Last study we saw the tumultuous events of Scotland’s protestant heritage and the particular contribution made by John Knox to the Presbyterian Tradition. In continental Europe, things were also taking dramatic twists and turns.
Heidelberg is a university town in West Germany that from 1559 – 1576 was ruled by Elector Frederick III. In Heidelberg met two rivers, the Neckar and the Rhine. At the time the area was known as ‘The Palatinate’, an influential district of the Holy Roman Empire, (An empire that included what is now Germany, Austria, Switzerland, eastern France, much of Holland and parts of Italy.)
In 1214 the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II granted the Palatine lands to Louis I, the Duke of Bavaria, and his dynasty ruled the Palatinate through much of it’s subsequent history. The rulers, or ‘counts palatine’ bought prosperity and firm rule to the area. They fought for the rights of German princes against popes and emperors, so successfully that by1356 the elector palatine was the chief secular prince of the Holy Roman Empire.
Frederick was raised in Emperor Charles 5th court; Charles being a Catholic of dubious nature whose decadence was infamous. In 1537 Frederick married Princess Maria of Brandenberg-Kulmbach, a devout Lutheran. Maria insisted that Frederick read the Bible daily, and although they then lived in the Catholic city of Trier, under her influence Frederick embraced Protestant principles. Together they had seven children.
Also in Trier was born Caspar Olevianus, the son of a prosperous butcher. Caspar was a friend of Frederick’s oldest son, Herman Louis, and they went off to college in France together. One night in France, students being students, and some the worse for drinking, a small group of them attempted to cross the River Eure in a rowboat. In the boat was Frederick’s son, Herman. The boat overturned.
A fateful drowning
On shore, Herman’s friend, Casper saw what was happening and dived in the river to help his friend Herman. Sadly he was unsuccessful and Herman drowned. The event had a profound effect on Casper and he changed his career path from being that of a lawyer to being a preacher, eventually traveling to Geneva to study under John Calvin. His heroic efforts to save Herman came to Frederick’s attention and he vowed not to forget the young man who had sought to save his son.
In 1559 the elector of Palatine, Otto Henry, also a protestant, died, leaving behind him no children. Next in line of succession was his nephew, Frederick, and so Frederick and Maria moved from Trier to Heidelberg where he became the new 'Count of the Palatine.'
The movement known as the Reformation had now been in progression for a while and was far from united on a number of doctrinal points. As mentioned, Heidelberg was at the intersection of the rivers Neckar and the Rhine. As Lutheran thought moved down the River Neckar, Reformed Christian thought flowed along the Rhine into Heidelberg from Switzerland. But all was not well. The Reformation had splintered into different groups. Tension between the Lutherans and so-called “Reformed Christians” were intense. A particular point of disagreement was the Lord’s Supper.
The Communion Conflict
The Reformers held to three views of the Lords Supper. The first the Lutheran position, was a modified version of the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, the belief that in the Mass the bread and wine were turned into the body and blood of Christ. Lutherans held to a doctrine known as consubstantiation. Luther maintained that Christ was physically and bodily present at the Lord’s Supper, holding to a literal translation of the words “This is my body”.
At the other end of the argument was the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli who taught that Christ was speaking purely metaphorically and that the communion was a simple memorial celebration. In between these two views were those of John Calvin who taught that Christ was ‘Spiritually’ present in a unique way when communion was celebrated.
At the time Frederick III became count palatine in Heidelberg, the friction caused by the differing views that flowed into the city had reached boiling point. The main Protestant church in the city was “Holy Ghost Church” under the leadership of High Lutheran pastor Tilemann Hesshus, who was also the principal of the theological college.
His assistant was a Wilhelm Klebitz, an ardent Zwinglian. Hessus (The Lutheran) in 1159 took some leave. During his absence the theological college awarded Klebitz (The Zwinglian) a degree in theology, an act that Hesshus probably would have blocked had he been there.
When he returned from leave, Hesshus was furious and preached a sermon calling for the revoking of Klebitz's degree and calling him a Zwinglian devil, promising that the ‘hellish, devilish, cursed, cruel and terrible’ act of the college would be revoked. To his great embarrassment he was ignored.
The following Sunday they both stood at the communion table. When Klebitz picked up the cup, Hessus snatched it from his hand, and the two started brawling in the chancel in front of a shocked congregation. Not surprisingly, Frederick III (The Count of Palatine) fired them both, Klebitz though with a recommendation, Hessus without one. Frederick was now left with a terrible dilemma. What could be done to restore peace to the church now the issue of communion had exploded?
Frederick contacted Philip Melancthon, the man who was rapidly becoming Martin Luther’s successor. Melancthon replied, “In all things seek peace and moderation. This is best done by holding to a fixed doctrinal position regarding the Lord’s Supper”. His personal studying though led him to ask, “Which fixed doctrinal position?”
He called a conference between two scholars, one Calvinist and one Zwinglian, and listened in as they debated for a number of days. At the conclusion of the discussions Frederick was favored towards the position of Calvin.
Meanwhile…
Meanwhile Casper Olevianus (the boy who had tried to rescue Frederick's son) had returned to Trier. He was preaching at St Jacob’s church. Trier was still largely a Catholic town, but Caspar's preaching attracted large crowds, a worrying phenomenon to the town council who feared what the Catholic archbishop would do if he found out.
Catholic Archbishop John did find out, and he was furious. So furious that he arrived with an army and laid siege to the town, burning crops, cutting off the water supply and ordering Protestants to pay him 20, 000 gold florins and leave the city. At their refusal the town was stormed, and was Caspar captured and thrown into jail with twelve others (Which is where we’ll leave him for the moment).
Frederick still had his problem with the church. The first position he sought to fill was the college. He invited a scholar named Peter Martyr to take charge, but he refused and instead recommended a young student who had recently been studying under Melancthon, a man by the name of Zacharias Ursinus.
Gentle and shy by temperament, and although only twenty-seven years old, Zacharias Ursinus was an excellent choice for professor at Heidelberg. Peter Martyr described him as ‘having the brilliance of a great scholar and the piety of a great servant of God’. This still left the problem of the church.
It was around this time that Frederick learnt of Caspar's preaching skills and current plight in jail. Recalling him as the one who tried to save his son, he sent an emissary to Archbishop John, carrying a trunkful of money and a note that, should Caspar be put in Frederick's care, he would never again return to preach in Trier. Frederick had found his preacher!
The time had come, Frederick determined, for a definitive statement of faith that would unify Reformed Protestantism in the Palatine district and beyond. Frederick saw in Caspar and in the Professor Ursinus the kind of people who had the skill and conviction to create such a document.
The birth of a new confession
The result of their work, a work that Frederick also continued to have input to, was the “Catechism, or Christian Instruction, according to the Usages of the churches and Schools of the Electoral Palatinate” or simply the “Heidelberg Catechism”. It was adopted by a synod in Heidelberg and the first edition, with a preface by Frederick, published in 1563.
It immediately proved popular and soon spread beyond the Palatine area. It became particularly influential in the Dutch Reformed Church, where disputes between Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed Christians had been particularly difficult.
In 1609 Dutch explorers brought it to Manhattan Island. Long before New Amsterdam had become New York, there were folk well versed in the Heidelberg Catechism arriving in the New World! As such it qualifies as the oldest Presbyterian creed in use in America, and was approved by the General Assembly in the United States as early as 1870.
About the Catechism.
The Catechism consists of 129 questions and answers. It opens with two questions concerning life and death.
Q1.What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A.That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul,in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit,assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
Q2.What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
A. Three things: first, how great my sin and misery are; second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.
All the following questions are divided into three parts corresponding to a line of Romans 7:24-25 “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Questions 3-11 deal with sin and guilt
Questions 12-85 deal with the way Christ sets us free,
Questions 86-129 deal with the way we express our gratitude to God.
The whole catechism is divided into 52 sections so that each section could be looked at during a whole year. For a time Dutch Reformed preachers were directed to preach on each particular section in their afternoon services.
It is as much a devotional as it is a doctrinal work and carefully worded to promote unity rather than discord. The central theme is that God has not abandoned people to a helpless fate, but in Christ restores our broken relationship with God. 20th century theologian Karl Barth (quoting a German hymn) says the message of the catechism is “Get of the way, you spirits of sadness, for Christ the sovereign of joy is coming in!”
Jack Rogers points out in his book that a central theme of the Creed is “Stewardship”. Stewardship, not as narrowly defined in the giving of gifts, but in the broadest senses, stewardship of the whole of life. The emphasis of the catechism is that we are saved by Grace to serve. Service is the true expression of thankfulness.
The Catechism includes questions relating to the Apostles Creed, the 10 Commandments and the Lords Prayer, as well as sections on the nature of God, and of course a section dealing with the contentious issue of the sacraments.
Questions 78 and 79 deal with the bread and wine relating to the body and blood of Christ. Question 80, (a later addition added after the council of Trent in 1562 had pronounced that ‘touching the sacrament of the Mass’ was an essential of faith) deals with the difference between the Lord’s Supper and the Papal mass.
The Heidelberg Catechism has proved to be one of the most popular of Reformed Creeds, having a reception far beyond what Frederick, Caspar and the Professor anticipated. It rightly has a place amongst the creeds that have helped define the faith of the American Presbyterian churches.
For USA Presbyterians its significance may be that it defines for us our beliefs about the Sacrament of Communion. We do not believe bread and wine are magically transformed into body and blood. Yet neither do we consider it as a simply a memorial of a great man.