Royals & Protestant Religions

[Tweetybird]

Public TV source here on yet another show I saw fairly recently on Martin Luther. Although I initially learned in school that Martin Luther was a great reformer and to be admired especially the tithing sytem which gave seating preference etc in the church for the money one gave. Martin Luther writings coincided with the first printing press so his writings were widely read for that time. I learned a lot about his childhhod marriage woes etc. What made me sad about Martin Luther is later in life he wrote a long detailed antisemetic book that was distrubuted throughout present day germany and throughout europe. So I dont like him or admire him. It is believed this book was the foundation for beliefs around the houlocaust. In the public TV show it said he wrote it after the death of one of his children. But jeese. So that part if Lutheranism is not often mentioned. I was a bit depressed to learn that about him. I guess its hard to find a decent role model even in our spiritual leaders. And to respond to the Catholic comments. We are all Christian. And all of Christian roots are Judeo Christian. One last comment before I go to sleep. The old testament is used by Christian Jewish and Muslem people. So everyone gets the cool stories about Noahs Arc and Jonas inside the whale and Joseph with his many colored coat being sold by his brothers into slavery on the market square.

 

[Mbruno]

Some clarifications on the Church of Sweden.


Since the year 2000, the King of Sweden is no longer the supreme governor of the church. However, the fundamental principles on which the church as a religious community is based are still regulated by law. In particular, the Law on the Swedish Church (Lag om Svenska Kyrkan), which can only be amended by the Swedish parliament, says that the church must remain evangelical Lutheran and open to the public, be organized in a democratic basis and have a national presence. The law also lays out the basic organization of the church in local congregations and dioceses (headed by a bishop) having the Church Synod (in Swedish, Kyrkomötet) as its ruling body. Furthermore, the law requires the compulsory payment of church fees (Kyrkoavgift) by church members and imposes several restrictions on administration of church property and the obligation on the part of church authorities to comply with access to information regulations.


The provision in the Instrument of Government of 1809 that required the Swedish king to be a member of the church has been removed in the Instrument of Government of 1974. However, the Act of Succession still requires all princes and princesses of the Royal House to be brought up in the evangelical Lutheran faith described and adopted in the Confession of Augsburg and in the resolutions of the Synod of the Church of Sweden in Uppsala in 1593. Any member of the Royal Family who does not profess that very specific confession of faith is excluded by law from the succession to the throne.


So, technically, the Church of Sweden has been a self-governed body since 2000, but it retains the characteristics of a "national church" , is partially regulated by law in its basic constitution (which cannot be changed unilaterally by the church without parliamentary approval), and remains intimately close to the Royal Family through the religious tests for succession to the throne. I don't agree then with the claim that the church was separated from the state in 2000, even though its day-to-day governance was.

 

[Mbruno]

The Protestant Royal Families


1) Reigning houses (families that are required by law to be Protestant to retain succession rights or ascend the Throne are boldfaced)

• The British Royal Family
• The Royal Family of Denmark
• The Royal Family of the Netherlands
• The Royal Family of Norway
• The Royal Family of Sweden

2) Non-ruling royal families (please add to or correct that list)

• The Ducal Family of Anhalt (Ascania ?)
• The Grand Ducal Family of Baden (Zähringen)
• The Royal Family of Hanover (Guelph)
• The Grand Ducal Family of Hesse (Lorraine-Brabant ?)
• The Princely Family of Lippe
• The Grand Ducal Family of Oldenburg
• The Royal Family of Prussia, also the former Imperial Family of Germany (Hohenzollern)
• The Princely Family of Reuss
• The various Ernestine ducal families of Saxony (Saxe-Meiningen; Saxe-Coburg-Gotha excluding the Belgian royal branch; Saxe-Altenburg)
• The Princely Family of Waldeck-Pyrmont

3) Formerly Protestant royal families (now Catholic ?)

• The Royal House of Saxony (Wettin)
• The Royal House of Württemberg

The "grand" (formerly) Protestant royal orders of chivalry, now awarded also to Catholics and even non-Christians are: Garter, Thistle, Elephant, and Seraphim. Traditionally, the "grandest" Protestant dynasties in Europe were/ are in my opinion: Hanover (while Kings of Great Britain and Ireland) and Windsor (British branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha); Hohenzollern; Orange-Nassau; and Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.

As we are all learning about Roman Catholicism in the Catholic thread, I saw that some people were confused about which religions were Protestant religions. I felt perhaps there can be a forum of learning and discussing the many Protestant religions that exist today and the Royals who practice them. I would like a forum that is meant for a true exchange of knowledge; not one of a prejudical attack.

The USA, my native land, is more than 50% percent Protestant. Some of the Protestant religions in my country are: Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, Anabaptist, Episcopalian, and Born Again Christianity. This is just a short list, there are many more.

From the point of view of the religious affiliation of European royals, the Protestant churches of interest are those that stem from the 16th century Reformation, namely:


a) The churches in the Anglican communion (Protestant episcopal churches that retain liturgical practices which are somewhat similar to the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church liturgy, especially the Church of England).


b)The Lutheran churches (some of which are also "High Churches" with an episcopal structure, while others follow a more characteristic Protestant congregational/ synodal model; theologically they are closer to the Roman Catholic church than the Calvinist churches, especially nowadays).


c) The churches associated with the Calvinist tradition and doctrine ( normally called "Reformed" in continental Europe or "Presbyterian" in Scotland and the English-speaking countries; usually classified as "Low Churches" with a simple, austere liturgy and a congregational/ presbyterian/ synodal system of government lacking an episcopal structure).


In Europe, the churches listed above were generally "national" churches that were closely associated with the state (e.g. the Church of Scotland or the Dutch Reformed Church) or, in most cases, were established state churches e.g. the Church of England, the Lutheran churches of Denmark-Norway and Sweden, or the various Protestant churches of German, with the local king or prince (duke, grand duke, or equivalent) serving as the temporal head of the church.


The so-called "dissident" Protestant churches that were independent of the national established churches, e.g. the Baptists or the Methodists, are not associated with European royal families. Although the Methodist Church in particular is now considered a mainstream Protestant church, mainly in the US, the congregational Baptist churches differ significantly from mainstream historic Protestantism in their interpretation of the sacraments (or lack thereof), including the baptism of infants, and their non-liturgical nature.


Finally, more recent Evangelical groups including Pentecostal, neo-Pentecostal, or non-denominational/ post-denominational churches are now normally classified as a separate category from the historic Protestant churches arising from the Reformation. The Catholic Church for example does not normally recognize baptisms performed by ministers of those churches and does not mantain a theological dialogue with them, as it does especially with the Anglican and Lutheran churches.

 

[An Ard Ri]

The two most famous French Royal Protestants were

Renée de France (daughter of Louis XII) 1510-1574

Jeanne d'Albret,Queen of Navarre,Duchess of Vendôme,Duchess d'Albret,Countess de Foix.
1528-1572

Henri III/IV abjured 1572 and 1593

Catherine de Navarre (1559-1604)

Isabella de Navarre, Viscountess of Rohan (1512-1560)

 

[CyrilVladisla]

There were four temporal or lay electors who elected the Holy Roman Emperor. Was there any declaration that any of them had to be Protestant?

 

[BigLenny]

The Tongan royal family is another Protestant royal family. Methodists, to be exact because most Tongan royals are part of the Free Wesleyan Church.

 

[An Ard Ri]

There were four temporal or lay electors who elected the Holy Roman Emperor. Was there any declaration that any of them had to be Protestant?

The Holy Roman Emperor from what i understand was elected by a select number of Imperial Princes Electors and Prince-Archbishops Electors.
Whilst the Emperors were all Roman Catholic as were the Prince-Archbishops,many of the Imperial Princes Electors were Protestant.

In the past the Holy Roman Emperor was only crowned by the Pope.

 

[Stefan]

The Holy Roman Emperor from what i understand was elected by a select number of Imperial Princes Electors and Prince-Archbishops Electors.
Whilst the Emperors were all Roman Catholic as were the Prince-Archbishops,many of the Imperial Princes Electors were Protestant.

In the past the Holy Roman Emperor was only crowned by the Pope.

At last the Eloectors of Brandenburg, of Hannpver, where protestant and sometimes also the Elecotirs of the Palatinate and Saxony but they wwitched th religion.

The last Emperor who was crowned by the Pope in Rome was Empeor Friedrich III. aftrerward it usually took place in Frankfurt.

 

[An Ard Ri]

The last Emperor who was crowned by the Pope in Rome was Empeor Friedrich III. aftrerward it usually took place in Frankfurt.

His successor,Maximilian I was crowned at Aachen he was due to be Crowned in Rome by the Pope but a dispute with Venice thwarted that.

Charles V was the last Emperor to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope (by Pope Clement VII in Bologna) but had been crowned at in Frankfurt in 1520.
Not sure why he was crowned twice?