Financial Corruption and Reformation

Light of Truth

A fundamental question largely overlooked until recently is: why did Europe have its Reformation at all? Reformation started with economic corruption. In 1516, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money in order to rebuild St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. On 31 October 1517, Luther wrote to his bishop, Albrecht von Brandenburg, protesting the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his “Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” which came to be known as the Ninety-five Theses. In the context of the Protestant Reformation, Luther wanted all Christians to read the Bible. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances. According to one account, Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517. He became convinced that the church was corrupt in its ways and had lost sight of what he saw as several of the central truths of Christianity. “This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification,” Luther wrote, “is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness.”

The doctrine of justification was pivotal in revolution of Protestantism. But almost after say 500 years that Catholic Church and the Lutheran churches came to a conclusion that there is no substantial difference in the doctrines between the Catholics and Protestants. Here is the declaration to that effect. Joint Declaration on The Doctrine of Justification by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church in 1994 no.43 states: “We are convinced that the consensus we have reached offers a solid basis for this clarification. The Lutheran churches and the Roman Catholic Church will continue to strive together to deepen this common understanding of justification and to make it bear fruit in the life and teaching of the churches.” More than theology and the Bible it was the corruption that trigged the upheaval. For one thing, enthusiasm for Luther’s “Evangelical” movement was much more general than the triumph of reform.

The issue was largely, mainly economic. Excommunication, crusades, and inquisitions were various means devised to deal with internal and external threats. Any religious reform was seen also from an economic angle. Many reformers ended as heretics and that their lives burned at stacks.

One of the earliest of these reform attempts, the Waldensian move- ment of the 12th and 13th centuries, rejected open displays of wealth among churchmen. They gained a following in France, Spain, and Italy, but the Church and its secular allies brutally suppressed them wherever their influence grew too large. Ultimately, the Church enacted a decree of death by burning against Waldensians at the Council of Gerona in 1197. Their 15th-century successors, the Lollards, met a similar fate. The Lollards spread the ideas of John Wyclif (d. 1384), a theologian whose rhetoric blasted avaricious clergy while seeking a return to the Scriptures as the centre force of Christianity. The most serious challenge to the Church came from the Prague preacher Jan Hus (c. 1372-1415), who led the Bohemian Hussite movement of the early-15th century. He too spoke against the sinful nature of Church- men and the avaricious nature of Church practices – including the selling of indulgences – and he yearned for a return to the biblical origins of the Church. His movement spread throughout Bohemia (Czech Republic) in the early-15th century, but the emperor and Pope violently suppressed it before it could spread further. For his role, the Church had Hus burned at the stake in 1415.

“It took us only 450 years to see Luther’s point,” says Catholic scholar John Borelli of Georgetown University. “In many ways, Vatican II was Luther’s council.” Pope Pius V abolished the sale of indulgences. This is what the Pope Francis said on the 500th anniversary: “Serious research into the figure of Luther and his critique of the Church of his time and the papacy certainly contributes to overcoming the atmosphere of mutual distrust and rivalry that for all too long marked relations between Catholics and Protestants.” Only one note at this chaotic situation of the church: When leaders repeat their mistakes history can repeat.

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