Drawing accurately and deeply, as it did, the lines of demarcation
between Lutheranism, on the one hand, and Calvinism, Philippism, etc.,
on the other, and thus also putting an end to the Calvinistic propaganda
successfully carried on for decades within the Lutheran Church, the
_Formula of Concord_ was bound to become a rock of offense and to meet
with opposition on the part of all enemies of genuine Lutheranism within
as well as without the Lutheran Church. Both Romanists and Calvinists
had long ago accustomed themselves to viewing the Lutheran Church as
moribund and merely to be preyed upon by others. Accordingly, when,
contrary to all expectations, our Church, united by the _Formula_, rose
once more to her pristine power and glory, it roused the envy and
inflamed the ire and rage of her enemies. Numerous protests against the
_Formula_, emanating chiefly from Reformed and Crypto-Calvinistic
sources, were lodged with Elector August and other Lutheran princes.
Even Queen Elizabeth of England sent a deputation urging the Elector not
to allow the promulgation of the new confession. John Casimir of the
Palatinate, also at the instigation of the English queen, endeavored to
organize the Reformed in order to prevent its adoption. Also later on
the Calvinists insisted that a general council (of course, participated
in by Calvinists and Crypto-Calvinists) should have been held to decide
on its formal and final adoption!
Numerous attacks on the _Formula of Concord_ were published 1578, 1579,
1581, and later, some of them anonymously. They were directed chiefly
against its doctrine of the real presence in the Lord's Supper, the
majesty of the human nature of Christ, and eternal election,
particularly its refusal to solve, either in a synergistic or in a
Calvinistic manner, the mystery presented to human reason in the
teaching of the Bible that God alone is the cause of man's salvation,
while man alone is the cause of his damnation. In a letter to Beza,
Ursinus, the chief author of the Heidelberg Catechism, shrewdly advised
the Reformed to continue accepting the _Augsburg Confession_, but to
agitate against the _Formula_. He himself led the Reformed attacks by
publishing, 1581, "_Admonitio Christiana de Libro Concordiae_, Christian
Admonition Concerning the Book of Concord," also called "_Admonitio
Neostadiensis_, Neustadt Admonition." Its charges were refuted in the
"Apology or Defense of the Christian Book of Concord--_Apologia oder
Verantwortung des christlichen Konkordienbuchs_, in welcher die wahre
christliche Lehre, so im Konkordienbuch verfasst, mit gutem Grunde
heiliger, goettlicher Schrift verteidiget, die Verkehrung aber und
Kalumnien, so von unruhigen Leuten wider gedachtes christliche Buch
ausgesprenget, widerlegt worden," 1583 (1582). Having been prepared by
command of the Lutheran electors, and composed by Kirchner, Selneccer,
and Chemnitz, and before its publication also submitted to other
theologians for their approval, this guardedly written _Apology_, also
called the Erfurt Book, gained considerable authority and influence.
The Preface of this Erfurt Book enumerates, besides the Christian
Admonition of Ursinus and the Neustadt theologians, the following
writings published against the _Formula of Concord_: 1. _Opinion and
Apology_ (_Bedencken und Apologie_) of Some Anhalt Theologians; 2.
_Defense_ (_Verantwortung_) of the Bremen Preachers; Christian Irenaeus
on Original Sin; _Nova Novorum_ ("ein famos Libell"); other libelli,
satyrae et pasquilli; _Calumniae et Scurrilia Convitia of Brother Nass_
(_Bruder Nass_); and the history of the _Augsburg Confession_ by
Ambrosius Wolf, in which the author asserts that from the beginning the
doctrine of Zwingli and Calvin predominated in all Protestant churches.
The theologians of Neustadt, Bremen, and Anhalt replied to the Erfurt
Apology; which, in turn, called forth counter-replies from the
Lutherans. Beza wrote: _Refutation of the Dogma Concerning the
Fictitious Omnipresence of the Flesh of Christ_. In 1607 Hospinian
published his _Concordia Discors_," [tr. note: sic on punctuation] to
which Hutter replied in his _Concordia Concors_. The papal detractors of
the _Formula_ were led by the Jesuit Cardinal Bellarmin, who in 1589
published his _Judgment of the Book of Concord_.