Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

As we begin the month of October, we are going to look at the men and events that led to the Protestant Reformation on October 31, 1517.

To do that we must understand what the pre-reformers and reformers were up against, manly the Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church controlled everything during this time

At one point there were two popes and that caused issues with the church

During John’s life, he would see the reign of eight popes: John XXII, Nicholas V, Benedict XII, Clement VI, Innocent VI, Urban V, Gregory XII, and Clement VII.

(Hall)

Rome held ultimate authority in the lives of all people both on the continent of Europe and in the British Isles.

(Hall)

The papacy controlled both the Church and State, which were inseparably joined together in medieval England.

This meant that there was no personal liberty in everyday life or in religion, in fact the Papacy was universally accepted as the head of a common Christian religion.

(Hall)

It is estimated that the clergy owned almost half of the estates in the kingdom, therefore they did not see any need for freedom of choice for the

common man.

(Hall)

They were the lords over the whole nation, the people merely being the servants at their beck and call.

They dictated what the people did, thought and believed.

(Hall)

All the pre-reformers and reformers felt the burden of this micromanagement of the people

They saw the solution to be a Bible in English

That was true of John Wycliffe, who is called “The Morning Star” of the Reformation

If the Bible was in the language of the people then they could understand the Gospel for themselves and also provide accountability to the Roman Catholic Church

They would also understand that salvation was through the Church

It was in Jesus Christ alone

And it was Scripture alone that would be the authority in their lives and not the Church

John Wycliffe’s championed this view of salvation when he said, “Trust wholly in Christ; rely altogether on his sufferings; beware of seeking to be justified in any other way than by his righteousness.”

This statement threatened the Roman Catholic Church

In fact, his teaching left quite an impression on the Catholic church that 43 years after his death, “the council of Constance denounced his teaching and ordered that his bones be dug up, burned, and cast into the river Swift” (https://www.lordsandladies.org/john-wycliffe.htm)

After this occurred, someone said, “Thus the brook hath conveyed his ashes in Avon; Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas; and they into the main ocean.

And thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine which now is dispersed the world over.”

Let’s begin our study this morning getting acquainted with John Wycliffe and...

LESSON

I. His Early Life

There is no record of his birth or much of his early years

“He has conventionally been given a birth date of 1324 but Hudson and Kenny state only records "suggest he was born in the mid-1320s".

Conti states that he was born "before 1331.”

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wycliffe)

So it is dated between 1320-1330

He was born in Yorkshire, England during the reign of King Edward III

He was born 100 years before the printing press (All books were handwritten and copied) and 100 years before the birth of Martin Luther

He died of a stroke on December 31, 1384 in Lutterworth, Leicestershire

Someone said that John was “the greatest of the English Reformers: he was in truth the first Reformer of Christendom…If Luther and Calvin are the fathers of the Reformation, Wycliffe is its grandfather” (J.

H. Merle d’Aubigne, History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1976), 710.)

He was...

II.

His Education

Educated at Oxford University

Like everyone beginning university life he would have immediately taken the Arts course, which included grammar, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, rhetoric, logic, philosophy (both natural and metaphysical), medicine, law, and theology.

Added to this he studied the Law of Optics, the Genesis of Sleep, and National Economics.

All instruction would be given in Latin, the language of the Church and, since it controlled education, that of the learned.

(Hall)

He received his doctorate in 1372 (He originally came to Oxford in 1346.

The length of time (26 yrs) was due to the eruptions of the Black Death plague that claimed more than 25 million people)

John was influenced by a number of teachers

One was Thomas Bradwardine (the Archbishop of Canterbury)

He taught that salvation was in Jesus Christ alone

John was also influenced by the writings of Robert Grosetete (the bishop of Lincoln and English Master at Oxford University)

He wrote against the moral conditions of both the church and state and against the Papacy of Rome.

He stated if Rome did not return to the Truth, as found in the Holy Scriptures, then she would be the cause of a great schism in the Church.

This was an exact prediction of the coming Reformation in England.

Another man who inspired Wycliffe was William of Ockham (1285-1349), a theologian at Oxford University

He also would have studied “Sentences” by Peter Lombard (1100-1160), an Italian theologian.

The “Sentences” were a four volume manual of theology that was a standard textbook in the Middle ages.

It was also a systematic compilation of the teachings of the Church Fathers and theologians..

John was also influenced by the teachings of Augustine who taught on predestination and rejected the teachings of free will that William of Ockham had taught

In 1374 he became the rector of the church in Lutterworth

Wycliffe began to see that the teaching and dogmas of the Church of Rome were at variance with the written Word of God...

III.

His Teaching

In 1384 he spoke out against several major Roman Catholic teachings: (this is where I want to spend the rest of our time together)

One of those doctrines the Roman Catholic Church taught and he spoke out against was...

Transubstantiation

The word “transubstantiation” means “a change of substance”

The Roman Catholic Church taught then and still teaches today “that the whole substance of the bread and wine is changed into the literal physical body and blood of Christ” (Boettner) “during the consecration of the mass” (Kapic)

The belief is that as the priest performs a prayer, the substance or essence of the bread and wine is changed into the actual body and blood of Christ (Kapic).

The elements remain the same.

This word, transubstantiation, was in widespread use in the later part of the 12th century and at the Lateran Council of 1215 the Eucharistic elements were said to be ‘transubstantiated’ into the Body and Blood of Christ; but the elaboration of the doctrine was not achieved till after the acceptance of the Aristotelian metaphysics later in the 13th century when it found classic formulation in the teaching of St Thomas Aquinas.

At the Council of Trent (sess.

13, cap.

4) the medieval doctrine was reaffirmed, but with a minimum of technical philosophical language;

‘transubstantiation’ was confirmed as the ‘most apt’ term to describe the conversion.

(Livingstone)

Wycliffe rejected this and said “it was against Scripture” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wycliffe)

He “argued that Christ was figuratively but not essentially present” (https://www.learnreligions.com/john-wycliffe-biography-699998)

But the Roman Catholic Church fought back and was persistent in it’s teaching

In their latest revision of their 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1376 says, “The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: “Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood.

This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.”

(Jones, Richard F. Understanding Roman Catholicism (p.

64).

Richard F Jones.

Kindle Edition.)

Catechism #1333 says, “At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ’s Body and Blood.”

(Jones)

Catechism #1377 specifies when Christ comes into the eucharist and how long he stays: “The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist.

Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.”

(Jones)

Catholic theologian Ludwig Ott writes, “The body and the blood of Christ together with His soul and His divinity and therefore the whole Christ are truly present in the Eucharist” (Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma [St.

Louis: B. Herder, 1954], 382).

The problems with this view:

It views the work of Christ as unfinished, the sacrifice continuing in the Mass.

Yet Christ declared His work completed (Jn.19:30) as did also the writer of Hebrews (Heb.10:10-14).