XVII.

CENT. nions was not practicable, and that it would be SECT. II. entirely extravagant to imagine that any of these PART II. communities could ever be brought to embrace

universally, and without limitation, the doctrines of the other. They made it, therefore, their principal business to persuade those, whose spirits were inflamed with the heat of controversy,-that the points in debate between the two churches were not essential to true religion;-that the fundamental doctrines of Christianity were received and professed in both communions ;-and that the difference of opinion between the contending parties, turned either upon points of an abstruse and incomprehensible nature, or upon matters of indifference, which neither tended to render mankind wiser nor better, and in which the interests of genuine piety were in no wise concerned. Those who viewed things in this point of light, were obliged to acknowledge, that the diversity of opinions between the two churches was by no means a sufficient reason for their separation; and that of consequence they were called, by the dictates of that gospel which they both professed, to live not only in the mutual exercise of Christian charity, but also to enter into the fraternal bonds of church-communion. The greatest part of the reformed doctors seemed disposed to acknowledge, that the errors of the Lutherans were not of a momentous nature, nor of a pernicious tendency; and that the fundamental doctrines of Christianity had not undergone any remarkable alteration in that communion; and thus on their side an important step was made towards peace and union between the two churches. But the greatest part of the Lutheran doctors declared, that they could not form a like judgment with respect to the doc. trine of the Reformed churches; they maintained tenaciously the importance of the points which divided the two communions, and affirmed, that

a con

XVII.

a considerable part of the controversy turned upon CENT the fundamental principles of all religion and vir- SECT. II. tue. It is not at all surprising, that this steadi- PART 11. ness and constancy of the Lutherans was branded by the opposite party with the epithets of morose obstinacy, supercilious arrogance, and such like odious denominations. The Lutherans were not behind-hand with their adversaries in acrimony of style; they recriminated with vehemence, and charged their accusers with instances of misconduct, different in kind, but equally condemnable. They reproached them with having dealt disin genuously, by disguising, under ambiguous expressions, the real doctrine of the Reformed churches; they observed further, that their adversaries, notwithstanding their consummate pṛudence and circumspection, gave plain-proofs, on many occasions, that their propensity to a reconciliation between the two churches arose from views of private interest, rather than from a zeal for the public good.

of Charen

ton,

IV. Among the public transactions relative to Declaration the project of a union between the Reformed and of the synod Lutheran churches, we must not omit mentioning the attempt made by James I. king of Great Britain, to accomplish this salutary purpose, in the year 1615. The person employed for this end by the British monarch, was Peter du Moulin, the most eminent among the Protestant doctors in France [e]; but this design was neither carried on with spirit, nor attended with success [f]. Another

[e] See La Vassor, Hist. de Louis XIII. tom. ii. p. ii. p. 21. [f] King James, who would have abandoned the most important and noble design, at any time, to discuss a point of grammar or theology, or to gain a point of interest for himself or his minions, neglected this union of the Lutheran and Reformed churches, which he had begun to promote with such an appearance of piety and zeal.

CEN T. Another attempt of the same pacific nature was XVII. made in the year 1631, in the fynod of Charenton, in PART II. which an act was passed by the Reformed doctors

SECT II.

of that respectable assembly, declaring the Lutheran system of religion conformable with the spirit of true piety, and free from pernicious and fundamental errors. By this act, a fair opportunity was offered to the Lutherans of joining with the Reformed church upon honourable terms, and of entering into the bonds both of civil and religious communion with their Calvinistical brethren [g]. But this candid and charitable proceeding was attended with very little fruit, since few of the Lutherans were disposed to embrace the occasion that was here so freely offered them, of terminating the dissentions that separated the two churches. The same year a conference was held at Leipsic between the Saxon doctors, Koe, Lyser, and Hopfner, on the one side, and some of the most eminent divines of Hesse-Cassel and Brandenburg, on the other; to the end that, by exposing with fidelity and precision their respective doctrines, it might be more easily seen, what the real obstacles were that stood in the way of the union projected between the two churches. This conference was conducted with decency and moderation, and the deliberations were neither disturbed by intemperate zeal, nor by a proud spirit of contention and dispute; but that openness of heart, that mutual trust and confidence, which are so essential to the success of all kinds of pacification, were wanting here. For though the doctors of the Reformed party exposed, with the utmost precision and fairness, the tenets of their church, and made, moreover, many concessions, which the Lutherans themselves

[g] Benoit, Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes, tom. ii. p. 544 -Aymon, Actes des Synodes Nationaux des Eglises Reformee, de France, tom. ii. p. 500.-Ittigii Dissert. de Synodi Carentoniensis indulgentia erga Lutheranos, Lips. 1705, 4to.

XVII

themselves could scarcely expect; yet the latter, C EN T. suspicious and fearful, and always apprehensive SECT. II. of schemes, formed by artifice under the mask of PART II. candour, to betray and ensnare them, did not dare to acknowledge, that they were satisfied with these explications and offers; and thus the conference broke up without having contributed in any respect to promote the salutary work of peace [b]. To form a true idea of these pacific deliberations, of the reasons that gave rise to them, and of the principles by which they were conducted, it will be necessary to study the civil history of this interesting period with attention and care.

ferences at

V. ULADISLAUS IV. king of Poland, formed The cona still more extensive plan of religious union than Thorn and those hitherto mentioned; he proposed a recon-Cassel. ciliation not only between the Reformed and Lutheran churches, but also between these two communions and that of Rome. For this purpose, he ordered a conference to be held at Thorn, in the year 1645, the issue of which, as might naturally have been expected, was far from being favourable to the projected union; for the persons employed by the three churches to heal their divisions, or at least to calm their animosities, returned from this conference with a greater measure of party zeal, and a smaller portion of Christian charity, than they had brought to it.

The conference held at Cassel in the year 1661, by the order of WILLIAM VI. Landgrave of Hesse, between MUSEUS and HENICHIUS, professors at Rintelen, on the side of the Lutherans, and VOL. V. CURTIUS

T

[b] Timanni Gasselii Historia Sacra et Ecclesiastica, p. ii. in addendis, p. 597-613. in which the acts of this conference are published. Jo. Wolfg. Jaegeri Historia Sæculi xvii. Decenn. iv. p. 497. This testimony of Dr Mosheim, who was himself Lutheran, is singularly honourable to the reformed doc

tors.

XVII.

CENT.CURTIUS and HEINSIUS, of the university of Mar SECT. 1. purg, on that of the Reformed, was attended with PART II. much more success; and, if it did not bring a

bout a perfect uniformity of opinion, it produced what was much better, a spirit of Christian charity and forbearance. For these candid doctors, after having diligently examined the nature, and weighed the importance, of the controversies that divided the two churches, embraced each other with reciprocal marks of affection and esteem, and mutually declared that their respective doctrines were less different from each other than was generally imagined; and that this difference was not of sufficient moment to prevent their fraternal union and concord. But it happened unluckily, that these moderate doctors of Rintelen could not infuse the same spirit of peace and charity that animated them, into their Lutheran brethren, nor persuade them to view the difference of opinion, that divided the Protestant churches, in the same indulgent point of light in which they had considered them in the conference at Cassel. On the contrary, this their moderation drew upon them the hatred of almost all the Lutherans; and they were loaded with bitter reproaches in a multitude of pamphlets [7], that were composed expressly to refute their sentiments, and to censure their conduct. The pains that were taken after

this

[] The writers who have given accounts of the conferences of Thorn and Cassel, are enumerated by Sagittarius, in his Introd. ad Hist. Ecclesiast. tom. ii. p. 1604.-See also Jaegeri Historia Seculi xvii. Decenn. v. p. 689. and Decenn. vii. p. 160. where the Acts of the conferences of Cassel and Thorn are extant. Add to these, Jo. Alphons. Turretini Nubes Testium pro moderato in rebus Theologicis judicio, p. 178.-There is an ample account of the conference of Cassel in the Life of Musæus given by Mollerus in his Cimbria Literata, tom. ii. p. 566. The reader will find in the same work, an accurate Index of the accounts of this conference, published on both sides.