An Exposition of the Apostles' Creed

By Casper Olevianus

Olevianus’s Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed is a collection of sermons he preached on the basic articles of the Christian faith. It serves as a reminder that the Reformed tradition did not see itself as separate from the universal church, though it was principally opposed to Rome. Rather, Olevianus and his tradition argue for a Reformed catholicity rooted in the ancient confession of the church.

This new translation by Lyle D. Bierma, along with R. Scott Clark’s historical introduction, will benefit both scholarly and general readers. Charged with federal language, An Exposition explains the Christian faith as the believer’s fellowship with God in the covenant of grace. Thus, it is significant for its contribution to the development of Reformed covenantal theology. In addition to exhibiting its historical value within the Reformed tradition, readers will be “directed,” as Olevianus had intended, “toward edification in true and sound piety.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
• Release date: Jan 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781601784018

Book preview

An Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed

or the Articles of the Faith,

in which the main points of the gracious eternal covenant between God and believers are briefly and clearly treated.

Caspar Olevianus

Translated by Lyle D. Bierma

Introduced by R. Scott Clark

REFORMATION HERITAGE BOOKS

Grand Rapids, Michigan

2009

CLASSIC REFORMED THEOLOGY

General Editor

R. Scott Clark, Westminster Seminary California

Editorial Board

Joel R. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

J. Mark Beach, Mid America Reformed Seminary

W. Robert Godfrey, Westminster Seminary California

Michael S. Horton, Westminster Seminary California

Joel E. Kim, Westminster Seminary California

Herman Selderhuis, Theologische Universiteit Apeldoorn

Paul R. Schaefer, Grove City College

Carl R. Trueman, Westminster Theological Seminary

Volume 1. William Ames, A Sketch of the Christian’s Catechism, translated by Todd M. Rester, and introduced by Joel R. Beeke and Todd M. Rester

Volume 2. Caspar Olevianus, An Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed, translated by Lyle D. Bierma, and introduced by R. Scott Clark

An Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed

© 2009 by Classic Reformed Theology

Published by

Reformation Heritage Books

2965 Leonard St. NE

Grand Rapids, MI 49525

616-977-0599 / Fax: [phone]

e-mail: [e-mail]

website: www.heritagebooks.org

All Scripture quotations are translated from the original Latin text.

ISBN 978-1-60178-401-8 (epub)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Olevian, Caspar, 1536-1587.

[Expositio symbolici apostolici. English]

An exposition of the Apostles’ Creed : the articles of the faith, in which the main points of the gracious eternal covenant between God and believers are briefly and clearly treated / Caspar Olevianus ; translated by Lyle D. Bierma ; introduced by R. Scott Clark.

p. cm. — (Classic reformed theology ; v. 2)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60178-074-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Apostles’ Creed. 2. Reformed Church—Catechisms—Early works to 1800. 3. Reformed Church—Doctrines—Early works to 1800. I. Title.

BT993.3.O4413 2009

238’.11—dc22

2009042302

For additional Reformed literature, both new and used, request a free book list from Reformation Heritage Books at the above address.

Contents

Series Preface

Acknowledgments

Biographical and Historical Introduction

An Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed

Letter to Prince Frederick

Letter to the Reader

Introduction

The Articles of Faith

The Division of the Creed

The First Part of the Creed

I Believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth

I Believe in God the Father, in His only begotten Son, and in the Holy Spirit

God the Father

Almighty

Creator of Heaven and Earth

The Second Part of the Creed

And in Jesus Christ

Christ

His only begotten Son

Our Lord

Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary

Suffered under Pontius Pilate

Was Crucified

Died

Was Buried

He Descended into Hell

The Third Day He Rose Again from the Dead

He Ascended into Heaven

He is Seated at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty

From there He Will Come to Judge the Living and the Dead

The Third Part of the Creed

I Believe in the Holy Spirit

The Fourth Part of the Creed

I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints

The Communion of Saints

I Believe in…the Forgiveness of Sins

The Resurrection of the Body

And the Life Everlasting

Scripture Index

Series Preface

There are at least three reasons why classic Reformed theology ought to be studied and thus why this series of critical English translations should exist. First, Reformed orthodoxy forms the intellectual background of modern theology which can only be understood properly in light of its reaction to and rejection of Protestant orthodoxy. Second, Reformed orthodoxy obviously merits attention by those who identify with the Reformed confession; it is their heritage and thus shapes their theology, piety, and practice whether they realize it. Third, despite the disdain, disregard, and distortion which Reformed orthodoxy suffered during the Enlightenments in Europe, Britain, and North America, contemporary scholarship has shown that, whatever one’s view of the theology, piety, and practice of orthodoxy, on purely historical grounds it must be regarded as a vital intellectual and spiritual movement and thus a fascinating and important subject for continued study.

We call this series Classic Reformed Theology because, by definition, a period is classical when it defines an approach to a discipline. During the period of Protestant orthodoxy, Reformed theology reached its highest degree of definition and precision. It was then that the most important Reformed confessions were formed, and the Reformed churches took the form they have today. For these reasons, it is more than surprising to realize that much of the most important literature from this period has been almost entirely ignored since mid-eighteenth century. As difficult as it may be for those in other fields to understand, the list of scholars who have extensive, firsthand knowledge of some of the most important primary texts in the study of Reformed orthodoxy (e.g., the major works of Olevianus, Polanus, Voetius, Cocceius, Heidegger, and van Mastricht, to name but a few) can be counted easily. Further, few of the texts from this period, even some of the most important texts, have been published in modern critical editions. Thus, until recently, even those with the ability and will to read the texts from the classical period of Reformed orthodoxy could do so only with difficulty since some of these texts are difficult to locate outside of a few libraries in Europe and Great Britain. Technological developments in recent years, however, are beginning to make these works more widely available to the academic community. Coinciding with the development of technology has been a growing interest in classic Reformed theology.

Finally, a word about the plan for this series. First, the series seeks to produce and provide critical English translations of some of the more important but generally neglected texts of the orthodox period. The series does not intend to be exhaustive, nor will it be repetitive of critical translations already available. Most of the texts appearing in this series will be translated for the first time. It is the sincere hope of the editor and the board that at least one volume shall appear annually.

Acknowledgments

The editor thanks the members of the editorial board for their guidance, skill, and scholarship; the publisher for undertaking this series; and especially Jay T. Collier, Director of Publishing, for his tireless and outstanding work toward bringing this series from conception to reality.

Thanks are also due to my colleague, the Rev. Mr. Daniel Hyde, and to my research assistant, Thomas E. I. Whittaker, for their assistance with the introductory essay. Gratitude is also extended to Greg Bailey for his editorial labors on this volume.

Biographical and Historical Introduction

Caspar Olevianus and

An Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed

R. Scott Clark

Caspar Olevianus (1536–1587) remains most well-known in Reformed circles today chiefly for his association with the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) and for his contribution to the development of Reformed federal or covenant theology. In his own time and in the later periods of Reformed orthodoxy, however, Olevianus was known as a commentator on the Apostles’ Creed, as a biblical commentator, as a preacher, and as a churchman.1 His most famous work is De substantia foederis gratuitis inter Deum et electos (1585), but he produced three other expositions of the faith, the Bauren Katechismus (1567), Vester Grund (1567), both popular German catechetical works, and the present work, the Expositio symbolici apostolici (1576).2

Biographical Sketch

Caspar von Olewig was born August 10, 1536, on Olewiger Strasse near the ruins of the Roman amphitheater in the ancient imperial city of Trier, notable for being the city to which Athanasius was banished (336–337), for her ancient imperial Roman relics, as the birthplace of Ambrose (ca. 339–397), as one of the cities in which Jerome (ca. 347–420) received his education, and, in the modern period, as the birthplace of Karl Marx (1818–1883).3 She also claimed dominical and apostolic relics that continued to attract numerous pilgrims into the middle of the twentieth century.

Caspar was born to privilege. His father, Gerhard, was a baker, a trade official, a city councillor, and a respected, wealthy citizen. His mother, Anna (née Sinzig) was the daughter of the master of the butchers’ guild. He was baptized in the Church of St. Lawrence and educated at home by his grandfather until he was old enough to attend school in St. Lawrence and later at St. Simon’s and the cathedral school. In a letter written to the youth who are zealous for true piety, he later testified that as a boy he was impressed with the teaching about God, the creation of the human race, the fall into sin, reconciliation and restoration through the Son of God (the promised seed of the woman who will bruise the head of the serpent), etc.…and by these words it pleased the Lord to ignite in me sparks of a fervent desire to learn and eventually teach others, either in the school or in the church.4

These comments reflected the period before he left home for the university, where he came under the influence of praeceptores (teachers), of whom he wrote:

In the school in Trier every year before Easter [they] would interpret for us the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were accustomed to discussing, insofar as they were able, the types of the Old Testament and their fulfillment in the passion of Christ (something very useful and that later, by the grace of God, opened up to me the purpose of all of Scripture). Nevertheless, the direction they gave me was less than clear because of the multitude of human traditions by which the suffering and resurrected Christ was wrapped and obscured in popery—so much so that I could not benefit from the light that I saw shining from the collection of types and their fulfillment in the passion of Christ.5

Nevertheless, in time, with God’s blessing, the instruction he received bore considerable fruit.

At age thirteen, he entered the college of St. Germain, Trier. At the age of sixteen (1552), his parents sent young Caspar to the University of Paris to study languages. Later that year, he moved to Orléans, a hotbed of Protestant sympathies, to begin his legal studies. While at university, he joined the underground Protestant churches under the Cross.

Four years later, while at Bourges, in 1556, he befriended Prince Herman, the second son of Count Frederick of Simmern. One day, Olevianus and the young prince were walking along the Auron River, where they met a group of inebriated German students. These students asked the prince and Caspar to cross the river with them in a boat. Failing to dissuade Prince Herman from going along, Olevianus remained on shore. The prince and his court master, Nicolas Judex, joined the other students in the boat. In the middle of the river, the boys rocked the boat, causing all the passengers to fall out and drown. Seeing the prince in danger, Olevianus leapt into the river and attempted to rescue him. Unfortunately, he failed and only endangered himself. One of the prince’s servants saved him, mistaking him for the prince. He later confessed that, out of terror, he vowed that if God should save him, he would serve the Lord as a preacher to Germans.

Olevianus and Geneva

Olevianus took his Juris Doctor at the Université de Bourges on June 6, 1557, and returned home to practice law. But he left his law practice after eight months to visit Geneva. He wrote to Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499–1562) on May 6, 1559, of his decision to remain in Geneva until Pentecost. He then visited Zürich, meeting Vermigli and Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575). After Zürich, he returned to Geneva to read theology. While it has been said that he was one of the first students of the newly formed Genevan Academy, this does not appear to be strictly accurate. According to the Academy register, Olevianus’s brother Anton was among the first one hundred students, but Caspar’s name is not among them. Rather, along with Thomas Bodley (the future Elizabethan diplomat who reorganized the now eponymous Oxford University library), Olevianus was among a group of students involved in the transformation of the existing Collège de la Rive to what became the Genevan Academy. These students received instruction by the same men (i.e. Antoine Le Chevallier, François Bérauld, Jean Tagaut, and Theodore Beza) who had come from the Academy of Lausanne in March and May 1559 to compose the Academy faculty. This instruction took place both before and after the Academy was opened with a ceremony on June 5, 1559, and formally constituted on November 9.

In Geneva, Olevianus met Guillaume Farel (1489–1565), who in 1536 had exhorted John Calvin to remain in Geneva, and who now exhorted Caspar to cut short his studies and return to Trier to fulfill his vow to become a gospel preacher to the Germans. The most significant fact about this time is that he studied in a city whose character had been transformed by sojourners and exiles. Those French, English, Polish, Scottish, and German Calvinists who flocked to Geneva did so for mostly ideological reasons. Some of the brightest intellects in the Reformed world were gathered there to discuss and lecture on Scripture, theology, and politics. This milieu had a profound influence upon Caspar.

One evidence of that influence is the lasting relationship he formed with the undisputed intellectual leader of Reformed theology post-Calvin, Theodore Beza (1509–1605). Olevianus corresponded regularly with Beza throughout his career and frequently used Beza’s 1565 Latin New Testament in his commentaries on the Pauline epistles.6 Beza also edited and wrote the preface to Olevianus’s Commentaries on Galatians (1578 and 1581), Romans (1579),7 and Philippians and Colossians (1580).8 De inventione dialecticae (1583) and De substantia (1585) were both published in Geneva.9 All these works were published after Olevianus was exiled to the Wetterau district, where he published Institutionis Christianae Religionis Epitome: Ex Institutione Johannis Calvini excerpta, authoris methodo et verbis retentis (1586). His son-in-law, Johannes Piscator, edited and posthumously published Olevianus’s commentary on Ephesians (1588),10 and Olevianus’s son, Paul, published his father’s Notae Gasparis Oleviani in Evangelia posthumously in Herborn (1587). Olevianus’s Homilia de vera et primaria causa errorum circa coenam Dominicam was published in Heidelberg (1617) and in German as Allem Streit des Abendmahls entrichten koenne in Basel (1619). Olevianus, however, did not normally publish in Herborn, where he taught from 1584–1587; rather, he published a substantial part of his work in Geneva, under Beza’s oversight. Olevianus’s publisher was Eusthache Vignon, son-in-law and heir to Geneva’s major publishing house, that of Jean Crespin (d. 1572).

Reformation in Trier

That Olevianus, with the rest of Calvinist Christendom, should think of himself as a stranger and alien in the earth could be justified by a single episode in his life: his return home to fulfill his vow. While he was in Zürich, the Geneva Consistory wrote on his behalf to Otto Seel and Peter Sirkig (Sierck), evangelical members of the Trier city council. On June 26, 1559, he applied to the city council for a position as a teacher. The council called him to teach philosophy and logic in the secondary school at a salary of one hundred gulden.

For six months, he lived a tumultuous life in his hometown. Initially, he used Philip Melanchthon’s 1547 Dialectices to teach logic, in Latin, to a rather small group of auditors. On August 9, however, the day before St. Lawrence’s Day (the patron saint of Trier), he posted public notice at City Hall that he would begin, in the school, public worship services in German on the next morning. He failed to obtain permission and the necessary support of the council for the new services beforehand, thus immediately jeopardizing his reformation of Trier. It is hard to imagine that a Juris Doctor, formerly a practicing lawyer and son of a Trier city councillor, simply overlooked this requirement. Rather, it appears that he counted on the support of city councillors Seel and Sierck, the burgomeister John Steuss, his father, and other leading citizens.

On August 10, a large segment of the city, including the council secretary, turned out to hear him hold forth on justification by faith and against the invocation of saints, masses, and processions. Olevianus had become a preacher of the gospel to the Germans.

However, on the following Tuesday, based on the secretary’s report of his preaching, an opposing councillor moved to have Olevianus’s services prohibited. Olevianus said that he would submit to a council order to stop preaching. The order did not come. Instead, the council referred the question to the city’s thirteen guilds. Three of them, including the powerful weavers’ guild, supported Olevianus outright, even offering to pay him if the council would not. Eight of the guilds said they would tolerate his Latin instruction in the school. Only two guilds, the butchers and the grocers, wanted him silenced. On August 20, his preaching ministry was relocated to the council-controlled St. James Church.

Elector-Archbishop Johann VI (von den Leyden) was in Augsburg for the Imperial Diet on Olevianus’s first Sunday in the pulpit of St. James. Upon his return, the elector sent a committee of five to find out who had authorized Olevianus’s preaching. The evangelicals on the council argued their right to worship according to the Augsburg Confession, under the Pax Augustana (1555). The elector, however, had forbidden the use of the Augsburg Confession in Trier.

Olevianus’s preaching met with enough popular approval that the town was split. He tried to strengthen his position in the city by appealing directly to four of the guilds with one of the evangelical council members. The weavers, dyers, shoemakers, and a majority of the smiths (among whom were Matthias and Mattheus, two of Olevianus’s five brothers) declared for the Confessio Augustana (Augsburg Confession, 1530) and for Olevianus. There was a respectable Protestant minority in Trier.11

From the end of August until the early autumn, Olevianus fought a valiant battle for the hearts and minds of the citizens and city councillors of Trier. During the controversy, he (like Calvin) signed the Augustana Variata three times under oath to prove his adherence.12 Such was not an unusual step for Calvinists in the period. Olevianus’s future employer, Frederick III, consistently claimed fidelity to the Variata and occasionally to the Invariata. Because of the scarcity of fair copies of the Invariata, only the 1540 Variata was available to sign. When Frederick signed a 1531 copy of the Invariata at Naumberg in 1561, it was with the understanding that he interpreted it according to the 1540 edition.

How could Calvinists sign a document that could have been seen to bring their theological integrity into question? One answer is that the Variata became the textus receptus of the Augsburg Confession for two decades. Even the gnesio-Lutherans accepted it because they read it in light of the Invariata. Calvinist signers of the Variata did something similar but for different reasons. Given the socially and politically precarious position in which international Calvinism existed, they saw in the Variata a suitable vehicle for expressing continuity with Martin Luther on justification and the Calvinist development of the Protestant doctrine of the Lord’s Supper.

Fearing the wrath of the elector-archbishop, the evangelicals appealed to Frederick III and Count Wolfgang of Zweibrucken for protection and another preacher to ease the load. The sympathetic count sent to help his Melanchthonian church superintendent, Cunemann Flinsbach (1527–1571). The crisis came to a head in the late autumn, when the elector jailed Olevianus and his supporters. Representatives from Zweibrucken, Hesse, and the Palatinate arrived on November 20 to intercede for the evangelicals. By December 17, the elector agreed to a fine of 3,000 gulden. Five days later, Olevianus was freed, and the rest of the evangelicals were allowed to leave the city two days after Christmas. Some fled to Strasbourg, while Frederick III called Olevianus to become professor of theology in the Collegium Sapientiae.

Olevianus’s experience in Trier calls attention to the fact that while he was a second-generation reformer, he experienced many of the same challenges of the first-generation Protestants: popular acceptance, official rejection, and personal hardship for the sake of the gospel. In his attempted reformation, he was less a figure of the second reformation or consolidation than a part of the Later Reformation. He identified with the struggle of international Calvinism to win a place as an accepted part of the Pax Augustana. To the extent this acceptance was withheld, he saw himself as part of a righteous, persecuted minority within Christendom. Undoubtedly he first came to this self-perception at Orléans and Bourges through his association with the underground Calvinist churches. This perception was reinforced through his unhappy experience in Trier. In a letter written while in custody (December 11, 1559), he described himself as a foot soldier in exile.13 In his letter to Calvin describing his experiences, he gave a detailed description of the political and military strategies of the elector-archbishop. He saw the Reformation not primarily in political but spiritual terms, even identifying the archbishop as Satan who seized all those who opposed him.14

Pastor and Professor in Heidelberg

After his release from prison, he traveled immediately to Heidelberg. On February 22, he matriculated in the University of Heidelberg. On March 4, 1561, he was made professor of dogmatics in the University of Heidelberg, and on July 9, the faculty senate received Olevianus and promoted him, with Immanuel Tremellius, to the rank of Doctor Theologiae. In the same year, he married a widow, Philippine of Metz.

He did not remain in the university. In 1562, he gave up his university post to be appointed to the Heidelberg Consistory and serve as preacher in St. Peter’s Church and in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Heidelberg. During much of his tenure in Heidelberg, he also served as superintendent of the Palatinate churches. Though this essay emphasizes Olevianus’s academic work, it should be remembered that Olevianus’s chief desire was to be a preacher to the Germans. In 1566, his ministerial commitment was tested, as the plague afflicted the electorate. The court withdrew and the university closed. Most pastors fled, except for Olevianus and Zacharias Ursinus.

During his tenure in Heidelberg, Olevianus was part of a confessional, Calvinist coterie. There were three Melanchthonians from Otto Heinrich’s cabinet who continued to serve Frederick. Pierre Boquin was the only Calvinist among Frederick’s early advisors, but he gradually added more Calvinists to the consistory and to the faculties in Heidelberg: Ursinus, Franciscus Junius, Petrus Dathenus, Daniel Tossanus, and Girolamo Zanchi. Early on, the Reformation in the Palatinate progressed on Calvinist lines. The Schulordnung of the Collegium Sapientiae was reformed on the pattern established by the Ordre du Collège de Genève. The Kirchenordnung was also reformed along Genevan lines. It required everyone to attend church on the Lord’s Day except for illness. The city of Heidelberg was divided into quarters. The minister and one elder attended to each district. Newcomers were discovered and examined as to their faith. Walking in parks, lanes, or to taverns during worship was forbidden. Profanity, debauchery, drinking of alcohol, and fortune telling were forbidden generally. Mockery of those going to worship was punishable by fine. Each family was visited annually to prepare them for communion.

The discipline, though it might sound severe to modern ears, was relatively tempered. Doubtless, parishioners were grateful for the statute that limited sermons to one hour in length. Preachers were also encouraged to preach primarily from the New Testament, because it is most profitable to the common people and most edifying to the Churches.15 Olevianus had a significant influence over what parishioners heard each Sunday, since sermons were reviewed by the superintendents. Preaching became more frequent. Daily devotions were ordered and divine services were established on Wednesdays and Fridays, in which German psalms and hymns were sung before and after the sermon.

Frederick instituted cultic reforms, including the simplification of the church calendar, breaking of the communion bread during the administration of the supper (fractio panis), and removal of ornaments in Palatinate churches. The first stages of the new Calvinist church order were consolidated with the publication of the fourth edition of the Heidelberg Catechism, together with the Kirchenordnung of 1563.

The Heidelberg Catechism played a central role in the new church order, which entailed a rigorous indoctrination. It directed that the catechism should be read from the pulpit, in worship, over nine Sundays. The pastors were also to lace their sermons with references to the catechism, followed by sermons based on the catechism and examination of catechumens each Lord’s Day afternoon.16

Olevianus in Exile (1576–1587)

The last years of Olevianus’s life are, paradoxically, the least well-known, and yet this was the period during which he produced some of his most important books, including commentaries on Galatians (1578), Romans (1579), and Philippians and Colossians (1580); two handbooks on dialectics (1581 and 1583); a commentary on the Apostles’ Creed (1585); and a précis of Calvin’s Institutio (1586). By writing the preface, he also helped produce a German edition of Calvin’s sermons (1586). It was for his Latin theology written or published in this period that Reformed theology later remembered him. Thus, the relative obscurity of these years is due more to the