RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Moerliu
displeasure was now finally incurred, and on Feb. 16, 1553, he presented his resignation. Three days later he sought refuge in Danzig, where he awaited an expected recall, supported as he was by the council and the citizens. But all appeals to the duke were in vain; and the exile at last resigned himself to his punishment and sought for a new field of activity. Morlin had not long to wait. Brunswick and Ltibeck were rivals for his services; the former won by right of priority, and he entered Brunswick on July 25, 1553. In the following year he received an assistant in the Melanchthonian Martin Chemnitz (q.v.), and developed a powerful activity, strengthening the Lutheran cause with the aid of the religious peace of Augsburg (see Augsburg, Religious Peace of), and preparing, in 1577, his Leges pro ministerio Brunsvicensi, which all the clergy of his superintendency were required to subscribe when entering upon office. He assailed the Reformed as bitterly as the Roman Catholics. Again, in 1564, the council of Brunswick enacted that the Corpus doctrince should be subscribed by all theologians, a rule which remained in force until 1672. And this was no dead letter, for in 1566 Johannes Becker, a pastor in Brunswick who had subscribed to the Corpus but become a Calvinist, was forced to resign and ultimately was banished from the city. Meanwhile Morlin and Chemnitz were active in other inter-Lutheran controversies and in warding off Calvinistic attacks; and the former was the prime mover in the rejection, by the Brunswick clergy, of the doctrines of Schwenckfeld, besides being one of those asked by the council of Bremen to settle the dispute between Johann Timann and Albert Hardenberg (qq.v.). He furthermore defended Hesshusen in his pamphlet Wider die Landlugen der heidelbergischen Theologen (1565).
In the struggle with Calvinism Morlin supported Westphal, and to this end wrote his Confessio fidei
de eucharistice sacramento ministrorum
4. Efforts ecclesiarum Saxonicarum (Magdeburg,
for Theo- 1557). At Coswik he sought to medi-
logical ate between Melanchthon and Flacius
Reconcilia- (qq.v.), and in his eagerness for peace,
tion. when the delegates of the Hanseatic
League assembled at Brunswick, he held a conference with Chemnitz, Westphal, and others (Jan. 14, 1557), and reached an agreement on articles tending to reconcile the adiaphorists (see Adiaphora) and those holding to the true Gospel. Morlin then took these articles to Flacius at Magdeburg, after which he conferred with Melanchthon at Wittenberg, but returned to Brunswick unsuccessful (Jan. 28, 1557). Eight months later he went to the Colloquy of Worms (see Worms), but by his opposition to the Philippists (q.v.) and by his withdrawal helped render the conference resultless. In Dec, 1558, he visited Weimar and Jena to reconcile Flacius and Strigel, and in 1560 he signed the petition of the Jena theologians to the princes to call a Lutheran synod to combat Calvinism. Morlin was also a prominent figure at the conference of theologians from Lower Saxony held at Liineburg in July, 1561, and wrote the confession of faith there drawn up, Erkldrung VII.— 28
aus Gottes Wort und kurzer Bericht der Artikel, etc. (Magdeburg, Jena, and Regensburg, 1561), which became binding on all pastors in Brunswick; and he again showed his Wittenberg orthodoxy in his Verantwortung der Prdfation so fiir die luneburgischen Artikel (1562). In 1563 the Council of Wesel asked the opinion of the Brunswick theologians for a ruling on the admission of Reformed refugees from England, and the decision was that the immigrants should be received and instructed; but, should they propagate their erroneous views, they should be expelled. In 1566 and 1567 Morlin found himself compelled to break with his old friend Flacius because of the latter's teaching on original sin; and at the same time he wrote against the Antinomians his Tres disputationes de tertio usu legis.
Meanwhile, inspired partly by him, the struggle
had continued in Prussia between the Melanchtho-
nians and the Osiandrian peace-policy
5. Recalled of the court. Well informed of all that to Konigs- went on in Konigsberg, Morlin strengthberg, ened his sympathizers with his His-
toria welcher Gestalt sich die osiandrische Schwarmerei im Lande zu Preussen erhoben (Brunswick, 1554). In 1555 he published two other pamphlets on the course of events in Prussia; and finally Albert found himself obliged to yield. On Nov. 30, 1566, Morlin was invited to return to Prussia, but he declined to leave Brunswick. The invitation was repeated, however (Jan. 31, 1567), and after much persuasion Morlin accepted and obtained leave of absence from the reluctant Council of Brunswick. On Apr. 9, 1567, he and Chemnitz were joyfully welcomed in Konigsberg, and at once began the restoration of Melanchthonian orthodoxy. After much consideration it was decided that the confessional bases should remain the Augsburg Confession, the Apology, and the Schmalkald Articles, the only change being the correction of certain false doctrines which had crept in since the formulation of the Augsburg Confession. The duke, assenting to the rejection of Osiandrianism, readily agreed, and on May 6 Morlin and Chemnitz gave him their Repetitio corporis doctrince Christiance, refuting Osiandrianism, Synergism, Antinomianism, Majorism, and similar teachings. Accepted by the synod and the estates, the Repetitio was proclaimed by Albert on July 8, 1567, and Prussia was at las' free from theological rancor.
Though offered the bishopric of Samland, and though urged by clergy and laity alike to remain in Prussia, Morlin still felt bound to Brunswick. Accordingly, promised by the estates
6. Becomes (June 8, 1567) that no Calvinists Bishop of should be allowed at court, he returned Samland. to Brunswick. But his stay there was
brief, and he was unexpectedly released. Learning that a patricide had been let go free, both he and Chemnitz sharply upbraided the magistracy in a sermon on July 13, and were cited to appear before the court. Under these circumstances the envoys of Albert succeeded in inducing the council, unwilling though it was even then, to let Morlin go (Sept. 24, 1567). He was now declared bishop of Samland, while Chemnitz was made superintendent. Henceforth until his death, in
Moerlin Mogilas