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Home , Holy Orders, Isaac Jogues

Church History Part #3: Counter- to Today

I. The Scholastic Age

A. In the 12th and 13th centuries universities began to replace monastery and cathedral schools and were modeled after feudal guild trade schools

B. Due to the , the works of Aristotle and other great thinkers were rediscovered. Their works in English had not survived the Dark Ages but they were discovered in Arabic libraries. These philosophies became “baptized” by Thomas Aquinas and others and a Golden Age in thought was underway. The Scholastic Method placed theology at the top of the academic pyramid when it came to seeking truth. It recognized God as the author of all truth and the sciences as that level of truth that could be arrived at through intellectual labor alone and theology as that level of truth that could only be reached through Divine Revelation.

C. This era was also marked by the Renaissance and the developments of arts and architecture.

It would eventually give way to the supposed that would come later and which tended to view religion as backward superstition and which promoted secular humanism. However, for several centuries this movement reached its zenith and was eventually what the relied on to refute the Protestant Reformation.

II. The Mendicant Movement

A. founders St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic rose in influence due to corruption and the perceived wealth of the monastic orders. The of the middle ages had become the single largest owners of real estate in Europe so the mendicants refused to own anything and begged for their daily needs. Rather than living in palatial monasteries, they lived on the streets instead and traveled from town to town preaching with power and conviction after the earlier model of St. Paul. Most importantly, they set as their primary goal, the reform of the from within. Rather than breaking from the Church, they would provide it with new holy examples.

III. The / The Counter-Reformation

A. Paul III came into office in 1534. By 1538 he had excommunicated King Henry the

VIII. He also called upon all the Kings of Europe to carry out a ten year truce, rather than swiftly

declaring for the Catholics or the Lutherns in an effort to assess the detailed needs for Church reform.

This eventually led to the Council of Trent beginning in 1545. This decision was not without its critics, both from the clerical front and the political front; people who were comfortable with things as they were even amidst division. There were Luthern critics as well since a few also wanted a voice in the Council.

Eventually the council was called, however. In it the Catholic theological postions were restated and the

Protestant theological positions were refuted. However, Luther’s 93 theses were considered as possible areas of reform and they served as a springboard for reform in canon law and training and restrictions in personal conduct.

B. Sessions 1-10 (1545-1547 / Led by pope paul III) - Among other things, these sessions determined that…

1. It is Tradition along with the , properly interpreted by the Magisterium that come together to form Catholic belief. Along with this belief, the current canon of scripture was also reaffirmed, including the 7 books Luther removed.

2. The belief in original was also reaffirmed. Human nature is plagued by concupiscence but it is not completely depraved and fallen as Luther claims. Man is also capable of doing good in cooperating with God’s grace and free will is reaffirmed (I.e. No person is predestined for damnation in the sense that Luther claims…that they were created for Hell or Heaven and therefore have no say in the matter. Our actions and choices in this life determine that)

3. The seven were reaffirmed as gifts of the Church created and established by for the conveyance of saving grace in helping mankind live a life of holiness

4. All four key Lutheran doctrines (Sola Scriptura, Sola Gracia, Sola Fide and Sola

Christo) are rejected.

C. Sessions 11-16 (1551-1553 / Led by Pope Paul IV)

1. These sessions focused more on the seven sacraments to determine such questions as valid matter and form of each and all related doctrines surrounding each sacrament, especially the

D. Sessions 17-25 (1562-1563 / Led by Pope Pius IV)

1. Further statements were made on the , Matrimony and Holy Orders.

2. Clarifications made on , relics, indulgences

3. A reformed system was established and guidelines were set out on reforms for personal conduct of clergy, including requiring clergy to live within their /diocesan boundaries, requiring to visit all parishes, restating case for celibacy, obedience and simplicity of life

4. Guidelines for a catechism established

E. Under Pope St. Pius V, Trent is applied to the Church but it meets scattered resistance from some royalty who will not even allow the decrees to be read in their homelands

F. The Jesuits are formed in this time to defend the truth and aid in the work of the

Church / debate against theological opposition. This order eventually would bring the to Asia and the Americas for the first time.

IV. Religious wars of the 16th Century

A. Revolt of the Low Countries (1559-1592) Region covered today by Spain vs. Lowlands

(Region of modern Netherlands/Belgium)…William of Orange in a move toward independence from

Crown

B. Huguenots vs. French ( 1562-1593) …Independent land owners vs. the Crown

C. Battle for the British Isles (1561-1603)… John Knox, King James, England vs. &

Ireland

D. 30 Year War of Germany (1618-1648)

E. Bohemia (1618-1625), Danish (1625-1629) and Swedish (1630-1635)

***NOTE: After the religious wars of the 15th century, Northern Europe with the exception of and

Scotland became Protestant and Southern Europe, with the exception of Switzerland remained Catholic.

When the Americas were later discovered, these skirmishes also made their way to the new land.

V. Exploration / Missionary Movement

A. 1490s - Columbus to North America sponsored by the Catholic royal family of Spain, Vasco do Gama sails to India, Pedro Alvares Cabral discovers Brazil

B. 1500-1550 - Magellan circles the globe, Cortez to Mexico, Pizarro to South America, Miracle

of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. to India

C. 1550-1650 - Trade with China opened, arrive in America, arrives in

Japan, Phillipines, SE Asia, Jesuits arrive in & St. Isaac Jogues and party are killed, age of

VI. Age of Enlightenment - Renaissance and Reformation aftermath lead to a period in the 18th Century where secular humanism seeks freedom from the trapping of religion (see religious wars, scientific revolution) - This movement essentially conceived principles that would dismiss the guiding light of Divine

Revelation in favor of human enlightenment or secular humanism (I.e. They believed the world would be better without religion). (This thinking would later also contribute toward the rise in atheistic communism and socialism - Napoleon, Marx, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini)

A. See Copernicus, Galileo - Catholic scientists who were poorly treated by the Church because their discoveries contradicted the assumptions by some of an geo-centric universe with mankind as the focal point. However, at the same time, consider that among the 100 greatest scientists of all time, a significant number of them were Catholic clergy and/or religious

B. See Descartes, Bacon, Voltaire and others who further developed scientific method and/or secular philosophies

C. Suppression of the Jesuits by enlightenment royalty - Jesuits were kicked out of Portugal first and the then other European nations and their colonies because of their insistence on supporting old world view of the Church

D. Ultimately this sets the stage for the French Revolution as well with open persecution of the

Catholic Church and the Catholic royalty - Secularization of (“The Reign of Terror”) in the 1700s

E. 1700s end with Napolean Bonaparte’s rise and fall. He allows Catholic clergy to return to

France but only if they swear allegiance to French laws and his views (essentially forming a national church in contradiction to Catholic teaching)

V. Modern Era 1800-1900s

A. 1800 marked by growing nationalism, the Industrial Revolution and continued growth in secular humanism. In response, Pius IX issues syllabus of errors against Modernism in 1864 and calls

Vatican I into session in 1869. He reaffirms divine revelation, the role of faith, and papal authority among other things. The 1800s also mark the rise of , particularly at the end of the 1800s

B. Missionary inroads back to Africa, the untamed west of America, and other nations

C. Despite these efforts, Marx rises to power and so do such modern secular thinkers as Freud

D. The bloodiness of the 1800s are only exceeded by the 1900s. There are more Catholic martyrs in the last century than all previous centuries combined due to the holocaust and the rise of various communist dictators who feared the influence of the Church since the Pope was outside their geographic sphere of influence. In Eastern Europe and Asia especially, national churches are enforced and

Catholicism is persecuted. This era gives rise to nationalistic Orthodox Churches and “Patriotic

Churches”. In some places, religion is banned altogether such as in Mexico. The Church is forced to once again deal with martyrdoms and Church suppressions on a wide scale in South and Central America,

Europe and Asia. They are also forced to contend with persecution during the Holocaust under Pius XII

E. Vatican II 1962-1965 / Pope John XXIII & Pope Paul VI - This council produced 14 documents on the Church in the modern age. It is the only council in Church history not called to define or clarify Catholic theological doctrine. Documents highlight views on , inter-religious dialogue, scriptural interpretation, liturgical reform, etc. and called for a new Code of Canon Law to be formed along with a new catechism and new principles of Biblical and liturgical translation into the vernacular. We are still living in the age of implementation of these documents.

F. In addition, papal encyclicals have taken on such contemporary topics as sexual morality, reproductive and other medical ethics, the nature of truth/ , nuclear proliferation and various other restatements of the faith in light of our modern technological advances and global geo-political changes.