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Torgau, Convention of

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Among the German Reformers there was considerable difference of opinion on various subjects, which opinions were advanced and supported with great warmth. All good men friendly to the new Church were desirous of a termination of so many bitter contests, because it was manifest that the papists turned them to their own advantage. After an unsuccessful endeavor to bring about a settlement of these controversies by a conference at Altenburg, it was thought best that a formula or book should be drawn up by wise and moderate theologians, in which these controversies should be examined and decided. James Andrea, a theologian of T bingen, was appointed to this work in 1659. This business was hastened by the conduct of Kaspar Peucer, son-in-law of Melancthon, who, with others, endeavored in 1570 to abolish throughout Saxony the doctrine of Luther respecting the Lord's supper, and introduce instead that of Calvin. In 1571 they explicitly declared their dissent from Luther respecting the doctrine of the supper and the person of Christ; and, the better to accomplish their wishes, they introduced into the schools a catechism drawn up by Pezel, and favorable to the doctrine of Calvin. Accordingly the elector Augustus summoned a convention of theologians at Torgau in 1574. Having clearly learned the views of the Crypto- Calvinists, as they were generally called, he treated them with severity, imprisoning some and banishing others. After various consultations, James Andrea especially, in a convention of many divines assembled at Torgau by order of Augustus, drew up the treatise designed to bring peace to the Reformed Church, and which received the name of the Book of Torgau. This book, after being examined and amended by many theologians, was again submitted to certain select divines assembled at Germany, and resulted in the famous Formula of Concord (q.v.). See Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, 5, 3, 151 sq.