Origins of the Reformation

Part I: Why Wyclif?

I. Preliminary Developments—Challenges from within the Church

A. Nominalists

B. Brethren of the Common Life

C. Heretics and Near Heretics

A. Nominalists

1. William Durand of Saint-Pourçain (ca. 1270–1334) – reason above “any doctor”

2. William of Ockham (1290–1347) – “Ockham’s Razor”

Sketch of William of Ockham

B. Brethren of the Common Life

1. Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471)—The Imitation of Christ

2. Wessel Gansfort — visit to Pope Sixtus VI

3. Lead your life as Christ led his

Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471)

C. Heretics and Near Heretics

1. John Wyclif (c. 1320–1384)

a. protest against worldliness of clergy and call for sterner morality

b. turn from Church to Bible as authority

c. turn from theology of Aquinas to theology of Augustine

d. turn from free will to predestination

e. turn from salvation by works to election by divine grace

f. rejection of indulgences

C. Heretics and Near Heretics

1. John Wyclif (c. 1320–1384) (continued)

g. rejection of auricular confession (favored public confession)

h. rejection of transubstantiation (favored consubstantiation)

i. rejection of priest as intermediary between people and God

j. protested alienation of local wealth to Rome

k. invited king to end his subordination to papacy

l. attack on temporal possessions of clergy

John Wycliffe

Wycliffe in His Study

Wycliffe’s Bones Being Burned

C. Heretics and Near Heretics

2. John Hus (c. 1369–1415)

a. Council of Constance (1415)

b. Lessons for Luther

Burning of Jan Hus, Miniature in the Spiezer Chronicle, 1485

Part II:Luther’s Theses: Mailed Not Nailed

I. Preconditions and Impetuses

II. Major Issues

Reformation Europe

I. Preconditions and Impetuses

A. Intellectual/Religious

B. Political

C. Social

D. Economic

E. Technology

A. Intellectual/Religious

1. Renaissance Humanism

2. Northern Mysticism

3. Abuses in the Church

a. Sale of indulgences—Pope Leo X; Albrecht, Archbishop of Magdeburg, Halberstadt, and Mainz; Johann Tetzel;

Ninety-five theses

b. Sale of Church offices and dispensations

c. Sale of relics

Albert, Cardinal of Hohenzollern, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg (by Dürer)

Albrecht by Cranach

Leo X (1513-1523)

Sale of Indulgences

B. Political

1. Localized Allegiances

2. Independent German Princes

C. Social

1. Ambitions of the Middle Status Group (merchants, craftsmen, artisans, etc.)

2. Effects of Rise of Competitive Capitalism (end of guild system)

D. Economic

1. Tithes, Sale of Indulgences, etc.

2. Desire to Confiscate Wealth of the Church

3. Resentment Against Papal Taxation

A. Intellectual/Religious (continued)

4. Clash Between Two Systems of Theology

a. Augustinian System

b. Late Medieval Theology of Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas

5. “Babylonian Captivity” (1309–1377)

The Great Schism (1378–1415)

E. Technology

“The printing press caused the Reformation” (Marshall McLuhan)

“the Reformation, born of the printing press” (James Burke)

E. Technology (continued)

1. Neither printing nor movable type was invented in Mainz in 1452

a. Xylography and Paper — Chinese Inventions

b. Johann Gutenberg (ca. 1395–1468)—reusable metal type molds

2. Some Immediate Results

a. Cheap Books and Pamphlets

b. Promoted Scientific Research — invention of the “fact”

c. Pamphlet Polemics and the Origins of Tabloid Journalism

d. Censorship — The Index

Johann Gutenberg (ca. 1395–1468)

II. Major Figures and Their Issues

A. Martin Luther (1483–1546)

B. Huldreich Zwingli (1484–1531)

C. John Calvin (1509–1564)

A. Martin Luther (1483–1546)

1. Interpretations of his break with the Catholic Church

a. Catholic view

b. Protestant view

c. Irwin Iserloh — theses mailed not nailed

d. Erik Erikson — psycho-history

2. Luther’s Theology

a. sola fide

b. sola scriptura

c. sola gratia

Martin Luther (1483–1546)

Luther at the Diet of Worms

Martin Luther as Scholar

Martin Luther as Fool

Martin Luther as Hercules Germanicus

The Pope in Hell

Katherine von Bora

B. Huldreich Zwingli (1484–1531)

1. bread and wine are merely symbols that signify the body and blood

2. used wooden chalice

Huldreich Zwingli (painting by Hans Asper)

C. John Calvin (1509–1564)

1. The Institutes

2. Predestination (the Elect and the Reprobate)

3. Geneva, a theocracy // similarity with More’s Utopia

John Calvin (Engaving from oil painting in Geneva)

Determinism

1. Pelagianism

a. most libertarian position

b. central tenet: salvation is a reward

c. a person possesses free will/thus, is responsible for what he or she does

d. God rewards people for good deeds and punishes them for bad ones

e. salvation dependent on the merits achieved by each person

f. inconsistent with Epistles of Paul, where salvation is gift of God’s grace

g. condemned by the Second Council of Orange (529)

Determinism (continued)2. Semi-Pelagianism

a. salvation depended for the most part on the grace of Godb. free will also made a small but significant contributionc. a person’s first turning to God is result of a free decisiond. God must grant a person the further grace necessary for salvatione. also condemned by the Second Council of Orangef. William of Ockham and Gabriel Biel: semi-Pelagists

(1) attempted to satisfy decrees of Second Council of Orange

(2) strictly speaking, God could not be said to reward people by granting grace

(3) God is not a debtor to anyone(4) God grants grace as a free gift

Determinism (continued)

3. Restricted Theological Determinism (RTD)

a. free will operative only in matters that do not bear on salvation

b. even first turning is result of God’s grace

c. hence, a person cannot earn salvation

d. proponent: Augustine

Determinism (continued)

4. Semi-Augustinianism

a. modified Restricted Theological Determinism in libertarian direction

b. by Adam’s fall, free will is wounded but not destroyed

c. people lose the ability to will the good

d. yet people have free will in all matters that do not affect salvation

e. by God’s grace, a person’s ability to will the good is restored

f. agrees with RTD that a person’s first turning to God is result of grace

Determinism (continued)

4. Semi-Augustinianism (continued)

g. differs from RTD in that once grace granted free will can affect salvation

h. person who has received grace can choose between good and evil

i. God can justly reward people for good deeds and punish them for bad ones

j. view of Second Council of Orange and of Thomas Aquinas

Determinism (continued)

5. Thoroughgoing Determinism

a. Fatalistic Determinism

(1) whatever will be, will be

(2) irrespective of natural causes, free will of a person, or God himself

Determinism (continued)

5. Thoroughgoing Determinism (continued)

b. Causal Determinism

(1) all things determined by antecedent material or efficient causes

(2) not seriously considered by Scholastics or Aquinas

Determinism (continued)

5. Thoroughgoing Determinism (continued)

c. Deductive Determinism

(1) complete determinism follows deductively from the nature of God

(2) if God wills an event, then the event necessarily takes place

(3) if God wills an event to be contingent, then that event necessarily is contingent

Relationship of Free Will to Determinism