of the Lord's Supper with Christology, which occasioned a renewal of the doc trine of Ubiquity (q.v.), a name charged by the opponents but disavowed by Brenz. This synod marked a rallying of the original Lutheran doctrine at a crisis in which it had been well-nigh supplanted by the ever-spreading view of Calvin and Melanch thon. Moreover, the advancing unionistic tendency promoted by the alliance of the influences of Dse lanchthon and Calvin was thwarted, and for Ger man Protestantism the cleavage was fixed. Duke Christopher vainly hoped to make the " Confession " a basis for his tireless efforts to effect union, and despatched it throughout Germany and France, but it was almost universally ignored. Within Wiirt temberg this assertion of the conservatism of its reformer and organizer, Brenz, marked the begin ning of a new scholastic theology, and proved not only exclusive to neighboring lands for a century, but also oppressive to many of the clergy at home. (H. HERMELIN>i.) BIBLIOGRAPHY: The confession is printed in Acts et acnpta pu6lica ecclesiev Wirtembergica', ed. C. M. Pfaff, pp. 334 aqq., 340 sqq., Tubingen, 1720. Matters of importance are to be found in the Opera of Calvin, vole. xvi-xix., espe cially xvii. 622-825, xix. 350-353 (in CR, xliii.-xlviiJ. Consult further: J. V. Andreii, Fama Arulreana reJloreacens, pp. 94 aqq.. Strasburg, 1&30; C. A. Salig, Vollst&rulige Hia torie der augspurpiache Confession, iii. 424 aqq., Halle, 1735; C. F. Schnurrer, Erltiuteruugere der v;itrttemberpdachen Kirch enreformations- urui Gelehrtengeschichte, pp. 259 aqq., Tii bingen, 1798; G. J. Planck, Geschichte der EntaEehunp den protestantischen LehrbegriJjs, v. 2, pp. 398 aqq., Leipeie. 1799; J. Hartmann and IC. Jilger. Johann Brenz, 1 372 aqq.. Hamburg, 1842; H. Heppe, Gesehichte des deutachen

Proteatantiamua, i. 311 aqq., Marburg, 1852; H. Schmid, Der KampJ der Zuthenachen Kirche um Luthera Lehre vom Abendmahl, pp. 228 aqq., Leipsic, 1858; B. Kugler, Chriatoph Herzop zu Wirtemberg, ii. 171 aqq., Stuttgart, 1872; Wilrttembergiache Kirchengeachichte, pp. 393-394, ib. 1893; W. Kohler, BibliopraPhia Brentiana, nos. 388370, 391, 800, Leipaic, 1904.

STYLITES (PILLAR SAINTS): Anchorets who, in their desire for complete separation from the world and extreme asceticism, passed their lives on pillars. The first pillar saint was Simeon the Elder, who was born in Sisan or Sesan, in northern Syria, about 390. Originally a shepherd in the lonely mountains, he visited a church for the first time at the age of thirteen and immediately resolved to become a monk. His extreme asceticism caused the monks to expel him, and after living for three years as a hermit near Tel Neskin (Telanessa), continuing excessive mortifications, he began, about 420, his pillar life. This he selected, he.said, in consequence of a divine revelation, as well as to escape the importunities of the masses. He accordingly built himself a pillar, at first only four ells high, but later ranching the altitude of thirty-six or forty ells.

The later stylites practically imitated Simeon with slight modifications. They, lived on the capitals of pillars of varying height, these capitals being sufficiAntly large for the construction of a small cell on them. They were surrounded by a railing to keep the stylite from falling, and communicated with the ground by a ladder.

Simeon at first roused sentiments other than admiration. The Nitrian monks, fearing the loss of their prestige as incomparable patterns of monasticism, threatened him with excommunication; and the Mesopotamian abbots likewise disapproved his ascetic methods. But the purity of his life and motives soon silenced his critics, and Simeon became renowned as a worker of miracles, a healer of the sick, and a converter of the heathen. He was a powerful factor in promoting peace and in the cause of the suffering and oppressed; he also took part in church polity, as when, in 429, he induced Theodosius II. to revoke an edict which restored to the Jews of Antioch their synagogues, and, in 457, the Emperor Leo I. asked his advice concerning the troubles in Egypt, whereupon the saint espoused the cause of Chalcedonian orthodoxy in two letters to the emperor and Bishop Basil of Antioch. Until his death, in 459, Simeon remained on his pillar.

The example of Simeon Stylites was quickly imitated, at first by only a few, but later by so many that the stylites formed a regular order in the East. The immediate pupil of Simeon and his first successor was Daniel of Maratha near Samosata, who began to live on a pillar in the vicinity of Constantinople shortly after his teacher's death. Like Simeon he zealously defended the Chalcedonian creed, even leaving his pillar once for this purpose. He enjoyed the special protection of Leo L, who built for him a new pillar and later prevailed upon him to permit the construction of a tiny cell on the pillar to protect him against the elements. Daniel died in 493. In the sixth century lived Simeon the Younger. He is said to have left his father's house at the age of five and to have lived as a stylite for