Tradition and Authority in Reformed Protestantism

Page 11 of 11

"The Catholic Controversy", (Rockford: TAN, 1989) which was written around 1600 as a series of tracts to those peoples in the Chablais region of France, and was responsible for the conversion of some 72,000 Calvinists back to the Catholic Church. 14 Quoted in: Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church (London: Oxford, 1967) p.20 1 15 "au-ton-o-mous 1. Independent; self-contained. 2. Self governing. [Gk. autonomous, self-ruling.]" The American Heritage Dictionary", (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1983) 16 "For our purposes here, one of the most intriguing aspects of this kind of study is the uncovering of the process by which the very antitraditionalism of the Reformation has itself become a tradition. After four centuries of saying, in the well-known formula of the English divine, William Chillingsworth, that "the Bible only is the religion of Protestants," Protestants have, in this principle, nothing less than a full-blown tradition. And so the Bible was not 'the Bible only' after all." Jaroslav Pelikan, The Vindication of Tradition, (New Haven: Yale, 1984) p. 11 17 The so-called proto-Reformers Wyclif and Hus and the Lollard movement did put forth similar doctrines at the end of the 14th century, and were quickly condemned for these false doctrines at the Council of Constance in 1415. It is interesting that when Luther was confronted by Eck at Leipzig in 1519 about the similarity of his teachings with those of the Lollards, which had been condemned at Constance, Luther was quick to admit the similarity of his doctrine with theirs, and to defended their doctrines. Eck later stated that: "Concerning the tenents of the Bohemians, [the Hussites, or Lollards] he [Luther] said that some of their teachings condemned at the council of Constance are most Christian and evangelical; by which rash error he frightened away many who before were his supporters." Quoted in: Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church, (London: Oxford, 1967) p. 192

http://www.snider.net/home/theophilus/tradition.html

7/1/99