The Continuity Principle in Johann Arndt's Theological Environment In the extant Arndt research-both old and new-Arndt is frequently related to a form of "Lutheranism", and an attempt is made to determine the extent to which he succeeded in complying with this, or whether his thinking diverged from it. According to Koepp in 1912 Arndt was regarded as introducing a new, different piety into "Lutheranism", viz. mysticism. With the publication of Deutschen Theologie in 1597 Arndt becomes more engrossed in Mediaeval writings, which in Koepp's view are alien to "Lutheranism". It is bewildering that the concept "Lutheranism" is used in e.g. Koepp somewhat carelessly, so that its meaning almost consists in what a later, more confessionally fixed "Lutheranism" reads into it. A more sectarian "Lutheranism" must impose certain limitations. The assertion of something specifically "Lutheran" must occur by its delimitation from what is considered to lie outside this category. It is here possible to stand aloof from events preceding the Reformation, viz. the Middle Ages. The principle of continuity thereby tends to fade into the background. The "new" is emphasized, and when Arndt uses, and quotes e.g. Mediaeval writings this is alien to "Lutheranism". At the time when Arndt was writing "Lutheran" was a somewhat unnatural concept which would later, however, acquire a strong confessional connotation. "The Lutherans" in Arndt's time were theologically divided into several parties or trends: Gnesio-Lutherans (Flacians), the "Centre" party, the Philippists, and the Crypto-Calvinists. There was also the total division of Protestantism into e.g. Calvinism and Unitarianism. In his work from 1596 the Anglican theologian Johannes Rainoidus sees Continental Protestantism as a unit consisting "a Luthero, Melanchthone, Magdeburgensibus, Calvino, aliisque Protestantibus". With respect to Arndt's theological environment the "Magdeburgensibus" are chiefly of interest here in terms of theology, geography and time. Magdeburg was the stronghold of Gnesio-Lutheranism and the centre of Flacian research into Church history. The distinguishing feature of this research was its pursuit chiefly for theological and dogmatic purposes. One aspect was naturally the polemic against the Papacy but also against Calvinism, which was considered to have diverged from the Church's tradition. Another aspect which must not be overlooked was, however, the purely edifying, the promotion of the life of devotion and the strengthening of the individual's faith by the presentation of witnesses to the Faith and the Truth from the entire history of the Church. In this research into Church history it was essential constantly to find new testimony to the truth of the ancient Tradition. Thus continuity is here of great importance. Arndt too has his background and dornicile in this tradition of working with Church history. Therefore for Arndt it is wholly legitimate, and a clear consequence from his theological environment, background, and attitude, to draw on Mediaeval works. Arndt's theological affinity with Catalogus Testium Veritatis and the Magdeburg Centuries is obvious. According to a study by Massner in 1964 there is no contradiction between Scripture and Tradition as an either/or in either Luther or Flacius. It was not until the Lutheran Orthodoxy of the 17th century that the actual doctrine of verbal inspiration was developed, and Scripture and Revelation were placed on an equal footing at the expense of Tradition. Massner's study is worthy of note also with regard to the understanding of Arndt. For Arndt was writing somewhat prior to real Lutheran Orthodoxy. For Arndt a delimitation from the Church's Tradition and the continuity with the Middle Ages is unnatural also in terms of the theological environment in which he finds himself. This emerges too from a study of e.g. writings from Gnesio-Lutheran circles which are contemporary with Ikonographia from 1596/7. The liturgical continuity in all these writings is emphasized inter aha. The Mediaeval Spanish theologican, Raimundus of Sabunde can also be quoted. He was regarded by Koepp as particularly alien to "Lutheranism" at the time when Arndt flourished. In reality, however, long before Arndt's quotation of him in the fourth book of Sanna Kristendomen (The True Christianity), this theologian was so well known within Protestantism in general-inter alia via Andreas Keller in 1590-that the prologue of his Teologia Naturalis was included in the Roman Catholic Index of prohibited literature already in 1559. Arndt by no means found himself in a theological environment in which the Mediaeval was tabooed, underestimated, or overlooked. The sharp demarcation between the Middle Ages and the period of the Reformation which would later mark historiography, the Church, and theology, and even theological research, and which is difficult for us to escape even today, barely existed among theologians in Arndt's time. Continuity and fellowship were emphasized instead.