* PROTO-REFORMATION
* Peter Waldo [Петр/Пьер Вальдо/Вальдус] (c 1140-c 1205). Peter Waldo, Valdo, Valdes, or Waldes, also Pierre Vaudès or de Vaux, was a leader of the Waldensians, a Christian spiritual movement of the Middle Ages.
* Waldensians [Waldenses. orig. Poor Men of Lyon; Вальденсы] (XII/XIII). The Waldensians are adherents of a proto-Protestant church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the "Poor Men of Lyon" in the late twelfth century, the movement spread to the Cottian Alps in what is today France and Italy. As early as 1631, Protestant scholars and Waldensian theologians began to regard the Waldensians as early forerunners of the Reformation, who had maintained the apostolic faith in the face of Catholic oppression. Modern Waldensians share core tenets with Calvinists, including the priesthood of all believers, congregational polity and a "low" view of certain sacraments such as Communion and Baptism. They are members of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe and its affiliates worldwide. Waldensians held and preached a number of truths as they read from the Bible. These included: 1. The atoning death and justifying righteousness of Christ; 2. The Godhead; 3. The fall of man; 4. The incarnation of the Son; 5. A denial of purgatory as the "invention of the Antichrist;" 6. The value of voluntary poverty. They also rejected a number of concepts that were widely held in Christian Europe of the era. For example, the Waldensians held that 1) temporal offices and dignities were not meant for preachers of the Gospel; 2) relics were no different from any other bones and should not be regarded as special or holy; 3) that pilgrimage served only to spend one's money; 4) flesh might be eaten any day if one's appetite served one; 5) holy water was no more efficacious than rain water; 6) prayer was just as effectual if offered in a church or a barn. They were accused, moreover, of having scoffed at the doctrine of transubstantiation, and of having spoken blasphemously of the Catholic Church as the harlot of the Apocalypse. They rejected what they perceived as the idolatry of the Catholic Church and considered the Papacy as the Antichrist of Rome. The Waldensian movement was characterized from the beginning by lay preaching, voluntary poverty, and strict adherence to the Bible. Between 1175 and 1185, Waldo either commissioned a cleric from Lyon to translate the New Testament into the vernacular—the Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) language. In 1179, Waldo and one of his disciples went to Rome, where Pope Alexander III and the Roman Curia welcomed them. They had to explain their faith before a panel of three clergymen, including issues that were then debated within the Church, such as the universal priesthood, the gospel in the vulgar tongue, and the issue of voluntary poverty. The results of the meeting were inconclusive, and the Third Lateran Council in the same year condemned Waldo's ideas, but not the movement itself; the leaders of the movement had not yet been excommunicated. The Waldensians proceeded to disobey the Third Lateran Council and continued to preach according to their own understanding of the Scriptures. By the early 1180s, Waldo and his followers were excommunicated and forced from Lyon. The Catholic Church declared them heretics, stating that the group's principal error was contempt for ecclesiastical power. Rome also accused the Waldensians of teaching innumerable errors. Waldo and his followers developed a system whereby they would go from town to town and meet secretly with small groups of Waldensians. There they would confess sins and hold service. A traveling Waldensian preacher was known as a barba. The group would shelter the barba and help make arrangements to move on to the next town in secret. Waldo possibly died in the early 13th century, possibly in Germany; he was never captured, and his fate remains uncertain. Early Waldensians belonged to one of three groups:[[map showing the spread of Paulicianism]] 1) Sandaliati (those with sandals) received sacred orders and were to prove the heresiarchs wrong; 2) Doctores instructed and trained missionaries; 3 Novellani preached to the general population. They were also called Insabbatati, Sabati, Inzabbatati, or Sabotiers—designations arising from the unusual type of sabot {clog} they used as footwear. The Catholic Church viewed the Waldensians as unorthodox, and in 1184 at the Synod of Verona, under the auspices of Pope Lucius III, they were excommunicated. Pope Innocent III went even further during the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, officially denouncing the Waldensians as heretics. In 1211 more than 80 Waldensians were burned as heretics at Strasbourg; this action launched several centuries of persecution that nearly destroyed the movement. // Waldensians. The Waldensians (also known as Waldenses, Vallenses, Valdesi or Vaudois) were an ascetic movement within Christianity, reputedly founded by Peter Waldo in Lyon around 1173. The Waldensian movement first appeared in Lyon in the late 1170s and quickly spread to the Cottian Alps between what is today France and Italy. True to its historic roots, the Waldensian movement today is centred on Piedmont in Northern Italy, and small communities are also found in Southern Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, the United States, and Uruguay. Вальденсы. Вальде́нсы — религиозное движение в западном христианстве. Апеллируя к идеалам раннего христианства, вальденсы ратовали за ликвидацию частной собственности, апостолическую бедность и взаимопомощь, а также мирскую проповедь и свободу чтения Библии. Одновременно с вальденсами на юге Франции в XII и XIII веках существовало движение альбигойцев, исповедовавших сходные добродетели. Вместе с тем отождествлять альбигойцев (катаров) и вальденсов ошибочно.
* Runcarians [Runcarii, John of Ronco, Poor Lombards, Ultramontanians, Montanelli] (XIII). // Runcarii, the name of an Antinomian sect of the Waldenses, which is mentioned by Reiner as agreeing for the most part with the Paterins, but as holding that no part of the body below the waist can commit mortal sin, because such sin proceeds "out of the heart." They probably took their name from the town of Runcalia or Runkel. See Reiner, Contr. Waldens. in Bibl. Max. Lugd. 25, 266 sq. McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia - Runcarii // After the disappearance of the Cathars and until the rise of the Hussites, the Catholic church viewed the Waldenses as the most dangerous heresy in Medieval Europe. This movement originates in the south of France in 1170s, and gradually spreads from Pyrenees to Carpathians under a number of different names: the Waldenses (from the name of the movement's founder, Waldo), the Poor Men of Lyons or the Lyonists (Waldo's native city), the Runcarians (head of the Italian branch, John of Ronco), the Montanelli or Ultramontanians (those who live in the mountains or beyond the mountains), the Poor in Spirit, the Poor of Lombardy, etc. In the early 15 th century they gradually “merged” with witches {??} and the Hussites, thus heralding the end of the classic Waldensian movement. In 1532 the Waldenses officially became part of the Protestant movement, and in 1975 they joined the Italian Methodist Church. Today, the Waldenses are found in northern Italy (centred around Piedmont, the town of Torre Pellice), Germany, the USA, Argentine, and Uruguay, thus being the only heretical movement to acquire an official legal status and survive till the present day. Aliaksandra Valodzina - THE WALDENSIAN MOVEMENT IN THE LATE 12TH - EARLY 15TH CENTURIES
* John Wycliffe [Джон Уиклиф] (c 1320s-1384). John Wycliffe (also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, priest, and a seminary professor at the University of Oxford. He became an influential dissident within the Roman Catholic priesthood during the 14th century and is considered an important predecessor to Protestantism. Wycliffe questioned the privileged status of the clergy which had bolstered their powerful role in England and the luxury and pomp of local parishes and their ceremonies. Wycliffe advocated translation of the Bible into the common vernacular. According to tradition, Wycliffe is said to have completed a translation directly from the Vulgate into Middle English – a version now known as Wycliffe's Bible. It is probable that he personally translated the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and it is possible he translated the entire New Testament, while his associates translated the Old Testament. Wycliffe's Bible appears to have been completed by 1384, additional updated versions being done by Wycliffe's assistant John Purvey and others in 1388 and 1395. More recently, historians of the Wycliffite movement have determined that Wycliffe had, at most, a minor role in the actual translations. Wycliffe's later followers, derogatorily called Lollards by their orthodox contemporaries in the 15th and 16th centuries, adopted many of the beliefs attributed to Wycliffe such as theological virtues, predestination, iconoclasm, and the notion of caesaropapism, while questioning the veneration of saints, the sacraments, requiem masses, transubstantiation, monasticism, and the legitimacy of the Papacy. Like the Waldensians, the Lollard movement is sometimes regarded as a precursor to the Protestant Reformation. Wycliffe was accordingly characterised as the "evening star" of scholasticism and as the morning star or stella matutina of the English Reformation. An epithet first accorded to the theologian by the 16th century historian and controversialist John Bale in his Illustrium maioris britanniae scriptorum (Wesel, 1548). Wycliffe's writings in Latin greatly influenced the philosophy and teaching of the Czech reformer Jan Hus (c. 1369–1415), whose execution in 1415 sparked a revolt and led to the Hussite Wars of 1419–1434. Уиклиф, Джон. Джон Уи́клиф (Ви́клиф) (англ. John Wycliffe, Wyclif, Wycliff, Wickliffe; 1320 или 1324 — 31 декабря 1384) — английский философ-схоласт, богослов, переводчик Библии, реформатор, священник и профессор семинарии в Оксфордском университете. Был одним из наиболее влиятельных диссидентов среди римско-католического духовенства XIV века и считается одним из главных предшественников Реформации.
* Lollardy [Лолларды] (XIV-XVI). Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a Proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century to the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Roman Catholic theologian who was dismissed from the University of Oxford in 1381 for criticism of the Roman Catholic Church. The Lollards' demands were primarily for reform of Western Christianity. They formulated their beliefs in the Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards. Lollard, Lollardi or Loller was the popular derogatory nickname given to those without an academic background, educated (if at all) only in English, who were reputed to follow the teachings of John Wycliffe in particular, and were certainly considerably energized by the translation of the Bible into the English language. By the mid-15th century, "lollard" had come to mean a heretic in general. The alternative, "Wycliffite", is generally accepted to be a more neutral term covering those of similar opinions, but having an academic background.
* De heretico comburendo [law; закон De heretico comburendo] (1401). De heretico comburendo (2 Hen.4 c.15) was a law passed by Parliament under King Henry IV of England in 1401, punishing heretics with burning at the stake. This law was one of the strictest religious censorship statutes ever enacted in England. In March 1401 William Sawtrey became the first Lollard to be burned. The statute declared there were "divers false and perverse people of a certain new sect ... they make and write books, they do wickedly instruct and inform people ... and commit subversion of the said catholic faith". The sect alluded to is the Lollards, followers of John Wycliffe. De heretico comburendo urged "that this wicked sect, preachings, doctrines, and opinions, should from henceforth cease and be utterly destroyed", and declared "that all and singular having such books or any writings of such wicked doctrine and opinions, shall really with effect deliver or cause to be delivered all such books and writings to the diocesan of the same place within forty days from the time of the proclamation of this ordinance and statute". "And if any person ... such books in the form aforesaid do not deliver, then the diocesan of the same place in his diocese such person or persons in this behalf defamed or evidently suspected and every of them may by the authority of the said ordinance and statute cause to be arrested". If they failed to abjure their heretical beliefs, or relapsed after an initial abjuration, they would "be burnt, that such punishment may strike fear into the minds of others". Section 6 of the Act of Supremacy 1558 (1 Eliz.1 c.1) (1559) repealed the statutes but it was not until March 1677 that a bill to take away the Crown's right to the writ was introduced in the House of Commons. It passed in that session.
* The Act of the six Articles [Henry XVIII; 6 статей, Генрих VIII] (1530). Formally titled "An Act Abolishing Diversity in Opinions", the Act of Six Articles reinforced existing heresy laws and reasserted traditional Catholic doctrine as the basis of faith for the English Church. The Act was passed by Parliament in Jun of 1539. It remained Henry's policy toward reforms until his death. Although the Injuntions of 1536 and 1538 suggest that Henry VIII was influenced by the New Learning, the Statute of the Six Articles, passed in 1539, shows that he was nevertheless prepared to enforce under heavy penalties the fundamental doctrines of the Church. Approved by Convocation and enacted by Parliament in Jun 1539, the statute arose from Henry's personal conservatism in matters of doctrine, from his need for better relations with the Catholic powers of Spain and France, and from his desire to curb the growth of heresy in England and religious unrest in Calais. The constitutional importance of the statute lies in the fact that it modifies and consolidates the existing laws againt heresy. (...) Formally titled "An Act Abolishing Diversity in Opinions", the Act of Six Articles reinforced existing heresy laws and reasserted traditional Catholic doctrine as the basis of faith for the English Church.The Act was passed by Parliament in Jun of 1539. It remained Henry's policy toward reforms until his death. The act also represented a political defeat for Cromwell, Archbishop Cranmer, and the other reformist leaders at Court. The Six Articles was referred to as "the bloody whip with six strings" by many protestants. (...) Without mentioning the word, the first article affirmed Transubstantiation, the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist. The Act of the six Articles - Tudor Place // Six Articles (1539). Fearful of diplomatic isolation and a Catholic alliance, Henry VIII continued his outreach to the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League. In May 1538, three Lutheran theologians from Germany – Franz Burchard, vice-chancellor of Saxony; Georg von Boineburg, doctor of law; and Friedrich Myconius, superintendent of the church in Gotha – arrived in London and held conferences with English bishops and clergy at the archbishop's Lambeth Palace through September. The Germans presented, as a basis of agreement, a number of articles based on the Lutheran Confession of Augsburg. Bishops Tunstall, Stokesley and others were not won over by these Protestant arguments and did everything they could to avoid agreement. They were willing to separate from Rome, but their plan was to unite with the Greek Church and not with the Protestants on the continent. The bishops also refused to eliminate what the Germans considered abuses (e.g. private masses for the dead, compulsory clerical celibacy, and withholding communion wine from the laity) allowed by the English Church. Stokesley considered these customs to be essential because the Greek Church practised them {celibacy ??}. As the King was unwilling to break with these practices, the Germans had all left England by 1 October. Meanwhile, England was in religious turmoil. Impatient Protestants took it upon themselves to further reform – some priests said mass in English rather than Latin and married without authorisation (Archbishop Cranmer was himself secretly married). Protestants themselves were divided between establishment reformers who held Lutheran beliefs upholding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and radicals who held Anabaptist and Sacramentarian views denying real presence. In May 1539, a new Parliament met, and Lord Chancellor Audley told the House of Lords that the King desired religious uniformity. A committee of four conservative and four reformist bishops was appointed to examine and determine doctrine. On 16 May, the Duke of Norfolk noted that the committee had not agreed on anything and proposed that the Lords examine six controversial doctrinal questions that became the basis of the Six Articles: 1) whether the Eucharist could be the true body of Christ without transubstantiation, 2) whether it needed to be given to the laity under both kinds, 3) whether vows of chastity needed to be observed as part of divine law, 4) whether clerical celibacy should be compulsory, 5) whether private (votive) masses were required (legitimate) by divine law, 6) whether auricular confession (that is, confession to a priest) was necessary as part of divine law. Over the next month, these questions were argued in Parliament {!!} and Convocation with the active participation of the King. The final product was an affirmation of traditional teachings on all but the sixth question. Communion in one kind, compulsory clerical celibacy, vows of chastity and votive masses were a legitimate form. Protestants achieved a minor victory on auricular confession, which was declared "expedient and necessary to be retained" but not required by divine law. In addition, although the real presence was affirmed in traditional terminology, the word transubstantiation itself did not appear in the final version. The Act of Six Articles became law in June 1539, which, unlike the Ten Articles, gave the Six Articles statutory authority. Harsh penalties were attached to violations of the Articles. Denial of transubstantiation was punished by burning without an opportunity to recant. Denial of any of the other articles was punished by hanging or life imprisonment. Married priests had until 12 July to put away their wives, which was likely a concession granted to give Archbishop Cranmer time to move his wife and children outside of England. After the act's passage, bishops Latimer and Shaxton, outspoken opponents of the measure, were forced to resign their dioceses. The Act of Six Articles was repealed in 1547 during the reign of Henry's son, Edward VI. (Thirty-nine Articles)
* The Great Apostasy [Обмирщение]. The Great Apostasy is a concept within Christianity, identifiable at least from the time of the Reformation, to describe a perception that the early apostolic Church has fallen away from the original faith founded by Jesus and promulgated through his twelve Apostles. Protestants used the term to describe the perceived fallen state of traditional Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church, because they claim it changed the doctrines of the early church and allowed traditional Greco-Roman culture (i.e. Greco-Roman mysteries, deities of solar monism such as Mithras and Sol Invictus, pagan festivals and Mithraic sun worship and idol worship) into the church on its own perception of authority. Because it made these changes using claims of tradition and not from scripture, the Church – in the opinion of those adhering to this concept – has fallen into apostasy. A major thread of this perception is the suggestion that, to attract and convert people to Christianity, the church in Rome incorporated pagan beliefs and practices within the Christian religion, mostly Graeco-Roman rituals, mysteries, and festivals. For example, Easter has been described as a pagan substitute for the Jewish Passover, although neither Jesus nor his Apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival. The term is derived from the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, in which the Apostle Paul informs the Christians of Thessalonica that a great apostasy must occur before the return of Christ, when "the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction" (chapter 2:1–12). The Catholic Church, Anglican Church, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches have interpreted this chapter as referring to a future falling-away, during the reign of the Antichrist at the end of time. Обмирщение. Обмирще́ние в христианстве — процесс переориентации церкви на решение проблем мирской жизни, что противопоставляется изначальной высокодуховной и священной задаче спасения души человека и обретению Жизни вечной. Обмирщение священнослужителей может выражаться в занятиях коммерцией, в стремлении к привилегиям, к материальным благам, к почётным должностям; в слиянии с государственной властью, в симони́и. Особенно быстрый и сокрушительный характер обмирщение приняло после легализации христианства царём Константином Великим в 313 году, а затем и возведением христианства в ранг государственной религии.
* Congregational[ist] polity [Конгрегационалистская система]. Congregationalist polity, or congregational polity, often known as congregationalism, is a system of ecclesiastical polity in which every local church congregation is independent, ecclesiastically sovereign, or "autonomous". Its first articulation in writing is the Cambridge Platform of 1648 in New England. Major Protestant Christian traditions that employ congregationalism include Quakerism, the Baptist churches, the Congregational Methodist Church, and Congregational churches known by the Congregationalist name and having descended from the Independent Reformed wing of the Anglo-American Puritan movement of the 17th century. More recent generations have witnessed a growing number of nondenominational churches, which are often congregationalist in their governance. Congregationalism is distinguished from episcopal polity which is governance by a hierarchy of bishops, and is distinct from presbyterian polity in which higher assemblies of congregational representatives can exercise considerable authority over individual congregations.
*
Quintin/Quintinus
of
Hennegau/Hainaut
[Quintin
Thieffry;
Квинтин]
(XVI).
(Quintin
of Hennegau,
Quintin of Hainaut;
followers: Quintinists,
the central sect among the Libertines)
Квинти́н
— основатель либертинской
секты квинтинистов,
портной {tailor}
из Геннегау.
Около 1530 вместе со своим земляком Покэ
(Poquet) распространял во Франции своё
учение о том, что человек
действует лишь по внушению Святого
Духа, и что,
следовательно, грех
— это воображаемое, ложное представление,
а искупление
— освобождение от этого миража.
Квинтин в
1530
{1546}
был сожжён в Турнэ.
Полемические
сочинения Кальвина против либертинцев
в 1545 полны нападок на Квинтина. (Source:
Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза
и Ефрона) [E33]
* Libertines [Либертинцы]. Libertines, the nickname, rather than the name, given to various political and social parties. It is futile to deduce the name from the Libertines of Acts vi. 9; these were "sons of freedmen," for it is vain to make them citizens of an imaginary Libertum, or to substitute (with Beza) Libustines, in the sense of inhabitants of Libya. In a sense akin to the modern use of the term "libertine," i.e a person who sets the rules of morality etc. at defiance, the word seems first to have been applied, as a stigma, to Anabaptists in the Low Countries (Mark Pattison, Essays, ii. 38). It has become especially attached to the liberal party in Geneva, opposed to Calvin and carrying on the tradition of the Liberators in that city; but the term was never applied to them till after Calvin's death (F. W. Kampschulte, Johann Calvin). Calvin, who wrote against the "Libertins qui se nomment Spirituelz" (1545), never confused them with his political antagonists in Geneva, called Perrinistes from their leader Amadeo Perrin. The objects of Calvin's polemic were the Anabaptists above mentioned, whose first obscure leader was Coppin {Coppinus} of Lisle, followed by Quintin of Hennegau, by whom and his disciples, Bertram des Moulins and Claude Perseval, the principles of the sect were disseminated in France. Quintin was put to death as a heretic at Tournai in 1546. His most notable follower was Antoine Pocquet, a native of Enghien, Belgium, priest and almoner (1540-1549), afterwards pensioner of the queen of Navarre, who was a guest of Bucer at Strassburg (1543-1544) and died some time after 1560. Calvin (who had met Quintin in Paris) describes the doctrines he impugns as pantheistic and antinomian. See Choisy in Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopddie (1902). // The Libertines or Spirituels, as they called themselves, were far worse than the Patriots. They formed the opposite extreme to the severe discipline of Calvin. He declares that they were the most pernicious of all the sects that appeared since the time of the ancient Gnostics and Manichaeans, and that they answer the prophetic description in the Second Epistle of Peter and the Epistle of Jude. He traces their immediate origin to Coppin of Yssel and Quintin of Hennegau, in the Netherlands, and to an ex-priest, Pocquet or Pocques, who spent some time in Geneva, and wanted to get a certificate from Calvin; but Calvin saw through the man and refused it. They revived the antinomian doctrines of the mediaeval sect of the “Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit,” a branch of the Beghards, who had their headquarters at Cologne and the Lower Rhine, and emancipated themselves not only from the Church, but also from the laws of morality. The Libertines described by Calvin were antinomian pantheists. They confounded the boundaries of truth and error, of right and wrong. Under the pretext of the freedom of the spirit, they advocated the unbridled license of the flesh. Their spiritualism ended in carnal materialism. They taught that there is but one spirit, the Spirit of God, who lives in all creatures, which are nothing without him. “What I or you do,” said Quintin, “is done by God, and what God does, we do; for he is in us.” Sin is a mere negation or privation, yea, an idle illusion which disappears as soon as it is known and disregarded. Salvation consists in the deliverance from the phantom of sin. There is no Satan, and no angels, good or bad. They denied the truth of the gospel history. The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ have only a symbolical meaning to show us that sin does not exist for us. The Libertines taught the community of goods and of women, and elevated spiritual marriage above legal marriage, which is merely carnal and not binding. The wife of Ameaux justified her wild licentiousness by the doctrine of the communion of saints, and by the first commandment of God given to man: “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth” (Gen_1:28). The Libertines rejected the Scriptures as a dead letter, or they resorted to wild allegorical interpretations to suit their fancies. They gave to each of the Apostles a ridiculous nickname. Some carried their system to downright atheism and blasphemous anti-Christianity. They used a peculiar jargon, like the Gypsies, and distorted common words into a mysterious meaning. They were experts in the art of simulation and justified pious fraud by the parables of Christ. They accommodated themselves to Catholics or Protestants according to circumstances, and concealed their real opinions from the uninitiated. The sect made progress among the higher classes of France, where they converted about four thousand persons. Quintin and Pocquet insinuated themselves into the favor of Queen Marguerite of Navarre, who protected and supported them at her little court at Nerac, yet without adopting their opinions and practices. She took offence at Calvin’s severe attack upon them. He justified his course in a reply of April 28, 1545, which is a fine specimen of courtesy, frankness, and manly dignity. Beza says: “It was owing to Calvin that this horrid sect, in which all the most monstrous heresies of ancient times were renewed, was kept within the confines of Holland and the adjacent provinces.” During the trial of Servetus {Spanish theologian} the political and religious Libertines combined in an organized effort for the overthrow of Calvin at Geneva, but were finally defeated by a failure of an attempted rebellion in May, 1555. The Essential Writings of Philip Schaff History of the Christian Church: Vol. 8, Ch. 13, § 104-108 // Calvin, Contre la secte phantastique et furieuse des libertins qui se nomment spirituelz. Response a un certain holandois. Jean Calvin, 1545. Ce nouveau volume de Calvini Opera Omnia Denuo Recognita donne l’édition critique des deux traités de Jean Calvin contre les libertins spirituels, publiés respectivement en 1545 et en 1547, et de son libelle contre les nicodémites {a person suspected of publicly misrepresenting their religious faith to conceal their true beliefs}, adressé en 1562 à Coornhert. Les libertins menacent les fondements même du christianisme : Calvin vilipende leur critique de l’autorité de la Bible ; il leur reproche la récusation de l’existence du diable et le déni de la résurrection des morts. La Réponse à un Hollandais réplique à l’attaque véhémente de Dirck Volckertsz Coornhert qui rendait responsable Calvin d’exposer à la persécution ses sympathisants par l’incitation à confesser publiquement la foi réformée {Coornhert's belief}. Calvin, réitérant la polémique contre les nicodémites, cherche à limiter les tendances spiritualistes aux Pays-Bas. [E32]
* Nicodemite [Никодемит]. A nicodemite is a person suspected of publicly misrepresenting their religious faith to conceal their true beliefs. The term is normally disparaging. It was introduced into 16th century religious discourse, and persisted in use into the 18th century and beyond. It was usually applied to persons of publicly conservative religious position and practice who were thought to be secretly humanistic or reformed. Originally employed mostly by Protestants, it was later also used by Catholics. The term was apparently introduced by John Calvin (1509–1564) in 1544 in his Excuse à messieurs les Nicodemites. Since the French monarchy had increased its prosecution of heresy with the Edict of Fontainebleau (1540), it had become increasingly dangerous to profess dissident belief publicly, and refuge was being sought in emulating Nicodemus. In the Gospel of John (John 3:1-2) there appears the character Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin. Although outwardly remaining a pious Jew, he comes to Jesus secretly by night to receive instruction. Although he was eventually made a saint, his dual allegiance was somewhat suspect.
* Michael Servetus [Мигель Сервет] (1509/1511-1553) (Spanish: Miguel Serveto as real name, French: Michel Servet), also known as Miguel Servet, Miguel de Villanueva, Michel Servet, Revés, or Michel de Villeneuve, was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and Renaissance humanist. He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation, as discussed in Christianismi Restitutio (1553). He was a polymath versed in many sciences: mathematics, astronomy and meteorology, geography, human anatomy, medicine and pharmacology, as well as jurisprudence, translation, poetry and the scholarly study of the Bible in its original languages. He is renowned in the history of several of these fields, particularly medicine. He participated in the Protestant Reformation, and later rejected the Trinity doctrine and mainstream Catholic Christology. After being condemned by Catholic authorities in France, he fled to Calvinist Geneva where he was burnt at the stake for heresy by order of the city's governing council. Сервет, Мигель. Миге́ль Серве́т (лат. Michael Servetus, исп. Miguel Serveto y Conesa, 29 сентября 1511, Вильянуэва-де-Сихена — 27 октября 1553, Женева) — испанский мыслитель, теолог-антитринитарий, естествоиспытатель и врач.
* Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert [Дирк Волкертсзон Корнхерт] (1522-1590), also known as Theodore Cornhert, was a Dutch writer, philosopher, translator, politician, theologian and artist. Coornhert is often considered the Father of Dutch Renaissance scholarship. Coornhert was also famous as a theologian. At 30 years of age, having become interested in theology, and being desirous of consulting St. Augustine, he commenced the study of Latin. He entered into controversy alike with Catholics and Reformers, with both of whom he refused to communicate. Reformers, he said, were sadly wanted, but those who called themselves such were not the kind that the church required; what was needed was apostles directly inspired from heaven. Until such were sent, he advised all churches to join together in an undogmatic communion. Coornhert wrote and strove in favor of tolerance, opposing capital punishment for heretics. He had no party views; he criticized the Heidelberg Catechism, which was authoritative in the Dutch Republic. Jacobus Arminius, employed to refute him, was won over by his arguments.
* Quakers [Religious Society of Friends; Квакеры, Религиозное общество Друзей] (XVII). Quakers (or Friends) are members of a historically Christian group of religious movements formally known as the Religious Society of Friends or Friends Church. Quaker movements are all generally united by their belief in the ability of each human being to experientially access the light within, or "that of God in every one". They based their message on the religious belief that "Christ has come to teach his people himself", stressing the importance of a direct relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and a direct religious belief in the universal priesthood of all believers. They emphasized a personal and direct religious experience of Christ, acquired through both direct religious experience and the reading and studying of the Bible. Quakers focused their private life on developing behaviour and speech reflecting emotional purity and the light of God. Some profess the priesthood of all believers, a doctrine derived from the First Epistle of Peter. They include those with evangelical, holiness, liberal, and traditional Quaker understandings of Christianity. There are also Nontheist Quakers whose spiritual practice is not reliant on the existence of God. [E: английские квакеры] [E55]
* Shakers [USBCSA; Шейкеры] (XVIII). The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a millenarian nontrinitarian restorationist Christian sect founded circa 1747 in England and then organized in the United States in the 1780s. They were initially known as "Shaking Quakers" because of their ecstatic behavior during worship services. Espousing egalitarian ideals, women took on spiritual leadership roles alongside men, including founding leaders such as Jane Wardley, Mother Ann Lee, and Mother Lucy Wright. The Shakers emigrated from England and settled in Revolutionary colonial America, with an initial settlement at Watervliet, New York (present-day Colonie) in 1774. They practice a celibate and communal lifestyle, pacifism, uniform charismatic worship, and their model of equality of the sexes, which they institutionalized in their society in the 1780s. They are also known for their simple living, architecture, technological innovation, and furniture. During the mid-19th century, an Era of Manifestations resulted in a period of dances, gift drawings, and gift songs inspired by spiritual revelations. Shakers worshipped in meetinghouses painted white and unadorned; pulpits and decorations were eschewed as worldly things. In meeting, they marched, sang, danced, and sometimes turned, twitched, jerked, or shouted. The earliest Shaker worship services were unstructured, loud, chaotic and emotional. However, Shakers later developed precisely choreographed dances and orderly marches accompanied by symbolic gestures. Many outsiders disapproved of or mocked Shakers' mode of worship without understanding the symbolism of their movements or the content of their songs. Шейкеры. Объединённое сообщество верующих во Второе Пришествие Христа (англ. United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing — USBCSA), более известное как шейкеры (устар. шекеры) (англ. Shakers, букв. «трясущиеся»), также трясуны — милленаристская реставрационистская христианская религиозная организация, основанная в XVIII веке в Северо-Западной Англии как Wardley Society, а затем переместившаяся в колониальную Северную Америку. Первоначально эта организация отделилась от протестантского религиозного движения квакеров, и в Англии её членов часто называли «трясущимися квакерами» (Shaking Quakers), поскольку они открыто практиковали экстатические танцы во время богослужений, а затем в Америке стали называть просто «трясущимися» — шейкерами. Основательница USBCSA Анна Ли считала «похотливые удовольствия» корнем всякого зла и призывала верующих к полному воздержанию. Другим корнем зла в шейкеризме считается алчность, потому в 1793 году было принято решение об установлении религиозного коммунизма и обобществлении собственности полных членов сообщества. Также шейкеры должны соблюдать довольно строгое отделение от окружающего мирского общества. [E: американские шейкеры] [E168]
* Ann Lee [Анна Ли] (1736-1784). Ann Lee, commonly known as Mother Ann Lee, was the founding leader of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, or the Shakers. After nearly two decades of participation in a religious movement that became the Shakers, in 1774 Ann Lee and a small group of her followers emigrated from England to New York. After several years, they gathered at Niskayuna, renting land from the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Albany County, New York (the area now called Colonie). They worshiped by ecstatic dancing or "shaking", which resulted in them being dubbed the Shakers. Ann Lee preached to the public and led the Shaker church at a time when few women were religious leaders. In 1758, she joined an English sect founded by Jane Wardley and her husband, preacher James Wardley; this was the precursor to the Shaker sect. She believed and taught her followers that it is possible to attain perfect holiness by giving up sexual relations. Like her predecessors, the Wardleys, she taught that the shaking and trembling were caused by sin being purged from the body by the power of the Holy Spirit, purifying the worshiper. (...) Lee developed radical religious convictions that advocated celibacy and the abandonment of marriage, as well as the importance of pursuing perfection in every facet of life. She differed from the Quakers, who, though they supported gender equality, did not believe in forbidding sexuality within marriage. In England, Ann Lee rose to prominence by urging other believers to preach more publicly concerning the imminent second coming, and to attack sin more boldly and unconventionally. She spoke of visions and messages from God, claiming that she had received in a vision from God the message that celibacy and confession of sin are the only true road to salvation and the only way in which the Kingdom of God could be established on the earth. She was frequently imprisoned for breaking the Sabbath by dancing and shouting, and for blasphemy. She claimed to have had many miraculous escapes from death. She told of being examined by four clergymen of the Established Church, claiming that she spoke to them for four hours in 72 tongues. While in prison in Manchester for 14 days, she said she had a revelation that "a complete cross against the lusts of generation, added to a full and explicit confession, before witnesses, of all the sins committed under its influence, was the only possible remedy and means of salvation." After this, probably in 1770, she was chosen by the Society as "Mother in spiritual things" and called herself "Ann, the Word" and also "Mother Ann." After being released from prison a second time, witnesses say Mother Ann performed a number of miracles, including healing the sick. Lee eventually decided to leave England for America in order to escape the persecution (i.e., multiple arrests and stays in prison) she experienced in Great Britain. Move to America. (...) The followers of Mother Ann came to believe that she embodied all the perfections of God in female form and was revealed as the "second coming" of Christ. The fact that Ann Lee was considered to be Christ's female counterpart was unique. She preached that sinfulness could be avoided not only by treating men and women equally but also by keeping them separated so as to prevent any sort of temptation leading to impure acts. Celibacy and confession of sin were essential for salvation.
* HUSSITES, TABORITES, PICARDS (+ BEGHARDS ??)
* Reformation [Protestant Reformation; Реформация] (XVI). The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in particular to papal authority, arising from what were perceived to be errors, abuses, and discrepancies by the Catholic Church. The Reformation was the start of Protestantism and the split of Protestantism from the Roman Catholic Church.
* Utraquism [Calixtinism; Каликстинцы, утраквисты] (XV). Utraquism (from the Latin sub utraque specie, meaning "in both kinds") or Calixtinism (from chalice; Latin: calix, mug, borrowed from Greek kalyx, shell, husk) maintained that communion under both kinds (both bread and wine, as opposed to the bread alone) should be administered to the laity during the celebration of the Christian Eucharist. It was a principal dogma of the Hussites and one of the Four Articles of Prague. After the Hussite movement split into various factions early in the Hussite Wars, Hussites that emphasized the laity's right to communion under both kinds became known as Moderate Hussites, Utraquist Hussites, or simply Utraquists. The Utraquists were the largest major Hussite faction. Каликстинцы. Каликстинцы (от лат. calix — чаша), подобои, утраквисты (лат. utraque specie — под двумя видами) или просто чашники — умеренное крыло гуситского движения в Чехии в XV веке, в противоположность таборитам. Название произошло из-за требования причащаться обоими видами причастия, то есть хлебом и вином (из чаши), а не только хлебом, как установлено в католицизме. Программа изложена в Пражских статьях 1420 года. Чашники стремились к ликвидации засилья в Чехии немецких феодалов и немецкого городского патрициата, добивались секуляризации церковных земель, свободы проповеди в духе гусизма. В ноябре 1433 года чашники пошли на соглашение с католической церковью, в дальнейшем утверждённое Базельским собором (Базельские компактаты), и выступили против таборитов, нанеся им в битве при Липанах 30 мая 1434 года решающее поражение. Также название «чашники» могло употребляться по отношению ко всем гуситам, так как символ чаши был общим для движения. [E36]
* Hussites [Гуситы] (XV). Hussites emerged as a majority Utraquist movement with a significant Taborite faction, and smaller regional ones that included Adamites, Orebites and Orphans. Hussites can be divided into: 1) Moderate Hussites: Prague Hussites, Bohemian Hussite nobility, Hussites of Žatec and Louny, other Utraquists/Calixtines; 2) Radical Hussites, Taborites, Orebites, Adamites, Orphans, Unity of the Brethren (from 1457), other Radical Hussites.
* Jan Hus [Ян Гус] (1369-1415). Jan Hus was a Czech theologian, Roman Catholic priest, philosopher, master, dean and rector of the Charles University in Prague, church reformer, inspirator of Hussitism, a key predecessor to Protestantism and a seminal figure in the Bohemian Reformation. [E35]
* Jerome of Prague [Иероним Пражский] (1379-1416) (Czech: Jeroným Pražský; Latin: Hieronymus Pragensis) was a Czech scholastic philosopher, theologian, reformer, and professor. Jerome was one of the chief followers of Jan Hus and was burned for heresy at the Council of Constance. [E49]
* Neo-Adamites ["Adamites"; "Адамиты"] (XIII). Practices similar to those just described appeared in Europe several times in later ages. During the Middle Ages the doctrines of this obscure sect, which did not itself exist long, were revived in the 13th century in the Netherlands by the Brethren of the Free Spirit and the Taborites in Bohemia, and, in the 14th century, by some German Beghards. Everywhere they met with firm opposition from the mainstream churches. The Taborite movement was started in 1419 in opposition to the authority of the Holy Roman Empire. One sect of Taborites, the Bohemian Adamites, dissociated themselves from other Taborites and took up the practice of going naked through towns and villages. They preached that "God dwelt in the Saints of the Last Days" and considered exclusive marriage to be a sin. The historian Norman Cohn observed: "Whereas the Taborites were strictly monogamous, in this sect free love seems to have been the rule. The Adamites declared that the chaste were unworthy to enter the Messianic kingdom ... The sect was much given to ritual naked dances held around a fire. Indeed, these people seemed to have spent much of their time naked, ignoring the heat and cold and claiming to be in the state of innocence enjoined by Adam and Eve." Cohn also commented that the Adamites were criticised by other Taborites for "never thinking of earning their own living by the work of their hands". The Beghards became the Picards of Bohemia, who took possession of an island in the river Nežárka, and lived communally, practicing social and religious nudity, free love and rejecting marriage and individual ownership of property. Jan Žižka, the Hussite leader, nearly exterminated the sect in 1421. In the following year, the sect was widely spread over Bohemia and Moravia, and especially hated by the Hussites (whom they resembled in hatred toward the hierarchy) because the Adamites rejected transubstantiation, the priesthood and the Supper. A brief revival of these doctrines took place in Bohemia after 1781, owing to the edict of toleration issued by Emperor Joseph II. The Austrian government suppressed the last remnants of the Neo-Adamites in Bohemia by force in 1849. (Adamites) Позднее Средневековье. В XIV веке секта адамитской направленности появилась в Болгарии под названием «богумилы». В начале Реформации схожее направление встречается среди братства свободного духа в Чехии. По словам современников, в 1418 из Пикардии явился некто Пикард, называющий себя сыном Бога и Адама; он прошёл через Германию в Богемию и своими чудесами приобрёл много последователей, называемых пикартами, или адамитами. Адамиты первой четверти XV века выделились из числа таборитов, протестовавших против распространения католицизма. В феврале 1421 года пикарты-адамиты были изгнаны из Табора и поселились на небольшом островке при реке Лужнице у замка Пршибенице. Современники указывали, что адамиты считали себя ангелами Божьими, а Иисуса Христа — своим братом, «совращали» окрестности, обобществив женщин и намереваясь вернуться в первобытное состояние людей в раю. В конце марта 1421 года таборитский гетман Ян Жижка завладел островом и убил многих членов секты, но достаточно большому числу их удалось спастись. Адамитизм был распространён также в Германии, где назывался «Общество свободного духа». Особенно много сектантов было в Крудимском округе, во владениях Рихенбурга, Лейтомишля, Ландскроны, Краузовица. (Адамиты) // The Adamites: Hippie Heretics of the Middle Ages // During the Middle Ages the doctrines of this obscure sect, which did not itself exist long, were revived (Neo-Adamites): in the 13th century in the Netherlands by the Brethren of the Free Spirit and the Taborites in Bohemia, and, in a grosser form, in the fourteenth by the Beghards in Germany. // The case of the Adamites, so named for their peasant leader, who proclaimed himself both Adam and Moses, is instructive. From their island stronghold on the Nezarka River, near Neuhaus, contemporary accounts tell us, the Adamites waged a holy war against nearby villages. Every man, woman and child was cut down or burned alive. Blood, the Adamites believed, had to flow as high as a horse’s head. In October, 1421, the Adamites were exterminated — fighting to the end, their fanatic resistance fuelled by their leader’s prophecy that the 400-strong trained army arrayed against them would be struck blind by god. The Worship of False Gods [E34]
* Taborites [Табориты]. The Taborites (Czech Táborité, singular Táborita), known by their enemies as the Picards, were a Radical Hussite faction within the Hussite movement in medieval Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Although most of the Taborites were of rural origin, they played a major role in the city of Tábor's union. Taborite theology represented one of the most radical departures from that of the medieval Catholic Church. They rejected what they called a veneer of corruption in the Church and insisted on the normativeness of biblical authority. // Landes: Other millennial groups appeared on the fringes of Latin Christendom, forming powerful and enduring countercultures such as the Hussites in 15th-century Bohemia, whose violent Taborite wing of true believers was intent on bringing about the millennial kingdom at any cost. // Taborite millennialism. Premillennial sentiments developed in Europe also due in no small measure to momentous events such as the Black Death in the middle of the fourteenth century as well as the gradual disintegration of the continent's religious unity reflected in the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1309-1377) and its aftermath. The most notable fifteenth-century premillennialists were the Taborites, a group inspired by the teachings of the Czech reformer Jan Hus (c.1369-1415), who had been burnt as a heretic in 1415. After making a considerable social stir, culminating in the murder of Prague's King Wencelsas in 1419, these Hussites decamped to a hill outside Prague, which they named Tabor. Here they established an egalitarian society and awaited Christ's return, remaining an influential social force until their demise in 1434. New World Encyclopedia - Millennialism // The Taborites were perhaps the most important millennial group of the late Middle Ages and represent a transition to the new age of millennial movements in the Renaissance and the Reformation. Borrowing themes from the English Reformer John Wycliffe, Czech preachers advocated a radical, antipapal reform. Jan Hus, the most prominent of these men, was burned at the stake at the Council of Constance in 1415, which strengthened the hand of the most radical and millennial Taborites, who targeted 1420 as the date of the End. For two decades the region was plagued with wars that inspired the social and revolutionary elements of millennialism and that led to the establishment of a national church centred in Prague. Britannica - Millennialism From The Renaissance To The Modern World
* Bosch wasn't a Free Spirit. On a pu penser que Le Jardin des délices, le célèbre triptyque de Jérôme Bosch, était une représentation de la mythologie adamite, parce que la secte des Frères du Libre-Esprit (qui suivait ses principes) se développait à Bois-le-Duc, la ville où il résidait. Cette thèse n'est plus soutenue aujourd'hui. (Walter S. Gibson, Hieronymus Bosch, G.K. Hall, 1983, p. 26.) https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamites [E30]
* Unity of the Brethren [Czech/Bohemian/Moravian? Brethren; Чешские братья] (XV). The Unity of the Brethren, also known as the Czech or Bohemian Brethren, is a Protestant Christian denomination whose roots are in the pre-Reformation work of Petr Chelčický and the priest and philosopher Jan Hus, who was martyred in 1415. This body accepts the Apostles' Creed as a valid expression of their beliefs, and stresses the ancient motto, "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love." They believe the Bible is God's revelation to man, the sourcebook for all spiritual truth; that one God is revealed in three persons; that Christ is the only way of salvation; that salvation is by grace through faith; that the Holy Spirit dwells in believers; and that Jesus Christ will return to judge the world and reward the faithful believers. The Unity practices two sacraments—water baptism and holy communion. Christian parents present their infant children for baptism. All Christians are invited to communicate with them at the Lord's supper or communion. However, they do not regard full agreement on the elements, methods and modes of the sacraments as essential. They believe that love is the supreme evidence of Christian disciples. [E45]
* Moravian Church [Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, Unity of the Brethren; Моравская церковь] (XV). The Moravian Church, formally named the Unitas Fratrum (Latin for "Unity of the Brethren"), in German known as [Herrnhuter] Brüdergemeine (meaning "Brethren's Congregation from Herrnhut", the place of the Church's renewal in the 18th century), is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in the world with its heritage dating back to the Bohemian Reformation in the fifteenth century and the Unity of the Brethren established in the Kingdom of Bohemia. [E47]
* Рокита, Ян [Pol. Jan Rokyta] (ум 1591) — чешский и польский богослов, беседовавший с Иваном Грозным (1570). [E46]
* ANABAPTISTS, MUNSTER REBELLION
* Girolamo Savonarola [Джироламо Савонарола] (1452-1498). Girolamo Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar from Ferrara and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule and the exploitation of the poor. He prophesied the coming of a biblical flood and a new Cyrus from the north who would reform the Church. In September 1494, when Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and threatened Florence, such prophecies seemed on the verge of fulfilment. While Savonarola intervened with the French king, the Florentines expelled the ruling Medicis and, at the friar's urging, established a "popular" republic. Declaring that Florence would be the New Jerusalem, the world centre of Christianity and "richer, more powerful, more glorious than ever", he instituted an extreme puritanical campaign, enlisting the active help of Florentine youth. In 1495 when Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VI's Holy League against the French, the Vatican summoned Savonarola to Rome. He disobeyed and further defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting his campaign for reform with processions, bonfires of the vanities {a burning of objects condemned by authorities as occasions of sin}, and pious theatricals. In retaliation, the pope excommunicated him in May 1497, and threatened to place Florence under an interdict. A trial by fire {Trial by ordeal} proposed by a rival Florentine preacher in April 1498 to test Savonarola's divine mandate turned into a fiasco, and popular opinion turned against him. Savonarola and two of his supporting friars were imprisoned. On 23 May 1498, Church and civil authorities condemned, hanged, and burned the three friars in the main square of Florence. Savonarola's devotees, the Piagnoni, kept his cause of republican freedom and religious reform alive well into the following century, although the Medici—restored to power in 1512 with the help of the papacy—eventually broke the movement. Some Protestants consider Savonarola to be a vital precursor of the Reformation.
* Anabaptism [Rebaptizers; Анабаптизм, перекрещенцы] (XVI). Anabaptism is a Christian movement which traces its origins to the Radical Reformation. The movement is generally seen as an offshoot of Protestantism, although this view has been challenged by some Anabaptists. The early Anabaptists formulated their beliefs in the Schleitheim Confession, in 1527. Anabaptists believe that baptism is valid only when candidates confess their faith in Christ and want to be baptized. This believer's baptism is opposed to baptism of infants, who are not able to make a conscious decision to be baptized. Approximately 4 million Anabaptists live in the world today with adherents scattered across all inhabited continents. In addition to a number of minor Anabaptist groups, the most numerous include the Mennonites at 2.1 million, the German Baptists at 1.5 million, the Amish at 300 thousand and the Hutterites at 50 thousand. The Radical Reformation was the response to what was believed to be the corruption in both the Roman Catholic Church and the expanding Magisterial Protestant movement led by Martin Luther and many others. Beginning in Germany and Switzerland in the 16th century, the Radical Reformation gave birth to many radical Protestant groups throughout Europe. The term covers both radical reformers like Thomas Müntzer, Andreas Karlstadt, groups like the Zwickau prophets and Anabaptist groups like the Hutterites and Mennonites. Unlike the Catholics and the more {moderate ??} Magisterial Lutheran and Reformed (Zwinglian and Calvinist) Protestant movements, some of the Radical Reformation abandoned the idea that the "Church visible" was distinct from the "Church invisible." {Augustine ??} Thus, the Church only consisted of the tiny community of believers, who accepted Jesus Christ and demonstrated this by adult baptism, called "believer's baptism". While the magisterial reformers wanted to substitute their own learned elite for the learned elite of the Catholic Church, the radical Protestant groups rejected the authority of the institutional "church" organization, almost entirely, as being unbiblical. The name Anabaptist means "one who baptizes again". Their persecutors named them this, referring to the practice of baptizing persons when they converted or declared their faith in Christ, even if they had been baptized as infants. (...) Anabaptists were heavily persecuted by state churches, both Magisterial Protestants and Roman Catholics, beginning in the 16th century and continuing thereafter, largely because of their interpretation of scripture, which put them at odds with official state church interpretations and local government control. Anabaptism was never established by any state and therefore never enjoyed any associated privileges. (...) Within the inspirationist wing of the Anabaptist movement, it was not unusual for charismatic manifestations to appear, such as dancing, falling under the power of the Holy Spirit, "prophetic processions" (at Zurich in 1525, at Munster in 1534 and at Amsterdam in 1535), and speaking in tongues. In Germany some Anabaptists, "excited by mass hypnosis, experienced healings, glossolalia, contortions and other manifestations of a camp-meeting revival". The Anabaptist congregations that later developed into the Mennonite and Hutterite churches tended not to promote these manifestations, but did not totally reject the miraculous. (...) Holy Spirit leadership. The Anabaptists insisted upon the "free course" of the Holy Spirit in worship, yet still maintained it all must be judged according to the Scriptures. The Swiss Anabaptist document titled "Answer of Some Who Are Called (Ana-)Baptists – Why They Do Not Attend the Churches". One reason given for not attending the state churches was that these institutions forbade the congregation to exercise spiritual gifts according to "the Christian order as taught in the gospel or the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 14". "When such believers come together, 'Everyone of you (note every one) hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation', and so on. When someone comes to church and constantly hears only one person speaking, and all the listeners are silent, neither speaking nor prophesying, who can or will regard or confess the same to be a spiritual congregation, or confess according to 1 Corinthians 14 that God is dwelling and operating in them through His Holy Spirit with His gifts, impelling them one after another in the above-mentioned order of speaking and prophesying." // 1 Corinthians 14 Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 2 For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. 3 But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. 4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification. Zwickau prophets and the German Peasants' War. On December 27, 1521, three "prophets" appeared in Wittenberg from Zwickau who were influenced by (and, in turn, influencing) Thomas Müntzer—Thomas Dreschel, Nicholas Storch, and Mark Thomas Stübner. They preached an apocalyptic, radical alternative to Lutheranism. Their preaching helped to stir the feelings concerning the social crisis which erupted in the German Peasants' War in southern Germany in 1525 as a revolt against feudal oppression. Under the leadership of Müntzer, it became a war against all constituted authorities and an attempt to establish by revolution an ideal Christian commonwealth, with absolute equality among persons and the community of goods. The Zwickau prophets were not Anabaptists (that is, they did not practise "rebaptism"); nevertheless, the prevalent social inequities and the preaching of men such as these have been seen as laying the foundation for the Anabaptist movement. The social ideals of the Anabaptist movement coincided closely with those of leaders in the German Peasants' War. Studies have found a very low percentage of subsequent sectarians to have taken part in the peasant uprising. Research on the origins of the Anabaptists has been tainted both by the attempts of their enemies to slander them and by the attempts of their supporters to vindicate them. It was long popular to classify all Anabaptists as Munsterites and radicals associated with the Zwickau prophets, Jan Matthys, John of Leiden, and Thomas Müntzer. Those desiring to correct this error tended to over-correct and deny all connections between the larger Anabaptist movement and the most radical elements. Three main theories on origins of the Anabaptists are the following: 1) The movement began in a single expression in Zürich and spread from there (Monogenesis); 2) It developed through several independent movements (polygenesis); and 3) It was a continuation of true New Testament Christianity (apostolic succession or church perpetuity). Monogenesis. A number of scholars (e.g. Harold S. Bender, William Estep, Robert Friedmann[citation needed]) consider the Anabaptist movement to have developed from the Swiss Brethren movement. In the monogenesis view the time of origin is January 21, 1525, when Conrad Grebel baptized George Blaurock, and Blaurock in turn baptized several others immediately. These baptisms were the first "re-baptisms" known in the movement. This continues to be the most widely accepted date posited for the establishment of Anabaptism. Polygenesis. According to their polygenesis theory, South German–Austrian Anabaptism "was a diluted form of Rhineland mysticism", Swiss Anabaptism "arose out of Reformed congregationalism", and Dutch Anabaptism was formed by "Social unrest and the apocalyptic visions of Melchior Hoffman". // Anabaptists (Greek "re-baptizers", German: Wiedertäufer) are Christians of the Radical Reformation. Various groups at various times have been called Anabaptist, but this article focuses primarily on the Anabaptists of 16th century Europe. The term "anabaptist" comes from the practice of baptizing individuals who had been baptized previously, often as infants. Anabaptists believe infant baptism is not valid, because a child cannot commit to a religious faith, and they instead support what's called believer's baptism. The word anabaptism is used in this article to describe any of the 16th century "radical" dissenters, and the denominations descending from the followers of Menno Simons. Today the descendants of the 16th century European movement (particularly the Baptists, Amish, Hutterites, Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Brethren in Christ) are the most common bodies referred to as Anabaptist. Contemporary groups with early Anabaptist roots include the Mennonites, Amish, Dunkards, Landmark Baptists, Hutterites, and various Beachy and Brethren groups. There is no single defining set of beliefs, doctrines, and practices that characterizes all Anabaptists. The era of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation in Europe spawned a number of radical reform groups, among them the Anabaptists. These Christians regarded the Bible as their only rule for faith and life. Because of their radical beliefs, the Anabaptists were persecuted by other Protestants as well as by Roman Catholics. Mennonites have been characterized historically by a love for the Word of God, and by a strict demand for holiness of life. The evangelical and non-revolutionary Anabaptists of Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands, were somewhat of a trial to the leading reformers because of their radical views on the nature of the church and of the Christian ethic. January 21, 1525, is generally considered the birth date of Anabaptism. https://www.milmont.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/home.showpage/pageID/9/index.htm // The left-wing Anabaptists were accused of antinomianism, both for theological reasons and also because they opposed the cooperation of church and state, which was considered necessary for law and order. Britannica - Antinomianism (religion) // In addition to Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Zwinglianism, there was fourth party in the Reformation movement: the Anabaptists. Seeing the terrible corruption of Christianity throughout history by the close relationship of church and state, they sought to separate the two. Forsaking practices like infant baptism, the Anabaptists were branded as rebels by all parties, and were martyred by the hundreds. But the Anabaptist movement continues to inform our age, encouraging the separation of church and state. Christians Killing Christians: The Story Of The Rebaptizers // Jan Bockelson {Jan van Leiden}, alternately, founded the Anabaptist regime of Münster in the 1520s, preparing for the imminent coming of Christ with freewheeling polygamy, bizarre entertainments, and the execution of all dissidents. As the imperial army besieged Münster, followers were told god had granted them the strength of a hundred enemies; They would suffer neither hunger, thirst nor fatigue. Even as the population starved, though — many begging Bockelson’s mercenaries to deliver them and their children the coup de grace — they refused the imperial army’s offers of an honourable surrender. This millinearianism, Cohn noted, “drew its strength from a population living on the margin of society”. Traditional kinship networks and societies having disintegrated in changing times, these groups created their own around charismatic prophets. The Worship of False Gods [E42][U43]
* Melchior Hoffman [Мельхиор Хоффманн] (c 1495-c 1543). Melchior Hoffman (or Hofmann; byname: Pel(t)zer "furrier") was an Anabaptist prophet and a visionary leader in northern Germany and the Netherlands. He was without scholarly training, and first appeared as a furrier in Livonia. Attracted by Luther's teachings, he came forward as a lay preacher, combining business travels with a religious mission. In Dorpat he became involved in an iconoclastic revolt, and the magistrates obliged him to go to Wittenberg to obtain Luther's approval of his preaching. After his return to Dorpat he was involved in more controversy and forced to leave the city. After the same thing happened in Reval, he decided to go to Stockholm, Sweden, where he arrived in the autumn of 1526. Here too he was involved in religious disturbances and so left Sweden again. After a short stay in Lübeck he made his way to Denmark, where he found favour with King Frederick I, and was appointed by royal ordinance to preach the Gospel at Kiel. Because of the prophecy of an old man foretelling six months in prison for him, he returned in the spring of the following year to Strasbourg, where there is reference to his wife and child. He gained from his study of Apocalypse the belief that the Lord would return there in 1533 and received a vision of "resurrections" of apostolic Christianity, first under John Hus, and now under himself. The year 1533 was to inaugurate the new era; Strasbourg was to be the seat of the New Jerusalem. When however he prophesied that the return of Christ would be preceded by a purging of the ungodly, Hoffman was seen as a revolutionary. Under examination, he denied that he had made common cause with the Anabaptists and claimed to be no prophet but a mere witness of the Most High, but nevertheless refused the articles of faith proposed to him by the provincial synod. Hoffman's failed prophecy of the return of Christ contributed significantly to the Münster Rebellion (1533–1534), of which he is seen as one of the authors. Two of his followers, Jan van Matthijs and Jan van Leiden, proclaimed that Hoffman was wrong on the questions of the exact time and place, where Christ would return and reign, and named Münster as the correct location. As a consequence of the terror inspired by the rebellion and its savage suppression, Hoffman, together with Claus Frey, another Anabaptist, was detained in prison. Although the synod made a further effort to reclaim him in 1539, he stayed there for the rest of his life, until his death in 1543. He was extravagant in his denunciations, and developed a Zwinglian view of the Eucharist. {Theology of Huldrych Zwingli, Huldrych (Ulrich) Zwingli: "developed the symbolic view of the Eucharist; denied the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation; agreed that the bread and wine of the institution signify and do not literally become the body and blood of Jesus Christ - differences of opinion on this with Martin Luther: "magic" of the Eucharist}. Hoffman was important in at least one aspect of the development of the Mennonites. He adopted the views of Kaspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig concerning the incarnation of Jesus, and taught what has been called the "heavenly flesh of Christ". Menno Simons accepted this view. Hoffman wrote a commentary on the Book of Daniel in 1526. Bock treats him as an antitrinitarian, on grounds which Robert Wallace deems inconclusive. His followers were known as Hoffmanites or Melchiorites.
* Thomas Müntzer [Томас/Фома Мюнцер] (c 1489-1525) was a German preacher and radical theologian of the early Reformation whose opposition to both Luther and the Roman Catholic Church led to his open defiance of late-feudal authority in central Germany. Müntzer was foremost amongst those reformers who took issue with Luther’s compromises with feudal authority. He became a leader of the German peasant and plebeian uprising of 1525 commonly known as the German Peasants' War, was captured after the battle of Frankenhausen, and was tortured and executed. Few other figures of the German Reformation raised as much controversy as Müntzer, which continues to this day. A complex and unusual character, he is now regarded as a significant personality in the early years of the German Reformation and the history of European revolutionaries. Almost all modern studies stress the necessity of understanding his revolutionary actions as a consequence of his theology: Müntzer believed that the end of the world was imminent and that it was the task of the true believers to aid God in ushering in a new era of history. (...) Luther pitched in very firmly on the side of the princes; he made a tour of southern Saxony – Stolberg, Nordhausen, and the Mansfeld district – in an attempt to dissuade the rebels from action, although in some of these places he was roundly heckled. He followed this up with his pamphlet Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants, calling for the ruthless suppression of the revolt. This had a title and a timing that could not have been more ill-considered since it was the German peasantry who at that time died in their thousands at the hands of the princely armies. Apocalypticism. Interwoven with Müntzer's mystical piety, as for many of his contemporaries, was a conviction that the whole cosmos stood at a tipping point. Now God would set right all the wrongs of the world, largely by destruction, but with the active assistance of true Christians. From this would emerge a new age of mankind. In the Prague Manifesto he wrote: "O ho, how ripe the rotten apples are! O ho, how rotten the elect have become! The time of the harvest has come! That is why he himself has hired me for his harvest." In a letter to the people of Erfurt, in May 1525, he wrote: Help us in any way you can, with men and with cannon, so that we can carry out the commands of God himself in Ezekiel 14, where he says: "I will rescue you from those who lord it over you in a tyrannous way... Come, you birds of heaven and devour the flesh of the princes; and you wild beasts drink up the blood of all the bigwigs". Daniel says the same thing in chapter 7: that power should be given to the common man". // Daniel 7:16 I approached one of those standing there and asked him the meaning of all this. “So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: 17 ‘The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth. 18 But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever.’ [E38]
* Müntzer and Münster [Мюнцер и Мюнстер]. During the last two years of his life, Müntzer had come into contact with a number of other radicals; prominent amongst them were Hans Hut, Hans Denck, Melchior Rinck, Hans Römer, and Balthasar Hubmaier. All of them were leaders of the emerging Anabaptist movement, which nurtured similar reformed doctrines to those of Müntzer himself. While it is not appropriate to claim that they were all or consistently "Müntzerites", it is possible to argue that they all shared some common teaching. A common thread links Müntzer, the early Anabaptists, the "Kingdom of Münster" in North Germany in 1535, the Dutch Anabaptists, the radicals of the English Revolution, and beyond. [E40]
* Engels about Müntzer [Энгельс о Мюнцере]. Friedrich Engels and Karl Kautsky claimed him [Thomas Muntzer] as a precursor of the revolutionaries of more modern times. They based their analysis on the pioneering work of the German liberal historian Wilhelm Zimmermann, whose important three-volume history of the Peasants War appeared in 1843. [E39]
* Münster rebellion [Мюнстерская коммуна]. The Münster rebellion (German: Täuferreich von Münster, "Anabaptist dominion of Münster") was an attempt by radical Anabaptists to establish a communal sectarian government in the German city of Münster – then under the large Prince-Bishopric of Münster in the Holy Roman Empire. The city was under Anabaptist rule from February 1534, when the city hall was seized and Bernhard Knipperdolling installed as mayor, until its fall in June 1535. It was Melchior Hoffman, who initiated adult baptism in Strasbourg in 1530, and his line of eschatological Anabaptism, that helped lay the foundations for the events of 1534–35 in Münster. (...) Matthys identified Münster as the "New Jerusalem", and on January 5, 1534, a number of his disciples entered the city and introduced adult baptism. Rothmann apparently accepted "rebaptism" that day, and well over 1000 adults were soon baptised. Vigorous preparations were made, not only to hold what had been gained, but to spread their beliefs to other areas. The many Lutherans who left were outnumbered by the arriving Anabaptists, there was an orgy of iconoclasm in cathedrals and monasteries, and rebaptism became compulsory. The property of the emigrants was shared out with the poor and soon a proclamation was issued that all property was to be held in common. The city was then besieged by Franz von Waldeck, its expelled bishop. In April 1534 on Easter Sunday, Matthys, who had prophesied God's judgment to come on the wicked on that day, made a sally forth with only twelve followers, believing that he was a second Gideon, and was cut off with his entire band. He was killed, his head severed and placed on a pole for all in the city to see, and his genitals nailed to the city gate. After lengthy resistance, the city was taken by the besiegers on June 24, 1535 and John of Leiden and several other prominent Anabaptist leaders were captured and imprisoned. In January 1536 John of Leiden, Bernhard Knipperdolling and one more prominent follower, Bernhard Krechting, were tortured and executed in the marketplace of Münster. Their bodies were exhibited in cages which hung from the steeple of St. Lambert's Church. The bones were removed later, but the cages hang there still. (...) The Batenburgers under Jan van Batenburg preserved the violent millennialist stream of Anabaptism seen at Münster. They were polygamous and believed force was justified against anyone not in their sect. Their movement went underground after the suppression of the Münster Rebellion, with members posing as Catholics or Lutherans as necessary. [E41]
* Jan Matthys [Jan/Johann Matthias/Mathyszoon Ян Матис] (c 1500-1534) (also known as Jan Matthias, Johann Mathyszoon, Jan Mattijs, Jan Matthijszoon) was a charismatic Anabaptist leader of the Münster Rebellion, regarded by his followers as a prophet. Matthys was a baker in Haarlem, in the Holy Roman Empire's County of Holland, and was converted to Anabaptism through the ministry of Melchior Hoffman in the 1520s. Matthys baptized thousands of converts, and after Hoffman's imprisonment, rose to prominent leadership among the Anabaptists. Matthys rejected the pacifism and non-violence theology of Hoffman, adopting a view that oppression must be met with resistance. In 1534, an Anabaptist insurrection took control of Münster, the capital city of the Holy Roman Empire's Prince-Bishopric of Münster. John of Leiden, a Dutch Anabaptist disciple of Matthys, and a group of local merchants summoned Matthys to come. Matthys identified Münster as the "New Jerusalem", and on January 5, 1534, a number of his disciples entered the city and introduced adult baptism. Reformer Bernhard Rothmann apparently accepted "rebaptism" that day, and well over 1000 adults were soon baptized. They declared war on Franz von Waldeck, its expelled prince-bishop, who besieged the fortified town. In April 1534 on Easter Sunday, Matthys, who had prophesied God's judgment to come on the wicked on that day, made a sally forth with twelve followers, under the idea that he was a second Gideon, and was cut off with his entire band. He was killed, dismembered and his head stuck on a pike. Later that evening, his genitals were nailed to the city door. // Gideon, also named Jerubbaal and Jerubbesheth, was a military leader, judge and prophet whose calling and victory over the Midianites are recounted in chapters 6 to 8 of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. Gideon was the son of Joash, from the Abiezrite clan in the tribe of Manasseh and lived in Ephra (Ophrah). As a leader of the Israelites, he won a decisive victory over a Midianite army despite a vast numerical disadvantage, leading a troop of 300 'valiant' men.
* John of Leiden [Jan Bockelson/Bockelszoon/Beukelsz; Иоанн Лейденский] (1509-1536), was an Anabaptist leader from Leiden, in the Holy Roman Empire's County of Holland. In 1533 he moved to Münster, the capital city of the Holy Roman Empire's Prince-Bishopric of Münster, where he became an influential prophet and a leader of the Münster Rebellion. He turned Münster, the city, into a millenarian Anabaptist theocracy, and proclaimed himself "King of Münster" in 1534. In 1535, the insurrection was suppressed after a siege of the fortified city, and John was captured, tortured and executed. (...) John was an Anabaptist, secretly at first, but later he became a recognized prophet of a sect which would eventually take over the German town of Münster. According to his own testimony, he moved to Münster in 1533 because he had heard there were inspired preachers there. He sent for Jan Matthys, who had baptized him, to come. After his arrival Matthys – recognized as a prophet – became the principal leader of the city. Matthys expelled all of the Catholics from the city shortly after his arrival and set up a communal structure based on the Gospels. He outlawed money and forbade owning property. A Catholic supported army, led by Franz von Waldeck, Prince-Bishop of Münster, Osnabrück and Minden, laid siege to the town of Münster after the Anabaptist takeover. Matthys led an assault on the siege on Easter Sunday 1534, but died quickly. John of Leiden became self-proclaimed "king of the New Jerusalem" until its fall in June 1535. John of Leiden would lead the Anabaptists during the siege. When he was the leader, he assumed Matthys' position as the prophet and eventually established a Royal Order complete with a Royal Court and a kingly costume, which was made from the property taken from the citizens of Münster. John of Leiden would make many promises to his starving subjects about salvation from the siege and upcoming rewards for their enduring loyalty. This, along with his charisma, kept his position in the city secure until the eventual defeat by the hands of the prince bishop. // John of Leiden (born Johan Beukelszoon; 2 February 1509 – 22 January 1536) was a Dutch Anabaptist leader who moved to Münster in 1533, capital of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster, where he became an influential prophet, turned the city into a millenarian Anabaptist theocracy, and proclaimed himself King of New Jerusalem in September 1534. The insurrection was suppressed in June 1535 after Prince-Bishop Franz von Waldeck besieged the city and captured John. John was tortured to death in the city's central marketplace on 22 January 1536, along with Bernhard Knipperdolling and Bernhard Krechting. The conventional view is that John of Leiden set up in Münster a polygamous theocracy, best known for a law John passed stating that any unmarried woman must accept the first proposal of marriage made to her, with the result that men competed to acquire the most wives. Some sources report that John himself took sixteen wives aside from his "Queen" Divara van Haarlem, and that he publicly beheaded one of his wives, Elisabeth Wandscherer, after she rebelled against his authority. Karl Kautsky in his Communism in Central Europe at the Time of the Reformation, notes that this picture of Anabaptist Münster is based almost entirely on accounts written by the Anabaptists' enemies, who sought to justify their bloody reconquest of the city. Kautsky's reading of the sources emphasizes the Anabaptists' emphasis on social equality, political democracy, and communal living during the time of John's nominal rule. // Jan Matthijs kwam op 5 april 1534 bij een uitval uit de belegerde stad om het leven. Jan van Leiden was daarna de enige leider van de wederdopers in Münster. Hij nam in september 1534 de titel van koning aan, richtte het theocratische "Koninkrijk Sion" op en omgaf zich met een luisterrijke hofhouding. Met behulp van een raad van "twaalf apostelen", zijn stadhouder en scherprechter Berend Knipperdolling en zijn "rijkskanselier" Heinrich Krechting zou Jan van Leiden een waar schrikbewind hebben uitgeoefend en ieder verzet in bloed hebben gesmoord. Ter voorbereiding op de vermeende naderende apocalyps liet hij alle boeken behalve de Bijbel verbranden. Geld werd afgeschaft en polygamie en gemeenschap van goederen werden ingevoerd. Op overtreding van de tien geboden stond de doodstraf. Jan van Leiden had 17 vrouwen. Hij zou een van hen, Elisabeth Wandscherer, publiekelijk zelf hebben onthoofd omdat ze hem wilde verlaten. Enige twijfel over de historische juistheid van deze overleveringen is op zijn plaats. De kerkelijke en wereldlijke autoriteiten lieten deze verhalen na hun overwinning op de wederdoperbeweging ter afschrikking verspreiden. Het doperrijk van Jan van Leiden kwam op 25 juni 1535 ten einde, toen de troepen van de bisschop en de landgraaf van Hessen dankzij verraad Münster innamen. Pas na harde straatgevechten werden de wederdopers verslagen. Jan van Leiden werd gevangengenomen en een zestal maanden als "circusbeer" door het omliggende land gevoerd. Op 22 januari 1536 werd hij met Berend Knipperdolling en Berend Krechting op het schavot gemarteld en geëxecuteerd. Hun lichamen werden in ijzeren kooien opgehangen aan de toren van de Lambertikerk in Münster. In deze kooien lagen de lichamen ter afschrikking tot 1585 te vergaan. De kooien zijn nog steeds te bezichtigen. [E43]
* Polygamy in the Old Testament [Многожёнство в Ветхом Завете]. Polygamy is found in the Old Testament and over 40 important figures had more than one wife, such as Esau though being considered an enemy of Jacob, Elkanah, and Solomon. Multiple marriage occurred on several occasions on the will of man in the case of famine, widowhood, or female infertility. The practice of levirate marriage obligated a man whose brother has left a widow without heir to marry her. Abraham was told he would have a son but did not wait for the promise and had a son with his servant. God fulfilled his promise anyway and Isaac was born. Deut 17:17 states that the king shall not have many wives or horses, or accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. Моисей имел двух жён разных национальностей: мадианитянку Сепфору (Исх. 2:21, 18:2–5) и эфиопку (Чис. 12:1). У Гедеона было много жён и одна наложница (Чис. 8:30, 31). Елкана, отец пророка Самуила, имел двух жён: Анну и Феннану (англ.) (1Цар. 1:1, 2). Точный список жён царя Давида включает по крайней мере 5 женщин. (Многобрачие в христианстве) [E44]
* Batenburgers [Батенбургцы]. The Batenburgers were members of a radical Anabaptist sect led by Jan van Batenburg, that flourished briefly in the 1530s in the Netherlands, in the aftermath of the Münster Rebellion. They were called Zwaardgeesten (sword-minded) by the nonviolent mainstream Anabaptists. Comparatively little is known of Van Batenburg's theology. The Batenburgers believed that every man, and everything on earth, was owned, in a literal sense, by God. They also believed that they were God's chosen children. It followed, in their theology, that everything on earth was theirs to do with as they pleased. There was nothing wrong in making a living by robbing 'infidels', by which they meant any man who was not a member of their sect; indeed killing infidels was pleasing to their God. Those who joined the sect after 1535 — when the Münsterite leadership had declared the door to salvation to be closed—could never be baptised, they thought, but these men and women would nevertheless survive the coming apocalypse and be reborn in the coming Kingdom of God as servants of the Anabaptist elite. The Batenburgers also shared the views of the radical Münsterites on polygamy and property; all women, and all goods, were held in common. A few Batenburger marriages did occur, and Van Batenburg himself retained the right to present a deserving member of his sect with a 'wife' from the group's general stock of women. But such unions could be ended just as readily, and on occasion the prophet did order an unwilling wife to return to servicing the remainder of the Batenburger men.
* Anne Askew [Энн/Анна Аскью] (1521-1546; Anabaptist poet, burnt at the stake). Anne Askew (sometimes spelled Ayscough or Ascue; married name Anne Kyme) was an English writer, poet, and Anabaptist preacher who was condemned as a heretic in England during the reign of Henry VIII of England. Along with Margaret Cheyne, wife of Sir John Bulmer, who was similarly tortured and executed after the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1537, she is the only woman on record known to have been both tortured in the Tower of London and burnt at the stake. She is also one of the earliest known female poets to compose in the English language and the first Englishwoman to demand a divorce (especially as an innocent party on scriptural grounds). (...) Plain speaking. The prevailing religious culture of Anne's time, summed up by bishop Stephen Gardiner, viewed "plain speaking" with suspicion, a tactic used by the devil to spread heresy: "and where playnes maye deceyve, he makethe his pretence to speake playnely, and professeth simplycytie". The inquisitors saw in Anne a particularly threatening example of such plain speaking, her agile answers demonstrating a mastery of scriptural language that rivaled the inquisitors' own. Under questioning from bishop Edmund Bonner, who commanded her repeatedly to "utter al thynges that burdened [her] conscience," she answered in unembellished language blended with Scriptural teachings: "God hath geven me the gyfte of knowledge, but not of utterance. And Salomon sayth, that a woman of fewe words, is a gyfte of God (Sirach 26:14)." Her answers infuriated the inquisitors, who found they were not able to force from her the answers they wanted to hear. Faced with Bonner's deepening rage, she repeated only that she believed "as the scripture doth teache", making it clear that she would not accept non-scriptural authorities over her own engagement with the Scriptures – which she quotes from directly – "That God dwelleth not in temples made with handes" (Acts 17:24). When Christopher Dare asked for her interpretation of this saying, she mocked them, invoking the Sermon on the Mount: "I answered, that I wolde not throw pearles amonge swyne, for acornes were good ynough." (Matthew 7:6) When questioned about the Eucharist she answered "if the host shuld fall, and a beast ded eate it [did the] beast ... receyve God or no?" {Ересь Белободского [причастится ли мышь?; Heresy of Belobodsky: do mice take Communion?] (168x); ересь некоего Яна Белободского} She often played upon traditional gender roles to mock her questioners telling them "it is agaynst saynt Paules lernynge, that [she] beynge a woman, should interprete the scriptures, specyallye where so many wise men were." Of particular interest to the questioners was Anne's relationship with the Holy Spirit. Asked if she acted with the Holy Spirit inside her, she answered "if I had not, I was but a reprobate or cast awaye." Anabaptists were especially feared because they claimed the authority of the Holy Spirit, and rejected other laws (like the Münster rebellion which declared the establishment of a "kingdom of a thousand years").
* Moravian Anabaptism [Моравский анабаптизм]. Although Moravian Anabaptism was a transplant from other areas of Europe, Moravia soon became a center for the growing movement, largely because of the greater religious tolerance found there. Hans Hut was an early evangelist in the area, with one historian crediting him with baptizing more converts in two years than all the other Anabaptist evangelists put together. The coming of Balthasar Hübmaier to Nikolsburg was a definite boost for Anabaptist ideas to the area. With the great influx of religious refugees from all over Europe, many variations of Anabaptism appeared in Moravia, with Jarold Zeman documenting at least ten slightly different versions. Soon, one-eyed Jacob Wiedemann appeared at Nikolsburg, and began to teach the pacifistic convictions of the Swiss Brethren, on which Hübmaier had been less authoritative. This would lead to a division between the Schwertler (sword-bearing) and the Stäbler (staff-bearing). Wiedemann and those with him also promoted the practice of community of goods. With orders from the lords of Liechtenstein to leave Nikolsburg, about 200 Stäbler withdrew to Moravia to form a community at Austerlitz. Persecution in South Tyrol brought many refugees to Moravia, many of whom formed into communities that practised community of goods. Jacob Hutter was instrumental in organizing these into what became known as the Hutterites. But others came from Silesia, Switzerland, German lands, and the Low Countries. With the passing of time and persecution, all the other versions of Anabaptism would die out in Moravia leaving only the Hutterites. Even the Hutterites would be dissipated by persecution, with a remnant fleeing to Transylvania, then to the Ukraine, and finally to North America in 1874.
* Mennonites [Меннонитство, Меннониты]. The Mennonites are members of certain Christian groups belonging to the church communities of Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons of Friesland. The early teachings of the Mennonites were founded on the belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus, which the original Anabaptist followers held to with great conviction despite persecution by the various Roman Catholic and Protestant states. Rather than fight, the majority of these followers survived by fleeing to neighboring states where ruling families were tolerant of their belief in believer's baptism. Over the years, Mennonites have become known as one of the historic peace churches because of their commitment to pacifism. [E50]
* Hutterites [Гуттериты]. Hutterites are an ethnoreligious group that is a communal branch of Anabaptists who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century. [E51]
* Amish [Амиши, аманиты, амманиты]. The Amish are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to, but a distinct branch off from, Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and are slower to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view to not interrupting family time, nor replacing face-to-face conversations whenever possible.
* Puritans
[Пуритане]. The Puritans
were English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries
who sought to "purify" the Church of England from its
"Catholic" practices, maintaining that the Church of
England was only partially reformed. Puritan
millennialism has been placed in the broader context of
European Reformed beliefs about the millennium and interpretation of
biblical prophecy, for which representative figures of the period
were Johannes Piscator, Thomas Brightman, Joseph Mede, Johannes
Heinrich Alsted, and John Amos Comenius. Like most English
Protestants of the time, Puritans based their eschatological views on
an historicist interpretation of the Book of Revelation and
the Book of Daniel. Protestant theologians identified the sequential
phases the world must pass through before the Last Judgment could
occur and tended to place their own time period near the
end. It was expected that tribulation and persecution would
increase but eventually the church's enemies—the Antichrist
(identified with the Roman Catholic Church) and the
Ottoman Empire—would be defeated. Based on Revelation 20, it
was believed that a thousand-year period (the millennium)
would occur, during which the saints would rule with Christ on earth.
In contrast to other Protestants who tended to view eschatology as
an explanation for "God's remote plans for the world and man",
Puritans understood it to describe "the cosmic
environment in which the regenerate {reformed or reborn, especially
in a spiritual or moral sense} soldier of Christ was now to do
battle against the power of sin". On a personal level,
eschatology was related to sanctification, assurance of salvation,
and the conversion experience. On a larger level, eschatology was the
lens through which events such as the English Civil War and the
Thirty Years' War were interpreted. There was also an optimistic
aspect to Puritan millennianism; Puritans anticipated a
future worldwide religious
revival before the Second Coming of Christ. Another
departure from other Protestants was the widespread belief among
Puritans that the conversion of the Jews to Christianity was an
important sign of the apocalypse. William Lamont argues that,
within the church, the Elizabethan millennial beliefs of John Foxe
became sidelined, with Puritans adopting instead the "centrifugal"
doctrines of Thomas Brightman, while the Laudians replaced the
"centripetal" attitude of Foxe to the "Christian
Emperor" by the national and episcopal Church closer to home,
with its royal head, as leading the Protestant world iure divino (by
divine right). Viggo Norskov Olsen writes that Mede "broke fully
away from the Augustinian-Foxian tradition, and is the link between
Brightman and the premillennialism of the 17th century". The dam
broke in 1641 when the traditional retrospective reverence for Thomas
Cranmer and other martyred bishops in the Acts and Monuments was
displaced by forward-looking attitudes to prophecy among radical
Puritans. // Thomas Brightman (1562–1607). Thomas Brightman
was an English clergyman and biblical commentator. His exegesis of
the Book of Revelation, published posthumously, proved influential.
According to William M. Lamont, Brightman and Joseph Mede were the
two most important revisionists of the interpretation and eschatology
set down by John Foxe; among Brightman's contributions was to weaken
the imperial associations tied to the Emperor Constantine I. The
detailed reading, in favour of the Genevan and Scottish churches, and
condemning the 'Laodicean' (lukewarm) Church of England, helped to
move on the Puritan conceptions of church reform and its urgency.
Brightman persuaded himself and others that a work of his on the
Apocalypse was written under divine inspiration. In it he makes the
Church of England the Laodicean church, and the angel that God loved
the church of Geneva and the kirk of Scotland. The main object of his
system of prophecy in a commentary on Daniel, as well as in his book
on the Apocalypse, was to prove that the pope is that anti-Christ,
whose reign is limited to 1290 years, and who is then foredoomed by
God to utter destruction. In 1615 his work Shall They Return to
Jerusalem Again? was published, advocating the return of the Jews to
the Holy Land, one of the first Christians to do so. "There is
nothing more certain: the prophets do everywhere confirm it and beat
upon it." // Joseph Mede (1586-1639). Joseph Mede was an
English scholar with a wide range of interests. He was educated at
Christ's College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow from 1613. He
is now remembered as a biblical scholar. He was also a naturalist and
Egyptologist. He was a Hebraist, and became Lecturer of Greek. His
Clavis Apocalyptica (1627 in Latin, English translation 1643, Key of
the Revelation Searched and Demonstrated) was a widely influential
work on the interpretation of the Book of Revelation. It projected
the end of the world by 1716: possibly in 1654. The book also posited
that the Jews would be miraculously converted to Christianity before
the second coming. Christopher Hill considers that Mede deliberately
refrained from publication. His interpretation of the Book of Daniel
and The Apostasy of Latter Times were published posthumously. On
demons, he explained at least some mental illness as demonic. His
collected Works were published in 1665, edited by John Worthington.
Joseph Mede held Arminian theological views. John Coffey writes: "The
ecumenist Scotsman John Dury, the German scientist Samuel Hartlib,
and the Czech educationalist Comenius had each been profoundly
influenced by the millenarianism of Alsted and Mede, and seem to have
seriously entertained the idea that London was the centre from which
human knowledge and divine rule would spread." Coffey also says,
however, that millenarianism was rare in the 1630s, coming in only
later as an important force. William Twisse, of the Westminster
Assembly, added a preface to the 1643 Key to the Revelation, a
testimonial to its convincing power. // Arminianism.
Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological
ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609)
and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. // Five solae.
The five solae (from Latin, sola, lit. "alone";
occasionally Anglicized to five solas) of the Protestant Reformation
are a foundational set of principles held by theologians and clergy
to be central to the doctrine of salvation as taught by the Reformed
branches of Protestantism. Each sola represents a key belief in the
Lutheran and Reformed traditions in contradistinction to the teaching
of the Roman Catholic Church. These Reformers claimed that the
Catholic Church, especially its head, the Pope, had usurped divine
attributes or qualities for the Church and its hierarchy. // Johann
Heinrich Alsted (1588 -1638). Johann Heinrich Alsted, "the
true parent of all the Encyclopædias", was a German-born
Transylvanian Saxon Calvinist minister and academic, known for his
varied interests: in Ramism and Lullism, pedagogy and encyclopedias,
theology and millenarianism. His contemporaries noted that an anagram
of Alstedius was sedulitas, meaning "hard work" in Latin.
From his Transylvanian period dates Alsted's Prodromus (printed 1641,
but dated 1635). The Prodromus was a Calvinist refutation of one of
the most influential anti-Trinitarian works, De vera religione of
Johannes Völkel. This work was a compendium of the arguments of
Völkel's teacher Fausto Sozzini, figurehead of the Polish Unitarian
movement. Alsted is now remembered as an encyclopedist, and for his
millennarian views. [E56]
* TODO: Martin Luther, Calvin, Zwingli {??} etc.
* Sacramental union [Lutheranism, Unio sacramentalis; Сакраментальный союз]. Sacramental union (Latin: unio sacramentalis; Martin Luther's German: Sacramentliche Einigkeit; German: sakramentalische Vereinigung) is the Lutheran theological doctrine of the Real {"literal"} Presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Christian Eucharist (see Eucharist in Lutheranism). Type of union. The sacramental union is distinguished from the other "unions" in theology like the "personal union" of the two natures in Jesus Christ, the "mystical union" of Christ and his Church, and the "natural union" in the human person of body and soul. It is seen as similar to the personal union in the analogue of the uniting of the two perfect natures in the person of Jesus Christ in which both natures remain distinct: the integrity of the bread and wine remain though united with the body and the blood of Christ. In the sacramental union the consecrated bread is united with the body of Christ and the consecrated wine is united with the blood of Christ by virtue of Christ's original institution with the result that anyone eating and drinking these "elements"—the consecrated bread and wine—really eats and drinks the physical body and blood of Christ as well. Lutherans maintain that what they believe to be the biblical doctrine of the manducatio indignorum ("eating of the unworthy") {>>} supports this doctrine as well as any other doctrine affirming the Real Presence. The manducatio indignorum is the contention that even unbelievers eating and drinking in the Eucharist really eat and drink the body and blood of Christ. This view was put forward by Martin Luther in his 1528 Confession Concerning Christ's Supper: "Why then should we not much more say in the Supper, "This is my body," even though bread and body are two distinct substances, and the word "this" indicates the bread? Here, too, out of two kinds of objects a union has taken place, which I shall call a "sacramental union," because Christ’s body and the bread are given to us as a sacrament. This is not a natural or personal union, as is the case with God and Christ. It is also perhaps a different union from that which the dove has with the Holy Spirit, and the flame with the angel, but it is also assuredly a sacramental union." It is asserted in the Wittenberg Concord of 1536 and in the Formula of Concord. The Formula of Concord couples the term with the circumlocution ("in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine") used among Lutherans to further define their view: "For the reason why, in addition to the expressions of Christ and St. Paul (the bread in the Supper is the body of Christ or the communion of the body of Christ), also the forms: under the bread, with the bread, in the bread [the body of Christ is present and offered], are employed, is that by means of them the papistical transubstantiation may be rejected and the sacramental union of the unchanged essence of the bread and of the body of Christ indicated." Words of Institution. {Main article: Words of Institution} Lutherans believe that the words spoken by Jesus Christ at his Last Supper, the Words of Institution, bring about the sacramental union then and at all times whenever the Christian Eucharist is celebrated according to his mandate and institution. (...) Distinction from other doctrines of the Real Presence. A note about the real presence in Mikael Agricola Church, Helsinki. This view is sometimes erroneously identified as consubstantiation in that it asserts the simultaneous presence of four essences in the Eucharist: the consecrated bread, the body of Christ, the consecrated wine, and the blood of Christ; but it differs in that it does not assert a "local" (three-dimensional, circumscribed) presence of the body and blood in the sacramental bread and wine respectively, which is rejected as "gross, carnal, and Capernaitic" in the Formula of Concord. The term "consubstantiation" has been associated with such a "local" inclusion of the Body and Blood of Christ in the sacramental bread and wine as has the term "impanation. {body comes into existence out of the bread}" Lutherans have also rejected the designation of their position as consubstantiation because they believe it, like transubstantiation, is a philosophical explanation of the Real Presence, whereas the sacramental union provides a description of the Real Presence. Martin Luther distinguished this doctrine from that of transubstantiation and impanation in this way: "... we do not make Christ's body out of the bread ... Nor do we say that his body comes into existence out of the bread [i.e. impanation]. We say that his body, which long ago was made and came into existence, is present when we say, "This is my body." For Christ commands us to say not, "Let this become my body," or, "Make my body there," but, "This is my body."" The Lutheran doctrine of the sacramental union is also distinct from the Reformed view. The Calvinistic view of Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper (a real, spiritual presence) is that Christ is truly present at the meal, though not substantially and particularly joined to the elements. This is in line with their general belief that "the finite cannot contain the infinite" (finitum non est capax infiniti). Lutherans, on the other hand, describe the Personal Union of the two natures in Christ (the divine and the human) as sharing their predicates or attributes more fully. The doctrine of the sacramental union is more consistent with this type of Christology. The Lutheran scholastics described the Reformed Christological position which leads to this doctrine as the extra calvinisticum, or "Calvinistic outside," because the Logos is thought to be outside or beyond the body of Christ. // Manducatio impiorum. Manducatio impiorum ("eating by the impious”) refers to those who eat the Lord’s Supper but do not believe all Christian doctrine including the rejection of the real presence in the Lord’s Supper. Martin Luther and the Gnesio Lutherans held to this view, which is codified in the Epitome of the Formula of Concord VII found in the Book of Concord. Philipp Melanchthon and his followers, the Philippists, with the Reformed denied this teaching including Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin Calvin believed that Christ's body is given to all communicants, but only received by those who have faith. Lutherans refer to this as the receptionist error. It relates to doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and, in particular, to the interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11:27–29: Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. Manducatio impiorum is different than Manducatio indignorum, which refers to the unworthy eating of Christians due to unrepentance.
* Sacramentarians ['Сакраментарианы'] (XVI ??). The Sacramentarians were Christians during the Protestant Reformation who denied not only the Roman Catholic transubstantiation but also the Lutheran sacramental union (as well as similar doctrines such as consubstantiation) {i.e. Real / "literal" Presence}. During the turbulent final years of Henry VIII's reign an influential faction of religious conservatives had dedicated themselves to rooting out what they considered heresy in English society, including the denial of the real presence in the sacrament of the Eucharist ("sacramentarianism"). The king had stopped burning heretics in 1543 and within a few years the divide between religious parties in English society gave rise to intense conflict, and 10 radical Christians were executed. Women were far less likely to be among those so condemned; even so, Anne Askew, a writer from an important Lincolnshire family with family connections to the royal household, was tortured and burned on July 16th as part of a campaign to undermine Queen Katherine Parr, herself suspected by certain factions of harboring heretical beliefs. Sacramentarians comprised two parties: 1) the followers of Wolfgang Capito, Andreas Karlstadt and Martin Bucer, who at the Diet of Augsburg presented the Confessio Tetrapolitana from the cities of Strasbourg, Konstanz, Lindau and Memmingen. 2) the followers of the Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli, including Johannes Oecolampadius. Zwingli presented his own confession of faith at the Diet of Augsburg. The doctrinal standpoint was the same – an admission of a spiritual presence of Christ which the devout soul can receive and enjoy, but a total rejection of any physical or corporeal presence. After holding their own view for some years the four cities accepted the Confession of Augsburg, and were merged in the general body of Lutherans; but Zwingli's position was incorporated in the Helvetic Confession. In the 19th and 20th centuries, an inversion of terms has led to the name "Sacramentarians" being applied to those who hold a high or extreme view of the efficacy of the sacraments.
* Pope as Antichrist [Папа-Антихрист]. The Protestant Reformers tended to hold the belief that the Antichrist power would be revealed so that everyone would comprehend and recognize that the Pope is the real, true Antichrist and not the vicar of Christ. Doctrinal works of literature published by the Lutherans, the Reformed Churches, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Anabaptists, and the Methodists contain references to the Pope as the Antichrist. The identification of the Roman Catholic Church as the apostate power written of in the Bible as the Antichrist became evident to many as the Reformation began, including John Wycliffe, who was well known throughout Europe for his opposition to the doctrine and practices of the Catholic Church, which he believed had clearly deviated from the original teachings of the early Church and to be contrary to the Bible. Wycliffe himself tells (Sermones, III. 199) how he concluded that there was a great contrast between what the Church was and what it ought to be, and saw the necessity for reform. Along with John Hus, they had started the inclination toward ecclesiastical reforms of the Catholic Church. The English Reformer William Tyndale held that while the Roman Catholic realms of that age were the empire of Antichrist, any religious organization that distorted the doctrine of the Old and New Testaments also showed the work of Antichrist. In his treatise The Parable of the Wicked Mammon, he expressly rejected the established Church teaching that looked to the future for an Antichrist to rise up, and he taught that Antichrist is a present spiritual force that will be with us until the end of the age under different religious disguises from time to time.
* Sola scriptura [«только писание»]. Sola scriptura is a theological doctrine held by some Protestant Christian denominations that the Christian scriptures are the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice. [U44]
* Головерие ["Naked Belief", Protestantism]. Головерие ср. отделение веры от дел, от любви; убеждение, что одна вера, без дел, спасает человека. Азбука веры - Толковый словарь живого великорусского языка В. И. Даля. Буква Г // Головерие ср. отделение веры от дел, от любви; убеждение, что одна вера, без дел, спасает человека. Головер, головерец м. головерка ж. исповедующий головерие; протестант. Толковый словарь Даля онлайн - ГОЛЫЙ // Головерие - вера, кака розпрожавшысь в Германне в первой плахе 16 столеття, как ответ гленников латинской веры на розблядованне латинских попов. Первым с критикой порочноси латинской церьквы выступил Мартин Лютор. Особливо вон возмутившыся от розпродажы индульгенцый, сверстанной по указу Римсково папы, которой в те поры шыбко нужалса в акчовых прибытках да симонне. Сибирска Википеддя - Головерие
* Luther cannot and will not recant. Luther: "Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders." - Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound. [E70]
* Johannes Agricola [Иоганн Агрикола] (1494-1566). Johann or Johannes Agricola (originally Schneider, then Schnitter) was a German Protestant Reformer during the Protestant Reformation. He was a follower and friend of Martin Luther, who became his antagonist in the matter of the binding obligation of the law on Christians. (...) Controversy. In 1536 he was recalled to teach in Wittenberg, and was welcomed by Luther. Almost immediately, however, a controversy, which had been begun ten years before and been temporarily silenced, broke out more violently than ever. Agricola was the first to teach the views which Luther was the first to stigmatize by the name Antinomian, maintaining that while non-Christians were still held to the Mosaic law, Christians were entirely free from it, being under the gospel alone. (See also: Law and Gospel). After he wrote an attack on Luther shortly after Luther had given him shelter when he was fleeing persecution, Luther had nothing further to do with him.
* European wars of religion [Религиозные войны в Европе]. The European wars of religion were a series of Christian religious wars which were waged in Europe during the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries. Fought after the Protestant Reformation began in 1517, the wars disrupted the religious and political order in the Catholic countries of Europe. However, religion was only one of the causes, which also included revolts, territorial ambitions, and Great Power conflicts. For example, by the end of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), Catholic France was allied with the Protestant forces against the Catholic Habsburg monarchy. The wars were largely ended by the Peace of Westphalia (1648), establishing a new political order now known as Westphalian sovereignty. // Wars of Religion (French history). Wars of Religion, (1562–98) conflicts in France between Protestants and Roman Catholics. The spread of French Calvinism persuaded the French ruler Catherine de Médicis to show more tolerance for the Huguenots, which angered the powerful Roman Catholic Guise family. Encyclopaedia Britannica - Wars of Religion
* WEBER
* Weber about Calvinism. Calvinism is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice of John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. Calvinists broke from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century. Calvinists differ from Lutherans on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, theories of worship, and the use of God's law for believers, among other things. As declared in the Westminster and Second Helvetic confessions, the core doctrines are predestination and election. [E54]
* Weber - calling. Weber introduces the concept of the English "calling, a religious conception, that of a task set by God" (Weber, p. 39) is absent from civilized languages, antiquity, Catholicism, or German mysticism. Weber argues that the concept of the calling was a new idea, a product of the Reformation, and a Protestant notion. The concept of calling that was new involved "the valuation of the fulfilment of duty in worldly affairs as the highest form which the moral activity of the individual could assume" (Weber, p. 40). This gave "every-day worldly a religious significance" (Weber, p. 40) and the individual was to fulfil the obligations of his or her position in the world in order to be acceptable by God. Unlike the monk, whose duty was to be otherworldly, obtaining salvation by denying self and the world, for Protestants fulfilment of one’s duty in worldly affairs was the highest form that the moral activity of individuals could take. In fact, Weber argues that Martin Luther (1483-1546) reversed the earlier Catholic approach. That is, Luther came to consider monks’ renunciation of the world as "selfishness, withdrawing from temporal obligations. In contrast, labour appears to him [Luther] as the outward expression of brotherly love" (Weber, p. 41). While Weber considers Luther’s claim to be poorly argued, "this moral justification of worldly activity was one of the most important results of the Reformation" (Weber, p. 41). http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/318n1302.htm [E57]
* Weber - Protestant ascetism (worldly ascetism). "the complete elimination of salvation through the Church and the sacraments ... was what formed the absolutely decisive difference from Catholicism." (Weber, p. 61). Weber regards this as the logical conclusion of the elimination of magic, that is, a rational development in religion – the "genuine Puritan even rejected all signs of religious ceremony at the grave" so no magic or sacraments would creep in (Weber, p. 61). (...) Faith was thus identified with the type of Christian conduct which glorifies God. Works were not a means of purchasing salvation, but of getting rid of the fear of damnation. "In practice this means that God helps those who help themselves. Thus the Calvinist … himself creates his own salvation, or, as would be more correct, the conviction of it" (Weber, p. 69) Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism – Continued // But, since predestination was rejected, the peculiarly rational character of Baptist morality rested psychologically above all on the idea of expectant waiting for the Spirit to descend, which even today is characteristic of the Quaker meeting, and is well analysed by Barclay. The purpose of this silent waiting {inner silence} is to overcome everything impulsive and irrational, the passions and subjective interests of the natural man. He must be stilled in order to create that deep repose of the soul in which alone the word of God can be heard. Of course, this waiting might result in hysterical conditions, prophecy, and, as long as eschatological hopes survived, under certain circumstances even in an outbreak of chiliastic enthusiasm, as is possible in all similar types of religion. That actually happened in the movement which went to pieces in Munster. But in so far as Baptism affected the normal work-a-day world, the idea that God only speaks when the flesh is silent evidently meant an incentive to the deliberate weighing of courses of action and their careful justification in terms of the individual conscience. The later Baptist communities, most particularly the Quakers, adopted this quiet, moderate, eminently conscientious character of conduct. The radical elimination of magic from the world allowed no other psychological course than the practice of worldly asceticism. Since these communities would have nothing to do with the political powers and their doings, the external result also was the penetration of life in the calling with these ascetic virtues. Chapter IV. The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism B. PIETISM [E58]
* Weber - social context. According to Weber, the city as a politically autonomous organisation of people living in close proximity, employed in a variety of specialised trades, and physically separated from the surrounding countryside, only fully developed in the West and to a great extent shaped its cultural evolution: "The origin of a rational and inner-worldly ethic is associated in the Occident with the appearance of thinkers and prophets ... who developed in a social context that was alien to the Asiatic cultures. This context consisted of the political problems engendered by the bourgeois status-group of the city, without which neither Judaism, nor Christianity, nor the development of Hellenistic thinking are conceivable." Weber argued that Judaism, early Christianity, theology, and later the political party and modern science, were only possible in the urban context that reached a full development in the West alone {cities in South America were more organized (??)}. He also saw in the history of medieval European cities {were semi-organized conglomerates (aggregations) at best; but that was what made them "democratic" (Weber) ?? (i.e. grown spontaneously, not under anyone's control)} the rise of a unique form of "non-legitimate {anti-feudal} domination" that successfully challenged the existing forms of legitimate domination (traditional {long-established customs, habits and social structures}, charismatic {charisma of the individual or the leader}, and rational-legal {formal rules and established laws of a state}) that had prevailed until then in the Medieval world. This new domination was based on the great economic and military power wielded by the organised community of city-dwellers ("citizens"). // Weber: what distinguishes authority from coercion, force and power on the one hand, and leadership, persuasion and influence on the other hand, is legitimacy. Forms of "legitimate" authority: traditional: long-established customs, habits and social structures; charismatic: charisma of the individual or the leader; rational-legal: formal rules and established laws of a state. // Although it is mainly focused on medieval communes, Weber’s thought about the city is relevant because it questions every city and cohabitation: both because Weber tries to grasp its essence and because the medieval city embodies the ideal-type of the democratic {??} city. This characteristic derives directly from the fact that it was born like a “revolutionary usurpation” against feudal and noble pre-existent powers, as a form of “non-legitimate power”. To better understand it, it is necessary to analyze its relation with the Weberian sociology of domination and to observe what the city as “non-legitimate power” contests. Diana Gianola - City and Democracy in Max Weber
* Weber - "ascetism" and salvation panic. Ascetism is a philosophy of self-denial: the idea that Christians should lead an austere life, without luxuries. This may seem an odd philosophy to kick-start an economic system based on the accumulation of ever greater wealth, but it does make sense – wait for it! Predestination is the idea that it has already been decided who will go to heaven and who will go to hell and there is nothing you can do about this during your time on Earth. Good deeds, repentance, penance: none of this will save you: God had already decided your fate before you were born. The problem with this belief is that it fails to perform many of the functions that sociologists like Parsons or Malinowski suggested religion should perform, because it offers little comfort. Indeed, people were leading these ascetic, joyless lives without knowing if they were to receive any reward in heaven. This contributed to a sense of anxiety, sometimes described as salvation panic. This led to Calvinists looking for signs from God that they were indeed among the elect (those who would go to heaven). They increasingly came to see success as a sign {wealth as a blessing}, and therefore threw themselves into their work. Because of ascetism and the idea that people should make themselves useful and follow a “calling”, it was business at which Calvinists might be successful, and when they were successful, instead of spending the money on luxury items, they reinvested the money into their businesses. Making money and reinvesting it in order to make more money was the origin of the values and spirit of capitalism. Weber, Calvinism and the Spirit of Modern Capitalism [E59]