# Irenicum



## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 21, 2006)

There are a number of Puritans and others who have written treatises with "Irenicum" in the title. Below is the list I have compiled. I know that Burroughs' work is superb. Are there any others worth noting? Is there anyone who can compare the works cited?

* Jeremiah Burroughs, _Irenicum, to the Lovers of Truth and Peace. Heart-divisions opened, in the causes and evils of them: with cautions that we may not be hurt by them, and endeavours to heal them_ (1646)

* Herman Witsius, _Conciliatory, or irenical animadversions on the controversies agitated in Britain under the unhappy names of antinomians and neonomians_ (1696)

* Edward Stillingfleet, _The Irenicum, or pacificator: being a reconciler as to church differences_ (1659)

* Benjamin Bennet, _Irenicum, a Review of Controversies on the Trinity, Church Authority, etc._ (1722, 8vo)

* Daniel Zwicker (Unitarian), _Irenicum Irenicorum_ (1658 Ed.) 

* Christoff Matthaus Pfaff (Lutheran), _Alloquium irenicum ad protestantes_ (1720)

* David Pareus, _Irenicum sive de unione et synodo Evangelicorum_ (1614)

* Leonard Hutter (Lutheran), _Irenicum vere christianum_

* Matthew Newcomen, _Irenicum_


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Nov 2, 2006)




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## bwana-asafiwe (Nov 2, 2006)

VirginiaHuguenot said:


> Is there anyone who can compare the works cited?



Andrew,
What exactly are you asking? Are you looking for reviews. The titles look very interesting. I haven't read any of them. Are these titles you're recommending?

curious.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Nov 2, 2006)

bwana-asafiwe said:


> Andrew,
> What exactly are you asking? Are you looking for reviews. The titles look very interesting. I haven't read any of them. Are these titles you're recommending?
> 
> curious.



I know that Burroughs work is very good. I have a cursory knowledge of the others. I was wondering if anyone has read some or all of these works and can compare them as to their worthiness. The Unitarian work is obviously unorthodox. Hutter's work, from what I can gather, is written, ironically, as polemic _against_ unity with the Calvinists as advocated by Pareus. Stillingfleet's treatise was written (prior to the Restoration in 1659, and republished in 1662) to promote compromise between Episcopalians and Presbyterians, and was answered by Gilbert Rule. I have only seen references to Newcomen's work, and I would very much love to learn more about it. (The _DNB_ reports that "Matthew Newcomen is said to have written a work called 'Irencium,' which must not be confounded with Stillingfleet's 'Irenicum, a Weapon Salve for the Church's Wounds,' 1662).") I would also very much like to know what Witsius had to say about the antinomian controversy that tore apart the English Presbyterians and Independents in the 1690's. 

Any reviews or further information about these works from knowledgeable persons is most welcome. I am interested in learning also about the Irenical School of Theology that arose in Heidelberg. And I'd like to find out if there are other works out there written to promote what is generally known as "Irenicum."

There is a previous thread which touched on this a little in regards to the famous quote misattributed to Augustine: "in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all other things, charity."


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## bwana-asafiwe (Nov 2, 2006)

Thank you for the clarification. I wish that I had information to share. I love theological research (I can't claim to be "kowledgable", but teachable) and you've piqued my interest.

I will read the links you provided. Thanks


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## NaphtaliPress (Nov 2, 2006)

One of the "others" is one of those defenders of the English Popish Ceremonies, John Forbes (1593-1648), whose work is _Irenicum Amatoribus Veritatis et Pacis in Ecclesia Scotiana_ (Aberdeen, 1629). See Gillespie's _Dispute Against the English Popish Ceremonies _(Dallas, TX: Naphtali Press, 1993) for his interaction with Forbes. See the bibliography to EPC at:
http://www.naphtali.com/GGBooks.htm


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Nov 2, 2006)

Thanks very much, Pastor Winzer!



bwana-asafiwe said:


> Thank you for the clarification. I wish that I had information to share. I love theological research (I can't claim to be "kowledgable", but teachable) and you've piqued my interest.
> 
> I will read the links you provided. Thanks



You're welcome!


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Nov 7, 2006)

Thomas Smith, _Select Memoirs of the Lives, Labours, and Sufferings, of Those Pious and Learned English and Scottish Divines, Who Greatly Distinguished Themselves in Promoting the Reformation from Popery; in Translating the Bibles; and in Promulgating Its Salutary Doctrines_:



> Mr. Baxter, who knew [Stephen Marshall] well, calls him a sober and worthy man, and often observed, with regard to his moderation, “That if all the bishops were like Usher, the independents like Jeremiah Burroughs, and all the Presbyterians like Stephen Marshall, the melancholy divisions of the church would have been easily accommodated.”


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Nov 14, 2006)

John Dury was an irenic Puritan. He wrote _Irenicorum Tractatuum Prodromus_ (1662).

Tom Webster, _Godly Clergy in Early Stuart England: The Caroline Puritan Movement, c. 1620 - 1643_, p. 255:



> His design was among the grandest: from 1629 to the year of his death, 1680, he strived in the cause of 'ecclesiastical pacification' between the disparate brances of the Lutheran and Calvinist churches, initially in the context of the Thirty Years War, but struggling on in the changed conditions of Europe after the Treaty of Westphalia.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Dec 11, 2006)

There is an article on David Pareus here.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Feb 27, 2007)

The Society for Reformation Studies is hosting a conference in April 2007 on Irenicism. More details available here.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Mar 5, 2007)

Jeremiah Burroughs' _Irenicum_ is available online here.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Mar 6, 2007)

Edward Stillingfleet's _Irenicum_ is available online here.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Mar 6, 2007)

_Irenicum: or, The importance of unity in the church of Christ considered; and applied towards the healing of our unhappy differences and divisions .. _ (1775)


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