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THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM.

In 1552 the old sacramental contro- of the Rhine, from its source to the versy broke out with renewed violence. ocean. Joachim Westphal, Lutheran pastor at Hamburg, sounded the trumpet for the onslaught against the Swiss churches, and he was powerfully seconded by Matthias Flacius, Tileman Hesshusius, and many others. The occasion for this assault was probably the formal union of the Zwinglians and Calvinists in the Zurich Consensus of 1549, which had rendered the Reformed Church more powerful than it had previously been. The attack was, however, most effective against the Philipists and secret Calvinists (Crypto-Calvinists) in the Lutheran Church, who were made to suffer intensely. When in the reigns of Philip and Mary, thousands of English and Dutch Protestants fled to Germany to escape persecution, they were generally refused a refuge in Protestant Germany, because they were regarded as belonging to the Reformed Church.

In the Palatinate, however, more moderate counsels prevailed. The foreign fugitives were welcomed, and many of them settled in the country, especially in the town of Franckenthal, which, by their industry and enterprise, they soon raised to a high degree of prosperity.

When the Palatinate had passed over to the Reformed Church, a new confession of faith became absolutely necessary. The German people generally knew but little concerning the Reformed Church, and ascribed to it many errors which no one had ever dreamed of maintaining. Hesshusius even hinted that Frederick was preparing his people to become Mohammedan, in anticipation of a Turkish invasion. The elector, therefore, determined to prepare a catechism which would not only properly represent the faith of the Reformed Church, but might serve as a means of conveying its precious truths to subsequent generations. With this intention he selected two young men to engage in the work of its composition, and the result proved the wisdom of his choice. These were Olevianus and Ursinus, the first of whom was but twenty-six and the other twenty-eight years of age. Together they produced a work which has ever since been regarded as the crown and glory of the Reformed Church.

Caspar Olevianus (1535-1587) was a disciple of Calvin. He was a native of Treves, and belonged to a wealthy family whose name was properly Von der Olewig. Having passed through the schools of his native city, he went to Paris, and then to Bourges, to complete his education. Here he studied law, but secretly devoted much time to reading the Scriptures. One of the sons of Frederick III.-who was then only Count of Simmern-was also a student, and the two young men soon became intimate friends. One day they took a walk on the banks of the Oron river, in company with the private tutor of the prince. They were met by a party of young German noblemen, who proposed that they should all cross the river in a boat. Olevianus declined to accompany them, as some of the party had taken too much wine, but the prince and his tutor accepted the invitation. In the middle of the river they began playfully to rock the boat; it was thus upset, and the whole party was drowned.

When Frederick III. assumed the government he had no idea of introducing the Reformed Church, but he soon found himself involved in the prevaJent controversy. Hesshusius, a strict Lutheran, and Klebitz, a disciple of Calvin, were engaged in a violent discussion, by which the minds of the people were greatly excited. Frederick, by the advice of Melancthon, dismissed both of the contestants from their charges, but peace did not ensue. It soon became impossible to hold the irenical position of Melancthon. Frederick was forced to take sides in the conflict, and, in 1559, he formally passed over to the Reformed Church, though he always insisted that he had not in any way renounced his allegiance to the Augsburg Confession. It was a bold step, but its effects were extraordinary. Hitherto the existence of the Reformed Church had not been officially recognized in Germany, but now its position was secure, and it became the leading church along the whole course | Olevianus sprang into the water and

tried to rescue the prince, but it was in vain, and he himself almost lost his life. In his greatest peril he vowed that if God would save his life he would consecrate it entirely to the conversion of his native land. Having been wonderfully rescued, he remembered his vow, and the father of the young prince subsequently became his best friend and patron. Like Calvin, Olevianus now sought admission into one of the secret Reformed churches, and then successively visited Geneva and Zurich. Returning to his native city, he began to preach the Gospel, but was arrested and cast into prison. Delivered through the potent intercession of Frederick, he went to Heidelberg, where he was at first professor of theology, and subsequently pastor of the principal church of the city. He was a man of extraordinary eloquence, and was far more instrumental in the general work of organizing the church than the retiring and scholarly Ursinus. His part in the composition of the Heidelberg Catechism was by no means insignificant, as has sometimes been represented. Traces of his hand may be noticed almost everywhere, and Sudhoff insists that after Ursinus had composed the cate chism in Latin, Olevianus prepared the German version. This is probable from a comparison of the style of the two, as manifested by their separate compositions. It is also almost certain that what is said in the Catechism concerning the Office of the Keys and Christian Discipline was derived from Olevianus, as its substance may be found in his previous writings.

After the death of the elector Frederick, Olevianus went to Herborn, where he spent his remaining years. When he was dying some one asked him whether he was certain of salvation, and he replied, laying his hand on his heart: "Certissimus," that is, "Most certain." With this beautiful word his spirit winged its flight to heaven.

Zacharias Ursinus (1534-1583) was a faithful disciple of Melancthon. He was a native of Breslau, in Silesia, where his family, whose name was Von Baer, were reckoned among the nobility. His father was a clergyman, who had Latinized the name, according to the fashion of the times.

Ursinus studied at Wittenberg, where

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he acquired great great distinction, and declared by Melancthon to be his most promising pupil. Subsequently he visited the universities of Switzerland and France, and made the acquaintance of Bullinger, Calvin and Peter Martyr. Accused of Philipism," or possibly Calvinism, he at a later date, fled from Silesia and found a refuge in Switzerland. Peter Martyr had been requested by Frederick to assist in the organization of the Church of the Palatinate, but feeling the weight of years, he recommended Ursinus to take his place. Concerning the latter Frederick subsequently said to a Silesian: "His fatherland was not worthy of such a man. Tell your countrymen to banish many such men, so that they may come to me." Ursinus became Professor of Theology at Heidelberg. He was not gifted as a preacher, but was an excellent instructor. When he and Olevianus were directed to prepare a confession of faith, each of them submitted a plan. That of Ursinus was preferred by the elector. and he thus became the main author of the Heidelberg Catechism. To him it owes its irenic character; for it is known that the polemic questions were inserted at the direct command of the elector. In its composition he used materials found in the catechisms of Calvin and De Lasky, but the originality of his work has never been questioned. "The Heidelberg Catechism," says Max Goebel, "may be regarded as the flower and fruit of the entire German and French Reformation; it has Lutheran sincerity, Melancthonian clearness, Zwinglian simplicity, and Calvinist fire. Whoever is not familiar with the Heidelberg Catechism does not know the German Reformed Church, as it was and as it still remains; whoever is acquainted with all its particulars, its excellencies and imperfections, is alone able to appreciate the Christian spirit and the Christian life of our Reformed Church in all its strength and weakness."

Ursinus was personally a man of retiring disposition, who made but few intimate friends, and took the greatest delight in profound study. He did not like to be disturbed in his work, and over the door of his study he had placed an inscription in Latin verses to the following effect: "Friend, whoever thou art, if thou comest to me, be brief. Either leave me soon, or aid me in my labors." In the opinion of his cotemporaries Ursinus lived a life of prayer, which seemed too pure and holy for th's world. It was said that he never spoke an unnecessary word, and yet all who were brought into contact with him could not help loving him for the almost angelic sweetness of his character.

After the death of Frederick the opponents of the Catechism enjoyed a temporary triumph, during the brief reign of his son Louis, and Ursinus left Heidelberg to become a Professor in a Reformed Theological Seminary which Frederick's second son, John Casimir, had just founded in Neustadt. Here, after five years of faithful labor his noble life was brought to a close in the forty-ninth year of his age. The inscription on his monument in the church at Neustadt justly calls him "a great theologian, a conqueror of heresies concerning the Person of Christ and the Lord's Supper, mighty with word and pen, an acute philosopher, a wise man, and a stern instructor of youth."

It was but natural that the catechism jointly produced by Olevianus and Ursinus should encounter violent opposition, and it was therefore necessary that it should be stoutly defended. The Defence of the Catechism will form the subject of our next article.

PONTIAC.

HIS CONSPIRACY - ASSASSINATION-ITS
CONSEQUENCES-THE DESTRUCTION

OF THE ILLINOIS ON STARVED
ROCK.

BY REV. CYRUS CORT.

The region of the Illinois river was a favorite haunt of the Red men for centuries. The rich bottom lands produced large crops of corn, and the rolling prairies were the choice pasture grounds of the buffalo, elk and deer. The greenheaded flies that annoyed them in the more southern regious did not seem to molest them here, where they roamed and grazed in immense herds.

The Illinois Indians were very jealous of encroachments upon their coveted domain by neighboring tribes. We have seen how the Iroquois at times laid waste their heritage and left mourning and desolation for the survivors. But the severe handling that they received from Tonti at Starved Rock, or Fort St. Louis, in their last raid, prevented any more incursions from these most dreaded foes of the Illinois. Immunity from this danger, and their increasing numbers, made the Illinois somewhat arrogant. Hunting parties from neighboring tribes were frequently roughly handled and driven off, and bad blood stirred up. Lake Weno, nine leagues west of La Vantum, abounded with beaver, otter and muskrat, and here the Illinois Indians spent a great part of the winter, gathering furs and pelts. This lake was thirty miles long and from one to three miles broad, but it no longer exists. No doubt it occupied the valley of the Green river, and included what was afterwards known as the Winnebago Swamps, the favorite hunting and hiding resort of Black Hawk at the beginning of the present century. The writer of this article once lost his reckoning in crossing the Maines from Sterling, on Rock river, to Henry City, on Illinois river, and became entangled for the greater part of an April afternoon in those famous swamps.

No track of man or four-footed beast could be seen for many miles. But never before or since did I sec such endless varieties and countless numbers of wild fowl. They seemed to regard me, as the Illinois regarded the Winnebago and other Indians 200 years ago, as an intruder and trespasser upon their ancient and 'hallowed domain. Such a quacking, gabbling and clatter I never heard elsewhere, and my ideas in regard to the probable speedy extinction of wild ducks, geese, etc., were very materially changed on that eventful afternoon. Had not my trusty horse been used to traversing sloughs and sloughy streams I could never have traversed those swamps diagonally and forded Green river, as I did several times, without any serious mishap. Owing to natural changes at what was once the southern or south-western outlet of the lake, as well as to ditching on the part of the State and local authorities, this region has become drained to such an extent that farms of surpassing fertility now cover many places where the Indian plied his light canoe a century or more ago. During the thirty-six years that the French were settled at Fort St. Louis, on the Illinois river, and during the 136 years that they had undisputed possession of the lucrative fur trade, Lake Weno furnished large supplies of otter, beaver, and less valued furs and pelts, which the Indians exchanged for knives, tomahawks, blankets, rifles, powder, etc. As late as 1800 it was estimated that there were between 30,000 and 40,000 Indians in the bounds of the State of Illinois, and three-fifths of this entire number were located in the region of the Illinois river.

But our main purpose is to tell how the supremacy of the Illinois came to an end, in a tragedy at La Vantum and on Starved Rock, which proves that, with all their injustice and cruelty, the whites have not treated the red savages worse than they were in the habit of treating each other. We have seen in a former article how the Iroquois slaughtered old and young indiscriminately, and how 800 Illinois prisoners, mostly squaws and pappooses, were burnt at Lake Seneca, after a victorious campaign. When Montcalm fell on the plains of Abraham the hopes of French dominion and supremacy in the new world were forever blasted. The forts and posts along the St. Lawrence and the lakes, along the Ohio, the Illinois and Mississippi soon passed into the hands of the English.

The Indians lamented the change, and their discontent was fanned by disappointed French traders, who led the savages to believe that the King of France would some day drive out the English and recover the lost dominion.

The spirit of discontent found a gifted and powerful champion in Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawas. We have seen it stated that he had originally belonged to the warlike Catawba Indians, from the Carolinas, but having been captured and adopted when a mere lad, he became, by force of native courage and genius, the leading chief of the Ottawas, and finally all the savage hosts, from the Hudson to the Father of Waters,

responded to his bugle call. He is said to have taken part in the defeat of Braddock's army by French and Indians in 1755, a defeat and massacre that would never have taken place bad Braddock accepted the proffered aid of a band of Catawbas, who off-red their services as scouts and allies when his army lay at Cumberland.

Here I beg pardon for a moment while I relate an incident in which one of my ancestors took part. When the haughty British general refused to accept the services of the Catawbas, their chief indignantly remarked that he had warriors who could outrun any white man, and he backed his boast with a wager of twenty shillings. Major George Washington took the bet, and got the great-great-grandfather of the writer of this present article, on the mother's side, to enter the lists against the dusky champion. The result was that the white man came off victorious, much to the chagrin and mortification of the confident savages.

That fleetness on foot served our ancestor an excellent purpose in making his escape to Fort Ligonier, nine years later, when Pontiac had launched the thunderbolt of war from a cloudless sky, with reverberations that sent terror to all white people residing between the Lakes and the Alleghanies. Pontiac was a born leader, and had that magnetism, as well as dignity and indepen dence of character, that fitted him for the difficult and dangerous role that he resolved to play in order to restore the supremacy of the red men on the American continent. In May, 1762, his messengers summoned neighboring tribes to assemble on the Ecores river, near Detroit.

The fierce Ojibwas and Wyandots responded to his call as promptly as his own Ottawas. The previous November he had met Major Rogers, of the British army, when he was marching with a battalion to take possession of Detroit and other French posts. With his magnificent figure drawn up to full height, he raised his hand in threatening attitude and said, "I stand in your path. You can go no farther without my permission."

The warriors took their seats in the council near Detroit, and for a long

and Indians.

while not a word was spoken. At last the Swiss commander of the British Pontiac sprang into the circle, plumed garrison, until finally relieved by the and painted for war. Lightning flashed gallant Bouquet and his army of delivfrom his dark eyes as he proceeded to erance, after the most desperately condenounce the English and to call upon tested battle ever fought between whites the warriors to assert their rights. With sudden and violent gestures, and a voice In an article published in the Guarthat pealed like a bugle, he sounded the dian for December, 1880, I gave an actocsin of war. "The red coats," he ex- count of Bouquet and his great victory, claimed, "have conquered the French, by which some of my ancestors were but they have not conquered us. We saved from the tomahawk and scalping are not slaves or squaws, and as long as knife of the red savages. One of my the Great Spirit is our ruler we will great-great-grandfathers had received a maintain our rights. These lakes and large grant of land and had established these woods were given us by our himself where Harrison City, in Westfathers, and we will part with them moreland county, Pa., now stands, a few only with our lives." months before the Pontiac Conspiracy broke out.

He proposed to capture Detroit by stratagem, and would have succeeded He had gone to help bury some dishad not his plans been betrayed to Maj. tant settlers massacred by the Indians, Gladwin by an Indian maiden whom when an Indian whom the family had that officer had corrupted and infatu- befriended brought word after night ated. that a general massacre of whites was He was forced to the alternative of a about to take place, and if they reregular siege, in which he displayed mained till morning all would be wonderful fertility of resources. Sev- killed. eral parties sent to the relief of the beOur great-great-grandmother had a sieged garrison on ships were surprised babe three days old, but in such an and cut off. Vessels were boarded by emergency, with horrible death or more the savages from their canoes. Im- horrible captivity staring herself and mense fire rafts were floated down the children in the face, she rose from her river to destroy the ships of the Eng- sick couch. The horse was saddled, lish. A currency of birch bark, with and the mother, with the tender babe in Pontiac's stamp, was employed in se- her arms, and another very small child curing supplies from neutral French on the horse behind her, and older chilsettlers and neighboring tribes, and, to dren following on foot with their small his lasting honor let it be recorded that herd of cattle, set out through the wilPontiac saw to it that every piece that derness for Fort Ligonier, some thirty bore his sign manual was fully re- miles distant. Our great-grandfather

deemed. Not a few white individuals and communities are put to shame by the integrity, sacrifice and fidelity of the great Ottawa chieftain.

was only three or four years old, and had a lame foot, affected with a painful stone-bruise, but with the help of an older brother he got along rapidly. The father had been notified of the flight and danger by a few lines written on the door of the dwelling, and also made good his escape. The Indians got

In the simultaneous attack made upon the other forts along the lakes and through the wilderness all had fallen before the crafty and courageous assaults of Pontiac's confederates, except so close to them as they neared the Fort Fort Pitt and Niagara, Lee Boeuff, that they were obliged to leave their Venango, Presque Isle, on Lake Erie; cattle, which were captured by their Lea Bay, on Lake Michigan, St. Joseph's, Miami Ouachtanon, Sandusky and Mackinaw had been surprised and their garrisons massacred, some of them tortured at the stake. Guyasutha, the cele brated Seneca chief, commanded the horde of savages that besieged Fort Pitt, which was bravely defended by Ecuyer,

savage pursuers. The bullets of the Indians rattled against the gate of the little fort as the family pressed into the enclosure at daybreak.

Our great-grandfather afterwards served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, for which he was pensioned; but although he lived to be nearly a hun

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