The first article of the _Augsburg Confession_ makes a special point of
rejecting not only the ancient, but also the "modern Samosatenes,"
_i.e._, the Antitrinitarians, who in the beginning of the Reformation
began their activity in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Germany. Most of
these "modern Arians and Antitrinitarians," as they are called in the
Twelfth Article of the _Formula of Concord_ came from the skeptical
circles of Humanists in Italy. Concerning these rationalists and
Epicureans the _Apology_ remarks: "Many [in Italy and elsewhere] even
publicly ridicule all religions, or, if they approve anything, they
approve such things only as are in harmony with human reason, and
regard the rest as fabulous and like the tragedies of the poets." (CONC.
TRIGL., 235, 28; _C. R._ 9, 763.) Pope Leo X was generally regarded as
being one of those who spoke of the profitable "fables concerning
Christ."
According to a letter of warning to the Christians in Antwerp, 1525, a
fanatic (_Rumpelgeist_) there taught: "Every man has the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is our reason and understanding (_ingenium et ratio
naturalis_). Every man believes. There is neither hell nor damnation.
Every one will obtain eternal life. Nature teaches that I should do unto
my neighbor as I would have him do unto me--to desire which is faith.
The Law is not violated by evil lust as long as I do not consent to
lust. Who has not the Holy Ghost has no sin for he has no reason." (E.
53, 344; St. L. 21a 730; Enders 5, 147.)
In his report on the Marburg Colloquy, October 5, 1529, Melanchthon
remarks: "We have heard that some of them [the Strassburgers] speak of
the Deity as the Jews do, as though Christ were not God by nature. (_C.
R._ 1, 1099.) At Marburg, Zwingli remarked that some had spoken
incorrectly concerning the Trinity, and that Haetzer had written a book
against the divinity of Christ, which he, Zwingli, had not permitted to
be published." (1103.)
In a letter of Luther to Bugenhagen, 1532 we read: "Your undertaking [of
publishing a writing of Athanasius concerning the Trinity] is Christian
and wholesome in this our most corrupt time, in which all articles of
faith in general are attacked by the servants of Satan, and the one
concerning the Trinity is in particular beginning to be derided
confidently by some skeptics and Epicureans. These are ably assisted not
only by those Italian grammarians [Humanists] and orators, which they
flatter themselves to be, but also by some Italico-German vipers and
others, or, as you are accustomed to call them, viper-aspides, who sow
their seed here and there in their discourses and writings, and, as Paul
says [2 Tim. 2, 17], eat as doth a canker (_gar sehr um sich fressen_)
and promote godlessness, about which they, when among themselves, laugh
so complacently and are so happy that one can hardly believe it." (St.
L. 14, 326; Enders 9, 252.)
Some Antitrinitarians who affiliated with the Anabaptists have already
been referred to. Denk, Haetzer, and others rejected the Apostles' Creed
because of their opposition to the doctrine of the Trinity. Haetzer, as
stated wrote a book against the deity of Christ in which he denied the
tripersonality of God and the preexistence of the Logos, and
blasphemously designated the belief in the deity of Christ as
"superstition" and the trust in His satisfaction as "drinking on the
score of Christ (_ein Zechen auf die Kreide Christi_)." According to
Denk, Christ is merely an example showing us how to redeem ourselves
which we are all able to do because there is still within us a seed of
the divine Word and light. (Tschackert, 143, 461.) It was of Denk that
Capito wrote, 1526: "At Nuernberg the schoolteacher at St. Sebald denied
that the Holy Ghost and the Son are equal to the Father, and for this
reason he was expelled." (Plitt, _Augustana_ 1, 153.)
At Strassburg the Anabaptists were publicly charged, in 1526, with
denying the Trinity; in 1529, with denying the deity of Christ. In 1527
Urban Regius spoke of the Anabaptists in Augsburg as maintaining that
Christ was merely a teacher of a Christian life. In the same year
Althamer of Nuernberg published his book _Against the New Jews and
Arians under the Christian Name Who Deny the Deity of Christ_. In 1529
Osiander wrote concerning Anabaptists in Nuernberg: "It is well known,
and may be proved by their own writings, that they deny and contradict
the sublime article of our faith concerning the Holy Trinity, from which
it follows immediately that they also deny the deity of Christ." "Christ
is not the natural, true Son of God," such was also the accusation made
by Justus Menius in his book concerning the _Doctrines and Secrets of
the Anabaptists_. In his _Sermons on the Life of Luther_, Mathesius said
"Now the Anabaptists speak most contemptuously of the deity of Jesus
Christ.... This was their chief article that they despised the written
Word, the Holy Bible, and believed nothing or very little of Jesus
Christ the eternal Son of God."