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Chapter Twelve |
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The Catholic Renewal |
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| I. | Introduction--In 1517 A.D. Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Church and it took the Catholic Church until 1545 A.D.--28 years to even begin to make a response to those injustices propagated by the Church that Luther was condemning them about. The Council of Trent was called together in 1545 A.D. and was to last for eighteen years with many interruptions and the results of the Council were put into effect very slowly. | ||
| A. | Catholic Reform in the Sixteenth Century | ||
| 1. | Reform by church members themselves--if the reformers who left the church called for reform outside of the church, so did members of the church call for reform at the grass roots level. Franciscan piety gave birth to a new religious order of Capuchins in 1526 A.D. The Oratory of Divine Love, a brotherhood of laymen and priests spread throughout Italy where the members prayed together, looked after the poor and sick. One bishop in particular in Italy remained in his own diocese for fifteen years working to reform it, insisting on dignity at worship, training his priests and demanding that they live in residency. | ||
| 2. | Regular Clergy--in 1524 A.D. a priest started the order of Theatines, who combined everyday apostolate with a routine religious life. What evolved from this group was a new order of priests founded by the Spanish priest Ignatius of Loyola. In 1540 A.D. his order became known as the Society of Jesus. They took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and added a fourth vow of obedience to the pope in their rule. They taught in schools, founded colleges and worked in spiritual and foreign missions. | ||
| B. |
The Council of Trent--bishops and laypeople called the church to call a Council, but the popes were reluctant to do so since Europe was in a continuous war zone. The French king was fighting with the Germanic King etc... The popes: Adrian VI, a Dutchman, recognized the faults of the church, but did nothing; his successor Clement VII allied himself with the French King and the Germanic forces sacked Rome as a result; Paul III had a dubious past and didn't want attention called to himself, but he at least began the ball rolling for the convening of a Council, but the attitude was one of defensiveness. This pope reorganized the Inquisition under the name of the Holy Office (now called the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith) to begin attacking the heretics on a large scale and finally the Council convened on December 13,1545. |
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| See Handout #157 | |||
| See Handout #158 | |||
| 1. | The proceedings of the Council--out of 500 bishops only 34 showed up for the opening of the council. Trent, a city in Northern Italy settled in the Alps was demanded by Charles V, king of France. For the next eighteen years the numbers grew to 237, but the bishops were mostly from the Mediterranean countries with Italians making up the majority throughout it. The French didn't show up until the very end. The Germans never came and the council looked nothing like we envisioned at the Vatican II Council on television of the 60's. This council of ambassadors and princes threw parties, argued over some mute points, spread rumors of epidemics and wars and generally spread panic in the streets. The council was presided over by papal legates that had no authority to make decisions without consulting the pope. Several attempts were made to bring the council together; 1545-1547 A.D. in Trent; then 1551-1552 A.D. where nothing happened in Bologna, Italy. Then Pope Paul IV reconvened the council in 1555-1559 A.D. He was tough and decided to reform the church without the council's help. He inspired the Inquisition to step up their efforts at burning heretics at the stake. He silenced those who would be conciliatory to the Protestants. He forbade Catholics to read the Bible. Pope Pius IV reconvened the Council in 1562-1563 A.D. and the Cardinal of Lorraine, France brought the council to a close. | ||
| See Handout #159 | |||
| 2. | The decisions of the Council--no council had ever achieved so much. It defined a large number of points of dogma which had never really been d defined in the past and demanded reforms in all the areas of pastoral concern. Many texts dealt with the justification and collaboration of God with humanity in salvation. Other texts were direct attacks on the Protestants and certain practices were condemned just because the Protestants were doing them; i.e., liturgy in the vernacular. One of the far most reaching decisions made was to have seminaries built and priests well trained to be ministers of God. | ||
| See Handout #160 | |||
| 3. | How the popes applied the decisions of the Council--the council left the pope to carry out the decisions. Pope Pius IV published the decrees and drew up the rules for their implementation. Pope Pius V, an inquisitor pope, also a canonized pope, aimed his attacks on heretics and the Turks. He published the Roman Catechism ( a guide for priests to help them preach and teach catechism to children) and the Roman Breviary and the Roman Missal. He imposed a uniform text for the Mass and suppressed all liturgies in use less than two centuries old. Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1593 A.D.) reformed the calendar omitting eleven days in 1582 A.D., October 4-15, so that the seasons could get back to their rightful dates. He founded a number of universities and seminaries and introduced Nuncio's to work alongside kings and princes. Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590 A.D.) setup a central government of the church and formed the Roman Congregations, ministries to help the pope govern the church and papal states made up of Cardinals. Finally in 1614 A.D. Pope Paul V published the Roman Ritual: texts and rules to follow when celebrating the sacraments. Rome smartened up and took its place at the head of the Roman Catholic World. The 'holy years' of 1575 A.D. and 1600 A.D. proved to be a great success. | ||
| C. | Catholic Reform and the Counter-Reformation--the Council became absorbed into church life thanks to a certain number of people who devoted all their energies to it. It became a question of suppressing abuses, teaching Christians and training the clergy. At the same time there was a desire to wage wars against the Protestant Reformation and to regain lost ground, often times by force. | ||
| 1. | Peter Canisius and Charles Borromeo--Peter was a Dutch Jesuit who traveled throughout Europe and especially in the Germanic states preaching Catholic reform. He was an advisor to princes and bishops preaching pride in religious education, founding colleges and writing catechisms of the church. Charles Borromeo was a bishop leading a very austere lifestyle. He called provincial councils and diocesan synods, founding colleges and seminaries in his diocese. | ||
| See Handout #161 | |||
| 2. | The flowering of spirituality and the rise of the religious orders--with the Inquisition in full swing again during this time there emerged Teresa Avila(1515-1582 A.D.) leading many into the mystical life. She reformed the Carmelite Order with the help of St. John of the Cross. In Rome, Philip Neri (1515-1585 A.D.) brought together priests and laymen who prayed together, sang and wrote commentaries on the Scriptures, studied Church history, caring for the sick and travelers. The Jesuit Order surpassed 10,000 men by 1600 A.D. and 15,000 within fifty years later. | ||
| See Handout #162 | |||
| See Handout #163 | |||
| 3. | The birth of modern Catholicism--The Council of Trent gave the church the make up it held onto until the Second Vatican Council five hundred years later. "Catholic" became known as a particular group of Christians distinct from Protestants and Orthodox. | ||
| II. | The Religious Flowering of the Seventeenth Century | ||
| A. | Religion and Politics--this is a period of absolutism in both the Catholic and Protestant camps. Religion had to serve political interests and did not even flinch even in the face of obvious contradictions. In France the Catholic princes allied themselves with the Protestant princes to fight the Turks and the king of Spain, who was a champion of Catholicism, yet within their own territory France treated Protestants very badly. | ||
| 1. | The Thirty Years War (1618-1648 A.D.)--it was a fight between the Bohemian Protestants and the Germanic emperor Ferdinand II. Ferdinand tried to re-establish Catholicism back into his empire and the war ensued. The conflict spread throughout Europe and Protestants and Catholics were at each other's throats. | ||
| 2. | Glimmers of tolerance and timid ecumenism--in the midst all of this fighting there were a few souls attempting to bring some conciliation between Catholics and Lutherans. They were small ripples in the midst of a tempest. | ||
| 3. | The Political and religious problems of the Orthodox churches--because the orthodox were spread out over Poland, Russian ,Turkey and Asia their attempts to remain unified were stifled and many schisms, heretical teachings of Patriarchs, and the combination of Calvinism and Orthodoxy came together in Constantinople which eventually led to a major division of the Greek and Russian Orthodox church to this day. | ||
| 4. | The Turkish Threat--The Turks invaded the Greek islands and threatened southern Poland and Austrian states. Pope Innocent XI in (1676-1689 A.D.) financed an alliance of other countries to fight against the Turks and forced them back and thus Europe expressed a great sigh of relief. | ||
| B. | New Bishops and new priests--in France the reforms were put into place and bishops and priests would be taught how to teach the Christian people the reforms. | ||
| 1. | Francois De Sales(1576-1622 A.D.)--was the bishop of Geneva, had a great influence on the spirituality of lay people, priests and religious through his writings of the Introduction to a Devout Life and Treatise on the Love of God. It is characterized by an optimistic humanism and a simple and evangelical style of preaching. | ||
| 2. | The 'French school' of spirituality--Pierre de Berulle(1575-1629 A.D.) and Madame Acarie introduced Carmelite piety into France. Aware of the grandeur of priesthood he founded the Oratory(1611 A.D.) to pay homage to the priesthood of Jesus Christ and restore the state of priesthood. As secular priests they put themselves in the service of bishops. John Eudes(I601-1680 A.D.) founded a congregation and developed the cult of the heart of Jesus. Jean-Jacques Olier (1608-1657 A.D.) founded the Society of Jesus of Saint Sulpice that trained priests. Vincent de Paul founded the congregation of Lazarists to evangelize the countryside, to serve the poor and help found the congregation of the Daughters of Charity in 1633 A.D. | ||
| See Handout #164 | |||
| 3. | The founding of seminaries--much attention was given to the training of priests. There was stiff no single condition for admission to the priesthood. Some bishops took men into their residences and literally gave them on the job training on how to clean the church and celebrate liturgy with some dignity. Gradually seminaries came into being by the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. These seminaries trained priests in the style that is still used today; i.e., a man set apart from the world by dress and way of life, who celebrates mass every day, says his breviary and conducts his pastoral duties without hindrances. | ||
| See Handout #165 | |||
| C. | The Transformation of Christians--as priests became more intellectually trained so did the laity and there was a call for the church to rid itself of a superstitious mentality. Sacraments were often viewed as having some mystical quality about them that bordered more on magic than on the grace of God. The belief that Satan physically roamed the world in search of lost souls was still prevalent even to the point that a convent of Ursuline nuns, possessed by the devil, accused their confessor priest of bewitching them and had him burned at the stake. Slowly the thought of Satan lurking around every comer began to wane. Most of the focus was placed on practicing the creed of the church, practicing Christian morality, dividing the clergy from the laity, having proper liturgy and putting it into regular use became the focus of the church. | ||
| 1. | The means used--religious and political authorities took measures against superstitious and folklore celebrations by banning them and forbidding clergy to participate in them. Priests tried to put emphasis on the need to baptize babies within three days of birth. Getting children confirmed by the bishop once a year, take Easter communion, and coming to Mass on Sunday became increasingly obligatory, but while at mass the laity did pretty much what they felt like doing; i.e., praying private devotions, saying the rosary etc... The priest only spoke in the vernacular when addressing the congregation directly during the sermon, announcements and notices. Eucharistic devotion was placed more on adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Holy Day processions than on taking communion at Mass. | ||
| 2. | Catechisms and schools--Christians had to be taught from their childhood and it was the duty of the priest to do it. Catechisms existed in every diocese by this time, but Sunday only instructions proved to be inefficient. This led the way to establishing free schools within the parish structures. This education went far in the way children were educated in the faith, but taught them little in the way of social responsibility. | ||
| III. | Internal Conflicts and Crises--The Council of Trent did not solve all of the problems of the Church presented by theologians concerning doctrine and dogma and the written Word of Scripture. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine was one of the first theologians to tackle this problem. | ||
| A. | The first clash between science and biblican tradition | ||
| See Handout #166 | |||
| 1. | The Copernican revolution--Bellarmine intervened in two important cases that haunted the minds of Counter-Reformation thinkers; i.e., (1) the condemnations of Giordano Bruno and Galileo. Bruno took up the cause of Coperincus who wrote a work dedicated to the pope in 1543 A.D. that said "it is not the sun which revolves around the earth, but the earth that revolves around the sun". Bruno said the same thing as Copernicus and church theologians said such a statement went against scripture; i.e., Ecclesiastes 1:4 and Joshua 10: 12-13. Bruno, a religious, was accused of giving up his vows of obedience and was burned at the stake. Next Galileo basically said the same thing in 1616 A.D., placed under house arrest, condemned by the church, died there. This was the beginning of a misunderstanding between church and science which was only to increase. | ||
| 2. | The beginnings of critical exegesis--the French Oratorian Richard Simon is the father of biblical criticism. For the first time in 1689 A.D. he raised the problem of the nature of inspiration. He compared the versions of the Bible with various ancient languages and demonstrated the impossibility of seeing Moses as the sole author of the Pentateuch. He was expelled from his order and condemned to disgrace. | ||
| 3. | The sources of theology--in an attempt to reply to certain malicious historical accounts by Protestants, Catholic scholars did a good deal of work in the scientific presentation of the sources of theology. Belgian Jesuit John van Bolland published a systematic review of the lives of the saints. The Benedictines published numerous editions of the fathers and sources of French history. | ||
| B. | Jansenism | ||
| See Handout #167 | |||
| 1. | Freedom and grace--the origins of Jansenism appeared as a theological debate during the Reformation; i.e., what are the respective places of grace and freedom in the salvation of humankind? A powerful tradition from the Augustinian emphasized grace and predestination at the expense of human freedom. This was condemned by the church. Molina, a Jesuit, struggled to safeguard the place of freedom by putting forward the idea of grace sufficient to bring about a state of human freedom. | ||
| See Handout #168 | |||
| 2. | Jansenius--a bishop in Belgium, concerned himself with church renewal by a return to the church fathers, leaning heavily on St. Augustine. He died after writing his work Augustinus, which he proposed a deep pessimism in respect to human nature condemned by original sin. | ||
| 3. | The first crisis--after Jansenius' death others took up his theology and in 1653 they proposed five propositions. They became known as Jansenists and believed that the radical corruption of human nature resulting in sexual unruliness, passions out of control, all imaginable physical and psychic ills, ignorance and finally death. The Jesuits countered Jansenism with the view the human nature was inherently good and that it was through sin that humankind would fall. | ||
| 4. | The second crisis--Jansenism raised it's ugly head again at the end of the seventeenth century. The church continues to condemn Jansenism to this day as heresy. | ||
| C. | The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes--Louis XIV wanted to restore religious unity to France with the principle ' one God, one king, one law, one faith'. He wanted to restore the revenue of the bishoprics and abbeys that had been left vacant with the Reformation revolution. He set up "conversion" stations and required all in his kingdom to come and convert back to Catholicism. Believing that he had accomplished total conversion of his kingdom back to Catholicism he later revoked the edict. He lived under an illusion since all the Edict did was drive the Protestants either out of the kingdom or underground. | ||
| See Handout #169 | |||
| See Handout #170 | |||
| D. | Quietism, or the calling into question of mysticism--although mysticism had always had an important place in Christian tradition, it has often been met with suspicion. It has been accused of undervaluing the incarnation and the humanity of Christ and veering towards pantheism (God is everything and everything is God). | ||
| See Handout #171 | |||
| See Handout #172 | |||
| 1. | Abandonment, or pure love--Spanish priest, Miguel de Molinos published a work called The Spiritual Guide outlining his mysticism of abandonment and acquired contemplation. He played down the role of good works and asceticism. He was condemned by the church for Quietism which means repose. It is the belief that all interior paths lead towards pure and disinterested love. This pure love is the highest degree of Christian perfection. It is the end of all the roads which the saints know. This is heresy because it removes one from the world, from doing good works, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, to love one another. It is too self-centered. Read Marsha Sinetar's book "Of monk, mystics and ordinary people". It's a good example of what Quietism really is all about. | ||
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Handouts |
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| 157 | Spiritual Exercises (The Jesuits) St. Ignatius Loyola. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 158 | Fundamental rule of the Jesuits (1540 A.D.) | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 159 | A ball at the Council. The Holy Fathers celebrate instead of work. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 160 | Definitions and decisions of the Council of Trent. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 161 | How to fight heresy. St.Ignatius gives advice on how to fight heresy of Protestants. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 162 | Teresa of Avila (1515-1582 A.D.). Explains her vision of Christ. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 163 | John of the Cross (1542-1591 A.D.). A poem written in darkness in the dungeon where his order imprisoned him. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 164 | All Christians are called to holiness where they live. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 165 | The training of clergy: progressive demands. Training becomes stricter for priests. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 166 | The beginning of critical exegesis. A theologian looks at scriptures in a critical way. (1678 A.D.) | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 167 | Jansenism. Sin, grace and predestination is his theology. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 168 | The second Jansenist crisis. Pope Clement XI condemns his theology. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 169 | The effectiveness of the Dragonnades. Massive conversion back to Catholicism when faced with the prospect of having to house and support Protestant troops in the field. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 170 | Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. This Edict stated that Louis XIV would have only one king, one faith, and one law, and that was Catholicism. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 171 | Quietism. The total abandonment to God verging on Pantheism, indifference to prayer, the sacraments, good works and morality. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
| 172 | Fenelon (1651-1715 A.D. He's talking about being in the passive state. | ||
| See Full Text | |||
