Becker Bible Teacher Resources

An official appointed to present critical arguments against proposed beatification or canonization.

An ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop

Official list of bishops (past and present) who should be prayed for. A double catalog of the living, and on the other side deceased, names of ecclesiastics and benefactors of the church; a catalog of saints

When ecumenical councils deal with matters of faith, the resulting edicts are known as "symbols" or "dogmas." Those decisions that regard organizational, disciplinary, or procedural matters are known as "canons."¹

¹Ferguson, Everett. Church History Volume One: From Christ to Pre-Reformation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005, 211.

A fourth century rebellion against the encroachments of Christian sacralism, or Constantinianism with an effort to preserve membership to the Church based on "personal faith" rather than an all-inclusive participation through the dictums of a state.¹

 

Reference:

¹ Leonard Verduin, The Reformers and Their Stepchildren (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1964), 33.

A person in a religious order.

A disputed clause that was added to the Nicene Creed that formed a divisive chasm between the Eastern churches and the West during the Middle Ages. In the East believers declared their faith in the Holy Spirit 'who proceeds from the father', while in the West the Holy Spirit is professed, 'who proceeds from the father and the Son' (in Latin: filoque). By the time of the split of the Roman Catholic Church from the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1054, it became part of the Western creed and a grievance of the East.

A symbol of a water fountain, it is a receptacle in a church that contains the water used in sprinkled baptism or holds the blessed holy water used in religious ceremony.

One of two mendicant orders (see Dominicans), founded shortly before the Fourth Lateran Council forbade more orders, was one of the last great religious orders of the Middle Ages. The Franciscans were founded upon the preaching of Francis of Assisi, who petitioned Innocent III for permission to found the order of Friars Minore in 1210. The Italian friars soon became a powerful tool for the papacy, as they gave the pope the ability to direct their movements without a bishop’s approval. They owned nothing, and begged for support as they preached among people they met in their travels. The Friars practice was focused upon their devotion to Christ through the practice of poverty, and they were popular among the poor, outcasts, and sick. The Franciscans wore grey robes and were known as the 'Grey Friars' (Hill, 193, 194).

Bibliography

Hill, Jonathan. "Early Christianity: A World Religion." Handbook to the History of Christianity. Zondervan, 2006.