History of Christianity Commons^™

The Religious Peace Of Augsburg, Theodore Hoyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the Religious Peace of Augsburg, an event regarded so highly and of such importance in the history of the Lutheran Reformation that the 100th, 200th, and 300th anniversaries were celebrated throughout the Lutheran Church in the respective years. Our fathers have regarded it as a special intervention of God to save the Reformation from total collapse. In an article sketching the history of this Diet of Augsburg one of the early leaders of the Missouri Synod. F. C. D. Wyneken, calls the adoption of this peace treaty "the end of the Reformation, when, …

Factors In Lutheran Unity, E. George Pearce

Concordia Theological Monthly

Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem in the fourth century, advised his people that when they attended a divine service in a strange city, they ought not merely to enquire for the church or for the lord's house, because Marcionists and Manicheans and all manner of sects professed to be the Church and called their meeting places the House of the Lord; but they ought to ask: Where is the Catholic Church? The name "Catholic," used in all the early creeds and in the writings of the Fathers, came into use first to distinguish the universal Christian Church from the national Jewish …

Luther On War And Revolution, H. R. Klann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Secular authority, according to Luther, is in a sense the extension of patriarchal authority to the community. As such it is part of the present order of creation, by which Luther meant the conditions of human activity and existence in history. However, its constitutional form, like all other political settlements within the frame of Moral Law, was for him a matter of human expediency. For his part, Luther was content to accept the political settlement of his time.

German Society At The Close Of The Middle Ages And Its Effects On The Reformation, Walter Rosin

Bachelor of Divinity

The purpose of this thesis will be to discuss the social conditions prevalent at the close of the Middle Ages which are involved in the German Reformation, the role which they played in bringing it about, and also to trace the effects which the social factor had in assuring the success of the Reformation.

The Significance Of Luther's Hermeneutics For The Protestant Reformation, Raymond P. Surburg

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Protestant Reformation, called by Roman Catholics the Protestant Revolt, is generally conceded to have been one of the most significant movements in the last two thousand years of world history. Historians who have treated the Reformation have interpreted it from at least four distinct points of view: the religious-political, the rationalist, the liberal-romantic, and the economic-evolutionary. A current scholar, Rosenstock-Huessy, lists the Protestant Reformation as the first of four political revolutions occurring between 1517 and 1918.

The Rise And Fall Of The Schmalkaldic League: The Treaty Of Passau, 1552, Theo. Hoyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

There are several reasons that suggest the truce of Passau as a subject for special consideration at the present time. One is, of course, the date. Since 1883 we have followed up the great outstanding events in Reformation history by church-wide celebrations, beginning with Luther's birth and ending, in 1946, with Luther's death. But several events following Luther's death were to be of immense importance to the Lutheran Church; one of them is the Schmalkaldic War, ending in the truce of Passau, 1552, and the Religious Peace of Augsburg. 1555. - Another reason: We have seen a veritable flood of …

The Russian Eastern Church And Protestantism, Herbert Haljabold

Concordia Theological Monthly

The contacts between the Lutheran and the Eastern Church reach back to Luther. Benz points out that the Symbolical Books in several instances support their demand for a reformation of doctrine and cultus by an appeal to the authorities of the Greek Church during the first five centuries. He shows that during the dispute at Leipzig, Luther appealed to the Greek Church to corroborate his thesis that the supremacy of the Papacy was not recognized in the Old Church, but was developed after the age of Constantine and in opposition to the Eastern Church.

Martin Luther The Formative Years, Erwin A. Gerken

Bachelor of Divinity

As one thinks of this great Reformer, this man of God, theologian, Bible translator, catechist, hymnist, bold champion of the freedom of the conscience, founder of the Lutheran Church, leader of the Reformation which carried Christendom back to the Bible - one hesitates to attempt to write a thesis on his formative years. Yet it is so arresting and inspiring, that in joy, yet with all humility, I shall attempt in the following pages to describe this man and trace his development in thought and life which led to the posting of the Ninety-five Theses on October 31, 1517.

The Origin And Early Development Of Puritanism, V Ralph Weinhold

Bachelor of Divinity

Much has been written of the history of English Puritanism. This brief examination of the subject purposes no new contribution. It seeks merely to draw together the main events of that phase of English history and to discuss some of the issues involved.

The first problem is one of definition. One scholar has suggested that Puritanism has as many definitions as it has students, with a like distribution of trustworthiness. Therefore, before attempting to define it ourselves we do well to consider the definitions offered by recognized scholars of the movement.

The Lotthers: Forgotten Printers Of The Reformation, W. G. Tillmanns

Concordia Theological Monthly

The name Lotther is so similar to that of our Reformer that it must arouse the curiosity of the reader when he finds this name recorded in Luther's correspondence. Yet most Luther biographies do not even mention this name, and those that do pass it over lightly. Thus the family which has rendered outstanding service to the cause of the Reformation is today all but forgotten.

A Short History Of The Lutheran Church In Great Britain, E. George Pearce

Concordia Theological Monthly

“Lutheran” is a word that many English people find hard to pronounce because it is so seldom used in this country. In few countries of Western Europe is the Lutheran Church as little known as it is in Great Britain. When recently an inquiry was made at the B. B. C. in London regarding the possibility of a Lutheran religious broadcast, the surprising reply was given: "It is the policy of the B. B. C. to broadcast only the services of those churches which are in the mainstream of the Christian tradition." How strange that the largest of all Protestant …

The Defensor Pacis Of Marsilius Of Padua And Its Relation To The Reformation, August Bernthal

Bachelor of Divinity

Any event in history that is linked in either a small or large way to the Reformation demands investigation. In examining the causes and the background of the Protestant uprising in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; historians usually make mention of the Defensor Pacis written by Marsilius of Padua in 1624. Some make much of it. Others ignore it. Yet the Defensor Pacis, directed as it is against Pope John XXII, remains the most daring and the most independent ecclesiastic-politica1 work of the entire medieval period. Whether this document in any way influences the Reformation this thesis will endeavor to …

The Origin And History Of Indulgences Up To The Time Of The German Reformation With Emphasis On Luther's Attitude Toward Them, Orval M. Oswald

Bachelor of Divinity

This thesis is being written with the hope of giving a clear and accurate account of the origin and development of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Indulgence up to the time of the German Reformation, with particular emphasis on the effect it had on the people and Luther’s reasons for opposing it. Entire volumes have been written on the history of indulgences alone, and countless pages on their relationship to Luther' and the Reformation. It is an impossibility to consider all the material written on this subject in a thesis of this sort, but the author feels that he …

Augustana Ii: Of Original Sin, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The very position of the article on original sin in the Augsburg Confession indicates the importance that the doctrine of original sin had for the consciousness of the Reformation. "We turn from God to man; here the peculiarity of the Lutheran Confession confronts us: we cannot speak of God without thinking also of ourselves. God and our ‘I’ belong intimately together." "Over against life as it should be there is life as it ought not to be." And so when the Augsburg Confession speaks of man, it speaks of sin, or better, of sinners, for it speaks personally and concretely …

Luther's Endorsement Of The "Confessio Bohemica.", Jaroslav Pelikan Jr.

Concordia Theological Monthly

As a result of the research that has been carried on in the past half century on the theology of the Reformation. we are now in an advantageous position for a historical and theological evaluation of the faith of the Reformers. What began as purely historical investigation has become instead a recovery of Reformation insights that had been lost in the intervening centuries. For this reason contemporary theological scholarship has been compelled to buttress its systematic presentations with historical material and to make its historical study relevant by drawing theological conclusions from it.

William Of Orange And The Counter Reformation, Robert R. Moehring

Bachelor of Divinity

The Lutheran Reformation Spreads over Europe is mixed with political personnel ambition and results in the Roman Counter Reformation. These two movements demanded a choice of allegiance by individual; and, in the Netherlands, the two outstanding champions are William and Philip.

Religious Conditions In England, E. George Pearce

Concordia Theological Monthly

Ever since the days of the Reformation the group of islands lying off the northwest coast of the European continent have been a stronghold of the Protestant faith and a city of refuge for suppressed minorities from every part of Europe. True, there were days when the fanatical views of Queen Mary or the despotism of the Stuart kings reversed the process and · drove thousands of nonconformist Englishmen into exile in Holland and America. Generally speaking, however, once the half-hearted politico-religious reformation of Henry VIII was over and the Protestant faith had imbedded itself in British hearts during the …

Luther's Attitude Toward John Hus, Jaroslav Pelikan Jr.

Concordia Theological Monthly

The history of the development of Protestantism in Eastern Europe is an area of church history to which comparatively little attention has been devoted. Because Protestantism is now relatively weak in the lands east of the Iron Curtain, many students of church history are inclined to forget that at one time the churches of the Reformation had millions of adherents in these lands which are now dominated by Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Soviet Communism.

The Reformation Of Cranmer With Special Reference To Its Doctrine And The Influence Upon It, George S. Robbert

Bachelor of Divinity

At the time of Cranmer's youth end early schooling England was Catholic. At the time of his death, it was Protestant. How did this change take place and what were the motivating forces in this change? The opportunity for the break from Rome was given when Henry VIII sought a divorce from Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Bolyen. Cranmer's part in the proceedings of the divorce brought him into the public eye and to a large extent made possible the Reformation of Cranmer. After the break with Rome Cranmer, who was easily influenced by his companions, maintained …

History As A Weapon In Controversy, W. Spitz

Concordia Theological Monthly

Eduard Fueter, ascribing the development of modern historiography to the Lutheran Reformation and more particularly to the purposes of polemics, declares that Protestant church history was created solely for the needs of confessional polemics. Ancient church history was to furnish the proof that Protestantism, in contrast to Catholicism, had preserved the original purity of Christianity. Medieval church history was to expose the terrible darkness to which the rule of the Antichrist had led.

The Relations Between The English And The Scottish Reformations, Carl Napier Jr

Bachelor of Divinity

The purpose of the writer's original investigation was to find out what influences and connections existed between the two Reformations. The purpose of this study is to show that before Henry VIII English efforts at union were almost wholly political. At least there is no mention of religious-political parties. War and conciliation were the diplomatic weapons. After Henry's break with the Pope by the Act of Supremacy in 1534 and to 1707 when the final union of the crowns took place political and religious relations became closely entwined. Henry and his successors, particularly Elizabeth, used religion in fostering the political …

The First Ninety Years Of Lutheranism In Slovakia, Milan A. Ontko

Bachelor of Divinity

The First Ninety Years of Lutheranism in Slovakia

The Hussites And Their Work Of Reformation In Slovakia, Daniel Michael Estok

Bachelor of Divinity

In the middle of the fourteenth century central Europe was ripe for a reformation movement. a re-formation of the Church of the day. In consequence of the shameful debasement of the papacy and the deep corruption of the clergy and monks, the influence of the Church upon the moral and religious culture of the people, in spite of the ardent zeal of the homilists and catechists, was upon the whole much less than formerly. Reverence for the Church as it stood was indeed tottering, but was not yet completely overthrown.

The Slavonic Luther, Andrew Wantula

Concordia Theological Monthly

Where the largest and mightiest Polish River, the Vistula, rises, lies a small country known as Cieszyn Silesia (Teschen Silesia). After the last World War two Slavonic sister nations, Poland and Czechoslovakia, shared this land between them. To a large extent the river Olza formed a natural boundary between these two nations, and the old capital, the city of Cieszyn, was divided between them. From 1290 until 1653 this country was an independent dukedom. The rulers were the Dukes of Sieszyn of the Royal House of the Piasts. After the death of the last duchess of Sieszyn, Elizabeth Lucretia, who …

Erasmus And The German Reformation, Roland H. Seboldt

Bachelor of Divinity

To understand the attitude of Erasmus, it is necessary to look into the background of his times and to study the early influences upon his life. The life span of Erasmus covered a period of events which was a time of great flux and change. It was in this period that the Middle Ages gave way to modern times. Feudalism and serfdom were losing their prominence. Humanism spread over Europe from its cradle in Italy. Scholastic philosophy was losing its hold, bowing to the efforts of the humanists, mystics, and reformers.

The Counter-Reformation In The Netherlands, Herman Mueller

Bachelor of Divinity

By way of introduction to this Thesis I would like to retell the story of the funeral services for Charles V in Brussels. On December.29, 1558 the procession of three thousand monks, priests, nobles, and bishops passed through the streets of Brussels. There were banners, flags, and floats representing the emperor's achievements. Also the quiet symbol of departed power, twenty-four riderless horses bearing the arms of a kingdom or a duchy over which the dead man had reigned.

Was Luther Needed?, William Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Where all the world, the great in Church and State, had failed for centuries, Luther succeeded almost instantly. How? Mr. Newman says: "He adopted a doctrine original, specious, fascinating, persuasive, powerful against Rome, and wonderfully adapted, as if prophetically, to the genius of the times which were to follow. He found Christians in bondage to their works and observances; he released them by his doctrine of faith." - Lect. Justif., p. 386. He became a cardinal.

Economic Aspects Of Reformation, Robert Boedecker

Bachelor of Divinity

The economic developments which antedated and accompanied the Reformation are one phase of that movement's history. Their study is not a complete explanation. No Christian could consider such a view. Yet the economic activity of the Europe of that day did have its influence on the Reformation, while the Reformation, at the same time, left its mark on the future course of economic development. Though a minority would disagree, that interaction was inevitable and appears certain to our eyes. Nor did that come by chance. Though with less clarity than in former periods, yet it is apparent that the hand …

The Reformation And Nationalism, Thomas Coates

Concordia Theological Monthly

From Constantine to Charlemagne to Charles V the relationship of Church and State determined the course of history and affected every aspect of Western civilization. The interplay between this problem and the emerging nationalism of the Middle Ages provides a most interesting phase in the study of the Protestant Reformation.

A History Of The Cithara Sanctorum (Tranoscius), Jaroslav Vajda

Bachelor of Divinity

It is evident from the bibliography of this thesis that there are no English references available on the subject of the Cithara Sanctorum. This is in itself an indication of the ignorance on the part of the English-speaking world concerning this phase of Christian hymnody. Even Julian's exhaustive Dictionary fails to mention the Cithara! It was necessary, therefore, to work entirely with Slovak and Bohemian sources generally. These are naturally secondary sources, with the exception of the two editions of the Cithara which contain most of the original edition's hymns in more or less altered form. A first-hand study will …