Tag Archives: Reformations

Change in the air

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The German Reformation had its unique beginnings. Germany before the Reformation was prospering. All classes, except for the knights, were enjoying a better standard of living than ever before. Population throughout Germany had risen, education had spread, literacy was growing, and the princes, bishops and the Holy Roman Emperors were patrons of scholarship and the arts. The humanist movement in Germany was welcomed by the aristocracy, the intellectual community, and the German church. Continue reading →

Reform in Germany: a context

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The Question: Why will Luther succeed in Germany when Wycliffe failed in England, Hus failed in Bohemia, and Savonarola failed in Florence.” In other words, what were some of the critical factors that lead to the success of the reform in Germany when it had failed in other places?

German Princes and German Identity. The German princes were beginning to assert their political independence from Rome and the Holy Roman Emperor. Germany’s emerging political identity was fueled by its growing wealth in commerce and industry and the rise of its business class, the burghers, who were beginning to pursue their own interests. This new spirit of nationalism was to influence German society and its relationship to the Roman Church. Secular interests were taking precedence over religious matters. Germany’s newfound confidence and independence were to challenge papal and imperial authority and set forces in motion that were to affect European society during the Protestant Reformation. Continue reading →

5th Lateran: a last chance

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Fifth Council of the Lateran - WikipediaThe 5th Lateran Council was summoned by Pope Julius II via the bull Sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae, issued at Rome on 18 July 1511. Julius had promised such a reforming council at his election as pope, and after several schismatic cardinals, officially supported by Louis XII, king of France, had assembled a quasi-council at Pisa, Julius took action. Twice postponed, the council held its first session in Rome at the Lateran Basilica on 10 May 1512. Continue reading →

Julius II: a warrior pope

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Alexander IV was succeeded by Cardinal Piccolomini who was elected Pope Pius III on 22 September 1503. He named himself Pius III after his uncle Pius II. This selection can be seen as a compromise between factions, Borgia and della Rovere, picking a frail cardinal with long experience in the Curia over the kin of either Sixtus IV or Alexander VI. Pius announced that his would be a pontificate of reform. Pius died 26 days later of an infection from a sore on his leg, or, as some have alleged, of poison administered at the instigation of the governor of Siena. Either way, the College of Cardinals was called again to elect a pope. Continue reading →

Alexander VI: in the clutches of the wolf

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He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized Valencian surname, Borgia, became a byword for libertinism and nepotism, which are traditionally considered as characterizing his papacy. It has been noted that this was one pope for whom there are no apologists.

At the time of his election as pope, the Spaniard Rodrigo Borja (Italianized as “Borgia”) had been in Rome 35 years as Cardinal and Vice-Chancellor of the papal curia and Vatican offices. His character, habits, lack of principles, uses of power, methods of enrichment, mistresses and seven children were all well known in the College of Cardinals.. His election cause the cry form the young Cardinal Lorenzo (later Leo X), “Flee, we are in the clutches of a wolf.” Surely the pot calls the kettle, black. Continue reading →

Innocent VIII: a malleable pope

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This pope began life as Giovanni Battista Cibo of a well-to-do Genoese family. He was perhaps the poster boy for misspent youth. His escapades were notorious and he fathered a son and a daughter outside marriage. Were it that young Giovanni experienced a conversion of heart, but with few prospects but tremendous family connections, the priesthood and a ecclesial career seemed to be his best career option. In Rome he became a priest in the retinue of Cardinal Calandrini, half-brother to Pope Nicholas V (1447–55). The influence of his friends procured for him, from Pope Paul II (1464–71), the bishopric of Savona, and in 1473, with the support of Giuliano Della Rovere, later Pope Julius II, he was made cardinal by Pope Sixtus IV, who appreciated his malleable nature. Continue reading →

The March of Folly

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The days of the secreted and persecuted church during the 2nd and 3rd centuries were long gone when the Roman Empire fell in the late 5th century. The Latin church found itself increasingly needed in secular affairs and seduced by them. By the Renaissance period of the 15th century, the millennium had long let loose the siren’s cry of secular power, national politics, and a host of other factors. This lead to the formation of the Papal States, the rise of a courtly Roman Curia comprised mainly of lay nobility, a complex means of funding the increasing “empire” of the Church, and a culture of corruption, moral laxity, and an obscuring of the lines between the holy and the secular. In the mix there were saintly popes and popes with, shall we say, other foci, aspirations, and intentions. The church was unknowingly on what the historian Barbara Tuchman would famously call “the march of folly.” The march reached its zenith in the last six popes before the Protestant Reformation(s). The folly of the papacy and the Roman Curia, pursuing secular goals at the expense of its spiritual mission, bewilderingly ignored the growing outrage and distrust of common people seeking some assurance of salvation – which they found in the theological focus of the Augustinian monk, Martin Luther. The papal/curial folly gave birth to the Reformation(s). The six popes highlighted over the next several weeks were the ones occupying the Chair of Peter in the 50 years preceding the Protestant Reformations that swept through Europe in the 16th century. They were the last pontiffs over a united western Christianity Continue reading →

Church History

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I had been musing about a regular (at least quasi-regular) series of posts for Saturday morning. I have noticed that there has been interest and feedback on posts that deal with some element of Church history. The topic has always been of interest to me, musing about how the broad movements of history affect the Church and how the Church affects the movements of history.

Given that the internet is replete with all manner of information about the events, trends, and characters who contribute to the history of Christianity in the West, I wondered what I might contribute. Certainly on any particular topic, or as a general survey, there are real historians that have better knowledge and are gifted writers, able to make their research accessible and readable. If you have a particular interest, I would recommend looking to the experts, but if you just want to follow along on a Saturday morning, you are most welcomed.

For my part, I continue to be fascinated by the events of the 16th century referred to the the “Protestant Reformation.” You’ll notice that in the title of this post I refer to “reformations.”

I suggest the plural form because there was no single, coherent or cohesive movement that marked the end of a united Christianity in the West. Nor did it begin and take definitive shape when the Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the chapel in Wittenburg Castle. The purpose, intention, and final shape of reformed denominations were as varied as the men and women within the movements, the country of origins, the milieu of political alliances and forces in play as the modern nation-states of Europe arose, as well as a myriad of other factors. The reform movement in Germany differed from those in Switzerland, France, England, and the Low Countries. I hope to at least give an introduction to help you understand the popes, people, persecutions and potpourri of the life in a Europe emerging from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance. It is age when the face of western Europe changed as did the unity of Christianity.

If the Reformations did not begin with Martin Luther, then when were the seeds of the events sown? How many years/centuries before? Not even the historians agree. But tune in next Saturday for the first post and you’ll at least discover what is a good starting point.