Crumbs from the Table

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 beli...

Shortly after the western Catholic church achieved the height of its authority and influence in the 1200s, it experienced a sudden decline particularly during the 1300s.  The tumultuous 1300s saw the spread of the Plague and other natural disasters. During this time, the Papacy underwent two major crises, namely the Babylonian Captivity of the Church and the Great Western Schism. At the Council of 1215, Pope Innocent III had asserted the absolute power of the Pope, conceptualised as the Vicar of Christ on earth. However, the King of France then asserted his power and the Pope became his subordinate. The King of France even went to the lengths of relocating the Papacy from Rome to Avignon. This lasted from 1309 until 1377. However, no sooner had this crisis been overcome, than a second crisis followed on: the Great Schism of the western church which lasted from 1378 to 1417. During this second crisis, two and at times three different people claimed to be Pope, mobilising finance and...

The Protestant Reformation of the 1500s began in Germany and Switzerland, and soon spread to many countries across Europe, particularly northern Europe. The German Reformation of Luther took root in parts of Germany and the Scandinavian countries. The Swiss Reformation of Zwingli and Calvin took root in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Scotland, as well as having a minority presence in France, Poland and Hungary. (England was a special case; the Church of England was in some ways like the Lutheran churches and in other ways more like the Swiss Reformed Churches.) The Radical Reformation or Anabaptists, a third arm of the Reformation, mainly thrived in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands, and later Poland.  By the 1560s, the initial "fire" of the early years had cooled down, and over the next 100 years or so, the various iterations of Protestant Christianity solidified into new "orthodoxies" (rigid beliefs and practices).   The period from 1580 until into the 17...

Since the earliest days, the church has worked to fulfil the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. The work of mission continued throughout the centuries. The western Catholic church converted the Franks, Irish, Angles and Saxons, other continental Germanic peoples (Thuringians etc.), Norsemen, Slavs and eventually the peoples of the Baltic. The last pagans in Europe were the Lithuanians who converted in 1386. Even during the 1300s, when the Western Catholic church was in disarray, there were bold missions in Central Asia (eg Azerbaijan), India, to the Mongols and in China. A leading missionary was John of Montecorvino (d. 1328). Across the Mediterranean, brave monks risked their lives to preach the gospel to Muslims in North Africa. The Eastern Orthodox church headquartered at Constantinople likewise missionised its neighbours over many centuries, including Goths, Arabs, Persians, Bulgars, Slavs, Mongols and Lithuanians. The missionary work of the non-Chalcedonia...

Many will be familiar with the famous Monty Python sketch, in which a first century Judean crowd is asked, "What have the Romans ever done for us?" The crowd then lists off benefit after benefit of Roman rule until the speaker tells them to be quiet. If someone were to ask, "What has Christianity ever done for us?" one of the answers to that question is the Sunday school movement, the precursor to today's universal schooling.  In the mid-1700s, it was only boys from wealthy families who enjoyed education. Many were educated at home by tutors, while others were sent to grammar schools. The children of workers had no education.  The person credited with founding the Sunday School movement was a newspaper editor called Robert Raikes (1736-1811) from Gloucester (although before him, there were Sunday schools before that at High Wycombe and Nottingham). Raikes took an interest in the inmates at Gloucester Prison, and discovered many of them came from very disadvantag...

1483     Luther born 1510     Luther's trip to Rome 1513     Luther begins his work as a lecturer at Wittenberg university  1517     95 Theses 1518     Heidelberg disputation 1519     Leipzig disputation (Eck)  1520     Luther writes three key pamphlets  1521     Luther's excommunication by the Pope enters into force.                Luther stands trial before Diet of Worms               Luther whisked away to hiding place in Wartburg Castle In Luther's absence, others undertook the reform of the church locally, including radical elements such as the Zwickau prophets (Carlstadt, Zwilling and others)      1522     Luther completes translation of the New Testament into German in Wartburg Castle                 Luther returns to Wittenberg ...

The Protestant Reformation began in the German university town of Wittenberg with a young Christian academic and monk by the name of Martin Luther.  Martin Luther's journey to faith had not been easy; it can be described as "search for a merciful God". Originally training to be a lawyer, he was caught in a thunderstorm and, fearing for his life, vowed to become a monk. In due course he took the vows to become a monk, was ordained as a priest, and from 1508 worked as a lecturer in Holy Scripture at the recently founded Wittenberg university. Despite Luther's intense commitment, he felt he could never do enough and was left without assurance of God's mercy. However, as Luther taught his way through Psalms and then Romans, his search for assurance of forgiveness led him to rediscover the truth of salvation in Christ as a gift given by God and received by mere faith. This new evangelical faith was at odds with his experience of church, which offered an endless cycle o...