Reformation
Wittenberg / Jena, Germany
Gnesio-Lutheran
Rejected by his own side
Also: Flacius Illyricus
⭐⭐ Read him alongside Pelagius in the first part of this thread: both men, to guard something true (one guarding human responsibility, the other the thoroughness of God's grace), pushed it too far and were condemned by their own side. ⚠ This entry matters a great deal to us — the method of this section naturally tends to speak up for the condemned, and everyone condemned in the first part was on the synergist side. This thread has a cliff on each side, and he is the example on the monergist side. González also records that he was hailed as the best Lutheran theologian of the second generation, and that he knew Luther for only a few years, since he came to Wittenberg only about five years before the Reformer's death.
Below: first his own position, then the church’s verdict — kept separate. A rejected opinion keeps equal weight here.
His own position
Spokesman of the Gnesio-Lutherans, opposed to the innovations of Melanchthon's line. Debating synergism with Viktorin Strigel, and wanting to push man cannot save himself at all to the very end, he held that original sin is not an accident but the very essence of fallen human existence. When Adam was created he still had his original righteousness, and so he had a will that could cooperate with God; the fall changed everything completely — he lost his original righteousness, lost his free will (not in outward matters, but in his power to turn to God), and even lost the image of God. As González gives his words: what we have is no longer the image of God but the image of Satan.
The church’s verdict
⭐ He was rejected by his own side. González: the claim both denied Luther's teaching that the believer is at once righteous and a sinner (simul justus et peccator) and came close to Manichaeism; at this point even the strict Lutherans felt they could no longer support their former champion. The Formula of Concord of 1577, in its article on original sin, expressly condemned this view “as a Manichæan error”. He refused to give it up and was driven into exile — in the end, González writes, a broken man, he died in a Catholic convent where he had taken refuge.
Threads he belongs to
Grace and Free Will
Round 2 · The Reformation Claim ⭐⭐ The cliff on the monergist side — to guard the thoroughness of God's grace he pushed too far, and his own side judged, as González reports, that he had come close to Manichaeism.
Justification
Dispute Claim ⭐ His blow against Osiander struck not at imputation but at the atonement — the rebuttal González judged the most convincing.