The theologians who were first in adopting effective methods and
measures to satisfy the general yearning for a real peace in the divine
truth were Jacob Andreae and Martin Chemnitz. Andreae was born 1528 in
Weiblingen, Wuerttemberg. He studied at Stuttgart and Tuebingen. In 1546
he became pastor in Stuttgart, where, two years later, he was deposed
because of his refusal to consent to the Interim. In 1549 he became
pastor and later on superintendent in Tuebingen. Since 1562 he was also
professor and chancellor of the university. He died 1590. Andreae has
been called "the spiritual heir of John Brenz." Hoping against hope, he
incessantly labored for the unity and peace of the Lutheran Church.
Being a man of great energy and diplomatic skill, he served her at
numerous occasions and in various capacities. In his pacification
efforts he made more than 120 journeys, visiting nearly all evangelical
courts, cities, and universities in Northern and Southern Germany. With
the consent of the Duke of Wuerttemberg, Andreae entered the service of
Elector August, April 9, 1567, and lived with his family in Saxony till
his dismissal in December, 1580. Here he was engaged in directing the
affairs of the churches and universities, and in promoting the work of
Lutheran pacification and concord at large. During his efforts to unite
the Lutherans he was maligned by the Philippists, and severely
criticized also by the strict Lutherans. The latter was largely due to
the fact that in his first attempts at pacification he allowed himself
to be duped by the Wittenberg Philippists, being even blind enough to
defend them against the charges of Calvinism in the doctrine of the
Lord's Supper made by their opponents in Jena and in Lower Saxony. While
thus Andreae was the able and enthusiastic promoter of the pacification
which culminated in the adoption of the _Formula of Concord_, he lacked
the theological insight, acumen, and consistency which characterized
Martin Chemnitz.
Martin Chemnitz was born November 9, 1522, at Treuenbritzen in
Brandenburg. As a boy he attended, for a brief period, the school in
Wittenberg, where he "rejoiced to see the renowned men of whom he had
heard so much at home, and to hear Luther preach." From 1539 to 1542 he
attended the Gymnasium at Magdeburg; from 1543 to 1545 he studied in
Frankfort-on-the-Oder; in 1545 he went to Wittenberg, where Melanchthon
directed his studies. In 1548 he became rector of the school in
Koenigsberg, and 1550 librarian of Duke Albrecht, with a good salary.
Owing to his participation in the Osiandrian controversy, Chemnitz lost
the favor of Albrecht, and in 1553 he removed to Wittenberg. On June 9,
1554, he began his lectures on Melanchthon's _Loci Communes_ before a
large and enthusiastic audience, Melanchthon himself being one of his
hearers. In November, 1554, he accepted a position as pastor, and in
1567 as superintendent, in the city of Brunswick. He died April 8, 1586.
Chemnitz was the prince of the Lutheran divines of his age and, next to
Luther, the greatest theologian of our Church. Referring to Luther and
Chemnitz, the Romanists said: "You Lutherans have two Martins; if the
second had not appeared, the first would have disappeared (_si posterior
non fuisset, prior non stetisset_)." Besides the two Lutheran classics:
_Examen Concilii Tridentini_, published 1565--1573, and _De Duabus
Naturis in Christo_, 1570, Chemnitz wrote, among other books: _Harmonia
Evangelica_, continued and published 1593 by Leyser and completed by
John Gerhard, and _Foundations_ (_Die Fundamente_) _of the Sound
Doctrine concerning the Substantial Presence, Tendering, and Eating and
Drinking of the Body and Blood of the Lord in the Supper_, 1569.
Andreae and Chemnitz became acquainted with each other in 1568, when
Duke Julius invited the former to conduct the visitation in Brunswick
together with Chemnitz. They jointly also composed the Brunswick Church
Order of 1569, which was preceded by the _Corpus Doctrinae Iulium_,
compiled by Chemnitz and containing the _Augsburg Confession_, the
_Apology_, the _Smalcald Articles_, the Catechisms of Luther, and a
"short [rather long], simple, and necessary treatise on the prevalent
corruptions." Andreae and Chemnitz are the theologians to whom more than
any other two men our Church owes the _Formula of Concord_ and the
unification of our Church in the one true Christian faith as taught by
Luther. However, it is Chemnitz who, more than Andreae or any other
theologian, must be credited with the theological clarity and the
correctness which characterizes the _Formula_.