unionist and peacemaker between the Lutherans and Zwinglians. He forms also a connecting link
between Germany and England, and exerted some influence in framing the Anglican standards of
doctrine and worship. His motto was: "We believe in Christ, not in the church."^756
He impressed his character upon the church of Strassburg, which occupied a middle ground
between Wittenberg and Zürich, and gave shelter to Calvin and the Reformed refugees of France.
Strict Lutheranism triumphed for a period, but his irenical catholicity revived in the practical pietism
of Spener, who was likewise an Alsacian. In recent times the Strassburg professors, under the lead
of Dr. Reuss, mediated between the Protestant theology of Germany and that of France, in both
languages, and furnished the best edition of the works of John Calvin.
§ 96. The Reformation in North Germany.
In Magdeburg the doctrines of Luther were preached in 1522 by Melchior Mirisch, an
Augustinian prior, who had studied at Wittenberg. The magistrate shook off the authority of
Archbishop Albrecht, invited Luther to preach in 1524, and secured the services of his friend
Nicolaus von Amsdorf, who became superintendent, and introduced the, necessary changes. During
the Interim troubles the city was a stronghold of the Lutheran party headed by Flacius, and laid
under the imperial ban (1548). In the Thirty Years’ War it was burnt by Tilly (1631), but rose anew
from destruction.^757
In Magdeburg appeared the first Protestant church history, 1559–1574, in thirteen folio
volumes, edited by Flacius, under the title "The Magdeburg Centuries,"—a work of colossal industry,
but utilizing history for sectarian purposes against popery. It called forth the Annales of Baronius
in the opposite interest.
Breslau and Silesia were reformed chiefly by John Hess, who studied at Wittenberg, 1519,
a friend of Luther and Melanchthon. He held a successful disputation in Breslau in defense of the
Protestant doctrines, 1524.^758
Kaspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig (1490–1561), a nobleman in the service of the Duke Frederick
II. of Liegnitz, was one of the earliest promoters of the Reformation in Silesia, but fell out with
Luther in the eucharistic controversy (1524). He had peculiar views on the sacraments, similar to
those of the Quakers. He also taught that the flesh of Christ was deified. He founded a new sect,
which was persecuted in Germany, but is perpetuated among the Schwenkfeldian congregations
in Eastern Pennsylvania.^759
Among the later leaders of the Protestant cause in Breslau must be mentioned Crato von
Crafftheim (d. 1585), who studied at Wittenberg six years as an inmate of Luther’s household, and
became an eminent physician of the Emperor Maximilian II. His younger friend, Zacharias Ursinus
(d. 1583), is one of the two authors of the Heidelberg Catechism. Crato belonged to the
(^756) "Wir sind Christgläubig, nicht kirchgläubig."
(^757) Seckendorf, I. 246. Wolter, Gesch. der Stadt Magdeburg (1845); Hoffmann, Chronik der Stadt Magdeb. (1850, 3 vols.); Rathmann,
Gesch. Magdeb.; Preger, Matth. Flacius Illyricus und seine Zeit (Erlangen, 1859-1861).
(^758) Of this disputation Luther reported to Spalatin, May 11, 1524 (De Wette, II. 511): "Vratislaviæ disputatio Joannis Hess processit
feliciter, frustra resistentibus tot legatis regum et technis episcopi."
(^759) Professor Hartranft, D. D., of Hartford, Conn., a descendant of the Pennsylvania Schwenkfelders, has investigated the Schwenkfeld
literature at Breslau, and issued a prospectus for its publication (1887).