07070.1 - Confession of Sigismund

THE CONFESSION OF SIGISMUND. A.D. 1614.

See the original German text in the collections of Beck, Niemeyer, Böckel, and also in Heppe’s Bekenntniss-Schriften der reform. Kirchen Deutschlands, pp. 284-294.

John Sigismund (or Siegmund), Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1572, d. 1619) and ancestor of the royal line of Prussia, was brought up in the rigorous orthodoxy of the Lutheran Formula of Concord, and in his twenty-first year a solemn pledge was exacted from him by his father that he would always adhere to this creed (1593). But religious compulsion had on him an effect directly contrary to that contemplated (as is often the case with independent minds). His social relations with Holland, Cleves, and the Palatinate gave him a favorable impression of the doctrines and discipline of the Calvinistic Churches. In 1608 he succeeded to the throne. At Christmas, 1613, he publicly professed the Reformed faith by receiving the holy communion, according to the Reformed rite, in the Dome of Berlin, together with fifty-four others, including his brother John George, the Count of Nassau, Ernst Casimir, and the English embassador. This act was the result of conscientious conviction. [SeeNote #1052] It was meant to be not so much a change of creed as a further progress in Protestantism, but it created a great sensation, and called forth violent protests from Lutheran princes and pulpits. [SeeNote #1053] An edict forbidding public denunciations had little effect. A fanatical mob arose in rebellion against the Reformed preachers, and plundered their houses (1615). The great majority of the Elector’s subjects and his own wife remained Lutherans. [SeeNote #1054]

Nevertheless, his transition was of great prospective importance, for the house of Brandenburg was destined to become, by extraordinary talents and achievements, one of the leading dynasties of Europe, and to take the helm of the new Protestant German empire. In May, 1614, Sigismund issued a personal confession of faith, which is called after him and also after his country. It was drawn up by himself, with the aid of Dr. Pelargus, General Superintendent at Frankfort-on-the-Oder. It is brief, moderate, conciliatory, and intended to be merely supplementary concerning the controverted articles. The Elector professes faith in the ’true, infallible, and saving Word of God, as the only rule of the pious which is perfect, sufficient for salvation, and abides forever.’ Then he accepts, as agreeing with the Bible, the œcumenical creeds (namely, the Apostles’, the Nicene, the Athanasian, also the doctrinal decisions of Ephesus, 431, and of Chalcedon, 451), and the Augsburg Confession of 1530, with the later improvements of Melanchthon. In regard to the controverted articles, Sigismund rejects the Lutheran doctrine of the ubiquity of Christ’s body, and exorcism in baptism as a superstitious ceremony, and the use of the wafer instead of the breaking of bread in the communion. He adopts the Reformed doctrine of the sacraments, and of an eternal and unconditional election of grace, yet with the declaration that God sincerely wished the salvation of all men, and was not the author of sin and damnation. In conclusion the Elector expresses his wish and prayer that God may enlighten his faithful subjects with his truth, but disclaims all intention to coerce their conscience, since faith was the free gift of God (John 6:29; 2 Thessalonians 3:2; Php 1:29; Ephesians 3:8), and no one should presume to exercise dominion over men’s religion (2 Corinthians 1:24). He thus freely waived, in relation to his Lutheran subjects, the right of reformation, which was claimed and exercised by other Protestant princes, and established a basis for religious liberty and union. This wise toleration was in advance of the age, and contrasts favorably with the opposite policy of the Elector Augustus of Saxony, who forced the Formula of Concord upon his people, and answered the Emperor Maximilian II., when he interceded for the release from prison of Peucer (Melanchthon’s son-in-law): ’I want only such servants as believe and confess in religion neither more nor less than I myself believe and confess.’ [SeeNote #1055] These times of terrorism over men’s consciences are happily passed, and Sigismund’s toleration has become the settled policy of his successors to this day. The conduct of Luther and Zwingli at Marburg gave tone and character to all subsequent union conferences of the two confessions they represent. The Reformed, with a larger charity, were always willing to commune with Lutherans notwithstanding minor doctrinal differences; while the Lutherans, with a narrower conscience and a more compact system of theology, refused the hand of fellowship to the Reformed, and abhorred as a syncretistic heresy all union that was not based upon perfect agreement in dogma; yea, during the seventeenth century they would rather make common cause with Romanists than Calvinists, and went so far as to exclude the Calvinists from heaven. [SeeNote #1056] Fortunately Calixtus and his school, who had the Melanchthonian spirit, formed an honorable exception, and the exception, after much misrepresentation and persecution, has become the rule in the Lutheran Church.

Note #1052

Some writers, including Voltaire, trace the change to political motives-viz., that Sigismund wished to secure the friendship of Holland and England-but without proof. On the contrary, it was bad policy, and in its immediate effect rendered the Elector very unpopular among his German fellow-sovereigns and his own people. ’Kein Wort, ’ says Böckel, p. 427, ’keine Handlung des Kurfürsten Johann Sigismund verräth, dass ihn irgend eine unreine Nebenabsicht geleitet habe. ’ See also Möller and Hollenberg, l.c.

Note #1053 See Hutter’s Calvinista aulico-politicus.

Note #1054

Dr. Tholuck (Geist der luther.Theologen Wittenbergs,p. 118, referring to Hartknoch’s Preuss. Kirchenhistorie, p. 544) mentions the fact that Anna, the wife of Sigismund, in her will and testament ordered her chaplain in the funeral sermon to disown the Calvinistic (?) heresy that Christ’s blood and death are merely a man’s blood and death.

Note #1055 The Emperor replied: ’Das wage ich von meinen Dienern nicht zu fordern. ’ The same Elector Augustus said that ’if he had only one Calvinistic vein in his body, he wished the devil (sic!) would pull it out.’

Note #1056

Dr. Hülsemann of Wittenberg traced the charitable hope of Calixtus that he would meet many Reformed in heaven to the inspiration of the devil (’spes dubio procul a diabolo inspirata ’). Calixtus asked, Who inspired this opinion of Hülsemann? Leyser wrote a book to show that communion with Papists was preferable to communion with Calvinists. Another book of that age professed to prove that ’the damned Calvinistic heretics have six hundred and sixty-six theses in common with the Turks.’ The French Reformed Synod of Charenton in 1631 sanctioned the admission of Lutheran sponsors in baptism on the ground of essential agreement of the Augsburg Confession with the Reformed doctrine. This resolution was pronounced ’atheistic’ by Lutherans as well as Romanists. The spirit of Lutheran bigotry in that classical period of polemic confessionalism and exclusivism is well characterized and illustrated by Dr. Tholuck, in his Geist der luther. Theologen Wittenbergs im 17ten Jahrh. (1852), pp. 115, 169, 211, etc. Comp. also above, p. 346; Gieseler, Kirchengeschichte, Vol. III. Pt. II. (1853), p. 456; Hase, Kirchengesch. 9th ed. p. 510.