Cryptocalvinism
The Crypto-Calvinism is a derogatory term for supporters of Calvinism in orthodox- Lutheran territories in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Wherever he included the royal house and became the ruling religion, he referred to himself as the Reformed Church (e.g. in Brandenburg ). Since Calvinism was not recognized as an official religion in Germany before 1648 , some princes tried to practice Calvinism at this time in such a way that it was still recognized as conforming to the Lutheran doctrine, as it was recorded in the Augsburg Religious Peace of 1555 (e.g. in the Electoral Palatinate in the Heidelberg Catechism ).
Theologically, the argument flared up above all over the question of the Lord's Supper . While the Lutherans assumed the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in wine and bread, the followers of Ulrich Zwingli and Johannes Calvin took the view that bread and wine were only signs of body and blood. Even Philipp Melanchthon tended towards the Lutheran doctrine more towards the Zwinglish understanding of the Lord's Supper and was therefore strongly attacked.
The most famous cryptocalvinist was the Saxon Chancellor Nikolaus Krell , who was executed by the sword on October 9, 1601 in Dresden at the instigation of Lutheran Orthodoxy . Even Caspar Peucer , Christoph Gundermann and many others were persecuted as crypto-Calvinists.
See also
literature
- Irene Crusius : “Not Calvinist, not Lutheran”: On humanism, Philippism and cryptocalvinism in Saxony at the end of the 16th century. In: Archive for the history of the Reformation . Volume 99, Issue 1, 2008, pp. 139-175. doi : 10.14315 / arg-2008-0108 .