# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 04 20_S89
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall never pass away."

Published by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 3.

St. Louis, Mo., April 20, 1847.

No. 17.

Terms: Der Lutheraner is published once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who must pay half of this in advance and bear the postage themselves. — In St. Louis, each single issue is sold for 5 cents.

(Submitted by Pastor Schiefeidecker.)
The Visitation Articles: A Clear Presentation of the Difference between the Lutheran and Reformed Doctrine.

Soon at the beginning of the Reformation there arose the controversy concerning the holy Lord's Supper, whose principal instigators were Carlstadt, Zwingli, and Oecolampadius. In order to settle this controversy, the religious colloquy at Marburg was arranged in 1529 by Philip, Landgrave of Hesse; but since Zwingli and his like-minded associates persisted in their false doctrine, the colloquy came to nothing. Meanwhile, some who had previously sided with Zwingli began to draw nearer to Luther's teaching, and in 1536 there even came about an agreement between Luther and the Strasbourg theologians Bucer and Capito, who had been sent to Wittenberg by the Upper German cities, with Strasbourg at their head, in order to bring about a reconciliation with Luther. This was the so-called Wittenberg Concord, by which the division in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper among the Evangelicals in Germany was for the time being happily resolved, in that Strasbourg and the other Upper German cities accepted Luther's teaching and abandoned their former error. Since the Swiss too gave some hope of joining the agreement, both sides kept silent for some years. Notwithstanding this, the Swiss not only retained their error concerning the Sacrament, but also sought secretly to spread it further. Luther foresaw how things would go after his death; he therefore resolved once more, before his end, to write in all earnestness against the error concerning the Sacrament, and in 1544 published his Short Confession Concerning the Holy Supper. After his death the complete separation of the Reformed from our Church took place, which was promoted especially by John Calvin along with some others. Up to this point the disputes between the Lutherans and the Zwinglians concerned chiefly the doctrine of the holy Lord's Supper. But when Calvinism arose, other doctrines too were drawn into the controversy, especially those concerning the communication of the divine attributes and the communion of the two natures in Christ, concerning election by grace, and concerning Baptism.

Calvinism spread more and more; it found many adherents even among those who outwardly professed the Augsburg Confession, who therefore received the name of Crypto-Calvinists, that is, secret Calvinists. And who would have thought that Wittenberg of all places — where the pure doctrine had first gone forth through God's precious instrument Dr. M. Luther and had been spread throughout the whole world — would become the hiding place of these secret Calvinists! Yet Luther had already, in 1537, during his illness at Schmalkalden, predicted that he suspected there would be division and change in doctrine at Wittenberg after his death. For it did not escape his keen eye how not only Melanchthon, but also others among the Wittenberg theologians, were beginning to waver. Once, words written in Luther's own hand were found on the table in his room: "Nostri theologi examinandi sunt de coena," that is, our theologians ought to be searched in conscience on the point of the Lord's Supper. Luther complained repeatedly, especially around the years '43 and '44, that he did not know at all where he stood with Melanchthon in the matter of the Sacrament. To be sure, Melanchthon had on several occasions publicly declared himself for the evangelical truth against the Zwinglians. In 1537 he wrote to the Elector that with the Zwinglians it was only presumption, wickedness, and a delusion of reason, with which one could not stand before God. In the year 1540 he affirmed in his testament that he intended to remain faithful to the doctrine of the Wittenberg Concord until death. He also signed, in 1542, a Responsum of the entire theological faculty against the Zwinglians. Nevertheless, on various occasions he showed an inclination toward the Zwinglians. This inclination moved him to an unauthorized alteration of the Augsburg Confession, in that he changed the tenth article on the holy Lord's Supper in such a way that the Calvinists could conceal their error under it. And since he incorporated this altered confession into his corpus doctrinae, which was introduced as a Christian textbook in most of the churches and schools of Saxony, the old, unaltered Augsburg Confession was thereby almost entirely displaced. Although Melanchthon did not publicly declare himself for the Calvinists, he nevertheless stood in confidential correspondence with them and did not oppose their activity in any way. He allowed the Calvinists to force their way in everywhere. By about the year 1566 — that is, six years after Melanchthon's and twenty years after Luther's death — matters had come to such a pass that the evangelical-Lutheran doctrine was still publicly current in only a few places in and outside Saxony. How far the leaven of Calvinist doctrine had corrupted the pure confession at Wittenberg can be seen from the confession of the Wittenbergers on the holy Lord's Supper, which the Elector August had demanded of them and which had been drawn up by Paul Eber; in it they admit — flatly contrary to Luther's teaching — that the ungodly receive in the Supper nothing more than the reception of the bread and wine. In the year 1571, at the instigation of Dr. Caspar Peucer (Melanchthon's son-in-law), a catechism appeared, by means of which Calvinism sought to gain entrance into schools and families as well. But on account of this catechism a convention of the Lüneburg and Brunswick theologians, who were devoted to the pure doctrine, was held at Celle, and the new Wittenberg catechism was refuted in many writings. Thereupon the Wittenbergers published a vehement writing entitled The Foundation Concerning the Person and Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, etc., which, however, was assuredly nothing less than a foundation of pure doctrine, since in it they asserted all sorts of propositions detrimental to the person and honor of Christ. Through some other writings as well, the Wittenbergers revealed their falling away from Luther's teaching and their preference for Calvinism. They carried this on until the pious Elector August, earnestly concerned for the welfare of the Church, investigated the matter after receiving manifold warnings from various quarters. He summoned the Wittenberg theologians to a convention at Torgau, where certain doctrinal articles were laid before them, which they were to answer with Yes or No. Those who would not consent to sign were placed under arrest; but when they finally resolved to sign under certain conditions, they received their freedom again, but at the same time also the