Week Four: The Reformation(s)

Welcome back to week four of the History of the Church!

So, why on earth would we want to study church history?

So, why study church history? Because it gives us the time, context, and the character of the One Holy, Triune God.

As historians, we tell stories of the past to make sense of where we come from, who we are, and to learn more about that God throughout history.

We don’t study random events, but the nature of God working throughout history. This is ever more true as we begin to talk about . . .

The Dawn of the Reformation

From the Fall of Constantinople (1453) to the Birth of John Wesley (1703)

The date that is usually given as the beginning of the Reformation is 1517, when Luther posted his famous 95 theses. Although, as we talked about last week, there had been previous reform movements for a long time.

Beginning with the Fall of Constantinople, a number of renewal movements were sparked.

There were renewal movements in the monastic tradition, in which we see the development of Dominican and Franciscan monks.

We see a renewal movement known as Scholasticism, in which theology becomes the work of various people in universities throughout the world. The long list of scholastic reformers included Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas, and others.

Still, there were other renewal movements, like the one led by this guy, John Wycliffe, who as we said last week is the foundation of viewing the Bible as the sole authority of the church, and the people as having more authority than the pope.

The Catholic Church deemed Wycliffe a heretic, and later determined that one of his most fervent followers, who continued Wycliffe’s work, John Huss, to be a heretic as well. Which is something that is important to note when we talk about the story of . . .

(Don’t Read Below Statement)

John Wycliffe led congregationalist reform efforts,and was followed in that work by John Huss ; Both are declared heretics and burned.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was born into a very successful family, with a stern father who wanted him to be a lawyer.

In 1501, Luther went to the University of Erfurt, where he earned his Baccalaureate and Master’s, and enrolled to study law , before ultimately dropping out shortly after.

On one hand, Luther had wanted to honor his father’s wishes, but ultimately he believed that the law represented so much uncertainty. Instead, Luther was drawn to the theology of the Scholastics and philosophy.

He went to the University at Erfurt in 1501, and eventually starts to study law as his father had requested.

In 1505, while returning to university on horseback after a trip home, a lightning bolt struck near Luther.

He cried out, “Help! Father, I will become a monk!”

He came to view this as a vow he could never break.

So, there in 1505, much to his father’s disgust and his friends confusion, Luther became an Augustinian Monk.

While living in the monastery, Luther became very anxious as a celebrant of Communion .

Since confession was necessary, he was afraid of forgetting a sin and thus not confessing it.

As a man so entrenched in the study of law since his birth, Luther was haunted by the whole concept. As parents, people often wonder what their child is going to need to go to therapy for someday, for Luther’s dad it was the fact that he had pushed the law so hard on him that he felt anxiously bound by it.

Eventually, in 1512, Luther is sent from the monastery to become a parish priest in Wittenberg, and to become a professor at the new university being built there.

While there, Luther gets in a conflict over the sale of indulgences .

Indulgences are the organized sale of official statements from the Pope claiming that your punishment in Purgatory has been lessened.

They became popular in Germany at the time due to a number of powerful families who were utterly corrupt. They liked the assurance of the Pope, and were willing to pay for it.

Therefore, the Pope decided to issue more of these indulgences and open them to the public.

The sale of indulgences went to fund St. Peter’s Basilica.

This sale of indulgences drives Luther to initiate the reformation, so I like to say that the Basilica of St. Peter is the first church split over a building project.

They were very good at selling indulgences as well, in fact they inlisted the help of a Dominican monk named John Tetzel, who would go from town to town singing the song, “when the coin in the bottom of the cup rings, your soul from purgatory springs!” Tetzel was a regular Don Draper.

This sends Luther over the edge, and so . . .

On October 31, 1517, Luther posts “the 95 theses “ on the front door of the university parish he served.

Most people assume that the 95 theses were written for the leaders of the Catholic Church, but the fact of the matter is that Luther was one!

Instead, these 95 theses were written for the academics of Wittenberg university.

Not only did they call out the Pope for the efficacy of indulgences, but he pointed out exploitation within the church.

The 95 Theses are then printed and distributed throughout the German Empire.

A few months later, Luther is called to the chapter meeting of his monastery where he was expected to be burned as a heretic, but his monastery agrees with him and supports him instead.

He is then called to an Imperial Diet in Augsburg in 1518, where is surely set to be declared a heretic based on the church’s influence on the government.

He escapes and runs for his life

The next year was an election year, and so the pursuit of Martin Luther slowed down quite drastically, and while the new emperor was being chosen, Martin Luther had a religious enlightenment.

Locked away in his study tower in 1519, Luther develops the concept of “justification by faith .”

The theology of the Catholic Church in Luther’s time claimed that once you were baptized at birth, that you were effectively saved until you complete your first mortal sin. (Mortal sin being identified as willingly disobeying a known law of God)

At which point you must go through a process of confession, absolution, and satisfaction. This allows God to transform you so that yo might not willing disobey this known law of God again. Once you did, you may then go to heaven, purgatory, or hell.

The problem for Luther lies in the question: have you truly repented? Or are you dead to your sin, even after confession?

Thus, Luther believed that the gift of faith is what truly saves us from ultimate peril, not the process of confession.

In order to make sense of this, you have to understand that Luther, by this time, had developed an extensive notion of both Law and Gospel.

Law and Gospel

Luther claimed that the law has two uses:

Luther claimed that the law has two uses:

Two Uses of Law:

Evangelical : To Convict Sinners

Civil : To Model Worldly Lw

The Gospel is forgiveness .

Both Law and Gospel represent Two Kingdoms actively at work in the world:

Spiritual Kingdom

Ruled by Gospel

No Punishment

Secular Kingdom

Ruled by Laws

Ecclesial Authorities

Punishment

Leipzig Debate

Following the experience that Luther had in his study tower, the Catholic Church had already begun creating it’s own counter-reformation, which we will get into later tonight.

One member of the counter-reformation was a man named John Eck , who made it his sole mission to oust Luther and his band of followers from the Catholic Church.

In 1519, Eck called for a debate between himself and a man named Andreas Bodenstein in hopes of luring Luther into a debate.

This debate is known as the Leipzig Debate.

Bodenstein was one of Luther’s faithful followers, but it was clear that we intellectually inferior to Luther. As an individual who studied law, Eck knew that Luther would not be able to refrain from jumping into the debate.

Luther steps into the debate and claims that the Council of Constance had erred when condemning John Huss, and that any Christian with support from Scripture has more authority than popes and councils without Scriptural support.

This placed Luther in agreement with a condemned heretic.

By December of the following year, Luther receives an official request from the Pope asking that he recant what he said during the Leipzig Debates, but Luther burns this request.

In 1521, Luther is excommunicated by the Catholic Church.

Later that year, the Emperor himself had invited Luther to the Imperial Diet of Worms, where Luther refused to repent or recant.

Luther preached on the way, and was cheered as he arrived.

Following these events . . .

Following Luther’s dismissal by the Imperial Diet of Worms, Luther was declared an outlaw by Imperial Edict.

He fled to Wartburg, and hid under the alias, “Junker Joerg.”

During this time he wrote the first German translation of the New Testament in only 11 weeks!

Luther eventually came out of hiding and returned to Wittenburg, which became the center of the reformation.

He lived a faithful life until he passed in 1546, writing a great deal about theology and framing what is now known as Lutheran Theology.

Luther’s Contributions to Theology:

Justification by Faith

First to claim that the Church’s tradition is not to be held above Scripture.

First to deny transubstantiation, while maintaining that Christ was fully present in the Eucharist.

Claimed that God could only be revealed as attested in Jesus Christ, not through reason to make sense of God.

Diet of Worms

The Wartburg (Translation of the New Testament)

However, not all those who abandoned Roman Catholicism became followers of Luther and his theology. There soon appeared another movement in Switzerland, first under the direction of Ulrich Zwingli, and then of John Calvin, which gave birth to the churches that we now call “Reformed” and “Presbyterian.”

Wrote fervently until his death in 1546.

Ulrich Zwingli

Theology

Sacraments

Scripture

Ulrich Zwingli

Counter-Reformation

Ulrich Zwingli was a reformer in Zurich, and reached many of the same conclusions at Martin Luther, albeit by following a different path.

His main interest was in returning to the original sources of Christianity, and therefore, he rejected all that was not found in the New Testament.

His Theological Contributions Include:

The claim that Christ is not physically present in communion, but rather that Christ is signified through communion.

This argument depends upon what the definition of ‘is’ is. He claimed that in Jesus’ statement, “this is my body”, that is means ‘signifies.’ He would also claim that a sign is distinguished from the thing signified.

For example, a Queen’s Ring has significance, not in itself, but for what is signifies (marriage to the King).

The claim that baptism is simply an initiation into the believing community, but was not a means of imparting grace. In other words, baptism doesn’t “wash away Original Sin.”

In fact, Zwingli did not believe in Original Sin’s ability to condemn us, therefore he also claimed that infant baptism was not necessary. In other words, Baptism is a sign as well, and therefore it isn’t really required at all.

This becomes very important when considering the rise of another reform movement at the time known as . . .

The Anabaptists

The Anabaptist movement began Zurich, alongside the movement led by Ulrich Zwingli.

The Anabaptists began with Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz, who both attended Bible Studies led by Ulrich Zwingli.

Both Grebel and Manz disagreed with Zwigli on several accounts:

Claimed that God decided how we worship, not the state

Claimed that communion ought to only be available to the Faithful (baptized)

Claimed the importance of Believer’s Baptism

In 1525, Grebel writes a letter to a man named Thomas Muntzer outlining the entirety of Anabaptist Thinking, which included the rejection of infant baptism (because they claimed that children were included in Christ’s sacrifice until the age of discernment), a blatant rejection of violence, and the rejection of mass, the priesthood, and other aspects of worship not supported by Scripture.

A council is called in 1525, and Zwingli convinces the council that these anti-infant baptism views ought to be condemned.

At that same time, Grebel performs the first believer’s baptism (by pouring).

Due to persecution, all present were dead within 10 years

In 1526, the Zurich Council decrees the death penalty for persistent Anabaptists.

January 5, 1527 - Felix Manz is drowned and none of his family recants

January 17, 1527 - Georg Blaurock (first baptized by Grebel) is whipped through the streets and expelled. Eventually captured again in 1529, and burned at the stake.

Ulrich Zwingli

The Anabaptists remained pacifists throughout persecution until the leadership of the group is assumed by Jan Mattys , who convinces the group to become militant and begin building a New Zion.

Some of you might be saying, “Woah, that’s a big shift, where did that come from?” Well, the Anabaptists began prophesying about the imminent return of Christ which drove this militant thinking.

John of Leyden is converted by Mattys, and declares himself “King of Righteousness.”

Declares Polygamy as Legal

Enforces unity Through Violence

This militant band of Anabaptists is defeated by the Bishop’s Forces in January of 1535.

Leyden is executed in January of 1536, and his body, as well as bodies of other Anabaptist leaders were hung from cages on the steeple of St. Lambert’s Church.

The Anabaptist cause is placed back on course by the leadership of Menno Simons, who eventually leads to a group known today as the Mennonites.

Anabaptists

Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Ulrich Zwingli, the next generation was led by a man named . . .

John Calvin

Although a native of France, Calvin became the head of the reformation in Geneva (Switzerland).

Calvin’s position was more moderate that Zwingli’s, and is best seen in his great work, Institutes of the Christian Religion.

The first edition of this book was small enough to fit into a pocket, but it eventually grew to compromise four large volumes.

In them . . .

Calvin systematized Reformed theology:

Claims About Scripture:

“The Bible has everything necessary to know God.”

Scripture comes from the Holy Spirit, and is best understood through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Claims About the Father:

“Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God."

Knowledge of human depravity allows us to put our faith in God, and thus come to know God.

"Jesus summons the chosen into life.”

Claims that the Law has three uses:

Jesus summons the chosen into life

Conviction of Sin

Civil Use of Law

The law has three

To Encourage Us to Become More Holy

“We receive the Grace of Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Holy Spirit gave power to the writing and reading of Scripture

Gives faith to the chosen

“The marks of the church are word and sacrament.”

The church is identified by the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the Sacraments.

“The true church is only known by God.”

Reflected by Earthly Church

Beliefs of Calvinism are commonly expressed through the acronym TULIP:

Total Depravity

Humanity is utterly and completely depraved, unable to save itself.

Unconditional Election

God chooses you regardless of what you have done or might do.

Limited Atonement

Salvation is only for those chosen by God (the Elect).

Irresistible Grace

If you are chosen by God, there is nothing you can do to escape it.

Perseverance of the Saints

Once saved, always saved.

Counter-Reformation

So, out of this era we begin to see Christianity begin to branch out into various denominations.

It started with the split in 1054, where the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern (Greek) Orthodox split.

From there, the Lutherans left the Catholic Church, and the Reformed/Presbyterian side comes out as well.

However, there are still two more pieces to this puzzle before we can begin to talk about our identity as Methodists, which is where we are headed next week, so let’s try and fill in those gaps.

First, we start with . . .

The English Reformation

In England, there was a different sort of reformation, which while following the theology of Protestantism retained its ancient traditions regarding worship and church governance. This is the Church of England, from which come the various churches that are today called “Anglican” and “Episcopal.”

While there had been previous reform movements in England, which we’ve talked about earlier, the Protestant Reformation gained a foothold in England on the occasion of the need of Henry VIII to have an heir to his throne.

The Wife of King Henry VIII is unable to provide him a male heir to the throne, instead she bore to him a daughter, Mary Tudor .

In 1522, Henry VIII caught eye of a young woman named Anne Bolyn, and issues a request for the annulment of his marriage and permission to marry again.

Denied by Pope Clement VII

Counter-Reformation

At which time, King Henry VIII decides that he will wait, and he and his wife try to have a child for the next eleven years, but she is unable to do so.

In 1533, King Henry marries Anne Bolyn in Westminster Abbey

Bishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declares marriage to Catherine invalid and marriage to Anne valid.

King Henry VIII, having drawn the ire of the Pope, declares that he is establishing a national Church of England.

Anne bears a child for King Henry VIII, a daughter named Elizabeth .

Anne Bolyn is beheaded at the Tower of London in 1536.

11 Days following the beheading of Anne Bolyn, King Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour, who bears to him a son named Edward .

In 1536, Henry VIII declares an Act of Succession declaring both Mary and Elizabeth as illegitimate children.

In 1537, 12 days after Edward is born, Jane Seymour dies from birth complications.

Seymour is known as Henry’s “True Wife,” and Henry VIII is buried next to her.

Henry VIII goes on to marry Anne of Cleves (Divorced), Catherine Howard (Beheaded), and Catherine Parr (Survived).

Having established that both Mary and Elizabeth were illegitimate children, upon the passing of King Henry VIII, his one and only son, Edward VI, took the throne at the age of 9.

Edward VI passed away in 1553, at the age of 15.

The crown was then claimed by Mary Tudor, the first-born daughter of King Henry VIII, who was, by necessity, Catholic.

I say that Mary was Catholic by necessity because she needed her father’s divorce of her mother to be illegitimate in order for her to claim the crown.

As a result, she restored medieval heresy laws and had over 283 protestants beheaded or burned at the stake for heresy.

This earned her the nickname, “Bloody Mary.”

Queen Mary I died in 1558, and having bore no children, the crown was then passed on to King Henry VIII’s second daughter, Elizabeth. In a similar manner to her sister, Elizabeth was Protestant by necessity.

She developed the Oath of Supremacy and Oath of Uniformity which established the monarch as the “supreme governor” of the Church of England and required all to attend Sunday Services in Anglican Churches.

In addition, all other outside gatherings must be registered with the government, and were often persecuted.

While this English Reformation was taking place, we also witness the emergence of what is known as . . .

Pietism

The emergence of Pietism came from the understanding that the reformation had not gone far enough because it did not produce a godly society.

Sets us up for Methodist History next week . . .

The Basic Tenets of Pietism:

A concern for the further reformation of the Church as it is worked out in the lives of believers in community.

A strong emphasis on holy living, a conviction that faith must become active in love. A Christian is not simply declared righteous, but is actually made righteous by the power of the Holy Spirit.

An expectation of religious, quasi-mystical experience. The experience of the love of God in justification and the new birth marked a revival of concern around the work of the Holy Spirit.

“Hope for the World.” The expectation of the Holy Spirit’s work in the lives of individual believers was also an expectation of God’s Spirit in the world, including the works of mercy, mission, and social reform.

The use of small groups for cultivating the Christian life, which in turn anticipates God’s intention for human community.

There are a variety of different Pietist movements, but perhaps the most important is Lutheran Pietism.

Philip Jacob Spener

Wrote Pia Desideria, or “Pious Desires,” which outlines the basic tenets listed above.

August Hermann Francke

Out of the Lutheran Pietist Movement emerges a group of individuals who are exiled from Moravia for their pietistic beliefs, commonly referred to as the Moravians.

We will talk more about the Moravians next week, as they play a huge role in this thing that we call Methodism.

Essentially, Methodism will find itself as a branch between the Anglican church and the Pietist movement, and especially the Moravians.

So, where does this leave us?

John Wesley

In the year 1703, a man named John Wesley is born into a family with a long line of Anglican Clergy.

We will pause right there, and continue next week with a holistic scope of how the Methodists go from a renewal movement in the Anglican Church into their own, fully-functioning church.

Questions?