In his first attempts to unify the Lutheran Church, Andreae endeavored
to reconcile all parties, including the Wittenberg Philippists, who then
were contemplating an agreement with the Calvinists. In 1567, at the
instance of Landgrave William of Hesse-Cassel and Duke Christopher of
Wuerttemberg, Andreae composed his "_Confession and Brief Explanation of
Several Controverted Articles_, according to which a Christian unity
might be effected in the churches adhering to the _Augsburg Confession_,
and the offensive and wearisome dissension might be settled." In five
articles he treated: 1. Justification, 2. Good Works, 3. Free Will, 4.
The Adiaphora, 5. The Lord's Supper. The second article maintains that
we are neither justified nor saved by good works, since Christ has
earned for us both salvation and righteousness by His innocent
obedience, suffering, and death alone, which is imputed as righteousness
to all believers solely by faith. It rejects all those who teach
otherwise, but not directly and expressly the statement: Good works are
necessary to salvation. The third article maintains that, also after the
Fall, man is not a block, but a rational creature having a free, though
weak, will in external things; but that in divine and spiritual matters
his intellect is utterly blind and his will is dead; and that hence,
unless God creates a new volition in him, man is unable of himself, of
his own powers, to accept the grace of God offered in Christ. It rejects
all who teach otherwise. The fourth article states that ceremonies are
no longer free, but must be abandoned, when their adoption is connected
with a denial of the Christian religion, doctrine, and confession. It
rejects all those who teach otherwise. The fifth article emphasizes that
also the wicked when they partake of the Lord's Supper, receive the body
of Christ, but to their damnation. It furthermore declares: Since it is
objected that the body and blood cannot be present in the Holy Supper
because Christ ascended to heaven with His body, it is necessary "to
explain the article of the incarnation of the Son of God, and to
indicate, in as simple a way as possible, the manner in which both
natures, divine and human, are united in Christ, wherefrom it appears to
what height the human nature in Christ has been exalted by the personal
union." (Hutter, _Concordia Concors_, 110ff.)
In 1568, at the Brunswick Visitation, referred to above, Andreae
submitted, his five articles to Duke Julius, and succeeded in winning
him for his plan. In the same interest he came to Wittenberg, January 9,
1569. Furnished with letters of commendation from Duke Julius and
Landgrave William of Hesse, he obtained an interview also with Elector
August, who referred him to his theologians. On August 18, 1569, Andreae
held a conference with the Wittenbergers. They insisted that the basis
of the contemplated agreement must be the _Corpus Misnicum_
(_Philippicum_). When Andreae, unsophisticated as he still was with
respect to the real character of Philippism, publicly declared that the
Wittenbergers were orthodox teachers, and that the _Corpus Misnicum_
contained no false doctrine he was supplied with a testimonial in which
the Wittenbergers refer to their _Corpus_, but not to Andreae's
articles, to which also they had not fully consented. The result was
that the Jena theologians, in particular Tilemann Hesshusius, denounced
Andreae's efforts as a unionistic scheme and a betrayal of true
Lutheranism in the interest of Crypto-Calvinism. They rejected Andreae's
articles because they were incomplete, and contained no specific
rejection of the errors of the Philippists.
At the instance of Andreae, May 7, 1570, a conference met at Zerbst in
Anhalt, at which twenty theologians represented Electoral Saxony,
Brunswick, Hesse, Brandenburg, Anhalt, and Lower Saxony (the Ducal Saxon
theologians declining to participate). The conference decided that a new
confession was not needed, and unanimously recognized the _Augsburg
Confession_, its _Apology_, the _Smalcald Articles_, and the Catechisms
of Luther. Andreae was elated. In his "Report" to the Emperor and the
princes he gloried in "the Christian unity" attained at Zerbst. But also
this apparent victory for peace and true Lutheranism was illusory rather
than real, for the Wittenberg theologians qualified their subscription
by formally declaring that they interpreted and received the confessions
enumerated only in as far as they agreed with the _Corpus Philippicum_.
And before long the Crypto-Calvinistic publications, referred to in the
chapter on the Crypto-Calvinistic Controversy, began to make their
appearance. The only result of these first peace efforts of Andreae,
which lacked in single-minded devotion to the truth, and did not
sufficiently exclude every form of indifferentism and unionism, was that
he himself was regarded with increasing suspicion by the opponents of
the Philippists. As for Andreae, however, the dealings which he had with
the dishonest Wittenbergers opened his eyes and convinced him that it
was impossible to win Electoral Saxony for a truly Lutheran union as
long as the Crypto-Calvinists were firmly seated in the saddle.