According to Preger the first decided opposition to the Flacian teaching
came from Moerlin and Chemnitz, in Brunswick, to whom Flacius had also
submitted his tract for approval. Chemnitz closed his criticism by
saying: It is enough if we are able to retain what Luther has won
(_parta tueri_), let us abandon all desires to go beyond (_ulterius
quaerere_) and to improve upon him. (Preger 2, 328.) Moerlin
characterized Flacius as a vain man, and dangerous in many respects.
Flacius answered in an objective manner, betraying no irritation
whatever. (332.) In a letter of August 10, 1568, Hesshusius, who now had
read the tract more carefully charged Flacius with teaching that Satan
was a creator of substance, and before long refused to treat with him
any further. In September of the same year Flacius published his _Gnothi
seauton_ against the attacks of the Synergists and Philippists, notably
Christopher Lasius [who studied at Strassburg and Wittenberg, was active
in Goerlitz, Greussen, Spandau, Kuestrin, Cottbus, and Senftenberg,
wrote _Praelibationes Dogmatis Flaciani de Prodigiosa Hominis
Conversione;_ died 1572]. In the same year Hesshusius prepared his
_Analysis,_ which was approved by Gallus and the Jena theologians.
Realizing that all his former friends had broken with him entirely,
Flacius, in January 1570, _published_ his _Demonstrations Concerning the
Essence of the Image of God and the Devil,_ in which he attacked his
opponents, but without mentioning their names. His request for a private
discussion was bluntly rejected by the Jena theologians. Wigand, in his
_Propositions on Sin_ of May 5, 1570, was the first publicly to attack
Flacius by name. About the same time Moerlin's _Themata de Imagine Dei_
and Chemnitz's _Resolutio_ appeared. The former was directed "against
the impious and absurd proposition that sin is a substance", the latter,
against the assertion "that original sin is the very substance of man,
and that the soul of man itself is original sin." Hesshusius also
published his _Letter to M. Flacius Illyricus in the Controversy whether
Original Sin is a Substance._ Flacius answered in his _Defense of the
Sound Doctrine Concerning Original Righteousness and Unrighteousness, or
Sin,_ of September 1, 1570. Hesshusius published his _Analysis,_ in
which he repeated the charge that Flacius made the devil a creator of
substance.
In his _Brief Confession,_ of September 28 1570, Flacius now offered to
abstain from the use of the term "substance" in the manner indicated
above. A colloquium, however, requested by Flacius and his friends on
the basis of this Confession, was declined by the theologians of Jena.
Moreover, in answer to the _Brief Confession,_ Hesshusius published
(April 21, 1571) his _True Counter-Report,_ in which he again repeated
his accusation that Flacius made the devil a creator of substance. He
summarized his arguments as follows: "I have therefore proved from one
book [Flacius's tract of 1567] more than six times that Illyricus says:
_Satan condidit, fabricavit, transformavit veterem hominem, Satan est
figulus,_ that is: The devil created and made man, the devil is man's
potter." The idea of a creation out of nothing, however, was not taught
in the statements to which Hesshusius referred. (Preger 2, 348.)
Further publications by Andrew Schoppe [died after 1615], Wigand,
Moerlin, Hesshusius, and Chemnitz, which destroyed all hopes of a
peaceful settlement, caused Flacius to write his _Orthodox Confession
Concerning Original Sin._ In this comprehensive answer, which appeared
August 1, 1571, he declares "that either image, the image of God as well
as of Satan, is an essence, and that the opposite opinion diminishes the
merit of Christ." At the same time he complained that his statements
were garbled and misinterpreted by his opponents, that his was the
position of the man who asked concerning garlic and received an answer
concerning onions, that his opponents were but disputing with
imaginations of their own. (349f.)
In the same year, 1571, Wigand published a voluminous book, _On Original
Sin,_ in which he charged Flacius with teaching that original sin is the
entire carnal substance of man according to both his body and soul. In
his description of the Flacian doctrine we read: "Original sin is a
substance, as they teach. Accordingly, original sin is an animal, and
that, too, an intelligent animal. You must also add ears, eyes, mouth,
nose, arms, belly, and feet. Original sin laughs, talks, sews, sows,
works, reads, writes, preaches, baptizes, administers the Lord's Supper,
etc. For it is the substance of man that does such things. Behold, where
such men end!" Flacius replied in his _Christian and Reliable Answer to
All manner of Sophistries of the Pelagian Accident,_ 1572, protesting
that the doctrine ascribed to him was a misrepresentation of his
teaching. In the same year Wigand published _Reasons Why This
Proposition, in Controversy with the Manicheans: "Original Sin Is the
Corrupt Nature," Cannot Stand._ Here Wigand truly says: "Evil of the
substance and evil substance are not identical. _Malum substantiae et
mala substantia non sunt idem._" (Preger 2, 353. 410.)
In several publications of the same year Hesshusius asserted (quoting
testimonies to this effect from Augustine), that the Flacian doctrine
was identical with the tenets of the Manicheans, in substance as well as
terms. Flacius answered in _De Augustini et Manichaeorum Sententia, in
Controversia Peccati,_ 1572, in which he declared: "I most solemnly
condemn the Manichean insanity concerning two creators. I have always
denied that original sin is something, or has ever been something
outside of man; I have never ascribed to this sin any materiality of its
own." (355.) This book was followed by another attack by Hesshusius and
an answer, in turn, by Flacius.
In the same year Hesshusius, in order to prevent further accessions to
Flacianism, published his _Antidote (Antidoton) against the Impious and
Blasphemous Dogma of Matthias Flacius Illyricus by which He Asserts that
Original Sin Is Substance._ In this book, which was republished in 1576
and again in 1579, Hesshusius correctly argued: "If original sin is the
substance of the soul, then we are compelled to assert one of two
things, _viz._, either that Satan is the creator of substances or that
God is the creator and preserver of sin. _Si substantia animae est
peccatum originis, alterum a duobus necesse est poni, videlicet, aut
Satanam esse conditorem substantiarum, aut Deum esse peccati creatorem
et sustentatorem._" (Gieseler 3, 2, 256.) At this late hour, 1572, Simon
Musaeus, too, entered the arena with his _Opinion Concerning Original
Sin, Sententia de Peccato Originali._ In it he taught "that original sin
is not a substance, but the utmost corruption of it, in matter as well
as form," and that therefore "Pelagianism no less than Manicheism is to
be excluded and condemned."
When the ministerium of Strassburg turned against Flacius, he again
published several books defending his position on the controverted
questions, which resulted in his expulsion from the city. In 1573
Flacius published an answer to Hesshusius's _Antidote_ entitled, _Solid
Refutation of the Groundless Sophistries, Calumnies, and Figments, as
also of the Most Corrupt Errors of the "Antidote" and of Other
Neopelagian Writers._ Flacius charged Hesshusius with misrepresentation,
and demanded that he swear whether he really believed to have found the
alleged errors in his writings. (Preger 2, 364ff.)
Till his death, on March 11, 1575, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Flacius
consistently adhered to his false terminology as well as teaching,
apparently never for a moment doubting that he was but defending
Luther's doctrine. One of his last books was entitled, _Some Clear and
Splendid Testimonies of Martin Luther Concerning the Evil Essence,
Image, Form, or Shape_ (Wesen, essentia, Bild, Form oder Gestalt) _of
the Earthly Dead Adam and Concerning the Essential Transformation of
Man._ (389.) As stated above, the mistake of Flacius was that he took
literally terms denoting substance which the Bible and Luther employ in
a figurative sense.