Reformation (was Re: In Obedience...)

[Arthurs-John]

On Saturday, December 14, 1996, Lou Nunez <lnu...@stevens-tech.edu> wrote, in
part:

>.........
>Disobedience started the Protestant Reformation. Disobedience
>coupled with pride, and the doubt that God would keep His promise
>started Martin Luther (no matter how many valid points he had) on
>the road to schism. ........

Lou, the causes of the concurrent religious, political, and social upheavals
known collectively as the "Reformation" are quite complex, and in my view it
would not be justifiable either historically or theologically to grant place of
primacy to a seemingly prideful, and by implication rather arbitrary, exercise
of disobedience on the part of Martin Luther as the critical initiating factor.

Indeed, most modern (i.e., post Vatican II) Roman Catholic scholars seem to take
a much more balanced and sympathetic view of Martin Luther and his times than is
indicated above, of which the following brief excerpts from two such
well-regarded figures may be considered representative:

"Like all enlightened men of the age, Luther was fully aware of the terrible
state of affairs in the Church; his sermons before 1517 are sufficient
indication of this. Like others he complained of the avarice, simony, and
ecclesiastical jobbery connected with appointment to high and low office in the
Church. But there is no indication that he felt these abuses warranted
revolutionary action - until he became convinced that the Gospel itself was at
stake, that the Church was betraying the Gospel of Jesus Christ by teaching
people that heaven could be purchased by good works. .....

"Luther at first spoke out as a loyal Catholic, and when the controversy about
his ideas erupted he was ready at first to submit them to the ultimate judgment
of the Church. He did not see his theses as a revolutionary manifesto or as a
call to the German nation. .....

"One of the tragedies of the affair was that from the beginning Luther's
opponents refused to meet him on theological and scriptural grounds. ..... The
only occasion for calm debate was furnished by Luther's fellow Augustinians at
their chapter in Heidelberg, on April 26, 1518, where Luther won over the
majority to his views. ..... It is well to remember too that for a long time the
lines were not drawn as sharply as we sometimes imagine."

-- Fr. Thomas Bokenkotter, _A Concise History of the Catholic Church_,
pp. 191-197.

"Its [the Reformation's] causes were manifold: weakening of papal authority
through long residence in France and the worldliness of some popes; disloyalty
to Rome of many bishops who were really temporal rulers; excessive reservation
of ecclesiastical appointments to the Roman Curia; intellectual and moral
unfitness of many priests; wealth of some of the monasteries and dissension in
their ranks; superstition and ignorance among the laity; social unrest brought
on by the disintegration of the feudal system; support given by political powers
to dissenters in the Church; unrest and secularism brought on by the new
geographical discoveries; and the use of the printing press to propagate the new
views."

-- John A. Hardon, S.J., _Modern Catholic Dictionary_, p. 362.

>As Martin Luther said, "Here I stand, I can do no other."

Although it's not particularly well-known, one of my favorite quotes of Luther,
with definite overtones for "practical Christian living," is the following:

"This life is not being devout, but becoming devout; not being whole, but
becoming whole.....not a rest but an exercise. We are not yet, but we shall
be. It is not the end, but the way."

John Arthurs
Plymouth, Massachusetts USA
msmail....@tsod.lmig.com