Conference of Thorn

Colloquy held in 1645, at Thorn in West Prussia, then under Polish protection, called by Wladislaw (Ladislaus) IV of Poland, who ruled over a religiously divided kingdom. The delegates included Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed representatives. The controversial Lutheran ecumenicist Georg Calixt (Calixtus*) was present, as well as the irenic Moravian J.A. Comenius.* Hampered by Jesuit opposition and Lutheran internal quarreling, the conference resulted in little ecumenical progress. Perhaps surprisingly, the Lutheran and Calvinist delegates were able to agree that the (Polish) Consensus of Sandomir (1570), which combined Calvinist, Lutheran, and Moravian ideas, as well as the German “Saxon Confession”* (Revised Augsburg Confession) of 1551, agreed on scriptural essentials. The Calvinist “Declaration of Thorn” was composed at the conference and was adopted as a creedal standard by the Calvinist churches of Brandenburg. It is noteworthy for its explicit stress on continuity with the ancient church.