Front matter
Theology Library
SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
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the principle of protestantism volume one
NCASTER SERIES on the MERCERSBURG T THEOLOGY
editors: BARD THOMPSON
GEORGE H. BRICKER
The Principle of Protestantism
LANCASTER SERIES ON THE MERCERSBURG THEOLOGY
VOLUME 1: Philip Schaff: The Principle of Protestantism
IN PREPARATION
: Early Writings of John W. Nevin VOLUME no : Historical Writings of Philip Schaff VOLUME : John W. Nevin: The Mystical Presence VOLUME and Other Writings on the Eucharist : Readings in the Mercersburg Review VOLUME : The Mercersburg Liturgy:
VOLUME An Evangelical Catholic Rite
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2021 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/principleofprote0000scha
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PHILIP SCHAFF
The Principle of Protestantism Translated from the German by John W. Nevin, 1845 Bard 'Thompson and George H. Bricker, Editors
LANCASTER SERIES ON THE MERCERSBURG [THEOLOGY
VOLUME
United Church Press Philadelphia Boston
hese : ArU SCHOO OGY AT
CLAREMONT
UNITED CHURCH PRESS
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 64-14141
Fditors' Preface 'THE SYNOD OF THE GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH convened at Allentown, Pennsylvania on October 17, 1844. At the opening of that solemn gathering, the sermon was delivered by the retiring president of the Synod,! Joseph F. Berg, distinguished minister of the Race Street Church in Philadelphia, who was widely celebrated as one of the grandees of the denomination. On October 25, having finished its routine business, the Synod retired directly to Reading—spiritual capital of this German Zion—to witness the inaugural ceremonies of Philip Schaff (Schaf),?> who had been brought over from Germany in his twenty-fifth year, as professor of biblical literature and ecclesiastical history* in the Theological
Seminary' at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Faultlessly turned out in black, the small, but robust, young scholar delivered a long
German lecture entitled Das Princip des Protestantismus.
Even the most modest member of the Synod could readily decipher that the glorious Berg and the untried Schaff were scarcely striking the same themes. The differences between them were
1 Editors' notes are numbered and appear on pages 235-253.
The Principle of Protestantism sparks in the fading autumn, which would ignite a major controversy in the year 1845.
In most respects the sermon by Berg' was a perfect reflection of current denominational opinion. At the outset he struck a responsive chord by issuing an appeal for a new sense of Reformed confessionalism:
Among the difficulties which have had a tendency to retard the prosperity of the German Reformed Church in this country, the absence of a proper denominational spirit, is worthy of notice. Party spirit is generally an evil. Sectarian bigotry is always a curse; like mildew it blasts the fruit of the field and converts food into poison. We are not pleading its cause when we contend that a certain esprit du corps |sic] is essential to our prosperity as a branch of the Christian
Church. The partiality which we could wish to see more extensively cherished for the doctrines, order, and discipline of the Reformed
Church is perfectly consistent with the largest charity and goodwill toward all who love the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no desire to add another stone to the walls which sectarian prejudice has built up between the portions of the Christian household. Heaven knows they are high enough and strong enough already; but we do wish to see our people entirely weaned from the propensity to forsake the landmarks which the ancients have set—to abandon all the peculiarities which distinguish us as a people, and to adopt in their room, the so-called improvements of modern times.
These words, however, were not astonishing.
Nearly every right-thinking Reformierter was saying the same. Preaching to the Synod of 1841, Bernard C. Wolff recalled with obvious distaste the bygone era, when merger seemed to be the only solution to the weakness of the German Reformed Church. But no longer!
The German Zion had come into prosperity—75,000 souls, 600 congregations (some noted to be "wealthy''), 184 ministers,® and a fixture of learning at Mercersburg. "The time for .
. union with any other denomination," said Wolff, "has forever passed away." It is now imperative to regain our self-consciousness as a denomination and exalt "all that distinguishes it from other denominations." The constitution of the Reformed Church, Wolff concluded, is perfect in every part. "It wants no further Reformation? 7
Philip Schaff
The new spirit acquired immediate and universal acclaim. It intoxicated John Williamson Nevin,' the wisp of a Scotch-Irishman who had recently been called to the chair of theology at Mercersburg, so that even he spoke teutonically: ""The German Church must rise within herself.
.. She must adhere to her own standards.
She must have her own ministry.
. She should continue to cherish still her national sympathies and the hallowed associations of her own faith and worship.' At the Synod of 1844, J. H.
A. Bomberger exclaimed to his brethren, '""May we love our Zion more and more. Her peculiarities are not our own to throw away.
'!° Meanwhile, the Maryland Classis, by some doubtful dating, had launched a campaign to celebrate the centenary of the German
Reformed Church in the United States.
A centenary "Circular" was sanctioned by the Synod of 1840" and received wide distribution. Having paid its respects to "Zwinglius
. that great Reformer of blessed memory" who gave the church her "distinctive features," the Circular proceeded to set the tone of the celebration:
Let the Centenary be an occasion for rallying around the standards of the church.
. Let the idea be forever silenced that the interests of religion require the German Reformed Church in this country to merge itself in other denominations, or to lay aside its distinctive character as something obsolete."
The curious thing about this "landmarkism" was that no one could quite spy the ancient landmarks. Except for Nevin, the Auslinder, there were few indeed who spoke or wrote about the Heidelberg Cathechism™; and the old Palatinate Liturgy (1563) was almost totally obscure to a church now devoted to free worship, extempore prayer, and a Zwinglian Eucharist'* which was celebrated but twice a year.!* The real issue of the day was how to deal responsibly with the revivalism which had increasingly shaped the life of the denomination since 1828." This "landmarkism'"' was some sort of vague procedure to guide the church safely through the extremes of rationalistic formalism, on the one hand, and Finneyite revivalism, on the other hand—between "no-fire" and "wild-fire," as Bomberger said''—to that elusive ideal of a
The Principle of Protestantism "true revival" in which nearly everyone believed.** 'The best that Berg could do with the "landmarks" was to argue
(unconvincingly) that the old Palatinate Church Order really sanctioned certain features of New Measures revivalism:
We are disposed to regard our own age as far transcending others in knowledge, zeal, and devotion to the cause of Christ, and to a certain extent it may be true, although very frequently more credit is claimed for the present century than belongs to it, or perhaps we should say, less account is made of the knowledge and piety of our ancestors than should be accorded to them. It is owing to this fact, for instance, that prayer meetings have been stigmatized as New
Measures; just as if the men of God in former centuries had never known that there were special promises in God's word, addressed to those who agree as touching the things they shall ask....
The Book of Discipline of the Church of the Palatinate'? made ample provision, in the sixteenth century, for the regular enjoyment of these means of grace, and it is worthy of remark that the large proportion of the original founders of the Reformed Church in America were emigrants from the Palatinate. By the regulations of their discipline, it was provided that, in addition to at least two services on the Sabbath, there should be preaching in every town and village, and in every country church, twice during the week.
The evenings of Wednesday and Friday were to be spent in the house of God; and besides this, there was a short meeting for prayer every morning and evening, which was not to be protracted over half an hour. So far, then, from meetings during the week and special appointments for prayer deserving the epithet of innovations, they are as old as the Reformation.
They are the innovators who have forsaken the good old way established by our fathers, and who, instead of seeking the things which make for the edification of the Body of Christ, are anxious to shut out every ray of light by which the carnal security of a sleeping church might be disturbed. These are the New Measures men who teach customs which are unlawful!
B) If the Reformation itself was a landmark, Berg was not quite aware of it. Church history, as he saw it, was chiefly useful to support the idea of a perfect and changeless Reformed orthodoxy, which, being entirely untainted by the gross heresy of Romanism, traces back through the Medieval Waldensians, to apostolic
Philip Schaff Ul times. Berg had already made it plain that "pure and undefiled religion is as unchanging as the holiness of God from which it emanates.' And now he ventured to declare:
When we say that a certain degree of denominational spirit is essential to our prosperity as a church, we would not encourage either bigotry or pharisaism, but we would foster a spirit of inquiry respecting the ancient doctrine, discipline, and history of the Reformed Church. If we had time, we might present no mean array of historical facts, establishing a claim to apostolic order and succession, if you will, which is based upon a foundation of acknowledged truth; but I must content myself with remarking that from the latter half of the second century to the present day, Christian churches have been in existence in the South of France and adjacent countries, and that from the Waldensian records which have been preserved, it is evident that the doctrines of the Reformation in their purity and strength were maintained from the days of the apostles until the age of Luther. It is to be regretted that the historical data of the period, extending from the fourth to the eleventh century are so few and meager, and yet even during these ages, we have the names and something of the history of apostolical men whom Ged raised up to feed the remnant of his scattered people.
From the twelfth century, however, down to the present day, there is none of this uncertainty. The doctrine and discipline of Waldensian churches are contained in Mss. which have been preserved by Perrin" and printed in his history, and which date A.p.
1120, four hundred years prior to the great Reformation in Germany and Switzerland. To us, as a church, these documents are full of interest. The fathers of the Church of the Palatinate were Waldensian brethren, and the Church of the Palatinate is the mother of the Reformed interest in America. It is an error, though an exceedingly popular one, to regard Zwingli as the founder of the German Reformed Church. We are willing to pay all due respect to the memory of the great Reformer, who was an honored instrument in promoting a revival of Christianity in Switzerland—but we should be very sorry to expose our cause to the sneers of those who might justly point at us the finger of scorn, if we were to confess that our church is but of yesterday.
When we can show that a constant and decided protest was maintained against the idolatry and strong delusions of both pagan and papal Rome, from the second to the twelfth century—when in every
The Principle of Protestantism century the names of faithful witnesses for God's truth are recorded, who in the midst of abounding heresy and iniquity lifted up their voice like a trumpet and warned their fellowmen against the errors of the times; when we trace the connection between the churches of Lyons, Vienne, and others, which were scattered and peeled in the second century by a bitter persecution, and the Waldensian brethren, and prove from unequivocal testimony the intimate relation between the Waldensian churches and the Church of the Palatinate from which our fathers came to this country, we have certainly presented no mean argument in favor of the apostolicity of the Reformed Church; for it must be remembered that Irenaeus, who was bishop or pastor of the churches of Vienne and Lyons, a.p. 177, was the disciple of Polycarp, bishop of the Church of Smyrna, who suffered martyrdom, A.D.
160, and who is universally acknowledged to have been the contemporary and disciple of the apostle John.
This is not a fanciful chain; no rope of sand. It will bear examining, and we believe that the Protestant churches have not done justice to the cause of truth in overlooking this argument for apostolicity. The records of the Waldenses, moreover, present no trace of diocesan episcopacy. Their Confession of Faith and Book [of]
Discipline, the Mss. copies of which bear the date, A.D.
1120 (though they did not originate then, for the Christians of that age declared that the doctrines which they contained, had been handed down in their churches from time immemorial), contain not the slightest allusion to any prelatical organization—but on the contrary, they record three facts which to us as Presbyterians are of special interest: the first is, that their churches were governed by elders chosen from among the people; the second, that their ministers were all ex officio equal; and the third, that they were accustomed to meet in an annual synod.
These are great principles, and they settle important points.
The Waldenses were not Episcopalians; their government was not diocesan, but presbyterian—it was not prelatical, for they insisted on the parity of the ministry—neither was it congregational or independent, as their churches were under the supervision of a synod.
... The sum of our argument is this: not that we have a title to exclusive apostolicity—we are willing to share it with all whose doctrine and order are scriptural and apostolical—but if others can claim apostolic relation and succession, so can we; if others establish the right to trace their descent from Waldensian witnesses, much more
Philip Schaff
we; if they may refer to annals of their fathers and glory in their sufferings for Christ's sake, we have no reason to be ashamed of our history, nor of the patience and zeal of our Christian ancestors. If others may animate their churches with zeal to emulate the piety and devotion of their fathers, all these resources are as abundantly ours. Let us use them.
Not even Berg's hypothesis that the German Reformed Church was neo-Waldensian came as a complete surprise to the fathers and brethren assembled at Allentown. In the Weekly Messenger of 1842, correspondent "W" had unveiled the whole theory in his
"Origin and History of the German Reformed Church.' He observed that Polycarp—disciple of John and bishop of Smyrna
—founded a mission at Lyons and Vienne in Gaul. During the persecution of 177, refugees from those communities fled into the Alps, where, in the sixteenth century, their descendants established the Reformed Church. "Others,'' he concluded, "may boast of their connection with Rome. We are sprung from another quarter—from the Asiastic churches of the second century."
But "W's" theory involved a time lapse of some 1,300 years, which Wolff and Berg wisely sought to overcome by relating the refugees from Lyons to the Medieval Waldensians, and thus to the Reformed theologians of the sixteenth century.
Zwingli, who had been greatly celebrated by the denomination, owing, we suppose, to the congeniality of his eucharistic theology," suffered a demise under this new theory of history. Berg, as we have heard, was prepared to dismiss him outright. Wolff was gentler: "Zwingli is commonly reputed to have been [our] founder. We honor his name .
. but we carry our origin to a remoter antiquity." Indeed, Wolff ventured to suggest that Lutheranism, by comparison, was a mere novelty. "We Reformed," he said, "are older stock."
Underlying all these variations of the new "history" was the idea of a static orthodoxy, brought down unchanged from apostolic times, completely uncontaminated by the Roman antichrist.
Berg, who was probably no more afflicted with the virus of antiCatholicism than many of his contemporaries," had already delivered himself of two impassioned attacks against popery: Lectures on Romanism (1840), which the unreconstructed Nevin found
The Principle of Protestantism adequate "to drag some of the most hideous features of the Romish system into the broad light of day," and The Great
Apostacy, Identical with Papal Rome; or an Exposition of the Mystery of Iniquity and the Marks and Doom of Antichrist
(1842). As far as Berg and his colleagues were concerned, it was an impossible thought that Protestantism had any connections with Medieval Catholicism, or that the Reformation must be seen as the Catholic Church Reformed. "If we admit," he warned, "that the Church of Rome has ever been the Church of Christ, you concede the entire ground.'
Against the background of Berg's sermon, the inaugural address of Philip Schaff is seen to be one of the most significant events in the history of the American church. The young professor who stood in the pulpit of the Reformed Church in Reading also stood against the inadequacies of American Christianity: its unhistorical character, its provincialism, its subjectivism and sectarianism.
Schaff rejected Berg's "desperate" history as preposterous." The Reformation, he argued, far from being a revolutionary disjuncture with Medieval Christianity, could only be understood as "the legitimate offspring' and "greatest act" of the Catholic
Church—the unfolding of "the true catholic nature itself.''* With that astonishing piece of intelligence, he introduced his colleagues to his theory of the historical development of the church.
Schaff proceeded to discover the Reformation in its full catholic dimensions. He analyzed the one-sided subjectivism which overcame post-Reformation Protestantism and manifested itself especially in rationalism and sectarianism. And he anticipated a new synthesis—an "evangelical catholicism'"—and the advent of the ecumenical age.
The point at which modern readers are most likely to blanch at Schaff's inaugural address is its involvement with Hegel's philosophy of history, the implications of which have become quite critical in our own times. We should not assume, however, that Schaff was either naive or uncritical in his relationship to the Hegelians. On the contrary, the ideas of Hegel were subject to exploitation for the sake of a genuinely "modern historiography," as Schaff himself explained in considerable detail in his subsequent work What Is Church History? There he wrote:
Philip Schaff
We wish not to endorse Hegel's theology of development without qualification; but whatever may be thought of it, one thing is certain. It has left an impression on German science that can never be effaced and has contributed more than any other influence to diffuse a clear conception of the interior organism of history, as a richer evolution continually of the idea of humanity, as well as a proper respect for its universal and objective authority in opposition to the self-sufficient and arrogant individualism of the rationalistic school.
The Hegelian method requires, moreover, that the historian should resign himself without prejudice to his subject, and thus suffer it to come to a living reproduction according to the law of its own nature. Hence it stands in direct contradiction to that subjective show of reason that is never satisfied with history as it stands, but must be always correcting it after the fashion of its own private fancies.
According to the whole standpoint of this philosophy, history is a self-evolution of the absolute spirit, and hence supremely rational throughout.
Such is the sense of that celebrated, though often misunderstood, dictum of Hegel: All that is rational is real, and all that is real (or absolutely existent, substantial) is rational. Here, however, we come also on the fatal rock of this speculative method of history. While rationalism had scarcely the remotest conception of a divine presence in history, and resolved everything into free human activity, the philosophy before us falls over to the opposite extreme of pantheism and fatalism. The individual is regarded as the blind organ of the world spirit; evil is held to be a necessary medium for reaching the good; and thus the idea of guilt and moral accountability is necessarily lost.
We may say indeed that the Hegelian method rests on the supposition of the necessity of evil as the negative condition of moral progress. For sin in the sphere of morality is made to correspond exactly with contradiction in the sphere of logic; and this last, according to Hegel's dialectics, forms the impulsive force in the moving process of all thought. It results, moreover, from the pantheistic tendency just mentioned, that no sufficient account is made of the personal and individual. Such emphasis is laid upon the general, that life in the concrete dissolves into mere abstraction, the endlessly diversified fullness of history shrinks into a few logical forms, and living personalities are transformed into ideal shadows.
All these defects are found united in the modern Tiibingen school, with Dr. Baur and Dr. Strauss at its head. 'These, preceded
The Principle of Protestantism by Schwegler and Zeller, have handled particularly the history of primitive Christianity in the way of pretended dialectic construc tion, with a spirit altogether pantheistic and ruinous.
The Hegelian philosophy then is in itself no safe conductor through the halls of church history. Its logical forms of thinking are capable of being applied in the most opposite ways. While it has led the way for many to a historical and churchly spirit, and proved an admirable help toward the overthrow of the common rationalism, and a thorough speculative understanding and defense of orthodoxy; it has served, on the other hand, when sundered from the real life revelation of Christianity, to produce itself a new form of rationalism, very different from the first, more spiritual indeed, but for this reason also more dangerous, that from an opposite direction shows the most radical hostility to all concrete and individual historical life.*°
In the following spring (1845), both of the contestants hastened to publish expanded versions of their pronouncements.
Berg's sermon appeared under the improbable title The Old Paths, or, A Sketch of the Order and Discipline of the Reformed Church Before the Reformation, as Maintained by the Waldenses Prior to That Epoch, and by the Church of the Palatinate in the 16th
Century. Schaff's inaugural address became a book of 194 pages, called Das Princip des Protestantismus, which Nevin turned into passable English under the title The Principle of Protestantism as Related to the Present State of the Church. The gist of Schaff's theory was explosive enough; but when it became entangled with Nevin's strong affirmation of Calvin's doctrine of the Lord's Supper—a doctrine generally conceded to be irrelevant to the American scene—it provoked an "examination" into the orthodoxy of Schaff's book by the Synod of York in 1845." After four days of hearings, the Synod vindicated "the book" by an impressive vote of 40 to 3, one of the three votes being Berg's. Such was the start of the enduring controversy over the Mercersburg theology, which invigorated, if it disturbed, the German Reformed Church and had lasting repercussions in American Protestantism generally.
Interpretations of The Principle of Protestantism are to be found in the volumes numbered 98, 105, 115, 116, and 117 in the bibliography. We have reproduced Nevin's text exactly, being
Philip Schaff
content to improve the translation here and there, to correct the Latin whenever the sources were available to us, to supply descriptive (not technical) notes, and to append a bibliography. Notable changes have been enclosed in brackets.
BARD 'THOMPSON
GrorGE H. BrRICKER Lancaster Theological Seminary Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Bibliographic Notes
BELLARMINE
Works of Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), Jesuit theologian and controversialist, are quoted extensively in The Principle of Protestantism. Schaff relied mainly on Bellarmine's Disputationes de Controversus Christianae Fidei adversus hujus temporis haereticos (158689) ; and the reader should be aware that many of Schaff's citations refer to the principal "books" of that comprehensive work. Other writings by Bellarmine are listed in The Catholic Encyclopedia (New
York: Appleton, 1905), I, 411 f.
LUTHERAN AND REFORMED CONFESSIONS
Almost invariably Schaff quoted the Lutheran confessions as they are reproduced in Carolus Augustus Hase, Libri Symbolici Ecclesiae
Evangelicae sive Concordia (2d ed.; Leipzig: Klinkhardt, 1837). Similarly he took his citations of the Reformed and Anglican confessions from H. A. Niemeyer, Collectio Confessionum in Ecclesiis Reformatis publicatarum (Leipzig: Klinkhardt, 1840). 'The page numbers which Schaff supplied in his footnotes refer respectively to these two books.
The Principle of Protestantism
MODERN HISTORIANS AND THEOLOGIANS
In the course of this book Schaff makes innumerable references to the historians and theologians of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Supplementary notes, appended by the editors, will help the reader to identify these men. Yet the notes are no substitute for Schaff's own estimate of them, which he made chiefly in two collateral works: History of the Apostolic Church (New York: Scribner, 1853), pp. 1-134 ("General Introduction to Church History") ; and Germany:
Its Universities, Theology, and Religion, with sketches of Neander, Tholuck, Olshausen, Hengstenberg, 'Twesten, Nitzsch, Mueller, Ullmann, Rothe, Dorner, Lange, Ebrard, Wichern, and other distinguished German divines of the age (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1857) .
ABBREVIATIONS USED BY SCHAFF
Apol. Conf.
Apologia Confessionis, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, 1530-31.
Art. Anglic.
Anglicana Confessio Fidei, the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, 1563.
Artic. Smale.
Articuli Smalcaldici, the Smalcald Articles, 1537.
Can. Syn. Dordr.
Canones Synodi Dordrechtanae, the Canons of the Synod of Dort, 1619.
Cat. Heidelb.
Catechesis Palatina s. Heidelbergensis, the Heidelberg Catechism, 1563.
Cat. Rom.
Catechismus Romanus, the Roman Catechism, 1566.
Conc. Trid.
Concilium Tridentinum, the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, 1545-63.
Conf. Aug.
Confessio Augustana, the Augsburg Confession, 1530.
Conf. Belg.
Confessio Belgica, the Belgic Confession, 1561.
Conf. Gallic.
Confessio Fidei Gallicana, the Gallican Confession, 1559.
Conf. Helv. IT Confessio Helvetica posterior, the Second Helvetic Confession, 1566.
Conf. Scot. I Confessio Scoticana I, the First Scottish Confession, 1560.
Philip Schaff
Conf. Westmonast.
Confessio Fidei Westmonasteriensis sive Purttanae, the Westminster Confession of Faith, 1646.
Formula Concordiae, the Formula of Concord, Form. Conc.
1580. chapter. c. or cap. canon (s), usually in reference to the Council of Trent. can. decretum, decree, usually in reference to the Council of Trent. decr.
Sessio, session, usually in reference to the CounS. or Sess. cil of Trent.
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