Pavers of the Reformation Road

Day 4- 3/4 PAVERS OF THE REFORMATION ROAD

“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea saying, “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is near…Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Mt. 3:1; Lk. 3:8)

The Reformation did not happen in a vacuum.  Others had sought to reform the church.  Some had sought to reform the church within and others had to leave the church because of threats.  Here is a brief list.

Peter Waldo (1140-1205) was a wealthy businessman in Lyons, France.  He voluntarily gave up all his wealth in an effort to get closer to Christ.  He challenged the church’s wealth believing that giving posts to the wealthy was immoral.  He also decried the superstitions of the church that certain relics (like bones or possessions of the Saints) would bring healing.  He also saw communion and baptism as more commandments (ordinances) than miracles- denying that the cup becomes the physical blood of Christ and the bread becomes the physical body of Christ.  He was charged with heresy in 1215 and his followers fled to the valleys and hills of the Alps.  Many were killed.  But hundreds of years later most joined the Reformed church. 

John Wycliffe (Oxford 1328-1384)
John Wycliffe was an Enlgish Scholar who translated part of the Bible into the native (vulgar) tongue of the people.  Before this the Bible was in Latin and Greek, which most did not know.  Wycliffe attacked the joint holding of lands/rule with the bishops.  He attacked monasticism for being too wealthy; the idea of Simony (appointing clergy regardless of faith/lack of it and living with the people); and was a proponent of the idea of the invisible church. He died of a stroke at the age of 64. Wycliffe’s followers are called Lollards and were condemned as heretics by the Pope. Many Lollards were martyred with the last being Thomas Harding in 1532.  Most were absorbed into the English Reformation movement. 

John Hus (1369-1417 in Bohemia/Czeck) read Wycliffe with interest.  He encouraged us to see that the Church is not just the Roman Catholic church but all those who believe and are predestined.  He encouraged us to see that Christ is the head of the church, not the Pope.  He discouraged the use of indulgences, the paying the church in order to get forgiveness, as wrong.  He said, "One pays for confession, for mass, for the sacrament, for indulgences, for churching a woman, for a blessing, for burials, for funeral services and prayers. The very last penny which an old woman has hidden in her bundle for fear of thieves or robbery will not be saved. The villainous priest will grab it."   He wrote many treatises in Czeck so that the uneducated priests and people (who did not know Latin) could read them.  Hus was lured by a promise of safe conduct by the king to go to Constance to resolve the dissension in the church.  There he was declared a heretic and burned at the stake. His followers, the Hussites fought four crusades against them. The Moravian church, which has ties to the Reformed (Presbyterian) church came from this group. 

Early Scottish Reformers.  Patrick Hamilton was killed in 1528. Hamilton studied at the University in Paris and learned Luther there.  George Wishart, great friend of John Knox, was hung and burned in 1546.  Both violent deaths at the hand of Cardinal David Beaton, laid the ground work for the Scottish Reformation. At the same time, the immorality of Mary Queen of Scots, a Catholic Champion, who had several affairs and was associated with her husband’s murder evoked even more consternation with the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland.

Prayer: Thank you God for people who are both creative yet submissive to you.  Thank you for those who want your heart and want to peel back the layers of varnish to get to the beautiful heart of the good news.