Chapter 7 – The wheels fall off

In the past three chapters we’ve seen Christianity go wildly astray during the Middle ages – or rather, some Christians went wildly astray (there but for the Grace of God, go I). But we’ve also seen some shining examples of God working through certain individuals and groups.

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The first half of the fourteenth century was particularly bad one for the church.

• Celestine was elected Pope of Rome. Celestine was a pastoral-type, a common people’s clergyman, but he was incompetent as a political leader. He quit the job of Pope after five months. Perhaps he was just what the church needed (a servant-leader), but we’ll never know.
• Bonifice VIII replaced Celestine as Pope. Bonifice was a swing toward the other end of the spectrum from Celestine. A ruthless politician, Bonifice issued a bull titled Unam Sanctum, which declared all earthly secular kings to be under the control of the Church. Bonifice was assassinated.
• After Bonifice was assassinated, the Papacy set up seat in Avignon, France for 72 years. In Avignon, the church fell into corruption in a real, serious way. Popes and priests with mistresses (see The Canterbury Tales or The Decameron), priests selling leadership positions within the church, friars selling indulgences. This period is likened to the Hebrew Exile and Captivity by the Babylonians.
• In 1338, King Edward III of England claimed the throne of France, starting the 100-years war.
• And then there was the plague… The Black Death killed nearly 25 million people (2/3 of the European population) in three years. 800 people per day died in Paris. Plague killed 88% of the population of Constantinople.

Catherine of Sienna preached throughout the continent against the “Stench of sin” in Avignon, and begged the Pope to move back to Rome and follow God’s calling. But the Papacy was so tied up in secular politics and worldly sin that what was the result?

The Great Papal Schism! Three popes – One in Avignon, another elected by normal (corrupt) means in Rome, and a third Roman Pope elected by a church council. Popes Curly, Larry, and Moe each set about excommunicating the others’ followers and nobody could figure out where to find the true church.

But there was still a faithful remnant (perhaps more than a remnant, but it’s hard to see through all the muck.)

• John Wycliffe, an Oxford Don, claimed that the church was not built upon Popes, but upon every person called by God to faith in Jesus Christ. He claimed the proof was in the life they lived (James 2:18). Wycliffe’s followers translated portions of the Bible into English so that laypeople could understand it. He got into trouble with the church, but before they could excommunicate or kill him he died of a stroke. His message was so feared and hated that a church council later dug him up, burned his body, and scattered his ashes in a river – as if that could hurt him worse.
• Jan Hus, a Czech professor and priest, was influenced by Wycliffe and started teaching Wycliffe’s ideas. He was captured, imprisoned, and burned at the stake - with a paper dunce cap on his head – as if that could hurt him worse.
• Thomas a’Kempis wrote Imitation of Christ, a popular and influential book on mystical Christian spirituality, in response to the Scholastics like Anselm and Thomas Aquinas (remember them from pp66-67?)
• Joan of Arc, a mystic peasant girl, led the French at the Battle of Agincourt
• Constantinople fell into the hands of the Muslims and Eastern Christian scholars flooded into Western Europe bringing with them ancient Greek texts and sparking a new classicism. The Renaissance was a renewal in interest in human excellences like philosophy, rhetoric, art, and writing. People became interested anew in the scriptures.
• Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press, reducing the cost of books (and Bibles) and fanning the spark of the Renaissance.
• Desiderius Erasmus (one of Thomas a’Kempis’ followers) became a priest and humanist scholar. Erasmus called for reform in the church and he also published the first printed Greek New Testament.

The corruption that flourished in a society of ignorance and inequality would not live long in a new world of light and learning and equality. God was using the Renaissance to put an end to the conditions that began in the Dark Ages and bred such corruption during the Middle Ages.

Many of the above people were ordinary Christians who saw vital problems with the church and called God’s people to repent. What are some similar, widespread, vital problems in the modern church? Is God calling you to be the voice of repentance and reformation in our church?

How can our local visible church deal with these vital problems in the church today? (1Cor 16:14; Eph 4:14-16; 1Cor 13:4-6)

Wycliffe and Hus had packed a powder keg. Erasmus had woven a fuse. Next week, a hotheaded monk will light it!