The French Confession of Faith (Latin : Confessio Gallicana, French : Confession de La Rochelle), also known as the Gallic Confession or the Confession of La Rochelle, is a Reformed confession of faith, [1] the official doctrinal standard of the Reformed Church of France. The Confession was adopted at the first national synod in 1559. [2]
Initially, the French Reformed Protestants, also called Huguenots, had neither an official creed nor centralised organisation. A brief statement of doctrinal principles ("biblical truths") was included in their editions of the Bible, the translation and publication of which was undertaken by Protestants in the middle of the 16th century. In 1534, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples published a French translation of the New Testament. In 1552, Robert Estienne published the Bible and New Testament in Latin, and in 1553, J. Gerard published a French translation of the Bible. [2]
After the Peace of Augsburg (1555), Reformed congregations no longer needed to operate underground and thus grew to around 400,000 members. They organised in various parts of France between 1555 and 1558 with formal organisation and regular services. [1] : 224 [3] The need for a single, centralised church organisation and common confessional document arose. In 1558, doctrinal differences arose among the Reformed churches of Poitiers, leading a visiting Parisian pastor, Antoine de la Roche Chandieu (1534–1591), to propose the convening of a synod with the intention of producing a common confession and book of discipline upon his return to Paris. In 1559, the first national French Reformed synod met in Paris, at which the two documents were produced. [1] : 224 [2]
All this activity took place in conditions of strict secrecy. As early as 1555, Henry II issued an edict which mandated the death penalty for all those guilty of heresy, threatening the Huguenots with burning at the stake. After the conclusion of the Italian Wars with the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in March–April 1559, the king set about eradicating heresy with particular zeal. In 1559, a special commission (Chambre ardente) was established in each parlement to monitor the execution of the edicts on heretics. Nevertheless, on May 25–28, 1559, the first national Synod of the Reformed Church of France was held in Paris under the chairmanship of the pastor of the Parisian congregation, Jean Morel, a student and friend of John Calvin. The exact number of delegates to the synod is unknown. [2]
The Confession was based on a statement of faith sent by the Reformed churches of France to John Calvin in 1557 during a period of persecution. Working from this, and probably with the help of Theodore Beza and Pierre Viret, Calvin and his pupil Antoine de la Roche Chandieu wrote a confession in French for them in the form of thirty-five articles. The Confession was to be presented with a letter to the King Charles IX of France that vindicated their principles. [1] : 224 [4] : 356
When persecution subsided, twenty delegates representing seventy-two churches met secretly in Paris from 23 to 27 May 1559. With François de Morel as moderator, the delegates produced a Constitution of Ecclesiastical Discipline and a Confession of Faith.[ citation needed ] Calvin's thirty-five articles were used in the Confession but were revised and extended to forty articles (the first two articles were expanded to six articles). [1] : 224
The Confession begins with the subtitle "Confession of Faith, made in one accord by the French people, who desire to live according to the purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. A.D. 1559." Each article is accompanied by references to the Bible. The structure is similar to Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559) and Genevan Catechism (1542/1545), being divided into the following four sections.
On 10 July 1559, Henry II died in Paris. In 1560, the Confession was presented in Amboise to the new king of France, Francis II. A preface was added to the document—an request for the king to cease the persecution of Protestants. [2] However, on 5 December 1560, the king, who had not yet reached the age of 17, suddenly died in Orléans. A year later, in 1561, Theodore Beza introduced the Confession to the new king of France, Charles IX, at a religious conference in Poitiers. A few years later, the Confession received approval in Germany, and was recognised by German synods at Wesel (Westphalia) in 1568 and Emden (Lower Saxony) in 1571. [2]
The Piedmontese Waldensians, who had already affiliated themselves with the Reformed churches in 1532, presented the French Confession as their own confession of faith to the Duke of Savoy in 1560. The 1655 shortened and revised form of the French Confession is still considered a confession of faith of the Waldensians today. [5]
The Belgic Confession (1561) is closely related to the French Confession; the author Guido de Brès closely followed and replicated the order of doctrines in his confession. [1] : 238
In 1571, the seventh national synod of the French Reformed churches was held at La Rochelle, [1] : 224 which had become the center of the French Reformation. Among the honored guests present were Jeanne III, Queen of Navarre, her son Henry of Navarre (later King Henry IV), Prince Louis of Condé, Admiral Gaspard Coligny and other high-ranking French Huguenots. The text of the French Confession was read to all the representatives of the congregations and guests present at the synod, and then signed by them. After this solemn procedure, the Gallican Confession received a second name—the Confession of La Rochelle. [2]
The Confession remained significant in the Reformed Church of France until the 19th century.
A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community which summarize its core tenets.
Infant baptism is the practice of baptizing infants or young children. Infant baptism is also called christening by some faith traditions.
The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, finalised in 1571, are the historically defining statements of doctrines and practices of the Church of England with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. The Thirty-nine Articles form part of the Book of Common Prayer used by the Church of England, and feature in parts of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as by denominations outside of the Anglican Communion that identify with the Anglican tradition.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, or simply the Westminster Confession, is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the "subordinate standard" of doctrine in the Church of Scotland and has been influential within Presbyterian churches worldwide.
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), one of the Three Forms of Unity, is a Reformed catechism taking the form of a series of questions and answers, for use in teaching Reformed Christian doctrine. It was published in 1563 in Heidelberg, Germany. Its original title translates to Catechism, or Christian Instruction, according to the Usages of the Churches and Schools of the Electoral Palatinate. Commissioned by the prince-elector of the Electoral Palatinate, it is sometimes referred to as the 'Palatinate Catechism.' It has been translated into many languages and is regarded as one of the most influential of the Reformed catechisms. Today, the Catechism is 'probably the most frequently read Reformed confessional text worldwide.'
In Christian theology, justification is the event or process by which sinners are made or declared to be righteous in the sight of God.
The means of grace in Christian theology are those things through which God gives grace. Just what this grace entails is interpreted in various ways: generally speaking, some see it as God blessing humankind so as to sustain and empower the Christian life; others see it as forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Absolution is a theological term for the forgiveness imparted by ordained Christian priests and experienced by Christian penitents. It is a universal feature of the historic churches of Christendom, although the theology and the practice of absolution vary between Christian denominations.
The Helvetic Confessions are two documents expressing the common belief of Reformed churches, especially in Switzerland, whose primary author was the Swiss Reformed theologian Heinrich Bullinger. The First Helvetic Confession (1536) contributed to the confessional unity of the Protestant cantons of Switzerland against the Roman Catholic cantons, whereas the Second Helvetic Confession (1566) contributed to the confessional unity of Reformed churches across Europe, particularly due to the patronage it received from Frederick III, Elector Palatine, who had it translated into German.
John Jewel of Devon, England was Bishop of Salisbury from 1559 to 1571.
Eucharistic theology is a branch of Christian theology which treats doctrines concerning the Holy Eucharist, also commonly known as the Lord's Supper and Holy Communion.
Catholicity is a concept pertaining to beliefs and practices that are widely accepted by numerous Christian denominations, most notably by those Christian denominations that describe themselves as catholic in accordance with the Four Marks of the Church, as expressed in the Nicene Creed formulated at the First Council of Constantinople in 381: "[I believe] in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church." The English adjective catholic is derived from the Ancient Greek adjective καθολικός, meaning "general", "universal". Thus, "catholic" means that in the Church the wholeness of the Christian faith, full and complete, all-embracing, and with nothing lacking, is proclaimed to all people without excluding any part of the faith or any class or group of people. An early definition for what is "catholic" was summarized in what is known as the Vincentian Canon in the 5th century Commonitory: "what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all."
The Confession of Faith of the Evangelical United Brethren Church is one of five established Doctrinal Standards of the United Methodist Church, along with the Articles of Religion, the General Rules of United Societies, the Standard Sermons of John Wesley, and John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the New Testament. The United Methodist Church adopted the Confession of Faith in 1968 when the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the United Methodist Church. The Confession of Faith covers much of the same ground as the Articles of Religion, but it is shorter and the language is more contemporary. The Confession of Faith also contains an article on the Judgment and Future State which had not been present in the Methodist Articles of Religion.
Baptismal regeneration is the name given to doctrines held by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican churches, and other Protestant denominations which maintain that salvation is intimately linked to the act of baptism, without necessarily holding that salvation is impossible apart from it. Etymologically, the term means "being born again" "through baptism" (baptismal). Etymology concerns the origins and root meanings of words, but these "continually change their meaning, ... sometimes moving out of any recognisable contact with their origin ... It is nowadays generally agreed that current usage determines meaning." While for Reformed theologian Louis Berkhof, "regeneration" and "new birth" are synonymous, Herbert Lockyer treats the two terms as different in meaning in one publication, but in another states that baptism signifies regeneration.
The Consensus Tigurinus or Consensus of Zurich was a Protestant document written in 1549 by John Calvin and Heinrich Bullinger.
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that identifies primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 1517. Lutheranism subsequently became the state religion of many parts of Northern Europe, starting with Prussia in 1525.
Christian theology is the theology – the systematic study of the divine and religion – of Christian belief and practice. It concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exegesis, rational analysis and argument. Theologians may undertake the study of Christian theology for a variety of reasons, such as in order to:
A sacrament is a Christian rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of the reality of God, as well as a channel for God's grace. Many denominations, including the Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist, and Reformed, hold to the definition of sacrament formulated by Augustine of Hippo: an outward sign of an inward grace, that has been instituted by Jesus Christ. Sacraments signify God's grace in a way that is outwardly observable to the participant.
Criticism of Protestantism covers critiques and questions raised about Protestantism, the Christian denominations which arose out of the Protestant Reformation. While critics may praise some aspects of Protestantism which are not unique to the various forms of Protestantism, Protestantism is faced with criticism mainly from the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, although Protestant denominations have also engaged in self-critique and criticized one another. According to both the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy, many major, foundational Protestant doctrines have been officially declared heretical.
The Irish Articles of Religion of 1615 are a series of 104 theological articles which were intended to serve as a standard of doctrine for the post-Reformation Church of Ireland. Adopted by the Convocation of Irish Protestant clergy that met in Dublin in 1615, and probably written by the future Archbishop of Armagh, James Ussher, the Irish Articles defined the Church of Ireland in a largely Reformed theological direction, even exceeding the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England in this regard.
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