Consensus

CONSENSUS. - Term used by Protestants to indicate a synthetic exposition of doctrine. They give various names to the summaries of their doctrines; they call them catechisms (like the two of Luther and of Westminster), theses (like the theses of Bern), confessions of faith (like the Augustan, the Gallican, the Belgian, etc.), articles (like the 39 articles of the Anglican Church) etc., and also "c." (v. CONFESSIONI DI FEDE). Some of these are little known, like the "C. repetitus" of Calovius (1664) against the syncretism of G. Calixtus; others, on the other hand, have remained famous. Of these latter, three originated in Switzerland, namely the "C. Tigurinus" of Zurich of 1549, the "C. Genevensis" of 1552 and the "Formula c. Ecclesiarum Helveticarum" of 1675; one then was composed in Poland and is known by the name of "C. Poloniae Sandomiriensis" (1570-95). Of each a brief account is given.

I. C. TIGURINUS. The struggle between Luther and Zwingli over the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist did not die out with the death of Zwingli in 1531, but continued with his successor, E. Bullinger (v.), who in 1515 published his True confession of the ministers of the church of Zurich... especially on the Supper of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Calvin made some observations on Bullinger's writing, and these, courteously received, opened the way to a common agreement between the heads of the two sects, which then took place in the city of Zurich in 1549. It consists of 26 articles that condemn equally the transubstantiation of the Catholics and the consubstantiation of the Lutherans. Bullinger accepted almost all the Calvinist doctrines not only regarding the Eucharist, but also regarding doctrines most peculiar to the Calvinists, such as that of making the efficacy of the sacraments depend on God's election. Apart from this clause, the whole "c." pleased also Melanchthon, from that time the head of the "crypto-Calvinists" (v.), but it gave rise to a violent writing by Joachim Westphal (1552). The "C. Tigurinus" did indeed bring the Zwinglians closer to the Calvinists, but separated them ever more from the Lutherans. It was accepted by the majority of the Reformed Churches of Switzerland, France and Germany.

II. C. GENEVENSIS. If the "C. Tigurinus" served to make Calvin's doctrine on the virtual presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist prevail among the Zwinglians, the "C. Genevensis" gave him the occasion to explain at length his theory on predestination. It was drawn up in 1552 principally against the Catholic doctor Albert Pighius and against the apostate Jerome Bolsec (v.) who had attacked him, and it was addressed "Viris et magnificis dominis, syndicis, senatuique Genevensis, etc.", an act that gave it a local character. It did not have a wide echo, perhaps also because of its violent and biting style and its prolixity.

III. FORMULA C. ECCLESIARUM HELVETICARUM (1675). It was the response of the Swiss Churches to the assailants of the Calvinist doctrines (Amyraldists). During the 17th century in the Reformed school of Saumur (v. cameroniti), the Amyraldists, so called from their principal head Moses Amyraut, taught doctrines that undermined the Calvinist ones. Against them the "Formula c." was drawn up, which, adhering tenaciously to the Calvinist doctrines, established among other things that the literal inspiration of Holy Scripture extended "tum quoad consonantes, tum quoad vocalia sive puncta ipsa sive punctorum saltem potestatem etc."; that God had determined, from the beginning, to create man whole, but permitted his fall and then chose some men to save them, leaving the others as a corrupt mass and condemning them to eternal punishment; that Jesus Christ had died only for the elect, and that man before committing sin personally is condemned for two reasons, for the hereditary original sin that is imputed to him and for the corruption of nature itself, which remained entirely depraved and spiritually dead. This formula had authority in the cantons of Zurich, Basel, Geneva and in some others, but now it has been replaced by the confessions of the free evangelical Churches of Vaud, Geneva, Neuchâtel, etc.

IV. C. POLONIAE OR SANDOMIRIENSIS (1570-95). This "C." was formulated in a conference between Lutherans, Calvinists and Bohemian Brethren of Poland. In it, avoiding certain overly extreme phrases, like the "manducatio realis" of the Lutherans, or discarding burning questions, like Calvinist predestination, the three sects declared that they were all orthodox, agreed to avoid dissensions and struggles among themselves, permitted that the ministers of one could preach from the pulpits of the others, granted one another intercommunion, etc. This "c." was the precursor of the modern pan-Christian congresses in which, under the appearance of union, the doctrines and errors of each sect remain unaltered. The "c.", signed by the representatives of the three sects and by many distinguished ministers and laymen, was drawn up at Sandomir in Lesser Poland in 1570, published in Latin and in Polish in 1586 and confirmed in the Synods of Krakow (1573), of Piotrków (1578), of Wrocław (1583) and of Toruń (1595).

Camillo Crivelli