-The Church and Protestantism

The Church and Protestantism THE CHURCH AND PROTESTANTISM
A. Hugh Clark The speakers of this lectureship who have preceded me on this platform have set before you the church of our Lord during Apostolic days, its subsequent apos­tasy, or departure from the faith, culminating in the Roman Hierarchy. In these lectures you have been privileged to watch this movement as it grew and de­veloped from a beginning apparently small and trivial to the greatest power recorded in world history.

It seems to me that it is a significant fact and one that should make a profound impression upon the mind of every student of this history that from those first seemingly small and insignificant departures from the simplicity of the ancient order should come an evil so momentous in its influence upon the world. An evil which well nigh destroyed from the face of the earth for hundreds of years that church for which our bless­ed Lord had died. The development of Papal Power through greed and graft and usurpation is the great outstanding fact of the ten centuries of the middle ages. Watching each succeeding step of the development of papal power we have finally seen the Pope sitting and claiming to be the universal bishop and head of the church. And still not satisfied in his greed for power we have seen him usurp one by one the powers and prerogatives of the civil rulers until he assumes the rulership of nations, above kings and emperors. As evidence of this su­premacy and usurpation of the papacy in civil as well as religious power during the medieval age I need but to refer to the example of Emperor Henry IV, who, having taken offense at Hildebrande, summoned a synod of German bishops and led them to vote the deposition of the Pope. Hildebrande retaliated with an excommunication, absolving all the subjects of Hen­ry IV from their allegiance and leaving the. Emperor absolutely powerless under the Papal ban. In January 1077,. the Emperor with bare feet and clad, in wool, the garb of a penitent, stood for three days before the gate of the Pope’s castle in Canossa in northern Italy, in order to make his submission and receive absolution. Also I might mention the Concordat of Worms in which after a war fomented by the Pope which lasted two years and devastated Germany, Henry V, was com­pelled to yield to the Pope in the matter of investiture, and in 1122 subscribed the Concordat. Pope Innocent III. declared in his inaugural address, “The successor of St. Peter stand midway between God and man; be­low God, above man; judge of all, judged by none.” And in one of his official letters he wrote that ,to the Pope “has been committed not only the whole church but the whole world,” with “the right of finally dis­posing the imperial and all other crowns.” And what shall I more say? for time will fail me if I tell of Alexander III. and of the demands he made and the accessions he received of Frederick Barbarossa at Ven­ice in 1177, Gregory X. and his compelled subserviency on the part of Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg; Ale­xander VL. a monster of iniquity; Julius LL. a poli­tician and warrior; Lea X. with his sale of indulgences; these with their successors who through their Papal powers and assumptions wrought unrighteousness and havoc, lived in licentiousness and lust, luxury and ease, and wherever possible subdued kings and emperors and made desolate every authority, civil and ecclesiastic, that dared to oppose them. With this brief review of the ecclesiastical history of the medieval centuries before us, and the consequent necessity of a religious reformation impressed upon us, let us now look to history of Protestantism. We shall see that the history of Protestantism is the his­tory of the great Reformation of the 16th century. The Encyclopedia Brittanica says protestant is “the generic name for an adherent of those churches which base their teaching on the principles of the reforma­tion. The name is derived from the formal ‘Protesta- tio’ handed in by the evangelical states of the empire, including some of the more important princes and im­perial cities, against the recess of the Diet of Spires (1529), which decreed that the religious status quo was to be. preserved, that no innovations were to be introduced in those states which had not hitherto in­troduced them and that the mass was everywhere to be tolerated. The name protestant seems to have been first applied to the protesting princes by their oppon­ents, and it soon came to be used indiscriminately of all adherents of the reformed religion.” The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, edited by Jas. Hastings informs us that “Protestant at first meant Lutherans as opposed alike to Zwinglians and Papists. Then came a double development. On one side the Romanists persisted in stigmatizing the here­tics of the reformation all over Europe as Lutherans; on the other the heretics themselves came to adopt from the Lutherans the common name of Protestants. The unifying force was the consciousness of a common cause against Rome.” Hence the words ‘protestant’ and ‘Protestantism’ in their ecclesiastical meaning and usage become identified with the cause and followers of the Reformation.

Before we pass to a brief discussion of the reforma­tion period proper, there are a few movements ante­cedent to the date which historians have set as the definite date of the beginning of this great movement, which I wish to mention, and which in reality might be referred to as beginnings of reform. These sprang up in southern France, in northern Italy, in England, in Bohemia and then again in Italy. In southern France there were the noted Albigenese, or “Pruitans” who vigorously repudiated the author­ity of tradition, circulated the New Testament, opposed the Romish doctrines of image worship, purgatory, priestly claims, infant baptism, the mass etc. Pope Innocent III sent a “Crusade” against them in 1208 and almost depopulated the region killing not only the heretics, but others as well.

About this same time (1170) Peter Walde, a mer­chant of Lyons, began to circulate, preach and explain the Scriptures, appealing to them against the usages and doctrines of the Romish church. His followers were known as Waldenses. Because of their fiery op­position to clerical usurpation and profligacy, they were also the subjects of a bitter persecution; but driven out of France they settled in northern Italy, where in the face of continued persecution they have endured. In 1324 John Wyclif was born in England. He was educated in the University of Oxford, became a doctor of theology and a recognized leader in the councils. He launched a movement for reform in England by attacking the mendicant friars, and the system of mon- asticism; rejecting and opposing the authority of the Pope; and writing against the doctrines of transub- tantiation, auricular confession, indulgences, images in worship, canonization, pilgrimages, celibacy, etc., etc. The followers of Wyclif were called Lollards, and at one time were numerous but through persecution were finally extirpated. His greatest work perhaps, was his translation of the New Testament finished in 1380.

John Huss, of Bohemia, (1369 to 1415) was a stu­dent of the writings of Wyclif, a preacher and defend­er in his doctrines, especially opposing the authority of the Pope. At one time he was rector of the Uni­versity of Prague, and held a commanding influence throughout Bohemia. The Pope excommunicated him and placed the entire City of Prague under an inter­dict for as long as he should remain there. Huss re­tired, but after two years, upon assurance from the Emperor of a safe conduct, he consented to go before the Council at Constance. The soleiim pledge of the Emperor was disregarded and Huss was thrown into prison, where after repeated efforts to make him re­cant had failed, he was condemned and burned alive the same day, July 6, 1415.

Jerome Savonarola (1452 to 1498) preached with a zeal comparable to the prophets of old against the evils of his day. The theme of his eloquence being the cor­ruption of both church and state. But he too, was ex­communicated by the Pope, condemned, hanged, and his body burned in the public square at Florence.

Embracing the work of at least some of these just mentioned, as well as the period of the Great Reformation which we are approaching, we have what is known in history as the Renaissance. The meaning of the word itself e. g. (re-) again, plus (nasci) to be born, hence a new birth, a coming to life again, an awaken­ing, suggests the spirit of the age. For hundreds of years in general the masses had been kept in ignorance and superstition, deprived by the Roman Hierarchy of either the right or privilege of freedom of thought and personal investigation. But now there is a gen­eral awakening; and the leaders in this movement were generally not monks nor priests, but laymen. The movement was not only religious, bringing a new in­terest in the study of the Scriptures, Greek and He­brew, and a search for the true foundations of faith without regards for the dogmas and doctrines of Rome, but extended to the sciences, art and literature. This spirit of personal freedom of thought and individual inquisition and aggression became at once the leading element in the opposition to that regime with, which ignorance was and had been the mother of devotion. The invention of the printing press by Gutenbur'g (1455) and the discovery that books could be printed from movable types was revolutionary in its effect up­on the methods of the dissemination of knowledge. It is a very significant fact as showing the desire of the age, that the first book printed by Gutenburg was the Bible. Through the printing press the Bible was brought into common use. It was translated into the languages of the people and circulated through all of Europe, with the result that those who read it at once came to realize that the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church were not the doctrine of Christ and of the Apostles.

During this period of awakening and spiritual un­rest that was pervading all Europe, the reigning Pope, Leo X, claiming to need large sums of money for the completion of St. Peter’s church in Rome, and to wage a war against the Turks, (though this was doubted by many) arranged the sale of indulgences. John Tetzel, a Dominican friar, carried on the sale in Germany, which consisted of the selling to individuals for them­selves or on the behalf of friends, living or.dead, a cer­tificate. signed by the Pope and purporting to bestow pardon of all sins without confession, repentance, pen­ance, or absolution by a priest.

It is at this time that the Great Reformation of the 16th century bursts forth under the leadership of Mar­tin Luther, himself a Monk, and a teacher in the Uni­versity of Wittenberg. Tetzel, with great acclaim, was traveling through Germany where the common people received him as a messenger from heaven. He was a popular orator and is said that after a sermon from him the people would eagerly embrace this rare offer of salvation from the punishment of sin; that with the burning of candles they approached, paid their money, and received the letter of indulgence which they cher­ished as a passport to heaven. Luther had already the summer before (1516) delivered a sermon protesting against trust in indulgences, but now to have the bar­ter carried on at the very threshold of his own door was both a shock to his intelligence and a scandal. He felt it to be his duty to make a protest, and that to fail to do so would be to betray his own conscience.

After serious deliberation, he determined upon his course; a course more far reaching in its effects upon himself and the world than even he could possibly realize at the time. Accordingly he prepared 95 Latin Theses upon the subject of indulgences, and upon the 31st day of October, 1517, accompanied with a chal­lenge for public discussion of the same, he nailed them to the doors of the castle church at Wittenberg. And this is the date fixed upon by historians as the begin­ning of the Great Reformation. As one might expect Luther’s Theses met with both a hearty response and a fiery opposition. They were gladly acclaimed by liberal scholars, and by German patriots who were secretly desirous of emancipation from Italian Papal control, and multitude of the people from the common ranks. But they were vehemently opposed and condemned by a clerical hierarchy, the monastic orders, and by all the leaders and followers of scholastic theology and traditional authority. Even some of Luther’s own friends now became his most ir­reconcilable enemies. And the consequence of the con­troversy was that Luther was forced into conflict with the papal authority, upon which the doctrine and sale of indulgencies were made to rest. The great question being whether that authority was infallible and final, or subject to correction by the Scriptures and a gen­eral council.

Luther committed himself to the latter position which he defended vigorously. Yet he denied just as vigorously the accusation of heresy, claiming that he taught nothing contrary to the Scriptures, the ancient fathers, the ecumenical councils and the decrees of the Popes. From which, and some of his subsequent activ­ities, it is perfectly evident that Luther, to begin with, had no idea of a permanent break with the Catholic Church. The first reaction of Pope Leo X was to ignore the Wittenberg movement; but later, when it had become dangerous, and he had failed in an effort to have Luth­er brought to Rome to answer for heresy, he arranged the Diet of Augsburg to which he sent Cardinal Caje- tan as the Papal Legate. Luther arrived at Augsburg October 7, 1518, where he was received kindly. He was brought before the Italian Cardinal three times and each time it was demanded that he retract his er­rors and declare absolute submission to the Pope. This, Luther resolutely refused, declaring that he could do nothing against his conscience; that one must obey God rather than man; that he had the Scripture on his side; that even Peter was once reproved by Paul for misconduct (Galatians 2:11), and that surely his successor was not infallible. Whereupon Cajetan threatened him with excommunication, having already the papal man­date in his hand, and dismissed him with the words: “Revoke, or do not come again into my presence.” With the issue thus squarely drawn, and with no intention of recanting, Luther secretly departed from Augsburg and returned home. And just here, we have another significant step in Luther’s final separation from Rome, e.g., anticipation of the papal sentence of excommunication, on November 28th he formally and solemnly appealed from the Pope to a general council. This move was a formal rejection of the authority of the Pope, yet does not deny the authority and in­fallibility of the general Church Council. However, the year following, at the Liepzig Disputation, in de­bate with Dr. Eck, he changed his opinion on the au­thority of the Councils; holding that Huss, of Bohemia, was unjustly condemned and burned by the Council of Constance; that a general Council as well as a Pope may err, and had no right to impose any article of faith not founded in the Scriptures.

Here, at Leipzig, during these debates which lasted for almost three weeks, for the first time Luther de­nied the divine right and origin of the papacy, and the infallibility of a general council. Henceforward he had nothing left but the Divine Scriptures, his faith in the God they revealed, and his own private judgment and understanding. Surely the Reformation is well on its Way.

After the Leipzig disputation, Dr. Eck went to Rome and with the assistance of Cardinal Cajetan and oth­ers, obtained the condemnation of Luther. With con­siderable difficulty the bull of excommunication was drawn up in May, and after several amendments was completed June 15th, 1520. This bull is especially important as a historical docu­ment. First, because it was the Papal answer to Luth­er’s Theses. Second, because it was the last bull ad­dressed to Latin Christendom as an undivided whole, and the first which was disobeyed by a large part of it.

Though not without considerable opposition, espe­cially in northern Germany, the bull was everywhere published and carried out. In many places Luther’s books and writings were gathered together and burned. Provoked by this, Luther determined upon a like procedure with the Papal bull. Accordingly with consid­erable ceremony, on the 10th of December 1520, at the gates of Wittenberg, before a gathering of University professors, students, and the people, he solemnly com­mitted the bull of excommunication, with copies of the cannons and laws, and some of the writings of certain others, notably some of the writing of his enemy, Dr. Eck, to the flames, with these words (taken no doubt from Joshua 7:25) ; “As thou (the Pope) hast vexed the Holy One of the Lord, may the eternal fire vex thee!” This act constituted Luther’s final renunciation of the Roman Catholic Church. And to the end of his life to this position he adhered with unchanging firmness. When he was summoned the following year to the Diet at Worms, he considered it a call from God to bear witness to the truth. He said “I shall go to Worms, though there were as may devils there, as tiles on the roofs.” And when brought before that august assemblage and the question was put: “Wilt thou de­fend all the books which thou dost acknowledge to be thine, or recant some part?” he answered in that well known declaration, everywhere considered today as marking an epoch in the history of religious liberty : “Unless I am refuted and convicted by testimonies of the scriptures or by clear arguments (since I believe neither the Pope nor the councils alone; it being evi­dent that they have often erred and contradicted them­selves) , I am conquered by the Holy Scriptures quoted by me, and my conscience is bound in the word of God; I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is unsafe and dangerous to do anything against the conscience.” Just here there were certain who interrupted him with questions; and being pressed and threatened, amidst the excitement and confusion of the audience, he ut­tered the last statement: “Here I stand. (I cannot do otherwise) God help me! Amen.” The Emperor, Charles V, had given Luther a prom­ise of safe conduct, but was now urged to seize him, on the ground that no faith was to be kept with heretics, but he permitted him to leave Worms in peace.

While Luther was traveling homeward, according to a wisely arranged scheme of the Elector Frederick, for his own safety he was seized and imprisoned in the castle at Wartburg. Here he remained for almost a year; during which time he translated the New Tes­tament, and wrote many letters which were delivered by secret messengers. He also was kept informed con­cerning the progress of his cause by letters from some of his friends. And later when exigencies demanded came again to Wittenburg where—with the same fine spirit and courage which had hitherto characterized him he preached against abuses in the ranks of his own followers, especially rashness and efforts at coercion. He said, “I will preach, speak, write, but I will force no one; for faith must be voluntary........The Word is almighty, and takes captive the hearts.” The reformation now spreads over Germany with almost an irresistible impulse. Luther continued the use of both word and pen to the utmost of his time and strength. It is true that during this period a number of conflicting doctrines and opinions sprang up among the reformers themselves, occasioning many a hard fought battle in the field of polemics, still all recog­nized a unity in their common cause against Rome. And as Protestantism continued to advance, the execution of the Edict of Worms became less and less practicable or possible. With the result that at the first imperial Diet of Speiers (1526) the Protestant Princes for the first time dared to profess their faith, and were great­ly assisted by the delegates from those imperial cities where the cause of the reformation had made progress.

It was the unanimous conclusion of this Diet that a general council should be called to settle the church question; and that a temporary truce, or armistice, should be recognized in regard to the execution of the Edict of Worms, providing that, m the meantime, “ev­ery state shall so live, rule, and believe as it may hope and trust to answer before God and his imperial Maj­esty From this and the continued protest of this same group at a second Piet at Speiers (1529) the fol­lowers of the Reformation acquired the name of. Pro­testants, and their cause the name of Protestantism.Since Martin Luther is recognized by historians as the instigator of the Great Reformation and Protestan­tism, I have undertaken to be much larger and more particular in the study of the history pertaining to him than I shall be in the study of those who are yet to be brought into this discussion.Contemporaneous with the German reformation, though independent of it, there sprang up a like move ­ment in Switzerland under the leadership of ITlric Zwrngli. Though himself a piiest, tie had been a.friend and pupil of Thomas Wyttenbach, from whom he had learned much of the doctrines of the. Reformation which he afterward preached and defended with such signal success. His first open revolt against the Roman Catholic system came while he was a priest at Finsiedeln (1516), which a bejewreled and supposedly mir­acle-wrorking image of the Virgin had made a favorite resort of pilgrims. He so effectively denounced pil­grimages as superstitious that his sermons were talked of in Rome, though no action was taken against him. In 1518, as preacher in the Cathedral of Zurich, he ve­hemently opposed the doctr ine of indulgences.

Then followed other denunciations of Homan Catho­lic practices and doctrines, until Zurich, the authorities of which supported Zwingli, and the people of which adhered to him, became thoroughly Protestant; and in 1522 he definitely broke from Rome. The reformation in Switzerland soon became more radical than that in Germany; for Zwingli went much farther than Luther whose doctrine of consubstantia- tion was very little different, at best, from the Catho­lic doctrine of Transubstantiation, and which was nev­er very clear to even Luther himself. In 1531, the Forest Cantons, of Roman Catholic faith, made war on Zurich, whose troops Zwingli accompanied as chap­lain. While in the thick of an engagement he was killed, October 11, 1531. The Swiss Reformation, however, was to find a later leader in John Calvin, the greatest theologian since Augustine.

Calvin was born in France, where at the age of twelve, he was dedicated to the church. In his studies he soon came to entertain certain doubts concerning the priesthood, and became dissatisfied with the teach­ing of the Roman Catholic church. He turned to the study of law but soon became a convert to the doctrines of the reformation and was forced to leave France. He came to Basel, Switzerland, where he completed and and published, at the age of twenty-seven years, his famous and learned work, the Institutes of Religion; which may be said to have become the basis of Prote­stant denominational doctrines. The cause of the reformation had now begun to show itself in many places over Europe. Norway, Sweden and Denmark all accepted the doctrines of Luther. In France the cause gathered quite a large following under Lefevre (1512) who accepted the doctrines of the reformers, preaching especially the doctrine of justifi­cation by faith. In the Netherlands Holland became protestant, but Belgium remained Catholic. The next outstanding break with the Catholic Church came in England under Henry the VIII, who became incensed at the Pope because he would not sanction his divorce from queen Catherine, from whom he wished to be freed that he might marry the young­er and more pleasing Ann Boleyn. Under the Pope’s refusal and ultimate excommunication, he established the church of England, of which, according to the edict of parliament, he was made the absolute head on earth. The doctrines of the reformation were early intro­duced into Scotland, but made slow progress under the harsh opposition of Cardinal Beaton. Cardinal Beaton was murdered, and soon after the Queen regent, Mary of Guise, died and the movement found a new leader in John Knox, 1559. Knox has been called “the Luther of the north;” and by his determined and un­compromising prosecution of his cause against Rome, even in the face of the papal reaction under Queen Mary of Scots, he was able to firmly establish the cause of Protestantism in Scotland.

During these years (1545 to 1563) there sprang up a movement within the Catholic Church itself known as the Counter-Reformation. This movement was in­tended to investigate and put an end to those abuses which had called forth the reformation, to subvert the Protestant faith, and to regain the lost ground in Eur­ope. Though it is admitted that some reform was made, it was of little avail. The issue was squarely drawn between the Catholic Church and those of the reformation. Active persecution broke out and every Roman Catholic government sought by fire and sword to extirpate the Protestant faith. In France it reach­ed its zenith in the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day. In Spain, in the Inquisition where untold thousands were tortured and burned and where as in Bohemia, the cause was utterly crushed out. In Germany in 1618, a war broke out between the Catholic and Protestant states which lasted for thirty years. It is known in history as the Thirty Years War. Finally at Westphalia, in 1648, the war came to an end, and the boundaries of the Roman Catholic and Protestant states were fixed, securing a legal existence to the Protestant faith throughout Germany. These boundaries have continued substantially the same ever since, and it is at that point that the Period of the Ref­ormation is generally considered to have ended. As the sixteenth century dawned, the Roman Cath­olic Church was the only church in Western Europe. But with the coming of the next century every land of northern Europe west of Russia, had broken away from Rome and had established its own national church. The question may be raised, what has the recitation of all this long history to do with the church of Christ? Simply this: We have been speaking on the theme of the church and Protestantism. And in the recitation of this history several things have been clearly and def­initely set forth.

First, we have learned that the Catholic Church is not the church of Christ. It may be said to be an in­stitution which grew out of certain departures from the faith on the part of the church of our Lord in the early centuries.

Second, we have seen that because of the extrava­gancies and abuses of the Catholic Church in the medie­val age there grew up from the fourteenth to the six­teenth centuries a movement in opposition to Catholi­cism known as the Great Reformation; the adherents of which, because of their protest against Papal au­thority and other usages and doctrines of the Roman church, became known as Protestants, and their cause as Protestantism.

Thirdly, it is evident therefore, that the church of Christ is neither Catholic nor Protestant, in the sense in which these terms are used in history, in this thesis, and are generally understood. That it antedates not only the cause of Protestantism, but as well that mighty ecclesiasticism the evils of which gave birth to Protestantism. And lastly, that Christians, members of the Body of Christ, are neither Catholics nor Protestants, but only Christians. That their origin antedates either of these, going back to the days of Peter and James and John and Paul, and that they have their existence today sep­arate and apart from either and all of these sects. And that the purpose of their existence is the advance­ment of the Cause and Kingdom of our Lord and Sa­vior, Jesus Christ, and the opposition of Catholicism, Protestantism, or any other “ism” that exalts itself against the plain teachings of the New Testament.