Abstract:
In Saxony, three hundred years ago (1580), under the protection and the active cooperation of the Elector August, the Book of Concord (Formula. concordiae) was produced, in which was established the doctrines of the Protestant church, as it had developed in a large part of Germany at that time, and whose adoption all clergymen had to affirm through their signatures in order to put an end to the ever more increasing quarrels of the theologians, which had thrown the Protestant church after Luther's and Melanchthon's death into confusion. The originator and actual author of this book was the chancellor of Tuebingen University, Jacob Andreae, who devoted a large part of his life to the task of reestablishing a universal agreement in matters of belief. 'Therefore, it is certainly reasonable to renew his memory now that his work has celebrated its 300 year Jubilee; and especially since there have been certainly few Protestant theologians, who have been subjected to a more diverse criticism. Because through the Book of Concord the gap between Lutherans and the Reformed Church was fixed for a long time, which the former declared to be a great fortune and the latter a great misfortune for Germany. Even now these differences of opinion have not been completely and everywhere overcome.Therefore it appears to me well worth the trouble to become closer acquainted with the life and fate of this man, who for centuries has had such a great influence on the church's organization in Germany, partly in order to be able to properly value his activity as a reformer, partly in order to obtain a review of the intense battles, which the theologians of that time had to fight out.That is the purpose of this biography, which makes no further claims than that it, even if only in small degree, wants to assist in renewing the memory of those men, who did not in any way equal the great reformers, but still dedicated their lives to the development and improvement of the Protestant church in Germany to the best of their powers and according to their theological standpoints.Frankfurt on the Oder, August, 1881The author.
