The Seventeenth Century and the Westminster Assembly

2019 ◽  
pp. 28-49
Author(s):  
Chad van Dixhoorn
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
High Point ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Church Polity ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Westminster Assembly

The seventeenth century marked a high point in the Presbyterian experiment. A variety of models were tested internationally, and apologists for its polity offered a rigorous defense against Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Erastians. The Westminster Assembly offered Presbyterians the first opportunity since the Reformation to model a fully Reformed church in England, and the gathering looked closely not only at the teachings of Scripture on ecclesial governance, but also at historical and contemporary models of connectional, nonhierarchical government to guide their formulations on church polity. The century also saw some of the worst persecution of Presbyterians, especially in France and Scotland, but also in England and central Europe. During their seasons of suffering, some Presbyterians found subtle ways to articulate their polity or identify essential elements of Presbyterianism. Others fought or fled hostile authorities, supplying a legacy of martyr narratives and missionary impulses for later Presbyterians.

The High Point (II): Jewish Society (1650–1713)

1997 ◽  
pp. 119-150
Author(s):  
Jonathan Israel
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Jewish Population ◽  
The Political ◽  
High Point ◽  
The Third ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
Czech Lands

This chapter addresses how the climax of the European debate over Jewish readmission came during the third quarter of the seventeenth century. For a quarter of a century, conferences, commissions, and petitions published and unpublished over whether or not to tolerate Jews, and if so on what terms, abounded from Poland to Portugal and from Hungary to Ireland. Why did the political and intellectual process of readmission culminate at this particular time? Several factors converged to intensify previous trends but what was the most crucial was the widespread backlash in Germany, following the evacuation of the Swedish, French, and other foreign garrisons at the end of the Thirty Years War. The substantial gains made by the Jews of central Europe during the conflict, of Austria and the Czech lands as well as Germany, had aroused intense opposition and controversy, so that the coming of peace was almost bound to be accompanied by a formidable reaction. The chapter then considers the Jewish population and Jewish economy during this period.

The emergence of schism in seventeenth-century Scotland

1972 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 277-294
Author(s):  
Gordon Donaldson
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Lord's Supper ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Common ◽  
Official Recognition

It is perhaps debatable whether the Reformation itself had involved schism, or at any rate whether those who took part in it thought that it did. It is true that in 1555, on the insistence of John Knox when he was in Scotland on a visit from Geneva, some of the reforming party were prevailed on to give up attending ‘that idol’, the mass, and that before he left Scotland Knox administered the Lord’s Supper after the reformed model. It is true, too, that from this time or shortly thereafter Protestants began to gather together for worship, hardly in secret – for the government’s policy was not repressive – but at least without official recognition. These ‘privy kirks’, which existed before there was ‘the face of a public kirk’ and had their preachers, elders and deacons, were parallel to the congregations which English exiles were organising on the continent in the same years, and parallel, too, to the much more secret congregations which then existed in London. In the ‘First Bond’ of December 1557 a few notables renounced ‘the congregation of Satan’ and pledged themselves to work for the erection of a reformed Church, but, as they followed this with a supplication that the ‘common prayers’ should be read every Sunday in all parishes, it is evident that the aim was to reform the whole Church, not to separate from it.

scholarly journals Central European Connections of Six Manuscript Organ Tablature Books of the Reformation Era from the Region of Zips (Szepes, Spiš)

2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Hulková
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Church Music ◽  
Central European ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Music Collection

Tablature notations that developed in the sixteenth century in the field of secular European instrumental music had an impact also on the dissemination of purely vocal and vocal-instrumental church music. In this function, the so-called new German organ tablature notation (also known as Ammerbach’s notation) became the most prominent, enabling organists to produce intabulations from the vocal and vocal-instrumental parts of sacred compositions. On the choir of the Lutheran church in Levoča, as parts of the Leutschau/Lőcse/Levoča Music Collection, six tablature books written in Ammerbach’s notation have been preserved. They are associated with Johann Plotz, Ján Šimbracký, and Samuel Marckfelner, local organists active in Zips during the seventeenth century. The tablature books contain a repertoire which shows that the scribes had a good knowledge of contemporaneous Protestant church music performed in Central Europe, as well as works by Renaissance masters active in Catholic environment during the second half of the sixteenth century. The books contain intabulations of the works by local seventeenth-century musicians, as well as several pieces by Jacob Regnart, Matthäus von Löwenstern, Fabianus Ripanus, etc. The tablatures are often the only usable source for the reconstruction of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century polyphonic compositions transmitted incompletely.

Die Bedeutung der Reformation Luthers für die kirchenrechtliche Entwicklung in den Niederlanden

2016 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 381-405
Author(s):  
Herman J. Selderhuis
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Church Members ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Church Polity ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Church Law ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

Abstract The Impact of Luther’s Reformation on the development of Church Law in the Netherlands. This essay describes how essential the specific history of the reformation in the Netherlands was for the developments of reformed church law in that country. The Dutch reformation was relatively late and was more Calvinistic than Lutheran. Calvin’s model of structuring the church, the essential effect of the refugee situation of many reformed believers and the fact that the revolt as well as the reformation were movements mainly ,from below‘, result in a church polity with the following characteristics: self-government of each individual congregation, active involvement of all church members, independence towards political authorities and a presbyterial-synodical church organisation. This church model was reached through a series of synodical meetings that started in the 1560ies and came to a conclusion at the Synod of Dordt in 1618/1619.

Die Bedeutung der Reformation Luthers für die kirchenrechtliche Entwicklung in den Niederlanden

2016 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman J. Selderhuis
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Church Members ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Church Polity ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Church Law ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

AbstractThe Impact of Luther’s Reformation on the development of Church Law in the Netherlands. This essay describes how essential the specific history of the reformation in the Netherlands was for the developments of reformed church law in that country. The Dutch reformation was relatively late and was more Calvinistic than Lutheran. Calvin’s model of structuring the church, the essential effect of the refugee situation of many reformed believers and the fact that the revolt as well as the reformation were movements mainly ,from below‘, result in a church polity with the following characteristics: self-government of each individual congregation, active involvement of all church members, independence towards political authorities and a presbyterial-synodical church organisation. This church model was reached through a series of synodical meetings that started in the 1560ies and came to a conclusion at the Synod of Dordt in 1618/1619.

Early Modern Pietism

2015 ◽  
pp. 401-435
Author(s):  
Jonathan Strom ◽  
Hartmut Lehmann
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Biblical Authority ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Renewal Movement

Pietism became the most important Protestant renewal movement in central Europe after the Reformation. This essay surveys the origins and theological consequences of the movement in the context of the crises of the seventeenth century and the rise of the Enlightenment. Pietists concerned themselves primarily with reform of the Christian life rather than doctrine, but Pietism presented new challenges for ecclesiology, Biblical authority, eschatology, regeneration, and the conception of theology. The various streams of Pietism remained heterogeneous and could differ significantly on issues such as millenarianism, prophecy, and ecclesiology. Where early Pietists could be innovative and progressive, later Pietists reacted strongly against the rise of rationalism and the Enlightenment, increasingly emphasizing Biblicism and allying themselves with conservative tendencies.

Women and Consistorial Discipline: The Case of Courthézon in the Early Seventeenth Century

2019 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 316-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith P. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sexual Relations ◽  
Female Agency ◽  
Minority Community ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Women's Experience ◽  
Nuanced Understanding

This study seeks to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of both the Reformed church consistory and women's experience of the Reformation by examining the interactions between the Reformed church consistory and women in the small French town of Courthézon. For the period from 1617 to 1631, it analyzes how the consistory treated women in its exercise of discipline and how women in turn treated the consistory. It examines in-depth a number of cases of women summoned by the consistory for various offenses, including quarreling, dancing, marital and sexual relations, and absence from services. The interactions were complex and suggest that both male patriarchy and female agency were at work. Yet the consistory also treated the two sexes similarly in certain instances. Women demonstrated a remarkable capacity to ignore, negotiate with, and on occasion defy the consistory. One extraordinary woman rejected the consistory's authority altogether when pressed to reconcile. The cases also indicate that the process of consistorial discipline aided women by providing opportunities for them to represent and act for themselves. The consistory was guided by a desire to keep its minority community intact: it showed remarkable patience, forbearance, and a willingness to compromise in its efforts, and it consequently was usually successful.

James I and the Huguenot Synod of Tonneins of 1614

1972 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Brown Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Classical Scholar ◽  
James I ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Ecumenical Council ◽  
King James I ◽  
James I Of England

That King James I of England was ardently interested in religious ideas is well-known to students of the seventeenth century. Less well-known is the fact that he was specifically interested in the cause of religious reunion and played a leading part in a movement to find a way to reconcile the different national churches of his day and thus significantly to reduce international tensions. His plans did not exclude the possibility of a rapprochement between the Churches of the Reformation and Rome — even though James's own religious and political writings involved him in a series of bitter exchanges with leading Roman Catholic controversialists. From the beginning of his reign in England James had wanted to approach the problem of religious disunity through an international assembly of divines — or an ecumenical council, and he took care to make his intentions clear through diplomatic channels. During the years 1610–1614 he made use of the celebrated classical scholar Isaac Casaubon, then resident in England, in stimulating support for his ideas, especially in learned circles on the continent. Casaubon's death in England in the summer of 1614 deprived James of a zealous ally in the cause of Christian reunion, but it did not bring the campaign to which they had committed themselves to an end. By this time James was involved in the most ambitious reunion plan of his career, the result of his collaboration with Pierre Du Moulin, pastor of the Reformed Church in Paris and one of the leading theologians in France

The Shock of Change: Continuity and Discontinuity in the Elizabethan Church Of England

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (35) ◽  
pp. 429-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eamon Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
English Reformation ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Church ◽  
Continuity And Discontinuity

This paper questions accounts of the English Reformation which, in line with sometimes unacknowledged Anglo-Catholic assumptions, present it as a mere clean-up operation, the creation of a reformed Catholicism which removed medieval excesses but left an essentially Catholic Church of England intact. It argues instead that the Elizabethan reformers intended to establish a Reformed Church which would be part of a Protestant international Church, emphatic in disowning its medieval inheritance and rejecting the religion of Catholic Europe, with formularies, preaching and styles of worship designed to signal and embody that rejection. But Anglican self-identity was never simply or unequivocally Protestant. Lay and clerical conservatives resisted the removal of the remains of the old religion, and vestiges of the Catholic past were embedded like flies in amber in the Prayer Book liturgy, in church buildings, and in the attitudes and memories of many of its Elizabethan personnel. By the early seventeenth century influential figures in the Church of England were seeking to distance themselves from European Protestantism, and instead to portray the Church of England as a conscious via media between Rome and Geneva. In the hands of the Laudians and their followers, this newer interpretation of the Reformation was to prove potent in reshaping the Church of England's self-understanding.

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