Crypto-Calvinism is a pejorative term describing a segment of those members of theLutheran Church in Germany who were accused of secretly subscribing toCalvinist doctrine of theEucharist in the decades immediately after the death ofMartin Luther in 1546. It denotes what was seen as a hidden (crypto- fromGreek:κρύπτω meaning "to hide, conceal, to be hid")[1] Calvinist belief, i.e., the doctrines ofJohn Calvin, by members of the Lutheran Church. The term crypto-Calvinist in Lutheranism was preceded by termsZwinglian andSacramentarian. Also,Jansenism has been accused of crypto-Calvinism by Roman Catholics.[2]
Martin Luther had controversies with "Sacramentarians", and he published against them, for example, in hisThe Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ—Against the Fanatics andConfession Concerning Christ's Supper.Philipp I of Hessen arranged theMarburg Colloquy in 1529, but no agreement could be reached concerning the doctrine ofReal Presence. Subsequently, theWittenberg Concord of 1536 was signed, but this attempt at resolving the issue ultimately failed.
While Lutheranism had weakened after theSchmalkaldic War and Interim controversies, the Calvinist Reformation was spreading across Europe. Calvinists wanted to help Lutherans to give up "remnants ofpopery", as they saw it. By this time Calvinism had expanded its influence to southern Germany (not least because of the work ofMartin Bucer), but thePeace of Augsburg (1555) had given religious freedom in Germany only to Lutherans, and it was not officially extended to Calvinists until theTreaty of Westphalia in 1648. WhileBullinger,Zwingli's successor, had, in 1549, accepted Calvin's much less radical view of Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper (that is, that the Eucharist was more than a sign and that Christ was truly present in it and was received by faith), Calvinist theologians thought that Lutheran theology also had changed its view of theReal Presence because the issue was not discussed anymore, andPhilippist teaching gave some justification to this conclusion.
Beginning in the 20th century, some scholars began using the term crypto-Philippist in place of the word crypto-Calvinist. However, there is no change in the meaning of the term.[3]
When Luther died in 1546, his closest friend and ally,Philipp Melanchthon, became the leading Lutheran theologian of theProtestant Reformation. He was by training not a theologian but rather a classics scholar, and his theological approach became more or lessirenic both towardCatholicism and towardCalvinism, an approach that his disciples, calledPhilippists, also followed. This attitude towards the Reformed doctrine of the Eucharist had become evident already in 1540, when Melanchthon had published another version of theAugsburg Confession ("Variata"), in which the article on theReal Presence differed essentially from what had been expressed in 1530. The wording is as follows:
The altered edition was made the basis of negotiations with the Roman Catholics at the Colloquies ofWorms andRatisbon in 1541, and at the later Colloquies in 1546 and 1557. It was printed (with the title and preface of the Invariata) inCorpus Doctrinae Philippicum in 1559; it was expressly approved by the Lutheran princes at the Convention of Naumburg in 1561, after Melanchthon's death, as an improved modification and authentic interpretation of the Confession, and was adhered to by the Melanchthonians and the Reformed even after the adoption of theBook of Concord (1580).John Calvin also signed it. However, it did not have the legal status given to the original version by thePeace of Augsburg.
The Real Presence for Luther was beyond any doubt: The host consecrated isChrist's body,[5] while for Melanchthon the words spoken during the establishment by Jesus only promised that his body and blood were received.[6] Melanchthon rejected the doctrine of ubiquity and spoke about the personal presence of Christ in the Eucharist, without any further definitions[citation needed]. The theology of Melanchthon's school in general was opposed by Lutherans, who were called Flacians by their opponents.[citation needed] Later they were called "Gnesio-Lutherans".Matthias Flacius had been the leader againstPhilippism in earlier controversies, but even Gnesio-Lutherans did not pay much attention to the doctrine of the Eucharist untilJoachim Westphal began, in 1552, to write against those who denied the Real Presence. WhenJohn Calvin himself answered him in 1555, there was open, inter-Protestant controversy about Eucharist, which involvedLasco,Bullinger,Ochino,Valerandus Polanus,Beza, andBibliander on theReformed side andTimann,HeshusiusPaul von Eitzen,Schnepff,E. Alberus,Gallus,Flacius,Judex,Brenz, andAndreä on the Lutheran side. TheColloquy of Worms in 1557 was an attempt to achieve unity among Lutherans, but it failed.
During these controversies theState Church of theElectorate of the Palatinate, where Philippism predominated, changed from the Lutheran to theReformed faith underFrederick III (1560). TheHeidelberg Catechism, which was written there, was also meant to form bridges between Lutherans and Reformed in Germany – one of its authors,Zacharias Ursinus, was Melanchthon's disciple.
There were a number of local controversies, such as the Saligerian Controversy in Lübeck in 1568 and 1574, a controversy in Rostock in 1569, a controversy in Bremen in 1554 involving Melanchthon's friendAlbert Rizaeus Hardenberg, and a controversy in Danzig in 1561–1562.
The earliest of these incidents had happened withSimon Wolferinus, pastor of St. Andreas at Eisleben in 1543, while Martin Luther still lived. The controversy was also abouteucharistic adoration, which was defended by "Gnesio-Lutherans" and also many other Lutherans outside of the Flacian party, includingJohann Hachenburg,Andreas Musculus,Jakob Rungius, andLaurentius Petri. This belief was shared byNikolaus Selnecker,Martin Chemnitz, andTimotheus Kirchner. A feast of victory of genuine Lutheranism over Philippism was celebrated in one of the German principalities with prayers for the preservation of the doctrine of justification and the doctrine of the adoration of the Sacrament.[7]Paul Eber was one of the main Philippist opponents of eucharistic adoration.
Controversy about crypto-Calvinism inside ofLutheran Church divides into two stages: 1552–1574 and 1586–1592. It was the most bitter of all controversies after Luther's death.
Crypto-Calvinists had gained the ecclesiastical power in Saxony during the rule ofElector Augustus, but the unquestionably Calvinistic work ofJoachim Cureus,Exegesis perspicua de sacra cœna (1574) and a confidential letter ofJohann Stössel that fell into theelector's hands opened his eyes. The heads of the Philippist party were imprisoned and roughly handled, and the Torgau Confession of 1574 completed their downfall.Caspar Peucer, not incidentally Melanchthon's son-in-law, was captured and jailed for 12 years in theKönigstein Fortress for Crypto-Calvinism. Their cause was thwarted in those territories that adopted theFormula of Concord, although in some others it survived under the aspect of a modified Lutheranism, as inNuremberg, or, as in Nassau,Hesse, Anhalt, and Bremen, where it became more or less definitely identified withCalvinism.
Crypto-Calvinism raised its head once more in theElectorate of Saxony in 1586, on the accession ofChristian I, but on his death five years later it came to a sudden and bloody end with the murder ofNikolaus Krell as a victim to this unpopular revival ofCalvinism.[8]
InDenmark crypto-Calvinism was represented byNiels Hemmingsen.[9] In Sweden, crypto-Calvinism, which was resisted by ArchbishopOlaus Martini, was supported byDuke Charles, uncle of Catholic kingSigismund III Vasa. Calvinism was finally banned at theUppsala Synod of 1593 by the initiative ofBishop of Turku,Ericus Erici Sorolainen,[10] and BishopOlaus Stephani Bellinus.
Following thePrussian Union and other Evangelical unions in Germany, today'sEvangelical Church in Germany is an umbrella organisation of Lutheran, Union, and Reformedchurch bodies. TheLeuenberg Concord (1962) made a similar irenic solution between Lutheran and Calvinist doctrines, whileConfessional Lutheran church bodies still continue to see Calvinist teaching on the Lord's Supper as a danger to Lutheran faith and identity.
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