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Church History L8--Hus Wycliffe Erasmus

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Church History L8--Hus Wycliffe Erasmus Who’s Who in Church History Lesson Eight The Medieval Church in Turbulence 1300 – 1500 Initiating the Reformation Background It is hard to think of a more turbulent time in Church history than the period of 1300 – 1500. After two centuries of war, the Crusades left Jerusalem in the hands of the Mamluks – the Crusades had failed. Two insipient world changes added significant stress to the Roman Catholic Church: the virtual simultaneous Renaissance and Reformation. Most often spoken of separately, they both stem from an awakening of the Western World from the bleak dark times after the collapse of the Roman Empire. While we will not be looking at the Renaissance in any detail, it is important to recognize its role in creating an awareness of the world beyond the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. A few dates will help to set the stage: · Disastrous end of the Eighth Crusade: 1291 · Dante: 1265 – 1321 · Papacy moved from Rome to Avignon: 1309 · John Wyclif: 1330 – 1384 · Bubonic Plagues: 32 years of the 14th Century, 41 years of the 15th Century · Jan Hus: 1369 – 1415 · The Great Schism: 1378 – 1417 · Geoffrey Chaucer: 1340 – 1400 · Gutenberg Bible printed: 1456 · Desiderius Erasmus: 1466 – 1536 · Martin Luther: 1483 – 1546 · Henry VIII, King of England: 1509 – 1547 · Leonardo Da Vinci: 1452 – 1519 · Michelangelo Buonarroti: 1475 – 1564 The great power and prestige of the Roman Catholic Church, greatly increased by the First Crusade, was slowly whittled away by the remaining seven. The great efforts by the papacy from Gregory VII (1073 – 1085) to Boniface VIII (1294 – 1303), to bring all secular rulers under papal control failed with the development of Nationalism. In 1302 – 1303, King Philip IV of France successfully challenged the authority of Pope Boniface VIII over the power and property of the church NPC Summer Adult Education Series ‘04 Who’s Who in Church History, L8, p. 1 in France – the first revolt of secular rulers against the Roman Catholic Church. The Reformation had begun. By 1309 French cardinals formed a majority and Clement V moved the papacy to Avignon. The papacy was seen as an instrument of the French government for the next 68 years. 134 nominations to the College of Cardinals were made during this period, 113 were French. Increasingly, the church found itself considered a pawn of France with the Avignon, France result that nations became less willing to send revenues to the church. To counter this revenue decrease, the papal Curia required greater and greater levies and taxes on the hierarchy and all parishes until over half of any ecclesiastical appointee’s first year income was taken and a tithe was required thereafter. Large gifts were required for appointments and advances as well as rulings and judgments – many times, the size of the gift directly influenced the ruling or judgment handed down. When an abbot, bishop, archbishop, or cardinal died, all his possessions reverted to the papacy. This continual outpouring of wealth further antagonized the Papal Palace, Avignon sovereign nations now fighting France during the Hundred Years’ War. By this time the papacy was a royal court. Guillaume Durand, Bishop of Mend recorded it thus: “The whole Church might be reformed if… it would begin by removing evil examples from itself… by which men are scandalized, and the whole people, as it were, infected… For in all lands… especially the most holy Church of Rome, is in evil repute; and all cry and publish it abroad that within her bosom all men, from the greatest unto even the least, have set their hearts on covetousness… the clergy feast more luxuriously and splendidly, and with more dishes, than princes and kings.” Enter The Humanists When we consider humanism today, we think secular humanism. When we look back to the Renaissance, however we see humanists from a different perspective. They came into being during the time of the Medici and revealed the past to an amazed world. They were given the name umanisti because they called the study of classics and culture of the ancient Greeks and Romans humanities. This then was humanism. The humanists were the original archeologists. For example, Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca, 1304 –1374) found manuscripts forgotten in monastery cellars “held in captivity by barbarous jailers.” Often, these NPC Summer Adult Education Series ‘04 Who’s Who in Church History, L8, p. 2 humanists traveled in groups to unearth manuscripts. In the 50 years before Constantinople fell to the Turks (1453), 12 went to Greece. Giovanni Aurispa brought back 238 manuscripts including Sophocles’ plays. Francesco Filelfo unearthed texts of Herodotus, Thucydides, Demosthenes, Aristotle, and Euripides. It is important to remember that the original humanists were Christians, but their work unearthed a new light on the ancient world opening Renaissance eyes to civilizations and ways of thinking that in many ways were counter to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. The resultant intense requirement for Greek and Latin scholars spread educational opportunities. While their work did bring about some separation of science from theological control, their focus on the past coupled with existing heresy laws hindered direct scientific observation. These new intelligentsia saw the difference between that which was being preached by the church (chastity, poverty, obedience, humility, generosity, otherworldliness, etc.) and what the church leaders practiced and questioned the disparity, thus preparing the way for reform. Petrarch, branded the condition of the papacy at Avignon as: “Impious Babylon, the hell on earth, the sink of vice, the sewer of the world. There is neither faith nor charity nor religion nor the fear of God… as if their glory consisted not in the cross of Christ but in feasting, drunkenness, and unchasity… the delights of the pontifical games.” John Wyclif (1330 – 1384) The Morning Star of the Reformation Into this time of turmoil came the first of the English reformers. He was born in north Yorkshire, studied at Oxford and became professor of theology. He was an ordained priest with multiple benefices in parish churches but continued to teach at the University as was common. A man of the period, he wrote extensively on subjects ranging from logic, metaphysics, church governance, and theology. Written in obscure Latin, they might have gone mostly unnoticed except for his radical conceptualization of God’s sovereignty. He argued that God is Lord of all and that everyone owes allegiance directly to Him. This allegiance, being direct, requires no intermediary (On Devine Dominion). He further stated that any claim of the church to the contrary was false teaching. He went on to say that it is due to God’s grace that man is saved, that He gives his grace to those whom He NPC Summer Adult Education Series ‘04 Who’s Who in Church History, L8, p. 3 chooses. As we have seen, the church had long positioned itself to take dominion over all temporal things and persons – kings thus were considered to have derived their authority from the church. Wyclif argued that all Christians can and should hold themselves as obedient vassals to God without need of a priest or ordination. This was condemning enough, but he went on to express his opinion that anyone in a state of sin could not hold dominion over others (On Civil Dominion). Ungodly rulers, temporal or spiritual, have no legitimate authority and lose the right of dominion (lordship, rightful possession). When the English Parliament refused to pay the tribute to the pope in 1366, Wyclif was engaged to defend Parliament’s actions. During this time the church was immensely wealthy, owning, it is said, over a third of all the property in England and claimed exemption from all taxation of the state. In July of 1374, Wyclif was appointed to the royal commission and sent to Bruges to discuss England’s continued refusal to pay the papal tribute. At this time, John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, proposed confiscating the church’s property. Wyclif defended the proposal in a series of John of Gaunt sermons in September of 1376. He was branded a heretic by Bishop Courtenay and summoned to appear before a council of prelates at St. Paul’s. John of Gaunt accompanied him with an armed escort to ensure his safety. He returned to Oxford but the pope, Gregory XI, issued bulls in 1377 condemning him (mostly referring to Wyclif’s treatise On Civil Dominion) and calling for his arrest. Wyclif answered in one of his pamphlets that in essence, called for the separation of the English church from the papacy. The chancellor of Oxford refused to obey the arrest warrant and denied that any prelate had authority over the University. 1378 dawned as the decisive year for Wyclif and the papacy. Wyclif broke with Catholic tradition and the papacy was divided. In 1375, 64 Italian cities aligned themselves with the pope as their temporal and spiritual head; by 1376, only Rome remained loyal. Gregory accused Florence of being the head of the revolt and excommunicated all Florentines. The Florentines confiscated all church property. The dispute got Gregory XI out of hand, many were put to death and Gregory, when told that Rome was about to rebel, was forced to seek a diplomatic end to the rebellion. On November 7, 1377, Gregory returned to Rome to oversee the return of Italy to the fold. On March 28, 1378, he died. The conclave in Rome that met to name Gregory’s successor elected the Archbishop of Bari as pope. He took the name Urban VI. Meanwhile, the French cardinals issued an invalidation of Urban’s election as made under duress of the Roman mobs and on September 20, 1378 proclaimed NPC Summer Adult Education Series ‘04 Who’s Who in Church History, L8, p.
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