CHURCH HISTORY I
LECTURE 5
ROMAN CATHOLICISM: Decline: 14th – 16th Centuries
Vatican decrees in the ‘High Middle Ages’:
Seven sacraments, defined by Peter Lombard (12th century)
Transubstantiation, defined by Pope Innocent III (A.D. 1215)
Auricular confession of sins to a priest instead of God, instituted by Pope Innocent III (A.D. 1215)
Adoration of the wafer (host), decreed by Pope Honorius III (A.D. 1220)
Bible forbidden to laymen, placed on the index of forbidden books by the Council of Valencia (A.D. 1229)
Scapular invented by Simon Stock of England (A.D. 1251)
The cup forbidden to the laity at communion by Council of Constance (A.D. 1414)
Purgatory proclaimed a dogma by the Council of Florence (A.D. 1439)
Tradition declared of equal authority with the Bible by the Council of Trent (A.D. 1545)
Apocryphal books added to the Bible by the Council of Trent (A.D. 1546)
The Babylonian Captivity
The so-called Babylonian Captivity was a period of about 70 years in the 1300sduring which the popes were captive in France.
1. Pope Boniface VIII in 1302 issued the bull Unam Sanctum in which he statedthat all rulers were subject to him. King Philip IV of France sent an army toarrest the pope, and though he was rescued by the townspeople at his home inAnagni, Italy, he died soon thereafter.
2. The next seven popes lived in Avignon, France, and were under the control ofFrench kings. Not surprisingly, they were all Frenchmen.
The Papal Schism
Great cathedrals arose at this time and the papacy reached the height of its power and prestige, most notably in the papacy of Innocent III (1198-1216).
In the Late Middle Ages, the decline of the papacy was rapid. During the 11th century, the East–West schism permanently divided Christianity.It arose over a dispute on whether Constantinople or Rome held jurisdiction over the church in Sicily and led to mutual excommunications in 1054. The Western (Latin) branch of Christianity has since become known as the Catholic Church, while the Eastern (Greek) branch became known as the Orthodox Church. The Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439) both failed to heal the schism. Some Eastern churches have since reunited with the Catholic Church, and others claim never to have been out of communion with the pope.Officially, the two churches remain in schism, although excommunications were mutually lifted in 1965.
[Wikipedia]
Between 1377 and 1417 (40 years), there were two lines ofpopes, each one cursing the other!
1. During the reign of Pope Urban VI, the church cardinals decided to electanother pope, Clement VII. Urban refused to step down and hurled curses andexcommunications at the new pope and his supporters. Clement VII, in turn,excommunicated and cursed Urban. They called each other “heretic, demon,antichrist.”
2. The Catholic countries of Europe chose sides. Germany and England andsome of the smaller states sided with Urban, while Spain, France, and Scotlandstood with Clement.
3. Armies went to battle under the standard of their chosen pope and bloodflowed. When King Henry IV of England wrote to one of the popes and askedhim to step down for the sake of peace, he referred to “many thousands of lives” that had been lost in this quarrel.”
4. Then, to make matters even more confusing, the Council of Pisa in 1409condemned the two sitting popes, Gregory XII and Benedict XIII, pronouncingthem “notorious and incorrigible heretics,” and elected a third pope, AlexanderV! The first two popes immediately cursed and excommunicated Alexander, andhe replied in kind. In less than a year, Alexander died and was replaced by John XXIII.
5. Finally, another council was held in an attempt to end the schism. This wasthe Council of Constance, which began in November 1414. Thousands of churchofficials and political figures, cardinals, bishops, monks, priests, princes, knights,attended the three-year council, and they lived in great wickedness. Wyliewrites: “These dissolute men filled the quiet ancient city of Constance with theirunblushing wickedness. To write that which was then open as day would defilethe pages of our history.” The council condemned and deposed John XXIII,Gregory XII, and Benedict XIII, and set up a fourth pope, Martin V, and he wassuccessful in re-establishing himself as the one pope in Rome.(This was also the council that invited John Huss to attend under promise ofsafety, but when he arrived, he was condemned and burned to death forpreaching that salvation was by grace alone and that the pope was false. TheCouncil then arrested Jerome of Prague and burned him to death for preachingthe same “heretical” doctrines. The Council of Constance also condemnedEngland’s John Wycliffe and ordered his bones to be dug up and burned.)The people of Europe were greatly confused by the papal schism. Who was thetrue successor to Peter? Who held the keys of the kingdom? The papacy subsequently lost a lot of its authority.
[The above sections were from: A History of the Churches from a Baptist Perspective by David Cloud]
Christ and the Pope - Contrasted
According to Catholic dogma, the Pope has complete authority over all churches of the world. The Vatican II Council declared: "For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, namely, and as pastor of the entire Church, has full, supreme and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered" (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, chap. 3, 22). Rome also teaches that the Pope distributes salvation through the sacraments. Vatican II declared: "For 'God's only-begotten Son ... has won a treasure for the militant Church ... he has entrusted it to blessed Peter, the key-bearer of heaven, and to his successors who are Christ's vicars on earth, so that they may distribute it to the faithful for their salvation" (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, "Apostolic Constitution on the Revision of Indulgences," Chap. 4, 7).
Christ wore a crown of thorns. The Pope wears a crown of jewels.
Christ carried on His shoulders the Cross The Pope is carried on the shoulders of his servants in
splendour.
Christ declared the laws of His Kingdom and urged His followers to-do the same. The Pope tramples them underfoot and substitutes his own intheir stead.
Christ sent the Holy Spirit to be His Vicar on earth. The Pope claims to be the Vicar of Christ on earth.
Christ is the Head of the Church. The Pope claims to be the head.
Christ taught that sin should be confessed to God. The Pope teaches that sin should be confessed to the priests.
Christ taught that He alone is the Saviour. The Pope teaches that the Church is the Saviour.
Christ taught that there was but one Mediator between God andman.(1 Tim. 2:5). The Pope teaches that there are many mediators between Godand man.
Christ taught that salvation was by grace. The Pope teaches that salvation is by works.
Christ claimed infallibility for Himself and the Word of God alone. The Pope claims infallibility for himself in matters of faithand morals.
Christ had no place to lay His head. The Pope lives in a magnificent palace surrounded by wealth.
Christ gave his Gospel free to all. The Pope sells his masses and other favors.
Christ said: "Call no man your father upon the earth; for one is yourFather, which is in heaven" (Matt. 23:9).
The Pope commands all to call him 'Holy Father’, and hispriests feel insulted if persons do not address them as 'Father'.
Christ was poor and lowly. The Pope's wealth is immense.
Christ washed His disciples' feet, thus manifesting a spirit of humilityworthy of emulation by His followers.
The Pope presents his foot to be kissed and requiresgenuflections and kneeling from those who have audiences with him.
Christ taught His followers to pray to God through Him. The Pope teaches his followers to pray to the Virgin Mary.
15th & 16th Centuries
Just before the Fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottoman Empire in 1453, in an effort to combat the spread of Islam, Pope Nicholas V granted Portugal the right to subdue and even enslave Muslims, pagans and other unbelievers in the papal bull Dum Diversas (1452). Several decades later European explorers and missionaries spread Catholicism to the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Pope Alexander VI had awarded colonial rights over most of the newly discovered lands to Spain and Portugal and the ensuing patronato system allowed state authorities, not the Vatican, to control all clerical appointments in the new colonies.
In 1521 the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan made the first Catholic converts in the Philippines. The following year, the first Franciscan missionaries arrived in Mexico, establishing schools, model farms and hospitals. When some Europeans questioned whether the Indians were truly human and worthy of baptism, Pope Paul III in the 1537 bull Sublimis Deus confirmed that "their souls were as immortal as those of Europeans" and they should neither be robbed nor turned into slaves.Over the next 150 years, missions expanded into southwestern North America. Native people were often legally defined as children, and priests took on a paternalistic role, sometimes enforced with corporal punishment.Elsewhere, Portuguese missionaries under the Spanish Jesuit Francis Xavier evangelized in India and Japan.By the end of the 16th century tens of thousands of Japanese followed Roman Catholicism. Church growth came to a halt in 1597 under the Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu who, in an effort to isolate the country from foreign influences, launched a severe persecution of Christians or Kirishitan's.
[Religion-Wiki]
DECLARATIONS OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT
During this time period there was a very important council that met and produced a set of extremely heretical documents that still govern the church today. It was the Council of Trent.
The Council of Trent was a Catholic council held from 1545-1563 in an attempt to destroy the progress of the Protestant Reformation. This council denied every Reformation doctrine, including Scripture alone and grace alone. Trent hurled 125 anathemas (eternal damnation) against Bible-believing Christians. These proclamations and anathemas were fleshed out in the murderous persecutions vented upon Bible-believing Christians by Rome, and the solemn fact is that the Council of Trent has never been annulled. The Vatican II Council of the mid-1960s referred to Trent dozens of times, quoted Trent's proclamations as authority, and reaffirmed Trent on every hand. The New Catholic Catechism cites Trent no less than 99 times. There is not the slightest hint that the proclamations of the Council of Trent have been abrogated by Rome. At the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII stated, "I do accept entirely all that has been decided and declared at the Council of Trent." Every cardinal, bishop and priest who participated in the Vatican II Council signed a document affirming Trent.
The following are excerpts from this Council’s decrees:
"If anyone does not accept as sacred and canonical the aforesaid books in their entirety and with all their parts [the 66 books of the Bible plus 12 apocryphal books…], as they have been accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church and as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate Edition, and knowingly and deliberately rejects the aforesaid traditions, let him be anathema!”
"If anyone says that the justice received is not preserved and also not increased before God through good works, but that those works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not the cause of its increase, let him be anathema!"
"If anyone says that in the Roman Church, which is the mother and mistress of all churches, there is not the true doctrine concerning the sacrament of baptism, let him be anathema!”
“If anyone says that baptism is optional, that is, not necessary for salvation, let him be anathema!”
"If anyone says that children, because they have not the act of believing, are not after having received baptism to be numbered among the faithful, and that for this reason are to be rebaptized when they have reached the years of discretion…. let him be anathema!”
"If anyone denies that in the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist are contained truly, really and substantially the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ, but says that He is in it only as in a sign, or figure or force, let him be anathema!”
"If anyone denies that sacramental confession was instituted by divine law or is necessary to salvation; or says that the manner of confessing secretly to a priest alone, which the Catholic Church has always observed from the beginning and still observes, is at variance with the institution and command of Christ and is a human contrivance, let him be anathema!”
"If anyone says that the bishops who are chosen by the authority of the Roman pontiff are not true and legitimate bishops, but merely human deception, let him be anathema!”
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