PROTESTANT, a general term comprehending all those who, pro fessing Christianity, yet are not in the communion of the general church or confederacy of Christians of which the pope is the head and the city of Rome the centre or capital. There is great variety of opinion among persons thus separated, in points of faith, church order, and discipline, but this term covers and comprehends them all, leaving the varieties in opinion to be marks of specific differences only under the genus Protestant.
The term originated In Germany, and the occasion was this :—At the Diet at Spire, in 1526, decrees had been passed which were so far favourable to the progress of the Reformation that they went to forbid any peculiar exertions against it. The consequence was that the spirit of reformation gained strength, and spread itself more extensively in Germany. Then arose also commotion which were attributed to the reformed and to the spirit kindled by them. Both the pope and the emperor looked with increasing alarm on the aspect of aflairs, and at another Diet, held at the same place in 1529, the emperor directed an imperial brief to the persons assembled, to the effect that he had forbidden all innovation, and proscribed the innovators in matters of religion, who had notwithstanding increased since the decrees of 1526, but that now, by virtue of the full powers inherent in him, he annulled those decrees as contrary to his intentions. The peremptory tone of these letters alarmed the persona present at the Diet ; and particularly the elector of Saxony is reported to have said to his son, that no former emperor had used such language, and that he ought to be informed that their rights were more ancient than the elevation of his family.
This strong measure of the emperor had also the effect of uniting, at least on this point, the two great sections of German reformers, the Lutherans and the of whom Zuinglius was the head.
However, the party opposed to the Reformation was the stronger, and the emperor's brief received the sanction of the Diet. Then it was that the reformers took the high ground of declaring that this was not a business of policy or temporal interests, with respect to which they were ready to submit to the will of the majority, but it affected the interests of conscience and futurity. On this and other grounds they founded a protest, which was delivered in on the 19th day of April, but refused by the Diet. A second protest, larger than the former, was presented on the succeeding day. The princes and the cities who favoured the Reformation joined in it, and thenceforth it became usual to call the reformers Protestants.
It is often found that a particular incident or occasion leads to the construction of a name for a religious party, which becomes extended, as in this instance, to parties who have no immediate connection with the particular incident, or interest in the question with which it is con nected. The term Protestant, in fact, seems to have as much to do with the constitution of the Germanic confederacy as with the principles of the Reformation ; and certainly, neither England nor Scotland had any thing to do with the proceedings of the emperor or with the Diet of Spire. The Reformed Church might seem to designate the Church of England or the Church of Scotland more appropriately than the Protestant church. However, it must be owned, that few things are more difficult than to coin terms by which to designate a re ligious community which shall not be open to objection and cavil.