VI. Lutherische Konfessionsbildung. „Lutherische Orthodoxie“ aus rechtshistorischer Sicht

Abstract The development of the Lutheran Denomination. “Lutheran Orthodoxy” in the perspective of Legal History. The term ‘Lutheran Orthodoxy’ is mostly used for the majority of Lutherans following the ‘Formular of Concord’ of 1577. Originally, however, the term was coined with a polemic intention to reveal the hardhearted persecution of religious minorities. In a legal perspective it stands for a debate within Saxon Protestants, which starting in 1573 led to the incrimination of Calvinists as well as Philippists (followers of Philipp Melanchthon), but also established, eventually, the Lutheran denomination in the Empire and in other countries. When criminal persecution was no longer to be expected, this kind of debate was carried on among Lutheran lawyers in order to claim true Lutheranism for their own teaching. With Christian Thomasius, however, the repression itself became a reproach – which coins the common perception until today.