596 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1580.
Albrecht did not enjoy his reign. It was sadly disturbed in this transition state by troubles from within and without. He repeatedly said that he would rather watch sheep than be a ruler. He was involved in heavy debts. The seven children of his first wife, a daughter of the king of Denmark, died young, except a daughter, Anna Sophia, who married a duke of Mecklenburg (1555). His pious and faithful wife died, 1547. In 1550 he married a princess of Braunschweig ; her first daughter was born blind; only one son, Albrecht Friedrich, survived him, and spent his life in melancholy. But Albrecht remained true to his evangelical faith, and died (March 20, 1568), with the words of Psa. 31:5, upon his lips, “‘ Into Thine hand I commend my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, Thou God of truth.” He left proofs of his piety in prayers, meditations, and the testament to his son, who succeeded him, and died without male issue, 1618.
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.
A few glimpses of the later history are here in place to explain the present confessional status of the Protestant church in the kingdom of Prussia.
The Duchy of Prussia in 1618 fell as an inheritance to John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg (1608-1619), son-in-law of the second Prussian Duke (Albert Frederick), and a descendant of Frederick of Hohenzollern, who had become margrave of Brandenburg by purchase in 1415. In this way the connection of Prussia and Brandenburg was completed.
But Prussia remained in feudal subjection to Poland till 1656, when Frederick William, ‘‘ the great Elector,’’ conquered the independence by the victory of Warsaw. He is the first, as Frederick II., his great-grandson, is the second, founder of the greatness of Prussia. After the terrible devastations of the Thirty Years’ War he gathered the broken fragments of his provinces into a coherent whole during his long and successful reign (1640-1688). He was the most enlightened and most liberal among the German princes of his age. He protected the independence of Germany against French aggression. He was married to Louisa Henrietta, princess of Orange, of the Calvinistic faith, and authoress of the popular resurrection hymn, ‘‘ Jesus, meine Zuver-
and confessor, continued the controversies, but was at last beheaded with two others, 1566, as ‘‘ Ruhestérer, Landesverrdther und Beforderer der osiandrischen Ketzerei.”’
8.99, THE REFORMATION IN PRUSSIA. 597
sicht.”?1 He secured toleration to the Reformed churches in the Treaty of Westphalia. He gave refuge to over twenty thousand French Huguenots, who with their descendants became an important element in the Prussian nationality and the Reformed church. His son Frederick became the first king of Prussia, and was crowned at Konigsberg, Jan. 18,1701. He founded the University of Halle, 1693, which ultimately absorbed the University of Wittenberg by incorporation (1815), and assumed an important position in the history of German theology as the nursery, first of pietism, then of rationalism, and (since Tholuck’s appointment, 1827) of the evangelical revival.
_ With John Sigismund began an important confessional change, which laid the foundation for the union policy of his successors. He introduced the Reformed or Calvinistic element, which had been crushed out in Saxony, into the Court and Dome Church of Berlin, and gave the Heidelberg Catechism a place besides the Augsburg Confession. His grandson, “ the great Elector,” strengthened the Reformed element by his marriage to a princess from Holland, who adorned her faith, and by inviting a colony of French Huguenots who left their country for the sake of conscience. It was therefore quite natural that the Reformed rulers of a Lutheran country should cherish the idea of a union of the two confessions, which was realized in the present century.”
We have seen that Old Prussia was Lutheranized under the direct influence of the Wittenberg divines with whom Albrecht was in constant correspondence. In Brandenburg also, the Lutheran type of Protestantism, after many reverses and controversies, was established under John George (1571- 1598); the Formula of Concord was forcibly introduced, and all Calvinistic teaching was strictly forbidden. The Brandenburg ‘‘ Corpus Doctrine” of 1572 emphasizes Luther’s word that Zwingli was no Christian, and the Brandenburg chancellor Dietelmeyer is known by his unchristian prayer: “‘Impleat nos Deus odio Calvinistarum 1
1 Several English translations; one by Miss Winkworth, ‘‘ Jesus my Redeemer lives.’”” The hymn has a long znd interesting history. See A. Ἐς W. Fischer, Kirchenlieder-Lexicon, 1. 390-396.
2 For fuller information, see Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, I. 554 sqq. To the literature there given should be added Ranke, Zwélf Biicher Preuss. Geschichte, Leipz. 1874, I. 185-192; Kawerau in Herzog?, XIV. 227-232; and Wangemann, Joh. Sigismund und Paul Gerhard, Berlin, 1884. The literature on the Prussian Union refers to the history after 1817, and is very large. We mention Nitzsch, Urkundenbuch der evangelischen Union, Berlin, 1853; Jul. Muller, Die evangel. Union, ihr Wesen und géttliches Recht, Berlin, 1854; Brandes, Geschichte der kirchlichen Politik des Hauses Brandenburg, 1872, ’73, 2 vols.; Miicke, Preussen’s landeskirchliche Unionsentwicklung, 1879; Wangemann, Die preussische Union in ihrem Verhiltniss zur Una Sancta, Berlin, 1884.