adiaphora

Actions considered by the Stoics to lie in the border region between good and evil; in religion, actions and rituals that are considered indifferent or immaterial.

The adiaphoristic controversy in the German Protestant Reformation arose from a dispute over certain Catholic tenets. Seeking to reconcile his Catholic and Protestant subjects, the emperor Charles V in 1548 drew up a temporary ritual and rule of faith pending the settlement of the matter by a general council. The adiaphora were those customs and tenets declared in the Leipzig Interim by Philip Melanchthon and his followers to be indifferent. The terms of the Liepzig Interim included the necessity of good works, and the restoration of the mass with most of its ceremonies. Calvinists (and Puritans) have opposed the concept; Lutherans commonly apply it to matters of ceremonial, organization, and so on.