Great Heroes (and Antiheroes) of the Great Reformation Unit 6: The Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation Cardinal Gasparo St. Ignatius de Loyola Contarini (1483—1542) (1491—1556) Reformation and Divisions in the 16th-Century Roman Catholic Church • Protestant Reformers (Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox, Bucer, Bullinger, Cranmer, etc.) • Roman Catholic Evangelicals • Society of Jesus (Jesuits) • Council of Trent (1545—1547; 1551—1552; 1562—1563) • Papacy • Revival in the Religious Orders • New Spirituality (Mystics) • Extra-European Roman Catholic Expansion The Roman Catholic Evangelicals • Most, strongly affected by Augustine, mostly agreed with the Reformers’ doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. • Disagreed with the Reformers’ break from allegiance to the papacy. • Mixed on Eucharist (transubstantiation vs. consubstantiation vs. spiritual presence vs. pure symbol) and other liturgical matters. • Agreed with Reformers’ pursuit of moral reform. • Worked 1521—1541 “to reform the Church of Rome from within, towards a more Biblical theology and practice, and thus to win back the Protestants into the one true Church.” (Needham) • Key figures: Johann von Staupitz, Gasparo Contarini, Juan de Valdes, Albert Pighius, Jacob Sadoleto, Gregorio Cortese, Reginald Pole, Johann Gropper, Girolamo Seripando, Giovanni Morone • 1537, issued Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia (“Consultation on Reforming the Church”)—forthright condemnation of the moral state of the Roman Church; pope refused to publish it; leaked out; spread rapidly; Roman Inquisition placed it on “Index of Forbidden Books” Leading Roman Catholic Evangelicals • Johannes von Staupitz (1460—1524), Luther’s spiritual guide in Augustinian order; agreed with almost all Luther’s doctrine but couldn’t break with papacy; yet all Staupitz’s writings were placed on Rome’s “index of forbidden books” in 1563. • “… you seem to me to condemn many outward things which do not affect a sinner’s justification. Why do you hate monasticism so much, when many monks have lived holy lives? There is nothing that men cannot abuse. … Do not condemn things which are not important … although you must of course speak out on matters of faith.” • Cardinal Gasparo Contarini (1483—1542): “By faith we have a twofold righteousness: first, an inward righteousness of our own, and the love and grace by which we are made partakers of the divine nature; second, the righteousness of Christ, given and imputed to us. We ought to trust in Christ’s righteousness bestowed on us, and not in our own inward holiness and grace.” • Juan de Valdes (1500—1541), strongly influenced by Erasmus and Luther, hosted Bible study and prayer every Sunday, emphasized personal experience with Christ, “dismissing as mere opinion any faith that was based only on the Church’s teaching or on reason.” (Needham) Some disciples became Protestants. • Albert Pighius (1490—1542), Dutch theologian; anti-Augustinian on original sin and predestination; opposed Luther and Calvin on them; defended papal infallibility; but understood justification almost identically with the Protestants; later Protestants highly respected him. • Cardinal Jacob Sadoleto (1477—1547), Italian humanist and Biblical scholar; co- author of Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia; greatly admired Melanchthon and Bucer; wrote to Genevans to call back into communion with Rome; Calvin answered. • Gregorio Cortese (1483—1548), Benedictine monk, patristic scholar, sympathetic to Luther’s writings; member of Contarini’s reforming group; co-author of Consilium; elevated to cardinal by Paul III after. • Reginal Pole (1500—1558), English noble, humanist scholar, friend of Erasmus and Contarini, opposed Henry VIII’s break with papacy, fled England, wrote Pro Ecclesiasticae Unitatis Defensione against Henry; co-author of Consilium; one of three papal legates over first stage of Council of Trent • Johann Gropper (1503—1559), German theologian, disciple of Erasmus, 1538 Enchiridion (handbook of doctrine, placed on Rome’s Index of Forbidden Books) compromised deeply with Protestant theology of justification; taught “double justice” or “twofold righteousness”: “… Christ’s righteousness was inwardly imparted to believers, when then did good works; but because sin remained in believers, spoiling their best performance, they could never perfectly meet God’s requirement. Therefore, when believers stood before God in judgment, He would graciously impute to their account just so much of Christ’s forensic righteousness as would cover the gap ….” (Needham) Cooperated heavily with Bucer in producing a joint statement on justification, the Regensburg Book • Giovanni Morone (1509-1580), Bishop of Modena, close friend of Contarini, “worked for better relations between Rome and the Reformers”; Pope Paul IV imprisoned him “for his Protestant-leaning views on justification by faith and praying to the saints” (Needham); restored by Pope Pius IV, presided over Council of Trent’s third session • Benedetto de Mantova (d. 1546), Benedictine monk, wrote The Benefits of Christ’s Death (1543), “taught a strongly Augustinian theology alongside a Protestant view of justification by faith” (Needham), much just a translation of Calvin’s Institutes; most popular book of the Roman Catholic Evangelicals, selling over 40,000 by 1549; eventually placed on Rome’s Index of Forbidden Books • Roman Catholic Evangelicals became most influential in 1539—1541, leading to series of RC and Protestant meetings authorized by Emperor Charles V and Pope Paul III aiming to restore unity of church The Colloquy of Regensburg (or Ratisbon), 1541 • Contarini presided; Gropper & Pighius other leading RCs; Calvin, Melanchthon, and Bucer leading Protestants; produced common statement on original sin and justification by faith; excerpts: • “No Christian should doubt that after the fall of our first parent all human beings are, as the apostle says, born children of wrath and enemies of God and thereby are in death and slavery to sin.” • “Likewise, no Christian should question that nobody can be reconciled with God, nor set free from slavery to sin, except by Christ the one Mediator between God and human beings, by whose grace … we are not only reconciled to God and set free from slavery to sin, but also made sharers in the divine nature and children of God.” • “… adults do not obtain these blessings of Christ, except by the prevenient movement of the Holy Spirit, by which their mind and will are moved to hate sin. For, as Saint Augustine says, it is impossible to begin a new life if we do not repent of the former one. …” • “… the sinner is justified by a living and efficacious faith, for through it we are leasing and acceptable to God on account of Christ. … living faith is that which both appropriates mercy in Christ, believing that the righteousness which is in Christ is freely imputed t it, and at the same time receives the promise of the Holy Spirit and love. Therefore the faith that truly justifies is that faith, which is effectual through love. Nevertheless it remains true, that it is by this faith that we are justified (that is, accepted and reconciled to God), inasmuch as it appropriates the mercy and righteousness which are imputed to us on account of Christ and His merit, not on account of the worthiness or perfection of the righteousness imputed to us in Christ.” • “… every Christian should learn that this grace and this regeneration have not been given to us so that we might remain idle in that stage of our renewal which we at first obtained, but so that we may grow in everything into Him who is the Head. Therefore the people must be taught to devote effort to this growth which indeed happens through good works, both internal and external, which are commanded and commended by God. To these works God has … promised a reward on account of Christ—good things in this life, as much for the body as for the soul … and, after this life, in heaven. Therefore, although the inheritance of eternal life is due to the regenerate on account of the promise as soon as they are reborn in Christ, nevertheless God also renders a reward to good works, not according to the substance of the works, but to the extent that they are performed in faith and proceed from the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, free choice concurring as a partial agent.” • “Now those who say that we are justified by faith alone should at the same time teach the doctrine of repentance, of the fear of God, of the judgment of God, and of good works …. And that is to prevent this way of speaking [‘faith alone’] from being” misunderstood. Breakdown of Colloquy of Regensburg • Consensus on justification. • No consensus on Eucharist • Roman Catholic Evangelicals insisted on transubstantiation. • Protestants refused because they believed it led inexorably to idolatrous worship of the communion bread and wine and to the doctrine of the mass as a propitiatory sacrifice of Christ. • Failure of Regensburg “marked the end of [the Roman Catholic Evangelicals’] official influence in the papal court.” (Needham) • “Many leading Roman Churchmen rejected the joint Roman-Protestant statement on justification by faith as a vile Lutheran heresy; paradoxically, some Protestants, including Luther, rejected it as a compromise with Rome! Pope Paul III removed Contarini from all positions of influence, and the great Catholic Evangelical leader died a year later.” (Needham) • “As a result of the Catholic Evangelical failure, Augustinian theology fell into disfavor in Rome.