degree.-. The h.iard of Trinity College has also lately
provided that any Christian Church of the land may establish a theological faculty alongside that of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
the Protestantentag, were held ami all business of the body was transacted. At present the headquarters of the Union are at Berlin, and since the unification of l rermany t he purpose i- tu organize a < lerman Nat ional
Church, for which the State shall apportion a tax upon
every member and recognise the organism by collecting the tax so obtained. Every person belonging to this Church of the nation is to enjoy liberty of thought and utterance, giving even greater breadth of freedom than the memhers of the Anglican communion enjoy. Sec Dr. Lindsay's tetter from Germany in Zion'a Herald, Boston, Oct. 6, 1876. See also Prussia. (J.H.W.)
PROTESTAN TEN TAG
691
PROTESTANTISM
Protestantentag. See Protestant Union of Germany.
Protestantism is the advocacy of the authority of the Sacred Scriptures above and without any other. The Romanist and Jew hold to tradition (q. v.) as hav- ing the warrant of authority, but the Protestants refuse to yield to any arguments not clearly and directly drawn from the sacred Word of God. There arise, of course, various questions as to what this Word is, and how it is to be interpreted. In regard to the former, the Protes- tant holds that the Holy Bible is composed only of the canonical writings of the Old and New Testament [see Canon |. while the Roman Catholics also ascribe canon- ical authority to the so-called Apocrypha of the Old Testament. See Apockypha. The right of interpre- tation the Roman Catholic Church claims to be hers alone, while the Protestant Church concedes this right in a stricter sense to every one who possesses the requi- site gifts and attainments, but in a more comprehen- sive sense to every Christian who seeks after salvation, proceeding upon the principle that Scripture is its own interpreter according to the analvgia Jidei. See In- terpretation. With this is connected the assump- tion of the Roman Catholic Church that the Vulgate version, which it sanctions, is to be preferred to all other versions as the authentic one, and is thus to a certain extent of equal importance with the original, while Protestants regard the original only as authentic.
The object of Protestant Christianity is freedom from that ecclesiasticism which the primitive Church was unacquainted with, and which owes its origin and de- velopment to the mediaeval Church. "The Reforma- tion, viewed in its most general character," says Ull- mann (Reformers before the Reformation, i, 13), "was the reaction of Christianity as Gospel against Christian- ity as law." It is therefore inconsistent for Anglican High-Churchmen and their followers on this side of the Atlantic to assert that Protestantism is simply negative. It is positive as well, for it not only discards one inter- pretation of Christianity, but espouses another. It denies the right of the Church to stand in authority of the indi- vidual, but it gives a circumscribed and well-defined lib- erty to the individual— not absolute license. " The lib- erty which the Reformers prized first and chiefly," says Prof. Fisher (Hist, of the Ref. p. 9), "was not the ab- stract right to choose one's creed without constraint. but a liberty that flows from the enforced appropriation by the soul of truth in harmony with its inmost nature and its conscious necessities." The nature of Protes- tantism, the essence of Protestantism, the principle of Protestantism, is freedom, but freedom only from the re- straints of man, from a tyranny of conscience, from all systems which had previous to the great Reforma- tion been imposed upon man without any divine war- rant. It is freedom on the basis of obedience to God and to his holy Word. It is that freedom which con- sists in the cheerful and ready obedience to the divine Word and to the divine Will. It is the freedom of the republic, and not the license of the commune; it is the liberty of common-sense, and not the enthusiasm of the idealist, "The principle of Protestantism," says Dr. Schaff, "is evangelical freedom in Christ, its aim to bring every soul into direct relation to Christ. Roman- ism puts the Church first and Christ next; Protestant- ism reverses the order. Romanism says, Where the Church is (meaning thereby the papal organization), there is Christ; Protestantism says, Where Christ is, there is the Church; Romanism says, Where the Cath- olic tradition is, there is the Bible and the infallible rule of faith; Protestantism says, Where the Bible is. there is the true tradition and the infallible rule of faith; Romanism says, Where good works are. there are faith and justification, Protestantism says, Where faith is, there are justification and good works. Romanism throws Mary and the saints between Christ and the believer; Protestantism goes directly to the Saviour. Romanism proceeds from the visible Church (the papacy) to the in-
visible Church ; Protestantism from the invisible Church (the true body of Christ.) to the visible; Romanism works from without, and from the general to the partic- ular; Protestantism from within, and from the individ- ual to the general. Protestantism is a protest against the tyranny of man on the basis of the authority of God. It proclaims the Bible to be the only infallible rule of Christian faith and practice, and teaches justifi- cation by grace alone, as apprehended by a living faith. It holds up Christ as all in all, whose word is all-suffi- cient to teach, whose grace is all-sufficient to save. Its mission is to realize the universal priesthood and king- ship of all believers by bringing them all into direct union and fellowship with Christ" (Christian Intelli- gencer, Jan. 14, 1869). Dr. Hagenbach objects to this reduction of Protestantism to one fundamental princi- ple, and offers three as its basis — viz. (1) the real prin- ciple, living faith in Christ; (2) the formal principle, the authority of the Scriptures as a rule of faith ; (3) the social principle, forming a community, of which Christ is the individual head, and of which all the mem- bers are priests unto God (see Theol. Studien v. Kri/iken, January. 1854, art. i). In this division every essential characteristic of Protestantism seems to have been con- sidered by this master theologian.