\

AN

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY,

ANCIENT AND MODERN.

FROM THE

BIRTH OF CHRIST, TO THE BEGINNING OF THE PRESENT CENTURY ;

IX WBICK

The Rise, Progress, and Variations of

CHURCH POWER,

ARE CONSIDERED IN THEIR CONNEXION WITH THE STATE OB

Learning and Philosophy,

AND THE

POLITICAL HISTORY OF EUROPE, DURING "HAT PEHOD.

BY THE LATE LEARNED

JOHN LAWRENCE MOSHEIM, D.D.

And Chancellor of the Universiiy of Gottingen

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN, AND ACCOMPANIED WITIO NOTES

AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES.

BY ARCHIBALD MACLAINE, D.D.

IN FOUR VOLUMES,

TO WHICH IS ADDED, AN INDEX.

VOL. IV.

New-York:

PUBLISHED BY EVERT DUYCKINCK, COLLINS & HANNAY, COLLIN: & co.,

E. BLISS & E. WHITE, F. & R. LOCKWOOD, AND J. V. SEAMAN.

James & Joby Harper, Printers.

1824.

CONTINUED.

PART II.

HISTORY OF THE MODERN CHURCHES.

CHAPTER I.

therefore, at present, confine our view to the losses it susTHE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

SECTION II. 1. We have already seen" the calamities and vexations the Lutheran church suffered from the persecuting spirit of the Roman pontiffs, and the intemperate church hower zeal of the house of Austria, which, on many oc- some place. casions, showed too great a propensity to second camerace Cal their ambitious and despotic measures; we shall tained from other quarters. The cause of Lutheranism suffered considerably by the desertion of Maurice, landgrave of Hesse, a prince of uncommon genius and learning, who not only embraced the doctrine and discipline ofthereformed church, "but also, in the year 1604,removed the Lutheran professors from their places in the university of Marpurg, and the doctors of that communion from the churches they had in his dominions. Maurice, after taking this vigorous step, on account of the obstinacy with which the Lutheran clergy opposed his design, took particular care to have his subjects instructed in the doctrine of the Helvetic church, and introduced into the Hessian churches the form of public * In the History of the Romish Church. See above.

b. The reader must always remember, that the writers of the Continent generplay use the denomination of reformed in a limited sense, to distinguish the church of England and the Calvinistica churches from

those of the Lutheran persuasion.

HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH.

ibeira ed so Ith

worship that was observed at Geneva. This plan was not
executed without some difficulty ; but it acquired a com-
plete degree of stability and consistence in the year 1619,
when deputies were sent by this prince to the synod of
Dort, in Violland, with express orders to consent, in the
name of the Hessian churches, to all the acts that should
be passed in that assembly. The doctors of the reformed
church, who lived at this period, defended strenuously the
measures followed by Maurice, and maintained, that in all
these transactions he observed the strictest principles of
equity, and discovered an uncommon spirit of moderation.
Perhaps the doctors of modern days may view this matter
in a different point of light. They will acknowledge, per-
haps, without hesitation, that if this illustrious prince had
been more influenced by the sentiments of the wisest of
the reformed doctors, concerning the conduct we ought to
observe toward those who differ from us in religious mat-
ters, and less by his own will and humour, he would have
ordered many things otherwise than he actually did.

11. The example of the landgrave of Hesse was follow-
Tie new refor. ed, in the year 1614, by John Sigismund, elector
place in Bad of Brandenburg, who also renounced Lutheranism

and embraced the communion of the reformed churches, though with certain restrictions, and without employing any acts of mere authority to engage his subjects in the same measure. For it is observable, that this prince did not adopt all the peculiar doctrines of Calvinism. He introduced, indeer', into his dominions the form of public worship that was established at Geneva, and he embraced the sentiments of the reformed churches concerning the person of Christ, and the manner in which he is present in the eucharist, as they appeared to him much more conformable to reason and Scripture than the doctrine of the Lutherans relating to these points. But, on the other hand, he refused to admit the Calvinistical doctrine of divine grace, and absolute decrees; and, on this account, neither sent deputies to the synod of Dort, nor adopted the deci

denurg.

• The reader will find a more ample account of this matter in the controversiul
writings of the divines of Casge! ani Derm-tadt, published at Cassel, Marpurg; and
Giessen, in the years 1632, 1636, 1647; and of which Salig speaks largely in his Hist.
Aug. Confess. tom. i. lib. iv. cap. ii. p. 756. Those who understand the German lan-
e may also consult Garth's Historischer Bericht von dem Religions Wesen in Furs-

Hessen, 1706, in 4to. Cyprian's Unterricht von Kirchlicher Vereinigung der
ten, p. 263, and Appendix, p. 101. As also the Acts published in the Un.
it Nachrichten, A. 1749, p. 25.