perhaps without sufficiently realizing
it, Melanchthon immodestly assumed for himself and his views the place
within the Lutheran Church which belonged not to him, but to Luther. The
title which reveals the insincerity and the purpose of this publication,
runs as follows: _"Corpus Doctrinae, i.e._, the entire sum of the true
and Christian doctrine ... as a testimony of the steadfast and unanimous
confession of the pure and true religion in which the schools and
churches of these Electoral Saxon and Meissen territories have remained
and persevered in all points according to the _Augsburg Confession_ for
now almost thirty years against the unfounded false charges and
accusations of all lying spirits, 1560." As a matter of fact, however,
this _Corpus_ contained, besides the Ecumenical Symbols, only writings
of Melanchthon, notably the altered _Augsburg Confession_ and the
altered _Apology_ of 1542, the Saxon Confession of 1551, the changed
_Loci_, the _Examen Ordinandorum_ of 1554, and the _Responsiones ad
Impios Articulos Inquisitionis Bavaricae_.

Evidently this _Corpus Philippicum_, which was introduced also in
churches outside of Electoral Saxony, particularly where the princes or
leading theologians were Melanchthonians, was intended to alienate the
Electorate from the old teaching of Luther, to sanction and further the
Melanchthonian tendency, and thus to pave the way for Calvinism. It was
foisted upon, and rigorously enforced in, all the churches of Electoral
Saxony. All professors, ministers, and teachers were pledged by an oath
to teach according to it. Such as refused to subscribe were deposed,
imprisoned, or banished. Among the persecuted pastors we find the
following names: Tettelbach, superintendent in Chemnitz; George Herbst,
deacon in Chemnitz and later superintendent in Eisleben; Graf,
superintendent in Sangerhausen; Schade, Heine, and Schuetz, pastors in
Freiberg. When ministers who refused their signatures appealed to
Luther's writings, they were told that Luther's books must be
understood and explained according to Melanchthon's _Corpus_. At
Wittenberg the opposition to Luther and his teaching bordered on
fanaticism. When, for example, in 1568 Conrad Schluesselburg and Albert
Schirmer, two Wittenberg students, entered a complaint against
Professors Pezel and Peucer because of their deviations from Luther in
the doctrine of the Lord's Supper and refused to admit that Peucer and
his colleagues represented