THE CONSENSUS OF SENDOMIR.
After the death of Laski (1560) and Prince Radziwill (1567) the Protestants had no commanding leader, and felt the more the necessity of some union for their own safety. An organic union would have been the best, and would perhaps have made them strong enough to carry the king and the nobles with them. But for such a step they were not prepared. Instead of this the Lutherans (influenced by the liberal advice of the Melanchthonian divines of Wittenberg), the Calvinists, and the Bohemian Brethren effected a confederate union at the Synod of Sendomir, [1122] April 14, 1570, and expressed it in the Consensus Sendomiriensis, the only important confessional document of the evangelical Churches in Poland. It was published by authority, in Latin and Polish, in 1586, with a preface signed by Erasmus Gliczner, Lutheran Superintendent of Great Poland, in the name of the ministers of the Augsburg Confession, by John Laurentius, Superintendent of the Bohemian Brethren in Great Poland, and by Paulus Gilovius, Superintendent of the Reformed Churches in Little Poland. [1123]
The Consensus sets forth that the three orthodox evangelical Churches are agreed in the doctrines of God, the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the person of Christ, justification by faith, and other fundamental articles, as taught in the Augsburg, the Bohemian, and Helvetic Confessions, against papists, sectarians, and all enemies of the gospel; that in the unfortunate sacramentarian controversy they adopt that explanation of the words of institution which distinguishes (with Irenæus) between the earthly form and the heavenly substance in the Lord's Supper, and regards the visible elements not as mere signs, but as conveying to the believer truly through faith that which they represent. [1124]
Then follows a long extract on the sacraments from the Repetition of the Augsburg Confession, or Saxon Confession, which Melanchthon prepared in 1551 for the Council of Trent.
The Consensus thus adopts the later Melanchthonian or Calvinistic theory; it avoids the characteristic Lutheran terms (manducatio oralis, etc.), and demands faith as the medium of receiving the matter represented by the elements. The doctrine of predestination was not touched, as there seems to have been no controversy about it.
In conclusion the Consensus acknowledges the orthodoxy and Christian character of the three parties, and pledges them to cultivate peace and charity, and to avoid strife and dissension, which greatly hinder the progress of the gospel. They should seal this compact by exchange of pulpits and of delegates to general synods, and by frequent sacramental intercommunion; each denomination retaining its peculiarities in worship and discipline which (according to the Augsburg and the Saxon Confessions) are consistent with the unity of the Church.
Then follow the signatures of noblemen and ministers.
Great joy was felt at this happy result, and was expressed by mutual congratulations and united praise of God.
A few weeks afterwards, May 20, 1570, a synodical meeting was held at Posen in the same spirit of union, and twenty brief supplementary articles were adopted for the purpose of confirming and preserving the Consensus. [1125] One of the articles forbids polemics in the pulpit. When the people, who stood outside of the house where the meeting was held, heard the happy conclusion, they joined in the singing of the Te Deum, with tears of joy and gratitude to God. The union was sealed on the following Sunday by two united services in the Lutheran church and in the Bohemian chapel.
The Consensus was again confirmed by the general synods at Cracow, 1573; Petricow, 1578; Vladislav, 1583; and Thorn, 1595. The last was the largest synod ever held in Poland. [1126]
The Lutherans who adhered to the Formula of Concord (1580) withdrew from the Consensus. But the spirit of union which produced it passed into the three Brandenburg Confessions of the seventeenth century, and revived in the Evangelical Union of Prussia. [1127]
[1113] On Calvin's relation to Poland, see Stähelin, Joh. Calvin, Vol. II. pp. 22 sqq.
[1114] Vergerius wrote, 1557, to Stanislaus Ostrorog: 'Esse jam in Polonia circiter XL ad eorum normam institutas ecclesias, quæ sane florent, multo autem plures propediem instituendas.'
[1115] Erasmus spoke of Laski in the highest terms, and sold him his library for three hundred crowns, with the privilege of retaining it till his death. Krasinski, l.c. p. 98 (German ed.).
[1116] He wrote to Calvin, Feb. 19, 1557 (Opera, Vol. II. p. 746): 'Ita nunc obruor curis ac negotiis, mi Calvine! ut nihil possim scribere. Hinc hostes, illinc falsi fratres nos adoriuntur, ut non sit quies ulla, sed et pios multos habemus, sit Deo gratia! qui nobis sunt et adiumento et consolationi.'
[1117] See Chr. H. Sixt: Petrus Paulas Vergerius, . . . eine reformationsgeschichtliche Monographie (Braunschweig, 1855), pp. 391 sqq. and 437 sqq. Comp. also Herzog's art. Vergerius, in his Real-Encykl. Vol. XVII. pp. 65 sqq.
[1118] See Chr. H. Sixt: Petrus Paulas Vergerius, . . . eine reformationsgeschichtliche Monographie (Braunschweig, 1855), pp. 391 sqq. and 437 sqq. Comp. also Herzog's art. Vergerius, in his Real-Encykl. Vol. XVII. pp. 65 sqq.
[1119] He thought at one time of joining the Unitas Fratrum, being disgusted with the renewal of the sacramental war. Even Melanchthon once expressed a similar desire, 'in Valdensium ecclesiis me inserere et in illis mori; placent enim mihi summopere.' See his letter to V. Dietrich, quoted by Herzog, p. 71.
[1120] The Roman Catholics objected to being called Dissidentes, and were opposed to the whole treaty.
[1121] Krasinski, p. 297.
[1122] A town on the Vistula in Little Poland. Krasinski and Gindely call it Sandomir.
[1123] The full title is 'Consensus in fide et religione Christiana inter Ecclesias Evangelicas Majoris et Minoris Poloniæ, Magnique Ducatus Lithuaniæ et cæterarum ejus regni provinciarum, primo Sendomiriæ Anno MDLXX. in Synodo generali sancitus, et deinceps in aliis, ac demum in Wlodislaviensi generali Synodo Anno MDLXXXIII. confirmatus, et Serenissimis Poloniæ Regibus, Augusto, Henrico ac Stephano oblatus, nunc autem ex decreto Synodico in publicum typis editus. Anno Christi MDLXXXVI.' This edition contains the supplementary resolutions of the Synods of Posen (1570), Cracow (1573), Petricow (1578), and Vladislav (1583). It was reprinted at Thorn, 1592 and 1596 (with the Acta et conclusiones synodi generalis Thoruniensis anni 1595); at Heidelberg, 1605; at Geneva, in the Corpus et Syntagma Conf., 1612 and 1654 (from the Heidelberg edition); at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1704 (with a Preface and German translation of Dr. Sam. Strimesius); and at Berlin, 1731, in Jablonski's Historia cons. Send. Niemeyer (1840) gives the Latin text from the edition of Thorn, with all the supplements (pp. 551-591). Böckel excludes the Consensus (as not being strictly Reformed) from his collection. Beck gives the German text, but without the additions; and so also Dr. Nitzsch, in his Urkundenbuch der Evangelischen Union (Bonn, 1853), pp. 72 sqq.
[1124] Niemeyer, p. 554: 'Convenimus in sententia verborum Domini nostri Jesu Christi, ut illa orthodoxe intellecta sunt a patribus, ac imprimis Irenæo, qui duabus rebus, scilicet terrena et coelesti, hoc mysterium constare dixit; neque elementa signave nuda et vacua illa esse asserimus, sed simul reipsa credentibus exhibere et præstare fide, quod significant. Denique ut expressius clariusque loquamur, convenimus, ut credamus et confiteamur, substantialem præsentiam Christi [not corporis et sanguinis Christi], non significari duntaxat, sed vere in coena eo [sc. Christo] vescentibus repræsentari, distribui, et exhiberi corpus et sanguinem Domini symbolis adjectis ipsi rei minime nudis, secundum Sacramentorum naturam.' The Lutheran members demanded the phrase 'præsentiam corporis Christi' for 'præsentiam Christi,' and the insertion of the entire article of the Saxon Confession on the Lord's Supper. The first request was denied by the Calvinists and Bohemian Brethren; the second was granted, because the Saxon Confession uses the words 'in hac communione vere et substantialiter adesse Christum' (not corpus Christi). See Gindely, Gesch. der Böhm. Brüder, Vol. II. p. 86.
[1125] Consignatio observationum necessariarum ad confirmandum et conservandum mutuum Consensum Sendomiriæ Anno DN. MDLXX. die 14 April, in vera religione Christiana initum inter Ministros Augustanæ Confessionis et Fratrum Bohemorum, Posaniæ eodem anno, Maii 20 facta, et a Ministris utriusque coetus approbata ac recepta. Printed in the Corpus et Syntagma Conf., and in Niemeyer, pp. 561-565.
[1126] See the Acts of these synods relating to the Consensus and to matters of discipline, in Niemeyer, pp. 565-591.
[1127] See above, pp. 545 sqq. Comp. also Nitzsch, Urkundenbuch der Evangelischen Union, pp. 80 sqq.