THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
respect, the pre-Reformation doctrine distinguishes two sides or directions of ecclesiastical authority: an internal power (potestas ordinis or sacramentalis) and an external (potestas jurisdictionis or jurisdictionalis) , the iormer acting upon the socalled forum internum, the latter upon the externum. The Evangelical Church, Lutheran and Reformed alike, puts a narrower construction upon ecclesiastical authority, interpreting the potestas ecclestastica exclusively as the power of administering the word and sacraments in the widest Protestant sense of the term; which includes View. the cure of souls under these instrumentalities, but not at all the external regulation of conduct by the exercise of legal compulsion. The exclusion of the ungodly from the congregation is to be brought about without human power, solely through the word of God; and so this jurisdiction is only an act of verbal execution. Not infrequently in the Evangelical confessional writings, ecclesiastical authority is mentioned comprehensively as the " power of the keys " (see Keys, Power of the). As such it is attributed not to a single estate in the Church, but to the Church as a whole. The power of the Church is thus committed immediately to the Church; intermediately and for practical operation the persons thereunto adopted receive it from the Church. Thus the Evangelical conception of ecclesiastical authority assigns to the secular powers, or as modernly expressed, the State, a different province in relation to the control of church affairs, from that of pre-Reformation times and likewise that of the Roman Catholic Church to-day. The Schwabach articles of 1528 declare " the power of the Church is only to choose ministers and to exercise the Christian ban," and to provide for the care of the sick; " all other power is held either by Christ in heaven, or by temporal powers on earth." The reiterated expressions of Luther and other Reformers, to the effect that this temporal power has no ecclesiastical jurisdiction and may not interfere in church government, mean Views of consistently this alone, that the tem- Luther and poral power has no spiritual juris- Other Re- diction and may not intermeddle formers. with the cure of souls. The matter of control in the external affairs of the Church, that is, what we nowadays call church government, was deferred by Luther even so early as his tract to the German nobility, and at a later period constantly so, to the temporal powers directly; and the sante is true of the other German Reformers. In particular, they claim for the Church no manner of legislative prerogative; the Reformation ecclesiastical law subsists rather, in so far as it was formulated by new legislation, entirely upon State enactments (see Church Order). Only since the established reformation Church has come to be superseded more and more by the organized union Church on a presbyterialsynodical basis, has the latter, apart from the absolute administration of word and sacraments, been also empowered by the State with the jus statuendi; and this it exercises within forms and limits determined by the State; as it also exercises
the right of independent church government according to its constitutional latitude under this organization. In both instances, however, this is done not upon any fundamentally intrinsic ground, but solely on historic grounds; and therefore, in so far as no unwholesome ideas come into play, without conflict with the State authorities. E. Sehling.
In the free Churches of Great Britain, in the British colonies, and in the United States, there is no assumption of ecclesiastical authority by the civi government, its sole function being to protect the Churches in their right to hold property and to carry on their work. In many cases church property and in some communities where an income tax prevails ministers' salaries are exempted from taxation. Individuals are protected by the civil courts from injustice at the hands of a Church. Ministers may, e.g., sue for their salaries or for wrongful dismissal, and excommunicated members for malicious or unjust treatment; but even in such cases, the courts are careful to interfere as little as possible with the authority of the Churches. In each religious body the question of authority is determined by its polity. In episcopal bodies much authority is vested in individual bishops and boards of bishops, in presbyterial bodies in synods, in congregational bodies in the local church. See Church Government; Polity. A. H. N.
AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. See Bible Versions, B, IV, 6.
AUTO DA FE (Portuguese, " Judgment [Judicial Decision] of the Faith," from Latin, actus fidei): The public announcement and execution of the judgment of the Inquisition upon heretics and infidels; also called sermo publicus, or generalis, de fide, because a sermon on the Catholic faith was delivered at the same time. It was not to take place on Sunday or in a church, but on the street. At sunrise of the appointed day, those condemned with the hair shaved off, and variously dressed, according to the different degrees of punishment, were led in a solemn procession, with the banners of the Inquisition at the head, to some public place. When the secular authorities, whose duty it was to be present, had sworn to stand by the Inquisition, and execute its orders, the sermon was delivered, and then judgments against the dead as well as the living were pronounced. Next the backsliders, and those who refused to recant, were expelled from the Church and given over to the secular authorities for punishment, and then the procession again began to move. The bones of the dead who had been condemned were carried on sledges to the place of execution. Those condemned to death rode on asses, between armed men, and wore coats and caps, called in Spanish sanbenito, painted over with devils and flames. Not only the mob and the monks, but also the magistrates, and sometimes even the king and the court were present at the spectacle. There were, however, differences in the solemnization of autos da f6 in Southern France, in Spain, in Italy, and in the Portuguese colonies in India. After the middle of the eighteenth century they disappeared, and the verdicts of the Inquisition were executed in private.