Cassel, Conference of

Cassel, Conference Of, a meeting held at Cassel in 1661 between the Reformed theologians of Marburg and the Lutheran theologians of Rinteln. Peter Musäus and Johann Hennichen, both zealous disciples of Calixtus (q.v.), represented the Lutherans, and Sebastian Curtis and Johannes Hein the Reformed. The object of the Conference was, according to the officially-published Brevis relatio colloquii, etc., to endeavor, by friendly discussion, to remove the obstacles to union. The principal subjects of discussion were the Eucharist, Predestination, Baptism, and the person of Christ, and both parties agreed that in these fundamental points their doctrines were essentially similar. The landgrave was petitioned to call on the neighboring churches, and the Universities of Brandenburg and Brunswick, to adopt the resolutions of the Conference, and also to invite a general congress of the theologians of all countries. The landgrave's death (in 1663) destroyed all these projects of union. See Rommel, Gesch. von Hessen, 9, p. 46; Mosheim Church History, 3:359; Herzog, Real-Encyklopädie, 2:600.