Transcript The Catholic Church through the Ages

The Catholic Church
through the Ages
Age 5: The Reformation and
Counter Reformation, 1450-1789
Larry Fraher
Church Nerd Trivia
Question of the Day
Where does the idea of having another person
come to the parish to help us reflect upon our
faith, engage the sacrament of Penance, and
build fidelity in preparation for Easter – i.e., the
idea of a parish mission come from?
Inquisition!!!
 Franciscans and Dominicans
 Learned and well versed in Church teaching
and doctrine…
 “Thinking with the mind of the Church”
 To an area where heresy was thought to be
present.
 3 days to 2 weeks ‘Preaching the
Inquisition”
 Root out the heretics
 Penance & Reconciliation
Inquisition!!!
 Trial of Heretic followed
 If heretic failed to recant/repent
 Punishment
 Most often penitential or imprisonment
 Sometimes death…

 Spanish Inquisition is very Different
 The office of the Inquisition existed in most
dioceses until Vatican II.
The Papal Schism
 1377 Pope Gregory XI Returns the
Papacy to Rome from Avignon, France,
initiating the “Papal Schism”
 Increasing National Religious Loyalties =
Divisions
 French Cardinals want Papacy in France
 Gregory XI dies Pope Urban VI Elected
 Keeps Papacy in Rome
 1378 French Cardinals Elect a French Pope
(Clement VII)
 Two Popes…Governments begin to take sides
 Rome: England and Germany
 Avignon: Scotland, Spain and Naples
The Papal Schism
 Urban’s Response
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Roman Army defeats French Papal Army
French Cardinals flee to Avignon
Both “popes” excommunicate each other
Urban’s Rule loses loyalties…
 The Council of Pisa (1409-1410)
 Cardinals from Both Sides Meet in Pisa
 Elect Alexander V (1409)
 John XXIII (1410-1415)
 Total Number of “reigning” popes = 3
 Emperor Sigismund
 Calls the Council of Constance: Martin V Elected.
 Reconciles Pisa and Rome, Avignon (Benedict XIII)
Refuses Reconciliation and Flees to Spain, he dies in
1423 & Clement VIII is elected
 Abdicates in 1429
The Papal Schism
 Effects of Papal Schism
 Early attempts at democracy = Conciliarism
 Dominican Order
 Cries for Reform
 John Wycliffe – No Confidence in the Clergy
 Jan Hus – Simony and Eucharist
 Religious Identity was the Culture
“In the fifteenth century, indeed, the Church was
enjoying its last years as the relatively
unchallenged custodian and interpreter of the
cosmos.” -- Ahlstrom, p. 22
Wycliff and Hus:
Seeds of the Reformation
 John Wycliff (d. 1384)
 Evil of the Priesthood
 Everyone can be holy
 Scripture is Self Interpreting
 Jan Hus
 Treatise on Simony
 Accessibility of all to both Species of
Eucharist
 Hus at the Council of Constance (1415)
Adding to the Seeds of Reform
 1440 – Guttenberg invents the printing
press…
 Wycliffe’s call to read the bible becomes
possible
 Principle of Self interpretation of scripture and
faith
 The lack of trust in the hierarchy combines…
and the stage is set…
Reformation: Key Themes
 Political Influence
 Ecclesiastical Confusion
 Philosophical Shifts
 Biblical Access
 Theological Rifts
Political Influence
 Following the Avignon Papacy
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Papacy’s Credibility is hurt
Focus on the Rebuilding of Rome
Nepotism
“Ecclesial Economy”
 Pietistic Practices
 Penitential Indulgences
 Saying of Masses
Ecclesial Confusion
 Clearly Defined Lines of Power
 Confused Between Secular and Religious
 Emphasis of Rome on Financial, rather
than Spiritual
 Emphasis in Governments on Lessening
the Power of the Church
 As Reformation Progresses, Nationalism
Rises
Philosophical Shifts
 Individualism
 Beginning with Wycliffe and William of
Ockham
 Scripture can be self-interpreting to the Individual
 Individual Experience Becomes the Judge of
Faith
 Emphasis on Nominalism
 Material world does nothing to enhance one’s
life, but for the interpretation (naming) an
individual gives them.
 There are no “Objective Moral Realities”
Nominalism
Wm. of Ockham
2. Whether intuitive cognition can be had of an
object that does not exist?
It cannot: For it is a contradiction that there should
be an act of seeing and nothing be seen;
therefore it is a contradiction that there should
be an act of seeing but the object seen not
exist… Every effect which God can produce by
means of a secondary cause He can produce
directly on His account. God can produce
intuitive sense cognition by means of an object;
hence He can produce it directly on His own
account…
Wm. Ockham
 Two Principal Realities
 Scripture as Self Evident and Interpreting
 Nothing is Objective
 Unless & until it is experienced
 Experience is interpreted
Nominalism
 Denies the necessity of Sacrament.
 Anyone can comprehend God, without
needing objects.
 Furthers the development of Scripture as
self-interpretive.
 If we hold this to be God’s total self revelation,
what else do we need?
 Becomes Empirical (Experience Based)
 Experience becomes the judge of reality…
Theological Rifts
 Emphasis on Scripture
 Nominalism encourages individuals to obtain
meaning in life.
 For the Christian, Scripture provides the
meaning
 Individual as Recipient of Salvific Grace
 Church = Choice of the Individual
 Not as the “Conduit” of Grace.
Theological Rifts
GOD
GOD
Church (Bible
seen as Product
of Church)
Church (As
Expression of
Grace Received)
Theological Rifts
 Sola Scriptura
 Only that which can be found in the Scriptures is valid
practice of faith.
 Sacramental Impact & Reduction
 Sola Fides
 Grace is Gift of God, brings one to faith
 Nothing Material can Mediate God’s Grace (nominalist)
 Material May portray Grace Already Present (Luther)
 No Action may Bring about God’s Grace
 Free gift of God, not conditioned…
Reformation Personalities
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Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531)
John Calvin (1509-1564)
Henry VIII (1491-1547)
 Thomas More
 Thomas Cranmer
 Mary Tudor
 Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)
 John Knox (1514-1572)
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
 German Augustinian Monk
 Disgusted and Frustrated by the Reality of the
Catholic Church
 Buying and Selling of Indulgences
 Nepotism
 Theological Disputes
 Grace: Earned or Given?
 Authority: Church or Scripture
 Sacraments: Only Two (Baptism and Eucharist)
 Denomination Today: Lutheran (ELCA, LCMS,
LCWS)
Luther
“Since, therefore, this faith can rule only the
inner man, as Rom. 10:10 says, “For man
believes with his heart and so is justified,”
and since faith alone justifies, it is clear
that the inner man cannot be justified,
freed, or saved by any outer work or action
at all, and that these works, whatever their
character, have nothing to do with this
inner man…”
Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531)
 Swiss Priest who Resigns in 1522
 Scripture is the Absolute Authority
 No Church can Interpret
 Christ, presented in Scripture, is Sufficient
 Anti-Clericalism
 Alliances Begin with City and National
Governments
 Denomination(s) today: UCC, “Low Church
Protestant,” Some Evangelicals
Zwingli
“As the body cannot be nourished by a
spiritual substance, so the soul cannot be
nourished by a corporeal substance. But if
the natural body of Christ is eaten, I ask
whether it feeds the body or the soul? Not
the Body, hence the soul. If the soul, then
the soul eats flesh, and it would not be
true that spirit is only born of Spirit…”
John Calvin (1509-1564)
 God is “all powerful”
 Every Natural Event is Willed by God
 God’s Chosen People are Known
 The way they live
 What they have
 Return to the “early Church”
 Beginnings of “Puritanism”
 Influences Knox Heavily
 Denominations Today: Presbyterian, Some UCC,
Southern Baptist
Calvin
“We assert that, with respect to the elect, this plan
was feely founded upon his freely given mercy,
without regard to human worth; but by his just
and irreprehensible but incomprehensible
judgment he has barred the door of life to those
whom he has given over to damnation. Now
among the elect we regard the call as testimony
to election. Then we hold justification as
another sign of its manifestation, until they come
into the glory in which the fulfillment of that
election lies.”
Henry VIII (1491-1547)
 As a Young Man, anti-Reformation
 Desires Divorce – Church Says “NO”
 Creates his own “National Church”
 Important Folk
 Cardinal Wolsey (Chancellor)
 St. Thomas More
 Thomas Cranmer (& Edward VI)
 Penal Laws
 Mary Tudor
 Scene from “A Man for All Seasons
Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)
 The Missionaries of the Counter
Reformation
 Spanish Influence
 Priests now served at the discretion of the
Pope
 Mainly a “Parish Ministry”
 Established his order in defense of the
Church
Ignatius Loyola
“In order to have the proper attitude of mind
in the Church Militant we should observe
the following rules:
1. Putting aside all private judgment, we
should keep our minds prepared and
ready to obey promptly and in all things
the true spouse of Christ our Lord, our
Holy Mother, the hierarchical Church.”
John Knox (1514-1572)
 Captured by French and exiled to the
Continent early in his career
 He meets Calvin and becomes a Firm
Calvinist
 Much of his work is sorting the
Theological/Political conflicts in England
 Upon his return began the “Catholic
Cleansing” of Scotland
 Origination of anti-Catholicism in Scotland
 Founder of Presbyterianism
The Problem of Religious
Nationalism
 Reformers from a Particular Country - Country
takes on an identity of that “denomination”…
 Southern Germany: Lutheran
 England: Anglican
 Scotland: Presbyterian
 Power is given to the Civil Government to
enforce Religious Conformity
 Reformation Theocracy
 Response Movements
 Anabaptists -- Germany
 Puritans -- England
 Presbyterianism -- Scotland
The Council of Trent (1545-1563)
 “Catholic Reformation” or “Counter Reformation”
 Important Decrees
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Edition and Use of Sacred Books
Concerning Original Sin
Avoidance of the Presumption of Pre-Destination
Concerning the Sacraments
 Reform is Inclusive of Eucharistic Abuses
 Concerning the Reformation
 Erecting Seminaries
 Veneration of Saints, Relics, etc.
The Council of Trent (1545-1563)
 Edition and Use of Sacred Books
“…It decrees that no one, relying on his own skill, shall, in
matters of faith and morals pertaining to the edification of
Christian doctrine, wresting the sacred Scripture to his
own senses, dare to interpret the said sacred Scripture
contrary to that sense which holy mother Church, whose
it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the
holy scriptures, hath held and doth hold; or even contrary
to the unanimous consent of the Fathers; even though
suchlike interpretations were never intended to be at any
time published.”
The Council of Trent (1545-1563)
 Concerning Original Sin
“If any one does not confess that the first man,
Adam, when he had transgressed the
commandment of God in Paradise, immediately
lost the holiness and justice in which he had
been constituted; and that he incurred, through
the offence…, the wrath and indignation of God,
and consequently death, …let him be
anathema.”
The Council of Trent (1545-1563)
 Concerning Free Will:
“If anyone shall say, that, since Adam’s sin, the free will
of man is lost and extinguished, …let him be
anathema.”
 Concerning Predestination
“No one, moreover, so long as he exists in this mortal
state, ought so far to presume concerning the secret
mystery of divine predestination, so as to determine
for certain that he is assuredly in the number of the
predestined.”
The Council of Trent (1545-1563)
 Concerning the Sacraments
“If any one shall say, that the sacraments of the
New Law were not all instituted by Jesus
Christ, our Lord, or that they are more or less
than seven, …or even that any one of these
(seven) is not truly or properly a sacrament;
let him be anathema.”
Missionary Expansion and the New
World
 Because Spain Colonizes South America, and
Spain was not really touched by the
Reformation, South America “becomes”
Catholic.
 “The Mission Trail”
 French Canada & Louisiana
 The USA is founded to get away from Religious
Nationalism
 Puritans
 Catholics (Maryland)
 Anabaptists
Franciscan Missionaries
 Encounter a ‘Great People’
 Religious
 Accustomed to Sacrifice & Ritual
 Gospel ‘Purifies’ the Established Culture
 Often seen as Oppression…
 Franciscan Advocates and Innovators
 Bartolome de las Casas (Inculturation)
 Bernardino de Sahagun (Catechesis + Ritual)
 Pedro de Gante (Pictorial Catechisms)
Jesuit Expulsion from the Mission
Territories 1760- 1815
 Trade Conflicts between Spain, Portugal,
France and the Colonies…
 Jansenism taking hold…
 Original Sin – Fully Corrupts Human Nature
 Depravity – Unable to Choose God but for Grace
 Predestination – God’s Grace falls on those He
has chosen
 Nationalism and the Jesuits
 Jesuit Commerce and Papal Agency
 South America: Advocacy against governments
Conclusion
“Through several accidents of history the
American colonies, out of which grew
the United States, were molded by the
Reformation with a directness and
intensity unequaled in any other
country. For this reason the history of
these colonies must begin with the
emergence and development of
Protestantism on the Continent and in
Great Britain.” Ahlstrom, p. 29