Protestantism

PROTESTANTISM. - The term "P." enters history on 19 April 1529, when the Diet of Speyer confirmed the decree of the Diet of Worms against Luther and strictly forbade the suppression of the Mass and the use of violence under religious pretext (an implicit condemnation of the Pack affair). The States, which had by then already gone over to Lutheranism, presented a solemn "protest," later transformed, on the 25th, into an "instrument of appeal." The signatures of the "protesters" included 5 princes: John, Elector of Saxony, Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, George of Brandenburg-Ansbach, the dukes Ernest and Francis of Lüneburg (jointly), Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, and the 14 cities: Nördlingen, Strasbourg, Nuremberg, Ulm, Constance, Lindau, Memmingen, Kempten, Heilbronn, Reutlingen, Isny, St. Gallen, Wissembourg, Windsheim. From 22 April onward a secret league gathered a certain number of those who were from that moment called "Protestants."

I. CURRENT MEANING OF THE TERM AND CHARACTERISTICS

Subsequently the term took on a very different meaning. In fact Bossuet, in his Histoire des variations des Eglises protestantes, Paris 1688, applied it to all the Churches formed as a result of Luther's rebellion, outside the Catholic Church, and distinguished four main groups of Churches: Lutheran, Calvinist, Zwinglian, Anglican. Today Zwinglianism can be considered almost entirely absorbed into Calvinism, and the tripartite division remains. However, a good part of Anglicans reject the designation "Protestants," while in the United States alone no fewer than 250 different Protestant denominations have proliferated. In practice, all those are considered Protestants today who, while linking themselves in some manner to Christ, do not belong to the Catholic Church nor to the separated Churches of the East, constituting one of the three great branches of Christianity in the world. The points common to all Protestant branches can be reduced to three main ones: the "reformation," especially in Calvinist circles, was: a) anti-papal; b) biblical; c) mystical-fideist.

1. The anti-papal "reformation"

It violently attacked the primacy of the Pope, "the Antichrist in person," and of Rome, "the harlot of Babylon." On this point there is no difference either of tone or of acrimony among Luther, Zwingli and Calvin. It is true, however, that the decline of the papacy contributed effectively to the Protestant revolt, through the conflict between Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair and the "Babylonian Captivity" in Avignon, the Great Schism, the struggle between the Pope and the Council, and above all the "secularization" of the Renaissance pontiffs, from Sixtus IV to Leo X. Too much politics, too much luxury, exaggerated fiscalism, excessive worldliness, bad examples in the Roman Curia, precisely at the moment when, owing to the concentration of powers in monarchs, the weakening of feudalism, the development of commerce, the rise of the capitalism of bankers, the flourishing of the arts and letters in the Renaissance movement, nationalism was continually on the rise and was shattering the unity of Christians.

2. The biblical "reformation"

It was in fact necessary to set against that of the pope another indisputable authority, and this could only be the Bible. People went back to the origins of Christianity in order to bring about that "reformation," of which Luther, Zwingli and Calvin aspired to be the protagonists. There was also the skill to brandish an explosive term: the reformation, and the Church was accused of having not only corrupted discipline, but also changed the doctrine. From this arose that misunderstanding from which it has not been possible, up to this moment, to emerge. As early as 1515, Luther, speaking of abuses, said in a discourse prepared for the prior of the Premonstratensians of Leitzkau: "There are great scandals, it is true; they must be denounced, a remedy must be found, but the vices of which you speak are visible to all. Unfortunately there is an evil, a plague incomparably more harmful and more cruel: the organized silence about the Word of truth or its adulteration... of this evil no one takes notice, no one fears it, no one feels terror of it" (Luthers Werke, ed. Weimar, I, 10-17, with the inexact date of 1512). Here the crucial point of the opposition between Protestantism and Catholicism is identified. Protestantism rejects the authority of the Church to define and to impose infallibly, in the name of God himself, dogmas of faith, and systematically claims to prove, by means of the Bible, that the Catholic Church has fallen into error and that the Holy Spirit gave the primitive mission precisely to the men of the "reformation."

The "reformation," in its innumerable divisions over the true meaning of the Bible, is unanimous in declaring that the Bible is the sole rule of faith and that if the Bible has been transmitted to the Church, it is nevertheless not the Church that guarantees its truth. The Bible, for the Protestant, says everything, contains everything, explains everything, is clear in all that is necessary for salvation, is, in a word, sufficient unto itself. Calvin formulated this thesis in blunt terms in his Institution chrétienne (I, I, ch. 7, § 3): "As for the objection that these scoundrels of Catholics make to us, from whom, whence and how we shall draw the persuasion that the Scripture comes from God, it is as if someone set about inquiring from where we learn to distinguish light from darkness, white from black, sweet from bitter. For the Scripture indeed has the means of manifesting itself, in a manner, moreover, so notorious and infallible, as white and black things can manifest their colors and sweet and bitter things manifest their taste." And in the following paragraph, he explained his thought even further: "This Word will not produce faith in the hearts of men, unless it is sealed by the interior testimony of the Holy Spirit." In the final analysis, Protestantism gives to each individual what it denies to the Church. The consequences follow: 1) the Church of Jesus Christ, visible and hierarchical, can err; its teaching is not guaranteed by the promises of Jesus Christ, its Founder; indeed it can corrupt the deposit of faith that has been entrusted to it; 2) it falls to anyone at all, even if assisted by the testimonium Spiritus Sancti, to rediscover the word of God lost by the Church; 3) once the pure doctrine of Christ has been rediscovered, it is possible to preserve it in its reconquered perfection by withdrawing it from the variations of individual sense. The continual "variations" of the Protestants demonstrate that their very principle appears false, to judge by the fruits that have derived from it.

3. The mystical-fideist "reformation." - It claimed to draw from the Bible, under the pretext of restoring pure Christian doctrine, its central dogma of justification by faith alone: "From this article," said Luther, "nothing can be detracted, even should heaven and earth collapse" (Articles of Schmalkalden, 1537). This doctrine is called mystical, in the sense that Luther and his followers found in it a consolation that constituted for many an enchanting seduction. With Calvin, the doctrine, so consoling, of justification by faith alone, the exclusive work of God without any human cooperation, assumed the metaphysical form of predestination. To feel and to know oneself predestined produces an indescribable intoxication; everything becomes unnecessary after such a certainty. Thus there arose a simple, mystical, consoling doctrine, which opposed to the corruption, derived from original sin and which each one could experience in himself, the infinite goodness of a God who saves those whom he wills and only those whom he wills, infusing in them the faith and imputing justification to them. A brief mention of the derived characteristics of the "reformation" now suffices. In general, it was subjected to the State in order to prevent the multiplication of sects produced by the principle of "free biblical examination"; it was anti-monastic, because the principle of justification by faith alone suppressed every notion of personal merit, of the pursuit of holiness by means of religious vows and the practice of the evangelical counsels. Princes, interested in preserving within their State the unity of beliefs, thus had a fortunate opportunity to lay hands on the property of the monasteries. The "reformation" was also anti-scholastic, because it was biblical, and rejected the intrusion of human reason into the field of religion. This did not prevent, however, the subsequent formation of a Protestant scholasticism in the 17th-18th centuries. The "reformation", finally, was anti-sacramental and anti-liturgical, by entirely abolishing the Mass, the center of Christian liturgy, by reducing the Sacraments from seven to two (Baptism and Supper), moreover emptying them of their efficacy and regarding them as mere "stimulating" signs of justifying faith, by abolishing the cult of the saints and of images and, among the Calvinists, also the liturgical calendar.

II. HISTORICAL EVOLUTION

1. Means of expansion

The development of Protestantism was favored by a complex of converging factors. The employment of printing and the ever-growing use of reading are to be remembered.

Printing greatly favored the rapid diffusion of Luther's high-sounding works, then those of Zwingli and above all of Calvin. In April 1520 Luther's appeal to the German nobility reached 4,000 copies in a week. Far more than the great works of the "reformers," it was the little books, widely circulated in the cities and countryside by cunning colporteurs, among mirrors and ribbons, that propagated the new ideas. "One will never sufficiently know," says H. Hauser, "what importance the colporteurs and the great book markets had, which operated at Frankfurt, at Lyon, even in Spain, at Medina del Campo, where the material that came out of the printing houses of Lyon and Paris arrived by the ton" (La naissance du protestantisme, Paris 1940, p. 58). Alongside the book, one must mention song, that of the Protestant Lieder or that of the psalms of Marot (v.). Another means of expansion of primary importance was preaching; the painful fact that must be noted is that the innovators were, for the most part, religious, priests, "preachers," often of renown. If Calvin, directed toward the priesthood, provided with a parish benefice in Picardy, was never a priest, among the "reformers," Luther at Wittenberg, Lang at Erfurt, Henry of Zütphen at Bremen, Link at Altenburg, Güttel at Eisleben, Stiefeld at Esslingen were all Augustinians; Eberlin de Günzburg at Ulm, E. de Kettenbach likewise at Ulm, Kempen at Hamburg, Briesmann at Kottbus and at Königsberg, Mykonius at Gotha and Weimar, all Franciscans. Among the Dominicans, Bucer "reformed" Strasbourg; Urbanus Rhegius, formerly a Carmelite, made proselytes at Augsburg; the Benedictines Ambrose Blarer and Oecolampadius at Basel. In Switzerland Ulrich Zwingli belonged to the secular clergy; among the most illustrious preachers one must not forget Bernardino Ochino (v.), formerly general of the Capuchins, and the regular canon Peter Martyr Vermigli, the former nuncio Pier Paolo Vergerio (v.), bishop of Capodistria, Cardinal Odet de Châtillon (v.), who married in red cassock and cardinal's biretta, the bishop of Troyes, Caracciolo, disappointed at not having been created cardinal.

The lay princes influenced the Protestant revolt, desirous of ruling over souls as well as over bodies, and ecclesiastics, eager to secularize themselves in order to found a dynasty (typical is the case of the grand master of the Teutonic Order in 1525) and a considerable number of German prince-bishops. It was, moreover, because of the notables of the cities that Lutheranism was able to spread and that Calvinism succeeded in establishing itself at Geneva and Zwinglianism at Zurich. One must also remember among the promoters of the "reform," for reasons altogether other than religious motives, Gustav Vasa, in Denmark, Henry VIII (especially as a schismatic), Edward VI and, decisively, Elizabeth in England. After the protest of 1529, one can say that the principle that penetrates everywhere and imposes itself on all is the cuius regio, huius et religio. However, the national or established Churches, as they are called in England, are far from being all of Protestantism. In the Protestant countries themselves, and even in territory that remained Catholic, sects arose everywhere that Luther called those of the Schwarmgeister, that is, the exalted, the fanatics, while Calvin called them bizarre madmen and in England they were called non-conformists or dissenters. The Anabaptists of Thomas Münzer (v.), the followers of Carlstadt (v.), and the Schwenkfeldians, the rebels of Münster and many others are to be remembered. They turned to the discontented peasants and drove them to rebellion against their lords (thus the Peasants' War was born [1524-1525]), or else they convulsed an entire city, Münster (1534) under John of Leiden and his followers. In France, and especially in England, artisans, "mechanics" (as they were called in France), that is, wool-carders, weavers, expressed their discontent in a religious revolt. Economic, social, moral and political factors interfered everywhere and without pause with intellectual, theological and mystical factors.

2. Wars of religion

This tendentious expression was coined in the 18th century, that is, at the time when the "philosophers" felt the need to make people believe that the revealed religions served only to set people against one another, to unleash civil or international wars, in order to conclude that for the peace of humanity one had to adhere to the natural religion alone or, better still, to have no religion at all, and finally to practice a tolerance equivalent to total religious indifferentism. The wars of religion had in Germany, in their time, the name of Wars of Schmalkalden: first war (1546-47), which ended with the victory of the Emperor and with the disintegration of the League of Schmalkalden; second war (1551-52), which resulted in the defeat of the Emperor Charles V himself. They issued in the Peace of Augsburg (1555), which made legal the coexistence in Germany of Catholicism with Lutheranism. The wars of religion in France, from the Conspiracy of Amboise in 1560 to the Edict of Nantes (v.) in 1598, were commonly called in the documents of the time wars or revolts. There were eight revolts in all. The Edict of Nantes put an end to them, giving Calvinism a statute of political-legal tolerance.

But it must be emphasized that the religious factor, although present in these wars, had on the whole only a secondary importance. In Germany it was above all a question of the independence of the princes in the face of the authority of the emperor, and this is proved above all by the fact that in the first war a Lutheran prince, Maurice of Saxony, was allied with the Catholic emperor Charles V, while in the second, betraying the Emperor, he was allied with the Catholic king of France. As for the eight "revolts" of France, between 1560 and 1598, it is no less evident that they were wars of sovereigns, too young to impose their authority in the face of the great families in conflict: Guise on one side, Châtillon and Bourbon on the other. All the more so, the long and disastrous Thirty Years' War (1618-48) was, in origin, a war of imperial hegemony against the Lutheran princes and, after Richelieu had come to power, was a war of rivalry between the houses of France and Austria. In England the civil wars under Charles I were undertaken against the absolutism of the King and for the legal supremacy of Parliament.

3. Theological evolution

The entire theological evolution of Protestantism is dominated by the exercise of free examination. Yet, a point not sufficiently noted, free examination was constantly rejected by all the masters of the "reformation." According to their conception, human reason, completely corrupted by original sin, could only remain in error. In any case, it could say nothing about the construction of Christian doctrine. Everything had to come from Holy Scripture and from the Holy Spirit. But the facts were in contradiction with the words. Luther said: the Bible affirms such and such a thing; I know the Bible only through the Holy Spirit, not through my reason. Carlstadt too, then Münzer, Zwingli, Schwenkfeld, Farel, Calvin expressed themselves in turn like Luther; it followed that on certain essential points the Holy Spirit did not say to one what he had said to another. Each wanted to read the Bible in his own way, yet each explained it as he pleased. The appeal to the Holy Spirit was nothing but a pretext, a subjective conviction in fact; there remained only the free examination of each individual (for the principal doctrinal conflicts determined by free examination v. LUTERO, MARTIN, V). In all the controversies the lack of an authority capable of resolving the problems, in the name of Jesus Christ, and of restoring unity was keenly felt, and matters went as far as the creation of separate confessions, breaking any union between Lutheranism and Calvinism, and all the more so with Zwinglianism. But other sects, far more distant from the "Augsburg Confession" (1530), swarmed and found a common refuge in Poland, Transylvania, and later Holland: the Baptists (v.), the Socinians or anti-Trinitarians. Within Calvinism similar divisions occurred. The question of the "supralapsarians" (Gomarists) and the "infralapsarians" (Arminians [v.]) on predestination was particularly bitter. From the Puritans and Presbyterians, in Scotland and England, sprang the Independents and the Congregationalists. Groups of ephemeral life succeeded one another over a century or two, such as the Familists of Niclaes (1570), the Chiliasts, who reappeared later in America under the name of Irvingites (v.), Adventists (v.), Mormons (v.). After the Thirty Years' War the Latitudinarians and the Erastians are proof of the bewilderment of minds. Against their deviations, official Lutheranism stiffened into a formalist and completely scholastic orthodoxy. But an awakening of Lutheran piety, of a return to the Bible and to religious song, came about, beginning in 1710, with Pietism ([v.] Spener, Frank). In England the Methodism (v.) of J. Wesley developed, analogous to German Pietism. But the deviations did not cease: Quakers (v.), Shakers (v.), Hattemists, Swedenborgians (v.), Haugerites, Moravian Brethren.

Beginning in 1770, the philosophy of the Enlightenment (Aufklärung) introduced rationalism into the Protestant sects. Lessing, Herder, Jacobi, Pestalozzi were idealists who more or less cast dogma into the shadows. Romanticism (v.) expressed itself in the systems of Schleiermacher and Novalis (v.). But above all during the 19th century rationalism (v.) sowed the greatest ruin in Protestant circles, Lutheran or Calvinist. It is enough to name David Strauss (v.), Christian Baur, Albrecht Ritschl (v.), Adolf Harnack (v.), to whom must be added the numerous exegetes who sought to strip the Bible of every supernatural character. In France, such tendencies, lumped together under the name of liberalism, were represented by A. Réville (v.), Steeg, Ménégoz, Sabatier (v.), Jundt, Massebiau, Frank Puaux. Above all of them Auguste Sabatier stood out as leader. The triumph of liberalism continued until 1910, when a complete reversal of the situation occurred, leading up to the present Protestant positions.

4. Influence of Protestantism: a) on political economy: historians agree in attributing to Calvinism, especially in its Puritan and Presbyterian form, a very notable influence on the development of capitalism (v.). The Church had condemned lending at interest; Luther had remained faithful to that condemnation: for him Fuggerei (the Fugger bank of Augsburg) is synonymous with Wucherei (usury). Calvin, on the other hand, in Geneva, was more indulgent; he replaced monastic asceticism with that of the head of the family, tireless, frugal, severe with others as with himself. Thus it came to be considered a blessing from heaven and almost a sign of predestination to succeed in business. In this way was born, as Hauser puts it (op. cit., p. 83), "Protestant capitalism." "One might hold," he adds, "that Holland, Zeeland, and Frisia would not have seen the capital of international commerce arise within them, had they not been Protestant" (p. 84). Similarly in England first, and then in America, Calvinism favored in various forms the most immoral trades, such as that of alcohol and above all that of slaves. "Protestant asceticism," the same author concludes, "ended by making a very strange confusion between salvation in heaven and wealth on earth. Puritanism thus came to identify itself with capitalism" (p. 85). b) In art: two very different attitudes must be noted: the Lutherans permitted images and at least saved the masterpieces of medieval architecture and sculpture (the same may be said of the Anglicans); the Calvinists, on the contrary, fought against sacred images and even against the Cross, and inflicted mutilations, wherever they could reach, on the ancient cathedrals; numerous Catholic monuments in France still bear the marks of their iconoclastic fury. Nevertheless, in Protestant lands, music and song progressed. It is enough to recall Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), whose exceptional glory nonetheless did not succeed in eclipsing that of his contemporary, George Frederick Handel (1685-1759). Both belonged to orthodox Pietist groups.

III. GEOGRAPHICAL EXPANSION AND STATISTICS

Protestantism developed predominantly in the Anglo-Saxon countries and in the Scandinavian regions. It spared the "Latin" countries. The same holds in the New World: Latin America remained almost entirely Catholic, while Protestantism spread in the United States. As for the figures, their accuracy is very approximate, and they offer a comparative ratio rather than an exact statistic.

1. Anglicanism. It numbers about 35,000,000 adherents, distributed as follows: 20,000,000 in England, 10,000,000 in the Dominions (Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc.), 5,000,000 in the United States (New York and especially Pennsylvania). The three traditional tendencies continue within it: High Church, Broad Church, Low Church: recent (1951) is the event of about 2,000 Anglican ministers who accept the authority of the pope, but wish to return to the Roman Church only collectively. — 2. Lutheranism: it is credited with the undoubtedly exaggerated figure of 84,000,000 adherents: about 40,000,000 in Germany, 6,000,000 in Sweden, 2,500,000 in Norway, 3,000,000 in Denmark, 3,000,000 in Finland, 250,000 in Alsace (France) and all the others in the United States or in mission lands. — 3. The Reformed Church (Calvinist). It numbers between 40 and 45,000,000 members, of whom 3,000,000 in Switzerland (Zwinglians included), and the rest in Scotland, in England, in the United States, in the mission countries, about 750,000 in France. — 4. The Methodists or Wesleyans. They claim 35,000,000 coreligionists, residing partly in England, partly in the United States and in mission lands. — 5. The Presbyterians. They number 15,000,000 members among Scotland, the United States and the mission lands. — 6. The Baptists. They are 13,000,000, but, adding the children whom they exclude from their statistics, they reach the figure of 35,000,000. — 7. The Congregationalists. They range between 6 and 7,000,000, children included. To these must be added the very notable multitude of small sects, of which some, such as, for example, Christian Science or the Mormons, can scarcely be called Christian. Summing the figures set out above, one would have a total of 256,000,000: an undoubtedly exaggerated figure, since the number of Protestants in reality does not exceed 200,000,000, of whom 120,000,000 in Europe, 60,000,000 in the United States, 7,000,000 in Asia, 6,000,000 in Australia and Oceania, 4,000,000 in Africa, 1,500,000 in South America.

By comparison, the most recent Catholic statistic, that made by Canon Rupp in 1949, credits the Roman Church with 422,000,000 faithful, even if a certain number of them are Catholics in name and baptism, without a regular practice of the faith. But the same holds for Protestants, very many of whom do not practice at all. The Orthodox Church would have approximately 200 million members, likewise more or less practicing. The Jesuit Father Naidenoff, after a thorough study, reduced effective Christians to 350 million (instead of the 800 million nominal), of whom 200 million Catholics, 50-60 million practicing Orthodox, 60-70 million faithful Protestants.

IV. CURRENT TRENDS

As has been observed, for 40 years a profound change has been manifesting itself in the various branches of Protestantism. The times of liberalism seem to have set. Just as the Roman Church, in obedience to Blessed Pius X, eliminated modernism (v.), so too, and perhaps under the influence of its example, rationalism has been combated in Protestant circles with uneven but undoubted results. Within present-day Protestantism a double movement is observed, internal and external. The first is regarded by Protestants themselves as a return to the 16th century, from the triple point of view of dogma, liturgy and discipline. The second, commonly called the ecumenical movement or movement toward unity, could be termed, in opposition to the former, a disavowal or retraction of the 16th century.

1. Return to the 16th century

This expression is due to the French pastor Georges Casalis (Positions protestantes, Paris 1947). He denounces, in the first place, in the Protestantism of the 19th century and up to the war of 1914 "all the forms of individualism, of rationalism, of sentimentalism and the incarnation of this spiritual anarchy in a certain number of theological schools and factions opposed to the Church." Thus for the past; but, he adds, "within such disintegration and such mortal uncertainties, a doctrinal and spiritual movement has now manifested itself, very precise since the last war (1914-18), and is asserting itself today, day by day, as the fresh and dominant current of our Church" (ibid., p. 23). The initiator of this renewal of Protestantism in France and Switzerland was Prof. Auguste Lecerf. The decisive factor, however, was the creation of neo-Calvinism, which came about around 1930 through the work of Karl Barth, a resolute and combative theologian, who oriented the Reformed Churches toward a restoration of pure Calvinist doctrine, including the predestinarianism abandoned by Calvinists for more than a century (cf. H. Roux, in Protestantisme français, Paris 1945, pp. 189-97). Among the most eminent representatives of this restoration, one must cite the preacher Pierre Maury, the liturgist de Saussure (Cluny movement), the pastors Casalis, Chapal, Bosc, Jouselin, Yann Roullet, Hébert Roux, M. Goguel, and, above all, Marc Boegner, president of the Federation of Protestant Churches of France. The organs of the movement are the journals Foi et Vie, Hic et Nunc, Le Semeur, and the Je sers publications. One of the most surprising expressions of the new tendencies was the meeting, held at Lyon in April 1938, of a "constituent assembly," which included delegates from four churches: Reformed, Reformed Evangelical, Free and Methodist. These four Churches assumed the name of "Reformed Church of France." The assembly published a declaration in which, in the judgment of pastor Casalis, one could lament "a bit of pietist pathos," "a certain abuse of Christian-social formulas" and a preamble from which emerged an aversion to all "doctrinal conformism," that is, a kind of theological laxism. But the declaration accepted nothing less than: a) the sovereign authority of the Scriptures as rule of faith and life; b) the Apostles' Creed, the ecumenical creeds and the confession of faith of La Rochelle (1570). For pastor Casalis, free examination must be nothing but total submission to the Word of God contained in Scripture (Positions prot., pp. 35-38). In 1934 Karl Barth entitled a lecture of wide resonance nothing less than: Misery and Grandeur of the Evangelical Church. He was echoed, in 1946, by pastor Casalis: "Our church, like every Church in France, gathers only a very limited number of men and women: the majority of the people escape it" (op. cit., p. 49).

2. Ecumenism or retraction of the 16th century

The second characteristic of all present-day Protestantism is an undisputed retraction of the 16th century, however much one may not wish to confess it openly. Ecumenism, in reality, is precisely this (v. ECUMENISMO).

To measure the vastness of the movement it is enough to cast a glance at the members who made up the Ecumenical Council of Churches, convened in France from 30 January to 1 February 1951. There participated Dr. G. Bell, Anglican bishop of Chichester, president of the Executive Committee, Dr. G. Fry, president of the Lutheran Church of the United States, Dr. E. Berggray, former Lutheran bishop of Oslo, Dr. Marc Boegner, president of the Protestant Federation of France, Dr. B. Oxnam, bishop of the Methodist Church of the United States, Miss S. Chakko, of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the Indies, the Rev. L. E. Cooke, general secretary of the Congregational Union of England, the Rev. N. Goodall, Congregationalist, Mr. K. G. Grubb, Anglican, Mr. M. Karabinis, archimandrite of the Greek Church of Paris, Mr. A. Koechlin, president of the Federation of Protestant Churches of Switzerland, Mr. M. Niemolier, president of the Lutheran Church of Hesse-Nassau, Mr. Panteleimon, metropolitan of Edessa (patriarchate of Constantinople), the Rev. G. Sisco, general secretary of the United Church of Canada, Mrs. Leslie Swain, former president of the Baptist Convention of the United States, Mr. C. Taft, of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, Prof. T. M. Taylor, of the Church of Scotland.

Altogether, in February 1951, the ecumenical movement for union comprised 158 churches (spread over 43 countries of the five continents) belonging to the Anglican, Orthodox, Old Catholic and Protestant confessions, that is: Reformed, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Congregationalist, etc.

Leone Cristiani

V. IN ITALY

1. Period of the origins

The political-religious conditions in Italy were not the same with regard to Protestant propaganda, and it must be noted that although the abuses in religious life and discipline were no fewer than elsewhere, the elements that could counteract them and sustain the Catholic spirit were nonetheless greater and better (v. RIFORMA CATTOLICA). In any case, that restlessness which was provoked by the spirit of novelty peculiar to the age, and that reaction against the evils commonly lamented throughout Christian Europe, were not without influence on the public spirit. If Luther had admirers from the beginning, as later Calvin also had, Italian reformism nevertheless claimed to proceed by its own paths, though without entirely estranging itself from the common currents.

a) The currents. - It is difficult to classify the Italian Protestants of the first century; nevertheless, several currents can be noted. One formed around the Spaniard Juan de Valdes (v.); the Trattato utilissimo del Beneficio di Jesu Cristo Crocifisso by fra' Benedetto da Mantova, written in elegant Italian by Marcantonio Flaminio (v.), draws on his teachings. The Beneficio spread Valdes's ideas through the press, just as Ochino spread them through preaching. Lutheranism burst into Italy from Venice, where Baldassare Altieri and Baldo Lupetino (uncle of Flacius Illyricus) maintained relations with the leaders of the "reform"; the Lutheran Minorite Girolamo Galateo (1530) and Bartolomeo Fonzio (1538), translator of Luther, were condemned. The movement passed to Padua with the German students, into Istria, winning over Pier Paolo Vergerio (v.), and at Bassano provoked the apostasy of Francesco Negri, author of the Tragedia del libero arbitrio, who together with the Actio in Pontifices Romanos of Paleario (v.) and the Pasquillus estaticus of Curione spread Luther's polemical themes in Italy. For the majority of Italian Protestants, however, Geneva soon became the spiritual capital, where they took refuge in moments of danger. Giacomo Aconcio drew inspiration from Calvinism in his works: Il dialogo nel quale si scoprono le istante che usano i lutherani and the Somma brevissima della dottrina cristiana. Through the influence of Michael Servetus, Anabaptism spread in Italy (especially among artisans); followers of the sect are found in Piedmont, Lombardy, Tuscany, and the Veneto, and they held meetings at Vicenza (1549) and Venice (1550).

b) The means of propaganda. - In several Italian cities there was a Protestant cell. Although the cases of Brescia, Bergamo, Vicenza, and the Valtellina reveal a minute propaganda among the people, the defections among ecclesiastics and educated persons were numerous. The very means of diffusion manifest its aristocratic character. The first means was the press, which clandestinely spread in Italy the works of the heresiarchs from beyond the Alps; Venice became one of the principal emporia of Protestant books, as Girolamo Querini lamented and as Luther wrote to Zwingli. Books were even sent to those who did not want them: as to the Jesuits of S. Maria in Strada, who received two crates containing, beneath some Catholic books, all the Protestant books. In the first half of the sixteenth century, decrees against heretical printing multiplied in Italy, until in 1549 a first Index was reached; there were also public burnings of books; but such measures were not always effective, because the books managed to circulate perhaps with different titles, authors, covers, or shipments, so that to discover the error one had to read at least a part of them. The second means was conversations and circles. At the head of these, clandestine or nearly so, there was always a very skillful hidden heretic. The frequenters were always persons of restless character, harsh critics, demolishers, systematic opponents, and therefore men of immature critical capacity, sentimental and extremist by temperament. The third means was preaching, with which an attempt was made to inoculate the masses with the new spirit. The most celebrated preachers were: Girolamo Galateo, Pietro Martire Vermigli, Bartolomeo Della Pergola, Baldo Lupetino, Giulio Terenziano, Gian Battista Pallavicini, Giuliano da Colle, Agostino Mainardi, and above all Bernardino Ochino. Austerity of life, distinguished talent, and skill in not revealing themselves allowed some to preach for a long time throughout Italy.

c) The principal centers. - The most important center was that of Naples. Valdes, in his house on the riviera di Chiaia, formed a group of enthusiastic disciples or sympathizers: Scipione Capece, Galeazzo Caracciolo di Vico, don Ferrante Brancaccio, Pietro Agosto di Caserta, Giovanni Berardino Bonifazio di Oria, Scipione and Giovanni Antonio Lentulo di Lecce, Valentino Gentile, Giulio Cesare Pascale, Matteo and Alessandro Cardoini, Bernardino Ochino, Pietro Carnesecchi, Pietro Martire Vermigli, Jacopo Bonfadio, Marcantonio Flaminio, and among women of high station Giulia Gonzaga duchess of Fondi, Vittoria Colonna marchioness of Pescara, Costanza d'Avalos duchess of Amalfi, Dorotea Gonzaga marchioness of Bitonto, Roberta Carafa princess of Madduloni, Maria di Aragona wife of prince Ascanio Colonna, Isabella Colonna princess of Bisignano, Maria Cardona princess of Sulmona, Isabella Villamari princess of Molfetta, Caterina Cibo duchess of Camerino, and Isabella Briseña Manrique, a Spaniard.

Among those who recanted, Colonna and Flaminio must be remembered. At Modena they formed a circle around Ludovico Castelvetro and Valentino Filippo: Giovanni Grillenzoni, Gabriele Faloppi, Francesco da Porto. Annibal Caro's accusation in 1553 provoked Castelvetro's flight. At Ferrara, the duchess Renata of France hosted at court in 1536 Calvin, Louis Du Tillet, and the poet Marot; she sought to defend the innovator Faino Faini of Faenza, financed Ochino, and kept with her the daughters of Olimpia Morata. After the death of her husband, Ercole II, suspected by the Inquisition, she returned to France and in her castle of Monargia (Loiret) openly declared herself a Huguenot. In the group of Lucca, Pietro Martire Vermigli stood out, a canon regular who in 1541, having become prior of S. Frediano at Lucca, organized a school there, calling to it hidden heretics: Paolo Lazise (for Latin), Celso Martineno (for Greek), Emanuele Tremello (for Hebrew); he won over to his ideas eighteen religious, who on Sundays spread through the countryside the ideas that Vermigli taught from the pulpit of the Cathedral.

Chieri, with the reformed jurist Matteo Gribaldi Mofa, became a center of propaganda in Piedmont; there Celio Curione was initiated into heresy by the Carmelite preacher Giambattista Pallavicino, a hidden Protestant, and religious discussions had long been held there, so that Chieri earned the title of little Geneva; at Calvin's residence there were at certain moments as many as forty Chieresi who had escaped the Inquisition taking refuge. At Bergamo, the artisans won over to the new doctrines used to scatter on Sundays to teach them to the peasants. At Brescia in 1528 an inquiry was organized to discover the adherents of the city's Lutheran circle. The Brescians Celso Martinengo, count of Barco, Vincenzo de' conti Maggi, Francesco Stella nephew of the physician Bartolomeo, Girolamo Donzelino, Ippolito Chizzola, and the historian Jacopo Bonfadio passed over to Protestantism. There must also have been no rare heretics in the territory, if Baldassare Altieri, secretary of Hawel, took refuge in Brescian territory to escape arrest, and if Vergerio was able to ride from village to village in the diocese of Brescia, followed by a hundred "humiliati" all on horseback.

An active group was also that of Vicenza, where Curione influenced Moreto, who had kept a school there since 1536. Before 1536 there had been much talk of reform at the villa of Gian Giorgio Trissino. At Vicenza in 1546 and the following years there met Tizzano, Valentino Gentile, Gribaldi, Alciati, Ochino, Biandrata, Camillo Renato, Francesco Negri, Niccolò Paruta, Giulio Ghirlanda, Francesco di Rovigo, Lelio Socini and a Pigafetta of Vicenza, on account of which it was suspected that the meetings were held in the house of the latter. In 1550 Anabaptist meetings were still held there, numerous and secret. In 1551 one of the group, Manelfi, revealed in a Costituto of 12 Nov. the meetings of Vicenza, and the most prominent of them took refuge in the canton of the Grisons. But the Anabaptists did not disappear entirely, because Gribaldi, in 1552, sent to the "brethren of Vicenza" the announcement of the execution of Servetus. Traces of Italian Anabaptists are found later, in 1560 and in 1573: then nothing more.

d) The exodus of the Italian heretics. — At first they thought of remaining in their homeland, living outwardly as Catholics, in order to prepare the hoped-for Italian apostasy and to attract "with oblique artifice" (the phrase is Ochino's) souls to Protestantism. It may be said, however, that they almost all remained in Italy until 1542. In this year occurred the abandonment of Italy by two of the best known, Bernardino Ochino and Pier Martire Vermigli with two of his most intimate collaborators: Celso Martinengo and Tremello. In 1546 Valentino Gentile departed; in 1549 the bishop of Capodistria, Pier Paolo Vergerio; in 1551 the marquis Caracciolo and the Manrique; in 1555 Gribaldi and the marquis d'Oria; in 1557 Castelvetro; in 1558 Renata of France; in 1574 Fausto Socino and others. In many foreign cities they formed Italian communities, at the head of which were placed former friars and former priests, whose pastoral abilities, the fruit of a Catholic education, enabled them to carry on a "pastorate" at times remarkable, for duration and influence, such as that of Mainardi at Chiavenna.

e) The sojourn of the Italian Protestants abroad. — Within the Italian Protestant communities quarrels very often broke out, caused by religious radicalism, by impatience of discipline and of ties, by the fatal discontent and the inevitable needs of all exiles of every age. The fugitive Italian heretics, foreigners everywhere, without a homeland, without a church of their own, almost all ended miserably: without disciples, intolerant of every imposition, they emigrated from Switzerland toward Poland and Hungary, forming there groups of Italian Anabaptists; others, with Vermigli and Ochino at their head, betook themselves to England. Hidden in their homeland and wandering abroad, they were poorly tolerated by the Reformed for their insubordination. In the Italian episcopate some were suspected of heresy and, like Card. Morone, even wrongly subjected to trial. A Centanni or Zantani, bishop of Limisso in Cyprus, and Vittore Soranzo, bishop of Bergamo, were deposed from office and, best known of all, Pier Paolo Vergerio, already mentioned. The latter, after his apostasy, claimed to hold a predominance over the Italians abroad. The attempt failed because the Italians did not want another pope and because Vergerio, proud, unstable, did not have the qualities of a leader. After the Council of Trent one cannot speak of a Protestant movement in Italy. Of the Italian heretics who remained in their homeland many were converted, such as Fra Sisto da Siena of the Minors, who returned to the faith sincerely and wrote many works in the service of the Church. None of the Italian heretics abroad was converted, except Biandrata in Hungary. In the final analysis the Italian heretics achieved nothing, either as dogmatizers or as reformers.

2. Protestantism in Italy in the 1600s and 1700s

With the end of the second Protestant generation, the spread of Protestantism was over. Owing to the accentuated reaction of the Catholic Reformation, to internal exhaustion, in Italy there was no more talk of Protestant propaganda. Only a few episodes document the presence of the innovators in Italy. The Waldensians, in their valleys of Savoy and Piedmont, strove to maintain and spread themselves. The disturbances of the Valtellina, in the first twenty years of the 1600s, represent the attempt of the Swiss Reformed to conquer the valley, which remained ultimately Catholic through the lively reaction of the inhabitants. In the 1700s the influence of the Italian version of the Bible by Diodati made itself felt in Italy, without its assuming wide resonance. Only toward the end of the 1700s, with the change of tactics of Protestantism, was there a new proselytism, and Protestant missions were also established in Italy.

3. Protestantism in Italy in the 1800s and 1900s

The British Bible Society began to distribute Protestant Bibles from Malta in 1812. Christian Bunsen (1817-23), secretary of the Prussian ambassador Niebuhr at Rome, whom he succeeded from 1823 to 1838, organized for the first time the foreign Lutherans and Evangelicals in Italy and made proselytes among the Italians. In 1837 the American Robert Baird, visiting the Protestants in Italy, found there 25 ministers, reduced to 17 in 1840. To favor the spread of Protestantism in Italy, the Christian Alliance was constituted at New York in 1839, condemned by Gregory XVI in 1844.

Against the vaunted and claimed superiority of the Protestant countries over the Catholic ones, Pius IX from Gaeta (8 Dec. 1849), Balmes, Hauille and Giacomo Margotti with Roma e Londra responded. The Italian Protestants expected much from the fall of the temporal power, as De Sanctis attested in the book Il papa (1864). Instead, after the "Law of Guarantees" the sects always remained in the condition of being tolerated.

Following the Lateran Pacts, non-Catholic cults are considered no longer tolerated, but admitted. Despite the new favorable juridical situation, Italian Protestantism is without importance in the religious evolution of Italy, because of a negligible number of followers, because of the traditional doctrinal disagreement, because of the obligatory anti-Catholic polemic that offends Italians, because of the strength of the Catholic Church (v. CHIESE PROTESTANTI ITALIANE).

Luigi Fossati

VI. PROTESTANTISM AND THE MISSIONS

At the beginning Protestantism, both in the theoretical and in the practical field, was almost unconcerned with spreading its doctrines among unbelievers. Only later did it seek to undertake an activity, called missionary, which by its characteristics is quite distinct from true Catholic missions.

Martin Luther and his most direct disciples present very few elements that would allow one to speak of a missiology of their own. Only John Calvin has a positive teaching on the matter, because according to his doctrine the glory of God and His majesty require that it be sought and proclaimed always and everywhere through the mission entrusted to the elect. The concept, moreover, of national Churches prevented fixing one's gaze beyond one's own borders, as did the theory of predestination. To this are added the divisions among the so-called reformers and the lack of a central organization.

One of the first missionary attempts was made by some Huguenots, who set out for Brazil (1555), led by N. D. de Villegagnon, whose return to the Catholic Church caused the expedition to fail, an expedition in which Calvin himself had taken an interest. Within that same Reformed Church one must remember the missions of the East India Company and also those of the West India Company. In order to coordinate the commercial, military and religious activity of the various companies, a governor-general was appointed in 1613. For this reason the names of the various governors-general are recorded in the missionary documents of the time. The first "Octroy," of 1602, speaks neither of religion nor of Church. The second, however, of 22 Dec. 1622, recommends the preservation of the public faith in the spirit of the Dutch confession. Indeed, on the Company's ships pastors were always carried, and they began their activity in the various localities of present-day Indonesia. At the same time thought was given to organizing missionary collaboration in Holland, among which the "Seminarium Indicum" of Antonio Walacus should be remembered, and even on mission the education of the pastor-missionaries was not neglected.

The missions of the West India Company do not have the same importance as those of the East Indies. They began in 1624 through the work of Bastian Jansz Krol and lasted until 1664. England began to take an interest in the fate of the peoples of the West Indies after the destruction of the "Armada" in 1588, and was helped by the emigrations of the Scots and of the English Puritans after 1620. Charles I in 1628 gave the "Massachusetts Company" a charter in favor of spreading religion among the natives. To that time belongs the action of the "Pilgrim Fathers." The mission of John Eliot among the Indians deserves special mention. Slowly, however, formalism and doctrinal disputes cooled that little enthusiasm it had, and consequently the expeditions became sporadic and occasional, without any lasting effectiveness. It is true that John Knox (v.) in 1560 had foreseen the future missionary work, but his voice resounded in the desert, as did that of Erasmus (1556). Some missionary information is found in the travels of Hakluyt and in the history of the Reformed and Episcopal Churches in the United States of America. But the rare discoveries that are made go to show that the official churches, except that of Holland, generally displayed a rather feeble missionary spirit.

It is interesting to highlight the methods followed by their pastors, who took care of the Europeans and much less of the pagans or blacks, as they called the natives. They criticized the Portuguese for baptizing without sufficient preparation, and they acted in the same way. They did not concern themselves with the ethnological and psychological elements of the peoples to be evangelized, nor overmuch with learning their language. Sometimes they even defended the profession of pagan and Muslim religions. Instruction was not very carefully attended to and religious literature was not very abundant. Since the colonial missions had not been a very favorable ground for missionary expansion, there was a reaction from elements external to the Reformed Churches. In the first place the pietism of Giacomo Filippo Spener (1635-1705) and August E. Francke (1663-1727). The latter in 1701 published the plan of a universal seminary and became the founder of the German Evangelical Mission. Halle was the center of the missionary movement and of men such as Ziegenbald, B. Schulze, C. F. Schwarz, J. Ph. Fabricius, C. F. Guericke, capable and zealous, several of whom gave rise to the Tranquebar mission. From pietism also originated the missions of the Moravian Brethren, who, according to G. Warneck, in twenty years raised up more missionaries than all the rest of Protestantism in 200 years. Meanwhile the Church in England was passing through a period of rationalism, but thanks to the influence of Zinzendorff upon the men of Methodism, John Wesley and George Whitefield, the missionary idea gained ground. In England the first missionary societies arose, which were often born in opposition to official Protestantism, of which they abandoned not a few fundamental principles. The first was founded in 1691 under the name of "Christian Faith Society for the West Indies." It was followed by very many others in Germany, Denmark, Holland and in other Protestant European and American countries. They have multiplied to such an extent as to make it almost impossible to give a chronological list of them and to indicate their confession of origin. The first effect they produced was that of awakening, albeit slowly, the missionary interest of the official churches. Meanwhile the societies continued their march in Asia, Oceania, America, Africa with the help of enormous capital from the Anglo-Saxon and American countries, and in some territories of Oceania and Africa they preceded the apostolate of Catholic missionaries.

In such a multiplicity of initiatives and activities, the lack of unity and coordination was soon felt, and attempts were made to remedy it through interdenominational meetings. General missionary conferences were held at Liverpool (1860), London (1878 and 1888), New York (1900). That of Edinburgh (1910) was one of the most important; and also that of Jerusalem (1928), Tambaram (1938), and recently that of Amsterdam. In the other conferences promoted by the ecumenical current of Protestantism the missions were not forgotten. In this way the Protestant missions have succeeded in forming an enormous bloc of cooperation, according to common norms and principles. They have left many doctrinal oppositions in the shadows, so that their preaching has become increasingly emptied of all theological content. Consequently, health assistance activities have been greatly developed, also because Protestants have ample financial means at their disposal. Works of secondary and university education have also been promoted, both to influence the masses and to form an elite in the various social fields.

National Churches, independent of the ancient Churches of origin, have also been formed among the new peoples. At present there are about 200 of them, with full freedom of action and doctrine. And from what has been said, it is clear that Protestant missionary methodology is not tied to any ecclesiastical organization and has almost exclusively individualist aims. Today it is seeking new ways. After the two great world wars, the nationalism of peoples of old culture and of those undergoing progressive evangelization seeks to stifle the universalist message of the Gospel; the religious elements that previously lay dormant in the souls to be converted are reawakened all too often at the contact of this or that Christian truth, and moreover the monopolistic invasion of governments in the field of education and health care has forced Protestantism to abandon individualist methods in order to follow broader methods. This is a very arduous task, which the missionary conferences will hardly be able to solve.

All this missionary activity is supported by a series of missiological studies, tending to give a missionary interpretation of the Bible. The various regional, national and international conferences of Protestantism, especially those of Edinburgh (1910) and Jerusalem (1928), were accompanied by a great number of publications, which provided the materials for forming a missiology according to the principles of Protestantism. Among the writers on the subject, mention is made of Adriano Saravia (1531-1613), Justus Heurnius (1587-1651), Antonio Walacus (1573-1639), Gisbert Voetius (1589-1676), Giovanni Hoornbeek (1617-66), Gustav Warneck (1834-1910), who was the pioneer of the theory of missions in Protestantism, and others still. Thanks to them, the missiological science of Protestants can present a literature of high scientific value, which in the historical field can prove very useful. It cannot be denied that their works have exercised a broad influence on many Catholic authors.

VII. PROTESTANTISM AND THE METHOD OF APPROACH

The new situation that has arisen in relations between Protestants and Catholics makes the possibility of a return of the separated brethren more timely and consequently requires a revision of the methods of approach of Catholics toward Protestants.

It cannot be denied that modern Protestantism on many points has cut its doctrinal and spiritual roots, losing itself in philosophical and religious ideologies foreign to the doctrine of the first reformers. The re-examination of the entire "Corpus reformatorum" has had the advantage of causing the polemical tone to be abandoned in favor of devoting itself rather to the constructive doctrinal part. All this activity of revision and of new studies, conducted also by Catholics, has brought about a salutary work of clarification on certain questions of great importance.

However, the three principal Reformed Churches with their numerous confessions and groups offer a terrain quite unfavorable to a mass reunion, especially if one looks at the various particular Churches, which have given rise to modern currents strongly influenced by rationalism, positivism and modernism. Protestants themselves are aware of the difficulties for a possible reunion and propose a certain unity of good understanding, leaving aside the profound divergences on fundamental doctrinal points, which the Catholic Church cannot tolerate. In these attempts many treat the question from the most diverse points of view, thus forcing Catholics into a very complex study. Indeed, for neo-Protestants Sacred Scripture is the starting point of their doctrine and constitutes its objective content. Only in it is it possible to find the elements that contribute to the edification of the Church. The principle established presents for us Catholics a formula too vague and subject to continual variations, from which a series of profound divergences derives. Besides these points of separation, there are many others still concerning the value of merits in the work of Justification, concerning the infallible magisterium of the Church, concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass, concerning the cult of the Most Holy Virgin and the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and of the Assumption. All these profound doctrinal differences must not lead one to consider impossible the return of numerous denominations. There is no lack of grounds for hope, coming from the desire for unity, deeply felt by many Protestants, although it has run up against strong difficulties and experienced painful failures. A step toward unity is certainly represented by faith in Jesus Christ, recognized as God made man, proclaimed by the ecumenical Council. Moreover, a certain tradition is also admitted by many. Especially, then, in Anglicanism various movements have arisen, among them the Oxford one, to promote the return to Rome. Not a few groups of chosen souls have gathered under the Benedictine and Franciscan Rule to satisfy the desire for a holier life. Unfortunately, however, these movements toward Rome are opposed by the heavy heritage of the yoke of the past and often by political and even racial preconceptions, which shift the problem of reunion onto other fields.

In order to clarify doctrinal points many Protestants have placed excessive trust in direct contacts between Catholic and Protestant theologians. The conversations of Malines are a fine example of this, but too often they bring into greater evidence the points that divide us. They must, however, be conducted according to the prudent norms dictated by the instruction of the Holy Office of 20 Dec. 1949 (AAS, 48 [1950], pp. 142-47), which completes those of the "monitum" of 5 June 1948 (ibid., 40 [1948], p. 257). The aforementioned instruction recalls the canonical prescriptions in this regard (cann. 1325 § 3, 1258, 731 § 2) and indicates the conditions for legitimate and useful contacts between Catholics and other Christians. It recommends to bishops that they watch over the various movements toward reunion in the light of the encyclical letters of Leo XIII: Satis cognitum (Acta Leonis XIII, XVI, Rome 1897, p. 157 ff.), of Pius XI: Mortalium animos (AAS, 20 [1928], p. 193 ff.), to which the recent Humani generis (ibid., 42 [1950], p. 561 ff.) may be added.

The integrity of Catholic doctrine must be fully safeguarded and every danger of indifferentism avoided. The so-called irenic spirit must not lead to any compromise in the doctrinal field. It further requires that meetings and discussions between Catholics and non-Catholics be begun only when they present all the guarantees of true usefulness. For this purpose the Ordinaries will choose competent and prudent priests and will not permit laypeople to be admitted unless they are well instructed and firm in the faith. Interconfessional unions for the purpose of safeguarding the principles of natural law and social action do not fall under the prohibition.

The instruction of 1949 grants to the Ordinaries for a three-year period the faculty to grant permission to hold local conferences and meetings provided that every communication "in sacris" be avoided. Large public meetings are little encouraged, and for interdiocesan, national or international ones the authorization of the Holy See is required. Both in discussions and in writings a great charity must shine through, which reconciles mutual understanding on both sides, leaving aside the enormous mass of literature of the 16th, 17th, 18th and even 19th centuries, in which invectives in bad taste were not lacking. Moreover, as in any work of apostolate, so too in promoting the reunion of Protestants with the Church, Catholics must have recourse to prayer, sustained by a life lived in holiness, in order to give Protestants the image of a Church perfect in discipline and in morals. - See plate III.