Christian History Made Easy Chapter 7 Everything Falls Apart

Chapter 7  Everything Falls Apart



1. What was in this video?

 §How the Black Plague affected lives throughout Europe and Asia Minor.

§How the Roman Catholic Church ended up with three popes at once.

§How John Wycliffe and Jan Hus, the proto-reformers, called Christians to new perspectives on the power of popes and bishops.

§How the fall of Constantinople and the invention of a new form of printing still affect your life today.

  

2. How did the Roman Catholic Church end up with the Pope living in France?

 •In 1294, an aged Franciscan monk who loved common people became the new pope.

•He entered Rome barefoot, and took the name Celestine V.

•Five months later, he stripped himself of the papal position and returned this monastic life.

•He died in 1296, possibly murdered.

•Pope Boniface VIII replaced Celestine V and claimed power over all Europe’s kings and lords.

•Boniface died after being kidnapped by the king of France.

•The next pope fled to Avignon, a village on the French border.

•For more than 70 years, the popes lived it up in Avignon.

•This dark period of corruption would later become known as the Babylonian Captivity of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Avignon Papacy was the time period in which the Roman Catholic pope resided in Avignon, France, instead of in Rome, from approximately 1309 to 1377. The Avignon Papacy is sometimes referred to as the Babylonian Captivity of the Church because it lasted nearly 70 years, which was the length of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews in the Bible (Jeremiah 29:10).

 There was significant conflict between King Philip IV of France and Pope Boniface VIII. When the pope who succeeded Boniface VIII, Benedict XI, died after an exceedingly short reign, there was an extremely contentious papal conclave that eventually decided on Clement V, from France, as the next pope. Clement decided to remain in France and established a new papal residence in Avignon, France, in 1309. The next six popes who succeeded him, all French, kept the papal enclave in Avignon.

Many bishops and abbots used their high positions in the Church to lead lives of luxury and leisure. Cardinals lived in palaces in Rome, wore jewel-encrusted robes and feasted on elaborate meals. When Giovanni de Medici was elected as Pope Leo X in, he reportedly said,

“God has given us the papacy; now let us enjoy it.”

3. What was the The Black Plague?

 •Papal struggles weren’t the only problems in the fourteenth century.

•The Black Plague or “bubonic plague” struck Europe in 1347, probably spreading from a flea on a rat.

•The Black Plague took million of lives in Europe and Asia Minor.

•In Constantinople, 88% of the population perished.

At one point, 800 people were dying every day in Paris.

4. How did we end up with 3 Popes at once?

•Even after the plague died out in 1350, problems with the papacy didn’t.

•In 1377, at the urging of Catherine of Siena, Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome.

•When Pope Gregory XI died, cardinals appointed an Italian pope to appease the  citizens of Rome.

•When the Italian pope Urban VI refused to do what the cardinals wanted, they replaced him with a bishop from France.

•Unfortunately for the cardinals, the Italian pope Urban VI refused to be replaced by the French bishop Clement VII.

•The result? Two popes! This later became known as the Western Schism. 

•In 1409, in an effort to end the double papacy, the cardinals gathered at the Council of Pisa to agree on one pope.

•According to the Council of Pisa, “The Church’s oneness does not depend on or come from the pope’s oneness.”

•The Council agreed to dismiss both  current popes and elect a new pope.

•The problem? Both previous popes refused to resign.

•The results? Not two popes, but three!

5. How did Wycliffe help bring in the reformation?

•An English theologian named John Wycliffe suggested that the church was not built on popes or councils or sacraments. 

•Instead, the church, in its essence, was the people of God.

•According to Wycliffe, a person’s actions showed whether he or she truly belonged to God (James 2:14).

Wycliffe urged every believer to seek truth in the Scriptures

James 2:14

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?”

•To enable every believer to study Scripture, Wycliffe and his Lollards translated portions of the Bible into easy-to-understand English

•Wycliffe died of a stroke in 1384.

•Because of his influence on later Reformers, Wycliffe became known as the Morning Star of the Reformation.

6. How was Jan Hus Unhushable?

•Jan Hus embraced Wycliffe’s teaching and began to preach them from a pulpit in Prague.

•In 1415, the Council of Constance had Hus burned alive at the stake for his teachings—then had Wycliffe’s bones unearthed and burned!

7. What happened in 1453 AD that changed the world?

•The Hundred Years’ War ended in 1453, with England retreating to the British Isles.

•That same year, Ottoman Muslims conquered the last remnant of the Eastern Roman Empire, the ancient city of Constantinople.

•On May 28, 1453, Orthodox and Catholic Church members gathered for Communion in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

•The next day, the church became a mosque; and later, a museum.

•Many Christian scholars from Constantinople fled west, in the direction of Rome.

•Among the valued items they took with them were manuscripts, especially New Testament manuscripts in the original Greek language.

•This influx of Greek manuscripts influenced a renaissance of interest in ancient rhetoric, art, and writing.

•Renaissance scholars were known as “humanists” because they focused on practical human actions and interests.

•Among Christian scholars, the Renaissance led to a renewed interest in the original text of the New Testament.

•Also in 1453, Johann Gutenberg pioneered the use of movable metal type to print books.

•It has been estimated that there were perhaps 30,000 books in all of Europe before Gutenberg printed his Bible; less than 50 years later, there were as many as 10 to 12 million books.

•New printing methods supplied humanists with mass-produced books.

•Greek and Roman classics, and the Bible, flooded Europe.

Greek is much more precise and specific than latin or english.

Matthew 16:18 (KJV)

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Peter……. Πέτρος

Pétros (a masculine noun) – properly, a stone (pebble), such as a small rock found along a pathway. 4074 /Pétros ("small stone")

Rock…… πέτρα

pétra is a "solid or native rock, rising up through the earth"  – a huge mass of rock (a boulder), such as a projecting cliff.


John 21:16 (NASB)

16  He *said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" He *said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He *said to him, "Shepherd My sheep."

 Love………....ἀγαπάω

Agapáō is always defined by God – a "discriminating affection which
involves choice and selection" a sacrificial, other centered God type of love.
 Love………… φιλῶ
Phileó a fondness or affection for something or somebody

8. Who was Erasmus?

•As a young man, Erasmus had been taught by Brothers of the Common Life.

•These teachers whetted Erasmus’ taste for the Greek language.

•In 1516, Erasmus edited and published a Greek New Testament.

•Now the original words of the apostles were available to anyone.

•Erasmus was a faithful Catholic priest and scholar, yet his Greek New Testament became the tool that would launch the Protestant Reformation.


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