the mystical theology of valentin weigel - DataSpace at Princeton ...

particular, starting in about 1550, Lutheran theologians had become involved in a series
of increasingly vitriolic controversies that undermined the cohesion of the church body.
The Formula Concordiae was intended to smooth over these disputes and focus instead
on the unity of the Lutheran church, strengthening it against opponents within and
without.
Instead of seeing the Formula Concordiae as an attempt to set aside differences,
as its authors proclaimed, Valentin Weigel thought that the document was intended to
silence criticism by force, as ministers were pressured to sign the document under threat
of losing their positions. Moreover, in previous decades in Saxony (where Weigel’s
parish was located), theological disagreements had not infrequently been punished by
imprisonment or exile; Weigel saw the Formula Concordiae as merely a continuation of
the same trend. Not only did he reject the principle of the FC project (i.e. producing a
document to be subscribed), he also rejected much of document’s theological content.
Throughout his life, Weigel had a strained relationship with the Lutheran church. The
outer facts of his career suggest a loyal son of this new church: he studied theology at
Wittenberg (Luther’s own university), was ordained a minister in 1567, and was charged
with the spiritual care of the city of Zschopau in Saxony, where he worked until his death,
1975): 30-63.The sixteenth century Reformers’ argument focused mainly on the uptake of the Reformation
by parishoners, but later Protestant apologists also found themselves defending their Church against
accusations from other dissatisfied Protestants that, ultimately, the new church had proven no better than
the Roman one it claimed to supplant. Christian Groß (1601-1673), for instance, denied that the legitimacy
of a church could be measured by the personal moral worth of its ministers, advancing this argument
against the charge of hypocrisy and spiritual pride by those who argued otherwise. To defend the
“ordentliche Lehrer und Theologen,” he argued that God does speak to and through them regardless of how
well or poorly they behave, and therefore God desires no supplemental Reformation of the Reformation, as
it were, by so-called “WunderMänner” (for him, “fanatics” like Weigelians and Enthusiasts). Christian
Groß, Nothwendige, gebührliche Ehrenrettung des Evangelischen Predigampts, Wider die Newe
Prophetische Hohnsprecherey (Alten Stettin: Georg Götzken, 1644).
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