Ubiquitarians
UBIQUITARIANS
Formed from ubique, “every where, ” in ecclesiastical history, a sect of Lutherans which rose and spread itself in Germany; and whose distinguishing doctrine was, that the body of Jesus Christ is every where, or in every place. Brentius, one of the earliest reformers, is said to have first broached this error in 1560. Luther himself, in his controversy with Zuinglius, had thrown out some unguarded expression that seemed to imply a belief of the omnipresence of the body of Christ; but he became sense afterwards that this opinion was attended with great difficulties, and particularly that it ought not to be made use of as a proof of Christ’s corporeal presence in the eucharist. However, after the death of Luther, this absurd hypothesis was renewed, and dressed up in a specious and plausible form by Brentius, Chemnitius, and Andraeas, who maintained the communication of the properties of Christ’s divinity to his human nature. It is, indeed, obvious, that every Lutheran who believes the doctrine of consubstantiation, whatever he may pretend, must be an Ubiquitarian.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
Ubiquitarians
Also called Ubiquists, a Protestant sect started at the Lutheran synod of Stuttgart, 19 December, 1559, by John Brenz, a Swabian (1499-1570). Its profession, made under the name of Duke Christopher of Würtemberg, and entitled the “Würtemberg Confession,” was sent to the Council of Trent, in 1552, but had not been formally accepted as the Ubiquitarian creed until the synod at Stuttgart. Luther had upset the peace of Germany by his disputes. In the effort to reconcile and unite the contending forces against the Turks, Charles V demanded of the Lutherans a written statement of their doctrines. This — the “Augsburg Confession” — was composed by Melanchthon, and read at a meeting at Augsburg in 1530. Its tenth article concerned the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, a burning question among the Protestants. In 1540, Melanchthon published another version of the “Augsburg Confession”, in which the article on the Real Presence differed essentially from what had been expressed in 1530. The wording was as follows:Edition of 1530: “Concerning the Lord’s Supper, they teach that the body and blood of Christ are truly present, and are distributed (communicated) to those that eat in the Lord’s Supper; and they disapprove of those that teach otherwise.” Edition of 1540: “Concerning the Lord’s Supper, they teach that with bread and wine are truly exhibited the body and blood of Christ to those that eat in the Lord’s Supper.”
Johann Eck was the first to call attention to the change, in a conference at Worms, 1541. Debates followed, and the Ubiquitarian controversy arose, the question being: Is the body of Christ in the Eucharist, and if so, why? The Confession of 1540 was known as the Reformed doctrine. To this Melanchthon, with his adherents, subscribed, and maintained that Christ’s body was not in the Eucharist. For, the Eucharist was everywhere, and it was impossible, they contended, for a body to be in many places simultaneously. Adopting Luther’s false interpretation of the communicatio idiomatum, Brenz argued that the attributes of the Divine Nature had been communicated to the humanity of Christ which thus was deified. If deified, it was everywhere, ubiquitous, just as His divinity, and therefore really present in the Eucharist. Brenz was in harmony with Catholic Faith as to the fact, but not as to the explanation. His assertion that Christ’s human nature had been deified, and that His body was in the Eucharist as it was elsewhere, was heretical. Christ, as God, is everywhere, but His body and blood, soul and divinity, are in the Eucharist in a different, special manner (sacramentally). In 1583, Chemnitz, who had unconsciously been defending the Catholic doctrine, calmed the discussion by his adhesion to absolute Ubiquitarianism. In 1616 the heresy arose again as Kenoticism and Crypticism, but sank into oblivion in the troubles of the Thirty Years War.
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JOSEPH HUGHES Transcribed by Carol Kerstner
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Ubiquitarians
(from the technical term ubiquity q.v.]), in ecclesiastical history, a sect of Christians which arose and spread itself in Germany, and whose distinguishing doctrine was that the body of Jesus Christ is everywhere, or in every place. Brentius, a follower of Luther, and one of the earliest Reformists, is said to have first broached this error in 1560. Luther himself, in his controversy with Zwingli, had thrown out some unguarded expressions that seemed to imply a belief of the omnipresence of the body of Christ; for instance, that the man Christ could be everywhere present, not that he was always and everywhere present. He, saw, however, that this opinion was attended with great difficulties, and particularly that it ought not to be made use of as a proof of Christ’s corporeal presence in the Eucharist. However, after the death of Luther, this absurd hypothesis was renewed, and dressed up in a specious and plausible form by Brentius, Chemnitius, and Andreeas, who maintained the communication of the properties of Christ’s divinity to his human nature. It is, indeed, obvious that every person who believes the doctrine of consubstantiation, whatever he may pretend, must be a Ubiquitarian. The doctrine again became a subject of controversy early in the 17th century, between the divines of Tbingen and Giessen, the former supporting the Ubiquitarian theory, and the latter earnestly opposing it. The Ubiquitarians are strong opponents of the Calvinistic and Zwiniltian theories of the holy encharist, and their dogma is, in fact, a revulsion from them. See Bergier, Dict. de Theologie, s.v.; Cramer, En2chirid. Controvers. Ubiquit. (1613); Dorner. Person, of Christ, II, 2, 280 sq., 422; Mosheinm Eccles. Hist. 5, 3, 153 sq.