 |
| Part of a series on |
| Anabaptism |
|---|
 |
 Christianityportal |
Abecedarians were a 16th-century German sect of Anabaptists who rejected all human learning. Questions have been raised as to the historical accuracy of the name and sect, though the term was applied broadly to the Zwickau Prophets. [1]
According to the original Catholic Encyclopedia , the Abecedarians were a 16th-century German sect of Anabaptists who affected an absolute disdain for all human knowledge, contending that God would enlighten his elect from within themselves, giving them knowledge of necessary truths by visions and ecstasies, with which human learning would interfere. [2] [3]
They rejected every other means of instruction, and claimed that to be saved one must even be ignorant of the first letters of the alphabet; whence their name, A-B-C-darians. [2] They also considered the study of theology as a species of idolatry, and regarded learned men who did any preaching as falsifiers of God's word.[ citation needed ]
Nicholas Storch led this sect, preaching that the teaching of the Holy Spirit was all that was necessary.[ citation needed ] Andreas Karlstadt adopted these views, abandoned his title of doctor and became a street porter, going so far as to burn his doctor's gown, according to one source. [4]
Storch (also spelled Stork), a follower of Luther, "maintained that each individual among the faithful was equally qualified to penetrate the sense of the inspired writings, as the best divines ; that God himself was our immediate instructor, and that study took off our attention to the divine inspirations. Hence he inferred, that the only method to prevent distractions would be, absolutely not to learn to read." [5] Bell also claims that the sect was considerable for some time in Germany.
John Blunt claimed that "Abecedarian theory, in a more moderate form, has had much influence on some modern sects, especially the more ignorant sects of Methodists." [1]
Early Anabaptists were viewed disdainfully by their adversaries as a radical peasant movement. Thus some[ citation needed ] consider the extant descriptions to be an elitist caricature of either a particular Anabaptist group or Anabaptists as a whole. Most more recent reference works have ceased to mention the group at all. No equivalent entry was present in the New Catholic Encyclopedia. No historical references later than the early 20th century mention these claims.
In The Adventures of Tintin graphic novel The Calculus Affair , Captain Haddock uses the word "Abecedarian" as an epithet. Los Angeles post-punk band Abecedarians named themselves after the sect. They released three albums between 1986 and 1988. Don DeLillo references Abecedarians in his novel The Names . [6]
Anabaptism is a Protestant Christian movement which traces its origins to the Radical Reformation.
In church history, the term acephali has been applied to several sects that supposedly had no leader. E. Cobham Brewer wrote, in Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, that acephalites, "properly means men without a head." Jean Cooper wrote, in Dictionary of Christianity, that it characterizes "various schismatical Christian bodies". Among them were Nestorians who rejected the Council of Ephesus’ condemnation of Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople, which deposed Nestorius and declared him a heretic.
A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person.
Nicolaism was an early Christian sect mentioned twice in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament. The adherents were called Nicolaitans, Nicolaitanes, or Nicolaites. They were considered heretical by the mainstream early Christian church. According to Revelation 2:6 and 15, they were known in the cities of Ephesus and Pergamum. In this chapter, the church at Ephesus is endorsed for "[hating] the works of the Nicolaites, which I also hate"; and the church in Pergamos is rebuked: "So thou hast also some [worshiping in their midst] who hold the teaching of the Nicolaites".
Menno Simons was a Roman Catholic priest from the Friesland region of the Low Countries who was excommunicated from the Catholic Church and became an influential Anabaptist religious leader. Simons was a contemporary of the Protestant Reformers and it is from his name that his followers became known as Mennonites.
The Brethren of the Common Life was a Roman Catholic pietist religious community founded in the Netherlands in the 14th century by Gerard Groote, formerly a successful and worldly educator who had had a religious experience and preached a life of simple devotion to Jesus Christ. Without taking up irrevocable vows, the Brethren banded together in communities, giving up their worldly goods to live chaste and strictly regulated lives in common houses, devoting every waking hour to attending divine service, reading and preaching of sermons, labouring productively, and taking meals in common that were accompanied by the reading aloud of Scripture: "judged from the ascetic discipline and intention of this life, it had few features which distinguished it from life in a monastery", observes Hans Baron.
Sebastian Franck was a 16th-century German freethinker, humanist, and radical reformer.
In Christian theology, synergism is the position of those who hold that salvation involves some form of cooperation between divine grace and human freedom. Synergism is upheld by the Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Churches, Anabaptist Churches and Methodist Churches. It is an integral part of Arminian theology common in the General Baptist and Methodist traditions.
Peter of Bruys was a medieval French religious teacher. He was called a heresiarch by the Roman Catholic Church because he opposed infant baptism, the erecting of churches and the veneration of crosses, the doctrine of transubstantiation and prayers for the dead. An angry Roman Catholic mob murdered him in or around 1131.
Nikolaus Storch was a weaver and radical lay-preacher in the Saxon town of Zwickau. He and his followers, known as the Zwickau Prophets, played a brief role during the early German Reformation years in south-east Saxony, and there is a view that he was a forerunner of the Anabaptists. In the years 1520-1521, he worked closely with the radical theologian Thomas Müntzer.
The Adamites, or Adamians, were adherents of an Early Christian group in North Africa in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries. They wore no clothing during their religious services. There were later reports of similar sects in Central Europe during the Late Middle Ages.
English Dissenters or English Separatists were Protestant Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The existence of philosophical sin was a debate waged in the Catholic Church in the late seventeenth century. A philosophical sin is a morally bad act which violates the natural order of reason, not the divine law. The idea of philosophical sin, as opposed to theological sin, was advocated by those who wished to construct a moral system independent of God.
The Amalricians were a pantheist, free love movement named after Amalric of Bena. The beliefs are thought to have influenced the Brethren of the Free Spirit.
The Agnoetae or Themistians were a Monophysite Christian sect of Late Antiquity that maintained that the nature of Jesus Christ was like other men's in all respects, including limited knowledge despite being divine.
Artemon, a prominent Christian teacher in Rome, who held Adoptionist, or Nontrinitarian views. We know little about his life for certain.
Qui pluribus is an encyclical promulgated by Pope Pius IX on November 9, 1846. It was the first encyclical of his reign, and written to urge the prelates to be on guard against the dangers posed by rationalism, pantheism, socialism, communism and other popular philosophies. It was a commentary on the widespread civil unrest spreading across Italy, as nationalists with a variety of beliefs and methods sought the unification of Italy.
Fundamental articles(articuli fundamentales fidei) was a term employed by early Protestant theologians, who wished to distinguish some essential parts of the Christian faith from non-essential doctrines. There were then a number of reasons for establishing such a distinction. Individual churches might accept or reject parts of doctrine, without forfeiting their claim to rank as parts of the universal Church. Therefore, theologians might find a dogmatic basis for union between separated churches. Also, the arguments of Catholics could be answered in a polemical way. To Protestants, the fundamental articles are those that Christians must believe to be saved.
A dogma of the Catholic Church is defined as "a truth revealed by God, which the magisterium of the Church declared as binding." The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
The Church's Magisterium asserts that it exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes, in a form obliging Catholics to an irrevocable adherence of faith, truths contained in divine Revelation or also when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these.
Invincible ignorance is used in Catholic moral theology to refer to the state of persons who are, through no fault of their own, ignorant of the fact that the Christian message is true. It is the opposite of the term vincible ignorance. The first Pope to use the term officially seems to have been Pope Pius IX in the allocution Singulari Quadam and the encyclicals Singulari Quidem and Quanto Conficiamur Moerore. The term, however, is far older than that. Aquinas, for instance, uses it in his Summa Theologica, and discussion of the concept can be found as far back as Origen.
Traditional Anabaptism | |
|---|---|
| Background | |
| Groups | |
| History | |
| Theology | |
| Practices | |
| Notable Anabaptists | |
