RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Fisher Flacius
ark and Jersey City districts and secretary of the Newark Conference for eleven years, he was a member of the General Conference in 1876, 1880, 1884, and 1888.
FIVE MILE ACT : An Act of Parliament passed in 1665, and completing the system of measures intended to repress the non-conformists known as the Clarendon Code. By its provisions no clergyman who had been expelled from his living by the Act of Uniformity of 1662 was to come within five miles of a city or corporate town, or of any parish where he had formally preached, unless he declared that he would not " at any time attempt any alteration of government either in Church or State," under a penalty of forty pounds; and no one who had not taken the oath of passive obedience and conformed was to teach in any school or take pupils in his house. As the Puritan congregations were mainly in the towns, this act cut them off from the ministrations of their chosen leaders and in most cases from even private education, and hastened the decline of Puritanism throughout England.
Bibliography: The text is printed in Gee and Hardy, Documents, pp. 620-623. Consult: D. Neal, History of the Puritans, ii. 255 sqq. of Harper's ed., New York, n.d.; J. H. Overton, Church in England, ii. 143, London, 1897.
FIVE POINTS OF CALVINISM: The five characteristic tenets of Calvinism as opposed to Arminianism, defended by the Synod of Dort (1618-19) in answer to the Five Articles of the Arminians or Remonstrants, put forth in 1610. They are particular predestination, limited atonement, natural inability, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of saints. See Arminitjs, Jacobus, and Arminianism; Calvinism; Remonstrants.
FLACIUS, MATTHIAS.
Early Life (§ 1).
In Wittenberg. Opposition to Melanchthon (§ 2). In Magdeburg. The Adiaphoristic Controversy (§ 3). The Majoristic, Osiandrian, and Schwenckfeldian Controversies (§ 4). Fruitless Attempts at Reconciliation (§ 5). Flacius Professor in Jena (§ 6). The Synergistic Dispute (§ 7). Flacius a Wanderer (§ 8). Last Days at Frankfort (§ 9). Flacius' Literary and Scholarly Work (§ 10).
Flacius (Latinized from Vlacich, or Francovich) was born at Albona (42 m. s.s.e. of Trieste), Istria, Mar. 3, 1520, and died at Frankfort-on-the-Main Mar. 11, 1575. From his birthplace he was surnamed Illyricus. His father, a prominent citizen of Albona, died when Flacius was a i. Early mere boy. He received his early Life. education from the celebrated humanist Baptista Egnatius in Venice. Being a good Catholic he decided to become a monk, study theology, and preach, but his uncle, Baldo Lupetino, provincial r f the Minorites, commended Luther to him as a restorer of the true Gospel and sent him to Germany in 1539. He now continued his studies at Basel, but went to Tubingen in 1540, and to Wittenberg in 1541, where he was favorably received and assisted by Melanchthon. After an inner conflict that lasted three years, Bugenhagen
IV.-21
directed him to Luther and it was through him that Flacius attained peace of soul by accepting the free grace of God. He had personal experience of the consolation of the Evangelical doctrine of justification by faith alone, and henceforth the defense of this doctrine in its purity and inviolability became the guiding star of his life.
In 1544 he accepted the chair of Hebrew at the
university, in 1545 he married, and in 1546 received
the master's degree. His extraordinary gifts excited
great expectations with Luther and Melanchthon.
He lectured on the Old Testament,
2. In Wit- epistles of Paul and on Aristotle; but tenberg. his activity was suddenly interrupted
Opposition by the outbreak of the Schmalkald
to Melanch- War. In 1547 he fled to Brunswick,
thon. where he lived by teaching. After
a few months, however, he was able to return to Wittenberg, but the time of rest was now over for him. After the Augsburg Interim in 1548 the Elector Maurice of Saxony entered into negotiations with the theologians and estates of his realm which resulted in the Leipsic Interim (see Interim). It was then that Flacius as a strict Lutheran protested against the concessions of Melanchthon and the men who shared his views. From now on his relations with the head of the conciliatory party became more and more strained and his position at Wittenberg untenable. After a short sojourn at Hamburg he settled in 1549 at Magdeburg, where printing and publication were still free.
In Magdeburg he developed a comprehensive literary activity against the Melanchthonians, and now those unfortunate and often petty quarrels arose which injured the Evangelical cause more than the opposition of the Roman Catholics. The fault was not altogether on one side. In Wittenberg Flacius' departure was ascribed to the most unworthy motives. Flacius contributed not a little
by his arrogant and obstinate char-
3. In Mag- acter and by assuming the role deburg. of dictator. He published treatises
The Adi- against the Interim, and the Adiaphoristic aphora (q.v.) and their defenders. Controversy. His criticism was sweeping, and it was due to him more than to any one else that public protest made the execution of the Interim impossible, and thus Luther's great work was saved. From that point of view he rendered inestimable services to the Evangelical Church; especially in his fight against the Adiaphora he proved himself to be on the right side and Melanchthon had to acknowledge his victory. When Magdeburg fell into the hands of the elector Maurice (1551) attempts were made to reconcile the two opposing parties, the Magdeburg and the Wittenberg circles. In the absence of Flacius, Gallus and his associates agreed to negotiate under the condition that no compromise with the pope should be made. Certain articles were drawn up, but Flacius, full of suspicion, declared them unsatisfactory and so the pacificatory work was disrupted.
The adiaphoristic dispute was followed by that concerning Georg Major (q.v.), who in a sermon preached at Eisleben had maintained the necessity
Flacius Flagellation