The Roman Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation is called the "Counter Reformation".
Even before the Protestant Reformation began in 1517, others in the Catholic church held views which had much in common with Martin Luther. Luther's spiritual mentor, Von Staupitz, had directed Luther to look to the mercy of God. While Von Staupitz never became a Protestant himself, he did remain in contact with Luther and shortly before his death in 1524 they exchanged letters. In Italy, there was a movement known as the "Evangelical Catholics" associated with the Oratory of Divine Love. It was Evangelical Catholics who compiled the 1537 report into abuses in the Roman Catholic church (Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia). A leading figure in this movement was Gasparo Contarini (d. 1542). Between 1521 and 1541 there were various attempts and meetings which sought to overcome the divisions between the two. In many cases, Evangelical Catholics shared the Reformation belief in justification as a legal declaration, and agreement was reached on this point. The difference, however, was the understanding of the church and the teaching on transsubstantiation. On these points, the two sides could not agree.
A less conciliatory line was taken by what would become the "Society of Jesus" monastic order (the "Jesuits"). The founder of this movement, Ignatius de Loyola, had been a military man who sustained an injury in battle in 1521 which ended his military career. As he recovered from his injury, he read a Christian book which changed his life outlook and led him to commit his life to the service of Christ and the Church. De Loyola developed a set of spiritual exercises, which encouraged people to visualise and imagine Biblical events and truths and trained them to be absolutely loyal to the Roman Catholic church. The Jesuit order was organised along military lines and was committed to several aims including missions work overseas and opposition to the Protestant Reformation. One means of achieving this was through school education. The wisdom was, "Give me a child before the age of 7, and I will give you the man." The central church of the Jesuit order in Rome includes an altar piece which depicts Mary casting Luther out of heaven clutching his translation of the Bible (there is a similar statue in St Peter's Basilica in Rome).
In 1545, the Church Council which Luther had called for was finally convened in Trentino in Italy. This council would sit on and off until 1563. The outcome of the Council was to completely reject the Protestant Reformation and to formulate doctrinal positions which opposed the key teachings of the Reformers. The Council of Trent affirmed that Holy Tradition, alongside Holy Scripture, was an authority in matters of faith and conduct. Justification was defined in a way that confused it with the new birth and progressive sanctification. The medieval understanding of the priesthood and of Holy Communion as a "bloodless sacrifice" were upheld. Likewise, practices such as the invocation of saints, veneration of relics, purgatory, requiem masses and indulgences were all affirmed. A leading Roman Catholic writer and thinker of the Counter-Reformation was Roberto Bellarmino who wrote various works against Protestants.
In the wake of the Council of Trent, there was a concerted effort to oppose the Protestant Reformation by various means. A leading figure was the Jesuit, Peter Canisius (d. 1597). The use of catechisms, so effective for the Reformers, was used to assert Roman Catholic teaching. Connections with those in political power, for example in Poland, were used to squeeze out Protestant Christianity. Some areas where the Reformation had previously had a large following, such as southern Bavaria in Germany, what is now Belgium, Austria and Bohemia, were brought back into the Roman Catholic fold. In France, the Huguenots were contained and gradually more and more suppressed. 1648 marks the end of 30 years of religious war in Europe.
Two figures who represent the new spirituality of the Counter-Reformation are Teresa of Avila and her disciple, John of the Cross. Both of these took a more mystical approach to the Christian life, experiencing the love of God through a subjective journey of the soul, renouncing all thoughts of self to receive God's love. This intense mystical experience was to be lived out in practical service.
Meanwhile the Eastern Orthodox church, with its headquarters at what had been Constantinople ("New Rome"), was, in some ways, oblivious to what was going in the west. The Reformers would often refer to the Eastern Church as an example of how people could be Christians without the Pope in Rome, however Protestants were mistaken to assume that the Eastern Orthodox church would sympathise with their teachings. Between 1576 and 1581, there was correspondence between Lutherans at Tubingen and Patriarch Jeremias II at Constantinople. The Lutherans seemed to have expected the Orthodox Patriarch to side with them, however the correspondence revealed that the Orthodox held much the same positions as the Roman Catholics. The following century there was an ever more interesting development. Cyril Lucaris, Patriarch of Constantinople, came to Reformed convictions and in 1629 even published a confession of faith expressing these views. However, as was often the case under Ottoman rule, his tenure did not last long and ended with his murder in 1638. The Orthodox church synod of Bethlehem in 1672 officially rejected the teaching of the Reformation.
With the demise of Constantinople in 1453, Russia took on the mantle of the centre of Orthodoxy and also the Christian Empire - the Russian "Tsar" means "Caesar" - a title assumed by the ruler of Moscow from the 1400s. Moscow was considered the "Third Rome". The Orthodox Church in Russia likewise did not have a Reformation. Nevertheless, there was a leading Greek cleric in Russia called Maxim the Greek who had been influenced by Savonarola at Florence. There was also a movement called the Non-Possessors which showed some similarities with Protestant Christianity. As the Russian state expanded westwards, it came into contact with Protestants such as pastor Jan Rokita who debated none less that Tsar Ivan the Terrible. There were Protestants of foreign origin living in Russia from the 1586 - first Lutherans, then Reformed, and much later Mennonites.
Moreover, in 1666 there was a split in the Russian church between reformers (the church hierarchy) and traditionalists (some less senior clerics and laypeople) over minor corrections in matters of church ceremony. The Old Believers (traditionalists) were not Protestant in outlook but they did take a costly stand for conscience vis-a-vis the church hierarchy and the Russian state. In the wake of the schism, the Russian state under Peter the Great moved to take control of the church, replacing the role of Patriarch of Moscow with the Holy Synod, a state-controlled church council which in many ways echoed Protestant forms of church governance. Interestingly many Old Believers eventually joined the Evangelical movement in Russia in the 1800s.
Comments
Post a Comment