Calvin now published his Ultima Admonitio, "Last Admonition of John Calvin to J. Westphal, who, if he does not obey (obtemperet) must thenceforth be held in the manner as Paul commands us to hold obstinate heretics; in this writing the vain censures of the Magdeburgians and others, by which they endeavored to wreck heaven and earth, are also refuted" 1557. Here Calvin plainly reveals his Zwinglianism and says: "This is the summary of our doctrine, that the flesh of Christ is a vivifying bread because it truly nourishes and feeds our souls when by faith we coalesce with it. This, we teach, occurs spiritually only, because the bond of this sacred unity is the secret and incomprehensible power of the Holy Spirit." (C. R. 37 [Calvini Opp. 9], 162.) In this book Calvin also, as stated above, appeals to Melanchthon to add his testimony that "we [the Calvinists] teach nothing that conflicts with the Augsburg Confession."
Though Calvin had withdrawn from the arena, Westphal continued to give public testimony to the truth. In 1558 he wrote several books against the Calvinists. One of them bears the title: "Apologetical Writings (Apologetica Scripta) of J.W., in which he both defends the sound doctrine concerning the Eucharist and refutes the vile slanders of the Sacramentarians," etc. Another is entitled: Apology of the Confession Concerning the Lord's Supper against the Corruptions and Calumnies of John Calvin. In 1559 Theodore Beza donned the armor of Calvin and entered the controversy with his "Treatise (Tractatio) Concerning the Lord's Supper, in which the calumnies of J. Westphal are refuted." Lasco's Reply to the Virulent Letter of That Furious Man J. Westphal, of 1560, appeared posthumously, he having died shortly before in Poland.
209. Brenz and Chemnitz.
Foremost among the influential theologians who besides Westphal, took a decided stand against the Calvinists and their secret abettors in Lutheran territories were John Brenz in Wuerttemberg and Martin Chemnitz in Brunswick. John Brenz [born 1499, persecuted during the Interim, since 1553 Provost at Stuttgart, died 1570], the most influential theologian in Wuerttemberg, was unanimously supported in his anti-Calvinistic attitude by the whole ministerium of the Duchy. He is the author of the Confession and Report (Bekenntnis und Bericht) of the Theologians in Wuerttemberg Concerning the True Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Supper, adopted at the behest of Duke Christopher by the synod assembled in Stuttgart, 1559. The occasion for drafting and adopting this Confession had been furnished by Bartholomew Hagen, a Calvinist. At the synod in Stuttgart he was required to dispute on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper with Jacob Andreae, with the result that Hagen admitted that he was now convinced of his error, and promised to return to the Lutheran teaching.
The Confession thereupon adopted teaches in plain and unmistakable terms that the body and blood of Christ are orally received by all who partake of the Sacrament, and that Christ, by reason of the personal union, is omnipresent also according to His human nature, and hence well able to fulfil the promise He gave at the institution of the Holy Supper. It teaches the real presence (praesentia realis), the sacramental union (unio sacramentalis), the oral eating and drinking (manducatio oralis), also of the wicked (manducatio impiorum). It holds "that in the Lord's Supper the true body and the true blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are, through the power of the word [of institution], truly and essentially tendered and given with the bread and wine to all men who partake of the Supper of Christ; and that, even as they are tendered by the hand of the minister, they are at the same time also received with the mouth of him who eats and drinks it." Furthermore, "that even as the substance and the essence of the bread and wine are present in the Lord's Supper, so also the substance and the essence of the body and blood of Christ are present and truly tendered and received with the signs of bread and wine." (Tschackert, 541.) It protests: "We do not assert any mixture of His body and blood with the bread and wine, nor any local inclusion in the bread." Again: "We do not imagine any diffusion of the human nature or expansion of the members of Christ (ullam humanae naturae diffusionem aut membrorum Christi distractionem), but we explain the majesty of the man Christ by which He, being placed at the right hand of God, fills all things not only by His divinity, but also as the man Christ, in a celestial manner and in a way that to human reason is past finding out, by virtue of which majesty His presence in the Supper is not abolished, but confirmed." (Gieseler 3, 2, 239f.) Thus, without employing the term "ubiquity," this Confession prepared by Brenz restored, in substance, the doctrine concerning the Lord's Supper and the person of Christ which Luther had maintained over against Zwingli, Carlstadt, and the Sacramentarians generally.
As stated above, Melanchthon ridiculed this Confession as "Hechinger Latin." In 1561 Brenz was attacked by Bullinger in his Treatise (Tractatio) on the Words of St. John 14. In the same year Brenz replied to this attack in two writings: Opinion (Sententia) on the Book of Bullinger and On the Personal Union (De Personali Unione) of the Two Natures in Christ and on the Ascension of Christ into Heaven and His Sitting at the Right Hand of the Father, etc. This called forth renewed assaults by Bullinger, Peter Martyr, and Beza. Bullinger wrote: "Answer (Responsio), by which is shown that the meaning concerning 'heaven' and the 'right hand of God' still stands firm," 1562. Peter Martyr: Dialogs (Dialogi) Concerning the Humanity of Christ, the Property of the Natures, and Ubiquity, 1562. Beza: Answers (Responsiones) to the Arguments of Brenz, 1564. Brenz answered in two of his greatest writings, Concerning the Divine Majesty of Christ (De Divina Maiestate Christi), 1562, and Recognition (Recognito) of the Doctrine Concerning the True Majesty of Christ, 1564. In the Dresden Consensus (Consensus Dresdensis) of 1571 the Philippists of Electoral Saxony also rejected the omnipresence (which they termed ubiquity) of the human nature of Christ.
In order to reclaim the Palatinate (which, as will be explained later, had turned Reformed) for Lutheranism the Duke of Wuerttemberg, in April, 1564, arranged for the Religious Discussion at Maulbronn between the theologians of Wuerttemberg and the Palatinate. But the only result was a further exchange of polemical publications. In 1564 Brenz published Epitome of the Maulbronn Colloquium … Concerning the Lord's Supper and the Majesty of Christ. And in the following year the Wuerttemberg theologians published Declaration and Confession (Declaratio et Confessio) of the Tuebingen Theologians Concerning the Majesty of the Man Christ. Both of these writings were answered by the theologians of the Palatinate. After the death of Brenz, Jacob Andreae was the chief champion in Wuerttemberg of the doctrines set forth by Brenz.
In his various publications against the Calvinists, Brenz, appealing to Luther, taught concerning the majesty of Christ that by reason of the personal union the humanity of Christ is not only omnipotent and omniscient, but also omnipresent, and that the human nature of Christ received these as well as other divine attributes from the first moment of the incarnation of the Logos. Following are some of his statements: "Although the divine substance [in Christ] is not changed into the human, and each has its own properties, nevertheless these two substances are united in one person in Christ in such a manner that the one is never in reality separated from the other." "Wherever the deity is, there is also the humanity of Christ." "We do not ascribe to Christ many and various bodies, nor do we ascribe to His body local extension or diffusion; but we exalt Him beyond this corporeal world, outside of every creature and place, and place Him in accordance with the condition of the hypostatic union in celestial majesty, which He never lacked, though at the time of His flesh in this world He hid it or, as Paul says, He humbled Himself (quam etsi tempore carnis suae in hoc saeculo dissimulavit, seu ea sese, ut Paulus loquitur, exinanivit, tamen numquam ea caruit)." According to Brenz the man Christ was omnipotent, almighty, omniscient while He lay in the manger. In His majesty He darkened the sun, and kept alive all the living while in His humiliation He was dying on the cross. When dead in the grave, He at the same time was filling and ruling heaven and earth with His power. (Gieseler 3, 2, 240f.)
In Brunswick, Martin Chemnitz (born 1522; died 1586), the Second Martin (alter Martinus) of the Lutheran Church, entered the controversy against the Calvinists in 1560 with his Repetition (Repetitio) of the Sound Doctrine Concerning the True Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Supper, in which he based his arguments for the real presence on the words of institution. Ten years later he published his famous book Concerning the Two Natures in Christ (De Duabus Naturis in Christo), etc.,—preeminently the Lutheran classic on the subject it treats. Appealing also to Luther, he teaches that Christ, according to His human nature was anointed with all divine gifts; that, in consequence of the personal union, the human nature of Christ can be and is present where, when, and in whatever way Christ will; that therefore in accordance with His promise, He is in reality present in His Church and in His Supper. Chemnitz says: "This presence of the assumed nature in Christ of which we now treat is not natural or essential [flowing from the nature and essence of Christ's humanity], but voluntary and most free, depending on the will and power of the Son of God (non est vel naturalis vel essentialis, sed voluntaria et liberrima, dependens a voluntate et potentia Filii Dei); that is to say, when by a definite word He has told, promised, and asseverated that He would be present with His human nature, … let us retain this, which is most certainly true, that Christ can be with His body wherever, whenever, and in whatever manner He wills (Christum suo corpore esse posse, ubicunque, quandocunque et quomodocunque vult). But we must judge of His will from a definite, revealed word." (Tschackert, 644; Gieseler 3, 2, 259.)
The Formula of Concord plainly teaches, both that, in virtue of the personal union by His incarnation, Christ according to His human nature possesses also the divine attribute of omnipresence, and that He can be and is present wherever He will. In the Epitome we read: This majesty Christ always had according to the personal union, and yet He abstained from it in the state of His humiliation until His resurrection, "so that now not only as God, but also as man He knows all things, can do all things, is present with all creatures, and has under His feet and in His hand everything that is in heaven and on earth and under the earth. … And this His power He, being present, can exercise everywhere, and to Him everything is possible and everything is known." (821, 16. 27. 30.) The Thorough Declaration declares that Christ "truly fills all things, and, being present everywhere, not only as God, but also as man, rules from sea to sea and to the ends of the earth." (1025, 27ff.) Again: "We hold … that also according to His assumed human nature and with the same He [Christ] can be, and also is, present where He will, and especially that in His Church and congregation on earth He is present as Mediator, Head, King, and High Priest, not in part, or one-half of Him only, but the entire person of Christ, to which both natures, the divine and the human, belong, is present not only according to His divinity, but also according to, and with, His assumed human nature, according to which He is our Brother, and we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone." (1043 78f.) In virtue of the personal union Christ is present everywhere also according to His human nature; while the peculiarly gracious manner of His presence in the Gospel, in the Church, and in the Lord's Supper depends upon His will and is based upon His definite promises.