consent of orthodox Christendom; (3) the specific and controverted dogmas of the several
confessions. He concludes the discussion with this exhortation: —
"Summa est: Servemus in necessariis unitatem, in non-necessariis libertatem, in utrisque
charitatem."
He adds, "Vincat veritas, vivat charitas, maneat libertas per Jesum Christum qui est veritas
ipsa, charitas ipsa, libertas ipsa."
Bertheau deems it uncertain whether Meldenius or Frank was the author. But the question
is decided by the express testimony of Conrad, Berg, who was a colleague of Frank in the same
university between 1627 and 1628, and ascribes the sentence to Meldenius.
Fifty years later Richard Baxter, the Puritan pacificator in England, refers to the sentence,
Nov. 15, 1679, in the preface to The True and Only Way of Concord of All the Christian Churches,
London, 1680, in a slightly different form: "I once more repeat to you the pacificator’s old despised
words, ’Si in necessariis sit [esset] unitas, in non necessariis libertas, in utrisque charitas, optimo
certo loco essent res nostrae.’ "
Luecke was the first to quote this passage, but overlooked a direct reference of Baxter to
Meldenius in the same tract on p. 25. This Dr. Briggs discovered, and quotes as follows: —
"Were there no more said of all this subject, but that of Rupertus Meldenius, cited by
Conradus Bergius, it might end all schism if well understood and used, viz." Then follows the
sentence. Baxter also refers to Meldenius on the preceding page. This strengthens the conclusion
that Meldenius was the "pacificator." For we are referred here to the testimony of a contemporary
of Meldenius. Samuel Werenfels, a distinguished irenical divine of Basel, likewise mentions
Meldenius and Conrad Bergius together as irenical divines, and testes veritatis, and quotes several
passages from the Paraenesis votiva.
Conrad Bergius (Berg), from whom Baxter derived his knowledge of the sentence, was
professor in the university of Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, and then a preacher at Bremen. He and his
brother John Berg (1587–1658), court chaplain of Brandenburg, were irenical divines of the German
Reformed Church, and moderate Calvinists. John Berg attended the Leipzig Colloquy of March,
1631, where Lutheran and Reformed divines agreed on the basis of the revised Augsburg Confession
of 1540 in every article of doctrine, except the corporal presence and oral manducation. The colloquy
was in advance of the spirit of the age, and had no permanent effect. See Schaff, Creeds of
Christendom, I. 558 sqq., and Niemeyer, Collectio Confessionum in Ecclesiis Reformatis
publicatarum, p. LXXV. and 653–668.
Dr. Briggs has investigated the writings of Conrad Bergius and his associates in the royal
library of Berlin. In his "Praxis Catholica divini canonis contra quasvis haereses et schismata," etc.,
which appeared at Bremen in 1639, Bergius concludes with the classical word of "Rupertus
Meldenius Theologus," and a brief comment on it. This is quoted by Baxter in the form just given.
In the autumn of 1627 Bergius preached two discourses at Frankfurt on the subject of Christian
union, which accord with the sentence, and appeared in 1628 with the consent of the theological
faculty. They were afterwards incorporated in his Praxis Catholica. He was thoroughly at home in
the polemics and irenics of his age, and can be relied on as to the authorship of the sentence.
But who was Meldenius? This is still an unsolved question. Possibly he took his name from
Melden, a little village on the borders of Bohemia and Silesia. His voice was drowned, and his
name forgotten, for two centuries, but is now again heard with increased force. I subscribe to the
concluding words of my esteemed colleague, Dr. Briggs: "Like a mountain stream that disappears
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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