Thorn, Conference of

Thorn, Conference Of also known as "the Charitable Conference" (Colloquium( Charitativum), was one of those efforts to explain away the differences between the several bodies of Christians, with a view to religious reunion, of which the 17th century furnishes more than one example. It was appointed in the city of Thorn, in October, 1645, by Ladislaus IV, at the suggestion of the Reformed preacher at Dantzic, Bartholomew Nigrinus, who had become a Catholic, and persuaded the king that such a conference would be attended with good results. At this all religious parties were to appear and confer together on religion, and come to an agreement. On the side of the Lutherans, some Saxon divines of Wittenberg, especially, were invited from Germany; for they were regarded as standing at the head of all the German theologians. The Konigsberg divines were accompanied and assisted by Calixtus of Brunswick, who had been invited by elector Frederick William. His conduct and the question of precedence between the Konigsberg and the Dantzic divines occupied the entire time of the conference, which broke up without any result, Nov. 21, 1645. The official account of the proceedings of the conference are printed in Calovius, Historia Syncretistica. See also Schröckh, Kirchengeschichte seit der Reformation, 4, 509; Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. 3, 293,359,373, note.