PROTESTANTISM 



6364 



PROTESTANTISM 



PROTESTANTISM AND ITS PRINCIPLES 



Rev. P. Carnegie Simpson, D.D., Professor of 

 Church History, Westminster College, Cambridge 



The reader of this article is also referred to that on Christianity 

 and to those on the various branches of Protestantism, e.g. Church 

 of England ; Nonconformity ; Presbyierianism, etc. See also Church ; 

 Reformation ; Roman Catholic Church ; also Knox ; Luther ; and 

 biographies of other reformers 



The term Protestant had a 

 definite historical origin. During 

 the progress of the German Refor- 

 mation a diet was held at Spires in 

 1526. At this diet the reforming 

 party was in the ascendancy the 

 papal party being weak through 

 the absence of the emperor Charles 

 V and his open hostility both to 

 France and to the pope and it 

 was agreed that each German state 

 should be at liberty to settle its 

 own form of religion. The result of 

 this was to protect and establish 

 the Lutheran Church in nearly all 

 North Germany, where the princes 

 favoured the reformed faith. 



This settlement was never ac- 

 cepted by the Roman party or by 

 the emperor ; and the latter, as 

 soon as he had concluded the 

 French war and ceased to be in 

 conflict with the pope, called a 

 second diet at Spires in 1529. On 

 this occasion the Roman party ob- 

 tained a majority. The territorial 

 arrangement, sanctioned by the 

 former diet, was abolished, and in- 

 stead enactments were made which 

 continued the protection and en- 

 dowment of the " old Church " in 

 reformed Germany, while not 

 tolerating Lutheranism in Roman 

 Catholic states. Against these de- 

 crees the minority of the diet 

 princes and representatives of 

 cities lodged a protest. This was 

 not against any of the doctrines of 

 the Roman Church. It was not 

 theological, but legil and ethical. 

 Legally, it protested against a 

 unanimous agreement of one diet 

 being reversed by a majority of 

 another. Ethically, it asserted 

 the principle that, in matters of 

 religion, a majority must not and 

 cannot coerce the individual con- 

 science. This is what, historically 

 and originally, Protestantism is. 

 Protestantism and Roman Catholicism 



The word came rapidly into 

 more general use to describe the 

 system separated from the Roman 

 Church. In this use it had first a 

 positive, and only later a merely 

 negative meaning. When the Re- 

 formed Churches were described or 

 described themselves as Protes- 

 tant, that did not mean merely a 

 denial of Roman errors, but the 

 whole faith characteristic of and 

 held by these Churches. It was in 

 this sense that early Anglican 

 divines used the term ; and thus 

 even Laud disclaims any practices 



" to Popery or any way blemishing 

 the true Protestant religion estab- 

 lished in the Church of England." 



Here the "true Protestant reli- 

 gion " is the full faith without 

 either false Roman accretion or 

 other diminution. In the same 

 sense the word is used in the Eng- 

 lish coronation service, where the 

 sovereign swears to maintain " the 

 laws of God, the true profession of 

 the Gospel and the Protestant Re- 

 formed Religion established by 

 law." But a narrower and nega- 

 tive use of the term inevitably 

 grew up as non-Roman Chris- 

 tianity in the West developed vari- 

 ous sects and sections, some of 

 which had little positive church 

 teaching, and the common feature 

 of which was not their affinr itions 

 but their agreement in denying 

 Romanism. Thus Protestantism 

 gradually lost its original positive 

 and evangelical character and be- 

 came little more than an equiva- 

 lent for the denial of Roman 

 Catholicism. 



Opposing Doctrines 



When we turn from the histori- 

 cal to the theological meaning of 

 the term, it is important to note 

 that beneath all the doctrinal anta- 

 gonism, or divergence, which arose 

 in the 16th century, there was still 

 great fundamental agreement. The 

 Reformers were careful to maintain 

 their allegiance : to the verities of 

 the Catholic creeds, and on the 

 Being of God and the Person of 

 Christ Augsburg and Geneva did 

 not depart from Nicaea. Where 

 Protestantism differed from the 

 Roman Church was on matters sub- 

 ordinate to these primary articles 

 of Christian faith. Into the details 

 of this divergence the opposing 

 doctrines on such matters as sacra- 

 ments, the Church, justification, 

 and so on it is impossible here to 

 enter. It may suffice to indicate 

 the two root principles which are 

 the source of the separation. 



Protestants and Romanists differ 

 as to what is the rule of faith i.e. 

 the standard or authority of Chris- 

 tian truth and practice. Both sides 

 admit the authority of the Chris- 

 tian Scriptures ; but to Protestants 

 this is supreme and sufficient.while 

 to Romanists it may be added to by 

 ecclesiastical tradition, and it is 

 always to be accepted as inter- 

 preted by the Church. The Roman 

 Church, therefore, does not admit 



an appeal to Scripture against 

 authoritative Church doctrine or 

 practice, whereas this is the appeal 

 which is constantly made, or which 

 is professedly made, by the Re- 

 formed Churches. 



Here is the source of a number 

 of the most conspicuous diver- 

 gences between the two systems, in 

 such matters, for example, as the 

 number of the sacraments or the 

 manner of their observance, and in 

 many features of worship and of 

 religious life. It should be added 

 that the Protestant appeal to Scrip- 

 ture as the rule of faith does not 

 and in the early days of the Refor- 

 mation did not imply a rigid or 

 literal view of biblical inspiration 

 and verbal inerrancy ; the appeal 

 was rather to the word, or utter- 

 ance, of God which is in the Bible 

 rather than to the book. But Pro- 

 testantism has often exaggerated 

 the authority of the biblical, as 

 Romanism has that of the eccle- 

 siastical inspiration. 



Justification and the Sacraments 



The other main source of diver- 

 gence between the two systems goes 

 deeper than any differences as to 

 an external standard, and concerns 

 the experience of religion. The 

 Romanist system of religion is 

 characteristically and essentially 

 sacramental and sacerdotal. In it, 

 the sacraments are the sole autho- 

 rised means of saving grace, and 

 they are authorised to be such only 

 when administered by a validly 

 qualified order of priests. Protes- 

 tantism, however, took its rise out 

 of a religious experience which did 

 not depend on this. It found 

 justification and all else that might 

 be contained in salvation through 

 the direct and personal relationship 

 of the soul and Christ, uncondi- 

 tioned by the necessity of sacra- 

 mental and sacerdotal means. This 

 did not imply that Protestantism 

 denied or dispensed with either the 

 sacraments or the ministry ; but it 

 did deny that only through these is 

 the Christian salvation given. Thus 

 the Protestant or as the Reformed 

 Churches would call it, the evange- 

 lical experience of justification by 

 faith led to an entire revision of the 

 view of the relation of the indivi- 

 dual soul to God and His grace, and 

 to what was called " the universal 

 priesthood of believers," which 

 means that God's grace or salva- 

 tion are immediately through faith 

 open and available, not mediating 

 per sacerdotem. 



his wap really the deepest divi- 

 ding line at the Reformation, and it 

 had effects on the whole system of 

 church doctrine and practice. It 

 would be an exaggeration to say 

 that here are two religions, but 

 here are two irreconcilable ways of 



