THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
the principal doctrinal writings of Melanchthon, including the Augsburg Confession, the Apology, the Saxon Confession, the Loci theolo- 2. Corpus gici, Examen ordinandorum, etc. It Misnicum was officially recognized in Pomerania and Its (1561) and electoral Saxony (1566); Rivals. other churches (Hesse, Nuremberg, Silesia, Anhalt, Sleswick-Holstein, and Denmark) practically though informally approved it. Representing exclusively, however, the influence of Melanchthon, it was opposed by others. In ^^'urttembe^g Duke Christopher had put forth in 1559 the Wiirttemberg Confession (drawn up originally by Brenz in 1551) as the official standard of faith; to this was added, later in the year, a special declaration on the Lord's Supper. In North Germany, the Liibeck Formula consensus de doctrina evangelii (1560) set forth, besides the Augsburg Confession and the Apology, the Schmalkald Articles. The Lower-Saxon gathering of Ltineburg in 1561 named besides these the Catechism " and other writings of Luther " as the true Scriptural explanation of the Augsburg Confession. At Hamburg in 1560 a collection of five declarations issued since 1549 by the clergy of that place was recognized as the norma docendi.
The first specifically Lutheran collection, however, to bear the title of Corpus doctrinoe was that of Brunswick (1563), which contained the constitution drawn up by Bugenhagen in 1528, the Augsburg Confession, the Apology, the Schmalkald Articles, and the Ltineburg Articles. The Corpus Pomeranicum dates from 1664; before that date Melanchthon's Corpus had been accepted, but its one-sided tendency was now corrected by the addition of the Schmalkald Articles, Luther's Great and Small Catechisms, and some minor treatises of his. In Prussia the final publication of a specifically Lutheran standard was brought 3. Lutheran about by the controversies originated Tentative by Osiander in 1549. With a view of Corpora, suppressing his teaching, Duke Albert in 1567 recalled several theologians who had been exiled on account of their opposition to it, especially Morlin, who brought Chemnitz with him from Brunswick; and as a result of their labors a Corpus Prutenicum was promulgated at Konigsberg. The example of Brunswick was followed in 1568 by the town of Gottingen, which published its ecclesiastical constitution of 1531, the Small Catechism, and the Schmalkald Articles, with the Augsburg Confession and the Apology in the Frankfort edition of 1565 bound up with them to save expense. This Corpus, with the addition of the three creeds, was again recognized as the norma docrndi in 1585; in 1600 the Formula Concordia; was acknowledged for the first time, the Great Catechism added, and the Schmalkald Articles and the 1531 constitution omitted. The promulgation of a Corpus ilaiiriace for Brunswick-Wolfenbtittol was prepared for by the constitutioii drawn up by Chemnitz and Andrc;r and pul)lishcd by Duke Julius in \ which designated as the Corpus doctrinn', not the M isnirum, but the Bible, the three ancient creeds, and the Augsburg Confe.s.sion, as explained in the Apology, the Schmalkald
Articles, the Catechism, and Luther's other writings. This ducal Corpus was confirmed the next year by a clerical assembly. In ducal Saxony, immediately after John William's accession, the Corpus Thuringicum appeared in 1570, with a preface by the duke. It contained the three creeds, the two catechisms, the Augsburg Confession and Apology, the Schmalkald Articles, the Thuringian Confession of 1549, and the Confutation of 1558. The Elector of Brandenburg, John George, followed in 1572 'with the Corpus Brandenburgicum, prefaced by himself, and containing the Augsburg Confession, the Small Catechism, and the compilation of Luther's expository writings made in 1570 by Musculus for Joachim II. The next year saw the establishment of a Corpus for a part of Silesia. Duke George of Brieg declared as the valid doctrine the prophetic and apostolic writings and approved creeds, whose fundamental teaching was to be found in the Augsburg Confession and Apology, in the Corpus Misnicum, the Mecklenburg Agenda, the writings of Luther and others that agreed with them. The close of this process, which prepared the way for the Formula Concordice, may be seen in 1575 and 1576 in the duchies of Brunswick- Ltineburg and Brunswick- Wolfenbilttel. In the former, Duke William published in 1575 two expository treatises by Rhegius and Chemnitz, following this up in the next year with the formal Corpus Wilhelminum ; and about the same time appeared the Corpus Julium of the other duchy, which contained, besides the usual formulas, the treatises of Rhegius and Chemnitz.
All these local Corpora doctrines lost their importance when the whole Lutheran Church succeeded in finding a common ground in the Formula Concordice and the Liber Concordice. In a considerable minority, however, of the 4. Formula states which had accepted the Augsand Liber burg Confession, the Formula was not Concordiae. accepted. Some of these, such as Nassau, Bremen, Anhalt, and Lower Hesse, were finally driven into Calvinism; others maintained their position as Lutherans without the Formula — Lutherans, that is, who were not prepared to go as far as the absolute exclusion of the Philippist party. These latter either adhered to their original Corpus or gradually worked out new ones. Holstein accepted the docmnents contained in the Liber concordim with the exception of the Formula itself. Brunswick-Wolfcnbiittel adhered to the Corpus Julium ; Pomerania supplemented its Corpus in 1593 by the addition of the sections on the Lord's Supper, the Communicatio idiomatum, and predestination; Hesse-Darmstadt produccil a Corpus Hassiacum in 1617-26 by adding the Wittenberg agreement of 1536 to the Brunswick-Wolf enbiittel selection of 1569. Nuremberg took a middle course, in conjunction with Brandenburg-Ansliach, by combining writings of Luther and of Melanchthon; and much the same attitude was adopted in 1578 by the coimty of Hohenlohe. Among the Reformed bodies, the Geneva Corpus et syntagma conjcxslimum fidei of 1612 was received in some places in the same way as the Lutheran Corpora doctrinoe. See Formula of Concord.
(G. Kawerau.)