Was there power? Were there signs and wonders? Were people filled with the Spirit?
These people were amazingly powerful. Bede was the first church historian from England, who lived in the 8th century- he changed the weather. Cuthbert, a little bit before him, healed paralytics and deaf people. And he had an amazing relationship with nature.
Francis of Assisi was someone who moved in incredible power, but all mixed up with things like holy water and things that we would find quite difficult to accept.
But God honoured them, because He honours faith just as He does today.
There were those at this time who wanted a New Testament type of church. They lived in the alpine regions of Europe, a little remote. They had the scriptures and emphasised scriptures like the Sermon on the Mount, saying this is the way to live. The Roman church persecuted them. They were people like the Bogomils,” Friends of God” from Bulgaria. The Waldensians, who were the followers of Peter Waldo.
Before you can study the radical church, it’s important to have a look at the Orthodox Church, otherwise you don’t understand what they are reacting about.
Relicts
People regarded some people, some places and some things as holy.
In 1231 Elisabeth of Hungary died and was lying in state. She had lived a very godly life. Her body was in the cathedral and the people could go in and pay their respects to her. By the time they had finished, there was nothing left of her. Her corpse has been ripped apart! She was regarded as holy and being of value to save the owners time in purgatory.
There was the belief, the superstition, that if you wanted to holy, you should possess something that was considered holy.
So we are dealing with faith, with mysticism, with corruption and with superstition. There were shrines, where people would go because they though it would help them to attain grace. God’s grace had to be earned and you had to persuade God to give it to you.
The medieval church was a ritualistic church:
Penance
People would go and confess to a priest, an intermediary, and he would give them a penance to do (not repentance). This was to persuade God to give them grace.
The intermediary, the priest
There were two persecutions, one in the first century under the Emperor Decius and in the fourth century under Diocletian.
For Decius, if things were going bad and the empire was suffering in anyway, it meant the gods were angry and that they needed in some way to be placated. As the emperor himself was deified, he wasn’t going to carry the blame. Up until the time of the burning of Rome, the Jews got blamed. After 64AD, the Christians got blamed. We don’t know why, but it is thought that it was because Nero’s wife was very sympathetic to the Jewish people.
Diocletian persecuted the church in the fourth century (303-312). He set out to destroy it, because he wanted unity in the empire, which was crumbling at this time, there were only 100 years left before Rome would be sacked. He ordered an empire-wide sacrifice to the gods. This meant that people went to the temple bought a meal offering and were given a document to prove that you had taken part in the sacrifice.
In the previous persecution in 250, many Christians apostatized. Over the next 50 years the church had a stricter discipleship and got ready in case another persecution came. When Diocletian’s persecution did come, the Christians were ready for it.
Many were put to death, many were put in prison and there were also those who apostatized. In the main they were the weak Christians who sacrificed.
After the persecution was over, a decision had to be made about what was to be done by those who had apostatized. There were two thoughts on it, one was forgive them and the other was, no we want a purer church and we do now have doubts whether God will forgive serious sins after baptism. Hence some people delayed baptism until their deathbed to ensure that they got in.
Those who had apostatized through the persecution felt that they needed absolution. Who do you go to, to get it? You go to those who had been in prison, those who had suffered and who are now regarded as special people. You would go to them and say, “I am so sorry that I betrayed you.” This wasn’t asking for forgiveness but it was the beginning of going to another and asking for absolution.
Some people went to other extremes and to possess something that had belonged to the people who had been martyred would keep them in good stead. People wore the bones of martyred Christians.
Out of that sort of practice people became saints, intermediaries between God and man. There were then the places where these people were martyred, which have holy significance.
Within 12 hundred years, we have things that started off in a harmless way becoming complete heresy.
The bread and wine
Where does the teaching come from that the bread becomes the flesh and the wine becomes the blood of Jesus? It comes from the second century.
In the 2nd century there was a Gnostic heresy. As the church battled against this heresy and it was a hard battle, they made entrance into the church much stricter. You weren’t going to get into the church until you have proved that you are a Christian.
In the Bible it looks like baptism is for sinners who have just got saved but in the 2nd century, it was for people who were living proven holy lives. So they went through two or three years of instruction, before they could be admitted to the church. That meant that they could not take the bread and the wine until they had been baptised. This meant that they had to be dismissed for the part of the service when the bread and the wine. As they were being dismissed there was a prayer for them that they might progress in the faith. But the emphasis shifted from them to the bread and the wine. In time the bread and the wine became the object of the prayer. In the end Thomas Aquinas said: This is Jesus.
So even today, sometimes in communion services, we ask someone to pray for the bread and the wine. Why? What do expect will happen to it? Pray for the people who are taking communion, not for the bread and wine.
Things that become heresies don’t grow up overnight. It takes time. When you depart from the scripture and start to rely on traditions and the decisions of councils, you are a long way from the teachings of Christ and the first apostles.
At the reformation it was Martin Luther who began to challenge these things. He did it in a time that was rife. Other people had said the same things before. People from inside the Roman church had said the same things, but the climate was not ready for change.
• Penance instead of Repentance
• The saints and Mary instead of Jesus as the intermediary between God and man
• The mass – a sacrifice again of Christ to obtain fresh grace
A lot the reformers, who came to Christ, came to Christ because they studied the doctrine of the mass.
The question is what actually happens when we eat bread and drink wine? Is this how we are justified? Is this a means of grace to us? Or is Christ alone enough?
Up to this point they didn’t have the Bible. The priests could hardly read. The monks never studied it. When Luther was made professor of New Testament theology, he had never read the New Testament. Church doctrine was mainly the study of the decisions of councils and popes, who regularly contradicted themselves. So theology was the study of traditions, decisions and canon law. It wasn’t until the Bible became to be studied from the original texts that the text of the Bible was studied.
Prevailing Conditions
What were the prevailing conditions at the time of Luther that caused such a reaction to his 95 thesis?
1. Anti-clericalism
The people at the time believed in God, but He was a God of wroth and anger, who could not be placated and who you could not know personally. The only way you could know God was by hearing the gospel and you didn’t hear he gospel.
The priests who were there to minister to you were so often absent.
One bishop called Anointine de Prat, the only time he was ever present in his diocese was when he was buried there. It was something he had bought.
The clergy collected titles as a means of making a living. They would buy the title of bishop etc.
The people were not ministered to. Even if you would attend a church or cathedral, everything was in Latin that the common person didn’t understand. It was up at the front and it was very mystical. You were denied participation. You were allowed the wafer but not the wine that was for the clergy. You were not holy enough to have the wine.
It was burdensome. There was a pecking order of sin that determined your penance. Compare this with the Pharisees in the New Testament. Legalism is deathly. The letter always kills.
In England, Cardinal Wolsey was the second most powerful man in the realm, but he lived openly with his concubine and had children. It wasn’t frowned up on, so the whole thing about celibacy was nonsense.
2. Power shift
Power was shifting from the papacy to the kings and princes. Cities were being raised up and fortified and they were even raising their own armies. There was a breaking away from papal dominance. Nationalism was rising.
Christendom was seen as the nations that were Christian and they were starting to react against it.
3. Unrest amongst the common people
This led to a peasants’ revolt in Germany. There had been a peasants’ revolt in England in the 14th century at the time of Wycliffe, who was a reformer in England.
Religious turmoil and revival stir up people who aren’t religiously minded. They don’t even get converted but it articulates something for them. It allows them to understand their grievances. Their reaction is not one of conversion, but is one of rebellion. Within a century of one another there was a peasants’ uprising in Germany and England.
4. The Black Death (1347)
Two thirds of the population died and infant mortality was high. This fed superstition and became ingrained in us.
5. The Printing Press
The printing press was a so radical invention like the internet today. Luther preached a sermon on grace at the same time as he wrote the 95 thesis. This was printed - 20 editions of it - and it went round Europe.
Luther becomes a hero overnight, because he is challenging the might of Rome. He is doing it because he believes he is living in the end times. The pope was the antichrist and this was the last battle. As far as he was concerned, the world wasn’t going to last much longer.
He was a national hero without people necessarily following his religion.
6. The Fall of Constantinople 1453
When Constantine moved the centre of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople he took with him the original documents of the early church. They were the scriptures and many of the writings of the church fathers, the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint) and many other things. They were copied and published but the originals never saw the light of day.
In 1453 the Turks invaded and the documents were taken out for safety reasons but they were also made available for study. What the people then realised was that the scriptures had been corrupted. The scriptures were very different than the decisions of church councils.
This is important because the big question at the reformation was what is the main authority of the church? Was it the head of the church, the pope who is by this time declared infallible? Is it the decisions of Church Councils? Or is it the scriptures? That became the issue and that was the issue for Luther.
When we see all these things developing and all the different groups springing up, we go to the Bible and look at what the Bible says. These groups didn’t. Some of them didn’t have the Bible. They were working things out as they went along.
It is difficult to judge them and to know where they really stood. We have the benefit of 2000 years development and really we should know better.
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