THE HUNGARIAN CONFESSION.
The Hungarian Confession, or Confessio Czengerina, was prepared and adopted at a Reformed Synod held at Czenger in 1557 or 1558, [1133] and printed in 1570 at Debreczin. [1134]
It treats, in brief articles or propositions, of the Triune God, of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Scripture designations of the Holy Spirit, the rules for explaining the phrases concerning God, the law and the gospel, the rights and sacraments of the Church, Christian liberty, election, the cause of sin, and the only mediator Jesus Christ. It is preceded by a strong Biblical argument against the anti-Trinitarians and Socinians, who had spread in Transylvania. It vehemently rejects the Romish transubstantiation and the Lutheran 'sarcophagia,' [1135] but also the 'sacramentarian' view of a purely symbolical presence, and teaches that Christ is truly though spiritually present, and communicates himself in the Lord's Supper as the living bread and the celestial drink, with all his gifts, to the believer. [1136] It defends infant baptism against the Anabaptists. It teaches a free election, but is silent about reprobation, and denies that God is the author of sin. Later synods professed more clearly the doctrine of predestination and the perseverance of saints.
This Confession presents some original and vigorous features, but has only a secondary historical importance. It was practically superseded by the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566, which is far superior, and was subscribed by the entire Reformed clergy of Hungary convened at Debreczin in 1567. The Heidelberg Catechism was also introduced.
[1128] Dévay lived in the home of Luther, who calls him 'vir honestus, gravis et eruditus.' He sympathized, however, with Melanchthon in the eucharistic controversy, and inclined to the Calvinistic view, so as to cause complaint on the part of the strict Lutherans in Hungary (1544). See Luther's Letters, Vol. V. p. 644 (ed. De Wette), and Henke, p. 355.
[1129] We say nominally, for both the Reformed and Lutheran Churches of Hungary have been much affected by rationalism. This applies, however, to nearly all the State Churches of the Continent.
[1130] Burgovszky, l.c. p. 643.
[1131] See above, p. 92, note 2.
[1132] Sismondi and Merle d'Aubigné (l.c. p. ix.) state that the persecutions of the Hungarian Protestants surpassed in cruelty the persecutions of the Huguenots under Louis XIV.
[1133] The date is uncertain.
[1134] Debreczin is a royal free city in the northeastern part of the Hungarian Lowland, with about fifty thousand inhabitants, and contains the principal Calvinistic college of the kingdom. In 1849 it was the seat of the revolutionary government of Kossuth, and the independence of Hungary was there declared in the Reformed Church.
[1135] 'Damnamus Papisticum delirium . . . primo panem transsubstantiari, et offerri in missa: deinde sola accidentia panis manere. . . . Ita et eorum insaniam damnamus, qui asserunt Sarcophagiam, id est, ore corporali sumi corpus Christi naturale, sanguinolentum, sine ulla mutatione et transsubstantiatione.'--Niemeyer, pp. 544 sq. The severe judgment of the Lutheran doctrine was a retaliation for the condemnation of Zwingli and Calvin as sacramentarians by a Lutheran Synod of Hermanstadt. Ebrard, Vol. III. p. 424.
[1136] 'Rejicimus et eorum delirium, qui Coenam Domini vacuum signum, vel Christi absentis tantum memoriam his signis recoli docent. Nam sicut Christus est Amen, testis fidelis, verax, veritas et vita . . . ita Coena Domini est præsentis et infiniti æternique Filii Dei unigeniti a Patre memoria: qui se et sua bona, carnem suam et sanguinem suum, id est, panem vivum et potum coelestem, Spiritus Sancti ope per verbum promissionis gratiæ, offert et exhibet electis fide vera evangelium Christi apprehendentibus.'--Page 545.
V. THE ANGLICAN ARTICLES OF RELIGION.
§ 76. The English Reformation.
Literature.
I. Works on the Thirty-nine Articles.
(a) Historical.
Charles Hardwick (B.D., Archdeacon of Ely, and Christian Advocate in the University of Cambridge, d. 1859): A History of the Articles of Religion; to which is added a Series of Documents from A.D. 1536 to A.D. 1615, together with Illustrations from Contemporary Sources. Cambridge, 1851 (reprinted in Philadelphia, 1852); second edition, thoroughly revised, Cambridge, 1859 (pp. 399).
(b) Commentaries.
Thomas R. Jones: An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles by the Reformers; being Extracts from the Works of Latimer, Ridley, Cranmer, Hooper, Jewell, Philpot, Pilkington, Coverdale, Becon, Bradford, Sandys, Grindal, Whitgift, etc. London, 1849.
Thomas Rogers (Chaplain to Archbishop Bancroft): The Catholic Doctrine of the Church of England, an Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles. London, 1579, 1585, 1607, and other editions (under various titles). Newly edited by J. J. S. Perowne, for 'The Parker Society,' Cambridge, 1854. This is the oldest commentary, and was countenanced by Bancroft, to whom it was dedicated.
Gilbert Burnet (Bishop of Salisbury; b. 1643, d. 1715): An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. Oxford, 1814 (Clarendon Press), and other editions. Revised, with notes, by James R. Page.
Richard Laurence, L.L.D. (formerly Reg. Prof. of Hebrew in Oxford): An Attempt to illustrate those Articles of the Church of England which the Calvinists improperly consider as Calvinistical. In eight sermons (Bampton Lectures for 1834). Oxford, third edition, 1838.
Edward Harold Browne (b. 1811, Bishop of Winchester since 1873, formerly of Ely): An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, Historical and Doctrinal. London, 1850-53, in two vols.; since often republished in one vol. (ninth edition, 1871); Amer. edition, with notes by Bishop Williams of Connecticut, New York, 1865.
A. P. Forbes (Bishop of Brechin): An Explanation of the Thirty-nine Articles, with an Epistle dedicatory to the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D. Oxford and London, 1867. (High Church.)
E. W. Jelf (Canon of Christ Church, Oxford): The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England explained in a Series of Lectures. Edited by J. R. King. London, 1873.
II. History of the Reformation in England.
(a) Documents and Contemporary Sources.
Works of the English Reformers, published by 'The Parker Society,' Cambridge, 1841-54, fifty-four vols. Contains the writings of Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, Sandys, Coverdale, Jewell, Grindal, Whitgift, the Zurich Letters, etc.
The State Calendars, now being published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls.
John Foxe (one of the Marian exiles, d. 1587): Acts and Monuments of the Church, or Book of Martyrs. London, 1563, and often in three or more volumes. Not accurate, but full of facts told in a forcible style.
Wilkins: Concilia Magnæ Brittaniæ et Hiberniæ (446-1717). Four vols. folio. 1736 sq.
E. Cardwell: Documentary Annals of the Church of England (1546-1716), Oxford, 1844, 2 vols.; Synodalia (1547-1717), Oxford, 1842, 2 vols.; The Reformation of the Laws in the Reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Elizabeth, Oxford, 1850.
(b) Historical Works.
John Strype (a most laborious and valuable contributor to the Church history and biography of the English Reformation period; b. 1643, d. 1737): Ecclesiastical Memorials . . . of the Church of England under King Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Queen Mary (London, 1725-37; Oxford, 1822, 3 vols.); Annals of the Reformation . . . in the Church of England during Queen Elizabeth's Happy Reign (London, 1738; Oxford, 1824, 4 vols.; Memorials of Archbishops Cranmer (2 vols.), Parker (3 vols.), Grindal (1 vol.), Whitgift (3 vols.). See his Complete Works, Oxford, 1822-40, in twenty-seven vols.
Gilbert Burnet: The History of the Reformation of the Church of England. London, 1679 sqq., 7 vols., and other editions. New edition by Pocock.
C. Hardwick: History of the Christian Church during the Reformation, third edition (by W. Stubbs). London, 1873, pp. 165-249.
Fred. Seebohm: The Oxford Reformers, Colet, Erasmus, and More. London, 1869. The same: The Era of the Protestant Revolution. 1874.
The Church Histories of England and of the English Reformation by J. Collier (non-Juror), Dodd (Rom. Cath.), Thos. Fuller (Royalist; Church History of Great Britain until 1658 and The Worthies of England), Neal (History of the Puritans), Heylin, Soames, Massingbeard, Short, Blunt, Waddington, Weber, d'Aubigné, Fisher.
Also the secular Histories of England by Hume, Macaulay (the introductory chapter), Hallam (Constitut. Hist.), Lingard (Rom. Cath.), Knight, Froude, Ranke, Green, in the sections on the Reformation period.
The last and, in its final results, the most important chapter in the history of the reformation was acted in that remarkable island which has become the chief stronghold of Protestantism in Europe, the ruler of the waves, and the pioneer of modern Christian civilization and constitutional liberty. The Anglo-Saxon race is intrusted by Providence with the sceptre of empire in its eastward and westward coarse. The defeat of the Armada was that turning-point in history when the dominion in which the sun never sets passed from Roman Catholic Spain to Protestant England.
The Reformation in Britain, favored by insular independence, was a national political as well as ecclesiastical movement, and carried with it Church and State, rulers and subjects; while on the Continent it encountered a powerful opposition and Jesuitical reaction. It began with outward changes, and was controlled by princes, bishops, and statesmen rather than by scholars and divines; while in other countries the reform proceeded from the inner life of religion and the profound study of the Scriptures. Good and bad men, from pure and low motives, took part in the work, but were overruled by a higher power for a noble end. [1137] England produced no reformers of such towering genius, learning, and heroism as Luther and Calvin, but a large number of learned and able prelates and statesmen, and a noble army of martyrs worthily led by Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, and Rogers. It displayed less theological depth and originality than Germany and Switzerland, where the ideas and principles of the Reformation were wrought out, but a greater power of practical organization. It gave the new ideas a larger field of action and application to all the ramifications of society and all departments of literature, which entered upon its golden age in the reign of Elizabeth, and which, in wealth of genius and in veneration for the truths of Christianity, far surpassed that of any other nation. [1138] Although at first despotic and intolerant, English Protestantism by its subsequent development became the guardian of civil and religious liberty. The fierce struggle between 'the old and new learning' lasted for more than a century, and passed through a baptism of blood which purified and fertilized the soil of England and became the seed of new colonies and empires beyond the sea.
The British Reformation is full of romantic interest, and developed a great variety of strongly marked characters, who still excite the passions, prejudices, and contradictory judgments of writers and readers. It is a succession of tragedies; it abounds in actions and reactions, in crimes and punishments, in changes of fortune, in men and women elevated to the pinnacle of power and happiness and hurled to the abyss of disgrace and misfortune. It furnishes a striking illustration of the truth that the history of the Church, as well as of the world, is a judgment of the Church. This idea of righteous retribution imparts a thrilling moral effect to the tragedies of Shakspere, who lived at the close of these shifting scenes, and gathered from them his marvelous knowledge of human nature, in all its phases and conditions, such as no poet ancient or modern ever possessed.
The richest fruit of the British Reformation is the translation of the Bible--the work of three generations, the best ever made, and to this day the chief nursery of piety among the Protestant denominations of the English-speaking race; and next to it that noble responsive liturgy which animates and regulates the devotions of the Episcopal communion on land and sea. These two works are truly national institutions, and command a veneration and affection above all other books, not only by their sacred contents, but also by their classical diction, which sounds in the ear like solemn music from a higher and better world.