RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Agenda
^nce so great as to make the books of the Church practically obsolescent. This was due to the rise of the pietistic movement which, in its opposition to formula and rigidity in doctrine, was no less destructive of the old ritual than was the rationalistic movement of the latter half of the century. Both pietism and rationalism were wanting in respect for the element of historical evolution in religion and worship; and the former, in laying stress on the value of individual prayer and devotion without attempting any change in the forms of divine service, led to their general abandonment for the spiritual edification that was to be obtained in the societies organized for common improvement, the so-called collegia pietatis. Rationalism in lending its own interpretation to the ritual, deprived it of much of its practical bearing, and necessitated, in consequence, a radical reconstruction of the prayers and hymns of the Church. But a no less important cause of change in 3. Decline of liturgical forms is to be found in
Lutheran the growth of social distinctions and
Agenda in the rise of a courtly etiquette which
in the sought, with success, to impose its
Eighteenth standards of manners and speech on
Century, the ceremonies and language of the Church. The etiquette of the salon entered the Church, and the formula " Take thou and eat," at the Lord's Supper, was altered to " Take ye and eat " when the communicants were of the nobility. The consistory of Hanover in 1800 granted permission to its ministers to introduce during public worship such changes in language, costume, and gesture as would appeal to the tastes of their " refined audiences." As a result the old official agenda passed generally out of use and were replaced by books of worship representing the views of individual ministers.
In the Evangelical Churches outside of Germany books of ritual were drawn up during the early years of the Reformation. In 1525 Zwingli published the order of the mass as celebrated at Zurich and a formula of baptism based on the " Book of Baptism," issued by Leo Judas in 1523. A complete agenda, including the two Zwinglian codes, appeared at Zurich in 1525 (according to Harnack and others, but more probably in 1529), under the title Ordnung der Christenlichen Kilchenn ziX Zurich, and was often revised during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Bern received its first formulary in 1528; Schaffhausen, in 1592, and St. Gall in 1738. Neuchatel, in 1533, was the first
4. The French-speaking community to adopt
Agenda a definite ritual; its authorship has
in the been attributed to Farel. At Geneva,
Reformed Calvin published in 1542, La Forme
Church, des prieres ecclesiastiques, based on the practises he had found among the French of Strasburg during his sojourn in that city from 1538 to 1541. The Strasburg ritual was followed also by the French in London, and by many churches in France itself. Deserving of iwJu rnention are the constitutions drawn up in 105U by Johannes a Lasco for the fugitives from w» Netherlands resident in England. They form nrst comprehensive formulation of the ritual
of Calvinistic Protestantism, and are still in force in the Netherland Church.
In Germany the return to a uniform, authoritative mode of worship was begun by Frederick William III. of Prussia in the early years of the nineteenth century. After 1613 the royal family of Prussia were adherents of the Reformed creed, but the king's personal beliefs were entirely Lutheran. After the campaign of Jena (1806) he entrusted the task of drafting a ritual to Eylert, whose work, however, failed to receive the king's approval because the author had fallen into the then common error of the writers of liturgies, namely, of paying little regard to the historical develop- 5. Revival ment of the evangelical forms of worof ship. Frederick William protested
Agenda by vehemently against these newly fabri- Frederick cated rituals, and asserted the neces- William III. sity of " going back to Father Luther." With this purpose he devoted many years to the personal study of ritualistic history and attained an expert knowledge of the subject, particularly of its phases in the sixteenth century. The refusal of the great mass of the clergy to lend themselves to his efforts in favor of unity, he met with the determination to make use of the power vested in him by law to bring about the desired end. In 1822 he published the agenda for the court and cathedral church of Berlin; and two years later this formulary, increased and revised with the aid of Borowsky and Bunsen, was submitted to the various consistories. Before the end of 1825, out of 7,782 churches within the Prussian dominions, 5,243 had adopted the proposed regulations. In spite of a bitter polemic, in which Schleiermacher led the assault on the king's innovations, the new regulations were introduced in all the provinces before 1838.
The king's agenda, however, did not cease to be the subject of much criticism. In 1856 it was improved; and in 1879 the General Synod determined upon a thorough revision. The work was entrusted to a committee of twenty-three, among whom were the theologians Goltz, 6. The Kleinert, Hering, Meuss, Renner, Agenda in Rubesamen, Kogel, and Schmalenthe Modern bach; and in 1894 their draft of a new Lutheran ritual was adopted with slight changes Church, by the General Synod. The lead of Prussia was followed by the other members of the German Empire, and most of the states have now revised their agenda or have the work in progress. Bohemia and Moravia (both Lutherans and Calvinists), Denmark, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Transylvania have also late revisions. In France, after much agitation, a book of ritual, Liturgie des IZglises reformees de France revisees par leSynode general, was adopted in 1897.
(Georg Ribtschel.) The Church of England adopted the Book of Common Prayer under Edward VI., which, with slight revisions, has been made universally obligatory by acts of uniformity. It is used with modifications by the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States (see Common Peayee, Book of). H. M. Muhlenberg prepared a liturgy which
Agenda Agnosticism