In view of the situation portrayed in the preceding paragraphs, it is
certainly remarkable that a general public controversy, particularly
with the Calvinists and Synergists had not been inaugurated long before
the _Formula of Concord_ was able to write that such a conflict had not
yet occurred. Surely the powder required for a predestinarian
conflagration was everywhere stored up in considerable quantities,
within as well as without the Lutheran Church. Nor was a local skirmish
lacking which might have served as the spark and been welcomed as a
signal for a general attack. It was the conflict between Marbach and
Zanchi, probably referred to by the words quoted above from Article XI:
"Something of it [of a discussion concerning eternal election] has been
mooted also among our theologians." This controversy took place from
1561 to 1563, at Strassburg, where Lutheranism and Calvinism came into
immediate contact. In 1536 Strassburg had adopted the _Wittenberg
Concord_ and with it the _Augsburg Confession_ which since took the
place of the _Tetrapolitana_ delivered to Emperor Charles at the Diet
of Augsburg, 1530. The efficient and zealous leader in Lutheranizing
the city was John Marbach a graduate of Wittenberg and, together with
Mathesius, a former guest at Luther's table. He was born in 1521 and
labored in Strassburg from 1545 to 1581, the year of his death. He had
Bucer's Catechism replaced by Luther's, and entered the public
controversy against the Calvinists with a publication entitled,
_Concerning the Lord's Supper, against the Sacramentarians_, which
defends the omnipresence of Christ also according to His human nature.
In his efforts to Lutheranize the city, Marbach was opposed by the
Crypto-Calvinist Jerome Zanchi (born 1516, died 1590), a converted
Italian and a pupil of Peter Martyr [born September 8, 1500; won for
Protestantism by reading books of Bucer, Zwingli, and others; professor,
first in Strassburg, 1547 in Oxford; compelled to return to the
Continent (Strassburg and Zurich) by Bloody Mary; died November 12,
1562, when just about to write a book against Brenz]. From 1553 to 1563
Zanchi was professor of Old Testament exegesis in Strassburg. Though he
had signed the _Augsburg Confession_, he was and remained a rigid
Calvinist, both with respect to the doctrine of predestination and that
of the Lord's Supper, but withheld his public dissent until about 1561.
It was the Calvinistic doctrine of the perseverance of the saints,
according to which grace once received cannot be lost, upon which Zanchi
now laid especial emphasis. According to Loescher (_Historia Motuum_ 3,
30) he taught: "1. To the elect in this world faith is given by God only
once. 2. The elect who have once been endowed with true faith ... can
never again lose faith altogether. 3. The elect never sin with their
whole mind or their entire will. 4. When Peter denied Christ, he,
indeed, lacked the confession of the mouth, but not the faith of the
heart. _1. Electis in hoc saeculo semel tantum vera fides a Deo datur.
2. Electi semel vera fide donati Christoque per Spiritum Sanctum insiti
fidem prorsus amittere ... non possunt. 3. In electis regeneratis duo
sunt homines, interior et exterior. Ii, quum peccant, secundum tantum
hominem exteriorem, i.e., ea tantum parte, qua non sunt regeniti,
peccant; secundum vero interiorem hominem nolunt peccatum et
condelectantur legi Dei; quare non toto animo aut plena voluntate
peccant. 4. Petrum, quum negavit Christum, defecit quidem fidei
confessio in ore sed non defecit fides in corde_." (Tschackert 560;
Frank 4, 261.)
This tenet, that believers can neither lose their faith nor be eternally
lost, had been plainly rejected by Luther. In the _Smalcald Articles_ we
read: "On the other hand, if certain sectarists would arise, some of
whom are perhaps already extant, and in the time of the insurrection [of
the peasants, 1525] came to my own view, holding that all those who had
once received the Spirit or the forgiveness of sins, or had become
believers, even though they should afterwards sin, would still remain in
the faith, and such sin would not harm them, and hence crying thus: 'Do
whatever you please; if you believe, it all amounts to nothing: faith
blots out all sins,' etc.--they say, besides, that if any one sins after
he has received faith and the Spirit, he never truly had the Spirit and
faith: I have had before me many such insane men, and I fear that in
some such a devil is still remaining [hiding and dwelling]. It is,
accordingly, necessary to know and to teach that when holy men, still
having and feeling original sin, also daily repenting of and striving
with it, happen to fall into manifest sins, as David into adultery,
murder, and blasphemy, that then faith and the Holy Ghost has departed
from them. For the Holy Ghost does not permit sin to have dominion, to
gain the upper hand, so as to be accomplished, but represses and
restrains it so that it must not do what it wishes. But if it does what
it wishes, the Holy Ghost and faith are not present. For St. John says,
1 Ep. 3, 9: 'Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin,... and he
cannot sin.' And yet it is also the truth when the same St. John says,
1 Ep. 1, 8: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and
the truth is not in us.'" (491, 42f.)
In an opinion of March 9, 1559, Melanchthon remarks that about 1529 some
Antinomians maintained and argued "that, since in this life sin remains
in saints, they remain holy and retain the Holy Spirit and salvation
even when they commit adultery and other sins against their
conscience.... There are many at many places who are imbued with this
error [that righteousness, Holy Spirit, and sins against the conscience
can remain in a man at the same time], regard themselves holy although
they live and persevere in sins against their consciences." (_C. R._ 9,
764. 405. 473; 8, 411.)
The perseverance of saints as taught by Zanchi was the point to which
Marbach immediately took exception. A long discussion followed, which
was finally settled by the _Strassburg Formula of Concord_ of 1563,
outside theologians participating and acting as arbiters. This
_Formula_, which was probably prepared by Jacob Andreae, treated in its
first article the Lord's Supper; in its second, predestination. It
rejected the doctrine that, once received, faith cannot be lost, and
prescribed the _Wittenberg Concord_ of 1536 as the doctrinal rule
regarding the Holy Supper. The document was signed by both parties,
Zanchi stating over his signature: "_Hanc doctrinae formam ut piam
agnosco, ita eam recipio_." Evidently his mental reservation was that he
be permitted to withdraw from it in as far as he did not regard it as
pious. Later Zanchi declared openly that he had subscribed the _Formula_
only conditionally. Soon after his subscription he left Strassburg,
serving till 1568 as preacher of a Reformed Italian congregation in
Chiavenna, till 1576 as professor in the Reformed University of
Heidelberg, and till 1582 as professor in Neustadt. He died at
Heidelberg as professor emeritus November 19, 1590. Marbach continued
his work at Strassburg, and was active also in promoting the cause of
the _Formula of Concord_. His controversy with Zanchi, though of a local
character, may be regarded as the immediate cause for adding Article XI.
The thorough Lutheranizing of the city was completed by Pappus, a pupil
of Marbach. In 1597 Strassburg adopted the _Formula of Concord_.