Sixteenth Century
Evangelization, Worldly Popes, Protestant Reformation, Council of Trent
Evangelization of America: A legion of missionaries from Spain and Portugal went to America to evangelize, mainly from the Orders of Franciscans and Dominicans and Augustinians and Carmelites. First New World Saints start to appear, like St. Juan Diego of Guadalupe, St. Martin de Porres, St. Rose of Lima, St. Peter Claver, and St. Francis Solano. In 1531 occurs the Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe: Before the Apparition, few Indians had converted, after the Apparition there was an explosion of converts, all Mexico and all Central and South-America became Christians.
Evangelizationof Asia: In 1534 St. Ignatius of Loyola founds the Jesuits. The Jesuit order becomes the defender of the Catholic faith and begins sending missionaries abroad. Saint St. Francis Xavier and companions sail for Goa, the first modern Christian missionaries to travel to India; later lands in Japan, and establishes Japan's first Christian mission at Kagoshima.
Worldly Popes: Pope Julius II employs Bramante, Raphael and Michaelangelo in rebuilding St. Peter’s. He also marches into battle to restore the Papal States. Pope Leo X, a Medici, seeks funds to pay for St. Peter’s and allows Albert, archbishop of Mainz (Germany) to be a bishop in several dioceses as long as he will make a substantial donation. To recover his costs, Albert employs Friar Johann Tetzel to sell indulgences promising buyers the release of loved ones from Purgatory.
Protestant Reformation: Upset by Tetzel’s scandalous proposition, Friar Martin Luther of the University in Wittenberg, nails a list of 95 propositions to the door of All Saints’ Church which stir Germany and Europe in a matter of months. Luther’s protests are soon followed by Zwingli, Henry VIII, Calvin, Tyndale, the Anabaptists, and a legion of others. In 1520 Pope Leo X issues Exsurge Domine, condemning Martin Luther as a heretic. In 1538 Pope Paul III excommunicates King Henry VIII of England. The Reformation emphasized a personal relationship with Jesus, good morality and behavior including that of the Church’s hierarchy, a love for the Bible, and other reforms. But it also brought a new set of problems with the "free interpretation of the Bible", abolition of Papal authority and of bishops and priests (some sects), elimination of some sacraments, new interpretations of the Eucharist, Baptism, the Confession of sins, the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary, the Church, salvation, and other articles of faith. Confusion reigned as each new denomination (1519- Anabaptists: Grebel, after Ulrich Zwingli; 1534- Church of England: Henry VIII; 1536- Calvinism: John Calvin; 1560- Presbyterians: J. Knox; 1570- Puritans: T. Cartwright; 1582- Congregationalism: R. Brown) developed its own doctrines, accepting and rejecting various Roman Catholic beliefs. Meanwhile, Martin Luther translated the Bible into German, and Tyndale into English in the 1520's. Luther eliminated books from the Bible that had been included from the Fourth Century when the Church first decided which books belonged in the Bible.
Council of Trent: met from 1545 to 1563 as part of the Counter-Reform from the church. It condemned as heresy many doctrines of the Protestant Reformation. A further object was a thorough reform of the inner life of the Church by removing the numerous abuses that had developed in it. It also adopted Saint Jerome’s Latin Vulgate as the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. The Counter-Reformation was led by the Jesuits, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Dominicans who implemented the directives of Trent to reform the Church.
Saints:
St. Ignatius of Loyola: founded Jesuits, supported the Pope, sent
missionaries world- wide
St. Francis Xavier: Jesuit missionary to Asia
St. Teresa of Avila: reformed the Carmelites; wrote extensively about contemplative life
St. John of the Cross: reformed the men Carmelites; explained dark night of the soul
St. Juan Diego: saw the vision of Our Lady of Guadalupe
St. Francis Solano: wonder worker of the New World, missionary in Lima, Peru
St. Martin de Porres: native Peruvian; led a simple, holy life as a barber, farm laborer, and infirmarian
St. Peter Claver: ministered to African slaves in the New World.
St. Rose of Lima: first American to be named a saint; Peruvian friend of Martin de Porres.
St. Charles Borromeo: Cardinal, one of main leaders of reform at the Council of Trent.
St. Philip Neri: poor, humble priest who ministered to the common people of Rome
St. Francis de Sales: defended the Church in France encouraged many Protestants to return.
St. Robert Bellarmine: Jesuit defender of the faith in England; spiritual director.
St. Camillus de Lellis: founded the Fathers of a Good Death and bound the members by vow to devote themselves to the plague-stricken
St. Stanislaus Kostka: Polish Jesuit priest who defended the faith.
St. Aloysius Gonzaga: Young Jesuit noted for his purity of life; died at 23 helping the sick and dying in Italy.
St. John of God: Portuguese shepherd, soldier, bookseller, finally found his niche caring for the health of the poor in Granada.
St. Gundislavus Garcia: One of the Martyrs of Nagasaki
St. Edmund Camption: English Jesuit drawn and quartered for the Faith.
St. Peter Canisius: German Jesuit risked his life carrying Vatican papers through Germany; defended the Church with his catechism.
Heresies
Protestant Reformation: Started by Martin Luther in 1517. Five principles: (1) the Pope has no authority ; (2) The Bible alone ("Sola Scriptura"): The Holy Bible alone has the authority; (3) Free interpretation of the Holy Bible; (4) Salvation is by "grace alone", by "faith alone", in "Christ alone"; (5) The Priesthood of all Believers.
Lutherans: Martin Luther retained the sacraments of baptism, penance and Holy Communion and great honor and affection to Virgin Mary. He held that in the Holy Communion the consecrated bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ ("consubstantiation", instead of the Catholic "transubstantiation"). He rejected purgatory, indulgences, invocation of the Saints, and prayers for the dead. Jesus Christ our Righteousness, Luther based the entire work of the Reformation on the reality of an imputed righteousness.
Zwinglians: Ulric Zwingli, 1484-1524, a parish priest in Glarus, Zurich, Switzerland, the second great reformer. Added to Luther that the Eucharist was only a memorial, a symbol, and the physical presence of Christ was a myth, and proposed that the government of the church should be placed in the hands of the congregation rather than under the control of the clergy... and for both ideas he had strong discussions with Luther... both agree that the church should be under the control of the civil government, a state-church. He denied the authority of the Pope, free-will, the Sacraments including Confession of sins, good works, purgatory.
Anabaptists: 1519 - Grebel (after Ulrich Zwingli). "Anabaptists", are many groups who adopted many of the beliefs of Zwingli, but later would fight him, and adopt many of the Calvin's theories. Nicholas Stork, a weaver, and Thomas Munzer, a Lutheran preacher and priest, made, at the time of the reformation, the first attacks on infant baptism, and thus launched the Anabaptist movement. The "born-again" experience, is one distinguishing mark. A complete separation of church and state to protect the liberty of the church. Anabaptists are of the "congregational" type, where each local church is autonomous... there is no Pope!... but now each congregation has its own self-named "Pope", not the successor of Peter, but more demanding.
Church of England:
1534- Henry VIII, because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the
right to remarry: With the "Act of Supremacy" in
1534, the King was declared the supreme head of the Church of England, with
fullness of authority and jurisdiction. Bishops and priests still have their
jobs but under the King of England.
Calvinism: 1536 - John Calvin, the third great leader of the
Reformation. Born in France and worked in Geneva. Calvin held the
doctrine of predestination. Bishops are out, only
priests left (presbyters). Later on, the priests will be gone, with the
Pentecostals, for example. In 1536 he established a theocratic government in
Geneva in which the religious and social and political affairs of the city were
controlled by Calvin's new church. Geneva became a model of Puritan sobriety in
which the lives of all citizens were closely policed and all offenses punished
severely... all people were expected to live the life of a monk, with no
alcohol, no dancing or singing, no fun. Calvin opened the way for more radical
forms of Protestantism which exist today as worldwide churches: "Presbyterians"
of Scotland, "Separatists" and "Puritans" of England, "Congregational", "Dutch
Reformed Churches", The Huguenots in France.
Mennonites:
Menno Simons, at Witmarsum in Friesland, Catholic priest. He became an
Anabaptist 1536. Condemned infant baptism; the bearing of arms; the Sacraments;
and held a doctrine of non-resistance to violence.
Presbyterians: 1560 - John Knox
founded the Scotch
Presbyterian Church, basically Calvinistic, and it is called "Presbyterian"
because church policy centers around assemblies of presbyters or elders. However
the governing board of the church, the synod or presbytery, is subject to the
civil government. No more Bishops, only priests, presbyters.
Puritans: 1570 - T. Cartwright. The "Puritans" or "Precisians",
thought the Anglicans were too Catholic, and the Church should be "purified" of
the old leaven of Catholicism, and reformed along Calvinist lines in severe
simplicity, the ministers should be chosen by the people, and the office of the
bishop abolished.
Congregationalism: 1582 - R. Brown
in Holland . They separated from the Church of
England, and they were called Separatists, Dissenters, Independents, and
Congregationalists, because they believe that each congregation should be
independent, autonomous, a complete church in itself. They were Calvinists.
Those American colonists who established the Plymouth Colony in 1620 were
"Separatists", and were called Pilgrims. Those who came 9 years later and
established the Massachusetts Colony were "Puritans".
Huguenots: The French Protestants. William Farel, a
friend of Calvin. Basically Calvinists, held
the doctrine of predestination; denied the supremacy of the Pope; free-will;
good works; purgatory; the Sacraments and forgiveness of sin.
Reformed Dutch: 1561 - Guido de Bres, a Dutch reformer of Brabant. Again, basically Calvinist. Some Reformed churches were Lutherans, later Zwinglians and eventually became Calvinists.
Unitarians: Martin Cellarius, deny the divinity of Christ; accept or reject the Bible according to private judgment.
Socinians: 1550- Laelius and Faustus Socinus. Laelius was a priest of Sienna and intimate friend of Calvin. They insisted on private judgment and the free use of reason; discarded mysteries, rejected authority, and some went so far as to reject all natural religion. Luther tried to destroy the roofs of Catholicism; Calvin its wall; and the Socinus its foundation.
Two distinct branches of Protestantism grew out of the Reformation. The evangelical churches in Germany and Scandinavia were followers of Martin Luther. The reformed churches in other countries were followers of John Calvin and Huldreich Zwingli. A third major branch, Episcopacy (Anglicans, Church of England, Episcopalians), developed in England. Several other groups sometimes called Protestant developed before the rise of Protestantism: Hussites, Lollardry, Waldenses. Protestantism has largely been adopted by the peoples of northwest Europe and their descendants, excepting the southern Germans, Irish, French, and Belgians; there have been important Protestant minorities in France, Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland.
Protestants (1517)
· Lutherans (1517)
-Crypto-Calvinists (1552)
· Calvinists (1536) Calvin and Zwingli
-Standard (Reformed) Calvinists
-Presbyterians (Knox) 1537
-(Dutch) Reformed Church (1537)
· Anabaptists (re-baptizers) 1525
-Mennonites (1536)
-Hutterian Brethren (1535)
-Swiss Brethren (1527)
-Swiss Free Church tradition (1525)
-Socinians (1550)
-Unitarians (1560)
· Anglican Communion--Episcopacy (1534)