J_Edwards said: I noticed these words in the song, "Baptized into Thy precious name, My faith cannot be put to shame, And I shall never perish." Did Speratus believe, as Luther, that baptism saved an indivdual?
As court preacher of Brandenburg and later bishop of Pomerania, Speratus would surely have publicly concurred with Luther's writings on baptism in the Smalcald Articles and the Small and Large Catechisms. Brandenburg was a signatory to the Augsburg Confession which teaches that the Holy Spirit works faith through Word and Sacrament, that baptism is necessary, and that through baptism the grace of God is offered. Reformed historian Philip Schaff writes concerning Speratus:
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The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol XI: Son of Man - Tremellius As a priest he was stationed at Salzburg in 1514, became cathedral preacher there in 1516, removed to Dinkelsbuhl in 1520, and in July of the same year became cathedral preacher in Wurzburg. His Lutheran sympathies, complicated by his marriage and his debts, forced him to flee on Nov. 21, 1521, to Salzburg, only to be speedily expelled. He then accepted a call to Ofen, in Hungary, but his denunciation of monastic vows in a sermon preached by him in St. Stephen's, Vienna (Jan. 12, 1522; printed at K&nigsberg in 1524 as Sermon vom hohen Geliibde der Taufe), led the theological faculty of Vienna to excommunicate him on Jan. 20, 1522. This precluded a position at Ofen, but before long he found a place at Iglau, where, in 1523, he was imprisoned by the bishop of Olmutz and condemned to death, escaping this fate only by the intervention of influential friends on condition that he would leave Moravia. He then went, by way of Prague, to Wittenberg, where he assisted Luther in the preparation of the first Protestant hymnal (1524). In 1524, on the recommendation of Luther, he was called to Konigsberg by Albert of Prussia (q.v.). There he was court chaplain until 1529, and from 1530 until his death was Protestant bishop of Pomerania, with his residence at Marienwerder. It was largely through his efforts that East Prussia was thoroughly Lutheranized, and its religious conditions completely reorganized. In all this he was aided by Johannes Briessmann and Johann Poliander (qq.v.); and with George of Polentz (q.v.), bishop of Sanlland, Ehrhard of Queiss, bishop of Pomerania, and Councilor Adrian of Waiblingen he conducted the first and most important church visitation in the duchy of Prussia (1526), also taking a prominent pfet in the second visitation of 1528. In Jan., 1530, SPperatus succeeded Ehrhard of Queiss as bishop of Pomerania, where, despite the greatest financial difficulties, he displayed marvellous ability in the Protestantizing of Prussia. He seems to have inspired the division of Prussia into three district synods and one national synod, and from 1531 to 1535 he made every effort to suppress the Schwenekfeldian movement (see SCHWENCICE'ELD VON Ossla, CABPAR, SCHWENCSFELDIANB), his task being made still more difficult by Albert's harboring of Dutch Protestant (though non-Lutheran) refugees.
Note: Luther did not believe "that God has imparted to the water a spiritual power, which through the water washes away sin" which your question might imply.
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Smalcald Articles Baptism is nothing else than the Word of God in the water, commanded by His institution, or, as Paul says, a washing in the Word; as also Augustine says: Let the Word come to the element, and it becomes a Sacrament. 2] And for this reason we do not hold with Thomas and the monastic preachers [or Dominicans] who forget the Word (God's institution) and say that God has imparted to the water a spiritual power, which through the water washes away sin. 3] Nor [do we agree] with Scotus and the Barefooted monks [Minorites or Franciscan monks], who teach that, by the assistance of the divine will, Baptism washes away sins, and that this ablution occurs only through the will of God, and by no means through the Word or water.
Last edited by speratus; Sat Nov 05, 200512:07 PM.
