In Electoral Saxony, where Crypto-Calvinism had reigned supreme for many
years, prevailing conditions naturally called for a strict procedure.
For Calvinists could certainly not be tolerated as preachers in Lutheran
churches or as teachers in Lutheran schools. Such was also the settled
conviction and determination of Elector August. When he learned that the
Wittenberg professors were trying to evade an unqualified subscription,
he declared: By the help of God I am determined, as long as I live to
keep my churches and schools pure and in agreement with the _Formula of
Concord_. Whoever does not want to cooperate with me may go, I have no
desire for him. God protect me, and those belonging to me, from Papists
and Calvinists--I have experienced it. (Richard, 529.)
The Elector demanded that every pastor affix his own signature to the
_Formula_. Accordingly, in every place, beginning with Wittenberg, the
commissioners addressed the ministers and schoolteachers, who had been
summoned from the smaller towns and villages, read the _Formula_ to
them, exhorted them to examine it and to express their doubts or
scruples, if they had any, and finally demanded subscription of all
those who could not bring any charge of false doctrine against it.
According to Planck only one pastor, one superintendent (Kolditz, who
later on subscribed), and one schoolteacher refused to subscribe. (6,
560.) Several professors in Leipzig and Wittenberg who declined to
acknowledge the _Formula_ were dismissed.
However, as stated, also in Electoral Saxony coercion was not employed.
Moreover, objections were listened to with patience, and time was
allowed for consideration. Indeed, in the name of the Elector every one
was admonished not to subscribe against his conscience. I. F. Mueller
says in his _Historico-Theological Introduction to the Lutheran
Symbols_: "At the Herzberg Convention, 1578, Andreae felt justified in
stating: 'I can truthfully say that no one was coerced to subscribe or
banished on that account. If this is not true, the Son of God has not
redeemed me with His blood; for otherwise I do not want to become a
partaker of the blood of Christ.' Pursuant to this declaration the
opponents were publicly challenged to mention a single person who had
subscribed by compulsion, but they were unable to do so. Moreover, even
the Nuernbergers, who did not adopt the _Formula of Concord_,
acknowledged that the signatures had been affixed without employment of
force." (115.) True, October 8, 1578, Andreae wrote to Chemnitz: "We
treated the pastors with such severity that a certain truly good man and
sincere minister of the church afterwards said to us in the lodging
that, when the matter was proposed so severely, his mind was seized with
a great consternation which caused him to think that he, being near
Mount Sinai, was hearing the promulgation of the Mosaic Law (_se animo
adeo consternato fuisse, cum negotium tam severiter proponeretur, ut
existimaret, se monti Sinai proximum legis Mosaicae promulgationem
audire_).... I do not believe that anywhere a similar severity has been
employed." (116.) But the term "severity" here employed does not mean
force or compulsion, but merely signifies religious seriousness and
moral determination to eliminate Crypto-Calvinism from the Lutheran
Church in Electoral Saxony. The spirit in which also Andreae desired
this matter to be conducted appears from his letter of November 20,
1579, to Count Wolfgang, in which he says: Although as yet some
ministers in his country had not subscribed to the _Formula_, he should
not make too much of that, much less press or persuade them; for whoever
did not subscribe spontaneously and with a good conscience should
abstain from subscribing altogether much rather than pledge himself with
word and hand when his heart did not concur--_denn wer es nicht mit
seinem Geist und gutem Gewissen tue, bleibe viel besser davon, als dass
er sich mit Worten und mit der Hand dazu bekenne und das Herz nicht
daran waere_. (115.)
Also Selneccer testifies to the general willingness with which the
ministers in Saxony affixed their signatures. With respect to the
universities of Wittenberg and Leipzig, however, he remarks that there
some were found who, while willing to acknowledge the first part of the
_Book of Concord_, begged to be excused from signing the _Formula_, but
that they had been told by the Elector: If they agreed with the first
part, there was no reason why they should refuse to sign the second,
since it was based on the first. (Carpzov, _Isagoge_ 20.) While thus in
Electoral Saxony subscription to the _Formula_ was indeed demanded of
all professors and ministers, there is not a single case on record in
which compulsion was employed to obtain it.
In Brandenburg the clergy subscribed unconditionally, spontaneously, and
with thankfulness toward God and to their "faithful, pious ruler for his
fatherly care of the Church." Nor was any opposition met with in
Wuerttemberg, where the subscription was completed in October, 1577. In
Mecklenburg the ministers were kindly invited to subscribe. Such as
refused were suspended and given time for deliberation, with the proviso
that they abstain from criticizing the _Formula_ before the people. When
the superintendent of Wismar and several pastors declined finally to
adopt the _Formula_, they were deposed.
Accordingly, it was in keeping with the facts when the Lutheran electors
and princes declared in the Preface to the _Formula of Concord_ "that
their theologians, ministers, and schoolteachers" "did with glad heart
and heartfelt thanks to God the Almighty voluntarily and with
well-considered courage adopt, approve, and subscribe this _Book of
Concord_ [_Formula of Concord_] as the true and Christian sense of the
_Augsburg Confession_, and did publicly testify thereto with heart,
mouth and hand. Wherefore also this Christian Agreement is not the
confession of some few of our theologians only, but is called, and is in
general, the unanimous confession of each and every one of the ministers
and schoolteachers of our lands and provinces." (CONC. TRIGL. 12f.)