§ 108. THE MARBURG CONFERENCE CONTINUED. 653
Conrad Bergius (Berg), from whom Baxter derived his knowledge of the sentence, was professor in the university of Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, and then a preacher at Bremen. He and his brother John Berg (1587-1658), court chaplain of Brandenburg, were irenical divines of the German Reformed Church, and moderate Calvinists. John Berg attended the Leipzig Colloquy of March, 1631, where Lutheran and Reformed divines agreed on the basis of the revised Augsburg Confession of 1540 in every article of doctrine, except the corporal presence and oral manducation. The colloquy was in advance of the spirit of the age, and had no permanent effect. See Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, I. 558 sqq., and Niemeyer, Collectio Confessionwn in Ecclesiis Reformatis publicatarum, Ὁ. LX XV. and 653-668.
Dr. Briggs has investigated the writings of Conrad Bergius and his associates in the royal library of Berlin. In his ‘** Praxis Catholica divini canonis contra quasvis hereses et schismata,”’ etc., which appeared at Bremen in 1639, Bergius concludes with the classical word of ‘** Rupertus Meldenius Theologus,”’ and a brief comment onit. This is quoted by baxter in the form just given. In the autumn of 1627 Bergius preached two discourses at Frankfurt on the subject of Christian union, which accord with the sentence, and appeared in 1628 with the consent of the theological faculty. They were afterwards incorporated in his Praxis Catholica. He was thoroughly at home in the polemics and irenics of his age, and can be relied on as to the authorship of the sentence.
But who was Meldenius? This is still an unsolved question. Possibly he took his name from Melden, a little village on the borders of Bohemia and Silesia. His voice was drowned, and his name forgotten, for two centuries, but is now again heard with increased force. I subscribe to the concluding words of my esteemed colleague, Dr. Briggs: ‘‘ Like a mountain stream that disappears at times under the rocks of its bed, and re-appears deeper down in the valley, so these long-buried principles of peace have reappeared after two centuries of oblivion, and these irenical theologians will be honored by those who live in a better age of the world, when Protestant irenics have well-nigh displaced the old Protestant polemics and scholastics.”’
The origin of the sentence was first discussed by a Dutch divine, Dr. Van der Hoeven of Amsterdam, in 1847; then by Dr. Liicke of Gottingen, Ueber das Alter, den Verfasser, die urspriingliche Form und den wahren Sinn des kirchlichen Friedenspruchs ‘In necessariis unitas,’ etc., Gottingen, 1850 (XXII. and 146 pages); with supplementary remarks in the ‘‘Studien und Kritiken ” for 1851, p. 905-938. Liicke first proved the authorship of Meldenius. The next steps were taken by Dr. Klose, in the first edition of Herzog’s ‘‘ Theol. Encycl.’’ sub Meldenius, vol. IX. (1858), p. 304 sq., and by Dr. Carl Bertheau, in the second edition of Herzog, IX. (1881), p. 528-530. Dr. Briggs has furnished additional information in two articles in the ‘‘ Presbyterian Review,’’ vol. VIII., New York, 1887, pp. 496-499, and 743-746.
654 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 15380.
§ 109. Lwther’s Last Attack on the Sacramentarians. His Relation to Calvin.
We anticipate the concluding act of the sad controversy of Luther with his Protestant opponents. It is all the more painful, since Zwingli and Gicolampadius were then sleeping in the grave; but it belongs to a full knowledge of the great Reformer. |
The Marburg Conference did not really reconcile the parties, or advance the question in dispute; but the conflict subsided for a season, and was thrown into the background by other events. The persistent efforts of Bucer and Hedio to bring about a reconciliation between Wittenberg and Zurich soothed Luther, and excited in him the hope that the Swiss would give up their heresy, as he regarded it. But in this hope he was disappointed. The Swiss could not accept the “ Wittenberg Concordia” of 1536, because it was essentially Lutheran in the assertion of the corporal presence and oral manducation.
A year and a half before his death, Luther broke out afresh, to the grief of Melanchthon and other friends, in a most violent attack on the Sacramentarians, the “ Short Confession on the Holy Sacrament” (1544). It was occasioned by Schwenkfeld,? and by the rumor that Luther had changed his
1 Er). ed. XXXII. 396-425; Walch, XX. 2195 sqq. Comp. Luther’s letter to Hungarian ministers, April 21, 1544 (in De Wette, V. 644), where he announces his intention soon to add one more to his many confessions on the real presence. ‘‘ Cogor post tot confessiones meas adhuc unam facere, quam faciam propediem et novissimam.”’ The Erlangen editor says that the book was not published till 1545; but the titlepage of Hans Luft’s edition bears date ‘‘ Am Ende: M.D. XLIIII.’”? Melanchthon informed Bullinger of the appearance of the book in August, 1544; and Calvin heard of it in November, 1544. ᾿ ᾿ 2 Schwenkfeld sent Luther some books with appeals to his authority (1543). Luther returned an answer by the messenger, in which he called Schwenkfeld ‘‘a nonsensical fool,’ and asked him to spare him his books, which were ‘‘ spit out by the Devil.”’ In the Short Confession, he calls him always Stenkefeld (Stinkfield), and ein “ verdampt Liigenmaul.”