10.01 Glossary of Terms
The following are very summary, working definitions of a variety of terms used in the tutorial. Some are theological terms which are at the heart of the protestant reformation and require a much fuller exposition than is given here. The suggestions for further reading (esp. 11.01 and 11.02) indicate published sources where more detail is available than in encyclopaedias and dictionaries.
Adult baptism - see 'Anabaptism'
Advent
The four Sundays (occasionally five) before Christmas, the first of which (Advent Sunday) is the Sunday next to St Andrew's Day (30 November). This is traditionally taken as the beginning of the church year.
Anabaptism
Formally speaking, the term applies to those who challenged the scriptural basis for infant baptism. The issue came to the fore in the process of the Zurich reformation and the term 'catabaptists' (or 'antibaptists') was initially coined by Zwingli. His successor at Zurich, Heinrich Bullinger, first used the term 'anabaptist' (meaning 're-baptist'), which the anabaptists themsleves rejected because, for them, there was only one baptism and that was for adults only. The anabaptists came to be the most visible and the most attacked congregations of 'radicals' in the protestant reformation.
Antichrist
The embodiment of all the anti-Christian forces at work in the world. It had strong associations with the apocalyptic traditions of the return of Christ to earth, which would be preceded by cataclysmic change associated with the Antichrist. The notion of Antichrist ws utilized by the protestant reformers to embody the papacy and its instruments.
Attrition
The beginnings of repentance for sins as perceived by medieval theologians. Unlike contrition, it arose out of fear of God's retribution (i.e. punishment).
Augsburg confession [Confessio Augustana] (1530)
This became the principal Lutheran confession and was widely adopted int he first two generations of the reformation. It originated with an invitation from the elector of Saxony to his protestant theologians to summarize their doctrines with reference to scripture for the forthcoming diet at Augsburg. The resulting document became known as the Torgau Articles, and it formed the seven chapters of the second part of the confession. The first part was an expansion of the 15 articles which Luther had drawn up after the colloquy at Marburg on 5 October 1529. Extracts from the confession are included in this tutorial at 01A.33.
Augsburg, peace of (1555)
The peace of Augsburg recognized both catholicism and Lutheranism as legitimate religions in the Empire, extending legal recognition to those who accepted the Augsburg confession of 1530 and guaranteeing them the right to exercise their religion. The peace incorporated the decisions in the recess of the diet of Augsburg, meeting from February to September 1555. The peace also provided that, in the secular territories of prin ces and imperial knights, the ruler had the right to determine the religion of his subjects. This was subsequently known as the principle of cuius regio, eius religio. Other protestant confessions were, by implication, officially banned from the empire. Special clauses applied to the ecclesiastical estates of the empire.
Augustinianism; Augustinian
The teachings of St Augustine (345-430AD), bishop of Hippo and one of the great 'doctors of the church'. His substantial theological and philosophical writings had an enormous impact on the theologians of the protestant reformation.
[The] Augustinians
The Augustinian Friars were one of the principal monastic orders. They had been formed from various Italian congregations of hermits who were placed under the Rule of St Augustine by the papacy in 1256. Their constitution was modelled on that of the Dominicans. There were also various 'reformed' congregations of Augustinians by the time of the reformation. It was to the German Reformed Congregations of Augustinians that Luther belonged.
Ban
The temporary exclusion of an individual from a worshipping exclusion; to be distinguished from a permanent exclusion ('excommunication').
Baptism
The rite of initiation into the Christian community, of which there were (in the late medieval church), many local variants. The ceremony involved a series of prayers and exorcisms performed over the child to be baptized, sometimes using salt to symbolize the candidate's savouring of the faith. Other ceremonies including the 'opening' of the child to spiritual regeneration. The priest would touch the eyes and nose of the child to make him or her open to spiritual regeneration. The water in the font was blessed, and sometimes mixed with holy oild. Godparents were invited to renounce Satan and his works before the priest dipped the child three times in the water. The child was then dressed in a white robe, anointed with chrism, and presented with a candle. Traditionally, the church held that baptism was not only a sign of grace, but actually conferred grace upon the baptized. Protestant reformers were agreed in retaining baptism as one of the sacraments of the church. In other respects, however, there were fundamental differences of liturgical practice and underlying theology. Luther's first baptismal service (1523) and his revised version (1526) eliminated most (but not all) of the exorcisms of the traditional rite and eliminated the blessing of the font. The rite was designed to indicate that it was not the water which had the power of salvation but the word of God acting in and through it. In Geneva, the baptismal rite prepared for use by Calvin was even more unambiguous. Baptism should take place during ordinary Sunday worship as a sacrament in which the sign of Christ's life and death for us is communicated to us all. Exorcism was completely omitted as superstitious. The ceremony did not apparently involve 'dipping' but only 'pouring' the water over the child's head. The question of the Christian name was accorded considerable significance, Calvin being particularly concerned about the relationship between the name of something and the thing signified.
Basilica of St Peter's
The cathedral of the bishop of Rome (the pope).
Benefice
A church office carrying an endowment to provide a remuneration for the individual varrying out the office.
[The] Bible
The return to the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments formed a central focus of the protestant reformation in its doctrine and ecclesiastical practice. But how passages of the Bible should be interpreted was the subject of intense scrutiny and considerable debate amongst the protestant reformers. What constituted the 'canon' of scripture grew more defined and circumscribed in the course of the reformation. The so-called 'Apocryphal' books of the Bible were gradually excluded from the canon by protestant confessions. At the same time, doubts about the canonical status of some of the New Testament books (especially II Peter, II and III John, Jude and James) were suppressed. The protestant reformers rejected the complex divisions introduced by medieval Biblical comentators into the task of exegesis. in their place, they tended to stress the significance of placing a text in its historical context and elucidating the linguistic complexity of particular phrases. For catholics, the Latin version of the Bible compiled by St Jerome and known as the 'Vulgate' remained the only authentic text.
Bull
From the Latin bulla meaning a 'seal'. It was a written papal authorization with a seal to guarantee its authenticity.
Calvinism, Calvinist
The doctrines and ecclesiology (approaches to church government) advocated by Jean Calvin and harmonized with those established by Huldrych Zwingli at Zurich. It was characterized in the sixteenth century by the confession known as the Zurich Consensus (or Consensus Tigurinus) of 1549, a common confessional drawn up after lengthy negotiations between Heinrich Bullinger and Jean Calvin. This in turn provided the basis for the Second Helvetic Confession (or Confessio Helvetica Posterior) of March 1566, which laid out in 30 chapters a clear exposition of reformed faith. Published in Latin, German and French, it became one of the best-known and highly-regarded confessions from the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of protestantism.
Canon law
The legislation which governed the church in all aspects of its organization, morality and beliefs.
Catechism
Dervised from the Greek 'to instruct'. It was applied by the protestant reformers to refer to books of instruction in the faith which were extensively utilized to enable ministers and others to teach the elements of the faith to the unlearned or the young. They were extremely numerous in the sixteenth century. An extract from the Genevan catechism is provided in this tutorial by way of example (see 01B.45).
Celibacy
The unmarried condition of the clergy and regular orders since the central middle ages. It was rejected by protestant reformers.
Chambre ardente
The notorious chamber attached to the Parlement of Paris which, from 1547 to 1559 specialised in the prosecution and conviction of cases of heresy.
Christian humanism
The term 'humanism' (Humanismus in German) was first utilized in 1808 by a German educationalist to describe the emphasis placed on the Greek and Latin classics in education. The word has come to be used to refer to the revival of classical studies in the Italian renaissance and the desire to return 'to the original texts'. Part of the revival involved the more technical aspects of critical textual scholarship known as 'philology', by which more reliable and precise editions of classical texts could be established. Humanism was not, therefore, a precisely delineated philosophical system (as the medieval schoastic philosophers would have understood it) but a methodology which became a general intellectual trend which had specific educational objectives. It had its effects on the writing and teaching of theology and biblical studies on the eve of the reformation. This is best characterised by the writings of the 'Christian humanists', exemplified by the great Desiderius Erasmus [in Latin, Erasmus Roterodamus] ), c.1467-1536.
Church services
- see 'Baptism', 'Eucharist' and 'Mass'.
Church visitations
Canon law required bishops to undertake a regular visitation of their diocese (known as Ad limina Apostolorum visitations). They had occurred in a sporadic fashion in the late medieval church and tended to be devolved to a commissioner of the bishop such as his vicar general. They tended to concentrate on the conditions of buildings and furnishings. Cases of abuse were generally referred to the ecclesiastical courts for further investigation. Some efforts were made to evaluate the educational standards of the clergy, but the moral behaviour and religious education of the laity was rarely the subject of investigation in pre-reformation visitations. In Lutheran churches, the practice of visitations was continued by the 'superintendants' appointed by the prince and reporting to the appropriate ecclesiastical council. These visitations were more detailed and more searching in their examination of the laity.
Communion 'in both kinds'
As the perceived holy power of the eucharist had increased, so the risks of its defilement had also grown. The possibilities of spillage of the wine host led to its being withdrawn from the laity in the central middle ages, leaving the clergy to receive 'in both kinds', thus emphasising the separation between clergy and laity. The protestants insisted that the Lord's Supper be reinstituted as a communion 'in both kinds' for both laity and clergy alike.
Confession
The public and private acknowledgement of wrong-doing (sin). The word was also used for the public profession (often under oath) to the principles of a particular faith in the reformation period (e.g. 'Confession of Augsburg').
Confession [of Augsburg]
- see 'Augsburg confession'
Confession [of Magdeburg]
- see 'Magdeburg confession'
Confirmation
One of the seven sacraments (accepted by St Thomas Aquinas) and formally affirmed as an article of belief at the council of Florence in 1439. Candidates for confirmation were anointed with unction by the confirming bishop in the sign of the cross to confirm their baptism. Children were not expected to receive the eucharist before they were ten. The protestant reformers were united in regarding confirmation as an important ecclesiastical rite but not a sacrament. It had, they said, no scriptural basis, contained no divine promise, and was not essential to salvation. Although the service continued (albeit in various contexts), the practice of anointing at confirmation was abandoned by the protestant churches.
Consistory
- see 'Presbyterianism'.
Consubstantiation
Consubstantiation was one of the explanations for the presence of Christ in the eucharist which had been developed by medieval scholastic theologians. It contrasted with the more commonly held view of 'transubstantiation'. Unlike the latter, it upheld that the body of Christ was truly present in the bread and wine of the eucharist, but that there was no supernatural change in the substance of these elements. During the protestant reeformation, Luther rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation, but retained the 'real presence' of Christ 'in, with, and under' the bread and wine of the eucharist. This led his thinking to be linked with the 'consubstantiation' views of medieval theologians by Zwingli, Calvin and others. In reality, Luther himself never used the term 'consubstantiation' to describe his doctrine of the 'real presence' and his followers rejected it as a misrepresentation of their views.
Contrition
The repentance for wrong-doing (sins) out of a love for God.
Council of Constance
One of the great general councils of the church, held at Constance from 1414-18.
[The Roman] Curia
The papal court, which encompassed the domestic and administrative offices within the papal 'palace'. It included the college of cardinals and the pope's domestic prelates.
Cult
The word used in the reformation period (from the Latin cultus and reflected in the French culte) for religious worship, sometimes more specifically the worship of saints or holy relics. It is thus distinct from more modern usage of the word to mean a 'sect'.
[The] Decalogue
The 'Ten Commandments' delivered to Moses from God [Deuteronomy 5].
Decretal
A papal decision or decree ('Bull').
Diet [Reichstag]
The meeting of the representatives of the German estates or Parliament. By the reformation period, the diets consisted of three colleges (curiae), known as the imperial estates (Reichst�nde). These were the electors (excluding the king of Bohemia who generally only attended for the election of a new emperor), the princes (the group also included prelates, counts and other nobility), and the free imperial cities. When the diet had concluded, its decisions (and the emperor's assent to them) appeared in the form of a recess.
Dominicans
[also known as the 'Order of Preachers' and, in England, as the 'Black Friars' from the black cappa or mantle worn over their white habits. In France they were known as the Jacobins after the name of their first house in Paris which was dedicated to St James (i.e. 'St Jacques')]
One of the major monastic orders. The order took shape under the direction of St Dominic in the early 13th Century. It often provided the personnel for the Inquisition and thus inevitably attracted the particular criticism of protestant propagandists.
Donatism; Donatists
A schism from the fourth century AD. The Donatists stressed the sanctity of the church and made the validity and efficacy of its preaching and sacraments dependant on the moral purity of the priesthood. It was condemned as heresy by the western Church.
Elders
- see 'Presbyterianism'.
Eschatology; eschatological
The belief in the coming of the end of the world and time.
[The] Eucharist
Lit. 'Thanksgiving" in Greek. This is the name given to the central rite of worship in the Christian church. It is also known as 'communion', 'Lord's Supper' and the 'mass'. Debates over the nature of the eucharist were central to the protestant reformation. They were based on a limited range of scriptural references but they went to the heart of how scriptures should be interpreted and revealed fundamental underlying issues about how holy power was to be interpreted.
Evangelism, evangelical
As Luther said, the 'Gospel' [Lat. Evangelium] is a Greek word meaning 'a good message, good tidings, good news, a good report . . . '. For protestant reformers, the central significance of the 'Gospel' or 'Word' gives am appropriateness to the use of the terms 'evangelism' and 'evangelical' by modern historians to describe the infectious enthusiasm initiated by the early protestant reformation in the period before it became doctrinally well-defined and confessionally divided. The term has also been used by historians of the French and Italian reformations in a similar fashion to delineate those whose sympathies were towards the protestant reformation but whose support for the movement was, for various reasons, more a matter of intellectual tendency rather than overt and demonstrative conviction.
Excommunication
The formal and permanent exclusion of an individual from the community of the church and its rituals. Protestant reformers were united in accepting the need for church discipline. They differed over how they saw that discipline contributing to individual salvation. For Luther, the 'inner discipline' of an individual's life was primarily inculcated by education, preaching and the progressive indoctrination of religious values. Church discipline was more a matter of maintaining public order by legal sanction, necessary for the maintenance of a Christian society but not fundamental to salvation. Lutheran church retained some elements of episcopal government and consistories (at Wittenberg and elsewhere) utilized the power of excommunication to maintain church discipline. For Zwingli, Bucer and Calvin, however, excommunication was a more fundamental part of church discipline since (they argued) it was only within a public community that individual Christians were educated and inculcated with the true values of Christian living. So the stress upon the necessity and visibility of church 'discipline' was much more evident within the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition.
Exegesis
The exposition and interpretation of the scriptures.
Faith
- see 'Justification by Faith'.
Feast-days
These were the various days designated by the catholic church as holy days. On such days the laity and clergy were forbidden to work and were obliged to attend Mass. Such days included, of course, Sundays. In addition to various fixed dates such as Candlemas (2 February), the feast of the Annunciation (25 March) and Christmas day (25 December), there were variable dates and festivals in the Christian year. These were calculated from the date of Easter, which was assigned each year to the Sunday after the full moon on, or next after 21 March each year.
Franciscans
[known in England as the 'Grey Friars' from the colour of their habit]
The mendicants order of friars founded by St Francis of Assisi in 1209. The original distinguishing mark of the order was the insistence on complete poverty for individual friars and for the whole order.
General Councils [of the Church]
The great councils of the early church, as well as aspects of canon law, gave fundamental legitimacy to the proposition that a general council of the church could embody the universal church. Such councils were held periodically in the later medieval period and became associated with ecclesiastical reform. A further, and more radical, strand of thought wanted to make the councils a more regular part of the institutional framework of the church. A still more contentious element of 'conciliar' thinking was the supposition that, in certain circumstances, a church council had supremacy in the church (even over the papacy). It was the dangers implicit in such a development that made the papacy wary of general councils of the church at the time of the protestant reformation.
Good works
The central proposition of the protestant reformation was that no amount of 'good works' could earn or work a way into heaven. That could only come about through the grace of God, mediated to us through Christ. Only through the grace of Christ could the Christian pilgrim do the good works which would, in the end, enable him to stand before the 'justice' of God. Although their catholic critics assailed the protestant reformers for the primacy of faith over works, Luther, Zwingli and Calvin never identified the freedom of faith as a freedom from good works. On the contrary, they stressed that, though good works never contributed to justification, the effects of a passively received faith from God would naturally and inevitably be actively engaged works of charity in the world.
Grace
St Augustine's theology of grace was a fundamental starting-point for all protestant thinking on this complex subject. It had ramifications for how the eucharist and other sacraments were conceived, and much else besides. Augustine's insistence on the necessity for God to initiate our salvation was shared by all the reformers, even if they had very different ways of interpreting how this happened. For Luther, the process was utterly dependant on Christ. We receive grace when we believe in Christ. His righteousness becomes ours at that moment. In this mystical union with Crhist, which goes beyond any attempt at rational explanation, the believer receives his forgiveness and renewal of life, and is justified. This is what happened when we are offered the real body and blood of Christ at the eucharist and also when the word of God is received within our hearts. Calvin was also impressed with Luther's formulations and used the image of Christ being 'ingrafted' in us through our faith in the loving kindness of God from whom we, like lost sheep, receive a grace which we do not deserve. How Calvin explained the process of 'ingrafting' was highly complex and still the subject of debate amongst theologians. It depended on how he interpreted a 'sign'. The preaching of the word and the offering of the sacraments 'represent' (i.e. 're-present') God's grace to us in a way which meant that they were neither merely a symbol nor an active agent (crudely conceived) for the conveyal of grace.
Gregorian Reforms
The ecclesiastical reform of the church associated with Pope Gregory IX (1227-41).
Holy Roman Empire ['the Old Reich']
The complex polity in central Europe ruled by the elective holy roman emperor.
Humanism, humanist
- see 'Christian humanism'.
[The] Hussites
Followers of Jan Hus (c.1369-1415), the Bohemian reformer and heretic. He derived some of his doctrines from John Wyclif and rejected the papacy, putting in its place the authority of the 'Law of God' (the scriptures and the agreed doctrines of the universal church). In practice, the Hussites actively promoted the reading of the Bible in the vernacular and the distribution of the Communion to the laity 'in both kinds'.
Iconoclasm
The destruction of images, icons and others objects associated with Christ, the holy family or the saints and perceived to have holy power.
Idolatry
The worship of images or other objects of perceived holy power.
Images
Objects of holy power.
[The] Imperial Cameral Court [Reichskammergericht]
The supreme court of the Empire, created at the diet of Worms in 1495.
Indulgences
A letter of indulgence was a remission of temporal penalties for sin, granted by the hierarchy of the Roman church, for individual who had shown penitence. It was always granted on condition that defined penitential acts were carried out by the indulged (such as visiting the holy places of Jerusalem, or contributing money to the building of St Peter's in Rome). The sale of indulgences, especially 'plenary' indulgences, led to widespread criticism which was focused by the protestant reformation.
[The] Inquisition
The Inquisition (from the Latin inquirere - to look into) was a special ecclesiastical institution established in the thirteenth century to suppress heresy. It was most significant in those places where such heresy had been prevalent. The Spanish kingdoms, along with many other parts of Europe, had a version of the medieval Inquisition. However, the revived and reorganised 'Spanish Inquisition' was a more recent and distinctive tribunal on the eve of the reformation, established specifically to deal with the problems of pseudo-conversions of Jews (Marranos) and Moors (Moriscos) to Christianity.
Imputed righteousness
- see 'Justification'.
Justification [by faith] [Sola Fide]
This was the fundamental theological change imparted by the protestant reformation. It lay close to the heart of how Luther (and, with different emphases, other protestants reformers) regarded salvation. The term 'justification' occurred within the New Testament, especially in the Pauline writings, as a metaphor to explain how human beings are 'made rightous' by God. Luther held that man is the recipient of God's mercy through faith alone (Lat: sola fide). Salvation cannot depend on human merit or upon good works or upon the church. Our faith is a gift of grace from God who mysteriously elects to save us and it works in a mysterious way in us. Luther talks about faith as a 'trust' (fiducia in Latin) in God's promises, as revealed to us in Christ. Through this trust, we become sinners who at the same time have a hope of righteousness which God imparts to us (or 'imputes' in us). Calvin stressed that our faith in Christ enables Him to live in us as a real and living force and becomes the route by which we can share in the benefits of His passion. We 'possess' Christ and he becomes 'ingrafted' into our beings and lives, justifying and sanctifying them at one and the same time.
[The] Lateran Council
General councils held at Rome were known as 'Lateran' councils because they met in the Lateran Basilica.
Lent
A forty-day period of fast which preceded Easter and began with the communal act of penance on Ash Wednesday.
L�se-Majest� divine et humaine
Treason.
Liturgy
Lit. 'the work of the people' in Greek. In general, it is taken to refer to the church's services and church worship. In particular, it can refer to the eucharist as the central element of that worship.
[The] Lollards
The name probably means 'mumblers of prayers'. Initially restricted to the followers of John Wyclif (c.1329-84), the English reformer and philosopher, the term became more generally applied in England to all who criticized the church. The original Lollards had distinctive teachings on personal faith, the importance of Divine election and, above all, the significance of the Bible. The scriptures were the sole authority in religion and every man had the right to read and interpret them for himself. The Lollards attacked clerical celibacy, transubstantiation, indulgences and pilgrimages in ways which led the protestant martyrologists to claim the Lollards as their spiritual forebears.
[The] Magdeburg Confession
In reality, this was a manifesto of the rights of lesser magistrates to resist legitimate authority. It was issued during the siege of the city of Magdeburg after the Schmalkaldic War (1546-7). The city refused to accept the Augsburg Interim imposed by the emperor after his milirary success and it was invested by his troops. This publication became a reference-point for later resistance theory in the sixteenth century.
Magisterial reform
The religious changes proposed by the theologically trained masters (magistri) of the protestant reformation such as Luther, Zwingli and Calvin, and the secular authority whose religious changes they orchestrated.
Martyrology; martyrs
Martyrs were the faithful who suffered for their faith. Martyrologies were the accounts which retold their lives and suffering.
[The] Mass [Missa]
The name given to the Latin service (the office or actio) of the eucharist in the traditional church. The central part of the rite (the 'canon') began with the words Te igitur leading through to the consecration and distribution of the host. A 'high mass' was an elaborate, sung, form of the service. A 'low mass' was a simple form of mass, involving only one server, no deacon or choir, and no part of the service was sung. The term 'mass' was rejected by the reformers because of its association with the doctrine of transubstantiation, and because of the theology of 'sacrifice' which underlay it.
[The] Mendicants
Those monastic orders which were committed to corporate poverty, such as the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Carmelites.
[The] Millennium; millennial, millenarian
The belief in the coming of a thousand-year reign of blessedness by Christ and his saints, as envisaged in the Bible (esp. Revelation 20).
Monasteries
- see 'Regular Orders'
[The] Novatians
A third-century Roman sect.
[Holy] Orders
Being in 'holy orders' or 'ordained' by the church was perceived within the traditional church as, like baptism, imparting a sacramental grace which could not be completely removed. The council of Trent clarified this position, defining holy orders as a sacrament instituted by Christ and conveying the Holy Ghost. The protestant reformers mostly rejected the idea that holy ordination was a sacrament, although in certain places (notably amongst the English episcopacy) the notion of an episcopacy, ordained by divine right (de jure divino), continued to be maintained.
Original Sin
- see 'Sin'.
[The] Papacy
The institutions of the papacy fulfilled a dual role which reflected the double nature of the papal monarchy as both the titular and administrative head of the church of Latin Christendom and also the prince of the Papal States, the largest and most coherent political entity in sixteenth-century Italy. The term was used by protestant reformers to refer not merely to the pope (the 'Apostolic See'), who claimed direct descent from St Peter and supremacy (the 'supreme Pontiff') within Western Christianity. It was taken to refer to the papal institutions as well as, by implication, the church more generally.
[The] Parlements
The sovereign royal lawcourts in France. The Parlement of Paris was the oldest, and most renowned; but there were also provincial lawcourts in Toulouse, Rouen, Rennes and elsewhere.
Pelagianism; Pelagius
A British monk in c.400AD who gave his name to a theology which held that mankind took the first stops towards salvation by its own efforts and without the assistance of divine grace. The theology, and its associated followers, were declared heretical in the early fifth century AD.
Penance
One of the seven sacraments of the Roman church. The word derives from the Latin poena for punishment. As conceived by medieval theologians, penance contained various stages from attrition and contrition, through confession to absolution. In general, the word is often taken to refer to the various disciplines adopted by the church for the control of wrong-doing (sin).
Pilgrimages
Journeys to holy places, such as a shrine of a saint, as an act of thanksgiving or penance.
Predestination
Predestination (from the Latin praedestinare, to 'fore-ordain') is the belief that certain individuals (the 'elect') are foreshadowed for eternal salvation. on the basis of the Pauline scriptures, St Augustine had developed it as a mystery which the human mind had to accept but which could not be further investigated. It was evident as a feature in the works of Luther but later developments somewhat caricatured it as a dopctrine of unique significance to Calvin. Calvin argued not merely that some (the 'elect') were fore-ordained to salvation, but also that the remainder of fallen humanity (the 'reprobate') were foreordained to damnation. This is sometimes referred to as 'double predestination'.
Presbyterianism; presbytery
The name derives from the Scottish terminology for the system of church government associated with the Calvinist reformation in Europe. Calvin's church discipline was developed to provide an ascending and interlocking pattern of ecclesiastical courts, comprising both clergy and lay elders. At the level of the parish or congregation, the minister and elders met together as the 'consistory' (in Scottish terminology, a 'session'). The consistory provided the base unit for church discipline. Above it came a regular meeting of representatives from individual churches, called a 'classis' (or, in France, a 'colloque'; in Scotland, a 'presbytery') to deal with common problems. Then, above that, lay more occasional national synods (or, in Scotland, 'general assemblies'). The basis for the presbyterian pattern of government was laid down by Calvin in Geneva in his Ecclesiastical Ordinances of 1541, which may be consulted in the tutorial (06.27).
Purgatory
The foundation of the medieval doctrine of purgatory lay in the belief, located in the writings of St Augustine, that the fate of the individual soul is decided immediately after death and the certainty of purifying pains of the afterlife. Purgatory was gradually elaborated by medieval theologians as a place of waiting for the sinful who could not be admitted to heaven until penance had been done for their sins. According to St Thomas Aquinas, the guilt (culpa) of venial sin was expiated immediately after death and only the punishment remained to be served. That punishment, greater than the greatest pain on earth, might be helped, however, by the faithful on earth, especially by the offering of masses for the souls of the departed. The official teaching of the church on purgatory was finally defined at the councils of Lyons (1274) and Florence (1439). Purgatory gradually assumed a central place in the penitential fabric of the church. The attack on the belief by Martin Luther was therefore of critical significance.
[The] Real Presence
To medieval theologians, the elements of bread and wine were commonly interpreted as being miraculously changed into the very body and blood of Christ (the 'Real Presence') at the moment when the priest uttered the words of consecration. They explained the process as 'transubstantiation' (transubstantio). By this, they meant that the 'substance' (the reality within) the bread and the wine was 'transformed' into the substance of the body and blood of Christ, leaving only the 'accidents' (or superficial properties - what you could see, touch or taste) unchanged. In common with some later medieval philosophers and theologians, Luther rejected this explanation, but retained the notion of a 'Real Presence'. He regarded is as having undisputed Biblical attestation. It was analagous to the fact that Christ incarnate (both God and Man) had been on earth. Christ's body and blood were not to be equated with the bread and the wine, but they lay 'in, with and under' it in ways that God had not intended us fully to understand. When we eat and drink the sacrament we become one body ('incorporated') with all the saints.
Recess [Abschied]
The conclusions of an imperial diet, issued by the imperial chancellory and including the decisions of the diet and the assent of the emperor.
Regular Orders
The monastic orders were known as the 'regular' orders of the church because they were composed of men or women living in a community under a religious rule (regula) as a monk or nun, and who had taken vows or 'made profession' to live according to the rule of their particular order.
Reich
- see 'Holy Roman Empire'.
[Ecclesiastical] Rites
Forms of worship.
Remission
See 'Sin'.
Righteousness of God (in Latin, iustitia Dei)
This was the embodiment of the arbitrary (to mankind) decisions of the divine will.
Sacraments
According to St Thomas Aquinas (d.1274), a sacrament was 'the sign of a sacred thing in so far as it sanctifies men'. In Christian theology, the scope of what constitutes a sacrament varied widely. By the late middle ages, however, Aquinas' seven sacraments had been formally affirmed as an article of belief at the council of Florence (1439). These were baptism, confirmation, matrimony, extreme unction, penance, the eucharist and holy orders. These were radically reduced by the protestant reformers, amongst whom only baptism and the eucharist were accepted without reservation as sacraments.
Satisfaction (Lat: satisfacio)
Satisfaction of God's righteousness was the explanation commonly offered by medieval theologians for the process of penitence leading to salvation. God had been mortally offended by the 'disgrace' afforded to his honour by the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Their kin (human kind) inherited that disgrace, and God's wrath. Human beings did not have sufficient merit to offer God by way of satisfaction, or compurgation, for the injury afforded. They had, instead, to rely on a gift from God of someone (i.e. Christ) who, with kinship to God (as his son) and also as a human being, could act as a mediator and compurgator. It was the critique of this explanation of salvation which led protestant reformers to offer the alternative of 'justification' in place of 'satisfaction'.
Scriptures
- see 'Sola Scriptura'.
Secularization
In the sixteenth century, this term applied to lands formerly belonging to the church, which were transferred into lay ownership. These lands included substantial terrritories in Germany which had formerly belonged to the catholic church and which were secularized in the course of the reformation.
Sin
Scholastic theologians and confessors' manuals had identified seven 'deadly' sins (pride, avarice, extravagance, wrath, gluttony, envy and sloth). There was much scholarly and ecclesiastical debate as to the relative seriousness of the deadly sins. The protestant reformers radically transformed this notion of sin. This resulted from their different conception of salvation, and also of the human psyche. Scholastic theologians had regarded human beings as having a superior, rational faculty in control of the sensual, and potentially sinful, lesser, corporal elements of the body, including the emotions and the senses. It was these lesser elements which contained the roots of human sins, which were duly dissected into the sins connected with particular senses and emotions. God saved human beings from these sins by operating upon the rational faculties; but the nature of that operation remained a matter of great conjecture for medieval theologians. Protestant reformers had a more balanced and holistic conception of the human psyche. Mind and body lay in a profound interrelationship one wth another. Both were integrally touched by the original sin which was part of our human nature. That sin was indivisible, all-embracing and all-pervasive. Only faith in Christ, by which we were given the grace to be better than our fundamentally sinful nature, could transform us. But that faith reached us at least as much by the word of God appealing to our emotions as to our rational faculties. So, for Luther, we are at one and the time time 'justified and sinful' (simul iustus et peccator). By faith, the 'sin that rules us' (peccatum regnans') can be transformed into the 'sin that is ruled' (peccatum regnatum'). In this way, our sin is 'remitted'. For Calvin, the language is even more graphic. Sin was unbounded lust ('concupiscence'), a 'pollution' to which we were as human beings 'enslaved'. Only the grace of Christ could set limits to the bounds of our lust and prevent us from mixing up ('polluting') the holy with our sin.
Sola scriptura ('Scripture alone')
Protestant theologians were not the first theologians to regard scripture as the prime validator of doctrine. They were, however, the first to place scripture in direct opposition to the traditions and practices of the church. They did so because, so they argued, the medieval church had granted itself the authority to determine what scripture said and how it should be interpreted. By contrast, the reformers regarded all traditions within the church as only carrying weight if they conformed to scripture.
The protestant reformers further argued that scripture had within it the guiding lights and inspiration for its own interpretation. Sola scriptura was also a principle of Biblical exegesis. Scripture was the holy word of God and inspired by the Holy Spirit. However, there was an assumed distinction between the substance of the scriptures (in Latin, res) and the words (verba) they contained. The latter might be lost in translation without affecting the former, whose 'truth' and 'certainty' would still be capable of being conveyed to our consciences and minds despite the limits of our capacities for understanding them.
[The] Sorbonne
The Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris. It was an important school of theology in western Europe and a staunch opponent of the protestant reformation. It censured Luther's works in 1521 and played an important part in the censorship of printed books in France.
Superstition
The battle launched by the protestant reformers against 'superstition' indicated much of what was central to their preoccupations. Following St Augustine (and medieval theologians) they defined superstition as not merely the credulous notions of the unlearned but the dangerous worship of false gods. The latter exteded to idolatry, divination, sorcery and magic.
[The] Lord's Supper
- see '[the] Eucharist'
Synod
An assembly for the government of the church.
[The] Tetrapolitan Confession (Confessio Tetrapolitana)
A confession produced for the diet of Augsburg in 1530 by Wolfgang Capito, Martin Bucer and Caspar Hedio for the four cities of Strasbourg, Constance, Memmingen and Lindau. Although the statement was not accepted by the diet, and although they went on to accept the Augsburg Confession in the following year, the articles of the Tetrapolitan Confession continued to be of significance in the development of the protestant reformed tradition for its formulations of doctrine on the Lord's Supper and on images.
Tithe
Payments from the laity for the maintenance of the clergy. Theoretically a tenth portion of production, tithes were, in fact, of varying proportions and composed of differing elements, depending on the products being tithed and the methods of payment agreed. Many tithes were 'commuted' to fixed money payments by the sixteenth century.
Transubstantiation
- see '[The] Real Presence'.
[The Council of] Trent
The general council of the catholic church, meeting initially at Trent on 13 December 1545. It eventually concluded its deliberations in the 25th session in December 1563.
[The] Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity (i.e. that the one God exists in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but one substance) is central to Christian theology. It had been defined by the early church councils in the face of the antitrinitarian 'heresies' of Arius (256-356) and others. Antitrinitarianism would resurface during the protestant reformation.
[The] Vernacular
The native languages written and spoken by ordinary people (from the Latin for 'native' or 'common'), as distinct from the Latin used by the clergy.
Via antiqua; via moderna
There were various schools of thought (or Viae) in medieval universities. They were named after great exponents of the classical philosophical and theological problems of the day, or after the name given to a particular approach to the problem. One such debate was about the degree to which, and how, we 'knew' and 'understood' the world around us. In philosophy it is known as the problem of 'universals'. Most common nouns are 'universals' (e.g. bat; brick). Aristotle (and Plato to an even greater degree) had argued that, on the basis of our sense-impressions, we abstract the underlying common forms which exist in the objects to form what is understood as a 'brick' or a 'bat'. That is known as 'realism' because the form is not merely an abstraction in our minds but derived from the 'reality' of the form as represented to us. This analysis was broadly accepted by the greatest of the medieval philosophers, St Thomas Aquinas. After Aquinas, however, medieval philosophers questioned this understanding. They have become collectively known as 'nominalists' although the term covers several different approaches to the problem of 'universals'. The most representative, and best-known, of them was William of Ockham (c.1285-c.1349). For Ockham, the categories into which we place our sense-impressions are created within our minds only. 'Universals' thus only exist as a mental concept (or 'name' - hence 'nominalism') which we have either abstracted from reality or intuitively ascribed to it. So, if God chose to destroy all the bats in the world, we would still 'know' what a 'bat' was. In university curricula relating to the faculty of arts, where philosophy was studied, this was sometimes known as the 'modern way of thought' (via moderna) to distinguish it from 'the ancient way' (via antiqua) of Aquinas and Duns Scotus. These debates in term had an impact on the other great set of debates in medieval universities over how man was 'saved' by God.
[The] Vulgate
The Latin translation of the Bible, believed in the sixteenth century to have been undertaken by St Jerome (d. 420).
[The] Waldenses
Followers of the twelfth-century Peter Waldo of Lyon. They preached poverty and the renunciation of the world, appointed their own ministers (known as 'barbes' in French because of their beards, and because united with the Hussites. On the eve of the reformation, and despite persecution, the Waldenses survived in the rural upland communities of Alpine France and Italy.
Zwinglianism, Zwinglian
The doctrines advanced by the protestant reformer at Zurich, Huldrych Zwingli.
