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Proto-Protestantism, also called pre-Protestantism, refers to individuals and movements that propagated ideas similar to Protestantism before 1517, which historians usually regard as the starting year for the Reformation era. The relationship between medieval sects and Protestantism is an issue that has been debated by historians. [3]
Before Martin Luther and John Calvin, some leaders tried to reform Christianity. The main forerunners of the Protestant Reformation were Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe and Jan Hus. [4] Martin Luther himself saw it important to have forerunners of his views, and thus he praised people like Girolamo Savonarola, Lorenzo Valla, Wessel Gansfort and other groups as prefiguring some of his views. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
According to Edmund Hamer Broadbent in The Pilgrim Church, over much of the Christian era, many Christian sects, cults and movements foreshadowed the teachings of what later became the Protestant movements. [10]
Movements that have been argued as having similar ideas as Protestantism before the Reformation are:
Baptist successionism postulates an unbroken lineage of churches which have held beliefs similar to those of current Baptists. Groups often included in this lineage include the Montanists, Novationists, Donatists, Paulicians, Albigenses, Waldenses, Petrobrusians, Arnoldists, Henricians, Hussites (partly), Lollards (partly) and Anabaptists. Baptist successionism proposes that groups such as Bogomils or Paulicians were Baptist in doctrine instead of Gnostic. [108]
Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby God's omniscience seems incompatible with human free will. In this usage, predestination can be regarded as a form of religious determinism; and usually predeterminism, also known as theological determinism.
Transubstantiation is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of the whole substance of wine into the substance of the Blood of Christ". This change is brought about in the eucharistic prayer through the efficacy of the word of Christ and by the action of the Holy Spirit. However, "the outward characteristics of bread and wine, that is the 'eucharistic species', remain unaltered". In this teaching, the notions of "substance" and "transubstantiation" are not linked with any particular theory of metaphysics.
Berengar of Tours, in Latin Berengarius Turonensis, was an 11th-century French Christian theologian and archdeacon of Angers, a scholar whose leadership of the cathedral school at Chartres set an example of intellectual inquiry through the revived tools of dialectic that was soon followed at cathedral schools of Laon and Paris. Berengar of Tours was distinguished from mainline Catholic theology by two views: his assertion of the supremacy of Scripture and his denial of transubstantiation.
Girolamo Savonarola, OP or Jerome Savonarola was an ascetic Italian Dominican friar from Ferrara and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule, and the exploitation of the poor.
The Waldensians, also known as Waldenses, Vallenses, Valdesi, or Vaudois, are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the "Poor Men of Lyon" in the late twelfth century, the movement spread to the Cottian Alps in what are today France and Italy. The founding of the Waldensians is attributed to Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant who gave away his property around 1173, preaching apostolic poverty as the way to perfection.
The perpetual virginity of Mary is a Christian doctrine that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin "before, during and after" the birth of Christ. In Western Christianity, the Catholic Church adheres to the doctrine, as do some Lutherans, Anglicans, Reformed, and other Protestants. Shenouda III, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, affirmed the teaching, and Eastern Orthodox churches recognize Mary as Aeiparthenos, meaning "ever-virgin". It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Most modern nonconformist Protestants reject the doctrine.
Jovinian was an opponent of Christian asceticism in the 4th century and was condemned as a heretic at synods convened in Rome under Pope Siricius and in Milan by Ambrose in 393, because of his anti-ascetic views. Our information about him is derived principally from the work of Jerome in two books, Adversus Jovinianum. Jerome referred to him as the "Epicurus of Christianity". He was a native of Corduene, in present day Turkey. John Henry Newman called Aerius of Sebaste, Jovinian and Vigilantius the forerunners of Protestantism, likening them to the "Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli of the fourth century". Other Protestants also praise Jovinian as an early reformer or even credit him as the "first Protestant". Jovinian's teachings received much popular support in Rome and Milan and his followers, Sarmatio and Barbatianus kept preaching his ideas after Jovinian was expelled.
Protestant Reformers were those theologians whose careers, works and actions brought about the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
Wessel Harmensz Gansfort was a theologian and early humanist of the northern Low Countries. Many variations of his last name are seen and he is sometimes incorrectly called Johan Wessel.
Vigilantius the Christian presbyter, wrote a work, no longer extant, which opposed a number of common 5th-century practices, and which inspired one of the most violent of the polemical treatises of Jerome. Vigilantius was born about 370 at Calagurris in Aquitania, where his father kept an inn on the great Roman road from Gallia Aquitania to Spain. While still a youth his talent became known to Sulpicius Severus, who had estates in that neighborhood, and in 395 Sulpicius, who probably baptized him, sent him with letters to Paulinus of Nola, where he met with a friendly reception. Some Protestant historians regard Vigilantius, along with Jovinian, Aerius of Sebaste and Helvidius, as 4th-5th century early proto-protestants.
Metousiosis is a Greek term (μετουσίωσις) that means a change of ousia.
Jovinianism refers to an anti-ascetic movement that has its origins in the 4th-century theologian Jovinian, who criticized the monastic movement and argued for the equality of marriage and celibacy. Jovinianism was criticized by Saint Augustine and Jerome.
Aerius of Pontus was a 4th-century presbyter of Sebaste in Pontus. He taught doctrines that were in opposition to 4th-5th century Christian beliefs. His views are known from St Epiphanius's Panarion in which he was accused of being an Arian. For a short period, he had many followers in Sebaste. He failed to make his teachings widely popular and his sect died out soon after his death. Aerius of Sebaste is sometimes seen as an early proto-protestant, along with Jovinian, Helvidius and Vigiliantius.
The church invisible, invisible church, mystical church or church mystical, is a Christian theological concept of an "invisible" Christian Church of the elect who are known only to God, in contrast to the "visible church"—that is, the institutional body on earth which preaches the gospel and administers the sacraments. Every member of the invisible church is "saved", while the visible church contains all individuals who are saved though also having some who are "unsaved". According to this view, Bible passages such as Matthew 7:21–27, Matthew 13:24–30, and Matthew 24:29–51 speak about this distinction.
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against errors, abuses, and discrepancies.
Protestantism in Italy comprises a minority of the country's religious population.
The Protestant Reformation began in 1520s in the Italian states, although forms of pre-Protestantism were already present before the 16th century. The Reformation in Italy collapsed quickly at the beginning of the 17th century. Its development was hindered by the Inquisition and also popular disdain.
In Reformed theology, the Lord's Supper or Eucharist is a sacrament that spiritually nourishes Christians and strengthens their union with Christ. The outward or physical action of the sacrament is eating bread and drinking wine. Reformed confessions, which are official statements of the beliefs of Reformed churches, teach that Christ's body and blood are really present in the sacrament, and that believers receive, in the words of the Belgic Confession, "the proper and natural body and the proper blood of Christ." The primary difference between the Reformed doctrine and that of Catholic and Lutheran Christians is that for the Reformed, this presence is believed to be communicated in a spiritual manner rather than by his body being physically eaten. The Reformed doctrine of real presence is called "pneumatic presence".
The Cathars or Albigenses have been identified as proto-Protestant by people such as Jean Duvernoy and John Foxe among others. The debate over the relationship with Albigenses and Protestants has been a matter of theological interest and controversy in history. The comparison of Protestantism and Albigensianism was mainly important among French Protestants while German Protestants rarely discussed the Cathars. Affiliations with Catharism and Protestantism have been criticized by many historians, and those arguing for an affiliation between Protestants and Cathars have historically relied upon the presupposition that Cathar theology has been misinterpreted by the medieval Catholic church.
Protestants are opposed to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy. Protestant Christians argue that the tradition of the See of Rome's primacy in the early Church was not equivalent to the current doctrine of supremacy.
In technical terms, he went into schism as a Montanist, a proto-Protestant sect.
It is plainly evident that Jovinian could only have understood by the church , here , the invisible church
As Jovinian taught the Pauline doctrine of faith, so he did the Pauline idea of the invisible Church
Jovinian (a choice spirit who differentiated the invisible from the visible church
But there is an invisible Church, which has existed in every century, which is pure and spotless. ... This whole train of thought has been suggested by reading the words of Jovinian, in Neander
[...] returning to the region of the Alps, he [Vigilantius] found a body of Christians like-minded with himself; with these he gladly united, and laboured.
But, on the other hand, Augustin is, of all the fathers, nearest to evangelical Protestantism, and may be called, in respect of his doctrine of sin and grace, the first forerunner of the Reformation. The Lutheran and Reformed churches have ever conceded to him, without scruple, the cognomen of Saint, and claimed him as one of the most enlightened witnesses of the truth and most striking examples of the marvellous power of divine grace in the transformation of a sinner. It is worthy of mark, that his Pauline doctrines, which are most nearly 22 akin to Protestantism, are the later and more mature parts of his system, and that just these found great acceptance with the laity. The Pelagian controversy, in which he developed his anthropology, marks the culmination of his theological and ecclesiastical career, and his latest writings were directed against the Pelagian Julian and the Semi-Pelagians in Gaul, who were brought to his notice by two friendly laymen, Prosper and Hilary. These anti-Pelagian works have wrought mightily, it is most true, upon the Catholic church, and have held in check the Pelagianizing tendencies of the hierarchical and monastic system, but they have never passed into its blood and marrow. They waited for a favourable future, and nourished in silence an opposition to the prevailing system. All the Reformers in the outset, Melanchthon and Zwingle among them, adopted his denial of free will and his doctrine of predestination, and sometimes even went beyond him into the abyss of supralapsarianism, to cut out the last roots of human merit and boasting
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)These comments are in reference to the heresy of Pelagianism, which Augustine had been battling in the church in North Africa. This sermon, delivered September 23, 416, begins, ironically, with an exposition of John 6:53 that is directly contradictory to modern Roman teaching on the doctrine of transubstantiation. Since so few take the time to actually read the contexts of the statements about which arguments are based in patristic sources, I provide the first two sections of this sermon, which show us the direction that Augustine was taking:
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)A comment on the epistle to the Galatians, is his only work which was committed to the press. In it he every where asserts the equality of all the apostles with St. Peter. And, indeed, he always owns Jesus Christ to be the only proper head of the church. He is severe against the doctrine of human merits, and of the exaltation of traditions to a height of credibility equal to that of the divine word. He maintains that we are to be saved by faith alone; holds the fallibility of the church, exposes the futility of praying for the dead, and the sinfulness of the idolatrous practices then supported by the Roman see. Such are the sentiments found in his commentary on the epistle to the Galatians.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)Foreshadowing the Protestant Reformation in Europe, the Tondrakians criticized the Armenian church as too rigidly structured and too materialist in orientation and pressed for reforms. They preferred to elect their own priests independent of the Armenian Church hierarchy and stressed individual free will and egalitarianism, which they believed more accurately represended the authentic principles and practices of Christianity
Berengar of Tours was an 11th-century theologian who argued that the doctrine of transubstantiation was contrary to reason and unsupported by scripture
Berengar of Tours (c. 1005-1088), Bernand of Clairvaux, the Waldensians in the twelfth century, the Albigensians in the thirteenth century and John Wycliffe (x. 1330-1385) and Jan Hus (c. 1370-1415) in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, are all prefigured in the poetic images of Solomon's Songs. They all become forerunners of Luther and Calvin
Berengar of Tours (first half og the eleventh century), whose views occasioned the dispute known as the Second Eucharistic Controversy. Berengar aught that the body and the blood of the Lord were no "real" in the Eucharist but a specific image or likeleness ("figuram quandam similitudinem"). He was thus a forerunner of the Reformers.
But within a short time both Rome and Constantinople had excommunicated the Bosnian Church , which claimed to represent the true form of Christianity . ... The Bosnian faith was , in a way , the forerunner of the great Reformation
The Bosnian Church has, however, been described primarily as a heretic Catholic sect. It has furthermore been seen as a forerunner to the Protestants
The Pre-Reformers: All groups that spoke out against the church were regarded as "heretical" groups. In the same light, the present-day church considers those individuals that questioned the church "doctrine" and "teachings" as heretics. McCallum (2002:n.p.) states that there were eight heretical groups of pre-reformers between the 12th and 15th centuries during the various European regions. McCallum 2002:n.p. mentions them as follows:
- Flagellants were in 1259. They marched with only loincloths through the streets crying out to God to show mercy on them (McCallum 2002:n.p.). In 1349 they were condemned.
- Then there was a variety of lay groups known as Beguines who had no specific set of forms (McCallum, 2002;n.p.). They were followers of Lambert le Begue who was a stammerer.
- In the 12th century Tanchelm preached in the diocese of Utrecht. He denied the author of the pope and the church and attacked the structure of the Catholic Church (McCallum, 2002:n.p.).
- Peter of Bruys in the 12th century also rejected christening of infants. He rejected prayers for the dead, the Eucharist veneration of the cross and ecclesiastical ceremonies (McCallum, 2002:n.p.).
- In the first half of 12th century Henry of Lausanne preached in what is known as France. His followers were known as the Henricans. The clergy were condemned for the love of wealth and power by Henry of Lausanne (McCallum, 2002:n.p.).
- The Adamists engaged in behaviour that was socially unacceptable and indulged in the practice of nude worship.
- Arnold of Brescia wanted the church to follow Christian ideals (McCallum 2002:n.p.). He attacked the bishops for their dishonest gains. He was hanged in 1155 and his body was burned.
- The Pataria, in Northern Italy were in reaction to the corruption which was taking place in the church. McCallum (2002:n.p.) states that the self-indulgent practices within the Roman Catholic Church were also opposed by other smaller movements.
(Chapter name: Forerunners of the Protestant Reformation) Despite the failure of the efforts atr a reformation of the church's governance, there were efforts to reform the church's theology and manner of faith. Yet the church was slow to change, Peter Aberlard, a Frenchmand sought to include human reason as one of the means of understanding the meanings of scripture.
Peter bruys became one of the earliest leaders of the Reformation, rejecting images, infant baptism,
Joachimite interpretation itself prefigured later developments in Protestant and romantic hermeneutics.
John Bale and John Foxed honored John as a proto-Protestant martyr who suffered excommunication for his defiance of Innocent III
after John Foxe's enormously influential Ecclesiastical History Contayning the Actes and Monumentes was published, Dante's role as a proto-Protestant was sealed.
(Chapter name: Forerunners of the Protestant reformation) Bradwardine in his study of Augustinian theology came to an understanding of the doctrine of predestination as a positive affirmation of Gd's benevolent grace unto us.
in the middle of the fourteenth century the Strigolniki heresy broke out in Russia, chiefly in the cities in the north of the country, which gave this movement a proto-Reformation character
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)John Pupper, 1400–1475, usually called John of Goch from his birthplace, a hamlet on the lower Rhine near Cleves, seems to have been trained in one of the schools of the Brothers of the Common Life, and then studied in Cologne and perhaps in Paris. He founded a house of Augustinians near Mecheln, remaining at its head till his death. His writings were not published till after the beginning of the Reformation. He anticipated that movement in asserting the supreme authority of the Bible. The Fathers are to be accepted only so far as they follow the canonical Scriptures. In contrast to the works of the philosophers and the Schoolmen, the Bible is a book of life; theirs, books of death.1167 He also called in question the merit of monastic vows and the validity of the distinction between the higher and lower morality upon which monasticism laid stress. What is included under the higher morality is within the reach of all Christians and not the property of monks only. He renounced the Catholic view of justification without stating with clearness the evangelical theory These three German theologians, Goch, Wesel and Wessel, were quietly searching after the marks of the true Church and the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ alone. Without knowing it, they were standing on the threshold of the Reformation.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)John Ruchrath von Wesel, d. 1481, attacked the hierarchy and indulgences and was charged on his trial with calling in question almost all the distinctive Roman Catholic tenets. He was born in Oberwesel on the Rhine between Mainz and Coblentz. He taught at the University of Erfurt and, in 1458, was chosen its vice-rector. Luther bore testimony to his influence when he said, "I remember how Master John Wesalia ruled the University of Erfurt by his writings through the study of which I also became a master."1169 Leaving Erfurt, he was successively professor in Basel and cathedral preacher in Mainz and Worms. In 1479, Wesel was arraigned for heresy before the Inquisition at Mainz.1170 Among the charges were that the Scriptures are alone a trustworthy source of authority; the names of the predestinate are written in the book of life and cannot be erased by a priestly ban; indulgences do not profit; Christ is not pleased with festivals of fasting, pilgrimages or priestly celibacy; Christ's body can be in the bread without any change of the bread's substance: pope and councils are not to be obeyed if they are out of accord with the Scriptures; he whom God chooses will be saved irrespective of pope and priests, and all who have faith will enjoy as much blessedness as prelates. Wesel also made the distinction between the visible and the invisible Church and defined the Church as the aggregation of all the faithful who are bound together by love—collectio omnium fidelium caritate copulatorum. In his trial, he was accused of having had communication with the Hussites. In matters of historical criticism, he was also in advance of his age, casting doubt upon some of the statements of the Athanasian Creed, abandoning the application of the term Catholic to the Apostles' Creed and pronouncing the addition of the filioque clause—and from the Son—unwarranted. The doctrines of indulgences and the fund of merit he pronounced unscriptural and pious frauds. The elect are saved wholly through the grace of God—sola Dei gratia salvantur electi. These three German theologians, Goch, Wesel and Wessel, were quietly searching after the marks of the true Church and the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ alone. Without knowing it, they were standing on the threshold of the Reformation.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)John of Wessel was one member in the group who attacked indulgences (Reddy 2004:115). The doctrine of justification by faith alone was the teaching of John of Wessel (Kuiper 1982:151). He rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation where it is believed when the priest pronounces the sacraments then the wine and bread in turned into the real body and blood of Christ
(Chapter name: forerunners of the Protestant reformation) Yet his modest ethnical reforms would lay the grounwork for the later Protestant Reformation movement at Strasbourg.
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