Читать книгу Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church - Bente Friedrich - Страница 75

The Thorough Declaration of the Formula of Concord makes the further statement that the Smalcald Articles were to be delivered in the Council at Mantua "in the name of the Estates, Electors, and Princes." (853, 7.) Evidently this is based on Luther's Preface to the Smalcald Articles written 1538, in which he says concerning his Articles: "They have also been accepted and unanimously confessed by our side, and it has been resolved that, in case the Pope with his adherents should ever be so bold as seriously and in good faith, without lying and cheating to hold a truly free Christian Council (as, indeed, he would be in duty bound to do), they be publicly delivered in order to set forth the Confession of our Faith." (455.)

Kolde and others surmise that Luther wrote as he did because, owing to his illness, he was not acquainted with the true situation at Smalcald. Tschackert, too, takes it for granted that Luther, not being sufficiently informed, was under the erroneous impression that the princes and estates as well as the theologians had adopted, and subscribed to, his articles. (300. 302.) Nor has a better theory of solving the difficulty hitherto been advanced. Yet it appears very improbable. If adopted, one must assume that Luther's attention was never drawn to this error of his. For Luther does not merely permit his assertion to stand in the following editions of the Smalcald Articles, but repeats it elsewhere as well. In an opinion written 1541 he writes: "In the second place, I leave the matter as it is found in the articles adopted at Smalcald; I shall not be able to improve on them; nor do I know how to yield anything further." (St. L. 17, 666.)

The Elector, too, shared Luther's opinion. In a letter of October 27, 1543, he urged him to publish in Latin and German (octavo), under the title, Booklet of the Smalcald Agreement —Buechlein der geschehenen Schmalkaldischen Vergleichung, the "Articles of Agreement, Vergleichungsartikel," on which he and Melanchthon had come to an agreement in 1537, at Smalcald, with the other allied estates, scholars, and theologians. (St. L. 21b, 2913.) October 17, 1552, immediately after he had obtained his liberty, the Elector made a similar statement. (C. R. 7, 1109.) Nor did Spalatin possess a knowledge in this matter differing from that of Luther and the Elector. He, too, believed that not only the theologians, but the princes and estates as well, with the exception of Hesse, Wuerttemberg, Strassburg, etc., had subscribed to Luther's articles. (Kolde, 51.)

Evidently, then, Luther's statement was generally regarded as being substantially and approximately correct and for all practical purposes in keeping, if not with the exact letter and form at least with the real spirit of what transpired at Smalcald and before as well as after this convention. It was not a mere delusion of Luther's, but was generally regarded as agreeing with the facts, that at Smalcald his articles were not only subscribed by the theologians, but adopted also by the Lutheran princes and estates, though, in deference to the Landgrave and the South German cities, not officially and by the Smalcald League as such.