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Page 220

 

Syncretism THE NEW SCIIAFF-HERZOG 220

doxorum (1648) of all opponents of the Reformed, in condemnation of their new colleagues. Calovius used the term " syncretism " as one of the springs of ruin, and hence " syncretist " fastened itself more and more to the " more moderate theologians " of Helmstedt and the tendency which they represented. The battle continued in Prussia with literary broadsides pro and con until after the death of Myslenta.

Political jealousy and strife also played their part in the controversies. For years the electorate of Saxony had sought to prevent the

2. In grant of an equal status to the Re- Electoral formed, in favor of the other two elec torates, of the Palatinate and Branden burg; but, in the Peace of Westphalia (see WEsT PHALIA, PEACE OF) its aim was~defeated. Equality of religious practise was sustained. The Reformed professed themselves adherents of the Augsburg Confession as a genus to which the two bodies were as species, to which electoral Saxony objected in vain (1649). Even the assignment as director of the Corpus Evangelicorum (1653) could not com pensate for the humiliation of Saxony. The theo logians of Wittenberg and Leipsic made a report that the theologians of Helmstedt were astray not only on the necessity of good works, but also on al most every article of faith, and Johann Georg bade them to set this forth " article by article " (Jan. 21, 1648). On June 16, 1649, the elector issued an address to the three dukes of Brunswick, who main tained Helmstedt as their joint university, person ally assuming all the charges against Calixtus, whom he accused of patching together a new religion and introducing violent schisms. He asked that the theologians of Helmstedt be prohibited from issuing polemics against his theologians, and invited the dukes to a proposed alliance of Evangelical states for restrictive measures, under threat of assuming protection against schism. On the other side, the dukes of Brunswick had commissioned Konrad Horneius (q.v.) to prepare an apology against the Konigsberg censures (ut sup.) and requested an ex position in German of the points (1) on the author ity of the ancient Church, (2) good works, (3) the New-Testament proof of the Trinity, (4) the the ophanies of the Old Testament, and (5) the unity of dissidents charged as " syncretists." Calixtus elab orated the third and fourth points, Num mysterium trinitatis a solius, etc. (1649). Now, he furnished an apology against Johann Georg's address, and the dukes of Brunswick in joint reply to the latter (1650) offered to acquiesce in the suppression of the polemical writings of their theologians, provision ally, if he would take the same steps, and proposed a convention to devise counsels against schisms in behalf of peace, but intimated resistance to the threatened directorate, if the same implied the as sertion of superiority by force. But the elector only consented to a more vehement polemic. The call of Calovius to a professorship at Wittenberg meant the concentration of.forces and occurred amid fresh polemical explosions. Hulsemann issued Dialysis apologetiea problematis Calixtini num mysterium trinitahs (1649); Judieium de Calixtino desiderio concordice ecclesiasticce (1650); and, finally, Der

calixtinische Geurissenswurm (1654), a work exceed

ing 1,600 pages. Most active was Calovius, who

produced, besides his wailing inaugural, Consideratio

none theologice Helmstadioregiomontanorum syn

eretistarum (1649); and Syncretismus Calixtinus

(1653). Ninety-eight heresies of Calixtus were col

lected and a conference of theologians demanded by

the party of Calovius; but this effort failed owing

to the wise suspicion of the dukes of Saxony, whb

were first invited, and the Jena theologians, that

the veiled pretension concealed the design of a joint

attack upon the dukes of Brunswick, their exclusion

from the Lutheran body, and, consequently, a

widening of the schism. At the most recent diet at

Regensburg, twenty-four Evangelical estates had

united in a call for a conference of peaceable theo

logians and state representatives and in an appeal

for silence on the part of both theological factions.

But Johann Georg, upon whom, as director of the

corpus Evangelicorum, first action devolved, gave

heed to neither. His theologians now clamored for

the expulsion of the Helmstedt party from the Lu

theran Church on the basis of the ninety-eight

heresies. A consensus repetitus fidei vere Lutherance

was drawn up as a new confession. In eighty-six

parts, following the order of the Augsburg Confes

sion, it was arranged, each according to the scheme

of (1) the right doctrine (proitemur); (2) the dissi

dence of the Helmstedt faction (reyicimus); (3)

proofs from the writings of the latter (ita docet).

Subscribed first by the Leipsic and Wittenberg theo

logians, the signatures of others were sought by a

fresh productivity of the pen of Calovius; Har

monic Calixtina-hwretica (1655) of 1,200 quarto

pages; Systema locorum theologicorum (2 vols.,

1655); and Fides veterum et imprimis fidelium

mundi antediluviani in Christum (1655), in which

the heresies of Calixtus were mentioned as the " ex

crements of Satan." But the acceptance of the con

fession elsewhere could not be secured, and the

death of Calixtus, 1656, followed the same year by

that of Johann Georg, produced a lull in the storm.

2. The Second Period: The peace of Westphalia

had restored the more Lutheran parts of North

Hesse to the Reformed rule of Cassel, including,

practically, the control of Schaumburg and the Uni

versity of Rinteln. The policy of

1. In Landgrave Wilhelm VI. was broad and

Hesse- Cassel, lenient enough under the liberal church order to effect the union of Lutheran and Reformed elements. The University of Magde burg, reopened in 1653, was pledged to promote " the ecclesiastical peace and concord of all Prot estants," and to a mediating theology. Further, to promote the union and abate partizan hatred, the landgrave called a colloquy at Cassel June 1-9, 1661. When the Wittenberg theologians, Calovius, J. A. Quenstedt, and Johann Deutschmann (qq.v.) heard of it eight months later, they issued a violent attack, Epicrisis de colloquio Casselano Rintelio Marpurgensium (1662) which they despatched far and wide to the faculties and ministeria. In con sequence, the three faculties of Saxony united in a representation to the theologians of Rinteln in which the repudiation of the elenchus against the Reformed and of their condemnation in worship