Ecclesiology
Yuri Koszarycz
The REFORMATION of the 15th and 16th
CENTURIES
One of the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church states that the Church
is always in a state of renewal (Ecclesia semper reformanda est). From the
twelfth century onwards, we note the resurgence of various groups calling
for radical changes within the practices of Christian worship. Through your
own investigations, you may wish to explore the relationships between them
and the established church. In what way did the Cathars, the Albigensians,
the Waldensians, and others try to correct the ills of the Church? Why did
they fail, and end up condemned by the "official" Church?
- The Cathars
- The Albigensians
- The Waldensians
The age saw the introduction of the Inquisition, which acted as a
protective arm ensuring the supremacy and purity of the 'official' teachings
against the radicalism of these primitive reformers. It is interesting to
note that Augustine in the 4th century had approved the use of torture in
specific cases where the salvation of souls was concerned. His rationale
was based on the premise that if secular powers used torture for mere temporal
gains, then how more justified would the church be to use brutality for
the sake of salvation! Such also was the rationale used by the founders
of the most infamous of the Church's agencies of control. Through the establishment
of the Inquisition, at the dawn of the Reformation the Church protected
its own temporal and spiritual supremacy.
I have listed below some key personalities that have reshaped the
cultural, political, and religious landscape of Pre-Reformation Europe.
You may wish to follow up in your own readings on the contribution and impact
made in these two centuries by the inventiveness, dynamism and genius of
such diverse pioneers as:
- Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468)
- Savonarola (1439-1498)
- Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)
- Niccola Machiavelli (1469-1527)
- Nicholaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
They all lived in the same epoch of the 15th and 16th century, and
through their inventive genius, courage and political skill they were to
make a unique and lasting impact on the spiritual, geographical, scientific,
as well as political and ecclesial horizons of their time. You may wish
to explore the state of leadership in church and state at this time: the
debauchery of the Borgias culminating in the reign of the profligate Pope
Alexander VI; the conquests and concerns of the warrior Pope, Julius II
(who somehow has won strange exoneration in history through his patronage
of Michaelangelo), the iron-willed Pontiffs of the Counter-Reformation,
Paul IV, Pius IV, and Pius V. It was a time when Italians monopolized European
banking, and money transformed values, ecclesial and secular, even celebrated
in medieval poetry:
Money makes the man, Money makes the stupid pass for bright...
Money buys the pleasure-giving women, Money keeps the soul in bliss, The
world and fortune being ruled by it, Which even opens, if you want, the
doors of paradise. So wise he seems to me who piles up What more than any
other virtue Conquers gloom and leavens the whole spirit (Lauro Martines,
1979: 83).
Below I have indicated the key personalities that influenced political
and ecclesial history events during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
It was also a period of headstrong political leadership unafraid to challenge
the power of the Rome weakened by inept and corrupt leadership. Some, like
Henry VIII (1509-1547) and Elizabeth I (1558-1603), stood in heretical opposition
to Rome for a variety of personal as well as political motives. Others,
like Philip II (1555-1598), Ferdinand I (1556-1564) and Christian III (1536-1559),
allied themselves to Rome against the voices of Reformation. By 1565 Europe
was to be rent by cataclysmic religious wars costing the lives of hundreds
of thousands, tearing the religious and political harmony of Europe apart.
In considering the institutional nature (model or paradigms) of "Church"
as it had developed by the sixteenth century, what do you think is the element
that attracted reaction from the following personalities? Again, via your
own readings you may wish to follow up the main "contribution"
that the following have made to the reformation process:
- Martin Luther (1483 - 1546)
- Zwingli (1484 - 1556)
- Calvin (1509 - 1564)
- Henry VIII (1509 - 1547)
- Charles V (1519 - 1556)
- Christian III (1536 - 1559)
- Phillip II (1555 - 1598)
- Elizabeth I (1558 - 1603)
The age of Reformation had begun with a promise of new hope and new vision
- and this is still reflected in the middle years of Erasmus of Rotterdam.
Yet this period of history belongs to three men of diverse personality,
religious conviction, and action: Martin Luther (1483-1546), Zwingli (1484-1556)
and Calvin (1509-1564). Through their work and efforts, the history of the
church was to take a direction which ultimately was to witness the political
disintegration of the bilateral duality of church and state.
Although every school child has learnt that: "In 1492, Columbus
sailed the ocean blue" and discovered the New World, not too many children
have learnt that it was also the same year in which the infamous Borgia
Pope, Alexander VI, ascended the papal throne. I have listed the names of
the 12 Popes who lived in this period of cataclysmic tension of Reformation
and Counter Reformation between 1492 and 1572. You may want to read up on
the main theological/cultural tension or contribution that marked the pontificate
of each of the following:
- Alexander VI (1492-1503)
- Pius III (1503)
- Julius II (1503-1513)
- Leo X (1513-1521)
- Hadrian VI (1522-1523)
- Clement VIII (1523-1534)
- Paul III (1534-1549)
- Julius III (1550-1555)
- Marcellus II (1555)
- Paul IV (1555-1559)
- Pius IV (1559-1565)
- Pius V (1566-1572)
Index |
|
