fraternal intercourse between the dissentients. And in fact, most of the
Reformed were readily brought to concede, that the Lutherans erred but
moderately and lightly, or did not greatly corrupt any one of the primary
doctrines of Christianity : but most of the Lutherans perseveringly main
tained, that they had the most weighty reasons for not judging in the same
manner of the Reformed, and that a great part of the dispute related to
the groundwork of all religion and piety. It is not strange, that the op
posite party should brand this perseverance of the Lutherans with the
odious names of moroseness, superciliousness, arrogance, and the like.
But those who were taxed with these faults, brought as many charges
against their accusers. For they complained, that they were not treated
ingenuously ; that the real character of the Reformed principles was dis
guised under ambiguous phraseology ; and that their adversaries, though
cautious and guarded, yet gave much proof that the chief ground of their
great inclination for peace, was not so much a desire of the public good,
as of their private advantage.

4. Among the public transactions relative to this business of a union,
we may justly give the first place to the project of James I. the king of
Great Britain ; who in the year 1615, attempted a reconciliation of the
Lutherans and Reformed, through the instrumentality of Peter du Moulin,
a very celebrated divine among the French Reformed. (3) The next
place is due to the celebrated decree of the Reformed church of France,
passed in the synod of Charenton, A.D. 1631 ; by which the Lutheran re
ligion was declared harmless, holy, and free from all gross errors ; and a
way was opened for all the professors of it to hold sacred and civil com
munion with the Reformed. (4) Whatever may have been the motives for

(3) See Mich. Ic Vassor s Histoire de of the Augustane (Augslurg) Confession
Louis XIII., tome ii., pt. ii., p. 21, &c. [and might be permitted to contract marriages in
Schrocckh, Kirchengesch. seit der Reform., oar churches, and to present children in oiir
vol. v., p. 198. Tr.~\ churches unto baptism, without a precedane-

(4) Ettas BenoiCs Histoire de 1 Edit de ous abjuration of those opinions held by them,
Nantes, tome ii., p. 524. Jac. Aymori s contrary to the belief of our churches ! This
Actes des Synodes Nationaux des Eglises Synod declareth, that inasmuch as the
Reformees de France, tome ii., p. 500, &c. churches of the Confession of Augsburg dc
Thomas Ittig^s Diss. de Synodi Carentoni- agree with the other reformed churches, in
ensis indulgentia erga Lutheranos, Lips., the principal and fundamental points of the
1705, 4to. [Quick s Synodicon in GalHa true religion, and that there is neither surer~
Reformata, vol. ii., p. 297. The words of stition nor idolatry in their worship, the faith-
th-2 decree were these : " The province of ful of the said Confession , who with a spirit
fcurgundy demanding, whether the faithful of love and peaceableness do join themselves



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 359

this decree, its consequences were unimportant, because few of the Luther,
ans were disposed to use the liberty thus generously offered them. In the
same year, certain Saxon theologians, Matthias Hoe, Polycarp Lyser, and
Henry Hopfner, were ordered to hold a conference at Leipsic with certain
Hessian and Brandenburg doctors of the first class ; in order that the
sentiments of both parties being properly explained and compared, it might
be better understood what and how great difficulties were in the way of
the much-desired union. This deliberation was conducted without any ia
temperate heat, or lust for disputation and controversy ; but at the same
time, not with that mutual confidence and freedom from jealousy, which
would secure harmony in the result. For though the speakers on the side
of the Reformed, explained in the bes-t manner the views of their church,
and cheerfully conceded not a few things which the Lutherans hardly ex
pected ; yet the suspicions of the latter lest they should be entrapped, so
intimidated them that they would not acknowledge themselves satisfied.
Hence the disputants separated without accomplishing any thing. (5)
Whoever wishes to learn the motives for these deliberations for peace,
must inspect and examine the civil history of those times.

5. The conference at Thorn in 1645, appointed by Uladislaus IV. king
of Poland, for the purpose of uniting if possible, not only the Reformed
with the Lutherans, but both also with the papists, was likewise unsuccess.
ful. For those who were called together to make efforts if not to termi-
nate, yet at least to diminish the existing enmities, separated more enrageo
than when they came together. With more success, by order of William
VI. the landgrave of Hesse, Peter Musceus and John Henichius of the
universit^ of Rinteln, and Sebastian Curtius and John Heinius doctors of
Marpurg, the two former Lutherans and the latter Reformed, when direct-
ed by the landgrave to enter into a friendly discussion, compared their
sentiments at Cassel, in the year 1661. For having investigated the im
portance of the controversies which separated the two communities, they
mutually shook hands, affirmed that it was far less than was commonly
supposed, and ought not to prevent fraternal affection and harmony. But
the divines of Rinteln were so utterly unable to persuade their Lutheran
brethren to believe as they did, that on the contrary, their only reward
was almost universal hatred, and they were assailed with bitterness in nu
merous publications. (6) How much labour and effort the Brandenburg

to the communion of our churche* in this divines were, John Bcrgius, court preacher
kingdom, may be, without any abjuration at at Berlin, John Crocius, professor at Mar-
all made by them, admitted unto the Lord s purg, and Theophilus Ncuberger, superin-
table with us ; and as sureties may present tendent at Cassel. They discussed all the
children unto baptism, they promising the articles of the Augsburg Confession, to which
Consistory, that they will never solicit them the Reformed were ready to subscribe, and
either directly or indirectly, to transgress also set forth a formula of union, or rather
the doctrine believed and professed in our an exposition of the articles in controversy,
churches, but will be content to instruct and which was not expected from them. Scht.]
educate them in those points and articles (6) The writers who treat of the confer-
which are in common between us and them, ences at Thorn and Cassel, are enumerated
sr.d wherein both the Lutherans and we are by Caspar Sa^ ittarius, Introduct. ad His-
unanimously agreed." TV.] toriam ecclesiast., torn, ii., p. 1604. Add
(5) See Timann Gesselius, Historia sacra Jo, Wolfff. Jaeger s Historia, sseculi xvii.,
c/t ecclesiastica, pt. ii., the Addenda, p. 597- Decenn. v., p. 689, where the Acts of tha
613 ; where the Acts themselves are given, conference of Thorn, and Decenn. vii., p.
Jo. Wolf g. Jaeger s Historia, saeculi xvii., 160, where those of the conference at Cassel,
Btcenn. iv., p. 497, &c. [The Reformed are extant. Jo. Alphonso Turretite, Nubs*



360 BOOK IV. CENT. XVII. SEC. II. PART II.-CHAP. I.

heroes, Frederic William and his son Frederic, afterwards expended in rcc-
onciling the differences of Protestants in general, and particularly in Pru-
sia(7) and their other provinces, and what difficulties opposed and with
stood those efforts, is too well known to need a long rehearsal.

6. Of those, who as private individuals, assumed the office of arbiters
of the contests among the Protestants, a vast number might be mentioned ;
but many more assumed this character among the Reformed, than among
the Lutherans. The most noted among the Reformed, as all agree, was
John Durceus [or Dury\, a Scotchman, who was certainly an honest man,
and both pious and learned, but more distinguished for genius and memory
than for the power of nice discrimination and sound judgment, as might
be evinced by satisfactory proofs if this were the proper place. For more
than forty years, or from 1631 to 1674, he laboured with incredible forti
tude and patience, by writing, persuading, admonishing, in short, in every
way that could be thought of, to attain the happiness of putting an end to
the contests among the Protestants. Nor did he, like others, attempt this
vast enterprise, shut up in his study ; but he travelled himself into nearly
all the countries of Europe in which a purer religion flourished, and per-
sonally addressed and conferred with all the theologians of both parties,
who were of much note and influence, and made great exertions to engage
in his enterprise, kings, princes, and magistrates, and their friends, by dis
playing the importance and utility of his object. Most persons commend
ed his designs, and treated him with kindness : yet very few were found
willing to help forward his plans, by their personal efforts and counsels.
Some persons, suspecting that so great eagerness as Dury manifested, must
proceed from sinister designs, and that he was secretly labouring to draw
the Lutherans into a snare, assailed him in writings full of acrimony ; nor
did all of them abstain from personal invectives and abuse. At last, neg
lected by his own party and repelled and rejected by ours, and discouraged
by a thousand hardships, insults, and troubles, he learned that this task ex
ceeded the power of individual efforts ; and he consumed the remainder
of his life in obscurity and neglect, at Cassel.(S) This honest man, though

Testium pro moderate in rebus theologicis Marpurgers, are in Tilcmann von Schenck s

iudicio, p. 178. Jo. Moller, in his Life of Vitae Professorum Theol. Marpurgensium,

Musaeus, in Cimbria Litterata, torn, ii., p. p. 202, &c. What he attempted in Hol-

566, &c.. treats professedly of the conference stein, may be learned from the Epistles which

at Cassel ; and in p. 568, gives an accurate Adam Henry Lackmann has published along

catalogue of all the writings published both with the Epistles of Luke Lossius, p. 245.

by the friends and the enemies of that con- How he conducted in Prussia and Poland,

ference. we are informed by Dan. Ern. Jallonshj^

(7) Christ. Hartknoch s Preussische Kir- Historia consensus Sendomiriensis, p. 127.
chenhistorie,p. 599. Unschuldige Nachrich- His proceedings in Denmark, are stated by
ten, A.D. 1731, p. 1010, &c. Jac. Hcrm. von Elswich, fasciculus i. epis-

(8) See Jo. Christopher Coler s Historia tolar. familiarium theologicar., p. 147. His
Joh. Duraei, Wittemb., 1716, 4to ; to which acts in the Palatinate, are in Jo. Henry von
however, very much might be added from Sedcris Deliciae Epistolicse, p. 353. His
documents both printed and manuscript, proceedings in Switzerland are illustrated by
Some documents of this kind were published the Acts and Epistles published in the Mu-
by Theodore Hastens, in the Bibliotheca seum Helveticum, torn, iii., iv., v., p. 602,
Bremens. Theologico-Philologica, torn, i., &c. Many things on this subject, are also
p. 911, &c., and torn, iv., p. 683. A great brought forward by Jo. Wolfg. J dger, His-
number are given by Timann Gessdius, in toria, saeculi xvii., Decenn. vii., p. 172, and
the Addenda Irenica, in his Historia Eccles., elsewhere. In general, respecting Dnmus
wm. ii., p. 614. His transactions with the the reader may consult Anth. Wilh. Bhom\



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 361

sometimes not sufficiently explicit and ingenuous, laid for the foundation
of his scheme certain principles according to which, if they should be ap.
proved, not only Lutherans and the Reformed but Christians of all sects
whatever, might easily become associated. For first, he contended, that
what is called the Apostles Creed embraced all the doctrines necessary to
be believed, and the ten commandments all the laws of conduct to be ob
served, and the Lord s prayer all the promises of God : and if this were
true, then all Christians might unite in one family. In the next place, as
appears from adequate proof, he endeavoured to attain his object by means
of mystical or Quakerish sentiments. For he placed all religion in the
elevation of the soul to God, or in eliciting that internal divine spark or
word, that dwells in the human mind : from which it would follow, that
difference of opinion on divine subjects has no connexion with religion.

7. The principal Lutherans who engaged in this business, were John
MaUhia a Swede, bishop of Stregnas, and formerly preceptor to queen
Christina, whom Dury had warmed with zeal for a coalition ; and George
Caltxtus, a divine of Helmstadt, who had few equals in that age, cither in
learning, genius, or probity : but neither of these met with the success he
desired. The Olive Branches of the former (for such was the title of his
pamphlets on the subject) were publicly condemned ; and by a royal edict
were excluded from the territories of Sweden. And he himself at last, in
order to appease in some measure his enemies, had to relinquish his office
and retire to a private life. (9) Calixtus, while he dissuaded others from
contention, drew on himself an immense load of accusations and C3nflicts:
and while he endeavoured to free the church from all sects, was thought
by great numbers of his brethren to be the father and author of a new sect,
that of the Syncretists ; that is, the sect which pursued peace and union,
at the expense of divine truth. (10) We shall find hereafter, a more con
venient place for speaking of the fortunes and the opinions of this great
man ; for he was charged with many other offences besides that of being
zealous for peace with the Reformed, and the attacks made upon him threw
the whole Lutheran community into commotion.

8. To say something of the external prosperity of the Lutheran church,
the most important circumstance is, that this church, though beset with the
numberless machinations and oppressions of its enemies, could no where
be entirely extirpated and obliterated. There are to this day, and it
may justly excite our wonder, very many Lutherans, even in those coun
tries in which Lutheran worship is prohibited : nay, (as appears from the

Englische Reformationshistorie, p. 944, and Reine Christine, tome i., p. 320, p. 505, &c. ;

the Dissertation derived very much from un- tome ii., p. 63. [Matthia published two

published documents, which Charles Jesper works which gave offence to the Swedes,

Ben-zel exhibited at Helmstadt, under my namely, Idea boni ordinis in ecclesia Christi ;

auspices, in 1744, entitled : de Joh. Duraeo, and, Ramus Olivse septentrionalis. The last

maxime de Actis ejus Suecanis. [See also was published in ten parts, Strengnas, 1661,

Peter Bayle, Dictionnaire, art. Dureus ; 1662, 12mo, and in the latter year, it was

Godfr. Arnold s Kirchen-und Ketzerhistorie, placed in the list of forbidden books. Tr.J

pt. ii., book xvii., ch. xi., $ 23, &c., p. 152, (10) The views of this excellent man,

&c., and Brook s Lives of the Puritans, vol. which many have stated incorrectly, may bf

iii., p. 369, &c. TV.] learned from his tract often printed, entitled :

(9) See Jo Scheffer s Suecia Litterata, p. Judicium de controversiis theologicis inte?

123, and Jo. Matter s Hypomnemata, upon Lutheranos et Reformatos, et de mutua pa>

it, p. 387. ArcherJiolz, Memoires de la tium fraternitate et toleranlia.

VOL. III. Z z



362 BOOK IV. CENT. XVII. SEC. II. PART II. CHAP. I.

recent emigration of the Saltsburgers,(ll) which deserves to be told *o af
future ages), in those countries in which even a silent and most cautious
dissent from the established religion is a capital crime, there lie concealed
vast numbers, who regard all superstition with abhorrence, and who ob
serve in the best manner they can the great precepts of purified religion.
The countries which are inhabited by persons of different religions, yet
are under the spiritual dominion of the Roman pontiff, afford us numerous
examples of cruelty, inhumanity, and injustice, which the Romanists think
perfectly justifiable against those who dissent from them, and whom they
regard as seditious citizens : yet no where. could either violence or fraud
wrest from the Lutherans all their rights and liberties. It may be added,
that the Lutheran religion was transplanted by merchants and other emi
grants, to America, Asia, and Africa ; and was introduced into various
places of Europe, where it was before unknown.

9. The internal condition of the Lutheran church in this century, pre
sents indeed many things to be commended, but not a few things also that
deformed it. First, it was most honourable to the Lutherans, that they
cultivated every where, with diligence, not only sacred learning, but also
every branch of human knowledge ; and that they enlarged and illustrated
both literature and theology, with many and important accessions. This
is so generally known, that we need not go into a prolix enumeration of the
revolutions and improvements of the several sciences. From most of
them, religion derived some benefit ; but some of them were abused by
injudicious or ill-designing men, such is the common lot of all human
affairs, to corrupt and to explain away, that religion which the Bible re
veals. In the first part of the century, those branches of learning in
which intellect is chiefly concerned, were the most taught in the schools ;
and in a method not very alluring and pleasant : but in the latter part of
it, more attention was paid to the branches which depend on genius and
memory, and which afford more entertainment and pleasure, such as his-
tory, civil as well as literary and natural, antiquities, criticism, eloquence,
and the like. Moreover both kinds of learning were treated in a more
convenient, neat, and elegant manner. Yet it was unhappily the fact, that
while human knowledge was advanced and polished, the estimation in
which learning and learned men were held, was gradually lessened ; which,
among other causes that it will not be best to mention, may be ascribed to
the multitude of those who applied themselves to study, without possess
ing native talents and a taste for learning.

10. During the greatest part of the century no other rule of philoso
phizing flourished in the schools, except the Aristotelico-Scholastic : and
for a long time, those who thought Aristotle should either be given up or
amended, were considered as threatening as much danger to the church,
as if they had undertaken to falsify some portion of the Bible. In thia
zeal for the Peripatetic philosophy, the doctors of Leipsic, Tubingen
Helmstadt, and Altdorf, went beyond almost all others. Many indeed en
vied the Aristotelians their high prosperity. In the first place, there were
certain wise and honest men among the theologians, who admitted that it
was proper to philosophize, though sparingly, but who complained, that the

(11) [There was an emigration of over one in the years 1731 and onward, amounting
Aousand Saltsburgers, in the years 1634, to between 30,000 and 40,000 persons
685, 1686 : but the great emigration was 7VJ



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 363

nanr.e of philosophy was attached to words and distinctions void of all
meaning. (12) Next came the disciples of Peter Ramus; who with great
diligence inculcated the precepts of their master, (which were of greater
practical utility), in many both of the higher and inferior schools, to
the exclusion of the Aristotelians. (13) Lastly, there were those wiio
either condemned all philosophy, as being injurious to religion and to tho
community, (which Daniel Hoffmann did, no less unskilfully than conten-
tiously, at Helmstadt), or who, with Robert Fludd, Jacob Bohmen, and the
Rosecrucians, already mentioned,(14) boasted of having discovered by
means of fire and divine illumination, an admirable and celestial mode of
philosophizing. But if there had been as much harmony among these
sects, as there was dissension and disagreement, they had far less power
than was necessary to overthrow the empire of Aristotle, now confirmed
by time and strong in the multitude of its defenders.

11. But more danger impended over Aristotle, from Des Cartes and
Gassendi ; whose lucid and well-arranged treatises as early as the middle
of the century, better pleased many of our theologians, than the many
huge volumes of the Peripatetics, in which the stale and insipid wisdom of
the schools was exhibited without taste or elegance. These new teacher?
of philosophy, the Aristotelians first endeavoured to repel by arguments
of an invidious nature, by copiously displaying the great danger which this
new mode of philosophizing portended to religion and to true piety ; but
afterwards, when they saw these weapons unsuccessful, they drew back
and defended, only the citadel of their cause, abandoning the outworks.
For some of them coupled elegance of diction and polite literature with
their precepts ; nor did they deny, that fnough Aristotle was the prince of
philosophers, there were some blemishes and faults in him, which a wise
man might lawfully amend. But this very prudence made their adversa
ries more bold and daring : for they now contended, that they had obliged
them to confess guilt ; and therefore they opened all their batteries upon
the whole school of the Stagyrite, which the others had conceded to need
amendment only in part. After Hugo Grotius, who was but a timid oppo-
scr of the Stagyrite, Samuel Pujfendorf first pointed out, freely and openly,
a new and very different course from the Peripatetic on the law of nature
and the science of morals. He was followed with still greater zeal, (not
withstanding he was nearly overwhelmed by the multitude of his enemies),
by Christian Thomasius, a jurist first of Leipsic and then at Halle ; who
was not indeed a man to whose protection the interests of philosophy might
be intrusted with entire confidence, yet he possessed a fearless mind and
very superior genius. He attempted a reformation not of a single science
only, but of every branch of philosophy ; and both by words and by exam
ple, continually urged his fellow-citizens to burst asunder the bonds of
Aristotle ; whom however he did not understand, nor had he even read
him. The particular mode of philosophizing, which he substituted ir
place of that which had prevailed, was not very favourably received, ana

(12) Such was Wenzcl Schilling, with his Aristotelis in Protestant, scholis forluna,

associates ; (concerning whom, see Godfr. t) xxi., p. 54, &c., and Jo. Geo. WakJCt

Arnold s Kirchsn-und Ketzerhistorie, pt. ii., Historia Logices, lib. ii., cap. i., sect, iii.,

book xvii., ch. vi., p. 499), and likewise 5, in his Parerga Academica, p. 613, &c.
Others of our best theologians. (14) See above, in the general history a

-13) See Jo. Herm. von Elsicich, devaria the church, $ 30, &c., p. 274, &c.



364 BOOK IV. CENT. XVII. SEC. II. PART II. CHAP. 1

soon fell into neglect : but the spirit of innovation which he diffused, made
so great progress in a short time, that he may be justly accounted the sub-
duer of philosophic tyranny, or of sectarian philosophy, especially among
the Germans. (15) The Frederician university at Halle in Saxony, where
he taught, was the first to fall in with his views : afterwards the other
schools in Germany adopted them, one after another : and from these, the
same liberty of thinking extended to the other nations that followed the
Lutheran religion. Towards the end of the century therefore, all among
us became possessed, not by any law, but in the course of events and as
it were accidentally, of the liberty of philosophizing, each according to his
own judgment, and not another man s ; and of exhibiting in public those
principles of philosophy, which each one thought to be true and certain.
This liberty was so used by the major part, that in the manner of the an
cient Eclectics, they selected and combined the better and more probable
dogmas of the various schools : yet there were some, (among whom God-
frey William Leibnitz was undoubtedly the greatest man), who endeavour-
ed to search for the truth by their own efforts, and to elicit from fixed and
immoveable principles a new and imperishable philosophy. (16) In this
conflict with Aristotle and his friends, so great was the odium against the
routed foe among the Lutherans, that the science of metaphysics, which the
Stagyrite regarded as the primary science and the source of all the rest,
was degraded and nearly stripped of all its honours ; nor could the other
wise great influence of ~Des Cartes, who like Aristotle commenced all his