Who was Teresa of Avila?
Teresa of Avila, or Saint Teresa of Avila, was a Carmelite nun living in a Spanish convent in the early 1500s. She had entered the convent at the age of twenty, after experiencing guilt about what she felt to be an unhealthy interest in medieval fiction and her own appearance. Teresa embarked on a quest…
What were the religious wars / wars of religion?
The religious wars were a series of military conflicts in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. While the wars of religion often began as conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, there were political, economic, civil, and national reasons behind the wars as well. The European religious wars were brutal, with the combined death toll ranging…
What is the Heidelberg Catechism?
A catechism (kat’-ə-kism) is a method of teaching that uses a question-and-answer format. The teacher, or catechist, recites the question, and the pupils, or catechumens, respond with the prescribed answer. For centuries, the church has used catechisms as a tool to instruct students in the basic truths of the Bible. One such catechism is the…
What were the Inquisitions?
The Inquisitions were judicial institutions or tribunals that were established by the Roman Catholic Church in order to seek out, try, and sentence people that the Roman Catholic Church believed to be guilty of heresy. The purpose of the inquisitions was to secure and maintain religious and doctrinal unity in the Roman Catholic Church and…
What happened at the Council of Hippo?
The Council of Hippo or the Synod of Hippo met in AD 393 in Hippo Regius, today known as the seaport city of Annaba, Algeria, in northern Africa. Compared to other church councils, the Council of Hippo was a minor event. The city of Hippo often played a notable role in the early Christian church…
What was the Marburg Colloquy?
A colloquy, in a general sense, is simply a conversation. However, the term is often used in a more technical sense to denote a meeting to discuss theological matters. The Marburg Colloquy was one such meeting that took place in Marburg, Germany, October 1–4, 1529, between representatives of the German Reformation and the Swiss Reformation.…
What happened at the Council of Florence?
The Council of Florence was a meeting of Catholic and Orthodox churchmen held in the year 1439 in Florence, Italy. Its original name was the Council of Basel (Switzerland), but the council split. A contingent of the churchmen stayed on in Basel and elected antipope Felix V, while the rest moved their meeting to Ferrara,…
What is the Augsburg Confession?
The Augsburg Confession (Confessio Augustana in Latin) is one of the most important documents to come out of the Protestant Reformation. It is also the foremost confession of faith for the Lutheran Church. Written by Philipp Melanchthon, a German Reformer and successor to Martin Luther, the Confession was presented to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor,…
Who was St. John of the Cross?
Juan de Yepes y Álvarez, better known to history as St. John of the Cross (1542—1591), was a Catholic mystic, theologian, and poet in Spain. He was also a friar in the Carmelite order and an influence in the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic revival following the Protestant Reformation. His most famous works are Spiritual Canticle and…
What is the meaning of semper reformanda?
The Latin words semper reformanda are part of a well-known phrase, ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda, that came about in the 17th century. In English it is translated as, “the church reformed, always being reformed.” So semper reformada means “always reforming.” Scholars have traced the origins of semper reformanda to a devotional book written by Jodocus…