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Bible Encyclopedias
Protestants
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or is a collective name for all genuine believers in evangelical Christianity — those who protest against the errors and renounce the communion of the Romish Church. It was originally applicable to the followers of Luther, but is now generally applied to all Christians not embraced in the Roman Catholic, Greek, or Oriental churches. (See REFORMATION).
At first those who, in consequence of the religious innovations of Luther and his consorts in Germany and Switzerland, stepped out of the Catholic community were designated by no general name; they were called Lutherans, Zwinglians, Anabaptists, etc., etc. They received their collective name only in 1529 at the second Diet of Spires. The first Diet of Spires had been held in 1526. There it had been resolved, "Let every state of the empire conduct its affairs in such a way as it thinks justifiable before God and the emperor." It was an edict of tolerance, with reservation of the imperial rights. The Roman Catholic party had been compelled to make concessions by the ambiguous attitude of the house of Wittelsbach. As soon, however, as the Bavarian dukes embraced more unequivocally the Catholic cause, and had made a close alliance with the ecclesiastical princes, the emperor Charles V, in order to satisfy the Romanists, resolved upon more energetic measures against the innovators. In the spring of 1527, the Romanists had already formed a secret league at Breslau, yet until the emperor was successful in Italy no overt measures could be thought of. After he had gained a complete victory in Italy, the policy of repression was boldly avowed, and in March, 1529, the second Diet of Spires was convoked for this purpose by the emperor. Ostensibly it was called to secure aid from the German princes against the Turks, and to devise the most effectual means by which to allay the religious disputes. Its real object, however, appeared when Ferdinand, archduke of Austria, and other popish princes, decreed that in the countries which had embraced the new religion it should be lawful to continue in it till the meeting of a council, but that no Roman Catholic should be allowed to turn Lutheran, and that the reformers should deliver nothing in their sermons contrary to the received doctrine of the Church. It was furthermore specially decreed,
(1) that it shall be forbidden nowhere in Germany to say or attend mass;
(2) the preaching of the doctrine of Zwingli about the Eucharist shall be prohibited;
(3) the Anabaptists shall not be tolerated;
(4) libels against religious parties and about religious matters are interdicted.
These articles did not meet the pretensions of Luther's followers. The Lutheran states asserted that in matters of faith a majority of votes was not decisive, and that the resolutions of 1526, unanimously voted, could only be abrogated by a unanimous vote. They, in consequence, protested against the resolutions of the diet, and it was thus that the followers of the Reformation were in derision called Protestants. They declared their readiness to obey the emperor and the diet in all "dutiful and possible matters." but against any order considered by them repugnant to "God and his holy Word, to their soul's salvation, and their good conscience," they appealed to the emperor, to the free council, and to all impartial Christian judges. The essential principles involved in the protest against this decree and in the arguments on which it was grounded were (1) that the Catholic Church cannot be the judge of the Reformed churches, which are no longer in communion with her; (2) that the authority of the Bible is supreme, and above that of councils and bishops; (3) that the Bible is not to be interpreted and used according to tradition, or use, and wont, but to be explained by means of itself, its own language, and connection. As this doctrine — that the Bible, explained independently of all external tradition, is the sole authority in all matters of faith and discipline — is really the foundation-stone of the Reformation, the term Protestant was extended from those who signed the Spires protest to all who embraced the fundamental principle involved in it.
The protesting parties were as follows: John, the elector of Saxony, the landgrave of Hesse, the margrave of Brandenlburg-Bayreuth. a duke of Brunswick Lineburg, a prince of Anhalt, a number of Frankish and Snabian imperial cities — Nuremberg, Ulm, Kempten, Nordlingen, Heilbronn, Reutlingen, Isny, St. Gall, Weissenburg. Windsheim, Strasburg, Constance, Lindau, and Memmingen. The four last named had joined the protest on account of the interdiction of Zwingli's doctrine, which interdiction met with the entire approval of Luther and his zealous followers. The latter also accepted the article against the Anabaptists, and, while Luther approved of the protest, he exhorted at the same time the Protestant powers to destroy the impious Anabaptists with fire and sword, and accept the resolutions of the diet in this respect. Now, the new doctrines being in possession of a name which indicated their common hostile relation to the Roman Church, the schism became less curable, and reconciliation was thenceforth less practicable than ever. (See REFORMATION).
The term Protestant, which thus came to be synonymous with non- Romanist, was applied, first, as a convenient historical term designating collectively all who deny the usurped supremacy of the pope; secondly, as a term of controversy implying (1) a condemnation of alleged Romish errors and superstitions, and sometimes (2) a yet further assertion of certain tenets supposed to be of the essence of Protestantism. This essential principle of Protestantism is the sufficiency and authority of the Scriptures as a religious rule of faith and practice. Those, on the one hand, who deny its sufficiency are not in principle Protestants. The former include not only the Roman Catholics, but all those who maintain the authority of the Church to speak for God, either in adding to the doctrines of the Bible or in giving them a binding and authoritative interpretation; and those, on the other hand, who deny its divine authority are not properly Protestants; and the latter embrace all those who hold that man's unaided reason is the all- sufficient guide and standard in religious faith and practice, and that the Bible is only to be used like other books-as a light, but not as an authority. In 1659 it was stated in Milton's Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Cases: "It is the general consent of all sound Protestant writers that neither traditions, councils, nor canons of any visible Church, much less edicts of any magistrate or civil session, but the Scripture only, can be the final judge or rule in matters of religion, and that only in the conscience of every Christian to himself... With the name of Protestant hath ever been received this doctrine, which prefers the Scripture before the Church, and acknowledges none but the Scripture sole interpreter of itself to the conscience. If by the Protestant doctrine we believe the Scripture — not for the Church's saying, but for its own as the Word of God-then ought we to believe what in our conscience we apprehend the Scripture to say, though the visible Church with all her doctors gainsay ... To interpret the Scripture convincingly to his own conscience none is able but himself, guided by the Holy Spirit; and not so guided, none than he to himself can be a worse deceiver... This is not the doctrine of the Church of England. If the Church have authority in controversies of faith, it is a matter of conscience to submit one's private judgment to that authority. There coexist in the Church of God two authorities mutually corroborative of each other, and, so far as individual interpretation of each, mutually corrective of each other — the inspired Word and the inspired Church; the inspired Word receiving its canonicity, its interpretation, from the inspired Church, and the inspired Church tested in its development by the inspired Word" (Bishop Forbes, on Thirty-nine Ant. p. 95). Of course, since Protestantism recognises the right of private judgment in the interpretation of Scripture, it allows a wide divergence of theological views, and such a divergence actually exists. At the same time, the differences in the belief of the various Protestant sects generally relate to minor points, as of worship, ceremonial, and form of ecclesiastical government, nearly all the great Protestant denominations being substantially agreed respecting the fundamental points of doctrine as taught by the Word of God. Mr. Chillingworth, addressing himself to a writer in favor of the Church of Rome, speaks of the religion of the Protestants in the following excellent terms:
"Know then, sir, that when I say the religion of Protestants is in prudence to be preferred before yours, on the one side, I do not understand by your religion the doctrine of Bellarmine, or Baronius, or any other private man among you, nor the doctrine of the Sorbonne, of the Jesuits, or of the Dominicans, or of any other particular company among you, but that wherein you all agree, or profess to agree, the doctrine of the Council of Trent; so accordingly, on the other side, by the religion of Protestants, I do not understand the doctrine of Luther, or Calvin, or Melancthon, nor the Confession of Augsburg, or Geneva, nor the Catechism of Heidelberg, nor the Articles of the Church of England — no, nor the harmony of Protestant confessions; but that in which they all agree, and which they all subscribe with a greater harmony, as a perfect rule of faith and action — that is, the Bible. The Bible I say the Bible only-is the religion of Protestants. Whatsoever else they believe beside it, and the plain, irrefragable, indubitable consequences of it, well may they hold it as a matter of opinion; but as a matter of faith and religion, neither can they with coherence to their own grounds believe it themselves, nor require belief of it of others, without most high and most schismatical presumption. I, for my part, after a long, and, as I verily believe and hope, impartial, search of the true way to eternal happiness, do profess plainly that I cannot find any rest for the sole of my foot lint upon this rock only. I see plainly, and with my own eyes, that there are popes against popes and councils against councils; some fathers against other fathers, the same fathers against themselves; a consent of fathers of one age against a consent of fathers of another age; traditive interpretations of Scripture are pretended, but there are few or none to be found: no tradition but that of Scripture can derive itself from the fountain, but may be plainly proved either to have been brought in in such an age after Christ, or that in such an age it was not in. In a word, there is no sufficient certainty but of Scripture only for any considering man to build upon. This, therefore, and this only, I have reason to believe. This I will profess; according to this I will live; and for this, if there be occasion, I will not only willingly, but even gladly, lose my life, though I should be sorry that Christians should take it from me. Propose me anything out of this book, and require whether I believe or no, and, seem it never so incomprehensible to human reason, I will subscribe it with hand and heart as knowing no demonstration can be stronger than this God hath said so, therefore it is true. In other things, I will take no man's liberty of judging from him; neither shall any man take mine from me."
The body of Protestants consists, generally speaking, of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway — all Lutheran; the larger half of the population of the Netherlands; about half of the population of Switzerland, including the cantons of Aargau, Zurich, Berne, most of Vaud — all Calvinistic; the English, Irish, and Scottish churches, with their colonial and American daughters; the Scottish Presbyterians; the large bodies of Lutherans, Calvinists, Huguenots, in the other countries of Europe; the English and Irish Nonconformists and their descendants in the United States and the colonies.
Of the chief of these Protestant denominations we give here a brief narrative of the process of their separate formation, referring the reader for fuller information to the separate articles under their respective titles. "The Lutherans took the name and accepted the teachings of Luther, who, while maintaining the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and the authority and sufficiency of the Scriptures, also maintained, in a modified form, the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the communion, and allowed the use of images and pictures in the churches. Zwingli, the Swiss reformer, denied that the Lord's Supper was anything more than a commemorative ordinance. Many of the Reformers in other countries shared his views, and out of the controversy between him and Luther sprang the Reformed churches of Germany and Holland. Meanwhile John Calvin had commenced his labors as the organizer of the Reformation. The product of his literary labor was the Institutes; of his executive labor, the Presbyterian form of government. For both he found, eventually, a free field in Geneva, and his labors there not only gave to the Reformed churches of Switzerland their final character — a character which they bear to this day — but furnished the model of doctrine and government which the Presbyterian churches of Great Britain and the United States have since largely adopted. This, also, is substantially the form of government of the Reformed Church of France. Certain tenets peculiar to this form of theology were repudiated by other leaders among the Reformers. Arminius, in Holland, denied that the Scriptures taught the doctrine of predestination and others connected intimately, if not necessarily, with it. From him sprang the Arminians, who, as a sect, are reduced to an insignificant number, but whose doctrines are accepted in the main by the Methodists, by most of the Episcopalians, and by many in other denominations. The Socinians denied that the doctrines of the Trinity, the atonement, and the proper deity of Jesus Christ were to be found in the Bible. They thus revived the views of the earlier Arians, while at the same time they carried their denials much further.
Their views have found expression in one wing of the Unitarian and Universalist churches of the present day. Their most general acceptance is in New England and in parts of Great Britain; but there are Socinian churches in nearly if not quite all Protestant communities. The Reformation in England was partly religious, partly political. Henry VIII did not intend to modify the doctrine of the Church, but only its government, and its government, only so far as to secure its independence of the papacy. The movement was too deep and popular for him to control; but the loyal and ecclesiastical influence combined to retain the Episcopal form of government and the union of Church and State. Both are still preserved in the Church of England, and the former in the Episcopal Church of this country. Its symbols of doctrine allow equal liberty to Arminians and to Calvinists. The civil and religious controversies which, a few centuries later, plunged England into civil war, gave impetus and organization, though not birth, to the idea of absolute ecclesiastical independence. The result was the organization of churches which were mainly Calvinistic in belief, but in which the absolute right of the people of each Church to manage their own affairs was maintained. In England they took the name of Independents, in the United States that of Congregationalists. As early as the days of Luther, the Reformers were divided on the question of baptism; those who maintained that baptism should be administered only by immersion and to adults took the name of Baptists, which they retain to this day. The 18th century witnessed a general revival of religious spirit, especially in England and the United States, differing from that which characterized the Reformation in that it was less a battle against error in doctrine, and more a simple awakening of Christian zeal to use for the redemption of the masses the truths which the Reformation had brought to light. Out of this awakening grew Methodism, which is substantially Arminian in doctrine and Episcopal in government, and differs from the Episcopal Church, from which it came out, rather in the spirit and character of its adherents than in theology. These churches represent the chief forms of Protestantism. There is also a large number of minor denominations, but most of them are offshoots from these great branches."
The total Protestant population of the world is estimated in 1890 to be more than 120,000,000, a little more than half the Roman Catholic population. It is thus divided:
United States .............................. 3,000,000
British America .......................... 3,000,000
Mexico.................................... 9,000
South America ........................... 70,000
Dutch American possessions............ 35,000
Danish and Swedish possessions .......... 5,000
Hayti...................................... 12,000
Spain ... . .............. .......... 9,000
Portugal ................................. 11,000
France .................................... 2,000,000
Austria ........... ..... ................... 3,400,000
Prussia ................................... 18,249,539
West of Germany proper ................... 11,134,440
Italy .................. .................... 103,000
Switzerland ........... ........... l,667,109
Holland ................................ 2,831,539
Belgium .. ................. 15,0010
Great Britain and Ireland . ................. 24,500,000
Denmark .................................. 2,0S9,000
Sweden and Norway ...................... 6 589,000
Russia ......... ............... 4,000,000
Turkey .......... ........................ 15,000
Greece .................................... 2,000
Asiatic Russia ............................. 45,000
China ..................................... 34,555
Japan .................................... 30,000
East and Farther India ................... 4110,000
Archipelago ............................... 55,000
Pesia ..................................... 1,500
Arabia ................................. 2,000
English African possessions ............. 1,000,00
Algeria .................................... 9,000
Egypt ..................................... 3,500
Liberia ................................... 50,000
Madagascar ............................... 100,000
Australia and Polynesia ..................2,000,00
The population connected with or under the influence of Protestant churches at the close of 1874 was about as follows:
| Divisions | Total Population | |
| America | 33,000,000 | 84,500,000 |
| Europe | 71,800,000 | 301,600,000 |
| Asia | 1,800,000 | 798,000,000 |
| Africa | 1,200,000 | 202,500,000 |
| Australia | 2,200,000 | 4,400,000 |
| Total | 110,000,000 | 1,391,000,000 |
These files are public domain.
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Protestants'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/p/protestants.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
