ten und mit der Hand dazu bekenne und das Herz nicht
daran waere_. (115.)

Also Selneccer testifies to the general willingness with which the
ministers in Saxony affixed their signatures. With respect to the
universities of Wittenberg and Leipzig, however, he remarks that there
some were found who, while willing to acknowledge the first part of the
_Book of Concord_, begged to be excused from signing the _Formula_, but
that they had been told by the Elector: If they agreed with the first
part, there was no reason why they should refuse to sign the second,
since it was based on the first. (Carpzov, _Isagoge_ 20.) While thus in
Electoral Saxony subscription to the _Formula_ was indeed demanded of
all professors and ministers, there is not a single case on record in
which compulsion was employed to obtain it.

In Brandenburg the clergy subscribed unconditionally, spontaneously, and
with thankfulness toward God and to their "faithful, pious ruler for his
fatherly care of the Church." Nor was any opposition met with in
Wuerttemberg, where the subscription was completed in October, 1577. In
Mecklenburg the ministers were kindly invited to subscribe. Such as
refused were suspended and given time for deliberation, with the proviso
that they abstain from criticizing the _Formula_ before the people. When
the superintendent of Wismar and several pastors declined finally to
adopt the _Formula_, they were deposed.

Accordingly, it was in keeping with the facts when the Lutheran electors
and princes declared in the Preface to the _Formula of Concord_ "that
their theologians, ministers, and schoolteachers" "did with glad heart
and heartfelt thanks to God the Almighty voluntarily and with
well-considered courage adopt, approve, and subscribe this _Book of
Concord_ [_Formula of Concord_] as the true and Christian sense of the
_Augsburg Confession_, and did publicly testify thereto with heart,
mouth and hand. Wherefore also this Christian Agreement is not the
confession of some few of our theologians only, but is called, and is in
general, the unanimous confession of each and every one of the ministers
and schoolteachers of our lands and provinces." (CONC. TRIGL. 12f.)

284. Where and Why Formula of Concord was Rejected.

Apart from the territories which were really Calvinistic (Anhalt, Lower
Hesse, the Palatinate, etc.), comparatively few of the German princes
and estates considered adherents of the _Augsburg Confession_ declined
t