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DIFFICULT TIMES FOR THE CHURCH: FROM
INVASIONS TO COUNTER REFORMATION
FALL OF ROME AND THE GERMANIC INVASION
Invasion by the Germans caused the decline of the Roman
empire and the Church.
How fast the Glory of Rome Fell (based on the account of
Jean Comby)
● The Ancient world, both Roman and Christians, had
ceased to be. A new era had begun. The empire
continued to exist in the east, but in Latin West had
disintegrated into a multitude of barbarian kingdoms:
Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians, Vandals,
Alans, and so on.
With Rome, the mighty empire of the West and converted
instrument of Christianity, destroyed and ruined by the
Barbarians, shock and fear overwhelmed the entire empire.
St. Jerome Lamented with the downfall of Rome
● “Everything, however, long has its end; …But Rome!
Who would believe that Rome would collapse...we
cannot relieve these sufferings all we can do is to
sympathize with them and untie our tears with theirs”
To those who were faithful to old pagan religion of Rome such
misfortune was deemed as “punishment for abandoning the old
religion”. To some Christian believers, such tragedy can be
attributed as “punishment for their sins”.
RISE OF ISLAM
how Islamic religion expanded to the Mediterranean world
Rejected by the people of his tribe in 622, Mohammed fled to
Mecca for Medina. This is known as the Hijrah, the beginning
of the Moslem era. Unable to rally the Christian and the Jews,
Mohammed turned against both and began to proclaim his
religion as a worldwide one.
With only the exhausted and the Persian empires to oppose
them, the Arabs, who constituted a new military force, hurled
themselves into a series of lightning conquest. They accepted
death enthusiastically in their ‘striving on the road to God’
(Jihad, often translated to holy war).
Jerusalem was captured in 638, at the same time as Syria and
Palestine. Alexandria fell in 642, Persia in 651. Carthage was
captured in 698. In 711, Arabs and Barbers who had been
converted to Islam began to conquer Spain. They were to get
as far as the heart of the kingdom of the Franks.
The expansion of Islam conquered Christian territories,
Including the Holy land; brought converts to the Islamic faith;
spread Islamic influence and culture; and stablished structures
that were important to the Islamic believers.
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EVIL OF FEUDALISM
In the 10th century, a social structure known as Feudalism
dominated the people’s way of life, even influence the church
on its attitude towards the world and its people.
Concept of Feudalism (Comby)
● Land belonged to the warrior who defended it. He put
himself under the protection of a more powerful lord
who would grant his vassal the possession and
administration of fiefdom or benefice. The church,
which owned large areas of land, was caught up in
this system.
● Every holder of an ecclesiastical office had the use of
a piece of land or a benefice which provided him a
living. The bishop was a lord and a vassal at the
same way as the laity. He held jurisdiction over his
land and dispense justice; he maintained an army.
Here, we can discern how the ecclesiastical authorities
became both the victims and perpetrators of a system that
advocates injustice and discrimination towards the servants.
And what was more disheartening was the knowledge that
bishops, perceived as exemplars of justice and equality,
condoned such a system.
It came to be less than a surprise that the ecclesiastical position
or ranks became the target of trade and business when people
started to sell their positions and offices. (Called Simony)
Gradually, the competition to own, to control and to dominate
became a culture of corruption and greed to those who aimed
for greater property and power.
SCHISM: SEPARATION OF THE WEST AND THE EAST
(1054 A.D.)
Schism is defined as “a division of a church into factions
because of differences in doctrine”. The Christian churches
of the West and the East were divided due to a disagreement
of doctrine.
Historians traced the root of this great division to a disagreement
on the understanding of the person and origin of the Holy Spirit.
Roman Western Church claims that the Holy Spirit proceeds
from the Father and the Son (filioque) while the Eastern
Church maintains that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the
Father but NOT from the Son but holds that the Father is the
source and origin of the whole divinity, eventually, the rift
between the two churches worsened; In 1040 things heated up
again. The pope imposed the Latin rite on Eastern churches
in Italy and the East imposed its rites on Latin churches in
Constantinople. Michael Cerularius, the feisty Patriarch of
Constantinople, refused to help Rome fight the Normans and
condemned the Latin practices of using unleavened bread,
teaching on “and from the son”, enforcing celibacy on the
clergy.
The worst thing happened an exchange of excommunication
followed, an action that would bring long separation between the
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Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox church
for centuries
The big year for the final separation between East and West
was 1054: the pope sent a delegation to Constantinople to ease
tension. But Cerularius was so put off by the discourtesy of the
papal delegates that he refused to meet with them. Outraged,
the delegates left a bull of excommunication on the altar of
Santa Sophia, charging the patriarchs with many heresies. The
patriarchs in return proclaimed the west Anathema for its
heresy, burned the Roma bull and declared that Rome and
Constantinople would now go on their separate ways.
Since then, the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern
Orthodox Church live in mutual exclusion. It was only on
December 7, 1965, that such indifference was dispelled through
a joint declaration made by Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch
Athenagoras, by regretting the exchange of insults in 1054 and
the excesses of the past.
While the two churches have remained distinct and
independent, reconciliation and forgiveness brought them again
as brothers ‘working in the ‘Lord’s vineyard’.
CRUSADERS
It was taught by the ecclesiastical authorities at that time that if
a crusader dies during the crusade, he is assured of his salvation
because he was already forgiven from his sins.
The crusaders lasted for a few hundred years. According to
historical records, there were as many as fourteen crusades,
including a few children’s crusades wherein young lives were
wasted, abused sold to slavery and others died along the
journey either by sickness or accident.
INQUISITIONS
Christianity once again fought heresies and condemned
heretics. In an official document form the council of Toulouse
(1229), The ecclesiastical authorities issued their vigilant
decision against the recurrence of heresies:
In every parish I the city and outside the city bishops
shall designate a priest and two or three laymen, or even more,
if necessary, of unsullied reputation, who shall be committed
on oath to search out assiduously and faithfully the heretics
living in the parish…
If they discover heretics or people giving credence or favor,
sanctuary, or protection to heretics, they shall take steps to
present their flights and denounce them as soon as possible to
the bishop and to the lord of the place.
Once a heretic is found, he/she is given an appropriate trial
and corresponding measure, depending on the case at hand.
But prudence was exercised, for instance, Wason, the bishop
of Liege, sent a letter to The bishop of Chalons in 1045
reminding him that a bishop cannot demand the death of a
heretic. But the repression of heresies took an ugly turn.
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Religious and civil authorities elevated the heresy as a crime
and worst, named it as an act of high treason.
In 1197 king Peter of Aragon classed heresy as a crime of high
treason, punishable by death. Innocence III also spoke of
heresy as a high treason.
PROTESTANT REFORMATION 15TH-16TH CENTURY
“Stop the abuse! the church must reform” That was the clamor
of the early reformers towards the Catholic church at that time.
Such demand was only a direct consequence of accumulated
events and actions in the past by some members of the
church’s hierarchy.
-events and circumstances leading the reformation-
1. BLACK DEATH (1347-1348)
The population of Europe was almost wiped out because of a
plague. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “originating in
China and inner Asia, the plague was transmitted to Europeans
(1347), when a Kipchak army, besieging a Genoese trading
post in the Crimea, catapulted plague infested corpses into the
town…which resulted to a 25 million deaths.
Its effect was greatly devastating. Most of those affected
interpreted such affliction as a divine punishment and an
invitation for conversion. Then a strange obsession for death
emerged.
Some initiated the “procession of flagellants who travelled thru
towns, striking themselves until the blood flowed. Others
blamed the Jews as scapegoats. Worst of all, a satanic fervor
ran through Europe…and Satan intervened sorcerers and
sorceresses.
Such plague eventually created a need for the people to be
secured from divine punishment and made them an easy prey
for exploitation.
2. PAPAL CONTROVERSY
From the years 1378-1417, the catholic church was enveloped
with controversy created by a few of its own authorities.
In 1389, college of cardinals elected pope Urban VI, but for
some reasons, recanted their previous decision and formally
installed Clement VII as the new pope by 1394. To make the
situation complicated, a third pope, Alexander V, was named
in Pisa through a council.
Popes, in the Middle Ages, were subjects of envy among the
powerful and the ambitious because of the absolute power and
the wealth of the papacy.
3. UNWORTHY POPES ON THE THRONE OF PETER
Pope Alexander VI, according to Brennan Hill, came from a
corrupt Borgia family…infamous for his political intrigues,
mistresses, and children. He often used his children’s marriages
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to make political alliances and held lavish orgies in the papal
palace after their weddings.
Innocent III, went beyond his claim in saying that he is the “Lord
of the world” a semi-divine figure who was below God but
above man. The lay people, aware of the corruption and
excesses of their religious leaders lost their fidelity and respect
towards them. Slowly, this situation led them to sow seeds of
contempt and aversion to their leaders.
4. SELLING OF INDULGENCE
In the film, entitled, Martin Luther, a scene on selling of
indulgence was shown. It showed a passionate Dominican
priest, Johann Tetzel, calling people to repent, threatening
them with the fire of hell and its eternal damnation and selling
indulgence with these outrageous words; “For every coin that
rings is a soul in purgatory that springs!”
It was disgraceful to the people, to the church and to God. For
once payment was secured, the poor, gullible people were
fearful of divine wrath, receive a card/certificate the guaranteed
ticket to heaven at that time.
What is Indulgence?
● According to CFC par. 1821 contrary to the negative
reactions by the reformers, the church “helps its
members by granting indulgences that is, by
authoritatively assigning the penitent a portion of the
treasury of merits of Christ and the saints to remit
temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven.
Today when will we get Indulgence?
Obtainable any time any place
✔ Reading of Sacred Scripture
✔ Recitation of the Marian Rosary
✔ Exercise of the Way of the Cross
✔ Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament
Obtainable on special occasions
✔ Papal Blessing - even by radio
✔ Closing Mass of a Eucharistic Congress
✔ During a Diocesan Synod
✔ During a Pastoral Visitation
Obtainable on special days
✔ 1st January
✔ Each Friday of Lent and Passiontide after
communion
✔ Holy Thursday
✔ Good Friday
✔ Paschal Vigil
✔ Feast of Pentecost
✔ Feast of Corpus Christi - 2nd Thursday after
Pentecost
✔ Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus - 3rd
Friday after Pentecost
✔ Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul - 29
June
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Obtainable on special occasions in one's life
✔ First Communion
✔ Attending a mission
✔ Spiritual Exercises
✔ First Mass of newly ordained Priests
✔ Jubilees of Sacerdotal Ordination
✔ The Moment of Death
REFORMERS
1. MARTIN LUTHER
Belonging to a well to do family, Martin Luther had a good
educational background. In fact, he decided to pursue law at
the university of Erfurt (one of the most distinguished in
Germany). But after his conversion, he decided to abandon law
and entered monastery to become Augustinian monk.
According to Richard McBrien: Luther was a monk who took
the last things very seriously: death, judgment, heaven, and
hell. He was tormented by the thought of God’s judgement as
he reflected on his creatureliness and unworthiness. Traditional
modes of mortification and penance did not work for him. He
was still without peace. He concluded that he had to
relinquish all forms of self-reliance. God alone would save
him if only he would trust in God’s power and readiness to save
him.
Because of Luther’s dismay and dissatisfaction in the church,
he nailed his famous 95 theses on the door of the church at
Wittenberg as his protest to the Catholic church.
An act that would bring Luther to separation from the
church and to an eventual birth of protestant movements. He
abhorred and condemned the practice of selling indulgences
preach by the church at that time, especially since it involves
the monetary purchase of a certificate, among other things.
His enduring legacies to Protestantism are the
following:
1. The condemnation of the sale of Indulgence
2. The translation of the Bible into the vernacular
(German Language) In order to make it available
to the ordinary people,
3. Consideration of the Baptism and Eucharist as the
only valid sacraments
4. his attack on the veneration of Saints and Marian
devotions
5. the sacred scripture as the only authority of
Christian teaching (sola Scriptura—scripture
alone)
6. his famous doctrine on justification by faith alone
(sola fide—faith alone)
2. ULRICH ZWINGLI (1531)
But the reformers had their differences concerning their
understanding and conviction about their protest of the church,
as well as their basic teachings and practices. More radical
than Luther in terms of his teachings, Ulrich Zwingli of
Zurich, Switzerland.
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He began to abolish the mass itself. He also challenged the
legitimacy of some of the sacraments. He began to seize
church property, rejected celibacy and the convents and
monasteries were suppressed. He even claimed as far as
saying that the Holy Eucharist is just an ordinary, memorial
meal: thus, Jesus was not really present in the Eucharist.
3. JOHN CALVIN (1564)
John Calvin was the Protestant reformer known for his
influential writing, “Institute of the Christian Religion”, which
eventually became a handbook of protestant doctrines.
Like his protestant counterparts, he put primacy on the sacred
scripture as the source of belief, rejected the papacy and
stressed on divine grace for salvation. But he went to the
extreme in his teaching on PREDESTINATION. He taught that
God had already determined our destiny…and that God
indeed allows many to be damned to manifest divine justice.
Thus, the church, for Calvin, is the company of the elect.
COUNTER-REFORMATION: THE CATHOLIC RESPONSE
With the problem inherent in the church and the external
controversies caused by the Protestants reformers, the Catholic
church braced itself to resolve its own concerns and carefully
addressed the valid points raised by the reformers.
According to Scholars, reforms was already underway in the
church, even before the emergence of the reformers.
There was great development in the field of Christian mission
and education, especially the ones initiated by Ignatius of
Loyola and his companions, (known today as Society of
Jesus), who “sought to be the servant of the church par
excellence”.
There was the flowering of spirituality and rise of religious
orders, like the order of the Carmelites in Spain (notable
among them were St. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross).
Fairly, we may say that the church was conscious of its own
problems and made independent progress prior to the
reformation.
1. COUNCIL OF TRENT
The council of Trent opened on December 13, 1545, with the
intention of clarifying the church’s doctrines, imposing
disciplinary measures, fighting heresies and affirming
fundamental beliefs of the catholic church:
1. Trent affirms the due recognition of the Sacred
Scripture and tradition: The Holy council, following
the examples of Orthodox fathers, receives and
venerates with equal pious affection and reverence,
all the books both new and Old Testament, since one
God is the author of both, together with the said
tradition as well as those pertaining to morals.
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2. It emphasizes that salvation comes from God as a
pure gift, but that it requires some measures of human
cooperation, which is a middle course between
Pelagianism (everything depends on human efforts)
and Protestantism (everything depends on God).
3. It teaches the seven sacraments to be instituted by
Christ and the Holy Eucharist to be an encounter of
the real presence of Christ in the consecrated bread
and wine. To believe otherwise would mean taking
the risk of being excommunicated (anathema).
4. It maintains its practice of venerating the Saints, its
devotion to Mother Mary and its recitation of the
Rosary.
5. It mandates the formation of seminaries where young
people are educated…trained in piety and religion.
Such action was truly necessary and fruitful because
it advocates a careful system in the selection and
formation of candidates to the priesthood; counters
the selling of Ecclesiastical office (Simony);
prevents the culture of appointing relatives or giving
them favors within priest’s jurisdiction (nepotism and
corruption); and the ordination of illiterate, unqualified
priests.
6. It establishes the index of forbidden books which
refers to the heretical writings against the church.
2. POST-TRIDENTINE ERA
The declaration and decisions promulgated by the council of
Trent exercised lasting influence on the catholic church for the
next four hundred years, until the time of the second Vatican
council was convened.
Trent, indeed, brought changes in the church leading to the
recovery of its own credibility among its members, restoration of
lost territories to the protestants: Poland, large parts of
Germany, France and the Netherlands, advancement of
Christian education, improvement in liturgy, formation of
priests and the definition of essential Catholic teachings
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