Note 3 — Chapter I

The fullest account of these German Reformed confessions is to be found in Müller’s Die Bekenntnisschriften der reformirten Kirche—the Emden Catechism (1554), pp. 1 and 666; the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), pp. 1, 682; the Nassau Confession of the Dillenburg Synod (1578), liii, 720; the Bremen Consensus (1595), liv, 739; the Staffort Book (1559) for Baden, liv, 797; the Confession of the General Synod of Cassel, lv and 817, and the Hessian Catechism (1607), 822; and the Bentheim Confession (1613), 833. All these German Reformed confessions followed Melanchthon in his endeavours to unite the Calvinist and the Lutheran doctrinal positions.

By far the most celebrated, and the only one which maintains its place as a doctrinal symbol down to the present day, is the Heidelberg Catechism. It was drafted at the suggestion of the Elector Frederick the Pious by two theologians, Caspar Olevianus and Zacharias Ursinus, who were able to express in a really remarkable degree the thoughts of German Protestants who could not accept the hard and fast Lutheranism of the opponents of Melanchthon. It speedily found favour in many parts of Germany, although its strongest supporters belonged to the Rhine provinces. It was in use both as a means of instruction and as a doctrinal symbol in most of the German Reformed Churches along with their own symbolical books. Its use spread to Holland and beyond it. Two separate translations appeared in Scotland. The earlier is contained in (Dunlop’s) Collection of Confessions of Faith.... of public authority in the Church of Scotland, under the title, A Catechism of the Christian Religion, composed by Zachary Ursinus, approved by Frederick III. Elector Palatine, the Reformed Church in the Palatinate, and by other Reformed Churches in Germany; and taught in their schools and churches: examined and approved, without any alteration, by the Synod of Dort, and appointed to be taught in the reformed churches and schools in the Netherlands: translated and printed Anno 1591 by public authority for the use of Scotland, with the arguments and use of the several doctrines therein contained, by Jeremias Bastingius; sometimes printed with the Book of Common Order and Psalm Book.