Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/791

 REFORMATION

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REFORMATION

Seton, the king's confessor, came forward as Re- formers. The first two were executed, while the last fled to the Continent. However, the heretical doctrines continued to find fresh adherents. On the death of James V his daughter and heiress was only eight days old. The office of regent fell to James Hamilton, who, though previously of Prot- estant sentiments, returned to the Catholic Church and supported Archbishop Dav-id Beaton in his energetic measures against the innovators. After the execution of the Reformer George Wishart, the Protestants formed a conspiracy against the arch- bishop, attacked him in his castle in 1545, and put him to death. The rebels (among them John Knox), joined by 140 nobles, then fortified them- selves in the castle. Knox went to Geneva in 1546, there embraced Calvinism, and from 1555 was the leader of the Reformation in Scotland, where it won the ascendancy in the form of Calvinism. The political confusion prevailing in Scotland from the death of James V facihtated the introduction of the Reformation.

V. Different Forms of the Reformation. — The fundamental forms of the Reformation were Lutheranism, Z'nanglianism, Calvinism, and Angli- canism. Within each of these branches, however, conflicts arose in consequence of the diverse views of individual representatives. By negotiations, com- promises, and formuliB of union it was sought, usu- ally without lasting success, to establish unity. The whole Reformation, resting on human authority, presented from the beginning, in the face of Catholic unity of faith, an aspect of dreary dissension. Besides these chief branches appeared numerous other forms, which deviated from them in essential points, and gradually gave rise to the countless divisions of Protestantism. The chief of these forms may be here shortly reviewed (for further treatment see the separate articles).

A. The Anabaptists, who appeared in Germany and German Switzerland shortly after the appearance of Luther and Zwiiigli, wished to trace back their conception of the Church to Apostolic times. They denied the validity of the baptism of children, saw in the Blessed Eucharist merely a memorial cere- mony, and wished to restore the Kingdom of God according to their own heretical and mystical views. Though attacked by the other Reformers, they won supporters in many lands. From them also issued the Mennonites, founded by Menno Simonis (d. 1561).

B. The Schwenkfeldians were founded by Kaspar of Schwenkfeld, aulic councillor of Duke Frederick of Liegnitz and canon. At first he associated him- self with Luther, but from 1525 he opposed the latter in his Christology, as well as in his conception of the Eucharist and his doctrine of justification. Attacked by the German reformers, his followers were able to form but a few communities. The Schwenkfeldians still maintain themselves in North America.

C. Sebastian Franck (b. 1499; d. 1542), a pure spiritualist, rejected every external form of ec- clesiastical organization, and favoured a spiritual, invisible Church. He thus abstained from founding a separate community, and sought only to disseminate his ideas.

D. The Socinians and other Anti-Trinitarians. — Some individual members of the early Reformers attacked the fundamental Christian doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, especially the Spaniard Miguel Servede (Servetus), whose writing, "De Trinitatis erroribus", printed in 15.31, was burned by Calvin in Geneva in 1553. The chief founders of Anti- Trinitarianism were Lselius Socinus, teacher of juris- prudence at Siena, and his nephew, Faustus Socinus. Compelled to fly from their home, they maintained

themselves in various parts, and founded special Socinian communities. Faustus disseminated his doctrine especially in Poland and Transylvania.

E. Valentine Wcigel (b. 1533; d. 1588) and Jacob Bohme (d. 1624), a shoemaker from Gorlitz, represented a mystical Pantheism, teaching that the external revelation of God in the Bible could be recognized only through an internal Hght. Both found numerous disciples. Bohme's followers later received the name of Rosen kreuzer, because it was widely supposed that they stood under the direction of a hidden guide named Rosenkreuz.

F. The Pietists in Germany had as their leader Philip Jacob Spener (b. 1635; d. 1705). Pietism was primarily a reaction against the barren Lutheran orthodoxy, and regarded religion mainly a thing of the heart.

G. The Inspiration Commimities originated in Germany during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with various apocalyptic visionaries. They regarded the kingdom of the Iloly Ghost as arrived, and believed in the universal gift of prophecy and in the millenium. Among the founders of such vision- ary societies were Joliann Wilhelni Petersen (d. 1727), superintendent at Ltineberg, and Johann Konrad iSuppel (b. 1734), a physician at Leiden.

H. The Herrnhuter were founded by Count Nicholas of Zinzcndorf (b. 1700; d. 1760). On the Hutberg, as it was called, he established the com- munity of Herrnhut, consisting of Moravian Brethren and Protestants, with a special constitution. Stress was laid on the doctrine of the Redemption, and strict moral disciphne was inculcated. This com- munity of Brethren spread in many lands.

L The Quakers were founded by John George Fox of Drayton in Leicestershire (b. 1624; d. 1691). He favoured a visionary spiritualism, and found in the soul of each man a portion of the Divine intelli- gence. All are allowed to preach, according as the spirit incites them. The moral precepts of this sect were very strict.

J. The Methodists were founded by John Wesley. In 1729 Wesley instituted, with his brother Charles and his friends Morgan and Kirkham, an association at Oxford for the cultivation of the religious and ascetic life, and from this society Methodism de- veloped.

K. The Baptists originated in England in 1608. They maintained that baptism was necessary only for adults, upheld Calvinism in its essentials, and observed the Sabbath on Saturday instead of Sunday.

L. The Svrditiborqians are named after their founder Emmanuel Swcdenborg (d. 1772), son of a Swedish Protestaiil hislm]). Believing in his power to communicate with the spirit-world and that he had Divine revelations, he proceeded on the basis of the latter to found a community with a special liturgy, the "New Jerusalem". He won numerous followers, and his community spread in many lands.

M. The Irvingites are called after their founder, Edward Irving, a native of Scotland and from 1822 preacher in a Presbyterian chajiel in London.

N. The Mormons were founded by Joseph Smith, who made his apjicarance with supposed revelations in 1822.

Besides these best-known secondary branches of the Reformation movement, there are many different denominations; for from the Reformation the evolu- tion of new forms has always proceeded, and must always proceed, inasmuch as subjective arbitrariness was made a principle by the heretical teaching of the sixteenth century.

VI. Results and Consequences of the Ref- ormation. — The Reformation destroyed the unity of faith and ecclesiastical organization of the Chris- tian peoples of Europe, cut many millions off from the true Catholic Church, and robbed them of