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. THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM. 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. 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. Caspar Olevianus (1535-1587) was a When Frederick III. assumed the disciple of Calvin. He was a native of government he had no idea of introduc- Treves, and belonged to a wealthy faming the Reformed Church, but he soon ily whose name was properly Von der found himself involved in the preva- Olewig. Having passed through the Jent controversy. Hesshusius, a strict schools of his native city, he went to Lutheran, and Klebitz, a disciple of Paris, and then to Bourges, to complete Calvin, were engaged in a violent dis- his education. Here he studied law, cussion, by which the minds of the peo- but secretly devoted much time to readple were greatly excited. Frederick, ing the Scriptures. One of the sons of by the advice of Melancthon, dismissed Frederick III.-who was then only both of the contestants from their Count of Simmern-was also a student, charges, but peace did not ensue. It and the two young men soon became soon became impossible to hold the intimate friends. One day they took a irenical position of Melancthon. Fred- walk on the banks of the Oron river, in erick was forced to take sides in the company with the private tutor of the conflict, and, in 1559, he formally prince. They were met by a party of passed over to the Reformed Church, young German noblemen, who proposed though he always insisted that he had that they should all cross the river in a not in any way renounced his allegiance boat. Olevianus declined to accompany to the Augsburg Confession. It was a them, as some of the party had taken bold step, but its effects were extra- too much wine, but the prince and his ordinary. Hitherto the existence of the tutor accepted the invitation. In the Reformed Church had not been official- middle of the river they began playfully recognized in Germany, but now its ly to rock the boat; it was thus upset, position was secure, and it became the and the whole party was drowned. leading church along the whole course | Olevianus sprang into the water and Ursinus studied at Wittenberg, where he acquired great distinction, and was declared by Melancthon to be his most promising pupil. Subsequently he vis ited 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 or 6. 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. Return-ganization of the Church of the Palatiing to his native city, he began to nate, but feeling the weight of years, he preach the Gospel, but was arrested and recommended Ursinus to take his place. cast into prison. Delivered through Concerning the latter Frederick subsethe potent intercession of Frederick, he quently said to a Silesian: "His fatherwent to Heidelberg, where he was at land was not worthy of such a man. first professor of theology, and subse- Tell your countrymen to banish many quently pastor of the principal church such men, so that they may come to me." 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. In 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. 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 simFred-plicity, 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." After the death of the elector erick, 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. 66 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 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 U sinus 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. PONTIAC. HIS CONSPIRACY- — ASSASSINATION-ITS CONSEQUENCES-THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ILLINOIS ON STARVED 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 Ur-oning in crossing the Maines from Stersinus should encounter violent opposi- ling, on Rock river, to Henry City, on tion, and it was therefore necessary that Illinois river, and became entangled for it should be stoutly defended. The the greater part of an April afternoon. Defence of the Catechism will form the in those famous swamps. subject of our next article. 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 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 reck 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 had Braddock accepted the proff-red 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 independence 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 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 and Indians. sudden and violent gestures, and a voice that pealed like a bugle, he sounded the tocsin of war. "The red coats," he exclaimed, "have conquered the French, but they have not conquered us. We are not slaves or squaws, and as long as 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 ves." months before the Pontiac Conspiracy broke out. In an article published in the Guardian for December, 1880, I gave an account of Bouquet and his great victory, by which some of my ancestors were saved from the tomahawk and scalping knife of the red savages. One of my He proposed to capture Detroit by stratagem, and would have succeeded had not his plans been betrayed to Maj. Gladwin by an Indian maiden whom that officer had corrupted and infatuated. He was forced to the alternative of a regular siege, in which he displayed wonderful fertility of resources. Several parties sent to the relief of the besieged garrison on ships were surprised and cut off. Vessels were boarded by the savages from their canoes. Immense fire rafts were floated down the river to destroy the ships of the English. A currency of birch bark, with Pontiac's stamp, was employed in securing supplies from neutral French settlers and neighboring tribes, and, to his lasting honor let it be recorded that Pontiac saw to it that every piece that bore his sign manual was fully redeemed. Not a few white individuals and communities are put to shame by the integrity, sacrifice and fidelity of the great Ottawa chieftain. He had gone to help bury some distant settlers massacred by the Indians, when an Indian whom the family had befriended brought word after night that a general massacre of whites was about to take place, and if they remained till morning all would be killed. Our great-great-grandmother had a babe three days old, but in such an emergency, with horrible death or more horrible captivity staring herself and children in the face, she rose from her sick couch. The horse was saddled, and the mother, with the tender babe in her arms, and another very small child on the horse behind her, and older children following on foot with their small herd of cattle, set out through the wilderness for Fort Ligonier, some thirty miles distant. Our great-grandfather 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 so close to them as they neared the Fort that they were obliged to leave their 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 Fort Pitt and Niagara, Lee Boeuff, Venango, Presque Isle, on Lake Erie; cattle, which were captured by their Lea Bay, on Lake Michigan, St. Jos- savage pursuers. The bullets of the eph's, Miami Ouachtanon, Sandusky and Indians rattled against the gate of the Mackinaw had been surprised and their little fort as the family pressed into the garrisons massacred, some of them tor- enclosure at daybreak. tured at the stake. Guya-utha, the cele brated Seneca chief, commanded the horde of savages that besieged Fort Pitt, which was bravely defended by Ecuyer, 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 |