Agenda (liturgy)

The innovations consisted of the omission of certain parts of the Roman ceremonial and the substitution of German for Latin, instances of the use of the vernacular in the celebration of the mass occurring as early as 1521–22.

In 1523 Martin Luther published his Latin mass, revised in accordance with evangelical doctrine; and three years later he gave to the world his Deutsche Messe und Ordnung des Gottesdiensts, the use of which, however, was not made obligatory.

From this time to the end of the sixteenth century the Protestant states of Germany were busied with the task of remodeling their ecclesiastical systems and formularies of worship, the work being carried on by the great theologians of the age.

In the so-called "Cologne Reformation", drawn up largely by Butzer and Melanchthon and introduced by Archbishop Hermann of Wied in 1543, the agenda of Saxony, Brandenburg-Nuremberg, and Hesse-Cassel served as models.

The work of restoration, however, was begun almost immediately after the cessation of hostilities, but so great was the moral degradation in which the mass of the people was plunged, so low was the standard of education and general intelligence, that in the formulation of new ecclesiastical laws the governments, of necessity, assumed a far larger share of authority over the affairs of the Church than they had possessed before the war.

The eighteenth century witnessed a marked decline in the importance of the official liturgies in the religious life of the nation – a loss of influence so great as to make the books of the Church practically obsolescent.

Both pietism and rationalism were wanting in respect for the element of historical evolution in religion and worship; and the former, in laying stress on the value of individual prayer and devotion without attempting any change in the forms of divine service, led to their general abandonment for the spiritual edification that was to be obtained in the societies organized for common improvement, the so-called collegia pietatis.

But a no less important cause of change in liturgical forms is to be found in the growth of social distinctions and in the rise of a courtly etiquette that sought, with success, to impose its standards of manners and speech on the ceremonies and language of the Church.

The consistory of Hanover in 1800 granted permission to its ministers to introduce during public worship such changes in language, costume, and gesture as would appeal to the tastes of their "refined audiences".

A complete agenda, including the two Zwinglian codes, appeared at Zurich in 1525 (according to Harnack and others, but more probably in 1529), under the title Ordnung der Christenlichen Kirchen zu Zürich, and was often revised during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

At Geneva, Calvin published in 1542, La Forme des prières ecclésiastiques, based on the practises he had found among the French of Strasburg during his sojourn in that city from 1538 to 1541.

In Germany the return to a uniform, authoritative mode of worship was begun by Frederick William III of Prussia in the early years of the nineteenth century.

After the campaign of Jena (1806) he entrusted the task of drafting a ritual to Ruhlemann Friedrich Eylert, whose work, however, failed to receive the king's approval because the author had fallen into the then common error of the writers of liturgies, namely, of paying little regard to the historical development of the evangelical forms of worship.

In 1822 he published the agenda for the court and cathedral church of Berlin; and two years later this formulary, increased and revised with the aid of Borowsky and Bunsen, was submitted to the various consistories.

The work was entrusted to a committee of twenty-three, among whom were the theologians Goltz, Kleinert, Hering, Meuss, Renner, Rübesamen, Kögel, and Schmalenbach; and in 1894 their draft of a new ritual was adopted with slight changes by the General Synod.

The Dutch Reformed Church in the United States adopted (1771) along with the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of the Synod of Dort, the liturgical forms that were at that time in use in the Netherlands.

Since the beginning of the evangelism in the Batak Lands (1850s) by European (Protestant) evangelists, the desire to organize a liturgy or Sunday worship system and other church events has echoed and efforts have been made.