Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

PROTESTANT

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 472 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

PROTESTANT , the generic name for an adherent of those Churches which See also:

base their teaching on the principles of the See also:Reformation (q.v.). The name is derived from the formal Protestatio handed in by the evangelical states of the See also:empire, including some of the more important princes and 14 imperial cities, against the See also:recess of the See also:diet of See also:Spires (1529), which decreed that the religious status quo was to be preserved, that no innovations were to be introduced in those states which had not hither-to made them, and that the See also:mass was everywhere to be tolerated, The name Protestant seems to have been first applied to the protesting princes by their opponents, and it soon came to be used indiscriminately of all the adherents of the reformed See also:religion. Its use appears to have spread more rapidly outside See also:Germany than in Germany itself, one cause of its popularity being that it was negative and colourless, and could thus be applied by adherents of the " old religion " to those of the " new religion," without giving offence, on occasions when it was expedient to avoid abusive See also:language. The designation was moreover grateful to the Reformers as connoting a certain boldness of attitude; and See also:Professor Kattenbusch (See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklop¢See also:die, 3rd ed., xvi. p. 136, 15) points out with See also:great truth hpw, from this point of view, the name " Protestantism " has survived as embodying for many the conception of See also:liberty, of the right of private See also:judgment, of See also:toleration for every progressive See also:idea in religion, as opposed to the See also:Roman See also:Catholic principles of authority and tradition; so that many even of those who do not " profess and See also:call themselves Christians " yet See also:glory in the name of " Protestant." As the designation of a See also:Church, " Protestant " was unknown during the Reformation See also:period and for a See also:long while after. In Germany the Reformers called themselves usually evengelici, and avoided See also:special designations for their communities, which they conceived only as See also:part of the true Catholic Church; " Calvinists," " See also:Lutherans," " Zwinglians " were, in the See also:main, terms of abuse intended to See also:stamp them as followers of one o: other heretical See also:leader, like Arians or See also:Hussites. It was not until the period of the See also:Thirty Years' See also:War that the two main See also:schools of the reformed or evangelical Churches marked their definitive separation: the Calvinists describing themselves as the " Re-formed Church," the Lutherans as the " Lutheran Church." In See also:France, in See also:England, in See also:Holland the evangelicals continued to describe their churches as ecclesiae ref ormatae, without the arriere pensee which in Germany had confined the designation " Reformed " to the followers of a particular church See also:order and See also:doctrine. As to the word " Protestant," it was never applied to the Church of England or to any other, See also:save unofficially and in the wide sense above indicated, until the See also:style "Protestant Episcopal Church " (see below) was assumed by the See also:Anglican communion in the See also:United States. Even in the See also:Bill of Rights the phrase " Protestant religion " occurs, but not " Protestant Church," and it was reserved for the Liberal See also:government, in the See also:original draft (afterwards changed) of the See also:Accession See also:Declaration Bill introduced in 191o, to suggest " Protestant Reformed Church of England " as a new See also:title for the Established Church. The style " Protestant " had, however, during the 19th See also:century assumed a variety of new shades of meaning which necessarily made its particular application a somewhat hazardous proceeding. In Germany it had, for a while, been assumed by the Lutherans as against the Calvinists, and when in 1817 See also:King See also:Frederick See also:William III. of See also:Prussia forcibly amalgamated the Lutheran and Reformed Churches in the new " Evangelical Church " its public use was forbidden in the Prussian dominions. It survived, however, in spite of royal decrees, but in an altered sense.

It became—to quote Professor Kattenbusch—the " See also:

secular " designation of the adherents of the Reformation, the See also:shibboleth of the " liberal " ecclesiastical and theological tendencies. Finally, in opposition to the ultramontane See also:movement in the Roman Catholic Church, it came once more into See also:fashion in something of its original sense among the evangelicals. In the Church of England, on the other See also:hand, the name " Protestant " has, under the See also:influence of the High Church reaction, been repudiated by an increasingly large number ofthe See also:clergy and laity, and is even sometimes used by them in a derogatory sense as applied to their See also:fellow churchmen who still uphold in their integrity the principles of the Reformation. Among the latter, on the other hand, " Protestantism " is used as exclusive of a See also:good many of the doctrines and practices which in the Lutheran Church were at one See also:time ".Protestant " as opposed to " Reformed," e.g. the doctrine of the real Presence, auricular See also:confession, the use of ceremonial See also:lights and See also:vestments. By many churchmen, too, the name of " Protestant " is accepted in what they take to be the old sense as implying repudiation of the claims of See also:Rome, but as not necessarily involving a denial of " Catholic " doctrine or any confusion of the Church of England with non-episcopal churches at See also:home or abroad. In contradistinction to all these somewhat refined meanings, the See also:term " Protestant " is in See also:common parlance applied to all Christians who do not belong to the Roman Catholic Church, or to one or other of the See also:ancient Churches of the See also:East.

End of Article: PROTESTANT

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
PROTESILAUS 		[next]
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL

Site © 2006 - Net Industries