Foremost among the men who saw through Calvin's plan of propagating the
Reformed doctrine of the Lord's Supper under phrases coming as close as
possible to the Lutheran terminology, and who boldly, determinedly and
ably opposed the Calvinistic propaganda was Joachim Westphal of Hamburg
[born 1510; 1527 in Wittenberg; since 1541 pastor in Hamburg; died
January 16, 1574]. Fully realizing the danger which threatened the
entire Lutheran Church, he regarded it as his sacred duty to raise his
voice and warn the Lutherans against the Calvinistic menace. He did so
in a publication entitled: "_Farrago Confusanearum et inter se
Dissidentium Opinionum de Coena Domini_--Medley of Confused and Mutually
Dissenting Opinions on the Lord's Supper, compiled from the books of the
Sacramentarians," 1552. In it he proved that in reality Calvin and his
adherents, despite their seemingly orthodox phrases, denied the real
presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper just as
emphatically and decidedly as Zwingli had done. At the same time he
refuted in strong terms the Reformed doctrine in the manner indicated by
the title, and maintained the Lutheran doctrine of the real presence,
the oral eating and drinking (_manducatio oralis_), also of unbelievers.
Finally he appealed to the Lutheran theologians and magistrates
everywhere to guard their churches against the Calvinistic peril. "The
_Farrago_," says Kruske, "signified the beginning of the end of Calvin's
domination in Germany." Schaff: "The controversy of Westphal against
Calvin and the subsequent overthrow of Melanchthonianism completed and
consolidated the separation of the two Confessions," Lutheran and
Reformed. (_Creeds_ 1, 280.)
Thus Westphal stands preeminent among the men who saved the Lutheran
Church from the Calvinistic peril. To add fuel to the anti-Calvinistic
movement, Westphal, in the year following, published a second book:
"_Correct Faith (Recta Fides) Concerning the Lord's Supper_,
demonstrated and confirmed from the words of the Apostle Paul and the
Evangelists," 1553. Here he again called upon all true disciples of
Luther to save his doctrine from the onslaughts of the Calvinists, who,
he declared, stooped to every method in order to conquer Germany for
Zwinglianism.
Westphal's fiery appeals for Lutheran loyalty received a special
emphasis and wide publicity when the Pole, John of Lasco (Laski), who in
1553, together with 175 members of his London congregation, had been
driven from England by Bloody Mary, reached the Continent. The liberty
which Lasco, who in 1552 had publicly adopted the _Consensus Tigurinus_,
requested in Lutheran territories for himself and his Reformed
congregation, was refused in Denmark, Wismar, Luebeck and Hamburg, but
finally granted in Frankfort-on-the-Main. Soon after, in 1554, the
Calvinistic preacher Micronius, who also sought refuge in Hamburg, was
forbidden to make that city the seat of Reformed activity and
propaganda. As a result, Calvin decided to enter the arena against
Westphal. In 1555 he published his _Defensio Sanae et Orthodoxae
Doctrinae de Sacramentis_, "Defense of the Sound and Orthodox Doctrine
Concerning the Sacraments and Their Nature, Power, Purpose, Use, and
Fruit, which the pastors and ministers of the churches in Zurich and
Geneva before this have comprised into a brief formula of the mutual
Agreement" (_Consensus Tigurinus_). In it he attacked Westphal in such
an insulting and overbearing manner (comparing him, _e.g._, with "a mad
dog") that from the very beginning the controversy was bound to assume a
personal and acrimonious character.