great reputation, and he was soon looked upon as one of the principal followers of Luther. Gieseler speaks of Osiander as at this time " the highly endowed Re- former of Nuremberg" (Eccles. Hist, iv, 469 sq.). In 1529 he was sent to the Conference of Marburg, whose object was to reconcile the Lutheran and Swiss theologians, principally on the doctrine of the Eucharist. Osiander seems to have sided on that pohit most consistently with Luther against Zwingli, but on the doctrine of justifica- tion he held some peculiar views, yet they did not differ enough from those of the Lutherans to make him break from them. In 1539 he was one of the Protestant the- ologians who appeared before the Diet of Augsburg to advocate the cause of the Reformation. He took an ac- tive part in the proceedings which resulted in the draw- ing up of the Confession of Augsburg. In 1546 he at- tended at the conference in Smalcald (q. v.). But upon the publication of the Interim (May 15, 1548) Osiander felt that he could no longer stay at Nurem- berg, and he retired, after twenty-seven years of success- ful Reformatory labors there, in 1549, to the court of duke Albert of Prussia, who had formerly been much pleased with his preaching. It is said that he expected to be called to England, but that Cranmer refrained from in- viting him on account of his combative tendencies. Al- bert, however, offered him the professorship of theology in the newly organized University of Konigsberg. Osi- ander accepted this position, as it allowed him full scope for the spread of his doctrinal views. These were somewhat peculiar, and differed from those of the other Reformers, particularly on the question of justification. In opposition to the external view of justification by faith alone, as they taught it, Osiander insisted that " faith is the medium of the indwelling of Christ in the human soul." This form of statement he proved from Luther's writings was authorized, but he used it, in dis- tinction from Luther, to describe living faith as appro- priating Christ, and thus developed the view in a mode akin to that of the German mystics of the 14th centur}\ The principal fault in Osiander's doctrine was, especially, the unwarrantable stress he laid upon his peculiar shape of the dogma, constituting justification and redemption as only one act. His doctrine seems to have amounted to the following propositions : 1. That Christ, considered in his human nature only, could not by his obedience to the divine law obtain justification and pardon for sin- ners; neither can we be justified before God by embrac- ing and applying to ourselves, through faith, the right- eousness and obedience of the man Christ. It is only through that eternal and essential righteousness which dwells in Christ considered as God, and which resides in his divine nature united to the human, that mankind can obtain complete justification. 2. That a man be- comes partaker of this divine righteousness by faith, since it is in consequence of this uniting principle that Christ dwells in the heart of man with his divine right- eousness. Now, wherever this divine righteousness dwells, there God can behold no sin ; therefore, when it is present with Christ in the hearts of the regenerate, they are, on its own account, considered by the Deity as righteous, although they be sinners. Moreover, this divine and justifying righteousness of Christ excites the faithful to the pursuit of holiness and to the practice of virtue. Osiander indeed maintained that what was called justification by orthodox theologians should be more properlj' designated i-edemptio7i (illustrated by the case of a Moor ransomed from slavery). In his opinion the signification of Ciicaiovv is to " make just ;" it is only by metonymy that it can mean " to pronounce a person just" (comp. Planck, iv, 249 sq. ; Tholuck's Anzeiger, 1833, No. 54, 55 ; Schenkel, ii, 355). He was opposed by Francis Staphylus, Morlin, and others. (On Osiander's doctrine in its earliest form [after 1524], see Heberle in the Studien u. Kriiiken, 1844; it is further developed in the two disputations which he held, A.D. 1549 and 1550, in his treatise Z>e unico Mediatore^lb51, and in va- rious sermons.) Says Baur, in his Dogmengesch. p. 332 :
OSIANDER
4G6
OSIANDER
"Justification, according to Osiander, is the mystical union of man with Christ as the absolute principle of righteousness. . . . The believer is so embodied in Christ that in this living concrete unity he is flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone. . . . The Formula Con- cordim is incorrect in representing his doctrine as ex- cluding the human nature of Clirist from the work of redemption." As Osiander considered justiticatioii, it is evidently not to be understood as a judicial act of God, as it was held In' the Reformers, who all adojited on this point the theorj' of Anselm, but as something subjective, as a communication of an innerjustice operating directly upon conscience. This doctrine was never violently at- tacked b}' the Lutherans, though they were opposed to it, so long as Luther's magnanimous spirit was able to restrain in the new Church all controversies which did not seem to him to be indispensable for preserving the purity of truths leading to salvation. While at Nu- remberg Osiander therefore escaped violent opposition, but when established at Ktinigsberg, so much farther removed from the personal influence of his own devoted friends, and the great Reformer himself no longer on earth to stay the strife, the jealousy of competitors, the newness of Osiander's views, joined to a certain freedom — much removed, however, from immorality — of man- ners, created many enemies, and involved him in bitter controversies, which commenced with his first disputa- tions, De lege et Kvangelio (1549), De Jiistijicatione (1550). The strife was for a while subdued hx the au- thorities, who favored Osiander and exiled his oppo- nents, but broke out with renewed violence when he published in Latin and in German his Confession, enti- tled in the former De tinico rnediatore Jes. Chi: etjustifi- catione fidei Confessio A. Osiandri (Regiom. Oct. 1551, 4to), or in German Bekenntniss v. d. einigen Mittler Jes. Christ. V. V. d. Kechlfertigung (1551 ; 2d ed. 1552). Osian- der by this publication simply inflamed the strife, be- cause he here treated his opponents with arrogance and harshness. Morlin (q. v.), who had been made pastor at Konigsberg in September of this year, tried in vain to adjust the controversy; and when all seemed lost for Osiander, his devoted friend the duke called for a judgment from the theologians of all the German estates of the Augsburg Confession. The Wiirtemberg judgment alone tried to vindicate the essential agree- ment of Osiander with Lutheranism, and this only the duke presented, but failed, nevertheless, to bring about a peaceful settlement. Osiander was finally, on account of his heretical views, called before the Synod of Wit- tenberg, but it declined to inderdict him ; and before he could be the subject of further controversy he died, at Konigsberg, Oct. 17, 1552. His faithful adherents, who continued the controversy after his death, are called Osiatidrians (see below).