§ 57. THE HELVETIC CONFESSIONS OF FAITH. 219
§ 57. The Helvetic Confessions of Faith.
Niemeyer: Collectio Confess. (Hall. 1840), pp. 105-122 (Conf, Helv. prior, German and Latin), and 462-536 (Conf. Helv. posterior). — Schaff : Creeds of Christendom (New York, 6th ed. 1890), vol. I. 388-420 (history) ; III. 211-307 (First and Second Helv. Conf.), 831-909 (Second Helv. Cqnf. in English). Other literature quoted by Schaff, I. 385 and 399.
Bullinger and Myconius authoritatively formulated the doctrines of the Reformed Churches in Switzerland, and impressed upon them a strongly evangelical character, without the scholastic subtleties of a later period.
The Sixty-seven Conclusions and the two private Confessions of Zwingli (to Charles V., and Francis I.) were not intended to be used as public creeds, and never received the sanction of the Church. The Ten Theses of Bern (1528), the First Confession of Basel (1534), the Ziirich Consensus (1549), and the Geneva Consensus (1552) were official documents, but had only local authority in the cities where they originated. But the First and Second Helvetic Confessions were adopted by the Swiss and other Churches, and kept their place as symbolical books for nearly three hundred years. They represent the Zwinglian type of doctrine modified and matured. They approach the Calvinistic system, without its logical rigor.
I. The First Helvetic Confession, 1536. It is also called the Second Basel Confession, to distinguish it from the First Basel Confession of 1534. It was made in Basel, but not for Basel alone. It owes its origin partly to the renewed efforts of the Strassburg Reformers, Bucer and Capito, to bring about a union between the Lutherans and the Zwinglians, and partly to the papal promise of convening a General Council. A number of Swiss divines were delegated by the magistrates of Ziirich, Bern, Basel, Schaffhausen, St. Gall, MUhlhausen, and Biel, to a conference in the Augustinian convent at Basel, Jan. 30, 1536. Bucer and Capito also appeared on behalf of Strassburg. Bullinger, Myconius,
220 THE SWISS EEFOEMATION.
Grynseus, Leo Judse, and Megander were selected as a commission to draw up a Confession of the faith of the Helvetic Churches, which might be used at the proposed General Council. It was examined and signed by all the clerical and lay delegates, February, 1536, and first published in Latin. Leo Judse prepared the German translation, which is fuller than the Latin text, and of equal authority.
Luther, to whom a copy was sent through Bucer, unexpectedly expressed, in two remarkable letters,^ his satisfaction with the earnest Christian character of this document, and promised to do all he could to promote union and harmony with the Swiss. He was then under the hopeful impressions of the "Wittenberg Concordia," which Bucer had brought about by his elastic diplomacy, May, 1536, but which proved, after all, a hollow peace, and could not be honestly signed by the Swiss. Luther himself made a new and most intemperate attack on the Zwinglians (1545), a 3'ear before his death.
The First Helvetic Confession is the earliest Reformed Creed that has acquired a national authority. It consists of 27 articles, is fuller than the First Confession of Basel, but not so full as the Second Helvetic Confession, by which it was afterwards superseded. The doctrine of the sacraments and of the Lord's Supper is essentially Zwinglian, yet emphasizes the significance of the sacramental signs and the real spiritual presence of Christ, who gives his body and blood — that is, himself — to believers, so that he more and more lives in them, and they in him.
Bullinger and Leo Juda3 wished to add a caution against the binding authority of this or any other confession that might interfere with the supreme authority of the Word of God and with Christian liberty. They had a correct feeling of a difference between a confession of doctrine which may
1 One to Jacob Meyer, burgomaster of Basel, Feb. 17, 1537, one to the Swiss Reformed Cantons, Dec. 1, 1537, in De Wette's ed., vol. V. 54 sqq. and 83 sqq.
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