| 释义 |
Protestant, n. and a.|ˈprɒtɪstənt|
[a. Ger. or F. protestant, in pl. the designation of those who joined in the protest at Spires in 1529, ad. L. prōtestāns, pl. prōtestānt-ēs, pres. pple. of prōtest-ārī to protest. In French also † one who protests in any sense, e.g. who protests devotion, n. use of pres. pple. of protester (cf. sense 3 a).]
A. n.
I. Eccles.
1. Hist. usually pl. The name given to those German princes and free cities who made a declaration of dissent from the decision of the Diet of Spires (1529), which re-affirmed the edict of the Diet of Worms against the Reformation; hence, a general designation of the adherents of the Reformed doctrines and worship in Germany.
In the 16th c., the name Protestant was generally taken in Germany by the Lutherans; while the Swiss and French called themselves Reformed.
1539Wyatt Let. to Cromwell in MS. Cotton Vesp. C. vii. lf. 26 b, The Launsegrave the Duke of Saxone and the other of the Liegue whiche they cal the Protestantes. Ibid. lf. 28 b, This must be other against the Turk or the Protestantes, or for Geldres. 1540Wotton Let. to Cromwell in St. Papers Hen. VIII, VIII. 287 They reken heere that the Protestantes will make no leage nor truecis with thEmperour, but under suche wordes, as shalbe able to ynclude the Duke of Cleves to. 1542Coverdale Actes Disput. Contents, The namys of all them which are called protestantys. 1551J. Hales Let. fr. Augsburg to Cecil 27 Apr. (S.P. For., Edw. VI, VI. No. 328, P.R.O.), In most places the Papistes and Protestauntes haue ther servyce in one churche, one after thother. 1559Bp. Scot in Strype Ann. Ref. (1709) I. App. vii. 17 It is declared..that earnest sute was made by the protestantes to have three things graunted and suffered to be practyssed within that realme [of Polonia]. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 82 b, Vnto this protestation of Prynces, certen of the chief cities..did subscribe..this is in dede y⊇ first original of the name of Protestauntes, which not only in Germany, but also emonges foreyn nations, is nowe common and famous. 1624Bedell Lett. ii. 4 Protestants. A name first given to the Princes and free Cities of Germany, that sought reformation in the Diet at Spire, Anno 1529. 1659Milton Civ. Power Wks. 1738 I. 547 Which Protestation made by the first public Reformers of our Religion against the Imperial Edicts of Charles the fifth, imposing Church-Traditions without Scripture, gave first beginning to the name of Protestant. 1761Hume Hist. Eng. II. xxx. 174 The Lutheran princes..had combined in a league for their own defence at Smalcalde; and because they protested against the votes passed in the imperial diet, they thenceforth received the appellation of Protestants. 1899B. J. Kidd 39 Art. I. i. i. §2. 7 In church ornaments,..while the Lutherans or Protestants were willing to retain everything that was not expressly forbidden in Scripture, the Swiss or Reformed excluded everything but what was positively enjoined.
2. a. A member or adherent of any of the Christian churches or bodies which repudiated the papal authority, and separated or were severed from the Roman communion in the Reformation of the sixteenth century, and generally of any of the bodies of Christians descended from them; hence in general language applied to any Western Christian or member of a Christian church outside the Roman communion. Opposed to Papist, Roman Catholic, or Catholic in the restricted sense.
1553E. Underhill in Narr. Reform. (Camden) 140 Your honors do knowe thatt in this controversy thatt hathe byn, sume be called papistes and sume protestaynes. 1554Coverdale Lett. Mass (1564) 345 The more parte doe parte stakes wythe the papistes and protestantes, so that they are become maungye Mongrelles. 1556M. Huggarde (title) The displaying of the Protestantes, & sondry their practises, with a description of diuers their abuses..frequented within their malignaunte church. 1561(title) The Confession of the Faythe and Doctrine beleued and professed by the Protestantes of the Realme of Scotlande. 1562A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) i. 145 Protestandis takis þe freiris auld antetewne, Reddie ressauaris, bot to rander nocht. 1594Nashe Unfort. Trav. 60, I must saie to the shame of vs protestants, if good workes may merit heauen they [Romans] doe them, we talke of them. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 327 William Lambard..was the first Protestant that built an Hospitall. 1659Baxter Key Cath. Pref. 3 A Protestant is a Christian that holdeth to the holy Scriptures as a sufficient Rule of faith and holy living and protesteth against Popery. 1659Evelyn Diary 21 Oct., A private Fast was kept by the Church of England Protestants in towne. 1678Act 30 Chas. II, Stat. ii. §2, Declar. 3, I do make this Declaration..in the plain and ordinary Sense of the Words read unto me, as they are commonly understood by English Protestants, without any Evasion, Equivocation or mental Reservation whatsoever. 1685Evelyn Diary 3 Nov., The French persecution of the Protestants raging with the utmost barbarity. 1686Ibid. 5 May, The Duke of Savoy, instigated by the French King to extirpate the Protestants of Piedmont. 1689Sancroft in Gutch Coll. Cur. I. 447 We are true Englishmen and true Protestants, and heartily love our Religion and our Laws. 1798S. Lee Canterb. T., Young Lady's T. II. 255 He could not, as a protestant, claim sanctuary with the monks. 1864J. H. Newman Apologia pro Vita Sua vii. 425 If Protestants wish to know what our real teaching is,..let them look, not at our books of casuistry, but at our catechisms. 1895Ld. Acton Stud. Hist. (1896) 24 The centre of gravity, moving..from the Latin to the Teuton, has also passed from the Catholic to the Protestant. 1900C. M. Yonge Modern Broods v. 50 You seem to me like the Roman Catholic child, who said there were five sacraments, there ought to be seven, but the Protestants had got two of them. 1903F. W. Maitland in Camb. Mod. Hist. II. xvi. 571 The word ‘Protestant’, which is rapidly spreading [c 1559] from Germany, comes as a welcome name. In the view of an officially inspired apologist of the Elizabethan settlement, those who are not Papists are Protestants. 1938O. C. Quick Doctrines of Creed II. xiii. 134 Neither Thomistic orthodoxy nor the modernism of the Liberal Protestants can take such an interpretation seriously. 1955R. Macaulay Let. 5 Feb. in Last Lett. to Friend (1962) 190 It is this tendency to rule out Protestants (including Anglicans) from the Church of Christ that is so tiresome and silly. 1962C. Quin tr. E. Amand de Mendieta's Rome & Canterbury viii. 183 After the Reformation movement had led to a vigorous reaction among Protestants against excessive devotion to the Virgin Mary, Roman Catholic theologians have always regarded the defence of the legitimacy of such devotion as one of their chief tasks. 1966D. E. Jenkins Guide to Debate about God iii. 65 Protestants have tended not to be very concerned about the collapse of reason in relation to awareness of God. 1973Ann. Reg. 1972 376 In Northern Ireland the most sinister development was sectarian assassination; 81 Catholics and 40 Protestants.
b. spec. In reference to the Church of England the use has varied with time and circumstances. In the 17th c., Protestant was generally accepted and used by members of the Established Church, and was even so applied to the exclusion of Presbyterians, Quakers, and Separatists, as was usual at least until the early 20th c. in parts of England and Ireland. In more recent times the name has been disfavoured or disowned by many Anglicans. Also, a Low Church member of the Church of England.
In the 17th c., ‘protestant’ was primarily opposed to ‘papist’, and thus accepted by English Churchmen generally; in more recent times, being generally opposed to ‘Roman Catholic’, or (after common Continental and R.C. use) to ‘Catholic’ (see catholic A. 7, B. 2, 3), it is viewed with disfavour by those who lay stress on the claim of the Anglican Church to be equally Catholic with the Roman. (see also sense c below).
1608Chapman, etc. Eastward Hoe v. i, I have had of all sorts of men..under my Keyes; and almost of all religions i' the land, as Papist, Protestant, Puritane, Brownist, Anabaptist,..etc. 1608D. T[uvil] Ess. Pol. & Mor. 64 Betweene the Catholick and the Protestant, the Protestant and the Puritan, the Puritan and others. 1642Mrs. Eure in Verney Mem. (1892) II. v. 96 Neither papist, nor puritan, aye nor protestant, but will be the loosers by it. 1661Jer. Taylor Serm. at Opening Parl. Irel. 8 May ⁋11, I hope the presbyterian will join with the protestant, and say, that the papist, and the Socinian, and the independent, and the anabaptist, and the quaker, are guilty of rebellion and disobedience. 1820tr. Cosmo's Trav. 425 The Puritans..sworn enemies of the Catholics, as also of the Protestants. [Cf. p. 412 Protestants or those of the Established Religion.] 1830–3W. Carleton Traits & Stories Irish Peasantry (1860) I. 185 The population of the Catholics on the one side, and of Protestants and Dissenters on the other. 1834J. H. Newman Let. 30 July (1891) II. 59 The word Protestant does not, as far as I know, occur in our formularies. It is an uncomfortable, perplexing word, intended to connect us..with the Protestants abroad. We are a ‘Reformed’ Church, not a ‘Protestant’. 1874J. H. Blunt Dict. Sects 447/2 High Churchmen of modern times..have..objected to the designation of Protestant as being (1) one of too negative a character to express at all justly the principle of Catholic resistance to the uncatholic pretensions and practices of Rome: and (2) as being a name which is used by so many sects as to be inclusive even of heresy. 1890Healy Insula Sanctorum, etc. 291 His memory is cherished not only by Catholics but by Protestants and even by Presbyterians also. 1900C. B. Mount Let. to Editor, Forty years back in Dorset, I frequently heard the word ‘Protestant’ used as distinctive name for members of the Established Church of England, in distinction from ‘Dissenters’, ‘Chapel-goers’, and the like. 1913C. Mackenzie Sinister St. I. ii. vi. 239 ‘Finding out for yourself,’ echoed Chator with a look of alarm. ‘I say, you're an absolute Protestant.’ ‘Oh, no I'm not,’ contradicted Michael. ‘I'm a Catholic.’ 1933G. Faber Oxf. Apostles iii. 73 They [sc. the Tractarians] were hostile to Roman pretensions..but they claimed the same title of Catholic..and they loathed the title of Protestant only less than that of Dissenter. 1960Daily Tel. 15 Nov. 12/8 Surely Canon Lionel Lydekker is mistaken when he writes that the original meaning of Protestant was ‘protesting against any tampering with the Holy Catholic Faith’. Ibid., Canon Lydekker's definition of ‘Protestant’ is in line with 18th-century usage when, in this country, it meant Anglican, as distinct from Nonconformist, just as on the Continent it still means Lutheran as distinct from Calvinist (or ‘reformed’).
1813A. Knox in K. & Jebb's Corr. (1834) II. 122 What perverse influence the nick-name of protestant has had on our church. 1905A. Cooper-Marsdin Church or Sect i. 7, I refuse to call myself a Protestant except..when I wish to declare..that I am not a Papist.
c. A member of a nonconformist or non-episcopal Church.
1958M. Argyle Relig. Behaviour xii. 157 By Protestants we mean to refer to the main ‘nonconformist’ denominations such as Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists. 1963Auden Dyer's Hand 350 In New England Protestants of Anglo-Scotch stock consider themselves a cut above Roman Catholics and those of a Latin race. 1977R. L. Wolff Gains & Losses 8 Dissenters or Non-conformists, Protestants of many varying sects, who dissent from the Church of England.
II. General. Often stressed |prəʊˈtɛstənt|.
3. One who protests.
a. One who makes protestation or declaration; esp. one who protests devotion [Fr. protestant]; a suitor. rare.
1648Herrick Hesper., To Anthea, who may command, etc. i, Bid me to live, and I will live Thy Protestant to be. 1904Daily Chron. 5 May 3/3 That is how we find among her ‘protestants’ Mr. Denis O'Hara, whose love-chase is the theme of this, as of the earlier story.
b. One who protests against error (partly etymological, partly fig. from 1 or 2).
1836–7Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. (1877) I. v. 91 We must be protestants, not infidels in philosophy. 1903G. F. Browne St. Aldhelm 297 Abbat Failbe was the first Protestant in these islands, for Adamnan says that he ‘protested’... A Protestant is one who asserts his own belief in a definite and positive form.
c. One who makes protest against any decision, proceeding, practice, custom, or the like; a protester. (Often with allusion to senses 1 and 2.)
1853Maurice Proph. & Kings xix. 328 The protestant against sensual and divided worship. 1862― Mor. & Met. Philos. IV. ix. §108. 629 To hope that he would be the effectual protestant against all North West passages. 1885Century Mag. June 328/1 No great moral value can be attached to a protest against evil doing at which the protestant has connived. 1896Bp. Gore Rom. Cath. Claims (1904) App. i. 206 When John the Baptist appeared, he appeared as a protestant against the actual development which the inspired religion had received. 1906Daily Chron. 4 May 3/4 Lawrence Rivers, protestant against compulsory games, champion of the right to do with schoolboy leisure as schoolboy pleases.
B. adj.
1. a. Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of Protestants or Protestantism; usu. in a broad sense, designating Christian bodies, beliefs, etc., outside the Communion of Rome and the Eastern Communions; occas. (b) more narrowly, in sense A. 2 c above. (In the earliest quots., = protesting, and, in reference to the Continent, = Lutheran.)
1539Cromwell in St. Papers Hen. VIII, I. 605 The States Protestantes have geven their petition more then 4 dayes passed, but as yet thEmperours Commissioners have geven no answer therto. 1542Coverdale Actes Disput. 195 These be the Prynces and estates protestantys & all which do stond to the confessyon geuen at Augspurg called the germanys confession. 1584Leycesters Commw. (1641) 97 Complaining on all hands of our protestants Bishops and Clergy. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts Ep. Ded., D. Gesner..was a Protestant Physician. 1644Evelyn Diary 6 Mar., To heare & see the manner of the French Protestant Churches service. 1648Eikon Bas. xxvii. 277 That scarce any one [of them]..either was, or is a true Lover,..or Practiser of the Protestant Religion, established in England. 1654(Dec. 7) Resolution in Jrnls. Ho. Comm. VII. 397/2 The True Reformed Protestant, Christian Religion, as it is contained in the Holy Scriptures,..shall be asserted and maintained, as the publick Profession of these Nations. 1679Evelyn Diary 28 Nov., This Duke [Monmouth], whom for distinction they call'd the Protestant Duke.., the people made their idol. c1687Burnet Orig. Mem. i. (1902) 153 She does the protestant interest more service than all her ill-affects can do it a prejudice. 1688Kennett in Magd. Coll. & Jas. II (O.H.S.) 258 There was a Protestant, or rather Providential, wind. 1688Act 1 Will. & Mary c. 6 (Coronation oath), Will you to the utmost of your Power maintain the Laws of God, the true Profession of the Gospel and the Protestant Reformed Religion established by Law? 1689Sancroft in Gutch Coll. Cur. I. 447 The Bishops and Clergy of England are unmoveably fixt to the Protestant religion; and absolutely irreconcileable both to Popery and arbitrary power. 1700Pepys Let. 12 Apr., All the King of France does against his Protestant subjects. 1828Act 9 Geo. IV, c. 17. §2 (Declaration) The Protestant Church as it is by Law established in England. 1854[see catholic B. 3]. 1899Bp. Stubbs Visitation Charges (1904) 343 The Protestant Religion is, I think, the historical and reasonable expression for collective application. 1861C. M. Yonge Young Step-Mother xxix. 448, I wonder if the omnibus is too protestant to leave a parcel at the convent. 1903F. W. Maitland in Camb. Mod. Hist. II. xvi. 594 That Protestant principle which refers us to the primitive Church. 1930T. Parsons tr. Weber's Protestant Ethic i. 35 Business leaders and owners of capital, as well as the higher grades of skilled labour, and even more the higher technically and commercially trained personnel of modern enterprises, are overwhelmingly Protestant. Ibid. iii. 80 The conception of the calling thus brings out that central dogma of all Protestant denominations which the Catholic division of ethical precepts into præceptia and consilia discards. 1935E. Gill Lett. (1947) 342 Prudishness is more typically the vice of the protestant puritan. 1940R. Niebuhr Christianity & Power Politics i. 18 This is the issue upon which the Protestant Reformation separated itself from classical Catholicism. 1954B. Griffiths Golden String vii. 114 When his mother heard that it would be necessary for him to attend a Protestant service, she had replied that she would rather go to the workhouse with her eleven children than submit to that. 1958B. Pym Glass of Blessings xiv. 164 It was absurd to have this suspicious Protestant attitude towards convents. 1960Daily Tel. 10 Nov. 14/7 The Rev. John Castle asks: ‘Where in her formularies is the Church of England described as ‘Protestant’?’ The answer is (albeit singly and solely) in the Coronation Service. Whether or no the contention that the oath then taken by the Sovereign regarding the ‘Protestant Religion’ is merely one imposed by the State without the fiat of the Church, is beside the point. 1965C. E. Pocknee Parson's Handbk. (ed. 13) i. 7 These quotations from well-known Roman Catholic writers are sufficient to disprove the idea that there is something ‘protestant’ or anti-Roman in the custom of bowing as the normal act of reverence. 1976Listener 29 Apr. 526/2 ‘The Good Lord’ may have Protestant connotations, which would be inappropriate in translating [‘le Bon Dieu’ in] a Catholic poem. 1976Times 28 Sept. 2/1 Mr. Mason, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, yesterday made a determined attempt to win the hearts and minds of Ulster's disgruntled population, Roman Catholic and Protestant, by pledging himself to tackle their serious economic ills.
(b)1864J. H. Newman Apologia pro Vita Sua v. 248 They [sc. Anglican Bishops] were..fraternizing..with Protestant bodies, and allowing them to put themselves under an Anglican Bishop, without any renunciation of their errors. 1942J. Bailie Invitation to Pilgrimage x. 71 Some of the lesser Protestant sects, Quaker, Methodist, and others,..tended to be ‘perfectionist’—sometimes even to a greater degree than Mediaeval Catholicism has ever been. 1954R. Macaulay Let. 19 Aug. in Last Lett. to Friend (1962) 166 Conversions..from the unlovely Protestant churches. 1963Auden Dyer's Hand 350 In New England..the most respectable Protestant denominations are the Congregationalists and the Unitarians. 1973Times 16 Apr. 1/7 He will meet Roman Catholic, Anglican and Protestant church leaders, and Mr Whitelaw, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. 1977R. L. Wolff Gains & Losses 13 Those who were more Protestant than the legally established Church of England had their own troubled history.
b. Protestant ascendancy, the Anglo-Irish ruling class in pre-Republican Ireland, which became Protestant at the Reformation, as opp. the native Irish who remained Roman Catholic; also transf.; Protestant Dissenter: see dissenter 2 c; Protestant Episcopal, official style of the church in U.S. descended from and in communion with the Church of England; hence Protestant Episcopalianism, Episcopalism; Protestant ethic, the ethical outlook towards business enterprise which, according to Max Weber's analysis, first evolved in protestant Europe through the teachings of Calvin that to be successful through hard work was a person's duty and responsibility; also Protestant work ethic.
1827Barrington Personal Sk. 243 The term ‘Protestant ascendancy’ was coined by Mr. John Gifford..and became an epithet very fatal to the peace of Ireland. 1875F. Arnold Our Bishops & Deans I. iii. 148 What idea of Protestant truth was conveyed to the Roman Catholics by the favourite phrase ‘Protestant ascendancy’? 1922R. Dunlop Ireland from Earliest Times v. 129 The Treaty of Limerick marks the beginning of a new period known as that of the Protestant Ascendancy. 1936R. M. Douglas Irish Bk. 138 He [sc. the Catholic Irishman] was ‘loyal’, and..became an informer, a policeman, or a soldier serving the Protestant ascendancy. 1966C. M. Bowra Memories 1898–1939 xii. 272 His mother, an O'Reilly, was a true daughter of the Protestant Ascendancy. 1977Herald (Melbourne) 17 Jan. 7/3 The neglect of the Castle Hill uprising reflects the prejudices of the Protestant ascendancy in Australia.
1672Dk. Buckhm. Sp. in Proc. Ho. Lords (1742) I. 165 That you would give me leave to bring in a Bill of Indulgence to all Protestant Dissenters. 1688,1839[see dissenter 2 c].
1780in W. S. Perry Hist. Amer. Episcopal Ch. (1885) II. 21 On motion of the Secretary it was proposed that the Church known in the province as Protestant be called ‘the Protestant-Episcopal Church’, and it was so adopted. 1857Church Rev. Jan. 562 The Protestant Episcopal is representative—republican; but not democratic. 1920Catholic World Sept. 777 The best they can offer now as a way out of the hated ‘Protestant Episcopal’ is ‘Protestant Catholic’ church! 1961N. & Q. June 236/2 His thesis is that the name ‘Protestant Episcopal’, though historically justifiable, is a liability to the missionary efforts of American Anglicans and should be replaced by ‘The American Episcopal Church’. 1977Time 10 Oct. 37/1 Social relations executive of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
1956R. Macaulay Towers of Trebizond i. 14 My aunt had inherited..strong prejudices against..all American religious bodies except Protestant Episcopalianism.
1836Southern Lit. Messenger II. 282 In regard to Protestant Episcopalism in America, it may be safely said that, prior to this publication of Dr. Hawks, there were no written memorials extant. [1904M. Weber in Archiv. f. Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik XX. 1 (title) Die protestantische Ethik und der ‘Geist’ des Kapitalismus.] 1926R. H. Tawney Relig. & Rise of Capitalism 320 Both ‘the capitalist spirit’ and ‘Protestant ethics’..were a good deal more complex than Weber seems to imply. 1930T. Parsons tr. Weber's Protestant Ethic iii. 89 We thus take as our starting-point in the investigation of the relationship between the old Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism the works of Calvin, of Calvinism, and the other Puritan sects. 1944Social Res. Feb. 61 Weber's original intention in The Protestant Ethic must be seen against the background of his time. 1956W. H. Whyte Organization Man i. i. 6 The organization man..needs..something that will do for him what the Protestant ethic did once. 1968C. Armstrong Balloon Man xii. 146 She was tough. In her own way, Protestant ethic or whatever, she was. 1977Listener 7 Apr. 455/1 Infant prodigies..are the ultimate denial of the Protestant Ethic—hard work can produce lesser rewards than sheer talent. 1980Country Life 24 Apr. 1283/3 Mrs Smith had the Protestant work-ethic in the very marrow of her bones.
2. Also |prəʊˈtɛstənt|. Protesting; making a protest.
1844Ld. Houghton Mem. Many Scenes, Tintern Abbey 182 We of this latter, still protestant age, With priestly ministrations of the sun,..Maintain this consecration. 1890G. S. Hall in Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 61 A private protestant tribunal, where personal moral convictions preside. 1899Echo 1 Nov. 1/4 Artlessly protestant against the vicious vanities of smart society.
Hence ˈProtestantdom, the Protestant communities collectively; ˈProtestantˌlike a., like or after the manner of a Protestant; ˈProtestantly adv., in a Protestant manner; consistently with Protestantism.
1579Fulke Refut. Rastel 739 An argument of authority negatiue, is naught and protestantlike. 1659Milton Civ. Power Wks. 1851 V. 312 To protestants..nothing more protestantly can be permitted then a free and lawful debate. 1676Doctrine of Devils 21 If there have not been..even in Protestantdom some too, that..give heed to such doctrines. 1896D. L. Leonard in Papers Ohio Ch. Hist. Soc. VII. 98 Probably by most of Christendom, if not also by most of ‘Protestantdom’, we are as yet unheard of. |