WEEK 15 THE REFORMATION AND COUNTER REFORMATION

- was born in Eisleben, Saxony (now Germany), part of the Holy Roman Empire, to parents Hans and Margaretta. Luther’s father was a prosperous businessman, and when Luther was young, his father moved the family of 10 to Mansfeld.
- At age five, Luther began his education at a local school where he learned reading, writing and Latin.
- At 13, Luther began to attend a school run by the Brethren of the Common Life in Magdeburg. The Brethren’s teachings focused on personal piety, and while there Luther developed an early interest in monastic life.
- German professor of theology, composer, priest, monk and an important figure of Protestant Reformation.

Early life of Martin Luther

- Money-generating practices in the Roman Catholic Church, such as the sale of indulgences.
- Demands for reform by Martin Luther, John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and other scholars in Europe.
- The invention of the mechanized printing press, which allowed religious ideas and Bible translations to circulate widely.
- The desire of many people to read the Bible in the language they spoke at home rather than in Latin.
- The desire of many people to rely only on the Bible for religious guidance and not on tradition or current teachings.
- A belief that forgiveness comes only from God rather than from a combination of faith and good deeds.
- The desire of rulers such as Henry VIII of England to break free from the pope and the Roman Catholic

Reformation Causes 

The 95 Theses

Committed to the idea that salvation could be reached through faith and by divine grace only, Luther vigorously objected to the corrupt practice of selling indulgences. Acting on this belief, he wrote the “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” also known as “____________,” a list of questions and propositions for debate. Popular legend has it that on October 31, 1517 Luther defiantly nailed a copy of his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church. The reality was probably not so dramatic; Luther more likely hung the document on the door of the church matter-of-factly to announce the ensuing academic discussion around it that he was organizing

Foundation

 The 95 Theses, which would later become the__________ of the Protestant Reformation, were written in a remarkably humble and academic tone, questioning rather than accusing. The overall thrust of the document was nonetheless quite provocative. The first two of the theses contained Luther’s central idea, that God intended believers to seek repentance and that faith alone, and not deeds, would lead to salvation. The other 93 theses, a number of them directly criticizing the practice of indulgences, supported these first two

- The emergence of Protestantism, which became one of the three major branches of Christianity (along with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy).

- The establishment of many Protestant churches, groups, and movements, including Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism, the Society of Friends (also known as Quakers), among others.

- Translation of the Bible into German, French, English, and other languages.

- The Counter-Reformation, a movement within the Roman Catholic Church to reform and revive itself.

- Improved training and education for some Roman Catholic priests.

- The end of the sale of indulgences.

- Protestant worship services in the local language rather than Latin.

- The Peace of Augsburg (1555), which allowed German princes to decide whether their territories would be Catholic or Lutheran.

- The Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), a conflict in which most of the countries of Europe fought and about eight million people died. The war was partly a struggle between Roman Catholics, Calvinists, and Lutherans

Effects

Counter Reformation

- also called Catholic Reformation or Catholic Revival, in the history of Christianity, the Roman Catholic efforts directed in the 16th and early 17th centuries both against the Protestant Reformation and toward internal renewal. Took place during roughly the same period as the Protestant Reformation, actually (according to some sources) beginning shortly before Martin Luther’s act of nailing the Ninety-five Theses to the door of Castle Church in 1517.
- was a period of spiritual, moral, and intellectual revival in the Catholic Church in the 16th and 17th centuries, usually dated from 1545 (the opening of the Council of Trent) to 1648 (the end of the Thirty Years' War). While it is normally seen as a reaction to the Protestant Reformation…

the foundation of the seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ

The reforms include the:

Pope Paul III

is considered to be the first pope of the Counter-Reformation. It was he who in 1545 convened the Council of Trent. The council, which met intermittently until 1563, responded emphatically to the issues at hand. Its doctrinal teaching was a reaction against the Lutheran emphasis on the role of faith and God’s grace and against Protestant teaching on the number and nature of the sacraments. Disciplinary reforms attacked the corruption of the clergy. There was an attempt to regulate the training of candidates for the priesthood; measures were taken against luxurious living on the part of the clergy, the appointment of relatives to church office, and the absence of bishops from their dioceses. Prescriptions were given about pastoral care and the administration of the sacraments.

The Council of Trent

The nineteenth ecumenical council opened at Trent on December 13, 1545, and closed there on December 4, 1563.Its main object was the definitive determination of the doctrines of the Church in answer to the heresies of the Protestants; a further object was the execution of a thorough reform of the inner life of the Church by removing the numerous abuses that had developed

The Ecumenical Council

Aside from the first general gathering of the bishops of the Church—the Council of Jerusalem, which occurred around A.D. 50 (Acts 15) and which is usually not counted as an ecumenical council—there have been 21 ecumenical or general councils of the bishops of the Catholic Church. (The Eastern Orthodox Churches recognize the first seven as ecumenical councils.)

Pope

A council is recognized as ecumenical once its works are approved by a _______?. The pope does not need to attend a council for it to be an ecumenical council. The earliest councils were held in the East, and the reigning popes usually sent legates to represent them. Later these popes approved the decrees of the councils, thereby verifying that they were ecumenical councils.

A council is a solemn assembly of church leaders, usually bishops, to discuss and determine the Church’s position on different issues.

What is an Ecumenical Council?

- Solemn assembly of bishops of universal Church
- Convoked and presided over by Pope.
- The council deals and addresses matter that deal with whole Church.

What characteristics determine an Ecumenical Council from a local Council?

- Defining & Explaining Doctrine
- Church Life, Practice and Discipline
- Church’s relationship with State/Society & Church’s Role in the World

Matters that Concern the Whole Church

Summoning – all bishops summoned; not necessary that all bishops attend, but as long as they are summoned.
Number – the number who attend does not determine if the Council can proceed or not; there is no quota required, only all summoned and given reasonable time be able to attend.
Papal Affirmation – the teaching of the Council necessary to be affirmed by the Pope; universal authority recognized, Papal critical even if Pope in not in attendance.

Three Characteristics of an Ecumenical Council

•              Nicaea I (325)

•             Constantinople I (381)

•              Ephesus (431)

•               Chalcedon (451)

•              Constantinople II (553)

•            Constantinople III (680)

•            Nicaea II (787)

•             Constantinople IV

•             Lateran I

•             Lateran II

•             Lateran III

•        Lateran IV

•             Lyons I

•             Lyons II

•             Vienne

•            Constance

•            Florence

•            Lateran V

•             Trent

•            Vatican I

•            Vatican II

The 21 Ecumenical Councils:

• The word monastery comes from the Greek μοναστήριον "monasterion", from the root "monos" = alone (originally all Christian monks were hermits), and the suffix "-terion" = place for doing something

•             Monastery – is a convent or house built for the reception of religious, whether it b abbey, priory, nunnery or the like.

•              Monastery is only properly applied to the houses of monks, mendicant friars and nuns; the rests are more properly called religious houses (Catholic Encyclopedia).

The Establishment of Monasteries

Apostolic
Greek
Latin
Other Fathers/ Dessert Fathers

The Church Fathers

Apostolic Fathers

They lived and wrote in the second half of the first century and the first half of the second century. They were taught by the Apostles and personally witnessed the birth of the Church. Most were martyred – crucified, beheaded, fed to the lions at the Roman colosseum, boiled in oil or burned alive. They were the ones empowered by the Holy Spirit and who personally handed on the oral teaching of Jesus Christ, before the New Testament canon was collected in the late 4th century and then translated into Latin by a later Church Father, St. Jerome. The Apostolic Fathers were St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Polycarp of Smyrna and St. Clement, Hermas & Didache - Purporting to be the work of more than one author, the Didache, meaning "Teaching," is a brief early Christian treatise, traditionally ascribed to the Twelve Apostles. However, it is dated by most scholars to the early second century.[1] It gives instructions to Christian communities and contains passages considered to be the first written catechism, as well as sections dealing with rituals such as baptism, eucharist, and church organization.

Greek Fathers

included St. Irenaeus of Lyons, St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Athanasius of Alexandria, St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Alexandria, the Cappadocian Fathers (St. Basil of Caesarea, St. Gregory Nazianzus, St. Peter of Sebaste and St. Gregory of Nyssa), Maximus the Confessor, and St. John of Damascus.  

Latin Fathers

They were St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Gregory I & St. Isidore.    

Other Fathers/ Dessert Fathers

were early monastics living in the Egyptian desert. Although they did not write as much, their influence was also great.

A small number of Church Fathers wrote in other languages. St. Ephraim the Syrian (306-373), Doctor of the Church, wrote in Syriac. His works include "Miscellaneous Hymns – On the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh, For the Feast of the Epiphany, and On the Faith ('The Pearl')."

Apologetics – comes from the Greek word ‘apologia’ (speaking in defense). It is a religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse.

Polemics – generally denotes the art of controversy and disputation.

Christian Apologists – refers to the early Christian writers (c. 120-220) who defend their beliefs against critics and recommended their faith to outsiders.

The Church Fathers’ Works:/Functions:

A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practice. The order is composed of laypeople and, in some orders, clergy.

Some of the outcome, and much of the enforcement, of the Council of Trent was in the hands of newly established religious orders, above all the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, founded in 1534 by St. Ignatius of Loyola and officially established by the papacy in 1540. Unlike the Benedictine monks or the Franciscan and Dominican friars, the Jesuits swore special obedience to the pope and were specifically dedicated to the task of reconstructing church life and teaching in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation. They thus came to be called the “shock troops of the Counter-Reformation.”

Education was foremost in the minds of many of the leaders of the Counter-Reformation, Jesuit or otherwise, and seminaries multiplied to prepare the clergy for a more austere life in the service of the church. education. The first Jesuit college was opened in Messina, Sicily, in 1548. By 1615 the Jesuits had 372 colleges, and by 1755—just 18 years before the suppression of the order—the number had risen to 728. (The society was not reestablished until 1814.) The Jesuits were also involved in the education of the nobility, and through their pupils they sometimes wielded as great an influence in affairs of state as they did in affairs of the church.

Early calls for reform grew out of criticism of the worldly attitudes and policies of the Renaissance popes and many of the clergy. New religious orders and other groups were founded to effect a religious renewal—e.g., the Theatines, the Capuchins, the Ursulines, and especially the Jesuits. Later in the century, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Ávila promoted the reform of the Carmelite order and influenced the development of the mystical tradition. St. Francis of Sales had a similar influence on the devotional life of the laity.

The Foundations of Religious Orders