§ 57. THE HELVETIC CONFESSIONS OF FAITH. 221
be improved from time to time with the progress of religious knowledge, and a rule of faith which remains unchanged. A confession of the Church has relative authority as norma normata^ and depends upon its agreement with the Holy Scriptures, which have absolute authority as norma normans.
II. The Second Helvetic Confession, 1566. This is far more important than the first, and obtained authority beyond the limits of Switzerland. In the intervening thirty years Calvin had developed his theological system, and the Council of Trent had formulated the modern Roman creed. BuUinger prepared this Confession in 1562 for his private use, as a testimony of the faith in which he had lived and wished to die. Two years afterwards, during the raging of the pestilence, he elaborated it more fully, in the daily expectation of death, and added it to his last will and testament, which was to be delivered to the magistracy of Ziirich after his decease.
But events in Germany gave to this private creed a public character. The pious elector of the Palatinate, Frederick III., being threatened by the Lutherans with exclusion from the treaty of peace on account of his secession to the Reformed Church and the publication of the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), requested BuUinger in 1565 to prepare a full and clear exposition of the Reformed faith, that he might answer the charges of heresy and dissension so constantly brought against the same. BuUinger sent him a manuscrij^t copy of his confession. The Elector was so much pleased with it that he desired to have it translated and published in Latin and German before the Imperial Diet, which was to assemble at Augsburg in 1566 and to act on his alleged apostasy.
In the meantime the Swiss felt the need of such a Confession as a closer bond of union. The First Helvetic Confession was deemed too short, and the Ziirich Consensus of 1549 and the Geneva Consensus of 1552 treated only two articles, namely, the Lord's Supj)er and predestination. Con-
222 THE SWISS REFORMATION.
ferencea were held, and Beza came in person to Zurich to take part in the work. Bullinger freely consented to a few changes, and prepared also the German version. Geneva, Bern, Schaffhausen, Biel, the Grisons, St. Gall, and Miihlhausen expressed their agreement. Basel alone, which had its own confession, declined for a long time, but ultimately acceded.
The new Confession was published at Zurich, March 12, 1566, in both languages, at public expense, and was forwarded to the Elector of the Palatinate and to Philip of Hesse. A French translation appeared soon afterwards in Geneva under the care of Beza.
In the same year the Elector Frederick made such a manly and noble defence of his faith before the Diet at Augsburg, that even his Lutheran opponents were tilled with admiration for his piety, and thought no longer of impeaching him for heresy.
The Helvetic Confession is tlie most widely adopted, and hence the most authoritative of all the Continental Reformed symbols, with the exception of the Heidelberg Catechism. It was sanctioned in Ziirich and the Palatinate (1566), Neuchatel (1568), by the Reformed Churches of France (at the Synod of La Rochelle, 1571), Hungary (at the S^-nod of Debreczin, 1567), and Poland (1571 and 1578). It was well received also in Holland, England, and Scotland as a sound statement of the Reformed faith. It was translated not only into German, French, and English, but also into Dutch, Magyar, Polish, Italian, Arabic, and Turkish. In Austria and Bohemia the Reformed or Calvinists are officially called "the Church of the Helvetic Confession," the Lutherans, "the Church of the Auarsburof Confession."
THIRD BOOK.
THE REFORMATION IX FRENCH SWITZERLAND,
OR
THE CALVINISTIC MOVEMENT.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PREPARATORY WORK. FROM 1526 to 1536.
§ 58. Literature on Calvin and the Reformation in French
Switzerland.
Important documents relating to the Reformation in French Switzerland are contained in the Archives of Geneva and Bern. Many documents have been recently published by learned Genevese archseologists, as GalifEe, father and son, Gre'nus, Revilliod, E. Mallet, Chaponniere, Fick, and the Society of History and Archaeology of Geneva.
The best Calvin libraries are in the Uijiversity of Geneva, where his MSB. are preserved in excellent order, and in the St. Thomasstift at Strassburg. The latter was collected by Profs. Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss, the editors of Calvin's Works, during half a century, and embraces 274 publications of the Reformer (among them 36 Latin and 18 French editions of the Iiistitutio), many rare contemporary works, and 700 modern books bearing upon Calvin and his Reformation. The Society of the History of French Protestantism in Paris (5-1 rue des saints peres) has a large collection of printed works.