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Alex Ramek
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10--underlying Causes of the Protestant Reformation
Terms
Dogma- A principle, belief, or statement of ideas or opinion considered to be absolutely true
Heresy- any opinions or beliefs that reject official or orthodox position
Excommunication- he act of banishing a member of the Church and cutting him off from a religious society
Sect- A group of a religion unified by a common belief
Mysticism- The immediate experience of oneness with God
Pre-Reformation Reformist Factions
John Wyclif (1328-1384), a theologian at the University of Oxford in England and founder of the Lollard reformist movement, had ideas that attacked the Catholic Church. He believed that there was absolutely no basis for the papal claim of temporal rule in scripture and suggested that this power be stripped away from the Church. Wyclif even went so far as to say that the pope was the Antichrist. He condemned the practices of pilgrimage and veneration of saints developed by the Medieval Church. Wyclif also believed that the Bible was the most important if not only Christian guide to turn to and advocated its vernacularization.
John Hus (1374-1415), chancellor of the University of Prague and leader of the Czech reformist movement, known as Hussism, was influenced by the Lollard teachings. He believed in the elimination of “worldliness” and corruption in the Church and also attacked the “excessive” power of the papacy. Feeling threatened by growing heresy the Council of Constance called Hus before them. Hus agreed to go under the alleged protection of Emperor Sigimund and hoped to have his opinions heard. Instead he was arrested, tried, and executed for heresy in 1415. His death sparked a revolution in Bohemia (the region containing Prague) called the Hussite wars. A truce was reached in 1436 ending the conflict.
3. In Fourteenth Century Europe the Great Schism was in full swing. In 1377 the Avignonese Pope Gregory XI, seeing the declining Avignonese papal prestige, returned to Rome and promptly passed away in the Spring of 1378. The Catholic world now faced a problem. If the predominantly French College of Cardinals would elect a French Cardinal to the papacy, they would surely return him to Avignon. To prevent this, during the conclave, the people of Rome threatened to kill any cardinal who left without electing a Roman or Italian pope. The Cardinals heeded the Roman threat and elected the Italian archduke of Bari, alias Urban VI, as pope (1378-1389). But the French Cardinals’ urbanity did not last long. Five months later the French Cardinals nullified Urban VI’s election, elected Clement VII pope, and returned to Avignon. As a result of this there were two popes, one in Rome and One in Avignon, known as the “Great Schism.”
The Great Schism abused the Christian world in several ways. First, different regions of the Christian world pledged allegiance to different papacies. The French, Scots, Spanish, and Southern Italians pledged allegiance to the Avignonese popes, while England, Germany, Scandinavia, and most of Italy followed the Roman popes. Another problem was that the two papal administrative systems meant half the revenue for the church than before, which, in turn, led two a doubling in taxes.
The Great Schism led to Conciliarism. The founder of Conciliarism, Marsiglio of Padua (1270?-1342), author of Defender of Peace and rector of the University of Paris, devised a systematic solution to the Church’s problems. He said that the church was a facet of society and must deal with its spiritual functions. He also argued that the Church is a communal endeavor deriving authority from all of Christendom. The clergy had no special authority; rather it was their responsibility to administer the affairs of the church. The final authority should not be a single individual as it was with the pope’s authority. Instead there should be a council representing all members of the Church. Marsiglio was quoted saying, “no partial group or individual person of whatever status [the pope], has the authority to make such definitions.”
There was one problem. According to Church doctrine, only the pope could create such a council. Theologists argued and said that a council may be formed also by a group of clerics or a secular source, especially the Holy Roman Emperor.
A group of cardinals formed the Council of Pisa (1409). They formally deposed both popes and elected Pope Alexander V to the papacy. Unfortunately, the other two popes refused to step down from their papal offices, and Christianity was now faces with a greater disaster: three different popes serving at the same time.
Another council, the Council of Constance (1414-1418), was started to correct the mistakes of the Council of Pisa. This time it was the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, who convened it, and in 1417, the council disposed of all three popes and elected Pope Martin V, ending the Great Schism and that smudge in the history of Christendom.
5. People took an active role in their salvation two main ways. The first way is through prayer and good deeds. People of the 14th Century often wrote clauses into their wills donating money to hospitals or other charitable sources. A major concern for Christians of the age was that of Purgatory, the place where the soul is purged, or purified, of its worldly sins before it can ascend to heaven. To solve this problem and hasten the soul’s ascension, people often started family chapels, in which priests said prayers and conducted masses for a loved one’s soul. Lastly, pilgrimages were used to aid in salvation. In pilgrimages, pilgrims could find their salvation without the involvement of clergy. The emphasis and popularity of pilgrimages during the time reflected a distrust of the organized Ecclesiastical hierarchy.
The second mode of salvation was through mysticism. Mysticism is defined as “the immediate experience of oneness with God”, and was best characterized in the teachings of Meister Eckhart (1260-1327). He said the union with God, or “birth of Christ”, that so characterizes mysticism, was attainable by those who pursued it wholeheartedly. Eckhart’s student, Johannes Tauler (1300-1361) added on to his master’s teachings that the soul needs to prepare for the union with God by expresing love of and devotion to God in everyday activities. Tauler and Eckheart’s teachings deepened the religious lives of clergy and laymen alike. Another important mystic, Gerard Groote (1340-1384), told people that to achieve unity one must emulate Jesus in that all his endeavors should be towards the greater good and to help those in need. He also emphasized simple piety and scripture based morals. The followers of his teachings formed the Brothers and Sisters of the Common life, a group that emphasized lay piety, emphasized the emulation of Christ through the New Testament and distributed Bibles to the lay (after the invention of the printing press). (The Grootian school of mysticism is also known as Modern Devotion.)
6. The German princes were a threat to the Church and surrounding states in the Empire. The issuing of the Golden Bull in 1356 by Emperor Charles IV placed the election of the Holy Roman Empire into the hands of a new committee of four German princes and three archbishops. This new system of appointment for the Holy Roman Emperor was a threat to the Pope, because now he no longer had a say in who would become “the ruler of the world and the Christian people”. This system also allowed three different Emperors to claim the throne, sending Germany into a state of chaos with princes fighting for control.
The German princes also posed a threat to the Holy Roman Emperor. German states, such as Bavaria, Hesse, Brandenburg, and the Palatinate, built up strong independent armies and started governing in the ways of the independent monarchies of France, England and Spain in their fiscal and Roman judicial policies.