May 18, 2017
Devotions: Personalities of the Reformation: Matthias Flacius

Flacius was born in Labin in Istria (Croatia), son of Andrea Vlacich alias Francovich and Jacobea Luciani, He lost his father during his early childhood. At the age of sixteen Flacius went to study in Venice where he was taught by the humanist Giambattista Cipelli. At the age of seventeen, he intended to join a monastic order, with a view to sacred learning. His intention, however, was diverted by his uncle, Baldo Lupetina, provincial of the Franciscans and sympathetic to the Reformation cause, who convinced him to start a university career. Flacius continued his studies in Basel in 1539, then went to Tubingen, Germany and finally ended up in Wittenberg where in (1541) he was welcomed by Melanchthon. There he came under the influence of Luther as well. In 1544, Flacius was appointed professor of Hebrew at Wittenberg. He finished his master’s degree on February 24, 1546, ranking first among the graduates.

Flacius was prominent in the theological discussions of the time, opposing strenuously the Augsburg Interim (see May 9 devotion), and the compromise of Melanchthon known as the Leipzig Interim (see below). Melanchthon wrote of him with venom as a renegade (aluimus in sinu serpentem, “we have nourished a snake in our bosom”). In 1549 Flacius moved to Magdeburg. On May 7, 1557 he was appointed professor of New Testament at the theological faculty in Jena but was soon involved in the synergistic question controversy (relating to the function of the will in the conversion). Affirming the natural inability of man, he adopted a position on sin as not being an accident of human nature, but involved in its substance, since The Fall of Man. Holding to a strong view of Calvinistic total depravity, Flacius insisted that human nature was entirely transformed by original sin, human beings were transformed from goodness and almost wholly corrupted with evil, making them kin to the Devil in his view, so that within them, without divine assistance, there lies no power even to cooperate with the Gospel when they hear it preached. Human acts of piety are valueless in themselves, and humans are entirely dependent on the Grace of God for salvation. Those that agreed with him on this point were termed Flacians. Resisting ecclesiastical censure, he left Jena in December 1561 to found an academy at Regensburg.

That assignment was not successful, so in October 1566 he accepted a call from the Lutheran community at Antwerp. Thence he was driven in early 1567 by the exigencies of war, and went to Frankfurt, where the authorities stood against him. He proceeded to Strasbourg where he was well received. Here again, his religious views caused controversies. The authorities ordered him to leave the city by May 1, 1573. The Convent of White Ladies secretly harbored him and his family in Frankfurt where he fell ill and died in March 1575.” (Wikipedia)

Leipzig Interim: one of several temporary settlements between the Charles V and German Lutherans following the Schmalkaldic War. It was presented to an assembly of Saxon political estates in December 1548. Though not adopted by the assembly, it was published by its critics under the name “Leipzig Interim. In 1552 a coalition led against Charles V resulted in the Peace of Passau and finally the 1555 Augsburg Settlement, which made the Augsburg Interim and similar statements a dead letter.

Original Sin: also called ancestral sin, is the Christian doctrine of humanity’s state of sin resulting from the fall of man, stemming from Adam and Eve’s rebellion in Eden, namely the disobedience in consuming from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Can you imagine your religious views causing you to move your family so many times, often just ahead of the authorities who could imprison you or burn you at the stake? We are so fortunate in this country to be able (well maybe until the most recent election ) to profess our faith and not feel we are possibly going to be put to death – or at least be skewered on the fork of social media. We cannot get complacent about professing and teaching the faith.

Pastor Dave

Please bring in boxes of tissues this week for Trinity’s Table.