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Events Leading Up to the Reformation

In 1366 John Wycliffe supported Edward III and his refusal to pay tribute to the Pope. In 1374 Wycliffe denounced the sale of indulgences and verbally attacked the Pope. From this point on Wycliffe had severe opposition from Rome and from the Church of England. Four years later Wycliffe attacked the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation and in the ensuing troubles he retired from public life. But he used this time to translate the Bible into the first English version thus making it available to ordinary people. Those who could read were able to tell other people what the Bible actually said. This was the beginning of the end of the domination by the Roman church through the misuse of the Bible; an abuse that could only succeed if the people could be kept ignorant of what the Bible actually said.

John Huss was the most important of the forerunners of the Reformation within Europe. He was stirred by his knowledge of the Bible. He read the works of John Wycliffe and he started preaching in Prague in the local language. The Roman church only allowed the Bible to be read in Latin, of course very few people understood Latin! The Pope excommunicated Huss and summoned him for trial before the General Council of Constance. Huss was promised a safe conduct but the promise of the Roman Church was worthless and Huss was burnt at the stake for preaching the Bible in the language of the people. The followers of Huss were known as Taborites (later known as the Bohemian or Moravian Brethren) and they strongly influenced the Reformation as it developed. In fact Moravians were the people who explained the message of the New Testament to Charles and John Wesley immediately prior to their conversions!

Jerome Savonarola drew public attention to the evil lives and immoral behaviour of many of the people at that time. In particular he exposed the corruption within the clergy ant the laity and he preached a message of repentance from sin. Consequently Florence became a centre of a great revival. Savonarola tried to make the city a model of a Christian community. The Pope excommunicated him and arrested him. He was tortured and put to death by burning.

The Reformation came at a point in European history when the Roman church was at its darkest. Beautiful church buildings existed but they were not for the Word of God. Sermons were in Latin, the official language of the church, and few people understood what was being said. Many church officials lived their lives in an immoral and corrupt manner. The people were being controlled by the misuse of Christianity.

The concept of purgatory was introduced. Children who were not baptized went to 'Limbus Infantum', a place between heaven and earth and were never allowed into Heaven. Prayers to the saints were encouraged. Indulgences gave people forgiveness for their sins. Obtaining an indulgence before a wrongful act gave permission for that act. Icons and relics had special powers to bless people.

Of course people could pay to reduce their expected time in purgatory. Once dead, their relatives could pay to transfer them to Heaven. You had to pay for a baptism before it took place. With a high infant mortality can you imagine the pressure on parents to find the money for a child to be baptized and the guilt of having a child die who had not been baptism!

Dealing with sin was easy 'Just buy an indulgence, the worst the act the more you pay!'.

The Renaissance was an important factor in the Reformation to come. It prepared people to think for themselves. It brought a new era of education in which people were ready to throw off their domination, through ignorance, by the Roman church. Now the pendulum has swung too far and we see the damage being done to the Church of Jesus Christ through post-modernist thinking.

 

 

 

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