Survey of Church History

1. Survey of Church History BI 3325-3

2. Forerunners of the Reformation • Long before Martin Luther attacked indulgences others had been critical of RC doctrine and practice and some had broken away into separate religious communities. • Peter Waldo • A wealthy merchant of Lyons, France, W. was impressed with the way of poverty and service to Christ as the way to heaven (based on Mt. 19:21); in 1176 he sold most of his possessions and gave the proceeds to the poor.

3. Forerunners of the Reformation • He retained some property for his wife and daughters. • Shortly, he was joined by others, men and women, who called themselves the “Poor in spirit,” and undertook an itinerant ministry of preaching repentance and living on the handouts of listeners. • As RCs, they appealed to the Third Lateran Council in 1179 for permission to preach but were refused because they were thought to be ignorant laymen.

4. Forerunners of the Reformation • Convinced that they should obey God rather than man, they continued to preach. • In 1184, Pope Lucius III excommunicated them; this act brought them numerous supporters and the movement spread into southern France, Italy, Spain, the Rhine Valley and Bohemia. • The Waldensians seem to have taken the NT as a rule of faith and life in a legalistic sense.

5. Forerunners of the Reformation • They went about two by two, wearing simple clothing, preaching repentance, frequently fasting, and living from the gifts of others. • They rejected purgatory and masses and prayers for the dead and insisted on vernacular translations of Scripture. • They insisted on the right both lay men and women to preach, but did have an organization with bishops, priests, and deacons.

6. Forerunners of the Reformation • While Waldo (also Valdez or Valdes) seems never to have achieved primitive Christianity, he opened the door for others. • The Waldensians were severely persecuted for centuries; part of the reason for their spread was that they were driven from their homeland. • In Bohemia they became a part of the Hussite movement; in the Alps between France & Italy (their real home by the Reformation) they adopted the theology government of the Geneva Reformers in 1532.

7. Forerunners of the Reformation • In 1545, 3-4,000 were massacred in France; finally in 1848 they won toleration in the kingdom of Sardinia and later in a united Italy. • They are the only late medieval separatist group to survive to the present, though with changes in organization and teaching.

8. Forerunners of the Reformation • John Wycliffe • W. (1330?-1384) also brought to bear the teachings of Scripture on practices of the RCC. • He also engaged in Bible translation and was responsible for the first English version (before the printing press); its widespread use had an influence on the development of the English language. • Educated at Oxford, he later became master of Balliol College there.

9. Forerunners of the Reformation • John Wycliffe • As chaplain to the king, with access to Parliament, he was able to reach some of the upper class, but sought to reach the common people and sent out lay evangelists (Lollards) to instruct them. • Pope Gregory XI condemned him in 1377, W. was protected by John of Gaunt, who was Duke of Lancaster and son of Edward III.

10. Forerunners of the Reformation • John Wycliffe • This was the period of the Hundred Years War and no Englishman would surrender one of their outstanding countrymen to a pope at Avignon. • For W. Scripture was the sole authority for the believer; decrees of the pope were not infallible unless they were based on Scripture. • Clergy were not to rule, but to serve and help people.

11. Forerunners of the Reformation • John Wycliffe • Christ and not the pope was the head of the church; if the pope were too eager for worldly power, he might even be regarded as the antichirst. • Ultimately he came to repudiate the entire papal system; he attacked transubstantiation and seems to have come to a belief similar to Luther’s. • He condemned the dogma of purgatory and the use of relics, pilgrimages and indulgences.

12. Forerunners of the Reformation • John Wycliffe • Followers of W. were suppressed by force in 1401 and afterward went underground and helped prepare the way for Reformation principles that would come to England over a hundred years later. • Bohemians studying at Oxford in W’s time carried his ideas (in lecture notes) to their homeland and influenced the teachings of John Hus.

13. Forerunners of the Reformation • John Hus • H. (1372?-1415), professor of philosophy at the U. of Prague and preacher at Bethlehem Chapel was influenced by Wycliffe but also was in the tradition of a native Czech reform movement. • H’s approach was similar to W. and his influence on the Continent was even greater. • H’s great work was entitled On the Church.

14. Forerunners of the Reformation • John Hus • He taught that all the elect are members of Christ’s church, of which Christ rather than the pope is head. • He argued against simony, indulgences, and abuses of the mass; he demanded a reform in the lives of the clergy and asserted the right of the laity to take both the bread and win in the Communion.

15. Forerunners of the Reformation • John Hus • Almost the whole nation supported H. in spite of his excommunication by the pope. • After his death reform continued and ca. the middle of the 15th c. the Bohemian Brethren rose from the embers of the fire H. had built; they still exist as the Moravian Brethren. • When the pope summoned H. to the Council of Constance, emperor Sigismund ordered him to go and promised safe conduct.

16. Forerunners of the Reformation • John Hus • But when the council condemned him and burned him at the stake, Sigismund did not have the power to save him. • Europe was not as ready for the Reformation in 1415 as it would be a century later.

17. Forerunners of the Reformation • Savonarola • S. (1452-1498) was a forceful preacher against the worldliness and corruption of church and society in Florence. • A Dominican, he was transferred to Florence in 1482; his studies in the OT prophets and the book of Revelation helped to make him a powerful preacher against the corruption of society. • He served as spiritual leader of the party that came to power with the flight of the Medici in 1494.

18. Forerunners of the Reformation • Savonarola • Exercising virtual dictatorship over the city, he tried to reform both the state and church. • With the passage of time opposition to him increased. • Pope Alexander VI excommunicated him in 1497 and in 1498 he was arrested and tried from sedition and heresy and cruelly tortured; finally he was hanged and his body burned.

19. Forerunners of the Reformation • Savonarola • Unlike Wycliffe & Hus, S. had no quarrel with the teachings or organization of the church. • But because he openly condemned the evil character and misrule of Alexander VI and the corruption of the papal court, he won the opposition of the papacy.

20. Forerunners of the Reformation • Brethren of the Common Life • Contemporary with Wycliffe and Hus was a mystical movement that flowered in Holland, Belgium, northern France and northern Germany during the latter 14th & the 15th centuries. • Emphasizing Bible reading, meditation, prayer, personal piety and religious education it produced such figures as Jan Van Ruysbroeck (d.1381), who wrote The Seven Steps of Spiritual Love, and Gerhard Grote (d. 1384) who founded the Brethren of the Common Life.

21. Forerunners of the Reformation • Brethren of the Common Life • Their primary aim was to bring about a revival of practical religion. • They gathered in houses rather than monasteries, held property in common, worked to support themselves and avoided the negative reactions from the community by not seeking tax exempt status or begging. • They generally had good relations with the people, but sometimes incurred the suspicion or opposition of the clergy.

22. Forerunners of the Reformation • Brethren of the Common Life • They attended parish churches and had no peculiar doctrinal positions. • The movement is commonly called the “new devotion” (devotio moderna); they could be described as cells of devotion or true piety in the community. • They were deeply devoted to the cause of education and established schools in the Netherlands and Germany that were known for scholarship and piety.

23. Forerunners of the Reformation • Brethren of the Common Life • Four of their best known students were Nicholas of Cusa, Erasmus, Luther, and Thomas a Kempis, who is credited with writing the Imitation of Christ. • There were numerous other movements in the period, but it was Martin Luther who provided a channel for all this energy in what is now called the Protestant Reformation.

24. On the Eve of the Reformation • Politics

26. On the Eve of the Reformation • Politics • Around the fringes of Europe national states were rising, challenging the supranational power of the papacy. • In central Europe the HRE (now essentially a German entity) had an emperor checkmated by numerous with slight allegiance to him. • Muslim hosts knocked at the doors of the empire soon after Luther nailed his theses to the church door.

27. On the Eve of the Reformation • Politics • Charles, a Hapsburg with holdings in central Europe and king of the Netherlands and Spain, was elected in 1519 as Charles V of the HRE. • Francis I of France made an alliance with the Ottoman Empire in 1526 to apply a pincer move against his enemy. • Since Charles needed the help of all the German princes and therefore could not force Frederick of Saxony to surrender Martin Luther.

28. On the Eve of the Reformation • Humanism and Individualism • H., a main feature of the Renaissance, was a new emphasis on man and his culture and an effort to make the world a better place in which man might live. • The pull of the future life was not so strong as it had been in the Middle Ages. • In a return to the literature of the classical age, humanists put new emphasis on the study of Greek (and Hebrew) in an effort to read the classics in the original languages.

29. On the Eve of the Reformation • Thus the emphasis on ancient languages led many to the Scriptures. • Zwingli, Calvin, Melanchthon and Erasmus were examples of the more biblical of the literary humanists. • That Erasmus, among others, was a great satirist of the evils of the institutional church, as well as of the evils of society in general, underscores the fact that criticism of Romanism by Renaissance leaders contributed to the Reformation.

30. On the Eve of the Reformation • Also advancing the effectiveness of the Reformation was the Renaissance spirit of individualism, which paved the way for Luther’s emphasis on the priesthood of the believer and its attendant ideas of the right of believers to go directly to God and to interpret the Scriptures for themselves.

31. On the Eve of the Reformation • Printing/Universities • Without the invention of movable type and the spread of printing, Reformers could not have had the same effect; in fact, the literary activity of the Reformers was largely responsible for building the printing trade in many areas. • Also, the rapid growth of universities, which provided education for a larger number of people, fostered the critical spirit, and provided a means whereby the leaders could be reached with Reformation principles and a place where they could be trained to promulgate them.

32. On the Eve of the Reformation • Religion • The religion of E. was in decay; the evils of the church were many—simony, economic oppression, the purchase of salvation through indulgences, immorality of many of the clergy, etc. • The effects of the Babylonian Captivity and the Papal Schism had been great. • The secularism of the 15th c. had affected all levels of church life from the common people to the Pope.

33. On the Eve of the Reformation • Religion • Decadence led to many calls for reform. • The Observant Franciscans in England, the Oratory of Divine Love in Italy and the Brethren of the Common Life in the Lowlands were symptomatic of this concern. • Books of devotion found a wide audience.

34. On the Eve of the Reformation • Society and Economics • Feudalism was on the decline and was largely extinct and was paralleled by the rise of towns and nation-states. • In these a new middle class emerged, as did a degree of social mobility not known for 1000 years; this new class wanted to become social, political and economic insiders. • The rising middle class felt that they were the equals of the old aristocracy.

35. On the Eve of the Reformation • Society and Economics • Both national governments and the middle class needed a ready supply of cash. • All this naturally hindered the flow of wealth to the church, and efforts of the church to drain money from an area were met with something less than enthusiasm by king and middle class alike.

37. The Lutheran Reformation • Martin Luther (1483-1546) was born the son of a miner; Hans Luther was able to build an adequate estate and to provide Martin with an excellent education. • After early studies at Mansfeld, Magdeburg (where he was taught by Brethren of the Common Life), and Eisenach, L. earned B.A. and M.A. degrees at the U. of Erfurt. • Afterward, on his father’s urging, he entered law school at the university.

38. The Lutheran Reformation • But in the same year, when knocked to the ground by lightening, he vowed to enter a monastery if spared from death. • There was more to the decision; L. hoped to find at the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt the peace his soul could not find otherwise. • As L. lived the monastic life, he saw Christ as a stern judge and he spent many days in fasts and bodily mortification—all designed to seek release for his sinful soul.

39. The Lutheran Reformation • At this period he came under the influence of Johann Von Staupitz, vicar-general of his order, who urged him to think on God’s love for sinners as evidenced in Christ’s death; in the meantime L. studied the Scriptures assiduously. • Staupitz became dean of the faculty of theology at the new U. of Wittenberg in Saxony and arranged for L. to join the faculty in 1508.

40. The Lutheran Reformation • When L. received his doctor of theology in 1512, he succeeded Staupitz as professor of theology, the position he held until his death in 1546. • During 1513-1518 L. lectured on Psalms, Romans, Galatians, Hebrews, and Titus and sometime during the period accepted the doctrine of justification by faith. • He abandoned the prevailing Scholastic and allegorical interpretation for a more strictly literal and grammatical interpretation.

41. The Lutheran Reformation • His students responded enthusiastically to his teaching. • In 1515 the town council of Wittenberg called him to the pulpit of City Church, where he continued to minister the rest of his life. • From that pulpit he could take his ideas directly to the common people.

42. The Lutheran Reformation • The issue that brought L. notice was indulgences. • In the beginning, an indulgence provided remission of punishment imposed by the RCC on one who was guilty of a specific sin; an indulgence was based on the principle that sinners were unable to do sufficient penance to expiate all their sins; hence it was necessary for them to draw on the “treasury of merits,” to which Christ, the Virgin Mary, and saints contributed and which could be dispensed by the pope.

43. The Lutheran Reformation • Earlier, one might gain an indulgence for risking his life in fighting the infidel during the Crusades; gradually, however, financial sacrifice was accepted in lieu of physical risk. • The financing of building of churches, monasteries, hospitals, etc., could be designated by the pope as worthy of indulgences. • During the later Middle Ages, they came to involve not only remission of punishment imposed by the church, but also absolution of guilt before God (remission of sin).

44. The Lutheran Reformation • Pope Leo X (1513-1521), like Julius II before him, sought funds for the building of St. Peter’s in Rome by indulgence sales. • His needs coincided with those of Albert of Brandenburg; A., just 23 years old, had gone heavily into debt to purchase a bishopric and two archbishoprics. • It was decided that indulgences would be sold in Albert’s territories and the proceeds split between the archbishop and the pope.

45. The Lutheran Reformation • L. knew nothing of the pope’s involvement. • What bothered him was the promise of full remission of sin and punishment in purgatory for living persons; further, it was promised that dead loved ones in purgatory could be forgiven their sins without confession or contrition. • Frederick of Saxony (Frederick the Wise), L’s prince, forbade the sale in his domain, so there was no traffic in Wittenberg itself but citizens traveled across the river to purchase them.

46. The Lutheran Reformation • When L. saw the effect of the sale on the moral and ethical standards of his parishioners, he posted the Ninety-five Theses (topics for debate) on the door of Castle Church at Wittenberg on Oct. 31, 1517; printed copies quickly were circulated far and wide. • L. sent a copy of the theses and a letter of explanation to Albert; early in 1518, still not believing the pope had approved the sale, he sent an explanation (the Resolutions) to Leo X.

47. The Lutheran Reformation • Members of the papal court persuaded Leo to demand L’s appearance in Rome as a suspect of heresy. • L. appealed to Frederick the Wise for advice and requested a hearing be held in Germany. • Nationalistically minded Frederick arranged a meeting at Augsburg in 1518 which ended in standoff between the two parties.

48. The Lutheran Reformation • L. gradually rejected the authority of the pope and councils and looked to the authority of Scripture alone. • The pope could not reach L. because of Frederick’s protection; the new HRE, Charles V, was reluctant to come to the pope’s aid and thus alienate Frederick, because Saxony was the most powerful state in Germany and the emperor needed all the support he could get for his war against the Turks.

49. The Lutheran Reformation • Finally in 1521, L. sent to the Diet of Worms (a parliament of the empire) under an imperial safe conduct. • There he uttered the famous words: “I cannot and will not recant anything, for it is neither safe nor hones to act against one’s conscience. God help me. Amen.” • On the way home Frederick’s men kidnapped L. to protect him and took him to the Wartburg Castle, where he translated the NT into idiomatic German in just 11 weeks.

50. The Lutheran Reformation • While in Warburg he was informed of extremism and violence at Wittenberg so he returned to quell the disturbance. • Excommunicated and living under an imperial ban that deprived him of physical protection, L., with Frederick’s help launched a new religious movement. • The Diet of Speyer (1529) resolved to forbid further spread of the Lutheran movement; a number of German princes and free cities entered a protest against this action.