Liturgical reformation and Marian Counter-reformation

Reformation Church History

Martin Luther
· Luther discovered three things about our salvation.

(i) That the righteousness of God was not just a characteristic of God's nature by which
he was angry at sin. It also meant god's saving activity, the death blow god dealt sin was
by wiping it out, or forgiving it on the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Martin Luther was slowly starting to see that the righteousness of God was also, and above
all, the way in which God has acted to rescue sinners, to acquit them, from outside of them.
That is, salvation is primarily to be thought of as something God has already done for us,
outside of us, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

(ii) The only possible response to this by us is faith. Since salvation has already been
achieved for us in Jesus Christ, we cannot earn or merit it, but only accept it as a gift;
that is, by faith
- faith alone.

The middle ages though of salvation as a slow process in which man co-operated by his
works with the grace of God acting in his soul. Luther destroyed this scheme by replacing
it with the biblical stress on what God has already done for us in Jesus Christ.

(iii) Luther redefined the Christian life and grounded it in the doctrine of justification
by faith alone, using a simple slogan that the Christian is "at the same time a sinner, and
at the same time justified." The Christian is always a sinner, but, at the same time, he
is justified - made righteous by faith.

· An indulgence was a relaxation or remission of part or all the penalty or satisfaction
one had to pay at the end of sacrament of penance. In theory the Pope had sole key to a
"treasury of merits" of the good works of the saints and Christ. These merits could be
given out to suitably penitent sinners who would thus gain some remission of time they
would have to spend in purgatory.

· Luther's 95 Theses affirms the reality of purgatory, and even the proper use of
indulgences, and does not directly challenge the spiritual authority of the Pope. The
chief concern of Luther was that the current abuses of the indulgence system most
seriously undermined the necessity for true penitence; true sorrow for sin.

Having been accused of heresy, a series of debates and private interviews forced Luther
to see the implications of his position, and thus to sharpen up his perceptions of the
real issues against his studies in the Bible.

Thus, Luther now asserted three key things: Bible alone, faith alone, Christ alone.
The bible was the sole and final source of teaching authority in the Church, not Church
tradition plus the Bible. Faith alone was to key to justification, not faith plus works.
Christ alone was the Head of the Church, not Christ plus his earthly representative, the
Pope.

An Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nations. It was concerned with
the relationship between the Church and State, and demolished monarachial-papalism on
biblical grounds.

The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. The medieval doctrine of transubstantiation
whereby it was believed that the bread and the wine were changed into the real flesh and
blood of Christ in the prayer of consecration, is utterly repudiated as a fantastic
notion.

Freedom of the Christian Man. Luther shows how a doctrine of faith inevitably produces
good works, because in faith we have the positive appropriation of the promises of God
which leads to a change in the quality of our living.
Justification by faith increases the love and service a Christian shows his
neighbours. For real life is not inward looking, or meditative in an attempt to improve
one's inner life or being, but outward looking, to the pursuit of knowledge and love of
God, and the love and service of our neighbour.

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The Lay Reformation in the Cities

In cities like Zurich, the Council took responsibility not only for the more secular
concerns of criminal justice, administrative appointments, and the like, but also for
religion. More and more throughout the previous century the Council too administrative
control of various aspects of church affairs.

Concerning the burden the Church placed on its adherents through tithes (even on eggs),
special papal taxes, and fees for performing burials, baptisms, and the cost of
indulgences to escape purgatory, there is evidence of almost universal resentment.

The laity's assumption of increased control over ecclesiastical institutions was also
due to growing dissatisfaction at the evident corruption and inefficiency of the Church
authorities.

The laity, persuaded by reformation preaching, believed that they had been doctrinally
hoodwinked, and religiously exploited by what was, in the end, a totally unnecessary lie.

The full spectrum of sixteenth century urban society came to embrace the Protestant
message. Within German and Swiss towns and cities, the Reformation was in the broadest
sense a popular movement, and by the standards of the day, even a democratic one.

Lay people believed that the original Protestant message offered them a genuine escape
from unfair and untrue ecclesiastical burdens.

· The movement of this Protestant message and the lay perception of it went in three
stages:

1. The assault on the Confessional - Protestant preaching stressed the assurance of
salvation which came from the free forgiveness of sins in Christ.

2. The Secular Promises of the Protestant Preachers -
(i) escape from episcopal bureaucracy.
(ii) a new social ethic. No longer was there the division between the lower good works
of lay people, and the higher ones of the clergy.

· In January 1523, a debate, a Disputation, was called for between Zwingli and the
proponents of the papal religion. Zwingli secured from the Council the ground rule that
the bible was to be the sole source of argument in the debate.
In Zurich, then, we see what became the normal pattern of reform in the
city-states of South Germany and Switzerland. It is known as "magisterial reformation".
That is, reformation which came as a response by the secular ruling councils to
evangelical preaching of reforming priests.

· Three differences with the Lutheran Reformation

1. The nature of Christ's presence in the sacraments - Luther insisted that the body
and blood of Christ are in fact really present, although the bread and wine remain real
bread and wine. The Swiss position was that Christ was present to Christians at the
Lord's supper, and all other worship activities spiritually.

2. Luther insisted that some matters, like the use of candles and fabulous
ornamentation in worship, were "indifferent" to the Christian. The Swiss argued that
nothing was indifferent to the gospel, and therefore anything which interfered with the
true gospel understanding that salvation came through faith alone had to be seen as a
barrier and removed.

3. Although Luther honoured the part the State played in God's rule of his world, and
pleaded with princes to exercise their duties as members of the Church and reform it,
he placed far less importance on the role of lay people in Church reform. Princes were,
for Luther, only "emergency bishops". For the Swiss, the princes, or magistrate, were
always "bishops".

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The Radical Reformation

Anabaptists: tended to espouse adult baptism, and therefore, re-baptism of
those baptised as infants. They also stressed personal discipleship to Christ, and the
recovery of the ideal church of Acts 2; a Church which was separate from the state, and
thus uncontaminated by the world.

Spiritualists: stressed the inner and enlightening work of the Spirit, who not
only worked in revealing spiritual truths in the time of the bible writers, but also
today.

The reformation inherited the medieval idea of "Christendom", that under God there was
a united entity of Church and State called "Christendom". What Luther did in his
revolutionary critique of monarchial-papalism was not to break up the unity, but
redefine it. In the Christendom idea, Church and State were separate and distinct units,
but nevertheless they were unified under God. Luther called them God's right and left
hands. Swiss city fathers saw appropriate supervision of the morals of religion of their
citizens as part of their duty to God, and utterly necessary to the well-being of the
city-state.

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John Calvin and International Calvinism

Geneva: first stage, 1536-38

As part of their reforms, Farel and Calvin proposed a disciplinary system which would
not only control the quality of the ministers who were in charge of the various churches
in and around Geneva, but also discipline the townsfolk as well in matters of morals and
beliefs.

However, there was to be a falling out with the Reformation by the city Council, who
wanted to continue to assert their newly found ultimate control over religion.

Farel and Calvin insisted that the Church Council, consisting of elected lay people, and
ministers would have the final say in the matter of excommunication. The Town Council
said that it as the highest authority in the city should have the final say over who was
to be excommunicated. Neither would give way to the other

Geneva: Second Stage. 1541-64

Calvin returned on the condition that Ecclesiastical Ordinances be drafted that defined
the relative roles of the Church and he Council in the religious care of the citizens.
Although general agreement existed between the two parties over things like preaching,
education, and the training of ministers, the divisive point was still the excommunication
of notorious, unrepentant sinners.

Calvin's Theological Initiatives.

1. Theological Method

Calvin summed up the theological method of the medieval theologians as one which tried
through philosophy to answer the basic question, 'What is God?' The method truer to the
bible, said Calvin, was "not to ask 'what is God?' but to ask 'how is God towards us?'.

For Luther, knowledge of what God was really like in heaven was essentially hidden, and
inaccessible. Calvin more boldly asserted that what we had in a true biblical theology
was a real knowledge of God, which needed no qualification as to its final reliability.

2. Writing Bible Commentaries

Calvin states that a true understanding of the total meaning of a book us reached by "a
continuous commentary' or exposition of the language. He will strive for a "clear
brevity", letting the text speak for itself by showing what the grammar and the sentence
structure of the original Greek mean. Understand hoe the writer uses language and
literary style, and you will understand his thoughts, and thus the mind of God.

International Calvinism

· Four things contributed to the international portability of Calvinism.

(i) The sheer power and clarity of Calvin's teaching gained him a reputation which
attracted many Protestant scholars from all over Europe.

(ii) In the form of the Institutes, the aspiring pastor held in one hand both a
comprehensive and readily understandable statement of what the Christian faith meant,
and in the chapters on the Church, a practical programme on how to implement it.

(iii) The church organisation he perfected in Geneva with its lay base and central
teaching pastorate was simple enough to be readily reproducible at the level of region,
city, village, or, under persecution, even underground as "house churches."

(iv) Its lay base appealed to many of the lower nobility and middle classes of France,
Scotland and Eastern Europe, who to varying extents exercised local political
leadership, sometimes without the approval or support of the central monarchy.

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The Papal Reformation

The success of the papal inquisition in Italy, and the continuing state-run
inquisition in Spain meant that Protestantism never has a chance to flourish, or even
survive. Further, the most powerful Catholic or the Catholic rulers, Phillip II of Spain,
identified heresy with treason, and proved ruthless and successful persecutor of the
Protestant Faith.
Several background factors contributed to these serious revers after 1562. On
the one hand Protestants became less sure of themselves as they started to feel the weight
of their political losses. Moreover, there was somewhat a loss of religious morale among
the continental Protestants, who had begun their work expecting that the Word once
preached would usher in a golden century.

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The Monarchical Reformation in England

England is one do the first major European countries where the Protestant revolution in
religion came because of a decision for it by its king, and so we have called it the
monarchical reformation.
Henry VIII's reformation was initially a constitutional revolution to bring
about a change in the relationship between the Church and the State; a change which had in
many ways already occurred in Catholic Spain and France in the previous century - before
the radical religious ideas of Martin Luther existed.

· Two influential men in Henry's court were:-
(i) Thomas Cromwell became one of Henry's chief political advisers after 1529
(ii) Thomas Crammer became the King's archbishop in 1532

· It is best to view the English reformation as a conglomeration of three main movements:

(i) The official reformation:- begun under Henry VIII and continued under Elizabeth I,
which broke with Rome and erected the royal supremacy in the Church, for mainly political
reasons.

(ii) The theological reformation:- the process by which the main religious ideas which
marked English Protestantism were worked out among those who become its patrons and
missionaries.

(iii) The popular reformation- which commenced when people began to assume a Protestant,
as opposed to a merely antipapal, attitude.

As an overview it can be said that the official reformation did not look beyond the
maintenance of the royal supremacy in the Church and liturgical uniformity. The
theological and popular reformation proceeded largely under the umbrella of unofficial,
or at best, semi-official patronage. Political, intellectual and social forces, meant
that these two movements lay largely beyond the control of the English crown, in spite
of its fervent wishes to the contrary.

Henry VIII asked for his with Catherine of Aragon to be annulled, but the Pope was at
this time the captive of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, and Catherine of Aragon,
was Charle's aunt. In 1529 the embattled Pope effectively said "no".

Three major acts of Parliament established the Crown as the Head of the Church of
England, and guaranteed a stable succession. There was the act of Supremacy itself in
1532, and then the Treason Act and the Act of Succession of 1534.

The Church of England, thus defined, was still part of the Catholic Church, except
now it was thought to be under its rightful head the King, and not the Pope.

· How did royal supremacy work out in practice?

First, a series of parliamentary acts and administrative moves from 1536 to 1540, the
monasteries of England were dissolved, and their assets largely forfeited to the Crown.
Secondly, royal supremacy showed itself in various religious reforms

· Thomas Cromwell

Cromwell was undoubtedly Lutheran in his religious beliefs, but tailored public
affirmations of his faith to suit the occasion, especially as full-blown Lutherism was
still punishable by death.
Cromwell not only drafted much of the relevant legislation and skilfully
guided it through Parliament, he also initiated some of its key ideas, was responsible
for their wider discussion, and would sometimes act independently of Henry

Religious Change

The Lollards, at least, were anticlerical, and had been so for more than 150 years.
Especially in London, the middle classes, and notably the lawyers who had to compete
with Church courts, were anticlerical, and often stridently so.
Evidence of popular religious belief from the parishes of rural England does
not show much discontent. In fact, cases of anticlerical behaviour by laymen and
women really only start to surface after the official and theological reformations.
At his level it has to said that the Reformation did not come as a result of
anticlericalism, but was its cause.
On a wider front, the reformation came to England by official means, imposed
on the broad mass of people for firstly, political reasons, and then, religious ones.

Thomas Cranmer

His greatest achievement was in the area of liturgy. Here he was able to
take the great doctrines of the Reformation and translate them into a liturgy which
was both thoroughly biblical and relevant to the English Church.
He was largely responsible for the first English Litany (1544), the first
English Prayer book (1549) and the Second Prayer book (1552). He also published a
Book of Homilies.

What is clear is that, as Archbishop, he fostered not only the demise of
papal rule in England, but also pursued such Church reforms as the circumstance
allowed.

Assessment

The official reformation was primarily concerned with restating the
relationship between the Church and the State in the form of royal supremacy. The
second reformation, surfacing from time to time primarily to support royal
supremacy, and to sweep away certain superstitions and unnecessary restrictions
on Bible reading without challenging the major medieval doctrines of salvation,
went on in semi-secrecy under Cranmer and Cromwell. The popular reformation,
continued as it had begun soon after the writings of Luther became available in
1520, in a small way amongst London middle class lawyers, merchants, and members
of Parliament.
All three reformations continued to take shape under Edward, but only the
third only took high visibility towards the end of the century, and into the next.

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Liturgical Reformation and Marian Counter-reformation

By the time of Edward VI's death in 1553, England was by decree and legislation
a Protestant county. The centre pieces of this success were the Act of Uniformity
and the accompanying Book of Common Prayer which, literally overnight swept away
the old religion and replaced it with the new.

In 1547, a book of Homilies was produced for compulsory reading in services by
the major number of parish priests who did not have a preaching licence. These
Homilies, or sermons, clearly explained basic Protestant doctrines like Bible
alone, faith alone, Christ alone.
But the major reform, which introduced the Protestant Prayer Book, was
the Act of Uniformity passed by Parliament in Jan 1549. It imposed throughout
England the exclusive use of the first ever, Book of Common Prayer. Where as
the original plainly denied transubstantiation and abolished the Mass, the end
product was at key points ambiguous so as to keep the more Catholic on side.
The Preface elucidates five aims of the compliers

(i) The whole bible should be read over once in the year
(ii) Such language spoken to the people as thy might understand
(iii) Psalms, previously much neglected, were to be read through once month
(iv) The number and hardness of the rules
(v) All the whole realm shall have but one use

Two things are worth noting here, First the Act was passed by
Parliament with an overwhelming majority. Secondly, for all the draconian
appearance of the penalties it contained, the Act was not rigidly enforced.
Most conservative priests used the new Book, but spirited debate, and
opposition, continued. Such opposition had to be met by force of arms, and a
further Act of Uniformity which brought in a second Prayer Book.

The first thing which marked the 1548 Prayer Book as revolutionary in English
religious practice was its concern and skill in expressing both the content
and theology of the Bible. The underlying and major theological theme is that
of the New Testament, justification by faith alone. How Christians behaved
towards others was no longer a way of scoring merits with God, and needing the
blessing of a priest, but as the reflex response of gratitude due to such a
great and merciful God.
The second thing by which the Book marked a complete change from the
old religion was its service of Holy Communion.
Transubstantiation, the teaching about the bodily presence of Christ was
repudiated. But this denial was not quite clearly enough expressed, partly
due to Cranmer having chosen to revise the older service instead of starting
more afresh, and partly due to the compromise it suffered as it went through
Parliament in December.

1552 Prayer Book

The 1548 Prayer Book proved a failure.

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