The theological position occupied by the opponents of the Adiaphorists
may be summarized as follows: Ceremonies which God has neither commanded
nor prohibited are adiaphora (_res mediae, Mitteldinge_) and _ceteris
paribus_ (other things being equal), may be observed or omitted, adopted
or rejected. However, under circumstances testing one's faith they may
become a matter of principle and conscience. Such is the case wherever
and whenever they are demanded as necessary, or when their introduction
involves a denial of the truth, an admission of error, an infringement
of Christian liberty, an encouragement of errorists and of the enemies
of the Church, a disheartening of the confessors of the truth, or an
offense to Christians, especially the weak. Such conditions, they
maintained, prevailed during the time of the Interim, when both Pope and
Emperor plainly declared it to be their object to reestablish the Romish
religion in Lutheran churches; when the adoption of the Interim and the
reinstitution of the papal ceremonies were universally regarded, by
Catholics as well as Protestants, as the beginning of just such a
reestablishment of the Papacy; when the timid Wittenberg and Leipzig
theologians, instead of boldly confessing the Gospel and trusting to God
for the protection of His Church, compromised the truth and yielded to
the demands of the Romanists in order to escape persecution when the
consciences of Lutherans were perplexed and confused wherever the
abolished rites were reinstituted. Accordingly, they declared that under
the prevailing circumstances the reintroduction of the Romish ceremonies
was nothing short of a denial of Christian faith and of Christian love
as well.
Flacius, in particular, maintained that under the prevailing
circumstances even such ceremonies as were in themselves true adiaphora
ceased to be adiaphora and could not be reintroduced with a good
conscience, because they were forced upon the Lutherans by the enemies
of the Gospel, because they were accepted for reprehensible reasons,
such as fear of persecution and desire for external peace, and because
their reintroduction confounded the consciences, offended the weak, and
gave comfort and encouragement to the enemies of Christ. The people,
Protestants as well as Catholics, said Flacius, would regard such
reintroduction both as an admission on the part of the Lutherans that
they had been in the wrong and the Romanists in the right, and as the
beginning of a general restoration of the Papacy. Explain the
reintroduction of the ceremonies as piously as you may, said he to the
Interimists, the common people, especially the Romanists, always
impressed by ceremonies much more than by the doctrine, will infer that
those teachers who reintroduce the ceremonies approve of the Papacy in
every respect and reject the Evangelical doctrine. In his book _De Veris
et Falsis Adiaphoris_ we read: "Adversarii totum suum cultum, vel certe
praecipua capita suae religionis in ceremoniis collocant, quas cum in
nostris ecclesiis in eorum gratiam restituimus, an non videmur tum eis,
tum aliis eorum impiis cultibus assentiri? Nec dubitant, quin
quandoquidem in tantis rebus ipsis cesserimus, etiam in reliquis cessuri
simus, nostrum errorem agnoscamus, eorumque religionem veram esse
confiteamur." (Schluesselburg 13, 217.) Accordingly, Flacius contended
that under the prevailing circumstances a concession to the Romanists,
even in ceremonies harmless in themselves, was tantamount to a denial of
Lutheranism. The entire argument of the Anti-Adiaphorists was by him
reduced to the following principle or axiom: "_Nihil est adiaphoron in
casu confessionis et scandali._ Nothing is an adiaphoron when confession
and offense are involved." And wherever the Interim was enforced, the
consequences foretold by Flacius showed themselves: consciences were
confused, simple Christians were offended, and the enemies were
strengthened in their error and emboldened in their attacks and in
further demands made upon the Lutherans.