To heal the breach and end the public scandal, Flacius and his adherents
fervently advocated the convocation of a General Lutheran Synod. In 1559
they published "_Supplicatio Quorundam Theologorum ... pro Libera
Christiana et Legitima Synodo_, Supplication of Some Theologians ... for
a Free, Christian and Lawful Synod." The document was signed by 51
superintendents, professors, and pastors, "who after Luther's death," as
they emphasized, "had contended orally and in writing against the
corruptions and sects." The signatures represented theologians from
Ducal Saxony, Hamburg, Bremen, Luebeck, Rostock, Wismar, Brunswick,
Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Koethen, Nordhausen, Schweinfurt, Regensburg,
Lindau, Upper Palatinate, Hesse, Brandenburg, Electoral Saxony,
Nuernberg, Augsburg, Baden, etc. Some of the first were: Amsdorf,
Musaeus, Joachim Moerlin, Hesshusius, Max Moerlin, Gallus, Wigand,
Judex, Westphal, John Freder of Wismar, Anton Otto of Nordhausen,
Flacius. The _Supplication_ showed why a General Synod was necessary and
how it was to be conducted. Its chief object, the _Supplication_ said,
would be to pass on adiaphorism, Majorism, and synergism, all
participants in the Synod having previously been pledged on the
_Augsburg Confession_, the _Apology_, and the _Smalcald Articles_,
according to which all questions were to be decided. (Preger 2, 86f.)
The most violent opponent of this plan was Melanchthon. Fearing that the
Flacianists might get control of the prospective general council, he, in
advance, denounced and branded it as a "Robber Synod (_Raeubersynode_),
advocated by the ignorant Flacian rabble." Three weeks before his death,
March 28, 1560 he wrote: "Since they [the Flacians] cannot kill me, the
object of these hypocrites is to expel me. For long ago they have said
that they would not leave a foot of ground for me in Germany. _Hoc agunt
isti hypocritae, ut me pellant, cum sanguinem meum haurire non possint;
et quidem oratio istorum vetus est, qua dixerunt, se mihi non relicturos
esse in Germania vestigium pedis_." (_C. R._ 9, 1079.) Philip of Hesse
consented to attend the general synod with the proviso that the power of
the Jena theologians be curbed and also the Swiss be admitted. (Preger
2, 93.) That the plan of the Flacianists failed was chiefly due to
Elector August, who declined to attend the synod.