Attempts at Internal Reform
2002-10-05
I. The Need For Reform
1305-1517 was a time of decline for the church, and was a laughingstock. The reforms did not succeed.
A. Immorality among the clergy
Priests often took concubines, and had illicit affairs with other women. More care toward illicit children than church. Too much luxury. Involved in feudal states. Worldly attitude prevailed.
B. Corruption in Papacy
No counsel available. Boniface VIII’s successor. Clement V in 1309, moving papacy to French border at Avignon. Where the popes stayed for a time. 6 popes to follow stayed there, until 1377. Referred to Babylonian Captivity of the Church, almost 70 years. They lived in high style there in a palace. Lower clergy saw bad example and did the same things. Papal supremacy decline.
The Great Schism, 1378-1415. 1377, Pope returned to Rome. Next year, he died. The college of cardinals had to choose another, chose an Italian pope, 1378. He became their enemy. They chose another, a Frenchman. They moved back to Avignon. The first man continued from Rome. 2 popes, 2 sets of cardinals. European nations became divided. Roman pope, England, Ireland, Scandinavia, N Italy. Avignon pope, (Spain, France, HRE?). Europe split in support or shifting allegiance.
C. Papal taxation
Papacy: Many sources of income: tithes, annates (first year salary of church official), purveyance (pope’s traveling expenses), spoil (personal property of clergy when they die), Peter’s Pence (annual money the laity had to pay). Now that there was two popes, people taxed more heavily.
II. The Mystics
Attempt to have direct communion with God. Happens when the church was cold. Usually go beyond or transcend reason.
A. Causes for the rise of mysticism
A reaction against the reason of scholasticism. No one got closer to God, too much emphasis of the mind. Mysticism was a protest against the church. Black death from 1347-1350 took a third of the population. Peasant revolts. People want to withdraw from this.
B. Outstanding Mystics
Latin and Teutonics.
Latin: Catherine of Siena. Lack of emotion with Christ. She claimed she had visions, and tried to use them for practice. Against papacy and clergy. Encourage them to come back to Rome.
Teutonic: (Northern Europe, Germanic): Philosophical approach to God. Meister Eckhart, was a Dominican friar. Only what is divine is real. Need to be fused with divine essence. Ecstatic types of experiences. Christian service because of this union with God. God must become I, and I, God, pantheism.
Movement in the Rhine Valley, called Friends of God. Inward experience of the soul is more important than ritual. There came a book called German Theology. Influences Martin Luther, but did not lead him to Christ.
Out of Holland/Netherlands: Brethren of the Common Life. Dutch city of Deventer was where they began. Given to teaching and practical service. It spread into the German states. Devotional book Thomas a Kempis: Imitation of Christ.
None of these succeeded in reforming the church, but withdrew.
III. Individual reformers
A. John Wycliffe (ca. 1328-84)
Lived in England. Oxford scholar and teacher. Lived at a time when there was a reaction against the papacy. He could speak his mind and survive because of people he knew.
Negative side of his activity: criticized church ownership of property. Attacked the pope’s authority. Christ is the head of the church, and the Bible is the final authority. Called pope the antichrist. Opposed Transubstantiation, that it was not possible.
Positive side of his activity: Translation of the Bible, Old English. Finished NT, and friend finished the last of the OT. Not from originals, but Latin Vulgate. First translation of Bible in English. Founded a group of lay preachers, called the Lollards. He influence some Bohemian students took Wycliffe’s ideas to homeland.
B. John Hus (Huss, ca. 1373-1415)
Pastor of a chapel in Prague, and teacher in University of Prague, Bohemia. Czechoslovakia. Advocated reform. He did not have the political protection as Wycliffe. Appeared before the Council of Constance in 1414. They condemned his ideas and Wycliffe too, who was dead already. Hus was burned at the stake.
C. Savonarola (1452-98)
Florence, Italy, during Renaissance. Preached about evils of the church. Was extremely popular at first, but ran out. He was hanged, and then body burned.
IV. The Reforming Councils (1409-49)
A. Background
Great Schism. Two popes. The called together church councils instead
B. Council of Pisa 1409
To heal division in the church, deposed both popes, and appointed a new one. The first two didn’t give up, because now there were 3.
C. Council of Constance 1414-1418
They deposed all of them, and appointed a new pope. The dug up Wycliffe’s bones and burned them.
D. Later Councils
Council of Basel 1431-49. Back to one pope, but he had his own ideas. Called a rival council to these, after 1449, no more councils, and went back to the old ways.