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 FUNDAMENTAL

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FUNDAMENTAL

the New World. Owing to this natural advantage the island soon became a great centre of wealth and for- eign trade, likewise an important centre for the spread of the Gospel whose missionaries found the islands con- venient as a resting-place going and coming. Funchal was once to the Portuguese what Gibraltar, St. Helena, and Malta now are to the English. Therefore they garrisoned the city, though naturally defended by its rugged cliffs, and built there four impregnable for- tresses. Its churches and monasteries no longer ex- hibit their former architectural splendour, though, as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, the lintels and jambs of the windows in many houses were of massive silver, and the church vessels of solid gold (chalices, pj'xes, monstrances) were thickly studded with pearls, diamonds, and other precious stones. Funchal has long been a favourite resort of invalids, especially those suffering from diseases of the lungs. Its white villas and edifices, embowered in rich tropi- cal vegetation, charm the traveller as he approaches from the sea. The roads and streets are quite steep and the usual means of transportation is by ox-sled. The population of the city is (1909) about 20,000. According to the " Annuaire Pontifical" for 1906, the diocese contains about 150,000 Catholics, w-ith 50 par- ish churches, SO public and two conventual chapels, all ministered to by 93 priests.

Antonio de Sousa, Catalogo dos Bispos da Igreja de Funchal {1721); Gams. Series episcoporum ecclesice CathoHcfE (Ratisbon, 1873), 471; Gerarchia Calfolka (Rome, 190S); Diddle, The Land of the Wine (Philadelphia. 1901); Brow.v, Madeira and the Canary Islands (London, 1901).

F. FlTA.

Fundamental Articles. — This term was employed by Protestant theologians to distinguish the essential parts of the Christian faith from those non-essential doctrines, which, as they believed, individual churches might accept or reject without forfeiting their claim to rank as parts of the Chiuch universal. During the seventeenth century, the view that doctrines might be thus distinguished into two classes was widely current m the various reformed bodies; and several well- known divines endeavoured to determine the principle of the division. In some cases their aim was mainly practical. They hoped in this way to find a dogmatic basis for union between the separated churches. More often, however, the system was used controver- sially to defend the position of the Protestant bodies against the arguments of Catholics.

The first to advance the theory seems to have been George Cassander (1513-66), a Catholic by religion, but apparently little versed in theology. In his work " De officio pii ac publicse tranquillitatis vere amantis viri in hoc religionis dissidio" (1561), he maintained that in the articles of the Apostles' Creed we have the true foundations of the Faith; and that those who accept these doctrines, and have no desire to sever themselves from the rest of Christendom are part of the true Church. He believed that thus it might be possible to find a means of reuniting Catholics, Greeks, and Protestants. But the proposal met with no favour on either side. The Louvain professors, Hesse- lius and Ravestej'n, showed that the theory was irreconcilable with Catholic theology; and Calvin no less vehemently repudiated a system so little hostile to Rome. Among Protestants, however, the view soon reappeared. It seemed to afford them some means of reply to two objections which they were con- stantly called on to meet. When Catholics told them that their total inability to agree amongst themselves was itself a proof that their system was a false one, they could answer that though differing as to non- essentials they were agreeil on fundamentals. And when asked how it could be maintained that the whole Christian world had for centuries been sunk in error, they replied that since these errors had not destroyed the fundamentals of the faith, salvation was possible

even before the gospel of reform had been preached. It is asserted that the first to take up this standpoint was Antonio de Dominis, the apostate Archbishop of Spalatro, who, during the reign of James I, sojourned some years in England. Whether this was so or not, it is certain that from this period the distinction be- comes a recognized feature in English Protestant polemics, while on the other hand Catholic writers are at pains to show its worthlessness. It fills an im- portant place in the controversy between Father Edward Knott, S.J., and the Laudian divine, Christo- pher Potter. At this time, the term fundamentals was understood to signify those doctrines an explicit belief in which is necessary to salvation. Thus, Potter in his "Want of Charity justly charged on all such Romanists as dare affirm that Protestancy destroyeth Salvation" (1633) says: "By Fundamental doctrines we mean such Catholique verities as are to be dis- tinctly believed by every Christian that shall be saved" (p. 211). Knott had no difficulty in showing how hopelessly discrepant were the views of the more eminent Protestants as to what was fundamental. His attack forced his opponents to change their ground. Chillingworth, who replied to him in the notable book, " The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation" (1637), while defining fundamental articles in a manner similar to Potter (op. cit., c. iii, n. 20), neverthelesss conceded that it was impossible to draw up any list of fundamental doctrines. He urged indeed that this mattered little, since the Bible con- stitutes the religion of Protestants, and he who accepts the Bible knows that he has accepted all the essentials of the Faith (op. cit., c. iii, n. ,59). Yet it is plain that if we do not know which doctrines are fundamental, salvation cannot be conditional on the e.xplicit ac- ceptance of these particular truths.

The doctrine of fundamentals was destined to be- come notable not merely in England, but in Germany and France also. In Germany it assumed prominence in connexion with the Syncretist dispute. The founder of the Syncretist school was the eminent Lutheran theologian, George Calixt (1586-1656). A man of wide culture and pacific disposition, he desired to effect a reconciliation between Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists. In a treatise entitled " Desiderium et studium concordioe ecclesiastical" (1650), he argued that the Apostles' Creed, which each of these three religions accepted, contained the fundamental doc- trines of the Christian faith, and that the points on which they were at variance were no insuperable bar to union. These differences, he held, might be com- posed, if it were agreed to accept as revealed truth all that is contained in Scripture, and further all that is taught by the Fathers of the first five centuries. This eirenicon brought down upon him the most vehement attacks from the extreme party of his coreligionists, above all from Calovius, the representative of rigid Lutheranism. The keenest interest was aroused in the question, and on both sides it was warmly debated. The effort, though well meant, proved quite abortive. The most famous by far of the controversies on this subject, however, was that between Bossuet and the Calvinist Jurieu. Jurieu's book, " Le Vray Systeme de I'Eglise" (1686), marks a distinct stage in the de- velopment of Protestant theologj'; while the work in which Bossuet replied to him was one of the most effective attacks ever levelled against Protestantism and its system. " Le Vray Systeme ' ' was an attempt to demonstrate the right of the French Protestants to rank as members of the Church Universal. With this aim Jurieu propounded an entirely novel theory re- garding the Church's essential constitution. Accord- ing to him all sects without exception are members of the Body of Christ. For this nothing is necessary but " to belong to a general confederation, to confess Jesus Christ as Son of God, as Saviour of the world, and as Messias; and to receive the Old and New Testaments