Annotatio III §.II close: Werenfels votes to renew the short-lived 1536 Concord; Luther’s 1 Dec 1537 letter; Strimesius joins the wish — Concord later ruptured; Luther’s bitter Jan 1546 letter before death on the Feast of Concord — stop before §.III Francofurtanum
Those Zurich words seem to move Werenfels — once chief theology professor at Basel — to end his sermon with this wish, adding the Luther letter that had drawn the Zurich replies: would that the Concord made in 1536 between the evangelical theologians of both sides — alas lasting no more than three years — were renewed.
Of that Concord Luther wrote to the evangelical Swiss on 1 December 1537 (Jena Works, Volume 6, page 507): take me for one who means it from the heart; so far as I that furthers Concord shall be lacking in me.
We join Werenfels’s wish — the more warmly because, alas, it is surer still that for merely carnal causes (Calixtus the Elder, Jud. Controv. Nos. 72 and 75) the earlier Luther broke the Wittenberg Concord.
Worse: by his letter to Jakob Praepositus in the month before he died — 18 February, the holy day of Concord — Luther can seem to have died into the schism (we hope at least beside his intention and knowledge): Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the Sacramentarians, nor stood in the way of the Zwinglians, nor sits in the chair of the Zurichers. You have what I think. (17 January 1546; Buddeus, Supplement, Epistle 255, pp. 287–288.)
Stop before §. III — the third, Frankfurt attempt after Luther’s death.
Latin
quibus B. Werenfelsius, Theologiae Professor quondam Primarius Basiliensis, permotus videtur, in dicta Concione, Votô sequenti defungi, subjectâ praeterea Epistola Lutheri, quae paulò antè recensitas Tigurinorum responsorias elicuerunt: Ware wol zu wünschen / daß diß in acht genommen / und die / bald nach der Reformation Anno 1536. / zwischen den Evangelischen Theologis beyder Theilen / gemachte / aber leyder nicht mehr als 3. Jahr warende Concordi oder Einigkeit / wieder erneuert würde / von deren Doctor Luther an die Evangelischen Eidgenossen also geschrieben: Bitte demühtig / wollet euch zu mir versehen / als zu einem / der es ja auch von Herzen meinet / und was zur Förderung der Concordi dienet / so viel nur immer möglich / an mir nichts mangeln soll ... Der Brieff ist datirt den 1. Decembr. Anno 1537. Operum Lutheri Tom. 6. Jenensi f. 507. Voto Werenfelsiano & nostrum jungimus, tantò ferventiùs, quantò, proh dolor certius est, ob causas mere carnales, B. Calixto Seniori Jud. Controv. Num. 72. & 75. memoratas, Concordiam Wittenbergensem à Luthero priori ruptam fuisse, quin Lutherum (quod tamen saltem citra intentionem scientiamque ejus evenisse speramus) Schismati immortuum videri posse per Epistolam suam ad Jacobum Praepositum mense, antequàm è vivis die 18. Februarii Concordiae sacrô, excessisset, hisce verbis conceptam: ... Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio Sacramentariorum, nec stetit in via Zwinglianorum, nec sedet in cathedra Tigurinorum. Habes quid sentiam. ... 17. Jan. 1546. Clariss. Buddeus Supplem. Epistol. Lutheri, Epist. 255. pag. 287. 288.