§ 143. The Inner Development of the Reformed Church.The close connection which all Lutheran national churches had obtained in their possession of one common confession was wanting to the Reformed church, inasmuch as there each national church had drawn up its own confession. The victory of Calvinistic dogmatic over the Zwinglian in the Swiss mother church (§138, 7) was not without influence upon the other Reformed national churches; and Calvinism, partly in its entire stringency and severity, partly in a form more or less modified, without expressing itself in one common symbol, formed henceforth a bond of union and a common standard for attacks on Lutheran dogmatics. Quite similar was the origin of the divergence that arose between Zwinglianism and Calvinism in the department of the ecclesiastical constitution. In this case also the victory was with the Calvinistic organization. Its ideal embraced the restoration of the primitive apostolic presbyterial and synodal constitution, together with the church’s unconditional independence of the State. This proved much more acceptable than the theory which, under Zwingli’s auspices, had been adopted in German Switzerland, according to which church government and the administration of discipline were put in the hands of the Christian civil magistrates. A rigid system of ecclesiastical penitential discipline, however, was on all sides applied to the public and private lives of all church members. Under such discipline the community came generally to present a picture of singularly pure and correct morality, and not infrequently we see exhibited a remarkable development of high moral character. It fostered the noble confidence of the martyr spirit, which indeed only too often ran out into extremes and made an unjustifiable use of Old Testament precedents and patterns.—In reference to worship, the Reformed church, with its simplest possible form of service, stripped of all pomp and ceremony, presents the most thorough and marked contrast to the gorgeous and richly ceremonial worship of the Roman Catholic church.—Yet the episcopal Anglican national church (§139, 6), in almost all particulars relating to constitution, worship, discipline, and customs, completely severed its connection with the distinctive characteristics of the Reformed church, and allied itself to the traditional forms and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic church. On the other hand, in reference to dogma it approaches in its mediating attitude nearer in several respects to the view of the Lutheran church. But all the more rigidly and exclusively did the Puritans who separated themselves from the Anglican church, as well as the strict Presbyterian church of Scotland, appropriate, and even carry out to further extremes, the rigorism of the Genevan model in regard both to worship and to doctrine.
The close connection which all Lutheran national churches had obtained in their possession of one common confession was wanting to the Reformed church, inasmuch as there each national church had drawn up its own confession. The victory of Calvinistic dogmatic over the Zwinglian in the Swiss mother church (§138, 7) was not without influence upon the other Reformed national churches; and Calvinism, partly in its entire stringency and severity, partly in a form more or less modified, without expressing itself in one common symbol, formed henceforth a bond of union and a common standard for attacks on Lutheran dogmatics. Quite similar was the origin of the divergence that arose between Zwinglianism and Calvinism in the department of the ecclesiastical constitution. In this case also the victory was with the Calvinistic organization. Its ideal embraced the restoration of the primitive apostolic presbyterial and synodal constitution, together with the church’s unconditional independence of the State. This proved much more acceptable than the theory which, under Zwingli’s auspices, had been adopted in German Switzerland, according to which church government and the administration of discipline were put in the hands of the Christian civil magistrates. A rigid system of ecclesiastical penitential discipline, however, was on all sides applied to the public and private lives of all church members. Under such discipline the community came generally to present a picture of singularly pure and correct morality, and not infrequently we see exhibited a remarkable development of high moral character. It fostered the noble confidence of the martyr spirit, which indeed only too often ran out into extremes and made an unjustifiable use of Old Testament precedents and patterns.—In reference to worship, the Reformed church, with its simplest possible form of service, stripped of all pomp and ceremony, presents the most thorough and marked contrast to the gorgeous and richly ceremonial worship of the Roman Catholic church.—Yet the episcopal Anglican national church (§139, 6), in almost all particulars relating to constitution, worship, discipline, and customs, completely severed its connection with the distinctive characteristics of the Reformed church, and allied itself to the traditional forms and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic church. On the other hand, in reference to dogma it approaches in its mediating attitude nearer in several respects to the view of the Lutheran church. But all the more rigidly and exclusively did the Puritans who separated themselves from the Anglican church, as well as the strict Presbyterian church of Scotland, appropriate, and even carry out to further extremes, the rigorism of the Genevan model in regard both to worship and to doctrine.
§ 143.1.The Ecclesiastical Constitution.—Just as in the Lutheran church, the ecclesiastical leaders had been driven by necessity to submit to the so-calledsuper-episcopateof the princes, it also happened here in German Switzerland that, under pressure of circumstances, this power, as well as church discipline and infliction of ecclesiastical censures, was put in the hands of the magistrates. By order of Zwingli and Œcolampadius there were founded in Zürich, inA.D.1528, and in Basel inA.D.1530, synods to be held yearly for church visitation. These were to be attended by all the pastors of the city and district, and one or more honourable men should be appointed from each congregation, in order to take up and dispose of any complaints that might be made against the life and doctrine of their pastors. But the intention of both reformers to give this institution a controlling influence in church government and ecclesiastical organization was thwarted in consequence of the jealousy with which the ruling magistrates clung to the authority that had been assigned them in ecclesiastical matters. In Geneva, on the contrary, Calvin’s unbending energy succeeded, after long and painful contendings (§138, 3,4), in transferring from the magistrates the government of the church, together with church discipline and the imposition of censures, to which here also they laid claim, to a consistory founded by him, composed of six pastors and twelve lay elders or presbyters, which was supreme in its own domain, and free from all interference on the part of the civil authorities, while the magistrates were bound to execute civil penalties upon those excommunicated by the ecclesiastical tribunal. The introduction of this presbyterial constitution into Reformed national churches of large extent must have contributed to their further extension and to the maintenance of the national church unity. At the head of each congregation now stood a presbytery, called in Frenchconsistoire, composed of pastor and elders, the latter having been chosen either directly by the congregation, or by the local magistrate in accordance with the votes of the congregation, subsequently they were also allowed to add to their own number. Then, again, the presbyters of a particular circuit were grouped into so-calledclasses, with a moderator chosen for the occasion; and then, also, an annual classical synod, consisting of one pastor and one lay elder chosen from each of the presbyteries.In a similar way, at longer intervals, or just as necessity called for it, provincial synods were convened, composed of deputies from several classical synods; and from its members were chosen representatives to the general or national synod, which constituted the highest legislative authority for the whole national church.409§ 143.2.Public Worship.—Zwingli wished at first to do away with church bells, organ playing, and church psalmody, and even Calvin would not tolerate altars, crucifixes, images, and candles in the churches. These he regarded as contrary to the Divine law revealed in the decalogue, inasmuch as the commandment that properly stood second as a distinct and separate statute, though it had slipped out of the enumeration usual among the Catholics and Lutherans, was understood to forbid the use of images. The churches were reduced to bare and unadorned places for prayer and assembly rooms for preaching, and simple communion tables took the place of altars. Kneeling, as savouring of ceremonialism, was discountenanced; the breaking of bread was again introduced in the administration of the Lord’s Supper as forming an important part of the symbolism; private confession was abolished; exorcism at baptism, as well as baptism in emergencies as a necessary thing, was discontinued; the liturgy was reduced to simple prayers spoken, not sung, and from a literalist purism the usualVater unserwas changed intoUnser Vater. The festivals were reduced to the smallest number possible, and only the principal Christian feasts were celebrated, Christmas, Easter, Pentecost; while the Sunday festival was observed with almost the Old Testament strictness of Sabbath keeping.—In securing the introduction of psalmody into the worship of the German Reformed church, John Zwick, pastor at Constance, who died inA.D.1542, was particularly active. InA.D.1536 he published a small psalmody, with some Bible psalms set to Lutheran melodies. At Calvin’s request, Clement Marot set a good number of the Psalms to popular French airs inA.D.1541-1543; Beza completed it, and then Calvin introduced this French psalter into the church of Geneva. Claude Goudimel (§149, 15) inA.D.1562 published sixteen of these psalms with four-part harmonies. He was murdered in the massacre of St. Bartholomew at Lyons, inA.D.1572. A professor of law at Königsberg, Ambrose Lobwasser, inA.D.1573 made an arrangement of the Psalter in the German language after the style of Marot. This psalter, notwithstanding its poetical deficiencies, continued in use for a long time in Germany and Switzerland. Zwingli’s aversion to congregational singing was given effect to only in Zürich, but even there the service of praise was introduced by a decree of the council inA.D.1598. In the other German Swiss cantons they did not confine themselves to the use of the Psalms, but adopted unhesitatingly spiritual songs by both Reformed and Lutheran poets. Among the former, who neither in number nor in ability could approach the latter, the most important were John Zwick and Ambrose Blaurer (§133, 3).It was only in the seventeenth century that the Lutheran sister church abandoned her rigid adherence to the exclusive use of Lobwasser’s psalms in congregational singing, when the rise of Pietism, and afterwards the spread of rationalism, overcame this narrow-mindedness.410§ 143.3.The English Puritans.—The Reformation under Elizabeth (§139, 6), with its Lutheranizing doctrinal standpoint and Catholicizing forms of constitution and worship, had been sanctioned inA.D.1559 by the Act of Uniformity in the exercise of the royal supremacy that was claimed over the whole ecclesiastical institutions of the country. But the Protestants who had fled from the persecutions of Bloody Mary and had returned in vast troops when Elizabeth ascended the throne brought with them from their foreign resorts, in Switzerland from Geneva, Zürich, Basel, in Germany from Strassburg, Frankfort, Emden, entirely different notions about the nature of genuine evangelical Christianity; and now with all the assumption of confessors they sought to have these ideas realized in their native land. Inspired for the most part with the rigorist spirit of the Genevan Reformation, they desired, instead of the royal supremacy, to have the independence of the church proclaimed, and instead of the hierarchical episcopal system a presbyterial constitution with strict church discipline, arranged in accordance with the Genevan model. They also gave a one-sided prominence to the formal principle of the Holy Scripture, adhered rigidly to the doctrinal theory of Calvin and to a mode of worship as bare as possible, stripped of every vestige of popish superstition, such as priestly dress, altars, candles, crucifixes, sign of the cross, forms of prayer, godfathers, confirmation, kneeling at the sacrament, bowing the head at the mention of the name of Jesus, bells, organs, etc. On account of their opposition to the Act of Uniformity, these were designated Nonconformists or Dissenters. They were also calledPuritans, because they insisted upon an organization of the church purified from every human invention, and ordered strictly in accordance with the word of God. Their principles, which were enunciated first of all in private conventicles, found a very wide acceptance amongst ministers and people. This movement proved too strong to be suppressed, even by the frequent deprivation and banishment of the ministers, or the fining and imprisonment of their adherents. Amid the severity of persecution and oppression Puritanism continued to grow, and inA.D.1572 numerous separatist congregations provided themselves with a presbyterial and synodal constitution; the former for the management of the affairs of particular congregations, the latter for the settlement of questions affecting the whole church. Specially offensive to the queen, and therefore strictly forbidden by her and rigorously suppressed, were the prophesyings introduced into many English churches after the pattern of the prophesyings of the church of Zürich.These were week-day meetings of the congregation, at which the Sunday sermons were further explained and illustrated from Scripture by the preachers, and applied to the circumstances and needs of the church of that day.411§ 143.4. Even before the sixteenth century had come to an end an ultra-puritan tendency had been developed, the adherents of which were called Brownists, from their leader Robert Brown. As chaplain of the Duke of Norfolk, he was brought into contact at Norwich with Dutch Anabaptist refugees; and stirred up by them, he began a violent and bitter polemic, not only against the Cæsaro-papism and episcopacy of the State church, but also against the aristocratic element in the presbyterial and synodal constitution. He taught that church and congregation were to be completely identified; that every separate congregation, because subject to no other authority than that of Christ and His word, has the right of independently arranging and administering its own affairs according to the decisions of the majority. Having been cast into prison, but again liberated through the powerful influence of his friends, he retired inA.D.1581 to Holland, and founded a small congregation there at Middleburg in Zealand. When this soon became reduced to a mere handful, he returned to England inA.D.1589, and there renewed his agitation; but afterwards submitted to the hierarchical State church, and died inA.D.1630 in the enjoyment of a rich living. After his apostasy, the jurist Henry Barrow took his place as leader of the Brownists, who still numbered many thousands, and were now called after him Barrowists. Persecuted by the government and harassed by severe measures fromA.D.1594, whole troops of them retreated to the Netherlands, where in several of the principal cities they formed considerable congregations, and issued, inA.D.1598, their first symbolical document, “The Confession of Faith of certain English People exiled.”—The second founder of the party, a more trustworthy leader and more vigorous apologist, was the pastor John Robinson, who, inA.D.1608, with his Norwich congregation settled at Amsterdam, and inA.D.1610 moved to Leyden. He died inA.D.1625. The fundamental points in the constitution under his leadership were these:Complete equality of all the members of the church among themselves, and consequently the setting aside of all clerical prerogatives;Thorough subordination of the college of presbyters to the will of the majority of the congregation, from which circumstance they obtained the name ofCongregationalists; andThe perfect autonomy of separate congregations and their independence alike of every civil authority and of every synodal judicature, from which characteristic they obtained the name ofIndependents.Synodal assemblies were allowed merely for the purpose of mutual consultation and advice, and when so restricted were regarded as beneficial. With this end in view aCongregational boardwas appointed to sit in London, which formed a common centre of union. And as in constitution, so also in worship there was a complete breach made with all the traditions and developments of church history. With the exception of Sunday all feast days were abolished. In the assemblies for public worship each individual had the right of free speech for the edification of the congregation. All liturgical formularies and prescribed prayers, even the Lord’s Prayer not excepted, were set aside, as hindering the mission of the Holy Spirit in the congregation.—In order to preserve for their descendants the sacred heritage of their faith, and their native English language and nationality, and in order to save them from the moral dangers to which they were exposed in large cities, but to an equal extent at least inspired by the wish to break new ground for the kingdom of God in the New World, many of their families set out, inA.D.1620, from Holland for North America, and there, as “Pilgrim Fathers,” amid indescribable hardships, established a colony in the wastes of Massachusetts, and laid the foundations of that Congregational denomination which has now grown into so powerful and influential a church.412§ 143.5.Theological Science.—InA.D.1523, the grand council at Zürich set up the peculiar institution of prophesying (1 Cor. xiv. 29) or biblical conferences. Pastors along with students, as well as certain scholars specially called for the purpose, were required to meet together every morning, with the exception of Sundays and Fridays, in the choir of the cathedral, where, after a short opening prayer, public exegetical expositions of the Old Testament were given in the regular order of books and chapters, with a strict and detailed comparison of the Vulgate, the LXX. and the original text; and then at the close one of the professors stated the results of the conference in a practical discourse for the edification of the congregation. At a later period theological studies flourished at Geneva and Basel, in the French church at the academy of Saumur and the theological seminaries of Montauban, Sedan, and Montpellier.Sebastian Münster, formerly at Heidelberg, afterwards at Basel, issued, inA.D.1523, a complete Hebrew lexicon. The Zürich theologians, Leo Judä and others, inA.D.1524-1529 translated Luther’s Bible into the Swiss dialect, making, however, an independent revision in accordance with the original text. At the instigation of the Waldensians,Robert Olivetanof Geneva (§138, 1) undertook, inA.D.1535, a translation of the Holy Scriptures from the original into the French language; but in so far as the New Testament is concerned he followed almost literally the translation of Faber (§120, 8). In subsequent editions it was in various particulars greatly improved, although even to this day it remains very unsatisfactory.Theodore Bezagave an improved recension of the New Testament text and a new Latin translation of it. Sebastian Münster edited the Old Testament text with an independent Latin translation. AlsoLeo Judäin Zürich undertook a similar work, for which he was well qualified by a competent knowledge of languages.Sebastian Castellioin Geneva endeavoured to make the prophets and apostles speak in classical Latin and in full Ciceronian periods. Most successful was the Latin translation of the Old Testament whichImmanuel Tremelliusat Heidelberg, in connection with his son-in-lawFrancis Junius, produced.John Piscator, dismissed from Heidelberg under the Elector Louis VI. (§144, 1), fromA.D.1584 professor in the academy founded at Herborn during that same year, published a new German translation of the Bible, which was authoritatively introduced into the churches at Bern and in other Reformed communities. Commentators on Holy Scripture were also numerous during this age. BesidesCalvin, who far outstrips them all (§138, 5), the following were distinguished for their exegetical performances: Zwingli, Œcolampadius, Conrad Pellican (§120, 4 footnote), Theodore Beza, Francis Junius, John Piscator, John Mercer, and the Frenchman Marloratus.—As a dogmatistCalvin, again beyond all question occupies the very front rank. In speculative power and thorough mastery of his materials he excels all his contemporaries. Leo Judä’s catechisms, two in German and one in Latin, in which the scholar puts the question and the teacher gives the answer and explanation, continued long in use in the Zürich church. Among the German Reformed theologiansAndrew Hyperiusof Marburg, who died inA.D.1564, takes an honourable place as an exegete by his expositions of the Pauline epistles, as a dogmatist by hisMethodus theologiæ, as a homilist by hisDe formandis concionibus s., and as the first founder of theological encyclopædia by hisDe recte formando theolog. studio.—The pietistic efforts of the English Puritan party found a fit nursery in the University of Cambridge, whereWilliam Whitaker, who died inA.D.1598, the author ofCatechismus s. institutio pietatis, and especiallyWilliam Perkins, who died inA.D.1602, author ofDe casibus conscientiæ, besides many other English works of edification, laboured unweariedly in endeavouring to infuse a pious spirit into the theological studies. Both were also eager and enthusiastic supporters of the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination; but the attempt, through the “Nine Lambeth Articles,” laid before Archbishop Whitgift in his palace inA.D.1598, and accepted and approved by him, to make this doctrine an absolute doctrinal test for the university was frustrated by the decided veto of Queen Elizabeth.—Continuation, § 160, 6.§ 143.6.Philosophy.—For the formal scientific construction of systematic theology the Aristotelian dialectic, as the heritage bequeathed by the mediæval scholasticism, continued to exercise upon the occupants of the Reformed professorial chairs, as well as in Lutheran seminaries, a dominating influence far down into the seventeenth century. To emancipate philosophy, and with it also in the same degree theology, from these fetters, which hindered every free movement, and inaugurate a simpler scientific method, was an attempt made first of all byPeter Ramus, who fromA.D.1551 was professor of dialectic and rhetoric in Paris, distinguished also as a polyhistor, humanist, and mathematician, and diligent in disseminating his views from the platform and by the press. As he had openly declared himself a Calvinist, he had repeatedly to seek refuge in flight. After a long residence in Switzerland and Germany, where he gained many adherents, who were known by the name of Ramists, he thought that after the Peace of St. Germain (§139, 15), inA.D.1571, he might with safety return to Paris; but there, inA.D.1572, he fell a victim to Romish fanaticism on the night of St. Bartholomew.—Continuation, § 163, 1.§ 143.7. The Reformed church madeone missionaryattempt inA.D.1557. A French adventurer, Villegagnon, laid before Admiral Coligny a plan for the colonization of the persecuted Huguenots in Brazil. With this proposal there was linked a scheme for conducting a mission among the heathen aborigines. He sailed under Coligny’s patronage inA.D.1555 with a number of Huguenot artisans, and founded Fort Coligny at Rio de Janeiro. At his request Calvin sent him two Geneva pastors inA.D.1557. The intolerable tyranny which Villegagnon exercised over the unprotected colonists, the failure of their efforts among the natives, famine, and want impelled them in the following year to seek again their native shores, which they reached after a most disastrous voyage.All were not able to secure a place in the returning ships, and even of those who started several died of starvation on the way.—Continuation, § 161, 7.413
§ 143.1.The Ecclesiastical Constitution.—Just as in the Lutheran church, the ecclesiastical leaders had been driven by necessity to submit to the so-calledsuper-episcopateof the princes, it also happened here in German Switzerland that, under pressure of circumstances, this power, as well as church discipline and infliction of ecclesiastical censures, was put in the hands of the magistrates. By order of Zwingli and Œcolampadius there were founded in Zürich, inA.D.1528, and in Basel inA.D.1530, synods to be held yearly for church visitation. These were to be attended by all the pastors of the city and district, and one or more honourable men should be appointed from each congregation, in order to take up and dispose of any complaints that might be made against the life and doctrine of their pastors. But the intention of both reformers to give this institution a controlling influence in church government and ecclesiastical organization was thwarted in consequence of the jealousy with which the ruling magistrates clung to the authority that had been assigned them in ecclesiastical matters. In Geneva, on the contrary, Calvin’s unbending energy succeeded, after long and painful contendings (§138, 3,4), in transferring from the magistrates the government of the church, together with church discipline and the imposition of censures, to which here also they laid claim, to a consistory founded by him, composed of six pastors and twelve lay elders or presbyters, which was supreme in its own domain, and free from all interference on the part of the civil authorities, while the magistrates were bound to execute civil penalties upon those excommunicated by the ecclesiastical tribunal. The introduction of this presbyterial constitution into Reformed national churches of large extent must have contributed to their further extension and to the maintenance of the national church unity. At the head of each congregation now stood a presbytery, called in Frenchconsistoire, composed of pastor and elders, the latter having been chosen either directly by the congregation, or by the local magistrate in accordance with the votes of the congregation, subsequently they were also allowed to add to their own number. Then, again, the presbyters of a particular circuit were grouped into so-calledclasses, with a moderator chosen for the occasion; and then, also, an annual classical synod, consisting of one pastor and one lay elder chosen from each of the presbyteries.In a similar way, at longer intervals, or just as necessity called for it, provincial synods were convened, composed of deputies from several classical synods; and from its members were chosen representatives to the general or national synod, which constituted the highest legislative authority for the whole national church.409
§ 143.2.Public Worship.—Zwingli wished at first to do away with church bells, organ playing, and church psalmody, and even Calvin would not tolerate altars, crucifixes, images, and candles in the churches. These he regarded as contrary to the Divine law revealed in the decalogue, inasmuch as the commandment that properly stood second as a distinct and separate statute, though it had slipped out of the enumeration usual among the Catholics and Lutherans, was understood to forbid the use of images. The churches were reduced to bare and unadorned places for prayer and assembly rooms for preaching, and simple communion tables took the place of altars. Kneeling, as savouring of ceremonialism, was discountenanced; the breaking of bread was again introduced in the administration of the Lord’s Supper as forming an important part of the symbolism; private confession was abolished; exorcism at baptism, as well as baptism in emergencies as a necessary thing, was discontinued; the liturgy was reduced to simple prayers spoken, not sung, and from a literalist purism the usualVater unserwas changed intoUnser Vater. The festivals were reduced to the smallest number possible, and only the principal Christian feasts were celebrated, Christmas, Easter, Pentecost; while the Sunday festival was observed with almost the Old Testament strictness of Sabbath keeping.—In securing the introduction of psalmody into the worship of the German Reformed church, John Zwick, pastor at Constance, who died inA.D.1542, was particularly active. InA.D.1536 he published a small psalmody, with some Bible psalms set to Lutheran melodies. At Calvin’s request, Clement Marot set a good number of the Psalms to popular French airs inA.D.1541-1543; Beza completed it, and then Calvin introduced this French psalter into the church of Geneva. Claude Goudimel (§149, 15) inA.D.1562 published sixteen of these psalms with four-part harmonies. He was murdered in the massacre of St. Bartholomew at Lyons, inA.D.1572. A professor of law at Königsberg, Ambrose Lobwasser, inA.D.1573 made an arrangement of the Psalter in the German language after the style of Marot. This psalter, notwithstanding its poetical deficiencies, continued in use for a long time in Germany and Switzerland. Zwingli’s aversion to congregational singing was given effect to only in Zürich, but even there the service of praise was introduced by a decree of the council inA.D.1598. In the other German Swiss cantons they did not confine themselves to the use of the Psalms, but adopted unhesitatingly spiritual songs by both Reformed and Lutheran poets. Among the former, who neither in number nor in ability could approach the latter, the most important were John Zwick and Ambrose Blaurer (§133, 3).It was only in the seventeenth century that the Lutheran sister church abandoned her rigid adherence to the exclusive use of Lobwasser’s psalms in congregational singing, when the rise of Pietism, and afterwards the spread of rationalism, overcame this narrow-mindedness.410
§ 143.3.The English Puritans.—The Reformation under Elizabeth (§139, 6), with its Lutheranizing doctrinal standpoint and Catholicizing forms of constitution and worship, had been sanctioned inA.D.1559 by the Act of Uniformity in the exercise of the royal supremacy that was claimed over the whole ecclesiastical institutions of the country. But the Protestants who had fled from the persecutions of Bloody Mary and had returned in vast troops when Elizabeth ascended the throne brought with them from their foreign resorts, in Switzerland from Geneva, Zürich, Basel, in Germany from Strassburg, Frankfort, Emden, entirely different notions about the nature of genuine evangelical Christianity; and now with all the assumption of confessors they sought to have these ideas realized in their native land. Inspired for the most part with the rigorist spirit of the Genevan Reformation, they desired, instead of the royal supremacy, to have the independence of the church proclaimed, and instead of the hierarchical episcopal system a presbyterial constitution with strict church discipline, arranged in accordance with the Genevan model. They also gave a one-sided prominence to the formal principle of the Holy Scripture, adhered rigidly to the doctrinal theory of Calvin and to a mode of worship as bare as possible, stripped of every vestige of popish superstition, such as priestly dress, altars, candles, crucifixes, sign of the cross, forms of prayer, godfathers, confirmation, kneeling at the sacrament, bowing the head at the mention of the name of Jesus, bells, organs, etc. On account of their opposition to the Act of Uniformity, these were designated Nonconformists or Dissenters. They were also calledPuritans, because they insisted upon an organization of the church purified from every human invention, and ordered strictly in accordance with the word of God. Their principles, which were enunciated first of all in private conventicles, found a very wide acceptance amongst ministers and people. This movement proved too strong to be suppressed, even by the frequent deprivation and banishment of the ministers, or the fining and imprisonment of their adherents. Amid the severity of persecution and oppression Puritanism continued to grow, and inA.D.1572 numerous separatist congregations provided themselves with a presbyterial and synodal constitution; the former for the management of the affairs of particular congregations, the latter for the settlement of questions affecting the whole church. Specially offensive to the queen, and therefore strictly forbidden by her and rigorously suppressed, were the prophesyings introduced into many English churches after the pattern of the prophesyings of the church of Zürich.These were week-day meetings of the congregation, at which the Sunday sermons were further explained and illustrated from Scripture by the preachers, and applied to the circumstances and needs of the church of that day.411
§ 143.4. Even before the sixteenth century had come to an end an ultra-puritan tendency had been developed, the adherents of which were called Brownists, from their leader Robert Brown. As chaplain of the Duke of Norfolk, he was brought into contact at Norwich with Dutch Anabaptist refugees; and stirred up by them, he began a violent and bitter polemic, not only against the Cæsaro-papism and episcopacy of the State church, but also against the aristocratic element in the presbyterial and synodal constitution. He taught that church and congregation were to be completely identified; that every separate congregation, because subject to no other authority than that of Christ and His word, has the right of independently arranging and administering its own affairs according to the decisions of the majority. Having been cast into prison, but again liberated through the powerful influence of his friends, he retired inA.D.1581 to Holland, and founded a small congregation there at Middleburg in Zealand. When this soon became reduced to a mere handful, he returned to England inA.D.1589, and there renewed his agitation; but afterwards submitted to the hierarchical State church, and died inA.D.1630 in the enjoyment of a rich living. After his apostasy, the jurist Henry Barrow took his place as leader of the Brownists, who still numbered many thousands, and were now called after him Barrowists. Persecuted by the government and harassed by severe measures fromA.D.1594, whole troops of them retreated to the Netherlands, where in several of the principal cities they formed considerable congregations, and issued, inA.D.1598, their first symbolical document, “The Confession of Faith of certain English People exiled.”—The second founder of the party, a more trustworthy leader and more vigorous apologist, was the pastor John Robinson, who, inA.D.1608, with his Norwich congregation settled at Amsterdam, and inA.D.1610 moved to Leyden. He died inA.D.1625. The fundamental points in the constitution under his leadership were these:
Synodal assemblies were allowed merely for the purpose of mutual consultation and advice, and when so restricted were regarded as beneficial. With this end in view aCongregational boardwas appointed to sit in London, which formed a common centre of union. And as in constitution, so also in worship there was a complete breach made with all the traditions and developments of church history. With the exception of Sunday all feast days were abolished. In the assemblies for public worship each individual had the right of free speech for the edification of the congregation. All liturgical formularies and prescribed prayers, even the Lord’s Prayer not excepted, were set aside, as hindering the mission of the Holy Spirit in the congregation.—In order to preserve for their descendants the sacred heritage of their faith, and their native English language and nationality, and in order to save them from the moral dangers to which they were exposed in large cities, but to an equal extent at least inspired by the wish to break new ground for the kingdom of God in the New World, many of their families set out, inA.D.1620, from Holland for North America, and there, as “Pilgrim Fathers,” amid indescribable hardships, established a colony in the wastes of Massachusetts, and laid the foundations of that Congregational denomination which has now grown into so powerful and influential a church.412
§ 143.5.Theological Science.—InA.D.1523, the grand council at Zürich set up the peculiar institution of prophesying (1 Cor. xiv. 29) or biblical conferences. Pastors along with students, as well as certain scholars specially called for the purpose, were required to meet together every morning, with the exception of Sundays and Fridays, in the choir of the cathedral, where, after a short opening prayer, public exegetical expositions of the Old Testament were given in the regular order of books and chapters, with a strict and detailed comparison of the Vulgate, the LXX. and the original text; and then at the close one of the professors stated the results of the conference in a practical discourse for the edification of the congregation. At a later period theological studies flourished at Geneva and Basel, in the French church at the academy of Saumur and the theological seminaries of Montauban, Sedan, and Montpellier.Sebastian Münster, formerly at Heidelberg, afterwards at Basel, issued, inA.D.1523, a complete Hebrew lexicon. The Zürich theologians, Leo Judä and others, inA.D.1524-1529 translated Luther’s Bible into the Swiss dialect, making, however, an independent revision in accordance with the original text. At the instigation of the Waldensians,Robert Olivetanof Geneva (§138, 1) undertook, inA.D.1535, a translation of the Holy Scriptures from the original into the French language; but in so far as the New Testament is concerned he followed almost literally the translation of Faber (§120, 8). In subsequent editions it was in various particulars greatly improved, although even to this day it remains very unsatisfactory.Theodore Bezagave an improved recension of the New Testament text and a new Latin translation of it. Sebastian Münster edited the Old Testament text with an independent Latin translation. AlsoLeo Judäin Zürich undertook a similar work, for which he was well qualified by a competent knowledge of languages.Sebastian Castellioin Geneva endeavoured to make the prophets and apostles speak in classical Latin and in full Ciceronian periods. Most successful was the Latin translation of the Old Testament whichImmanuel Tremelliusat Heidelberg, in connection with his son-in-lawFrancis Junius, produced.John Piscator, dismissed from Heidelberg under the Elector Louis VI. (§144, 1), fromA.D.1584 professor in the academy founded at Herborn during that same year, published a new German translation of the Bible, which was authoritatively introduced into the churches at Bern and in other Reformed communities. Commentators on Holy Scripture were also numerous during this age. BesidesCalvin, who far outstrips them all (§138, 5), the following were distinguished for their exegetical performances: Zwingli, Œcolampadius, Conrad Pellican (§120, 4 footnote), Theodore Beza, Francis Junius, John Piscator, John Mercer, and the Frenchman Marloratus.—As a dogmatistCalvin, again beyond all question occupies the very front rank. In speculative power and thorough mastery of his materials he excels all his contemporaries. Leo Judä’s catechisms, two in German and one in Latin, in which the scholar puts the question and the teacher gives the answer and explanation, continued long in use in the Zürich church. Among the German Reformed theologiansAndrew Hyperiusof Marburg, who died inA.D.1564, takes an honourable place as an exegete by his expositions of the Pauline epistles, as a dogmatist by hisMethodus theologiæ, as a homilist by hisDe formandis concionibus s., and as the first founder of theological encyclopædia by hisDe recte formando theolog. studio.—The pietistic efforts of the English Puritan party found a fit nursery in the University of Cambridge, whereWilliam Whitaker, who died inA.D.1598, the author ofCatechismus s. institutio pietatis, and especiallyWilliam Perkins, who died inA.D.1602, author ofDe casibus conscientiæ, besides many other English works of edification, laboured unweariedly in endeavouring to infuse a pious spirit into the theological studies. Both were also eager and enthusiastic supporters of the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination; but the attempt, through the “Nine Lambeth Articles,” laid before Archbishop Whitgift in his palace inA.D.1598, and accepted and approved by him, to make this doctrine an absolute doctrinal test for the university was frustrated by the decided veto of Queen Elizabeth.—Continuation, § 160, 6.
§ 143.6.Philosophy.—For the formal scientific construction of systematic theology the Aristotelian dialectic, as the heritage bequeathed by the mediæval scholasticism, continued to exercise upon the occupants of the Reformed professorial chairs, as well as in Lutheran seminaries, a dominating influence far down into the seventeenth century. To emancipate philosophy, and with it also in the same degree theology, from these fetters, which hindered every free movement, and inaugurate a simpler scientific method, was an attempt made first of all byPeter Ramus, who fromA.D.1551 was professor of dialectic and rhetoric in Paris, distinguished also as a polyhistor, humanist, and mathematician, and diligent in disseminating his views from the platform and by the press. As he had openly declared himself a Calvinist, he had repeatedly to seek refuge in flight. After a long residence in Switzerland and Germany, where he gained many adherents, who were known by the name of Ramists, he thought that after the Peace of St. Germain (§139, 15), inA.D.1571, he might with safety return to Paris; but there, inA.D.1572, he fell a victim to Romish fanaticism on the night of St. Bartholomew.—Continuation, § 163, 1.
§ 143.7. The Reformed church madeone missionaryattempt inA.D.1557. A French adventurer, Villegagnon, laid before Admiral Coligny a plan for the colonization of the persecuted Huguenots in Brazil. With this proposal there was linked a scheme for conducting a mission among the heathen aborigines. He sailed under Coligny’s patronage inA.D.1555 with a number of Huguenot artisans, and founded Fort Coligny at Rio de Janeiro. At his request Calvin sent him two Geneva pastors inA.D.1557. The intolerable tyranny which Villegagnon exercised over the unprotected colonists, the failure of their efforts among the natives, famine, and want impelled them in the following year to seek again their native shores, which they reached after a most disastrous voyage.All were not able to secure a place in the returning ships, and even of those who started several died of starvation on the way.—Continuation, § 161, 7.413