Here’s today’s quote:
I have found and noted in all histories of the whole Christian church that all those who have maintained the central doctrine of Jesus Christ in its integrity have remained safe and sound in the true Christian faith . . . For if anyone stands firm and right on this point, that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, all other articles of the Christian faith will fall in place for him and firmly sustain him.
Martin Luther
The following are videos I personally found useful and informative on the Protestant Reformation. Find these below for your own use and enjoyment.
This first one is about 15 minutes long and gives a good overview.
Here’s a more lengthy documentary involving Luther and the Protestant Reformation:
I don’t agree with absolutely everything in this documentary (like calling Catholicism Christian) but much of it is right on.
When: OCTOBER 31, 1517
Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. As such he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter.
In the Name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” ( Matthew 4:17 ), he intended the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.
2. This word cannot be understood as referring to the sacrament of penance. In other words, confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy.
3. Yet it does not mean solely inner repentance; such inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various outward mortification of the flesh.
4. Sin will continue to remain until we enter Heaven.
5. The pope must act in accordance to canon law.
6. The pope cannot forgive sin, except by declaring and showing that it has been forgiven by God; or, to be sure, by remitting guilt in cases reserved to his judgment. God ultimately forgives sin.
7. God forgives no person’s sin unless at the same time he humbles him/herself in all things before the priest.
8. Canon law only applies to the living and not the dead.
9. Therefore the Holy Spirit is the only one than can make exceptions to this when required.
10. Those priests act ignorantly and wickedly who threaten the dying with the penalty of purgatory.
11. Those tares of changing the canonical penalty to the penalty of purgatory were evidently sown while the bishops slept ( Matthew 13:25 ).
12. In former times, church penalties were imposed before release from guilt to show true repentance. .
13. The dying are freed by death from all penalties, are already dead as far as the canon laws are concerned, and have a right to be released from them. (When you die all your debts to the church are wiped out and those debts are free from being judged.)
14. When someone is dying they might have bad/incorrect thoughts against the church and they will be scared. This fear is enough penalty.
15. This fear or horror is sufficient in itself, to say nothing of other things, to constitute the penalty of purgatory, since it is very near to the horror of despair.
16. Hell, purgatory, and heaven seem to differ the same as despair, fear, and assurance of salvation.
17. It seems as though for the souls in purgatory fear should necessarily decrease and love increase.
18. Furthermore, it does not seem proved, either by reason or by Scripture, that souls in purgatory are outside the state of merit, that is, unable to grow in love.
19. Nor does it seem proved that souls in purgatory, at least not all of them, are certain and assured of their own salvation, even if we ourselves may be entirely certain of it.
20. Therefore the pope, when he uses the words “plenary remission of all penalties,” does not actually mean “all penalties,” but only those imposed by himself.
21. Thus those indulgence preachers are in error who say that a man is absolved from every penalty and saved by papal indulgences.
22. As a matter of fact, a dead soul cannot be saved by an indulgence.
23. If remission of all penalties could be granted to anyone at all, certainly it would be granted only to the most perfect, that is, to very few.
24. For this reason most people are necessarily deceived by that indiscriminate and high-sounding promise of release from penalty (indulgence).
25. That power which the pope has over purgatory is no different to the power which any bishop/curate/priest has.
26. The pope does very well when he grants remission to souls in purgatory, not by the power of the keys – which he does not have – but by intercession for them.
27. They preach only human doctrines who say that as soon as the money clinks into the money chest, the soul flies out of purgatory.
28. It is certain that when money clinks in the money chest, greed and avarice can be increased; but when the church intercedes, the result is in the hands of God alone. (only God can save souls)
29. Who knows whether all souls in purgatory wish to be redeemed – since we have exceptions in St. Severinus and St. Paschal, as has been told in a legend.
30. No one is sure of the integrity of his own contrition, much less of having received plenary remission (complete forgiveness).
31. The man who actually buys indulgences is as rare as he who is really penitent; indeed, he is exceedingly rare.
32. Those who believe that they can be certain of their salvation because they have indulgence letters will be eternally damned, together with their teachers.
33. Do not believe those who say that a papal indulgence is a wonderful gift which allows salvation.
34. Indulgences only offer Man something which has been agreed to by Man.
35. We should not teach that those who aim to buy salvation do not need to be contrite.
36. Any truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without indulgence letters.
37. Any true Christian, whether living or dead, participates in all the blessings of Christ and the church; and this is granted him by God, even without indulgence letters.
38. Nevertheless, papal remission and blessing are by no means to be disregarded, for they are, as I have said (Thesis 6), the proclamation of the divine remission. (Do not despise the pope’s forgiveness but his forgiveness is not the most important.)
39. The most educated theologians cannot preach about indulgences and real repentance at the same time.
40. A Christian who is truly contrite seeks and loves to pay penalties for his sins; the bounty of indulgences, however, relaxes penalties and causes men to hate them — at least it furnishes occasion for hating them.
41. Papal indulgences must be preached with caution, lest people erroneously think that they are preferable to other good works of love.
42. Christians are to be taught that the pope does not intend that the buying of indulgences should in any way be compared with works of mercy.
43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better deed than he who buys indulgences.
44. Because love grows by works of love, man thereby becomes better. Man does not, however, become better by means of indulgences but is merely freed from penalties.
45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a needy man and passes him by, yet gives his money for indulgences, does not buy papal indulgences but God’s wrath.
46. Christians are to be taught that, unless they have more than they need, they must reserve enough for their family needs and by no means squander it on indulgences.
47. Christians are to be taught that they buying of indulgences is a matter of free choice, not commanded.
48. Christians are to be taught that the pope, in granting indulgences, needs and thus desires their devout prayer more than their money.
49. Christians are to be taught that papal indulgences are useful only if they do not put their trust in them, but very harmful if they lose their fear of God because of them.
50. Christians are to be taught that if the pope knew the methods of the indulgence preachers, he would rather that the basilica of St. Peter be burned to ashes than built up with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep.
51. Christians are to be taught that the pope would and should wish to give of his own money, even though he had to sell the basilica of St. Peter, to many of those from whom certain hawkers of indulgences have obtained money.
52. It is vain to trust in salvation by indulgence letters, even though the indulgence commissary, or even the pope, were to offer his soul as security.
53. They are the enemies of Christ and the pope who forbid altogether the preaching of the Word of God in some churches in order that indulgences may be preached in others.
54. Injury is done to the Word of God when, in the same sermon, an equal or larger amount of time is devoted to indulgences than to the Word.
55. It is certainly the pope’s sentiment that if indulgences, which are a very insignificant thing, are celebrated with one bell, one procession, and one ceremony, then the gospel, which is the very greatest thing, should be preached with a hundred bells, a hundred processions, a hundred ceremonies. (aka, the Gospel is more important than indulgence)
56. The true treasures of the church, out of which the pope distributes indulgences, are not sufficiently discussed or known among the people of Christ.
57. That indulgences are not temporal treasures is certainly clear, for many indulgence sellers do not distribute them freely but only gather them.
58. Nor are they the merits of Christ and the saints, for, even without the pope, the latter always work grace for the inner man, and the cross, death, and hell for the outer man.
59. St. Lawrence said that the poor of the church were the treasures of the church, but he spoke according to the usage of the word in his own time.
60. Salvation can be sought for through the church as it has been granted this by Christ.
61. It is clear that the power of the church is adequate, by itself, for the forgiveness of sins.
62. The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.
63. But this treasure is naturally most odious, for it makes the first to be last ( Matthew 20:16 ). (Indulgences make the most evil seem unjustly good.)
64. Therefore evil seems good without penance or forgiveness.
65. Therefore the treasures of the gospel are nets with which one formerly fished for men of wealth.
66. The treasures of indulgences are nets with which one now fishes for the wealth of men.
67. It is wrong that merchants praise indulgences.
68. They are nevertheless in truth the most insignificant graces when compared with the grace of God and the piety of the cross.
69. Bishops and curates are bound to admit the commissaries of papal indulgences with all reverence.
70. But bishops are under a much greater obligation to prevent men preaching their own dreams.
71. Let him who speaks against the truth concerning papal indulgences be anathema and accursed. (People who deny the pardons of the Apostles will be cursed.)
72. But let him who guards against the lust and license of the indulgence preachers be blessed.
73. The pope is angered at those who claim that pardons are meaningless.
74. Much more does he intend to thunder against those who use indulgences as a pretext to contrive harm to holy love and truth.
75. To consider papal indulgences so great that they could absolve a man even if he had done the impossible and had violated the mother of God is madness.
76. We say on the contrary that papal indulgences cannot remove the very least of venial sins as far as guilt is concerned. A papal pardon cannot remove guilt.
77. To say that even St. Peter if he were now pope, could not grant greater graces is blasphemy against St. Peter and the pope. Not even St. Peter could remove guilt.
78. We say on the contrary that even the present pope, or any pope, has greater graces at his disposal. Including: the gospel,spiritual powers, gifts of healing, etc., as it is written, 1 Corinthians 12:28 ).
79. To say that the cross emblazoned with the papal coat of arms, and set up by the indulgence preachers is equal in worth to the cross of Christ is blasphemy.
80. The bishops, curates, and theologians who permit such talk to be spread among the people will have to answer for this.
81. This unbridled preaching of indulgences makes it difficult even for educated men to rescue the reverence which is due the pope from slander or from the shrewd questions of the laity.
82. Such as: “Why does not the pope empty purgatory for the sake of holy love and the dire need of the souls that are there if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a church? The former reason would be most just; the latter is most trivial.
83. Again, “Why are funeral and anniversary masses for the dead continued and why does he not return or permit the withdrawal of the endowments founded for them, since it is wrong to pray for the redeemed?”
84. Again, “What is this new piety of God and the pope that for a consideration of money they permit a man who is impious and their enemy to buy out of purgatory the pious soul of a friend of God and do not rather, because of the need of that pious and beloved soul, free it for pure love’s sake?”
85. Again, “Why are the penitential canons, long since abrogated and dead in actual fact and through disuse, now satisfied by the granting of indulgences as though they were still alive and in force?”
86. Again, “Why does not the pope, whose wealth is today greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build this one basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?”
87. Again, “What does the pope remit or grant to those who by perfect contrition already have a right to full remission and blessings?” (Why does the pope forgive those who serve against him?)
88. Again, “What greater blessing could come to the church than if the pope were to bestow these remissions and blessings on every believer a hundred times a day, as he now does but once?”
89. Why are indulgences only issued when the pope sees fit to issue them?
90. To repress these very sharp arguments of the laity by force alone, and not to resolve them by giving reasons, is to expose the church and the pope to the ridicule of their enemies and to make Christians unhappy.
91. If, therefore, indulgences were preached according to the spirit and intention of the pope, all these doubts would be readily resolved. Indeed, they would not exist.
92. Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Peace, peace,” and there is no peace! ( Jeremiah 6:14 ) (All those who say there is no problem must go. Problems must be tackled.)
93. Blessed be all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Cross, cross,” and there is no cross! (Those in the church who claim there is no problem must go.)
94. Christians should be exhorted to be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties, death and hell.
95. And thus be confident of entering into heaven through many tribulations rather than through the false security of peace ( Acts 14:22 ).
Adapted from: https://www.biblestudytools.com/history/creeds-confessions/luther-95-theses.html
& http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-reformation/the-95-theses-a-modern-translation/
Now we go to some of Martin Luther’s counterparts and those who came after.
They are:
Desiderus Erasmus (~1467 to 1536), born in Rotterdam (Netherlands), Christian Humanist
John Calvin (1509 to 1564), born in France – didn’t stay there, considered Martin’s successor by many
Huldrych (Ulrich) Zwingli (1484 to 1530), Swiss Reformer
As you can see, all three of these mean were technically contemporaries of Martin Luther though John Calvin was certainly one that came in the later.
All three were writers and influential in their own right. What’s more, they were not in isolation as there are more men that could be listed from these times but I am only focusing on these.
Desiderus Erasmus was primarily an influence through his writings and there is evidence his work influenced Zwingli who had interactions with Luther.
Martin Luther and Zwingli’s most notable interaction involved mass. Zwingli advocated the removal of the Catholic mass and replaced it with a simply communion as well as changed a few other liturgical traditions. However, this wasn’t the key point of their interaction. Luther and Zwingli sparred over their interpretation of the elements in the Eucharist (communion). You can find more details on this particular debate here in the section titled “Relations with Luther”.
Despite a disagreement, Ulrich Zwingli and Martin Luther agreed quite a bit in the focus of the Protestant Reformation – Scripture has the highest authority. A few things of note from Zwingli that we see in much of Protestantism today include the simple communion, the removal of images in the church & other liturgical changes, put forth some theses of his own, as well as completed some influential writings of his own.
In order to have them for comparison later, here is a summation of Zwingli’s main theses:
With the above theses, you can imagine then the church changes he then sought to bring about in Switzerland. These are changes still widely observed in churches today across the world that stand in the Protestant tradition.
What about John Calvin?
Ok. We’re getting to him now.
John Calvin came into all this with the other men and their influence as the backdrop. As can be seen at the start by the time-frames of each of their lives, John was a young man when the others began to pass away.
Born in France, John would later end up in Geneva, Switzerland where he would later die. John started his career as a law student – much as Martin was supposed to have become originally – and during his studies he was influenced by the humanist Desiderus Erasmus as well as others. Key components from this drove John to seek to understand the Scriptures in their original languages (something continued to this very day). As such, he went on to study Greek, Hebrew, and Latin.
Among Calvin’s first essays there was an emphasis on salvation by grace alone (one of the 5 Solas) rather than to focus on works and ceremonies.
I don’t intend to get into every detail here as there are great resources for further reading in the links below. Even so, key contributions made by Calvin were in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, commentaries, and influence that gave direction to Protestants elsewhere in Europe including those who would later go to America and start the Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches. There are many churches today that would consider John Calvin to be their founding father.
Hope this proved informative to you! I challenge you to read more on each of these influential men of the Protestant Reformation period and would suggest the links below are a great place to start.
Resources for further reading:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Huldrych-Zwingli
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/erasmus/
https://www.biography.com/people/john-calvin-9235788?_escaped_fragment_=
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Calvin
Martin Luther is often the central figure to the Protestant Reformation. We saw last week that there were in fact pre-reformers as well who, in their own way, laid some groundwork for what was to come in Martin Luther’s time.
Like Wycliffe, Martin Luther found some friends in higher places that became key in his later survival – but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Martin lived from 1483 to 1546. He early on was given an education in Latin as well as memorized common things at the time like the 10 Commandments. When it was time for graduate studies he had the choice between law, medicine, and theology. Such a well-known theologian in the later Reformation must have chosen theology, right? Not correct. In fact, his father directed him into law, so Martin followed his father’s direction.
What changed Martin’s mind later, much to his father’s dismay was a storm. The storm was so bad that Martin was terrified he’d be killed by it and promised God he would change his path & instead become a monk in service to Him if he be spared him from death. Obviously, he was spared, because Martin stayed true to his word and entered a monastery.
What followed was a time of torment for Martin as he threw himself into the monastic life. The more he reached out to God, there more he saw his own sin and misery.
It was in 1508 in Wittenberg where he began his studies of theology and became exposed to the Scriptures themselves. After a trip to Rome and his continued studies, it wasn’t long before he began to see conflict between the faith as it is described scripturally and what the Catholic Church was putting forth.
Indulgences
A key trigger was the Pope’s endorsement and pushing of the doctrine of indulgences. Luther saw in them clear contradiction to the Bible. His response to them was the famed 95 Theses which famously were nailed to the doors of the church he had preached at. There is some debate whether this aspect truly happened, but he nevertheless did send a copy to Archbishop Albert of Mainz and some friends of his. This was made all the more possible by the invention of the printing press which would later prove invaluable in the spreading of Luther’s writings.
Martin Luther’s point in his actions was to spark a debate. He wanted things brought to light and have the church deal with them head-on, making reformations where necessary to get/keep the church properly on track. Martin had no intention of creating upheaval or rebelling. Even so, the controversy that ensued served to change Christendom as well as strengthen Martin’s faith as it proved to solidify him in the Bible being the final authority for the Christian faith.
I don’t want to get bogged down here into every minutia that came about next but suffice it to say that things escalated. (I will give it a deeper look in another article)
Eventually, the Pope declared Martin a heretic in 1521 with papal bull (Decree from the Pope) Decet Romanum Pontificem (translates: It pleases the Roman Pontiff). Martin Luther took the bull sent to him and burned it.
Now, here is where some of Martin Luther’s connections come in – albeit, not from any special ability of his own necessarily.
Diet of Worms
The “Diet of Worms” was effectively a meeting in Worms, Germany. Here, it was decided Martin would receive his hearing. Rome demanded Martin recant his works. In the end, he only admitted to speaking too harshly at points & apologized for this but ultimately & absolutely refused to recant his works.
At this point, Charles V (emperor) & Rome were after him which is where Martin Luther goes into hiding – again with help. When he eventually comes out again, he has added even more to his list of works – including a translation of the Bible into German.
The world is never the same again. Martin Luther’s works spread and new “mini” reformations are sparked in other countries. In time, the Protestant Reformation comes to impact all of Europe and then spills over into the New World (where the theologies impact the later formation of the USA).
There are far more details than what I’ve written here. This is just a primer of sorts. Many of Martin Luther’s works can be found online at no cost but you can still buy physical copies to this day of what he wrote.
Next week, I will continue on with key figures who’s lives overlapped with Martin’s or were just after him but continued the developments from the Reformation.
As we come up on this year’s 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, I want to highlight 2 “pre-reformers” and their impacts.
This two people would be John Wyclif and Jan Hus.
John Wyclif (there is some variant use of spelling on his last name) – his name is still known to this day in the Christian community in large part because of his last name, Wyclif. An organization of Bible translators is named after him.
He was born before 1330 near Richmond (Yorkshire) and later came to Oxford where he began to be an influence. He questioned some of the excesses of the Catholic Church at the time and found others who agreed with him. It was his stance on the sacraments (particularly Communion) that became the last straw for the Church. What’s more, he wrote in Latin and English making his works all the more available.
Nevertheless, when looking at John’s work it is clear Martin wasn’t the first to make the same claims about the authority of Scripture and God. What’s more John Wyclif translated the Bible into English. What isn’t widely known is that he put forth two translation, one being more idiomatic than the other. Translating the Bible was a no-no according to the Church.
John Wyclif, despite being declared a heretic, was not killed by the Catholic Church in the end but died of a second stroke in 1384. Even so, he was already under fire before he passed.
Jan Hus (or Huss) – he was born about 1370 in what is now the Czech Republic. Jans paid the ultimate price and died at the stake but not before making his own impact.
Jan was influenced by John Wyclif works which was easy as Jan was also working in academia in philosophy.
Jan became embroiled in the Czech Reform Movement and took to preaching in the local tongue (Czech) rather than Latin (the Church’s typical m.o.).
An interesting element that flavored the environment of Jan’s time was the Western Schism in which there were two popes trying to lead the Roman Catholic Church (which lead to some reforms in attempt to prevent this from recurring). It was a messy time that ultimately proved to catch Jan Hus leading to his eventual death.
Some of the things leveled at him included his refusal to stop preaching (when one of the popes tried to have preaching in chapels stop), his public denouncing of indulgences (Martin was no the first the refute these), and his writings that directly refuted his enemies.
He was arrested and tried as a “Wycliffe heretic” (despite not being in 100% agreement with Wyclif’s works) before the Council of Constance after being promised safe-conduct. After refusing to recant, he was burned at the stake on July 6, 1415.
Sources & additional information:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wyclif/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Wycliffe
This year I will be posting a series of articles on the Protestant Reformation as we lead up to Reformation Sunday and Reformation Day of 2017.
This year marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation tied to the posting of Martin Luther’s famed 95 theses that sparked change in Europe that continues to spill over, impacting Christians to this day.
Some nay-sayers over-simplify the time period as a time of religious upheaval and conflict. Yes, these things did happen but there are reasons for them and one key item in all of this was the printing press.
The printing press? Yup. It was a very important invention from this time period – without which the Reformation would have had a much harder time growing as it did.
Why is this? Well, among other works, Martin Luther – the one we like to credit as being the key figure in the Reformation – had written his 95 theses that challenged various beliefs and practices of the time under Roman Catholic rule. The printing press made it possible for people to print his work (copy it) and make it more available than what would have happened with just sending a letter or posting them on a church door.
With the spread of Martin’s writings went the spread of what he had found while actually reading the Scriptures. You see, at this time, the common person didn’t read the Bible but had to depend upon the Catholic Church to dispense what it had to say.
Throw in their effective monopoly on salvation and you had an authority who could claim power over your very soul and experience after death.
Martin Luther’s works – made much more available by the printing press – challenged the Church’s authority on the basis of what the Bible actually said. Things would never be the same!
In the coming weeks, I will write more about these things – bringing more details.
I plan to end it all on Oct. 31st which is Reformation Day (a Tuesday this year) with a posting of Martin Luther’s 95 theses – just as it has become legend that he did some 500 years ago! I will be making some word adjustments to modernize the English as well.
I’m looking forward to it! Stay tuned!
