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1. Political Separatism is a breakaway movement either politically or ecclesiastically. In French séparatisme also denotes the separation of church and state. Politically, separatism involves the efforts to detach a state or a federation of states and either to make them independent or to incorporate them into a neighboring state. Germany after World War I saw a movement between 1919 and 1924 for a free Rhenish state. The term “separatism” replaced older ones such as Sonderbündelei (“special clustering,” after Sonderbund, “special federation,” used in the 19th century by R…

1. Term and Prior History The term “reform councils” in the broad sense refers to all councils that dealt with the matter of reform in the church and that made reforming decisions. In the narrow sense it refers to the 15th-century councils of Pisa, Constance, Pavia-Siena, and Basel, which viewed it as their chief aim to reform the church “in head and members.” All through the Middle Ages church reform had been linked to councils and synods. Already in the Merovingian age reforming synods had sought to restore the law of God and the church’s order. In the 11…

In 1910 Pope Pius X (1903–14) required all Roman Catholic priests to take the Antimodernist Oath (Motu proprio Sacrorum antistitum) in rejection of the errors of modernism. It also had to be taken before taking higher order (Consecration) or institution to office. Non-Catholics viewed its introduction as evidence of Roman Catholic backwardness and intolerance. In the long run, the oath could not suppress the problems raised by modernism. In 1967 a new Professio fidei became obligatory, replacing the oath with a general confession of the church’s teaching. Hans SchneiderBibliography…

1. Bible societies are organizations for the distribution of the Bible. The foundations of the Bible society movement may be traced to the Reformation understanding of the Bible as the sole authority in matters of faith and to the concept of the priesthood of all believers. This understanding led to Luther’s translation of the Bible into German and to similar undertakings for other languages. The demand of Pietism for the wider circulation of the Word of God (P. Spener) spurred increased distrib…

1. Term “Council,” as well as the originally synonymous “synod” (from Lat. concilium and Gk. synodos, both meaning “assembly”), refers to gatherings of church representatives for the purpose of discussing matters of faith and order, reaching decisions, and issuing decrees. The Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church use the term “council” mainly for gatherings of bishops. Modern usage, which distinguishes national and provincial synods from ¶ general councils, developed at a later date, with its beginnings in the Middle Ages. The Orthodox Church recognizes only the s…

Since the debate about papal infallibility in the 19th century, the term “Gallicanism” has been used for the theological doctrines and political practice of the state church in France (Church and State). In the late Middle Ages national and ecclesiastical interests (Conciliarism), joining forces in opposition to the universal claims of the papacy and curial centralism, had secured a wide measure of autonomy for the French church. Les libertés de l’Église gallicane (The freedoms of the Gallican church; 1594), compiled by P. Pithou, and the Preuves (Evidences; 1639) of P. Dupuy gai…

The name “Huguenots” for French Protestants at home and abroad derives from the transferring of a local story from Tours concerning Hugh Capet (d. 996) to the Protestants who met by night. It does not derive etymologically from Iguenots (= Eidgenossen, “confederates,” i.e., part of the Swiss Confederation) but is a diminutive of Hugo. It was used by others from about 1555 and adopted by the Protestants, especially emigrants, as a term for themselves after 1685. The rise of the party name marks the transition from the Protestant movement to a church that, under the inf…

“Conciliarism” is the theory that general councils represent the supreme church court, specifically, that they are superior to the pope. Its roots lie in the discussions of medieval canonists (Canon Law), ¶ especially concerning papal immunity and responsibility. The heresy clause in the Decretum Gratiani (ca. 1140) states the principle that the pope can be judged by no one as long as he does not deviate from the faith (40.6). An extension of the concept of heresy included simony and persistence in schism. In the 12th century this line of thought led to a broad discussion of …

[German Version] Founded by Philip of Hesse in 1527 as the first Protestant university in Germany, the University of Marburg (renamed the Philipps-Universität in the 20th cent.) was a product of the Reformation in Hesse; it also met a territorial need and served to consolidate Philip's sovereignty. The establishment of a studium universale, without the customary papal privilege, took place in the context of an educational program promoting Humanism and the Reformation. Imperial approval – and hence recognition of university status – had to wait u…

[German Version] I. The Term The term quietism (from Lat. quies, “rest, quiet, silence”) was originally a polemical term for a particular school of ¶ Catholic mysticism. in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose spirituality was directed toward ataraxia (“tranquility”) as its highest goal. During the conflicts in Italy over its characteristic feature, orazione di quiete (“quiet prayer”), after 1680 the name quietists became attached to its advocates. A little later, probably in the context of the papal condemnation in 1687, the abstract term quietism was coined. II. History Quietism r…

[German Version] (Dec 2, 1628, Amsterdam – 1702, Friedrichstadt), millenarian prophetic preacher. Rothe was born into a patrician merchant family. After university studies and years of travel, during which he came under the influence of L.F. Gifftheil, he appeared in various Dutch cities as an inspired itinerant preacher called by God. In England his proclamation of a “fifth monarchy” (Dan 2:44; Fifth Monarchists) was interpreted as political propaganda for Charles II and prompted his arrest in 16…

[German Version] (Jan 2, 1661, Dobergast, Saxony – Sep 12, 1720, Kassel), radical Pietist itinerant preacher. After dropping out of secondary school, Tenn­hardt, the son of a prosperous farmer, worked as a barber and then after 1688 as a wigmaker in Nuremberg. As a young man, he was already an avid reader of mystical works, an interest that shaped his later religiosity, which involved repeated visions. In 1704, after the death of his wife, in a vision he experienced a call to be God’s “chancery cl…

[German Version] are communities which arose out of radical Pietism and still exist today. As early as around 1690, ecstatic, visionary and prophetic phenomena became manifest in the Pietist movement. After the appearance of ecstatic prophets from the Camisards, who came to Germany via England and the Netherlands, German prophets and prophetesses as well started to appear as “mediums”; in 1714, they sparked an enthusiastic “inspirational awakening,” primarily among the radical Pietists, which was …

[German Version] The Rijnsburg Collegiants were a Dutch religious group of the 17th and 18th centuries. When, after the Synod of Dort, the ministers of the Remonstrants (Arminians) were banned, the church elder Gisbert van der Codde and his brothers (Jan the elder, Arie, and Jan the younger) set up meetings for worship ( collegia) without a minister, in 1619 in Warmond and in 1621 in Rijnsburg, with reading of Scripture, prayer, and open preaching. In the course of the 17th century, these meetings were amplified by further collegia in other towns; the most important, in Rotterdam a…

[German Version] (1598–1659?), itinerant prophet. In 1629 Werner, a peasant from Bockendorf in Saxony, felt called by a vision to spend the next years prophesying and commenting on the “changes in the Holy Roman Empire” coming during the Thirty Years War. He condemned Saxony’s “betrayal” in the 1635 Peace of Prague. After 1636 he marched with the Swedish army; even after the Peace of Westphalia (Westphalia, Peace of), he accompanied military units until his death. He called for war against the Cat…

[German Version] This is a movement within the 17th-18th century mystical Spiritualism. The Philadelphian Society was founded in London between 1670 and 1694 by the visionary J. Leade with other English followers of Jacob Böhme. Applying the seven letters of Revelation to seven periods of church history, they believed that the time of “Philadelphia” (Rev 3:7ff.) was now beginning, with the gathering of the true children of God into the eschatological community. The Phila-¶ delphians kept a “non-party” distance from religious parties (confessions) and their teachings (…

[German Version] (Aug 14, 1666, Gudensberg near Kassel – May 3, 1733, Hersfeld). Mel studied in Rinteln, Bremen and Groningen, and was influenced by covenant theology and the Reformed Pietism of T. Undereyck. In 1690 he became preacher in Mitau (Kurland), 1692 in Memel, 1697 court preacher, and, from 1702, also professor in Königsberg. Here he held conventicles and, influenced by G.W. Leibniz, devised plans for missionary work among the heathen. In 1701 he became a member of the Prussian Akademie …

[German Version] (Jun 12, 1665, Stuttgart – Dec 11, 1728, Schwarzenau), radical Pietist (Pietism). After studying theology (from 1683) and a period as a graduate student (1689–1692) in Tübingen, Gruber pastored in Württemberg (1692–1703, Großbottwar, 1703–1706, Hofen). His heterodox views (Millenarianism/Chiliasm, perfectionism), contacts with the enthusiasts and his impudent attitude toward fellow pastors and members of his congregation provoked conflicts that led in 1706 to his dismissal from th…

[German Version] (often erroneously called Heinrich; Apr 17, 1680, Strasbourg – Mar 12, 1753, Berleburg). While still a theology student in his hometown, Haug was already involved in a fierce controversy concerning Pietist-Philadelphian conventicles. Following his banishment (1705) and a two-year sojourn in Esslingen that also ended with his expulsion ( Zeugnuß der Liebe an die Inwohnere der Stadt Straßburg und Eißlingen [Testimony of love to the inhabitants of the city of Strassburg and Eißlingen] (1708), Haug settled with his father David and his brothe…

[German Version] (Sep 5, 1666, Annaberg, Saxony – May 30, 1714, Perleberg, Altmark), the son of a Latin teacher, studied at Wittenberg from 1685 to 1689; there he came under influence of the polyhistor Conrad Samuel Schurtzfleisch (1641–1708). He turned from orthodox scholastic theology to Pietism under the influence of the writings…