Church History Final

Question 1

How did Pope Innocent and other great popes of the later 12th and 13th centuries view their offices?

Answer 1

They saw their office as a mediator between God and man, who “Shall judge all and be judged by no one.”

Question 2

“The crusaders were fully aware of the spiritual rewards promised to them.” What was the primary spiritual reward?

Answer 2

Full forgiveness of their past sins.

Question 3

What were the three “primary purposes of the crusades”?

Answer 3

1. Win the Holy Land
2. Check the advance of Islam
3. Heal schism between the Eastern and Western Churches

Question 4

Thomas Aquinas’ conviction of the divine sanction of the papacy led him to insist what?

Answer 4

He insisted that submission to the pope was necessary for salvation.

Question 5

What did Aquinas teach to support the practice of indulgences that had gained prominence during the crusades? I.e. how did he logically justify indulgences?

Answer 5

Thanks to the work of Christ and the meritorious deeds of the saints, the church has access to a “treasury of merit” – a great spiritual reservoir. Priests may draw from this to aid Christians who have insufficient merit of their own.

Question 6

What did the Waldenses have in common with other reformation movements? What made the Waldenses different from other reformation movements?

Answer 6

1. Both were evangelical “back-to-the-Bible” movements
2. But the Waldenses emphasized the ascetic life as a means of salvation and the reformers emphasized the grace of God as a means of salvation.

Question 7

What three weapons did the Catholic Church have at its disposal against “heretics”?

Answer 7

1. Preaching to return them to the truth
2. A crusade to crush all hardened resistance
3. The inquisition to uproot heresy completely

Question 8

What was Dominic’s strategy for reaching the Albigenses?

Answer 8

The papally assigned preachers were depending upon their ecclesiastical pomp and dignity which the Albigenses considered such a show a sure sign of false religion. He believed that the heretics would listen if the preachers themselves were committed to poverty. To win the heretics, Dominic went forth among them as a poor man, barefoot and begging.

Question 9

The Inquisitors were subject to no law, only ________. In 1252, they were even given the right to _________ as a means of getting information and confessions from accused heretics.

Answer 9

The Pope; Torture

Question 10

What was the Babylonian Captivity of the papacy?

Answer 10

This is the removal of the papacy to Avignon after Philip’s attack on pope Boniface in the fourteenth century.

Question 11

What is the Great Papal Schism?

Answer 11

Two Popes. Urban ruling from Rome and Clement from Avignon, each having their own College of Cardinals, ensuring the papal succession of their own choice. Each pope claimed to be the true Vicar of Christ, with the power to excommunicate those who did not acknowledge him.

Question 12

When and how did the Great Papal Schism come to an end?

Answer 12

1. 1417
2. The council of Constance chose a new Vicar of Christ, Martin V; for all practical purposes, the council in Constance ended the Great Schism.

Question 13

By what standard did Wyclif judge the Roman Church?

Answer 13

Scripture

Question 14

What traditional doctrine did Wyclif attack that resulted in him losing much support?

Answer 14

Transubstantiation

Question 15

What was the “Council of Constance”? What did John Hus believe it would be? What did it actually turn out to be?

Answer 15

A council that decided the fate of Hus. He had hopes of presenting his views to the assembled authorities, but upon his arrival, he found himself instead a victim of the Inquisition.

Question 16

What verse lead to Martin Luther’s “revelation”?

Answer 16

Romans 1:17

Question 17

What was Luther’s opinion on indulgences?

Answer 17

He argued that indulgences cannot remove guilt, do not apply to purgatory, and are harmful because they induce a false sense of security in the donor.

Question 18

How did Luther answer the four basic Catholic concerns?

Answer 18

1. Salvation – not by works but by faith alone.
2. Religious authority – not in the visible institution called the Roman church but in the Word of God found in the Bible.
3. Church – The whole community of Christian believers (since all are priests before God).
4. Christian living – serving God in any useful calling, whether ordained or lay.

Question 19

Anabaptists preferred “Baptists” as a designation.But to most, baptism wasn’t the most fundamental issue. What was?

Answer 19

The nature of the church and its relations to civil governements.

Question 20

What was the decision of the Zurich council on March 7th, 1526?

Answer 20

Anyone found rebaptizing would be put to death by drowning.

Question 21

What was the Munster rebellion and how did it affect Europeans’ view of Anabaptists?

Answer 21

1. The Munster rebellion started when the Bishop of the region massed troops to besiege the city and the Anabaptists uncharacteristically defended themselves by arms. As the siege progressed, the more extreme leaders gained control of the city. Jan of Leiden seized the powers of the government and ruled as an absolute despot. Claiming new revelations from God, Jan introduced the Old Testament practice of polygamy and by September took the title “King David,” who lived in splendor, yet by a strange cunning, he maintained morale in the city spite of widespread hunger. In June 24th, 1535, the bishop’s army broke in and the city fell.
2. For centuries thereafter, Europeans upon hearing “Anabaptist” thought of the Munster rebellion. It stood for wild-eyed, religious fanaticism.

Question 22

When the Anabaptist movement was finally able to unite and decide on its beliefs, what were the four major beliefs it adhered to?

Answer 22

1. The walk with God is characterized by discipleship and personal experience.
2. There was a strong love ethic toward God and neighbor.
3. They had a congregational view of Church authority.
4. They insisted on complete separation of Church and state.

Question 23

What was Calvin’s central doctrine?

Answer 23

The sovereignty of God’s will.

Question 24

How did the Act of Supremacy affect the relationship between Henry VIII and the pope? How did Henry’s doctrine change?

Answer 24

1. This document called for a breach with Rome. The national church in England had become the CHurhc of England with the King as its head.
2. The doctrine of the Catholic Church was modified, but it was not altered radically.

Question 25

What theological shift occurred when Henry’s only son, Edward, became king? Why?

Answer 25

1. The official English policy to shift in a Protestant direction.
2. Edward was only 10, so his royal power was held by a group of advisors who were in sympathy with the Protestant movement.

Question 26

Why did the swing to Protestantism come to a sudden halt?

Answer 26

When Edward died in 1553 and Mary, the daughter of Cathrine ascended the throne. She was devoutly Catholic and tried to lead England back to the ways of Rome. In four short years, she sent nearly 300 Protestants including Archbishop Cranmer, to the burning stake. John Foxe, succeeded in giving her the name “Bloody Mary.”

Question 27

What was Queen Elizabeth’s successful strategy for achieving religious peace?

Answer 27

In accepting the Bible as the final authority, and in recognizing only Baptism and the Holy Eucharist as Christ-instituted sacraments, Elizabeth’s Thirty-Nine Articles were essentially Protestant, but many articles were worded in a way that would satisfy both Catholics and Protestants. The liturgy of the Church retained many Catholic elements and bishops in apostolic succession governed the Church. In time, English churchmen spoke of this compromise as the best of both worlds.

Question 28

What is the marked difference between the 16th Century and the 17th Century?

Answer 28

The acceptance of religious differences.

Question 29

What war is considered the transition from the “Age of Reformation” to the “Age of Reason”?

Answer 29

The Thirty Years War

Question 30

What was the outcome of the Thirty Years War?

Answer 30

Neither the Catholics nor the Protestants could defeat the other and as the tension cooled, men began to question the territorial idea. Denominationalism was an alternative.

Question 31

What are the two aims of Pietists?

Answer 31

1. They stressed the importance of personal faith.
2. They wanted to shift eh center of the Christian life from the state churches, in which a person was born and brought up, to intimate fellowship of those who had a living faith in God.

Question 32

What are some of the contributions Pietism made to Christianity worldwide?

Answer 32

1. They shifted emphasis from avid controversy to the care of souls.
2. It made preaching and pastoral visitation central concerns of the Protestant ministry.
3. It enriched Christian music enormously.
4. It underscored the importance of a spiritual laity for a revived church.

Question 33

What was Pietism’s dominant theme?

Answer 33

Regeneration

Question 34

What three regions were significantly changed by the Evangelical Awakening and how was each impacted?

Answer 34

1. Germany – Pietism
2. British Isles – Methodists
3. American colonies – The Great Awakening

Question 35

What was the purpose of John Wesley’s “Holy Clubs,” and what did they do?

Answer 35

1. The Holy Clubs searched to make their lives conform to the lives of the early church fathers.
2. They met for self-examination and helped the poor and sick.

Question 36

Whose beliefs did Wesley carry from the Awakening [sic. Reformation] into his own time and what was this belief?

Answer 36

1. Arminius

2. Arminianism: God wishes all men, not just the elect, to be saved.

Question 37

Give the name and brief description of Jonathan Edward’s most famous sermon?

Answer 37

1. Sinners n the Hands of an Angry God
2. Using the analogy of holding a spider over the flame of a candle he speculated on what it would feel like to exist in burning agony throughout all eternity. He told people the ground beneath their feet were like rotten floorboards over a blazing pit, ready to give way at any second.

Question 38

The Prophecy of Hus.

Answer 38

As he was burned alive, he says “You are going to burn this goose, but you will soon have a swan in your hands that can neither roast nor boil.” Luther’s family symbol was a swan. Exactly 100 years later, he was assigned to read Romans…and was regenerated through the Gospel.

Question 39

The Date of Luther’s nailing the 95 Theses

Answer 39

October 31, 1517 — Martin nails 95 theses to the church door on why indulgences suck.

Question 40

Schleitheim Confession (1527)

Answer 40

1. Believer’s Baptism (Only believers can be baptized.)
2. Pure Church (Church Discipline)
3. Communion exclusive to believers
4. Separation from worldliness (i.e. separation of Church and state)
5. Good Reputation of Pastors
6. Pacifism
7. No Oaths