401 religious encyclopedia nationalism

Religious of Luther, Calvin, and Latimer, than

Element.

these men knew themselves. They were under the impression that they were moved by religious considerations and had religious ends in view, but they were mistaken. Their opponents, also, were mistaken in opposing them with argu­ments drawn from religion. Moreover, the vast literature produced in the age of the Reformation was written with a mistaken view of what the struggle going on meant. Lasting social, political, and economic changes followed the Reformation, and were involved in its principles, but primarily the,movement was a revolt of conscience against abuses in the Church and was a reproclamation of the Gospel. Such, at any rate, was the view of the Reformers themselves.

II. Principles of the Reformation: The move­ment started with the practical question, How can the troubled conscience find pardon and peace, and become sure of personal salvation? It retained from the Roman Catholic system all the ob 

:. Its jective doctrines of Christianity con 

Basis. cerning the Trinity and the divine­

human character and work of Chtist,

in fact, all the articles of faith contained in the

Apostles' and other ecumenical creeds of the early

church. But it joined issue with the prevailing

soteriology, that is, the application of the doctrines

relating to Christianity, especially the justification

of the sinner before God, the character of faith, good

works, the rights of conscience, the rule of faith,

and the meaning and number of the sacraments.

It brought the believer into direct relation and

union with Christ as the one and all sufficient source

of salvation, and set aside the doctrines of sacer­

dotal and saintly mediation and intercession. The

Protestant goes directly to the Word of God for in­

struction, and to the throne of grace in his devo­

tions; while the pious Roman Catholic consults the

teaching of his church, and prefers to offer his

prayers through the medium of the Virgin Mary and

the saints.

From this general principle of Evangelical free­dom, and direct individual relationship of the be­liever to Christ, proceed the three fundamental doc­trines of Protestantism the absolute

. Three supremacy of (1) the Word and of (2)

Principles the grace of Christ, and (3) the general

of Prot  priesthood of believers. The first is

estantism. called the formal, or, better, the ob­

jective principle; the second, the ma­

terial, or, better, the subjective principle; the third

may be called the social, or ecclesiastical principle.

German writers emphasize the first two, but often

overlook the third, which is of equal importance.

(1) The objective principle proclaims the canonical

Scriptures, especially the New Testament, to be the

only infallible source and rule of faith and practise,

and asserts the right of private interpretation of the

same, in distinction from the Roman Catholic view,

which declares the Bible and tradition to be co 

ordinate sources and rules of faith, and makes tra­dition, especially the decrees of popes and councils, the only legitimate and infallible interpreter of the Bible. In its extreme form Chillingworth expressed this principle of the Reformation in the well known formula, " The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is the religion of Protestants." Prot­estantism, however, by no means despises or rejects church authority as such, but only subordinates it to, and measures its value by, the Bible, and be­lieves in a progressive interpretation of the Bible through the expanding and deepening conscious­ness of Christendom. Hence, besides having its own symbols or standards of public doctrine, it retained all the articles of the ancient creeds and a large amount of disciplinary and ritual tradition, and re­jected only those doctrines and ceremonies for which no clear warrant was found in the Bible and which seemed to contradict its letter or spirit. The Cal­vinistic branches of Protestantism went farther in their antagonism to the received traditions than the Lutheran and the Anglican; but all united in re­jecting the authority of the pope, the meritorious­ness of good works, indulgences, the worship of the Virgin, saints, and relics, the sacraments (other than baptism and the Eucharist), the dogma of tran­substantiation and the sacrifice of the mass, purga­tory, and prayers for the dead, auricular confession, celibacy of the clergy, the monastic system, and the use of the Latin tongue in public worship, for which the vernacular languages were substituted. (2) The subjective principle of the Reformation is justifica­tion by faith alone, or, rather, by free grace through faith operative in good works. It has reference to the personal appropriation of the Christian salva­tion, and aims to give all glory to Christ, by de­claring that the sinner is justified before God (i.e., is acquitted of guilt, and declared righteous) solely on the ground of the all sufficient merits of Christ as apprehended by a living faith, in opposition to the theory then prevalent, and substantially sanc­tioned by the Council of Trent which makes faith and good works coordinate sources of justification, laying the chief stress upon works. Protestantism does not depreciate good works; but it denies their value as sources or conditions of justification, and insists on them as the necessary fruits of faith, and evidence of justification. (3) The universal priest­hood of believers implies the right and duty of the Christian laity not only to read the Bible in the vernacular, but also to take part in the government and all the public affairs of the Church. It is opposed to the hierarchical system, which puts the essence and authority of the Church in an exclusive priest­hood, and makes ordained priests the necessary mediators between God and the people.

III. The Reformation in the Different Countries.­1. Germany: The movement in Germany was di­rected by the genius and energy of Luther, and the learning and moderation of Melanchthon, assisted

by the electors of Saxony and other 1. Beret princes, and sustained by the majority

Period. of the people, in spite of the opposi­tion of the bishops and the Emperor Charles V. It started in the University of Wittenberg with a pro­test against the traffic in indulgences, Oct. 31, 1517.

Reformation

THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG

and soon spread all over Germany, which was in various ways prepared for a breach with the pope. At first Luther shrank in horror from the idea of a separation from the traditions of the past, and he attacked a few abuses, taking it for granted that the pope himself would condemn them if properly informed. But the irresistible logic of events brought him into irreconcilable conflict with the central authority of the Church. Leo X., in June, 1520, pronounced the sentence of excommunication against Luther, who, in turn, burned the bull. The Diet of Worms in 1521 added to the pope's excom­munication the ban of the emperor. The bold stand of the poor monk, in the face of the combined civil and ecclesiastical powers of the age, is one of the sublimest scenes in history, and marks an epoch in the progress of freedom. The dissatisfaction with the various abuses of Rome and the desire for the free preaching of the Gospel were so extensive, that the Reformation, both in its negative and posi­tive features, spread, in spite of the pope's bull and the emperor's ban, and gained a foothold before 1530 in the greater part of northern Germany, espe­cially in Saxony, Brandenburg, Hesse, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, LOneburg, Friesland, _ and in nearly all the free cities, as Hamburg, Liibeck, Bremen, Magdeburg, Frankfort, and Nuremberg; while in Austria, Bavaria, and along the Rhine, it was per­secuted and suppressed. Among the principal causes of this rapid progress were the writings of the Reformers, Luther's German version of the Scriptures (see BIBLE VERSIONS, B, VIL, § 3) and Evangelical hymns, which introduced the new ideas into public worship and the hearts of the people. The Diet of Speyer in 1526 (see SPEYER, DIETS OF) left each state to its own discretion concerning the question of reform until a general council should settle it for all, and thus sanctioned the principle of territorial independence in matters of religion which prevails in Germany to this day; each sovereignty having its own separate ecclesiastical establish­ment in close union with the State. The next diet of Speyer (in 1529) prohibited the further progress of the Reformation. Against this decree of the Roman Catholic majority, the Evangelical princes entered, on the ground of the Word of God, the in­alienable rights of conscience, and the decree of the previous diet, the celebrated protest, dated Apr. 19, 1529, which gave rise to the name, " Protes­tants." The Diet of Augsburg, in 1530, where the Lutherans offered their principal confession of faith, drawn up by Melanchthon, and named after that city, threatened the Protestants with violent meas­ures if they did not return to the old Church. Here closes the first, the heroic, and the most eventful period of the German Reformation.

The second period embraces the formation of the Protestant League of Schmalkald (see SCHMALKALD, ARTICLES OF) for the armed defense of Lutheran 

ism, the various theological confer­2. From ences of the two parties for an adjust 

1830 to the

ment of the controversy, the death of Thirty  Luther (1546), the imperial " In­Yeare War.

terims " or compromises (see INTERIM), and the Schmalkald War, and ends with the suc­cess of the Protestant army, under Maurice of

420

Saxony, and the treaty of Pamau, 1552, giving legal recognition to Protestants. This was confirmed at the diet of Augsburg (see AuGssuRG, RELIGIous PEACE OF). The third period, from 1555 to 1580, is characterized by the violent internal controver­sies within the Lutheran Church the Osiandrian controversy, concerning justification and sanctifi­cation (see OSIANDER, ANDREAS); the adiaphoristic, arising originally from the Interims (see ADIAPHoRA AND THE ADIAPHORISTIC CONTROVERSIES, §§ 6 H); the synergistic, concerning faith and good works (see SYNERGISM); and the crypto Calvinistic, or sacramentarian controversy, about the real pres­ence in the Eucharist (see PHILIPPISTS). These theological disputes led to the full development and completion of the doctrinal system of Lutheran­ism as laid down in the Book of Concord (first pub­lished in 1580), which embraces all the symbolical books of that church, namely, the three ecumenical creeds; the Augsburg Confession and its Apology (q.v.), both by MTelanchthon; the two Catechisms of Luther (see LUTHER'S Two CATECHISMS), and the Schmalkald Articles (q.v.) drawn up by him in 1537; and the Formula of Concord (q.v.). On the other hand, the fanatical intolerance of the strict Lutheran party against the Calvinists and the moderate Lutherans (called, after their leader, Me­lanchthonians or Philippists) drove a large number of the latter over to the Reformed (Calvinistic) Church, especially in the Palatinate (1560), in Bremen (1561), Nassau (1582), Anhalt (1596), Hesse Cassel (1605), and Brandenburg (1614). The German Reformed communion adopted the Hei­delberg Catechism (q.v.) as their confession of faith. The sixteenth century closes the theological his­tory of the Gennan Reformation; but its political history was not brought to a termination until after the terrible Thirty Years' War (q.v.), by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 (see WESTPHALIA, PEACE OF), which secured to the Lutherans and the German Reformed churches (but to no others) equal rights with the Roman Catholics within the limits of the German Empire. These two denominations, either in their separate existence, or united in one organ­ization under the name of the Evangelical Church (as in Prussia, Baden, W urttemberg, and other states, since 1817), continue the only forms of Prot­estantism recognized and supported by the German governments; all others being small, self support. ing " sects," nourished mostly by foreign aid (the Baptists and Methodists of England and America).

2. Switzerland: The Reformation here was con­temporaneous with, but independent of, the German Reformation, and resulted in the Reformed commu­nion as distinct from the Lutheran. In all the essen­tial principles and doctrines, except the mode of Christ's presence in the Eucharist, the Helvetic Reformation agreed with the German; but it de­parted farther from the received traditions in mat­ters of government, discipline, and worship, and aimed at a more radical moral and practical refor­mation of the people. It naturally divides itself into three periods: the Zwinglian from 1516 to 1531; the Calvinistic, to the death of Calvin in 1564; and the period of Bullinger and Beza, to the close of the sixteenth century. The first belongs mainly

421 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Reformation

to the German cantons; the second, to the French; the third, to both jointly. Zwingli (q.v.) began his reformatory preaching against various abuses, at Einsiedeln, in 1516, and then, with more energy and effect, at Zurich, in 1519. At first he had the consent of the bishop of Constance, who assisted him in putting down the sale of indulgences in Switzerland; and he stood in high credit even with the papal nuncio. But a rupture occurred in 1522, when Zwingli attacked the fasts as a human inven­tion; and many of his hearers ceased to observe them. The magistrate of Zurich appointed public disputations in Jan. and Oct., 1523, to settle the controversy. On both occasions, Zwingli, backed by the authorities and the great majority of the people, triumphed over his papal opponents. In 1526 the churches of the city and the neighboring villages were cleared of images and shrines; and a simple mode of worship was substituted for the mass. The Swiss diet (like the German) took a hostile attitude to the Reformed movement, with a respectable minority in its favor. To settle the controversy for the republic, a general theological conference was held at Baden, in the Canton Aar­gau, in May, 1526, with Johann Eck (q.v.), the famous antagonist of Luther, as the champion of the Roman, and CJcolampadius of the Reformed cause. The result was in form adverse, but in fact favorable, to the cause of the Reformation, which was now introduced in the majority of the cantons, at the wish of the magistrates and the people, by (Ecolampadius in Basel, and by Haller in Bern, also, in part, in St. Gall, Schaffhausen, Glarus, Appen­zell, Thurgau, and the Grisons; while in the French portions of Switzerland Guillaume Farel and Viret (qq.v.) prepared the way for Calvin. But the small cantons around the Lake of Lucerne, Uri, Schwytz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, and Zug, steadfastly op­posed every innovation. At last it came to open war between the Reformed and Roman Catholic cantons. Zwingli's policy was overruled by the ap­parently more humane, but in fact more cruel and disastrous, policy of Bern, to force the poor moun­taineers into measures by starvation. The Roman Catholics, resolved to maintain their rights, attacked and routed the small army of Zurich in the battle of Cappel, Oct., 1531. Zwingli, who had accom­panied his flock as chaplain and patriot, met a heroic death on the field of battle; and GJcolam­padius of Basel died a few weeks after. Thus the progress of the Reformation was suddenly arrested in the German portions of Switzerland, and one­third of it remains Roman Catholic to this day. But it took a new start in the western or French can­tons, and rose there to a higher position than ever. Soon after this critical juncture, the great master mind of the Reformed Church who was to carry forward, to modify, and to complete the work of Zwingli, and to rival Luther in influence began to attract the attention of the public. John Calvin (q.v.), Frenchman by birth and education, but exiled from his native land for his faith, found a new home, in 1536, in Geneva, where Farel had pre­pared the way. Here he developed his extraordi­nary genius and energy as the greatest theologian and disciplinarian of the Reformation, and made

Geneva the model church for the Reformed com­munion and a hospitable asylum for persecuted Protestants of every nation. His theological wri­tings, especially the Institutes and Commentaries, exerted a formative influence on all Reformed churches and confessions of faith; while his legis­lative genius developed the Presbyterian form of government, which rests on the principle of minis­terial equality, and of a popular representation of the congregation by lay elders. Calvin left in Theo­dore Beza (q.v.) a worthy successor, who, with Heinrich Bullinger (q.v.), the successor of Zwingli in Zurich, labored to the close of the sixteenth cen­tury for the consolidation of the Swiss Reformation and the spread of its principles in France, Holland, Germany, England, and Scotland.

8. France: While the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland carried with it the majority of the population, it met in France the united opposition of the court, the hierarchy, and popular sentiment, and had to work its way through severe trial and persecution. Many of the first professed Protes­tants were either put to death or sought safety in exile. It was only after the successful establish­ment of the Reformation in French Switzerland that the movement became serious in the neighboring kingdom. The first Protestant congregation was formed at Paris in 1555, and the first synod held in the same city in 1559. In 1561, at the theological conference at Poissy, Theodore Beza (q.v.) elo­quently but vainly pleaded the cause of the Prote&­tants before the dignitaries of the Roman Church, and there the name " Reformed," as an ecclesias­tical designation, originated. In 1571 the general synod at La Rochelle adopted the Gallican Con­fession (q.v.), and a system of government and dis­cipline essentially Calvinistic, yet modified by the peculiar circumstances of a church not in union with the State (as in Geneva), but in antagonism to it. The movement unavoidably assumed a political character, and led to a series of civil wars, which distracted France till the close of the sixteenth cen­tury. The Roman Catholic party, backed by the majority of the population, was headed by the dukes of Guise, and looked to the throne, then occu­pied by the house of Valois. The Protestant (or Huguenot) party, numerically weaker, but con­taining some of the noblest blood and best talent of France, was headed by the princes of Navarre, the next heirs to the throne. The queen regent, Catha­rine, during the minority of her sons (Francis II. and Charles IX.), although decidedly Roman Catho­lic in sentiment, tried to keep the rival parties in check, in order to control both. But the champions of Rome took possession of Paris, while the Prince of Cond6 occupied Orleans. The shameless and cold blooded massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Day, Aug. 24, 1572, disabled but did not annihilate the Protestant party, and the ascent to the throne of Henry of Navarre, who, after the assassination of Henry III. in 1589, be­came king of France as Henry IV., seemed to de­cide the triumph of Protestantism in France. But the Roman Catholic party, still more numerous and powerful, and supported by Spain and the pope, elected a rival head, and threatened to plunge the

Reformation THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG 4'2'2

country into new bloodshed. Then Henry, from political and patriotic motives, in 1593 abjured the Protestant faith in which he had been brought up, saying that" to reign is well worth amass." At the same time he secured, in 1598, to his former associ­ates, then numbering about 760 congregations throughout the kingdom, a legal existence and the right of the free exercise of religion, by the celebrated Edict of Nantes (see NANTES, EDICT OF). But the Reformed Church in France, after flourishing for a time, was overwhelmed with new disasters under the despotism of Richelieu, and finally the revoca­tion of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. in 1685 reduced it to a " church of the desert " (see CAMI­BARDB; COURT, ANTOINE; RABAUT, PAUL). This survived the most cruel persecutions at home, and enriched by thousands of exiles the population of every Protestant country in Europe and America. See FRANCE; HUGUENOTS.

4. The Netherlands: Here the movement was in­spired in part by Luther's works, but mostly by Reformed and Calvinistic influences from Switzer­land and France. Its first martyrs, Each and Voes, were burned at Antwerp in 1523, and celebrated by Luther in a poem. The despotic arm of Charles V. and his son Philip II. resorted to the severest meas­ures for crushing the rising spirit of religious and political liberty. The duke of Alva surpassed the persecuting heathen emperors of Rome in cruelty, and, according to Grotius, destroyed the lives of a hundred thousand Dutch Protestants during the six years of his regency (1567 73). Finally the seven northern provinces formed a federal republic, first under the leadership of William of Orange, and, after his assassination (1584), under his son Maurice, and after a long and heroic struggle accomplished their severance from the Church of Rome and the Spanish crown. The southern provinces remained Roman Catholic, and subject to Spain. The first Dutch Reformed synod was held at Dort in 1574, and in the next year the University of Leyden was founded. The Reformed Church of Holland adopted the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic .Confession (qq.v.), and the canons of the Synod of Dort of 1618 19 (see DORT, SYNOD Oh). In the Netherlands the system of Arminianism was constructed by pupils of Beza, and involved the Dutch church in long and bitter controversies (see ARMINIus, JA­COBUB, AND ARMINIANISM). Armlnianism infiltrated into England in the latter part of the reign of James I. and under Laud, and was adopted by John Wesley. [Laud's anti Augustinianism was not Arminianism but Semipelagianism of the Roman Catholic type. Wesley's was the latter blended with the old evan­gelical anti Augustinianism perpetuated by the Bohemian Brethren and the Unity of the Brethren (qq.V.). A. H. N.]

b. Bohemia: Preparation was made for the Ref­ormation here by the labors and martyrdoms of John Huss and Jerome of Prague (qq.v.). Their followers, the Hussites, would have prevailed in the wars which followed if they had not been broken up by internal dissensions between the Calixtines, the Utraquists, and Taborites. From their rem­nants arose the Unitas Fratrum or Bohemian Breth­ren (q.v,). In spite of violent persecution, they

perpetuated themselves in Bohemia and Moravia. When the Reformation broke out, they sent several deputations to Luther; and many of them em­braced the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession, but the majority passed to the Reformed or Cal­vinistic communion. During the reign of Maximil­ian II., there was a fair prospect of the conversion of the whole Bohemian nation; but the Thirty Years' War (q.v.) and the Counter Reformation crushed Protestantism, and turned Bohemia into a scene of desolation. A Jesuit named Anton Kon­iasch (1637) boasted that he had burned over 60,000 Bohemian books, mostly Bibles. The Bohendan Brethren who had fled to Moravia became, under Count Zinzendorf's care, the nucleus of the Mora­vian Church (see UNITY OF THE BRETHREN). But even in Bohemia Protestantism could not be utterly annihilated, and began to raise its head when the Emperor Joseph II. issued the Edict of Toleration, Oct. 29, 1781. The revival of Czech patriotism and literature came to its aid. The fifth centenary of Huss was celebrated in Prague, 1869, marked by the publication of Documenta Magidri Johannis Hus, ed. F. Palacky (Prague, 1869). See AUSTRIA; BOHEMIAN BRETHREN; HUNGARY; Huss, JOHN, HUSSITE&

e. Hungary: This country was first brought into contact with the Reformation by disciples of Luther' and Melanchthon, who had studied at Wit­tenberg, after 1524. Ferdinand I. granted to some magnates and cities liberty of worship, and Maxi­milian 11. (1564 76) enlarged the scope. Mfy6ts Bir6 D6vay (q.v.), the first parson and leader, was at first a Lutheran, but in his later years adopted the views of the Swiss Reformer. The Synod of Erd6d, in 1545, organized the Lutheran, and the Synod of Czenger, in 1557, the Reformed Church. Ru­dolph 11. having suppressed religious liberty, Prince Stephen Bocskag of Transylvania, strengthened by his alliance with the Turks, reconquered by force of arms (1606) full toleration for the Lutherans and Calvinists in Hungary and Transylvania, which under his successors, Bethlen GAbor and George R6kficzy I., was confirmed by the treaties of Ni­kolsburg (1622) and Linz (1645). In Transylvania, Socinianism also found a refuge, and has maintained itself to this day. See HUNGARY.

7. Poland: Fugitive Bohemian Brethren, or Hussites, and the writings of the German Reform­ers, originated the movement in Poland. King Sigismund Augustus (1548 72) favored it, and cor­responded with Calvin. The most distinguished Protestant of that country was Johannes a Lasco (q.v.), a Calvinist. A compromise between the Lutheran and Reformed parties was effected by the general synod of Sendomir (Consensus Sendomirien­sis), in 1570; but subsequently internal dissensions, the increase of Socinianism, and the efforts of the Jesuits blighted Protestantism in that country. The German provinces now belonging to Russia­Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia opened the door to the Reformation, and adopted the Augsburg Con­fession. See POLAND.

e. Scandinavia: The Reformers of Sweden were two brothers, Olav and Lars Petri (see SWEDEN), disciples of Luther, who, after 1519, preached against