pt BR Lecture11

hello Heroes here we are next to the last lecture for church history 1 this is series three lecture three the morning stars of the Reformation or the reformers in the wings for my devotional today I'm going to be using uh two Bible translations into English which it's older English and might be kind of confused using but you will hear later in this lecture how controversial it was but appropriately enough I've picked second Peter 2 Excuse Me 2 Timothy 2: 14-1 17 on the authority and purpose of using the Bible so first is from second Timothy

3 that is verses 14-1 17 here's the wickl Bible by John Wickliffe and perhaps others but dwell thou in these things that thou Hast learned and that be betaken to thee witting of whom thou Hast learned them but remain thou in these things that thou Hast learned and that be delivered to thee knowing from whom thou Hast learned them for thou Hast known holy letters from thy you youth which may learn theee or which may inform thee to Health by the faith that is in Christ Jesus for thou Hast known the holy scriptures from thy

youth which can lead thee to Salvation through faith that is in the Messiah Jesus for all scripture inspired of God is profitable to teach to reprove to chastise for to learn in right wiseness so that the man of God be perfect learned to do all good works you can follow that on the PDF if you want or review it then there's the tindel Bible or Tindale Bible but continue thou in the things t h y n GES which thou Hast learned which also were committed unto the sji or the same thou knowest of whom thou

Hast learned them and for as much also as thou Hast know the Holy scripture of a child CH h y lde which is able to make the wise unto salvation throw away the faith which is in Christ not throw away but through the faith but it looks like thow away the faith which is in Christ ye Yu for all scripture gave inspiration of God is profitable to teach to improve to amend and to instruct in right winess righteousness ye man of God may be perfect and prepared unto with the V all good works end of

quotation this lecture involves the leadup to the protest Reformation which play took place during the 16th century there are some parts that include the 1500s but they are nevertheless foundational to the pivotal time in church and world history here's a little bit about the Catholic context Shelly writes about the decline of the papacy that's called sleeping men and the law of necessity that chapter quote and you can see the quotation marks in the PDF the 14th century appeared to break upon Europe on a triumphant note on February 22nd 1300 Pope bonifas thei proclaimed a jubilee

a holy year to celebrate the new Centenary or of Christ's birth it was the first first of its kind the official decree announced a full and copious pardon of all their sins for all who reverently for Pump and Circumstance which we'll return to later several times he appeared before the Pilgrims in Imperial robes crying I am Caesar I am Emperor according to reports his Papal crown contained 48 rubies 72 sapphires 45 emeralds and 66 large pearls he could afford to be generous with pardons for Spiritual pilgrims at the church of St Paul according to one

chronicler generous celebrants kept two priests busy night and day raking together infinite money that was donated thrown down the decades ahead looked bright to bonfice because for two centuries the papacy had held an unrivaled peak of power religious and political the pope had before him the sparkling example of innocent iiii who lived at the time of Francis of aisi a pope highly skilled at imposing his will upon Emperors and Kings bonifas naturally assumed that he could continue the same practice within three years of the Jubilee however uh was the shock of the the great personal

insult ever inflicted upon a pope even as Jubilee celebrants rejoiced forces were at work that Mark the beginning of the end of medieval papal sovereignty and may have affected Bona's medical condition because in my notes it says three years later which is 1303 the year of his death how could such a thing happens Shelly asks why did men and Nations come to challenge the worldly power of the popes Shelly refers to Jesus's parable about the man who scattered seed and explained how people did not understand how the corn grows this is what Jesus said the

kingdom of God was like significant changes often take place in the church and in the world and men are totally unaware of what is happened happening the 14th century was such a Time the papacy in particular continued its business as usual attitude while important ideas and social forces changed the face centuries was under Vis vigorous attack Christendom was made possible by the harmony of two ideas the Christian Empire and the Catholic Church the image of a Christian Empire so useful in creating a unified Europe in the seventh and 8th centuries slowly faded in importance in

the 12th and 13th centuries as the p in e of the medieval power structure realized that they had to command ever larger sources of Revenue this in turn required a broader authority to tax the struggle between the church and the Brash National monarchies of England and France touched off the turmoil of the 14th century Edward I first pictured here ruled in England Philip the fair here's an image of him in France both were strong and self assured and it odds with each other over lands in France still under English control to finance their costly campaigns

Edward and Philip HIIT upon the same solution tax the clergy within their Realms but in the Pope's View Church revenues were exempt from compulsory assessments and taxable only by the church in 1296 bonfice VII had issued cleric lakas a document threatening excommunication for any lay ruler who taxed the clergy and any churchmen who paid those taxes without papal consent but Edward and Phillip were a new breed of secular Monarch unimpressed by threats from Rome Edward's retort was to decree that if the clergy did not pay they would be stripped of all legal protection and their

extens of properties would be seized by the king's sheriffs Philip's answer was to place a complete embargo on the export of all gold silver and jewels from his domains thus depriving the papal treasury of a major source of revenue from church collections in France faced with such stiff opposition bonfice had backed down explaining that he had not meant to cut off clerical contributions for defense in times of dire need since the Kings could decide what constituted defense and dire need the victory for Edward and Phillip were clear the Royal Victory however was far from complete

boyed by the Smashing success of the Jubilee year bonfice concluded that the spiritual reverence manifested for him in every corner of Christendom extended to the Civil sphere as well he had a second circlet added to his crown as a symbol of his temporal sovereignty concentrating his fire upon Phillip the pope determined to teach the French monarch a lesson Philip however represented a strident new voice in Christendom Jesus Christ he held gave the church no temp tempal Authority in 1301 the king imprisoned a French Bishop on charges of treason bonfice ordered the officials release and rescinded

his earlier concession on taxation of church lands the next year Philip responded by summoning representatives of the French nobility clergy and bua the debut of his National Assembly the EST General and mustering their unanimous support in his quarrel with the Pope one of Philip's ministers put the choice baldly my Master's sword is made of steel the popes is made of words several months later bonfice issued Unum sanctum the most extreme assertion of paple power in all church history this time bonfice made his meaning unmistakable he wrote it is altogether necessary for every human being to

be subject to the Roman pontiff the king's counter move was no less drastic he prepared to have bonfice deposed on the ground that his election had been illegal to execute his plan he chose William of nogaret a shrewd lawyer who was helping Philip build the foundations of his Nation ultimately there would be two popes one in Rome one in aino France it came to be called the great schism while the papacy was eventually reunited in Rome and you can read about it in one of Walton's charts it led to major criticism especially by such people

as John Wickliffe and it's to wickliff and tindel that I now turn in this section that I call counting the cost English Bible translators and others in the 21st century the Bible is banned in 51 countries people from other countries are usually allowed to have their own but residents in those countries are not they're not supposed to have their own Bibles nevertheless Christians in most countries have Bibles or Bible portions Christians in South Korea send Bibles into the north by small balloons it might be hard for you to believe but translating the Bible into the

common language got men into trouble in England the bible translated into Latin by Jerome 1,000 years prior was what was used in the churches it was originally called The Vulgate meaning the common language remember in New Testament times the common language was the marketplace Greek by the time of the Middle Ages not very many priests could read Latin very few non priests could lead read maybe some uh professors at the elite universities but uh that was about it and here's some information about John Wickliffe from Wikipedia I will spend the most most time on John

wickliff for two reasons he is a major pivotal person from the Middle Ages to the Protestant Reformation and his name is now used by a major Bible translation organization that provides the New Testament and sometimes the entire Bible in many languages John Wickliffe lived from around 1328 until December 31st 1384 he was an English Scholastic philosopher a Christian reformer a Catholic priest and a theology professor at the University of Oxford Wickliffe is traditionally believed to have advocated or made a vernacular translation of the Vulgate Bible into Middle English you heard an example of it a

little while ago here is what Shelly has to say about Wickliffe including his context in his insightful little volume Christianity and history Herbert Butterfield observes that human systems rise and Thrive and then fall because the processes of time have their own built-in judgment the Babylonian captivity as it was called at ainon of the papacy and the great schism that followed revealed fundamental flaws in the the church basic reforms were in order but after the failure of the conciliar movement no significant Pap office was the channel of God's will that view died slowly people believed that

the papacy was essential not only for the religious life of individuals but as a means of sanctioning political rule he was the center of the Christian Society on Earth two brave souls John Wickliffe an Englishman and John hus a Czech dared to toy with the idea that the Christian church was something other than a visible organization on Earth headed by the pope they paid dearly for even raising the possibility but they saw clearly clearly that the hour had come for judgment to fall upon the house of God Shelly asks who were they and how did

they point the way to the Future Shelly begins in chronological order making a rather surprising statement about Wickliffe his name was spelled in various ways but here is the startling first statement John Wickliffe was a zealot like most zealots he desp Wick Cliff's early life is as obscure as his personality though I your professor do not understand why shell says wili's personality was obscure soon after declaring him to be a zealot anyway back to Shell we are not even sure of his date of birth he was raised in northern England but only emerged from the

medieval Mists as a student at Oxford he secured his doctoral degree in 1372 and Rose immediately to prominence as the leading professor at the university the hottest issue at that time was Dominion or lordship over men all thinkers agreed that lordship arose from God but how was this right to rule transmitted from God to Earthly rulers one widely held view argued that lordship was only just when it arrived from the Roman Church God had entrusted the pope with universal dominion over all temporal things and persons any Authority exercised by sinful rulers was unlawful other teachers

insisted that lordship depended Less on the mediation of the church than on the fact that its possessor was in a state of grace that is he had committed no Grievous sin one of wi Cliff's professors Richard Fitz Ralph had argued why should the State of Grace be required only of temporal rulers do churchmen have the right to rule when they live in mortal sin if Grace is essential in the lay ruler said Fitz Ralph it is no less necessary in a Churchman undoubtedly influenced by his Professor Wickliffe plunged into this debate and added an important

idea he argued that the English government had the divinely assigned responsibility to correct the abuses of the church within its realm and to relive relieve of office those churchmen who persisted in their sin the state could even seize the property of Cor rep Church officials at this point I will point out that I do not agree with Wickliffe on the state's role and relationship to the church but this was a development in the right direction that would eventually lead to the Republic of the United States of America like the Magna Carta was an important development

at the time of King John and remember in the midst of this discussion Phil core's Golden Rule of History judge the those in the past with the same understanding by which you hope people in the future will judge or understand you returning again to Shelly not surprisingly the Pope in 1377 condemned the Oxford reformers teaching the church might have moved against Wickliffe at that moment but influential friends in England saw to it that the condemnation never went beyond the threats 140 years later Martin Luther would have friend friends who would help protect him shelle says

the long range significance of wickliff teaching on Dominion lies in its link with the Reformation it was the English reformers way of emphasizing the spiritual freedom of the righteous man he is a possessor of a Dominion founded on Grace and again God gives no lordship to his servants without first giving himself to them every man therefore priest or Layman holds an equal place in the eyes of God this personal relation between a man and God is everything character is the one basis of office the mediating priesthood and the sacrificial masses of the medieval church are

no longer essential thus wickliff and anticipates Luther's doctrine of justification by faith alone both men destroy the medieval barriers between God and his people this Doctrine or teaching of dominion founded in Grace proved to be only the first of wickliff thunderbolts the decisive year of his reforming career was 1378 the date of the great schism in the papacy faced with the Comm tragedy of one Pope in Rome excommunicating another Pope in aino Wickliffe became more radical in his assessment of the church and its need for reform wi Cliff's early views of the papacy were shaped

by his emphasis on Apostolic poverty he insisted that those who sat in St Peter's chair should be like the Apostle without silver or gold see Acts CH AP 3:6 according to Wickliffe the Bible papacy consisted in a poor and humble life spent in the service of the church setting before God's people an example of Christian goodness the pope should be The Shepherd of the flock and preacher who brings his men to CH brings men to Christ such a view leaves no room for the temporal power of the Pope the conception of the the papacy as

a political force was anathema to Wickliffe he detested the trappings of power he denounced the worldliness and luxury of the popes in one sense Wickliffe welcomed the great sism the spectacle of two rival popes esom communicating each other seemed to him to be a confirmation for all to see the spiritual bankruptcy of the office and the need to put something nothing else in its place as the Schism continued however Wick Cliff's view hardened he came to believe that the pope was Antichrist if there were two of them Railing at each other they simply shared the

Unholy title in a steady stream of charges Wickliffe showed how far the papacy had departed from the simple faith and practice of Christ and his disciples Christ is true he wrote the pope is the principle of falsehood Christ lived in poverty the pope labors for worldly magnificence Christ refused temporal Dominion the pope seeks it the Oxford reformer poured scorn on the idea that because Peter died in Rome therefore every Bishop of Rome is to be said above all of Christendom by the same reason reasoning the Muslim might conclude that his prelate of Jerusalem where Christ

died is greater than the pope Christ Alone said Wickliffe is the head of the church the papal institution he insisted is full of poison it is Antichrist itself the man of sin who exalts himself above God let judgment fall shall continues with a new subtitle from reformer to Protestant here is what Shelly writes thus the reformer took the great step of his life he passed from an orthodox preacher eager for the reform of the existing International Roman Church into a Protestant to use a later term the Protestant Reformation proper started more than a hundred years

after Wickliffe here is what Shelly writes the Oxford Scholars break with the papacy was part of a new idea that he had formed of the church he accepts the ancient division of the church into three parts one triumphant in heaven one militant here on the earth and the third asleep in purgatory as I have shared before I do not believe the Bible teaches that there is something called Purgatory but Wickliffe was heading in the right direction and before I continue I'd like to make a brief comment about the Catholic Church actually about Catholics as individuals

I had an enjoyable visit with three of my six Catholic cousins a few days ago and it was in their home when they were much younger when I talked with their mom and one of the three of them and I don't remember who said what and maybe I've shared this before but with this talk of antichrist I believe it's important to share that the three of us agreed and beyond that that having Jesus Christ as Lord is what it means to have a Christian to be a Christian and that's what Paul writes about in Romans

10 but returning to Shelly the church on Earth he defines as the whole number of the elect containing only men or people that shall be saved so absolute is his predestinarianism that he adds that no man not even a pope knows whether he is of the church or whether he is a limb of the Fiend The Devil Wickliffe guards his Doctrine from some of its dangers by adding that as each man that shall be damned shall be damned by his own guilt and each man that is saved shall be saved by his own Merit I

view it as by Christ's Merit on the cross grace through faith alone from this Doctrine to of an invisible Church of the elect W Cliff drew some practical conclusions the church is a Unity that knows nothing of papal primacies and hierarchies and of the sects secs of monks Friar and Priests nor that can the salvation of the elect by be conditioned by masses indulgences Penance or other devices of priestcraft In Time Wickliffe challenged the whole range of medieval beliefs and practices pardons indulgences absolutions pilgrimages the worship of images the Adoration of the Saints the treasury

of their merits laid up of the reserve of the Pope and the distinction between venial and Mortal sins that's a lot isn't it he retained belief in purgatory and extreme unction though he admitted that he looked in vain in the Bible for the institution of extreme unction images he said if they increase devotion need not be removed and prayers to saints were not necessarily wrong confession he held to be useful provided it was voluntary and made to a suitable person best of all if it were made in public compulsory confession he considered the bondage of

antichrist we can catch the spirit of his revolt and his declaration that preaching is of more value than the administration of any Sacrament the standard Wickliffe used to judge the Roman Church as the teachings of scripture neither the testimony of August nor Jerome he said nor any other Saint should be accepted in so far as it was based upon scripture Christ's law he held is best and enough and other laws men should not take but as branches of God's law the Oxford reformer went even further in his assertion of the right of every man to

examine the Bible for himself the New Testament is of full Authority and open to the understanding of simple men as to the points that be most needful to Salvation he that keepeth meekness and charity hath meaning love hath the God's agape love hath the true understanding and Perfection of all holy RIT for Christ did not write his laws on tables or on skins of animals but in the hearts of men Shelly next turns to wickliff attack on Catholic teaching on communion or the Lord's Supper in all of his Puritan outcry Wickliffe aroused no hostility like

that sparked by his attack upon the traditional doctrine of transubstantiation which Lord willingly will look at in church history too in the summer of 1380 he published 12 arguments against the idea that the Bread and Wine of Holy Communion were transformed into the physical body and blood of Christ he asserts that the early church held that the concentrated consecrated elements of bread and wine were efficacious symbols of Christ's body and blood hence Christ is present in the element sacramentally not materially the end where he is earlier said unless you eat my bread and drink my

blood you have no part of me but later on in the same chapter he says my words are Spirit Shelly continues Wick Cliff's denial of transubstantiation gave his enemies their opportunity his support dwindled to a small minority at Oxford first the chancellor and a small Council condemned his doctrines and forbade him to lecture the Archbishop of Canterbury William Courtney followed with another Council that condemned 10 of wickliff doctrines as heretical by 1382 the reformer was effectively silenced at Oxford before his defeat at the University however Wickliffe had turned for support to the people in cottages

and towns his mission called for the Bible in the language of Craftsmen and peasants so he led a handful of Scholars at Oxford in the translation of the Latin Bible into the English language and copied the methods of St Francis and and the Friars in his humble living from Oxford as from a C two centuries before wickliff sent out poor priests into the byways and Village greens sometimes even to churches to win The Souls of the neglected clad in russet Robes of undressed wool without sandals purse or money a long staff in their hand dependent

for food and shelter on The Good Will of their neighbors wit Cliff's poor priests became a power in the land their enemies derisively dubbed them the laws meaning mumblers They Carried a few pages of the reformers Bible and his tracks and sermons as they went throughout the countryside preaching the word of God one panic stricken Observer claimed that every second man he met was a Lawler despite wff's academic environment his legacy was carried on largely by lay Proclaimers who sought to model and proclaim a simple dependence upon the Bible its influence is an example of

the recurring empowerment of the scriptures when read in the language of the people and you can see a little bit more on the laws and the pre-reformation groups later in this lecture here is how Shelly concludes his presentation of Wickliffe he gained enough support the church Authority had the good sense not to move against him his followers were hunted down were expelled from Oxford or forced to renounce their views but Wickliffe though driven from the University was left to close his days in peace at his Parish at leworth here's the church building he died there

in 1384 in 1894 an obelisk was placed and you can see it here with words from Psalm 19130 the entry of thy words gives light Shelly next introduces us to John hust and here's a picture of him who lived from 1370 until 1415 the movement Wickliffe launched continued in England under restrictions but found an even greater opportunity for expansion in Bohemia and Bohemia is on the left side in color in this map the two nations were Linked In 1383 by the marriage of an of bohemia and King Richard II of England so students of both

countries went back and forth between Oxford and prag and prag and here's a map of Prague the wickliff Revolt met greater success in Bohemia because it was joined to a strong National Party led by John or Yan Jan hus and you're beginning to see the early beginnings of nationalism here and we'll see more of it as we enter into the Protestant hearts and plunging into the reformed cause his student days introduced hus to the philosophical writings of Wickliffe but only after his ordination and appointment as Rector and preacher at Bethlehem Chapel did he come upon

wickliff Ro religious writings he adopted at once the English reformers view of the church as an elect company with Christ not the pope its true head Bethlehem Chapel near the university gave hus an unrivaled opportunity to circulate wickliff teachings including his criticisms of the abuses of power in the papacy on the walls were paintings contrasting the behavior of the popes and Christ the pope rode a horse Christ walked Barefoot Jesus washed the disciples feet the pope referred to Wickliffe much as today there might be for or against some revolutionary figure the Archbishop of Prague grew

restless and complained to the pope about the spread of Wick Cliff's doctrines root out the heresy replied the pope so Archbishop zinc excommunicated hus as a result a great popular tumult erupted hus had made matters worse when he openly attacked the Pope's sale of indulgences of support of his war against Naples this move cost hus the support of his King wance and when prag F fell under a Papal interdict because of hus the reformer left for Exile in the southern part of bohemia during this period of retirement hus drawing heavily upon Wickliffe wrote his major

work called on the church the Council of constant was now fast approaching and hus yielded to the urging of the emperor sigismund and agreed to appear at the council he had hopes of presenting his views to the assembled authorities but on his arrival he found himself instead a victim of the Inquisition the rule of the Inquisition was simple if sufficient Witness Witnesses testify to the guilt of the accused then he had to confess and renounce the errors or be burned the reward for confession was life imprisonment instead of the stake in accordance with this rule

the panel of judges appointed by the councel believe the witnesses against us and condemned him for heresies he had never taught foreshadowing Martin Luther a little more than a hundred years later hus was willing to yield himself to the teaching of the church when instructed by scripture in what way his teaching was wrong but he could not agree to recent heresies that he had always stoutly disclaimed for hus truth was Supreme I have said that I would not for a chapel full of gold recede from the truth I know he wrote in 14:12 that the

truth stands and is mighty forever and abides eternally with whom there is no respect of persons hus was placed in prison awaiting his being burned and here's an artist rendition of him in his prison cell on July 16th 1415 the day before his burning came on the way to the place of execution he passed through a churchyard and saw a bonfire of his books he laughed and told the bystanders not to believe the lies circulated about him on arriving at the execution ground familiarly known as the devil's Place hus nelt and prayed for the last

time the Marshal of the Empire asked if he would recant and save his life said hus God is my witness that the evidence against me is false I have never thought nor preached except with the one intention of winning me if possibly from their sins winning other people from their sins in the truth of the Gospel I have written taught and preached today I will gladly die shell concludes this chapter with these words if the Church of Rome was to be reformed from within it had ample opportunities in the 14th and 15th centuries but by

the end of the 15th century the dreams of marcelus of peda had vanished the leaders of Reform by Church councils were frustrated and repudiated and the results of Wickliffe and hus were crushed the value of the period period lies in the demonstration it gives the reform of the pel church from within was impossible the time of judgment had come the unity of the Brotherhood in Bohemia was witness to that fact and a promise of things to come let's look at one more reformer and one who came after him William tendel live spending most of his

time studying AR rasmus's Greek new testament which had been printed just six years before in 1516 so we do have some overlap here but this is again an important foundation increasingly as Tindle saw Reformation truths more clearly in the Greek New Testament he made himself suspect in the Catholic House of John Walsh John Fox tells us that one day an exasperated Catholic scholar at dinner with Tindle said we were better be without God's law than the popes in response Tindle spoke his famous words I defy the pope and all his laws if God spare my

life here many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the scriptures than thou dust that last line is the most famous line tindel ever spoke I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know more of the scripture Desiring God continues on in the early 1530s an English Merchant named Steven vaugh was commissioned to find William Tindle and inform him that King Henry VII desired him to return from hiding on the continent in a letter dated June 19 1531 Von wrote about Tindle who lived from 1494 until

1536 these simple words I find him always singing one note that one note was this will the king of England give his official endorsement to a vernacular Bible for all his English subjects if not Tindle would not come if so Tindle would give himself up to the king and never write another book I will point out that 80 years later that the King James version appeared in 161 actually yeah 80 years later later the king refused and Tindle never went to his homeland again instead if the king in the Roman Catholic Church would not provide

a printed Bible in English for the common man to read Tindle would even if it cost him his life which it did four years later Tindle finished the English translation of the Greek New Testament and worms or vers Germany and began to smuggle it into England in bales of cloth by October 1526 Bishop tunl had banned the book in London but the print run had been at least 3,000 and the books were getting to the people over the next eight years five pirated editions were printed as well in 1534 Tindle published a revised New Testament

Having learned Hebrew in the meantime probably in Germany which helped him better understand the connections between the Old and New Testaments biographer David Daniel calls this 1534 New Testament the glory of his life's work if Tindle was always singing one note this was the crescendo of the song of his life the finished and refined New Testament in English for the first time ever in history the Greek New Testament was translated into English before his Marty om in 1536 Tindle would go on to translate into clear common English not only the New Testament but also the

penet the first five books of the Old Testament Joshua through second chronicles and Jonah all this material became the basis of the great Bible issued by Miles Coverdale in England in 1539 and the basis for the Geneva ible published in 1557 the Bible of the nation which sold over a million copies between 1560 and 1640 in the 1620s the Puritans would use the Geneva Bible in the new world instead of the 10-year-old King James Bible I would encourage you to read in your lecture in the PDF about John Rogers his connection with t and the

pre-reformation groups that counted the cost uh some of which were pre-ot others like the alenis or qars were more her heretical than Protestant but there are the waldenian and the lardies and the hussites but for now my heroes I encourage you to dig deep into God's word to share God's word word most of all lift up Christ in your own life and lift him up on the cross be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within you until next time farewell