The Stancarian dispute was incidental to the Osiandric conflict. Its
author was Francesco Stancaro (born in Mantua, 1501), an Italian
ex-priest, who had emigrated from Italy on account of his Protestant
views. Vain, opinionated, haughty, stubborn, and insolent as he was, he
roamed about, creating trouble wherever he appeared, first in Cracow as
professor of Hebrew, 1551 in Koenigsberg then in Frankfort-on-the-Oder,
next at various places in Poland, Hungary, and Transylvania. He died at
Stobnitz, Poland, November 12, 1574. Stancarus treated all of his
opponents as ignoramuses and spoke contemptuously of Luther and
Melanchthon, branding the latter as an antichrist. In Koenigsberg he
immediately felt called upon to interfere in the controversy which had
just flared up. He opposed Osiander in a fanatical manner, declaring
him to be the personal antichrist. The opponents of Osiander at
Koenigsberg however, were not elated over his comradeship, particularly
because he fell into an opposite error. They were glad when he resigned
and left for Frankfort the same year he had arrived at Koenigsberg. In
Frankfort, Stancarus continued the controversy, publishing, 1552, his
_Apology against Osiander--Apologia contra Osiandrum_. But he was
ignored rather than opposed by the Lutheran theologians. In 1553
Melanchthon wrote his _Answer (Responsio) Concerning Stancar's
Controversy_. Later on, 1561, when Stancarus was spreading his errors in
Poland, Hungary, and Transylvania, Calvin and the ministers of Zurich
also wrote against him. The chief publication in which Stancarus set
forth and defended his views appeared 1562, at Cracow, under the title:
_Concerning the Trinity (De Trinitate) and the Mediator, Our Lord Jesus
Christ_. As late as 1585 Wigand published his book _Concerning
Stancarism--De Stancarismo_.
Stancarus had been trained in scholastic theology and was a great
admirer of Peter Lombard. In his book _De Trinitate et Mediatore_ he
says: "One Peter Lombard is worth more than a hundred Luthers, two
hundred Melanchthons, three hundred Bullingers, four hundred Peter
Martyrs, five hundred Calvins out of whom, if they were all brayed in a
mortar, not one drop of true theology would be squeezed. _Plus valet
unus Petrus Lombardus quam centum Lutheri, ducenti Melanchthones,
trecenti Bullingeri, quadringenti Petri Martyres et quingenti Calvini,
qui omnes, si in mortario contunderentur, non exprimeretur una mica
verae theologiae._" (J. G. Walch, _Religionsstreitigkeiten_ 4, 177.)
Concerning Christ's obedience Peter Lombard taught: "_Christus Mediator
dicitur secundum humanitatem, non secundum divinitatem.... Mediator est
ergo, in quantum homo, et non in quantum Deus_. Christ is called
Mediator according to His humanity, not according to His divinity.... He
is therefore Mediator inasmuch as He is man, and not inasmuch as He is
God." (Planck 4, 451; Seeberg 4, 507.) In accordance with this teaching,
Stancarus maintained, in pointed opposition to Osiander, that Christ is
our Righteousness only according to His human nature, and not according
to His divine nature. The divine nature of Christ, Stancarus declared
must be excluded from the office of Christ's mediation and priesthood;
for if God the Son were Mediator and would do something which the Father
and the Holy Spirit could not do, then He would have a will and an
operation and hence also a nature and essence different from that of the
Father and the Holy Spirit. He wrote: "Christ, God and man, is Mediator
[and Redeemer] only according to the other nature, namely, the human,
not according to the divine; Christ made satisfaction for us according
to His human nature, but not according to His divine nature; according
to His divine nature Christ was not under the Law, was not obedient unto
death, etc." (Frank 2, 111.) Stancarus argued: "Christ is one God with
the Father and the Holy Spirit. Apart from the three personal properties
of '_paternitas, filiatio, and spiratio passiva_' the three divine
persons are absolutely identical in their being and operation. Their
work is the sending of the Mediator, whose divine nature itself, in an
active way, participates in this sending; hence only the human nature of
the God-man is sent, and only the human nature of the Mediator acts in a
reconciling way. Men are reconciled by Christ's death on the cross; but
the blood shed on the cross and death are peculiar to the human nature,
not to the divine nature; hence we are reconciled by the human nature of
Christ only, and not by His divine nature (_ergo per naturam humanam
Christi tantum sumus reconciliati et non per divinam_)." (Schluesselburg
9, 216ff.)
Consistently, the Stancarian doctrine destroys both the unity of the
person of Christ and the sufficiency of His atonement. It not only
corrupts the doctrine of the infinite and truly redeeming value of the
obedience of the God-man, but also denies the personal union of the
divine and human natures in Christ. For if the divine nature is excluded
from the work of Christ, then it must be excluded also from His person,
since works are always acts of a person. And if it was a mere human
nature that died for us, then the price of our redemption is altogether
inadequate, and we are not redeemed, as Luther so earnestly emphasized
against Zwingli. (CONC. TRIGL. 1028, 44.) True, Stancarus protested:
"Christ is Mediator according to the human nature only; this exclusive
'only' does not exclude the divine nature from the person of Christ, but
from His office as Mediator." (Frank 2, 111.) However, just this was
Luther's contention, that Christ is our Mediator also according to His
divine nature, and that the denial of this truth both invalidates His
satisfaction and divides His person.
The Third Article of the _Formula of Concord_, therefore, rejects the
error of Stancarus as well as that of Osiander. Against the latter it
maintains that the active and passive obedience of Christ is our
righteousness before God: and over against the former, that this
obedience was the act of the entire person of Christ, and not of His
human nature alone. We read: "In opposition to both these parties
[Osiander and Stancarus] it has been unanimously taught by the other
teachers of the _Augsburg Confession_ that Christ is our Righteousness
not according to His divine nature alone, nor according to His human
nature alone, but according to both natures; for He has redeemed,
justified, and saved us from our sins as God and man, through His
complete obedience; that therefore the righteousness of faith is the
forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and our adoption as God's
children only on account of the obedience of Christ, which through faith
alone, out of pure grace is imputed for righteousness to all true
believers, and on account of it they are absolved from all their
unrighteousness." (917, 4.)