HC1320

1
HC1320

• The Radical Reformers II
• Ecclesiological Principles
• The Peasants War

2
Notae ecclesiaeLutheran
Reformed

• Preaching of the Gospel
• Sacraments

• Preaching of the Gospel
• Sacraments
• Discipline

3
Discipline

• The notes of the true Kirk, therefore, we
  believe, confess, and avow to be first, the true
  preaching of the Word of God, in which God has
  revealed himself to us, as the writings of the
  prophets and apostles declare secondly, the
  right administration of the sacraments of Christ
  Jesus, with which must be associated the Word and
  promise of God to seal and confirm them in our
  hearts and lastly, ecclesiastical discipline
  uprightly ministered, as God's Word prescribes,
  whereby vice is repressed and virtue nourished.
  Then wherever these notes are seen and continue
  for any time, be the number complete or not,
  there, beyond any doubt, is the true Kirk of
  Christ, who, according to his promise, is in its
  midst.
• Scots Confession, Art. XVIII

4
Roman Catholic

• One
• Holy
• Catholic
• Apostolic

• In Protestant dogmatics, these become the
  dogmatic attributes of the church.

5
Marks versus Attributes

• In speaking of the marks of the Church, the notae
  ecclesiae, the Reformation introduced a criterion
  by which the Church could be, and had to be,
  tested as to whether she were truly the Church.
  This motif of testing in ecclesiology adds an
  entirely new perspective. . .The notion of notae
  with its unmistakable implications of criticism
  and testing, is directed against every
  presumption of the presence and verifiability of
  the attributes, in other words against every
  static ecclesiology in which everything is
  decided simply from the basis that the church
  exists and that she possesses a number of
  immediately recognizable unassailable
  attributes. Ultimately, such a static
  ecclesiology no longer allows room for discussion
  about the ecclesiastical reality.
• G.C. Berkouwer, Studies in Dogmatics The
  Church (1976), p. 13f.

6
Marks versus Attributes

• Catholic theology has never had any positive
  objection to raise against the two classic
  Protestant signs without the preaching of the
  Gospel in accordance with Scripture and the
  administering of the sacraments as divinely
  ordained there can be no true church according to
  the Catholic view either. . .The only objection
  is a negative one, that these two characteristics
  of the church are truly distinguishing features.
  They are not visible and serve to show where the
  Church is hidden, rather than were it truly is. .
  .
• What is truly decisive is not the formal
  presence of certain characteristics, but their
  use and practice. . .The notae Ecclesiae must
  become in one way or another notae Christianorum.
• Hans Küng, The Church (1965), pp. 267,269

7
On the Councils and the Church (1539) LW 41,
148-165

• Preaching
• Administration of baptism
• Sacrament of the Altar
• Power of the keys
• Ministers called in an orderly fashion

• Prayer and public praise of God, Lords Prayer,
  Ten Commandments, Creedall in the vernacular
• persecution

8
Persecution

• . . .the holy Christian people are externally
  recognized by the holy possession of the sacred
  cross. They must endure every misfortune and
  persecution, all kinds of trials and evil from
  the devil, the world and the flesh (as the Lords
  Prayer indicates) by inward sadness, timidity,
  fear, outward poverty, contempt, illness, and
  weakness, in order to become like their head,
  Christ.
• LW 41, 164

9
Catholic doctrine of the Church

• Our doctrine of the Church is distinguished from
  the others in this, that while all others require
  inward qualities (internas virtutes in everyone
  who is to be admitted to the Church, we believe
  that all the virtues, faith, hope, charity and
  the others, are to be found in the Church. We do
  not think that any inward disposition (ullam
  internam virtutem) is requisite for anyone in
  order that he may be said to be part of the true
  Church whereof the Scriptures speak all that is
  necessary is outward confesson of faith and
  participation in the sacraments. The Church, in
  fact, is a company of men (coetus hominum) as
  visible and palpable as the assembly of the Roman
  people, or the Kingdom of France, or the Republic
  of Venice.
• Robert Cardinal Bellarmine (1542-1621) De
  ecclesia militante, quoted in J.S. Whale, The
  Protestant Tradition (1955), 185

10
Radical Principles

• Personal Psalm 497 No man can redeem the
  life of another or give to God a ransom for him
• Voluntary
• Spiritual The spirit of God to which all things
  ought to be subjected, cannot be subject even to
  Scripture. (Karlstadt quoted in Whale, p. 250)

11
Roland Bainton, Studies in the Reformation, p. 199

• They anticipated all other religious bodies in
  the proclamation and exemplification of three
  principles which on the North American Continent
  are among those truths which we hold
  self-evident the voluntary church, the
  separation of church and state, and religious
  liberty.

12
Thomas Müntzer (1490-1525)

• German Anabaptist
• Preacher at Zwickau 1520
• Claimed immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit
  we must be daily conscious of the fresh
  revelations of God. Sermon before the Princes
  (July, 1524)
• Destroy the wicked For the godless person has
  no right to live when he is in the way of the
  pious.

13
Peasants War (1524-1525)

• Stülingen in June 1524
• Hans Müller in Waldshut, Lake Constance, Swabia,
  Wüttemburg
• Georg Truchness von Waldburg-Zeil1488-1531

14
Peasants War

• Twelve Articles, Memmingen, February 1525
• Michael Gaismair 1490-1532 Tyrol, Salzburg,
  Styria, Alsace, Lorraine
• Alstedt near Eisleben,
• Mühlhausen

• Battle of Pavia
• John of Saxony, Landgrave Philip of Hesse, Duke
  Henry of Brunswick
• Admonition to Peace April, 1525
• Thuringa
• Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of
  Peasants May 1525

15
Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes

• Oath to submit has been broken
• Engaging in rebellion by robbing and plundering
• They cloak violence with the gospel
• Let whoever can stab, smite, slay. If you die in
  doing it, good for you! A more blessed death can
  never be yours, for you die while obeying the
  divine word in Romans 13, and in loving service
  to your neighbor, whom you are rescuing from the
  bonds of hell and of the devil.
• LW, 46, 54f.