The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

three Electors, three Dukes and Princes, twenty-four Counts, four Barons,
thirty-five imperial cities, in all by eighty-six States of the Empire, and by
eight thousand ministers of the Gospel. In Denmark, where it was received
by the King with brutal violence, and its introduction prohibited under
penalty of death, it has long since been accepted, in fact, if not in form, as a
Symbol, 237 In Holstein it was formally adopted in 1647. In Sweden,
because of the powerful influences tending to the restoration of Popery
under the king, it could not at first secure an entrance; but in 1593, at the
Council of Upsala, the States determined upon its subscription, and its
authority as a Symbol was confirmed by later solemn acts. In Pomerania
and Livonia it obtained symbolical authority. In Hungary it was approved
in 1593, and formally adopted in 1597. In France, Henry of Navarre
desired to form a league with the Lutherans against the Catholics, but the
acceptance of the Formula of Concord was made a condition on the part of
the Evangelical States, and the negotiations were broken off: "The
symbolical authority of the Formula of Concord for the Lutheran Church,
as such," says Köllner, "can hardly be doubted. By far the larger part of
those who regarded themselves as belonging to the Lutheran Church
received it as their Symbol. And as, to use the words of the Elector
Augustus, we have no Pope among us, can there be any other mode of
sanctioning a Symbol than by a majority? To this is to be added, and
should be especially noted, that a larger part of those who did not receive
it, objected to doing so, not on doctrinal grounds, but partly for political
reasons, freely or compulsorily, as the case might be, partly out of
attachment to Melanchthon, partly out of a morbid vanity, because they
had not been invited early enough to take part in framing the Concordia,
and had consequently not participated in it--and partly because, in one
land, those who had the most influence were Calvinistically inclined,
although a large majority of the clergy approved of the doctrines of the
Formula. The inference, therefore, is by no means to be made that there
was a deviation in doctrine, because there was not an acceptance of the
Formula."
237 Köllner, p. 575.