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.


Fair Use Notice: While many Christian writers do allow faithful reproduction of their work with all due credit, most of the other articles on this site have the specific permission of the author to use their work. However there is some copyrighted material on this site, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to our efforts to advance understanding of Christian issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.


“Fair Use “ Notice – Title 17 U.S.C. section 107
The above post may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social justice, for the purpose of historical debate, and to advance the understanding of Christian conservative issues. It is believed that this constitutes a ”fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the Copyright Law. In accordance with the title 17 U.S. C. section 107, the material in this post is shown without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Christian Essentials: The Reformation.

Martin Luther (Nov 10, 1483 – Feb 18, 1546) was a German theologian,  Augustinian monk, and an ecclesiastical reformer whose teachings inspired the Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines and culture of the Lutheran and Protestant traditions.

Luther’s call to the Church to return to the teachings of the Bible led to the formation of new traditions within Christianity and to the Counter-Reformation, the Roman Catholic reaction to these movements.

The opposition to the Roman Catholic Church and its false teaching came to a head in the sixteenth century, when a Roman Catholic monk named Martin Luther posted his 95 propositions (or theses) against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church on the Castle Church door at Wittenberg, Germany.

Luther’s intention was to bring reform to the Roman Catholic Church, and in doing so was challenging the authority of the Pope. With the refusal of the Roman Catholic Church to heed Luther’s call to reformation and return to biblical doctrines and practices, the Protestant Reformation began.

From this Reformation four major divisions or traditions of Protestantism would emerge: Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, and Anglican. During this time God raised up godly men in different countries in order to once again restore churches throughout the world to their biblical roots and to biblical doctrines and practices.

Many of us have probably heard something about Martin Luther even though some get him confused with Martin Luther King the civil rights leader.

Some of us know something about Luther nailing a list of 95 Thesis on a church door and that’s where our knowledge ends.

In reality Luther and his church door notice was the culmination of a long struggle for biblical truth and the beginning of an explosion of a return to authentic Christianity.

Luther just didn’t drop into history from nowhere. He came from a long line of men and women who opposed or sought to reform the corrupt Roman Catholic system.  

Maybe we can begin our exploration with Peter Waldo a traveling merchant in France.

In 1173, Waldo committed his life to Christ, sold his possessions, and financed a French translation of the New Testament.

Waldo gathered a group of mendicant preachers, the Poor Folk of Lyons.

The Waldensians (as they became known) closely studied the Scriptures and rejected both purgatory and the pope’s supreme power.

According to the Poor Folk, “We believe ... the Apostles’ Creed.... There is no other mediator … beyond God the Father, except Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus).

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 not church policy.

Wycliffe urged every believer to seek truth in the Scriptures.

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.

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!

The Perfect Storm in the year 1453

The Hundred Years’ War ended, 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.

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.

Greek is a more clear and precise language which brought greater understanding to bible study than the Catholic Latin Translation.

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.

William Tyndale was a theologian and scholar who translated the Bible into English from the original Greek and Hebrew. He was the first person to take advantage of Gutenberg’s movable-type press for the purpose of printing the scriptures in the English language. Besides translating the Bible, Tyndale also held and published views which were considered heretical, first by the Catholic Church, and later by the Church of England which was established by King Henry VIII.

His Bible translation also included notes and commentary promoting these views. Tyndale’s translation was banned by the authorities, and Tyndale himself was burned at the stake in 1536,  at the instigation of  agents of Henry VIII and the Anglican Church.

Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam is the next stepping stone to the Reformation. 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.

Now back to Luther.

In 1505 his life took a dramatic turn. As the 21-year-old Luther fought his way through a severe thunderstorm on the road to Erfurt, a bolt of lightning struck the ground near him. "Help me, St. Anne!" Luther screamed. "I will become a monk! "The scrupulous Luther fulfilled his vow: he gave away all his possessions and entered the monastic life.

Luther was extraordinarily successful as a monk. He plunged into prayer, fasting, and ascetic practices—going without sleep, enduring bone-chilling cold without a blanket, and flagellating himself. As he later commented, "If anyone could have earned heaven by the life of a monk, it was I."

Though he sought by these means to love God fully, he found no consolation. He was increasingly terrified of the wrath of God: "When it is touched by this passing inundation of the eternal, the soul feels and drinks nothing but eternal punishment."

During his early years, whenever Luther read what would become the famous "Reformation text"—Romans 1:17—his eyes were drawn not to the word faith, but to the word righteous. Who, after all, could "live by faith" but those who were already righteous? The text was clear on the matter: "the righteous shall live by faith."

Luther remarked, "I hated that word, 'the righteousness of God,' by which I had been taught according to the custom and use of all teachers ... [that] God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner." The young Luther could not live by faith because he was not righteous—and he knew it.

Meanwhile, he was ordered to take his doctorate in the Bible and become a professor at Wittenberg University. During lectures on the Psalms (in 1513 and 1514) and a study of the Book of Romans, he began to see a way through his dilemma.

"At last meditating day and night, by the mercy of God, I ... began to understand that the righteousness of God is that through which the righteous live by a gift of God, namely by faith… Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through the gates that had been flung open."

On the heels of this new understanding came others. To Luther the church was no longer the institution defined by apostolic succession; instead it was the community of those who had been given faith.

Salvation came not by the sacraments as such but by faith. The idea that human beings had a spark of goodness (enough to seek out God) was not a foundation of theology but was taught only by "fools."

Humility was no longer a virtue that earned grace but a necessary response to the gift of grace. Faith no longer consisted of assenting to the church's teachings but of trusting the promises of God and the merits of Christ.

It wasn't long before the revolution in Luther's heart and mind played itself out in all of Europe.

It started on All Saints' Eve, 1517, when Luther publicly objected to the way preacher Johann Tetzel was selling indulgences. These were documents prepared by the church and bought by individuals either for themselves or on behalf of the dead that would release them from punishment due to their sins. As Tetzel preached, "Once the coin into the coffer clings, a soul from purgatory heavenward springs!“

Eventually Luther was put on trial and the Catholic Bishop tried to force Luther to recant all of his criticisms of the church.

I stand convicted by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God's word, I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us. On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me. Martin Luther

An imperial edict calling Luther "a convicted heretic“ was issued,  he had escaped to Wartburg Castle,  where he hid for ten months.

Underlying the Protestant Reformation lay four basic doctrines in which the reformers believed the Roman Catholic Church to be in error.

These four questions or doctrines are How is a person saved? Where does religious authority lie? What is the church? And what is the essence of Christian living?

In answering these questions, Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and John Knox established what would be known as the “Five Solas” of the Reformation (sola being the Latin word for “alone”).

These five points of doctrine were at the heart of the Protestant Reformation, and it was for these five essential Biblical doctrines that the Protestant Reformers would take their stand against the Roman Catholic Church, resisting the demands placed on them to recant, even to the point of death. These five essential doctrines of the Protestant Reformation are as follows:

1-“Sola Scriptura,” or Scripture Alone: This affirms the Biblical doctrine that the Bible alone is the sole authority for all matters of faith and practice. Scripture and Scripture alone is the standard by which all teachings and doctrines of the church must be measured.

As Martin Luther so eloquently stated when asked to recant on his teachings,

“Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason – I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other – my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.”

2—“Sola Gratia,” Salvation by Grace Alone: This affirms the Biblical doctrine that salvation is by God’s grace alone and that we are rescued from His wrath by His grace alone. God’s grace in Christ is not merely necessary, but is the sole efficient cause of salvation. This grace is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.

3—“Sola Fide,” Salvation by Faith Alone: This affirms the Biblical doctrine that justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. It is by faith in Christ that His righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God’s perfect justice.

4—“Solus Christus,” In Christ Alone: This affirms the Biblical doctrine that salvation is found in Christ alone and that His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to God the Father. The gospel has not been preached if Christ’s substitutionary work is not declared, and if faith in Christ and His work is not solicited.

5—“Soli Deo Gloria, For the Glory of God Alone: This affirms the Biblical doctrine that salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God for His glory alone. It affirms that as Christians we must glorify Him always, and must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God, and for His glory alone.

 These five important and fundamental doctrines are the reason for the Protestant Reformation. They are at the heart of where the Roman Catholic Church went wrong in its doctrine, and why the Protestant Reformation was necessary to return churches throughout the world to correct doctrine and biblical teaching.

They are just as important today in evaluating a church and its teachings as they were then. In many ways, much of Protestant Christianity needs to be challenged to return to these fundamental doctrines of the faith, much like the reformers challenged the Roman Catholic Church to do in the sixteenth century.

Luther contributed to the rising status of women.

He was patriarchal, but Luther was progressive. He assumed that girls, along with boys, should be taught the bible, and in that he anticipated co-education.

He insisted that marriage was just as important a vocation as monasticism, and in that he accorded greater status to a woman’s role in marriage. And he was married to and proud of a woman who was, in effect, the treasurer, manager, and administrator of a rather complex business—the informal boarding house that the Luthers kept.

Fair Use Notice: While many Christian writers do allow faithful reproduction of their work with all due credit, most of the other articles on this site have the specific permission of the author to use their work. However there is some copyrighted material on this site, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to our efforts to advance understanding of Christian issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

“Fair Use “ Notice – Title 17 U.S.C. section 107

The above post may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social justice, for the purpose of historical debate, and to advance the understanding of Christian conservative issues.  It is believed that this constitutes a ”fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the Copyright Law. In accordance with the title 17 U.S. C. section 107, the material in this post is shown without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.