Church History Part 3

The Reformed scholars of France vied with those of St. Maur and the Oratory, and the Reformed theologians of the Netherlands, England, and Switzerland were not a whit behind. But an attempt made at a general synod at Dort to unite all the Reformed national churches under one confession failed. Opposition to Calvin's extreme theory of predestination introduced a Pelagianizing current into the Reformed church, which was by no means confined to professed Arminians. In the Anglican church this tendency appeared in the forms of lat.i.tudinarianism and deism (-- 164, 3); while in France it took a more moderate course, and approximated rather to the Lutheran doctrine. It was a reaction of latent Zwinglianism against the dominant Calvinism. The Voetian school successfully opposed the introduction of the Cartesian philosophy, and secured supremacy to a scholasticism which held its own alongside of that of the Lutherans. In opposition to it, the Cocceian federal school undertook to produce a purely biblical system of theology in all its departments.

1. _Preliminaries of the Arminian Controversy._-In the _Confess...o...b..lgica_ of A.D. 1562 the Protestant Netherlands had already a strictly Calvinistic symbol, but Calvinism had not thoroughly permeated the church doctrine and const.i.tution. There were more opponents than supporters of the doctrine of predestination, and a Melanchthonian-synergistic (-- 141, 7), or even an Erasmian-semipelagian, (-- 125, 3) doctrine, of the freedom of the will and the efficacy of grace, was more frequently taught and preached than the Augustinian-Calvinistic doctrine. So also Zwingli's view of the relation of church and state was in much greater favour than the Calvinistic Presbyterial church government with its terrorist discipline. But the return of the exiles in A.D. 1572, who had adopted strict Calvinistic views in East Friesland and on the Lower German Rhine, led to the adoption of a purely Calvinistic creed and const.i.tution. The keenest opponent of this movement was Coornhert, notary and secretary for the city of Haarlem, who combated Calvinism in numerous writings, and depreciated doctrine generally in the interests of practical living Christianity. Political as well as religious sympathies were enlisted in favour of this freer ecclesiastical tendency. The Dutch War of Independence was a struggle for religious freedom against Spanish Catholic fanaticism. The young republic therefore became the first home of religious toleration, which was scarcely reconcilable with a strict and exclusive Calvinism.-Meanwhile within the Calvinistic church a controversy arose, which divided its adherents in the Netherlands into two parties. In opposition to the strict Calvinists, who as supralapsarians held that the fall itself was included in the eternal counsels of G.o.d, there arose the milder infralapsarians, who made predestination come in after the fall, which was not predestinated but only foreseen by G.o.d.

2. _The Arminian Controversy._-In A.D. 1588, James Arminius (born A.D.

1560), a pupil of Beza, but a declared adherent of the Ramist philosophy (-- 143, 6), was appointed pastor in Amsterdam, and ordered by the magistrates to controvert Coornhert's universalism and the infralapsarianism of the ministers of Delft. He therefore studied Coornhert's writings, and by them was shaken in his earlier beliefs. This was shown first in certain sermons on pa.s.sages from Romans, which made him suspected of Pelagianism. In A.D. 1603 he was made theological professor of Leyden, where he found a bitter opponent in his supralapsarian colleague, Francis Gomarus. From the cla.s.s-rooms the controversy spread to the pulpits, and even into domestic circles. A public disputation in A.D.

1608, led to no pacific result, and Arminius continued involved in controversies till his death in A.D. 1609. Although decidedly inclined toward universalism, he had directed his polemic mainly against supralapsarianism, as making G.o.d himself the author of sin. But his followers went beyond these limits. When denounced by the Gomarists as Pelagians, they addressed to the provincial parliament of Holland and West Friesland, in A.D. 1610, a remonstrance, which in five articles repudiates supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism, and the doctrines of the irresistibility of grace, and of the impossibility of the elect finally falling away from it, and boldly a.s.serts the universality of grace. They were hence called Remonstrants and their opponents Contraremonstrants.

Parliament, favourably inclined toward the Arminians, p.r.o.nounced the difference non-fundamental, and enjoined peace. When Vorstius, who was practically a Socinian, was appointed successor to Arminius, Gomarus charged the Remonstrants with Socinianism. Their ablest theological representative was Simon Episcopius, who succeeded Gomarus at Leyden in A.D. 1612, supported by the distinguished statesman, Oldenbarneveldt, and the great jurist, humanist, and theologian, Hugo Grotius of Rotterdam.

Maurice of Orange, too, for a long time sided with them, but in A.D. 1617 formally went over to the other party, whose well-knit unity, strict discipline, and rigorous energy commended them to him as the fittest a.s.sociates in his struggle for absolute monarchy. The republican-Arminian party was conquered, Oldenbarneveldt being executed in 1619, Grotius escaping by his wife's strategem. _The Synod of Dort_ was convened for the purpose of settling doctrinal disputes. It held 154 sessions, from Nov.

13th, 1618, to May 9th, 1619. Invitations were accepted by twenty-eight theologians from England, Scotland, Germany, and Switzerland. Brandenburg took no part in it (-- 154, 3), and French theologians were refused permission to go. Episcopius presented a clear and comprehensive apology for the Remonstrants, and bravely defended their cause before the synod.

Refusing to submit to the decisions of the synod, they were at the fifty-seventh session expelled, and then excommunicated and deprived of all ecclesiastical offices. The Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession were unanimously adopted as the creed and manual of orthodox teaching. In the discussion of the five controverted points, the opposition of the Anglican and German delegates prevented any open and manifest insertion of supralapsarian theses, so that the synodal canons set forth only an essentially infralapsarian theory of predestination.-Remonstrant teachers were now expelled from most of the states of the union. Only after Maurice's death in A.D. 1625 did they venture to return, and in A.D. 1630 they were allowed by statute to erect churches and schools in all the states. A theological seminary at Amsterdam, presided over by Episcopius till his death, in A.D. 1643, rose to be a famous seat of learning and nursery of liberal studies. The number of congregations, however, remained small, and their importance in church history consists rather in the development of an independent church life than in the revival of a semipelagian and rationalistic type of doctrine.(28)

3. _Consequences of the Arminian Controversy._-The Dort decrees were not accepted in Brandenburg, Hesse, and Bremen, where a moderate Calvinism continued to prevail. In England and Scotland the Presbyterians enthusiastically approved of the decrees, whereas the Episcopalians repudiated them, and, rus.h.i.+ng to the other extreme of lat.i.tudinarianism, often showed lukewarm indifferentism in the way in which they distinguished articles of faith as essential and non-essential. The worthiest of the lat.i.tudinarians of this age was Chillingworth, who sought an escape from the contentions of theologians in the Catholic church, but soon returned to Protestantism, seeking and finding peace in G.o.d's word alone. Archbishop Tillotson was a famous pulpit orator, and Gilbert Burnet, who died A.D. 1715, was author of a "History of the English Reformation." In the French Reformed church, where generally strict Calvinism prevailed, _Amyrault_ of Saumur, who died A.D. 1664, taught a _universalismus hypotheticus_, according to which G.o.d by a _decretum universale et hypothetic.u.m_ destined all men to salvation through Jesus Christ, even the heathen, on the ground of a _fides implicita_. The only condition is that they believe, and for this all the means are afforded in _gratia resistibilis_, while by a _decretum absolutum et speciale_ only to elect persons is granted the _gratia irresistibilis_. The synods of Alencon, A.D. 1637, and Charenton, A.D. 1644, supported by Blondel, Daille, and Claude, declared these doctrines allowable; but Du Moulin of Sedan, Rivetus and Spanheim of Leyden, Maresius of Groningen, and others, offered violent opposition. Amyrault's colleague, _De la Place_, or _Placaeus_, who died A.D. 1655, went still further, repudiating the unconditional imputation of Adam's sin, and representing original sin simply as an evil which becomes guilt only as our own actual transgression. The synods just named condemned this doctrine. Somewhat later Claude _Pajon_ of Saumur, who died A.D. 1685, roused a bitter discussion about the universality of grace, by maintaining that in conversion divine providence wrought only through the circ.u.mstances of the life, and the Holy Spirit through the word of G.o.d. Several French synods condemned this doctrine, and affirmed an immediate as well as a mediate operation of the Spirit and providence.-Genuine Calvinism was best represented in Switzerland, as finally expressed in the _Formula Consensus_ _Helvetica_ of Heidegger of Zurich, adopted in A.D. 1675 by most of the cantons. It was, like the _Formula Concordiae_, a manual of doctrine rather than a confession. In opposition to Amyrault and De la Place, it set forth a strict theory of predestination and original sin, and maintained with the Buxtorfs, against Cappellus of Saumur, the inspiration of the Hebrew vowel points.

4. _The Cocceian and Cartesian Controversies._-If not the founder, certainly the most distinguished representative in the Netherlands of that scholasticism which sought to expound and defend orthodoxy, was _Voetius_, who died A.D. 1676, from A.D. 1607 pastor in various places, and from A.D.

1634 professor at Utrecht. A completely different course was pursued by _Cocceius_ of Bremen, who died A.D. 1669, professor at Franeker in A.D.

1636, and at Leyden in A.D. 1650. The famous Zurich theologian, Bullinger (-- 138, 7), had in his "_Compend. Rel. Chr._" of A.D. 1556, viewed the whole doctrine of saving truth from the point of view of a covenant of grace between G.o.d and man; and this idea was afterwards carried out by Olevia.n.u.s of Heidelberg (-- 144, 1) in his "_De Substantia Fderis_," of A.D. 1585. This became the favourite method of distribution of doctrine in the whole German Reformed church. In the Dutch church it was regarded as quite un.o.bjectionable. In England it was adopted in the Westminster Confession of A.D. 1648 (-- 155, 1), and in Switzerland in A.D. 1675, in the _Formula Consensus_. Cocceius is therefore not the founder of the federal theology. He simply gave it a new and independent development, and freed it from the trammels of scholastic dogmatics. He distinguished a twofold covenant of G.o.d with man: the _fdus operum s. naturae_ before, and the _fdus gratiae_ after the fall. He then subdivided the covenant of grace into three economies: before the law until Moses; under the law until Christ; and after the law in the Christian church. The history of the kingdom of G.o.d in the Christian era was arranged in seven periods, corresponding to the seven apocalyptic epistles, trumpets, and seals. In his treatment of his theme, he repudiated philosophy, scholasticism, and tradition, and held simply by Scripture. He is thus the founder of a purely biblical theology. He attached himself as closely as possible to the prevailing predestinationist orthodoxy, but only externally. In his view the sacred history in its various epochs adjusted itself to the needs of human personality, and to the growing capacity for appropriating it.

Hence it was not the idea of election, but that of grace, that prevailed in his system. Christ is the centre of all history, spiritual, ecclesiastical, and civil; and so everything in Scripture, history, doctrine, and prophecy, necessarily and immediately stands related to him.

The O.T. prophecies and types point to the Christ that was to come in the flesh, and all history after Christ points to his second coming; and O.

and N.T. give an outline of ecclesiastical and civil history down to the end of time. Thus typology formed the basis of the Cocceian theology. In exegesis, however, Cocceius avoided all arbitrary allegorizing. It was with him an axiom in hermeneutics, _Id significan verba, quod significare possunt in integra oratione, sic ut omnino inter se conveniant_. Yet his typology led him, and still more many of his adherents, into fantastic exegetical errors in the prophetic treatment of the seven apocalyptic periods.

5. A controversy, occasioned by Cocceius' statement, in his commentary on Hebrews in A.D. 1658, that the Sabbath, as enjoined by the O.T. ceremonial law, was no longer binding, was stopped in A.D. 1659 by a State prohibition. Voetius had not taken part in it. But when Cocceius, in A.D.

1665, taught from Romans iii. 25, that believers under the law had not full "?fes??," only a "p??es??," he felt obliged to enter the lists against this "Socinian" heresy. The controversy soon spread to other doctrines of Cocceius and his followers, and soon the whole populace seemed divided into Voetians and Cocceians (-- 162, 5). The one hurled offensive epithets at the other. The Orange political party sought and obtained the favour of the Voetians, as before they had that of the Gomarists; while the liberal republican party coalesced with the Cocceians. Philosophical questions next came to be mixed up in the discussion. The philosophy of the French Catholic _Descartes_ (-- 164, 1), settled in A.D. 1629 in Amsterdam, had gained ground in the Netherlands.

It had indeed no connexion with Christianity or church, and its theological friends wished only to have it recognised as a formal branch of study. But its fundamental principle, that all true knowledge starts from doubt, appeared to the representatives of orthodoxy as threatening the church with serious danger. Even in A.D. 1643 Voetius opposed it, and mainly in consequence of his polemic, the States General, in A.D. 1656, forbad it being taught in the universities. Their common opposition to scholasticism, however, brought Cocceians and Cartesians more closely to one another. Theology now became influenced by Cartesianism. Roell, professor at Franeker and Utrecht, who died A.D. 1718, taught that the divinity of the Scriptures must be proved to the reason, since the _testimonium Spir. s. internum_ is limited to those who already believe, rejected the doctrine of the imputation of original sin, the doctrine that death is for believers the punishment of sin, and the application of the idea of eternal "generation" to the Logos, to whom the predicate of sons.h.i.+p belongs only in regard to the decree of redemption and incarnation. Another zealous Cartesian, Balth. Bekker, not only repudiated the superst.i.tions of the age about witchcraft (-- 117, 4), but also denied the existence of the devil and demons. The Cocceians were in no way responsible for such extravagances, but their opponents sought to make them chargeable for these. The stadtholder, William III., at last issued an order, in A.D. 1694, which checked for a time the violence of the strife.

6. _Theological Literature._-Biblical oriental philology flourished in the Reformed church of this age. _Drusius_ of Franeker, who died A.D. 1616, was the greatest Old Testament exegete of his day. The two _Buxtorfs_ of Basel, the father died A.D. 1629, the son A.D. 1664, the greatest Christian rabbinical scholars, wrote Hebrew and Chaldee grammars, lexicons, and concordances, and maintained the antiquity and even inspiration of the Hebrew vowel points against Cappellus of Saumur.

_Hottinger_ of Zurich, who died A.D. 1667, vied with both in his knowledge of oriental literature and languages, and wrote extensively on biblical philology, and besides found time to write a comprehensive and learned church history. _Cocceius_, too, occupies a respectable place among Hebrew lexicographers. In England, both before and after the Restoration, scholars.h.i.+p was found, not among the controversial Puritans, but among the Episcopal clergy. _Brian Walton_, who died A.D. 1661, aided by the English scholars, issued an edition of the "London Polyglott" in six vols., in A.D. 1657, which, in completeness of material and apparatus, as well as in careful textual criticism, leaves earlier editions far behind. _Edm.

Castellus_ of Cambridge in A.D. 1669 published his celebrated "_Lexicon Heptaglottum_." The Elzevir printing-house at Amsterdam and Leyden, boldly a.s.suming the prerogatives of the whole body of theological scholars, issued a _textus receptus_ of the N.T. in A.D. 1624. The best established exegetical results of earlier times were collected by Pearson in his great compendium, the "_Critici Sacri_," nine vols. fol., London, 1660; and Matthew Pool in his "_Synopsis Criticorum_," five vols. fol., London, 1669. Among the exegetes of this time the brothers, J. Cappellus of Sedan, who died A.D. 1624, and Louis Cappellus II. of Saumur, who died A.D. 1658, were distinguished for their linguistic knowledge and liberal criticism.

_Poc.o.c.ke_ of Oxford and _Lightfoot_ of Cambridge were specially eminent orientalists. _Cocceius_ wrote commentaries on almost all the books of Scripture, and his scholar _Vitringa_ of Franeker, who died A.D. 1716, gained great reputation by his expositions of Isaiah and the Apocalypse.

Among the Arminians the famous statesman _Grotius_, who died A.D. 1645, was the greatest master of grammatico-historical exposition in the century, and ill.u.s.trated Scripture from cla.s.sical literature and philology. The Reformed church too gave brilliant contributions to biblical archaeology and history. _John Selden_ wrote "_De Syndriis Vett.

Heb._," "_De diis Syris_," etc. _Goodwin_ wrote "Moses and Aaron."

_Ussher_ wrote "_Annales V. et N.T._" _Spencer_ wrote "_De Legibus Heb._"

The Frenchman _Bochart_, in his "_Hierozoicon_" and "_Phaleg_," made admirable contributions to the natural history and geography of the Bible.

7. Dogmatic theology was cultivated mainly in the Netherlands.

_Maccovius_, a Pole, who died A.D. 1644, a professor at Franeker, introduced the scholastic method into Reformed dogmatics. The Synod of Dort cleared him of the charge of heresy made against him by Amesius, but condemned his method. Yet it soon came into very general use. Its chief representatives were Maresius of Groningen, Voetius and Mastricht of Utrecht, Hoornbeck of Leyden, and the German Wendelin, rector of Zerbst.

Among the Cocceians the most distinguished were Heida.n.u.s of Leyden, Alting of Groningen, and, above all, Hermann Witsius of Franeker, whose "Economy of the Covenants" is written in a conciliatory spirit. The most distinguished Arminian dogmatist after Episcopius was _Phil. Limborch_ of Amsterdam, who died A.D. 1712, in high repute also as an apologist, exegete, and historian. The greatest dogmatist of the Anglican church was _Pearson_, who died A.D. 1686, author of "An Exposition of the Creed." The Frenchman _Peyrerius_ obtained great notoriety from his statement, founded on Romans v. 12, that Adam was merely the ancestor of the Jews (Gen. ii.

7), while the Gentiles were of pre-Adamite origin (Gen. i. 26), and also by maintaining that the flood had been only partial. He gained release from prison by joining the Catholic church and recanted, but still held by his earlier views.-Ethics, consisting hitherto of little more than an exposition of the decalogue, was raised by _Amyrault_ into an independent science. Amesius dealt with cases of conscience. _Grotius_, in his "_De Veritate Relig. Chr._" and _Abbadie_, French pastor at Berlin, and afterwards in London, who died A.D. 1727, in his "_Verite de la Rel.

Chret._," distinguished themselves as apologists. _Claude_ and _Jurieu_ gained high reputation as controversialists against Catholicism and its persecution of the Huguenots.-The Reformed church also in the interests of polemics pursued historical studies. Hottinger of Zurich, Spanheim of Leyden, Sam. Basnage of Zutpfen, and Jac. Basnage of the Hague, produced general church histories. Among the numerous historical monographs the most important are _Hospinian's_ "_De Templis_," "_De Monachis_," "_De Festis_," "_Hist. Sacramentaria_," "_Historia Jesuitica_"; _Blondel's_ "_Ps.-Isidorus_," "_De la Primaute de l'Egl._," "_Question si une Femme a ete a.s.sisse au Siege Papal_" (-- 82, 6), "_Apologia sent. Hieron. de Presbyt._" Also _Daille_ of Saumur on the non-genuineness of the "Apostolic Const.i.tutions" and the Ps.-Dionysian writings, and his "_De Usu Patrum_" in opposition to Cave's Catholicizing over-estimation of the Fathers. We have also the English scholar _Ussher_, who died A.D. 1656, "_Brit. Ecclesiarum Antiquitates_"; H. Dodwell, who died A.D. 1711, "_Diss. Cyprianicae_," etc.; Wm. Cave, who died A.D. 1713, "Hist. of App.

and Fathers," "_Scriptorum Ecclst. Hist. Literaria_," etc.-Special mention should be made of _Eisenmenger_, professor of oriental languages at Heidelberg. In his "_Entdecktes Judenthum_," two vols. quarto, moved by the over-bearing arrogance of the Jews of his day, he made an immense collection of absurdities and blasphemies of rabbinical theology from Jewish writings. At his own expense he printed 2,000 copies; for these the Jews offered him 12,000 florins, but he demanded 30,000. They now persuaded the court at Venice to confiscate them before a single copy was sold. Eisenmenger died in A.D. 1704, and his heirs vainly sought to have the copies of his work given up to them. Even the appeal of Frederick I.

of Prussia was refused. Only when the king had resolved, in A.D. 1711, at his own expense to publish an edition from one copy that had escaped confiscation, was the Frankfort edition at last given back.

8. _The Apocrypha Controversy (-- 136, 4)._-In A.D. 1520 Carlstadt raised the question of the books found only in the LXX., and answered it in the style of Jerome (-- 59, 1). Luther gave them in his translation as an appendix to the O.T. with the t.i.tle "Apocrypha, _i.e._ Books, not indeed of Holy Scripture, but useful and worthy to be read." Reformed confessions took up the same position. The Belgic Confession agreed indeed that these books should be read in church, and proof pa.s.sages taken from them, in so far as they were in accord with the canonical Scriptures. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer gives readings from these books. On the other hand, although at the Synod of Dort the proposal to remove at least the apocryphal books of Ezra or Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Bel and the Dragon, was indeed rejected, it was ordered that in future all apocryphal books should be printed in smaller type than the canonical books, should be separately paged, with a special t.i.tle, and with a preface and marginal notes where necessary. Their exclusion from all editions of the Bible was first insisted on by English and Scotch Puritans. This example was followed by the French, but not by the German, Swiss, and Dutch Reformed churches.-Continuation, -- 182, 4.

-- 162. The Religious Life.(29)

The religious life in the Reformed church is characterized generally by harsh legalism, rigorous renunciation of the world, and a thorough earnestness, coupled with decision and energy of will, which nothing in the world can break or bend. It is the spirit of Calvin which impresses on it this character, and determines its doctrine. Only where Calvin's influence was less potent, _e.g._ in the Lutheranized German Reformed, the catholicized Anglican Episcopal Church, and among the Cocceians, is this tendency less apparent or altogether wanting. On the other hand, often carried to the utmost extreme, it appears among the English Puritans (---- 143, 3; 155, 1) and the French Huguenots (-- 153, 4), where it was fostered by persecution and oppression.

1. _England and Scotland._-During the period of the English Revolution (-- 155, 1, 2), after the overthrow of Episcopacy, Puritanism became dominant; and the incongruous and contradictory elements already existing within it a.s.sumed exaggerated proportions (-- 143, 3, 4), until at last the opposing parties broke out into violent contentions with one another. The ideal of Scottish and English _Presbyterianism_ was the setting up of the kingdom of Christ as a theocracy, in which church and state were blended after the O.T. pattern. Hence all the inst.i.tutions of church and state were to be founded on Scripture models, while all later developments were set aside as deteriorations from that standard. The ecclesiastical side of this ideal was to be realized by the establishment of a spiritual aristocracy represented in presbyteries and synods, which, ruling the presbyteries through the synods, and the congregations through the presbyteries, regarded itself as called and under obligation to inspect and supervise all the details of the private as well as public life of church members, and all this too by Divine right. Regarding their system as alone having divine inst.i.tution, Presbyterians could not recognise any other religious or ecclesiastical party, and must demand uniformity, not only in regard to doctrine and creed, but also in regard to const.i.tution, discipline, and wors.h.i.+p.(30)-On the other hand, _Independent Congregationalism_, inasmuch as it made prominent the N.T. ideas of the priesthood of all believers and spiritual freedom, demanded unlimited liberty to each separate congregation, and unconditional equality for all individual church members. It thus rejected the theocratic ideal of Presbyterianism, strove after a purely democratic const.i.tution, and recognised toleration of all religious views as a fundamental principle of Christianity. Every attempt to secure uniformity and stability of forms of wors.h.i.+p was regarded as a repressing of the Spirit of G.o.d operating in the church, and so alongside of the public services private conventicles abounded, in which believers sought to promote mutual edification. But soon amid the upheavals of this agitated period a fanatical spirit spread among the various sects of the Independents. The persecutions under Elizabeth and the Stuarts had awakened a longing for the return of the Lord, and the irresistible advance of Cromwell's army, composed mostly of Independents, made it appear as if the millennium was close at hand. Thus chiliasm came to be a fundamental principle of Independency, and soon too prophecy made its appearance to interpret and prepare the way for that which was coming.

From the _Believers_ of the old Dutch times we now come to the _Saints_ of the early Cromwell period. These regarded themselves as called, in consequence of their being inspired by G.o.d's Spirit, to form the "kingdom of the saints" on earth promised in the last days, and hence also, from Daniel ii. and vii., they were called Fifth Monarchy Men. The so called Short Parliament of A.D. 1653, in which these Saints were in a majority, had already laid the first stones of this structure by introducing civil marriage, with the strict enforcement, however, of Matthew v. 32, as well as by the abolition of all rights of patronage and all sorts of ecclesiastical taxes, when Cromwell dissolved it. The Saints had not and would not have any fixed, formulated theological system. They had, however, a most lively interest in doctrine, and produced a great diversity of Scripture expositions and dogmatic views, so that their deadly foes, the Presbyterians, could hurl against them old and new heretical designations by the hundred. The fundamental doctrine of predestination, common to all Puritans, was, even with them, for the most part, a presupposition of all theological speculation.

2. At the same time with the _Saints_ there appeared among the Independents the _Levellers_, political and social revolutionists, rather than an ecclesiastical and religious sect. They were unjustly charged with claiming an equal distribution of goods. Over against the absolutist theories of the Stuarts, all the Independents maintained that the king, like all other civil magistrates, is answerable at all times and in all circ.u.mstances to the people, to whom all sovereignty originally and inalienably belongs. This principle was taken by the Levellers as the starting-point of their reforms. As their first regulative principle in reconstructing the commonwealth and determining the position of the church therein they did not take the theocratic const.i.tution of the O.T., as the Presbyterians did, nor the biblical revelation of the N.T., as the moderate Independents did, nor even the modern professed prophecy of the "Saints," but the law of nature as the basis of all revelation, and already grounded in creation, with the sovereignty of the people as its ultimate foundation. While the rest of the Independents held by the idea of a Christian state, and only claimed that all Christian denominations, with the exception of the Catholics (-- 153, 6), should enjoy all political rights, the Levellers demanded complete separation of church and state.

This therefore implied, on the one hand, the non-religiousness of the state, and, on the other, again with the exception of Catholics, the absolute freedom, independence, and equality of all religious parties, even non-Christian sects and atheists. Yet all the while the Levellers themselves were earnestly and warmly attached to Christian truth as held by the other Independents.-Roger Williams (-- 163, 3), a Baptist minister, in A.D. 1631 transplanted the first seeds of Levellerism from England to North America, and by his writings helped again to spread those views in England. When he returned home in A.D. 1651 he found the sect already flouris.h.i.+ng. The ablest leader of the English Levellers was John Lilburn.

In A.D. 1638, when scarcely twenty years old, he was flogged and sentenced to imprisonment for life, because he had printed Puritan writings in Holland and had them circulated in England. Released on the outbreak of the Revolution, he joined the Parliamentary army, was taken prisoner by the Royalists and sentenced to death, but escaped by flight. He was again imprisoned for writing libels on the House of Lords. Set free by the Rump Parliament, he became colonel in Cromwell's army, but was banished the country when it was found that the spread of radicalism endangered discipline. Till the dissolution of the Short Parliament his followers were in thorough sympathy with the Saints. Afterwards their ways went more and more apart; the Saints drifted into Quakerism (-- 163, 4), while the Levellers degenerated into deism (-- 164, 3).

3. Out of the religious commotion prevailing in England before, during, and after the Revolution there sprang up a voluminous _devotional literature_, intended to give guidance and directions for holy living. Its influence was felt in foreign lands, especially in the Reformed churches of the continent, and even German Lutheran Pietism was not unaffected by it (-- 159, 3). That this movement was not confined to the Puritans, among whom it had its origin, is seen from the fact that during the seventeenth century many such treatises were issued from the University Press of Cambridge. _Lewis Bayly_, Bishop of Bangor A.D. 1616-1632, wrote one of the most popular books of this kind, "The Practice of Piety," which was in A.D. 1635 in its thirty-second and in A.D. 1741 in its fifty-first edition, and was also widely circulated in Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, and Polish translations.-Out of the vast number of important personages of the Revolution period we name the following three: (1) In _John Milton_, the highly gifted poet as well as eloquent and powerful politician, born A.D. 1608, died A.D. 1674, we find, on the basis of a liberal cla.s.sical training received in youth, all the motive powers of Independency, from the original Puritan zeal for the faith and Reformation to the politico-social radicalism of the Levellers, combined in full and vigorous operation. From Italy, the beloved land of cla.s.sical science and artistic culture, he was called back to England in A.D. 1640 at the first outburst of freedom-loving enthusiasm (-- 155, 1), and made the thunder of his controversial treatises ring over the battlefield of parties. He fought against the narrowness of Presbyterian control of conscience not less energetically than against the hierarchism of the Episcopal church; vindicates the permissibility of divorce (in view, no doubt, of his own first unhappy marriage); advanced in his "_Areopagitica_" of A.D. 1644 a plea for the unrestricted liberty of the press; pulverized in his "_Iconoclastes_" of A.D. 1649 the ????? as??????, ascribed to Charles I.; in several tracts, "_Defensio pro Populo Anglicano_" etc., justified the execution of the king against Salmasius's "_Defensio Regia pro Carolo I._"; and, even after he had in A.D. 1652 become incurably blind, he continued unweariedly his polemics till silenced by the Restoration. The "_Iconoclastes_" and "_Defensio_" were burned by the hangman, but he himself was left unmolested. He now devoted himself to poetry. "Paradise Lost" appeared in A.D. 1665, and "Paradise Regained" in A.D. 1671. To this period, when he had probably turned his back on all existing religious parties, belongs the composition of his "_De doctrina Christiana_," a first attempt at a purely biblical theology, Arian in its Christology and Arminian in its soteriology.(31)-(2) _Richard Baxter_, born A.D. 1615, died A.D. 1691, was quite a different sort of man, and showed throughout a decidedly ironical tendency. At once attracted and repelled by the Independent movement in Cromwell's army, he joined the force in A.D. 1645 as military chaplain, hoping to moderate, if not to check, their extravagances. A severe illness obliged him to withdraw in A.D. 1647.

After his recovery he returned to his former post as a.s.sistant-minister at Kidderminster in Worcesters.h.i.+re, and there remained till driven out by the Act of Uniformity of A.D. 1662 (-- 155, 3). Those fourteen years formed the period of his most successful labours. He then composed most of his numerous devotional works, three of which, "The Saint's Everlasting Rest,"

"The Reformed Pastor," "A Call to the Unconverted," are still widely read in the original and in translations. At first he hoped much from the Restoration; but when, on conscientious grounds, he refused a bishopric, he met only with persecution, ill treatment, and imprisonment. Through William's Act of Toleration of A.D. 1689, he was allowed to pa.s.s the last year of his life in London. On the doctrine of predestination he took the moderate position of Amyrault (-- 161, 3). His ideal church const.i.tution was a blending of Presbyterianism and Episcopacy, by restoring the original episcopal const.i.tution of the second century, when even the smaller churches had each its own bishop with a presbytery by his side.(32)-(3) _John Bunyan_, born A.D. 1628, died A.D. 1688, was in his youth a tinker or brazier, and as such seems to have led a rough, wild life. On the outbreak of the Civil War in A.D. 1642, he was drafted into the Parliamentary army.(33) At the close of the war he married a poor girl from a Puritan family, whose only marriage portion consisted in two Puritan books of devotion. It was now that the birthday of a new spiritual life began to dawn in him. He joined the Baptist Independents, the most zealous of the Saints of that time, was baptized by them in A.D. 1655, and travelled the country as a preacher, attracting thousands around him everywhere by his glorious eloquence. In A.D. 1660 he was thrown into prison, from which he was released by the Indulgence of A.D. 1672 (-- 155, 3). He now settled in Bedford, and from this time till his death, amid persecution and oppression, continued his itinerant preaching with ever-increasing zeal and success. "The Pilgrim's Progress" was written by him in prison. It is an allegory of the freshest and most lively form, worthy to rank alongside the "Imitation of Christ" (-- 114, 7). In it the fanatical endeavour of the Saints to rear a millennial kingdom on earth is transfigured into a struggle overcoming all hindrances to secure an entrance into the heavenly Zion above. It has pa.s.sed through numberless editions, and has been translated into almost all known languages.(34)

4. _The Netherlands._-From England the Reformed Pietism was transplanted to the Netherlands, where _William Teellinck_ may be regarded as its founder. After finis.h.i.+ng his legal studies he resided for a while in England, where he made the acquaintance of the Puritans and their writings, and was deeply impressed with their earnest and pious family life. He then went to Leyden to study theology, and in A.D. 1606 began a ministry that soon bore fruit. He was specially blessed at Middelburg in Zealand, where he died A.D. 1629. His writings, larger and smaller, more than a hundred in number, in which a peculiar sweetness of mystical love for the Redeemer is combined with stern Calvinistic views, after the style of St. Bernard, were circulated widely in numerous editions, eagerly read in many lands, and for fully a century exerted a powerful influence throughout the whole Reformed church. Teellinck in no particular departed from the prevailing orthodoxy, but unwittingly toned down its harshness in his tracts, and with the gentleness characteristic of him counselled brotherly forbearance amid the bitterness of the Arminian controversy. In spite of much hostility, which his best efforts could not prevent, many university theologians stood by his side as warm admirers of his writings.

It will not be wondered at that among these was the pious Amesius of Franeker (-- 161, 7), the scholar of the able Perkins (-- 143, 5); but it is more surprising to find here the powerful champion of scholastic orthodoxy, Voetius of Utrecht, and his vigorous partisan, Hoornbeeck of Leyden. _Voetius_ especially, who even in his preacademic career as a pastor had pursued a peculiarly exemplary and G.o.dly life, styled Teellinck the Reformed Thomas a Kempis, and owned his deep indebtedness to his devout writings. He opened his academic course in A.D. 1634 with an introductory discourse, "_De Pietate c.u.m Scientia conjungenda_," and year after year gave lectures on ascetical theology, out of which grew his treatise published in A.D. 1664, "_?? ?s??t??? s. Exercita Pietatis in usum Juventutis Acad._," which is a complete exposition of evangelical practical divinity in a thoroughly scholastic form.

5. During the controversy in the Dutch Reformed Church between _Voetians and Cocceians_, beginning in A.D. 1658, the former favoured the pietistic movement. In the German Pietist controversy the Cocceians were with the Pietists in their biblical orthodoxy joined with confessional indifferentism, but with the orthodox in their liberality and breadth on matters of life and conduct. The earnest, practical piety of the Voetians, again, made them sympathise with the Lutheran Pietists, and their zeal for pure doctrine and the Church confession brought them into relation with the orthodox Lutherans. As discord between the theologians arose over the obligation of the Sabbath law, so the difference among the people arose out of the question of Sabbath observance. The Voetians maintained that the decalogue prohibition of any form of work on Sabbath was still fully binding, while the Cocceians, on the ground of Mark ii. 27, Galatians iv.

9, Colossians ii. 16, etc., denied its continued obligation, their wives often, to the annoyance of the Voetians, sitting in the windows after Divine service with their knitting or sewing. But the opposition did not stop there; it spread into all departments of life. The Voetians set great value upon fasting and private meditation, avoided all public games and plays, dressed plainly, and observed a simple, pious mode of life; their pastors wore a clerical costume, etc. The Cocceians, again, fell in with the customs of the time, mingled freely in the mirth and pastimes of the people, went to public festivals and entertainments, their women dressed in elegant, stylish attire, their pastors were not bound by hard and fast symbols, but had full Scripture freedom, etc.-Continuation, -- 169, 2.

6. _France, Germany, and Switzerland._-The Reformed church of _France_ has gained imperishable renown as a martyr-church. Fanatical excesses, however, appeared among the prophets of the Cevennes (-- 153, 4), the fruits of which continued down into the eighteenth century, and appeared now and again in England, Holland, and Germany (-- 160, 2, 7).-In _Germany_ the Reformed church, standing side by side with the numerically far larger Lutheran church, had much of the sternness and severity that characterized the Romanic-Calvinistic party in doctrine, wors.h.i.+p, and life greatly modified; but where the Reformed element was predominant, as in the Lower Rhine, it was correspondingly affected by a contrary influence. The Reformed church in Germany in its service of praise kept to the psalms of Marot and Lobwa.s.ser (-- 143, 2). Maurice of Hesse published Lobwa.s.ser's in A.D. 1612, accompanied by some new bright melodies, for the use of the churches in the land. Lutheran hymns, however, gradually found their way into the Reformed church, which also produced two gifted poets of its own.

_Louisa Henrietta_, Princess of Orange, wife of the great elector, and Paul Gerhardt's sovereign, wrote "Jesus my Redeemer lives"; and _Joachim Neander_, pastor in Bremen, wrote, "Thou most Highest! Guardian of mankind," "To heaven and earth and sea and air," "Here behold me, as I cast me."-In German _Switzerland_ the n.o.ble _Breitinger_ of Zurich, who died A.D. 1645, the greatest successor of Zwingli and Bullinger, wrought successfully during a forty years' ministry, and did much to revive and quicken the church life. That the spirit of Calvin and Beza still breathed in the church of Geneva is proved by the reception given there to such men as Andrea (-- 160, 1), Labadie (-- 163, 7), and Spener (-- 159, 3).

7. _Foreign Missions._-From two sides the Reformed church had outlets for its Christian love in the work of foreign missions; on the one side by the cession of the Portuguese East Indian colonies to the Netherlands in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and on the other side by the continuous formation of English colonies in North America throughout the whole century. In regard to missionary effort, the Dutch government followed in the footsteps of her Portuguese predecessors. She insisted that all natives, before getting a situation, should be baptized and have signed the Belgic Confession, and many who fulfilled these conditions remained as they had been before. But the English Puritans settled in America showed a zeal for the conversion of the Indians more worthy of the Protestant name. John Eliot, who is rightly styled the apostle of the Indians, devoted himself with unwearied and self-denying love for half a century to this task. He translated the Bible into their language, and founded seventeen Indian stations, of which during his lifetime ten were destroyed in a b.l.o.o.d.y war. Eliot's work was taken up by the Mayhew family, who for five generations wrought among the Indians. The last of the n.o.ble band, Zacharias Mayhew, died on the mission field in A.D. 1803, in his 87th year.(35)-Continuation, -- 172, 5.

V. Anti- and Extra-Ecclesiastical Parties.

-- 163. Sects and Fanatics.

Socinianism during the first decades of the century made extraordinary progress in Poland, but then collapsed under the persecution of the Jesuits. Related to the continental Anabaptists were the English Baptists, who rejected infant baptism; while the Quakers, who adopted the old fanatical theory of an inner light, set baptism and the Lord's supper entirely aside. In the sect of the Labadists we find a blending of Catholic quietist mysticism and Calvinistic Augustinianism. Besides those regular sects, there were various individual enthusiasts and separatists.

These were most rife in the Netherlands, where the free civil const.i.tution afforded a place of refuge for all exiles on account of their faith. Here only was the press free enough to serve as a thoroughgoing propaganda of mysticism and theosophy. Finally the Russian sects, hitherto little studied, call for special attention.

1. _The Socinians (-- 148, 4)._-The most important of the Socinian congregations in _Poland_, for the most part small and composed almost exclusively of the n.o.bility, was that at Racau in the Sendomir Palatinate.

Founded in 1569, this city, since 1600 under James Sieninski, son of the founder, recognised Socinianism as the established religion; and an academy was formed there which soon occupied a distinguished position, and gave such reputation to the place that it could be spoken of as "the Sarmatian Athens." But the congregation at Lublin, next in importance to that of Racau, was destroyed as early as 1627 by the mob under fanatical excitement caused by the Jesuits. The same disaster befell Racau itself eleven years later. A couple of idle schoolboys had thrown stones at a wooden crucifix standing before the city gate, and had been for this severely punished by their parents, and turned out of school. The Catholics, however, made a complaint before the senate, where the Jesuits secured a sentence that the school should be destroyed, the church taken from "the Arians," the printing press closed, but the ministers and teachers outlawed and branded with infamy. And the Jesuits did not rest until the Reichstag at Warsaw in 1658 issued decrees of banishment against "all Arians," and forbad the profession of "Arianism" under pain of death.-The Davidist non-adoration party of _Transylvanian_ Unitarians (-- 148, 3) was finally overcome, and the endeavours after conformity with the Polish Socinians prevailed at the Diet of Deesch in 1638, where all Unitarian communities engaged to offer wors.h.i.+p to Christ, and to accept the baptismal formula of Matthew xxviii. 19. And under the standard of this so called _Complanatio Deesiana_ 106 Unitarian congregations, with a members.h.i.+p of 60,000 souls, exist in Transylvania to this day.-In _Germany_ Socinianism had, even in the beginning of the century, a secret nursery in the University of Altdorf, belonging to the territory of the imperial city of Nuremberg. Soner, professor of medicine, had been won over to this creed by Socinians residing at Leyden, where he had studied in 1597, 1598, and now used his official position at Altdorf for, not only instilling his Unitarian doctrines by means of private philosophical conversations into the minds of his numerous students, who flocked to him from Poland, Transylvania, and Hungary, but also for securing the adhesion of several German students. Only after his death in 1612 did the Nuremberg council come to know about this propaganda. A strict investigation was then made, all Poles were expelled, and all the Socinian writings that could be discovered were burned.-The later Polish Exultants sought and found refuge in Germany, especially in Silesia, Prussia, and Brandenburg, as well as in the Reformed Palatinate, and also founded some small Unitarian congregations, which, however, after maintaining for a while a miserable existence, gradually pa.s.sed out of view. They had greater success and spread more widely in the _Netherlands_, till the states-general of 1653, in consequence of repeated synodal protests, and on the ground of an opinion given by the University of Leyden, issued a strict edict against the Unitarians, who now gradually pa.s.sed over to the ranks of the Remonstrants (-- 161, 2) and the Collegiants. Also in _England_, since the time of Henry VIII., ant.i.trinitarian confessors and martyrs were to be found. Even in 1611, under James I., three of them had been consigned to the flames. The Polish Socinians took occasion from this to send the king a Racovian Catechism; but in 1614 it was, by order of parliament, burned by the hands of the hangman. The Socinians were also excluded from the benefit of the Act of Toleration of 1689, which was granted to all other dissenters (-- 155, 3). The progress of deism, however, among the upper cla.s.ses (---- 164, 3; 171, 1) did much to prevent the extreme penal laws being carried into execution.-The following are the most distinguished among the numerous learned theologians of the Augustan age of Socinian scholars.h.i.+p, who contributed to the extending, establis.h.i.+ng, and vindicating of the system of their church by exegetical, dogmatic, and polemical writings: John Crell, died 1631; Jonas Schlichting, died 1661; Von Wolzogen, died 1661; and Andr. Wissowatius, a grandson of Faustus Socinus, died 1678; and with these must also be ranked the historian of Polish Socinianism, Stanislaus Lubienicki, died 1675, whose "_Hist. Reformat. Polonicae_," etc., was published at Amsterdam in 1685.

2. _The Baptists of the Continent._-(1) _The Dutch Baptists_ (-- 147, 2).

Even during Menno's lifetime the Mennonites had split into the _Coa.r.s.e_ and the _Fine_. The _Coa.r.s.e_, who had abandoned much of the primitive severity of the sect, and were by far the most numerous, were again divided during the Arminian controversy into Remonstrants and Predestinationists. The former, from their leader, were called Galenists, and from having a lamb as the symbol of their Church, Lambists. The latter were called Apostoolers from their leader, and Sunists because their churches had the figure of the sun as a symbol. The Lambists, who acknowledged no confession of faith, were most numerous. In A.D. 1800, however, a union of the two parties was effected, the Sunists adopting the doctrinal position of the Lambists.-During the time when Arminian pastors were banished from the Netherlands, three brothers Van der Kodde founded a sect of _Collegiants_, which repudiated the clerical office, a.s.signed preaching and dispensation of sacraments to laymen, and baptized only adults by immersion. Their place of baptism was Rhynsburg on the Rhine, and hence they were called Rhynsburgers. Their other name was given them from their a.s.semblies, which they styled _collegia_.-(2) _The Moravian Baptists_ (-- 147, 3). The Thirty Years' War ruined the flouris.h.i.+ng Baptist congregations in Moravia, and the reaction against all non-Catholics that followed the battle of the White Mountain near Prague, in A.D. 1620, told sorely against them. In A.D. 1622 a decree for their banishment was issued, and these quiet, inoffensive men were again homeless fugitives.

Remnants of them fled into Hungary and Transylvania, only to meet new persecutions there. A letter of protection from Leopold I., A.D. 1659, secured them the right of settling in three counties around Pressburg. But soon these rigorous persecutions broke out afresh; they were beset by Jesuits seeking to convert them, and when this failed they were driven out or annihilated. At last, by A.D. 1757-1762, they were completely broken up, and most of them had joined the Roman Catholic church. A few families preserved their faith by flight into South Russia, where they settled in Wirschenka. When the Toleration Edict of Joseph II., of A.D. 1781, secured religious freedom to Protestants in Austria, several returned again to the faith of their fathers, in the hope that the toleration would be extended to them; but they were bitterly disappointed. They now betook themselves to Russia, and together with their brethren already there, settled in the Crimea, where they still const.i.tute the colony of Hutersthal.

3. _The English Baptists._-The notion that infant baptism is objectionable also found favour among the English Independents. Owing to the slight importance attached to the sacraments generally, and more particularly to baptism, in the Reformed church, especially among the Independents, the supporters of the practice of the church in regard to baptism to a large extent occupied common ground with its opponents. The separation took place only after the rise of the fanatical prophetic sects (-- 161, 1). We must, however, distinguish from the continental Anabaptists the English Baptists, who enjoyed the benefit of the Toleration Act of William III., of A.D. 1689, along with the other dissenters, by maintaining their Independent-Congregationalist const.i.tution (-- 155, 3). In A.D. 1691, over the Arminian question, they split up into Particular and General, or Regular and Free Will, Baptists. The former, by far the more numerous, held by the Calvinistic doctrine of _gratia particularis_, while the latter rejected it. The Seventh-Day Baptists, who observed the seventh instead of the first day of the week, were founded by Bampfield in A.D.

1665.(36)-From England the Baptists spread to North America, in A.D. 1630, where Roger Williams (-- 162, 2), one of their first leaders, founded the little state of Rhode Island, and organized it on thoroughly Baptist-Independent principles.(37)-Continuation, -- 170, 6.

4. _The Quakers._-_George Fox_, born A.D. 1624, died A.D. 1691, was son of a poor Presbyterian weaver in Drayton, Leicesters.h.i.+re. After scant schooling he went to learn shoemaking at Nottingham, but in A.D. 1643 abandoned the trade. Hara.s.sed by spiritual conflicts, he wandered about seeking peace for his soul. Upon hearing an Independent preach on 2 Peter i. 19, he was moved loudly to contradict the preacher. "What we have to do with," he said, "is not the word, but the Spirit by which those men of G.o.d spake and wrote." He was seized as a disturber of public wors.h.i.+p, but was soon after released. In A.D. 1649 he travelled the country preaching and teaching, addressing every man as "thou," raising his hat to none, greeting none, attracting thousands by his preaching, often imprisoned, flogged, tortured, hunted like a wild beast. The core of his preaching was, not Scripture, but the Spirit, not Christ without but Christ within, not outward wors.h.i.+p, not churches, "steeple-houses," and bells, not doctrines and sacraments, but only the inner light, which is kindled by G.o.d in the conscience of every man, renewed and quickened by the Spirit of Christ, which suddenly lays hold upon it. The number of his followers increased from day to day. In A.D. 1652 he found, along with his friends, a kindly shelter in the house of Thomas Fell, of Smarthmore near Preston, and in his wife Margaret a motherly counsellor, who devoted her whole life to the cause. They called themselves "The Society of Friends." The name Quaker was given as a term of reproach by a violent judge, whom Fox bad "quake before the word of G.o.d." After the overthrow of the hopes of the Saints through the dissolution of the Short Parliament and Cromwell's apostasy (-- 155, 2), many of them joined the Quakers, and led them into revolutionary and fanatical excesses. Confined hitherto to the northern counties, they now spread in London and Bristol, and over all the south of England. In January, A.D. 1655, they held a fortnight's general meeting at Swannington, in Leicesters.h.i.+re. Crowds of apostles went over into Ireland, to North America and the West Indies, to Holland, Germany, France, and Italy, and even to Constantinople. They did not meet with great success.

In Italy they encountered the Inquisition, and in North America the severest penal laws were pa.s.sed against them. In A.D. 1656 James Naylor, one of their most famous leaders, celebrated at Bristol the second coming of Christ "in the Spirit," by enacting the scene of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But the king of the new Israel was scourged, branded on the forehead with the letter B as a blasphemer, had his tongue pierced with a redhot iron, and was then cast into prison. Many absurd extravagances of this kind, which drew down upon them frequent persecutions, as well as the failure of their foreign missionary enterprises, brought most of the Quakers to adopt more sober views. The great mother Quakeress, Margaret Fell, exercised a powerful influence in this direction. George Fox, too, out of whose hands the movement had for a long time gone, now lent his aid. Naylor himself, in A.D. 1659, issued a recantation, addressed "to all the people of the Lord," in which he made the confession, "My judgment was turned away, and I was a captive under the power of darkness."

5. The movement of Quakerism in the direction of sobriety and common sense was carried out to its fullest extent during the Stuart Restoration, A.D.