By Joshua Stevens, Faith Contributor, Valley Ag Voice
“And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” Matthew 21:12-13.
On October 31, 1517, a German theologian named Martin Luther nailed a list of complaints on the door of a church in Wittenburg, Germany. Chief among these complaints were the issue of indulgences and a call for a debate on the subject (Gritsch, n.d.). Philip Schaff would define indulgence as, “In ecclesiastical Latin, an indulgence means the remission of the temporal (not the eternal) punishment of sin (not of sin itself), on condition of penitence and the payment of money to the church or to some charitable object.” Schaff would go on to explain that indulgences came out of tribes in the West and North who would take money as a substitute for an offense and that the church, looking to see less bloodshed, was happy enough with the arrangement.
However, this practice, which began during the Crusades, would quickly spiral into something else altogether, “All too often zealous preachers of indulgences made them appear to be a sort of magic, as though a good deed, especially a contribution, automatically got its reward regardless of the condition of the doer’s soul. Sorrow for sin was completely and conveniently overlooked,” (Shelley, 2013).
It is in this context that the reformation must be understood, or as Gavin Ortland puts it, “Protestantism was a renewal of the gospel not in recovering a bare doctrinal formula or slogan, but in upturning and opposing the legalism, superstition, and financial abuse of the laity that sadly characterized much of European spirituality in the late medieval era,” (Orland, 2024).
The Reformation was an attempt by Luther, and other reformers, to pull the church back from the path she was so carelessly careening down. In his attempt to spark a debate, he lit a fire that would burn brightly for two decades before the Council of Trent first convened in 1545 with three primary sessions occurring between 1545 and 1563. The council would admit to some of the Protestant’s claims, that indulgences had become a mar on the bride of Christ, and the clergy, at times and not in whole, had become corrupt. Many moral failures and infractions were dealt with (Christianity Today, n.d.).
For some, this should have been enough to bring the reformers back into the fold, however, the council did not end there, and neither did the reformers. By the end of the council in 1563 it had been over 40 years since the initial spark of the Reformation and the issues between the Catholic and Protestant churches were no longer simple issues of morality and duty. Questions of justification, authority, sacraments, and access to the scriptures arose to drive a larger wedge between the two. The Catholic response to these theological issues was not one of concession but of doubling down and even going as far as calling an anathema on those who would oppose beliefs such as veneration of icons and indulgences (The Council of Trent, n.d.).
The Council of Trent would help define the church for the following four centuries until Vatican Two in the 1960s. For four centuries, the Roman Catholic church would, and to a lesser extent still does, oppose the doctrines of the Reformation while subtly admitting the necessity of such a movement to spur the church back towards righteousness.
It is not uncommon to hear a Catholic urging a Protestant to, “return home to Rome.” However, it should not be lost on our Catholic brothers and sisters that it was first the Protestant reformers who urged Rome to return home to righteousness, to the gospel, and to Christ.
Will you pray with me?
Our Father in Heaven who sovereignly rules over all of creation, great is Your name in Heaven and on Earth. Let your praises ring out to all who may hear and know You are God, good, and just. As we seek Your will let us be reminded of Your grace that saves, and of the Holy Spirit who indwells us and continues to sanctify us. Let us work out our faith earnestly and wisely so that we may be a proper example to all who may see Your glory and power.
In Christ Jesus’ we pray,
Amen.
Bibliography
Christianity Today. (n.d.). 1545 Council of Trent Begins. Retrieved from Christianity Today: https://www.christianitytoday.com/1990/10/1545-council-of-trent-begins/
Gritsch, E. W. (n.d.). 1517 Luther Posts the 95 Theses. Retrieved from Christianity Tolday: https://www.christianitytoday.com/1990/10/1517-luther-posts-95-theses/
Ortland, G. (2024). What It Means to Be Protestant. Zondervan.
Shelley, B. L. (2013). Church History In Plain Language. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
The Council of Trent. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Council of Trent: http://www.thecounciloftrent.com/ch25.htm
