Calls for Early Reform
In the late 1300s, John Wycliffe, a scholar at Oxford University in England, questioned the authority of Church teachings. Wycliffe felt that Church corruption limited the ability of the clergy to properly lead Christians towards salvation. In addition, he questioned Church teachings and eventually proclaimed that a person did not need the Church and its sacraments to attain salvation. Wycliffe said that Christians should regard the Bible, not the Church, as the supreme source of religious authority. So that common people in England could read the Bible, Wycliffe and his followers, called Lollards, completed the first translation of the Bible into English. Wycliffe was expelled from Oxford in 1382 for his reformist views, and the Church continued to persecute Lollards as heretics, but Wycliffe's ideas spread across Europe and influenced other reformers.
Jan Huss was influenced by the ideas of John Wycliffe to lead a reform movement in his native Bohemia, located in what is today the Czech Republic. In the late fourteenth century, Huss was the rector of Prague University, a position from which he challenged the pope's authority and criticized the wealth of the Church. Huss agreed with Wycliffe that the pope and Church officials held absolute authority only when their views reflected the life of Christ and the scriptures. In order that common people be able to worship God without the potentially corrupt influence of the Church, Huss supported, instead of Latin, the use of vernacular languages in religious practices. For example, he wanted Mass said in Czech and to have Bibles translated into the people's language. Huss also spoke out against the selling of indulgences and important Church offices, which he felt were practices used only to raise money.
Due to his calls for reform, Huss was summoned to appear before the Council of Constance, a convocation of Church officials who met in 1415 to solve the Great Schism and other religious questions. The Council chose to defend the Church's position of unquestioned authority by silencing reformers. Thus, Huss was charged with heresy. In his defense, he claimed that Christians should seek God not in sacraments and rituals, but in Scripture. Because these views were deemed to be against the teachings of the Church, the Council had Huss burned at the stake. The spirit of his challenge, however, remained strong and spread out from Bohemia.
Mysticism challenged Church authority in a way different from the practical reforms proposed by Wycliffe and Huss. believe directly through intense, personal meditation. Because a mystic could experience God without Church officails, sacraments, or rules mystics could lead a holy and devout life outside the control of the Church. Yet the Church could not censor mystics easily because many of the most important figures in the history of the Church had been mystics. St. Paul, whose teachings form part of the base of Catholic thought, became a Christian through a mystical experience. St. Jerome, the first Christian theologian and the man responsible for the first Latin Bible, was a self-declared mystic. Mystics were very popular in Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries because they seemed more sincerely spiritual than officials of the Church. Th church viewed mystics as a threat, believing that people who followed mystics might find the Church unnecessary for a fulfilling Christian life.
Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) was an Italian mystic who called for reform in the Church. She reported that at the age of seven she saw her first vision of Jesus, which caused her to choose a life of prayer, fasting, and chastity. This asceticism gained Catherine a great following of people who believed her visions were caused by her piety and intense devotion to Jesus. Catherine became a Dominican nun and dedicated her life to prayer and solitude. But in 1370, she experienced her most celebrated vision, in which Jesus instructed her to become a messenger of peace and righteousness among people. She believed she was also instructed to right a great scandal in the Church, which she interpreted to mean the Great Schism. In 1376 she traveled to Avignon and tried to persuade Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome. She died soon after in 1380, but her life popularized mysticism, which led many Christians to realize that a spiritual life could be led outside established Church parameters.
The Dominican monk Girolamo Savornarola clashed with the Church in the fifteenth century when he, too, called for reform. Born in northern Italy, he entered the Dominican order in 1474. In 1490 he was assigned to live in Florence, where he launched a crusade against immoral society and abuses within the Church. His prophetic sermons made a great impression: he predicted the deaths of Lorenzo de Medici, Pope Innocent VIII, and the King of Naples, all of whom he said were struck down for living impure lives. By 1494, Savonarola had become the most powerful man in Florence, and Florentine society reflected his harsh views. Book burnings were popular, and citizens who flaunted their wealth and openly broke Church laws were banished from the city. Savonarola ran afoul of Pope Alexander VI because of political clashes with the pope, as well as his scathing sermons condemning the papal court as an arena of sin and corruption. Alexander excommunicated Savonarola for his views, and the citizens of Florence arrested him and burned him at the stake in the Piazza della Signoria in 1498. Though none of these four early reformers were able to completely reform the Church, they did bring attention to the problems later reformers would more successfully attack.
Jan Huss was influenced by the ideas of John Wycliffe to lead a reform movement in his native Bohemia, located in what is today the Czech Republic. In the late fourteenth century, Huss was the rector of Prague University, a position from which he challenged the pope's authority and criticized the wealth of the Church. Huss agreed with Wycliffe that the pope and Church officials held absolute authority only when their views reflected the life of Christ and the scriptures. In order that common people be able to worship God without the potentially corrupt influence of the Church, Huss supported, instead of Latin, the use of vernacular languages in religious practices. For example, he wanted Mass said in Czech and to have Bibles translated into the people's language. Huss also spoke out against the selling of indulgences and important Church offices, which he felt were practices used only to raise money.
Due to his calls for reform, Huss was summoned to appear before the Council of Constance, a convocation of Church officials who met in 1415 to solve the Great Schism and other religious questions. The Council chose to defend the Church's position of unquestioned authority by silencing reformers. Thus, Huss was charged with heresy. In his defense, he claimed that Christians should seek God not in sacraments and rituals, but in Scripture. Because these views were deemed to be against the teachings of the Church, the Council had Huss burned at the stake. The spirit of his challenge, however, remained strong and spread out from Bohemia.
Mysticism challenged Church authority in a way different from the practical reforms proposed by Wycliffe and Huss. believe directly through intense, personal meditation. Because a mystic could experience God without Church officails, sacraments, or rules mystics could lead a holy and devout life outside the control of the Church. Yet the Church could not censor mystics easily because many of the most important figures in the history of the Church had been mystics. St. Paul, whose teachings form part of the base of Catholic thought, became a Christian through a mystical experience. St. Jerome, the first Christian theologian and the man responsible for the first Latin Bible, was a self-declared mystic. Mystics were very popular in Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries because they seemed more sincerely spiritual than officials of the Church. Th church viewed mystics as a threat, believing that people who followed mystics might find the Church unnecessary for a fulfilling Christian life.
Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) was an Italian mystic who called for reform in the Church. She reported that at the age of seven she saw her first vision of Jesus, which caused her to choose a life of prayer, fasting, and chastity. This asceticism gained Catherine a great following of people who believed her visions were caused by her piety and intense devotion to Jesus. Catherine became a Dominican nun and dedicated her life to prayer and solitude. But in 1370, she experienced her most celebrated vision, in which Jesus instructed her to become a messenger of peace and righteousness among people. She believed she was also instructed to right a great scandal in the Church, which she interpreted to mean the Great Schism. In 1376 she traveled to Avignon and tried to persuade Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome. She died soon after in 1380, but her life popularized mysticism, which led many Christians to realize that a spiritual life could be led outside established Church parameters.
The Dominican monk Girolamo Savornarola clashed with the Church in the fifteenth century when he, too, called for reform. Born in northern Italy, he entered the Dominican order in 1474. In 1490 he was assigned to live in Florence, where he launched a crusade against immoral society and abuses within the Church. His prophetic sermons made a great impression: he predicted the deaths of Lorenzo de Medici, Pope Innocent VIII, and the King of Naples, all of whom he said were struck down for living impure lives. By 1494, Savonarola had become the most powerful man in Florence, and Florentine society reflected his harsh views. Book burnings were popular, and citizens who flaunted their wealth and openly broke Church laws were banished from the city. Savonarola ran afoul of Pope Alexander VI because of political clashes with the pope, as well as his scathing sermons condemning the papal court as an arena of sin and corruption. Alexander excommunicated Savonarola for his views, and the citizens of Florence arrested him and burned him at the stake in the Piazza della Signoria in 1498. Though none of these four early reformers were able to completely reform the Church, they did bring attention to the problems later reformers would more successfully attack.