Old Catholic, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Schema1
ROUGHLY TRANSLATED from the French: Précis d'histoire de l'Eglise by Urs Kury, published by the Catholiques-chrétiennes (Christian Catholics/Old Catholics in
Switzerland), 1968; specifically Petit tableau synoptique doctrinal:
Old Catholic
The source of Revelation is Sacred
Scripture and primitive apostolic
tradition, which ended upon the adoption
of the Canonical Scriptures of the New
Testament (around 200 AD).
Old Catholic
Sacred Scripture is the text of Revelation,
written by humans under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit and guarded by the
Church through which the Holy Spirit
speaks to us in the language of the Holy
Spirit.
Old Catholic
The doctrinal tradition of the Church
explains Sacred Scripture. It is
incomplete in what it contains. Through
Tradition, the Church speaks to us and
continues as the mother of the faithful.
This is why it curtails errors. (Through
Tradition, one is able to understand the
language of the Church, which provides
The Promise and Sacraments through
time.)
Old Catholic
The Church exercises its own supreme
magisterium in general councils. These
manifest one obligatory path for all who
are of the Christian faith, starting with
Sacred Scripture and primitive Apostolic
Tradition. It belongs to the communion of
Bishops to look after so that the bases of
faith are maintained. But each member of
the Church is equally responsible for
faithful adherence to the faith.
Source of Revelation
Roman Catholic
The source of Revelation is the Sacred
Scripture and Tradition maintained by the
infallible magisterium of the Church to
the present day.
Sacred Scripture
Roman Catholic
Sacred Scripture is the text written by
humans under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit and guarded by the Church, which
continues the Revelation.
Tradition
Roman Catholic
The doctrinal Tradition explains the
Sacred Scripture and completes it and
continues it under the influence of the
Holy Spirit. This is why Sacred Scripture
and Tradition must be received with the
same profound respect.
Church's Magisterium
Roman Catholic
The supreme magisterium is Pope's
exercise: "through him alone, without the
consent of the Church" decides the
infallible path as obligatory for those of
the Christian faith, starting with Sacred
Scripture and Tradition. His decisions
alone must be received by the faithful
with submission.
Protestant
The source of Revelation is Sacred
Scripture alone.
(Sola Scripture)
Protestant
Certain: As #1.
Others: Sacred Scripture is a text
conditioned by historical evolution,
written by humans alone who speak from
God and about God regarding an
exemplary way of life.
Protestant
Certain: As #1.
Others: The Tradition of the Church is
purely human. One is able to listen to it,
but one is not under any obligation to
follow it.
Protestant
Certain: The magisterium is exercised
through many eminent authorities of the
national church, who must look after so
that the bases of faith are maintained.
Others: There is no supreme magisterium
of the Church. The ultimate decision of
faith is left entirely to everyone's
conscience.

Old Catholic
The bases of faith are the Symboles
oecumeniques (the symbols des Apotres
and those of Nice an-Constantinople) as
well as those recognized as dogmas of the
councils of the undivided Church during
the first millennium. The main dogmas of
these are the Trinity and the divine and
human nature of Christ.
Old Catholic
The Church is the Community--visible
and invisible--of baptized faithful who,
under the sovereignty of Christ, are saved
and made holy by His grace and they
remain faithfully attached to apostolic
essentials in matters of doctrine, law, and
worship.
Old Catholic
a) So that the Church is able to perform
its mission. Christ Himself gave the
ministry to His Apostles. This is a divine
right. The ministry He saw transmitted by
the imposition of hands with the
invocation of the Holy Spirit. The laity
are of the general priesthood which they
received through Baptism and
Confirmation.
b) The ministry has three orders: deacon,
priest, and bishop. In light of the unity
and university of the Church, bishops
transmit the ministry. (Apostolic
Succession)
Old Catholic
The Pope is the first bishop of many
bishops equal to them (primus inter pars).
He is above the other bishops and
patriarchs. The Church has conferred the
primacy of honor and service. His own
primacy is an ecclesiastical right.
Bases of Faith
Roman Catholic
As #1. And the added decisions of further
general councils of the West. Catholic
Church, of which the principle ones are
the Council of Trent and the First Vatican
Council. The former (1545-1563) made
an important position on the rule of faith
concerning Sacred Scripture and
Tradition as well as salvation
(justification). The latter (1870)
concerned faith and reason and the Pope.
The Church
Roman Catholic
The Church is a visible communion of
humans who are bound together by the
confession of the same faith, participation
in the same sacraments under the
leadership of legitimate pastors,
principally the Pope of Rome.
The Ministry
Roman Catholic
a) As #1
b) As #1, and they add however, that the
priest is a sacrificer and whose bishop,
through his own special power, is placed
over the priest, just as was the High Priest
of the Ancient Alliance.
The Pope
Roman Catholic
The papacy is based on the institution of
Christ and it is a divine right. As each is
an individual successor of Apostle Peter,
the Pope exercises over the entire Church
a universal authority and enjoys the
doctrine of infallibility.
Protestant
Certain: As #1. And they add the
confessions of faith written by the 16th C.
Reformers, the principles ones being: The
Confession of Augsburg (Lutheran)
(1530), the Catechism of Heidelberg
(1563) and the Second Confession of
Switzerland (1566) (only two
amendments). On these is established the
principle of Sacred Scripture and
salvation (justification).
Protestant
The Church is the community of the
truthful faithful reassembled under the
invisible head, Jesus Christ, a community
within whom, the Church is proclaimed in
His own purity and administers the
sacraments under the will of Christ.
Protestant
a) Certain: As #1. Others: The imposition
of hands is not the transmission of the
priesthood. It is not a sign of either the
evidence which they receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit in light of the ministry or
that possible hereafter installs one within
the service of the church.
And others: The ministry is a human
institution with view of performing the
divine mission.
b) The ministry comes down to those who
are the Church. The episcopacy is a
human power. By virtue of a universal
priesthood, a believer is authorized to
proclaim the Church and administer the
Sacraments.
Protestant
Certain: The papacy is rejected under
whatever form it may be. Others: The
papacy is a human institution that has
imposed itself in the course of history as
one common spiritual authority and which
is held as such.
 Salvation Justification and Sanctification
Old Catholic
The sacrifice of Christ and His
resurrection are our liberation from all
error and our ability to enter into divine
alliance. We are absolved and saved
through the Church itself. Having been
saved, our becoming, through the Holy
Spirit, we are cooperators with God on
whose authority we share in His life and
divine action (and are made holy). We
comply with salvation through faith (by
salvation), faith which manifests itself in
love (in holiness). At the Last Judgment,
we will be judged on the foundation of
justification alone.
Old Catholic
All members of the Church are saints by
the grace of Christ. Among those who
distinguished themselves have attained
perfection, the Church venerates them,
celebrates their memory, resorts to them
for their intercession for the Church on
earth.
Old Catholic
We profess the doctrine proclaimed by the
ecumenical Symboles and the third
ecumenical council that proclaimed Mary
is the Virgin Mother of God. There is the
right to venerate (not adore) and love her.
Old Catholic
A sacrament is a visible sign instituted by
God, to that sign is bound invisible grace.
It is faith alone that causes the grace of
the sacrament to be efficacious.
Old Catholic
The Sacraments are Baptism,
Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance,
Unction of the Sick, Orders, and
Marriage. The most important ones:
Baptism and Eucharist.
Roman Catholic
On the basis of the infinite merits which
Jesus Christ acquired for us through his
own sacrifice, and accordingly as the
Most High renders them efficacious for
us, we are replenished by justice which
has its worth in the eye of God. It is in
this sense that we are made upright.
Veneration of Saints
Roman Catholic
As #1. Addition: that it is proper to solicit
the aid of certain saints for personal
needs.
Mary
Roman Catholic
As #1. Addition: the two new Roman
dogmas of the Immaculate Conception
(1854) and the Assumption of the Body of
Mary (l950).
Sacraments
Roman Catholic
As #1. Addition: that it is by their own
virtue (ex opere operatio) that the
sacraments produce the invisible grace
among the faithful who do not make a
hindrance.
Names of Sacraments
Roman Catholic
As #1
Protestant
Certain: As #1. Others: On the basis of the
sacrifice of Christ, we are declared by
God free from all error. Our lives are
sinful, it is true, but the justice, which
Christ acquired for us, is ascribed to us by
God. We are saved alone by faith in the
atoning death of Christ. Our holiness
consists by manifesting in the eye of the
world the signs of our salvation through
obedience and our good works as well as
the grace given by God.
Protestant
Certain: As #1. Others: All veneration of
saints is rejected.
Protestant
Certain: As #1.
Others: Reject the Virgin Birth of Christ.
Protestant
Certain: As #1. Others: The action of the
sacraments occurs by the faith (alone) of
those who receive them.
Protestant
Certain: Baptism, the Eucharist, and
Penance. Others: Only Baptism and the
Eucharist. Among the other sacraments,
certain ones such as Penance, Orders, and
Marriage are considered all useful
institutions (willed by God). Others, such
as Confirmation and Anointing of the
Sick are human inventions.

Old Catholic
Baptism is the sacrament that transmits
the redemptive death of Christ to work for
the remission of sins and a new birth in
the Holy Spirit.
Old Catholic
a) The Eucharist is a sacred meal through
which the unique sacrifice of Christ is
represented and brought into the present.
The faithful who receive this sacrament
partake in the Body and Blood of Christ.
b) Regarding the Eucharistic species,
Christ is totally present at the same time
as His Body and Blood (real presence).
The person, who receives the Eucharist
with faith, enters communion in life with
Christ and all those who are redeemed.
Old Catholic
Penance is the sacrament through which
to those who have faith, desire to repent,
receive pardon for all those sins
committed since their Baptism. This
sacrament is administered in the form of
general confession of the people or in
private confession in the presence of a
priest.
Old Catholic
The dead enter an intermediate state
where Christ's grace purifies them. The
foreknowledge of the future produces
among those who have lived in faith and
obedience a state of felicity and peace,
among others, a state of fear and dread.
Christ who is to come at the end of time
will give them final judgment to the
living and dead. Those the Lord calls to
eternal happiness move to the just. The
unrepentant will be transformed entirely
for the establishment of the Kingdom.
1. The White Robed Monks of St. Benedict (http://www.whiterobedmonks.org/mschema.html)
Baptism
Roman Catholic
As #1
The Eucharist
Roman Catholic
a) As #1. Addition: that the Eucharist is
an atonement sacrifice through which the
death of Christ on the cross is renewed in
an unbloody way. This sacrifice is offered
to God by the priest to obtain one's
pardon for the living and dead.
b) As #1. Addition: the doctrine according
to which the bread and wine are changed
into the substance of the Body and Blood
of Christ (transubstantiation).
Penance
Roman Catholic
As #1. They add however that confession
of certain (grave) sins ought to be made
in the presence of a priest in order to
receive the sacrament (auricular
confession is obligatory).
The Last Judgment
Roman Catholic
Immediately after death, the souls of the
unrepentant sinners enter into a state of
total absence of God and unhappiness
(Hell). Others, before being admitted into
Heaven, go to Purgatory where they are
cleansed by punishment due to their sins.
Only those elect (saints and martyrs) go
directly to Heaven. Then at the general
resurrection, the souls of the dead are
reunited with their bodies. The kingdom
of God will be accomplished.
Protestant
Certain: As #1. Others: Baptism is a sign
instituted by Christ, a sign through which
those who believe receive the assurance
of pardon and new life.
Protestant
a) The Eucharist is a memorial of the
unique sacrifice of Christ through which
we are saved. It is so much a memorial;
the Eucharist is not the same as a
sacrifice.
b) Certain: As #1. Others: Christ, who is
in heaven, is not present in the Eucharist,
but present only through the Holy Spirit.
Protestant
Certain: As #1. Others: Confession is a
practice of spiritual direction more than a
sacrament.
Protestant
Certain: As #1.
Others: There is not any intermediate
state. The souls of the faithful enter
directly into Heaven by the grace of God.
Whereas the unrepentant sinners are put
aside for judgment. The return of Christ
introduces the Kingdom by his
achievement; this will be the
establishment of the Kingdom of the
Spirit.