‘Reformation, Confessionalisation and the Problem of Obedience’ (week 7)

Question 1

What is meant by papal notoriety?

Answer 1

The Pope/papacy being famous and well-known for being bad bascially

Question 2

What were people critical of?

Answer 2

weren’t critical of the theology but rather the personnel of the Church

Question 3

Who were two of the worst non paragons of the Christian virtue?

Answer 3

Pope Alexander VI (reigned 1492-1503)
Pope Julius II (reigned 1503-1513)

Question 4

why was was Pope Alexander ‘bad’?

Answer 4

Gained the papacy through bribery, clear example of nepotism as well

Had many children despite his vow of celibacy as well as many mistresses

Question 5

Why was Pope Julius ‘bad’?

Answer 5

Also notorious for his aspirations - had intentions to boot the French out of the country - not a paragon of Christian empire.

Erasmus ridiculed this Pope - standing outside gates of heaven

Question 6

What did Popes claim jurisdiction over?

Answer 6

they claimed to have spiritual and secular jurisdiction.

Christie delegation of authority - passages in the Bible.

Popes claimed jurisdiction over emperors and kings

Question 7

Wycliffite Heresy in England- what is this?

Answer 7

two heretical periods

Question 8

Who was John Wycliffite

Answer 8

an Oxford Theologian whose ideas were declared as heretical in 1377

Question 9

what did he emphasise in his work?

Answer 9

a vernacular Bible. in 1380 - the first version of the Wycliffite Bible

Question 10

whose views did he anticipate in his work?

Answer 10

In his works he anticipated the views of Martin Luther and the Protestant during his times.what

Question 11

what was his perspective of the Church?

Answer 11

Was deeply anticlerical - thought Church as an institution was corrupt

Question 12

what was he perspective of free will?

Answer 12

He strongly believed in predestination - God knows who is going to hell and heaven; damned and elect

Question 13

What did he conclude as a result about the role of the pope?

Answer 13

human beings don’t know who is being chosen by God we therefore cannot conclude that the Pope is one of the elect

Question 14

What did this lead to

Answer 14

uncertainty - what authority do the church have then.

Question 15

Who does he try to empower?

Answer 15

the laity - the Bible should be accessible to all should be able to ‘do’ religion themselves with access to scripture.

Question 16

What were his followers called?

Answer 16

Lollards - were interested in Luther’s ideas when they came around as well. Jan Has started spreading such ideas putting the Church into panic he was burned.

Question 17

were there any comments from within the papacy about such corruption?

Answer 17

• in late middle ages - examples of clergyman commenting that there is a problem on corrupt and unpopular clergy, rising anticlericalism, should take initiative to make changes themselves.

Question 18

Who was Martin Luther?

Answer 18

came from a humble background
father was of peasant background
mother had better connections of well educated people:
- was probably thanks to their attainments that he had a good education. included grammar school - learnt latin which was the learning language

Question 19

What happened to him in 1505?

Answer 19

he survived a thunderstorm and lived by a vow he gave so entered Augistinian monastery in Erfurt

told father he was not going to become a lawyer - drastic change of direction

Question 20

he became an ordained priest in 1507 what did he experience when delivering his first mass?

Answer 20

attack of nerves - hr feels that he was corrupt and full of sin.

this estrangement caused by sinfulness creates a distance between himself and God - this image of God was one that terrified him

Question 21

What happened when Christ was crucified?

Answer 21

he generated an infinite amount of merit - means of reconciling himself and mankind with God - enormous quantity generated.

Question 22

Who else generates merit?

Answer 22

Saints also generate merit by their virtuous lives - they need this for their personal salvation

Question 23

Where is excess merit channeled to?

Answer 23

Excess merit created by Christ and the Saints was channelled into the treasury of merit - was controlled by the Pope who can redistribute this supply of merit. The means by which he makes the transfer is an indulgence - reduces the amount of time that the soul spends in purgatory.

Question 24

What did the Church believe as inevitable when we die?

Answer 24

spend time in purgatory - we have an incentive to reduce this and to do that you should generate merit and grace to speed up the process

Question 25

What are indulgences?

Answer 25

transfers merit from the Pope to your account.

paying in advance for a mitigation of punishment that you have to endure.

Question 26

What did Luther think the problem with this was?

Answer 26

They were being conned - when they sold these indulgences they used a vague phrase ‘remission of sins’ people thought that they didn’t have to go through the sacrament of penance as a result. This was a mistake because the sacrament of penance has two components

Question 27

What are the two components of the sacrament of penance?

Answer 27

culpa - guilt of moral sin
poena - the due punishment of moral sin

Question 28

What happens when you go through the sacrament of penance?

Answer 28

deal with both of these components - indulgence doesn’t cover the blameworthiness of committing sin which is the most important part that offends God
indulgences won’t solve this
must still go to a priest to be absolved.

Question 29

What was Luther’s protest of October 31st 1517?

Answer 29

pinned up 95 posters of his protests:
e wanted to start a debate about indulgences about how they are not legitimate. The way he tries to stimulate this debate is with a set of theses:
95 Theses Against Indulgences which he put up against The Castle Church, Wittenburg, it was reprinted and spread across Germany rapidly. Started a national debate. This begins the reformation.

Question 30

what are the key ideas of his protest?

Answer 30

sola scriptura, justification by faith alone, the priesthood of all believers, the freedom of a christian

Question 31

Sola scriptura:

Answer 31

authentic basis of Christianity is the Bible - do not rest on tradition, the Roman Catholic Church did not place weight on the Bible but rather they split it equally with tradition. Luther argued that if it is not in scripture then it is not allowable.

Question 32

justification by faith alone:

Answer 32

e doing of goods work as helping with personal salvation - he objects this concept of ‘goods work’ cannot coerce God into saving you through acting like this. God is not impressed by human beings. The corruption of man and the poorliness of man - the problem is that mankind is inherently corrupt. Have to have the faith that you will be saved which will ensure salvation. Relocating goods works and doesn’t say it is an important factor in gaining salvation.

Question 33

the priesthood of all believers

Answer 33

important to have their own direct relation with God. the clergy did not have a higher level of distinctive power. He stressed that all are equal in the face of God so you can reject all of these clerical protentions. Wanted to empower ordinary Christians through prayer, studying the BIble and having their own personal relation with God rather than it being channelled through Church

Question 34

the freedom of a christian

Answer 34

cutting down ridiculous rules of Church that are pressured on people which he deems unnecessary.

Question 35

what was the structure of Germany like?

Answer 35

The complicated constitutional Germany - each of these different coloured areas of Germany show different states - some are ruled by dukes, princes or clerical figures.

Question 36

how did this benefit Luthers work?

Answer 36

This unformed structure meant that his ideas could not have a structured collective attack - no general consensus

Question 37

What does Luther think he is doing for the Church?

Answer 37

He is overall calling for reform of the Church
Pointing out mistakes he hopes the Church can fix.
Thinks he is doing the Church a favour.
Church is not interested - declared heretic in 1581 - is excommunicated

Question 38

Because the Church isn’t as easilly impressionable who did he think was an appropriate person to address?

Answer 38

If Church won’t reform itself he thinks the Prince’s, the important members of society, should reform it : expresses this in his work: To The Christian Nobility of the German Nation ([Wittenburg, 1520])
Encourages them to reform these things because the Church won’t
He legitimises the role of the secular ruler as a policeman of the Church which explains why initially he was quite positive about princely power

Question 39

Who took up these thoughts?

Answer 39

Philip I, Landgrave of HEsse (1504-1567): patron and protector of Luther and supports his ideas.

This isn’t theoretical these are things happening on the ground

Question 40

in 1521 what happened to his reputation?

Answer 40

1521: become a famous figure not in just Germany but across Europe. So he is summoned to appear at an imperial diet

Question 41

What is this?

Answer 41

This was a set piece occasion - first diet with the new emperor Charles V - man in the throne.
In Worms 1521, Luther and Charles come face to face where he is asked to renounce his heretical ideas and so he refuses, the Pope excommunicates him and he is put on an imperial ban. Luther is defiant in imperial and papal authority - does not retract his ideas.

Question 42

How does he defend his ideas?

Answer 42

Defends ideas on that they are grounded in scripture - cannot argue upon such a basis