The Reformation

Introduction

1. During the “Dark Ages” and at its close: a. Papal authority in religious matters was complete everywhere.

1. Papal domination was sought and gained in political affairs.
2. In many instances, the Catholic Church resorted to carnal warfare in order to increase its power. b. The masses were in total ignorance of the Bible. c. Simony, the custom of selling church offices to the highest bidder was a universal practice. d. Indulgences and confessionals were a source of rich profits to the Catholic Church. 2. “While the Papacy tightened its grip upon the Catholic Church, and set itself against all reform of any king, there arose some dissenting voices, who protested against the immorality among the clergy and spoke strongly against papal interference in political affairs.” (Frank Pack, Lessons in Church History, p. 23)

I. Beginnings of Religious Reform

A. The reformation had its beginning as individuals attempted to reform the Catholic Church.

1. One writer referred to these efforts as “Protestantism before the reformation.”
2. Another writer called them “Reformers before the reformation.”
3. These early movements for reform were generally repressed with bloody persecution

B. The Albigenses.

1. They became prominent in Southern France about 1170.
2. They were opposed to traditions as authority in religion and to the doctrines of purgatory and image-worship.
3. They recognized the authority of the New Testament and circulated it to the extent of their ability.
4. They were annihilated in a great slaughter as the result of a call for a crusade against them by Pope Innocent III.

C. The Waldensians.

1. Founded about 1170 by Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons who appealed to the Scriptures in his opposition to the practices of the Roman Catholic Church, they were noted for their zeal for purity of life.
2. Under the pressure of persecution, they left France and found hiding places in the valleys of Northern Italy.

D. John Wycliffe (1324-1384).

1. English by birth, he was a graduate of Oxford.
2. He opposed the authority of the Pope, the doctrine of Transubstantiation and auricular confessions.
3. “The greatest work of Wycliffe for the enlightenment of the world was the translation of the Bible into the English language.” (J.W. Shepherd, The Church, the Falling Away, and the Restoration, p. 75)
4. Excluded from Oxford in 1382, he retired to Lutterworth where he died. Years after his death, authorized by the Council of Constance which was held in 1415, in 1428 his enemies had his body exhumed and burned and his ashes scattered on a brook that flowed into the Avon River. This act was carried out by Bishop Fleming at the command of Pope Martin V.

E. John Huss (1369-1415).

1. Living in Bohemia, he was a priest of the Catholic Church who became a disciple of Wycliffe.
2. He zealously exalted the Scriptures above tradition and human dogma.
3. He opposed the tyranny of the clergy and denounced the sale of indulgences.
4. Summoned to the Council of Constance in 1415, he was tried as a heretic and even though he had been promised safety by the emperor, he was burned to death in July of 1415.

F. John Wessel (1420-1498).

1. Though not as well known as either Huss or Wycliffe, he attacked Catholicism in some of its principal features.
2. He avowed many of the same beliefs which were later taught by Martin Luther.

G. Jerome Savonarola (1452-1498).

1. He lived in Florence, Italy.
2. He denied the authority of the Pope and made a bitter fight against the immorality of the clergy.
3. “When the pope found that he could not bribe the powerful preacher with the offer of a cardinal’s hat, nor reduce him to silence by repeated admonitions, he excommunicated him. Savonarola pronounced this excommunication void, as contradictoryto the wise and just law of God.” (George P. Fisher, History of the Christian Church, p. 277)
4. Finally arrested, while in prison he wrote a tract on Psalm 51 in which he set forth his ideas of justification.
5. He was tried, condemned and, on May 23, 1498, he was burned to death in the square at Florence in front of the church building where he had preached so long.

II. Forces Which Prepared the Way for the Reformation

A. An awakening in Europe to a new interest in literature, art, and science.

1. This was a change from medieval to modern aims and methods of thoughts.
2. During the Dark Ages, the minds of people had become darkened with superstition, bigotry and ignorance.
3. The renewed interest in learning served to lift the veil of ignorance and superstition and inspired independence of thought.

B. The invention of the printing press by Johann Gutenberg in 1455.

1. This made possible the printing of books by movable type and soon books were being distributed by the thousands, the Bible being the first.
2. “Before this invention, from the beginning of time, books had been circulated only as rapidly as they could be copied out by hand. A Bible in the Middle Ages cost the wages of a working man for a year. It is significant as showing the desire of that time, that the first book printed by Gutenberg was the Bible. The press brought the Scriptures into common use and led to their translation and circulation in all languages of Europe. The people who read the New Testament soon realized that the papal church was far from the New Testament ideal.” (Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, The Story of the Christian Church, p. 56

C. A growing spirit of nationalism affected the thinking of the people and fed the desire for greater freedom in religion.

1. Patriotism caused many to resent the idea of submitting to foreign rule over their own national churches.
2. Many disliked the idea of the pope, in another country, appointing their church officers.
3. Many, therefore, refused to contribute to support the Pope and the construction of magnificent church buildings in Rome.

III. The Reformers of the Reformation

A. Martin Luther (1483-1546).

1. He was the first great reformer.
2. Born in Eisliben, Germany in 1483. a. He had begun to prepare for a career in law but shocked by the combined experience of a friend’s death and a fearful storm, he entered a monastery at the age of 22. b. He was ordained as a priest, an Augustinian friar, only two years later in 1507. c. He became a lecturer at Wittenburg University and in 1512 was made a doctor of theology.
3. During the winter of 1512-13, his study prompted him to begin to see some errors in the Catholic Church.
4. On October 13, 1517, he nailed his famous 95 theses to the door of the church building in Wittenburg, Germany, proclaiming the errors of Catholicism. a. His three greatest objections were the selling of indulgences, the authority of the Pope, and the doctrine of transubstantiation. b. In his theses, he named these objections and asked for a debate with someone who would defend them. c. In 1519 he had a debate with Dr. John Eck in Leipzig which resulted in a declaration of his stand against some doctrines of Catholicism.
5. After much criticism and church trials, he was excommunicated from the Church. a. He continued to preach against the errors he had found. b. The Lutheran Church thus had its beginning even though Luther asked his followers not to call themselves after him but rather after Christ.
6. His greatest error was his teaching that justification was by “faith only” teaching that people are saved at the point of faith without further acts of obedience. a. He overreacted to the Catholic position of justification by works. b. Because James contradicted his teaching of “faith only,” Luther rejected the book of James as being part of the New Testament and labeled it a “right strawy epistle.”

B. John Calvin (1509-1564).

1. He began his reformation work in France shortly after Luther began his work in Germany. He was founder of the Presbyterian movement which included the Covenanters of Scotland, the Puritans of England and the Hugenots of France.
2. Born in Noyon, France in 1509, he began a study of the classics in Paris at age 14.
3. In 1529 he began to study law but two years later cast it aside for the study of religion.
4. In 1533 he renounced Catholicism and embraced the reformation. a. From that time forward he was formulating and teaching the basic five points of his doctrine. b. It was in Geneva, Switzerland that he enjoyed free rein to develop his religious system.
5. In 1536 he completed his Institutes of the Christian Religion. a. It included his basic doctrines of total hereditary depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints. b. As each of these doctrines is compared to God’s word, the true light, all are found to be false.

C. John Knox (1505-1572).

1. Born in Haddington,Scotland in 1505 and educated at the University of Glasgow, he was a Catholic priest who converted to protestantism in 1542 and began preaching the doctrines of Calvin.
2. He organized, founded and wrote the first articles of faith for what is now called the Presbyterian Church.

D. Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531).

1. Educated at the universities of Vienna and Basel, in 1506 he was ordained a priest.
2. He was an ardent student of Greek so he could read the New Testament in its original language.
3. He “attracted large audiences to the cathedral at Zurich, Switzerland by expounding the original Greek and Hebrew Scriptures chapter by chapter and book by book beginning with the Gospel of Matthew…These oral translations of the original Scriptures broke sharply with church tradition.” (Funk & Wagnall’s New Encyclopedia, Vol. 25, p. 479)
4. He identified six important differences between himself and the Catholic Church. a. The right to preach without human authority. b. The teaching that Christ was the only head of the church thus rejection of the pope. c. Rejection of human doctrines and ordinances. d. Rejection of prayers to the saints and priests. e. The right of priests to marry. f. Rejection of the mass which he called a form of idolatry. He believed the Lord’s Supper was a simple memorial of the Lord’s death.
5. In 1519 he read, for the first time the writings of Martin Luther. a. Emboldened by Luther’s stand against German hierarchy, in 1520 he persuaded the Zurich council to forbid all religious teachings without foundation in the Scriptures. b. The one great difference between him and Luther was in attitude toward religion. 1) “Luther desired to maintain in the Church all that was not expressly contrary to the Scriptures, and Zwingli to abolish all that could not be proved by them. The German reformer (Luther) wished to re-main united to the Church of all preceding ages, and was content to purify it of all that was opposed to the Word of God. The Zurich reformer (Zwingli) passed over these ages, returned to the apostolictimes, and, carrying out an entire transformation of the Church, endeavoured to restore it to its primitive condition.” (J.H. Merle D’Aubigne, History of the Reformation, Vol. III, p. 243) 2) “I will never cease to restore the primitive unity of the Church of Christ.” (Ulrich Zwingli, Ego veterem Christi Ecclesiae unitatem instaurare non desinan, Opp. III, 47)

E. Henry VIII (1491-1547).

1. King of England from 1509 until 1547, his reign was at first harmonious with the Catholic Church. He strongly opposed the doctrines of Luther during this time.
2. Differences with Catholicism arose in 1527 when he asked for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne Boleyn which the Pope refused to grant.
3. In 1532 he obtained from the clergy recognition of his place as supreme head of the Church of England.
4. In 1533 he secretly married Anne Boleyn and then Parliament passed an act abolishing appeals to Rome.
5. He was excommunicated in 1534.
6. He, with Parliament in the Act of Supremacy in 1534, organized what was called the Church of England over which he was head. In America it came to be called the Episcopal Church.

F. John Wesley (1703-1791).

1. He, along with his brother Charles, while studying at Oxford University in 1727-29, was a member of a religious club called the “Holy Club” though it was sometimes called the “Methodist Club” because of its methodical religious exercises.
2. He was ordained a priest in the Church of England so, in essence, he was a reformer of the Reformation.
3. From 1736 to 1738 he did mission work in the United States, his mission field being the state of Georgia. a. While in Georgia he met some German Moravian brethren who introduced new thoughts of religion to his mind. b. Upon his return to England, he preached the new doctrines and the result was a division in the Church of England and the formation of the Methodist Church.
4. The two leading doctrines of Wesley were salvation by faith only as it had been preached by Luther and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
5. He never left the Church of England. He was still a member of it when he died.